As the Ball Drops
Chapter 4: Sovereignty
By Lady Croww (or Anubiana)
I sat in my room, pouring over ancient books, all of their subjects: Mythical Creatures. Malchior had left it in my room. Great. Now I have another thing to remember him by. I tucked my thoughts of Malchior away and decided to focus on Robin. If I remembered correctly, then there was a special section on second skins and their tamers. After flipping a few pages, I finally found what I was looking for.
Apparently, there could only be six sovereign tamers on our earth at once, who looked after the lesser tamers of their element. The weakest sovereign tamer was that of the air, whose second skin would be that of a falcon's. The next sovereign would be that of the water, whose immortal form would be that of a dolphin's. The next strongest sovereign would be that of the earth, whose second skin, unsurprisingly, was that of a Grey wolf's. The Strongest sovereign of the known elements would be that of fire, whose second skin would be that of a dragon's. Oh, now that's just lovely. Finally, the one major sovereign over them all would be the representative of the element of energy, who could wield the powers of Construction and Destruction. This is an ancient bird, called Sha'menr'a in Azareth. The Terran translation seemed to be 'Gyrphoenix.'
Dozens of thoughts flowed through my mind as I put the pieces together. Robin was the third strongest sovereign of all, Malchior was the second, and I. . . damn, I hate how most things magical seem to end up revolving around me, but if I'm correct, the Gyrphoenix is the one who wields construction, like a Dove, and destruction, like a Raven.
Again, I glanced at the wings that now flowed across my shoulders. They had turned a misty silvery-grey color now. They couldn't be there for my date with Robin tonight. I at least want to look normal when I walk into Prime. I closed my eyes in concentration and bid them away. Lo and behold, when my eyes opened, they were gone. Now I could begin to concentrate on what I was to wear tonight.
I heard the commotion of Beastboy and Cyborg teaching Starfire how to play Goldeneye (not mine) as I crept down the stairs. They still hadn't heard me until. . .
"Hey! Where's Robin? Tell him that his dear old friend Speedy came to pay him a visit. . . Holy Shit! Who the hell is that hottie!" He began to drool.
Beastboy, Cyborg, and Starfire turned around to see who Speedy was talking about. I turned a bright red when they saw me. I was wearing a black corset tank top with velvet straps, a long crimson skirt with slits up the side going to right above my knee. Black lace up boots that went to the top of my shin and my violet hair pulled back into a ponytail with a few bangs artfully framing my face finished the outfit. When I turned back to my normal pallor, I made up an explanation on the spot.
"I'm going to uhhhh . . . go clubbing."
Unfortunately, it seemed to be the wrong one. Simultaneously, Beastboy and Speedy chimed in.
"We'll go with you!"
Realizing what this meant, the two boys began a glaring contest. After two minutes of staring, they barely noticed Cyborg simply state, "Well Rae, you look great. Have fun, See Ya."
I smiled a little, waved, and teleported out of the tower towards a place that's about one block from Prime. I quickly walked there, constantly freaked out that in every alley I would enter Red X would be waiting for me. Finally, I saw the entrance to Prime and quickly made my way in. After a short conversation with a man working on security, I briskly moved through the swaying mass, all with sweat glistening on their bodies as they moved to the loud, fast techno beat of the music. Finally, I found myself facing a small table next to the bar where Rob—er. . . Richard sat.
His hair was smoothed down and his bangs (which I never knew he had) were swept to the left side of his face. I suddenly realized that his hair was long. It hung down past his ears and framed his square face well. He was wearing a black undershirt which slightly hugged his abs, and faded blue jeans with a black leather belt and red and white Vans slip-ons. Around his neck he wore a chain with a pewter pendant in the shape of an eye dangling from it. Instead of the eye having a pupil though, there was a garnet embedded in the place where the pupil normally would be. He smiled and waved at me as he noticed me, and I saw his eyes trail up and down my body like Red X's did only last night. For a moment I shivered at the thought then regained my composure and walked over to him. I smiled at his remark.
"And who's the one who said 10 PM sharp last night?"
"Okay, so we've danced, talked, danced again, drank some nonalcoholic beverages, and now we're talking again . . . do you have any suggestions?"
I pursed my lips mockingly and looked as though I was in deep thought.
"We could always play '20 questions.'"
Robin chuckled slightly as I anxiously looked to my watch. 11:45.
I had about five minutes left until I had planned to tell Robin and take him somewhere else.
"Sure. We can play. . . as long as I get to go first."
I graced him with a slightly seductive smile and nodded. He looked into the sky with a neutral look on his face and then looked back at me.
"Are you a virgin?"
I paused slightly and my face paled a little before I answered him with a soft voice.
"Well . . . thanks to you last night, I am."
Robin looked down and I could barely hear him scuff his feet on the ground guiltily. After a few beats with a more serious tone, I decided to lighten things back up.
"Alright, it's my turn next. I've always wondered this; Does Batman's costumes really have the nipples?"
