This is a complete rework of the chapter "As Rain Falls, So Do I", which was the climax and near-finale of Game Content before. Now, there are two new chapters coming your way, and a more satisfying ending, I think!

Review and let me know your thoughts!

-Song

Beast Boy didn't realize how different it could feel to use a weapon in battle, rather than teeth and claws.

It felt good.

He swung Scythe like a seasoned pro, playing off the power of his assassin character which felt so natural to him in the game. Even when he felt like he was losing his balance or grip, or that he wasn't sure what his next move would be, somehow Scythe twirled between his fingers and he would find himself again.

Beast Boy watched the dragon take a few steps back and fall low onto one foreleg. Its claws sank into the damp earth, and it hissed a steaming, green, putrid smoke from between its jaws. Beast Boy brought Scythe to a resting position and caught his breath warily. Malchior was staring at him, but for what?

Could this really be the end?

"Surrender," Beast Boy said, his voice firmer and more authoritative than he thought it could be. Though his hands were shaking, his breath ragged, he truly felt he finally had the upper hand. "Give up, release Raven, and go, there's nothing for you here, Malchior."

Malchior hissed violently, his forked tongue sharp as a whip. The great dragon's eyes were hazy, and the blood that dripped from his wounds were acrid and rotten.

"Surrender!"

Echoes came from within the chambers of Malchior's throat. The dragon was losing himself, and his breathing was just as ragged as Beast Boy's, if not worse.

"I'll have to kill you if you don't."

Beast Boy wasn't sure he meant it when he said it, but how else could they win the game if not to kill the great dragon at the castle? The final boss? He didn't want to kill anyone, not even Malchior, but he had to get Raven out. Himself and Robin, too.

He had to.

The threat of death hung heavy in the air between them, and Beast Boy worried that that was all it was: a threat.

Could he really do it?

With the last of his strength, the dragon surprised Beast Boy and attacked once more by releasing a ragged breath and miasma of green smoke, choking the Titan and rendering him blind for only a moment.

A moment was all that it took.

Beast Boy heard the whooshing sound of Malchior's tail, and was only just too late to duck out of the way before it slammed into him with massive force, throwing him to the ground and dislodging Scythe from his hand. Malchior clenched it between his jaws, trying to tear it into two pieces, but Scythe was a magic weapon, and therefore indestructible.

Instead, Malchior pinned Beast Boy to the wet earth with a single, clawed paw, and hovered the blade over Beast Boy's throat.

"You," Malchior hissed in Beast Boy's mind, "know nothing. You know nothing of me, and worse, you know nothing of Raven. She is not yours to claim, she never was. She is mine, her soul is mine!"

When the sharp tip of Scythe's blade made contact with Beast Boy's skin, it bubbled and hissed, tearing the flesh and causing him to scream.

"No!"

Beast Boy barely heard Raven's voice as she and Robin raced onto the battlefield, Raven still without much power, and Robin looking worse for wear.

"Malchior, please!"

Malchior roared with indignation again, furious to see that Raven was not only released from her folded reality prison, but standing, and summoning her own strength.

"A bargain was struck, Raven," the dragon jeered. "You broke that bargain, which cost me your soul, and now I'm taking an alternative prize."

Beast Boy's screams grew worse as the poison worked through his body. He began to convulse and writhe beneath the dragon's claws which held him to the ground, his eyes going in and out of focus, his mouth frothing, teeth clenched together. Raven was starting to worry that Malchior would not let Beast Boy's soul return to his body like he had with Starfire and Cyborg: she was worried that Malchior would keep Beast Boy's mind here forever.

Trickles of power were seeping back into her, slowly but surely. If she was going to do something, then now would be the time. Beast Boy's screams were agony on Raven's nerves, and with a quick motion she reached for him. Scythe flew out of Malchior's jaws and several yards away. Malchior jolted back, shocked, and with a newfound confidence in herself and powers, Raven released a dark force of magic, the first she was able to produce in what felt like forever, and struck a whipping blow to Malchior's face. Then another and another, until finally Malchior was blind with her dark energy and had to release Beast Boy, who was still gurgling and coughing in pain.

