Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my eternal soul... um, or not. Which is to say, I don't own Teen Titans or Spider-Man, which I mention.
Review Replies: Yayfuls! Change-of-Heart2, I'm gonna take a leap and guess those 'wows' were good. Lain the Fluff-Master, the air-freshener land thing was a nod to what Beast Boy first said when they got to Happy-Land in the episode 'Nevermore'. "Is this where air fresheners come from?" I loved that! AcidFox, I'm flattered you think they aren't out of character. SxStrngSamurai13, thanks!! Chamzi, I'm glad you caught the fact that Raven was pure! I kinda made it obvious, but usually I would take a while to catch on... DarkBird2, just, wow... I'm your favorite author? I could die happy right now... N.C. PsyChick, I really liked how you put that review, lol! RavenForever, I don't mind pushy, it makes me happy! At least in this case. The Mad shoe, updating right now! Or, well, obviously... just, never mind. Thorn on a Rose, yay, and thank you! Darkfire, love the chocolate! AnimeFreakazoidX, not to give anything away, but... let's just say you probably won't be disappointed. Kestra, thanks! Btw, the 'one-man SWAT team' comment came from Lain the Fluff-Master, I can't take the credit (as much as I would like to...). Jimaine, oh no! I didn't really think about Cyborg, and now I am, and I'm going to be all worried I will stink at writing him from now on... argh. But thanks! Macabeak: CLEAR! Macabeak's revived! Shadow 929, welcome to my story, I'm glad you like it! Anyway, thanks everyone!
Author's Note: I'm SO SORRY I took so long; it's been like, over two weeks now! God, my civics project has been giving me stomachaches all last week, and I had to work on it like, every day and I stayed up until 3 am on Sunday still! I suck so much... anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, because it took long enough to get up, didn't it? Lol.
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Chapter Eight: Purple Strawberries
He felt numb. He really should open his eyes. But when he tried, they felt so heavy... he left them closed. Just five more minutes... The grass was so comfortable!
Wait...the grass?
His eyes reluctantly fluttered open. His head was tilted to the side, and there was someone in his peripheral vision wearing a light purple cloak and staring dreamily at the clouds. He tried to move his head to see better, and then involuntarily let out a groan. His head felt heavy, as if it didn't belong to him. The figure's head whipped around and then whoever it was stood up and jogged over to his side.
"Beast Boy?" He realized he had closed his eyes again, and he didn't bother to open them. He heard the footsteps quicken more as they approached, and someone kneeling in the grass beside him. A knuckle rapped at his forehead. "Beast Boy!"
He muttered an incoherent, "blurgh."
"I'll give you a kiss if you wake up. Or give you a kiss if you don't, if you prefer threats."
His eyes shot open. "Huh?" He found himself staring into the worried purple gaze of what was obviously one of Raven's emotions. Her expression turned into one of relief, and she began to giggle at his sudden reaction. Moaning, he pulled himself up. He felt as if he should be much lighter, or at least sharing this huge burden of a body with someone else. Looking at her laughing face, he asked, "Are you Happy in disguise or something? Because last time I saw her, she was pink."
She bit her lip to keep from giggling harder. "No, I'm not Happy! Silly."
"Yeah, that's me. Silly, because you seem to be happy, so I assumed you were, well, Happy. Obviously that idea is silly," he said sarcastically.
"Well of course I'm happy! You're not dead! But I'm not her, I'm- omigosh!"
He had collapsed back on the ground. He looked back at her and lifted an eyebrow. "You're 'omigosh'?"
"No, but you're hurt!"
"Naw, I'm just tired..." She ignored any of his protests and hastily hoisted him up, letting him lean heavily on her shoulder as they began to walk. "What are you doing? I'm too heavy for you-"
"Shush, I'm taking you to the tree." She smiled up at him. "It's a very good tree, great for resting under. Lazy even visits sometimes just to sleep under it. I don't see why she can't just keep to her own domain, it's not like she doesn't have enough resting trees of her own! But she's like, my sister, part of Raven just like me, so I love her all the same... I just wish..." She kept on chattering as she continued to totter under Beast Boy's weight, which though not considerable, was significantly more than hers. "Ugh, I thought you were supposed to be small!"
He didn't get a chance to answer as she unceremoniously dumped him in the shade of a large, twisting tree. "Ow!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She quickly knelt down and touched his shoulder nervously. "Are you okay?"
He glanced up at her, slightly surprised at her concern. "Fine..." He wasn't used to Raven acting like this. Then again, this was a pure emotion that didn't need to hide how she felt. Which reminded him- "Uh, what am I doing here again? In Raven's mind, I mean. I remember going in... and then running, and seeing Timid... it's kind of a blur from there. Do you know?"
