Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N – Ok, absolute first thing goes first. I'd like to apologize to readers… I just tried to read through my own story for the first time today, and there is something screwing going on with the format I'm uploading them with because it's making spaces disappear. I'm going to see what I can do to fix that… Sorry if it annoyed anyone. Well, now that that is out of the way…

Welcome to what might be my favorite episode of the series, and where everything begins to change from the series. Little changes lead to large effects, a butterfly flapping his wings creates a storm in New York. This chapter is going to be large, maybe large enough to divide into multiple chapters. I'm giving a shout out to the story "Quoth the Raven" by Tony Dimera, which this chapter not only resembles, but helped inspire this whole fic.

Make sure you have a bunch of time on your hands before you sit down to read this one… it's the longest one so far.

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned the Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I? This episode also contains quite a few direct quotes from the show, because I loved the writing for it. I also don't own "Quoth the Raven," or anything by Edgar Alan Poe.

Fragile Dreams Chapter 7 - Nevermore
'This guy is tough.' Robin barely had time to think as he frantically dodged beams of destructive light. This lunatic called himself Dr. Light, as he was seriously strapped.

"You might be fast, but I doubt you'll enjoy moving at the speed of light!" Robin stumbled as a beam ripped up the ground under him and he tripped, landing in a heap on the floor. Beast Boy took advantage of the distraction by morphing to a wolf and charging the crook from behind.

"A wolf is no threat when he's blind as a bat." Dr. Light barked out as he twirled around and threw a series of flash-bangs that blew up right in front of BB. The changeling staggered away, his eyes swimming. Starfire and Cyborg attacked from both sides at once. Dr. Light threw a globe towards Star, and suddenly she was encased in a force field. As Robin could only look on in horror, Dr. Light turned and let loose a blast from the cannon on his chest, hitting Cyborg dead on. Dr. Light smiled. "Now, if nobody minds, I'll be taking the gold now."

"I mind," Raven's voice called out from the shadows. "Azarath Metrion Z-!" Dr. Light hit her with a blast from his gauntlets. "A word of advice. Find smaller magic words." Raven's eyes glowed, and Dr. Light dodged as a truck went flying towards him, countering with a blast of energy from his wrists. Raven met it head on with a blast of her own dark energy, and the two stood at a stalemate.

"Your paltry powers are no match for the power of the Light!" He taunted, emphasizing the word light with another strong surge of energy, tearing through Raven's blast like tissue paper. The blast hit Raven dead center, and she dropped to her knees as Dr. Light approached, facing away from Dr. Light and Robin.

In a whisper almost too soft for Robin to hear, Raven spoke. "Don't come any closer..." Robin shuddered. That voice didn't sound like the voice of the Raven he knew. Raven's voice was calm, soft, and always under control. This voice sounded like it was under great stress. This voice sounded like it wasn't human.

"What's the matter?" The arrogant villain mocked her, "Afraid of the Light?"

With an inhuman roar, Raven spun around, her black aura cackling around her as she floated to 5 or 6 feet off the ground, her cloak draping down to the ground and drifting open in an invisible wind. There wasn't a body under that cloak, just inky blackness, as tentacles of dark matter sprang into existence around her. Tentacles grabbed on to a kicking and screaming Dr. Light and dragged him towards the blackness under her cloak.

Robin looked to her face and was terrified. Her pair of strong, amethyst eyes burned red like an inferno, dancing in the darkness. The expression on her face was of pure bloodlust. "What's the matter," Raven taunted in a hissing, inhuman voice, her words a mockery of Dr. Light, "Afraid of the DARK?" Dr. Light could only babble surrenders as he frantically tried to grip onto something.

Robin finally shook himself out of the trance just as Dr. Light disappeared under the folds of her blue robe. "Raven, STOP!"

Raven blinked, and when her eyes opened again they were the cool crystals he was accustomed to. Her dark expression of bloodlust transformed to one of confusion, and the dark energy surrounding her disappeared instantly as she fell from her floating position, revealing a terrified Dr. Light. "Raven, what was that?" Robin asked.

"I need to go meditate now." She rose and walked into an alley and quickly disappeared into the shadows.

