Light filtered through the curtains of Garfield's room, dust motes dancing in the horizontal pillars of gold that fell on Raven's face.

She stirred, reaching out to her side and found no one there.

Sitting bolt upright the sorceress threw her mind out in every direction, the pulse of emotion from every being on the island in her spectral gaze for several panicked moments before she found him… walking back down the hall from their bathroom.

Sighing in relief, Raven fell back against Beast Boy's wall. Confusion clouded her thoughts for a moment, Garfield was many things but an early riser was decidedly not one of them. She reached out and touched his essence, finding that his emotions were a whirlwind of excitement and anticipation.

And wariness?

It was faint, but the moment she grasped his aura the changeling had tensed and his emotions dimmed for a split second before returning in full. He knew she was with him, something only Kori was normally able to sense, let alone recognise.

The door slide open and Garfield entered with a beaming smile directed her way, his hands grasping a heavy lamp that usually collected dust in the corner of their bathroom. "Mornin' Rae!"
"Why are you holding a lamp?"
"Oh yeah, I slept great." Beast Boy said putting the lamp on his TV cabinet and plugging it into the outlet there. "Thanks for asking."
"Sorry." Raven mumbled with a blush. "Good morning Gar, I missed you."
Shock and delight slammed through the emerald teen like a punch from Mammoth, his shoulders tensed and relaxed in the span of seconds as his emotions blanked completely for the empath and he steadfastly looked anywhere but at his girlfriend. "G-g-good morning!"
"You said that already."
"R-right, yep, I sure did, uhuh."
"What..." Raven's eyes narrowed as she noticed that the green on Garfields neck was darker than usual, a glimpse of his cheek as he moved the lamp closer to the TV confirmed what she had suspected.

Beast Boy was blushing as well, furiously at that.

The sorceress rose from the bed, drifting into the air and down towards the shifter, who turned on the lamp in the morning dim. It was weak, but the appliance still threw light across Garfield's face and the ferociously deep green his cheeks had turned. Raven reached out as her feet touched the ground beside him, her fingers tracing his jaw as he tried desperately to keep his barrier up.
"Rae..." He said, squeezing his eyes closed. "I hate this lamp."
The empath was taken aback for a moment, her hand withdrawing. "What?"
"The lamp. It's no good, ugly, and barely works. I should have thrown it out ages ago and washed my hands of the damn thing." He explained, his barrier slipping slightly and trepidation coiled around him.
"Then why is it in here?" Raven frowned, looking at the offending furniture.
"It's shaped like a rotting tree, coloured baby turd yellow, plus the damn thing is heavy as a-" Mid sentence, mid sentence and he had closed the small space between them as his lips caught hers and his hands pulled her into him, claws digging gently into the flesh of her shoulder and hip. His barrier fell completely and she was engulfed in the fire of his soul laid bare.

Love, desire, protection, fear, pride, anxiety, joy, all these and more shook her third eye as her nose filled with the smell of Garfield's pine shampoo, her hearing impaired by the thunder of her own heart racing, her eyes closed as her hands slid up his muscled back and his warmth surrounded her.

He broke away from the kiss first, and his eyes blazed a startling green as they riveted on the lamp. "Look!"

In all honesty Raven had forgotten the lamp existed, along with the room, the tower, the world at large. As these concepts reasserted themselves in Raven's head it jerked to the side in terror, expecting the TV to be in shards, but finding instead that the lamp Garfield placed beside it was almost blinding in its intensity. As she watched, and her heartbeat slowed, her thoughts arranging themselves back in order, she witnessed the appliance pulse with light one last time, before it dimmed.

Now weaker, the hated lamp continued its vigil beside the TV.

"YES!" Garfield growled, the noise rumbling through his chest and sending vibrations up Raven's arms. His eyes were wild as they turned back on the sorceress with a triumphant grin. "We have a safety net!"
Raven struggled for a moment, piecing the situation together as her hands slid from Beast Boy's back and she stepped towards the lamp with a befuddled frown. "It didn't break."
"Lighting, your powers are attracted to electrical things right? The wires in light bulbs are just brimming with it so they act like a magnet, you kept blowing out the lights when we kissed." The changeling held up a finger. "And then last night happened."
"In Nevermore?" Raven asked, unsure what the connection was.
"No no, when I woke up you were laughing in your sleep, like ME level laughing. Your energy leaped out and ran around my room, charging towards my stuff then veering at the last second. I opened the door and WHOOSH." His arms swept across the room and towards the door. "It all went out, hit the lights, and supercharged them like always, but then instead of breaking-"
"They dimmed." Raven finished, her eyes widening slightly.
"Your powers, I think they've been seeking release in the lights all this time because you knew they were replaceable." Theorised the lean young man, gesturing to the lamp. "I told you I hated this, that it was no good. Your powers went right to it like a moth to a… a lamp I guess."
The empath turned from the fixture, looking up into Beast Boy's eyes with bewilderment. "I- YOU?… I need to meditate."

