Tim and Bart froze as they entered Anguish's domain. It couldn't be more different from Joy's. While Joy's was pink and had a meadow filled with flowers, Anguish's area was dreary. The sky was dark gray. Thunder echoed despite the absence of clouds overhead. Towering walls marked the boundaries of Anguish's territory. The walls even seemed to move. The entirety of Anguish's home appeared to be closing in on them. Literally. It gave the feeling of claustrophobia even though the walls weren't physically moving. However, the shadows along the walls moved like separate entities. Tall mirrors, scattered throughout the area, showed twisted, nightmarish versions of themselves. "This is terrifying," Bart said as he stopped in front of a mirror reflecting a drug-addicted Bart.

"I agree," Tim muttered as he glanced at his reflection's face, which sported a familiar and sadistic grin coupled with crazed eyes.

"I'm going to have nightmares," Bart said, moving onto the next mirror.

"Me too," Tim muttered, moving onto the next mirror. "Bart!" Tim barked as he saw Bart's terrified expression. "Stop looking at them!"

"Right," Bart shuddered. "Let's keep walking. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

The two continued in silence, looking at the ground. Ignoring the bloodcurdling reflections, creeping shadows, and nefarious whispers was their only option. "I don't know how much more of this I can take," Bart said. The path came to an abrupt halt. "Did we reach the end?" he looked up.

"Nope," Tim answered, "it's a maze."

Bart's face fell. "Oh, come on!"

Neither one wanted to enter the maze of terror, but it seemed to be the only option. "What do you think is in there?" Bart asked, trembling.

"Try not to think about it," Tim said as he stepped foot into the maze.

"You are way too calm about this whole thing," Bart said as he followed him. "It's weird and abnormal."

"Well, I don't consider myself normal," Tim smirked at him.

"None of you Bat-people are normal."

"Help!" a voice shrieked, echoing through the narrow halls. Bart and Tim swiftly turned back-to-back. "Where's it coming from?" Bart asked. Tim scanned his surroundings with a frantic gaze. He then relaxed. "I really don't want to make you look, but you should probably look," Tim said solemnly.

"Help!" the voice shrieked again. Bart turned around to see what was going on. The wall displayed a Raven... or some Ravenesque entity. Her hair hung long and stringy, her clothes were torn, she had bruises on her face and cuts on her arm, and she sobbed. Tim approached the…I don't even know what this is. An apparition? Phantom? Phantasm? Corporealization? I have no clue. His heart broke at the desperate and petrified look on Raven's face. From his point of view, she was banging on the wall, crying out for help. In reality, who knows what's happening? "So," Bart gulped, "is this a memory, a fear, or both?"

"I honestly wish I knew," Tim whispered sadly.

"It's a fear," a voice said from behind them. Tim and Bart whirled around in time to see a figure emerge from the shadows. Anguish's uniform was almost exactly like Raven's. The difference was the cloak. It seemed to mimic the properties of Vantablack, making it seem like her body was being engulfed in darkness or a black hole. "It's a fear," she repeated, a vacant look in her eyes. "It's what happened to her mother, and she is afraid of it happening to her."

"What happened to her mom?" Bart asked.

Tim then remembered. He and Dick were the only two people on the team who knew the precise details of how Raven was conceived. They found out by accident, sort of. (Tim was teaching Dick to hack. They were practicing on the Bat-computer. Raven's file was the first file to pop up. She'd only been in their universe for 72 hours.) Tim had felt guilty afterwards, sort of. The guilt came and went sporadically. Right now, he was feeling extremely guilty. "That's Raven's story to tell," Tim finally answered Bart.

"So, is there a terrified Raven stuck in every wall of this maze?" Bart asked.

"This isn't a maze." Raven turned her sclera eyes to Bart and Tim. "It's a winding path with walls."

"Okay. Is a screaming Raven stuck in every wall of this winding path?"

"I do not know," Anguish answered.

