Disclaimer: It should go without saying at this point, but I need to say it. I do not own, nor have I ever owned the Teen Titans.


Ascension of the Beast

Chapter X

By Any Other Name

"Eh," interjected Beast Boy, "the last time I tried to do something like this and didn't invite Duela, she got so offended that she crashed the party with a group of villains, just to get revenge for being left out. So I think we should probably invite her just so that doesn't happen again."

In the hours since Raven had literally slapped the changeling out of his funk, the two of them had actually been creating a plan regarding how they were going to do something about Lamumba. During the duration of the car ride they were now in the midst of, the two had been discussing possible active, reserve and honorary Titans whose assistance they could request.

Raven considered making a sarcastic crack at Beast Boy's lack of principles, but upon thinking of her own past interactions with Duela Dent, she realized and simultaneously replied "yeah, that's probably a good idea." The Titans knew next to nothing about the sometimes heroine/sometimes villain who variously (and dubiously) claimed to be the daughter of either the Joker or Harvey Dent, but there was a predictable pattern to her actions. Duela's primary motivation in life seemed to be working with the Titans. If the Titans included her in something, she would be happy enough and do her part. If, however, she felt excluded by the Titans, she had a tendency to act out. Whatever the girl's origins were, she often seemed to be absolutely insane; but, unlike the terrifying supervillain she sometimes claimed was her father, Duela's was an easily-managed insanity.

However, Raven was not particularly keen on planning at this particular moment, during which she should surely have been focusing most of her attention on driving. She may have gotten Garfield out of his funk, but he was still acting a lot more serious than her Beast Boy, and, as much as this Garfield seemed to be an improvement over his normal ever-happy, annoying self, she recognized that his happy-go-lucky attitude was necessary as a part of his defense mechanism against his traumatic memories, and she didn't really want to have to deal with helping him through a nervous breakdown in two or three weeks.

"We should add Bette to the list too," said the changeling, "I think her acrobatic skills and martial arts know-how can really help make up for Rob's absence."

'Great,' Raven thought sarcastically, 'another skinny blonde'. Gar had never indicated any sort of romantic interest in the Dark Knight's distant cousin. Ever since he had met the blonde, he had shown only a platonic interest in her. But, as far as Raven's suspicious mind was concerned, he didn't have broadcast a romantic interest. He was presently single and, although his romantic history was nearly as short as her own, it was consistent on two counts—both Tara Markov and Jillian Jackson had been natural blondes with thin figures. Her suspicion that he had an eye toward making Bette Kane number three on the list had a strange effect on Raven emotionally. She couldn't (or didn't really want to) identify the precise emotion at play, but it filled her with a cocktail of feelings of inadequacy, sadness and anger, among others; as though Timid and Rage were co-hosting a rave for Nevermore's more negative emotions. Nevertheless, she labored as hard as she could to maintain her stoic presence.

It was becoming an interesting drive, though, as Raven still did not know up from down as far as Los Angeles was concerned. She normally would have let Garfield drive under these conditions, but she chose to keep their destination a secret from him. Also, there was he matter of the alcohol he had ingested earlier in the day; he was pretty sober now—if she had to guess, she would suppose his BAC was probably around .005 to .010 by this point (the experience of having aided the JCPD and CHP on many occasions in the past was paying off in her ability to guess roughly how drunk a person was), which was well below the point of any observable impairment—but as superheroes they were celebrities with role-model status, and it surely would not have gone well for it to be discovered that Beast Boy had consumed any alcohol under the age of 21.

It was becoming clear, however, that it was also a mistake for her to drive—or, more appropriately, to do so whilst Garfield was distracting her. She had consulted Google to get directions to the intended destination—a night club where she was sure Garfield could have fun and she could find someplace to hide in the shadows if necessary. But she was beginning to suspect that she had missed a turn and had ended up off the map she'd printed. Talking and listening to Beast Boy about these plans had divided her attention just enough that it was entirely within the realm of possibility that the turn could have been missed as long as a half hour before.

After another three blocks, she decided to cut her loses and improvise to find a new destination. The restaurant she found another two blocks down the street seemed nice enough from the outside. It appeared to be a small 'mom and pop' place, with a very friendly vibe. However, no sooner did they open their menus than did Beast Boy discover a problem.

"Uh, Rae," he said in a quiet, nervous voice he'd used with her so often before. The same quiet voice he'd use when he was afraid of offending her. She normally would have corrected him that her name was Raven, but, whether it was that she was so relieved to find a sign that her Beast Boy was still in there, or if she had just stopped feeling offended by his use of that particular pet form, she did not even think to do so. "They don't have a vegetarian menu." To be honest, he was afraid of offending her; he didn't know that she'd actually gotten them lost and chosen this restaurant as their destination on the fly, and he certainly didn't want her to feel like he didn't appreciate her bringing him out of the house somewhere.

