A/N: Why hello everyone again! I know, it's been like a month, but I've been seriously busy w/ everything lately…but, it's finally starting to ease up a bit seeing as to graduation being two days away! In fact, I'm writing this chapter on my brand new lap-top! Isn't it exciting!

All righty then readers, I can no longer use lyrics in my fics anymore, so I kinda had to rework this chapter a bit. I think it's okay though. Probably won't be as long as usual, but at least I'm getting it out!

Oh, and I don't own the poem used in this chapter...it's from the Mother Goose book.

If you wanna see the disclaimer, check out the first chapter.

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Chapter 2: Reunions

Both Starfire and Robin hurried down the many flights of stairs to see what the 'big surprise' Cyborg had hinted at. They finally reached the common room floor, and Robin reached over to press the button to open the heavy, metal door. When Starfire entered the room she saw everyone, including the morose Raven, crowded around the couch with some version of a smile on their features. Grabbing the beautiful red-head's hand, Robin walked purposefully towards the center of the room, when he noticed that there were figures sitting on the couch.

"Ahren…Lily!" Robin asked incredulously when he saw the brown-haired young man and woman turn around on the couch to face the entering couple. Starfire let out a squeal of delight and rushed over to envelope the lavender-eyed lady in a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh my friend!" Starfire exclaimed as she squeezed her long-lost comrade. "I am so exalted to see you again! Please tell me, are excited as well?"

"Of course Star," Lily said with a wheezing laugh as she disengaged herself from the alien's embrace. "I always will remember those hugs of yours though."

As the two females reunited, Robin and Ahren exchanged handshakes and patted each other's arms. Slightly smirking, Robin asked the brown-eyed boy, "So, what brings you back to Titan Tower? I mean, you've been gone for long time, two yeas uh?"

"Well," Ahren said, his smile faltering. "Circumstances kind of compelled us to come back. If it's okay, Lily and I were kind of hoping we could take up your former offer and take up residency here. Nothing permanent mind you, but for the time being become a surrogate part of your team."

Looking at the unusual pair in front of him, Robin glanced at each of his team members, noting the looks of approval in each of their eyes. He rested his gaze on Raven for a second, detecting a look of suspicion in her eyes. " Of course Ahren," he said after a moment of pause. " You guys are welcome here anytime, two years won't change that fact. I think Cyborg knows where all the spare rooms are, he can lead you guys there, and I have some work I need to take care of."

" Come on y'all," Cyborg said as he patted a large hand on Ahren's back to guide him out of the common room. " I know the perfect room for you two."

As Cyborg and Jinx led Ahren out, Starfire still clinging to Lily following closely after, Beastboy stopped for a second as he noticed that Raven wasn't following either.

" Hey," he called out to his gothic girlfriend as the others continued to walk out of the room. " Are you coming Rae? I know you're happy to see them, even if you pretend like you're not."

Turning an expressionless face towards her significant other, Raven shook her head at Beastboy and turned her backs towards him once more. " I need to talk to Robin about something. I'm sure you all will be perfectly capable in showing our newest house-guests their rooms."

Giving the beautiful Goth one last concerned look, Beastboy turned around with a shrug and hurried to catch up with the departed tour group.

As Raven waited for Beastboy to leave, she focused her attention on the raven-haired youth in front of her. She calmly moved over to where he was seated and whispered in his hear, " So, you noticed it too."

Rising from his seat to fully face the girl, Robin gave a nod and said, " Yeah, I did. They seemed nervous about something, and it must be something big for it to drive them back here. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for their help for sure, but it is slightly curious as to why they would choose to show up all of a sudden without so much s a call to let us know."

" I don't like it Robin," Raven said with a menace in her voice. " Their secretive manner reminds me of someone we took in a long time ago once. Someone we thought was our friend, only to have her turn on us, only to have her betray us to our biggest enemy. I don't trust them."

" They saved my life Raven," Robin said simply, not backing down to the sound of her voice. " They will have my respect and trust for that always. No, I'm not worried about them turning on us, I'm worried about the fear that I saw in Ahren's eyes when we met. I saw nervousness in Lily's face as well, it all just bodes at something lurking in the shadows, something that's waiting for the right moment to strike out at us. That's what worries me Raven, not some past suspicion of anyone new becoming a member of the team. I thought you would have gotten over that after Jinx joined."

