Chapter Four:

The Raven Haired Sakura

Celine's impressive library was growing. It seemed every day she was receiving books since the day she had arrived, the volume steadily increasing. Cyborg was often awoken from sleep when in Celine's room¹ by Celine pacing back and forth across the floor, a headlamp shining on a book she was reading at lightning fast speed or her scribblings which, as of late, had become furious and nearly unreadable and exponentially louder forged into the drawing board. Despite her divided attention, Celine hadn't forgotten the promise she didn't make. She collected all the data she could about Terra's condition and the newly developed Reverse Engineering field. Celine sighed thinking about the day Beast Boy had taken her to "meet" Terra.

The statue stood free of any damage not natural to the girl's condition. Beast Boy had told her what had happened and Celine considered if she was doing the right thing. But when she looked into Beast Boy's innocent green eyes, she knew that it wasn't about Terra and the terrible things she had done. It was about Beast Boy and Beast Boy could do no wrong.

Her scans had detected a bio-electric pulse resonating weakly in the stone. The girl was alive, but devising a method to amplify that pulse to a degree that she could manipulate it was proving to be a task that would take Celine more than a few days and a few dozen equations.

Cyborg watched Celine pace that night, the night of the fair, and remained immune to her absolute perfection. Cyborg had tried, he really had. But he could tell, after the years of his running and their both becoming people that he couldn't recognize; the spark that had made Celine the most beautiful woman in the world to him was gone… and he wasn't getting it back; whether because he didn't have the capacity or because he didn't want to wasn't the issue. He had one concern, how was he going to tell the woman that loved him more than her own life, that maybe love, on his part, wasn't the right word?

…

No one knew the real reason why Raven had started smiling. They thought it was because she had nearly mastered a hold on her emotions. The truth was that any day could be their last. The fire within her had been awakened, long before Slade had shown up, long before the others knew the truth of her pedigree. Trigon was lurking in the darkest crevices of her heart and Raven had neither the power nor the persistence to purge him from there. So Trigon's power grew with the beat-beat of her throbbing heart.

The night of the fair, Raven went to bed with a brown bunny looking over her. She smiled thinking about the silly little thing Robin had given her, with it's toppled over ears and marble eyes. It wasn't much of a prize, but it was Raven's most valued possession. Raven said good night to the stars and the moon… and fell into the worst sleep of her life.

HOT. Scolding, the wind stung like demon's breath. He marched out silently, as the others did behind him. A girl was formless in her protector's arms. Pain ripped through his young lungs as their still bodies were covered up with tattered silks, unable to represent the honor of their deaths. He screamed in his young voice as they took them all away like some match set and he was forgotten. They marched with the efficiently of the soldiers of Aries into hell. Tears ran, the pain sharpened and that horrible beat beat increased in base.

Beat, beat heartbeat

A terrible flash of darkness swarmed the hot surroundings and his young head turned to the source; that beat growing louder, coming for him, to claim the last piece.

I'M LOST…

Raven shot out from her prone position, two lamps and a chair exploding around her. She gasped for breath and her heart pounded, threatening to escape her chest. She couldn't swallow, air and water stuck in her throat. When the air finally made it to her lungs it came in painful bursts, but she couldn't think about her pain, not now, not after this. Raven fazed through her bed and two stories, landing in the middle of Robin's bedroom. Raven scanned the room in a blind panic and was wracked with terror when she didn't find Robin. She fled the room by foot and ran through the hall, up a flight of stairs and through another corridor. Her heart hurt, her throat burned and night blindness was conquered by panic.

Raven ran solidly into Robin in the hallway near her bedroom. Robin's arms wrapped tightly around her waist in shock. The girl was shaking in the middle of an unbearably hot night. She collapsed against him, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

Robin froze. Here Raven was on the verge of crying and she was asking him if he was okay? Robin held the girl tightly. The shuddering stopped. It took Robin a moment to find that Raven had cried herself to sleep on his chest. He lifted the slack girl and carried her towards her room. He knew it was a gross invasion of privacy to let his curious eyes take in all they could as he entered, so he kept his eyes on Raven and let his instinct lead him to her bed. Robin laid the girl down in her divan and pulled the sheet to her waist. He moved the bunny from its place on her nightstand and tucked it under her sheet close to her body.

Something had scared her², something that she thought should scare him too. That night he crawled back into his bed and decided to give that more thought when he woke up the next morning.

With all the stumbling and flirting with Raven, Robin seemed to have forgotten something important. He's life for the last two and a half weeks, since the HIVE attack, had been hectic and a lot of things were muddled. But something, something important, had slipped his attention. It would drive him insane finding out just what that something was.

Robin woke up the next morning warm and safe. He felt like he was in a cocoon. A cocoon that had two arms, two legs and big purple eyes.

"Raven, what are you doing in here?"

"I wanted to make sure he didn't have any more nightmares." Raven said letting Robin pull himself from her lap. She remained cross legged, arms suddenly cold not holding the Boy Wonder to her body.

"Raven, you've calmed my nightmares before, but you never held me to do it."

