$$$ Sorry it's been so long. I've been thinking about expanding my writing. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and also look for some of my other stories. PLEASE REVIEW :3 $$$
Nobody loves me so just let me die. Surely whatever it was that Malchior had stuck into Bethany's mind, hadn't made her believe that. His favorite type of control was to show love and care, and as he whispered sweet nothings, he would also weave in his own ideas into the minds of his prey. This had to have come deep within her, even further than all of the mind games that he had planted within her.
Once everything had been said and done, it all made since to Raven. They girl has blamed herself for something personal; she bottled it up and refused to share it with anyone. Not even Malchior was trusted enough to have this revealed to. Bethany controlled the Mortiesien. Ancient extinct magic that combines witch and creature. Only when she dies, can the Mortiesien die. Seeing that she was easily sold out, and fooled without a second thought, was her last straw. She gave in and decided her final act would be of kindness. She would free herself and fix what she had done wrong. She could do both by dying.
"I won't let you, you know that." Raven hadn't left the girls side since the night. She has been in a coma for three days. It's like the Mortiesien is in a coma as well. There are still signs of it, and Beastboy will wake up in the mornings with a cold sweat and be trembling from a nightmare that he couldn't remember clearly.
"You really are stupid aren't you?" Bethany croaked from her little medical bed. Raven stared at the young girl; she looked a bit paler and weaker than before. Her eyes, Raven noticed, were a dark green. Not like Beastboy's, but dark.
Raven let the silence go on for another few minutes. "What were you thinking exactly?" There was a warning in her voice for Bethany to have a serious answer ready as a response.
Bethany closed her eyes and she breathed in deeply, and then let it out before opening her eyes again. "If I think about it now, it's so ridiculous to think about that I am ashamed and embarrassed to believe that anyone, let alone myself, could hate someone for such a stupid reason. I've always been a fan of Beastboy being with terra, but not to the point where it bothered me that he wasn't. In fact I never thought I could hate any one of the Titans, especially not you."
Raven waited for her to continue, when she didn't Raven prodded a bit more. "What makes it unbelievable that you would hate me over the others?" Raven was hoping this was a sign that her suspicions would be answered.
Again silence took the room, every small movement or sound was easily caught by Raven. She almost thought she could hear Beth's heart beat along with her own. She almost asked again when Bethany opened her mouth and took a breath to answer.
"I've always had a thought about you that kept me from thinking I was alone. Like a little imaginary friend kind of thing." Bethany rubbed her arms as she slowly sat up. "I have always been different from everyone else. The first time I saw you, I thought that we were the same. I know it's just an orphans dream though."
Raven shook her head; Bethany cocked her head to the side in confusion. Raven stood from her chair and placed a hand on Bethany's hand. "There is a little bit of something in you. Not enough to make you a threat, but enough for you to have an inner strength. You are demon." When Bethany looked a bit worried she gave her a side long smile.
"Doesn't that make me evil; it's the whole reason I needed to relate to someone as a child. My parents called my powers the work of the devil." Raven would have laughed if it hadn't been for the seriously scared look on Beth's face and the memory of having the exact same fear.
There was a light squeak from Bethany when Raven gripped her shoulder forcefully. "Having this power doesn't make you evil, where you come from doesn't make you evil, what you are doesn't make you evil. It is how you use you're power and who you choose to be that makes you evil or good. Not your heritage or back ground. It is about the here and now." There had been many times when Raven had repeated this to herself at nights to pull her fears down to size.
Bethany stared wide eyed at Raven and soon tears formed inside of her eyes, and then spilt onto her cheek. She launched forward and almost knocked Raven over and threw herself out of the bed by hugging Raven with such intensity. Raven hadn't expected it but did a well job of keeping her balance, she wasn't sure what to do but she patted and rubbed the girls back. It felt awkward as the girl cried into her abdomen. She soon found herself repeating her chant.
"Azarath, Metrinon, Zinthos. Shhhh, it's okey. Azarath Metrinon, Zinthos."
