An Author's note: I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack! Did you guys miss me? Unfortunate I didn't get any writing done at my grandmother's at all, due to the fact that she does not have the three pronged plugs that my laptop, the Clunker, needs in order to perform. So, I didn't get what planned to get done. Oh well, at least I got home early!
Oh, and hello to my two new reviewers: El Queso de Malicioso (hereafter referred to as The Cheese, because that is the way the review was signed and it is easier on my spell-check) and Gaxe a guy from…Sweden? Wow. Never thought that I would go international, and I haven't even published an actual book yet! How cool is that!
Vegeta247: I know that I got a bit out of character a bit with Robin on that last chapter. Heck that was actually me talking through the entire sequence (or what I would say to Raven if she were real). I mean COMEON! She is so darned fatalistic and stubborn! You can't tell me that there were times in the series when you just wanted to shake her and tell her to get a life, especially during the Trigon thing! Now, she is my favorite character (obviously) but the girl needs to take care of that low self-esteem problem she has! Oh, and the part about Beast Boy "gently" biting was actually sarcasm, I guess you can't tell from a computer, though.
It's so nice to be home! Funny how a little shack in the woods can feel so modern with the satellite and the internet connection all installed, while a house in the city (grandma's) can feel like the howling wilderness without the TV and the internet. Or maybe that was just homesickness. I missed my computer! I missed my cats! I missed my dogs! Heck I even missed those evil mutant frogs in the pond outback (and believe me, those frogs are SCARY! I swear they glow in the dark!).
Now…where did I leave off? Oh, yes, I remember! On with the show!
Chapter Thirteen
The Council
I should have known I would not be able to get out of here without taking to them first! Raven thought to herself. As Makhar she had every right to blow the Council off, but that would be a bit on the rude side, not to mention very disrespectful. While they ground her nerves there was no technical reason why Raven should ignore them, and she knew it too. It was always a good idea to at lest try to keep on good terms with the people who technically outranked you. Even though Makhar were allowed to walk out of Council meetings whenever they wished, or could even not attend at all, it was better not to abuse the privilege in case it was needed later.
"General, mind telling me who is there?" she asked.
"Three at the moment. Sasssumal, Croena, and Flass." He said "The Matron is out with Dralor. They're with Twainisa. She finally finished her training just last week."
"Really? That's great!" Raven said. Other than Hadiran Twainisa had been one of Raven's only real friends in the Temple. The female centaur was a bit on the bookish side; in fact she was a bit like Raven in her love of books and all things that involved literature. Twainisa had been training to work in the Temple library, a job that Raven herself had considered briefly, but discarded due to…events. Still, Twainisa had been close to Raven, and it was nice to know that she had accomplished her goals. Raven wished she could stay for a bit, if only to talk to her old friend, but when she came back she would be coming with Dralor. Raven was not sure if Dralor really would take out his threat of killing her, but she did not want to take the risk.
"Better go talk to them." She muttered, referring to the Council. "Let's see if I can get out before nightfall."
For the past few minutes the General had been looking at Raven with a puzzled expression. There was something different about her, but for a moment he could not place it. Then he realized what it was. It was the chakra stone on her forehead. Normally it was red, but now it was a dull grey. What could have happened to make it do that?
"Raven," he said "what happened to your chakra?"
"Can I tell you that while we walk? You see what happened was-"and Raven started telling the General the entire story as they both headed toward the Council. The others were a bit uncertain on what to do. Should they stay here and wait for Raven to finish with these…people? Or should they follow her?
Making up his mind Beast Boy trailed after Raven and the General. He didn't know what the Council business was about, but he could tell from Raven's attitude that she did not like these people at all. He knew that Raven would never ask for moral support, but that did not mean that she could not have it. The other's obviously thought the same thing, as they followed without any more hesitation.
