Beast Boy struggles with the aftermath of 'How Long Is Forever?'
"Are you sure my tech failed me? I mean let's be honest there's no way," Cyborg grinned but there was a lingering fear in his human eye.
Starfire shook her head, "I am sorry to say it did my friend. But now we can work together to make sure you are well prepared and your technology will outlast anything else!"
The big man laughed, "True enough," he elbowed Robin. "Surprised you didn't end up back in Gotham with bat ears."
Robin made a face at him and poked at the concoction Starfire had pulled from the fridge. It was almost scaly, how the hell did food get scales exactly? He tossed a sideways glance at Raven who shook her head in warning. Cyborg caught their meaning and distracted Starfire with a volley of more questions and jokes while Raven opened a portal in the table and Robin scraped the food inside.
Beast Boy was unnaturally quiet, sitting at the end of the table staring down at the countertop. Starfire had set something she insisted was vegetarian in front of him and he was lifting some of the substance up and down with his spoon. A tiny part of his mind wanted to try the alien dish but another part of him argued that he might die and although he loved Starfire he wasn't ready to die for her food just yet.
"Oh friends, it gives me great joy to know that we have not lost ourselves," her feet hovered inches from the floor and Raven could tell it was an unconscious decision as they were all drawn into a bone crushing hug. "Perhaps now we might have a night of movies? Or we could play the games of board!"
Raven smiled to herself as the discussion of tonight's activities reared its head. But there was one voice missing from the discussion. Beast Boy was nowhere to be seen or heard. Normally he would be in Cyborg's face trying to woo Starfire over to his selection of cheesy movies or videogames. But for now the shape shifter was missing from their bickering. The sorceress cleaned her plate and left the common room throwing a comment over her shoulder about finding a book to read. No one paid any mind.
"Stupid, that's what you are. The whole team falls apart and where do you end up? Back in a god damn cage."
Beast Boy was down in the training room throwing himself at a punching bag. It swung wildly back and forth from his assault and after a particularly wild jab it flung back on its axis and smacked him right in the gut. The impact sent him sprawling to the mat and he roared in frustration. His body swelled into that of a lion, he pounced on the bag and ripped it from the ceiling. His claws ripped through the tough fabric and he sunk his fangs into the bag coming away with nothing but a mouth full of sand for his efforts. Rage boiled up in his chest and he roared his fury to the soundproof room.
"Robin's going to be thrilled about that."
The lion whirled and bared its teeth to the intruder. Raven quirked a brow at Beast Boy's form, her arms were folded over her chest and the firm line of her mouth indicated she was in no mood for games. "Don't make me-,"
Beast Boy interrupted with a thunderous roar that shook the room. Raven winced as the noise traveled up her spine and into her head. She already had a migraine from the overwhelming tension the changeling was giving off and this wasn't helping.
"Are you done?"
Without another word Beast Boy morphed back into his human form and stalked towards the locker rooms. He found the door encased in dark energy and he threw a glare at Raven over his shoulder.
"Knock it off Raven."
"You're not going to clean this up?" she gestured at the sand thrown all over the room.
"Why do you care?"
Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Beast Boy you're obviously upset about what happened to Starfire. What's wrong?"
"None of your business. Leave me alone," he snarled at her.
Raven's eyes flickered with hurt and she opened up a portal and was gone before he could yell out an apology. He kicked the door as hard as he could.
Raven found herself out on the rocky shore of Titan's Tower later that night. The overwhelming toxicity of Beast Boy's rage coupled with Starfire's boundless joy had her in desperate need of quiet. The moon was peeking out behind a bank of clouds casting its light across the waves of the bay. The wind kissed her skin gently as she floated above a flat rock, her legs crossed and her mind on the verge of empty.
That is a bubble of anger crept into her thoughts and she recognized Beast Boy's presence somewhere out in the waters. He was swimming circles in the bay, his emotions in his animal state were always more potent and right now they thrummed against her skull in a horrid rhythm. She groaned as her headache returned with a vengeance and rubbed her eyes tiredly.
Across the water she spotted a triangle shaped fin speeding in tight circles. Without warning a huge orca whale leapt from the water and arced across the night sky. The resulting splash was like a thunderclap across the quiet water. She rested her hands on her knees and watched him make jump after jump, throwing himself higher and higher into the air with each try. On the last jump his body twisted in midair and he became a great eagle. She lost track of his form in the clouds and went back to staring at the water.
"Raven?"
The voice was quiet and timid, nothing like earlier and nothing compared to the turmoil she could sense beneath his façade. She nodded slightly to indicate she'd heard him.
He crept across the rocks carefully, not moving one of them on his journey to meet her on the rock. While she'd been meditating the tide had come in and surrounded her boulder, leaving her adrift. Beast Boy took the last jump with grace and landed on her right side. He crouched down next to her like a frog, knees jutting out while he poked at the surface of the boulder.
"Raven, I'm sorry."
The dark girl lowered her hood revealing her pale features. She looked at Beast Boy but he was intent on the surface of the stone beneath them. Raven gave him a slight shrug of the shoulders, "Thank you for the apology Beast Boy but it is unnecessary. I shouldn't have pushed you."
"Maybe not but I shouldn't have been so mean. Today's just been… weird."
Raven nodded in agreement.
The silence stretched between them and Raven found herself searching for something to say to the changeling. "Do you want to talk about it?" her words sounded halfhearted and she shook her head at herself.
"I dunno," he replied quietly.
Raven turned slightly to look at him better. He looked tired.
Beast Boy stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out one of the silver bells from Starfire's necklaces. He rolled it in his gloved hands his ears perking at the sound of the pleasant ring the bell gave off. Raven watched him in silence.
"I gave up," he whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"What Star saw, in the future I mean," he rolled the bell back and forth between his fingers. "I just gave up on everything."
Raven didn't say anything.
"I mean…I put myself in a cage. What could've happened to make me do that?" he growled quietly. "She said I was fat and scared of everything. What happened to me?"
Raven resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands as the waves of sadness and confusion rolled off him. Her head was pounding but she reached out awkwardly and patted his shoulder. Every contact sent stabs of pain into her skull. "Beast Boy, it'll be okay. Starfire stopped that future from ever coming true."
"Maybe that one but what if something happens to us. What if I let…" he trailed off and looked over at her. "I don't want that to happen to me Raven."
"Beast Boy…" she paused trying to gather some semblance of coherent thought.
Suddenly the changeling's face dropped and he winced, "Aw Rae I'm sorry. I'm projecting pretty bad aren't I?"
The empathy nodded and sighed in relief as Beast Boy's forehead creased in concentration to reign in his rampant emotions. She opened her eyes after a moment and looked at him kindly, "Thank you."
"No big deal. You should've just said something."
Raven shook her head, "You need to deal with what you're feeling."
He barked out a laugh and half grinned at her, "Look who's talking."
"Shut up. You know what I mean."
"I know," he looked down at the bell again. "I mean, I don't know why I'm sitting here feeling so sorry for myself. What Star said about you…that's messed up."
"It's a concern but there are worse things that could happen to me."
"I can't really think of anything worse than locking yourself away in a room alone for all eternity."
"I can," Raven whispered softly. Images flashed across her mind but she shook them away.
Beast Boy looked at her then nudged her very gently with his shoulder. She looked up at him, "You're right Raven. I'm really scared right now."
"Admitting it is always the first step."