Chapter 1

It was late in the night; a chilling cloudy darkness surrounded the tower of the Titans, secluded on its island in the center of San Francisco. It had passed midnight some time ago and all but one of the towers occupants were now quietly in slumber (or in one particular case, in an unconscious recharging state). However, the resident green-skinned shape-shifter of the Titans was far from restive.

Garfield Mark Logan, generally known to everyone else in his life as Beastboy, had been agonising over his thoughts for hours, desperately attempting to come to a decision. In fact, he had already made the decision, made it days ago really, but what was truly consuming his time and mind was working out how to act on his decision as well as building up the courage to carry it out.

The decision that he had come to was that he was going to leave the Teen Titans, the team of young heroes who had provided him with a purpose, a home and even a family for the past 4 years. The enormity of this decision weighed heavily on the young changeling's shoulders and had saddened him for the last few days though as always he had not displayed this sadness outwardly.

At this moment he was in the process of packing his things to leave, quite a task considering that his room would trump any other teenager's room in terms of its untidiness and complete lack of order. Beastboy was determined to put only his essential possessions into the black duffel bag that lay open and barely filled upon his unmade bed. So far he had managed to sort through all of the oddments that had been strewn across his floor. He had found only a few things which he chose to put into the duffel, but had filled several bin bags with pizza boxes, comics he no longer cared for, and clothes that had gone unwashed for so long that they wouldn't even be good enough to be sent to a charity shop. He was halfway through his desk now and as he tackled this task, he wrestled internally with the problem of whether it was worth announcing his departure to the group in the morning and hearing their reactions, whether they would argue for him to stay or, more likely and more saddening to Beastboy, they accepted his departure easily or even mocked his decision as a childish attempt to garner some attention from them.

As he continued with his task, his thoughts wandered over the events of the last few months. Their return from Tokyo, The tumultuous and ultimately short-lived relationship between his teammates Starfire and Robin, The joy and excitement when he believed that he had discovered Terra again and the gut-wrenching hurt when she failed to even recognise him and spurned him from her presence. The other Titans had not been particularly helpful in dealing with that last particular development, feeling that his assertion that Terra had returned was mostly just wishful thinking on his part. Their opinions on this matter were no doubt coloured by the fact that his absence had left them battling a particularly difficult creature without him. It had been able to assimilate the properties of any object which it touched, however Beastboy, upon his arrival at the fight, had quickly transformed into a Pterosaur and carried the creature into the air where it had no materials to work with. Beast had taken it high enough and then dropped it, giving Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin plenty of time to line up powerful shots on it...only dust had reached the ground. He had touched down again in human form ready to celebrate what he felt was a pretty smart move on his part.

"Alright! Great aim guys! Wonder what it was though?" he had exclaimed, approaching the others. Their icy stares led to the grin sliding off his face as he noticed that their uniforms were dirty and tattered, Cyborgs plating bore deep scratches and dents, and the others had several scrapes and bruises between them. He realised that he had been ignoring his duties since spotting Terra during their initial battle with the now extinct creature. He gulped, looked down at his shoes and began getting his apologies in order but before he had barely opened his mouth Robin cut him off.

"Raven, you feel strong enough to teleport us back to the tower?" She gave a terse nod and then he continued "let's go then but not Beastboy, he can make his own way back" he gave a hard glance at my frowning face "I'm sure you have the energy seeing as you've had most of the day off" he finished in a condescending tone. I opened my mouth to contradict this, but had no time as Ravens power instantly enveloped them and they were gone. Beastboy had only furrowed his brows further in confusion and contrition. He understood that the team had a right to be annoyed but they had not even waited for an explanation before ditching him far out in the woods that enclosed the northern edges of the city.

When he had made the flight home in the form of hawk, he entered the tower via the window of his own messy room. He soon resolved to find his friends, see if they were alright, apologise and then explain his absence. He set off and as he approached the central room he began to hear Robin speaking with Cyborg, he slowed instinctively as he could detect the seriousness in their tones, they seemed to be talking about him.

