Disclaimer: Teen Titans is the Property of DC Comics

Chapter 3

The adults were quite glad all the children were in bed; otherwise they would never have had a chance to have a serious meeting like this. They were all in the common room, discussing a certain young woman who now lay in their med bay; a young woman who hadn't been in the tower in six years.

"I can't believe you found her," said Cyborg.

"Yeah, and evidently Crystal's known her for years," said Beast Boy.

"She's been in the library this whole time?" said Nightwing. "How could we have missed looking there?"

"Well, Terra was always at the library," said Bumblebee. "Maybe she knew and Raven made her promise not to tell anyone."

"Maybe," Beast Boy shrugged.

"But what is wrong with Raven?" asked Starfire. "Why did she do the fainting and why will she not wake up?"

"She's got a few medications in her system," said Cyborg. "But none of them are known to cause fainting. At this point, I don't know what's going on with her."

"From what Beast Boy's said, it sounds like she's been going through a rough time," said Bumblebee. "Poor thing."

"Well, at least she's home," said Nightwing. "I can finally rest easy knowing she's safe."

"You said it," said Cyborg. "I'm gonna give that girl a stern talking to when she wakes up for all the worrying she's put us through."

"I told her that, but she didn't seem sorry at all," said Beast Boy.

"Oh, I hope she will be alright," said Starfire in a worried tone.

"Don't worry, she's just sleeping at this point," said Bumblebee. "She'll be up by morning."

"In that case, I'm going to bed," said Beast Boy. "I'm exhausted. Goodnight, dudes."

"Goodnight Beast Boy," they all said and watched him leave.

On his way to his room he passed Crystal's room and looked in on her. She was fast asleep in her pink princess bed that she loved, though she'd kicked her covers off. He smiled and went in to tuck her in again. He pulled her blankets over her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He loved her so much.

He made one more stop before finally going to his room. He went to the med bay to check in on Raven. She was curled up on her side fast asleep, a few strands of her long hair falling into her face. He moved them back and got a good look at her. Even in sleep she seemed uneasy. He caught sight of her bandaged wrists and arms and decided to get a look at the wounds himself. Gently, he unwrapped them and took the bandages away.

He couldn't believe what he saw. Her wrists and arms were horribly sliced like he'd only seen in horror pictures. He wasn't sure how she could have survived such a brutal attack on herself. He wondered why her healing powers hadn't taken care of them.

He re-bandaged her arms and wrists and took one last look at her. He felt so… sorry for her. The rest of them had children and were even married. Raven had chosen to go off and be alone so she wouldn't disrupt the happiness the rest of them had. She was secretly suffering while the rest of them were happy and in love. But, that was Raven.

He sighed and decided to finally go to bed. He was the only one in the tower who went to bed alone. And it hadn't just been since Terra's death three months before. A year after Crystal had been born the two found them selves no longer in love. They were constantly fighting and annoyed the hell out of each other. The fact was that they were just too much alike.

And the one thing they were different about was parenting. Terra found that she didn't really like the whole mother thing, not that she had a choice. She was far less careful with Crystal and would give her to Starfire or Bumblebee so she wouldn't have to be inconvenienced. Beast Boy, on the other hand, was scarily cautious. They had had many fights where Terra would accuse him of being too protective and Beast Boy would accuse her of being neglectful.

In the end, they just couldn't see eye to eye and broke up. He certainly was glad he hadn't married her. The divorce would have been very messy. The only thing that changed after they broke up was that Terra moved into her own room.

Beast Boy changed and climbed into bed feeling very tired. It had certainly been an eventful day; that was for sure. And he knew that the next day probably wasn't going to be any better. Raven would be upset about being brought to the tower, the others would try to get answers out of her, and the kids would ask questions about what was going on. He wondered how Crystal was going to react when she found out Ms. Rachel from the library was in her home.

The night passed and morning soon took over. As the sun raised ever higher into the sky one by one the residents of the T shaped tower awoke. It wasn't long before everyone was up, hustling and bustling about.

The door to the med bay slowly slid open and three little heads looked inside. Raven still lay asleep in her bed, so they figured it'd be safe to enter.

"See? I told you!" Crystal whispered.

"Wow, why's the librarian here?" asked Taye.

"Who's she?!" said Nicole, who, at three, still hadn't gotten a hang on whispering.

"Hush!" the other two said and quickly covered the young girl's mouth.

Raven groaned and wakefulness came to her. She placed her hand to her head and sat up. She slowly opened her eyes and waited for them to focus. "Damn, I must have fainted," she said to herself. She saw something move out of the corner of her eye and turned.

She was quite surprised to see three little kids staring at her. One she knew to be Crystal. She guessed who the other two were. The older boy, who looked just like Cyborg minus the robotic parts, she guessed to be Taye and the littlest girl who had black hair like Nightwing she guessed was Nicole.

"What're you three doing here?" she asked.

"What're we doing here?" said Taye. "What're you doing here? Don't you live at the library or something?"

