Arriving back at the research site Raven could almost feel the stench of demonic magic lingering in the air. On reflection, this could just be blood. With everything that had gone on she had almost managed to forget about the carnage they had left behind. Being confronted with it was far from pleasant.
At least ten bodies littered the floor, not including the scattered remains of the lead ritualist. A couple of the bodies had pools of blood congealing under their heads, death meeting them with a kiss of the floor when the magic backfired. Others showed signs of being trembled under careless clawed feet, spines snapped, chests liquidated, limbs flattened.
Raven pulled her cloak about her face, breathing in the smell of lavender incense that wafted from the fabric. She made herself move forward into the room. Beast Boy was depending on her.
Raven cast a few quick protections on herself against the loose lingering demonic energy and got to work. Firstly, she did all she could to investigate what was left of the glyphs on the floor. Most had disappeared in the ritual itself, being transmuted into energy, but faint traces of them remained. Raven was glad that her half demonic blood gave her better eyesight than most in the dark. Picking out the faint shadings of the sticky tar against the blood-soaked floor wasn't easy.
Sketching down what she could she moved onto the rest of the room, finding nothing of note. She investigated the strange red lights and any other odd props that had been lying around the sight. Making notes of their uses and what she knew of them. Most of it was of absolutely no importance. Lots of rituals included the use of incenses and fire pits and all manner of odd things that were nothing more substantial than window dressing, adding nothing to the magic.
It was as she was hesitating over the body of a ritualist, trying to look at the scripture on his robes without actually having to touch the body, and purposefully keeping her eyes off the massacred congealed globule remains of the lead cultists, that she realized she was being watched.
It was her empathy that sensed it. The twang of a disconnected cord grating against her sense. The single note all alone in a silent melody. It was the same oddness that had been the hallmark of the Aspects so far.
Raven tensed slightly and then quickly relaxed her shoulders again. Not wanting her observer to realize they had been noticed. Crouching down closer to one of the more presentable bodies Raven let her shields down ever so slightly, trying to feel out where her watcher was in the cavernous room. Silently she gathered her power within her.
Wings of black energy rose up from her shadow surrounding her and a moment later she emerged from a shadow across the room. Hard violet eyes staring directly into surprised emeralds. The Aspect jumped back in alarm, bring up their arms instinctively as if to ward off an attack. Raven followed their retreat, taking a threatening step forward.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped.
The Aspect stopped flailing, ducking their head and scuffing a boot against the floor. "I woke up here" they muttered into their chest.
Still tense and ready for a fight Raven took in the Aspect properly, blinking in surprise. The Aspect was black, dark skin blending in with the shadows of the room, explaining why Raven hadn't noticed them at first. They were also strangely shiny, the wane light of dawn coming through the high windows reflecting off their hair like an oil slick. Dirty rainbow fractals oozing over their face.
What struck Raven most of all was just how small the Aspect was. Until then all the Aspects Raven had seen had all been larger and older than the actual Beast Boy, but his one was small and young. Really young. If Raven had to take a guess she would say no older than seven or eight years old. Their childishness was only emphasized by their large imploring eyes and the stubborn sulky pout on their lips.
Finding herself relaxing in the face of the Aspects youth Raven softened her voice somewhat. Letting the wisps of energy about her fingers disperse. "Are you alone? This isn't a place for kids."
"I was just looking for people. What are you doing here?" they shot back accusingly.
"I'm looking for clues to help you-I mean, Beast Boy-you know what I mean."
"What kind of clues? Did you find anything? Is that why you were looking at that body?" Lowering their voice to a whisper the Aspect leaned forward, a sort of dark delight in their voice. "Are you going to cut someone up?"
"What? No! Look you shouldn't be here. Go wait outside or something. I'll take you back to the tower when I'm done."
The Aspect pouted some more, small needle-sharp fangs catching on their lip. "Don' wanna," they said petulantly.
Raven scowled, the Aspect avoided her gaze. "I don't have time for this," she snapped. "Just wait in a corner or something, and don't touch anything!"
Getting a reluctant nod out of the Aspect Raven went back to her investigations. Keeping a watch on the Aspect from the corner of her eye. Though that proved difficult when their natural colouring had them blending into the shadows so well. Letting out a long breath and reminding herself to have patience Raven focused her eyes back on the scripture of the ritualists robes.
Reluctantly she searched through the deceased clothes, looking for anything that might help her. Hoping for a simple twenty step instruction manual with diagrams and and a foot note titled 'what to do when this ritual inevitably goes wrong and you need to put your friend's soul back together' might be a bit much, but you never knew. Maybe one of the cultists was particularly forgetful and had written himself some reminders.
For a while Raven only picked up the faint noises of the Aspect wondering around, kicking at the ground. After a lull of suspicious silence Raven turned to find the Aspect lifting up and waving around a partially severed arm. Meeting her disapproving gaze, they were quick to drop it and sheepishly move away. However, like all children, the Aspect soon became bored and endeavoured to bother her once again.
