Disclaimer: No, I don't own Teen Titans.

Chapter 58

"No..." Beast Boy muttered to himself as he shuffled through the discount games bin.

Robin was clear - under NO circumstances were he and Cyborg allowed to get any games more than $10. They were super annoyed, obviously. Beast Boy had spent the first half hour of their game-finding mission collecting all the latest ones - "Mega Monkey EXTREME", "Zombie Apocalypse: The Video Game", "Grand Theft Cruise Ship" - all the best ones he'd been waiting on. But Cyborg was all "Robin said blah blah blah" and took all of them away. Beast Boy had TOTALLY tried to snatch them back, but the chrome-dome held everything way above Beast Boy's head, and he couldn't reach. In addition to the game-spending limit, Robin also had rules about using their powers inside stores because of all the damage they'd caused over the years. A.k.a. Starfire's grocery store massacre (it turned out she was SUPER scared of rats - even of they were green), the bookstore explosion (apparently Raven didn't like being snuck up on by green ravens when she was in the middle of reading), the clothing store catastrophe (who knew regular clothes didn't disappear and reappear undamaged after shapeshifting?). ...Basically just Beast Boy wasn't allowed to use his powers. He followed the rule about 50% of the time. Pretty much only when Robin was around.

Beast Boy glanced over his shoulder at the clothing store across from "Game Pause". Robin was still standing outside, watching him - when he wasn't turning around to try and spot Starfire in the changing room mirror on the far end of the store. He was definitely going to go in with them but Raven was all "NONE of you are going to watch us try on dresses". Beast Boy didn't know why they even went clothes shopping. It wasn't like any of them ever wore anything other than their uniforms. But he guessed Robin and Starfire went to prom that one time, and they took that one vacation to Tokyo where Beast Boy had gotten to wear that sweet Hawaii-inspired button down. He'd looked good, even if Raven hadn't thought so.

Beast Boy stopped staring at Robin and went back to rummaging in the $5-and-below bin.

"Have it, have it, played it, have it, too easy, have it, baby game..." he trailed off, picking up a game clearly meant for elementary-schoolers.

It was one of those ones that was supposed to teach them them math and English using some sort of story-based learning thing. Beast Boy had tried one once - before he'd understood what they were - Cyborg had laughed for weeks. The kids would have enjoyed this though. Maybe not Marie. She might've thought it was babyish. She also knew a lot of words. But maybe the math might've caught her attention. They hadn't really quizzed the kids on math.

Beast Boy sighed. He missed the little guys. And when he remembered, and realized he wasn't thinking about them, then he felt guilty, and even worse than before. So it was, in a super uncomfortable way, almost better to not think about them. But what kind of a parent tries to forget their kids?

He put the game back in the bin.

"Cyyyyyy," he whined, loud enough for the metal dude to hear him, "can't we get one new game?"

"Nope," Cyborg replied from the next bin over, "Robin said-"

"Duuuude, I know what Robin said," Beast Boy walked over to Cyborg, facing Robin and waving at their fearless leader, while he whispered out the side of his mouth, "but he won't know if we just get one teensy-weensy-"

"You know that little control-freak's gonna go through or receipts," Cyborg swatted him away, "and he's right! We gotta stay on budget so we can make up for all the stuff we had to get to rebuild the tower after the ki-" Cyborg stopped himself, his face falling as his frowned at Beast Boy apologetically, "sorry BB."

Beast Boy waved it off. It was easier not to talk about it. Well, he still obviously talked to Raven about it, she was the only other person that missed Marie as much as he did. Well, maybe "miss" wasn't the word... She was Marie's mom anyway. So if anyone should be forced to talk about Marie it was her. It bothered Beast Boy sometimes, that she didn't seem to care as much. He could tell that she tried, but it seemed...kinda fake. Like she was putting on an act for him. But that could just be because she was SUPER upset, and was just trying to hide her emotions and stuff. Sometimes Beast Boy wished he could read her mind. Not be IN her mind, of course. Once was enough.

"Look," Cyborg pulled him back to the present, "maybe we could get one little-"

"Mark!"

Beast Boy's ears snapped up at the familiar sound.

"Mark - wait UP!"

Beast Boy dashed to the front of the store, swiveling his head trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Hey," Cyborg caught up to him, "what's up?"

"Did you hear that?" Beast Boy demanded.

"Hear what?"

"MARKKKKK!"

This time the shout was loud enough for both Titans to hear, and Beast Boy ran towards the sound, Cyborg calling after him, unsure of what was going on.

"You can't catch me!" A little blonde boy cried, running around the food court.

"Yes I can!" A blonde girl ran after him, clearly unable to reach him.

"PFFFFFF" He stopped to blow a raspberry, and the little girl took the pause to rush at him, only for the boy to run away right before her fingers touched him.

"That's enough, children," a similarly blonde woman called, smiling pleasantly behind her sunglasses, "aren't you going to eat your food?"

The woman brandished three packages of chicken nuggets and fries.

"Yummy!" The boy ran towards her, while the little girl snickered and touched him as he ran by. "Hey!" He cried, turning back to her, "NO FAIR!"

"Lunch, now," the woman said, her tone harsher.

"Yes Auntie," the boy pouted, walking over reluctantly.

The girl was in much higher spirits, smiling smugly.

Beast Boy watched them, squinting hard. The voices were SO familiar, and the kids seemed to be the right age, but they were blonde. And Cyborg said it would be super difficult to change their darker hair to blonde with the holorings, right? That was why they were all stuck with black-

"Beast Boy?" Robin laid a hand on his shoulder, "is everything ok?"

Beast Boy jumped at the unexpected touch.

"I think...I mean, I thought..."

"You think now?" Raven said snarkily, approaching him along with the rest of the team.

"Those kids, they look like they're-"

Robin followed his gaze and sighed, shaking his head.

"I know what you're thinking, Beast Boy, but it's not them."

"But-"

"They don't look anything like them."

"But," Beast Boy kept his gaze on the children, "they sound like-"

"Lily!" The little boy cried, causing the Titans to look up, "stop stealing my food!"

"Nobody said it was your food. It's our food."

"No it's NOT!"

"Yes it IS!"

"No it's NO-"

"Children," the woman beside them said sternly, and the kids snapped their attention back to her, "sharing is caring, isn't it? If you run out of French fries, there's no reason we can't get more."

"Really?" They asked in unison.

"Of course," she smiled, "and after we've eaten, each of you may have ONE," she emphasized, "toy."

"I wanna get a video game!" The boy declared, "I'll get a game, and Lily can get the game system!"

"I don't want a game system," the girl responded.

The boy turned to the woman.

"But I can't play my game if I only get ONE toy. You gotta MAKE Lily-"

"Don't make me get something I don't want just because MARK-"

"Children, please..."

Starfire turned away sadly, and walked away, Robin watched after her then turned to Beast Boy and said sadly, "I'm sorry, Beast Boy," he shook his head, "it's not them."

Robin walked after Starfire, and Cyborg watched them go.

"Look, BB, I told you, the blonde holoring color is hard to pull off."

Beast Boy shook his head in defiance, "but Ravager COULD have-"

"They don't even have the same names. You heard them."

"I know that, but Ravager could have brainwashed them, or-"

"Just...stop it, Beast Boy," Cyborg said finally, placing a firm hand on his arm and forcing his attention away, "I know you want to find them, but you're seeing things that aren't there."

"But their voices are-"

"This sounds a lot like..." Cyborg took a deep breath, bracing himself, "Te-"

"DON'T say it," Beast Boy growled, pushing off Cyborg's arm, "I know what I saw! Terra was there. And the kids are right-"

He turned back as he pointed, only to find the table across the food court completely vacant.

"Wait," he looked left, then right, "where'd they go?"

"Come on, BB, you can't just chase them around the mall. And hey," Cyborg tried a vain attempt at lightening the mood, "maybe now Robin'll let us get a few of those new games you were eyeing!"

"Just...just go without me," Beast Boy waved him off, dejectedly, "I'll meet you back at the tower."

Cyborg took a deep breath before walking away, leaving Beast Boy to his thoughts.

"Beast Boy."

"AHHHHHHHH!" Beast Boy jumped, startled by the unexpected noise, "Raven?"

The empath stood beside him, without her usual judgment.

"I think you're right."

/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\

Marie looked over her shoulder as her "Auntie" held her hand, leading them towards one of the mall's many toy stores. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she'd seen a glimpse of green skin and purple hair as they had walked away. She really hoped she did. And if they were there, she hoped they'd heard the name she'd given Ryan.