(Disclaimer: The Teen Titans do not belong to me. Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. Back off.)
-CHAPTER THREE-
If that morning had been business as usual in Titans Tower, then that evening certainly wasn't. For one thing, there was usually only one Raven. Now, thanks to the Duplomatic (patent pending), there were ten. The sheer amount of sullen silence on the way back to the Tower had been nearly overwhelming. This had been broken, however, when Robin suggested that they all get some rest and deal with this new problem in the morning, prompting every last one of the Ravens to head towards the bedroom that, historically, only one girl had ever inhabited. This resulted in an argument over who should get the room, since none of them wanted to share. That had been twenty minutes ago, and what had begun as mere bickering had since become a free-for-all shouting match, with telekinetic effects thrown in for good measure. The other Titans cowered in fear, aside from Beast Boy, who had fainted again.
Finally, Robin had had enough, and summoned the courage to deal with the veritable crowd of enraged half-demons.
"That's it!" he yelled. The Ravens stopped in their tracks and looked at him.
"NONE of you sleep in Raven's room tonight!" Robin said. "You can all stay in the guest rooms until we sort this out tomorrow."
"But…" began several of the Ravens at once.
"No! No buts!" interrupted Robin. "I mean it! We'll figure this out tomorrow."
"But there's only three guest rooms, and ten of us!" said another group of Ravens.
"So?" said Robin. "Each guest room can hold three of you, so that only leaves one left. She can sleep on the couch."
"What?" said all the Ravens at once. "There's no way I'm sleeping on the couch! Can't you just get rid of all the duplicates like you did when we were fighting Multiple Gary?"
"Sorry, no. The Duplomatic is broken, so that's not an option. So draw straws or something for who gets the couch—I don't care, just sort it out," said Robin.
"Unacceptable!" cried Starfire, the only other Titan not currently hiding or passed out. "Friend Raven shall not sleep upon the couch tonight, nor shall any of her doppelgangers. I shall offer to share my room with the remaining Raven."
The Ravens murmured amongst themselves for a moment. Raven liked Starfire in small doses, but to spend an entire night with the perpetually cheerful alien might be a bit much. As one unit, nine of the Ravens shoved the other one forward.
"She'll stay with Starfire," they said in unison.
"Hey!" cried the scapegoat, but her protests were cut short by Starfire rushing up and embracing her.
"Wonderful! Let us go prepare a second sleeping pad in my room, Friend One-of-the-Ravens!" Starfire squealed with delight and dragged the unlucky Raven away.
"I swear I'll get you guys for this!" she said as she was dragged out of the room.
"Right, so now that that's settled, everyone go to bed," said Robin. The remaining Ravens grumbled to themselves, but filed out of the room nevertheless. Robin turned to the couch, which Cyborg was still hiding behind.
"You can come out now," he said. "Oh, and see if you can find some way to wake Beast Boy up."
ooo
The next morning, Beast Boy woke early and hesitantly made his way to the living room to make himself some breakfast. He wanted to avoid any and all contact with the Ravens, although given the sheer number of them he knew that would be next to impossible. However, considering what was at stake, that is, how they would kill him, slowly, ten times over, he had to at least try.
As he opened the door to the living room, he saw one of the Ravens sitting at the kitchen table. Beast Boy quickly turned around, but his stomach apparently sensed his wavering determination to fill it, and growled loudly.
"Okay, okay," he said to his stomach, and slowly walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He hoped desperately that Raven had forgotten about his last prank, or at least that this particular one had. Beast Boy watched the seated Raven, prepared to run if she made any sudden moves, but she was totally absorbed in something she was writing on a pad of paper. He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong about her, but his terror made it difficult for him to put his finger on it. Suddenly, it hit him.
She was wearing yellow.
Whoa. I really am out of it, Beast Boy thought. He did his best to make himself something to eat as quickly as possible—as much as it was a nice change to see Raven wearing something other than her usual dark blue cloak, he was pretty sure that it was also a sign that she had finally snapped.
"Beast Boy," she said, her voice totally devoid of emotion. Beast Boy jumped. The yellow-clad Raven looked up at him, revealing that she was also wearing a pair of wire-framed glasses. They made her look intelligent without seeming overly nerdy, and were actually quite tasteful.
"Please restrain your fear at least a little," she continued. "I am an empath, and it is distracting me."
"Uhhh…okay," said Beast Boy. His curiosity managed to overpower his fear, and he looked over her shoulder at what she was working on. It looked suspiciously like math homework that had been assigned by a Greek madman, and the symbols made Beast Boy's head spin.
"So, um, what's that you're working on?" he asked as he tried to keep the brief glimpse of higher math from unscrewing his head.
"Oh, I'm just trying to derive the theory behind the workings of the Duplomatic," she replied. "It's actually quite simple, although not entirely admissible of an elegant proof."
Beast Boy reeled, his attempts to prevent the unscrewing of his head coming under attack from a second front.
"You're what now?" he asked. The yellow Raven sighed.
"I'm trying to figure out how the Duplomatic works," she said. Realization dawned on Beast Boy's face.
