Disclaimer: Teen Titans belongs to Glen Murakami. I disclaim them!

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Change-of-Heart2 – there is definitely going to be at least a little romance by the end of this story.
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The Mad shoe – What an interesting name! Also, thanks!
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Lain the Fluff-master – I'm don't know if it's good that your teeth have fallen out, but I'll take it as a compliment.
Weeble Wobble Chic – I'm glad you thought it was fluffy!
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Dark – Ack, now you've got me thinking about it. ((holds head))

Author's Note: Yes. The infamous mirror. Adored as a plot device by many – including me. No, I am not ashamed to admit it. It's overused, overdone, everyone's sick of it, and dammit, I am going to use it and use it proudly. Except I might hang my head in shame every now and then if you glare at me hard enough.


Closer

Chapter Seven: Mirror, Mirror

"Check her again!" Beast Boy said, tapping Cyborg's arm impatiently.

Cyborg shook Beast Boy off. "Man, I've checked her like, ten times just this afternoon. I don't know what's wrong with her, okay? The biosensors say that everything's fine."

Beast Boy was clearly attempting to keep his voice steady, but it began to rise as he said, "The biosensors are wrong. Maybe she was all fine when she woke up, but when you go to sleep and haven't woken up for over two days, I think that kind of screams not fine."

Robin put a calming hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "We're all worried too, but there's nothing we can do at this point. Maybe she just...doesn't want to wake up right now."

He frowned at Robin. "Dude. Doesn't want to wake up? Like, we all need sleep, but forty-eight hours is pushing it, even for me."

Starfire sighed, gazing at Raven's inert form. "If we could only ask her why she does not awaken! This is extremely –"

Beast Boy's eyes traveled to the dresser, upon which an elaborate hand mirror lay face down. "I think we do have a way to ask her..."

Cyborg followed his friend's gaze, and his face quickly paled. He began backing up with his hands spread in front of him, shaking his head. "You're not serious. You're not serious. No way man, NO WAY!"

Starfire was puzzled as she looked from Beast Boy to Cyborg, who was now making cross gestures with his fingers in what she had thought was a way to ward off vampires. Perhaps she had been mistaken, she thought. "Cyborg, what is the matter? Beast Boy says he has a way to communicate with Raven, and yet you are upset?"

Beast Boy gulped. "Cy, I know the mirror is freaky, but it's the only way!"

Cyborg continued backing up until his back hit the wall. "Come on, B! Don't you remember the last time? That mirror is just...no."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "What mirror? What the hell are you talking about? What's wrong with the mirror?"

Both ignored him. Instead, Beast Boy stepped toward Cyborg. "Duh, I remember. But, I mean, it wasn't all bad, right? Come on, remember the pink one?"

"Yeah, the pink one, good times. Oh, and remember the giant red guy who tried to kill us?"

"Pink what?" asked Starfire, still quite bemused.

"Here, I'm going in. You don't have to come with me, but I've gotta know what's going on!" With Robin and Starfire still looking on, bewildered, Beast Boy picked up the mirror.

Cyborg grabbed his wrist. "Hold on! If you don't come out in fifteen minutes...we'll follow and make sure everything's okay," he told Beast Boy reluctantly.

Beast Boy gave him a grateful grin. "Thanks, Cy. You're a real frie-EEEEND!" His sentence ended in a shriek as a huge black hand reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into the frame and leaving the mirror to fall onto the carpet with a loud thump.

Robin and Starfire gaped at the mirror, flabbergasted.

Cyborg smacked his forehead with a heavy sigh. "He's nuts for her."

Beast Boy stood on a huge slab of rock in the middle of space. "Aw, man..." He stared up at the red stars. "So creepy." Seeing larger rocks align themselves into a pathway, he started forward.

"Turn back!"

He nearly fell of the edge of the rock when he recognized the seemingly innocent birds that called out to him. "Augh! No!" Covering his head in case they decided to attack, he ran blindly away. He heard flapping behind him, and tiny beaks began to peck at his back. "Get away! Get away!"

Suddenly, he tripped and landed on...grass? Looking carefully up, he brightened. "Thank God – it's air freshener land! I'm safe!" He stood and brushed himself off, gazing at the pink pastures. They were, at first glace, deserted. At second glance, they were still deserted. "Uh...Raven?" Much to Beast Boy's chagrin, there was no one to be found. He searched high and low, wondering if her alternate selves were allowed to take vacations. "Happy? You here?

