Thank you all for waiting and I apologies once more for discontinuing the original story. I hope this one lives up to the first and hopefully exceeds your expectations.
Teen Titans: The Garden
Chapter 1
Apple Pie and Hot Chocolate. The last straw.
The forecast for that month had been for bright skies and beautiful sunshine across California. The image was picturesque: bright warm sun across a park where children were laughing and playing with one another, parents keeping a close eye on their offspring while sitting on a simple rug upon the grass, perhaps nursing some low level alcoholic beverage and laughing about the joyful life in all its splendour, bees and butterflies would be fluttering amongst the flowers doing their job in keeping the ecosystem intact and birds in the trees would be tweeting their merry song of love as parents nuzzled one another with their tiny babies poking their heads out to gaze upon the new world, all in montage set to the theme of "Mr Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra, it was something you'd imagine in a feel good 1970s/80s movie.
Mother Nature however was a twisted old bitch with a sadistic sense of humour, a stick up her ass, and had other ideas.
Dark clouds filled the skies blocking out all possible light, rain poured down mercilessly upon Jump City and its citizens, thunder roared across the skies and lightning flashed brightly illuminating the dismal day with light while the wind howled loudly.
From the streets of Jump City he watched weather up above in the heavens with great sadness, all around him people dressed in thick clothing tugged on their coats or jackets to try and keep themselves warm while they scattered and ran for cover to escape from the unforgiving weather.
But not he, he liked the rain regardless of how hard it fell, it was soothing to him, somehow he felt it comforted him and put a barrier between him and his pain.
Beast Boy closed his eyes and allowed the rain to fall onto his face which was sporting a new bruise courtesy of the Teen Titans' resident half demon. He shook his head subconsciously and opened his eyes and allowed the rain to fall onto them, something that never bothered him even when he was young, up above in the heavens he could see the lightning flashing intensely, lowering his gaze a little he saw lightning strike a pole on top of a very large building across the city.
Beast Boy released a depressed sigh and gazed ahead to a small diner tucked away in the corner of Jump City's quieter dining districts, he liked it here. He silently made his way to the diner and stepped inside, all around there were old people chatting and laughing with one another over coffee, tea, and a small plate of food, some were even smoking.
"Come in young'un, it's freezing." A familiar old man called to him as he beckoned him in.
"Sorry dude." Beast Boy apologised and stepped in while closing the door behind him, then walked over to the counter pausing only to look at the old man who'd spoken to him, "Grandkids alright?"
The old man inhaled his cigar and blew the smoke up towards the ventilation system. "Same as usual; scruffy, no nothings who listen to loud music and don't listen to their parents." He said gruffly.
"Chip off the old block right?" Beast Boy joked.
The old man and those at his table roared with laughter and the old man patted Beast Boy on the back roughly but friendly. "You got that right." The old man replied causing another roar of laughter.
BB chuckled and patted the man's arm. "I'll see you guys later." He said kindly and continued towards the counter, he hopped up onto a stool and smiled to the woman behind the counter. "Same as usual please." The woman gave him a 'sure thing' in reply and prepared his order.
Now one would think that with Beast Boy's enhanced senses he'd hate the smell of cigar and cigarette smoke and that was true at one point, but as time went by the smell had gone from terrible, to tolerable, to familiar comfort the smell he always connected with this diner, the smell of comfort, freedom, and friendly company. With that thought Beast Boy pulled down his hood, shrugged off his rain proof coat, got up from his seat and placed the soaked coat on an old fashioned coat stand before making his way back to his seat.
Now without his hood his bruise was there for all to see, dark purple clashing with his fair green skin, no one would mention it though, they all knew, it hadn't been hard to guess after what had been broadcast on television from Tokyo a few months ago, Raven slapping Beast Boy so hard that he'd stumbled off the stage and fallen, however it was simply laughed off since he turned into a bird and flew back up, no one knew how much it had hurt or how scared he was when he'd fallen, no one except these people around him.
Beast Boy was brought from his thoughts when a familiar scent was inhaled through his nose, he blinked hard and shook his head before seeing a whole home-baked apple pie in front of him, cut into sections. He thanked the woman who in return asked if he wanted anything else with it, to which he declined but asked for a vegetarian friendly hot chocolate.
Beast Boy stretched eliciting a crack from his various joints and a groan of relief from his mouth, he was tired, cold and hungry. Before coming here he and the other Titans had a battle with the HIVE 5, minus Jinx of course, who were after the same thing as Red X. So after stopping the HIVE but failing to stop X from stealing some ancient gold thing, Robin wasn't happy to say the least and he had been the focus of the boy wonder's aggression.
"You need to step up your game Beast Boy, we almost lost to the HIVE 5 and X still got away." Robin had said after the battle.
"Like that'll ever happen" Raven had said with a roll of her eyes. At that point Beast Boy thought she was referring to being beaten by the HIVE.
