A/N: How late is this update? Oh very late. Ehem. Well, this update is considerably SHORTER! I feel bad for even uploading it but it is. It's like...half of a chapter. It's not INCOMPLETE or anything. Just...shorter. It's more of a filler than any other chapter I've mentioned before, having been. Btw, it's 7 pages long. Not long! These chapters are ususally 14+. So, please forgive me.

I know a few of you want to know the heck did Mr. R aka the Reaper get away with Raven and stuff. This is basically her P.O.V. on the incident. Hope it's not TOO dumb. I'll do better on Chapter 13, I promise. Cross my heart. Hope to die, stick a blah blah blah. You know the rest. :D

Enjoy!

Previous Chapter:

"Who's there?" he called out. He grabbed onto the edge of a pew. The shadow moved again, and this time towards him. Black steel-toed boots came into the remaining rays of light. A black cape incased broad shoulders. And iris-less eyes glared towards the priest. It took the religious man a second for him to recover. "Who…who are you?"

"You don't know me personally Father, but I need your help."

"My…help?" Who was this oddly dressed young man?

"I need you to help me defeat death. To defeat a Reaper."

Chapter Twelve: Evil Angel

= Raven=

Raven sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. Robin was still in the shower and it was already getting darker. Time sure did fly around here. She paused and rolled her eyes. And they sure as hell weren't having fun, either. Her eyes caught the slightly pink-ed gauze on the table in the living room. Robin. Their telepathic bond was still blocked. He still wouldn't let her in. Raven leaned back onto her hands on the bed. What was she going to do? She didn't normally handle things like this.

'Yeah. I mean, you hang together all the time. You spend your Sunday mornings reading on the same couch. Meditating when you want, on top of the Tower. Go out for cups of coffee. Are so alike, It's scary.' Terra's deduction about a possibility of something happening between herself and Robin slipped into her thoughts. Great. As if she needed to hear the annoying advice of the Geomancer. Similar habits meant nothing. Raven folded her arms and leaned back onto the bed. For all it could be, this infatuation she had with Robin really wasn't love at all. Maybe his deduction of the Reaper's involvement with their bond had manipulated their feelings somehow.

'But you were feeling this way long before you had met the Reaper,' the thought reprimanded her. She frowned. Her head looked up from her thoughts as she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. By instinct, she uncrossed her arms and made to stand up when the door of the room opened.

"Raven?" Robin called out. Her shoulder's visibly relaxed.

"In here." The door closed and the Titan walked towards the living room table. Raven felt her face reddened. Robin had draped loosely a towel around his waist, his skin shinning with the moisture from his recent shower. She looked away and faced the small closet of the bedroom. Well, she wanted confirmation if she truly felt anything for him. And there it was: her attraction to the man. She swallowed and breathed out.

'Careful. Slowly, breathe in and out. You can't lose control. You've seen him like this before. Not on purpose but you have. You can't risk your powers alerting the Reaper.' With the final thought, she composed herself and reached for her toiletries she had left at the bed's edge. Leaning for them, she realized he no longer stood in the living room but a few feet from her.

"Raven –?"

"I'm taking a bath," more of a statement than a response to his possible question, she made a move to walk around him. When suddenly, his strong arm grasped her forearm gently. She immediately stopped.

"…Look, I'm sorry I was so freaked out in here a while ago."

"Nothing surprises me anymore, Boy Wonder" she vaguely realized she hadn't called him that in what seemed a long time, "We live with a delusional Changeling. So believe me, your reaction was nothing." She heard his chuckle but dared not face him. So, she opted to look forward instead. His grip loosened and his fingertips barely held up her arm. At this, she snapped her attention at him.

"What the – ?"

"Truthfully, Raven. Haven't you figured it out?" Her face reddened and she cursed herself to hell several times over. What was with her? Where was her control? She snapped her arm back but didn't move.

"Hard to figure something out when I've been blocked." He looked away, raising his chin in apprehension, and ran a hand through his still damp hair. She fought to focus her gaze solely on his face. His hand released his hair and caused a drop to fall to his face. The drop traveled towards his eyes and her gaze suddenly caught. His blue eyes looked worried, haunted, and as blue as a sky before a terrible storm.

They looked off.

She shook the sudden weariness her intrusiveness had warned her – in the labyrinth that was her mind – and turned to face him fully.

"I know. I'm sorry," he sighed heavily after a while and sat on the bed. "It's just…My mind's pretty preoccupied right now. And ideas come and go and …It would be…mortifying for anyone to read my thoughts right now." She couldn't help the overwhelming sensation of pity to radiate from her out of nowhere.

