A loud howl shattered the silence that Raven was meditating in. She angrily opened her eyes and floated down towards the ground before rushing to her door and yanking it open to reveal a terrified Beast Boy. He screeched again as the door flew open and he saw a fuming Raven.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry!" he yelped covering his face with his arms.

She glared angrily at him and stepped menacingly forward. He whimpered and tried to cower closer to the ground. She fought hard to repress a snicker at his antics and took another step forward. He looked up at her and she could see the fear and horror in his eyes, she gasped as a heap of emotions flooded her. Guilt, sorrow and fear at what she had become. How could her teammates be so scared of her? She heard a slight sound coming from Beast Boy, he was mumbling something. She stepped closer to hear what it was.

"Please don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me!" He was mumbling consecutively.

She sighed and opened her mouth to reassure him. But something else came out instead.

"You better be!" she said maliciously.

He shook his head non-stop and slowly backed away. She let him go, something in his eyes portrayed true fear, something she had not often associated with Beast Boy. Plus there was the fact that she didn't seem to be able to control her own mouth. She sighed again as she returned to her room and thought about when the whole 'teammates being afraid of her' thing had started.

FLASH BACK

It was raining, hard. The silvery drops of water almost blinded Raven as she struggled to pinpoint her enemy. She heard sounds of fighting, growls and a sharp crack as something came into contact with Robin's fist. They were fighting Slade again, but this time he had help; the HIVE members. Robin was preoccupied with Slade, Beast Boy was dealing with the tech-no whiz Gizmo, Cyborg and Starfire where dealing with Mammoth and Raven had been left with Jinx. Unfortunately, Raven had no idea where her quarry was. Jinx had simply vanished into the rain. She sighed and decided that she would see if Robin needed help with Slade. They were fairly easy to locate since they were both hurling insults at each other. She ran over to where they were fighting, just in time to see Slade get Robin with a massive punch to the skull that sent him flying backwards to crash into a wall. Raven watched in horror as his body slid down the wall, blooding pooling around his head. She quickly turned around and dodged a kick to her head, courtesy of Slade. As they circled each other Slade began to taunt her.

"Afraid for Bird-Boy?"

She emitted a low growl and did not answer him.

He chuckled coldly "Yes, I thought so"

She simply continued to circle him, waiting for an opening.

"Ahh, young love" he said, trying to provoke her.

She did not accept the bait, at least not outwardly. Outwardly he face remained devoid of emotion but inwardly her emotions screamed at her, and wanted to rip Slade to shreds. She spotted an opening and lunged only to find Slade's arm in the way. He blocked her and swept his foot around, hitting her in the back of the knees. He knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

"You never were good at hand-to-hand" he taunted "Why don't you use your powers?" Slade knew exactly why she couldn't use her powers; after all, he had caused it. Her emotions were straining against her barriers because of his taunts and the sight of Robin's body crashing into the wall. If she used her powers her emotions would brake free and she would cause havoc, probably destroying the entire city if she wasn't stopped. But that's what Slade wanted. For the past few weeks Slade had been slowly causing Raven's rage and anger to rise to the surface. Little barbs here and there, Interruptions, (In the form of bank robberies and other such trivialities) in her mediation. He was wearing Raven down so that Rage could take over and it was working. He chuckled too himself as Raven leapt up and glared at him. She was so close, so close to losing control. If she did he knew that it would kill him, but he didn't care. His goal was to destroy the city. He was truly a madman.

"Where are your precious friends?" he asked her "Abandoned you have they?"

"Fighting you lackeys" she spat

"Ooooh, feisty" chuckled Slade "Have I hit a nerve?"

She glared at him as he continued "Hmmm, it must be a sore topic for you. I mean, how many friends do you really have?" He laughed crazily "I'd say the answer to that is none"

Raven couldn't keep back the retort that rage had prepared "I have friends!" she yelled at him "Which is more then I can say for you!"