Robin stared after her, deep in though as the other Titans prepared Dr. Light for his trip to prison. 'I think I just realized what Zantana was talking about.' Robin thought with a shudder.

Raven awoke the next day from meditating all night. She was ashamed of herself... last night never should have happened. If Robin was going to destabilize her emotions that much, it was going to be a problem. Either she would need to grow stronger, or she would need to stay away from him. That thought made her sick to her stomach... she swore she'd find a way to grow more disciplined than ever.

She left her room and went to go eat. Less than a minute later, she stormed out again with barely contained fury. Damn that Beast Brat! Why could he just leave her alone! Now she needed to meditate... AGAIN! As she rushed down the hall heading for the roof, she turned a corner just as Robin ran into the hall after her.

'Where did she go?' Robin thought as he slowed, seeing no Raven, 'To her room?' It made sense, so he headed for her room.

He knocked on the door. He really needed to talk to Raven. What had happened last night scared him, and the boy wonder didn't scare easily. Zantana's warning had been echoing through his head all day and night, and he wasn't about to leave until he found out much more about the mysterious Titan. "Raven? It's Robin. Can we talk?" He didn't get an answer, so after trying a few more times, he punched in an override code and opened the door.

Raven wasn't inside, but he had never been in her room before, and morbid curiosity kept him there against his better instincts. 'The decor is kind of creepy,' he thought as he looked around. His eye caught on a small object resting on top of her desk. Walking up, he noted it was a small, creepy hand mirror. Robin sighed, picking it up. 'What, did you expect it to be something enlightening? Something that said, "Here's how to understand Raven?" C'mon, why are you still in her r...'

There was no time to react. One second he saw his own reflection in the mirror, and the next all he could see was four glowing red eyes. He reflexively dropped the mirror, but a black hand shot out of it and grabbed him, pulling him into the mirror after it. He panicked, struggled, and yelled, but he was soon falling down a shadowy tunnel with no end in sight. He fell for what seemed to be minutes, and still saw nothing but pure blackness ahead.

As suddenly as the fall had started it was over, and Robin was landing hard on a platform floating over an abyss of absolute nothingness, rolling by reflex to absorb the impact. The sky was red, and there was absolutely no noise. Even the sound of him hitting the ground seemed the rapidly disappate to nothingness in the empty space. 'Where am I? Could this be where Raven is from?' Robins anger at Robin disappeared as his curiosity and detective instinct took over. 'And how do I get out?'

Even as he thought that, a collection of floating rocks assembled into a path leading into the distance. "Guess I'm walking." He kept walking for about ten minutes before he dropped to a fighting crouch as a voice called out to him.

"Turn back..." something said in a light, mellow voice. Robin looked around and finally found a raven perched on a stone ahead. It was looking right at him. As he watched it, it opened its mouth again. "Turn back..."

Robin smiled tensely, looking around. "Well, you look like you know where you are. Mind telling me how to..." When Robin looked back, the raven had disappeared. "Hey! Where'd you go!" He looked down, and saw the Raven standing at his feet. He finally noticed they had large eyes, much like Raven's. And it had friends: as Robin watched, two more landed next to it and he could see more circling around.

"Turn baaack..."

"Turn back..."

Without warning the ravens snarled, and their eyes split into four glowing red eyes. They opened jaws suddenly full of teeth and lunched at Robin. He tried his best to bat them away, but between sheer numbers and his surprise, he was quickly off balance, and felt himself teetering over the edge. He toppled off, barely managing to catch the edge and hang on for dear life.

"Hey!" A sweet voice he recognized... mostly... said from his right. He turned his head and saw Raven... wearing a pink cloak, standing upright on the bottom of the platform. "What's up?"

"I thought I was," Robin said, and Raven laughed. She waved her hand and gravity reversed for him as well and he toppled back to the platform. 'Raven... laughed?' Now that he thought about it, that's what's so different him her voice... it actually sounded happy. Robin looked around... somehow, all the birds had gone.

"Good one!" She smiled and said held out a hand to help him up.

"Thanks..." He said, shaking her head. "Ummm..." 'Damn, there's no easy way to ask this,' "Why are you wearing pink?"

Raven raised a single finger and adopted a solemn pose. "Because it's my favorite color."

