Terra-Fied
Summary: Raven sees all the signs of addiction in her friend, but not the usual drugs or self-mutilation. Beast Boy has a deeper problem: he just can't seem to let go of the past.
"Huh, that's odd..." Raven muttered.
"Something is peculiar, my friend?" Starfire chimed from the doorway. Raven looked over her shoulder at her.
"Hm," she said. "Some of my candles are gone. I guess I must have used them up quicker than I'd thought."
"Perhaps," Starfire agreed, blushing slightly. "Or perhaps someone might have, er, borrowed a few of your wax sticks to light m-a bedroom when the electricity stopped flowing to our home a few nights ago and, uh, forgot to ask or tell you."
Raven folded her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Would this someone happen to be a green-eyed alien with red hair?"
Starfire rung her hair with her hands. "It is possible that the culprit might have red locks and eyes the color of Dazeron Fields when lit by the three moons... And it is also very possible that the culprit is very, very sorry."
"Tell the culprit to stop worrying about it," Raven said evenly. "They were just some candles I used for a few... hobbies. But seeing as you seem to have all your limbs and the house hasn't fallen down, I think it's safe to say that you just burned them. So bully for you then."
Starfire gave an embarrassed smile. "To the ritual morning meal?" she asked, changing the subject. Raven nodded with a sigh.
"I need my tea," she said.
The boys were already there, shoveling down food like animals that didn't know any better.
"Morning," Raven said coolly as she floated over to the stove to boil some water. She glanced over her shoulder at them. "You guys are stuffing your faces like robots programmed to... well, stuff their faces."
Cyborg paused only long enough to say "I resent that," with a mouth full of pancakes.
Raven rolled her eyes and turned back to the kettle as it started wailing.
"So!" Starfire said peppily, sitting between Robin and Beast Boy with her stack of pancakes. "I think it would be much to our amusement to venture to the land of caged animals for the day and see the happy children!"
"No thanks," Beast Boy said, looking down.
Starfire frowned at him and tried to catch his eye. "I am sure the animals are very happy in their little enclosures, Friend Beast Boy," she said.
Beast Boy said nothing, but continued to shovel food into his mouth. Raven turned around and eyed him over her cup of freshly brewed tea.
"The zoo gets dull," Cyborg said, gulping down a glass of milk. "I think we should check out the movies or something."
"Nothing good's playing," said Robin.
"We could always stay home and see the Matrix again," Cyborg offered.
Raven rolled her eyes. "And again and again... I can only tolerate that movie so far, Cyborg."
"Who said you had to watch it?" Cyborg snapped, leaning back in his chair.
"Easy, guys," said Robin with a smile. "How about we just head to the beach for the day and just lounge around. I mean, it's nice and bright outside–"
"Uh, I think I'll just stay home today," Beast Boy muttered, standing up and taking his plate over to the sink. He looked up long enough to allow Raven to see the bags under his eyes.
"Something is wrong, Beast Boy?" Starfire asked in concern. Raven knew better than to just ask.
Beast Boy shook his head and gave her a tired smile. "Nah, just... didn't sleep so good last night... figured I'd sorta catch up."
"Rough night?" Raven said, sipping her tea with a raise of the eyebrow. Beast Boy looked at her fleetingly, like a frightened doe, then turned away instantly.
"Uh, yeah, something like that," he said, running a hand awkwardly through his hair.
There was a crash as Raven's mug shattered into a million tiny pieces on the kitchen floor. Starfire gasped. Cyborg swore. Raven was calm as a cat as she kneeled down and picked up the pieces. She looked up as Beast Boy looked down at her under the table and caught his guilty eyes, making sure to give him a sharp warning look that made him turn away in shame.
"I see those scars," she whispered. He looked back at her, his face a perfect portrait of confusion, but said nothing. Instead, he returned to above the table.
"So, did you ever hear about the plumber from Kathmandu?" he asked his friends with a laugh.
