Raven

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she woke up once again with bandages. No note this time. She wasn't mad about it though. She got up without any pain which made her grin to a slight degree. She was glad she didn't have to perform any meditation or any type of medical procedures with her magic to speed up the healing of a comfortable body. She touched her bandage and that sent a small prick to her side. Not fully healed, but good enough. Raven was tempted to examine what was underneath, but her conscience told her not to. She'd seen enough gashes and peeling back the mortal medical achievement was the last thing she wanted to do next to seeing Rose fucking Wilson.

Stumbling, due to almost tripping over a book, out of her dark room, she realized she needed to changed her decor. The space was uninviting and she needed to lighten it up. Nothing extravagant, but it still needed a calmer paint that didn't seem menacing.

"Robin!" She called. He didn't respond, but Starfire answered to her with a refreshed face. She came out of her room stretching.

"He didn't go to bed last night. You're the first one up."

"How do you know he didn't go to bed?"

"He sleeps with me," Starfire said indifferently. She yawned until she saw Raven's expression of shock. "What? What? Wait, no! No, no, no, no, no! Get your mind out the gutter! We are close friends who cuddle and share warmth, but we do not pleasure each other nor do we look upon one another's naked body."

"Oh," Raven said with a twinge of embarrassment. "I, uh, sorry. I just thought-"

Starfire groaned and Raven almost laughed. She walked off down the hall where Robin was in the kitchen. His back was to her, so she couldn't see what he was doing. She walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. The talk was coming whether he liked it or not. Preferably not.

Then she saw what he held. A glass of yellow liquid. The shade apple juice, but the must gave it away. Robin had been drinking. Raven kept her hand on her shoulder and sat next him. With her other hand, she took his glass and downed the rest of the drink. It hurt her mouth as it was too early to even think about a drink. She threw the glass on the floor. The alcohol was disgusting and left her wanting to brush her teeth.

"Robin, why are you so fucked up?" Raven asked. Robin blinked hard as he was slurred from a hangover. Well, hangovers are you wake up. Robin clearly did not go to sleep. His eyes hung a black drape of weariness.

"I didn't know she was pregnant. Fuck, I didn't even know it was her."

"I believe that."

"So what do you want?" Robin rubbed his eyes.

"I want you to stop holding on to the sins of the past."

"How can I? I just learned I committed murder."

"Because long ago, when the world was ending, you told me that hope drives us all. That I was the most hopeful person you had ever met. Not because of how I looked, but because even though a prophecy proclaimed I would ruin everything, I dared to be better. You believed in something that I didn't. Now, I think I need to teach you something."

"And what's that?"

"Self forgiveness. It applies to everything. I want you to understand that you can't change what you did. You can't reverse your sins, but you can be forgiven. And even when these mortals refuse to forgive you, you have to find peace within your soul."

"Raven, I'm not religious."

"Yeah, we've seen the devil," Raven raised her eyebrow. "And I'm a demon. I think you need to stop blocking out the truth and start believing in God. But that's something else entirely. Right now, I'm talking about forgiving yourself. I've seen people tear themselves to death over guilt."

"Wow, I'm sure you've seen so much in the fifteen years of life."

"I'm fifty years old."

"What?" Robin said looking at her confused.

"I'm immortal. I was born in 1967. I just happened to have my age process slowed down so that the prophecy would be delayed. That's not the point. The point is that you need to forgive yourself and not care what others think. I'm going to seem like a villain sympathizer, but I'm speaking the truth. I've seen murderers, rapists, thieves, and criminals never redeem themselves because people jeered them down. The people are never right. The criminals can always ignore and rise themselves above what they've done."

"And look at the Joker. He'll never change."

"And look at black people. White people used to treat them like shit and then a man named Martin Luther King Jr. proved that everyone was equal. Get your fucking life together! Grow up," Raven said angrily getting up. She stormed down the hall. She threw up a portal and entered her room. She closed her eyes in absolute anger and began to meditate. Realizing meditation was going to help, she refused to clear her mind. She needed a distraction.

She began to pace her room and she realized she wasn't going to be able to control herself. She needed something right now. She summoned another portal. She stepped through into Beast Boy's room. He was startled as Raven blinked hard. Her emotions had just magically displaced her here. She didn't understand. But then it dawned on her that she wasn't walking according to the spirit, but rather the flesh.

The Titan alarm went off and Raven heard Robin say, "Titans go!"

To this, Raven responded with, "Give two Titans five minutes."