Chapter five! does happy dance Happy dance: (noun) When Laura stands up on a table and jumps up and down while holding one leg and trying to do the chicken dance at the same time. aka. extremely hilarious dorky dance.

"Raven? I am hopeing that you are cured from your illness?"

Raven shurgged inwardly and leaned against the pillow in annoyance. "I'm not sick, Starfire. I just fainted."

It was funny... Fainting. It felt odd, like suddenly everything in your ody disapeared until you were floating for a mere moment before crashing down. It didn't hurt when it happened, it just ached later on. She had gone into one of her trances when Draco took her back to the Living room for the Titans to help her. She was disgusted. He had put his hands upon her when he had touched her shoulder and when he had picked her up to carry her. And the Titans still thought he was wonderful.

That was a day ago. Now Raven sat here on the hospital bed, fully cured but not allowed to leave. Its not like she couldn't. There was always someone in with her, to keep her occupied, as they said. Really, it was just a nuisance. She didn't want to go. She wanted to stay here in this room, looking out through the window and never have to see Draco again. But Starfire was here, and sadly, the alien girl was fond of him.

"Umm, Did Robin tell you what our friend Draco has done?" Raven sighed again, her eyes still on the view. She didn't want to look back at Star, look at her wide green eyes and long beautiful red hair, see her sitting on the chair with her hands folded together looking like, "an angel." Why couldn't they all just leave her alone? But no...every time she looked up she saw someone standing there, one of the Titans- never Draco. Raven bit her lip slightly. This whole thing was making her weaker, making her unable to focus. She felt scared and timid, afriad of looking out the door to see that silver-eyes freak staring back at her. She was trapped in a cage of her own making, with a lock put on by history. She was in love, in hatred, and in fear.

Starfire looked at her uncomfortably, but continued. "He has been a very good... ally... He can fight very well and is a smart person. He is, as you all say it, very cool, dude."

"Did Beast Boy teach you that?"

"Yes?"

"No wonder."

Starfire looked down. She was so uncomfortable around Raven anymore. Though Raven was almost always, creepy, in Beast Boy's words, she seemed worse lately. Raven had just been opening her shell, spending more time with the Titans and almost seeming to enjoy their company. But now, she looked like she had not only went back into her shell but had built a wall around herself as well.

"Starfire, Robin wants you. I'll sit with Raven."

Raven jerked up, her gaze focusing on the doorway. There he stood, looking innocently at Starfire, a soft smile on his face. "He said something about wanting to take a walk."

Starfire stood up quickly. "Raven, that would be alright?"

Raven stared at her. She reached out for her cloak and pulled it on, the fabric resting comfortably around the shoulders it knew so well. She drew up her hood over her eyes and watched them from the shadow. Starfire looked at her hesitantly.

"Go on, Star."

Starfire smiled at him then took off, whizzing down the hall and towards the living room. Raven stared at him. She opened her mouth, ready to call Star back, to ask her to come stay with her. Anyone, even annoying Beast Boy. Anyone but this monster.

No...the words would not come. Raven glared at him from the shadows of her hood. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her fear.

What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she blow him to pieces right now? Why couldn't she make the others believe her?

She feared him, she despised him, yet he had been her friend. Sometimes, even if someone betrayed you, the memory of their warmth rests deeper in you than their disgusting behavior.

The taste had been in her mouth, the taste of what a friend could be, of what someone like Malchior could be like as a friend. He was different now, if he were the same, wouldn't he have already killed her? He was charming, polite, sweet...

Raven bit her lip, banishing the thoughts. This wasn't her. She should hate him, despise him for everything. Yet here she was thinking of all his good qualities... What was wrong with her?

"Raven."

She looked at him, eyes narrowing. Anger and hatred began to eat at her, growing. She struggled to dominate over it, to keep it from taking over.

He stared at her for a long time, those silver eyes seeming to see through her. The smirk that he seemed to always wear was gone. Solemn was his face, grave, unmoving. He stepped forward and Raven could do nothing but find herself trapped in those silver eyes.

"Raven, please. Sweet Raven."

"Don't call me that! You bastard!"

Hurt seemed to outline his face for a moment until it disappeared, a soft smirk touching his lips once more. He was happy to see her so fierce again. Then he sighed softly. "Raven, just listen to me, please..."

