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Yeah, the stones are like the Ring of Azar. For some reason in my mind it was a stone and not a ring.
The Calm Before the Storm,...
"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." With tightly clenched fists, the blue-clad girl recited her mantra again and again. I was created to end the world. She thought, wishing to die. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." She spoke her mantra again with despair. If only I couldn't feel, then I wouldn't have wanted a boyfriend. Relentlessly she condemned herself, knowing she was to be the end of all things mortal. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." She sought the peace the mantra usually brought, only to be denied. To be the source of so much evil, I must be worse than any criminal we've ever captured. With hate-filled thoughts, the guilt tore at her, and she wondered if maybe death might be the way. It would be an end to my pain, and an end to Trigon's hopes.
Knock! knock! Raven looked up, already knowing who it was. "I'm not in the mood to talk Beast Boy." She intoned. What right do I have to friends?
The blonde-haired boy looked at the door with a sigh. It seemed, despite his ears no longer being pointed and green, his hearing was now even more sensitive than when he'd left. For the last half hour he'd listened to the girl recite her mantra in a voice devoid of hope, and had wondered what to do. Looking at the lock he reached out to press his hand against it. While he would never be able to project power, and given the price it carried he never wanted to, he could still do a few tricks. With a click, the door slid open.
"I'm sure I locked it." Raven intoned, looking at the door.
Beast Boy shrugged. "It must've not slid all the way through." He said, knowing he was fooling no one. His eyes turned towards the girl, noting her tear-streaked face with a twinge of pain. I wish I was better with words, that I knew how to comfort her. Hesitantly, wondering if she would just throw him through a wall, he sat in front of her, mirroring her lotus position.
The girl took in the way her friend now looked, finding it strange. About the only thing that remained the same was the green eyes, and she found herself missing his old look.
Not knowing why, the shape shifter let his form shift, returning to way he'd looked before he'd left. "During all the chaos going on when I got back, I forgot to give you these." He handed her six of the seven stones Kishar had given him. Holding up his hand he showed her that he wore one on a loop around his wrist.
"These are..." She studied them, before looking up. "Those are the same stones that the Ring of Azar had. Where did you get them?"
"From a friend. There's one for each of us, and one to spare. It was suggested that you put one beside the Forbidden Door in Nevermore." He smiled at her. "It should keep Trigon from reaching Rage again."
"Oh. But where? I thought Azar was the only one who could make these?"
"She was taught by someone I know." He shrugged with a sigh. "I know how to make them as well now, but I'm afraid I can't. I don't have the gift for it."
"Oh?"
"But you do. If you wish I can teach you. They won't be as effective as the those, or the ones Azar made, but they should help some."
"But ..." A hint of hope slipped through her voice as she looked at the stone. "How?"
"The way you are now, it would be useless to try." Beast Boy looked around the room with a sigh. "You know, you're not the first?" He said nonchalantly, noting that other than a few new books in her bookcase, everything was the same as when he'd left.
"What do you mean?" Raven wrinkled her brow, looking puzzled.
"Not the first gem, or portal, or whatever you want to call it." When the statement was met with shocked silence, he smiled at her. "Trigon has been in that prison for a very long time. So long as there's been humans on Earth, he's been trying that particular trick. You may be the first one thousandth, but you're not the first."
"How do you know?" I'm not unique? I'm not the only one? It felt weird to know that. I wonder what happened to those others.
"The person who gave me those stones told me."
"What happened to them?"
"Most were killed when those around them learned they were the so-called spawn of evil."
"Oh." She gulped, looking down. "So if I die then ..."
"But others lived, and the world didn't end." Beast Boy interrupted her. "They had children who had power as well, though after a few generations that fades."
"So if I have children then Trigon can't use them?"
"They won't have the Forbidden Door, that's something he created, so they'll be useless as a means to create a portal. If they allow it, they can be corrupted to be one of his tools as Slade was, but that holds true for everyone." The boy shrugged before smirking at her. "Actually many of those portals, and a lot their children, became a part of mythology, and were thought of as the good gods who aided humanity. Given they had a bird's-eye view of evil, it seems they rejected it wholeheartedly."
"Oh." The violet-eyed girl briefly touched her belly. I had sworn I would never have children, but now ... She smiled.
"Kishar. Mlinzi. Matumaini." Beast Boy said with his eyes closed.
"What're you doing." Raven blinked, and would've sworn the boy was meditating, but that was harder to believe than Trigon becoming a paragon of virtue.
"Ironic isn't it?" He shrugged helplessly with an amused smile. "All those time I poked fun at you, I've should've been meditating too. It seems it allows me to touch the power that lets me shape shift."
"Oh." Raven blinked again, still not believing a Beast Boy who meditated.
"Kishar. Mlinzi. Matumaini." The shape shifter calmly repeated with his lips still turned up in a tiny smile.
"What do the words mean?" She was curious, and still disbelieving.
