Edit: I want to give big thanks to Concolor44 for being my beta reader. Be sure to read his stories to people there are awesome.
Well this is my first fanfiction so I hope you guys like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Cyborg understood the fear of doctors. They aren't the most comforting people in the world, especially in their smelly offices with their medical instruments that give their patients the creeps.
He also understood the fear of needles, even though the whole procedure doesn't hurt much, but the fact that a person you don't know is going to stab you with a needle isn't the most pleasing of things.
Some people might do weird things facing a needle, but this was just beyond ridiculous.
"Yo BB! Quit playing hide and seek! You got to do this same as we all did!" shouted Cyborg through the Tower as he and the other Titans were searching for the absent Beast Boy.
They, like any other humans, had to get their annual shots. But it seemed that Beast Boy REALLY hated needles so he began to hide in the Tower from the rest of the team.
"Robin did you find him?" asked Cyborg through his communicator.
"Negative, he's not in the training room or his room … if you could call it that," said Robin mumbling the last part.
"And you Star?"
"I'm afraid not, friend. Friend Beast Boy is not in the kitchen or in the common room," answered Starfire.
"Raven?"
"No, he's not in my or Stars room. I can't even sense him. His mind is completely blank. I'm surprised he could actually do that," replied Raven in a monotone, though a hint of annoyance seeped through in her voice.
"He's not in my room or Robin's, and I can't pick him up on my scanner. He probably turned into something small so I won't pick him up," said Cyborg, sighing tiredly. This was getting really irritating for the cyber titan.
They had been searching for hours and they still couldn't find the little grass stain. When Beast Boy didn't want to be found he surely did a good job.
"This is getting ridiculous! We checked everywhere. Where else could he be?" asked Raven running out of patience.
"Maybe he's in the basement? That's the only place left." suggested Cyborg wishing to end this little search party soon.
"Okay. Titans, regroup to the basement. Robin out," said Robin signing out as did Raven and Starfire.
Cyborg turned off his communicator and headed to the basement while mumbling, "All this because of a stupid shot …"
Robin opened the basement door and was going down the stairs followed by Raven and Cyborg, but Starfire hesitated.
"Must we truly go down there?" asked Starfire, still standing near the door. After her experience in the basement when Raven's powers were doing crazy stuff she began to have something of a fear of the dark, gloomy basement.
"I'm sorry Star, but we all have to go down there in case we find Beast Boy," said Robin, looking at her with an apologetic smile. He really didn't want to take Starfire where she would feel uncomfortable but they had no choice. Beast Boy could sometimes be so unpredictable. They needed all the help they could get.
Starfire hesitated but eventually the urge to help her friend pulled her down the stairs.
As they went down Cyborg turned on his shoulder lights, revealing dozens of boxes.
Starfire looked around nervously when suddenly she saw something small run past her.
"EEEP!" squeaked Starfire as she fired a star bolt at the small creature.
All three Titans took up fighting stances but quickly dismissed it as they saw it was a false alarm.
Robin sighed, and smiled at Starfire, who was blushing from embarrassment, but then he caught sight of a small green tail behind the big box.
Robin turned to Raven's direction a pointed at the green tail. Raven caught the message and silently chanted her three words, lifted the box and there squeaked the green rat.
Just as the rat was about to make a run for it, a black aura surrounded him and he was trapped.
The green rat morphed into a green teen and tried to break free by thrashing around but it didn't help.
"LET ME GO!" shouted Beast Boy as he began to panic.
"Calm down, B. We're just going to give you a little shot. It won't hurt a bit," said Cyborg trying to settle his green buddy.
"That's what they all say!" said Beast Boy thrashing even more. "Why do I need a shot in the first place?! I'm part animal, I don't get sick!" he said as he was getting desperate to get out.
"Better to be safe than sorry Beast Boy," said Robin. "Why are you so afraid of a little shot anyway? You get more serious and painful injuries on the battlefield than from this," he added as he raised his eyebrow, thinking of all the times the little guy had injured himself in one of their missions.
