Lunatic: Well lots of response to the eighth chapter. This makes me happy. I'd like to respond to some of you.

Idoliar: Does this answer your question?

KatFay: The first of course. The second was just a treat for all those people just begging for them to make out already. It's way too out of character for it to be the real ending to that chapter.

Peace215: Well there are some secretive undertones in that chapter that I didn't even mention because I want them to be secretive. They'll be revealed here. In my version (and most of my other Rae/Rob stories too) Robin thinks of Starfire as more of a sister than anything else. He likes to protect her and she means a lot to him. But he used to like her, but decided not to cross that line between friendship and something more. That was part of his debate with himself concerning Raven.

He isn't really aware that he has feelings for Raven. He just thinks its hormones and leaderly concern that makes him go to talk to her. He's afraid she'll leave again (because of her powers acting up that morning) if he doesn't talk it out with her but her reaction to him made him angry before he could mention this. So they started fighting.

So most of your assumptions were correct. I love the long reviews; they make me happy. 'Cause I like talking out the theories hehe.

Disclaimer: Yeah I forgot it again but as said before, we all knew what it would say now didn't we.

The three of them remained frozen, Robin and Raven looking at the angry Starfire much like deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Raven's anger hadn't faded in the midst of her surprise and under its fiery inclination she was the first to recover.

"Nothing Starfire. We were just having a disagreement." She gave Robin a pointed glare, her expression hidden by the dark blue of her cowl. Starfire seemed unsatisfied with this answer.

"I am addressing friend Robin." She responded stiffly, also glaring at the boy wonder. Robin, for his part, had begun to wonder why all the women in his life hated him.

"She's right Star. We were just arguing." He told her firmly. The last thing he needed was for Starfire to find out about Raven's feelings for him, if they still existed. This would only make Raven angrier.

"This argument is of usual occurrence? It is typical of 'room mates'?" The Tamaranian offered quietly, referring of course to how the Titans usually got on each other's nerves during the day. Robin faltered.

"Well, I- I suppose you could say that. I mean-"

"Yes Starfire. We were just arguing like usual." Raven interrupted darkly. She was in no mood for Robin to get soft about misleading the redhead. Starfire wasn't stupid, it was bad enough she suspected anything: she didn't need anything more to confirm her suspicions. "Now both of you: get out of my room."

Neither of them moved. Both had something they wanted to say to the half-demon. Raven glared at them each until Robin finally sighed.

"I think I'll go see what Cyborg and Beast Boy are doing." He sidled past Starfire in the doorway, pausing a moment to give Raven a meaningful glance.

She ignored both the Tamaranian and the boy wonder, and headed toward her window. Outside, the sun was high, creating late afternoon shadows and the water to shine with blinding white ripples. Raven's eyes squinted against the light. One day she'd find a way to make her room less dark when it came to lighting.

"Friend Raven?" Starfire's voice behind her was neither kind nor cold. "I would like to do the 'girl talk'."

"I know Star."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Robin made his way to the living room where he could hear the sounds of a racing game going on. Sure enough, on the couch Beast Boy and Cyborg leaned from side to side, imitating the movements of the computer-generated vehicles. Cyborg's blue racer was playing chicken with Beast Boy's green one.

"Come on that's cheating!" The shape shifter whined as Robin sat beside him.

"No it ain't." Cyborg replied calmly, grinning. "You're just saying that because I'm about to beat your high score."

"No way!" The smallest Titan furiously pressed the various buttons on the controller and his car sped ahead, passing the blue one by miles. Cyborg cried out in outrage.

"Hey! No Nitro!" Beast Boy stuck out his tongue at the mechanic. Cyborg took the moment to click in his own cheat code and plunged after the green car. The two were neck and neck. "Prepare to lose!"

"I don't think so!"
"Oh yeah, check this out! Boo yah!"

"Oh no you don't, I am so gonna-"

"Hey! That was unfair!"

"Was not!"

"You only say that cause you're not the one who's a smoking pile of ruin on the curb!"

"Not my fault you can't drive."

"WHAT?" Cyborg stared angrily at the shape shifter, enraged that anyone would call him a bad driver. It was then that he noticed Robin sitting glumly beside Beast Boy. The expression on the boy wonder's face made him momentarily forget his outrage. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Huh?" Beast Boy turned around and noticed the team leader for the first time also. "Oh hey Rob…in?"

