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Sapphire Bullets 2 – What happened next
"Raven!" Beast Boy gasped, all his misgivings and worries forgotten and replaced by entirely new worries and fears. He knelt down beside her, cradling her head in his lap. Her cloak fluttered to the floor and lay still, and he looked her over. It was odd…It had looked as if something had hit her, knocked her down, but there were no marks, no holes, nothing to indicate she had been hit. Which could well mean it was some psychic thing. Just like Robin had shown him, he felt for her pulse on her neck. His fingertips glided across her pale skin, searching for the right place, and he was amazed. She always looked as if she'd be cold, but she seemed pretty warm. Maybe it was a fever? He wasn't the right person for this sort of thing! His free hand fumbled for his communicator, but paused when he found her pulse. It was beating strong and evenly.
"Raven?" He asked, worry still evident in his voice. "Raven! Can you hear me? Robin, someone, come in!" He pleaded, both to her and to his communicator.
"Beast Boy, what's wrong?" Crackled Robin's voice, and he tore his gaze away from his fallen secret love.
"It's Raven! She just collapsed or something!"
"I'll be right there!" Robin promised, shutting off the communicator. It shouldn't take long for the other Titans to get here, and Beast Boy looked worriedly towards the main door, his fingers still feeling the calm thud-thud of Raven's pulse.
It was like touching an electric fence when he felt a hand over his own.
Raven was drowning in a sea of pink. It washed through Nevermore like a tidal wave, the barren landscape and bleak trees being transformed into fields and blossoms.
"I think I'm going to be sick." She announced, wringing out her cape, which was now pink at the hem. She looked around at the landscape with distaste. If anything, it was eerier now than it had been before. Evidently, Love hadn't been talking much with Taste.
"Wait, Love? Why did I say that?" She wondered aloud.
"Who else could it have been? Knowledge?" Sneered a voice behind her. Raven half turned, then her hands were covered with black globes of energy as she prepared to fight.
"Rage." She greeted her least favourite emotion coldly.
"Raven." The red-cloaked girl nodded disdainfully, and then looked around with a dark expression on her face. Darker than usual, that is.
"Nauseating, isn't it." She remarked, leaning against a tree and making a disgusted noise in the back of her throat as the pink shockwave hit it, turning it from a cracked and withered tree into something from a Disney movie.
"Not my style." Raven admitted guardedly, not relaxing yet. "What's happening to me? What's Love done?"
"Oh, please. That sickening little miss couldn't have done this even if she wanted to. This is outside interference. Doesn't that just make you angry?" She smiled charmingly, which was really quite sinister.
"Not really." Raven said through gritted teeth, grudgingly relaxing out of combat stance. "But I do want to know more. Where's Knowledge?"
"Right here." Came another voice, from behind her again. Raven sighed, and turned again to confront the yellow-caped girl with the thick glasses.
"I want answers. Short ones." She said, remembering which aspect of herself she was talking to.
"You were shot."
"…Longer than that." Raven clarified.
Beast Boy looked down, not sure how to deal with this sudden, wonderful change. Raven had placed her hand over his own, and was looking up at him adoringly.
"Beast Boy…" She whispered, blushing. He didn't think she could...
"Raven! You're OK?" He asked, shaking off his stupefaction and trying hard to concentrate on the health and wellbeing of his team-mate. "What happened to you?"
"I'm fine, BB." Raven said, smiling. "I got shot, but I'm OK now."
BB? She was giving him a nickname, and blushing, and holding his hand? What was going on here?
"You got what?" He demanded incredulously. Raven sighed, and leaned back against his lap.
"I got shot, I think…No, wait…" Her brow furrowed. "I can't remember anymore. Does it matter?"
Beast Boy tried to unglue his tongue from the top of his mouth. Something definitely wasn't right here.
"Raven, are you sure you're feeling all right?" He asked cautiously. Suddenly, she twisted around to face him, kneeling up and gazing into his eyes with an intensity that was actually quite intimidating.
"I'm more than alright, darling! When I woke up and saw you over me, looking so worried, I realised how easy it would be to tell you how much I love you!" She exclaimed. Beast Boy became uncomfortablly aware of arms around his neck.
