Titan's Tower, 40 years ago, 1 hour after Beast Boy left

Raven was dying. That was all she knew, and all she can think about. Pain, numb pain was all over her body, she felt cold, so cold, so cold that it made being naked in the arctic in the middle of winter look nice and toasty. Her cloak was damp with her blood, one move made it feel like a sponge was seeping the lukewarm liquid back into her skin and it stung into her like acid. Her bone, they ached and wobbled and wiggled as if they had been turned into somewhere between glass and jelly, moving violently on their own, but if you were to interfere it would shatter apart into a million pieces, making moving around futile. She can see nothing but darkness, hear nothing but the cold wind blowing through smashed windows, along with drips of what could either be water or blood, the smell of blood, death and phoenix flame was so overwhelming to her nose that it murdered it.

She felt her tears dissolve her face as she thought back to Scarecrow's surprise attack on the Titans. She was trying and failing to teach Starfire a new language (Chinese), when the gas bomb suddenly hit them and Raven found herself completely unable to move, as if she had been turned to stone. She had to how one simple gas bomb paralysed them completely. She was unable to do anything as she watched Scarecrow dragged her and Starfire into the lobby of Titans tower where everybody but Beast Boy was gathered around for their horrific execution. All she can do was watch in pure horror as Scarecrow unleashed a full blast of the modified fear toxin that Lex Luthor modified into the room that Beast Boy was in and watch him do what Scarecrow wanted him to do.

She wanted to scream to shout, to try and use her magic to do something but there was nothing that she can do. All she can do was watch as Beast Boy began to viciously attack all the Titans, all of them were unable to move unless if Scarecrow, who attacked them with goodness knows what were only able to move about slowly so that Beast Boy can get the execution done faster. Then Beast Boy turned on her and…Raven tried to suppress that horrific memory.

She had no idea what happened to her boyfriend. She wasn't even sure if she would even see him again, even if she makes it out of this state. She thought of their 'date' they had a few nights prior that ended in too much to drink and an awkward awakening. Raven wasn't sure if she can get pregnant, but the status of a child that may or may not be inside of her was the least of her concerns at the present moment. She was afraid for her life.

Her mind was a whirl, her mind was going in so many directions that she was found it hard to believe that she hadn't made half the universe under Trigons control or something like that. All she can think about was trying to pull herself together, but she couldn't. All she had left was her left arm, head, neck and half of her chest.

It was getting difficult to breathe. It was like trying to breathe through wet cement that was drying up. Her lungs were getting heavy like water was gushing into them. She gasped trying to get so much as an atom of oxygen into her lungs.

She came in and out of consciousness so many times that she didn't know how long she was out for, nor how many times. She could have been out for a couple of minutes, a couple of hours, hell she could have been out for days or weeks or a month or even a year! Time was mocking Raven. Her body was turning against her, one moment she felt that she had enough strength to get up, to call for help, to try and teleport somewhere or something like that, she tried to do something, but whenever she tried to do that, it either ended in her only teleporting a couple of feet at best, or producing nothing. Other times she felt so weak that she welcomed the comfort and luxury of death, but her demon side rejected such a weakness. She wondered about everyone else, where was Nightwing? Cyborg? Superboy? Hell she would even welcome seeing Slade or even Trigon if that meant her getting out of this miserable place.

Which is why that when she was lying down, goodness knows where in Titan's tower that hearing someone coming was so sudden and shocking to hear footsteps. Raven's heart almost exploded when she heard the soft squelching sound, that sounded like a gunshot to Raven's ears, of the person walking through the bloodbath of the Titan's Tower lobby.

She heard a flicking sound of what sounded to be a lighter and at once she knew who it was. John Constantine. Raven has a, for use of a better word, complicated relationship with Constantine. True they were, debatably, equal in terms of magic, but she defiantly doesn't see him as a friend, more like a colleague or a useful ally.

"Ugh, what happened here?" Constantine's voice rang out though the lobby of Titan's Tower. "Looked and smelled like a rabid demon and phoenix attacked everyone here."

The strong smell of tobacco hit Raven and it made her want to throw up. The smell of blood, death, phoenix flame and cigarettes don't seem to mix very well, however she couldn't feel her stomach. Hell, she didn't even know if she even had a stomach.

She felt herself once again drifting back into the status of unconsciousness. The last thing that she saw was a blurry face and the blinding light of a cigarette.

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.

.

