Disclaimer: I do not own the intellectual property related to the Teen Titans, the DC/Vertigo universe, or especially any material of biblical or Hebrew origin. This work of fiction is not intended as a profitable venture.

Titanomachy:

Polouge

Epoch

The Gem is born of Evil's fire;

The Gem will be his Portal;

He comes to maim;

He comes to sire, the end of all things mortal

-The prophesy of Scath's Accent,

Commonly attributed to the demon Etrigan

---

There are moments that define the lives of those they touch. These pivotal, irreversible events, usually quite unexpected are the best and worst life has to offer.

Raven had experienced many such moments, with a considerably higher degree of predictability.

Her arrival on earth

Joining the Titans

Her "Sweet 16th" birthday

Her sire's advent.

Standing up to Trigon and deciding to live

But Destiny being as unpredictable as it(or depending upon who you ask, He) is, She would never have seen the live changing event that was coming.

It was a party.

Starfire's to be precise, her 20th birthday.

And as was to be expected, Raven had a massive migraine.

The problem was that Star was by far the nicest, sweetest, most personable girl any Titan had ever met outside of a floral themed pocket dimension in Raven's head. Ergo, she had a lot of people wishing her well on her special day, despite the catering being inedible to anyone not an alien or a mutated moth larva.

As if the psy7chic cacophony of over two dozen hormonal metahuman teenagers in the tower wasn't bad enough, they just had, had, had to convert every room with enough floor space into a dance floor, complete with laser lights in time with the music, enough bass it warranted a structural check of the building despite its being both earthquake and supervillain resistant, and Cyborg in the commons simultaneously acting as DJ for all of the rooms through a turntable and a hard interface between the base of his skull and the sound system.

The party had been going on since before sundown. It was now considerably past midnight and frankly Raven was moments away from a psionic meltdown of tectonic proportions, vomiting from vertigo-inducing empathic turbulence, or bolting from the tower until her peers were a little thinner on the ground.

As it was it was all she could do to find a spot wit minimal vibrations from the sound system(why Robin allowed it to be bolted to the superstructure she would never understand), no people, and soothing darkness.

She ended up in a storage room, sitting on a crate of spare parts for the T-car.

Rubbing her temples as she slowly tried to extract herself from the joy, lust, jealousy, anger, hurt, confusion and hope that Raven would much prefer that she was not privy to, she failed to notice someone approach her in her place of limited respite until he sat down next to her.

"I figured you would be alone in the dark someplace." The voice might have (finally) lowered by an octave, but the presence of comfort, sympathy, and calming simplicity was familiar. "Its pretty bad up there, huh?"

Garfield Logan a.k.a. Beastboy

"You have no idea." was her terse, headache inspired response, her eyes still locked closed, as if to block any stray photon from aggravating her condition.

"Maybe, maybe not. Have you ever wondered about the pheromone signals super powered teens put out?" he asked, half serious. "its not exactly soothing for me in there either."

"emmm…" she grunted, not by any means up for a conversation.

"Anything I can do to help…you know, keep you from going all Carrie on us?"

"Not particularly. I just have to ride it out." she responded, " In fact, best I I turn in before someone spikes the punch and things really get out of hand." She made to stand, but totter uneasily under the heady miasma of emotion exuded by the collected Titans.

"Whoa! I gottcha." the green teen said as he steadied her by the elbow. "I think it might be best if I gave you an escort. You don't look too steady on you feet."

"If you must" Raven said, her flicker of gratitude extinguished in the torrent of irritation she currently felt toward the world in general.

Garfield was, for once, unusually competent and chivalrous as they made their was towards her room.

In all honesty as she was she could barely stand unsupported, let alone trying to navigate the tower to reach her chambers. She was fairly dependent upon her shape shifting teammate to lead her at the moment, much o her chagrin.

And lead her he did, rather thoughtfully by the elbow, with gentle guidance and subtle support.

He took the most reclusive route possible, using his enhance senses to bypass crowded rooms, confrontations, and in a few cases couples looking for seclusion for entirely different purposes. Really she found the careful amount of attention he paid to alleviating her discomfort sweet, once her headache abated enough for her to appreciate it. When they arrived at her room, far enough away from the centers of activity that she could hear her herself think, Raven sighed her relief.

Steadier on her feet, she leaned her back against her door, one arm unconsciously crossing over her torso to grip the other where he had guided her by the elbow.

"This is me." she said, stating the obvious in an attempt to wrap up her social obligation to Beastboy quickly and get some sleep.

"Yep," he nodded amicably before shooting her a careless two fingered salute and turning to return to the party. "g'night"

"And Gar…" she continued, half a question in her voice, prompting him to turn halfway back around.

It was an errant impulse. Maybe it was all of the emotional chaff, but he had come looking for her when he didn't have to. And he was being so sweet and considerate.

