Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any of the characters associated with them.
Author's Note:
VERY IMPORTANT!
IF YOU HAVE BEEN READING THIS STORY FROM THE FIRST TIME IT WAS POSTED, GO BACK AND READ CHAPTER 7. IT HAS BEEN UPDATED!
Okay, sorry about the all caps, underlined, italized, and bolded text, but I just want to make sure everyone knows this. If you have been keeping up with this story, then you need to go back and read chapter 7, because since its posting, the other half has been added. When you read it, there is a large, unmissable section breaker between the new section and the old section. Inside it, please ignore the fact that the date says it was put there in October. It should be December, but I was out of it,...or something...oops...
Anyway, now on to the real AN. In this chapter, Raven's emotion Wisdom may at times come of as...well, bitchy. It was, for the most part, unintentional. I realize that it it out of character for her, but whenever she does seem to be really mean, I was just trying to illustrate her frustration with Raven. Other than that though, I tried to make her other lines as kind-sounding as possible.
Anyway, here's what you actually came here for, the story.
Chapter 8
In the vast expanses of Raven's mind, all was going fairly normal. Her various emotions were going about their usual businesses. Wisdom was meditating, Timid was hiding. Happy and Brave had even begun an extreme variation of the game 'tag'. They were playing it out, boisterously running about, occasionally disrupting Crass's nap.
Without warning, the space and time in the dimension were torn apart, resulting in a small, human-sized portal opening up. Out of it stepped Raven, an infuriated Raven. As she left it, the portal closed, almost zipper-like as it sealed itself. The irate girl crossed the nearly flat, rocky plains of her mind, the ground crunching beneath her raging feet.
Raven saw a few of her emotions in the distance, though she didn't bother trying to make any distinction between them; she was only interested in finding one. To her displeasure, the one she probably wanted to see least, Happy, was quickly running up to her. To further irritate Raven, she looked to be laughing hysterically.
"Quick, Raven! Hide me!" the pink-robed emotion screeched loudly as she darted up to Raven, grabbing her cloak and hunching behind her.
"I'm. Busy." Raven simply stated, not missing a beat.
"No, no, no! You don't understand!" Happy giggled, latching on to Raven again. "Brave is chasing me. If she looks over here and finds me, then she'll see me and run after me and tag me and then I'll have to be 'it' and it's really not that much fun being it, I'll get really tired and then—"
"Shut. Up." Raven briefly spoke again, expressing her obvious exasperation. She continued walking in the same direction.
"Geez, what's buggin' you today?" Happy asked, finally getting the hint that Raven was not in a playing mood…again. "Oh I know what's eating you." She smiled deviously. "You're miffed cuz' you an' BB have been makin' out right and left and you can't figure out why."
Raven showed no recognition whatsoever that her emotion had said a thing.
"Yep, I bet that's it." The flighty emotion continued. "But hey, if you keep it up, you might be able to get into those tight little pants of his. Then you can put your hands on those nice, green—"
Raven froze.
"NO!" she shouted forcefully. Happy stopped, surprised at Raven's sudden outburst. After just a small moment of silence though, she began laughing uncontrollably.
"Oh, ho!" she shouted when she could. "Oh my gosh! You're a riot! Ohh, you should've seen the look on your face! A true Kodak moment!"
Raven merely stood there, waiting for the emotion to finish carrying out her laughing fit so she could have the opportunity to get a word in. When Happy finally stopped laughing, she spoke.
"Do you have any idea where Knowledge is?" was all she said.
"Old four-eyes?" Happy replied. "Nope. Haven't seen her. Good thing too. She's been kind of a drag lately. She's been sorting stuff non-stop for what seems like forever. She says you keep having really unmanageable thoughts and it's making her life 'laborious' and junk. Personally, I think she's just being a wee bit OCD. But you know how she gets about that boring-ass job of hers when—"
"Stop." Raven cut her off. "I just need to know where she is. If you don't know, then stop wasting my time."
