HELLO AGAIN!
Creative Zen strikes again and i got this chapter done fast :) wee!
This is the fourth installment of this series, don't know how many more there will be I guess as many as it takes to finish.
Its early and I'm tired and need a Dew so i don't know what else to say.
Im going to play Everquest 2 now.
PEACE
Enjoy, please R&R
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Ty – hes mine.
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Flashback 4 – The Child of War
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"Is this thing on? Testing? No Ty just point it at me and record. Okay. Hello my Friends, I know this is all very confusing but please allow me to explain what is going on. First of all the fact that you are listening to this recording at all means that I was right to assume my son would forget the elaborate cover story I thought up for him and gave him this disk just in case."
On the coffee table in the common room a small disk shaped object lit up and a holographic image of an adult Raven appeared from the center. Her Hair was longer and face looked worn from constant battle, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the image was not Raven's future self.
"I know it comes as a shock to all of you that I have a son, it was even more surprising to me when I found out I was pregnant trust me…but what is more important is to give the man that I love as well as the child we made a chance at a better life, to give the world a chance."
"Tyler I'm sure you have met already. The holographic Raven smiled softly, he has probably told you already he is my son, but I think if he has gone that far it is also fair for you to know that Garfield is the father, you might still call him Beast Boy but during this war that were losing we just call him Beast now, as he has outgrown the 'boy' part.
The holographic Raven's expression changed, still smiling softly but looked sad now, Gar died recently saving the rest of us from Jinx, who was captured and possessed by part of the Echrid's hive mind. Cyborg and Jinx herself also died in the battle…"
The holographic Raven then took a deep unsteady breath as if to quell her rising emotions before continuing.
"As you may already know, the World we live in is about to change for the worse and I want to make sure all of you understand the full implications of what is about to happen and what is being placed on your shoulders by myself and Ty. By sending him back in time and telling you who he is we have created a Paradox, which means that the future is still not written in stone, Ty being in the past gives you a chance to stop the Echrid before they annihilate the human race as they have in my time."
"This horrid future, as well as those who live in it will only exist until the Echrid are defeated, if that can be done. Be aware that if you are able to defeat the Echrid this future will change and those in it will cease to be, which would be a very good thing."
The hologram then addressed a wide eyed Raven and Beast Boy more directly.
"Raven, Beast Boy, I know this is a lot to take in… knowing myself I know I wouldn't believe myself so Raven, Ty agreed to allow you to probe his mind for the truth before he left for the past if you have any doubts he is the one to address. Beast Boy trust your instincts my love, they will reveal the truth to you."
"Please my friends, you must find a way to defeat these aliens before history repeats itself…millions of lives are at stake including your own…Please find a way."
After that the sound and image suddenly became fuzzy with a bzzzzzzZRK! Before disappearing completely, the disk that was projecting it grew silent as well as the lights on it dimmed slowly from white to black.
The Titans stood or sat around the disk on the coffee table in the common room, each with mixed expressions of shock on their faces, none more so than the presumed parents of Tyler, Beast Boy and Raven. Ty himself was missing from the common room, having said nothing more after announcing he was their son than placing the disk on the table and stating he would be in his room as the recording was booting up.
"So…" Robin started to say.
"Don't" Raven interrupted.
"But he…" Cyborg tried but Raven interrupted again with a "Don't say it!"
"So you and…" Starfire tried but Raven said, "Don't even go there!"
"But we…" Beast Boy tried but was interrupted by a flash of black lightning and all the windows in the common room exploding all over the common room as well as out to sea, and with that Raven stood up and ran from the room holding her head.
By the time the other Titans recovered from their own positions to shield themselves from the glass, Raven was gone.
"So yeah…" Robin said again, "That went well."
"Maybe someone should check on the Kid just in case Raven tries to kill him or something." Cyborg suggested.
"I shall check on the boy." Starfire offered and flew out the common room towards the guest room.
Robin and Cyborg then turned their attention to Beast Boy, who was looking out the now open windows out at sea.
