A/N: Dreamscape scenes don't count as dreams when it's Raven's own dreamscape so I'm not putting that in bold print. Just so everyone knows…
(O)
I sketched an image of the Dragonstone with coal and parchment; this was the last item I was to procure. Then, when I turned to leave, I discovered my companion had once more vanished from my sight. I felt suddenly cold and alone. Naturally I had no right to so much as request Madam Crow's company. She had simply accompanied me with no explanations and offering me wise words which proved more valuable than any spell of fire or lightening. But her absence was pain and I longed for companionship. I did not realize until she had gone that she had, perhaps, become the mother I did not have in my mind. During my journey back to King Hrunting's court I dreamed in my waking mind that she was my mother and that she had only yet to tell me for fear of my reaction.
But while a mother must let her children go, a wife does not leave her husband. It was a wife I needed. To be bonded to another always, to never again face this loneliness, to always know separation would be temporary; this was what I desired. I only hoped I would be alive to find such a woman after facing the High Priest.
~ Excerpt from Rorek's memoirs
(8)
Chapter 28 – Hitchhiker
Beings of such a size would never even be able to glide regardless of their wingspan and flight was right out. You'd have to have muscles and tissues made of something far beyond any known material to keep those wings from being ripped off during a fall. And yet Rorek's frantic flapping actually seemed to be slowing him down. Why? Because dragons were magical beings. They had natural powers that allowed them the ability to fly despite the physical impossibilities. Apparently the wings weren't entirely necessary; they just helped you get your mind right with the simple logic of, "I have wings, therefore I must be able to fly". This was very useful for young dragons. Of course, to a certain extent, young dragons could fly with just their wings. Well, they could at least glide.
Rorek was not a young dragon, however, and despite the fact that his wings didn't get torn off by air friction and he didn't turn into a pile of sticky wobbly bits with bones and scales mixed in when Malchior let him hit the ground, he was still having issues.
"You were supposed to catch me…" Rorek ground out, pealing himself off the gravel with a painful moan.
"You were supposed to start flying." Malchior came back, landing in front of him. "Don't worry, I knew you wouldn't die. You are getting a feel for it, though a youngling would have caught on by now." he grumbled.
"And your experience comes from…?"
"Actually spending time in nesting grounds learning to be a parent from parents, as is expected of adolescent dragons. Come on, lets try this again."
"You're going to let me hit the ground again, aren't you?"
"Yep."
"I'm not sure the American slang works with our accent, you know…"
"Maybe not, but it makes Raven smile so I don't care." Malchior informed his brother mentally as he carried his twin up, up, and further up until the shady mesa Raven was meditating on looked very small beneath them. That shut the white dragon up. "You do realize she's probably not going to be too happy if we have to spend another day out here so you can learn to fly."
Rorek growled low in his very deep throat.
"Not impressed, dear brother." Malchior said, and then he let the dragon go. He didn't bother to hide his amusement at the sight of Rorek's frantic flailing and his brother's fury gave him an idea. He decided to dredge up an image of Rorek's pathetic attempts to fly via swimming in the air, dress it up a bit with bulging eyes and some clown makeup, and then sent it over their telepathic link. Then, as an added bonus, he included an image of Raven coming out of her trance in time to see how ridiculous he looked, though he didn't go so far as to show him an image of her laughing. He decided to have some mercy.
That did it. Malchior wondered why he hadn't thought of this before now because some internal dam broke and now Rorek was swooping up into the air with the rage of a blizzard aiming directly for Malchior.
"FO!" he shouted, a stream of super frozen air blasting towards Malchior, who dodged it, laughing.
"You're going to have to do much better than that!" "YOL!"
(O)
After an hour or two of dragon fighting (and more than a few demolished plateaus), Raven decided the twins had had enough and demanded that they get a move on. Even so the pod didn't fly much farther before evening began to descend upon them. All three of them had lost track of time and after a few minutes of flying over more barren waste (well, barren in the sense that there wasn't much life apart from the desert-thriving flora) Raven decided to find a place to land the ship for the night. That was the only reason she spotted a black motorcycle gleaming in the orange twilight.
