Fan Fiction ❯ A Raven Like No Other ❯ Chapter Seven: “Emotional Chaos” ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter Seven: “Emotional Chaos”

 

(At Titan Tower)

Raven was still in her room, still standing where she was. She was still in shock at what she as beholding: the mirror, which for reasons she can't seem to explain to herself, cracked.

“This can't be,” Raven said to herself. Raven soon heard footsteps from outside her room. Turning to her door, she stepped out of her room and quietly followed the footsteps down the hall. She vaguely saw a figure turn to the corner and proceeded down to the common room where the other Titans would normally assemble for game playing, meetings and other things. While following the figure, she now heard the sound of the television and the Game Station XL being played. From the sound of the game, it was clear that the game was Custom Tech 3.

“Cyborg and Beast Boy no doubt,” Raven assured herself as she relaxed a bit, taking on her normal walking pace. Upon arriving at the common room however, what she saw shocked and stupefied her as her mouth dropped widely from sheer disbelief with eyes as wide as dish plates. The only thing she was able to say was, “I am so screwed...”

 

(An Hour Later)

Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire and Robin were just returning back to Titan Tower after the incident with Overload was resolved. They currently on on the elevator making their way up to the common room.

“Ah Man,” Cyborg complained, “That freak had me destroy all of those cool gadgets and equipment I was so eager to upgrade into the T-Car and T-Ship.”

“Stop complaining,” Robin retorted, “Just be happy that you weren't charged for the damages.”

“That's not making the feeling any better,” Cyborg snorted. Robin rolled his eyes and decided to say nothing further. Reaching their floor, the group stepped out of the elevator and started toward the common room. Beast Boy decided to speak up and say, “Hey Cy, I know what'll cheer you up!”

“And what might that be?”

“How about you and I go and continue where we left off on the Cus-”

Beast Boy discontinued his suggestion when he and the others came upon a sight in the common room that momentarily took away their speaking abilities. In front of them looked like a convention of hooded cloaked females each having a different colored cloak.

“I didn't know we were having company this afternoon,” Starfire said with a clueless expression.

“We weren't,” Robin responded, “Who are they?”

“BEAST BOY!”

Beast Boy knew that voice all too well. Everyone turned to see a pinked cloaked “Raven” toss the Game Station XL controller to the floor to fly speedily from the sofa and dive into Beast Boy, embracing him in a tight hug, almost knocking him off his feet in the process.

“Wow,” Happy squealed excitedly, “It's been so long since we last met! I'm so glad to see you again!”

Beast Boy was feeling the breath being squeezed out of him.

“O-K,” Beast Boy sqeaked, “I'm...happy to see you too. But...your overwhelming joy in squeezing the life out of me.”

Happy giggled and released Beast Boy from her embrace.

“Hey everyone,” Happy shouted, “Beast Boy and the others are back!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face Beast Boy and the others. The group came to see multiple “Ravens” each clad in different colored cloaks looking at them. To say that the Titans were bugged out by what they were seeing would have been an understatement. The other emotions went back to whatever they were doing. Many of them were drinking herbal tea almost to no surprise. The green cloak clad “Raven” walked over to Beast Boy and Cyborg and said with a tomboyish attitude, “B.B. and Cy! Whatzup! It's been ages!”

“O...K,” Cyborg spoke after a long silence, “Did we get teleported into Raven's mind, again?”

“No,” answered a girl with a voice devoid of emotions as she stepped forward. The group saw that this “Raven” was clad in yellow with wired round glasses on her face. Being carried in her hand was a yellow and grey laptop with a fly raven engraved in back of it. Walking next to her was the one who was clad in a yellow-orange cloak.

“You're not in Raven's mind,” Knowledge continued, “We're in your world. We're the different emotions and personalities of Raven Roth.”

“Different emotions and personalities,” Starfire asked.

“That's right,” Knowledge replied, “Each of us represent a different trait and attribute of Raven. I'm Knowledge, I'm the one who embodies Raven's intelligence, memories and all of her knowing of mystical forces and so forth.”

