Chapter II -

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The girls spent the day setting up Nox's room, organizing all the little nick-knacks pulling the tags off of clothes etc. The end result was very beautiful and after a dinner of ordered out pizza (veggie for Beast boy and meat lovers for everyone else) Nox was left to explore the tower.

Currently she was sitting in her room content for the time to fiddle with her communicator and try to memorize the map it displayed. She was pretty sure that she had most of the first six floors down when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in" She was slightly surprised to see the mechanical giant of the titans filling her doorway a moment later. "Hey Nox I was just checking to see if you needed help with anything." Nox smiled a slight blush on her face "Actually um maybe you can help me with something." She stood off of her bed and walked into the bathroom, pointing to the chain that hung down from the florescent light that hung over the bath, "Do you think there's any way you could make that longer? Starfire turned it on and off earlier, but well…" she blushes again "I'm kind of short…." Cyborg laughs and ruffles her hair "No problem Shorty be right back." He disappeared out the main door and was back again a moment later with a longer chain that he quickly attached. "There ya go" Nox smiles at him "Thank you" and he smiles back "No problem let me know if there's anything else."

Cyborg leaves and Nox (after checking the communicator one more time) decides that a good swim might help her fall asleep. The pool isn't that far from her room so she changes into her bathing suite (a pretty dark green two piece that Starfire picked out) and wraps one of her new fluffy black towels around herself. She finds the pool easy enough but it's occupied so she turns to leave.

"You can stay" Ravens head pokes out of the top of the water "It's an Olympic sized pool it's more than big enough for two people." Nox nods and drops her towel before slipping into the pool. The water is surprising warm most likely from a heater and she can feel her body relaxing. She can't tell but while she swims a few laps Raven is checking her over once more, to make sure that she didn't miss anything. Never having had to deal with a telepath before Nox has no natural shields something Raven takes advantage of.

When she stops to take a break she finds raven sitting in the shallow end two drinks floating next to her, one already open. "Come here Nox" She swims over takes a seat on the steps and a drink floats in front of her. Taking a sip she looks at the other girl wondering what she wants.

"You couldn't hide anything from me even if you wanted to could you?" Nox shakes her head, "No should I be able to?" Raven nods "If you don't have any shields in your mind a telepath can read your every thought or even trick you into thinking thoughts that aren't your own" Nox pales "oh…. how do I … fix it, can I fix it?" Raven nods "Meditation can help you, if you're going to be part of this team even if it's only for a short time you need to have shields in your mind. "Meet me on the roof at dawn and we can start lessons on them." Nox nods "Ok thank you Raven" She finishes the drink and throws it into one of the trashcans by the wall. Raven gets out of the pool a dark blue towel floating over and wrapping itself around her.

Getting out of the pool Nox climbs onto the lower of the two diving boards and bouncing a few times cannonballs into the pool. She sinks to the bottom sitting Indian style and closes her eyes. Remarkably good at holding her breath (you don't want to breathe much when you enter the realm of death) she doesn't come up right away and there is a splash of someone else jumping into the pool.

Nox opens her eyes in surprise when a hand grabs her arm and starts tugging her towards the surface. She kicks her legs and breaks the surface to see the surprised face of Beast boy "I thought you were drowning! I was walking by and saw you dive but you never came back up." Nox smiles and wipes her wet hair out of her face. "OH I'm sorry Beast boy I can hold my breath for a really long time, I didn't know it would scare anyone" Beast boy chuckles and lets out a held breath "It's alright" he starts paddling towards the edge and hoists himself up, his clothes leaking water. "I really am sorry Beast boy" Nox climbs out of the pool and wraps her towel around herself. He brushes her apology off "It's not a problem, hey I uh left something in your room I hope you don't mind, and it was your sisters"

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Back in the room Nox finds her sisters butterfly clip sitting on her pillow. She runs her fingers over the silver and sighs a small tear escaping her. She puts it back down and walks into her bathroom, stripping she fills the bath with warm soapy water and turns the light switch off. She pulls the cord to turn on the florescent light and its soft glow illuminates the room. Slipping into the warm bubbly water she sighs letting it calm her. She lets her mind go blank and soon her eyes are drifting closed.

