The Anniversary
Brrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg!
Beast Boy groaned as the alarm clock rang its irritating wake up call. It was an old fashioned alarm clock, big and round, with real arms on its face and a huge bell on its top. It was a genuine wind up model, a quaint gift Starfire gave him on his birthday last year, which she found at an old antique shop. She found the clock's old school mechanism of gears and springs to be intriguing as she had never before seen a clock that was not electronic. She snapped it up for him because it was lime green in color, and its yellow face, with the "Timex" logo displayed on it simply appealed to her.
He fumbled at his nightstand with his left hand, clumsily and blindly trying to find the irritating noisemaker, which continued to clatter, making enough noise to wake the dead. After several failed attempts his pinkie grazed against the clock and he grabbed it. Instead of turning it off he flung it away. The clock landed in a pile of dirty clothes which muffled the alarm, which continued to ring the bell until its spring was finally unwound.
The changeling heaved a sigh of relief and rolled over, with the intention of going back to sleep, if at least for a little while, as Robin had scheduled the obstacle course for 8 AM that morning. The guy was a first class masochist, who scheduled a workout that early in the morning?
Beast Boy would normally rely on Cyborg to rouse him out of bed in the morning. He only wound up the old clock and set the alarm out of habit, though he wasn't really sure what that habit was. What he did know was that the clock, which was a relic from the past, ran slow and did a poor job of keeping time.
Time. Time was a river that never stopped flowing, a river that couldn't be damned or controlled. It just flowed, inexorably, relentlessly into the future, waiting for no one. It had its own agenda and it wouldn't share its secrets with anyone. The future was a closed door and once you breached it, it was no longer the future, it became the present. And if you did manage to travel to the future and return, there was still no guarantee that things would turn out the way you witnessed. The future was indeed a sly mistress, one that it was best to not wrestle with. And the river was fickle and would change its course for the slightest of reasons.
The past, though part of the river of time, was very different. The past was even less accessible than the future. Warp once told Starfire that the past couldn't be changed, even if you traveled back to it. He said that it was set in stone.
Beast Boy yawned. He was feeling restless and for good reason. It was said that time could heal all wounds, emotional wounds in particular, but he wasn't so sure of that. He placed his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling from the top bunk, scrutinizing the patterns on the ceiling as if they were tea leaves that might be able to reveal his fortune to him.
But he wasn't thinking about his future, rather, he was contemplating his past. For today was an anniversary of sorts. There were many anniversaries that the changeling commemorated. Some were public knowledge, like his birthday or the day the Titans first met each other. Others were very private, like the day his parents died. Today was such a day.
It wasn't a macabre event, though for him it was a very painful one. His friends didn't know about it because he never shared it with them, and why would he?
Beast Boy, dressed in his boxers and a T shirt, hopped off of his bed and landed on the floor. He walked over to a stray laundry basket at the far end of the room that contained a few clean sets of his Doom Patrol costume. As he slowly dressed himself a single tear dripped down his cheek. One would think that after an entire year he would have put this event behind him, closed the door on it and moved on. But it wasn't that easy.
For it was exactly one year ago that a young, blond girl who at first denied that she was Terra Markov finally admitted her true identity and in an unexpected move dismissed him forever, telling him that "Things Change."
After slipping his shoes on he exited his room and made his way to the commons, hoping to grab a quick bite before training began. As he walked down the long hallways, he kept seeing her. Every corner, every door had a memory associated with Terra. He could hear her voice echoing in his mind, as if she was still there. She was a ghost, a specter that wouldn't leave.
But she wasn't there. Terra was gone. She graduated from Murakami School and simply disappeared. Her classmates even approached the changeling, clandestinely, to seek his help in finding "Tara". He tried his best for months, but hit nothing but cold trails.
It was two months ago when he was alone in the Tower, sick with the flu while the others were out, when it happened. He was dressed in his pajamas and a robe and was playing Mega Monkeys 5 on the GameStation when the old fax machine whirred to life. After warming up it printed out several sheets.
He was curious back then, as faxes were now a rare occurrence as most documents were now simply emailed as PDF attachments. He paused the game, walked over to the fax machine and picked up the cover sheet. It was from the Department of Metahuman Affairs from the Republic of Paraguay. The document was in Spanish and the changeling had enough rudimentary understanding of the language to understand what it said. After he read it he dropped the papers on the floor.