Raven carefully, but somewhat frantically, searched the menu. 'Great, I've chosen the only restaurant in the Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area that doesn't have vegetarian options', she thought to herself, after confirming that the changeling was right. Even the salads seemed to be a no-go, as it seemed all of the salads on the menu contained animal products.

"Hello, may I take yo...wait, aren't you Beast Boy and Raven of the Teen Titans?" the waitress said, forgetting the business she was supposed to attend to as soon as she recognized the pair.

"Uh...yeah," Raven said hesitantly, but on the inside she was thinking 'nooooo, I'm Santa Clause and he's my elf'. "And I think we're ready to order," she added, which immediately elicited a questioning look from her verdant companion. "We'll take two Caesar salads, but hold the egg yolks in both. He'll have a Coke, and I'll have tea," she said in an assertive tone. The look on Beast Boy's face silently communicated his approval—he'd spent much of the past four years trying to show her that he knew her better than she thought, now it was her turn.

"Would you like any chicken with that?" asked the waitress, apparently unaware of Beast Boy's notoriously vegan diet. It was more understandable that she would be ignorant of Raven's own vegetarianism, considering even most of the Titans never seemed to notice that she didn't eat meat. Beast Boy appeared, in fact, to be the only one, although that gave him an open door to offer her tofu on several occasions, which she always turned down because the fake meat was too much like real meat in its form. Besides, she preferred a natural diet; she didn't need vegetable matter that had been processed to resemble animal matter, when she could just eat fruits and vegetables that looked like damn fruits and vegetables.

"No," both Titans answered, as politely as the single-word response could be uttered. It took special effort for Raven. 'No, I just took five minutes trying to decide upon a meat-free option because I wanted meat' she thought to herself as her eye began to twitch subtly. She was trying really hard not to show what she was thinking, though, as she was sure that this poor waitress was probably being paid less than minimum wage, and she had to admit that she would herself not be entirely present if she were in the waitress's position either.

Barely a moment after the waitress left with their order, Beast Boy momentarily excused himself to make use of the restroom—they had been driving around for quite a while before they arrived at the restaurant, and nature was bound to call eventually. Raven did not consciously register as her attention focused on her companion as he walked away, and the lapse in her awareness of her surroundings allowed someone else to take a seat next to her without her noticing.

"Hey, Raven," said the visitor, to which Raven's immediate response was to recoil in shock; the shock also causing her powers to detonate a salt shaker which had theretofore been sitting on the table. The person in the seat next to Raven was a white-haired and blue-eyed young female who stood approximately 5'4" in height and weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 115 pounds. Luckily for said individual, Raven instantly recognized her as the shock wore off.

"Rose," the dark empath said in a tone which belied her irritation. "You should never sneak up on me," she added in a mildly threatening tone, which communicated the general idea of 'I'll spare you for now, but you're not going to like the consequences if you ever do it again'. In all honesty, Raven had a little bit of a soft spot for Rose, considering an eerie piece of common ground they shared. Trigon the Terrible and Slade Wilson, two of the Titans' worst enemies, each only had a single daughter—Raven and Rose, respectively.

In spite of their villainous fathers, both girls ended up becoming capable and loyal Titans, even if Raven tended to isolate herself socially and Rose, who had chosen to remain in the reserve column of the Titans' organization in spite of being invited to join the Jump City team full time, tended to isolate herself professionally, working as a mercenary for hire to various governments who needed temporary protection from metahuman threats. Also, each of them had managed to develop unlikely friendships with green, shape-shifting Titans, who both had a tendency to unintentionally irritate them in the course of failed attempts at being humorous.

Of course, there were some significant differences between Raven and Rose. Raven was a demi-demoness whose skill in using dark powers typically precluded the need for physical combat, while Rose primarily relied upon her skill in physical combat, being a martial artist on the same strength level as her father and Dick Grayson. But a more immediately important difference was that, while Raven's empathic powers permitted her to know what emotions most people were feeling, Rose went a bit further in being able to get inside of others' heads. The fifth Ravager was by this point every bit as capable of reading people as her father was, and what she was reading in Raven before she knew Rose was there was quite interesting.

