Author: Nazran

Shattered: Act I

Chapter 3

§Oo–.–oO§

A gloved fist cracked into the metal of a table. The circular room was dimly lit with lamps, mounted on long segmented arms that allowed a range of movement. Papers littered the desk, some with high resolution photos printed on them and others lined with data. Above the table a panel was visible flush mounted, long and curving with the wall it stretched some height toward the ceiling above. The panel wall lit in a series of screen of various sizes, more data scrolling or frozen. Readouts from government websites, satellite images taken from various League elements, everything he had compiled in the recent days.

Robin paced angrily in his Evidence Room. This was his sanctuary, his safe place away from the responsibilities of the team. Where he could focus without distraction or interruption. He looked to a small area, separate from the rest where a broken mask rested, the orange and black spit in a ragged diagonal crack across the face. The empty slit of the eye stared back at him in condemning mockery. Slade. The Boy Wonder cracked his neck, rubbing the knotted muscles, he did not need this. There was already too much to worry about with his nemesis out there somewhere and Raven's destiny supposedly approaching.

And now Daniel. And the GIW. And whatever the hell else was going on in his city. Metahumans he could handle, there were plenty of those running around the world and between Jump's own cadre of villains and his training from earlier years he could handle it. But the supernatural, the magic and the other beings; these were things he was out of his depth on. The supernatural world was unpredictable and all of his skill amounted to little when faced beings and things he could not truly know, lacking ability for such things. This was where Raven was so incredibly useful, because she had grown up in the environment. All her life she had read and trained in the arcane arts, she herself was even from a dimension separate from the one he knew. And yet she knew very little of what was going on. In the days since Daniel's mysterious disappearance Raven had turned up very little information from her personal library on what sort of things the GIW was involved in. Her books only theorized about ghosts and the undead, and this particular form, based on surveillance and scan data from Cy, was largely unknown. No books in her repertoire spoke of powers quite like what they had. So it was left to the leader of the Teen Titans to find what he could on 'ghosts'—and it was proving rather fruitless.

With help from Cy, Robin had several searcher programs scouring the internet and databases for specific parameters based around observations and conclusions drawn from the battle with the octopus ghost, GIW information and, Raven's senses of the creatures and whatever Fenton had done. It had been running for a few hours and had turned up little—a few references to supposed incidences in a town; vague energy readings from an asteroid that had struck in the south pole a few months ago. Most of the other information to be found was from conspiracy sites, crackpot forums and inane ramblings on blogs. The wider scientific community still dismissed the idea of ghosts, and even magic. This was all despite the incredible things that the League had turned up in its operations. But not much research was conducted by the public for that and all the rest was League business or government and so locked down behind firewalls or kept on grids not connected to the wider net.

Aside from that research he had every surveillance system in the city of Jump connected to a secondary system using facial and voice recognition software from Wayne Tech, modified by Cy, set to alert his communicator the instant Danny appeared anywhere in the city. Raven said that he hadn't left. He gave off a very specific emotional aura that she could still pick up traces of in the city. But pin pointing that, what was essentially a dead spot according to Raven, in a city of several million was exceedingly difficult. Beyond her considerable abilities.

Robin moved to sit back down but an alarm went off. His communicator, the yellow device flashing a violent red and beeping loudly in the dimness of the room. He spoke into the communicator, summoning the other Titans. The eighteen year old spun and swept from the room, snapping his cape into place where it met his shoulders. He was the fourth to make it to the briefing, Cy, Star and Beast Boy standing at the curved sofa staring up at the information that automatically flashed on the screen.

"Where's Raven?" The leader immediately noticing the missing member of the team.

"Dunno. She hasn't responded."

"I'm sure she fine dude, besides we can handle these guys!" Beast Boy's voice cracked as he spoke.

Robin stared at the screen. It was a simple warehouse, nothing in the report mentioned any meta's or other powered individuals. These guys just weren't all that intelligent. After all the Titans were becoming steadily famous, both the originals and the East variant. They were the precursor to League admittance. "She can sit this one out then, Titans Go!"

§Oo–.–oO§

Daniel Fenton slouched down the street, pointedly avoiding the gaze of everyone on the busy street. He was a little worse for wear; having no money, no apartment and sleeping in alleys for a few days tended to do that often. He was dirty and irritable. He didn't even have his bag with him, he'd stashed the heavy burden of ghost tech and literature files in the sewer system. It was hanging at that moment from the curved roof of a sewer tunnel, secured there with the thick strap. He hadn't had enough cash left to get a proper place to live and he suspected that if Robin had gotten his address he probably had the accounts where the Pizza Corner had been depositing his pay cheques—only two total. The last of his bills had been spent picking up some dull tasteless fast food from a burger shop.

