Four months passed since my breakup with Beast Boy. I stayed in my room for most of it—when we weren't fighting villains, of course. I was too afraid to talk to him; I didn't know what to say, really.

I tried to talk to Starfire about it, but she had relationship problems of her own to deal with. We were of no help to each other. Despite our shared bond, I don't have free access to Robin's true emotions, which ultimately means that I didn't know how to encourage Starfire to start a relationship with Robin any more than she knew how to encourage me to confront my feelings and rebuild a relationship with Beast Boy. Most days we just sat in the same room, trying to come up with solutions to both of our problems.

Some days, we were lucky, and there was a bad guy to fight.

I didn't recognize this villain, but he was terrorizing the people on the street just like any other villain I knew. Robin threw one of his birdarangs and knocked the device out of the pink and blue villain's hand. A green hawk flew over the villain's head, making him duck. The villain was just quick enough to avoid being blasted by me, Starfire, and Cyborg; he leapt onto the top of a street lamp and glanced up at the building that we were on.

"Since you're new in town," said Robin, "we're going to make this very simple."

"Stop now," said Starfire.

"Yeah, man, the locals don't like it when you blew up their stuff," said Cyborg.

Robin pointed at the villain, glowing with authority. "Put your hands in the air, and—"

The villain raised his hands, jumped, and flew into the air with a jetpack propelling him. So much for Robin's authority.

"Hands in the air, dude," cried Beast Boy. "Not your whole body."

"Tourists," I groaned, not looking forward to chasing this guy all around the downtown area.

"Titans, go!" Robin yelled.

Starfire and I were the only ones who remained in the air as we chased after the villain. The other three followed us through the streets: Robin on his motorcycle, Cyborg in the T-car, and Beast Boy as a green cheetah.

"Anybody got a clue what this genius is after," I asked.

"Who cares what he wants," Cyborg yelled from down below. "What he's gettin' is a helpin' of Grade-A butt-whoop!"

Robin's motorcycle sported small missiles. "Alright, team, let's see what he's made out of." He shot the missiles at the villain, who slowed down long enough for the missiles to pass him and then destroyed it with two of his own devices.

The villain flew past me and Starfire, circling around the corner behind us. We caught up to him, sending blasts of energy his way. The villain spun around mid-air and deflected our attacks with metal nunchakus. Before we could lay a hand on him, the villain descended and flew over the tops of the buildings.

I couldn't get a good angle on the villain while flying. I created a circle of dark energy underneath my feet to keep me upright so I could focus more on my aim.

The villain threw explosive devices down at Robin and Cyborg, who swerved in order to avoid being blasted. He turned and blasted a green hawk out of the air before continuing down the street.

"Okay," said Beast Boy as he climbed onto my dark energy circle. "Am I the only one who's sick of these explode-y things?"

No. I was quite done with them myself, actually. That's not what I said to Beast Boy, though. "Does this look like a taxi to you?"

"No. It's way too flat and circle-y."

I couldn't think with him so close to me. It was the closest we had been in months. I opened up a hole where he sat, causing him to fall off. I made sure he returned to the air before I continued.

Cyborg leaned out of the driver's window and aimed his cannon at the villain, whose hands were loaded with more explosive devices. Where was he getting these from? "I know you're not throwin' that at my car!" His blast destroyed one of the villain's arms.

What I saw next made my stomach churn. The arm grew back. It changed colors until it matched with his current outfit. Just what type of creature were we dealing with?

I was so distracted that I didn't notice Cyborg calling for help, as one of the explosives had landed inside the T-car. Beast Boy lifted him into the air about the same time that Robin caught Starfire before she hit the ground after being blasted by the villain.

When I joined up with the team again, Starfire was carrying Robin through the air, and the villain was leaving the downtown area. "Think we scared him off?"

"No," said Robin slowly. "He's headed straight for…"

"Titans Tower," Cyborg cried.

It was true. The villain had laid waste to the Tower with his explosives. I hoped that, somehow, my room had remained untouched. I doubted that it had. It'd be too easy for me to assume that my room was excluded from the destruction simply because it was mine and I needed a place to hide from Beast Boy.

"You're gonna lose a lot more than an arm this time," Cyborg yelled as he fired his cannon in the villain's direction. He and Beast Boy were shot out of the sky soon after.

I lifted two large rocks into the air as Starfire caught the two boys. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" I crashed the villain in between the rocks and then separated it to see if the villain had made it through.

He had.

I didn't have time to react before the villain closed the distance between us and kicked me into the Tower. The sound of one of Robin's devices attaching to the ground beside me brought me to my feet. I descended to the ground with the rest of my team to find that Robin had managed to tie up the villain.

"Our house," Cyborg groaned, finally relaxing. "Look what he did to our house!"

Beast Boy rubbed his neck. "Dude, I need a vacation."

Robin dropped the villain to the ground. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The villain struggled in the rope, shouting at us in a language that probably originated from some Asian culture.

"Um," said Beast Boy, "either that wasn't English, or I think I have a concussion."

One of the villain's devices began to beep wildly and it turned into a pink ball. Robin picked it up, inspecting it through his glare. "Bring him in," he told us all.

Once the villain had been set up in the interrogation room—a room that I'd never really seen us use before—we went back to the living room to assess the damage. Our lights had been switched off and there wasn't a piece of furniture that had remained whole through the blasts.

"What a mess," I said as I peered into the holes in our ceiling.

"I really need a vacation," said Beast Boy with a sigh.

Cyborg sniffled. "I can rebuild my car; I can repair my Tower; but my sofa?" He fell to his knees and turned his head away. "I can't even look!"

Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder and offered him a comforting smile. "Here, here, Cyborg."

I offered the two of them something else: a broom and a mop. "Well, this place isn't gonna clean itself." I used my powers to connect the broken pipes and replace the tiles of the ceiling. I glanced over my shoulder to see Beast Boy still sitting down, depressed.

I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to offer my consolations. The Tower's our home, and seeing it destroyed is never easy for any of us. I knew that Beast Boy had probably been hit the most because the living room is where he and Cyborg spends the most time. Like the way that my room is my sanctuary and place of security, the living room was his.

I handed him a broom and dustpan without looking at him and then returned to fixing the holes in the ceiling. I tried to stay as far from Beast Boy as I could, and I noticed that Starfire kept looking at Robin, who was working on our computer system. She turned and gave me a pinched smile before returning to her work. Yet again, there were no words either of us could say to help the other.

"Dudes, seriously," said Beast Boy, "when was the last time we took a vacation?"

Unless you count going to Paris to defeat the Brotherhood of Evil as a vacation, then…

"Never," said Robin as he replaced the screen of the computer. "We're heroes, Beast Boy. We don't take vacations." He tightened a final screw and stood up as the computer made a humming sound. "Basic systems are back online. If anybody needs me, you know where to look." Without another word, Robin left.

Yes, the interrogation room. If we needed him, it wouldn't be me who goes into that room to search for him. Robin becomes a different person in rooms like that. He's much darker. It reminds me of when he used to be obsessed with Slade. I don't like seeing him like that, and I'm not sure it would be wise for us to be together considering the recent instability of our emotional bond.

Even now, I could feel his anger rising within me. The interrogation was probably not going well. I've never attempted a full exploration of our bond—especially considering how it feels like an invasion of his privacy—but this is a new area of my powers for me. We've been able to sense each other's emotions ever since Slade's mask drugged him, but recently the connection's been even more…personal.

Lately, I've realized that if his feelings are strong enough, they have the ability to influence my own. And with my own emotions being as unpredictable as they are, I can't help but wonder if this new development is partially my fault.

Or if the bond's been affecting Robin in similar ways.

Robin came back into the room, drenched and angry, yelling that the villain had escaped after breaking a fire sprinkler. Beast Boy and Starfire did a perimeter check, but they came back without any luck in finding him. Cyborg searched for him on the computer and I folded my legs underneath me so that I could meditate.

"This doesn't make any sense," Robin raged as he stared out the window. He held up the pink ball from the villain whose name was Saico-Tek. "People don't just disappear."

"I don't know what to tell you, man," said Cyborg. "The crime scanner's one of the only things we got workin' in this place and it can't find him anywhere."

"I can't make psychic contact, either," I told them all.

"Perhaps this Saico-Tek possesses the power of teleportation?" said Starfire, the only one brave enough to approach Robin when he was in this state.

Robin shook his head. "If he could teleport, he would've done it the moment he was caught."

Beast Boy raised his hand and said, "Maybe he just wasn't waterproof!"

I was glad to see I wasn't the only one mad at Beast Boy. He shriveled underneath the withering glares of me and Cyborg.

"I know," said Beast Boy quietly, "not helping."

Cyborg turned away from Beast Boy and said, "So if the dude vanished into thin air, how are we supposed to find him?"

"By tracking down his boss," Robin told us. "This…Brushogun ordered an attack on our headquarters. He nearly destroyed our home. He will be brought to justice. Pack your things. We're heading for Tokyo."

"Sweet!" Beast Boy yelled. "We're going on vacation!" He ran off before anyone could correct him.

Whether the trip we were about to take counted as a vacation or not, it was obvious that none of us knew how to pack. I walked around the Tower, trying to spy on the other Titans so that I could get a sense of what I could pack for the trip. Cyborg packed extra body parts; Starfire had an alien suitcase that could hold all of the contents in her closet; Beast Boy looked like he was packing his entire room.

Robin was the only one who gave me an answer: "Just pack the essentials, Raven. Anything you think you'll need for the trip—bring it."

I went to the bathroom and took my toothbrush. Then, because I was convinced that this trip would probably take more than one day, I packed extra cloaks. As I was folding my clothes over, something fell from my suitcase and hit my foot. I had a little difficulty seeing it in the darkness of my room—I really should have lit another candle—but the shape was familiar enough. It was the little black pin that Beast Boy had given to me on my birthday. I had lost it after our break up and had almost completely forgotten about its existence until now.

Now that it was in my possession again, I was faced with the decision of what to do with it. Was I supposed to get rid of it? I had never really had a real break up before—I didn't really count Malchior—and I didn't know if one was supposed to keep the things that had been given to you from your significant other.

I walked over to my window and stared out at the sun. From my window I could see the rocks where I had watched Beast Boy and Terra share their moments. My hand clenched over the pin until it stabbed the palm of my hand. In the back of my mind, a little voice told me, You shared your own moments there, too. Remember that?

Of course I remembered. I was getting tired of this little voice. For the past four months, it had reminded me of the memories I had shared with Beast Boy, of the feelings that I still retained for him. Couldn't it understand that I wanted to move on? That I did not want to spend time dwelling on this subject? That I just wanted to avoid this whole thing with Beast Boy entirely?

A knock on my door startled me. "Yes," I said, after having a moment to recover.

It was Beast Boy, of course. "Robin says it's time to go." Silence followed, but I could still sense his presence outside my door, waiting for me to respond.

"I'll be right there." I waited for the sound of his footsteps to die out. Without putting much thought to it, I clasped the pin over my heart and gathered my bags. As Cyborg tried to fit all of our bags into the T-ship, I realized how consciously aware I was of the pin. Though it couldn't have weighed any more than a paper clip, it felt heavy against my chest. I glanced up and, after catching Beast Boy's eyes, turned my head, wondering if he could somehow feel the weight as well.