Spotting an arch up ahead, he ran through and found the familiar rock pathway again. A second archway some distance away brought him to Timid's world. He saw a gray figure that he took to be Timid, but as he headed toward her, enormous concrete walls shot up from the ground. "Oh, come on!"

He saw the ends of a gray cloak flit around the corner. "Raven!" He turned into an owl and attempted to soar over the maze wall, only to be foiled by painful blue sparks that forced him to drop to the ground again. Wincing, he got to his feet and, for lack of a better plan, jogged randomly through the maze, hoping to run into her by chance.

He did. Literally. "Oof!"

A hesitant hand helped him up, and then pulled away shyly. "I'm sorry...Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Why were you running away?"

Timid turned away. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to follow...I knew you would want to fight."

He gave her a bewildered look. "Why would I want to fight with you?"

She knit her brows. "Not with me...with him." Biting her lip, she looked about worriedly. "I'm late; they'll be mad at me. I'll have to show you the way...you can't stay stuck here. Just don't fight, please." With that, she sped silently through the maze. Beast Boy followed, becoming more anxious by the second.

"Um, Raven...Do you have any idea why you haven't woken up?"

She simply said, "Him." Well, he thought, that was...ominous. Reaching the end of the maze, she turned to him. Whispering, she told him, "Brave killed it beforehand. If you make too much noise, though, you'll wake it up again. Please, let's be very quiet."

He gaped at the two-faced, sword-wielding creature lying motionless on the ground. Oh, he remembered this thing. Shuddering, he was more than happy to keep quiet. The two crept around the body and continued to walk along the path. "Where's Brave?"

"She's already there." Timid seemed even more nervous than usual. She unconsciously slipped her hand into his and tightened her grip. When Beast Boy glanced down at their linked hands, she jumped and pulled away. "I'm sorry!"

"Hey, it's okay!" He took her hand again. It wasn't as if it was going to happen anytime soon with the real Raven, anyway. "Are you nervous about something? Uh – I mean, are you especially nervous about something...in particular?"

She bit her lip. "I'm afraid..."

"Of what?"

"Of that."

Spinning around, his eyes grew wide. There were all the of the differently cloaked Ravens he had been looking for - they were battling a colossal red demon with four yellow eyes who, Beast Boy thought with a sinking heart, looked all too familiar. The Ravens looked weary and several stopped to catch their breath as he watched. Nevertheless, they deftly managed to dodge the powerful gold bolts of energy that shot from the demon's eyes. Someone counted down from three, and with a sudden burst of power, all of the Ravens blasted it at the same time, and it fell back off the edge.

Beast Boy blinked. "That was quick." He gaped when he saw the dark-blue-cloaked Raven jog up to him. "Hey! Why aren't you asleep? You're not one of the...other Ravens, are you? And...from the way you're looking at me, I'm guessing Pissed-Off Raven."

She scowled at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see what was wrong! You've been asleep for two days!"

Raven seemed mildly surprised. "That long?" She looked grim and gestured at the spot that the she and the demon had just been battling. "I've been a little busy. He's been gaining strength. He took advantage of my weakness to try and take over, and it's taken all my power just to be on the defensive; I can't wake up."

"Oh...how did you get in here though? I just saw you asleep like, five minutes ago! Okay, seriously, are you the real Raven or not?"

"This is my dream self."

He curiously poked her. "But you're solid."

"I'm as real as my mind makes me." She began to look agitated. "You should get out, and soon." She turned to Timid. "I take it you didn't find Gross?"

"No," a harsh voice said. The three turned to see Brave stalking toward them, dragging an orange-clad Raven by the ear. "I found her hiding out by Sad's domain." She continued muttering indistinctly under her breath, though she punctuated each sentence with audible words that should not be repeated in polite company. Brave suddenly rounded on the other Raven, yanking on her ear so hard it made Beast Boy wince in sympathy. "Even Timid didn't run off, and she's...Timid! But you, you just..."

"Tried to save my own butt?"

"Deserted us! Running away will only delay your eventual destruction! Once he wipes us out, it'll be the end of you, too. We only have a little time to recover. He'll be back soon."

