First, I want to send out a thanks to my first reviewer, Fading Into Darkness! Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked it. ) This one is dedicated to you!

Summary: Post-Birthmark. Can life just go back to "normal" for the Teen Titans? Or will the admittance of the deeply-buried and long-denied make it impossible for Raven to conceal the truth of her destiny?

Author's Note: This is my first story. The recent airing of "Birthmark" got me thinking about writing a fic, so here I am, I guess. I have no idea where this is going to go, I'm just kind of making it up as I go to avoid having to do schoolwork.

Legal Note: Don't own Teen Titans in any form. Wish I did. Don't sue me, NYU has all my money.

The party had finally ended, and it was well after midnight. Finally, the day Raven longed to see end had. Starfire and Cyborg had again wished her a happy birthday before heading to their respective rooms, and Beast Boy had passed out on the large, half-circular couch in the main room. His arm was drooped off the side and into the slick residue of chocolate ice cream which remained on his plate. Apparently, he'd put it on the floor beside the couch. Robin noticed this as he was collecting dishes, and shook his head. Raven was at the counter, twirling her fork in the remainder of the three kinds of frosting from Cyborg's famous eight-layer cake, and nursed a cup of herbal tea. Robin returned to the sink with an armful of dishes, and began rinsing them off.

The silence was not necessarily uncomfortable, but charged. Both knew there were things that needed to be discussed, but getting down to the nitty gritty of it was more difficult than either had really anticipated. Robin was about to begin, but Raven cut him off, "Yes, I know. We have to fill in the gaps for the others."

Robin remained silent a moment. When that was all the more Raven gave him, he said simply, "The others are going to have a lot of questions. We need to review what we know and find any clues we can to catch Slade." His brow furrowed, and he gritted his teeth. His fist clenched and unclenched on the counter top. Slade. That bastard.

Raven sensed Robin was about to go into super-obsessive mode, and understood why. As the leader of the Teen Titans, Robin felt very strongly that he should be able to protect his colleaques–no, his friends–from any danger that should arise. And Slade had been his nemesis. On some level he felt more responsible for what had happened to her because it was Slade. At least, Robin thought it was Slade. Raven knew better.

She rerouted the subject. "Fine, we'll tell them what happened after I froze time. Compare stories. See what we can figure out." There's nothing for me to figure out, she thought with irony.

With a nod, Robin agreed. He was particularly curious about the sudden growth of Raven's hair, and was debating asking her, when Beast Boy gave a loud snore from the couch and rolled over, his shoulder now pressed into the couch, and the ice cream-covered hand sticking straight out in front of him in the air. The two teens looked at their friend briefly, before turning back to their conversation.

"Robin?"

"Yes?"

"I will not discuss what happened with Slade in the team's absence." Anger, mixed with sadness and vulnerability, slipped unannounced into her voice. Wait, was that a little bit of...fear, as well? Robin could almost feel it, the emotions emanating from Raven in waves. She didn't have as much control as she feigned, and maybe it was only because of their "connection" that he could tell. Her face was neutral, but there was something different about her eyes...

"Robin?" Raven was staring at him concernedly.

"Huh?" He realized he had zoned out. Robin turned his attention back to the girl in front of him. What was so different about her? She seemed...ugh, he couldn't figure it out. Resigned? But that didn't make any sense. Resigned to what?

"Did you hear what I said?" No, don't let her get annoyed. That would be the death of us all.

"Yeah, you don't want to discuss whatever happened when we weren't there. I get it." He wasn't going to push it, at least not now anyway. But then he remembered how she looked when he'd caught her, her long purple hair, her cape gone, and her leotard in shreds. What had Slade done to her? He had a thought, a thought that sent the blood boiling in every vein in his body...

"Raven, he didn't..." Robin couldn't bring himself to finish the question.

Raven stared at him, furrowing her brow and looking confused. She used her telepathy to poke the forefront of his thoughts. Now she understood why Robin suddenly looked so tense, uncomfortable, and super angry.

"No! No. Definitely not. He didn't touch me," to which she added mentally, Without setting every inch of my skin on fire. Raven remembered the symbols. Remembered the pain. She shook her head to clear the thought.

Robin relaxed noticeably. He was still worried about Raven, about her mental well-being. What the hell was so different about her?

The two stood in silence a while longer, Raven staring into the shallow abyss of her tea cup, and Robin arching an eyebrow at the green boy sprawled on the couch. "We should get some sleep. There's a lot to talk about tomorrow."

Raven nodded, and watched Robin walk over to Beast Boy and try to wake him. The changeling didn't stir. Robin rolled him all over the couch, and still Beast Boy didn't wake. He even punched him a couple times.

"Robin?"

"What?"

"Move."

Robin jumped back. Suddenly the changeling was enveloped in a wave of black energy, and lifted into the air beside the couch. At once the black aura disappeared, and Beast Boy crashed to the floor. His eyes shot open, and he rubbed his head. "What was that for?"

"Go to bed." Raven and Robin both ordered.

Beast Boy whined, but was too tired to do much else. He dragged himself off down the hallway, with Raven and Robin not far behind.

Raven stepped into her room, and crawled into bed. Truth be told, she was beyond exhausted. It had a been a long and miserable day. She felt she had aged a year in that one day, and she wondered if maybe that had been part of the message. Though she knew her dreams would be more haunted than usual, Raven quickly drifted off into a deep sleep.

Okay, so that's chapter two. Just want to give a big thanks again to Into The Darkness for the review. Thanks!

Also, I think I have a better idea where this might be going now, at least for a while. I upped the rating because I discovered that I like to swear, and I'm usually err on the side of caution when rating things, so just to be safe.