I'm sorry this took a bit for me to write, but I'm really proud of this chapter! It reveals both the backstory of Raven and of the boys, so I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
***PLEASE READ THE ENDING NOTE, I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT TOPIC I NEED TO DISCUSS***
Thank you, and enjoy! :D
"You won't have to worry about anything."
Beast moved a lock of Raven's hair out of her eyes, letting his fingers drag gently across her soft skin while he watched her, drank in her every move. He was slowly lowering himself down to her, and her eyelids were fluttering for her violet irises to look between his eyes and his lips. He could feel her heart beat accelerate, feel her cold body become warm under his touch, and he brought her face closer. She smelled of mist and flowers, so unique and enticing. His lips hovered, waiting for her to make the final move.
"I...I..."
All it took was a slight tilt of the head and he would be hers forever and she would be his. Beast held his breath, desperately looking for some response, any response, to satisfy what he had been waiting so long for.
"I can't Beast."
Another howl ripped through his throat; Beast was going to go hoarse shortly if he kept this up, but what did it matter anymore? The purpose, his purpose, had a purpose all her own, and it was not the one he had been hoping for.
Occasionally another far off wolf would respond, requesting to know why his midnight song to the crescent moon was so sad, but he wouldn't howl back. How could you explain to an animal a human complication? Wolves would understand the singular mate thing; not that he couldn't have another woman, but rather he didn't want another woman. The...animal instincts within him told him that she was it, she would be the one to satisfy his every need.
I guess this just makes me another dumb animal.
"Beast?" A voice called, and for a second, he thought it was Raven. He thought maybe she had taken some time to think it over and came to the conclusion that she cared for him just as he cared for her. Out of the underbrush, Robin emerged, and Beast deflated, turning his large head to look back out at the Tamarean kingdom bathed in darkness. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but they apparently wanted to talk to him.
"Beast what're you doing up here? I thought you went to get Raven." Robin approached him and Beast growled, warning his brother that he was in no mood to talk. Robin hesitated; he knew how pissed off his younger brother could get, but for some reason, he insisted on talking, "Look, Raven came back to camp and said she'll leave in the morning if we can't come up with any other ideas. Starfire, as brilliant as she is, thought that maybe we could kidnap the prince and force him into a deal or something."
Beast's shaggy head turned and his dark, beady eyes fixed on Robin. His brother was dead serious. Beast slowly shifted back to his normal self but didn't move or bother standing up, but replied, "Maybe she wants to get married."
"She...what?"
"She said it's her duty and whatever, so just let her go," Beast muttered, tossing a rock over the cliff. "We'll be better off without her."
There was a pause before his brother asked, "What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing!" Beast snarled, jumping up. "I tried to talk her out of going and she didn't give two shits about what I had to say! Hell, I told her I would drop everything to be with her, and she just..." He pulled at his hair and finished bitterly, "She dumped me on my ass."
Robin sighed. "Beast, she's terrified. Her kingdom is about to be attacked and in her mind, this is the only way to go through with it. She's trying to minimize casualties." Beast didn't look at him and he added, "If we go kidnap the prince, not only would it help her, but it could also really help us."
He finally met his older brother's gaze and gave in, following him back to camp. It was going to be him, Robin, and Starfire that went since they were easiest to disguise and Starfire was strong enough to carry Robin so they could fly there quickly. While Robin explained the battle plan, Beast tried to not look at Raven leaning against a tree in the corner of his eye; he tried to ignore every move she made, and tried to ignore how his pulse rose whenever she spoke or added something.
"Alright, let's try to be in and out and back before dawn," Robin concluded, smiling at Starfire, who blushed and looked away. Beast wanted to puke; Robin was always so smooth with the ladies.
The three other brothers wished them all good luck, and Raven walked forward, giving her sister a long hug and telling her to be safe. As she backed away, she nodded at Robin, and her eyes flicked to Beast for a moment, long enough for him to recognize red puffiness around them in the firelight, before she looked away and retreated to the tents.
Starfire cleared her throat. "Shall we go?"
Infiltrating the castle ended up being the easier part of their night. All it took was an open window and bam, they were in. Hiding from occasional late-night guards or anyone from the house was a bit harder, but not impossible. But now, Beast and Starfire were waiting outside the prince's room while Robin went in to grab him and go.
Robin and Starfire.
