Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N I would like to say THANK YOU to my reviewers. You make writing this interesting.

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned the Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I?

Fragile Dreams Chapter 8 - The Apprentice, Part 2
'Damn it, Robin… where are you?' That single thought was a perfect summary of the last few days for Raven. Ever since the morning Robin had disappeared three days ago, she had thought about nothing else but finding him. She had barely meditated, her emotions were barely kept under control, and her human side was beginning to suffer from lack of sleep as well. Even Starfire had rested more than she had. Not that Starfire had much choice in the matter… Cyborg and BB had pretty much forced her to get some rest.

No one was stupid enough to try and force Raven to do anything.

Everyday, she monitored every radio frequency, visually swept as much of the city as she could until it got dark, and then mentally looked for his aura after the darkness had made a visual sweep useless. Searching for a single aura in a city of millions was a lost cause and she knew it, but still she tried.

"Robin…" she muttered to herself as she absently drank herbal tea on the roof that morning, waiting for it to be light enough to go and search for him. It was uncharacteristic for her to care so much about anything… the marked characteristic of her life so far had been her apathy. Now, suddenly, she couldn't even sleep because someone who she probably didn't mean anything to had gone missing. If Raven weren't so torn up about it, her cynical side would probably laugh at the irony. Guilt was also torturing her. 'He wouldn't have even been there if I hadn't insisted he should be,' she told herself, 'I never should have let him fight alone.'

Dawn. Time for her search to begin anew. Raven sighed and drew her cloak around her.

That night, a shadowy figure leapt from rooftop to rooftop, finally dropping and rolling to a stop behind a glowing sign that said Wayne Enterprises. The intruder kicked open a maintenance panel behind the A, and dropped down into a crawlspace. No alarms had been triggered yet. Coming out of the crawlspace, he dropped silently into a bright hallway and threw his weight sideways, falling into a combat roll that slipped into the darker stairwell to his left. The infiltrator quickly and silently stepped down the stairs for 3 levels, and then opened the door out a crack and looked on.

Two guards, automatic weapons. No difficulty. The shadow opened the door a little wider, and rolled a grenade towards the pair. They noticed it halfway, but they could do little more than yell into their radios before it burst into smoke. The intruder had no difficulty rushing up through the smoke, and both guards were down before they knew what had happened. Now an alarm was sounded, but it was far to late. Entering a key code no intruder should have known, he entered a storage room with a small hand cannon floating in the center. He grabbed it and ran back to the stairs, up and up. When he emerged onto the roof, however, four figures were waiting for him: The Titans. 'Blast,' he thought. The masked intruder ran.

"Hey! Freeze!" Cyborg yelled, but the thief paid no mind. After he ran over a narrow catwalk to another part of the roof, he found himself with nowhere to go. Cyborg said as much. "There's nowhere to go now," he said evenly as he raised his light. "Just come quietly and…" He cut off in shock as the light went high enough to reveal Robin's masked face.

"Not a word, Robin." Slade whispered into his ear through their communicator. Robin pointed the blaster down the catwalk between himself and his former team and leaped off to the east as he fired a blast. It exploded in flames that blocked their sight of their leader. When the Titans could see again, Robin was long gone.

Raven tuned out Beast Boy's ridiculous explanation after explanation over how Robin came to be on the roof. A clone, a robot, mind control, on and on. Raven knew the exercise was a waste of time. She knew it was Robin… she could feel him. She just couldn't believe it. She had trusted him! How could Robin do this? She desperately wanted to believe anything other that what she knew to be true, but she couldn't speak up and say it.

"No!" Starfire spoke up, saying what Raven could not. "Robin is our friend. Your sensors are wrong friend Cyborg."

Raven's hair swirled before she got her emotions completely under control. Starfire was so wrong, but Raven couldn't disagree with her even in her own mind. She couldn't come to terms with that Robin would betray them, betray her like this. "One way or the other," Raven finally spoke, and everyone looked to the sullen girl: She had maybe said 10 words since Robin went missing. "We need to stop him first. Then we can figure out why." Her voice broke as she finished, and although everyone noticed it, no one dared to comment. Cyborg, then the rest of the team, nodded just in time for the alarm to sound.

Robin, now with the blaster attached to his suit, was trying to steal another weapons system from another branch of Wayne Enterprises when the Titans caught up to him. "Robin, stop!" Slade's apprentice did anything but, vaulting over Cyborg and straight at the hovering Raven and Starfire. They dodged out of the way, but Robin wasn't after them: he grabbed onto a bar on the ceiling and kicked his way through a ventilation duct. He was on the roof practically before the Titans realized he was gone.

