A knock on the door pulled Raven out of her attempt at meditation.
"Hey, Rae?"
The voice on the other side of the door startled the girl out of her levitation and she fell onto her bed. Beast Boy. "What?" Raven's voice quivered as she tried to sound like her normal, monotonous self.
"Can I come in?" His voice sounded slightly nervous. "Please?"
Raven thought for a second, then quickly wiped the stray tears from her cheeks as she said, "Sure, whatever."
The door slid open and Beast Boy stepped in. "How are you holding up?" The green changeling cautiously stepped towards Raven's bed and the door slid closed behind him.
"I gave you permission to be in here; you don't need to act like I'm about to murder you or something," Raven said, avoiding the question.
Beast Boy looked at her, then forced himself to relax, leaning against the post of Raven's four-poster bed. He noticed faint streaks of dried tears on his friend's cheeks. "You know he didn't mean it."
Raven struggled to suppress her rising grief as she raised her eyes to meet Beast Boy's. She pulled her knees to her chest in an attempt to keep her emotions under control. "He called me a monster."
Beast Boy fought the urge to hold his friend as he watched tears begin to form in her eyes. "He didn't mean it. Robin's been under a lot of pressure lately, and he wrongly took his stress out on you."
"But he's not wrong," Raven spoke softly. "If I lose full control of my powers, I will be a monster. Today, we got lucky. No one got hurt. But next time could be much worse. It's only a matter of time before the evil in me takes control, and when it does, I can't guarantee I won't hurt you." A drop of wetness on her knee brought Raven's attention to the fact that she was crying again and she looked away.
Beast Boy watched as the tears began to flow freely and Raven's shoulders began to shake. He had never seen her cry before, and his heart yearned to take away her pain. He sat on her bed and hugged her to his chest.
His touch sent Raven into a crying fit unlike any she had had before. She knew that she couldn't protect her friends, her family. She loved them - she loved him - and she knew that, in the end, she would destroy them. She clutched Beast Boy's shirt as she cried tears she could no longer fight.
She was falling into herself, into her despair, and she wasn't sure she'd make it back out. Robin's words kept echoing in her head. You need to get control of your powers, or you'll become the monster your father created you to be. There was nothing, she was nothing, nothing compared to the evil within her.
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night."
The sung words momentarily halted Raven's sobs.
"Take these broken wings and learn to fly."
She looked up at Beast Boy, tears streaming down her face.
He softly smiled down at her and brushed away her hair that was sticking to her wet cheeks. "All your life," he continued singing, "you were only waiting for this moment to arise." Beast Boy couldn't help but notice she looked beautiful with the candlelight reflecting in her watery, violet eyes.
Calm overcame Raven's body and mind. This was her favorite song. And Beast Boy was singing it to her. A faint memory of drunkenly sharing favorites flitted across her mind.
"Don't stop," Raven breathed, burying her head into Beast Boy's chest.
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night," he continued, stroking her hair. He kept singing as her hiccuping breath began to slow. "Blackbird fly, blackbird fly into the light of the dark black night."
As her body began relaxing, Raven felt her eyes begin to close. There was something about his voice singing that song that made her feel safe. In his arms, in this moment, she was home. She was loved.
Beast Boy gently laid Raven in her bed as he finished, "You were only waiting for this moment to arise." He pulled the covers over his friend and kissed her forehead. "Everything's going to be okay, my blackbird."
He stood to leave, but a weak grip on his wrist stopped him.
"Please don't leave, Gar," a half-asleep Raven begged.
Beast Boy smiled and lay down, pulling Raven to him. He knew that he would not always be able to save her, but in this moment, his love for her was enough.
