Fourth part in the Moment series. Raven and Robin have a fight about stuff that happened earlier. Warning: Meanness ahead. Thanks to Darkofthenight. I'm back on the RavenRobin track…for now…

Battle of Love

The metal soles of his footwear echoed loudly as Robin made his way up to the roof. He was on a mission, and he was mad. Today had been their worst battle since the beginning of the team. Massacre was an exaggeration, but not by much. And it could have been prevented if she had listened. If. It was always an if with her, but after he was through, any doubt would be no more. With a quiet swoosh, the door slid open to reveal the tower's highest level – as well as a single cloaked figure standing in its center, near the edge.

"Raven." She was expecting him. His voice was sharp and cutting, slicing the silence like a sword.

"Robin," came the classic monotone. Vibrations moved through the floor as he came toward her.

"What the hell happened today?" The empath simply closed her eyes, ready to let him yell at her for as long as he wanted. "Talk to me. I'm not letting you get away with that silence any longer." She sighed. This wasn't going to go the way she'd thought.

"What do you mean, what happened? Both of us know perfectly well."

"Look, I didn't come here to fight. I want to know why you fell apart today." She eyed him from the shadow of her hood.

"Fell apart? So now I had some kind of mental breakdown on the field?" The mask narrowed.

"Don't pull that shit with me, Raven. You knew what needed to happen. You knew, and you screwed up anyway." The next thing she was about to say would undoubtedly put her in dangerous territory, but she said it anyway.

"Maybe I did it just to piss you off." The end was stated slowly, each of the three words pronounced clearly and venomously. The tension coming off of him was almost tangible. Mixed with anger, it practically solidified the air. He knew she was trying to get a rise out of him, but ultimately failed to deny her the prize of his temper.

"Are you incapable of giving me a straight answer? Or do you just enjoy being a bitch?" Her expression betrayed nothing.

"Enjoying would be an overstatement." The inches that separated their height seemed to grow larger as his patience depleted.

"Listen, I don't know why you made your decision that way, but it was the wrong one. You almost cost us our lives!" Still her face remained void of anything.

"One wrong move."

"It wasn't just 'one wrong move', Raven!" he shouted. "The entire thing depended on that 'one wrong move'. You were the one moving, and that means you were the one wrong. Because of you, we came too close to losing more than just the battle!" This was getting nowhere. It was time to fight back.

"There wasn't anything I could do," she said, her voice hinting at cold steel. "What did you want, for me to lead Blood halfway across the world until you could reach him?" The plan that had gone bad was for her to lead Brother Blood to Robin, but she had gone in the opposite direction. The headmaster regained himself and almost defeated them all.

"I wanted you to go in the right direction," he retorted, his tone matching hers.

"Cyborg, Star, and Beast Boy weren't holding up well enough. The HIVE could have joined him, and then what? It was a huge risk."

"Yeah, and you should have taken it. They're all good fighters. They could have kept the students at bay."

"It didn't look like it to me." Did she not trust them? Just the thought infuriated him.

"You know Raven, you should try putting some faith in us someday. We're not as terrible as we seem." Calm had been forced into his voice, but she could still hear the rage - and the brutal sarcasm. It stung deeper than she'd expected. For a moment, there was a heavy silence, then she retaliated fire.

"Just because you lost everything important and you were adopted by some jaded superhero who never showed feeling if he could help it, doesn't mean you have to take it out on me." The boy wonder stared at her. Inside, he was deeply wounded, but he kept it hidden and shot back hard.

"You shouldn't be talking about emotions. Bruce knew more about love than you ever will." The Titan leader could feel an incredible urge to hit her, to slap her face with all his strength, just to get something from her. Just to know that he could affect her.

"Maybe, but from what I've heard about the Batman, you would have been better off with no one."

"You don't know the first thing about him," Robin hissed. Then he added, "Sometimes I think you really are your father's child." It was wrong, he knew, but so were her comments about his family. This was the one thing that could break her, and it served its purpose flawlessly. Violet eyes widened slightly before she swallowed and turned away, keeping the utter devastation internal, away from him. He smiled cruelly at her back. "I win." Had he stayed a moment longer, he would have heard, for the first time, the cries of a shattered raven.

You really are your father's child. The words spun mockingly in her head late that night, refusing to cease their torment. In some ways, it was justified; she never should have said the things she did, but still. He knew how much that destroyed her, and used it anyway. But her own voice replaced his, sounding hollow as it rang through her mind. You would have been better off with no one. Any references to his parents were bound to cause him lasting pain, and at the time, that had been her intention. Now she curled up even tighter on the bed, wondering if he too, was suffering this intensely.

As a matter of fact, he was. The mask had been off since he walked in, the door shutting behind him. Sitting by the window, he regarded the full moon, regretting everything he'd just done. "God damn it, I'm such an idiot. I shouldn't have—" Wait, his thoughts interrupted. She said those things about your family first. "I know," he conceded, talking to himself, "but I started it." There was no arguing that. He had provoked her, and she responded accordingly. The great boy wonder held his head in his hands. "Why did I have to say that last thing? Why did I go that far? What have I done?" Like it or not, he'd pushed beyond her limits. Sure, she hit him where it hurt a lot, but the things she said were true, even about Bruce. He, on the other hand, laid claim to complete falsehoods. She was nothing like her father. She was nothing like Trigon, but he'd burned her with the allegation anyway, out of spite. The result? She probably hated him. Hated him and would never speak to him again. Ever. The pain produced by those considerations was so strong, it physically shocked him. "Raven," he whispered, "I need you. More than I've ever needed anything in my life. More than-more than I needed my parents that day." His feelings were all-encompassing, swallowing his destruction from her, and interchanging it with his destruction from what he had done to her. "Please," he continued. "Please forgive me, Raven. I'll do anything to make you realize how I feel." Yeah okay, his inner voice remarked snidely. Good luck with that. Restless and sore, he stood up and left his empty, unwelcoming room.

When he walked into the main room, it proved just as isolated. Before the teen could leave, however, his eye caught a small form on the couch. Unfolding the mask from his hand, he slipped it on and approached carefully. Raven lay on the cushions, trembling slightly. As he placed a hand on her shoulder, she began to talk, never opening her eyes.

"I never meant to affect him like that. I swear to the gods I didn't. But when he said that I—" The girl paused, but only briefly. "—didn't expect it. I thought he'd never be so severe. He's Robin, not some sort of teenage Hitler. I didn't…think." It sounded as if she were conversing with someone inside her head. "It didn't make me angry. First it hurt, and then it made me see him differently. Not like a villain, but someone I'd never seen before. I wanted him. I wanted him so badly. I'm scared now that somehow he knows what I was feeling. Because of the things I said to him, I don't think he will ever love me the way I need him to. That's what hurts the most. Even more than being my father's child; knowing that I've lost him through a stupid argument." Here she stopped, her voice choking and giving way. He sat down, watching her eyes open. She sat up, taking him in, then averting her gaze. "Robin, I—"

"Shh." He reached for her, drawing her body close against his own.

"Robin, I said those things because…it was easier to hate you than love you." He touched her lips.

"Listen to me. I feel so much for you and I can't go on without it. You hurt me badly, but now I realize that to be alone would hurt even more. To be alone when I could have you." She buried her face in his chest. "Please forgive me, Raven," he asked, restating himself from before. This time, she heard his plea and nodded, whispering in his ear.

"I will every time." He sighed with relief. The battle had been bloody, but it had been a battle of love.

Aww. Okay. I'm leaving for vacation AGAIN on Sunday. Don't worry I have some stories in the works, so I will post them when I get back. I love you all. Please review.

xxRavenStar