Final Chapter:- Together
"No…" Beast Boy muttered in disbelief. "It can't… You wouldn't…"
Raven walked towards Beast Boy. "But, Gar, don't you remember finding me in the desert being chased by that giant scorpion, and how I interrupted your game of volleyball, and how we took down Mumbo, and how I gave my life for you!" Every sentence brought their faces closer together.
"Terra…" Beast Boy whispered her name in disbelief.
Raven smiled.
"No," said Beast Boy defiantly. "Terra wouldn't hurt Raven."
Raven rolled her eyes and walked away from Beast Boy back towards the statue. "Oh come on B! We hated each other and you know it!"
"But why this?" he whispered, letting a tear fall down his green cheek.
"You want to know why Beast Boy? I'll tell you why," Raven practically screamed, pointing up at the statue. "I may look dead, but I'm aware! Every minute of every day, I'm aware and every minute I was in there, I dreamed that you would rescue me. That you'd figure out some way to save me and we could be together again. Like we were meant to be!"
Raven snarled under her breath. "But you never did save me. I had to save myself. I was just starting to realize how foolish I was for relying on you when a massive flash of blue light blinded me. And the next thing I know, I'm in a comfortable bed, in silk pajamas. If I'm honest with you, B, I thought I was dead!"
Beast Boy sunk to his knees and slumped against the cave wall in disbelief. Raven continued; "Then, I realized I wasn't dead! I was Raven! I was in Raven's body! My first thought was to come and find you and tell you everything. But then, a thought came into my head," Raven tapped a finger against her skull. "This was my chance to find out about Raven and I knew that if I told you, you would tell everyone and Raven would hide everything. That night was my only chance. So I read Raven's diaries."
Raven looked Beast Boy dead in the eye as the blue glimmer passed over her violet pupils. "And you know what Gar? You're on every damn page! Every page is Beast Boy this, Beast Boy that. Gar did this and Gar did that. You were encouraging her! From the things I read in her diaries, you hugged her several times; you'd been kind to her…" Raven breathed, calmed herself down and continued. "I knew what was happening. You were falling in love with Raven." Raven turned away from Beast Boy back to the statue. "You met me that night and I was so mad, I threw a book at the door. Do you remember?" She looked back at him. "Don't you understand Beast Boy? She was trying to take us apart all this time. She didn't like me because I grew closer to you."
"But why did you try to kill her?" asked Beast Boy, rooted to the spot by fright, curiosity and determination.
"I decided early on that she needed to go. She wasn't allowed to come between me and you. No-one is allowed to do that. I planned to do it the next day when you were fighting, just jump in front of an attack. But as the sun came up and the real Raven woke up, I found myself forced back here." Raven looked up at the statue again. "I remained bound to the statue. So I tried to jump off the building, but you stopped me. Every time you stopped me."
Raven looked Beast Boy in the eye. "Well, not anymore. Tonight, I'm gonna finish what I set out to do." She raised her hands and four large sharp boulders shot from the stony earth surrounded by black auras in each corner of the large cave. She twisted her wrist and they all pointed turned to point towards her.
"No!" Beast Boy cried, jumping towards Raven and making one last effort to save his fellow Titan from herself. Raven spun around and laid a punch on Beast Boy's jaw as he pounced towards her, sending the changeling crashing into the solid earth below the statue.
"Stop trying to save her Gar! She was trying to tear us apart! Don't you understand? We need to be together!"
"What makes you think I'd love you after you killed her?"
"Because that's who you are, Beast Boy. Ever since your parents died, you need someone to be there for you. You had me…" she spared a painful glance at the statue, "and I became … inconvenient, so you went to Raven. And when's Raven's gone who are you going to go to? We both know Starfire's way too hooked up in Robin to even notice you're in the room. So who will it be? Jinx? Who else?"
Beast Boy said nothing in reply.
"Exactly," Raven spat. "You'd come crawling back to me. It's who you are Beast Boy!"
Raven turned back to the rocks and looked at them with a fierce glint in her eye. "Everyday I was in that statue, I was dreaming of you whilst you were dreaming about your precious Raven. This is your doing Gar."
