A/N: 12.24.20 MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you like my present! The fluff, the angst, the painful pasts... it's all so much. This is another build up chapter, but alas it had to be done. There was so much that remained unsaid, and for some reason I'm thinking of how Raven is treating Phantom like how Shrek would have preferred: peeling back his past like an onion, one layer at a time. LOL. I digress, enjoy and much love for you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that have taken the time to favorite, follow, and review. unbeta'd.

-AthenaDione

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Teen Titans

With last night still heavy on her mind, Raven found herself drifting towards the common room with her latest book. Usually she levitated to not disturb any of her teammates, especially when they had to take their free time when they could, but she still felt drained like she did after a particularly heavy battle. Her muscles were sore and she had a dull headache, and even though the flooring was steel her footsteps were light and soft.

Phantom was consuming her thoughts. She was absolutely sure that he spoke in her mind.

The bond was unmistakable. It must have been formed when she was in her healing trance. It was so different than the one she had with Robin when she peered into his mind. This one was so much more substantial and real. Even now she could feel the slight brush of his consciousness against her mind. She had only been able to detect Robin's if she concentrated with meditation, but Phantom's was there in the back of her mind, as if it had always been.

She bit her lip. She wasn't sure if Phantom was aware of the bond, or how he would feel when he realized how deep it ran between them.

"Hey Raven, how are you feeling?"

Raven stopped and turned, swiveling her head. Robin stood just a few feet behind her, striding to catch up to her. His mask wrinkled slightly from the easy smile he wore but she still felt the undercurrent of concern, for her.

"Better." She said truthfully.

Robin nodded succinctly, both hands resting at his sides. Neither one of them cared for small talk. Of course, Robin was more than capable of keeping light conversation with civilians. There was a reason the tabloids flocked to him like bees to honey. He had an easy-going charisma and kindness that drew people in- a lot like Phantom, Raven thought, when he let his guard down.

"Good. We'll start training with Phantom next week, so you'll have a few more days to rest. Let me know how you're feeling then."

Raven nodded, thoughts drifting. The attack proved that the Titans needed more ghost training and Phantom had finally agreed, admitting that he needed help. According to reports ghost attacks had been increasing over the past month or so. Phantom still didn't know why and Robin was staying up later than usual with research. Before her illness and the attack she meant to do some of her own. She looked for her Encyclopedia earlier, but couldn't find it. The last time she remembered having it was in the common room…

Robin nodded back to her again, dismissing them both. He turned to walk back to his room. Raven watched him a moment before she continued on to the common room.

She expected it to be empty.

What she didn't expect to see when she turned the corner leading to the common room was a tuft of brilliant white hair peeking out over the arm of one of their couches. Something stirred in her chest.

She saw him more fully when she strode further into the common room, sprawled out across their couch completely knocked out and lightly snoring. Phantom preferred to recover by sleep, but she didn't realize just how often he did, and he rarely ever slept in the tower.

Phantom had his legs stretching out across with his head resting on one of the arms. One arm draped carelessly over the side while the other laid against his chest. Upon further inspection his chest moved up and down steadily with even, rhythmic breaths- something that she still found to be odd since he didn't need to breathe.

She took a moment to study his face closer. He looked peaceful, no longer stern as it would be during battle. It was unusual, though not unwelcome. He was always so composed and alert, it was refreshing to see him so relaxed. There was a tiny scar that lined one side of his jawline, though his face still didn't look any less angelic. His uniform was wrinkled and he had grass stains on one leg. His eyelashes fluttered briefly with a longer inhale and he had dark circles under his eyes, obviously not getting enough time to recover from his patrols.

It was peaceful for once in the common room, and she was careful to not rouse the ghost as she sat down on the couch across from him. Contrary to popular belief, Raven did not always prefer to stay cooped up in her room. She rather enjoyed reading next to the window in the common room, feeling the light bathe her skin from the sun. She would also be a fool to not take advantage of the silence, especially since Beast Boy was nowhere to be seen or heard.

