Okay, this is a sequel (kinda) to I don't have to wonder anymore. I say "kinda" because it starts while that story is still taking place. It's mostly Raven-centered. At the end I'll try to explain my pathetic uses at symbolism, at least the ones that are less obvious. Or maybe I won't maybe I'll just see let you figure it out yourself. It's not all that difficult, and it's not even terribly well done, but I think it's good enough. So we begin.
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Raven landed softly on the bridge a little way from Beast Boy. She had seen him speed off and had immediately come after him, hoping to try and comfort him. She knew what it was like to have a person you love look through you.
He was looking at something; from this angle, she couldn't see what. Patiently waiting for him to turn around, or do something, the demonness watched. He took a deep, steadying breath, and she watched him pull his arm back and move to throw something. Just as his arm extended, something small fell from his hand, glinting in the bright sunlight as it fell into the water. He stared after it, a look of incomprehension on his face.
"Beast Boy, NO!" Raven screamed, rushing towards him as she saw him fall, his knees making a loud cracking sound as they connected with the bridge. She watched in horror as he fell into the water. No bubbles came up.
She was screaming, begging for him to be alive, as she jumped into the water. She saw him reach for something on the bottom, and then he stopped moving. His blank eyes stared up at her as she swam down to him. After what seemed an eternity, she grabbed him and pulled him back up, pushing her cloak angrily from about her arms so she could swim better.
"Please, Beast Boy, don't die," she whispered to him when she had gotten his limp, heavy body onto the bridge. She flipped him over onto his belly, resulting in what seemed to be gallons of water flowing from his mouth and nose. Finally it stopped, and she flipped him back over, watching with tears welling in her eyes as his dead ones flickered slightly.
"You're going to be okay," Raven said. She set her hand on his chest, feeling his heart flutter slightly, feeling as he struggled for breath. Leaning down, she blew into his mouth, forcing air to his lungs. Despite being a super hero, she didn't know CPR, and was doing all she could think of.
Sitting back for a second, she took another breath and went back to him, trying to help. After several minutes, he coughed, startling her and making her fall into the river. As she crawled back onto the bridge, he sucked in a large breath, then began to breathe normally again. His head turned to the side, slightly blue-tinted, as he fought to recognize her.
"R-Raven?" he asked weakly. He shook his head, then smiled slightly as she crawled over to him.
"It's me, Beast Boy," Raven whispered, sitting next to him as he fought to prop himself up on his elbows, failing miserably. She pulled her soaked blue cloak off, balling it up and setting it beneath his head.
"I thought I died," he said, his face fading slowly back to its normal color. She nodded, resisting the urge to grab him and hold him to her.
"You almost did." She knew he couldn't have possibly heard what she said. Looking up, the introverted young woman asked, "Why did you come out here?"
Beast Boy looked down at his left fist, which was clenched tightly. He sighed, then held his hand out to her, still balled, "Because of this."
Raven reached out, and he opened his hand, dropping the ring into her open palm. She looked at it, the black rose, the amethyst, and the seemingly perfect diamond, then asked in wonder, "Where did you get this?"
"I bought it for Terra," he said miserably.
"Oh…" Heart sinking, Raven handed the ring back to him and looked away. So that was it. He really didn't care about her at all. Terra was the only one he loved, and he had been willing to drown himself if he couldn't be with her.
"Was that you I heard, when I fell in?"
Surprised, Raven looked at him and nodded. He squinted in confusion, apparently still unable to think well as he said, "But why'd you come after me?"
"Do you really not know?" she asked him. He looked at her again, still confused, as she sighed and stood, walking over to the edge of the bridge.
"Be careful," he said, trying to lighten the mood a little, "it's a little slippery over there, and the water's kinda cold."
"I noticed," Raven answered, forcing a smile, then turning to gaze at her reflection. She was suddenly wishing that she hadn't been able to save him. Then she could've gone down and drowned with him, and they could finally be together. Now, though, she would be taunted by his love of Terra for the rest of her life.
She heard movement behind her, but didn't care. Something wet grabbed her ankle, and she jumped to see Beast Boy trying to get her attention.
"Sorry," he stammered, looking up at her. He seemed more alert, but was obviously still weak from the near-death experience. Raven smiled down at him again, then sat next to him. He pulled himself up to her, pulling himself up with great effort and wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
"I didn't mean to hurt you, Raven," he said, "I never wanted that."
"You were in love," Raven replied, going back to her monotone voice, "obviously you were confused."
"It's more than that," Beast Boy said, trying to think of a way to get his thoughts out. He sat in silence for a moment, then shrugged. Raven could've sworn she heard him whisper "Okay, McGraw, I'll live like I'm dying… which I probably will."
"What was that?"
"Uh… nothing," he said, blushing. He held his hand out again, holding the ring in it and looking her in the eye. "Raven, I'd like you to have this."
She gazed at him in bemusement for a moment, then said, "Please tell me you didn't just propose to marry me."
He laughed slightly, blushing more, "No, I didn't, ah, unless you wanted to, umm… take it that way."
"First, that could definitely have been done better," she said, standing. His hand slid down her back as she did so, making her bite her lip to keep from accepting. It hurt her that he was doing this, but she wanted to say yes more than anything.
"Second, Beast Boy," she said, her back to him, "I don't want to be second choice. I'm not going to marry you just because Terra married Speedy and now you want someone."