They left but she stayed. He stared at her awkwardly as she sat there in the chair in the corner, reading her book. He shifted, uncomfortably, waiting for her to say something, but she said nothing. Finally, he gave up waiting and sighed as his shoulders hunched and made his way towards his room.
"Don't you dare go anywhere." Raven's voice emerged like the chilling words of a ghost from behind her book.
He froze in his spot, but didn't look at her. "I don't know why you're so tense," said Beast Boy. "It's just a couple battle scars."
Calmly, she closed her book and walked over to him, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around, eyebrows raised. "Those aren't the scars of a hero," she said, grabbing his arm forcefully. "Nor are they the scars of a cutter. But you don't lie, they are still battle scars, only of a different sort."
Beast Boy flinched in pain as her cold fingers squeezed his tender forearm, green broken by a dotted line of red circular scars from the crook of his elbow down to his wrist. They were old wounds. And that's what scared Raven most.
Raven pulled on Beast Boy's arm, trying to get him to meet her eye as he stared down at his pale green arms. She was successful, and he looked up at her, looking fearful, a deer caught in the headlights. Or, Raven thought, Perhaps he's no deer but a weasel.
"How long?" she demanded.
"Rae, I don't know what you're talking about," Beast Boy said, raising his eyebrows carelessly and laughing it off. She nodded and smiled vaguely.
"You hide well," she said. "I didn't even suspect anything until today. God, Beast Boy, how long has it been? Months? Well, a while, anyway."
Beast Boy feigned bafflement. "Rae, I don't know what you put in that tea of yours, but it seems that a few lights are shorting out upstairs."
As if to throw the insult back in his face, the bulbs in the lights above them flickered and went out with a crackle. In the dark of the gray day outside, Beast Boy stared at Raven sheepishly. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"Don't play games with me," said Raven, pulling on Beast Boy's arm again harder.
"Ow, Rae, you're hurting me!" Beast Boy whined, yanking his arm out of her tight grip.
Raven was quiet as she stared at him. "You're hurting yourself," she said. "And frankly, it scares me."
"I thought you weren't afraid of anything," Beast Boy snapped. Raven looked away from him.
"I'm afraid of a lot of things, Beast Boy," she whispered.
Somehow, this touched a guilty nerve in Beast Boy, because he knew that this was one of the rare insights to her feelings she gave people. And he knew that he really was scaring her. He put a kind arm around her shoulder, tenderly.
"Hey, Raven, how 'bout we go get some veggie spring rolls from Dragon House on me and I'll tell you about the guy from Nantucket who kept all his fish in a bucket and–"
"Don't patronize me!" Raven hissed, pulling away from him angrily.
He stood there, shaking a little, his mouth searching for words, a witty line, a funny joke, but his tongue could find little.
"Well, hey, um, what about this guy in Spain who ordered this Spanish dish and asked the–"
"I said stop it!" Raven yelled and the plates in the kitchen crashed. Beast Boy looked, scared, from the kitchen to Raven, not quite sure what to do or say.
She took a deep breath and calmed down, closing her eyes, she said quietly. "I'm sorry. Dealing with you is like dealing with an addict who doesn't know he's addicted. I'm going back to my book."
She didn't bother him for the rest of the afternoon and he retreated to the depths of his room to continue his addictive activities.
In the middle of the night, Raven awoke in a cold sweat. She'd heard a scream and a crash, a deal with the devil being spawned, only there had been no sound at all. She had awoken into a nightmare.
Instantly, she jumped out of her bed and walked down the quiet halls, tracing the mental agony that kept crying out to her, screaming, begging for her help.
She stopped outside his door.
The crash had not been in her mind, it had been quite physical, and she was reassured of this assumption when she heard another one just on the other side of that door. She wondered, should she knock? What silly things people think of when they don't want to face what's behind a door. No, if she knocked, then he would be lost forever. And she knew it.
Steeling herself for the sight she was about to see, she opened the door.