Cyborg finally gave up on trying to get all of our bags into the trunk and found a rope that was sturdy enough to hold them against the exterior. Robin called for one last check of items he thought we would need before we all piled into the T-ship and set off.

No one said much of anything for the first hour. Starfire spent most of her time looking out the window; Beast Boy drank from an enormous cup and told bad jokes over the headsets; Cyborg played a videogame; and Robin flew. I finished the book I had been working on since the beginning of the week and had just pulled out the second one that I had packed when Robin stopped the T-ship.

We were lost. I looked down and realized that we were hovering over ocean—a lot of ocean. Starfire pulled out a map of the world and tried to find our coordinates, but I assured her that she wouldn't have much luck.

"We just need to keep heading west," said Robin, pointing out into the horizon.

A frown settled over Cyborg's face as he pointed in the opposite direction. "No, we should go back east and look for familiar landmarks!"

"That'll take too long!"

"It'll take even longer for us to keep going further into the ocean! We should head back now before we get too far."

"Please," said Starfire, raising a hand from behind the map again, "could someone explain whether we are in the ocean of the Atlantic or of the Pacific?"

Beast Boy, whose legs were crossed, gave a sudden wail. "Dudes, I really need to take a bathroom break!"

It was enough to stop the arguing. Together, Cyborg and Robin located an island that was on Starfire's map and we stopped there to relieve ourselves. Luckily, the island was also close to the route that we had planned on taking to Tokyo. It seemed like we wouldn't have any more troubles, so I put on my headphones and fell asleep to my shuffled playlist.

It wasn't long before I was rudely awakened by Beast Boy. I awoke with a start as I tried to inhale and found someone's finger in my nose. To add to my surprise, Beast Boy was standing above me with a camera pointed at me, documenting the entire thing.

I immediately realized how close he was to me in my little pod. Heat rushed to my cheeks as I locked eyes with him. To keep him from noticing my blush, I gave in to my second response: anger. I encased the camera with my magic and pressed down on the flash as I repeatedly slammed Beast Boy's head into the glass dome around us. It took me a while to calm down and let him go—I think it was because I had accidentally allowed some of my past anger at him to slip out in this small act of revenge. I was left alone for the remainder of the trip after Beast Boy crawled out of my pod. After more grueling hours of boredom, we arrived in Tokyo.

We found a mountain to land on that overlooked the entire city. "Tokyo—we made it," said Cyborg as we all climbed out after him. He smiled down at Robin. "Told you it was a left at Hawaii."

Starfire clasped her hands together and said, "Oh, the city lights are like a million tiny flnorbla flies."

"It may look nice, but there's something rotten down there," said Robin. "And we're going to—"

"Yeah!" screamed Beast Boy as he jumped down. He was dressed in a pink Hawaiian shirt with white shorts, matching flip-flops, and sunglasses on top of his head. "Hello, Japan! So, when do we get to go see the Great Wall?"

I ignored my attraction to his new outfit and said, "Never. It's in China."

"Ooh," he said, ignoring my sarcasm. He turned toward me with a giant smile. "But you know what is in Tokyo? The world-famous, number one, greatest, most awesome Japanese comic book company, Wakamono Shuppan." He pointed at a large, prominent building off in the distance.

Before I could say anything else, Beast Boy grabbed my hand and Cyborg's, saying, "Oh, we've gotta take the tour now! Please? Oh, we can't come here on vacation and not—"

"We're not on vacation," said Robin firmly, stepping into Beast Boy's pathway before he could go anywhere else. "We're heroes, not tourists. Our mission is to locate Brushogun and bring him to justice. And, since we're guests in this country, we need to be on our best behavior. So let's just do our job and try to stay out of trouble." He started walking down the mountain.

The hand that Beast Boy had grabbed tingled. I folded it underneath my other arm as I followed Robin down. Behind me, Beast Boy said, "Come on, how much trouble could we possibly get in?"

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that he had just doomed us all.

Whether he had done this intentionally or not, Beast Boy ended up walking beside me. "Seriously," he whispered to me, "you and I need to go and take that tour."

I did want to see this place. It seemed to interest him so much, and I did like touring things—especially if it would lead to more information. However, the idea of going alone with Beast Boy made me nervous. Instead of saying all of this, I told him, "I don't want to go on the tour."

"Come on, Raven. You read books all the time and comics are books, too."

"I don't like books with pictures in them."

"You'd like these," he promised. "I know you would."

"And how exactly would you know that," I asked him.

He stared at me for a moment, as if the answer was obvious. "Because I know you."

I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks. Fortunately for me, I was spared having to say anything in response. I looked up, realizing suddenly that we were in the middle of downtown Tokyo. Everyone and everything looked so busy. I wasn't sure how we were going to figure anything out, let alone look for some bad guy.

Beast Boy must've thought the same thing. "Toky-whoa."

I glanced at Robin and said, "So, where to now?"

Robin pulled out a small red book—an obvious tourist book. "The roughest part of town is in the Shinjuku district. We'll start our search there."

"Okay," said Cyborg. "Which way is that?"

"I don't know. I can't read the signs."

"No problem. We'll just ask for directions," said Beast Boy as he walked up to a stranger. He spent all of forty seconds with the man before coming back and admitting that he hadn't understood a word.

I thought Cyborg was going to strangle him for wasting time, but Starfire stepped in and offered her "assistance". She looked around and grabbed a teenage boy who was walking past. In one fell swoop, she pulled the boy closer to her and planted her lips on his.

I couldn't stop my eyebrows from raising. How bold of her! I also couldn't help but notice the effect it had on Robin—I thought his mask was going to fall right off of his surprised face. Perhaps this was Starfire's way of getting his attention?

I gasped as a sudden wave of anger overtook my body. My vision clouded with shades of red as thoughts that weren't mine surged forward. Violent thoughts about the boy, longing thoughts of Starfire and the desperate urge to quench the insatiable fire in my stomach.

Starfire broke the kiss and began to speak in fluent Japanese. The boy answered her and sighed, his eyes practically clouding over with hearts. She returned to us and pointed to her left. "It is this way."

Robin's shoulders drooped. "Um, Starfire? Why did you just...kiss that guy?"

She seemed totally unfazed by his question, as if the situation held no real meaning for her. "Oh, people of my planet are able to learn any language instantaneously through lip contact."

It took a moment of silence for everyone else to process what she'd said. Cyborg was the first to speak: "So you speak Japanese now? That's great!"

I could've sworn as I moved forward with my friends that I'd heard Robin mumble something about it not being so great, but I was distracted by the amount of people screaming and running past us. One stopped to give us a warning before he continued down the street.

"What are they saying," I asked Starfire.

"'Run. The monster is attacking the power lines.'"

Almost immediately after she'd said that, I felt the ground underneath me rumble with the pressure of large footsteps. As the monster came into view—I don't know how I'd missed it before—I realized that it was a giant lizard. The lizard roared and then ran through the power lines, snapping the cords in half as he passes through. Perfect. Jump City has freaks; Tokyo has monsters. Guess every place has their thing.

"Titans, go," yelled Robin. He tossed a few of his devices the lizard's way.

Starfire shot beams from her eyes and I threw my bolts of dark energy. Our efforts only succeeded in getting the thing to turn its attention to us. Cyborg, with the help of a green pterodactyl, blasted it with his cannon. The blast created a large hole in the lizard's chest, but the skin repaired itself to the right texture and color.

"Same power as Saico-Tek," Cyborg noted as Beast Boy lowered him to the ground.

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Because it works for Brushogun too."

The lizard roared a second time and blinked at us, shooting brilliant beams of light our way. We separated and I found myself facing the lizard's back when the dust from the blast had cleared.

I caught sight of Robin flipping around on the street, trying his best to avoid the giant creature's stomping feet. Without a moment's hesitation, I encased some of the cars around me and flung them into the lizard. When it turned to face me, I continued my assault, hoping that it would eventually do some damage.

"Where's a gas guzzle when you need one," I muttered to myself as I resorted to flying away.

I didn't get very far. I had barely turned around when I was snatched out of the air by the lizard. It held me up to its face, peering at me. As I struggled to get out, I became aware of the sound of a green raven's warning call.

Beast Boy.

I looked up just in time to see the raven become a gorilla. The green ape rammed its body into the lizard's face, disorienting the creature for a moment and successfully releasing me.

I didn't allow my happiness to distract me. I flew into the air, trying to put some distance between me and the creature. I turned around when I heard a large cracking sound. Beast Boy had attempted to morph into a T-Rex underneath a highway and had paid the price for his hastiness by striking his head on the concrete.

The lizard reared its head back and threw up a long stream of green bile, covering Beast Boy and rendering him unconscious. I started to make my way back when the creature bent down to sniff him, but Cyborg and Starfire beat me to it.

Within moments, the creature had trapped Cyborg underneath a giant sign and had managed to get Starfire tangled in some electric telephone wires. As Robin led the creature away—taunting the creature by calling his mother a "salamander"—I checked on my friends.

By the time I had made my way over to Beast Boy, he was beginning to pick himself up. I was grateful to see that he was alright. I started to ask him about his condition and help him up when he said, "Aw, man! How am I supposed to pick up hot Japanese girls with a big green stain on my shirt?"

Words cannot describe all the emotions I felt at that moment. Is it possible to have your heart shatter and your blood boil at the same time? Again, I let my anger take control. I leaned over him with a scowl, ignoring how close we were. "Your skin is green, you have fangs, and your ears are pointed," I said, checking off all of these things on my fingers. "You're really worried about the shirt?" I flew back a couple of feet and started to follow Robin's trail.

"Hey," he yelled after me. "Chicks dig the ears!"

He was right of course. I mean, I had, at the very least. I also "dug" his skin, his fangs, his shirt—everything really. But I didn't mention that. I just kept flying.

We found Robin and the lizard—both were surrounded by officers. We started to make our way up to him, but we were advised to stay back while the officers brought the lizard to its knees with a large electric net.

"We have got to get one of those," Cyborg murmured. I could already see the plans for such an invention forming in his mind.

We made our way to Robin as a man in a large brown duster turned toward him. He placed his sword back in his holder and said, "Ah, you are the Teen Titans, hm? Welcome to Japan. I am Commander Uehara Daizo of the Tokyo Troopers."

We bowed—well, everyone except Beast Boy. To keep him from seeming disrespectful, I reached up and pulled his head down by the collar of his shirt. My hand was so close to him that I could feel his breath over the tops of my knuckles. He was breathing harder than usual, or maybe that was just my own heartbeat.

When Commander Daizo released us from the bow, I was quick to remove my hand from Beast Boy's collar. The feel of him underneath my skin still sent electricity through my veins, and it was enough to make me want to forget myself and the last few months. To make me want to—

I shook my head, erasing my thoughts, and slid into one of the cars that Commander Daizo offered us to ride in to their headquarters. I had hoped to be riding with Starfire, but fate would have it that I was stuck in between Beast Boy and Cyborg. Thankfully, the drive didn't last long.

The Tokyo Troopers headquarters was one of the larger buildings downtown; it seemed even larger on the outside. I stepped onto a large rising platform with my friends and tried my best to stay as far away from Beast Boy as I could.

