With the Hive taken care of, the titans, as in Beast Boy, Starfire and Robin were again playing the new dancing game, celebrating the day even more than they did before. Once the current level was finished, Raven entered the room.
"Hey." Fearing they interrupted her again, they huddled together before she told them, "Give me a shot at it." Smiling, Robin threw her a remote, and she picked the song, "The time of my life." Looking at Beast Boy and cocking her head toward the screen, he grinned excitedly as he leapt and grabbed the second remote. Two people, a woman and man appeared.
"Now I've... had the time of my life." From then it, even though the song just started being sung, the words fell on deaf ears for the two as Beast Boy approached Raven, cupping her face with his left hand. He moved his hands down to her waist while she placed her left arm over his shoulder. He dipped her back, her hair moving from her face so that he could see even more of her pretty head in a new angle. Raising her back up, the female titan walked by him and raised her hand as the female singer said the next verse, along with the shapeshifter. With a twirl, Raven and Beast Boy danced to what was displayed on screen. They swept their arms back and forth in a UU way before taking each others' hands and swayed them to and fro staring into each other's eyes, appreciating their color. Separating, they walked circles around each other without changing their body directions. Once the song title came up with lots of energy, the dancers raised their arms up and lowered them towards their shoulders before tiptoeing away teasingly before spreading their arms and legs out wide. Walking towards each other, their arms clasped over their fronts and spun around like a coin together. They laughed wholeheartedly, having fun as they continued this dance. Splitting up, they walked in a specific way before posing on a platinum move, Raven holding out her hand to her partner. The shapeshifter took it and kissed her hand, making her blush. After doing all the above all over again, when it came to the arm offering, it was Beast Boy this time which Raven took as she twirled into his arms for a few seconds before spinning out the same way. The dancers then held their arms in L positions while also twisting their bodies. Beast Boy dropped to his knees as Raven danced around him once before stopping. Again the song sang its title as the green teen stood up, reaching both arms behind her back, and her left arm over his shoulder as the girl was dipped back down again. With the climax of the song coming near, they separated and did the same specific walk before backing away, and then running towards each other and finished with Beast Boy lifting Raven up high over his head as the female titan spread herself as wide as she could.
Starfire and Robin clapped from such a performance.
"That was awesome!" The Boy Wonder praised.
"Oh yes! What a glorious ritual you have performed!" The alien princess applauded. The score showed up that they racked up a pretty high score of 11,830 points. Placing Raven down, she clung to his body while giggling, and he hugged her tightly.
"You were so great, Rae Rae!"
"Yeah. Dancing's so fun. Who knew I had all these moves? Again, thanks for bringing out the best of me, BB." She spoke intimately into his ear before kissing his cheek. He chuckled and kissed her cheek back.
"You're welcome, Rave."
"Unfortunately, that will probably be the last moment we have." The half-demon sighed as she slipped from his grasp.
"Wait, what?" He asked, perplexed.
"When I say you brought out the best, it was more then an attitude adjustment. Ever since that fight earlier; Raven hasn't been driving."
"What are you saying Raven?" Starfire questioned, now becoming concerned.
"You know the emoticlones you met two days ago? I was born within the past two hours. I'm a by-product of Happiness, Brave and Passion combined. I... am Pride. Specifically, I am proud, and take joy from having the courage to be outgoing in both mind and body." She said as she glided her hands over the sides of her legs, hips and torso. "You guys are fun, but the spotlight just isn't big enough with the rest of you.
"Raven, we're your friends." Robin tried to reason.
"Please Raven, you cannot leave us!" Starfire pleaded.
"How are you going to live without a home? Food, shelter! And me?" Beast Boy spoke with sorrow, his eyes filling with tears.
"I told you guys. I'm not Raven. You shall refer to me now as..." Floating up, she uttered her signature phrase so that she replaced her leotard and shoes with a sleeveless golden leotard and gold colored boots. "Gold-Girl; the kicking sorceress kicking evil's butt. Literally. And don't worry, my magic will cover all that I need. I do apologize, especially to you BB, but this bird's going solo. See ya." Opening a portal in the floor in front of her, the Prideful Raven dropped in and it closed before they could get her.
"No! She's gone!" Beast Boy cried out, tears streaming down his face as he collapsed onto the rug.
