A/N: Apologies are at the bottom. Thanks to the following:

psychegloom , Fight-of-the-Irish , I'm_Solo , Shnitzel , iNsAne_nO_bAkA , gwacie21 , ttraven4ever , Nikki-4 , morphious44 , MadmanTobz , Xaphrin , Inakura , Lee21323 , DARKNESSbleeding , Darkangel436 , Renton618 , raye , Seaz , XDark-Titan , soar2survive , friggers , ..sLaYeR. , froger495 and Shiba-sama.

Thanks for yelling at me for getting a move on. ^^ And I'm_Solo ? Here's the M Rating you wanted. *blushes hardcore* Sorry. I'm not used to writing this kind of ...stuff. :D Kiddies, look away!

PS - OMFG! 300 reviews? Thanks guys! :B

Previous Chapter:

He didn't find their scent anymore. He had expected the Leader of the Titans to cross paths with him sooner than later but he had found the girl first.

No matter. His mission was complete.

With a roar, he turned and headed back to familiar waters.

Where someone had to pay him for his servitude.

Chapter Eighteen: Spellbound

( btw: Blah = sane, blah = happiness, blah = lust, blah = herself)

They shouldn't be doing this. No, they should be out looking for Gordon. Goodness knew what had happened to him. They should be making contact with the others.

They should – they should – !

Both moaned as Raven's telepathy made them shudder at each other's proximity. Blindly, Robin stumbled back, taking Raven with him. Now, directly underneath the ice cold clean water, skin - cooled by moisture - struggled to warm up with each other's heat. Hands grabbed at the remaining of their clothing but their attention remained on each other's lips.

They shouldn't. They...they!

"N-no," she groaned quietly, slightly tilting her head to avoid the temptation of his mouth. His cheek remained against hers as bodies struggled to get closer, the intinct at its primal peak.

Clarity threatened to separate them and Robin knew that if they became sane, there might be no turning back to normality between them. They wouldn't – couldn't – respect each other the way they had before.

In fact, he had already made up his mind that he could settle – painfully – for being friends; that they could remain friends, and put this moment behind them, to never look at it again.

But that moment in the tunnel, being near her through the hallucination of a fever... His resolve just broke and he couldn't handle it.

He was damned if he went through with it, damned if he kept his distance.

Raven's hands grasped at the hair in the back of his head, breathing deeply and suddenly bringing them closer. He moaned as his lips ravished hers, not willing to let go, to bask just a minute longer in the confusion of overwhelming feelings. Not letting her mind – or his own – to really acknowledge anything, so that they never settled into their right frame of mind.

Noises escaped her throat as her hands traveled over his chiseled back, leaving welts the water cooled.

Hips jerked in reaction and chilled skin began to burn harsher than the fire of Trigon's temporary hell on Earth. His lips traveled down her neck, his teeth nibbling at the taunt skin as her fingers fought to make more damage to his already huritng back. When skin on skin finally contacted with each other - now with no barrier of clothing in between them - moans escaped them, neither knowing who exactly was torturing whom.

Raven's now bruised lips found his again blindly and she felt her skin come alive. She felt him lean her body against the icy cold tile and broke away from his lips as his hand placed itself on her left breast. She jerked her hips in responce, gasping, and causing him to hiss in her ear. Behind them, the small table at the first aid area bolted to the wall broke free and landed loudly on the floor.

Moist heat ignited between both bodies as the friction and pace of hips jerked faster and stronger as breathing too became so erratic that the ice cold water no longer affected the reddened skin. Robin's lips gradually lowered closer and closer to her chest. When his lips finally enclosed on her, she let out a gutteral groan.

The light pannel above the bedding sparked and fell out of it's placement in the ceiling, shrouding them in an eerie red emergency lighting.

Her emotions swirled in chaos under her skin, making their bond hum loudly in between them, letting each other's reactions to their touches filter through, magnifying sensitivety and responce.

"Fuck," she heard him groan. Her lips opened in a silent groan as the impatience and desire to speak became too much. She felt they were both on fire. She felt him, up close. She knew if they crossed that line, it would be too much. But by Azarath, this fire felt too good!

