Reconciliation

Chapter Two

Prelude

Raven was alive. Her body was utterly unrecognizable, her mind far from what it once was. But within the confines of an ebony feathered bird, she survived.

The final hours of her insanity had destroyed her body, fulfilling the prophecy. But a different power besides that that overtook her had given her spirit wings; a dying prayer of her own mother kept her from complete destruction.

She had been reincarnated on the one year anniversary of her death, her spirit having recuperated from its trials. Only now, two years after she had died in Titan's Tower, was her mind beginning to remember itself. She could not speak, nor even see the words in her head which her emotions so desperately wanted to use. And yet she could see images of her past life; a handsome young boy poised over her bed as she lay dying, a green faced joker who annoyed her to no end, a blonde traitor turned friend, an alien with no understanding of her powers, and a rambunctious half man, half robot. No words came to her animalistic mind, but her spirit remembered. Raven was alive.

Starfire stared at Robin in surprise, her eyes wide. "W-what did you say?" She asked in disbelief.

Robin looked uncomfortable. "I…I…I love you, Star. I just…I don't know how to do this. I can't live like this; trying to pretend Raven was never there. She was an important part of me. Of all of us."

Tears came to Starfire's eyes. "Then you want a divorce?" She tried to sound cold, but came across more like a frightened child.

"No. I just need some time to think. You have to understand, Star. She…she was my best friend." He trailed off into silence, avoiding Starfire's confused gaze.

"Then…I will go to Tamaran." She said tonelessly, masking her emotions. "And you will…go and think."

Robin shifted uneasily in his seat. Why had he suggested this? Didn't most marriages end this way? He didn't really know. All he knew for certain was that Raven was dead, and he needed to understand why he still felt this overwhelming grief. He was never…in love with Raven. He loved her deeply, but not to the point of infatuation; the way that Starfire felt about him. Raven had been a balance in his life, something he needed now more than ever.

"I'm sorry star. But if I don't do this…if I don't try and set things straight…" He shuddered. "They never will be."

Star nodded curtly. "Of course. I will leave tomorrow, and return in one year."

Robin felt his jaw drop. "A year? Star…I didn't mean-"

"Yes, but I did. I also need to think." Without another word, she stood from the table, and climbed in the bed they shared. Feeling sick to his stomach, his mind racing, Robin did the same. The two slept back to back that night, as far away from eachother as they could.

The next morning Starfire was gone before Robin had woken. He opened his clear blue eyes to the sound of silence, and realized with a sudden pang that she was really gone. Now I've lost both of them. He thought sadly, but shook himself. He couldn't look at it like that; he and Star simply needed some time to recuperate. They had jumped into marriage far too soon after Raven's death, and now they needed to allow their emotional wounds to heal, as they should have two years. Ago.

Feeling dead inside, Robin stared sadly at the imprint of Starfire's body and head on her side of the bed. In disbelief that she was really gone, he lay his own brown head on her pillow, taking in her aroma; feeling the still warm sheets she had apparently only just vacated before he awoke.

There was no doubt she was gone, for her suitcase was missing, along with most of her clothes and a few other things, including a picture taken of the Titans not long before Raven had died. The gifts Robin had bought for her lay untouched by the door, a painful reminder of the anger she showed him the night before.

"It's all your fault." He hissed angrily at himself, leaping out of bed. There was no point in wallowing in his misery. He had things to do.

Throwing on whatever was clean, and not bothering to look in the mirror, Robin set off down the hall towards Raven's room, a new determination filling his soul. He had not entered her room since the day of her death. If reconciliation of his grief was to be found anywhere, it was there.

Robin stopped abruptly before the door. Something held him back suddenly, and he wondered if this truly was a good idea…

"You don't have a choice." He told himself. "You have to." And, half convinced, he turned the knob and walked into Raven's room.

He almost expected to hear her familiar voice calling out in exasperation to "Get out of my room!" or "Close the door!" But there was no sound besides that of his own shaky breath.

Something crunched under his foot. It was Raven's meditation mirror, broken only days before her demise. Robin brushed aside the broken glass with his foot and walked on. The curtains, eternally drawn when she had been alive, had come loose and begun to let in a little bit of light. The small stream of morning sun seemed to Robin a cruel intruder, revealing Raven's lair as simply another room in the Tower. No mystery remained in the once darkened walls, no intoxicating smell of incense. Just the remains of what was once the sanctuary of an enigmatic girl; the darkest of the Titans, and Robin's closest friend, now lost forever. The disheveled young man sank to his knees in grief and wept.