Disclaimer: You guys don't need any sort of disclaimer from me. You already owe me for that interview with Scorpio. Yeah, yeah...I had to tell her that Raven read her journal. I swear she transformed into a scorpion and bit me on the toe. It hurts! Then again, I do owe you for that crappy romance in the beginning. I'm really really sorry. I can't write romance for crap unless I plan it out.

Anyway, I think my Fic is getting pretty good. For those of you awaiting a kiss, it will happen if I get enough reviews, I promise you. So tell your buds about this fic, if you all love it so much. .

Chapter 20: Voices

She had seen Robin's face, and Starfire in the background, and Saphirian torches. They were here with her, but she had not heard what Robin had said, or his location in the box. She pressed the communicator to her chest in pain from her wrist, which had swelled worse from all of the transforming.

Don't hide what is in your heart, Rella, let me out...

Her eyes went wide. No no no no no! Not this, not this! Please not this...

Just give up. You can't stay mortal forever...just let me out and you will be happy... do not you want the intimacy you long for?

"No!" She screamed in her thoughts, closing her eyes and holding her breath. "No, I don't! Get out!"

I will never leave you, Rella. I'm here all the time. When you write, when you smile, when you cry, when others look at that body you've got. It's a waste. The 8th house is your home... The same velvet voice spook to her, smooth and intense, ripening her mind with thoughts of her family, secrets she's kept, mysteries of Saphiria...

"Stop!" She screamed in her head. "Stop stop stop!"

I will never leave you, dear Rella. I am who you are. Your blood, your mind, your ambitions, your body. You are not meant to be human, Rella. You were meant to be a scorpion. Transform...transform and become who and what you are.

Her mark was stinging like the flames of the sun, her mind was racing. It had to be mind control from Jet or Torin. Someone who had here this close to Saphirian things. Someone...

Her mind tilted the room grew hazy. She went blind and curled to the floor.

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Beast Boy, though small, would not be able to change his color. The carpet was red and he was green. He was as noticable as a walking talking Christmas.

So far he had not seen anyone. And even if he did find Jet, what would he say to him? The girl that you love wants you to come with us on our historic escape, with me? Did I mention that I love her too?

He transformed into a rabbit, a smaller one than usual. He would need to hear voices and steps, and then maybe transform into something less noticable. He heard them, steps and voices, muffled but clear enough to recognize.

"You let her go! To hell with you!" It was Slade, speaking as loud as he had ever spoken. Beast Boy had never seen him angry before. And when he was angry, he always had a smooth voice.

"Master! Please, it was not my fault. Transformation is complicated--" It was Jet's voice, afraid and vague as he had seen in his dreams. The dreams him and Scorpio shared. The dreams when he looked at her...he tightened his paw.

"Torin warned me of your type, Damn you! How could you let her escape? We had a deal!"

"Slade," Jet said angerly to him from around the corner. "I am no body's pet! Do you hear me you bloody bastard? I don't have to listen to anyone! Especially not a madman who has reincarnated after death! I take orders from no one! Do you understand me? I'll kick your mad arse back to hell!"

There was a flash of light, and then Slade's voice, something... The hallways got brighter and Beast Boy heard the cry of a bird. Of course. The phoenix. How stupid would Jet have to be to transform into a phoenix underwater? Or how angry?

Slade came running past the hallway, opposite the direction of Beast Boy, not even looking at the still rabbit. Jet, now a 7 foot long, fire winged bird, came flying after him, setting the carpet and the walls on fire. Beast Boy transformed back into a human, realizing that they weren't going to notice him in their affair already. How would he reach Jet? And what would he tell him?

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Tell the world your secrets, Scorpion, tell them what you've known...

Scorpio could feel her hands trembling, her body becoming numb, the Sagittarius Root was killing her, that or something else. She had known... She had known...