So far, all Robin cared about was making sure she was okay, checking up on her practically every five seconds just to make sure she didn't die or something, and honestly, it was pissing Beast off. Especially since she didn't do anything to try to stop it!
"You appear unwell," Starfire murmured to him outside the door.
Beast barely glanced at her as he answered, "I'm fine."
"Is it about the mission?"
"No."
"Perhaps your brothers?"
"No, Starfire."
"You are unwell because of sister Raven?"
"I'm fine!" He growled loudly, and they stopped moving or breathing for a moment to make sure no one came running down the halls to check on the commotion.
Starfire smiled softly. "It is sister Raven, is it not?" Beast declinded to answer. "She said she was unwell also before we left, but she would not give me a reason...your brothers have explained that you two are...what was the term, 'hot for each other'?"
Beast wanted to face palm, and he was glad it was dark. "Look Starfire, I appreciate the concern, but I'd rather not talk about her right now."
Starfire nodded slowly and they stood in silence before she said, "You must know that sister Raven did not intend to hurt you, friend Beast." Beast groaned internally, begging Starfire to just shut up. "It is not that she does not feel 'hot' for you, but rather that she cannot express these feelings."
That caught Beast's interest, and he turned to her. "What do you mean?"
She looked down at her hands, and began slowly, "Sister Raven is...unique, as my father would say. She has gifts that are not easily controlled; they require her to put emotion aside, or she would be very chaotic to be around. Growing up, it was hard for me to understand why she would not laugh or cry or get angry, but she explained to me that that was how she was raised."
Beast urged her to continue, completely forgetting about his brother.
Starfire took a deep breath before saying, "Sister Raven was born in a very distant land. She had the same father as all the other children, and her mother she never knew. She was raised to be part of an army that would conquer everything it came across, and because of that, she can fight very well. But she was singled out due to her powers and forced into doing specific tasks for her father. When she disobeyed, she was beaten or starved, and so she chose not to disobey." Starfire paused and held back a sob. "Sister Raven tortured and abused many people while she was young, and she tells me that she can always remember what they sound like, every single person.
"Eventually sister Raven grew to realize the wrong she was doing and attempted to use her power to help the other children escape. It did not go well and the children were captured and she was sentenced to die. Luckily, a group of mercenaries came that night and killed a lot of her people, including her father and the not special children. They took the gifted children and brought them back to their king, who used them for profit and threats. Sister Raven had often times tried to revolt and flee, so she was abused and starved a lot, and her powers had tried to help her escape by taking over her emotions, but she did not want to hurt more people than she already had. Father found her when he went to negotiate peace offerings with the king and he stole her away and taught her how to control her powers." Starfire sighed heavily. "And that, friend Beast, is why sister Raven chooses not to show emotions."
Beast was astounded. To think that he had thought all this time that she never cared for him, when she was really just trying to...to protect him.
"I have to talk to her!" He said loudly, and there was a crash from inside the room.
Starfire knocked the door open and the two rushed inside to find the prince, with white hair dancing in the breeze and piercing blue eyes on fire, kneeling on Robin's back and pressing one knee into his shoulder, pulling the connecting arm back towards himself, making Robin cry out in pain.
"Robin!" Beast and Starfire shouted simultaneously.
Starfire shot a green bolt at the prince, knocking him off his feet. Beast changed into a tiger and held him down while Starfire grabbed Robin and fled out the window. Beast growled at the prince before shifting into a bird and following them out.
Raven came out of the tent and sat by the fire, poking at it occasionally with a stick she enveloped with her darkness. Cy was also sitting down, but he wasn't really paying attention to anything. He would look from the forest to the tent to the sky and back to the fire before starting all over again. The younger brothers were already sleeping, and Cy went to check on them before sitting back down.
"How are you so calm?" He groaned, pinching his nose.
Raven shrugged. "I'm worried, but I trust them."
There was a pause and Cy sighed, "I trust Robin, and Starfire can probably take care of herself...it's just Beast I'm worried about." Raven looked away as Cy said his name and there was an awkward silence that grew between them. "Did...something happen between you two when you left and he went to get you?"
"You could say that," She mumbled, throwing the stick into the fire and watching it explode. Cy raised an eyebrow at her and she ran a hand through her hair, explaining, "He just...he doesn't understand that there is no other way to get the Titanians to stop this war! He thinks that we can just run away or something and everything will be fine."
Cy sighed and sat up. "That sounds like Beast...always looking for the easy way out."
