Ordinarily Beast Boy would have loved an excuse to spy on Raven. He had always had the ability to do so, but professional courtesy had always prevented him. Yet now that he had been asked to do so by the team leader, he felt strangely reluctant. But after a sigh and a shrug he felt he might as well get cracking. Still, he had to be careful. Raven was his friend, and quite dedicated to the cause of goodness, but there was no telling what she would do to him if she were to actually catch him eavesdropping on her in some vulnerable bug form. No, scratch that. He did know what she would do. No wonder he'd never done this before!

Beast Boy first turned into a small house spider and slipped under Raven's door, then turned into a small and insignificant house fly. Not that she couldn't still get him in the air with her powers, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about her foot crashing on top of him. For some reason he couldn't get that image out of his mind. The first thing noticed after assuming his fly shape was that Raven was not moping about on her bed as he expected. No, she was still fuming, pacing back and forth talking to herself out loud. Gad, she was upset. I'd better be as unobtrusive as possible, or she'll send me straight to her dad's place, he thought. And with this he perched on the dark ceiling and listened intently.

"What was Robin thinking? He knows me better than anyone, and he not only volunteers me for some pointless bimbo duty that he knows I can't stand, but he does it without consulting me! My peerless leader commits me to taking a whole day out of my life and spending it having a bunch of drooling geeks kissing me all day! Great! I don't even like it when one of my friends touches me and now . . . AAARRGH!!!"

A vein popped out on her forehead as a bulb in one of her creepy lamps exploded. Beast Boy swallowed hard (well, or the insectal equivalent) at this development. Right now, escaping notice so he could leave the room alive was a high priority.

"Oh, who am I kidding? No geeks are going to be drooling all over me. They'll be all over Starfire, and not just because she's so beautiful. No one's going to pay a cent to kiss me. They're all afraid of me and I don't blame them. After all . . . I'm a demon."

Now Raven suddenly assumed her usual quiet, stoic persona and sat down on her bed. And while Beast Boy should have welcomed this development, he wasn't even thinking about it. His dipteran heart was pierced by the words the goth girl continued to enunciate.

"Did Robin actually think that anyone would pay money to kiss me? What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know what I am? Everyone else does. I'm not a person one kisses. I'm more dangerous than a thousand hydrogen bombs. I'm a menace, a time bomb waiting to go off at any moment, and apparently bird boy is the only one who doesn't realize it. Some use I'll be to the charity. I can see it now, every male this side of the Rockies lined up to kiss Starfire, and me, the epitome of darkness, sitting there like an idiot with not a single soul daring to even approach me. Thanks a lot, Robin!" And she sighed.
"But I shouldn't blame him. It's not his fault I'm what I am. If I were a normal girl...of course he could expect me to do this for him. But apparently my friends are the only people that don't realize what they're living with. A good thing, too, or they'd probably kick me out for their own safety and sanity." And she buried her face in her hands, though if she was crying she showed no signs, and Beast Boy heard no weeping.

Speaking of which, our green fellow had forgotten all about his fear of a moment before as he heard Raven berate herself in this manner. How can she possibly think all that about herself? Is that how she really feels beneath that emotionless mask while the rest of us act like a bunch of silly kids--and me most of all?

With his newfound knowledge of Raven's soul Beast Boy crawled as unobtrusively as possible (he didn't even want to fly lest his buzzing call attention to him) to that part of the ceiling near Raven's door. Then he turned again into the small spider, let himself down on a thread of silk, and crawled once more under the door back into the outside hall, where he resumed his true form.

This is awful, he thought. I've gotta talk to the others. We can't let Raven feel like this about herself.

And with fresh resolution, he returned to his friends in the main room of the Tower.