Chapter 11
Deep within the jungles of Africa, under the glittery stars untouched by the pollution of light, a young boy sat among his peers around a campfire, its orange flames dancing and reflecting off their eyes of wonder.
Pacing around this naked fire was a familiar-looking woman, clearly their chaperone for this evening. Her hands swam through this hue as she proceeded to tell these children about another legend.
"The green phoenix." She announced, and then motioned to her audience. "Any of you ever heard of it?"
They all shook, all but one, the young boy, who raised his hand to sky as high as his shoulder would allow.
"Well, Garfield, would you like to step up and tell our friends the story?"
He recoiled with just as much haste, bunching his shoulders in embarrassment while all eyes shifted to him.
"Come on, I never raised you to be shy."
"But, mom..."
"Come on," her voice suddenly turned mischievous, "or I'll bring you up here and tickle you until you submit."
The other children laughed while young Garfield, pursing his lips, eventually got up with great reluctance and tippy-toed his way to where his mother was standing.
With a pat, she sat down to take his place as one of the listeners and waited encouragingly for him to begin.
With a few deep breaths, the boy managed to level the beating in his chest and laced his fingers to begin his tale.
"There... are stories about the green phoenix that sound strange, even compared to other well-known legends."
He swallowed a lump while his mother nodded him to keep going.
"There is one story about a monster that it battles... one that can shapeshift into anything it wants at will. It comes at a terrible price, however."
The childrens' smiles fade out, much like candle lights in the cold.
"The monster attacks people, yet is said to be misunderstood. The phoenix is always watching over it, but is somehow unable to do anything."
The confidence grew inside Garfield with the words he was gathering.
"As a person, it begged for help, but it never came until one day, when an angry mob attacked his home."
A tinge of sorrow overcomes everyone with this next part.
"The monster, as a person, was killed... but only from that fire did the green phoenix emerge — it was reborn from its ashes."
The orange fire rose, and its hue faded into a glowing emerald green as his story escalated to its conclusion.
"One life ended. The curse was lifted. A new life began."
With that, the scene blurred out, rinsed by this same phoenix fire when...
... Beast Boy awoke to find himself facing the ceiling of the medical bay.
Squinting to its blinding lights, he veers his neck sideways to gaze upon the sleeping figure of a pale sorceress.
As he brought a finger to stroke Raven's blue hair strands, his mind looped the words that spoke to him while he was half-conscious... the one about her shield that he supposedly broke through.
"No, Rae." He muttered in response to that vague memory, "I've just scratched the surface."
(SCENE BREAK)
When he could finally walk, Beast Boy wandered down to see Robin in his quarters — or in this case, stormed his way there.
Finding his door, the changeling banged his fist against the metal until it whooshed open with haste.
"Yes, Beast Boy?" Answered the masked hero, standing right before him.
"Are you out of your fucking mind!? Keeping Slade, our worst enemy. in here... of all places!?"
Robin sighed bitterly. "Starfire told you, I'm guessing."
"You should know by now that she isn't the ideal safekeeper of secrets, Robin."
"I know!"
Robin exited his doorway and proceeded doen the hall at a mulling pace, his teammate keeping on his tail.
"I understand your concern, but this tower has the highest security measure in Jump City." he stated, matter of factly.
"That's been broken into by robots, creep grannies, and was used as a throne by an interdimensional demon, might I add."
This made Robin scowl some more, but not really out of annoyance to his rant; the animal-shifter's nose picked up on this.
"What is it?" he asked in a calmer tone.
Finally, Robin stopped and faced his own shadow on the floor.
"There's something I need discuss with you about..." he turned to face the green Titan with a more saddened expression, "... not as your leader or teammate..." to the changeling's bewilderment, he watched as the team leader removed his mask to look him in the eyes with his true face, "... but as your friend, Dick Grayson to Garfield Logan."
Beast Boy — Garfield — held his breath, expecting to hear the worst from whatever he was about to hear.
"Cyborg and I have talked about your condition, and what it means for your occupation as a superhero."
"W—What...?"
Already, both were dreading where this conversation was going, Grayson forcing himself to continue.
"We talked about you... considering retirement from hero work."
Garfield was thrown back, his face darkening out of dismay. "You wanna... kick me out of the Titans??"
"No!" Dick hurried to assure, "Don't get the wrong idea!"
"Then what is the idea?" Garfield spat, "To put me on leave so I don't burden this precious team?"
"Damn it, no!" Dick shouted, "We don't want to risk you DYING!"
"And what about you, risking our team's lives by keeping Slade here?"
"Don't change the subject, Garfield! It's not your concern!"
Right then, Garfield made a face as he took a step back from his friend that caused the latter to mentally slap himself; it was a face that spoke, 'Oh, I get it.'
Great choice of words, Dick.
With simmering resentment, Garfield turned and walked away.
Watching him leave, Dick put his mask back on to become Robin once more.
