7. Raven and Beast Boy

"What happened in there?" Raven asked as she and Starfire helped him climb the stairs. He was still holding the piece of Cyborg's metallic leg.

He tried to think. "I flew around as a bat, making echoes, until I found something…but it was just pieces of Cy…" Tears were wanting to form, and he was not going to be able to hold them back.

"He's still alive," Raven assured him. "I can still sense both of them, but they're distant."

"Did you see Robin?" Starfire asked.

"No, Star," he replied. "I remember I saw Cy and then something happened to me. I couldn't hold my form anymore and reverted. Then I fell into the hole…."

"Good thing for you that you didn't fall down the main shaft, just the access passage for the water heater," Raven said. "We searched all around, while I tried to sense a living presence, and I sensed you just on the other side of that wall."

"But where are Robin and Cyborg?" Starfire asked. "And what is it doing to them?"

"Maybe drinking their blood?" Beast Boy mumbled in horror as he vaguely recalled what had happened in his room, and he touched the place of the bite on his neck.

Starfire let out an anguished gasp.

A wave of nausea came over him, although he wasn't sure if it was from the thought or an after-effect of what had happened. "I feel sick to my stomach."

Starfire had a puzzling thought. "But…why did it not then take Beast Boy?"

"Maybe his shape shifting condition?" Raven offered.

"It did bite me," Beast Boy said. "You don't think I'll turn into one of those things, do you? I've seen a lot of movies where…"

"Don't worry," Raven assured him. "I'll drive a stake in you at the first sign of trouble."

He made a half-smile, wondering if that was one of her attempts at black humor or not.

They had reached Raven's floor and they entered the hallway.

"Do you sense that thing?" Starfire asked Raven.

"Yes. But it is not close - for the moment. Let's hurry and get what we need."

Raven opened the door to her room and they ran in. Her room was spooky even on a bright sunny day, and now - a couple hours before dawn with a real spook in the tower – it was almost unbearable for Beast Boy and Starfire. They carefully walked past her bookcases, stone gargoyles, and mysterious artifacts, expecting something to jump out at any moment.

Starfire felt something brush against her foot and she gasped, her fists glowing weakly with the beginnings of starbolts. But it was just some of Raven's dirty laundry, scattered on the floor. Housekeeping had never been Raven's main interest.

Raven produced an old fashioned key and unlocked the padlock on a wooden chest, where she kept books she considered dangerous, or that she didn't really understand.

The book that Control Freak had given Raven was open on her bedside table, and Starfire picked it up. It was open to a chapter on vampires in Germany.

"I think I'm going to hurl," Beast Boy cried, setting Cyborg's leg down on the bed and rushing for the bathroom. The toilet was in a small room, separate from the counter and sink, and he opened the lid and knelt in front of it. But he didn't vomit, and after a few moments, he leaned back.

Starfire read a passage from the book. " 'Only a woman can break his spell, pure in heart, who will offer herself to Nosferatu'."

"Wonderful," Raven deadpanned. "Any other options?"

"Wait, I am doing the reading…"

"It's more important that you keep watch at the door," Raven instructed.

Starfire took the book and went over to the door. It slid open, and she cautiously looked up and down the hall. Nothing was there. She stood in the doorway so it wouldn't close and kept watch, occasionally skimming a page in the book for something useful.

Raven took a stack of books and walked over to the bathroom to check on Beast Boy.

"Are you all right in there?"

"You know, your toilet is disgusting. It's always girls who say 'Ewww, you're bathroom isn't clean enough for me' and then, when you see theirs, it's ten times worse!"

"I'm glad you're not too sick to work your mouth." She set the books on the counter and began thumbing through the pages for what she needed.

"Aww, I didn't think you cared."

"Of course I care," she muttered, not looking up from her book.

"I thought you did a couple weeks ago, but then you just stopped talking to me."

"You don't need me. You have Argent now."

"Are you kidding? You're jealous?" His eyes filled with disbelief. "I only started video chatting with her - as a friend - because you started staying in your room all the time."

She turned to look at him. "I need time to myself, Beast Boy. I can't give you attention every minute. And I've heard the way you were flirting with her. She even sent you a gift."

Starfire called out, "It says here that, in some legends, sunlight will destroy such supernatural creatures..."

"Okay," Beast Boy admitted. "Maybe…Maybe I was flirting with her, a little. Maybe I was mad at you for freezing up on me when I thought we were finally-"

She cut him off. "Just go. Be with Argent," she snapped. "If you really got to know me, you wouldn't want me anyway."

"Friends, you are doing the 'hurrying up', are you not?" Starfire called from her post at the door. Then she saw something moving in the dark hallway.

It was Silkie.

"Here, Silkie! Here Silkie!" she called. But Silkie didn't come, instead he scooted back down the hallway.

"I am just going to grab Silkie," she called and darted into the hallway. The door slid closed behind her.

"Damn it, Starfire!" Raven exclaimed.

She suddenly felt an intense feeling of unease. Goose bumps appeared on her exposed legs as the temperature in the room dropped.

Without a sound, a metal panel in the opposite wall was swinging open, and it was between them and the door.

Beast Boy was now standing next to Raven, and he saw it too. He grabbed her and pulled her back into the small room and slid the door shut. It locked with a tiny click.

"Can you phase us out through the wall?" he whispered in her ear.

