Shellshocked

Chapter 8 "White Room"

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"Shut up! Just shut up!" Terra yelled, her face taking on a maniac expression that she never, ever, shown before. She dug the sword deeper into Raven's throat. "Prepare to die you freak."

"Look who's talking, you're the one without a body of your own." Raven managed to retort. Terra's eyes flashed with anger as she raised the sword, and Raven closed her eyes knowing no help was going to come her way.

This is the end.

"Love to the rescue!" Said a high, squeaky voice.

Raven kept her eyes tightly shut, awaiting for the pain Terra's sword would bring. She was so absorbed into waiting for her death that she didn't hear the shouts of her enemies.

Terra also was too much in focus of completing her last task that she didn't hear the orders from Anger nor did she see a small cloaked figure come in at her from her side. The ex-apprentice barely had enough time to blink before she felt a burning sensation hit her abdomen and sent her hurling five feet backwards, her sword falling to the ground and breaking into useless pieces of rock.

"What is this?" Anger hissed as it observed the tiny cloaked figure. "Another emotion?!"

When the pain did not consume Raven, she tried to open her eyes and see what could possibly be happening but she was too weak to even lift an eyelid. Soon she felt herself falling again and her face crashed down onto the rocky ground, warm blood was slowly soaking the ground and her face.

"Attack it you fools!" Anger ordered the other emotions standing behind it. The other four eyed emotions nodded and each exposed their hands from their cloaks and black energy soon erupted from their palms and shot at the new emotion with multiple streams.

The tiny emotion, however, did not show any weakness nor fear in the fatal attack from Anger's army. Instead, it lifted its tiny hands, palms up, and summoned a shield in the form of a black raven and absorbed the emotions attacks.

"Attack again!"

The emotions dug out more power from within themselves and shot their energy again to the tiny emotion but it still could not break the shield.

"You'll have to do more than that." The new emotion flashed a quick smile from behind its unbreakable shield.

"We have to hurry." A newer voice cried, its tone small and shaky, sounding almost frightened.

"Huh?"

"She's hurt. We have to get away from here."

"Leave that to me." The squeaky voiced emotion grinned. Its eyes glowed white and the black shield turned into a bubble like structure and enveloped the two new emotions in darkness and the unconscious Raven and it lifted them up, the bubble turned into a raven, and it flew past Anger, its army, and Terra.

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Not again, not now. Why did she have to do that? I saved her, she was in my debt. And now she sides with him. I trusted her, and for the second time she betrayed me.

Stop gloating, so she betrayed you again. There's only one thing left to do, dispose of her and the others. Just get your friends to help, they'll think of something. They always do. Now, wake up.

Raven suddenly became aware of her control over her body. She no longer felt weak, her body was aching, but not weak. Her eyelids fluttered and opened, she half expected herself to be in the towers infirmary, but she saw nothing but a star filled black abyss. She was still inside her mind.

Groaning, Raven slowly forced her upper body to sit up but she felt a strange force holding her down.

"Stop that, I'm not done healing you."

Rave's purple eyes snapped open, though the voice she heard was identical to hers, the tone of its voice was something she couldn't recognize.

Turning to her left, Raven's breath was suddenly caught in her throat. Kneeling beside her, healing her, was a duplicate of herself but the cloak was colored black. She breathed in relief as she noted that it only had two eyes.

As more feeling came into her body, she became aware of a warm sensation forming in her throat and mouth.

"There, good as new." The black cloaked emotion said quietly.

Raven strained her ears to hear the emotion and could practically feel the fear in its voice. Her heart skipped a beat and a faint grin grew on her pale face. "Fear?"

"Yes?" The black cloaked emotion whispered, turning its face to look at Raven's.

Physically, Raven showed no emotion, but mentally she was quite relieved. The dark abyss quickly turned a bright blue before it quickly vanished again.

Fear looked up at the sky as it changed color and looked back down to Raven. "I take it your relieved. You're happy you're not alone?"

"Something like that." Raven muttered and sat up slowly. Her back and abdomen were still painfully sore.

"What happened?" She asked.

The black cloaked emotion lifted up its hood and covered its face while keeping its eyes on the ground. Fear acted a lot like Timid.

"Fear?" Raven asked again. "What happened?"

The black emotion shook its head and whimpered. "Anger is finally winning. Soon you'll be consumed by it."

