Ch. 5: Moving On
"Good evening, Jump City. This is the 6:00 News. I'm your anchor, Bethany Snow. Our top story tonight: The trial of alleged criminal mastermind Slade Wilson has come to a close. After a month of testimony, the jury is about to return with its verdict. We go live now to our correspondent, Chris King."
"Thanks, Bethany. I'm here at the Jump City Criminal Court, where Slade Wilson has been charged with multiple counts of assault, destruction of property, and general mayhem, after his apprehension by the Teen Titans. Wilson is allegedly responsible for several attacks, including the incident two years ago in which Terra, Overload, Cinderblock, and Plasmus conquered the entire city. In fact, there are rumors that he was allegedly responsible for bringing about the Apocalypse; but, well, since we're clearly all still here, there's no way to prove it."
"Never thought I'd see the day," Raven said, smiling, as she watched the proceedings.
"Speaking of seeing, you'd think Robin would've been glued to the TV waiting for this," Cyborg replied. "But he's barely even mentioned Slade since we caught him. Guy's acting weird even for him."
"I too worry," Starfire said. "He has been silent and... standoffish? Is that the word? He has been spending all his time training, obsessively."
"And an obsessed Robin is a SCARY Robin," muttered Raven. "I'm gonna go see if I can talk some sense into him."
Robin's fists pummeled the punching bag, chalk dust billowing with each punch and kick.
Raven watched him as she drifted in. It was almost like poetry, only the words were impacts.
His trademark costume was nowhere in sight; Robin was dressed in a simple gi, a black belt knotted around his waist. Padded gloves protected his hands. This, by itself, was unusual. What made things even odder, though, was this; for the first time since she'd met him, Robin wasn't wearing his mask.
"So, does the punching bag owe you money or something," she deadpanned. Always open with a joke. It makes forcing a stubborn macho-man to talk about his feelings a little easier.
"Oh, hi," he said, turning. "I didn't hear you come in."
"You couldn't hear Elephant Man come in over that racket. So... this is a new look for you."
"Yeah..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I just didn't feel like wearing my costume. It... kinda doesn't fit anymore."
"Yeah, well, they're about to announce the verdict in the Slade case." She leaned in, conspiratorially. "Come on up. You KNOW you wanna."
"Nah, I'm good." Robin returned to his bout with the punching bag.
"Okay, spill it, Robin. What's going on? You've been obsessing about Slade from the minute you first heard his name, and now the guy's in custody and about to be sentenced and you're suddenly 'Yeah, whatever.' You're gonna talk to me about your feelings right now."
"That's the thing, Raven. I don't feel ANYTHING. It's like... I thought my life was leading up to something. And then it happens, and I'm barely even involved." Robin rubbed the back of his head, the nervous energy within him barely contained within his veneer of normality. "It was Terra. Again." A deep sigh. "I didn't unravel his plot, I kind of... watched as it unraveled itself."
"And it's left you feeling unfulfilled."
"...yeah, that's exactly it. Unfulfilled. And I also feel like, now that this is over, there's nowhere for me to go."
"Really. So, you have no direction in your life now?"
"I think that's what I just said, yeah."
Raven groaned. "Ever consider that maybe, just maybe, none of this has anything to do with Slade?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... you're turning 18 in a month and a half. You're practically an adult. And now, on top of THAT major milestone, this happens. You're at a crossroads, and you need to decide what you want to do with your life."
"Maybe you're ri-"
"BOO-YAH!" erupted Cyborg's voice over the intercom, cutting Robin off.
"And, I'm guessing that's a guilty verdict," deadpanned Raven. "NOW are you sorry you missed it?"
"Yeah," admitted Robin. "I am. A little closure would ha-" He snapped his fingers. "That's what I need. I need real answers, straight from his mouth. Tomorrow morning, I've got a date with Slade."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "Starfire's gonna be really jealous."
Jupiter Orphanage
Northern Jump City
At the desk in a room she shared with two other wards of the state, Tara Smith (nee Wilson) stared at her laptop's screen. Her counselor had suggested starting a MyPlace page as a form of therapy. Every night, she was supposed to update her online journal with her latest feelings.
