"Battle For Freedom" and "Until the End" both by Phil Rey Gibbons.
Before anyone reads this, know that due to the time period this tale takes place in, people were less concerned about the psychological aftermath of rape with both women AND men, the latter taken less seriously than the other. With our modern belief systems, it's hard to go back in time and put them in our shoes, so to speak. However, I think I did my best to treat this sensitive topic carefully.
Dick technically wasn't fully raped, just touched against his will. Still, he had been hurt in the worst way possible, so it's up to his friends and the woman he loves - and himself.
Chapter Six
Battle for Freedom Until the End
"Boy, when things go bad -" Garfield bemoaned, drawing the final word out until he got a swatting behind the head enough to make him go "ouch" without bruising pain.
"Don't jinx, boy," Roy warned him like he was the youth's father, and damn it to hell, both he and Lian would give him an earlier death than he would have liked. "Miss Kristine has done everything she could, so now it's our turn." Through their bond linked with moldavite stones, Kori informed them all she was on the way home, having barely escaped and had a lot of intelligence to give them that she had no time to share.
Jason sighed hoarsely when he looked upon the deeply resting body of Richard in his bed. He was still naked, the sheet draped over his waist, the rest of his powerful beauty seen from his navel upward. He lay on his back, face turned in the opposite direction, one arm over his stomach and the other vertical beside his head. His chest steadily rose up and down. For just a moment, the three men considered letting him rest, but washing was desperately needed to continue his comforts.
"I'd rather not look at what I'm not supposed to, but hell, we're all men," Gar said, torn between grimacing and grinning, "and I think we warriors should just take it like the men we are."
"Damn it, Gar, shut up and help us. The sooner we do this, the better. God if I have to look at Dickie's jewels that only Kori is privy to," Jason said with a groan, turning his gaze as far away as he could, but was a champion in the end when he went to help Dick sit up without waking him. She must have given him herbal remedies to help him sleep, Roy thought, pleased and relieved. The eldest of the men had no qualms about taking his former pupil by the legs, ordering young Gar to bring the sheet so it could be washed with the other linens in the morning after its purpose was served. That and a change of night clothes were brought.
They managed to avoid the ladies, enduring the journey of bringing Richard down to the nearby stream, pond, and well. The young warrior moaned and sighed in his sleep, yet it seemed his body and senses were eager to cooperate without his knowledge. He was seated upwards, buttocks plopped softly on the bank, legs dipping up to the knees in the water. No well water because it was for drinking mainly.
"Alright, time to get big brother Dick clean as a bell," Gar said, trying to lighten the atmosphere as he set about getting the rags wet and wiping over marble legs. Dick whimpered at the contact before settling as the younger boy continued, avoiding what rested what they crowned. Kid was nearly a man by law, but it didn't mean he was full-fledged and comfortable with exposure to his sex.
Seeing Richard like this...my God, you poor boy. You looked so soulless, like a doll, and now you're weak as a newborn animal. But we are all here.
The old bitch had turned him into a living weapon with no regard to his life, and Roy Harper did NOT look forward to hearing what information Miss Kristine had to share with them.
Behind them, there was a flash of emerald green and amber fire, and there was Princess Koriand'r herself just as they were. Half of her dress had been ripped to shreds in that hellfire of a battle, though everything womanly remained strategically covered. Her hair was raging like the earth's blood, flaring with her eyes in fury when they once again laid on her beloved, softening into something tender and heartbreaking. She rushed over to them and fell to her knees, the glow of her tears streaking her amber cheeks. "X'Hal...Richard," Kori breathed, almost sobbing, putting one hand on her stomach and the other taking his laying on the grass. She gently rubbed the back of his palm as if desperately trying to bring his soul back to them. In response, he sighed and lolled his head to face her, eyes remaining closed.
"She almost took you away from me. I tried to kill her myself, but she fled," she snarled, briefly looking up at all of them as she informed them at the same time, then returned it to Dick. "She stripped all that made you the man I love, turned you into something not human. By the gods, she shall pay when we see her again. It's not the last of it. We'll restore your mind, heart, and soul, my heart, and our child will never know the horrors of war that we all have. We will prevent what the demon hag has done to you from transcending the entire world!"
This was the first time they were all learning she was with child - Dick's child, and they aren't even man and wife yet - and it was bittersweet at best. This was the greatest joy in the world for them, yet fate had to pull a trick on them.
Jason was just now done washing his brother's shoulders and chest. "Kori...you both are going to be wonderful parents." He meant every word, but the somber leaked. It had to come at a time like this; the child's father was stuck in a dark place he needed to be brought out of soon.
