They had no money, no transport and no company but frankly, Robin didn't care. He and Starfire were finally alone now and he had some choice words that he had been dying to say to her... about Raven.
"Who does she think he is?" He practically shouted with a reckless sweep of the hand. "Who ever dumps a Literature major in a Chemistry lab when you could easily staff it with trained scientists instead? Seriously? What does she take me for! An idiot?" He yelled in Starfire's face. "This is her fight she said," emphasis on the 'her'. "Her demons! Her demons! She wants to do everything by herself like she knows it all and then she has the nerve to tell us to trust her? The last time something like this happened she was the first one to give in and concede defeat to Trigon!" This tips of his fingers narrowly missed the tip of her nose. She stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
"Robin really bears a lot of resentment against Raven." Slade thought as he watched the ranting, raving Titan rage at the demon queen through Starfire's eyes. "I'm in a position of power here. He thinks that I'm his girlfriend. He trusts her, much more than he ever will trust the old envoy of mine."
"Robin." Starfire's soft, gentle voice brought him back to reality. Never had Slade been more grateful for a vocal modulator that changed his voice into hers. "I am sure that Raven does the real caring of us." Having observed a change in demeanour, she proceeded to remind Robin about the many things Raven had done to save them before. For the first time ever, Slade needed Robin to be on Raven's side to save his own skin. Now that he was no longer in possession of Raven's powers thanks to Beast Boy's bothersome intervention, there was no way the demons would believe that he was really the illegitimate child of Trigon. Having turned on their current queen, the demons would no doubt turn to him to be their leader but without the powers required to trick them, they would see through him immediately and most certainly kill him for being an impostor. He had opened up a can of worms that was beyond him to close and he needed Raven to close it for him. This could work. It had to. He could tell just by the looks on their faces that none of the Titans had suspected that the Starfire standing before them was not Starfire but rather their enemy in disguise.
"I guess you're right." Robin sighed, his features softening into an expression of love. "I've really missed you Star. It's good to have you back." Slade inwardly cringed as Robin leaned in for a kiss. Instinctively, he shrank back and avoided the oncoming lips that were seeking his own. The last thing he wanted to do was to kiss Robin!
"Not here Robin." Slade quickly thought of an excuse. "We should go do the hiding as Raven says."
"Ummmm yup." Robin pulled back awkwardly as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's go back to the house and get our things." He grinned, surveying their surroundings as he spoke. Holding out his hand expectantly, the dashing Titan waited until she somewhat reluctantly put her hand in his and allowed herself to be led on foot in the direction of the house.
"It's about time you two showed up." Cyborg glowered at the couple the moment they stepped through the door.
"I'm not mad with Raven anymore." Robin said casually, avoiding eye contact with the teammate who clearly had a lot of time to think about and get angry over his treatment of Raven. "She's still our friend like she's always been so I'm giving her my vote of confidence. I say we all stay here and lay low for a little while. I doubt the demons know where this place is."
"You don't get to say anything, Robin. Not after how you yelled at Raven like that." Cyborg's voice sounded decidedly gruffer than normal. "That was a dumb and stupid thing to do. We all know how much trouble she has controlling her powers. She didn't need ya yelling at her and making her mad like that."
"She didn't lose control." Robin spat out vehemently, his pride grievously bruised.
"She didn't. But you did." Cyborg stared hard at the shorter Titan, who was now meeting his gaze with a defensive fire in his eyes. "You think you're the only one who was shocked to hear about how much she did on her own? You're wrong. We all were shocked by it. But ya know what? Despite hearing all the things she did to save us, you didn't feel the slightest bit grateful. Instead, ya walked out on her without even saying something to let her know that she has your trust and that you would follow her plan. What dya think Raven's gonna think now? She's probably thinking that you don't trust her. You of all people should've been her number one supporter but you just walked away and dragged Starfire with you."
"Exactly. You made such a big deal about what a team is and how teammates should stick together but ironically, you were the first one to walk away from the team." Terra spoke up from where she stood next to Cyborg.
"Shut it Terra! You're not even part of this team!" The moment those words left his mouth, he wished that he could take them back. Terra stared at him with shimmering eyes for a second, taking a moment to register what he had just said. He opened his mouth to apologise but it was too late. Terra had fled to the confines of her bedroom, her sobs echoing down the hall.
"First you hurt Raven and now you've hurt Terra too. You're on fire today. Would you like an award for it?" Cyborg couldn't help but throw a pinch of sarcasm in Robin's direction. "You know what Robin? I've been thinking about you and I realised what your deal is. It's not that you don't trust Raven. You're not angry with her. I can see it in your eyes. You're angry with yourself so you took it out on her. You're angry that she's the one with the plan and not you. You're angry that she knows what's going on and you don't. You're furious with the fact that she's the one giving orders and not you. This isn't about Raven and her schemes. This is all about you and your pride."
Robin recoiled as though he had been shot. Then, his clenched jaw started twitching and Cyborg knew that he was in for a fight.