“I'm Reason,” spoke the yellow-orange cloaked `Raven', “I'm more of an interpreter and assistant of Knowledge. Beast Boy and Cyborg only met a few of us emotions a few years ago when they were accidentally teleported into Raven's mind. These few being Happy, Timid, Bravery, and...”

“Rage.”

The group turned to see Raven appeared in front of them. Cyborg and Beast Boy knew that red monster emotion all too well.

“Rage,” Beast Boy said worriedly, “She's here also!”

“She's somewhere,” Raven replied, “But where we don't know.”

“Don't worry about her,” Bravery said confidently while cracking her knuckles, “We'll show old four-eyes a thing or two when she shows up sooner or later!”

Bravery jumped and did a swing kick in the air and landed down gracefully with a smirk on her face. This had Beast Boy and Cyborg a bit worried. If anything, they knew the kind of damage that the four-red eyed “Raven” could do. Before Raven could speak, other emotions started coming towards them. The first of them was one clad in a cloak, leotard, and boots colored with a variety of bright colors like a rainbow with a lustrous metallic silver headband around her head with heart-shaped diamonds embedded around the headband, and each diamond was in different colors. Her lavender hair was littered with multi-colored sparkling glitter.

This was one emotion neither Beast Boy nor Cyborg ever met. And the way she looked caused the Titans except Raven to look at her oddly.

“Who are you,” Beast Boy asked curiously. She smiled a bright smile expressing feelings of wanting to have some recreational fun.

“I thought you'd never asked. I'm Desire.”

“Say what,” the group responded in unison.

“I represent all that fun things Raven deeply desires to do with you guys and with Beast Boy especially,” Desire proclaimed with a bit more enthusiasm at the end than Raven wanted. The last part of her proclamation caused Beast Boy to blush as the others looked on at Desire funny. Cyborg was fighting hard to hold from laughing at Beast Boy's situation.

“I must say that your choice of clothing is...Unique,” Starfire smiled.

“Thanks,” Desire accepted as she twirled happily like a schoolgirl. Raven just shook her head while wishing that all that was happening was nothing more than a bad dream she could just wake up from.

“I'm just one of the three sisters of Raven's heart,” Desire said. Now everyone's heads shot up.

“Three sisters of Raven's heart,” Beast Boy asked curiously.

“That's right.”

The group turned to see another emotion step forward. This one was clad in a cloak, leotard and boots that were lustrous whitish silver with a pinkish white rose being held in her right hand (A/N: her boots resembled Faye Valentine's shoes from the anime Cowboy Beebop in case you forget). Around her head was a lustrous metallic golden headband with heart-shaped white diamonds embedded around the headband. Her lavender hair was littered with sparkling glitter.

Beast Boy couldn't help but say in admiration, “Beautiful.”

“Why thank you,” Love blushed with a smile as she did a curtsy, “Although Raven may not admit it but she really appreciates the compliment, especially since it came from you. I'm the first of the three sisters of Raven's heart known as Love.”

“LOVE,” the Titans said in unison. Love, Desire and Happy giggled at them.

“I'm not at all surprised by your reaction,” Love assured, “I along with my other two “heart” sisters are the rare emotions Raven ever expresses. Desire happens to be the second of us and we three embody all of Raven's deepest desires, goals and fantasies. And since my two sisters and I came directly from Raven's heart, we therefore have a strong influence on her other emotions and personalities.”

“This is getting weird,” Cyborg said, “I knew that there multiple “Ravens” inside Raven's mind. But I never expected there were more inside her heart as well, these having more influence on the others.”

“Speaking of which,” Beast Boy asked, “Who and where's the third one?”

Upon hearing that question, Love, Desire, Happy and the other emotions turned to Raven who now had a worried expression.

“I couldn't find her,” Raven answered, “Like her, some of my other emotions are wandering somewhere around the tower if not elsewhere. So far several are here and account for in this room now.”

“Several,” Robin asked, “Just how many are there?”

“For all I know,” Raven answered in a monotone, “...Twenty-four.”

“TWENTY-FOUR!”

