A/N: Once again I come before you to state the Obligatory Disclaimer. Anything hereafter mentioned that is recognizable as another person's works is not mine, has never been, mine, I wish it was mine, but it's not mine.
-------------
Chapter the Third: Explanations
-------------
There was a faint beeping noise that was steadily growing louder. Raven went to turn off her alarm clock, but found that she couldn't move her arm.
In fact, she couldn't even open her eyes.
There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that she didn't recognize at first, but then she understood. 'Ah,' she thought. 'I'm completely terrified.' She had never felt this afraid in her life. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
The beeping continued and Raven could now smell a faint chemical smell. Also, there was someone else in the room. Finally she was able to force her eyes open just a little, and she could see watery shapes around her. Everything was a whitish-blue and there were bright lights coming from the ceiling. Slowly, she recognized it all as being the Titan Tower infirmary.
She let out a breath she'd been holding, glad to know that at very least she was in a safe place, and the other person spoke. "Raven? Are you awake?" It was Starfire.
She came closer to the bed and Raven could see her now too. Raven just looked at her through half-open eyes. Star squeezed her hand and flew out of the room. After a few moments, she returned with the others. While she'd been gone, Raven had managed to open her eyes all the way and she'd cleared her throat a couple times. She'd been able to move her hands now, but she was so exhausted by that little motion that she didn't even bother to try and sit up or anything.
The others ringed around her bed, and she felt a sudden rise in the level of hostility in the room. She felt the insane urge to sink herself through the bed and down into the next level of the tower, but knew that whatever the problem was, that would probably just make it worse.
Robin spoke, voice low and dangerous. "So, Raven. You wanna tell us what exactly happened last night?"
"Wha..." She swallowed and tried again. "What are you talking about?" Her throat hurt a little and her voice was much more gravely than normal.
"You were in my head, Raven. You were in my head and in my dream, and I think it happened last night too."
"No, I...."
Robin exploded. "Don't even try to deny it! Beast Boy found you in the living room, and we all know how your eyes look when you're using your powers. When he interrupted you and you didn't snap out of it, he came and got me, and you were in my room. My eyes were your eyes, and you were in my head! I want to know why." His voice got deathly quiet at the end.
Star reached for Raven's hand again, and Beast Boy stepped back from their leader. Cyborg quietly said, "Whoa, man." He put a restraining hand on Robin's shoulder as Robin took a half-step towards the bed.
"I didn't..."
Beast Boy looked at her. "Raven, I know what I saw."
"If you did something, girl, you'd better say so." Cyborg's voice was soft, but his eyes were serious.
Raven closed her eyes. "It was an accident the first two nights."
There was a collective silence. She continued. "Last night was a test. Last night was the third night, and I let it happen on purpose."
"You let it happen, or you did it?" Beast Boy looked confused.
"Both, but more like I let it happen. The first time I didn't even know it happened, I just knew that I was so tired the next day. That was why I passed out after the fight with Cinderblock and Plasmus. The second time happened that same night, and I woke up feeling as tired as I had felt the morning before. At breakfast, Cy and Star were talking about their dreams, and it was too much of a coincidence. I...I used my mirror, and decided that I must find out if what was happening was what I thought it was." Her voice broke here, and she coughed hard. Starfire went to the sink and filled a paper cup with water. Raven took a few sips from it, and went on.
"I guess that I was right. I guess the test worked."
"What test? What did you think was happeneing?" Robin's voice was somewhat less accusatory than it was before.
"I...I thought that my powers were acting on their own while I was sleeping. See, three nights ago, I fell asleep without meditating and I had a very strange dream. I dreamed that I visited all of your dreams. Can you all remember what you dreamed the night we fought Gizmo?" Star and Beast Boy nodded, Robin cocked his head to the side and thought hard, and Cyborg shook his head no.
"Well, I know what you dreamed, Cy. You dreamed of some project that you were working on. You dreamed that you were working on it, and all of the sudden you realized that if you turned part of it around a different way, it would work right."
"Raven, when I woke up the next morning, I did pick up my newest project and re-work it. The idea had just...came to me."
"Like in a dream?" Cyborg stared at her. She moved on to Starfire. "Star, you dreamt of a wedding on Tamaran." The alien girl nodded. "Robin, you were battling Dr. Freeze, and Beast Boy, you..." She paused. "You dreamed of Terra." The changeling nodded too.
