Author's Note: Shameless Self-Promotion time. If you're liking this story, read my other Teen Titan fanfics, "The Purloined Heroes" and "The Line." This next chapter's slightly shorter than normal. I decided to splice this chapter into two, so there are still two more chapters left to write up.

Chapter Eleven

Raven spent the night crying. She didn't even fall asleep; her soul was in too much turmoil to find respite. Her tears wouldn't abate until mid-morning, when she finally dried her eyes. I can't lie here like this, she thought with ironclad determination. I'm not going to just let this happen. I can make this work. I can get my powers back and still be with him. There has to be a way.

She spent the better part of the day locked up in her room, isolating herself from everyone—including Robin. I'm sorry, Dick, she thought to herself, but right now I'll need all of my concentration. She poured over the many tomes she collected over the years, books of power and spells. Most she'd read a dozen times over, but there were a few that she still hadn't been able to master. Those she flopped open in tall, dusty stacks. It was in these texts that she hoped to find some method, some hope.

"A Mastery of Hermetics, A Principal Study of the Ten Words of Dioramic Power, Tome of Hexes, Marks of Principalities and Other Angelic Choirs," she skimmed through the pages with frustration. Then she flung them all to the ground. "None of these are what I need!" She glanced at the clock. She had spent the past three hours looking through books that proved useless to her.

"None of the books I have can help me," she mused. "But what about the books Malchior had?" She shuddered when she thought about the shape-changing dragon who had tricked her and toyed with her heart. She despised him for it, but his defeat meant that all of the grimoires, librams, and lexicons he left behind were now hers. Given the dangerous and inherently evil nature of those particular texts, Raven had left them alone. But surely they contained some manner of power she could use….

"No," she growled firmly. "I won't study those things ever again. I released something very bad because Malchior taught me his ways. I won't go to them voluntarily. Not even for Dick. Not that he'd approve, anyway."

Then the crime alarm blared. Raven pushed her concerns aside and drew her cloak around her. I may not have any powers, and I may only be useful as support, but I'm still a Titan. She walked out and ran right into Robin; she stumbled.

He took her by the shoulders to keep her from falling. He looked into her eyes for a long, silent moment. Finally, he asked, "Did you work things out?"

Confused, Raven asked, "Work what out?"

"Whatever it is you wanted to keep us out of." He didn't sound accusing. He was only stating a fact.

Raven had to smile. So discreet, my Dick. So understanding. Aloud, she said, "Not really. But right now, there's other things on our list of priorities."

She and Robin joined up with the others inside the T-car. "What's going on, Rob?" Cyborg asked, hitting the gas.

"The Joker's in town," Robin answered with a hardened edge to his voice. Raven gasped; there were similar expressions of amazement and alarm throughout the rest of the team.

The Joker.

The best—and deadliest—villain around. And he was in their city.

"We got backup, right?" Beast Boy asked shakily, his joking attitude for once completely repressed. "I mean, I've heard stories about this guy. A complete loony who'd kill you as much as look at you—or worse."

"He do much worse than anything you or I could imagine," Robin said in low tones. "He's a monster. Plain and simple. Batman's en route now to assist, but that won't matter because no one has any idea what the Joker's planning. Which means we'll have to wait for the clown to make his move." Robin didn't sound like he enjoyed that prospect one bit.

Raven sympathized. "If we wait, then something bad will happen," she reasoned. "Innocents might get killed."

Robin nodded. "We're heading for Batman's position now," he announced. "Once we link up with him, maybe we can figure out a plan of attack."

Then came the explosion.

The T-car tumbled end over end, carried by the force of the explosion. It fell off the highway, down the mound, and into the revetment along the edge of the bay. Water splashed into the car through the tattered roof. The Titans within groaned at scraped limbs and bruised scalps.

"What was that?" Starfire asked wildly, growing frightened.

"Looks like the Joker decided to make his move," Robin said ominously. His seatbelt was jammed and he had to take a knife out of his utility belt to free himself. Once loose, he proceeded to cut the others out. "Everyone out, now," he ordered. "Quickly, before he gets down here."

Cyborg punched the driver-side door out, giving him a big enough exit. He pulled himself out of the wreckage, only to take a hard kick to the face. He grunted when he was kicked again and again and again. Thin fingers wrapped around his throat and pulled him out; he was tossed to the ground like a sack of meal.

"Tin men shouldn't swim," a wild, seething voice drawled. "He'll get rusty! Haw haw haw hee hee hee!"

Cyborg got up, shook his head, and aimed his arm cannon at the white-faced maniac standing by the wreck. "Don't move, dirt bag," he warned boldly, his weapon humming as it heated up.

The Joker, in all his maniacal glory, raised his hands up with flourish. "Such bravado! Such courage! Be it far from me to say no to a man of authority," he said gaily. Then the flower on his front coat pocket spat out a spray of green liquid. It struck Cyborg full on the chest, reacting with his metal armor plating. It hissed through as if going through so much hot butter. Cyborg screamed and fell back, disabled.

The Joker pranced back to the wrecked car and reached inside. "What other little fishies are in this sardine can? Oh my! A kitty!" He pulled out a very large—and very green—tiger, who swiped a paw at him. The Joker simply leaped away with masterful agility. Beast Boy padded closer, his claws digging into the earth.

