A/N: Anyone ever heard Taproot's song Echoes? Its what inspired me to write the poem the story title is based on.
Raven awoke the next morning, feeling more refreshed than she had in a long time. She had had a normal dream, no Malchior, and no Rorek, in fact she could hardly remember much of it, something about a white shirt. Oh well, it didn't matter much. It seemed Rorek's assumption was correct, Malchior was afraid of her. For now at least.
She sat up and stretched, afterwards going into her closet to change into her usual garb.
The living room was empty, save for a white tuff of hair just above the couch that belonged to Rorek's ponytail. He seemed to sense her as he looked around the couch at her. "Good morning, Raven." He greeted. Upon closer inspection she saw he was currently reading a book she had lent him.
"Good morning." She said with a still-drowsy voice. "I didn't expect you to be up so early. Been able to alter your schedule well enough?" She asked.
"I actually went to sleep a little earlier than I usually try to, probably my rapid healing rate working against me." He said. "But I woke up a while ago and couldn't get back to sleep."
"Nothing wrong with that." Raven said. She went into the kitchen and poured herself some Raisin Brand. They had gone to the store the other day, so there was plenty of cereal and milk in stock.
"Raven, can I..." Rorek trailed off for a bit, "Can I ask you something?" He asked.
"Go ahead." Raven answered, bringing her cereal to the coffee table so she could eat it beside Rorek. He put his arm gently around her shoulder and, when she had set her bowl down, suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. Raven's head was resting against the bandages of his chest, her eyes were wide with surprise at the suddenness of it. "Rorek?"
"I...Raven I want you to promise me something. If, if something happens...If I...if I...hurt you, or, or if I get hurt. I don't care what happens to me, but promise me, promise me that you won't...you won't..." His arms tensed up around her, pressing her harder against him. That couldn't be good for his burns, and why was he...what was he so...
"Rorek what...what's wrong? Why are you...?"
"I'm, I'm scared, okay? I've never felt this way before, about anyone. And it feels so strange, I feel I can tell you anything and you'd understand me, I fell like you're, you're a part of me somehow. If anything happened to you I'd...I'd die. Raven, you're life is worth more than mine, you have friends here, strong, noble friends, very good friends who care a lot about you. And I am just an alien here. Robin...Robin said some things to me and...he's a very good friend, he cares about you a lot, but...those things he said scared me. So I want you to promise, promise that if anything happens, even if it isn't my fault, and especially if it is, you won't dwell on it, you won't let it drag you down, and you won't do any...any cutting." He whispered. He was shaking with emotion that was foreign to him, and he didn't know how to deal with it. He wasn't even 'closing his door' to her. He was letting her see how...well, afraid he really was.
Raven didn't know what to say, what to think. There was a lot to take in with that. Rorek had just told her that he loved her, he cared more about her than he did himself, he was scared of her getting hurt, she had a close and strong bond with the other titans, but most of all, he was saying that Robin had told him. Robin had directly gone against her wish that he not say anything and told him.
But at the same time, Robin did have a right to be worried. After all, if she lost control, if what happened with Malchior happened with Rorek, it wouldn't just be her problem, it would be the world's problem. She had to remember that her control over her emotions at this point was more important than her love life. Maybe Robin was just trying to scare Rorek away from her, keep him from hurting her by distancing himself. Well, he'd accomplished one thing, but still, couldn't he have left out the cutting part?
Raven slipped her arms gently around Rorek's waist and hugged him gently. "I promise." She said. And she would, if only for Rorek's sake.
His lips were soft and gentle on her forehead as he kissed her black-red jewel, and then on her lips.
They had one sweet moment to themselves, and then, "We're here at Titan Tower where the apocalypse is being held. What are your thoughts on the subject Cyborg?" Beast Boy's voice caused their eyes to shoot open. They instantly broke apart and found a camera pointed at their faces. Somehow Beast Boy had snuck up behind them and Cyborg had entered the room, though it seemed he hadn't moved an inch since he saw them.
