Disclaimer: I don’t own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: I can only say that the delay for this chapter is all because I began playing World of Warcraft. That game is so absorbing…and really fun when you’re a Warlock…hehehe…Ahem, anyways. I wish to apologize for the delay and for becoming a WoW addict (Except any of my readers who play WoW, you all can understand my plight.) And in truth, I probably wouldn’t have started on this chapter were it not for VFSnake for sending me good music to inspire me to write, and the fact that WoW has been fixing all its servers because of the new patch. So, with that happening, it’s given my mind freedom to focus on this chapter. So here we go!!

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Requiem of Awakening

There was only darkness after the pain finally went away. Robin was left with a numbing dizziness in the seemingly endless darkness, with only the sense he was descending down a dark bottomless abyss. It felt as if it was never going to come to an end, time seemed to be his tormentor, letting him fall like this forever in this cold darkness. As he fell, his mind was active with every memory he ever had since he was born. His entire life history played from the moment he was born, to his time growing up in the circus with his family, to their death, and so on until he came to the moment when he died.

The moment he died? That’s right…he just died. He died in the arms of a total stranger who said he was going to save him. If he saved him then why was he in this darkness? Those and more questions ran through his mind before he came to a sudden, and painful, halt. He groaned loudly and rolled to his side and placed a hand on his aching head. He froze when he felt something wet and thick roll down the side of his face. Panicked, he pulled his hand away from his head to find his whole gloved hand soaked with blood. His panic rose more when he looked around to that the ground he had landed on was covered in blood…

“What is going on here?” said Robin nervously.

Carefully, he worked to sit on his knees and soon was standing on his feet when he felt brave enough to trust his legs to support him again.

“Where am I?” questioned Robin to no one. “…Is this the afterlife?”

This question remained unanswered, and in truth, he was glad it that. Wherever he found himself in now, he sure wasn’t thrilled about filling out where he exactly was.

Groaning loudly, Robin glared at his morbid surroundings. “What in the hell did that guy do to me? And why am I here?”

It was at that moment that a flash of dark light flared over above him. Robin shielded his eyes, or eye, as he wasn’t able to close his right eye for some odd reason. Something suddenly slammed into his forehead, knocking him back down into the pool of blood. As he yelped in shock, he opened his one eye to see a thread of dark light connected to his forehead, leading up into the ceiling of total darkness.

“Okay…things are getting weirder now,” groaned Robin, rubbing his aching head.

He wondered why he had a thread of dark light connected to his forehead now. He reached up to touch it and try to get it to go away, but the moment he gripped his, his entire being quaked. Instantly, he let go of the thread and glared at it harshly.

“I hope things begin to make more sense because I’m really getting confused here!” growled Robin as he stood up once more. “…For one…WHY AM I STANDING IN BLOOD?!?!”

Once more there was no answer to his question. He decided to start walking and try and find someone that could help him, even if that meant walking ankle deep in blood. As he did, a familiar voice spoke behind him.

“Robin! I’m so glad to see you safe!”

Spinning around, Robin found Starfire floating just above the blood, looking radiant as ever.

“Starfire!” shouted Robin in relief, beginning to run toward her. “I’m so glad you found me! Do you know what’s going on here?”

As he neared her, he soon saw her smiling face begin to distort and twist into a look of horror. “No…you’re not Robin…” She began to back away from him, shielding herself with her arms. “G-Get away from me, you monster!”

Robin stopped running and stared at her in confusion. “Monster?” He quickly looked around for signs of whatever monster she was talking about. Seeing none at all, he looked back to her. “Star, it’s only us. There are no monsters here. What’s gotten into you?” He reached out a hand to her.

She jerked away from his hand. “N-No! Don’t touch me! You murderer!”

“Murderer?” repeated Robin, starting to feel really scared now. “What’s wrong, Starfire? What’s happened to make you think I’m a murderer?!”

Starfire began to float away from him, but as she did, Robin quickly leapt out to grab a hold of her, hoping that he could get her to see reason. But as his hand touched her, her entire body exploded into a brilliant emerald green light. The explosion threw Robin away and landed on his side in the endless pool of blood. When he looked back, he saw a glowing form of Starfire twisting around in the air, screaming wildly.

“Starfire!” cried Robin as he tried to get back up.

But as he did, something from the darkness struck and ripped through Starfire, something that looked oddly like a ghost in the form of a large cat. It tore through Starfire, leaving her to vanish into nothingness. The leopard roared and it too vanished into nothingness.

“W-What’s going on here?” uttered Robin in confusion.

Suddenly he heard a wet, soggy sound behind him and he turned around to see a glob of blood rise from the endless crimson ground. In the glob he saw his reflection…or what he thought was his reflection. The image in the blood looked like him, but there were sufficient differences he immediately spotted; for one, he only had one eye and although he was gasping in fright, the image in the blood was smiling at him with rows of sharp teeth.

“You are loossssst,” his image suddenly hissed.

“….Who are you and what do you want?” demanded Robin quickly, assuming a defensive stance.

“Your esssencesssssss,” replied the image evilly. “…We want your esssencessss…” The glob of blood suddenly showed images of faces screaming and moaning; all of them staring hauntingly at Robin.

Robin backed away in fright when the glob of blood started coming toward him, reaching out to him with tendrils, but as they were about to touch him, the silver cord yanked him out of its grasp. The glob hissed and shook with fury.

“You will losssse!” stated the thing. “You will losssse your line and then we will take you...”

“Like hell you will,” replied Robin, feeling very grateful for whatever force was aiding him.

