Chapter 18: Begin to Heal
Raven awoke to the blinding and pungent scent of blood. Everywhere. That was all she could think. Blood pooled around her feet and dampened the once glittering flowers of the gardens. As her vision steadied she was able to take in the scene before her. Beast Boy lay sprawled on his back all the way across the clear and with a sickening realization she saw two of his ribs had broken the skin and were protruding from his body. His linen shirt was tattered and torn and barely hung on him. Blood caked his fingers and it appeared he had attempted to claw at the wounds. His leg was gashed badly, a long dagger-like slit had sliced up the length of his leg and the bone was visible though the torn flesh. His eyes were rolled back in his head so only a slight bit of his emerald irises could be seen. Raven reeled back in horror and felt her hand brush against something stony cold.
She whirled around and cried out at the repulsive corpse of the Siren lying on the ground. The demons had done there job much too well. She hadn't meant to let Rage take over… not like this. Black, dried blood streaked her lips and a puddle of the gooey mess matted her hair by her face, indicating she's coughed up a lot of it. It appeared upon death the siren had taken back her original, disgusting form. Her chest was uncovered for the wild hair was flung back behind her and blood coated the whole of her. Her stomach appeared to have been ripped open and her ribs looked like nothing more than a hollow shell. Her internal organs were visible as most of the front of her body seemed to have been torn off. Every part of her innards remained, save her heart which was no where to be found, the mangled arteries limply lay in a horrific disarray. Brownish yellow bile dribbled across the sides of her body.
The Siren's eyes were no longer and instead two gaping sockets black with dry blood seemed to stare at Raven. The skin on Lark's lower jaw seemed to have melted off, singed edges falling limply over the blackened bone. Raven scrambled back from the corpse with a start. She felt a pain shoot up her arm and looked down at a ghastly wound on her left wrist. It looked like claw marks. Had Lark done it? Had she done it to herself? Had… Beast Boy done it? Her eyes shot wide and she lurched towards Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy!" Raven croaked, pulling the boy very carefully towards her. Beast Boy's head rolled sickeningly to the side as she brought him to her chest. She hastily wiped the blood that was still dribbling from the corner of his lips. Raven felt a threatening onslaught of tears rising in her eyes. She gave a cry of fear as the left stone wall exploded with her black power. Raven shielded Beast Boy's body with her own and put up a hasty force field around them, keeping them from the rain of stones. Raven breathed heavily, it felt as if the air was incredibly thin. Her head was spinning, spinning and dark spots flickered in her vision. No. She must stay awake. For Beast Boy. Using what strength she had she teleported them back to their room.
When Raven's eyes opened she realized with a terrible start that she must have fainted upon arriving in the room. She felt something give a pitiful squeeze to her hand. Raven brought herself painfully up to her elbows and looked to her right. Beast Boy had his head tilted ever so slightly to her and his eyes were glazed with pain. She watched with horror as he attempted to smile at her, revealing his mouth still seeping blood. Raven's eyes snapped shut and began to mutter some unrecognizable words. Raven felt the prickle of her powers running through her body as she healed herself. She pushed herself to the limit, forcing the pain to advance till it was nearly unbearable. When she opened up her eyes again she was in relative health. Scooting with determination up next to him her hands glowed with eerie ice blue light. Moving her hands over his leg she began to heal his wounds. One at a time, painfully slow she persevered. Raven heard Beast Boy give a heaving cough and looked up at his face, her eyes betraying immense guilt. Beast Boy frowned as best he could in his condition. Raven looked away and went back to healing him, concentrating on his mangled ribs.
Nearly six exhaustive hours later, Raven had healed all of their external wounds and collapsed by his side. Both of them were still in immense pain but neither was in immediate threat of death. She felt a shaky hand make its way to the back of her head and tentatively attempt to stroke her hair. Raven couldn't hold it in anymore. A flood of tears came pouring from her ruby eyes. Her body shook with passionate sobs and pain rocked through her.
