A.N. Sorry about taking so long I'm struggling though a stage where I can't seem to finish anything so I really do apologise. Anyway here is my latest one shot. Good luck and Good Reading.

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Disclaimer: Don't own the Titans.

The Morning After

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Slowly the sun crept up over the cityscape of Jump City. Across from it on its isolated island in the Jump City Bay the many windows of the Titian Tower glowed reflecting it's light. The Tower seemed to burn for a moment then slowly the colour faded as the angle of the rapidly rising sun shifted. From the north side of the city smoke could be seen rising lazily into the clear sky of the morning. In the streets work crews were settling into what they did best, repairing whatever damage may have been caused in the night by foiled villains. Residents crept warily to their windows debating weather the streets were safe or not. Jump City was not a peaceful city the criminal syndicate here was large and the police force weak after generations of struggle against it. No matter how disgruntled the cops became however they never complained the aid of the five teenage superheroes that had taken up residence in the city. However today was a day of change, everyone could sense it Civilian or Villain everyone could sense that something drastic had changed…

In the Titians tower things were unhealthily quiet. No arguments over breakfast were happening in the kitchen and no Traditional Tammerian song of morning echoed through the halls. In the common room the mega sized T.V screen was dark and forlorn, it's game station empty. In the garage a blue and white car sat, grim still covering it from the night before, the nick in its meticulously maintained paint unfixed. No lights were on and no voices echoed in the walls.

In a narrow bed a dark haired teen sleeps trapped in restless dreams, his hair mussed and handsome features tight with the internal struggle. The covers wound tightly about his legs adding to the battle taking place deep within his exhausted mind. Out of place in the overly organised, simple room a set of clothes was trailed from the door. A black and yellow cape began it followed by a pair of green gloves a fair distance apart. A pair of boots rested against the walls in separate corners of the room and a yellow belt hung over one bed post. The teens signature fire engine red shirt was in a pile at the foot of the desk chair and the emerald leggings in a pile closer to the bed. The teen thrashes again scars vivid across is pale skinned shoulders. A mask still covers his eyes as though even in his sleep he seeks to protect one last secret…

Down the hall this scene is repeated in every team member's room. A violet uniform abandoned in a pile while its wearer curls into the fetal position under violet covers, golden skin hidden from view, only the tail end of her flaming red hair visible. In another room a half robot teen rests on a table other robots switching damaged cybernetic parts for replacements and the background hum of a generator underlying whatever sounds they might make. In the fourth room a blue cloak lays like a pool of midnight water in the middle of the floor while on a desk boots and black wrist bands keep a blood red broach and matching belt, company. Next to the bed is a crumpled pile of black fabric, the remaining part of this occupant's uniform. She is curled under her blankets shivering slightly though the room is warm. Lastly in a room that looks as though WW2 was fought through it nothing stirs. A uniform of black and purple mingles with other discarded clothing and runners in the same colour fill the bottom bunk with a pair of matching gloves lost somewhere in the mess. On the top bunk the blankets are mussed and twisted as though the sleeper tossed and turned wildly in their sleep. However though the dent in the pillow says that someone had been in the room the bed was empty.

Slowly as the sun crept higher the Titans began to stir as old habits and internal clocks dragged the reluctant teens from their slumber. Robin was the first to give in, swinging his legs over the side of the bed while he yawned and stretched. Slowly his eyes opened behind his mask and he gazed around the room blankly for a moment. Taking in the trail of abandoned clothes and the angle of the light with a bemused blankness, his mind too tired yet to function at its usual speed. Suddenly his gaze fixed on the yellow communicator on his desk and with a sound between a sign and a groan he dropped in head into his hands his eyes closed as though trying to deny the memories that assaulted him.

"Damnit!" he swore softly dragging his fingers though his hair and staring at the floor between his legs. "God Damnit!" he swore again, suddenly violent, he slammed his first against the innocent bed. He took a deep breath and bit his lip. Then with a sigh that seemed to come from his soul he dragged himself into the adjoining bathroom, not bothering to wrap a towel around his naked form.

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When Cybrog dragged himself into the kitchen twenty minuets later Robin was sitting at the table paper in hands and forgotten cup of coffee beside him. The larger teen paused confused as to what exactly he should do or say, torn between two different loyalties. Finally seeing the hidden tension in the other boy he tried to get his throat to form the words.

