Holar, all! 'Sup? Thanks for the reviews, fatcat, and Angie! If you haven't noticed, I fixed some of the typos. Or tried to. This one is done with a spell check! Usually, when I'm writing, it's about an hour after my bedtime, and I'm more worried about getting the thoughts out than actually proofreading them. If I took the time to make sure that every single thing in my fanfics was grammatically and spelling correct, I'd never get a single thing out. Semine, if you do a single thing to my books, I will have you hung. Don't mess with me.

Yea, vague threats! Can you tell I'm on psychotropic drugs? I just looovvve drug induced happy feelings. How about you? I also like kittens, bunnies, and lacerations! If I wasn't on psychotropic drugs right now, I'd be embarrassed that I was acting this way!

Sorry. Inside joke. If you ever get the opportunity to head to you'd get it. Sure, it's about five years in, but that can't be helped. You just need to read through 1750 comics. That's not too hard.

Going on with show now.


The warmth was painful. The fire around him was just too hot. He opened his eyes weakly. Even though he was enshrouded in flames, the landscape still managed to be dark and dreary. He started to get up, but found himself tied to a stone throne. Dimly, he thought, why haven't the ropes combusted? And why is the stone still cool? But he knew that in dreams, any logic you found was the correct logic.

He looked at the surroundings, having nothing better to do before he became some charcoal on the stone. But his heart nearly stopped.

There was Starfire, and Cyborg, and Beast Boy, and Raven, and Rhea, all tied to similar thrones, heads lolling to the side, unconscious.

"So. You are the first to awaken, Robin. This almost seems…anticlimactic, really. After all these years squabbling, I thought there'd be some epic battle. But no. All of it ends here, in my citadel. I would prefer to kill you now, but after all the trouble you have caused me, I shall wait a while for your comrades to wake up as well." The voice seemed to come from everywhere, gravelly and thunderous.

"Who are you? Come out here and face me like a man!" Robin yelled.

There was a silence as the fires around him crackled on the land. "Why? I'm not a man, and never will be. That would just be a disgrace to my people."

Fury burned in Robin, hotter than the fire nearby. Robin almost swore that a few bits of brush at his feet shot up into flames because of him. That could be useful, later on.

Robin's frantic planning came to a sudden halt as noises came from across the clearing. Beast Boy was stirring.

"So you are the first to help me, are you?" the voice said, nearly purring.

"Help you to your doom, ass hole! You don't get to hurt my family or friends for long!" Robin was filled with more respect for Beast Boy. That was more bravado than Robin could have mustered at that particular moment.

"But you will help me. Help me with my biggest act yet. To take complete control of Azerath." The voice materialized into a towering red humanoid. Short fur covered his body, and a mane of shaggy beige hair swept from his head. He had four eyes that glowed with malice. He reached down to Beast Boy, cut his bonds, and held him tight. Beast Boy transformed so quickly that Robin couldn't keep track. Snake, sparrow, ostrich, koala, platypus, porcupine, elephant, blue whale, amoeba, cat, tiger, gazelle, dog, wolf, rabbit, fox, all within a few moments. But the man held fast, his ebony claws digging into Beast Boy's flesh, drawing out blood.

It was just pinpricks at first, but Robin heard bones snap, and Beast Boy returned to a human shape. The man dropped him, and when his claws were no longer there to stop the blood flow, the red liquid gushed out, making Robin's stomach revolt and burn at the same time. In less then a minute, the changeling was dead, blood in a pool around him, rigor mortis setting in.

Just as Robin thought he could take no more, and had to wallow in his grief and feelings of responsibility, Starfire stirred.

"Star! Go back to sleep!" Robin shouted, hoping against hope that it would work. But he wasn't thinking clearly, which was obvious. At the noise, Starfire shot awake immediately.

"What is wrong? Have you a plan for the escape of the citadel?" she asked. Robin shook his head glumly, knowing what would come next.

The man made the fire rise until the ropes around Starfire burned away. The man picked her up by her hair, and grabbed a strange silver rock. Starfire's green eyes widened in horror.

"Kumari stone," she breathed. "Toxic to my people." The man smiled, and shoved the rock down her throat. She thrashed and grabbed at her neck. But her skin was loosing its healthy orange glow, and strange stony patches were appearing on her skin. She dangled, lifeless, still grasping at her throat.

Robin's heart wrenched in two. No. Not Star. Not the beacon of hope and happiness he had come to depend on when Slade appeared. Not the one thing bright in his short life.

Robin's misery came to a screeching halt when he heard a mechanical hum. In fear, he looked at Cyborg. Sure enough, he was powering up. The man grinned, and grabbed a huge magnet. Before Cyborg could even thing properly, the magnet was placed near to him. Cyborg's circuits halted. The magnetic field created by his motherboard was disrupted, and he was dead.