Robin shook his head in disbelief. 'This is too weird.' He looked around again as she played with hair, twirling it around her fingers and giggling. "So, Raven, how can I get out of here?"

"The secret portal. It's the only way out. But you don't reallywant to go there. Believe me hon."

'Hon?' Robin stared at her unbelievingly. "Umm, yeah, I kinda really do."

She smiled widely at him. "Ok cutie, but don't say I didn't warn ya." Before he could react, Raven had leaned in a given his a peck on the lips. She turned around and skipped down the path, whistling 'Bridge on the River Kwai.'

Robin was SHOCKED. 'Did she just...' Absolutely No God Damn WAY! Stunned, but unsure of what else to do, Robin followed Raven through the stone archway...

…And promptly materialized in a new place full of bright colors and sickly sweet smells. This place was the absolute polar opposite of the dreary world he just left behind. "I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore."

Robin heard a giggle behind him, so he spun around to find Raven behind him again. "Good one!" She said with a smile. "You're a pretty funny guy, Robin." Raven again started skipping forward, and he had little choice but to follow.

Raven was meditating on the roof when Cyborg and Starfire found her. "Hey Raven," asked Cy, "Have you seen Robin recently? He went looking for you, an hour ago, and no one's seen him since." To the pair's great surprise, Raven cracked up, barking out a few laughs before slapping a hand over her mouth.

"I need to be alone," she whispered, seemingly to herself, as she walked right through a wall back into the tower.

"Many of your Earth ways still confuse me, but that was... 'Just plain freaky,' yes?" Star asked. Cyborg could only nod.

"I can't believe she just disappeared on me."

A few minutes ago, Robin had looked away for just a second and Raven had vanished. The disappearance of his guide had put him in a foul mood, so when he walked through another archway and teleported back to the grim looking world, he was furious. "Not back here again!" he yelled in frustration. "And where the HELL is Raven?"

"Right here." a tiny voice called out, and Robin turned to see Raven standing to his side. She looked different, and she was wearing a gray robe in place of her pink one.

"Where the hell were you? Shopping for a new CLOAK? Robin shouted and Raven shrunk beneath his yelling. It looked like Raven was going to cry. "Hey, Raven... I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

Raven gestured to the series of walls in front of her. "The portal is on the other end of the maze. I can take you there... but when we reach the other side, you won't like me anymore." She turned and started to walk into the maze... Robin thought it looked like she might be crying, but he dismissed it as her imagination. "You already don't like me. Only her."

'What is she talking about?' Robin thought, shaking his head. 'Why is she so moody all the suddenly?' He followed her into the maze.

Raven walked into her room, still breathing hard. That was REALLY odd. Emotions just rose up in her head without a reason... right in the middle of meditation. That had never happened before. Raven's eyes glanced around her room, and saw the mirror. She must have forgotten to put this away... she shouldn't leave it out. It was too dangerous to leave lying around.

Raven's amethysts jumped wide open as everything suddenly clicked. Robin... looking for her... missing... excited emotions... mirror out in the open...

"Oh, no…"

" ...remember that time I called you an immature braggart? Um... I'm sorry about that too. And the time I called you boy blunder... well, I'm sorry about that too. Do you remember the time I said you were an arrogant son of a..."

Robin shook his head in disbelief. She had been doing this since we entered the maze together. "Raven, for the hundred thousandth time... I forgive you!"

She looked at him with mournful eyes, then she waved her hands and a wall parted to reveal another stone arch... and this one was huge.

"All right Raven! You did it!" Robin started walking towards it, but two large statues flanking it started moving. The two statues joined together, and held four mighty greatswords in its four hands. It leered down at the Boy Wonder, and he glanced at the dour girl behind him.

"I told you that you wouldn't like me when we got here," Raven said sadly as she phased into the ground.

Robin rolled to the right as the statue struck down with an overhead blow, and lashed out at the knee with his foot. He might as well have been kicking tempered steel. The other two swords closed in on Robin from both sides like a gigantic scissors, and he flipped over them, looking down as they passed just inches below his face. Robin landed two hard hits on its wrist, making each hit last only a fraction of a second to maximize force, but the stone held firm. This thing was indestructible!