Commander Daizo turned to Robin and said, "Tokyo is a unique city, my friend, with its own unique dangers. Of course, I am sorry you had to learn this the hard way."

"We're used to danger," Robin informed him, "but we appreciate your help, Commander."

"'Commander'? No, no, no, no, you may call me Daizo, hm? We are friends. I will honor you with a tour of our headquarters and our home. I founded the Tokyo Troopers to help keep the city safe. We are not too different from you Titans." He chuckled. "Except, we are all grown ups."

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I zoned out during some of Daizo's speech. It's not that I didn't want to listen to him; I was just more focused on other things. Like the amount of soldiers in the headquarters—it could've been a city of its own. Of course, it was probably necessary to have such a large crime force with the amount of people in Tokyo they needed to protect.

The rising platform shifted suddenly as it came to an end, and I stumbled next to Beast Boy. Ignoring his arm when he offered to help me up, I kept my gaze on Daizo, tuning into the last part of his tour. "My highly advanced command center has reduced crime in Tokyo by two hundred percent. Not bad, hm?" he said, turning to smile at us as he extended his hand off the platform.

"Whoa," I heard Cyborg whisper in awe as we stepped off.

Starfire nodded and said, "Extraordinary."

I subtly followed Beast Boy as we all separated to tour the command center. I didn't get close to him until I saw that his interest in the controls was quickly taking a turn for the worst. I didn't know what the button he was about to press would do, but I hated to think that he would get himself into trouble because of his own curiosity. Somewhere along the line, my eagerness to keep him from trouble turned into cruelty, and I ended up slapping his hand.

When he turned to look at me with large, pitiful, green eyes, I grounded myself in my frustration and said, "Don't. Touch. Anything." Then, before my true emotions could betray me, I hurried to the other side of the room, interesting myself, instead, with electronic maps of Tokyo.

"With your permission, Daizo," I heard Robin say, "I'd like to use this equipment to complete our mission."

Daizo gave him a kind smile and said, "Ah, certainly, my young friend. And what, may I inquire, is your mission?"

As if drawn by some unspoken command, I found myself and the rest of the team forming a semicircle behind Robin. "We're tracking a criminal who calls himself Brushogun."

Daizo laughed long and hard. When he realized that we were not a part of the joke, he stopped. "Forgive me, but you are ignorant of our culture. Brushogun is an urban legend—a myth! I'm afraid you have come a long way for nothing. As you can see, my troopers have Tokyo's real criminals well under control."

I could see that Robin wasn't going to give up that easily. "But Saico-Tek said—"

"I'm sorry, I don't know who that is. Someone has played a trick on you, perhaps, hm?"

Robin shook his head and said, "I-I'm not sure." He reached inside his pocket, probably to pull out Saico-Tek's weapon to have Daizo analyze it, but Robin never got the chance to finish, because he was distracted by a group of reporters that suddenly burst through the door.

"Commander Uehara," said a large man in a business suit. "Tokyo thanks you. You've saved our city once again."

Daizo greeted the man with a bow and went to stand in front of the reporters. "It is my honor to serve you, Mr. Mayor."

The Mayor smiled and waved his hand toward the reporters. "Come, Commander. The people want their hero, and I want to give you another medal." Another medal? I was trying to think of a time when Jump City had given us just one.

Daizo turned back toward us and said, "Enjoy your visit. But remember here you are just tourists. Leave the law enforcement to us, hm?" With that, he and the Mayor faced the reporters and posed for pictures.

Robin looked down at Saico-Tek's weapon and frowned, but ultimately led us out of the building and into the city, where we didn't stop until we found a large platform with a railing. The view of Tokyo, bustling with energy even at dawn, was breathtaking.

Almost. "So," I said, breaking through the tension that had settled around us, "this was a fairly impressive waste of time."

From our bond, I felt Robin resonate with my words. He glanced toward me for a second as he said, "I don't understand. How could this whole thing be a wild goose chase? I feel like an idiot."

Starfire put her hand on his shoulder. "No, please. Do not blame Robin for the wild chasing of the goose."

He shrugged her off and kept his gaze on the city. "I can't even find my way around in this town, much less catch a criminal."

I watched the rising sunlight wash over Beast Boy's face, and couldn't help but feel a sharp twist in my chest. He stood up suddenly, and for a moment, I thought I had been caught staring at him. But he hadn't seemed to noticed.

"Ooh, dudes, I got it! I totally know where we need to go!"

He didn't answer any of our questions; we could only follow him downtown, weaving our way through the city as the sun rose high into the sky. While I had to admit that I felt better after walking, I didn't like the idea of Beast Boy potentially getting us lost. I was starting to think he didn't know where he was going either until he suddenly stopped in front of a large building with a fountain and yelled, "Ta-da!"

"Wakamono Shuppan?" Starfire read.

I recognized the name immediately: "The comic book place?" We'd gotten somewhere, but I couldn't say that I was happy with our destination. Still, I focused on my breathing to keep my anger from showing.

Robin did not do the same. "I thought you were leading us to a clue about Brushogun."

Beast Boy ignored Robin's anger and started walking towards the doors. "Hello! Daizo said he's not real, remember? But as long as we're here, we gotta take the tour!" He yelped as he rammed his face into the door.

I hurried to his side—and was grateful that the other Titans had done so as well. Starfire peered at Beast Boy and then read the white notice on the door. "The sign says it's closed," she informed us. I was glad to see that her kiss had made her fluent in every aspect.

Beast Boy let out a wail. "No fair! No!"

Robin did not look as amused as I did at Beast Boy's tantrum. "Come on. Let's just go home."

Cyborg held his arms out to stop Robin in his tracks. "Are you out of your spiky-haired little mind? We are in Tokyo, man! We gotta look around! See the town!"

This suggestion seemed to pull Beast Boy from his mood: "Yeah! After all, that's what vacations are for."

I liked the idea of staying in town longer. I couldn't begin to contemplate all of the things I'd learn about their culture from a good book store. However, I didn't want the others to be aware of the intensity of my excitement. Since defeating my father, I had tried to be more open about the emotions I felt—but sometimes the Titans were not prepared for my passions. I opted instead to say, "Whatever," and hurried behind Beast Boy, keeping a fair distance between us.

For a moment, I thought we would all pair up and each take a part of the town to explore, but when Cyborg left to find food, and Starfire took Robin to go watch a sumo wrestling match, I found that I was no longer excited about my options. Well, that wasn't true, but I didn't think it would be good to indulge that fantasy.

Unfortunately for me, Beast Boy did not have the same idea: "Raven, wait up!"

I tried to pretend I hadn't heard him, but when he called me a second time, I knew I'd have to give in. "What?"

"Look," he said, suddenly seeming very nervous. "I know we haven't really hung out much since...well, you know." Yes, I did know, and though I didn't want to be reminded, I let him continue anyway. "Things have been pretty weird between us—and of course, I know why—but I guess what I'm trying to say is I've missed us."

Us? Did he truly mean that? Did I dare to voice my own feelings?

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, you and Cy are my closest friends. And with Cyborg off stuffing his face, I thought maybe you and I could be friends again."

Friends. The word was not as disappointing as I had thought it'd be, though it didn't sit quite as nicely as I would've liked it to. Still, if I was being honest with myself… "I've missed us too. Friends sounds nice." I smiled, feeling better after saying that.

He flashed a toothy grin at me before laughing. "Aw, sweet! Alright! Well, this is kinda the only place I really wanted to go, but my other idea was to go find one of those tourist-y places. Wanna be, like, my wing woman?"

In a matter of seconds, I had been demoted from best friend to wing woman. "Forget it," I told him, and turned around.

"Raven, wait," he called for the third time in a matter of minutes. "Where are you going?"

Feelings hurt, heart saddened, temper rising, I only had three words to say to him: "Away from you." And away from him I did go. At first, I'd resigned myself to just walking in a straight line to get as far away as I could. But as I started to look around, I found that my curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I was drawn to a stand with a man selling books.

My excitement dwindled immediately as I realized that every book I looked at was only in Japanese. I had figured the majority would be, of course, but I had not thought that they all would be. Finally, I resolved to just ask the clerk to help me.

"I know English, German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian, and Sanskrit. Do you have anything I can read?"

I was filled with a little hope as the man finished slurping up his ramen and then ducked behind the counter. I really needed a book. I needed something to take my mind away from here and get it off of Beast Boy. I would read anything he gave me.

He rose to his feet and held out a piece of gum to me.

I had said I'd read anything: "Super Twinkle Donkey Gum?" I looked back at the man, who winked at me, sending shivers down my spine. He was creepy, but he had given me something to read. And the gum couldn't possibly be that bad.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. At the very least, the weird texture of the bubblegum was enough to distract me from thinking about Beast Boy. He probably would've liked the taste of this gum—sweet, but simultaneously kind of bland.

I thanked the man for the gum and, after he winked at me a second time, continued my walk from the comic book place. I was too uncomfortable at that stand, and I didn't have to force myself to stay and take the advances of a man I barely knew.

I came to a stop before crossing the street and turned to my right to look at a coffee shop. I started to go in. Surely a coffee shop would have something else for me to read. I halted at the scene in front of me: a couple sitting and talking together.

I thought about what Beast Boy had said about me being his wing woman. The words still stung a little, but the idea of meeting other people wasn't necessarily a bad one. I wouldn't go for the guy at the bookstand, but perhaps I would, like Beast Boy, meet someone here.

I couldn't help but wonder if he had met someone already. On my walk already, I'd seen many girls he might chase after—flouncy skirts, bright smiles, light laughs. The opposite of you, my little voice whispered.

I shook the idea out of my head and crossed the street to get away from the coffee shop. As I walked, I became aware of more people staring at me. Some even took pictures. No doubt my sour mood was showing on my face. I was just the scary girl in the dark hood. I tried to keep it neutral, but it didn't seem to be working, so I settled for pulling my hood over my head and kept walking.

Every so often, I'd find another store to browse through in search of a book. Each time, I was unsuccessful. I'd spent the majority of my day looking for something to read, and the results had been, needless to say, underwhelming.

At some point, I realized I was walking in circles downtown—more specifically, I kept coming to the coffee shop and the bookstand. From the bookstand I could still make out the top of the comic book store. Part of me wanted to go back and see if Beast Boy was still there.

I made a point of walking in the opposite direction. I recognized some of the stores I had gone through earlier, but continued walking straight. I was bound to find something.

The moon had risen high in the sky by the time I finally stopped in a nearby village, just outside downtown. It had been fashioned into some sort of maze, though not one nearly as difficult as the labyrinth my mirror possessed at home. I regretted not bringing that with me.

It had been a long time since I'd gone there. A little less than four months, to be specific. The last time I'd used my mirror had been just after my breakup, and I hadn't been prepared for the intensity of my emotions. I never even made it past sadness.

I'd been surprised that sadness was my first emotion—I would've thought it'd be anger. On top of that, I hadn't been prepared for all of the crying I'd do. I thought I was going to end up drowning myself. I hated the feeling so much, I left halfway through the process, thoroughly embarrassed. I hadn't been back since.