Robin looked around, knowing there was no point in grieving, when he would almost instantly witness another friend's death. To his surprise, Rhea was awake, and apparently had been for some time.

"How come he hasn't killed you yet?" Robin asked.

Rhea smiled bitterly. "It's my dream."

"Ah." Robin started to say more, but was cut off by Rhea.

"Be quiet, something important is about to happen," she said, nodding towards the man.

Robin turned back to the show. The disturbing, unfair, horrifying show. The man walked over to Raven as Robin watched in horror. The man held out his hand to Raven, who, as if in a trance, laid hers delicately in his. She stood up, and followed the man to sit in a far more ornate throne next to his. It was then that Robin realized that Raven was not in her uniform, but in a black dress that flowed like water across her body and onto the floor.

"Is this some pretense for her murder?" Robin asked, sounding fiercer than he felt.

"Of course not. Why would I kill my Dark Queen?"

Next to Robin, Rhea shouted. "How dare you even touch her, after all you've done to us?"

"But she is willing. Aren't you, darling?" the man asked, turning to Raven.

"I am always willing to serve you, my master and husband." Raven's voice was monotone. Not like her usual monotone, which implied more depth, but in a hollow voice. It was then that Robin noticed Raven's eyes. They were gray, all the way through. No pupil, no iris, nothing.

The man leaned over to Rhea and Robin somehow, and whispered to Rhea loud enough so Robin could hear. "But if you'd rather be my Queen, I'm sure I could arrange that." Rhea shuddered.

The man turned his head slightly, so as to better murmur to Robin. "And I need you to be my second in command." Robin spat on the ground. "I understand. You're afraid of the Trance Spell. Don't worry. It doesn't hurt one bit. Just hold still as I rip out your soul and replace it with bits of mine." The man straightened, and grabbed a mean looking ceremonial dagger. "I've been waiting to use this athemae for a long time. The only sad thing is, when I'm done, it won't be an athemae."

The man put the tip of the dagger to Robin's collarbone. Even though the dagger hadn't pierced skin yet, it burned. The fire was nothing compared to this. And when the first drop of blood beaded onto the blade, the pain was

Robin woke up, almost screaming. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead, sliding under his mask. In aggravation, he clawed at his face until the wretched thing came off. He got out of his bed, pacing in his pajamas

What the hell had that been? Most of his dreams that made him wake up at...What time was it? Robin glanced at the clock. "Shit," he murmured. It was four thirty.

Back on topic, Robin, he scolded himself. This is like any other mystery. This is not one of my normal dreams. They usually involve Slade. Not that man. No, he's not a man. He's—

Robin quickly stumbled upon the knowledge he would have come upon much quicker if he had bothered to get eight hours of sleep in. It involved Rhea, right? And who's our expert on all things Azerath? Raven!

He bounded over to his computer, where he brought up personnel files. There were several companies who sold them cleaning and repair robots. But the companies were not Robin's main concern. The file on Raven was.

He clicked it open, reading the first document on her basic statistics.

Name: Raven. No known last name.

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Robin growled in impatience. This was stuff he already knew. And the mouse was taking forever to scroll down.

Birthplace: Azerath

Background: Mother-Aryelle Father-the demon Trigon

At her birth, a prophecy was made foretelling her part in the Earth's destruction and the rebirth of Trigon. To prevent this, her Mother and guardians at Azerath drilled into her head that emotions were not acceptable. Her emotions control her powers. But displays of emotions can lead to Trigon or his acolytes using the person or thing against her, in order to persuade her to summon Trigon.

Robin growled again. This would not do. This was not helping. His anger subsided, though, and a peace washed over him. It was a dream. Nothing more.

But something about it seemed oddly prophetic…

He would ask Rhea. It was her dream, after all.


As Robin walked into the kitchen for a midnight snack (he was awake after all, he might as well eat), he was surprised to find Rhea in a long sleeved nightgown, making tea.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked blithely, as if she confronted obsessive maniacs in the middle of the night all the time.

"How could you tell?" Robin deadpanned. "Bad dream."

Rhea's eyebrows rose. "Oh really? You were in my dream."

Robin sighed. "What aren't you telling me? I can safely assume that I somehow invaded your dream, right?" Rhea nodded. "Than who was that man? Where were we? How could I get into your dream?"

"Don't call him a man. He isn't. He's my grandfather. We were in Azerath. And if it helps, Raven was in my dream, too."

"But she didn't do anything,"

"So? That dream was a projection of my innermost fears. Which happen to be very alike to yours. Raven's innermost fear is what happened in the dream, getting taken control of by my grandfather. The coincidence, Raven and my magic abilities, and the innate magic of dreams wove your mind and Raven's into my dream. Also, the bond between you and Raven helped a bit."

