Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or the Beauty and the Beast
Author's Note: Okay, got a few things to say, first of all, sorry about not updating. Since this an even chapter Applehappy would usually do this, but I got carried away and wrote half of this, Applehappy was going to finish this, but there was some confusion when she went away on a trip. So I wrote this. I also want to say sorry, cause I said things might start to get different at this chapter but things didn't end up that way. Maybe in nine. Also, thanks mdizzle for telling me about the fact I wasn't accepting anonymous review, I didn't even know. I fixed it though, and also the scene you mentioned in your review of chapter 6 is in this chapter.THANK YOU everyone for the reviews! I hope you all like this chapter.
Inside a tower room at the very east most part of the castle; a tall black girl was bent over a desk in deep concentration. She chewed the end of her quill, thinking. She mumbled to herself a bit and then, scratched a few notes down. She held up her song to examine it and decided there was still along way to go. She suddenly felt very discouraged by how little progress she had made.
"Besides, " she said to her self with a frown, "It's not like there is anyone new to listen to it." But she was suddenly broken from her concentration by a shout from down the hall; she stuck her head out the door to see what it was. To her horror, zipping towards at startlingly fast speed were two small boys in matching outfits, one sitting on the other's shoulders, who were shouting,
"A muchacha, a muchacha!"
The young woman moved her head out of the way just in time, but came striding out of her room her towards the pair when they stopped,
" Mas y Menos, what are you talking about?" she scolded, "What girl? You two better not be spreading stories again!"
"Hola Bumble Bee!" they said in unison when they saw her. And just as she was about question them again, Korianne came running up to them, her eyes sparkling.
"Dear, Bumble Bee! This is most wonderful news I have to be sharing with you! There now currently resides another girl in the castle! We now have someone else to do the 'girl talk' with." Kori beamed at her while Bumble Bee blinked in astonishment.
Raven was still meditating when a knock came to her door. She dropped to the bed and went to open it. Standing before her was the red haired girl from before holding a tray of drinks, and a taller girl with dark skin and black hair. They pushed their way in before Raven could say a word.
"Hello new friend!" The red haired girl said cheerfully handing Raven a mug. "I am called Korriane, but I would also be pleased if you called me Kori!" Raven was taken aback by how cheerful this girl was. Raven could never imagine acting this way, certainly not at this moment.
"My name is Raven" she said glumly.
"Well Raven, I'm Bumble Bee." Raven looked at the other girl, who hadn't spoken up until this point. A glimmer of a smile flashed on Raven's face,
"You all have very strange names here." She said recalling the dark haired boy being called Aqua-lad. "Kori and Speedy aren't that bad, but Bumble Bee, Aqua-lad?"
"Uh yeah." Bumble Bee said, shaking that off, she had the sudden feeling of déjà vu. She ignored it and tried to start a conversation. "You know that was a very brave thing you did."
"Indeed!" said Kori, nodding her head. Raven sat down her bed,
"Brave maybe, but not smart. I've lost my brothers, my dreams, everything." Despite her flat, even voice, the other girls could see her eyes shining with emotion.
Kori and Bumble Bee shared a look. Bumble bee extended her hand and placed it on Raven's shoulder, trying to comfort her,
"Don't worry Raven, everything will turn out al" she started to say, when she was interrupted by a squeal of excitement from Kori, who had flung open Raven's wardrobe and began rummaging through it.
"I have found the most marvelous thing for you to be wearing at the meal of the evening!" she said as she held a bright pink, lacy dress towards Raven.
"I'm not going to dinner." Raven said in a monotone voice. Bumble Bee made a face at the dress and turned to Raven,
"Don't worry, you don't have to go in that dress." She said with a smile. Raven shook her head,
"No you don't understand, I'm not going, so it doesn't matter what I wear."
Bumble Bee and Kori exchanged looks,
"But you must!" Kori said her eyes filled with pleading. Just then a large worm creature slid through the open door.
"Oh! Silkie!" Kori said with glee as she spotted the creature. It made a few strange noises as it bounced on the ground, "Right away!" Kori said and she followed it out the door, shutting it behind her. Raven turned to Bumble Bee.
"Does she actually understand that thing?" she asked. Bumble Bee shrugged.
" I have no idea," she said with a sigh staring after Kori, but then she turned back to Raven with a serious expression on her face.
