When Two Become One

Part Two – Together

'But where is friend Raven?'

Starfire's words echoed through the minds of Beast Boy and Cyborg. They worried for the safety of their dark friend, who only recently had a chance to enjoy life. And they could not help but wonder if the world would be cruel enough to take that chance away so quickly.

The long hesitation that Robin took to answer did not help to ease any misgivings. He appeared to be troubled, deep in consideration of the event. But oddly enough, he did not seem as though he was mourning over a friend. Prying the suffocating hold of Starfire's arms off of his neck, he smiled ruefully.

'Don't worry, I'm all right,' Robin spoke in a monotone voice, as he waved his left hand that glowed with black energy.

'RAVEN!' the three worried Titans screamed. Their eyes were wide with worried shock, and Starfire seemed to be a bit faint.

'Somewhat,' Robin shrugged, still speaking in Raven's monotone.

Due to the continuing storm, the Titans couldn't continue their much-needed conversation. Instead they all piled into the T-Car, and drove home with no words spoken.

They were all quiet, but Robin almost seemed to be a vacuum for attention. He sat in the passenger seat, absently looking out the window. He was lost to his thoughts of how to explain the phenomena to his friends, and more importantly, to himself. The psyche of Robin still inhabited his body, but there was also the strange feeling of Raven piggybacking inside the back of his mind. Two separate consciousnesses and powers sharing one body, a product of an unexpected attacking spell.

'We have to find Ghost, only she can set this right,' Raven's voice spoke in the foreground of Robin's mind. He could only compare it to someone whispering against his ear.

'Even if we catch her, what makes you think that she would help us?' Robin spoke aloud his response, shocking his friends at the abruptness. He swore that he could feel the amusement of Raven over his silliness.

'I seem to remember us talking about the subject of hope before,' Raven whispered with a hint of disinterest. She knew how to push the "boy wonder's" buttons.

A smirk decorated Robin's lips at Raven's act; he knew what she was doing. Raven always liked to get under his defenses, and honestly he always trusted her to do so. He had been a bit hesitant about her knowing so much about him before, but now with her immediate access to his mind, it was better to simply let it go.

'Couldn't you fix it? Eventually?' he asked without speaking aloud this time.

'Even if I positively knew what spell she used, it would only be reversible by the one who cast it,' Raven stated.

'Fuck,' the two birds both sighed dejectedly together within the one mind.

The rest of the drive went on with Raven creating a psychic barrier between her and Robin's consciousnesses, to give each other privacy. The mental silence gave them time to have their own thoughts. Though their thoughts were unsurprisingly similar, being that they were experiencing the same ridiculous ordeal.

When they finally returned home to the tower, Cyborg took the time to file the police report as the others dried off. It was another hour before everyone was in the common room, physically and mentally ready for an explanation.

Robin stood facing out the window, neither he nor Raven ready to look at their friends. Cyborg stood just behind him, in his usual dominating stance that he used when he wanted an explanation. While Starfire and Beast Boy both sat on the couch, weak from confusion.

'So you gonna tell us what happened?' Cyborg barked after nothing was said for nearly five minutes. The anxiety in his voice made it clear about his worry. The others too expressed their anxiousness to hear the details, their worry even more desperate.

So Raven told them about how Ghost had cast the mysterious spell that hit the two of them and forced her into Robin's body. She also told them of the need to find the culprit if they ever wanted to be themselves again. The account was complicated and had to be reiterated a few times over, but that had been predictable.

It didn't take long for the others to learn the ability to distinguish whom was speaking by the tone of voice. It was odd hearing Robin speak so unemotionally, but it was a clear distinguisher from his normal confident debating satire.

'I got two questions,' Beast Boy finally spoke up, but he was interrupted by the more forceful Cyborg.

'I thought we got Trigon, you know… dead.'

Robin felt the ache of insecurity come from his dark friend. He tried as best he could to give her support without speaking, but sharing a body made it difficult to hold someone. Instead he just closed his eyes and focused comforting feelings to her psyche as she spoke.

'I wasn't able to kill Trigon, nor would I ever be able to. All I was able to do was send him into another dimension and lock him out of this one, so that he can't directly cause any damage to this one,' Raven answered quietly.

'And my second question is,' Beast Boy tried to continue, but again was interrupted, making him hang his ears down like a ignored puppy.

'Who is this Ghost, and the other that she spoke of?' Starfire asked.

'Ghost is my half-sister, I don't know who her mother was. She was born much like me I suppose, but she always had her twin brother Poltergeist with her. They were a team, and from what I've heard lovers also,' Raven said with a bit of distaste in Robin's voice. 'If Trigon really killed him, I'm not surprised that she would come after me. And there's no doubt that he would want me dead, enough to put a bounty on my head.'

'So what happens if we can't get her to give you back your body?' Beast Boy finally asked uninterrupted.

'Either we both keep our identities and continue like we are now…' Raven hesitated in continuing.

'Or?' Robin coxed verbally and mentally.

'Or we loose our identities and our psyches join to become one. Therefore creating a new person all together,' Raven sighed.

The glass window that Robin was facing suddenly exploded.

After having worked to fix the huge window, everyone was exhausted. The events of the day had taken their toll, and each of the Titans just wanted to be alone. None more so than Robin and Raven, who's tired body had fate working against them.