Robin, shaking his head had stood and begun to walk away. Their carefree banter was depressing him, causing him to dwell on his confusion and his anger. What was he supposed to do? Just walk away from her and leave her alone? Yes. So why couldn't he do that?

"Hey man, sit your butt back down." Cyborg's metallic arm came from nowhere and dragged the masked boy back into his seat, frowning. Robin glared at him.

"Really, Cyborg I'm fine." He snapped. Both Beast Boy and Cyborg gave him looks that obviously stated they didn't believe him.

"Right." Beast Boy said sarcastically. "This coming form the guy who-" Cyborg's hand covered the other boy's mouth before he said something really stupid.

"What he means is: something is obviously wrong, man. You look like someone died."

"Or like Slade just announced his love for you." Beast Boy blurted, free from Cyborg's hand. Both the other boys gave him a look of stunned incredulity. "…What?"

Cyborg, shaking his head, decided to ignore the eccentric joker. "Seriously: spill Robin. What's going on with you and Raven?"

Robin turned from staring horrified at Beast Boy to stare at Cyborg. "There's nothing between me and Raven." He said too quickly.

"Like I said, there obviously is. With the way you two have been acting, anyone could come to the logical conclusion that-"

"YOU ARE A LYING BLORNAX!"

"Not quite what I had in mind but…" Cyborg and the other boys stood, heading toward where the shout had come from. A furious Starfire met them at the door, her eyes lit with green flame.

"Starfire! What-?" She pushed past them, toward the kitchen. She needed Pudding, lots of Pudding.

In the shadows of the hallway, stood a very apathetic Raven.

She gave Robin a long, meaningful stare before the darkness suddenly swallowed her whole. She had teleported somewhere.

Cyborg had gone after Starfire, looking concerned. "Starfire what happened?"

The usually genial girl spun around, and yelled at him. "SHE LIED TO ME! SHE IS A TERRIBLE, UNFRIENDLY PERSON."

The three boys shrank back in the face of a woman's fury. A normal woman was enough to take down any man, but a super powered alien woman? They shivered.

"Starfire… what did she tell you?" Robin asked cautiously.

Starfire took a deep, calming breath, and glared sadly at her best friend. "I asked Raven what she truly felt for you. She has told me of her great affection for you. She is a liar."

"You mean she doesn't lo- like me?"

"No." The Tamaranian turned back to her pudding, stirring the mix with too much enthusiasm. "When I confronted our friend earlier about her relationship with you, she insisted that there was nothing more than friendship. She lied."

"But, Starfire, Raven has a right to love who she wants. Why are you angry at her for that?" Robin didn't understand where her righteous fury was coming from. He could understand her being jealous and perhaps hurt by the lie, but he couldn't understand why she was this angry.

"RAVEN LOVES ROBIN?" Beast Boy shouted, staring at them. Cyborg shook his head sadly and slapped the shape shifter into silence. The others ignored him.

"That is true." The alien said softly, her stirring ceased. "But recent events have lead me to unpleasant conclusions."

"See, that's what I was saying." Cyborg interjected. Robin glared at him.

"I don't understand."

"That makes two of us." Beast Boy said, aggravated. He was looking between Starfire and Robin with annoyance and confusion, rubbing the back of his head.

"Robin, you and Raven have been acting pretty strange. Ever since she came back. And you said yourself that it was your fault she hid in her room for a month. It's not exactly a mystery that you two have been up to something." Cyborg explained calmly. How could he make it sound so simple? It was more than just acting strange.

"This 'something' is what brings me anger, friend Robin." Starfire added tersely.

"You think that we've-?"

"No. I believe that she has tried to seduce you. Of this, I do not approve." Everyone knew how possessive the Tamaranian was of Robin, but they were all staring at her with shock. Raven? Seduce someone? Even to Cyborg, that sounded a bit far-fetched.

"But Starfire, Raven hasn't done anything of the kind." Robin said incredulously, eyes wide. "If anything, she's been pushing me away."

Starfire spun around, looking shocked by this information. "You mean she has not- what is it? 'Put the moves' on you?"

Robin smiled, blushing slightly. Beast Boy laughed out loud. "No Starfire. She hasn't done anything." His smile became a frown and he ran a hand through his hair. "She's acting like she hates me."

