Chapter 35: Setting Fires
It had been a while since Beastboy had genuinely feared for his life. There had been many times during his time with the Doom Patrol that death had been a very real possibility. But since he had joined the titans, there had only been four, maybe five situations where he had actually thought he was going to die.
And now he faced another.
He should have been terrified. He should have been trying his hardest to escape or fight.
But he wasn't. Beastboy, knowing full well he could be dead in minutes, just stared at the gorgeous being in front of him and drank in the sight she offered with every sense.
A throne of vegetation had somehow grown a few feet in front of him and on it the woman sat like a queen on her throne, examining him like a rat in a cage.
The pain had briefly snapped him out of his trance-like state, but now he could feel the same fog growing in his mind. It clouded his thoughts, focused his senses, heated his blood and made it incredibly difficult to think.
Unless it was about her.
Beastboy's eyes followed her every move. His nose caught every fluctuation in her scent and his ears picked up every single throaty breath. He couldn't help it. She was…captivating. He was rapidly falling into a strange, dream-like state where all was dull and gray aside from her. And the way faint beads of moisture clung to her skin was suddenly very important.
Against his will, his eyes glued themselves to her legs as she raised and majestically rested one atop the other, darkening the shadows around her inner thighs. Emphasizing her curves.
Beastboy screwed his eyes shut and tore his head to the side pulling on the plants in his neck and quickly reaching agonizing levels of pain.
But that was good.
'You are in danger,' Beastboy told himself sternly as the pain cut through the fog in his brain and fresh blood rolled down his skin.
'You could die. She's using some kind of mind control. Remember Mento's training. Focus each thought, fight off each impulse. Batman will be on his way, need to stall. You can do this. Now, how did you get here? What's the last-'
"Ooohh, don't be shy. We're just talking. For now."
Beastboy focused on his breathing, tasting for the first time whatever it was that permeated the air.
'Don't listen, don't listen, don't listen…' He repeated to himself. 'I wrestled with Batgirl. Then Alfred came in, then he told me...'
He felt a feather soft touch on the side of his face and immediately stiffened. It felt like her whole palm this time, cupping his cheek tenderly like he was made of glass. It felt warm and misty. Gentle and caring. And absolutely incredible. Another riptide of haze filled Beastboy's head, dragging him farther and farther away from the shore of sanity.
'Look at meee." She breathed and he felt the flow of hot air over his face, racing up his nose, pressing against his lips and soaking into his eyes.
He looked at her.
"That's better." She smiled squeezing slightly before releasing him and settling back onto her throne of flowers and greenery.
"Now darling, I don't usually deign to speak with any meat-sacks I come across. Normally by now my babies would be feeding on you but…"
She trailed off, bright eyes raking over his body, making him feel naked. She placed the tip of one long finger between her lips and he struggled not to gawk.
"I find myself somewhat…interested in you."
Beastboy felt the strangest leap in his chest at her statement. Like he had just had a shot of adrenaline. Laced with cocaine.
'She's-she's what? Why would this goddess be interested in me? Damn, she smells so good-No! Mind control! Or drugs or something! Concentrate! This is good, keep her talking!'
Beastboy swallowed heavily, trying his best to avoid looking at the finger the woman now appeared to be gently sucking on.
"Why wou-would someone like you be interested in little old me?" He managed to stutter out with a weak smile and a pounding heart.
That small smile appeared around her finger again, like she knew something he didn't. God, he wanted to find out what it was.
"Someone like me…Do you know who I am?" The words dripped from her mouth like honey from a hive.
Beastboy closed his eyes, shivering at her liquidy voice. He searched for the name that had been eluding him this whole time. He knew what it was, he definitely knew but thinking was hard at the moment, never mind remembering something. Finally, It clicked like it fell into his mind.
Licking dry lips with a dry tongue, Beastboy said 'You're Poison Ivy."
She smiled at him like he was a dog returning a ball.
"So you know of me? Very good, indeed I am." She exhaled a cloud of smokey, sparkling dust in a short laugh that hovered around her head like a halo.
"But what do you really know, I wonder?" She said with some distaste. Beastboy flinched as if he'd be hit. The disappointment she expressed seemed to stir his heart in his chest and make his blood thrum with a need to please her.
The plants around Poison Ivy came alive, reaching up and delicately wrapping themselves around her body. Slowly they lifted and cradled her like she was lying on a vertical bed of vegetation. She writhed leisurely on them, relishing their touch.
"I am the guardian of nature." She declared surely, meeting Beastboy's wide gaze.
"I share the very blood of the earth and I bleed to protect it. The world and I are one. Its pain is my pain. Its joy, my pleasure." Her beatific gaze burnt into him as the honyed words floated through his mind. She spread her arms out wide, indicating the jungle surrounding them.
"I feel what the planet feels. I feel its pain and terror. And I strive to release it from the agony of humanity."
