AN: Ever since it was the tiniest thought in my mind, this chapter's soundtrack has been Filthy Playground by Oomph!. Before you read, it's well worth taking the time to find it. If you like, you can input the standard url for Youtube, then add this: /watch?v=rQt2sRyHRp8 .
Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans or profit from them; I'm just lucky enough to get to make them suffer.
CHAPTER 10
The animals in Away clamored and milled about, and Raven was forced to dodge a veritable stampede of species even as she witnessed Garfield's suffering through his eyes.
She wept and screamed and raged, her powers adding to the impotent howl that whipped around the odd pocket dimension. As his heartbeat slowed, she sank to her knees.
Her name fell from his lips, and the world ground to a halt.
Only once before had Raven stopped the flow of time. It had not been enough to save her then, and she was painfully aware that it would do Beast Boy no good now. Still she held the universe in this suspended animation. If she let go, Garfield would be gone.
That was not an option.
The half-demon's soul reached through the void, searching for someone, anyone who would come to her aid. Something answered, the faintest ping of acknowledgement, and she grasped for it, dragging it desperately toward her.
A gray-haired man in brilliant green armor and a familiar mask materialized, perturbed but unafraid. Unlike her own appearance, his did not waver.
"Alan Scott," she whispered. "The Green Lantern."
The man in question gave a humorless smile. "The one, but certainly not only. My successor here on Earth has taken over my more mundane duties, leaving me free to watch the skies for threats against the planet I love..." With a bone-weary sigh, his horrible fatigue washed over the empath. "And there are so very many."
Raven pursed her lips, searching for something eloquent and convincing to say, but her desperation only brought the same three words to mind over and over. "I need help." It was a declaration made all the more painful by its simplicity.
"The daughter of Trigon seeks aid from a Green Lantern?" Scott's expression was caught between smugness and offense. "Perhaps you're not aware of the atrocities your father has—"
"I am painfully, desperately aware of what my father has done, and what he will do if he is allowed to escape again," she snapped. "I was forced by the monks of Azar to recite a list, every single day, of all the worlds he consumed... . And I still do. I know it by heart." She took a calming breath, wishing it would restore far more of her composure than it did. "If you wish to ridicule me, berate me, beat me, I will accept it all without complaint... but first, I need your help. I understand that healing with a Lantern's ring is a difficult process, but it will be the difference between life and death for two people: I have suffered a fatal chest wound that I cannot heal myself, but more importantly, there is a boy being crucified at this very moment, and he is about to die on that cross."
The Lantern tilted his head back and studied her. "You appear to be rather healthy, for someone with a fatal chest wound."
"The product of this place," she said, gesturing around them. "As soon as I return to a normal dimension, my wound will be there once more, and I will die in seconds unless I receive healing."
Scott nodded, but she detected no concern from him. "And what exactly is this place?"
"We are, as near as I can tell, in a pocket dimension inhabited by the animals that Beast Boy can become. Everything exists here in its ideal form... and as you can see, all in green."
"Fascinating," the gray-haired man mused. "A connection to the same Red that Animal Man uses, yet your friend accesses it through willpower. This boy would make a good Lantern one day."
"I did not bring you here to discuss the nature of his abilities," Raven said, patience wearing thin. "I brought you here because healing wounds this drastic is beyond the scope of mine. I can't hold time still and heal him simultaneously."
Alan Scott crossed his arms. "And why should I help you? I stopped meddling in these sorts of affairs long ago. The death of one hero, or two, while tragic on an individual level, is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I work on the scale of galaxies, little demon."
"As do I, Lantern," she growled, her second set of eyes flashing to life. "If you know that my father is Trigon the Terrible, then you also know that the whole of his power can be mine with two sentences. I am, at this moment, the single greatest threat to your world and countless others. You can either help me save Beast Boy, or try your luck against the armies of Outer Perdition after he dies."
"You don't seem to be making a strong case for yourself," Green Lantern said with a supercilious smile. "You blackmail me with the destruction of the planet I am sworn to protect and expect me to cave to your demands? Tell me why I shouldn't wipe you from existence."
A horrible silence passed between them. Raven's hands began to shake, and when she blinked, her eyes returned to normal. "Because despite my parentage, I'm also just a foolish girl who's realized too late that she's in love. I cannot stand the thought of a world without Garfield Logan, without his smiles and horrible jokes and tofu breath making everything work as it should." The empath took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to hold back her tears. "I've fought Trigon all my life... but if Gar dies, my only hope is resurrection, and that means giving my father what he wants."
"You would doom the galaxy for the love of a boy?" The aged Lantern looked at her with a mix of disbelief and reproach.
"Yes," she answered simply, still shocked by her own confession. "Not for a boy, but for my boy."
"And you think he would want this?"
Raven gave a smile that twisted her stomach to match her lips. "Our story has never been about what either of us want; with the two of us, it's always a matter of need. And I need Garfield."
The sorceress and the intergalactic templar looked at one another for a long moment before the latter closed his eyes and nodded. "Very well."
Raven's eyes bulged. "Wait, really?" She resisted the urge to slap herself in the forehead for channeling Garfield's less articulate side, instead focusing on the Lantern's next words.