Beast Boy nodded, then yawned. "I'm gonna go back to sleep for a bit, wake me when you're done?"
"It's a deal." Raven smiled slightly, kissing the emerald avenger's cheek and headed for the vortex of shadows welling on his door. She paused, looking back at him with shimmering eyes. "Gar? You're amazing."

And then the shadows swallowed her.

Garfield picked up the lamp, hugging it to his chest gently and laughing. "You did it! We did it dude!"
Swiftly, the changeling unplugged the lamp and stowed it safely away in the base of his bed. Giving it a soft parting fist bump, he closed the door and leaped up onto his bed with glee, giddy to explore this new revelation. He swaddled himself in blankets, letting the comfort of his mattress claim him and the exhaustion of his night long excitement pulled down his lids.

Robin came into the Tower's common room and found Raven missing once more, he could feel her above him though, the pulse between them surged as he thought of her and faded as he knew she was safe. He made himself a cup of coffee and sat to read the Gotham Times, finding with pleasant surprise that Bruce had adopted another child. The Boy Wonder processed this for a moment, looking down at the R on his chest.
Dick stood and made his way to the coffee table, picking up a marker and spare paper sheets that Kori had left there the night before while drawing a complex set of diagrams illustrating the interoffice relationships of Dunder Mifflin. Returning to his seat at the dining table he began to draw.
Starfire herself entered next, looking around curiously. "Is Friend Raven not awake yet?"
"She's meditating, or ocean gazing, I can't be sure." Dick replied, scratching out a cat's head and beginning another design. "The toll from being around Beast Boy must be difficult."
"No." Kori said simply as she drifted over the table and to the fridge, where she retrieved a tray of ketchup cupcakes that only she and Garfield enjoyed. Though Kori wasn't sure if the younger Titan simply played along for her sake, as Beast Boy detested when his team mates felt out of place in the Tower. "The struggles of romance are hard for anyone to do the dealing with, that it is Friend Garfield she has chosen is a blessing indeed."
"You think this is easier for her because it's Beast Boy?"
"I think Friend Raven is stronger than her struggle, because it is Friend Beast Boy." Kori clarified, slathering honey on a ketchupcake as she took her seat beside the Titan's leader. "To see his smile infect others, and then thinking changing of his shape is the only power Friend Beast Boy commands is foolish."
Dick scratched out the frog he had been doodling, distracted by the conversation. He noted that in the moments passed Raven had vacated the roof. "If you say so Star."
"What are you drawing?" Starfire leaned over to better see the sketches. "Animals?"
"It's a surprise, maybe, I don't know." Dick admitted. "A thought experiment with potential for a reality upgrade."
The princess bit into her ketchcake rather than respond, but nodded with a smile at her confusing partner.

Cyborg was changing the graphics card in his garage PC when the two youngest Titans, the last of them to truly be "Teen" Titans, came into his domain. They had been quiet at breakfast, something not out of the ordinary for Raven but shocking for Garfield, the other Titans chalked it up to sleepiness, though Kori had watched him from the corner of her eye in curiousity. Beast Boy immediately hunkered down beside Cy and his computer, handing him the hex key needed to manipulate the damn thing's cooling system just right for the card to slip through.
"Thanks B-Man, what's shakin' love birds?" Cyborg asked his friends, concerned with Garfield's serious expression.
"You know how I carried you to silver two while your ELO was trash and you said you owed me one?" Beast Boy inquired. "I'm cashing that chip my dude."
"If you don't mind." Raven interjected, lightly swatting the Green Teen's shoulder. "It's… It'll help me."
Cyborg stood immediately, tossing his tools to the side and turning so that he could hold up a finger to the cloaked young woman. "Number one, don't EVER think I'd mind helping you with anything Rae. Number two, B-Boy already said he's cashing his chip so I am legally absolved of that debt. ("That's not fair dude!") And Numero tres, I need more details."

