Beast Boy noticed that Robin didn't really seem to take his advice to heart.

In fact, to the chagrin of the rest of the team, Robin and Raven spent the next three days at each other's throats. Constantly.

He noted that the arguments rarely seemed to have an actual starting point; rather, they seemed to be screaming at each other for no reason.

He tried to focus on their conversation.

"Yes, it is!" No idea what Raven was talking about.

"No, it's not!" Robin wasn't too helpful, either.

"Yes!"

"No!"

"You've got be kidding!"

"It's not my fault you're always wrong!"

"I am not wrong! Not now, not ever!"

"Just because you have a control complex doesn't mean you aren't wrong!"

"Just because you have a depression complex doesn't mean you're right!"

"You did not just accuse me of being depressed!"

Beast Boy didn't really understand how the argument had even turned in this direction.

"Says the one who spends all of her time holed up in a dark, depressing room reading dark, depressing books!"

"What, jealous that I actually know how to read?"

"Oh, are we resorting to kindergarten-standard insults? Is that what you come up with when you don't have a decent comeback?"

"I thought I'd have to use a kindergarten-level insult for your kindergarten-level brain to comprehend it."

"Yes, that's precisely why I'm the leader of this team!"

"And you're doing a damn terrible job at it!"

"You -"

"SHUT UP!" Cyborg thundered.

Their heads snapped towards him, eyes shining with fury. Cyborg, however, seemed unfazed.

Beast Boy decided it was a good opportunity to flee the room.

"You guys have been at it for days! Give it a break! I don't even know what the fuck you guys are arguing about, anymore! You're both acting like toddlers!"

There was a moment of silence as the pair continued to give him death glares. Cyborg barely refrained from rolling his eyes as he alternated between the harsh lines of the black mask, and the furious blue eyes none of them were yet accustomed to. The city depended on them, but none of them knew about the pair's ridiculous, childish arguments. Luckily. A couple of bickering idiots weren't exactly the best people to trust.

Finally, Raven snapped out of her glare and turned on her heel sharply, her cloak swirling around her. She looked eerily reminiscent of her old self, even with the differing appearance and white cloak. Still furious, she paused at the door to the hallway, turned and gave Robin the finger before stomping out.

"REAL MATURE, RAV -"

The door slid shut, cutting him off. She didn't pause, sweeping down the hallway and into her room, pacing angrily.

Fucker.

The roaring in her ears almost drowned out the blaring alarm.

Almost.

Shit.

Fuck.

She wasn't ready for this.

Should she stay? Should she go?

God, fuck, what the hell am -

She barely held in a yelp as her door slid open again without warning, revealing a still-furious Robin in the doorway.

She was unable to restrain her own remaining anger, and snapped, "Can't you make some noise when you're walking around, at least?"

"I see your insults haven't improved in the past few minutes."

"Would you just -"

"Shut up." He cut her off, irritated. "There's a robbery in the city. Let's go."

"What happened to the old plan, where I just stayed here at the Tower and monitored everything from the computer system?"

"That was never a plan. We're not just going to leave you alone during a battle," he said authoritatively.

"Yeah, we are," Cyborg spoke up. Neither of them had noticed the rest of the team gather behind him.

"What? No!"

"I'm not exactly some child who you can't leave home alone." Raven cut back in.

"Aren't you?" Robin remarked snidely.

"I'm not a child!"

"You certainly act like one."

"Robin -"

"We are a team! She can't just wait around while -"

"So you'd prefer her to come along and sit in the middle of a battle when she can't even defend herself?"

"And what if someone breaks into the tower while we're gone? Look at the Hive - they've gotten in before. They don't show mercy. At least if she's with us, we can actually protect her!" He could barely keep the desperation out of his voice.

"Robin, villains don't give us the chance to protect someone else. Think about it - isn't being in the midst of a fight how she got hurt in the first place?"

"No-"

"We'll all have earpieces. Raven can talk to us throughout the fight."

"I'll be fine, Robin. Stop being paranoid."

"Stop being careless!" He retorted. "We can't-"

"We can, and we will," Cyborg cut him off once more. "She's safer here. And while you're busy arguing about whether Raven is safe in her own home - in my security-proofed Tower - people are getting hurt out there! Get your fat ass moving!"

He met Raven's icy glare even as Cyborg's unflinching metal hand pulled him down the hallway and out the doors.

Titans, go! he thought bitterly.

~x~

"Robin," Beast Boy hissed as they crept towards the small building.