The sheer number stupefied the Titans.

“One Raven was enough but twenty-four,” Cyborg exclaimed.

“So I have twenty-four known personalities,” Raven replied with no emotions, “What's it to you?”

“Dude,” Beast Boy said, “Just when I thought I had some understanding about you, something more complex pops up. You really are an enigma.”

“Wow,” Sarcasm said, “He isn't just all muscles and looks after all, he actually has a vocabulary.”

“Huh,” was all Beast Boy was able to say as Annoyance and Sarcasm gave each other a high five while secretly Raven was trying to hold back from chuckling. When Raven started thinking about what Sarcasm said however, she was wondering if there was more to what she meant when she said “he isn't just all muscles and looks after all”.

Soon the other personalities when back to doing what they were previously doing. Happy and Desire grabbed and took Beast Boy with them to the sofa and started playing Custom Tech 3 with him. Love and Bravery stood behind the sofa as they watched them play the Game Station XL. Knowledge was floating three feet off the ground with her legs folded beside the sofa typing furiously away on her laptop while Reason was floating next to her reading a book. Curiosity was silently taking notes in her notepad while watching Beast Boy and the way he was going about playing the Game Station XL game console while Conscience, Kindness and Femininity were at a corner discussing some major topic about the situation they were in while drinking herbal tea.

Sarcasm, Irony, and Annoyance were sitting and conversing with each other on the couch behind the sofa while Tranquility was calmly floating in the air with her legs folded doing her ritual meditation. Lazy was asleep at the edge the sofa and while Timid was sitting at the other side of the sofa with her cloak wrapped around her, mumbling quietly about how no one ever likes her. Boredom was sitting next to Timid with a dull expression on her face, wishing for the day to be over.

“Is it our imagination,” Cyborg commented, “Or is Beast Boy surrounded by Raven's counterparts who are for reasons beyond me congregated around him?”

“I suppose that the Raven doppelgangers have a certain fondness for our green friend,” Starfire suggested as she looked at Raven cautiously.

“Hmph,” Raven scoffed, “As if.”

“I'll say,” Cyborg agreed, “Raven and Beast Boy are total opposites of each other.”

“Isn't there an old Earthling saying that says “Opposites attracts”,” Starfire countered innocently.

“She's definetely NOT helping the situation,” Raven grumbled lowly under her breath.

“This just keeps getting weirder,” Robin agreed, “But I'm sure that there's some kind of explanation for this bizarre phenomenon.”

“Indeed there is,” Love spoke as she turned her head half way towards Robin, Cyborg and Starfire, “I warned Raven that Denial would bring for consequences? (Turned to Raven) Didn't I?”

Raven lowered her head quietly, not wanting to say a word. Robin, Starfire and Cyborg now turned to Raven.

“Denial,” Starfire asked, “You mean as in “Denial Doppelganger Raven”?”

“If you want to put it that way then yes,” Knowledge spoke up as she and Reason turned to the Titans, “She's a emotion who feeds on Raven's powerful denials and refusals of truths. So much so that she overloaded and here we are.”

“Raven,” Robin interrogated, “You caused this to happened?”

“It was by accident,” Raven answered in a monotone voice, “One that I will eventually find a way to rectify.”

“What do you mean by “eventually”,” Starfire asked. Raven sighed deeply and after a long silence, she replied, “My mirror that contained all of my emotions shattered.”

“You mean that weird mirror Cyborg and I were sucked into a few years back,” Beast Boy asked after hearing the conversation behind him. Raven simply nodded.

“Isn't there a way to repair that mirror,” Cyborg asked, “An incantation or a spell of some kind?”

“This is something that no spell or incantation of any kind can repair,” Love explained as she competely turned to face the Titans. Raven started taking an inventory of the emotions and personalities who were present.

“Basically this like when Raven's refused to admit she was afraid after watching Wicked Scary, yes,” Starfire asked.

“This problem goes far more deeper than that Starfire,” Love explained, “Far deeper. To undo the damage done to the mirror, Raven must confront her emotional situation by being true to herself. But I'm afraid for something of this magnitude, (looked over at Raven) it'll be easier said than done.”

