Author's Note: Brace yourself for some angst, folks. :) Also, blood warning.

Trigon's retaliation was almost immediate, and more than unwelcome. It came in the form of hallucinations, which Raven had warned her friends about. The fact that she knew it was coming did nothing to negate her shock at seeing her mother's prone form in front of her. She stopped walking abruptly, wide eyes fixed on Arella, who was floating eerily in front of her like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her long, violet hair, hung in straggly pieces around her gaunt face, her ripped clothing revealed bruises and burns, and her eyes – so like her daughter's – were shut. Beast Boy, who had been directly behind Raven, collided with her back and dropped to the floor.

"Hey! Watch it….Raven?"

She shook her head slightly, but otherwise gave no indication of hearing him. Robin, catching up with them frowned down at Beast Boy, who was rubbing his head.

"What's going on?"

"Don't ask me, dude. I don't see anything."

Faith strode around to face Raven, who was still immobile, and waved a gloved hand in front of her face.

"Hello? Sunshine, anybody home?"

Raven watched the gleaming metal hand slice through her mother's midsection without expression while the others caught up. Cyborg, who had been checking his sensors for warning of another trap, raised an eyebrow at Robin.

"What's up with her?"

Robin shrugged, not removing his eyes from the cloaked figure.

"Something's wrong. I can't figure out what, but we made Trigon angry."

Raven spoke then, her voice harsh and violent.

"All of you, listen to me. If you see people, if you see anyone at all, ignore it. It's not real. It isn't real, I promise you. You have to fight it."

The titans stared at her, nonplussed until walls slammed down around them, isolating them from each other. Reluctantly, Raven tore her eyes from the figure-that-was-not-her-mother and sat cross-legged on the ground. These were individual tests – Trigon was torturing all of them now, punishing them for costing him his minions. Every one of her friends had to fight their demons on their own. She couldn't help them. In fact, it was all she could do to help herself as Arella was replaced by Robin, then Azar, who looked at her with eyes that were huge with disappointment.

"I expected better, Raven."

Then she was stained, stained with blood that showered from a myriad of wounds that a child-Raven was inflicting, her giggles infecting air that smelled like death.

Robin was abruptly alone in a small dark room with a figure suspended from the ceiling. She was doing some kind of acrobatic show, dancing in midair with no sign of support. Fascinated, he drew closer, reaching for a boomerang in his belt.

"Uh…excuse me, do you know what's going on?"

The woman revolved to face him, and he recoiled instinctively, shaking his head. It was his mother, her face glittering with tears, body contorted strangely.

"No. You're dead."

Raven's words drifted across his mind like half-forgotten song lyrics. "You have to fight it…it isn't real…it's not real…" But she looked real, her eyes huge and sad, her dark hair spilling across her narrow shoulders, which were stained with blood. It was dripping in a bizarre slow motion down the side of her face, staining her costume and clotting in the sequins. And he was seven years old again, watching her die. He couldn't do it again, he couldn't. But he did. She fell like a doll, head flopping on a boneless neck when she hit the floor. His father followed. Then, when he was convinced that the worst was over, Batman was there, dressed in ordinary clothes for once.

"Your kicks are sloppy."

But he wasn't really looking at Robin, who watched in horrified fascination as his adopted father struggled with an invisible attacker who was slowly opening cuts on his chest and arms. His blood was brighter than his mother's had been; its volume was alarming. It was like a neverending nightmare for Robin as cuts became burns and matches became acid. Acid that burned through trapeze wires over and over and over.

There was one mistake, just one, but he seized it like a lifeline.

"My father's eyes were brown."

It was a whisper at first, but as he looked at the crumpled bodies on the floor, it grew to a shout.

"Brown! They were brown!"

And he kicked through Batman's head. The walls fell away, leaving him again in the wreckage of the citadel hallways with six teammates who were still in the grip of delusions that he couldn't begin to imagine. Raven was the only one awake and aware of her surroundings. She looked at him warily, as though afraid he too would be tortured in front of her. He gave a slight shake of his head, and she touched his hand in response.

"I'm sorry."

