DC – Wow, chapter three. It seems like just yesterday I was writing chapter two…Oh, wait. It was yesterday. For someone who's made their excuses for infrequent updates, I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time working on getting the next chapter out…Thank you all for supporting me, and I hope you're enjoying the story.
Disclaimer – I don't own Teen Titans, and since I got evicted from Mumbo's hat, I've been living on the streets. Well, in a house, which is on a street. That counts, right?
Chapter Three - All's Fair (In Love and War)
Beast Boy's first port of call was Raven's room. Normally, he'd be cautious in the extreme about going in, but since the room's owner was holding his hand tightly and standing confusingly close to him, he wasn't so worried. Raven obligingly opened the door, and they entered. At least the room hadn't changed, thought the Green Teen. The sun still struggled to get in, and the room was still dark and foreboding. Beast Boy switched on the light, then switched it off again when he realised it had been painted black. Bookshelves dominated the walls, and where there were not books there was various arcane junk. Scrolls, pieces of tablet, statues of Ravens, strange jewels, an hourglass…Beast Boy focused on the books, and Raven perched on the edge of the bed.
"OK…" he mumbled. "Somewhere, in all these hundreds of thousands of pages, there has to be a book that says what's happened to you." He picked a book randomly from the shelf. "These hundreds of thousands of pages with tiny, tiny, cramped writing…" He winced, and put the book back on the shelf. Half the spines were blank, some had writing along them that he couldn't read, and a very small few were in English. This was going to be a lot harder than he had imagined it would be.
"Raven. Are there any books here about spells?" He asked absentmindedly.
Raven nodded and gestured at the walls. Fully half the books flew off the shelves, piling themselves around Beast Boy. He looked out of his impromptu book-fort.
"OK, I…think that helped. What about books with things that could make people feel stuff?" Raven waved her hand again, and the books rearranged themselves into smaller piles, as the unwanted tomes returned to their resting places. Beast Boy nodded thoughtfully. It did seem to be working. He frowned slightly, as he figured out how to phrase the next part without hurting the girl's feelings.
"How about…books with people that could do those things?" Pages fluttered, beating like dry wings as the books flew around him, their numbers diminished to just a dozen books.
"Books with people that are really real?" Six books.
"Cool." He kneeled, and scooped up the books. Some were pretty thick, but he reckoned he didn't have to read all of every single book. He carried them over to where Raven was perched on the edge of the bed, and dropped them onto the soft material. He didn't exactly feel comfortable, and being alone with Raven in her room near her bed wasn't helping his resolve not to do anything, but Raven was a lot smarter than him, and she probably knew the books like the back of her hands. The sooner they found something, the sooner he could help her get back to normal. He sat down near her nervously.
"So, uh, Raven, could you help me find them in these books?" He asked timidly. She nodded, and scooted up next to him. It was all he could do not to leap from where he sat and take shelter in one of the many dark corners of the room. She picked up one of the books, regarding it like an old friend, and Beast Boy realised it probably was. Raven usually cherished her privacy and her solitude.
"I'll help you look, BB. But…" She turned to him with troubled eyes, the candlelight glinting off the charka stone on her forehead.
"Yeah, Raven?" He asked, gently. He couldn't stand to see her looking so distressed.
"…You do love me, don't you? You aren't just trying to get rid of me, are you? Because…" She lowered her head, looking sadly down at the bed. Something tugged at Garfield Logan's heart strings, and he did something impulsive.
He hugged her to him tightly, soothing her distraught temperament with whispered words. He stroked her back, and once again he was surprised by how warm she really was. She held on to him as if she depended on it, and whilst he had envisioned it in daydreams, he knew that this was not Raven as she would or should be. He sighed, and tucked her hair back behind her ears.
"Raven, I love you. That's why I have to do this." He hated himself for what he was about to do. "Don't you trust me, Raven?" She looked at him with wide eyes.
