Disclaimer; I own nothing.

It's good to be back.

Chapter 10

It was as if in a dream that she rushed to confront her former friend. She hadn't even thought about alerting anybody but Red X, she had been so alarmed. And now she was starting to regret that decision. But she couldn't do anything about it; he communicator was back at the Tower, still sitting on the roof where she had been thinking.

She ducked into the alleyway, trying to follow the light sound of footsteps in the dark night. As if on cue, thunder boomed through the night. Stupid spring showers, messing with her hearing, she thought as the rain began to fall around her, drowning out the stealthy footsteps of her prey.

She was drenched, cold, and worried by the time she figured out which way he had gone. Biting her lip, she considered going back. He seemed so distant right now, and she doubted that there was anything she could do at this point to bring him back, but she had to at least try, didn't she?

Reaching out with her powers, she grabbed him around the middle with her soul self and pulled him around to face her. As her energy returned to her body, she allowed the wind to blow her hood down, revealing her face to him.

Yet there was no emotion in his expression, save that same hateful one. His eyes narrowed, and a small, cruel smile spread over his lips as he toyed with a thought. And from the look he was giving her, it wasn't going to be good.

Suddenly, he attacked her, giving her no time to move out of the way. A metal boot connected with her uncovered face, and as she fell down to the ground in surprise, she tasted blood as it filled her mouth. She rose shakily, fearing that there was nothing she could say or do to save him anymore. "Robin, please. I just need to talk to you."

"About what?" he growled. "In case you haven't noticed, Raven, I'm not in a talking mood," he added, emphasizing his point with a swift blow to her stomach.

"Then listen," she replied, pinning him to the wall with her powers. As she watched him struggle to break free, she gasped in air to recover from his attack, then asked quietly, "Robin, I know you're in there somewhere. Listen to me. Why did you lose it back there?"

His mouth dropped open for a moment, but he closed it immediately afterwards, fixing her with an icy stare as he pried himself free, rushing at her with a fierce anger in his eyes behind the mask. "How do you know about that?" he demanded.

As she put up a shield to protect herself from his blows, she replied sadly, "I felt it Robin, and I feel your rage now. You need to overcome it. Please, Robin, try to understand." Her voice was devoid of any emotion. It was just a calm whisper, and yet she commanded his attention somehow. "Listen carefully, Robin," she said, noting that he had, for the moment, stopped fighting her, "it was not your fault, do you hear me? Sometimes things happen that we can't control, but it's not your fault."

But she'd made a mistake in bringing that touchy topic back up. The movement was so fast that it didn't even register to her when the metal boot collided with the side of her skull. But the throbbing pain informed her of what had happened, and she fell to the ground. Anger flared up within her, but it quickly died back down as she recognized the hurt look in Robin's face. So he was starting to feel something. That was why he had attacked her, out of confusion. She decided to try again. "We need you Robin. I need you," she said, and her voice choked with sudden emotion, as Sadness began to take hold once more. "More than ever."

This did seem to stop him for a moment, but then his face hardened into a mask of anger. Well, she was getting to him. Somewhat. "Please..." she prodded.

She'd pushed too hard, it seemed. With an angry cry, he rushed forward. Years of training together had a disadvantage, it seemed, as he was able to anticipate the defenses she would summon, and seemed to come up with a counterattack to each one in the entire time period of a few seconds. She suffered blow after blow as first his boots, then a few weapons came into play.

She felt the familiar sting of a zinothium weapon and immediately closed her mind to it. At least this time it wouldn't affect her in that way. Gasping, she whispered hoarsely, "Where did you...?"

He smirked, bending down to look her in the eyes, for she was now on her knees. "Like it? Recognize it? You should. It's the same one that Doctor Light used. Let me tell you, the thing is powerful, as you're about to find out."

Her eyes widened in surprise at the malice in his voice, all the morals that he had thrown away. "You wouldn't," she gasped, trying to recover feeling in her arms so that she could fight back.

His smirk only widened at this and he purposefully spat into the ground beside him, a sure sign that he was more than serious. "Watch me," he growled.

The pain rushed through her entire being as she collapsed to the ground, but she didn't have the liberty of rest as he kept firing repeatedly. At this point, she was fully prepared for the final blow, but he seemed content to leave her at the edge of her consciousness.

"Unpleasant, no?" he scoffed.

"Do you really want to be this much like Slade? I thought you just didn't want to feel anymore, not to become someone who feels only hatred and anger," she shot back.

His eyes widened at this and he was silent for a moment before he leveled his weapon for the final blow, the one that would finally free her from insanity. But his fingers hesitated, and a glimmer of guilt shone in his face. She took that oppurtunity to phase through the ground, leaving him alone to sort through his thoughts.

