(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Holy crap, am I ever getting sick of saying that.)
-CHAPTER FIVE-
Things had settled back into relative normality for the Titans. There were still nine extra Ravens kicking around, but at least one of them wasn't out and about causing mayhem anymore. After returning from the city with Angry Raven in tow, the other Ravens had cast a spell to seal up her powers so that she could not escape, then she had been shoved into one of the holding cells in the basement of the tower. The cell was totally soundproof, so Angry Raven's stream of curses could only be heard if the small door set at head height within the main door was opened. Starfire did so.
"…k sucking mother f…"
She closed it again, took a deep breath, and then opened the little door a second time.
"…kill you all when I get out of here! I swear!"
"Ummm…Angry doppelganger of Friend Raven?" Starfire asked hesitantly. Angry Raven stopped and looked at her.
"What in the nine hells do you want, you orange freak?" she growled. Starfire was hurt, but pressed on nonetheless.
"I was merely wondering why it was that you attacked me earlier today," she said.
"Because you piss me off, you alien wretch," Angry Raven replied, and smiled evilly. "Now get me out of here, or I'll flay you alive and make you eat your own skin. Well, maybe I'll do that anyway…"
Starfire watched in horror as Angry Raven laughed sadistically. Apart from the red cloak and the four glowing red eyes, she looked exactly like the Raven that Starfire knew; her hood was down, revealing her short violet hair, and her slender body shook as she laughed. Even her voice, now that her powers had been effectively turned off, sounded the same as Raven's. Angry Raven began screaming curses once again, and Starfire closed the little door to shut out the sound. She sighed, and made her way back upstairs.
ooo
It was late. Everyone had gone to bed. The real Raven slept in her own room (and thanked heaven for it), while the other eight Ravens still slept in the guest rooms. Angry Raven, if she slept at all, did so in her cell, and even if she did not that selfsame cell was soundproof, as mentioned before, and so things were quiet anyway. Quiet, but not silent, for there was the sound of soft footsteps in the halls of Titans Tower. There was a brief flash of long violet hair as the shadowy figure passed by a window and was lit by moonlight for the merest instant. Now, who could this be? Which of the duplicates is sneaking about in the night, and what could she be looking for? Oh, right—long violet hair. So the answer to both of these questions is: Love.
Dressed only in a tight-fitting T-shirt and her underwear, Love crept quietly through the tower. She found the hallway she was looking for, and tiptoed along it until she came to a door marked "Beast Boy". She smiled to herself and leaned against the door, seeming to melt into the shadow cast by the doorframe…
…and then she was stepping out of the shadows in the corner of Beast Boy's room. He was fast asleep on the bottom bunk of his bunk bed. Why he insisted on having a bunk bed when he didn't have a roommate was beyond Love's comprehension.
Heaven knows I wouldn't want to use it… she thought with a smile.
She knelt down beside his bed and just stared at the green boy for a while. He lay on his back, one hand on his chest, the other hanging off the edge of the bed, wearing only his boxers, which had pictures of dinosaurs on them. His mouth was slightly open, revealing his characteristic bottom fang, and he snored softly. Love ran her fingers through his short green hair, and stroked his pointed ears.
What a cutie, she thought. How can the real Raven resist him? She frowned.
Oh, right, by ruthlessly suppressing me
Love sighed.
Oh, well. She can't suppress me anymore, not now that I have a body of my own.
Beast Boy groaned and muttered something unintelligible in his sleep. His brow wrinkled as his expression changed from blank relaxation to worry.
"Mmmnn…nooo…" he mumbled.
Oh, you poor thing, thought Love. You're having a nightmare, aren't you?
"Wrzzxls…no, Terra…don't…"
Love's hands clenched into fists.
That traitorous bitch! she thought. How dare she hurt you?
She slipped her hands under Beast Boy's head and deftly maneuvered herself so that his head lay in her lap as she sat on his bed. She continued to stroke his face and hair, and used her powers to send soothing thoughts into his mind. His expression relaxed again, and he smiled slightly in his sleep.
I can help you forget all that, Love thought. I can make you happy, my dear, dear Beast Boy.
She lay down beside him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder.
