Vision

Sherbet Mayhem: Hiya y'all, and thanks for returning for chapter two of "Vision". Ha ha because I write at home without the use of the internet, I don't even remember if I put this story up as "Vision" or "Visions"! I could just wait and check, but I think it's quite funny to let you guys know that :D haha, me a ditz! (My boyfriend informs me it's "Vision, singular" lol, maybe I should make that the title :D)

Well, welcome to chapter two! I'm so glad SOOOOOOO many people loved chapter one, lol. Meh. I'm sure popularity will pick up nods reassuringly to self yeah . . .

I'm really annoyed at the site, because it missed out, in the publication of chapter one, the vital star markers that signify a break in action (see my other stories, after a while you'll find a line break). However, I've noticed that straight lines seem to work, and although I prefer stars (because they make your eyes go funny . . .) I'll use lines. It annoys me because 13 pages without a break is a long haul for you guys. There were, for your info and personal gain, line breaks after the following lines in chapter one:

What is this (after Raven's first vision)

It's Raven" (after Cyborg hears the noises)

Raven doubted that she would go back to sleep tonight. (after Cy and Robin wake her)

Saying a quick goodnight to Robin, who moved toward the infirmary (after Robin fills in the others)

"I knew him and it nearly killed me" (Raven sees the boy on the screen)

"There's more to come" (the last bit)

Hope that helped – the line breaks make the story cliff-hangery, and without them I can understand if it lacked tension or enthusiasm. I apologise.

Well, I'll shut up now, and catch you guys at the bottom. Hope you enjoy Vision(s) two!

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Chapter Two – Dark Waters

"You have to sleep!"

Beast Boy counted the days – and nights – in his head. As the sun beat down on his face, forcing him to squint his eyes to avoid the glare, the total of three made him shake his head in disapproval.

"It's been three nights! What are you, battery charged?"

He watched Raven's petite form glide through the air, her deep purple cape trailing behind her like an unwanted memory as she easily avoided a cackling electric wire that swung her way. Overload was causing a scene in Jump City. The Teen Titans had heard little from this particular electronic villain lately, and they were almost enjoying the task of stretching their forces to combat him.

Raven growled as she regained her balance. "No. How about you? Seems you go on and on like a Duracell battery."

A chuckle from Cyborg (who was eavesdropping and loading the high power cannon on his arm simultaneously) caused Beast Boy to mumble an insult or two under his breath. He hated Raven's sarcasm; especially when it was directed at him.

"Come on, BB!" Cyborg noted his friend's cantankerous expression, "You asked for it!"

The metal man locked his cyber cannon onto the overgrown Overload, and the ground shook for a brief moment as all around was steeped in azure blue. The energy particles of the cannon hit Overload squarely in the centre – the precision of Cyborg's cannon was seldom below satisfactory level – yet Overload remained undamaged.

Starfire, floating in the midst of the cannon glow, watched the blue flood fade around them and felt the warm sunshine begin to heat her glossy hair again. Her lime eyes followed Overload, ostentatious in his swagger as he launched crackling cables left and right, aiming clumsily for her friends.

"Star!"

She heard his voice – she always did - and dropped down to floor level where Robin stood, watching her flight.

"Could you give me a lift up there?"

She frowned, and glanced at the masked Robin before answering. "You cannot touch him, friend Robin. He is an appliance of electricity. He will to you give the shocking, yes?"

Robin chuckled. "If I wasn't wearing these rubber soled boots and gloves, maybe. But if I only touch him with my feet and hands, I'll be fine."

"Is electricity scared of this 'rubber'?"

Before he could reply to the under-educated alien, Robin's attention was stolen by an awful groan from Overload. His swagger became a lurch, then a stagger as torrents of water were splayed over his head. Starfire was puzzled, and questioned Robin further.

"Robin, does the water contain the 'rubber'?"