"BB…Of…of course I do…" She stammered. She smiled again, and everything was once again alright. Apart from the bit where she was probably under some weird spell. She snuggled against him, he tensed a little despite himself, and she opened the book once again.
"Let's start with Mythical Beasts…"
Knowledge waved a hand experimentally in front of Raven's face.
"Hello?" Raven ignored her. Knowledge nodded thoughtfully, and jotted this down in a notebook. The dark-caped 'original' hadn't been any use since Beast Boy had confessed his feelings for Raven. Still, at least he had surmised that this wasn't a natural way for Raven to act, and was following the correct avenue of pursuit. He was smarter than she'd given him credit for…Knowledge shook her head firmly to shake such thoughts from her concentration. This twisted version of Nevermore was even starting to affect her own secluded sanctuary. Near the entrance, the twisted, rambling bookshelves were beginning to straighten and organise, and she could have sworn she'd seen a couple of Mills and Boone novels that shouldn't ever have been there. It was likely that the magical infection was taking a long time to penetrate her sanctuary because Knowledge, to use her most common name, wasn't technically an emotion. Raven had created her to act as an aide, a guide, the organiser and the keeper of the other half of her mind. She had three functions. To learn, to store, and to recall. Right now, she needed to recall. Knowledge closed her eyes, and removed her thick round glasses. Memory opened her eyes, and flew along the dark and brooding rows of books. Raven had read those six books, and like anything Raven had seen or read or thought or said or tasted or touched or smelled or heard, to name but a few, it was stored in here, the Library of Nevermore. And since she was currently filling her role as memory, she knew exactly where it was. She even had a fairly good idea of who had done this to her. She stopped at a section of shelf that seemed to the casual observer, in this case Laziness, to be no different to any other section of shelf. She plucked the memory of the book from it's resting place, and began to read out loud.
Beast Boy looked over at Raven inquisitively as she stopped reading out the book's description of Dryads, and began to leaf through the pages, looking for something.
"Raven, what've you found?" He asked, curiously.
"I've just remembered something from this book that might be what we're looking for…" she answered, thumbing through the dry and dusty sheets. She made a satisfied 'Hah!' under her breath, and triumphantly pointed out an entry that started halfway down the page.
The Hitman returned to his apartment, throwing his equipment down onto the sofa, and throwing his leather Jacket over the back of a chair. He flung himself into a free seat, and reached for the remote to his TV. That had been easier than he had expected. Probably a good thing he'd kept the suitcase. He channel-surfed for a few minutes, until an advert caught his eye, and he scoffed in disgust. A compilation CD by a famous music-production group, entitled 'Be My Valentine'. The cover art featured a chubby-faced little child in a loose toga, clutching a hopelessly anachronistic bow in his podgy hand. Small white wings sprouted from the shoulder-blade region, and looked about as aerodynamic as a sack of bricks.
He hated it when people felt the need to bring out the baby pictures. He'd grown up a lot since 700 BC. He flexed his large, broad shoulders, and clenched his tanned, scarred hands. Yeah.
"Cupid, otherwise known as Eros, otherwise known as Amor, is first documented in Ancient Greek literature from 700 BC, Heriod's Theogeny. He is the son of Gods, although which two Gods it actually was is contested by people with too much time on their hands. He is the personification of love, and has a bow and quiver of arrows. Anyone struck by one of those arrows will fall instantly and deeply in love with whoever they first see. Notable wielders of the arcane arts from both Azerath and Earth have seen him and his works, and often not that those he targets never know that they have been hit by the child-like God of Love." Beast Boy read. He marked the page with a bookmark, and nodded. "Sounds like the kind of guy we could be looking for." He remarked.
"OK Raven, we should get going before the others notice we're gone. I'm going to get a couple of bits from my room, you do the same, and I'll meet you in the garage."
