Chapter 21: Fractured

"So how much did we make this time?" that was a question asked by a greedy little thug as he and his cohorts were gathered in the living room of an apartment they had rented to use as a "base of operation" for their little drug business.

"About 5 grand. I told you, this business is a goldmine!" their leader announced cockily as his eyes traveled across his motley band of drug dealers. There were seven of them in total, all of them armed and ready for action at a moment's notice.

They were after all muscling in on another gang's territory, and they all knew that retaliation was inevitable. So they had made plans for every possible scenario they expected to run into. None of those scenarios included someone knocking on their front door and jovially call out "pizza delivery!". Confused looks were shared between the gang.

"Did anyone of you order pizza?" their leader asked, to which all present shook their heads. The leader narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he pulled out a Glock 17. The rest quickly got the message and pulled out a wide assortment of guns.

"Joseph, check the door," he ordered his henchman, a fat guy who could rival Jabba the Hut, who was armed with a simple Colt Cowboy revolver. Needless to say, he did not look overly thrilled about his task.

"Why do I have to go?!" he protested indignantly. He should have probably kept his mouth shut, as the leader suddenly aimed his gun straight at Joseph, who went several shades whiter as a consequence.

"One: because I told you to. Two: because I don't like you. And three: because I'll shoot you in the head if you don't do as I say," he counted down the three points with a growling voice. He was so not in the mood for bickering with his gang. Casting one fearful glance at the door, then back at his leader, Joseph finally began moving forward. Death by unknown enemy probably sounded much better than death by his own leader.

Cautiously, he reached out with a trembling hand to open the door. He had turned the door handle about a fraction before whoever was on the other side let loose with a bullet-spitting gun. The door was all but shredded by the constant rain of bullets unleashed. Joseph did not fare much better.

When the attacker finally ran out of bullets, the door was barely held together and Joseph fell flat on his back, front side all but obliterated.

"Damn," one of the thugs muttered wide eyed. If anything else was meant to be said, it was put on hold when the barely existing door was kicked open and in stepped none other than our favorite gun slinging chick; Raven. And she was pointing a pair of loaded Mini-Uzis.

The only warning these idiots got was a smug grin from underneath her hood before she let loose, spraying two of them full of lead and forcing the rest to dive for cover. Emptying her clips, Raven threw the Uzis aside, drew her Desert Eagles and charged at a shotgun wielding thug hiding behind a couch.

Seeing the imminent danger, he tried to bring his gun to bear, but Raven was faster and put two bullets in his chest and one in the head before she slid into cover behind the couch as someone started spraying bullets with a UMP45. The nutcase was even screaming like a little girl as he emptied the entire clip all over the place.

"For God's sake, Pete, watch where you're aiming that thing!" someone shouted from the bathroom, just as Pete's clip ran dry. Raven was up on her feet in an instant and gunned him down.

"Five down, two to go," Raven said out loud, right before whoever had been hiding in the bathroom came bursting out with a Jackal Full Automatic Blank Pistol.

"Die! Die! Die!" he kept shouting like a mantra. Few bursts of fire was let loose, but the moron could not even aim properly and Raven did not even need to move or dodge. And with a disappointed sigh, she placed one bullet right between his eyes. That only left their leader still standing, and he was currently covering in the bedroom.

He had locked the door and taken cover behind the bed while constantly aiming a Smith & Wesson Model 500 revolver at the door.

"Come on, I dare you to walk on through that door," he muttered quietly to himself as he tried to keep a steady am. A bit hard given how he was shaking like a joy buzzer. Suddenly, someone tried to open the door, and he did not hesitate in putting a bullet right where the chest was supposed to be.

A thud from outside signaled that whoever had tried was now lying on the floor, hopefully dead already. So with confident steps and a victorious smile on his face, he strode up to the door, unlocked it and swung it wide open. Only to be greeted with a Desert Eagle shoved in his face.

"Nice try," Raven commented before she pulled the trigger, having just enough time to admire the look on his face for about a microsecond and then he was flung back in by the force of the bullet. If only she had had access to a camera at that point, that look on his face had been absolutely priceless. So with that minor nuisance deal with, Raven holstered her gun and strolled back to the living room.

"Thanks for the help, pal," she commented as an afterthought when she passed the corpse she had used earlier to literally take the bullet for her. With a casual glance, she inspected the loot she had just acquired. 5 thousand dollars, not bad, but it hardly mattered to Raven. The last few days had been so damn boring to her.

