Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N - As promised, a much longer chapter this time. Everything up until now was set up for the plot, just to establish backgrounds. This is where the real plot begins. I would just like to remind everyone that this is Rob/Rae... no matter how this chapter comes of looking.

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned the Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I? And despite numerous, and honestly unintentional, references to it, I don't own Spider-Man either... unfortunately.

Fragile Dreams Chapter 5 - Date with Destiny
"Titans, Go!"

Two weeks later, the Titans were back to business as usual... including Raven. The crime of the night was a petty jewel theft performed by a less than normal crook: a spider-man. His body was completely normal, but his head was that of a giant spider. Four legs came out below his head, and he used them to travel quickly across roofs and up walls. He called himself Fang.

Cyborg was blasting at him, but he was dodging until Robin launched his new cycle off a ramp at the hybrid. 'Fang' barely managed to move himself out out the way, but Robin's distraction took away his concentration long enough. A pair of starbolts and a sonic beam crashed into him, and his 4 spider legs just managed to stabilize him. Robin smiled as he landed and looked behind him. He finally had a TEAM. "Raven, now!"

"Azarath Metrion Zin..."

A stream of webbing spat at her by Fang cut off Raven's spell. While the empath was unable to stop him, the web head made good his escape. Raven used her powers to rip the webs of her face, spitting the wretched stuff out of her mouth. "Yuck." she said in the understatement of the year. "I did NOT know he could do that."

The Titan looked around, and saw the others had continued the chase. Everyone was gone. 'Well, at least no one saw my embarrassing job of getting it off.' Raven hurried to catch up, but arrived just in time to watch Robin get hit by some type of poison spit. He fell like a stone from about 8 stories up, and she realized he must be paralyzed. Her emotions started screaming at her, and she leapt forward. She shouted out "AzarathMetrionZinthos!" in what had to be record time, and her soul self shot out to levitate Robin by the clothing, catching him feet from the hard pavement.

The rest of the team was gathering around her now. "I think Robin's out of commission," Raven said evenly. "I'll take him back to the tower."

Starfire objected. "No, I shall lead friend Robin's return to safety. The rest of you continue the looking for the spider of meanness."

Raven's emotions REALLY didn't like that idea, but she didn't understand why not anymore than she understood why they had declared her loyal to Robin or why they panicked when he fell. Besides, she was very good at ignoring her emotions. Having no logical argument, she didn't insist. "Fine."

Cyborg took charge. "Ok, BB, Raven, you're with me. Lets find the crazy spider. Call in when Robin is back, Star." She nodded and flew off towards Titan Tower with Robin in her arms. A mixture of emotions she'd never felt before surged through the empath, and she tuned them out as well. Finding the spider was what was important right now.

A half-hour of searching later, they still hadn't found the jewel thief. They had, however, found a bigger problem. Cyborg was talking into his communicator, "Robin, your not gunna believe this. We didn't find Fang, but we did find a bunch of huge moths eating Bloodhaven Bridge. Get over here!" Cyborg turned to his teammates. "Ok Titans, defend the bridge. Raven, you and I will clear them off the cables. BB, you try to take 'em out of the air. Titans, GO!"

Raven obeyed, creating a black disk to lift Cy up on the suspension cables. Black beams of dark energy shot from her hands at moths as she allowed just a little anger to surface. They were quickly joined by blue blasts from Cy's sonic blaster as he skated down the supports, and together they quickly swept away the moths here before moving on to the next lines.

It didn't take long for the hopelessness of the situation to sink in. For every moth the pair took down, there were three more to take its place. BB was completely swarmed, and Raven could see more moths flying in as support ropes began to snap all around her. Then, with an abruptness that startled her, the moths stopped and looked to the sky. Raven got a distinct impression of them receiving instructions. Several seconds late, they all flew off as suddenly as they came.

Raven's communicator blinked and she activated it, seeing BB and Cy do the same. "Titans," Robin spoke, "I've bought us some time. See what you can do with the names 'Kitten' and 'Killer Moth.' Then take down the moths."

"Won't you be joining us?" BB asked.

"I can't," Robin grimaced, "I have a date. Star will join you."

'You have a WHAT!' Raven wanted to scream. She kept it inside, thankfully. Why did that bother her so much? Why did she care so much about Robin recently? Shaking off the emotions with more effort than usual, Raven prepared for a hunt.

Robin stuck his finger under the collar of his tux after getting off his bike. By god he hated this monkey suit. Making sure his mask was still firmly over his eyes, he started to walk through the crowd of assembled students just ashore of the boat.

