As the Ball Drops
Chapter 6: Friends and Foes
By Lady Croww (Anubiana)
"So when did you cut your hair? How did you adjust to this new era?"
Rorek smiled a little at my questions.
"While encased in my armor, my sense of hearing developed so well that I could listen to things happen as time went by. I would always pay close attention to the things that I heard, and I learned all that there is to know to survive in this world. I cut my hair because people thought that I was a woman."
"How did you get the money?"
"Do you want to know the truth?" I nodded, almost eagerly. "Well, I was a street magician. Soon enough, I made enough money to buy myself a guitar, and I taught myself how to play. Then I became a street musician . . . I-- I also acted as an assassin, but after my first 'job' I decided to quit, because I just felt . . . too guilty."
"I'm sorry to pry, but just who was . . . who was your first 'job'?"
With a wary glance in my direction, Rorek scuffed his feet, grimly laughed, and replied with a slight waver to his voice.
"Princess Diana."
"HOLY SHIT!"
"Keep it down," Rorek hissed. "We're still in a public area.
"You used your magic to kill Princess Diana!"
Rorek shook his head. "Don't even remind me. I actually cried for two weeks after I was paid . . . But I needed the money . . . and I didn't know until I saw on the news how Princess Diana's limo had just 'mysteriously crashed.'"
His face looked pained, and I felt a pang of sympathy. He didn't even know who his target was; just the time of a car's departure and where it was going. His eyes. . . those deep blue eyes. . . Or are they aquamarine? I was so lost in those eyes that I hadn't noticed that we had entered the park to take a shortcut to the tower.
I subconsciously slipped my hand into his . . . Wait a minute. . . I'm making moves on him? As a matter of fact, ever since I woke up, I've noticed that I've been feeling romantic towards Rorek. As we passed under a large oak tree, I concentrated on levitating an acorn. It rose about 2 inches, wobbled, then fell. Suddenly, realization dawned on me. I pulled my hand from his firm grip, turned around, and slapped him.
He put his hand to his cheek and rubbed. There would be a red mark there for a while.
"You good for nothing son of a bitch. You've muddled me and tried to influence my mind."
He guiltily smiled and scratched the back of his head.
"I thought that you wouldn't have let me come and destroy Malchior if I had just forced you or asked you politely, so I did it the best way I knew."
I pulled my hood up to keep the blush rising to my cheeks hidden. After all, I had allowed him to perform one of the simplest acts of magic on me. There will definitely be another meditation session added to my list of daily sessions for a while.
I stopped suddenly, and Rorek bumped into me from behind.
I . . . I was burning. . .
Burning up inside. . .
My heart . . .
It's in flames. . .
This pain. . .
This . . . this . . .
Light.
"Aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhh!----"
A mad scream erupted from Raven's throat as a grey aura began to surround her. The symbols of ying and yang circled around the aura in flashes of black and white. Slowly circling around her body were the suspended forms of a falcon, a dolphin, a Grey wolf, and a dragon. Slowly, a blinding light progressed down her body from head to toe. As the light passed down, a silver beak emerged, then a head with two big, beautiful black eyes, followed by a long and graceful grey neck. Next were two long, large,wings that shone with an unearthly light and were the color of a light fog. Finally, tail feathers that were rippled with red, blue, grey, white, and hazel emerged from the light. The scream had lengthened and became the pitchy shriek of a bird. However, it was almost like the shriek was actually music, a flute, piano, violin, cello, oboe. . . It was like an orchestra was accompanying a choir . . . of angels. Rorek's eyes widened in surprise. His mouth hung open in awe. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, almost a whisper.
"The Gyrpheonix."
A pair of hardened blue eyes looked up from the book they were reading and at the map on the wall. A bright purple light was pulsing on Jump City, and then it suddenly flashed silver. The voice that belonged to the eyes growled.
"The Sha'menr'a. . . The Gyrphoenix . . . Agghhh-- And I didn't realize it until after I used you." A mysterious smile crept played on his lips. "Maybe I can use you one more time . . ."
INTERMISSION! Grab some popcorn, candy, soda, or whatever you eat while watching a cheesy action/fantasy movie, because some cheesy action/fantasy fighting is coming up!
". . . Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on bra- Lala how the life goes on. . ."