"Oh, you mean the cloney ray gun thingy," he said. Raven sighed again.
"Yes, Beast Boy, the cloney ray gun thingy," she said, as though she was talking to a child. Beast Boy's expression changed to perplexity again.
"Wait a minute!" he said. "Since when do you know how to do that? I though Cyborg was the science whiz around here!" Realization again dawned on Beast Boy's face.
"Wait, the new colour, the sudden math doing-ness…You're one of Raven's split personalities, aren't you!" said Beast Boy. The yellow Raven was impressed. She had expected it to take him much longer to figure that out.
"While that is not strictly correct, you are on the right track." she said. "In a way, I am the personification of Raven's logical, intelligent side."
"So you're Smart Raven? I only ever met Happy, Sad, and Ass-Kicking when me and Cyborg were in Raven's head," said Beast Boy. A look of apprehension crossed his face.
"Uh oh," he said. "If you're here, then does that mean that Happy…"
"Beast Boy!"
Oh, no, Beast Boy thought. Another Raven, dressed in a pink cloak, ran down the steps to the living room and hugged him.
"Omigawd, it's been, like, ages!" squealed Happy Raven as she crushed the life out of the smaller green boy.
"Let go…please…can't…breathe…" gasped Beast Boy. Happy Raven let him go and giggled.
"Come on!" she said. "Tell me a joke!"
"Help me! She's insane!" Beast Boy whispered to Smart Raven, but she had turned her attention back to her work and gave no indication of having heard him. Suddenly, a grey-cloaked shape appeared next to Beast Boy, apparently out of thin air. He screamed.
"Sorry," said Sad Raven. "I d-didn't mean to s-scare you." She looked down at her own feet.
"You don't like me, do you?" she continued. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "N-nobody ever likes me."
"Come on, Weepy! The grass stain doesn't want to hear your sob stories!" called the green-robed Brave Raven (known to Beast Boy as "Ass-Kicking"). She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. A multicoloured collection of Ravens stood behind her.
"Oh, no…" Beast Boy groaned.
ooo
It was now later in the morning, and the living room was filled with Ravens. Beast Boy was on the couch attempting to make himself look as small as possible, while Robin, Cyborg, and Smart Raven sat at the kitchen table trying to figure out what to do. Smart Raven had explained that the duplicates created by the Duplomatic must be slightly unstable, so they tend towards one of the original's personality traits or another. In most people, the differences between duplicates would not be very great, but since Raven kept the aspects of her personality separate through her meditation, her duplicates had all taken on roles as physical embodiments of her emotions and personality traits. Fortunately, this meant that the question of which Raven was the original was solved, much to the satisfaction of Raven herself, who now sat at the table with Robin, Cyborg and Smart Raven. She wore her usual dark blue cloak.
Looking around the room, Raven took stock of her duplicates. There were two missing, and while Raven couldn't be sure, she had a pretty good idea which ones they were. Currently present was Smart Raven, Happy Raven, Sad Raven, Brave Raven, Lazy Raven, Spiritual Raven, and Cynical Raven. The appearance of the last two caused her some concern; while the others had merely changed the colours of their cloaks somehow, Spiritual Raven had had decided to change her entire wardrobe, and now wore a brown poncho and sandals. That was nothing compared to Cynical Raven, however, who wore a black cloak, had added slightly torn fishnet stockings to her leotard, and wore heavy black makeup, making her look even paler. She had also made serious changes to her hair, which was now shorter, black, and spiky. With a few piercings in her nose and eyebrow rounding out her ensemble, she had managed to make herself look even more Goth than the original Raven.
Cynical me was able to change her appearance so much, thought Raven. Good gods, if she could do that, I don't think I want to see…
Raven's thoughts were interrupted as the door to the living room opened, and she turned to see who it was. She froze. Her worst nightmares had come true—it was her.
This Raven duplicate had also made significant alterations to her appearance. Her violet hair hung loose down to just below her shoulder blades, and she was wearing a white spaghetti strap dress that ended at her mid-thighs and fit her like a second skin. While it was not excessively low-cut, it did manage to show off a bit of cleavage. She also wore a tight, collar-like necklace, plain black, and black high heels with an open toe. The overall effect was absolutely stunning, and every pair of eyes in the room was staring at her, aside from the one belonging to Lazy Raven, who was asleep on the couch next to Beast Boy, snoring loudly.
Taking obvious pleasure in the attention she was getting, the newcomer stepped down the stairs and glided over to the couch. She sat down next to Beast Boy, gingerly tipping Lazy Raven out of her way as she did so. Although the sleeping girl's head bounced off the floor as she fell, she did not wake up; instead, her snores went from being merely loud to positively uproarious, and she pulled her orange cloak tighter around her like a blanket.
Beast Boy was the first to recover.
"Who the heck are you?" he asked the newcomer.
"Oh, I'm Love," she said, and giggled.
"Are you wearing makeup?" Beast Boy asked, then sniffed the air. "…And perfume?" Love Raven giggled again.
"Oh, you noticed!" she said.