Too bad she didn't have any.
Ever since the night she'd defeated Slade, it had been like a fuse had blown inside her. She didn't feel depressed, or angry, or scared, or... much of anything. She desperately wanted to; it's just that the capacity wasn't there.
It wasn't like the Jupiter Orphanage was a terrible place. A far cry from the Dickensian image the word orphanage conjures up, Jupiter was a modern, well-maintained facility, with a kind staff, clean bathrooms and broadband internet access in every dorm. All this was thanks to the institution's eponymous benefactor, Loren Jupiter. Loren had originally made his fortune in the oil industry, but in his later years had embraced environmentalism and had parlayed his fortune into alternative energy research and philanthropic works.
There were no more than three kids to a room in Jupiter. Tara shared hers with Bette, an overachiever if there ever was one (and nurser of a monster crush on a certain Boy Wonder), and Duela, a hyperactive teenage prankster (and merciless mocker of Bette's crush on Robin).
Tara thanked the fates that she looked so ordinary that neither connected her with Terra. She didn't think she could take being badgered by Bette for inside gossip or being the target of Duela's jokes.
Finally giving up, she logged off her computer and relocated to the window, staring out at the grounds. As she looked out upon the greenery, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something. A closer look revealed nothing, but could have sworn that she saw a squirrel.
A green squirrel.
That was close, Beast Boy thought as he scurried across the branch. Terra had almost seen him that time.
Part of him knew he shouldn't be doing this. But he just couldn't help it; he was worried about her. All alone, nobody to talk to (except for that Robin-obsessed blonde and the crazy redhead). He felt as though, by watching over her, he was protecting her somehow.
Still, tonight, he'd cut it too close. As he scurried down the tree's trunk and across and off the orphanage grounds, he resolved to himself to use a different form next time. Maybe a hummingbird, or a mosquito...
"You realize that what you're doing is considered stalking."
The raspy voice came out of nowhere, and startled Beast Boy back into human form.
"Hey, what's the big id—" Beast Boy trailed off as he saw the speaker. He looked as though he'd sprouted from the darkness itself... tall, muscular, yet somehow graceful. Clad in black and grey, with a long scalloped cape that billowed around him as if it was an extension of his body. The twin peaks on his mask and the logo on his chest were unmistakable.
"...you're..." Beast Boy managed to stammer.
"I need to talk to you about your friend Terra," the dark figure began, not one to make small talk.
"Uh... sure... okay..." stammered Beast Boy, still suffering from severe awestruckness.
"Her real name is Tara Markov. She's a lost descendent of the royal family of Markovia, a small nation in the Balkan Alps."
Despite still being starstruck, this latest bit of information snapped Beast Boy out of his temporary paralysis. "Royal fa—you're kidding, right?"
"Do I look like someone who kids?" the masked man rasped, glaring.
"...guess not. Um... so... why do you need me?"
"Tara has a brother who's very eager to meet his long-lost sister. I was asked by a mutual acquaintance to get in touch with her, but I have a feeling she'd take the news better from you." He handed Beast Boy a folder. "All the information is in here. If she asks for proof, show her."
"Uh, thanks... sir..."
"One more thing..." He handed a smaller envelope over. "Make sure Robin gets this. Tell him... I'm proud of him."
"Will do, sir!" Beast Boy said eagerly as he began to thumb through the folder. Looking back up, he started to say "Thank you!"
But the man in black was gone.
The Slab
"Looks like your papers are all in order, Mr. Grayson," the guard said as he allowed Robin to pass. "Wow. Not many people get special permission to visit a prisoner they're not even related to. And from Judge Chase himself."
"Yeah, imagine that." Robin said, as he was escorted into the prison, the guard following closely. Today, he was wearing an unusual uniform... blue sportsjacket and slacks, black turtleneck, and sunglasses. He felt vulnerable in this mundane attire, exposed... weakened.
