AN: I do not own Teen Titans and REVIEWS are not to be given until the end.
Chapter 7
Raven surfaced in the common room of the Titan's Tower. She was on her knees and she could barely lift her head. Teleporting back to the tower had taken up all of her remaining strength. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it to her room before the others got back. Before they could blame her for something she must have done wrong in the process of saving them.
She slowly began to crawl and make her way to her room. Everything hurt and she could barely keep her eyes open. But she had to make it to her room. She was determined to. She dragged her legs ever so slowly across the floor; her fingers grabbing at anything that would help move her along.
The stairs leading up to the doors that led out of the common room where what she really had to struggle against. She was getting scared that the others would be home at any second, and that pushed her on. She suddenly realized that she was still bleeding and looked behind her. She was leaving a trail of blood behind her. She cursed herself for not being able to heal anymore, but continued on. The glass that was still stuck in her skin stung and sliced her further as she moved.
After what seemed an eternity she made it up the stairs and the doors slid open for her to pass through. She quickly dragged herself through and knew that the worst was over. It was only a few hundred feet to her room. Oh yeah, this was the easy part.
Luckily for Raven, the others had decided to get a bite to eat after unloading the Hive Five on the authorities. It was past dinner and they were all exhausted from their near failed mission. They would have told Raven, but by the way she had just left the scene, they decided to leave her alone. But, again, they brought her something back. Terra was in charge of it and she put it in the fridge rather than give it to her. No one seemed to notice.
"I am most tired," said Starfire. "May I go to bed?"
"You don't need permission, Star," said Robin.
"Then I am going to bed," yawned the Tamaranean and with that she sluggishly flew off to her room.
"I'm with her," said Cyborg. "Man, I gotta start uppin my gym time. Mammoth was actually a challenge today!"
"The whole Hive Five was a challenge today," said Robin. "I think we need to start training more."
"Or maybe we just need Raven to kick their butts from now on," Beast Boy chuckled.
"She didn't do that much," said Terra pouting. "I mean, we get them tired and she just came in and gave one last blow. It's like, we've been working on a stuck pickle jar all day and then by the time she came in it was loosened enough for her to open it." The remaining Titans just stared at her. "Well it's true!"
"Okay, well anyway, we all definitely need to start training more," said Robin. "I'm going to go plan out some new training courses. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Yeah, g'night," said Cyborg as he and Robin left the room.
"Goodnight guys," Beast Boy called after them. "What about you? You going to bed?"
"I might as well," shrugged Terra. "That Billy Numerous guy really wore me out. Not that I couldn't have taken him out on my own without Ravens help."
"Okay, I get it," Beast Boy laughed. "I'll make sure Raven knows not to help you out in battle anymore."
"Don't worry, I'll tell her myself," said Terra. "If she thinks she can outshine me in battle she's got another thing coming."
"Uh… I don't think that's what she was trying to do," said Beast Boy.
"Well, it sure felt like it," said Terra. "She's always trying to make me feel like I'm inferior to her or something."
"Yeah, well, don't worry," said Beast Boy. "She does that to me too."
"Well someone needs to put her in her place," said Terra with a shadow of a smirk.
"Come on, she's not hurting anybody," said Beast Boy, suddenly not liking where this conversation was going or where it had already went. "Why don't you just let me talk to her? I really don't want you two to get in a fight or anything."
"So you'd rather get in a fight with her?" asked Terra. "You're so sweet!" She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "Well, goodnight." And with that she practically skipped out of the room, a smile on her face.
Beast Boy wasn't exactly ready to go to bed yet, so he decided to watch some TV. He made his way over to the couch, but suddenly stopped short. He smelt something. Something he usually only smelt in battle. Blood. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Yes, it was blood. Not only that, it was Ravens blood. He could always tell if it was one of his friends' blood when he smelt it. And this was Ravens particular scent.
He opened his eyes and began looking around. He couldn't see any immediately, but finally his eyes focused on the floor and he saw it. Blood was soaked into the dark rug. He got down on his knees and inhaled it, just to make sure this was what he had smelled. He barely got a foot closer to it and he was sure. He then saw the trail of blood that ran from where he was, through the common room, up the stairs, and through the doorway. He decided to follow the trail.
He couldn't imagine why Raven would be bleeding. Then again, he hadn't seen Ravens battle with Kid Wykked at all. In fact, he hadn't even seen her until she had screamed and called attention to herself right before she took care of the Hive Five. As he followed the trail he saw that it led right to Ravens room.
Now he stood in front of her door. The door that read her name. And below her name lay the name's blood in a small pool. He guessed she must have had some trouble getting the door open. He now had a difficult decision. Should he knock on her door to see if she was alright? Or should he leave her alone and go watch TV like he had planned? What would she want? She would probably want him to leave her alone. But what did she need?