He gave her a simple "No", being confused in his own mind about what was taking place, and he raced around the squealing Overload to the other side of the street. There, amidst the bright sunshine and the rainbow drops of water sprinkling around them, Raven and Cyborg watched the elephant form of Beast Boy torture the electric rogue by simply squirting him with liquid. Robin skidded to a halt, closely followed by Starfire, who watched the scene with a vaguely mystified countenance. Overload began to shrink under the pressure of the cool water.

To aid in the procedure, Cyborg moved over to a fire hydrant on the pavement, and booted the lid from it, releasing a cascade of more water, the froth still fresh on the head, as a beer drawn from a tap, as it shot toward Overload. In the sunlight, the water glimmered like stars in the day, and made a beautiful fountain, deadly as it was. Ignoring Overload's groans, it was a pleasant sight.

Flexing her fingers, Raven began to summon her telekinetic abilities. She knew, thanks to Cyborg's fire-hydrant display, that there were water pipes in the road beneath them. Putting aside the knowledge that she would wreck the tarmac by uprooting them from their cold slumber, she concentrated and began to pull the pipes from the ground. Cracks began to appear in the grey road surface, and Robin jumped out of the way nimbly as a pipe emerged from the ground in the manner of a snake rearing its venomous head. It spat at Overload, the toxin glittering and sparkling. Any flecks of water that escaped from their destined route Raven clutched at with her powers, and, when she had a bunch big enough, hurled them at Overload, spattering him with water bombs of the deadliest nature.

Soon, Overload had ceased to moan, and lay still, shrunk to his original "floppy disk" format and surrounded with water that glowed yellow in the sunlight. Robin picked up the sheet of rubber they'd brought with them in preparation for the electrical chip's capture, and threw it over the defeated desperado. Cyborg banged the lid back onto the fire hydrant, his face getting soaked in the procedure, and Raven put back to sleep the snake pipe she had controlled, moving various rocks and slabs of material into their original place to heal the road up again. The changeling Beast Boy resumed his original form, and Robin briefly explained the concepts of electricity and insulation to Starfire, who beamed as the cogs in her pretty mind turned. Soon, the police force, deeming it safe to continue, came out from hiding behind the nearby buildings to take Overload away. Once the van was locked up, Robin named the mission complete, and the team headed back to Titan's tower.

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Night fell quickly. The sun bled from the sky and slept all too soon for the Titans. Although, as Beast Boy had recalled in his attempts to persuade Raven to sleep, there had been no further disturbances in the dark of night, the entire team felt uneasy about letting her close her eyes for even a moment. Robin in particular felt a knot of dread every time he remembered it. Despite Raven suffering no more nightmares or injuries; he himself had awoken for the past three nights to the sound of her screams in his mind and the scratches on the back of his wet eyelids.

Sometimes, he believed he thought about things too much. Occasionally, he enjoyed the sensation of revelling in a memory – he had many he loved to surround himself with. Some of these were from his pre-Titan days and his work in Gotham City. Most were pleasant, juicy memories of his friends, some on sunny days, some on rainy nights, some were simply just thoughts that he told nobody about and never would. However, his volatile mind, while one moment treating him with a motorbike race with Cyborg, a cooking spree with Starfire, a deep, velvet discussion with Raven in the moonlight or an amusing training session with Beast Boy, was the next drowning him in forbidden memories, ones that slid in and swept his thoughts till all was covered with them and he could see nothing else. The smell of terror would come alive as he was smothered by his own memory, which he could not refuse, or control, as hard as he tried. Once the water came up to his knees, there was no way to swim from the fear stored in the back of his mind. And when he gave them just enough thought for them to cultivate, the shadow memories would kick him in the heart, remind him painfully of what he wanted so desperately to forget. His parents. Red X. Slade. Fights, lies, accidents, incidents, allegations.

Raven.

He watched her now as she sat quietly on the sofa in the centre of their living room, oblivious to the chatter around her ("No, Starfire, fungus and pizza do not mix well!"), attempting to lose herself in the words of a book. He could see the effect of no sleep hanging underneath her eyes, and he knew she suffered from the same fickle memories as he did. The words, he knew, for her, were a lifejacket among the dark waters. If she wrapped herself in them, even for only a little while, she would be safe. Safe from what she could not look at.