When the Titans finally reached the roof, Robin was still there, talking into a microphone. The roof was huge, and had another huge set of letters on it spelling out WAYNE in glowing white light. "Robin, we don't want to fight you… we just want to talk." Cyborg said, holding his hands out wide in a harmless gesture. Robin answered with a flying kick, sending his former teammate flying backwards.

"I guess there's nothing to talk about," BB said with a snarl, turning to a gorilla and rushing Robin. The martial artist wasted no time in restraining him with the help of a modified birdarang and the gap in the letter A. Robin jumped down and rushed Starfire, but Raven met him halfway there, meeting him in melee with an amount of skill that no one knew she possessed.

The empath immediately knew something was wrong. Raven knew how to fight, but Robin was far better… he wasn't putting any real effort into this. 'Almost like he doesn't want to hurt me.' She thought.

Raven fought in melee with a unique style. The attacks and parries were primarily made with hand-to-hand blows, but whenever she wasn't quick enough to block or whenever Robin found a weakness to get through, a shield of dark energy was there to deflect his attacks. Robin, fighting with his full talent, could almost certainly manage to defeat Raven's defense. Fighting half-heartedly, there wasn't a chance in hell.

Raven watched as Cyborg got back up and pointed his cannon at Robin. She could have cried in relief when he put it back away and charged into the melee. While Robin was busy with the two of them, BB had managed to free himself, and turned into a ram, blindsiding Robin from behind and knocking him sprawling towards the edge of the roof. Robin lay very still, and Beast Boy returned to his human form with a worried look on his face. "Dude, are you ok?" he asked as he walked towards the fallen Titan leader. "I didn't mean…" BB was cut off as Robin came up kicking, sweeping BB off his feet. Raven levitated Robin up to immobilize him, but Robin threw a disk between her and Star that exploded like a miniature sun, momentarily turning night into day. Raven pulled her soul self back to prevent herself from being blinded, but Star was probably down for the moment.

Once Raven dropped her shield to see, she noted that Cyborg was down with a throw grapple twisted around his feet, and Robin was up on the A, running towards the E. He was trying to escape. 'Oh no you don't,' she though, levitating herself up to the end of the E. She came up right in front of Robin, her hands surrounded by a black aura as she extended her arm out at her former leader. "Stop."

Raven's glowing eyes met Robin's mask, and for a moment no one dared to move. The two Titans on the ground that could still see watched in apprehension as Raven and Slade stared each other down. "Do not move." She instructed him. Slowly, Robin raised his arm to point it at her, and the barrel of the cannon started to glow red.

Raven's empath gave her certain abilities, and among them was a limited ability to read thoughts and emotions. She almost never used this ability, out of respect for the privacy of a person's thoughts, but she used it to scan Robin now. He was… confused. Angry. Upset. Nowhere did she detect any malice, any real hate. In her mind, points argued back and forth, her read of Robin, her opinion of the man, and her earlier belief that he wasn't fighting seriously against the concrete evidence of a man pointing a gun at her. She mentally sighed. Again, it all came down to trust. Did she trust that Robin would not betray her, Starfire or no?

Despite herself, she did.

Raven's eyes stopped glowing, revealing to Robin the deep sadness and hurt in them. The aura encasing her hands faded away, and she lowered her hands. "I believe in you. If you truly are not one of us, kill me now." She floated in front of the glowing barrel at Robin's complete mercy. If he decided to shoot now, she would have no chance to put up a defense, and everyone knew it. If Robin wasn't really an ally, Raven was dead.

Robin lowered his arm. "Raven, I…" He shook with pain, falling to his knees. While Raven looked on confused, she gained an increasing sense from her body that something was very, very wrong. Then the pain started. Every single part of her body began screaming in pain at once, and she lost the concentration she needed to stay afloat. She fell, and felt herself be caught in Robin's arms.

Another time, she would have enjoyed this. Now, she just felt like she was dying. "Robin…"

He held her tenderly for a few seconds, and then gently set her on top of the letter. "I'm so sorry, Raven…" was the last thing she heard before blacking out.

