Bargains and Balance

Yeah, sorry for the long wait. School kinda happened.

I don't own Teen Titans.

Chapter IX

Raven watched impatiently as Cyborg injected the last of whatever he had been injecting into Beast Boy's body for the past week.

"I think that's all I can do for today, Rae," Cyborg said as he washed his hands.

Raven sighed. "Thanks, anyway. Do you know why he went into the coma?"

Cyborg looked thoughtful for a second before shrugging. "I admit I don't. It really bothers me. Probably more than you being taken by Slade. No offense."

Raven didn't say anything.

Cyborg placed a hand on her shoulder and his eyes met hers. "He'll come back, don't worry. B can definitely fight back when he wants to."

Raven let her head fall back so that she was looking at the ceiling. "I just wish my powers would come back soon. If I had my powers, then Beast Boy would be healed and safe."

Cyborg looked at her questioningly. "He's only in an coma. It's no big deal. Really. He has started twitching and talking."

Raven looked into Cyborg's troubled face and knew that he was more concerned than he let on. She also knew that Cyborg had a pretty good picture of the chaos inside her, regardless of how she looked on the outside.

Plus, it was true. Beast Boy had started twitching in his sleep and if she listened carefully to his intelligible mumbling, she could often make out her name and the occasional threat towards an unseen foe.

I wish it was only just a coma, she thought.

She unconsciously ran her fingers through Beast Boy's hair; a habit that had somehow formed in her time next to his side.

"Somehow, I think this is way worse than just a coma," Raven said quietly.

Cyborg merely looked at her in genuine curiosity before he slowly walked to the door. "I'm going to help Robin sort out his computer problems. The guy uses it so much, the hard drive just burns. Don't forget to care for yourself, Rae. I understand that BB is important to you, just . . . don't lose yourself."

Raven flushed a little at his comment, but he didn't notice because he was gone.

Cyborg had made an excellent point, but it made her think about something that had been eating away at the back of her brain. Just how important was Beast Boy to her?

Raven sighed and went to the middle of the room where she sat down and levitated in deep meditation.

She was going to have a wonderful talk with herself.

Beast Boy had the upper hand on Trigon for a long while. Well, not Beast Boy but the Beast.

Trigon was completely surprised when Beast Boy had let the Beast that was always inside him go, and had been knocked back into the black void, red eyes gone from the Beast's sight as Trigon had closed his eyes from the impact of the Beast.

They had rolled, scratched, clawed, punched, and even slapped before Trigon clutched the Beast in two enormous hands and his four eyes looked at the Beast in amusement.

"I'll admit. No one has ever gotten to me like that. I congratulate you, green one," Trigon chuckled. "But there's no way that you can best me."

The Beast gave way, and Beast Boy was left glaring at Trigon without any lost dignity.

"I won't let you get to me," he snarled.

Trigon's hands grew cold, and Beast Boy felt the familiar cold, chilling sensation that he felt when Raven transported him. Trigon was using his powers. Sure they were weak, but his powers were still there.

"Oh, when I'm done with you, you'll let me. I may be almost dead when I finish with you, but I will most certainly be alive. The same can't be said for you."

If anyone was to go into the room where the young green man and the strange young purple haired woman was meditating, they'd first take in the strange appearances of the room's occupants.

However, if anyone was to go into the room, they'd see the green boy's hand's slowly becoming encompassed in a black cloud of magic, and his whole body twitching involuntarily.

But as Beast Boy's body began to shake further into what was looking like a seizure, Raven opened her glowing white eyes and as she stood up, blasted the boy with a beam of magic and the boy sat up, with his eyes closed.

Raven's eyes faded back to their normal color and she stumbled a bit, close to falling unconscious. She was too tired to gasp, and only managed to see him open one eye before she fell to the floor.

As he opened his left eye, all Raven could see was a red iris, staring into the wall across the room.

Raven had closed her eyes, the last thing that she saw was Beast Boy, lying on his bed, his fingers twitching just a little. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in the middle of a field.

