Half A War

"Listen, B, I'm telling you, she's all right. Pass the bacon. No – the REAL bacon."

Beast Boy passed the plate gloomily, making sure he didn't touch what was on it. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg were all happily eating breakfast, but he was too worried. "She won't come out of her room."

Cyborg rolled his eye. "What else is new? Look, three weeks ago the world ended, Raven turned into a little kid and back again, and it all ended when she destroyed her own father. Maybe she's got a few things to think about. Pass the milk. No – the REAL milk."

Beast Boy pushed the jug across the table. "This is different. She's really upset. She won't say anything during combat practice, but I can tell, I –"

"Did you miss what I just said about the world ending? Trigon getting destroyed? You'd be upset too. Me, I'd just be glad it was over."

"Maybe it's not over," Beast Boy muttered. "Maybe he's coming back."

"Maybe," Robin said, helping himself to more scrambled eggs. "But we can't sit around worrying about it, Beast Boy. We have other bad guys – bad guys like Slade and Brother Blood – to prepare for."

"So why do we sit around worrying about Raven?" Beast Boy asked. "It's okay for her to stay in her room all the time, and we never do anything about it. We just wait, we figure it's none of our business –'"

Cyborg put his fork down. "What's the matter with you, man?"

"Nothing's the matter with me! I've been trying to tell you guys about this for over a week now, and nobody will listen!"

Starfire interjected, "Raven is – complicated. There are -"

"Damn it!" Beast Boy slammed his mug down on the table and everyone jumped. "We always say that! It's not right! She's our friend and we shouldn't just ignore her!" He grabbed his dishes and tossed them in the sink. "If you won't help her, I will!"

Silence followed him as she stomped out of the great room.

Robin sighed. "It's okay, Star. He's not mad at you. He's just mad in general." He looked at Cyborg, sitting at the end of the table. "He's got it bad."

Cyborg snorted. "He's going to get it worse if he tries anything with Raven."

"Please," Starfire began timidly, "Could it not be that he is right? We do leave her alone, and she does spend much time in her room."

Robin shook his head. "It's not our place to interfere, Star. And frankly -" he ran his hand through his hair. "I love Raven like a sister, but most of the time I don't even understand her problems. If she had come to me at the beginning, and told me she was half a demon, and that she was fated to destroy the world -" he shrugged and half smiled. "I probably would have thrown her in jail.

"We just have to wait. Raven's better than she was. She'll tell us when she needs help."

"Yeah," Cyborg said laconically, "Any minute now she's going to tell us she needs help getting away from Beast Boy."

TtTtTtTtTt

Beast Boy stood outside Raven's door, hearing the muffled chanting from within. He pressed one pointed ear to the door to hear better.

ego te provoco

integer vitae scelerisque purus

fiat angelorum

non sum qualis eram

"That's not English," he said to himself. "Is it a spell?" He knocked. "Raven? Raven, I saved you breakfast."

There was no answer. Just the chanting.

"Raven," Beast Boy started, "I'm worried about you." In the back of his mind he wondered, Why is it easier to talk to a closed door than Raven? "You're in your room even more often than usual. Please come out and have something to eat?"

ego te provoco

lux, capax infiniti...

"Raven? You're not leaving, are you? You told us that Azarath was destroyed. You're not going back there?"

fiat angelorum !

ego te provoco

fons et origo...

A white light began spilling out from under the door. Beast Boy didn't have to be near the door to hear a rushing noise that got louder and louder...

non sum qualis eram!

Beast Boy began frantically hitting buttons on the override panel.

NON SUM QUALIS ERAM!

The door burst open. Beast Boy, rushing in, got confused impressions of a complicated sigil on the floor, light filling the room from above and below, and Raven standing, eyes closed, in the middle of a circle of fine white sand. "Raven! Don't leave!'

Raven's eyes snapped open. Seeing him her face paled. "Get out of here!"

"No! I won't let you leave!"

"I'm not going to -"

Beast Boy jumped at her, trying to get across the circle. "I won't let you leave!"

As he crossed the line of the circle, the white light became absolute, filling all their senses. Beast Boy froze, feeling the energy of the spell rushing through him. Finally there was a huge noise, like the largest thunderclap in the universe, and they both vanished.

TtTtTtTtTtTt

"Get off me."

Beast Boy opened his eyes. He was sprawled across Raven, who was trying to shove him off and pull her cloak around her at the same time. He rolled away and got to his feet, blushing. "My bad."

Raven stood up and straightened her cloak. "One spell," she said to the universe, "My first one in weeks. That sigil took me hours, figuring out the words took me days! I'd just about gotten it right -" she glared at Beast Boy, "and here he comes..."

Beast Boy turned away, "I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to leave."

"If you'd let me finish," Raven snapped, "You would have heard me say I wasn't leaving. Not for good. There was just a place I had to go."

Beast Boy looked around. There was nothing to see, really. Just a great gray plain filled with mists. Vaguely, at the edge of his hearing, he could make out half words, occasional laughter and shouts. "Where are we?"

Raven sighed. "We're in heaven."