Robin sighed. Grilling Rhea for information would be about as useful as grilling him for it would be. You could ask her as many questions you wanted, and she would answer truthfully, but not in any way that was helpful. You would have to ask the right question. And Robin had the distinct feeling that the right question was something obscure, that he would never think of.

Robin sighed inwardly, giving up. Instead, he tried to make small talk. So he started by looking at Rhea. Something about her wasn't…right. He spoke up.

"Why aren't you yourself?"

"Huh?" Rhea had been deep in thought as the water boiled for tea. "Oh, yeah. I'll answer that in a moment, but first, do you want some tea?" Robin nodded. "Why aren't I myself? Because I was raised not to be. Anything that showed how I am inside would be suppressed or used against me. I learned how to feel on the surface, but keep inside emotions inside."

"Ah. So, just humor me, and show me the real you. I promise I won't tell."

"Okay." Rhea closed her eyes, and when she opened them, her brows knitted, her eyes darted into the shadows, and the corners of her lips turned down. She balanced herself, and reached into a drawer for a knife with one hand. Her other hand had somehow gotten a dagger without moving. If Robin had been looking in as a spectator, he would have seen the same posture in him, the same paranoia and 'fortune favors the prepared' attitude. But he wasn't a spectator, and instead found her habits slightly insulting.

"Do you not trust me?"

"No," she said darkly, "It's the shadows I don't trust." The two stood in silence for a few moments, until Robin thought of one of the questions that might be the right one.

"Hey, what's your last name?" Robin asked. Either he would get a name he could check up on, or she wouldn't have one, in which case she was part demon.

Rhea remained silent for a few moments. Robin gave up for the umpteenth time that night, and wandered off to his room.


When Robin woke up the next morning, a post it note was stuck to his mirror.

My name is Rhea Keiverra Drake.

Robin smiled at first, eager for the opportunity to list Rhea as a Titan, with more statistics than he had before.

But that smile came crashing down around his ears when he typed the name Drake into the database, looking for background information. A family tree came up. With the only surviving branch as him.


The Titans sat in the living room. Robin stood off to one side, listing to some thrash metal band. Raven was sitting on the couch as far away as possible from Robin reading something as nearby light bulbs exploded. Something had obviously passed between them. They wouldn't go near each other, and whenever Raven bumped into Robin, or came within ten feet of him, for that matter, she jumped back three feet, murmuring some apology, and leaving the scene as quickly as possible, and as she left, the most breakable thing shattered into a million pieces.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were oblivious to it all. They sat at the couch, button mashing in some dungeon crawl.

It was then that Starfire and Rhea threw open the door, bags in hand, beaming.

"Friends! We wish to speak with you!" Starfire said, with more joy and vigor than any human should be able to pack into seven words. But then again, she wasn't human.

Everyone turned to look at the two. Beast Boy was the first to speak.

"Dude, what's with the tank top?" Beast Boy referred to the outfit Rhea had on. She had the horribly baggy black pants, like usual, but instead of the traditional black long sleeved tee, she had on a tank top. But not just any tank top. A lavender one. Yes. Rhea, who was so much like Raven, was wearing pastels. And over her forearms, Rhea had pulled on the sleeves of some other poor shirt, cannibalized to make a fashion statement.

"I'm wearing one."

"Okay. What about the sleeves? Aren't tank tops supposed to show off your arms?"

Rhea glared at Beast Boy. "Since when are you an expert on fashion? And if you are, I seriously question the jumpsuit."

Robin's attention was caught. This might be another part of the puzzle that was Rhea. "Calm down." Robin started to walk to Rhea. "He's just asking a question. And an innocent one at that." Robin grabbed at Rhea's wrists, more specifically, the sleeves.

Rhea squirmed. "Get off." She pulled her arms back. That succeeded in getting her arms free, but the sleeves stayed in Robin's clutches, hanging limp from his gloved hands.

Robin wasn't sure what he had expected. Maybe a tattoo, maybe a grotesque burn. But not what he saw. Which were tattered scars along her arms, along with some less tattered ones, that seemed to be carefully made. They looked like gibberish though, so he paid no mind.

"Did your parents do this to you?" Robin asked.

If Rhea was pissed before, this was pure fury. "Never speak about my parents like that. They were wonderful people, willing to lay down their lives for the good of the Azerath. It is impossible for them to hurt any peaceful being. They were the ones that kept me alive all of these years, teaching me the things that let me survive the no-man's-land. They are the ones who made me who I am. And right now, they are better than you are." Rhea emphasized that last point with a punch that hit Robin squarely on the nose. Rhea looked down, where Robin had fallen, and then to her hand in amazement. There was a pause before she ran out of the room.

"Rhea!" Starfire called, flying off to console her friend. But she couldn't. Because a black shield was covering the door to the hall. Starfire looked to Raven.

"She has a lot to deal with right now," Raven said. When Robin got up, massaging his nose, he walked to the door. Raven let him pass.

