Disclaimer: sung badly to the tune of Jingle Bells Please don't sue. Please don't sue. Please oh please don't sue! I don't own this show at all, so please don't please don't sue! Please don't sue. Please don't sue. I don't own this show. If you sue, I have no cash, so please don't please don't sue!

A/N: … I am soooo out of it. Chapter Twenty! W00t!

Chapter Twenty

Beast Boy awoke with a start to the most horrible sound he had ever heard. Screams echoed down the hall and every single one of the heart wrenching sounds was a mix of emotions that caused the lights to flicker dangerously. Pain, fear, loss… Every emotion that could be screamed was present. Not one of the emotions in her voice sounded good. Raven was screaming with such force that Beast Boy thought the Tower would fall down before he got there.

The Tower didn't fall, though the lights began to burst, one by one, plunging the entire Tower into a horrible painful darkness. This was good for Beast Boy, his animal eyes could adjust better in solid dark than flickering light. His cheetah form took him down the hall before the other Titans realized what was going on. The closer he got to Raven, to more it seemed that the lights were still flickering, only this was a dark light. It was like lightning across the stormy night sky, if lightning was thick and black. The impossibility of it all swarmed before his eyes.

Human again, Beast Boy approached the frantic Raven carefully. She was pressed, standing, against the wall to the right of the door. He touched her gently and she flinched, but didn't stop screaming. Her eyes were locked to sight across the room that was shadowed, even by the dark flickering light. The horror of it weighed down on him without him even having to see it. Somehow, he knew what she was screaming at. He swallowed a heaviness in his throat and wrapped his arms around Raven, hugging her tightly.

"Shhh…." he whispered, stroking a hand through her hair. "It's okay. Please, calm down. Rae, it'll be okay, I swear…"

The other Titans entered, following Cyborg and his light equipped shoulder.

"What's going on?" Robin demanded, but no one listened. Raven was still screaming and things were still shaking, still flickering, still shattering. When Cyborg's light entered the room, Beast Boy realized that the flickering was not a dark light. Instead, it had been a substance even darker filling the room that made ordinary dark seem to illuminate. This thick blackness was exposed by the light. It seemed to come from everything and nothing.

There, amongst all the darkness, was a thick dripping red. When the dark began to retreat, the source of the red could be seen. Blood was splattered in every direction on the wall opposite them. A pile of robes lay in a pool of even more blood. The robes were ripped to shreds and the person who had been wearing them was mutilated beyond all recognition. Only, the Titans knew who it was.

At first there was denial. Maybe they were just robes. Who knows? Maybe Rorek could teleport and heal. Maybe he was fine. The idea was quickly dashed. White hair was visible under the caked blood.

Raven's screams died down so suddenly that the silence seemed to scream in her place. Beast Boy shifted her to see her face. The other Titans were too stunned to notice, as obvious as it was. Raven's eyes were open, but blank, and her mouth was open just slightly with her relaxed jaw. She seemed asleep… or something similar. Beast Boy slowly rested his fingers on her eyelids, dragging them down so that they were closed.

Robin was the first to turn around. He didn't turn to Raven in horror or anger. The turn was slow and trimmed with sorrow. His eyes ran over the unconscious face of Raven before looking up at Beast Boy.

"What are we going to do with her?" He asked, seemingly to Beast Boy. They all knew better, though. His question was one for the wind. No one knew what to say, since the question was not addressed to any individual one. Beast Boy clutched the unconscious Raven to him as if to protect her from the leader and Robin shook his head. His silence spoke volumes.

She's too dangerous. How can we keep her here? She loved him, what if she did this to us? She's done this before, she'll do it again. She's not a hero… she's a murderer. What are we going to do? It was like pet dog that bit a passerby. Do you keep the dog and try to train it or ship it off to the pound? If the dog did it more than once, do you put it down? What would it take for the murders to stop, for Raven to be the Raven they thought she was?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Will she be okay?" Beast Boy asked, standing over Raven protectively. Cyborg nodded, as if he were afraid to say yes. What was okay anymore?

"It's a forced trance, that's all. Like emergency meditation. She'll come out when she's ready."

