"Raven, where are you going?" Beast Boy spoke in a soft voice, a cracked smile on his face.
"Home," she replied coldly, "I can't stay."
Straying her attention downwards, a shallow tear struggled to fall. But with all the destruction around them, it's hard to see why not.
Blazing flames erupted near Beast Boy's shuddering body. Smog and screams hadn't quieted down at all since the final fight ended. Broken fire glass and dented metal scattered across the pivoted road, laying next to all the bloodied bodies. It was a nightmare, a true hell like none of them had experienced since Trigon.
His breaths mixed with the sound of her silent screams were enough to tear an entire universe down. Underneath the hardened looks of sorrow, laid empty shells of all the Titan's former selves.
The only thing they ever had in common was rage. Neither of them ever talked about it, so obscure and shallow.
Was it the shrieks of the four eyed Raven, engulfing her heated body into unforgivable flames?
Or was all because of the unreal shift Beast Boy went through, erupting his form in utter monstrosity, bringing the fragile city along with it's ashes that provoked their worst?
His back was still hunched over, still getting used to the unmistakable strain his beast left on his shoulder blades. Her head was still in midst of an ongoing battle, full of emotional distraught causing her to lose part of her clear vision.
Yet their steps towards the burning horizon continued, gently and silently. The sorceress, fleeing from destruction and the shifter, running towards it.
A sphere of tampered magic encircled her hands as Raven's feet began to lift off. Her back remained turned, away from the face of the saddened wolf.
"Why," he started, "why do you have to go? You said it yourself, this is home. With your family, your friends."
"I don't think you understand. No one can help me right now. Didn't you see, I nearly missed the ship and hit you accidentally instead." Turning around, her violet eyes darted towards the moping dog.
Beast Boy didn't know what to say. For the very first time he was at lost for words. A string of unfinished sentences flew out of his cracked lips, sounding like a song of gibberish to her ears.
Her harsh words brought him back to the long strike of flesh, still open, running along his neck. The burning sensation of pure black magic disintegrating his bare epidermis was a feeling he'll never forget. The blade of darkness was meant to burst open the fuel tanks in the Dimitris IV not his bare neck.
His hands flew up to the cut, gently rubbing against the slowly healing clot. Raven must have noticed his twinge of terribly hidden pain as she strayed away further.
Whilst stretching open a tear into another dimension, she gave him a sympathetic look one last time.
"I'm out of control Garfield."
Flicking awake, Beast Boy looked down at his shaking paws. His twitching morph became unstable as he lifted his body from the mattress, tilting his head.
It happened again...
The rays of the bright dawn sun through the curtains contrasted the look of his terribly messy room. Latest issues of The Avengers sprawled across the plush carpet, as a result from his ongoing reading binges.
A pile of off white tank tops filled the southern most corner of the room, contrasting his black carpet. Beast Boy's unmistakable Doom Patrol suit hung off a rubber hanger, tucked away in the edge of his colourful closet. Clutter of darts and animal pillows were shoved under his bed, like ice under a fridge.
It should've been no surprised to Garfield Logan that he'd find a very hyper Starfire at his door with a ranged up vacuum. He backed away nervously at the sight of the rang up machine, triggering a feline-like nerve. Starfire's mischievous glint in her eyes glittered as she casually strolled into the comic filled mess.
"Starfire, why are you up so early?" He groaned as she rattled open the thin blinds, "And why on earth are you in my room?"
"It's bright and sunny today friend. Of course I'd be up early to begin preparation for this school of high you guys have been chattering about." She giggled in response. Her attention fixated onto a the monument of snacks scattering around his 'reading' spot, crumbs scattering across the army green bean bag.
"Oh, that," His emerald eyes rolled, reminiscing the thought of returning to the dreadful place, "well you don't have to be up that early."
"Tell that to Star." Robin appeared beside her, rubbing his neck. His onyx hair was tussled and swooped the other way. 'For volumiostiy' Robin used as an excuse to prance around with bed head. He was already decked out in his uniformed suit.
Well almost.
