This chapter took a long time, not just because of classes. I'm very picky. If the characters don't feel right, I try again. This chapter went through fifteen unused drafts- review to let me know what you think of number sixteen.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Robin looked pointedly over his shoulder before opening his communicator. "Hey, Starfire," Robin said. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that Logan and Darcy weren't hanging on his every word.

In theory.

He shot them a glare before stalking off to the single bedroom. The walls wouldn't be much help, but he had made the effort.

"Cyborg has spoken to you about Deathstroke, correct? We saw him in the city, but he disappeared very rapidly. Raven could not find him."

"Right," Robin said. "Cyborg said that he couldn't have gotten what footage he did without you and Raven. How has working with just two people been?"

"Cyborg has done an excellent job in leading, but it is different without five people," Starfire said. "I find myself wishing that the attack would come, so there would be no more need for anticipation. It is harder to wait for an enemy than to actively fight."

"He's a hard opponent, but we could take him down," Robin said with more confidence than he felt. Deathstroke was fast, strong, and almost invincible. He could heal from almost anything, according to what Oracle had found. Robin couldn't beat Deathstroke, but maybe the Titans could.

"Have you read the latest stories yet, about why Changeling and I are missing?" he asked. "Logan needs something new to complain about besides the weather. I've heard about the warm snap we're missing for the last three days."

Starfire laughed. "You have been abducted by aliens, become part of a very secret government experiment, and taken a trip to fight for the privilege of asking Raven's father for her hand in marriage."

"How's Raven taking that last one?"

"Cyborg and I did not point it out, but she did smile in an odd way when she saw it. Raven said that the journalists should do their research, and that she would like to see anyone ask her father such a question," Starfire said. Raven had been tense, lately. Any smile, however lopsided, was better than a frown.

"Raven has been spending much time in her room," Starfire confided. "Yesterday, it seemed that she was discussing something with herself. I lack her senses for empathy, but believe she was not pleased."

"I wish Deathstroke had picked another week," Robin said. "This has been rough. Have you tried talking to Raven?"

"I have attempted to do so, but she has proved most resistant." Starfire crossed her arms loosely, an Earth gesture she had picked up. "I will be happier when the team is together again, though I understand how vital this mission is."

"Logan and I are just as ready to go back," Robin said. "He's driving me up the wall, occasionally on purpose. He's bored. Darcy doesn't seem to understand that Logan flirts with any and all females, and she also doesn't know he's an eavesdropping fiend."

"You try having good hearing," Logan called.

Robin smiled. "What can I say? I've spent too much time with the guy. Next thing you know, I'll start eating vegetarian more often-save it, Logan, I'm talking to Starfire."

Starfire laughed. "I should spend a week with you. Perhaps I could convince you to try Tamaranean cuisine."

"That's a contradiction in terms, isn't it?"

"Just for that, you will have to enjoy glorg upon your return," she threatened with a smile.

"Could I talk you into something else?"

"Such as what?"

"Dinner," Robin said. "I'll bribe Raven into helping you find a nice dress, I'll take you to a fancy restaurant, and you can order whatever sounds interesting." He could afford it. He had barely touched a debit card sent from Gotham. He and Bruce weren't talking, exactly, but Tim had been coerced into regular correspondence with his father, Alfred, and Richard. Barbara was a force of nature, when she got an idea in her head.

"It's about time!"

Logan never would learn when to shut his mouth but somehow the exclamation wasn't as annoying as it should have been.

Starfire stared at him through the communicator. "What would the Earth term be, for such a dinner?"

"A date."

"A date is an outing involving two people who have interest in becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, correct?" Starfire's expression was for once impossible to read.

"Ye-es."

"I would be delighted."

He was braced for rejection. It took his mind a minute to catch up with the simple sentence.

"Really?"

"You can be most dense, Robin," she said fondly. "Really. I will ask Raven about dresses, and-" Starfire glanced away from the screen as red lights flashed.

"Trouble?"

"Trouble. Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth are in a physical confrontation," Starfire said. She could have named the streets, but Robin and Changeling would not be accompanying them. Starfire blew a kiss at the screen, as she had seen a couple do. Victor had been the one to explain. "I will speak with you later, Robin."

He could say 'take care,' but Starfire was a warrior princess and would be his girlfriend, if he could manage to not screw things up for once.

