(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Needless to say, negotiations with DC and the WB aren't going too well.)
-CHAPTER SEVEN-
Robin was in his "thinking room", wracking his brain for any answers that it might contain.
There must be something I've missed, he thought. But what?
It had been almost a full day since Cynical Raven's murder and Beast Boy's disappearance. Robin had spent the whole time in the thinking room, trying desperately to make headway on the case—there were now five definite casualties. Robin still held out hope that Beast Boy was still alive. Killing him didn't fit the pattern, and the murderer had made no attempts to hide any of the other bodies, so if he had been killed, they probably would have found him already.
No! Don't think like that! thought Robin. He's alive! He has to be! I've just got to…
Robin's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. He sighed. The distraction irritated him, but he knew that he wasn't making any progress anyway.
"It's unlocked," Robin said. The door opened, revealing Cyborg, Starfire, and the remaining Ravens all clustered in the hallway outside. They had apparently taken his orders to stay together to heart. Smart Raven stepped forward.
"Robin, I believe I have some information that might be helpful," she said. "I believe that you can eliminate the original Raven as a prime suspect."
"Why?" asked Robin. "What new information do you have?"
"I have performed several tests upon myself and the other duplicates, and the results all seem to indicate that we are becoming increasingly unstable, both physically and mentally," Smart said. "I believe that as we degenerate, each of our minds are becoming more and more entrenched within the aspect of Raven's personality that we tend towards. I, for instance, have noticed that I am becoming increasingly logical and emotionally detached. I fear that as a result of this, we may eventually become dangerously unhinged; it is possible that at least one of us already has."
"The murderer? Hmmm…" Robin considered this for a moment. "But that only leaves you, Happy, Brave, and Sad."
"I am afraid so," replied Smart.
"What do you mean only?" asked Raven, her voice raised in indignation. "Before, it was just Smart, Happy, Brave, Sad, and me left! Did you really think I was the one that's been doing this?"
Robin ignored her. Everyone was quiet for a moment, but Brave Raven soon broke the silence.
"Aha!" she shouted, pointing at Sad Raven. "It's you, isn't it! It's always the quiet ones!" Sad whimpered and pulled her hood down over her face.
"Please, Brave, I think you've been watching too many late night mystery movies or something," said Smart.
"Oho!" Brave shouted again, this time pointing at Smart. "Then it was you! You're always so cold and logical, and the best way to solve the problem of having so many duplicates around is to kill them all off, right?" She turned to Happy Raven.
"Or maybe it was you!" Brave continued.
"What? Me? Why would I do that?" asked Happy.
"Well…I don't know! But I wouldn't put it past ya, Pinky!" said Brave. Smart sighed.
"This doesn't seem all that helpful, guys," said Cyborg. "I think we should really just focus on figuring this out, instead of just running around pointing fingers at each other."
"Whaddaya mean we?" asked Brave. "You're not even a suspect!"
"Friends! Doppelgangers of Friends! We should not be fighting! This only makes it more difficult to discover the true cause of these unfortunate events!" cried Starfire. Inspiration suddenly struck Robin.
"That's it!" he said. The others stopped arguing and turned to look at him.
"What's it?" asked Cyborg.
"Yes, Robin, what new thought has occurred to you?" asked Smart Raven.
"Well, I can't be sure right now, but I think I might be on to something," replied Robin. "I have to check the surveillance tapes, though. Wait in the living room, and I'll come tell you if I'm right."
With that, he closed the door, leaving the other Titans in the hall.
"Well then, let us go to the room of living to wait for Robin," said Starfire, and began floating down the hall. The others all shrugged and trailed after her.
ooo
Robin had queued up all the surveillance footage of the murders in order. He hit the play button, and watched as the TV screen showed the small figure of Angry Raven, sitting sullenly in her cell. Darkness seemed to creep towards her from the door to the cell, and Angry looked up, an expression of shock on her face. Then, there was static for a few seconds, and when the picture cleared, Angry's body lay in a pool of blood, and the darkness was retreating towards the door. After a few minutes, Angry's body began to disappear, and Robin saw himself and Smart Raven enter the cell. He stopped the recording, and started the next one. Now the screen showed Lazy Raven entering the living room and heading into the kitchen. She made herself something to eat, then sat down on the couch to messily devour her midnight snack. Darkness spread towards her, just as it had towards Angry Raven, and then the picture was overcome with static for a few seconds again. The static disappeared, showing Lazy's body lying on the couch and the darkness moving away from her. A few minutes later, Lazy's body began to disappear. Robin stopped the recording again and started the next one. Spiritual Raven appeared on the screen, placing sutras in the hall leading to the basement. Again, darkness spread towards her, there was a look of shock and recognition, then static, then the darkness retreating, leaving Spiritual's body behind to slowly disappear. The next recording was of Love, coming out of the bathroom, when static overcame the picture, then only her dress, necklace, and shoes were left. Then Cynical Raven was shown running away from something, only to fall and be overtaken by darkness. Again, the static came, then cleared to show Beast Boy standing over her body and peering at something off screen. Again, static blanked out the picture, and when it cleared a second time, only Cynical's body was left, as it slowly disappeared.
