Disclaimer: I do not own DC, Teen Titans, or any of the related characters. Teen Titans (the 2003 cartoon series) was created by Glen Murakami, based on DC's Teen Titans. This story is a work of fanfiction.

A/N: Hello world! (as programmers say) This is a sequel to Running Out Of Time. Technically, it is a prequel to that story, but if you haven't read it, that is fine, this story can stand on its own. To offer some context of when the story is set, the Titans have grown but they still live under the same roof. However, that is about to change. Interested? Good, let's go into the story.

It is one peaceful morning in the Titans Tower. Cyborg and Starfire are in the kitchen, and meanwhile, he is busy making breakfast for everyone, she is imitating him with other odd ingredients. Robin is sitting on the dining table, occupied reading the news on his phone and Raven is on the couch reading one of her many books. Beast Boy was presumably still sleeping in his room.

Mornings like this were beginning to be the norm for the Titans. Not that villains ever let them have a rest, but their plots have turned more sophisticated, trying to avoid the Titans for as much as they could.

Each titan has perfected their style of fighting, defense, and backup abilities. All but one particular titan. The 'Dark Titan' hasn't been able to master her powers and has been having more mishaps, close calls, and mistakes on missions. But it wasn't for lack of effort, practice, or compromise. Any other titan knew she was struggling, but Raven never revealed the extent of her crisis. To them, it was a problem that would resolve itself with maturity. To her, it was an unfixable dilemma.

She knew, or at least sensed, why she wouldn't be able to domain her powers. Her powers had to do with her emotions, their nature and intensity affected them directly. Meanwhile, her teammates had developed emotional integrity and intelligence, she would never be able to. Her mind was fragmented.

The convent she had lived in as a child, Zinthos, had fractured her mind. They reasoned that, it was easier 'for her' to isolate and deal with emotions one by one, and that she was 'less dangerous' shattered. When she was about three, they had broken her mind into realms of emotions and aptitudes. So were born her emoticlones, representations of her emotions as versions of herself within her mind. The convent monks taught her to go into her mind, to lock in her 'dangerous' emotions, and preached that the only way to control her powers was to keep an iron-clad control of her emotions. Thinking back at them she realized several things, they never expected her to survive, to make it past sixteen, and alas they never really cared what such a measure would do to her psyche, to her.

But now, at nineteen things began changing. She had a revelation during one of her dreams, one where she woke up in the middle of the Tower's roof. Well, she had tagged it as a nightmare, but it was the brutal truth. They broke a little girl's mind for fear of her nature. They taught her to fear herself. To hate her nature. They put all the blame on her, as they believed she was the embodiment of evil, even though she obviously hadn't done anything. Those were the cards she was dealt. She turned them around and now, she was a young adult, a hero, with complex emotions, rattled all of the assumptions they made about her.

In many ways, she was still that little girl with a fragmented mind, one that would never be complete. Even though she could theoretically fuse her mind to become one, that would mean she would have to become everything she had avoided. Not only that, it was incredibly dangerous, and if her control over herself was shaky now, she couldn't imagine what would happen with an enormous amount of power. She would go mad, succumbing to her father's heritage and taking whatever her darkest side desired. She would lose her humanity in such an act. That was why it was strictly prohibited.

"Let's eat!" Cyborg exclaimed unexpectedly at the room. His happy attitude lasted a few seconds because a sharp dark tendril of magic crossed the room and exploded whatever he was holding. Raven had been surprised at his yell. She was deep in thought, pretending to read whatever book she was holding. She didn't mean it, but she had once again ruined something for the team. Cyborg held his tongue as he began cleaning up the mess that just erupted. Robin looked over at her disapprovingly and Starfire shot her a sympathetic look.

She sighed and got up to the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, let me help-" She offered monotonously, trying her hardest to not let any more emotions slip out of her control.

"No. It is fine." He shut her off briskly. Raven understood the meaning behind the brusque tone and got out of the living room. She encountered Beast Boy in the hallway and nodded to greet him. He sleepily corresponded and headed into the room she just left. She walked away rapidly, not wanting to hear the discussion surely it was going to happen, but it reached her ever-hearing ears.

"Again?! We are going to run out of food!" Beast Boy yelled undignified, certainly worried about a now wasted food bowl.

"It wasn't for you grass stain. But he has a point, Robin, she has been in a weird mood again." Cyborg pointed out.

"Friend Raven isn't acting unusual. I think she is a little disturbed over our newfound time together. She just needs time to adapt." Thankfully Starfire interjected.

"Adapt? To what? Us? Nu-uh. Look she has been getting worse, I have noticed how her control is getting weaker on missions." Cyborg responded. She was truly slipping if he was noticing.

"I trust her, and it is hard to take you seriously with a whole English breakfast all over your face bro." Robin mentioned calmly.

"I also trust her, don't get me wrong, but I'm worried, she is going to harm someone soon dude, and I can't have that on my record. Not now! You need to talk to her." Cyborg demanded to Robin.

"Relax Cy, I will. We will figure something out. We always do. As a team." Robin replied serenely, but in her mind, through her bond, she could feel the seed of doubt being planted in his.

She stopped in her tracks. Cyborg already distrusted her control over her abilities, and Robin began to have some doubts. And how could they not. She, after all, was demonic. The daughter of Trigon himself. Her mood fell once more and dejectedly continued her walk to her room.

As she walked, her thoughts roomed freely in her mind. What if the best option was to disappear? Truly? That way she couldn't hurt someone while in combat, and therefore maintain the Titans' record clean. Because fusing… Fusing is unthinkable. She won't go there. She had done everything the monks told her, yet she feels that everything is slipping out of her control. It was maddening. Maybe this was the best possible outcome? But… but, what if they were wrong? Was dividing her mind the best option? How were they sure? Why didn't they give her a chance? They were just scared, weren't they? Maybe they deserved their fate after all. What was the worst that could happen?

She shook her head intensely. She couldn't be thinking of fusing. This wasn't her. A cold chill ran through her spine, and she suddenly felt the air become heavy on her lungs with the realization. It wasn't her. It was Rage. Her father must be up to this. That is why everything has been changing for the worse. She looked behind her and a shadow moved. At least she would swear it did. That was it. She needed to handle her father once and for all. She wouldn't let this affect her family. Not again.

With a sense of urgency and renewed energy, she practically ran the remaining of the hallway and entered her room. Once in she turned and input the locking code for her door. Nothing was coming out into the world except her. And if she didn't make it out of her mind, so be it. She let her book fall, took a deep breath, and grabbed her mirror.

Four red eyes greeted her and soon she was in Nevermore.

A/N: How about that? Brave must have taken the steering wheel and floored the gas. This is the first chapter of a longer story than the ones I'm used to write. Thoughts? Anyway, the next chapter will be released sometime next week, I hope.

Also, yes I know, but I'm probably going to write another story, about yes, I'm going to let you guess. Yes, it is… Raven. Now this one I want it to be outside these scenarios, letting me write her in a whole new set of circumstances, an alternative universe would be nice. Wouldn't it?

Well, parish notices are done. Stay tuned!