Garfield pointed to the light above them. "How many times have you replaced that this month?"
"Fou- Five times." Cyborg counted in his head for moment. "Six tops."
"Mostly Raven right?" B-Boy pressed, getting a nod that spurred him on. "Look at all the tech in here dude. Drills, analytical machines, three high end computers, the T-Car, the- okay you get my point right? If all of this is here, why didn't Rae's emotional spikes take out anything but the light?"
Cyborg frowned, certainly in the past Raven had broken tools in his garage, but never anything crucial, as he pondered the patterns aligned and he looked to the T-Car in deep thought, before his mismatched eyes turned on Raven with a deep affection behind them. "Your powers prioritised things I wasn't gonna miss."
"It's only a theory right now." The sorceress hedged. "But that's what we think."
"Then what do yall need my help with?" Cy asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Recently Rae's spikes aren't knocking out the lights, just getting them to surge and flicker before dimming, so we worked together and came up with THIS." Garfield reached into his belt and took out a napkin with hastily drawn schematics on it, handing the flimsy material to his best friend, whose eyes alighted immediately with comprehension.
"A surge magnet." He said, face slack for a moment. "You think a low wattage is enough to attract your powers Raven?"
"I'm not sure." She frowned, looking at the crude schematic in her friend's hand. "That was more so that our electricity bill didn't double."
"I could raise the wattage and just have the magnet activate when a Titan is approaching, with the magnet behind deactivating." Cyborg went to his workbench and took a clean blue print to begin planning. "But that wouldn't help with the more intense spikes… Damn."
Cyborg began sketching and muttering, before catching himself and turning to the pair. "I'll have it done in three days tops, this is top of my list."
Raven shook her head. "I don't want to put you-"
"Stop." Cyborg's hand fell on her shoulder. "You're family Rae, anything that makes your life better, even a tiny bit, will always be my priority."
The shadow of Raven's cloak fell over her face, and she stepped back from the mechanical man, his hand slipping from her arm. "You don't know that. What if I did something horrible to you?"
"You won't." Cy said assuredly, the shadows around them deepening.
"I almost killed Sarah." Raven told him, the lights overhead burning as the shadows below writhed and twisted. "The ch-chandelier broke because I was weak."
"I'm not following?" Cyborg frowned. "Why would..."
Raven's tears, Garfield's depression, the endless lights he replaced in their wake, it all stacked up in a moment for the big man as he looked between Raven's distress and Beast Boy's shamed, downcast gaze. "Oh."
"It wasn't her fault, I was the idiot pushing boundaries." Beast Boy said, his voice low but clear. "Blame me."

Silence reigned in the Titan's garage as Cyborg closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his noise.

Raven shook, ever so slightly as she drew in breath, and Cy held up his hand for quiet.

"I'm not going to blame anyone." He said finally, smiling at them. "That feeling just now, while I let you hang? That was me punishing you for keeping this bottled up, like Dick said we gotta be open with each other if we're gonna work. I know in my circuits that you'd never hurt Sarah on purpose Raven, you're not capable of it, and when I finish decking this Tower out with surge magnets you won't even be capable of accidentally hurting her."
"You're not angry?" Raven's eyes began to water.
"I'm not." Cyborg said gently, before his brow bunched together. "You need to tell Sarah."
"I know." The sorceress said glumly. "I will."
Cy pointed at Beast Boy sternly. "You too booger breath, I don't know what you mean by "Pushing boundaries" but I sure as hell know that Raven didn't bring that chandelier down because you held hands too long."
"Yeah." Was the simple response, and Garfield's closest friend bent in his composure. Eyes downcast, ears drooping, and with a solemn note in his voice, it broke Cyborg's heart to see his brother in such a state.
Reaching out, the larger Titan grabbed hold of their uniforms and pulled the two into a powerful hug, holding them close to him. "We're gonna be okay, I'm going to help you be okay. I love you guys, alright?"

Above them, the light stayed strong, and at their feet the darkness pulled back.

In his own room, Dick paced back and forth, a black communicator in his hand, sighing the Boy Wonder hit the only button on the device and put it to his ear.

"Richard?" Bruce answered immediately.
The young man swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Hey Bruce, is this a good time to talk?"
"I'm at home right now, what's wrong? Do you need help?" His former partner asked urgently.
"No it's… It's not like that. I saw in the paper your adoption addiction kicked in again."
Bruce let out a startled laugh. "I wouldn't put it like that, but yes I took in another ward, Tim is his name."
"That's three now, how are Jace and Cass handling it?" Dick asked with a faint smile.
"Well enough, Jason doesn't like his attitude, but Cassandra seems to encourage it. Same old same old. What's this really about Richard?" Bruce asked, concern leaking slightly into his tone.
"Seems like Batman is about to need another name in his roster." The oldest of the Batclan said. "About time I let there be another Robin in the world."
"You're Robin." Bruce said softly.
"But I don't have to be." Dick rubbed the back of his neck. "And so long as I still wear that name I'm the Boy Wonder, Batmans failed protege. It's time someone stepped into the shoes that never fit me right."
"You didn't fail." Bruce told him sternly. "I couldn't be prouder of the man you're becoming."
"Easier to say with a few years behind us huh?" The old Robin said jokingly. "You've changed."
"I've grown." Bruce admitted. "We both have."
"Then it's time I took off my training wheels." Dick said. "Let Jace be Robin, he's dying for it."
"Maybe too much." Muttered the caped crusader. "If you're sure-"
"I'm sure."
"Who are you now?"
Dick paused, looking at the finished sketch of his new uniform. "Nightwing."
The line was silent for a few moments, when Bruce spoke next his voice sounded strained and rough. "Any inspiration for that choice?"
"That's confidential." Dick smiled at his mentor's chuckle, a sound he only recently came to recognise. "i told the team my identity, my real one."
This pause was longer, and heavier than the last. "How much?"
"Everything about Richard Grayson." Nightwing relayed. "But not about Bruce Wayne."
"Can you trust them?" From anyone else, it would have been the greatest offence, but from Batman it was a tame question.
Dick didn't hesitate. "There is nothing I'm more certain of."