(Shadow of the Past will slow down for now, nothing much but everyday life after the battle...Enjoy)

CH19

For the next few days, the Titans were still recovering from the battle at the bridge. At first it turned out to be a routine saving the day, and then it became a battle for survival. Barley they survived the battle, barely they lived to tell about it. But the Titans weren't the only ones that had its day turn out to be a battle to the death, Shadow (Edgar) was a living testimony of that. Only problem with that was he was nearly dead than alive.

Raven was sitting in the infirmary watching Shadow's heart rate on the machine the doctor brought over, it showed it was weak but sill going. She then reached out and gripped Shadow's wrist to check the pulse for herself, it was there but weak as the heart rate said, still Raven wanted to be sure. Instead of letting Shadow's wrist go, Raven went and held his hand. Shadow was still cold, mostly from the fever, she didn't let go. Raven squeezed it gently, her own body began to shack, she wanted to cry only she held it back with all of her might.

"Damn it, Edgar." Raven muttered. "Why didn't you ever contact me? Why did you leave me in the dark? Why all of this cloak and dagger routine? Why?" she kept asking her unconscious brother, hoping he'll give her the answers, but he only gave was his breathing. Raven didn't notice Robin walking in when she was talking to herself.

"Sometimes Raven, the truth hurts more." Robin said, Raven looked back in surprise. "I have no clue why he would do it Raven, but it has to be something he had to do. We all have our reasons to do what we have too, even if it had to be the most difficult thing, we have to do it."

"And this is from the guy who pretended to be a villain and then hero-turned-villain, the same guy who went crazy and to search for a half-demon. My, my, what a strange world this is." Raven said, Robin smiled as he went to check on any of the equipment.

While he was doing that, "Listen Raven, I know it has to be hard for you to be sitting here looking at your twin beaten and nearly dead, while you watched him get hurt at the same time and you couldn't do anything about it." Robin said coming over to Raven. "For me, after beating him up and then seeing him risk his life for us, I can't help but feel guilty."

"Don't we all feel that way?" Raven asked. "Probably you're right, Edgar had his reasons. But I still want to know why. I am his sister after all, why did he have to do this all?"

"I haven't a clue. At least you have us." Robin placed a hand on Raven's shoulder. She didn't respond to it. How could she? She was feeling torn between her loyalty to the Titans and her love for her brother. When Robin turned to leave, it was then Raven felt uncertain of what is to come…

Robin entered the living room, where most of the Titans were at. Most were socializing, like Starfire and Blackfire were talking about some family traditions Robin hasn't a clue what it meant. Argent was talking to Bumblebee while Speedy and Aqualad were trying to prove who had the best fighting skills. Mas y Menos were playing a racing game on the TV, as Cyborg, Hot Spot and Jericho were watching. Only Beast Boy, who recovered a few days back, was looking at the window and Terra was reading in a corner…

Robin walked over to Terra, he glanced at the book to see a man and a women were about to kiss on the cover while the title was paced between them, Robin read the title, "SWEET DREAMS". By the look on Terra's face, she was totally drawn in not to notice Robin standing right there.

"How is it?" Robin asked. Terra nearly jumped out of her skin, the book fell to the ground. Robin bent over to recover it and handed back to her. "Sorry I spooked you."

"No, you surprised me." Terra responded, grabbing her book.

"What is about?"

"Just a romance novel, typical girl meets boy, girl loves boy, and boy turns out to be something totally unexpected. You know." Terra said placing a mark in the book.

"When you're finished tell me how it ends." Robin said and turned to the other direction. He passed the others and headed towards Beast Boy, who was still looking out of the window. "Penny for your thought, man?" Robin asked Beast Boy.

"It is hard to believe this." Beast Boy said suddenly.

"What's hard to believe?" Robin asked.

"All this time, Shadow was Raven's brother." Beast Boy said. Like all the other Titans they still couldn't believe Raven had one. After all, she did seem like an only child. Until Raven told Beast Boy that she had a brother, Edgar. But she told him that he died long ago. Now it turns out that Edgar was alive all this time under the alias of Shadow…

"Who would've known?" Robin replied. "It wasn't like Shadow was sending out messages to everyone that he was Raven's twin. What ever he had in mind, he kept to himself pretty well."