He was led down into the maximum security block... on his way, he passed someone being escorted out. Something was familiar about the teen's blond curls and muttonchop sideburns, He could quite place where he'd seen him, though.
"All right, kid... this is it. You have ninety minutes with the prisoner."
Taking a deep breath, Robin eased into the chair provided. Sitting opposite to him...
"Hello, Robin."
...this man could not possibly be Slade.
"Richard," corrected Robin.
His armor was gone, replaced by standard prison orange. His beard had been shaved off during the trial, and was only now beginning to grow back. A black patch covered his ruined right eye. It wasn't just the lack of costume, though. He looked... well... old.
"Well, first of all, I suppose congratulations are in order. I'm no doubt going to be here for a while. And when I finally DO get out, I'll probably be far too old to resume my criminal career. So... You've won."
"Gee, thanks," Robin said sarcastically.
"I suppose you're here for an explanation."
"I'd appreciate it, yes."
"Where should I start?"
"At the beginning."
"Yes. My son. Grant Wilson."
"AKA the Ravager. One of the first villains we fought after the group formed."
"He died during your encounter, didn't he."
"And you blamed us."
"Wouldn't you?"
"It wasn't us. The medical examiners proved that he died as a side-effect of the experimental steroids that gave him his powers."
Slade nodded, a bit sadly. "I know that now." He took a deep breath. "I never was a good father. Grant was the only one of my children who still acknowledged me. And when he was gone... it severed the last thread I had to something resembling a normal family. So... I became obsessed with getting it back. First with the twins, Thunder and Lightning... then you, then Terra. All of this has been at its core, an attempt to be a father again."
"How did you cure Terra?"
"Simple... I didn't. Terra was dead the instant she was petrified. But, traces of her DNA were still present, and I was able to clone her. As for her personality... her brain-patterns were crystallized. I was able to extract them and encode them into my clone's neural pathways."
"So... wait a minute. Why did you bother to encode her memories if you didn't want her to remember the past?"
"A bit of a lazy shortcut, I'm sad to admit. Without it, I would have had to manually re-educate her... not just academics, but how to speak, feed herself, everything. This was, I was able to bypass all that; I overlaid a set of false memories of her life with me over that. It wasn't a perfect solution, of course... she had to regularly take special pills to keep her true memories suppressed, as well as her powers neutralized."
"And all of this was..."
"A sad attempt to get a second chance at fatherhood, yes." Slade stroked his meager goatee. "I take it you were expecting some secret nefarious scheme. Aimed at taking over the city, perhaps, or – dare I say it? – the world."
"I'd be lying if I'd said it never crossed my mind," Robin replied, looking a little restless in the cheap plastic chair that had been provided.
Slade leaned forward, his eye locking with Robin's. "You've built me up as some kind of monster in your mind, haven't you. It must be galling to see me here, stripped of all power, reduced to nothing more than a flawed human being. It's hard to be the White Knight of Justice you fancy yourself when you don't have an opposing figure as pure in his dedication evil as you are in your dedication to good."
Robin glared behind his Ray-Bans. "Get over yourself, Slade. You're not the be-all-end-all of my existence."
"Really." His lips twisted into a smirk of triumph. "Then tell me, Richard... why are you here?"
Tara collapsed on her bed, back in her room. It had been a grueling morning, what with history, geometry, and PhysEd (and if you think dodgeball is a pain, try it while trying to conceal the fact that you have super-strength; THAT was a pain), and there were still another four periods after lunch.
She'd retreated here to regroup for the afternoon, but all prospects of a normal day were shattered when Duela burst in. "Ohmigodomidgod there's a Teen Titan in the building!" she chattered in her squeaky, hyper voice.
Tara hoped she didn't go as pale as she thought she did. Trying her best to look as though she could barely care one way or the other, she pretended to examine her nails and said. "Oh. That's nice. Which one?"
"That's nice? THAT'S NICE? And they call ME a joker. Anyway, it's that cute green one. You know, the funny one? He's always been my favorite."
"Mine too," Tara replied a bit wistfully, before she caught herself.