"See dude, even Rae knows the HIVE can't beat us." Beast Boy said at the time with a smile on his face, only to have it wiped off when Raven had slapped him on the back of his head.
"I wasn't referring to that idiot, I was referring to you improving." She told the changeling. "And don't call me Rae."She hissed with annoyance.
"What're you trying to say?" Beast Boy asked and turned around and looked at her while rubbing his head.
"You'll never improve, you're far too lazy and stupid to improve." She said without any emotion but he could tell simply by the look in her eyes that was confidant in what she said and a part of him wanted to wipe that confidant look off of her.
"Hey y'all!" Cyborg bellowed sensing the sudden tension that had risen between his friends. "How about we get outta the rain and get home? We could order pizza." He'd suggested in his friendliest of tones.
"Yes friend that is a good suggestion." Starfire added, ignoring the tension for the time being.
The four Titans minus Beast Boy made their way to the T-Car, Robin paused noticing the lack of their youngest member and turned around seeing the green skinned boy simply watching them.
"Beast Boy you coming or what?" Robin called out in a frustrated tone.
"No, you guys go on ahead." Beast Boy called back, faking a positive attitude.
"Let him get a cold, can we just go now?" Raven asked, annoyance evident in her voice.
Beast Boy wanted to say something rude but decided against it, Robin got into the T-car without another word and Beast Boy walked over to a small alley way and retrieved his rainproof coat he had taken off before the fight began.
And now here he was, in his favourite small diner, about to tuck into a freshly baked apple pie to warm his tired and cold body and then wash it all down with a nice mug of hot chocolate, with two small spoons of sugar because of his sweet tooth.
Silently he lifted a single piece from the plate and took a bite allowing the flavours to wash over his taste buds and chewed till the pie in his mouth was mush before swallowing, he picked up his hot chocolate and took a small sip, careful not to scold himself.
All around him, the older folks continued to talk and laugh, but he knew, could feel, eyes on him, he lifted his head and found a pair of blue eyes gazing at him, familiar blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Hey." She greeted kindly.
Terra, Terry "Tara" Marlow as she was called now, amnesiac school girl with steady grades, a good family life, a nerdy but loving boyfriend and most importantly, no powers.
"Hey Tara." Beast Boy replied, somewhat surprised but happy to see her nonetheless. "What're you doing here?" he asked.
"My Aunt Megan works here." Tara replied kindly and pointed to the woman, behind the counter.
Beast Boy turned to look at the older woman, Megan, with moderate surprise. "Didn't know you were her aunt." He said.
"Didn't know you knew Terry." She said in reply equally surprised.
"Yeah, I ugh," he paused and looked over at Tara whom was taking off her coat. "I once mistook her for someone else." He lied. "Just got one of them faces you know." He shrugged.
"I get what you mean." Megan replied and got back to work brewing coffee and cleaning the surfaces.
Tara walked over to them and jumped over the counter and landed on the other side. "Need help serving?" she asked her aunt whom nodded in agreement.
"Fill up your drink Beast Boy?" she asked, looking at the young teen.
"Please, vegan friendly hot chocolate." He accepted and raised his cup, as Tara refilled it from a small pot.
"I saw your fight with the HIVE and that skull guy." She commented.
"X has always been a tricky bas-ugh, slime-ball." He said glumly, avoiding the use of a curse.
Tara set down the pot and looked at him sadly, she could see the green guy was in pain and she knew why. "Saw what happened afterwards too, couldn't make out what was being said, but your boss didn't look happy."
Beast Boy snorted. "Understatement, Robin can be a real … jerk, at times." He shook his head and took another sip of his hot chocolate, "Sometimes I feel more like a soldier than I do a hero. I mean it's not like I'm not trying!" he exclaimed, his voice rising in volume a little. "I train, I train so hard but apparently it's not good enough." He ran a gloved hand over his face then looked Tara in the eye. "I take it you saw what happened with Raven?" he asked.
Tara grimaced before adopting a look of anger, "I saw her slap you on the back of the head." He nodded in reply but said nothing, Tara then pointed at her own cheekbone where his bruise was located. "Her too?" she asked but didn't really need an answer.
"Her too." He simply replied and took another bite of pie.
"Why?" she couldn't help but ask.
"These days I swear she doesn't even need a reason, but this time, she says I played a prank on her and put itching powder in her uniform, which I didn't." His brow furrowed in anger as he took a long deep drink of his hot chocolate which Tara refilled. "She pick me up with her powers and threw me into a wall head first, got a major headache from it and I was hoping she'd either heal it or Cy would be able to do something but, then we got the alert." He shrugged and leaned forward.
Tara looked at the bruise more closely and grimaced. "You should get it cleaned up before it gets infected, its already swollen." She looked at him and smiled sadly. "Hey who knows, if it gets filled with puss you could always pop it on camera and get a few millions views on youtube." She joked causing the young teen to laugh too.
