Disclaimer: I DIS-CLAIM what I am writing. I do not claim Teen Titans. I don't even own the title; it was going to be used as an ep title.

NOTE: Everyone is now referred to normally.

Chapter 20: Immersion

Raven felt like she was exhaling a large collection of oxygen. Instead it was a sort of magic that transferred directly into the boy's body.

All at once it was as though she was him. For a split second Raven ceased to exist, having been wholly consumed. His mind was drowsy and unable to place anything. The wounds were troubling and painful but their healing had greatly increased.

As if it were her own skin she could feel the bullet holes closing up, scabbing and disinfecting themselves. The body was a wondrous thing to be able to replenish itself, the natural cycle sometimes just needed a little boost.

She could feel his warmth pulsing over her skin. Raven was aware of herself again. Every part of her body was heavy and lethargic. Transmitting her powers was nothing light, and full immersion was twice as bad.

The mystic had just pulled back from her healing breath when Robin began to show signs of coming to. Raven knew she should get herself off the bed, his consciousness would be allowing him to process the situation soon and this was the last place she should be.

This was where her body and mind disagreed. Her body could not find the strength within itself to move off the warm bed. She watched him fidget closer to conscious thought as she fought to keep her eyes open.

Her arms were still draped over his chest where the bullet wounds were not only slight scabs. They were heavy as though her veins were full of iron. Against her will, Raven's eyes drooped to sleep, her head falling onto something warm and moving…

Robin was first aware of the missing pain. He was almost afraid to open his eyes, maybe the pain was so horrid he was numb. Upon focusing on his senses, Robin became aware that something was resting upon him.

He opened a masked eye and peered down the length of his body. Raven, most unexpectedly, was resting on his chest. Her head was just below his and her hands were placed over each of his wounds.

Robin licked his lips feeling a strange sensation run down his spine. She had gone and healed him again, hadn't she?

He took a scan of the room to find the infirmary, very damaged, but empty save for them. Returning to Raven, he watched her. Somewhere in his mind he knew this was inappropriate, but if anyone came in he could always just say he had just awoken.

Besides, it was kind of… nice. There was a quirking at his lips. He knew he would have to deal with the situation, whatever it was, soon enough. He just needed a small time to breathe and gather his thoughts.

That was funny. His mind was in a bit of chaos. Everything he seemed to think was connected to the sleeping girl before him. She must have done some kind of mind-meld again because there were remains of her thoughts in his head.

It was interesting to look over her thoughts. They were so objective and philosophical.

Quickly they were slipping away. They did not belong to him and he would not be able to keep any he didn't memorize. There was something about her previous breakdown. Robin… stay away…

Why?

It was gone.

Cyborg bashed Control Freak against a hallway wall. It dented deeply and a few pictures fell off the wall. The villain groaned from the abuse. There was no doubt that he'd be surrendering sometime soon.

His weapons had been stripped from him and now he was taking the physical punishment for his trouble.

Cyborg seemed to have enough anger to just keep going. It was quite possible he was taking out all the frustration and guilt that had set in since sneaking the villains into the tower. He grappled Control Freak out of the indenture and threw him down the hallway. The burly villain tumbled over himself consecutive times before lying on his stomach. He did not attempt to get back up.

It was over.

Cyborg stalked after him, leering over like a hungry cat does a mouse. Control Freak groaned and Cyborg kicked him over.

"Ready for the police?" The tin man asked, one eyebrow raised challengingly.

Control Freak could already feel the broken bones pulsing, bruises blossoming and overall weariness setting in. "Please." He croaked.

Cyborg picked up the man by the scruff of his shirt and turned to drag him back down the hall. Time to call the pick-up committee.

Beast Boy raced through the hallways upstairs, round a corner, more stairs…

There were no sounds from the girl he was hauling. If it weren't for the slight motions of her chest, he would be very concerned.

He took the last case of stairs by twos and finished down the hall in record time. Without waiting, he barged through into the infirmary.

Robin seemed startled to see the boy as he quickly slid out of bed. He left an unconscious Raven there.

Beast Boy rushed to one of the still standing beds and laid Starfire upon it. Robin joined his side a second later, his expression was down tight and worried.

"She took a bullet in the back." Beast Boy squeezed his eyes shut a good moment wishing for the thought to be a dream. When he opened his eyes she still laid upon the bed. "But at least Raven healed you." Beast Boy had turned to look over his leader.

"Yeah, but she's out." Robin responded. He moved closer to Starfire not sure if he dared himself to touch her. After all, he had just been… with Raven. His hands formed tight fists at his side instead.

"Where's Cyborg?" Beast Boy asked suddenly, noticing the missing man.

"Dunno, no one was here when I came to." Robin subconsciously grabbed for the communicator that should have been at his waist. There was air and dirty dress pants.

Right.

"I'll go find him." Robin had turned on his heels and started for the broken door. A green clawed hand on his shoulder paused him in motion.

"I'll go, I don't know how to care for her anyway." Beast Boy muttered and was gone before Robin could say anything.

In the silence left Robin glanced at Starfire on the bed, her blood had already started bleeding the sheets around her. His eyes flickered over to Raven a moment. She seemed okay to doze for the moment.

Robin went over to the basin to grab a wet cloth. At least he could clean Starfire's wound a little.

Cyborg stood in the living room speaking to a patrol officer on the screen. Control Freak was crumpled at his feet barely moving, he figured if he even twitched the taller boy might be back on him. That one sure had a lot of anger.

"I'll have someone over there in ten minutes." A man with a graying mustache spoke softly. There were stern lines in his face as his dark eyes fell downward to spot the prisoner. "And maybe a medic." He added as an afterthought.