"I, I wasn't sure if I could handle one so terrible by just being close. I had to touch you to make sure you didn't suffer anymore."

"But Raven, I didn't have a nightmare last night."

"What?"

"I hadn't even gone to bed yet when you ran into me last night. What you saw, didn't come from me."³

"But… a fight… a small boy… I could feel…"

"Raven, I didn't dream at all last night."

Raven froze in place, terribly unsure of herself. She ran a hand through her hair, shocked (but unjustifiably) that her hair was cascading over her shoulders. She pulled herself from the bed, and stood in the middle of Robin's floor, not so much as saying a good bye before unleashing her soul self and fleeing to the sanctuary of her room. She needed a hair cut, and she needed to think.

…

Beast Boy considered himself the luckiest man in the world. Yesterday, he had gotten an A on his math test. This morning, no one argued with him about breakfast (though the details behind that were unclear), he had run laps around Loberos in their daily runs and he had finally saved up (and by that he meant found enough loose change) to buy Super Mega Monkey's Five Platinum Edition. He placed his money into this pocket and headed for the tower entrance when the door slide open, announcing a guest had arrived. Beast Boy was slightly bummed at the idea of having to turn around and direct the guest to the common room, but after one look, when the sun no longer blocked his vision, Beast Boy decided it wasn't an inconvenience at all… It might be the best thing that happened to him that day.

She was standing there looking for all the world like an angel in brown leather. Beast Boy could tell from the slant of her eyes and the narrowness of her chin and brow that she was Asian, but the shape of her face and the height of her cheekbones gave her the distinct appearance of being an American. Her outfit was unusual, it was some sort of fighting jersey cut into two parts: a high collared brown leather shirt and a knee length caped-pant in matching material. She looked strong for her frame, but Beast Boy felt like she had made an effort to hide it. That would explain the pony tails.

Beast Boy stood frozen even as the girl waved her hand in front of his face. He fell to pieces when she poked him. Aqualad would find the pile of Beast Boy and nearly collapse into a similar pile when he took notice to the guest. Before the girl could open her mouth, Aqualad melted to the floor. She scratched her head in confusion. This is going nowhere and its taking a long time.

"Excuse me. Can either of you… piles of gentleman lead me to Robin?" She asked.

Aqualad and Beast Boy pulled themselves together. They turned to each other before wailing at the injustice. They turned their backs to her, rivers a tears running down their faces.

"It's not fair!" Aqualad cried.

"She's probably Speedy's girlfriend!"

The two collapsed against each other and continued to cry. Cyborg was the one to notice the visitor next. She stood with nothing in her hands, a duffle bag by her feet and something huge wrapped in parchment strapped against her back. The girl stepped over the sniveling boys and stepped in front of Cyborg.

"Excuse me. My name is Sakura Chloe. I am looking for my brother. Is he here?"

"Brother!" Aqualad and Beast Boy cried. "You said you were looking for Robin!"

"Yes."

"But! But? Robin doesn't…"

Said Titan entered the entrance hall, his ears had been burning for the last six minutes. After accounting for Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and Celine he had gone to find Beast Boy and Aqualad to shut at least one of them up. Robin froze where he was. He could see just a glimpse of her behind Cyborg's shoulder, standing as proud and as strong as she had so very long ago.

Dear Brother, it has been a very long time since we have last spoken, but the times as they are call for us to stand before each other again. I will be arriving soon as I can, long after you receiving this letter. I look forward to seeing you, until then, be very careful, the winds are changing again. ⁴

Cyborg stepped out of the way and let Sakura and Robin meet eye to eye in what would be the first time in five years. Her brown eyes met his and in that moment the unease he had been feeling for nearly three weeks was erased. He knew what he had forgotten, what had been teasing his mind, filling it and shrinking away. The letter… how could he have forgotten?

"Sakura…"

"Dear Brother."

Robin ran to her and grabbed the taller girl around the shoulders. It was then that Starfire and Raven entered the entrance hall; Starfire concerned with the "invisible damage to Robin's ears"; and Raven, unable to stand the warm sensation she had been feeling as she meditated, had followed Starfire, mildly curious about what Starfire meant. Their faces' blushed a flaming red, so bright it put Star's hair to shame, as Robin bent his head slightly to let the other woman kiss his forehead.

"Robin!" Starfire screamed.

Raven might have screamed as well if she hadn't seen the girl's face. She remembered her, but knew she had never seen the girl before. But her image was looping in her mind, even after mediating for so many hours after last night. Raven recognized her, the formlessness replaced with grace and beauty, it was the girl from the dream; Robin's dream…

No, Robin's memory.

End of Part One.

A/N

¹ I know, I know. Cyborg doesn't sleep, he recharges. But how unromantic is that?

²This is an evolution of Raven and Robin's bond. Raven wasn't seeing Robin's dream, she was seeing something buried deep in his memory.

³ I know it seems that every chapter I'm taking their relationship two steps forward and three steps back, but that's the build up for a character dynamic. The relationship will finally bloom in coming chapters.

⁴That's the translated letter from Chapter Two.