Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N Ya… I figured you'd all enjoy that.

Yeah… this chapter is definitely songfic-y. Eh, what you gunna do? This chapter is pretty short, but it was hard as hell to write. Besides, once you read to the end I think you'll forgive me for making it short.

All I can say is this… READ THIS CHAPTER TO THE END. If you don't, your going to miss some important stuff. I know some people probably skip the authors note at the end… well, DON'T skip this one.

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

Fragile Dreams Chapter 22 - The Fourth Interlude: Iris
June 11th, 2005

Robin woke up early the next day, like he always did. His whole body was still sore, but that's all it was… no serious pain. Hating how sensitive his eyes were to light ater sleeping, he tried to rise up to a sitting position without opening them… and he found himself pinned to the bed by a heavy weight. Surprised, he opened his eyes and looked down, squinting from the light pouring through the windows. A mop of purple hair was resting on his chest.

It took a few moments for the drowsy Titan to connect the hair with the person it belonged to. 'Raven!' he thought, shocked. He hadn't allowed himself to consider the events of last night as anything other than a dream, as unlikely as they seemed. The empath resting her head on his chest gave a contented little sigh and shifted, turning her face towards Robin. Her eyes were still closed, sleeping, but Robin couldn't help but stare at her, mesmerized by her quiet beauty. In sleep, all her walls were down, she was unguarded, open, as if for the first time in her life she had no worries. It made her look more beautiful than ever.

Robin's eyes gazed over her soft, gray features. Mapping them; committing her beauty to memory. She was more enchanting than ever, and now she seemed to feel for him the way he had wanted her to for months now. When did she start to feel like this? What had he done to deserve a little slice of heaven for his own?

Raven started to stir. Robin smiled down at her; resting a hand lightly on the back of her neck. "Time to get up, beautiful." Raven's eyes fluttered open…

And I'd give up forever to touch you
'Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

June 18th, 2005

The last week had been the happiest in Raven's life. There had been no major revelations, no deep talks about their feelings, no inquiries into her past… the week had been consumed by carefree time spent by each other, talking about everything imaginable. Topics ranged from musical preferences to physics. Even crime in the city was quiet, as if respectful for the newfound lovers. Only minor robberies to worry about.

'What was I so afraid of?' Raven dared to wonder, in this time she had an opportunity to wonder all things. 'Together, we're completely safe. Slade is gone, crime is down, and so far my father hasn't been able to touch me here. Everything is going to be alright after all…'

"Hey, Raven?"

Raven was brought back to reality by Robin's voice. She was sitting on the couch next to him, watching some movie that she really hadn't been paying that much attention to. It had started to get dark outside while she had been lost in thought. She looked up at him and smiled. "Hm?"

Robin met her smile. "It looked like you went away there for a second."

Raven chuckled at little at his choice of words, so appropriate for her. Robin really did understand her so much better than she ever believed anyone could. "Just thinking."

" 'bout what?"

"You." She smiled at him, then leaned up giving him a light kiss. This cute side of her was another part she had never realized could be, but Robin was slowly bringing much of her humanity to the forefront that she never realized could exist.

Robin certainly appreciated this side of his love. "I wondered… you have anything planned for tomorrow?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "No…" she said hesitatingly. "Why?"

"Because I have something I'd like to do with you. How about it?"

She smiled and turned her attention back towards the movie. "Sounds fair to me."

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
'Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

June 19th, 2005

'Well, this is a disaster,' Robin thought to himself as he sat down on the street, with the movie theater behind him. 'Next time, maybe you should check and see if the theater's open first.'

Raven walked up behind him and rubbed his head affectionately. "Niiiiice work, Boy Blunder," she whispered in his ear, her voice light. Robin looked up at her, vaguely surprised.

'Is this Raven… teasing me?'

"Next time… I decide where we're going, alright?"

Robin smiled up at her. "Well, I guess I'm in no position to object, am I?"

"You sure aren't. As a matter of fact, I have an idea right now. You still up for something today?"

"Shoot."

Raven walked though the woods slowly, holding her new boyfriend's hand in her own. The forest just north of town was so beautiful in the summer, and the shade nicely canceled out the tremendous heat. Despite the quiet atmosphere, neither of the Titans felt as urge to remain silent… they comfortably, if softly, spoke to each other, each enjoying the time they could spend with one another.

As they continued to walk aimlessly through for forest, Robin suddenly caught sight of something. He gestured towards it with his right hand, refusing to release hers with his right. "Hey, I have an idea. Come on!" Raven followed.

There was a little hill just to the east of where they were walking, blocking off their sight in that direction. Robin started leading Raven up that hill… it wasn't an easy climb. The prying roots of hundreds of trees had made the dirt loose, and it was starting to get dark under the canopy and hard to see your footing. Nevertheless, Raven allowed Robin to help her up, all without use of her powers. As soon as she caught sight of the other side of the ridge she let out a little gasp.

