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She wasn’t supposed to experience emotions like this. Her emotional experience was a singular experience, the complex web of her internal psyche’s connections shredded, torn asunder by the monks of Azarath, a last resort to prevent her Father from using her as conduit for his power. She wasn’t supposed to experience more than one emotion at once… and yet here, in this moment, Raven’s mind was being pulled apart by the intensity of her simultaneous Fury and Sadness. Part of her was filled with the desire to withdraw from the world, disappear into the void forevermore, while the other wanted to lash out, to raze this world to the ground, and the beginnings of a splitting headache bloomed into existence at the edges of her consciousness. Time outside her mind had slowed to a bare crawl, her demonic senses taking over, and she could feel her other eyes trying to open. As she shifted her attention to containing them, she realized they were trained directly on Slade. Directly on his one visible eye. The one visible eye which, even without her empathic senses, radiated a sickeningly smug aura, screaming out his proud, preening victory over the titans to the avian demi-demon, and she realized that to him, this was nothing more than a game, a paltry diversion. Deep within her Id, something primal loosed itself, and faster than she could keep up with it, Determination filled her, coursing through every pore of her physical body until the vessel could no longer contain it and she was subsumed by her Soulself.
The daemon bird rose from the floor in one instant, and in the next flew directly at Terra, eclipsing the glowing yellow light in her eyes, the iris, sclera and pupil all becoming individually outlined by Raven’s soulself, and the geomancer fell to her knees. The remaining four titans reacted in an instant, turning on Slade, fierce expressions on their faces.
Determination wrapped Raven’s soul around Terra’s, and Sarcasm couldn’t help but note the irony of the discovery that the earthbound girl’s mind was fractured, nearly split in two in a state of agitation and flux, and Sorrow returned to Raven again, this time Mourning as the memories flowed from Terra into Raven, showing her the moments in the brash hero’s life that chipped away until she became the split person she currently existed as. Determination still filled Raven though, and before Doubt could worm its way in, she acted. She sent out tendrils of her psyche to the other titans, Joy making her presence as each of her teammates welcomed her presence into their minds, still tenaciously battling Slade. Connections established, Raven gently reached into the core of Terra’s being, allowing a small bit of Relief to slip in when the connection formed.
With the bridge between them, Raven began tugging at the threads of her links with her team, drawing in their feelings toward Terra. She poured the bonds, the trust, the care, the concern over the fractured soul. She wrapped strands of shared fun, shared fear, shared sorrow around the psyche. The core seemed more stable, but the central fracture remained and Raven searched for what was missing. Unobtrusively, yet inexorably, the answer arose from that same deep-down place Determination flowed out from. And so, as though holding the most delicate crystal sculpture, Raven breathed Love back into Terra, watching in Wonder as a warm glow overtook the fissure.
Job done, Embarrassment took over, and Raven quickly retracted from Terra’s Psyche, Soulself flowing out of Terra, the demi-demon’s human form coalescing in front of the earthmover, she moving to step back, only to be captured in a fierce hug as sobs wracked the blonde girl. Tentatively, she raised her arms and wrapped the other in her embrace. They stood there, unmoving, as the other Titans stood from where they’d been sitting, the battle over for sometime, Slade having escaped once again. After engaging in a long group hug, the six wayward teens began the trek back. If no one said anything about the fact that Raven didn’t let go of Terra’s hand until they got back to the tower, well… Even Starfire understood tact sometimes.