He was pretty sure he managed to nod before she was gone. Logan was in the doorway, leaning against the frame. "So. It went well?"

Robin realized that he was grinning like a lunatic. "How did you ever guess?"

Jinx never could hold onto luck.

Two Titans had been out of town for six days. That left three, who had been kept busy at three previous stunts. Two bank robberies had been perfect. They should write about them in textbooks as examples of just why you plan. The jewel heist had gone without a single hitch. In, get the jewels they came for, back at the lair before the very busy Titans were in the area.

The trouble came with selling the gems.

Jinx and their fence had disagreed about the quality of a few stones. She had proven that the gems were diamond. The buyer insisted that they were zircs. She had responded that they were not cubic zirconias, and that they would be taking all their business elsewhere. He had tried to get in her way, and then managed to call in his guards before Jinx could knock him over the head and retrieve their loot.

"What the hairball-crud. Titans!" Gizmo called.

Jinx had been working with Gizmo too long. 'What the hairball,' and it didn't sound (very) odd to her. "All three of them?" she asked.

"Even teams, for once," Gizmo said.

"Who are we taking?" Mammoth asked.

"Giz, focus on the witch," Jinx said. "Mammoth, the alien."

"You're fighting the robot?" Gizmo frowned. They had their pet names for the Titans. It made it easier, less personal.

"Unless you'd like to," Jinx said with a careless shrug. Metal man might be nice without clear reason, but he was a superhero. Superheroes might as well just paint targets on their chest- that went double for anyone who cared about one. "Stick with the game plan from earlier, boys. We can do this."

Sure, the city loved the Titans. Fans clamored for autographs, handshakes, pictures. Everybody loved a hero, but they were just waiting for one to fall. If he got hurt, the flowers and teddy bears and candies would fill ten hospital rooms. If nobody could put Humpty Dumpty back together again, that attention would trickle into nothing. If (when!) he died fighting some crime- he'd be a dead hero. The only thing better than a dead hero gracing the cover of a news rag was a fallen hero.

Thoughts flashed through her mind as she tucked her loot back into a pocket, along with a few sparklies that she hadn't brought in. If the fence hadn't tried to rip her off, he wouldn't have property damage, stolen property, and Titans ready to take him into jail.

Probability wasn't her strong point. She had lost at the probable and won the highly improbable. Three on three was better than five on three. "Let's go," she said, smile dancing on her lips. She loved the fight. It was almost enough to make her think about doing that kind of thing for a living, but she loved fighting even more when she had a pocket full of stolen goods.

It was a good fight. Cyborg was playing leader for the Jr. Titans, and paused for a vital seconds when she cartwheeled into the fight. It was an unorthodox entry. It was a kid's trick that made her a narrow target and gave her time to slam a foot into his lower torso when he misjudged her speed.

Jinx didn't need to look at her team to know she had made the right choices. The alien might be a warrior, but she held back. She didn't want to cause any serious damage, but those love taps she was giving Mammoth would barely leave a bruise. Jinx could hear the thumps when Gizmo wasn't firing.

He hadn't scored a hit yet. Raven was fast, airborne, and able to teleport in a pinch. Jinx needed all her attention for her opponent. Cyborg was very strong, and quicker than he should be. He was slower than his teammates, but she couldn't leave him room to fire. If she was hit with a blast, she was down.

Cyborg tried to say something, but she didn't want to hear it. It was a fight. It wasn't personal. He wanted to put her in jail, she didn't want to go. She didn't dare aim bad luck so close, until she could aim at his feet. She had seen what pink bursts of bad luck could do to electronics. She didn't need to be a refugee because she broke the robot hero.

Jinx was making little headway, but Mammoth had finally knocked Starfire out of the air with a pair of thrown tables. Jinx had shot a beam of pink his way to make Starfire falter at just the wrong moment. She could never predict just what results her hexes would have, but they never were good for the target.

Starfire was too strong for Mammoth to do much more than hold her off. Cyborg wasn't trying to hurt her, she wanted to figure out a way to knock out motor functions for a few seconds. Raven could block Gizmo's attacks. Jinx felt a small pressure at the corner of her lip. If the odds weren't good, you were playing the wrong game.

"Now!"