"Great. It's always this one first," Raven said to herself.

"RAVEN!" she heard an incredibly cheerful voice shriek from behind her.

"It's a good thing I never get this happy. It's scary," she muttered.

Raven turned around and found herself in front of a pink cloaked her. The emotion was beaming, but as Raven studied her further, she noticed that Happy had some darkness underneath her eyes.

"You . . . are you okay?" she asked the emotion.

The pink cloaked Raven's smile diminished a little. "Well, it's hard to be happy all the time when you're worrying too much. Poor Timid is more herself than usual. But it's okay because we kissed him!" She started to skip around Raven.

Raven merely glared straight in front of her. This was a trip she hadn't necessarily been waiting for.

"So, why haven't you been using the mirror? Not many people use meditation over their shortcut, you know," the emotion asked Raven.

Raven just shrugged. "I'm going to find -"

"The Book Worm? She's been spending a lot of time with a certain little wise woman lately. I'll go with you!"

Raven winced inwardly. "No. It's okay."

Pink Cloak just grinned. "Okay, then! Have fun!" Then she cartwheeled off.

Raven knew exactly where she was supposed to go, after all this was her mind. It didn't really take long to find her two most sought after emotion's favorite hideout; her mind's memory filled library.

"Ah, it's good to see you again," a yellow cloaked Raven stepped forward and put a hand on Raven's shoulder.

Raven gave a small smile. "I guess it's good to see you as well. I came about -"

"About a way to help Beast Boy escape from your father? I have gone through as many possible scenarios as I could and I have determined that the most likely reason our father has targeted Beast Boy specifically is not only to get to us, but to use Beast Boy to take away any happiness that would link us to the world."

Raven and Knowledge sat across from each other at a table stacked with books. "I think there's a solution, but it will require every single one of us to accomplish it, and even then, it will be open to many possible faults." She fixed her glasses.

Raven just sat there, quietly listening. "I've done that before."

"No. I mean every emotion. Even Rage. And I didn't expect you to expect this to be easy."

Raven sighed. "Can you help me?"

Knowledge hesitated before nodding. "Yes. But you will be required to handle the tougher emotions. The harder ones to deal with. I think that'll be Timid, Rude, Sloth, and of course, Rage. I'll get the others."

Raven opened her mouth but nothing came out. She shut her mouth. "Fine," she growled.

Knowledge nodded and went out of the book filled room.

She had dealt with Sloth who, after complaining about the effort it would take to do such a thing, finally agreed on Beast Boy's behalf. Raven had then talked to Rude who, after interrupting her constantly with belches and questions about her secrets, had agreed to help if she would be able to burp at least once a day. (Raven was not going to let that happen.)

Now it was time for Timid. Raven stepped through a stone archway and found herself in a completely different setting than the place before. It was nice, but kind of bland. Comforting, yet there was a lot missing.

Raven stood in the middle and putting her pointer fingers on her temples, concentrated. Eventually, a grey cloaked Raven came out with her shoulders hunched over, and an expression on her face that Raven knew she had almost never worn herself.

The last time she had seen Timid was when she was being held captive by Slade. Timid had been so skiddish that whenever Raven coughed into her elbow, the cloaked emotion would flinch and take a step back.

Now with Raven herself encompassed in immense worry over Beast Boy and the fate of the Titans (especially the fact that all of it was essentially her fault) she didn't expect Timid to show at all.

But nevertheless, the emotion had come. And she was the image of worry, concern and fear.

"A . . . are y . . . you ma . . . mad a . . . at m . . . me?" Timid stuttered.

Raven took a deep breath and forced a kind smile onto her face. "No, I'm not mad at you. Actually, I've never really been mad at you before. I came because I need your help."

Timid took a step back. "I . . . I don . . . don't think it'll b . . . be sa . . . safe."