Happy almost looked hurt at Raven's snippy impatience with her, but quickly resumed her spastic demeanor when she spotted Raven's Brave emotion dashing toward her. "Oh my gosh! She's gonna get me! Later!" she shouted as she ran off. Brave briefly darted before Raven in pursuit of Happy, but was gone within a second. Raven continued her search for the emotion she was currently infuriated with.
Soon, Raven found herself standing before a sleeping Crass. Rather than going through the lengthy process of waking the orange-cloaked emotion, then vainly trying to string information out of her, Raven merely stepped over her sleeping form. In the distance, she noticed Wisdom meditating. Raven was hesitant to ask her wise side for help due to the fact that she almost never provided a straight answer; though her comprehension of Raven's mind was comparable only to Knowledge's, she was about as helpful as a Microsoft Office Assistant. However, she was the only other emotion in sight. Rather than taking hours to search blindly, Raven decided to risk question Wisdom as to Knowledge's whereabouts.
"I need to talk to you. Now." Said Raven as she approached Wisdom. The emotion maintained her meditative position, but turned around to face Raven. She looked somewhat glad to see her.
"I should say so." She replied optimistically. "Ever since your last visit, things around here have gotten quite…chaotic. However, I suspect you know that, since you've probably had equal problems in the outside world too. I think they can be fixed quite easily. But to do so, we should probably discuss—"
"No." Raven cut her off. "I'm not here to carry on a 'feelings' conversation with you. I only need to ask you if you have any idea where Knowledge is." Wisdom's slight smile dissipated.
"Oh." She said, frowning. Wisdom looked toward the ground for a moment, then turned away from Raven as if to resume her meditative position.
"Well?" Raven spoke up.
"Well what?" questioned Wisdom, still facing away from Raven.
"Do. You. Know. Where. She. Is." An increasingly irritated Raven spoke through gritted teeth. Wisdom merely sighed.
"I already told you during your previous visit. You have no need to seek what you do. You already possess it. The only reason you are having so many problems right now is because you won't accept that fact. Like I was trying to say just now, if you would simply—"
"Look," interrupted Raven. "I'm just trying to find Knowledge. I don't care if you think I don't really need to consult her. The point is, I think I do. If you know where she is, tell me. If you don't, then just stop speaking."
Wisdom sighed and lowered her head.
"What is it?" Raven asked, putting her head in her hand. As always, she was quickly approaching the end of her rope with the frustrating emotion.
"You still do not understand, do you?" Wisdom asked sadly.
"No." answered Raven. "No, I guess not."
"I wasn't talking about Knowledge." Wisdom stated flatly. "I never was."
"What?" Raven asked, confused. As far as she could remember, that's all she and Wisdom had been discussing lately. The last time she had entered her mind, Wisdom had told her that she didn't need to seek out Knowledge because she supposedly already knew the cause of her problems. Just now, Wisdom had repeated the same concept. Now however, she seemed to be saying that Raven had completely misinterpreted her words.
"I was discussing Beast Boy, not Knowledge." Assured Wisdom. "Granted, if you continue your predicament with Beast Boy, the resulting damage to your mind certainly would require the assistance of Knowledge, at the very least. However, I was not talking about her. I only meant that your search, for affection, not Knowledge, was completely meaningless because of Beast Boy. You both already have each other's affections, whether you realize it or not. From the looks of recent events, I'd say not."
For a moment, Raven merely stood there, dumbfounded by Wisdom's little speech. Not only had she said something straightforward for the first time in her life, but she had said something Raven had suspected and dreaded. After this brief reflection though, Raven's face once again contorted in the anger she had felt moments before.
"Excuse me?" Raven said.
"Pardon?" Wisdom distantly replied.
"I do not have affection for Beast Boy." Raven stated tersely. "At. All."
Wisdom laughed out loud.