Lightly a green fingertip traced over the red gem that rested softly in Raven's forehead. He was almost expecting it to respond to his touch with a spark or a glow or something, but nothing happened. With a sigh, Beast Boy sat down in the chair that Cyborg had dragged up by the bed for him earlier.

Beast Boy knew what that meant. She had hidden in her mind. Would she ever come back out? What if she was traumatized for life and never came out? What if she was just trying to fade away in her trance? Suddenly he felt like he should save her, but how do save someone when they're only in their mind?

Go to their mind and drag them out, of course.

Raven's room was as dark as usual, but Beast Boy still shivered. The room was creepier when she wasn't in it. It seemed like the paintings on her wall would grab him. Slowly he walked over to the mirror, his arms pressing tightly against his chest as he crossed them. The mirror gleamed softly in the dark, as if by its own light. Softly he stroked the path of the brief light with his green fingers.

A blackness touched his fingers suddenly, a blackness that Beast Boy had thought was the reflection of the room. Quickly he drew away and stumbled back, but the darkness had been freed now. The inky blackness reached in wild tentacles for Beast Boy, filling the room on the way.

The wall pressed into Beast Boy's back, showing him that he had nowhere else to go. He began to cry out, but it came out as only a gasp. A darkness like no other consumed him and he was helpless to fight it. Was this truly from Raven's mind?

The blackness that surrounded him was thick and sticky like half dried blood. In fact, it was almost the same color now, now that his eyes were adjusting. Thick, black, blood. The green changeling shivered at the thought, hugging himself in an attempt to find much needed security.

"RAVEN!" He called out, but his voice seemed to be swallowed by the thick substance. He gulped. He had really gotten in over his head this time. Bravely he took a step forward and hit the sticky stuff. Quickly he backed away, trying to pry the stuff off of his face. He backed back into another wall of the stuff and he truly panicked. Not knowing what else to do, he ran. He ran through the stuff, but he still ran.

"RAVEN! RAVEN!"

After what seemed like an eternity of running and screaming, Beast Boy found he couldn't do it anymore. Endless stickiness, but no Raven. He fell to his knees and the stuff seemed to back away from him, giving him room to breathe. Slowly the darkness turned to true darkness, not just thick black blood. The walls turned solid and formed an almost red gleaming stone. The stone walls formed a long hall that seemed to be a dead end. Well, so it seemed from a distance.

Beast Boy gasped in some much needed air before looking up. Slowly he rose to is feet, cautiously glancing about. The hall in front of him seemed to be the only thing that existed in this new world in Raven's mind. So, what other choice did he have, but to follow it?

Slowly a figure appeared in the hall, a figure that was looking to the ground. It was a woman, an older woman with long black hair. He gulped as his stomach knotted. He knew who the woman was, without her looking up. Who else would it be, in Raven's mind? It was Arella, right? No. No, he was wrong. It wasn't Arella, this woman was older. And others were appearing around her. A whole multitude of peoples, as if the room had expanded to the size of a whole planet. Azarath. Hesitation halted Beast Boy's progress as he watched the people standing there, still.

"We are peaceful people, child. We do not war, only watch. This fate that you have brought us will not start us to violence. Accept you fate, child, as we have accepted ours."

The woman spoke with the same monotone that Raven used and he knew who this was. Azar, the woman who had raised Raven. He rubbed his eyes, not believing. What he saw when he was through rubbing them was horrible. He saw them all, the entire world of people, die. Just, die. He couldn't remember how. They all seemed to die at once, but all separately at the same time. It didn't really matter how each one died, all that mattered was that it did. All that mattered was the blood that seem to rush from each one of them as they died. Even if Beast Boy closed his eyes, he could still see it all happening. All of Azarath. Every single one… Everyone, but Raven… So Raven was the only survivor from Azarath? Did that mean that she… She couldn't have killed a whole planet!

Could've she?

He didn't want to believe it, he wouldn't believe it. This was her mind, so maybe it was all just a bad dream. A very bad dream… He ran, not knowing what else to do and tired of just standing. He slipped in the blood and fell, sliding to the end of the wall. He smashed into the stone roughly and stars flashed before his eyes, reminding him that he was real in here. Swallowing away the knot in his throat he stood shakily, using the wall as support. Slowly he turned down the hallway, gazing softly in wonder. There was another hall, a turn at the end of the first one. What seemed like a stone maze was not that truly, for you could not get lost if you only had one option. Carefully, still sliding with the blood, Beast Boy started down the new hall. He had to find Raven, he just had to…

"How could you be so selfish?" Came Arella's voice and suddenly the back of the woman was visible, just like the backs of all the people of Azarath had appeared. Why could he not see their faces?

