"One hour, Mr. Logan."
The platinum door closed heavy behind him, clicking with a certain confirming click. Beast Boy took a deep breath; no one knew of this private investigation he'd opened under Robin's name, and he prayed it was worth it. Shaking the technicalities from his thoughts, Beast Boy stepped towards the villain. The villain, who laid atop an alter, cemented to the surface. His spine was chained to the metal alter and he lay open, awaiting to lock eyes with Beast Boy.
"Shape Shifter," the voice called, its medieval accent sending unfortunate, familiar chills up the changeling's back. "Come closer."
Wary but obedient, Beast Boy approached the magical book. He timidly loomed over the dusty pages, finding two icy, thin eyes piercing his very soul.
Malchior.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" The dragon's snide, cocky voice hadn't changed a bit. He was still a malicious creature, bound to the ancient pages only by Raven's final incantation.
"Why'd you do it?" He demanded, despite the chills running down his spine. Beast Boy swallowed the lump in his throat, turning his timidity to anger.
"Why, I don't know what you're talking about." Malchior responded coolly.
"Don't lie!" Beast Boy roared, slamming his hand onto the tattered pages. "I-I know you cursed her and I need you to tell me how to reverse it."
"So you're here about the demoness," The chilling voice bounced from the walls. "And you're just the perfect little Beastie for her, aren't you?"
Beast Boy's ears flattened backwards among hearing the nickname and his spat on the ancient pages in disapproval.
Malchior made a sound like he was clicking his tongue. The dragon was silent for a few moments and Beast Boy let the evil being think without interruption. Malchior was the only wicked one strong enough to cast such an incredible spell over Raven, and he was the only one who had any real incentive to hurt her. Beast Boy knew that Malchior had something to do with Raven's curse, it was just a matter of squeezing the cure from the evil being's clutches. Growing impatient, Beast Boy traced his claw over the edge of the pages so they shuffled like a deck of cards.
"I didn't curse your little Titan." Malchior's tone was raw, not to be questioned. "Although it is a delectably excellent idea."
"No one else could've." Beast Boy countered, his claw fidgeting the tattered edges of the ancient book. He silently scolded himself for suggesting the idea in the first place. Perhaps he should've confronted Robin about his little excursion after all.
"Course they could've." The book-bound dragon retorted. "You really are as halfwitted as Raven said," Malchior mumbled dismissively, drawing an angry snarl from the changeling. "Though I'm curious….. What of this curse? It must be unique."
"Why would I tell you?"
"I am willing to bargain, Shape Shifter." Malchior spoke carefully. "My help for yours."
Beast Boy felt his fang dig into his lip. He was desperate to help Raven and Malchior knew it. He could already hear Robin chastising him for his poor tactics; as Robin always said, never let the enemy know your weakness, but Beast Boy had done just that.
"If you just describe this curse, I may be able to identify it." Malchior offered. Beast Boy glared into the animated eyes.
"I don't know much about it." Beast Boy admitted . "She was saying something about it getting stronger if she fell in love but I-"
"Mortiferum Amatores Maledictionem" Malchior cut in.
"You better not have just-"
"It's the name of the curse that our Sweet Raven was speaking of, Shape Shifter. It's the Deadly Lover's Curse." Malchior snapped in exasperation. Beast Boy could practically hear the dragon rolling his eyes.
"Explain." The changeling snarled, venom of a thousand rattlesnakes filling the single word.
"The curse is simple; anyone who the cursed being falls in love with will eventually perish. Slowly and painfully, of course, but they will perish nonetheless. Say if I were the cursed one and I fell in love with Raven," the dragon paused to chuckle like the very idea was absurd. "Then Raven would eventually pass away, depending on how fast I fell in love with her." Malchior explained lightly, like he was speaking of cupcakes and rainbows rather than a deadly magic. The silvery voice continued with a saccharine tone to his voice and a devious upturn of his lips.
"It's an incantation of incredible power. Course, I could perform it easily in my full form but alas, you know I've been imprisoned in these pages for years. I'm certainly impressed that you Titans have encountered a being of such great magical abilities, and even more impressed that Sweet Raven was idiotic enough to get on their bad side." A superficial chuckle sounded from the pages. "Look, Shape Shifter, if she's really worried of this curse then perhaps I should speak to someone who is well versed in terms of magic," The dragon said, hinting heavily.
"You aren't speaking to Raven." Beast Boy snapped.
"She doesn't know you're here, does she?"
Beat Boy just growled.
"Alright Beastie. I've given you what you want, now-"
"I need to reverse the curse."
"Ah yes, well that's another basic of magic. Only the one who delivered the curse can reverse it." Malchior explained. "And please, don't bother accusing me again. It wasn't me, Shifter."
Beast Boy took a step back. He couldn't possibly save Raven if he couldn't figure out who'd cursed her, and he'd only been wracking his brain about the possibilities since the moment she'd told him, three days prior. Feeling hopeless, the changeling spiraled into lost thought. He'd already confronted every magic using person the Titan's had encountered and had even called on people from other teams; Psimon, Jinx, Zatanna, even the ridiculous Mad Mod, but none of them knew were able to identify the curse, much less cast it. And Malchior claimed he hadn't cursed her either. Beast Boy frowned. He'd exhausted all of his sources, the only one he hadn't actually confronted about the curse was Raven herself…
Raven….
Beast Boy's eyes grew wide as Malchior's haunting laugh echoed from every corner of the steely room.
"Finally figure it out, did you Beastie?"
a/n: I hadn't really touched this chapter since before I went on my miniature break but I wanted to update on Christmas! So, this chapter was really dialogue heavy since I was hoping to use the conversation between Beast Boy and Malchior to kind of touch on the details of the curse. It's a shorter chapter too, more of an informative one and more to mix up the characters a little! And if anything didn't make sense this chapter, (like, who cursed Raven, for instance) it will be totally cleared up next chapter!
Also, I know it ended on a semi-confuzzling note, did you guys figure it out? (:
Nevertheless, I hope you guys liked it! As always, thanks for the feedback and nice little notes at the end of each chapter, I read them all and take all of your suggestions into consideration when writing!
That's all for now, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! xoxo!
