The large sliding doors whirred open and the teenage half-demon levitated towards the kitchen. The electric kettle turned itself on with a wave of her hand and her favourite herbal teas fell into her personal mug with a similar gesture. Moments later, with the tea prepared, Raven created a portal in the ceiling and proceeded to the roof.

The early-morning sea breeze hit her the moment she arrived on top of the tower. Clutching the warm mug desperately, Raven found herself wondering for the thousandth time that winter at the practicality of her skimpy uniform. Black Lycra leotards were fine for the heat of battle, she mused, but they really didn't cut it for early-morning meditation. In a hurry to get the session started, she picked a nice patch of air and sat down on it.

She watched the pale, watery glow of the winter sunrise turn brighter and brighter until he finally showed up.

"You're late", she scolded in her usual monotone. Without even looking at him, she could tell that he had that stupid grin plastered on his face: the sheepish, adorable one that she had tried so hard to hate.

"I was -"

"Don't even try that hibernation story on me." He had been using that excuse all winter and she was getting sick of it. "You're usually very good at controlling your animal instincts. You are, after all, more Boy than Beast."

His grin was twice as wide now, and three times more obnoxious. Same excuse, same comeback. In a way, this little routine was just as important as the meditation itself. The whole purpose of their sunrise sessions was to help the green teen feel happy, safe and at home. Nothing spelt home to these two like pointless banter – even if Raven would never dare to admit it.

"How are you feeling?" this was the way they always began. Lately, the response had always been the same.

"Cold." Raven rolled her eyes. She was feeling the chill too, but you didn't hear her complaining, did you?

"Wuss," she muttered, reaching for the clasp of her cloak. Usually she would tell the changeling to tough it out, but that had gotten them nowhere. Maybe it was time to change her approach.

The heavy blue cloak landed on Beast Boy with a satisfying "whump" that brought a tiny smile to Raven's lips. "Still cold?" she asked, wiping all traces of humour from her face.

"Thanks." You'd better be thankful, she grumbled internally, I'm freezing now.

The two sat in thoughtful silence for a while, watching the sun slowly light up the world. It was a while before either of them spoke again, but as the last tinges of orange started to disappear from the sky, Raven asked the question that had been on her mind all morning.

"What was your nightmare about?"

"Huh?" The empath winced at her friend's inarticulate reply and decided to repeat her question. "What was your nightmare about?"

"How did you know I had a nightmare last night?" She hated it when people answered a question with another question, but she decided that it would be easier to get answers out of Beast Boy if she didn't bite his head off. "I'm an empath, Beast Boy. You were radiating a large amount of fear and shock last night. What was your nightmare about?" Normally, what few thoughts Beast Boy had floating around his small brain didn't concern her, but the amount of emotional turmoil he was in last night was starting to worry her.

"Bacon." Raven was so confused and slightly bemused by the reply that she nearly fell out of the air. However, she quickly composed herself and returned to her dry, cynical self. "How utterly terrifying." She was an idiot to believe that this green nitwit was actually capable of deep thought.

Bacon, ha!

He didn't have any emotional turmoil that was manifesting itself in his dreams.

Bacon. Please.

You'd think after he lost that awful traitor three times, he would have a wider range of emotion.

BUT NO! BACON!

"You don't understand." Raven's hand, which had been gripping her mug far too tightly, relaxed as her friend spoke again.

"Please explain", she prompted, eager to see how bacon could possibly be scary.

"It's kind of disturbing. I was eating it -"

"Beast Boy, if this is some over-zealous vegetarian freak-out…" She was getting more annoyed by the second. She was right the first time around. There were no deep feelings involved in this dream.

"That's not the disturbing part." Receiving no objections from Raven, he continued.

"I was eating this bacon, not sure why, but every time I swallowed a rasher, a new one appeared on my plate. Then Cyborg runs in and he's all like, "C'mon y'all, we're going to the park coz it's sunny 'n' stuff!" and I'm like: "Dude, yeah!" So we go to the park and I'm still eating this never-ending bacon and Cy's all "yeah! Grass-Stain is eating meat!" and I still dunno why. Then my never-ending bacon starts talking to me.

It's like, "why are you eating me? I thought we were friends!" I'm really freaked out now, because dude, it's talking, never-ending bacon. So I start looking for you because creepy things that do stuff they're not supposed to is kinda your speciality." Raven wasn't quite sure if she was confused, intrigued or just angry at Beast Boy's total lack of grammar. This was, however, the most progress they had made since they had started their sessions, so Raven just stayed quiet and let the poorly worded story wash over her.

