In an alleyway in a city in South Africa one night, two super-heroes, adored by people all over the globe, stood about 20 feet apart from one another, each waiting for the other to speak.
"We don't have to do this. You know that."
Changeling nodded in response to Raven's statement. His ex-teammate was the only one available to hunt him down now, with Nightwing and Starfire living and working in Gotham, and Cyborg having joined the League proper. The Titans still existed, of course. Well, in name at least.
The Teen Titans that he, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Robin started all those years ago was now a shadow of it's former self, a hero kindergarten that served only as a training ground for young metahumans and trainee heroes, grooming them to either become sidekicks to the real super-heroes or to join the Justice League. It made Garfield, formerly Beast Boy and currently the rogue known as Changeling, sick to his stomach. It was a mockery of what had once saved his life and given him purpose, and he took it very, very personally.
He took it personally enough that to see even Raven, once the closest person to his heart, wearing a "T" badge they didn't use to have underneath the Justice League badge, as if the Titans were a lesser organization, a credit, a diploma for a course in being a real super-hero, he felt all hesitation he would normally have at fighting his friends drain from him. The person in front of him was an enemy.
"I know that. So why don't you turn around and leave, Raven?" He did not hold back the venom in his words for her sake.
She took a step back. When Garfield had gone rogue several years ago, commandeering a Titans base in East Africa and using it as a headquarters for a particularly vicious one-man crusade against poaching and other environmentally damaging crimes in the region, she, as well as the other four core Titans, were sympathetic. However, his actions were technically illegal themselves, in taking over a Titans base without a permit and operating as an unsanctioned vigilante. And this, not a full month after resigning from the Titans in disgust at the merger the Justice League had strong-armed them into. They were regretful, but not surprised when the League instructed them to bring Gar in.
She had hoped she would be able to bring him to his senses at that time, but when they arrived at Gar's base, she found it had been recently vacated, dozens of bound poachers and tons of confiscated merchandise left behind, and the phrase "BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME" spray painted onto the wall. They added vandalism of private property to the list of crimes.
From there Gar had led them on a chase for years, going as far as to leave behind clues for his next whereabouts every time they found his (always freshly abandoned) lair. A bowl of fresh fruit grown in a specific region of Brazil, a Cuban cigar, a flower from Nepal... And as his list of successful escapes grew, so did his list of crimes. Breaking and entering, assault, unlawful intimidation, all added after testimony from the criminals he took down matched up. Wherever he went during his flight, they'd arrive to find dozens of tales from locals about green-skinned animals saving lives and destroying crime with ruthless force.
And so, when Raven was told the League had finally gotten a lock on his position, and he wasn't leaving, she was suspicious. She wanted to believe he was finally giving himself up, but it was more likely a trap. That was why she was selected to confront him; setting a trap for Superman was easy as long as you had Kryptonite, electricity or magic. Setting a trap for Green Lantern was easy as long as you had access to a big yellow tarp. Raven, on the other hand, could teleport out of anything, or tear through anything, or move anything. That, and her overwhelming power and intimate knowledge of Gar's powers, made her the best choice to finally apprehend him.
"You know I can't just let you go, Garfield-"
She was cut off roughly. "Changeling."
"What?"
He gazed at her, irritated that she had dared to use that name. "I said, it's Changeling. Don't call me anything else. Not Garfield. Not Beast Boy. And certainly not Gar."
That hurt. That hurt her a lot. "Fine, Changeling. I... I just want to know. Why did you do all this?"
He tilted his head to the side, not understanding. "Do all what? Stop crime? I'm a super-hero-"
"You didn't 'stop crime', Ga- Changeling. You committed a number of them yourself. You've beaten a number of people badly enough that they need to be hospitalized. Some of them are crippled. You've caused a large amount of damage to cities and buildings-"
"You mean collateral damage and criminal hide-outs, Raven."
"That doesn't matter!" She spat. "You don't have the right to do these things! The League-"
"Don't talk to me about the League!" He shouted. The two of them paused for a while to calm down. "I haven't done anything but what the Batman does."
"Batman..." She paused, not willing to risk mentioning the League around him again. She knew it was a sore spot. "Batman works under supervision. He has rules for himself."
"And you think I don't?" He laughed. "I think I used the wrong example. What I should have said was, I haven't done anything but what Mento did."
"Then... What are you doing, exactly? When you left the Titans... what were you doing?" She asked him that in a way that made her true intentions clear; she already knew the answer.
"I've rejoined the Doom Patrol." He answered her, brushing dust from his purple and black uniform. "Of course, there hasn't been a Doom Patrol since the Maine incident... So I guess I've refounded it. And am the only member." She could sense the pride rolling off of him. It was like an island in a sea of rage, despair and, above all, grim determination.
"Changeling..." Her fist began to glow, and a black energy developed on it. "I'm sorry. I can't let you go. Please, just surrender so this will be easier on both of us."
He shook his head. "I'm sorry too. Sorry for what I'm about to do. The Doom Patrol does not surrender."
With inhuman reflexes, Changeling morphed into a cheetah and leaped from his place, barely avoiding the spire of dark energy that ripped upwards from the ground where he had just been standing. He landed with his feet on the side of the building, jumping off towards Raven. She raised her shield just in time to block the acid fired at her eyes by a Spitting Cobra from above, but but as a result she was unprepared for the Ram that headbutted her in the stomach at the same time.
Raven stumbled back. An ordinary person would be either unconscious or have the wind knocked out of them, but Raven was not an ordinary person. A flick of her wrist kicked up a dust cloud aimed right for the Ram's eyes, forcing Changeling into a retreat as a scorpion. As the dust settled, the two super-heroes were once again staring each other down in the alleyway.
"En garde," Raven whispered, and the fight began.
AN: An experiment, more than anything else. In the future I would like to possibly revisit the themes, or even continue the story from here. Thank you for reading, and please review!