"But really Raven, about dinner, you have to"
There was another knock on the door, this time it was Aqua-lad. He stood there with a strange expression mixed of shock, fear, and admiration. Raven realized with horror that the door was enveloped in the black aura of her powers. She had opened it with out meaning to. Raven felt a blush of shame, and pulled her hood up to hide her face. Aqua-lad cleared his throat and straightened up.
"Dinner is served." He said.
Downstairs in the dinning hall the Beast paced by the fireplace.
"What's taking so long." He asked Kori and Speedy in an irritable voice. They regarded him warily as the reflections of flames danced in his eyes. "I told her to come down to dinner."
The Kori jumped a little as the Beast shouted, Speedy's eyes merely narrowed.
"Please be in the patience, she is filled much with the remorse of losing her family and freedom all in one day." Kori said softly. The Beast seemingly ignoring her continued to pace. Then Speedy stepped forward,
"Garfield," he said taking a chance, no one called him that anymore. The Beast turned to look at him, with his back to the fire his eyes were shadowed. Speedy continued,
"Have you thought that perhaps this girl might be the one to break the spell." Speedy didn't have to wait while the Beast pondered this.
"Of course I have!" The Beast shouted as he turned to glare into the fire. "I'm not a fool!"
"Good," Speedy replied with a forced smile, he at least would keep his temper. "Then, she falls in love with you, you fall in love with her, and then the spell will be broken. We will finally be able to leave this castle!" The trill of the idea shone in his eyes. But Kori frowned.
"This is not being as simple as you are finding it." She said to Speedy, her voice strangely grave. "The nature of such things as this that they require time. Why if it was so simple, perhaps in the short while that boy was here" but she suddenly cut off, with a horrified expression on her face at what she had just said. Speedy decided to put the last sentence off for later and replied,
"But that rose has already begun to wilt." His tone was dismal. That was when the Beast spoke, his voice was steady, for once controlling his temper.
"It's no use, she's so beautiful, and I'mwell look at me." His voice sounded defeated. Kori and Speedy shared a very saddened look.
"You must help her to see what is beyond your appearance!" Kori said, laying a hand on his shoulder, her voice was once again cheery. A shadow of a smile crossed his face. And the Beast reached over and tousled Kori's hair, "Easy for you to say" he said gruffly, but with a small laugh lined underneath. She beamed at him.
"Nothing I do or say will ever make people forget what I look like. That's all they see, thisbeast." He looked away and Kori frowned slightly.
"How do you do it Kori?" he asked softly.
"Do what?" she asked, her head tilted in curiosity.
"Train your inner beauty to shine brighter than your outer beauty. I bet anything that if you were in this shape, you would still be beautiful. Everyone would still love you." Kori took a moment to blush and stammer at the compliment, but then replied to his question.
"You smile." Kori said, doing so her self. Her eyes shone with simplistic wisdom. The Beast smiled, he looked frightening with his long fangs and canines bared, but Kori positively beamed and Speedy smiled too. It was not the sheepish grin Garfield was known to give, but it set Speedy to reminiscing all the same. Both he and Kori began to bombard the Beast with advice. The most reinforced piece of advice was to control his temper. They were telling him this for the fifth or so time when the handle on the door turned. They all shut up as it creaked open.
"Here she is." Whispered Speedy. They all turned to the door with anxious faces; the door however only revealed Aqua-lad, who looked very berated.
"Ahgood evening." He said weakly.
"Well, where is she?" Asked the Beast, who despite his friends' warnings; was beginning to lose his temper.
"Ahabout thatyou seethe thing is" Aqua-lad mumbled, searching for an excuse. He gave up; "She's not coming." he said with a sigh.
"What!" the Beast growled, it was beyond any doubt that he had lost any control he might have had on his temper. He ran through the doors in a rage and he bounded up the stairs to Raven's room. He ignored Kori, Speedy and Aqua-lad's calls as he pounded on her door.
"I thought I told you to come down to dinner!" The Beast yelled furiously. As his friends shook their heads in exasperation.
"I'm not hungry." Raven said defiantly, her monotone voice muffled by the door between them.
"You come out! OrI'll break down the door!" The Beast shouted, he was beyond all reason. Speedy attempted any ways.
