Disclaimer: I'm not owner of the TEEN TITANS (which belongs to DC Comics and Time Warner Cable company) except for the characters created especially for this fanfic and the story line, I don't do it to get money, I just do it for my fun and yours. (I'm just writing this because if I don't I will have a legion of lawyers knocking at my door.)
A/n: Italics - is for a memory or a flash back not to be confuse with 'Italics' which are thoughts.
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"What's your name?"
"Garfield, but… call me Gar."
Darkness and silence, were the only things in his mind until these words echoed as a flash of a memory of his past filled the emptiness before him, the memory of the inexpressive 7 year old Garfield Logan sat in the couch of that gray painted room, always under the gaze of one guard in an olive green uniform, he had been waiting for an hour, at least it was what he thought when a sudden voice grabbed his attention.
"Logan! You can come in now."
He turned his face towards the source of that voice, there, he could see a young African-American woman wearing a white laboratory robe, long curly hair and a smile on her face calling him from the door at the other side of the room. "Don't worry Logan, you didn't do anything bad, at least not this time." She told him with a grin which Gar returned equally and as he climbed down of the couch and slowly walked towards her, once he was next her, she held his hand in hers and together stepped into the office. As the young woman closed the door carefully behind them, Garfield scanned the room with his eyes like he always did every time he entered to that office. And, like always, he found the same scene. The office was painted gray like all the other rooms in the building with which had a PC phone and many other office implements carefully placed beside of a couple of chairs, at his left Gar observed an small table with a coffeepot and at his right a filing cabinet. This wasn't the first time he had been in that office the past year. Sometimes to receive reprimands for some mischief or for disobeying orders. Other times, to simply talk to him about his academic and physical progress, but this time, he felt that something new was going to happen.
"Private Logan, please take a seat, I have something important to tell you." A tall man in his early thirties, with short blond hair and blue eyes wearing a military style green suit sat on the other side of the desk, said in a deep, clear voice as he typed something in the computer.
"Yes sir!" Gar responded to him dryly and immediately did what he was told. Once the man saw, he continued typing for a couple minutes more and when finally finished shut down the screen and changed his full attention to the little green boy before him as a strange and dark smile appeared on his faced when he saw the expression in Gar's eyes: a mixture of fear and hate towards him, and them.
"Tell me Logan, how long have you being here?" He asked resting his elbows on the desk and resting his chin over his knuckles.
"I think a year sir," He responded never braking his gaze from the man in front of him.
"Yes, a year, and all this time you have been training alone, is that correct, private?"
"Yes sir."
"Well, starting today that will change, listen carefully private, the dear doctor Freeman here has a present..." He said changing his gaze from Gar to the young woman standing behind the boy and then back to him "...I think that it is time to try something new, send the girl!" He ordered through the intercom on his desk and moments later, another guard walked into the office with a nervous black haired girl with him. She looked slightly younger than Gar and was wearing the same kind of white jumpsuit as him. Then the doctor stepped towards them, took the girl's hand and kindly lead her to the chair next Gar. As soon as the young girl took a seat, the man instructed the guard to leave them alone, at which he nodded and immediately exited of the office, once the guard has closed the door the man stood up himself and with a hard expression on his face he told him...
"Private RPCNC01!"
"SIR!" Gar responded and immediately jumped out of his seat taking a firm stance causing the little girl gasp.
"Meet private RPCNB02! From today on she will train, sleep, eat and work with you like a combat unit, she is now your responsibility, do you understand private?"
"YES SIR!"
"Good! Now the doctor and I have to leave for a few minutes, you two will stay here until we'll return and then we'll take you to your new quarters, you will have to take care of her in the meantime, is that clear!"
"CLEAR SIR!" Gar responded remaining his firm stance. Seeming satisfied with the answer the officer, with Dr. Freeman in tow, headed in silence to the exit.
"One more thing..." The man said as he stopped himself momentarily before closing the door.
"Sir?" Gar said as a sweat drop appeared on the back of his head.
"Don't touch my PC like last time, besides, I've changed the Internet access password so this time you won't be able to use it!" Luckily for Gar he was turned so he could not see his face when heard that.