Shaking her head in frustration, Raven turned away and started to walk towards the door to her room. She stopped at the elevator door, and turned back to face her young leader. " It's not that I don't trust Lily and Ahren, it's that I don't trust what their intents are. All I keep thinking about was how they 'helped' us last time. I mean, they could have told us the contents of what he saw at anytime, but those two X-factors waited until the last possible moment to reveal themselves to us, and it almost cost us you Robin. I don't think we fully came to understand that last time they were here because we were just so happy you weren't dead, but when they left, it gave me some time to think about the whole situation.

" Think about it Robin, those two seemed much more interested in catching Viper than helping you at all. It seemed as if to be a second thought to me. Those two were willing to sacrifice your life in order to capture what they were after. Does that make them trustworthy? Does that make them all that different from Slade?" She then turned away from the surprised and shocked young man, and closed the metal gate as she headed up towards her room.

Robin stood still for a moment, unable to really move as he tried to comprehend the information Raven had just given him. ' Could she be right?' Robin thought to himself as he ran a shaky hand through his jet-black hair. ' Are they really here for their own purposes and not to help us? Were they just using me to catch…'

He found he couldn't even think the name without shuddering, the memory of what had transpired down in that lab two years ago still as fresh is his mind as if it had happened yesterday. His hand unconsciously ran down from his head to rest over the scar he had on his abdomen. He could still remember the way that 'girl' looked as they were fighting, could still remember her vicious sword sliding into his body as if it was butter. However, that wasn't the worse part of the memory. The part that still haunted him to this day was how she had forced her mouth over his as he lay helpless on the floor. He knew she would have gone further if not for Ahren flinging her across the room, and he would not have been able to do a thing to stop it.

He felt a fear grow within him as he thought of what could've happened, a fear and a shame that made him hate himself for not being able to stop Viper, no matter how hurt he was. He had let his team down when she had slid her tongue into his mouth. He had let his Starfire down.

As he stared into the darkness of the common room, the moonlight hidden from the windowby the raging tempest outside, Robin didn't notice his mask become soaked in tears.

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Both and Ahren and Lily temporarily forgot about the unpleasantness of their reason for being in Jump City for a moment as they both admired the simple blue background of their new dwellings. It reminded Lily of the ocean around her native home of Ireland, giving her a nostalgic feeling she had not felt for some time. She heaved a sigh as she returned her attention to unpacking her belongings and putting them away in their new homes. She almost started to cry as she hung up her shirts in the closet she and Ahren were sharing, but quickly pushed the feeling aside as she observed her boyfriend looking at her. She didn't want expose weakness in front of him, wanted to keep a strong face on over her fears.

" I know something's wrong Lil," Ahren said with a sigh as he walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. " I'm telepathic remember. Want to tell me freely, or are you going to make me read your mind?"

Heaving a sigh, Lily said quietly, " I'm just so worried that what I fear is going to happen to the team. I know that distrust is going to spread through this Tower like a weed, killing all living things in its path, and there's nothing I can do to stop it! I just feel so helpless!"

Letting her cry out all of her worries, Ahren cradled his love's head against his chest and murmured comforting words in her ear, all the while trying to convince himself they were true. ' I know how you feel Lily. This team can't afford to lose him, they just can't. But, if they knew the truth of what is going on, they'll just provide her with an easier target. After all, that is what she requested Clark to do…I hope my vision is wrong again, for that kid's sake.'

Composing herself, Lily lifted her head, and planted a gentle kiss on Ahren's lips, then pulled her head back to look into his eyes. " Do you think we'll be able to help Ahren? I mean, your vision doesn't bode well for our side, and I don't like the idea of hiding the truth from them…it just doesn't seem like it'll help him out at all."

" We have to Lil," Ahren sighed back to his lilac-eyed girlfriend. " For the time being, he's safer not knowing than anything else."

A strike of lightning outside drew the couple's attention to the maelstrom happening outside their window. Clasping each others' hands, the pair looked outward to the city, knowing all to well the danger that lurked within it that was just waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

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Marna Wimble was going to miss her curfew, and she knew it. The rain and wind was making it awfully hard for her to see where she was going on her scooter, not to mention the condition of the sidewalk as well. For being such a bright little ten-year old, Marna certainly didn't have such great common sense.

