It was the scent, more than anything, that set Garfield off.
Before, he could only liken it to that of chemical cleaner, tangy ammonia or a wicked-strong adhesive that made his head immediately inflate with pressure. And as the elevator cab descended deeper and deeper into the Tower, its edge sharpened and scoured Gar's senses, so much so that as he approached the 4th floor, the elevator slowing on arrival, he felt his skin tingle with what could only be described as territorial anger. So close beneath the surface, he could feel the Beast rumbling, an agitation that swirled and churned from his center in a way the begged for release. But Garfield wouldn't listen. The antidote prevented such a spill of control, ignited by something as trivial as a threatening scent. Still, as the elevator doors opened, that tang cut around him with such strength that Garfield's muscles tensed, and his teeth ground together so hard as if it'd take only one snarl to release his most brutal form.
With two steps, Gar shifted, landing on four massive paws with a grunt.
He stalked toward the scent with featherlight feet, his shoulder blades pinching together as he crept toward the hallway's corner. But before he could curve it, his paws halted at the pad of breaths and footsteps. He recognized it as Roy's before he even picked up on the archer's scent, the span of ground between each step taken with rigid assurance.
But by the shift in weight between each foot forward, Gar could tell that Roy kept a secure grip on another, yet, he heard no one else. But as his friend's presence grew nearer, so did that stench of other.
As they banked around the corner with ease, Gar's ears perked at the faint echo of birds cawing, and not a second later did he guess who– or what Roy was escorting. Though his eyes landed on the HIVE agent, it was not the girl called Dylan, who last night reeked of anxious sweat and regret.
This scent did not belong to Dylan; to anything human. Nor did it's breathing. In fact, it would seem that until the thing even acknowledged the Changeling's form did it bother to feign a human breath.
When the thing with Dylan's likeness began to scream with terror, Gar found a slight gleam in those inhuman eyes.
The crow with Raven's eyes dangling from its beak boiled in his mind, and without much more thought, fury ruptured from deep in his chest.
Before both feet could touch the ground, Raven's magic spurted from her at the sight of a massive wolf with dark, forest green fur crouching over a woman; bright blonde hair matted and fanned across the dark carpeting beneath its paws. Beside them, Arsenal was struggling to prop himself up against the wall, claw-shaped gashes drawn along his collarbone, saturating his red suit with a deeper, stickier red.
Pale, delicate arms arched and crossed over her head, covering her face in terror of the wolf's saliva-coated jaws that juddered with his threatening grumble. Black tendrils wrapped around Garfield's body to haul him away, but as soon as Raven's magic touched him, the woman beneath his claws went utterly still.
No longer petrified, it would seem as a wicked smile distorted the girl's face, bloodstone eyes shining at Raven. By the time she recognized the crowing of invisible birds, it was too late.
The woman lifted a steady finger to the wolf, planting it between his eyes, and the touch overwhelmed Raven with foreign visions.
It was a dream of simmering fields of tall, light umber grasses that swaggered gently like a mirage in the thick Saharan heat.
"Do you see 'em?" A low, calming voice spoke from above, and Raven's eyes lifted to rich turquoise skies in time to see a hand pointing ahead, drawing her attention to a lone acacia tree in the distance. In the shade of its broad-reaching branches, a small pride of lions lounged about each other. "See em' sleeping?"
Raven peered up and over her shoulder at the man behind her. His head blocked the falling sun, and despite the brim of the Boonie hat that shrouded his features in shadow, Raven was enraptured by his rich hazel eyes, flecked with sapphire blue. They gleamed so warmly down at her that she couldn't help but smile back. "Pretty killer, right?"
"Pretty killers, you mean." Raven whipped her head around to her other side to see a woman hop from the dusty LandCruiser with a large canteen in her hands. A long braid of coppery-brown hair swung over her shoulder as she made the jump; her muddy hiking boots stomped unevenly on the ground as she landed. "I'll never forget the screams of that poor eland baby being torn–"
"Marie," the man laughed, briefly nodding to Raven as he reached for the canteen held out for him, "we know the jungle is ruthless place."
"I'm not scared," Raven told him, but not with her own voice.
"And why would you be," the man said, resting a warm hand on her shoulder, "you're just as ruthless, aren't you?"
Raven nodded eagerly, and the man barred his teeth playfully at her. She mimicked and threw up her clawing hands, growling to add emphasis.
"Easy, little lion," the woman quickly bowed to nestle her face against her neck, pulling a giggle from Raven's throat as she winced at the tickling nuzzle. Marie landed quick and firm kisses on her cheek before whispering, "you'll scare away my sweet boy."
