Thank you to the following:

ttraven4ever , I'm Solo , Nikki-4 , I. dont .love .you .all .da .time , xxYoursTrulyxx , Shnitzel , safire flame , logie831 , Spicy Sweet , raerobgal , seaz , Meatzman2 , gwacie21 , Sango-chan753 , and sandstorm95.

Previous Chapter:

It all happened too fast:

The bullet pierced the holographic like sphere of malevolence that was the bodiless Reaper.

The bullet pierced Robin.

Eric's inhuman yell echoed out in the hall.

The miasma flung Robin.

Robin's body flew out of the window.

A cry escaped Raven's lips.

And with an agonized cry, her battered soul self encased her and roamed out of the window as well.

His body raced downward ahead of her.

Her arm – a soul wing – reached for his body.

They rotated in the air.

People cried out in the street below.

Her arm aimed closer.

An ear shattering bellow sounded above her.

The building's glass window's shattered.

Her arm touched his leg.

Tears managed to leak from her eyes.

Her soul self enclosed them both.

It fazed them through the concrete street.

And into the dark depths of the sewers.

Then darkness.

Chapter Sixteen: Breathe

Robin gasped. And instantly regretted it. Rancid air filled his mouth and entered his nose and lungs. His eyes teared up and his throat constricted. His sore and notably pounding head suddenly convulsed and made him turn, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the surface that cradled his cheek. He blinked away the automatic tears.

"Fuck...kill me..." He winced. He swallowed. His spit tasted like puke. And it had the reminiscing taste of copper...blood. His eyes blinked open. He was surrounded by black darkness. The kind of darkness where you couldn't see beyond the point of your own nose. He knew this because he couldn't see the sickening contents his stomach had spit back out. With a small groan, his head turn right back up again, in what he figured was making him look up into the ceiling. What the hell had happened?

Slowly, the tingling sensation of his body having fallen asleep seeped away and the ants-crawling-over-you sensation replaced it. He shivered. His toes started to twitch. A sigh of relief escaped him. At least his spinal cord hadn't been damaged. He closed his eyes.

"Raven?" he called out, softly. No reply. His no longer masked eyes snapped open. "Raven?" he called louder. Nothing. "Shit. Raven? Where are you? ....Raven, answer me!" His voice echoed eerily back at him. And he noticed something else too.

He was wet. Small echoes of water hitting up against walls followed his echoes. 'Water?'

"Raven?!" Still no answer. Cussing under his breath, he willed his still numbed muscles to turn him, at the very least, so as he could glance around him. He was exhausted, more so that he could remember being in a long time. His right hand twitched and in a few minutes, managed to wake up enough that he could lean on the palm, flat. With a slight growl, he pushed against his arm and bit back a scream of surprise.

His shoulder bust out in a flame of pain.

His arm involuntarily shook and finally released his body back onto what he concluded was cemented floor. 'Raven...Raven can you hear me? Where are you?'

Immediately, his mind was convulsed with a flicker of images. His body rolling and seeing sky and streets then sky again then streets. A pale and limp hand reached for his leg. He felt the grasp as he saw it in his mind. Then he felt more than saw the sensation of a limp hug. Then sorrow. Finally, the images shifted to concrete. Then dark.

His head jerked as physically being released. He...fell? From a 20-something foot building? Robin breathed out. And Raven had saved him.

'Rae...Raven can you hear me?'

'..........yes........'

'Thank God. Are you alright?'

'...no...' Instantly, he closed his eyes, as if it would help him concentrate and make this telepathic communication easier.

'What do yo mean 'no'?! Raven, listen to me. Where are you?!'

'...foot...'

'What? I...you sound tired....you must be exhausted like I am, but listen. Tell me where you are!'

'...at foot...' He gave a small growl in his throat.

'I can't-'

'...near you...'

'Okay....' blindly, he fingered around the ground with his right hand, applying no pressure, and briefly touched tendrils of wet hair. '....Raven?'

'...it's me...'

'Thank goodness!' Knowing it would hurt like hell, but needing to do so, he pulled against the rough surface of the cement floor, and slowly, his body turned, almost forty five angles to where he had previously been lying. His hand reached out again. And this time touched skin. Cold, cold skin.

'Raven!'

'...found me...'

'God, what happened?'

'....fell...'

'I...' his mind snapped back to the hallway. 'Eric! What happened to Eric?! And that damn Reaper?'

'...went bye-bye...' His shoulder's released the sudden tension that had entered them and he limply laid his hand more securely onto her arm.