Raven took a tiny step forward and Timid flinched as if she had been struck. "I don't want to lie to you and say that it'll go perfectly, but if I don't get your help, then Beast Boy will die."

Timid's eyes shone with unshed tears. "Beast Boy? Die?"

Raven wasn't stupid. She had noticed the reoccurring pattern in her emotions. The one thing that had convinced everyone to help was the promise of Beast Boy's ensured survival.

"We both don't want that to happen do we?" Raven asked her softly as she felt Timid's impact inside her and saw it in front of her.

"B . . . but wha . . . what about h . . . he . . . her?" Timid whispered the last word.

Raven understood her clone's concern, and put her hand on Timid's shoulder. "I'll deal with her. You won't ever have to encounter her again, that I promise."

Timid hesitated before she nodded. "Okay. I'll help."

Raven smiled and watched as the emotion faded from view. Her smile faded as she realized her next mission. Next up, Rage.

Raven walked until she encountered an archway constructed of mossy stone and she went through it.

The place was the same as it had been when Beast Boy and Cyborg had infiltrated it. Of course, there weren't angry ravens trying to attack her. But the angry aura was still there, and Raven felt it like a winter blanket.

She put her pointer fingers on her temples and once again, concentrated. Almost immediately, she heard someone approach behind her.

"Yes?" a testy voice asked from behind her.

Raven slowly and calmly turned around to face a red cloaked clone of herself standing behind her. Unlike the last time she had had a face to face encounter with Rage, this time the emotion had two violet eyes. Sure they were filled with extreme hate and anger (thanks to her father) but it was nice not to think about what eyes to look into when talking with her.

"Let's cut to the chase. I need your help to save a really good friend of ours. I know you know who I'm talking about and why we are trying to help him. I don't want to work with you anymore than you do with me, but to save him, I need you. And since I can't force you to help and I know you have no sympathy for me, I'm just going to ask you once to help me if -"

"Yes."

"Look, I know you hate me and everyone else, but -" Raven stopped as what Rage had said sank in. "What?"

"You heard my answer. I just . . . don't want to hear your rambling that's all. But just know, this is the first, last, and only time I agree to do anything for anyone else." Rage's voice got quieter, deeper and more threatening as she got closer to Raven.

Raven didn't reveal any emotion on her face and stayed completely silent. Rage just nodded.

Raven only watched in wonder as the emotion glared at her and faded from view. She felt her head start to throb, and fell onto her knees. When she had recovered enough to look up, she found herself back in Knowledge's area with the emotion herself.

"I sense that Beast Boy is in trouble. We need to hurry," the emotion said quickly.

"Wait! I didn't have to convince Rage to do anything. She just decided to help me on her own accord. Why?" Raven asked almost desperately.

Knowledge only smiled. "Sometimes, we have knowledge so deep inside ourselves, we don't know about it until we absolutely know what to look for."

"That makes no sense!" Raven knew that if the Titans heard her this desperate, they wouldn't leave her alone about it, but she really needed an answer.

"I accept your request, and aim to fulfill it," Knowledge only said.

"Wait I need to know wha -" Raven just stopped mid-sentence when the emotion vanished from view.

Well, this trip wasn't all too helpful, Raven thought.

That was the last thing she remembered before she felt a torrent of serenity and her mind went blank as the emotions did something she had only read about, but never considered possible.

It was called antatum, when a person was able to balance all of his or her emotions and use their combined powers to use for a limited time. It was different from when she took down her father in all of her white glory, because with antatum, the emotions took every possible source of their individual and general power(s) to an extent that outdid the power Raven gained in her whiteness. Also, in an antatic state, Raven would be almost completely unaware of what she did, because all of her emotions would inhabit a certain part of her brain, leaving almost no room for her herself to take part in whatever her body did in the limited period of time she did whatever.

And therefore, it was open to many possible errors. But Raven didn't want to think about that.

She opened her eyes and only saw fuzzy shapes rather than a clear focused image, but Raven didn't expect her to have complete control of any of her actions.

