Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N – First off, I would just like to thank you in advance for reading this story. It makes it all worth it. I would also ask you review any chapter that strikes your interest… even though I might be long past it. That way I know what people like and don't. It helps me develop as a writer.

This story will basically be a re-write of the entire series, with much more of a Rae/Rob focus. I warn you, it will be quite subtle for quite a while... I have to develop a real friendship between them first.

Artistic license - Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire are 16, Raven and BB are 15 (BB just barely). Music is going to be used, but as un-obnoxiously as possible… only during the interludes. Otherwise, every chapter has the same opening and closing song, which I'll just type out once… in THIS chapter.

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned the Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I? Pink Floyd owns Wish You were Here and Evanescence owns Missing.

Prologue - Once Upon a Time is an Easy Lie

Opening Song:

So

So you think you can tell

Heaven from Hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here

"Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos..."

Raven Roth sat in her room, trying to meditate. She had to admit, it wasn't working very well. This place, this entire planet, was too new to her. So unlike her home, Azarath... Raven shook her head. That place was lost to her now. It had never wanted her there in the first place, and now that her mentor was dead there was no place for her there.

She clutched her hands tighter around her two silver rings as unwelcome emotion coursed through the empath. Her mentor and her mother, dead within days of one another. These rings are now all she had left of them. Determined, she put aside all thoughts of the past... Azarath was behind her, and Earth was her home now.

Sighing in resignation, Raven lifted herself from the bed and slung her cloak around her. She grimaced at the mess her emotions had made of the room. The young empath walked out, walking left and turning right at the next split. She heard the living room before she saw it... TV blazing, people yelling, music playing... Raven sighed. 'Perfect.' The young demoness entered, taking in the entirety of the new scene. Cyborg and the green one, Beast Brat, were playing some racing game as they taunted and shouted at each other. The Tameranian... Starfire?... and Robin were sitting down, eating as he blasted music. Yes, Robin, the Boy Wonder himself' She thought as she made tea, 'The pupil of the legendary Batman.'

Batman... thinking about him brought up memories she'd rather not have. The Titans weren't her first choice of a team - The Justice League had been. She still stung from Zantana's words.

- Flashback -
Raven walked out of the Hall of Justice, her ears still stinging from Zantana's rejection. 'Evil,' her mind still echoed. 'Evil Evil Evil Evil Evil... She's evil, the daughter of Trigon himself.' Following Zantana's warnings, Raven's pleas sounded hollow even to her own ears.

As she left, Batman caught up to her. He was the only member in favor of helping the half-demon. "Seek out my pupil, Robin, in Bludhaven. He's assembling a team of hero's... he'll help you." Even as Raven watched him walk away with a new hope in her heart, her mind still echoed with Zantana's truly frightened voice.

"Be gone, Demon! Evil..."

Crack!

- End Flashback -
The sudden crack brought Raven out of her memories: Her dark emotions had shattered her mug of tea, spilling the hot water all over both her and the counter. Groaning in disgust, she turned and stormed out of the room. She needed to get her emotions under control. The rest of the team probably already thought she was a freak, and she hadn't even been with them a week

Despite Raven's worries, most of the team hadn't noticed that she had even been there. Cy and BB were too busy competing with each other to notice a fire, and Starfire was too busy staring at the boy wonder. Only Robin noticed Raven's entrance, and her frustrated exit. He hoped that Batman was right about her. Although he hadn't seen anything to justify calling Raven evil, everything he saw did tell him that the empath's powers were dangerous, and not completely under control.

Robin sighed and put the mystic out of his mind. Raven was the least of his worries right now. More importantly, how was he going to transform this band of misfits into a functional team? He had a vegan changeling and a carnivorous cyborg constantly at each other's throats, a naive alien fawning over him, and to top it off, a moody empath with an unknown past that might not be in full control of her powers... and all of them to be led by a cocky, perfectionist 16 year old kid with no powers of his own. And it was his job to transform this group of misfits into the Teen Titans.

End Prologue

Closing Song:

Please, please forgive me,
But I won't be home again.
Maybe someday you'll have woke up,
And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one:
"isn't something missing?"

You won't cry for my absence, I know -
You forgot me long ago.
Am I that unimportant...?
Am I so insignificant...?
Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?

Even though I would sacrifice,
You won't try for me, not now.
Though I'd die to know you love me,
I'm all alone…
Isn't someone missing me?

Please, please forgive me,
But I won't be home again.
I know what you do to yourself,
Shudder deep and cry out:
"Isn't something missing?
Isn't someone missing me?"

Even though I would sacrifice,
You won't try for me, not now.
Though I'd die to know you love me,
I'm all alone.
Isn't someone missing me?

And if I bleed, I'll bleed,
Knowing you don't care.
And if I sleep just to dream of you
And wake without you there,
Isn't something missing?
Isn't something...

Even though I would sacrifice,
You won't try for me, not now.
Though I'd die to know you love me,
I'm all alone.

Isn't someone missing me?

A/N

That's the introduction to my story. Read and Review, please. Yeah, I know not much happened, but it's a bloody prologue... what can I say?

A note: Episode will happen out of order, some will not happen at all, and others will happen but be significantly changed. If an episode happens unchanged, I will tell you about it during the chapter's it came between.