Trigger Warning: Graphic and Disturbing Imagery

"Raven, what was Azarath like?"

Robin and Raven sat together in the living room of the Tower, while their three friends slept soundly in their rooms down the hall. Outside, darkness had fallen, the stars softly twinkling over Jump City, which had been finally rid of the Titans' biggest antagonists a few years after they had vanquished the demon Trigon from the face of the Earth.

Raven blinked in confusion and warily inquired, "Why are you asking?"

He shrugged and told her, "I'm just curious, that's all."

"Fine then."

Raven glanced at the evening sky outside their window and sighed wistfully, a faraway look on her face as Robin waited for her to begin.

"Azarath was...it was paradise. A realm where war never harmed anybody, where peace was the law of the land. Nobody got sick, nobody tried to resolve conflicts with hatred and violence. It was a refuge for those of us who were weary of the horrors here on Earth. From what the monks told me, our first leader, the first Azar, gathered many people with that outlook on life centuries ago and took them to this new home where they could finally be granted that which they had craved for so long."

"You should've seen it. All of the buildings there were made of the purest metals, like gold, bronze, silver, and even marble in some areas. The City was filled with these massive skyscrapers that were our homes, and made us feel as if we were never alone...almost as if the buildings themselves were looming over us protectively. These pillars were built in clumps around the City, and in between them, if you looked hard enough, you'd be lucky to find a small, winding path between the buildings that could be used to find some alone time for a while. I guess you could say that these paths were like some of the alleyways here in Jump City."

"And...one of the biggest traditions back on Azarath was to pray and meditate, three times a day, at dawn, noon and dusk, for our peace to touch Earth, for all wars to cease. When it was time to pray, this soft, soothing prayer horn could be heard resounding throughout the city, its clarion call gathering us all to the city's center to meditate together."

Robin nodded along as she spoke, and asked her when she finished, "What was your mother like? I've never heard you even mention her."

Raven muttered back, "I...I don't want to talk about it."

She suddenly bolted from the room, her cloak whirling about her feet as she fled down the corridor and out of sight. Robin looked down the hall at her direction in confusion.

"Well, that was...weird. I guess she really doesn't want to talk about her Mom."

A wave of exhaustion hit Robin, forcing a yawn and a stretch out of him. He headed towards his own room, taking a quick glance at the Titans' group portrait nesting on the table.

Each Titan in the photo wore their typical look, Robin coolly glancing at the camera, Starfire bouncing up and down with exuberant joy, Beast Boy and Cyborg both goofing off with their facial expressions, and of course, Raven solemnly gazing at the camera, devoid of emotion.

In his room, Robin collapsed on his bed, rapidly drifting off to sleep as he dwelled on the mystery of Raven's past.

In his dreams, Robin found himself standing alone in a place blanketed in a thick, white fog decorated with softly falling snow. All around him, massive buildings made of bronze and marble loomed into the grey sky above, their heights exceeding that of the Empire State Building. The streets were paved with a smooth granite-like material that showed no signs of wear. Not a single person was in sight.

He looked around him, bewildered, not knowing where he was. Nothing in his surroundings resembled Jump City.

His ponderings were interrupted by the soft sound of footsteps echoing only a few feet away from him. Robin whirled about and saw a slim figure robed in white calmly walking in front of him.

"Is that...Raven?" Robin wondered, as the figure came to a stop directly in his line of sight. They were female, but Robin couldn't tell for sure that the stranger was his friend.

"Hey, Raven!"

The stranger refused to respond to his call, and continued to walk deeper into the swirling fog.

Robin paused in confusion before shouting at her, "Hey, stop for a minute!"

At that, the figure dashed off into the fog, quickly fading away as Robin gave chase. She slipped in and out of sight as Robin did his best to keep up. The buildings around him rose up in tight clusters, leaving Robin little room to maneuver as he ran deeper into the city. Up ahead, he heard the screech of a gate opening and closing. When Robin finally made it down the lane he was on, he saw an intricate door made of silver carved into the marble wall on his right, with a poem in blue scrawled on it.

"Beyond this door lies the Path of Reflection;

tread this way carefully, for beware:

the most horrific nightmares are one's darkest memories buried too deep."

"Path of Reflection? Whatever, let's go already!"

Robin yanked open the gate and stepped beyond, only to recoil at what he saw.

A long, blackened scorch mark lay in a jagged design across the area, lacerating the side of the building to his left and extending across the ground in front of him. There was an acrid scent of smoke and ash around him, hinting that the mark was still fresh.

At the same moment he beheld the scorch mark, Robin flinched as a soft siren-like noise began to echo from somewhere in the mysterious city, rising and falling slowly in a mesmerizing fashion. He paused, beginning to recall the conversation that he had had with Raven the night before.

