Sorry it took so long for this one! But I was waiting until I got some votes in! Please read and review!
Ebony days
3. Ebony Tuesday
-If you desire to know the truth, you must also have the courage to accept it-
It was Tuesday, and it was as sunny as it could be. The brilliant weather was welcome after two days of dark clouds, day and night. The sky was a deep and clean blue, and the few wisps of clouds that remained were white as snow. The only dark thing in sight was a teenage girl, with gray skin, violet hair and dark, cold eyes. She wore a knee-length black dress with a white collar, white swallow-tail sleeves, and a billowy skirt.
Her companion was a shorter teen, a boy with green skin, dark green eyes, and messy forest green hair. He looked rather like he was trying to have a good time despite the girl's obvious distaste. Lithe and lean, he was trying to catch up with the girl's long strides. She walked faster as he caught up. "Raven! Wait up!" the boy said, revealing his companion's name. His own name was Beast Boy, and they were both part of the Teen Titans.
- - - - - - - -
Only a day earlier, Raven has returned to her room, to take into account Beast Boy's proposal for a date next day. She never dated, for to her, a date was an outing with someone you love, and love required emotions, which she was forbidden to have. The added fact that it was Beast Boy, and not one of the other, more tasteful young men whom she lived with, gave her further reason to hesitate. Only the smooth, drawling words of her companion's voice shook her out of her daze.
"What is it, sweet Raven?" Malchior asked. "You look troubled--a look that does not suit you."
"I've been asked out…" Raven said, not bothering to hide her unhappy expression.
"Asked out? With whom? How did you reply? Oh, my dear Raven, if only I…" He looked sad, and Raven could tell what he was thinking. 'If only I had my body, for then it could be me with her.'
"It was Beast Boy, and I didn't answer. Starfire and Robin interrupted me. They wanted to come too. You know, a 'double date'. While Beast Boy was talking to them, I slipped away back here."
"Well Raven, I know you still don't trust me, but you can still take me as a confident on normal things. And, if you trust me, I think you need to open your heart, if not to me, then to someone else. If you can have control over your emotions, then you should be able to have control over yourself with emotions. And if your heart no longer yearns for me, then at least take a chance with someone else. Dear Raven, if you would have my advice, then you should go, if only to take a chance."
- - - - - - - -
So now here she was, walking ahead of Beast Boy, while Malchior's words played over in her head. A few paces behind the struggling Beast Boy walked Robin and Starfire, hand in hand, smiling at each other and ignoring the human drama ahead of them.
"Just because I came doesn't mean that I like you." Raven said in a blunt voice. She could not tell him the reason, and she regretted the words the moment she spoke them, for she knew the question that was to be asked.
"Then why did you come!" Beast Boy shouted back. He looked angered, affronted, and even saddened. He thought that she had finally began to feel for the others, but her outright snubbing of the other three disillusioned him greatly.
"I was just doing…you…a favor." Raven said, recalling what had happened mere hours before the date had began.
- - - - - - - -
Raven twirled around in her ebony dress, showing it off to Malchior, who applauded. "You look lovely, sweet Raven. I just wish it was me accompanying you, instead of that genius Beast Boy. You are too good for him."
"Yet it was you who suggested I go with him." Raven shot back. "And the only way you could ever go on a date with me were if I let you out, which I will never do." She sounded bitter, knowing that even if it was Malchior who suggested accepting it, it was she herself who had agreed to Beast Boy's offer.
"Raven, darling, I must confess…I have been saddened by your hatred of me, but I hold nothing more sacred than your happiness. If you hate me, and are happy hating me, then I will not grudge you it. But if you are doing nothing more than keeping a facade, then you dishonor me."
"Dishonor?" Raven cried. She was getting mad, and though she knew she shouldn't be, she couldn't help it. Malchior had cut her straight to the heart, and she had to fight to retain her own moral high ground. "You--you have no honor! You tricked me, and you're tricking me now! I can't bear to look at you anymore! All I ever dream about is you! I can't get you out of my head!"
