Chapter 34
Hey everybody! What's up? Ok, so for those of you who've seen Raven's new look, what'd you think? I tell ya I gotta get different types of media, or at least not use crayola colored pencils. Haha but that shit's expensive. Anyway last chapter Raven met Ivy and Harley. What'll happen with the three deadly females? Well we're about to find out, ONWARD TO THE BATTLE FIELD!
"Welcome to Toxic Acres!" Ivy said proudly as the trio arrived at her humble little garden home, surrounded by the toxic waste dump that was Toxic Acres. Raven looked up from the rose colored convertible car that Ivy drove, the front end was still scrunched up and totaled from where they had crashed, escaping from the caped crusader. She looked up and scanned the area. She was silent for a long time before Harley spoke.
"Don't look so glum kiddo. Red n I've got just the thing to turn that frown into a smile." She said looking back at the goth girl with a grin. Raven's scowl deepened. She didn't feel like laughing, she didn't feel like joy. She felt like electrocuting something, setting something on fire. She wanted to hurt someone.
"Cheer up kid, whatever happened in the past is in the past." Ivy said as she stopped the car just outside the small house that served as their hide away. Raven hesitated a moment before she exited the vehicle. She stared at the two as they waited. She trusted the two, but she didn't feel so eager to move. She knew Poison Ivy from past run ins, however Harley she only knew from TV. news and she was almost always with joker. She looked to Cherie who lied curled up in her lap. After a while of thinking she exited. Harley and Ivy both placed their arms around the girls shoulders and smiled.
"Welcome to your new home kiddo!" Harley shouted happily. Raven's gaze shifted between the two as the trio waltzed inside. On the inside it was a mix of décor, it was a horrible mash-up of Circe de chic, and Gardens of Eden. Raven would have laughed at the hilarious decorum had she not been previously heartbroken, and had Harley's Hyenas not come out from the clown side of the house and began growling at her and Cherie. Scaring the duo, until Harley commanded them to sit.
"Babies, be good to the new kitty." She said placing her hand on her hip and wagging her finger at the two hyenas. Much to Raven's surprise. Harley then petted her two pets and shooed them away as Ivy led Raven into the kitchen area and sat her down.
"Now, we just gotta give you something and you can stay here as long as you want," Ivy said as she picked up a syringe and a glass bottle of yellow liquid. Raven's eyes went wide as Ivy came toward her. she hated needles! She stood and held Cherie close to her silently. Ivy sighed, "You won't last ten minutes here in Toxic Acres without my antidote kid."
Raven narrowed her still crimson eyes at the green skinned woman still unwilling to get a shot from her, regardless of what she said. She shook her head silently. Ivy sighed and stood approaching the young woman slowly.
"Now come on, it'll only take a second. Won't even hurt." She coaxed Raven let out a low growl. "You're going to make this difficult aren't you?"
"I hate shots." She grumbled. Harley looked over to the two and smiled.
"Aw C'mon Ravey, it'll be fine." She grinned. Raven kept her eyes narrowed. "Promise."
Raven looked to Cherie who mentally shrugged to her. Figuring she couldn't get out of this situation alive, Raven sighed, sat down and presented her arm to Ivy and looked away with a strained look of pain. Ivy rolled her eyes and stuck the needle into Raven's arm and injected her with the antidote to the many toxins and poisons around them.
"There, now you can live here without a problem." Ivy said in a soothing voice as she stroked Raven's hair. Raven groaned.
"I still hate needles." She grumbled rubbing the injected sight with her free hand. Ivy shrugged.
"You'll thank me for that later." She said, putting the syringe and bottle away. She then sat down with Harley next to Raven, she placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "So tell us, what happened?"
"Weren't you with that Witchboy Clarence?" Harley asked, getting Klarion's name wrong. Raven's eyes narrowed as tears swelled in her eyes. She was silent for a while, balling her hands into fists to control her anger until, eventually, she broke down and began to sob. She explained to the two older women her story. The situation with Klarion before hand, the other world, forced to forget and remember things from the past, the abuse from Klarion and how she met Uriah, only to discover he was only using her to get back at Klarion. Harley and Ivy looked to each other with mixed reactions. Harley soon began to cry along with her, seeing as she understood the abuse Raven had went through.