Why couldn't he have chosen better words?
He walked off in the other direction, presumably to beat himself over this.
"I'd rather have you alive and hate me..." he whispered to the now empty hallway, "Anything's better than... what could be at any moment."
(SCENE BREAK)
Much later, Beast Boy sat in the common room while his thumbs worked automatically on his game controller.
While it was usual that he was playing alone, it was unusual of him to lack any enjoyment in his favourite racing game; despite being in the lead on the highest difficulty for once, this achievement was rendered hollow.
Once his racecar zoomed first place through the finish line, he turned off his game and leaned back to massage the soreness with his fingers.
"Aw, man! I wanted to play!"
Beast Boy veered over his shoulder to see Cyborg marching over to join him at the couch.
"Sorry, Cy..."
Immediately, the big man could see the downcast in his friend's sunken face and changed from his cheery vibe.
"What did he tell you?" he asked.
Beast Boy eyed him in surprise — did his half-human teammate really know that well?
Clearing his throat, the changeling answered with a dry, "Yes... that."
Cyborg huffed a nervous sigh, knowing that he was probably going to blow up in his face as well.
To his surprise, however, his friend, rather than doing what he predicted, instead smiled up at the ceiling wistfully.
"Did you ever imagine life... after being a superhero?" he asked, and then retthought his question. "Maybe I shouldn't be asking you that?"
"Why?" inquired Cyborg, raising his only eyebrow.
"You've always talked about wanting to join the big league, remember?"
He nodded, though his human and robot mind was busy racing for the best possible answer to his big question.
"I never really thought of it..." he answered somberly. "I never could picture myself living a normal life due to... the way I am."
"There's always Jinx." Beast Boy remarked with a small wink.
Cyborg winced to that idea, especially when he thought back to that time in the HIVE academy.
"Nah!" he waved off, " She was never my type. Besides, she's taken already." Before his friend could bring up Bumblebee next, he slapped the topic back to its main point. "But look, I'm in no rush right now."
"Well..." Beast Boy faced away with a shudder, "I don't seem to have as much time anymore." He shut his eyes, as if to unsee this dilemma he was faced with. "What am I gonna do without you guys?"
"What are you talking about, B?" Cyborg was now confused.
"Should I leave the team, Cy?"
"Hold up, hold up!" Cyborg shot up off the couch and stood over his smaller friend with both hands on his shoulders. "We never said anything about you leaving!"
"Huh?" The changeling's jaw hung lopsidedly. "But you said..."
"We only talked about you discontinuing hero work." Cyborg clarified, "Just 'cause you gotta quit being a hero, doesn't mean you gotta quit the family."
Still, Beast Boy was speechless.
"Who else am I gonna be playing games with? Robin? Raven??" Right as the topic shifted to that particular sorceress, a sly grim stretched across the man's face. "Speaking of which..."
Unable to keep himself together, Beast Boy cracked up in tears, his trademark hyena giggle echoing all around the room.
There was the B he knew best. Just like that, he was himself again, even if only momentarily.
(SCENE BREAK)
Deep within her own territory, Raven was buried in all her books, having locked herself away so she could research whatever spell she could use to help Beast Boy, if not cure him.
Page after page, hour after hour in between tea breaks, she had yet to come up with something, and it was thawing her patience.
Overcome with stress, she clapsed her moist face, threatening to lose control when the wind, caused by her powers, flipped open a page titled 'Nursing Dove' in runic.
Picking up that book, she cooled down to read its description — paragraph after paragraph, the frown disappeared, replaced by a glimmer of hope as she absorbed this information.
This could help him.
Shutting the hard cover, she hugged it to her chest, clinging to perhaps her only hope so far.
(SCENE BREAK)
"How many years have we kept this going? How much time have you had to think since you escaped us last time? You've been gone longer that you usually would have... and yet... here we are."
Here was Robin, sitting on a stool next to where his arch nemesis laid, hunching over him beneath a singular cone light.
"Why did you decide to come back, now?"
The comatose man couldn't answer.
"Why couldn't you have just disappeared for good? Is there something about us that you just can't keep away from?"
Robim stared into this withered old man's face, unrecognizable to him even now.
"The funny thing is... you're smarter than this. So why would think to break into our home?"
As more silence filled the dark ambience, Robin settled back, knowing he wouldn't get answers during this period.
"Sometimes, it's crossed my mind too — why don't I just kill you right now? It'd be easy, wouldn't it? But then I wouldn't get the answers I need from you, would I, Slade?"
Concluding his reason for being here, Robin got up to leave.
"It's what he taught me." With that last statement, he was gone.
Left all alone once more, the crippled man's fingers began to twitch ever so slightly.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Author's Note: Yes, I know... it's been FOREVER! I had to take a long break to build my new business. I now come back to this story with a clear endgame in mind. Please have mercy and leave a review, thanks for reading.