Then she was in front of him, one delicate hand tilting his chin up to look her in the face.
"The world is tainted. With suffering, with pain. Do you hear them? Their cries for mercy?"
"Yes."
Beastboy replied immediately. He knew exactly what she was talking about. He hadn't meant to say anything; delaying tactics involved taking as much time as possible to answer direct questions, but he was very quickly forgetting about delaying.
Her words seemed to physically touch his heart. He knew what she was saying. He felt the way she described every time he was forced to watch Cyborg choke down the corpses of once living beings.
She made sense. The green angel made sense.
Ivy leaned in closer to him.
"I know you do." She breathed, eyes brighter than ever and holding a spark of genuine excitement.
She turned her hand from his chin and placed it on the side of his neck. Beastboy felt his pulse throb against the warmth of her hand. Another heavy deluge of mind numbing exhilaration flooded his system at the sensual touch.
"You're not like them. Those who disregard the fundamental rights of all life. You're... more."
Slowly, she dragged her fingertips down towards his chest, fingernails leaving the faintest of white lines on his flesh. She stopped where a plant entered under his skin, just above his collarbone.
Beastboy could barely breathe.
She was so close. This…this woman. Never had he been in the presence of someone so overtly feminine. So womanly. So…
Sexual.
"I don't know how…"
He was so focused on her and her words, he didn't notice the cut she touched ooze out blood, bright ruby red against the green.
"But you're like me…"
He watched, transfixed as she examined the drop of his blood on the tip of her finger.
She met his eyes.
"You feel the green."
She extended a very pink tongue and swept up his blood.
Beastboy watched with glazed eyes as her large lips pursed and her eyes widened slightly.
"How do you know the green?"
Again, he tried to stall. Tried to fight the impulse.
Tried.
"I transform into animals."
Her eyes gleamed.
"I know you do. You arrived here in the form of a truly breathtaking crow."
"I…I did?"
"Yes," she smoothly continued, starting to circle him like a lioness. "I was told this place was unfindable, that my babies would be undisturbed from even Batman. But you… you were drawn here."
Beastboy felt a breath of hot air hit the back of his neck and shivered in strange ecstasy. He was losing himself. To this…this woman.
"You were drawn to the green," She whispered throatily into his ear and his heart went haywire.
"I must say," she continued, "It's been a long while since I came across such…delightful skin…"
Suddenly her hot, wet tongue was sliding up the side of his neck. All of existence ceased and Beastboy's entire world consisted of the sensations flooding his whole body.
She broke off and licked her lips with a smack.
"Delicious," She murmured into his skin.
He couldn't breath.
He couldn't think.
What was happening to him?
It felt like he was drowning in the thick air.
Then she was in front of him again, that knowing smile back in place.
"An entirely separate side of the natural kingdom resides in you," her eyes fluttered.
"I like it."
Utterly paralysed in some sort of euphoria, he could only stare in disbelief.
"What is your name?"
"Beastboy." This time there was no trying. He was entirely captive to some innate and powerful instinct that focused entirely around her.
She raised a delicate eyebrow.
"Boy?"
Ouch. Beastboy flinched back, broken from the spell for a moment. Inadequacy was an old friend, but failing to be seen as man by this goddess… That hurt. That discomfort though, did break down the fog a little.
Again that finger under his chin. He was powerless to resist as she raised his head to look at her.
"Is that what they tell you?" She said softly, something close to sympathy in her lovely voice.
Beastboy stared with wide eyes as she placed a tender hand on his cheek once again.
"Yessss," She breathed, "Of course it is. Those…humans….they do nothing but abuse, torment, defile and pollute."
Her hand tightened around the side of his face.
"They're nothing but a prison. With no release date or parole, until some sweaty, overweight creep tells you to go down on him to prove you're fit to mingle with society."
She was shaking now and Beastboy was utterly entranced. He had no idea what she was talking about, but that didn't seem very important at the moment.
"It's only when you're scared enough - or hurt enough - to be quiet, to be 'good' … Then they'll let you out into the world they claim to be theirs. Or maybe they won't. And nobody gives a damn."
She crouched in front of him and Beastboy would've been drawn to the motion of her breast if his head wasn't spinning in a mix of confusion and crystal clarity.
She was right.
"They'll abuse you and use you," She continued, real emotion clear on her face, "Then they will abandon you and leave you to rot. All while seeing nothing but a boy."
Tears. He could feel them pooling at the corner of his eyes.
It was true. It was all true.
All his life he'd been nothing but a freak and a tool to the people he met. His life had been one of emotional turmoil, isolation and utter pain.
Even now as a hero, he received no respect. No trust.
No love.
When he needed help, he was shunned and attacked. When he lost control, blamed and shamed. What had they ever done for him…?
Depression settled over him like a cloud.