"Dude, you alright?" Cyborg asked, noting the distant look in his friend's eyes.
"I don't know." Beast Boy said, "Seriously man what Seventeen year old finds out that a) they have a kid and b) who they are going to have said kid with before said people are ever even together ya know?" His voice cracked.
"Cyborg, if Ty aggress can you run a paternity test on Ty, Raven and Beast Boy?" Robin asked and Cy nodded.
"Yeah, now that I think of it the kid does look a lot like Beast Boy with a little bit of Raven mixed in, heck even that hologram looked like an older Raven but never hurts to be safe I guess, I'll go ask Ty." Cy said and headed to the guest room, Jinx trailing close behind him.
Robin gave Beast Boy a pat on the back before going leaving the common room to see if he could help Cyborg or something, knowing that his green friend probably wanted to be left alone at this point.
He was right of course, Beast Boy stared out the window not really thinking anything other than what the heck do I do now? He had a son, a son. A child in the future that was his to care for and provide for and that was an awful lot to take in for one seventeen year old boy. Of course as Mento from his days on the Doom Patrol would have told him, it takes two to tango, and in this case it looks like in the future he had been 'dancing' with Raven.
Now there was a funky thought.
He had always liked Raven as a friend but had only rarely given the thought of having a serious relationship with her the time of day. Though that was mainly due to the fact that every time he tried to get her to open up about herself or even show the slightest trace of a hint of an emotion he would either get thrown into a wall or she would walk away. That being said there have been a few occasions in which Raven allowed herself to display a smile or needed comforting, but other than that he couldn't think of anything.
He sighed, and thought about things some more, so in the future he and Raven had a relationship – she was in love with him – and they had a son together during a time of war. Wait backup Beast Boy he thought, in the future Raven was in love with him. Love, like the cute hearts on Valentines Day smitten forever heart belongs to him in love, and he found himself somehow okay with this.
Of all the Titans, Raven was always the one who seemed to care the most about him when things would go wrong and he was always there for her when things would go bad as well. In fact, Beast Boy found himself enjoying the idea of himself and Raven having a serious relationship but knew that it would take a lot of convincing on his part to get Raven to admit that she liked him at all. But armed with the knowledge that Raven was probably going trough more than he was right now, Beast Boy left the glass strewn common room and headed to Ravens quarters.
Raven meanwhile was sitting in the middle of what was once her room, around her in a circle was the remains of what was all her furniture and belongings; sitting on the floor with her hood down holding her legs against her chest as if she were hugging herself.
How could this have happened? As soon as she had gotten to her room she had cone into her mirror to consult her emotions, each of them including anger, confirmed that she did have feelings for the little green changeling. Weather it was love or not was up for debate – affection had told her that she liked Beast Boy a lot but would transform into something else if it turned into love – and Raven was now left trying to figure out how the heck this had happened.
Of course if you looked at Beast Boy and Raven in an analytical sense she could see how she was attracted to him. In spite of the fact that Beast Boy was the most immature of the group ninety percent of the time of all the titans he had the biggest heart. She specifically could remember when Malchior abused her heart in order to try and gain access into the world again, after he was defeated Raven felt as though she had lost the battle as well, who was she kidding, no one could ever honestly love someone who was half demon.
But then when she was sitting alone in her room feeling pain in her heart like she had never felt before, of all the Titans Beast Boy came to her. She was so surprised that he cared enough to make sure she was ok that she threw herself into his arms in a tight hug.
I could use one of those right now. She thought as she slowly stood up, she couldn't sit in here like this anymore she needed to talk to someone; correction she needed to talk to Beast Boy.
As odd as the thought sounded to her talking with the green changling actually sounded like a good idea, of all the Titans with the exception of Starfire, Beast Boy's feelings seemed like the deepest to her, she knew there was more too him but didn't know what. But what she did know is that if anyone could help her learn how to feel her own emotions it was going to be him – Raven couldn't explain why, it just felt right.