Slade had been drilling Terra relentlessly, thereby making it all but impossible for them to hang out. And Slade had also issued the order that the Titans were off limit for her until Terra was ready, so she could not go and waste some time beating them up.

Now normally she could easily find jobs in the criminal underworld to pass the time, but the criminal circles had been dry of anything resembling action. So Raven had to settle with beating up minor gangs all over town. Problem was, they were utterly pathetic! They barely gave her a warm up! No, scratch that, this was not even as taxing as stretching!

Well, at least someone was having a good day, if those malicious chuckles coming from her sword were any indication. Seriously, for being the spawn of an interdimensional demon hell-bent on destroying the world, she was ridiculously easy to entertain and keep docile. Just give her some senseless violence to watch and a few people to kill, and she was as happy as a fed puppy.

Letting out a tired sight, Raven walked over and leaned on the window. Outside, the rain and winds were whipping the city, while lighting strikes kept flashing across the black skies. Another tired sigh escaped her as her eyes watched the empty road below dully. Well, maybe it was not as empty as she first thought, given that someone just rode past in a black and red bike while firing a pair of pistols widely.

And behind him was the unmistakable form of the R-cycle, with the resident bird boy Robin riding it and in hot pursuit of tonight's villain. And once again, another tired sigh came out of Raven as she beheld the chase during the few seconds it was visible from her vantage point.

"Even bird boy has something to pass the time with," she grumbled irritably to herself. For a moment she considered joining in on the chase, but quickly shot that idea down. She did not like to share the spotlight with a mere street vandal. So with nothing else to do, she packed up her money and headed out.

Outside the apartment complex, her bike stood parked and waiting for her. Within seconds, she was off at breakneck speed down the road. Even that was not as fun as it used to. Probably having something to do with the fact that no one was chasing her. It was always less entertaining without a couple of squad cars on your tail.

Normally, Raven would have returned to Slade's lair, but tonight she did not feel like it. The thought of sitting around and drinking beer while watching Terra get worked to the bone did not sound all that appealing to her.

So instead she deviated her course towards another place, in the industrial parts of the city. A healthy dose of paranoia had prompted Raven to set up multiple hideouts across the city, each equipped with the necessary supplies to house an individual for a few weeks.

The one she was currently heading to was the one she most often used, an old warehouse purchased under a false alias and off limits to civilians. Arriving at her destination soaking wet, she first made sure no one was watching her before entering. Her motorcycle was parked near the entrance before Raven headed towards the small office.

Inside was a worn out couch, a desk with a computer on it, a small refrigerator and a simple TV. Raven collapsed on the couch like a boneless creature while she snatched up the remote and turned on the TV. Sadly, even that failed to entertain her as she absentmindedly flipped through the channels.

"Boring. Boring. Seen it. Stupid. Double stupid. Seen it. Useless. Weird. Boring," she mumbled to herself as she flipped through the channels. After randomly flipping through channels for well over ten minutes, she dropped the remote on the floor and let out a groan.

"God, I wish that something, anything, could happen already," she pleaded to whoever was willing to listen. As soon as she said those words, she began glancing around the office, as if expecting something to just pop up. When nothing happened, she fell back on the couch with another groan.

"Dammit, didn't work this time," she muttered grumpily. But it seemed like she may have spoken a bit too soon, as suddenly she felt an intense pain smash into her head like a freight train. She fell out of her couch, clutching her head and screaming in agony. It was obviously not a regular headache, given how something started popping out of her head.

Within seconds, it launched itself out of her head like a cannonball, bounced a bit on the ground and shot right up in the air where it transformed into a semi-human chibi version of Raven.

"WHOOOHOOO! I made it!" she/it shouted in joy, while Raven stared at the thing with a look that somehow combined humor, confusion and disgust.

"Oooookay. This was not what I had in mind when I asked for something to happen," she remarked mostly to herself before she climbed back to her feet and faced the flying little midget Raven wannabe. "Who the hell are you?"

The flying midget seemed to take offence to that, as she placed her hands on her hips and gave what Raven suspected was meant as a glare. "Ain't it obvious? I'm you!"

If that answer was supposed to clear things up, it sure as hell did not. If anything, it just made Raven even more confused, exemplified by the expression on her face that just screamed "wtf?"