Her eyebrows knitted together as she frowned. "You don't remember? With Trigon! We all joined, and then you jumped into the circle." She took his hand and looked into his eyes earnestly. "I was SO worried! And then the others came and jumped in after you, and could have just cried, I thought you were all going to die, or be obliterated completely when our souls joined! I love you guys too much to see you get hurt." She enveloped him in an affectionate embrace, making him stiffen. He carefully returned the hug, slightly nervous. She pulled away and fixed her eyes on his. "I'm so glad you're okay... do you remember any of it now, by the way?"
He blinked and thought hard. He could remember now, and recalled the feeling of being spun at top speed, and then as if he were floating, and had no body at all... "Yeah, I do. Heh, no wonder I feel so wiped out."
She felt his forehead as if for a temperature. "You must be getting used to having your own body again. I mean, you and I, not to mention Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire, were all sharing one body."
He jerked. "What happened to them?" He looked around wildly as if they would come falling out of the sky at any moment.
She tilted her head in thought. "Since you're fine, I'm sure they are too! I'm so happy! I don't know WHAT I would do if... oh my gosh, I can't even talk about it. But you're here, so they must be okay. And well, I wouldn't be here if the real Raven wasn't okay, so obviously... Anyway, I was so worried about you guys..."
"Well, it's a good thing you found me then, huh?" He gave her a grin. It quickly faded uneasily as she let her face get very close to his, once again locking gazes with him.
"You have no idea..." Her voice sounded almost seductive. It couldn't be though, he thought wildly. This was Raven, for crying out loud!
"What are you doing?"
She blinked, and the seductive look on her face turned to one of motherly care. "You're right, you need rest! Now lay down," she leaned him against the tree, "and sleep a little. Hopefully your strength will be back in no time." Obeying like a small child, he closed his eyes, only to have them shoot open again as he felt her snuggle against him. Beast Boy gave her a strange look, but it changed to one of contentment as he rested his head against the trunk of the tree, thinking how odd it was that this warm cuddling felt perfectly natural.
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Beast Boy woke up with considerably less effort than it had taken the first time. He immediately missed the warmth at his side, and twisted his head round to see if he could spot Raven. It occurred to him to wonder which emotion she was. She was very worried about his well-being... maybe she was Worry? But she was way too upbeat for most of the time... Before he could contemplate it further, he noticed two purple shoes dangling in front of him. His eyes lifted above the shoes, up two graceful legs to a tree branch, the purple Raven sitting atop of it. She was straddling the large branch above his head, methodically munching down a handful of oddly colored strawberries. He shifted a little, and she glanced down at him. "Hey, Beast Boy. Nice to see you awake! Do you want a strawberry?" He nodded, and she tossed one down.
Beast Boy looked at the lavender strawberry and suddenly realized he didn't know what might happen if he ate it. Rolling it around in his hand, he took a chance to take in the view around him. It was oddly similar to Happy's, but the landscape was violet instead of pink. Plucking a flower, purple right down to the leaves and stem, from the ground, he inspected it, and gave it a quick sniff. It smelled like perfume. He grinned a little and pocketed it, wondering if it would last outside of this place once he arrived back at the Tower.
Glancing up at Raven, he noticed she was once more gazing dreamily up at the few clouds overhead. Following her gaze, he started as he realized the cloud was shaped like Cyborg. "What the-? Is that -Cyborg-?"
She looked down at him and back at the cloud and giggled. "Yup."
He blinked. "Okay..." She didn't offer an explanation. He frowned as he looked up at the sky again. It was a light, light lilac color. Another cloud came along, even lighter colored than the sky. It was in the shape of a woman's face. "Who's that?"
Raven's face took on a loving look, tinged with sadness. "That's Mother."
Once again, he blinked. Her mother! He realized guiltily that it hadn't really occurred to him before that she had parents. Sure, there was that demon... Tito? Tripod? Oh yeah- Trigon. It hadn't really hit him that she was actually related to her though... Raven did have a dark side, but she was no evil demon dude. This woman in the cloud though, looked just like her. She seemed a bit thinner and older of course, but other than that the similarities were striking. He couldn't tell what her hair or eye color was, but he could imagine deep purple in place of the light lavender there now. "How come the clouds are shaped like people?" Even as he asked this, he saw two clouds- one Robin and another a Starfire look-alike- drift by.
"Oh, they're all the people I care about!" She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She giggled again. "Duh, what did you think; people I was planning to kill?"
He started to laugh, and then stopped. He asked nervously, "There aren't any clouds around here that stand for that, right?"
"Beast Boy, no!"