"So," the white-haired girl began, "what's new with you and BB?" Rose's face bore a mischievous smirk; she was not a core Titan, but she knew Raven well enough to know that she wouldn't stare holes through someone in whom she'd only had a platonic interest.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the dark empath understood what Rose was insinuating, and wasn't very pleased with it. "We're friends, he gave me a place to live, I've been helping him through some problems lately, that's it."

"So, that's why you were just staring at him like a lioness eyeing an antelope?" Ravager's comment prompted Raven's eyebrows to furrow in frustration. "Don't feed me bullshit, Raven."

"You're way off base, Rose," the demi-demonness's voice was beginning to relay an irritated tone. "I mean, sure, he's not nearly as hard on the eyes as I've implied in the past, and I'm beginning to realize we have a lot more common ground than I previously thought, but Gar and I are just friends, nothing more!" After a moment, Raven continued in a subdued voice "besides, I'm not saying that I have feelings for him or anything like that, but I'm not his type. Think about it Rose, you've seen photos of Terra, and you've seen Jillian...he likes anorexic blondes."

"Yeah," Rose said in almost a laugh, "that he always seems to be concerned about you in battle, he's always made it a mission to make you smile, and he bends over backward to keep you around him...none of these things show any interest at all." After a moment, she dropped the sarcasm. "And, you know Rave, when it comes to being thin, you don't exactly have much body mass to yourself either. I mean, I'm just a hair above the limit between a normal BMI and an underweight one, and you're an inch taller than me and like five pounds lighter. And, I'm not trying to come onto you or anything, but, unlike those girls, you still manage to be that light without being a stick—you've got the right curves in the right places, plus you've got, like, a perfect pair of tits. When it comes down to physical attractiveness, you have all those girls beaten...imagine all of the fanboys who probably think of you when they wack off. And, you know, dark is sexy."

"A little inappropriate for a public conversation, Rose," Raven replied, blushing and wishing she wasn't in civilian clothes, so she could pull her hood up. "But, attractiveness is very subjective. I know I'm attractive to some boys, but that doesn't mean he finds me attractive. And you still didn't address the blonde thing."

"What's there to address? Sure, Jillian was a natural blonde, but that doesn't matter too much with how often she dyes her hair. Pink, blue, red...and, now that I mention that, what do you get when you mix those colors?" Both girls dropped the conversation at pretty much that moment, as they saw Beast Boy emerging from the restroom. If he were most people, he'd still be out of earshot for whispering for another minute or two, but, with his advanced senses, it was extremely difficult to say anything without him hearing.

"Rose Wilson?" Beast Boy said as he noticed the guest sitting next to Raven. "When did you get here?"

"She snuck up on me about a second after you left the table," Raven replied for her.

"I always stop at this place when I'm passing through LA," Rose noted. "If you ask me, they've got some of the best cooks in the city, outside of expensive, high class joints."

"Well, what brings you to the City of Angels?"

"Passing through. I'm leaving the country tomorrow—picked up a nice-paying contract—and my flight'll be out of LAX."

Suddenly, Raven's communicator went off. "Vic? What's up?" the dark empath answered.

"It'd probably be a good idea if you got somewhere private," the voice on the other end replied. Raven quickly glanced at Rose, then to Garfield.

"When the food arrives, let them know I'll be back," she told the changeling before rising and heading outside, on a course bringing her in the direction of the car.

"So, what's going on between you two?" Rose wasted no time in seeking out Garfield's position on the situation, hoping that his answer would be more interesting than Raven's. "And don't give me any crap about not being interested in her. Everyone except for Raven knows that you've been crushing on her since day one."

"There's nothin' to it, really," Beast Boy replied, as a frown began to form on his face. "She'll never be interested in me as anything other than just a friend. So, we're just friends."

"Well," Rose paused for a moment trying to decide upon a suitable response, "why don't you think she would like?"

"Well, I don't know," he replied in a sarcastic tone. "Maybe because I annoy the crap out of her. Or maybe I'm too stupid for her. Or maybe I'm nothing like her. Take your pick. Either way, I'm not her type. She'd never be attracted to a stupid, obnoxious green freak like me!"

Now this was entertaining. Beneath Raven's denial of feelings for Beast Boy were doubts that he'd ever have romantic feelings for her. Meanwhile, Beast Boy's doubts that Raven would ever have feelings for him were the cause of his unwillingness to reveal his feelings to the dark empath. It took all the effort Rose could muster to refrain from laughing at this situation, but she felt an odd sense of pity for them both, but especially for Garfield.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up," she began, "maybe I could make it up to you?" Beast Boy did not know what to think of the mischievous grin on her face.


