This story isn't technically new. I started writing it many years ago, back in the prime of my Teen Titans years. The original title translate from Latin to Save us from Danger, Save Us from Evil, but I think that's ridiculous so I changed both the title and a good deal of what happens in the story.

Music for this chapter is Throwing Punches and (at some parts) Just Like Me, both by Paramore.

I'll stop the whole world, I'll stop the whole world
From turning into a monster and eating us alive
Dont you ever wonder how we survived?
Now that you're gone, the world is ours.

~Monster, Paramore

Monsters
Chapter 1

Raven stood tapping her foot listlessly, Robin standing in front of her. Robin had been acting moody recently and had been particularly bad that all day. He was staring at her now, burning holes into Raven's skull with his eyes. She wished he would hurry up and say what he needed to say – she was getting bored.

"Come on, Robin, out with it,"

Robin's mouth, previously open in indignation, snapped shut and his lips formed a thin line. "You need to stop acting like that, Raven," he seethed. "It's rude."

Raven arched her eyebrow and rolled her eyes. "It's called being blunt and getting to the point. Which you aren't doing."

"My point is you're a bitch and you need an attitude check!"

Raven sighed and folded her arms under her chest. Honestly, she had seen it coming. With Robin's change of attitude came her own; she couldn't act the same around him when he got so ridiculous. He had been different after his breakup with Starfire, becoming a moody, anti-social creep. He had gained a few pounds, something that was hard to hide in his brightly coloured spandex.

"Okay, I'm a bitch, whatever. I need a break." She turned on her heel and walked away from the room, leaving Robin to his own thoughts and deciding it was well past the time she should gone to visit her mother.

XXX

Raven knocked on Starfire's door, most of her possessions packed into three suitcases that she had placed next to the door before knocking. Starfire answered her door in her pink silk pyjamas, her long legs exposed in the short shorts, remind Raven just how old the Titans had gotten. Raven smiled kindly and asked if she could come in. Starfire nodded cheerily and moved aside to let Raven in.

Raven sighed and almost plopped down on Starfire's mattress. "Kori, you aren't going to like what I have to say, but please promise me you won't get upset."

Worry creased Starfire's features. "I fear I do not understand, friend. What is it that you mean?"

Again, Raven sighed. "Look, I have to leave the Tower. Robin and I aren't getting along and I feel like I need some time off. I'm tired of fighting crime every day and I'm tired of dealing with an angsty Robin. I'm going back to Azarath to see my mother and I don't know when I'll be back."

Starfire smiled sadly at Raven and put her hand on the empath's shoulder. "I understand, my friend. You have saddened me with this news, but I know that I will see you again. Will you write to me?"

Raven nodded. "If you want, I wouldn't mind. Though our letters might take a while to get to each other. I might be able to set up some sort of inter-dimensional mailbox or something."

"That would be glorious," Starfire responded kindly. "Thank you for confiding in me, Raven. I wish you to know that I will miss you greatly."

"Me too, Kori. Me, too."

Raven left Starfire's room, the only goodbye she would say said, over, and done with. Starfire would look over the boys and give them the note she had written, a few words written for each of them. She had written the least to Robin…

She was now wandering about the Tower, her suitcases in tow, collecting various bits of her possession that had bit scattered about in the five years she had lived in the Tower. A book here, a tea cup there. There was an old sweater somewhere that she wanted to take with her.

She knew that she was going to have to get different clothes once she got to Azarath; her mother was now ruling as Queen and that made Raven a princess. This was something she hadn't told anyone – wouldn't tell anyone. If they had been surprised at finding out about Starfire, how would her friends react to Raven being royalty?

She made a full circuit and ended up in front of her room again and went in, only the slightest hesitation before she did so. She had told Starfire that she was not going to be gone forever, but Raven wasn't entirely sure that she hadn't told a lie. She had been thinking about leaving since they had gotten back from Tokyo, a constant, nagging thought that grew every time Robin got under her skin or insulted her. She loved her friends dearly and loyally, but she had grown up with them, and she felt like perhaps it was time for her to stretch her wings – both metaphorically and literally – and go home. Reconnect with her mother, as it were.

She sighed as she drew the necessary things for a portal to Azarath and then sat in the middle with her suitcases surrounding her. She was nervous – she hadn't seen her mother in years and had not seen Azarath since its return to its former beauty. She wondered how people would react to her and if she would recognise any of the people there.

There's an empty room at the end of the hall and it's begging to swallow you whole.

She spoke the incantation and she and her suitcases were off to Azarath without another look back.

XXX

Starfire went out to the common room when she heard the boys come in. They had all gone out with Cyborg to buy some car parts and had left the girls at home. "As if I would want to go anyway," Raven had said. Starfire had had to agree with Raven, but she hadn't known that the girl had been planning on leaving.

She held Raven's letter in her hand and she walked into the room and look sadly at her friends. Cyborg was the first to notice her there and he waved at her kindly. "Hey, Kori, what's up?"

"Friends," she said. "I fear I come with the bearing of bad news. Raven has gone back to her home on Azarath and, though she informed me that she intended to return, I do not believe she will. She came to speak with me and left with me a letter that details a personal message to each of you."

They all looked shocked and rather dismayed, but Beast Boy was the first to break through it and snatched the note from Starfire before she could say or do anything about it.

Garfield, it read.

We didn't always get along as best we should. Please know that I value you as a friend and that I will miss you even though I never really let you know just how much I value your friendship. I appreciate that you tried to make me laugh, even though it rarely worked. Take care of yourself for me.

Victor,

You are like a brother to me, and I shall dearly miss our afternoons working on the T-Car together. Know that I treasure you and you will always be close to my heart. I have promised Kori that I will write to her, and perhaps I will write to you, too. Keep the boys in check; without me, things may be chaotic and I hope that you will take charge and keep them in line where I cannot.

Richard,

We were once very close and I regret that we fell from each others' graces. Be safe.

All my Heart,

Raven

Beast Boy finished reading the letter out loud with tears in his eyes. "Dudes, she's not coming back, is she?"

Cyborg shook his head. "It doesn't sound like it, man. I guess she couldn't take it anymore."

Robin snorted, his arms crossed indignantly under his chest. "Handle what? There wasn't anything for her to handle. She never dealt with anything."

"She dealt with you," Cyborg muttered under his breath. Raven hadn't been the only one with leaving on her mind. Robin desperately needed and attitude check and Cyborg was fervently hoping that Raven's leaving was going to be what finally gave him a dose of reality.

Starfire's expression turned from neutral to frowning it two seconds flat. She had expected that Raven's leaving would not have a positive effect on her friends and team, and she didn't like seeing the proof of just how right she was in front of her. Her friends, fighting over ridiculous things. Robin had been right when he had told her that it would ruin the team dynamic if he were to date her and it all fell apart. It was happening right in front of her and she could do nothing to stop it.

END CHAPTER

So I'm going to work on longer chapters and such after this. This fic is going to get super involved with all sorts of intrigue and war and stuff like that. So let me know what you think. This is really just introducing the situation and setting up characterizations. This Robin is very different than the Robin I usually write – that is to say he's really rude and horrible and not as upbeat. In other words, he's a big fat meanie pants that causes all sorts of trouble.

Review if you liked it and let me know if I should continue!