Maybe I can make both of us happy, Love thought as she drifted off to sleep.
ooo
Beast Boy was woken by the sunlight filling his room the next morning. As usual, his mind, still half asleep, began taking stock of things.
Head, check. Arms (2), check. Legs (2), check. Torso, check. Soft warm thing pressing up against my back, check.
Beast Boy's eyes snapped open.
Wait, a minute! Soft warm thing? What the…?
Further investigation discovered that the soft warm thing had its arms wrapped around him, as well as one leg intertwined with his, and was breathing softly on the back of his neck. Also, there was an area of increased pressure on his back, right around his shoulder blades. He turned his head to see what, or rather who, it was in his bed with him.
Purple hair, looks fairly long…little red diamond thingy…uh oh.
He quickly turned his head back and lay still, trying to figure out what to do.
Okay, so I'm in bed with Raven's Love clone, I don't know how she got here, it doesn't feel like she's wearing too much, and I guess that area of increased pressure on my back would be her…oooh! So that's what they feel like!
Beast Boy considered his situation.
You know, this might be a good thing. I mean, she was the one who came to me, right? So she must like me. Plus, this feels really, really good. She smells awesome, too.
But then a quiet little voice in the back of his head spoke an old, familiar refrain: Raven is going to kill me.
That little voice changed everything. Beast Boy began to panic.
OhshitohshitohSHITohshitohshit! I'm in bed with one of her duplicates! Raven is going to go ape-shit!
He paused for a moment.
But wait, come on. She came to me, right? So why would Raven blame me?
The little voice spoke up again: Duh. She's Raven. She doesn't really need a reason.
Beast Boy began panicking again.
Crap, he's right…I mean I'm right…I mean…whatever, the point is Raven will kill me if she finds out about this, so I need to get out of here, now. But how?
Beast Boy tried to extricate himself from Love's sleeping embrace, but to no avail. Even in her sleep, she was holding on to him pretty tight. The thought of what Raven would do to him spurred Beast Boy on, however, and his struggles became more and more insistent, eventually waking Love. Her eyes fluttered open, and she kissed him on the back of the neck. His whole body went rigid with fright.
"Mmmm…good morning, Beast Boy," Love purred, and squeezed him a bit tighter.
"Uhhh…good morning?" Beast Boy managed. Love giggled, and gave him another kiss.
"Isn't this wonderful?" she said. "I wish we could stay like this forever, don't you?
"Um…sure, but…uh…can you let go of me please?" he said. He immediately regretted it. Love propped herself up on one elbow and leaned over him to look him in the face. She was pouting. She was pretty good at it.
"But why?" she asked. "Don't you like this?"
"Of course I do," Beast Boy said, meaning every word. "But, uhhh…I, uh, have to go to the bathroom. Yeah. Really bad."
"Oh, okay," Love said, and released him. He quickly got up and headed for the door.
"Don't take too long, though, lover," she said. "I'll be waiting."
Beast Boy turned to look at her from his doorway. She had sat up in his bed and was hugging his pillow to her chest, as if to imply what would be waiting for him when he got back. Beast Boy gulped nervously, and then stepped out of the door, closing it behind him. He took a few slow steps towards the bathroom, and then broke into a run.
ooo
"Cy! Cy!"
Beast Boy came screeching around a corner in Titans Tower, almost colliding with his robotic friend. He was still wearing nothing but his dinosaur boxers.
"Whoa, slow down there, BB," Cyborg said. "What's the problem?"
"You gotta hide me!" Beast Boy cried. "She's coming!"
"Who?"
"Love Raven! She's after me, man! You gotta hide me!" Beast Boy sank to his knees in front of his friend.
"Puh-leeeeeeze?" he pleaded.
"Wait just a minute here," Cyborg said. "Why do you have to hide from Raven's Love side? Is she trying to hurt you or something?"
"Well…not exactly…" Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Cyborg's eyes widened.
"You mean she's…" he began, but Beast Boy quickly covered Cyborg's mouth with both hands.
"Shhhh! Do you want her to hear us?" he whispered.
"Oh, come on, BB," Cyborg whispered back. "I thought you kind of liked Raven."
"Well, yeah, but do you have any idea what the real Raven would do to me if she found out I was fooling around with one of her crazy clones?"