"Why is it that Robin may comfort Rhea, but I cannot?" Starfire asked, a touch of hurt in her voice.

"Because he was the one who stepped in it." Raven tuned out Starfire's next question ("What is it that he stepped in?") to wish. Raven didn't usually wish. But this was a special case. She wasn't wishing for something to be true, like world peace was doable, but for something to not be true. Like that the markings were in Azerathean. Or that Raven recognized them. Mostly Raven was wishing that the markings didn't say 'Property of Trigon. Touch and Fear Me. Part of Plan A'.


When Robin came up to the roof, he noticed that Rhea wasn't mad. Not any more, at least. She was calm. Don't ask him how he knew. He just did. He walked to the edge, where Rhea sat, looking over the sea.

In the same way he knew she was calm, he knew what she was thinking. It was like his bond with Raven, only a lot clearer. And without an explanation.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I do that? Because I let my own feelings of anger come through. And now he doesn't trust you. And the Titans will never help you or your parents.

"Hey." Robin winced at the teenaged cliché, but he didn't think he could do better. That was really sad.

"Hey," Rhea replied. "Sorry I punched you. Does it hurt much?"

"Nah," Robin lied. It hurt like hell. Breathing was near impossible, and speaking was torture.

"Does it sound weird if I say I'm disappointed?"

"Yeah." Robin sat down next to Rhea, looking out at the sea as well. "It's really pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Rhea said wistfully. "I wish it would be like this forever." She sighed.

"Why can't it?"

"Fate. Chance. Malice. Entropy. Pick one. I personally like 'It fit into the plan at the time.'"

"Did I miss something?" Robin was thoroughly confused. What the hell was she saying?

"No. I did. I missed Earth."

Robin left then, even more thoroughly confused. As he turned, maybe thinking of making one last remark, he saw Rhea standing on the edge of the Tower, hands outspread, and falling forward.

"NO!" Robin shouted, running off of the tower. As his feet pressed on air, he shot the bungee cord into the side of the Tower. He feared he was too late. She was far ahead of him.

But he caught up. He was surprised by Rhea's calm look. She smirked, and somehow, that reminded him of someone…

"Forgot I could fly, huh?"

"Oh. Yeah, I did."

"Don't let the spandex get to your head. I can take care of myself. My dad made sure of that."

"So… You've forgiven me for dissing your parents?"

"I can't hold a grudge forever. For an eon or two, but not forever."

"Well that's comforting."

"Glad I can be of assistance."

"Care to tell me what you're doing?"

Rhea smiled again. "Swimming." It was then that Robin's bungee cord stopped, and he was left hanging as Rhea fell towards the sea.

The view from inside the Titan's Tower was much different. They saw Rhea and Robin falling, and Robin's cord lose the slack. Starfire was not worried.

"Do you wish to join Rhea with the swimming?" she asked innocently.

"Uhhh… Maybe…" Beast Boy and Cyborg said in unison. Then they remembered that this was an opportunity to see Rhea, Raven, and Starfire in a slinky swimsuit. "Yeah!"

Raven hesitated, then seemed to let some wound up part of herself go. "Sure. I'll go."


After an afternoon of swimming, and an evening of gaming, the Titans were ready to go to bed. And maybe even get that sleep thing done, too.

Raven closed the door to her room after she and Rhea had entered.

"I need to talk to you about something." Raven said after a moment of silence.

"Ask away. I am at your mercy."

"Who are you actually? You can't be from Azerath. It was destroyed years ago. There's no life on it now. But you have a good grasp of magic, if you are slightly non-attentive. Who are you? Tell me your whole story." Raven looked at Rhea. Rhea looked back placidly.

"I can't tell you. You wouldn't believe me."

"Yes I would. You would not believe the things I've seen."

"No, you wouldn't believe me. Or you'd believe me, and I'd never get anything done, or you wouldn't trust me after that."

"I don't lie."

"You will tomorrow."

"How do you know that?"

Rhea looked around innocently. "Time Machine. I'll tell everyone tomorrow. I don't feel like telling the same story twice."

"Okay. But I will hold you to it. By midnight tomorrow, you will have explained everything about you."

"Deal. Now, I need to get to sleep early. I plan to wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares." And with that, Rhea crawled into bed.


That's all folks!

Okay, this might take some clearing up. I am using the name Tim Drake for Robin. It's from the comic books, or at least the one I have. It's from this year, but it's a few issues old. sigh

Another note, and athemae is a ceremonial dagger. When blood touches it, it stops being an athemae. I don't remember where I first heard it.

Any and all reviews would be greatly appreciated. I might go so far as to do props. Yes, Vinnie. You have horribly affected me. My friends have not so far realized how much more evil and geeky I have become. And it's not all from watching Star Wars. (Rocks Yoda Does!)