An alternate reality episode

The ring felt sweaty and gross shoved tightly on his middle finger as he hadn't stayed behind long enough to get it resized. Although tempted to play around with it, he decided otherwise, already starting to feel the guilt seep back in, making him want to return to the tower empty-handed even less.

He knew they didn't want him to see her. They told him that she was never going to be the same; the miracle that worked on her had an expensive price. Although, he was so sure that if he took her to the cliff and around the few locations she had joined them to fight crime, she'd surely remember. And if her memories were truly gone, he would painstakingly rebuild them all, second by second.

His plan was so unnaturally poetic that he was sure it would work.

But the shelter wouldn't let him see her.

'Fuck them.'

He took that back. He mustn't act on a vendetta. He knew there were sweeter wines to try just around the corner of the grueling pub, so he stoically marched on towards the end of the hall.

Her homeroom was 231. Her friend, the walking rainbow, had clued him in, smiling weirdly as she watched him awkwardly wander off into the hallways of Lescon High.

He couldn't move his legs. The blocks of cement wouldn't let him move. That was definitely why.

Staring at the scratched-up oak, he savored the moment before he'd have to face her with his eyes, ears, heart, and soul. There was always a chance that it wouldn't end well. Nothing usually did for him. How could he be sure that this was the exception?

He memorized the door. Doubtful, he began to tuck this moment away in his mind, a peppermint for his lonely future. If he couldn't find her, he'd at least have this.

The bell had rung. He was so sure of it. Even though his ears had blanked out long before the clock struck 9:05, Garfield could feel the soles of his feet rumble as the stampeding students panicked and ran about. He heard the door lock, clicking its tiny silver gears into place, effectively preventing him from reaching the one miracle in his life again.

"Fucking hell," he swore under his breath as he began to trudge down the halls. Garfield reached for his back pocket for his phone, only to kick himself in the ankle as he remembered it was still in the principal's office.

How was he supposed to know about the no phone rule? Garfield wanted so badly to rip that thing out of that man's hand and break his glasses in half. Maybe even shatter that stupid desk lamp the man had with the ugly flowers and even more hideous rabbits.

He knocked his skull against the wall, attempting to knock some sense and control into himself before the yellowing of his eyes grew far too strong for him to handle; he couldn't unleash the beast here. It would get on the news. Robin would surely send him to the pound—or worse, the Doom Patrol. But at the moment, Garfield didn't seem to care because nothing in this life could go more wrong than losing his prime chance to see Terra, or Tara, whatever she was going by this lifetime.

Suddenly a hand reached out from behind the corner and yanked him into an empty hall, filled with nothing but strewn coats and crumpled papers. A voice hissed, "Are you insane, Beast Boy? You are fucking insane."

It sounded a lot like Raven, but Garfield knew that pacifist-wannabe Raven never swore. He turned to see a contorted face, frowning at him as it contemplated whether or not to end him right then and there. Although not the empath, the librarian-nerd-goth girl was a delightful substitute that Garfield would take over a demonic lashing any day.

"Beast Boy? I don't know any Beast Boys." There was no possible way the girl could've known who he was; not a lick of hair was misplaced on his head and Garfield even stole an old flannel he found buried in Robin's closet. And she didn't look too bright, honestly a bit dimwitted in his opinion. He could probably assume that anyone skipping homeroom wasn't bright in the slightest, especially since it was only five weeks into the school year.

She raised an eyebrow at him, judging him from her perch, which seemed awfully high despite the fact that she stood a head under him. "This is low, even for you, Beast Boy," she said with such familiarity that it irked him.

"Listen," he said as he scanned the halls around them, looking for any eavesdroppers or possible stragglers, "I don't know who you ar-"

"Rav-" She paused. "Rachel, since we're here."

He ignored whatever she was going on about. "Rachel, I don't know how you recognized me but it doesn't matter." He groaned into his cupped palm at his situation. "What do you want? Money, a future internship in finance or some shit, whatever you want."