Raven knew that she would be there, but still, the sight of her was startling and shivers ran up and down her spine. Both Beast Boy and his companion looked over at her, standing in the door.
Move, damn you! Raven cursed her legs, but her heart was racing. She was pale, but completely corporeal, blonde and blue-eyed, scrawny but feisty. And even to Raven, she seemed holy somehow, bathed in light and warmth.
But she wasn't.
She shook the image away from her and glared at the being who was standing before Beast Boy. She stared straight into those innocent blue eyes.
"Reveal," she hissed.
"NO!" Beast Boy screamed.
The angel looked at her as if Raven had just shot her through the heart, pained and asking why. But soon enough, the beautiful facade faded away and in her place stood a red shadow, black coursing through its veins, its red eyes glaring at Raven just as forcefully as she glared at it.
The dark banshee let out a wail before its black veins lashed out from its blood-red fingers, opening Beast Boy's arms and drinking like a hungry vampire before dawn. The shape shifter tossed his head back and closed his eyes, allowing the beast to take from him as much as it needed. As Beast Boy's blood flowed into its black veins, the red eyes slowly dulled and returned to that deep blue.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven hissed, raising her arms. She threw the creature away from her friend, the black tendrils tearing out of his flesh. Beast Boy fell to the ground, exhausted. It shrieked in surprise and pain as it was slammed hard against Beast Boy's wall. It slid to the floor like a slippery fish and looked stunned a moment. Then it collected itself and opened the hole in its face, baring its sharp shark teeth at Raven. The crimson and black monster launched at her, mouth open. It knocked Raven off her feet and screeched at her with bad breath, its tendrils burrowing into Raven's forearms. Raven writhed and turned on the floor, her head looking away, but she knew something felt good about having the blood drawn out of her. It was like being caressed from the inside out, and all her troubles were leaving her out of those wounds.
The beast sensed her pleasure but wanted to inflict more pain. Its tendrils bore deeper into the telekinetic as it probed her mind, finding a face, a terrifying face...
Slowly the beast began to grow in size and its crimson color changed to a sickly maroon, horns sprouting from its head...
Then, suddenly, a green rhinoceros charged at the creature who was attacking his friend. The horns disappeared and it grew to its normal size, a little taller than Beast Boy. The veins inside the beast throbbed. It screeched again.
"Be gone from here, leech!" Raven hissed with all the strength she had left. Slowly, she rose to her feet. "You're not wanted here!" She looked at Beast Boy who looked back at her, pale and afraid.
"But Raven..." he said, unsure. The creature sensed his hesitation and its veins throbbed faster.
Raven turned to him, encasing the beast in a black impenetrable bubble. The parasite, confused, poked at it only to be shocked. It screamed then realized that not only could its shrillness not be heard outside the bubble but worse yet, it couldn't shatter it.
Beast Boy watched the black and red beast worriedly. "Terra..." he whispered.
"Beast Boy," Raven said calmly to her friend. "It's not real."
Beast Boy reached out to it. "But Raven... Every night, she's here, and I can talk to her and she talks to me and tells me that everything's OK. That it doesn't matter anymore. That she didn't mean to betray us all, that it was Slade doing something with her head, like he did to Robin–"
"Beast Boy," Raven said, taking his shoulders. "Terra is gone. None of that's real. This is just a parasite that knows what you want to hear and gives it to you in return for blood. Honestly, would the real Terra talk to you and then dig her fingers into your arms?"
"Now that you mention it, she always had a way of getting under my skin..." Beast Boy muttered but Raven hit him. "Ow, what was that for?"
"Jokes, jokes, jokes!" Raven snapped. "You hide behind your stupid jokes whenever you can't face anything! Beast Boy, look at what you've summoned! You used my blood-red candles and... holy... You even stole my dragon weed and night shade! And for what? To concoct this... this demon who drinks your blood every night while it probes your thoughts. Beast Boy, you're toying with things you shouldn't even think of trying to deal with! This is black magic beyond anything I've even considered invoking. It'll consume you until there's nothing left. Terra is gone. And this thing will be too at the first rays of sunlight. Soon, there'll be nothing left of you as well. Beast Boy... it's been months. Let it go."