The thing hissed and shook. It took Robin a moment to realized that it wasn’t hissing in angry but laughing. “They all say that…all who come here…you will be no different. You are nothing now…just a fragment of what you were…Just a fragment…just a fragment!” The image in the blood thing licked its lips. “A tassssty fragment…”

“Sorry, but I don’t plan on being your tasty treat today,” stated Robin, reaching into his Utility Belt…just for his hand to feel nothing but his pants. “What they?”

The thing shook again with laughter. “Can’t fight…not here, you’re jusssst a fragment…Fragment’ssss cannot do nothing here!”

“Oh, will you be quiet,” a quiet, raspy voice groaned.

The thing suddenly shrieked in fright and retreated back into the endless pool of blood. Robin whipped his head behind him to see an old man in a black cloak. His face was pale as moonlight and his head just as shiny from lack of any hair, with eyes the color of solid black coal and ears as pointy as an elf’s.

“Revenants...hate them. Annoying things,” said the old man.

“W-Who are you?” asked Robin.

“Me? Hmm…been a long time since someone asked who I was,” replied the old man, scratching his wrinkled chin. “Usually, I get screamed at and told to get lost…hehehehe.”

“Er, well, I didn’t. So tell me, who are you…and what is this place?” repeated Robin.

“Ah, like to get right to the point,” smiled the old man. “All right, I can do that. Well, young man, you are in a space-between-spaces. This place exists everywhere and nowhere, what you would call Limbo…or to be more precise…the lowest pits of Limbo.” The old man started walking around Robin. “As to who I am…well, I don’t know. I’ve been here for so long I’ve forgotten how I even came to be here. Just call me Old man; it’ll make this easier for the both of us as I’m a man and old, hah, hah!”

Robin just stared at the pacing old man. “Okay, fine…I’m in Limbo, why am I here?”

“AH! Finally you ask that question. They all do. I was beginning to wonder when you would, too,” quirked the old man, rubbing his hands together. “Why you’re here is because you died…but didn’t.”

“Umm, yeah, that answers that,” drawled Robin. “Can you explain it a bit more? I’m lost here.”

“Exactly!” shouted the old man excited. “You are lost! That is why you are here, your spirit is lost! That’s why they call this Limbo, young man!”

Robin groaned and rubbed his head from the quickly growing headache he was forming. “Okay, so I’m lost, is that the only reason why I’m here? And what happened to Starfire!”

“No, young man,” replied Old Man with a serious tone, killing the humor that was once in it. “You are also here because you’ve accepted the Embrace from a vampire. As for this Starfire you mentioned, it wasn’t her. It was a vision…a bit of insight of what to expect in your new life. Take into everything you see under great care here. For it will unroll your path through this dark road.”

He stopped his pacing and squared his eyes on Robin’s remaining eye. “You accepted a pact with a vampire to become a vampire. That is what the Embrace means. You agreed to give up your mortality, your humanity, to become a being of darkness.” He waved one hand and looked around him. “This darkness and darkness of other realms. You have allowed this darkness to become part of you and that is why you were summoned here…” Faster than Robin could react, the old man dashed right at Robin and grabbed his silver cord with his bony fingers. “...To finish that pact…and be reborn as something far more than you once were.”

Robin was thrown into a world of agonizing pain; for the second time. He tried clawing at the old man’s bony hand, but his hand was stronger than they looked.

“W-Why are you doing this?!” cried Robin, feeling his entire being be violated and exposed.

“You entered a pact with me, Richard Grayson,” answered Old man with tremendous power. “Through the vampire that Embraced you, you agreed to accept my gift into you, and now I will sever your last tie connected to the light so that you may fully embrace the darkness…” and with a simple twisted of his wrist, he snapped the cord and with the piece still glowing from Robin’s head, his hand glowed with a dark light and it poured into Robin through his broken cord, then he let go as the dark light created a new cord and shot straight into the empty darkness above them to reconnect to where the silver cord originated.

The dark light poured into Robin’s forehead, branching out and slithering its way around his eyes and into his nostrils, and pouring deeply into his gaping mouth. It began to creep into his veins and radiate off his body and into the bloody around his feet. As soon as that dark light touched the blood, it began to move again, only this time raising up in waves and slowly wrapping around him, like some hellish-cocoon.

Old man stared in wonder at the blood around Robin. “…The essence is reacting to him…something isn’t right here.” Then his eyes widen in realization before they sadden. “Oh, boy, dear boy…you are from that bloodline…you have my sympathy child.”

He watched as the blood rise the cocoon up into the air and seemed to tighten, condensing down as if it was trying to shrink, but the truth was, the blood was entering his body just like the dark light. It wiggled into his mouth and nostrils, around his eyes and into all his pours. It swirled around him until his body frame appeared once more, surrounded by a thin shin of blood, like a second skin, and then, his torment ended when that shin of blood absorbed itself into his body and he fell back down into the endless floor of blood.

Old man walked over to the gasping hero and patted his head softly. “I’m sorry, my boy…your future will be a hard one, and I fear one stained with death and blood…” Then to his further amazement, he saw the dark light blaze around Robin, forcing him to shield his sensitive eyes from the flash. “What in the Pits of Limbo?!”

When the dark light deemed enough for him to see, Old man nearly fell down himself in shock at what he saw before him now.

Robin stood before him surrounded with dark light with his eyes closed. Yes, this time both eyes. The hollowed out socket that once housed his eye was now replaced with a new one glowing one. Ethereal wings like those of a bat or dragon sprouted from behind him and unfolded to their full length, reaching twelve feet long from wing tip to wing tip. His hair fanned out above and waved all around him like a crown of darkness.