He cleared his throat, not trusting his voice just yet. Together, they crossed the hall to wait for their friends to awaken. Faith was, unsurprisingly, the next one awake, albeit entirely unlike herself. Her eyes, normally half-lidded and sardonic, were huge, and her face was devoid of color. Robin and Raven glanced at each other, both unwilling to speak to her just yet. She straightened up, brushing her hands together so that the metal of her suit screeched in a discordant harmony.

"Well at least I had fair warning."

She didn't seem to be speaking to anyone in particular, and the cracks in her voice completely contradicted the glibness that she had been going for. Raven ran a hand through her hair.

"Trigon is omniscient. He has access to all of our memories…and fears."

Faith shuddered and removed her gloves.

"Yeah, I figured."

She ran a hand over her face, shutting her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she glanced at the others, all of whom were still asleep.

"What do we do about them?"

Raven sighed.

"If they don't wake up soon, you and I can enter their minds, but I'd rather save our energy."

Faith smiled wanly.

"Speak for yourself, Sunshine. Demon guy just supercharged me."

Raven never admitted when she was intrigued, but she was glad when Robin pursued the enigmatic statement further.

"How?"

Faith shrugged.

"Any psychic interference adds to my little power stockpile."

She gestured toward the mass of translucent purple tubing that made up the midsection of her suit.

"Trigon is using enough power to keep me on my feet for days."

Raven raised an eyebrow, reluctantly impressed and Robin grinned.

"Wow."

Starfire woke up just then, tears streaming freely down her cheeks as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Raven took a half-step toward her, Faith pushed herself away from the wall, and Robin dashed to her side, gripping her arm.

"Star, you okay?"

Raven knelt in front of the Tamaranian, lowering her hood.

"It wasn't real."

Starfire nodded, wiping her eyes.

"I…became aware of that."

Robin was gentle as he sat beside Raven.

"What did you see?"

Starfire shook her head.

"Terrible things. Battles. My...my sister…and the Gordanians who sought to make me their slave. Captive to all of their desires."

She stopped talking there, casting her eyes at the ground. Raven, grasping the implications at once, felt a little sick. She remembered how angry Starfire had been when they found her, how far beyond reason she had been driven.

"Star, would you like to meditate with me?"

When the two girls had established themselves in a corner of the ruined hallway, Cyborg woke up, a muscle jumping in his jaw. He stayed on the ground, frozen in one position for long enough that Robin grew worried.

"Cyborg?"

When he received no response, he took a tentative step forward.

"Victor?"

In one fluid motion, Cyborg stood and put his fist through the nearest wall. He left it there for a moment, staring at the appendage as though it were suddenly completely foreign to him. Which, Robin reminded himself, it still was. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"It wasn't real you know."

Before he had time to breathe, Cyborg had grabbed him by the front of his suit and smashed him against the wall. He made no move to defend himself.

"Go ahead."

Cyborg didn't move.

"I didn't ever want to see that again."

Slowly, Robin reached up to remove his mask.

"Join the club."

A moment of silence passed, during which Faith edged around the pair of them, clearly wondering whether or not she had to step in. Robin met her gaze and shook his head slightly.

"You going to beat me up or what?"

Eventually, Cyborg released his grasp on Robin's suit, looking rueful.

"Sorry man."

"Not your fault."

They smiled briefly at each other, then engaged in a great deal of throat clearing and adjusting of uniforms, at which Faith snorted derisively.

"And that right there is why I date girls."

It was twilight by the time Raven and Starfire came out of their meditations, Star looking much calmer. When they rejoined the others, Beast Boy was still asleep. Raven glanced from his prone form to Faith, who nodded.

"My thoughts exactly."

Robin folded his arms across his chest.

"You know, nonverbal communication is probably standard for psychics, but the rest of us need a translation."

Raven gave him a forgiving glance.

"Beast Boy has been asleep for too long. If we want to salvage his mind, Faith and I have to enter it."

Cyborg, who was looking considerably more hollow-eyed than he had that morning, swore.

"Little asshole. He couldn't resist Mad Mod's mind control either."

Raven shook her head bleakly.

"This is much worse. Whatever he's reliving…it's his worst nightmare."

