What Dreams May Come

A collaborative work by Elissar and RabulaTasa

Disclaimer: We do not now, nor have we ever- save for that one Thursday in 1965- owned the Teen Titans.

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

-Carl Jung

The alarm was just as loud and unexpected as it always was, causing Raven to jump slightly in surprise. Flashing red lights repeatedly danced across her face as she rolled her eyes and sighed. She marked her page and closed her book- a tattered, leather-bound edition of an ancient spell book written in a language long since lost to history. Rising from her comfortable position in the overstuffed armchair by the common room window, the empath dropped the aged tome onto the table beside her, the sound of its impact only faintly audible over the blaring of the alarm's siren.

As she turned and started walking towards the middle of the room, Cyborg came bounding heavily into the room and made straight for the computer terminal at the other end. A moment later the piercing siren was silent, but the flashing red lights remained active, giving the large common room an oddly ominous look, even in with the daylight pouring in on all sides.

"Does that thing really have to be so loud?" Raven asked almost casually, folding her arms as she addressed her mechanical friend. He opened his mouth to answer but just then a green hawk swooped only inches from his face and an instant later Beast Boy was standing in between them.

"Ah, don't come so close!" The metal Titan swiped at the air where his friend had just flow by.

"Sorry. Is it just me, or is the alarm louder than usual today?" The changeling squinted as he twisted his index finger around in his left ear.

"We were just talking about that—" Cyborg was again interrupted by Starfire and Robin's arrival.

They were both out of breath and flushed, and their uniforms showed signs of having been readjusted in a hurry. Raven noticed that the two were a little out of breath for no more than a 100 yard dash- virtually nothing for the Boy Wonder and a girl who could fly. Letting go of the thought, she turned back to Cyborg to find out what had triggered the alarm.

"What's the problem, Cyborg?" Robin asked, then took another large gulp of air. He moved quickly over to where the cybernetic Titan was seated, with Starfire close behind. The Titans drew in a little closer to their mechanical comrade and gave him their undivided attention.

"It looks like…" he was typing furiously on the keyboard, bringing up window after window on the large display and drawing out his pause. "It looks like Dr. Light is robbing a bank," he finished, a clear note of disappointment in his voice, and then slumped back in his chair.

"Ha, Raven, maybe we should just let you handle it; you really did a number on him last time." Beast Boy laughed at his own joke, eliciting an agitated glare from the half-demon.

"No, we all have to go. We'll take him out together." Robin said, his gaze directed at Beast Boy, but Raven gathered his words were meant for her. Her last encounter with Dr. Light, while resulting in a resounding victory, had also wreaked havoc on her mind, and she wasn't too keen on having that happen again.

"It just has to be Dr. Light, it can't be a real villain, like Brother Blood or Slade, someone who can actually fight. No, it has to be a glorified human nightlight." Cyborg stood up from the chair and attempted to crack his neck, even though the gesture had been useless for years. Old habits can be hard to break.

"We can't underestimate him, guys," Robin responded to the complaint as the Titans made their way down the nearby stairs towards the garage. "You never know what he might have up his sleeve."

"What, a glow stick?" Cyborg gave his green friend a high-five.

"All I'm saying is," Cyborg said as he opened the door to the T-Car, "is that this is the first villain to show up in about a month, and who is it? A guy who's more likely to knock himself out on a low hanging sign than put up anything we would call a 'fight.'" Raven climbed into the backseat after Beast Boy rushed to the passenger side, as though under the delusion she was going to call 'shotgun' before him.

Robin kick-started his trademark motorcycle and pealed out of the Titan's garage, with Starfire following quickly behind in the air.

Cyborg sighed as he adjusted his review mirror. "I guess we should probably stop him before he gets away with the money." He cupped his hand over his mouth and in a deep voice bellowed: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cyborg Transit Authority. Please buckle your seatbelts and keep all hands and flippers inside the vehicle at all times throughout the duration of the ride." He finished his perfect imitation of a pilot's voice by throwing the T-Car into drive and taking off.

A few minutes later and they were almost halfway through the city, weaving in and out of the relatively light traffic with expert precision.

Despite what he knew would be a very short trip, Beast Boy felt very bored, so he turned to Raven in the backseat behind Cyborg "Hey Rae, how's your day been?" He smiled broadly at her, and then broke out into laughter an instant later.

Cyborg shook his head. If that boy wasn't a bit more careful, he was going to get himself killed.

"Beast Boy, I have told you a thousand times: Don't. Call. Me. That." She gave him an icy glare that would have stopped anyone normal person in their tracks, but then again, she wasn't dealing with any normal person. Far from it.