"Raven…I'm sorry I was such a nuisance. All I ever wanted-"
"Yeah, I've heard it." Raven interrupted. " 'All I ever wanted was to love you.' " She said in a mocking voice. "I'm sick of your lies. No one could ever love me."
Malchior, in his paper form, walked over to her and hugged her. "I have never met a girl smarter than you, sweet Raven, yet you know little of your own importance to those around you. Your friends treasure you, your mother and the women of Azarath care for you, and my dearest Raven…I have loved you ever since I heard your name. There is no lie in my words. You are deceiving yourself. I tell you, when I become a Dragon I lose all loyalty of the heart. We are alike Raven! We both fight against the monster within us who stops us from loving freely! Just let me free!"
"No!" Raven said as she pushed herself away, calling an abrupt halt to Malchior's passionate speech. "I can never let you free, Malchior. Your words might be the truth, but I can't take the risk that they aren't."
"Why are you so cautious!" Malchior cried. "Why not be ruled by the heart and not by your cold mind!"
"Because I can't! I can't let my emotions take over, even for a moment! It's just cruel to tell me so!" She could feel some wetness behind her eyes, and fought with all her strength to keep her tears back. "You -even trapped within a book- have more freedom than I do. You're free to feel…to love…"
"To love you, fair maiden. I love you, and I know you can love me back! Try Raven! Try to feel!"
"I CAN'T!" Raven shouted, then turned and ran out of her room. It wasn't fair, she realized, to have to escape from her own room; her one place of comfort had become a field of mines where she must tread with caution.
- - - - - - - -
Now she just felt cold, as if the beating organ that was her heart had been transformed into a block of ice, lying cold and heavy against her chest. She was numb all through. Tired, weary as the warrior who fights a siege. Yet she still had the energy to fight Beast Boy all through the date.
When they arrived at their destination –a small café just outside the city- Beast Boy had given up trying to be nice to her and had started to talk to Starfire and Robin. They took their seat in the back –Starfire next to Robin and Beast Boy next to Raven- the usual small talk ensured. The talk went from Robin to Beast Boy to Starfire, and then back again, without anyone even touching on Raven. It was like they had just forgotten about her.
Then there was a sentence shot at her that brought her crashing back to earth. "You've been talking to Malchior, haven't you?" Robin asked in a serious voice. He was giving her a look usually reserved for Beast Boy; the oh-so-terrible 'tell me truthfully or else'. But she wasn't scared, in fact she had wondered why it took so long.
"Why are you asking me that." She said, mustering up a slightly saddened voice. "I thought I was done with him…and now you bring him back up!" Her voice was monotone, but tinted with the sadness she hoped would tug just enough on their hearts to let them drop the subject.
"Raven, we all heard the arguing this morning. You can't lie to us." He was not fazed, to Raven's displeasure, but there were other ways.
"What arguing?" Raven asked, her voice now sounding puzzled.
Beast Boy now chose to interrupt the up-until-now calm conversation. "Dude! You and that monster were shouting at each other at the top of your lungs! It was hard not to miss, so don't play dumb!"
"Oh…" Raven said in a downcast voice, then ducked her head down so no one could see her smirking. "You…heard that then…?"
"Yes." Robin said. "Why did you let him out, Raven? We need to know. He's a threat to all of us." Robin looked relieved that she had confessed, but his look changed to bewilderment as Raven spoke.
"I--I didn't let him out. He was locked in my trunk just as always, and then he spoke to me. He tried to reason with me, to let him out. I told him I wouldn't…and…he attacked me on my weak point."
"Your…emotions?" Starfire asked in a sad voice. They all looked at her sympathetically, thinking that they understood her pain. Beast Boy clenched his fist while Robin looked down. Starfire was staring wide-eyed at Raven.
"Yes. He said we were alike; that I could feel if I tried. I got angry, and we started shouting. Then…I just left." She forced her eyes to produce tears, all the while thinking of what she had thought to herself only two days ago. 'The great performers'.
