Disclaimer: Standard set: Except for Breon and Caspia, I don't own these characters. The WB and DC do. Nor do I have their permission.

Author's notes: Not as happy with this as I could be, but it came out pretty well. Right now I'm more interested in getting to the next chapter which should be the last save for an epilogue. It should be really cool.
Also, its been brought to my attention the Caspia is a variant on Raziel from Soul Reaver. For those wondering about this, it really wasn't intentional, it just happened that way. In any case, Enjoy.

Part 7: Mitigation

Heavy footsteps echoed down the deserted hallway Cyborg walked. In his hands was a small tray of food. Chicken and rice: Simple fair, but after the day they'd had he doubted anyone could hold down anything richer. As the young man got closer to his destination the hallway changed drastically: The bathroom door was unable to open due to its being bent at nearly forty-five degrees; in places the walls were bent out as if hit by a massive hammer; the floor would have been cracked, but the ceiling had melted and filled it in nicely.
Cyborg reached his destination: Raven's room. The door was lying on the floor about a foot into the room, this time it wasn't his fault. He chanced a quick peek into the dark girl's room to find her sitting cross- legged on her bed meditating. Cyborg breathed a sigh of relief; she was back to normal.
The damage to the hall had been her doing, but she was again in control of her powers.
Cradling the tray in one hand Cyborg knocked loudly on the doorjamb, "Hey Rae?" He called into the room gently, "Brought something for ya."
Very slowly Raven opened her eyes and looked at her friend, then at what he was carrying. In control of her emotions or not, Cyborg could see the sad guilt on the edges of her eyes.
The robotic youth continued, "I even brought you some of your tea." He said lifting her favorite mug, white with a thick, purple stripe, it had steam rising out of it. Raven just looked at him. "I'll just leave these here in case you get hungry." Cyborg finished, putting the tray just inside her door, but being very careful not to actually step into her room.
Raven continued her silent stare until Cyborg moved to leave. "How are they?" She asked just before he was gone.
Cyborg stopped and tried to put on a happy face. "Beast Boy and Robin are doing fine. They'll be making my life hard by morning."
"What about Starfire?" Raven actually choked a little on the last word.
All pretense of happiness fell away from Cyborg's face. "Listen Rae." He said after a moment, "You can't blame yourself for what happened. None of us do."
Raven's eyes locked hard onto Cyborg's. "What happened was because I couldn't do what I should have. I let my emotions get in the way."
"He wanted you to kill a kid!" Cyborg almost shouted.
"And if I had," Raven stated matter-of-factly, "none of this would have happened." Cyborg visibly deflated, he couldn't disagree with that, but Raven continued, "I made a mistake, and I will deal with it."
Cyborg nodded sadly and walked away leaving Raven to her solitude. The young man just started to walk away, trying to lose himself in the winding hallways of the Tower.
Eight hours. It had taken eight hours for their lives to go straight to hell. He'd gotten up this morning to Robin being his usual obsessive self; the night before: Slade had attacked them, but that was okay, that happened. Everything had made sense; a remarkably skewed version of sense considering he lived with four other superheroes, granted, but all had been right in the world.
Now... Cyborg could barely even think it. Tears began to stream from his human eye and he fell to his knees against the cold steel wall. Out of sheer helpless frustration he slammed his robotic fist once, twice, three times against the wall, each time leaving a perfect impression of his fist in the tempered steel.
Why? Why had it been Starfire? Why not any of them? Himself, Robin, Raven, even Beast Boy would have been better.
Cyborg's attention came back to reality when he heard a polite cough beside him. The first thing he saw, being on his knees, was a right hand encased in a cast.
"Haven't you done enough?" Cyborg asked, not bothering to get up. The person beside him stayed silent. "Listen man, I'm sorry for what happened, Raven told us what went down out there." Still no response. "Look, I know your beef's with the girls, but leave them alone, will ya?"
It was Caspia. Cyborg kicked himself mentally for not resetting the security. Since he was a guest they had made the system recognize him as friendly and Cyborg's mind was on other things instead of making sure he didn't come back.
Cyborg very slowly got up, placed his hands against the wall and leaned heavily against it. He was in much the same position that a cop puts a person he's arresting. "Take it out on me if you want." Cyborg said, pleading with the man, "just leave 'em alone."
"I won't hurt her." Was all Caspia said to Cyborg as he passed by the metal teenager.