"Personally? I think we should run for our lives." Cyborg said, breaking out of his stupor with the look of fury that was growing on Raven's face.
"Beast Boy, I am going to mutilate your body." She said.
"Uh oh. HAVE MERCY!"
"Um, did I miss something?" Robin asked. He had walked into the living room and found Beast Boy with many bruises and his limbs practically tied in a knot, and Cyborg trying to find all of his bionical parts that were scattered everywhere while hopping around the room on one foot.
"Robin? Could you help me? This is a very very uncomfortable position." Beast Boy wheezed.
"At least you still have all your body parts!" Cyborg exclaimed, shaking an incomplete leg at Beast Boy. He was currently supporting a few bruises on his human flesh as well.
"What happened here?!" Robin asked, handing Cyborg one of his fingers.
"This is what happens when you anger and embarrass Raven at the same time." Beast Boy wined.
"What did you do, put pink dye in her hair?!" He exclaimed, walking over to Beast Boy to help him out of his impression of the changeling pretzel.
"Uh, something like that." Cyborg said, finding the other part of his leg, finally.
"Yeah, if we say anything she'll do us in worse, if that's even possible. OW! Oh, thanks man." BB said, finally being able to sprawl out completely. "I think I'm going to lie here and whimper for a while." He said.
"I'm, just not gonna ask." Robin said. "Hey, Cy? What's this?" he asked, holding up some mechanical part that was completely unrecognizable.
"That would be my spleen." Cyborg answered, taking it.
"Uh, yeah, I don't want to know." Robin said.
The echoes of my wordplay
Fall back against a barrier of purity
The stars I watch, on my back I lay
Leave me alone in my enmity
"How's your job going BB?" Cyborg asked.
"So, so. Okay maybe it's a little fun. My boss, he's really weird, but it's a good weird, it's a cool weird. Only, I get a little freaked out when he starts talking non-stop about his paperclip collection, and then he has this obsession with this lady from an old show called Cheers." Beast Boy was saying.
Spin around, watch the dancers
Laugh aloud, search for answers
Cradle stars and praise the infant
This life they are to live is infinite
"...And Sir Christopher is such a joy to work with! He is very polite and says the funniest things! But, um...what does it mean to 'get fresh'?" Starfire blabbed to Robin. Raven peeked over the rim of her book, unable to keep from smirking at Robin's expression.
"It means you probably shouldn't spend too much time with him." He answered.
"Oh, well then what does he keep asking me to make and why does it have to be 'out'?" She asked.
"I don't know, but that means make sure he's a few feet away from you at all times." Robin told her. Raven bit her lip to suppress her laugh.
The echoes of my heartbeat
Fall to my ears in warning
The life I've lived to this beat
Creates a flaw in my dancing
"You know I'm starting to get the impression that my co-workers are getting chummy with me so they can just slack off all day and let me do all the work. Bunch of wimps. I think I'll call in and tell the boss I'll be late, then see if they did any work while I was gone." Cyborg said.
"Ha! Good one Cy! But why don't you just tell them to do something with your intimidating voice?" Beast Boy asked.
Hold the rope till your fingers bleed
Dangle dangerously off the cliff
Caress the rose and pull the weed
Release the petals and let them drift
"So how has your job been going, Robin?" Asked Starfire.
"It's pretty interesting. I got an actual job on a team of other teenagers and some adults who go around and try out equipment to see how good it is. Like obstacle courses and combat robots. Never thought I could get paid to work out, heh. Anyway, our manager is pretty nice, and so are everyone else, but there's this one girl there whose really...I don't know, weird is the best way I can describe her. She is very good at the courses, but has no skill at combat whatsoever, and her personality is just off the wall. An she plays all these pranks, like one time she put vegetable oil in Garry's chair..."
