Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 11

His footsteps pounded in his own ears as he ran through the dark cloud that was the night. His breathing was ragged, and he couldn't bring himself to look about him for fear that he would find her, limp, on the ground and anger would overtake him again. He didn't know what had happened. It just did.

He couldn't get the image out of his head; those deep eyes so broken, so sad because of what he was doing, so devoid of any hope that may have remained. He put a hand over his heart, feeling the rapid thumping against his gloved hands. He wanted to grasp the confusion seizing a hold of him and throw it out of his body, but he couldn't do so. He sank to his knees, staring at his reflection in a pool of water as the lightning above him lit his face up to gaze upon.

There he was, pale and scared, staring back up at himself. He'd lost a lot of weight lately, and his skin was a deathly hue. His lips were bright red from bleeding, and a small scar had formed across his mouth where Raven had managed a hit. He had to admit it; he didn't look so good.

His black hair fell over his face and eyes, and he closed those blue pools for a moment and leaned slightly back so that he could think. It was increasingly hard for him to think straight, he noticed, and his fears were now confirmed. He was definitely going insane.

He wanted to cry. In all truthfulness, he really did want to cry. He wanted to let out all of his emotions right there and get them out of his system. He wanted to just drop everything and, for a moment, forget all else and succomb to the pain eating at his heart. But no tears came. His eyes were dry, and even as he continued to feel pure shame, guilt, and sadness, they remained so.mesemlemill

Finally, one, solitary, hot tears welled up in his eye, but it would not fall. It just sat there, blurring his vision on that side as if to tell him that his emotions were tearing him apart, causing him more limitations than anything else. As the small symbol of his feeling of regret squeezed through the small space at the bottom of his mask, it blazed a hot trail down his cheeks, setting itself apart from the colder raindrops.

His head was pounding as he realized that he was slowly becoming unable to feel anything but anger and hatred, as she had pointed out earlier. His heart skipped a few beats, and he placed a hand to his stomach. He suddenly felt very sick. He was surprised that he had still not heard a voice in his ear. Good, at least the man knew when to leave him alone. Rule number one, don't interrupt somebody when they're going insane.

But some poor creature decided to break this sacred rule. It was a stray dog in the alley, and he narrowed his eyes. Ignorant animal or not, he wanted, needed, to be alone, and uninterrupted. "Get out of here! Scat!" he growled, and the dog seemed to retreat back into the darkness.

He sighed, glad that he hadn't lost it yet. Lately, the smallest things would set him over the edge. He'd kept all his feelings bottled up for so long that, eventually, they burst through. He shouldn't have been so worked up over such a trivial matter, he knew, but it was becoming increasingly hard for him to keep his cool. And this dog was starting to push his last nerves.

Suddenly, a low growl permeated the air threateningly. It seemed an almost...human growl, and he whirled at the sound, surprised at the ferocity of the sound. But the dog wasn't there anymore.

His eyes widened a bit. He didn't like this one bit. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. After all, hadn't he just established that he was going insane? But, no, this couldn't be a trick, for even as he backed up, he heard the splash of a footstep in a puddle, followed by the screech of a hawk.

He looked up just in time to see a green hawk dive towards him. Green...? He jumped out of the way just as the hawk transformed into a human. He recognized that green skin, that uniform, those green eyes and hair, but could it really be...?

"Where is she?" the young hero demanded.

It took him a moment to recover from his stupidity as his eyes narrowed. So he was still fighting for Raven's affections? Well, let him fight. His fingers balled into fists, and he growled, "What are you doing here?"

Teeth bared, the shorter kid practically shouted, "I don't have time for this! Where is Raven?"

And now he had a reason to rejoice in what he had done. "I don't know. For real. We had a fight, and she...left." When he said the last word, he allowed a spiteful grin to creep over his face.

"Where did she go?" the changeling asked, his face coming dangerously close.

"How should I know? Why should I care?" he sneered. The whole time, though, he was fighting back this same nauseated feeling in the pit of his stomach.

With an angry shout, the short hero transformed into an angry gorilla, and he had all of a few seconds to dive out of the way before green, furry hands came down inches away from him. His eyes widened, and as he backed up, he ran into something behind him.

He had just turned around before a gloved hand had hit him below the chin, and he stumbled backwards, recovering from both surprise and from the attack. He knew that masked idiot.

"You didn't lose your temper, did you kid?" X asked, and for the first time, he heard something new: concern. Great concern.

"I didn't-"

He was cut off when a large green bull slammed into his back, and he fell onto all fours. The bull changed into a human. A glaring, angry human. "I'll only ask you one more time. Where is Raven?"

He grimaced when he saw that look. It was that look of obsession. That look that meant he would do anything to keep Raven from harm. His dry eyes stung with unshed tears that just wouldn't seem to come as he realized that he knew exactly what the boy was going through. He sighed. Okay, so he'd be nice this one time. "She phased through the ground. She couldn't of gotten far."