I could see Robin trying to keep a straight face and swallowing his laughter, but he then stopped suddenly. His eyes were trained on something behind me. There was an unearthly hush that fell across the crowd and I frowned a little when I heard a deep voice answer my question.
"If you'd taken the time to pay attention and turn around, then you'd have probably known the answer to that question by now."
Slowly, I turned around, and frankly to my horror was the Dark Knight himself. I looked at his chest for a moment to see; he didn't have the nipples. Mentally, I smirked. Beastboy and Cyborg had a bet as to whether or not he has the nipples, and I'm sure Beastboy will be pleased to hear that he won. Outwardly however, I could feel my face turning as red as my skirt when Batman pulled up a chair to our table. I looked at my watch again.
11:50.
Thanks to Batboy, I couldn't tell Robin right now. Oh damn. . . now this sucks some major ass. I stood up and excused myself to go to the bathroom. I figured that the two would need some time alone. Five minutes later, I returned to the table, only to find out that they had just left together. Swiftly, I teleported out of the club. It was just my luck that I saw the two enter the park. I levitated myself and began to fly as fast as I could to the park.
I touched ground a few inches in front of them and they both looked up in surprise.
"Robin, what do you think you're doing?"
Robin looked at me a little confusedly and Batman's lips pursed into a frown. Of course . . . Neither of them knew yet. I hurriedly made a decision right then and there. Batman was after all, Robin's former master. It was only fair that he knew too.
"Robin, I'll explain it more to you when we get back to the tower tomorrow, but I need you to get away from your mentor right now. Long story short, in about two minutes you are going to shift your form into that of a wolf's because you are a sovereign over all Tamers divided into the Earth element's group."
Both Robin and Batman's jaws were slack and they both said, "What?" Then Robin suddenly let out a bloodcurdling yell. I looked at my watch. 12:00. It was time.
Ya know what? I was toying around with the idea of stopping the chapter right here, but instead, I decided to continue. Right now is intermission in this chapter. If you wish, you may leave your computer right now and go make some popcorn and get a soda.
Batman and I watched in fascinated horror as Robin began to glow bright red The air grew thick and cloudy against us as we watched as Robin's face lengthened out into a muzzle, his ears stretched up, a long tail began to grow from his ass, and his hands turned into paws. After a few minutes more, standing right in front of me, was a fully grown male Grey Wolf. His golden eyes were aglow with a renewed fire, and he growled menacingly towards me.
I reeled back in shock. I had always thought that Tamers had a sense of what was right or wrong when they shifted form. Maybe I was wrong. Lupine-Robin began to run towards me and he jumped up, teeth set in a snarl and claws outstretched. I ducked and he landed right behind me. Fearfully, I jumped around only to see that he was . . . protecting me. In front of him was a Red Wolf, its teeth set in a snarl almost identical to that of Robin's.
Both pounced at the same time. I could hear them bark and howl until it all just stopped. I closed my eyes slightly then opened them again. Amid the floating dirt and dust, I felt something furry brush up against my leg. I nearly cried out for joy and hugged him. He then changed back into his human form, with his clothes all torn up. I lightly ran my finger across his cheek and . . . OH MY GOD. . . Robin wasn't wearing his mask at Prime, was he? Nonononononononononononono. This can't be happening. Not now. I felt something being injected into my neck and the last words I heard came from the same raspy voice that I learned to fear so much in only one night.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit."
Batman hurriedly moved over to his apprentice. Robin was lying on his stomach. His mentor hurriedly turned him over only to stumble back in surprise. On Robin's chest were two brutal claw marks in the shape of an X. When the Dark Knight picked Robin up, he saw a shadowed figure in front of him. The figure almost mockingly saluted him and ran off into the night, carrying the limp body of Raven with him.
A/N: Gawd, I can't believe I actually found the time to get some work done on this. I know, I know. I gave you all, like, the easiest hint ever last chapter . . . Sorry.
Preview: "Why aren't you raping me? Why are you being so gentle?" The man poured some tea into two mugs. "Because I'm not who you saw two nights ago."
Answers to reviews
Tyler: Be happy that I put you first because I don't think your gonna make any new friends by calling them all 'amateurs.' In fact, I think they'll get downright pissed. Before you explained it to me, I got pissed. Anyways, haven't you noticed that James O Barr looks like Control Freak and Becca Britt looks EXACTLY like Sarah from the Crow? PS. Down with Wendy Pepper!
Betrayed05: okay. . . maybe you didn't see the second X episode with somebody new as Red X. . .
halfwolfdemon: i'll think about it . . . maybe later.
ariesfalcon: i'm actually going to do some of the chapters from third person and different points of views later. . . but the Rae pov works well for the beginning.
the wings of a raven: 'you can never have enough fluff' ? well. . .there will be a bit more later in the fic.
tifereth kantrishakram: i agree. i liked as the ball drops as a oneshot better, but people wanted a full story. . . so, here this stuff is. thanks for liking it though!
darkestflame: oh.