Raven said nothing as she looked away from Love. A moment later, a loud belch was heard from the kitchen.

“What the hell was that,” Cyborg asked as he, Raven and the other Titans went into the kitchen only to see a smelly figure clad in a dry violet cloak gluttenously and savagely stuffing food into her mouth from the refrigerator. Among the foods were tofu, which shocked everyone, the leftover fruit salad, day-old fried chicken, Beast Boy's half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a piece of strawberry cheesecake and two slices of cold pizza that was about three days old. She then licked her thumbs and all her fingers before she took a large cup of warm herbal tea and inhumanly gulped it down with some of the contents spilling out of the mug and onto her leotard.

After guzzling down the tea and putting the large cup down, the figure belched loudly again then used her cloak as a napkin to clean off her face and hands. The group was rather disgusted with this figure's most indecent and gluttonous behavior.

“Dude,” Beast Boy said with a feeling of disgust, “That's gross!”

“We never met and you already know my name,” Gross said with a bright smile showing her teeth, which were stained with residue of mixed food and tea with some of the food contents stuck between her teeth, “You really know how to make a Goth girl feel special B.B.!”

Cyborg was no longer able to contain himself. He burst out die-laughing loudly and unfortunately, so did Beast Boy, Robin and Starfire. They were practically crying tears during their laughter. The thought of Raven being sloppy and indescribably gluttenous with no manners or sense of hygiene was something they never conceived to be possible. Raven placed her hands over her face, feeling more embarrassed than before.

“We're sorry...Raven,” Beast Boy spoke while trying to calm his laughter down, “But...The very notion of you being so piggy and gross was something we never thought was part of you.”

“It's one of the many parts of me I'm ashamed to have,” Raven retorted dryly. Soon another emotion flew and landed down at the entrance of the common room. She stood in front of the group outside the kitchen as if she was the main center of attention. This one was clad in a reddish brown cloak while wearing Starfire's purple mini-skirt, stomach-less tank top and arm piece.

“Are those my clothes,” Starfire asked while already knowing the obvious.

“Hey Star,” Cocky responded while posing like a model, “I hope you don't that I raided your closet and tried on your stuffs. But honestly, I always thought they would look more sexier on me, don't you agree Beast Boy?”

Cocky grinned at Beast Boy while his face was turning several shades of red. Cyborg was snickering at the scene while Starfire and Robin looked on in disbelief about how full of herself this emotion is.

“That's Cocky,” Raven said while futilely trying to hide her face under her hood. A moment later they heards two disputing voice making their way toward the common room.

“That's not fair,” loudly whined an emotion, “It's my turn! Why must you take and play with all of the good stuffs and leave me with leftover junk!”

“Damn it! Can you go two seconds without bitching so often!”

Two other emotions entered the room and toying around with a flying gadget that Cyborg was still experimenting with. The one piloting the gadget by handheld remote control was clad in an orange cloak and the other was wearing an aqua green cloak.

“Yo,” Cyborg shouted, “Who said you can toy my stuff!”

“I said so,” Rudeness retorted disrespectfully while piloting the fly machine.

“Don't play with that,” Cyborg commanded, “It's not a toy!”

“You're not the boss of us Robocop,” Rudeness mocked, “I do what I want, with what I want, when I like and where I like!”

“Take your hands off my stuff!”

“Hmph,” Rudeness shrugged, “ If you say so.”

Complying, Rudeness tossed the controller to the floor, causing the gadget to crash and blow up on the wall.

“NOOO,” Cyborg cried, “I had big plans for that thing!”

“You're a walking factory so recycle yourself a new one.”

Cyborg's face was now red as he morphed his right arm into a cannon ready to fire.

“Cyborg,” Robin yelled trying to keep his friend from firing inside the tower. Reluctantly, Cyborg lowered his cannon but still held up an angry look on his face.

“Rudeness and Envy,” Knowledge spoke after her long silence.

“Hello to you too brain mistress,” Rudeness mocked. Although she didn't measure up to Rage in regards to mayhem and chaos, however, it was still clear that this emotion was a real troublemaker.