They entered what Beast Boy believed was the main entrance to the Temple. It could only be the main one, due to the fact that it had a staircase that looked and felt like it was mile long. Said staircase led up to a pair of huge double doors that you could have fit a plane through, carved with strange symbols that Beast Boy did not want to guess at. At first he wondered how in the world they were supposed to move the things, but the General simply pushed on them and they swung open with no trouble.
Not even bothering to ask permission, Beast Boy entered and promptly stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him was the biggest statue he had ever seen. It depicted a huge white dragon (whether or not the white was its true color or because the thing was marble Beast Boy did not know). The dragon's body resembled that of a gorilla, a long muscular pair of forelegs and a short pair of hind legs. It had a long curved neck and a pointed triangular head with large tusks that resembled an elephants'. Its wings were spread wide, as if it was getting ready to fly away. Its teeth, claws and tusks appeared to be pure gold. It should have looked fearsome, but somehow the sculpture had managed to convey a look of wisdom and kindness on its huge face. It was beautiful, and Beast Boy guessed who this statue was made for. It must be Azar.
"Duuuuuuuude." He said quietly, realizing that he sounded like an idiot. But if he was an idiot so were the rest of them. The Titans looked up at the statue with eyes that had grown twice the normal size. But after a few minuets of gawking, Beast Boy remembered that he should have been following Raven. He spotted her walking down a hallway on the other side of the statue with the General, and he hurried to catch up. It was obvious as soon as he had gotten there that Raven had finished telling the General about the events that led to her being back home.
"If only I had been there." The General growled "I would have gutted that man and used his entrails for fishing lures."
"Please don't. You would poison the poor little fish. Then you would not be able to eat them." Raven replied, and the General chuckled. Personally Beast Boy did not find anything funny about that particular statement at all. This must be what people referred to as dry humor.
Beast Boy saw yet another door at the end of the hallway, with yet more unintelligible symbols covering it. Was this there destination?
Raven stopped at the door and turned to look at the others. "This is the council chamber." She said "but we can't let all of you in here. Some stupid rule or another. Who wants to be bored to death?"
Beast Boy immediately jumped at the opportunity, followed by Cyborg. Both of them were feeling Overprotective Male toward an Important Female Syndrome, a condition that made brothers, boyfriends and fathers act like their sister, girlfriend or daughter was made of glass and needed to be protected. In fact, Robin was feeling a bit of this as well, but he thought that this might be another opportunity to nose into Raven's past. Maybe if he could get the General talking…
As soon as Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy had entered the room, Jinx looked around. "Anyone mind if I take a look around?"
The General shrugged "Don't really care if you do, just don't try to open any locked doors."
Jinx's lunatic grin appeared on her face, and Robin had a feeling that locked doors would be the first place that she would try to explore. But Robin did not really want her around when he talked to the General, and in fact he did not want Star around either. As soon as Jinx had wandered off to look for trouble, Robin's eyes fell on the skunk Star was still holding.
"Star, why don't you find that skunk's owner and return it?" he asked.
"Oh, of course. But where is she?"
The General gave Starfire directions, and she flew off to find Raven's mother and return her skunk. He then gazed at Robin with a piercing expression. He knew that this oddly dressed boy wanted to talk to him about something, but the General had no idea what it could be.
"Um," Robin started, suddenly feeling awkward for some reason "Can I ask you something?"
"You just did." The General replied, still giving Robin a critical look.
Robin decided to just go ahead. Really, what was the worst that this man could do? "I'd like to know a bit more about Raven."
"Why?" The General kept staring, looking a bit like a protective father. "You live with her, don't you?" He did not look happy about this at all.
How does he know that we all live in the same place? An ideal thought flickered past Robin's mind, he stored it for later, but right now he had to deal with the angry looking elf in front of him.
"Well, she doesn't talk much about herself and-"
"And what?" The General's glare darkened even more. "What makes you think that I would talk to you when she does not? Why would I tell you anything? And for that matter why do you want to know? Do you doubt her loyalty to you little team?"