The rider, whom she couldn't quite make out from this distance, was driving down what could only be called a road if you compared it to the area they'd just left (especially after they'd left it) but whoever they were they were good. They were navigating the tricky terrain at a speed that would undoubtedly be well against the law on most highways and had yet to die. There were only two people Raven knew who had that kind of skill and one of them was Nightwing. The other…but it couldn't be. What would he be doing way out here? Come to that, what would anyone be doing way out here?
The ship was flying slowly enough and the bike fast enough that, as she watched, the bike was actually passing the ship. Even from here she could sense the desperation, but that required no empathic powers. There was something in the way the person was going at the impossible roadway that told her this was not a joyride. Someone doing this for kicks wouldn't be passing up so many opportunities to drive across certain gaps and ledges in order to get airborne. This person wanted speed. It was only when the bike finally outdistanced the ship by a fair stretch that she realized why and felt stupid for not spotting it earlier. As it was, she was angling the ship down towards the cyclist before his signal flair even exploded.
"What's going on?" Rorek asked as Raven pulled up a camera on the ship to zoom in on the figure.
"There's someone out there and they're signaling us." she answered. The camera got a lock. The sun was setting fast, but the figure standing next to his black bike waving his hands in the air was very distinctive. "Him?" she asked aloud. Of course, she had suspected but it was still a surprise to see him.
"Friend of yours?" Malchior asked, peering over Rorek's shoulder.
"More or less." Raven admitted grudgingly. "I can't imagine what he thinks he's doing out here, though. I guess we'll find out soon enough. If he tries to hijack the ship turn him into a popsicle. That suit has way too many fancy gadgets to trust our spellfire against." she said.
"So a bit less a friend than some?" Malchior guessed.
"Merely a precaution." she answered, finding a nearby spot to land. Their guest was already on top of the ship before the hatch was fully open. "Can we help you?" she asked.
"Sunshine!" Red X greeted exuberantly. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you. Who's your boyfriend?"
"Don't have one. What are you doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?" she demanded.
"Would you believe I'm running away from home because my evil stepmother wouldn't let me go to the ball?" he asked with wide eyes that had their work cut out to look innocent considering they were carved into the mask that looked like a skull.
"Not a chance." she answered.
"Just an evil mother, then."
"Still not buying it. And anyway, you're too old to be 'running away from home'. The term would be 'striking out on your own'." she stated.
"Tell that to Mummy Dearest. I dare you."
"I don't believe you. You stole something, didn't you?"
"Alright, alright, guilty as charged, Sunshine. But if you knew what was chasing me you'd help me out."
"Really? What's chasing you?"
"I'll tell you everything, if you give me a lift to Jump City." he said.
"Alright, look: I'm willing to fly you to the nearest plot of civilization but you are going to have to give me one hell of a good reason to take you all the way to Jump City." she told him.
"Seconded." Rorek said, leering at Red X.
"Look, I was on my way there anyway. The thing I stole…well, the people I stole it from aren't exactly model citizens themselves. I'm prepared to fork it over to you guys – along with everything I know – in return for some protection."
"Protection? Protection from what? That suit's not enough?" Raven demanded.
"It use to be. Not anymore, it seems. Come on, Sunshine! Get me the Tower and I'll sing like a canary. I promise you won't regret it. What I got is serious dirt. Very serious." he told her.
"Why for does this strange person call you 'Sunshine'?" Rorek asked with deep suspicion.
"Because he thinks it's funny." Raven answered in a grumble. She pulled out her communicator. "I'm calling Nightwing about this." she stated.
"Hey, sounds good to me."
Nightwing took a few seconds to answer and when he did he looked more than a little flustered and just a bit flushed. "Raven! It's, uh, kind of late. What did you need?" he asked.
Deciding not to point out that it was only 7:00pm (at least where she was), she answered, "We've got a bit of a situation. We were flying through some barren wasteland looking for a place to spend the night when we happened across an old friend." She turned the communicator around so Nightwing could see Red X crouched on the hood of her pod. He waved.
"Hey Kid, long time no see. Miss me?"
"Sure did, but I've been working on my aim." Nightwing answered.
"Classic." the thief snorted.
Raven turned the communicator back around to face her. "He claims he stole something from some other villains and is prepared to trade us the item and all his information in exchange for a ride to Jump City."