When she appeared back in one of the alleys, she had no strength left. She started coughing violently, and all she saw was red. Was this how Robin had felt? She shuddered. Suddenly she understood how painful it must have been for him to have felt so weak. With these thoughts in mind and no one to relieve her of them, she collapsed onto the ground into the pools of her own blood and xinothium and tears, as well as the rain. Her consciousness faded away from her, and her last thoughts were that Kid Flash and Jinx wouldn't know where to look for her, since she had left her communicator. Or maybe when they did find her, there would be nothing left to salvage. And then she passed out.

TTTTTTTT

He looked down on the figure strapped down in the hospital ward. And he couldn't fathom why he thought that he wasn't real. Of course he was real! He was standing in front of the guy, wasn't he?

"Red X, come on! Here, let me help you out of there," he offered, preparing to demonstrate his own strength...

"NO!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, confused. Didn't Red X want help? "Why not?" he demanded.

"You. Are. Not. Real!" X said through clenched teeth.

He nearly laughed. "Of course I am! Now, here, let me help you, alright?" With that, he transformed easily into a mouse, undoing each individual screw until the bands fell off. "Now, what were you saying about me not being real?"

The masked teen only stared back at him, completely surprised. "You're real?"

Sighing in frustration, he strolled right up and slapped him across the head. "That help anything?" he asked.

X rubbed the back of his head. "But...you were dead...I saw you!"

He rolled his eyes. "Now I know why you were strapped down. Dude, I'm real, okay? Get it through your head!"

Suddenly, Red X jumped up and whipped out his communicator. "Jinx, Kid Flash, you're never going to guess who I'm talking to right now!" he said excitedly.

"Cyborg?" Jinx teased.

"What's so important about talking to me! I thought nobody wanted to talk to me anyway!" he demanded finally.

The communicator emitted much static as Jinx gasped in surprise. "Is that who I think it is?"

Annoyed, he reached out and grabbed the communicator from out of Red X's hands. "The one and only. Who did you think would be with Raven when she came back? Where is she anyway?"

Then Red X became suddenly serious. "She went after Robin!" he blurted out.

His eyes narrowed. "How's that?" he demanded. He couldn't believe...after all that they'd been through...

Kid Flash came on. "Beast Boy! Great to see you man! What's Red X going on about Raven leaving? Last I saw she was peacefully meditating on the roof. Tie him back down again, BB, because he's hallucinating."

Red X's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I was NOT! Listen to me! Robin's really lost it this time and we've got to go after Raven before he-"

Beast Boy interrupted. "Whoa whoa whoa. Raven's been around for how long now? And Cy's back? And Robin's done what? And since when have we had Jinx and Kid Flash on our team? And what's with Red X being tied down? Besides the fact that he's been babbling about me not being real, he seems pretty okay to me!"

Kid Flash chuckled. "Boy, did we ever need you. I miss laughing. Did I just say that? Yes I did. I miss laughing. It's been so dark and depressing around here lately. Think you could cheer us up a bit?"

But he wasn't about to be talked out of this one. "Only after you answer my questions."

"Alright kid. Bottom line is: you've been dead for about a week now," Red X said simply.

His eyes widened. "I've been...and I've missed...you mean the..."

Jinx snorted. "Yep. Same old Beast Boy. He's no figment of your imagination, X, although I don't blame you for this one."

"Ahem. Continuing on, Raven's been around for as long as you've been dead, and she's starting to go insane too. I think it'll do her good to see you again. Cyborg is back, but we've only got his chest and head put back together, and we can't seem to find the connectors for the pieces of his arms and legs that we've found so far. Robin went and killed a bunch of reporters, and I asked these two to help me look for Cyborg's parts. Any more questions?" Red X said bluntly.

"You always just get straight to the point, don't you?" Beast Boy sighed, trying to take it all in.

"Did I miss anything?" X asked the others, who silently shook their heads.

"That means we'd better go after Raven. If Robin's really lost it, there's no telling what he'll do to her!" he gasped.

"Check the roof first. Maybe she hasn't left yet," Red X offered.

With that, he had changed into a green cheetah and was halfway up the stairs before the others even knew what had happened. As rain poured around him, he searched desperately for any sign of her. Anything.

"Looks like she really did leave," Red X said, appearing behind him.

His mouth formed a small 'o' shape as he leaned down and picked up the small yellow device. "And she's in big trouble, too. Look at this."

Red X was taken aback and could find nothing to say.

"We've got to go after her!" he announced, transforming into a falcon and flying off, the thunder at his tail. But nothing would deter him from his goal of finding her.