She spared him one last glance as his eyes darted, desperately trying to think of a way to save Raven. She laughed at it.
"Azarath…" she started.
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Starfire ignored her own condition as she spoon-fed Robin. He was conscious now, but he was very weak and was obsessive over the identity of his attacker and Raven's possessor.
"Star… You have to call Beast Boy…" he kept whispering after he spat out what food Starfire had fed him.
"Robin. Tell me the name. You must tell me the name," she said, but he only responded with the same answer for the umpteenth time.
"You have to call Beast Boy…"
Then, finally he rasped out the words. "Star… It's Terra…"
Starfire dropped the bowl she was using to feed Robin and ran as fast as her condition would allow her to the main room, where she quickly dialed up Beast Boy's and Cyborg's communicators.
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"…Metrion…"
Beast Boy was desperate. His mind was overflowing with a million thoughts and he couldn't control a single one of them. Raven was going to die. And it was Terra doing the killing.
Raven, his long-time friend and teammate was about to be killed… and he couldn't let it happen. But it was Terra inside of her. The girl he had fallen in love with… The girl who changed his life forever… The thoughts swirled in his head and he knew what he had to do, he had to make the biggest decision of his life in no more than two seconds.
His communicator rang and he ignored it. One second…
He eyed the sharp rocks and Raven. He looked at her face, twisted and alien because of Terra's presence, but still beyond beautiful. She was his friend… His teammate… And something much more. He couldn't let her die.
He would never let her die.
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Cyborg answered his communicator as he dashed out of the jail.
Starfire's image appeared. "Cyborg! It is Terra!"
Cyborg swept Jinx off her feet and leaped high into the air, not needing to reply to Starfire's message. He bounded from building to building as fast as his damaged legs could carry him. Sparks rang from the soles of his metal feet, but he didn't care. He had to get there and he had to get there fast.
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"…Zinthos," said Raven and the rocks shot towards her, surrounding by their black auras. Raven cackled.
"NO!" Beast Boy screamed, and moving faster than any normal human, shifted into his gorilla form. Then he brought his powerful fist down upon Terra's delicate stone form. The statue crashed and crumbled as Beast Boy put his fist through its very core and allowed it to tumble to the ground.
The energy around the sharp rocks dissipated and Raven screamed aloud and clutched her throat as if she were choking. She fell to her knees and shook violently until a silvery blue girl emerged from her body.
The statue's head fell to the floor of the cave, shattering into hundreds of stone shards.
The silvery blue form of Terra rose from Raven's body and flew upwards. She looked at Beast Boy, screamed in despair, then burst apart into a million tiny specks of nothingness.
Raven's lifeless form fell to the ground, still and void of any spirit. Beast Boy shifted back to his human form and ran over to her, cradling her head in his arms. Then he rested his head on hers and let his cries echo around the cave as his tears splashed onto her face.
The clang of heavy metallic footsteps rang out throughout the cave, but Beast Boy didn't acknowledge his best friend's entrance. "B?" Cyborg asked.
Beast Boy looked up to see Cyborg and Jinx. "She didn't get back up… Something must have happened." He sobbed and again rested his head on hers.
"Wait…" said Jinx. "I sense something."
Cyborg turned to her. "What?"
"There's someone in here. It feels like … Raven."
Beast Boy abruptly stopped sobbing and looked up. Jinx began to walk around the cave like a bloodhound sniffing out its target, then she found it under a few pieces of rubble, but still unharmed. She held it up for Beast Boy to see. "Raven's meditation mirror."
Beast Boy laid Raven's head down on the hard ground and dashed over to Jinx. In the mirror's reflective surface, they could see Raven sitting down and leaning against a rock, she had tears streaming down her face.
"She's alive…" muttered Beast Boy.
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Robin groaned and climbed out of bed. His back ached and he could barely walk, but he was alright. He could survive.
He staggered to the main room to find Starfire leaning against the back of the couch, hugging herself weakly.
"Star?"
She looked up. "Robin, you should not be up."