It wouldn't even really count, she told herself. It would be just a little peck.

"Thank you." she stepped towards him and kissed him softly on the cheek.

Surprise; almost shock. Joy. Comfort. Lust. Affection. Love?

It had been building for a long time.

Beastboy…Garfield, had a crush on her. When and how it started she had no idea, but sometime between his and Cyborg's field trip into her psyche and the advent of his Beast form, he became attached to her.

And she would be lying if she said she wasn't aware of it. Or that she didn't return his affections, a little. All of the Titans were precious to her, more so than her own life. But he… always seemed to want her more than the others.

Want her to smile.

Want her to laugh.

Wanted her company.

Wanted her to save her every day.

She hadn't been lying, not one bit when she said it would be the last thing Terra ever did to harm him. She literally wouldn't have been able to stop herself. More, she wouldn't want to.

He was important to her. All the Titans were, but him especially, because he made it so clear she was important to him, and she couldn't help but to respond to that need a little.

And as they grew older, he grew up, and she grew up. He learnt when "Leave me alone" was earnest and when she was being misanthropic by habit. She quashed her instinct to lash out at anyone seeking emotional contact, because there was just no reason to restrict herself so much anymore. Within the space of a year and a half he gained nearly 8 inches and 60 pounds of lean muscle. She, much to her irritation, could now only make level eye contact by levitating.

And, as was the wont of teenagers living in close quarters, there was sexual tension. He had hyper developed instincts and senses, she was an empath. Eventually things came to a head. The word pheromones was used in conversation. Embarrassment and hijinks ensued. The entire debacle ended with a conference call between the titans, Mento, Batman, and Dr. Midnight; the only physician to practice metahuman medicine. No one made eye contact for several days afterward.

But ultimately, until tonight nothing come of it. Raven, at 19, had never been on a date, never been kissed, and her only romantic relationship of note was with a lying, malevolent, fire breathing reptile. Beastboy, despite flirting with everything in a skirt and a literal horde of Japanese fan-girls, hadn't managed more than a single date with anyone.

And now she was kissing him.

As she took half a step back from where she'd stood upon her toes to bring her lips to his cheek, she felt what he felt.

His emotions, god it felt like his entire soul, rolled over her and bowled her under like a massive tsunami. He wanted her.

He wanted physically and he wanted her heart.

He wanted her dour, and gloomy, and creepy.

He wanted her happy more than anything.

He wanted what was best for her, and wanted desperately not to hurt her.

He was in love. And he was looking at her, his grass green eyes shining like he'd just seen heaven, a question staring out.

"Raven," He began, unsure.

And she felt something she hadn't anticipated respond to his affections, something she hadn't even allowed herself to acknowledge was there.

She silenced him easily, wrapping her arms around his neck and drawing herself closer to him.

"Shut up." she whispered into his ear, breathy and for once not harsh in her reprimand, "there's been something here for a long time. I'm only no realizing just how much. On both sides."

It was true. Right now she was feeling more than she could ever remember feeling before. He was her teammate, her companion, and her friend. Now she realized she wanted, and had wanted for quite some time, to have him as her lover, had she been able to admit the desire to herself.

Dropping her face a little, she caught a glimpse of his astonished face before their lips soft met and she closed her eyes.

Garfield Mark Logan had loved his teammate Raven, a little, ever since she was the first person to tell him he was funny on the night they first met and first fought together.

From there every moment, every instant they were together seemed to embed her presence into his soul. He may not have known to handle his feelings for her, or how to show her what she meant to him, but that didn't make what he knew to be true any less real.

She was the only one who had ever called out the Beast in him. The only reason he had ever called up that dread chimera's terrible power was

in her defense.

And now she was calling the beast out of him in an entirely different way.

The feel of her velvety lips pressed insistently against his; the scent of her hair tickling his nose, lavender shampoo, incense, and below that the subtle head bouquet of Raven herself with lust in her blood; the taste of her where his tongue probed her delicate mouth to sample her flavor… It was enough to drive him to madness.

A hot knife of lust carved upwards from his groin to stoke his heart to pounding. Thunder pulsed through his fevered veins and lightning danced on his nerve endings. His lust was that of all beasts, all life, and his love was that of a man.

Oh, god he had her warm and wanting in his arms and it felt like she belonged there. This instant, some lonely insightful part of himself realized, was perfect; with the exquisite petite form of the woman he loved molded against his chest as she nestled into his embrace.

Alas, they still had need to breath, and when she pulled back panting to lean against her door (though not, Gar noticed, to break their embrace) her eyes were wide with desire. She had never looked so beautiful.

"Wow" was all he could manage between gasps of air despite the desire to wax poetic upon the vision presented to him.

Raven seemed slightly more composed a few moments later when she managed an entire question.