He chuckled mirthlessly "Yes, friends. Friends who use you. Friends who are only your friends so that you don't destroy them."

"Enough!" yelled Raven "This ends NOW!" her hands glowed pitch black with a rim of white. Slowly the blackness grew till it enveloped her entire body. Raven was gone leaving rage in her place. The black glowing figure levitated high in the air her black energy crackling as it danced around her. Slade looked up at her and the last thing he saw before he was ripped apart was a pair of fuming bright red eyes.

END FLASHBACK

She had almost ripped the entire city and its occupants apart. She had seen the entire city gazing up at her with fear, hatred, anger and shock. The only thing that had stopped her had been Robin's voice yelling over the chaos. He had brought her back to her senses; it was his voice that had pushed Rage away and brought Raven back. The black energy had disappeared and Raven had fainted, falling to the ground. She hit the ground with a thud and lay there. The Titans were too horrified to get any closer to her. After about an hour she had moaned and begun to wake up. As her eyesight returned she had seen the Titans standing approximately ten meters away from her. As she sat up she had been flooded with memories of the fight. Raven remembered gasping in horror, looking at the Titans fearful faces and teleporting back to her room in the tower. Things had never been the same after that. She had more trouble controlling her emotions, particularly rage and anger. They escaped from time to time and she had shouted and yelled her teammates. As a result the room was silent when she entered, tofu/meat fights stopped when she walked past them, anywhere she went was deadly silent. When she made an effort to talk to someone they nodded politely and spoke only when she asked questions while trying to find an escape. She sighed again and flopped down on her bed. She lay there until she heard a light knocking at her door. She was curious as to whom it was; no-one knocked on her door anymore. She got up and walked towards the door; she opened it and came face-to-face with Aqualad. He smiled brightly at her as he said hello.

"Hi" said Raven carefully "Uh, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Saying hello" he said cheerfully

"Umm, okay" she said, slightly confused. Surely he knew that she was dangerous. "Well, uhh, bye" she said attempting to close the door. She didn't get far though as Aqualad decided to stick his foot through the door.

"Raven" he said softly "I'm not scared of you"

That simple statement stopped Raven in her tracks. She laughed sadly "How come?" she asked, confused "I nearly rip up the city and you tell me that you aren't afraid of me?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" he asked gently "You would never hurt any of us"

"I almost killed you all!" she yelled at him "You, the Titans, the entire city for Pete's sake!"

He shook his head "That wasn't you" he stated simply

"Yes it was" she said sadly "It was a part of me. A part that is constantly screaming to be let out." She sighed "And sometimes it succeeds" she whispered.

"No-one faults you" he said firmly "We all know that with…."

"Have you seen their faces?" she interrupted furiously "The way they look at me? Just this morning Beast Boy disturbed my meditation, he was cowering on the floor! Every room I enter is dead silent! No-one talks to me unless I talk to them!" she raved, on the verge of tears "I could shatter all the windows in the tower and no-one would blame me! You are the first person who has even looked at me before I talked to you!" tears were rolling down her face now "I can't stand it!" she yelled "They look at me as if I'm the plague, and they're right!"

"No" said Aqualad fiercely "They're wrong. You would never try to hurt us; you just need to regain control over your emotions. I can help you!"

"How?" she asked "How can you help me?"

"I'll come over every day and help relieve your stress. You can talk to me, get angry at me, and yell at me, whatever. If it helps I'll do it!" he said desperately

Her eyes softened "Why?" she asked "Why would you do this for me?"

"Because" he looked into her lavender eyes "You're my friend and I love you"

She looked at him with tears of gratitude shimmering in her eyes and hugged him. As they stood there, in her doorway she buried her head in his chest as he hugged her and stroked her hair softly. After awhile she lifted her head and looked up at him.

"Thank you" she said gratefully as she gently pulled out of the hug and stepped back to let the door slide shut.

"Any time" he said softly "Anytime at all"