I felt a shift in the energy around me and I turned back to see what it was. All I could see was the city I'd left behind. And yet, I had been sure I'd felt a shadow behind me. I shook my head. No matter. All of my thinking had probably made me jumpy, and now I was projecting my fear. But I was determined not to have another "horror movie" incident.

I didn't need my mirror to process my emotions. I could easily sift through to the root of my anger now: "Thirty million people, a hundred thousand stores, and in this entire city, the only thing to read is gum."

The wind picked up suddenly, blowing the end of my cape into the air. I followed the direction of my cape to a dark building at the end of the path. The curtains that served as a simple barrier barely came down to my waist, and when I peeked inside and called out, no one answered me back.

It was very likely I was walking into some kind of horror movie scene. I looked back just once. "This is probably a bad idea." I walked inside anyway.

It was dark and pretty creepy, even for me. But I stayed because, to my joy and delight, the place was full of books. I called out to see if anyone else was there. No one answered me, and I stopped because I hadn't completely ridded myself of the horror movie idea. As I browsed through some of the aisles, I paused to make sure I wasn't being followed by that strange energy again.

I came to a desk and picked up a book that was lying by itself. I had just started to flip through when I heard someone sigh. A hand reached out and touched my shoulder. I dropped the book with a silent gasp and held my engulfed hands up, ready to defend myself...from the small, old man standing before me on the desk.

He smiled and opened his arms. "Welcome to my shop, young lady. You looking for something in particular?"

I had been embarrassed before, but I was completely mortified now. I quickly dropped my hands and held them behind my back. I'd been looking for something to read for me, but I suddenly found myself thinking of Robin. I hadn't been paying much attention to our bond—I tried not to spy on him as best I could—but his obsessive thoughts of Brushogun were starting to seep into my mind. I didn't know what was worse to obsess over: Brushogun or Beast Boy.

I remembered the man had asked me a question. "I'm trying to find a book about Brushogun, but there's nothing in fiction or mythology." At least, I hadn't remembered seeing something about him there.

"Well, of course not, my dear." He hopped down and led me through an aisle. I waited when we got to the end as he picked up a book resting on the floor. "Although few people believe it, Brushogun was no myth."

He handed me the book and I peered at the cover, which featured a man in a Samurai suit. His eyes and a circle in the center of his chest glowed red, mesmerizing me. Suddenly, my communicator beeped, and Starfire's urgent voice came through: "Titans, emergency! Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, please!"

I held up my hand and used the spell to absorb the knowledge within the book, but when I went to return it to the man, he shook his head and said, "You keep it. Seems like you will need it."

I thanked the man and hurried outside. I didn't remember what paths I had taken and I ended up in a cemetery of sorts. I could see downtown, so I wasn't too concerned. As I walked in that direction, I pulled out my communicator and asked, "Starfire, what's wrong?"

"Robin has been...arrested for a terrible crime."

I stopped in my tracks, shock rendering me speechless.

"Girl, are you crazy," Cyborg asked in a hushed voice. I wondered where he was. "Robin could never commit a—whoa."

There was a rustling of some papers, and then Beast Boy's voice. "And he was telling us to stay out of trouble."

They weren't focusing on the problem at hand! I forced myself to keep walking and to stay calm. "Do we know where he is?"

"No," said Starfire. "I have tried to reach him, but he does not respond."

"Alright. I'm transmitting rendezvous coordinates. Let's regroup and figure this out," said Cyborg. Having him step up and make a decision helped to calm me down.

"Hurry, please. We need to help Robin," Starfire pleaded.

Hurry. I didn't have time to walk anymore. I took a deep breath to steady my mind and racing heart and lifted myself into the air, keeping the book close to my side. Breathe, I reminded myself. Just breathe.

I'd almost made it out of the cemetery when I felt the energy shift again. I turned around quickly this time, but still did not see anything there. Again, I felt it behind me, and I turned around. This time, I caught the end of a shadow passing by. I clutched the book to my chest with my left hand and raised my right one, ready to fight.

Nothing happened for a moment, so I dropped my hands and flew higher into the air until I was level with the rooftops. I tried to ignore the shadows I swore were passing underneath me. It was probably just my anxiety manifesting again.

A sudden spike in my emotions forced me to look down. I caught a glimpse of a ghostly figure as it raced past me, sending me spinning. I tried to reassess myself quickly.

"Starfire, Raven!" I heard Cyborg yell, and then nothing.

I would have to focus on that later; the ghost was coming back. I raised my hand and yelled, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" My magic encased the scattered bricks around me, and I threw it at the figure.

Everything passed through it, but I could not allow myself time to be distracted by any new information. I had to get the book to my friends. I stretched out a long line of black energy and wrapped it around the ghost, confident that it would not be able to slip through that.

Instead, its tail doubled in length. I barely had enough time to duck when it swung its tail at me. As I hit the ground, I noticed that it had managed to swipe my cape, and there were scattered black marks on it now.

Don't worry about that right now! I pushed off the ground with my feet and led the ghost on a chase through the graveyard, using my magic to pass through the tombstones. I ventured out into the middle of the pathway and was suddenly knocked straight into the air by the ghost as it appeared from under me. It wrapped its body around me and brought me crashing to the ground, making me drop the book.

"The book!" I turned and went to grab it, but the ghost appeared in front of me again, its long body towering over me. Up close, I realized now that its face looked like a mask that was always screaming.

It was ironic that I realized this now, because the ghost opened up its body and four more screaming masks appeared on tentacles. It wrapped the tentacles around me and encased me in darkness.

I had no sense of direction in this darkness. I would think that after all the time that I spend in darkness, I would be better equipped for this, but that is not the case. In here, it was easy to feel overwhelmed by my emotions and thoughts: all I could think about was the fact that I was probably going to die in here, I wouldn't get the chance to help Robin, and I would have missed my chance to resolve my feelings for Beast Boy.

I placed my hands over my ears and shook my head violently. No! I would not think about that. I had wrestled with darkness all my life, and I knew now the one way to beat it for sure: light.

I thought about my battle with Trigon, and the light I had created from within me. Surely, I still had this power now. I held my hands in front of me. I started to think of happy thoughts, which produced a little bit of light, but they were quickly drowned out by all of the darkness. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and tried again. I thought of the book I'd found; I thought about being in this admittedly wonderful city; and I thought of reuniting with my friends.

I was engulfed in light and heard a terrible shriek from somewhere above me. Suddenly, the dark floor fell out from under me and I was falling. I was vaguely aware of the ghost darting around buildings, which told me that we had been moving.

Something hard struck me against the head, and I fell into more darkness. Somewhere, I thought I heard my name being called. Then, suddenly, I was jolted back to my senses as arms closed around me. This feeling was familiar. I opened my eyes, expecting to see Beast Boy's concerned, but relieved face.

Cyborg glanced down at me as he ducked behind a building for cover. He set me down immediately and said, "You okay?"

I nodded in an attempt to hide my disappointment. "Thank you." I hoped he couldn't see past my ruse, though I doubted he really believed I was okay. Still, I didn't have time to focus on that. I still had the ghost to deal with.

I noticed suddenly that he was covered in yellow marks on his lower half. "What happened to you?"

"The same thing that happened to you, apparently," he replied, holding up the end of my black-streaked cape.

A green mouse scurried from underneath my foot and morphed into a panting Beast Boy. "Dude," he said, looking only at Cyborg. "That's it for me. No more Japanese girls." He finally noticed me and straightened up. "Raven!"

For a moment, I didn't say anything. All I could do was stare at the bright pink lipstick mark on his cheek. My insides bubbled and threatened to spill over. When I opened my mouth to finally speak, my voice sounded otherworldly. "I see you didn't need a wing woman after all."

"No, Raven—"

I didn't listen. I'd found something to take my anger out on: the ghost was directly above us now, followed this time by a round, yellow robot, and a pink cat girl. It didn't take a genius to know that she was the source of the mark on Beast Boy's cheek.

I focused on her.

As if she could sense my dark energy, the cat girl froze mid-wall crawl and turned to look at me. She smiled and said something in Japanese, which made Beast Boy mutter something unpleasant, but I didn't pay him much attention. She jumped down with her foot extended and I rose to meet her, blocking her attack with a shield of dark energy.

Again, she said something to me, but I didn't bother responding. I would not be distracted. She bounced off of my shield and onto the right wall, looking at something past me. I turned to see the ghost heading my way, but before it could get to me, it was thrown into the air with a well-aimed cannon blast from Cyborg. A green pterodactyl lifted Cyborg up onto the building to my left and then dove down, transforming into a gorilla just moments before smashing the yellow robot into the ground.

The smirk that had been on the cat girl's face fell as I turned to look at her. Something told me this was why we'd been attacked separately in the first place. Black magic encased my clenched fists and I raised them to her eyes level. "Where's Robin?"

She didn't answer me, which was fine. I didn't need her to talk anyway. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" I opened my fists and waved them over each other in the air, creating a long stream of dark energy. The cat girl attempted to run from me, but did not get very far before she was trapped by my magic, sticking her to the wall.

I could feel her struggle against my power, against me. As my magic creeped over her, I sensed her desperation to get out. And then, suddenly, it just disappeared. Any feeling that I'd had from her, any presence I had just sensed—all of it gone.

I pulled away from my soul-self and looked for her. She could not have possibly just disappeared, but the more I looked around, the more likely that seemed. On the wall to my right, there was an abnormally large pink stain, and I would have bet anything that this was all that was left of her.

I remembered suddenly that my teammates were still dealing with their own adversaries. My worry was for nothing, though, because by the time I had turned to check on them, they were already coming together on the street below me. I lowered myself and saw that they were standing in the middle of a giant puddle of yellow substance.

"Okay," said Beast Boy as Cyborg bent down to scrape off some of the substance. "Anyone wanna explain to me what just happened? Why were we being attacked?"

It was at that moment that I remembered we were short another member: "Starfire," I yelled into my communicator. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

She probably only took a few seconds to respond, but it felt like forever. "I have had an unpleasant encounter with a blue metal boy who was quite rude." She sighed. "I am ashamed to say that I was not quick enough to capture him. All that remains of the little blue boy now is a large amount of—"

"Ink," said Cyborg suddenly. "It's ink!"

"What's ink," I asked him.

He held up a finger and spoke into his arm. "Starfire, you go find Robin. We'll meet you at the rendezvous house."

"I will call if I need any assistance," she said before signing off.

"Ink," I asked again, when he didn't offer an explanation. Instead, he wiped off the black stains on my cloak.

He nodded and scraped the lipstick mark off of Beast Boy's cheek. "The stuff they left behind—it's all ink. They were made of that stuff. They weren't real."

Beast Boy bent down and picked up the book I had brought with me. In all the commotion, I'd almost forgotten about it. "You dropped this," he said quietly.

I took it and nodded my appreciation. My anger at him for the lipstick mark had yet to subside. It helped that I didn't have to look at it any longer, though. "I need to show you guys what I found in this."

"But first, we need to get to Robin's crime scene," said Cyborg.

I didn't see where he was going with this, but I followed him there anyway. For once, I was glad I was in dark clothes—it didn't attract as much attention as we tried to sneak through the On the way, they filled me in on what a newspaper had told them: Robin had been arrested and jailed for the way he had brutally and fatally beaten a metahuman criminal known as Saico-Tek. Authorities claimed to have arrested Robin on the scene, covered in pink blood.

