AN: Empathy here. This chapter is dedicated to all the great reviews and constructive criticism. All the errors in the first chapter should be fixed. And someone asked about Raven's personal description. She's a bit more curvy then in the show, about an inch taller, but fuller figured. Basically, larger hips and breasts. Coke bottle, all the way . This chapter was inspired by watermelon and Paralyzer, by Finger Eleven. I consider it Malchior and Raven's song. Less in lyric then in the tone of the song. That and Glycerine by Bush. Why? No clue again. I just get feelings about these things.
This chapter might seem disjointed and have a few points that counteract each other. It's done on purpose, as you will see in later chapters. Enjoy the show.
Malchior knew it had been years. Years in that black nothing, being so coherent there, the dragon and himself entwined, one being. Nobody would ever understand that. He could hear the world outside his tome, but he could not participate. His ears could register Raven, Meditation, fighting, silent contemplation.. He had experienced her life on audio. The story was almost better then his own, even the end, with Trigon, when she had done the amazing and unthinkable.
He had been paralyzed with fear for the young girl, hoping but not believing she could defeat someone like her father, who made even he tremble. But she had. Raven had become a killer in the space of a day, and then she had been able to feel. The next few years had been interesting. He had known her, heard the way she tested the waters of this unknown territory. Every emotion she felt was intense, more so then in other people. And when she found romance, he had almost been jealous.
The mechanical one had treated her decently, had taken care of Raven. But he never encouraged her powers. He had taken care of her, at the price of her strength, and Raven hadn't even seen it, being too absorbed in love, and the physical aspects thereof. And Oh, how he had hated it. Their.. Lovemaking. The noise had been impossible to escape, and the rage of his other side welled in him.
How dare she do such things within earshot of him, as if he was nothing but a frivolous fairy tale? As if she didn't know every second was agony,. Every soft cry from her lips wasn't some abysmal betrayal of every confidence they had shared? She had been his little raven, smooth and pale and full of secrets. And now he couldn't even recognize her. Her toned, lighter voice, the way she would hum an off key tune when dressing.
The little chit had conveniently forgotten everything he had taught her; everything. She was content to make her own methods. After she had shoved him back into this book. After she had ruined all their plans, one misspoken syllable, and he had been joined to the dragon. She had bound the both of them together, and the dragon was stronger then. Had ruined everything, because Malchior had been angry with her, and that was all the opening Rorek had needed to destroy her.
But she had come back, older and broken . Malchior had stared at her, that night. She'd been scantly clad, as if she had come home from a particularly bad fight. But he could see, from his resting place against her chest. The beautiful clothing scattered with everything else. Broken and decimated, the layer of dust on most of the things didn't surprise him. Three years prior, she had left this place. Left him to the darkness. Losing the sound of Raven ( of any living thing) had driven him mad for a time.
But there she was, face perfectly calm and soft in dreaming, clutching him like she hadn't in a very long time. He hoped she wasn't as complacent with him as she was before. She was supposed to learn a lesson from that. But she hadn't whispered anything in her sleep; so he had no idea what this little spat was about. Why she would retrieve him from the case after so long in darkness. Did Raven long for his false empathy?
Not exactly false.. perhaps self-serving. Teaching her the magic had been his pleasure. Knowledge was more sacred to dragons then any other species. And Raven was a perfect vessel for continuing the flow. It was the emotional aspect that bothered Malchior more then even he understood. No matter how she had always contained herself, those feelings filtered out, affecting everyone around her. Feeling things like affection was difficult for him. Not because he didn't want to get attached. Because he knew that to give into such things was to covet destruction.
His wife had proven that long ago.
But he stopped his internal struggling, feeling a weight lifting, light shine into the darkness of his tome. Unable to contain himself, he left out, into a paper form. Making sure the scarf came with him, Malchior knelt, waiting for the last of his attributes to form. Then, he finally opened his eyes, staring up into her own. Azure met a color that could most closely be described as a hypothermic lips. Blue but not blue. White, but not white.