"This must be because of the mood swings, but this one locked the real Raven away." Robin deduced. "Do you guys know precisely when she started acting like this?"
"It must be when she took down three of the Hive Five." Starfire remembered. "She went from being timid and uncomfortable from the people giving her the unwanted attention to unfaltering against their advances."
"Okay. Based on my communicator, she probably got rid of it. We'll have to chase her down and try to convince her to come back. I don't care if she's Pride or Gold-Girl or whatever. I just want Raven back." The titan leader sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Beast Boy got up to his knees, wiped the snot from his nose, and nodded.
"Right. She may call herself Pride, but she's Arrogant about one thing; she underestimates our friendship."
And so each of the titans tried days on end to find and talk to Gold-Girl, but she was always too fast given she was always there first and left before they could arrive. Day one was Cinderblock kicked into pebbles while Plasmus was knocked out and sleeping, day two was Johnny Rancid stuck in a tire while his motorcycle was trashed, day three was Brother Blood having a boot print on his cheek defeated, and day four was Control Freak with his mecha kicked clean in half and trapped under the machine he piloted. The media loved her presence, taking pictures wherever and whenever they could. The city also loved her efficiency taking care of crime compared to the titans and had a statue of her likeness erected.
Beast Boy was sulking on the couch late at night, though not too late, hugging a pillow while crying into it. When the living room door opened up, he recognized the heavy footsteps he hadn't realized were gone for half the week. Getting up, he saw Cyborg making himself some coffee along with eggs and bacon.
"Cy? What are you doing? Especially the past four days?" Turning around, the metallic titan didn't look so good. He looked exhausted.
"I've been spending... the past four days... repairing Raven's cloak. Eating only when everyone else was likely asleep. I know it shouldn't have taken as long as it did, but she said it needed it fixed so well you wouldn't be able to tell it was ripped. I had to disassemble it thread by thread and reassemble it with a new string so that it was literally good as new. Though that jewel part of her clasp? That was tough to put back together. I had to use a lot of plasma to get them back together. Definitely not any ruby or whatnot from Earth. I'll give it to her in the morning." He yawned as he tended to his 4th meal of his isolated time.
"Robin didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"Raven's been taken over by one of her emotions."
"What?!" He cried out, shocked to hear the news. "How?! When?!"
"Four days ago. And it was a new emotion called Pride, though its more like Arrogance. She left the titans and is the newest heroine of Jump City, Gold-Girl."
"Wow, I sure missed a lot, huh?"
"No kidding. We've been chasing her, but we just can't catch up."
"Hmm, then how about letting her come to you? Not only that, since it's a emotion problem with Raven, then what about using the mirror?" Beast Boy was stunned by the suggestions, then slapped his palm into his forehead.
"I can't believe I didn't think of that."
"Don't worry BB. We'll get her back." Yawning, he took his protean meal and coffee and went back towards his room. "But first, food and sleep." Thinking about the double pronged attack plan, the green teen felt a small smile grace his face for the first time in the past few days, and went to his room to sleep.
Gold-Girl was walking down the street, feeling a sense of proudness as people gawked at her. A fan girl came up to her, offering a magazine and a pen, which the heroine signed with her autograph. Once there was enough photographers surrounding her, she displayed a few kicks and stances that were well shot. However, an explosion at the docks shook the atmosphere, prompting her to say to them,
"I'd love to stay and pose, but something requires my attention." Enhancing her legs with black magic, she ran at super speed towards the docks and skidded to a stop at Pier 52 where a warehouse was exploded. Wondering what this was about, her name was called out.
"Raven!" She turned to see the other titans except Beast Boy. She sneered with an arrogant grin.
"What, you want me back? Are you so obsolete that you need me to justify your jobs? Well guess what? I'm all the city needs. I left you alone because of our past and the fact you couldn't find me, but you really want to be proven that you're unnecessary, beaten by Gold-Girl?"
"You may not be Raven, but I know all her emotions are also Raven." Cyborg pointed out. "As much as you want to change it, you're still Raven!" Gold-Girl's smile disappeared.
"I'm better than Raven ever was. She's so drab, so sarcastic, so recluse. What kind of positive trait does she have?"