"AHA! So, you DO have a crush on a Titan! I KNEW Bette wasn't the only one! Next you'll probably make yourself a costume like she did, and go try out for the team."
Tara's face reddened. "It's not a crush. I just... like him is all."
"Uh huh," Duela replied, a grin spreading across her face.
"And, anyway, YOU made yourself a costume too," the blonde pointed out. "You even tried out."
It was Duela's turn to blush. "Yeah... not that that went anywhere. Robin just said 'Next' the second I stepped up. It was like I offended him or something. What problem could he POSSIBLY have had with a girl in a jester suit calling herself 'Harlequin'?"
Inwardly, Tara was worried. What possible reason could Beast Boy have to be here, other than something to do with her?
Perhaps it had something to do with some kind of fundraiser. Yeah... maybe that was it. They did that sort of thing a lot, didn't they? She'd even been involved in one of them, a charity basketball game against the Jump City Narwhals. Yeah... and Loren Jupiter had provided funding for the Titans at times in the past, maybe they were just returning the favor.
Her hopes that this was just a coincidence were dashed when the director's voice came over the intercom. "Tara Smith, please report to my office," she said. "You have a visitor."
Sighing, she got up. This could not be good...
"What do you mean by that?" asked Robin, indignantly.
"What I mean is, everything I just told you is public record. It's all been in my testimony to the court, every word. If all you wanted was answers, all you had to do was read the transcripts."
"Maybe I like the personal touch," posited Robin.
"Have you ever taken time out to visit any of the OTHER felons you've jailed?" queried Slade, pointedly.
"That's not really any business of yours," Robin replied indignantly, unable to counter his remark.
"I see," Slade said, nodding.
"Listen, 'Hannibal', I have what I came for," Robin said. "I didn't come here to get tangled up in some philosophical discussion of the nature of good and evil."
"And yet, you remain here." He leaned back into his seat. "Who are you?"
"I'm Robin."
"What do you want?"
"To keep punks like you off the streets."
"Why?"
"Because you're a threat to innocent people."
"Those are all canned answers, Richard. Not honest ones. Again... who are you?"
"I'm Rob-"
"No! That's not WHO you are! That's an identity someone else gave you! Who are you?"
"I..." He made a strangled noise of surrender. "I... I'm not sure who I am."
"Now we're getting somewhere. Now that we've established that... tell me: Who do you WANT to be."
Richard took a deep breath. "I still want to fight for justice. That hasn't changed. But... I want to forge my own identity. To..." He exhaled. "It's time for me to grow up."
He turned back to Slade. "That's why I'm here. You're childish obsession personified. And now... I can honestly say that I don't give a damn about you."
And with that, Richard walked off, not noticing the smile of satisfaction on Slade's face.
"So, it seems I've won after all," he mumbled to no one. "I've managed to, once and for all, destroy the Boy Wonder."
Tara arrived at Director Jameson's office, dreading the worst, and not seeing any prospect of anything better than that.
Sure enough, HE was there... not in costume, he'd at least had the courtesy to not do that. But he was here when she'd specifically told him not to come after him. Probably to try begging her to come back... and of course, she'd break and go back to the Tower because she felt sorry for him and all those bad feelings would come back and blah blah blah...
"Hello, Tara," Ms. Jameson began. "I suppose you're wondering why Mr... Best Boy?"
"Beast Boy, ma'am," the green-skinned boy said nervously. He was holding a folder. Oh, what NOW, dreaded Terra.
"Yes, of course," Ms. Jameson corrected herself. "Beast Boy, please tell Tara why you're here."
"I'm not going back," Tara stated bluntly.
"That's not what I was gonna say!" pleaded Beast Boy.
"...it's not?" asked Tara, confused.
"No! I'm here because we found out who you are!"
Tara blinked.
"...you what?"
"It's all here," Beast Boy said, opening his folder... of course, he'd had it upside down and all the papers spilled onto the desk. "Well... this gist of it is... did you ever hear of a country called 'Markovia?'"
