Warm

She was living a nightmare; she could see her friends fighting for there lives and she could not reach them it was torture simply with that but she was what tried to kill them. She could see everything Rage saw but Rage was in control and she had no influence over the actions of her body. This was a dream, but she knew that this was what Rage wanted her to see, which meant she was unconscious in Nevermore; she needed to wake up now! Her friends, her family, were too precious to her she needed to protect them or else she would be nothing, however, Rage was too strong at this point and refused to allow her to wake up. All she could do, over than try to awaken into Nevermore, was watch as her family and the H.I.V.E 5 tried to fend off the attacks she sent their way.

Then, something changed; almighty crash erupted from the ceiling, and then the corresponding floor beneath it, and she knew exactly who it was, 'Garfield'. Even in her current dream state she could sense his fear, his desperation and especially his anger; he had come to save her and he wanted to make Rage pay. She couldn't help feeling elated at this realisation; even though she knew it already confirmation that he cared for made her happy, she fought this feeling back on the recognition that he could harmed if she let Rage continue. She attempted to will her eyes open but still found no luck, at this she resorted to a last ditch attempt and used whatever power she had at this point to stop Rage sensing Garfield's presence, and from the fact her vision did not focus on her green comrade meant that she at least succeeded in this goal.

However, in the end Garfield provoked Rage's attention by approaching at serious pace and she was forced to take in his image; he was the Beast but his eyes were focused and contained the signs of higher intelligence, that didn't sound right when talking about Garfield but anyway, he was in control and did not fear her current state. For some reason his gaze diverted from her, and she held her breath as he used his other senses to avoid the attacks being fired from her hands; the feeling of Rage's grin did not make her feel any better. Then she noticed his hands; he was signalling to someone and she was shocked by their meaning.

"My problem let me handle it. Empty the vault and close it when we're in there." His problem? How was this, his problem? Did he know that his anger had affected her own? He couldn't know that, yet he had already jumped to the conclusion to blame himself… Her thought process ended briefly as Garfield barely dodged a horizontal blade of aura that aimed to cut him in half as he re-focused on her, although he avoided death her arm sent a barrier wave of aura that sent him flying to her left. She winced as he landed with a thud, his claws digging in the concrete tiles; he seemed to examine her, or rather Rage's, expression before advancing again; she was ashamed, she didn't want him to see her like this, as a battle crazed monster. How would he trust her with his burdens if she could not control the effect his emotions had on her? The only thing Rage's presence helped to prove was that she could not help him, that's how he would see it; he would see her as weak.

She was brought back to the events of her dream when she felt Garfield's claws pass her face by only an inch and took her hood with them. Rage's reaction was instant; a blood thirsty cry left her mouth as her vision turned and chased a green cheetah which was running at full pace toward the vault. She panicked; she needed to stop Rage now, before Garfield was hurt. He was too precious to her, she refused to let one part of her harm him when the rest of her valued him so greatly. She put every part of her will into opening her eyes, even as her mouth moved to yell at him, "STOP RUNNING YOU COWARD OF A CAT!" she did not let Rage's actions distract her; she had to awaken now.

A line of the red and black sky crossed her vision, but it closed as she was drawn to the site that had presumably caused it through causing Rage serious confusion; Garfield had obeyed Rage's yell and entered his human form. 'No, Garfield, run! She'll kill you, please, RUN!' she screamed in her head. Her desperation at his actions was reflected in magnitude by the confused irritation in Rage's voice.

"What?" her lips continued to move in sync with Rage's words, "You aren't afraid?" Garfield simply met her, Rage's, eyes and didn't flinch under them.

"Do I look afraid?" was his reply, even though this caused an increase of anger on her face, she smiled internally. Normally he would cower in fear of her angered stare and beg for mercy, but now he stood defiance of it when she wasn't the one giving it, and this made her inexplicably happy. He feared her when she was angry, but he did not fear her anger; why did that make her happy?

Her internal smile at her dream vanished as a ball of aura formed in her hand, 'RUN, GARFIELD!' Her mind pleaded as her arm moved to push the ball down through his gut, why was she allowing this!? He dodged the move expertly by flipping backwards into the vault, leaving her hand to hit the ground; the ball of aura exploding on contact. She felt the maniacal grin spread across her face again as Rage raised her vision so she faced Garfield again.

