A/N: Thanks to all my readers and reviewers! Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up fairly soon since it's really just a continuation of this chapter. I appreciate all of you!

I do not own the Teen Titans or Phantom of the Opera (This disclaimer will make sense later this chapter.) I sincerely hope it all makes sense.

Chapter 10

Raven stared at Robin for a few tense seconds. Red X's hand dropped from when he had stroked her face. He slid it down her arm and twined his fingers with hers, ready to pull her back should things go south. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by Robin. His nostrils flared and the anger in his eyes was more unchecked than Raven could ever remembers seeing it.

"You're gone for days, Raven. Days!" he shouted. "I have to find out from worse than third party information that you were shot. You call once to brush off the danger that you're in, you don't reveal when you're in the same building that I am, and you're in an alley with the same wanted criminal that abducted you from the hospital! I would love to hear your explanation of that, Raven!"

"You'll want to watch your tone when you speak to her," Red X growled in a threatening way. "Your beef is with me, chuckles."

"You're damn right it is, X," Robin spat, turning his attention to the thief. "Let. Her. Go."

"I'm not keeping her, kid. Maybe it's your obviously cheerful disposition she's avoiding. I see you're just as high strung and possessive as rumors paint you to be."

Robin took a step toward Raven but Red X pulled on their joined hands and put himself between her and Robin. Robin spun his bo staff and held it at the ready, Raven's note falling to the floor.

"Stop trying to take her from me, X. You can't keep her."

"And you don't fucking own her."

"Stop!" Raven shouted, pulling Red X to the side and standing between them, a hand held out in defense against Robin and a hand at Red X's chest to hold him back. "Stop."

She took a step toward Robin, giving a pointed look at Red X as if telling him to stay put before she turned to her leader.

"Robin, I know you didn't leave that police station without hearing about the syndicate case that I wrote about. About the kids and the trafficking. It was all X, it was his plan. He needed me to get those kids out and I went willingly. Whatever grief I've caused you in the past few days has been my fault, Robin. And I'm sorry." Her voice broke at her last sentence, buckled by the guilt that weighed on it. "I am so sorry."

"He still kidnapped you, Raven," Robin said, his voice softening. "That part wasn't your fault. None of this would have even started if he hadn't taken it upon himself to make the decision for you and to just take you."

He reached out to her, she was only a couple of steps away and if he could just touch her . . .

But Red X pulled her back again, growling as he did so in a possessive, almost feral way. He couldn't help the reaction, he couldn't risk losing her now that he finally had her. He knew she had a bond with Robin and, while he wasn't sure exactly how it worked, he couldn't take the chance that their physical contact would bring something to life between them and pull Raven back to her leader. He and Raven had just found each other and he couldn't bear the thought of losing her now. Once he pulled her back he placed himself between her and Robin once more.

Robin took the gesture of him yanking her back so forcefully as a hostile one and he lashed out, a rapid succession of blows landing on Red X's defensively held arms. Red X waited for a break in Robin's onslaught and turned to the offensive, giving as good as he got. Raven stood by, fearing either would get hurt and tried her best to raise shields of her soul self to protect both the best that she could.

Raven finally managed to get a shield up between them to hold against their blows and they stood at a temporary standstill, glaring daggers at each other as they caught their breath.

"What's your game, X?" Robin demanded, his eyes moving back to Raven and trying to figure out why she wasn't taking the opportunity to flee her kidnapper now that the job she had willingly committed to was over. "Are you trying to convince her that you can be a hero? Because doing one good thing after a lifetime of crime and bad choices doesn't make you good. She got hurt on your watch, X, and putting Raven in so much danger over the last few days is certainly not heroic."

"Who the fuck said anything about wanting to be heroic?" Red X drawled, standing to full height. "I'm only doing what I always do: looking out for number one. You should know me well enough by now, kid, I don't play the hero." He looked back at Raven and Robin heard his voice soften behind the voice synthesizer. "But I will, apparently, do surprising things for Raven. She brings out surprising sides of me."

