I don't own any of the characters or anything. I thought the idea for this up while reading some other fics, mostly BBRae. So I took some things from those but decided to present them in a different way. So this is going to be different. Please no flames.
Traitors Together
On a deserted street late at night near the alleys of Jump City, a girl stood, feeling lonely and lost. Her eyes, which appeared amethyst in the night, were downcast, remembering the events that led up to her being there. She had nowhere to go. Not that this was the first time she had been in that position, but after what had led her to this recently, she was beyond bummed.
Not far from her, a male was walking, similarly depressed. He didn't know where he was going either. But he knew he had to get away from where he had been being held prisoner. Everyone had hated him so much, just because he was different. He just wanted to be loved, to be cared for. To be free. But it was too much to ask.
The girl was lost in her painful memories of when she had been with the Titans. She had remembered all the good times that they had together. She had been kind of lingering around the vicinity of the tower, because in truth, all she really wanted was to be welcomed back there. She wanted her friends back. That thought triggered another painful memory. "Beast Boy..." she mumbled to herself.
The apparently young male, however, was going in the opposite direction. He had on a long trenchcoat and tophat, so his form was adequetely hidden. Where could he go? Could he find someone who was as diferent as he was? He thought it would be nice, but the last time he thought he found someone who was different, they didn't accept him like he thought they would. They turned on him just like everyone else.
Not noticing where they were going, the two bumped into one another. The girl looked up, startled. She began to apologize.
"Sorry." She had hoped to strike up conversation, but the other stranger just kept walking. She felt so lonely, and now not even a stranger wanted to speak to her. Maybe they knew who she was. Maybe they heard about what she did. But for some reason, her gut told her to follow him, so she did. There weren't too many people she could trust, so she couldn't be picky about talking to strangers. She hurried off in his direction.
"Hey, wait up!" the girl cried. The stranger glanced back, but then kept walking.
He knew better than to trust people. Even in this day and age, no one would understand. That much had already been made clear to him. But as the girl persisted, he could sense the strange feeling that maybe he should trust her. It was like a mutual feeling was pulling the two of them together. He slowed down.
"Why are you not talking to me? Stop, please!" the girl continued to plead. She felt relief wash over her as the figure slowed down. He then stopped and spoke without turning around.
"We are... different..." He started to walk again. He had some kind of English accent.
"That doesn't mean we have to be alone." the girl said, walkng to match his speed.
"But I'm afraid if you knew what I was, you wouldn't want anything to do with me." But even as he said that, he'd slowed to a halt, hoping that he could trust the girl.
"It doesn't matter what you are. All that matters is that you're a good person, and I can already tell that you are. Just give me a chance."
He smiled inwardly. He would trust her, he just hoped that it was going to work out this time. Then he remembered, it was his fault things didn't work. He wasn't honest about himself. He decided that honesty was the best policy.
"I see. In that case, I suppose we could... talk..." he trailed off.
"Well let's start with names. My name's..." she wondered if she should tell him her real name. If he had heard of her, he'd know what she did, and he might say the same thing Beast Boy said to her, the words that stabbed her like a knife.
You don't have any friends!
She had to be honest, no more lies or deceit. "...Terra."
"Terra? That's a nice name." He thought for a moment, but his thoughts were interrupted.
"This would be the part where you tell me your name." she stated.
"Oh right, I'm sorry. My name is Malchior, and before we go any further I must tell you what I am. I am... a dragon."
"You're a dragon? You're wearing a trenchcoat."
"Well, you see..." With that, he removed the trenchcoat. She thought that his hands were just bandaged up, but it turned out that he was entirely made of paper.
"This is the form that I was cursed into, but I managed to escape my captor. We'll need to get to a spot without too many buildings if you want to see my true form."
"Great, then let's go!" said Terra.
As they walked onto an area of the city away from the buildings, Terra asked the question. "Why were you being held captive?"
"I thought I met someone who would understand me, but I didn't tell them about being a dragon."
"So they locked you up?"
"I'm afraid it's quite a long story. I shall tell, but I've been wondering something about you."
"What is it?"
"You mentioned a 'Beast Boy earlier..."
"He's the guy that I betrayed."