"Rob, man- I- I don't know what to say." He spoke softly shifting slightly from one foot to the other.

"Don't-" Robin checked himself then spoke with more control never glancing away from the newspaper. "Just-, don't say anything right now Cy." The older teen stayed silent for a moment then nodded. He understood what it was like to need time to work something out alone. He set himself to making his usual gluttonous breakfast out of habit needing something to keep himself busy for a moment; something mudane and completely ordinary. After all, what else could you do when your existence had just been shattered?

That was the scene that Raven walked in on, having sat in her room since slightly after sunrise meditating, naked as she'd slept, in the cold light of dawn. Now nothing about her demeanour gave away the turmoil that had haunted her night, the agony that still lingered in her secret heat. Nothing… except perhaps for the shadow in her beautiful eyes, the pool of denied tears in their violet depths, these however were things that the others would notice yet none would dare to comment upon. She glanced around taking in the three empty chairs and Cyborg and Robin busy trying to bury themselves in everyday small tasks. Accepting the unspoken bargain in the air she crossed to her chair and with a though black energy encased the pot on the counter full of water and set it on its usual spot on the stove. Then she pulled her hood foreword hiding her face and flipped through a book that she'd been reading the day before, though she never knew what she was reading.

This was how things went as the forth member of the teen joined them. Their feet solidly panted on the ground for once and misery on her usually cheerful face. She looked around the room then unable to bring herself to join the others crossed to the common room and settled in a chair facing the floor to ceiling windows looking out over the bay to the city. She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them to her in a painfully human position of vulnerability.

Raven put away her book no longer feeling the strength needed to continue her false actions and wrapped her hands around the fragile china tea cup the heat radiating off of it not even enough to penetrate her chilled fingers. With a sigh Cyborg turned off his frying pan, the bacon half cooked, as he realised that he had no appetite for anything. Stubbornly Robin continued to read though his locked jaw shook slightly from the strain of continuing his own charade. Starfire was the one who broke the silence and acknowledged the things that the others had been trying to ignore.

"Has anyone seen friend Beast Boy?" she didn't look at the others as she spoke instead her gaze was focused out the window watching as a pair of gulls twirled unaware of the conflict happening inside the tower.

"Starfire-" Robin began but for one of the few times the Tammerain Princess interrupted him with her own personal logic and a regal silencing gesture.

"I do not wish to hear of it now friend Robin. I do not want to hear or speak of the events last night. I merely wish to have knowledge of the location of our friend." Raven and Cyborg looked at each other, each dealing with their own problems yet understanding the significance of these next few hours for the future of the team. Their looks traded understanding and agreement at Raven's slight nod of acknowledgement Cyborg spoke.

"Raven will go see if she can find him." Raven rose and left the common room. When she was gone Cyborg turned to Robin and Starfire all patience prepared to try and help both of them deal with what might come.

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The sun was bright on the roof, glinting off the water with a blinding determination. The pool on the roof was abandoned, the water lapping softly against the edge the only life within it. The basket-ball and volleyball courts were abandoned and ghost like, haunted by the silence of the wind that swirled across them. On the very edge of the tower, sitting in the shrinking shadow of one of the giant ventilation system outlets sat the missing titan. His traditionally short cropped green hair only a shade darker then his skin was changed. Now it hung to his shoulders the top green while the underside was a dark midnight it was the same colouring that it had assumed as the mane of the Beast. He wasn't dressed in his traditional uniform now, instead he was clad in a pair of tattered blue jeans and a white undershirt stained from wear. His arms were bare and now Raven could see the three parallel slashes across the back of his forearms another marking that had appeared on the beast. Instead of his usual gloves he wore a pair of silver cloth gloves the one on his left hand removed. His face was solemn and resigned, to emotions that were never seen on him. He was looking at the back of his left hand at something that Raven couldn't see. She paused where she was about six feet back from him waiting for him to acknowledge her presence. He tilted his head to the side and looked across the waters to the glittering city. The wind shifted tossing his hair in front of his face from behind him. She watched his eyes close as he tilted his head at a slightly different angle so that more of the wind blew past his nose. Scenting the air? She wondered.

"Waiting for something Raven?" he asked his voice soft but with her empathic powers she could sense the veiled bitterness swirling around him. She walked up to him her steps soft and sure not revealing any of the hesitation that shifted in her thoughts. She sat down beside him, not near him but then she never had before. As she had approached he'd pulled the glove back down over his left hand hiding whatever it was that he'd been studying.

