(Very busy, almost missed this month. Hope you enjoy this chapter! ~RavensMind~ )

Chapter 3: Finding the Spark

"Enjoy the brighter areas of this tower when you are able, for the patrol of demons traverses every inch of this place eventually. Even the daughter of the source of all darkness cannot always succeed in avoiding them – and she controls them. Her emotions do step in to coordinate these patrols, though they do tend to point them in the wrong direction. The owner would prefer to have an artistic distraction for these forces of disorder, but there are only so many poems and stories for her to use. It would help if she had someone else around her to engage her more creative appetites…"

A ball flew past his head as Robin entered the living room. Cyborg was trying to get Beast Boy, who was taunting him on the other side of the couch as a green german-shepherd. Apparently the ball was a warning shot. Starfire sat off to the side on a stool in the kitchen area, feeding Silkie, not wanting to get in between Cyborg and Beast Boy. Raven was nowhere to be seen.

"Get over here, or the next one will be in your face," Cyborg threatened.

Beast Boy morphed back to normal.

"Bring it on," Beast Boy said with a grin.

"Has anyone seen Raven?" Robin asked, interrupting.

The others looked towards him with surprised smiles. Starfire shot over to him with Silkie and looked at his splinted wrist with smothering attention. Cyborg gave him a nod and Beast Boy crossed his arms with a grin.

"You missed an awesome chase last night, we had the guy down, and Star was shooting bolts like crazy – I knocked him over with my lion fury and then-!" Beast Boy said, giving the most over-the top animated gestures.

"He got away after using a high-powered flash grenade?" Robin asked.

"Yeah…How'd you know?" Beast Boy asked.

"Oh, uh – Raven filled me in," Robin said quickly, "Sorry I couldn't be there. Had an…accident."

"What have the doctors said?" Starfire asked.

"Just need to take it easy for a few days, I didn't break it, but it wasn't in good shape," Robin replied.

"Hey, I'm sorry, maybe I missed something when we were tuning it up the other day," Cyborg said, walking over.

"There wasn't anything wrong with the bike, Cyborg, somebody hit me…I'm sure we had it tuned perfectly," Robin said with a smile.

"Damn right it was perfect…now we'll need to fix it, so where is it?" Cyborg asked.

"Oh, I'll need to pick it up," Robin said, scratching the back of his neck.

"How did you get back to the tower?" Starfire asked.

"Um…Raven brought me back. Nobody answered me, where is she?" Robin asked, changing the subject.

"She was in here a while ago reading, then Beast Boy had to go and piss her off," Cyborg said, looking angrily to the green changeling.

"What did you say?" Robin asked.

"Nothing bad! She just overreacted to it…" Beast Boy protested.

"Seemed like she underreacted," Cyborg said, "she'd have punched you in the nose."

"What did he say, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"Nothing! She's just in a sour mood…as usual," Beast Boy said.

"Now that's the kind of thing I'm talking about – you'd be bleeding by now if you'd said that to her," Cyborg said, shaking his head.

"Is Raven not feeling well?" Starfire asked Robin.

"No, she's fine, I just need to talk to her," Robin said.

"Try her room, I'll take care of Beast Boy," Cyborg said, turning to Beast Boy and putting him in a headlock.

Nodding, Robin left the living room as Cyborg restrained Beast Boy and Starfire watched after Robin before remembering Silkie.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Staring off the edge of the Tower roof, letting her legs swing with the breeze, Raven sat holding her book on her lap. She had tried to read, but hadn't managed getting past a few sentences without feeling overwhelmed by her own mind. Hatred spun in circles watching as the tornado of potential targets swarmed around her like a cyclone within Raven's emotional mental holding "cell." Happiness dug through a pile of mental images, searching for anything helpful to Raven's mood while Cleverness watched, shaking her head as they were held up individually. Bravery and Despair clung to the cell of Hatred, ensuring everything held.

Giving a long sigh, Raven wondered how long she would have to endure the barrage of negative predictions. This had happened before and it would continue to occur until either her existence, or time, ended. During this time, she did her best to sleep through it or busy herself with the Titans cases and fighting the inevitable criminal onslaught on the city. While she had a litany of predictions concerning the future, she had none concerning her own mood – which frustrated her to no end. Maybe the undercover case with Robin would help.

