It was dark on the outskirts of Jump City. The sun had already set and all that was left were the bright stars in the pitch black sky.
But sleep was nowhere in sight, especially not in the small apartment of two former Titans.
"Are you sure about this?" a woman's voice asked.
The green male sat across from her, eyes serious but he also had a small smile forming on his face. "Come on! This is not the first time."
"I know it's not but he is our son. Aren't you worried about him? What if...his powers go out of control - just like mine did," the blonde-haired woman said in a lower voice.
Beast Boy knew why she was worried and he would lie if he said he hadn't wondered about what would happen if their son awakened Terra's powers. But he also had faith in her...just as he has in him.
Besides, he couldn't keep him locked up in the house forever!
"No need to worry, Terra. Remember how you saved us all? You had control. And I bet he has just as much," he encouraged her, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Okay, okay. But...what about Slade?" she asked, voice tense and even Beast Boy's smile vanished at his name.
He has been gone ever since the Brotherhood incident and it was like he was still everywhere.
Beast Boy let out a sigh. "It's okay. I won't let Slade get his dirty fingers on him if he shows up. Trust me!"
There was a long moment of silence, neither of them noticing the figure that had eavesdropped on them.
"Who's Slade?" the lightly greenish skinned boy thought to himself. Mark never liked his parents' overprotective nature over him, especially from his Mum. At first he thought it was because of his skin and he thought he was sick...but when he heard this now...he was honestly speechless.
He never knew about his mum's powers not obeying her...or this Slade guy either.
Why was this guy such a mystery?
Well, he wouldn't wait while everyone was having fun on Halloween!
He turned away from the door and exited the house in excitement, leaving in regular clothes as he looked actually monstrous enough without a costume.
Hearing the door slam, Terra jerked up. "Mark! Where are you?" she asked and stood up and exited the room.
Beast Boy followed her before she turned to him.
"Can we just stay with him for a few minutes? Just to make sure he's safe?" she asked, her voice laced with worry and the changeling quickly gave in.
"Alright. But if he sees us, we'll be in trouble."
She chuckled. "Haven't you heard of camouflage?" she asked and went to the room before she came back with two masks - one witch masks and one Frankenstein.
"I don't really need one," Beast Boy mumbled, looking at the mask.
"Not if you want Mark to sneak out of his room next week to go crime fighting himself."
With that, they went out of their house, trailing behind their son without making it obvious by knocking on doors occasionally and holding out paper bags that were gradually filling with candy.
"Hey, I guess we could be beating our son this Halloween for once," the changeling grinned as they continued walking.
"You sure? You know he had a head start," Terra smiled before looking in the direction where their boy was approaching another house. "And he's increasing it. Hurry," she said, pulling her husband on his arm.
Mark was increasingly getting a bigger bag as he kept going from house to house before knocking on a rather old door of a house that looked like it had seen better days. He knocked on it, shifting the bag to his other hand.
No answer.
He tried it again and waited. Was nobody home? He looked over to the window but saw that no light was on so he turned around.
And then he heard a click and saw the door slowly open. To his surprise, the hallway was lit.
"Uh...trick or treat?" he asked but nobody answered him. Okay, that was a little creepy.
He took a step back before he heard the shuffling of feet from inside. Was someone inside after all? Maybe he was just looking where he had placed the candy, right?
Not wanting to back down now, Mark went inside. The hallway was narrow and he soon came up at a flight of stairs that led to the upper floor. Where could the guy be? Just then, he noticed the flickering of the lights and he decided to check the ground floor first.
Meanwhile, Terra and Beast Boy reached the front porch of the house and Terra looked inside as she stepped in.
"You sure it's okay to go in just like that?" Beast Boy asked as he glanced around the house before Terra took his hand to stop him from backing out if he wanted to.
"Mark went inside. I saw him going in so there is no going back! What if something happened to him?" she asked worried and seriously at the same time before suddenly, all the lights went out, leaving the hallways and rooms in darkness. "Can you help me, Beast Boy?"
"Alright. I'll take the lead," he said before morphing into a cat, having better vision (at least with the dim light coming from the windows) and he started walking with Terra following.
Mark also noticed the lights going off and stopped as he inspected the living room. Could it be storming outside? So why couldn't he hear anything?
Or…could it be that the guy was being robbed?
His assumption was proven correct as he heard the squeaking of floorboards behind him. He whipped around, fists ready to pounce…but nobody was behind him. Weird.
He took a step back, taking a last look at the living room before he backed away…and heard a door closing. Where did that come from?
"Beast Boy!" Terra hissed at her husband as he had shut a door of a room he had been inspecting and smiled apologetically at her.
"Sorry."
And then she heard the creaking of floorboard…and they were coming from the end of that hallway.
"Beast Boy? I know where Mark is."
"You don't have to tell me twice," he replied and both were making their way to the living room. And in the distance, they saw a figure exiting the living room.
Probably the culprit.
But something was wrong…the door was moving…and something began looming over that shadow.
A hand was extending towards Mark's shoulder and upon contact, the boy turned around before crying out in fear and surprise as a mask faced him.
Terra heard the scream and both rushed towards the sound…before Terra saw the masked guy too. In the distance…she saw that his mask was…orange. "Slade!" she shouted. Her hands glowed yellow and she felt the ground shaking under her, ready to crush Slade.
"Terra! Wait!" Beast Boy called as he saw that the masked man stumbled over his feet.
But her powers didn't just stop yet…until Mark tackled the man to the ground, causing the mask to fall off.
It wasn't Slade's mask and the man was a rather old man with a gray mustache.
The glow of Terra's hands ceased before a picture that had been hanging on the wall fell down.
Mark frowned at the man before Beast Boy put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry! He's not going to hurt you."
So this guy…wasn't Slade?
"Who are you?" he asked the man as he got to his feet.
"Just an old man wanting some peace and quiet and I thought scaring kids would help me get it."
He was now glancing at his mother who looked at the picture that had fallen to the ground.
Did her powers go out of control? Or did she not want to stop them?
Mark approached his mother nervously. "Mom?"
He let out a cry of surprise as she hugged him tight.
"I'm glad you're alright," she mumbled.
"And I'm glad you're alright too," he thought.