Hey everyone! Here's chapter 8!
Hope you're enjoying the story still. Please continue to read and review!
Have a nice day! Thank you!
- Hunter :)
Days passed, and the whereabouts of Slade remained unknown.
"He's got to be somewhere! How can he just disappear like this?" Robin yelled at the blank screen, showing no reports of sightings or activity.
"It's gonna be okay, dude. We'll keep searching for him, and we will find him in no time," Cyborg reassured his anxious leader.
For the last few days after they found their young friend, they had taken turns searching the city and surrounding areas, placing specific focus on the wooded areas that Slade had been hiding in recently. They investigated the cave that they had found Garfield in, looking for any evidence that could potentially point them in the right direction, but alas, they found nothing. Slade made sure to leave absolutely no clues this time, and it was working out well for him.
"Are you sure you can't reverse the effects of that machine on Beast Boy? Is there any way at all to do that without the actual machine?" Robin asked.
"I don't think so. There's nothing in his DNA that suggests a 'switch' between ages. No markers or anything that suggests how Slade managed to do it. I'll keep trying, but I think we have to find that machine," Cyborg responded, sounding defeated at his lack of understanding of the machinery used. Cyborg had been studying Garfield's DNA for the last few days, trying to unlock any clues about how it was reversed in the first place, and seeing if he could reverse it back himself.
Just as Cyborg finished up his conversation with Robin, the doors switched open, revealing Starfire.
"Hey Star," Cyborg said upon seeing his Tamaranean friend.
"Good morning, friends!" Starfire responded, cheerful as she always is.
Cyborg and Robin watched the door behind Starfire, expecting Garfield to follow her as he did for all the past mornings, but he was not there. Garfield was still acting very timid around the teens, and although he was becoming much more comfortable around them all, he still took a special liking and comfort towards Starfire. He was almost like her small shadow, following her just about everywhere unless Cyborg or another Titan was accompanying him.
"Where's Gar?" Robin asked upon seeing the boy's absence.
"He is in my room. He is still waking up and requested some alone time. He promised that he would be down shortly," she replied. Starfire flew to the refrigerator, grabbing some native Tamaranean cuisine out of the fridge. "Friends, would you care for some of my homemade Glorkal?"
"No thanks," Robin and Cyborg said simultaneously, a little too eagerly. They cared for Starfire deeply, but her cooking was something that they learned to avoid over the years. Starfire settled herself and her homemade Glorkal at the kitchen table and started consuming the jiggling purple treat while Robin and Cyborg sat down on the couch to watch TV.
Raven quietly made her way down to the kitchen after a session of meditation, and began to brew herself chamomile tea.
"Good morning, friend Raven! Would you like some homemade Glorkal?" Starfire asked her enthusiastically.
"No thanks," Raven responded as she sipped on her steaming chamomile tea.
Soon, the doors to the Main Ops room opened up, revealing a tired looking Garfield. He slowly made his way over to the couch silently.
"Morning Gar!" Cyborg said when he saw his friend. It was still odd for the teens to see their friend as a child, but they were beginning to get used to the idea, at least as used to it as they could.
"Good morning," Garfield responded quietly as he positioned himself onto the couch, away from the others. In another attempt to share her food, Starfire offered some to Garfield.
"Friend Garfield, would you care for some homemade Glorkal?" she asked him, presenting the foreign meal to him. Garfield was unfamiliar with Starfire's food, and didn't automatically decline like his friends did due to a known distaste of it, but nonetheless declined.
"No thank you. I'm not hungry," he responded, surprising the teens.
"Really? You didn't eat last night either. Is everything okay?" Robin asked. Garfield had been eating somewhat steadily when he first came to the tower, but lately, he had been declining food more and more often.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just not hungry," he said, moving his attention to the TV broadcast. The teens took his cue that he didn't want to discuss it further, and went back to their activities. Unfortunately, that didn't last long, for the Titan alarm started blaring in the Main Ops room, staining the room with flashing red. Robin ran to the computer to see what was happening.
"Is it Slade?" Raven asked, joining the other teens who had gathered behind Robin.
"No," he said, disappointed, "it's just Control Freak."
