Looking back on it, I actually haven't really updated this story in 2 years! I haven't updated since Chapter 12 and that was 2 years ago! OMG! I am so sorry you guys! I don't know how many of you are still reading this or still interested, but I at least want to finish it! If you guys wanna stick around until the end, I promise you, I will make this will get very good!

I know the last chapter was kind of junk, forgive me. It's been a while and my writing is very rusty and it's not as good as the previous chappies I hope that I can get back to the level I was at when I first started this story! And if you guys think that my writing can use some punching up or some improvements, PLEASE TELL ME! I would really appreciate it! I wanna make this as good as possible!

I know that Raven's character is slightly different from when she first got back, but I really wanted to show different sides of her. That's not to say that I wanna keep her out of character, I wanna open her character. I wanna keep her personality, but I wanna give her emotion, I wanna give life to her character. I know that she probably came off as annoying and pathetic in the last chapter but I wanted to show how deeply affected she is by her past and she's suffering. Some one commented something a while ago, and it really got me thinking. I wanted to show her path back to her emotions, back to her humanity, back to herself. In the last chapter, I guess Raven had a bit of an episode/anxiety attack. But if any of you are familiar with anxiety, you can sympathize. Anxiety can affect anyone at anytime, and it's a serious debilitating disorder and I wonder sometimes, it wouldn't be uncommon for superheroes to have it too. It might affect them more so. Superheroes might be superheroes, but underneath it all, they're still people.
And that's what I'm aiming for: not characters, not heroes, just people who feel and have emotions like the rest of us.
It just makes the story more believable, more engaging. More realistic.
If any of you are in the Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones fandom, you'll know what I'm talking about. I saw a post a while ago on tumblr and it went something like this:

DON'T WRITE CHARACTERS. WRITE PEOPLE.

In my opinion, a bunch of characters who are badasses who don't feel can get boring pretty fast. But characters who can be badass that have so many emotions and feels, that's more engaging.

I'm sorry you guys, I'm ranting :P. Anyway, on with the story~

Chapter 14: The Fear

+A Few Days Later+

The next few days were quite uneventful: no criminal activity was detected and everything was rather peaceful. The Titans hadn't forgotten everything that had transpired over the last couple of days. The rigid training the Titans did were in preparation for another possible unexpected encounter with Slade (though the chances of running into him were rather small), and the occasional hollering of Beast Boy and Cyborg over videogames. Raven had stayed in her room and barely came except to eat, for bathroom breaks, sparring and watching the sunsets.

Titans Tower was relatively quiet, of course that was to be expected at 3 am. The only noise was the low hum from Cyborg's processors. Moonlight filtered through the windows and gave a stark contrast to the dark hallways. While all the Titans slept soundly in their beds, Raven rolled around restlessly in bed. Her dreams haunted her. Strange images flashed in her dreams, images of the past and the future. The empath could not focus on one sole image, rolling her head back and forth as she slept. She gave a grunted softly as the dream began to grow more and more violent and aggressive. She was so engulfed in the dream that she was unaware that she began levitating the objects in her room. They floated in the air as their owner tossed and turned.

"M-…"

Suddenly, the images seemed to cease. Raven seemed to awaken in darkness. But something about this darkness was cold, sinister, evil. She whipped around, looking for an exit or light or anything. Nothing. Nothing at all, except for the inky blackness.

'Where-where am I?'

She heard a small laughter. She looked around, expecting something. Of course, there was nothing at all. The laughter continued and grew louder.

"Who's there?"

The laughter just continued. Raven put up her guard and assumed a fighting position, her battle instincts ready to strike anything.

"Who's there?"

Raven looked behind her and saw a small silhouette. She backed off and whipped around, glaring at it with intense eyes.

It was a small hooded figure. It was safe to assume that it was a child but…

"Who…are you?" Raven interrogated.

It just giggled and giggled and giggled, the laughter just echoing into the darkness.

Raven felt a chill go up her spine. She could not see anything beneath that hood. Hell, she could barely see three feet in front of her. Raven thought that glaring it down would work, so far it just didn't do anything.

"E hee hee!"

Raven suddenly found herself on her feet, confused. She looked around, the darkness swallowing the two.

"Raaaaaaaaveeeeen~" it chimed.

Raven's head snapped back to it, a strange terror growing inside her. Her eyes grew wide as it just laughed.

She looked around and saw four glowing red eyes staring back at her with contempt. The air escaped Raven's lungs so quickly that it was like it was never there. Another pair of eyes appeared behind her, then on both sides of her. She found herself surrounded by 16 pairs of hateful eyes, excluding the possible ones from the hooded figure.

The blackness around them was alight with fire. A fire so hot, it put the sun to shame. She was surrounded by a sea of fire with no escape.

Raven shook with fear. "No…"

"Let's play a gameee~"

"No…"

Raven's eyes snapped open and she shot up. Her eyes scanned her room, finding it empty. Sweat dripped down the side of her face, and she put a hand to her neck. At second after that, CRASH!
All the floating objects; books, baubles, trinkets dropped to the floor creating loud crashes. Some books landed on their spines, pages littered the floor, glass shattered, jars with powders and liquids smashed on the floor with the contents splattering and raining everywhere. Incents were broken, candles as well.

Raven flopped onto her back and let out a loud groan.

"Great…"

The sorceress heard a knock at the door; she sighed, swung her legs over the bed before walking over to the door and answered it.

"?"