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"Nox?" "Terra is that you?" Nox looks around searching for the source of her sister's voice; there is only a strange white mist. "Terra?" "Nox… What happened, how did you get here?" The white mist quivers and starts to turn solid. "I don't know Terra, where is this, it's not the realm of the dead, I don't know how I got here" the mist takes its solid shape and Terra stands before her. Just as Nox is about to throw her arms around her sister, a look of terror comes over her face. Both girls look down and see Terra's feet beginning to turn to stone. It slowly starts to build up her legs "TERRA!" and Nox tries to claw some of it off. Both girls pawn at the stone but it just keeps growing. "NOX HELP ME" It reaches her chin and Nox lets out a sob as it covers her face. "TERRA! TERRA NOOOOOO!"

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Nox is woken by someone yanking her out of the tub. A towel is wrapped around her and it takes a moment to get her bearings but when she does a deep blush marks her face. She wiggles out of the arms that are holding her and wraps the towel a little tighter; Cyborg turns around to give her some privacy. "You were screaming, and then your head was under the water…" Nox blushes deeper and Cyborg rubs the back of his head "Sorry…" Nox slips past him and grabs one of the smaller blankets off her bed and wraps it around her like a cloak. "It's… It's ok thank… thank you for not letting me drown" Cyborg turns to face her and it's clear that he too is embarrassed. Both are silent for a long awkward moment and then Cyborg clears his throat. "Are you… going to be ok?" Nox nods and wipes at her eyes.

Cyborg looks her over and shakes his head "Tell me what happened?" He asks it as a question not pushing her, giving her a chance to make up some excuse if she doesn't want to tell him. She sits down on the bed and looks away when he sits next to her.

"I… I don't know if it was a dream, or… or something else… Terra is… was there and we were talking… and then the stone…" She wipes at her eyes again even though by this point it's useless, the tears are coming down faster then she can wipe them away. Cyborg puts his arm around her and she leans into his shoulder. "The stone started … started covering her and we couldn't stop it… she was screaming for me to help her but I couldn't the stone just kept on coming and coming and coming and it covered her up and there was nothing I could do!" She lets out a sob and Cyborg starts rubbing her back. "It was just a dream Nox only a dream" he keeps repeating that to her over and over again trying to calm her down.

Eventually she stops crying and looks up at Cyborg "I'm sorry" he smiles at her "It's alright you've been through a rough day you've got nothing to be sorry for" Nox flashes a little smile and Cyborg stands up, gently he pushes her down and tucks another blanket around her "Get some sleep Shorty, things always look better in the morning." He kisses her forehead and walks out closing the door behind him. Nox lets out a little hiccup and closes her eyes snuggling down into the blankets. Within a few minutes she's fast asleep, this time with no dreams.

Outside Nox's door Cyborg slumps to the ground "What are you doing man what are you doing…"

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Nox opens her eyes the next morning when someone bangs on her door. She starts to tell them to come in when she remembers that she doesn't have any clothes on "just a minute!" She slips some clothes on and opens the door to find a slightly annoyed Raven staring at her. "You were suppose to meet me at dawn on the roof" Nox pales "Oh Raven I'm so sorry last night…" Raven holds up her hand to stop her. "Don't make excuses this is the one and only time you will be late for morning meditation" She turns and walks away "Come on." Nox follows her to the roof.

Rave n has her sit Indian style and practice emptying her mind. It's an easy enough task since she has to do this to enter the realm of the dead anyway and Raven is soon satisfied that she can move onto the next step. Raven begins to send images into Nox's mind and has the girl focus on keeping them there. It's a bit of a struggle for Nox and soon she's too tired to try anymore.

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Nox flops down on her bed exhausted from the mornings work. Combined with the lack of sleep last night, she falls asleep before she even has a chance to kick her shoes off.

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A/N: Review please? Even if it's just to say you like the story? If anyone has any ideas as to what they want to happen next that would be great to.