"Do you," she asked, "want to come in?"

For once Raven was completely without self control and just didn't care.

She knew that this was partly because of the long years of emotional repression and the emotions of the other teens in the building and her own hormones ganging up on her that led to making the offer. She didn't care about that either.

If it were just those, or even those as well as Beastboy's feelings for her it never would have come this far. She knew her own mind well enough to separate her motivations from those sorts of distractions.

No she honestly wanted him in the way a woman wants a man. If all of those other things eased the way to the realization, if she was being irresponsible in its face, she didn't give a damn.

She had never felt so alive before, with him kissing her, pressing into the wall of her room in the dark. His hand twined a fistful of violet locks at the back of her head to pull her closer to him; his right rested at the small of her back only to trail fire downward as it slide to her hip, while the skintight fabric of her uniform was seeming both less and more of a barrier between their contact every instant. She knew at the very core of her that there was no regret in her. This was right.

She felt the prickle of coarse, short trimmed emerald hair against her palm, where her hand pulled his face to hers. Her tongue, clumsy from lack of practice but impassioned, danced with his in a pantomime of the intimacy she felt the both of them building towards.

It had been a log time coming that Raven would totally lose control of herself, one way or another. She had always thought it would be something terrible, something unforgivable when it happened. Now oblivious to all the damage that her unbridled heart may cause, she found herself for once completely content in Gar's embrace.

For this she would make any reparations, repair any damage she caused with a happy heart. It was, unequivocally worth it to feel this way, to know he felt this way about her and only her.

Raven wanted more. More of these feelings and sensations, more contact, more love and lust. But most of all she wanted more of him. More of Garfield Mark Logan.

Raven never thought she would come to this decision. She had never believed that there would be a time where her live was her own and she could, until recently. And she had scarcely believed she would ever find someone she cared for enough to chance this level of intimacy, or that her trust and ardor would be returned.

He was hesitant. As much as he wanted her, with an animal lust she could feel inside him, he wouldn't allow himself to press onward towards what both of them were building towards. He wouldn't trust himself to, because he wasn't sure where the bounds of man and beast began and ended. He couldn't allow himself to believe that she wanted what he did, because he was terrified of the possibility he might not be able to pull back once he progressed any further.

But Raven trusted him with her life. More than that, she was already trusting him with her heart and was readying to put her body in his keeping.

How long the held one another and silent spoke into the others lips their love in a language that made no sound neither could tell. A minute, or hours, in either case it was a single glorious instant between them, timeless and over all too quickly.

When Raven finally slipped from between himself and the wall Gar was disappointed, but beyond resolved to having the evening end there. When she tentatively took his hand as she extracted her self to silently pull him unresisting to her bedside disbelief was added to the tumult of emotion he felt.

"Raven, you're sure you want to?…" he began, dumbfounded as he stood in close proximity to her bed, their hands still lightly clasped. "You want this?"

He wanted her to say yes, more than anything. The combined reproductive instincts of every animal screamed at him to take her, and he himself wanted Raven herself to be his if only for a moment. But he could never forgive himself if he took advantage of… whatever this was, that on any level his lady love should be unwilling or regretful.

But seeing her small understanding, bemused, and cursedly loving smile he knew she understood. She kissed him once again, softly like the first time, but upon the lips.

"I know." Raven replied, "I didn't expect any of this either. I'd never anticipated this between us. But its here and it isn't going away. You know it, and so do I. And I am so tired of waiting for something good."

Looking into her deep violet eyes, he believed she was as willing, if not more so than he was, and for much the same reason. He knew, as much as he could hope to, that she was willing heart and soul. Nodding to show his assent, he felt there was one thing to say, for both their sake, before they began in earnest.

"I want you to know, before this starts… this won't be… this can't be… I couldn't…" he sputtered, so befuddled by hormones and unaccustomed emotion it was a labor to say what was needful, "If this is only for tonight, I'll live with that and be grateful. But you'd be breaking my heart, Raven."

Tentative, he reached out his hand and caressed the softened ridge of her jaws contour.

"I don't want us to be just tonight. we should last longer than that, be more than that."

His voice was husky now and he diverted his gaze downward. "I love you. I have for along time. I'm not sure I'll ever stop."

Looking again at her face he saw a languid flow of tears trickling down from her closed eyes to moisten the hand clasped to Raven's cheek.

"I know." was her response, "I know how you fell, what your feeling. And I won't lie to you. I don't know how long I'll want what's between us here and now. But I love you at this moment more than I've ever loved another person. And what I'm felling right now I can't see an end to. It's not nearly enough, but its everything I have to give to you."

"I couldn't ask for more." he replied with a devoted smile, content that she was willing at least to make an attempt at the sort of intimacy he craved from her. He leaned over and kissed her, but their lips had barely touched when she pressed her hand to his chest and pushed him lightly down to the bed.