Beast Boy stared at her a long time as the restless demon squirmed in its black energy prison. Finally, he looked down.
"You're right," he said, defeated, exhausted. "None of this is real."
Raven nodded and took his hand. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I need your help to get rid of it. Do you have the midnight candles?" Beast Boy nodded. "Good. Set them in a circle around the thing and bring the dragon weed to me."
The black candles were set in place and the brown and burnt up weed rested in Raven's hand. "Beast Boy, you summoned this unholy beast, only you can banish it again. You've read the books, I assume you know what to say?"
Beast Boy gulped nervously, but nodded determinedly. "This bitch is mine."
The parasite, sensing its doom, stopped squirming. It's red eyes widened in horror.
Raven began to grind the dragon weed and blow on it softly as Beast Boy began to chant.
"Thou who hast been called upon to soothe the wounded, give order to the chaotic, and solace to the haunted. Thy task..."
But the demon's shape was shifting, smaller, slender, sprouting hair, changing eye color, paling... and smiling.
"Beast Boy..." the voice was sweet and painful as the blue eyes welled with tears. The Titan faltered.
"What are you waiting for?" Raven hissed. "You know she's only saying what she knows will stop you from banishing her. Don't let her hold that power over you, Beast Boy! You're stronger than that! Finish it!"
Beast Boy gulped and took a deep breath. "Thy task is complete..."
"Beast Boy, please! What are you doing? I'm sorry, Beast Boy, I'm sorry for it all! You're the best friend I've ever had..."
Beast Boy looked away from the deceit. "Stop, please..." he whispered, his voice pained.
"... I hate myself for what I did to you, you're the only one who understood or cared. You're the best friend I ever knew. Please, just can't you forgive me? Don't do this to me, Beast Boy, I... I love you."
Suddenly, Beast Boy looked up with a steely gaze and took a deep breath, his lips in a tight line. "Thy task is complete. Be gone from here, beast of a thousand nightmares, where thy magicks cannot harm us."
"Beast Boy..." the ghost girl whispered through chapped lips. "Why are you doing this?"
"Thou..." Beast Boy closed his eyes, then looked at her long and hard. "Thou hast no power here." He paused. "... You have no power over me."
The facade dissolved and the beast wailed as Raven's shield shattered. Raven muttered a few words and blew hard on the dragon weed resting on her palm and a stream of fire issued from it, scorching the beast who wailed in agony.
With one final shriek the creature melted into a puddle of red and black and sank into the floor and disappeared. One by one, all the candles went out until the last one flickered a moment and then was gone. Raven gave a sigh of relief.
"That means all evil has been expelled from this circle," she said, satisfied. She looked over to Beast Boy who was shaking and smiled dimly. "It's alright," she said. "It's over."
"That's just it..." he said. "I wish it wasn't."
She watched him, standing there, alone and already suffering some effects of the withdrawal, which had only been present for a minute or so, and a wave of warmth overwhelmed her. Without thinking, she instinctively drew him into her arms and soothed his fears.
"I know it's hard," she said. "And it takes a strong person to do what you just did. Congratulations."
"Uh, Raven?" said Beast Boy, frowning as he rested his head on her shoulder and she squeezed him. "I'm, uh, hugging you. Aren't you having a problem with this?" Without him seeing, Raven grinned and his window shattered. Beast Boy looked over at it. "God, you really are a hazard in this house, aren't you?"
Raven sighed and let him go, her face blank. "That was a one time only deal. Don't expect a hug next time you summon some hell beast to drink you're blood. Because I'll just hurt you."
Beast Boy smiled at her. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. And she smiled back.