"She's Raven. That's all there is too it. The sum is greater than their parts." Robin answered. GG rolled her eyes.
"It seems like you won't listen to reason. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." She went on the attack almost immediately after saying so. Cyborg ran ahead and tried to grapple around her with his huge body, but she jumped and made a spin kick that almost seemed like she missed. Cyborg stopped and felt around his head not finding any damage, until he accidentally took his head off his broken neck and shoulders which caused his body to collapse while he was helpless with the wires the only thing left with his head.
"Aw come on!" The decapitated titan complained. Robin threw a smoke bomb down and disappeared once he was obscured. Gold-Girl was unimpressed as she lightly stomped the ground with her right foot, creating a black force field which blocked his staff attack from behind. Extending her soul-self, it reached underneath his feet and phased him part way through the ground before retracting, leaving him half stuck in the ground. He tried twisting and pushing himself out of the predicament, but couldn't get out.
"Star, I can't get out! It's up to you!"
"Raven, you do not have to do this. We are friends."
"Uh... yeah. I actually do." Pride retorted as she manifested her soul-self into a raven, ready to attack. Starfire sighed.
"Very well then." Her eyes and hands glowing, she and Pride launched their respective attacks, clashing in the middle.
Earlier, just after the titans went to the docks they rented with the help of Batman to cover the coming damages in the future, Beast Boy's job was seemingly just as dangerous; going into Raven's mind. Taking a deep breathe, he entered her room, and quickly found the mirror. Picking it up, he looked in the mirror, and felt himself enter through the mirror into the place he thought he'd never enter before; Nevermore. While the red and black whirlpool was still disorienting, he knew how to land properly this time, landing on all fours like a cat. Looking around, it seemingly looked like the way it did the last time he was here, but the sky was colored a combination of royal purple predominately with gold stars glittering in the sky.
"I was wondering when you'd get here, lazy bones." A crude voice talked to him. Yelping in quick panic, he jumped away from the voice, only to see it was Rude picking her nose.
"Rude? What's going on here?"
"What do you think, Booger Brain? Miss Golden Girl has only existed for two hours, and she thinks she's so special she hijacks everything, displaying our body to all the perverts and pigs for the sake of inflating her ego for the next several days. She disgraces us."
"Can you take me to Raven?"
"Can't. Pride sealed her away, and enchanted the seal so that no emoticlone can reach her." Then she realized and smiled mischievously. "Say, you're not an emoticlone."
"Uh... yeah. It's pretty obvious from the fact I'm not in any way Raven." He retorted as she stepped up to him. Cupping a soft hand to the left side of his face, she says,
"Don't fly up. Gravity is weird." Then before he could say anything, that same hand pushed him off the road they were standing on, causing him to yell out as he fell through the abyss. Heeding her warning, he just simply turned into a great horned owl and let the wind guide his wings until he spotted an approaching road with a tree. Gliding to it, he landed on a branch of a tree, where the other demonic ravens were hanging.
"Nope!" He cried out and jumped off while turning into a cheetah to get away from them before they turned aggressive. Making sure he was not followed, the shapeshifter stopped and turned back into his regular self. "Whew. Okay, where to next?"
"Beast Boy?" A weak voice called out. Turning to the distressed tone, he saw the regular Raven shackled to a big tree, connected to four sturdy looking branches.
"Raven!" He cried out happily, running to her. "Raven, I'm here to get you out!"
"Why bother?" She sighed, sounding defeated. Her face was showed a great sense of misery. "Pride's better than me. I can sense what she feels, and it feels like Jump City loves her. Even you guys haven't realized it wasn't me until Pride told you, and you enjoyed her presence during that. Even though she left the titans, things have been going so well for her as Gold-Girl, since she doesn't have to keep her emotions in check. What's the point?"
"Raven, what are you talking about? Of course she's not better than you. You know what I think of Pride?" He asked his half-demon comrade. "She's arrogant due to her thinking she doesn't need us. Not just teammates, but friends as well. Her positivity comes from being a vain fraud. She listens to the people she saves and models for, not her friends. She isn't you."
"What's so great about me? I'm dark, I'm not funny, I'm not outgoing. What could there possibly be anything about me you like?"