The teens sighed, wishing that they could take their revenge on Slade already, as well as change their friend back to his original form.
"Titans, let's head out," Robin stated.
"But Robin, what about Garfield?" Starfire asked, reminding Robin about the child. They knew that they probably shouldn't leave him alone quite yet. It's not that they didn't trust him, but rather that so many things could happen to a child left alone in a big, unfamiliar home, and they didn't want to risk anything.
"I can stay behind and watch him if ya want. Control Freak isn't too hard to take down," Cyborg offered. Robin thought for a moment before responding.
"Fine. If we need you there, we'll call you," Robin declared. "Okay, Titans, GO!" The three teens headed out.
Cyborg made his way back to the couch. Garfield was still sitting there, staring into space.
"Why did you do that? I don't want to hold you back from your job," he asked, sorry that Cyborg didn't get to engage in the fight because of him.
"It's cool, don't worry about it. Sometimes nice to take a break away from fighting anyway. Besides, I get to hang out with you, which is pretty awesome," Cyborg responded, hoping to lift the young boy's spirits.
Garfield just nodded in response, and stared at the floor. Cyborg noticed his apathy.
"Hey, wanna play a video game? We never got the chance to a few days ago." The boy thought for a moment before slowly nodding. "Awesome! Any game in particular?" Garfield shook his head. "Okay, I'll go get one. Be back in a sec!" Cyborg ran out of the room to get a video game, leaving Garfield alone in the room.
When Cyborg returned a few minutes later with Ninja Monkeys 7, Garfield was still in the same position he was in earlier, with the same distance expression on his face. He was in his oversized jacket, letting the long, thick fabric cover his body in warmth.
"Hey dude, you okay? I got the game; you should really like this one," Cyborg said, knowing that this was one of Beast Boy's favorite games.
"I'm just tired," Garfield responded as Cyborg put the game in, handing the boy one of the controllers.
"Okay, dude. But if you need anything, or just want to talk, I'm here, okay?" Cyborg told him. Perhaps he was really just tired, but something about him made Cyborg feel like it was more than just fatigue. Garfield nodded silently, and the two started to play the game.
The two played the game for about an hour before they ran out of lives. They were pretty silent while playing; Cyborg would make reactive remarks when something good or bad happened in the game, but Garfield just went along with the game without any response. Even when Garfield won, he didn't react.
"Man, you're pretty good at this game," Cyborg said to Garfield, since the boy technically hadn't played it before.
"It was fun," Garfield said, "but I didn't like the monkey that much."
"Why's that?" Cyborg asked. The main monkey in the game was evil, and the goal was to use Ninja monkeys to take down the evil monkey.
"I don't like monkeys that much," the boy responded. Before Cyborg could ask him why, the three Titans walked back into the Main Ops room, returning from battle.
"Hello friends!" Starfire beamed, "how was your morning?"
"Pretty good. We played some Ninja Monkeys 7, and Gar here beat my butt pretty bad. He's got some skills," Cyborg smiled, patting the boy on the shoulder as he took his controller back to the game console. "How was the battle with Control Freak?"
"We also beat the butt! We were victorious!" Starfire responded as she made her way to the couch and sat down.
"Wasn't too hard. He tried to take over a game store this time," Raven said, returning to her cup of tea that she had abandoned earlier.
"He's now in custody, but you know he'll be back in no time," Robin said, settling down on the couch next to Starfire.
"Always is," Cyborg responded. There was a brief silence among the team as they settled back down. Then, Garfield stood up off of the couch.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom," he said before making his departure from the room. As soon as he was out the door and out of earshot, Robin spoke up.
"How was he when we were gone?"
"He was fine. Seemed a little down though, but I'm not sure why. Just not all too talkative still, which is weird. He said something odd though, which caught me off guard," Cyborg responded.
"How so?" Raven asked, joining the teens in one of the nearby chairs.
"After we finished playing Ninja Monkeys 7, I asked him how he liked the game. He said it was fun, but he said he didn't like the monkey. Apparently, he doesn't like monkeys for whatever reason," Cyborg responded, joining Robin and Starfire on the couch.
"That's odd. I thought monkeys were one of Beast Boy's favorite animals," Starfire added, just as confused as Cyborg.