'...great...'

'...yippee...' He couldn't help it. A small laugh escaped his mouth, that sounded more of a choked gurgle, and with it another fireball of pain came from his shoulder.

'Great to hear that.'

'...hmm...' Robin blinked.

'How are you feeling? I mean, how hurt are you?'

'....soul...mostly...'

'Damn it! Are you...in a lot of pain?...'

'...been worse...'

'...Okay. Can you move?'

'...not right now....repair...'

'OH!....oh...I'm...okay - yea. I'll let you ...repair yourself.'

'...that'd...be good...'

'Okay...' Again, feeling like he was physically released, Robin sighed. By the images she hand sent him, and the sound of water around him, he could conclude that they were in the sewers. And the obvious stink that hovered like a layer of dust around them, helped too. The sensation of having to start to feel his appendages brought him back to face the reality of his condition: he knew he wasn't going to like it when they were fully conscious again. Biting back pain on his shoulder, he raised his right arm and brought it near his neck. He would rather be unconscious through it all. Fingering behind his neck, he found the pressure point he needed and pressed swiftly with his fingers. His hand instantly fell limp where it stood, and his body flaccidly fell comfortably onto the floor.

"Report status?" Garfield looked up into the monitors. Nothing. Not a sign of them.

"I'm getting kind of worried about them, Cy." Victor, the half man, half robotic limbed man nodded as well.

"You're not the only one, BB." He sighed. "And I know when Robbie says that we can't communicate with him until he communicates with us, is every which way the truth, in risk of blowing cover but...even so..."

"Any word of them?" The metallic doors swished behind the two Titans as Starfire entered the conference room.

"None." The changeling informed, turning in the swiveling chair to face her, "Cy's saying that we should try to communicate them anyway. Risking a serious scolding from Robin when he gets back." Starfire nodded, hugging her arms to herself.

"Though he is indeed...'scary' when indulging us with a sometimes undeserved lesson for our misconduct, I would risk this for knowing of his and Raven's safety." Cyborg nodded, giving Starfire's shoulder a small squeeze, and turning to the monitor.

" 'K...here we go." Pressing buttons and zero-ing in at the last signal detected of the communicators, Cyborg pressed the last button and straightened. "Robin. Cyborg. Come in."

Static. Frowning, the man tried again. "Robin. It's Cyborg. We just called you to check up on you, over."

"It is..not working?"

"Maybe there's a cable loose," Beast Boy tried, even peering underneath the mess of complicated cables underneath the communication monitor.

"There's no cable loose," Cyborg growled. He slapped the button. "Damn it Robin, come in."

"They are in trouble!" Starfire exclaimed, voicing their suspicions. A metallic hand stroked a tough chin, as the metal man turned from the monitor.

"Let's not be hasty. Maybe they can't really communicate."

"Do you truly believe that, Victor?!" Starfire all but screamed, "They would have sent word - "

"-that they were in distress. Which they haven't."

"Perhaps they were unable to."

"Whoa!" Both Cyborg and Starfire snapped their attention to the changeling.

"BB?" Said young man came up from under the table. He turned.

"Found a sandwich probably months old!"

"Damn it, BB. Now's not the time," he slapped the sickly looking deli sandwich from the changeling's hand.

"Hey, you found the sandwich!" Terra exclaimed, coming into the conference room.

"Would ya'll stop talking about the damn sandwiches?!" Cyborg huffed.

"Geeze, man. Lighten up, okay. Damn." Beast Boy walked to Terra's side, who greeted him with a questioning look. With a shake of his head, he turned back to Cyborg. "We know we haven't heard from them for a while. Calm down, dude."

"But please! Understand Cyborg as well! He knows that Robin and Raven scheduled to communicate with us as soon as they arrived and were settled in their disguises at the city of Trinity. Please, understand our frustration when they have not!"

"We know, Star. BB's just saying that they haven't called us, meaning they probably can't or nothing's up. Robin did say it could take a while to end the mission."

"Maybe," Cyborg bit off, turning to face the window. The monitor dissolved and gave way to its original form, as one of the tall windows of the conference room. It was beginning to lighten up, and soon, it would be daybreak. He just hoped that nothing was seriously wrong. That he and Star were overreacting.

Just then, the alarm alerted them of a break-in, in the Museum.

"Titans, GO!"

Raven turned around, her cape encasing her shoulders.

"That was quite a hassle to take care of," reproached one of her emotions. Nevermore was chaotic.

"You don't gotta tell me! I was there, and I was like – Omagosh! Robin!"