"Do you think that's what this is?" he asked her. She could almost hear him laughing. Turning to face him, she raised her eyebrow as a hint that she wanted an explanation.
"Look at the ring, Raven. Why would I have picked purple and black roses if I had intended this for her? Sure, I was going to give it to her, but that's only because the person I had designed it for was never going to accept it." He held it out to her again so she could see.
Suddenly everything clicked. Terra, who was fond of flaunting everything she had, would never have appreciated such a small diamond. She wasn't a fan of purple, and the black roses would have no meaning to her. It was designed for someone who wished to be alone, someone who didn't want to be so obvious about her love for Beast Boy, but who nonetheless had a perfect love for him.
It had been designed for her. Not just the Raven who stood before him now, able to control her emotions. Beast Boy had obviously brought everything he knew about Raven with him as he tried vainly to make a ring that would live up to his view of the demonness.
Taking the ring in trembling hands, Raven slid it onto her finger. Her hands were about the same as Terra's so it fit well. With a smile, she helped a still-blushing Beast Boy to his feet.
"We need to go back to the church, Beast Boy," she said, walking with him to the car.
"Oh yeah, we need to pick up the others, don't we?" he asked, glancing down ever couple seconds at the ring on Raven's hand.
"Sure, something like that." He looked at her in confusion as they got in the car and drove back to the church.
"There they are," Cyborg said with a great amount of relief as Beast Boy pulled into the church's "parking lot". Raven, water still dripping from her cloak, stepped from the car and approached the man who had conducted Terra and Speedy's wedding earlier that day.
"Sir, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course you can, Raven," he answered, his calm, secretive voice comforting her. She looked back at the car as Beast Boy opened the door and stepped out, walking over to them.
"Would it be an insult if a demon were to be married here today?" All of them, including Beast Boy, stared at her in confusion. "I mean," she elaborated, grabbing Beast Boy by the arm and pulling him forward, "would it be an insult to God if this boy married me?"
Everyone looked at her with dazed expressions on their faces. Beast Boy looked like he had just been slapped in the face by a person he had never seen with a large and rather tainted salmon. In other words, he looked as though he had never thought, in a million lifetimes, that he'd ever hear those words. All he could manage to say was "I'm not a boy anymore…" though without much conviction. Raven smiled and poked him in the side, saying, "Yes you are," and he didn't argue anymore.
"You want to marry me?" he finally managed to say, trembling slightly as she nodded.
"You did say that the ring could be taken as a proposal if I wanted to take it as one." He stared at her, then gave his trademark grin.
"But today?" She just nodded.
"You realize that I can't legally marry you, right?" the man before them said. Raven smirked at him.
"You're Batman, I think the city would accept your judgement and authority on this after all you've done for them." Bruce thought for a moment, then sighed and walked back in, muttering to himself about stubborn teenagers.
"This is a most joyful occasion!" Starfire shouted. She grabbed Robin, pulling him inside the church with Cyborg following, leaving Raven and Beast Boy alone outside.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Beast Boy asked her, still slightly dazed at everything that had happened that day.
"Yes," she said, blushing slightly as they walked slowly towards the doors with their arms resting tentatively on each others bodies, "I do."
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Okay, I wasn't sure how I was going to end this, and I was writing and this came out. I couldn't think of anything after that last line, so I figured it was a good enough ending. I love writing with no clue of when or how it's going to end… it lets me get stuff out easier…
So, I hope you figured out all the stuff about the ring. For the record, I did not do this because I was bored. I had two separate ideas, one being I don't have to wonder, the other being this. I had each of them planned out, and the ring was a part of each. When I was writing the last paragraph of I don't have to wonder, I realized that this matched up with it reasonably well. So I tweaked the beginning a bit, tweaked the ending of that one, and got this completed product. I hope it works. One thing: who understands the title? Who understands the last part of last chapter? I'm bored, so I'll just tell you. As a lot of you probably know, a lot of people call Raven an angel in their stories, or at least give her descriptions that imply an angelic kind of person. I don't know if its for irony or what, but they do. That's what I did with the line of the song "And the angels sang like thunder…" Then Beast Boy falls in, sees blue, which would be possible if you were drowning, and then black. The blue he sees, if you haven't figured it out yet, is Rae's cloak. The black is her leotard. And when he is embraced by death, or however I said it, that's her cradling/holding him as she swims up to the surface. If you didn't figure that out, either I am stupid and wrote it in a retarded way (which is entirely possible), or you all need to learn how to analyze stuff. Start by looking at the usage of lighting and the battle between Yoda and Palpatine in Star Wars Episode 3. There's lots of stuff to analyze in that. Good practice, it is. And yes I wrote it like that because of Yoda, cause I lack a life.
I have an important announcement to make. I have missed the new episode of Teen Titans… and to make it worse, I believe it was Prophecy. To me, this is no less than heresy. In recompense for such an evil action, I have made a sacrifice of 2 waffles, a half pound of pretzel sticks, and my blood. May the Great God of Teen Titans forgive me for my insolence. Ironically, I missed it because I was watching Star Wars Episode 3… Now I am depressed and will not watch any of the Star Wars movies until I see this episode, either…
Okay, now that I've said that (which is completely true, by the way), I want to thank you for blowing however long it took you to read this story. If you liked it, great, if you didn't like it, sorry. Please review, either way. And feel free to abuse me for being, to put it bluntly, a dumb-fuck and missing the episode I've been waiting for since the first week of February. I am unworthy of watching any other Teen Titans until I see this episode…