Robin ran to him immediately, perhaps hoping to help somehow. Raven was focused on the dragon who was in a state of retreat.

"You will release us," she commanded, sending another whipping shockwave of dark energy at him, which he was unable to dodge. "You will dismantle this reality, and you will disappear. Forever."

"Nothingness," Malchior gasped. "You would reduce me to nothingness."

Raven raised her chin and stared him down.

Malchior roared in defiance and charged at her, but Raven was getting stronger, and he was getting weaker, poisoned by his own game.

With a great show of effort and force, Raven raised her hands and chanted, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

With a crackling electricity like that which comes during a lightning storm, Raven and Malchior became engulfed in a magical field so powerful that the Great, Dread Dragon Malchior was finally brought to his knees. Raven closed her eyes and searched within the reality of the game, once more looking for the pool of magical energy that Malchior was using to create his reality. She needed a ley line that would lead her back to her friends and her own world. Before Robin found her she was too deeply folded into his creation of the game, but now she was out, and she was powerful.

There!

Raven stumbled upon a shimmering pool of magical energy in her mind; she could sense it somewhere outside the energy field she had just created. Somewhere, embedded within the earth beneath the great castle, was a ley line that she could pull power from, and follow back home.

It took great effort, but she pulled power from it, her force field strengthening until Malchior was screeching draconic roars with the pressure that it built inside his head. Using nearly all of her strength, Raven sent Beast Boy back first, who was suffering the greatest. In a flash of magic, Beast Boy was gone, and Robin was standing over empty air. His head shot up and Raven gave him a quick nod, before he, too – with protestations – was sent back to the Tower and into his body.

Malchior watched her in agony as she sent her friends away. Raven turned to him, her heart full of exhaustion and emotion, her head still full of the illness that engulfed her mortal body somewhere back home. She dropped the magical force field, and Malchior's dragon form slumped down to the mud, completely defeated. His great chest rose and fell in ragged gasps, his lungs sounding wet and thick with the poison that clung to him. Raven staggered over to his suffering form and lay a gentle hand on the dragon's nose.

He closed his great, green eyes at her touch.

"I loved you, Raven," he told her. Though the voice was weak, she felt his sincerity in her mind, and she knew that he meant it.

Except that Malchior's love had been misguided: possession, not compassion, had driven their relationship for too long, and since it felt like the end, Raven decided to be honest.

"I loved you once, too," Raven told him, her voice shaking. "I don't want you to die, Malchior. I don't. Please, dismantle the reality, get your strength back, and leave me. Forever. Let this be the end of us."

He lay there, eyes still closed, and he did not do as she asked. Instead, a ragged, wet chuckle escaped the dragon's throat.

"If I do? What comes after? Who else could ever understand me? What is left for me, Raven, without you?"

He was getting weaker. The powerful rain he'd conjured in his fury had ceased to be a torrential downpour and instead was falling quietly around them.

Raven took a deep breath.

"Peace, I think. Peace, Malchior."

"Peace…" he repeated, his great heart beating ever so slowly. "I haven't known peace for a thousand years…"

Tears began to fall down her face and she rested her forehead against the great dragon's nose.

"Don't you think it's time, then?"

Malchior's breathing grew softer, and soon she couldn't tell if he was breathing at all. Raven felt the reality around them begin to dissolve, but not by Malchor's doing. The last of the ley line was beginning to slither away with the remains of Malchior's life.

"Don't do this. Don't give in."

The dragon didn't speak again.

"I have to go," she told him, pulling away, her hand leaving his scaly skin. "I have to leave you now."

Malchior's eyes didn't open, but she felt something stir in his emotions one last time: an acceptance of some kind. Perhaps even an attempt at peace.

He was telling her to go. He was telling himself to let her go.

Raven placed her hands against his cold scales and closed her eyes, and as she did, she followed the ley line, leaving his world behind. His presence left her, blinking out like a vanishing star. Raven didn't know quite yet what that would mean. Perhaps only time would tell if the dragon would ever return, and then again, perhaps he would not.