"Really now?" she asked, the laughter apparent in her voice.
"Yes, really!" Raven shouted at the girl. "If anything, I feel the exact opposite."
"I know hon, I know." Wisdom laughed, the drollery dripping off her words. Her disbelief only served to further madden Raven.
"That's it!" Raven shouted angrily. "We're not going to have this argument! And I'm not going to search all over the place for Knowledge! I'm calling a meeting. Right here, right now!"
Beast Boy sighed as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. Gazing off into space, he began contemplating what had just happened. For what seemed like the third time, he and Raven had shared yet another of their increasingly common make-out sessions. Despite his attempts to somewhat keep away from the dark girl, this seemed to be a recurring pattern that wasn't going to stop any time soon.
"Dude, why does this keep happening?" he spoke out to nobody.
"Why's what keep happening?" Cyborg suddenly asked, breaking the room's previous silence. Beast Boy jumped back in surprise, having been unaware of his presence.
"Cyborg!" he shouted. "How long have you been there?"
"Not long. Just got here." Was the teen's response. "But I've been in the room long enough to see you starin' off into space and start talkin' to yourself."
Good, so he hadn't seen him and Raven.
"Heh, well…you know, it's been a long day." Beast Boy sputtered.
"Yeah, sure, I guess." Cyborg replied, warily eyeing his friend. "So what's this 'thing' that keeps happenin' you're talkin' about?" he asked. Beast Boy shuddered.
"I, uh…it's, well…oh…nothing! Nothing really." Beast Boy told him, stammering every syllable. He really didn't want anybody to know about his and Raven's little "situation". Especially Cyborg; he'd never hear the end of it from him. At this, Beast Boy attempted to leave the kitchen, but was quickly cut off by a very suspecting-looking Cyborg.
"Oh no you don't." he said to the small changeling. "You've been actin' really weird lately, and you're gonna tell me what the problem is. Come on. What keeps happening?"
Beast Boy fidgeted nervously, desperately trying to come up with some kind of lie or excuse to get him out of the kitchen without spilling the beans about Raven. "Really Cy, it's like I said, nothing really…" he sputtered. Beast Boy looked down and spotted Raven's book that she had left after storming off. He quickly snatched it from the floor and held it up. "It's just that Raven keeps leaving her books lying around everywhere. That's all. Seriously."
Cyborg didn't buy it.
"Okay, so, you wanna try tellin' me the…I don't know…truth?" he said wittily.
"Nope." Beast Boy replied. He then realized what he had said. "Yes! I mean, well, no! That was the truth!"
"Uh-huh."
"Seriously dude, it was! That's not what I meant. I just didn't—well…" Beast Boy paused. He either had to get away now, or quickly come up with a more convincing excuse than his last. Seeing as cunning wasn't his strong suit, Beast Boy opted for the former option.
"Hey Cy! Look!" he said, pointing at a random spot in the air. "It's a uh…hydro-dynamic…self-carbonating…radiation maker…thingy!"
"Huh?" Cyborg immediately turned in the direction Beast Boy was pointing. "I ain't never heard of a hydro- that. Where'd you see it?"
Beast Boy took the opportunity to dash off, Raven's book still in hand. When Cyborg turned back around to question him, the changeling was no longer there.
"Dang." He grumbled to himself. "Craziest bunch o' people I've ever seen in my life."
Inside Raven's mind, most emotions were now gathered in a circle around her. She had magically called all of them to her, pulling them from their respective domains if they were there. The various emotions were all chatting with each other, save for Crass who was sleeping, and Rage who was irate at having been disrupted. All of them were there, except Knowledge and the mysterious purple-cloaked emotion. Their delay was only making her angrier, and her emotions' bantering was beginning to give her a headache.
"If they don't get here soon, I'm going to summon them again." Raven spoke resolutely.
