A/N: The beginning of some answers...the beginning of ends...the beginning of things that won't end well or make sense, and I'm sure more surprises...and a touch of insanity. And away we go...

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, but hey, I think we all knew that already

Doors That Can't Be Closed

Chapter 7

By: Finalitylife

"Stupid Robin. Stupid Raven. Its all their fault that Terra is gone. They never trusted her. They were always so hard on her and because of them, she went to Slade and...and I lost her forever. I hate both of you so much."

"Why did Robin lash out at me...why did Robin hurt me? Why won't he just let me love him as I desire? It is Raven's fault...I see her trying to steal away my boy...I see her trying to take away what is mine. It is her fault Robin is sick...she was jealous of what I had...she affected his mind and now I've lost him. I hate her."

"Stupid spiky-haired jerk, always acting like he is better than me, like he's the only one capable of leading. Well ya know what, now I'm the leader and he's the nothing. Serves him right. And Raven...uncaring, selfish bitch...just like Robin, always treating me like I'm nothing, like I'm just some damn machine. I hope she just disappears too. They both will get what they deserve."

"Why did I let myself be drawn in to their lies...why was I so stupid...and Raven...she is the worst of them all. I actually trusted her, actually let her in...her betrayal hurts the most because I allowed myself to believe it wouldn't come...I hate you Raven."

Was she in Hell? Was she finally where she was born to be? She could hear the cold, cruel thoughts of each of the Titans echoing around her, each one harder to hear than the next yet it was more than just hearing them...she was feeling them too, she was feeling the pain, the resentment...the hate and it was unbearable.

She did not remember falling from the window nor hitting the ground and Raven found herself at a complete loss as to what was going on . She knew she was on the ground, her body quivering from the bombardment of cruel emotion that continued to slam into her over and over again. Why hadn't it stopped? Why wasn't she dead like she had wanted?

She pulled her shaking body off the hard, rocky ground and took in the sight around her. Dead, barren, dark, and strange...the landscape of her mind. How had she come to this place? How was it that she could hear her friend's from inside her own mind? Only more unanswered questions for the lost soul.

It always felt strange to be within her mind because it was a place that she did not hold absolute power over despite it being her own self. Here, her other aspects were capable of their own individual thoughts and actions that ultimately made up her total self, the one that she truly was, the one who at this moment was barely holding anything together.

However, this time, this unexpected trip to her mind felt different than any others before because she found herself having difficulty connecting to Nevermore, felt a strange hollowness to everything around her, and could not simply make sense out of these strange feelings similar to the ones she had felt from Robin when he had attacked her and back in the infirmary.

Her mind continued to be battered by the sounds of the other Titan's thoughts and Robin's were clearly becoming more angry, more deranged. Doing her best to block it all out, Raven again surveyed her own mind, realizing that not a single emotion had come to greet her. At the very least Intelligence would should up because she was the one Raven most frequently talked to but even the thick glasses wearing Raven in the yellow cloak was nowhere to be found, nothing was to be found, not even the occasional squawk of a four-eyed raven, and that fact made Raven very nervous for they were always present no matter what.

Raven started walking forward, her destination the vast library of Intelligence, where maybe she would find answers. The voices had become quiet murmurs, settling at the edge of her hearing, the words not clear though the feelings still strong.

As she walked, the distorted aspects of her mind only seemed to increase and the eerie silence of it all made no sense because she knew what an emotional wreck she was right now. It was taking every ounce of her will to not simply fall over and curl up in a ball and simply wallow in sadness, pain, and self loathing. Thankfully, the path was short as Raven knew all the short cuts of her own mind and she found herself at the steps to Intelligence's domain.

The place always had the smell of musty old books which in fact was the only thing at this moment that made sense to Raven because it was in fact a huge library of thousands of books...her thoughts, her memories, all that she had learned over her lifetime so far. Enormously tall shelves filled with thick books, organized perfectly and then there was the complete opposite: giant, chaotic piles of books that spilled out into the walkways between the shelves, no recognizable order whatsoever. This was the most central point of Raven's mind, where almost every action was processed by the most logical part of herself, the true problem solving part of herself, where she hoped to find answers.

"Intelligence!" Raven's voice immediately started echoing around the area, bouncing off the walls, carrying itself down the seemingly endless aisles. There was no response except for the constant, low murmurings of the other Titan's dark thoughts. Everything felt extremely creepy to Raven though she did her best not to think of that particular word. It only brought more pain.

