Warning: The next chapter makes things very confusing.

It was three days before Halloween. October 28th. Robin had been missing for 10 days. Raven sat alone in her room. Though she had forbidden anyone from disturbing her, she knew that Starfire was sitting anxiously outside her door, waiting for news. That she knew without any meditation what so ever.

Cyborg had interrogated her about the spell to an extent that would have made Robin proud. He was particularly worried that she was using it so soon. But Raven said that the only reason Halloween was so important was the Earth's position in relation to Venus. Since Venus was about to cross between the Earth and the Sun, the solar energy wasn't as strong, which effected the already volatile magicks that were alive in the Earth's atmosphere. She didn't have to be exactly on Halloween. After all, she'd told him, we aren't one of Beast Boy's horror movies. Venus was already on its path.
She lit a candle and began her warm ups.

She knew the essences of her friends as well as she knew her own. She could sense Starfire's outside her bedroom, her suspicions confirmed. She reached out her mental probes to the garage and found Cyborg was anxiously trying to keep busy by working on the T-Car, though nothing was wrong with it. Beast Boy was similarly trying to keep occupied by finally picking up the controller for the first time in ten days and playing Super Sharp Ninja Nine. She knew Beast Boy so well that she could tell that he was losing. Beast Boy never lost that game unless he was preoccupied.

Knowing that she could sense her friend's auras so strongly, Raven felt confident enough to extend her probe into the nonmaterial world.

She whispered a few words from her books that she had memorized. The scene was different than Beast Boy's corny horror movies. Instead of gaudy dress, crystal balls, and an abundance of candles, Raven sat on the floor on her own, dressed normally, with only one candle sitting in front of her.

As she spoke the words of a dead language, the flame of the candle grew taller. The smell of smoke grew stronger. She used the intoxication a lack of oxygen to the brain brought to blur the lines between existence and nonexistence to find the limbo in which such paranormal unproven entities existed. Like ghosts with something left to finish.

She found her mind floating in an alternate Jump City, a world of black and gray. There were plenty of entities she sensed. What they were, she could not discern, not even on Halloween. All she could tell was that they were everywhere, and every one was different from the last. She didn't care about those. None of them felt like Robin.

A scan of the immaterial world was simpler than a scan of the material one, for there were fewer places to look. She found something peculiar though, in her sweep of the dead city. There were still places in this word that she was barred from entering. Some force forbade her from searching an area of the city.

She would not give up so easily.

She first tested the barrier lightly, pressing up against it. It did not move. Frustrated, she rammed her mind against it.

All of a sudden, something happened that never happened to her before. She began to hear something…

At first, she had thought it was someone outside of her meditation, Starfire perhaps, speaking, making noise. But as she concentrated harder, she could tell that it was coming from beyond the barrier. She strained to hear, but it was like trying to eavesdrop on someone in the next room. She could make out no words, nor any distinct sound, just that there was sound.

And then she knew she had to get beyond that barrier.

As the shape shifter brushed back Robin's hair, she stiffened. Something was happening. Not in his world, but in hers. She disappeared a moment, to a realm of almost-existence.

Her meal was being interrupted.

She was angry. It was the half-demon of Robin's mind. She knew the character well. She had played the demon herself on occasion. It would not be difficult to get rid of the pest. Interference in his world would be much trickier to deal with. But the demon was invading on her turf. And the shape shifter knew just the way to get rid of her.

Robin found himself in the middle of a bleak looking church among a dozen faceless wedding guests who weren't even looking at him anymore. Cyborg and Beast Boy seemed concerned with getting the ceremony on and over with. Starfire was examining her nails. And the priest was coughing, impatiently.

But Robin and Raven were locked in mortal combat, or, as it would seem, immortal combat as one of them was visibly decaying. Robin grabbed a nearby wedding guest and unsheathed a sword from his belt. The corpse Raven did not seem intimidated as her dagger grew into a long sword. Metal on metal clashed as they began the fight.

"Tell me something, Terra," Robin said loudly as the battle continued. "Why the red dress?"

Raven's sword crossed his and she pushed it towards his shoulder. Her rotting crimson lips answered him. "Why not?"

"Raven wouldn't be caught dead in that dress," Robin said with some strain, forcing the girl off of him.

The corpse laughed. "I beg to differ," she replied.

"This isn't working anymore," Robin said, thrusting his sword. "I'm not afraid of you. This is my dream, I can control it."

"That's where you're wrong," Raven said as she parried. "I have always been in control." She thrust her sword into the wall, catching Robin's sleeve. Robin looked down, and then ripped his arm away from the blade.

"How's that?"

Raven showed him the sword. She then pointed the blade towards her stomach and drove the sword deep in. It ripped her dress, but other than that, Raven had cocked an eyebrow. "I think you've forgotten that you can't kill what's already dead." She with drew the sword and began the fight anew.

"Well you can't kill me either," said Robin as he countered her moves. "I mean, God knows you've tried. You've drowned me in acid, you've electrocuted me, you've poured bleach down my throat, and hey look at that, I'm still here dueling with swords!"

Raven sliced at Robin's fingers. He gasped and dropped the sword. "You're missing one important point. I never said it was your dream." By now, she held the blade next to his throat, right under his chin. He could feel it so vividly, the cold steel, the sharp edge pressing against his larynx. He was afraid to swallow. The pain from the wound of his hand was throbbing and he could feel the blood dripping down between his fingers.

Dreams had never before been so vivid.

Raven was so close to him now, he could feel her breath. She no longer smelt of lavender. She smelt of death. "It's mine."