Beast Boy made a very small sound of distress. Raven pulled herself up to look at him. "Are you back?" she rasped. Beast Boy found himself quite incapable of movement at the moment but his eyes betrayed the answer. Raven's tears continued and she choked on the sharp pain in her dry throat. "I'm so, so, sorry," Raven breathed. Beast Boy blinked. Raven's arms gave way and she collapsed to the bed again. Beast Boy's eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.
Raven felt the familiar fog of her dreams float over her. She felt a sense of peace, calm... beautiful… Raven's heard a shrill scream glance across her dreamscape. She felt herself begin to move at a frighteningly fast pace, her dream body careening out of control. A sudden stop sent her vision spinning, spinning and stopping to rest on the deformed face of Lark's corpse. The gouged out eyes stared with ghostly knowledge of all things horrific. Raven swallowed hard and moved back, frightened. The life-less skull opened it's jaws as if with great effort. Yellowed teeth stained with bile curved sharp and wicked. From within the throbbing corpse a terrible and ear shattering scream curled in the air again, sharpening into a deviously terrible song. From all around her answering screeches pierced Raven's perception.
Raven felt her mind swirling in a haze, her senses dulled by the raucous cries surrounding her, cradling her and bearing her down into unimaginable darkness shot through with the nauseating scent of blood. Suddenly, a splitting sound snapped through the song and Lark's head seemed to stretch and strain. Raven cried out as a harsh beak burst through one of the empty eye sockets, spewing dark blood across the empath. Raven's eyes were wide and alive with revulsion as the rest of the little harpy snapped through, veins popping and splitting under strain. Raven reeled back as the bird-like creature burst forth, a baby Siren.
Great feathered wings of the same dirty grey as Lark's, large and putrid yellow eyes stared devilishly, a black and crow-like beak snapping and jerking wildly. Coiling human hair sprouted from the head of the harpy, the body scaled and smelling of rotten flesh. Strangely vicious teeth sprouted from jagged angles in the beak. The harpy's forked tongue slithered out and seemed to test the air. The face of the creature was that of purplish, decomposing flesh and ample sores covered its head.
The harpy gave a disturbed cry and darted towards Raven. The girl recoiled further; her eyes alight with fearful embers. Raven felt a strange tugging at the back of her mind, calling to her. It was warm and concern and Raven fled to it.
Her eyes flickered open and her first realization was she was lying nearly completely on top of someone; her head cradled in their chest and weak hands were stroking her head. "Rae, wake… up…" she heard Beast Boy rasp. Raven jerked violently from him, her scarlet eyes immediately betraying her concern that she'd hurt him by lying on him. Raven's maroon locks were plastered to her face and she had a slight thought that she must look horribly grotesque covered in the blood of not only herself but Beast Boy and Lark's.
"Beast Boy… don't talk, you're hurt," she stated quietly, her own voice rather hoarse. Beast Boy looked away slightly.
"You were calling me," he muttered softly. Raven felt heat rise to her face. Things were just too out of hand. Raven looked down at her bloody hands but her gaze quickly jerked away at the wave of sickness that swept through her.
"Are you… feeling any better?" she asked, praying her healing earlier had helped him. He gave a stiff nod.
"A…lot better… just sore… real sore… I'm sorry… I betrayed… you," he coughed harshly and his body jerked. Beast Boy winced. Raven felt a pang of guilt. It's nothing compared… to the way I'm betraying you… Raven squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the mental image of the black book.
"You don't need to apologize. I was stupid… I should have told you she was a Siren… I should have controlled my self. I almostI almost killed you. I'm the one that should be sorry," Raven croaked. She felt Beast Boy's weak hand lightly squeeze her own. Raven moved off the bed, her knees buckling under her weight, making it evident she was physically very tired. She was mentally tired too. Mentally exhausted, really. Raven allowed her eyes to cautiously meet the changeling's. "I'm gonna go clean up… and then I'll be right back out to help you. Right now I think I'd just make you dirtier," she said quietly. The girl realized she felt filthy, not just from the blood that had dried on her skin or the dirt but from the realization she'd killed someone. Killing a demon was one thing but… as much as she hated Lark; Lyora the Siren was no demon.