"Yes sir," a non-enthusiastic Gar responded as he drooped his ears. Then the officer closed the door leaving the couple of young kids alone with an awkward silence filling the room. Then Gar took his seat again and, sighing, he directed his gaze to the floor remaining in that position for several minutes, when, suddenly, a sobbing sound snapped him out of his boredom and he turned to face the little girl next him, of whom he saw her little body shake as she tried to wipe some tears off her checks with her left hand.
"Are you OK?" He asked her with a very low voice. "Why are you crying?" Concerned, he asked again but instead of a respond she just shrugged and turned to the other side. "Come on, tell me, why are you crying?" He insisted as he stood up from his chair and began to walk towards her.
"As if you care!" She said without turning her gaze.
"Of course I care!"
"Yes, but just because they told you to!"
"That's not true, I care because I don't like see others cry,"
"Don't be a lair!"
"I'm not lying, don't cry, tell me what's wrong."
"You wouldn't understand."
"What wouldn't I understand?"
Then, the now annoyed girl, thinking that the only way to stop him from bugging her was to answer him, turned to look at him directly in the eyes and after taking a deep breath said "You would not understand how It feels been alone in a place you don't know, how alone it feels to be surrounded by strange people who just tell you what to do, could you understand that!" She yelled at him irritated with tears in her eyes. "If only my mother, or my father, or even one of my pets were with me I would not feel so alone and scared" She concluded in an almost unhearable voice as she returned her gaze to the floor and her sobs became stronger.
"Yes, I know" He simply responded in a very soft tone causing her eyes to widen as the implications of that simple answer sank into her mind, then slowly turned to see the green boy next her but, he wasn't there anymore. Puzzled, she searched around the room but without luck. It was like if he'd simply disappeared.
"Wh-where are you?" She asked and, almost like as if answering her she could feel something wet in her hand. Confused, she turned down and saw a little green puppy licking it. At first she didn't know what to do but then, forgetting everything, carefully picked him up and then began to pet him and, slowly, all of her fears and anguishes dissapeared. Minutes passed, then finally she felt herself more relaxed than she had been in a long time, then, like sensing she was more calm, the little dog jumped off her lap and headed to the other side of the room. "Where are you going?" She asked as she followed him with her eyes but again widened when saw how the once little puppy shift into the form of a little green boy.
"I hope you fell better now," He said, grinning.
"YOU CAN CHANGE OF FORM, YOU MUST BE A FOREST ELF!" She said amazed.
"A what?" He asked arching his eyebrow.
"A Forest Elf! I didn't look at you carefully before so I didn't notice it!" She responded as she walked towards him. "You have pointed ears like me also you can change your shape, but, I never read about an elf with green skin before," she said.
"You mean there are more like me outside?"
"Oh yea!" she nodded "From where I come from all of us have pointy ears."
"Really?"
"Hmmhmm!"
"But, I'm not a elf..."
"No? Well, that doesn't matter, my name is Etain."
"Etain is a pretty name, at least it's better than RPCNB02," At that Etain just giggled when saw Gar perform his best imitation of one of the guards.
"You're funny!"
"And green" Another chuckled escaped from their lips and all the tension and distrust between them dissapeared.
"Should I just call you green elf?" She asked as she gasped for air.
"Huh?"
"Yea, I already told you my name and you didn't tell me yours!"
"My name?"
"Yes, tell me, what's your name?"
"Garfield, but, call me Gar" He responded smiling at his new friend.
"Well, nice to meet you, Gar."
"Nice to meet you too, Etain."
"Beast Boy?"
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"Beast Boy!" A new voice reached his mind as the memory faded and then a blurred silhouette appeared before him. "Beast Boy, are you awake? Can you hear me?" A concerned voice asked him and then his gaze cleared allowing see two beautiful lavender eyes observing him.
"Rae - Raven, is that you?" He asked weakly.
"Thank Azarath! You're awake!" She said smiling and with a tear in her eye. "You never ever do that to me again!" Raven said as she wrapped him in a tight embrace "When I saw you faint like that I was afraid you could be dead!"
"Hey Rae, humm, I'm glad you are happy for me but... where are we? This isn't the med lab. What happened? Are you hugging me!" A confused and blushing BB asked with his head on Raven's shoulder and then she realized what she was doing and quickly unwrapped her arms from around him and resumed her sitting position beside BB's bed.