Robin couldn't help the fury that rose in him at the silent exchange between his current nemesis and the woman he had stolen. He saw the small smile and tender look that she gave to Red X and he just . . . lost it. He managed to take advantage of Raven's distraction and threw and explosive disk at her shield, knocking it back and causing Raven to stagger. Robin and Red X fought anew now that the barrier between them was gone. Robin managed to knock Red X into the side of a dumpster and the thief struggled to get back up.

Raven moved to block his path, preventing Robin from stepping forward and finishing the job. She stared him down until he stopped his approach.

"Red X saved those kids the other night, Robin. And, yes, it was just one act, but what would you call that act if not heroic? It's a start, Robin. Maybe there's more to him than the thief we thought we knew."

She looked back at Red X still fighting to get to his feet. She returned her stare to Robin.

"You're both acting like children," she seethed, her anger getting the better of her. "I promise you, Robin, that I will come home and explain everything, but for now you have to let him go. Please."

Robin finally strode forward the last few steps between himself and her and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to him. His face was inches from hers.

"What has he done – what is he doing – that's keeping you with him, Raven? Whatever it is, whatever he's using against you to make you stay, it doesn't matter. You can come home, Raven, and we'll figure it out." He cupped her face with his other hand, his thumb stroking her cheekbone. Their bond resonated between them and Raven gasped. She couldn't decipher what she felt through it but it was unlike anything she'd felt through it before. "You can come home with me. Right now."

She never managed to answer. A sucker punch from the side knocked Robin away from her and Red X ripped her from the hero's grip. He pulled her to his side instead of tucking her behind him again, as if to illustrate that he wasn't putting himself between them but, rather, she was staying with him.

"I'm doing nothing to keep her with me," Red X snarled. "Unlike you, Boy Blunder, I don't need to exert any control over her or guilt her to get her to stay with me."

"You expect me to believe that she's willingly staying with the man that kidnapped her? That you're not holding any kind of control over her? That she's coming back anywhere with you willingly?"

"She came to my bed quite willingly, as it so happens," he retorted without pausing to think.

He hadn't meant to say it, but the words were out now and he stood at full height and his chest puffed out in bravado, not willing to show shame in front of Robin at blurting something out that he hadn't intended to.

Raven, however, held a hand to her forehead and shook her head, the folly of his words and the implications thereof freezing her blood. It took a moment for her to lower her hand and look at Robin, mentally preparing herself for his righteous fury.

But it's not what she got.

She expected rage, betrayal, disgust but she was staggered to see the hurt, the utter anguish that was plastered across his face as he looked at her. He looked wounded.

But that look was fleeting.

The rage that she had expected from him finally came as he noticed the dark circles that Red X's mouth had left of the column of Raven's throat. The thief had practically marked her as his and Robin felt something primal claw its way up through him at the thought. He turned his furious gaze at Red X.

"You did something to her, X. You took advantage of her, exploited her! Whatever you did to her I will undo it and you will pay for it!"

When they began fighting each other again, Raven could feel the change in the air; the change in the emotions they both emanated.

They weren't pulling any punches anymore. Robin wasn't letting his heroism keep his blows in check and Red X wasn't holding back for her sake anymore. Robin took a deep slash to the side from one of the X blades that Red X threw and the sickening crack that came from the next blow of Robin's staff to the thief's arm told Raven that the arm was broken. They both reached for their belts at the same time and Raven's eyes widened as she saw explosive disks in both of their hands.

She had had enough.

She engulfed both disks in her soul self as they flew at each other before either could reach their target, but she had underestimated the blast. She was knocked back, hard, and flung into the wall behind her.

Red X got to her before Robin scramble to her and the thief scooped Raven into his arms wincing as the arcs of pain from his broken arm screamed against his actions. She groaned and blinked hard, but couldn't get the world to focus yet. Robin skidded to a stop, fearing that he would run straight into them both and cause her further injury.

"If you take her again, X, you will sorely regret it! She keeps getting hurt around you and you can't keep doing this to her."

"As I recall," Red X spat back, finally settling the Titan's legs in the crook of his elbow instead of on the shattered bones of his forearm, "it was on your fucking watch that she almost died. In case you're keeping score."