"What do you mean? How? Anger was kept under constant observation by everyone." Raven sat up and tucked her feet under her in Indian Style. She placed her palms on her knees and she leaned back onto the trunk of a dead tree behind her. "What happened to the other emotions? I saw they all had–"

"Four eyes?" Fear interjected. "Yes, Anger has manipulated them."

"How? Is that even possible?"

"Of course it is." Fear also sat down on the ground directly in front of Raven. Then it took off its hood. "For example, Happy is just plain happy and joyful. But with Anger to influence it, Happy will only become happy when it either observes or performs evil things. Think of Happy as the sadistic side of you."

Raven frowned. "I get it, and don't tell me about the others, I don't want to know what kind of sick person I can be."

Fear looked down to the ground again, its eyes were so...well filled with fear. It was almost frightening just to be near it.

"Its over, we can't win." Fear whispered.

Raven frowned again. If it weren't for Terra....

"Now don't talk like that." Said the high pitched voice again, amplifying from behind Raven.

Turning, Raven didn't know if she should laugh or fall over in shock.

The owner of the new voice, another emotion, stepped next to Raven. Its cloak was of a pale pink, like a bubblegum color. But what made its appearance humorous was its size. It was about half the size of Raven, its appearance took the figure of a child.

Raven lost control of a chuckle but quickly cleared her throat, pretending to stiff a cough. "What...are you?"

Chibi Raven smiled, its eyes taking the shape of an upside down U again. "I'm love."

"Love?" Raven lifted an eyebrow.

How could it be love? I haven't...Malchior...no. Even then it wasn't love, just a simple crush, my feelings weren't that deep yet.

"Why are you so small then?" Raven asked, forgetting her thoughts on Malchior for a second. She couldn't afford to feel any anger and empower the emotion.

"There are two types of love. Unfortunately you've only felt one of them, so I'm only partly developed." Love smiled.

That explains the size.

Raven couldn't help but to stare at the smaller emotion, for something so small it was awfully powerful. The small emotion alone managed to block all of the other emotions powers, Raven alone couldn't do that.

But she quickly snapped out of her thoughts, now wasn't the time to be thinking of such trivial matters. She had to talk to the other titans, she had to let them know what was happening. And most of all, she needed their help.

"Anger pulled me into my own mind." Raven muttered under her breath as she stood up.

"Not really, you were unconscious and weakened at the stress of the manipulation of your emotions." Fear announced, it still sat on the ground staring at the ground as if expecting for it to come alive. Looking up, Raven nearly shivered staring into its eyes. "You can always go back now that you've recovered."

Raven lifted her fingers and touched her neck and lips, the wounds were gone. "I never thanked you for that."

"Don't mention it." Love piped in. "Fear is great at healing and creating illusions."

Raven nodded. The memories of the Wicked Scary movie and the loss of her powers from fear came flooding into her mind. She even surprised herself to find out that her telekinesis powers were able to create sounds and illusions.

"I got to get back out, I need to tell my friends about this."

Both emotions nodded but Love was the only one smiling.

"You both will be ok?" Raven asked.

Fear whimpered and looked at the ground again while visibly shaking. Love was still standing and smiling.

"Of course." Love stated.

"I'll feel better if you both just hide out." Raven cried.

"Where? There's no where to hide." Fear whimpered.

Raven sighed. "Well then stay active, don't stay in one area for too long. And if you run into any emotion or Terra, just run, don't fight."

Both nodded again. This time it was Raven that smiled. Then she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and slowly exhaled. When she opened her eyes, she found herself out of her mind and was hoping to wake up in the medical infirmary. But where she awakened in, she didn't know where at first glance but one thing was certain...the lights were blinding.

Groaning, Raven's hands shot up to shield her eyes.

"Turn off the lights." She whispered, her voice came out weaker than she imagined.

Nothing happened, there were no footsteps, no apology, and the lights were still beaming down on her. Sighing, Raven laid quietly and waited for her eyes to come back into focus.

She kept her eyes shut while she sat up and put her head down. Opening her eyes, she winced as more blinding light reflected from the tile ground and into her eyes.

Where am I? This isn't the infirmary.

"I don't know about this Cy, isn't it a little harsh to keep Raven in there?"

Raven's ears perked and her face bolted upward, her eyes scanning for the source of the voice. Then did she notice the room she was in, the ceiling, floor, even the walls were white. But she couldn't find the door.

