Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, and at this rate, I never will. But what if I said I did? What would YOU do about it? … That's what I thought.

Nor do I own Edgar Allen Poe or anything he's done. The book title was completely made up and I don't think such a thing even exists.

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None of the Titans bothered Raven. They weren't stupid. The next day was Raven's birthday, the first anniversary of Trigon's failure to annihilate the world. Rage had emerged, and been merciless. It had taken a lot to bring Raven back. She would be meditating for the rest of the day

And so she was.

The thing about meditation, however, was that its general point was to help her gain control of her emotions. This meant she had to be around them. They always surrounded her during mediation, but none of the Titans could see them unless they were inside the mirror that led into her mind. Raven had become quite proficient at ignoring them while they did whatever their emotion suited them to. Today, however, they were especially rowdy. Raven peered around her room with one eye, not particularly pleased at the emotions that were making such a racket. It made her head hurt.

Happy twirled about her room, staring at the ceiling with a smile as she talked about anything that made her… well, happy. So we should go to the mall! Maybe Starfire will take us tomorrow for our birthday! I saw some shoes there the other day that were just too cute! I mean, Raven would never wear them, but I would! They were so sparkly, like glitter! We should throw glitter in the air when we go out into the living room! Happy birthday to us! Happy birthday to us! Happy birthday dear Ravens; happy birthday to us!

Sarcasm looked at Happy. And how would that make us look?

Happy!

Um, why don't we just, um, be quiet and maybe they won't notice? Timid suggested.

That's a stupid idea, Rude said.

Oh, sorry! Timid apologized.

… And after the mall and the glitter and the birthday cake, we'll open presents! I can't wait to see if we got that pony I've been wanting!

If we're going to get anything, it'll be books. That's what we always get, Intelligence said. Beast Boy will probably forget he's gotten us A Collection of Works from Edgar Allen Poe for four holidays in a row and will get us that again.

Or maybe I'll get a purse! I've always wanted a purse, but Raven would never buy one for her life!

Intelligence sighed and continued perusing through Raven's volumes, all of which she must have read at least twenty times apiece.

Rage had been strangely quiet. She stood in the corner next to the calendar Raven had replaced, silent, smiling. Raven had only recently noticed how her eyes seemed to glow brighter each day, how she never stopped smiling that same, awful smile, and how she had grown silent as Raven's birthday approached. At the same time, however, she had been able to control Raven more often than ever before. Raven peered over at Rage for a moment, but closed her eye as Rage met her gaze. Rage had become quite the monster to make even the most horrifying creatures freeze in fear—to make even Raven turn away.

At Raven's stare, Rage moved from her corner for the first time. Hearing the movement, Raven again opened her eyes to meet two glowing red eyes inches from her own.

"Yes?" Raven asked irritably.

Rage looked over at the clock on Raven's bed. Raven turned her gaze to the clock just as it changed to midnight. She and Rage made eye contact once again, and Rage's ever-widening smirk grew.

Time's up.

Rage grabbed Raven's shoulders, her claws for nails digging into Raven's skin. The girl in red glared at her counterpart in blue, and Raven found herself unable to turn from Rage's gaze. Her breathing began to slow until her lungs couldn't take in any more oxygen, and her eyes became mangled with fear. She tried to stop the haziness from taking over her vision, but it became clouded with darkness until finally nothing more was visible and Raven slumped to the floor.

All of the emotions in the room vanished. For several moments, there was complete silence throughout the tower, and silence in Raven's mind. Then, quite suddenly, Raven's cloak began to change colors. It went immediately to a bloody red, but then lighted to a bright pink. It changed between the two for quite some time, but then it turned green. After that, for so short a time you could hardly imagine it was there, the cloak turned purple, and then pink again, then red, pink, red, pink, yellow, red, pink. This went on for quite some time, though never once did the cloak turn back to its original blue. In the next ten minutes, the other colors fighting for supremacy would die away, and red and pink would be the only ones to switch back and forth. Finally, the pink wrenched away the red's hold, and the cloak turned to bright pink once again. Still, Raven did not get up. The cloak remained pink for another minute, but then quite suddenly shot down the color wheel to a dark black. Here it seemed to settle, for after so long unconscious on the floor, Raven's eyes opened.

They were not, however, purple. The eyes that peered around Raven's room were cold and black. Raven stood up straightened her cloak, then walked over to the mirror. It was a broken mirror, for Raven had lost control of her emotions hours ago and shattered it. It did, however, portray what the black Raven had expected it to.

The black cloak, the black eyes, and the hideous smile stared back at her. It almost made Raven… happy. The smirk widened. Irony was so amusing. To think she would never be happy again. It was a happy thought. Was such possible? The smile kept growing. Oh, yes. If one was Raven, it was very possible.

What a joy to be Raven.

What a joy to be out at last.

What a joy that the prophecy she had waited so long to see through was now fulfilled.

What a joy to be Raven.

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A/N:

Hmm. Sorry, I felt like ending it there. : ) Very short chapter, but you don't care. All you care about is that I update soon. That's how it always is. : ) So I'd better get to work on that next chapter! I said I would give you answers in this one, but I think the answers are actually going to come throughout the story. It would be hard to give all the answers in this particular chapter, so I'll just have the Titans figure it out. Hope you enjoyed this insanely short chapter. : )

Thankx for reading, and please review!

Riles