The old man slowly smiled upon the almost deity-looking being now before him. “Ah, so you are his Darkborn…”

“What…what’s happening to me?” Robin whispered with a soft yet powerful voice, opening his eyes.

“Merely a glimpse of what you will have to look forward to,” mused Old Man, folding his arms into the sleeves of his robes.

“I’m…I’m scared,” admitted Robin, gazing at the old man with shaking fear.

Old Man smiled at him sympathically. “You are wise already to admit to fear, but do not let it control you, Richard. You have a grand destiny before you…Oh, yes, a great one, indeed…”

The moment of divine providence was suddenly ruined when Robin screamed in agony when his new cord vanished, and then the blood under him shot up and wrapped around him.

“What…No!” screamed Old man, dashing to Robin to save him. “You cannot have this one!”

The blob of blood rose up between him and Robin. “Too late…Old man…Hehehehehe, he lost hissssss way back. Hisssss link is gone! He is oursssssss!”

The blood whipped up and shot tendrils at Old man, but before they even touched him, Old man was up in the air, gazing down at the unfortunate fallen hero. “Oh, blast it all…I cannot do anything for you, Richard…you are truly lost…I’m so sorry…”

“Please! Don’t leave me!” pleaded Robin, his form returning to its original ruined state. “Help me!”

“I cannot…my part is done. I cannot interfere if your link has been broken,” mourned Old man sadly. “This here lies where I am truly powerless…forgive me.” And slowly from Robin’s vision, the old man vanished into nothingness.

“No!!” screamed Robin, struggling against his macabre bonds.

The blob of blood quivered as it laughed evilly at Robin. “Ssssssoooon, you will join usssss. Sssssoooon your essssence will make us sssssstronger!!”

Robin then felt himself being slowly pulled down into the gory pool. He wrestled with all his might to try and keep afloat, but it was to no avail, the tendrils pulling him down were too strong. As he was being pulled down, the blob slithered over to him and towered over him, in its morbid reflection, Robin saw wretched faces, all screaming endlessly in their eternal prison.

“No! I won’t let you take me!” yelled Robin, clawing more feverishly at his bonds.

“Pointlesssssss! You are already passsst hope! You are usssssss now!” responded the blob. It laughed wickedly and slowly started bringing up more tendrils to pull Robin down into the blood. “You’ll never return Robin! You’re losssssst and now you belong to ussssss…”

Robin despaired. He was going to suffer a fate far worse than what death had given him, and now all he had to look forward to was joining the ranks of the tormented souls who too lost their path to this gross entity. What’s more, he was all alone again. No one was going to save him, not Starfire, not the stranger, not the old man who he briefly greeted. They all left him to this fate, this gruesome eternal torment…

“Robin, I’m here!” came a familiar and oddly highly emotional voice.

“R-Raven?” whispered Robin weakly, twisting his head around to see Raven diving from the eternal darkness toward him.

Unbeknownst to her, or so he believed, a trail of dark light followed her and to his vision, he saw people holding her and guiding Raven down to him. One of them was the Old man himself, smiling down at Robin and winking at him as he helped lead Raven down to him. Another person, one he never met smiled at him, flying next to Raven and also guiding her down, he could barely make this person out, but he could sense a feel of femininity and warmth. The other people were too translucent to make out, but they all held onto Raven and guided her down to him, but as she neared him, they all started to fade from around her, leaving only Raven.

To his already disheartened stated, he feared that once more that Raven would disappear like Starfire did. He couldn’t bare it if he saw her leave, too. He never really told her how much her presence always made him feel better, how much the bond they secretly shared meant to him. So distorted was he, he didn’t realize when he whimpered if she too was going to leave him out loud.

To his shock, she didn’t vanish. Instead, he saw a brief look was confusion before a look of determination fell over her face. He saw her reach out and grabbed him with a strength he never knew she possessed. He then heard the gory entity scream its claim over him and lash out at her, wrapping her, too, with its tendrils and started pulling them both down into the crimson depths.

Seeing this, Robin knew he couldn’t let Raven join his grim fate. Desperately, he stopped fighting the tendrils and started trying to pry Raven’s grip from him. “Raven! Don’t do this! You’ll be dragged in with me! Let go!”

Her proclamation shook his core with joy and despair. ““I won’t lose you, Robin! If you disappear than I will, too!”

Robin was warmed by her devotion to save him, but he inwardly wept for her as they continued to be dragged into the blood. He could feel the blood already covering his face and smiled grimly up at Raven, wondering about the kind of life they both would share within the bloody entity.

His depressed musing stopped when a flash of crimson erupted from behind Raven and he saw the stranger who put him here suddenly hovering behind Raven, smiling devilishly, wings of ethereal darkness fanned out behind him, then heard him say: “…Excellent.”

He saw him wrap his arms around Raven and winked down at him before those ethereal wings flexed and with one mighty beat, he and Raven were yanked out of the endless blood and flying into the crimson light behind the stranger. As they journeyed through the eerie light, Robin felt all his grief and woe leave him behind in that pit of misery. He smiled probably for the first time since he ended up in this horrible realm at Raven, and a wave of astonishment washed over him when he saw her eyes. Those cool orbs of lavender that normally housed cold and unfeeling were brightened with joy and warmth. They shined down over him like the soft moonlight during a clear starry sky as the full moon hugged the sleepy world with its tender embrace. That was how he felt right in that moment before the empath…embraced by her glow.