He grinned. "Speaking of, where am I? In the clouds, I mean," he added when she jokingly pointed to where he was sitting. He said it teasingly, but had to admit he was seriously wondering. He tried to ignore the slight uneasiness that maybe he wasn't there. Raven had been nicer to him lately, right? It wasn't like she didn't like him... didn't she say he was one of her best friends? His fears were swept away with her nonchalant answer.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll show up sooner or later. I'm surprised it hasn't yet; your face usually shows up quite often." Beast Boy tried to hide his pleased grin.
"Maybe they don't think they can compete with the real Beast Boy!" As if on cue, one more cloud wafted lazily over a small hill into view.
"Hey, there you are!"
He stared intently and seriously at his cloud double. Finally: "I look better in green."
She laughed out loud, "No, no! Purple suits you!"
He popped up on his feet immediately. "You want to say that to my face?"
She swung a leg over the branch so she was sitting with her back facing him, and then deliberately dropped backwards. He jumped back a little and her hood bopped him on the nose as it swung back off her head. She was now hanging by her knees and looking him straight in the eyes, although upside down. "Once again: Purple suits you." She smirked at him. Then her eyes traveled downward to his hands. "You didn't eat the strawberry!"
He blinked and looked down at the forgotten strawberry clutched loosely in his gloved hand. "Oh, yeah. Not sure if I wanted to eat it, evil plots against my life and all. You never know if it might have poison, or worse, meat!"
"Oh, come on! It's perfectly fine; I ate it!" She pointed to her juice- stained lips. "Do you want a taste?" It took him a moment to get it, and then his jaw dropped as he gaped at her. Once again, who –was- this?
For a second he thought of the commercials for Spider-Man; due to the constant disagreement with the team on what movies to watch, he'd never gotten to see it, but on ads there had been a kiss between an upside down Spider-Man and some girl... The present situation strongly reminded him of it.
"Uh..."
"WHAT is going on?"
Both turned to see a livid Raven. To Beast Boy's confusion, she was dressed in the familiar white he had seen her in the last time he'd been in her mind. "I've been looking all over for you! What are you two doing?"
"Just talking," said purple Raven, in a voice that implied otherwise. Before poor Beast Boy could even say anything, the other Raven was dragging him away and purple Raven, still dangling upside down, was waving enthusiastically. "Bye Beast Boy! Bye Raven!"
Raven lifted her hand in a brief wave, Beast Boy looked back and grinned. "Hey, thanks! I'll see ya!"
Once again, Raven yanked at him. "No, you will -not- be seeing her, because you will not be in my mind again after this! What were you thinking, 'oh, maybe Raven won't care if I go into her mind, -again-, and nearly get myself KILLED and then don't bother to come look for her to let her know that I'm ALIVE because it's FUN to worry her to death that all her friends are dead!'?"
He tried to lighten the mood. "Aw, Raven, I didn't know you cared!"
It didn't work.
"Beast Boy, don't joke! None of you bother to let me know that your very souls weren't hurled into oblivion or your bodies reduced to ashes or, or something, and instead Robin decides it would be more fun to spar with Brave, Starfire skips around with Happy, and Cyborg has some kind of debate with Knowledge about- machinery, or perpetual motion, or whatever, it doesn't matter, and you think it would be fitting to eat strawberries with Affe- um, with her, because who cares about Raven, let her search for hours for you guys, because really, it won't bother her much that her friends could be dead, or worse!" After this uncharacteristic display of emotion, she flung her hands in the air in aggravation and let out a frustrated, "ugh!"
Beast Boy hung his head guiltily. "I'm... sorry. I should have come looking for you as soon as I felt better."
She stared straight ahead and said shortly, "I found the others. They're waiting at the portal now. Then you can go."
There was a long, uncomfortable silence as they walked through an archway into another realm, this one distinctly yellow and filled with bookcases. Books with yellow binding lined the seemingly endless shelves. Beast Boy hardly saw them.
"Um... so what happened?"
She gave him a look cold enough to start a whole new ice age. "You mean after you risked your life, even though I expressly told you not to?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Well, since the others apparently jumped in after you, our combined powers were enough for me to effectively annihilate him by accident. I wouldn't have because as much as I hate to admit it, he was a part of me, and I had no idea what would happen if that part of me was destroyed." She shrugged. "It could have been suicide, or I could have been destroying my abilities. After all, I did get my powers from my father."
He tilted his head at her questioningly. "But that's not what happened."
"No." She gestured down at her outfit. "This did. Rage isn't...tainted by Trigon now. I'm pure, you might say."
"What does that mean? I mean, I know he's not there anymore, but now..."
She smiled wryly. "I still have to control my feelings, if that's what you were thinking of. But not as much anymore. I'll be able to...explore my emotions more now. I don't have to worry regarding the possibility of my bringing about the next apocalypse at least."