"Not 'could not look at'. With her it's 'would not look at'."

He could see her determination. It dulled her reflexes, made her eyes droop but kept her awake. Away from the waters. He understood.

She knew he was watching her. He didn't mind. It would keep her uneasy, on edge. Keep her eyes open.

"But the program is on soon, and I--"

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Starfire's plea, and the scent of warm pepperoni drifted into his body. He'd been thinking too much again.

With a final glance at Raven, who remained fixated upon the pages of her book, he joined the conversation. Grabbing a greasy slice of pizza (which was, he hated to admit, the most common meal at Titan's Tower) he listened to the argument that was taking place.

"Starfire, we're eating pizza. Then, we're eating desert. We do NOT want to watch a program about toe fungus!"

Cyborg's remarks caused a pained expression on Starfire's face. "No, please! Tonight does not feature the toes. It follows the exploits of the mucus in the ear!"

Beast Boy, who had been dangling a stringy piece of cheese into his mouth, gagged, and removed the yellow food.

"Thanks, Star."

She turned to Robin, her auburn hair flowing about her shoulders as she begged him to support her. "Robin, please! Defend my right to mucus!"

He sighed, with a smile. "She doesn't watch anything else all week guys. It's not her fault our meal coincided with her program."

"And it's not our fault either!" Cyborg insisted, swallowing a huge gulp of pizza before continuing. "I wanna enjoy my hard earned pizza! You think ear mucus helps that?"

Robin ran a hand through his hair. "Why don't we sit in the kitchen and eat while Starfire watches her show? She can join us when it's done, and we don't have to see any nasty mucus."

Letting out a relieved laugh, Beast Boy resumed eating his stringy cheese. "Good compromise, Rob!"

Starfire squealed. "Hooray! Now I can follow my show of mucus! And enjoy the pizza!" She snatched a piece and began to munch happily while searching for the remote. Cyborg and Beast Boy moved into the kitchen area, which was located to the right of the television and so would be out of danger of any off-putting imagery.

Robin stood up, his legs aching a little as he had been sitting with them curled up underneath him. He enjoyed umpiring the sometimes explosive arguments at the tower. Even recreationally he was a keeper of the peace. He glanced around, his eyes searching for whom he worried so much about, to make sure she followed them into the kitchen, where the light was bright and would keep her wakeful.

She was not on the sofa anymore, but all remaining was a book, the page she was up to folded gingerly in the corner to mark the place. Robin started, his mind leaping from the relatively calmer mood he had put himself in to the deep waters again, images banging across his eyes and making his heart pound.

"Raven?"

His voice was calm, but his chest felt as though it shook. The others turned around; even Starfire was concerned enough by the tone of his voice to wrench herself from her program. They saw the empty couch, the book, the lifejacket abandoned. They saw Robin's fear across his masked face, mimicking their own.

They leaped up from their seats, all feeling the slosh of the memories at their feet.

Robin gave them orders to search the areas of the tower, and they dispersed quickly, not wishing the water to rise before they could help.

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She stood in the shower cubicle with a slump to her posture. In the en-suite bathroom to the left of her bed, the towel she'd worn in the moments before she stepped into the shower lay on the floor, crumpled and lifeless as the clear water sprayed out of the showerhead and onto her pale, tired body. Steam rose from the top of the glass cubicle, and the heat of the room began to relax her exhausted senses.

Raven knew she couldn't go on like this.

"You can't stay awake forever Raven. It's impossible."

His words rang out clearer than she'd admit in her mind, and they clung to her eyelids, pulling them down, easing them into where they wished to lie. She shook her head, water droplets flying left and right from the tips of her deep purple hair. They spattered the walls of the cubicle like bullets, and the sound snapped her to. With a sigh, she reached for the shampoo.

"If you go back to sleep, maybe we can figure out what's doing this to you…"

Her teeth ground together. Did he think she didn't know that? That she should be brave and face up to her fear rather than run from it? Hide from it in this shower cubicle? Let the steam protect her naked body from what was waiting for her when she gave in?

