Wow. It's been 5 years since I first wrote this fic and I'm not even finished. I really hoped that I would've finished by now. Mostly because of my inconsistent updating.

I even had to go back and re-read some of my material, so I could get an idea of how to write again. I even took an English writing course to refresh my writing skills. Part of me is kinda glad that only some of you are reading this because my writing style changed so much (for the worse I think) since chapter 1. I'm also pretty happy that there are some people still reading this, and some new ones. I'm touched. I'm not only thinking of doing a sequel but a short 10 chapter story on what Raven did in the five years. Do you guys want that?

Lemme know!

Sorry I took a while to right this. I actually wrote some of this when the semester began but then school started to pick up and I had to work. Then when spring break came along, I managed to squeeze in some time to write more and before I knew it, break was over. Then, of course, the horrors of finals and hours of studying. All in all, I ended up with 3 Bs and 1 C.

Also, if anyone plays Dragon Age, you might be seeing some elements in the future chapters! ;)

I realize that I had not written a long chapter in a while and I prefer writing longer chapters. Anyway, I promised a long chapter so here you guys go. :)

Anyway, sorry for the wait and I know that I promised Rae and Terra could confront each other last chapter I think but I need to transition into it plus this is just getting really long . Next chapter I promise! I just needed a quick way to get there and a quick refresher to get my mojo going.

Chapter 17 : Pandemonium

Jump City was in an uproar. Sirens blared as fire-fighters ran back and forth putting out fires. People cried, hobbled, and limped over to police officers and on-hand paramedics. Police scurried back and forth as they tried to find missing persons. The list of missing people was getting longer and longer. Buildings were reduced to rubble and debris from buildings, cars, rocks, and paper littered the street. Water spouted from fire-hydrants like geysers that spilled onto the ground. The air was thick and heavy; it smelled of blood, fuel, and brimstone but you could breath in the ash and dust. The radio tower had plume of ash and smoke escaping from the enormous gaping hole in it because Starfire crashed into it save a citizen. A paramedic lifted a man, who Starfire had rescued, onto a stretcher and sped off to the hospital for intensive care.

A medic finished wrapping up bandages for the Titan leader. The team of heroes were in bad shape; Robin broke some ribs and suffered a concussion. He had thrown out his back from the impact of landing on the roof of a car, while Starfire was patched up too, but would be back to fighting condition in two days. The bleeding from her head wound had stopped. Cyborg suffered a concussion and several bruises. Terra had patches all over her back from banging into the stop sign. Beast Boy had bruised ribs when he slammed into the car, but thanks to his beast physiology, he would be better in a week. His arm, which one of the medics patched up earlier, would heal sooner.

Raven was still out of commission and no one knew when she would wake up.

This incident would take a hell of a lot of explaining to the city commissioner and mayor. Right now, the press was struggling against the police to interview the group of heroes and countless reporters were recording the scene.

The Titans figured it best to head home. The ride home was especially quiet.

+Titans Tower+

The first thing the Titans did when they got home was place Raven in the infirmary. No one had spoken a word in hours. Cyborg did some scans on their friend.

"I don't know what to say. A lot of her readings are checking normal but..."

"But what?"

"Her brain activity is through the roof. Whatever he did to her..." they all looked at her, "was bad enough for her to go into a coma."

"How long will she be out?"

"That's a million dollar question. Could be days or weeks..."

All the Titans had solemn faces.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think it's time we finally know what's going on" Terra told her teammates.

Everyone looked at her. They thought that she was crazy but she was right: they needed answers. Anything. What happened was not normal, even for them.

"Beast Boy, can I talk to you for a moment?" Terra asked.

He looked up at Terra, his brows fixed as if he had just heard her for the first time. It took him a second to register her words and he just let nodded, unsure what she could possibly want to talk to him about. The green therianthropist rose from his chair and followed the thin blonde out of the infirmary.

She led him into the common room, away from the others. Finally, she stopped and turned around with her foot tapping against the floor. She tilted her head slightly and glared at him.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what?'"

He gave her a confused look. "Shit. You're mad, what did I do?"

Terra's face softened slightly and sighed. 'He's so dense sometimes...'

"Beast Boy, I'm worried. After today, we can't afford to take any chances. I'm getting the truth one way or another."

"Terra, we can't just do that. She's-"

She stopped him right there. "Hold it, BB. If you say she's our friend, I swear..."

"What?"

"I don't like her being here. I want everything to back to normal..."

