Not all tragedies happen under stormy skies, or cloudy days. Some tragedies happen on the most beautiful of evenings.
Raven Roth was standing on the edge of the rooftop of Titan Tower. She wasn't looking down, however, she wasn't seeing how far up she was, rather, she was watching the sunset, which filled with an orange light.
"I always wanted to leave with the light" she thought as she basked in the the sun's rays. She hadn't really thought this through, acting on more of a spur of the moment thing.
"I'd like to say that it's because nobody understands me, but I'd be lieing to myself. The truth is, they know me too much. They know who I really am, and I cannot accept that." she thought again, as she raised her arms and moved her center of gravity of forward.
"Goodbye cruel world? Too cliche'. I'm the cruel one here..."
With that she fell.
"Wait! Do I really want this? No, wait!" she screamed silently, too frightened to even think of using her powers.
What happened next was a blur.
A green... thing, exploded from a window behind her, and gingerly caught her as she fell, but they both hit the ground with a resounding thud, her fall cushioned by... Beast Boy?
She didn't have time to even be shocked before darkness flooded her.
LATER...
Raven woke up in a bed in the med bay, her saviour watching her. As soon as she opened her eyes, he walked up to the bed, picked her up by the scruff of her shirt and slapped her. Hard.
"Don't... don't... don't do something that idiotic ever again. Do you hear me? Never!" he nearly screamed, before dropping her and slumping into a nearby chair.
"Beast Boy... I..." she started,
"Friend Raven! It is glorious that you have not died!" came Starfire's voice from the hallway, followed by Robin and Cyborg, who both had worried looks on their faces.
"Ok, now we're going to stay here until you tell us what the hell you were thinking." Robin stated calmly, his use of foul language giving away his anxiety.
Raven sighed and began: "Fine. I was meditating on the roof when suddenly that felt sort of... pointless, because I'll never be able to control my emotions forever, and I began to get depressed and sad about it. Extremely sad and depressed, and there was a convenient ledge nearby..."
"Ok, we get the point. But why? Was this sudden?" Cyborg inquired further.
"Yes. I'm not even sure why I did it. I... I just can't explain it. I just felt like I had to jump."
"Wait a second..." Robin began, while raising his eyes in a thoughtful expression.
"Raven, you're an empath, right?" he asked.
"Robin, you've known me for how many years? Of course I'm an empath!" she said, starting to get annoyed at their badgering.
"Just bear with me. Since you're an empath, you can feel, and sometimes be influenced, by powerful emotions, suicidal emotions for example." he finished, looking directly at Raven.
"You mean..."
"What he means is that someone here is feeling suicidal. Very suicidal. Enough for you to feel and even act on their emotions." finished Cyborg.
"Exactly." said Robin, "Now I'll be checking each of your rooms, while Cyborg makes sure you guys don't leave. I'll get to the bottom of this."
LATER
A couple of hours had passed, and Robin has still not returned. The tension in the room was becoming unbearable.
Suddenly the door opened, and the Titan's leader came in, holding a noose. His face was extremely pale, as if he couldn't believe who that noose belonged to.
"Beast Boy." he whispered simply, throwing the noose at the green teenager.
"Care to explain?" he pressed, his face nearly white with shock.
Beast Boy didn't answer, rather, he turned into a fly and flew out of the med bay.
"Well... that was unexpected..." Raven said silently, but apart from her, no one spoke.
She found Beast Boy later in her room, curled up in a ball on her bed.
"Good, this saves me the trouble of looking for you." she said dryly, moving toward the bed and taking both of his hands in hers.
"Care to talk?" she asked, trying to add some sympathy in her voice.
"What's there to talk about?"
"Well, for one I'd like to thank you. You saved my life."
"Right, except that if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have jumped in the first place."
"Stop that. I also want to know why?"
"Can't a guy be depressed in peace?"
"No. You don't get to save my life and then walk away like nothing happened. I am going to get you through this, whether you like it or not."
"Whoopty doo..."
"I'll say it again: Stop that. Now can you answer my questions? Why are you depressed? You should be happy as can be."
"Right. Let's see what makes me happy. I'm an orphan, I watched my parents die, I was never good enough for my stepfather, I annoy everyone in the team, everyone I fall in love with suffers, oh yeah, and I'm GREEN!." he said, starting to get angry.
"Do you know what I was doing when I saved you?" he continued, "I was going to hang myself when I heard you falling. I was almost with my head in the noose when you jumped! I came this close to killing us both! So if you don't mind, I'm not in the mood for pep talks." With that, he ran down into the living room and plopped himself onto a couch. Robin was there, drinking a glass of water on a bar stool. Raven teleported into a corner of the room, but stayed silent.
"Beast Boy, we need to talk." the Leader began.
"Oh, not you too."
"Look: As long as you're feeling this way, you're going to affect Raven. You're jeopardizing the team. Now, what you do with your own life is your problem, but don't take a fellow titan with you. If you wanna be depressed, do it on your own time."
Beast Boy stood stock still, then smiled, reaching for his communicator.
"You're absolutely right," he began, dropping the communicator on the floor, "I think I'll go kill myself somewhere private."
The Green titan turned himself into an eagle and flew out through the front door, leaving Robin in even more shock than earlier.
"Way to go Bird Boy. Nice touch with the making him feel worse than before." Raven commented sarcastically, before following Beast Boy, leaving Robin alone in the room.
It was a while before she found him. He was walking on the abandoned boardwalk, a small gun in his hand. He had found a small secluded spot, and was beginning to raise the gun.
Thinking quickly, Raven picked up the gun with her powers and crumpled it.
"Ok, this has gone on far enough!" she began to shout as she landed next to him.
"What has?" he asked, feigning innocence.
Raven slapped him.
"This worked for me as well, and it will surely work for you. Now I want you to stop this. You're not going to kill yourself, because if you do I..."
"You'll what? Why would you care? You hate me..." he muttered, not meeting her gaze.
Raven slapped him again.
"Care to say that again?" she asked.
"Why would you..."
Slap
"Why..."
Slap
"Wh..."
Slap
"Ok, I get it! Now will you stop with the slapping?!" he yelled.
"Good, now listen to me before acting like an idiot. I do not hate you, infact I care for you. A lot. Just because we argue doesn't mean we hate each other. Married couples bicker all the time, yet they still love each other."
"I'm sorry, are you comparing our relationship to marriage?"
"I... no! Wait, yeah in way it is: I'm going to look after you, whether you like or not, just like a housewife."
"And now you're calling yourself a housewife."
"Ok stop that! What else am I supposed to tell you! Instead of beating yourself about all of the things wrong with you and your life, remember that I love you in spite of all those things!" She blurted.
"You... wait... did you just say you loved me?"
"No, of course not." she stammered,
"Yeah, you did! You love me! Someone actually loves me!" He began to shout excitedly.
Raven didn't answer. She preferred to leave this moment alone.
Maybe something Beast Boy would learn something from this.
The titan in question was hopping on benches, whooping with joy.
Maybe not.
Only time will tell.