"Master, I may be wrong but that may not be the best way to win the lady's affections"
Aqua-lad nodded, "Please attempt to be a gentlemen" he said, while Kori looked at him with pleading eyes.
"But she is being so difficult!" the Beast said, he appeared to be using every ounce of control he had not to shout.
"You are not being nice." Kori said simply. The Beast's eyes softened for a moment, then he frowned, but he said in a calm, pleasant voice.
"Will you come down to dinner." The Beast turned back to his friends with the grumpy expression of a child who had been made to apologize for something he wasn't sorry for.
"NO!" Raven said from beyond the door. The Beast's eyes widened in frustration. He gestured to the door, with an expression that clearly stated,
"You see what I mean!"
But after urgings he tried again.
"It would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner." The Beast's words began to turn into an angry yell, but he controlled himself. "Please." He added on Kori's inclination.
"No thank you!" Raven yelled through the door in an irritated voice.
"You can't stay in there forever!" The Beast raged.
"Yes I can!" Raven called.
"FINE then! Go ahead and STARVE!" The Beast yelled at the top of his lungs. Blowing out the flames in all the nearby torches. He turned to his friends, "If she doesn't eat with me, she doesn't eat at all!" he shouted angrily. And stalked down the hall, threw open the door and closed it with a bang that echoed threw the castle.
"Oh dear!" Korriane said to the others, "That did not go well."
Aqua-lad and Speedy shook their heads and sighed. Then Aqua-lad adopted a tone that sounded very much like his late father's.
"Speedy you guard the door, tell me if anything happens, alright?"
Speedy nodded and took his post. That set, Kori and Aqua-lad headed for the kitchens to begin cleaning up the uneaten dinner.
The Beast stormed through the west wing of the castle to his room. He pushed the large wooden doors open with such force they were almost thrown from their hinges. Cobwebs clung to everything in the large chamber; chairs and tables were worn, ripped and broken, and were strewn about the room. Tapestries hung and shreds. The room seemed to have given way to many of the Beast's temper tantrums. At one end of the room, by the terrace stood a small round table untouched of dust and damage. Positioned inside a glass dome was a black rose humming with a soft purple light. A few black petal's lay at the Rose's feet, as if bowing to it.
The Beast walked over to the table and placed his hands on it, but he was careful not to put his whole weight down as to unbalance the table and upset the Rose.
"I ask her nicely and she refuses! What does she want me to do? Beg?" he said to himself, his eyes locked on the Rose. He took a few deep breaths and tried to release his anger. It was getting harder and harder to do so. A soft, slithery voice whispered from the shadows,
"Why do you fight it my dear prince?" it asked. Chains rattled and metal glinted, two yellow eyes appeared in the darkness at the very far end of the once grand chamber. The Beast turned to look at the black dragon with a look of disgust on his face.
"It would be much easier on your self if you just gave into the Monster. He would not harm you,much. He gets stronger with every petal that falls, soon you will not be able to hold him back so easily."
"Easily!" The Beast scoffed, "It is all I can do to contain him sometimes!" The prince could feel the Monster even now, wanting to reach out and lash at the dragon for taunting him.
"You should just give up." The dragon said with a catty smile, "You're fooling yourself, she will never see you as anything but a Monster." The Beast scowled at him,
"Just because you gave up Rorik, just because you gave into the shape you hold, doesn't mean I will!" The Beast grabbed an ornate mirror from a table and walked out to the balcony where the dragon couldn't see him. He held it in front of his face and he winced at his own reflection.
"Show me the girl," he whispered softly to the mirror. The surface of the mirror began to bubble, and when it had settled the mirror showed a very different scene. Raven sat on at a table in the room the Beast had given her, playing chess with Bumble Bee. Raven was winning. Bumble Bee frowned at her pieces for a bit and then looked up at the purple haired girl.
"You know the master is not so bad once you get to know him, why don't you give him a chance" Bumble Bee said smiling, and then made her move.
"I don't want to get to know him," Raven said coolly, moving her piece, "I don't want to have anything to do with himcheck mate."
Bumble Bee frowned her, not even glancing at the board. Raven pulled her hood up again. The Beast looked remorsefully up at the ever-stormy sky as the scene faded away,
"It's hopeless." He said covering his face with his paws. A pair of extremely large cat shaped eyes watched as another petal fell.