"You're authentic." He replied. Although her face never changed from being miserable, her eyes looked somewhat interested. "You may be dark, but that gives you a cool mysterious edge. You may not crack jokes, but you are quite the smart mouth. If all your remarks towards me weren't all about how all my ideas are dumb or I'm acting foolish, I'd probably laugh at your wit more. But, that means you're the most honest person I know." Raven contemplated on that. "And as for outgoing, yeah what you said is true. But you do join in every once in a while. Remember when we dressed like Robin?" A light smile appeared on her face remembering that. "You're not as good as Pride. You're better. And there's nothing more that I want than you back." Even with her built up levels of stoicism and straightness, she couldn't stop the tears pooling up in her eyes and trailing down her face. Turning into a gorilla, he proceeded to climb the tree and tore off the branches keeping her shackled, which also made them disappear. Falling to her knees, Beast Boy landed next to her as a human, and stooped down to observe what she was going to do next. What happened next... was that she hugged him tightly, her arms over his shoulders.
"Thank you." She whispered, her voice echoing around them. Beast Boy smiled as her hugged her back.
"You're welcome."
"Oh don't make me barf." A repulsed voice made itself known, attracting the titan's attention as Gold-Girl, or more accurately Pride, walked in, wearing the same cloak and long sleeved leotard clothes as all the other emoticlones, but colored gold. "If you're going to make out, take it where no one can see it. Oh wait, better yet, how about I lock you up together, that way you're together forever."
"I won't let you take Raven away from us again. Do what you can Rave. I'll hold her off as long as I can." Running towards Pride, he transformed into a T-Rex and charged as fast as he could. Raven smiled as she swiped her tears away before floating into the lotus position. While the sky remained purple and gold, some of it around Raven turned back into black and white, while five portals surrounded around her, allowing the other available emoticlones to appear.
With a smirk, Pride let her magic flow into her legs before leaping, and slamming her her foot into his forehead. It didn't stop his momentum like Mammoth, but the strike was still strong enough for him to crumble into the ground, crashing into the ground while leaving a trench behind him. Pride was about to finish him with an axe kick when a combined light drew her attention. Raven had again fused with her emotions, but due to lacking three of them, her cloak and leotard was striped diagonally to the right, going by red, orange, yellow, grey and brown. Sneering, Pride let herself exponentially grow in overall size, becoming the size of her ego at well over a thousand feet tall. Raising her foot, she proceeded to try and stomp them out of existence, but was stopped when the light of many colors stopped her attack. Grunting, she powered up her leg and pushed harder, and did manage to get closer, but the power was starting to become too much. She had to step away as Raven grew bigger as well, reaching her height. Both determined, they blasted each other with all they could muster, resulting in a stalemate. Beast Boy opened his eye and looked up, seeing the towering women trying to defeat one another. Seeing this was beyond his control, he turned into a tiny turtle and withdrew into his shell. The clash seemed even, but steadily, Raven was winning.
"No! You need me! How could you turn away from such a golden opportunity to be the heroine everyone loves?!" Pride yelled out.
"All that glitters is not gold." Raven answered as her blast overpowered Pride's and hit her full blast resulting in two things. One; all the emotions that created Pride; Brave, Happiness and Passion, were separated from her like a picture duplicating into four in a line. The second is that Pride's clothes turned from gold to charcoal grey, similar but different to Timid's pure grey as she crashed with a grunt into the ground near by, powerless and knocked out cold.
Once it sounded like the battle was over, he waited a few seconds to be sure before peeking his head out of his shell. Beast Boy saw that he was surrounded by the full spectrum of colors of Ravens staring down at him with their signature expressions. Turning back into his regular self, he was about to get up when he winced and went back down, holding the giant lump on his head from that kick.
"Ow, my head. So... did we win?"
It was a hard fought battle, but in the end, Starfire was almost defeated, her chest held down by the bruised, panting, and cloth torn, yet victorious Gold-Girl.
"Such a shame. I did like you all, I guess, but there's no need for you. There's only one room for one hero, and that-" She was cut off when her eyes flashed gold for a second, before it faded into her normal eye color of purple. She fell onto her back, fainting into unconsciousness. Luckily, that only lasted a few seconds before she woke up again, gasping for air and groaning from her injuries.