Author's Notes
I'll take the time to make a note on Rose Wilson's eyes. Since this story bases itself on the one hand off from the continuity presented in the regular comics, and on the other hand from the continuity from Teen Titans and the Teen Titans Go! comics, it is thus possible for Rose to have either one or two eyes. In this particular continuity, I have decided that Rose never gouged her eye out, following from her appearance in the Teen Titans Go! comics; so she has both eyes.

I noted in this chapter that Bette Kane is Bruce Wayne's distant cousin. This is a complex matter, but it seems to be canon. Of course, Bette Kane is the daughter of an unnamed brother of Jacob Kane (Kate Kane's father), making her Jacob Kane's niece and Kate Kane's first cousin. It can be inferred based on the presence of a photo of Jacob and his daughters which appears in Philip Kane's loft (Philip Kane being Bruce Wayne's maternal uncle), that Martha Kane Wayne and Jacob Kane had a common ancestor, thus making Bruce Wayne a cousin to Kate Kane (and by extension Bette Kane). The exact consanguinity there is unknown, although it can probably be figured that they're not likely to be any closer than maybe third or fourth cousins, with possibly a generation or two removed.

Also, very early in the chapter, Duela Dent (who's also known by the names "Harlequin" and "Joker's Daughter" in the comics) is mentioned. For those who don't really know the character, she's basically a traveler from another universe who was apparently the daughter of the Jokester (her universe's analogue to the Joker, except the Jokester is actually a hero in that universe) and Evelyn Dent (a gender-flipped analogue to Harvey Dent). However, the only character mentioned in this story thusfar who would know the slightest thing about Duela's origin is Duela herself. Her origins were not revealed in the comics until after one of the Monitors charged with protecting the integrity of the multiverse hunted her down and killed her for being a multiversal anomaly.

Anyhow, I originally intended for the story content of this chapter and the following chapter to be one chapter, but I saw the opportunity for a cliffhanger and took it. Sorry about how long it took before I made this update, too—hopefully I'll post the next one sooner.

Isali Shade-Thanks. I'm glad you're digging the story so far. Hope this chapter is still to your taste. I'll be honest that, in stories that don't center on Cyborg, he can tend to be a bit of a third wheel, but I decided early on with this story that I wanted him to be certainly more prominent in the story than, say, Dick and Kory (although, those two will be making occasional re-appearances in the story, and will end up throwing Gar and Rae quite a curve ball at some point). To have a BBRae-centric story with Vic as just a minor background character doesn't really work so well IMO, considering his especially close big brother/best friend relationships with both of the leads; so, yeah, I think he should be a pretty prominent supporting character.

McDiggity-Thanks, I'm glad you're liking the story, and hope it continues to remain awesome for you.

Annatheavidreader-I'm currently thinking that either Chapter XIII or Chapter XIV will be set during Bruce's wedding reception, so not too long now. I'm hoping that Chapter XI will be the last of the chapters occurring during its particular weekend in the story's timeline; this has been the ninth chapter to occur within the same two-day period in story...I think I'm getting kinda slow.

JOHNXgambit-I agree 1000%. I especially didn't like their treatment of Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy could have easily gone back to the Doom Patrol if he didn't have any other options, so there really wouldn't have been any situation that would have forced him to become a circus attraction. And Raven going insane just seems like a horrible attack against introverts; I mean, seriously, she's one of the sanest people in the entire series, and if loneliness after the Titans split up sent her to emotional destruction, she could have easily stayed with Cyborg to maintain a rump Titans team (and recreated the Titans with new additions), or she could have went to the Doom Patrol with Beast Boy, or she could have been Nightwing's sidekick—although I don't really think she should be anyone's sidekick, and I'm not personally a fan of the RobRae angle.

JasonVUK-I was actually worrying if I might have gone a little overboard, but I figured since I could get there without a lot of conjecture separating that point from the canon, it's realistic enough lol

Hairul The Nightrage Beast-But, remember, Dick Grayson is on Tamaran with Starfire, incommunicado for the time being (well, at least until Bruce Wayne's wedding comes up).


Audience Participation
I've decided to let the readers help me out with a few points (this'll be the first one) that I'm having difficulty deciding. Basically, I'm asking you for your opinions. This will not be a poll, however, as I'll mainly be looking for the rationales that make the most sense and seem the most interesting to me.

So, without further adieu, the first such point will be such: It's already been made somewhat clear in the preceding chapter that there's interest in Upper Lamumba in making Garfield their King. What should his reaction be? Should he take the throne? Should he refuse it? Should he momentarily take it and abdicate as soon as the crisis is over? Why?

Incidentally, this is a point where you, the readers, will be able to influence a major part of where the sequels will be going.