It seemed like he had only closed his eyes for five minutes when he heard his communicator go off. Instantly alert, he jumped to his feet and snatched the tiny device off the table, flipping it open with practiced fingers. "This is Robin," he responded tersely. "Go ahead."

"This is Starfire," came the reply. "I was monitoring the Titan City Surveillance and I spotted something a little...'funny'? by the city power plant. I believe it may be Doctor Light. The city's power is flickering terribly."

"On it." Robin was already pulling on his steel-toed boots. "Everyone meet me by the power plant. Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy, take the air. Cyborg and I will follow on the ground. On the double. Titans, go!" Grabbing the keys to his motorcycle off the hook on the wall, he rushed off down the hall towards the underground garage. Cyborg met with him halfway there, rubbing the sleep out of his remaining human eye.

"Dude, did you notice the power flickering?" he asked sleepily. "I know I didn't. I didn't hear the backup generator come on either."

"If Starfire said she saw something, then I believe her," Robin replied. The two reached the garage. He grabbed his helmet from the seat of the cycle and pulled it snugly over his head. "You take the back road to the power plant. I'll come from the front. The girls and Beast Boy know to take 360 air coverage as usual. Meet you there." With that, he hopped onto his motorcycle and revved the engine, then sped loudly out of the garage.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the team stood in the pouring rain outside the city power plant. The lights were glimmering faintly through the dirty windows of the ancient building, and the city winked its sleepy eyes at the Titans as they played practiced gazes over the scene at hand. However, despite the rain and distant thunder, everything seemed peaceful and quiet.

"So...why are we here again?" Beast Boy grumbled.

Cyborg shook the rain out of his eyes. "Yeah Star, what is this about?"

"The lights were flickering in the city," Starfire told them earnestly. "So I did the homing on the power plant, and I saw shapes passing in front of the building. It was most unusual, for earthlings do not usually visit the power plant late at night in the rain, so I called a Titan alert!" Her chest puffed up with pride.

"Starfire, THIS is why we let Robin monitor the city," Raven said moodily, retreating deeper into her raven-hooded shadow for shelter from the rain. "You jump at every little thing."

"But I saw something, Raven! I know I did!" Starfire cast her an imploring look. "Can we not at least look around?"

"Come on guys," Robin interrupted, "let's just do a quick sweep of the area. If Starfire thinks she saw something, then it won't hurt any of us to just take a look around. Besides, what if she's right? We could be facing something serious here." He snatched the flashlight from the side of his motorcycle. "Raven and I will check the perimeter. Cyborg, you take Starfire and Beast Boy. Use the skeleton key to the city the mayor gave you to get inside. If someone finds something, send up a signal. If everything still looks okay in 20 minutes, we'll meet back here at the entrance. Titans, go!" Without a moment's hesitation, the team split up.

"So, do you really think Starfire saw something?" Raven asked after a few minutes of poking around the bushes ringing the ancient structure. She shivered as a drop of rain slithered down her neck.

"Can't be sure," Robin replied, turning his flashlight to peer down the road. "But it's better to be safe than sorry." After assuring himself that all was quiet in the surrounding city, he heaved a sheepish sigh.

"What is it?" Raven shot him a curious look.

"Well..." He fidgeted with his flashlight. "I think she might be looking a little...TOO hard for some sort of crime to apprehend."

"And why is that?"

Robin laughed nervously. "Well, you know Starfire...you said yourself, there's a reason we don't let her use the surveillance system too often..."

"Uh...HUH." The hooded girl raised an eyebrow. "You know you're not very good at lying, Robin. It doesn't take a psychic to read you like an open book." Her dark eyes watched the masked Titan give her an all-too-nonchalant wave as he busied himself with the remaining side of the building. Gliding up to him, she crossed her arms and planted herself in front of him. "Look Robin," she said, exasperated, "I don't care what happened between you and Starfire to make her want to arrest every shadow that shows up on the surveillance screen, but when it's popping everyone out of bed at 3 in the morning for a whole lot of nothing, it seems to me like it's something you definitely need to get under control. I do NOT want this to become a regular occurrence."

"Uh...sure thing..." he mumbled, running a gloved hand through his soaking ebony hair.

"Good. Now what do you say we check the roof so we can get out of here?" She pointed a slender finger toward the sky, then held out her hand to offer him a lift. The masked Titan accepted, and the two friends rose towards the roof.

"I told her we couldn't be more than just friends," Robin said softly as their feet touched the worn stone surface of the roof. "I know she likes me, but I don't think...especially being Titans...that we could ever be more."

Raven's cold response came after a short pause. "That's nice. I'm going to look over here now." The hooded figure slipped silently into the rain.

"I'm not sure why I told you that," Robin muttered to her retreating form. "Seems I'm telling people all sorts of things they don't need to know lately..." He was about to start checking the storage sheds dotting the top of the building when he heard a bloodcurdling scream. "Raven!" he gasped. Darts already in hand, he took off towards the source of her voice. "Raven, talk to me! Where are you?" His eyes searched frantically in the darkness. "Got to signal the others..." His hand darted to his belt; in seconds, a waterproof flare lit the night.