Walking to the door she pressed the button to open it and as the door slid open there was suddenly a gloved hand knocking on her forehead.
"Erk." Beast Boy caught himself before he knocked a third time on Ravens forehead, he could have sworn there was a door there a minute ago, "Sorry Rae." He grinned and rubbed the back of his head with his hand.
Raven was going to comment about how her name was Raven for the five billionth time but instead took a different rout.
"Its okay I suppose." She said, "But you need faster reflexes."
"Heh, yeah sometimes those cat-like reflexes just don't do the tick…heh heh." Beast Boy laughed nervously.
An awkward silence set in after that, neither teen wanting to look at the other for a moment before Raven finally asked, "I need to talk to you….um…do you want to come in?"
"Sure." Beast Boy said and followed Raven back into her room, immediately noticing the lack of furniture that was in one piece.
"Umm…redecorating?" Beast Boy asked knowing full well what really happened.
"Listen Beast Boy, I don't know what to make of any of what's happening anymore." Raven began,
"A kid arrives from the future and as it turns out he's my son, correction our son, and he's here to save the world from an alien race that is going to annihilate the world if we don't do something about it.
On top of that we get a recording of myself in the future that fills in all the details Ty missed and adds on top of that that in the future I am not only somehow in love with you and had a child with you but also watched you die apparently.
So tell me how am I supposed to be feeling right now? What am I supposed to do? I've spent my whole life pushing my emotions away and the result of that is apparently I cant deal with time travelers."
Raven fell to her knees on a clear spot on the floor and hugged herself she had meant to only ask how Beast Boy was doing but instead had blurted out everything she was thinking and feeling on one volley. She was sick of this, she wanted to be able to feel without everything around her being destroyed or blow up or thrown into a pocket dimension.
Beast Boy meanwhile was trying to get over the shock that Raven had said more than three words to him in a single sitting, not only that but was asking him for help dealing with her rampant emotions, he had to think of something smart sounding to say fast or she would give up on him again. But Being a man of big heart over big brains he walked over to Raven, knelt down and wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug.
Wanting nothing more than that, Raven leaned into Beast Boy's embrace and buried her face in his neck.
"You know I like you Raven." Beast Boy said, "You're my friend and that will never change okay?"
Raven nodded, "I don't even know what I'm feeling Beast Boy." She said, "I want to be honest with you about how I feel about you but, I honestly don't know what I feel."
Beast Boy nodded as Raven continued, he was just happy she was opening up to him at all.
"I've spent my whole life running away from my emotions Beast Boy I just don't know…" she sighed, "I don't know anything, and then I see myself or a future version of myself expressing emotions freely its just…I don't even know." She sighed in her frustration, Raven was discovering that she had bottled up her emotions for so long that now she was losing her ability to even know which emotion to feel in situations – not that this situation was anywhere close to normal but still – she was feeling overwhelmed.
But their moment was interrupted by an extraordinarily loud BOOM coming from somewhere outside of the tower, both titans jumped to their feet and Beast Boy looked to Raven.
"Are you going to be okay if there's trouble?" He asked.
"Yes, I'll be fine thank you." Raven gave him a soft smile; friends or not she knew that he at least cared a great deal for her, and that made her feel good enough that the good feeling overpowered the overwhelmed feeling.
"Alright." Beast Boy smiled, "Lets get to the common room before the-"
Beast Boy did finish his sentence as red lights began flashing and the tower alarm went off right before he said it would, sure enough there was trouble of some kind about. Oh well this would give him a chance to stretch out, it had been a while since a real bad guy had tried anything in Jump City. Beast Boy thought as he and Raven ran to the common room that the lack of crime was probably due to the constant butt kicking he and the other Titans threw down on any bad guy who dared to try anything in their city; and his own dashing good looks.
Another loud BOOM rocked the tower, this time as Beast Boy and Raven ran into the common room with the other Titans.
"A Star is falling!" Starfire said as they ran in and all the Titans, as well as Ty and Jinx turned their attention to the sky.