"Understand, Raven," Earth's protector said, resting a hand on her shoulder, "I did not agree because of the threat you pose, formidable though it might be. I could kill you now before you could utter those magic words, and be back on New Oa in seconds." A world-weary smile deepened the cracks that ran across his weathered face. "But believe it or not, I was once young and in love. And while I did not burn the galaxy down around me in the name of that love, I remember a time when I might have, under different circumstances."
Tears formed and fell faster than Raven could stop them. "Thank you," she whispered.
Alan Scott merely nodded, letting his hand fall from her shoulder. "Shall we?" he asked.
A black soul surrounded them both, and they disappeared with a distinctive bird call.
—
Garfield jerked awake screaming, panting, hands shooting instantly to his throat to find a collar collar COLLAR oh god it was real he was dying and Raven was going to be trapped forever or worse what if Away disintegrated when he died?
His nostrils flared, gathering scents in a mad scramble. There was blood and tears and burning sandalwood— Raven.
Raven was here.
Time slowed to a pace resembling normal, and she was there cradling his head to her chest. He didn't know how it had happened, but his Raven was alive and well.
Her voice, heavy with tears though it was, sounded so sweet to him. The words themselves were a blur of syllables, having no significance of their own; that tone, though, the worry and relief and so many other things mixed together— that was what held all the meaning.
Gar breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of her hair, quieting his trembling soul with waves of olfactory comfort. When his heart was steady enough, he pulled back from her enough to see her face.
He had only a split second to admire those violet eyes before they came too close to focus on, and her lips met with his ever so briefly. She pulled back trembling, and his hand moved of its own accord to cup the side of her face. Then they were joined again.
Desperate mouths worked against each other, concentrating every pent-up emotion each of them felt into the space of a few square inches and communicating it in a rush of sensation. Time lost meaning once more, but in the most glorious of ways. When they swam up and breached the surface of the moment, they could only stare at one another.
"Hey," he whispered, unable to summon anything more articulate.
"Hey," she replied before teary eyes spilled over once more and she planted her chin on his shoulder. "Oh, Gar," she said between sobs, "I thought I was going to lose you before I got a chance to say it."
He pulled back, face crinkled in confusion. "Say what?"
Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yes. To answer your question from before, I am asking you out on a date, Garfield Logan. And when we're on that date, I have some very important things to tell you."
Gar's mouth gaped, and no amount of willing it closed would make the muscles comply.
"Really?" a voice called from behind him. "You're making him wait? I was hoping I'd get to see the fireworks."
Beast Boy whirled around, scrambling to his feet and assuming a fighting crouch. Powers or not, he was going to protect Raven. Within an instant of regaining his footing, though, his legs buckled and he collapsed onto closed fists. Fighting a wave of dizziness, he saw a man approaching, clad in glowing green armor. His features were severe, but the hint of a smile softened them.
"No way," Gar whispered. "Alan Scott? Now I know I died and went to heaven."
The smile faded. "Not quite, young man, but you came very, very close. If it hadn't been for that girl, you certainly would have. She held the flow of time still while I healed both of you."
Beast Boy cocked his head to the side, and promptly tumbled over onto his back. "Raven can stop time?"
"Only when the world is about to end," the empath's voice said from somewhere above him. The absolute sincerity in her voice brought the gravity of the statement home hard.
"Rae, I..."
"In any case," Green Lantern said, placing an oddly companionable hand on each of Beast Boy's shoulders as he propped him up, "She's a keeper. It takes quite a convincing argument to pull me away from New Oa to play medic. And speaking of New Oa... it's about time I got back. I wish you both a happy future together. I'll look in on you from time to time when I need to remember why I'm up there." Lifting the changeling to his knees to let him balance on his own, the galactic guardian bent close to whisper in his ear. "And if ever the time comes for me to pass on my ring, be ready for it to find its way to you." With that, he surrounded himself in a green bubble and was gone.
Garfield Logan brought a trembling hand up to scratch his head. "I'm going on a date with Raven, and the Green Lantern just offered me a job? I should get killed more often."
The words had scarcely left his mouth before two pairs of blazing red eyes were in his face. "Do not even joke about that, Garfield! If you had died—"
"Whoa, whoa," he cried, hands on the empath's shoulders. "I didn't mean it! I just... I'm trying to process, okay? Bad jokes are how I do that, remember?"
Red gave way to purple, and the sorceress looked down. "I... I know, Gar. It's just..."
Garfield smiled. "Yeah, long day for both of us. Let's get back to the hotel and get in touch with the..." He trailed off, blood freezing in his veins. "The Titans! Slade planted bombs in the hotel!"
—
AN: Totally making up the nature of Beast Boy's powers here... but man, doesn't it open up some awesome possibilities? Also, my vision of Alan Scott here is pulled straight from Kingdom Come. For a reference: [4dotbpdotblogspotdotcom] /-fa6BR0yAuMo/T9FXxA0kSOI/AAAAAAAAAEc/CB9LE4g7L2c/ s1600/photo+(5).JPG . Sorry for the hassle; FF really doesn't like links, apparently.