The echoes of my thoughts
Fall to and from a pit of despair
Try to untangle all these knots
Hope they don't become thin air"What about your job, Rae?" Beast Boy suddenly asked. Raven looked up and shrugged.
"I like it." She answered. "But my boss, Aron, just Aron, is too obsessed with the image of his store. My co-worker is just a play-goth, she flirts with every guy she deems 'cute' and doesn't even like poetry." She said.
"Elsa, right?" Rorek, who'd previously been listening to everyone else with much interest, asked.
"Yeah." Raven nodded.
"Ah, I remember her. So, that is what 'flirting' is. I wasn't sure." He said, Raven couldn't help but snicker slightly.
"It's okay man, I know how you feel." Beast Boy said with a wizened tone of voice.
"No you don't." Raven said flatly.
"HEY! Are you implying that no girl has ever flirted with me?! I'll have you know I've had millions of girls flirting with me!" He exclaimed.
Raven smirked, "Were they human?" She asked.
"Yes!...most of them...some of them...no..." He slumped to the floor in despair.
"...What is a 'sac' and what are you suppose to do in it?" Starfire asked Robin.
"Okay, Star? Just stay as far away from this man as you can, and blast him if he so much as tries to touch you." Robin answered.
"Well, alright, but I—"
BWEEEP BWEEEEP BWEEEEEEP!"Who hooo! Another chance to try out the Stink Bomb!" Cyborg exclaimed.
"I cannot believe you two are still playing that." Raven said, shutting her book.
"We're not, we're playing the much cooler, much more stinkier version of Stink Ball. You see, instead of having an actual goal, you just have to make the other person pass out!" Beast Boy answered.
"That's not exactly healthy, but then again, when did you two care about your health?" Raven said.
The location was close enough, so Robin got on his hover/motorcycle, Beast Boy turned into a hawk, while Cyborg flew on his newest 'baby', a hoverboard. The other three flew.
When they got to the location they found a bunch of kids and parents running around in a panic, and being trapped within the square where an outdoor puppet show was being held by a wall of cooling metal. Above the wall, and smirking tauntingly, was the choppy, now red, haired teen in biker clothes called Zacroma.
"Not you again!" Beast Boy exclaimed, landing on the top of a building.
"Miss me?" Zacroma laughed giddily. She then turned and grinned at Raven and Rorek, "Mysties never play fair, so I brought my own! And it seems you've already been introduced too!" She exclaimed, her voice sounded incredibly annoying right now.
Raven dodged the blast of power aimed at her and glared, eye twitching, at the cloaked figure she knew as Balegor. "You don't give up, do you?" She growled.
"Not when I want something as badly as I want you." He said with a seductive voice. Raven thought she would throw up right then and there.
"You will have to go through me first." Rorek said, charging at the other mystic with a bolt of his white lightening. Ready in hand.
Balegor dodged Rorek's attempt and prepared a violet attack of his own. "I hear you had a little accident with your armor!" He laughed. "I wonder how tough you are behind that cloth!" He distracted Rorek with an easily dispelled firebolt and then came up around him, intending to kick him."Forgetting someone?" Raven asked, knocking Balegor out of the air for a moment or two with a blast of her own dark force just before he could administer any sort of blow to Rorek. The two mystics flew beside each other. "Azrath, Metriom, Zynthos!" Raven chanted.
"Animatus, Specula, Aeternitus!" Rorek cried. The black and white forces of magic entangled with one another to engulf their foe, who wasn't able to escape in time.
Balegor fell from the air, leaving a trail of blood that fell with him as he landed on the top of a high building. The two then turned their attention to Zacroma.
She had one of the titans, Beast Boy as he was the only one missing, sealed up in a metal box, Cyborg trying to make an opening by melting it with his lazer. One of his arms, however, was out of commission as it looked partly melted. Currently Robin was using Cyborg's hover board, dodging splatters of molten metal, and Zacroma was dodging destructive disks of emerald light from Starfire.