Robin winced at the accusation and had no argument against it. Red X wasn't wrong.

"You didn't mind so much letting me take her then," the thief continued. "Now is no different. I'm doing what's best for her. I'm doing what she wants."

He looked at the dazed sorceress in his arms and he sighed. He lifted his masked face back to Robin, saying, "See you around, kid," before pushing the button on his belt with his elbow and teleporting away.

Robin screamed in anger and punched the brick wall beside him with all the power of his frustration. The bricks cracked beneath his fist, as did the bones of his knuckles. He stood long minutes in the alley, trying to calm his rage, before he managed to limp out with plans to resume his search for them.

O • O • O • O

Raven drifted in and out of consciousness. She remembered hearing Red X and Robin speak to each other but she couldn't remember what it was that they spoke of. She could feel the constriction of Red X's teleportation and she closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes in Nevermore.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, bracing herself for another round of trying to placate the warring factions of her emotions. She hadn't intended to come here but she was here now and she figured she may as well see if she could make some headway with them this time.

But it was surprisingly quiet. There was no shouting, no flux of emotions and it disconcerted her. They had been at war for weeks and for this sudden of a change to have taken place something big must have happened.

She summoned her emotions to her and was surprised at the prompt arrival of all of them. They seemed at ease with one another, Lust, Pride, and Knowledge all standing by one another. Which was extremely suspicious since they were the front runners of the war in her head since that first night with Red X. It was strange to see them together without hostility.

Joy approached her first, before Raven could even get a word out to any of them.

"Isn't the peace wonderful?!" she asked, positively beaming.

Usually Raven found happiness and a strange comfort in Joy; she reminded her of Starfire in a lot of ways. But right now she needed answers so she simply nodded at her before addressing the three that had drawn her attention.

"What in the hells is going on here?" Raven demanded. "You're all at odds for weeks, giving me no peace and now suddenly you're all singing fucking kumbaya?! What happened to all out war? What happened to 'fighting for my fate' or whatever bullshit you all said last time?"

Lust looked at her with a haughty expression, shrugged, and walked away leaving Raven seething. But before she could pursue her Pride reached out to grab her shoulder and spoke up.

"We know when it's time to back down," she said simply, gesturing to Knowledge and a handful of others that had been on her side during the conflict. "New developments have come to light and, now, so has our position."

"What the hells could have possibly changed that much in the last few days?"

"You know how much I dislike taking action without logic to back it," Knowledge said, "but our instinct goes a long way, as it is rooted in magic. Our instinct says that our opinion of the thief my have been incorrect. Something about him has a positive effect on our magic and we cannot fight against that. You must admit that this relationship is now beneficial to us all, as ill conceived as its conception may have been." Her last sentence was aimed at Lust's retreating back and she gave a flippant wave of the hand to acknowledge that she had heard Knowledge, but did not seem to care. She had gotten her way and that was all that mattered to her.

Raven stared at the pieces that made up her whole and found that she had no words.

"So . . . that's it?!" she finally asked. "Something about our 'instinct' now has you all on board with this?"

They all nodded.

Raven didn't have any more to say and she simply willed herself back to consciousness.

Jason sighed as he saw her eyes open. She was still in his arms and he walked over to set her on his bed. He had brought her back to his condo and, as he was just now depositing her on his bed, she couldn't have been out that long. Plus he would have been frantic if she had been.

He hissed and winced as he pulled away his broken arm and she swore before reaching out and holding her hands against it as gently as she could.

"Raven, it's fine," Red X said in a cold voice, removing his mask with his good right hand. "Save your strength. You took a hard blow."

"And it's back to my name again. Awesome. Will you please stop arguing and let me do this?"

He frowned at her but allowed her to continue her healing.

"You've said that before," he accused. "What do you mean about your real name?"

She took a minute of silence, closing her eyes to focus on healing. Once she had reset the bones and done most of the major work she answered him.

"I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that you've called me by my actual name. You've used a nickname . . . several, in fact, the entire time I've known you. These last few days you only go to my real name when you're upset . . . or when you need something. And since you're chastising me I have to assume that you're upset."