"That's what I thought too, but maybe we were wrong?" Cyborg said.
"Garfield is so much more different than the Beast Boy we know," Robin interjected, "I feel like there's something that he's not telling us. Raven, you said that not only is he physically his six year old self, but also mentally, right?"
"That's right. Why?" Raven spoke.
"Maybe something happened to him recently in his life, something that happened before Slade changed him?" Robin quizzed, trying to work out the questions in his head.
"Is it not possible that the Slade encounter has just made him feel low? He said himself that he scared him greatly," Starfire added.
The evidence of abuse that Slade had done to the boy's body was starting to disappear; his black eye was gone, and the cut on his head was starting to heal nicely. He was finally well rehydrated and nourished, despite his lack of interest in eating.
"Maybe, but I feel like that's not all. I can't tell though," Robin said, just as the doors opened up and Garfield walked back in. The team was silent, not wishing to let the boy know that they were discussing him during his absence. Garfield walked back to the couch, and reclaimed the same position that he was in prior to using the restroom. In an attempt to lighten the mood and lift everyone's spirits, Cyborg spoke up.
"Hey y'all! How about we have some lunch. There's some leftover pizza in the fridge!" he said. The teens nodded, following the robotic teen to the kitchen. Garfield got up and followed as well, sitting with them at the table as they ate their pizza.
It was just a normal cheese pizza, one that Cyborg had gotten from the pizza place that they always celebrated victories at. As the team ate, they joked about Control Freak and the 'battle' that had taken place. They explained to Garfield how Control Freak considered himself to be their arched nemesis, when in reality, he was no threat at all to the teens. Garfield nodded and listened to the teens tell their stories, and responded when he needed to respond, but otherwise nibbled at his pizza in silence.
Raven, who was sitting next to the small green boy, took notice of this. She could sense how distant he was, and she could feel a deep pain emanating from inside the boy. He seemed relatively calm, but troubled nonetheless.
The teens were soon done with their lunch, and Cyborg and Robin took to doing the dishes. Starfire went to go tend to Silkie and give her little Bumgorf a bath. Garfield went back to the couch and sat down, staring at seemingly nothing. Raven walked over to him and stood before him.
"How about you come with me for a moment," she said him, holding her hand out for him, "I want to show you something."
Garfield looked at her hand and then at her face. Her hood was down, exposing her expression. She was calm and serious. Garfield thought that she was very pretty and he wanted to hang out with her more often. He took her hand and she led them out of the Main Ops room.
"Where are we going?" he asked, curious at her sudden approach to him.
"You'll see soon," she responded, not wanting to let him know where they were going quite yet. She led him through the hallways and up to the top floor before stopping at a door. She typed into a keypad next to the door which then swooshed open, revealing the sky before them. She led him outside onto the roof. The sun was high in the sky and it was warm out, the sun tingling their skin. They sat down a few feet away from the edge.
"I like to come out here and mediate. I find it peaceful, and I thought that you would too," she told him.
"It's nice out here," Garfield responded, looking out over the horizon at the city in the distance. It was peaceful for him, to both be out here and to be near her. They were silent for a few minutes; Raven was hovering slightly above the ground meditating while Garfield sat next to her and focused on his surroundings.
"There's another reason why I wanted to bring you out here," Raven said, breaking the silence. Garfield looked at her curiously. "I wanted to talk to you, see how you're doing. You seem to be somewhat upset about something, and I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Garfield moved his eyes away from hers and back to the city and ocean in front of him.
"I'm fine," he said, trying to mask his feelings.
"We both know that's a lie," she said to him, "I don't know if you're aware of the extent of my powers, but I can sense emotions. And I can sense that you are not fine."
Garfield took this new information in silently, letting her words sink in for a moment.
"You know you can talk to any of us, right? We're here to listen, and we won't judge you," she said.
"I know," Garfield said, nodding. They sat in silence for a few more minutes while staring out at the ocean and city before heading back inside. Garfield knew what she said was true; he knew he could talk to them and that they would listen to him. But he didn't know how to talk about how he was feeling. He didn't even understand how he felt, so how could he begin to explain? Besides, explaining would be too painful, and he didn't want to risk being hurt, so he remained silent.