She wasn't even supposed to be out this late, and certainly not out in such a violent storm, but her father wouldn't let her spend the night at her friend's house and he wasn't able to pick her up. So, she was forced to make her way back home on the pathetic little scooter she had received as a gift for Christmas a year earlier. The one good thing about the whole situation was that she lived only about five minutes away from her friend's house, but that was drastically changing as the wind forced her to stop yet again, and hide behind a wall of an alley to stave off the biting rain.

As she waited for a moment, she heard a sound from the end of the alley way, almost too soft to be heard at first. Deciding to hurry the rest of the way home, Marna scooted back into the storm and pushed as fast as she could in the direction of her house. She could then definitely hear footfalls behind her, this time increased in pace and much closer than before. A panic started to grow within the little girl as she pushed faster against the sidewalk, her blond hair whipping against her face. He could see her house as she turned a corner, and a sense of hope started to rise within her, only to come crashing down when a pair of strong hands grasped her arms, and yanked her off the scooter. The last thing poor, little Marna knew was a pair of cold, merciless yellow eyes staring at her a she felt a blow hit her on the head. A pair of eyes that promised her death, no matter how much she pleaded.

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Raven and Jinx both woke with a start as they both felt an immense amount of pain coming from an unknown source. But, as quickly as it had come, it disappeared just as quickly, so both resolved to think about more in the morning a sleep once more overtook them.

However, on the opposite side of the Tower, a brown-haired youth sat up against the window with his legs curled up to his chest as he tried to stave off the screams he heard of a poor little girl being tortured to the death at the hands of a mad-woman. Unable to block out the cries, he rested his head against his forearms, and cried for the loss of an innocentlife he could not prevent.

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She had to admit, the girl had been pretty entertaining as she begged for mercy and for her parents to rescue her. Viper had calmly explained why the little girl was being punished as she flayed her alive and impaled her through the torso once all the skin had been removed. It was because of a foolish little boy who thought he could defy her, she explained to the very conscious girl, for Viper had recently developed a potion that could keep her victims aware much longer than normally possible under such pain. This was merely her statistic she needed to make sure it would work on her true target. Another meaningless statistic in order to achieve her goal.

As she finished wiping off her blade, she slid it back into the scabbard as she continued onto the next phase of her plot. You see, this girl served another purpose to Viper in the grand scheme of things; she was the bait she needed, either that or simply a way to convey a message to long-lost friend.

Viper stepped up to the ruined corpse of Marna Wimble, wafting in the horrid smells of spilled bowels and intestines that permeated the room, as she bathed her hands in the girl's spilt blood. She then started to write a poem on the side of the wall so it would be sure to be in plain view of anyone walking by the next morning. As she continued in her macabre sense of fulfillment, Viper didn't notice Slade walk up behind her and look at her handiwork.

" I suppose you mean this all for a certain someone my dear apprentice," he said with an eerie calm that should have been impossible considering the circumstances. " You really do seem to have an interest in him other than simply killing him, why else would you go through such an extensive way to get his attention?"

" Well Slade," Viper said as she continued to write the poem on the wall in the girl's blood. " I've always been an over-achiever in life. And what can I say? I wouldn't mind to taste him one more time before I send his ruined remains up to the Justice League to make them remember they don't fuck with me." She then cast Slade an evil look that would've put Lucifer to shame and hissed, " Besides, I like it when they're in love with someone else…it makes it so much more enjoyable for me. That's why love is going to end up causing your dear former apprentice more pain than you could've ever inflicted on him before! Don't worry though Slade, I'll let you hear his screams for a bit."

Finally finished with her artwork, Viper then pinned a note to the dead girl's body, and calmly walked out of the abandoned house's open garage with her teacher, casting one more satisfied glance at her display before fading back into the swirling storm from whence she had came.

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then,
Poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing!

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A/N: Well, there's chapter two! I know there was some pretty graphic stuff in this chapter, but I'm telling you guys, that is only a taste of what's yet to come! This fic is a lot darker than Trust as I have said before, so just be aware. Sorry about the length though…but at least I'm getting it out! The next chapter will be longer, and It'll have a good fight scene in there, as well as some angsty and romantic moments!

Remember to review you guys! It keeps me motivated to keep writing!

Oh, and if you guys couldn't ell, I really like to torture my favorite characters in my fics, so all you Robin fans…I'm sorry ahead of time.

Osco