Cyborg, feeling totally overwhelmed by the day, just smashed his fist into the wall again, but made no move to follow half-demon. He noticed that he was walking stiffly, but after what Raven and Starfire had done to him earlier, it was amazing that he was walking at all.
Raven watched calmly as Cyborg walked away from her room. When she was sure he was gone she slowly pulled her left sleeve back along her arm to reveal an old, deep scar across her wrist. She knew now that the right way to cut a wrist was down along the vein, not across. Had she known three years ago then maybe the Titans wouldn't be in the position they were now.
Raven sighed slightly, in the drawer of her bedside table was a razor blade. The same one she'd used before. She wasn't quite sure why she'd kept it, but it was in there nonetheless.
Not that it would do her any good. Caspia had trained her well enough that she knew the instant he was in the Tower. She'd felt him stop by the infirmary, then by the bathroom. He could probably figure out what had happened and there was going to be hell to pay. If she cut her wrist he'd be here before she bled out, even if he didn't smell the blood, which she knew he would. She pulled her sleeve back up.
Right now he was starting to move again after stopping in the hall briefly. Raven was looking at the door when he came into view; he was in human form. She could feel the physical pain she'd inflicted: his right hand and chest had been treated by a hospital, but the broken wing could not have been. Instead she felt the pain of it compressed and concentrated a thousand times over to make a tiny point of agony on his back.
All told though, it was his face that drew Raven's eyes. It was that same look of disappointment bordering on disgust that she'd seen earlier in the day. Again, it tore at her, but she didn't know why.
"You deserve a good, hard slap in the face." Caspia said harshly, but then softened, "What were you thinking?"
Raven couldn't hold his gaze, "Cyborg went to find the police again. I went to find you. The others stayed to make sure he didn't get up and leave. We went back as soon as we got the distress signal, but it was over before we got there."
Caspia gently sat on the bed beside her, "She had to kill him to save Robin and Beast Boy, didn't she?" It was a rhetorical question, so Raven answered by not answering. The young man continued, "Killing is the worst thing anyone has to do, Raven. For us its different, it's in what we are. We can justify it differently." He turned and looked at Raven, who still wasn't looking at him, "But for someone like Starfire, it'll haunt her for the rest of her life."
"How are they?" Raven asked hoping to get more of an answer from him than she got from Cyborg.
Caspia shrugged, "The boys are okay considering they almost drowned. They're both still out, but that's to be expected. I imagine they'll be up soon. Starfire..." He paused briefly as he sighed, "She's in one of the bathrooms trying to vomit up her toes. I take it she's been in there since you got back."
Raven nodded, "What can I do?"
"You hope they get over it." The young man told her. "The boys could wind up being afraid of water for the rest of their lives and Starfire might be too afraid to fight ever again, or worse."
The usual silence fell on them again. Out of a simple need to have something to do Raven began healing Caspia's injuries. The young man didn't even notice until he heard the snap of his fingers fusing back together. Without a word between them Caspia changed into his demon form to allow Raven access to his wing. She was finished and had begun working on his chest burns before either spoke.
"I'm in this too." Caspia told Raven as he shredded his now useless cast. "And I should have told you everything from the beginning, I'm sorry. Here's the best I can do: Ask me anything, I'll tell you everything I can."
Finished healing him, Raven sat back down on her bed. "Why haven't we changed?" Raven asked after a moment.
Caspia chuckled softly, "That's a loaded question." He looked at the ceiling for a moment. "Nietzsche." He said simply, "That which does not destroy us, only makes us stronger. Someone like Starfire, or Beast Boy, they wouldn't last a minute against a demon father." Caspia looked at Raven, "Something happened to us to make us stronger than most people. Strong enough to hold it back, but Raven," He caught her eyes, "We're already changing, all we've done is slow it down." He brought his inhuman, clawed hands in front of her eyes as proof. "Every change, every power, is a piece of our fathers that's become part of us."
"It can take years," Caspia continued, "But we are getting weaker. Eventually we just can't fight it anymore and everything left that's human is gone in a day."
Raven nodded. She could feel Trigon inside of her, constantly pushing to get free, and he was getting stronger by the day. When she was young she had been separated from her mother and one of her caretakers, fearing her powers, had tried to send her to hell. The caretaker was sent instead, but Raven had been given a good look at the horrors of the other side. That was when it began for her, but she'd also had the training of those of Azarath to help her stay in control.