The sound of Beastboy's off pitch (and constantly cracking) voice rang throughout the hall as he continued to ruin yet another brilliant song by the greatest band of all time; the Beatles. His voice dropped to a whisper when he passed Raven's room. There was the sound of someone stumbling in there. He ran up to the door and knocked, yelling, "Hey Raven, I need to talk to you."
He heard a voice cursing from inside the room . . . but this wasn't Raven's voice. It was the voice of a grown man with a crisp and clipped British accent; one that Beastboy recognized well. The peephole opened and a black rimmed eye looked out through it . . . but there was nobody in the hall. He closed the peephole and sighed, shaking his head, unaware of the small green fly that just flew through the peephole. His mind must have just playing tricks on him. When he turned around, a boy with pointy ears and dark-green skin looked from Raven's unconscious body and back to Rorek.
In the elf's eyes, Rorek detected pain, anguish, recognition, and a deep, deep anger; a terrible hatred.
"I don't know how you got out of that book, but you hurt Raven twice now, and I cannot allow that."
Realizing that there would be a fight, Rorek shifted his form into the wolf's. Looking a little surprised, Beastboy shifted himself into a wolf also. Both circled each other, looking for the right moment to strike . . .
Robin's POV
Uggh . . .
Where am I?
Where's Raven?
I sat up in my bed only to fall back down again thanks to a searing pain in my stomach. I ran my finger over my chest only to feel a large amount of bloody gauze wrapped around it tightly.
"You're awake. Good. I'll go alert the others."
Batman? How did he get here? I'm not in Gotham . . . I can feel it; I'm not in Gotham. Suddenly, flashes of memories ran through my head. . . Were they my memories? I saw myself encased in a red aura, and I rose into the air . . . Now . . . I was a wolf? Raven. . . Look out . . . a wolf behind you. I snarled and jumped over Raven's frail, moonlit form, growling at the new wolf. I sent him a message mentally.
Get away from her.
What are you gonna do about it, Robin?
I recoiled. How did this wolf know who I was without my costume?
Who. . . Who are you?
Let's just say that I've done my fair share of studying. Funny . . . I never imagined you to be a sovereign.
With that, the other wolf pounced. I have to admit; I didn't do all too well . . . However, I was not that used to fighting in that form. I felt the skin break on my chest as the other wolf hacked at it in a crisscross motion. Suddenly, the world went black, and—
"ROBIN!"
A squeal, followed by a pair of tanned arms wrapping around me and sucking what was left of my air supply interrupted my memory session. With a small voice, I said, "Starfire . . . Starfire, I think I'm fine."
"Yo, good to have ya back, man."
"Same here, dude."
"Be thankful you didn't get hurt any worse.
When she let go of me, I turned my head to see Cye, BB, and Batman at the door. Figures my mentor would say that. Wait . . . Cye, BB, Star, and Batman . . . But where was Raven?
"Where's Raven?"
Immediately, everyone in the room, including Batman winced. They all looked at Beastboy expectantly, and scowling at them (all except for Batman of course), he stepped forward.
"Eh . . .Heh heh . . . Well, ya see; We don't know where Raven is . . . We just know who she's with."
I looked up confusedly.
"What?"
Beastboy scratched his head and looked guiltily over to the others. They all nodded their heads. He turned back around and related the whole story to me of how Speedy nearly raped Raven on New Year's Eve. My eyes then grew cold when Batman stepped in and told me and the others what happened last night. I was thankful when he said that he had ran into me at a club and that I had 'suddenly spotted Raven on the dance floor and went over to ask why she was there.' Thankfully, nobody asked why I was there. He then told us how Red X showed up in the park and cut my chest several times in the shape of an X. He then said that while he was trying to help me he heard a whistle, then saw Red X saluting him and then going off into the night with Raven in his arms. Thankfully, he left out the wolf part too. I'm glad he had a knack for figuring out what to leave in a conversation and what to leave out.
I sat up again, however there was no pain. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw a silver light flash in the park.
"Robin, you should not sit up. Your chest will only get worse."
I slowly began to un-wrap the bandages. I think that silver light healed me. That's weird. Sure enough, when I looked down at my bare chest, it was better, save for a scar in the shape of an X. The others looked at me; they were amazed.
