AN: Raven's side was begging to be told. It's still dark; no fluff to be found here. Also, thank you so much to all the reviewers, including the anons to whom I can't respond via PM!

Disclaimer: Not mine; I'm just borrowing them so I can drag them through the mud.

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The journey to Titan Tower was uneventful, though night flying had never been Elasti-Girl's favorite pastime. Thankfully, the autopilot was sophisticated enough to handle most of the trouble. She checked the heads-up display once more: not quite four in the morning. Gar would sleep until late in the morning, which left her plenty of time to handle this and be back before he woke up. She was no stranger to late nights blending into early mornings; between the Doom Patrol and motherhood, she'd mastered the art of the catnap.

Ever since their joint run-in with the Brotherhood of Evil, the ship had been programmed to call each individual Titan. After the destruction and reconstruction of their communicators, Beast Boy had supplied them with updated contact information. Hence, calling the person she was hoping to reach was as simple as the press of a few buttons.

The screen remained black, minor amounts of pixelation the only indicator that the call had been answered. "Who's this?" mumbled a groggy feminine voice, rough and raw with pain despite having just woken.

Elasti-Girl kept her tone apologetic, but firm. "I'm sorry to bother you, Raven, but we need to talk. It's Rita— Gar's mother."

There was the sound of something fragile breaking in the background, followed by a long silence. "Gar—"

"Doesn't know I'm here, and I'd prefer to keep it that way for now. You and I need to have a serious heart-to-heart, though."

An explosion. "You know," the girl said, voice caught between stone-cold certainty and panic.

With a grim nod that was more for herself, Rita dropped the next bomb. "I'll be landing on the island in five minutes."

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Fifteen minutes later, Rita was nursing a mug of tea, barely warm despite having just been prepared. Raven held a similar one.

They were both sitting on Raven's bed— or rather, each of them sat on one half of Raven's formerly whole bed, stacks of books in place of the missing legs for each side. The symbolism was not lost on Elasti-Girl, which meant Raven also had to be keenly aware of it.

"I apologize for the temperature of the tea," Raven began. "At the moment, I'm not good company, and I'd rather not scald you in case of another…" She trailed off and gestured at the split bed.

"That's all right, Raven. I didn't come for the tea." As if to illustrate this fact, she set her beverage on the floor beside her.

The cracks in the empath's composure deepened, and her bloodshot eyes began to water. "If you're here to chastise me, scream at me, beat me… go ahead. I deserve anything you can do to me and more," she said, the final words falling to a whisper.

Face impassive, Rita shook her head. "It's not my place to punish you, however angry I might be at you for hurting my boy. I'm here to ask you why you did what you did. And I hope there is a very good explanation."

Raven stared into the depths of her mug, though they both knew there were no answers to be found in the swirl of tea leaves. Taking her cue from the older woman, she set it aside as well. "First of all," she said, "The things I'm about to tell you are not excuses. There is no possible excuse for what I did; it was wrong, and no amount of explanation or apology can fix it. You asked why, though, and this is why." She sat chewing her lip in silence for nearly a full minute, heedless of the trickle of blood that began to run down her chin. Finally, she spoke again. "Have you ever… wanted something so much… that the thought of not having it terrified you?"

Jaw set in a firm line, Rita nodded. "Some of the mistakes I regret most in my entire life have been driven by that kind of fear."

There was a sharp exhalation, just shy of a laugh, and Elasti-Girl saw a mirror of Gar's painful smile on his girlfriend's face. "It seems we have something in common, then." She shifted, eyes slowly running around a room with nothing new to see. The older woman recognized the action: Raven was preparing to tell an unpleasant story. "I'm sure Gar told you that my powers are tied to my emotions. What he might not have told you is that for most of my life, if I felt anything too strongly, my father, Trigon the Terrible, could have used the power surge to take control of my body and destroy the entire world. Hence, my emotions were suppressed almost completely from my birth until the day Trigon returned and was defeated. Only after that could I allow myself to feel any emotion except in its mildest incarnation. I tried to open up bit by bit, easing into the process… but then, somewhere along the way, I managed to fall for your son."

Rita gave the girl her first genuine smile since entering the room. "Once you see him in the right light, it's not hard to do."

The empath nodded, grateful. "I hadn't expected it, but one day I looked up from my book, and there it was… there he was." Her expression darkened. "To go from almost nothing to having the first crush of a teenage girl in full chaotic, illogical force… that degree of desire is something I had never experienced, and I was completely unprepared for it. All of a sudden, I didn't just want Gar; I had to have him, was petrified of losing him to someone else… and so I did what I had to do in order to get him."

Elasti-Girl frowned. "That's incredibly childish. People are not possessions."

"I don't deny that," Raven said, shame in her eyes. "It was weak and selfish and wrong, and I knew that as I was doing it… but I couldn't stop. Just one little push, and I never did it again. That was how I tried to justify it to myself; I covered over a massive betrayal with excuses a five-year-old might use for peeking at Christmas presents. Now, a year later, I know I'm still little more than a child in terms of emotional development, even with all of Gar's help." The empath folded her hands in a gesture reminiscent of prayer and rested her forehead on her fingers. "Sometimes, I think it would have been better to keep these feelings locked up… buthe didn't think so. And no matter what, I trust him to know best."

With snort, Rita crossed her arms over her chest. "You could have at least told him that. He's back at the Doom Patrol headquarters after a week in the wilderness, still pining after you. And you know what the part of all of this that hurts him the most is? He's certain he would have ended up loving you eventually, and he believes you didn't trust him to make the right choice and get there on his own."

"No," Raven said, liquid hurt and guilt swimming in her eyes. "That's the furthest thing possible from the truth. If there's anyone in the whole world I can trust to make the right choice when it matters, it's Gar. And that terrifies me… because I know I'm not the right choice for him." She hung her head.

"Why not?" Elasti-Girl asked. At the moment, she wasn't entirely convinced the girl was wrong, but for Gar's sake, Raven had to sort this out one way or another.

The purple-haired girl looked up, a whisper of a smile on her bloodied lips. "He… surprised me with a bouquet one day, no special occasion; he said he just felt like giving me flowers. No one had ever done anything remotely like that, and I was so shocked… and I was focusing on the bouquet…" The smile withered. "And my powers turned it to dust. Then I ran away to my room and wouldn't open the door for him. I never explained, and he hasn't gotten me flowers since then. He deserves someone who can reciprocate his affection, who can accept his spontaneous romance without something exploding."

The older woman nodded, motioning for her to continue. There was more on Raven's mind, and she didn't want to interrupt her.

"Gar… wanted to try… things… out in the woods, and I told him I couldn't. It frustrated him, I know, but he never mentioned it again. I never explained why it wasn't possible, though."

Rita tried to ignore the flash of discomfort stemming from the thought of the "things" Raven had mentioned. She didn't want to think of her little boy in that light, but she also knew the empath likely had no one else in whom to confide this information… and that it was part of a larger explanation.

"There are runes and wards all over my room," the pale girl continued. "I've spent years creating them and reinforcing them. Some of them, I added just last year. They're designed to absorb the excess energy my powers create during…" she trailed off, blushing. "But only here, in my room. The runes keep it from escaping and leveling the Tower. The things he makes me feel… not just physical, but emotional. Azar, I feel so much because of that boy. And it's only safe to feel that much here, with the runes keeping us and everyone around us safe. We can only make love in this one room… and he deserves better than that. If I tell him, I know he'll just accept it as another part of me, and either give up the idea or exhaust every option trying to work around it. The problem is, I don't know if that's what's best for him. Garfield deserves someone less broken… but I'm too weak to let him go."

Elasti-Girl tapped her fingertips on her thigh, pensive. "First of all, only Gar can decide what's best for Gar. You can have an opinion, and you can state it, but in the end, he's the one who has to choose, just like you're ultimately in charge of your own actions. Secondly…" Rita grimaced. "There's quite a bit you're not telling him. I understand, believe me; Steve and I kept things from each other for years out of embarrassment, fear, what have you. If you two are going to make this work, though, that needs to stop. Right now. You have to communicate with each other, even when it's unpleasant."

"I shouldn't tell him about any of this," Raven said, voice quavering. "I should just let him leave me. He'll be happier in the end that way. I just… I love him so much, Rita, and it's terrifying and strange and I don't know what to do."

"Raven, think about what I just said."

The sorceress tilted her head, blinking. "It's… not my right to decide what will make him happy," she said, words heavy with epiphany.

"Exactly. You've taken your first step towards building a healthy relationship." Elasti-Girl took a deep breath. "That said, before you can move on from this, I think you need to fully understand the gravity of what you did." Steeling herself for an unpleasant reaction, Rita continued. "You forced your will on another human being without his consent. What one word best describes that action?"

Raven was stiff as a corpse, horror and realization mingling in her eyes. "No," she whispered, over and over.

"You have to admit it, Raven," she insisted. "Say the words."

Every loose object in the room began to rattle in harmony with Raven's trembling body. Elasti-Girl looked around, a jolt of fear running through her. She could make it out the window if necessary, but if Raven chose to restrain her, she would be trapped here.