Beast Boy stopped struggling, much to Raven's relief, and had his head down. He stayed silent and, as Robin was about to repeat his question, he finally spoke.
"Because I had a bad experience with it," said Beast Boy in a quiet tone.
Suddenly Raven felt a huge gush of pain, hurt, guilt, self-loathing and many other emotions from Beast Boy. She let go of him and held her head with one hand, wincing a little as Starfire spoke up.
"What kind of experience did you have friend Beast Boy?" she asked with her big green innocent eyes.
Beast Boy lowered his ears and looked away from his team, whispering, "It made me, me."
It was pouring hard outside. The search took longer than the team expected. They all sat at the common room's sofa.
Beast Boy was sitting in the middle with his head down. To his left sat Starfire and Raven, to his right Cyborg and Robin.
It was silent besides the rain.
"So …" began Robin, "what did you mean back there in the basement?" he asked.
Beast Boy sighed and said. "I wasn't always green, guys. I used to be normal … you know, tanned skin, blond slightly curly hair and blue eyes … or as my mom used to say, cobalt."
All the Titans looked at him with wide eyes. They never even thought that Beast Boy had looked any different from green with pointy ears and a fang poking through his lips.
"So how did it happen?" asked Raven quietly with curiosity in her voice.
"I used to live in upper Africa with my parents and another researcher. I was about five. They were famous scientists looking for a cure to the tropical disease called Sakutia, or the green-fever as some people liked to call it, since it's fatal for humans and only the animals can survive it.
"We lived in a small village. The villagers that lived there were really nice people. Especially king Tawabe, he was such a kind and wise men. I always used to play with the kids there in the mud, climb trees or simply play in the water." Beast Boy smiled slightly as nostalgia overcame him.
"I also had a HUGE interest in animals. I always loved to pet them. Once I petted a lion's cub while mama lion was grooming him, and she began to groom me, too. Heh … my parents got a good scare out of that." He laughed sadly, remembering his mother kissing every inch of his face for giving her such a scare. But then his smile fell.
"Of course my interest and love for petting animals got me in trouble. My parents had finally caught a green monkey with all the symptoms of having Sakutia. One day I went to their lab and saw the monkey so naturally I wanted to pet him so I let it go. But the monkey went wild and jumped on me and bit me in the shoulder." Beast Boy pulled down his collar to show the place.
The Titans gasped. There was a light green mark with a bit of purple around it where the animal had bitten him.
Beast Boy pulled his collar up as he continued the story.
"As the monkey bit me I let out a painful scream and my parents ran in and locked the monkey back in its cage. My dad picked me up as my mom looked to my injured shoulder. My shoulder began to turn green as I shivered violently and began to have a high fever. She started to panic, as these were the symptoms of Sakutia. So that meant I had three days to live, more or less." Beast Boy took a deep breath.
"My parents were so desperate to save me that my dad used his untested cure, that he and his colleagues came up with, which had mostly animal DNA in it. He injected me with it." Beast Boy stopped as he hugged his legs to his chest.
"The injection hurt so much. I felt like my whole body was burning. Then my skin began to turn green as my ears grew to … this pointed form and … and my fangs grew." Beast Boy shuddered, remembering the burning pain he had to endure just to get better.
"So from your disease and the cure you got your powers?" asked Cyborg.
Beast Boy shook his head. "The disease turned me green. The cure gave the side effects. They don't call it the green-fever for nothing. We didn't know I had my powers at the time. So one day me and my mom were searching plants for her special tea, when suddenly out of the bushes a huge snake jumped towards my mom. I instantly turned into the snake's biggest enemy: a mongoose. I attacked and killed it instantly. And then … I ate it." Beast Boy shuddered again. He could still feel the taste of that snake in his mouth. "That's one of the main reasons why I'm a vegetarian."
"Oh, man, B! I'm so sorry, man. I feel like such a jerk for making you eat meat all this time," said Cyborg. His guilt overcame him for replacing Beast Boy's tofu with meat so many times.
"Don't sweat it Cy. You didn't know," said Beast Boy as he gave his trademark smile. This made Cyborg relax a bit.