"Of course not! I-"
"If you think I'm going to start talking to you without knowing the reason why-"
"If you be quiet for a minute then I'll tell you why!" Robin bellowed.
The look on the General's face had changed. It was obvious that this was the first time anyone had dared to shout at him in a while. At first Robin wondered if he was in for a fight, but the General no longer looked angry. In fact he looked a bit amused.
"I suppose I do tend to be a bit overprotective of her." The General admitted. "I've gotten used to people making snide comments about her. Ask your questions, but don't be surprised if I refuse to answer a few."
Okay, that was fair. Right now the question in the forefront of Robin's mind was "Why are you so protective of her?"
The General's stony face softened just a little bit. "First and foremost" He said "You have to understand that I trained her father Flario before long before she was born. You know about that situation?"
Robin nodded "Trigon possessed Flario and raped her mother."
"Correct. Before he was possessed Flario was one of my best students. He was a bit of an arrogant little snot, but I suppose he had a right to be. He could outfight just about anyone he came across except me. Flario had his faults, but he was a good man in general. Part of the reason I looked after Raven was out of respect for the person Flario used to be, not the monster Trigon made him. The Flario I knew would have wanted someone to protect his daughter, especially since she is a Halfblood. Also…"
The General paused for a moment, as if to collect his thoughts and then he went on. "Raven's mother, Arella, didn't have an easy time during childbirth. In fact bringing Raven here almost killed her. I honestly thought Arella was going to die, and I didn't want Flario's daughter to be raised by someone who did not at least know her father. So I made a vow to help raise and protect her, and an elf always keeps his word."
"But…isn't Raven's mother here?"
The General nodded "Arella survived, but I never said that I would protect her only if Arella died. I simply said that I would raise and protect her. The fact that Arella lived did not change that."
Robin thought that it might be a bit more than that. He could tell, from the way that the General acted, that the elf truly thought of Raven as a father would. That was probably the source of his earlier defensiveness.
"Could you tell me a bit more about her childhood?" Robin asked.
"Hmmmmm." The General seemed to think for a moment "What precisely do you want to know?"
Robin thought for a bit. "Well, was she always so…so…"
"Cold and mean? Are those the words you were searching for?" there was that defensiveness again.
"I mean, it must have been hard having powers that worked like hers as a child."
"Ha." The General chuckled "But she did not have to deal with her powers as a child! When she was born the priests could practically feel her powers radiating from her, and they knew that it would cause trouble. They put a magical block over her mind that prevented her powers from manifesting themselves. For the first eight years of her life she was a mostly normal girl."
"Eight years?"
"She broke her block at age eight without any help at all." The General said with a bit of pride sneaking into his voice. "Just one more question and then you have to stop before you annoy me."
Robin thought for a moment. "Did she have any friends growing up?"
"When she was little the king and queen of the Caninoids brought their son, Arcktos, here to be tutored. Just in case you did not know a Caninoid is a bipedal dog. Very intelligent and very tough. She and he were playmates until the queen died and her husband took her son home with him. I'm pretty sure that they still kept in contact until Raven left for Earth. She was also close to a female centaur named Twainisa and a young human named Hadiran. And there was Sanath, but I doubt that you could call him a real friend, and I'm not going to tell you why."
Robin spent some time digesting this new information. He wondered if it would possible to meet any of Raven's old friends during this trip. He hoped so, the General had shed a bit of light on Raven's murky past, but Robin was not sure if he was on the right track.
"Now I have a question for you, boy. Why are you so interested in Raven?" The General asked.
Robin hesitated for just a moment then he proceeded to tell the General about what the unicorn had told him. Robin felt he could trust this man, even though he had just met him.
The General looked thoughtful. "Later," he said "I think I'll tell you a bit more about Flario. I think that you will have to know more about him, if what the unicorn says is true."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see."