They stared, for a few moments. An impasse neither of them was strong enough to break yet. She was fuller, lush and obviously older, in the attitude and the eyes instead of her face. He was the exact same, and always would be, unless he returned to the real world. Something ached in his heart. How many decades? How long would he be a slave to time and the book?
Raven opened her mouth, but nothing came. He knelt at her feet like a knight before slowly unfolding, walking , his back to her. The paper rose lay on a shelf, and he was just tall enough to see it gathering dust, along with a rather old pendant he knew would induce psychic trances. He was just another shelved toy; one she had tired of after it gave her a bit of trouble.
He wasn't the one to speak first, to his surprise. The lady of the hour opened her mouth, closed it.. And finally settled on questions. Because she didn't beat around the bush and Raven wouldn't lie and say she missed him when he had ruined everything so long ago. She had worn white and that had been destroyed by him. Only twice after that had she deigned to bear that color. No more. Raven never had the heard to tell anyone it was because the color reminded her of Malchior's hair. There was no purity in such things.
" Your eyes are blue instead of white. And your body has colors. Don't tell me my bindings aren't as strong as Rorek's were."
When he waited to answer, she didn't get impatient. Instead, she stood and went to her dresser, removing the clothes for the day. She always made sure to have spare things laying about. Even if she only visited the Tower sparingly, Raven had been stranded enough to know your personal possessions couldn't have one safe place. Because you were usually left with a big steaming pile of nothing if you were caught by an enemy.
Malchior was impressed with her placid faces. He honestly knew something was seriously wrong with Raven. Why else would she have opened a book she knew had a bound dragon-man inside of it, ready to wreak havoc the minute she was stupid enough to let him?
" You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so what is the point of an answer? And; as we are on the point of questions, where have you been the last three years? Surely you did not fly solo."
He circled her, almost angered at the fact that she didn't react, no matter how slowly he walked. Obviously her father and some villain or another had lowered her tolerance for fear. Hell did that to a person. Malchior wondered if he would prefer it to the book. Or if it was like the books said or worse. He made a mental note to research that, if she wasn't locked up again.
" Oh, so you could hear. I hoped you couldn't, but it doesn't matter. Not like listening to me meditate helped you get past those anger issues. I was living by myself. I shouldn't have left your book here though. Some idiot might have come snooping and I would have had to seal you a second time. "
Malchior wondered if slapping her would get him banished. Emphatic yes. And it wouldn't do anything but tear one of his pages. And possibly piss her off, which wouldn't help his freedom case. Instead, Malchior took a seat on her bed. Finger underneath his chin, he offered her a thoughtful smile. Raven almost looked disgusted for a moment. Her dark bedspread didn't even wrinkle beneath the slight weight of his paper.
" Ah. And it had nothing to do with getting more privacy to be with the robot, would it? Yes, I heard that too. My little dove has grown up. I would say I was proud, but frankly I don't prefer lies if at all possible. You had much potential Raven, and you have been squandering it."
She flicked her wrist at him, dismissing him like a fly on the hand of a debutante. A nuisance Raven let live because on occasions it was amusing. His eyes lost their hue and became white, for a single moment. But Raven did not see, and for that he was grateful. Instead, she did something he hadn't expected. It was incredibly alluring, but also insanely out of character.
Raven was getting nude. In front of Malchior. In her room, with the door bolted.
She started slipping on her clothing and pretended to finally notice his existence. The act stung him, even though he knew it was false. Beautiful women did not toy with him. Not before he became the paper man. And now, Raven ; who had been willing to die for him on one occasion.. Was completely uninterested.
