The little boy lay scared beneath the tall oak tree.

It was four days before Halloween and the jack-o-lanterns were coming out to play, peeking outside from behind window curtains, and spying on passersby on doorsteps.

The jack-o-lantern was a strange creature. Its face, though always different, often betrayed its sinister nature. But the jack-o-lantern, much like the boy under the tree, was hollow inside. Its sinister nature was bestowed upon it by the one that carved out its insides. Its evil was not its own.

The expert pumpkin carver sat cross-legged beneath the tree, with the little boy's head in her lap.

The weeping had begun.

It made him seem smaller somehow, the tears that leaked from his eyes. She tended to his tears with a tissue and stroked his hair like a mother. Softly, she sang a lullaby to him from her youth. First, she started humming, but then she smiled as she sang the words.

"Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, From glen to glen, and down the mountain side…"

The notes of the Irish lullaby drifted up above the trees and were picked up by the wind.

The boy stopped crying. His torturer liked to think that it had something to do with her melody. You see, she didn't hate her victims. On the contrary, she loved them dearly. It was why she chose them so carefully. She envied them. Everything they felt, from the most hellish pain to the most heavenly pleasure, she longed to feel again. Any of it, all of it. She slowly absorbed their pain like a drug. She savored every drop of sweat. She slowly took over.

That was why she had to kill them. So she could become them.

They were beginning to despair. It had almost been a week now, and they still couldn't find him. They had stopped looking. But not with Starfire's consent.

"We've searched every inch of this city!" Cyborg cried, throwing up his hands. "There's nowhere left to look!"

"Perhaps he has moved! We should check all locations again!" said Starfire. She was floating three feet above the ground, her hands raised and cradling fiery starbolts, ready to fire at any moment.

Cyborg looked weary. "Starfire… We've checked and double check every tiny little place in this city he could have gotten into. I… I hate to say we can't look anymore, but—"

"Then we should expand our search!" Starfire cried. "To the entire state! To the entire nation!"

"Starfire, that's more than irrational, it's damn near impossible!" Cyborg said. "Cops have done nationwide searches before… If someone doesn't want to be found, or if someone is hiding someone else, then—"

"You hate him!" Starfire acused, in tears now. "You will not search, and therefore you hate him!"

Beast Boy intervened. "Let's not jump to hasty conclusions here, Starfire—"

"It's because I love you guys that I'm telling you to stop!" Cyborg returned. "Not because I hate Robin!"

"But you do not deny it!" Starfire screamed.

"I thought I just did deny it!" Cyborg said, now becoming both weary and confused.

"We must find Robin!" Starfire was steadfast. "He would not relent if it was one of us even if we had searched for an Earth week, even if we had searched for a Venetian week, which, for the sharing of information, is substantially longer. Cyborg, he would not cease to search for you!"

"Yes he would!" Cyborg yelled back, finally raising his voice to her level. "He would because he would see what it was doing to his team. Raven, who's taciturn anyway, hasn't said a word. I am at my wits end here trying to keep this group together. You've become aggressive and reckless. And Beast Boy hasn't touched Super Sharp Ninja Nine since Robin's gone missing, do you know what that means?"

They were quiet a moment. Beast Boy was silently thinking to himself that the only reason he hadn't touched his favorite video game all week was because he'd been too exhausted from searching, but decided to keep that to himself. He also wondered if Starfire would surrender now. But she would not back down.

"It only means that we need Robin back all the more!" she insisted. "What else are we to do without…" She seemed to not be able to finish. She slowly descended to the floor and her hands dropped to her side, the starbolts dissipating. "Without him…"

Cyborg walked over to her sadly and put his hand on her shoulder. "We try to deal."

There was a second of silence, and then Starfire burst into tears.

Raven was only half paying attention. While the others argued about whether or not to continue the physical search, she still concentrated on the mental one.

Something tugged at the back of her mind. Halloween was fast approaching.

What does it matter… she thought, and pushed the pointless idea away.

Strong magicks about on Halloween… the thought persisted. Raven paused in her search.

"What's the date?"

At first, no one answered her question. They were just surprised she'd opened their mouth to them at all. Beast Boy was the first to react.

"Um… er, uh… Monday?"

"Not the day of the weak, you twit, the date," Raven hissed.

"The 27th," Cyborg answered for him. "Why?"

"There are places…" Raven said. "Places my mind can't go."

"What are you talking about?" Beast Boy said.