She knitted the broken bits of his arm back together and finally released it, her eyes opening. He flexed his fingers and shook his head in wonder.

"I didn't feel a thing," he whispered. He finally looked at her. "Thank you," he said with sincerity.

She nodded in response.

"So what is it that has you using-my-real-name upset this time?" she pressed.

His jaw clenched and he stood at full height, staring down at her.

"I can't keep doing this, Raven. I can't keep putting you in danger. Believe me, I am loathe to admit that Robin might be right about anything, but he might be right about this. You keep getting hurt around me and maybe that's a sign. Maybe you shouldn't be around me."

"Hey!" she shouted, jumping up from the bed and jabbing a finger into Jason's chest. "You don't get to make that decision for me. I get to choose what risks I do and do not take. And I take risks every day, Jason. It's a side effect of the whole hero business, remember? So stop trying to be the martyr here and let me make my own decisions."

"And if you're making terrible decisions?"

She stared hard at him.

"You mean like the terrible decision of flaunting your conquest of me at the leader of my team just to get a rise out of him? You don't get to use me or anything between us that way."

He sighed, not having a response to that. She was right, he had no right to out their relationship to Robin. He hadn't intended to do that but it didn't change the fact that he had.

They spend the next hour in a knockdown, dragout fight. It kept cycling back to him fearing that he was dangerous to her, to her screaming that she had the right to choose for herself, to her threatening to leave, to him looking murderous at the thought of her returning to the tower with Robin. She was exhausted, but she wasn't going to let him walk away with such conflict in his mind and between the two of them.

"Why?" she asked for what felt like the hundredth time, but this time giving in to the frustration and exhaustion. He had his back turned to her and not seeing his face helped allow her to let out her anger. "Why are you doing this? Why are you pushing me away and yet unwilling to let me go?! Why are you acting like this?!"

"Because I can't lose you, Raven!" he shouted, spinning around to face her. "I can't stand the thought of having to live in a world that doesn't have you in it! I can't lose you."

She paused, her chest heaving from their shouting, and simply stared at him. He stood, returning her stare. He hadn't meant to say what he said, apparently that was a trend for him today.

She still had no response to his vulnerable answer and he finally continued, his voice quiet now.

"I don't know how to explain it, Little Bird. I mean we've only had this weird heat between us for a few weeks and this . . . deeper connection has only been, good God, three days. But I can't think about losing you without my chest constricting and putting me in a downright panic. I wasn't kidding about not doing attached, Raven, and this is terrifying.

"But the only thing more terrifying than that is anytime I think that I'm going to lose you. You keep getting hurt, Robin has a point at that, and . . . it's better to have you alive and not with me than dead because of me. But the thought of you and Robin . . . it makes my blood boil, Little Bird. I know I don't make any sense right now. I don't even know what I want. Because I want you safe . . . but I don't want you with him. Either choice I make I'll be doing exactly what I don't want: losing you. Either I push you away and lose you – the only thing that's ever felt this right – to the last person I want you with, or I keep you and chance the possibility that you get killed from associating with me. I can't win."

He walked up to her and stood before her.

"I know how you feel about him. I could see it in your face that night on the roof of the tower. The thought that I might lose you to him . . . I'm not ready for that."

She reached out to touch his face but he pulled back before she could.

"I'm also not ready for you to get hurt because of me, Little Bird. That possibility I just can't handle."

They stared at each other for a time, Raven hoping that they had finally hit a break in their fight and that she might finally be getting through to him. But he pulled away.

"It's classic Phantom of the Opera, Raven," he said, slumping to the bed, sitting on the edge of it and staring at her.

". . . What?" she asked, confused at the turn in conversation.

"You know Phantom, yes?" he asked. He continued when she nodded.

"My bet is that you like it because, for a moment, the Phantom has her. This creature of darkness gets a hold of some light and it looks like things might actually work out. But it doesn't. She chooses light herself and you lament the Phantom for losing out.