As she followed the last trail of magic, her mind ready to return to her body, she breathed a sigh of relief beneath her tears, for all she wanted now was to go home.

...

Beast Boy awoke on the couch in Titans tower next to Robin's body.

He was panting, screaming, sweating and confused, and with his cries Cyborg and Starfire jumped to attention. They had been sitting on the opposite part of the couch, side-by-side on the cushions, waiting.

Cyborg reached him first, and it took Beast Boy several seconds to realize he wasn't in pain anymore, that the poison wasn't spreading throughout his body, and that finally, he was home.

"Y-you died," Beast Boy stammered out when Cyborg wrapped him in a giant metal hug. "I saw t-the wall, you died."

"Dying wasn't permanent, it just sent us back here," Cyborg said, crushing his best friend to his chest. "We're okay, you're okay."

Starfire lay her strong hand on Beast Boy's head, stroking his hair, but she could not wait long enough to ask, "where is Robin?"

"I… I don't know."

Beast Boy wasn't sure how he had returned to the Tower. Had he died? It felt like he had died. Did that release him from the game and send him back to his body where he belonged? Had it been Malchior, finally surrendering to Raven's demands? Or had it been Raven herself, mistress of both mind and magic alike, who had set him free?

If so, where was she?

"I feel sick," Beast Boy blurted out before he launched himself off the couch and ran for the bathroom.

Starfire and Cyborg watched with alarm as he ran out the double living room doors and disappeared down the hallway. It wasn't long before Robin awoke, gasping for a moment before collecting himself.

"Robin!"

Starfire was upon him in an instant, hugging him gently and kissing his face as her relief poured out of her in massive waves of emotion. Robin hugged her back, burying his face in her fiery hair and thanking whoever was out there that she was alright. Cyborg allowed them their moment before he cleared his throat.

"I'm glad everyone's home, but what happened? What happened to Malchior? How's Raven? My sensor says she hasn't woken up yet."

"She sent us back. Beast Boy was dying, slowly… poisoned. But so was Malchior. Beast Boy had fought him and nearly won, but well, Malchior got the best of him. Raven finally regained some power and took him down except… she should be back by now. Where is her body?"

Starfire escorted Robin to the med-bay to see Raven and Cyborg stayed behind to check on Beast Boy. Robin saw that Raven was still so pale, so fragile looking even in their own world. It was amazing how quickly being locked away in a folded reality had deteriorated her condition. Without healing powers to help aid her, what had once been a small cold and sniffles was turning into a deadly pneumonia that was chipping away at her bit by bit.

Malchior's last laugh, Robin thought bitterly, though he could not know what had transpired all that time in the Red Room.

"She has to come out soon," Robin said quietly.

"Raven will return to us," Starfire told him, taking his hand in hers.

Starfire was so warm, so bright, and Robin almost felt reassured just by being in her presence.

"You're right," he told her, squeezing her hand. "She has to."

...

It was more than a week before Raven finally woke up.

The day that they returned, her healing powers had finally started kicking in, and Robin surmised that perhaps Raven's consciousness had returned to her body. Cyborg told them that she would need plenty more recovery time before she could wake up, but at least her brain activity had returned to normal levels.

In all that time, Beast Boy sat next to her bedside and waited. He played Gameboy, read comics, even slept, but he waited. He barely ate, Cyborg told Robin, and when the city needed them, he geared up reluctantly to go and help. As soon as the fighting was over there he was, right back again at her side.

"I think there's something going on there," Robin said to Cyborg. Cyborg only shrugged.

"Whatever's going on with him is his business. I'm not getting in the middle of that."

So, they didn't. No one did, not even Starfire who was most intrigued by the new development. She asked if it was some kind of emotional illness that was keeping Beast Boy at Raven's side, a deep worry of sorts, but Robin told her that maybe it was something else. Perhaps it was a softer, more tender emotion keeping him there. Starfire had gasped when she realized what he meant, and began asking all sorts of questions, none of which Robin could answer, but they guessed together at night in the dark when they held each other close.