"I know – but how can I let myself drown of my own free will?"

Water gurgled around her feet as it slipped through the plughole. She wished she could follow – it seemed safer down there, in the blackness. Safer than her own sleep. Safer than what her mind could offer.

"I can't let it get me again. I can't."

The shower continued to spray water onto her body. The steam continued to rise and cloud the room.

"I mustn't. I've got to fight it."

Water trickled down her shape, snaking down the undulations of her spine.

"It will drown me. I do not want to drown."

It splashed at the tiny pool beneath her feet. It pounded.

"I must not drown. I must not let it pull me. I need to stay awake."

It dragged at her face. It pulled at her hair.

"I've got to breathe. I mustn't let it take me under. I must not drown."

The water at her feet began to rise.

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Robin raced to her room. His feet felt heavy, as though he were pushing against some unknown force, some invisible tide. He had told Beast Boy to check the cellar, Starfire to check the roof, and Cyborg to check each of their rooms. He already knew where she would be. He wanted to find her.

He slammed open the door to her room with too much force and winced briefly as it crunched into the already damaged wall. The scratches still remained from…

"From last time."

He shook away the water in his own mind and dashed forward, his eyes on the bed. Her sheets had been changed. The dark purple ones had been ripped and torn apart too much to remain. Now the bed was lit with white sheets until they had a chance to buy some new ones that matched the room.

She was not there. She did not lie, as he had imagined, sleeping peacefully, nor strewn out and covered in her own blood across the sheets. There was nothing. No horror to greet his eyes. Just the plain sheets, and the sound of water running in the bathroom. He could see steam creeping out from the cracks in the door, hiding the dim bathroom light.

With a relieved sigh, and enjoying the sense of the water draining away from his mind, he sat down on the bed.

"You scared us, Raven," he said loudly so she could hear him from the bathroom. He was answered with only the dull hiss of the showerhead and the crawl of the steam.

Robin was accustomed to Raven's silences, but still, he spoke again, feeling as though an answer may simply relieve him of the fears that still crept in the dark corners.

"Didn't you want any pizza? You never ate."

The hiss of the showerhead. The crawl of the steam.

He stood, that terrible pounding beginning to beat in his heart again. Waves upon the rocks.

"Raven?"

The hiss of the showerhead.

"Raven!"

The crawl of the steam.

He watched the door, begging silently for an answer. And amid the hiss and the crawl, he saw one thing.

The door was locked.

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I hear him pounding he tries to save me

My feet enveloped in water is the plug in it

It should drain

It is rising how can it rise the plug is not in it should not rise

Where

Chlorine a pool where is my shower

"There's more to come"

Not again no I can't I must not drown but the water is rising

It is at my knees what are these hands

Hands shoulders chlorine water

It does not pull me

I pushed

Hands

It is at my waist it is cold it freezes it does not pull I am pushed these hands

So cold it burns me please hear me pounding I hear you

Do not let me drown do not let him push me

Chlorine smell it burns at my stomach

My breasts

Hands

It is rising so quickly so cold fire freezes smoke creeps steam that crawls

I hear you pounding hear me drown I cannot let it take me please

It laps at me laps at my neck my mouth how to scream

How to scream when I cannot breathe

He pushes me I am struggling

Kicking biting breathing writhing groping grasping touching

Hands

Kick breathe you much not drown I must not drown he pushes so hard

Twisting it lasts forever forever will I not breathe I will choke forever

My eyes

It burns my eyes

I cannot breathe kicking

A wall of water please do not push

How can they see my tears in the water the chlorine the fire that freezes the steam that crawls

Pounding I hear you help me you know what I know

Hands burning breathe I cannot breathe I am the darkness

Breathe hands

Pounding cannot

Breathe

The water is darkness

Breathe

Breathe

I am the darkness

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He pounded. He punched the door so hard his knuckles bled. He watched the small gold lock shudder under the pressure. He shuddered under his own pressure. He knew.