"Now, now," the Joker said serenely. "The pretty kitty mustn't make Poppa mad! After all, you don't want me to put you to sleep!" He drew a large plastic gun from his coat pocket and pulled the trigger. The bullet—an enormous piece of cork—struck Beast Boy full in the chest, canceling his transformation while knocking him unconscious. The cork had been filled with lead shot.

"Oops," said the Joker, touching his fingers to his lips in an affected expression of bewilderment, "Looks like you just lost your sternum! Hoo hoo hoo! Hee hee hee! Haw haw haw!" He tossed the spent gun aside.

"So who's next?" he implored with a laugh. A burst of green fire tore the rest of the T-car apart. From the smelted metal flew Starfire, eyes aglow.

"You hurt my friends," the Tamarian said. "For that, you will pay!"

"I'm so very afraid," the Joker giggled. "Are you just talk, girl, or can you actually hit things other than cars?"

In response, she rained fire upon him.

But somehow the Joker danced through the deadly rainstorm with total ease, laughing merrily all the way. As soon as Starfire stopped to catch her breath, he drew another gun—this one loaded with a very large tranquilizer—and fired. Starfire hit the ground hard. The only fortune she found was that she was full of rhino tranqs when she hit the rocks.

The Joker went to the smoldering remains of the T-car. Robin and Raven were standing there, both in fighting stances, and the former with birdarangs in hand.

"I assumed this patsy group would be more of a challenge with you on it, Bat-brat," the Joker said with dark, serious menace. Then his voice suddenly lightened, "But you know what they say about people who assume: they just make an ass out of you and me! Get it? Woo hoo hoo hee hee!"

Robin squared his feet and whispered behind his shoulder to Raven, "Be very careful. He's completely unpredictable. I'll hold him off; you get the others and run."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Raven protested.

"I'm the only one who has any experience fighting him," Robin retorted. "Just trust me on this. Get the others out of here. I'm counting on you." With that, the Boy Wonder rushed the Clown Prince of Crime, heralding his charge with two spinning birdarangs. Raven cursed him for a fool—a brave fool—and made a beeline for Starfire, who was closest to her position.

Robin never expected the birdarangs to hit—and the Joker obliged by dodging them both—but he didn't expect his enemy to be quite so adept at hand to hand. He's gotten better, Robin thought worriedly. For every four punches he threw, only one connected, and only because the Joker was blocking it. But every time the clown threw a punch, it slammed full-force into Robin.

"Better think fast, bird-boy," howled the Joker, his white features a twisted in laughter. It was a ghastly, nightmarish visage. Robin was taken aback by the horrid sight, enough to drop his guard for a fraction of a second—long enough for his enemy to grasp his throat and start squeezing.

"Erk!"

"That's right," the Joker hissed quietly. "Feel that? That's the sensation of oxygen being cut off from your brain. And that darkening of your vision? That's death coming for you. You've lost, Boy Bumbler."

And then, suddenly, Robin's throat was free. He saw the Joker reel back, clutching at his bruised head. Raven stood nearby with several small rocks in hand. She was getting ready to throw another one.

The spot where her last missile hit had drawn blood; red streaked across the Joker's white face. He gritted his teeth and glared at them. "You'll pay for that," he swore in deadly tones.

"Raven, get out of here!" Robin ordered.

"Not on your life, Boy Wonder," she said. "I'll prove that I'm not useless."

"Damn it, this isn't the time or place for that!"

"The others are already out of harm's way," she said, ignoring him. "Now you and I are the only ones left. We either leave together or not at all." She said the last with the power of an ultimatum. Robin frowned but reconciled himself to those options.

I trust you, Raven, he thought. So I trust you know what you're getting yourself into.

Then the Joker's peals of laughter cut his line of thought. "How cute! I get to kill two birds with one stone! As they say, 'birds of a feather…'" and here he pulled a knife from his sleeve, "'die together!'" The knife whistled through the air with sharp malice.

Normally, Raven would have stopped the weapon with a thought. Simple telekinesis. It was second nature to her. But she didn't have that power anymore. So she could only watch helplessly as the knife embedded itself to the hilt in Robin's stomach. Robin screamed—wailed—in agony, clutching at the handle.

"No!" Raven cried. She knelt by him, at a loss at what to do. She never had to treat an injury of this severity before. She'd never even seen a knife wound in her life! "Dick! Tell me how to fix this, what do you want me to do?" she said hurriedly, desperately.

"Stomach wound…" he said through gritted teeth. "Painful…argh!…most painful kind of wound. In my belt…third compartment from the right…."

She reached down and opened it. A handful of pellets fell into her hand.

Robin nodded in the Joker's direction. "Throw them…hurry…."

Raven tossed them without hesitation. When they hit the ground, they exploded in a bright, searing flash of light. The Joker cried out. Raven let out a pained grunt. But she didn't wait for the fire in her eyes to go away. She didn't wait for Robin to give her the word. She just hauled him up and helped him hobble away from the battlefield.

She helped Robin and the others to the infirmary, but as soon as she was alone, she let down her self-control and sank to her knees. "I couldn't…do anything," she murmured quietly. "I couldn't protect anyone. They got hurt…Dick got hurt…because I couldn't do what I had to do."

Her small fists assailed the shelves and bookcases around her room, knocking them over. Glass shattered, wood snapped. Tomes and papers flew into the air. "I couldn't do anything!" she shouted with all the despair in her soul.

And when she had spent her rage, she was left feeling so cold, so empty….

And so alone.