"Raven…" Beast Boy spoke in a pained voice, telling her without words that he was sorry he accused her.
"We didn't know." Robin said, his brow drooping.
"Oh, friend. We are very sorry to have hurt you so," Starfire said. All three of them looked at her with sorry faces and clouded eyes.
"It's okay, really." Raven said, switching instantly to her consoling voice. "You didn't know. I agree…Malchior is a threat, and he is not one I trifle with. I would never let him out unless there is dire need."
Malchior is like fire. Raven thought to herself. He can be a source of comfort and warmth, but if left unchecked, a raging force of destruction. He was going back into the book, and then the book was going into the fire. Then I will be free of you. She thought to him, miles away. You have no power over me now!
Coming back to reality, she realized something else. This date had been set up just for the purpose to get her to talk. Which was both a relief and an insult. On the one hand, it meant that Beast Boy had no feelings for her at all, but on the other it meant they didn't trust her enough to talk to her under normal circumstances.
"So I take it this was just a setup?" She smiled wryly at Beast Boy, then looked to Robin for conformation. He nodded, then spoke. "Yes. I'm glad to say Beast Boy has no intention of doing this again. But I'm even more glad to say that Starfire and me, on the other hand, are really dating. So, if you want, you can hang around. But if you don't want to endure any more of our company, that's fine too. I know we went a little underhanded today."
"Yeah. I think I'll just head home. I have a lot to think about."
- - - - - - - -
Raven walked into her room, and saw Malchior. She then stopped and gasped when she saw what was beside Malchior. Her easel had been erected and on it was a watercolor of her, in a long loose-sleeved and billowing dress in a field of flowers in winter. Her expression was peaceful, content, and happy. Her eyes were closed and a faint smile was on her lips.
"Malchior…it's…beautiful!" She cried in amazement. "How…why…" She stammered, her questions lost in the girl on the canvas that she tried to accept was her.
"Raven, must we go over this again. I love you, and that should be reason enough. I also wanted to apologize for my appalling behavior yesterday. I guess I was just…jealous that you had someone else in your life."
"You? Jealous?" Raven could not believe her ears. She flushed red. "Well, you don't have to worry about Beast Boy."
"Why?" Malchior asked back.
"It was a setup. They heard our…argument…and wanted to talk to me. But seeing as they thought I let you out, they didn't trust me enough to just come out with it, so they set up the whole charade of this date. Or at least Beast Boy's role in it. Robin and Starfire are dating, by the way."
"Well, what did you tell them?" Malchior tensed in apprehension, as if expecting the other Titans to jump from the shadows and attack.
"All they needed to know, but I sort of…tweaked it a little. I told them you spoke from within your book." She looked down, not wanting to hear the dragon's gloating words.
But they did not come. Malchior sat in stunned silence, too dumbfounded to utter a word. Finally, he choked out a few awestruck words. "You--you did that for me?"
Raven still looked at the floor, and she felt real tears in her eyes. He had shown her his soul in the art, but she knew that it was only half of him. There was still the Dragon, and nothing she could do with her current power could prevent it from coming. She could not release him, nor continue to talk to him as she did now. Not only would the danger of discovery increase, but the even more deadly danger of becoming fond, of falling back into companionship, would increase as well. There was only one thing to do, and that was to burn Malchior, just as easily as she had burnt that paper rose he gave her all those nights ago.
"Malchior…I'm sorry." She said, raising her head up to show a face contracting with grief and wet with tears.
"Sorry for what, sweet Raven? What ails you so? Was it something I did? Can I help you to remedy it?" Malchior was all too eager to help, and that only added to Raven's guilt as she picked up the book, and uttered the sealing spell, her words choked with tears and split with sobs. "I'm sorry Malchior!" She cried, then used a force-field to surround the man she had come to love once more.
- - - - - - - -
"I'm sorry Malchior." She said, hours later, after her long crying. "I'm sorry, but I can never fall in love, especially with you. So I am going to destroy you, once and for all."
To be continued…