"Raven?"

She turned her head enough to see Robin standing on the roof behind her. She could tell he was doing his best to hide a sad expression, which if she'd seen, would not have helped pull her away from what she was dealing with. Managing a small nod, she turned back to the sky before her as he approached and sat beside her carefully.

"The um, mission is over, the case isn't ours anymore…" Robin said slowly.

"…You must be thrilled," Raven said dryly.

"Right? Sorry I um, wasted your time last night and hid this from you and the others," Robin said.

"It… wasn't a complete waste of time, your arm is better and… we have something we can do together," she said.

"I slid our journal under your door," he said, giving a slight smile.

"Perfect," she said, looking to Robin with a spark in her eye and an involuntary small smile.

Happiness held up several mental images, jumping up and down, while Cleverness nodded approvingly at the choices. This was until the wave of the future blew the images away and left Happiness to frown and frantically resume digging.

Raven's smile faded and the spark in her eye was siphoned away, and she returned her gaze to the sky once more. Robin noticed the sudden changes and it made him very curious. He couldn't ask her, she'd never expect him to understand, and she was right – he wouldn't. Though he could try testing a small theory.

"So, when were you planning on us writing poems?" he asked.

"When we feel like writing them, something has to inspire it though," she said, the spark hovering in her eye once more, along with the small smile. They remained for a few seconds before being banished once more.

"You think we could inspire each other?" he asked.

"I hope so," she replied. Again, a spark glinted in her eye and she gave a deeper smile, even glancing to him a couple of times before her expression reverted to her usual serious one.

This was a side of her he hadn't seen, or if he had it was rare, and it had the sort of genuine feel that a true image does – when the purest form of the self blasts through in all its fantastic shades. This was just a hint of it though. He wanted to be sure.

"Raven, when you got the journal out for us – that…was your true self, wasn't it?" he asked.

Surprised by the question, she looked at him for a few moments. Finally, she slowly nodded.

"And that's-?" he asked.

"…me, yes. Emotions and all," she said.

"Why aren't you like that more often?" he asked.

"My powers might level the city…or hurt someone," she replied.

"I know you've kept your emotions under control for a long time, but things are different now – your father is gone, maybe you could let them show once in a while," he said.

"I-wh…I'm doing this the only way I know how to, it's fine. Why does it matter?" she asked.

"It's not fine. Well, maybe it is, but it could be better," he said.

"Why does it matter to you all of a sudden?" she asked.

"You're not happy, but you are when you let your real self show, and I-I like this side of you," he said.

Robin had blurted out the rest of his reply, and it had stopped Raven from saying anything more. She looked from him to the sky, back to him, to the sky, then off to the side as she struggled with what to say, and how to react. Robin moved closer to her and as he did so, a wall of dark energy sprung up between he and Raven – putting a crack in the roof.

"Don't," was all Raven said.

"I just want to help you feel better," Robin said.

"You can't," she said.

"Prove it," he challenged.

"I'm fine."

"'Fine' isn't good enough."

"You really want to know how I feel? What I have to deal with?"

"Yeah!"

The wall of dark energy shattered and she reached over to take his hand. Gripping his hand tightly, she chanted "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," and they were plunged into a sea of dark energy. It was dead silent for the longest time as they were pulled through the darkness. Then, a deep, resounding, inescapable roaring laugh assaulted their ears as the four glaring blood red eyes of Trigon appeared before them. The apocalyptic landscape they had witnessed before was laid out underneath them as a sweeping gust of smoke fell around them, suffocating their senses.

As the smoke took them in, the flood of dreadful possibilities for the future of life flashed around them one by one, repeating, ceasing, and repeating – faster and faster. Raven's emotions flared up around them, each advocating for itself and its own power – competing for their attention and adding to the smoke. Trigon's laugh would cut in every few minutes, his wishes and deeds striking their minds. A city leveled, a population eradicated, a victory for entropy, and the murder of time. Blood flowed in streams around their feet and a shrill wail drowned out everything. Robin closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears, trying to shut it out.

