The 31st Night
Tria A Nox Noctis
Chapter 4: Avaritia
It was halfway through the next morning before Raven dared venture downstairs. At that, she was doing it under protest. As much as she'd love to avoid Robin at all costs, she needed that book.
She found him in the training room as usual going at it with his punching bag. Raven didn't speak, unwilling to interrupt his fury, but rather stood to the side and waited. It wouldn't be long before his senses made him aware of another presence.
"Yes?" He asked after a few seconds. Robin pushed himself away from the bag, looking for his towel. It was neatly folded beside the wall.
"Where's my book?" Raven didn't dare address it as anything other than a book. The last thing she needed was him getting over precautious about it.
"Not until you tell me what you used it for." Robin wiped off his forehead, hanging the towel over one shoulder.
The girl stood opposite of him, eyes narrowed. She was not going to play his game.
"You will give me what is mine." Her voice was forceful and cold. Any lesser being would have stepped away from such a threat.
"Not if it jeopardizes this team." Robin folded his arms in a headstrong motion, leaning ever so slightly against the wall.
"I just need to see it and then you can burn it for all I care." Switching her tactics, she tried a calmer look on her face. Demanding wasn't getting her anywhere very quickly.
"Why?" Robin stepped forward, eyebrow raised under his domino mask.
"Fine." Raven spat and turned quickly. Forget him, forget the damn book! The spell was correct, it was merely that small doubt creeping up on her. She'd teach that emotion to obey its boundaries.
She stomped out of the room in a flush of cloak.
Dropping the towel to the ground, Robin watched her leave. At least he knew why she had been in his room now.
Cyborg awoke with a massive headache. His eye opened to bright light, forcing him to roll onto his side.
Unknowingly, what he was laying on was not big enough for such a motion. He slipped off his metal sheet of a bed with a large clunking sound. "Ohh." The boy groaned and pushed himself up, why was he in his room?
Where had he been before sleeping?
Cyborg hauled himself up, a hand going to his throbbing head. He had been… eating.
Yeah, that sounded about right. Eating… and a contest. With Starfire? And then they came home and…
He must have gone to bed. Where was the memory?
It was unlike his computer-esque mind to lose data. He shook his head and moved over to his computer. Maybe he should download the files and check for corruption, if a virus had gotten in, it would be worthwhile to get on that bugger right away.
Beast Boy waded through the junk that was his bedroom. After the nightmares of last night he had decided to sleep in his own room for a while.
Currently, he was looking for his shoes. They had to be somewhere in the many piles. He had already checked the clothes pile and the stuffed animals pile, but held hope that there might be some leads in that gadget pile.
Things clinked and snapped under his toes as he pushed them aside to try and get through. He really needed to put all this stuff back in the closet soon, it was making it so hard to find things.
Maybe he could get away with leaving it if he put a hazard sign on his door though…
Beast Boy spotted something glimmering. The metal of a boot? He dove for it.
Nope. Looked like an old bird-a-rang. It was stuck in what may have once been a pizza. How long had that been there? He backed away from it, unwilling to investigate further.
Shoes were overrated anyway.
Starfire was attempting an Earth recipe. After bringing the food back yesterday Robin had introduced her to a Book Of Cooking. He had hopes it would keep her from badgering him about Halloween, it had.
She squinted at the print trying to figure out what an eggplant was. In all her understanding of Earthen fauna, plants did not lay eggs.
The girl was trying to make… her eyes slid back to the title: Babaganoush. Robin had said to try anything in the Book Of Cooking and this one certainly looked promising.
But what about the eggs from plants?
"Star?" Cyborg entered the kitchen. The girl had not heard him coming and jumped at the sound.
"Oh, Cyborg. I mean to ask you, what is-"
"Hold on. What happened after we came back from the restaurant yesterday?"
Starfire opened her mouth to speak, but paused. "You went to… the garage, and I-" She had gone shopping yesterday, but something about that wasn't right. "I went to the store?"
There was something she needed to remember. What was it?
"Something's wrong. I woke in my room this morning and I can't remember getting there." Cyborg cast an eye across the counter at her arrangement of lemons, garlic, and a couple bottles of spices. He found it easier not to ask what she was making.
"I feel I should be remembering something as well." Starfire placed a finger on her cheek as though thinking. "I do not know."
"I'm going to alert Robin. Memory loss cannot be taken lightly."
