Fan Fiction ❯ A Raven's Cry ❯ Mirror Mirror... ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8

 

Beastboy hovered protectively over Raven as she walked slowly to her room. "Beastboy, I'm fine."

"I know."

She stopped in front of her door long enough to open it. "Come on in, I need to talk to you."

Beastboy followed her into the room. When she sat down on the single chair in the room, Beastboy sat on the edge of the bed. Raven laid a package that she had been carrying on her desk before starting, "Beastboy..."

"I'm off the team." Beastboy spun and lay back, his hands behind his head.

Raven nodded, "Until you get control of your beast."

When he spoke, he sounded somehow defeated. "I don't think I can."

"Sure you can." Raven moved to sit next to him on the bed. "I'll help you." She handed him the package from her desk, "This is for you."

Beastboy took the package and opened it. Out of the bag he pulled a small hand mirror. It had an animal motif, carved out of a strange green wood. "Is this what I think it is?" he asked, pointing it carefully away from him.

"Yes, it is." Raven paused, "Well, it will be, I just need to do a little magic." She pulled a spell book from one shelf and laid it on her desk. She flipped it open, searching through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Her finger trailed slowly down the page, scanning the instructions written in a language that Beastboy had never seen. "Looks easy enough."

"So have you ever done this before?"

"Nope, but like I said, it looks simple." She stood and scanned another shelf carefully. This one was covered in a number of jars, bottles, and bags, all filled with a variety of powders, liquids, stones, and other things, some of which Beastboy didn't want to identify. After she had placed a number of the items on her desk, she went to a chest and pulled it open. She pulled out a small bowl covered in runes and laid it on her desk.

"Whoa, what are you planning on doing with that?"

Raven laughed, "Don't worry, it won't hurt." She set the dagger on her desk, "Much." She pulled a mortar and pestle out of her desk, and filled the pestle half full with small blue leaves. She picked up the mortar and started to work it, but stopped, wincing. "Beastboy, could you help me with this? I can't use both my arms right."

Beastboy jumped up and walked up to the desk, next to her. "What do you need?"

She pointed at the bowl of leaves. "Those need to be ground to a powder." While Beastboy began grinding the leaves, Raven started to carefully pour the ingredients around her into the larger bowl. After pouring something from each bottle, she took the bowl of powder from Beastboy and poured it in.

After Raven had poured the blue powder into the larger bowl she turned to Beastboy. "I need something from you."

"What?"

Raven pulled a pin out of her desk. "A drop of blood."

Beastboy grimaced as he offered her his hand. "I hate needles."

"This hardly counts." She carefully pricked a fingertip. She squeezed his finger over the bowl, allowing a single drop of crimson blood to fall in. Beastboy stuck his finger in his mouth, sucking on the end of his finger.

Raven mixed in a clear, oily liquid and stirred, mixing it thoroughly. She picked up a brush from her desk and studied her spell book carefully, before dipping the brush into the mixture. She started to draw simple runes onto the surface of the mirror, carefully outlining each symbol.

Beastboy found his attentions locked to the hand that held the brush. He watched the smooth rippling of the muscles' shifting as she drew the graceful curves. Raven glanced up at him and faltered a little as she blushed. "What?"

"You're so beautiful."

"Thank you." She drew the last curve and studied her handiwork. "Almost done."

Raven settled cross-legged on the floor, the mirror lying in front of it. She held her hands over it and closed her eyes. After a moment of waiting, Beastboy saw tendrils of black energy seem to fall from Raven's hand and strike the mirror. They flew from the mirror and to him.

Beastboy didn't attempt to dodge as the energy struck his fore head, seeming almost to drill in. After a moment, he felt a strange shifting sensation in his mind and knew that a door had been opened. As the dark energy faded, Raven opened her eyes and picked up the mirror. "All done." She handed it to Beastboy. "I'm ready when you are."

Beastboy stared incredulously at the mirror in his hands. "I don't know..."

"I doubt that there's anything in your head that will hurt you."

"Except for my beast."

"Don't worry about it, he is a part of you, a part that you can't accept."

Beastboy took a deep breath and nodded. He held the mirror in front of him and stared at his reflection, partially occluded by the symbols on its reflective surface. "Do I need-" He found himself standing in a thick deciduous forest, sunlight streaming down in narrow shafts from far above. Behind him was an archway weaved out of thick vines, filled with a mirror-like surface that rippled gently in a wind that he could not feel.

After just a moment Raven appeared next to him. She looked around the dark clearing that surrounded them. "Nice."

"Thanks."

"I never expected your mind to be so tranquil."

Beastboy shrugged. "Forests should be tranquil."

"Somewhere around here should be your subconscious and your beast. The one we're really looking for is your beast."

"And if he attacks us?"

"He won't. If you die, so doesn't he."

"Right."

"Let's get above the canopy." Raven levitated of the ground and shot upward, through the treetops and into the sky. After a brief moment a green hawk shot up and began lazily drifting in circles around her. "We should see something that marks his territory." She scanned the forest. "Like that large clearing."

Raven and Beastboy turned through the air and headed for the small, irregular clearing in the forest. The hovered above it for a moment before landing. After Beastboy had shifted into his human form, he simply stood in shock at the devastation. Around him huge oak trees had been uprooted, broken in several large chunks and thrown about, creating the clearing, claw marks covered everything.

Another Beastboy stepped out of the shadows at the edge of the clearing. "I never expected to see you here.”