Terra told Malchior her story. The Titans had found her, but when they fought against Slade, his offer was a little too tempting to pass up. She had sold them out, but she felt bad, especially for Beast Boy. He really showed affection for her, which quickly became mutual. One night, she disabled the Titans' security system, allowing Slade's robots to attack them. Slade had promised her a lot of power if she did that. But she had taken Beast Boy out to the carnival that night while the rest of the team got attacked. She was hoping her date wouldn't find out what she did, but Slade crashed that. He told Beast Boy everything, and that was when he said that she didn't have any friends. She went with Slade to train and become his apprentice, but when she failed to defeat the Titans, Slade started beating her up. She ended up helping to defeat him, but was encased in stone afterwards. She got out of that, but when she tried to rejoin the Titans, they turned her down. Robin explained that her beating from Slade was what she deserved after her betrayal, and she only helped them for her own benefit. He didn't trust her.
Malchior felt bad for her. Sure she had betrayed them, but she was feeling lost and alone, and Slade had manipulated her. Though, he could kind of see why the man was so desperate to get rid of the Titans. They didn't seem like nice people.
"I'm sorry, Terra." he said softly.
"It's fine, I don't deserve their forgiveness." She looked down, saddened, but suddenly perked back up. "So, what's your story?"
He told her his story. He was a villager in a far away land long, long ago. An evil wizard named Rorek was terrorizing the townspeople, taking their goods. The royal family had gave a generous cut of supplies to whoever could bring them the most goods, and they didn't care if those goods were stolen, or even pried from the lifeless fingers of the previous owners. That person also got to live in the castle with a life of luxury. Rorek became the best at it because of his learned sorcery. But one man, Malchior, stood up to him one day. He told the evil wizard that he would not give up his supplies without a fight. Rorek was outraged that someone would try to stand up to him. He concocted a spell that would turn Malchior into a lizard, but the spell was done in a faulty manner. He ended up becoming a dragon. Everyone became afraid of him and he was ostracized immediately. Rorek still kept trying to kill him, and eventually sealed him up inside a book. The story basically became that the dragon was evil and Rorek was the hero. Malchior was trapped inside the book for a long time, but the day came when someone opened it. The girl who had been reading the book was beautiful, but she apparently had some issues. He had overheard a young boy outside her door calling her creepy because she was different. He tried talking to her. At first she was startled, but then she started being more receptive. Turns out that the girl was Raven, and she knew what it was like to be thought of as a freak. She would be understanding, or so he thought. He had learned a few sorcery tricks and changed the text to say that he was the hero and Rorek was the dragon, because that was how he really felt. Sure, he was the literal dragon, but Rorek was the evil one, so he had changed the text to reflect the truth. But he was afraid to tell Raven he did that. She had said that she wanted to help him and get him out of the book so that he could live among people again. Right now he could sort of form an figure with pages so that he looked like a mummy, only he was entirely made of paper. He was hoping that when she found out that he was a dragon, she would be understanding. But when he was finally released from the book and she saw that he was actually a dragon, she promptly attacked him alongside the rest of her team. He really should have run away at that point, but he was so angry and betrayed that he didn't know what else to do except try to fight her back. He didn't think she was strong enough to beat him, but she was. He planned on defeating her and then taking off, but she sealed him back inside the book and locked him away in her room. He barely managed to get out again and escape the tower without her noticing. He had gone back to his mummy-like form.
"Wow, I never thought that 'heroes' could be so heartless." Terra stated, shocked. "All you wanted was freedom and understanding, but Raven decided that just because you were a dragon, you didn't deserve it."
"I know, but I shouldn't have lied to her. But it sounds like the 'Beast Boy' that she talked about is the same one you dealt with."
"Yes, he is. He was a sweet guy, nothing like that cold-hearted Raven. I thought she was mean to me, but what she did to you..."
"The important thing is that I've gotten away from them, for now."
"Hopefully we don't see them again. But Malchior, I think we should stick together."
He wasn't sure it was a good idea. He had already been hurt and was reluctant to let anyone else in. But Terra sensed his hesitation and continued.
"I know it's hard for you to trust me after what you've been through, and after what I did, but we need each other. We don't know anyone else who understands us."
"But I'm nothing more than a traitor, Terra. I don't deserve your kindness."
"So am I. We can be traitors together. Besides, I've always wanted to see a dragon."
He chuckled. "I can show you my true form, but we need to go somewhere where there aren't many people. I don't want to crush anything with my large size."
"I know exactly where we can go. I have this cave I was living in before the Titans found me. Up there, no one will bother us."
