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: Still have little to no idea as to where this story is going. I guess I'm just seeing where my conception of the characters takes me. If anyone has any plot suggestions, let me know, and I'll definitely give them some thought.

To all my reviewers, THANK YOU SO MUCH for everything you said. You've all really inspired me to keep writing. Falling Into Darkness, raven-shadowsong, Sangofanatic, ray1, the-lost-raven, The Last, CatRocks, Majestical, and Darksin, thank you. I can't say it enough!

I'm a little nervous on writing characters who aren't Raven or Robin, so honestly they don't seem to get a lot of dialogue. I'm hoping as I go I'll get a better feel for it.

This chapter is going to have some pretty heavy spoilers for "Birthmark," so if you haven't seen it and don't want to know about it, don't read this chapter.

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

Raven awoke with a start early the next morning. She was still exhausted–her sleep had been anything but restful–yet she dragged herself into a sitting position with a heavy sigh. Her dreams had never been comforting, nor would she expect them to be now considering recent events. If there was one thing she hated most about nightmares, it was waking up and wondering if it was all just a dream or a prophecy.

The events of the previous day caught up with her and in a swift motion left her mind quivering like a bowling pin just before it falls. Ooooh, she groaned inwardly, and I can't even kill myself because then I'd just be a completely powerless, resurrected minion. At least alive I might be able to fight back.

With that train of thought sufficiently shoved aside for the morning, she began her usual ritual of showering and dressing in a clean uniform. Life might be SUCK, but knowing what to wear is never difficult, Raven thought, making sorry attempts to amuse herself in order to counteract what she suspected would otherwise be an unbearable inner monologue. She'd been attempting to play the Titans' impending meeting out in her head, to no avail. In fact, she wasn't quite sure what exactly she wanted to tell them.

All she knew was what she couldn't tell them.

A knock sounded on her door, and Robin's voice found her through her walls, "Raven? I've gathered the Titans for the meeting."

"In a minute," she responded. After a hesitation, she could hear Robin's footsteps receding down the hallway. Raven looked at herself in the mirror. At least she didn't look as poorly as she felt. Sometimes knowing how to control her emotions came in handy.

She wondered idly how much longer that control could last.

The four Titans were quiet. Beast Boy and Cyborg weren't fighting, and Starfire was calmer than her usual, HUG ME! self. They were all seated at the table, relaxed but waiting. The doors to the main room slid open, and Raven entered.

Raven was surprised to see it was afternoon already, but she was more surprised by the silence. Beast Boy? Silent? Though she was tempted to send a sarcastic remark his way in celebration of his successful completion of learning how to shut up, she declined. Better enjoy the moment while it lasted.

Really, there was little to enjoy, and she knew it better than any of them.

The others glanced at her as she entered, but were careful not to stare. Robin smiled weakly, and questioned her with his eyes. Yes, ready as I'll ever be, she thought, and gave a slight nod to indicate they should begin.

Robin, standing, began in a stern voice, "Titans, I'm sure you can all guess while we're having this meeting. I think we need to discuss this new situation involving Slade. And I'm sure you're all wondering how Raven and I came to be a couple of miles away from you within moments of escaping the collapsing building." He paused, and looked to Raven to hand the conversation off to her. Robin sat, and Raven cleared her throat, but remained seated. Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg were staring at her expectantly.

"I stopped time."

Gasps were heard around the table. Cyborg exclaimed, "Since when have you been able to stop time? How did you stop time? Did you stop time or did you just stop everything from moving?"

"Since yesterday. I don't know, and I really don't know."

"Wait, so like...we could all be missing time and were frozen and not know anything about it?" The right side of Beast Boy's brain exploded from the theoretical implications of this act.

"You are missing time. And if you can get over the time thing, I'd like to move onward with the story." She let a moment pass in silence, then continued, "Robin was about to be slaughtered by a gear, and I yelled stop. I don't know how it happened, except the next time I looked up everything was like a video on pause. Beast Boy was mid-transformation.

"The only thing that didn't stop was Slade. Whatever his new powers are, he doesn't seem to be effected by mine anymore." Raven continued with her story–unfreezing Robin, fleeing from Slade via the air, and finally being hurtled into the building. She left out all mention of the vision and what Slade had told her, as well as the markings of her father and her sudden hair growth. Secretly, she had hoped they'd forgotten her long hair. Finally, she told them of losing consciousness, and the next thing she remembered was being with Robin on top of a different building.

There, that was the story. And she hadn't lied, just left out huge chunks of information.

Again, silence pervaded the room. Only momentarily, before Robin began his version. He was as protective of the conversational tidbits as she was, but had insight on Slade. "When Slade found us after escaping the building, I told Raven to run, and turned to fight Slade." Robin hesitated. Could that have been real? Yes, Slade shoots fire now, there was no reason to doubt his senses. "I kicked him in the face five times. I could hear the bones in his neck snap. It should have killed the bastard. But he just stood there, with his head hanging at an odd angle and his shoulders hunched. Then he straightened out and just...everything cracked back into place. It was like he wasn't human anymore."

Starfire spoke up, "He does control the fire now. Perhaps it is another power he has gained?"

"Why is he alive at all? Terra destroyed him!" Beast Boy flared up with this mention of Terra. He refused to entertain that her sacrifice had been for nothing.

Raven felt the emotion of Terra's loss roll off of Beast Boy. She flinched involuntarily.

"It doesn't matter how. What matters is how we stop him, and why he's after Raven. We have to–" Raven cut Robin off mid-sentence.

"Slade is dead."

The other Titans turned to her, shocked. Starfire argued, "But Friend Raven, we saw Slade alive and shooting the fire at us. He would have to be alive, yes?"

Raven pondered how to explain this. "I sensed nothing from him. He was like a shell of a human being, cold and empty. All I could feel from him was death." That wasn't a total lie. She had felt it. At quite close range too. The inhuman heat of his hands on her arms, and the decay in his breath. What she neglected to mention was her theory on Slade's return. Damn you, Trigon. Damn you, you miserable, antlered son of a bitch.

"Well if Slade is dead then how do we kick his butt?" Cyborg raised his voice, and clenched his fist on the table.

No one had an answer. They all subconsciously wondered if the Titans could win this time. Raven remembered what Robin had said to her at the second surprise party.

"Are you okay?"

"I will be." It's the Titans that I fear for.

"What you told me about your destiny, that something bad was supposed to happen? I guess it did. I'm sorry I couldn't stop it."

He had looked so sad then. She knew he felt he had let her down. What had scared him most was that she could have died–they all could have died–and none of them could stop it, he couldn't stop it. As she spoke her next words, she realized the ringing truth in what she was saying, the desperate resignation to the prophecy.

"No one could."


Yay! End of chapter three. I think there's at least one more chapter of discussion before anything else happens. They've got a lot of things to ask and sort out yet. Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and thanks again for all your reviews! Every one of you has really inspired me to keep writing.