Chapter Twenty-One: Raven

I sat down on the Infirmary bed and was silent as Beast Boy searched the cupboards for 'stuff for my cut.' "Do you need help?"

He shook his head and reached an arm up to the top shelf, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth in concentration. "Nah… Anyway, I got it!"

He pulled down a small, green box. "Got what?"

"The Super Mega-Deluxe Edition, Never-Before-Seen-By-Some-People, the one, the only-"

"Just get on with it!"

"It's a first aid kit for scratches and junk. I used to get them all the time when I was in battle or just stumbling over the mountains of stuff piled on my floor, and I remember that you and Cyborg and Starfire always hated cleaning them because I would squirm. So… Cyborg made my own little box of first-aid-ness!"

I nodded, not following. "What's in there?"

He blew dust off the lid and set it down on the bed next to me, taking a seat on its other side. "Magic!" I rolled my eyes, figuring I should've known not to expect a serious answer. "No, really," he continued, unhinging the top. "This kind of medical-magic stings a lot, but it heals everything in a day or two."

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Everything?"

"Well, everything from a paper cut to, uh, something else. Anyway!" he exclaimed, taking a sort of can and a roll of gauze bandages. "Do you want me to fix it up for you, or can you do it yourself?"

"With what? My feet?"

He grinned and began to unwrap the bandage on my right hand, the one with the most amount of damage. I cringed as he peeled back the last, blood-soaked layer and gritted my teeth.

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Chapter Twenty-Two: Beast Boy

"Dude!" I whispered breathily. "What did you do to it!"

Beneath the messy dressings, Raven's hand crisscrossed in a pattern of cuts with little, bloody scratches in between.

"I was picking up the glass, and-"

"And what? Clenching your fist while doing so?" I practically shouted. "And you didn't even bother to clean them right!"

She leaned back ever so slightly. "It hurt to wash them off, and even more to dry-"

"Well, now it's gonna hurt even more! And it's probably infected now! Geez, do I have to do everything around here?"

She stood up abruptly, tearing her hand away from me. "I didn't realize I was such a pest!"

My gaze softened. "Wait, Raven! I didn't mean to say that! I don't know where that came from! Please, just sit…?"

She turned back to me and narrowed her eyes. After a moment's hesitation, she sat on the bed stiffly. "Fine."

She held out her scratched hand again, but I didn't take it right away. Instead, I took out a little package and ripped it open, emitting a lemony scent. I pulled out the wet cloth and held it right in front of Raven's face. "This might hurt a little, but it'll clean it, okay?"

She nodded and, as I put it against her skin, winced.

I tried not to notice how hard she was trying not to pull away and quickly finished wiping the cuts off. I threw the wipe into the garbage can, smiling. "Alright, now the fun part."

She relaxed and blew on her hand. "What, that wasn't fun?"

"No, that was the pre-fun part." I lifted a small can out of the kit, then shook it for a few seconds. "Now, this is going to kill and you'll probably break something, so be ready."

She widened her eyes doubtfully as I began spraying her hand. "Be ready? For wha-"

She didn't even finish the word before she jumped to her feet and a crack appeared in one of the windows. I let her hand go and watched her expression as her eyebrows came together angrily and formed a straight line just above her glinting eyes that were dancing from her hand to the window and back to her hand, then came to rest on me. After what seemed like forever, she moved her gaze to the ceiling, shaking her hand, trying to make it hurt less.

The window's crack spread and suddenly a loud crashing sound exploded as a mixture of the wind and Raven's powers broke it. My arms flew to cover my face. "Raven!" I shouted over the howling wind and pounding rain. "Can't you try to calm down!"

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Chapter Twenty-Three: Cyborg

I looked up from plugging in the generator when I heard the glass crash from upstairs. "Everyone okay?" I shouted, but no answer came. "Anyone there?"

I waited for a few seconds then decided to finish with the generator before going to check what had broken. After all, the four of them could figure it out.

I looked at the diagram and then back at the circuit box, wondering where the red wires were. The booklet said, "Connect the red wires to the orange ones and hook them into the black box, then make sure the switch is in the down position before continuing on to press the green button in that box."

"Red and orange, hunh?" I muttered to myself, wondering why that was so familiar. Then I realized that 'red' was for the red and green of Robin's costume, and 'orange' was for the orange of Starfire's skin. "And connect them? Looks like an omen to me…"

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Chapter Twenty-Four: Starfire

I sat up when I heard glass break from down the hall. As I stood to see what happened, Robin's form appeared in the door, dripping wet.

"What's broken?" he asked, looking for the source of the noise. I dropped my eyes to the floor.

"I do not know."

"Starfire? You aren't hurt, are you?"

I shook my head and watched as he stood still for another moment, then raced out the door into the hallway.

I followed him half-heartedly, but not to talk to him. I followed him to see what the noise was then possibly bid him farewell, for I could not stay any longer.

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Chapter Twenty-Five: Raven

I closed my eyes and sank to floor, half in exhaustion and half in attempt to stop the emotions from reeling through my mind. The Orb of Ahzed had held every unneeded feeling, but once it had broken, they had re-entered my mind and the slightest feeling, like pain, triggered all of them to release and caused my mind literally to break.

My vision blurred as I vaguely felt both knees hit the floor, and I heard Beast Boy shouting something at me from my right, but the words were as jumbled and unclear as my eyesight. Tears stung my eyes and the unfamiliar sensation of sadness swept over me.

What if I injured someone with all these new emotions? What if I killed someone?

What if I killed Beast Boy?

"Raven! Try to chill out, if y-" His voice was blocked by another wave of noise, like static, from a mixture of emotions, wind, rain, and thunder.

Something grabbed onto my shoulder, forcing me to open my eyes and look around.

Beast Boy was standing there with one hand on my shoulder and the other attempting to shield his eyes from the weather now blowing in from the open windows as if it was a tornado instead of thunderstorm. He crouched beside me and had to practically yell for me to hear him. "Raven, please! It's okay! Just stop doing… whatever you're doing right now!"

I nodded and took a deep breath, cleared my mind, then closed my eyes tightly and concentrated on hiding my emotions again and sealing them away. It felt like my head split; the strain on my mind was so immense, so foreign.

I choked back tears I didn't understand and held my breath, wishing all the emotions back into the Orb of Ahzed.

But it didn't matter; the Orb was broken and there was no way I could replace it until a ritual had been completed to form another.

"Raven?"

Whose voice was that, again? And why did he sound so worried?

My vision blurred, my head cleared, and a strange, calm feeling flooded over me.

Why was he worried? I'm fine, I tried to say, but I just exhaled deeply and let myself fall into the beckoning unconsciousness that was calling to me in the most silky, influential voice.