"I'm all for giving BB a piece of my mind about letting us down lately but are you serious about threatening his place on the team?" Cyborg was asking in a surprised voice.

"I'm not gonna kick him out just like that Cy" Robin replied tersely, and then with more passion "but he needs to know that we have a job that he can't ignore just because he sees a blonde Terra lookalike in the street. We both know that we were in a real tough spot before he turned up and with him there we ended it in no time! If he had been there from the beginning as the rest of us were then Starfire wouldn't be in the med center with Raven healing all her cuts and bruises as well as having to deal with her own sprained wrist". He heard Cyborg sigh before their conversation turned towards the origins of the creature and what its purpose had been.

These words hit Beastboy like two blows, both his female teammates were in the medical bay because he neglected his duties, injuries that he could have prevented, and what's more Robin considered this cause enough to exclude him from the Titans? Even in the light of the girls' injuries, this seemed harsh, not to say unprecedented. He contemplated the chasm that his life would become if he were no longer a Titan, he evaded thinking about this frightening prospect with the decision to go to the Med bay immediately to check on his two teammates and give them his earnest apology. He shifted into a squirrel so he could pass the central room doors at top speed and avoid the two male Titans realising that he had overheard them and soon he was at the doors of the Med bay where he shifted back to his human form.

He inhaled as he prepared to enter knowing he was probably going to face some deserved anger, the prospect of Raven being upset with him was by far the more daunting as she generally addressed him in a disparaging and condescending manner even when she was in a good mood. He did not relish facing her in a bad mood bearing injuries that could have been avoided were it not for his absence; however his guilt would not let him turn away, so he braced himself and entered. His animal heightened smell immediately picked up the slight odour of blood that was almost hidden by the usual rank smell of disinfectant that pervaded the medical bay.

Starfire was sitting up on the side of one of the beds with Raven standing in front of her. Starfire was mostly healed now but Raven's head was bent over Starfire's right arm, in the process of healing a gash across the Tameranian's knuckles. The realisation that it takes a lot to break her alien skin combined with the sight and smell of their injuries only served to double the young changeling's guilt.

Both of them looked up when Beastboy first entered the room. Starfire's reaction was to frown slightly and then glance away from him whilst Raven narrowed her eyes, pursed her lips, gave him a long, disdainful look before refocusing on her friend's hand.

Beastboy took a breath "how are you both?" he asked timidly.

Raven simply ignored him but Starfire answered in a neutral tone "I am mostly unharmed and will soon be fully healed thanks to friend Raven, though she herself has hurt her wrist but unfortunately she is unable to heal herself".

"Oh" was all Beastboy managed and after a few seconds pause in which neither girl deigned to look at him he continued in a rushed but earnest voice "I am so sorry I wasn't there, I knew you needed me and I let myself get distracted by other things. It seemed like it was the priority at the time but I had it mixed up, I should have been with you fighting against that thing from the beginning, so...I'm sorry". He took a few tentative steps towards them both as he said these words, Raven glanced at him but continued healing her friend with the same expression but Starfire gave him a long look and her expression seemed to soften towards him some. He could feel the tension had eased around her but not with Raven from whom the Green teenager could still sense hostility with his animal senses.

He was about to continue when Cyborg put his head round the door and in a serious tone addressed his green friend "BB, Robins called a team meeting about today, you need to be in the main room in 10 minutes". Cyborg's tone was formal, almost harsh and Beastboy nodded, sighing. The metallic teen next addressed Raven in a slightly kinder voice "if you and Star are up to it then he'd like you there as well" to which both girls gave small nods before Cyborg left the room.

Beastboy thought about speaking to the women again but thought better of it and decided, with a sigh as he left the med bay, to reiterate his apology and explain his absence in the meeting.