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Garfield opened his eyes wearily. He felt as if his bones weighed a ton and that he had slept for over 10,000 years, he felt his heart beating rapidly, he felt every drop of sweat that came out of his skin, he tasted blood in his mouth and he spat it out, not caring about where it landed on. He looked up to see nothing but a blinding white ceiling and parts of a LED light that seemed to be from a lighthouse. He was lying on one of the most softest, warmest beds, sheets and blankets that he had ever laid on for…well…almost a life time ago.

His mind was a whirr, with so many thoughts rapidly running through his head. That blue boy, looks just like him, except he's blue combined with several of Raven's features from a gem on his forehead to a purple cloak His entire mind seemed to have jammed. He lifted an arm, and after much effort he managed to raise his arm up so that he can look at his hand. It still looked like it's old – young Frankenstein – like self, with some areas wrinkled like a purine, others looking like what it used to look like in his prime.

He lifted his head, which seemed to weigh a ton, and he tried to have a look around him only to see that he was surrounded by what looked to be frames that you see in hospitals with blank white sheets, which made sure that nobody can see in, or out. He could be in any hospital, clinic or treatment centre in the world. He had no idea where he was, nor how long he was out. All he could remember before waking up in this place was the blue boy smiling at him and then darkness, as he, looking back, seemed to have fainted in shock.

"Hello Beast Boy." A soft, ghostly voice said. An all too familiar voice.

Garfield froze. He seemed to have turned to stone. All the thought in his chaotic head seemed to have vanished into nothing as he became as stiff as a statue. He could feel nothing. He can only stare at the figure that was hovering over him. Stare in complete shock as if he had seen a ghost, which in a matter of fact, he is.

Raven's ghost looked down at Garfield with an unreadable expression. Her looks hadn't changed much, only ageing around 8 or so years, and her ghost form seemed to have recovered from his attack. But something told him that something else was in play. Raven's face looked somewhere between anger, sorrow, interest, pity, frustration and exhaustion.

"R...R…Raven?" Garfield squeaked. He looked up at her ghost, feeling the tears dissolving his face "Are…are…are you dead? Am…am…am I dead…is…is this heaven…how…how long was I out?"

Raven looked on at Garfield with a look that doctors give to someone in a waiting room when they are about to deliver bad news. "Well for one, no, you are not dead Beast Boy you are very much alive. Two, this is not heaven, this is the sick bay in the house of mystery. Three, you were unconscious for an hour and I see that you still drool a bit when you are unconscious and asleep. As for me, I am not dead, nor am I alive."

There was a long pause, neither party unsure on what to say next. With so many things that has happened in the past 40 years, where does one even begin talking about things to catch up. Garfield had to explain why he gave up being a superhero, why he hadn't even transformed for so many years, that he has a wife and family, that Cyborg is bullying him for rent money, that he was sorry for what he had done the night the Titans were murdered and how much pain he was in, and how he was sorry for letting so many bad things happening around the world. He thought that Raven would also have more or less the same problems from having a child and he had no idea what antics that they would get up to. Then Raven, out of nowhere said the words that Garfield both wanted and didn't want to hear for so many years.

"I don't blame you for what you have done Beast Boy" Raven said in a voice that sounded like almost genuine sympathy "In fact, none of the Titans do. We all knew that it wasn't your fault. It was Scarecrow's"

"No!" Garfield almost yelled, he yelled so loud and in a voice that made all of his emotions that he had felt in the past 40 years unleash all at once "It's all my fault! I should have known that it was a trick! I should have know that something odd was going on! How none of what I saw made much sense! I should have realised that…that…if I hadn't…it's all my fault!"

And with that Garfield burst into tears, blubbering gibberish that even Garfield couldn't even decipher, his mind was once again back into a jumbled rush, so many things were going on in his head that he was shocked that it hadn't caught on fire due to him being so overwhelmed. Raven. Alive. His son. The Titans. Scarecrow. His family. His wife. His kids. Everything.

The cold chill struck him so suddenly, that it instantly ceased all of his chaotic thoughts. His mind was getting whiplash from all of this. He felt his body turn to jelly as found himself shaking violently from all the emotions combined with the sudden chill. He opened his eyes to see that Raven's ghostly form was trying to hug him. Her face was of that of pure sadness, pity and sorrow. Something inside of him told him that if she could, she would have been crying buckets.

"No. Blame me. I should have been able to stop Scarecrow, but I didn't. I should have done so many things, but I didn't. It's my fault Beast Boy. All my fault!"

No more words were needed. Nothing more was need to be said between them. They didn't know how long they were embraced with one another. All they needed was each other after so many years apart. They kissed, hard cold air making contact with warm sold flesh.

Finally, after 40 years, Garfield slept, in peace. No more nightmares. No more memories of that night. Nothing. He finally slept in peace.