"That's not a star." Ty said, recognizing what it was immediately, "Its an Echrid ship, probably a scout or something." He gritted his teeth as the yellow flaming streak fell from the sky many times the speed of sound before it disappeared behind the Jump City skyline with a deep explosion, the smoke from impact following a moment later.
"Its looks like it landed Downtown, Ty what do we need to know about these aliens?" Robin asked.
"Don't get bit their fangs are toxic." He said and sprinted out the still broken common room windows flying towards where the Echrid ship landed as fast as he could.
"Hey I didn't say go yet! Arg! Titans go!" Robin ordered as beast Boy took to the air, Starfire carried Cyborg while Raven provided Robin a lift with her powers.
Ty was the first to arrive at the landing site of the Echrid scout ship; the ship had plowed into the earth just like the mother ship had in his time, though this one was much smaller.
Panicked citizens were still running from the impact site as Ty flew down landing to the sound of crunched gravel and waited for the Echrid to come out of the ship, which didn't take long. As soon as Ty had touched down the top of the small ship opened and two dozen Echrid poured out of the ship in a rush right at Ty and other civilians who were still standing about and runes glowing at full power, Ty sprung into action.
Three of the Echrid charged Ty immediately; yellow razor sharp diamond shaped bodies ready to use the slightly curved tip to kill and fangs ready with all six legs scrabbling to get to him. But Ty was ready and all three were taken care of with one orb of power blowing the insect in the center to tiny pieces that tore through the other two like shrapnel, killing all three.
The other Echrid then turned their full attention to Ty as the civilians ran away from the battle. Ty concentrated as the runes on his right forearm glowed violet.
Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!
He thought the words and thrust his hand at a nearby your bus, hurdling it into mass of Echrid so hard the bus exploded on impact with the ground spraying burning parts and yellow blood from the insects everywhere but as always there was still more, there was always more.
An Echrid had spread its wings and taken to the air to get to him but instead of getting to his chest the insects head was met with a swift and powerful kick from Ty which decapitated the alien. Ty dropped to the ground then on top of another, crushing it, and rolled away from it sending a bolt of explosive energy into four other Echrid blowing them into whatever next life awaited.
He could feel the power flowing through him now, demonic anger towards the aliens who had mad his life a living hell since before he was born, and they would pay, they would all pay for the massacres he had witnessed, for the lives lost, for family lost – and as the two remaining Echrid rushed at Ty with eyes glowing red he lifted both fists above his head and slammed them down onto the ground causing the earth itself to rise up and crush the two remaining aliens.
Ty then set his sights on the scout ship itself which was impeded at the bottom of a small impact crater in the middle of the street. Runes and eyes still glowing Ty thrust both hands at the ship causing it to spark with black and red lightning for a moment before it was completely enveloped in his own violet power – while he wasn't nearly as strong as his mother in the telekinesis department he could still get the job done – and bringing his hands up he used his mind to throw the empty ship back into the air.
Then bringing both hands together above his head Ty was able to generate a large sphere of energy and with tremendous effort on his part, hurled it at the Echrid ship blowing the ship into a few fragments and dust. As well as breaking every window in a three block radius of the explosion.
The Titans in the mean time just stood there, once they arrived each time one of them had tried to join the fight Ty had dispatched the aliens in question and was already three ahead. Robin was impressed with Ty's martial arts abilities, Cyborg was impressed with the way Ty's armor worked in tandem with his powers, Starfire was pleased to see someone else who showed the same fury she did in battle, Jinx was a little scared of Ty's abilities, and Beast Boy admired his speed.
These were the feelings Raven gathered from the other Titans and she knew, she was the only one who could know that the way Ty was abusing him body and powers was reckless and unnecessary. It was downright dangerous and sense no one else could understand what was going on, it was up to her to intervene.
Most of all though, all of her emotions were screaming that she couldn't believe someone who claimed to be her own son, her own flesh and blood would show such reckless disregard for powers that could easily destroy himself or the world.
