A/N: All right, I have it done! I love and hate when fics are stubborn like this one. This seems to be my most popular, somehow. I'm really grateful to all of you for sticking with me for the wait. Let's see what happens from here! One of you has a clue of what's going on, but I think this chapter will provide a few more clues! Anyway, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

9 - Crashes

The crater he made in the ground wasn't nearly large enough to explain the agony ripping through his skull. However, kicking around mutants and evil doers for a living had given him plenty of endurance. Robin shifted slowly from his side to all fours and winced. The burns on his arms were mild, but the cool air made him cringe regardless. He was lucky his suit was heat resistant.

"Where... am I?" He forced himself to his feet. He was no longer in a place that fulfilled all of the stereotypes of hell, not that he was complaining. It was the open area outside of a building, blue sky and all, a clean facility that would have caught Batman's envy for the five seconds he bothered to feel it. As his head cleared, Robin heard a voice, calm English over the blare of an unfamiliar alarm.

"-please proceed to training ground seven. I repeat, there is an intruder-"

Robin realized there were two possibilities: either there was another intruder, or he was the intruder here. If it was the former, which all things considered was incredibly unlikely, he could offer his help, which would give him more resources in finding Raven. If the latter, and provided these were competent and not evil people holding his friend against her will (how would anyone succeed at that?), he'd have to look harmless.

Which is precisely why he raised his hands in as much of a peaceful gesture as possible. The weapons all had gems, or something like a gem. Magic? Superpowers? He cycled mentally through the people he knew of, looking for which of them would think of using gems.

"Who are you?" The first speaker was female, quick and terse. Well, at least there was a lack of a language barrier to worry about.

"My name-" the name he went by now anyway- "Is Robin. I… Is it possible you could tell me where I am?"

If he had to, he could probably fight them, but he didn't know the terrain or their style. With his friends back there, fighting against that stereotype of a demon, he didn't have the luxury of time to waste on that.

One hesitated, then another piped up. "What did you think you were doing, crashing into our training grounds. Did you get your hands on a Device capable of flight?"

"I-I'm sorry?" The way they said 'device'... the weapons they were carrying, magic or some kind, Robin figured. The energy signature was pretty obvious.

He needed to move. He didn't know where that urgency came from all of a sudden, but the necessity tickled and bugged at his nerves, frayed, thin-

Wait.

"I'm looking for someone." He kept his voice as calm as he could, trying to taper down the alien emotions touching at his. "Her name is Raven. She has purple hair. She was taken away from my home and my friends. I was looking for her when I ended up here. I'm not sure how I got here. Could someone tell me what's going on?"

He really wished Cyborg was here. This was his forte. Despite being a hulking mass of technology, he was incredibly persuasive and good at the whole chilled-out way of doing things, without Beast Boy's non-stop enthusiasm.

The urgency touched at his mind again. He knew this feeling, somehow. It was close, so close, like when-

"He's here! I can see him."

"Then let me see him."

Things changed when someone entered your mind that closely.

The soldiers (yes, they had to be soldiers because soldiers kept that discipline with ease that he envied) all looked at each other and conversed in a low whisper. Their weapons remained trained on him, and so did most of their eyes. Robin mentally appreciated that. Competent paranoia. The team probably could use a little more of that.

Not that they wanted to, everyone thought he had enough for all of them.

"Who're you?"

Only a couple years of occasional mental touches to the brain gave Robin the self-control to not twitch his hands towards a weapon. "Raven?" he whispered, barely moving his lips.

"H-How do you know my name?" A pause, and the voice, which now that he heard it, sounded a bit shaky, a bit young. "Who are you?"

"My name is Robin." Amnesia? He supposed, considering the ritual had been meant to wipe her from existence, that was a lucky break. "Are you okay?"

Another pause. "Why do you care?"

Ah… yep. That was the Raven he knew, the one before meeting them who pretended not to care.

"We're friends."

Rae felt Fate's gentle hands pull her fingers from her head and she looked up at her. The worry, sea green, was almost as powerful as the anxiety coming from… Subaru? That was her name? She needed to work on names a bit more.

"I heard something… in my head," she finally stuttered out. "A voice, a boy's voice. He said…" Rae thought about it. Should she tell them? She didn't even know who he was. And the concern Fate had seemed tinged with red-violet, protection. Protecting her? From what?

Robin said we were friends.

The statement shouldn't have made her insides warm, or relieved, or… any of those things. But it did.

So she told them, and as she did, an image popped up on screen. At the sight of the slicked-back spikes of black, Rae felt a fresh wave of nausea.

Robin.

that was the voice. She was sure, that was him, that was him exactly. Clothes torn, bleeding a little, but he was alive.

Why did that matter? Why was that so important to her?

Rae wanted to kick at Fate when she picked her up, but she couldn't find it in herself. The connection with her father was almost gone. She had felt that instinctively. Where had her father gone? Why… why were these things happening?

The walls shook for a few moments as she struggled to calm down. It took ten chants, and the calm sound of Fate ordering… somebody? around before she managed to see clearly and breathe again. She hadn't even noticed she was in Subaru's lap until she was.

"It's gonna be all right," Subaru said with a smile. "Just leave it to Fate-san and the others, okay?"

Rae chewed her lip. Starfire. Yes.

This person was like Starfire.