Time to try out my new spells. Raven thought. "Sanguineus Factus Spiritus, Factus Fulmineus!" She chanted, waving her hands about as they began to charge with a different kind of energy. Suddenly a bolt of lightening seemed to erupt from Zacroma herself, turning inward so that all of its destructive force was used on her. She screamed and began to fall to the ground. Her hair spiked out in all directions, some parts burned, but most of it was her skin and clothes that burned.
"Mystics never play fair!" She cried as she fell.
Robin was about to catch her, but suddenly both she, and Balegor, were surrounded by a black energy and transported somewhere else. "No!" Robin exclaimed, going through the air where Zacroma had been.
"Where'd you learn to manipulate a lightening element?" Rorek asked when they landed on the ground.
"A book I have been reading for a while now. The first chapter teaches you how to manipulate lightening, I've been studying it for several days but have only just been able to use it." She answered. "Help me break down this wall." She said, raising her hands in the air. "Azrath, Metriom, Zynthos."
"Animatus, Specula, Aeternius." Rorek chanted. His white energy and her black once again merged together, flowing about each other as they began to take hold of the metal wall, becoming complex designs and portraying interesting pictures and symbols in gothic design.
"That was interesting." Said Raven after the wall was down.
"Indeed, I wonder what they mean." Rorek nodded.
Rorek went to help take down the metal box Beast Boy was still trapped in while Raven, Starfire, and Robin worked to calm the innocent bystanders. The police arrived, late as usual, and Robin told them what happened.
The aftermath was not without turbulence, as the police were always purposely difficult to deal with, but also, Beast Boy was out cold because there had been no cracks in the box, so he had been quite low on air. Robin's hover-cycle was a heap of metal that looked like it got too close to a furnace, and Cyborg looked like he would have to try and build a new arm entirely. But other than that it seemed most of them had escaped without serious injury...other than Cyborg.
"Dude, this is bad." He was saying, hovering back to the Tower on his board while Starfire carried Robin. "I don't know if I can get the right parts for this, let alone build it with only one other arm!"
"Well, if you keep it the way it is for now, I might be able to perform a spell that will take a step or two back in time." Rorek said.
"No kidding, seriously?" Cyborg asked.
Rorek nodded, "Though the more that's done to it the harder it'll be."
"ALRIGHT! You, are da man!" Cyborg cheered.
Raven gently placed Cyborg's arm in the large bowl of glittering sand as Rorek lit the candles. She got up and went to stir the contents of her small cauldron. "Six drops of rubinoil right?" She asked.
"Yes, make sure you stir it counter-clockwise." Rorek answered.
Raven inspected the bright red contents of a flask on their table of chemicals and ingredients, she opened it up and carefully counted out the exact amount. She then stirred her cauldron the desired way. She hadded a few more ingredients at Rorek's instruction, and then let it sit.
Rorek was writing runes on a piece of paper with a paintbrush and ink. He ground the paper in his hand and sprinkled it onto the biotical arm. He began to chant the runes so that they would begin to take effect. Raven poured some of the potion into a cup and then walked over to the large bowl. She sat cross legged in front of it, across from Rorek who was doing the same. They both took the cup and held it over the arm.
"Reverto Abhinc Tempus, Factus Verus Denuo." They chanted together, pouring the contents of the cup over the bionical arm.
"You fixed it! I don't believe it, you actually fixed it!" Cyborg exclaimed, after testing out his old arm. There was no sign whatsoever that any of the metal had been melted, or that anything else had been done to make it less than it originally was.
"Cool, think you could do the same for my bike?" Robin asked.
"That can be you're next project to work on." Raven answered.
"Darn." He sighed.
"I think Cyborg should probably stay out of our battles with Zacroma from now on." Rorek said.
"What?! No way! I can take her on any day, any time of the year!" Cyborg exclaimed.
"You want to be the first human dumpster? Then be my guest and ignore our warnings. However, we aren't going to fix your body parts up every time, it's a very complicated spell, and it really depleted my stores." Raven said.