Something in Raven's chest pulled at the honeyed velvet of Marie's voice, the pull of her arms as she hugged Raven close to her body.
Then all too suddenly, that warmth was ripped from her, replaced by the shockingly cold mist biting against her skin.
The sunlight was also gone; her world suddenly grey and darkening quickly. The mist was the ricochet of raindrops, plunging from the sky with such force that the water darted from the ground, drenching Raven despite standing beneath a slanted roof. There was broken chatter all around her, rivaling the uproar of heavy rain that threatened to drown everything else in her line of vision. She heard the sobs and soft murmuring of others, but she would not turn her head to see them. Raven could only watch the surge of rivulets branching from the edge of the jungle, spilling over into the grasslands, as it had been doing so for hours and hours. Raven knew she had been waiting for as long, watching for signs of headlights peeking over the ridge. She wasn't sure why.
Another gentle hand rested on her shoulder, and for a second, her heart leaped with relief. She jerked her neck up, hoping to meet those beautiful hazel blue eyes that would glimmer with that feeling of home.
But it wasn't him. A woman with russet eyes, dark like the summer night, brushed a leathery thumb against Raven's bare shoulder. She was familiar, though Raven couldn't say how. Still, she let the woman pull Raven into an unyielding embrace. Black braids threaded with aged silver gently bobbed across Raven's vision as she sank further into the woman's comforting touch. "I am sorry, child," her voice was pained with grief, yet there was hardness within it that told Raven enough of her strength.
"When will they come back?" Raven asked meekly, the very words breaking her heart as they fell from quivering lips that did not belong to her. The woman only squeezed her closer, running gentle fingers through Raven's hair.
"They loved you fiercely, little lion, as do we. This you must never forget."
The cold wet vanished as Raven melted into the woman's arms, the clatter of angry rainfall diffused into static until it was nothing but wood splintering and popping from the heat of a crackling fire.
Raven opened her eyes to see the flames dance in the grand hearth from where she sat on the floor. The white rug beneath her was so soft, like the fur of a polar bear cub. She brushed a palm across in a study of its plushness, not thinking much of the glossy shadows flickering along her green forearm.
"Here you are," a woman smiled when Raven peered up at her from the floor. She held out a box wrapped with glittering red and green paper for Raven to take."Merry Christmas Eve, Gar."
With a quick scan around the room once more, she found it expertly adorned with cedar and holly garlands, a large and elegantly decorated pine tree standing tall in the corner of the room, mounds of other wrapped presents piled beneath it.
"Thanks, Rita," Raven grinned, eagerly accepting the present from the woman's beautiful hands. Her nails were painted red and silver stripes like shimmering candy canes, and her ruby lips stretched gleefully across her face as she watched Raven tear at the wrapping paper.
With a blink, Raven stared at the fluffy stuffed animal between her palms. It was a green lion, its luscious mane like velvet against her skin. Tiny little flames danced within the black glass beads sewn onto its face for eyes, gawking up at Raven in a heavy silence.
Rita's face withered with nervous regret as she measured Raven's reaction, her words shaking as she said, "I know it's your first Christmas with us, and that you are a bit old for things like this, but I had hoped it might help you remember, maybe bring them closer to you. In your heart, in your memories, Garfield. Because they have not left you–"
"They did." Raven heard herself growl, felt her heart pounding in her chest. "So maybe I don't wanna remember."
Before she realized she wanted to leave, Raven was already on her feet, moving toward the hearth. She threw the stuffed animal into the fire before turning, refusing to face Rita as she stormed into the dark hall.
Once she crossed the threshold, leaving Rita and the crackling fire to frost over, Raven lost herself in darkness while a symphony of angry creatures echoed through the shadows.
"If you insist on behaving like a beast," a patrician voice rich with anger growled in the dark, "then you will be treated like one."
In a severe darkness, Raven fell nauseous as she began clawed at the floor she felt beneath her, fighting for the doorway, faintly lined with dim light from the hallway on the other side.
"Please, he is a grieving child-"
"Let him prove me wrong."
Raven released a sob, but the sound that fell from her was one of unfiltered rage, inflaming her raw throat.
"There is so much light in you."
Raven blinked, finding herself in the pantry beside Rita, who sliced apple pieces with a paring knife. Raven once again fixated on Rita's hands, so elegant and agile, long nails painted black at the end of beautifully pale fingers that held out apple bits for Raven to take. "That is why I do not worry. Your strength does not require proof for anyone, Gar. And you will be pushed, belittled, teased, but you can't cower." Rita reached a hand to Raven's cheek that was currently stuffed with apple. Rita lightly chuckled and wiped a spot of juice from Raven's lip. "Less little every day, but you are a lion. Noble and brave, beautiful thing. They would be proud of you."
