Chapter 12
It didn't take long, soon after Raven took Beast Boy by the arm and carted him into her room, for rumors to begin swarming the tower.
It all started buzzing between the three other Titans, mainly Cyborg and an ecstatic Starfire while taking turns with Robin to keep tabs on their prisoner.
Slade still had yet to wake from his 'comatose' state, and all hope was beginning to seem lost... and yet... something refused to let their team leader yield.
"I do start to believe, in fact, that Beast Boy and Raven have begun their 'making out' process in her bedroom."
The Tamaranian pulled a sunflowery grin while the big man smirked sideways.
"Yeah... who knows where that could lead?"
(SCENE BREAK)
"Woah, woah! Raven, could you slow down for a sec??"
"What's there to process?" Demanded the sorceress.
"I don't know if I'm ready to do this..." The changeling looked down, embarrassed, while she closed the distance between them on the floor where they sat.
"It's okay..." She whispered gently while brushing his face, "I'm with you all the way."
Once he smiled assuredly, Raven pulled back to place her spellbook between aside.
Here, they sat in a circle that she drew, ready to perform some kind of ritual.
"Again, this won't guarantee healing you fully, but it will help." She reminded.
"Okay..." He nodded, still with uncertainty. "Where do we start?"
"Take my hands." She instructed, thrusting them out.
When he did, she laced their fingers and made sure to lock them firmly before she pulled him close so that their foreheads connected.
"Repeat after me..."
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos?" Beast Boy guessed.
Raven gave him a nod, and so they began their chant.
"What's gonna happen exactly?" He interrupted.
Raven held back a sigh of annoyance — this was enough to send the message for him to shut up.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." He began, just to make up.
And so, their voices together reverbed this mantra through her room.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."
This brough the changeling back to that time he and his friends had to chant this same mantra in order to save Raven from her father.
Being this close to her, Beast Boy had a bit of trouble controlling his heart rate, especially when looking into those majestic eyes, so he shut his own in order to concentrate better... hopefully.
Soon enough, this rhythm began to relax his mind and body, along with their unified breaths.
Ultimately, a white gleam that he could see through the trabslucency of his eyelids enveloped them — it was startling... yet... warm and embracing.
With this... their linked minds broke free...
(SCENE BREAK)
A grassfield, tall enough to measure one's waist, swayed to the seductive breeze under the moonlight.
A silhouette of a bird — a white raven — fluttered just above this plane, for it could sense something that drove its desire for discovery.
A simmering heat source...?
Over in the distance, beyond the trees, the raven could see a glow, green as a northern light.
Vautling beyond those trees, it finds a small flat island in the middle of a glassy lake — there, it found the source.
Approaching with caution, the raven circled to make out its feathery features.
This wasn't the werebeast...
Touching down just softly enough to avoid disturbing it, could the raven identify this creature to be a resting phoenix.
The green glow would rise and recede with each snore, and the white raven was awed by this magical presence.
With a sudden twitch, the phoenix snapped its eyes open and rose its long neck to see its unexpected guest.
It stood up straight, its chest outward, as it spread its wings and took off into the air immediately — the wind from its launch blew the other bird right back.
Now in the air, the phoenix unleashed the full extent of its glow, its swirling flames painting a mural from its trail.
It then paused to hover over the island to gaze down at the other bird, and raven quickly realizes it was being invited to follow.
Recovering shortly, the white raven ascended back into the air to join the phoenix in this aerial odyssey.
The sky became theirs... and theirs alone, as they danced, peformed spirals and loops that mirrored one another.
Stars turned into fireflies that danced with the two.
The wind surrendered and flowed with their movements.
It was like they had single-handedly terraformed this world to make it their own.
But what was this...?
What did this mean...?
What sense did it make...?
What were they to expect...?
At this moment, it didn't matter all too much.
As they joined the tips of their wings, letting the bent gravity do the work for them, their beaks were almost touching as they locked eyes.
Their souls were becoming absorbed into each other, they could both feel.
When the raven lowered its longing gaze to its chest, there it found a gaping hole where its heart should be — it knew right then.
For its life to be preserved, the raven needed to give a part of itself to fill that hole.
And so, while their heads touched and wrapped around each ither, their chests touched and shortly melded together.
Here, the phoenix felt its hollow area being filled by the raven's essence, flowing into him like a flush of warm bathwater.
They had bonded, both physically and spiritually, the raven's aura plugging in its opening to prevent the phoenix from coming undone.
With this, their powers combined and expanded, taking over the oceanic blue sky...
(SCENE BREAK)
Back in Raven's room, both and empath and the changeling were still wrapped against each other, both panting and sticky with sweat.
"W—What... happened?" Beast breathed into her ear.
Raven cleared her throat before she pulled away to answer. "Honestly... even I don't know. But whatever it was, it must have worked."
"How do you know?"
"Feel your chest."
She guided Beast Boy's hand to that frontal area where he could feel this cool fluid swirling beneath.
"Woah!" He perked. "What is this? It feels... weird yet comfortable... does that make any sense...?"
"Strangely enough... it does."
Now he was more confused, so to explain better, Raven touched her own chest. "I've injected a part of my essence into your body to safeguard your heart."
