Following orders
The night was early and cool. Stars were beginning to crest over the moon, twinkling and shining like a million cosmic fireflies lighting the dark velvet sky. Beast Boy sat on his bed, swinging his legs over the edge and twiddling his thumbs as he stared blankly out the window. He sighed and flopped back onto the mattress, limbs slaying out lifelessly. His lean chest rose as the changeling sighed, Mento's harsh words ringing in his elfin ears.
"The only thing you did is disobey a direct order. I told you to destroy the generator, not save us."
But didn't he see that would've been impossible for the youngest Doom Patrol member? His teammate's safety would always be his first priority. Beast Boy's bottom lip trembled and he drew his knees up to his chest. He'd lost his parents, he wasn't going to let any more people he loved die when he could prevent it. The child wrapped his arms around his knees and took a wobbly breath. "You'll never be part of this team. You'll never be part of this team." Mento's stern voice echoed in his mind so clearly that BB idly wondered if the older man wasn't beaming the thoughts right into his head just to make him leave.
"Sometimes I want to disappear, just to see who'd notice." Rita would notice. So would Negative Man and Tin Man. Mento… he'd probably observe that things were quieter, which would equate to Beast Boy's absence. His emerald eyes closed and he tried to force himself to sleep, but muffled voices distracted him. It sounded like Mento, and Rita.
The shape shifter changed into barn owl and listened intently to the argument.
"He saved us, Steve!"
"If he doesn't get it through his thick green head that he has to follows orders he'll never make it in this team!"
"He's a child, Steve, he can learn." Rita said, adding, "Did you see how proud he was? He saved us and transformed into a tyrannosaurus, but all you could do was beret him."
Manto's voice became hard and cold, "that boy is not my son, Rita, and he's not yours either."
Beast Boy gasped and changed back into a human, tears threatening to overflow. A soft knock on the door made him freeze, heat searing over his body in fear. Had Mento found out he was eavesdropping?
"W-who is it?" he called uncertainly, stepping back as a frightened animal would.
"Negative Man, may I come in?" the dry, monotones voice asked politely.
"Uh, yeah."
The mummy entered, silently closing the door behind him. He looked at the team's youngest member competitively, thinking about how to approach him.
"How are you doing?"
Beast Boy opened his mouth to reply, wincing as Mento's voice rose and penetrated his rooms walls. The held-in tears spilled over, streaking down his cheeks. The boy quickly wiped at them with his sleeve, but they just kept falling. He hated himself for crying in front of another, and after he'd done so well when Mento publicly scolded him. Negative Man showed no signs of disgust, though. He sat on the edge of the racecar bad (something Rita had gladly indulged the child with) and patted the space next to him. "It's not a weakness, you know."
"Huh?" Beast Boy hiccupped questioningly, swaying on the spot he seemed to be rooted to, arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"Crying, emotions, they're not a weakness, even if Mento acts like they are."
The changeling hesitantly stepped closer, rubbing at his leaking eyes one last time.
"T-they're not?" Negative Man quirked a smile and nodded, motioning for Beast Boy to join him again. This time he did, flinging himself at the man and burying his face in his stomach. The sarcastic mummy gently rubbed at the boy's shaking shoulders, saying nothing. "Did I do the right thing today?" BB asked, voice cracking.
The pessimist reclined on his forearms casually, Beast Boy following him. "What do you think?" he answered the question with a question."
"I-I had to save you guys, it—it wasn't an option not to." He said slowly. Negative Man nodded understandingly.
"If you want my opinion, Mento's being a jerk. You did a great thing saving us. Even if you'd destroyed the generator and we'd died—" Beast Boy grimaced painfully. "—the members of the Brotherhood of Evil could still have escaped, or they might have more members dispatched all over the world that we don't even know about. If you'd let us die like that suicidal psycho of a captain wanted the Brotherhood of Evil would still be a threat and, no offence kid, I don't think you can take them on by yourself."
The green skinned boy swallowed and sat up, nodding as he considered Negative Man's words. They made sense. Perfect sense, even. The radioactive man clapped him on the shoulder and got up. "Feel better?"
"Yeah, thanks, Larry."
Lawrence smiled slightly and started for the door, saying one last thing to the kid before exiting the room.
"Don't let Mento get to you. We all love you, Green Bean." With that he was gone, leaving Beast Boy to his thoughts.
. . .
Beast Boy tumbled after Mallah shoved him, body bouncing on the ground. Elastic Girl grew in size and stepped over him, trying to stomp on the gorilla. The Doom Patrol was battling the Brotherhood evil. Again. Beast Boy was starting to get worried. The fight had lasted for hours now and their enemies showed no signs of retreating. Rita was scraped up and her ankle sprained, but she kept on going. Negative Man was visibly straining to go on, and Robot Man was fairing no better. Mento was the least damaged physically, but he was clearly pained mentally.
"Mento, we have to reteat!" the Green Thing shrilly cried in his childish voice, his vision blurring as his transformed into a ram and pushed a soldier away. The mind reader glared at him so sourly that if looks could kill he'd of dropped dead.
"No! We have to keep going." The telepath urged, frowning deeply.
"Gar is right, Mento. We're defeated. To stay is suicide." Negative Man explained impatiently, glancing at Rita for support.
"Perhaps we need to leave and live to fight another day." She said diplomatically, trying to hide the pain she was in.
Their leader exploded in rage. "So what if we're a little tired, we can't give up!" he exclaimed, punching a faceless villain out as he spoke. "We're so close to stopping him, I can feel it. Just one more hour and the Brotherhood of Evil will be no more. We go on. Doom Patrol, attack!"
They'd been so focused on listening that no one saw Mallah until it was too late. The beast pushed Mento to the floor as the rest of the team was overtaken, all accept BB, who'd turned into a rat. Beast Boy felt was world slow down as the gun raised to shoot Mento. He knew he was too weak to change into anything big, so he morphed into himself, a fragile human. It was like he was going in slow motion as Beast Boy launched himself in front of Mento, small body crumbling as the blast hit him full on. Distantly Mento heard someone shriek 'no,' but he could only hear the gurgling coming from Beast Boy as he gasped for air, tiny frame convulsing against the larger man's body.
Mento pushed the boy off him and staggered to his feet.
"Doom Patrol, don't look back!" he shouted, leading them on to take down the Brotherhood of Evil despite Rita's hysterical protests.
The team fought with renewed vigor, taking down Mallah while the Bain escaped. While the battle moved away Beast Boy regained consciousness, smoking body twitching as he pushed himself up, looking around at the smoldering wreckage. In the distance he saw billowing smoke and heard the noise of conflict. They had abandoned him. Mento had left him for dead to peruse the Brain. The crushed youth fought back tears of betrayal, standing tall and proud as he walked toward the horizon. He tore the oppressive mask from him face and threw it to the floor, never looking back.
Authors note: We know Mento is the reason our favorite Green Bean left and joined the titans, but I wanted something more in depth. I don't own Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol, or any characters used in this story. I hope you enjoyed, please review. I may possibly write a squeal, but only if enough people want one.