"Well... yeah, we just covered it in Social Studies. It's a tiny country in South Europe, on the border of Bosnia and Rumania. It's a constitutional monarchy, very rich, mainly from large uranium deposits and one of the biggest ski resorts on the continent."
"Yeah... but did you know that superpowers run in the royal family?"
"I think I read that somewhere, yeah..." She paused. "Are you saying that—"
"You're royalty, Tara," admitted Beast Boy. "The King's illiterate daughter."
Tara found herself stifling a chuckle. "You mean 'illegitimate', don't you?"
"Yeah, what'd I say?"
This time, Terra didn't stifle the chuckle. "So... I'm a princess? This is all kind of hard to take in."
"It's true. And well... you have a brother who'd really like to meet you. In fact... he's sending the Concorde tomorrow. They pulled one out of mothballs just for you."
Tara felt overwhelmed. "Ohmigosh," she stammered, "I can't go, I have a paper due and I have to pack and... I have a family, I can't believe I actually have a family, and..." Completely overcome with emotion, Tara tightly embraced Beast Boy. "Oh, Beast Boy, how can I ever thank you? This is beyond anything I ever dreamed!"
The emerald-skinned teen gasped for air in reply.
"Oh... oh, yeah, the super-strength, I keep forgetting I have it." Tara loosened her grip.
"Hey," he said weakly, "just send the Royal Chiropractor and we're even."
Tara smiled. "How about I kiss it and make it all better?"
Beast Boy's eyes widened as the blonde puckered.
The sun rose in the distance. Tara gazed out the airport window, yawning. Why did the plane have to leave so early?
"Friend Terra?"
A pair of golden arms encircled her, squeezing tightly.
"...hi, Starfire." She wriggled out of the alien's grasp. "So... you're the only one who came?"
"Oh, the others are on their way... but I was too enthusiastic to wait. I could not slow myself!"
"Yo, Terra!" boomed a voice. Entering the terminal were Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Jinx (Jinx was a good guy now, that was hard to believe...).
"You're short a couple," Terra said.
"Kid Flash is busy helping his uncle with something. And Robin said he'd catch up."
"That's not entirely accurate."
A teen in a black bodysuit with a blue bird emblem on his chest seemingly emerged from the shadows in the ceiling rafters.
"I said I'd catch up... but I'm not Robin anymore." He dropped do the ground, landing gracefully, like the acrobat he'd been even before he'd become a crimefighter. "Call me Nightwing."
"You always did have to make an entrance," Terra said, smiling.
"Now that we have all arrived," the Tamaranean proclaimed, "I hereby propose a group hug!" Immediately, Starfire once again glommed onto the slender blonde.
"Pass," Raven started to say, but was immediately swept in with the others.
"Aw, I'm gonna miss you guys!" Terra said.
"Hey, c'mon... it's not like we can't come visit you and talk on the phone and stuff, right?" reminded Beast Boy.
"Well... yeah, but I've got a lot of catching up to do with who I am. But I WILL be back... I promise." Terra insisted, smiling. "Now, let's break this up... my plane's here, and I think Raven's starting to chafe."
"Too... much... human... contact..." protested the pale Titan weakly.
Beast Boy watched as the tiny speck that was Terra's plane vanished beyond his field of vision. Even as an eagle, he couldn't track it anymore.
And like that... he'd lost her again.
Sure, she promised she'd be back, but how long would THAT take? Maybe a year. A whole year without seeing her.
"Yo, mildew-face!" called Cyborg. "We gotta get a move on! Shockwave's tearin' up Downtown!"
Beast Boy sighed. "It never ends, does it?"
"Not anytime soon," Nightwing said, cracking his knuckles. "Bet you a pizza we can have him in custody in half an hour."
A grin spread across Beast Boy's face. "Throw in the breadsticks and I bet we can cut that down to twenty minutes."
Nightwing returned his smile. "Good to have you back with us, Beast Boy." And is he gonna be surprised when a ticket to Markovia turns up on his pillow tomorrow night, courtesy of Bruce, the ex-Boy Wonder mused. Never let it be said the Bat-family can't be romantic. "Titans, GO!"