The world tilted, her screams echoed into the hallways, her stomach empty, her eyes shut. She hated everyone at that moment, her parents, Nem, the Titans, Jet, everyone...

Spill the burdens of your heart! Spill them like you've misled your curse, putting others under your spell...you and your scorpion ways. You will transform now, forever, die into the depths, an ocean of tears awaits you, dear Rella.

"Scorpio!" Raven's voice, shrill and caked with worry. "Scorpio! Robin, she's dying!"

"Get away from me!" Scorpio hissed in whisper. "Get away from me! Trickoni au bess! Beddi moit, beddi moit!" She hated them, she hated them more than anything she had ever hated before. Why wouldn't they leave?

"What is wrong with our friend?" Starfire asked Raven, eyeing the squirming girl. "Is she not in pain?"

"She's dying, Starfire. I need Aquarian Birch, from there, over there!" Raven crouched down next to Scorpio and pointed to a pile of dark wood. "Hurry," she told them. "I might be able to save her."

"I'm a liar, a liar! A dirty liar! I've lied! I've lied to everyone I've ever known! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Scorpio was screaming at the top of her lungs as Raven held her squirming arms together. Her voice was cracked from its lack of usage. She had never been this loud in all of her life. "Let me go! I'm a Scorpion! Let me go! I've lied to you all!"

"Keep her quiet," Robin ordered. "If the fire spinner shots us here we can't escape." Robin crouched down next to Raven, staring at Scorpio who kept squirming and grunting and whining like a little child.

"That's kind of hard to do, Robin," Raven said, anger rising in her voice. "She's dying."

Starfire returned with some of the dark logs and placed them next to Raven, her green eyes dotted with tears of worry.

"Where's Beast Boy! I should have lifted the curse! I should have done something! And when I felt him, when I embraced him; I knew he was there! I'm a liar! A dirty liar!" Scorpio stopped squirming and calmed down. "Please! Please kill me off, rid me of this pain! Send me to Nem! Before I die, I want to see Nem! I want to apologize to my dear Nem!"

Raven took the birch and broke it, emiting a large amount of orange powder to come out. She dipped her hand in the powder and smeared it across Scorpio's forehead.

"Saphiria, biete lel Scorpions, kedima lel hyial bint, triesta!" Raven recited the verse as best she could, remembering it word for word from the Scorpion Destiny, Norians 5:20

Scorpio's eyes closed calmingly, an extremely strange, small smile on her face, her body returning its color. She stopped squirming.

"Is...did...is she dead?" Robin asked cautiously, his hands shivering.

Raven shook her head, her face sober. "She'll be OK for now. But we have to get her out of here. It's not safe for her to be this close to Saphirian things. Someone is trying to kill her."

Starfire was silent, feeling her tears come down her cheeks.

"We have to find Slade first," Robin protested. "It's better that way. He might be the one trying to kill her. If we stop him it--"

"No," Raven said simply. "I have to take her back to the tower. She'll die if she stays here."

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Beast Boy ran after Jet, dodging the fire he was giving off.

"Jet! Jet wait!" He ran faster.

It was no use. Jet would not, or could not, hear him. He was squaking loudly and painfully, snapping at Slade as he burned the red carpets. He needed something to wake him...something like...water!

Beast Boy transformed into a rhino, running infront of Jet and slamming the wall with his horn. Water splashed the phoenix as it squeled in pain and melted back to the form of a human body, a burnt uniform covering his body. Beast Boy transformed back into a human and stuffed the hole with some large dark logs he had found. Slade was no where to be seen.

It was strange, looking at Jet lying on the floor. He had wanted to kill him, but now he looked so harmless and lost. And his clothes? When he had read about Saphiria, it had said that when a human would transform, it would leave all things human behind it. Why was Jet still in Slade's apprentice uniform?

He walked up to him and crouched down next to his head, looking at his closed eyes. He shook his shoulders.

"Uhm...Jet...Jet? Jet, wake up!" Jet would not answer.

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