"Where are you?" Her words traveled the same path and received the same response...nothing.

"Why won't you answer me?" These words came out as a defeated plea, barely above a whisper but it was these words that were finally answered.

"Because...she can't." The voice was even quieter than Raven's had been just a second ago, terribly meek and scared sounding, and Raven knew exactly who it was.

"Timid..." Raven turned around and felt, like for the millionth time this day, her heart stop dead in her chest. For standing in front of her was not the painfully meek form of Timid, but something far frailer, and far more pathetic looking. Raven could barely recognize this 'person' as a mirror image of herself. There was the obvious fact this Raven was clad in various shades of grey, the differences went far deeper than that. This Raven looked like some type of living skeleton, her bones pushing out, blatantly visible, her eyes sunken, her hair dead and scraggily. Her whole body looked like it was ready to fall over, ready to die at any second, though the real Raven realized she had been ready to die as well not that long ago.

"Timid..." This time Raven's voice was a mixture of pity and worry as she stared upon this withering being.

"I...I am far more now than only that emotion. All your fear, all your pain, all your suffering, sadness, and fear have become me and I have become them. It hurts...it hurts so very much all the time...yet...yet I still saved you from taking your own life." Raven could not believe what this...this dying wraith was telling her.

"You! How could you save me! You barely can stand there and your telling me I'm alive because of you!" Raven did not mean to snap at her but was simply just too on edge, just too completely bewildered by this. The grey-cloaked Raven immediately shrunk back from the yell, head hidden within the folds of the cloak, but the dry, tentative voice still spoke.

"Though your pain is causing me incredible suffering, it...it is giving me enough strength to fight against what I fear above all else...death. I am...I am so very terrified of dying." Tears were evident in the girl's sunken eyes, her fear felt deep within Raven's soul and she knew the words and feelings were true. Self preservation, fear of dying; they were powerful forces even when she had lost everything else.

"You said Intelligence couldn't answer me..why is that, where is she?" The picture of frailty in front of her met her questioning gaze with one born of a grim, unrelenting danger.

"The one has ensured none of them can answer you. I am only left because she knew everything she would do would only cause me great pain and she found savage joy in my suffering. She said I was too weak to even matter and left me to wallow in the suffering that she hoped would eat away at me as slowly as possible."

"No...please no...this can't be..." The grey-cloaked Raven nodded only slightly.

"It is. She escaped when you let down your barriers to save the one known as Robin. She escaped when you divided your strength to ensure the one Happiness always speaks of lived. She is free...and now...she seeks to ensure her freedom never is taken away again." Raven felt an extreme wave of nausea hit her and she dropped on to all fours as the meager contents of her stomach were expelled into her mindscape. Had she been able to think clearly at all, she would have questioned how such an act was even possible in this place but right now that was the very least of her worries for the darkest part of her soul had gained her freedom, escaped from her cage in the darkest depths of her mind.

"How could I have not none, how could I have not felt it, put all the pieces together...how could I have been so blind?"

"She bound the other aspects of your personality and without them, you could not see what should have been clear to you...could not see the dangerous truth as it closed in around you. All you could see is the pain inflicted upon you, over and over again, all you could feel is what I represent, that which destroyed you."

"We have to find her now! We have to imprison her once again before its too late. Do you hear me?" Raven was now shaking her counterpart as she gripped her boney shoulders tightly, panic overwhelming, her voice of reason nowhere to be found even in her own domain.

"You are correct...but...but..."

"But what...please tell me..."

"She no longer resides fully in your mind. The majority of her presence has found sanctuary in another through the bond you created...in another who was not strong enough at the time to resist, who was not well enough to see through her manipulation...her lies."

"You don't mean...please not him..." Raven pleaded though she already knew the horrible truth.

"Yes...the one who means the most to us...he is now the slave to our darkness, the holder of that which seeks to consume. He is lost...they are all lost...because of us and our failures." A scream of the deepest anguish ripped through the entire existence of Nevermore, penetrating even into the deep recesses where things were meant to be forgotten. Within this dark place, blood-eyed raven's with glistening fangs almost in the form of a twisted smile sat perched on the shoulders of what appeared to be scarecrows. Unmoving, their arms stretched out to the sides as if held up to an invisible cross by red energy, each one dressed in a different colored cloak, each one with a single tear rolling down their defeated faces as the unescapable truth was finally made known.