14.

"..What are you doing here? This is my room."

There was a strange pounding in his ears. Raven looked terribly tired as if she was in battle and retreated wounded. But her face looked so serene in the half-lightened darkness, so elegant and calm as if it didn't affect her.

"Sorry, I just.."

He found himself at loss of words which rarely happened. Raven sighed and turned around. The other side of the room was in a huge mess. She started to put everything back in place with her powers.

"I met Happy and Knowledge."

Raven made a tsk sound. It seemed that she already knew that, and she was clearly displeased of her emoticlones taking over her body. Robin didn't know what to say.

"They seem to know something I …"

"Robin," she interrupted. He fell silent immediately.

"Is it true that you're taking Starfire to the dance?"

"Yes..?"

"As a date?"

"Yeah.. why ask?"

The more he nodded the more uncomfortable he felt. He couldn't see Raven's face and he couldn't feel anything. He decided to ask her about that.

"Hey, what happened to our bond? Did you discard it or something?"

Raven's head didn't turn. Her voice sounded almost cold when she replied.

"What bond?"

"The bond that we shared.."

"I didn't know you cherished it," she spat out.

"It helped me understand you, and it got us closer... Or was it just me being stupid?"

She did turn around at that. He still couldn't read her emotions. This wasn't the Raven he was used to, she was even more guarded than when they were teens.

"Oh. Then I guess you're done figuring me out because you're the one who broke it."

"Huh? I did? When? Why?"

"You tell me, Nightwing. I would surely like to know."

"Raven, I can't remember. Whatever Nightwing did wasn't me. I have nothing to do with it. You have to know that to me, none of that ever happened."

Her lips were shut tight. She looked like she was having a war inside of her. Her eyes almost flashed red.

"So you're saying.. that all those years are some kind of fantasy I created in my head because you don't remember?"

Her voice was so quiet but broke, it made hissing sounds.

"No, Raven, that's not what I mean. But look, I'm the Robin who was obsessed with tracking Slade down a few months ago. I have no idea what happened! They never happened to me, at least not yet. And now people are driving me crazy for the things I've never done!"

Something in Raven's head snapped. She rushed to her love, grabbed him and kissed him. Her emotions radiated like heat, her hands clinging on tight. Her lips softly caressed his coaxingly, but he didn't kiss back.

'Please,' Raven almost prayed. 'Remember me. Please..'

It was just a few seconds, but she put all of her emotions into it. She called to her powers and her soul gently nudged his. Her soul-self took a step into him, trying to repair the bond. She'll be able to recover his memories once the bond was fixed. She mustered all the love she had for him to create a warm safe zone. The moment she touched his soul, he shivered and pushed her away.

"What the..?"

The enchantment broke midway, her magic backfiring back into her. Her body started to shake, and she could feel her soul withering, parts of it broken and shattered as it came back to its place. Robin was surprised, angry and confused, his emotions were trying to swallow her. She managed to utter a word out loud.

"Richard.."

He flinched at his real name.

"Richard.. I can recover your memories.. if you'd just let me."

"No. I.. This isn't.."

He never finished his sentence. He left her room without another word. His emotions were exploding everywhere, growing stronger by the minute. Raven dropped to the ground. As she was about to pass out, she saw two pairs of red eyes gleaming down at her.