"He's fine." She, herself, assure them, beginning to feel panic from them. "He's...better off than us ...for now."

"That's brilliant to hear. Seeing as he basically risked his life for you." Raven snapped her eyes to her metaphorical emotions.

"You don't think I know that?"

"I was just pointing out the obvious. Is all."

"I know...and I know it's my fault for the state he's in."

"Are you kidding me, girl?! He could be way far off worse. Had you not been there, would the others have done the same thing you had? Would they even be ALIVE at this point?"

"Shut up. Don't ever say something like that!"

"She's right, of course. ...Though it is weird for her words to hold some logic to them."

"See, I'm not totally retarded...wait..."

"Silence...I need to concentrate. I've taken a hit. Physically and as well as spiritually."

"Our magic won't be able to mend broken bones but it will repair tissue and other things as well. Had your magic not encased Robin when it had, he would have woken up to a blind world, you know."

"..Yes, I do know he would have...."

"Stop making her more guilty. She has depression/sadness for that."

"....I need to concentrate. I not only have my injuries to take care of, but his as well."

"Where you need to concentrate the majority of your healing powers is on his right shoulder...where the bullet went through."

"..It went through?"

"Thankfully yes. I know you weren't exactly coherent when you fired, but I was there. I saw it go through. It wasn't meant for human flesh so it was powerful enough to go through."

"So...he's dead? The Reaper and Eric are dead."

"...From what we can detect, we are in no immediate danger, so I assume they're dead."

"That's a relief." An emotion shifted out of her peripheral vision. Raven winced.

"What about Robin?"

"I'll heal him as well-"

"No. I meant, what will we do about..you know."

"Nothing. You know what caused these emotions between us."

"You mean...you're acknowledging it's love?! Omagosh! I knew it!"

"I..."

"You do have to confront him after you've healed, you do realize this, correct?"

"Yes. ...We'll revert back to our schedule. We can't be more than friends."

"WHAT?! No way! We've come so far!"

"We've gone nowhere. It was a standard mission, with flukes of my own fault."

"LIES! You've got the hots for him-"

"But so many an obstacle stand in the way of that."

"And it would benefit all if we stayed the way we are...were..."

"And what about you? Us!?"

"It will pass, this infatuation."

"No it won't."

"It will, I will force it to be."

"You can't do that. You know what happens when you suppress an emotion this strong."

"...I'm tired. I can't take anymore of this bickering. I have to recover."

"BUT-!"

"She's right. We must let her rest. We'll continue this conversation later." The emotions swerved out of her vision, like in a a dream, where they weren't really there but were, because you knew they were there. Raven sighed. And outside of Nevermore, she allowed her powers to slick to Robin's body and covered them both, beginning to heal what she could.

"Epps?"

"What...Sung...?"

"I'm hungry...and thirsty...but mostly..thirsty.."

"I'm glad...for you..."

"Gentlemen...hush...will you?"

"Right...chief..."

"...I feel stupid..."

"You look...stupid..."

"I mean...I..we're waiting here for them... to rescue us...and we're the ...police..."

"Your...point being, Sung?"

"....gentlemen..."

"Sorry..." Commissioner Gordon let his head slightly hang on his shoulders. These men were basically hallucinating. And he wasn't that much better off. And he had taken what Officer Sung, to heart. They were Gotham's law enforcement. Shouldn't they be better equipped that the other police districts? Seeing as they dealt with the mentally deranged almost twenty four/seven?

Though they did have their share of back up from time to time.

He lazily raised his head. He squinted.

"...Sung."

"Aye, chiefy!"

"Hurry lad, and pull that fire alarm lever." The oriental recruit blinked, and looked above him. His hand tried several times before he raised it at proper level of the lever and his fingers gingerly grasped the lever itself.

With a grunt, the officer pulled.

The siren cried in the room and instantly, water poured down on them. All officers exclaimed at the unprecedented shower but soon revived enough to stand up or lean, with their mouths open.

"...yay...water..."

'She's Mine!-'

'Robin!-'

'I loved her!-'

'She's just a friend-'

'Robin!!-'

'Skaa-Skaa, said the dead bird-'

'Don't think like that-'

'-it's a wedding band-'

'-her black delicious soul!-'

'ROBIN!!-'

Raven blinked lazily. Being half demon from a different dimension gave her the small benefit of having sharper vision, albeit, not by much. She could make out the shiver of Robin's lips. Below the almost physically felt stench of the sewers, she could feel the cold shivers that racked his body.

