Chap. 9

Do You?

"What, what's wrong?" Bart asked, his hand automatically going for his B.R.A.T. ring. "That." Brett replied, pointing right in front of them. Bart turned to see not a rampaging evil monster, but a bookshelf. However, it was that fact most of the books were pulled out into a pile that made it worth taking a second look at. "I take it you didn't leave it like this?" Bart asked, as he walked over to the pile. Bending down, he grabbed one of the books and looked over the cover. "The Tome of the Bone-Wizards of Tlear. You really read for fun don't you?" Bart asked. "Normally yes. But I didn't read any of these recently." The bat said, as he came over to examine the pile. "Maybe someone else left it like this." Bart suggested, stating the obvious. "No, the only other person that knows about this place is Sara, and she knows that these books can be dangerous. She'd never leave them like this." "Then I think we smell a rat." Bart said.

No sooner had the young boy spoken those words then a sound was heard on top of the bookcase, like something scraping across the wood. Both heroes looked up, only to see the last flicker of movement as whatever it was turned onto the next shelf. "After it!" Brett yelled, as he leapt to his feet. The bat began to run after the intruder, leaping up every few seconds trying to capture it. But no matter how fast the bat moved, the intruder continued to elude him. But then a cable shot out from behind the bat and up into the shelf. There was a surprised squeak and then the cable retracted, wrapped around the tiny intruder. "I was… gonna think of that." Brett panted, as he turned around. "Right." Bartman said, as the cable fully retracted into his gauntlet, dropping the intruder into his outstretched hand. Instantly the boy's hand clamped down tight on whatever it was, only to loosen slightly as Bartman's face took on an element of surprise. In his hand, he held an actual rat, as though it was proof of his earlier prediction. However, there was one thing about this rat that was quite special, which Brett noticed immediately upon seeing it- it's fur was a bright green.

"Beast Boy!" both heroes yelled out, as the rat squeezed out of Bartman's hand and demorphed on the ground. "Uh, hi guys?" Beast Boy tried nervously, looking like he wanted to turn into something invisible. "How did you get in here?" Brett asked angrily. "With the key?" the green one replied. "You know what I mean. Now answer the question." The bat pressed. "Well, um, you remember when you told me about that spell book you had that had a spell to make me irresistible to women?" "Yeah." "Well, I knew it wasn't in your room, so since then I've kinda been a fly on the wall, hoping you'd say where you keep it." "You invaded this place for that?" Bart asked in amazement. "No! Well, ok at first, but I came in now for something else." "And what would that be, a video game spell?" Brett snapped. "I-I wanted to research wizards." Beast Boy replied. "Why would you… oh." The bat said in realization. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." "I didn't mean to leave it like this, but I couldn't fid anything, and then I heard you two coming and well.." the green one finished.

Brett sighed and said, "You were stupid to come in here in the first place. You have no idea what kind of magic is locked away in these books. But since you did come in here for a halfway good reason, I'll let it go." "You will?" both BB and Bartman said in surprise. "If…. You put all these books back in order and then help us do research." Brett said. "Ok, I guess that's fair. Who are we researching?" BB asked. "Three guesses and they all begin with R." Bartman replied. "Get to work and we'll tell you what we've found when you join us." Brett said, as he and Bartman turned to go. But as they turned, there was a shuffling noise behind them, and as they turned, they saw a green octopus sitting on the floor, shoving books back into the shelf at an unbelievable rate. Within seconds, the multi-armed creature had shelved all of the books in the proper order. BB morphed back to normal and said to the astonished pair, "So can we start?"

Two hours later, the trio sat in a deep section of the library, examining piles of books. The group had taken several wizard history books from deep within the library, hoping to find some information on Rorek. But so far, their search had been fruitless. All the books either had no information on Rorek, or said what was already known. "Anything yet?" Brett asked tiredly to Bart. "Nada." Bart replied, equally exhausted. "How long have we been at this?" "No idea." The bat replied. "Hey BB, you got the…" But the bat stopped himself. Ever since they'd arrived in this part of the library, Beast Boy had completely shut himself off, focusing only on the task at hand. Beast Boy sat alone with a huge pile of books, going through each one with greater attention then the bat would've thought possible. "He's really into this, isn't he?" Bart noticed. "I know. I've never seen him this intense." Brett agreed. "I didn't think Rorek got under his skin this much." Bart said. Brett gave no answer; he simply nodded and stroked his chin. "Uh-oh, you've got the thinking look on your face again." Bart said. "What is it?" "Not sure yet." Brett replied. "Keep looking." The bat said, as he got up and walked over to where the green was sitting.

"Find anything?" Brett asked, as he took a look over BB's shoulder. "No. You really need to get a bigger library." The green one replied. "I thought I had a pretty good one here." Brett answered. "Yeah, well there's nothing here on him. How is that pretty good?" Beast Boy snapped. Brett was a bit taken back, but replied, "Why are you so intent on finding out he's evil?" "Because it's the truth." Beast Boy replied. "Is it? Or is that what you want to believe?" Brett asked. "What are you talking about?" "I think you have another reason for doing this." Brett replied. "Oh, and what would that be?" "The same one you proved when Malichor was around. You were the only who tried to coax Raven out of her room. When that didn't work, you snuck in. You tried to comfort her afterwards, when we were all on eggshells about it." "What does Raven have to do with any of this?" Beast Boy asked. "Everything to me, and I think everything to you. Except it's a fatherly duty for me. As for you, I think it's the secret admirer duty. I think ever since Terra, you've noticed something in Raven, some kind of reflection of yourself, because you both know about pain now. So I need to ask you- do you care about her as more then a friend or am I wrong?"

Beast Boy's mouth fell open, but from shock or admittance Brett couldn't tell. What he could tell however was that a spark had gone off in the boy's eyes when he'd said it. It's true. The bat decided there. But he didn't get a chance to test it, as Bart's voice rang out, "You guys better look at this." Beast boy leapt at the chance and ran over. Brett followed, though he had other things on his mind then Rorek at the moment. "What is it?" Beast Boy asked. "I found this journal from a wizard in Rorek's homeland. Take a look." Bart said. Both shape shifter and bat read the words on the page. As they read, Beast Boy's eyes widened, while Brett's narrowed. Finally, they came to the finish. "Are you sure about this?" Brett asked. "Sure. It was written by a wizard that protected the town. It's a first hand account." Brett nodded, and turned to Beast Boy. "You know what we have to do now." The green one nodded. "Let's go." He said.