"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!"

The appendage slowly lifted from the sodium rich warm liquid.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

After the last word her lip became caught between her teeth as she strained herself to withhold additional expletives. Once her arm was fully removed from the salt bath she carefully laid it upon a towel and proceeded to dry it. Her left hand worked slowly to dab the moisture away from her wounded wing careful not to apply too much pressure to the bone.

Despite the 'soothing' effect of the soak the pain of the split bone returned and the peaceful and painless 10 minutes she'd enjoyed were erased from her memory. The sudden rush of immense agony seemed to hit her with the same force as did the original break though this time with no other means to distract her attention. She sighed loudly.

"Well that worked great."

The sarcasm dripped from her tongue like venom as she bitterly recalled the other 'remedies' she'd attempted. Alchemy, ice packs, and epsom salt baths. None of the options had done anything more than soothe the pain for a short while, though she honestly did not expect much more than that.

Her fingers began to expertly wrap gauze around her now dry forearm in a feeble attempt at keeping the flesh and bone from moving. She could feel her powers at work as they slowly filled in the split with marrow but the pain continued to grow in the absence of relaxing remedies. As she finished she cradled her arm in her lap and looked around her dark room.

It was about 2 in the morning, roughly 4 hours after the fight with Rancid and his gang. The other titans had long gone to bed and the main reason she was up was due to her recent insomnia. This coupled with the tortuous pain she was enduring made it nearly impossible to sleep.

Her room was in shambles though not as bad as when she'd had emotional outbursts in the past. A few discarded clothing items were scattered about the floor along with a few books. The sheets of her bed were wrinkled and disheveled. She hated the disarray but without her powers to fix it all she found herself simply accepting the room as it was.

She sighed as she looked down at the foot of her bed. Her eyes becoming fixated on the book she'd purchased the day before and her mind began to return to the train of thought she'd had concerning it. 'Why Greek?' She thought. While she'd never studied it she was aware of the mythology to some extent. In the Greek theology there were multiple gods that lived upon mount Olympus but there was no Devil. No demons or horrors, just Hades the God of the underworld. Even with the intimidating name his duty was peaceful and important, no different than the reaper of souls. In truth, Greek mythology held no true evil as Christianity and other faiths had. So why would the inscriptions be written in Greek?

She sighed again, recognizing that she would need to delve into the internet once more. Looking to her left she found her computer on her night stand and struggled to grab the heavy rectangle and place it in front of her. She opened the lid and immediately began typing away with her good hand.

'Greek Cults'

The phrase seemed strange in the search bar but nevertheless she pressed the enter key with expectant vigor. Quickly the screen loaded with pages and articles each holding a title to challenge the strangeness of the words she'd typed. 'Hades, God of The Underworld' mixed with 'Satan' and the 'Devil'. Some issued comparisons betwixt the deities and others claimed the implausibility of such entities.

Due to Raven's heritage she had a basic understanding of how the universe worked and while Gods and Demons were much more real than the world believed, it was not as simple as heaven and hell though both existed. Planes of existence separated by dimensional walls stemmed the tide of absolute chaos. In truth nearly every religious belief that existed upon the face of the earth held some truth. There indeed was a God who created the earth and many others who came forth to shape it. Deities of ancient Egypt and Greek mythology all the way to more modern beliefs as Christianity, Buddhism, and other religious sects all held some piece of truth. The powerful beings depicted in each were considered World Weavers, people who had gained the power and knowledge to shape the known universe.

Raven continued to read through the headings that appeared as she scrolled. None of the links seemed to provide a reasonable connection to the three men or to the Greek language until she spotted on headline of a news article from nearly 10 years prior.

'The Cult of Cerberus. Gone for Good?'

The terms 'Cult' and 'Cerberus' did not generally fit together and intrigue grabbed the better part of her mind as she clicked the link and began reading through the article.

The piece described a cult established in a countryside town in southern Greece. The cults members consisted solely of children under the age of 16 and the heads of the cult were three 6 year old boys. She did the mental math and deduced that these children would have been slightly younger than herself. She continued reading.

The cult practiced a multitude of satanic rituals much to the dismay of the local townspeople. The acts they'd performed had caused a great deal of controversy and the people believed the three young boys to be real demons after the mother they referred to only as 'The Witch'. The three were thought to be triplets due to their apparent shared age though they did not share similar features.

Local authorities refused to become involved in the situation claiming the cult to be 'Fake' and 'powerless' though the people testified to the contrary. The main point the article focused on was the sudden disappearance of the children and their mother. Thusly the cult that had followed them had disbanded and the children lost all memory of its existence. The essay gave way to speculation of their disappearance ranging from them being burned at the stake by the townsfolk to their souls being dragged down to hell for their wickedness.

All in all it was a strange tale that fit even more strangely into the situation she found herself in. Three young boys, now men, all born to the same mother. The mother was a speculated witch that practiced dark and satanic arts that could have easily summoned her father. According to the piece the children exhibited similar appearance traits as well. All this, bundled together with the Greek heritage and their aptly given nickname 'The Devil's Dog', seemed to fit the scenario almost perfectly. Still it was nothing more than speculation.