When she noticed movement across from her she lowered her book, put her bookmark in place, and raised an eyebrow after hearing him groan and shift over to his side on the couch. Then he blearily looked at her through half-lidded eyes and gave her a sleepy grin when he noticed her eyes on him.

She watched and a small smile tugged at her mouth as he yawned groggily and stretched out his body, much like a cat would. Again she noted that although he didn't need to yawn, he did anyway.

"Good morning." Raven told him with amusement clear in her monotone. It was actually around three in the afternoon. Phantom blinked once, then twice before his eyes settled on hers once more, still hazy from sleep. There was a tingling in the back of her mind, where she knew the bond was, though Phantom didn't seem to notice. Raven wasn't sure she would ever get completely used to the way his eyes bored into hers. There was something about the way he seemed to look through you, as if he had broken you down to the foundation of your very core in one stare- and then painstakingly searched through every nuance within your soul to find your deepest regrets. It was an unworldly stare, one that had her wondering how he could seem so human with those chilling eyes.

Then Phantom's undignified moan interrupted Raven from her thoughts and she suddenly had to resist the urge to chuckle. Everything about Phantom was so contradictory she was enthralled knowing that he was able to simply exist, much less thrive on protecting the city from ghosts every night until dawn. She wondered how he could seem so unearthly and untouchable, yet so tangible at the same time.

Phantom moved his hand to prop up his head so that he could look at her better.

"What're you reading?" He asked after a moment, his voice still husky from sleep and carrying that familiar echoey tenor. She merely brought the book up in front of her so that he could read the title. Phantom squinted his eyes to read it before they lit up with recognition. He raised a brow and smirked,

"I didn't peg you as the romantic type."

Raven recognized the tease in his tone. Needless to say she was not amused. She pursed her lips,

"I'm usually not, this one just happened to catch my interest." She told him. She shifted to cover her slight and sudden embarrassment. Her voice was clipped, closing the conversation. She didn't miss his smirk that grew when she turned her head away from him and instead focused back on her book.

Phantom on the other hand had suddenly gotten very quiet, and Raven knew that a quiet man in Titan's Tower was usually never a good thing, so she turned her attention back on him to see him staring blankly at the wall next to her. Last night came to the forefront of her mind again and she swallowed thickly, wincing at the bruise that was left from her healing trance.

His far away stare told her that although he was physically sitting a few feet away from her, his mind was now in a place she didn't dare follow. She once told Robin that there were places in her mind that no one should ever go. She imagined that there were places in Phantom's mind that no human would be able to escape unscathed. Her power unconsciously probed his aura gently, like water lapping against the bank of the Bay at the bottom of the Tower. Phantom usually had an exceptional hold on his emotions, almost rival to her own. Almost

Sometimes he slipped, and Raven could feel his pain underneath. It was deeply rooted and all-consuming. She didn't know how he kept it all under control. Even now her empathy only picked up whispers of his heartache.

"How are you feeling?" Phantom asked her, the second time she had been asked that today, pulling Raven from her thoughts. She looked over to see that he was now sitting up with all of his attention on her.

Raven cleared her throat, wishing that her hood was up. Even now her fingers itched to pull the fabric over her head, but doing so now would give away her discomfort - if her blush hadn't already- and from Phantom's teasing smile she could tell that it had. His observational skills were as adept as Robin's, it was uncanny. Instead, she folded her hands in her lap.

"Better." She told him. Usually, she was content to leave it at that, but the way he looked at her earlier, looked through her, made her realize that maybe he didn't know of the bond, but he did know that something had changed between them- and was waiting for her to acknowledge what happened. So she took a breath and closed her eyes, and concentrated on lowering her mental walls.

Then she looked up and their eyes met once more and she knew that he had seen facets of her life just as she had seen his, but she didn't know which memories he now held that were hers.

"You can feel it, can't you?" She asked him. Phantom's brows furrowed slightly as he nodded slowly, eyes still on hers.

"I felt it when you went into your…" He trailed and Raven felt a small smile tug at her lips despite the severity of the conversation at hand. "Healing trance." She said.

"Yes." A hand flew to the back of his neck, "It's like something just… snapped into place, and after that I've always been aware of you in the back of my mind."