Surprised, but far from displeased, Gar watched as Raven unclasped her cloak with practiced efficiency. Its midnight fabric caressed her feminine curves with artless eroticism as it puddled at her feet.

She paused to step out of her elf-boots before joining him on the bed, and he quickly fumble off his gloves shoes and socks, all the time watching the hypnotic interplay of the musculature in her lean, bare calves and thighs. His costume became abruptly too constrictive in several ways.

Crawling onto her bed with a subtle grace that was somewhat feline to his practiced eye, Raven was the single most enticing thing he had ever seen.

As she cam within arms reach he pulled her overtop of him, embracing and carelessly intertwining their legs. His right hand rested upon her shoulder blade while the left trailed down her taught, firm rear and cupped over her, eliciting a surprised laugh , or maybe a small grunt vibrating into the joined chambers of their exploring mouths. Encouraged, he insinuated his fingers under the dark elastic fabric of her leotard, covering her butt cheek with the spread of his hand and pulling the rest of her slight weight unto his body, pressing her into him in all the right places. Now with her legs straddling his waist she tortured his sensibilities with the few scant layers of fabric separating them and teasing friction between their frantic bodies.

Bringing his unoccupied hand down her back to just above her hips, resting in the small dimpling of flesh there fore a moment before tracing the valley where the deep blue elastic of her leotard contoured to the firm flowing musculature of her back and the valley of her spine, the contact causing her to tremble as it gently re-ascended. Progressing until he felt the subtle firmness in her flesh that indicated the structure of her ribcage, he then slid it around her torso. Following the contour of her deceptively delicate bone structure with his sensitive fingertips until he had her soft heavy breast cupped lovingly in his hand for the first time. Raven's slight wiggling movements against his groin, dancing tongue, and the slim, feminine hands caressing by turns his chest, neck and shoulders all increased in ardor to show her approval.

Gar gripped her full breast more forcefully and was very aware of the thin and feeble barrier her garments represented between them The warmth of her body poured through and he could feel the firm nub of her nipple tickling the sensitive flesh at the crease of his palm. To the intoxicating melody of Raven's moans he took her hardened nipple through her skintight garment and to pinch, massage and carefully twist it. Raven arched her back then, and in a stroke of inspiration brought about by the sight of her unoccupied breast profiled by the cascade of moonlight he placed his mouth upon it to tease and gently nibble at it.

Frantically searching for a seam in her garment with his free hand, desperate to rid them of the impediment it represented, Gar continued to elicit moans from his responsive partner.

Upon discovering the leotard's zipper he wasted no time in opening to its limits and slipping his hungry fingers between the loosened fabric and the succulent female flesh beneath.

Emboldened by the fell of her in his hands, he slid he cloth off her shoulders and broke off his faces teasing at her breast with regret to plant energetic, fluttering kisses along her collar bone and the graceful, sensual lines of her throat. Raven in turn, had her hands on the waistband of his uniform, her exploring hands ran over his abs and pectorals peeling synthetic fibers off, tickling him ever so slightly where the tips of her fingernails pressed ever so slightly into his flesh.

Now lost amid the flood of their combined lust, Gar pulled the clinging sweat-laced clothing off her until her oft hidden body was displayed to him.

Raven's skin, bare now to the waist, was highlighted by the starlight into milky moon dust tones of a delicate satin texture. Her breasts were full and shapely, with small areolas and pert nipples of the same darkened skin tone of her succulent lips. Strangely enough it was her small, dimpled naval that drew his focus first, quite possibly because he had never before seen its delicate, but wholly normal, indentation on her extraordinary body with any particular detail in his more fevered dreams. Seeing it now hammered home to him that Raven really was here, straddling him and half naked and for once entirely impatient. He thanked the previously neglected area by planting a kiss upon it, with a single caress of his tongue delving within by way of apology before returning his attentions to her glorious bosom, trailing kisses upon her tough abdomen as he went.

Raven for her part hadn't been idle. As she had been disrobed she was likewise removing his skintight shirt. To both of their momentary regret, this required that his arms and head couldn't keep contact with her body in order to get the accursed thing off. With his covering gone she leaned over to plant a lingering sultry kiss in the center of his chest between the gentle hillocks of his lean, slab like pectorals as her hands roamed over the sinewy feline musculature along his arms and abdomen. Breaking the kiss breaking the kiss by pushing herself upright she looked down at him from her position of domination straddling him with eyes wide with lust.

"We're wearing too many cloths." She said, breathless, her accustomed composure long ago burned out of her.

"Definitely." Gar agreed, her point punctuated by the heat radiating through their garments from her sex to his enflamed member and vice-versa.