"Raven?" The Tamaranean asked.
"Ugh, It's me Starfire. Raven." Starfire then said something in her native tongue, sounding like relief from her tone. Looking around her, she saw the chaos they had brought to the piers, but thankfully no one was hurt since it was evacuated before the mission began. Seeing Robin and Cyborg, she used her magic to both get Robin out of the ground and reattach Cyborg's head. It was only then that she blacked out for real from the effort itself.
It was much later in the day where it was actually night time that Raven entered the living room, having healed most of her injuries, but still had an ice pack kept to her head. Noticing her come in, all of the titans approached her slowly.
"Raven? How are you?" Robin inquired with concern.
"I hurt, but I'll live." She replied dryly, but assuredly.
"What about emotionally?" Starfire asked.
"I think my mood swings are gone. I don't feel any of my emotions rising and falling like waves."
"So... you're cool now? All good?" Beast Boy asked her. Raven gave him a little smile as she walked up to him, and gave the green teen the most quickest of kisses on the lips. Starfire's eyes opened wide and she smiled. Robin's eyebrows scrunched up and gave Cyborg $20 bucks. Beast Boy froze as he stared into her eyes.
"Yes. I'm all good. Thanks to you... my Beast Boy." She told him. His blush was so great it rivaled to turn his cheeks into red. "However, there's one more thing I need to do to truly put this behind me."
A picture of the Teen Titans logo was displayed before transitioning to Raven and Starfire, standing in front of a giant picture of the former hero Raven was, Gold-Girl.
"Aaaaaaand we rollin!" Beast Boy told them.
"Hello Jump City. You know me as Raven."
"And I Starfire." The alien princess followed with.
"Now, you all noticed I went on a four day... thing, by leaving the titans and paraded around as the kicking sorceress known as Gold-Girl. However, that was not me. I was suffering from an effect by a prism that split me into my emotions, got back together, and had mood swings because of it. On the day my teammates accidentally tore my cloak, which was it was the last one clean, and the Hive attacked, a new emotion came out and took me over. The past four days, I was not Raven, but Pride: a combination of bravery, happiness, and passion. She had a type of confidence I never had about myself or period. However, the way she acted, leaving the titans, and going off to be her own superheroine? I was peeved. Pride, naming herself on this plane as Gold-Girl, just let people look at her all they liked, because that was what made her feel powerful, inflating her ego. Well, I'm here to tell you all that the ways Pride showed my body was wrong. This is my body, and I alone choose how it'll be seen by others."
"Yes. Too often are females seen like the objects and candy for the eyes." Starfire added. "Females are just like anybody else. We may have the different proportions, but beauty is something that is subjective, and should not be upheld by what men have projected into societal expectations. We are not a thing to just look at and do the whistling. We are humanoids that are capable of thinking and reasoning with a sense of dignity that demands respect. Just because we are the attractive does not mean that is all we are."
"After all, how many people out there can fluently speak and read six different languages, one of which is not even from Earth, like I can? I also train my body so that when I need to, I can defend myself in close range along with long range. We are strong, we are proud, and we have the mind and heart to fight back against sexism and be treated as equals. Hope you loved Gold-Girl..." Raven led to as she held up the golden leotard, only to disintegrate it with her hand. "...because you're never seeing her again. I am Raven, and I will not let my body be disgraced and let it be. This public service announcement is brought to you by the Teen Titans."
"Aaaaand cut, wrap it up and call it a sandwich because its done, dudes!" Beast Boy laughed as they all gathered together.
"Joy! I am so glad that we are promoting the equality of females!" Starfire cheered, hugging Raven, whom didn't object.
"Yeah. Even if most of the city doesn't believe me or guys ignore it, I don't care. I'm sure any girls that see that will feel empowered that just regular old me is saying no to objectivism."
"Good for you Rave. Now, let's get us some pizza to celebrate!" Cyborg suggested loudly, the four titans cheering as they went to go out, except for Beast Boy when the half-demon held his hand, making him stay.
"Thanks. This meant a lot to me."
"No prob, Rae Rae. We titans stick together like family." He bumped his heart with his fist, making her smile a little. "Now then, how about we get that pizza before Chrome Dome and Starfire eat it all?" Raven nodded as they walked together, hand in hand.