"But it's fantasy, Raven. You want the Phantom to get to keep her because she makes him better, he needs her. But he's not a good man, Raven. He's done terrible things and if it were you in her shoes you have to admit that you would choose the light too. It's a romantic story to think of her staying with the Phantom, but that's all it is: a story. It's a situation that only works in a story. These relationships never last in real life. Eventually she would realize that he's nothing but danger to her."

"What the fuck are you getting at?" she asked, confusion written on her face.

"You're my light, Raven! And all I do is put you in danger! This relationship doesn't work in the real world." He stood again and walked to where she stood, taking time to just look at her. "But just like him I can't let you go, either."

He finally gave in and reached out to stroke her face. "I'm lost without you, Little bird. And I just don't know what to do about it."

She softened at his touch and his tone. She held his hand to her face, leaning her head against it. She stared into the green depths of his eyes and tried to put the force of her conviction and her emotions into her next words in the hopes that he would understand.

"It's a hazard of caring for someone, Jason. You can't shy away from that. You can't live in fear of what might happen. You won't be living that way."

She stepped up so her body was flush against his, and she wrapped her arms around him, hoping he wouldn't shy away from her. She let out a relieved sigh when his arms encircled her.

She let out a small laugh and he pulled back to look at her inquisitively.

"I mean, you're in this thing with a half demon and you're convinced that you're the Phantom representation? It's not a matter of a dark entity and a light one with us, Jason, it's about how we temper each other. Whatever light we have to tempter the other's darkness. That's why this isn't just a story with no hope in reality. That's why we work. But you have to stop pushing me away out of fear."

She called on every empathic power she had to convey her sincerity as she pulled away just enough to look up at his face.

"As for what I feel for Robin, you're just going to have to trust me, Jason. You're going to have to trust that what we have now is strong enough to stand on its own. You said that you could see on my face that night what I felt for him. So look. What do you see now?"

He stared into her amethyst eyes, took in her face and the depth of emotion there. He could feel the projection of her emotions and it did nothing less than stagger him. She looked at him the same way she had looked at Robin. It felt deep. It felt real.

His lips were on hers in an instant. She sighed against them as she felt his inner conflict ease. He pulled her into him and felt contentment wash over him. She was here. She was with him. She had had every chance to leave from the moment she went to the police station. Robin had offered her a physical out not an hour before and she could have fled at any point during his fight with Robin. But she had stayed. She had protected him from Robin as much as she had protected her leader from him. And she was here.

It was like a weight had lifted from his shoulders and he pulled away from her just so he could look at her face and marvel at the fact that she was here. She gave him a small smile and chewed on the corner of her lower lip in that fetching way of hers and he couldn't help but laugh as he rested his forehead against hers.

"Jason," she whispered tentatively. He pulled back to look at her again, hearing the seriousness in her tone. "I owe him an explanation, though. And I owe it to him in person, especially after today."

"I know," he whispered back in defeat. "I know, Little Bird."

"But trust that I will be back here as soon as it's over, Jason. Trust that I'll come back to you. Trust me."

He smiled at her and nodded, finally finding a peace within. He could do nothing but trust that she felt as strongly for him as he did for her. He had to let her go.

"I trust you, Raven," he murmured into her hair as he pulled her back into him. "And with that trust, I have to offer you your choice."

She looked up at him in confusion.

"I know how you feel for him – and before you start, yes, I'm aware that you feel for me too – but you have to know something. He feels for you too, Raven. And while what we have might be real, I can't help but feel like what you have with him is real too. You have a history, Little Bird, and that counts for a lot. This is your decision . . . and I have to let you make it."

"Jason . . ." she started, but he held onto her shoulders and kept her a step away.

"I'm not saying that I assume you'll chose him, I'm just saying that I need you to know that you're free to. I told him that I wasn't doing anything to keep you with me. Now it's time that I proved that."

She reached out for his face but he held her wrist and moved her arm back to her side.

"This is something that was going to have to happen eventually, Little Bird. But you should go, now, before I realize how stupid it is for me to let you go do this."

She nodded and he let go of her wrist and her shoulder. She called her soul self around her to return to the tower, but before she wrapped herself in it she surged forward and gave him a parting kiss.

"Wait for me, Jason," she whispered. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that her shadowy form surrounded her and she was gone.