"I'm pretty sure that was 1342 times, actually. But then, who's counting?" He grinned madly, taken with his own brilliance. Raven's eyes flashed red and he whipped back around, the grin stricken from his face.

"Ok we're here," said Cyborg, relief evident in his tone. At least Raven wouldn't kill BB all over the upholstery.

There were scorch marks on the outside of a large brick building across the street from where the T-Car had stopped. Large glass doors in front were blown out, and the metal that made up their frame had melted into twisted forms on the ground. There was no question they were in the right place.

The R-Cycle pulled up next to the T-Car a moment later, with Starfire landing in front of both at the same time. The Titans were just about to put together an entrance plan when they heard shouting, and a voice they all recognized, getting louder.

"And to you cooperative and beautiful tellers, you are all simply radiant. Now I really must be off, but I hope you all found the experience illuminating." Dr. Light's back was too the door as he made his escape.

"That's enough bad puns for one day, Light." Robin commanded as the Titans formed around him.

"Dude, you're one to talk," Cyborg whispered, causing his leader's eye to twitch.

"Ah the Titans! Er, I mean, Ah, the Titans." Dr. Light tried to smile menacingly, but only managed some sort of grimace. He held fast to the sack with a comically large dollar sign painted on it, even as his eyes darted nervously between Raven and Robin.

"Do you really want to do this? You could just, give up you know…" Beast Boy offered, holding out his upturned hands in a shrug.

"I think not, little Titans. This time, Dr. Light is read!. Dr. Light has something new! This time, Dr. Light will be—"

"Oh god, he's talking about himself in the third person. I can't take much more of this." Raven pinched the bridge of her nose and lowered her head. The other Titans diverted their attention to their purple-haired friend, leaving Dr. Light to rant to an inattentive audience.

"You don't want to talk? Fine then! Have it your way!" He drew back his hand and threw a yellow-white ball of energy at the five teens. The Titans scattered backwards, each in a different direction.

Dr. Light ran forward, dodging starbolts, birdarangs, sonic blasts, and flying heavy objects as he stumbled around the street, firing wildly at anything that moved.

"Alright guys, let's wrap this up." Robin called over the din of fighting.

A green tiger leapt at Light, who only barely turned out of the way in time. Beast Boy was not as fortunate, as the villain managed to land a lucky shot with his own weapon. His good fortune was cut short, however, by the arrival of a low-flying telephone pole. Sweeping beneath him, it took out his legs and sent the good doctor ass over teakettle into the hard asphalt street.

Raven walked up to the groaning, face down villain. He looked up and saw her approaching, then scrambled away seemingly terrified. Somehow managing to drag himself again to his feet, Dr. Light faced her, one hand holding his bag of money and the other hanging limply at his side. Raven could hear Beast Boy getting up off the ground a few feet behind her, dusting himself off and shaking off a daze.

"Do you give up now?" she asked tiredly. Looking straight into his nervous eyes, she could see fear… but also something else. Anger and… satisfaction? She arched an eyebrow in confusion at the emotions she was detecting from the villain before her.

"Not quite." In one quick motion he brought up his unburdened arm, a glowing ball of red energy charging in his palm. Raven reacted according to years of training; throwing her arms in front of her, one palm over the other, and sending up a heavy shield of black energy to block Light and the oncoming blast.

The space around her seemed to dance and shimmer as the blast heated the air- she could see the red-hot glow of it from behind her shield, and it was becoming more clear with every passing nanosecond. The shield was breaking.

Raven poured all her remaining strength into holding the shield. Beast Boy was only a few yards behind her, she knew if it hit anywhere near them, it would likely destroy them both. She could see the cracks in the dark energy, like a window deep under the ocean, holding back the pressure of trillions of gallons of water. The shield managed to hold for almost an entire second and a half.

And to think she had written him off as Mostly Harmless.

The blast ripped through her defenses, shattering the energy and sending black shards flying in a thousand different directions before they evaporated into the air. Throwing herself to the side, she managed to escape the bulk of the attack, and the blast merely caught her left shoulder before continuing on to hit the bank behind her.

Beast Boy watched in shock as the half-demon spiraled through the air, already running towards her as she landed roughly on the sidewalk and skidded halfway into the hole created by the blast. A wave of horror washed over him as he realized the wall above her was about to collapse, and he pushed his legs even faster.

