Somewhere in Nevermore…

"It's happening! It's happening!" Joy cried, flying through the other portals to wake the other Emotions. Fear was the only one awake. Everybody else seemed to be in a deep trance in their own dimensions of Raven's mind. At Joy's yell Courage groggily reached out and grabbed a handful of the pink cloak Joy wore. The bubbly Emotion jerked to a stop and fell on the ground.

"What's happening?" Courage asked, putting on her own green cloak. The air around them shimmered as a Raven wearing an orange cloak wearily drifted into Courage's dimension.

"Indeed, 'it' is certainly not a very accurate way to describe what is occurring." Intelligence yawned, adjusting the huge glasses that rested on the bridge of her nose. Rudeness, Misery, and Timid slowly filtered into Courage's dimension as well, much to her annoyance.

"Dudes! There's a reason we created a meeting place ya know. That way we don't all have to crowd my room!" she said indignantly before floating away to the huge rock in the middle of all the portals. Judging by the smears of color already there Courage realized they were the only Emotions not present already. The green-cloaked Raven grumbled. She hated being late, though Rudeness didn't seem to mind very much.

"Oooh! I love parties!" Joy giggled, flying quickly to an empty space beside Wisdom. Timid cowered beside Fury, whose red cloak contrasted with the gray of Timid's cloak. Fury glared at Timid with evil red eyes occasionally. Misery sobbed on Hysteria's shoulder, who screeched angrily about the state of her cloak. Tranquility was already floating above the other Emotions, calming them down with her soft silver glow. The crowd of Emotions quickly became quiet and Courage seized this chance to squeeze in between Determination and Hope. Joy flew up to take Tranquility's place with a giggle.

"It's happening!" she exclaimed in a cheerful voice. The Emotions grumbled in various stages of annoyance. Only Wisdom and Tranquility remained silent.

"Yeah, we get something's happening. I only heard it a hundred times before I woke up!" Fury snapped, sparks flying from her fingers and singeing the cloaks of the Emotions in front of her.

"What's happening?" Curiosity called out in confusion. Joy clapped her hands and did cartwheels in midair.

"Another portal! Another portal!" she said in a singsong voice. All the Emotions started talking at once.

"What does she look like?"

"Is she nice?"

"Whose dimension is she sharing?"

"What Emotion IS she?"

Joy shrugged nonchalantly and grinned down at the crowd. "She was really nice, and wore the prettiest purple cloak I've ever seen! She's sharing my dimension in a nice portal with the most gorgeous red roses on them, they smell so nice!" she gushed.

Rudeness tapped her foot impatiently. "Okay, but what emotion IS she?"

"Ummmmmmmmm…. she didn't tell me. Only that we had to figure it out by listening to her riddle! Isn't she charming?"

Fury snorted. "With all the hatred of a thousand winged Du…"

Wisdom gave Fury a warning look.

"She is not charming." she finished quickly, glowering at the white-cloaked Emotion. Joy ignored the interruption and busily summoned the piece of paper she had written the riddle down on. A scrap of paper floated on the breeze to Joy's outstretched hand. She cleared her throat and began to read the tiny print.

"I am called a million words

And am more flighty than a nest of birds

Often spoken of, rarely seen

Almost always inspire green

I am many, but when it is through

There is only one of me that's true."

"That is possibly the worst riddle I have ever heard. Ever." Rudeness said after a moments silence.

"How many riddles have we heard?" Curiosity asked Intelligence. Intelligence pulled out a calculator from the depths of her cloak and showed the figures to Curiosity. Her mouth opened in amazement.

"But what does it MEAN?" she asked. Everybody started talking at once, each putting in what they thought the riddle meant.

"Annoyance!" Fury called out.

"Confusion?" Curiosity guessed.

"Panic!" Determination added smugly.

"Envy!" Hysteria suggested.

"I'm right here stupid! Just because you have a larger portal than me doesn't mean you can forget me!" Envy said indignantly.

"Are you calling me stupid?" Hysteria yelled.

"Is there anybody else bonehead?"