Raven nodded. "So we fought and he left and I feel bad, but nothing can happen between us because I have a responsibility." She sighed. "I wished I lived as carefree as you guys do..."
Cy laughed humorlessly and Raven looked at him, confused. He shook his head, saying, "You have it all wrong, princess. Me and my brothers didn't choose to live like this, trust me."
"Then how did you end up like this?"
Cy rubbed his head and looked at the fire before saying quietly, "We lived in a village at the base of these mountains, separating Titantia and Tamarea. Our parents were the ones who took care of everyone, sort of like the king and queen, but they didn't want to be called that. Anyway, one day some merchants from Titania were trying to find passage to Tamarea and got lost, and Beast brought them to our village. It wasn't exactly a secret that we were there, but no one had ever visited us before. The merchants got directions, but instead headed back to Titania to tell the king all about us. The next day he wound up at our doorstep, telling us to pledge rule to him or there would be consequences."
He paused, taking a deep breath. "Needless to say, when we didn't answer, they got greedy. Soldiers came in and began striking down anyone they saw. My parents sent all their children to negotiate a treaty with the king, except Beast because he was injured from whatever stupid thing he had been doing that day. While we were gone...well...Beast has this temper on him, and it takes a lot for it to come out, but when it does..." Cy shuddered.
"For...what to come out?" Raven asked slowly.
He shook his head. "We call it the Thing. Beast changes into this giant, gnarly creature that isn't even him anymore. The Thing wiped out all the soldiers, but apparently its blood lust wasn't satisfied." Cy wiped his eyes before continuing. "It killed everyone that wasn't already dead from our village. Our mom and dad tried to stop him, but-" Cy choked and looked away, taking deep breaths. "A lot of our siblings were killed when we went to negotiate, and me, Robin, and the twins were the only ones to escape. But coming back to that...
"Beast takes all the blame for himself. For introducing the merchants, for becoming the Thing, for killing our parents...Robin never expressed any emotion to how he felt when Beast told us everything, but when you healed Beast earlier, let's just say he didn't fall into Robin's fists."
"Oh my God..."
Cy nodded. "We struggled to survive for a long time and became petty thieves. Eventually Robin decided that we should try to ask other kingdoms to fights with us to avenge our family and friends, so we went around asking for help, but..." He sighed. "A lot of kings wouldn't even see us. And so when we were planning for Tamarea, we knew we had to get an audience with the king somehow, so we thought maybe if we kidnapped the prince, we could get him on our side and then tell the king everything." Raven nodded, and he added quietly, "Beast was really out of it for a while. I thought maybe he'd never get back to being his old self again, but then..." Cy glanced up at Raven. "I don't know, something about you changed him. He laughed, smiled, told dumb jokes; he was Beast again. And before he left tonight, he was back to the miserable lump he was before you showed up."
Raven blushed and looked down at her lap. "What are you trying to suggest?"
Cy raised his hands. "I'm just saying that, as of right now, you're the only thing keeping him from going crazy again. And, well...even if you don't see him quite like he sees you, I'm sure you still feel something for the guy, right?"
Raven stared at her hands, and just as she was about to answer, the three were back. Raven jumped up, ready to embrace her sister, when she heard Robin moaning and twisting in agony in her arms. She frowned and had Starfire set him down inside a tent for her to heal him.
"Will he be unharmed?" Starfire asked worriedly.
Raven finished healing and nodded. "He'll be fine. What happened?"
"I am unsure...Beast and I were doing the chatting and...I am unsure."
Raven nodded and patted her arm. "It was worth a shot. Why don't you get some sleep? You've had a long night."
Starfire sighed. "May I stay with friend Robin?"
Raven smiled and hugged her sister, walking out of the tent. Beast was sitting with Cy by the fire, and his eyes instantly shot up to meet hers. She stared at him for a moment before offering a small smile and disappearing into the nearest tent, which just so happened to be his.
Ahhh I really liked how this turned out :)
Please review, favorite, follow, all that jazz! I will try to post ASAP, I promise!
***IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ: For the next chapter I was bouncing around the idea of adding smut or not (it would be BBRae so calm down). I have written smut before, but I wasn't sure if I should or not. I can write the chapter either way, but it would REALLY REALLY REAAAALLLLLYYYYY help me if you guys could review and tell me your thoughts? Obviously I would have to change the rating, but I don't think that's a major issue.***
Thank you so much, till next time!