He knew.

"Raven, I'm coming!" he yelled, not knowing if she could hear him. There was no clock in her room but he could hear the seconds ticking. He knew he was running out of time. Her door was heavy and thick. It kept people out.

With one final blow the lock broke and clinked to the floor, scintillating in the misty atmosphere. He snatched at the handle and tore the door open, almost ripping it off its hinges. His rubber-soled shoes gripped the floor desperately as he darted into the room, using his hands to wave the steam in front of his face away. He could see the cubicle. He could see her. Modesty mattered not at the moment. He could see her towel on the floor, dead.

Robin could not comprehend what he saw.

She stood in the shower, her arms raised, revealing her pale naked form. If he looked closely, Robin could still see the scratches from the last time. He expected to see water trickling down her skin, down her body, along her arms, curving down her breasts, onto her waist and thighs.

There was no trickling water.

The cubicle was full to the top with water. The glass compartments were fitted into the room and so reached the ceiling. The water reached all the way up. It was a liquid prison. Raven was drowning. She did not move. Her eyes stayed shut. He saw red marks on her shoulders. Her hands gripped thin air.

He glanced through the translucent water to the plughole at her feet. It was unplugged. The water should be draining. It remained.

A wall of water.

Thinking quickly and ignoring the tide of water that swept towards him in his own mind, he sprung forward, grabbing the handle of the cubicle. The door was stiff, but Robin tugged it open quickly, squinting his eyes in preparation for the flood of water that would spring upon him.

It did not.

It stood before him, real water, remaining in that prison-like position, the rectangular shape of the cubicle. He couldn't find air for a moment.

"How…?"

His friend remained still in the open cubicle, walled in by the cruel waters around her, as though she were frozen in a block of ice. The steam continued to rise around them both. Robin closed his eyes and tried to think.

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What do I do she's drowning how the hell is the water staying up

I have to save her I can't let her drown but the water has stayed up how

It's a vision it's another one this one will kill her if I don't stop thinking too much

Robin think do not wander do not drown in your own but think

It's just water

You can reach in and take her out

You can save her if you don't drown now

Reach in and take her out

Reach in

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He did. He plunged his hands into the water with a cry from the depths of his throat. Despite the steam, the water was ice cold. It burned his fingers in their rubber gloves. It made his arms feel tight and stiff. He quickly pulled out his hands and removed his gloves, in case they were burning him. They were not. It was the cold water. The steam was a mask. He thrust his hands back in again.

His groping fingers found her waist, and he clumsily manoeuvred his hands until he had a firm grip on her. Her skin was smooth to the touch, and for the briefest of moments his mind allowed him a glimpse of one of his thoughts; a light in the dark waters of his head. It flashed away as quickly as it came, but it made him more determined to get her out.

He pulled, and gripped hard with his frozen fingers. And she came, her body moving easily though the water as though she were streamlined and designed for this. When she moved, the water wall began to collapse around her. It fell onto them both as Robin tore her away from the vision and out of the prison, out of the cubicle, and they were swept onto the bathroom floor by the heavy cold water.

The steam continued to crawl.

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Beast Boy heard Robin's cries from down in the basement. The torch in his hand dropped as he morphed into an eagle, and he flew upstairs as fast as the air would let him.

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Starfire, up on the roof, heard banging below her, and muffled cries. She knew it was Robin. She always heard him. She could sense the fear in his voice. Her heart leaped to her throat, and she swung round and flew down the stairs towards Raven's room.

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Cyborg was in Starfire's room when he heard it.

"Robin. He's found her. He's found Raven."

He left Starfire's closet open in his rush to get to Raven's room. It was just down the corridor, and his thunderous steps echoed in the dimming light. He arrived at her room, the source of the pounding and Robin's cries, at the same time as Starfire and Beast Boy. They swapped anxious, frightened glances before diving in through the already open door. The light of the bathroom was open, and they all noticed the liquid seeping out of the shower room. Raven's bedroom itself was steamy and difficult to see.