And there he found himself, wandering aimless through the street of Jump yet again. The Halfa had been keeping as low a profile as possible, particularly with the more overt use of his powers. His greatest fear was discovery by the GIW. They still saddled with him the massacre of the majority of Amity Park, though they'd done much to keep it out of the media. The agency had him pegged to the top of their Most Wanted and he shuddered to think what they would do if they caught him. They knew he was not quite the regular variety of ghost. And they had gotten far more competent than Agent K ever was. Given that he had been more or less forced to use his abilities to escape Raven and her magic the GIW must have detected his ecto-signature. He'd been reckless in that action though, stupid and hadn't thought much through when he took that action. And if they had managed that much, then they would be looking for him.

If he was lucky though, Raven was not searching for him. Her powers were something beyond his depth of knowledge and he already knew they could detect him. Thinking about it made his ribs still ache from the clawed hand of dark magic that grappled him so roughly. His healing hadn't been as quick as it would have been if the magic hadn't done the damage. Or at least that was his working theory. Without a lab he couldn't analyze anything, despite his talent with ectoplasm and ectoplasmic science. She was an empath; Danny had done some research, mostly using a cheap internet café to find as much as he could. There was disturbing following of fans for the dark Titan, a plethora of creepy forums and blog posts by obsessive fans. Some of it was not as unnerving as others, but much of what he had found was not wholesome. In any case he had found a few scant details on her powers.

The young man continued to walk along the street, slipping between people easily and making his way along. His stomach wanted food but he couldn't give it such and so kept moving past the various cafés, bakeries and restaurants. The bustle of the city was almost soothing in its din. His mind could wander away from the reality of his shattered existence. But it was a far cry from the sort of peace he had once found in his home. Amity Park had been scrubbed from existence though, the government had taken over the site of the town and scoured the web clean of its mention. The roads were barricaded off at the interstate convergences and the GIW had set up a headquarters there. Nothing remained of his home.

He was summoned from his reverie by a distant booming bark. Then, a loud snarling and an explosion. Danny paused, carefully listening as people ran past him, vacating the area calmly for several blocks around. With Titans and super powered villains being commonplace in the city the citizenry had learned the proper procedure for getting away from incidents. But Danny was not a citizen of Jump in the cut of the common cloth. His years of being Amity's hero had ingrained in him a compulsion to investigate. And so, despite the voices in his head crying out for him to turn and run, that the Titans could handle the situation, he kept moving toward the sounds. And as he moved he felt the chill rise up his spine and the faint mist tinged in blue seep from his mouth.

Turning a corner he saw the disturbance. It was a massive dog, glowing with the violent green of ectoplasm. It was easily fourteen or more feet tall at the shoulder, broad and powerfully built. Its black jowls were drawn back over slick fangs of ectoplasm and crimson eyes glittered with hatred and anger. Great paws, like manhole covers with claws, scraped gouges into the asphalt. At its neck a collar was tight, black with large spires of shiny material protruding from it. And beneath this collar was another, white and metallic with the green veins of ecto-tech. Danny froze, he knew this dog. It was the ghost dog that had come from Axion Labs, the S.T.A.R. Labs competitor that had been set up in Amity Park. Cujo. The ghost boy had named him Cujo.

And Danny was torn. He knew this couldn't be a coincidence, Cujo had been free in the Ghost Zone for years. And the collar, it screamed Guys in White. The question was if it was a ploy by the agency to draw him out or if they had genuinely lost control of the ghost dog. In either case the entity was not supposed to be the Human Zone and it was not right that he was here. Briefly he considered avoiding the risk. The dog screamed in pain, Danny's keen eyes picking up sparks jumping along the technology. The ghost rolled, snarling and scraping at his neck. Asphalt cracked beneath the energy the dog was giving out and he crushed cars with abandon. The destruction was mounting. And the Titans were nowhere to be seen.

The Halfa let out a frustrated noise and moved toward the dog. He was cautious and slow, unsure of if Cujo would recognize him or if it was a trap. He couldn't transform but the pockets on his jacket held a collapsed Fenton Thermos and a small pen ecto-blaster that he could use. He'd kept them for an emergency. Cujo hadn't noticed him yet, tossing and turning about the street in a violent pain filled tumble. Blue-green eyes watched the street, scanning for the slightest hint of the GIW or anything else. It was clear, completely empty. This only made the ghost boy feel more suspicious. The beast stopped, pushing himself up from the street and staring at Danny, the collar still sparked and Cujo winced when it did but he was too focussed on the Halfa approaching him to pay much attention to the pain.