Raven sighed as she tried to present to herself a reasonable explanation. If the article provided true information then it was plausible to believe that these triplets from Greece could have fled to the God plane and returned to this dimension after 10 years. If so, and these children were her blood siblings, their obvious loyalty to her father would explain their desire to find and kill her in what must be an attempt to free her father and return him to the plane of mortality. All of this fit too perfectly for her to deny.

She allowed her body to fall backwards into the soft embrace of her bedsheets. Slowly she lowered her full weight to lay in against the mattress as she steadily breathed. Her thoughts ran wild at the thought of her possible brothers and fear stood sturdy in her mind as she pondered. A few moments passed before a knock at her door withdrew her from her thoughts.

She swiftly tilted her head to look at the clock on her nightstand as it read '2:13am'. Her brow furrowed. 'Who the hell would be up now?' She shifted her body back to a seated position.

"Who is it?"

She called from her bed, unsure if her voice carried far enough to reach the other side of the door. Her answer came swiftly as the man spoke.

"It's me."

The voice barely broke the barrier of the door but she could recognize the inflections as clear as she could perceive day. Instinctually she lifted her left arm to unlock her door but when nothing happened she suddenly became aware of her powerless state yet again. She cursed under her breath as she stood from her bed and began to walk toward the door.

As she took each step she felt a cold chill brush past her bare skin and before she reached her door she stopped to look at her mirror. Immediately she recognized why she'd felt so cold. She stood in the center of her room clad in only her black bra and bottoms. She felt herself freeze and a small amount of heat began to dust her cheeks as she recognized the awkwardness that would have ensued had she not caught herself. It took only a few extra moments to throw on her sweater and jeans from the day before and she repositioned herself at the threshold of her room. With her left hand she twisted the lock out of place and slid the door open only a sliver as to see Robin's tired face looking back at her.

"Hey."

His voice was soft and quiet, mindful of the towers other inhabitants.

"Why are you up? You should be resting."

Her voice was stern yet level as she spoke, well beyond tired and trying her best to hide her irritation.

"I wanted to rest in my room and I thought I'd check up on you on the way."

Raven's brow knit itself in frustration, her facade giving way to annoyance. She did not have the mental patience to deal with his babysitting.

"At 2 in the morning? Did it occur to you that I might be asleep?"

Her voice was more unsteady than before, the long night taking its toll on her control. Robin rubbed the back of his neck nervously at her statement and tone.

"I could kinda sense that you weren't."

At this comment Raven's eyes widened a bit. In the absence of her powers she'd forgotten that their bond may still remain in tact. As such there was no telling what emotions she was unable to hide from him. The whole idea put her on edge and she looked away from the young man finding focus on the trim of the metal door.

"I don't need to be 'checked up on."

She said in finality as she began to shut her door. A bare hand stopped its motion before it could fully close and without her powers, Raven had no ability to win the fight against his strength. Taking her loss she retreated back into her room, carefully surveying the scene for anything that could give away her injury. Robin tentatively opened the door wider as he entered, slightly confused at the sudden vote of approval for his entrance.

"Is everything okay Raven? I mean.. the fight. I saw a bit of it but the others said you kinda lost it. . ."

Raven's quick search returned nothing suspicious as she traversed her jagged red rug and promptly turned around to sit on the edge of her bed as Robin followed the same path. As he came to stand directly in front of her his question finally registered and she scrambled to think of an answer.

"I don't know. . . I guess it was just instinct. . ."

She said quickly with an uneven voice as if trying desperately to defend herself. She'd even ended what was supposed to be a statement with a slight raise in her pitch, questioning the words herself. She immediately regretted it as she witnessed the scrutiny that dawned Robin's, still masked, face.

"Instinct?"

He said, prompting further information. They both knew that instinct wasn't something that Raven was allowed to experience what with her emotion driven powers. She had to be in control at all times and to allow such a basic desire to take control would mean releasing it all. But she hadn't lied to him either. Instinct drove her to fight the way she did. She'd felt his pain and she'd blamed herself. The looming self-disappointment had pushed her to fight in the most effective way she knew how and she threw her own safety to the wind to protect him. She sighed again before she reconstructed her answer.

"The bond we share.. I could feel you when you were hurt and it pushed my instincts to take over. I lost control and I let my powers guide me. It was risky and someone could have gotten seriously hurt. I'm sorry."

Raven looked down, shame for the reckless use of her powers finally setting in hours after the fight was won. She'd been on edge thanks to her sleepless nights and painfully nightmares but perhaps if she'd just forced herself to focus harder then maybe she wouldn't have allowed herself to be tricked by the bikers. If she'd been able to handle them by herself then they wouldn't have been able to team up on Robin. Her mind flashed back to Cyborgs steady hands working carefully in the cavity of his chest to seal the internal wounds caused by his fractured ribs. The thought made her shudder and the knowledge that she'd been helpless at that point to heal him only made it worse. Her mind began to delve deeper into the choices she'd made but a hand placed on her forearm tore her away from her thoughts and snapped her eyes wide open.