She saw that Beast Boy's hands were encompassed in black magic, and she watched as he grew closer as her body got nearer. Raven heard herself speak her mantra and a blast of magic hit the green changeling.

For a moment, their minds were linked, and that moment felt like ages. She saw her father's four eyes, and a green shape being held up in a black void.

Trigon only chuckled as he saw her, but was cut off in surprise when she spoke her mantra and he dropped Beast Boy and closed his eyes. The void was momentarily lit, and she saw Trigon being sucked into a sub-section of the cave like place they were in before her head felt like it got split by a hammer.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened her eyes, found that her trance-like state had passed and she was herself.

Raven found herself back, but she also found herself in a state of extreme dizziness that came before fainting. As she fell, she saw that Beast Boy had sat up, and that his left eye, the only one in her vision, had a red iris.

"No . . ." she managed before she hit the ground and lost all consciousness.

Beast Boy, when he woke up, found that he was okay as far as he could see and feel. It was wonderful to be awake, and he realized that he had a really strong craving for tofu.

Yeah, he was okay.

That was the first thing that he noticed. The second thing that he noticed was that Raven was unconscious and sprawled completely on the ground. And she didn't seem to be breathing.

He tried to walk to her but only fell over, so he crawled to her side and rolled her onto her back. She was really cold.

"Rae," he croaked.

No one can beat me without paying a price, he heard a familiar voice inside his head say.

"What? Where are you? Why are you in my head?! DUDE!" Beast Boy clutched his hair with his hands.

"I can't deal with you right now!"

You love her, Trigon's voice had a hint of surprise as if he had just realized this. That's, that's ridiculous! He started laughing. This is too perfect.

Beast Boy ignored him and put his metal communicator near her face. The metal gained some condensation as her warm breath made contact with it.

He opened his communicator with trembling hands.

"Beast Boy?!" Robin exclaimed as he answered the call.

"Robin," Beast Boy rasped, "Raven, she . . . she needs help. I just woke up. There's nothing I know how to do to help her! You need to get here before it's too -" Beast Boy was interrupted by a bought of coughing.

"Beast Boy, are you sure you're okay? You're eyes . . ." Robin trailed off.

"What?" Beast Boy practically squeaked.

"They're different colors. I'll be there with the team shortly. Hang on!" Robin signed off and Beast Boy looked at his reflection in the screen of his Titans communicator.

His left eye was red, while his right was its normal green color.

Before he could formulate a response to what he saw, he heard a moan. Beast Boy looked down.

"Rae?" he rasped once more.

She drowsily blinked her eyes opened. "You're voice. You're eyes. Are you okay?"

He gave a small feeble grin. "I haven't spoken in a while. I sound like I did a year ago, don't I? As for my eyes, well your daddy's still in my head, but he's not going to gain any control of me for a while. How are you?" Beast Boy combed his finger's through Raven's hair.

"I've been better."

"You didn't have to do that to save me. I would've figured something out," Beast Boy said quietly. He attempted a grin, but it was more of a grimace.

Raven sat up carefully and almost fell over but Beast Boy caught her. Well, caught her as well as he could in his condition.

She found herself falling against his chest and sitting in his lap with her hands on his shoulders.

They were both very aware of their positions and one pair of eyes met the other in an almost complete pause.

"You would've been crushed," she practically whispered weakly.

"Thanks for your faith in me," he adjusted his position in an uncomfortable little wiggle.

"I had to save you."

"No, you didn't have to. You wanted to. Why?" Beast Boy pulled his head back a little so that they could look each other square in the eye.

Raven softly put her hand on the back of his neck. "No. I had to."

"But. . . but wh -"

Beast Boy was cut off as Raven pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss that told him more than she could've ever said aloud. He found himself kissing her back, and in that moment, everything was perfect.

Yea, so I made this chapter really long to make up for the long wait. Sorry, peeps. Gracias to my now partner in crime, CleoArrow.

Review!

-Belgaria