"Cujo? What're you doing here boy?" Danny spoke in a soft and friendly voice. For a moment an outsider might have seen him as just a normal boy. And not one carrying the scars on his soul as he did.

The dog cocked his head to the side, but shook it angrily as the pain shot through him. Danny kept moving forward, one hand stretched out carefully to help fend off an attack if need be.

"Easy boy. I want to help you, easy." Danny was within a few feet of the ghost now, it towered above him with its red eyes fixed upon him. The collar was sparking intermittently but Cujo seemed to be able to ignore it now to a degree, his fur still stood on end and he winced visibly but he wasn't thrashing about. "Steady, boy, I'm going to get that thing off of you Cujo, it'll be all right."

Danny focussed, knowing that the collar would shock him if it went off when he had his hands on Cujo and the device. He checked Cujo and the dog was standing stock still, not moving or making a noise in a slightly bent position. The Halfa moved then, letting out a sharp breath and infusing his hands with the sharp chill of his powers, the nerves deadened, his hands felt clumsy but fine control was unnecessary for what he had planned. The tips of his fingers touched the device, it sparked violently and jolting tingles travelled through his arms. Danny ignored the sensation and tugged on the collar. It was a solid ring of metal, he did not see a clasp or any way to remove that way.

The Halfa tugged harder, still fighting the tingling that was growing stronger. His muscles bunched into hard, tensed balls along his arms and back. The ectoplasm had always left him with a degree of durability and strength beyond that of a normal human. When he was in Phantom's form this was only amplified further as he was fully infused the energy. The metal protested his will but he pushed further and further, consciously feeling the energy the moving into his muscles. It still resisted and Cujo was beginning to become restless as the energy continued through him and the boy both. Danny growled and forced more of the cryogenic ectoplasm into his limbs then with a loud crack and burst of energy that shot directly into Danny's body the brittle metal shattered.

The blast of energy tossed Danny backward like a ragdoll and pushed the bulk of Cujo to the pavement. The Halfa lay, garbed in black and white and lit with a nearly imperceptible glow, on the asphalt. Resulting from the blast and his use of ectoplasm Danny had transformed into the alternate from that hid beneath his human countenance. He became fully dead, and fully detectable by ecto-tech based scans and technology. Cujo, now in his small and rather adorable form of glowing green puppy ran up to him and began licking his face with a rough tongue. Danny groaned, wiping the ectoplasm that slobbered from the dog's mouth off of his face as he sat up.

The boy paused, looking around disoriented and foggy headed as the energy within him healed his battered body. When he had recovered, only moments after the explosion, he looked down at his hands. And then he proceeded to swear violently. With the transformation came serious problems, those which he had hoped to avoid a succinctly as possible. Screeching tires and white SUVs layered with an advanced looking metal, skidding to a halt on both sides of the decimated street pulled Danny's attention away from swearing.

Troops of men piled from the backs of the vehicles and from the roves of them men with turrets folded up from the interior. "Freeze Phantom! You're under arrest on the behalf of the United States of America government. Put your hands up and don't move!"

Suddenly Danny's blazing green eyes found a myriad of charged ectoplasmic weapons aimed him. Beside him Cujo the ghost dog growled menacingly and slowly began to grow in size.

§Oo–.–oO§

Raven sipped her herbal tea in the gothic bookstore she favoured. It specialized in the arcane and other various supernatural literature. Much of it was hokum and misleading but there were a few real gems kept in hidden in the recess of some of the deeper and expansive sections. A café of sorts had also been set up, it sold both coffee and various teas. The dark Titan liked the store because the owner made a very fine cup of tea and the atmosphere was quiet but welcoming. Before her on the small round table sequestered in corner of the store lay a book she had found detailing some information on Trigon and the Order of Skath. Raven had not told her friends the truth of what was going to happen when she turned sixteen but that did not mean she wasn't doing what she could to learn more. Soon she would need to go to Azarath and search the more expansive libraries there, this dimension was sorely lacking in magic users and lore.

She turned a page and kept reading the book, a hand written account some many decades old. The nineteenth century was not overly famous for its magic users, the peak of the community had long since passed by that time. But the author of this particular tome claimed to have studied in Azarath and wrote the book as an account of his time there.