Now there was something that had always plagued his mind. He had always heard her scream what she wanted. But he didn't want to give her what she wanted. He wanted to give her what she needed. And at this point in time, what did she need? Her blood was spilled all over the floor. He concluded that she needed to be checked on, whether she liked it or not.
He softly knocked on her door and called, "Raven, are you alright?"
He did not receive an answer.
"I saw blood all over the place and I was wondering if you were okay," he said loud enough so that his voice made it through the door.
Again, he did not get an answer.
"Could you at least say something?" he asked, growing impatient and nervous.
The silence remained.
"Come on, I just wanna know if you're okay," he said. "There's a lot of blood out here so would you please tell me that you're fine?"
An answer did not come.
"Okay, you're really starting to tick me off now," he said, growing quite upset. "Tell me that you're okay or I'm going to come in there!"
He knew that if she wasn't going to answer him, he should just leave her alone. That's what he always did. But this time… this time was different. Something was compelling him to go in there. What it was, he wasn't sure. But he had made up his mind.
"That's it!" he called, waited two more seconds, and then slid her door aside.
Raven lay on her floor, curled up and passed out. At first, Beast Boy was unable to register what he saw before him. Finally, he snapped out of it and went to her.
"Raven?" he said, getting down next to her. "Raven, wake up, you're on the floor." He gently shook her shoulder, but he couldn't get a response.
He quickly scooped her up and noticed right away how moist her body was, especially the side she had been lying on. He placed her on her bed then ran to turn her light on. When he did he couldn't believe what he saw. Where Raven was lying was a puddle of blood, and it was all over his hands.
"What do I do?" he asked himself frantically and wiping the blood off on his uniform. "I gotta get help, no, I gotta try waking her up, no, I gotta just leave her alone and let her heal herself. But why hasn't she already healed herself?"
He went back over to her and decided to check her out himself. He had basic medical training that Robin had forced them all to go through, so he would be able to take care of her. Why he wanted to take care of her on his own he wasn't sure. Perhaps it was because he knew that she wouldn't want everyone to worry about her. Again, that was what she wanted. But what did she need? She needed help right now, and he could give her that.
He saw the gash on her forehead that he had noticed earlier. And it looked as painful as it did that morning. Why hadn't she healed it? He also noticed that her lip looked to be healing after being split. She was also looking a little paler. In all truth, he probably hadn't even made eye contact with her in a week or two.
He gently grabbed her blood soaked cloak and removed it so that it could no longer cover her. He couldn't believe what he saw. Every bit of her, that was exposed at least, was covered with either a bruise, a scratch, a scar, or a bandage. Not to mention all of the dried blood from her most recent wound.
He then noticed something else. She was thin. Very thin. Her leotard no longer hugged her beautiful, curved body. It hung off of her now.
"What have you been doing to yourself?" he asked, shaking his head. "You've been beating yourself up and starving yourself? This doesn't make sense."
He sighed and began looking her whole body over. He saw the glass shards that still stuck in her and slowly removed each one; they ran all the way up her left side. And on her right side he was horrified to find a giant shard of glass sticking out of her; almost taking up her entire side. He was lucky it hadn't sliced his hand when he had picked her up. And he knew he couldn't pull it out of her. And the blood continued to leak out of her. The whole while he still couldn't understand why she wasn't healing herself. In their entire history of being Titans he had never seen her with a scratch or even a bruise. She just healed herself before anyone could take notice.
But now here she lay covered from head to toe in old and new wounds and bruises. He couldn't imagine how much pain she must have been in. He watched her ragged breathing and how weak it was. Then it struck him!
'Weak,' he thought to himself, having a moment of clarity. 'She has no energy. I don't know why, but she has absolutely none. How could I be so stupid? This morning when I asked her why she hadn't healed this gash on her head she said she didn't have enough strength. That's why she can't heal herself. She's not strong enough.'
Then another thought struck him.
'So does that mean I have to… kiss her? No! No, no, I should get her to the med bay and let her strengthen up there. But… then again, these scratches are old and she should have been able to heal them by now. She needs an energy boost. But does it have to be me? I mean, I'm sure I can wake Cy or Robin up and they'll do it. But then they'd think I'm a wuss or something because I can't press my lips against Ravens.
'And what about Terra? Well, it's not like I'm going to be cheating on her. It's not even going to be a kiss. I'm just going to put my lips on Ravens and give her some of my strength. So does that mean I'm gonna be all weak too? Dude, that'll suck. But, I guess Raven deserves it after she saved our butts today. Okay, I've made up my mind, I'm gonna do it.'
His heart was racing as he focused on her paler than normal face, her ashen lips. He really didn't want to do this, but she needed this. He knew she wouldn't want it either, but, again, it was what she needed. He took in a big breath, closed his eyes, and leaned down to meet her lips with his own. And just as they were about to touch, he felt something grab his arm.