"How do you not know?" Bart demanded. Anguish's face scrunched as she whimpered, and tears came to her eyes. She clenched her hands into her chest protectively and backed away from Bart. "Woah, woah," Bart held his hands up. "I wasn't trying to…I was…" Anguish's whimpers turned into cries as she backed up and hid behind Tim. "I'm sorry," Bart apologized as he looked desperately at Tim.

"She's Anguish, Bart," Tim whispered. "She is literally the embodiment of fear and sadness."

"I thought that meant she causes anguish," Bart whispered in return.

Tim face-palmed himself. "You're safe, Anguish," Tim placed a comforting arm around Anguish's trembling shoulders.

"I've never gone past this first wall," Anguish explained. "It's so scary, and…there's an enormous monster at the end."

"If you've never walked the entire thing, how do you know there's a monster at the end?"

"Because he whispers in my head, always taunting me," Anguish shivered.

"That's horrifying," Bart said.

"I know," Anguish cried, "and I'm too scared to do anything."

"Um, there, there," Bart patted Anguish's head. Tim gave him an incredulous look, to which Bart shrugged in response. "I don't know how to comfort a sobbing Raven," Bart whispered. "Do you?"

"Anguish," Tim spoke softly to the trembling emotion, "Bart and I have to get to Knowledge. This path is the only way to get there."

"I know," Anguish sniffed.

"What if Bart and I came with you?" Tim suggested.

"Are you sure you want to go through?" Anguish shifted on her feet. "It's really scary."

"We are sure," Tim said confidently.

"I'm not," Bart muttered, looking back at the terrified Raven.

"What if I held your hand?" Tim asked, ignoring Bart. He offered his hand to Anguish, who recoiled once more. She glanced at Tim's hand, then at Tim, then at Tim's hand. "Okay," she whispered shyly. Putting her hand in Tim's, Anguish blushed a pretty red. "I won't let go," Tim assured her. Anguish nodded. "Bart, are you ready?" Tim asked.

"To get out of Raven's mind? Yes. To go through the maze of terror and doom? Nope. Not at all. Not looking forward to it." Tim gave Bart a blank stare. "I…I mean, yeah. Can't wait, I'm so excited."

"Let's go," Tim said, leading Anguish confidently.

"He's gotta be faking it," Bart muttered, "he has to be."

The trio navigated the Path of Fear in silence while the Raven in the panels screamed in terror and fear. Tim and Bart walked side-by-side. Every now and then they'd hear a whimper from Anguish. She walked behind Tim, holding the tail of his shirt with her eyes glued to the ground. "Um, Anguish," Tim cleared his throat. "I'm seeing a lot of images of Raven alone in a dark room."

"It's because she feels alone, and it scares her. A lot. Because when she's alone with her thoughts, all the terrible memories come back," Anguish answered in a small voice.

"Raven has bad memories?"

"Everyone has bad memories."

"Do Raven's bad memories include her standing on stage naked in an auditorium filled with people?" Bart asked, trying to lighten the mood. "Walking out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to her shoe? Farting loudly on a date?"

"Trigon raped her mom and forced the memory into Raven's head as punishment when she was 13 because he wanted her to open a portal to Azarath, and she refused," Anguish cried.

Bart and Tim came to an immediate stop. "That is diabolical," Tim replied.

"I'm going to keep walking in silence," Bart said. They kept walking until they came upon a scene of a red, four-eyed female tearing Tim and Bart's teammates and friends apart. "She's afraid some red witch is gonna kick our ass?" Bart asked.

"That is Raven when she loses control," Anguish whimpered. They passed more panels of Raven combating loneliness, both metaphorically and literally.

"I can't keep looking," Bart said as he stopped in front of a panel where a shadow was choking the life out of Raven. He flinched as a horrific scream came from the panel next to it. "I will not look." He continued walking by it without glancing. "I think this needs to be said—I could run through this entire thing in less than a second. But I'm here, by your side, walking this path with you, not leaving you behind."

"You do understand that we are in this mess because of you, right?" Tim asked, narrowing his gaze at Bart.

"You didn't have to step in."

