Magic in the Blood (working title)

CH. TWO

"Faery magic," muttered Raven. Her pale hand, fingers splayed out and almost shaking with energy, moved along Beast Boy's aura as he lay silent on the medical bed. "She wasn't lying about who she was. It's very strong." The light around both teens faded away, and Raven stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself.

Heart aching, Starfire moved to the other girl's side, carefully holding her from behind. With her chin on Raven's shoulder and the young sorceress stiff but unmoving in her arms, she said, "But Raven, surely your magic is more powerful. You are the greatest sorceress any of us has ever known."

"Yeah," said Robin, from where he was crouched on the floor with a small computer pad, flipping through files. "I'm sure you know how to patch him right up."

"I hope so," added Cyborg, scowling at another screen with dozens of diagnostic charts decorating it. "'cos baby, these things ain't telling me anything. He might as well just be asleep."

"For all I know," Raven ground out, "he is. faery magic... is impenetrable to me. The magic I use and the magic they use doesn't mix."

"I don't understand," said Starfire, her brow furrowing.

"I would heal him if I could, but my magic and Mab's faery magic are incompatible. At least, enough so that I can't figure out what she did to him, and without that, I won't try anything. If I do, I might kill him." The last two words were soft enough that the rest of the Titans strained to hear her.

Robin shook his head and began to pace, still punching at his small computer pad with his thumbs. "She seemed to think he was one of them."

"That's a giant negative," snorted Cyborg. "He may be green and tiny and have pointy ears, but he ain't no faery. Rae said they were all gone anyway."

"This Mab chick is still around," pointed out the Boy Wonder.

Starfire released Raven to float over to the unconscious Beast Boy, her gloved fingers tracing the shape of his ears. "Perhaps they are not all gone?" Softly, she added, "It takes far more than one would think to make an entire race extinct."

"Starfire is right," Raven finally said. "I was trying to provoke Mab. There are still some faeries around, even if there aren't as many as when Mab was in power."

"Hold up." Cyborg turned away from the charts. "You know who this crazy is?"

"She's Mab, Queen of the Faeries, like she said." Raven shrugged, pulling her cloak more tightly around herself. "She came into power in ancient Britain, somewhere between the fall of Camelot and the rise of London. Her realm has many names, and for several centuries, she and her kind were respected by the people of the British Isles as protectors and guardians."

"Then why is she attacking us?" asked Starfire mournfully.

"They're not respected anymore," Raven continued by way of explanation. "Many of them have been hunted and killed or enslaved like animals, and many others have retreated so deeply into their own lands that they'll never be seen again."

Starfire's face fell further for the plight of the faeries, and tears stung her eyes. She moved from Beast Boy's side to Robin's, pressing her face against his shoulder.

"That's a real sad story," Cyborg said, looking stonily unimpressed. "But BB is a mutant more'n he's anything else. He told me he got bit by a bug in the Congo when he was a kid, and the sickness is what made him what he is today."

"A bug about the size of the human hand," murmured Raven, "with large glowing wings and sharp little teeth?" She waved her hand and a dark approximation floated in front of her. "If I had my guess, I'd say it was a faery gone feral, and it was a form of faery sickness. Normally, wild faeries only go after infants, but that deep in the jungle, they'd go after anything."

Robin seemed equally skeptical. "Beast Boy was mutated by a faery?"

"I'm not saying it's a fact. It's a theory. Mab reacted very strangely to him. She called him a changeling. It would fit." Raven tugged her hood over her face, turning away.

Cyborg sighed noisily. "Listen, Rae, nobody's gettin' down on you. But me 'n Rob, at least, are operatin' from a different place. I'm gonna believe there's a scientific or biological way to handle this until I know there ain't."

Noting Raven's continued silence, Starfire stepped between the two. "Friends, it is good that Beast Boy has such good and devoted friends, who are both so educated in their different ways. Perhaps it is even more of a blessing than you are thinking. After all, Cyborg's skills lie with the technology and Raven's are in sorcercy and magic, and there is little lapping over. Would it not be prudent to cover both areas?" She clasped her hands and looked from one to the other with what she hoped was a winning smile.

"Aight, Star."

"Fine." Raven nodded at them. "I'll be in my room, looking for some... information."

Starfire let out a relieved breath as Raven phased out of the room and Cyborg returned to his computer station. "Thank X'Hal," she muttered, and turned, only to find herself nearly nose to nose with Robin. "Oh!"

"Sorry, Star," said Robin, with that crooked grin from the fair. "Just wanted to tell you... that was really... good. Er, the way you handled Cy and Raven. Diplomatic and stuff."

"Thank you," she said, feeling her cheeks fill with warmth. "I simply wish for us to make Beast Boy awake again."

Robin had a hand on her arm now, and it was also very warm. "We will," he said, with the sort of determination she knew very well. "Not that I don't wanna hang out with you, but you should probably help Raven while I stick with Cyborg. Call me the second you two make any breakthroughs, okay?"