"What is sucks the most is that Raven had to go through all of the lies and deception. Now Raven spent more time with her unconscious brother than she does all of us." Beast Boy said, he wasn't the one of those guys who would get jealous about his girl paying attention to other guys, but for the first time, Beast Boy was jealous of a unconscious man, who was getting more attention from Raven than he was and that man was Raven's twin brother!

"You mean you?" Robin said. Beast Boy returned an angered glare. Robin wasn't fazed; he kept his face in line, showing nothing but seriousness. "Can you blame her? All this time Raven thought her brother was dead. Maybe she wants to be with him? You're not the only man in her life, Beast Boy. So quit acting like your are."

"What do you know? Nothing!" Beast Boy said, loudly. Every Titan looked away from what their doing and stared right at them.

"Do you have a grudge against Shadow?" Robin asked, not all disturb by Beast Boy's sudden out burst. "Are you still pist off about him beating you?"

"No, but I am pist off by him never telling Raven who he was."

"Who isn't? Only problem, man, Shadow has his reasons, and what ever they were he kept them to himself." Robin said turning to the other direction.

"Still," Beast Boy said as he returned his sights to the ocean scenery.

Robin then left the room to plan something for the Eternals. It's been a while since the Eternals returned on the bridge, but it didn't mean they were gone. What ever they were planning, he hoped the Titans would be ready, he even prayed Shadow would gain consciousness soon, but then again who would?

Terra, who was listening to Robin and Beast Boy's since she put her book down, thought Beast Boy was acting a bit like herself when she couldn't face the fact that he was seeing Raven. Beast Boy was acting both jealous and bitter, because Raven has someone else in her life besides him. Terra would have thought that was funny before she turned her ways, only now she felt pity. It wasn't easy to lose someone you love to another, but she shouldn't be talking for she has a crush on Shadow.

Slowly she got to her feet and walked out of the room, Terra walked down the hall way to her room unit see noticed she was passing the pharmacy which Shadow was in. Terra hesitated to either go on in or not, until she decided…

Terra opened the door and peaked in to see Raven was in. Only person there was, was Shadow who was lying in his bed with machines keeping him alive. Terra crept over to the bed; she stood there over looking Shadow's features and admiring his face was having.

Closer Terra looked, more she saw the resemblance between Raven and Shadow. More she watched, the more attracted she was to him. Without the minor bandages on his face, Shadow might have looked handsome. But his face was paler and was sweating, despite he was asleep he looked troubled and sick. Slowly Terra reached over and pulled Shadow's blanket back a bit to reveal his bare chest, only it was covered in blood stained wrappings, but you could tell by the red sores on his chest from the swords wounds that they were infected. Terra pulled the blanket back, and looked at Shadow with more pity than she could imagine.

Her heart was bounding, Terra leaned over towards Shadow's face and placed her hand on his cheek then moved it across his head and guided it through his white hair. She smiled then she backed away and turned to leave in that moment Terra saw Raven walking in with a book in her hand. She stood frozen in terror, but by the look Raven gave her when she noticed Terra was in here, Terra realized Raven didn't see anything Terra was doing before.

"What are you doing in here?" Raven asked.

"I was just checking on your brother. Seeing that you weren't in here, I was thinking I should be making sure he is alright." Terra lied.

"Sure you were." Raven said, passing her. "And what did you find, Terra?"

Terra felt her blood run cold, she gained back her thoughts. "I noticed his chest wounds were redder than they should. I think the wounds are infected." Terra said which was true to some extent.

Raven's eyebrow rose. Without saying another word, she walked over to Shadow's bed, pulled back the covers to see the torso, by the look in her eyes Terra felt she accidently found something threatening. Usually Terra would be proud of her accomplishments but felt guilty that Shadow was going through all of this.

"Terra call the doctor, he needs to see this now." Raven said, not taking her eyes off Shadow's chest. Terra didn't hesitate for a second before she bolted out off the room and headed towards Robin's rooms.

When Terra explained what she found to Robin, he went over and pulled out a phone and called the hospital and asked for the doctor, and then he explained what Terra explained. After Robin hung up, he headed out to the living room to give the Titans the news…and from the next days to come Shadow came back to the Titans consciousness…

(Sorry this came late, but I had a lot to do, so this all I could get done... chapter 20 is the final to Shadow of the Past if you want me to continue with this Present Darkness, review and tell me what you think?)