"Deeper explanation, please," she demanded, mirroring her chibi doppelganger's stance.

"Alright then. I'm you, from another dimension," well, at least that made more sense, if only by a tiny margin. Hey, she herself was the offspring of an interdimensional daemon and born in a pocket dimension the size of a single city, alternate versions of herself from parallel worlds did not sound that farfetched in her mind.

"If that's the case, then what the hell are you doing here?" Raven asked suspiciously. Chibi Raven raised a finger in the air and opened her mouth to speak, but a rumble from her stomach halted her in her tracks.

"Ooops. Hungry. Gotta eat," that was the only explanation given before she raced away, leaving a puff of white smoke shaped like her in her wake. The little shrimp then seemed to teleport from one part of the office to the other in search of something eatable, tearing up the place along the way.

And during the whole procedure, Raven just stood still in bewilderment, barely even following the movements of the little imp. Though eventually she decided enough was enough and reached out with her hand. Having predicted the little shrimp's movements perfectly, it was not long thereafter that Raven snatched her out of the air.

"Slow down here now and tell me just who the hell you are," she grumbled out irritably as she held her midget counterpart.

"Didn't I already tell you? I'm you, from another dimension," she responded while wiggling in Raven's grasp. A tick mark appeared on her brow as she glared at the shrimp.

"The little thing is annoying. Let me kill it, let me shred her to bits," Daemon-Raven spoke menacingly, the ruby on the hilt pulsating in anticipation. It sounded very tempting to Raven, but she resisted.

"Nu uh, you're staying right where you are," she ordered her evil half before redirecting her attention to her uninvited guest.

"Details on the matter, please. Like what your name is, what you're doing here and most importantly, why the hell did you pop out of my head?" she ordered, not being in the mood to even pretend to act pleasant to her unexpected visitor.

"Well, as I said earlier, I'm another version of you from a parallel universe, and I came here to watch you in action," the chibi answered, receiving a raised eyebrow from Raven.

"In action?" she asked dubiously, still holding the midget in her grasp. A massive grin split its face before an answer followed.

"Yep. You see, I'm your biggest fan! As a matter of fact, I'm the president of your fan club!" okay, that was a bit creepy in Raven's opinion.

"Fan club?" she questioned in disbelief, receiving a vigorous nodding from her counterpart.

"That's right! We constantly watch your battles and adventures back home, but I grew tired of just watching a screen and decided to pop over and see it all live!" the chibi announced cheerfully before a sheepish look overcame, "though I had not counted on popping up right in your head like I did. Sorry about that,"

Things just kept getting weirder and weirder in Raven's opinion. What was next? That Robin had a similar fan terrorizing him right about now?

At Titans Tower, were a similar scene was playing out, both Robin and his little chibi version sneezed simultaneously.

"You still haven't given me a name," Raven suddenly pointed out. Her little chibi looked like she had just been told she had answered wrong on every question in a test.

"Oh, silly me! I completely forgot about that! I am your number one fan, the great an powerful Htor Lehcar!" she announced, somehow making her name rush past the screen as she spoke. Raven gave her a deadpanned look.

"How about I just call you Rae. Seems fitting enough," Raven said flatly. A thoughtful look came over the chibi Raven as she contemplated her words.

"Ain't that the nickname Jinx came up for you and which you hate being called?" the chibi Raven asked in curiosity.

"Yes," Raven answered flatly. To perceive a hardly concealed insult was apparently something that eluded this little shrimp, as she started twirling around in joy.

"Yay! Raven gave me a nickname! Raven gave me a nickname!" she shouted in joy while Raven watched the spectacle with a flat look on her face. Her daemon half's offer grew increasingly more tempting by the minute.

"Yeah, yay me, you have something to call yourself by. Now go away," Raven said nonchalantly as she flopped back down on the couch with the remote back in her hand. Rae instantly deflated as she looked at her great idol lounging on the couch.

"But… but aren't you supposed to be out there in the city? Kicking butts, taking names and messing with bird boy?" she asked in bewilderment, obviously not having been informed of the current situation.

"Trust me, I'd love to. But there's been no action worth my time these last days and bird boy is for the moment off limits for me," Raven answered dejectedly, not even looking at her dimensional counterpart. Rae first looked downcast by the news, but then a determined look entered her eyes as she raised a glowing oversized finger and pointed it at Raven.