"What? Like a force field?"
"You can look at it that way," she nodded, "but more importantly, this spell I put on you allows us to monitor each other's health and act accordingly."
"Isn't this pretty much just an upgrade from Cyborg's heart monitor?"
"Not exactly."
"Oh?"
"More like, if I get sick or hurt, you'll sense it right away. In this case, this is so I can support you."
"I see..." He nodded, still trying to understand fully. "What you're telling me is that you basically tethered our souls together... kinda like sharing."
Raven sighed. "Yes."
"Wow..." Beast Boy narrowed his eyes with a smirk, "I've never been so flattered."
Raven did her best to hide her embarrassment.
" Speaking of which," he continued, "when are we gonna tell the others?"
"Tell them what?"
"You know..." He cocked his head to press the hint.
"When I'm ready, Gar."
Beast Boy lowered his gaze, mildly disappointed — it's not that Raven didn't want anyone to know, but it's that she didn't feel like facing the amount of attention that would come with their discovery.
"Oh, well." To her relief, he let it go.
But there was something else, she could sense. There was something else on his mind, something he looked like he was trying to put into words.
And so, she asked, "What's on your mind?"
To her amusement, he didn't bother lying. "Everything from the beast, my childhood, and Slade."
"And?"
Beast Boy paused for a minute, took in a deep breath, and swallowed. "I might need a vacation."
This left Raven stunned. "Vacation?"
"I need to get away from all this..." He started caging his fingers around his scalp. "Maybe Robin's right."
"About what?"
"Maybe I should consider retiring."
Raven's chest began to peform a carousel. "But that doesn't mean you have to leave."
"What am I gonna do here?? Just sit around on my ass while my friends are out busting theirs to protect the city??"
"No..."
"Then what, Raven?" He was seriously asking her. "Outside of being a hero, I'm just a bum who sits on the couch and plays videogames." He voice began to display pain. "I don't have Robin's leadership or Cyborg's brain — not even half of it."
"Garfield..."
"I certainly don't have your wisdom. All I am is the class clown."
That did it — without thinking, Raven grabbed his face and smacked her lips against his, shutting him up entirely. He froze while she then pinned him to the floor, her arms trapping him from moving.
Quickly, he surrendered to her kiss and proceeded to return the gesture, wrangling his arms around her waist to tighten each other.
Her lips were soft and warm.
Finally, she pulled away for air and gazed down on him intently, the silhouette of her face shadowing him completely.
"What about me?" she purred, "Am I not good enough a reason for you to stay?"
Beast Boy stared back for a moment before he pulled her back down for another kiss.
This time, it was getting intense. Hands clawed at each other, the temptation to undress each other apparent — they did not want to separate.
Knock! Knock!
The sudden sound from Raven's door ripped them apart almost instantaneously — it was like someone fired a cold hose at them.
Beast Boy sat up, half-dazed, while Raven hastened to fix her hair in front of the mirror and clip back on her cape that somehow ended up on the floor beside them.
"Yo, Raven." It was Cyborg's voice, loud and clear. "You in there?"
"Need me to hide?" quipped the changeling.
Raven paused for a second before answering. "No. Just fix your clothes."
Grinning, he stood up just to do that.
After another minute, Raven's door slid sideways, and there in front of Cyborg stood Raven... and Beast Boy over her shoulder — the man's eyes, both his human and mechanical one, widened into saucers.
"Yes?" They replied straightforwardly in unison.
Cyborg was speechless for was felt like an hour to him before he remembered what he came to tell her.
"Robin needs you in five minutes." His words came out flat.
"Five minutes?" Beast Boy questioned.
"Yeah." He turned to leave in a hurry. "Robin might need your help to tap into Slade's mind."
"I'll be there." Raven responded just before he was gone.
More silence filled the hall until Beast Boy finally cracked in laughter, Raven blushing in further embarrassment.
"Did you notice that you were wearing your cape inside out?"
When Raven didn't answer, he laughed even harder, only to wear himself out soon after.
In the back of her mind, Raven had wonder whether Beast Boy really changed his mind about leaving or simply stalled with that kiss — they were certainly going to cross this bridge later.
(SCENE BREAK)
Shortly later, Beast Boy was back in the restroom, alone to drown in his thoughts in front of the sink.
While rinsing his hands, he mulled over what he should do, what the next course of their plan was supposed to be.
Besides him and Raven becoming official, he still couldn't any other reason to stay on the team, as grateful as he was.
His heart condition, while now being sustained, didn't feel like it was going to be kept at bay for long; he just knew it will return, along with his beast.
When he looked down, he saw to his horror that his hands had turned crimson, blood draining with the water in the sink.
He flung back with a gasp, only to look back at the clean ceramic — the water was clean again... as if there wasn't any blood at all.
Peering into his hands now, they were simply glistening green under the ceiling lights.
Was he starting to hallucinate again, or are his fears now turning into visions?
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Author's Note: I know it's been awhile... again. Life is getting a little rough at the moment, but I will always update when I can.
fatwhiteguy: Hahaha! I know how you feel, and I apologize.
Thanks for your patience, and I look forward to reading your reviews!