"Uh...Terra, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not exactly normal."

"You know what I mean! Ugh...I told you!"

"You just want to be right, don't you?"

"Beast Boy, open your eyes! After everything, you're still in denial! You're still gonna take her side!? Why?!"

Beast Boy glared, but he didn't know who he was specifically glaring at: himself or her, maybe it was even Raven. To be honest, he didn't know why he was siding with Raven. It wasn't as though she was always kind to him in the past, but he still cared about her, regardless. The shape-shifter eyed the floor, as if thinking that the answers somehow would sprout from the floor. Terra watched him cautiously. She did not like this rift that had grown between them. It had been like this for the past two years and with the re-appearance of their fellow Titan, the rift grew exponentially.

"Let's go to an easier topic then."

He slowly started meeting her eyes.

"What was thing that you turned into?"

Thing. That stung. It felt like she had just insulted part of him. Scratch that, she did. He did not like that. The Beast was a part of him, as much as he did not want it to be. It was not as though he used that part of himself often. At the same time, he hadn't used that form in so long and did not think that he would use it again, so he didn't see a reason in telling her about it.

"It's...it's nothing."

Terra frowned. "It didn't look like nothing, Beast Boy."

"Look, why the hell are we talking about this?" his voice deadpan.

Terra felt a small pang in her chest.

"Because Beast Boy, I care about you, okay? It took forever for you to even speak or look at me when I came back. And now that Raven's back, all you do is gawk at her and it's like you pretend I'm not even here or something."

The Titan gave her an acknowledging look. He actually felt guilty.

"She can't love you like I can."

That really set Beast Boy off. 'How could she say that?'

Raven had been part of the team even before he met Terra. She had never betrayed the team or ever gave them a reason to distrust her. She'd never hurt them intentionally. From the moment he met Raven, he felt like he could trust her. He glared at the blonde with such an intensity that would've made Mento jealous.

"I-I need some time to myself" he said as he turned around and walked away.

"Y-yeah, okay...lemme know if you wanna talk about it."

His footsteps echoed in the room, leaving the blonde Titan alone.

+A Few Days Later+

Everyone's injuries were healing nicely; Starfire was back to full fighting condition, thanks to her alien anatomy, Cyborg's injuries were patched up and his damaged parts from the battle were replaced. Beast Boy's arm had healed up as well, but he still needed to take it a little easy because of his bruised ribs. Robin, of course, was in recovery but that did not mean that would not hinder his resolve to investigate who attacked them. He and Starfire could not watch television without the news of the attack in Jump City. Interviews of some eye witnesses and survivors describing what happened, while some others grossly exaggerating the events.

Beast Boy was watching over Raven in the infirmary, while Cyborg was working on his car and Terra was in her room.

"Come on, Rae...when are you gonna wake up?" Beast Boy asked solemnly as he gave her hand a small squeeze.

He looked out the window. The sounds of the waves hitting the beach, blue-ish clouds drifted just over the horizon. It was a beautiful day. He sighed to himself and shut his eyes, tiredly.

Raven's eyes fluttered open as she felt a dull pain throughout her body. She let out a small grunt as she sat up on the infirmary bed. Her amethyst eyes drifted to the young green man asleep in the chair beside her.

A soft smile crossed her face.

'What the hell happened?' She thought to herself as she rubbed her temple.

Then she let out a small gasp as her eyes widened slightly, remembering the incident a few days ago. Bandages, band aids, pills, thermometers, lifted into the air as she felt a surge of rage and panic. Beast Boy snorted as he woke with a start. He noticed several things levitating and his eyes shot to Raven.

"Raven!"

She snapped out of it and glanced at him. The objects slowly placed back on in place.

"Sorry."

He gave her a cautious, worried look. What was going through her head, he did not know. "Raven, what's going on?"

She let out a inward sigh. Now was as good as time as any to tell him. "That guy...I really don't know who or what he was."

"How did he know you?"

"Probably through my father."

The changeling felt a chill go up his spine. No one wanted to think of the red giant who caused the end of the world.

The empath felt his tumultuousness, so she decided to change the subject.

"How is everyone?"

"They're doing better. Robin had some broken ribs and threw out his back. Cy's okay, and Terra too. Star's okay but she's taking it easy for a while, to make sure."

Raven stayed silent for a moment before speaking. "I see."

Another silence.

"How about you? Are you alright?" She asked.