Robin roared furiously and threw Raven off of him. They renewed the fight in earnest then. "Get the hell out of my head! Wake up! Wake up!" Robin yelled at the rafters, but he got no answer.

"Knowing it's a dream is not so reassuring," said Raven, "when you realize you can't wake up."

Robin refused to admit it, but she was right. All the pain he'd felt, it had been as if all of the things she'd done to him actually happened. He wondered… was it possible that the pain he felt wasn't just in his dream? Was he lying in a coma somewhere, his motor functions failing, his brain slowly shutting down? Was this really the last stages of his death?

He was certain that Raven heard his thoughts, but she did not answer them as they continued in their battle. Robin jumped up onto an empty pew and took a few steps backward. She pursued. He came at her from the right. His trap succeeded as she fell over the back of the pew. She recovered quickly and countered his attack, actually piercing his right side. Robin ignored the searing pain, but his left hand reached down to try and stop the blood. He kept right on fighting.

If this really was his death, he sure as hell wasn't going to lie down and take it.

"There's a way out," said Raven, as he forced her backwards down the aisle.

"What?"

"A way for you not to die," Raven explained. Slowly, her flesh began to regenerate, her hair began to get shorter, her eyes returned to violet. She was still wearing the red dress, but she now resembled his old friend more. Raven, still battling Robin with one hand, gestured at her body with the other. "But you'll have to kill me."

"I thought you said I can't kill what's already dead?" Robin said, sensing a trap. He forced her through the church doors out into the graveyard Raven had been buried in. The barren forest was there, and so was the raven.

"Do I look dead to you?" Raven said, with a mocking smile.

"Alright," said Robin. It sounded simple enough. She was just a figment of imagination after all. And what did he have to lose?

He made one hard thrust at Raven which she avoided deftly. He had embedded his sword into a tree. Robin spun around to see Raven, licking her lips. She was grinning at him.

"There's one trick," Raven explained. "I'm not playing anymore. The next time I kill you, you'll stay dead."

Robin pulled the sword out of the tree. "OK with me." They sparred a little, light attacks, almost as though they were fencing with foils. But she began to quicken the pace, and her attacks became more dangerous. Robin was still clutching at his side from where she'd stabbed him last. Her next thrust barely missed his throat.

No. This was too much. He was tired of dreaming. The nightmare needed to end.

With one loud battle cry, Robin made a fatal thrust. The second before his sword touched the red dress, Raven was no longer wearing it.

She gasped and dropped her sword and Robin's heart sank. Something was different.

Raven looked identical to how she did every day. Only now, she was bleeding from the stomach. She looked down and then up at Robin, her eyes wide, her mouth half open. She spoke with a whisper that Robin had not heard in ten days. "Robin?"

Somehow, Robin knew. Robin knew he had to get that sword out as fast as possible. He pulled it out and like it was the only thing holding her up, Raven fell to the ground. Robin caught her and eased her down. She was gasping for air, her breaths short and fast.

But no. It couldn't be. It was another trick. "It's… who are you?"

She closed her eyes, still breathing fast. She looked at him again, her eyes a deep violet. "It's me… Robin…"

He threw her down and she let out a yelp of pain. He stood up immediately and looked around, up at the gray sky, up at the black trees, anywhere. "No," he yelled. "No! No, it's another trick! Stop doing this! I never wanted to kill anybody! Not Starfire, not—Not RAVEN!"

"You seemed pretty keen on killing Raven thirty seconds ago."

Robin turned around at the voice and saw the cat-eyed Terra, staring at him in the steely grey. He looked from Terra to Raven to Terra again. "Take it back," he said. "Make it go away. Make me somewhere else. Start another scenario. Anything, just take it back!"

Terra looked at Robin. "I can't take this back, Robin."

Robin looked at the panting Raven, then back to Terra in a panic. "No. You said I could live. You said if I killed you, you'd let me live."

"You didn't kill me, Robin," said Terra, with a straight face. She slowly morphed to Red Dress Raven. "You killed Raven."

Robin's eyes widened. He didn't understand. It was impossible.

"But this is just a dream!" he insisted. He gestured at the Raven on the ground. "She's not real!"

"What am I, the frickin' Easter Bunny?!" Through her pain, she still retained her reliable sarcasm. That didn't reassure Robin at all. He returned to her side, lifted her head onto his lap. She looked up at him. She was smiling.

"You best damn well believe I'm real, Robin," she said.

Robin looked at Red Dress Raven, then down to the dying one in his arms. "I do," he whispered.

"I found you…" she panted. "I found you and…" She grunted in pain. "Ugh… I didn't know…" She looked around, franticly at her surroundings, eyes wide. "I have to go! I have to get out of here!" She grabbed onto Robin's collar. "Robin, please, tell me how to get out of here!"

"I've been trying to figure that out since I ended up here," Robin replied, in a whisper. "Raven… I'm sorry."

But Raven was gone. Robin stood up instantly and looked at the spot where she had been. He looked angrily at Red Dress Raven.

"Another lie!" he screamed.

But Raven shook her head. "Oh no, that was quite real," she said.

Robin shook his head, tired. "Why don't you just kill me then, you twisted bitch."

"Well, I'm having too much fun," Raven replied. She smiled at him with a skeletal grin.

Raven broke into reality like she was breaking the surface of a body of water. She gasped for air and fell forward, floundering. Her hands flew to her stomach. She felt it there, warm and sticky, a gash that had ripped through her clothes.

She screamed so loud it echoed all throughout the tower.