"Uh…." He said, intelligently. The door to the tower slid open, and the other Titans dashed in, ready to deal with whatever emergency had befallen their friend. There was an awkward pause, during which Beast Boy mouthed 'help me' at the other Titans. Robin dropped the medical supply case on his foot.
"Ow." He said quietly.
"Dudes, it's not what it looks like! I can explain!" He paused. "Well, I can't, but…"
Raven kissed him on the cheek, and Cyborg grinned and started to saunter away, whistling jauntily.
"Cyborg, you're not helping!" yelled Beast Boy as Raven pushed him to the floor for a cuddle. He was scared. This was wrong.
"….So in summation, I was shot with some kind of magical force, delivered inside a bullet. The magic healed my wounds and erased short-term memory of the shot, but I got enchanted with a 'love' spell that made me fall in love with the first person I saw."
"Which just to happened to be Beast Boy, who you already had feelings for." Interjected Knowledge. Raven shot her a dirty look, but it was futile denying it here, inside her own mind. She elected to carry on instead.
"…Thank you. In addition to that, since my emotions have been personified, and due to my parentage, there were side effects. I'm not really me, I'm a manifestation of myself as I should be, because my conscious mind has been taken over by the spell, which affected Nevermore."
A pink-tinged wind whipped around Raven and her Emotions, plucking the four-eyed Ravens from the sky, whirling them around in the slipstream until they flew out as Bluebirds, or leapt onto the blossoming, heart-achingly lovely trees as Squirrels, which scampered up to the girls, looking up at them trustingly until Rage kicked them with a savage degree of satisfaction. Raven chose to ignore that.
"But why hasn't Love tried anything? She's been pretty persistent lately."
Knowledge polished her glasses.
"Well, I'd guess that this veneer of 'false true love' is blocking out her voice. It's artificial, and like all imitations, it tries too hard to look genuine. It's too loud, if you like. It could be that she wants to pursue Garfield by her own means, in our own way, which this spell certainly isn't."
There was a shriek of pain and protest from over the nearest flower-strewn hill.
"…Or, it could be that your sense of Honour has her in a headlock." The yellow robed emotion concluded. Raven nodded, and jerked her head back at Rage.
"And what is she doing here?" She asked.
Rage chuckled, her four glowing red demonic eyes more out of place than normal.
"I'm always waiting in the wings, Raven, you know that. Besides, you'll need me this time round." Raven whirled around, studying the face of her darkest side.
"…No, I don't think so." She said calmly. Rage sneered, and stalked away.
"So, Knowledge, how do we beat this thing?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'll have to check through our memories. In the meantime, there's not a lot else we can do."
"In that case, I'll help you. It's better than being stuck in Disney Land." Raven sighed.
Robin rewound the security footage of the main lounge earlier on that day, then pressed play again.
"Beast-Boy wasn't lying, this isn't like Raven at all…Three-thirty-three, normal awkward silence and repressed feelings all around. Thee-thirty-six, she's all over him like you at a barbeque."
"Funny, though." Remarked Cyborg, grinning. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd noticed the way the Changeling and the sorceress acted around each other. Robin rewound the video again, his eyes watching the screen intently.
"Any changes?" He asked. Cyborg looked down at the other active monitor in the security hub. Beast Boy was nervously pacing the infirmary floor, and Starfire was sat down next to the bed on which Raven floated.
"Nope. BB's still wearing a hole in the floor and Raven's still sleeping off that drug you gave her." He reported. Robin nodded, and continued to scan backwards frame by frame. Just before Raven fell, he gasped, and looked grimly at the screen. Cyborg craned forward to see what he was looking at.
"Cyborg, do you see that?" He asked, urgently. Cyborg enhanced the magnification in his artificial eye. Just there in the window pane, it was just possible to make out what could possibly be a hole in the window, like a shot had been fired through it. Then again, it could just be a stain on the glass, or a reflection from the bay, or even a smear on the monitor. Nevertheless…
"I think I do, Robin." He said quietly. Robin sighed, and slumped backwards.
"Good, I'm not just imagining things." He said, relieved. "Slade is controlling the clouds."
Cyborg blinked. "Huh?"
"There, you see? That cloud there looks just like Slade's mask!" Robin pointed to the screen, directing Cyborg's attention to an indistinct, unremarkable fluffy blur.
"Uh..." Cyborg said, quietly.