"There are planes of existence other than this one," Raven said. "It's hard, no, impossible for someone like me to breach them on any other day… but Halloween."

"Are you suggesting that you believe Robin is dead???" Starfire squealed, terrified. In all their talking, they'd just referred to the lack of Robin as his "disappearance." They'd never mentioned death. Not out loud.

Raven turned to her. She was not one to beat around the bush. "Yes."

Starfire looked pale. He knees gave out beneath her and she fell down onto them. Raven turned to the boys, who she noted were equally as wan.

"Cyborg's right. This has taken a lot out of us. The only way we can ever really move on is to know for certain what happened to him. Finding him dead is better than never finding him at all."

The others did not acknowledge it, but they knew that Raven was right. She was just the only one to speak candidly about it.

"Could we…" muttered Starfire, with bated breath, "Could we possibly… speak with him?"

"No." Raven was firm on this. "Even on Halloween, the dead and the living have to always remain completely separate. All I can do is find out if he's still here, or if he isn't. I cannot make contact. I cannot hear him, speak to him, or anything like that. It's not like a séance or anything."

"How cliché…" Beast Boy muttered.

"What?" Raven said. Beast Boy looked up.

"Huh? Oh, nothing… just that… well… Halloween. You only being able to sense the dead then, well... It's so… well, B-rated horror movie, you know?"

"Mm," Raven said, but was obviously not amused.

"Do it." They all looked at Cyborg, who stood firm with his arms folded. He bit his lip then nodded firmly. He looked up at Raven. "On Halloween. Do it."

Raven nodded.

It was about to end there. The Titans began to disperse. But Beast Boy had one last question.

"Do you have to do it at midnight or something?"

They all turned to look at him. He quickly explained himself.

"I mean, if you want to complete the cliché, it has to be done at midnight, with candles, and hand-holding, and a crystal ball, and…" He trailed off at their stern looks. "OK, right, Halloween, do it, Raven!"

The other Titans nodded, and quickly went to be alone.

As soon as Robin realized it all couldn't be real, he leapt to his feet, battle ready, and gestured at the raven. If he was going down, he sure as hell would go down fighting.

"Come and get me," he whispered.

But instead of flying at him, the raven screeched and the room around him began to dissolve. All that was left was the black and white floor and oblivion. Robin felt a distinct sense of vertigo and looked for something to hold onto. He felt he might fall off of the floor into… what?

"So, you figured it out at last."

Robin turned on his heal to see Terra, slowly walking towards him. She was dressed as she always was, goggles hanging around her neck. But her eyes were still grey. The clop, clop, clop of her shoes echoed into the nothingness. "Who are you? And no more crap."

"I must say, I thought you were catching on a while ago, but no. A beautiful moment of lucidity, and then back into the descent of madness."

"So I was right," Robin concluded. "I am dreaming."

"Not quite," said Terra. "Close. You're dying."

Robin almost felt his heart stop right then and there. "What? But this is just—"

"A dream?" Terra tossed her head back and laughed. "Robin, you should know by now. Just because it seems surreal, doesn't mean it's not dangerous."

"You never answered my question," Robin said.

"That's because it has no answer," Terra answered.

"You're the thing that's killing me." Robin sounded calm about it, but inside he was screaming. She heard.

"We have a regular Sherlock Holmes on our hands," said Terra.

"If I'm going to die," said Robin, inscrutably, "I at least want to know the identity of my killer so I can come back and haunt you."

"Robin, it's I who is haunting you," Terra replied calmly.

She had crossed the distance between them now and the clop, clop, clop stopped. There was absolute silence. There was no wind, no sounds in the distance. Just nothing. They were inches apart from each other.

"You're a ghost?" Robin half-guessed, half-insisted. What else could she be?

"Close as you'll get," said Terra.

"You're a witch," Robin now wholly insisted. Terra tossed her head back and laughed. She put a finger to her lips.

"No, silly goose." And slowly, she morphed, her hair growing darker, her eyes changing color, she grew taller, she wore a veil, a white dress. And then, she kissed him. She smelled like mangos and apricot. "I'm your wife."

The next thing Robin knew, he was standing at an altar. Starfire was squeezing his hand as they stared at a drab looking priest. The stained glass windows were black and white and the floor was gray. In the pews were countless blank faces… and upon closer look, Robin noted that they were quite literally blank, without eyes, without noses, without mouths…

Someone was tapping him on the shoulder. He noticed it was Beast Boy, who shoved a pillow in his face. He saw a ring. Vaguely aware of what he was supposed to do with it, he took it from the pillow and looked like it.