Releasing a breath, Raven tore her gaze from his with a slight nod.

"It's the bond. My power has done it one other time with Robin, and only to save his life." Raven looked back up to see him staring at her intently, "I'm sorry this happened, my power must have acted out of its own accord to protect us both."

"Both?" He asked. Raven nodded gravely.

"Adding your power to mine could have had dire consequences, and it was dangerous." She pursed her lips as Phantom's eyes widened. "Even now, I'm unsure of the extent of the bond."

"So I could have killed you?"

Even now he was concerned about her well-being more than his own. The grief in his voice surprised her.

Raven's lips set into a thin line. "What you did was save my life Phantom, and I'm grateful for what you did…" She trailed off, before taking another breath, "but you need to know that the bond that we now have is strong, and either of us may unconsciously see or feel things from each other that we never intended to share."

He said nothing, just closed his eyes. Twisting her fingers in her lap, she bit the bottom of her lips when Phantom remained silent. She did not have any indication of what he was thinking. Although Raven felt more uneasy with each passing moment, she forced herself to stay sitting in front of him, because he deserved to know the full truth of what happened between them.

"Truthfully I'm uncomfortable with the idea of you learning about my past," he started, meeting her eyes, "but out of everyone I could think of sharing something like this, I'm glad that it's with you."

He gave her a small smile, though it was more of a grimace than anything, and Raven shoved down the wave of guilt that tried to sweep through her.

"Phantom, I'm sorry. If I could break the bond with full confidence that we would both walk away unscathed I would."

He nodded, accepting her words, and he ran a hand through his hair, causing a few spikes to stand up at the end. It wasn't an easy thing to process, and even Raven herself was struggling to keep her composure. After their conversation she would need to go back to her room to meditate.

"If you see something… will you let me know?" He asked suddenly and Raven felt his piercing gaze on hers once more. She was taken aback by the urgency in his eyes.

"Of course. I'll do what I can to research more and see if I can break it." She said.

She tried to ignore the sigh of relief he gave.

They fell into silence once more and this time Raven was thankful for it. Her power was still drained, and the idea of researching the bond seemed like a daunting task that she was mentally unprepared for.

"Raven, when you were in your trance you mentioned someone named Arella."

Raven stopped and blinked, the only show of her surprise, at the change of conversation. Her memory of last night was muddled at best but she knew she did not mistake seeing her mother's violet eyes, so haunted by the knowledge of raising a daughter that was half-demon and created for the sole purpose of destroying the world. Raven looked down to see that both of her hands had clenched around the book and was shaking slightly, a movement that Phantom had also noticed.

She had heard the unspoken question in his statement asking her to tell him about Arella and why she had apologized to her. Had it been anyone else she would have told them it was none of their business and that she wasn't under any obligation to explain anything that she had said last night. However when she looked at Phantom and watched him reach out to gently unclench her fingers from her book, and then wait patiently, she realized that maybe he wanted to learn more about her too.

Did he bring up Arella to give her a chance to be vulnerable so that he could trust her fully? Or maybe his intention was something else entirely; but the earnest in his eyes showed her that it was probably the former. The ball was in her court, essentially, and she could choose how to steer the conversation and reveal as much as she wanted- to set the bar for him, and how could she expect Phantom to feel comfortable revealing his past to her if she wasn't willing to do the same?

She breathed in and then out slowly, making her decision. She allowed her empathy to flow freely. She wasn't sure if he was aware or not, but Phantom's aura beckoned her closer. His aura swept through her, enveloping her in an attempt to create a safe space filled with a calm, ethereal flow that was all encompassing. Phantom gave her an encouraging warm smile, a gentle nudge that told her he was willing to listen to whatever she was willing to tell him. After a minute she found herself relaxed enough to flex out her fingers and settle them in her lap.

"Arella was my birth mother." She began, not looking at Phantom. She stared at her hands in her lap, recounting the contours of her mother's facial features, once again seeing her eyes that held so much sorrow. Those eyes held too much despair and pain, much more than any human should ever have to bear. Phantom's gaze had held that same despair.