"Pink blood," I said as we came across the scene. Sure enough, there was a large splatter of pink substance everywhere.

"Not blood," Cyborg informed us after a moment, "pink ink!"

"So, Robin didn't kill anyone after all," said Beast Boy with a smile.

I shook my head. "But someone wants people to think he did." This was all starting to make sense. And soon everyone would understand it as well. "We need to get back to the rendezvous place."

Cyborg led the way as he said, "It's not too far away." Apparently, the house had once been a dojo—he'd stumbled upon it on his journey to find a buffet. It was beautiful, with a stone gate at the front, paper windows, and sliding doors. Before we reached the steps to the house, we had to step over a koi fish pond. Lights illuminated the inside, which told me that we were the last to arrive.

I suddenly sensed a shift in moods through the bond. My heart beat quickly to match Robin's quick tempo—he was nervous about something. But also...excited? Too late, I realized what we would be interrupting. I lifted my hand to stop Cyborg and Beast Boy from barging in, but I was not quick enough.

Beast Boy threw open the doors, making Starfire and Robin jump away from each other. "What's up?" He looked between the two, and I wondered if he knew what he had done. After all the times we had worried about this exact same scenario during our relationship, I found it ironic that Beast Boy had done this to Starfire and Robin.

"Man, are you ever glad to see us," said Cyborg.

Robin was dressed differently and had combed his spiky hair over his eyes, which themselves were covered with sunglasses. He still had on his signature shoes, but now he donned a white blazer, purple V-neck shirt, and black pants. I saw that Starfire had brought him a change of clothes, but I almost preferred this look. "I am?" he said.

I followed Beast Boy and Cyborg inside as Beast Boy said, "You're gonna be, once we tell you the news."

I used my powers to close the doors behind us and clutched the book to my chest, eager to share the information I had. I'd have to wait, because Cyborg was filling him in on the other things: "We went back to the crime scene and found a sample of that ooze from Saico-Tek. I ran a full molecular analysis, and after a few thousand comparisons, I got a match!" He pressed a button on his left arm, and a light projected a screen of the molecular analysis he'd run. "That wasn't blood on your uniform. It was ink."

"Ink," said Robin.

"Yeah," Cyborg replied with a nod. "Just like the stains on my armor, the streaks on Raven's cloak, and the lipstick from that girl who kicked BB's butt."

And with that reminder, I was angry again. Beast Boy's response didn't help: "She was a cat girl!"

Robin placed a hand underneath his chin and ignored Beast Boy's comment. "So the criminals are all connected."

This was my chance! My excitement bubbled over. "Because they were all created by the same person." I sat down at a table with incense and candles and opened my book to the first page. The other Titans crowded around behind me.

"Brushogun: Tokyo's first super villain. Once, he was an ordinary artist who dreamed of bringing his creations to life. He tried to make that dream come true using Japanese dark magic. His spell worked, but at a terrible price. The darkness stained him; his skin became paper; ink flowed through his veins. He was transformed into Brushogun."

Robin sat down beside me and peered at the book. "Drawings! That's what we've been fighting. I didn't actually hurt anyone. I couldn't hurt Saico-Tek because Saico-Tek wasn't real."

"He was ink," Beast Boy finished.

Starfire clasped her hands in front of her and said, "All of them."

I could sense Robin's anger through our bond. "And Brushogun created them to frame me." He threw off his blazer and sunglasses, grabbed his super suit, and hurried into the other room to change.

Beast Boy turned to look at me, but I forced myself to stare past him at Starfire. From what I could tell, she didn't seem hurt, and her face had recovered from the surprise of us interrupting her and Robin. I would always be sad that my relationship with Beast Boy hadn't worked out, but I was still thoroughly invested in my friends.

She smiled as Robin returned in his original outfit. I was sad to see the new one go away, but couldn't help the relieving feeling of nostalgia building up in my chest. "Alright, Titans," he said, "here's our new mission: we're fugitives from the law, we've got a criminal on the loose who can make other criminals, and the only way we can clear our names is to hunt him down and bring him to justice."

"Yeah," said Beast Boy. "Um, great plan, but there's just one teensy, little problem: Everybody in Tokyo's out to get us!"

As soon as the words had left his mouth, the dojo began to shake. The doors on the far side of the room slid open and revealing the four drawings we'd fought earlier, the Tokyo Troopers, and a large group of girls and chefs.

Robin wasted no time in giving us orders: "Titans, go!"

We huddled together as Robin flung an explosive device from his belt. Before any of our enemies could recover from the shock of the blast, I wrapped my powers around my friends and exited the house by merging through the ground. Once outside, Robin led us into the city. Every so often, we would have to run away from them again.

The Tokyo Troopers were the most persistent. The chefs never made it past the end of the street, and a well-placed scowl and the showing off of my dark powers discouraged even the most fanatic of the group of girls from following us any further. For a moment, we were able to find some peace as we hid in a village on the outskirts of the city.

Robin and Cyborg hovered over Cyborg's arm while he scanned for the four drawings. We still hadn't seen them. In the meantime, Starfire, Beast Boy, and I pressed our backs up against a wall and sat in silence. At least, none of us made any noise. We mostly sat and listened to the sound of Daizo's overhead helicopter. It threatened to reveal us at any second.

My heart yelped when Beast Boy shifted and his fingers fell over mine. Holding hands, holding hands, holding hands! The noise was too much, and though I couldn't really get away from him, I did my best to get my hand out from under his.

All the moving around made him turn and look at me. "Raven, what's wrong," he whispered.

I couldn't find the words I needed to describe how I was feeling, so I settled for shaking my head. I felt his hands close around both sides of my face, forcing my eyes to focus on him. "Raven."

Too close! In my desperation to get away from him, I ended up stepping on my own cloak, and fell forward. His hands moved to catch me, and I was only just aware enough of what was happening to turn my head to the side. Beast Boy probably had a mouthful of my hood.

He tried to speak with my cloak in his mouth, but I couldn't understand any of it. I sat up quickly and mumbled something that hopefully resembled an apology. When I finally dared to look at him, I realized he wasn't listening to me. He was fixated on something on my chest.

I could feel my cheeks heating up. We had never actually discussed our physical attraction to each other while we were dating. I'm sure he'd felt something like that toward me, but for him to blatantly stare at me...I opened my mouth to say something, but realized his hand was moving toward me.

His fingers lightly brushed back my cloak to reveal the black raven I'd pinned on my chest before leaving for the trip. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard his breath hitch as he touched it. "Is this…" he managed to get out.

How could I even try to lie to him? I couldn't tell him that it was a mistake. But I couldn't necessarily tell him the truth either—that I had not only found it, but had also made the conscious decision to put it back on. What would he think? Would that even mean anything to him? Did it mean something to me?

I was spared from answering by the sudden flashing of a brilliant light, and loud shouting. Robin was also shouting something, but I didn't have to hear him to know what he wanted as the Troopers closed in on us. Once again, I circled my friends with my powers and helped us back into the city. I didn't know where else to go, so I stopped in an alleyway.

Somehow, Robin thought that we were still being followed, so we separated and hid in the tiny alley. Not knowing where else to hide, I used my powers to pull me back into the wall. I didn't know when to come out, but I figured it was safe when I heard Cyborg whisper, "I couldn't find anything."

I poked my head out, only to find myself face to face with Beast Boy, who had chosen to hide inside of a trashcan. He looked just as surprised as I was, but he recovered faster: "You smell funny."

I frowned. "Says the boy in the trash."

"No, no," he said quickly. "I mean, you have a certain smell to you right now."

Robin frowned, too. Sometimes I can't tell if he's annoyed with Beast boy himself or if he's just reacting to my feelings through the bond. "Enough. We have to find a way to track Brushogun, remember?"

"No, really! Raven smells funny."

I felt my insides heat up as the other Titans looked at me. Starfire gave me a good sniff, but she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I do not detect any unpleasant odors."

Beast Boy clapped his hands together and cried, "It's ink!"

"Yeah, man, we've already covered that," said Cyborg.

"But our bad guy is made of ink. I can follow the smell right to him!" Without waiting for any permission, Beast Boy leapt into the air and transformed into a bloodhound.

For a long time, no one questioned Beast Boy. We simply followed him from alley to alley in silence. Every so often Robin would have us stop and hide, swearing that he had heard something. We were lucky enough to not be caught, but the more time Beast Boy spent sniffing, the more our own anxiety grew.

"Can't you sniff any faster, man," Cyborg groaned. "It's a matter of time before somebody jumps us again."

Finally, Robin said, "Beast Boy, you can stop. I know where the trail leads."

I followed his gaze up the street and to the top of the hill. I couldn't have been more surprised to see Wakamono Shuppan.

Cyborg's question echoed my own thoughts: "Brushogun's hideout is the comic book factory?"

Beast Boy morphed back and crossed his arms. "Told ya we should've taken the tour."

The rest of the team ignored him and walked toward the factory, but I couldn't keep my anger in anymore. As I walked past him, I stopped and struck the back of his head with my hand.

"What was that for?"

I didn't quite know, exactly. Now that I'd done it, it didn't really seem like the appropriate response. I wasn't really mad about his snarky remark about not taking the tour before. But I was angry—that much I knew. Was it the lipstick from earlier? The wing woman request? Why couldn't I say what I was feeling?

What was I even feeling?

Anger, said my little voice. But I already knew this. I knew I was angry. But why? What was I trying to tell him?

"We're here," said Robin, suddenly, jarring me from my thoughts. I was about to ask him what he wanted to do next when he flung an explosive device at the double doors.

The five of us filed into the room, with Beast Boy and Cyborg flanking Robin on both sides and Starfire and I covering their backs in mid-air. Everything was dark and devastatingly quiet. Even after my eyes began to adjust, I realized there really wasn't much to see.

"No guards," Cyborg noted as Starfire and I lowered ourselves to the ground again.

Robin didn't say anything. Instead, he motioned with two of his fingers for us to move forward. We followed him further into the room until we heard the faintest sound of someone groaning.

As the team resumed our fighting positions, I couldn't help but admit to myself that I was a little creeped out. The two flashes of lightning in rapid succession did nothing to help ease my nerves. Somewhere, someone exhaled a raspy breath.

"This way," Robin whispered. This time we followed him across the room and down a set of stairs, where Robin kicked open another set of double doors. "Freeze!"

This basement room held boxes, which was more than what anything upstairs had had to offer us. Cyborg turned on his flashlight and illuminated our path as we went further into the room. It was much larger than I'd assumed earlier. Eventually we passed what I recognized to be an enormous, older printer.

Cyborg's flashlight fell on an empty chair. It was clear that it was still in use, though, as there were several clean monitors set up around it. I wondered if our target had seen us coming and left. Robin voiced my confusion: "Brushogun—he's not here!"

Suddenly, we heard a long, raspy, breath of air behind us. We spun around to see the top of the giant printer lift up. "I am," said a voice.

"Brushogun?"

Cyborg turned around, his flashlight illuminating the face of a frail, old man. He was sickly thin and had multiple green tubes protruding from his body. This couldn't possibly be our villain. And yet, he had answered when Robin called for Brushogun.