"You mean it'll just be the two of us, beloved?" She asked, smiling broadly. Beast Boy hesitated. He had considered enlisting the others, but he wasn't entirely sure they believed him. Besides, this was something he wanted to do for Raven by himself. Love makes fools of us all, and stuff.
"Yes." He admitted. Raven sighed happily.
"How romantic…" she said breathily. He backed away towards the door before she could pounce on him again.
"I'll see you in ten, OK?" He said hurriedly, and darted into the corridor, walking as quickly as he could to his room. He felt bad about what he'd done to her in there, playing with her emotions like that. It felt like a betrayal. On the other hand, it had worked…And he could still feel her in his arms. He wasn't sure if that was normal or not, but at the moment it felt as if his brain was operating through a thick layer of pink fuzz. He grabbed a few essentials, and dumped them in a rucksack he kept under his bed before grabbing a pen and paper and scrawling a note for Cyborg.
"Following a lead to help Raven. If I'm not back in a week, back up my save games." He muttered under his breath as he wrote. It was important to get your priorities right in situations like this. He left the note on his bed, where Cyborg was sure to see it when he came looking, and checked that a couple of other things he needed were still in the rucksack where he'd left them before making his way to the garage.
In the main room of Titans Tower, Cyborg and Starfire were watching Robin anxiously, occasionally exchanging worried glances with each other. Robin noticed this with his Robin-senses of I-don't-have-any-superpowers-honest and frowned beneath his mask. Since he was wearing a mask and was facing away from them, this went rather unnoticed.
"I told you guys, I'm fine. I'm not going to freak out or anything." He grumbled, staring out of the bay window. Starfire hesitated, then stepped up to join him.
"It is not that we do not believe you, Robin. We are just…Septic when it comes to you and Slade."
There was an awkward silence.
"I think she means 'sceptic' Cyborg said eventually, but he got the distinct impression that Robin wasn't listening to a word he said. He was looking thoughtfully at the Tameranian Princess instead, his favourite hobby after fighting crime and brooding.
"Star…I know you've not lived on Earth your entire life, and some of our words and ways are still strange to you, but…"
"Yes, Robin?" The red-headed girl asked politely.
"Don't look, but does that cloud above the city bank look like Slade to you?"
Starfire turned instinctively to look for the cloud, only to be pushed to the ground by Robin, who had his hand over her eyes.
"Don't look!" He hissed. "He'll know we're onto him!"
Cyborg scratched his head. This was going to take a little more time…
Down in the garage, Raven waited for her Garfield, listening to her heart beating faster at the thought of the two of them together alone, away from the tower. Garfield was so romantic and sweet and brave, she couldn't believe she'd ever been so mean and sarcastic and rude to him and about him. She'd have to apologise about that to her green-skinned Romeo when she had the chance…She heard footsteps, and a familiar thrill when she heard his voice calling her name…She stepped out of the shadows and into his line of vision. He looked so dependable with that serious expression that she almost wanted to melt…He had a rucksack slung over one shoulder. She had only brought a few things herself, but had stored them in a pocket dimension for the convenience. He looked around shiftily, and took her by the hand.
"This way." He whispered, leading her towards the dark back of the garage where the broken gadgets and half-finished technology was stored. He led her around the back of the Cy-Cow Cyborg had built as a decoy when those flying saucers had been stealing cattle, and stopped by a shape covered in a white tarpaulin.
"Here we are." He said in a low, reverential voice, and pulled the sheet off dramatically.
DC – Chapter three finished! My eyes are burning, but it's stupid O' clock in the morning, so I guess it's my own silly fault. I wanted to get this chapter up now because I have a friend coming down to visit me and my housemates for the next few days, so I doubt I'll be able to work on the story until Sunday at the earliest. He's a good writer, so if you like Evangelion or Digimon, you could do a lot worse than to check out ArchangelUK. (plug, plug). Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed so far, it's really nice of you to do so. Let me know what you think of the latest chapter!
Till then, Peace Out!
DC