"Please." Wisdom said behind her. "This is all so assiduous. There is no need for it. This entire situation has such an easy solution. All we need to do is have a small discussion and this can be resolved."
"And that's what I want." Raven told her. "To have a discussion."
Wisdom didn't believe Raven's assertion though; she knew better. After all she essentially was Raven. She knew what this was all about.
"No, hon." she sighed. "All you want is a scapegoat. You want all of us here so you can 'chew out' Knowledge, because you want someone to blame. It is not about blame though. It's about acceptance. If you would get over yourself long enough to stop denying your and Beast Boy's—"
"I think they're here." Raven said. "They better be together. I'm not going to wait patiently much longer."
Sure enough, Knowledge was approaching the group from off in the distance. The ambiguous purple-cloaked emotion was lightly following behind her. The other emotions persisted in conversing despite their arrival. When Knowledge finally approached Raven, she spoke.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to arrive. I had sorting to do and it was imperative that it was finished." She said. "So what is the problem?"
"The problem is her." Raven said, pointing at the emotion behind Knowledge. "She's affection isn't she? Love, infatuation, passion, whatever you want to call it. That's what she is isn't it?"
"Yes, she is." Knowledge answered, smiling. "You see, dear? I told you you were capable of figuring it out without my counseli—"
Raven slapped Knowledge clear across the side of her face.
At this, all the emotions behind the two who had been chattering became completely silent. A thick, oppressive veil of silence descended upon the area. No one dared to speak, least they make Raven even angrier than they now realized she was.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Raven said to Knowledge. "Do you even realize what could have happened? Serious damage could have been done! Already I'd say half the shit in the common room is broken, damaged or misplaced!"
Knowledge seemed to be surprised at Raven's actions and words, but wasn't the least hurt or deterred by them. At the same time, she was also not angered by her reaction. She spoke to Raven with her typical monotone voice, devoid of both intimidation or resentment.
"I told you. I thought the situation would be more lucrative if you determined the cause of the problem on your own."
"Lucrative?" Raven cried. "You call senseless and uncontrollable destruction lucrative? Innocent people could have been seriously injured!"
"Senseless and uncontrollable?" Knowledge said, questioning Raven's choice of words. "Perhaps what has been going on is a bit pointless, but beyond control it is not."
Now it was Raven's turn to look surprised.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "All week, my powers have been completely unmanageable. They've been activating without my consent, and then functioning improperly when I do use them. They're completely out of control.
"And her," Raven said, pointing to Affection. "You got out, momentarily, didn't you? When my soul-self was out of my body, you separated yourself from it briefly. Nothing like that has ever happened before. You shouldn't be able to do that. What happened?"
The purple-cloaked emotion looked up to make eye contact with Raven. She seemed reluctant to speak. She did however, as Raven noted, have that slightly distant, longing look on her face, as though her thoughts were with something or someone else far away from here.
"Answer me!" Raven ordered. The girl still seemed a bit reluctant, but soon spoke up.
"Yes, I am the one who escaped your soul self." She spoke calmly. "I was growing quite…weary of being trapped in here and having my thoughts oppressed so. I felt that I should leave this place for a bit, if anything, just to get a taste of freedom again. I was able to separate from you because of all the power your oppression has built in me. Doing so took away and relieved much of that power, so I suppose I feel much better now. Plus…I got to see Beast Boy for a moment."
"Which brings up the next point." Wisdom cut in. "Your feelings for Beast Boy."
"Alright," Raven began determinedly. "Let's get this straight once and for all. I will say this once and only once. I do not, repeat, do not have feelings for Beast Boy. At all."
"Hon, this is exactly what I've been trying to tell you is your problem." Wisdom spoke politely. "Your powers aren't acting up because you are experiencing the affection; they are acting up because you are denying it.