Instantly he wished the night had remained dark.

A giant black figure swallowed the light of the flare as if a black hole had formed on the roof of the power pant. Two sets of slanted red eyes glowed menacingly from its depths, and below them a mouth full of glittering yellow teeth leered at the tiny Titan standing before it. Raven was clutched in its claws.

"What, no hello?" the shape snarled. "I'm insulted! Though I do concede, it must be hard to recognize me." Raven groaned as sharp, shadowy talons raked across her body.

"Let her go!" Robin shouted, shifting his stance as he drew his pole. "I'm warning you!"

"Let her go?" The creature burst into terrifying laughter. "Why, this is simply a reunion! After all, this girl was the one who sent me to the asylum for three years! I want to thank her for my newfound power." The girl gasped; the creature tightened its grip.

The young Titan blinked behind his mask. "Asylum...no...you can't be..." Terror forced him back a step.

"Yes! I am none other than Dr. Light!" The proclamation echoed through the pounding rain. Raising Raven high, the shadow that was the monstrosity's body surged around her slender form. "I was the one this child so foolishly drug though the bowels of hell, leaving me naught but the shell of a man cowering in the corners of his own mind, afraid of the darkness that had taken form within him! However, what she did not know was that she had given me an unfathomable gift...the gift of the very darkness which consumed me!"

At that moment, the others raced onto the scene. Starfire gasped when she saw Raven clutched in the monster's claws, darting over to Robin with wild fear in her eyes. "Robin, what is happening?" she demanded. "Why does it look like Raven has got Raven?"

"I'll explain later," Robin answered tersely. "For now, we need to get Raven away from him. ASAP!"

"Man that thing looks pissed!" Cyborg yelped. He and Beast Boy rushed to join their fellow Titans, both waiting for their leader's command. "How do we fight it?"

"More importantly, how do we fight it without hurting Raven?" Beast Boy added.

"I don't know, but we're not going to have time to think about it! Look out!" Shoving Starfire out of the way, Robin managed to grapple his hook onto one of the storage sheds and pull himself out of harm's way before a bolt of black surged through his body. Beast Boy changed instantly into a pterodactyl and flapped towards the creature that called itself Dr. Light, carrying Cyborg in his sharp talons.

"YEEEEEEEEEHAW!" Cyborg unleashed his beam cannon, and the mass of shadow roared. "Star!" he yelled. "Get Raven!"

"Right!" Green eyes aflame, Starfire leaped into the fray, firing starbolt after starbolt at what she could only guess was the arm carrying her friend. "Raven!" she shouted desperately. "Please, friend! You must wake up! You are in grave danger!" Her plea fell on deaf ears; Raven appeared to have entered the comatose state that kept her from harm. Helpless to aid her friend, Starfire swooped upward to avoid being swallowed by the darkness that raged around her.

"Keep trying, Titans!" Robin cried. He was rapidly throwing everything in his arsenal at the creature to no avail. In fact, his shadowy foe seemed to be enjoying their fruitless efforts.

"No longer will Dr. Light bow to you puny Titans!" he crowed. With an effortless sweep of a string of shadow, Starfire was sent hurtling towards the ground. Beast Boy attempted to charge the thing as a triceratops, but was quickly tossed aside, bringing down Cyborg as his giant body slammed into the stone. The beast grinned triumphantly. "And now, for the coup de grace..." He raised Raven high in the air, yellow teeth glimmering in the light of the flare. "When you become a part of me, little one, my power will be unstoppable!" Red eyes gleaming, the monster opened its claws, and the unconscious girl began to topple towards its gaping maw.

"No..." Robin murmured, watching his team fall to the once-powerless villain. "No!" Using his pole as a vault, he launched himself towards Raven in a last ditch attempt to free her from her dark prison. He felt his foot make contact with an ethereal surface and was instantly surrounded by the sensation of freezing cold water. "Raven!" he gasped, desperately fighting his way through the living shadow towards the haze of blue he could see mere feet from his grasp. Through sheer force of will, he managed to touch her freezing hand. At that moment, however, Raven opened her eyes: all four of them.

"You thought you could beat me, father," she growled. Her voice took on an unearthly tone, seeming to echo within itself as it huge black wings of shadow erupted from her lithe body. "You thought you could use my power as a portal into this world...well...you were wrong."

"What...what's happening?" Dr. Light's hideous body writhed. "No...this can't...be!"

"What's going on...?" Beast Boy wondered, eyes wide.

"I think...we're...winning?" Cyborg responded, equally dumbfounded.

"Look at that..." Starfire pointed weakly at the unfolding spectacle.

The form of a huge bird suddenly engulfed the entire creature, and, with a final inhuman scream, Dr. Light was drowned in the otherworldly cry of the raven.