"Do not interfere." She told her friends and flew at the boy who claimed to be her son.
Ty seeing some pieces of the Echrid's scout ship that had survived the explosion was walking about throwing bolts of his power into the shards of the ship, destroying not only them, but chunks of the road as well
"Enough." Raven said, hovering behind him, "The aliens are gone, stop this before you destroy the city or yourself."
Ty whipped around and glared at his mother, how dare she tell him that he was using too much power after all he was the male. It was she who convinced him that he needed the runes on his armor to control his power in the first place, she was holding him back, this was all her fault.
"Final warning Ty, calm down or I will calm you down." Raven said in a monotone voice, black energy forming around her outstretched fingers. Truth be told she knew she could take him and wasn't trying very hard when she put him in that bubble at the tower, but she would still need to be careful should he choose to engage.
For as powerful as Ty got when he was angry he knew Raven was right, she had far more control over her powers than he did which made her the more powerful one in a fight, he wouldn't stand a chance if his mom actually tried. Forcing himself to calm down Ty's eyes turned back to their normal green color and he lowered his hands as the runes on his armor powered down, but he kept his glare.
"I know you have probably been through a lot but that is no reason to lose control of yourself like that and I refuse to accept that someone who claims to be my own son would be so careless." She scolded.
"You have no Idea what I've been through." Ty shot back, "I've seen everyone that cares about me or that I've cared about die."
"True I don't fully understand, but that is still no reason to abuse magic as volatile as ours." Raven countered, of course, she was right again – why did she have to be right on the time?
"Why do you have to be right all the time!" he hollered at her and took to the air, flying away from the situation.
"Because apparently I'm your mother, and from what I hear mother is always right." She said to herself and took off after him.
The rest of the Titans just stood there with their collective mouths agape.
"Should we not go after them?" Starfire asked.
"Beast Boy, follow them and see what's up, looks like they need to talk or something but I want you to find out. We'll stay here and deal with the local authorities." Robin said and Beast Boy nodded before shifting to a hawk and flying after the other two teens.
"Is that really why you sent Beast Boy after them?" Cyborg questioned.
"Nah, I figure they need some family time or something." Robin grinned as the police finally arrived on scene.
--
Ty thought about everything that had happened as he flew back to the tower – he chose the tower as he had no where else to go – and pondered the meaning of it all. His mom before he knew her was a lot more uptight than the woman who had raised him. His mom with Cyborg's help had crafted his rune armor specifically to control his power and as long as he was wearing it he shouldn't be able to lose control, even when giving into anger.
But no this version of his mom had to be all uppity about how he used his powers recklessly and with no regard for himself – Which while true still irritated him to no end – but then there was the issue of her being right.
He knew she was following him and made no attempt to try and lose her as he could since that she wanted to have a talk with him, probably about everything from how he used his powers to how her future self had learned to control her own emotions, the latter of which he did not know the answer to.
Coming up on the tower now Ty descended slowly until he touched down on the roof of Titan's tower, Raven landing right behind him and being the angstie pre-teen he was he turned around and asked, "What do you want?"
Raven however did not respond right away, she studied the boy who claimed to be her son. In appearance she could see not just Beast Boy in him but herself as well, while he had Beast Boy's hair color, eye color and build, his face was more like her own. The shape of his eyes was more like her own as well as his nose and mouth; all in all if he lived to be older he would probably be a pretty attractive super hero.
One by one Raven took inventory of her emotions to determine what she was actually feeling about the boy; Happy was glad that they had a child, rude didn't care, affection wanted to take care of the boy, knowledge wanted to know more about him and take care of him, wisdom knew to tread carefully when talking of the boy past and wanted to care for him, anger thought the boy was an arrogant prat – but wanted to care for him, bravery wanted to protect and take care of him, even timid felt strong feelings of motherly instinct for Ty even though she would not act on them.