Sadly, that wondrous look of hers vanished as fear appeared on her face. He saw the same look on the stranger’s face as he looked over Robin’s head. He snarled and his wings begin to move before he heard him shout a warning then those wings beat once more and their speed doubled. Robin felt Raven’s petite hands tightening painfully on him, but he didn’t mind the pain, more he was concerned for the sudden fear, when he felt something slither around him. He almost started to scream when the eerie light around them flashed and he felt himself lying on his back with something heavy on top of him. He tried to open his eyes, but only one was working and as it was, it felt as if someone had taped over it. It was then that he felt very strange, he felt himself slipping away in his mind and fear gripped him as he felt those slimy tendrils wrap around his consciousness.

He screamed out a warning but no sound came from his voice as he was pulled into the deepest part of his mind, and then…he remembered nothing.

Robin’s body twitched as it started to move. His remaining eye opened and creaked wickedly as it began to glow an evil red, smiling the same as his mouth widened and morphed into a horrid gap full of rows of pointy teeth. The thing that was once Robin gazed up at the unsuspecting prey sitting on top of it and instinct told it to strike! It lunged happily up at the prey and purred in glee as its teeth sank for the first time into soft, warm flesh and rolled with ecstasy as a flood of hot fluid poured out and quenched its parched throat. But this thing was a thing of hunger and greed and it wanted more! It wasn’t satisfied with just what was coming it, it wanted more to flow into it, to fill its enormous appetite, and it planned to do so with this prey and the next, and then the next, and the next…

It didn’t bother with the other inferior prey trying to pull it off its meal, they couldn’t match its strength, and so ignored them until later when it was their time to satisfy its hunger. It swooned with the pleasure of the feast and abruptly roared in rage when something wiggled into the corner of its jaw and with a strength it couldn’t believe, yanked its jaw down and forced it off its meal. It snapped at whatever had forced it off its prey, but it was gone before its teeth could do it damage. The other being wanted its prey! It wouldn’t let it have it as it roared a warning and stated its claim of its kill and its already trapped prey within its dark mind, remembering some of its past life, and its true nature…it had to feed, it had to consume essence to exist, and it wasn’t going to let anything take it away from it.

It growled at the inferior things around it and gazed down at its meal, delighted that it was still alive and fresh! It snarled in glee and flexed claws it wasn’t aware of having until that moment. It felt complied to chuckle as it watched its meal squirm in fear of it and decided to put the poor, weak thing out of its misery and consume her.

But again, it was halted when something struck its face, the same being it imagined that forced it off its meal, and only then did the thing feel a new sensation as it flew way from its meal and slammed into something solid: Pain.

For all its existence, it never experienced such an unpleasant feeling and it vowed to make the being that made it feel like this suffer greatly for it. As it picked itself up, it looked around for the one that was responsible for its discomfort and locked its one eye on a tall, dark prey…

Wait, no. This was no prey. It could feel that in it. This being was a predator in its own right, and a very strong one at that.

The other predator snarled at it as it pulled its arm back. ““Get out of my fledgling, Revenant!”

Revenant? Yes, that was what it was, it remembered now…but not anymore. It felt it was something else now, something far stronger than it was before and it liked this power flowing inside him. It planned to keep it and make it grow, but its rage demanded retribution for its discomfort!

“Who are you to challenge ussssss?????” it roared at the predator, and soon it began to feel a new sensation run through its new body, something like pain, but this was a far worse experience in its opinion when it felt the raw dark energy pour forth from the crimson eyed predator grinning devilishly at it.

It watched as red things began to glow around the predator’s waist and ethereal darkness smoke around it, and then it roared back at it.

“The vampire Sin challenges you, you piece of shit!!!!”

And before it could challenge the predator, it leapt straight for it. The next thing it understood was pain exploding from under its chin and the sound of something fragile breaking around it as it flew again into a cool, breezy environment.

-----

The Teen Titans had witnessed many a strange occurrence. They’ve seen bizarre aliens try to invade earth; they’ve fought insane criminals with powers of their own right try and take over their city. They even went up against a being that was supposedly God-like, but what they saw now was beyond any of their minds.

They never in their wildest imagination ever thought they would see their leader, Robin the Boy Wonder, become the thing that just attacked Raven.

Argent was the first to snap out of her daze after the sudden horrifying event, and with the help from the others, they tried to get it off Raven, but it was the stranger who was able to get it off it. Then were shocked by the power the stranger had when it punched it off Raven and then glowed with a dark aura, and then attacked the thing again and knocked it out of Raven’s window.

The stranger, who claimed himself to be called Sin, turned to Argent, letting her see his feral, red glowing eyes.

“Don’t go anywhere near that Revenant! It will kill you before you can stop it!” warned Sin, as he started walking to the broken window.

“W-What are you going to do?” gapped Argent.

“…I’m going to fix this before it gets out of hand,” replied Sin, and then he leapt out of the broken window and descended down to the beach below.

Argent stared at the broken window for a long moment before her mind reminded her of an immediate problem. She forgot for a moment about the monster and the stranger as she turned her concerns to a wounded Raven, who was holding a glowing hand to her bleeding neck. Starfire was by her side with part of Raven’s bed sheet that she ripped off to make a temporary tourniquet and helped try to stop the bleeding.

“She’s gonna be fine,” said Starfire quickly, upon seeing the plasma wielder’s worried look. “Ro…that thing actually didn’t get any major artery…we were lucky there.”

Argent sighed in relief. “That’s good. But you stay here with Raven. I’m going out to handle that thing that stranger turned Robin into! And then, I’m gonna turn that freak into a real corpse!”

She started to go when she felt something grab his wrist. She looked down and saw the pleading look in Raven’s eyes. “D-Don’t!” choked Raven, fighting Starfire off her and trying to sit up. “It’s not his fault…he!” she stopped as pain stole her voice and blood pumped out of her wounds, but she didn’t give up. “It was something else…Some other monster did this to Robin…”

“What?! Another monster?! When did that happen?” cried Argent in exasperation.