She forced his eyes to open as she led him to the door of a shadowed tower. Throwing open the door, she helped him inside. They trudged past several paintings, which depicted Azarath, Trigon's first acts as her father, and more. He smelled something burning, something else rotting, and then the scent of the air on an overcast day. A sense of dread fell on his shoulders and he stopped, sinking to the floor of the hall as Raven knelt with him. He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes once more.

After a second, he opened them to see the sky in front of him, and Raven beside him. Putting his hands down, groaning as he hurt his wrist doing so – he looked to Raven.

"Sorry…you asked…" Raven said softly.

"That's what you're dealing with?" Robin asked.

"Some of it, I won't show you everything," she said.

"I'm…glad you didn't. What was that place, that tower?" he asked.

"It's a place in my mind. A place for everything I can remember…" she said.

"Is it always so…dark?" he asked carefully.

"No… It used to be darker there. I've been doing what I can to make it mine…the others and well…you've helped," she said.

She looked out over the river and felt her emotions resume their work in her mind. Happiness had a larger pile of images to sort through, and Cleverness was now explaining something to Despair.

"I'm glad…uh, I know how you feel about this and what you think, but…you should try letting your true self out more. Things have changed, maybe it'll be safe, maybe we can lighten that place up," he said.

Raven shook her head. "I doubt it. Suppose I told you that things have changed enough that you don't have to keep so much to yourself, it's not as dangerous with so many criminals out of the way. You would protest much the way I did," she said.

"…You could be right, at least…maybe I can tell you more than I do," he said.

"Are you…sure?" she asked, suprised.

"Yeah, if you'll share your emotions more," he said.

"…I'm not sure it's worth the risk," she said, beginning to shake her head.

"You could try," he said.

"You don't know what you're asking for. I'm not even sure why you're so interested in asking for it," she said, her eyes darting off to the side.

"It might help you feel better and… uh, maybe let us get to know each other more," he said with a nervous smile.

"And you…want that?" she asked awkwardly, looking back to him.

"Don't you?" he asked.

She thought for a few moments before she nodded to him and then looked out across the water below. Her emotions had already begun lining up for a chance to shine while she and Robin had been talking.

Raven was too preoccupied with the conversation to notice Passion and Cleverness having a sit-down with Happiness over some new, enticing bit of feelings to focus on, until their debate was loud enough that she couldn't hear anything else. Her face reddened as she stole a quick glance over to Robin before she shoved the thought from her mind.

While he was glad she'd be more open with him at least, he was worried how it would affect her powers. If they did misfire, it could be a problem for more than just her and the Titans. Seeing the city being affected by the same force that could twist the imagination into a real danger wasn't something that would be easy to deal with.

Nothing he could do about it now but wait and see if something went wrong. He felt her shift closer to him and he could have sworn she was blushing as he looked over to her, which made him smile. He put his arm around her, which she allowed, but she wasn't entirely comfortable with it.

"Aww, that's sweet."

A wave of dark energy shoved Robin away from Raven in an embarrassed panic as she swiftly stood and turned to face who spoke. Robin groaned and looked to Raven with surprise before he rose to his feet.

Cyborg stood at the door to the roof access stairwell.

"You two in the middle of something or-?" Cyborg asked.

"Just talking, something up?" Robin asked.

"Wanted to see if you two were gonna eat with us or not, the pizza's here," Cyborg said.

Raven shook her head, "I'm not hungry." Before vanishing through the roof using her powers.

"She alright?" Cyborg asked.

"Not exactly…I can't talk about it, she's just not feeling like herself," Robin said with a sad frown.

"Anything we can do?" Cyborg asked.

"No, she doesn't want to make a big deal over it – I made her promise to talk to me when it gets to be too much…so that's what that was about," Robin replied.

"Guess that's why she didn't deal with Beast Boy like she usually does, I knew something was up." Cyborg said.

"Yeah. I can't say what it is, but it isn't good – or something we can really help her deal with," Robin said.

"I get it, I hope she feels better…Wanna grab some pizza?" Cyborg asked.

"Sure, I'm starving," Robin replied distantly, staring at the spot where Raven had gone through the floor.