"But I still don't understand one thing though. If your parents managed to make a cure for your disease, why didn't they try to improve it and reverse your side effects?" asked Robin leaning on the sofa. He was really interested in Beast Boy's story.
Beast Boy's ears fell as his smile disappeared.
"That's because they never had a chance to," he whispered.
"After the snake incident, I … I was with my parents … we were taking a boat trip in the river since … Okay, the rainy season was due to arrive in a few days, and we had to go back to the States. Everything was perfect …" His face became grim.
"Then my dad and mom came to my side, hugged me tightly and told me to turn into a bird and fly away from the boat. At that moment I didn't understood why but since I was an obedient boy I did as I was told." Beast Boy took a shaky breath.
"When I landed on the tree branch I turned in my parents' direction … and suddenly I heard a … a loud scream. It scared me. Really bad.
"The boat … went over the waterfall with them in it. At that moment I completely forgot my shifting and ran towards them. When I got there all I saw was a horribly broken boat and … and blood in the water. "Beast Boy hugged himself tightly.
"I could have saved them if I hadn't … hadn't been so weak."
Starfire hugged Beast Boy tightly with tears on her cheeks.
"Don't blame yourself, friend. You were just a little bumgorf. There was nothing that you could have done," she said with a soft tone in her voice. She felt sorry for her little green brother facing such a tragic moment alone.
"I had my powers then, Star. I could have turned into a big fish or something. I could have tried to do anything … but I didn't," said Beast Boy as tears began to fall down his green cheeks. He never forgave himself for not trying to save his parents.
"Beast Boy," began Robin as he moved over to the small changeling and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I completely understand how you feel. The same thing happened to me when I was nine and my parents fell from the trapeze. I couldn't save them because I was still a little kid. You really shouldn't blame yourself for something you don't have control over," Robin said, giving him a supporting smile. They had more in common than he had thought.
"But I had my powers then, I could-"
"You were only five. You didn't have full control of your powers, "interrupted Raven, looking directly into Beast Boy's big green eyes. "Your parents knew the risk, so that's why they sent you away from the boat. They cared too much for you to let you drown with them. And I – we are all grateful for their sacrifice because we wouldn't have met you in the first place. We care for you, too, Beast Boy." Raven put as much sincerity into her voice as she could, placing a ghostly smile on her pale face.
"Really? You mean it?" asked Beast Boy.
"Of course she means it. We all do. If it weren't for you, there wouldn't be any Titans to begin with! Heck we wouldn't have met at all," interjected Cyborg, patting his little buddy's back.
"Thanks guys. It means a lot to me." Beast Boy's smile was bright, if a little sad.
"This is so glorious I'll go make the pudding of happiness!" squealed Starfire clapping her hands exactingly.
"NOOO!" shouted the four Titans.
Starfire gave them a confused look.
"Why don't we just order pizza?" said Cyborg pulling out the phone. None of them was really eager to taste any of Starfire's puddings.
"Pizza sounds good," Raven agreed, walking over to the kitchen for a cup of her herbal tea.
"Ahh, yes the tasty pizza would be much more glorious. Can we please have one with pickles, bananas and mint frosting?" asked Starfire with glee in her voice.
"Err … yeah, we'll just go with the usual," Cyborg stated as he sweat-dropped. He could never understand the alien's strange taste for food.
Robin looked at the duo with a chuckle, then turned to his green companion.
"You know if you ever want to talk about it I'm always willing to listen," Robin said sitting next to Beast Boy.
"Thanks. I'd like that." Beast Boy smiled. Who knew facing one of his fears would end up with his talking about part of his past?
As Robin left to try to keep Starfire from pestering Cyborg about the pizza's toppings, Beast Boy began to rub his hands.
Of course there were some things he had to hold in as a secret from his team. His friends now knew just the bare minimum about him, but still it was kind of nice to get some part of it off his chest.
Maybe in due time he could tell the full story of his disliking needles and doctors.
I might make a sequel but no promises.
Review if you like :)