He was suffering from a fever.

Her magic could only do so much. Tendons were soothed, including much lesser injuries treated as well as she could do. And she had made the remainder of his bullet-proof upper uniform shift under him, so as to provide a barrier to his injured side. The wound was a lot less deep that she had at first foreseen. Which relieved her to no end. But the broken bones remained there, now transformed to mere fractures, as well as the open injury of the bullet. Thank goodness it had missed anything valuable. He would survive the injury. Unless infection settled in on his wounds and made it worse.

Her soul trembled and pulsated as if in sync with her heartbeat, which echoed in her ears. She suffered from broken and bruised bones as well, but not with the severity of Robin's. A small grunt escaped his lips and distracted her thoughts. She caught sounds of the faint squeak of rats that lived under Trinity's streets but none would come their way.

Raven had managed to ease Robin's body away from the sour contents of his stomach and to a nearer proximity to her own body. Her fingers eased to his forehead. He was scorching hot. She licked her lips. She had no way of communicating with the others and calling out for help from the sewers would prove pointless. If investigations on the event that happened on Eric's building was still underway, it was no doubt noisy and busy with people and cops alike. She didn't have enough energy to travel long distances all the way to Jump or Gotham.

And...she couldn't leave Robin alone. Not like this.

She pulled at the remains of his unoccupied uniform as far open as she could, to make him as cool as she could. She couldn't move much. Her lower body was killing her. But at least the sewers were enclosed in. She couldn't make out sunlight from any graters so the temperatures were cooler. Which helped, some. Still, this place was far from sterile.

Some part of her reprimanded her choice of shelter. Couldn't she had managed a much safer place to land in? Like the building next to Eric's? She mentally shook her head. As petty as it sounded, she didn't have enough momentum to pull a swift stunt that didn't prove to have added more injuries to their already beat up bodies. So gravity had taken its toll on them both and dragged them vertically down. And luckily – and unluckily – the sewer waters had stopped them. She had grasped them both upwards, and had managed to shake Robin out of the stupor the stunt had thrust him into, enough to have him help him ease his heavier body onto the cement ledge that bordered the sewer waters, which luckily had been in the cleaning process and hardly held anything solid in its waters. Then, her soul presuming them safe, allowed her to loose consciousness out along with him.

Her cooler fingers shifted on his handsome brow and slowly, she eased a settling feeling onto his subconscious, soothing his erratic mind, as she had done before in the car. She felt it, his mind, battering her own mind like fists onto a window but she wouldn't let them in. No, she needed their minds to remain distant for now. For both of their sakes.

"...I'm sorry Robin. I know... this is my fault. I know I didn't consciously made for this predicament to end up like it did. But....He was after me. Had he not been, we wouldn't be like this. ...I'm sorry..."

He shivered, his face tilting towards her. Raven again licked her lips and allowed her battered emotions to shake the sewers a bit, the far away rats scurrying farther away, almost detecting the evil that made her up. Her fingers – involuntarily- pushed back the strands of dark hair that framed his wet forehead. He groaned and shifted his face so as her hand practically held his cheek. His brows, for a second, eased and seemed relaxed. But of course, it could have been a figment of her imagination.

"I'm here..." she soothed, as if it was what he really searched for. He grunted, suffering from hallucination, no doubt.

"....R-R-ra..." Ripples appeared on the surface of the water. Her heart skipped a beat. His voice almost seemed to be..calling her name. She shook her head and raised her view to be parallel to his, her head inches from his own.

"We're safe...You've come down with a fever, Robin. But we're safe."

"Hmmm...."

"I know you are in discomfort. I know. And I'm sorry."

"R-rav-"

"Shhhh, rest. Please. You need to rest. And get over this fever. Please."

"....hmmm," his body shivered again. She swallowed the guilt that built up in her throat and cooed at him again. His eyelids dropped heavily and he seemed to succumb to sleep again. Her head rotated forward, staring up at the ceiling. The stink air made her eyes tear up.

At least, that's what she told herself. That's what made her cry.

"....whhhaaatt....aaarreee yyyooouuuu dddooiinggg heeeerrreeee?"

"Calling in a favor."

"Whhhaaattt ddddooo III ooweee yyyoouuu?"

"Your life."

A sharp hiss/roar.

"Yooooouuuu aaaarreee nnnoooottt weelllcooommeedd heeerrreee...."

"Enough. You know what to do now."

"....aaaaaannnddd iiiifff IIII rrreeefffuusssee...?"

"I turn you in."