Raven then thought for a moment, what did she want from this boy? She could just as easily let him fly off and have his little temper tantrum hoping he would be okay but instead she had chased after him. Part of this was because she wanted to have a talk with the child about how he was using his powers, but the other part she wasn't sure about.
Sure she was concerned for him but it went beyond that into something that she could not explain.
"You're really my son aren't you?" Raven finally asked.
"Yeah." Ty smirked, "why would you have any doubt?"
"A child appears out of nowhere in a ball of lightning claiming to be your spawn and you wouldn't be asking questions?" Raven raised an eyebrow as she lowered her hood.
"Heh, point taken but I'm not a child – children run around and play outside I've seen too much death and violence to be a child." Ty said with a dark look and glanced away, looking out to sea. Raven walked up behind him then and put a hand on his shoulder as they continued to talk.
Beast boy meanwhile was circling high over head in the form of a hawk, oh sure he could see them fine but it was making him wish that he had acute hearing in this form as well so he could tell what exactly was going on. Raven and the boy that claimed to be his as well as Raven's son were standing at the north most corner of the roof and she had a hand over his should as they stared out to sea. He could tell that they were talking as well but not what they were saying – maybe it would be worth investing some money in learning to read lips.
As they talked though he could at least read what they were feeling from way up high, Ty looked like he was a mix of depression and anger whereas Raven was her cool collected self as usual. If indeed this child was his son – and he was pretty sure Ty was – then he certainly looked a lot more like Raven than himself. Even from five hundred feet above them he could tell that Ty's face looked more like Raven's than his own even though Ty was built like himself when he was that young.
For some reason it gave Beast Boy a warm fuzzy feeling when he thought about Raven and himself being a couple, having a child, and stuff like that. being Seventeen years old he had been giving the thought of what he was going to do the rest of his life besides super hero work a lot of attention recently and had decided that he was the type who would want to settle down eventually and start a family – he just never thought it would be something he would be doing with Raven.
While he had accepted that he had a son here from the future he was having a little more difficulty with the last part about Raven being the mother. He liked her more than he could describe and knew that from their talk earlier she may eventually reciprocate those feelings – eventually being the operative word. Of course he of all people should know that this all was a shock to Raven and he should be grateful he still existed in this dimension, the fact that he did gave him hope that there was a chance Raven could learn to express her emotions freely without worrying about her powers.
Of course there was always that song he heard once on the radio with a line: love conquers all or something like that.Maybe love would be the one emotion that Raven could feel without her powers going bonkers on her.
But how to test that theory?
Suddenly Beast Boy remembered that Raven had challenged him to find a movie that she would like a few days ago and he still hadn't found anything. Swooping left he flew back towards the city and his destination, the Mega Action Movies store. Landing in a back alley Beast Boy shifted back to himself and walked around to the front of the store.
But when he got to the door he stopped, why was he coming to a store dedicated to action movies? Raven wouldn't like anything in this store at all and he knew that. Arg! Beast Boy smacked himself on the forehead and took to the air once more in the form of a hawk, flying farther downtown looking for a different movie store. As he was flying he passed the store where he had gotten that horror movie that lead to what the Titans called the 'Halloween incident' when Ravens powers forced her to admit that she felt fear.
Of course that meant that Raven did actually feel which was a very good thing for Beast Boy.
Finally on the edge of downtown Jump City Beast Boy found a little run down looking mom and pop type movie store, the front of the store proudly wore a worn out sign that said Fast Forward Video Shop and had what looked like an old VHS tape next to it.
He wondered if these people knew what a DVD player was but decided to take the chance anyway, after all he couldn't find what he was looking for anywhere else.
Shifting back to himself he pulled open the door and walked in, immediately he was greeted with the smell of old paper or cardboard. Probably the latter since old VHS tapes were sheathed on cardboard covers to protect them. The front desk with a old looking cash register with an older looking man standing behind it was to the left, the checkout desk itself looked like it had seen its share of use, the finish on the corners and around next to the cash register itself was worn almost down to the wood itself.