"You did what you could Raven, it's okay."

His voice was sweet and caring but in the moment she could think of nothing but the warmth that emanated from his hand around her wounded bone. A moment passed in silence before Robin, in an attempt to instill his comforting presence, gave a light squeeze to her arm.

The sudden rush of pain was immediate and it hit her like a tidal wave. Her nerve endings lit up screaming to protect herself to which her body immediately reacted pulling her arm away from his light grip and into her lap. The speed of the movement and its resulting whiplash only compounded the pain well above what she had already felt. It took all of her mental capacity not to scream or yelp. Instead she grit her teeth and furrowed her brow as she continued to look further away from the boy wonder beside her.

Her attempts at hiding her circumstance were feeble as Robin began to feel her unbridled emotions course over their bond. The pain he sensed only served to increase his worry as he turned to her full on looking to the arm she now cradled in her lap before letting to look at her face.

"Raven?!"

The name fit perfectly on his tongue as he spoke. Fear and care in equal amounts laced the syllables as he recalled the last time he'd felt such pain over their bond. The day of the end when the moon had eclipsed the sun he'd felt her flesh burn as the markings of her birth began to glow with hellfire. The searing pain that etched across her skin was nearly unbearable.

Raven continued to look away, visibly trembling as her body processed the immense sensations. Robin slowly reached out and took hold of her right hand lightly guiding the appendage away from her body back into his grasp as he cradled in tenderly. Much to his surprise she did not fight him, perhaps out of fear for causing more pain or out of trust in him. He held her right hand with his as he began to carefully tug at the fabric of her sweater with his left hand. He revealed the shoddily wrapped gauze that covered the length of her forearm as he slid the loose sleeve up towards her elbow. He was beginning to speculate the source of her ailment remembering a cracking noise that had occurred during the fight. Gently he began to peel back the loosely wrapped gauze. As the bandages fell away her pale white skin shone in the dim moonlight but portions of it gave way to deep browns, reds, and blues that scattered the wounded wing. Tell tale signs of a broken and battered bone that he'd seen far too many times before.

"Raven, your arm is broken."

The words stood more as a rhetorical statement to himself as he carefully studied the bruising. Long and calloused fingers began to lightly trace the markings in an attempt to soothe the pain she still visibly felt. Raven's felt her muscles slowly relax at the small circles his fingers weaved into her bare skin. The warmth of his fingertips left a trail of goosebumps to gather on her arm and she could feel herself begin to calm. She peacefully resigned to the gentle feeling and she heard something within her shriek but with her preoccupied powers she had no means to determine it's source. A few silent moments passed like this before he spoke again.

"We need to get you to the med bay so Cyborg can take a look at this."

All the peace that he'd successfully driven into her was immediately ripped away as panic took over. Robin loosened his grip and as he went to pull his hand away it was caught by her left one. Time stopped in that moment with Robin's eyes locked on her small hand and her own gaze continued to fall upon her black carpeted floor. She felt her lips faintly form the shape to say "no". Instinct once again had taken over and her need for the soothing touch his fingers provided seemed greater than she could have ever imagined. She'd never imagined his touch before but she could recall the desire for physical interaction every once in awhile. Normally after a close quarters encounter with Beastboy the idea would be swept away but his touch was. . . Different. Serene and sincere when he'd stroked the hardened pulsing muscles of her arm.

A moment passed and she could feel his gaze as it turned in full upon her. It took all of her mental might to look into his masked eyes, terrified of what the blue orbs behind it might hold. To her surprise his face did not hold disgust or anger but rather it retained the same soft look he'd had moments ago, his concern evident in his features.

"I just don't want anyone else to worry."

It was a weak explanation but it was the truth. When someone got hurt the titans would bend over backwards to try and help. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if it didn't mean unrelenting attention and overly cautiousness. Raven was not one with much patience for such things.

Robin nodded to her but still seemed expectant for more of an answer.

"And besides, my powers are already healing it. I just need some time."

Her eyes fell back down to her arm and she nearly froze a the sight of her hands in his. Robin's hands in her own. A deep blush crossed her cheeks and she pulled away and turned her body to the side, escaping the warm comforts of his skin. She could feel the immediate regret of the action but she know she had to. If Raven's powers had been working perhaps she would have felt the tinge of sadness that crossed Robin's mind as she moved away. He quickly replaced the thought as he spoke.

"The team can be a bit annoying..."

He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand, a nervous tic Raven was beginning to recognize.

"Is there anything that I can do for you?"

Raven thought for only a moment before she opened her mouth to say 'no'. She froze before speaking just a few seconds longer as she continued to think. She turned back to look at him before she finally allowed words to pass her lips.

"There is something."

Robin nodded waiting for her elaboration.

"I need you look into something for me."

She'd been able to uncover a theory about the three hooded men but if anyone in the tower was good at research, it was Robin. She reached behind her with her good arm and pulled her laptop around to face them. She clicked a few times to wake the screen then promptly scrolled back to the top of the article she'd been reading. Once there she turned the monitor for Robin to see.

"I need you to find out everything you can about 'The Cult of Cerberus'."