"I will."

Starfire always made sure to knock on Raven's door and wait for an invitation before she entered. It was polite, but she also remembered a day when Beast Boy had been angry at Raven, and barged into her room without such ettiquette. Starfire had protested and reminded him of the importance of being invited, but had received an answer that had confused her greatly.

'Oh, right, jeez, I forget she's a vampire. That's their code of honor or whatever.'

She had asked Robin about it later, and he had told her it was vampire lore that one had to invite the vampire inside one's dwelling in order for a vampire to be able to enter. It had still been difficult for her to understand Beast Boy's jab, but Robin's expression and exasperated tone of voice had explained the intent of her green friend well enough. Friend Beast Boy, she thought, frowning to herself, I hope that when you awake you will realize how worried she is about you.

The door opened, and Raven appeared. "I said you could come in, Starfire."

"Oh!" Starfire smiled brightly and a bit sheepishly. "I was thinking too deeply. I am sorry." She followed Raven into the room, where books were strewn about.

The sorceress pointed at a pile. "Those are written in English and a couple of other common languages that you might know. Look for anything on faeries or Mab." With a nod, Raven settled back into her meditative pose, a book in her lap.

Starfire leafed through each book with extreme caution, scanning each word as if it might be the one word that would provide an answer. And though there were volumes of information, that which did not seem strange and dense told her many of the same things that Raven had: the faeries had been in power long ago, led by Queen Mab and were now dwindling towards extinction, with many faeries gone wild attempting to infect the human population. "Raven," she finally asked, "is Mab a traditional sort of queen?"

"What do you mean, Starfire?"

"How did she come to her throne? Was there another Queen or a King before her, or after her?"

Raven blinked. "That's an excellent question."

"Thank you," grinned Starfire. "I am the product of a monarchy myself."

"Right you are," Raven murmured, and began to page through her book, her attention still seemingly on the other girl. "There's literary mention of Oberon and Titania. A famous Earth playwright wrote about them, but there's no historical data."

"There are a few faeries mentioned by name in these books," said Starfire. "The name I have seen most is that of a Morgan Le Fae." She held up one of the books, open to the mentioned passage.

Raven levitated the book to her hands. "I know that name. Morgan Le Fae was a very powerful sorceress, but I didn't realize she was a faery." She paused, pressing her lips into a thin line as she read. "Half and half, it seems, with her faery heritage growing as the years passed. It looks as if she might have been active before Mab took control."

"Perhaps she could help us! Is she still alive?"

"As far as I know. But..." Raven pressed her mouth into that thin line again.

"But?" echoed Starfire.

"She's somewhat unstable, if I understand correctly. She's neither good or evil, and her personal history..." Raven trailed off again, only finishing at Starfire's prodding. "Remember what Terra did to us? Multiply it by a hell of a lot. Morgan betrayed her brother and all of Camelot."

Starfire frowned, instantly feeling empathy for the man who was long dead. She knew the betrayal of a sister, and Raven must have seen it on her face, for there was the rare sensation of a hand on her arm, comforting. "But you said she was not good or evil. Then there is good in her?"

"I couldn't say for sure, but I'd always heard she was a tragic figure instead of an evil one."

"Then we should seek her out," said Starfire decidedly. "I shall inform Robin we are going to... where are we going?"

Raven stood, watching as the books began to restack themselves. "A long time ago, I was invited to a rave--"

"What is 'rave'?"

"It's a big party that lasts all night, with a lot of dancing. And this was a special rave, in a part of town that wasn't always very safe because of the people who populated it. I went," and Raven glared at Starfire, "which is something you will tell no one, because I knew there would be a lot of magic types there. It was at a club called the Zodiac, and when I was there... I saw more than one faery."

"They are a people who enjoy such things?" questioned Starfire, dodging a book as it returned to its place. "A party with dancing? They sound like a... fun people!" She lit up, twirling a bit.

"Faeries are notorious for loving fun," said Raven darkly. "We'll go tonight and see if we can catch one."

"Why would we wish to catch one? Can we not simply ask for its help?"

"They're also notoriously flighty. Listen, Star, I will do the catching. You will help with the questioning."

Starfire nodded emphatically. "Very well, Raven. Will I need to dress differently for this party?" She squirmed a bit as Raven studied her.

"We both will, I think. We need to blend in and not be noticed." Now Raven was scowling. "Bring some of your civilian clothes here and we'll... ugh. Dress up." Fairly crackling with annoyance, she moved to her own closet. "This is going to be so irritating."

AN: Same disclaimers apply. A note about where this falls in canon-- I'm taking a lot of artistic liberties with timeline here. Consider it somewhere within season five, especially with Robin's slightly more enlightened attitude. However, I'm cheerfully ignoring Birthmark and the Prophecy, etc. I have also changed the spelling of fairy to faery to reflect my own tastes, though magic will remain magic and not magick. Reviewing is close to Goddess!