She purposefully but regretfully eased herself to the side to finally she her garment and allow him to do the same. But with the both of them now bare (skintight costumes didn't make for comfortable options in undergarments and were constructed to accommodate their lack) he was by no means willing to let her be the aggressor in what came next. His initial concerned reluctance aside, in this at least, his masculine impulses were not to be denied.

Curling over her where she lay on her side next to him, freshly disrobed, he pressed her onto her back and kissed her insistently. After a moment he rose off her to position himself between her splayed legs.

"Are you… Are you sure?" he asked in a voice heady until it was half growl. He needed to know at this last crucial juncture that she wouldn't regret this. It would take everything he had to pull himself back from this threshold with his body and nearly though in his head and impulse in his soul screaming to take her, but he would do it if she reneged. But God help him, he wasn't sure if he would succeed.

"Garfield Mark Logan" Raven replied with an odd combination of teasing, scolding and husky chemical euphoria, "If you think you can come into my room, kiss me, do all of those terrible, wonderful things to me, strip me nude, and then back out before I'm satisfied…"

She looped her arms around her lover's neck and pulled him into a single incongruously chaste peck on the lips, before letting him up enough to look at her.

"you need to seriously reevaluate your situation" she murmured with sardonic sexuality in her tone.

"Alright" was his somewhat stunned reply, thankful beyond words for this last assent. He gripped her hips with firm hands and positioned himself closer to her.

"I'll guide you in." her delicate finger encircled the ardent length of him and directed the tip of his staff to the opening of her womanhood, and just inside. With only the very end of his phallus inside her velvety warmth, he felt his instinct directing him. Slowly he eased himself into the moist, vital core of her until he met the obstruction within he had hoped for, prepared fore, but not dared anticipate. Knowing what was to come next he withdrew himself nearly entirely, then thrust back inside and through the barrier, but not before forcing his mouth on her to catch the pained exclamation she gave. Breaking the kiss he force himself to wait an instant, to hold until she was ready, though he longed in ways indescribable to continue. But he was Raven's first, and he loved her too well to misuse her.

"Gar… I'm alright. We can keep going" She said after a moment and a few deep calming breaths that did interesting things to her chest that sorely challenged his resolve.

Well beyond words, he nodded, then began the tidal withdrawals and thrusts of a slow controlled rhythm. His focus was entirely on her; her beautiful body, mewling moans and her roving hands, leave alone the heat of her tight around his penis. But it was also upon himself, holding back, slowing down, keeping just a bit removed so he wouldn't loose himself too early. He'd never know such intense pleasure in his life, but for Raven's sake he'd control, himself for as long as he could.

He was by no means experienced. In point of fact he was, until this point, a virgin. He'd never gone past flirting with his female friends and the though of intimacy with a crazed, clingy, super-groupie was repugnant on any number of levels. But being a teenage boy surrounded by teenage boys, you tended to receive a crash coarse in sex via osmosis, sometimes against your will. Often you received mental pictures you were better off without. But it did afford him the knowledge that he had to restrain himself or he'd likely blow it in under two minutes.

Still it wasn't easy with her willing beneath him ,making little sounds of passion and pleasure, the length of him surrounded by her fluid warmth.

His sense of time was worthless, at the moment, but eventually he found his rhythm through the heavenly haze of hormones. Slowly at first, but with an increasing tempo he plunged into her again an again, each motion delivering another pulse of pleasure up his spine and eliciting a response from his comely partner that only furthered his arousal. His thrusting became harder and faster still, seeming to gather momentum as it continued, until Raven was forced to cross her legs behind his back as he knelt at the crux of her legs, locking them together and preventing his ardor from jolting them apart.

As Gar grew less restrained and more sure of his role,, so did Raven. When he drove into her she responded with a roll of her hips that seemed to take him deeper into her than she would have believed possible. And when he pulled back she stopped him just shy of withdrawal, teasing his phallus with the hot swollen lips of her womanhood by using muscles she hadn't even realized she had until he entered her fully again.

Before Gar knew it and log before he wished their union to end, he felt the beginnings of Raven's orgasm. Aware, distantly, of their lack of protection, he was about to pull himself out of her to prevent any unfortunate complications from arising(using the lion's share of his remaining willpower in the process) when her legs pulled him in even closer. Using leverage from the junction of their bodies Raven pulled herself to vertical and held herself against him. With her breasts tracing lines of fire on his chest with every motion, her face contorted in a beauteous grimace of passion, her silken plum-tone hair smelling of sweat, passion and sex, with the taste of her on his mouth he just couldn't bring himself to break apart from her. Even less so when she clung to him and went still, save for the contortions of her sex around him, milking his member for the seed he longed to plant within her. Merciful God, her moans alone were enough to drive him mad.