"And what's worse…" Raven said with an angry tone between sobs, "What's worse is the moment I actually thought Klarion came to save me, he said he saw me as nothing more than a toy! I was property to him! He didn't care about me at all!"
"Men are truly cold creatures," Ivy said with a soft tone, while her expression was rage filled. She knew how it felt to be used by the opposite sex. her professor had used her research to further his own goal. Pretending he loved and cared for the female botanist, only to turn around and try and murder her with poisons from a rare plant. It had been what created the plant woman, the poison had turned her blood into chloroform and she had become one with nature from it. Raven was no different. Only she had become a man murdering demoness. Filling her rage filled void with the blood of the unfortunate males that crossed her path. Ivy stood and walked over to a couch like piece of furniture that was made out of thick grass and flowers.
"But cheer up kid." She said plucking one of the red blooms from the plant-like couch, "you're with Harley and me, and we know just the thing to get you back up on your feet."
She then returned and handed the red flower bloom to Raven who held it loosely between her thumb and forefinger, "You just need a lesson in good old female empowerment."
Raven gave a questioning look to Ivy as stood before her, her hands on her hips while she gave a sly smile back to the young goth girl. Ivy dipped and wiped the young girl's tears away.
"It'll take a bit of time, but eventually you'll be back to your old self." She said. Raven narrowed her eyes at the plant woman.
"What makes you so sure?" she asked.
"Because, once upon a time ago," Ivy began, as Harley stood next to her and wrapped her arms around Ivy's shoulders, "We used to be the same way. Now look at us."
"Two of the nation's badest female villains!" Harley said with a grin. Ivy nodded.
"And soon to be three." She finished, and held out her hand, "Of course we're willing to wait until you feel up for it. Harl and I need to lay low for a while anyway."
Raven thought for a moment, and considered what she might be getting into. Ivy she knew from the past, even if it were only for a moment. Harley, well she'd met Joker and could understand why she would join Ivy in an all female gang, the Joker was abusive. However teaming up with them meant she would eventually catch the sights of Batman and Robin, and possibly Nightwing. And if Nightwing found her she would end up having to deal with not only the Justice League, but Zatanna as well. Then again Ivy had mentioned that it would be some time before they were off doing anything. They had after all just gotten away from the Batman and would need to stay out of sight for a while. Raven looked to Cherie who sat on her lap.
"Please tell me you are not thinking what I think you are?" He mewed looking up at her. Raven rolled her eyes, then looked to the two older women.
"Sounds like…a real blast." She said taking Ivy's hand and standing. Ivy and Harley smiled.
"This is the beginning of a beautiful sister hood, girls." Ivy said. Raven game a small unsure smile, while in the back of her mind she heard her cat familiar let out a sigh. Of course, it could have been worse. At least these two seemed to not have any bad intentions—for Raven anyhow, Gotham, not so much—it was a decision Cherie Curie could live with. For now.
~0~
Klarion sat in his home—well more lied on his bed than sat around—he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. His expression was, dread. It had been days since he had last seen Raven, but he still felt her everywhere. Her scent stained the pillows and sheets of his bed. He felt her presence all around him, in his dreams he saw her. In all her Goth-like glory. The last he saw her, he had said something he regretted, it had been the final push that sent his morbid lover away. It had pushed her over the edge, and made her threaten him with death. Not that he feared death—he was ageless after all—however the thought of Raven exploiting any and all of his weaknesses, or even attempting to end his existence…it made him quiver.
Teekl, his cat familiar, sat on the ground staring up at his master's hand which dangled over the edge of the bed. He sighed, he'd never seen his master in such disarray. After Raven had gone, after she had threatened him Klarion had returned home and trashed the whole house. He had also sent Abra Kadabra away, which wasn't exactly abnormal, but given his master's current mood, would have figured he'd torture the poor mortal. It bothered Teekl to see Klarion in such pain. Though he would be lying if he said he wasn't glad to be rid of Raven's familiar. Mortal felines and their obsessions.