The ocean had been right over the rise, completely blocked from sight. Free from the omnipresent canopy of the forest for a few seconds, Raven could see that the sun was setting, which accounted forth both the darkening woods and the brilliant display before her. The sun was setting behind her back, but the bright colors reflected down on the shimmering water laid out before her, painting an incredible vista of light and dark across the waves.

Raven turned to Robin when he wrapped an arm around her. "Good choice." Robin leaned down, their lips meeting once again.

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Starfire sat perfectly still on the roof of the Titans Tower, her legs wrapped in the uncomfortable lotus position as she tried to will herself to focus. Raven had taught her to meditate once, a while ago, but the eternally energetic alien didn't really have the psychology for it – she was too active by nature, and forcing herself to remain in one place for so long was subtle torture.

Despite her misgivings on meditation, Starfire had to admit that is was a good way to focus on your own thoughts, away from others… which is precisely what the Tamaranian needed right now. Friend's Raven and Robin's relationship, now that is was official, was slightly disturbing, and Starfire found it extremely worrisome she felt that way.

And Starfire knew that she shouldn't feel that way. She and Robin had tried to make something together, and while she regretted the lack of success in the attempt, she harbored no ill will towards him or her friend Raven because of it. Although she was extremely happy for her dark friend, she also envied her… that was what was so wrong.

On an instinct, Starfire opened her eyes. In the darkness of the night, she could make out a figure flying towards the Tower from the north. 'That would be Raven and Robin, back from their date.' Starfire cringed. Even the thought, inside her head, sounded bitter. She needed to sort this out.

June 22nd, 2005

'It's been quite a while, Raven. Didn't feel the need to meditate recently?'

The sarcastic voice, Raven knew, belonged to gold. More important that its tone, however, were its words… Raven considered for the first time and realized their truth. "Actually… no, I haven't." The empath tilted her head towards the golden emotion, even as others started to gather around her. "Why is that? Or can you not tell me that, either?"

Gold sadly shook her head. "I can tell you… but you won't understand. Not until you realize who I am."

Raven rolled her eyes, already tiring of this back and force verbal game. "Try me."

Gold shrugged. "While you stay with Robin, your need to meditate decreases greatly."

The Titan looked confused and startled at that announcement, and she was happy to note she wasn't the only one. The other assembled emotions, even anger, were visibly thrown off by this. Anger was the first to recover enough to query the bold declaration. "What? Why!"

Looking at the ground, Gold gave that same, sad shake of her head. "I warned you that you wouldn't understand."

Anger grabbed Gold by the hem of her robe and lifted Gold off the ground, her eyes blazing furiously beneath the crimson cowl of her cloak. "No more games! Tell me what you know, NOW!"

"Are youreally so stupid that you think it's a matter of my choice?" Gold said simply while staring down into Anger's four eyes, condescension practically dripping from her words. "The knowledge would help Raven. If I could disclose it, I would… I simply cannot."

Anger let go of the other emotion in disgust, letting her fall to the floor. "Some guardian emotion you are. You don't even look like her."

Wisdom couldn't help but counter that. "Actually Anger… neither do you."

Instead of flaring her temper, the comment just made Angerlaugh. "Yes I do. My appearance matches her true insides perfectly." She shot one last glance down at the gold-cloaked figure, still rising from the ground. "Soon, it won't matter what useless advice you have to not share. Raven will need only one emotion."

Raven finally decided to rejoin the discussion. "The prophecy is a myth."

"The prophecy is your destiny, fool!" Anger yelled, spinning to face the empath. "Accept it or not, nothing can change that. Not now, not ever."

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in the lies
When everything feels like the movies
And you bleed just to know you're alive

6:48 PM, June 24

"Look, I am a raging Glornag!"

Cyborg stopping typing and stared at the Tamaranian, Changeling stopped cooking and did likewise. Starfire had picked up some of the tofu bacon the shape shifter had been cooking and was holding it up to her head as horns. She had a silly expression of pure, exaggerated rage on her face. For several long, embarrassing seconds, an air of awkward silence descended on the three.

Starfire's outrageous expression shifted to confusion, and then slowly to embarrassment. "On my planet, this is hilarious," she said slowly. Changeling and Cyborg glances at one another, then burst out laughing. Still struggling to contain himself, Cyborg went back to typing.

Raven heard and saw all of this, but paid it no attention: how could she, when she was so close to Robin? With his warm, muscular body pressed up against her, how could she pay attention to anything? She might not be entirely human, but she was human enough to still have teenage hormones.

Cyborg looked up from surfing the Internet to talk to his friend. "Hey guys! There's supposed to be a complete solar eclipse two days from now at 5:41 PM."

Robin looked up from his comfortable position, nestled next to his girlfriend, watching a movie with her. "Oh? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, but we might not get the chance to enjoy it... we're probably going to need to be on full alert. This eclipse sounds like a weird one. According to this, the planets are lining up perfectly as well. The police are expecting the usual assortment of crazies and lunatics to go out there and greet the apoca..."