"Well," Rage said darkly with her voice, "YOU SHOULD BE!" Her body then flew towards Garfield, whom once again became the Beast, and she knew Rage had every intent of ripping him to shreds. She renewed her battle to awaken from this real nightmare; she needed to protect the one she loved, she needed to protect Garfield, no matter the effort required to do so. After around two minutes, that felt eternally longer, of watching Garfield avoid the attacks Rage fired at him from her hands she finally saw Nevermore's sky once again. This was when she would leave her dream, her nightmare; she refused to acknowledge the sound of the vault door closing.

She finally regained conscious to find she was atop an island of rock floating on lake of lava and surrounded by a cage; Rage's prison when it was needed. It didn't matter, she had built this cage and she destroy it, "WHY THE HELL HAVE YOUR 'FRIENDS' DONE SOMETHING SO POINTLESS!? LEAVING YOU IN HERE ALONE, AND IN A PLACE I CAN EASILY ESCAPE FROM WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU!" Rage's roar only increased her urgency in gathering the energy she needed.

However, she needed to be calm, "Simple!" she steadied her breathing and began to chant as Garfield's words rang through Nevermore, "I told them to! I told them to trust me and let me handle you, Rage!" Her concentration was broken by the last word, and she felt a content smile spread across her face. He did not even recognise Rage as the same person as her, this fact just made her even happier than his defiance of Rage's glare she didn't know why, but being recognised in this way just made her feel… she couldn't describe how it made her feel. Good in a word. Whatever that feeling was Rage certainly did not feel that way, the feral roar that echoed through Nevermore made her restart her chanting instantly in the knowledge that Rage had lost patience.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING!? HANDLE ME!?" she heard the yell, but did not let it affect her, "ALL YOU DO IS RUN LIKE THE COWARDLY LITTLE CAT YOU ARE!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she released the built up energy and aura slashed through the cage and she instantly flew towards the black and red sky, while encasing her hands in knife edge aura. This was the fastest way to retrieve her body, rather than having to create a portal to challenge Rage with her mind; the sky was one itself it just required an aggressive approach to open, and she could manage aggressive very easily at this point.

"I AM RAVEN!" Rage's statement did not affect her in the slightest, but she instantly felt Garfield's reaction; anger beyond anything Rage had every possessed. The roar that now met her ears made Rage's from earlier sound like a timid cat and then something changed within Nevermore: the sky. Two yellow beads appeared in the sky, causing her to halt her ascent toward it, the beads seemed to be eyes which then began to consume the entire sky of Nevermore. Rage was being overpowered by Garfield's anger which she could sense had led him to be willing to kill Rage just for saying those three words, how could it be this strong? She did not need an answer now; this would make her task simpler.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she brought back her hands in a double axe like motion and swung them forward, cutting through the now yellow fabric of the sky. Beyond it was her eyes' line of vision; she was facing the ceiling, which had claw marks in it and she could sense Garfield's claw scratch her cheek. She forced her hand forward and grabbed something that only became visible when she grabbed it: Rage. She pulled back the rebellious emotion from control of her body and Nevermore, she turned back to her physical vision to find that her body had lost consciousness, and she had enough faith in Garfield to save her. She resealed the sky, which returned to its original colour pattern rapidly; she now had control again not Rage. Said emotion was acting rather out of character; Rage was clinging to her as if in fear of its own existence, like a child would a mother.

"D-doo-n't ma-kke him mad li-ke that, not a-ag-gain," was Rage crying!? This was certainly never part of Rage's place in her mind, but what could she do? She brought a hand to Rage's hair and stroked it gently as she lowered them slowly to the ground, trying not to cause any more fear in her emotion; she guessed this fear was primal since that was the only form that could possibly be connected to Rage, but it still confused her greatly. She summoned her other emotions as she did this and then gave Rage to Affection and Happy to comfort, and for first time ever Rage did not object to being in the presence of her other emotions. She was about to discuss what to do next with Wisdom, but then another first occurred.

Rain fell from the sky in Nevermore; there were no clouds it just fell, what in the..!? Then she felt Garfield's emotions, "Don't you dare, Garfield Logan!" he was blaming himself for something that was beyond his control! She closed her eyes and re-entered her body and slowly opened her physical eyes and noticed the sting of a thin cut across her left cheek. He was sitting next to her and crying into his gloved hands; he was letting fear, self doubt, and self hatred consume his entire being. She would not allow him to do this; he did not have to blame himself for everything, he did not have to be alone!