Beast Boy laughed a little, relieved at least that she wasn't yelling at him anymore, and not able to absorb this; Raven would be more expressive? He tried for a moment to imagine what it would be like, and came up with an image of lots of Ravens with different colored cloaks running around the Tower.
Weird.
A book fell and nearly plummeted painfully onto their heads, but Raven reacted quickly and tried to move it with her powers. The dark energy shot towards it, but it was shimmering with white light as well. Instead of moving it, it incinerated the yellow book.
"Whoops." His eyebrows shot up at her, and she looked down. "Apparently my powers are stronger now. Um, I guess I'll have to get used to that..."
Beast Boy glanced back at the small pile of ashes, only tiny pieces of paper and yellow book cover still perceptible. "Huh."
They passed through Happy's domain, and Timid's; they didn't need Timid to show them through this time, as Raven knew the way. They finally made it to the 'neutral' realm of her mind, and Beast Boy noticed the stars were no longer red, but white, as was the corona of light around the moon. He saw the other Titans standing restlessly in front of the portal out of her mind, shaped like a large helmet, colors swirling inside. The Teen Titans looked rather guilty, and he guessed Raven had given each of them the same lecture he'd gotten before she went to find him.
"All right, you can all go now."
They turned to her, bewildered. "Aren't you coming?"
She sighed. "This isn't the real me, my physical body's still in Titans' Tower. Now go, I'll be waking up soon and I don't want to know what you'd do to my mind without me around to stop you guys." She shooed them into the portal before they could further "waste time" as she put it (under her breath). Beast Boy looked back quickly to see her fading away.
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Raven woke up to find herself once again staring into Beast Boy's eyes. He grinned. "Hey."
"Hey."
"You're wearing blue again."
"I was never not wearing blue, genius. The white was just inside my mind, a representation of the lack of evil demon father residing in my psyche."
"Oh...Uh, speaking of, we're sorry we went into your mind. We all feel really, really bad." He shifted so she could see the other Titans behind him, all nodding in agreement.
"You should. I've had doubts about your sanity since I met you; this just proves my point."
"I TOLD him it was a bad idea!" interjected Cyborg.
"But I guess I'm grateful. Thanks."
"I was right behind him!"
Raven smirked at this. "Well, I'm going to rest a while-"
"Oh no you don't! You've been sleeping for over two days; you're coming downstairs with us! No way am I going back in there after you again to get you out of another coma!" Without warning he swept her up from the bed and past their friends, through the doorway. It was reminiscent of a groom carrying a bride over the threshold, though Raven tried not to think of it. He placed her on her feet in front of the door. She glared at him to hide her embarrassment and he shrugged, grinning. "What?" He turned to Cyborg, who'd followed them out. "Are you as hungry as I am?"
"Yeah, but only for anything except your cooking. I'm thinking cheeseburgers."
"I'm thinking tofu burgers."
"I'm thinking I can't believe you're actually capable of thinking."
"I'm thinking you're an idiot who has no good taste in food, and first one who makes it to the kitchen gets to choose dinner!" He morphed into a cheetah and raced down the hall.
"Hey, NO FAIR!" Cyborg chased after him. "The fastest land animal on the planet could have given the human a head start!"
Raven looked to Robin and Starfire. Robin shrugged, laughing a little at the exchange between the two, and jogged behind them. Starfire turned to Raven. "Shall we go?"
"Okay." They both lifted into the air and made their way to the kitchen.
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Final Author's Note: Oh. My. God. I'M FINISHED WITH THE CHAPTER! I could jump for joy. You've no idea how hard this was to write, I knew what I wanted, but it just didn't flow. I hope you didn't think it was horribly boring... I think it kind of was. (sob) I'm sorry. I mentioned Spider-Man the movie, best thing out there besides the two X-man movies and POTC and Finding Nemo. You have to see it. And I have to see Spider-Man 2! Hey, did anyone else notice that in 'Nevermore', the stars and moon in the sky changed from red to white at the end? I was just looking at screencaps of the episode and noticed it! So cool. Heh, and can anyone guess who purple Raven was? I suppose I made it disgustingly obvious, but then again, I have no sense of subtlety. Anyway, if Raven is a little out of character from now on, forgive me! I'm going to be trying to let her loosen up a little now that she's all 'pure', without changing her too much. Anyway, I'm terribly sorry for the wait... on a good note, I've got the next chapter halfway done on notebook paper, been writing it at school. Starfire is in it, since she's been awfully ignored throughout this fic. Robin has too, but I don't care. Anyway, review and tell me how I can fix this chapter up to make it a little better (or feel free to cheer me up; you guys have been so good at that so far!). Love you all.