"Your powers are based on your emotions; even Crass wouldn't argue that. When you release your powers, you release your emotions, and vice versa. As you may have noticed from time to time, when you experience a strong pang of emotion, it often breaks free from your control. At that time, a bit of your powers are released with it. This is why you are constantly putting such restraint on your emotions; because if they were let out without control, your powers would be too. As you have so aptly pointed out in the past, this would harm objects, and even innocent people.
"At the same time though, there is a converse effect. When you fail to let out a certain emotion, its power builds up. I believe you have had this same experience once before with fear. The more you deny an emotion, the more powerful it becomes, until all that energy simply has no choice but to let itself out. Thus, your powers activating without you bidding them to do so."
"Besides dear," Knowledge kindly spoke again. "If you didn't have feelings for Beast Boy, she wouldn't be here." Wisdom pointed at Affection.
Raven thought for a moment. She knew everything they had said was true. She knew the way her powers worked, having lived with them her entire life. She was more than aware of the way they were intertwined with her emotions. The only thing she disagreed with was the way they said she felt about Beast Boy.
"I'm not arguing what you're saying." Raven told them. "I'm aware of how my powers correlate with my emotions, painfully aware. I'm not even going to argue the presence of affection. The only thing we disagree on is that the affection is for Beast Boy."
"And why exactly is that?" Knowledge asked.
"Because…I mean…do you actually know him?" her voice gaining an increased amount of anger. "I mean, he's so annoying. He has the IQ of a cancerous monkey. He's absolutely incapable of being the least bit serious at all. And whenever he isn't joking around, all he ever talks about is 'tofu this', 'poor animals that', 'did I mention tofu?'!
"He jokes around all the time. He's almost always laughing…or telling some stupid annoying joke. That's actually the worst part about him. He won't leave me alone. It's his life mission or something to tell me jokes day in a day out and make me somehow smile. I can barely stand him!"
By the time Raven had finished her little speech, she was breathing quickly and her voice was dripping with ire.
"Yes," Knowledge said. "But, adversely, you have affection for him. He is the only one who seems to care about making you happy, rather than simply staying out of your way. He's the only one that's ever pushes you. He tries with you. And somewhere along the line, whether you admit it or not, you've come to like him for it. And more than just platonically."
"Yeah." Happy spoke up. "He actually tries to make us laugh sometimes."
"He's daring enough to approach us and give a stab at making us happy." Brave added in.
"He comforts us." Timid chimed in briefly.
"Hell, I love the little slob." Crass added.
Rage merely stood there, her hood covering her head and her face pointed down. Though everyone could practically feel the scowling anger coming from under her hood, she made no attempts at arguing. For the second time that day, an uneasy silence descended upon the group.
"Listen." Raven slowly spoke through gritted teeth. "All of you." She had an eerie feeling to her voice that while calm, seethed with unspoken ferocity. "I have absolutely no feelings for Beast Boy whatsoever. I think of him as just a friend, and barely even that. There is no way the two of us will ever be anything more than that. If any of you try to contradict what I just said, you will suffer the worst possible fate I can think to give to you, without actually eliminating your existence. This discussion is over."
Having said her final peace, Raven left the group where they were, exited her mind, and went to sleep slightly early in the concealing darkness of her bedroom.
Beast Boy entered his room and stepped over the various articles in the floor. Making his way to the bed, he sat down and sighed.
'This is so confusing' the changeling though to himself. He was literally at his wit's end. The situation with Raven had been going on for a while now, and showed no signs of ebbing. What was worse, he and Raven simply couldn't seem to keep their hands off of one another.
He had tried avoiding, even completely ignoring her (an oddity all its own). Though most of the time she seemed to be trying to do the same thing to him, he was forced to consider their unrelenting make out sessions. Now matter how much the two attempted to stay apart from each other, they always somehow wound up right back where they started: lip locked and eternally confused.
He had noted that this little 'session' had been different. Rather than clamming up and silencing like she had done in the past, Raven had looked extremely angry after this particular kiss. He remembered because her 'mad' look was always more memorable to him. Whenever she was angry, her hair just seemed to flow better. Her figure just looked more…heavenly. Her legs, though concealed partially by her cloak, moved more sexily.