At first, the two boys were surprised that he was speaking something other than hatred, but then their faces gradually softened into smiles. Well, Beast Boy's at least. Red X just kinda smirked. He managed a weak grin in return, but soon that familiar headache kicked back in, and he narrowed his eyes. "What are you waiting for? Leave me alone already!" he shouted, exasperated.

Beast Boy sighed. "I thought you were going to change for a minute there." The changeling walked down the alley until he was silhouetted in the darkness. "I guess I was wrong," he added before disappearing completely.

At this point, he was glad for the distraction. Too many mood swings were headed his way. So he decided that the best thing would be to just keep walking. He kept wondering why Slade hadn't chewed him out yet.

Of course, he also didn't realize that the device in his ear had short circuited when he had been exposed to Raven's attacks. That would definitely explain the lack of shouts...

His headache was getting worse and worse as he stumbled through the streets. Was this really what it felt like to be losing his mind? He turned a corner, and there he saw her.

She was lying in the puddle, completely out of it. And her hair had fallen over her face, framing its angelic features. And she was completly out of it. And he couldn't tell if she was breathing. This couldn't be good!

TTTTTTTT

"Don't give up on life yet, hon, you still have a job to do," said a voice in her ear.

Her eyes fluttered open and a face came into view. Glasses. Brilliant. Of all the time for Intelligence to make an appearance. "What's going on?" she asked weakly.

Intelligence grinned. "And now you decide to join us in your own mind."

She blinked, still trying to take it in. "Did you just call me hon?" she asked.

Intelligence nodded. "I thought that it would be the best way to catch your attention."

She blinked harder. "And I'm still alive?"

Intelligence gave a harsh laugh. It was almost an insane laugh, it scared her so bad. But the emotion caught herself. "Sorry. It's just that lately, all the emotions have been diminishing, and Anger keeps bugging me about keeping her alive when...if...everything else disapears." She sighed, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that back up. Let's just...try and fix this problem for now and see how it goes."

"You're not talking with that stupid British accent or using big words."

"I KNOW!" Intelligence shouted, then paled. "Sorry. Um...I know I've been kinda...touchy for a while...but the problem is that...well...Raven, you're going insane! And you're just going to give up on life before you have the chance to fix everything?"

"Where's Love?"

Intelligence started with surprise. "You changed the subject-"

"Where's Love?" she repeated.

"She's still in the forest," Intelligence replied sadly, refusing to meet her eyes. "I think her sister is...dying."

"DO WHAT NOW?" Raven shouted.

"Well...Beast Boy's gone and... One of the emotions needed to be the first to go, so..."

But Raven didn't listen to anything else, instead chosing to run out into the forest to find those two sisters before the worst happened.

"LOVE? LITTLE LOVE?" she shouted, pushing through the undergrowth. Boy, her head was throbbing.

"Raven, we're over here!" came a weak voice in the distance.

She rushed over to find a tiny, two-foot tall Little Love sitting beside her taller, normal-sized sister. "Raven!" Little Love shouted, but immediately her eyes widened in pain and she fell back over.

It broke her heart to see such an energetic emotion reduced to so little. "Little Love, hang on just a little while longer, okay? At least until I can return to the real world, okay?"

Love laughed. "Right. Because you're not in a coma right now. Look, Raven, unless you can pull yourself together within the next few hours, somehow break out of this coma, bring Beast Boy back to life, and get happy, I don't think anything's going to happen for a while."

"You look strong enough. Couldn't you give her some of your power?"

Love laughed quietly, pulling back her cloak to reveal a bony body. "You don't think I haven't tried absolutely everything to save my sister? As much as I hate to admit it, she's going to lose it, and not even you can do anything unless you can break half the laws of physics."

Her eyes brimming with tears, she bit her lip. "There is one last thing that I could do to delay it a few more hours, right?" she asked sadly.

"But putting your soul into your soul? It doesn't make sense! It can't work! And even if it did, it would kill you!" Love pleaded.

She shook her head. "It won't kill me, I know. But I will be winded for a longer time than I'd like, but at least your sister would live. After all, as much as I hate to admit it, you guys are really all that I have left."

"But she won't last anyway, will she? What with Beast Boy gone and everything?"

She sighed. "I'll tell you what. I'll give her enough of my soul to keep her alive until I can get out of this coma. If I can't find a way to bring happiness back into my life..." she trailed off. "It's just so...weird watching myself go insane. I mean literally watching it."

Love limped over, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, I think it's great that you care about us so much, but you have to remember that we're just part of you."

"Exactly. Part of me is dying. I need to do something about it, don't I?"

Love sighed. "If you really think you want to."

She sighed as well. "This is really all I have to hope for, Love, is the hope that I can keep myself from going insane until I can somehow found a way out of all of this."

The pink-clad emotion put a hand on her shoulder. "Raven, that's the thing about your mind. Sometimes you can't control it. No matter how much you want to be able to."