Beast Boy's communicator beeped, and he opened it, tearing his eyes away from Raven.
"What is it, Cyborg?" he asked, glad of the distraction.
"Yo, man. All her medical scans are normal, and we've not found anything on the security tape. Sorry Casanova, but we've got no leads here. It looks like it's going to take a while, anyway." There was a crash and a clatter from behind Cyborg, and a green and red figure ran past the screen. Beast Boy shot Cyborg a questioning look, and the tin man had the decency to look embarrassed on the Boy Wonder's behalf.
"Robin's having one of his little S-word moments." He explained. Beast Boy rolled his eyes.
" Figures it would happen now…Thanks for trying, dude."
"No problem, loverboy."
Beast Boy shook his head and turned off his communicator. Starfire looked over at him with concern.
"There is no news?" She asked. Beast Boy shook his head.
"Nope." Starfire looked at him with a puzzled expression as he took the other chair, and sat next to Raven's bed.
"Please, I do not understand. Am I meant to be joyous or sad that Raven has confessed she has the feelings for you? At the moment I am…simply confused. I believed that you felt that Raven was your Brechi'Lana"
Sometimes, Beast Boy was fairly sure that Starfire was just making these words up, but at least in this case, her meaning was clear. He glanced over at Raven's face. Her eyes were closed and her face was calm, and serene. She was asleep, so why not confess?
"I do, Star. I love her, and I want her to be my…uh…Brekkie Llama. But…this isn't Raven. She'd never act like this, and even if she doesn't remember anything being wrong, I do. Raven doesn't have feelings for me." He finished firmly. Starfire looked at him sideways, a little sad. She could see the truth, but perhaps this was something her friend had to sort out. She had to agree, though. This was most un-Raven like…
"Oh, Star, I almost forgot. Robin's having one of his S-Word moments, you might wanna go help him out." Beast Boy mentioned, remembering. Starfire sprang into the air, and began to fly out. She paused by the door.
"Friend Beast Boy, are you sure you will be the O.K here alone?"
"She's asleep, Star. I can handle it." He said, firmly. The alien girl nodded hesitantly, and flew out to help Cyborg restrain Robin. Beast Boy heard the door click closed behind her, but did not turn around.
"Raven…" he whispered to himself. "What's wrong with you?"
"I already told you, beloved, nothing's wrong with me." Raven said out loud, a smile gracing her delicate features. Beast Boy jolted.
"I didn't know you were awake." He said lamely.
"I only just woke up." She explained, perching on the side of the bed and looking at him lovingly. Somehow, that made something snap inside of the usually chilled Beast Boy. He reached out to her, and touched his gloved finger to her lips.
"Wait right here, and don't say a word." He whispered. She shivered slightly at the touch, but nodded. With an inrush of air, Garfield changed into a fly, buzzing up and around behind the cameras that covered the Titan's medical ward, turning into a rat on top of each one and pulling out the cables. When the room was debugged to his satisfaction, and secure in the knowledge that the others would be too distracted to notice for a few minutes, he resumed his human form and approached Raven again, who still had the same adoring expression on her face. He took her hand, and helped her to her feet.
"Raven, I love you. I have for a long time. But…" She sighed happily and leaned in closer to him, and he politely but firmly pushed her face away from his own, even though he wanted nothing else more. Then he continued.
"But this isn't you. Even if no-one else believes something happened to you, I know what I saw. So, even if I might regret it later…What am I saying, I'm regretting it now…I'm not going to take advantage of you, or anything. I'm gonna find a way to get you back to normal, even if normal is where you don't like me. I owe you that much." He pulled her gently towards the ward's door.
"Maybe one of the books in your room has something that can help us." He said thoughtfully.
"Oh, Beast Boy, you're so kind, and brave, and thoughtful, and…"
Well, there we go. Chapter two! People thought it was good enough to carry it on, so I cracked right on and got the second chapter out in record time (For me.). My time is going to be a bit tight sometimes with University, my part time job, and generally being a procrastinating English-slacker type, but I'll do my best to get the next chapter up as soon as I can! Please review if you can, they reassure me that people are reading what I write and give me the boost I need to continue. Please criticize, too. We all have room for improvement, no? Next chapter – the quest starts in earnest!
Till then, Peace Out.
DC