I have always been alone.

Okay, not exactly alone. Unfortunately, it is nigh-impossible in this day and age to be alone, even if you consciously try. Take myself, for example. I am part of a group of superheroes, known as the Teen Titans. They are the most dependent, immature, frustrating people I have ever met. And ironically… they are the closest friends and allies I have.

I have a rather bad habit of finding the flaws in the characters of others… Robin, for instance. He's a control freak who always needs everything to be exactly as ordered. He seems to be attempting to banish all chaos and anarchy from his life, which is not quite healthy… I have ventured into his room, once or twice. Perfectly stacked books and equipment, organized in alphabetical order. I shudder to think of it. When will he realize that permanence and order are illusions? When will he learn to live the one, precious life that he is granted?

And then there is Starfire. Have you ever met a cheerful, optimistic person who almost NEVER seems depressed or angry? She happens to be one of them. She never stops smiling, or giggling, or being generally happy. And frankly, when one is that cheerful, there HAS to be something wrong. I mean it. Optimism should not be a natural emotion, after living on this Earth of suffering and agony for a while. Moreover, it appears that she has fallen victim to the most treacherous of all emotions: love. I don't believe that she realizes it yet. I keep restraining the urge to tell her that the aura of love she feels for Robin breaks my meditation.

That brings us to Cyborg (I sincerely hope that his birth name was not "Cyborg"). Always whining and complaining about how his machine parts aren't good enough, or how his human parts aren't good enough. I'm okay with a small amount of self-loathing (keeps people humble), but Cyborg's case is too much for me to handle, at times. He needs to learn to live with himself, for who he is! He's good enough to do anything, if he just BELIEVES in himself, for once. Of course, being the "cold, distant, frightening" member of our group, it would be quite uncharacteristic of me to tell him so.

I've saved Beast Boy for last… A sad case, to say the least. Always making jokes that are far from amusing, as if forced to do so. It is almost as if he's frightened that, if everyone were to see behind the mask, they would no longer care for him. Sometimes I wonder what the hell made him think that. I mean, most of us can see him for who he is, anyways! Well, maybe not Robin, who's too absorbed with defeating Slade. Or Starfire, who's too oblivious. Or Cyborg, who's too absorbed in self-pity. Okay, so I'm the only one who can see his true self. Behind the mask, he's a genuinely sweet, empathetic person.

The frustrating part of knowing the faults of others is that, though you know what they need in order to correct their faults, you can never tell them, at risk of endangering "the friendship". Robin needs a few dates with Starfire to correct that "uptight" issue. Starfire needs Robin so that she can finally spill god-knows-what traumatic experience that forced her to hide it behind forced happiness. Cyborg needs someone (I don't know who) who'll raise his ego a bit. And Beast Boy needs someone to tell him that he's a sweet, empathetic person.

They all need others to depend on, to see past their faults. All of them, except myself.

They don't see it, really. There's a reason why I keep quiet. I can see things in them that they themselves can't. And if I were to tell them… I mean, Robin is the type who would take offense if someone were to ever tell him how flawed he is. And Starfire would just pat me on the head and say that I need cheering up. Cyborg would just shrug and say, "I'll keep that in mind," and go back to working on his machinery. And Beast Boy…

…frankly, his reaction is the one I fear the most. He would open up to me. Get emotionally attached. Believe himself to be in love with me. And I don't think I want to do that to him… so, in the long run, he'd be better off thinking that I hate him.

Which I don't. I give a damn what happens to these people. I wish I could help them, frankly. But I cannot help them, if they refuse to help themselves. Such is the burden of being an empath…

"Hey, Raven!" Raven looked up from her writing, which was in rather tidy, small cursive.

Beast Boy stood almost directly over her shoulder, a silly, good-natured grin on his face. "Whatcha writing? Is it something about me? Hey, maybe you're writing to a secret admirer…" Beast Boy spoke in his childish way, still attempting to glimpse over Raven's cloaked shoulder.

"It's nothing," said Raven, in her quiet, restrained way. She deftly pulled the paper from the table, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into the trash can. "At any rate, it's probably dinner time. And Starfire's probably cooked up some more 'glorg'." She began to walk out of the living room, and towards the kitchen.

Beast Boy was undeterred. He followed directly behind Raven, waving his arms cheerfully. "Ooo. That WAS to some secret admirer, wasn't it? Raven has a cruuuush, Raven has a cruuuush…" The purple-haired girl closed her eyes, pretending to ignore the green-skinned changeling... just as she had always kept silent and pretended to ignore everyone…

I will always be alone…