Really, it was no surprise when he emptied himself within her. He didn't regret it, even if that may not always hold true. But for now, while his body responded to the throes of passion coursing through her with his own, he had one half conscious thought before succumbing to exhaustion and dropping onto the cool sheets of his lover's bed.

As they both rested with arms and legs entwined in lazy comfort he was overcome with a sense of peace, contentment, and security. He was satisfied, and more than that he was amazed beyond words and joyful to the point of tears that he was here with Raven. That he would ever be allowed a chance to be with her, much less that they would each be the other's first lover was more than he would ever have hoped.

The knew that this, that tonight, was inarguably right. And whatever the dawn brought he could accept because tonight Raven was his and no one else's.

Green and Grey

When she awoke in the mourning the first thing she registered were the colors green and grey.

Feeling the unaccustomed but comfortable warmth next to her she quickly recognized her own ashen-skinned arm draped across the plateau of her verdant bedmate's chest.

Closing her eyes a moment to gather her wits, in part to remember steamy details of last night's more lurid activities, in part to try and marshal her will to leave bed, and in part to breath in the musky, masculine scent of him from where her head rested with his shoulder for her pillow. Mostly the latter in fact. She was entirely too contented as she was.

Careful not to wake him, Raven extracted herself from where she was curled up to his side. She had no trouble extracting her legs from where they wove with his, or her free left hand, but the right was pinned under him and she had to resort to telekinesis to lift him just enough to retrieve it. Once she was free she spent a moment sitting on her side of her bed to massage away the pins and needles sensation.

Upon attempting to stand she found another unforeseen discomfort from the night before; in that in that between her legs and inside her was sore from the sexual acts performed only hours before.

IT was only an inconvenience really, and she had some things to attend to before she would be up to dealing with another Titan. First was a shower, as she was sticky with dry sweat and had a bit of virgin's blood on her inner thighs. After that she had to see about breakfast, toast and tea for herself and some thing vegetarian (not tofu) for Gar. She hoped to finish before he awoke, wanting to be the first thing he saw, and once he had the two of the needs must figure out exactly where things stood between them. Oh, and she had to change her bedding because the though to sleeping in her own blood and fluids again tonight did not appeal at all…

…and she really had no idea how to process the fact that she had made love to one of her best friends last night yet.. It was best to stick to the mundane details until she could figure things out a little, talk to him, meditate, and hopefully forestall any more collateral property damage than she'd already caused in the last 24 hours.

So, first a shower.

Pulling a fresh leotard and cloak from her closet furnished her with hr ensemble for the day, but dressing before washing herself wasn't an option just now. Likewise it was never going to be a good time to make a break for the nearest communal bathroom in the nude. And, unfortunately Raven, she-of-the-limited-wardrobe, did not own a bathrobe.

By way of a solution she shrouded her nudity with the slightly soiled cloak discarded on the floor between the bed and the door. Well conscious of the possibility of being exposed by an errant breeze or similar unfortunate circumstance, she opted to clasp ti not only with the broach at her neck, but also with a belt around her waist. And she had just the belt. With an uncharacteristic grin she took up Gar's uniform belt and set it in place. It was fitted and hung too high on her wider hips. No matter, she was teleporting to the bathroom door anyway.

Idly Raven speculated if wearing Gar's utility belt like this was the superhero equivalent of using one of his oversize shirts as a nightshirt. Musing, she was soon subsumed by the obsidian rapturous form of her soul-self.

After a scalding hot, ach easing shower and changing into something more presentable, Raven came through the sliding doors to find the common room trashed but empty. The temporary dance floor was strewn with confetti, napkins, and deflated balloons. The punch bowl was overturned, and by the smell had indeed been spiked by someone at some point, most likely Arsenal, who had access to disturbing amounts of alcohol through his less than reputable mentor. There were used plastic cups everywhere and the sink was full of dishes. There was a puddle of half-dried vomit in the corner that was evidence of either inebriation or Star's national dish. If anyone had fallen asleep here last night they had apparently relocated to a room without massive sunlight-facing windows.

Wrinkling her nose at the refuse of several dozen teenagers as she cleared the heating surfaces of the range debris and tried to findthe toaster she hardly noticed when the midmorning light of the room slowly dimmed.

Raven, daughter of Arella, ward of Azar, Seed of Trigon, you have sinned.

The deep, chilling tone of the voice was steeped in eldritch power and brokered no dispute. Upon hearing its pronouncement she had no doubt that she had sinned and that she had already long since been passed judgment upon. There was no question of any appeal, there was no higher authority.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly with no doubt she would be heard as the room around her was slowly muted to black. Fear gripped her like nothing she'd experienced since her father's ascension.

You know me.

A figure seemed to step forward as from a great distance or a single step. The darkness shifting off him enough to revel shoulders mantled by a cloak of ectoplasmic green with a raised hood mirroring Raven's own most mysterious visage.