"I see your point," Cyborg admitted. "That would be pretty messy."
"Messy? Are you kidding me? It wouldn't even have time to be messy!" Beast Boy yelled. "Just boom! I'd be gone! Nothing left!"
Unfortunately for Beast Boy, this last outburst was a bit too loud, and had attracted the attention of Love. She appeared right next to them, apparently out of nowhere.
"Oh, there you are, Beast Boy!" she cried, and clapped her hands. "I've been looking all over for you!"
Beast Boy screamed in terror and ran off down the hall.
"You can't deny our love forever, Beast Boy!" Love called after him, and giggled.
"He's such a kidder," she said to Cyborg, and floated off after her intended love. Cyborg watched her round a corner, then shook his head.
"Beast Boy is a dead man walking," he said to himself as he turned and walked the other way.
ooo
Beast Boy just kept on running. He knew that if he stopped, she would catch him, and then she would do things to him that, while they would probably feel very, very good, would ensure that the real Raven would do things to him that would feel very, very bad for a much longer period of time, or at least with more finality. However, he also knew that with his luck, if he kept running it would only be a matter of time before…
…he skidded around a corner and crashed into Raven. The real Raven, dark blue cloak and all.
She calmly picked herself up, dusted herself off, and turned to yell at Beast Boy, only to find that he was already crawling away from her gibbering in terror.
"Pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleaseohPLEASEdon'tkillme…" he said, like he was reciting a mantra.
That's odd, Raven thought. I usually have to at least say something before he does that
Just then, Love rounded the corner. Her face lit up when she saw Beast Boy.
"There you are!" she cried, then looked from the prostrate green boy, still only wearing his boxers and now curled up with his hands over his head, to Raven.
"Awww, is mean old Raven scaring you?" she cooed, and hauled Beast Boy to his feet.
"Pardon?" said Raven. Love ignored her.
"Don't worry, my love, I'll protect you," she said, and hugged Beast Boy tight.
"'My love'?" said Raven, a quizzical expression on her face. This seemed to snap Beast Boy out of his funk.
"Raven, I swear, I didn't encourage her!" he cried, and tried to get away. Love held him tight, and pouted again.
"Oh, Beast Boy, I'm hurt!" she said. "Does that mean that you didn't mean it when you kissed me?"
"What? N-no, I-I-I never…" Beast Boy stammered, beginning to panic all over again. Love leaned in close to him.
"That's what you get for running, lover," she whispered in his ear. He went rigid. Raven was going to kill him.
"Beast Boy…" Raven said.
"Um…yes?" he replied, trying to look as small as possible. Raven sighed.
"Could you leave me and…Love alone for a minute?" she said. "We need to have a little talk."
Now it was Love's turn to go rigid. This wasn't what she had expected. Beast Boy ran off down the hall without saying another word, the very picture of relief and gratitude. Love turned to face Raven.
"What do you want to talk about, Raven?" she said, forcing a bright smile onto her face.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Raven said by way of an answer. "First you play dress up dolly with my body, and now you're chasing after Beast Boy?" Love dropped her mock cheerfulness and scowled.
"First of all, this is my body, not yours," she said, in a tone that could have been used to exterminate cockroaches. "Second, I'm chasing after Beast Boy because I love him, so there."
"What? You can't love him!" said Raven, her voice beginning to rise. "Because you're a part of me, so that would mean that I love him, and I most certainly do not!"
"Oh yes you do, and I think I would know!" yelled Love. "The only reason you think you don't is because you never let me have any say in anything!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Raven.
"You know what I'm talking about!" Love shouted. "You always push me around, like I'm nothing! You treat me just as badly as you do Anger, and she tried to take over your damn mind!"
Raven tried to say something, but Love was angry now, and wouldn't allow herself to be interrupted.
"It's always 'How are you today, Happy?' and 'Feeling well, Brave?', but is it ever 'Hi there, Love, I acknowledge you as the part of me that you are'? No! You're always denying me!"
"Oh, come on! You know what happens when I…" began Raven, but Love interrupted her.
"What? When you what? Let your emotions run wild? Is that what you were going to say?" she yelled. "Well, maybe if you actually dealt with us instead of just locking us up with that stupid mirror of yours, you'd be able to handle us! But no! God forbid you ever get to do what you really want and be happy! God forbid you actually connect to the people around you for once in your wretched life!"