That Fax was a notification that a former Teen Titan known as Terra was killed when she engaged military forces in La Paz, Bolivia, during a botched bank robbery she was attempting. The Fax included some pictures of Terra, who looked very dead in them. It also included a set of finger prints, asking Robin to positively identify them, as Terra's prints were apparently not on record anywhere else besides Titans Tower.
Beast Boy didn't remember much else from that day, other than Robin later confirming that the prints matched the ones on file. He barricaded himself in his room for a few days, until Raven and Starfire came to console him.
Even though he understood that Terra no longer had a place for him in her life, the news of her death was hard to accept. He did his best to pretend that he was OK, but it was so obviously a lie that he doubted that anyone couldn't see through him. But as always, with every passing day the pain became a little less sharp and he made some serious progress. That is until … today. Terra was now really gone, lost forever and he was beginning to wonder if he would ever get over her loss.
He rounded and corner and had to quickly shift to his right to not run into Starfire, who was walking in the opposite direction.
"Greetings, Beast Boy". She addressed him with a warm smile. "Did you slumber well? You are up earlier than your normal time. Robin sent me to retrieve you, as Cyborg is making some last minute adjustments to the obstacle course."
The changeling returned her greeting with a weak smile. He loved the princess, she was always so kind, gentle and sweet to him. She was a real sweetheart, and completely out of his league too.
"Hi Star, I was feeling a little restless today and decided to just get up."
The Tamaranian surprised him as she gently wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a gentle but firm hug.
He returned her hug. She always smelled so nice, in a strange alien way. He then looked up into her eyes, which were glowing a soft and gentle green.
"I know what today is." She remarked in a soft voice.
"You do?"
"Yes, one year ago was the last time you saw Terra. Am I correct?"
He nodded.
"Would you like to engage in the boy-girl talk after the morning training session?"
He chuckled. "Sure, but won't Robin get jealous?"
"I said the boy-girl talk, not the boyfriend-girlfriend talk." She smirked.
Her communicator suddenly chirped. It was Robin, informing her that the training session was canceled due to technical problems with the obstacle course. Cyborg's voice could he heard cursing in the background, griping over "cheap replacement parts that don't last".
"Of course, sure. Wanna go talk on the roof, I think we have free time now? I … talk better under an open sky."
"As do I." She replied as she summoned the elevator.
The ride to the roof was a quiet one and soon they were standing on the edge of the rooftop. The sun was still rising and the bay shimmered in its still orange glow. A refreshing cool morning breeze blew and he savored it. After a prolonged silence he finally spoke up.
"I don't know if I can ever forget her, Star." He said in a trembling voice.
"You should not. She was a friend and your first love."
"She also dumped me."
"She betrayed us all, but she reconciled with you, before she was turned into stone."
He shook his head.
"I do not understand. The girl you saw … you are certain she was Terra?"
"Yeah, she was."
"And you are positive about that?"
"Absolutely."
The princess placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you wish to share what happened that day?"
"I might as well … keeping this bottled up inside me isn't helping."
He paused and a troubled look covered his face. He looked away and noticed that his jaw was slightly trembling.
"Please proceed, friend. And I promise to keep whatever you tell me in the strictest of confidence."
Beast Boy sat down on the ledge, and the princess joined him on his perch. His legs swayed over the void below them.
"At first Terra pretended to not know who I was. She said she was someone else. But I knew she was lying. So I chased after her. Finally, she fessed up. I was so happy, like in seventh heaven. I thought she was going to come back …" His voice trailed off.
"But she did not come back … Beast Boy … something bad happened … am I correct?"
"She dumped me, again. She said that she wasn't the girl that I used to know, she said that 'Things Change'. Star … how could she say that? I thought she loved me."
A sad expression appeared on the princess's face. "Oh Beast Boy, I am so sorry … she broke your heart a second time."
He nodded, laughing at himself unhappily.
"Yup, she dumped me like yesterday's trash … again."
"But you still had hope, until the fax arrived."
He nodded.