"So glad…to finally meet you," said Brushogun. Every breath seemed painful for him. I wondered how long he had been here, stuck to this machine.

"You're not the one behind all this, are you," Robin asked as he led us toward Brushogun. "You're just—"

"His…slave," Brushogun confirmed. "He trapped me in this thing…This cursed printing press that uses my powers against my will…The criminals I create serve him now."

Him? This was all wrong. How could we have been sent on another wild goose chase? Things didn't seem any closer to being solved.

Luckily, Robin had other questions: "But you sent the card, didn't you? You set me free. And you sent Saico-Tek to our tower because—"

"It was the only way I could call for help," said Brushogun. He managed to sit himself up, but I wish he hadn't. The sight of his thin waist was too much of a sight even for me to bear. Still, I tried to steel myself against his appearance. If what he said was true, we needed to help him. Then he could get better.

With another long, intake of breath, Brushogun said, "I knew that if one of my creations attacked your home—"

"It would give us a reason to come to Tokyo," Robin finished. "A reason to find you."

Cyborg stepped forward, looking incredulous. "So you weren't the one that framed Robin."

Brushogun shook his head, the only thing that looked like it was still its appropriate size. "Saico-Tek was printed twice…I sent the first to you as a messenger…He sent the second to Robin…as a trap."

"He who," Beast Boy asked.

Hearing him helped me find my own voice. Emboldened, I stepped forward and asked, "If you're just the brush, who tells you what to paint?"

It wasn't Brushogun who answered me, though. "That would be me," said a voice behind us. Even before I turned around, I knew that the person would be sitting in the chair. The real villain had been watching us beforehand.

"I must say," the voice purred, "you Titans have proven formidable adversary. Once you are destroyed, perhaps I will print copies of you to serve me."

Starfire lifted herself off the ground, her hands glowing green. "Show your face, coward. Who are you?"

I tensed up, too. If this man was the person who controlled Brushogun, I doubted he was truly alone. I wanted to be prepared for a fight. I could not have, however, prepared myself for the man who turned the chair around.

"There's only one person who stands to gain from creating criminals," Robin growled. "The hero who catches them! Isn't that right, Commander?"

"Very good, my friend," said Daizo, as he finally turned to face us. He placed his hat on top of his head and peered at us from under its rim. "But you haven't caught me; I've caught you."

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly every door burst open with Tokyo Troopers. I turned my back to my teammates and held my hands out in front of me. Perhaps if we could each cover an

"So, wait," said Beast Boy, "if the good guy was really a bad guy, then that means…" His laughter, clear as a bell, was so distracting! I dropped my hands by my side and turned to look at him as he said, "Aw, sweet! We're the good guys again!"

I opened my mouth to say something to bring us back to the more pressing situation at hand, but Robin beat me to it. He pointed up at Daizo and said, "You're a fraud, Daizo. A fake. Brushogun was the only real criminal you ever caught, wasn't he?"

Daizo didn't seem concerned in the least. And I couldn't blame him—more and more Troopers surrounded us by the second. He put his hands on his hips and shrugged. "One was enough."

Robin seemed just as unfazed. "You used his powers to lie, to make yourself look like a hero. And when I started searching for the truth, you made me look like a criminal!"

"That's a nice little story, young man, but I doubt anyone would believe it once you're all behind bars. Troopers, charge!"

"Titans, go!" yelled Robin as he surged forward and brought two oncoming Troopers to the ground.

It was still fairly dark, but the light of the blasts from the Troopers helped to illuminate things. I dodged a blast from one and threw three Troopers into the wall behind them. They were pretty heavily armored, so I doubted they would suffer any major injuries. At the very least, I hoped that they would sustain just enough pain to be out of commission. We're still considered criminals to Tokyo.

I lifted my hand and created a black circle of energy to shield me from three oncoming Trooper blasts. As their onslaught continued, I raised a second hand, bringing pieces of the ground up with my powers. The ground underneath the Troopers upended them, and they flew into the air.

I turned to my right and two Troopers leap onto Cyborg's back. He must've been concerned about hurting the Troopers, too, because otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have struggled so long to get them off. I flew over to him as more began to approach him and pushed them back with my powers.

"You okay," I asked as I kept more of the Troopers at bay.

"Oh, yeah," said Cyborg as he tried to break the hold a Trooper had on his neck. "Just havin' a little fun with 'em."

Suddenly, Robin yelled, "Titans, the Troopers! They aren't real!"

"Which means," said Cyborg with a smile, "we don't have to hold back!" With a guttural yell, Cyborg straightened himself, sending both of the Troopers flying.

Above it all, I could hear Daizo saying, "It also means there are plenty more where those came from!" He pressed a button on the console beside him and the old printer made a whirring noise.

Brushogun's eyes turned blue and he let out a horrible scream. His fingers, which had been spread out before him on a white sheet, leaked colors of yellow, pink, blue, and black. As the ink slipped off of the printer, it began to take shape.

I realized suddenly, that Robin had left us to attack Daizo. Two pink versions of Saico-Tek sprinted forward from the printer and caught Robin's staff before it could connect with Daizo. Robin rebounded off of them and flipped backwards to regain his balance.

I joined my team behind Robin as even more of Brushogun's creations began to take form. Several different versions of the cat girl, ghost, the yellow robot, and the "blue metal boy" Starfire had encountered joined the ranks behind Daizo. An overwhelming sense of dread filled the pit of my stomach as I wondered how we would possibly get out of this.

Suddenly, one of the yellow robots extended its knife-like arm. With a surprising amount of speed, it aimed at our group and dropped its arm. My team only just managed to dodge it. I turned around to see where my teammates were, but a blow to my stomach forced my attention away from them.

I regained my balance in the air to see one of the ghosts charging for me again. They'd done an excellent job of splitting us up again, but I wasn't about to lose a second round with this creature. I raised my hands and created a shield in front of me, hoping that this time my mind and my powers would be ready for the ghost.

A sudden noise to my left alerted me to another's presence. One of the blue robots had shot off four rockets and, in a moment of panic, I dropped my shield and rose higher in the air before they could collide with me.

I struggled to maintain control over my emotions, as I flew over the battle scene. So much was happening so fast! But from up there? I mostly remained unnoticed. And that was something I could work with.

To my left, Starfire blasted a Saico-Tek with her eyes, forcing him away from her. As another engaged her in hand-to-hand combat, two behind her prepared an attack. At the same time, I caught sight of Beast Boy, who had been cornered by some of the cat girls.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" I stretched my arms out toward the Saico-Teks and wrapped my powers around them, successfully blocking their attack on Starfire. With a grunt of effort, I lifted them up and flung them into the cat girls.

Beast Boy looked up at me and started to smile. Suddenly, his eyes moved to my right and he yelled something in warning to me. I realized, too late, that one of the robot boys had spotted me. He crashed into me before I had time to shield myself, and I crashed into a beam somewhere on the opposite side of the room.

My knees met a cold floor and I could see stars, but I knew that I had to get up. This battle was much too complicated to afford sitting down for even a second.

As if to prove my point, a yellow robot dropped in front of me, knife-arms swinging like crazy, and let out a terrifying screech. Before I could stand, I was aware of another's presence above me. With relief, I realized it was Robin, who jammed his staff into the head of the yellow robot, destroying it instantly.

"Thanks," I said, though I was almost certain he didn't have time to hear me before he leapt into the air again. I didn't have time to see where he was going—I had to get back into the fight and I'd had too many distractions already.

I honed in on Cyborg, who was just managing to hold his own against five of the ghosts, and flew toward him. Starfire seemed to have the same idea as well. With one look, I knew that we were thinking of the same thing.

We joined hands midflight and circled around to face the ghosts again. A green rhino charged in front of us and leapt into the air as Beast Boy changed into a pterodactyl. Cyborg aimed one last cannon blast at a ghost before allowing Beast Boy to lift him out of harm's way.

"Ready," Starfire asked me, probably a exhilarated as I was to do this attack again.

I stretched out my other hand and said, "Let's do this."

We spun around each other, entangling our powers as they shot out towards the ghosts. I was vaguely aware of their screams as they were struck by the blasts before they ultimately returned to their ink forms.

Starfire released my hand, and I hurriedly regained my balance. The dizzying ache I had in my head shifted into my stomach, but I refused to let my knees buckle underneath the pain. With slow breaths, I managed to stand up straight again. I realized that we were at the bottom of the large printer.

"You okay," Cyborg asked me as I rubbed my temples.

"Oh, yeah," I replied. "Just having a little fun."

Starfire looked around, over the heads of oncoming creations, and asked, "Where is Robin?"

A green pterodactyl landed beside me. It morphed back into Beast Boy, who pointed to a landing above our heads. "Up there!"

I looked up just in time to see Daizo jump over the railing of the landing he and Robin had probably been fighting on, and disappear into the printer. Almost immediately, the printer whirred and crackled. Even before I heard Brushogun's agonizing scream, I knew that this was worse than it had been before.

The ground in front of me broke and sprouted pipes that spewed ink everywhere. Even the other creations seemed to pause in confusion. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Brushogun, from whom ink was flowing out of the mouth.

Something exploded and darkness overtook me. Only after I felt the pain of my back crashing against smooth concrete did I realize the blast had forced me outside. I willed myself to get up, to stand through the pain, to face whatever was coming from this. I massaged my left elbow as the rest of my team got up. They looked just as I did—bruised, but determined.

More explosions came from the building and before the dust could settle, two inky arms almost as large as the building itself emerged. An inky body equally as large reared its head at us. I couldn't help but take a couple of steps back at the sight of its red eyes. Daizo had successfully merged himself with Brushogun's powers.

"The power is mine!" cried Daizo. And when he stood, I realized he was at least twice as tall as the building, dragging and pulling the pipes with him. Lightning flashed, as if to emphasize how frightening it all was.

Beast Boy was backing up too. "That's a lot of ink!"

"Gonna be one heck of a stain when this over," said Cyborg.

I needed this courage. In the middle of Daizo's inky chest, I could make out a small, pale figure. "He may have Brushogun's magic, but I don't know how long he can control it."

Daizo lifted both of his hands and dripped ink from his fingertips. Where the pools of ink had fallen, even more colored versions of the creations formed. These creations seemed different, though, unstable. Each one was a different color than the next, some even mixed with each other's colors. Despite this, they still greatly outnumbered us.

"What must we do," asked Starfire.

Robin's voice was so low, I could barely hear him. "Erase him."

We scattered as Daizo smashed a hand toward our group and I didn't need to hear if Robin had given us any commands to know that I should be fighting. Before some of the creations could move out of their formed lines, I extended my hands and shot a beam of my powers into them.

As I had thought, these creations were significantly easier to destroy than the others had been. Hopefully, this would work in our favor to balance out their numerous advantage. I'd gotten through a good number of them before they started to break their line. I decided it would be best to stop moving and use my powers to smash through any that I could get around me.

Cyborg emerged from a swarm of Saico-Teks, and I pushed two into the wall behind him, smashing the creations. Above me, I heard Starfire scream, and I turned to see one of Daizo's pipes slam her into the concrete twice. It released her and pulled back before charging at her again, but I beat it to the punch.