"And protection! A very specific kind of protection, but we can talk about that later." X added.
"Protection? From what? What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Nightwing demanded.
"I'll tell you all about it when I get there. And trust me, it's one heck of a story. It even involves an old friend of yours. A sleek creepy guy with a mask."
"That could describe any number of our 'old friends'." Nightwing pointed out. "Including you."
"Has a voice that sounds like it's putting its hand up your shirt."
"Slade?-!"
"I like how you both simultaneously figured it out the moment I said that."
"What do you know?-!" Nightwing demanded sharply.
"Who is this 'Slade'?" Rorek asked.
"One of the worst of our 'old friends'." Raven grumbled.
"Right, and I'll tell you everything I know as soon as I'm in Jump City." Red X repeated.
Nightwing's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Is he telling the truth?" he asked Raven.
Raven looked up at Red X and leered at him, focusing her senses directly upon him. "Yes." she decided after only a second. "He is."
A second was all it had taken.
Red X was terrified. There was a gnawing knot of fear for whatever he was really running from deep down and he had been carrying it for days, maybe even weeks. With that mask on the only things that'd give it away would be tone of voice and body language, but he'd been frightened for long enough that it was a dull throb by now. Besides, his relief at her finding him was evident and it was making him giddy enough for his usual carefree manner to shine through.
"Alright, bring him to Jump. We'll figure out what to do about this when you get here."
(O)
"You know, usually I find magic to be little more than a great damn nuisance, but I have to admit this is pretty sweet. What else can you do to vehicles besides making them freakishly spacious?"
"I'd still like to know why you are in the front seat." Malchior grumbled.
"I'm just that handsome."
"Are you now? Let's see, then!"
"Whoa! Hey! Hands off the mask, Red Eyes!"
"Malchior, don't. Rorek might be able to take your rough handling but most people are breakable and if you crack his skull I will get upset."
"I'm being gentle."
"Yeah, but he's flailing and he almost knocked over my soda."
"Better listen to her, Red Eyes. She's got some serious anger issues under that deceptively calm exterior. I would know." X snickered.
Malchior let go, but reluctantly. Then Rorek pushed himself into the small space behind the passenger chair. "You two know one another quite well then?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh yeah, we go way back. Right Sunshine?" X asked sweetly.
Raven wondered if Red X knew just how deep he was digging his grave by insinuating that he and Raven had had more than a total of five encounters, only one of which had involved about 20 minutes alone together stuck in a magically sealed vault where all attention had been focused on escaping. That was when he'd started calling her 'Sunshine'. Apparently he seemed to think that counted as a date. Or rather, he pretended to think that because he knew how much it irritated her.
"Yeah, you can stop talking now." Raven grumbled, rolling her eyes.
"Bet I could shut him up." Malchior growled from the back. "You'd be amazed at how hard it is to talk without a jaw. The tongue just sort of hangs down uselessly for one thing."
"Malchior you surprise me. Simply removing the tongue would be far less of a hassle." Rorek said cheerfully.
"Your new boyfriends need to lighten up, Sunshine." X sniggered.
I'm not going to rise to this. Raven decided. No, there was a way to turn this right around. And it might just keep Malchior and Rorek from beating the snot out of Red X. "You're just jealous 'cause my boyfriends could totally beat up your boyfriend." she said.
Malchior busted out laughing as Red X immediately exploded with, "I DO NOT HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"
Raven gave Red X her most winning smile, which scared him to death. "Neither do I. Now sit tight and shut up."
The relative silence lasted about half an hour.
"This music's creepy. Let's listen to Lady Gaga."
"I don't have any Lady Gaga." Raven ground out.
"Fine, Evanescence, then. You've GOT to have Evanescence."
"I like Lacuna Coil."
"Never heard of it. You're not a hipster are you? You don't seem the type."
"Stop talking. Now."
"But you're so cute when you're mad."
Raven twitched.
She had intended to find somewhere to land for the night despite how early it actually was but decided, in the current circumstances, that she wanted to put as much distance between them and whatever it was that Red X was afraid of until they knew what they were up against. She wanted to ask him about all that, but he had already made it clear he wasn't giving up any more information until they were safely in Jump City. Well, as safe as you could be in a city that attracted super-powered bad guys like a charged magnet.
