Chapter 16: An Unheard Story

Beast Boy walked down the hall, the glazed look in his eyes nearly undetectable. He placed a hand on the door, an incessant voice trilling Lark's demands in the back of his head. He winced and yet, at the same time, he felt a ripple of pleasure sweep down his spine as he remembered the kiss. Grasping the handle the door swung open to reveal Raven sitting in lotus position on the floor, her brow furrowed. Her head swung up to meet his gaze, her blazing red eyes lit with a strangely magical fire.

"Beast Boy, you're back!" she gasped in relief. Hovering off the ground she gently untangled her legs and levitated over to him, the peach silk of her dress shimmering in the torch light. Beast Boy nodded. The girl frowned. "Look, if you're still mad about… well, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I can't… feel. You understand what I mean, right?" she asked, her mellow voice betraying hints of worry. Beast Boy sighed and nodded again.

"Sure, Rae, and don't worry about the kiss… I just got caught up and all. There's nothing between us, even an idiot could figure that one out," he smirked softly. Raven's eyes widened slightly and she came down from her hover, her heels lightly touching the marble ground.

"Right…" she said it as if she were unsure of herself. Beast Boy nodded to a box on one of the beds.

"What's that?" Raven's eyes darted over to the box as well.

"Clothes. For you. Something other than your uniform. It sticks out too much here on Zinthos. I got it for you when I finished healing myself." Raven winced, remembering the pain she'd felt. Now that she was fully healed, she could levitate and teleport small distances without much pain at all. Beast Boy nodded.

"Ok. Thanks." He strode over to the box and moved off to one of the bathrooms, the contents in hand. Raven's curious eyes followed him. He was acting so differently. Beast Boy emerged in a pair of fawn colored pants and black riding boots. A loose white tunic hung about his shoulders.

"Do you want me to tell you… what's going on?" she asked tentatively, unsure of his nonchalance. It was almost as if he wasn't worried about her anymore.

"Sure," he replied easily, sitting lazily on a bed. Raven hesitated before following him over and sitting by his side.

"Well, I guess… here it goes. When I was little, I was a lot like my mom. My powers… were dark but they were mostly connected to moonlight. Not so much my demon father. When he killed her… when Trigon killed my mother, I unleashed more power than anyone thought possible, and I rid the world of him. But I did that by taking him onto myself. Into myself. He became part of me. Suppressed by my spirit, embodied by my rage and hatred. He became my true self. Over the years we were at odds. In the beginning I was always slipping my control and he was slowly winning. When I got older, I was winning. My meditation gave me an inner power strong enough to hold him down. But recently, when my emotions started running high, I had to give Trigon enough control to kill those emotions. But every night, I went back and recovered them by letting Trigon take a little of my mind. It started to get bad. I was always on the verge of loosing myself, despite my constant meditation.

So I set a curse in motion. Two, actually… a curse and a spell. The curse aligned the four royal planets and set me up for death. It was a suicide curse, if you will. But I countered it with a spell which granted me to use the alignment of the planets to banish Trigon. If I did, I could save myself. That's why we're trying to get to… Latsiere. If I banish Trigon, I'm free of the curse. If I don't, Trigon will kill me… ultimately killing himself as well, I think, but it would be worth it to him. To be rid of his abomination of a child would be utter bliss to him. Especially because all of my power would be released as we died… consequently destroying the entire spirit realm and possibly the entire realm we call reality.

It's the only way I can ever be free. That's why I'm doing this. That and because I'm… scared of… dying…" A mental image flashed into her mind. The dagger raised high, his eyes full of hurt at her betrayal… the blood that followed. Raven's eyes snapped shut, blocking out the vision. So she would do it… but Alipes… she had thought… he would be the one. After seeing him again it was unlikely but… she had hoped…

Beast Boy nodded, looking completely unfazed. "Wow. You got it tough. Well… it's nice that I can be of help to ya, I guess," he looked away, his thoughts plagued with incredibly distracting images of Lark. Raven was taken aback.

"Right…" she murmured. "I do have it tough… and I wish… I could do this alone… but I can't…" she sighed, rubbing her temples. Why did her life have to be this way? …Why didn't he care anymore? Beast Boy sighed and looked out of the window.

"You know, you're not too shabby. For a demon," he said amicably. Raven's eyes widened with incredible hurt. Of all people… he had to be the one to call her a demon. Raven felt a sharp pain through her chest. Her head began to swim. Oh no… God, no… why did heart have to break now? She felt a sudden surge of rage dance through her veins, lighting them afire. The physical sensations that bound her to her emotions were going haywire, her heart felt as if it were being ripped to shreds while her blood felt as if it were a blazing broth of lava.

Raven clutched her head desperately attempting to regain control. She silently cursed the day she'd fallen in love with the young changeling. Beast Boy watched her in silence.

"Is something wrong, Raven?" he asked calmly. Raven shook her head, gasping for breath. The raven emblazed on her collar bones throbbed and burned. The eye of the embellishment glowed a brilliant scarlet and Raven let out a tiny cry.

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos… Azerath… Metr-metrion… Zinthos…" she panted. Her mind began to gradually still its tumultuous rage. After a few moments she felt calm again. She breathed deeply, folding herself back into lotus position and closing her eyes. She pressed her lips together and began to making a humming sound. She allowed the hum to flow from her lips and wash over the room. She carefully ascended the scales and settled into a soft and strange melody. The room seemed reverberate with silver light and an immense peace settled over the room. Beast Boy watched on, unaffected. As her strange and wordless cadence moved through the room, the boy felt a strange pulling and tugging on his mind and suddenly Lark's entire spell dissipated. His eyes grew wide and he opened his mouth to call out to Raven, but at that moment she stopped her intonation and opened her eyes. Within seconds, Beast Boy's mind again became a thick, slothful pool incapable of any clear thoughts other than those of the siren.

Raven shivered. "Beast Boy? Could you… get me a blanket? I'm really cold," she clutched her shoulders and looked uncomfortably at him. There was something wrong with him… was he still angry? She wasn't being pompous or self-righteous but she had a distinct feeling that Beast Boy would have cared more about her near loss of control if he had been in a natural state of mind. Beast Boy nodded, the carefree look still stricken across his features. Moving off the bed to go fetch a light blanket from the closet, he felt a nagging thought somewhere in his brain that there was something going on with him that wasn't exactly good. He frowned and allowed himself to melt back into the mystifying images of Lark flashing through his groggy mind.

He carried the blanket back to Raven and handed it to her. Raven smiled, a tad insecure, and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Thank you… that feels much better," she murmured. Raven cast her eyes down forlornly… in actuality… she felt even colder under Beast Boy's uncaring, unfeeling gaze.

Somewhere deep within his mind,

I know he still can hear,

And that somehow

At my voice

There is something that nears.

There is some heart,

Some soul,

Some touch.

Something left for me to save.


Author's Note: Well, hello my dear friends... I would like to say I greatly appreciate your reviews, they're like feul for a writer. Watcher 7, yes... when you put it that way I get an odd image too... For some reason I haven't been getting my e-mail alerts, but I think it's fixed so we'll see. Blaze-Firestorm you're doing very well not dying ;) I would like everyone to know that I finally got a beta! I'm so excited! Hopefully I won't have as many grammatical errors in the future. Alas de un Cuervo, take a bow! Oh, and she would greatly appreciate you all to come read and review her work... she's a raeast specialist! I thank you all for your reviews once again. Now if you would, please take the time to reviewonce more.

Love, Princess Starfire of Tamaran