"We're lucky she had what we needed." Rorek agreed.
"Alright, alright, I'll stay out of it." Cyborg sighed reluctantly. Though Raven was pretty sure he wasn't going to be too lenient in keeping that promise.
"Any ideas where Balegor and Zacroma could be?" Raven asked.
"One, Slade's hangout." Answered Beast Boy.
"If Zacroma's the newest H.I.V.E. member, she's probably working for him. And since it seems she and Balegor have teamed up, we can only assume the worst and believe Slade and Balegor's boss have teamed up as well." Robin said. "The only problem,"
"Finding Slade." Raven finished with a sigh.
"Who is this 'Slade' person?" Asked Rorek.
"Only the biggest pain in the butt since Lex Luthor." Beast Boy answered.
"In short, our resident supervillain. That one bad dude that we just can't seem to catch." Added Cyborg.
"I see, I think. How do we find him?" Asked Rorek.
"Well, there are a few ways we could do this. We could always hang Robin upside-down from a light pole and place neon signs that say 'eat free here' around him." BB answered.
"Very funny." Robin leered at Beast Boy.
"And then there's trying to find his hideout, which is hard." Cyborg said. "You never find a villain's hideout until they want you to."
"Every tried scurrying?" Rorek asked, looking at Raven.
"It's really hard to scurry for anything in this time frame. There are so many different energy waves and frequencies about the air that trying to find one thing out of a billion is nearly impossible. In fact it's not a good idea to scurry at all, you could go insane with information overload." Raven answered.
"Huh?" Beast Boy said in his dumb teenage boy fashion.
"I see, that is unfortunate. Perhaps if we had some hair or something of his to go by." Rorek said.
"I'm against voodoo." Raven informed.
"What is voodoo?" Rorek questioned.
"Never mind. What were you thinking?" She asked.
"It's a form of scurrying, only more direct. You see you have to have something of the person you want to see or find, and you put it in a bowl of kethnic water, it's easy to make, and then you light fire to it. I know scurrying by fire is dangerous, but if you do it right it'll ignore all other 'frequencies' in the air and go straight to his." He explained.
"I think I've read about something like that, unfortunately we don't have anything of his." Raven said.
"Actually..." Everyone turned and stared at Robin.
A/N: DON'T WORRY! It isn't as bad as one might think, given Robin. Ahem, anyways, yeah, I'd like to point out that the Latin words are not being used in proper grammatical order, actually I wouldn't have a clue as to the proper grammar of them because all I'm doing is translating words I wanna use into Latin and voila! Spells for da mystics! Lol, okay anyway.
Anyway, here are some responses to some of your reviews:
PrepIam: you wouldn't happen to be the one who took roughly 90 gallons of my secret chocolate chip stash, would you? Lol, j/k. I'll get right on it though!
Red Moon Kree: AIEEEEEEE!! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! YOU'RE READING MY FIC!!! I ABSOLUTLY ADORE YOUR STORY THE PAPER ROSE!!! IT'S THE BEST EVER!!!!!!!! Ahem...anyway...yeah I completely agree with you there, we don't really know anything about Rorek from the episode, but that's when we can use our own evil minds to make up stuff :). PS: YOU MUST UPDATE AS WELL!!! Ahem...okay, ignore me now.
Pixie10111: But if you kill me when the story's done, you'll never get a sequel! So nya!
I think that's all I had to say, oh yeah! (Pulls out pocket watch and starts waving it back and forth in front of the reader's faces) Loooooook at the shinyyyyyyy, obeyyyy the shinyyyyyy. Youuuuuuu will presssssss the littlllllllle buttooooooooon. Youuuuuuu willlllllll reviewwwwww, youuuuuuuuu willllllll proclaim me the supreme ruler of all that is shiny and ridiculously expensive looking! Okay no, just kidding! (Flinches away) Don't hurt me...