Still, they let him be, and apart from Cyborg checking Raven's vitals and Robin calling for training sessions or weekly briefings, nothing at all interrupted Beast Boy's vigil.

So finally, when Raven woke up, Beast Boy was there to see it.

He was sitting in an armchair next to the bed, his fingers pricked and poked by a sewing needle that he wove back and forth into a dark, soft piece of cloth. He was nearing the end of this small project he'd taken up to occupy his time – to do something other than play Gameboy which was starting to grate on his nerves. A large blanket, just for her. Something tangible that he could give her, something to make her feel safe, even if he was the world's worst seamster and it looked like a pile of rags stitched together.

Just as he was finished with one of his rows, Raven stirred.

A small "mm" sound escaped her and she raised an arm to her head which she clutched as though she were in pain. Beast Boy nearly yelled in both surprise and relief, but he bit down on his tongue, which hurt.

"Raven?" he asked instead.

She opened one eye, squinting at him. Her eye was red and cloudy with the last remains of her illness, but the color had finally come back to her face. Well, as much color as Raven's face could hold.

"Beast Boy?"

"Hey," he said gently, sitting up in his chair and setting his needle and cloth aside. "How are you feeling?"

A small smile cracked her chapped lips. "Thirsty. Water?"

Beast Boy was up immediately, and he ran to the small sink in the room which Cyborg and the rest of the Titans used to scrub up before helping any patients in their med bay. Beast Boy found a paper cup and filled it to the brim, bringing it back to Raven and holding it out for her to take.

Raven took it weakly, her arm shaking, and she spilled a few drops down her front before she placed it against her lips and drank the entire thing.

Once Beast Boy had refilled the cup twice more for her, each time Raven emptying it, he sat back in the chair again and appraised her.

"You look…"

"Awful?"

"No," he said, a sheepish grin on his face, "better, actually."

"I've never felt so sick in my life," she wheezed, staring up at the ceiling of the med bay.

"You really scared us when you didn't wake up."

"How long?"

"A week since we all came out of the game. Everyone else is fine, they woke up immediately."

Raven shivered. "I guess I needed the rest."

"Cyborg says you're finally on the mend. Somehow Malchior gave you pneumonia. A severe case of it. You could have died…" his voice trailed off at the end.

Raven reached her left hand out for him without thinking. Beast Boy blinked in surprise and then reached out for her, too. Raven closed her eyes at the touch when he took her hand.

It was real. He was real.

She was home.

"It's been only seconds for me," she said gently. "Beast Boy I…"

Beast Boy didn't answer, he only waited.

"I left him to die."

The silence hung heavy between them, but Beast Boy held her hand and squeezed it.

"I didn't want him to die," she continued, her voice hoarse, "I learned so much about him, about me. The things he's done will never be okay…"

"But?"

Raven opened her eyes which fell upon Beast Boy with a softness he'd never seen before.

"But maybe I can finally move on? Maybe I can forgive him and finally be at peace."

He frowned for just an instant, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Forgive him? After everything?

"That's incredible," he said anyway, a small smile replacing the frown on his face. "As long as you're okay."

Raven closed her eyes again, but she didn't let go of Beast Boy's hand. She wanted to hold onto reality as long as she could, to make sure that it was all still real.

"Is he really dead, do you think?"

Raven shrugged a little. Her voice was small but she answered him anyway. "A small part of him is. When he created the game, a new reality, he had to leave part of himself inside it. Keep it steady. When it fell… well, I don't know. Knowing Malchior he probably had a backup plan, another version of himself somewhere to live on if he failed, but if not… then yes. Yes, Beast Boy, Malchior might be really dead."

"I didn't want that either," he said to her. "I don't know if that matters, but…"

"It matters," was all she said.

They stayed like that for a long time. Beast Boy inched the armchair forward so that he could continue to hold her hand. He should be running to the others, he should be telling them she was awake, but he didn't.

He couldn't let her go.