"NO! YOU BASTARD! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ravens eyes shone a deep red as another set appeared above the other, as if the hidden eyes had been closed for a long time. She began to struggle off the bed.

"Raven!" He grabbed her arms and held her steady. His silver eyes stared into her four. "Stop it! You'll hurt yourself!"

"NO! Starfire! Robin, Beast Boy! Cyborg! Help me!" The words that had been held back a moment ago were unleashed. Swear words began to flow from her throat, hurling at him in vicious slashes. "How dare you touch me! You evil bastard! You betrayed me!"

Black beams began to radiate from her arms until she glowed with a black hue. Draco yanked back his arms and held them as if he had been burned. "You said you were my friend! LIAR!"

"Raven, I'm just trying to help-"

"Liar!"

He stared at her, still clenching his hand tightly. "What's the matter, Malchior? Did the dragon get burned!" Suddenly Raven was floating above the bed. Her hands were flung out before her, the gemstones on her hands glittering with a burning glow that resembled the flames in her eyes. "I'm going to kill you for this!"

"RAVEN!" She felt hands on her, pulling her down back to the bed. She saw blurs, blurs of colors from blue to red and purple. She struggled and screamed until she felt a jab in her back. Letting out a low moan, she collapsed into the arms that held her, unaware of the silver eyes that accompanied those arms...

"What happened to her?"

Draco stared at the floor. "I...I don't know. I just, I wanted to talk to her and she started freaking out. She called me, 'Malchior.'"

"Dude, she thinks you're him!"

"What?"

Robin rubbed his temples, looking back at the bed. Raven was hovering above the bed once more in that trance. She had been jabbed with a drug to knock her out, to make her sleep for at least a day, but with her healing powers she could awaken at any moment. "Before...Raven had felt lonely. She was different from us and we treated her that way.Raven was reading this book, and suddenly the book began to talk to her. It was someone called Malchior, who claimed to be a wizard trapped in the pages. Beast Boy spent lots of time watching them, watching him teach her magical spells and enchantments. She grew stronger and happier, until she could do all sorts of things."

"She could morph me, dude. She morphed me."

"Then she tried to free him from the book. It turned out that Malchior had lied - he wasn't the wizard, he was a dragon who fought and lost to a wizard. He broke her heart."

Draco stared at them, his mind reeling as he stared at the Titans. Beast Boy stared at the floor while Cyborg leaned against the wall next to a computer screen, monitoring Raven. Starfire stood next to Raven and Robin sat in a chair, his head in his hands.

"She trapped him in a book. I think she forgot about it. But she had this nightmare and claimed it was real. After awhile she couldn't even remember it."

It was Beast Boy who spoke next. "She was so heart-broken. It was as if she wasn't the same person. Just seeing her sitting on the floor with the most helpless expression..."Draco looked at Beast Boy. This boy like Raven, it weas written on his face. He cared about her, more than just as a friend. Then he turned to look at another Titan.

Robin's face was etched with concern. Draco studied him, taking in his body posture, the way he denied defeat but accepted being upset. How proud he was and how strong he seemed, the shoulder the other Titans leaned on. No wonder Starfire was in love with him.

"Will she be alright?" Draco's question rang through the air as he looked at each and every Titan.

The Titans said nothing. None of them moved. At long last a tear drop fell from Starfire's eyes and landed on the bed next to Raven. It was in that moment that Draco saw something in them all, saw the bond they all had. He saw how much they cared for her, yet how much they feared and couldn't understand her.

Could he?

Draco - Malchior. Over the years he had spent after Raven had locked him away, had he fallen in love? Was he in love with Raven, her fiery pride, her dark nature... He had killed and destroyed. He was evil- a blemish upon purity, a shadow in a light room. But if Raven was as dark as she had seemed, was she a shadow as well? Raven...the balance of light and dark. Drak was not evil, of that she hadn't lied. There was evil and good, then there was power.

The Titans were good and he was evil, but what was Raven? She felt hatred and rage and there were times when Malchior could see in her eyes that she wanted to embrace the curse she was given and kill. No, she was neither good nor evil. She was power. Pure power.

Malchior had fallen in love with Raven.