A sudden flash of white light later, and Raven found herself standing in a dojo of all places, with the look of someone who had recently come out of drug-induced hallucination.

"Okay, what the hell just happened and where the hell am I?" she asked out loud. The little mini clone then appeared next to her with an audible "ping" sound, a huge grin splitting her face in half.

"You said that there was nothing for you to do. So I fixed it," she explained happily, receiving a raised eyebrow from Raven.

"And how did you do that?" she asked. Rae brought out her glowing finger again and waved it in the air.

"Magic finger. Bends the rules of reality. They are quite a common thing back home," she answered. Sounded strange to Raven's ears, but whatever.

"And how exactly is being here supposed to solve my current problem?" Raven asked suspiciously. A wicked grin and another flash of white light was the only answer she received before she found out first-hand what the little imp's plan was.

For when the light dissipated, Raven found herself surrounded by countless ninjas, all of them ready for battle. Most people would be intimated by this, probably even cursing the one who placed them in the situation. But not Raven. No, she was full on grinning like the Cheshire cat at the sight of all these cute punching bags. Heck, her daemon half was currently singing praises to the little shrimp.

"Rae, my girl. This could very well be the beginning of a beautiful friendship," she announced just before she launched herself straight into the thick of things. A brutal beat down ensued as Raven sent ninjas flying left, right and center, cackling like a madwoman all the way. Yet no matter how many she beat up, more kept coming, to her great delight.

And while Raven entertained herself with some senseless violence against fictional and unreal characters (best form of entertainment ever if you ask me. Don't deny it, you're reading this after all!), Rae herself had created a floating couch and coffee table, and was currently seated in said couch with her feet slung up on said table with a bag of popcorn in hand.

"Way better live than on DVD," Rae commented as a ninja flew right past her with a Wilhelm scream. Finally, the fight came to an end as Raven stood atop a pile of either dead or unconscious ninjas, the one at the bottom even managing to stick his hand out of the pile to wave a white flag.

"Now that was a good warm-up if you ask me," Raven announced with a cocky grin in place before turning her attention back to her dimensional counterpart, "Hey, Rae! Mind throwing something a bit more challenging my way?"

Happy to oblige, Rae made ready to do just that as she raised her magic finger in the air. But both of them froze up when a rumble slightly shook the building, Raven nearly losing her balance and falling off her pile.

"Rae?" she asked in caution while giving her a slightly accusing look.

"Wasn't me, I promise," she hastily defended herself, right before a literal wall of light came crashing through the wall and engulfed them both. They were sent crashing hard into the ground, with the dojo and the ninjas vanishing altogether.

"Ouch," Raven said monotonously from where she was lying face down. Eventually she pushed herself back up and surveyed her surroundings. Her first thought was that her last beer must have been spiked with something really nasty, because what she was seeing was not something that could possibly exist in the world of reality.

"Okayyyy, why in all the nine levels of hell does the world look the chalk zone all of a sudden?" she asked no one in particular as she surveyed a world that defied all logic and reason.

"Before anyone says anything, I had nothing to do with this!" Rae vehemently denied as she reappeared next to Raven, who only gave her a sideway glance before turning her focus back to the screwed up city.

"Do you at least have any idea what the hell happened? And if possible, can you fix it?" she asked, just as a group of flowers marched by in a line. 'I know I'm a half-daemon destined to destroy the world. But seriously, can't the universe cut me any slack?' she thought to herself in despair. Life was never easy.

"Well, it looked like some idiot from my dimension decided to pop over as well and messed things up with his reality bending powers. And no, can't fix it, sorry. The only limit on our powers, we can't alter each other's alterations," she explained, throwing in an apologetic smile at the end. Raven felt like throwing her hands up in her air.

"Great, just great. Do you at least have any idea of where to go?" she eventually asked. Rae said nothing, instead pointing out towards the bay. More specifically, she was pointing at Titans Tower, a tower that was currently shooting a beam of light into the air.

"So, the Teen Titans are somehow involved in this screw-up. Why does that not surprise me?" Raven asked herself as she took off sprinting towards her destination, Rae floating after her.

But the pair had only gotten a few block forward before they ran into some company. Literally in this case, as they all ended up in a big pile.

"Why do these things keep happening to me?" Raven questioned as she pushed whoever had landed on top of her off. Said person gave an undignified "ooof" and Raven caught sight of some eerily familiar traffic light colors. Once she had her bearings again, she got a good look at the group she ran into.