"What is one life, if to save millions?"

A bright light flashed, blinding, and Beast Boy fell to the ground again. Sharp pain shot through him as all his hair was jolted from his body. With desperate gasps he watched Arella fade away, he watched her die. When he could finally breath again, which took some time, he stood.

There was another turn, another hall, and he wanted to yell 'NO MORE!', but that wouldn't get him anywhere. Who here would listen to his pleas? Slowly, carefully, painfully, he made his way down the other hall. The other hall contained Rorek, he knew it was going to. He stared at the long white hair that fell down the mage's back.

"I'm sorry Raven, I really did love you."

Softly, in that moment, the other voices returned. Love. They all said it. Arella, Azar, now Rorek. That word echoed across the room as Rorek died. Every time the word 'Love' echoed off the walls, blood oozed from Rorek's skin as if bubbling through the tissue. Slowly it seemed that Rorek's blood tore him apart from the inside, breaking through his body in thick black waves. All the while the word 'love' repeated, as if it was connected to death itself. All that loved her had died…

Beast Boy had to clutch the wall to stop himself from collapsing. He felt wave after wave of horrible sickness wash over him. He couldn't take the sight-or smell-of all this blood! Finally he sank to his knees, leaning against the wall and throwing the contents of his stomach to the dark blood stained floors.

Doors appeared at the end of this hall, dark tall doors that were heavy with metal clasps and locks. Beast Boy didn't immediately go to it. Instead he sat there, head between his knees, until most of the shaking and sickness had finished with him. He couldn't remember how long he had been inside Raven's mind anymore. He was lost in her mind and in time. Also, he found it so hard to understand. I mean, Raven's mind was creepy before, but it wasn't full of bloody deaths.

Bravely he pushed at the doors and they swung open with much difficulty. When they did swing open, though, they did it one large loud movement and slammed against the wall. The walls pulsed and glimmered with the life of the stuff that he was in before. At the wall opposite the door he saw her. Her body was limp and blood-stained, but Beast Boy was sure it wasn't her own blood. The thing held her up in the air, against the pulsing wall. As the noise echoed off the halls, Raven's eyes slowly fluttered open, cracking through a small amount of blood to do so.

"B-beast Boy…" She choked out as her eyes focused. He took a careful step forward, letting the heavy doors close the nightmare away behind him. "Raven!" He called up to her, running to the center of the room before she stopped him.

"NO! What THE HELL are YOU doing HERE? I thought you knew better than to go in my mind, but I guess I mistook you for someone with a brain!"

Beast Boy stumbled back.

"I came to get you, you won't wake up!"

"I know that DAMN WELL, Beast Boy! I WANT to be here, away from YOU!"

Beast Boy took a deep breath. He told himself it was another illusion. This Raven wasn't real, couldn't have been real. Raven would never say those things to him, right?

"Rae, I…"

"Don't. Call. Me. RAE!"

He gulped, ready to cry. He just wanted to leave this horrible place. When had Raven's mind gotten like this? Why was she trapped in this stuff? Maybe if he saved her from the stuff she could wake up! Maybe it was the stuff speaking, not her! Maybe if he saved her she'd have to thank him for it… She could take all of this back and he could make her happy.

The forbidden doorway, a towering archway made of gray stone, rose beside him. It was the portal back to the Real World, a portal out of here. He couldn't leave, not yet, even though a sudden wind was pushing him there, pushing him away. He had to save Raven! He had… to…

Beast Boy woke up, gasping, on Raven's floor, blood caked all over his body and sticking to the bottoms of his shoes. Shakily he rose, his lungs aching with the effort it took to breathe. He decided that a warm shower would really help. Sticky footsteps making horrible noises against the floor, Beast Boy walked to the bathroom slowly.

In the hospital room, Raven screamed.

((wee. Odd chapter, yes? Hope it wasn't confusing. Don't think too much about the thing inside Raven's head. It'll only hurt. nod nod))