"Yeah, though Robin would probably delete it, if not have Cy delete it." He shrugged.
Tara looked at Beast Boy for a moment, truly looked at his down trodden expression and felt even worse for the guy. "Do you hate it with them?"
Beast Boy eyes stayed focused on his pie as he answered. "Sometimes it's tough with them, Raven hates me, Robin can be real bossy when he's in a bad mood, but Cyborg and Starfire are cool though, but Starfire won't say anything against Robin, and neither want to get on Raven's bad side."
"Do you ever think about leaving?" she asked.
"And go where exactly?" he asked exasperated, annoyed with his whole situation. "I'm not going back to the Doom Patrol, and I'm not risking going solo," He said, "not after what I've found out." He mumbling to himself, referring to the time Starfire time travelled to the future, he took another bite of his pie and took a sip of his hot drink.
"I'm sorry." She said quietly.
"Not your fault." He mumbled in return and continued with his small meal as Tara got to work serving the other customers.
After he'd finished he bid everyone a farewell, picked up his coat and fastened it up before traversing the weather outside, it was a somewhat peaceful and quiet walk, if one ignored the thunder, the wind at least had died down to a minor annoyance, so that at least was a plus. Out here in the chilly weather his black eye began to throb painfully, he grimaced, hoping Cyborg would be able to do something about it, or if not maybe Raven would heal him. 'Pfft, yeah right.'
'Why do you allow the BITCH to ridicule us so?' a dark voice spoke suddenly.
Beast Boy halted in his movements surprised and shocked by the voice he had just heard, he looked around and saw others across the street continuing to avoid the harsh weather best they could, no one was watching him.
'What do you want?' Beast Boy asked mentally, he hadn't heard it speak to him directly for some time, not since the "Trigon Incident" as it was now called, suffice to say he had been enjoyed the silence.
'Answer my question. Why do you allow that half-demon BITCH to ridicule and abuse us?' The Beast snarled angrily.
'It's not like I have much choice …' Beast Boy started to reply.
'THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE!' The Beast roared loudly causing Beast Boy to wince. 'NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TREAT US THIS WAY!'
Beast Boy hated to admit it, but the monster inside him had a point, no one had a right to treat anyone the way Raven had been treating him.
'Even so,' Beast Boy began as he continued his journey home. 'Not like I can do much about it. Raven's way tougher than me.'
'Or so she thinks.' The Beast hissed darkly. 'We have the power of the entire animal kingdom at our finger tips, we have more than enough power to put the bitch in her place, and then, there's always another option, me.'
Beast Boy shook his head vigorously. 'No way, no way am I letting YOU out. Forget it!' Beast Boy growled.
'Let me out Garfield and all our problems will go away in one night.' The Beast offered.
'No, not a chance. Get back to the dark hole you crawled out from.' Beast Boy demanded angrily, a deep growl rising up from his throat.
The Beast relented, for now, and skulked away back into the depths of Beast Boy's mind. 'This isn't over.'
Beast Boy took a shaky breath and calmed himself down, the Beast always became more active if he was angry or stressed, he just had to calm himself down, he looked the sky and let the rain drop upon his face cooling his skin and his temper.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." He whispered to himself as he calmed then turned his attention to the large T across the bay, his home, his home that didn't feel like a home most of the time. 'But where else could I go?' Begrudgingly Beast Boy continued on towards his home knowing that he would likely incur either Raven's or Robin's wrath for one reason or another.
Beast Boy entered the building through the front door, took a glance at the time and found he'd rather just rest, maybe get some ice for his eye first then sleep. He took the elevator to common room and walked down the short corridor only for his name to be called out behind him.
"Beast Boy!" came the voice of the Boy Wonder.
'Great, here it comes.' He thought with annoyance before turning around with a convincing smile on his face. "Yeah dude?"
Robin, whom had been jogging to catch up to Beast Boy, slowed to a halt in front of the green teen, the boy wonder than began to rub the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Listen Beast Boy, I ugh, I just wanted to … I wanted to apologise about what I said earlier." Robin said sheepishly.
Beast Boy was shocked, Robin apologising? Seriously? Had he entered the Twilight Zone?
"You know how I get, and between the weather and the time of the robbery and Red X I just, it just all got on top of me you know? And well, what I said before wasn't true, and it was completely uncalled for, you're a dedicated member to the team and we need you, you're our friend, and I shouldn't take my frustration out on my friends." Robin said with a sincere voice before sticking out his gloved hand. "Friends still?"
Beast Boy couldn't help but smile under his hood and nodded to the Boy Wonder. "Always dude, thanks." He stuck out his own gloved hand and shook Robin's in a firm handshake.