"You are awfully amusing when you're nervous," she remarked, "and there's no way I'm not taking you back to the tower."

He snorted because there was no way a civilian girl could drag an elephant back to a tower on an island, but suddenly it dawned on him that just one tip from her could blow his entire cover. She could easily go to the police or social services, or worse the tabloids. Having the entire team back onto him would set him back to square one, and Garfield betted that that control freak Robin was already on Cy's ass about tightening security measures. And Steve, what on earth would he say if he found out that Garfield wasn't competent enough to realize that abandoning his superhero duties for a random student wasn't the most rational of ideas? Garfield was sure Steve was already suspicious when Garfield asked to stay in one of his penthouses in Jump City. "You know what. It was so fucking hard stealing a disguise and sneaking out, and I'm not about to let some girl ruin the only thing keeping me here. Tell you what. You look smart. If you don't say a word to anyone about this, I just might not chase you as a black widow spider out of this fucking city. Do I make myself clear?"

The dark-haired girl gave him a small smile, that really seemed more devious than it should have, as she sighed and put away something—he assumed it was her phone—back into her pocket.

He took another gander at her. Garfield deducted that she seemed more harmless and not the type to engage in flowery drama; her straightened back and calculated movements reminded him of a studious surgeon. Rachel was probably a teacher's assistant or a new kid looking for a peaceful transition into a new school. Surely she recognized him from a complete whim. "Listen," he sighed, "I'm just stressed. Sorry, I wasn't expecting to get caught so fast. I promise I won't do the spider thing if yo-"

"I'm not going to help you, but I won't rat you out, yet." She didn't sound like she even had a soul. Garfield thought that if he channeled his inner owl, he'd still hear no heart in her fucking chest. Rachel stared at the ring on his clenched hand and said, "What happens when duty calls?"

"Nothing. I'm just Garfield, a new student. The only duties I have are to be a good kid and not give my father a heart attack when he sees the water bill." He checked his imaginary watch. Garfield inferred that the principal should be doing his daily rounds right about now and the office workers should be distracted by a certain black widow about to crash their pity party. That had to be enough time to grab his phone and jet. "Gotta go!"

"What's stopping me from screaming fire right now?" Rachel raised an eyebrow, stopping him in his tracks.

He held out a hand, letting Rachel reach out and leave herself vulnerable as he pushed her sweater sleeve over her elbow and slipped a hair tie off her wrist. "If this gets out, I'll just sniff you out or whatever."

As he strolled down the hall, Garfield couldn't help but turn back and stare at Eurydice as she gave him a plain stare with her eyes and an amused snicker with her mouth. He twitched at the sight of the strange girl tilting her head as if she was studying him. Immediately feeling self-conscious, Garfield sped down the halls, chanting to himself to not pay mind to the figure at the other end of the hall.

He looked back. She was gone, that he knew for a fact, but Garfield was sure that wouldn't be the last he saw of Rachel. He sniffed the hair tie. He knew he would definitely be seeing Raven soon.

"Hello? Yeah, hey mom. Yeah, I'm fine. How are Cliff and Larry? That's nice. Hey, did you hear fro-oh he's MIA. I see. Well, can you tell father that I'll be using the flat? I know I said I didn't need it but I'm not exactly, um, with the team at the moment. No, I don't want to come back. I'll see you later, mom. I love you. Yes, I have a key. Yes. Okay mom, I gotta go. Love you. No, mom. Got it. Bye."

I just wanted to write an alternate reality episode without copying and pasting the exact same plot. I actually quite like this role reversal as it seems quite different from this fic, despite both being written with the same premise, just roles swapped. Since this episode doesn't advance the plot, I made sure to add plenty of foreshadowing for the future.

I'll be rewriting all the episodes I wrote prior to my giant hiatus as I genuinely cannot read past the second episode without needing a break.

The next episode will come very soon as I was writing it while plotting this one.

4/6/21: I had some trouble putting this chapter up as it keeps being posted as a previous chapter, despite the fact that the document clearly isn't.

-Catisa~Orsilla