Raven hid her face in her hands and groaned.
ooo
Another hour had passed, and neither the tenth Raven nor Starfire had shown up yet. Robin was starting to get a little worried—it wasn't like Starfire to sleep in this late. Raven had a sneaking suspicion as to what had happened, but dearly hoped that she was wrong.
"Has anyone seen Starfire this morning?" Robin asked. Everyone shook their heads no.
"What about the Ravens? Was one of you the one who spent the night in her room?" he continued. The Ravens all looked at each other, but again they shook their heads no.
"Oh, no…" whispered the original Raven. Robin looked at her.
"Raven? Do you know what's going on?" he asked. "Does it have something to do with the missing duplicate?"
Damn, she thought. How is he always so perceptive?
"Who is this clone going to be, anyways?" said Beast Boy, who sat on the couch between Love Raven and Happy Raven.
"I mean, we already have Goth Raven and Hippy Raven," he continued, indicating the Cynical and Spiritual Ravens. "Who's next, Punk Raven? Emo Raven?"
Love and Happy Raven both giggled. Love glared at Happy, and she backed away a bit. Nobody else seemed to notice this.
"Well, I don't know for sure," said the real Raven, ignoring Beast Boy, "but the only other major emotion that hasn't shown up yet is…" Her voice trailed off, and she gulped nervously.
"It's what, Raven?" asked Robin.
"Anger," she whispered.
The room went totally silent for a moment, then Robin leapt up and ran to Starfire's room.
ooo
They had all gathered in the medical wing, including all the Ravens. Robin had found Starfire unconscious in her room, and had immediately brought her to the infirmary.
Everyone turned as Robin opened the door and stepped out into the hall, a grim look on his face.
"Is she…alright?" asked Beast Boy.
"Yeah, she's fine," Robin replied. "She's just out cold. She should wake up in a little while."
"Ugh! Angry, that bitch!" growled Brave Raven. "When I get my hands on her I'm going to kick her ass!"
"What is bothering you, Robin?" asked Smart Raven, ignoring her aggressive green double.
"There weren't even any signs of a struggle," said Robin. "Just Starfire, unconscious."
"A sneak attack! That cowardly little bitch!" yelled Brave Raven.
"Wow. You're quite the wordsmith, you know that, Brave?" said Cynical Raven.
"We have to go after her," said the original Raven. "If she's loose in the city, there's no telling what kind of trouble she could cause." Robin sighed.
"Yeah. You're right," he said, without much enthusiasm—Starfire getting hurt had shaken him. He closed his eyes for a moment and hardened his resolve.
"Titans! GO!" he called as he opened his eyes, and bolted down the hall, closely followed by the others.
-END CHAPTER THREE-
Author's Note: Shee-yit, that was a long chapter, but there wasn't any place where I felt I could justify cutting this up into two separate chapters. Anyway, those of you looking for interaction between Raven's personalities and the other Titans should be happy at this point, if not by what was already in this chapter, then at least in anticipation of what will be coming next. The next chapter will focus mostly on Angry Raven, obviously, although I hope to flesh out some of the other personalities as well. Look for the relationship between Brave and Sad, as well as the relationship between Love Raven and Raven herself. The latter will receive a bit more focus, and Love Raven herself will get quite a bit more character development than the other personalities (I think her big introduction makes it obvious that she's a central character). Unfortunately, I think that Happy, Cynical, and Smart are going to only be seen in very basic terms: as the irritatingly cheerful one, the sarcastic one, and the brainy one, respectively. Spiritual and Lazy might not even get lines, and will basically only be around for hippy and narcolepsy gags. I'd tell you guys more, but I'm afraid I'll give the plot away.
Oh, and some might notice that I've kind of redesigned Smart Raven a bit, so that she doesn't look like so much of a dork, like she does for her (admittedly tiny) appearance in Nevermore. I changed her glasses because, quite frankly, I don't really think that coke-bottle lensed glasses make people look smarter; quite the opposite, in fact. To see what I mean, watch Trailer Park Boys sometime.
Yeah, so again, read and review. Do I really have to keep saying this now? Whatever.
To My Reviewers:
CloudsHalo: Now that I think of it, since Love Raven is going to be the personality to be developed most, there might be a fair bit of the romantic stuff. Hopefully you won't mind too much—I just think that Raven dealing with her Love side is an important issue.
kutekittikat92: Thanks! I don't seem to have much choice about writing more. I wrote three chapters just yesterday, and they were big-ass chapters. It just keeps coming to me. I'll try to update every day, or every other day. Hopefully my existing buffer will help deal with any blocks I hit.
tinkerbellx2: Wow. Perfect, huh? I'm just trying to keep things as close to the show as possible, character-wise, so I think that it's a mark of a well-written show that I can have interesting, characterful interactions just fall out of what is already there. A great deal of the dialogue, while I know generally where I'm going, just comes out of me thinking "What would (character's name) say in this situation?" as I'm writing. And I'm glad you liked the little scene break with Paranoia: How it Can Work for You. Next on the reading list is How to Make Friends and Influence People! I just love little tangential scene breaks, as seen in Family Guy, for instance ("Next week, on Hitler…").