He couldn't help but laugh, cutting through the awkwardness and silence. He was fine, he hardly fought in that fight until the end. The umbrakenetic just looked at him confused.

"What?"

"Hahah! Nothing. "

"You're a strange man" she said giving him a rare smile.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, rubbing her head slightly. "I think I want to go for a walk."

He looked at her incredulously. "Are you sure? I mean you just got out of a coma."

"Precisely. I don't feel right if I don't walk around" she said as she set her feet on the infirmary floor.

"You should stay in bed" he argued back.

"I'm fine" she countered coolly as she took a few steps.

It amazed her how being inactive for a few days have made her legs feel languid. Her legs felt wobbly and she was starting to tip over and fall. She would have too, if a certain green Titan had not caught her.

"I gotcha."

She looked at the floor for a second to avoid his gaze before she looked up. He was lost in her beautiful eyes. The green Titan hadn't realized what he'd quite done, and now the sorceress was in his arms. He felt his cheeks warm and he quickly released her before letting out a fake cough.

"Erm-hem! You...shoulda stay here. In the infirmary, I mean."

The demoness looked at him quizzingly. He avoided looking at her again. But a sad thought came up again: she had to leave Jump City soon. The changeling looked at her with a serious look, one that matched hers.

"Hey Rae, do you wanna stay in Jump City with us?"

Raven looked away. "I can't answer that."

"Why not? It's a simple 'yes' or 'no.'"

"It's not that I don't want to stay, it's that I can't."

"So you do wanna sta-wait, what do you mean you can't?"

"You wouldn't understand, Beast Boy."

He felt miffed, but decided to let it go for now. "I could try."

She looked at him; all of her old instincts rushing back to her. All her feelings of shutting people out, isolating them, never trusting anyone. She put up walls against everyone so she wouldn't have get close to them and so they couldn't get close to her either. Part of her wished she was as emotionless as she pretended, so she would never have to feel again. In a moment of weakness, Raven felt differently and could share her burden.

"5 years ago, I-"

"Raven! You're awake!" Cyborg exclaimed enthusiastically as he walked in.

Never had the changeling felt angrier at his metallic friend than right now.

"How long was I out?"

"Mm...couple of days."

"How long?"

"'Bout 3, 4 days. Ol' Beast Boy here never left your side" Cyborg smirked at his friend.

The animal morpher scowled at Cyborg before protesting. "I'm not old!"

"You are in dog years!"

"If I'm 'old' then you need an upgrade, you obsolete piece of junk!"

"What?! Why, you little-! C'mere!"

Raven watched stoically as the two brotherly Titans scrapped in the small infirmary.

"What are you idiots doing?" Robin barked. "You know you're not supposed to be fighting in here!"

The two quickly stopped and whistled, attempting to look innocent.

"Raven, you're awake."

"Yeah. You look like hell."

The Titan leader let out a bitter chuckle.

"Yeah, my back is thrown out and I have some broken ribs. I'm gonna be out for 6 weeks."

"I see...which reminds me, what happened to that civilian that Star saved?"

Robin sighed, a grim expression crossing his masked face. Beast Boy and Cyborg silenced themselves. Raven did not need telepathy to know the news was not good.

"We still haven't received word. All we know is that he is in intensive care."

"How's Starfire?"

"She's fine. She's kicking herself for not getting to the guy faster, though."

Raven shut her eyes. Regret gripped at her heart, another unfortunate casualty that her presence had brought. She sighed before answering.

"I see. I'm going to get some fresh air."

Robin was about to protest but Raven was already rushing out the door. The last words the empath heard was them exchanging what to have for dinner.

Raven breathed in the ocean air, hoping it would calm her senses but to no avail. The demon hybrid sighed before she covered her face in her hands. Now was not a time for her to feel weak, but she could not help it. Bottling up her emotions was dangerous and she already had break-down several days to the attack. All sorts of thoughts rushed through her head.

'How did he find me? Did he work for my father? Is that how he found me? I made sure I was untraceable. Are my powers a beacon? Damn it all...'

She felt an odd source of determination and a sense of protectiveness. The empath let out a resentful laugh; she must be suffering some neurological problems. With everything she had been through with the last five years, she would not be surprised if she suffered depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder or even bi-polarity.

Raven brushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. A sigh escaped her lips, she needed to get out of Jump CIty soon. The sooner she left, the better.

"I need to get out of Jump City soon...more people will get hurt if I don't."

End.

So what do you think? Lemme know! R&R!