Review Replies: Yayfuls! Change-of-Heart2, I'm gonna take a leap and guess those 'wows' were good. Lain the Fluff-Master, the air-freshener land thing was a nod to what Beast Boy first said when they got to Happy-Land in the episode 'Nevermore'. "Is this where air fresheners come from?" I loved that! AcidFox, I'm flattered you think they aren't out of character. SxStrngSamurai13, thanks!! Chamzi, I'm glad you caught the fact that Raven was pure! I kinda made it obvious, but usually I would take a while to catch on... DarkBird2, just, wow... I'm your favorite author? I could die happy right now... N.C. PsyChick, I really liked how you put that review, lol! RavenForever, I don't mind pushy, it makes me happy! At least in this case. The Mad shoe, updating right now! Or, well, obviously... just, never mind. Thorn on a Rose, yay, and thank you! Darkfire, love the chocolate! AnimeFreakazoidX, not to give anything away, but... let's just say you probably won't be disappointed. Kestra, thanks! Btw, the 'one-man SWAT team' comment came from Lain the Fluff-Master, I can't take the credit (as much as I would like to...). Jimaine, oh no! I didn't really think about Cyborg, and now I am, and I'm going to be all worried I will stink at writing him from now on... argh. But thanks! Macabeak: CLEAR! Macabeak's revived! Shadow 929, welcome to my story, I'm glad you like it! Anyway, thanks everyone!
Author's Note: I'm SO SORRY I took so long; it's been like, over two weeks now! God, my civics project has been giving me stomachaches all last week, and I had to work on it like, every day and I stayed up until 3 am on Sunday still! I suck so much... anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, because it took long enough to get up, didn't it? Lol.
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Chapter Eight: Purple Strawberries
He felt numb. He really should open his eyes. But when he tried, they felt so heavy... he left them closed. Just five more minutes... The grass was so comfortable!
Wait...the grass?
His eyes reluctantly fluttered open. His head was tilted to the side, and there was someone in his peripheral vision wearing a light purple cloak and staring dreamily at the clouds. He tried to move his head to see better, and then involuntarily let out a groan. His head felt heavy, as if it didn't belong to him. The figure's head whipped around and then whoever it was stood up and jogged over to his side.
"Beast Boy?" He realized he had closed his eyes again, and he didn't bother to open them. He heard the footsteps quicken more as they approached, and someone kneeling in the grass beside him. A knuckle rapped at his forehead. "Beast Boy!"
He muttered an incoherent, "blurgh."
"I'll give you a kiss if you wake up. Or give you a kiss if you don't, if you prefer threats."
His eyes shot open. "Huh?" He found himself staring into the worried purple gaze of what was obviously one of Raven's emotions. Her expression turned into one of relief, and she began to giggle at his sudden reaction. Moaning, he pulled himself up. He felt as if he should be much lighter, or at least sharing this huge burden of a body with someone else. Looking at her laughing face, he asked, "Are you Happy in disguise or something? Because last time I saw her, she was pink."
She bit her lip to keep from giggling harder. "No, I'm not Happy! Silly."
"Yeah, that's me. Silly, because you seem to be happy, so I assumed you were, well, Happy. Obviously that idea is silly," he said sarcastically.
"Well of course I'm happy! You're not dead! But I'm not her, I'm- omigosh!"
He had collapsed back on the ground. He looked back at her and lifted an eyebrow. "You're 'omigosh'?"
"No, but you're hurt!"
"Naw, I'm just tired..." She ignored any of his protests and hastily hoisted him up, letting him lean heavily on her shoulder as they began to walk. "What are you doing? I'm too heavy for you-"
"Shush, I'm taking you to the tree." She smiled up at him. "It's a very good tree, great for resting under. Lazy even visits sometimes just to sleep under it. I don't see why she can't just keep to her own domain, it's not like she doesn't have enough resting trees of her own! But she's like, my sister, part of Raven just like me, so I love her all the same... I just wish..." She kept on chattering as she continued to totter under Beast Boy's weight, which though not considerable, was significantly more than hers. "Ugh, I thought you were supposed to be small!"
He didn't get a chance to answer as she unceremoniously dumped him in the shade of a large, twisting tree. "Ow!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She quickly knelt down and touched his shoulder nervously. "Are you okay?"
He glanced up at her, slightly surprised at her concern. "Fine..." He wasn't used to Raven acting like this. Then again, this was a pure emotion that didn't need to hide how she felt. Which reminded him- "Uh, what am I doing here again? In Raven's mind, I mean. I remember going in... and then running, and seeing Timid... it's kind of a blur from there. Do you know?"