"But I see you for what you are."
Beastboy's searching, begging eyes lifted to hers as tears started falling. Her open, honest, beautiful face consumed him.
"You are no boy." She intoned, drawing nearer to him.
"You are one reclaimed by nature, pure of mankind's poison."
Beastboy was shaking, his world crumbling around him.
"You said earlier you transform into animals. That's not true."
She moved closer to him, nose to nose, her wide eyes gleaming.
"You already are an animal."
The words cut through the hazy fog in his head, even as her lips pressed against his.
Agony and ecstasy.
The two met in his heart and fought bitterly.
The ecstasy flooding from his lips, the agony rising up through his spirit.
She thought he was an animal.
And apparently loved him for it.
He wasn't an animal.. He was human. Right?
Would that be such a good thing?
'It…it doesn't matter, it's what I am!'
Not to her and you care what she thinks…
'I-I…do'
Yeeessss
'But isn't she…bad?'
Humans lieeee
'Not all of them.'
Humans lieeee
'I'm human.'
…Animal…
'No.'
…Beast…
'No!
…Creature…
'NO.'
…Mine…
"NO!"
Beastboy tore his lips away from hers, pulling viciously on the plants in his body. Pain once again bloomed in his system. But it was real. It was physical, it meant he was alive.
It was pain he had control over.
Poison Ivy reared back, surprise prevalent in her face. Nobody had ever resisted her. Bar one.
"What's wrong my prince? Will you not join me?"
Beastboy panted heavily, eyes screwed up in pain. Sweat and tears dripped down his face and mingled with streams of blood flowing from numerous wounds.
He hardened his heart. Hardened his mind.
This was Poison Ivy. She was an enemy. She could not be trusted. She was insane.
…She was right…
'No!'
Beastboy shook his head violently, rejoicing in the pain that cleared his head.
He wasn't an animal. He wasn't lesser.
He heard a soft sob and couldn't help but look up.
She was crying. Holy God, she was crying.
Luminous, phosphorescent tears fell down her sharp cheeks. She looked otherworldly. She was in pain. And it was his fault. All his fault.
His heart hurt, it screamed in protest at the sight.
"I don't need anybody." She choked out, hands clasped at her bosom.
"But I just wish…I wish I had someone like me."
God it hurt.
"You could… You could be that someone my Beast. We could rule the green together. Unstoppable. Would you...be mine?"
It was right there. Right on the tip of his tongue.
He wanted to. Wanted to be with her and be hers more than he had ever wanted anything before. He wanted what her bedroom eyes promised, wanted to feel as he did only a few moments ago.
He was going to do it. Her eyes promised love and acceptance and he wanted it.
'Having that thing inside you doesn't make you an animal.
Knowing when to let it out makes you a man.'
The memory crashed up out of his heart like a whale breaching the ocean.
He wasn't an animal.
He was a man.
People believed in him. Raven, Cyborg, Cassie, Starfire, Batman.
They saw him as a hero, they saw him as a person.
They loved him.
Why had he not remembered it before?
He was Garfield Logan, Beastboy, A Teen Titan. Beloved hero of Jump City. He didn't need her.
He looked at the woman in front of him, face set.
"No."
Poison Ivy was nonplussed. Shocked.
Angry.
The tears disappeared in an instant, appearing to evaporate off of her skin. Along with them went the doe-eyed, vulnerable expression from her face. All of it wiped away in an instant as anger flooded in.
No one rejected her. No one!
The plants around Beastly tightened and he shouted out in pain as they pulled at his insides.
"You dare…" Came a very different voice.
"You dare defy me?!" She screamed. "No one defies me! You will be mine!"
She strode forward and Beastboy realised that he could very well have just signed his own death certificate.
Her hands grasped the sides of his head, nails drawing bright blood.
"You can't resist me," she growled forcing his head up to look at her, "No man can."
A chuckle rose up in Beastboy's throat. He laughed painfully into her furious face, deathly fear fighting with morbid amusement.
'Man, there's definitely something wrong with me.' He thought sardonically.
"I thought you said I was an animal." He said, giving her a weak wink. A last tear squeezed out of his eye, ran down his cheek and was caught on his smile.
Poison Ivy's face went white with rage. Never had she come across someone this-this…infuriating.
"Imbecile," she spat venomously.
"Yeah, I get that a lot." Beastboy was taking an awful lot of pride in the level of response she was showing. Even now with a painful death looming over him, he was still a master smart-ass.
Her eyes narrowed in contempt.
"You will pay for turning down my generous offer. You could have been my pet. Now, you'll be nothing but my slave!"
Any humour Beastboy had been enjoying drained out of his body. He watched in disgusted terror as she appeared to convulse slightly, as if she were throwing up in her mouth.
"If you're strong enough, you will survive this. That's the law of the jungle."
Then her tongue was in his mouth.