I was included in your education in the laws of magic and also in the nature of Good and Evil.

It is my providence to level divine vengeance upon the sins of mortal men.

Those obscure statements and the aura of terrible strength blotting out everything save his presence and the unforgiving darkness, Raven knew without a misgiving to whom she spoke.

"Uriel" the archangel's name was a frightened whisper, for if her supposition was correct all was lost.

Before I fell from grace I was known by that name, and held an archangel's station.

Now beneath the drape of his cloak an impossibly pail, inhumanly muscled and a ghostly face with patrician features seemed to materialize from its shadows. His eyes were twin voids, indistinguishable from the depthless black miasma that surrounded the pair of them, save for two white pupils in their infinite distance. Even in the indeterminate span between their forms, she could see those gleams of merciless doom took the grim form of eerie death's heads.

For a span of time I am reduced. Bound to a wronged mortal soul as both penance and instruction. I am to be shown where to temper my duty with the simplistic morality of men. Only them may I be absolved and rejoin the host of the Silver City.

He paused for a moment, and Raven began to hope that her failing, no matter how grave, wasn't so terrible to warrant her destruction. Not now, not when she was just finally happy. And in love! Why of all time must she be brought to trial now?

It is because of the mercy within my mortal host that I have not visited upon the Lord's vengeance. Your sin is one of ignorance, and can yet be atoned for.

Eldritch skeletal visages in his gaze glowed for a moment to emphasize the point.

His reach is small yet. But in your ignorance you have weakened the barrier of your will that banished him at bay from the world. Already he moves to gather stray energies and lesser ghosts of this world to feed upon. I can feel the slow attrition as he devours those of them who have souls.

Soon he will gather to himself agents of malevolence and chaos. There are rituals to open this world girl, now that you've already acted as his foot hold here once.

Her father. Trigon the Terrible. Scath. Death of Worlds. Plague of Dimensions. He was coming and it was all her fault. Tears rolled down her face and she cursed the absence of the numbness that held her most of her life.

As events stand now, in a few short years he will have all in readiness. I cannot stop this.

For once human emotion crept into his voice and visage as restrained frustration and guilt wracked his presence.

I am charged with Gods punishment for mortals who embrace their sins. I am not empowered to execute a private war with a demon of such strength. That responsibility is another's. And those in the Beast's employ will know ways to obscure even my eyes. It would be nearly the day of ascension before I could sense the taint on them.

This limitation to my divine commission and your ignorance of the dread consequence of you lust are the reason I have tempered my judgment. I have need of an agent.

"Love. Raven spoke, her emotions warring between petulant defiance and shock. "It wasn't just lust. It was love."

Shaken to her core Raven was still the disobedient daughter of an omnipotent demon, granddaughter of an alien god. For Azar's sake, her mother was born and raised in Gotham! Even reduced as she was by the revelation, she was still fierce.

DO NOT TRIFLE WITH ME CHILD! YOUR MOTIVES ARE OF NO CONCERN. Your world ends in a few short years and you are to blame. Now chose your fate. Act as my mortal proxy from this day forward, strike at your father's disciples and atone; else face the holy restitution it is mine to lay upon you.

"I…" There is wisdom in not making a pact with a being of power. Such things were binding, down to the soul and to break such an agreement is a dire thing. Given the choice between destruction and slavery, Raven hesitated. Still to save the world, to save her friends, to stop her sire, to save the man she was coming to love, she could and would sell her soul into this fallen angel's service. "Alright. I will be your bondswoman until the beast Scath is no longer a danger due to my actions. What would you have of me?"

Go half breed. Find those who prey upon the souls of mankind, those I cannot punish. Seek tham out and destroy them utterly. Learn all you can put to use to slay your sire and those who serve him. Excise your heart of all mercy for them, and strike at them without remorse.

Become as I am, an avenging angel, and there may yet be hope for us all.

Sandalwood incense, aged parchment, and woman's sweat.

The scent of Raven's room was shat roused Beastboy from his contented slumber and into the land of the living. Sprawled out in the supple midnight blue bedclothes of Raven's rather overlarge bed, Garfield was struck by the realization that the preceding night wasn't a product of his fevered imagination, followed fast on its heels by the fact Raven wasn't with him at the moment.

Not that that's hard to imagine. She's always been an early riser.

Deciding that since she'd already began the day it would be presumptive to occupy her quarters any longer, he dressed(noting the absence of his belt) and made all haste to his room. Taking up a uniform for the day, he made a b-line for the shower.

Making his way to the common room for breakfast, he found the other resident Titans in the kitchen, going through the morning routine as best as they were able around the mess. Except for Raven.

"Good mourning." he greeted them, trying not to grin like the cat who caught the canary.

"a most glorious day to you , friend Beastboy." came Star's characteristic joyfully wordy greeting, "We were just about to partake in the meal intended to break the fast of the night."