"Raven! Put the moves on! HAHA!" Beast Boy rolled past them on the floor, gasping in fits of hilarity.

Starfire gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. "Friend Raven did not tell me this! She allowed me to treat her like a rude, horrible finbag! How could I have allowed myself to act in such a terrible way?" She cried miserably.

"It's ok Star, I'm sure Raven understands." Cyborg said gently.

"Speaking of which, where did she go?" Beast Boy wondered aloud, holding his side. He had a stitch from laughing so hard.

"She was in the hallway, I saw her teleport some- oh no." Robin ran to the door, the others glancing at each other behind him.

"Robin what are you thinking?" Cyborg asked, chasing after their friend. Starfire and Beast Boy followed behind.

The door to the roof burst open in the front of them, courtesy of Robin's foot. Around them, a desolate breeze blew from the water. It was empty.

"Damn." Robin cursed angrily. "She left."

"How do you know? Maybe she's just-"

"No. She's hurt because Starfire is angry with her and she was already having trouble with her powers because of me. She'll have left because she thinks she's a danger." Robin explained darkly, staring out at the glittering horizon. The sun still hung low in the sky, the warm afternoon cooled by the water around the Tower. The Titans were isolated from the soft gold glow of the day by their apparent misery.

"She is gone?" Starfire said sadly. Then she began to cry silently, hand to her mouth. "Oh this is my fault! If I had only allowed her to explain!"

"Don't worry Star, we'll find her." Cyborg said reassuringly, a hand on the red head's shoulder.

Instantly Robin became the authoritive leader, dispersing objectives. "Cyborg, start a scan on the city, see if you can find her tracking device. Beast Boy, you try her communicator. Starfire and I will search in the air, and on foot." He pointed to each as he assigned them a duty, his calm exterior betraying the nervous flutter in his heart. What if they couldn't find her?

The other Titans nodded, each highlighted by the warm glow of the day as it slowly ended. Robin glanced at each in turn, seeing them as he never had before. They were each important to him; they were each unique in their roles as guardians of the city. All of them had no one but each other.

They wouldn't abandon one of their own.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Raven never expected to leave forever. She just needed time.

She understood Starfire's anger, though she could not deny that it hurt. If she had stayed within the Tower to hear Starfire confess her anger to the others, and the cause for it, then she would have endured too much emotional struggle to control. She would have endangered each of them.

No doubt by now, the others had realized her absence and begun to search for her. She didn't want to be found. Her communicator and her locator were both in her room, busily waiting to be discovered.

Because her absence wasn't going to be long, she went to a place that could easily be thought of if they were desperate to find her. Though only Robin would think to look here. Was that why she had chosen it?

She had come here the last time too, hovering inches above the ruined debris, deep within her mind. She had spent three days inside Nevermore, never truly in the crumbled hideout around her.

Slade's decrepit home was still as she had left it, glass and gears and metal littering the floor. She stood in the doorway, gazing apathetically at the shadows. How long would she live her life in darkness? When would she truly step into the light and feel the warmth? Would she ever be anything but cold?

Sighing, she chose the light over the darkness, and stayed outside the old building. She flew to the roof, where she could see the sun set. It was still late afternoon and the shadows were stretching, the buildings emblazoned with liquid gold. It was breathtaking.

She felt her heart quiver inside her, shaking from hurt and despair. She had been horribly angry with Robin and it saddened her to think of how she might have offended him. But he needed to understand that she could not be around him. He needed to understand that it wasn't just her love for him that was the threat.

Part of her hated him. And that part of her was dangerous.

Raven stared coldly at the glory of the afternoon sun, unmoved. At her feet, a piece of discarded glass that somehow made its way up to the roof, glinted, blinding her. She glanced down and saw her apathetic reflection.

This would always be her face. This cold porcelain mask would always be there, frozen in an expressionless stare. This icy exterior would always be there to separate her from her friends. Behind the mask, she felt herself crying.

Outside, she was nothing.

She would always be alone. And there was nothing she could, nothing she wanted, to change about that.

Lunatic: Raven and I are one in the same. I love that girl. Too bad the TV Show producers have yet to acknowledge the great potential of this character within the series.

Ah well. Tell me how it is, ask me questions and offer any criticism. And please! Speculation is greatly appreciated!