"How did you do that?"
I looked out of the window again, but the silver light was gone.
"I didn't."
After a few minutes, the titans slowly left one by one; Beastboy starting to sing 'Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da', Cye claiming that he had a video game to win, then Starfire heading to the kitchen to make a pudding of happiness in my honor. Finally my mentor glanced at me one last time, then left for Gotham.
Speedy . . .
You nearly raped Raven . . .
You went through my things and stole the costume . . .
You flirted incessantly with Starfire . . .
You nearly raped Raven . . .
You nearly raped Raven . . .
You nearly raped Raven . . .
COME ON! ANSWER ME! HOW DID YOU GET OUT OF THE FUCKING BOOK?
I've told you already; I'm not Malchior.
OHHHH Surrrreee. You actually expect me to believe that? I may act stupid, but I really am not that dumb. So explain this then; Why do your eyes look exactly like his? Why does your voice sound exactly like his? Explain that. WHY!
Because Malchior's my brother.
Beastboy stopped suddenly as Rorek shifted back to his human form. Cautiously, he did too. Rorek held his hands out and one could see the tears welling up in his eyes.
"My mother was known to be a scandalous woman. However, she was also a respected sorceress. Sometimes when young men could not pay her, or refused to pay her, she slept with them for her pay. I never knew why. One day, the king came to her and refused to pay for her services, so naturally, she slept with him. That same day, a poor man who had a very sick daughter came in and could not afford to lose her. She was all he had. He said that he was willing to do anything, so she slept with him also. Only after they slept together did he reveal himself as Corin the Great; a well known enchanter; the strongest type of magic user other than a tamer. He told her that she had two children in her womb, and one of them would grow up to be selfish and greedy like the king, while the other would grow up with a sense of honor and pride for his family, like himself. However, the only way to cause our demise would be if one of us destroyed the other before the Gyrphoenix's first change. Nine months later, she had us. He was Malchior of Nole, heir to the throne of England, and I was Rorek of the Divine Light, the child of Corin the Great."
Beastboy sat on the bed next to Raven, stroking her hair softly. When he spoke, Rorek still detected disbelief in there.
"That's a pretty story. Did you think all that up just then? Honestly, I am truly not that stupid. How come I've never heard of Malchior of Nole before this then? How come when one opens a history book on England, they don't expect to learn of 'Corin the so called Great'? Why do they not know of his son, the half-brother to the heir of the throne who was Corin's child? Tell me Rorek, why? Why are you hurting Raven?"
"GODDAMNIT! I DID NOT HURT RAVEN! SHE IS ONLY UNCONSCIOUS FOR GOODNESS SAKE! SHE JUST TRANSFORMED INTO A MYTHICAL BEING AND I THINK THAT WOULD BE TIRING TOO!"
"Hold on a sec, rewind. Raven just turned into a mythical creature? What the hell did I miss here?"
Suddenly, Raven stirred and awoke to find her head laying on Beastboy's lap. She then looked over to Rorek, who was sweating.
"Uggghh. . . get the hell away from my head."
She saw Rorek glaring at Beastboy and the green elf returning the expression full heartedly.
"Ummm . . . did I miss something?"
Robin looked up at the computer screen. There were several flashing lights that were constantly moving. The only one that he saw though, was the one with a lightning bolt symbol next to it. He downloaded the lightningbolt's signature onto his communicator, then gathered his things. He was going to visit an old friend.
A/N: Wow, that was a much longer chapter than I would normally write . . . However, yall all deserve it since I haven't updated lately. If you are a DOW fan also (my other fic), then you won't see DOW up until this summer, when I post my new fic, 'Darkest 2.0'For more information, check out the author's note in place of chapter nine. That's my take on the death of Princess Diana. Also, if you're confused about Malchior and Rorek, they are both tamers; Rorek just has more natural magical talent and skill while Malcihor's was only gained from his sovereignty over the element of fire. Also, email me any ideas as to who should represent air and water (check chapter four) at Robin bails Speedy out of prison in the hopes of having a little . . . 'chat' with him. Also, Rorek's presence at the tower is made known to everyone and the story of the tamers (And why Malchior and Corin and Rorek are never mentioned in the history books and such) Is all going to be explained in Chapter Seven: Shayx