Her eyebrows knitted together as she frowned. "You don't remember? With Trigon! We all joined, and then you jumped into the circle." She took his hand and looked into his eyes earnestly. "I was SO worried! And then the others came and jumped in after you, and could have just cried, I thought you were all going to die, or be obliterated completely when our souls joined! I love you guys too much to see you get hurt." She enveloped him in an affectionate embrace, making him stiffen. He carefully returned the hug, slightly nervous. She pulled away and fixed her eyes on his. "I'm so glad you're okay... do you remember any of it now, by the way?"
He blinked and thought hard. He could remember now, and recalled the feeling of being spun at top speed, and then as if he were floating, and had no body at all... "Yeah, I do. Heh, no wonder I feel so wiped out."
She felt his forehead as if for a temperature. "You must be getting used to having your own body again. I mean, you and I, not to mention Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire, were all sharing one body."
He jerked. "What happened to them?" He looked around wildly as if they would come falling out of the sky at any moment.
She tilted her head in thought. "Since you're fine, I'm sure they are too! I'm so happy! I don't know WHAT I would do if... oh my gosh, I can't even talk about it. But you're here, so they must be okay. And well, I wouldn't be here if the real Raven wasn't okay, so obviously... Anyway, I was so worried about you guys..."
"Well, it's a good thing you found me then, huh?" He gave her a grin. It quickly faded uneasily as she let her face get very close to his, once again locking gazes with him.
"You have no idea..." Her voice sounded almost seductive. It couldn't be though, he thought wildly. This was Raven, for crying out loud!
"What are you doing?"
She blinked, and the seductive look on her face turned to one of motherly care. "You're right, you need rest! Now lay down," she leaned him against the tree, "and sleep a little. Hopefully your strength will be back in no time." Obeying like a small child, he closed his eyes, only to have them shoot open again as he felt her snuggle against him. Beast Boy gave her a strange look, but it changed to one of contentment as he rested his head against the trunk of the tree, thinking how odd it was that this warm cuddling felt perfectly natural.
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Beast Boy woke up with considerably less effort than it had taken the first time. He immediately missed the warmth at his side, and twisted his head round to see if he could spot Raven. It occurred to him to wonder which emotion she was. She was very worried about his well-being... maybe she was Worry? But she was way too upbeat for most of the time... Before he could contemplate it further, he noticed two purple shoes dangling in front of him. His eyes lifted above the shoes, up two graceful legs to a tree branch, the purple Raven sitting atop of it. She was straddling the large branch above his head, methodically munching down a handful of oddly colored strawberries. He shifted a little, and she glanced down at him. "Hey, Beast Boy. Nice to see you awake! Do you want a strawberry?" He nodded, and she tossed one down.
Beast Boy looked at the lavender strawberry and suddenly realized he didn't know what might happen if he ate it. Rolling it around in his hand, he took a chance to take in the view around him. It was oddly similar to Happy's, but the landscape was violet instead of pink. Plucking a flower, purple right down to the leaves and stem, from the ground, he inspected it, and gave it a quick sniff. It smelled like perfume. He grinned a little and pocketed it, wondering if it would last outside of this place once he arrived back at the Tower.
Glancing up at Raven, he noticed she was once more gazing dreamily up at the few clouds overhead. Following her gaze, he started as he realized the cloud was shaped like Cyborg. "What the-? Is that -Cyborg-?"
She looked down at him and back at the cloud and giggled. "Yup."
He blinked. "Okay..." She didn't offer an explanation. He frowned as he looked up at the sky again. It was a light, light lilac color. Another cloud came along, even lighter colored than the sky. It was in the shape of a woman's face. "Who's that?"
Raven's face took on a loving look, tinged with sadness. "That's Mother."
Once again, he blinked. Her mother! He realized guiltily that it hadn't really occurred to him before that she had parents. Sure, there was that demon... Tito? Tripod? Oh yeah- Trigon. It hadn't really hit him that she was actually related to her though... Raven did have a dark side, but she was no evil demon dude. This woman in the cloud though, looked just like her. She seemed a bit thinner and older of course, but other than that the similarities were striking. He couldn't tell what her hair or eye color was, but he could imagine deep purple in place of the light lavender there now. "How come the clouds are shaped like people?" Even as he asked this, he saw two clouds- one Robin and another a Starfire look-alike- drift by.
"Oh, they're all the people I care about!" She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She giggled again. "Duh, what did you think; people I was planning to kill?"
He started to laugh, and then stopped. He asked nervously, "There aren't any clouds around here that stand for that, right?"
"Beast Boy, no!"