"Nothing in particular." Raven spoke softly looking out over the water to the open ocean. "Figured you might be ready for some company by now." The green skinned teen gave a derisive sound and looked away from her.

"How much they have to pay you to come up here." Raven closed her eyes feeling not only his own pain but a sharp stab of her own as well at his words.

"What do you want me to say Beast Boy? That I can't stand the sight of you now after what happened? That you're a monster? I can't. You want to fight because you're hurting and I don't want to fight with you." Raven looked over at him her eyes serious and empathic. Beast Boy was silent the only sound was a soft rustle as he drew his knees up to his chest.

"Maybe I want you to. Maybe I'm sick and tired of not being taken seriously and maybe, just once, I can't find anything to laugh about." There was misery in his emerald eyes now sadness in his face.

"No matter what you were once, the future is in your own hands and I'll stand with you." She looked back out to sea, "after all someone once told me that you're never alone." Beside her the changeling gave a rude laugh.

"What the hell did he know." Raven closed her eyes at a loss for what to do to help the shape-shifter. He was still hurting from what had happened the night before, the shock, the pain, the terror and mistrust that had resulted from a few careless words.

"Beast Boy… don't act like this. We all have things that we've done we're not proud of they don't have to affect what you have today." She said trying to reason with him and she sensed him shake his head and frustrated anger mix in with the bitterness of his aura.

"You don't get it. I'm not ashamed Raven. Hell, some of my best memories are of when I was with the Children of Eternity. Yes I was an assassin but it wasn't something that I needed to be ashamed of. I was with people for the first time in my life that didn't look at me as though I was anything special. I fix in. I wasn't trapped on the fringes of feakdom." Raven looked over at him as he pulled the gloves off his hands revealing his hands. A bright pick scar went across his left hand that looked suspiciously like a bite mark. He half curled his fingers then snapped them straight. Half inch claws erupted from them, gleaming a wicked and cruel black. "I'm a bloody predator. My DNA may have once been human but it's not anymore. I'm the top damn predator on the damn plant!" he curled then snapped his fingers once more and the claws disappeared. "And killing is what I do. It's hard wired into my system. Now everyone else has to know it to." He pressed his face into his knees, "Damn." It was a heartfelt curse and slowly Raven realised that all the problems had do with the fact that he didn't know how the rest of the team would react to this knowledge.

"So you're not really a vegetarian?" she asked playing dumb. The boy gave a half laugh and turned his head to look at her keeping it resting on his knees.

"Depends how you look at it. I stay away from meats because it helps me keep control of myself. However my reactions and skills and, well, everything, are better when I eat meat. It's not an easy line to balance on." Raven nodded and looked over at him the sun glancing across her violet hair and porcelain skin.

"If it helps any Beast Boy, my opinion of you hasn't changed. You're still my friend, after all. I was supposed to destroy the world remember?" Beast Boy gave weak smile then looked back out across the water.

"I'm not sure if that's good or not but thanks anyway it's nice to know that." Raven bit her lip unsure what she could say to help him. He pulled his gloves back on then rested his chin on his knees watching life in the city continue as though nothing had happened.

"Beast Boy, I you going to go back to the Children of Eternity like that girl asked you to?" At Raven's hesitant voice the shape shifter sighed deeply before he answered.

"I don't know Raven. I don't know." Raven bit her lip again, he didn't see it, then rose and turning on her heel walked away leaving him on the roof, there was nothing left to say, and she didn't want him to see her heart break.

Raven sat in her typical spot in the common room watching over the top of her book the interactions of the other three present. Robin and Cyborg were deep into a racing game and Starfire sat next to them on the couch alternating cheering between the two of them. The scene looked so normal that it hurt. Someone watching would almost think that nothing was wrong with them however Raven could tell. Cyborg was distracted, his gaze straying periodically to the entrance to the common room and his car was crashing far more often then usual for him. Robin was throwing himself into the game with an almost desperate energy. However that didn't stop him from glancing over at the clock slowly marking time over the kitchen stove across the room. He wasn't the only one keeping a close agonizing watch of the minuet hand. The time between each movement seemed to drag on indefinitely. Each pause was agony.