Soon, said fire began to rob them of strength to stand up right. To pull away…to…to…

Her eyes snapped open, reality and cool air slapping her in the face.

"No!" she mumbled, harsher than she intended.

His lips slipped away from her chest as his muscled arms brought their bodies closer, making her shudder at his touch and feel her will begin to bend yet again. Something fell behind them, her telepathy vibrating across the room.

'No, this can't happen!' She squeezed her eyes closed and hugged his broad shoulders, panting and not wanting him to move.

For minutes, they just remained so: Raven on him physically and both underneath the direct stream of cold water.

Neither looked into each other's eyes.

His lips gradually lowered to her bare shoulder, where he rested his head.

"We should be …looking for them..." Raven mumbled slowly, opening her eyes to stare straight. She heard her own voice turn cold, despite the great source of heat that she was currently wrapped around. Her head, her vision – her emotions – still swam. "I-I..."

Robin swallowed and closed his eyes.

She was right. Lives were at stake; lives, that were more ….important than their own personal hearts. All too soon, he felt the warmth between them begin to wane. He almost pleaded out loud to just forget, for a moment, the rest of the world.

But as soon as that desire transended through his head, he felt himself go into automatic. Physically and emotionally. No. Others came first. That's why he was who he was. He exsisted, to help others. This life he had chosen, it was all about sacrifice. And if...

He swallowed a sudden knot at his throat.

If he lost the chance of filtering throught the emotional wall that Raven placed around herself by backing away now...

It was a loss he had to regrettibly let happen.

His hands slowly let go of her waist, and she seperated her body from him. Knees threatened to crumble and tingling skin pleaded to feel alive again.

No.

The leader of the Titans abruptly broke away from her. Caught offguard from its sudden-ness, Raven's dropped her gaze, refusing to look up. Her emotions raged inside her, screaming at the unfairness of the situation.

'Stop!' she pleaded, sounding almost at the verge of tears, even in her own mind. Weakened and dizzy from the sensation, she leaned back against the wall, naked, and submitted into sadness.

Tears threatened to fall but she wouldn't shed them. No. They wouldn't help the situation. Raven swallowed thickly.

She heard him scramble through cabinets but she could will herself to raise her head to make sure.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Not during a mission, not ever. This was Robin, for god's sake! Her best friend!

Sniffling through the small curtain of hair around her face, she pushed back the stinging that sprung to her eyes, and turned to the tiled wall, picking .

This was for the best, she chided herself. Best to nip it at the bud, as Terra once had told her. A scowl marred her lips suddenly. Damn Terra and her antics. She harshly slapped her hair away from her face. Sometimes Terra was as bad as Starfire and Beast Boy. Couldn't they just leave her alone?

But it hadn't been Terra or the others that had driven her to this predicament, had it?

"Here," his rough voice jerked her away from her thoughts. Behind her, Robin dropped something near her and his footsteps retreated as quickly as they had come. Then, at a small distance, the single bed creaked. Swallowing, she risked a glance behind herself and downward. At her feet, were what looked like plastic wrapped pants and shirt combo, and a jar of disinfecting body wash, off-brand.

"...Thanks," she mumbled. Picking it up the wash, she made work of scrubbing off her water-cleaned skin and hair.

All too soon, she was all free of the material and debris from the sewers but chilled. Raven turned off the water and wiped the droplets from her face. Grasping the package, she stepped out of the showering area and made her way to the opposite corner, as far away as possible from him.

Wordlessly, Robin stood up and walked to the shower himself. He didn't look her way, but kept his gaze to the floor.

The sound of the shower filled the room with steam and discomfort – though, the steam wasn't from the water itself. Raven slipped the clothing over her frame, which hung loosely on her. Wringing her hair, she made her way to the bed and sat. A smashed small monitor from the opposite wall laid cracked on the floor, a small cloud of smoke still billowing over it. Damn it.

Suddenly, she felt a mental blow from her emotions. With a groan she realized she was experiencing a sense of vertigo.