"You heard Robin's orders."

Finally she found the door, it blended it with the white walls, it was located in the far left corner from where Raven was looking. She quickly stood on her legs, ignoring the dull numbness in her limbs, and walked towards the door. Luckily, it had a small window. Outside stood Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"So what? Dude, this isn't the first time Raven freaked out and went hostile." Beast Boy announced, waving his arms in the air. "Remember when she nearly made Doctor Light go insane and when she nuked my tofu eggs!"

Cyborg sighed and closed his eyes. "I don't like doing this either, but orders are orders."

Raven frowned, what were they talking about? She grabbed the doorknob but it wouldn't turn. She scanned the rest of the room for another door but there was nothing, was she locked in?

"Forget orders!" Beast Boy shouted. "Robin will throw anyone in jail if they give StarFire a mean look."

Cyborg narrowed his eye. "She nearly took StarFire's head off, and she's still unconscious."

Raven inhaled sharply, did Anger take control of her body while she was sucked into her mind? And if so, what did it do to StarFire?

"Something is going on in Raven's head, I'm telling you Cy, I swear I heard Terra's voice in her room. What if...what if Terra's in her mind?"

Cyborg chuckled. "Now how could Terra get in Raven's mind? That's impossible."

Beast Boy frowned. "Hello?! We went into her mind before remember? With that freaky mirror."

Cyborg's eyes widened. "Oh yeah. But why would she be in her mind? You've been visiting her and she's still rock."

Beast Boy grabbed his head and moaned. "Too much thinking!"

Raven found her chance to intervene and slammed on the metal door.

Beast Boy squealed and jumped up while Cyborg simply turned with his eye wide in surprise.

"Raven?" He asked, he inched closer to the door.

"Open the door." Raven said in her usual mono-tone voice.

Cyborg frowned and moved closer to the window and signaled for her to repeat herself.

"Open the door." Raven said louder.

"I can't hear you." Cyborg repeated, but quickly found the reason why. Beside the door laid a button on the wall. Pressing it, Raven's voice suddenly amplified through small speakers beneath the window.

"Open the door!" Raven hissed, a vein pulsing on her forehead.

Cyborg sighed and closed his eyes. "I can't Raven."

"Why not?"

"Because you totally created a smackdown in the Tower." Beast Boy said suddenly, standing beside Cyborg. "Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?" Raven frowned again.

Beast Boy and Cyborg exchanged a quick glance and turned back to their friend.

"You were in some kind of trance and attacked StarFire." Cyborg answered.

Raven gasped quietly. "I would never do that!'

"Dude, you were like the Exorcist chick, your head nearly turned completely." Beast Boy announced.

Raven stared at the floor, Anger must have really taken control of her. Now, obviously Robin ordered Cyborg and Beast Boy to put her in this...white room so she wouldn't hurt anyone.

Wait...

"But why here?" She asked. "I would expect to be in jail or something."

Beast Boy opened his mouth and froze, he suddenly couldn't think of any words to say. Well not in a nice way that is.

"Uhh." Cyborg cried. "We–Robin...well he..."

"Out with it!" Raven interrupted impatiently.

"Robin thinks you've lost it." Beast Boy finished.

Raven felt her heart skip a beat and a cold chill ran down her spine. "What?"

"Sorry Raven." Cyborg said sadly.

"You–you think I'm crazy?" Raven asked, her chest suddenly tightened.

"No, course not Raven." Beast Boy smiled weakly. "Just Robin 'cuz you hurt Star, you know?"

Raven swallowed, she was suddenly very thirsty. Tears threatened to leak from her eyes but she couldn't afford to show such emotion, nor in front of her friends. But the thought of her only friends, her family, to think she was crazy was heartbreaking.

"You think I'm crazy." She said softly.

Beast Boy blinked and tried to think of what to say.

"No, we don't think that." Cyborg said.

Raven looked up and shook her head. "You both think I'm crazy too."

Her eyes, for a split second, flashed red. As Raven blinked back the tears, above her own eyes, there appeared to be another set of eyes blinking.

Beast Boy yelped and Cyborg stepped back. They both were aware to stay far away from Raven if her eyes turned red or if she gained an extra pair.

Raven kept her eyes tightly shut and mentally suppressed her emotions, she couldn't lose control, not now.