“All of the known emotions and personalities are here and accounted for,” Knowledge confirmed, “All but three.”

“Three,” Beast Boy asked, “I know Rage is still on the loose somewhere, as is Denial. So that leaves just one more.”

“This one happens to be my third “heart” sister,” Love explained, “She's somewhere doing who knows what. Desire, my third sister and myself happen to be the ones Raven has the biggest problems with.”

“She does,” Beast Boy asked curiously, “What kind of problem?”

“I'm sorry,” Love apologized, “But that's something that only Raven can tell you; when she feels ready to.”

Starfire suspected what Love was talking about as she eyed Raven quietly. Secretly though, Starfire along with Beast Boy and the other Titans suspected that Raven and her other counterparts were hiding something from them after acknowledging that neither Raven nor her other counterparts revealed the name the third of the three sisters of Raven's heart.

 

(Later That Night)

The matter as to where the twenty-one present “Raven” counterparts would be sleeping was a dilemma that caused be bit a friction amongst the counterparts and Raven definitely wasn't planning on sharing her room with one of her counterparts. Soon Robin suggested that some stay in the guest rooms and in the room that once belonged to Terra. A few had to share the sofa and others had to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor in the guest rooms. Relectantly they complied, although Rudeness, Annoyance, and Envy gave them a hard time before being forced by Raven to comply. Cocky still had on Starfire's clothes and was about to go to sleep with them on till Raven had her take them off and return them. Although she obeyed however, Cocky still said that Starfire's clothes looked sexier on her than on Starfire, and that Beast Boy would agree with her on that. Raven sighed in frustration and mumbled to herslf, “Why me?”

Later, Cyborg, Starfire and Robin had turned in for the night after the security system was activated. As for Beast Boy, he decided to do his evening exercises as he would do occasionally while the others were sleeping so he wouldn't be bothered. Dressed in his routine sweat pants and muscle shirt, Beast Boy made his way to the excercising room. Upon arriving however, he found Bravery standing and leaning up against the wall with her arms crossed over her breasts. She raised her head to look at him with a smile.

“Hey B.B.,” Bravery said, “I was wondering when you'd show up.”

“Bravery? What you doing here?”

“Couldn't sleep. So I figured I'd hang here and wait for you to show up.”

“How did you know I'd be here?”

“B.B., like hello, you come here almost all the time during these hours. And besides Raven would secretly stand by and watch as you exercise sometimes.”

“Sh...She would,” Beast Boy blushed. Bravery chuckled, “Take my word for it. But in any case, how about we spar for a while, you and me?”

“Are you serious?”

Bravery undid her cloak and threw it off to the side.

“You're not too afraid to take on a girl are you B.B.,” Bravery said with her right hand at her hip.

“In truth, you're not an ordinary girl.”

“Is that an acceptance for a challenge?”

“If you want to call it that. But let's make it interesting.”

“What'cha had in mind?”

“No powers. No flying. No shapeshifting. Nothing but on-the-ground combat.”

“Ooooo! I'm so up to that challenge!”

“Good!”

The duo went over to the arena floor and stood at opposite ends as they took their fighting stance. Bravery grinned a confident smile while Beast Boy smirked at her.

“Whenever you're ready,” Beast Boy challenged.

“Let's go!”

Bravery wasted no time as she yelled and charged at him, begin her assault with a series of fast throwing punches. Beast Boy dodged and blocked as many as he could although he got caught with a few of them, mostly against his chest. She then started delivering kicks after kicks at him as she increased her speed and agility. She basically turned into a kickboxer on him.

“C'mon B.B.! I know this isn't all you got!”

“Here it comes!”

Beast Boy turned it up a notch so as to not allow himself to get outpowered. He started increasing his speed and agility while being careful not to over do it.

“Now that's what I'm talking about B.B.!”