Jinx fired pink at Starfire before she could finish the word. Mammoth had already thrown a table at Raven. Gizmo's newest weapon fired straight at Cyborg.

It should have been three hits, if not KOs. Only Cyborg went down. Gizmo had keyed into the robot's motor functions, and knew how to disable them for ten minute stretches. Cyborg was out, Starfire wasn't expecting that attack-

Jinx couldn't move. She could see that her teammates were encased in black from the neck down, and could only catch minimal glimpses of the same black surrounding her. The shield was unyielding, and she couldn't move to take anything but the shallowest of breaths.

This wasn't right. Raven had never been so aggressive, and never had held a plain shield with such force. Jinx didn't have enough air to spit out a sarcastic comment, or even to yell.

"Raven."

Had it just been a few seconds? Jinx couldn't tell. She hated being scared, but she couldn't move and her feet were six inches above the ground and the crazy half demon might be just as dangerous as those news reports had said. The alien's voice was too soft. Scream at her, dammit!

"Raven," Cyborg said, a little louder. He still couldn't move his arms, Jinx noted, but his legs must have been working on different signals. He clumsily got to his feet.

Raven's eyes had been harder than the diamonds in Jinx's pocket. Those dark eyes widened, showing white around the purple, and the dark energy finally disappeared. Jinx fell to the ground gasping. She glanced from Gizmo to Mammoth, then worked at catching her breath. They would be okay, if the crazy demon would stay the hell away.

Raven backed away, almost tripping over the broken pieces of a chair. "I'll- I'll see you back at the Tower," she said to her teammates, before stepping into a rising sheet of black energy.

Cyborg and Starfire made no move to stop Jinx as she left. Gizmo had fared worse than she had. She put his arm around her waist and helped him to his feet. The shield the demon had made had cut into his left leg hard enough to leave an ugly bruise in addition to a few other developing marks. Mammoth followed close behind them. He covered their backs while they slowly made their way into the back alleys.

Jinx looked back once, schooling her face into a hard glare. Cyborg met her gaze. She turned and walked away. Whatever was going on, she began to understand why two Titans had skipped town.

Jinx's hand slipped to her pocket. Cool gems met her fingertip's touch, but they weren't as exciting as they had been ten minutes ago.

"Raven? I wish to speak with you."

Starfire counted, slowly. Arms crossed, she tapped her fingers in the staccato beat of a Tamaranean call to battle. "Raven," she said, changing her tone. She might be nice, as people who spoke English would call her, but she was not rutha. Warriors could not afford weakness. "I will speak with you."

"I need to meditate."

"You have been meditating. There has been no positive effect. You will open the door and speak to me, or I will destroy it." Starfire's patience had been exhausted. Kindness had not worked. Being nice was not always the answer.

"Starfire, I am not trying to avoid you. I need to meditate. If I can't control my emotions, I can't control my powers."

"Your powers have been very controlled, Raven," Starfire said firmly. "What you did with those shields took incredible control, did it not?"

"The control doesn't last," Raven said. Her eyes were still closed as ribbons of power skimmed along her walls before finding the control panel. A few maneuverings opened the door. "I don't know how to explain this, Starfire."

"Try." Starfire stayed near the doorway, and gave only a quick glance to Raven's room. Raven had accompanied her to the mall of shopping, but Starfire never had been inside the room.

"You might as well come in," Raven said. A few flickers of energy turned on recessed electric lights.

"I have never seen your room before, Raven. Where did you obtain so many interesting things?"

"Most of the books were in a storage locker while I was moving around," she said. "Several books, some furniture, and the mirror on my dresser are from Azarath."

"Where you were raised?" Starfire glanced at a strange mirror.

"Don't touch that!" Raven warned, just as four eyes glared from the surface.

"What is it?" Starfire asked as she stepped back from the mirror. "There were odd red shapes that resembled eyes."

"It's a portal," Raven said. "A portal for a portal."

Starfire took a seat in the air just a few feet from Raven. There were no chairs in the room. "I do not understand."

"There was a prophecy. It hasn't been right yet."

"You are being cryptic."

Raven's only response was a shrug. "The plain version isn't very flattering."

"Try it."