He grinned. "Speaking of, where am I? In the clouds, I mean," he added when she jokingly pointed to where he was sitting. He said it teasingly, but had to admit he was seriously wondering. He tried to ignore the slight uneasiness that maybe he wasn't there. Raven had been nicer to him lately, right? It wasn't like she didn't like him... didn't she say he was one of her best friends? His fears were swept away with her nonchalant answer.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll show up sooner or later. I'm surprised it hasn't yet; your face usually shows up quite often." Beast Boy tried to hide his pleased grin.
"Maybe they don't think they can compete with the real Beast Boy!" As if on cue, one more cloud wafted lazily over a small hill into view.
"Hey, there you are!"
He stared intently and seriously at his cloud double. Finally: "I look better in green."
She laughed out loud, "No, no! Purple suits you!"
He popped up on his feet immediately. "You want to say that to my face?"
She swung a leg over the branch so she was sitting with her back facing him, and then deliberately dropped backwards. He jumped back a little and her hood bopped him on the nose as it swung back off her head. She was now hanging by her knees and looking him straight in the eyes, although upside down. "Once again: Purple suits you." She smirked at him. Then her eyes traveled downward to his hands. "You didn't eat the strawberry!"
He blinked and looked down at the forgotten strawberry clutched loosely in his gloved hand. "Oh, yeah. Not sure if I wanted to eat it, evil plots against my life and all. You never know if it might have poison, or worse, meat!"
"Oh, come on! It's perfectly fine; I ate it!" She pointed to her juice- stained lips. "Do you want a taste?" It took him a moment to get it, and then his jaw dropped as he gaped at her. Once again, who –was- this?
For a second he thought of the commercials for Spider-Man; due to the constant disagreement with the team on what movies to watch, he'd never gotten to see it, but on ads there had been a kiss between an upside down Spider-Man and some girl... The present situation strongly reminded him of it.
"Uh..."
"WHAT is going on?"
Both turned to see a livid Raven. To Beast Boy's confusion, she was dressed in the familiar white he had seen her in the last time he'd been in her mind. "I've been looking all over for you! What are you two doing?"
"Just talking," said purple Raven, in a voice that implied otherwise. Before poor Beast Boy could even say anything, the other Raven was dragging him away and purple Raven, still dangling upside down, was waving enthusiastically. "Bye Beast Boy! Bye Raven!"
Raven lifted her hand in a brief wave, Beast Boy looked back and grinned. "Hey, thanks! I'll see ya!"
Once again, Raven yanked at him. "No, you will -not- be seeing her, because you will not be in my mind again after this! What were you thinking, 'oh, maybe Raven won't care if I go into her mind, -again-, and nearly get myself KILLED and then don't bother to come look for her to let her know that I'm ALIVE because it's FUN to worry her to death that all her friends are dead!'?"
He tried to lighten the mood. "Aw, Raven, I didn't know you cared!"
It didn't work.
"Beast Boy, don't joke! None of you bother to let me know that your very souls weren't hurled into oblivion or your bodies reduced to ashes or, or something, and instead Robin decides it would be more fun to spar with Brave, Starfire skips around with Happy, and Cyborg has some kind of debate with Knowledge about- machinery, or perpetual motion, or whatever, it doesn't matter, and you think it would be fitting to eat strawberries with Affe- um, with her, because who cares about Raven, let her search for hours for you guys, because really, it won't bother her much that her friends could be dead, or worse!" After this uncharacteristic display of emotion, she flung her hands in the air in aggravation and let out a frustrated, "ugh!"
Beast Boy hung his head guiltily. "I'm... sorry. I should have come looking for you as soon as I felt better."
She stared straight ahead and said shortly, "I found the others. They're waiting at the portal now. Then you can go."
There was a long, uncomfortable silence as they walked through an archway into another realm, this one distinctly yellow and filled with bookcases. Books with yellow binding lined the seemingly endless shelves. Beast Boy hardly saw them.
"Um... so what happened?"
She gave him a look cold enough to start a whole new ice age. "You mean after you risked your life, even though I expressly told you not to?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Well, since the others apparently jumped in after you, our combined powers were enough for me to effectively annihilate him by accident. I wouldn't have because as much as I hate to admit it, he was a part of me, and I had no idea what would happen if that part of me was destroyed." She shrugged. "It could have been suicide, or I could have been destroying my abilities. After all, I did get my powers from my father."
He tilted his head at her questioningly. "But that's not what happened."
"No." She gestured down at her outfit. "This did. Rage isn't...tainted by Trigon now. I'm pure, you might say."
"What does that mean? I mean, I know he's not there anymore, but now..."
She smiled wryly. "I still have to control my feelings, if that's what you were thinking of. But not as much anymore. I'll be able to...explore my emotions more now. I don't have to worry regarding the possibility of my bringing about the next apocalypse at least."