He had given her the carrying case of the thing he had stolen. It was big, heavy, tube-shaped, made of titanium wrapped in a vinal tarp material with a strap, and had so many padlocks and combinations on it that it'd probably take Cyborg the better part of a week to crack open. Red X was keeping the codes and the keys to himself, but, as he pointed out, giving her the thing itself proved he was being true to his word. Perhaps he hadn't known about the sub-space pockets on Raven's belt, but he hadn't seemed to mind when it disappeared in her hand. Whatever this was, it wasn't a joke.
If only Red X wasn't treating it like it was. She knew he was scared of something, but perhaps that long-cultivated fear had transformed itself into giddiness now that he was flying high up over the clouds towards the T-tower where nothing short of another space-worthy ship would be able to reach them. So high up Raven was almost tempted to use hyperdrive…but decided against it. It wasn't exactly cloud-friendly and there was too much chance that she might disrupt some vital natural force that'd cause havoc with some area's weather conditions.
Besides, there were some airplanes that could fly high enough to be affected and the last thing she wanted to do was tear up some secret US stealth ship just because she wanted to get to the tower before she succumbed to the temptation of strangling Red X. She was, in fact, keeping her hands firmly on the wheel in order to prevent this from happening.
"Vonis Zu naak rok?" Malchior asked.
"Nid. Mu lotlost rok." Raven answered. "Vopruzah…" she added in a mutter. She liked that swearword. It was a much stronger way of saying 'this sucks' or 'this is bad' or, in this particular case, 'unfortunately'.
"Hey now, that's not fair. What are you two saying?" Red X demanded.
"You really don't want to know what he just asked." Raven told him.
"It is strictly forbidden in any case." Rorek stated, leering at his brother.
"Oh, yes, I'm one of the good guys now. Forgot about that."
"You two seem to have a sort of yin-yang thing going on. What's the story behind that?" Red X asked the twins, twisting around to look at them.
"We're twins." Malchior stated.
"Not normal twins. Identical twins would have the same colors and voices while fraternal twins wouldn't look so similar around the face area." Red X pointed out.
"I don't see how that's our problem."
X snorted his amusement and sat back in the chair, making an attempt to lounge in it even though the passenger chair didn't do any real leaning. "No, guess it isn't."
"Get your feet off the dashboard." Raven ordered.
"Why? There's plenty of space. I'm not in your way or anything."
"I eat off that space. Feet down now."
"Fine, fine. You know you should lighten up a bit, Sunshine. It's not good to be so broody all the time. I bet you'd look really cute if you smiled more often."
"The Lady smiles often enough. Just not around you, apparently." Rorek said, his tone perfectly polite and gentlemanly. This earned him a rare snort of laughter from his brother.
"Ooooh, it's on now. I'll bet I can make her smile." Red X said confidently.
"I'm sure you could too. By jumping out of the ship." Malchior supplied.
"No, then I'll have to dive after him and that'd be a pain. You could duct tape your mouth shut, though." Raven suggested. "That would make me happy."
"It amazes me that you're still single." X mused.
"Yes, it takes such an effort." she said sarcastically.
X leaned over and gave her a shameless once-over. "I believe you. Rawr." he purred. "ACH!" he choked out, slamming back into his seat. This was because one of the twins had grabbed him by the cape and yanked it before Raven had the chance to slap him. That made her smile. She laughed a little, too.
"Oh look, you did make her smile." Malchior said. His tone was dark and more than a little threatening.
"Just settle down, will you? We'll be landing for the night soon enough. Surely you can keep quiet for at least half an hour." Raven grumbled.
"Landing?" Red X sat back up, his tone suddenly very different. "Why? You don't need sunlight when you're flying this high up!" he exclaimed.
Raven looked at him, surprise. Panic. He was starting to panic and the feeling was so strong and sudden that she felt it without meaning to. What was he running from? Did Slade really scare him this much? Or was it because of the thing he'd stolen that he was this scared?
"I know I don't need sunlight to fly. But I need to sleep sometime and I can't fly while I'm sleeping." she told him calmly.
"What about autopilot?"
"Not a good idea to leave that unattended for so many hours."
"Can't one of them do it then?"