"Hiii Ya!" Raven flew into the fight, and this time her cloak was forest green. The statue tried to hit her, but she leapt clean over the clumsy blow, whispering a spell as she soared. She came down striking it with two fingers, and dark energy cackled as the blow cleaved through the impervious stone like butter.

Raven landed in a crouch, then jumped up cheering as the statue toppled heavily to the ground in two pieces. "Yeah! Wooo Hooo! Gimmi five!"

Robin didn't know what to think. 'How can she be so completely changed in so short a time? Every time I see her she's like a completely different person.' Robin was confused, and he really didn't like to be confused. "What is going on with you! First you smile, laugh, and kiss me, then you apologize for everything you've ever done, and now your suddenly a commando? Who are you?"

"I'm Raven!" three voices snorted in sync... two of them from behind him.

Robin spun. Two more figures had materialized right next to him... two more Ravens? These two were wearing the pink cloak and gray cloaks seen previously, and all three looked at him with an identical indignant/annoyed expression.

'Happiness, sorrow, courage... different emotions, different personalities, different parts of Raven... Oh.' Robin thought as it finally clicked, 'I'm not in her home ... I'm in her head!'

"That's right." A familiar voice called out, and the three emotions faded as the blue-cloaked Raven landed in front of him. "And I want you out. That mirror is a portal into my mind... not a toy!" This was probably the closest to yelling Raven had ever gotten.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Robin broke off as the ground started to tremble. "What's that?"

Raven mouthed something that looked suspiciously like 'oh shit,' then turned back to Robin. "You need to get out of here now."

"I don't think so, Raven" He said. "Today the secrets stop. Tell me, what's going on?"

Even as Robin spoke, a large pillar of stone rose from the ground into the sky, then lost integrity began to break apart, one chunk of rock at a time. As the two Titans watched in horrified fascination, a red skinned figure almost ten meters tall emerged. He had horns, a mouth full of teeth, and four eyes like glowing rubies. He roared into the sky with a voice that sounded cultured even through its bloodlust and evil. "Hatred shall rule!"

"Let's just say I have issues with my father." She turned to Robin. "Get out of here, this is my fight." Even as she told him, her soul self pushed him towards the portal. She flew up to meet her father head on.

Trigon. Her anger was his legacy, and in her own thoughts Trigon WAS her anger and hatred... it only figured her anger would take on his image. She was fighting... but losing. Her blasts of energy only seemed to annoy him. 'Trigon' managed to swat her out of the sky. As 'Trigon' stared down at her with those four bloody eyes, Raven knew she was finished.

She couldn't defeat Trigon... She couldn't even defeat her own anger. She never could, really. As 'Trigon' roared down at her, she prepared for the end, just happy that Robin was safe. 'I'm sorry, Robin... I'll miss you.' Unexpectedly, an explosion blossomed on the side of his head, staggering him sideways.

"Get away from her!" Robin yelled, throwing more bombs at her 'father' as he used a tree to launch himself at the demon's face. Trigon staggered and lost his balance, falling over the side of the platform. Robin landed, and ran to where Raven lay. "Are you all right?"

Raven nodded. "I'm fine..." She started to blush despite herself, and prayed her cloak hid it. Trigon climbed back on to the platform, roaring as he searched for them. "Trigon's too strong... and I'm too weak here to fight my father."

"Why aren't you strong enough?"

"I'm an empath, Robin. My powers come from emotions... and my mind is a tomb designed specifically to keep my emotions buried."

"Why don't you call on them for help? That green Raven was pretty tough."

Raven shook her head. "She's not powerful enough either."

Robin cocked his head as a thought occurred to him. "What about all of them together?"

Raven gave him a look that told him he didn't understand what he was talking out, but it slowly faded and a sparkle appeared in her purple eyes. "We can try." Raven stood and crossed her arms across her chest. "Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos..." the mage intoned as her eyes went black. Chanting words of a spell softly, she uncrossed her arms, extended then, and refolded them, coming full circle. The dust blew around, propelled by the unnatural wave of magical energy. Seven Ravens slowly materialized out of the dusk fog, each with a different colored cloak. Yellow, orange, pink, green, gray, brown, and purple.