" Oh; did you say something? All I heard was a slimy snake flopping around my room for a few minutes. But that's gone now. And before you get around to asking; I didn't let you out because I think I can talk to you. Or because your some kind of replacement for real human contact. I'm thirty, not sixteen. "
She finished buttoning her pale blue blouse and zipped up her black slacks. Raven looked.. Sophisticated. Clean cut and ready to be a scholar or whatever duties the people of this future took upon themselves. And she wasn't lying. But now Malchior was not only irritated; but curious.
" Then why did you summon me? If I may ask, that is. "
He wasn't rising to her bait, which proved to Raven that he at least had tact. Apparently it was only after he seduced the maiden that he turned into the monster. She would just have to remember that and not be interested. When the time came. Right now Malchior was simply a means to an end.
" I want you to teach me more of your magic."
Malchior honestly looked surprised, but wiped the look off of his face for something a bit less comical. Let Raven believe what she wanted about him. He wouldn't teach her anything that she would exploit him with later.
" And what is my motivation?"
Raven smiled at that, a cynical, cold smile. Her body tensed as she looked at Malchior, sizing him up. He would teach her, for what she offered. He was too desperate to refuse. Malchior had one weakness, one large flaw. His imprisonment was eating slowly at the edges of his sanity.
" Freedom. Or better yet, if you don't teach me, I'll take that book and conveniently take it to the Temple of Hulavi on the planet Juvian, dimension of Nox. I hear their particularly hateful to your kind."
Malchir flinched. She did know of them then. But why wouldn't she have disposed of him sooner? Perhaps Raven wasn't as foolish as he had thought. Her eyes caught him, just before he asked another question.
" Tell me why. Why you want to learn. "
She raised an eyebrow. The way wouldn't matter to him. But if it got him to agree without much persuasion on Raven's part, she would be honest and tell him.
" I want to bring someone back form the dead, to kill someone else. And you will teach me; everything you know. Understand?"
Her hand was extended, a show of a bargain. Malchior weighed his options. None of them were wonderful. So he accepted her hand in his own paper one. Her skin felt amazing. But that was because he hadn't touched anything in fifteen years.
" Fine. But if you do not free me, I will make sure you regret it. Thoroughly."
The knock at her door stunned her for a moment. Until she crossed the room in three strides, shut his book, and Malchior was once again in the dark. Taking a deep breath and thanking god someone had the propriety to knock before entering, Raven opened her door. Taking a look, she slammed it. Five seconds later, there was no door.
And a man Cyborgs size, only without the metal and with red hair and blue eyes, stood there, smiling. A juggernaut in tailored black slacks. His facial hair was groomed well, and his hair was longer in the back, shaggy but not in a ponytail. He looked like a friendly lion.
And Raven hated him, with an intense passion.
" Sledge, you may lead Titans East. But that doesn't explain why you are here, annoying me, when your ignorant, rusticated, outdated scottish accent could be screaming drills at unsuspecting teenagers. I'll assume it's your asinine pursuit for my hand, which will not be yours, now or ever. Now please leave. Preferably before I hide your body in a sewer drain and pretend the smell is just a dead skunk. "
He stood for a moment. Before bursting into guffaws of laughter. His large form shook so hard he was wiping tears from his eyes.
" Lord woman, are you pretty when riled. My druthers would be being here to court you, but sadly it's just a note from the boy upstairs. Says your main patrol for the next week, Starfire and Robin are on a cover mission after Mallah. Beastboy and Terra are handling the Titans and the Titans South. North will be mine too, since Spare Parts and Pinky are out for the month on honeymoon. "
He saw how she flinched and raised a hand, disheveling her hair and avoiding a gray bolt of furious energy. It was gray and transparent since her father's defeat. Or so the others had told him.
" An dun worry lovely, that slap was beautiful. I think nobody else saw you put some of your powers into it. But I'll be goin."
Turning around to leave, he whipped around fast enough to startle Raven, planting a soft kiss to the side of her mouth that made her spine tingle with awareness.
When the large superhero swam back to shore form the deepest part of the Bay, he was laughing. She really was a spitfire.