The two teens went at it with other as if they were actually in a real fierce match while being careful not to inflict any serious injury to one another. Several times they were about to catch one another off their guard and body slam each other here and there. After about forty-two minutes, both Beast Boy and Bravery seemed to have reached a stalemate as they went over to the wall off the arena floor and sat down on the ground leaning up against the wall. They both took the time to catch their breaths.

“Wow B.B.! Now that...was fun!”

“You don't say.”

Beast Boy soon felt Bravery's head resting on his left shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his left arm. At this point, Beast Boy knew his face was as red as ever.

“We should do this more often, B.B.,” Bravery said a bit softer and calmer than her normal voice, “I really get a kick out of being with you like this.”

Now Beast Boy blushed even more from what he heard. Before Beast Boy could question Bravery, he looked down and found that she fell asleep peacefully on his shoulder.

Wow, Beast Boy thought, The thought of Raven falling asleep on my shoulder was something I thought could only happen in my dreams.

Carefully so he wouldn't wake her up, Beast Boy lifted and carried Bravery in his arms as she adjusted herself till she found a more comfortable position while cuddling closer to him. By this time Beast Boy lost count about the number of times he's blushed, which was something he's been doing since he arrived at Titan Tower. Going over to her cloak, Beast Boy knelt down and took hold of it then made his way out of the room and toward the guest room she along with Happy, Timid, Love and Desire and were sharing. A moment later though, Beast Boy turned to see if there was someone behind him. Finding no one behind him, he simply shrugged and continued on his way.

Unware to Beast Boy was that Raven was quietly spying from the shadows on both him and Bravery. In fact, she was spying on them since the time they were sparring with each other. In its own weird way, Raven couldn't help but feel a bit jealous at what she was now seeing, in spite of the fact that Bravery was a part of her. The last and only person Beast Boy ever cradled protectively in his arms was Terra and this before she betrayed them when they were battling the Slade droids a few years back. Raven never had anyone cradle her in such a caring and protective fashion as Beast Boy was giving Bravery who to her surprise cuddled closer to him.

She'd have never expected Bravery of all her emotions to display such affectionate actions towards Beast Boy, or was it that she just wouldn't allow herself to acknowledge that, she wondered. Shaking the thought off, Raven quietly turned and walked off back to her room, while secretly wishing that it was her that Beast Boy was carrying to her room. While this thought flowed through her mind, she then thought about what Beast Boy said about her as she entered and closed the door of her room. Going to her bed, she laid herself down on it then said to herself lowly, “I really am an enigma.”

She looked over at the table where the shattered mirror rested. How was she to fix her mirror, she wondered. In her heart she knew the answer, the question was if she was willing to let herself admit the truth to both Beast Boy and herself. Closing her eyes, Raven allowed herself to drifted off to sleep.

 

(Meanwhile)

Reaching his destination, Beast Boy carefully made sure not to wake the girls as she placed Bravery into her sleeping bag and zipped it up for her. He placed her cloak on the chair where the other cloaks were and quiet exited the room. While leaving he heard each other them mumbled something, but he was vaguely able to make it out.

“Never knew Raven talks in her sleep,” Beast Boy said quietly to himself as he closed the door behind him. As he did, each other of them mumbled a particular name with different voice tunes based on the different dreams they were having, and this name was, “Garfield Logan.”

In fact this was happening throughout Titan Tower among all the other emotions and personalities of Raven with the other Titans and Beast Boy being totally unaware of this phenomenon.

 

(All The While)

Beast Boy entered his room and closed the door behind him. Grabbing his towel, he stepped out of his room again, she made his way to the showers. Going into the bathroom, Beast Boy locked the door and removed all of his clothes. Stepping into the showers, Beast Boy allowed the warm waters to run down his hair and body. After washing himself, Beast Boy turned off the showers and dried himself thoroughly before him wrapped his towel around his waist. Unlocking and opening the door, Beast Boy closed the lights and returned back to this room, locking the door after stepping inside. The lights to his room were still off, and that was how he currently wanted it.

Throwing off his towel, Beast Boy placed on a clean black underwear and walked over to his bed. As he approached his bed however, he stopped and stood where he was, sensing another presence in his room with him...

 

 

 

TBC