Beast Boy murmured his assent and Raven left to the bathing chamber. It was a fairly empty room save a huge spring in the middle. The waters were still and steam rose from them in an almost magical display. The deep azure liquid seemed to shift in light patterns. Raven moved in front of a full length mirror and cringed as she saw her appearance. She noticed absently that as much dirt and blood that covered her body, her mother's dress enchantingly remained sparkling clean. Raven allowed the dress to slip from her shoulders, lightly stepping from the silk puddle. She turned hungrily to the spring and moved to its edge. Tentatively dipping one foot into the water she sighed at its warmth, watching as a billowing cloud of dirt and blood wafted off of her and disappeared into the enchanted waters. Raven dropped ungracefully into the water, sinking down until her toes touched the curiously deep bottom.
Raven spent a good half our scrubbing away at her skin, perfectly aware the mystic waters of Zinthos had long since cleansed her physical self. Either way, she still felt unclean and a soft voice in her mind scolded her for thinking water could remove the filth. Finally rising from the spring, she dried herself and slipped back into the dress. She took a small basin from the floor and filled it with the water from the spring. Raven then collected several soft clothes and a bottle of amber colored salve.
Returning to Beast Boy she saw he had managed to prop himself clumsily up and was idly poking at the fabric of his shirt. He still looked painfully weak. Raven moved over to his side and stilled his hand wordlessly. She dipped a cloth in the warm water and began to clean his face. Beast Boy gave a content sigh. It was strangely disturbing to see he held no grudge against her. She absently noted he had seemed to be more upset at the disaster of a kiss they'd shared on Azerath than this whole ordeal. Raven removed the scraps of what used to be shirt and began to wash his chest, a slight embarrassment filling her mind despite the obvious necessity of the situation. She felt a need to fill the silence.
"After you feel better… we should head to Latsiere… it's Friday… and I've got to get this done by Saturday… I might be able to risk it until Sunday if you're not well enough. I can heal you a little more after this," she murmured. Beast Boy frowned.
"No. We'll leave tomorrow. Your life is worth all the pain in the world," he stated firmly. Raven paused her cleaning and allowed her eyes to drift to his face. She hesitantly leaned forward and placed a very short and light kiss on his lips. She looked away, a furious blush flowing onto her cheeks. Raven began to wash him again, being insanely attentive to the task.
"It's to apologize for back on Azerath," she mumbled. Beast Boy's eyes followed her face, hidden by her hair and a tiny grin graced his lips. He suddenly felt a lot stronger. He even almost laughed when a pillow on the bed next to them exploded in a shower of feathers.
From pain it came,
A gentle tremor,
That changed a life.
Or two.
Inflicted the heart,
With severe passion,
Which burned and smarted,
Asking to be quelled.
But deny it now,
Save it for time,
Save it for hope,
Save it for love,
That changed a life.
Or two.
Author's Note: Steve-Racer, don't worry about it. As you can see, Lark got it pretty bad but you won't need to worry about vulgarity. This story would be very much less effective if I gave up description for unintelligent swearing. I'm glad you're enjoying it! Oh, and I doubt this will go up to R for the next few chapters unless I have some odd inspiration to go way more gory, and even then it would just be for safety. Please tell me if you feel the rating should be upped now, though. My beta thinks I should. Blaze-firestorm, I pray this was updated fast enough as I would have hated to see you die before Lark. Oh, and yes: BB and Raven are going to get togeather next chapter but their troubles are far from over and let's just say Raven's future decisions shall lead to a little... emotional strain if you will. I would apprectiate it dearly if you would take a moment to review!
Love, Princess Starfire of Tamaran