"Is this supposed to be the prayer horn she was talking about?" he thought as he carefully stepped across the scorch mark towards the narrow passage looming between the skyscrapers up ahead. "If it is...then why am I so afraid?"

The noise, if it was the same horn that Raven had mentioned, failed to calm him; Robin could feel a chill running up and down his spine as the baleful noise droned on and on.

He pressed on into the alleyway, bolting down the cramped passage, desperately hoping that he could find Raven and ask her where he was, and what had happened to the foggy city. As he journeyed further into the passage, turning corners as fast as he could, Robin failed to recognize the pitch darkness descending all around him, the meek grey light starting to vanish.

Just as he rounded what seemed like the final bend, the darkness fell completely, and the chilling horn in the distance erupted into an awful roar that nearly knocked Robin off his feet with its ferocity. His shivers turned into body-wide shuddering as he groped madly for something to illuminate the yawning void all around him.

"What the hell is going on?!"

After a few moments of fumbling around, Robin managed to find the flashlight on his belt.. With a click, the darkness was meekly illuminated, showing that the gold and bronze walls of the buildings around him had become corroded with something scarlet. The snow around him had transformed into drizzling rain, the droplets hissing as they landed all around him. An uncomfortable, sweltering heat gradually rose around Robin and across the eerie city, provoking a few beads of sweat to roll down his tense face.

Robin made himself walk further into the passage, and jumped a bit in fright when he registered a sinister creaking just ahead of him. He crept up to one of the decaying walls, and moved the beam of light so that it revealed the rotating object. A large circular mural spun counterclockwise by itself, bearing the image of a massive red-skinned creature with a twisted visage looming over the burning remains of a city.

"Trigon..." Robin whispered as he recognized the monstrosity, his shudders intensifying as memories flashed through his mind. The gigantic demon, Raven's horrific "father" , had nearly wiped out the Earth before Raven had seemingly destroyed him with a burst of her spiritual power.

Moving further down the alleyway provided no relief, for just a few feet from the mural stood a deteriorated statue made of what had once been pristine marble, depicting a white-robed woman in prayer. To Robin's horror, the woman's head had been decapitated clean from her shoulders, and where the head had been, crimson blood spilled over the rest of her body. Adding to the horror was a new sound that emanated from just beyond the statue: a terrible metallic screeching, like nails on a chalkboard amplified to the highest degree.

As he made himself turn away from the statue, Robin shakily continued through the alleyway, registering the hideous scent of burnt blood and metal filling the air around him. The walls of the buildings, further corrupted with that scarlet rust, were beginning to bend and twist in on themselves as he further progressed. Claw marks etched into the walls and splatters of blood appeared all around him as the roaring horn and awful screeching continued to echo throughout the area.

"Raven, where are you?" Robin shouted into the darkness, his anxiety crippling him.

At last, he neared the end of the passage, a small cul-de-sac, and a dead end. Robin hesitantly swung his light around the area, and yelled in shock when he registered the body pinned to the wall in front of him.

A corpse hung on a massive stake thrust into the ruined bronze wall, the body clad in what was once an elegant robe, but now burnt beyond recognition. Its face looked almost featureless, like a wax doll melted by fire. The torso of the corpse was ripped open and reduced to a charred, grisly mess, the ribcage and spine poking out through the blackened mass.

Robin quickly retreated a few steps back before he heard other footsteps just behind him. He whirled about and beheld a cowed man in an ashen gray robe approaching him with his head bowed. Utterly confused, Robin waved the light beam over the man, prompting the stranger to look up at him.

The crippled man had a face twisted in unspeakable agony. He reached out towards Robin with deformed arms, and when the man opened his mouth, instead of any coherent words, a pained scream resounded instead.

Without warning, the man burst into flames, hot fire pouring out of his mouth and eyes, his screaming joined by dozens of others stumbling into the cul-de-sac. Men, women and children hobbled towards Robin, shrieking in pain as they clawed at the air and clutched themselves, trying in vain to put out the fires consuming their bodies. All of them twisted in midair as they moved, almost like embers dancing in a fireplace. The stench of rotting, burning flesh, combined with the putrescent stench of the rain mixing with the blood in the area choked Robin as he desperately searched around him for an escape route.

The black sky slowly turned an infernal orange as all over the darkened city, massive pillars of fire began to consume the buildings, the metal screeching as the buildings collapsed in on themselves and rapidly decayed. The whole city seemed to be turning into Hell itself. From every direction, the roaring air horn, the bellowing flames, the screeching of the twisting metal and the screams of the people blended into an utterly nightmarish cacophony.

The mob of burning humans closed in on him, and just as Robin was about to scream her name for help, they all at once collectively wailed, "Raven! Raven! RAVEEEEEEEEN!"