"Kishar is in honor of my mother." He opened his eyes to look at her. "Also the source of my power. Mlinzi means protector, which is what I wish to become. It can also means guardsman, or guardswoman, which is what my mother is. Matumaini means Hope, which is what you are to the emoticlones. Blue is the color of hope, so as yellow is Knowledge, and pink is Happiness, your name in Nevermore would be Hope.
"How did you know that?" The shocked girl asked. He used my name as a part of his mantra. Blinking, she realized that for a whole different reason her tears had started to flow again.
Beast Boy shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?" He closed his eyes again. "Kishar. Mlinzi. Matumaini."
Closing her own eyes, Raven began to recite her own mantra. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."
Soon the only sound in the room was that of the spoken words. "Kishar. Azarath. Mlinzi. Metrion. Matumaini. Zinthos." When the boy spoke a word of his mantra, the girl would follow it with a word of her own. An hour passed, and then another, before the weary girl slumped forward, sound asleep.
"Sweet dreams Raven." Beast Boy quietly whispered, tucking a pillow under her head, and covering her with a blanket. He very briefly thought about placing her on her bed, but only very briefly. For one, she looked comfortable where she was, curled up on a mat that she often used for meditating. For another, she would probably wake up and throw him through a window, or worse, through the foot-thick, solid-steel wall. She hated to be touched at the best of times, and given what she'd been through ... Leaving, he dimmed the lights.
Violet-eyes flickered and opened, peering with an annoyed expression at the sunlight that flooded the window. Noting the pillow and blanket Raven smiled, stretching. It's good to have him back. Last night I don't know what I would've done without him. I was actually thinking of ... She pushed all thoughts of despair aside, knowing suicide wasn't the answer. Should she ever be in a position where Trigon had control, and was about to open the portal, then she would rethink it, but for now she was glad to be alive.
In her hand she still clutched the six stones he'd given her. Rising them to her eye, she studied them curiously. Just where did he get them? Someone who taught Azar? But that person must be centuries old. Gently she rolled them in her hand, feeling their almost insignificant weight. So little given what they can do. She mused with a small grin. It must provoke my father to no end that something such as this can ward against his power. With hope in her eyes, she rose to reach for the mirror that was her portal to Nevermore.
"Ya. BB is back." A jubilant voice yelled just before something pink crashed into her. "Our Beastie is back." The pink-clad girl shrieked in her ear again, before dancing away.
"I know." Raven muttered, getting to her feet. Looking up, her jaw dropped in shock. "Just what is going on?" She asked, wondering if her emoticlones had really gone around the bend this time. Before her, with the exception of Happy, they were all armed with small sticks that they were jabbing into their hands. The pointed ends, liberally coated in blood, was being used to write on the Labyrinth walls. Even Timid was there, flinching horribly each time the stick she wielded pierced her flesh, but still determinedly working with the others. As she watched Happy picked up a stick and went to work as well.
"The memories in the book faded." Knowledge said, looking down at her ravaged hand with her face a bit pale.
"The ones where I was in a drugged trance?"
"Yes." The yellow-clad girl somberly replied, carefully holding her hand far away from her robe. "And we're afraid we'll forget what we saw in the book, even though we shouldn't. It's too important to risk, so we're writing down what we told him."
"Oh." Looking closer she could now see what they were writing. It was a list of the spells she'd told Mark, or rather Adonis, along with information on demonology. "Good thinking." She told them, flashing a smile towards the trembling Timid who looked like she was close to fainting. The girl briefly flashed a weak smile of her own back before trying to get more 'ink' for her makeshift pen. It took her eight tries.
Holding up a stone, she looked at Rage. "This should make you happy." She smiled. "No more going all four-eyed on me." She paused to stare at the four-eyed girl. "Oh wait."
"Haha. Very funny." The red-clad emoticlone glowered back. "But when you learn how to make them, I want one to wear as well." Having been possessed, and ruthlessly used by Trigon, she had no love for him.
"I will." Raven told her. "I have no idea who could've taught Beast Boy how to make those wards, but I'm going to be making as many as I can."
Turning to go to the Forbidden Door, she cringed. There, propped upright in a field of pink grass, was the doll Rage had made of BB. "Can't we get rid of that?" She asked hopefully?
"No." Rage growled, no longer sounding so pleasant.
"You can't hurt my Beastie." Happy cried in shock.
"It does make a nice ..." Knowledge started to say.
"Oh never mind." Raven growled. Despite all the trouble it'd caused, not one of her emoticlones had wanted the horrible effigy destroyed. In the end, even with her screaming in fury at them, they'd as one resisted her and voted to place it in Happy's domain. That particular clearing had become a common gathering spot now, with even Rage sometime sitting in the distance to stare forlornly at her so-called sex doll. At least it's not pink. She told herself with a sigh as she left for the Forbidden Door.
"Wanna spar?" Robin asked the shape shifter.