Of course, thought Robin. How could I have missed it?
He got up and ran to the living room. He knew who the murderer was.
ooo
The Titans were waiting impatiently in the living room when Robin arrived. They all turned to look at him as he made his way towards him. He had an expression of grim satisfaction on his face.
"Alright," he said. "I think I should start by explaining myself to you guys." The others looked confused, since they were hoping to hear who the murderer was, but they listened anyways.
"When Cyborg and Starfire said that arguing and laying blame weren't helping us any, it got me thinking," Robin continued. "What if that's exactly what the murderer wants?" Robin began pacing.
"But, the blame would be flying around everywhere pretty much at random, and the murderer wouldn't have wanted for any of it to fall upon her by accident. So, I thought, 'What is the best way for the murderer to avoid being blamed in the chaos?'"
The others looked at each other. They couldn't see where Robin was going with this, but he was getting more excited, so it was probably brilliant. He kept pacing as he spoke.
"I realized that there was only one way for murderer to avoid being blamed, and that was to make sure that nobody thought she was a suspect," said Robin. "But if she was one of the remaining duplicates, then she would have been automatically considered a suspect."
"Wait, wait, are you saying that it was not one of the duplicates?" asked Cyborg. "It couldn't have been Star or me, since we can't, you know, shred people like that, so…" He looked at the real Raven.
"What? Oh, great, so I'm a suspect again?" she said.
"No, no, no. You misunderstand me," said Robin, still pacing. "It was one of the duplicates. I said that the murderer couldn't be one of the remaining duplicates if she wanted to not be considered a suspect."
"So that means…" began Raven, but Robin interrupted her.
"Yes," he said. "The only way for the murderer to avoid being blamed was to convince us that she was already dead."
Starfire gasped. The others stared at Robin in shock.
"So that means that the murderer was one of the victims," said Smart Raven. "But which one? And wouldn't that also leave Beast Boy open as a possible suspect?"
"No, Beast Boy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and saw something he wasn't supposed to," said Robin. "It was one of the duplicates, and the surveillance tapes make it clear which one it was."
"How, Friend Robin? I thought that you said the coming of the static made it impossible to tell who the killer was!" said Starfire.
"Yes, that's true, but only when each murder is seen separately," said Robin. "When I looked at them all one after the other, one of them just didn't fit the pattern established by the others." He stopped pacing and looked at the other Titans.
"Most of the murders followed the pattern of darkness spreading towards the victim, static for a few seconds, the darkness moving away from the victim's body, and then the body slowly disappearing over a period of a few minutes," Robin said. "Even for Beast Boy's abduction, the pattern was the same, just with no body left behind. But one of the murders doesn't fit that pattern. One of the murders has just static, which lasts for slightly longer than for the others, and then just the victim's clothes, and no body."
"Who?" said Starfire?
"Wait, did you say Beast Boy's abduction?" said Cyborg.
"Yes, I did," said Robin. "I don't think that the murderer would ever hurt Beast Boy."
"Who?" Starfire repeated, more urgently this time.
"Yeah, just tell us, already!" said Brave Raven.
"The killer," said Robin, "is…Love."
ooo
Beast Boy struggled against his bonds, desperately trying to break free. He was on some kind of metal table, with restraints holding his wrists and ankles, and a large band of metal over his stomach. He had tried morphing, but something seemed to be preventing him from doing so. He was helpless.
The table was tilted almost upright, giving Beast Boy a decent field of vision, but the only light came from a single small overhead bulb which illuminated very little of his surroundings, leaving everything outside a radius of only a few metres obscured by darkness. Seeing nothing that could be of any use to him, Beast Boy resumed his struggles for freedom.
"Now, now, my dear, I can't have you escaping, now can I?" said a familiar voice from the shadows. Beast Boy looked up as Love stepped into the dim circle of light cast by the overhead bulb. She had changed her attire slightly; while her shoes and choker necklace remained similar, she had abandoned her white dress for a black one. She stood and looked at him with her head cocked to one side and her hands clasped behind her back. Her long purple hair fell loose around her shoulders.
"As much as I hate having to keep you locked up, I can't risk you telling the others about this," Love said, as she slowly approached the captive Beast Boy. He stopped struggling and glared at her.
"Where are we? And why can't I transform?" Beast Boy demanded. Love caressed his cheek, and he turned his head away. It was just about all he could do in his current situation.
"Don't worry, darling, we are in a safe place," she said. "And the reason you can't transform is because I put a minor curse on you to prevent you from using your powers. I will remove it once I am finished."