Raven watched it, the tall red heads words echoing through her mind. "I'll come by at seven tomorrow night. I need to know your decision then." The agony came from not knowing what decision her green team-mate would make. Slowly the clock ticked again 6:55. Raven's knuckles tightened on the book cover and Cyborg crashed again. Starfire cast a glance over at Robin worry showing through the bright green of her eyes. 6:56 the computer monitors behind Raven suddenly cracked as Raven's powers snapped, for a moment revealing the half-demon's internal turmoil. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes chanting under her breath. She could hear the game sound-effects of tires squealing and glass shattering all under the roar of supped up engines. She took another deep breath but couldn't stop one eye from cracking open at looking at the clock. 6:58. She closed her eyes again feeling tension curling up in her stomach. She let out another deep breath this one shaky as she struggled to keep herself under control. Suddenly the sounds of the game stopped and Raven opened her eyes and looked at the clock. 6:59. the second hand balanced on the brink for a moment then plunged. 7:00. Raven felt her breath catch then suddenly the clock exploded. Quickly Raven jumped to her feet and dashed from the common room needing the privacy of her own quarters.

She paced back and forth across her room watching everything but the clock on her desk. Books flew off her shelf as she passed and every time on the way back she waved a hand and sent them all back to their places only for them to fall once more as she passed by again. 7:10. She had felt the red head's presence leave the tower but as usual she couldn't sense Beast Boy. Had he left had he stayed? The question was killing her. Finally in a last desperate attempt to save the tower from herself she downed a sleeping pill and curled up under the covers swiftly shivering as dreams settled around her.

"Titan's go!" at Robin's command the team dove into battle. Each fighting a member of the Hive, holding their own for a moment before getting thrown away to the side. Raven turned to Beast Boy to warn him of Mammoth's latest charge just in time to feel something strike her from behind. Beast Boy was looking at her an un-nameable emotion on his face then he turned his gaze from her to her attacker. His expression hardening and his eyes beginning to gleam with a feral gold light…

… Beast Boy kneeled over a fallen form, blood splattered up the forearms of his suit and his body heavy with the effort. A blur of faces whirled around him Robin, Starfire, Robin everyone shocked and disbelieving of the death that they had just witnessed.-

-A tall slender Red head stepped out of the shadows talking to Beast Boy as he stayed back well away from the team watching them warily now. Cuts covered his own form but he hung back not even coming over for healing. The red head offering for him to come back to the Children of Eternity. Robin suddenly yelling at the younger boy for not telling them that he was an assassin-

-"I don't know Raven, I don't know." Beast Boy shaking his head in the sunlight- The red-head appeared again, standing next to an open door head bent close to Beast Boy's. Then the door swung open and the two of them walked into the white light swiftly enveloped silhouettes…

Raven sat bolt upright a gasp ripping out of her throat. Sweat dripping off her skin from the exertion the dream had placed on her. Without thinking she phased out of her room onto the roof. The cold night air caused her to shiver but she barely noticed the cold, the forces of the dream still clouding her thoughts and actions. She walked over to the edge of the tower looking out through the pitch darkness towards the city glowing with a yellow light. She rubbed her arms cold but not from the temperature.

"I lied," she whispered as she looked over the city convinced now that her dream had been true, that Beast Boy was gone. "I lied this morning, you're more then a friend. And it was a good opinion that changed for the better." She whispered into the swift touch of the night wind.

"Nice to know Rae Rae." A voice spoke from behind her and Raven whipped around her gaze zeroing in on the rueful expression on the changeling's face. They stood there for a moment looking at each other awkwardly for a moment then suddenly Raven grabbed her in one of her rare hugs and he felt her shaking and rubbed his hand up her back soothingly for a hurt that he didn't know the source of...

The redhead stood next to the waiting door head bent talking to the green skinned teen. Suddenly she threw back her head and laughed her and laughed then with a big smile motioned for him to get out of here. She leaned against her own door, closed now. Watching as he joined another shadowy figure and they vanished into the darkness…

In her sleep Raven let out a sigh as she finally understood the meaning of the dream and then with a pleased sound cuddled into the warmth of the teen sprawled in her bed with her, suddenly feeling warm.

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A.N. (EEERR, that was a lot of discription... anyway)Well what do you think? If there are any errors I'm sorry but I didn't really get a great chance to proof-read this to well. Oh yeah did it make any sense at all? Let me know if you did or didn't get it. Well come on, Review. Plleeeaaasseee!

P.S. By the way I've got a series of poems and I can't decide it I should publish them separately or under this title. What should I do?