When she woke up about five minutes later, she had no idea what had happened. The blazing pain was gone, but so was Robin… until he quickly and viciously attacked from the shadows. His blaster cut a seething line between her and BB as he landed next to the green changeling and swept him off his feet. Robin caught the shape shifter's leg as BB went down and pivoted to throw him at Raven. Raven was knocked off her feet as well, and went flying backwards with BB. He grabbed Raven's cloak as she passed, lifting the blue cloth right off of her. He jumped over Cyborg clumsy punch and landed on his back, dropping him to the ground. Starfire ended up with the cloak wrapped around her eyes, blinding her a moment. Raven recovered quickly and stared to react to Robin's assault, so he spun and shot a crimson blast at Raven, and her soul self shot out to project a shielding dome. Raven quickly stripped the blaster from his wrist with her powers but they caught a second flashbang in the face as he leapt off the building to the east. When she could finally see again, Robin was gone.

"Dude," Beast Boy said, scratching his head in confusion, "I know Robin got that blaster thingy, but where did he learn that 'orange-glowy-painful-thingy?' That was a new trick…"

"I don't believe that was his trick." Raven said, looking in the direction he had disappeared.

Later that night at Titan Tower, Cyborg quickly figured out what was wrong with the Titans. "There are millions of them inside each of us. Nanobombs. They attach themselves to cells in critical areas. Someone pulls a trigger, and they all start blowing up."

"With such technology at his disposal, Slade could destroy us at any time." Starfire stated.

"Unless Robin does exactly what he wants." Raven said, her eyes starting to glow as a little too much anger escaped. 'So that's the way you want to play it, huh Slade?' She thought. 'I can play hardball, too.' She walked to the map of the city kept on one side of the room, listening with half an ear as the other Titans argued.

"What are we going to do?"

"Duh, need to rescue him! We can't let Slade have him!"

"But we don't even know where friend Robin is! How can we help him?"

"Starfire's right, BB. We can't just rescue him… first we need to find him, and before the city turns against him."

"But how, friend Cyborg?"

"Yeah, you're the leader without Robin, so what do you plan to do?"

"Well, maybe we should… no, that wouldn't work. Damn it! Without knowing where he is, there isn't much we can do. If we knew, then I think we should-"

Raven interrupted from the other side of the room. "Sorry to interrupt, but does anyone have a pen?" The other Titans came over to where Raven was standing by the map. She had pushed two markers onto it, and was holding a ruler by one of them. "A pen please?"

"Um… friend Raven? What are you doing?"

"Finding Robin. Pen, please."

"How are you going to…" Cyborg started, but backed off when he realized the black aura Raven was starting to give off.

"Pen. Please. Now!" She said, barely containing her volatile emotions. Without another word, Cyborg went to get her one. Raven began to trace a line with the ruler and the pen on the map.

"What is that, friend Raven?"

"The direction Robin ran off from the two robberies." Raven made another line from the same point, making a cone of roughly 10 degrees.

"There's no way you can know that so exactly!" BB exclaimed in frustration.

"Hence the cone, oh green one." Raven responded. "I'm going to look at the overlap. Once I have an small general area to search, I'll use my empathy to look for Robin." Cyborg, BB, and Starfire suddenly slapped their foreheads as one, wearing identical 'Why didn't we think of that?' expressions.

As it turned out, Raven's empathy wasn't needed: There was only one building remotely close that made sense. "Clocktower," Raven stated simply, smiling a little for the first time since Robin's disappearance.

Cyborg smiled as well. "Teen Titans, move!"

In Slade's lair, Robin wasn't doing very well. As a matter of fact, he was getting his ass handed to him all over again by Slade. After his escape from the Titans, he had attacked his 'master' in a fury.

Still dizzy from Slade's last blow, Robin charged again. Slade sidestepped the attack, grabbing his apprentice's arm as he passed. The evil mastermind used the leverage to painfully force Robin to his knees, arm folded helpless behind his back.

"I offered you a position at my side, all of my wisdom, all of my knowledge, it could all be yours." Slade glanced at the screen behind him, and then bent down lower so he was whispering in Robin's ear. "But all you care about is your sniveling, little, friends!" He broke of, releasing Robin's arm as he brought it back in front of him and tried to rub the feeling back into it. "If the Titans are such a distraction, maybe I should remove them."

"No…" Robin said, completely resigned. "I'll do as you ask."

Robin had barely finished the sentence when a glowing Starbolt knocked Slade off his feet. He turned and saw the remaining four Titans formed up on the level just above the master and apprentice. "Leave him alone!" Starfire said, he voice filled with unusual anger.

"Guys, you need to get out of here!" Robin yelled. "If you don't…"

"We know, Robin." Raven said, silencing him with her purple eyes. "We know. We aren't leaving without you."

'Raven…' he thought. Somehow, he knew that she had brought the team here. She had been the one to find her, and decide he had to be rescued no matter the cost. He spoke his thoughts aloud "Raven…"

Slade chose that moment to re-enter the conversation. "Annoying rats. You have outlived your usefulness." He again pressed the button built into his armored bracers, and the Titans screamed with pain as detonations started internally.