Beast Boy laughed a little, relieved at least that she wasn't yelling at him anymore, and not able to absorb this; Raven would be more expressive? He tried for a moment to imagine what it would be like, and came up with an image of lots of Ravens with different colored cloaks running around the Tower.
Weird.
A book fell and nearly plummeted painfully onto their heads, but Raven reacted quickly and tried to move it with her powers. The dark energy shot towards it, but it was shimmering with white light as well. Instead of moving it, it incinerated the yellow book.
"Whoops." His eyebrows shot up at her, and she looked down. "Apparently my powers are stronger now. Um, I guess I'll have to get used to that..."
Beast Boy glanced back at the small pile of ashes, only tiny pieces of paper and yellow book cover still perceptible. "Huh."
They passed through Happy's domain, and Timid's; they didn't need Timid to show them through this time, as Raven knew the way. They finally made it to the 'neutral' realm of her mind, and Beast Boy noticed the stars were no longer red, but white, as was the corona of light around the moon. He saw the other Titans standing restlessly in front of the portal out of her mind, shaped like a large helmet, colors swirling inside. The Teen Titans looked rather guilty, and he guessed Raven had given each of them the same lecture he'd gotten before she went to find him.
"All right, you can all go now."
They turned to her, bewildered. "Aren't you coming?"
She sighed. "This isn't the real me, my physical body's still in Titans' Tower. Now go, I'll be waking up soon and I don't want to know what you'd do to my mind without me around to stop you guys." She shooed them into the portal before they could further "waste time" as she put it (under her breath). Beast Boy looked back quickly to see her fading away.
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Raven woke up to find herself once again staring into Beast Boy's eyes. He grinned. "Hey."
"Hey."
"You're wearing blue again."
"I was never not wearing blue, genius. The white was just inside my mind, a representation of the lack of evil demon father residing in my psyche."
"Oh...Uh, speaking of, we're sorry we went into your mind. We all feel really, really bad." He shifted so she could see the other Titans behind him, all nodding in agreement.
"You should. I've had doubts about your sanity since I met you; this just proves my point."
"I TOLD him it was a bad idea!" interjected Cyborg.
"But I guess I'm grateful. Thanks."
"I was right behind him!"
Raven smirked at this. "Well, I'm going to rest a while-"
"Oh no you don't! You've been sleeping for over two days; you're coming downstairs with us! No way am I going back in there after you again to get you out of another coma!" Without warning he swept her up from the bed and past their friends, through the doorway. It was reminiscent of a groom carrying a bride over the threshold, though Raven tried not to think of it. He placed her on her feet in front of the door. She glared at him to hide her embarrassment and he shrugged, grinning. "What?" He turned to Cyborg, who'd followed them out. "Are you as hungry as I am?"
"Yeah, but only for anything except your cooking. I'm thinking cheeseburgers."
"I'm thinking tofu burgers."
"I'm thinking I can't believe you're actually capable of thinking."
"I'm thinking you're an idiot who has no good taste in food, and first one who makes it to the kitchen gets to choose dinner!" He morphed into a cheetah and raced down the hall.
"Hey, NO FAIR!" Cyborg chased after him. "The fastest land animal on the planet could have given the human a head start!"
Raven looked to Robin and Starfire. Robin shrugged, laughing a little at the exchange between the two, and jogged behind them. Starfire turned to Raven. "Shall we go?"
"Okay." They both lifted into the air and made their way to the kitchen.
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Final Author's Note: Oh. My. God. I'M FINISHED WITH THE CHAPTER! I could jump for joy. You've no idea how hard this was to write, I knew what I wanted, but it just didn't flow. I hope you didn't think it was horribly boring... I think it kind of was. (sob) I'm sorry. I mentioned Spider-Man the movie, best thing out there besides the two X-man movies and POTC and Finding Nemo. You have to see it. And I have to see Spider-Man 2! Hey, did anyone else notice that in 'Nevermore', the stars and moon in the sky changed from red to white at the end? I was just looking at screencaps of the episode and noticed it! So cool. Heh, and can anyone guess who purple Raven was? I suppose I made it disgustingly obvious, but then again, I have no sense of subtlety. Anyway, if Raven is a little out of character from now on, forgive me! I'm going to be trying to let her loosen up a little now that she's all 'pure', without changing her too much. Anyway, I'm terribly sorry for the wait... on a good note, I've got the next chapter halfway done on notebook paper, been writing it at school. Starfire is in it, since she's been awfully ignored throughout this fic. Robin has too, but I don't care. Anyway, review and tell me how I can fix this chapter up to make it a little better (or feel free to cheer me up; you guys have been so good at that so far!). Love you all.