"You really think you would survive this…mindscape….without me?" Tim scoffed.

"I guess we will never know," Bart stated smugly.

"I can sense Bart's fear," Anguish said to Tim in a soft voice, "he would not survive without you."

"See?"

"I hate both of you," Bart ribbed.

Anguish stopped walking. "You hate me?" she asked as tears filled her eyes and poured down her cheeks. "You really hate me?"

"No," Bart tried to explain, "it was a joke."

"Why do you hate me?" Anguish sobbed. "I told you it would be scary, but you said you had to go through."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Bart apologized profusely as Anguish fell to the ground and sobbed loudly. "I don't hate you. I don't hate you," he repeated to no effect. Anguish's cries drowned out his apologies. "Tim, help," Bart shouted to Tim, who was distracted by a panel in the distance. "Tim!" Bart barked.

"What?" Tim turned to Bart. He frowned at the scene before him. "Bart, what did you do?"

"It was a joke," Bart explained as Tim fell to his knees by Anguish and wrapped his arms around her shaking body. "I don't really hate her."

"Anguish, did you hear that?" Tim asked. "Bart doesn't hate you."

"Do you hate me (hiccup), too?" Anguish looked up at Tim with red, watery eyes.

"No, of course not," Tim answered.

"Really?" Anguish asked as she calmed down and wiped her eyes.

"Of course not. I think you're pretty cool." Tim gave her a warm smile. Anguish stared at him in shock as her last few tears rolled down her cheeks. Tim held his hand out, palm up. "Shall we continue?" he asked with an adorable smile. Anguish nodded, placed her hand in Tim's, and allowed him to assist her to her feet.

"What?" Bart looked flabbergasted.

"Just ignore him," Tim said to Anguish as they walked past Bart. "Let's keep going."

"What a flirt—the whole lot of them," Bart muttered.

"Keep up, Bart," Tim threw behind his shoulder with a smug expression. Bart rolled his eyes and followed miserably.

Tim didn't know how much more of this he could take. They'd been walking for what felt like forever. The only positive was that his brain had grown accustomed to Raven's cries for help; they had become nothing more than background noise. The relief he felt when he finally saw the end was almost more than he could bear.

"Raven?" Bart said from behind him. Tim blinked his eyes. A few yards ahead, at the end of the path, was Raven. She looked at them with an empty stare.

"No," Anguish said, holding Tim back.

"Raven!" Bart sprinted ahead and threw his arms around her. "I am so sorry. So sorry. I will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever enter your room without permission. Never again."

"No," Anguish gasped.

"What's wrong? It's just Raven," Tim said.

"No, she is not," Anguish cried with tears in her eyes.

"Bart!" Tim cried out to the speedster, who was still hugging Raven, apologizing profusely. "Bart! Get away from her! It's not our Raven!"

Bart turned to look at Tim and asked, "What do you mean it's not our Raven?" He turned to the Raven he was hugging. "You are our Raven, right?" Raven gave him a sweet smile, luring Bart into a sense of safety. The smile on his face slowly fell as he watched the smile on Raven's face continue to morph. "Uh, Raven?" He took a nervous step back. "What's wrong?"

"Bart, get back here!" He heard Tim scream. Raven giggled. Her giggling changed into laughter as her voice grew louder. She burst into uncontrollable laughter, with a touch of sadism. By this time, Bart had reached Tim and Anguish. "What is happening?" he asked as Raven's voice seemed to deepen until the laugh sounded masculine and beastly.

"Raven's biggest fear," Anguish whispered. "The monster at the end."

"It's her?" Tim asked, misunderstanding. "It's her."

"No," Anguish said. Tim opened his mouth to ask another question when a second pair of eyes appeared on her forehead. By now, she was no longer laughing. She was grinning maliciously. Both pairs of eyes turned red. Her skin turned red, her hair white, and horns sprouted up. Her body then grew until she was 20 feet tall.

"Um…uh…" Bart stuttered. "I have no words."

"And yet, you're still speaking," Tim replied. The giant Raven then released a loud roar.