Whispering an "ouch" under her breath, she leaned back onto her hands and breathed in concentration. Beads of moisture ran down her face making her blink rapidly.

Why? Why did this have to happen to her? Why couldn't she just till him 'no' and mean it? Her heart began raced and her breathing became slightly erratic. The smashed monitor vibrated on the floor and she caught herself.

'Pull it together,' she commanded. She needed to calm down before something happened.

She –

"What the heck was that!" An emotion screamed at her.

Raven whirled in confusion, color and darkness swerving around her. It finally settled and made her scowl.

She was in Nevermore.

Sighing, she hung her head and placed her hands on her temples in frustration. She hated when her emotions forcefully pulled her into unconsciousness. Didn't they realize the danger that placed them all in? Her erratic self called for her attention again, making Raven's hands turn into fists.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" she started, pushing herself upright. Whom she detected as her personified angry self, made a blurred lunge at her physically but missed, as she sidestepped. However, Raven's newest emotion hovered near, flickering in and out of focus.

Then her logical self appeared – shadows cast on her face. Raven centered her attention on her. Moons and unidentified rocks and platforms rotated in Nevermore. Her emotions made a move to make a circle but since her rational self and she would not move, the strategy did not fall through.

Neither of them moved for a span of time.

"…I did as you suggested," she started, glaring. Her sane counter-part looked up. "I 'indulged'," she mumbled the last word as if it were poison, "Now it's over." And look where that ended up, she wanted to add but kept her mouth shut.

"And I would be lying if I said you hadn't. We were just expecting a longer moment of…indulgence." The new emotion's lips moved as if to speak but Raven would not face her.

"Then why have council with me? I did as you wished – !"

"We are a part of you!" her newest emotion retorted, whom flickered in and out of existence. "Therefore, what we wished, you did as well." Raven blinked rapidly. With a hard swallow, she suddenly felt the gravity of the truth in Love's words.

"Do not deny it. You know it to be true." Her sadness, her frustration, the personified self of these emotions rattled and Raven cursed for the millionth time of containing this emotion in particular. It rattled until it left the formation of the circle and wrapped itself around her. She gasped and her chin began to tremble. She felt warm tears spill down her cheeks and she wrapped her hands around her temples, digging her fingers through her hair.

No….she would not cry. She didn't cry.

It wasn't true. She wasn't in love with him. Being in love with him meant false hope. False hope that they could never – ever – have a chance at…at….

"Raven!"

She jerked forward and blinked rapidly.

Why did her face still feel warm? And – she looked down – who was touching her? She followed the hands that grasped her upper arms and found Robin attached to them. A still wet Robin. Raven blinked and frowned, raising her arms out of his grip.

"What?" she answered. He straightened, revealing him wearing white trousers.

"You almost fell," he clarified, searching her eyes, cold strict jawline contrasting the concerning look he sent her.

Absentmindedly, she realized what he was doing. This was 'the Robin' that had caused her this grief; the Robin who cared for others above all, the Robin that tried to do everything within his human capacities to make it a better world, and then some.

But – Raven bit her lip – but this Robin also now wore the metaphorical mask he had learned to wear to hide himself from others, from situations that cost him dearly. Situations that were close to the heart.

"I'm fine," she tried, a bit more gently.

"What happened?" he asked, now taking a step away from her. Her eyes reluctantly followed him all the way to the still functioning shower. He closed it and turned to her, a bit more relaxed in stance now that he had placed more of a distance between them. She caught herself when her gaze traveled to the lips that not too long ago were kissing her.

Now, they were interrigating her.

"Nevermore," she simply answered. A flicker of something passed his face but she couldn't identify what it was. Her arms wrapped around themselves. And maybe, she couldn't because she didn't want to.

"…We have to communicate with the others," he continued after a pause and pushed back his messy black hair, "I know Victor must be beside himself worrying about you."

"That, or mad at Beast Boy for burning down the Tower," she mumbled, almost as a reflex, as if some part of her longed to get over the awkward and painful situation she had placed them in. His lips twitched by a fraction but disappeared swiftly as he sat at the small computer chair that fit into the desk of the monitors. Facing his direction, Raven watched as he disregarded the fallen monitor and damages she had caused, and pulled cables and pushed buttons here and there on the communication station, none of the mannerisms making any sort of sense to her. His hand hovered over a small drawer that stood nearest the monitor.