Beast Boy was looking around, slightly perplexed. "You guys just beat him!"

Another Raven walked up; she was dressed in yellow. "Of course we didn't beat him; we just knocked him off a cliff."

He laughed. "Unless he can fly, that usually means he's beaten."

The yellow Raven pushed her glasses up. "Not in this place. What goes down, must come up. Or down again. Or from the side. Wherever. At any rate, he'll be back shortly, and we still have no way to defeat him."

He was thoroughly confused now. "Why don't you guys just join together like you did last time?"

The normal Raven answered him. "He's much stronger this time...and I'm weaker. Overload's attack sapped my strength – and this isn't even my actual body. Not only will it be harder to join all of my selves, I won't be as powerful. I don't know if I can afford to do it. It's all I can do to be on the defense! I haven't wanted to risk it yet. But...it looks like it's going to be my only choice."

He poked her again. "Why shouldn't your dream self be just as good?"

She sighed. Resting her hand on his shoulder, he started as the arm become incorporeal and passed right through his arm. "I said I'm as real as my mind allows me to be, but it's still not as real as my physical body. I don't think I can win this one. Now...you have to go."

Beast Boy looked away. This was a nightmare. He'd thought he'd come in, kindly ask Happy or another nice emotion why they weren't awake yet, and get Raven to wake up. Instead, she was acting as if she was about to die.

He froze. If there wasn't enough of her to beat that demon..."What if I helped?"

She shook her head immediately. "He's too-"

"Powerful, yeah. Been there, done that. There's no animal big or strong enough to beat that guy. But what if you did that merging thing, and I went in, too? There's noreal you here, but I'm real!"

Raven seemed to process this, and then shook her head again resolutely. "There's no way that's happening, Beast Boy. It's insane. Our beings could permanently combine, or yours could be completely destroyed. There's no way to tell what could happen."

"It might work."

"It might not. No. I'm not risking your life."

At that moment, there was a roar. "Hatred shall rule!" All the Ravens spun. The massive demon dropped from the sky and landed with a crash, making the ground beneath their feet shudder. It towered to its full height.

Raven turned quickly to Beast Boy and hissed, "Get out, now. I'm going to unite my selves. That should give you enough time to get to the exit. If anything goes wrong and somehow he takes over – don't hesitate to do whatever's necessary to get rid of me. Now, go!" She shoved him with her powers toward the swirling portal from her mind.

Returning to the battle, she ordered the other Ravens to retreat from the demon. Backing away, she swiftly summoned them around her. They spun around in a colorful cyclone.

Beast Boy watched this with worry; the only thing he was sure of was that he was not leaving. He suddenly sprinted toward the twister of emotions. A voice shouted, "BB! What's going on?" He twisted around to see Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin running forward. He looked back and forth between Raven and his other teammates, then dove into the spinning circle.

"What did he just do?" yelled Robin. Cyborg ignored him. He ran and jumped in after Beast Boy, hoping to pull him out, and Robin and Starfire did the same.

Raven screamed, "No!" but it was too late to do anything. The ring continued to spin, creating a blur of white, blue, green, red and purple. In the end, the blur came into focus, revealing a white cloaked Raven that was twice the size of Trigon. She didn't hesitate. "Azerath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Black energy that seemed somehow to shimmer with color spilled from her eyes, mouth and hands. Trigon screamed in agony, and a white, purifying light consumed him. It faded to expose a small, red-cloaked girl. She pushed her hood back angrily. Instead of four red eyes, she had two deep purple ones. Raven absorbed her, red sparks flying as she did. Then she was engulfed in white light again, and collapsed.

Raven slowly opened her eyes. Her entire body ached. She was lying on hard ground, and had no idea why. Sitting up, she looked in wonder at the white cloak she wore. A quick glance at her surroundings told her that she was still in her mind. How did she get here? She felt so tired – Trigon. He'd nearly gotten loose because she'd been so weak. Then Beast Boy –

Beast Boy! She shot to her feet, wobbling slightly. Her friends had fused with her as one. Her breathing quickened. What had happened to them?

"Beast Boy! Cyborg, Starfire! Robin!" Her voice wavered. "Where are you?"

Her echoes were her only reply.

Final Author's Note: Was that appropriately cliffy? Feel free to leave constructive criticism and any of your thoughts about this chapter.