"What happened to you?" Raven asked, almost without meaning to.
Caspia sighed again, closing his eyes. "Bear with me." He said in a whisper, "There are two schools of thought among demon hunters. One way, the one I use, is to try and be there when the child goes nuts. Sometimes, I'll attack a child before then to scare them, force them to get stronger. I can sometimes give them an extra two years or so. That's what I was trying to do to you the first time we met." He looked to the girl again and saw the ghost of a nod.
"The other way," The man continued, looking back at the wall beside the bed, "Is to kill them all as soon as you find them. I met one of them once; when I was ten." Raven turned to look at the man with a shocked expression. However logical, it was barbaric. Now she understood what he'd meant one the roof the night before. He continued, "My brother and I... My twin brother and I..." He emphasized the word 'twin,' "...were playing hide and seek. He found my brother and killed him, then my mother, but he missed me. I don't know how.
"I ran away, I haven't even seen their graves." He stopped for a minute to regain his composure. "Do you want me to keep going?" He asked Raven.
"Please." Raven nodded.
"Alright." He nodded back, "But this is the short version. I was found about a week later by those thugs Slade was talking about. In another week I was picking pockets for them, I was with them for almost two years. One day I picked the wrong pocket. One thing led to another and I got thrown off a building." Raven noticed a small shudder in the man beside her, "Usually powers manifest themselves when you need them, so, as I was falling, my wings appeared. I still broke my leg."
"The next part you know." He said almost harshly. "Slade, the brothel. I don't remember much about the day I burned it down, I just remember waking up in the forest. I turned out to be somewhere in California. I was taken in by a nice guy this time: A mechanic. He taught me his livelihood. I only left him when Yolanda came."
Raven cut in before he continued, "Yolanda?"
Caspia shrugged an apology. "My teacher. Another hunter." He looked at Raven for a long time, "You and her have the same powers, but she could do something I've never even heard of in anyone else: If she got there fast enough she could actually break the father's control on someone." He looked away again, sad this time. "She was everything to me and it was her who gave me the control to make my blade." He lifted his right hand, but decided against summoning his sword, "Then one day we were fighting two new demons, just like you and I did this morning. I went after the weaker of the two. I killed it, but when I went back I saw her on the ground, dying."
Caspia's face twisted in anger the red began to fill his eyes. Raven inched away and readied her powers just in case. Her friend was lost in his memories. "I told my father that if he gave me the power to kill the one who killed her I would let him win. He agreed. I don't remember what happened after that, but the demon was dead and I heard Yolanda in my mind. She brought me back." The red faded from his eyes and Caspia was again in reality. He closed his eyes and sighed again, "It was the last thing she ever did."
He turned back to Raven, "That was three and a half years ago. Since then its been more of the same, forty-seven demons killed plus however many were in the brothel. Counting the time before I met you and when I was unconscious, this is the longest I've ever been in one city in a long time."
They sat in silence again and again Caspia broke it. "For what its worth Raven, I'm sorry. Six months, max, and I'm gone. You have a few years left at best. There's no happy ending here, there's no redemption and there's no one who can save you. I know of at least ten hunters who came before Yolanda and no one has ever found a way out."
Raven's face had become blank mask. She was struggling to keep her emotions in check, it was getting harder for her lately, but the only outward sign of it was of her fingers kneading the blanket she was sitting on.
As it was she didn't even realize that her companion had moved until it was too late. In a single movement he was on her. She was pulled off of the bed and was held close to his body by his arms; his wings wrapped tightly around her body like a cocoon. All that could be seen of the girl was her head and feet.
"Let go of me!" Raven cried out roughly, summoning a wave of energy to knock him off of her, but the energy never left her body. She realized now what he was doing. With his power in his blood canceling out hers he was effectively containing her by holding her like this. She tried to squirm out for all she was worth.
"Raven," He said gently. "Let go, it's okay."
She wanted to, by God she wanted to, but she knew that if she did she'd never be able to get back the control she had now.
Raven shook her head slightly, but stayed where she was for a few seconds longer. It was warm, just like those all too perfect moments on the sitcoms she saw now and then. As soon as that thought entered her mind she gently pushed her way out, this time he yielded and released her. For a moment she'd felt safe like that, but she couldn't afford to let her guard down, ever.
Caspia stepped back, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." She said, dryly, "But don't do it again."
