Fan Fiction ❯ Releasing Her Demons ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Releasing Her Demons

By: Jedi_Zea

Summary: Raven finally decides to join the other Titans in a game, but it's not a video game. She wants them to play Dungeons & Dragons and decides to share something about herself while doing so. PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, Dungeons and Dragons, any of the places I got my music from, or any other real things I may make reference to while writing this story. I do, however, own all the other characters except Natora, Saorise, Adrian, and Ivan Balthazar.

(Author Notes) I will be adding OC's to the story and if you want one, send me an email describing him/her/it. I'll have to look it over and send you a reply.

I finally decided to reply to all my kind reviewers, and the few that weren't so kind. 11, so be prepared for a some of replies before the chapter, all in order of given, even if someone has multiple reviews.

King Cheetah: Thank you, I'm a fan of your stories too as you know.

WarriorKitsuneLyoko5: Glad you think it's creative, I was trying to be different.

Vampire King: Thanks, I hope the D&D parts aren't too confusing.

KC Whitestar: I love raven's outfit too so I wouldn't exactly say poor Robin… ;)

Ariesdragon: Yeah I've already talked to you about your gripes, and I hope you gave my story another chance.

Inu-Yasha fan: Yeah I'll keep writing, I do it for the fun, but the reviews are nice. (hint hint people)

Daggon-Dora: Glad you like it. I aim to please.

ice creami: I try to update every Friday so keep an eye for updates then. Key word Try.

X: Raven is cool, but there are a lot of hot goth's at my school so I'm not sure she's the queen.

just another face: Thanks for the character I'll put it in as soon as I can.

mistress19: Thanks, and I got the hint there will be more Robin/Raven in chapters to come.

Chapter 10

Raven awoke in a screaming loudly in a puddle of cold sweat. Everything in the room was glowing black and suddenly there was a large crash from outside the room. Raven knew the sound instantly. Windows had broken, a lot of them. “Damn it,” growled the tired demoness.

Raven looked over to the corner of her room and nodded. At least the hot plate and teapot in her room hadn't broken. She sighed and got up from her bed and strode quickly to her teapot and picked it up. She gave it a quick inspection to make sure there weren't any cracks in it. When she was satisfied with its condition she went into her bathroom, and prepared her tea with water from the faucet and a grabbed a bag from stash of tea in her medicine drawer.

She walked out of her bathroom, set the teapot on the hot plate and turned it on as high as it could go. Raven needed tea, and she needed it now. `Why was the dream different? I should have died not Robin. He's supposed to be able to live a happy life...' her thoughts trailed off.

`Do you really think he could live happily without us?' Love shouted at her.

`Better to have...' Raven started but was abruptly cut off.

Love sighed, annoyed at Raven's ignorance. `I know the saying, and it's total crap. It's not better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all. Losing love never heals you just learn to ignore it. Think of mother, we loved her didn't we? What makes you think he'll be any better off?' the feisty emotion insisted.

`Well I...” and Raven was cut off again, this time by the whistle of her teapot. Still pondering the question she levitated the teapot and a cup over to her. Raven toyed with the teabag in her hands before pouring the hot water from the teapot onto the cup and dropping the bag into it.

“Yo Rae,” Cyborg called from outside Raven's room. “You ok? All the windows in the tower shattered. You're just lucky the T-car's window's didn't break.” He joked to try and ease the situation.

Raven sighed softly while nursing her cup of tea. “Yes everything's fine. I had a ...disturbing dream that's all.” Raven took a sip of her tea deciding. The tea didn't taste right today, something was wrong.

“You wanna talk about it?” Cyborg asked while stepping closer to Raven's door.

Raven put down her cup of tea and walked over to the doorway opening it the standard smidgen. “I'm fine. Now go away,” she insisted. Cyborg stood there gawking at the nightgown Raven had forgotten she was wearing as a curious look plastered the goth's face. “Cy? Cyborg?” Raven asked then gave herself a once over, her face turned crimson instantly. The door slammed and locked in Cyborg's face as Raven quickly turned and changed into her normal outfit.

“What was your dream about?” Cyborg asked from behind the locked door. “Come on you can tell me.”

Raven shook her head while changing, “You're not going to give it a rest are you?” she asked furiously.

“Nope you're stuck until you tell me.” Cy chuckled, secretly wondering how Raven could let one of her dreams out of control.

“Fine, I was reading a dark romance novel, I fell asleep while reading a smutty part” she lied, hoping that it would satisfy Cyborg's curiosity.

“Oh no, you're not copping out like that,” he insisted. “If you want me to buy that excuse you have to show me the book.” As he said that Raven's door was opened and a door with a marked page was slid through. Cyborg picked up the book, opened to the page and stared blankly at the Kanji. “Since I can't read Japanese I'll take your word for it this time, but next time no excuses,” and with that he set the book outside her door walked away.

Raven didn't hear him though, she was to busy planning on how to get pay back on Robin for gawking at her in that dress last night.

Later that evening the Titans were sitting in the living room, Raven reading as usual, Cyborg and Beast Boy playing Turbo Racer 5 with Starfire and Terra cheering them on, but Robin was no where to be seen.

“Anyone know where Robin is?” Raven asked, trying to seem casual about it. “I've been to busy reading to notice if he walked through,” She said as a quick excuse.