Robin briefly pondered ignoring him. Knowing Beast Boy, though, the changeling would be more likely to resort to a much longer, more annoying bout of pestering until he received an answer.

"What, Beast Boy," he sighed.

"You know, constant arguments are not exactly the best way to get her to love you back." Robin's posture visibly stiffened, aware of the slight buzz of the speaker in his ear and just who exactly was on the other end. Beast Boy hurriedly continued, oblivious. "Just sayin', dude! Just some guy to guy advice from a real ladies man - girls don't normally like being yelled at, or told they're wrong, and all that other stuff if you want them to love you-"

'Robin,' came Raven's voice hesitantly through the earpiece. 'What -"

Robin slammed open the doors to the store before either could get in another word. He noted, almost thankfully, that the store instantly reverberated with a blasting voice.

"IT IS I, CONTROL FREAK: YOUR WORST NEMESIS!"

'Fabulous,' came the sarcastic voice.

"Aw, come on!" Beast Boy moaned, waving his hands wildly at the remote-wielding, self-proclaimed freak posing on top of the shelves. "Didn't we just throw you back in jail last week? Give Robin a break, he's got some serious girl issues that need attending to!" Robin growled at him, fingers itching to grab him. "Fine! Even better, give me a break! I just want a vacation!"

"'Cause that went so well last time," Robin snapped.

Beast Boy flushed. "Well, if we went somewhere other than Japan..."

They were interrupted by an annoying, gleeful laugh. "Robin! Girl issues, really? What girl would actually associate with you?"

Beast Boy snickered. "Dude, I felt the same way!" Cyborg elbowed him harshly. "Wait, stop it! We're supposed to be fighting you!"

'You think?'

Control Freak continued as if Beast Boy hadn't spoken. "Or, what girl would the uptight Robin actually care to associate with? It has to be someone from the Titans then, yes? I would guess Raven, seeing as she isn't here." He began to prance across the tops of the cases, grinning snidely. "What's the matter, she didn't want to get too close to you? Or is she injured? A lot of us down in jail noticed that nobody's seen her since that little alien debacle last month -"

There was a loud thump, and suddenly the self-important criminal lay unconscious on the ground, his forgotten remote smashed beside him.

Beast Boy gaped where the heavyset, greasy-haired figure lay in a pile at his feet.

"Come on." All heads snapped to the masked teen, already straddling his bike. "Let's get back."

There were a few moments of silence before Raven's voice filtered through the speaker once more.

'Well, that was fast.'

~x~

"What the hell, Robin?" Beast Boy screamed out the window of the T-car, his high voice sounding like some deranged fan that plagued the team every so often. "How did you even take him out that fast? Just like, POW! He's just out - "

Robin maintained his silence.

"It was quite impressive, Robin!"

'Guys -'

"- didn't even last a minute! Just like, pchaw chaw! Pyowww, hiiiiya! Victory!" Beast Boy simulated ninja moves in the backseat, Starfire narrowly avoiding him. "Did you even see how hard you kicked him? You just flew up, like a ninja - "

"You sound like you want to marry him, BB."

"Shut up! I mean, you gotta admit that was awesome!"

"Uhhuh."

"I don't think we've ever ended a fight that fast! Robin was just like, no way am I going to take any more of this shit, and then went all ninja-warrior status - "

"What is this 'ninja warrior?"

" - complete domination -"

'KRSHHHHH.'

They all stiffened.

"Raven?" Starfire whispered.

Silence.

"Do you think the connection just broke, or -"

A series of loud bangs cut them off, as if a gun was being fired.

They were drowned out by explosions. More gunshots.

Raven's yelling, indecipherable words.

'No!'

Explosion.

Gunshot.

A scream.

A crash.

Silence.

~x~

Robin normally enjoyed silence. Silence was a place where he could think. Silence was where he could create his new inventions, consider his theories about Slade and whatnot villain, and so forth. Where he could work. Function.

Now, silence was wrong.

Silence was the enemy.

The living room was filled with debris, but he strode to her room instead, knowing it was the first place she would have hid.

He pushed his way inside, stopped. Blinked.

Her room was completely untouched. Her few belongings immaculate, bed smooth - everything tucked away.

The movement of the curtain caught his eye.

He slid out the window quickly, his toes balanced on a thin ledge. He pressed himself against the glass walls, slowly sliding sideways and barely grasping another thin ledge with his fingertips.

He was living some sort of detective movie, and he would've laughed if Raven wasn't the one missing.

