Raven stared. There must have been hundreds of human figures – shadowy, sketchy outlines, but certainly human – pressing against the glass. Even who-knows-how many feet above the island that housed the tower, they still pressed and crawled against the windows, striking the glass, kicking at it, punching it. And the entire time the screaming – a thin, high wail with occasional speech – continued.

It seemed to be English, but she couldn't make it out. Raven stepped forward, pulling her hood down, straining to make sense of the words...

It was like being hit with an steel bar. The sound suddenly became so loud it was a physical force, knocking her to her knees. It pounded against the rhythm of Raven's heart, trying to drown her in its surge. Thirty long seconds of fighting elapsed before Raven could raise a shaky hand and summon a black wall of energy around herself.

The noise stopped as if a switch had been thrown, though the shield trembled slightly from the pandemonium outside. Raven stayed on her knees and braced her hands against the floor, gasping for breath. Death by screaming. No wonder he's losing it.

Eventually she was able to push herself to her feet, cautiously keeping the shield in place, and turn her back to the windows, looking for Beast Boy. She didn't have to look far. He was curled up in a ball on the couch, hands ineffectively over his ears, shivering.

Raven sat down on the couch, extending the shield of energy to include the small figure. It should stopped the sounds for him as it did her, but he didn't move, either too unconscious -

- or drugged? Or dying? -

- to respond.

Raven put her hand to Beast Boy's forehead and steeled herself for an attack, then touched his mind with a burst of energy. "Wake up!"

This time Beast Boy did not jerk awake. Instead his entire body relaxed with relief as he became conscious enough to know the hammering of sound had stopped. A moment later, he opened one eye. " ... Raven?"

"Yes."

"Are we in my head - are you in here with me?"

"Yes."

Beast Boy straightened up, wincing at pain in muscles which had been tensed for hours. "Did you make it stop?"

"The screaming people? No." Raven pointed at the window, which gleamed in weird black and white patterns through her energy field. "I shielded us."

To her shock, tears filled Beast Boy's eyes and he quickly looked away from her, scrubbing his hands over his face. "Dude.. Raven... I thought it would never end. I was about to... the only thing I could think of is maybe you could make them go away. I had a nightmare where you woke me up, and you wouldn't help me, and I..." He sighed shakily and stared past her, at the windows. "I was afraid to change into something with better hearing, and I was afraid to change into something that couldn't hear, because then they might break through, and I'd never..." He started rocking back and forth on the couch, thin arms wrapped around his knees. "But they just won't stop and I don't know what they want..."

As he spoke his voice got higher, and shriller, and his rocking became frantic.

Let me, Affection whispered to Raven. Let me talk to him.

Unsure of what else she could do, Raven withdrew. As she shifted her consciousness she felt the familiar flow of energy, then the chilly heaviness, as she gave up control of her body and let one of her other sides take over.

Talk only, Raven hissed to Affection. You can talk to him.

Affection laughed, a sound unusual enough that it broke though Beast Boy's panic. He stopped rocking and gaped at her. "All right." Her voice had the same low timbre as Raven's but with more warmth; the serenity of relaxation instead of the tight calmness of someone keeping herself under constant, strict control.

"Beast Boy," she said gently, "They can't get through the shield. You can't even hear them, can you? Isn't it quiet?"

Beast Boy raised his tear-streaked face to look at the window. "I - I guess... can't you make it stop?"

"Not yet." Affection took Beast Boy's hand and laughed again when Raven made a disgusted noise. "I need you to be calm, so we can talk about it. And then we can fix it."

Beast Boy looked down at their entwined fingers, then back at her face. "Um... are you really Raven?"

Affection smiled. "I am Ai."

"I am I? What does that mean?"

"Just what I said." Affection squeezed his hand. "Daisuki desu," she added, and winked at him.

I am never letting you out again! Raven yelled.

Beast Boy, his hysteria fading but his confusion pretty much total, kept watching her, bewildered. "You're one of the other ones... where's Raven?"

"She's right here." Affection squeezed his hand once more and let it go. "Are you all right?"

Beast Boy swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. "I think so. I want to talk to Raven."

"Okay." Affection sat facing him, so Beast Boy saw her eyes change from a lighter violet to a dark, stormy shade, her smile shift to an scowl, and her face flush a dull red. Raven coughed. "That - that was not what I intended."

"I don't-"

"Let's talk about something else," Raven snapped. "Anything else. Like why there are screaming people climbing all over the tower."