“It’s complicated,” rasped Raven, her neck wound finally beginning to stop bleeding, but leaving her feeling aching and weak. “Something else came back with us when I mind-dived into Robin.” She tried to sit up again, but Starfire pushed her back down. “We gotta go help Robin.”

“You think we can…?” asked Starfire, hoping to X’Hal that Robin was still within hopes of being saved.

“Yes, we can….but we got to act fast…That Revenant the vampire called him will try eating Robin’s spirit from within unless we don’t find a way to wake him up…” informed Raven.

“You mean Robin isn’t aware of what he’s doing?” sighed Starfire in relief.

“No, Robin is more likely suppressed in that things twisted mind,” replied Raven, her voice becoming stronger as her wound healed itself…a bit too quickly. She pushed that fact aside for the moment as it wasn’t important at that moment. Saving Robin was. She started back up again and found she had the strength to keep Starfire back from pushing her back down. “I got to get to him. If I can get back into Robin’s mind, I think I can wake him up.”

“But that guy said we’d be toast if we as so much as get near him,” reminded Argent.

“Robin’s one of us and we look out for each other, no matter the danger it might be to us,” stated Raven, firmly now back on her feet and trying to wipe the blood off herself, only to get more all over her hands and arms. Giving up on it, she floated over to the window. “Come…we got to help Robin.” And without a single thought to her own safety, she charged down to the beach.

“…I’ve never seen Raven so focused, not in a long time,” murmured Starfire with a critical look.

“I’m for one glad!” proclaimed Argent, starting after Raven and creating a disk with her plasma energy and hopping on it and flew out of the window. “What up, Rae!”

Starfire said nothing but her eyes looked uncertain before she chased after her female teammates.

Down on the beach, the three Titans found Sin staring off with the Robin-Revenant. The two were glaring at each other with so much primal strength; it was almost visible to their eyes in the form of waving hot air. Sin grinned down at the Robin-Revenant and with a simple shrug of his shoulders; his jacket slipped off him and fell down his arms, exposing his naked torso, and reveal a hidden wrist-blade strapped to his left arm. He slowly removed that too while keeping his red eyes on Robin-Revenant, letting it fall next to his jacket. The three Titan girls blushed as they were treated to the sight of his well-built upper body and solid muscles…but Raven gasped when the wind kicked his silky midnight ponytail to the side to let some moon light shine on his back. From the back of his neck down to his pant lines, his back was marked with dozens of grey scars, two stood out above the mess of scars. Both of these scars were a quarter and a half wide and ran down both his shoulder-blades and looked the angriest of all the scars on his back, ruining more of the perfect vision of pale flesh.

“I told you to stay away,” growled Sin, still not looking away from the thing.

“Robin’s one of us. We’re going to help him, even if it might mean our deaths,” stated Raven with a tone that left no further discussion.

“Your funeral,” chuckled Sin, taking on small step toward Robin-Revenant. “Just don’t get in my way or do anything to help me.”

“What? What kind of advice is that?” gawked Argent.

He slowly began to chuckle evilly and his shoulders began to shake from the force his chuckling took and his ponytail unraveled, as a lock of hair had been used to tie the long black hair, and it began to wave behind him like cape of darkness.

“Enough!” roared the Robin-Revenant as its patience had at last run out.

It dashed at the laughing vampire and lunged its claws at his chest. The vampire remained where he was and flicked his right foot up with blinding speed, catching the Revenant under its chin and sending it sailing back onto the beach.

“What trash,” chuckled Sin, widening his fanged smile. “You honestly believe you can take on a vampire? Truly pathetic. Why don’t you crawl back to the cesspool you were born, your lichen.”

The Robin-Revenant roared its anger and charged again at the vampire. Sin actually dodged its claws at a visible speed and began twirling around the Revenant as it tried again and again to land a blow on him. This continued for some time and it looked as if neither combatant’s were getting the least bit tired.

“This is taking too long!” said Raven in worry. “If we don’t do something soon, Robin will be lost in that thing.”

“Then let us start slowing it down!” declared Starfire and charged fist first as she took flight toward the thing.

Argent, still on her disk, dashed toward with her and created a baseball bat and readied it to swing.

Sin caught sight of the approaching Titans and frowned. “Idiots…but concerned idiots.”

He got the Robin-Revenant to pay attention to him as the two approached with a kick to its rear end, then disappeared from its sight just as Starfire zoomed behind him and landed a crushing blow on the things horrid face. Argent zoomed around and batted the other side of its head, hoping their blows would stun the thing long enough for Raven to mind-dive. Much to their shock, the Robin-Revenant recovered from their strikes quickly and slashed its clawed hands at each of them in a circular spin. Before either claw hit them, Sin appeared behind it and grabbed its wrists and with amazing speed and strength spun himself and lifted the monster above his head, releasing one of its wrists and whipping it down hard on the rocky ground with such force it knocked up loose rocks and sand that washed up close to the tower. He let go of the wrist and kicked the thing in the ribs, sending it crashing into a boulder.

“Don’t let it get a hold on you or you will regret it,” warned Sin again, but grinning at the gutsy women. “Just let me take front, if he gets me it won’t matter.”

The two Titans shared a confused look with each other and stared at the vampire.

“Fine, if you wanna get messed up, that’s…Whoa!” screamed Argent when Sin grabbed her and pulled her toward him. Just in time, too, as she felt something whistle and slice into the back of her hair. She turned back to see the Robin-Revenant had gotten behind her.