He finally toed the corner of the next window, crawling into it easily as it had been smashed open. His own room. His desk had been knocked over, and he could see she'd found the secret compartment underneath it. How the hell... He rummaged quickly, and could see she'd stolen a few weapons he'd been working on. Who exactly had she needed to defend herself from? His fists twitched at his sides as he left the open door, continuing into the hallway.

His mind portrayed her fleeing down the hallway quietly, in the opposite direction of her own room. He figured that she'd heard them approaching her room and escaped through the window, in the hope of fleeing through Robin's room, where no one would look for her.

He turned the corner. This is where her plan failed and she'd been discovered, if the debris was any clue. He fingered the edges of the singed holes in the wall, where she'd obviously fired one of his experiment guns at her pursuer. The holes were all close to each other, where she'd paused to aim.

He had no idea exactly what the invader had used to blow chunks out of the walls and ceiling, however. Something new, and incredibly dangerous.

The destruction led to the living room. He passed his teammates, huddled over the computer as they looked for who-knows-what. Security footage, maybe. Clues.

He shivered, his eyes tracing the wreckage that sliced through every memory he had of her in this room. The remains of the kitchen made his hands twitch at his sides, remembering her huddled on the tiles, how he'd abandoned, hurt her that day.

The singed holes circled the room, scattered in loose patches. He trailed the path across the room, into the next hallway.

How did they know just when to come? Control Freak mentioned something...but no one would know the details, or just when everyone would be gone but her...

There was absolutely no semblance of order to the holes now; they littered the walls everywhere. His chest ached, seeing her run wildly, shooting randomly throughout the room, her pursuer closing in. He himself unconsciously began to run through the hallway, heart pumping, sliding around a corner -

Literally sliding along the ground as his foot slipped, unable to catch himself before he fell.

What-

And suddenly, a strange, foreign moan slipped from his lips.

The thick fluid was spread across the floor, lining a path out the shattered window. He could feel it soak into his gloves, his hands, staining his vision a matching red, burning him. Her blood.

~x~

"- your fault!"

"Robin, man, please don't chant like we're little kids."

"Your fault she's gone!"

"Robin -"

"Your fault!"

"Please, Robin. Cyborg didn't actually kidnap Raven!"

"We never should have left her alone!"

"We never could have prepared."

"I did, I warned you all -"

"Robin, please!"

"Now she's gone, and there's blood, she could be anywhere -"

"She's not dead, Robin."

"DON'T SAY THAT."

"I'm saying she's not dead!"

"I don't care. Don't say that."

"She's out there, Robin. We'll find her."

"I'll find her."

"Rob-"

"I will find her. You guys are the ones who fucked her over in the first place."

"Robin, the tower was safer. You looked over the security system - whoever got in knew exactly how to get past everything; there's no way we could have prepared for that. And look at the damage their weapons did! We may not have been able to protect her even if we had been here."

"I would have."

"Rob-"

"I would have."

"Robin, please. Stop blaming us. We're trying to get Raven back, too."

"You're not trying hard enough."

"It hasn't even been an hour, the computer's analyzing -"

"That's not enough!"

"We're doing what we can!"

"Find more clues. I'm going to look around again."

"We've already -"

"As I said, it obviously wasn't enough. You haven't found anything."

"Robin -"

The door shut.

His feet tread silently, retracing the path he'd already paced so many times. His eyes were wide, stretching the contours of his mask as he searched for something, anything. Shifting through the clutter revealed nothing they didn't already know. Testing the blood had revealed nothing besides the fact that it was her blood - nothing they didn't know. The fabric caught on the shards of the window was her cloak - nothing they didn't know. Nothing that told who had taken her. Why. How. Nothing.

He kicked out the last shards from the window, barely noticing the loud sounds as the glass pieces cracked and fell to the island, shattering on the rocks below. He sat on the edge, staring out into the water below as if it would reveal her.

The sunset streaked colors across the sky, the lights of the city flickering on as the sky darkened. All Robin could see was the purple and red reflection of the water below. All he could see were her accusing violet eyes, and her crimson blood, staining his eyes. Burning.

Well, it's good to be back. I truly apologize for the delay; I've had this chapter sitting around for awhile, but was never fully pleased with it. Made a few tweaks, and that's the best I could do. Hope you all will enjoy it anyways!

It's been a long year, and I cannot wait for summer. Only a few short weeks away!

Thanks again for all of your lovely reviews! I can't explain how much they mean to me, so please keep them coming!

- Nadine