Her deep violet eyes, tinged with darker indigo looked up sharply. At all times she maintained a peripheral monitoring of the area around her with her empathic abilities and she had just registered a very sharp spike of panic, anger and desperation. The emotion was powerful and laced with a familiar energy, not unlike that which the octopod monsters from earlier had been radiating. She stood, leaving her tea and the book and transformed into the dark bird manifestation of her magicks to travel fast. She shot through the shadowy plane where physical objects had no meaning and she could move with impunity.

Seconds later she arrived at a peculiar scene. The broad street was filled with cracked pavement, broken glass, and torn metal. In the middle of it all a man, young and perhaps still a teenager, crouched in a tense position. He wore black and white, his pale skin and white hair glowing but for a shock of black in the long locks. His eyes burned brightly, so bright his pupils were lost amid the green. A massive green beast of a dog towered next to him, teeth bared and deep growls rumbling in its throat. On both sides a collection of vehicles were parked in barricade fashion blocking the street. Perhaps a score of men in white suits and carrying high tech weapons all pointed at the unlikely pair in the middle. Raven reappeared in the physical plane in a darkened shop with shattered windows.

"On the ground Phantom! Now! Or we will use whatever force necessary!" the men were screaming, shaking their weapons at him and trying to be threatening.

The boy was tense and ready looking in every direction as though searching out options. Raven watched him in fascination. She recognized him, knew those eyes and that garb. She had seen it once, some months ago on the eve of Slade's return. He had bought her time, had fought at the man whom, for all appearances, had been resurrected somehow. He spoke and his voice reverberated through the empty street, hollow and echoing, "Now why the hell would I surrender to you idiots."

As one the weapons the government agents possessed discharged, massive beams of energy shooting from all directions at the boy. In instant between the trigger pulls and the destructive impact with the pair Raven acted, she did so before conscious thought reached her. Her magic enveloped the young man and the dog, a deep black blanket that absorbed the energy discharge from the weapons.

The Titan floated into the street, revealing herself and calling out, "Stop! This being is under the protection of the Teen Titans of Jump City!" her voice was lit with fiery indignation, more emotion in it that she usually allowed.

A man stepped forward, shouldering a large tube of white metal with a grip designed for over the shoulder firing of a large energy beam. "This is government business Titan, release the boy and the dog. They are to be both taken in under authority of the Guys in White!"

"No." her voice was cold.

"Cease and desist girl, or we will fire on you!" The dark eyes glared back at the group before her from beneath the hood of the cloak. The eye burned with such power that the man hesitated before he said "Have it your way Titan. Fire at will." The men redirected their weapons at the floating half-demon and fired.

Raven's eye twitched and a black wall rose up and absorbed the energy from the weapons. Her powers were effective against the weapons as they had been against the creatures from earlier that week. These men could do nothing to stop her. "You have no weapon to use against me. I suggest you leave. Now."

The leaders stared back from behind the black lens of his glasses. His finger touched his ear where the communicative wire met the earpiece and he spoke, "Stand down." He looked back at the Titan, "This isn't over yet girl, we'll be back, and not you or the rest of your little team will stop us from getting what we want."

The agents piled back into their vehicles and tore off down the street, leaving black marks from rubber in their wake. Raven relaxed the tension she hadn't realized had built up in her shoulders and floated down to the pavement. She touched down and released the magic that formed the dome over the boy and dog. When the magic faded she was caught by surprise as a small green shape shot at her head and laid a thick layer of green slobber over her face, knocking the hood back. She cringed and back away, the now small dog barking excitedly as it floated down to solid ground.

"Cujo heel." The echoing voice commanded, the tone amused. The dog scampered back to pad at the ankles of the approaching man. "Uh, thanks for the help. Made it much easier on me." He held out his hand, gloved in white with thick composite backing on the knuckles that reached back to his elbow. His tone was friendly but his face blank.

Raven looked at it and then grasped the hand. A short burst of breath escaped her mouth as her pale hand clasped the white glove. A burst of burning cold energy jolted up her arm and tingled through her chest. Her eyes flashed with her magic and she saw a blindingly green explosion of light and heard a pained scream before everything went black in the vision. Her eyes cleared, blinking rapidly as she beheld the being before her wincing away and retracting his hand. Suddenly she was incredibly aware of his presence. The burn of deep green eyes and the glow of his whole body. The air was cool around him, crisp and fresh and his scent, she could smell him like the frost of an early winter morning coupled with the clarity of an icy cavern—her nose tingled with the sensation. And the energy around him swirled and undulated with vibrancy and yet felt dead, or perhaps un-living. It was incredible but she had no clue what he could be.

