Robin lost it...again. This time with the stupid press. Raven's going insane, and Red X thinks he's going insane. I use the word 'thinks' because hearing voices isn't always a bad thing...shutting up now.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 9

He stalked out of the building, very content with his latest work. The first step in taking over a city; hitting their communications. The electricity lines had been damaged so severely that by the time they could be brought back, the job would have been finished. Now he was leaving behind a destroyed building, a place that had once been bustling with life now teeming with darkness. The press had been destroyed as well.

Oh, he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy every second of it, because then he would be lying. The memory was still fresh in his mind. He had dragged the editor up by the collar, growling menacingly as he sneered, "So you couldn't leave me alone, huh? Just had to publish my life's story for the whole world to see? Just had to make sure everybody knew that I was having trouble with my love life?"

"I didn't..." the man had stuttered, trying to catch his breath under the strain.

He had lifted the man into the air angrily, violently throwing him aside. "Didn't think about the repurcussions, did you? Didn't realize that villains read the newspaper? Didn't think that maybe someone could use it against me?"

"Look, we're sorry that Doctor Light found a weakness, but that's no reason for you to-" The young female reporter's sentence was cut off when he whirled around, his eyes blazing.

"I'm not even going to comment on that," he growled.

And then the rest of it was a blur of weapons, explosions of xinothium, and screams. He couldn't even recall it anymore, the whole thing was nothing to his mind. He'd become lost to all feeling, and the fight had comenced. Somehow, he managed to escape the mayhem with only a few scrapes, though he was not sorry to report that the rest did not. He'd crossed over, he knew, from simply an apprentice to a true villain.

Way to go, Boy Wonder.

TTTTT

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Raven chanted as she hung in the air. It was nice to meditate and visit Nevermore without being stuck there, she reflected as the familiar shapes of her emotions came into view.

"Nice of you to come back and visit!" Happiness beamed, though Raven noted that the smile was almost forced, and, in fact, everybody looked like they were under a lot of strain.

"What's going on here?" she asked, concerned. After all, these were her emotions.

Intelligence stepped forward, a bit shyly for once, and answered, "Well, we've all been under a lot of stress since that little battle, and then with everything that's been going on in the outside world...well...some of us were pretty crushed."

"Some of us especially more than others," Rude said bluntly, but quickly quieted back down, instead merely nodding in the direction of the forest.

"Hello?" she called uneasily into the darkness.

"Come on, Raven's here. We have to get up," said a voice. The voice sounded...broken, sad, tired.

"Who's there?" Raven called out.

Love and Little...uh...Love II...both stepped forward. Both emotions' eyes were bright red from crying, and Love II had shrunk once more, though this time not because of xinothium, but simply because there was no one left to love for her. Even Love seemed a bit shorter.

"Um...what happened?" she spluttered.

Love bit her lip, still trying to hide her tears. "Can't you figure it out? Robin and Beast Boy are pretty much gone! There's nothing left for us!"

Raven bit her lip, trying to think of words to say. That was the problem with Love, it..she...they wereso compicated. "There's still the love of friends, and Cy's back," she offered feebly.

Love II looked away, shrinking even before Raven's eyes. "We're not the only ones shrinking. Happiness was trying to hide it from you, but..."

Raven swung around, seeing the pink emotion adjust her cloak. For a moment, her eyes saw behind the sea of color, and noted that the pink boots were about two feet taller than normal. "Um, why are your boots...?" she asked.

Happiness paled, then, realizing that she couldn't hide, threw her cloak back to show that, in reality, she was only about as tall as...well...now that she was short again...Little Love. She tried to manage a weak smile, but couldn't. "How could I be happy if you were worried about me?" she explained.

Intelligence put a hand on Raven's shoulder. "We have all been shrinking. All this stress is desensitizing you. Even Anger is shrinking, because you're having trouble feeling anything at all."

Raven peered at the yellow-clad emotion. "You're not shrinking," she pointed out.

Intelligence smiled sadly. "Because I have not been effected. I'm a rather...different emotion, for I am measured by what you learn over the years, not what happens during specific circumstances. I may know everything, but the truth is, I cannot feel the way the others do."

Her eyes widened. "You mean now that I've finally got my mind back together, everything's going to fall apart again?"