A loud explosion rattled Raven to her core.
Her ears rang violently, her eyes squinting weakly against a dark sky, flames whirling in the distance. She tried to yell out, but her lungs instantly filled with smoke and a horrid stench of burning flesh. Raven coughed so hard that she vomited, rolling over as fast as she could to spare herself the mess. But when she landed on her stomach, her senses cleared of smoke and screams, but fury still billowed in her gut. Dizziness overcame her as she stood, only able to focus her vision on a gravestone poking from a blanket of muddy snow. Raven dropped flowers before the stone, swallowing a painful sob.
She turned, once again facing that hallway as if she was back in the hearth room.
She spun to where Rita had stood to find the room empty, not just of Rita but of everything that once filled it–decorations, furniture, light, warmth. Instead, all that remained was a faint smell of roasted wood. The fire that once raged in the grand hearth abated to a lone smoking ember, out with a delicate line of smoke reaching for Raven.
Behind her, the dark hallway full of wailing beasts called out.
"Guard the strange girl, Gar Logan."
Raven slowly turned, her pulse throbbing in recognition of her own voice.
"I don't want to." Raven found her younger self standing between her and that hallway. The girl timidly played with the hem of her white dress, twisting its fabric in tiny bunches over her stomach. Her glossy amethyst eyes peered up at Raven, her pale lips trying not to quiver.
One portal, one door. No passage other, no more.
Darkness rolled off the young girl's aura the harder she tried not to cry. "I don't understand."
She knew a soft trickle of warm liquid dripped down across her lips, but still, Raven couldn't move. Raven couldn't speak, couldn't move. She only stared back at her younger self while faint whispers rasped around them, quickly swelling into sinister humming that vibrated along Raven's skin.
"Monster."
Raven!
born of evil's fire
SNAP OUT OF IT!
burn through an age of endless night
RAVEN!
Let me take care of you.
Let go, Raven!
You don't want that little bird, do you?
"How about the Changeling? Hmm? If I release you...let you stretch your wings a little, I wager you'll tell me, yes?"
Raven's eyes blinked furiously at a sudden intrusion of amber skies, igniting the shadows of her mind with such brightness that her eyes throbbed. It was difficult to differentiate between shade and shape as her vision blurred and swayed around her, and she marked the strangest sensation of being out of breath. Her lungs strained to fill with air as if the space around her was simply void of it. However, between short breaths, Raven's concentration narrowed on the sound of body slamming against stone, followed by the grunts of men who danced in flashes of black and dark red and green.
"That's never going to happen."
Dick. Raven's eyes instantly widened at his voice. Raspy from exhaustion, yet each syllable uttered cut with fury.
"Then why are you helping him?"
"Did me letting you beat the breath from Hansel HIVE over there feel like me working with him?"
Suddenly, there were no movements, no grunts flashes of red and green against amber.
"I don't get it."
Though her vision still struggled to steady, Raven managed well enough to recognize Robin kneeling on the ground, panting and injured, glaring up at shadows with a womanly form.
Raven! Can you hear us?!
About fifteen feet away was another body, a man in a black tactical suit that matched the agents in the woods. The man remained still, yet Raven observed his stimulated aura, dark yellow with black flares vibrating around him.
You need to let go of them!
Invisible hands gently tugged at Raven, pulling her attention away from the lifeless body on the ground, from the sight of Robin kneeling before a flare of darkness standing tall before him.
Taking the long way, huh?
"There you are."
Raven's heart fell at the sudden presence standing over her.
"I expected you sooner. Though time is a fickle thing."
Her face was hazy, but Raven knew those eyes, deep and red like a thick pool of blood. They were the same that day on the roof as it held Raven in her invisible grasp, shadows and whispers biting her skin.
"I suppose this means the girl has failed. Pity."
Rave?
"Tell me, little bird," the voice purred as Raven again felt that gentle tug from the darkness behind them, "do you know me yet?"
Can you hear me?
Raven growled with every tensed muscle in her body, yet she found herself fighting to keep from swallowing her tongue while her silence persisted.
We should have stayed in that hallway, huh?
"No? Well. Lady Azar knew me. As did your mother. Richard is learning, too, albeit reluctantly. Best come fetch him before he learns too much."
Come back, Rae.
A sharp, Chesire smile gleamed wickedly down at her before every shape, color, shadow, or light swirled into static.
When Raven's eyes finally cleared, the ivory glow fading with the force of her magic, Garfield swore her irises gleamed with a strange hue of amber-gold before they purpled. Her lips parted in a murmur that Gar missed, and to combat her tottering breath, he gently brushed a thumb across her cheek as if to ease her back into consciousness.