The remainder of the day was a long one for Raven; she was constantly on her guard, tense. The sorceress anticipated an attack at any moment and was exceedingly jumpy because of it. She kept thinking she caught glimpses of a head or an arm in the peripheries of her sight, but every time she spun around to confront him there was nothing there but a room full of doubt.

At eight that night Raven retired to the bathroom for a shower, grateful that the day was over and that she could stop checking over her shoulder ever five minutes.

Bending over the sink, she cupped some cool water in her hands and drank it thirstily. It tasted faintly of chlorine. She straightened up, shaking water droplets off her hands, and glanced in the mirror.

Her stomach dropped when she saw a smiling Malchior standing just inches behind her.

Their gazes met in the mirror and Raven stared, horror-struck. His eyes seemed to drill into her, seemed to flood her with a lead that made it impossible to move. Desperately Raven tried to turn around, tried to face him, but willpower had fled her.

When he smiled his teeth were razors points, incisors filed to deadly tips. He had the grin of a shark and the eyes of a hungry wolf.

With a surge of determination, Raven thrust her arm forward and smashed her fist into the mirror.

It shattered. Hundreds of tiny fragments rained down on her. She gasped, awakened from her paralytic trance by the pain.

Raven looked down at her hand; pieces of glass were lodged into it, gashes of torn skin that bled profusely. Strewn all across the floor were glittering shards. A few were tinged with red.

Raven moved quickly to grab a towel. She had to clean this up before anyone found her.

The dark titan didn't get a chance, however. Someone had heard the crash and come running—
without even knocking Robin burst in. He halted in the doorway, staring in alarm as he took in the scene before him.

"Raven! What happened?" he asked her agitatedly.

"Nothing happened. I tripped," Raven muttered. She could hear how poor the excuse sounded, even to her own ears.

Robin's gaze fell on her hand, and he cursed.

"For God's sake, are you alright? That needs to be taken care of right now," he growled, taking a step forward.

"I'm fine—" Raven began to protest, but when she followed his fixed stare, she knew he would not relent. Crimson liquid was streaming down her fist and arm; it dripped to the white tile floor like pattering rain.

"Let me get a broom from Bee and sweep this up," Robin began again.

"No, I've got it," she said dismissively, and with a wave of her unhurt hand she sent the fragments flying into the waste bin.

The floor now cleared, Robin approached her and gently picked up her hand, examining it closely.

"You can't pull these out with your magic without shredding up your skin even more," he said. He moved to the medicine cabinet, rummaging around until he pulled out a small pair of tweezers.

"Sit," he instructed, pointing at the toilet seat.

Raven considered protesting and doing it herself, but resigned herself when she remembered that her right hand coordination was sloppy and unskilled at best.

Robin sat down on the edge of the tub and commenced bending over her fist, carefully picking out the tiny slivers of glass.

There was a long silence, until the titan leader could no longer keep his thoughts to himself.

"I know you didn't trip."

Raven didn't move to respond.

"What happened, Raven?" he repeated again, stopping his work to hold her hand tightly and look at her directly.

Raven averted her eyes, intently studying the light fixtures.

"You've been strange all day. I'm not blind. Something's up."

Raven remained tight-lipped, refusing to answer. The last thing she needed was her leader thinking she was crazy. That was a surefire way to get herself kicked off the team.

When he realized the emapth was not going to say anything, Robin released a deep sigh, staring up at the ceiling with resignation.

"Do you ever doubt your sanity, Raven?" he asked after a while, still gazing off into space.

Raven invulnerably started, an icy feeling gripping her. Had he somehow already read her mind through their bond?

"I sometimes doubt mine. I get so sucked into my nightmares, I wonder where my mind ends and reality begins. You remember when I had hallucinations? I saw Slade everywhere. He seemed to follow my every step, be there one moment and gone the next. It was driving me mad." Robin looked at Raven , his face open. "Luckily, I had friends who were there for me."

Raven finally met his gaze and the feeling overcame her that she could trust him, at least with this.

Her mouth felt dry and she licked her lips.

"Last week, when I was downtown… I ran into someone." She bowed her head, disturbed by the memory that expanded before her. "It was Malchior. We fought, and I lost control. I was about to kill him before… before I was stopped." Her throat tightened as the thought of Jason rose in her mind. Where was he now? What was he doing?

Raven tore herself away from dwelling on the questions and continued, briefly. "I let him go free. Ever since then, I've been seeing him everywhere. I saw him in the doorway at breakfast, and in the training room later. But each time I've tried to confront him, he's never actually there. And now…" Her voice caught a little and Robin squeezed her hand, figuring out how to fill in the blanks.

"And just now you broke the mirror because you saw him in it," he finished for her.

Raven nodded mutely, gripping the cold porcelain edge of the bathtub.

"You're not insane," Robin told her reassuringly. "Telling someone about it is the first step. Now you have to accept what happened."

"How can I accept that I lost control? Or that I let him get away? That he's still out there, with a vengeance?" Raven asked bitterly.

Robin shook his head. "Anyone could be out for you at any point in time, Raven. You're a titan, and that's a burden that comes along with it. If you kicked Malchior within an inch of life, he should be wary of sneaking up on you again, even if you're alone."

"I suppose so," Raven murmured, turning it over in her thoughts.