"Rorek's not very good with technology and everything Malchior's learned so far is from books, which doesn't take the place of actual experience and in any case Cyborg's technology is very different from anything he's likely come across. It probably wouldn't be a good idea."
"Then I'll fly it while you sleep! I know my way around this stuff and one of them can watch me to make sure I don't try anything." 'Don't do this. Don't stop flying. Don't let them catch me please!'
Raven stared at him, trying to ignore the words hanging between them. It wasn't just the twins then…she pushed that aside and focused on the present issue. "You're really scared, aren't you?"
"What? No! No I'm not scared! I'm not scared of anything, Sunshine! I just…don't think we should stop. That's all. I want to get back to home sweet Jump City as soon as possible." he told her.
Raven glanced over at the twins, but they were silently looking at X with unreadable eyes. As she watched they glanced at each other and back again. Then Rorek caught Raven looking at them and he gave a small nod while Malchior shrugged.
"Alright, let's switch and I'll teach you the basics." Raven said, unstrapping herself from the seat.
"Sweet!"
(O)
This time Raven decided to take one of the beds since only two of them would be sleeping while Red X was flying the ship. After a few minutes trying to get comfortable she became aware of the scent of the previous occupant. It was a semi-sweet musk with a hint of pine. Rorek? No, wait, Malchior slept in here last. Huh…so they had the same scent? Was that normal for twins? Well, even if it wasn't it was probably normal for silfron. She buried her face in the pillow and inhaled the scent through her nose. It was subtle, but it was also clingy so she kept on smelling it for quite some time, even when she slipped into her dreamscape.
She decided to do some more work on the dreamscape itself. Right now all she had were void-like spaces with invisible walls and ceilings connected to one another. And a bed. Oh she had some decoration here and there to indicate where the next level or area was, but other than that things were very bare. Time to make it more interesting.
It was hard to determine time in the dreamscape, especially when her body fell fully asleep. She wasn't sure why, but she did know that a dreaming mind processed things much faster than the waking mind. Maybe it was because the dreaming mind didn't have to worry about all the billions of little things it needed to keep track of for the body to walk around, take in the world, process said world, and present options and conclusions by pulling things up from memory. In dreams nothing was new. In dreams the mind was, instead, pulling out whatever it already had. It didn't need to gain any input from the sensory apparatuses.
In any case, it felt as though she had been working for quite a while before she became aware of Malchior's presence somewhere outside the tower. She snickered to herself. He was going to be in for a few surprises when he came down here looking for her.
He did find her, though. Eventually. Took him a while.
"Very amusing, Raven." he grumbled. "Why did you replace your bed with a giant spider, exactly?"
"Hey, at least I didn't make it move." she chuckled.
"No, it just blinked at me. Spiders do not blink, by the way. What is all this?" he asked, curiously. "It rather looks like a church of some sort. But without the pews."
"It's part of the Citadel of Azar, the largest building on Azarath. This is the cathedral." she answered. "It had various purposes and was used for different things over the years, but during most days it was used by monks for gatherings and they were required to levitate if they wished to sit."
"So you have actually been to this Azarath yourself?"
"I'm from Azarath." she specified. Hadn't she told him that? She couldn't remember. Oh well, he knew now. "I was trained as a monk, though my power was such that I had to learn sorcery as well in order to control it. In truth there are both monks and sorcerers on Azarath. You just don't hear too much about the magic-users because the monks are generally more…potent."
"Potent how?"
"They use psychic power rather than spells and turn some things that might be considered magic into natural abilities. Of course, plenty of people here on earth do the same thing, but the Monks of Azarath took it to a whole new level. They were the ones who defeated Trigon the first time he reemerged, after all. Oh I'm sure the sorcerers helped – psychic power can't do everything after all. But I'm thinking it's rather difficult for magic-users to deal with psychics."
"After a certain level, yes, it is." Malchior mused. "So…you were sent to earth to deal with the Church of Blood?" Malchior asked her.
"No, I told you: They believed the cult to be gone for good. I left because…well…it's complicated. In the end I think it was simply because I felt strongly that I was needed on Earth even though I didn't quite know why. I'd always been drawn to anything to do with Earth back when I lived on Azarath. History, literature, art, geography…even the way they built their roads fascinated me. Besides…after my mentor died I didn't really feel as though I fit in. I was…different. Azar was the only one who understood me. Everyone else was just…polite."