“Heh, I don’t mind a little rough stuff, but you might wanna keep your head in the game or you might lose it,” snickered Sin, winking at her as she blushed and let go of her. “Keep alert; he’s getting desperate now…”

He was right. The thing was feeling its power slowly slipping and it felt the need to feed more than ever. The spirit of the hero it took over was proving too slow to digest and the blood from its last meal, while very tasty and had filled it with such strength, wasn’t lasting as long as it liked. It had to feed and its hunger was making it start to move frantically now. It just had to feed! It glared at the three fighting it and snarled its hatred toward them. Why couldn’t they just let it eat them? It couldn’t understand why they couldn’t just let it sate its need on their essence. Figuring they weren’t going to let it get its way, it started looking around and to its delight; it spotted its first meal standing just off to the side and looking right back.

It smiled at her hungrily.

Raven flinched at the thing brought its gaze on her, but she wasn’t going to let it see her fear. She had to stop it at any cost to get to Robin, but her throat had swollen up on her all of a sudden, showing she hadn’t healed as quickly as she thought, leaving her defenseless. But even a swollen throat wasn’t going to stop her. She was bound to do whatever it cost to save Robin…even if it meant…

Making up her mind, she threw her cloak off and raised her chin up, exposing her throat. With much effort as she could, she rasped, “Come…have more…I’ll let you.” It was an insane plan but she had to get close to him if she could do anything to save him.

It didn’t take the monster very long to take up on her offer. It lunged at her happily and grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the ground.

“Raven!” screamed Argent in fright.

Starfire was about to blast the thing off Raven with her eyebeams when Sin appeared in her line of sight. He dove at the two just as the monster bared its dripping fangs and lunged down to take another bite out of her delicate neck when a pale arm worked its way between it and Raven. Not caring for the sudden blockage, it bit down on the pale arm and began feasting happily. It would soon regain its strength and would finish off its annoying prey once and for all.

Had it been a more intelligent thing, it would have wondered why the vampire was suddenly chuckling evilly. He gazed down at it and then at a shocked Raven. “Nice idea, but that won’t be needed, Raven.”

He lifted the monster off her and threw it away, not seeming to care that it ripped a chuck of his arm off with it. He simply looked at his gaping wound and smirked at it as his shadow rose up behind him and a tendril slithered up and around his wound and filled what flesh was missing. He flexed his hand and smirked in satisfaction as no blood dripped from the wound. He smirked at the monster and rested his hands on his hips.

“It should be any moment now,” said Sin with a pleased look.

“Any moment for what?” wondered Argent, looking at the monster.

“That thing doesn’t realize what kind of body it just possessed,” replied Sin cryptically. “It thought itself a hunter…never realizing it had turned itself into prey the moment it entered Robin’s body.”

“I do not understand your words. What is going to happen?” asked Starfire in desperation.

“Robin was fully embraced before the link was broken…” answered Sin, grinning devilishly. “It thought it was in control the whole time, but in truth…it’s been getting devoured the moment it entered him.” He smirked down at Raven. “Your blood gave it a bit of strength…a bit more than I had imagined, which is why it’s taken this long before Robin’s natural nature takes care of the intruder.”

Raven widened her eyes in realization. “You mean…”

“Yes,” nodded Sin. “Robin’s vampiric nature is at this moment eating away at the intruder and soon Robin will wake up. We just got to keep that thing from feeding on a living source.”

“Your blood won’t make it stronger?” worried Argent, looking at the monster that was just now working itself back to its feet.

Sin chuckled more. “No! My blood is undead! If anything, it just sped up the vampiric process for Robin!”

It was at that moment that everyone saw the monster begin to whimper in agony and fall down. It curled up into a tight ball and clawed at the rocky terrain, marking it deeply with its talons. It didn’t know what was happening to it. All it knew was that it started to feel like something was ripping it into pieces from the inside. It could feel each piece of itself be drained away from it, forever lost no matter how much it fought to get it back. It needed to feed! It needed to get strength from something to fight off whatever was hurting it before it was too late…if only it understood that it was already too late…

It’s struggling soon ended as the last bit of the Revenant was slowly drained. It lied there on the rocky ground in complete silence as its body finally stilled. To the Titans relief, they saw the monstrous disfigurations return to normal, save for the pale skin and long black hair.

“That’s better,” mused Sin as he approached Robin and rolled him onto his back, softly patting his cheek. “Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead!”

To everyone’s great surprise, Robin mumbled, “…Come on Alfred, it’s Saturday…lemme sleep…”

Sin chuckled at that but before he could work on waking him up, he found a head of red hair in his vision and pushed away. “Uh…Excuse me?”

Starfire ignored him as she looked all over Robin. “Ricky! Ricky! Please wake up!”

Raven and Argent looked at each other, and said in unison, “Ricky?”

Robin finally began to wake up fully and even yawned, and then looked up at Starfire and smiled lazily. “Oh, hey Kori…man, what time is it? I feel like I’ve been sleeping for ages.”

He sat up and rubbed his face, not aware of smearing the blood dripping from his mouth all over his face, until it past his nose, causing his nostrils to flare in excitement. He pulled his hand away from his face and stare in horror at the crimson covering his hand, wondering why his senses were happy about it. At the same time his mind began to replay everything that transpired. From his fight in with Madame Rouge, to his deal with the stranger, and then the entire episode in the dark realm flash before his eyes up until Raven’s rescue, and then his mind was blank from there. He stared up at Starfire and soon let his eye wander from Argent and lastly Raven. His eye widened in fear as he easily spotted her blood-stained throat. He looked once more at his hand, then back at Raven with a look of mortification.

“…W-What did I…” mourned Robin, looking back to Starfire.