She closed her eyes. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…" she whispered.

Nothing happened.

"I don't have enough energy…Something is blocking it."

He felt panic rising. "Can you at least seal the door?"

It took several tries with her mantra before a feeble black aura appeared and encircled the edges of the door.

They heard the sounds of the room being ransacked. It was looking for something, probably them.

"Are you sure your subconscious isn't doing this?" Beast Boy whispered to her in desperation. "Sure there is not something that you're afraid of, that you're keeping in side?"

"Yes."

"What about us? Maybe you're afraid of what was happening between us?" he said, grasping at straws.

She gave him a look that would wilt flowers. "That is the stupidest…"

They heard the sounds of Raven's bed being overturned and the wooden chest being smashed. It was coming closer. Soon it would find them.

"Okay, fine, I'm afraid..." she whispered. "I'm afraid that if I let myself ...need you... you would leave me, in the end. And that I couldn't go on …"

The sounds of the room being ransacked stopped. Everything was quiet.

They both held their breath and waited.

There was no sound at all. Only the pounding of their hearts.

Raven put her ear to the door.

They waited another long minute.

"I think maybe that did it!" he whispered and reached for the lock on the door.

"Do not open that door yet!" she hissed, and grabbed his hand away.

Then there was a deafening boom as something hit the door, making a dent. They jumped back against the wall in the tiny room.

"That sounded like something big," Raven said.

"Do you think it can change shape because it drank my blood?" he suggested in horror.

"Quick, transform into an insect! You might be able to get out through the exhaust fan opening."

"I can't transform," he said. "And besides, I won't leave you here."

Another powerful blow struck the top of the door. The dent grew larger.

"Without our powers, we've got to find something we can use as a weapon…"

The only things in the room were the toilet, a roll of toilet paper on the rack, a box of tissues, and a cabinet on the wall. Beast Boy opened it.

"Maybe you've got something like a curling iron? Razor blades?"

Inside was only a few extra rolls of toilet paper and a wicker basket with a flip top, decorated with a couple Halloween stickers.

"What's in this?" He grabbed it.

"Nothing. Put that back."

He flipped it open and grabbed out a small squeeze tube.

"Great. It's your girl supplies and a tube of KY, which is almost empty."

She slapped the tube out of his hand. "Do you seriously think a full tube would help us at this point?"

He smiled for a moment. There was no one else in the world like Raven. Good old Raven.

But the moment passed, leaving the cold reality of the situation.

They had no options.

The door took another massive blow and was buckling inward. They pressed themselves into the far corner and sat down, huddled together.

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"There's nothing we can do," she answered.

"Maybe break the water line and cause a flood?"

"It won't work."

"Or pull out the fan and try to squeeze through the opening…?"

"Too small."

"Or..."

"This is the end," she said calmly.

He knew she was right. There was no escape. His palms were sweating, his pounding heart was up in his throat. But a stray thought entered his mind, one last thing he needed to do. Oddly, a tear welled up in his eye then slipped down his cheek.

"I love you, Raven," he whispered.

She turned to him with her own eyes wet. "I love you too… I never thought-"

She was interrupted by the next blow, which caused the door to separate from the frame and make an opening. It would collapse the next time, and she hurried to finish her last words.

"-I could..with anyone... but you made me."

He grabbed her hand and clasped it with his. "If it has to end this way, I'm glad we're together."

They sat silently and waited for the inevitable.

...

...

After several agonizing moments when nothing happened, Beast Boy stood up and pulled Raven with him.

"When it breaks though, I'll jump on it and you try to get past-" he suggested

"No," she said. "We fight it together. Together."

He nodded, just as the twisted door burst inward. A clawed hand reached in and yanked him out by the throat. He fought vigorously with his arms and legs flailing in all directions.

His foot kicked Raven in the face and she fell backward, almost losing consciousness. In a daze, she heard a familiar sound...Starbolts! She heard Starfire's voice, screaming in anger - then in pain - and then in anger again, as if a suicide charge.

As she struggled to stand and push the door out of the way, she heard a ferocious three way struggle and more starbolts. Then silence.

She emerged to see Beast Boy lying on the floor near her, and Starfire lying on the other side of the room. No sign of anything else.

She ran and knelt by Beast Boy. He was still breathing. She touched his forehead briefly in an attempt to strengthen him, and then she ran to Starfire.

Starfire did not appear to be breathing. She only lay motionless.

"Starfire!" Raven screamed. She grabbed her and attempted to empathically feel her injuries and absorb them into herself, relying on her power for regeneration.

A shudder went through Starfire's body and she was breathing again. Raven kissed her friend on the forehead and then collapsed backward from exhaustion.

But there was no time to rest. She had to get out of there, and get them out. As she got to her feet, she did feel a little of her old strength returning and the energy flowing through her.

Perhaps they had wounded it? It had retreated? Encouraged by that thought, and by her partially returning ability to use her powers to move objects, she half-dragged, half-levitated Starfire to the stairwell and then got Beast Boy.

All she had to do now was lug two injured people down over a dozen flights of stairs, in near total darkness, to the garage with the T-Car and avoid some kind of a supernatural creature, that may be wounded and even more hostile.

"Sure, nothing to it," she deadpanned.


Author's note: I hope everyone got that the scene in the bathroom was a riff on the book The Shining where Wendy rummages around and finds a box of razor blades to fight Jack off with.