Disclaimer: I do not own the teen titans.

03 A Chat With A Beast

Beast Boy walked towards his room, Raven's words replaying in his head over and over again.

"Gar you can't help me. Nobody can. It is Empathy's burden."

"Empathy's burden….what does that mean?"

Beast Boy made it into his room and flopped down on his bed, carefully replaying all of what had happened.

'It smelled like crying when I entered the room, but Raven seemed to be semi-alright and then she's in agony…'

That was the one scene that haunted him and he had a feeling that he would never forget it. When Raven convulsed with that sudden shock of pain. It looked like she had been struck by lightening.

His inner beast howled at him to comfort her, but for the moment he knew that he could not obey. For one thing he had no idea why that thing was going wild inside his head to begin with and for another, Raven needed to be handled carefully. Raven was far more open now than she was when he initially met her, but things that he and the others took for granted, like hugs, scared her beyond belief, she would flinch if someone touched her.

Beast Boy wanted to help her so bad but he had no idea how to help her.

This would require a lot of thought and help.

Robin and Starfire were totally out of the question.

Cyborg…

He would help. Cyborg considered Raven his baby sister and would go through fire to help her.

Beast Boy rolled out of bed and began his trek to the garage. As he thought of what Raven had said to him, several things began to slowly click into place. During and after the whole Trigon episode, he had noticed that Raven was quiet…well far more than was normal for her. She began to shy away from her other team members and had taken ill several times. So far he and Cyborg were the only ones to notice, seeing as how Robin and Starfire were becoming more and more distant.

Beast Boy felt his head ache a bit, which was one of the more subtle manners in which his inner beast indicated that he wanted to have a chat. Beast Boy sighed as released the mental barrier that he enacted to hear what the beast wanted, he was a bit curious, the beast had never before been one for talk. He was more of a 'Let's kill 'em all and find out who they are through dental records' sort of beast.

'You called,' Beast Boy asked mentally.

'You wish to know what is ailing the hanyou? Do you not, whelp,' the beast said more than asked.

'Hanyou?'

'The half-demoness, whelp.'

'How would you know what's wrong with Raven? And who the hell are you calling whelp? You're me! Dumb ass…'

'I happen to know many things, you incorrigible little cretin. I call you whelp because, for now, that is what you are and for your information while I may be you, I am the more intelligent portion of you, not to mention representative of your instincts. The day that you pull your pointed-eared head out of your ass will be the day that we truly become one entity, not beforehand.'

Beast Boy felt his eye tic.

Really sometimes that inner beast was the biggest pain in the ass, especially when it was right.

Beast Boy then decided to indulge the beast for a bit.

'What's wrong with Raven? You said that you knew,' Beast Boy asked in a tone that plainly said I-don't-believe-you.

'The girl said that she suffered from empathy's burden, did she not?'

'Yeah…,' Beast Boy agreed, waiting for whatever point the beast wanted to make.

'Well, if empathy is the ability to sense and fell the emotions and others, what do you think the possible side effects could be?'

'Well…that would be that she felt what others were feeling…'

'Indeed. Whether she likes it or not, she is to feel all that other's feel…although I believe that her heritage allows her powers to take a step further.'

'Like what?'

'Tell me, what happened when all of you brats were fighting the devil…when you all felt that there was no hope, what happened to Raven?'

'Raven…,' Beast Boy was starting to realize what was going on, 'She got really sick…or at least she smelled really sick…she…she was in a lot of pain…,' Beast Boy trailed off with a slightly horrified look on his face.

'Indeed. The sense of hopelessness, helplessness, desperation, all of those served to weaken her. To cause her pain. In essence you and the others were her strength. When you failed, she failed. When you all gained confidence and began to believe in her and your own strength, you will notice that she felt much better. Her illnesses faded, her wounds healed and her powers amplified to the point that the other demon was no match for her.'

Beast Boy remembered her expression of pain, how agonized she felt to him.

'We're responsible for her pain,' Beast Boy asked quietly, his ears drooping a bit.

Beast Boy heard the beast sigh, 'No. You and the metallic one are not responsible for her agony. Think…do you hate her? Or wish her ill?'

Beast Boy shook his head. There was no way that he could ever hate Raven.

'Now think. Besides you and the metallic one, who we both know views her as kin, what about the others? I think that other than influencing her powers and overall health, the sensation of another's emotions could lash out at her…if the feeling was negative enough. But enough of this. Discuss what you now know with your friend and proceed from there.'

Beast Boy nodded and noticed that he was outside of the garage. Cyborg's off-key singing could be heard bouncing off of the walls.

Beast Boy entered the garage and hoped that he and Cyborg could find a way to help Raven.