Robin didn't know what to do. He couldn't beat Slade, he couldn't save his friends, and he couldn't even save himself from watching. Robin saw his girlfriend collapse, crying in the pain of the internal detonations, but the person he couldn't look away from was Raven. He watchedthe dark girlfall to the floor, writhing in agony, and something inside him snapped. In the middle of conflict, Richard Grayson found clarity. The hero knew he would do whatever it took, ever, to protect that girl. He didn't know what to do, but suddenly he was desperate enough to find anything.

Robin looked around desperately for inspiration, and suddenly he had an idea. He ran to the other side of the room, paste the Titans. Slade just watched in mild amusement, uncomprehending of what Robin intended. Robin reached a ray gun on the otherside of the room, and pointed it at his own chest. Slade, too late, realized the hero's plan. "No!" he yelled, running towards Robin at a superhuman speed.

He was way too late. Before he had gotten halfway there, Robin triggered the ray on himself, and he too started quickly glowing orange. He struggled to keep his focus even as he fell to his knees in the face of the blinding pain. "New rule, Slade." He forced out in a strained voice. "I lose my friends, you lose your apprentice. And I know how much you hate to lose."

"Well played, Robin." Slade dropped the remote, and crushed it underfoot.The pain the Titans were feeling instantly stopped. With a roar, Slade charged the recovering Titans.

Not fast enough. "Azarath, Metrion Zinthos!" Slade dodged a gaint cog that flew right by him, just in time to take a glancing hit from Cyborg's sonic cannon. Beast Boy charged Slade as an ape, but Slade had little trouble dodging. When both Robin and Cyborg joined the melee though, dodging all the attacks began difficult. He had to jump and do a series of kick flips off of clock parts to avoid a volly of green plasma from Starfire, only to catch a flying disk to the face, courtasy of Raven.

Slades already cracked mask came apart, revealing a glace of a scarred, single eyed face before he covered it with his arm. "Well played indeed, Titans." He hit a button on his arm, and the building started coming down around the combatants. "I'll see you again, Robin..." Slade said, turning and running somewhere deeper into the tower. Robin thought to follow after him, but a quick glance at the team's empath banished any thoughts of that. He turned and ran out with the team, leaving Slade behind.

"That's it, we're all clean." Cyborg announced happily to the assembled Titans. "Slade's nasties are all gone."

BB leaped off the chair and practically ripped all the cords off of him. "I'm all natural again! Yeah! Go Beast Boy, go Beast Boy!" He danced around while the other Titans laughed.

The team had almost instantly forgiven Robin: they realized he had no choice. Robin was just glad he could be part of such a team... he had managed to do something right as he put them together. Cyborg had held the team together just fine in his absence, justifying his decision to recruit him as his second in command. The team trusted him.

Trust... Just the thought of it reminded him of Raven. Every time he had a moment to think visions of Raven floating helpless before him came to mind. THAT was trust. One girl deciding that she believed in the man with a gun to her head, despite all evidence to the contrary. He wasn't sure he had it in him. He would have never thought Raven had it in her to believe like that.

From that moment on, Robin knew he could always trust Raven completely. To her, the pledge of loyalty was unbreakably strong... he wanted to think he was worthy of such allegiance, such trust.

As he thought about Raven, Starfire came up and sat against him, leaning into him. Robin couldn't help but compare the two girls. Starfire was very pretty, and most warm-blooded males would cut off their right arm to have her hanging on their left. For Robin, however, she was becoming less and less of a real lover... he felt for her as nothing more than a good friend. They really didn't have anything in common.

Unlike Raven...

While not pretty the obvious way Starfire was, Raven had a sense of mystery wrapped around her like that conservative cloak she always hid herself beneath. The cloak couldn't contain the truth, though... Raven was beautiful, at least as much so as Star: just in completely different ways. 'She could understand me,' Robin implicitly understood, 'she is someone I could tell anything, and she'd be able to understand... no matter how harsh the truth.' Robin shook his head. These were not thoughts he could afford to have right now.

Robin looked around, and noticed everyone had left the main room to sleep. He and Star were the only two left. Giving his hand one last, fond touch, Starfire likewise rose to leave, and Robin made his choice. "Star, can I talk to you for a minute?"

End Chapter 9
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Next time on Teen Titans: Fragile Dreams -

-Another interlude!
-More music!
-And that's actually all I'm going to tell you. What will happen? Now taking bets...

Next Episode: Second Interlude: And One