Starfire perked up, but the robotic man was gone before she could ask about plant eggs.
Raven stood outside her door, not allowing herself to go inside. The indecision of it all was driving her mad. She should not just walk away and let that boy win. What would change his mind?
She couldn't tell him anything about the spell. He'd try to blame Beast Boy's little stunt yesterday on her. It was not her fault. Whatever was wrong with him was his business.
Still.
She needed to at least check. Damn her conscious.
Raven turned back around and grudgingly stared back for the training room.
Half-way down the hall someone rushed out of their room, crashing abruptly into her. The girl stumbled a little to the side, but managed to push the green atrocity away from her. "Watch where you're going." She snipped.
Beast Boy did not have the chance to grasp his balance. He tripped and fell.
Raven turned back to him curiously when he didn't get up. "Beast Boy?"
"Go away!" He howled, suddenly jerking to one side, trying to slide away.
Her eyebrows knit together as she watched him. He was writhing on the floor from something that seemed to plague only him.
And then there was that feeling. The same aura, so haunting. "Beast Boy!" She ran over to him, trying to ignore the awful thing that pulsed from him.
"No, no!" He was pushing away from her as though she were the demon who was terrorizing him.
"Avaritia." It was coming for him. It was calling him. Beast Boy kept crawling away, unable to get his feet beneath him. Electric eyes were advancing on him, trying to calm him into submission.
It was the same as last time. He couldn't fall for it.
"Te saligiare…" If the eyes had a face it would have been smiling.
"No, please!" Beast Boy whimpered, feeling restraints on his breathing once more. Where were the other Titans, wouldn't they help him?
Beast Boy was frantic in his need to stay away from her. "Beast Boy stop, it's me." Raven called, cautiously moving after him. She didn't want to get any closer with the look he was giving her. It was a carnal fear, it was a dangerous emotion to be feeling.
He must not be able to see her and in that he could end up attacking her. Raven clicked the distress button on her communicator.
"I don't know what's going on." Cyborg was walking with Robin toward the living room computer. "But there's a glitch in my memory and Starfire seems to be struggling to remember something as well."
"Hmm." Robin was keeping quiet as Cyborg attempted to explain the problem. Why did everything seem like it fit together? He needed some answers from Raven soon. It would be too much to have to deal with another Malchior situation again.
"And I'm thinking our memory problems may have been connected, did you have anything strange happen to you yesterday?" Cyborg continued talking.
"Nope." Robin was still contemplating the theory that the two attacks had happened at the same time. But then if they did, how did that help him?
Nada.
It was frustrating. "I bet Raven could shed some light on this." Robin finally spoke up when they reached the living room. His hand reached for the communicator, but before he could call the communicator alarms began ringing.
Cyborg pulled up his arm to check as Robin flipped open his communicator. Starfire came out of the kitchen, her own ringing.
"It's Raven, up near Beast Boy's room." Cyborg informed them.
Within the next second the three were dashing up the stairs after the alarm signal.
Beast Boy was backing away, crawling and whimpering to himself as though Raven were going to attack him.
But he was fading. He was choking and crying, hands at his throat. Raven dared to move closer. She had to do something. Where were the other Titans?
The aura was all around her, pushing her away. Forbidding her interference. She reached forward, maybe if she could just…
She touched his shoulder. The boy shrieked and Raven was hit with a blast of electricity. Her body was thrown carelessly across the hallway, banging into the other wall.
And then the darkness was upon her. Pushing her down, quicker than quicksand and so much more tormenting. Blazing blue eyes consumed her world, pushing her back, smashing at her consciousness.
"Avaritia…" It hissed at her, seeming like a warning. It was everywhere at once.
Raven fought the force. She needed to get back up, she needed to help Beast Boy. It was stronger.
She could not hear Beast Boy's screams any longer, it worried her. The thing evaded her senses and gave her one last shove.
The darkness swallowed her up.
The three Titans made it to the hallway to find it quiet. Usually a panic call meant action. Here was nothing.
Robin headed down the hallway catching sight of Beast Boy, leaning against a wall groaning to himself. The other two followed quick on his heels. "Beast Boy?"
The green skinned boy looked up with groggy eyes. "Where am I?"
Robin extended a hand and pulled his comrade up. "You're in the tower, what happened?"
Beast Boy scratched his head looking across the three. "I don't know. I was looking for my shoes in my room and then…here."