"That's the lamest excuse for your disconnection, Robin," she jabbed half-heartily. He gave a breathy chuckle and suddenly stood up. His proximity made her very aware of how close she had neared him since he had taken a seat.

"Raven…I don't regret kissing you." Her eyes instantly went cold and she turned on her heel. "Wait!"

"The matter's been discussed Robin!" Anger and disbelief on her part let her control break for the moment.

It made the lights above them flicker.

Raven stopped and harbored her energy back into herself. She hoped it had only had caused a reaction in their room and not beyond that.

"Not really," he walked behind her. "Look…I told you that I couldn't answer your question." She stopped. Did she really want to listen to him? To listen to the sole reason he couldn't help but worry about her? Was she ready for that?

"You may have…"

"Well…" She felt his gaze bore into her back as she now faced the front door. His wet footsteps made a noise as he made his way towards her. The sensation in her mind came again but she ignored it. His presence was made very aware the closer he got. It was too much of a distraction from anything else. "I think I can answer it now."

"Really?" she breathed.

"Really," he mumbled, hovering oh so close to her back. Her toiletries fell to the floor in surprise. Where had he gotten this amazing swiftness that she hadn't noticed his close approach? The brief reminder that he had trained with the majority of known fighting methods on earth, crossed her mind briefly. So his swiftness was no surprise really. Mentally shaking her head, she scolded herself. She was slipping up. She made a move to walk away from the warmth of his body behind her when his arms sneaked around and pressed her to him. Her breath faltered. "Wanna hear my secret? The secret I've been harboring inside me for so long it aches? Why I can't bare the thought of loosing you?" Her spine shivered, ending in a pulsation near the base of her neck and head.

But this wasn't their normal proximity sensations. It was something else….

"Why I'd kill for you?" Raven's eyes widened. "Why I chose you to come with me, my prize?"

"You!" In a blink of an eye, she broke from Robin's embrace and allowed her soul self to slam him back onto the far wall. The living room table and chairs stood in the way but it didn't matter to her. The momentum caused them to fall. Robin grunted at the unexpected move. Raven's eyes bled white. "What have you done with him!?" Robin's brows creased and his face suddenly seemed shadowed.

"Him? Him Who?"

"Stop toying me. Where's Robin!?" Robin raised his head in understanding and tilted it to the side.

"I'm right here, Raven." His lips split into a smile, a cruel smile, flashing a new set of sharp pointed teeth. Why hadn't she seen what he was? She felt revolted. She had let her infatuation get the better of her and now, she had allowed the Reaper to find them and leave Robin laying vulnerable down by the bathroom.

"Silence. You are nothing like him, Reaper." Robin raised a brow.

"I am impressed you realized it was me, dear one," like ink poured into water, blackness seeped into Robin's perfect blue eyes and made them black. Then, from their empty depths, red irises burned through. "I thought the appearance of your beloved would have fooled you for so much longer."

"He's not my beloved." Raven ignored the jab she felt as soon as the words left her lips. The Reaper smiled, clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"I might not be Cupid but I'm not an imbecile either. I know when I see love. I would know: I've destroyed the lives of many lovers for centuries." Anger simmered her nerves and she allowed more of her dark energy to apply pressure on his body. He looked up, blocking his sadistic smile and sinful eyes. Raven's concentration faltered. Once the features that revealed his putrid black soul were no longer visible, he looked an awful lot like …Robin.

Suddenly, she was thrown back. Her body hit the opposite wall harshly. She fell to the floor, a bit disoriented. Instantly, she was picked up again and tossed into the bedroom. Her body entangled itself with the sheets and dragged them off the bed as she rolled off of the edge.

"Give up, child?"

"…No!" She yelled, and her eyes bled white again. From the floor, her soul self left her and sailed towards him. His face grew grim and he steadied himself. Her soul screeched as it prepared to attack.

Suddenly, his arm reached out and gripped her soul self's neck.

Raven gasped and blindly, gripped at the hands that weren't physically on her neck. Her soul squirmed in his hold and Robin's image faded away. Mr. R appeared, immaculate as ever. The Reaper raised his arm and in sync, Raven's body rose as well. Her hands desperately scratched at the invisible hands but it was useless. It was her soul he was torturing.

"Such a delicious soul I have ever seen. Its darkness is so, so tempting," he directed his excited gaze towards Raven's hovering –and squirming – body. "Why do you hide something as beautiful as this?" A small gasp escaped her, searching for air, and she struggled harder. A sharp ringing struck her ears. Her eyes began to sting. "Ah…I see. Is it because you struggle to fit in? To be like the ones of which you reside with? No, they are freaks as well, aren't they?" He laughed, and it chilled Raven. "But not all. Oddly enough, the leader of the freaks…is normal. Human. Is he the one you struggle to impress?" The Reaper's voice had become so distant to her. She couldn't hear half of what he was saying. Her body strength weakened as her breath kept faltering. In fact, not faltering but stopping.

Abruptly, he sent her flying across the room into the wall aside the door. Her soul screeched as his grip tightened again. Raven chocked and gagged. A cruel smile appeared on his face again. In a blink of an eye, he released her soul self and it swirled in confusion around the room. Raven chocked and grunted at the sudden release. Seeming to hear her, her soul self swerved sharply and sped to her. It came back into her body, making Raven jerk on her spot on the floor. Immediately, the light above her was blocked. Through glassy and teary eyes, she looked up. She could feel a warm and buzzing sensation at the back of her head, near the base. Mr. R peered sturdily down at her gasping body, blocking out the single light source above them. He seemed to be drawing shadows closer, wanting to completely block out the light. An evil angel….deceiving ….

"Wha – gasp – do - gasp - y-you – ?"

"Your soul." Raven's jaw would have slackened more had she not been spent of so much energy. Not only had her physical body been hurt, but her soul self, the most powerful part of herself, had been off much worse.

Mr. R suddenly looked up and inclined his head to the side, hearing things beyond her comprehension. The shadows continued to engulf the room. Raven blinked. She suddenly realized it wasn't his doing that was making the room darker but she in fact was losing consciousness. "Time to go, my prize." With a steady hand, he reached out and grasped the collar of her blouse. Easily – too easily – he picked her up.

And in a manner that seemed to mock the powers of her soul self, shadows did engulf them then, making them disappear.

"What?" The priest whispered, taking a step back.

"I'm not here to harm you, Father. I'm only seeking help," The shadowed man took yet another step forward and the priest could see that he appeared to have a uniform of some kind on himself. He blinked in apprehension.

"…are you…one of those superheroes, my son?" The shadowed man stopped and smirked.

"You could say that." The priest seemed to release the enormous intake of breath he had withheld and chuckled warily.

"Not wise to scare an old man such as myself, son." The shadowed man looked suddenly at the windows, the growing shadows alerting him of something, of which the priest did not know. At the movement, the younger man's cape moved and revealed a gleaming emblem on his chest, of an 'R'.

"I apologize, Father. But it is of great importance that you assist me in defeating this Reaper," The hero cut to the chase.

"A Reaper?" The priest gave the hero a mistrustful glance before he picked off his glasses and picked up his tunic to clean them. "I personally have not seen the creature, young superhero. So, I don't know that I can be of great assistance."

"Anything you do know can help," the hero, wearing a mask that created the allusion of iris less eyes, stepped fully into the small amount of lighting in the church. "Please." The old priest placed on his glasses and peered into the man's face. He seemed distraught. He inwardly sighed. So young at age, taking on the world's weight on his shoulders.

"Have you seen this Reaper of yours?" The dark haired hero smirked humorlessly.

"Yes. …He's taken a team member of mine -"

"Taken?"

"Yes. And I need to get her back." The priest sat down on the pew. He wasn't totally ignorant when it came to superheroes. He knew of the heroes who watched over them - Earth - in a "space craft" orbiting the planet. Though it hasn't been found because it was "invisible" to military investigations. He knew that these heroes weren't all human. Meta humans existed. He looked up at the young man, his gloved hands fisted at his sides.

So this man's Reaper must exist too.

"…It's been mentioned in older testaments that Reapers like to make deals," a shadow crossed the hero's face, "And when they came for the souls of the damned, sometimes - rarely - they could be persuaded to not take them away from the Land of the Living. Of course, they had to be of the same value as what they came for."

"Deals. What sort of deals, father?"

"Like I said, my son, these are speculations, not factual. The proof of an after life - much less of its residents like Reapers - are few if not, inconclusive."

"…I've been told so, that these vile creatures like to make deals," the man's voice was dark, almost emotionless. His shoulders were taunt, like he was about to snap for being too tense. The priest swallowed warily. " …And you've retold me the same thing," Almost to himself, he added. He sighed, seeming tired and out of place on a man with a hero's uniform. He looked up, having looked down to the finely polished floors of the church. "Thank you father, you've been of great help." The priest looked away. He felt helpless. This young man was haunted and he could do nothing about it. He looked back.

But the young hero was gone.

A/N: I've been told the characters seem to be getting a bit OOC now. And these comments are probably right. I'll try my best to correct this problem. I apologize. Next chapter, the Titans are mentioned again! Yay?

PS - bonus points on whoever figures out who sang the song from which i deduced the title for this chapter/filler chapter. XD