Post The End. Continuation of C'est Pas Une Vie.

A/N: I told you I planned sequels. I just left the first chapter as 'complete' cuz I didn't know when I'd get around to it. There will be one more chapter, and that will be the end of it. Ya dig?

Disclaimer: Half the time I forget to say this (maybe because I think I actually do own the Teen Titans) but I don't. DC owns the characters, WB had some claim in it. I make no money from this (gods, if I could make money writing fanfics, I'd quit school and do it full time, yo).

Oh, and this has nothing to do with the story, but the whole time I was writing this I was listening to 'Better with the Lights Off,' which just makes me want to dance all over the place, so I can't believe I could finish this while dancing around in my chair. Lol.

Chapter 2: The Aftermath is Secondary

No fuckin' way. It wasn't possible.

Trigon- the ever looming threat to the entire universe, the bane and reason for her existence, her father- had been defeated. By her. The girl he sired to ensure his triumph.

Raven released a shaky breath as she thought about it. Maybe now she could live her life? She would have to relearn the extents and limitations of her powers all over again, now that she wasn't hamstrung by her father's influence.

"Alright y'all, four eyes is history, his ghoulies are gone, and we just saved the whole dang universe! Who wants French toast?"

Raven raised an amused eyebrow at the meta-human's declaration as she entered the common room, having just changed back into her usual black leotard and blue cloak from the white her balanced powers had put her in. She left Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire to their antics and approached Robin by the windows that overlooked the bay. For the first time since he kissed her, she would initiate a conversation with him, not including when they were on missions.

"Slade got away?" She asked, her voice interested, but as always calm and level.

Robin was serious as he nodded in affirmative and said, "If he ever shows his face again we'll be ready."

Joining him as he looked out the window, she asked the question that had itched at her since he had shown her the safe room they had built for her in the tower, "How do you do it, Robin?"

Did he imagine that her voice softened when she said his name? "Do what?"

"Keep hoping." It really proved how incredible he was, as a hero and a person, and it mystified her. "After everything that happened, everything I did," the guilt rushed through her as she said that. Out of all the new emotions she hoped she could experience after her father's banishment, guilt wasn't high on the list, but still she felt it. "How did you keep hoping everything would work out?"

He turned toward her fully and she did the same. He said with honest conviction, "Because of you. You don't realize it Raven, but you're actually the most hopeful person I've ever met."

She looked at her reflection in the window, unable to see any good in herself- after being raised knowing she would destroy the universe, she didn't know if she would ever be able to find worth in her existence. He said, "From the day you were born they said you were evil, that you were born to do unspeakable things. But you wished for more. You dared to hope that you could be a hero."

As he finished she turned to look at him. The pride in his smile gave her some small amount of pride in herself. How did he make her feel so easily? "I thought it was all over. Now, suddenly," she trailed off, unsure of how to continue her sentence and her life.

Robin supplied her with, "You have your whole life ahead of you. You can decide your own destiny." He could hope that her destiny would include him, but it was ultimately her choice. He wouldn't begrudge her any option after all she had just been through. She deserved anything she wanted, because she had just spat in the face of her demonic heritage and hellish fate and saved everyone in the universe.

She even deserved to be totally cliche when she said, "I guess, in the end, there really is no end, just new beginnings." Her eyes filled with the hope he had always seen. She smiled so sweetly it made his heart pound. She always managed to capture his eye, but she defined beauty when she smiled. He took a moment to damn Beast Boy for interrupting the moment they were having earlier, when she hugged him as her savior.

She turned to their rambunctious friends and asked, "So what's the deal, are we having a party in here or not?"

The wrestling trio stopped to stare at their newly freed friend and hollered their consent. She glided down to them and Robin followed right after, not ready to be separated so soon after he almost lost her- and who didn't love a good party?

Three hours, several helpings of Cyborg's Award-winning French toast, and too many Beast Boy jokes later, Raven was sent to her room so that the others could remake her birthday party, since she had destroyed the one on her actual birthday and they all thought it necessary to celebrate now.

She took the familiar path through the hallways of her T-shaped home to her bedroom, her walk lighter than usual, lacking the weight of her destiny on her shoulders. She opened the door and felt comforted by her little room filled with her personal possessions. She passed her triangular bookshelf full of ancient tomes and classic literature, her drama masks, her meditation mirror. The overall effect of the dark colors and shadowed objects was, as Beast Boy said, creepy. But that was how she liked it. Just because she didn't have to fear her father any longer didn't mean she would turn into Starfire: a pink loving, bubbly girly-girl. She shuddered at the revolting thought. She had the same personality, interests and anti-social habits as she did before. Although, the anti-social part would change now, since that had been a necessity for meditation and control of her powers.

She looked towards her closed, dark curtains, which blocked out all the light from the floor to ceiling windows. Even if she was the same person, she was given, dare she say, a new lease on life, and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to try to use it to become more open and happy. She pushed open the curtains for the first time since she'd moved into the room, and looked at the view out her window.

Her room directly overlooked Jump City. She leaned against the wall and gazed at the skyline. It was a bustling city; the people across the water didn't even know they had all been turned to stone. They were still going about their busy lives. That relieved her- she had feared what the people would think of her if they knew what she had almost let happen. Luckily, they remained ignorant. Blissful.

A knock on her door shook her out of her content, grateful, disbelieving thoughts. She opened her door to a grinning Robin. Upon seeing him, she felt blood rush to her face at the memory of another time he came to find her in her room. Robin smirked at her blush, correctly guessing her train of thoughts.

"I always seem to be coming to find you in here," he remarked offhandedly.

"Did you want something, Robin?" Though her syntax was the same as usual, her tone had lost all of the edge it once held for people who knocked on her door.