The being spoke, "Sorry. Your magic, it's a bit unusual, and your powers seem to react with mine." He rubbed the back of his neck in an uncomfortable way, sort of like Beast Boy when he was particularly stupid or foolish.

"I-it's fine." She blushed faintly, though it was invisible beneath her hood as spoke her next words. "Thank you . . . for the, uh, help. With Slade, the, uh, man with the fire powers . . ." She trailed off, grimacing. She never stuttered, was never faced with such hesitation. She didn't know why was she stuttering, she didn't know what was going on at all.

"Oh, uhm, yeah no problem." He looked as his rugged boots, kicking his feet awkwardly. This actually made Raven feel a bit better, he was just as uncomfortable with the whole thing as she was.

". . . .So, why were you —"

The boy stopping peering into the depths of her hood and looked over shoulder, down the street behind her. "Sorry but I gotta go Raven."

His body seemed to waiver for a moment and she spoke quickly, "Wait! What's your name?"

He cocked his head and smiled a genuinely for the first time in their exchange, "You heard the GIW screaming at me Miss Titan, I'm sure you know what to call me." He looked to the small dog that had sat down beside him, looking up at the two taller beings with its tongue lolling out and its short tail wagging rapidly. "C'mon Cujo, time to get you back where you belong." And then the pair simply sunk into the cracked and battered street, disappearing into the pavement.

Raven stared at the spot where the green eyes had vanished, not moving or saying a thing. Distantly she heard the crunch of the T-car rolling up and the doors opening and closing. Her teammates, her friends, crowded up to her and fired off rapid questions. Raven continued to stare blankly, her mind whirling with the new development.

The hand on her shoulder snapped her from the trance, turning she saw Robin's eyes looking at her from behind his mask. "Rae, what happened here?"

Raven spoke softly, "It was him, from the time incident. He was here, and the Guys in White are hunting him."

Robin was silent for a moment, the other Titans' inquiries quieting as well. Finally the leader spoke, "Let's go back to the tower." He looked around and sighed, "I have paperwork to do and questions that need answers."

The other Titan members murmured in agreement and in silence piled into the car. They left the damaged street, knowing that the city clean up squads would have it fixed within a few days and the report filed with the UNSSC promptly.

Raven floated cross legged in lotus position at the top of Titans' Tower, facing out toward Jump Bay and the setting sun. Her eyes were closed but she knew the vista was brilliant, the reddening light of the dying day setting fire to the warm Californian waters. There had been few clouds in the sky and the setting was calming, peaceful and possessed of natural beauty. The hood of her cloak was drawn back, her dark hair glittering darkly with a myriad of colour just like the feathers of her namesake, hung to her neck in a carefully groomed perfectly straight cut. She breathed deeply, in through her nose and out between slightly parted thin lips. She murmured her mantra in a soft voice, using the words to soothe the trouble in her mind.

The entity, Phantom as the agency called him, whirled through the recesses of her mind. She remembered every detail with a clarity she was unused to and it haunted her. What was he? Was he a ghost? Dead or alive? The energy, what exactly was it and how did he come to possess his powers? What few she had seen him use. There was something about him that entranced her, fascinated her—she had never met something so unique. She could still feel the energy of him thrumming in her hand, prickling along her skin and driving her to restlessness. She could feel his importance, the echoes of his power feeling significant in some way.

With meditation she didn't need the mirror to enter her mind. The mystical world of her consciousness was darker than it once had been. The starry galaxies of Nevermore were tinged with red and fires flickered on the very edge of her awareness, disturbing her effort. It was growing more like that every day, the closer she came to her sixteenth birthday the stronger the rage and her father's influence grew inside of her. She made it to the clearing where her emotions dwelt. They were thrumming with excitement, dread and a mix of other energies.

Happiness bounced around, excited at the prospect of this new being, "He could help us! He's powerful, look what he did to Slade!"

"B-but what if he doesn't want to?" Timidity was pacing anxiously, nervous and afraid as she always was.

"Ha! We don't need his help! We can take Trigon by ourselves, we're strong!" Brave boasted, puffing out her chest.

Rude and Sloth were sleeping under a cleft of rock and were decidedly silent—aside from the faint snores of Rude.

Knowledge floated up to the actual Raven and spoke rapidly, "Phantom is some sort of manifestation of undead energy. But the specifics, we don't know them. His energy is not what the literature suggests it could be. He is powerful but more research is needed to understand this Phantom and his capabilities."