Five minutes later, she and Faith were standing on the surface of what looked like a fishing boat. Waves beat ruthlessly against the sides, lightning flashed dizzyingly in the sky, and water poured in from a hole in the hull. Raven knew instinctively that this boat wasn't going to last – but she also knew that Trigon could drag out this scenario for as long as he wanted.

"We've got to find Beast Boy. He's here somewhere."

She had to shout to be heard above the wind, but Faith's nod indicated her agreement. Together, they made their way down a narrow ladder that led below deck, where they found a tall, good looking man in a lab coat talking to a boy that could only be Garfield. Small for his age, his dark hair fell in disarray across his forehead. Raven guessed his age to be somewhere between eight and ten. He showed no awareness of either Raven of Faith, both of whom took in their surroundings warily.

"Go, Garfield. We'll be all right. Just go."

The child-Beast Boy looked from the man – who Raven assumed was his father – to a woman that had suddenly materialized, also dressed in a white lab coat.

"Don't go, Garfield. You know what is waiting for you. Stay with us. We live or die together. What is the alternative?"

Abruptly, a dizzying series of images danced across the scene, none of which Raven understood. First there was an African king, one who spoke in a gentle voice and offered condolences to a blank-eyed Garfield. Then there was a tomb, a maniacal laugh, a blinding avalanche, and yet another boat. There was a small shack, a dimly lit room, stolen money, and a slightly older Garfield being beaten by men whose faces were obscured. The images came faster after that. Yet another escape, a court room, a mansion, an adoptive father, more pain, more beatings, and a sense of suffocation. Eventually Raven could take no more.

"Enough!"

The images stopped, leaving them back on the boat with eight year old Beast Boy, who looked around confusedly for the source of the interruption. Impatiently, Raven pushed aside the images who she now knew to be his parents and sat cross legged in front of her friend.

"Faith, can you hold off the hallucinations long enough for me to talk to him?"

The older woman nodded grimly, then sat with her back to Raven, projecting an enormous shield, against which Trgon's influence pressed angrily.

"Garfield, listen to me."

The boy looked at her through eyes that were huge and childish and heartbreaking. Sternly, Raven banished pity from her mind.

"It's true that all that is in your future. But there is so much more. There are people who love you and protect you, there are friends, and I swear to God if we get out of this, there will be a moped."

Summoning her concentration, Raven poured her own memories into Garfield's mind, memories of picnics and walks in the park and video games and Titan's Tower. She forced him to see laughter and sunshine and training. She watched them fight evil together, and instilled everything she gave him with the affection she felt for him. He was her younger brother, and she was not going to let Trigon have his mind. The young-Garfield looked at her for a handful of seconds, and then everything was chaos.

The boat wasn't there any longer, and neither was anything else. She was in a dark void, completely empty of light. Trapped.

Panicking, Raven reached blindly for her mental link with Faith. It took all her strength to turn away from the box Trigon was trying to place around her consciousness and guide herself back to her body, which was waiting for her like an anchor. She had never thought it would be good to see the ruined citadel again, but when she opened her eyes to find Garfield awake and Faith supporting her, she nearly wept out of sheer relief.

Slowly, Raven re-asserted control over her faculties and found her voice.

"How long was I out?"

Robin, who had been looking exceptionally anxious, ran a hand through his hair.

"Faith got back nearly five minutes before you and Gar did."

After a moment, Faith let go of her arm.

"Welcome back Sunshine."

Raven wasn't listening.

"Garfield?"

The changeling pushed himself into a sitting position, then staggered to his feet and half-ran around the corner. The sound of him retching was the only one in the echoing room for a few minutes, then Raven went after him. He was leaning against the wall, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes, when he lifted them to look at Raven, were haunted.

"Thanks."

She nodded briefly.

"You going to be all right?"

A shadow of his usual toothy grin flashed across his face.

"Think so."

Raven put her hood back up, concealing her relief.

"Good. We need you."

chinaluv: Aye aye, Captain!

toastedCroissants: Hope it lived up to expectations. :)

X-Deyoxis-X: Aw, thanks for reviewing! And postponing sleep. Glad you liked it!

Thanks for reading errybody!