Almost like an afterthought, he opened it and slipped out something black.

With a sardonic laugh, he slipped on a spare black eye mask.

"Will y'all let go of me!" he practically screamed, as BB grabbed his forearm.

"They'll call soon, Cy! I promise you," Terra encouraged besides the changeling, though she didn't physically helped in restraining the cybernetic man.

Suddenly, a loud 'BLEEP' sounded in the conference room and the giant monitor replaced the view of the city of Jump. All present members of the Titans West looked up, and lo and behold, their leader's face appeared. Behind him, with arms crossed, stood Raven.

"…..Where the hell have y'all BEEN!" Victor suddenly whirled and headed straight for the monitor. At the outburst, the Tameranean stopped in the hall and redirected herself into the conference room. At seeing Robin's face on the monitor, she stormed around Beast Boy and Terra and joined Cyborg.

"Hey, everyone," Robin started.

"Do not 'hey us', Robin!" Starfire chided, her eyes actually illuminating green. "We were doing the worrying for you both!" All finally joined at the monitor and peered up at their leader, who offered an embarrassed smile, but sobered up.

"We've been in a mission, guys. You know that."

"Where are y'all?" Victor asked, looking immediately down at the triangulating knobs to locate their missing teammates' location.

"Don't."

At Robin's words, the Titans looked up.

"What's wrong?" asked Terra, whose eyes rose up to study Raven's face. The empath revealed nothing, mastering the poker face far too well for her liking.

"We're in a safe zone, don't worry," Robin assured, "We're…we're both fine. The threat's gone."

"Then what does that mean?" Beast Boy asked, confused, "Why aren't you both home, dudes?"

"We still need to find Gordon and the others, who were kidnapped," Raven spoke for the first time, though she didn't come closer to the monitor, "We managed to escape with injury but we escaped nonetheless."

"Robin…" Cyborg warned.

"We can't compromise our location, guys," Their leader continued, shifting his shoulders and revealing the purple and angry bruises and scratches that decorated his pallor chest. Slight swelling deformed his naturally handsome features but not as much as it had when down at the tunnel. "But we'll be home soon. Don't worry."

Raven nodded besides him, and at that, Robin's hand reached above the monitor's eye and cut off communication. Cyborg scowled and looked down at the screens on his keyboard.

Despite orders, he had attempted to track them. The system bleeped in mid search then suddenly stopped.

Their location couldn't be triangulated.

"Damn it!"

"You don't want them to find out about Batman's hideout," Raven concluded out loud. Robin unhooked a cable and turned, rubbing his shoulder. She had almost forgotten he was injured. The way he had grasped her in the shower –

'Stop! Now!' she ordered herself mentally.

"They couldn't even if they tried. His hideouts are known because one goes to them and not otherwise, despite the obvious bat symbols indicating them. He's got satellites that'll blow off coordinates from all over. It's hard to narrow in at a place like this." He stood and the angry wound of the bullet made its appearance again. Her amethyst eyes went half lidded as she saw the wound covered in red and fresh skin. That power jerk she had made them experience must have healed him a bit further, though she doubted the fractures and brakes were far from gone.

"Is Croc gone, you suppose?" she redirected, as her eyes followed him to what remained of the first aid cabinet. He opened it and brought out a case, as well as a disinfecting bottle.

"Hard to say. I'll check out surveillance on the surrounding tunnels in a bit." With that, he pulled a small side table next to the futon and sat on the mattress. Setting the supplied on the table, he began to wrap gauze on his arm.

"Let me," Raven offered, stepping forward. Instantly, she berrated herself. This wasn't helping matters. Robin seemed to thinkt he same thing as he paused. A moment of silence transpired between them before he heaved a heavy sigh, and let the materials down beside him on the mattress. She sat behind him and grasped the gauze.

