AN: Hi guys! So sorry I didn't update this sooner! My boyfriend and I were hit by a drunk driver this past weekend so I've been in the hospital all week without my laptop. We're both fine and I'm now super excited to be home! Moral of the story: don't drink and drive people! Also, hospitals suck.

Anyway, on with the show! Thank you so much to my new followers and those who reviewed! Love you all!

XOXO Gwen

Chapter 17

She was in the Mayor's office. She recognized the large, oak double doors that led to the sea of desks inside. It was dark outside; the lights were off, moonlight the only thing illuminating her path. Her hand reached down to insert the key into the lock. As she turned it, Raven realized it wasn't her hand. This hand had long, well-manicured red nails at the end of slender, tan fingers. Definitely not Raven's.

The office space was as dark as the hallway was. Raven found herself walking towards a desk in the far right corner of the room, near a set of long, narrow windows. She caught a glimpse of her reflection, or, more accurately, Celeste Bowman's reflection, in one of them.

It startled Raven. She wasn't in her own body. She moved like something possessed her, and she was only along for the ride.

She opened the top desk drawer with a key and took out a cellphone, dropping it into her black leather purse. Raven saw a photo framed on the desk of Celeste and some blonde man with their arms around each other. She deduced it must have been her boyfriend.

She turned to leave when she noticed a light coming from under the other set of doors that lead to the Mayor's personal office. Celeste slowly changed directions, creeping towards the office to undoubtedly figure out what she was doing here so late. As she got closer, she heard voices coming from the other side of the door.

"We've only got five days left, James," she heard the Mayor hiss.

"I know, I know. I'm working on a plan right now."

"Just remember that she's a demon. This isn't like one of your usual jobs. You have to be careful or this could all collapse around us." A demon, Raven thought. She's a demon. They were talking about her.

"I know!" He sounded irritated. "What do you expect from me when you only give me two weeks?"

"You know why this has to be done by then!" She paused for a moment. "We have five days until the gala. We have seven days before Trigon rises."

Raven's mind registered shock. How did they know about Trigon? And why did everyone think he was rising? Raven thought that scare was behind her; now she wasn't so sure again. Celeste's body leaned in closer.

"Are you sure that it's going to happen?"

"Positive. I have sources inside the Church of Blood. We have to kill the girl within the week or it's over for all of us. The gala is the best chance we have."

Kill the girl... The words repeated over and over in Raven's mind. Celeste seemed just as horrified. Raven could feel her heart beat faster and her body stiffen. She started to slowly back away from the door, aware that she was hearing something she shouldn't be.

She took another step back, but suddenly a hand was over her face. It was holding some kind of white cloth over her mouth and nose. Raven felt adrenaline shoot through her, but before she could scream, she felt blackness rise up as she lost her grip on consciousness.

For the third time this week, Raven awoke with a start after her nightmare. She sat upright in bed, trying to control her breathing. Just like the last two, this one had felt so vivid and so real. Unlike the last two, it didn't make her frightened and it didn't make her upset. This time, it made her mad.

She was sick of this. Now that the adrenaline had subsided, she realized it was already light outside. Once again, she had lost out on restful sleep because of these ridiculous nightmares. She was so frustrated that she chucked a pillow across the room. She collapsed back down onto her bed, rubbing her temples.

This dream bothered her more than the others. Why had she been in Celeste's body? And why would the Mayor, a supposed ally of theirs, be plotting to kill her?

She had a sinking feeling in her stomach that what she had seen had actually happened.

It wouldn't be the first time that she had had prophetic dreams. It was her empathy that sometimes caused them. Raven bit her lip, unsure about what to do.

Well, she finally decided, there's only one way to find out.

She got out of bed and realized she was still in her now dry dress and shoes from the night before. Raven's cheeks burned when she remembered what had happened. Crap. She had forgotten about that. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was nine. With any luck, Beast Boy wouldn't be up yet, and she could put off that awkward encounter for a little while longer.

She changed into a fresh leotard, fastened her cloak around her shoulders, and headed off to the common room to call Celeste.

She didn't answer her phone. Raven had looked up her work phone, as she should be in the office by now, and her cell, which she also didn't answer. Raven sat at the main control station, tapping her fingers against the desk. She had a bad feeling about this.

She looked up the generic number for the Mayor's office, and gave that a try.

"Mayor Forbes' office, how may I help you?"

"I'm looking for Celeste Bowman. Is she in today?" Raven didn't hold out much hope.

"I'm afraid not. She'll be out for the rest of the week. Can I take a message?"

"No," Raven answered with a sigh. "Do you have any idea why she's gone?"