Beastboy squirmed in a combination of agony and arousal. The thorns and plants bit into him while her nails traced over his head in tender hatred.
He could taste something on her tongue as it slide past his own and stroked the inside of his mouth.
Sweetness. Unbelievable sweetness.
Eventually she pulled back, a look of satisfaction on her face.
"Ahhhhh," she exhaled into his face as he gagged and gasped for breath.
"You and I," Poison Ivy said, tracing a hand dangerously low on his torso, "Are going to have so much fun once this is over."
The fear deepened in his stomach.
"Just remember," She said, vicious smile in place, "I can give you relief, honey. Permanent relief. Sweet relief."
This was bad. Really bad. It felt like he'd swallowed a ball of delicious fire. It seared his throat as his body spasmed, and he inadvertently swallowed the last of the taste in his mouth.
Beastboy gasped for breath and slumped forward. He frantically tried to analyse what was happening to him.
The fire spread throughout his every cell, coming alive only to be exposed to a burning heat. Sweat leaked out of every gland, saliva filled his mouth and he spat as much as he could onto the floor. He gagged again when he saw it was a pale yellowish color.
The world was going crazy. Colours flashing where they shouldn't. Smells became so intense, every breath was like a shot of Batman's smelling salts to his brain.
His every muscle was tensing, fingers tightening, toes curling, tendons like piano wires. Every fibre of being being drawn tighter and tighter.
His lower stomach was alive with flaming intensity.
Beastboy's whole body convulsed and contracted. The world spun around him. The heat in stomach began to burn with painful compulsion. He panted like a dog as he tried to focus through the warping of his world and body.
What had she done to him?
"Oooohhhh, look at you fight. How adorably pathetic."
Somehow Beastboy managed to raise his head as sweat dripped down his skin.
He saw her and the pupils of his eyes dilated so much they were entirely black. Empty voids sucking in the view before him.
It was like he was seeing her for the first time.
Everything about her was suddenly the most fascinating thing in existence.
The glowing green of her skin to the fiery red of her hair.
The gently curve of her long calves to the the defined lines of her biceps.
The beautiful brightness of her wide eyes to the fullness of those ruby red lips.
The crease in her skin where her thick thighs met her hips.
The dark, damp patches on her shirt that lined the underside of her breasts, shaping them like an artist's brush.
The flat, taught stomach that disappeared ran into a damned nest of vines and leaves.
He wanted to tear through them.
The heat got hotter.
The tightness got tighter.
The thoughts got…primal.
"Give in to the green." The temptress whispered, bending down to breath the words into his face. This time he did not miss the movements of her body. His eyes shamelessly devoured every ripple and flex.
The animal climbed higher in his chest.
The same animal that tore him up when Batgirl knocked him down. When Robin ordered him around. When he fought. When he wanted to be more than he was.
He didn't stop it. Didn't want to stop it.
He wanted her.
He couldn't stop it.
He lost.
And Beastboy repeated what he had done seemingly a lifetime ago.
He let out his animal side. Let it traverse the span of his spirit and gave himself up to that which he actively restrained: himself.
Well, well, well. So that just happened.
For those of you who were confused or unhappy with the rapid situation change, just know that you guys know as much as Beastboy as to what's going on. I was sort of hoping that throwing you guys 'n gals into it would help you relate to what he's going through. But it appears that didn't quite work.
In any case, I did warn that things would move fast at some point. And move fast they have.
I am mega happy with this chapter. Took an age to get all that I wanted onto the page but I reckon it turned out alright.
This is a big departure from the logical, steady progression that this story has enjoyed up 'till this point and I'm eager to know what you guys think!
Review Responses:
wolfofeternalnight - You know exactly as much as Beastboy at this point :)
Mr. Anonymous - Another...interesting take of reviewing. You take your craft seriously sir :) Don't worry about review length, quality over quantity I think. I hope you enjoy Beastboy's torture this chapter. It is coming to an end though...
ThommyPickles - You're not alone man. And things will be explained...in a couple of chapters.
jarblewc - THANK YOU! It's so rare that people actually leave 'review' reviews, you know? I got nothing against comments on the story but reviews like yours that actually address writing style are so very appreciated! I can tell you now that Beastboy will not be forgetting that dream, I mean I wouldn't :D I'm glad you liked the scene though. I did too :)
newboy - That Slade and BB fight over Ivy thing sounds awesome, but sadly not what I had envisioned I'm afraid :)
iamking - I don't blame you King! I left this story for entirely too long, but glad you're back on board! Ch.4 - Yeah man I kinda cringe looking back at the writing. I will go back and tidy it up at some point but probably won't drastically rewrite it. Kinda like the progression. Ch. 6 - I love writing Cassie, can't wait to get back to her.
Sturm and Drang - Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Shan't be long again, dearest readers!
CJB