Raven doubted she could get back to meditating without the sordid details. "When I was born, a prophecy was made. Because I am my father's daughter, I will open a portal. The world will end. The prophecy was supposed to come to pass years ago, but did not." She summoned the mirror, a very practiced motion. "If you were to look in this mirror, you would see yourself, and then four glowing eyes."

Starfire wished that she wasn't the only person doing this. Someone else would know what to say to keep Raven from stopping. "What do you see?"

"My mind," Raven said. "I can travel inside of my mindscape, which isn't quite the same, or I can converse with parts of my mind through this mirror. I do not need this mirror for such things, but it is simpler." Visualizing emotions took much more energy, and Happy was a piece of work. "It's dangerous inside my mind. If you handled this mirror, you would be dragged inside. You might not get out again."

"Is this common on Azarath?"

"No," Raven said. "Azar made this for me. Tr-my father has had no other children. Others might have the same powers driven by emotion, or they might not."

"Your powers have been very strong for the past week," Starfire said. "Two weeks ago, it took three separate occasions of healing to help friend Robin recover from a broken arm. One week ago, the act of healing a heart must have taken strength."

"I have a few… reserves," Raven said. "I'm not sure that I can trust the extra power. Some sources are not the best."

Starfire bit her lip. She would rather have a fight than such a conversation. What was important? "Raven, please do not say such confusing things. Can you speak them plainly?"

It could have been shadows, or it could have been a sudden change in her expression. "Starfire, you might say that you wouldn't care about my background, but there are reasons that I keep my history to myself. Outside of this team, no one knows I was raised by the monks of Azarath." That was not a closely kept secret. Azar and her people had known the risk of taking in a half-demon.

"Raven, you have heard our histories. The problems that occurred were not fault of ours, and I am sure that yours are the same way."

"Don't ask me that, Starfire." Raven had thought she could tell them, but something had changed. Cyborg was carefully using the robotic parts of his mind to feel emotions, and something in Starfire's blaze of feeling wasn't right. They were hiding feelings from her. If she told them now…

"I am asking that, Raven. What are you hiding from us?"

"Plural?" Raven felt a flash of something. Starfire was projecting emotions over emotions. Calm down. She didn't mean anything by that, she just was talking about the team. "I will tell you, Starfire, but it's hard to say. I wanted to tell the whole team at once, to just get it over with." Was there a good way to finally name just who her father was? A half-demon was one thing, but the daughter of Trigon might be something entirely different.

"The entire team cannot be present in body, Raven. Perhaps we can involve the communicators?"

"Darcy," Raven said.

"I believe that Darcy will be kind enough to put on headphones and listen to music," Starfire said. Darcy had when they had talked about Raven. It felt wrong, to talk about a teammate in such a way, but they were running very low on options.

Raven nodded, once. They had to know. If the knowledge only confirmed their suspicions, she would have been honest. She had enough money saved for at least eight months rent and groceries, if it came to that.

"Let's go to the common room," she said. She liked Cyborg, but one guest in her room was one too many.

"Thank you, Raven."

Starfire didn't understand a flash of something that had not been a shadow. "Don't thank me yet."

Cyborg saw them enter. "Raven?"

She had her communicator in her hand. "I need to talk to the team."

"Would calling them up on the television be easier, Rae?" he asked.

"No, Cyborg, but thank you." A small screen would give enough detail. "My powers have grown in strength too fast. I should have explained before now, but I was preoccupied." She had healed a bullet to the heart, and the absorbed pain had barely affected her. Raven stared at her hand. It looked normal enough, if grey, but that might not last.

"Raven?"

She opened her communicator. Logan and Tim were waiting; Starfire had let them know. "I-"

Raven had never been so relieved to be interrupted. "Sorry, Raven," Tim said. "Oracle just picked up a report. Deathstroke is in the area." The lights in the safehouse switched off. "It's a precaution, but…"

"I will explain when Deathstroke is gone," Raven promised.

"Thanks, Raven," Robin said. "Changeling, cover Darcy. I'll watch the front."

"If anything happens, backup is on the way," Cyborg said. "We know the general area, and Raven can give us an airlift."

"If we need you, the alarms at the Tower will go off," Robin said. "Robin out."

Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg waited in tense silence for just two minutes before the alarms blared and the lights glared red.

Raven surrounded them with black energy, checked to make sure that her shields were complete, and closed her fist.