Soon she had stopped crying and was just leaning against Raven, and Raven had started playing with her hair slightly. When Raven couldn't stand the strangeness any longer she gave Bethany's shoulder a light push and stepped back to look at her. Her eyes were puffy, red ,and they had turned almost black. Bethany wiped at her eyes and grabbed her pillow to hug to her chest.
"I know that you have joined your soul with the Mortiesien. I need you to first take it from Beastboy and then we need to put it back into containment. I may have a spell to break the bond, but it will take many treatments, and then you still my experience some mental and spiritual confusion." Raven explained as quickly and as monotonously as she could. The last think she needed was for the girl to become afraid again.
There was confusion in the girls face for some time. She let her eyes close and there was a crease on her forehead. She seemed to be focusing her own magic, searching for something. "It's gone, but it did leave something with Beastboy. It left him with a sleeping disorder and I believe there may be some magical memory left behind. The memories of the many other magical creatures it stole were left deep in Beastboy's subconscious."
Thinking about what she had just said, it did make since. If the memories were stored into BB's subconscious, he could dream about them and then he may or may not remember the dream once he woke up. It was just a matter of Raven and possibly Bethany working on slowly taking the memories from Beastboy. Something else that would take time, patients, and many visits. Raven pinched the bridge of her nose, stress had lifted a lot, but just the thought of so much work felt defeating.
"I suppose since I'm of no use you will send me back to my foster parents, right?' Bethany buried her head into the pillow and Raven looked down at her in wonder. She hadn't even thought of what to do past making sure Beastboy and the girl were well.
She could feel the sorrow, worry, and the dread over flowing from the girl. She let out a quite sigh and pulled out her communicator. "Starfire come here please." There was a high pitched answer and before anyone could say anything Star was standing by Raven with huge smile on her face. "Star do you think you could show Bethany around? That is if Bethany would like to look around and feels well enough to do so."
Bethany seemed more than pleased to get the chance to be given a free tour of the house. "Wait are you coming with?" She asked slipping from the bed and wobbling slightly on her scrawny legs.
"I need to talk to our oh so wonderful leader. I promise I will catch up later though." She gave a small reassuring smile to the girls before she hunted down her target.
While it was a quiet day in crime life, it wasn't very quiet at the tower. Bethany proved to be the fastest healer on earth, and also one of the most hyper teens any one has ever seen. She put Beastboy to shame. It was like having a BB, Star, and coffee mixture tightly wrapped into a scrawny 15 year olds body. She had insisted everyone knew she was 15 when Star had asked if she wanted to go buy Barbie dolls.
She didn't completely destroy the place but she did bounce in and out of every room screaming wow at the top of her lungs. This wasn't helping Raven's case with Robin. Her first stop was meant to be Robin, but she had to stop by to see Beastboy. She talked this over delicately with Beastboy and Cy before she did anything. After that it was easy to catch Robin doing what he does best, exercising and obsessing over cases.
"I want to adopt Bethany!" She had found Robin in his little storage area of cases. He was putting the last touch ups on the case involving the Mortiesien and Bethany. He smiled to himself at the sudden outburst. When he turned Raven glared at him.
He tossed his papers back onto the table. "I was almost betting on you coming to say that. Unfortunately we can't adopt her, she already has foster parents. We can't intervene." He smiled at her almost apologetically.
Raven narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms against her chest. This is exactly why she went to visit Beastboy and Cyborg. "We are a better fit for her and we can prove that by using that case file you're working on."
Robin looked down at his papers and raised an eyebrow. Raven smirked and continued. "She would be a danger to not only herself, but to everyone around her, including her foster parents. I am one of the only people that understand exactly what she needs in order to control herself and her chaotic powers."
"Yes, those are all valid points. After these kinds of incidents though, do you honestly think there aren't going to be consequences? There will be charges, there was one actual murder, remember?" Robin picked up a file that read 'Detective Robinson' in big black letters. Raven flinched at the reminder.