"Nice bunny slippers." Beast Boy snickered, pointing down to the white tipped ears and black button nose. Yet another guest appearance of Robin's secretive slippers, it amused Beast Boy. After all, he might just have competition for 'Most Immature'.
"Oh shut it." Robin kicked off his fluffy footwear. After being caught in his pajamas way too many times by Cyborg's annoying cameras, the teasing stopped embarrassing him.
As soon as Star hummed her way out of the cleaner room, Robin turned to Beast Boy. Slightly hesitant in his words, he began to talk, "Speaking of autumn cleaning, are you finally going to st-"
"No."
"But-"
"I said no!" Beast Boy rejected harshly, "I'm not cleaning out her room today. I have a feeling today isn't the day to clear out all her stuff. Something about demonic possessions and school gives me the creeps."
"Oh come on, it's been months." Robin tried to voice the sense of reason. It had been after all, two years since her disappearance. The others attempted to empty out her room, only to find a very peculiar Beast Boy always stopping them.
"You asked a stubborn question and I replied with a stubborn answer. No means no. I'm not cleaning out her room!"
Minutes after his little outburst, Beast Boy was shoved into the purple ridden bedroom. Unwillingly clutching a black garbage bag, he groaned in dismay.
"Tell me why do I have to do this?" He spat out, loud enough for the former sidekick to hear.
'You're the one who refused to let Star do it so you got the job.' Robin rolled his eyes over the small device. "Good luck!"
The electronic switched off as he scanned the dark room. It was odd that even she would leave with all her stuff behind. Raven wasn't the type of person to let others poke around her things.
But there they were sitting on her vanity and shelves; hand held mirror, spare spell books and tattered letters.
The fraying comforters, barren cloaks and dusty statues gave him the same shivering feeling they did three years, when he and Cyborg snuck into her mind mirror. An unexplainable chill ran up along his bare spine, causing him to hitch a breath.
Halloween was never his favourite season. Especially when his unique friend group included a half metal man, an alien princess and a sorceress.
'Never call me that again.' He marked her words at the back of his crowded mind, from the time he called her a witch. Garfield could almost feel the daunting look and flinch she gave him as he spoke so wildly about costume suggestions.
He assumed she was a kind of witch. Like those mesmerizing villains and fairies he wound up believing in when he was still normal. She had the creepy looks, pale to the bone skin and calm flares of violet magic thrusted upon her veins.
Even vials of mysterious liquids sat on her bed.
"I know for a fact she's a some kind of witch but I didn't know she made potions." He muttered under his breath. Lifting up a corked Florence flask, he peered into the inverted liquid.
A foul smelling oil sunk to the bottom, leaving layers of radiating rouge floating in the top. Labeled on the stilled position was a numeric of some sort.
"Odd." Tilting it back and forth he let out the smallest drop of it onto the carpet. A sizzle sounded as a pieces of the mat disintegrated. "Sweet."
"You threw everything out?" Robin turned back to ask the prancing creature. A raised eyebrow was all that Garfield needed to know that his leader friend wasn't eating up the lie.
"Yep." Beast Boy replied with a pop off his lip. He chewed the black currant gum against his gnawing teeth like a stress reliever. "I did. Hey, weird question, can I keep the room?"
"Keep the room? What will you need it for?" Robin asked, raising a suspecting eyebrow. Shifting from his arm chair, he placed down the weekly news to look at Garfield.
"Meh, maybe a place to be alone and store my comics. You know how it is, the monkey makes me go through weird shifts and I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Okay?" Robin was a bit confused but didn't want to budge into his business. "Just move all that literature there before 4. I don't want Star chasing you down with those if she finds out you hid them in her cooking cabinet."
"Yes sir." Beast Boy rushed out of the common area. "And thank you."
As he stuck on the etched letters reading BEAST BOY ONLY, he cracked open the door one last time before heading out.
Raven's belongings remained almost untouched, with the exception of the single potion. Her room still smelt of faltered musk and ancient papyrus.
"Well doesn't that look homey." He whispered sadly, closing the steel door.
This is future me from years after this chapter was published. i finally got rid of that horrid beginning. I think that was what was turning off most readers because almost half of them didn't make it to the second chapter.
-Catisa~Orsilla