"Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . .

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . .

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . . "

Raven had finally calmed down and gotten her emotions under control by meditating, and wouldn't you know it, there was a knock at the door.

That better be Robin coming to apologize, she thought. And if it's not, they can just knock till their knuckles are bloody.

"Raven? Can I come in? Please?"

Great. It was the green guy. Better ignore him. Maybe he'll give up and go away.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . .

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . .

"Azarath Metrion-"

"C'mon, Raven, I know you're in there! I just wanna talk to ya, for cryin' out loud!"

Ack. Should've known it. Too good to be true. "Go away, Beast Boy; I don't want to talk to you."

"Raven, I have something for you."

Now this was something new.

"Nothing you could possibly have arouses my slightest interest, Beast Boy. Now go away; I won't ask you again."

Ow, he thought, never heard that from her before. She must be really ticked. He looked down at the large mailbag he had lugged to her door. No, she gets all this mail every single day and she sits in there and cries about how nobody cares about her and makes us all feel sorry for her. Well, these letters say people care about her, and the other Titans care about her, and I care about her, so I'm not gonna let her keep runnin' herself down! "I'm not gonna go away, Raven. I told you I have something for you and I do, and I'm insulted that you'd think I'd lie to you. So if you're gonna do something horrible to me like zap me to Limbo or fry my chitlins then just go ahead, but I'm not goin' anywhere!"

Raven's eyes glowed a dangerous red. She had warned him and now he deserved what he was about to get. "Azarath Metrion . . . "

She couldn't do it. Not only to Beast Boy, but to herself. She couldn't let her anger take control of her and make her into the monster she so despised.

Darn him. Darn him all to heck!

Beast Boy had his eyes scrunched up awaiting his inevitable doom when he heard the sound of Raven's door sliding open.

"What do you want?" She had opened the door only enough to show half of her face.

"Here's your mail from today," Beast Boy said, with a little more bravery and annoyance than he thought he was capable of with an angry Raven.

Raven glanced down at the mail bag, unimpressed. "So?"

"Raven, this is your fan mail. You know, like you get every single day? More than all the rest of us? Even more than Starfire? Even more than me?"

"So I get a lot of junk mail. So what? Lots of people do."

"This is not junk mail!" Beast Boy shouted, his aggravation now cancelling out any fear of Raven he may have had. "Look at this!" He began reaching into the bag and retrieving handfuls of letters, which he tossed haphazardly on the floor in front of Raven's door. "A lot of people took some time out of their day to write to you and tell you how much they love you! Don't you get it? Look at this stuff! Some of these things have got to be twenty pages long! Look at the stamps people had to buy to send it! Look!"

Raven was thoroughly puzzled now. Fortunately for Beast Boy, she still had no inkling that he had been listening in on her bout of self-pity, so all she saw was her wildest, most unpredictable teammate tossing paper all over the hallway floor and screaming about something that seemed totally out of character for him.

"Honestly, do you ever read any of this stuff? What do you do with it? I mean, what do you do with it? I didn't see any when I was . . . "

Raven's eyebrow twitched dangerously. Oops.

"You know, when Cy and I went into your room that time? You already got enough of this stuff to fill every nook and corner of your room but I didn't see a single letter. Don't you appreciate how much these people think of you? Haven't you ever written any of them back? Come on, the rest of us are just as busy as you are, but we try to answer as many of our fan letters as we can! And you get more than any of us and instead of telling your fans how much you appreciate them you sit in your room and . . . "

Raven's eyebrow suddenly twitched again.

Oops. That was close.

"Look, Raven . . . " Better to just go on and keep her engaged rather than allow her to think too much about what he had just said. " . . . I'm going now, but I'm leaving this mail. It's yours and you really should read it. But of course if you're determined not to, there isn't anything I can do about it." And with that he kept his word, turning his back and walking away from Raven, which is something he seldom, if ever, did. Sure, he'd run for his life from her a few times, but this . . . !

Raven looked after him for a few minutes, then looked down at the large and thoroughly stuffed mail bag. Swallowing her anxiety, she brought it inside, sat down on her bed, and with trembling hands ripped open one of the letters.

"Dear Raven: I am a senior at Jump City High. I'm popular, I get good grades, I'm considered beautiful, and I'm the captain of the cheerleading squad. But I just wanted to tell you that I'd trade all of this to be you for just one day. I mean, I yell 'rah rah rah' and you save lives every day! It sort of makes me ashamed . . . "

Hmmm. Interesting.

She opened another.

"Dear Ms. Raven: I don't know how many fan letters you get from ministers, but I wanted to let you know that whatever darkness is troubling you, I believe you are doing the Lord's work. I doubt if I will ever touch as many lives or inflict as much damage on the forces of darkness and evil as you already have in your young life . . . "

Woah. That was . . . unexpected.

Time for another!

"Hi miss raven! How are you? I am 5. You look so sad. I donnt want you to be sad eny more would you like to come to my hous and play with me . . . "

"Miss Raven: I am one of those ugly, dorky guys at the high school who doesn't have many friends. In fact, I doubt if I have even one. I certainly don't have any girlfriends, but when I get teased about it I sometimes tell people that I do. And . . . I just wanted you to know that if I ever could have a girlfriend I'd want her to be just like you. In fact, you're the most beautiful girl I have ever seen (I've seen your picture). You blow that pitiful Starfire girl clean out of the water! Wow! . . . "

"My Dear Young Lady: I know very little about super heroes, but as I understand it some great darkness clutches at you. I don't know if my words can be of any help to you, but many years ago when I was a young woman-and I am a very old woman now-I had a beautiful young daughter who was the light of my life. But I am sad to say that when she was about your age she died of some dreadful disease that isn't considered that dreadful any more, and it seems so pointless. But anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you are everything I could ever have hoped my dear daughter to be. Thank you for watching over us. . . . "

What was this in Raven's eye?

And so Raven continued reading, losing all track of time. When she was interrupted by another knock on the door, she noticed an hour and a half had passed.

Great. She didn't need to let Beast Boy see her in this shape, especially after reading the fan mail he had pushed her into reading.

"Raven? You in there? It's me. I came . . . I came to apologize."

It wasn't Beast Boy. It was Robin.

Raven sniffled softly and called out in a voice she hoped was loud enough for him to hear, "No, Robin. You don't have anything to apologize for. I'm the one who's apologizing to you."