Intelligence smiled sadly. "It's called going insane, dear Raven, and I fear that if you do not recover your friends soon, then insanity will prevail. Already Love and Little Love are shrinking at an alarming rate. If you don't find a shred of hope or something within the next few days, they'll be gone."

Timid stepped forward, with her close friend Sadness. "And we're shrinking too," the grey-clad emotion said.

Sadness nodded. "I finally came out into the open, and then you exhausted me," she squeaked, then, as an emotion of her state would be expected to do, broke down into tears. "Everything's falling apart!"

As Raven was about to respond, something entered her mind, like thousands of souls all departing the earth into her own mind. She gripped her head in pain, and left Nevermore instantly, though on the outside she was still meditating.

The emotions of many different beings all coursed through her being, and she tried to make sense of it. This would only happen if...

Her eyes popped open, and she nearly fell out of the sky. "No," she whispered sadly. "He didn't...he couldn't..." But she didn't cry, for even Sadness had little power over her any more.

TTTTTTT

He woke up in the hospital wing. Of course, he wasn't surprised to find himself there, it was just that he was thoroughly annoyed now. And strapped down. Wonderful.

He'd warned those dipsticks not to touch him, not to move him. But they had. And now he was stuck in this room. At least they had the sense to put up a curtain between himself and the other two beds in that room. He'd rather not see those two anyway...

He moaned, trying to escape these bonds, but it wasn't working. Sleep was overtaking him again, for his body had been deprived of it for too long. Yet he refused to give in to it, that would only prove disastrous.

"Red X?" asked a voice in the darkness of his mind. Or was it in the real world?

"It can't be..." he gasped, and he knew he wasn't making sense.

That voice...it sounded so broken, so tired, so...wonderfully familiar. As if from out of a dream. But if he was hearing this voice, he must be going insane, for as he struggled once more and opened his eyes, there was no one there.

And then another voice entered his mind, though this time it wasn't because he was going insane, but because it really was in his mind. Raven. The voice asked quietly and calmly, "Are you awake?"

"If I wasn't, I am now," he replied crossly.

"Just answer the question. I don't have time for your games."

"Yeah. I'm awake. You caught me after I woke up in the hospital wing. I thought I told you-"

"Listen, there isn't much time," Raven's thoughts said, and there was urgency in her voice.

"What happened?" he asked, the same urgency rising in his own.

"I'm not absolutely positive-"

"It's impossible to be absolutely positive. There's always a sliver of a chance. Go on," he interrupted crossly.

"Robin's gone over the deep end. To the point of no return."

"What are you talking about? I thought he already-"

"They're dead."

His eyes widened. "Who's dead?" he asked, hoping against hope...

"The reporters, the editors, everybody. X, he attacked the press. Savagely," she answered sadly.

Well, at least it wasn't like the other Titans were gone, but still, this was bad. "He actually killed them?" he gasped, surprised, for they were talking about the pig-headed hero who stuck to his morals with a feverish zeal.

"It's only a matter of time before he's completely desensitized to death. There's no stopping him anymore. Are you in a condition to help?"

"No," he thought, then realized that she was hearing that thought. "Of course I am, " he lied.

There was silence for a while, then she said, "No, you need to stay there and make sure you stop hearing voices first. I'll come back when I can."

With that, the connection was terminated, leaving Red X alone once more. And then the voice came back again, and he thought for a moment that he was dead. "What are you doing here, of all places?" the voice said.

"You...you can't be real. Leave me alone," he panted, confused now more than ever.

"What are you talking about? X, wake up! You've got to come back to the land of the living!" That voice, it was so familiar, but it couldn't possibly be...No, he was going insane, wasn't he? To be hearing this voice?

"I am awake, thanks to you," he growled, hoping that this figment would go away.

"That's good. Why are you strapped down? Is it because of what happened with Robin? Or are you having problems of your own? Come on, X, we need to help the others! Please talk to me!" the voice begged, and the strain in that voice was so familiar, so painful, that Red X felt something that he thought he could never feel again, for everything that had happened. He felt pity. Both for himself and for the voice, if it truly was real.

Fighting fatigue, he forced his eyes open one last time, and as his eyesight returned to him, he gasped in surprise. No. Way. Now he knew he was going insane.