It was then Robin truly noticed the black eye on Beast Boy's face, searching his memories he'd noticed Beast Boy had it even before the fight, which meant only one thing.
"Raven?" he asked and pointed at Beast Boy's black eye.
Beast Boy released a frustrated groan and nodded. "Yeah dude, apparently I put itching powder in her leotards, which I didn't for the record and she well, you can guess."
Robin put one hand on his hip and placed his face in the other and sighed before looking back up to Beast Boy.
"What's going on between you two, man? Sure you were never the best of friends but, you've never been this bad." Robin asked.
Beast Boy flung his arms up in the air with exasperation. "Dude! I have no idea, it started just before Tokyo and I thought maybe it was that time of the month but no, Raven's silently declared war on me, and … dude I got to admit it, it's starting to grate on me."
Robin nodded in understanding. "Do you want me to talk to her?"
"Do whatever you want dude, she probably won't listen but sure I'd appreciate it." Beast Boy shrugged before pointing behind him with his thumb. "Now if it's okay dude, I'm gunna go get some ice and go to bed, I'm tired."
"Sure, go ahead, I'll see you later." Robin said and watched the green teen depart before deciding to find Raven and have a talk with her.
Raven was in the common room reading when she heard the doors 'whoosh' open.
"Raven," she heard the voice of her leader address her, "we need to talk."
Raven placed a bookmark in her book and calmly closed it, before looking at Robin who now stood in front of her. "About?"
"Beast Boy." He answered.
Raven rolled her eyes, "What's he done now?" she asked, annoyance seeping into her monotone voice.
"Nothing, that's the point, what's going on between you two?" Robin asked.
Raven raised a brow curiously. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"I saw Beast Boy's black eye, it looks pretty bad Raven and I'm pretty sure I know where he got it from." He said narrowing his eyes at her from under his mask.
"The idiot put itching powder in my clean leotards." She said with annoyance and glared at Robin.
"He said he didn't." Robin retorted.
Raven scoffed, "Sure he didn't." she began sarcastically, "just like he didn't dye Starfire's hair pink, or switch all of Cyborg's meat with tofu and …"
"Okay, okay I get it, Beast Boy can cause a little trouble sometimes, but really Raven, even if he did do it, was it really worth the black eye?" he asked.
"He acts like a child all the time Robin, playing ridiculous video games, goofing off at all times of the day, pulling pranks, he's slacking off on his training, he's obviously not dedicated to our job, we have a responsibility and all he wants to do is laze around and act like a child, he needs to grow up."
Robin crossed his arms. "At that justifies you throwing him into walls, and out of windows, and generally injuring you teammate, does it?" he asked heatedly.
"If it's the only way he'll learn." Raven replied calmly.
"Beast Boy is our friend Raven, not our pet to train." Robin chastised.
"It's for his own good and for the good of the team Robin." Raven told him before lowering herself into a portal and vanishing from the room.
Robin watched as the portal closed then ran a hand over his forehead. "Damn it."
Beast Boy was laying in his bed, a small ice-pack he's taken from the medical bay resting over his bruised eye, he was calm, relaxed, and ready to drift off to sleep, until he heard the familiar sound of magic.
'Raven?' he wondered and turned his head sleepily, finding Raven standing in the middle of his room. "Rae, what're you?" he asked only for dark energy to cover his body and yank him out of bed and pull him towards Raven.
"You're pathetic." She snarled heatedly and glared at the young green teen.
"Wh, what did I do?" he asked, his voice trembling with his eyes wide with panic.
"You're so immature, you couldn't fight your own battles so like a child you sent someone more mature than you to fight them for you." Beast Boy gulped, now knowing what she meant. "Robin and I had a little chat, to talk about this," she said hinting to his eye. "you may have convinced him you didn't do it, but you can't fool me."
"B-b-but R-r-r-Raven I didn't do it." Beast Boy tried to tell her.
"Oh right, if you didn't, then who did?" she said sarcastically, not believing a word he said.
"Dude! I don't know, if I knew I'd tell you!"
"Yeah right." She snarled. "Of course you don't know, I'm not stupid Beast Boy!" she threw him to the ground, and glared at his fallen figure. "You better grow up real fast Garfield." She said threateningly then turned to leave.
"Or what, you're gunna hit me some more." Beast Boy growled.
Raven paused and turned to look at Beast Boy over her shoulder. "I'll do what it takes to make sure our friends don't get hurt because of you and your carelessness."
Beast Boy growled quietly to himself as Raven left the room. 'You've crossed the line for the last time Raven, I've had enough.' He thought angrily, unaware of his rapidly healing wound nor the narrowing of his irises and pupils till all was left was inhuman animalistic look in his eye.
And here is the first chapter of my redone Teen Titans' story The Garden, I'll be leaving up the old story for the time being.
Hope you all enjoyed it! :D
Please get in touch and tell me what you think.