The shape of his domino mask seemed serious as he asked, "Can I come in?"

She stepped aside to let him in to the usually dark room. He noticed the change and observed, "You finally let some light in here. You know, your decorations are actually kind of cool when they're not shrouded in darkness."

She raised a brow at his choice in words. "'Shrouded in darkness?'"

He chuckled, but didn't answer. She sat on her bed and he did the same.

"So technically I'm supposed to be here to ask you what kind of cake you like, but Cy and I both know you're a closet chocolate junkie, so he's already working on it. I was just an excuse to get away from BB and Star and talk to you."

Raven quietly asked, "And what did you want to talk to me about?"

He took a long time to respond. He knew what he wanted, she could sense his determination and hope through her empathy, yet he couldn't find the right words. Eventually he looked up from his hands in his lap that he'd been staring at as he gathered his thoughts and stared straight in her clear, amethyst eyes. He said, "I wanted to ask you about your powers, and how your control over them will be now that your father is no longer a factor."

She stared right back. That pesky hope of his kept raising hope in her; they were hoping for the same thing, but he didn't know that. Leaning back on her arms casually she asked him, "Is that information you want as leader of the Titans?"

He shook his head. His gaze remained intense as he quietly spoke, "No. The reason is more personal." To every deity he prayed that he hadn't answered incorrectly.

He hadn't. She smiled. "If you had said otherwise, Robin, I would have told you to shove it up your ass." He smiled back. He would have laughed if not for the seriousness of their conversation.

She considered the question. Looking patient, he waited, but she could sense his impatience. "Well," She hedged, "My empathy seems to be unaffected."

He grinned sheepishly, aware of what she must have felt from him. For another pause he waited again, this time distracting himself by watching her think. Really, he didn't mind if she sensed his love for her. Honestly he hoped she did. When he had kissed her, right before Slade reappeared with Raven's destiny on his heels, he hadn't had the courage to finish his sentence and say the words, 'I love you.' The thought that he hadn't told her had pushed him more than anything else as he had followed his arch-enemy through a path to Raven, to Hell.

She felt it, alright. His all encompassing love washed over her sixth sense, and for a few moments she just basked in it. Then she decided what was necessary right at that point in time, and sighed as she cut off the feeling. This wasn't the time, no matter how much she wished it was. Well, you win some, you lose some.

"I don't know," she finally admitted.

"What don't you know?"

"I don't know if my control over my powers has been affected by banishing my father. I don't know if my powers will still lash out when I'm angry. I don't know if I've lost aspects of my power or gained any. I don't know. I'm sorry Robin. What you were hoping for when you came here, I can't give it to you."

Disappointment washed over the Boy Wonder. The strength of it would have knocked him on his ass had he not been sitting already. Raven winced as she felt it.

"Yet."

His head flew back up and he met her eyes. The single word seemed to echo in his mind- had he imagined it?

Raven gave him a small, reassuring, secretive smile. Then it, like her final word, disappeared, and she was serious again.

"I'm going to have to take some time to concentrate on making sure my powers haven't changed because of this ordeal. Then after that, if all is well, I want to try experiencing emotions. I want to finally open up to my friends, and let them open up to me. Years have passed since we became a team, I think it's time I actually act friendly with my friends."

The boy next to her remained silent as he waited for her to give him some signal that his hopes were justified. All he had to go on was her response to one kiss. If she was going to shut him down, now was the time for it.

"It may take a while to sort through all of this, and adjust to the idea that I actually have a life to live, that I'm not a portal anymore, but just a person. A hero. It will be some time before the opening up part of the plan arrives, especially if enemies will be attacking constantly."

Robin finally found his tongue. "If I'm willing to wait?"

Repressing a blush, Raven said simply, "Well, I won't stop you."

"Is that a promise?"

She nearly gasped at his voice; it was deep and husky, full of suggestion. She answered him sarcastically to hide her immediate and intense response to it. "Yes, Boy Blunder. You can keep that hope you're so fond of."

Suddenly he pulled her pale face to his and planted a hot kiss on her. Though shocked, she responded for a moment before pulling back, glazed-over amethyst eyes looking into white domino. He smirked at her look and said, "Yeah, I definitely will."

With that, Robin stood up and walked to her door. She sat on her bed and watched him leave. Her body was filled with warmth but covered in goosebumps from his kiss as she tried to understand the feelings. Contrary to her previous thoughts, it was easy to allow herself to feel emotions. The hard part was figuring out which specific ones she felt as they came. This, almost positively, she decided was arousal. But that made her wonder: is that an actual emotion or a physical state? She would have to think about that one.

Robin stopped right before he opened her door and seemed to consider something. She sensed a bit of fear and uncertainty,as well as determination, right before he turned around and walked right back to her. He leaned his face down to her, but bypassed her lips, to her disappointment. Instead, he pressed his soft lips to the spot where her jaw met her ear. Keeping contact with her skin, his lips slid up to her ear and he whispered into it.

His words nearly made her cry with- happiness, relief or gratitude? She'd have to figure that one out too, she thought as she hugged him.

A/N 2: Oooooh, I wonder what he said to her, hmmm? I'm gonna write the last chapter this weekend (MLK day means monday off, yay civil rights movement!), so look forward to that. And Review. It'll be a happy, kinda hot ending. So Review. I'm holding the finale hostage until I get enough reviews. So you'll want to Review. I got 7 for the 1st chapter, so when I get 8 more for this chapter I'll post the last chapter.

Oh, and in the third chapter, maybe I'll tell you about a Rob/Rae chapter story I'm in the process of outlining. It's gonna be really cool (I hope.)

Did I tell you to review? Lol, Cheers.