Chapter Five: Mental Invasion

A/N: Short chapter. Sorry. Deal.

"What?!" shrieked Starfire in such a pitch it made Raven flinch. "But how is that possible? Oh no… I have not seen Cyborg and Beast Boy for hours! What if…"

"Let's go," said Raven, her expression set.

They made it quickly to the main floor, but all was quiet and dark, and there was no sign of a struggle.

The girls didn't know what to think.

"Where is he now?" Starfire asked after a while, but Raven shook her head.

"I can only detect his relative location," she said. "All I know is he's somewhere in the tower…" She turned to her friend. "Listen, you make sure Beast Boy and Cyborg are fine and dandy in their cozy little beds. If they wake up, make up one of those flimsy excuses of yours; they'll be too tired to argue. I'll make sure Robin's OK, seeing as it's highly unlikely that he'll wake up at any noise I make."

"My excuses are becoming more believable," Starfire said proudly. "Why, I easily deceived both Beast Boy and Cyborg today by saying—"

"That's great, Star, you can tell your dolls about it later. After you make sure they're still here, meet me back here and we'll come up with another plan to search the tower for Larkin."

Starfire nodded without a word and flew off to Beast Boy and Cyborg's rooms.

Raven made her way stealthily to Robin's room, her eyes alert to any movement.

"What was that?" she said, spinning around to see that an open window had blown the curtains. She ignored it and continued onwards.

When she reached Robin's room, from the outside everything seemed fine. She slowly and slyly opened and closed the door. Once inside, she quickly turned on the lights.

Unscathed but pale, an unconscious Robin laid peacefully in his bed.

The corner of Raven's lips twitched and she wondered of the peculiar emotion that had caused such a strange reaction in her.

Slowly, she walked over to Robin's bed and looked down at him, her face as unreadable as always.

"Wow, I never thought after hearing Cyborg's words that I'd ever see you again and you wouldn't hate me," Raven said to the boy. "I guess when you wake up you'll be pretty mad. Must have been some concussion to keep you under for so long…"

Raven sighed and gathered her thoughts, though she didn't know why she was choosing her words so carefully for one who would never hear her.

"Uh, listen, you know I'm not one for speeches, but it just feels like your dead or something. It's like I'll never talk to you again. Maybe I'm worried you won't trust me again after what happened. I used to think I didn't deserve your trust but Starfire made me realize in that jail today that whether I deserve it or not, I need it or I'll go insane. I had a lot of time to think about what things would be like for me without you guys, alone in that cell. And let me tell you, it's the bleakest thought I've ever had, and my head's full of terribly bleak thoughts. I guess I have Starfire's naïve belief in true friendship to thank for saving me from such a fate."

Raven jerked a little. The corners of her mouth twitched again and she tilted her head to the side. Looking as though she were testing a hypothesis, she slowly reached out her hand to rub Robin's forearm platonically.

"I…"

But something happened at that moment that she hadn't expected at all.

Starfire leaned against the door to Beast Boy's room and gave a sigh of relief. Neither of her friends had awoken when she checked on them and she was glad of it. She didn't want to have to lie to them again.

Suddenly, there was a scream and the door behind her opened and she stumbled.

"What was that?" Beast Boy demanded.

There was one thought on Starfire's mind and she looked grave.

"Raven has found Larkin," she said.

"What?" Beast Boy cried incredulously. "Raven's here?"

"Quickly!" Starfire said, grabbing Beast Boy's hand. "We must go to her aid!"

On their way to the origin of the scream, they ran into Cyborg.

"That noise came from Robin's room," he said. "My scanners detect two people in there. One's Robin, the other…"

Cyborg's eyes narrowed and Starfire's went wide.

"What? Only two people?" she said. "Are you sure?"

"Come on," Cyborg said, ignoring the question. Beast Boy looked hesitant as Starfire and Cyborg made their way down the hall. Cyborg looked back at him.

"Well?" he said.

"I don't want to fight her, Cyborg," he said, stubbornly.

"Hopefully, we won't have to," said Cyborg. "I don't want to think how she got out of that jail. She probably used her powers… But I don't get it, she was cooperative before…"

Starfire remained silent.

"I don't care how she got out, I just don't want to fight her," Beast Boy said.

"She let me cuff her before…" said Cyborg. "Maybe she's gone psycho again. In which case, she'd be after Robin."

"Was it not Raven who screamed, not Robin?" Starfire said finally. Both boys looked at her.

"Robin can't really scream, can he?" Cyborg said. "He's unconscious."

"Then why would Raven scream?" Beast Boy asked. But Starfire had a terrible feeling in the bottom of her stomach.

"We must go to Robin's room," she said. "Now!"

No way, Raven thought as she looked around. She was in the streets of a dark, deserted city with skyscrapers towering high above her head. She heard sounds of a battle on the next street over. She ran to the sound instinctively, wondering if what she thought was true.

That spell said Larkin was in the Tower, she thought, and it was supposed to allow me to get in his head when I made physical contact with him. Robin has been unconscious for over a day. There's only one answer. There's only one place I could be.

And sure enough, as she turned the corner, she saw Robin, in all his glory, fighting off a huge serpentine monster with black scales and sharp fangs.

I'm inside Robin's mind… Raven thought. She then glared at the beast Robin was trying to destroy. Because he's here too!