"You're hurt."
"I am well."
"No, you're not," Robin said, squatting down next to her. He carefully took her bandaged arm. "Who bandaged this?"
"I did," she moaned weakly as he touched her sore arm.
"You did well considering how much pain you were in. Come on, let me redo it."
He slipped his hand around her waist and helped her stand, then they slowly walked to the hospital wing together.
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Raven leaned against the pillar of stone in the deep recesses of her mind. She let the tears stream openly down her face as she thought about what she had done to Robin and Starfire. She knew that very soon, it would all be over and her thoughts would evaporate into darkness and death would claim her. She just prayed to whatever gods she could think of that Beast Boy would be alright.
Then, on the dark horizon, she saw a figure, leaping from rock to rock, coming towards her. She wiped off her tears and prepared herself… If the creature had returned, she would not give up without a fight.
But, as the figure leaped closer, she saw the green tint of his skin in the eerie light of her mind. She sobbed happily and smiled. It was Beast Boy.
Beast Boy landed in front of her and the two stood staring at one another for a couple seconds. Then, Beast Boy pulled her into a hug and he held her close to him. "Man, it's good to see you."
Raven smiled and returned the embrace. She wasn't used to this emotional state of hers, but luckily nothing would explode because this was the one place she could feel. Here, she was free.
Raven felt Beast Boy slowly pull away. "Is it over?" she asked.
"It's over."
"Then… Who was it?"
Beast Boy swallowed the lump in his throat. "It was… Terra," he whispered.
"Oh, God," Raven muttered under her breath.
"But it's over."
"What about Star…?"
"Star's fine. So is Cyborg."
Raven looked at him. "What about you?"
"I'll…" he choked out the words. "I'll be fine." He turned away from her and looked around. "There any way out of this place?"
"If I'm the only one in my body, it should be as simple as..." She raised her hands and the red whirlwind materialized above her. She looked back at Beast Boy.
"Jumping through," she finished.
The two stared at each other for a minute, feeling themselves drift closer.
"No…" muttered Raven, turning away from him.
Beast Boy took her hand. "What? What's wrong?"
"Don't you see? It wouldn't work."
"We could make it work."
"I can't feel Beast Boy! Every time we'd get close, something would explode. It would never work."
Beast Boy dipped his head and let his hand drop free of hers. Raven sighed and began to float up towards the whirlwind.
Suddenly, a thought popped into Beast Boy's head and he grabbed her hand again. "Raven. You can feel in here, can't you?"
Raven floated back down to Earth. "Yes, but we can't stay in here forever."
"But we can come in here. We can be together in here and outside you can be your regular creepy self."
Raven looked up at him confused.
"We can make it work," Beast Boy said.
She stared into his eyes and felt herself drift closer to him. She didn't turn away.
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"He's been in there a long time. Are we sure he's OK?" Jinx asked Cyborg as they stood alone in the cave.
"No. But he can handle himself," Cyborg answered as he clutched the mirror tightly in his hand.
"Will you just look?"
"There's no need."
"Just do it."
Cyborg sighed, and looked into the mirror.
When he saw Raven and Beast Boy's current predicament, he groaned loudly and dropped the mirror to the ground. "Did not need to see that," he muttered, hitting his head repeatedly.
"What?" asked Jinx as she picked up the mirror and looked into it. Then, she groaned loudly herself and turned away from the mirror. "Will you take me home now?"
"Only if you carry that thing," he indicated the mirror.
"They're your friends," she said, pushing the mirror towards him. "You carry it."
"Nuh-uh," Cyborg muttered as he pushed it back towards her.
"I'm not carrying it!" Jinx yelled pushing it towards him.
"Neither am I!" Cyborg yelled loudly as their arguments began to echo back at them.
END
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There we have it! Finito! We are done! Please tell me what you think and be sure to check back on this tory because the sequel will be posted as soon as I finish the first chapter. Thank you all very much for reading, for all of your kind reviews and for putting up with all of the cliff-hangers. … Anyway, thanks again and until next time ---- Farewell. – Brit.