"Robin?" a voice called out behind him.

A very familiar voice. Robin turned to see Starfire behind him, and... Robin's brain derailed, stopping in mid recognition. She was gorgeous! Star had her hair styled, was wearing makeup, and wore a beautiful red dress, tight in all the right places to show off her looks. Robin just stared for a few moments before he realized his mouth was open. He pulled himself together and managed to close his mouth. "What are you doing here, Star?" 'Not that I mind at all.'

"Friend Robin instructed me to investigate Kitten. I intend to investigate her very closely."

Robin was going to respond to that, but Starfire was gone and he found himself being hugged from behind. "Ooh Robbie-poo! Your date is here!"

'Guys, please tell me you've found Killer Moth.' Robin thought as he walked the spoiled blond teen aboard the boat.

"Now take me to the dance. And would it kill you to smile?"

The other Titans were making SOME progress towards finding the source of the moths. They were currently exploring the home to which they had traced Kitten. After searching for a frustrating fifteen minutes, Raven slammed the door of a room behind her, her anger emerging a little more than she desired. "This is pointless. There's nothing here."

"Yeah," agreed Cyborg. "Dead end."

"At least the house is nice," Beast Boy pointed out, making his point by flopping down one an armchair heavily. The chair tilted back, and a panel on the wall slid away to reveal a staircase, which BB was rather noisily tumbling down.

Raven cocked an eyebrow. "I haven't been on Earth that long, but I'm guessing most houses don't have that, do they?"

Cy shook his head. "Nope." He started walking down the stairs, converting his arm to a hand cannon as he went.

"So the changeling's incompetence proves useful. Who would have guessed?" Raven said aloud as she followed Cy down the stairs. Cyborg just laughed.

As his date, Kitten was growing increasingly obnoxious as they danced. Looking off to his side, he could see Starfire growing increasingly agitated, as well. He couldn't stop looking at her... she looked so good in that dress.

Kitten pushed him deeper into the dance. "Whatcha lookin' at, Robbie-pooh?" Her face took on a predatory expression.

Robin forced his gaze back to Kitten. "Nothing."

Her smile returned. "Good, I'd hate to need to destroy your little city."

Raven and Cyborg followed BB even deeper into the ground. They finally caught up to the green shape-shifter at the bottom: He had morphed himself into a turtle and buried himself in his shell as he tumbled. Raven snorted, "That's the best solution you could come up with?"

BB unmorphed back to his human form. "Hey," he shouted, echoing in the pitch-black underground chamber, "You try tumbling..."

Cyborg slapped a hand over his mouth, silencing him. Without the noise from the changeling, they could hear a chattering noise surrounding them. Raven raised her hand up with a black aura surrounding it, and ten thousand beady pairs of eyes glinted in the dim glow, staring back at them. The three Titans raised their communicators to their mouths. "Found them," The three said in unison.

"And now you're going to regret it." A deep voice roared. The Titans looked up, and scattered as Killer Moth dropped right where they were standing.

"Kiss me Robin," Kitten said, just as Robin got the message from the rest of the team.

"Sorry, but I don't like you that way," Robin informed his 'date' as he pulled away from her. "In fact, I plain don't like you. We've found Killer Moth, and he's being taken down right now. This date is over." Robin pulled off his tie and started to walk away.

"Oh, no it isn't!" The blond shrieked, producing a remote control from her dress. "Daddy's not running the show tonight, Robbie-pooh... I AM! Now kiss me, or your precious city goes goodbye." She puckered up, and leaned into Robin. Resigning himself with disgust, Robin leaned in to meet her when Starfire made a flying tackle for the remote.

Kitten went down under the flying redhead and they landed on the banquet table, wrestling for the remote as the beautiful alien started a catfight over the city and him. He dared not guess which was more important to her.

"Get off of my girl!" A deep voice called out, and Fang stepped onto the boat, forcibly knocking Star away with a long leg and sending the remote flying.

"Fang, you came back!"

Fang held out the diamond necklace he had stolen earlier, "I wanted to make your junior prom perfect."

"Oh, Fang..." And the two started happily kissing.

Robin wretched, then raised his eyebrow. After the kiss entered it's second minute, Robin put on a cocky grin and cleared his throat loudly. The two lovers looked up at him, and he extended his staff. "I hate to say it, but you're a really ugly couple." Fang roared and spit webbing at him, and Robin jumped right over it. Starfire and Kitten both went for the controller, but Kitten reached it first. She held it up triumphantly, and then hit the big red button.