Beast Boy just could not figure this out. When he, Cyborg and Raven had entered the circular room that looked like a smaller version of the place where the U.N. meet he thought that the three people sitting in the area above them were expecting a…debriefing. That was what it felt like when they asked what Raven had accomplished on Earth. She had then spouted off every villain they had ever faced and every time they had thrown said villain in jail. She didn't actually tell them stories, it was more like: "Cinderblock arrested twelve times, Plasmus arrested eleven times…" and she went through every one. Beast Boy stopped listening to her after a while and studied the people.
In the middle was a guy that looked a bit like Aqualad's fish buddy Tram, but larger and blue and with a clear sneer on his fishy face. The lady on his left was a lady that reminded Beast Boy of his first grade teacher (a really nice lady who always gave out candy treats to the students who behaved themselves). She was a kind looking middle aged woman who was giving Raven an encouraging look. The man on the fish guy's right was an older man, about seventy, who simply looked neutral and a bit bored.
Raven finished her recitation, and Beast Boy assumed they were done. However, this was when this stopped resembling a debriefing, and started resembling a trial.
"How many of these people have you killed?" the fish man asked, and Beast Boy resisted the urge to leap on him.
"Sasssumal, you know that superhero's are not allowed to kill criminals in the line of duty on Earth." The older man said gently.
"I didn't ask about their 'laws'" Sasssumal the fish guy said "I asked if she has killed anyone."
"I have killed no one." Raven said with a calm that Beast Boy would never have achieved.
"You know that Raven was trained not to believe in killing" the woman said "Honestly I don't believe that any former student of mine-"
"Don't be a fool, Croena!" Fish face snarled at her "You know as well as I do what she is!"
"I think I know a bit more than you do, Sasssumal!" the women, Croena, said "Since I'm the only Council member here who has ever spent time with Raven! If you spent less time listening to Dralor's bigotry than maybe you would know what you are talking about!"
"Is there a point to any of this?" the older man said "Honestly, she is not on trial after all. "
Could have fooled me. Beast Boy thought.
"She has been known to show rather demonic traits." Sasssumal continued as if Raven was not there "You know what demons are like. She became a full demon once before and she could do it again!"
"That was only once, and she has more than proven that she can control herself since then." Croena said in a low voice. "Or have you forgotten that if it were not for her and her friends Trigon would be ruling both Earth and Azarath by now?"
"Speaking of which" Fish face glared at Raven once again. "Raven you have been living with three boys in a tower with no adults in sight."
Raven tensed "What precisely are you implying?"
"Five teenagers, all living together? What exactly is goes on in that tower when you people are not protecting that city?"
Beast Boy's mouth dropped open. This guy thought that they…with Raven? What was he smoking? Sure Beast Boy thought she was pretty…and he really liked her…but that didn't mean that Raven would…Raven was the last person who would do what this moron was implying! Beast Boy opened his mouth to say something, but Raven somehow sensed his intentions and shot him a glare.
Finally decided that she had enough, Raven returned Fish face's glare with a death look of her own. "Unless you have anything specific to accuse me of, I would like to get back to Makhar business. May I go now?"
"Yes, please leave." The older man said quickly before Fish face could object. Raven did not wait around for him to start up again either. Beast Boy never saw her move toward a door so fast. He could not blame her at all. He didn't like the fact that they seemed to bump into people who hated Raven for what she was every five steps. Why couldn't these people see Raven for who she really was, instead of judging her all the time? It was just so frustrating.
When they left they found Robin and the General waiting for them. It was pretty clear that they had been talking, and Beast Boy thought he knew what it was about.
"So, little one, did you tell them to go to hell again?" the General said with an amused look.
"Not this time." Raven shrugged.
"Pity, I always thought it was a Makhar's duty to tell the Council to go to hell. Maybe next time." The General said, but then his voice grew serious. "If you are really going to the Demonfang Moutains than you should probably head out right now. I don't know when Dralor will be back, but I don't want you here when he does. Better to avoid that scene altogether."
"Yes, good idea." Raven looked over at the others for a moment then said "we might want to get you guys some night horses for yourselves. Think you could spare five of them, General?"