Having finished picking out all the glass shards, Robin stood up to leave.

"Don't worry," he added at the door. "If you focus on moving on, the hallucinations will move on too."

Xxx

When not tracking down Plasmus and drilling the Titans East, Raven spent all her free time meditating and focusing her center. Sure enough, she began to experience results within a few days; the frequency with which she saw Malchior was decreasing significantly.

Witnessing this progress made her renew her efforts even more so, but despite the increase in time she spent locked up in her room, deep in concentration, there seemed to be a wall she was running up against— a mental block that hindered her.

I've overcome my rage, she thought. Accepted my guilt and forgiven myself. Come to terms with the uncertainty of Malchior's escape.

But there were other emotions she hadn't yet touched on, hadn't dared to explore for fear of what would surface.

Jason.

Just thinking his name made her chest squeeze in a painful way. A spider web of quivering feelings were strung around that name.

Raven wondered if he was still angry at her for their fight. Maybe he despised her for the monster she had revealed within herself?

Or worse yet, he might fear her.

Raven spent that night lying on top of her bed, flat on her back and spread eagle, staring up at the constellations. Someone had painted the bedroom ceiling with great care, depicting the solar system with startling accuracy. It was comforting to look at.

Both nothing compared to what we used to gaze at.

Raven glanced to her right, half-expecting to see the black origami bird that she was so used to having on her nightstand. She found herself disappointed when she recalled that it was back home in her room, hundreds of miles away.

She spoke aloud to herself. "Even if he has forgiven me, and doesn't feel fear or disgust toward me... can I forgive him?"

Raven kept recalling how he had been against her, how he had made her feel like she was a tainted animal, a monster.

A part of her, perhaps Wisdom, tried to reason that it was the innocents he was trying to protect, not to take the opposing side. Still, the hurt lingered, stinging like she had just been burned there.

Hours ran laps around her as she laid in bed, unmoving.

Midnight melted into two o'clock, and two into four o'clock. Raven finally slipped out of the room, padding softly through the tower and into the kitchen, where she began boiling a pot of water. Even though the Titans East didn't keep tea stocked in their pantry, just the motion of putting a kettle on soothed the empath.

She sat sipping her hot water and resting her head tiredly against the back of a chair, when the sound of a footfall startled her. Her leader, normally so put-together, walked in with his hair un-gelled and un-spiked, his usual bright uniform traded in for a pair of grey pajama pants and a tight fitting t-shirt.

Raven watched as he poured himself some water. He moved back to where she sat and stood in front of her, observing the heavy shadows under her eyes as he gulped down the glass.

"Can't sleep, huh?" he said after he'd finished, setting the cup down on the table.

Raven shook her head no.

"I can sense that you're sad through our bond. But I can also sense you're still blocking me out from something," he said, thoughtful.

Raven looked at him, feeling slightly on guard. She trusted her leader more now, but she still wasn't inviting any intrusions into her mind.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked in a voice that suggested not probing, but caring.

"No, thanks."

"Are you sure, Rae?"

"Yeah. It's nothing to worry about."

Robin resigned himself, knowing when he had lost a battle against her. After a pause however, he offered a hand out to her, wordlessly.

Raven looked at it, confused.

"What?" she said unsurely.

"C'mon, just take it," he said. His face didn't betray an inkling of his thoughts.

The dark titan raised an eyebrow, studying the Boy Wonder skeptically, but she made no motion to either take or reject the outstretched hand.

Robin sighed exasperatedly and fixed her with a piercing, almost somber look.

"It's four-thirty in the morning. Humor me, Raven."

Reluctantly, Raven put her slender, pale hand into his tan one. Immediately he pulled her up from her chair, leading her over to the open space of the living room. Turning to her, he put one hand on her waist, the other still holding those small fingers within his.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked uneasily.

"I find,"—Robin began to dance slowly across the room—"That I tend to think better on my feet. Maybe it'll do the same for you."

Raven looked at him incredulously, wondering if he had lost his mind. His eyes gazed at her with a sense of seriousness, the same kind he examined his team with right before an important mission, but a smile also tugged at the corner of his lips.

They were turning slow circles now, swaying gently to an unheard rhythm. Raven would have been lying if she tried to convince herself it was unpleasant.

She stared out at the dark sky from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. There was a peaceful calm in being awake at an uninhabited hour, in the comforting way she slowly spun around the room.

Robin drew her in close and Raven rested her chin on his shoulder, closing her eyes. She thought of how Jason would like to dance late at night, of how it would feel if it was him holding her. He would draw her near, would bury his face against her neck. He would whisper something teasing in her ear and then give a low chuckle, and she would feel his chest move against her as the sound rippled through him. A shiver of warmth ran down Raven's spine as she imagined it.

They stayed that way for many minutes, until Robin pulled away. He pointed out the glass window.

"Look. The sun is rising."

Raven turned and saw that an orange-red sun was emerging over the crested hills, bathing the whole tower in thin fingers of light. Robin was still holding on to her hand.

Raven withdrew it tentatively. "I should get changed," she murmured, turning to leave.

At the edge of the room she stopped, hesitating.

"Thanks," she said. "Thinking on my feet did help."

X

X

Oh Raven, getting a little close with Boy Wonder. What would X say about that?