His lover averted her eyes from his, bringing more dread to him.

“Robin…you didn’t do this,” assured Raven. “It was that thing in that other realm…a Revenant.”

If Robin heard her he didn’t respond. His gaze was back on the blood on his hand. “I...I hurt one of my friends…”

Sin rolled his eyes and brushed some sand that had gotten on his pants. “Are you hard of hearing? She just said you didn’t.”

Robin shot his one eye up and glared at the vampire with boiling rage. “You…You made this happen!”

Sin blinked slowly and looked at Raven, who looked very nervous. He couldn’t blame her. How would Robin take it if he knew that one of his closest friends had almost ruined his chances of return from the dark realm he just suffered through? He’d let her tell him when she was ready…if she ever decided to. Grinning, he locked his red eyes on Robin’s single one, planning on let Robin assume what he wanted.

“So what? You’re back, aren’t you?” sneered Sin, acting uncaringly. “What else matters…Heh, so you gave a teammate a nasty hickey, it isn’t the end of the world.” He winked at Raven. “And because…she might have liked it.”

Raven widened her eyes a fraction before a wave of relief flooded her, but Robin mistook her reaction as one of pain and embarrassment, as when she sighed, it came out raspy and forced.

“You bastard!” roared Robin and dashed up off the ground and struck out with a fist at the vampire.

“Oh, great…Pffhh!” groaned Sin, as he let Robin’s fist punch him in the gut.

Robin growled and followed his punch with another in his gut, then stepped back to kick Sin’s head, but his foot was halted when a pale hand wrapped around his ankle.

“Still got energy to fight, huh?” grinned Sin, tightening his hold on Robin’s ankle. “Fine by me! Let’s see what you’ve got!” He took a step toward Robin and spun on his right heel, throwing the Titan leader off balance and twirling him around him until he let go, letting the build up momentum carry Robin off to crash roughly against another boulder on the beach, this time, breaking right through it.

“Robin!” shrieked Starfire, charging her starbolts up and snarling at the vampire. “Why did you do that to him?!”

Sin locked his crimson gaze on her and she felt her entire being lock up. “Stay out of this…and I mean it this time…” He brought up his hand just as Robin emerged from the rumble and jump kicked at him with amazing speed. Once again, he grappled Robin and slammed him down on the ground.

Starfire raised her fist up to launch her starbolt at Sin. The vampire caught the emerald glow out from the corner of his eye and side-stepped at the last moment to let it buzz harmlessly by his head. “I said...” his eyes glowed deadly red. “Stay out of this…”

Starfire couldn’t stop her body from suddenly locking up and floating away from the vampire. She landed next to Argent and couldn’t move anymore. “W-What is happening?!”

“He’s used some kind of hypnosis on you, Starfire,” rasped Raven, examining her with her powers.

“We got to stop him before he hurts Robin more!” struggled Starfire, trying to force her body to move.

“I don’t think we need to,” remarked Argent as she spotted Robin getting back up and snarling with rage at the vampire.

He dashed in low and tried to hit the vampire with an uppercut. Said vampire countered with backhand and stepped quickly to Robin’s exposed side and kneed him in the ribs. Robin flinched as he felt himself be thrown to the ground, but he tucked his body into a roll and got back onto his feet. He leapt into the air and aimed a drop-kick at the vampire’s head. Sin countered with crossing his arms over his head and blocked the kick, then gripped Robin’s leg with both hands and pulled him out of the air closer to him and elbowed him in the face. Robin crashed to the ground and groaned in pain, but tried to force it away as he rolled onto his side and kick Sin’s knee out. The kick landed and Sin dropped to his one knee, smirking down at Robin.

“Heh, very good!” complimented Sin, right before he leaned down on his hands and lifted his lower body up and spun his heel down at Robin.

The Titan Leader rolled out of the way in time to miss the strike. He took a moment to stare in shock when he saw the heel had cracked the ground, leaving a small hole under the vampire’s heel. Robin’s moment cost him as Sin pushed off the ground and brought his other heel down over Robin, which Robin barely missed as he rolled away again. Sin angled his foot and slowed it down so he could put his weight on it to stand up straight and look down at Robin with a grin, pocketing his hands in his pants. Robin didn’t know why, but he suddenly smiled up at the vampire and lunged at him again with his fist. Sin dodged it and swung his knee up at Robin’s face, who caught it with his free hand and pushed himself away from Sin. The two faced off and oddly just kept grinning at the other.

Robin wondered why he was smiling at this man. He shouldn’t be after knowing what this man put him through and then what happened to Raven…he shouldn’t be finding himself enjoying this fight.

“Come on, Robin!” urged Sin, looking at him with excited glee. “Don’t think about it! Just go with it!”

His words filled Robin is an odd kind of thrill and it made him rush once more head on toward the vampire. He ducked the punch Sin threw at him and kicked in the side. The vampire grunted and laugh at the amount of strength Robin had put in the blow.

“Good! Very good!” grinned Sin, holding his side.

His eyes lit up literally and he increased his fervor and punched rapidly at Robin, who was surprised that he didn’t care when they landed on him. He blocked as many as he could and started punching back through Sin’s, no longer caring that all the punches were getting him now. They just started bashing the other senselessly now, although Robin had a feeling that Sin was holding back, he didn’t care. He just started hitting harder to urge him to use more strength again him.

During that time, the three Titan girls were just staring in odd amazement at the way this battle was going.

“…Is it me or does it look like they’re enjoying this fight?” uttered Argent.

“A little too much,” added Starfire, feeling amazed at the new stamina her lover now possessed.