She smiled up at him, still holding Dick's hand. "Uncle Jason, Uncle Roy -" Her gaze darted back and forth between them, and ended at the green-skinned youth. "- and Uncle Garfield." Then she looked up in the direction of their headquarters. "Introduce me to our newest member, gentlemen?"
~o~
They were called outlaws by others, but their chosen name was Titans because of the individuals they were comprised of.
There were Dick and himself - the caravan child who lost his family and the street urchin who stole to feed himself, both taken in by one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, raised and trained to be soldiers of their land; now they were both warriors approved of by the man who adopted them. Both lived with their share of guilt and burdens but wouldn't let themselves fall further into the darkness.
Dick was the leader of the ragtag band, all falling naturally to him since it was time to get out from another's shadow.
Roy was the oldest of them, though not entirely the wisest, and proudly acted as the second-in-command. The mother of his child was a mercenary and spy from the League in Nanda Parbat, trained and employed from childhood by Ra's al Ghul. They never married, their love passionate but tragically fragile by fate. Jade Nguyen had given him their daughter when she was still an infant and then ran off because of the life she lived. He never truly got over her. He loved her that much. That also meant an occasional carnal release whenever they'd stop in a town in between missions, to feed that part of his manhood and his habitual drinking foolishness, yet being by Jason's side ever since and always having his heart in the right place.
And his daughter was along for the ride in this godforsaken war, acting as their homemaker - along with a gift that she was born with naturally but could only get her so far in the world - and that left a potential match between her and the other youngest member. Garfield Logan was the same age as Lian, though when he was younger, around the early days of the Titans' formation, he was bitten by an extremely rare green monkey in the south and transformed radically. Anyone can be afraid of what they don't understand. The Wayne brothers and their captain of the guard took him in when they saw him being lynched by a mob in Qurac, their neighbor to the south, and whisked him away out of compassion. This was a child, for crying out loud!
Gar was what you'd call a "changeling", with the ability to shift into every animal in the kingdom, but the control required had taken years up to this point. Lian was a natural with foresight and healing stones, but wasn't on the level of Jonathan and Kristine Crane or others like them; now that the philosopher's daughter was here, she could finally begin properly.
You could say he charmed Roy's daughter by calling himself "the entire animal kingdom crammed into one magnificent specimen" to the amusement and irritation of everyone else, and the blushing charm of the girl with the night's mane.
Kori did the honors of picking up her lover and unborn's father in a reversal of the bridal carry, his contours wrapped up in a dried sheet to preserve his modesty, and when she took flight towards the square castle with its needle-like towers, the rest of them followed on foot, but before going inside, Gar took it upon himself to shift into every animal he could to make the process faster: he morphed from the leaping green monkey into every bird known to man, going from level to level as he rigged the crossbow and cannon systems, securing the castle's defenses. Lian came outside through the main entrance to perform one of the very few spells she was familiar with, bringing the barriers from the perimeters of the land acres to reaching the heavens. The dome was illuminated with the hues of the aurora lights before vanishing into the night.
The residents of Blud Castle locked all doors and windows inside without wasting time running up and down on every level; that was a system in itself.
They gathered around Richard in his bedchamber he shared with Koriand'r despite the fact they weren't yet man and wife, but no one knew except them. It would have been immensely frowned upon if word leaked out, especially that they'd conceived a child out of wedlock. She sat on the left side, keeping his hand latched into both of hers. Her long, thick hair covered her face and much of her body from view. She would have made other men and women outraged and flustered at once, but here with them, she was free to be who she was. It was the way of life in her native Tamaran, and from the story Dick told him during one of their few meetings, she'd been in a far more revealing state when he rescued her from execution after she'd been forced to flee her sister's overthrow.
"No one should die for someone else against their will," Kori snarled, the sound bordering on a cat's hiss. She turned her face halfway back to them, eyes flaring by a small spark. "She taunted me, told me that he wasn't worthy of me, and called us both disgraces and pretty faces. Swore she'd raze the world to the ground and then move on when she's had what she wanted. She TOUCHED him and made him think and feel everything, filling his head with what she wanted him to until there was nothing left but a marionette that answers only to her. She's confident that she will follow through with her scheme."
"What, make all of us bow to her?!" Gar almost shouted before getting warning looks from all around to not disturb their leader. He then turned his attention to Kristine, who had now been welcomed into their cause. "Kristine?"
She lowered her eyes to the tiled floor. "There is a lot to share, but I will give you what is most important tonight. I have returned to one of the ancient texts I have in possession, left to me by my father. If we don't find my father, all of us will be rendered subservient to Granny's will - or rather, Darkseid's."