Finally sick of staring at the ceiling, Klarion rolled over onto his side to stare at the wall. The empty spot that his beloved Raven had normally occupied filled him with an abnormal feeling. He didn't understand what had gone wrong. What had he done to drive Raven into the arms of that bastard Uriah? Could he have prevented it? Everything Klarion had done had been done for Raven. She belonged to him, there was no question about that. She was his and his alone. So what had he done to drive her to all this madness? To run away from him, and run to that snake Uriah. What had he done to make her threaten him so harshly? Had he not always been there for her? Had he not done anything she ever wanted him to do? Sure, he pushed her to do things that she didn't want to do, but it was to grant her more power. It had been all for her. Hadn't it? He respected her wishes in not wanting to kill Zatanna. What had he done to warrant such hate from Raven? His dear Raven. His favorite human toy.
Klarion lifted his hand and extended his index finger. Twirling it around in the air, he conjured an image of his ex-lover. Of Raven, before all this had happened, before Uriah, before he was erased from her mind by Nabu. Back to when he had first met her. It had been by total accident that he met her that day. When she had bumped into him in Gotham, he hadn't expected to find her so interesting. Most of the women dressed in black had been nothing but annoying complainers, who blabbed on about complete nonsense. Raven, however, had done none of that—well she did at times blabber on about things that held no interest to him—she had also been the first human to not be bitten or threatened by Teekl. Klarion smiled at his conjured image. In it Raven's deep sapphire eyes were narrowed and her lips were drawn into the devilish smirk she would often give him. She didn't care that he was sadistic, she didn't even complain when he had pushed her into the jaguar pin when he was first teaching her magic. Well she did yell, but she didn't complain.
Remembering those days, made Klarion smile. Remembering all the things they had gone through together. Their good times, and the times he had gone out of his way to keep her safe from the Light, and kept her away from Baby Zatanna(which was, admittedly, fun for him). He then glared, now none of that would happen again, and why? Because Uriah had done everything to sabotage what he had with her. All to get some petty revenge over something that had he had no interest in. Uriah had twisted her mind, lied to her, defiled her, and stolen everything from him! It was because of Uriah that Raven no longer wanted to see him! The reason she threatened him! The reason she left him. Alone.
But why did he care so much? Even if he held such interest in her, why did he care that she left? Yes he enjoyed keeping her, and had loads of fun with her, it still didn't explain why he felt such a strange feeling over this. She was his toy, so why did he have this feeling of loneliness? What was this longing feeling he was having? He wanted her back, wanted her to be in his arms again. But why?! Had she been any other human female, he wouldn't have cared that she was gone. He would have welcomed it more than likely. Human women rarely held his interest. So why? Why did Raven Blu, the strange little human-turned-witch, make him feel so…helpless? And what was this emotion he was feeling? Like there was a hole in his chest. A whole that only Raven could fill. He didn't like it. He hated it actually! Whatever this feeling was, it made him sick. (Both literally and figuratively.)
Suddenly feeling angry, Klarion dissolved Raven's image and closed his eyes. However when he did he saw her again. This time hurt, and angry. Her beautiful blue eyes turned crimson from anger and magic. The black streaks that stained her face, and the red dress that covered her elegant figure, she had been beautiful when she had sent Uriah back into Limbo-town. When she had threatened him. When she left him. Klarion curled into a ball on his bed and tightly gripped the bed sheet in his hand. He just wanted this feeling gone. He wanted this horrible pain to just disappear. But mostly, he wanted to wrap his arms around Raven again. He just wanted her back.
Ending this chapter was a real bitch! Hmm nothing much to say about this chapter really. Except originally I didn't want to end it with showing Klarion. I wanted to end it with Raven, Harley, and Ivy, but what can ya do right? Sigh, oh hey I found this really cool band…actually I found it a long time ago, like uh before Christmas actually? Haha I'm just not telling you guys about it though. Check them out. Darkkon. Cool music, hot singer n/n so much love for this band. Check them out, and buy their CD! Haha just kidding. But seriously look em up. They've only got one album so if you want to listen to it, you've gotta go to amazon. Anyway! Yeah See ya later armadillos—unless I see you first haha! REVIEW, review and get a kiss from you're favorite character…listen to the band and I dunno, I'll mention you in the fiction itself. Your choice. Haha.