Raven had to chuckle at that. "No," she said. "Just because I work there doesn't mean I live there. Oh no, what time is it?!" She looked around the room and saw that it was just past nine. "Oh God, I'm late."

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and went to stand up. Her legs quickly gave out on her and she nearly fell to the floor, had she not grabbed the bed on the way down. She tried to find her footing, but found her strength had left her.

Unsure of what was going on, the three children quickly left to tell their parents. Raven watched them leave and sighed. 'I must have frightened them away,' she thought, pulling herself back onto the bed to sit. Her head still felt dizzy.

It wasn't long before the news spread that Raven was awake and the Titan men rushed to see her while the Titan women tended to the children who were filled with questions. They found her sitting on the bed, waiting for them. And she did not look happy, especially towards Beast Boy.

"Well, look who decided to rise and shine," said Cyborg with a smile, crossing his arms.

"What the hell am I doing here?" she spat, not in the least pleasant.

"Nice to see you again, too," said Cyborg.

"After you passed out in the diner I had to bring you somewhere," said Beast Boy. "I would've brought you home if you'd told me where you live."

"Like hell you would have," said Raven. "You would've brought me here regardless."

"Okay, fine, yeah, I would have," said Beast Boy, not liking her attitude. "So sorry for trying to help you."

"You should be sorry," she said, attempting to stand up again. And, again, it was a futile attempt as she fell.

"Raven!" all three said, going to her aid.

"I'm fine!" she said angrily. "Leave me alone."

"Raven, you're not leaving," said Nightwing.

"Oh, yes I am," she said defiantly. "I have a job to get to, which I'm late for."

"Don't worry, we called the library and told them you wouldn't be coming in today," said Nightwing.

"What the hell did you do that for?" she said. "I'm perfectly fine!"

"Raven, you fainted for no reason," said Cyborg, trying to calm her down. "You call that being perfectly fine?"

"I didn't faint for no reason," said Raven. "I'm going through various medication withdrawals and my body isn't taking it very well. Sometimes I faint, sometimes I feel really tired, and sometimes I feel sick. I've gotten used to it."

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about all of these medications you're taking," said Nightwing. "And why you left in the first place."

Raven moaned and placed her face in her hands. "I really don't want to talk about it," she said.

"Well too bad," Beast Boy snapped. "Start talking." Raven frowned and glared at him. He only glared back. "Now!"

She grabbed onto the bedding tightly and looked to the floor. She closed her eyes and said something in a soft mumble.

"What?" the three said, leaning in to hear her.

She took in a big breath and looked up to meet their eyes. "I'm dying," she said clearly.

This certainly caught them by surprise and they looked to each other in shock. They looked back to her and saw her biting her lip and looking off to the side. They hadn't expected that answer at all.

"You're… dying?" asked Cyborg, trying to make sure he, and the other two, had heard her right.

"Yes," she said, still refusing to look at them.

"Whoa, wait a second," said Beast Boy. "Yesterday you said you left because you had a nervous breakdown."

"Why do you think I was having a nervous breakdown?" she spat.

"But… but…" Beast Boy sputtered, trying to figure this out.

She sighed and said, "Fine, I'll tell you everything. But you have to promise me that when I'm done you'll let me leave."

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked to Nightwing, who was in charge. "I can't make that promise, Raven," he said firmly. "You're not well enough to leave even if we were going to let you go, so you might as well tell us what's going on."

"Fine," said Raven, irritably. She felt achy all over and that wasn't a good sign. "Alright, a few years ago we defeated my father from coming to Earth. And afterwards I had more of an emotional freedom, now that he didn't have any control over me."

"Yeah, we know that," said Cyborg.

"Though you didn't really use your emotions even though you had them," Beast Boy said, aside.

"Well, years passed and everything seemed fine," said Raven, giving a quick glare at Beast Boy. "But, then, I began to feel… odd. My body felt tired and weary. So, secretly, I did some research to find out what was going on. It took me nearly a year to figure it all out. You see, my body was supposed to die when I was sixteen. So that's how long it was supposed to last for. Since I didn't die, my body's been living past its, well, let's say its expiration date."

"But why did you leave?" asked Cyborg. "We could have done something to help you!"

"I didn't want you guys involved," said Raven. "I found this out just when you were all settling down and getting ready to live happy lives. I didn't want to rain on your parade, or whatever. So I left."

"To die alone?" said Beast Boy.

"Basically," said Raven. "And the reason I've lasted this long is because I went to the hospital and decided to let them have a field day with me. I'll tell you, you get paid a lot of money when every doctor in the state is trying to keep you alive; especially if you're a superhero. That's why I've been taking different medications. They're to keep my body from shutting down."

"So, was the story you told Beast Boy about trying to kill yourself true?" asked Nightwing.

"Yes," said Raven. "I took a bad combination of pills and temporarily lost my mind. That was about two weeks ago."

"What about your powers?" asked Cyborg.

"Gone," said Raven. "I'm just a normal, dying human now. A normal dying human with purple hair."