There she saw Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. Terra turned up a second later.

"What was all the noise?"

"We heard a loud crash. Are you alright?" Robin asked.

Raven stayed silent for a second as she glanced back at her room.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"…Yes."

They all looked at her concerned.

"I just had a bit of an accident. You can all go back to bed."

"Do you need any help?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"Yes."

She quietly closed the door, the Titans sighed. All of thinking the same thing; they all missed her but they were starting to get a little tired of this.

"Let's all go back to bed" Cyborg yawned.

"I'm too awake now" Robin said as he left toward the kitchen to make some coffee.

Cyborg shrugged as he yawned again and left towards his room. Starfire and Terra did the same. Beast Boy stayed behind for a second before heading towards his room. The shape-shifter stole one last glance at Raven's room before leaving the hallway.

Raven sighed as she stood behind the door and tilted her head back.

"I'm so stupid."

'Mistress?'

'I'm really in no mood to talk.'

'But…what do you suppose that dream was about?'

'I'd rather not think about it, especially at three in the morning.'

'Mistress, it's not like you haven't been up late before. Besides, you pulled all nighters before.'

'Silence, Sagacious.'

Raven felt the emotion roll her eyes. Her emotion could really be sassy and annoying. She snaked out of the way of the broken objects, as she made her way to her bed. The empath sat down, waved her had across the room as she contemplated the dream.

Pages flew back into the books, broken pieces of jars shot back to the shelves and on top the dresser and reformed with the contents swirling back into their containers, the fallen books flew back into the shelves, and shattered glass flew back onto their places and melted into their original shape. Raven sat on her bed for several minutes, contemplating the dream before lying down and shutting her eyes.

'Tomorrow is going to be a long day.'

+Later that Morning+

Raven shut the door to her room and headed toward the kitchen before she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey! Rae!"

She looked up to see her green Titan comrade and gave him a curt nod.

"What was all the ruckus last night?"

Raven, of course, stayed silent. He gave a small sigh, expecting no answer.

"You can tell me, you know. But if you don't want to, you don't have to."

She stayed silent. He started walking off, she spoke.

"Last night…"

He looked back at her. 'Is she finally going to say something?'

"Last night, I had a dream."

"A dream? What kind of dream?"

"It was more like a vision. It was fine at first, and then it started to change. I don't know…I woke up in a dark place, alone. Then I saw someone…something."

Beast Boy gave her his full attention.

"What was it?"

"I don't know…it was hooded figure, small like a child but it felt evil. All it seemed to do was laugh but…I…it somehow was terrifying."

"And then…?"

"I was surrounded by a sea of fire…after that…I don't know."

He looked at her concerned. This was the first time she opened up about something since she arrived. He didn't know what to say.

"Raven…you…you don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You can share it with us. Isn't that what friends are for?"

She looked up at him before looking back to the floor and scoffed.

"Why did I just share something like that?" her voice oddly sad.

Beast Boy just tilted his head, confused. He really couldn't read her but something told him that her scoff and question wasn't aimed at him, but herself. She looked like someone who had lost everything to her and nothing to lose.

"Maybe…you're starting to trust us a little more."

"Perhaps…that's true…"

From that perspective, he gave a small smile.

"Beast Boy?"

"Yeah?"

"Have…have you ever had to kill someone?"

He looked at her shocked. The question caught him off guard.

"If you had no other choice, would you?"

He just looked at her, completely taken back by the question. In all honesty, he did not know. He would have to be put in that kind of situation and even then, he wouldn't know what to do.

"I…I don't know…"

The green Titan did not want to think about that. It worried him that something like that came into her head. Whether it was related to the dream she had, or something that was going to happen or just a thought, he did not know.

"I'm sorry, Beast Boy."

"I-It's fine" he said as he put up his hands. "That was unexpected, is all."

The two Titans stood there for a few seconds in silence until they heard alarms.

"Trouble!"

Both of them ran to the common room, where the other four Titans stood. Robin typed in a few commands into the Titan mainframe and on the screen popped up an image of Johnny Rancid terrorizing citizens.

"Just when things were getting quiet."

"Where to?"

"Cyprus Avenue."

"Right! Let's go!"

Cyborg sped in his T-Car, Robin on his R-Cycle, Starfire jetted towards the scene with Beast Boy in a form of a Spine-tailed swift, (the fastest bird on level flight) and Terra rode on a boulder. Raven was nowhere to be seen, but it was likely that she would teleport herself there and waited for the commands from the Titan leader.

The people below the three Titans in the air looked like ants. They could see the trail of destruction, fires on the streets and some buildings. People screamed and ran for their lives, alarms went off like crazy, cars flipped on their sides; glass littered the ground, streetlights toppled over, traffic signs and signals lay broken, rubble from buildings, pandemonium everywhere.

When the Titans arrived to the scene, followed by Raven who had melted up through the asphalt, however, they found Johnny Rancid. But he lay on the ground unconscious and injured.

People ran away from a new terror. It was a figure in a black-hooded cloak that was very tall and long silvery strands trickled down from the hood. Raven made a small gasp; it was like her dream. The empath could feel the same sinister presence emanating off this being. Somehow, it was instilling a fear in the demoness that she had not felt for a long time.

"Hey, Rae. This is gonna be a long shot, but is that a friend of yours?"

"No."

It smiled at the group of heroes and that was the green light for the Titan leader to attack.

"Titans, attack!"

End Chapter.