“I believe Friend Robin is still with the doing of dishes Friend Raven,” Starfire said cheerfully. “YAY! Go friend Cyborg,” She shouted as Cy passed Beast Boy to take the lead.

“Hey, what about me? I don't have any cheerleaders.” Beast Boy pouted while trying fiercely to catch up with Cyborg, but crashing into a tree after hitting is jet booster. “Man! Can't I get a break?!”

“Don't worry,” Terra said patting Beast Boy on the shoulder. “I'm sure you'll beat him next time,” with that she kissed him on the cheek and sat down next to him. Beast Boy dropped the paddle and blushed bright red. Terra laughed and picked up the paddle. “My turn right?” she asked while starting the game.

“Hey! That was a dirty trick.” Beast Boy complained. He turned into a snake and tried to slither around Terra to get the paddle back, but she expertly kept him far enough away so that he couldn't reach.

“Don't worry I'll show you plenty of dirty tricks later,” Terra said coyly. Beast Boy slithered back to his seat contentedly.

“Man, get a room you two,” Cyborg complained.

Terra laughed softly, “Ok, can we use yours?” she asked.

“Dude, that's just gross!” Cyborg exclaimed tossing the paddle away as he lost the race to Terra. “Rae, see if you can find Robin. We need to continue that game you had us play yesterday.” Raven grumbled something under her breath, but stood up and walked out of the room.

Raven strolled down the halls at a leisurely pace, finding her way to Robin's new room. Robin had recently moved to an interior room because, in spite of the nice view, he said it wasn't working for some mysterious project of his. Everyone had just assumed he needed more room for the crime files, but he startled everyone when he had Cy help him organize them in the evidence room less then a week ago. She knocked quietly on Robin's door, fully expecting him to be in the gym working out and hoped to get a peak of what he was doing while he was away.

“Who is it,” came the aggravated reply from within the room.

“Damn,” Raven hissed under her breath. “It's Raven,” she called while still silently cursing. “Can I come in?” she asked nervously. There wasn't a reply right away, so she knocked again. “Robin let me in,” the goth insisted.

There were several loud bangs from within the room, and after a moment of noise the door slowly opened. Robin's room was dark, only the light from the hallway filtered in, and that wasn't enough to let Raven see anything other then the shadows of a little clutter within the room.

“Not that I'm complaining, but why is it so dark?” Raven asked, with just a hint of curiosity making it into her normally monotone voice.

“You had better prepare yourself,” Robin warned as he walked over to the light switch, barely missing several shadowed objects strewn about the room. “Are you ready?” Robin asked.

“What should I be...” Raven stopped as soon as the light was turned on.

Robin had painted his entire room and it looked like a scene right out of Dante's Inferno. A hellish landscape of tortured people, lava and brimstone seemed to stretch on for eternity. One thing caught Raven's eye above all others, there was an evil looking circus tent painted on the wall across from his bed. The flaps of the tent were open and she could see a trapeze act performing, but something strange other then the crowd was composed entirely of demons. It took her a moment to put her finger on it, but she realized that the acrobats were falling, and the crowd's cheers were because of their impending doom.

“Robin did you paint this?” she asked needlessly. It was obvious from the objects on the floor, opened paint cans, rollers and brushes. “It's amazing, but why so dark? It doesn't seem like you.”

“Raven,” he began. “There's a lot of darkness in me that you don't know. My parents died when I was just 5 years old, and after seeing my parents die and having Batman adopt me it's not a wonder I ended up with a huge dark streak,” Robin stated.

Raven stood for a minute and after finally finding words she said, “I never would have guessed, you never show anything this deep. I have a question though, why the circus? Are you afraid of clowns?” Raven chuckled, but was surprised when Robin joined in the laughter.

“No, not clowns, Trapeze acts.” Robin said grimly. “My parents were a world famous trapeze act. They were the best, and were teaching me. However one day one of the cords was sabotaged.” He took a breath and calmed down before continuing, “That night in Gotham they fell to their deaths, shortly after Batman adopted me. I don't know what you've heard about him, but he's very dark and recluse. The painting is my way of purging myself of fear, anger and hatred.” Robin motioned all around the room; every wall was painted, or in the process of being painted. Even the ceiling and floor had images on them.

Raven saw the ceiling and shrunk slightly. There were two dominant figures, a dragon escaping the pages a book, and a bird. The bird was a chaotic mixture of blackness and blinding light with fierce amethyst eyes focused on the dragon.

She had to pull her eyes away from the scene to prevent herself from bursting into tears at the bittersweet memory. “The room, it seems to go on forever.” Raven stated in awe.

“Yeah, I measured everything and made sure that all the images were to scale, even the miniscule ones in back. I made it so it feels like you can walk right into my personal hell but the walls keep you from getting close.” Robin said cryptically. Robin quickly changed the subject though. “Raven, how about you model for me now?” the artist asked.

“Sorry,” she said. “The others want me to drag you down so we can continue the D&D campaign. I have to get ready. Go to my room, get the stuff and then set up. I'll be along in a minute.” Raven walked out of the room with Robin right behind her.

`From my hell to yours Raven,' Robin thought. `Seems like a fair trade.'