"No, actually. Mayor Forbes just told me this morning she would be out. I'm sorry for any inconvenience."

"Thank you for your help," Raven replied before ending the call. Now she really had a bad feeling about this.

She heard the common room doors swish open and turned to find Robin coming down for breakfast.

"Robin," she began immediately, "has Celeste called you yet this morning?" She knew for a fact that Celeste had called every morning, work day or not, to check in with them.

"Nope. Haven't heard anything." Raven studied him as he moved quickly to prepare his breakfast. His shoulders slumped and his face looked tired. He had undoubtedly been working 24/7 to find more information on Slade. It made Raven purse her lips in frustration, but it was an issue for another day.

"I called her this morning on her work and her cell phone, but she didn't answer either. Then I called the Mayor's office, and they told me that she was out for the rest of the week. As in, until the gala this Friday." She stared at him expectantly.

"Hmm," was all he said in reply, too preoccupied with his Cheerios.

"You don't think that's strange?"

"I think we have more important things to worry about," he said harshly.

Raven narrowed her eyes. "And by more important things you mean Slade?" she asked, unyielding.

This time, he looked up at her. "Yes, of course I mean Slade. And right now I feel like I'm the only one trying to do anything about it."

Raven clenched her jaw, but didn't argue further. It was pointless when he got like this. She rose from the chair and headed towards the door, determined to find the answers she needed on her own.

As she approached the top of the stairs, the doors slid open again. It was Beast Boy, of course.

Raven froze. They both stared at each other, faces growing red. Raven didn't know what to say, if anything. She would have liked to have just walked out, but he was standing in the doorway.

"Um, excuse me," she mumbled, keeping her eyes down. He moved aside, his eyes downcast as well, and she hastily walked past him.

As soon as the doors slid shut behind her, she let out a sigh of relief. To say that was awkward was an understatement.

Raven didn't know how she felt. There were so many emotions running through her that she couldn't single one out. Anger that he had done what he had, fear of the unknown, and a nervous swell of excitement all clashed in her gut.

She just couldn't deal with him right now. Not with everything else that was going on. Raven took a cleansing breath, pushing down her emotions so that she could get to work.

The next stop she made was to the Titan's mainframe. She was determined to solve the mystery of Celeste's disappearance. Her personal life would have to wait.

6407, Apartment B. Raven looked at the paper one more time to confirm she was in the right place. Celeste's apartment, the address to which she had found in the mainframe, was in a nice part of town a few blocks away from town hall. She brought her hand up to the door, giving a firm knock.

She held out hope when she heard footsteps from inside, but it faded when the door opened. A man stood there instead of the woman she had hoped for. It was she same blonde man in the picture she had seen on Celeste's desk. That already wasn't a good sign. Raven couldn't of dreamed a person she had never seen before, giving even more evidence that the dream had been real.

"Can I help you?" He asked after a second. Raven realized she was staring at him blankly.

"Sorry. I'm looking for Celeste Bowman."

"She's not home right now. She's actually out of town."

Raven sensed he was upset about the last part. "She is? Where is she? Did she tell you she was leaving?"

The man looked at her suspiciously. "You're Raven, from the Teen Titans, right?" She nodded. "Why do you want to know? Is something wrong?"

Crap. The last thing she needed was to involve him in this. "No, of course not. I just heard she was going to be out for the week and I needed to talk to her." Not technically a lie...

"Oh. Well honestly, I don't even know where she is. Her boss called this morning to tell me that she had to go on some emergency trip and that she wouldn't be back for a few days. It was weird, but she's in a weird line of work," he said with a shrug.

Raven sighed. That may not have been the answer she was hoping for, but it was the answer she was expecting. "Thank you. Can you tell her to call the Titans when she gets back?"

"Sure. I'll have her call. Goodbye," he said, closing the door as Raven turned to leave.

All signs were pointing to the fact that what she dreamed last night wasn't a nightmare. It had really happened to Celeste. It was all true.

That left Raven with a new crisis on her hands. She realized that the Mayor was truly trying to kill her. Kill her. What the hell? Raven wondered as she clomped down the stairwell. Raven had liked Mayor Forbes. Now she thought she was a lunatic.

Then there was the other crisis. The one that every time it seemed like it had resolved itself, contradictory evidence emerged. Trigon. If the Mayor and her cohorts were trying to assassinate Raven, it was because they truly believed that her father would rise again, evidently using Raven as a tool to get there. The logic was reasonable other than the fact that Trigon couldn't rise again.

Raven was fed up. As she emerged into the sunlight of another morning in Jump City, she had made up her mind. She was going to do something she had avoided doing for her entire life. She was going to get the truth from the horse's mouth.

She was going to talk to Trigon.