"Ah." he murmured. He reached out and brushed a lock of stray hair from her face. "Yes…polite. Because, for whatever reason, no one is going to actually come out and say that they don't really want you around." he mused. "What is the expression? 'Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt'?"
"What, even before you became the dread dragon?" she asked him.
"Look at me, Raven." he said, spreading his arms wide for her. "Snow-white skin, black hair, red eyes; do I not look like a nightmare in flesh? A, what you might call, 'demon'? Even where pale skin is considered attractive, my coloring has never been the sort that put people at their ease. Rorek is the pretty one; the attractive one. He is the fresh snow that children might go out and play in. I am the forest fire that panics the wildlife and all who see it. I am the frightening one. And no one likes being near something they fear, do they?"
"I don't fear you." Raven murmured.
He touched her cheek. "No," he murmured, "You don't…and you never did, did you? Not even when you saw the dragon for the first time."
He's going to kiss me. she realized in a sudden panic. She couldn't let him. If she did then…then there'd be no going back. But if she turned away…she didn't want him to think she was rejecting him entirely…just that the romantic option really wasn't an option.
So she reached out and hugged him the way she had back in the Jump City T-Tower right after his and Rorek's first fight, her face pressed against his shoulder and turned away so he couldn't reach it.
"They were afraid of me." she whispered.
"I do not fear you." he murmured. "But I do fear for you." And, to her surprise, he pulled her back so he could look at her. "Raven…back in the cellar with Sister Fear," uh oh… "You destroyed the Glang." whew! Wait, what?
"So did you." she pointed out.
"The one which caught the Batman's leg and covered it is what I am speaking of. If you were simply blasting them apart like the rest of us then you would not have been able to save Batman from it. He really would have had to destroy his leg to survive." He reached over and touched the stone on her forehead. "I use to fear that, perhaps, you were not the only one who had gained such an increase in power; that there might be others out there whom the gods were attempting to contact. But now I'm not so sure. You don't simply have more power; it's different, odd. Why you, Raven?" he asked, his voice pained.
"I don't know…" she admitted, looking down, her hands at her sides. "I'm…scared…" she finally got out, biting her lower lip.
Malchior took her hands in his, "Morgaine Le Fay is not the only one who knows how to hone such powers." he told her. "When we return to the tower and that Red X person's issues have been sorted through, Rorek and I will begin training you."
She gave him a weak smile and nodded. "Thank you."
"But of course, Fair Maiden," Malchior said, stepping back so he could bow to her. "Tis the least we could do. Which reminds me; Rorek's been annoying me lately. He's been moping about the fact that you're letting me into your dreamscape and not him. I told him it was because he hadn't asked but he's too much of a coward to raise the subject himself."
Raven stared at him in astonishment. "You're asking me to let Rorek into my dreamscape? Are you feeling alright?"
"Well when you put it like that I think I might be dying. What's wrong with me?-!" he exclaimed, putting a hand to his forehead in a theatrical gesture. Raven laughed.
"I'll think about it. I have no problem with Rorek in my dreamscape; I just don't really want this place becoming another of your battlegrounds." she told him.
"You don't have to let him in." Malchior said innocently.
"Yeah, I could just kick you out instead so he doesn't feel left out anymore."
"Now hang on a minute! I'm the one who taught you how to make a dreamscape in the first place!" he exclaimed defensively.
"Maybe I'll just keep you two separated, then." she mused. "Or just make this place so big you can never find each other."
"You're certainly off to a good start. If only you could draw the things in your head." Malchior said, looking up at the stained glass windows. "This place is beautiful." he murmured.
"Yes…it was…"
(O)
"I cannot believe you don't have Evanescence."
"Must have left it in my other playlist."
"Linkin Park, then!"
"Apparently not."
"Metallica?"
"Nope."
"Marilyn Manson."
"Are you mocking me?"
"Alright, can we access Pandora from this thing?"
"Yes, but I'm not going to."
"Why not?"
"My ship, my music."
"Oh come on, Sunshine! Have a heart!"
"You know, you surprise me. I would have pegged you as a screamo fan."