And Passion, her purple cloak swirling around her as she sighed, "Oh he was so cute! Those eyes, mmm that body, we all saw it underneath that outfit, and he's gorgeous. Raven, you have to talk to him again! Please!"

"Bah! You're weak, all of you! You will all fall with the rise of Trigon and so shall that thing, Phantom, and hatred shall rule the mortal planes!" Rage thrashed and screamed in her spitting layered voice, tugging at the thick chains that groaned with her efforts. Rage was becoming stronger as the day approached.

"Quiet, all of you. We need to focus. This is not the time to be divided, too much is at stake for this foolishness." Raven snapped at her emotional manifestations. The entities fell silent and faded away into the starry backdrop of Nevermore, Raven's mind quieting as she exerted control.

She left the mindscape and returned to the physical world. She floated in place for a while longer, carefully sorting her thoughts and analyzing the new developments. The information was catalogued, examined and stored away in the banks of her memories. Her mind was her most powerful tool, her memory and willpower the basis of all of her powers and abilities.

Raven could feel him approaching before he made his way onto the roof of the letter shaped building. The leader of the Teen Titans stopped some yards away from her back. He didn't speak at first, though Raven could sense his desire to ask questions. She respected his restraint and after minutes turned and touched her feet to the rooftop. The half-demon examined the older teen before her, taking in the countenance of her leader. The suit he wore was a fitted red and black thing of Kevlar and titanium tri-weave that was reinforced with plates to absorb impacts, blades and even bullets. A cross was formed on his chest in dual bandoliers with golden, metallic tubes containing some of his smaller gadgets. Thick armoured gauntlets covered his hands, black in its base with yellow plates of armour on it. His black hair was spiky and haphazard above the eye mask that hid his brow and cheekbones. A detachable cape clipped into slots at his shoulders and his lithe muscles formed was clear beneath the high tech suit.

He spoke, finally having time to seek her out now that the paperwork had been dealt with for the robbery and the incident she was present for, "Want to tell me what's on your mind?"

"Who says anything is?" she replied, knowing he could read her as well as anyone.

"Raven, we both know whatever happened this afternoon bothered you. Tell me, you mentioned the incident with Slade . . ."

Raven sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Do you remember when Slade attacked me, when I stopped time? That being that interrupted Slade and that gave me time to evade him for a while longer. He was there today." The dark Titan paused, "The Guys in White attacked him . . . and what I think was his dog."

". . . His dog?"

"There was a creature there. It was a beast of some sort at first, taller than any natural thing I've encountered and then after it was small, a puppy. It listened to Phantom's commands."

"So his name is Phantom?" Robin perked at this new piece of information.

"That's what the agents were yelling at him. They were trying to take him. I stopped them, whatever weapons they have don't function correctly with my powers. We talked after they left."

"So you chased away the agents of a clandestine government agency to protect a mysterious being we know nothing about and his morphing dog."

"I know how it sounds, but yes." Raven thought for a moment, "I think he's some sort of ghost, an undead. Maybe, his energies and aura were completely unique—both dead and alive. It was . . . fascinating." She trailed off again and then spoke, seemingly lost in her own thoughts, "I need to do more research, find some sort of information about what he is."

"Raven, are you okay?" Robin spoke seriously and with concern evident in his tone, "You seem . . . well you seem different."

She looked up, "Yes, I'm fine. Just lost in thought, whatever Phantom is, I don't think he has ill intentions. I think he's like us, and that whatever the GIW want with him is not good for anyone. He didn't feel malicious."

The Boy Wonder sighed, "Okay Raven. Just be careful, we don't know anything about this guy, even if he did help us those months ago. I'll see what I can find out. Let me know if you find anything, or if he contacts you."

"Of course Robin. Now I think I need a cup of tea and some rest, it was a trying day."

"Raven, if this Phantom character is a hero, or at least not a villain, I'll make the offer to join the Titans. But he's not my priority right now, we both know that Slade is the real threat right now."

Raven nodded to her leader accepting his word. It made sense, Trigon and Slade, despite Robin not knowing about Trigon, were the looming threats. Robin instinctively knew this was a serious matter, whatever his personal feelings toward the man were; he was determined to help her, if he could. Raven only worried that Trigon would prove a villain that none of them could combat. Her father was a demon god and immortal, how could they hope to beat that. Raven squeezed her eyes shut, she wouldn't let anything hurt her friends.

§Oo–.–oO§