"This isn't about me and my pride! This is about her and her stupid bloody ******* arrogance! What the **** does that ***** think she's doing acting like she ******* knows everything! The last time that **** tried to deal with **** on her own she nearly got all of us killed!" Cyborg raised an eyebrow, now somewhat bemused by the fact that Robin was cursing and swearing like a sailor. "That ****face is screwing us over with her - "
From the front of the house, someone standing on the sidewalk picked up her phone and dialled 911.
Raven never thought she could be so angry with someone that she loved so much but here she was doing just that. In truth, the physical aspects of a relationship had crossed her mind before but blocking them out was easy when they were separated by circumstance. However, once they were together, it was a completely different story. She more than anyone else understood how he felt, more so due to her empathic abilities than anything else. When he had jumped on her back at her private chamber, she felt a deep need emanating from within him; an all consuming desire that was so raw and primal that it frightened her. It made him incapable of hearing a thing she said but somehow, she suspected that he was also unwilling to hear. In her anger, Raven had decided that she would just leave him in her chamber with no way out to think about what he had done. Part of the process of growing into a man is learning how to treat a woman right and that includes respecting her boundaries. Since he had clearly failed to master the art of self-control in childhood, what better time to teach him than now?
"He needs to learn. The more you can control yourself, the more I'll give to you." She silently promised him in her heart."
She could have spent hours fuming at how he had so brashly ignored her wishes but now, she had other more trying things to think about besides her love's lack of self-control. She hadn't gotten the chance to tell him what the catch of the fake plan was but it really didn't matter. She knew it would never have worked anyway and that she couldn't afford to tell him the truth for she was aware that the demons had tapped into his mind as a means of getting close to her. Everything she said to him was actually a carefully scripted plot that she had created as a means of tricking the demons into thinking that she was genuinely confiding in Beast Boy. If they thought they knew what her plans were, they would busy themselves trying to cut off her supposed avenue of retaliation, leaving them exposed right where she wanted them.
Raven sat down at her desk and unrolled a worn map of the demonic universe that she had made when she first became the demon queen. She studied each passageway and all the major buildings that surrounded the perimeter of the main temple. Now that she had manipulated the demons into thinking that she would go there to channel her powers into the Decibo itself, she knew that they would resort to either one of two tactics; with the one being to gather a strong army around the main temple to prevent her from entering it and the other being to leave the main temple unguarded to encourage her to enter it. It all boiled down to their understanding of how her powers worked.
The demons knew as well as Raven did that when she channelled her powers into the Decibo, she was essentially pumping her soul into it and that her purer mortal half could not survive the harrowing process as purity cannot exist where there is so much evil. A part of her would fizzle out and die - the part that kept her good and the part that kept her sane. The only way to give her mortal half a chance of survival was for her to purposefully give up control over it. Either way, the evil in her would take complete control leaving her mortal half as a dormant part of her. Now that she was controlled by evil, all that she channeled into the Decibo would be evil and as self-sustenance is a demonic instinct, she would instinctively turn the Decibo on all the rest of the rebellious demons to destroy them. The problem was, once she became truly evil, there was a good chance that she would align herself with the demons instead of going against them. Raven needed to know which story the demons would buy, the story that she would destroy them or the one where she would join them.
To be honest, she felt she had meditated long enough to know which story they would believe. The problem was, she herself wished more than anything else to simply deny the truth. In an ideal situation, she had once believed that given the right conditions, her mortal half could be awakened if she brought the person that she loved with her. He could call out to her, drawing her mortal side back from dormancy and allowing her to regain control. In reality, she knew the odds of such a connection overcoming the corrupting influence of evil were slim to none. She would become truly evil someday, if not today, tomorrow.
My war isn't with Slade. It isn't even with the demons themselves. Those are just temporary battles that have no bearing on who the demon who spawned me intended me to be. If I live and cling to my own life like I always have, I risk becoming him, the very thing I've fought against for my entire existence. Those demons are just pawns of his... Just like I've always been a pawn. She stared at her slender fingers longingly, clenching and unclenching them just to feel the blood in her veins - just to feel the one of few sensations that reminded her that she was part human. If I choose to live on, the Titans will live too. The edges of her mouth twitched at that thought. The demon queen knew that even in a full demonic state, she would see those super-powered individuals as playthings and spare them for her amusement just like Trigon had done. She knew she had the plan to overcome the demons. She knew she had the power to preserve their lives. But if I choose to die, they will most certainly die with me. My only consolation would be that I'd never lose control of myself to become the destroyer rather than the saviour of the universe.
Is it right to cut off an entire limb in the present because of the likelihood of it becoming infected in the future? Would not the healthy limb serve a good function in the present, where one can only speculate that it would become gangrenous in the future? But then again, if one knew with great certainty that the limb would be a liability even in health, would it then be better to get rid of it before it became something worse? Raven was that limb, the arm of power in the universe who had no clue how long she should exist for, both for herself and for others. With heavy thoughts on her mind, she began questioning herself once again - just like she had done for her whole life. Where did her moral standard really lie?