Starfire moved forward first, hovering tentatively over the water, her mind whirring. She reached the entrance to the bathroom, looked in, and dropped her hands from her chest to her side.

"No . . ."

Cyborg and Beast Boy followed her warily, their stomachs quivering; sweat clinging to them as rain to a window. They watched the scene with fear across their faces.

They lay sprawled in the middle of the bathroom floor, which was soaked, saturated with water. Steam floated all around, shadowing the scene. Robin clutched Raven around the middle, his gloves lying in a heap on the floor. Raven's pale skin almost blended with the colour of the bathroom tiles. Her hair clung to her face like a leech, and she was naked, her body now dripping with beads of water. Robin, who was speaking to her quietly, propped up her head, focusing on her face. Beast Boy listened, but he could not hear what was said.

A shudder took her cold body, and the eyes snapped open. The pupils were tight and small, almost drugged, and the irises darted around the room in panic. Her chest convulsed.

Gasping, Robin pulled her into a sitting position, his own face covered with droplets of the water. His eyes did not leave her face as she vomited water onto him, the same water that had held her in place, in limbo. She squinted her eyes shut, and her limp hands, blue at the fingertips, raised, her fingers searching for something to hold onto. They found Robin's shoulders, and as her lungs pulled in their first gasp of shaking air, she clung to him, shivering harder than she knew she could. Water dripped from her hair onto her body but she did not care. She was unaware of anything around her.

Cyborg glanced at the shower, his mouth robbed of its words by this display, and noticed the showerhead begin to glow black, as well as the cubicle door. As he watched, the door slammed shut, tight, and the showerhead exploded within the cubicle. Water trickled down the glass doors.

Robin just held her, at a total loss for words. His mind spoke to him.

"You didn't drown. You reached in and you saved her."

His face scrunched up, and he fought back tears.

"You saved her."

He pulled the shaking girl in closer. She was so cold, so wet. He could feel her chest rising and falling in shudders. She was crying.

"It's ok, Raven," he muttered, more to himself than to her, "I saved you. You didn't drown. I saved you."

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Sherbet Mayhem: And that's a wrap folks. Lol, this chapter was meant to be about something totally different but it never came out that way! Lmao! Hehe! I just forced my boyfriend to read it :p how evil is that? Lol.

So . . . yeah! Hope you liked it! I liked it a lot – I'm pleased with how it came out. At parts it sounded a bit Golding, if you know what I mean (William Golding, Lord of the Flies), and he's such a great author so I liked sounding like him! Lol!

It's my 19th birthday today :D

Did you guys notice the aquatic semantic field I had going? Lol, Englishy terms are funny. Hope you liked as much as I did! Please review and get your friends and other people to read and review because I can't deal with writing of this standard getting three reviews for a chapter and absolutely rubbish writing that other peoples do getting like eighty four for a chapter just because they know people.

Should I change the rating, people? And also, could you let me know if you'd like a Rob/Rae to happen in this story? I'm not sure if I will – it definitely wouldn't be a big theme, just an underlying one? Or sulks are you all Starfire fans? BOOOO!

Sam (my boyfriend): I think you shouldn't because I like Starfire and Robin.

Sherby: Shut up --

Sam: silence

Sherby: Well, please read and review! I'm sorry for the fairly slow update, but you have to understand, my chapters are long, I work in a shop and I'm going to university! I'm a busy girl! I try to write when I can but sometimes I just don't have time or am not in the mood. Please be patient – I will ALWAYS update. Never again shall I leave a story unfinished like Darkness Falls. That is now my gremlin. We shall never speak of it again. (Lindsay, it's coz I stopped watching Beyblade, coz I didn't have toonami! I couldn't write about it anymore!)

Anyways, I shall stop rambling! Please, pass the word that this story is out and get people to read it – I dearly appreciate the reviews I already have, but it's thin pickings, if you get my drift.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Speak to ya in chapter three, or if anyone has any comments or queries, catch me at bless x x x x x x x x

Jen x x x x x x x x

Next chapter: The Mirror...