I landed in front of Starfire and used my powers to block the pipe as it tried to grab her again. With a grunt of effort, I flicked my hands toward the pipe, slicing through several sections of it with my powers. The pieces fell to the ground and dissolved into inky nothingness.

I offered a hand to Starfire, who smiled at me before she took to the skies again. With Cyborg and Beast Boy preoccupied in front of me with the multicolored robots and cat girls, and Starfire blasting through the robot boys in the skies, I decided it would best if I could disconnect more of the pipes that held Daizo up.

I was vaguely aware of passing Robin at one point, whom I'm sure had a similar idea as I did. I used my powers to clump at least a dozen of the pipes together and then separated my hands, pulling them apart. Almost immediately, a cluster of the robots and ghosts formed out of a nearby ink pile and charged at me.

I let them chase me further into the sky before I turned around and extended a shield in front of me. Two of the robots smashed into the shield and were destroyed, but the others were fast enough to maneuver around it. One of the ghosts stretched out its tentacles and wrapped them around me, restricting my arms.

I thought of how happy I would feel when this was over, and used the light in my heart to push against the ghost. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The light exploded around me, destroying the ghost.

I sent two orbs of dark energy at the two remaining robot boys before feeling the sliminess of Daizo's pipes around my body. It pulled me to its chest, my efforts to break free useless. I glanced to my right as Daizo cackled and saw that he had caught Starfire again as well. Underneath me, Cyborg seemed to be overwhelmed by another horde of robots and Beast Boy was picking himself off the ground.

And yet, I didn't feel despair. In fact, I felt determined. I recognized this feeling—it was Robin's. Wherever he was, his feelings of determination and hope were pouring into me through our bond.

Daizo suddenly lifted his head and screamed in agony. I gasped as the intense rush of feelings passed through my side of the bond and back into Robin, who pulled himself out of Daizo's inky chest. He reached back in, but only for a moment, to grab the fragile, old man inside.

"Brushogun," I realized. I lost sight of Robin and Brushogun as they fell from Daizo's chest, and I was swung into the air. I closed my eyes in an attempt to keep myself from feeling any sicker than I already did.

When I opened them again, Daizo was still screaming, his inky body disintegrating. "Brushogun's spell," I yelled to Starfire. "It's breaking!" I tried to say more to her, but the pipes tightened around me, cutting off my air.

With a final scream, Daizo exploded, and I was encased in ink. I dared not open my mouth, even when I felt my back slam against the pavement. Finally, when I believed I wasn't moving anymore, I cleared the ink in front of me and rose to my feet.

I caught Robin's eyes, relief flooding through both sides of the bond, and smiled at him. I looked past him and saw Beast Boy, his arm wrapped around Cyborg as they leaned against each other for support. When I looked back to Robin, I realized he was looking past me as well, searching for—

"Starfire," he cried as her hand broke free from a pile of ink. He fell to his knees and reached into the gunk.

As I neared him, his arms and an inky Starfire emerged. With the gentlest touch, Robin brushed aside some of the ink on her face and whispered, "Starfire, are you okay?"

Her smile was just as gentle. "I am now."

A ferocious combination of lightning and thunder clashed above us. Rain cascaded from the sky almost immediately, clearing away Brushogun's ink as if it had never been there in the first place.

I turned at the sound of another groan and watched as the rain cleared away the ink that had been covering Daizo. He took a deep breath and then slipped back into unconsciousness.

"Dude's not getting up for a long time," said Beast Boy as he came up beside me.

I looked at him, then, and my heart swam in feelings of joy and relief. I could feel truth—honest, real, vulnerable truth—rising within me, and I opened my mouth to let it free.

"I think I was wrong before," said Robin, and all of the truth of that moment left me.

Starfire pushed a piece of her long hair behind her ears. "You do?"

He did. I could feel and see it now. "Maybe a hero isn't all that I am. Maybe I could be—Maybe we could be…"

A pit of overwhelming despair creeped up inside me. For once, Robin was losing his confidence. But I didn't let my shock of the moment stop me from pushing every ounce of hope and courage I had left in me toward him. If one of us was going to make any progress on our feelings tonight, I wanted it to be Robin.

It turns out, he didn't need the confidence anyway.

"Robin," said Starfire, her brilliant green eyes fixated on him.

"Starfire?"

She turned another smile on him and said, "Stop talking."

As they leaned into each other and kissed, I felt a different sense of joy and relief. And this time I knew it was mine. A smile that I couldn't have stopped even if I had wanted to pulled at the corners of my mouth.

"Well, it's about time," said Cyborg as he crossed his arms.

"Took them long enough," Beast Boy agreed. As he turned to smile at Cyborg, his eyes caught mine.

Without Robin's feelings to guide my own, I was left with overpowering confusion. I felt angry again for some reason, but I still couldn't place why. I'd been so happy to see him just moments before, so relieved that he hadn't been hurt. And yet, I realized, as I looked at him, I was reminded of only one thing: Terra.

Of all the things to think about! She wasn't even in Tokyo! But even as I thought that, I knew that's where the source of my anger lied. Every time he looked at me and I had felt hope rise up within me, so had my feelings of hurt and betrayal from four months ago.

"Raven."

My attention snapped back to Beast Boy as he called my name and took a step toward me. Oh, no. I most certainly was not ready to talk about this. In my panic, I turned toward Daizo and said in a loud voice, "Not that I want to spoil the moment, but I do believe we have one last thing to take care of."

Robin wanted to go by himself to take Daizo in, but Starfire wasn't having it. To be fair, none of us would've let him go alone anyway. We weren't going to leave Robin until we knew that his name had been cleared.

Thankfully, there had been several accounts of people seeing the disintegration of Daizo's troopers in the city. A quick survey of the jail also confirmed that all of the prisoners had also been nothing but Brushogun's inky creations. By morning, news had spread; by noon, the city had prepared a celebration for us.

I stood next to Starfire, who beamed at me as she intertwined her fingers with Robin's. There easily could've been hundreds of thousands of people at the celebration. As I looked around, I felt the urge to pull my hood over my face. I put a piece of gum into my mouth instead.

Cyborg took in the crowd and turned to Robin. "So I guess you're not a wanted man anymore."

Before now, I'd never seen a more bashful smile from Robin. "Um, I wouldn't say that," he muttered as he glanced down at his and Starfire's hands.

Starfire leaned into Robin and waved as a group of photographers passed in front of them. I wondered how long it would take for the news of their coupling to get back home.

Beast Boy marched his way to the front of the stage and threw his arms into the air, earning him a loud cheer. From both sides of the stage, girls crowded around the front, squealing and giggling in delight. "One at a time, ladies," Beast Boy said. "There's enough of me to go around!"

I turned away in disgust from the sight and gaped at the largest cake display I'd ever seen. No, I realized as I looked closer. The cake was merely the plate. On it were hundreds of dishes of food.

"Booyah," Cyborg screamed beside me.

A little chef stood in front of him, arm extended toward the cake. "All you can eat!"

Cyborg pumped his fist into the air. "Well, alright!" He immediately climbed onto the closest tier of the cake and began eating.

Again, I was disgusted and turned around, this time to Starfire's questioning eyes. "Did you also make the new friends while exploring Tokyo?"

I wasn't sure I would've classified any of the people we'd met as friends. There was that one guy at the kiosk that had been extremely friendly, though. "No," I said definitely as I shook my head and cleared the thoughts of the kiosk guy. I scanned the crowd again and caught sight of my face on a new ad. "But I somehow wound up as a mascot for gum." I blew a green bubble.

After a little while, two men in suits joined us on stage. Robin called Cyborg and Beast Boy back into our line and we bowed our heads before him. As the man in the white suite passed each of us, he placed a medal around our necks. "For uncovering the truth," he said. "For pursuing justice and protecting our city from a treacherous evil, I present these medals to Tokyo's newest heroes: the Teen Titans!"

The crowd burst into another uproarious cheer. I exited my bow and glanced at Starfire and Robin's joined hands again. From there, my eyes went up and caught sight of a few girls who were trying to climb the stage to grab Beast Boy, who suddenly didn't seem as into his part.

He caught my eye and gently pushed his way away from the girls, finding a place next to Robin. "So," he said, "guess we have to go back home now, huh?"

Curious to hear the answer, I moved closer to Robin, trying hard not to pay attention to the fact that I was standing next to Beast Boy now. I leaned in closer as Robin said, "You know, Beast Boy, sometimes even heroes need a vacation."

As Robin smiled at Starfire, I basked in his feelings of happiness again. At least, I was basking until Beast Boy said, "Okay, next time? We're going to Mexico!"

Anger, disgust, and annoyance flooded my veins. Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out and slapped the back of Beast Boy's head again, sending him spiraling toward the front of the stage. The group of girls screamed again and reached out for him, eliciting more anger from inside me.

"Raven," Robin asked, his hand outstretched for my shoulder.

"Hey, y'all," said Cyborg, giving me the perfect distraction from my anger. "Are you gonna eat or do I have to enjoy this delicious buffet all by my lonesome self?"

Beast Boy disentangled himself from the girls again and flew toward Cyborg's side of the stage. Starfire followed, clapping her hands together in delight. Only Robin and I stayed where we were.

I opened my mouth. "I—"

"I think we've all had enough excitement for this morning," he said, cutting me off. "Don't you? I'd like to just have lunch with my friends."

I nodded, feeling relieved that he also wanted to leave the eye of the celebration. We joined our friends near the cake and waved goodbye to the crowd before I encased us all in dark magic and carried us off away from the heart of the city.

When I released us, we were back on the cliff with the T-ship. With a loud grunt, I pulled the rest of the cake buffet through the darkness and placed it beside our aircraft. I was aware of Beast Boy and Robin looking at me, but I made a point of ignoring them as I tried to recover from all the energy I'd just exerted.

"Alright, Raven," said Cyborg. "Whatcha waitin' for, everybody? Dig in!" He ran to the buffet again.

As I placed my hands on my knees and breathed through my recovery, I was aware of everyone else leaving my side. Almost everyone.

I straightened and wasn't surprised to see Robin staring off into Tokyo's horizon. The others might've thought that he was just being Robin, but I knew better. "I don't want to talk about it," I warned.

"I know." Robin looked at me and gave me a little smirk. "You don't have to."

My expression soured into a deeper frown. "You have been able to feel it, then, haven't you?"

"Feel what," he said with fake innocence. "The times you've wanted to smash Beast Boy into the ground or the times you thought you were going to kiss him senseless?" Even while laughing, he managed to dodge a pebble that I had tossed at him. "Believe me, Raven, I would've stopped it if I could have. It feels too much like an—"

"Invasion of privacy," we finished together. Then, because it felt so good to finally be able to talk about it with someone, I laughed.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. "Have you been able to feel everything, then, this entire trip?"

Robin raised his head toward the horizon. "It's been difficult, trying to sort out which feelings are yours and which are mine," he mused. "I think a lot of them are the same. These past few months have just been a lot of two people feeling the same things."

I didn't know how to answer that. I tried to look for whatever he was seeing in the horizon. Knowing Robin, it was probably hope. I didn't doubt that he could see hope on the horizon.