Nodding and switching off the screen without a word, Cyborg sighed. He would need to find Mad Mod before they arrived. The boy had not seen Mad Mod since he tried to go after Raven and there was no telling what Raven did to him.

Cyborg went to grab Control Freak by the dirty and torn shirt to drag him up to find Mad Mod when Beast Boy skidded into the room huffing. "Cy!" Beast Boy teetered in exhaustion, but his expression had lightened considerably. "Star's been shot, you've got to go help her."

The changeling spotted Control Freak next and stopped his forward motion. "Harmless." Cyborg ensures him. "I just called the patrol to pick him up, I can't leave him."

"I'll guard him," Beast Boy nodded before transfiguring himself into a large gorilla.

Cyborg paused a moment almost torn. He felt it was his responsibility to watch over Control Freak, but then…

"One movement…" Cyborg glared at the villain, his tone a clear warning. Beast Boy smacked a large fist onto the ground for emphasis.

Control Freak didn't bother moving as Cyborg took off sprinting back up the main stairs and out the sliding door.

Robin had tossed the rag away and moved over to check on Raven. Most of the blood had been cleaned off of Starfire and he had carefully laid her prone on her stomach so her wound was easily accessible. The bullet was still buried within her flesh, it would be a painful operation. Robin was glad he had been unconscious during his.

Raven had half-rolled in her sleep to her right side. Her hair was a messy array of violet that fell on the sheets and her dress was still mussed and ruined. Pale hands were now clenched around the white sheets.

The girl would probably hate to have herself seen this way. She took a sort of pride from always looking prim and controlled. This Raven was torn, wild and almost… soft. Robin rested a hand on the bed, twisting a loose end of her dress beneath his fingers. Had it really been only hours since the ball?

Cyborg burst into the room and the boy pulled his hand back quickly. Robin moved back over to Starfire's bed as Cyborg shifted over to assess the injury. Cyborg gave a surprised look at the boy as he walked over without injury.

He glanced at an unconscious Raven. "I see Raven got to you." Cyborg mentioned with a bit of an undertone while he bent over Starfire with a pair of medical tongs.

"Mmhmm." Robin mumbled, watching Cyborg probe at the injury looking for the depth of the bullet.

"I'm glad, you weren't fairing too well." He shot the leader a meaningful look. "No telling what she had to do to perform such a recovery… would you grab me that tin and disinfectant there?" He added as an afterthought.

Robin grabbed the small tin and located the disinfectant, taking some cotton swabs as well. "Here." He handed over the items, his mind buzzing over Cyborg's words.

Robin hadn't really thought of that yet. Before all she had been performing was simple healing: cuts, bruises, broken or fractured bones.

Cyborg took a swab and swiped it across the wound that was beginning to bleed once again. He held the hole open slightly with one hand, the prongs gripped unwaveringly in his other.

Robin had to turn away as he extracted the bullet. It was too weird seeing Starfire, his girlfriend for so long, under such medical care. He could hear the metal clinking of the bullet dropping into the tin after a moment.

"Starfire will probably have to suffer through this injury until Raven can get herself up to healing." Cyborg clucked his tongue and traded his prongs for a scalpel. "Can you go find those stitches I was going to use for you? They should be right near your bed."

Robin nodded, feeling odd to be the one receiving orders. In the medic area no one would dare contradict Cyborg though. He shuffled over to where Raven was and found the staples on a small table next to the bed he had previously neglected seeing.

His eyes stuck on Raven for a second too long before he deposited the staples. He moved back away from the bed unwilling to see yet another operation on the Tameranian girl. After trying to work their relationship for so long it was hard not to feel anything when she was injured.

Still, it was not an adoring emotion that struck him. It reassured Robin he had done the right thing.

Cyborg did not speak anymore while he cleared the extra blood away and got ready to stitch it up. If he finished Starfire quick enough she would be good without the worry of needing a blood transfusion.

Robin moved back over to Raven. Carefully he perched on the side of the bed, watching Cyborg bending over to work before pulling back and wiping his scalpel clean. Occasionally he could not help his eyes wandering over her figure.

Just how much had she given up to save him?

Raven's hands were still tightly woven in the blanket, her knuckles almost white. While he waited for Cyborg to finish up he carefully unwound her fingers.

Beast Boy did not have to wait long before a boat showed up on the video monitors. When he spotted it, the boy was all too eager to grab Control Freak in his large ape hands and drag him down the consecutive stairs (who needed the elevator anyway?) to the bottom floor.

A man with a wild mustache had his arms folded tightly on the wet bank when Beast Boy arrived. It was somewhere in the early, early morning, the sky was already beginning to lighten and the last of the moon was falling.

Control Freak was moaning again, having hit himself considerably hard against the unkind fabric of the stairs. Beast Boy dropped the villain and changed himself back to his human-esque form. "Delivery."

The other man raised an eyebrow looking down at the badly beaten man. His arm unlatched from it's crossings and motioned at the boat behind him. A few armed men filed out, complete with a stretcher.

Beast Boy shrugged and left them to deal with the convict, he needed to go up and check on how everyone was doing.

"What did they do to you?" Beast Boy heard one of the guards ask Control Freak in astonishment. His lips twitched in a strange kind of amusement and he dashed for the tower.

I'm betting on one more chapter to clean everything up nicely. After all, isn't anyone curious on where Mad Mod vanished to?

Fear the fluff stuff.

Love to my beta, Sara Cabbage Patch, who has helped me improve my writing and be aware of my silly mistakes.

-Dragonslayer527