Raven was stunned. She stood with her mouth hanging open as Love continued.
"Oh, and while you're so caught up in yourself, poor Beast Boy is having nightmares about Terra! Did you know that? Oh, but God forbid that the high and mighty Raven ever comes down off of her pedestal to help ease his pain!"
Love sobbed, tears in her eyes.
"And even now, when I've got my own body, I'm still not free from you, am I?" she said quietly. "I can never be with him because he's scared of you, and what you'll do to him, so he'll never do anything but run from me."
Tears were streaming down Love's face now.
"You always ruin everything! I HATE YOU!" she screamed, and ran off down the hall, leaving Raven standing alone and bewildered.
-END CHAPTER FIVE-
Author's Note: Okay, that was a really long chapter. Over three thousand words, counting this author's note. Sorry about that, but this chapter is one of the ones that made me want to write this story. From the dramatic stuff between Starfire and Angry Raven at the beginning, to the romantic stuff with Love sneaking into Beast Boy's room, to the semi-humour of Beast Boy desperately trying to escape (I always visualize Beast Boy running away while Love chases him with the Pepe LePew bouncing music from Looney Tunes playing in the background), to the confrontation between Raven and Love at the end, I think this is some fairly powerful stuff. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm bragging or anything, and I really hope that I was able to pull it off without ruining the whole thing with my amateurish writing. Also, the title of this chapter is not supposed to refer to the story by MoonHawke in any way.
To My Reviewers:
Nevermore Forevermore: Hmmm…I'm not naturally sadistic, but a cookie would be nice…If you want torture, I have a humour piece that I'm planning on posting after I'm done with Duplomatic (10 chapters total, I believe, counting some sort of Director's Cut type thing at the end). It'll be called Booby Trap. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait for it. It might be only another week before I'm done with this, so don't worry.
Kate-ttrox: Okay! My knowledge of online slang has been increased! ("Sleeping Bag gained 50 EXP! Sleeping Bag learned "jkjk"! Sleeping Bag found a Dragon's Tooth!")
CloudsHalo: Don't worry, I know you're not a flamer. Constructive criticism like yours is good. Incidentally, I've been thinking a bit about it, and I think the main reason for the suckage with the "Angry Raven vs. Everybody Else" fight scene was precisely because it was nine-on-one. That gets a bit awkward ("Smart Raven did X! Brave Raven did Y! Cyborg and Beast Boy did Z! Happy Raven did W! But Angry Raven did U to counteract all the stuff they did!"). After rereading Chapter Two, I think I actually did an okay job with the fight between Robin and Multiple Gary, so there might be hope for my fight scenes yet. Also, regarding Raven and Beast Boy relationships: I certainly do not see Raven as the love-sick type. I'm not even sure if I think these relationships should be romantic ones (although Love does seem kind of fond of Beast Boy in this chapter—but then, she's Love, after all). I do think that they are great complementary characters, and work well as friends. Beyond that it gets a bit fuzzy. I think I'll go into some of my theories about that in this Director's Cut thing I'm planning to do at the end. And regarding longer chapters: is this okay? Nine frigging pages in MS Word! Booyah!
Regrem Erutaerc: Okay, so I just read the first three chapters of "Seven Years' Bad Luck in One Day". Sweet Jeebus! Some of the stuff in there was stuff I considered while Duplomatic was still just a weird idea in my fevered brain, but decided didn't fit with what I wanted to write—good thing, too! I swear, I never read that story before writing this one. Hopefully it's different enough to make it interesting. Apologies to Demigod and Happy-Raven (who's story "Raven of a Different Color" I have yet to read), though. Oh, and just so I know, what exactly do you find confusing about this story? I'll try to correct it.
keri2004: Thanks! It gets less funny as it progresses, though, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Spazzfire and A lil' like Raven: I'm glad you like how I've presented Raven's emotions. There are quite a few "Raven vs. Her Emotions" stories out there, it seems, and all of them apparently take different approaches (which colours represent which emotions, the personalities of those emotions, etc.). Like I said to Regrem Erutaerc, I hope my take on this is different enough to make it interesting.