"I couldn't find you, though. So I asked Cy, but he had no idea. Then I asked Robin and Star and pretty much everyone else in the park including Dr Light – dunno why he was there – but none of them knew, either. Then I realised that I hadn't asked the bacon." Raven raised her eyebrows at this slightly peculiar statement but Beast Boy continued regardless. "I asked the bacon and it was like, "I'm right here." I asked it what the heck it meant and it said…"

"What?" Raven asked after he stopped. He let out a gross, snorting noise which she was about to rebuke him for, when she noticed the tears and the words froze inside her mouth. She was suddenly very uneasy. This was major progress, but it was also her best friend in tears. "Beast Boy? Are you… are you OK?" In an awkward attempt to comfort him, she put an arm on his shoulder and gently patted it.

"The bacon said… "It's me. Raven."

He was really crying now. Raven felt like she needed to do something to fix this, but she was also overwhelmed by his dream. It was disturbing, creepy and downright

"Weird".

Internally, Raven's affectionate persona was strangling her crude one. Her best friend was sitting next to her crying over an emotionally scarring nightmare and the best she could say was weird! Pathetic.

"I'm sorry. I meant -"

"It's Ok, I get it." Raven was pleased to see Beast Boy regaining some composure, but she was sure that his heart wasn't in the small smile his lips were forming.

"Have you had this nightmare before?" Raven was back in interrogation mode, trying her hardest to avoid any more tears.

"No. But, I have had dreams that were kinda like this one. There's one where I kill this bad guy, but it turns out to be Star and there's another where I accidentally drown Cy and… and there's so many where I accidentally kill you." Raven's interrogation mode had clearly failed because he was crying again. She had no idea what to do or say to make him feel better.

"Please stop crying." She mentally cheered as Beast Boy did stop crying, but her heart plummeted as she realised he was waiting for her to explain.

"They're just silly nightmares. Nothing serious." As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew it would confuse him. When they had first begun their sunrise meditation sessions, Raven had explained that nightmares told a lot about a person's fears, desires, insecurities and current mood. They had even helped her predict Trigon's takeover.

But the truth was, Raven was playing down the significance of Beast Boy's nightmares because she feared for him. The nightmare that he described seemed to indicate…

Well, that was the problem. She had no idea what his nightmare meant. The only thing she had gathered from it was that he had some sort of fear of killing his friends. She really didn't know where this had come from or why. As an empath, she firmly believed that there were deep emotional roots to this creepy dream; she just didn't know what they were. This was what scared her the most. She had experienced the darker side of her friends powers and knew first hand that it was imperative that he understood and controlled his emotions.

She looked across at Beast Boy, who was sitting to her right and slightly below her, and their eyes met. In an instant, Raven knew that he knew she thought there was something more important to this dream than she was letting on. But she kept quiet. She wasn't good at being afraid. She needed time to analyse his dream, find out what it meant and why they were so frequent and numerous. The two stood up to return to the lower levels of the tower.

A familiar grin began to spread itself across Beast Boy's face and Raven marvelled at how quickly something that had for years seemed so genuine could turn to an emotionless default setting.

"I'm finally taller than you." She was baffled for a second but soon realised that the changeling was correct. Raven abhorred this, because it represented change. For so long, change had represented the evils that lurked in and out of their lives, never seeming to disappear truly. Determined to beat change, she levitated until she was taller than Beast Boy again and whispered "not yet".

He laughed, surprisingly genuinely, grabbed her by the wrists and yanked her back to the surface of the roof.

"Don't cheat, Rae" he chuckled.

"Don't call me Rae." Good. Things were back to the strained, false cheer that had become the norm since Terra's final betrayal. Maybe it was wrong to love fake emotions, but they felt so much safer than the real ones that threatened Beast Boy.

As they walked back to the staircase, the traditional banter broke out in full force and Raven felt like her whole life was safe. Not necessarily happy, but safe: a rare feeling for a half-demon superhero. But her hopes were dashed as her supernatural senses kicked in. One floor beneath them, sitting on her dressing table, a crystal ball glowed and hummed with energy. A fear like no other enveloped her as she realised what was happening. Azerath was calling.

Author's Note:

Well, that concludes the first chapter of Damned, I hope you enjoyed and decide to stay for more! And yes, I am back from my odd, unannounced hiatus and hope to continue the story for a while yet. I am really excited about this fic, it's gonna be AWESOME. The later chapters do have some speculation regarding Azerath and its inhabitants as I have never read the comics (I will do SOME research, though). Also, there's an OC later on, but he's such a douche you don't have to like him. I have been gone for a while, but I'm still a very active member of the fandom.

My deviantArt: .com/ (username: fradalikeztoons)

A picture I drew of the "don't cheat, Rae" part: .com/#/d3irztf