"Seriously, why do the universe hate me so much?" she questioned as she glanced at the Teen Titans, all equally confused to be seeing her as well.

"You!" Robin suddenly snarled while pointing an accusing finger at Raven.

"Me?" Raven asked while innocently pointing at herself, causing Robin to grit his teeth.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he questioned harshly, trying to pull a Batman impersonation. Raven just smiled at him.

"You know something, bird boy? You look awfully cute when you're all worked up like that," she commented as she stood back up and dusted herself off, taking a small amount of pleasure out of seeing the slight red tint on his cheeks.

"But to answer your question, I was about to pay a visit to your little tower, see what you screwed up this time," she added as the rest of the team got back up. Raven idly noted that they kept her surrounded, and that Beast Boy has lost something Raven thought was impossible to lose.

"What the hell happened to your mouth, elf?" Raven asked in surprise, seeing the green shapeshifter without a mouth, before her eyes landed on an even more bizarre sight, "And why is your head flying around with wings, Red?"

The Titans said nothing, particularly Beast Boy, but Robin shot an accusing glare at a flying Robin midget that Raven had not noticed before. At the sight of the chibi Robin, an amused smile split her face in two.

"So you got one too," she remarked, receiving a fair amount of confused looks that were swiftly turned into looks of surprise when Rae appeared from behind Raven. However, when Rae and the chibi Robin saw each other, the reaction was instantaneous.

"YOU!" they both shouted simultaneously while pointing accusingly at each other. A single eyebrow was raised from Raven at the sudden display.

"You two know each other?" she asked, but was thoroughly ignored, as both chibis seemed more interested in arguing with one another.

"I should have known you were the one who caused this mess, Nosyarg! Only a bumbling idiot like you could possibly break reality!"

"Look who's talking, Htor! I seem to recall you making quite a mess back home last Friday!"

"That was so not on me! I totally had it under control until you screwed it up with your stupid Robin obsession!"

"Stupid!? Robin is the greatest hero ever! He saves the day on a weekly basis, which is more than what your so called idol does!"

"Don't you dare insult Raven! She's the most badass girl to have ever lived! Heck, she's even beaten Robin in the past!"

"He went easy on her! No way would Robin otherwise lose to a girl like her!"

"You wanna say that again? Raven could kick your silly bird boy any day of the week!"

"Lies, lies and yet more lies!"

"Face it, Raven is way better! Besides, he looks freaking silly in his traffic light costume!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

And while they argued back and forth with one another, literally getting in each other's faces, Raven found herself standing next to a befuddled Robin as she watched the heated exchange with some amusement.

"It's like watching a Goku vs. Superman argument," she commented humorously with her arms crossed.

"You don't say," Robin responded absentmindedly, obviously not fully registering who he was speaking to. Suddenly, a thought struck Raven out of the blue.

"By the way, when we ran into each other, it looked like you were running away," she said, temporarily ignoring the argument between the chibis, which had now devolved into an all-out fistfight as they both had disappeared inside a white smoke cloud. Sounds of fighting could be heard coming out of it.

"Yeah," Robin simply answered.

"So what exactly where you running from?" she questioned. That seemed to snap Robin back to his senses as he went a few shades paler. The answer to that reaction came in the form of a sudden roar as a gargantuan dinosaur thing came stomping down the street after them.

"Oh joy," Raven muttered to herself as she took off running with the Titans. What followed was a chase scene right out of a freaking Scooby Doo episode. The dinosaur chased them back and forth across the city, the two chibis still arguing with each other all the way.

They eventually succeeded in giving that… whatever the hell it was the slip and boarded a boat, sailing towards Titans Tower. Their hopes of reaching the island safely were however quickly sunk. Quite literally in this case.

One trip into a whale-like fish's stomach later, and the ragtag group was washed up on the shores of the Titans cozy little island.

"Yay, we made it! Now Robin can save the universe!" Larry exclaimed cheerfully, only to get bonked in the head by Rae.

"More like messing it up even more and leaving Raven to fix it all," she countered before floating on. Raven just shook her head as she trudged along, trying to ignore the increasing amount of curses coming from her sword. Apparently her daemon side was not in a good mood at the moment.

Cyborg tried to enter the tower, but it had apparently grown fed up with its former inhabitants as it gave him a raspberry.