She leapt forward and gripped him tightly around the torso and brought her mouth to his ear, "STOP!" she yelled feeling the blood from her cut trickle between the skins of their cheeks. "Please, stop it, Garfield" her voice was gentle and quiet; she knew it needed to be, "Stop thinking of ways to hate yourself, Garfield. You are too good a person to hate." Even though this was truth she sensed his disbelieve, he had evidently given up his defences finally, but not his stubbornness. She brought her head back to face his eyes for when he stopped hiding behind his hands, and she would make sure he did because she wanted to see his eyes, but she refused to loosen her hold on him. "Don't you dare question me. I do not blame you for anything, and I remember all of it, Garfield.

"You probably blame your outburst earlier for giving Rage the chance to take control of me, I won't lie, you're right. But, you are still not to blame. Do you know how strong your rage is?" The only response was a sniff; he still could not face her, and the poor boy didn't realise he had no reason to hide. Fine, she would make him realise that, "It's strong enough to overpower mine in her raw form to such an extent Rage was overcome with primal fear, she still avoided your attack for all intents and purposes, but I was able re-challenge her and defeated her thanks to that." She felt it best not to describe how his anger had been enough to reduce Rage to the level of a terrified child, but it was still not enough for him to face her, so was it the intent she had sensed in those eyes that overpowered Rage? "As for your killer intent: you are such a hypocrite!" this caused him reveal his face out of surprise at her statement and she finally achieved her goal of facing him eye to eye, but it was true. He was blaming himself for letting his anger at Rage become so strong he had been willing to kill Rage despite the fact it would kill her, but did not blame her for allowing the killer intent Rage had displayed during the entire fight.

"You think you can bear such an emotional force alone!? Not only that, but its fuel is the burden you refused to share in the first place! Your sorrow! It out wages any of the others' and mine by several times, because you don't share it! This refusal is because you are not 'weak'? Yet you think everyone else should share their burden and be happier, yet, you suffer alone! Now, when you lose control of the reaction to your pain you see yourself as 'weak'and'ugly'!?" Her voice was scolding as intended but was also tearful and that was not something she could stop, the truths she had just laid out to him hurt her; she just could not and would not understand his reasoning for them. They hurt enough to make want to her cry and that's what she did, she had to, this only provoked tears to fall from his eyes once again as he slumped forward breaking eye contact.

"You have the strongest emotions I have ever sensed and yet you keep them controlled behind a mask of real happiness and let them fester until they break you; like they have now. You have done this to keep the world from seeing your pain and the ones that love you from sharing it with you, like we would want too. Garfield," she somehow managed to halt her tears, "you are the strongest and most beautiful person I know, alongside our other family, but…" she removed her right arm from her embrace and then cupped his cheek and raised his face to gaze again into the forest emeralds. She let her eyes tell him her concern to let him know how serious her next request was, "Please, let me in at least, Garfield, and share your burden with me. I want to help you as you have helped me through out the time we've known each other, let me show you what you look like in the eyes of those who love you. I cannot bear the thought of someone I love hating themselves, but I am not weak and I can bear any burden you are willing to share."

The following stare lasted for several minutes but she wouldn't have cared if it had lasted for years; she had finally told him what he meant to her, or at least what he had meant to her. As she had spoken she had realised how she thought of him now; as the one she loved. He was no longer family to her; he was more much more and she no longer feared this. Affection's threat had come true; she loved Garfield Logan. She hadn't told him that but rejection on the level she had given him would be as equally painful, but she did not fear this as she gazed into his eyes. There was only a fear but also desire to give a positive answer, the fear seemed to be of the consequences of that desire but she saw that he quickly dismissed it.

When he nodded in her hand she had never felt so happy, not laughter but content, almost… warm. She smiled genuinely and widely, and when he had stopped crying at seeing her do this she felt even happier, and pulled him back into the hug, which he finally returned. She was just so happy; she didn't care that vault door opened during their embrace and she didn't even care that she would have to have 'the talk of girls' with Starfire. She was too content.

--

A/N: Hope that was good enough to make up for the fact I now have to disappear. The beginning, as stated, is a dream to raven the her/she pronouns should all represent Raven; the reason behind the fact it feels like Raven is the one attacking because the dream is that she is Rage but still has her own thought process. My physics for Nevermore were rubbish I admit but I've never seen anything to make what happened in this chapter imposssible. Raven does realise her feelings of love first because she no longer has reason to prevent herself from feeling them, because she has already realised she should love and can be loved, futhermore she has already come to trust BB, and the others, with everything. Please review.