"At first I didn't believe it, not in my heart. It couldn't be … how could she be dead? But then they shipped her body back here and we had the funeral …"
His voice began to break down and he tried not to choke up. Starfire wrapped her arms around him.
"Friend, you should have told us."
He shook his head while he gently pushed her away.
"No, it was my own fault Star. I should have listened to you guys, I should have just gone and forgotten about her. I was an idiot for hoping she wanted to be with me."
"Why did you not forget her?"
He snorted and gestured at himself in a very dissatisfied manner with both his hands, his body language screaming 'are you kidding me?'
"Isn't it obvious? Look at me. I'm a weirdo. I'm ugly and I smell like a wet dog, Terra is like the only girl who ever liked me, and not even that …"
She gave him a stern look and crossed her arms. "That is not true, you are not the ugly. And Raven and I both like you."
He relaxed his posture and sighed softly. "Star … you know what I mean … of course you guys like me, we're friends. OK, maybe Raven doesn't like me a whole lot."
"Actually, she loves you, and so do I."
"Yeah, I know … I love you guys too."
She regaled him with one of her winning smiles. He never told her, but they always made his heart melt. Robin was one lucky bastard to have a girl like her.
"Beast Boy, you are a wonderful young man. You will find your true love, of that I am certain."
As Starfire was speaking Raven phased through the roof. She immediately noticed her two friends and glided towards them.
"Oh, here you are. I just came here to meditate; I hope I'm not intruding."
Beast Boy smiled at his violet haired teammate.
"No problem. Actually, I was going to get some breakfast. Wanna come with me Star?"
The princess nodded her agreement. He looked back at the sorceress.
"The roof is all yours, Raven."
"Thank you, Beast Boy."
She quietly adopted the lotus position and began to levitate. Before beginning to repeat her mantra she cleared her throat and rotated so that she faced him as he and Starfire walked away.
"Beast Boy, are you OK? I'm sensing a great deal of melancholy from you."
He chuckled.
"I guess there's no hiding anything from you. I was just talking with Star about Terra. The last time I ever saw her was a year ago."
"I see … that must be … difficult. If you want to talk about it, you can swing by my room later. I have some cookies we can share while we talk."
"Really? You'd do that for me?"
"Really. You are my friend, Beast Boy, and if you're hurting then I'm here for you."
"Gee Raven, thanks, you're the best. You know what? I think I will take you up on that offer. How about if I come around 10?"
"That would be fine. I'll see you later"
The gray sorceress turned away and began to chant her mantra. The other two quietly tiptoed into the stairwell and carefully shut the door behind them, so as to not disturb their friend.
"Wow, that was really nice of Raven. I wasn't expecting that from her. She even offered me cookies!"
Starfire smiled smugly.
"As I told you, she cares a great deal about you."
Her smile became a silly grin and she giggled happily.
"Beast Boy, you remember I told you that you will find your true love?"
He smiled back at her as they walked down the stairs.
"Yeah, I remember. What about it?"
The princess giggled again, with a strong hint of mischief in her voice.
"I think that she is much closer than you think."
"Really? That would be awesome. So who is she?"
"Perhaps I should say no more, as this was told to me in the utmost of confidence."
He nodded as they continued walking down the stairs. Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks, with a petrified look on his face. He pointed at the stairwell door above them.
"Wait a minute, are you saying that Raven …."
-( scene break )-
I found this unpublished one shot on my computer. I wrote it back in 2013. It isn't great, but it isn't bad either, so I'm going to publish it.
And while I'm at it, there is some more Season 6 news. As most of you probably have already heard, Tara Strong said that if the Teen Titans Go! Movie does well at the box office, that we might get a sixth season of the old show. Personally, I think that's baloney, and it's just a ploy to get us to pay $10 (or whatever your local multiplex charges) to see the movie, which I don't plan on doing.
That said, there is more news. Two weeks ago Greg Cipes (AKA Beast Boy) was at Denver Comic Con. During his panel, which is on youtube (link provided below) he said that maybe there was a Season 6 preview in the movie. Anyway, the movie opens a few days after San Diego Comic Con, so I'm guessing that Season 6 will be officially announced at SDCC. Or maybe not. Either way SDCC is in a few weeks.
The link to the panel with Greg Cipes is on my profile page