Raven slipped into her room and as the door shut she allowed herself a sigh of relief.
Long day. Breakfast, training, Cinderblock, more training, Cinderblock again (they had warned the police about transporting him in a regular van but the squad captain was new and thought he had all the answers), and the weekly meeting.
And it wasn't over yet. Raven hung up her cloak and lit a stick of incense. She had been feeling on edge for hours – her skin prickled like a thunderstorm was coming. The hectic day hadn't allowed much introspection, but she knew something was wrong.
The meditation mirror was still hanging on the wall. Raven turned to it, watched for a moment, and vanished.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
"We have mice," Sloth said lazily.
It was so unexpected for Sloth to say anything that Raven almost laughed. "Mice?"
They were sitting in the courtyard of Gloucester Cathedral as reimagined by Raven. All her sides lived here, despite the strange places they had conjured up for Beast Boy and Cyborg's visit.
Brave had perched on a statue of Harrik the two-faced guard (not one of the original Gloucester statues) and was idly drumming on its head with her green-gloved fists. "I'm missing my sword."
Raven shrugged. "Make another one."
"That's not the point and you know it," Rude snapped. "Someone has been stealing."
Raven looked over at Wisdom, who sat sedately on a bench, her yellow cloak gathered close. "Are you missing something?"
"A book." Wisdom hesitated and added, "One you gave me to keep for you."
Rude sneered. "Your boyfriend's book. The dragon book. Now do you care?"
Raven reminded herself for the ten thousandth time that Rude was a part of her and that sometimes negative, aggressive energy was necessary to get things done and that it would be unproductive to start yelling at one of her sides. "I would care," she said flatly, "No matter what it was."
Joy interrupted gently, "We were hoping you might know if there is a thief at all, or if it's something else."
Raven closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let them open again as she exhaled. She looked at each of them in turn. Joy, smiling at her. Affection, staring back at the stone surrounding them. Rage, pacing back and forth a little separately from the group. Brave, still sitting on the statute. Timid, huddled in her cloak at the foot of the same statue as if staying close for protection. Rude, kicking up the grass and the dirt of the courtyard. Sloth, laying on her back, getting her clothes dirty, and looking at the sky. Wisdom, watching Raven.
Nothing.
Raven opened her senses a little further. Her sides maintained the energy it was dangerous for her to express. But they were not expressive of all her emotions and she could feel the shades of the sub-sides all around her. Shame, Terror, and Confusion were in the cathedral, rampaging like ghosts, agitated by the other sides. Regret and Madness paced up and down the cloisters. Patience waited in the nave.
But they could not steal.
She shook her head and looked at Wisdom. "No. None of you stole anything."
Wisdom nodded. "I thought so. We have had no visitors from your team. So it is someone else." She stood up and went to Raven, taking her hand. "There is someone else here. We need to find them."
With Wisdom's steady energy, Raven reached out even further. She didn't completely understand how this place worked. When she was four years old her mother, Arella, had helped her create it, helped her channel inexpressible energy into her sides and give them a home.
It was infinite if she wanted it to be so or incredibly small. She had created it but there were still puzzles and surprises here she had not placed.
And someone could hide here.
In the same way that someone can recognize their own handwriting or their own voice, Raven's senses swept through the realm of her sides and knew all of it to be hers. Everything was normal, everything was right – except -
There was a feeling somewhere, she could barely detect it. It wasn't anything she knew
– but it had the unmistakable red tinge of her father.
Far away a dull booming began. Someone was banging on her bedroom door.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Raven came back to herself sitting on her bed. She got up wearily and put her cloak on, not even needing to guess who was still pounding on the door. Cyborg and Beast Boy. She could even hear them faintly as they argued.
I said I would help, but I'm not going to do your talking!
Dude, she's gonna be mad, she's gonna kill me -
If you don't want to do it, forget it, but if you think Raven would hurt you or me or any other Titan you're an idiot. Now make up your mind.
Raven pulled her hood up and opened the door. "Make up your mind about what?"
Beast Boy backed away from the door. "Um, on second thought -"
Cyborg grabbed his shoulder. "Raven, Beast Boy wants to ask you something. And I have told him that if you don't want to, you'll just say no, and that will be that. Right?" Above Beast Boy's head their eyes met. Cyborg winked.
Raven wondered how much more insufferable Beast Boy would be without Cyborg running interference. "Right."
Beast Boy shrugged off Cyborg's hand and turned to glare at him, then looked back at Raven. "So, um. Yeah. So. Malchior."
Through a rush of embarrassment Raven stared at him. "Malchior?"
Best Boy fidgeted. "So he was a dragon. In that book. When we fought."
"So yes -" Raven shot back sarcastically. "So he was, and if you don't have anything better to do than remind me of the stupidest thing I ever -"
"Rae," Cyborg said quietly, "He really does want to ask you something."
Beast Boy straightened up. "I want to – borrow that book. That Malchior book. I want to learn how to morph into that dragon."
Raven blinked. "The book?"
"Yeah," Beast Boy said, feeling better now that he'd gotten the question out. "I need to study it a little more before I can change -"
"This can't be a coincidence," Raven interrupted. Cyborg noted with alarm that her eyes were turning red. "This can't possibly be – come on. Now." Grabbing Beast Boy's wrist and Cyborg's hand, she muttered "Azarath metrion zinthos," and the three of them disappeared.