In front of him and two his right was probably seven or so shelves – some covered with dust – that were holding more VHS tapes than he had ever seen in his lifetime. But to his elation the two first rows seemed to contain more than the rest, and were conciderably thinner, this place did have DVDs.
"Can I help you?" The old man said from behind.
"AHH!" The changeling shrieked as he jumped away, the old man chuckled, "How did you move that fast?"
"I walked." The old man grinned warmly as he leaned on his cane, he had the look of someone who should probably not be working because of age but here he was running the store by himself, his hunched over shoulders slopped down to his thick arms and round belly that were supported by the mans slightly bend legs. His face was as round as his belly and his bald head and cheeks turned pink when he smiled from behind large round glasses. "Is there something I can help you find young one?"
"Green one?" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, "My name is Beast Boy."
"Beast Boy eh?" His old voice cracked, "Parents will name their kids anything these days." He chuckled, it was only then that Beast Boy noticed the man wasn't look at him. Rather the old man was looking through him and his animal instincts instantly told him what was wrong.
"Are you blind?" Beast Boy asked.
"Almost." The man replied never losing his smile, "While I cant see as well as I could when I was young I can still remember what my dear wife looks like and that's what's important."
Beast boy smiled at this.
"Would you like to meet her?" The old man asked.
"Sure!" He said, the other Titans probably wouldn't be getting back to the tower for another twenty minutes so he had time to talk with the nice old people.
"My name is Frank by the way." The old man smiled as he hobbled back to the worn out checkout desk with his cane – which confused Beast Boy because he thought frank was going to go get his wife. But when the old man reached the checkout desk he sat himself comfortably down in his chair behind the desk and opened a drawer underneath the cash register.
After fumbling a moment or two he finally produced a picture in a silver frame which he held out for Beast Boy. On inspection Beast Boy saw that it was a picture of the man himself – though a little younger looking – and a fairly attractive woman both of whom looked in their mid seventies.
"Fifty one years we were married until she passed away last year." The man beamed as if talking about her helped him through the loss of his wife, "I wouldn't trade any of it for the world."
Beast Boy smiled at the picture, it was nice to see that some people in this life had found happiness and could stick with it even if part of that happiness was lost.
"Sorry to be so sentimental, is there a Video I can help you find?" The old man asked after a minute had passed.
"Huh? Oh! Yes actually, I'm looking for something that well, something not for myself." Beast Boy tried to explain as the man patiently listened, "See there's this girl I know who is totally awesome but she's umm…picky, and I'm not sure what kind of movies she would like and she told me she would go on a real date with me if I was able to find a movie we could watch together."
"I see, well I just may be able to help you then, but first I need to know what kind of a personality this special girl has." The old man smiled and rested both hands on his cane.
"Well umm." Beast Boy wracked his brain trying to think of how to describe Raven without saying too much, "She keeps to herself a lot and doesn't really show too much emotions – but when she does its really cool – and umm…I don't know she really just keeps to herself."
"Ahh I see." The blind man said, "DVD or a VHS tape then?"
"DVD." Beast Boy responded immediately.
The man then seemingly looked at the ceiling for a moment before telling him to look for a movie that was on the second row, third shelf, fifteen across from the left side. Beast Boy blinked at the man but then looked where he was told to and after counting fifteen across came across a movie called The Notebook. On reading its description he found that this was a romance and drama movie.
Beast Boy considered the movie for a moment, he never pegged Raven as the romantic type but was willing to give anything a shot at this point, even putting himself through a romance movie.
"You sure?" Beast Boy asked as he brought the movie back to the counter.
"Yes I am, the ones who keep to themselves are usually hopeless romantics and not willing to admit it, I know this because my wife was one at one point in time." The old man smiled.
This gave Beast Boy hope – if this old man could do it then gosh darn it so could he, Beast Boy thanked the old man as he paid the rental fee for the movie then eagerly flew back to Titans Tower to see if Raven was done talking to Ty yet.