The sense of deja vu reared it's ugly head as she noticed the situation had been the same when she had been with the Reaper in the hotel room, disguising himself as Robin. She suppressed a shudder at the thought.

Their bond betrayed them as memories and feelings transpired through.

"…How did he do it?" he suddenly asked.

"What?" she looked up, finding Robin staring at the floor.

"You said previously, the Reaper tricked you. How?" Her leader suddenly looked over his shoulder, his face set and eyes questioning. Her hands released the bandage and moved to the first aid kit. Inside, she found the disinfectant and some sort of balm she supposed worked wonders. She concentrated her gaze hard on her task at prepping the materials.

"I told you. He – "

"No, you didn't," he interruped. Steeling her jaw, she picked up the disinfectant and made a gesture for him to turn forward again. He complied, though his shoulders implied that he didn't do it willingly.

He was a master at reading body language, a talent she had seen firsthand. Raven felt a bit better knowing those naked eyes wouldn't stare her down and provoke her to hurt them both again.

"He disguised himself."

"As who? You never said who."

She berated herself. She would have to document the mission report anyway. Robin always read the files before they were locked away in their file bank. Either way, he would know.

"…As you." Robin's shoulders stiffened. Her hand hovered over the wound, finding her breathing become erratic again. Fixing her eyes on the bullet wound, she placed some disinfectant, earning her a sudden hiss from him. "Sorry," she whispered and picked up the bandage again.

"Why me?" Raven closed her eyes. Why couldn't he drop it?

"…"

"Why would my presence be needed to trick you to go with him?"

"It didn't," she snapped, partially glad he made her angry rather than experience…something else for him. "Your…'doppelganger' didn't motivate me to go with him, believe you me. He defeated my soul and knocked me unconscious."

Robin knew how much it was hurting them both for him to do this.

But, he wasn't going to let himself wallow in longing alone. Call him selfish, but there was an ache in his chest he was unaccustomed to have - at least emotionally. So he would rather have them be angry – distant – from each other so that the healing and the coping could come and be gone. He knew this was a testy subject with her. So, he would use it to his advantage.

This – this sabotage of emotions was a giant swing-and-miss, he reminded himself suddenly. And it irritated him that he knew it would, before hand. He knew that it would have ended disastrous and he still went through with it. Why? Why couldn't he stop himself when he knew his actions would only hurt others ?

Well, wasn't that just the way he was? Listening to his 'heart' instead of his mind; same erratic and hotheaded Robin that sometimes pushed too far?

"Hhn," he grunted. Raven closed her eyes and she continued her work.

"…where do you suppose Gordon is?"she rerouted. This was the question that plagued her mind, after all.

"Eric couldn't be separated long from the Reaper, I theorize. And the Reaper had you. And you were all in Gotham. …They have to be in the city," her leader spoke.

"It sounds reasonable…still, Gotham is a pretty damn big city," she finished wrapping the gauze around his shoulder and chest, and looked back into the first aid kit box for the small clip that would hold it together. He nodded, and interlaced his fingers, placing them under his chin in thought. "…any theories?"

"Both Eric and the Reaper came here with the intention of hurting us."

"Yes," she added, clipping the excess gauze.

'And won….in some perspective.'

"Eric would have placed them in a location where it would…" Abruptly, he stood up – angry, for not making the connection sooner.

"What?"

"I know where they are."

Son of a bitch. Son of a god damn bitch.

"Epps!"

"Wha-at?"

"Why'd you go and break the damn lever?" Sung yelled, spitting out water. The water system had not stopped 'extinguishing the fire' and now, the water level was at their chins.

"I didn't break it!"

"Gentlemen!" Gordon shouted, his glasses long gone. "I suggest we find a way to crawl our asses out of this situation instead of bickering like little bitches!"

Now, he normally didn't cuss and lose his temper but he couldn't handle it anymore.

Both officers paused, spared a glance at each other and turned to the wall nearest them and used hands and belt buckles to begin to carve at the damned walls.