He nodded just as the perky voice of Starfire started echoing down the hallways. Soon she was in sight, followed by a woman with the same purple hair as Raven. Beast Boy had a feeling that this was Arella, Raven's mom. Starfire was babbling at Arella like the proverbial brook. Arella looked more amused by this than anything else. Coming along behind Arella was the skunk and fluttering above her was a small falcon. Beast Boy remembered Raven saying something about her mother being able to talk to animals.
Raven backed up a little, and looked like she wanted to hide for moment. Beast Boy had no idea why. If this was Raven's mother than shouldn't she be happy? Raven looked more nervous than happy.
Ignoring Raven's discomfort completely, Starfire floated over to Raven and said "Raven! I have just met your mother!"
"Interesting friends you have here." Arella said with a calm tone. She seemed to Beast Boy like a woman who rarely raised her voice at all. A bit like Raven herself, but there was less anger lurking under the surface.
"You think they are strange than you should see the enemies we have to fight." Raven said "It's nice to see you again mother."
Arella nodded and gave Raven a warm look. They kind of stared at each other for a bit, as if neither of them really knew what to say. After a long and kind of awkward silence, the General cleared his throat.
"Like I said, it is best if you headed out soon. Let's go to the stables and pick out those night horses."
Beast Boy realized that Mithrah, who normally followed Raven like a puppy, was not here. In fact, when Beast Boy thought for a while he figured out that he had not seen the aggressive creature in a while. Where had it gone?
"Hey, Rae, where did Mithrah go?" Beast Boy asked as they walked to wherever it was they were going now.
"Probably went to the stables. He knows this place well, and he would go back there. Night horses have a strong homing instinct."
"Oh." Beast Boy said "Um, can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Back there they said something about you being a full demon…" Beast Boy trialed off.
Raven signed. "You know those times when my eyes glow red?" Beast Boy nodded "that's my demon half peeking through. I have enough control over myself that it doesn't not come out completely, but…"
"I'm not sure I understand."
Raven stopped and stared at Beast Boy. The others were far enough away for them not to hear, and the hallway was empty. For all intents and purposes they were alone. She had never really talked about her demon form before, and it made her uncomfortable. That…thing inside of her was the source of a great deal of misery, and it had almost led to her death once. But if anyone could understand about this it would be Beast Boy.
"You remember that time when you were infected by those chemicals?" she began. "You said afterward that you could still feel the beast inside of you? Well, since my powers are demonic in nature if I were to completely let go of my emotions I would turn into a complete demon, like you became a beast. Only…I'm not sure I can control it like you can control the beast."
Beast Boy finally understood. So this was what she meant when she told him she understood what he was going through when he was the Beast. And this was what the unicorn was talking about when he had told Beast Boy about the demon inside of her. He had meant a literal demon, not a figurative one. Now Beast Boy realized how alike they really were. They both had monsters they had to control. Only Beast Boy kept it down with humor and fun, and Raven used meditation and calm to control hers. He was not sure what to say about this.
Raven didn't want to look at Beast Boy. She was afraid if she did she would see the same loathing she had seen in so many other people when she told them about her demon half. Talking about this made her remember what had brought on the first demon transformation, and the ensuing aftermath of death threats. She turned to walk away, but stopped when she felt him grab her hand.
"Raven, I understand. Heck I'm probably the only person who can!" he said, his voice filled with nothing but concern and kindness, not the hatred she had feared. "Just…promise me that if it gets bad you'll come talk to me so I can help you."
Something fluttered in Raven's chest. She wanted to look at him, but she still did not dare. She was scared, but of what she did not know.
"Fine, sure." She muttered and she pulled away from him to follow the others down the hall.
An Author's note: Yep, I did get the half-demon that sometimes turns into a full demon from Inyuasha, but I won't have her going full human at certain times of the moon. And I don't own Inyuasha, or Teen Titans, or Lovecraft. Oh I think you get the point, right?