He smiled and tapped the side of his head. "I think it's time you and I stop festering these feelings here and start sharing them with the people they're about."

I looked past him and saw Beast Boy turn to me in the distance with his bright smile, with the smile I've always claimed as my favorite. "Yeah," I whispered, "I think so too." I started to take a step forward, but stopped. "But I don't know how."

"Well, if being in my head has taught you anything, it's that I don't know either." Robin reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. "But I have found that it helps to start with honesty."

I gave him a pitiful smile and walked toward the buffet. Beast Boy looked at me with expectations in his eyes, and I almost lost my nerve right then and there. I wanted to tell him everything. "Want to go on a walk?"

He gave me another fanged grin, and my knees, along with my resolve, almost crumbled. "I'd like that."

We walked a little ways away from the other Titans, though I was sure any amount of distance I tried to put between us and the group wouldn't matter—they were insufferably nosy sometimes.

"Beast Boy," I started, and stopped. I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't know where to begin or what questions he had that he wanted answered. He stood only an arm's distance from me, and yet I couldn't have felt further away if I'd tried. I looked into his eyes, hoping for something to go off of, but it was clear that I would find no help there. There would be no questions. Just me…and my honesty.

"I've missed you." The words fell awkwardly out of my mouth like thick molasses, but I pushed forward. "I still do…miss you. As my boyfriend, as my friend—everything. These past four months have been nothing short of painful."

His eyes widened, but I forced myself to keep going. I had to. "At first, I was just angry at you, because I'm still not over you leaving us—leaving me to go look for Terra. And I know you came back, but that doesn't stop it from hurting. It doesn't stop me from wondering what else you'd leave me for."

"Raven…"

"No, please," I said, shaking my head. "I have to get this out."

He nodded and, for once, closed his mouth.

I strove to remember where I had been going with my last thought. "Then I was angry with me because I feel like I should've stayed when you offered me the chance and I didn't. But I also feel like I was right not to, but…"

I pressed the palms of my hands against my forehead in anguish. I didn't know where I was going anymore. But no matter—I would just abandon the thought, then. "Then I was even angrier with myself because I realized how much I missed you. And I didn't know how to tell you that, so I—I yelled at you and avoided you and hit you...And now, more than anything else, I just want you to know how sorry I am."

"Sorry?" He clapped his hands over his mouth at his mistake and waved at me to go on.

"Yes, sorry," I resigned, some sourness coming back into my voice. I pushed that aside, only to find tears coming in its place. "Sorry for all the times I've hit you. Sorry for all the times I felt jealous because you were off chasing other girls and all I wanted was to be beside you."

I locked eyes with him, pushing past the shame of my tears. "Sorry because I didn't tell you any of this before." I wiped the tears away from my eyes. "But I don't want to spend anymore time being sorry by myself. I don't care about who I was before or what we are or can't be anymore—I'm not going to make any more excuses.

"I want to be happy. Happy because, thanks to you, I know how much love I'm capable of receiving—how much I'm capable of giving. Happy because these years that I've spent with you have taught me that I can be happy. And I want you to be happy too." With me, I realized. "I—I just needed you to know that."

Though my words had stopped, I realized my heart was still racing. For once, I couldn't feel the anger or even the sadness or guilt. All I felt was peace, because Beast Boy knew about all of it now. Robin had been right—my feelings did me no good sitting and festering inside of me.

I gave him the most genuine and honest smile I could, wishing he could feel my peace through it. "I think I'm done now, but I don't want you to worry about having to say anything back. It's okay, Beast Boy."

"No, Raven," he said. "It's not okay."

A part of me had expected him to feel this way. I imagine the weight of someone else's unwarranted feelings would be insurmountably heavy. I dipped my head in a small nod and forced myself to look at the ground. I didn't want him to see any more tears that I might've had left.

"It's still not okay for me," he continued. "I said it back then and I'm gonna say it again now: I should've never gone after Terra. And you were right—it wasn't enough for me to realize that after I'd gone and done it. I should've known that sooner. If I had just thought about it a little more, then maybe I would've—maybe we would've…"

I looked up at him as he shook his head. "All I wanted to do was make it up to you somehow. I knew you didn't want to talk to me after it happened. I thought you were avoiding me because I wanted to talk about it, to bring it up again. So, when we took this trip, I decided I was just going to try to give you what I thought you wanted: the old Beast Boy."

He locked eyes with me then, and I saw no trace of immaturity. I thought back to the time he'd wanted to call him Beast Man. "And you know what? It sucked. Being chased by cute girls was nice for a while, but it wasn't what I really wanted. I was miserable. And seeing Star and Robin together got me thinking about us again and I—gah! I'm not explaining this right."

I didn't know what to say. We'd both said so much. How was either of us ever going to figure this out?

As if things weren't confusing enough, Beast Boy kept talking: "But it's not okay. Because all I wanted these past few months was for you to be happy—however that might've looked. And if I'd just talked to you sooner…I'm sorry, Rae." He shook his head again.

Silence fell between us, and finally, I was allowed time to think. He wanted me to be happy as much as I wanted him to be. This was great, and yet, I still felt disappointed. It wasn't what I had wanted to hear. I guess I had been hoping for a different outcome.

I reached up and unclasped the pin he'd given me on my birthday. For once, it didn't feel heavy. I folded my fist over it and held it out to him. He raised an eyebrow at me and pounded his fist against mine.

"No," I said, shaking my head. I grabbed his fist and forced it open with my hand as I placed the raven pin in his palm. My fingers folded back over his. "For happiness."

Our hands tugged on each other at the same time and we drew each other closer. It was as if the months apart hadn't had any affect on our lips—they still knew the way to each other. I fisted the back of his neck and pulled him into me as his hands moved to my waist. As his tongue slipped into my mouth, I realized just how much I had missed him, missed his taste, missed this. This was what I'd wanted, what I'd hoped he'd wanted too.

When he finally pulled back, I didn't dare look in his eyes. I didn't want to be disappointed. "For me," we said together, and I couldn't help but meet the green in his eyes.

He'd remembered. And I couldn't have been happier just knowing that my favorite memory had meant just as much to him too. I smiled.

"We should probably get back," I said. "The other Titans will probably start to wonder about us."

"Oh, I doubt that," he murmured, his gaze fixated on something behind me. I decided it would be better if I didn't turn around. "But I, on the other hand, am definitely more curious about this us."

One of my eyebrows rose in surprise. "Us? You want to go out again, too?"

"You really thought I didn't feel the same way? After that kiss?"

Indignation overcame my shock. "I thought you were saying goodbye!"

He gave me a pointed look that was laced with playfulness and something more…something distinctly adult. "Well, then, if you thought that was just a goodbye kiss, I guess I'll have to make the other ones more…memorable."

Azar help me if the other Titans had heard all of that! I pressed my fists into my eyes, this time out of embarrassment instead of tears. "This can't be happening," I muttered.

"Hey, Raven," Beast Boy said, his voice softer. He pulled down one of my hands to reveal the raven pin between his fingers. "We don't have to do this again, if you don't want to. And I'd understand, of course, if you—"

I cupped his face with my hands and silenced him with another kiss. His shock lasted only for a moment before he leaned back into me. I broke away with a huge smile on my face. "Let's do it."

His mouth echoed mine a big, toothy grin. "Together," he agreed. Beast Boy moved to clip the raven pin back onto me. "I can't believe you actually kept that thing," he said, laughing all the while. "I thought for sure you'd thrown it away."

I felt my cheeks heating up even before I answered him: "It's special to me."

"Really? It cost me, like, a dollar!"

I scoffed and waved him away with my hand. "Figures. I suppose it really is the thought that counts, then. Although, since I know it's you, I won't put too much hope in the idea of you putting thoughts into things."

Beast Boy draped his arm around my shoulders and planted a kiss on the side of my forehead as he led me back towards the T-ship. "That's okay. Just means I shouldn't have too much faith you'll grow your hair out again."

I snorted in disbelief and tried not to feel shy as we came into full view of the other Titans, who definitely looked like they were all guilty of eavesdropping. For the first time in a long time, I sat next to Beast Boy, who spent hours talking of all the activities he still had for us while we were in Tokyo.

Finally, Robin decided to put it to a vote. And, as expected, I was grossly outnumbered.

"Karaoke," I grumbled as Beast Boy finished choosing a song. I was sandwiched between Cyborg and Robin on an already tiny stage. "Of course, it would be karaoke."

Beast Boy held the mike in front of his mouth and started singing: "I will obey the traffic rules."

"Teen Titans," the crowd yelled with him.

"Did everyone but me already know that we had a Japanese theme song," I asked Robin.

He smirked and said, "Now you know how I felt about you and Beast Boy the first time around." Robin grabbed the mic from Beast Boy and sang the next verse: "I will eat everything without likes or dislikes. Teen Titans!"

Starfire, ever the crowd-pleaser she was, smiled at the audience as she took the mic from Robin. "Earthquakes, lightning, fire, Dad; grammar, math, science, social studies—there is nothing I am afraid of! Teen Titans, Go!" She passed the mic to Cyborg.

"Oh, Raven," said Starfire as she stood next to me, "this is so much fun!"

"Riveting," I replied.

Cyborg stomped the ground beside me and leaned into my ear. "Holler, holler, holler, holler, holler, holler, holler my name! Teen Titans! Half of your troubles will be gone! Teen Titans!"

Beast Boy nudged me from behind. "Come on, Raven! It's your turn."

I let out a long sigh and snatched the mic away from Cyborg. Realizing I didn't know the words to this stupid song, I turned toward the screen and read the words that came on: "Papa's schedule control. Mama's weight control. Wishes are endless. Teen Titans, go."

I don't sing, and I know it sounded terrible, but it got a round of applause out of the crowd and a laugh out of Beast Boy. He smiled at me and said, "Yeah, Raven!" To the crowd, he sang, "One, two, three, four, GO!"

We all leaned in and said, "Teen Titans!"

Beast Boy threw his arm back and yelled, "Goodnight, Tokyo!" before dropping the mic.

And I knew, even before he came up and kissed me again, that it would be a good night. For there was no more trouble in Tokyo, and there wasn't any other witchy spell that I could've used to make the night even more perfect.

A/N: This has been a long time coming. For those of you who were with me when I started this project more than five years ago, I apologize for the wait. I could make excuses of the tough years that I've had or the challenges that appeared that I struggled to navigate through, but I know that none of them will make up for all the time you've spent waiting for this. I made promises about updates that I never fulfilled due to IRL stuff and never explained. If you're still here after all of this, please know how much I absolutely love and adore you and how deeply sorry I am. I wanted the first project I finished of 2018 to be this one, because it is the most important to me. I started on this website with this project and it has been a long-time favorite of mine. Thank you to those who continued to review and message me about this project—your continued support and love for Witch Spell is what ultimately got me to come back. I've had some rough years behind me, but I want to make 2018 a good one, starting with getting back into the things that I love. Thank you again for staying on this crazy long journey with me. Happy New Year to all of you beautiful people! And may you always find time to do the things you love. 3

EDIT: I will continue to write things for this pairing! If you'd like to see the latest oneshot I've written for Beast Boy and Raven, head to my profile and check out "Rewrite the Stars."