Collecting the Pieces of a Broken Mirror

' Thought '

"Speech"

Chapter 4: The Short, Sweet, Painful Dream Life is.

Everything was dark.

Then came a flash.

"It's not working! Charge up to 300!".

Beeep...THUD! but Darkness came again.

Beeeeeep... THUD!

What is this noise?

"She's back, guys! Keep up! 3 milligrams of...

What are these voices?

Where am I?

Flashes. Flashes. Flashes. She was momentarily blind. Her hand covered her eyes, which ached a bit when her pupils reduced as an answer to the sudden light. As the pain went away, she removed her hand from the front of her eyes.

The room she was in was completely white. She found herself wearing something like a very long white tee-shirt.

I don't remember getting changed... What has happened?

Raven looked around. She saw people rushing up and down the room. Doctors. She called one of them. He did not answer.

"Hey! I've called you!", she said as she stretched her arm to touch his back. Her arm passed through it.

This is an illusion. What caused it?

A bit disturbed, she walked around the room. No doors, no windows. No walls. It seemed to be infinite.

As she continued her walk, she noticed she was no longer in the white room. Now her surroundings were black. Like a dark corridor. With a door in its end. A door emanating astonishing white light and a warm breeze which carried the faint sound of the flap of many soft wings.

Raven felt compelled to go through it. She didn't know why.

I may just go through it, without knowing what awaits for me...

She turned to the other side of the corridor. No light, but no strange presence either. She lifted her hand to pull back a strand of hair. Its smoothness surprised her. It was like she had never touched it, and its texture was completely new.

Or go back to the empty place I was in before...

She sighed, sitting on the floor.

I just wish I was in the Tower again, with the others. With... Beast Boy.

Then she heard something like the murmur of many voices, and between all of them she could understand what one was saying. The murmur became a soft whisper, and grew louder and louder, until she was able to recognize the voice.

It was Beast Boy's, and he was calling her.

oOo

She passed out. There was too much blood.

"Take her inside the car, Beast Boy! NOW!", cried Cyborg as he turned his baby's engines.

Beast Boy did it as carefully and as fast as he could. Robin went inside the car as well, while the green elf and Starfire decided to fly to the hospital. This way, there would be more space to Raven in the car.

'You.. cannot die, Raven! Not before I tell you how much I love you. You can't leave me...'

"Beast Boy... she is strong. She is going to survive... I... I am certain she is", Starfire kept telling him as a way to assure herself, something that was not really working.

They both knew how hurt she was. They both knew how much blood she had lost. They both knew she didn't have many chances even to arrive alive at the hospital.

oOo

"Breathe, Raven!", cried Robin for the third time after trying again to perform a CPR. "YOU ARE NOT DYING HERE! Not inside my car, lady! You WILL make it to the hospital? Can you hear me? YOU WILL MAKE IT!"

The car's tires sang on the wet streets, breaking the silence of dawn.

Thanks to the absence of cars at that early hour, they arrived in the hospital as fast as they could possibly have done it.

The two boys watched Raven being laid on a litter and was taken to the white and cold corridors of the hospital. They also watched, madly concerned, as the doctors tried to make her heart beat again.

Soon the other two Titans arrived, and the four of them sat on the waiting room as the white sun woke up and shone. One old doctor came in the silent room.

Their friend had lost too much blood. They had made a blood transfusion, but she was too hurt inside. Most of her bones were broken, causing a internal hemorrhage. Her status was stable now, but she did not have many chances of survival.

Later, maybe around midday, they would be able to go inside her room to see her, if they wished to. They were all worried. They all felt an strange emptiness inside. Without Raven... what would they be like? How would their life be without her? It wasn't good thinking about such things at that tense moment.

The Titan's communicators went off. They were needed somewhere. They were needed in two places, actually, but could only choose one.

"I'm NOT leaving Raven!"

"Beast Boy, we have to!"

"No, I don't have to! Why? Only because there's another freak that people want us to hunt down?"

"YES! Duty must overcome friendship in this case!"

"You sound just like her, Robin..."

"Maybe because it's what she would've done in my place."

Duty must overcome friendship. And it did. It had to.

oOo

She was again in the white room. The ghost doctors were gone, but not Beast Boy's calling. Raven was confused. Where was his voice coming from?

Beast Boy, where are you?

She could listen to his voice clearly. He was talking to her. Maybe if she yelled...

Beast Boy! BEAST BOY!

Something like a window opened. Raven closed her eyes. jumped to the other side. She did not bother to fly.

Raven opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings. She saw a support for a bag of blood serum, some machines checking her status and a green skinned boy holding her grazed hand.

"Raven? Rae! Are you awake?"

"Beast Boy? Where... am I?"

"You're in the hospital. Sorry I lied to you when I said you were not too hurt..."

"It's alright... "

"It's not, Raven," he whispered, for he was close enough to her face to be heard without talking aloud. "I thought I had lost you... I felt empty, and I never want to feel like that again."

"Beast Boy? My... vision is darkening again...", she said in a faint, trembling voice. "I.. think I'm scared..."

"Don't be, Raven... I'm with you, and always will be. There's something I wanted to tell you, and had many chances to do so but lacked the confidence."

"What is it?"

"I love you, Raven. I really do. And, oh man, I love you so much! So please don't go now! Please don't leave me like this...".

He thought he had seem a weak smile lightening her face. She kissed his cheek.

"It's not a matter of choice, BB... I don't know what awaits for me... but... I want to tell you that I..."

Before she could finish, she slipped into total darkness. During her fall into emptiness she heard a loud, continuos, machine-like "beep" and identified her name between soft sobs.

Then there was nothing.