"I was raised on a planet called Azarath. Our leader was a woman named Azar, and she taught men and women the ways of pacifism, and they built the Temple of Azarath. Together they purged all evil from their souls out of the Great Door, but those evil thoughts and feelings did not disappear. They manifested into something much darker than any of the priests could have imagined."

She stopped a moment to take a breath, to steel herself for her next admission.

"It grew until it was able to take physical form and it named itself Trigon. He became a powerful interdimensional-demon that sought to take over worlds, and he succeeded to become a conqueror of many multi-universes." She knew she should stop and gauge his reaction but she couldn't bring herself to look at him, just kept going because if she didn't then she wouldn't be able to finish.

"My mother was young and beautiful but she was also naive. It was no surprise that she joined a satanic occult. Their goal was to summon Trigon, and one night they were successful. He took my mother as his bride and I was conceived." Her hands were shaking now, her power growing more restless. She pushed on.

"Arella was brought to Azarath so that we could both live, away from my father. Azar taught me about pacifism and how to control my powers. My emotions are dangerous, so she thought it was best for me to constrain them. I knew that they were afraid of me, of what I was meant to become. But regardless of how much I trained, I was still half-demon. One day I opened the Great Door and saw Trigon for what he was. I fled to earth hoping that I could prevent him from destroying the world." She could feel tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She blinked them back.

Raven felt the intensity in Phantom's aura, more electric and on edge, though it did not reach out to hurt her. Instead, it seemed to retract into himself, leaving cold, buzzing undertones in its wake. When she looked at him, the intensity in his gaze was filled with an emotion she couldn't quite comprehend, but she thought that she saw… regret? Misery?

His reaction to the creation of her father left her perplexed. She was prepared for anger, unease, and even fear. However, she never expected that Phantom would react as if she reminded him of a memory that he had been trying so hard to forget. Like she had just rubbed salt in an old, festering wound.

But then the moment was gone, and she felt him focus back on her. The tension in his shoulders seemed to relax and the electricity in the atmosphere left just as soon as it had arrived. It was as if he had quickly found the hole to a spraying leak, and simultaneously plugged it in one swift movement.

When she finally continued, she bit out her next words, unable to keep her voice even as she usually did.

"That's when I found the Titans, and although I defeated my father, he destroyed Azarath… and my mother."

"It's my fault." She said, barely able to choke down a sob. Raven rarely cried, if ever, but last night had left her drained, and she hadn't taken the time to meditate again. She had been avoiding it and it had taken its toll on her mental constraint.

But even as Raven was beginning to realize that she could no longer keep her hold on her grief, Phantom was suddenly in front of her, taking her hands into his own.

"No Raven. You can't hold yourself accountable for his actions. He made his own decision to destroy Azarath, and he would have destroyed so many more earths like it if you hadn't have intervened."

And the sureness in his voice soothed her, though she couldn't contain the few tears that spilled over onto his cheeks. Phantom's aura was one of understanding and the bond between them flared.

A roar of fire and the taste of ash. Crunching bone and piercing screams. The smell of death and decay and pure unadulterated terror.

"You defeated him, Raven. You will never know how many lives you've saved." Phantom whispered.

He brought a gloved hand up to her face, softly wiping away a tear on her cheek. She allowed his touch, yearned for it, and leaned into it. She should have been alarmed by the state that he had seen her: ill, on the brink of death, and at her most emotionally vulnerable in a long, long time, but she wasn't. Raven stared into his eyes that held so much sorrow, for her, at what she had been through and what she had sacrificed.

Then he sighed.

"Raven, there's something that I need to tell you."

Before he had a chance to say anything further they were both interrupted by the blaring alarm as streaks of red light filled the room. In the distance, they both heard the commands of Robin and the thud of Cyborg's footsteps gaining ground. It would only be a few more seconds until the rest of their teammates would join them in the common room for direction on their next fight. Raven felt a tinge of disappointment, as her eyes lifted back up to Phantom's.

He dropped their hands with a look of regret and the moment was lost.