Upon entering Robin's room, they came to their next big challenge to their ordeal. Changing clothing an going to the bathroom, were both habits that could cause a great deal of discomfort between the two. Robin asked if she would put up the psychic barrier between their consciousnesses again, imagining that she would readily accept.

'The psychic barrier only blocks thoughts, Robin. We still share everything else with it up. I still see what you are looking at; hear what you hear, feel what you physically feel. I'll still put it up, but I can't tell you that it's completely full proof,' Raven spoke mentally.

'Couldn't you have just put it up and just not told me that?' Robin asked, more than a bit annoyed at the news.

'It's better to be honest about it now, than for you to sense anything from me later on. You would've eventually figured it out, and there wouldn't necessarily be anything forcing us to get over it,' Raven answered, and Robin had to admit that he agreed to the reasoning. But Raven put up the barrier anyway, to save whatever embarrassment they could.

When Robin finally crawled into bed, he felt the barrier between their two psyches fall. He could sense his friend's fatigue, and wondered how much energy it took her to put up the wall. However with that thought, she hummed an disapproving sound in his head.

'I want to apologize for earlier,' Robin started, but was cut off by a repeat of Raven's disapproving hum.

'You don't have the training that I do, and I would never expect you to not react to the idea of loosing your identity. All that we can do now is try make the best of the situation. I'll teach you how to better use my powers, and we'll try and find Ghost. You're doing pretty well though, only one window after five hours is pretty good,' Raven praised.

Robin smiled a bit bitterly at the comment and their situation. Resting his head on his pulled back hands, he wished that he could hold her as he had so many times before when he was stressed. And some part of him knew that she felt the same way.

After a month of inhabiting one body, little had changed for Robin and Raven. They were both thankful that of anyone, they were sharing a body with the one they were. They were alike enough that few problems arose from disagreements. Only the "little things" ever caused any troubles for them, which were numerous but never made any huge rift. The lack of privacy they quickly got over after they realized that the barrier was causing even more problems. Ironically when they used the barrier to separate themselves, it only pushed Raven deeper within Robin's mind. So now they only used it when the toilet was used.

With training and meditation, Robin was now nearly as good at controlling his emotions as Raven was. However he still acted as he always had, choosing to still act out the emotions. It was rare that anything got destroyed unexpectedly, and Robin could not help his excitement of being able to fly.

In the way of crime, it was a slow month. Only a few robberies by low-level criminals had gotten them out of the tower. It was good, if a bit boring. Though it gave everyone a good chance to adjust the new situation.

Jump City's peaceful days weren't to last though. The Titans got a call late one Saturday night about a break-in on the west side. When they answered the call they found a huge army of Slade's robots, guarding Slade himself.

'What are you up to Slade?' Robin growled.

'Dear Robin, cannot a newly reborn man just enjoy life?' Slade answered in his usual calm voice.

'TITANS GO!' Robin cried, but he couldn't help but smirk at the mentally rolled eyes of Raven. The ability of sharing pictures and such feelings mastered only a few days before.

Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all proceeded to attach the army of robots. The sheer amount of robots caused a bit a trouble for them, but it was a "fun" challenge to pull them out of their slump. Star threw her starbolts everywhere as she always did, diving through the air for no apparent reason. A huge green gorilla and Cyborg stood beside one another as they smashed the oncoming robots, both trying to outdo the other.

Robin straight away ran after Slade who had tried to disappear in the battle. He and Raven had long before decided to hide their shared existence and powers, so Robin used the black energy sparingly. Unfortunately for Slade though was there were perceptive powers that could be used without his knowledge, which Robin put to use in finding and cornering him.

'You're going down Slade!' Robin started the attack on his adversary, throwing kicks and punches. Slade was able to guard, and throw his own fist into Robin's jaw. Reeling back, Robin continued to deal out his own attacks in hopes of bringing the bastard down.

'So tell me, where is our dear friend Raven? I want to thank her for my second chance,' Slade asked almost innocently. Neither of the martial artists noticed the black energy that was starting to surround Robin's hands as they fought. 'If it weren't for her, Terra's plan might've worked. How do you think I should thank her? I've been told that I'm a generous man; maybe I should give her a good time. I'll bet she's a big bang in bed.'

The remaining half of Slade's surviving robots suddenly exploded. Robin raged as he threw himself at Slade. From behind Robin's mask Raven's dark power shown in his eyes. And the hero looked ready to put his magic boosted fist through the villain's chest.

'Robin, control it! You have to control the anger and hate that you feel!' Raven yelled aloud from his lips, she didn't care pay any attention to Slade's widening eye.

'He deserves to die!' Robin growled. His breathing was labored as he'd overpowered his foe to the ground below him. Explosions could be heard all around them, as were the cries from their upset friends.

'Maybe, but not here, not now,' Raven commanded with her secret whisper. Another bigger and closer explosion rocked the ground around them. 'Control it Robin, control it,' she repeatedly whispered in his mind soothingly. She used her own control to create a black entity much like her bird, but in the form of herself, and wrapped its arms around him lovingly. Raven pulled back his emotions into herself, for safekeeping.

End Part 2.