A weezy laugh/roar."

"Tttthhheeeeyyy caaaannn'ttt.....hhhoooolllddd meeee...."

"I can you make you incapacitated so you will be easier to handle."

Another sharp hiss/roar.

"Wwwwhhhyyyy.....nnoottt yyyooouuuu...?"

"...it's this, or live in a tank studied by scientists twenty-four seven."

A moment of silence. Then an ear-shattering roar.

"IIII dddiiiissssppissseee yoouuuuuu..."

"Good."

Cyborg shook his head. Man, those kids packed a wallop. Maybe instead of going into petty robbery, they should have tried out for baseball. Even football, at their high schools.

Then again those kids weren't totally human.

He watched as guys and girls were hauled into the specially modified police transfer truck unit. Starfire hovered near by, fist aflame and ready if they tried to escape. As the last one was shoved inside, the police officers glanced back at them, the Titans.

There. It was the same look he was starting to see more and more frequently. The look of mistrust. Cyborg knew what they were thinking. They were waiting to see the day the Titans kids snapped and caused havoc as well.

Not while Cyborg breathed.

"Shall we head home?" Starfire asked him, peering at him and breaking him from his train of thought. Beast Boy and Terra hovered by, not too far away.

"Yea. Let's head home."

"Should we grab some lunch?" Cyborg sent her a small smile.

"A'ight. What are you in the mood for, Star?"

"The squishy sliced pieces of meat and noodles with the tables that grow underground and some mustard!" Victor visibly blanched. Cantonese with mustard, with a helping of vegetables. ....Yum.....

'Leave her alone!' Robin yelled at the Reaper. The miasma rotated him in the air.

'She is mine!'

'She is-argh! She is no one's!'

'I can give her, what you cannot!'

Angry, Robin deflected a hit to his face.

'Leave her!'

'Never. I fought my way up to the surface of this Earth, and I am not planning on going back empty handed.'

'Fucking bastard!' Robin deflected an aim to his side but deflect was all he could do. He couldn't necessarily take the offensive. His enemy was bodiless. He felt a slicing hit to his side, the wound rapidly beginning to bleed.

'You'll loose this battle, boy. I detect your death date to be today.'

'No! I won't die today!'

'You cannot prevent your death. It is pre-written.'

'I can – damn it! I control when I die! And – argh! And it's not today!'

'Imbecile!'

'Leave-!'

'No! I came here for her soul! And I am not leaving till I have it in my grasp!'

'Over my dead body!'

'....as you wish...'

Raven blinked. She had blacked out for a bit. She groaned. Her hip bones had large fractures and lying in this position wasn't helping her sooth the ache. She turned her head to her left and stared into Robin's pained face. His cheek bones seemed flamed, and distortion-ed his face slightly. His bottom lip was cut and swollen. His mask had fallen and his left eye had been punched. But, underlying the injuries, Raven couldn't help but find the handsome features that obviously made him attractive.

She blinked, shaking the thought away.

Robin groaned.

"It's okay. You're fine. I can...detect your fever is going down. You're fine."

"...hmmmm."

"Shhhh. It's okay." Her hand came up and placed itself on his cheek. The water pushed swiftly against the sides a bit more fiercely. "It's okay. ...I'm here. I won't leave you."

".....r-rav...en..."

"Shhhh." Slowly, she inclined her head forward until her brow touched his. "I'm right here."

Suddenly, his eye lids squeezed together. And slowly, they opened.

She knew he couldn't see. It was so dark out. She could barely make him out herself.

"....hi..." he managed. A small smile sneaked onto her face.

"Hello."

"....r-raven..."

"Shhh. You're still not out of the fever yet. Sleep." His right arm, which lay between their bodies, raised itself, folded at the elbow and landed back, the inner arm facing the ceiling, the palm near her own arm. Slowly, his hand rotated so that it loosely gripped her own hand, which still hovered over his injured cheek. Raven swallowed.

"T-thanks..."

"You don't need to thank me."

"...hmmmm..." He blinked. She thought he would go sleep again but he looked up, into her eyes, once more.

Slowly, she saw his chin raise itself.

And before she could properly react, like she would have – should have – his lips touched hers.

Slowly, eerie and bloodshot gold eyes surfaced through the water's surface. His infrared vision detected two bodies lying before him.

Too close to each other.

What could be an attempt at a smile appeared on his face, sharp teeth glistening despite the darkness.

The rats screeched, running away from their death.

A/N: ....at least I didn't kill them, right? Yet.....