"Raven!" he cried. The thought of how amazingly fast he covered the fifteen or so yards between himself and her still body never occurred to him; the only thing echoing through his mind being his frantic mantra: Please don't be dead. Please God, don't be dead. He bent down to grab her, and actually had his arm around her shoulders when one of the bricks from the crumbling edifice collided with the back of his head.

The first one dazed him, and he stumbled before collapsing on top of his unconscious teammate. The second ensured that he didn't even feel the wall fall on him.

Dr. Light observed the scene before him, a smug grin of triumph slowly coming over his face. "It- it worked? It worked! Oh god… oh god it worked!" His smile vanished in an instant as a sonic blast hit him from nowhere, disintegrating the rest of his armor, a birdarang smacked into the back of his knee, forcing him to the ground, and a furious looking alien advanced on him, eyes and hands glowing bright green. "Oh crap," he muttered to himself, "it worked."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ah it's so bright. Who turned on all the lights?

I just want to sleep.

Come on, just five more minutes.

Beast Boy's eyes flickered open, somewhat annoyed at the bright light that had disturbed his sleep. He realized he was lying on the couch in the common room, and was staring directly into the sun, hanging high outside the window.

"Ow," he moaned, "my eyes." He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes and blinking. "My head," he groaned loudly. "Who hit me with a sledgehammer while I was out?"

"Good job, man…" Beast Boy couldn't see Cyborg when he looked quickly around the room. "You had one thing to do and you couldn't even do that right." His voice was cold and humorless- not a tone that Beast Boy at all associated with his best friend. Looking around once more, he found the metal Titan standing at entrance to the living-room.

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Beast Boy asked as he rubbed the back of his head, realizing where the headache was mostly coming from.

"Yes, I agree. You have been most useless." Starfire's voice rang out from behind him, in front of the massive television, where she seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

"Ok guys, if this is some sort of joke, I'm really not getting it."

"It's no joke Garfield. Raven is dead because of you." Robin appeared on the other side of the room. The three were now in a sort of triangle around him, and began slowly advancing.

"What!? Wait a second, I don't remember-" He was spinning his head around between the three of them.

"All you had to do was take the hit for her, that's it. But the one time we all actually want you to get in the way, you can't do it. You should be the one with their head smashed in, not her!" Beast Boy noticed Robin was holding a collapsed staff in his hand. The Titans were only a few feet away.

"You don't mean-" Cyborg grabbed a handful of his uniform at the neck, lifting him off the couch and holding him in the air with ease.

"Every. Last. Word. You had one job, you useless little turd. It was so simple, even you could understand it: take the hit for someone else." Beast Boy withered under the metal Titan's piercing glare- he could tell the pure, undulated hatred in his voice was real. He could feel it even when Cyborg dropped his voice to a whisper. "We never want to see you again. Now, GET LOST!"

With one powerful motion Beast Boy felt himself being hurled towards one of the massive windows. He smashed through and felt the glass cutting his face and arms, ripping his already torn uniform.

He plummeted like a stone.

The ground was coming up fast.

He thought about a hawk, and nothing happened. An eagle, nothing. A sparrow, nothing.

The ground was coming up fast.

He thought about a mosquito, and nothing happened. In desperation, he let out a cry that was strangled by the rushing wind, and still nothing happened.

The ground was coming up fas-

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Cyborg, what's going on with them?" Robin's voice didn't waver as he commanded his friend to give him the information, despite the thoughts racing through his head. He squeezed Starfire's hand as much for his own benefit as hers.

"Well… they're not dead."

"This is good news then!" Starfire lit up as she wiped away tears streaming from her massive green eyes, but still held fast to Robin's hand.

"What do you mean 'they're not dead'?" Robin looked at his resident medical expert incredulously. "You're not the first doctor I've dealt with, Cyborg." He watched as his friend shifted on his feet nervously and refused to meet his eye.

"I wasn't lying, they aren't dead. But they can't exactly- well; they aren't quite the pictures of health at the moment."

"Please, I wish to know what is wrong with our friends, friend Cyborg." Starfire sniffled slightly, but hadn't succumbed to the overwhelming urge to collapse sobbing, allowing herself only a constant stream of silent tears.

"Well they've both got some pretty serious internal injuries, and more than a few broken bones. But I'm pretty sure I can handle most of those even without Raven's healing powers. But… they're both in comas I can't seem to rouse them from." His shoulders slumped and he looked somewhat despondent for a moment before recovering.

Robin put his free hand on the cybernetic Titan's shoulder, comforting a man half-again as tall as him- quite a feat. "When do you think they'll come out of it?"

Cyborg's shoulders fell once more as he turned back towards his two comatose friends.

"They may never come out of it."