"Alright." He nodded, "I... Wait a minute." He said suddenly, cutting himself off. "That was a water demon." He looked out the window quickly, "Raven, how did Starfire kill it?"
Raven's brow furrowed in confusion, "She blew its leg off. We checked, but it didn't have a pulse." She was getting worried.
Alex continued, "Water demons don't bother using their hearts, it takes less energy to use their powers to make their blood flow. They don't have heartbeats."
The two looked at each other as worried expressions came over their faces.
"How much blood was there?" Alex asked again, "Not from the leg, from the body?"
Raven's eyes widened at her own oversight, "Almost none."
"Shit!" Caspia swore as he turned and ran for the door with Raven following a half step behind.
It was less than an hour later when Raven and Caspia returned to the Tower. They had found the demon in the morgue as it was reattaching its leg. Weakened from its two other fights that day it wasn't long before Caspia had removed its head.
Raven had helped subdue it, but still refused to kill. Instead she opted to heal the minor cuts and bruises they'd picked up during the fight.
Not much had changed in the Tower while they were gone: Everything was still deathly silent. The pair found everyone, even those who were unconscious when they left, in front of the bathroom that Starfire still occupied.
"Come on Starfire," Beast boy was calling through the door when they arrived. "It's not that big a deal, is it?"
A high-pitched wail from the other side was his only answer.
The green boy was silenced by an angry look from Robin and knocked away by Cyborg, "Starfire," Robin began, "We don't blame you for what happened. You did what you had to do. You saved our lives." He called through the door as gently as he could and still be heard.
There was a retching sound on the other side of the door. "Robin... my friends," Starfire's weak voice was heard, "You have always been kind to me, but I have committed an unforgivable atrocity." There was a pause. "Even the food of ten days ago rejects me now."
Cyborg looked helplessly to Robin, "How about some of that pudding stuff you told me she made. The recipe's still in the kitchen."
Robin shuddered in spite of the situation, "Thanks," He said, "But I don't think that would help."
Without saying a word Alex, still in demon form, walked up to the door. The boys were about to stop him when Raven raised a hand. Robin took a moment but backed away and had the others do the same.
Caspia nodded to them in thanks then called his blade to his hand. A quick slash later and a deep gash was cut in the door that he grabbed with both hands. The young man was nowhere near Cyborg's league in terms of strength, but he had enough to force the door back into the wall.
Starfire shrieked as he entered the bathroom with her. The girl looked awful: her eyes were red and swollen, deep tear streaks marred her face, she looked pale and sickly, and the whole room, her included, smelled of bile.
The half-demon put on a mean face and stormed towards Starfire, "Starfire!" He yelled, "The next time you get it in your head to kill a demon, do it right!" He held up his clawed right hand, still covered nearly to the elbow in blood, "I don't want to have to clean up your mess again." With that he turned and walked out.
As he passed the doorway Beast Boy jumped at him, "Dude! She's had a rough day, why don't you... mmph!"
Cyborg had run up and clamped his hand over his much smaller friend, "Don't mind him, he's just an idiot." He turned to Beast Boy, "Quiet down and I'll let you go, okay?" Beast Boy nodded and was released.
Caspia nodded slightly to the other two boys, both of whom were smiling now, and walked away down the hall, most likely to another bathroom for a shower. Raven watched him go.
Robin moved to see into the bathroom, but was knocked off his feet by a green and purple flash. "Robin!" Starfire cried as she hit him, "I am not a murderer!" Then she kissed him. Raven was sure she saw a shudder from their leader, that couldn't have tasted good, but he seemed happy anyway.
It never ceased to amaze Raven how fast things could return to normal in the Tower. Already Beast Boy and Cyborg were fighting again, Starfire and Robin were a happy couple again and she... Raven had no idea what was next.
She looked at the spot where Alex had disappeared down the hallway. She hadn't realized it before and wasn't even sure when it started, but she had begun seeing him as a father figure, and unless she was mistake, the feeling was mutual. Even though it had only been two days since they'd actually met, but they had been very special days.
It would be all too soon when he was gone, a few days and he'd move on. A few months and he'd be dead. Then what would she do? After all she'd seen there was no way she could do nothing. Would the Titans even miss her? She watched the happy scene a moment more, as usual she was on the outside looking in.
Without a word she slipped away into the shadows of the hall.
Okay, the next one will take some time, other than an epilogue it's the last one, though it may end up being split like what happened with the three chapters starting with bedside manner. Don't know yet.