In the underground lab, the Titans had everything under control. Killer Moth was down, Cyborg was restraining him, and the moths were still locked down. When Kitten hit the button, though, the three instantly knew it. Klaxons blared an alert, and the cages holding the moths opened, letting the thousands of moths fly free. On the ceiling, doors started to open to let them out. "Oh no you don't," Raven said, her eyes going white. "Azarath, Metrion Zinthos!" The doors went black as Raven's soul self reached out to them, and they slammed shut. "Beast Boy, get the stairs!" BB quickly morphed to a cheetah and was gone. On the ground, Killer Moth started laughing.

"Shut up," Cyborg said.

Starfire was managing to subdue Kitten, but Robin was having a much harder time with the spider. Robin was a fabulous fighter, but he was outnumbered 4 attacking limbs to 8. Robin was clearly winning, but he could never deal a finishing blow. Every time he got the web-head off balance, he would simply rear up and retreat. Robin just couldn't hit him!

Finally, he got all four of the spider legs off balance, and Fang stumbled. Robin quickly delivered a quick roundhouse kick to his head, and he went down. Once Robin had finished, Starfire at last managed to knock the remote out of Kitten's hands, and it slid across the deck to land under Robin's foot. He crushed it.

Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were getting very tired. Holding in the moths was taking a lot of effort, and no end in sight. The crushing of the controller brought their struggle to an abrupt end as all the moths suddenly turned back into larvae. The three titans sighed with relief... they had won the day, and as a team. BB smiled down at the larvae as he stroked one. "You know, these guys are actually pretty cute."

"Don't even think about it, BB." Cyborg warned as Raven threw her hood back and walked towards the stairway. "What you doing, Rae?"

"Going to check on Robin and Starfire. And the name is Raven." Raven pulled the darkness of her soul-self around her, and disappeared into the shadows.

"I'll get you for this, Robin!" the spoiled blond yelled out as she was shoved into the police van along with her boyfriend. Robin just tuned her out like he had been doing all night. Star was leaning on him, and Robin had to admit it felt good to be so close to her.

"So, I guess we did it Star."

"Yes, friend Robin, we certainly did."

The loudspeaker came on over the boat, alarming both the Titans as spotlights settled over them. "And this years Prom King and Queen are... Robin and Starfire!"

Robin blushed, grabbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Umm, might I have a dance?" Starfire nodded her head vigorously and almost dragged him to the dance floor, wrapping her arms around him and pressing their bodies close as they danced to the slow song. 'My god she's beautiful.' He thought, 'The most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'

As the song began to find down he looked up into the emerald eyes of the taller girl. 'Ask her, you idiot!' "Umm, Star? Would you like to go out with me?" Star gave him a dazzling smile that lit his heart on fire, and leaned in to him. Her sweet kiss was the only answer he needed.

Raven stood of to the side of the dance floor, practically invisible in the shadows, and she was glad for it. She really did not want to be seen right now. She was watching Robin and Starfire KISSING on the DANCE FLOOR right in front of her eyes. Robin belonged to her now.

At first Raven looked on with a pure detachment. Her emotions, however, slowly began to seep into her sterile trance until they reached a thundering strength, screaming for release. A railing blew off the boat, tables collapsed, and balloons popped. 'I need to meditate...NOW. I need to get out of here.'

Raven's powers could have transported her instantly to Titan Tower, but she wasn't about to risk trying to use her powers, so she walked. Her emotions were too volatile now. New emotions, including several she had felt earlier today while in the presence of Starfire and Robin, stormed into a confusing and contradictory swirl, spinning around her mind until she couldn't think. Only one thought emerged clearly: 'You liked him, Raven.'

"I DID NOT" she yelled at no one in particular. Her emotions spiked, and a parked car was thrown 6 stories in the air. She needed to meditate, or she was going to kill someone. The dark empath abashedly hid her face under her hood and continued on as quickly as she could. Her strong, smooth voice was hardly a whisper now, as she admitted it to herself.

"I do…"

End Chapter 5
A/N I TOLD you it was going to be a long one. I would just like to remind everyone AGAIN that this is a Rob/Rae fic, no matter how badly it looks for Raven. Wait it out, things will get worse before they get better. They always do. As always, Read and Review. PLEASE! And since you all were so kind to review last chapter so nicely, I'll post up chapter 6 tomorrow as soon as I get off work. But PLEASE review!

Next time on Teen Titans - Fragile Dreams:

-Raven comes to terms with her feelings
-Star and Robin have a date
-More on Raven's origins

Next Episode - First Interlude: Shadowman.