"I knew something like that was gonna happen," Cyborg lamely stated, right before the team flew up to the roof, those lacking powers of flight being carried. Sadly, they left Raven behind without a second glance.

"Hey! What about me?" she called after them. She was thoroughly ignored. Grumbling irritably to herself, she brought out her grapple gun.

"I guess I should consider myself lucky that they're not trying to throw my ass in jail," she grumbled to herself as she fired it at the roof and hit the retract button.

Once she reached the roof, Raven found the Titans staring at the pillar of light in puzzlement.

"So how do we close it?" Cyborg suddenly asked, forcing Raven to suppress the urge to facepalm. Of course these morons had no idea how to fix their own mess. Did she have to do everything around here?

"You don't," a new voice suddenly announced. This new individual happened to be that same street punk Robin had been chasing earlier.

"Whatever this thing is, it controls the city. And now the city belongs to Johnny Rancid!" he announced just before he leaped straight into the pillar of light. The white energy spilling out suddenly turned a malicious blood red as Rancid roared in victory.

The energy already pulsating through the city, tainted by Rancid's evil mind, warped the city into a nightmare realm. A realm that Raven could easily summarize with one word.

"Cool,"

Definitively a place she could consider as a vacation spot. Unfortunately, she had other concerns right now than admiring the city's new look as Rancid came stomping out of the red energy.

"Your city is mine! Your reality is mine!" the biker shouted before letting out a maniacal laugh. 'Overacting a bit, aren't we,' Raven though dryly. Rancid suddenly called forth a black and red bike and speeded away, shouting out some manner of challenge to Robin along the way.

The Teen Titans of course tried to valiantly stop him, but they were all beaten one after the other, without so much as leaving a dent in Rancid. That only left Robin standing, who had not partaken in the fight, and Raven.

"Well, aren't your teammates dead weights," Raven commented as she watched their pathetic attempts to stop the biker. She suddenly shrugged her shoulders before drawing her Desert Eagles to make sure they were loaded.

"Oh well, might as well play the hero for once," she nonchalantly said as she holstered her guns again, "Rae, get me my motorcycle, an RPG, my kukri and an Ultimax machine gun," she ordered, Rae snapping off a salute in response.

"Right away, sir!" and with a snap of her fingers, Raven's requested items lay in front of her, bringing a wicked grin to Raven's face.

"Nice," she complimented as she grabbed the gear put it on, "Can you make my motorcycle fly like Rancid's?" that was an important part of her plan. After all, she was not getting far by land here.

"No problem!" Rae answered enthusiastically as she waved her magic finger at it, doing… something, Raven guessed. But as she jumped on her motorcycle, she turned to Robin, who had still not moved from his position.

"Yo bird boy! Are you going to stand there all day like a scarecrow, or are you gonna do your job and beat this sucker?" she questioned. Robin did not even have the decency to glare at her as he just stared out across the city.

"I can't. I'll just mess it all up again," he said dejectedly. That brought out a glare from Raven as she got off her motorcycle, marched right up to Robin and punched him in the face as a hard as she could.

He was left flat on his ass, staring uncomprehendingly up at Raven as she glared down on him.

"Consider that a wakeup call for you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean up your mess," she stated before storming back to her motorcycle and revving it up, then she was off into the air in hot pursuit of Rancid with Rae clinging on.

They found him rampaging across the town, blasting away at everything from the air. Raven wasted no time and took aim with her RPG and let it fly. Unfortunately, he must have sensed it coming as he swerved out of its trajectory just in time. His accusing glare quickly landed on Raven, who gave him a cheeky grin.

"Forgive my inhospitably, but terrorizing Jump City happens to be my job," she said as she threw the RPG aside and hefted her Ultimax and let loose with a wall of lead. Rancid revved up his bike and avoided the barrage, barreling down towards Raven like a mad bull.

"Sorry, girlie, but you've just been booted from that job!" he countered as he brought out two curved blades and fired a pair of crimson lightning bolts out of them. Raven barely got out of the way before returning fire. With one hand on the controls and the other holding the Ultimax at hip level, her accuracy was lacking, but she compensated with rate of fire.

And so a form of strange aerial duel commenced, as they both circled each other on vehicles that were never meant to fly in the air while taking potshots at each other. But along the way, Rancid started to leer at her in quite a familiar way.