Just as she was about to reach out a calming hand to the girl, everything settled back into its rightful place. Rita breathed a sigh of relief, until she saw Raven's face contorting into a mask of agony.

Then the room exploded.

Drawers flew open, their contents whipped into a maelstrom that tore around the room. Their teacups shattered against the wall, liquid adding another dimension to the chaos. Books and candles and ornate masks whizzed by Elasti-Girl's head, but nothing ever made contact. There were a scant few inches of space around her body; even in the midst of a total meltdown, Raven was still protecting her.

That decided the matter. Not caring whether the objects swirling around her head collided with her or not, Rita strode over to the young woman on the other half of the bed and embraced her.

As she held this broken, repentant girl she barely knew, an overwhelming sense of gratitude seeped into her soul. It was an odd feeling to have at this particular moment, and Rita nearly pulled back, but Raven's arms wrapped around her back, holding her still.

"I-I'm so-o-rry," the girl sobbed out between gasps for air. "I c-can't con-trol it. Sorry… so, so sorry."

The words puzzled Rita for a moment, but when the feeling of thankfulness intensified, the pieces slammed together, leaving her speechless. This girl was so grateful just to simply be held by someone that the feeling was spilling over into Elasti-Girl. The realization broke Rita's heart, and she found herself wondering if anyone except her own son had ever taken the time to give this young woman the contact she so desperately craved.

Time passed, and the whirlwind died down, objects settling back into the laws of gravity. A puffy-eyed Raven pulled her head from Elasti-Girl's shoulder, and the feeling of gratitude dissipated as the young woman furrowed her brow in concentration. "I'm so sorry, Rita," she said after a moment. "I didn't mean to shunt my emotions off to you; I just… when you hugged me, there wasn't room for that feeling as well as everything else. And the other feelings are my responsibility to bear, not yours."

Nodding, Rita chose her next words carefully. "That was… a strong reaction, even for that realization." She studied the young woman in front of her; the response she received would say a lot about the sorceress's character.

Elasti-Girl watched an avoidance of the subject flit onto Raven's tongue out of reflex, then melt away. "I…" She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again, determination on her face. "I was a child of rape. A cult that worshiped Trigon deceived my mother into taking part in a ceremony that turned out to be… my conception. I grew up feeling the pain my mother experienced every time she looked at me, an ever-present reminder of the monster who violated her. I promised myself that this, above all other crimes, I would fight to my last breath." Her hands shook again, and her breath came ragged, but she retained control of her powers. "In the end, though, I'm just like my father."

Shaking her head, Rita rubbed a reassuring hand along the empath's back. "No, Raven, you're not. From what I know of your father, he would revel in the experience and the pain it caused. There would be no regret from him, no tears. You are yourself, for better and for worse. It's hard to live in someone's shadow, and harder still to step out from it and take responsibility for your own actions."

They sat in silence, Raven trying to digest the information and formulate a response. Finally, she spoke. "How do I make this right?" she asked.

Rita let out a sigh. "It's going to take a long, long time. He's going to doubt everything now. You need to realize this and be prepared for it."

"I know," Raven said, making an obvious effort to control her voice.

"It will be bad at first— horrible, even. Over time, you'll see things improve. It may seem sometimes like everything's fine… and then out of nowhere, this will come up again. It's going to hurt, but you've earned every bit of distrust he feels. Now you have to work your way back from there, and it's not a simple path."

A purple gaze met her own, worry and a burning need to know mixed in equal parts. "Did it ever get better with you and Mento?"

Rita's eyes widened. "How did you—"

"I'm sorry," Raven blurted as she cringed away. "I didn't mean to pry. Everything's right at the surface right now, and my empathy is telling me things I shouldn't know. You're speaking from personal experience; you've been where Gar is. It only makes sense that…" She trailed off. "I'm sorry. Don't answer that."

"No, Raven, I think you need to know." Steeling herself, Rita pressed onward. "Steve and I have been married for decades, and when we fight, it still comes up sometimes. This will hang over both of you to some extent for the rest of your lives regardless of whether or not you stay with Garfield… but yes, it does get better."

Without warning, Raven's arms were around Elasti-Girl's shoulders, face pressed into her shoulder. The hug was brief, but heartfelt. When she pulled away, Raven looked bashful. "I don't know what's going to happen between me and Gar. That's up to him to decide now… but if he'll have me back, I hope I can still talk with you. It would be… nice… to be able to call you Mom one day."

Rita smiled, heart swelling once more. "I think I'd like that too, Raven."

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AN: So… there's nothing written after this, but I have a couple simple ideas knocking around for an epilogue. Should I go for it, or leave this as it is?