"Guys, guys stop!" Courage said before a fight could break out. "First of all, calling people 'bonehead' is Rudeness's job. Second, we all have the same size dimensions and portals. Third, how is this helping us figure out this riddle?"

"Love." Wisdom said. All the emotions stared at her.

"The riddle is talking about Love. Love can be called infatuation, passion, adoration, and a million other words. People often fall in love with more than one person in their lifetime, and people often talk about love. Few find it though, and love inspires jealousy. Most importantly, there is only one true love." Wisdom explained. Intelligence began nodding as she understood and many other Emotions did as well.

"That's just great, the new Emotion is Love. This is even worse than when we got Timid here three years ago." Fury seethed, pushing the smaller Emotion aside. "Why'd she even give us her name in riddle form anyway?"

"Well, Raven does enjoy a good riddle." Compassion said, pulling Timid away from Fury.

"The question is why, but not about the riddle. Why did Raven obtain the Emotion Love in the first place?" Curiosity wondered aloud.

"Something must have happened outside." Tranquility said.

"But what?"

"That is for Raven to tell us, or Love if she is willing. We'll just have to wait patiently."

There was grumbling from the assembled crowd. Patience was something only three emotions had, and Patience was one of those three. Tranquility and Wisdom simply waved goodbye to everyone and floated off to their separate dimensions, signaling that the meeting was over. The Emotions broke up, most still grumbling and whispering among themselves. Courage floated over with Determination to talk about the new Emotion.

"Hey D, what do you think happened? And who do you think Raven is in love with?" she asked, stopping at the portal to her dimension.

"I have no idea, but it must have been big. All I know is that I'm going to force it out of Love if it's the last thing I do." Determination threatened.

"I thought violence was Fury's specialty."

"I can use her to help me."

"Yeah, whatever. Bye." Courage said skeptically, flying through the portal to her home of mazes and attacking statues.

"I really do wonder who Raven's in love with. I hope he's cute. And that she'll let me out to say hi to him." the Emotion said to herself before picking a fight with one of the sword-wielding statues. Fighting always calmed her mind.

Outside, in the real world…

"You're going to destroy the world Raven. It's written all over your face."

"No!!"

A black raven spread its wings over a decimated city as time flew backwards. Time unfroze and stone statues returned to humans, who walked along and went on with their lives, unaware of the two figures on the tower high above them. A full moon replaced the red sky and shone on a young girl with long flowing lilac hair and tattered black clothing and a man clothed in bronze and black armor gripping her arms. The mysterious red symbols that had covered her arms slowly faded away into her unnaturally pale skin.

"We'll be in touch." the man said and let go of the girl's arms. He watched her hit the roof and fall towards the traffic far below for a second.

"Oh, and happy birthday." he added before melting into the night.

She could feel the air rushing past her but didn't bother to fly and save herself. Maybe if she died then the prophecy would end and the earth would be saved from destruction.

Then a strong arm wrapped around her small waist and swung her to safety onto a roof. She opened her stunning violet eyes slowly and saw Robin's black and white domino mask looking down gently at her. Something in her chest fluttered for the first time.

"Let's go home." he said, helping the girl up. She stumbled and fell into his arms.

"You okay Raven?" he asked in a worried voice. Raven nodded and realized what a sight she must be, her normally short hair long and unkempt, her dark blue cloak missing and her black leotard in tatters.

"Just a little weak." she replied, not looking at his handsome face again.

"Do you want me to carry you?"

"No way!" she said horrified.

Robin grinned but slipped his arm around her waist for support. She leaned against his sturdy frame, blushing furiously at her weakness and something else. They arrived at the Titans Tower quickly and Raven wished that the Tower was farther away. She blushed even more just thinking about it.

You like him Raven! You like the Boy Wonder! a rose scented Emotion called.

Shut up, shut up. Raven thought.

"Hey Raven, are you okay? Do you have a fever?" Robin asked her, concerned.

"Never better." she replied.

Robin grinned. "I'm glad." Raven felt that funny feeling in her heart again.

Never better, never better! that same Emotion called out happily. You'll see it my way eventually!