'Gah! Why can't I stop thinking about her like this?' he screamed inside his head. 'That's it! No more thinking about Raven.'
Instead, he though about tofu, which Raven didn't eat. Then he though of the clear, blue ocean that could be seen from the Titan's common room. It was the same as Raven's favorite color. He thought of all his favorite video games he played with Cyborg. Raven detested them for their noise and sheer immaturity. His thoughts drifted to a field of flowers. The flowers were all so peaceful and beautiful. Especially the violet ones. They were the same color as Raven's gorgeous eyes.
'Damnit!' his mind shouted again.
He was breathing rapidly in anger. After mulling the situation over, he sighed.
"I can't like her like her. I just can't." he thought outloud.
'Is that why you never leave her alone?' his conscience retorted.
"Gah! No, stop it!" Beast Boy yelled to himself. "Maybe Cy's right. Maybe I am going schizo."
The changeling sighed again. "I really do like her, don't I?" After thinking for a minute, he finally concluded that yes, he did have some sort of feelings for her. It was undeniable. It explained why they kept making out, and why he simply couldn't stop thinking of her, even if he was in the process of ignoring her.
'Great, now I'll have to talk to her.' He concluded.
Beast Boy looked up at his clock. It had gotten quite late. He concluded that though he desperately needed to talk to Raven, it would have to wait until the following day. Having decided such, he laid over and went to sleep.
It was getting quite late now, well past dark. The only light source in the common's room was the computer. Robin was up late on it, desperately trying to uncover the motives behind the latest attack on the city. In his immense concentration, Robin didn't notice the door sliding open.
"Robin? Man what are you doing up? Do you even know how late it is?" Cyborg groaned.
"I can't help it Cyborg. Something's going on here. The Hive wouldn't team up with Cinderblock and Plasmus and then not even try to steal anything. It makes no sense and you know it."
"Look, I know what you mean man, but can't it wait 'til morning?"
"What if it can't Cyborg? What if something really bad is happening? What if someone way above them is pulling the strings for all of this? Some madman could be plotting the whole city's death right now!"
"Man chill out! The only one who would pull something that drastic is—"
"—Slade." Robin interrupted resolutely. The word hung in the air for a moment. The two teens contemplated what could really be going on. Slade was known for being very dangerous. Though he had been gone for quite a while now, his reappearance had always remained a possibility in the back of their minds.
"It couldn't be him." said Cyborg, breaking the silence. "I mean, why would it be? He's been gone like, forever now. Why would he all of a sudden just reappear after waiting all this time?"
Robin thought. He scrunched his eyebrows and stroked his chin. Slade had always been an unusually devious criminal. He never acted on impulse.
"Because he's planning something." Robin responded after a moment. "And whatever he's planning," he pointed to the computer screen where the Hive, Plasmus and Cinderblock appeared. "he's using them. The question is, what for?"
At first, the answer didn't come easy. It was pulling at the back of their minds, but neither wanted to accept it. There had to be some other reason. They didn't want to accept falling for such trickery without seeing the answer sooner. There had to be some reason to employ other common criminals to attack, but not actually do anything. However, as hard as the two tried, they could come up with no other excuse to use such a tactic.
"A distraction."
Author's Note: Okay, one last thing. I have updated my profile to include my current progress on whatever story/chapter I am currently working on. Under the "Current Stories" category at the bottom, you will see a "Current Progress" line under the title and summary of the story. I know I may not always have a lot of time to write, but I will always be able to spare 30 seconds to log in and update whatever my progress is, so you can count on whatever it says to be fairly current.
Happy Holidays! Or rather, Happy End-of-Holidays-I-know-school/work-sucks-hope-this-makes-it-a-little-better!
Til' next time. GoldenBlade416