"But you know something, I might just share a bit of this city with you, hottie, if you're willing to share something with me," he commented, receiving a seductive smile from Raven.

"You flatter me, handsome," she said, before catching him completely off guard by coming right at him like a missile, "Now let me flatten you!"

Rancid barely got out of the way, and received a smack in the head as Raven used her empty gun as a club on him while racing past. Throwing the useless gun aside, Raven drew one of her Desert Eagles and came at Rancid again.

But this time, he was ready, and he let loose a sudden burst of red energy and blasted Raven out of the sky. In the last minute, she fired off her grapple gun and slowed her descent. It still hurt like hell when she smashed into the pavement, but at least she was alive and whole.

Unfortunately, both her guns and her sword went flying away and left Raven without weapons. And Rancid was descending towards her like a fiery comet. Even as her limbs were screaming at her to lie still for just a little while longer, Raven forced herself back up and drew a grenade.

She waited until just the last second, then leaped aside and threw the grenade. It went off with a loud boom and sent Raven flying into a wall back first. Just as she managed to get back up again, Rancid came to a stop right in front of her, aiming those curved blades of his like a pair of pistols at her.

"End of the line for you, hot stuff," he said with a cocky grin on his face. Raven just glared defiantly back at him.

"Get away from her, you brute!" Rae suddenly shouted as she dived in and fired a blast of energy straight into Rancid, knocking him back. Though that seemed to be all she was able to do, as with an irritated huff, Rancid sent the shrimp flying away with a casual flick of his wrist.

"Annoying pest," he grumbled as he got off his bike and strode towards Raven again. But she was not going down without a fight and so charged straight at Rancid, ducking under a punch to deliver a flurry of blows to his solar plexus.

She darted out of his reach as he tried to strike her before coming in with a roundhouse kick that nailed him in the head. It barely affected him and he struck out again, forcing Raven to backflip to avoid it.

He charged straight at her, striking left and right with kicks and fists, yet Raven kept dancing out of his reach every time, constantly moving and never letting him even touching her. She suddenly leaped right over him, landed on all fours behind him and swept his feet from under him.

But he did not stay down for long, as his super powered body was up in an instant and a blast of red energy hit Raven at point blank range and sent her flying through a wall.

"I'm gonna make you scream in agony before I kill you," Rancid snarled out as he slowly walked towards Raven, who as having a bit of trouble getting back up after the beating she just took.

She had almost succeeded when Rancid came and gave her a rough kick that sent her gliding across the floor until she slammed into another wall. Satisfied with that, Rancid raised both hands, letting red lighting crackle between them.

"This is so gonna hurt for you, girlie," he stated with a sick and twisted smile. All Raven could do from her position on the floor was brace herself against what was coming. Only, it never came. The reason being that Rancid was catapulted out of the building by a blast of eerily familiar dark energy.

"What the…" Raven asked in astonishment, eyes wide as saucers as her broadsword came floating over to her, held up by her own dark energy.

"I can't believe I actually had to save your sorry excuse of a life," Daemon Raven grumbled irritably. Raven supposed she should feel somewhat offended by that, but honestly, she was still in too much shock to even fully process that she had in fact been insulted.

"How are you able to…?" Raven began in astonishment, but paused when the dark glow faded from the sword and it fell to the ground with a clatter.

"Great. Stuck in this sword as I am, I can't even manifest my full power for longer than a few minutes," her daemon half complained in irritation. But the little spectacle made Raven cautious of her other half again. 'So, even when expelled from my mind and stuck inside the sword, she can still cause mayhem with her powers,' she observed.

"I see that my first attempt to be rid of you was not enough," she remarked coldly, receiving a snort from her daemon half.

"Be thankful that I can even manifest like this. Without my interference, you would have been killed, worm," she sneered hatefully at Raven. But that gave Raven pause as a thought suddenly struck her.

"Why did you even save me? I was under the impression we were mortal enemies fighting over the same body," she questioned. There was a slight pause at the other end before she received a response.

"Your body is the portal, the gateway from which father will be able to enter this world. I cannot allow you to die before you destiny has been fulfilled," her daemon side explained. Despite herself, Raven actually found herself grinning teasingly at her sword.

"Awww, so you do really care about me. That is so sweet," she cooed, receiving a growl that sounded more like a monster's than a human's.