"Finished with what? Your crazy killing spree?" Beast Boy spat. Love sighed, and sadness showed in her big violet eyes.
"Oh, you must hate me now, but this has to be done," she said, moving still closer to Beast Boy. "I'm doing this for us, Beast Boy."
"What do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Our love, my dear—you know they won't allow it," Love replied. "We can never be together so long as they are around."
"Who? Raven and the duplicates? That's why you've been murdering them?" asked Beast Boy.
"Yes!" said Love. "When they're all gone, they will never oppress us again, and we can express our love without fear!"
"You're crazy," said Beast Boy.
"No! No! Don't you see? It's the only way!" Love cried. "I love you! That's why I have to kill them! I have to kill them so we can finally be together!"
She leaned even closer to Beast Boy, her body pressing slightly against his, and whispered in his ear.
"I know you are afraid of her, my love—I used to be, too, when she was bullying me inside her mind. But soon we won't have to be afraid any more. Soon, when all the silly little duplicates are out of the way, I will punish her for what she has done to us, and then nothing, nothing can come between us."
Love pulled away from Beast Boy, and stepped backwards to disappear into the shadows once more.
"Soon, Beast Boy, my love, we will be free…"
-END CHAPTER SEVEN-
Author's Note: Okay, again, I hope this wasn't obvious to everyone already. Like I said last chapter, I already knew who the killer was, so I kind of had trouble not seeing all the little clues and connections. If it wasn't obvious by the end of the last chapter, then give yourself a gold star if you figured it out when Robin was looking at the surveillance recordings ("One of these things is not like the other…"—ah, Sesame Street, good times). And don't get all pissy with me about having Love be the crazy one. Like Smart Raven said in her plot-saving theory for this chapter, the duplicates are all getting more unstable, and thus are becoming further entrenched in the particular personality trait they exemplify. So ask yourself, is someone guided by love and love alone really going to act all that sane? To Love, at this point her whole world consists of just her and Beast Boy; everyone else is just an obstacle to get rid of. She has no remorse for what she has done because, in her warped view, the Ravens she killed didn't matter, or at worst they were allies of the real Raven, who represents the ultimate obstacle for Love. But enough of the abnormal psychology! I don't even know what I'm talking about—I've never taken a psychology course in my life!
Yeah, so apologies to fans of the Raven/Beast Boy pairing. I didn't mean to trick you guys into thinking this was a Raven/Beast Boy story or anything, but I couldn't very well have just given away the plot right off the bat, now could I have? The relationship is there to some extent, but this is most definitely not a fluff story—there's nothing wrong with it, but fluff just isn't what I want to write. So, sorry, but if you want to see Beast Boy get to second base or something, read another story, 'cause it ain't happenin' in this one. Or does being in bed with Love count as second base? He didn't get her bra off, but that might be third…shit, I hate baseball innuendo. I always forget which base is which. That, and the question of what would count as a grand slam just boggles my mind. And what the hell would a ground rule double be?
I would like to note that while it might look like I'm not always consistent with whether the duplicates are just physical representations of Raven's emotions or separate entities that just tend strongly towards one or another of them, any discrepancies you might see are just due to the characters' understandings of the situation. Also, the duplicates themselves have all the particular memories of the emotions they tend towards. That applies in this case, when Love refers to herself being bullied inside Raven's mind. Love wasn't pulled out of Raven's head, but she has all the memories of Raven's in-head version of Love up to when the duplication occurred. So, yeah, take that, nit-pickers.
To My Reviewers:
CloudsHalo: Refer to the last bit of this Author's Note for some stuff about where the emotions come from, and then go to when they die. Basically, the duplication ray made a whole bunch of complete, separate Ravens that are just a bit unstable (you would be too, if you were composed of random particles stuck together in some highly unlikely process that probably involves ungodly amounts of quantum mechanics). Because they are unstable, both physically and mentally, they have all tended towards one particular part of their personalities (which, if properly balanced, would be exactly like the original Raven's). Thus, the duplicates all take on the role of one of Raven's emotions, even though they aren't those emotions just dragged out of her head. So, Raven isn't missing any of her emotions, and theoretically all the emotions are at least present in all the duplicates. I guess I kind of just left this as one of Smart Raven's crackpot (yet well thought out) theories, so I understand the confusion. Smart kind of acts like my neat little plot-saving device, coming up with theories that explain the scads of plot holes that I've been perpetrating. She's really quite handy. Oh, and here's the solution to one bit of suspense, and hopefully another bit to take its place. Ha ha!
stella-s55: Like I said to CloudsHalo, here's who the killer is, but what happens next? Will Love succeed in her mad scheme? Will Beast Boy break free? Will Sad admit to her secret passion for stockcar racing? Will Robin and Starfire discover the true meaning of Christmas, and then make out shamelessly? And what will happen when Batman's evil Mexican twin comes to the wedding in his place? Oh, the suspense!