Chapter 7: Her Darkest Night, Her Darkest Secret

Raven asked Star to stay away while she went through with things; she knew the sensitive alien would be incredibly distraught to see everything. Starfire nodded and crossed to the other side of the park and turned her back to Raven. Raven gulped and then began to meditate, but she focused on Beast Boy, not her center. Of course she was beginning to realize, Beast Boy WAS her center.

Raven began to quiver with pain. She was soon shuddering violently and could not hold herself in the air; she dropped to the ground but didn't open her eyes. Instead she kept confronting her pain. It grew and soon her body lay motionless, sprawled out on the park ground. In her mind things were churning. Raven stood in her mind, facing pink Raven trapped in her shackles. As Raven got closer to pink Raven pain prickled through her body and pink Raven began to change. Pink Raven was no longer pink Raven; she was Beast Boy, standing their pleading with Rae to free him. A dark shape loomed up, blocking her from him and every step closer she was consumed in terrible agony. She was 10 yards away and yet she felt she would die if she got any closer… perhaps she would. Raven was now on her hands and knees, struggling to pull her self closer still, to Beast Boy, what had been her darkest secret now threatened to kill her.

As Raven narrowed the distance her heart beat slower, her breathing became weak. On the park ground her body shook and trembled. Raven couldn't do it, she couldn't. Things of her mind began to swim before her eyes but she fought, she had to. She HAD to have Beast Boy. What would life be without him?

She now pulled herself within half a yard from him and the seething black wall and through blurred vision she cried out to him. She was dragging herself, inching painfully forward and now only six inches away she could feel pain flowing from the wall, coursing through her body, pulling her in. She reached out trembling fingers and touched the wall…

Raven felt her heart stop, her lungs… they did not breath. In the park Raven let out a cry and then fell silent. Unmoving. In her mind violet flames seemed to leap from her hand and devour the wall. Beast Boy's shackles swirled in a torrent of green and black, within the swirling magic came the faint whisper of Azerath, Metrion, and Zynthos. Raven lay broken in her mind. She did it to free Beast Boy. But the Beast Boy she had saved… was her. Her love, her heart and soul, that had been the Beast Boy saved.

When the magic died away Beast Boy stood at Raven's feet and slowly became pink Raven again. She and the other emotions stood around Raven and shimmered and flowed as if they were water. They slowly seeped into Raven's body and a light glow soon consumed her.

Raven stopped glowing and lay, transformed. Her cloak was white and shimmered with a beautiful pearl-like shine. Her hair fell long past her waist in tumbling indigo waves, streaked with lilac and silver. Her clothes were now a long white dress. It hugged her and pulled up into a low-cut halter, the bottom flaring out ever so slightly. The belt stayed but the usual red gems inlaid in the gold rings were now the same as the gem on her forehead; diamonds with golden swirls, her feet were bare but only one was visible as the dress was long but on one side had a slit running from the bottom up to her hip. Her eyes fluttered open softly; her ears perceived a faint whisper echoing about her.

As one the heart sings true,

The darkest night is gone.

Eyes open anew,

To feel and live again.

Black spell intertwined with the green magic that is love,

A single bird has finally,

Sent her darkest secret up above.

When Raven focused her vision she was back in the park. She felt a deep love churning within her, needing to come out and it could. Everything, her emotions, all of them could be expressed without loosing control. She smiled a rare smile that would soon become common, because it could. The fact she could express her emotions freely pressed on her like a weight, but it was a wonderful weight and… she HAD to see Beast Boy! The realization she was simply sitting in the park and not going out to be reunited with him was one that made her feel incredibly stupid.

"Starfire! We have to go to Beast Boy right now!!!" Raven almost squealed. Of course the lovely Tamaranian didn't almost squeal when she saw Raven, she did.

"Glorious, friend Raven you are free and well!" she cried, Raven nodded and when Star embraced her she didn't refuse and instead the two girls cried tears of joy on each other's shoulders.

Author's Notes: I promise I'll fix the order of the chappies if they're screwed up but I'm pretty sure it's ok... it's just I can't preview the actual story yet and it's ticking me off. BTW I wrote this before Understanding Love... can you tell? I honestly don't know which of the two is better written...