An update! And it hasn't even been a month. Well...that's cutting it close, but still! Hope you like it!
Beast Boy was awoken the next day by yelling in Raven's room. Surprised, he moved to hear better, but couldn't understand the words anyway. All he knew is that it wasn't Raven. Opening the door, he saw Raven sitting on a chair, being yelled at by a older man. She didn't seemed at all phased. When the man paused to catch his breath she said something calmly. The man glared at her, nodded, and stormed off. Raven shook her head slightly, then turned towards Beast Boy.
"Come in." She said. He did.
"Dude, what was that all about? He seemed really PO'ed!" Raven toke out a piece of parchment, and began writing in a language that he didn't recognize.
"He was commenting on the fact that I was on Azarathian soil. I suggested to him that if they wished me to leave, then they had better get their preparations finished." She rolled up the note, and sealed it with wax.
"So…when is this thing?"
"Moonset, tonight. After that, we go home." He was about to ask why so soon, when he realize that that was probably what the man had been saying, get out of our sight as soon a possible. They really did not want Raven here.
"Anything else you have to do?" She sighed, and brought her hands up to rub her temples.
"Millions of things." Bringing out another piece pf parchment, she began to read the characters on it.
"Anything I can do to help?"
"You can shut up."
"…sorry…" She continued working in blissful silence for another 5 minutes, while Beast Boy wandered around the room, poking at things that looked vaguely interesting, trying to find someway to quietly amuse himself.
There was no technology anywhere in the room. As far as he could tell, there wasn't even electricity on this planet. The lamps were filled with a glowing globe, some form of magic. So, he was surprised when he came across something that looked a lot like a photograph. Except it moved.
"Coolness! That's just those Harry Potter movies! Where the photos move!" Raven glared at him.
"What are you talking about?" He picked up the frame, which showed a woman of about 20 smiling, and performing different tasks. Raven stood up abruptly, and took the picture from him.
"Hey, who is that? Do you know her?"
"It's…Arella."
"Your mom?" He watched as Raven fiddled with the engravings around the frame. Soon, a holograph formed, showing the scene. Now that he was watching it, he could see that she looked much like a human, older Raven. Long black hair, graceful fingers…they shared the eyes. It was unusual colour, and noses, they were the same shape…Beast Boy snapped out it, he was analyzing this way too much.
He looked at Raven to see what she thought, and, was surprised. Raven watched the woman that was her mother almost hungrily. At that moment, Beast Boy realized that she really did miss Arella. She didn't show it, but she was deeply saddened by the death.
Turning back to the hologram, he was surprised, it wasn't just showing one scene, it was showing Arella's life. Now she was 25-30.
As they watched, a sickness began to take hold of Arella's body. In the speed up video, they watched her grow weaker and more sickly. She was bedridden now. And apparently delirious. A few touches by Raven, and the video slowed down, they could hear what was happening. The doctors attending to Arella conferred quietly in the background, but what Beast Boy and Raven heard was Arella. She screaming in English.
"Raven! Raven, my daughter, child of my heart! Where are you? Why can I not find you? Why aren't you here?" Raven watched as her mother died without seeing her daughter again. Beast Boy watched Raven. She was sad. There were no tears. Not even a hint of liquid in her eyes, but he could the depression rolling off of her.
He couldn't even relate to what she had to be going through. Though his parents had died, he'd seen them often, gotten along with them, had fun times…even gotten to say good bye, in a way. But Raven hadn't had any of those things. The hologram shut off.
"Rae?" She didn't respond. Instead, she was staring at the spot where the picture of her mother had been. Slowly, Beast Boy got up and towards her. Gently, he reached out towards her. "Hey, are you OK?" The hand reached her shoulder. Raven drew back as soon as he touched her.
"Don't touch me." She stated. She grabbed another letter to read, but he noticed that her eyes weren't moving, she was just staring at the same point. "What are you still doing here? Go away." He sat stubbornly beside her.
"No. I won't. You're sad and upset and I won't leave you alone like that."
"I'm fine."
"Liar." She didn't reply, but kept pretending to read. Setting down the current letter, she picked up another one. "So...what are those about anyway?" Anything to keep her talking.
"Nothing important."
"If it wasn't important, you wouldn't be reading them." She threw the parchment down angrily.
"What is your deal? Why can't you just leave me alone!" Something exploded in the background, she sat down and closed her eyes. They opened again rapidly, when arms wrapped around her. Beast Boy had stood up and come behind her.
"'Cause. I care 'bout you Rae. I know you're upset. You're not fooling me." A tear slipped out from her eye. Her mask was starting to crack. Eyes closed again, she whispered so softly that Beast Boy had to concentrate to hear it.
"I…I just miss her…" His arms tightened around her.
"I know you do." She stood up, breaking the embrace.
"I admitted it. Now will you leave me alone?" Her voice wasn't nearly as strong as usual. It quavered slightly and was much softer.
"Nope. I'm not running. You're running enough for both of us." Attempting to ignore him, as well as his remark, she picked up an envelope. At least, she began to, before it was snatched out of her hands.
"Beast Boy!"
"Don't ignore me Raven. I don't like it."
"Get used to it." She tried to grab the letter, but he moved it out of her reach. He dropped he letter on the table. As she moved to get it, he caught her in another embrace.
"Rae, Raven, don't do this. Please, just open up to me. I wanna help." She looked at him, but didn't make any move to turn away from him.
"You're not doing a very good job of trying to help." He was starting to get frustrated. She kept refusing to let emotions out. He knew why, but he also knew it couldn't be healthy.
"That's not the help I mean, and you know it." She lowered her head to rest against his chest. The back of her mind noted that he'd grown over the years.
"I do…" She admitted. Her barriers were crumbling fast, but, she was so tired of keeping them up, she didn't care. Every thing was just getting to be too much. Her mother, the people of Azarath, Beast Boy…she wrapped her arms around him to return the embrace. If something blew up, she was too into the moment to notice.
Beast Boy smiled slightly as she hugged him. There was things she should be doing, but he was determined to let them have a few minutes, just to let her lean on him. Gather comfort while she could. Because he had a funny feeling that she would need it very soon.