Robin went to glance down the hall at Beast Boy's bedroom door when another figure caught his attention. "Raven!" He brushed by Beast Boy towards the girl who had sent the signal. She was slumped against the opposite wall unconscious.
He shook her shoulder, seeing the steady inhaling of her chest. "Raven," He called.
Violet hair fell across her features, but she did not awaken. Cyborg was at his side when he stood back up. "We should take her to the infirmary." The tin man suggested.
Robin nodded absentmindedly, eyes tracing up and down the hallway trying to put together what had happened here. Too bad he hadn't had cameras installed on this level. When the tower was being built he had wanted to, but then the Titan bedrooms required at least a little privacy.
The two were a few meters from Beast Boy's room and Raven's communicator was a little more down the hall. It didn't make sense. Cyborg was carefully picking Raven up to take up to the medic area. Starfire was talking with Beast Boy about what had happened.
Robin hoped Raven would remember something when she awoke. Either way, when she did he was demanding answers.
It was after midnight before Raven fell back into her physical body. She jerked awake, sitting up quickly in the bed. A foul odor that had become all too familiar recently assaulted her nose.
She was in the infirmary, again. Hands clenching around the blankets, she scanned the room. Empty.
Where was her watch dog this time?
And why was she here?
Raven had been angry at Robin… she was going to go back and get her spell book and…
Nothing. Was this unconsciousness again? Something must have gotten her from behind, taken her out while she wasn't paying it any mind.
So how'd she get here? Was there a villain?
The girl threw her feet over the edge and got out of bed. She purposely made noise in hopes of bringing forth her guard dog. Here poochie.
It was still silent. Raven shook her hair using a hand to push it back out of her way. She fixed the bed she had just been lying in and snatched up her cloak once more.
"Going somewhere?" The voice came from behind her, towards where the door was.
"Out of here." Raven responded, fixing the blue material and turning to greet Robin. "Unless you care to explain why I'm here."
"I was going to ask you the same." Robin moved closer, into the light from the windows. He looked tired the way his shoulders slumped.
"I remember turning away from my door." Raven stopped, unsure of what came next.
"And nothing else." Robin filled in with a sigh and sat down on the bed she had just made. Raven stood where she was watching him. "We found you and Beast Boy in the hall outside his room."
Beast Boy? She hadn't seen him all day.
"You sent us a distress signal from your communicator." Robin added.
Raven searched her memory. To her knowledge, she had never done such a thing. "So what, I forgot that happened?"
"Looks like it."
"Robin, where is my spell book?"
Someone had to give in to get somewhere. Robin stuffed his pride down. "Cyborg's room."
"I'll be right back." Raven called and stepped into a black portal. She was gone in an instant. Robin fell back in the bed, he didn't expect her to return.
Raven called a portal up within Cyborg's room. She had already checked the time, surely he would be sleeping. All she had to do was snatch the book and be out.
The room was dark, even after all her dark energy evaporated. Raven had to wait a moment before moving for her eyes to adjust to the lighting.
When they did, she glanced over to the platform where Cyborg was supposed to be sleeping. It was empty.
Raven didn't like it. With all the things that had been going on (or supposedly going on), it concerned her that he was not sleeping. But first things first.
She started towards his computer, the most likely place for a misplaced book. It could only be her luck he had decided just recently to stack piles of books and papers there.
After a dramatic rolling of the eyes, she slid over to the desk and proceeded to look through the stacks.
It was five minutes before she spotted the torn brown spine, it was decorated elegantly with black markings. Quickly she pushed all the other books off of it, grasping it tightly in her hands. It felt so textured under her fingers.
Raven turned from the station, moving towards Cyborg's bed. He should be here, where else could he be at this time?
Switching the book to one hand, Raven extended a hand towards the empty metal table. There was something ever so slight pulsing from it…
As she got closer she could feel it. That aura.
Withdrawing her hand quickly, she stepped backwards into a portal. Her hands tightened over the book as she materialized back into the medic center.
Robin noticed the growing energy and quickly sat up. Raven stumbled out, eyes wide clutching her book.
"Cyborg's gone."
Avaritia : Also known as Greed. Beast Boy has packrat ways of keeping everything, and Cyborg is on a constant journey for power (leadership) and information.
Next chapter: Superbia.
You will find out what the spell means in later chapters. The Latin-based language here means "You commit a deadly sin". Saligia is the first letter of all the sins put together.
:Bloody Fae: