Author's Note: I have been receiving some awesome reviews for my story...and I'm glad that everyone likes it so far. I hope I can kep delivering excellant chapters. By the way, the song that I will be using in this one is called "No Brains" the song is by Sum 41. Whew...I'm doing a lot of typing between this story and my CowBoy Bebop one...check it out some time. And yes, I'm a shameless advertiser for my work. .
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Can't step in my way
Head first and love and dismay
It's like beating the dead
I can't stop going out on my head
Whatever this could be I never know
I never said it'd be the end all to be all
I hate you today
I can't find a way
Don't drag me down now
Good-bye...
-Beast Boy-
Beast Boy took a long drag on my cigarette before casting it away...watching it land on the ground without a sound...the embers flying in every direction. I really should stop smoking...but it's become to me like chocolate is to depressed girls. Beast Boy had changed during the year that Terra had been...in that stone. He had stopped being friends with the Titans...he'd moved out of the Tower...he had grown taller than he had previously thought. He'd helped his body fill out more by punishing it with grueling work-outs everyday. Curing Terra meant everything. Now he wore only one color: Black...but that didn't really count as a color did it? It was the absence of color...the absence of life. Black was pregnant with possibilities...pregnant with despair. He'd even gotten a few tattoos. Beast Boy was growing up...much faster than any of his friends. But not because it it just happened. He was forcing himself to mature...to become more and more responsible because he hadn't a clue what Terra would be like if she ever woke up. Don't use if...it sounds so negative. Yeah well I haven't exactly been Miss Mary Sunshine lately...can ya blame me?
Eyes were set upon the darkening road ahead as the first whiff of something wrong finally greeted his senses...he was heading towards Terra's place of imprisonment. Running a hand through his hair...streaked now with black...an experiment that had at first looked wrong until StarFire fixed it for him. Yeah, he still talked to Star...sometimes. Lips were quirked downward as his pace began to quicken into a brisk walk...the walk turning into a trot...and the trot to a full-out run. Panic tore at his heart like a rabid beast, snarling at him that something was wrong and that he had to get to Terra right away. I'm comin' Terra! I'll protect...you. Breath catching in his throat he dove into the chamber that held her, scrambling to his feet he ran forward but stopped...his eyes wide and sightless as he fell to his knees in shocked defeat.
She wasn't there. Shards of her statue were everywhere...everywhere...littering the ground were shards of a broken girl. All the glue in the world couldn't put her back together. He couldn't fix it...why was he so useless? The cigarette fell from his lips and anger coursed through him as he hung his head, his shoulders heaving as his grief poured from him...finger tips touching a shard of her face...a piece that held her eyes. Staring at them he brushed his tears away and placed a reverent kiss on the cold stone. The others must have done this...but I can't believe they'd...his thoughts became disjointed as jagged sobs shook his body once more. Never once noticing the hole in the roof that led out to the sunlight. Folding in on himself like a rag doll he vowed with every word that he would gain vengence for Terra. Terra...Terra...wherever you are...I'm so sorry that...that I failed.
"TERRA!!!"
Meanwhile...
-Terra-
No one would tell me what happened to Beast Boy...or even where he was. And I was much too weak to complain or protest and demand to know why Beast Boy wasn't with them. Some excuse, eh? I knew that as I roared upward and out of the Earth that I was over-exerting myself once more but I wasn't dangerously doing so. I had to save my friends. Yes, I still thought of them as my friends even though I had denied it before. After I was finished I could see Cyborg and Robin staring at me...and for the first time I realized that I didn't have any clothes on. I felt heat rushing to my cheeks as they turned their backs...and surprise as Raven and StarFire came forward and covered me with their cloaks. Why were they so kind to me? What had I done to deserve this treatment? Tears made trails down my cheeks as Cyborg carried me back to the Tower...my eyes were so heavy that I couldn't help but fall asleep...when I awoke StarFire and Raven were hovering about me with worried expressions.
I tried to lift and arm but my body felt so heavy...as though I was trying to emerge from water where my limbs were so weightless...where gravity did not exist. My eyes were open...and I could see them...but they didn't notice that...they were talking to each other in hushed tones, as though I were on my deathbed. Was I? Had I only broken out to die? I hoped not...I prayed not. I wanted to see sunshine again...and Beast Boy...and the rest of the Titans. I wanted to know what they thought of me...if I was still worthy. I was tired of not following my heart and letting someone else think for me...I was so angry that I had let Slade control me...so angry that I ...no...calm down. I don't want them in danger...
"Where is...Beast Boy?"
Raven and StarFire traded worried looks and I felt my heart beat quicken...what had happened? Had Beast Boy...no...he couldn't have.. My eyes searched their face for an answer...any answer. My lower lip trembled...I was going to cry again. I wrenched my arms up and covered my face with my hands...whispering in a broken voice, "He's dead isn't he? I...I...did I kill him when...what happened? Why isn't he here?" The edge of hysteria was biting into my voice and oh how I despised it but...Beast Boy...the thought of him dead made my heart sick. How I wished he was here...but they weren't telling me anything...their eyes just seemed to sad and...well...I...I just couldn't take it anymore.
"Please...I have to know...what...happened...to Beast Boy? You have to tell me...I have to know...I have to know..." Tears spilled down my cheeks...the salty bitterness stinging me...making me wince a little.
StarFire shook her head and my despair heightened until she spoke, "He has left us, Friend Terra...he has gone out on his own into a darkness I do not understand. He...he is alive...I believe but he left us here...he is out now...on the streets somewhere...I do not know where he is now...only where he has come to dwell--" She hesitated a moment and glanced uncomfortably down at her hands..wringing them slightly as Raven took up where she left off.
"He has changed, Terra. Ever since you've been in that stone he's done nothing else but search for cures...for you. He wanted you out of there...and soon his searching got in the way of helping others...so he left. He won't come back...only StarFire goes to see him now." Her gravelly voice broke a little...the downcast mood that surrounded them was almost too much to bear....too much.
"Can you take m--" A roar filled the air...shaking..shaking...splitting my head open with it's angry sound. StarFire flew out the back dazed as Beast Boy's angry scream shooed her back in. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO TERRA!? WHY DID YOU BREAK HER!? WHY..." The barest sounds of Robin's foot steps and the thunder claps that belonged to Cyborg resounded as they ran towards the angry changeling that had taken on the form of a prehistoric monster that looked oddly like something from StarFire's home planet of Tamaran.
"Beast Boy...BEAST BOY!" Voices...StarFire had gone to him...I called his name but it was lost in the shouting...my vision was blurry as I slowly wiped the tears away...they were dragging him here but he was wrecking things. I heard glass smash and angry voices....they were pushing him in here...
Curling up in the embrace of the blankets my vision flickered when I saw him...he had changed...but that dumb-founded look that laced his vision was not all to unfamiliar. He stood there in the doorway and I stirred restlessly...trying to shrink and hide. "Hello...Beast Boy..."