“It could just be their nature,” remarked Raven, using her powers once more to heal her swollen neck. “Maybe they just like to fight…”

They watched as Robin broke through the vampire’s attack and slugged in the face, his one eye flashing briefly with the same glow as Sin’s.

“Whatever is the reason, we must stop this!” stated Starfire, still trying to more. “It might look like a game, but it could lead to something very serious.”

Raven nodded. “Yeah, this is getting a bit out of hand.” She raised on hand. “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

The two wild combatants were grabbed by two dark claws that Raven summoned and lifted up into the air. But to their bewilderment, the two kept trying to land a blow on the other.

“Raven, let me go! I wanna keep fighting!” cried Robin with an odd excitement. “Please! Let me!”

Raven’s mouth dropped as she stared at her leader’s request. “…Robin, why?”

“I don’t know!” replied Robin, struggling against his bonds. “I just want to!”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense, Rob,” commented Argent.

“You don’t know because you don’t understand vampires, love,” said Sin, also fighting to get free. “It’s in our blood to fight, its how we’ve survived for so long. It’s so engrained in our beings that we simply must!” He flashed her a fanged smile. “Let us go…please.”

“Do not, Raven!” said Starfire. “That vampire cannot be trusted.”

Raven did not know why she did it, but she listened to the vampire and ignored her redheaded friend. She let the two go…

Sin’s eyes glowed with excitement, as did Robin’s singular eye, and they two went right back to fighting each other, ignoring the three girls completely.

“Raven! Why did you do that?” gasped Starfire.

Raven remained quiet and just watched the fight with an odd expression. To anyone, especially Argent who knew Raven better than anyone, could read her, even when she masked her face with coldness. She could make out the confusion edged around Raven’s eyes and she was shocked to see…fascination?” Yes, there was fascination shining in her cool lavender eyes, as if she was…liking the fight.

“Raven…what’s the matter?” whispered Argent, leaning in close to her empath friend so Starfire couldn’t hear.

Raven snapped out of her odd daze and gazed over Argent. “I…I think…” She stopped herself, not daring to voice what she was thinking at that moment. She looked at the two fighters with her cold mask now ruling he face. “You two need to stop this…they’ll be plenty of time for you to beat each other to a bloody plump.”

It was Sin who stopped first, grabbing Robin’s fists and twirling his arms around to pin him against his chest and trap him. “The lady’s right…I need to explain a few things before it gets late.”

Robin fought against him for a few more moments, but soon his struggling slowed as reason began to come back to him. “…I…I never felt wanting to fight so badly.”

“That’s one of the many things you will need to learn to control,” remarked Sin, letting Robin go as soon as he was sure the turned hero wasn’t gonna start fighting again.

He patted the top of Robin’s head, as though he was a child, but considering he was far taller than Robin, it looked just like that. Robin batted his hand away from his head.

“I’m not a kid…” growled Robin.

Sin grinned down at him. “You are again…as a new vampire, my fledgling, you’re considered a child in our eyes. So, yes, you are a kid.” He grabbed and pinched Robin’s cheek.

Robin growled threateningly and swung a fist at the vampire, who caught it and laughed at the frustrated newborn vampire.

“Don’t start that again…” hissed Raven, letting anger slip into her voice.

Robin gawked at his empath friend while Sin looked quite curiously at her before his grin turned to an evil smirk. He let go of Robin and bowed his head to the empath. “My apologizes…”

Raven just narrowed her eyes and marched back into the tower, but not before briefly touching Argent with a shaky hand which she held with her cloak as she passed by the silver-skinned girl. As casual as she could, Argent followed Raven back into the tower.

“Umm…could you unfreeze me?” squeaked Starfire.

Sin walked by her and tapped her forehead and she felt her body return to her control. “Sure thing, little mouse.” He continued on but turned his head to the side to address Robin. “Come along, my boy…a whole new world awaits you…” then he vanished through the tower’s front entrance.

---

Argent trailed quickly after Raven’s fleeting frame. The empath was like a ghost as she disappeared down the hallway just to reappear in her vision as soon as she rounded a corner. Soon, she caught up to Raven in her room, who was kneeling at the edge of her bed, shaking controllably.

“Oh, Rae-love…I should have gotten here sooner,” moaned Argent in sympathy as she kneeled down to Raven, stroking her silky hair.

“…Was forced…when I was bitten…it drained me,” groaned Raven, clawing at her bed-sheets. “I can’t hold it back…I can’t….”

“Shush…” whispered Argent affectionately. “I understand…I’m here now, you don’t have to hold back…let me help you.”

Raven slowly turned her head and it didn’t surprise the plasma-wielder one bit where once lavender eyes were, were now glowing orbs of red. Argent pulled Raven to her and began rubbing her body tenderly, smiling as the empath meowed at her touch and clawed at her for more, causing Argent to start moaning in pleasure. It was then, as she felt her body become aroused…when her body was heating up from the stimulation…that she felt Raven clamp her teeth on her chest…

---

A/N: Ah, there we are, Robin’s awake, Sin is recognized…and Raven…hmm, must wonder what has come over her, huh? Well, only time will tell…So please leave me a review of your thoughts and feelings, and then I’ll see to having the next post out soon. I hope you enjoyed and look forward to your replies.

Oh, and I’m looking for someone to beta for me, I don’t have enough time to go over all my work, and it leaves me burning out of energy every time I have to worry about mistakes all the time, so if anyone is interested PM me.

Another thing I wish to add is I’m looking for people who’d be interested joining my RPing site. The link is on my profiles and if anyone wishes to talk to me, I’m on there the most and is the best way really to contact me. Hope to see some of you there. Till then…