Raven began to levitate up. Her emotions followed, circling her slowly. Rays of light leapt out to attach the eight cloaked figures to each other, and Robin had to block his eyes as a flash of light exploded from the circle. When he looked back, a giant Raven stood there, her pure white cloak billowing in the wind.

Trigon, as Raven had called him, charged this new Raven with his eyes glowing fiercely. He let loose a blast of red energy, and the transformed empath met it with a blast of her own darkness. The silent power struggle continued for what felt like hours to Robin as he stared, but really didn't even last thirty seconds. Raven's blast cut through her father's, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Robin peered through the smoke, and could just make out a red-cloaked Raven standing in the fog. She looked up, and Robin saw four glowing red eyes stare out from beneath her hood. A strand of energy shot between the two Ravens, and the white-cloaked figure lurched with pain as this new emotion was integrated into it.

When the dust from the spell dissipated, all Robin saw was the blue-cloaked empath falling. He caught her, and smiled in relief. Raven returned the smile, albeit weakly. "We did it," she spoke, her voice calm but her eyes betraying both her excitement and her exhaustion. Robin felt his heart begin to warm... that was a genuine smile, and it was sincere. He let her down, and she gestured to the portal. "Go ahead, I will follow in a moment."

The Titan's leader looked at Raven one last time, then he walked through the portal. As he did, he saw Raven turn back to her emotions out of the corner of his eye. 'She's really beautiful when she smiles…' he thought.

Raven spun back on her emotions, all traces of good humor gone from her face. She had just noticed something. Her eyes started to glow white as she examined her assembled emotions. Her deadly gaze swept over the nine cloaked figures.

But a moment ago there were only eight.

Raven's gaze finally landed on a copy of her in a gold robe. "Who are you?"

The girl looked up, meeting her gaze. Unlike the others, this one was not a perfect copy... it seemed a younger and more innocent version of herself. The feeling smiled. "I can't tell you that."

"And why not?" Raven snorted, unhappily. She disliked playing games with people, and especially the guessing kind.

"It's forbidden... you must discover me for yourself," she chided. "When you're ready for me, you'll know who I am."

Robin landed in a heap as he tumbled out of the mirror into Raven's room. Her room was dark, but he could see Raven floating in the lotus position over her bed, deep in meditation. Her features were so delicate, and the moonlight (god, when did it get so late?) drifting in through the window landed on her ghostly features, lighting up her ethereal face in the most b-

Robin's thoughts were stopped abruptly as Raven's amethyst eyes opened. She focused on him, and she was smiling again. "I'm sorry Raven, I didn't mean to -"

"Don't worry about it, Robin. You're forgiven." Raven said as she floated back down to the bed, and lay back. "However... you will have to explain to the others where you disappeared to today, and I would appreciate a little bit of... discretion."

'Translation: Don't tell anyone I ended up in your mind, your father is this giant angry 'thing,' and your favorite color is pink.' Robin thought. "Gotcha." Understanding the inherent dismissal, he turned to leave.

"And Robin?"

He turned back to see Raven lying on her side on the bed, eyes closed. "Yes?"

"..." Raven paused, clenching her jaw a little as she nibbled her lip.

"Yes?"

"Thank you... for your help."

Robin smiled, "Anytime."

"Good night, Robin."

"Good night Raven." Robin left her room and went to his own. The hallways were deserted. His clock read 2:24 am... god it was late. He must have been in there for hours. He got in bed and quickly fell asleep. Robin thought of Starfire as usual as he slept, but in his dreams, thoughts of a dark empath and her kiss also began to appear.

End Chapter 7
A/N

Yeah… That. Was. LONG! It was really fun to write, though, and hopefully to read. That was perhaps the most important chapter yet. Reviewing is just a button click away...

So now, you all tell me how obvious I really am. Two reviewers managed to guess what was going to happen with this chapter, so I'm curious to see if you can figure this one out. I'll entertain guesses about who the newcomer in Raven's mind is. I personally think it's pretty transparent… who knows, I might even tell you if you're right.

Next Time on Teen Titans - Fragile Dreams:

-Robin grows increasingly obsessed with Slade
-The Titans fall into a trap
-Betrayal!

Next Episode - The Apprentice, Part 1