"Sure." Beast Boy knew it wasn't an idle request. While the Titans weren't a dictatorship, Robin was their de facto leader. Someone had to organize things and make sure everyone was up to par. Given his background, that person was Boy Wonder. In this case, the leader wanted to make sure he hadn't let his skills become rusty. Sure it'd been just a few months, but the boy was obsessive. At times that was a pain, at others it just make him good at what he did.
"Why the green look again?" Robin asked as they walked together towards the practice field outside.
"It just feel more natural. I mean, without the green I look okay, but then I don't have the pointed ears. All the girls dig them."
"I see." The boy smiled. "Find what you were looking for?"
"Half of it." Beast Boy shrugged. "I know where I came from, and I know I'm welcomed there. But now I need to decide where I'm going."
"Ah. I see. Want this to be weapons or no weapons?"
"Let's go with weapons. Not a fair test without them."
Boy Wonder put on a satchel clearly labelled with 'PRACTICE' in large black letters, and grabbed a bo staff. Beast Boy in turn thought about the coming fight, and spliced two genes into his DNA: one from the hummingbird that slowed time, and one for extra muscle density.
"Ready?" Robin asked, looking at the shape shifter who hadn't moved to take a weapon.
"Ready."
Robin brutally attacked with the blinding speed that made him a master martial artist. However, to the enhanced shape shifter the boy seemed to move with an eerie slowness that seemed unnatural. Reaching out, he grabbed the end of the bo staff and violently pulled. When his opponent came flying within range, he lashed out with his right foot, sending the leader hurling backwards.
Boy Wonder, despite being winded and a little dazed, rolled immediately to his feet. Reaching into his satchel he grabbed three discs that he sent flashing towards his foe.
Using the bo staff, Beast Boy blocked two of the discs, and with unreal finesse used its tip to send two of them flying back at his foe. The third he sidestepped.
Robin sidestepped one of the discs, and dove under the other. Before he could roll to his feet he felt the bo staff pressed against his neck. The match was over. He sat up with a small laugh. "And to think I set aside a full half-hour for this. It was probably more like three seconds."
They repeated it nine more times. Different tactics, and different strategies, but always with the same result.
"We're glad you're back." Robin stayed on the ground, deciding he'd had enough humiliation for one day. "The envelope you left with me is still in the safe. However Raven did break into it once. I think she missed you more than any of us." He shivered,and rubbed at his arms as if suddenly cold "In fact I know she did."
"Morning." Raven intoned, walking into the common's room. Her nose twitched as she detected the familiar scent of tofu dogs, and allowed herself to smile a little.
"Morning." Beast Boy greeted her, watching as the violet-eyed girl plugged in the kettle and took a muffin from the fridge.
"Morning." Robin and Cyborg chorused, while Starfire used her usual greeting.
"Thanks for last night." She spoke to Beast Boy before turning to the rest. "Thanks."
"You're looking better this morning." Cyborg said, eyeing the girl.
"I feel a lot better." She replied in a monotone. "And I realized something."
"Oh?" Cyborg asked.
"We don't have to beat Trigon. The only one we really need to find is Adonis, and then make sure he never uses what he knows. We don't have to fight a god, just one of his minions. And despite what he learned, he's no Slade. He's not trained in the mystical arts."
"So you're saying we got a chance?" Robin asked, looking more than a little relieved.
"We do. A good one." The girl took a bit of her muffin with her nose still twitching. He eyes briefly flickered towards Beast Boy before she turned back to the others. "Here." She handed each of them one of the stones. "At least Trigon won't be able to spy on us, and they'll help just in case we do have to fight him directly."
"Did you place one in Nevermore?" Beast Boy asked.
"I did." She told him, her nose still twitching. "As soon as I woke up this morning. Trust me, Rage was ecstatic. She's your friend for life now." Her lips turned up in a tiny smirk. Not that she didn't want to be more than 'just' friends before. But there's no need to tell him that.
"Cool." The green-skinned Titan turned back to his tofu dog, happily savoring it. While it wasn't as good as what he'd had in Africa, it was still the next best thing. When he looked down his plate was empty. "Hey." He exclaimed. "Who stole my last tofu dog?"
"Dude. Don't look as us." Cyborg said with a shudder. "It's not real food so it probably just evaporated or something."
The shape shifter glowered at his friend, and rose with his nose twitching. "I bet you were finally tempted into trying one." He told the cybernetic teen.
The accused boy broke out in a sweat. "Dude! Don't even suggest things like that. It's not natural." He gulped, turning green.
Beast Boy turned with his nose still twitching. "It can't be." He finally said, slowly walking over to Raven and inhaling deeply. He looked at her with accusing eyes.
"I... Umm..." Dang that nose of his. Raven thought blushing. Her eyes turned towards his empty plate, where he had a cup of ... "Hey." She exclaimed. "That's my herbal tea." Now she turned on the boy with an accusing look of her own.
"Ah... Well... " The red-faced thief gulped. "See, I sort of got used to it in Africa. We had it every evening."
End of Chapter.
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