"What're you doing?" Raven jumped at hearing the nasally high-pitched voice so close. The Beast Boy crouched right by the caved in head of the ritualist she was leaning over, poking at the spongy mass of matted hair and brain matter. Raven slapped their hand away, getting a whining cry in response and a hurt look. Clutching their hand to their chest the Aspect shuffled away an inch.
"I told you not to touch anything" she said shortly.
"But I'm booorrrreedddd" whined the kid. Raven felt her teeth grinding at the sound. There had been many a time Raven had sarcastically asked Beast Boy if he could be any more annoying if he tried, now she knew.
"I wanna help," the Aspect declared, smiling with sharp needle teeth.
"No" rejected Raven.
"Please!" they pleaded, eyes widening and moistening slightly. "I promise to be good. I just wanna do something. What are you looking for anyway?"
"I told you, I'm looking for clues."
"Yeah, but clues to what, exactly? Why do you keep going through their clothes?"
Recognizing when she wasn't going to be left alone, and somewhat glad for the excuse to stop rifling through a dead mans clothes, Raven decided to humour the Aspect. "I'm hoping I might find some clues to the ritual. The steps they took, the kind of chants they used. That kind of thing."
"Why?"
"So, I can understand what the ritual was, and then figure out what went wrong. It's going to be necessary to try and reverse it."
"Reverse it? You're going to put us back together?" asked the Aspect. A small frown twisted his face.
"That's the plan" said Raven dryly. "It's not easy though. It would be easier if I could see the original scripture but…" Raven trailed off. Looking over to the ruined remains of the lead ritualist. Wincing, she steeled her resolve to look through the body. What was left of it. None of the other cultists had anything even remotely helpful on them.
Following her line of sight the Aspect perked his ears, grinning slightly. "You gonna look through him?" They skipped over, making footprints in the blood.
Grimacing Raven followed, floating above the slick red puddle. The cultist really was a mess to look at. Chest caved in and ripped out, his ribcage jutting out like splinters from the soft insides. Intestines spilled over the floor, curling around the twisted limbs. Oils and fat glistened, the smell of iron thickened the air. Raven pressed her cloak tighter to her nose, trying to breath through her mouth.
Unbothered the Aspect sidled up to the body, almost gleefully tilting the limp head towards him. "Erg, he bit his tongue off. Look!" The jaw was a mass of bloody teeth and masticated flesh. Raven swallowed back her bile.
The Aspect poked at the glassy eyes, mucus clinging to his short serrated claws.
"Stop that!" snapped Raven loudly. The Aspect jumped and startled backwards, looking towards her with wide innocent eyes. "I keep telling you to stop that! They're dead bodies not playthings. Stop poking them." Breathing heavily Raven glared down at the Beast Boy, forcing the nausea down.
"Sorry" muttered the Aspect, wiping their fingers on their jumpsuit. "It's just interesting, s'all. I didn't mean it." They looked to her with teary eyes, ears tilted downwards. Raven forced her fury down, calming herself. Once again, she was caught by just how young the Aspect was. She needed to remember she was dealing with a kid, not the normal Beast Boy.
"It's okay" she said more gently. "This is the last thing I have to check and then we can leave."
The Aspect hummed but stepped back. Raven could feel them watching her hawk-like as she forced herself to separate out the tattered clothes and turned the body over with her powers. Trying to disconnect herself from the grizzly sight Raven did what she could and was rewarded with a tattered scroll and a few scattered pages of glyphs.
The papers were soaked with blood but with some careful work she might be able to get something from them.
"Did you find something?" asked the Aspect, clearly impatient.
"Yeah, maybe." Straightening, Raven cast her eyes around the room. Seeing nothing more to be done she was quick to fly out the door. Gladly breathing in the clean dawn air. She heard the Aspect scrambling after her.
"So, what now?" they asked, keeping a wary eye on her.
Raven looked out towards the city, squinting against the sun. Getting back to the research site and the investigation had taken several hours. Hopefully her teammates were doing a swift job of gathering all the other Aspects.
"Now we go back to the Tower. We need all you Aspects in one place."
"Why?" asked the child, shielding their narrow eyes against the light. Thin lips curling in disgust. "I don't like those guys. They never let me have any fun."
"Tough luck. I'm going to need all of you Aspects if I'm going to return Beast Boy to how he was. That includes you."
The Aspect pouted, "what happens if we're not all in one place?"
"Then I can't bring you back together."
The Aspect hummed, thinking. "What if one of us gets hurts, or runs away, or dies?"
Raven gave the Aspect a sharp look, black energy flickering about her fingers, ready to grab the child if he tried to make a break for it. Seeing this the child shrunk back, looking contrite. "Just asking," they mumbled.