"– We're live at the incident at Westwood, where it is looks like an explosive device went off inside the building –" a blond reported shouted over the fire truck and police car sirens as she walked around the rubble littering the once very manicured lawn of the Westwood building, " – Police officials have not confirmed nor denied the rumors of it being an explosive device that has caused this – " she stopped as her camera man signaled to look over her shoulder. She caught sight of a standing police officer with a trench coat. With a signal, both roamed over to the officer. "Sir?"

"What? – Oh geeze. Look, lady. No comment, okay?"

"But," she looked down at his badge, "Officer Johnson, we have to know: is this a possible terrorist threat or a personal vendetta against the owner of the building, Eric Buscema? And if so, how does this affect the immediate community?" Said officer Johnson leaned closer to the microphone the reporter held, looked at the camera and back at her.

"…have a good afternoon, will ya?" He broke abruptly from them. Angrily, the reporter scoffed under her breath but calmly turned to the camera, a bright fake smile in place.

"Police still remain vague on what exactly happened around here. Families and relations are coming to the site now, wondering about the workers who on a daily basis resided in this building. Police are gathering a missing persons list and will be informed more on the matter shortly. This is Tina Holmes, reporting live from –"

"Do you think…?" The Tameranean princess asked, looking back at Victor, whom ran a hand over his face.

"They said they'd be in creepy-and-wonky-Trinity. This is Gotham," the changeling pointed out, his blond girlfriend at his side of the couch.

"But the building's owned by the same dude that they were investigating," Cyborg added standing up, "This is too much of a coincidence."

"We should aid in the affected location in the city of Gotham, perhaps?" Starfire questioned, making a move to stand. With a nod, Cyborg's back erected.

"Titans, let's move out ya'll."

"Where the fire?" Johnson asked. Officers looked up.

"Now's not the time, Johnson – "

"Go buy yourself some humor, will ya? At what level was the explosive set off?"

"Two down from Mr. Buscema's office level." Johnson flicked off his toothpick and stuffed his hands in his coat pocket.

"So it wasn't meant to kill the guy?"

"It wasn't meant to kill anyone," a short guy pulled off his hazard white suit and approached the conferring officers. Johnson turned to him.

"What are ya talking about?"

"There was a high amount of radioactivity a few levels down, on a stairway, but no explosives detected on the 23rd level. Just high water damage."

"So no bomb?"

"No bomb."

"Then how the hell do you explain this whole mess?" he waved a hand to the debris around them.

"Hey, don't get snappy with me! I'm just telling you what I know. And what I know is this: No explosive to my knowledge caused this. The sprinkler system turned on but it seems it was pulled manually, 'cause there was no fire. Something killed the east wall of the 23rd level, and I mean totaled a whole hallway leading to the missing wall at the end of it. There was a large amount of debris that is calculated came from there. Now, I dunno what caused the rest of the glass windows on the building to explode but – "

"For a geek guy, you sure have a lot of 'I dunno's excuses in your vocabulary."

"Hey! – "

"Hey Johnson, calm down." The officer in front of him tsked and relieved the poor guy from Johnson's bipolar disorder. "He's only saying what he knows."

"Feed, feed from the camera's," Johnson fished, letting the comments slip by pass him. He needed something, "We got something there?"

"Nothing that helps. Feeds go dead as soon as the fire security lets it pour inside."

"Damn!"

"Sir!" an officer called for his attention. Said officer let a woman go under the CAUTION tape and led her towards them. "This woman says that two bodies fell from the building when the explosion happened." Johnson pulled out another toothpick and turned to the lady.

"Two bodies?" He caught sight of the reporter of earlier try to get closer to them. With a scowl, he hovered closer to the woman. "Two bodies?" he repeated.

"Yes. But," she looked around herself, "But one of them I think was meta-human!"

Bah-zing!

"Oh really?" Johnson smiled sardonically, "What makes ya say that?"

"The fact that one of them grasped the other and phased them through the concrete," she snapped, stomping her foot as if to add emphasize of the concrete's solidity, "Before they could go splat."

"Uh huh. Right. Listen, thanks for your info, lady." He signaled to the officer who had dragged her over to go ahead with procedure and take her statement. He turned to his fellow officers, "So we got us a meta-human attack."

