Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N - Welcome to the first interlude in Fragile Dreams. I think there will be a few of these in the stories. These represent important spaces of time between episodes and give an opportunity to show thoughts of characters outside of episodes. It also allows me, the author, to use some music without giving into the temptation to make a songfic. Sorry all, but this is the easiest way for me to resist the evil temptation to sink into making songfics.

I would like to thank my reviews! I have a lot more of them than I thought I would!

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned the Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I? I also don't own the band Brother or the song Shadowman, and I also don't own Cartoon Network.

Fragile Dreams Chapter 6 - Interlude 1: Shadowman
Raven was haunted by that night on the boat last week. She hadn't been able to remove the thought from her mind... it was too charged with emotion, and even after meditation thinking about it caused her to come dangerously close to losing control.

She felt almost betrayed every time she saw Robin and Starfire together... and recently they were constantly together. She was feeling... Jealousy. That was the name of the emotion she first felt that night on the boat: A little hard knot of jealousy, simmering in her heart.

The new couple was on a date right now... off to see some movie or another. The empath was sitting on her bed in the lotus position, but she wasn't meditating... there was no need to. She just sat there, trying to come to terms with her feelings for the Boy Wonder and failing miserably.

Raven got up and turned on the radio: she couldn't stand the silence anymore, despite her usual preference for it. Silence let her be alone with her thoughts, and she really didn't want to face them for any longer right now. She had some creepy music that would make excellent ambiance. When the radio came on, there was a song she had never heard before in progress. It wasn't really her type of song, but she paused in turning it off when she heard the lyrics.

...but your feelings are gone...

Who are you when you're alone?
And tell me is it safe to let yourself go?
No, no...

'Yeah, that's the question, isn't it,' Raven thought as she reached for the dial.

You put on a wonderful show
Yet it's so good you don't even know...

The lyrics stung, and Raven's knees suddenly felt weak. 'My god... Is that what I've been doing?' She asked herself, 'Have I really just been hiding myself, even from myself?' Even before she could answer, she knew she had been. The confused mystic sat down on the bed, deciding to hear the rest of the song out.

Shadowman rushes in
Taking all your clothes with him
Can't hide from yourself anymore...
Shadowman's standing there
yet you're all alone just you in a chair
but you can't hide yourself anymore...

Raven could feel sadness welling up within her, and forcefully repressed it. "I will not cry. This will not be me."

Now you're standing with your back to the wind
Your eyes are taught to never give in

As you storm along the path
The path that you dread
Is nothing to the storm
Raging in your head...

Raven was speechless. How could she have become this? The demoness was certain that the song was describing her. As she listened, she became equally certain that she did not want to be that person.

Shadowman rushes in
Taking all your clothes with him
Can't hide from yourself anymore...
Shadowman's standing there
yet you're all alone just you in a chair
You can't hide yourself anymore...

Where are you when you're alone?
Do you even know where you go?
Go down, give yourself time
Just seek and maybe you'll find...

Shadowman rushes in
Taking all your clothes with him
Can't hide from yourself anymore...
Shadowman's standing there
yet you're all alone just you in a chair
You can't hide yourself anymore...

Shadowman...
Shadowman...

As the song drifted into the distance, Raven tuned out the radio after it, absentmindedly turning it off. Now she did need to meditate... being with her thoughts and her emotions was exactly what she needed. She opened a drawer in her dresser and brought out a small hand mirror. She was going to need it.

Hours later, Raven finally left her room to eat. Star was sitting on the couch with Cyborg, and Robin was walking around the room, looking under objects and in cabinets. Beast Boy was nowhere to be found. "Has anyone seen my birdarang? Where did I put that thing..." He asked as he looked under the pots and pans, "Hey, Titans? Could I get a little help here?" Raven grabbed an apple and started heating water, ignoring the rest of the team. Robin brushed against her in his search, and suddenly the water wasn't the only thing heating up.

Raven blushed a little, and pulled down her hood further to hide it. Just being around him made her emotions want to be free... It was incredibly dangerous, but somehow attractive and relieving to the reclusive stoic. She had already decided Star couldn't have him. Raven might be a strange girl in a world she didn't completely understand, and she didn't know how she was going to pull it off, but she desperately didn't want to be the lonely, emotionally helpless girl from the song. Lost in her thought, the alert visibly broke her composure for a second.

"We have a job to do, Titans." Robin said, hooking his birdarang, which had been hiding under the couch, onto his belt. "East Bloodhaven Bank. Titans, Go!"

End Chapter 6
A/N Hope you liked it. I need to know your opinion as always, but especially on a chapter like this. Yeah, you're all going to love next chapter.

Next time on Teen Titans: Fragile Dreams -

-The titans meet a new villain, and get stomped.
-Why does Raven always need to keep so unemotional?
-Robin finds himself stranded in a nightmare world he can't escape.

Next Episode: Nevermore

Also: I just realized I think I cut out the author's note where I said it. I know the Titans are supposed to be in Jump City. I moved them to Bludhaven, a city on the East Coast, which is supposed to represent Boston, I think. Well, it's supposed to represent Boston the same way Gothem Represents New York City and Metropolis represents L.A., anyway. I made this change for reasons that will become important later and should immediately be clear to any Nightwing fans.