"Cool," was his response, easily decoding Starfire's unusual personal dialect of English. ""What's to eat?"

"As for the remainder of the day we're acting as a cleaning crew for the metahuman mess that's left behind from last night," Cyborg said from where he worked the range stove, the sound of sizzling could be heard around his titanium bulk, "the three of us are having bacon, eggs, and toast, a classic beginning of the day for the working man. Our resident aesthetic will find her usual boiling water for tea and two slices of dry toast. And you, my vegetarian friend, are left either oatmeal or the leftover tossed salad from monday in the fridge. Which is only appropriate for the resident beast of burden."

"Har, har." the green teen responded with heavy sarcasm, "Just pass the instant oatmeal, tin man."

"Whatever you say, cowardly lion."

After fixing his breakfast, thankfully with no more comments from the metal plated peanut gallery, he sat down at the table with Robin and Starfire. Star seemed to be writing thank you notes to everyone who came to the party. Robin was flipping through some printed pages on the table with one hand and massaging his temple with the other.

"That bad?" Beastboy asked, figuring it was the damage report from last night.

Every time the Titans held a get together, two things had to happen. First, the Justice League was contacted and cajoled into taking up the slack for the duration by one of the Titan's whose mentor was a member, though never Robin, as no one was dumb enough to try and wheedle Batman out of extra man-hours for a party. Second, hosting city was notified of the impending event and forwarded billing instructions and the number for the Watchtower in case things got out of hand.

"Not particularly," the boy wonder, who was by now not in the least a boy, replied without looking up from the reports, "this is nothing compared to that casino night the Titans South hosted where Thunder and Lightning had to hock their armor."

"Yeah, I though for sure they'd cause a tropical storm." Gar replied, remembering the two Japanese kami's tantrum "Good call getting Pantha to extend their credit until they won it back."

"Luckily nothing that drastic happened this time. Almost no property damage, and what there is nearly all here on the island." Robin continued leafing through the collected papers, which did seem to be a relatively small stack. "Although there were reports of poltergeist activity throughout the city last night. And at least three tectonic events with the tower as the epicenter."

He looked up at Beastboy for the first time.

"Have you seen Raven? I'd like to talk to her about this."

"Not since last night." Gar answered with total honesty, while his self control strained to keep him from smirking at the mention of Raven's telekinesis going haywire so powerfully. But a gentlemen never kisses and tells.

I guess the earth really did move for her last night.

"I'm sure she'll turn up in time. She's probably just meditating if she lost control that badly last night." Beastboy continued without a hitch.

Hell for all I know it's the truth.

"You're probably right, She'll be around once she gets her head straight."

But she wasn't. And when they became concerned with her absence that afternoon and searched the tower were unable to locate her. And Raven's comm was found crushed in the kitchen trash.

For the next two days they carpeted the area with as many of the Titans could be spared for the search without leaving their areas of responsibility vulnerable.

Of all of them, Beastboy searched the hardest. He refused all rest as he searched for their umbramancer teammate. Pushing his senses to the limit, he ranged for mile questing for a trace of her on the wind or the imprint of a woman's size seven elf boot in the dirt. When he felt exhaustion threaten to collapse him he shifted to insect, fish or amphibian forms that didn't require sleep until it passed. So it continued until in a rare stretch in which he was in his human form that received a call on his communicator.

.:: Beastboy, we have something. ::.

Robin's face appeared on the display. He didn't look happy.

.:: Head back to the Tower. ::.

The envelope was none descript and its face had only the address of the Jump City P.O. box the Titans used for official mail. No return Address, and the stamp was canceled with Jump City markings.

The handwriting inside was Raven's neat script, a calligraphy that in its odd elegance combined stroke elements from gothic script, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and some elements that looked to be from kanji. Raven had always claimed it was the type form favored for English in Azarath.

The Message was only three sentences. They were the most heartbreaking Garfield Logan had ever seen.

I love you.

Don't look for me.

I'm sorry.

A/N:I know I went a little romance novel here, but I had my reasons. First, I needed Raven to be completely without self control, and I can think of no better time then in the embreace of la petite morte, especially her first time, to set up the Trigon elements as feasable. Second, it was the easiest way to establish intimacy between Raven and BB now while keeping both of them off balance. Third, nothing gets an audience to pay attention like a good hook, and there's no hook like a sex scene. Finally, I've never written a Lemon before and thought I'd try my hand with one of my favorite (and genetically potent) pairings.

This will be a romance/adventure, so whie ther emay be more sex, I wouldn't look fpr it soon. The next chapter will be something else entirly, and the third will be different again.

I intend to draw on the entire decade and change of DC animated contiuity from BtAS to JLU, with additions in neglected areas from the comics continuity.