"Linkin Park is as screamo as I get, I'm afraid."
"Not all my music is screamo, okay? There's some singing in there."
"Yeah, but it's kinda weird having a girl sing to such hard metal."
"Evanescence."
"Alright, alright, my bad. But at least she sings about normal stuff that I can understand."
Hmmm…Tristania versus Evanescence…Raven decided she wasn't even going to go there. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and good music was in the ear of same. Everyone was different.
"I happen to like this music myself."
"Yeah, do you really like it, Red Eyes? Or are you just saying that because your girlfriend likes it?"
"Yes."
"That wasn't exactly a yes/no question, there."
"I'm sorry, I forgot the part where I was supposed to care."
Raven sighed and leaned back in her seat. Having X fly through the night more than recovered the time they had spent with Rorek's flight lessons so with any luck they'd be back before dark. They would be back before dark, she realized. They were, more or less, following the sun weren't they? The clock automatically adjusted itself when they flew into a new time zone, which was why she was starting to feel tired even though it was only 3. Of course, some of that had to do with thinking up different ways to entertain Red X after he'd woken up so he wouldn't default to his new favorite pastime of shamelessly flirting with any nearby female of moderately decent looks.
Raven already had to go through the tired explanation of 'that one magical night' Red X kept referring to if only to stop both Malchior and Rorek from deciding that Maartuz would forgive them that one particular crime against humanity in these special circumstances.
"We were stuck in a vault for twenty minutes and it had a magical lock on it that took us that long to figure out and it wasn't even night, you idiot. It was midday." she'd groused at him.
"Oh, well, maybe I can make it up to you. How's Friday night sound?"
Sounds like a death sentence. "Can't do Friday. I'll be washing my hair."
"Ah, haha, I see what you did there."
Yeah…
"Hey, let's play a game to pass the time." Red X suggested.
"Great idea. Let's play the quiet game."
"I second this." Malchior said.
"What? No!"
"I third it." Rorek came in.
"You've been outvoted." Raven informed Red X.
He slumped into his chair, muttered something under his breath that Raven didn't catch, and was suddenly yanked out of his seat through the slight space available between the back of the passenger chair and the roof of the pod by two sets of hands.
"You are not allowed to eat him!" Raven shouted.
"Fine, fine. We ran out of mustard anyway." came Malchior's voice.
"Whoa! Hey! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! What are you doing?-! Why can't I move?-!"
"It's called magic. And you're going into the closet for a while. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure we got rid of all the snakes. Have fun."
"What—snakes? HEY!" A door slammed. Malchior leapt into the passenger seat soon after, looking quite pleased with himself.
"We had snakes in the closet?" Raven asked, trying not to laugh.
"No, but he doesn't know that does he?"
"Kind of cruel…but he was asking for it, I'll admit."
"Not as cruel as what Rorek wanted to do to him. He wanted to sit him down and give him a five-hour lecture on how to be a gentleman. Which we'd have all had to suffer through."
Strange, Raven hadn't been aware of any muttering going on between the two.
Hmmm…
She remembered Rorek's odd silence after she'd snapped at Malchior. Somehow he'd known she was upset about something but the two of them hadn't actually spoken to each other…had they?
Hmmm…
Raven looked over at Malchior, then at Rorek leaning on the back of his seat and watching the sky out of the pod's glass roof.
"Are you two communicating telepathically?" she asked suspiciously.
Both eyes went wide. They looked at her, and then at each other.
"I think the word here is, 'busted'." Rorek put forward.
"That it is." Malchior mused. "I don't suppose you could keep that information to yourself? We were hoping – okay, I was hoping – to pull a few pranks on the Titans before we told you."
"On one condition."
"What is that?"
"You do Beast Boy first."
"Done." Malchior snickered.
(8)
A/N: Afraid this weekend is going to be pretty busy for me. Not with work, but other RL stuff. So no Squares tomorrow, sorry about that. -_- But! I do have a good idea for the next chapter so hopefully it'll be worth the wait.
Coming up in the next chapter:
Daanik Malchior, can't you take a hint?
I'm not entirely sure what prank I want the twins to pull on Beast Boy. Just having them say the same thing at the same time for an entire conversation doesn't seem funny or random enough. Any suggestions would be welcome :D.