"And this Darkseid you speak of?" Lian demanded, narrowing her eyes.
"Someone we have never come across in our lifetime, nor has anyone else in millennia." Kristine stood up and left the room for the moment, coming back sometime later with a book in her arms. Jason recognized it as one of the darkest histories of the world. "In short, there is very little to account for him, but he has been said to turn one hundred thousand stars into dust as he searched for the power source of anti-life - the means to eradicate what makes us as we are, and rewrite as the oppressor desires." If that alone isn't ominous enough, without the single important details on what is at stake.
Jason growled through his teeth and nodded in agreement. "Free will good as gone. You can't break out of those chains unless there's outside help. If this comes to pass, then WE will be among the rest of the world."
"You are all talking about the end of life as we know it, though worse than death," Roy seethed, the hint that he needed another drink after this, but it wouldn't change a thing.
Kristine nodded, holding up the book for all to see. It was faded leather drawn with two wolves - one atop and facing the east, the other below facing west - and the latch accented with lustrous golden-brown tiger's eye for the flaming sun and dreams you wish to come true. Kristine then opened the latch after muttering an incantation that only she seemed to know about. She found the page she was looking for, after having discovered it during the time they were caring for Dick outside, and laid the book on the foot of the bed away from his feet. "Everything says that when Darkseid first arrived here, he was robbed of his glory by the mightiest of warriors in every corner. There's nothing to suggest the actual physicality of the source, only what it would do once put to use. Upon exposure," she said vehemently, "all we love and believe in is removed by the snap of the fingers. You'll still be alive yet drained, and what remains is an empty shell of who you were, no different than a zombie. All of us, all our friends and loved ones, every stranger counting on us, will be mere gears in the bigger system."
We would live for Granny Goodness and nothing more. Darkseid is said to have been vanquished, but SHE'S here. Which means...
"But if Darkseid is not here, then -?" Lian began only to trail off as if the light in her mind was switched. "What about the old hag you faced?" Kristine's lip curled as her eyes shifted back down to the book pages beneath her fingers.
"According to legend, one of his worst second hands rebelled and murdered him and enslaved her comrades so she could bide her time through trial and error. It's nothing but speculation, of course, but we have nothing further to go on."
But all that back in Granny's house - it was all the proof they needed. She blatantly admitted more than enough to them. She had a whole town under her thumb, under their very noses, but the big question was how she tied into all of this with the Penguin, their biggest enemy along with his ally, the Empress of Tamaran - Kori's own sister?
If you asked Jason, it was connected without all the dots.
"I say we start searching for the answers," Kori told all of them, standing up then to full height and unashamed of the further reveals of her most intimate body parts which caused all the men to look away, Jason locking an embarrassed glance with Kristine who covered her mouth with her hand. "Garfield, what do you say about communicating with all your friends in the animal kingdom to deliver the word and report back to us?"
They didn't have as much time as they thought, so they had to move as fast as possible. In the last five years, contacts were acquired on all their parts, but enemies were still everywhere.
There are only six - no, now there's seven of us. Bruce and Talia are with us, so they need to know this, too, if they haven't heard of this information already. Yet there was no reason they wouldn't.
If old Granny got her hands on this "anti-life", then that meant she'd take over all life with no effort. She would be unstoppable like the gods.
So, geography rehash so far: Gotham to the west, Nanda Parbat to the east, Tamaran to the north, and now Qurac is the south. Everything is like a simplified version of another fantastical world, kinda like Wizard of Oz or perhaps Lord of the Rings, though the latter is far more complex with the four parts of the world having much more within.
Garfield Logan/Beast Boy's origins I knew had the potential for fantasy-whatever-you-want-to-imagine. :D I mean, he was injected - or bitten, according to recent years - with something that gave him green skin and the ability to shapeshift into every animal in the world. I decided, because we are in a medieval fantasy universe, that science does NOT apply here, and a simple bite which is no different than a vampire's bite would be, that a green monkey almost no one knows about would be logical and make the youth an outcast in some ways.
The textbook containing Darkseid and Anti-Life is the Wolves With Tree of Life Journal from the Pyramid Collection (again) and the latch is accented with tiger's eye gemstone, which is one of many to repel evil energies and helps when you have a strong will. Lives up to its name in terms of what it looks like.
The victims who live to serve their master become alive yet drained of life, akin to zombies who obey without command...that's exactly how I approached understanding the Anti-Life Equation in the simplest terms. One is pure science, the other is debatable as voodoo includes a poison from the pufferfish.
REVIEW. (cold sweat) God, I'm afraid to write about the worst that will come to pass...