"Watch your tongue, mortal, or I'll rip it out," she threatened, with Raven literally waving the threat away.

"Yeah, yeah, love you too, four eyes," she replied nonchalantly as she picked up the sword and sheathed it on her back again. Walking out of the building she had been smashed through, Raven was greeted by an amusing sight.

Apparently Robin had decided to get his lazy ass moving and was currently going head-to-head with Rancid in the air in a similar manner she had done earlier. And he was actually doing quite well for himself.

"Raven!" Rae suddenly shouted as she appeared out of nowhere, battered and bruised but otherwise unharmed, "You're alright! Now let's get that creep!" her enthusiasm was nice, but Raven did not feel the need to get thrown into a brawl again.

"Whoa, slow down there. I think I've done my good deed for the day. Let's just leave bird boy to finish it all," she said. So she and Rae watched on as Rancid got his ass handed to him on a silver platter by Robin, culminating in the villain crashing to the ground and losing his power.

And so, in another flash of light, the world was restored to its original state again. And Raven had only one thing to say about that.

"Dammit, I was just starting to like the new décor," she complained. She was soon joined by Robin on his flying motorcycle, soon followed up by the rest of his team, battered and bruised but otherwise unharmed.

"Hey, Raven," Robin suddenly began, drawing her attention as he himself seemed to look everywhere but at her, "Can't believe I'm saying this to a criminal of all people, but thanks for the help," he finally managed to get out, still not looking at her. That brought a smirk to Raven's lips as she watched him in amusement.

"I can only imagine the terrible blow your pride must have just taken from that admission," she said, finally drawing Robin's eyes to her as he glared at her in irritation.

"Do you ever stop being so damn infuriating?" he asked hotly, making Raven let out a light laugh at him.

"What can I say? You're just too fun to rile up, bird boy," she admitted cheekily. Robin was almost fuming at that point, not being helped by Cyborg's and Beast Boy's muffled snickers. 'Traitors,' he thought irritably.

"Well, either way, it's getting late and I really should be heading home now," Raven nonchalantly stated as she turned around and was about to walk away. Unfortunately, her way was blocked by a wall of steel known as Cyborg with a raised eyebrow.

"Not so fast, little lady. You're still a wanted criminal, and we're taking you in," he stated with his arms folded. Only now did Raven realize that she was in fact surrounded by the rest of the team, and they all looked thrilled to finally have her cornered.

"You're surrounded and outnumbered, Raven. Might as well give up now," Robin stated smugly as he brought out a pair of handcuffs. This did not look good. She was out of ammunition, weapons and gadgets. She would need a very good distraction to get out of this one.

A thought suddenly struck her as Robin approached. It was really so crazy that they would never see it coming, partially because Raven herself would have never done it. But as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures, even if said measure was a bit too far even for a flirt like Raven.

"Now, are you going to cooperate, or are we gonna have to…" that was as far as Robin got before Raven grabbed hold of the front of his costume and pulled him into a deep and fierce kiss.

Time itself seemed to freeze up, as Robin could do nothing but stand there in shock as Raven's tongue pushed its way inside his mouth. Thoughts of actually fighting back in some way melted away as his brain sort of short-circuited from the sensations.

The rest of the Titans were off no better. Both Cyborg's and Beast Boy's mouths hung open in astonishment, Argent was equally slack-jawed by what she was seeing and the two dimensional chibis literally had their jaws hitting the pavement from where they were hovering two meters in the air.

Worst off was Starfire, who literally had green flames burning in her eyes as she glared with a truly murderous look at Raven, hands clenching and unclenching as she imagined having that grey skinned thief's neck in her grip. It did not help that Raven had the audacity to let out a satisfied "mmmmm" while still kissing Robin.

Just as quickly as it had begun, it ended as Raven shoved Robin back with a teasing grin on her lips as he lost his balance and fell flat on his ass.

"Not too shabby, bird boy. Soft lips, great taste, a little too passive though for my taste," she observed right before she threw the smoke pellets she had secretly pilfered from Robin's utility belt to the ground, engulfing them all in thick smoke. When it finally dissipated, Raven was gone.

For several moments, none of the Titans said anything, just kept staring at the spot that used to be occupied by Raven. Then, finally, Robin broke the silence.

"I hate that girl," he muttered in frustration. 'Now I'm beginning to understand what Batman has to endure when dealing with Catwoman,' he thought gloomily.