It seemed stupid to him, but the ring reminded him of the one from Tolkein's famous novels. It was a simple wedding band, no embedded gems, no obvious engravings of love… He wondered what would happen if he slid it on Starfire's finger. Would she mutate into a small, ugly creature with a humped back? Would her eyes glow as red as Raven's?

There was a cough. Robin looked up and noted that the nondescript priest looked impatient. He looked behind him and saw both Beast Boy and Cyborg waiting expectantly. He looked at Starfire, her smile bright, her eyes wide and loving. But then he noticed the people standing behind her. There were three women, two of them were faceless, like the wedding guests, but all three of them wore identical dresses. The third was Raven.

He recognized for the first time the dress that Starfire had chosen for her bridesmaids' dresses. The crimson dress Raven was buried in, when Robin was in some other reality.

But though she wore her funeral dress, Raven did not look like she was plotting murder, or like she was going to dissolve into dust and bones. Her hair was cropped, her eyes were violet, and she was holding a bouquet of lavender.

The priest coughed again and Robin looked at him. "Look, can't I savor the moment?" he said.

The priest grumbled. He looked at Starfire. Her vibrant hair was once again hidden by a veil, though this time it was white. Her hand was extended, eagerly awaiting him to slide the ring on.

But instead of sliding the ring on her finger, Robin's eyes drifted over to Raven. She was watching him inscrutably. He wanted to say to her, Look, Raven, look at me, I'm here, I didn't ditch her at the altar, your dream was wrong.

But then he realized that it wasn't her dream he needed to worry about. It was his own.

He turned to Starfire again. "Why is Raven wearing red?"

Starfire's face fell. She looked behind her at Raven, and then back to Robin. "I… Well, Beast Boy and I wanted…"

But Robin was watching Raven. She looked miserable in that color. Or was she miserable because Robin was marrying Starfire?

She spoke to him. "Give her the ring, Robin."

Robin was startled. "Is that a threat?"

Starfire sounded like she was still trying to explain why they had chose red as the color for the dress. That, or trying to ask Robin questions as to why he was acting peculiar. Whatever she was saying, he couldn't make it out. It was as if she was trying to speak to him through a wall.

Raven's stare did not waver. Slowly, she pulled a dagger out of nowhere. It was identical to the one Robin had seen her wield before.

Instinctively, Robin grabbed Starfire and pulled her away from Raven. Starfire was looking at him, baffled. She obviously didn't see Raven's dagger, or she didn't understand why Robin was afraid of it.

Terra's voice echoed in Robin's head. This is the way it is supposed to happen.

Raven approached them slowly, deliberately. But right as she was about to slice Starfire's throat, Robin threw Starfire aside and kicked the knife out of Raven's hand.

Not in this dream, Robin dared Terra's voice.

They fought. Raven was quite agile in her dress. They were all over the church room. Until Raven finally pinned him against the wall. She smiled at him, but her eyes were sad.

"Before you do it," she whispered. "Just know I did it all for you."

Robin was slightly confused. She was the one who pinned him against the wall, and yet she sounded like she was admitting defeat.

Well, good, Robin thought. He raised his feet to his chest, using the wall as a spring board, and kicked her right in the solar plexus. She fell back and began to sputter. She was coughing. Robin didn't understand at all. He ran to her.

"I didn't mean to kick you that hard…" Robin said.

Raven shook her head and smiled. "I don't die from your kick, Robin, remember?"

"What?"

"Two words," said Raven, her hair growing fast, her skin becoming rougher, paler. She sat up and stared at him with blood red lips. "Pulmonary embolism. Remember?"

And he did. He stood up and backed away instantly. Somehow, he smelt the distinctive sulfurous odor of burning matches.

Author's Note: In case you were wondering, one Venetian day is aproximately 243 Earth days. Additionally-- SHIPPERS! Of all sorts. In the beginning I said pairs were "all sorts, go crazy" because, if you haven't noticed, everything IS going crazy. Robin needs to figure out what's real before he can figure out something as complicated as romance. But I WILL say this-- there are definitely allusions to Robin's leanings so far as this fic is concerned. Much of it was intended to be a little metaphorical of his relationship with all his friends, including (later) scenes with Beast Boy and Cyborg. Even Terra's personification in this story has a little bit of my own metaphorical point. It's complicated though. So don't think about it too hard, we aren't in English class, just enjoy the story.