Raven thought about it, "Well we already lost one Aspect and it hasn't seemed to effect the rest of you, but it might depend on the Aspect. If it was a particularly strong part of Beast Boys psyche, a 'key' Aspect as it were, then its death could lead to a complete collapse of the soul."
The Aspect listened intently; ears pricked high. "So, what if it's not a key Aspect. What would happen once we're put back together."
Raven bit her lip, "I'm not sure" she admitted after some time. "It's possible that nothing would happen but…it's also possible that BB would never feel that emotion again. That the loss of that Aspect would leave a permanent void in his being."
"Huh" said the Aspect, picking at their own lip, brows furrowed in thought. They continued to watch Raven intently. Consideringly.
Raven shook herself. "We're wasting time" gathering her emotions she used them to fuel her powers, creating a wide disk of energy on which to fly on. It was more draining than simply lifting herself but was her only option if she was going to take passengers. "Get on. We're heading back."
Hesitantly the Aspect stepped on the disk. At lift off they stumbled, gripping onto Ravens leg and waist to keep their balance. Raven winced at the feeling of their small sharp claws digging into her skin. She tried to slow down and stabilize their flight, but the grip didn't lessen.
Dealing with it Raven set them on a straight course back to the city. Hitting the backwater of the industrial district Raven raised their elevation to fly above the warehouses.
A sharp stab of pain caused her to flinch as the Aspect tightened their grip suddenly. Head rising sharply. "Stop here."
Out of surprise Raven did so. Shaking her leg lightly to loosen the Aspects grip, feeling the sting of scratches left behind. Raven gave the Aspect a sharp look, waiting for an explanation for the sudden halt. They ignored her, head moving back and forth as if searching for something.
"What is it?"
"I can feel another Aspect nearby." The child frowned, head swinging back and forth, hesitantly they prowled the energy disk. "No, two Aspects. There," they pointed to a back ally of a collection of warehouses and garages.
Raven flew over and lowered them to the ground at the Aspects urging. As soon as their feet touched the ground the Aspect shot off. Scrambling into the narrow, shadowed alleyways of the shambled storehouses.
"Hay!" Raven shouted after him, not expecting the sudden turn of speed. The alleyway was damp and rank with unidentifiable filth. The walls strangely wet and sticky.
Just as Raven was starting to think the Aspect had run off there was a bang, followed by a thump from the ally. A moment later she picked up the sound of light hurried footsteps.
Stepping out of the alleyway three Aspects now stood. Next to each other the subtle differences between them were made all the clearer. The pitch-black child Aspect she was familiar with was now joined by a hunched over sneering youth, older but so thin as to be sickly. Their appearance wasn't helped by their coloring, a murky olive grey colour. Seeing her the Aspect glared hotly, hunching their shoulders. Crusted and cracked claws dug into scar scabbed forearms.
The other figure was…strange. It was the most amorphous human form Raven had seen so far. A dark muddy brown mass. Hair hung from their face and down their back in a matted veil, covering most of their features. Their form looked deformed, spine extended forward and curled inward. Their legs crouched to the ground to allow their short arms to reach the floor from their twisted position, scuttling forward with a hop stepping walk between two legs and four.
Emerging into the light they shrunk back from her gaze, making a series of low moaning sounds. The dark Aspect smiled at her, looking pleased with himself.
"I found them!" he crowed.
"Who are they?" asked Raven after some time.
"This is our feeling of self-hatred, Contempt," the string thin youth sneered with crooked teeth. "And this is our feeling of worthlessness I guess, just call him Doubt" the brown muddled mass drew back at the waving of the dark Aspects hand. Whimpering slightly before falling silent.
Raven took a moment to process. Never had she thought to encounter these such Aspects of Beast Boys personality. Of course, she recognized that Beast Boy was a person, with complex feelings and idiosyncrasies. He just presented himself so well as a carefree joker that it was sometimes easy to forget.
"What's wrong with him" asked Raven when Doubt continued to waver, drawing back further and further from the other two.
"What? Oh, don't worry. He's always like that" the dark Aspect turned to stare straight on at Doubt, casting their expression into shadow. "He'll stop in a minuet." The brown Aspect stopped moving, going stone still. "See, he's just shy. Shouldn't we be going?"
Raven wavered; something wasn't right here. She glanced from one Aspect to another. All were much shorter than her, weak, childlike. The dark Aspect smiled, showing a few too many teeth.
"Didn't we have to get somewhere?" croaked Contempt, stepping towards her.
Raven draw back slightly from their appearance before forcing herself to stop. It was still Beast Boy, no matter how disconcerting the Aspects looked or how the clang of their one dissident note of emotion set her teeth on edge.
"Right." Making her energy disk once more, Raven got the three Aspects to gather close. Sharp claws once more dug into her leg but this time Raven barely felt it. All her effort was taken up with maintaining the energy needed to fly herself and the three Aspects safely back to the Tower.
The day was only going to get longer.