"You think I'm crazy." She repeated as if in a trance.

"Sorry Raven." Cyborg took a cautious step closer when he noticed Raven's eyes were purple again and her extra set of eyes vanished. "But...maybe all of your emotions finally developed into personalities, and...who knows, maybe you don't realize it when one– "

"I'm not crazy!"

Raven dove at the door and slammed both her fists at the door, her hands were glowing with black energy but her slams did nothing to damage the door.

Stepping back, she closed her eyes and quickly calmed herself. "Azerath...Metrion...Zinthos!"

Black energy formed in her palms and swiftly blasted out and slammed onto the white door and walls. Still they remained undamaged.

Raven grew beyond frustrated. A swarm of emotions flooded her head. Betrayal from Terra, joy from the discovery of her new emotions, worry from Anger's success, and now sorrow from her friends. They thought she was crazy. She trusted they would be by her side, eager to help her. She needed their help, she couldn't do this on her own.

Tears flooded out of her eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks. She was losing control, there was too much for her to take at once. The most powerful emotion she felt was anger.

"I'M NOT CRAZY!"

She no longer cared for her tough appearance, she didn't care if Anger or Terra took control of her body, she didn't care if she was engulfed in her power and could possibly kill herself. She was too angry at everything, her father for her burden. Her mother for her weakness. Terra for her selfish actions. Her friends for their stubborness. And herself for her failure.

Raven threw herself at the door and slammed her fists at the window, she ignored the pain in her hands and kept hitting. She wasn't going to stop until she broke out. The white room felt as if it was closing in. It felt like it was taunting her, laughing at her. Raven's power could move anything, bend anything, break anything. Yet she couldn't break through this white room.

The window she slammed on finally began to give, her continuous magic empowered fists were too much for even bullet proof glass. Raven's chakra crystal glowed red and the window suddenly turned black and the cracks grew. Soon it shattered to a thousand pieces and sunk into Raven's skin as she continued to punch it.

Cyborg and Beast Boy stood watching in awe. Never have they seen Raven lose control, well technically they have, but not like this. Her shouts were painful to their ears and they had shut off the speaker but when Raven broke the window, they had nothing to mask her screams.

They couldn't move, they couldn't think. They could only observe. After, who knows how long, seconds, minutes, hours, no one kept time of the event, but after a while Raven's voice and body soon fell weak and stopped.

Raven dropped to her knees, her blood soaked hands weakly scratching against the white door, which was now turning crimson. Tears continued to fall, mixing with her wounded hands.

"I'm not crazy." She continued to say, but her voice grew incredibly weak and hoarse.

She sat and pushed her back against the wall, brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, and she rocked back and forth slowly.

"I'm not crazy." She whispered to herself. "I'm not crazy."

Tears swelled in Beast Boy and Cyborg's eyes. It was painful seeing their friend in such a state. But what could they do?

"We gotta help her." Beast Boy whispered to his mechanical friend.

"How?"

Beast Boy shook his head.

"I'm not crazy." Raven continued to whisper from inside the white room.

Cyborg sighed. Suddenly an idea popped into his head. "Her mirror!"

"Huh?"

"Her mirror, Raven said it's a portal into her mind." Cyborg smiled. "We can go back into her mind and help her."

Beast Boy smiled. "Let's go!"

Raven couldn't hear them, she couldn't hear anything but her own thoughts.

They think I'm crazy.

"I'm not crazy." Raven whispered again.

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Cyborg whistled. "Man...and I thought your room was a mess."

Beast Boy glared at him but quickly shook off his thoughts. But he was right, Raven's room was ground zero.

"Where was her mirror at again?" Beast Boy asked.

"I dunno, you tell me B.B. You were the one that found it and went popping zits with it."

Beast Boy frowned. He remembered it was at her drawer but the drawer was toppled over. He scanned the area but there was nothing on the ground but books and some of Raven's clothing.

"Any luck, Cy?" He asked.

Cyborg scanned throughout the rest of Raven's room with the help of his scanners, and just when he was going to give up, his canner beeped. Walking towards the corner between Raven's bed and the window, he removed the pile of books and clothes and froze.

"Cy?"

Beast Boy stepped next to Cyborg and looked in the same area he was staring at. His eyes widened. There on the floor, Raven's magic mirror, laid shattered in pieces on the floor.