"Oh come on man, don't start this up again." They turned from him, shaking their heads, for they knew where his wild anti-hero ideas were going.

He avoided the working CSIs at the 23rd floor's doorway from the staircase and sighed angrily.

"Oh, so we're good for nothing, are we?" The short man wearing the hazard suit muttered to himself, "Just cause he has a badge and gun doesn't mean that he's any better." He walked forward, avoiding live wires and crumbling structures. Up ahead, his eyes caught sight of the men recovering data from the only casualty they had accounted for in the entire building.

This, above the mysterious non-bomb, struck him as weird.

The body was mummified, appearing to have been dead and dried out for quite a while. However, the fresh wound on his chest conflicted with time of death. A metal pole struck out from his chest cavity and gashes here and there appeared on his clothing. And he too wore an Armani suit. Who would put a mummy in an Armani suit?

He sighed and placed his tools at his feet, watching his fellow workers take finger prints and the like from the body.

And shouldn't the mummy be in a museum of some kind?

"Rick? …can you, take a look at this?" a woman called out to him, kneeling back a few steps from the body as she did so.

"What is it?" She wasn't a newbie, she could figure it out.

"Just come here, damn you," she snapped. Curious that she'd done so, he neared her, forgetting her tone.

"What is it?" he asked again. The pepper haired CSI pointed to the body's watch.

Which was beeping.

"…Okay. What – ?"

Before he could put in a word, the surface of the watch began to blink red in tune with the sudden beeping.

"Oh shit!"

"Bomb!"

The Velcro strap creaked loudly as he flexed his gloves.

"Let's go."

Robin grasped tools from their shelf drawers and turned. Robotically, he slipped on a mask and blinked it into place. With a sigh under her breath, Raven scolded herself when she detected his set lips and chiseled facial features hardening into that of a stoic mask he wore of leadership. Unwillingly, she found it remarkable how his whole demeanor changed as he 'slipped into the mask'; how distinctly different he was when he didn't wear such heavily charged identity. She pocketed her own set of gloves and in doing so, caught sight of the shower.

Instantly, she felt her emotions shutter forward, almost humming under her skin.

"Hey." She looked up. He wasn't looking at her. "Come on. We don't have much time," he reasoned.

"Right," she nodded and began to shove the futon out of the way. With a swift kick, he knocked down a panel hidden normally by the bedding and knelt down. Using a flashlight, he illuminated the inside. Webs spread everywhere and water droplets resonated from within – at a distance unknown – but otherwise it looked stable.

Wordlessly, he began to crawl into the makeshift tunnel.

Sparing the room a glance, Raven followed suit.

Telepathically, she placed the panel and bed back in position as soon as her feet where in safely. She heard the panel seal in snuggly before Robin began to crawl in front of her. They weren't consumed in total darkness as they had been in the sewer tunnels, which comforted her somewhat.

"Where will this lead?" her voice echoed eerily around her.

"Gotham City Limits. We'll surface and make our move in." Wordlessly she nodded. Her emotions swerved again and for a second, she paused, willing herself to calm down.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," she mumbled quietly, repeating her mantra to keep calm. For now, her emotions complied and she felt herself in control.

This is what she wanted, for the two of them to give each other enough time and space to heal these fresh wounds she had caused them both. They had to maintain level heads and focus on the mission still at hand. It would hurt, ignoring this.

But she knew this was for the best, keeping things short and to the point for the rest of the mission. It would let them both recuperate their working relationship and forget the former.

Because the former, would only lead to disaster. She was sure of it.

She blinked, refocusing. Robin turned left in front of her.

They couldn't go back out the way they had come. Even if Croc hadn't been detected by the monitors, Robin did not want to risk more harm coming to themselves when they were needed to rescue Gordon and the others. So they had resorted to utilizing a different escape route.

"We're about a mile away from the manhole we'll go up in. Keep up."

"Roger."

A/N: Sorry. :) I hope this chapter's not TOO much of a dissapointment. I say...two, maybe three more chapters and this fanfiction is over. ...wow. It only took a few years! XD

So sorry about that, by the way.

And sorry...for ...yea. That part.