"And the night before last, Cy, you dreamed of those cars, and they were racing. Star, at your Halloween party you were dressed as a cat. Beast Boy was a gangster, Cyborg was a pirate, Robin was some kind of G.I. Joe, and I was in some black fairy costume. Robin, your's was of fighting Red X, and BB...your's was set in Africa. It was...surreal." Beast Boy thought hard for a moment, remembered that particular dream, and sweat-dropped.
"Heh heh..."
"Okay," Robin broke in before Raven could go on. 'So we believe you, you saw all of our dreams for the past three nights. Why?"
"I think because I wasn't centered before bed. You all know how much I meditate, and it's very important. I was getting ready to before we were called out, and I wore myself out fighting with Gizmo after Thunder and Lightning, and I had already been tired before we left. That night as I slept, my powers got out of control. Usually when that happens, something breaks or gets thrown around."
"Yeah, something like me..." muttered BB, rubbing the back of his neck. Sometimes he just pushed Raven too far and got the raw end of her unleashed emotions.
Raven continued. "I guess since I was sleeping, it didn't work the same way. And since I'd been unconsciously using my powers all night, I didn't get much rest. I woke up as tired as I was when I fell asleep. The fight with Cinderblock made it worse, and I had to give it all I had to help Star. It was...too much all at once and I guess my body just couldn't take it. I think that's why I passed out. And once again, I went to bed without meditating."
"I am sorry that I was injured, Raven. I feel then that I am also to blame for the dream events." Star looked at the floor.
"No, Star. It's nobody's fault." Cyborg dropped his hand from Robin's shoulder, convinced that he wasn't going to try to attack Raven anymore. "But I still wanna hear about this test. And the mirror thing. You mean that creepy place with all of the you's?"
Raven nodded. Beast Boy shuddered, remembering the battle with Trigon. 'Yeah,' he thought. 'Inside Raven's head is no place you wanna be.'
"I decided to test my theory, see if I was right. I had thought that this was caused by not meditating, and I'm sure now that I was right. I made myself not meditate again last night, and, well....look what happened."
"Okay, as the unofficial doctor here, I'm saying that you need to stay here in bed until you get up your energy again. We hooked you up to the monitors while you were out, and they showed some really funky activity. Your heart rate was really high, and your brain waves were practically off the chart. According to all of me sensors, you were burning energy that didn't come from anywhere. It didn't even slow down until about an hour ago, and then about ten minutes before you woke up it all went back down to your normal range. I don't understand it at all. And Raven, since we woke Robin up, we've all been awake, so we'd know if you were in our heads, right?
"Well..." Raven had to tread carefully on this one. All of the Titans knew what her powers were, but she didn't think that they really realized how extensive they were. "I'm almost cetain that you would. It takes a lot of concentration to do something like that without being noticed, and I wasn't concentrating on anything at all." That was pretty much the truth. She did have to concentrate on it to make sure that parts of her didn't interfere with the persons normal processes, but it wasn't hard at all. In fact, she could do that and even use some of her other powers at the same time. But she'd never really shared that bit of information before, and now didn't feel like the right time. "Why?"
It was Robin who answered. "Because until about ten minutes before you woke up, your eyes were still glowing." Raven looked up sharply and stared. Had she still been using her powers that whole time? And if she was...what happened?
-------------
-------------
A/N: Okay, that was a short chapter, and I'm sorry for that, but I really wanted it to end right there. I originally had made it longer by having them discuss the dreams a bit more, but I didn't think that it was the right place in the story for that just yet. You didn't miss anything, really. All that happened was that Raven told what all the dreams from the past three nights were, and the dreams were commented upon by the others. It was kinda funny, I guess, in a part or two, but overall I felt that the little insights that the dreams gave Raven were best kept to herself for a while, so that it could make for deeper relationships and more chapters later.
As promised, here's a list of people who've reviewed, and a few responses! Thanks to:
Sternum
Ab
ScorpioSerpent (thanks for both reviews!)
Melissa123
Yellowlightning (Oh, my gosh, thank you so much!)
Darkgal186 (I have 2 favorite pairings: Rae/Rob and Rae/BB, but I think Rae/BB is more canon than Rae/Rob.)
And if you all review again, or if you're a new reader and have yet to review, I'll make this list a habit. But you have to review to get on it!!!