She let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her hair. She studied the papers from a far. Skimming over what she could see. "There isn't any proof she did it, there isn't any proof any one did it. As far as the world is concerned, there isn't any forensic evidence that has anyone at that crime scene at the time of his death. The worst she could get is public disturbance, and she can pay that off buy training with us and then working for the government as, oh I don't know, a teen super hero that lives in a giant 'T'.
Robin gathered his papers and placed them neatly into the folder. He walked to the door where Raven stood, waiting for his reply. He walked past her, but stopped for few seconds to muter a sentence and leave. Raven smiled and quickly made her way to the living room where everyone was trying their hardest to keep the young girl relaxed. After this they will never get another moments peace.
Once in the living room, she had demanded that Bethany say good bye and get ready to go home while Cyborg and her headed down to the car. When Bethany finally arrived she was teary eyed and depressed. She didn't speak the hole time they spent in the car and she was a bit surprised when Raven walked her up to her front door. Raven knocked hard against the wooden door.
A man and a woman came to the door and gave mini smiles to Raven but gave little pats to Bethany. Before she left she was sure to have Cyborg and Robin work together in a last minute efforts to pull as many strings as possible to get a 'warrant' for Bethany. She had technically become their property in a weird way. She quickly held the paper out to them and grabbed Bethany away from them before they could pull her in.
"I don't understand what is this?" The foster mother had asked. She looked sort of wrinkly and Raven choked on her perfume as she breathed in.
"It is temporary until we can pull up the adoption papers. We believe it is in everyone's best interests if we keep her in our custody. I assure you she will live a happy life and she will be cared for." Raven tried to sound as professional as she could, but the woman's make-up seemed to crack as she delivered this news. "Go pack your bags Beth."
Bethany raced past her soon to be ex-foster parents. "Are you people insane? A young girl like that needs a mother! Someone to teach her the right and wrong ways. I don't know if you are aware of this but she has these weird tenancies to move things without touching them!" A good punch in this woman's face would have felt so right to Raven as her shrill voice pierced her ears. "What do you plan on doing about that? I'm sure you couldn't do it, with the way you dress could you imagine, you a mother?" She gave Raven a sickened look.
Closing her eyes to bite back her anger, Raven could feel her eyebrows twitch. "I'll have you know, that she is an amazingly gifted girl. I would be honored to be her mother and teach her to embrace moving things around without touching them. As for how I dress, I could say that someone with as much fakeness around their head, I'm surprised you could see straight enough to see me let alone my apparel. If I said that though, I would be rude. C'mon Beth I'm done here." Raven glared at the lady and turned to walk away.
Bethany had been there to here Raven's reply and it took her a few minutes to process what had been said. Once she was in the care she let small tears fall from her eyes. Raven groaned as she saw Bethany in the rearview mirror. She turned to Cyborg for help, but he only mouthed the words 'talk to her'. Like that helped at all. Raven turned around in her seat and cleared her throat awkwardly.
"I'm sorry if getting into an argument with your mother upset you." Raven was a bit ashamed she had upset Bethany and stooped so low as to actually reply to that haggard witch. She was even more ashamed that she hadn't thought of something better to come back at her with.
Bethany looked up and smiled which startled even Cyborg. Raven raised an eyebrow and Bethany started to shyly explain. "I'm not upset, I'm happy. She would tell me all the time that she wished I was better, she wished I could change. She never once said I was good, or amazing, or that she was glad to be my mother. I knew she didn't want to be my mother. But, you do."
Something in Raven flickered and her head went spinning for moment. Could she be a mother, it was real now; she couldn't go back on it. Bethany looked so happy and hopeful. She remembered her fight and she smiled to. Only a few days since they were fighting to the death and now she was adopting her. She really was getting soft.
$$$This is pretty much the end, but I may post another chapter that is sort of a 'what happens after' kind of thing. Again sorry for this being so freaking late. I love you guys though! Have a great and safe summer!$$$