So they went to the cave, and Terra used her powers to cause an area of land to protrude from the ground, and then sat down. This way, she could get a front row seat to his transformation.
"Terra, that was amazing! How did you do that?"
"I have special powers. You didn't think the Titans took me in for nothing, did you?" she laughed. "Anyway, let's see your true form. I'm so excited!"
The paper that made up his form began to unravel and out of it a purple shadow grew and grew. Eventually, it was as big as a building, and then it took on a more distinct shape. Before long, Terra was staring at Malchior's dragon form.
"Oh my god, that is so cool!" she exclaimed. "Can I go for a ride?"
He hadn't been expecting her to ask that, but it was no problem. "You can, but... How will you stay on?"
"I got that covered. She lifted up a bunch of rocks with her powers and made a sidle of sorts, but one that fit him. She then levitated the rock she was standing on up to the sidle and hopped on. They both looked around.
"Where am I to go? I don't suppose there's a city that welcomes dragons like me?"
"Have you heard of the Justice League? They have magic users on their team. We can find them, tell them your story, and they can restore your human form, and then we can both be free and happy. Until then, you can just go back to the form you were in and no one will bother us, but first, let's fly out of this city!"
And so they flew. They were planning on flying far away from Jump City and finding a place for the night, resolving to seek out friendly, open minded magic users the next day. But before they could get too far, they heard a young man's voice.
"Terra and Malchior." the voice said in a disapproving tone. Malchior hadn't quite placed it, but Terra knew exactly who it was.
Robin. When the duo turned towards the direction of his voice, they saw him and the other Titans standing on a high piece of land, around the same level as them. The titans were clearly getting ready for a fight. Raven spoke next.
"Malchior, I don't know how you got out of my room, but you're not going anywhere, you heartbreaking dragon freak. And Terra, now that you aided him, you're going to jail when we're done with you."
Robin said, "Time to put you two traitors where you belong. Titans, go!"
Before Terra knew it, she was being rained down on by a barrage of starbolts, which were also damaging the sidle and hurting her dragonic friend. She picked up a few rocks to hurl at Starfire, but she missed every time. Then, a strong Sonic Cannon blast from Cyborg completely destroyed her sidle. She screamed and started to fal, but the end of Malchior's tail wrapped around her and pulled her back up while shielding her, allowing her to levitate a rock to her position to ride back down to the ground.
Meanwhile, Robin and Raven had been hurling their weapons and projectiles at the large dragon, while he conjured spells to fire blasts off to deflect them. Malchior fired a blast at the two and knocked them down, that was when he noticed Terra falling. After he rescued her, he looked up to see Beast Boy jump on his head, turning into a gorilla in midair. He pounded the dragon's head until he was thrown off. He morphed into a bird and landed easily on the ground before regaining human form.
"I'm going to pay you back for breaking Raven's heart!" he said with fury in his voice. "Why? She trusted you!"
Terra came running towards him. "Beast Boy, all he wanted was his freedom! He never wanted to betray her; it was her who betrayed him!"
"What do you mean?"
"He was never going to attack her, he just wanted to be free. But he trusted her and as soon as she found out he was a dragon, she attacked him. You all did. But he isn't evil, and he can't help what he is. He never wanted to hurt anyone!"
Beast Boy looked like he felt guilty, and maybe he could talk to the other titans about it. But with a black blast, Malchior disappeared. Raven had used her spell to put him back into the book. Terra's heart sank.
"No! He didn't deserve that!" She tried to lunge at Raven, but black energy shaped like handcuffs surrounded her wrists and bound them. Robin walked up with the other titans.
"Terra, you're under arrest for helping a criminal. Again."
"But you can't do this. He's innocent!"
"Save it. We could have arrested you as soon as you tried to come back on out team, but we gave you a chance to stay out of trouble. Now you're going to jail!"
The Jump City police came and took her away. Now she sat in her cell, more lonely than ever. She thought she would finally have someone to care about her, only for it to be snatched away from her by the Titans.
Malchior was brought back to the tower, and Raven used a spell that would allow her to shoot her magic at the book and put Malchior through extreme pain. She said he deserved it for trying to escape. Then she threw him back into the box she had him in.
He hoped that some day he would taste true freedom. Perhaps someday he would.
Author's notes: There's a possibility that I'll do a spinoff/sequel to this, but if I do it'll be a while. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it. I know it's not what people are used to, but let me know what you think. Reviews are appreciated!