"I-I'm just glad to see you are better now," She nervously said as she pulled her dark blue cloak over her head and turned to the other side of the room to hide her blush from BB. "How do you feel?" She asked now with her usual monotone voice.
"Well, if you don't count that my head hurts as if I was hit by a brick wall," he said while thinking 'that it's partially true,' "...Also I see sparks every time I breath and my entire body is asking for more morphine... I would say that I'm just glad of to be conscious, at least now I know what's happening around here," He responded as he touched his hands to his bandaged head and ribs as he lazily rested his head on his pillow.
"Well, I would feel the same way if I had two ribs shattered, a severe concusion, and several large bruises. By the way, we are in the hospital and you've been out since yesterday, when the authorities arrived none of us were in the right condition to take you back to the tower, so they brought you here," She said returning her gaze to him.
"Are you okay Rae? The last time I saw you were unconscious," He said turning up to her.
"I'm fine, all of us are fine, I just ache a bit from Cinderblock's squeeze but nothing's broken. Cy just got a few scratches in his armor, and Star and Robin are perfectly fine."
"So in other words, I'm the only idiot who landed in the hospital," He said a little frustrated.
"Don't say that Beast Boy!" She said a little angry and then her gaze softened again, "From what I know, thanks to you, nobody else was severely wounded or killed." Then she took his hand, "You are the only one who finished harmed is not because you made a mistake or was stupid, you are here because somehow you fought alone to try and keep us save and you were willing to pay the price to do it," She continued as a timid smile appeared in her face, "What did you do? I don't know, but I'm happy that you just got here alive and not inside a body bag." She squeezed his hand.
"Thanks Rae," He said in a murmur and then he returned the squeeze with an smile.
"You're welcome," She responded and then they remained, staring at each other in silence for a while, lost in each other eyes until the sound of somebody turning the knob of the door snapped them back to reality and quickly Raven moved her hand away from Beast Boy's and, a little embarrassed turned to see who was walking into the room.
"Yo man! Guys, BB's up!" Cyborg said cheerfully when saw his friend awake and immediately stepped towards the odd couple front him with Robin and Starfire in tow.
"Beast Boy! I see you're better now," Robin said with a smile and an expression of relief on his face.
"Friend Beast Boy! I'm so glad to see you are awake!" Star said and quickly raced towards him and in a single and clean move she lifted him from the bed and squeezed him in one of her infamous deadly hugs and received a panicked look from all the others.
"Thanks... Star... need... air... (crack!)... another... rib... broken... too... much... pain... somebody... call... doctors... painkillers... NOW!"
"STAR! STOP! IF CINDERBLOCK DID NOT KILL HIM YOU WILL!" Raven shouted as Starfire released him and set him back on his bed causing him hit the headboard in the process.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" BB yelled arching his body in pain and both hands on his head when another cracking sound could be heard and then he wrapped his ribs with his arms. "OH THE PAIN! IT HURTS! SOMEBODY STOP THE PAIN!"
"OH GOD, I'M SOOO SORRY BEAST BOY, ARE YOU OK!" Alarmed, Raven said when she realized what was happened and quickly began to nurse him.
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"Ha! Poor guy!" A bald man in a black suit and dark glasses chuckled as he observed what was happening through his telescope set it in a window of a building on the other side of the street when suddenly the ring tone of his cell-phone grabbed his attention and he immediately answered.
"Smith! Yes sir, I'm watching him right now," The man said to the person on the other side of line as he continued observing the scene. "No sir, he's not alone, they are with him right now and the goth one hasn't left him alone for more than five minutes since he arrived... No sir, I haven't seen her yet but I'm pretty sure she's in the city... right sir, as soon as they are together I'll make sure you know... are you sure sir? ... as you say sir," Then he hit the hang up button and returned the phone to his pocket and continued with his surveillance task in silence.
To be continued...
Well, it is done! I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I liked I did writing it, so please send your reviews, remember no flames, but constructive critics are welcome like always, and remember, "an active imagination is the key for a better life." See you soon, bye!
P.S. If you wish, you can also read and review my other Fic, "Blades of Power" in the Kim Possible section, I assure you will enjoy it.
All editing done in this episode was done by Darkdemon3592 (Thx a lot: Dreams-walker)