As Cyborg spoke, Robin could feel Raven stiffen beside him.

Raven's blood instantly froze into ice as Cyborg continued. 'It can't be...it can't... but it can't be a coincidence. How could it have snuck up on me?' She slowly got up to look back at the mechanical man, and interrupted him as casually as she could. "Hey Cy... what today's date?"

"Umm... it's Friday, right? The 24th of June. Why?"

Raven stood up, her worst fears confirmed. "I need to go meditate." She ran out, leaving her very confused boyfriend behind.

7:37 PM, June 24th

"Well boss, it seems that Robin has fully recovered from hisrest in the Titan's blast'n medical bay... and all without us doing anything to take advantage of his injuries." Gizmo reported, kneeling in an uncharacteristically respectful pose for him. "What was the floggin' point of wasting that dust in Slade's mask if we weren't going to do anything about it?"

Jynx had been wondering the same thing, but she kinda figured she didn't want to understand the way this operation really worked. She was uncomforable enough working in Bludhaven again. Besides, she figured Dr. Light didn't really know. He was almost certainly just responding to orders from his "client: whomever that was.

"We all have our orders, Gizmo," Dr. Light said without rising from his seat, confirming Jynx's suspicions. "We do what we're told to d-" The mad scientist was cut off by the ringing of the phone he never seemed to take off his person. Waving his hand for silence, he picked up the phone and listened for several seconds. "I understand," he said, and closed the cell.

"Well, what was that about?"

Jynx frowned when she heard the new voice, lowering her face to hide the expression of disdain. Impatient and impulsive, with a bloodthirsty hopefullness in her voice just begging Dr. Light to tell her they had recieved the order to deal with the Titans... that would make it Shimmer. Sure enough, the orange haired goth walked past her into the room. Unlike Gizmo, there was nothing respectful about the way she carried herself, but Dr. Light took no offense. Rather, he smiled.

"We've recieved a date. We move against the Titans intwo days."

Mammoths's sister mimicked his insane smiled. "I'm looking forward to it."

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am.

"This can't be happening... it can't!"

Raven frantically was paging through several of her books at once, using her powers to absorb the knowledge far quicker than an ordinary person could. "How could my 18th birthday have snuck up on me so completely? The prophecy can't be real... nothing is preordained. The prophecy couldn't be real," she mumbled to herself as she scanned.

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Driven by an urge she couldn't understand, she looked over at the digital clock. It read 11:59. As she stared, the numbers shifted and reformed.

12:00.

The 25th of June.

Raven shivered. Suddenly, the room felt freezing cold.

I just want you to know who I am...

End Chapter 22
A/N - In case it wasn't clear from the context of the chapter (not to mention the specific dates), about 3 weeks pass during this episode. Don't blink, because the rest of the series takes place in about a 48 hour period.

Lets see, credit where credit is due...

The dates, times, and especially the ending was inspired by 24.

The "Raging Glornag" joke was stolen directly from The End, Part 3... b/c it's the funniest think Starfire says all show.

And I owe major favors to Water81 for making this chapter not suck... I hope.

BUT THE CHAPTER ISN'T QUITE DONE YET...

Next Time on Teen Titans - Fragile Dreams:

-Ahhh… now wasn't that sweet?
-Unfortunately, I cannot allow such unadulterated WAFF to continue unabated
-You just knew I had to screw up everything...
-I won't say more, but I will show you a little bit of foreshadowing... here's a preview from the next episode...

Darkness. The absence of light, pure blackness. Natural. This void was not darkness, not blackness. Not natural. This was a void, a gap in which the glory of light didn't merely not exist, but could not exist. This shadow would swallow anything it contacted... stone, air, even life...

Light.

Bright light flared, shooting through the pure black of void, fire burning, warring against the dark. White hot fire flowed over black stone, forming spiraling outwards. The dark recoiled away from the light like a plague, but there was nowhere to go. The dark finally retreated to the circle in the center of the spiral, the only place still marked by the absence of light. Then all was white as fire flows over the dark, consuming it and adding it to itself.

The white fire faded along with the unnatural dark, leaving on a normal fire burning patterns on the stone. The fire flared, raising up to the height of a man.

Through the flickers of the fire, an armored man rose from from his kneeling posture in the center of the spiral. Long, shock white hair tumbled from his head in straight streams, contrasting sharply with the darkness as the fire made it glow. As he stood, his hair moved to reveal his eye, glinting red in the flame. The other eye, on the right side, was nothing but a gouge in his face, as though it and much of the flesh around it was forcibly torn out.

The man looked down at his hands, flexed his fists, and smiled. He brought a clenched fist up to eye level, and the flame swirled in intricate patterns around him. The man laughed cruely, the sound booming in the total silence.

"The day has arrived..."

"AND THE WORLD OF MORTALS SHALL TREMBLE!"

I just want you to know who I am...

-The long awaited episode that's finally here...

Next Episode: Birthmark

Shit. Fan. You know the rest.