Hello to my readers, new and old. It is fantastic to be posting something again. Sorry for the delay. I wish I could promise a swift update. However, the wrestling season has just picked up, and my free time has just become even more restricted. But enough of that. This story (as I have mentioned before) is coming to a close. I see a maximum of three more posts on the horizon, but one or two is much more likely. Thanks for joining me for the ride, hope you had fun. Of course, we're not done yet - I'm just giving ample heads-up; it makes me sad when a story ends without it being obvious that it's on the way. I'm weird, I know...
Enjoy. And please remember that constructive criticism makes me glow inside.Smile for the Camera
Beast Boy sat cross-legged as the pixilated screen recounted hour after hour of security footage. The changeling hadn't known Cyborg installed extra cameras and sound equipment, but he was thankful for it; it would help with the counter-documentary, especially now that Drew and Sarah Rose weren't with them anymore.
Robin had shown unbelievable fortitude against Stewart's barbed questions. Seeing and hearing the Boy Wonder in action was awe-inspiring. Beast Boy had respected the legendary Robin when they first met. Then he got to know him. The respect had built up over the years, and it was finally, once again, what it should be. Robin was a hero and a genius in every sense of the word.
Starfire and Cyborg hadn't been able to get away with much, their shadows were far too watchful. Still, they had both helped in their own ways. As he watched, Beast Boy found himself wondering how he could have thought only Raven and he were fighting back. Starfire had saved him when he'd moved the file cabinet to his room, and Cyborg had distracted his shadow for hours. Looking at the time stamp, Beast Boy realized it was one of the days Raven and Sarah Rose had gone in search of Sawchak.
The recorded sound bytes came from the computer in gargled fits of white noise. The video lagged. Still, it was something. Cyborg fast-forwarded through the nights and slow points; he'd seen all the footage before apparently and knew what was important. They had been watching the tapes for a couple of hours before Beast Boy heard something scraping across the rock.
The changeling picked his ears up, turning toward the only opening in the cavern. He waited. There was a soft clattering of stone as dislodged rocks were kicked across the irregular tunnel floor. Beast Boy cut his hand through the air, and Cyborg muted the surveillance records.
Beast Boy narrowed his eyes at the only entrance into the base. It was also the only exit: they were trapped. Whoever was coming down the passage wasn't familiar with it. The footfalls were often followed by clattering stone, and every step was taken slowly.
Starfire smiled brightly and zipped into the tunnel. "Raven! We were most concerned about you," the Tamaranian called moments later. Beast Boy felt his spirits lift. Raven said something in response, but even Beast Boy's ears couldn't discern what the demoness was saying. Seconds later Starfire and Raven stepped into the cavern.
"You," Raven said while jabbing a finger at Beast Boy, "are an idiot." Beast Boy gaped at the empath; he couldn't remember doing anything wrong. Raven looked annoyed but otherwise unharmed. There was a black bag draped over each of her shoulders. Beast Boy recognized them as the same casing Drew and Sarah Rose used for their cameras.
He chuckled. "So you, um… got the cameras?" The changeling could feel the intensity of Raven's glare. She had a right to be annoyed. Beast Boy had bolted at the first chance he got, but he'd left both Drew and the camera behind. Drew was trustworthy, Beast Boy was positive of that, but the footage was incriminating beyond reason. Raven swung the cameras off her shoulders and handed them to Cyborg. The metallic teen took them without argument.
"Raven," Robin asked when he saw the cameras, "how did you manage to get those?"
The empath smirked. "Sarah Rose and Drew both gave them to me. They'll go to Stewart when they wake up with a very convincing story about how Beast Boy and I attacked them. We'll take a hit in the documentary, but it buys us time in the long-term."
"Sounds like it's the short-term we should be worried about," Cyborg observed. He was sitting on a ratty couch with the cameras next to him. The sofa was one of the only pieces of furniture down here.
"Cyborg is correct," Starfire sighed. Beast Boy frowned; Starfire sighing had never been a good sign to him. "If I were to assume the role of the Sawchak or Stewart, I would do my best to get news of your assault spread quickly." The Tamaranian princess locked her hands together in front of her and stared at them contemplatively. "You did not damage them, did you, Raven?"
"Not more than I had to," Raven responded. Robin threw the empath a glare that she happily returned. "I know it isn't a perfect sequence of events," Raven said, "but it's the best we could do. Nothing will change our position so we just need to deal with it. Now that we can move freely, we need to take full advantage of that freedom."
Robin crossed his arms across his chest. "Now that we're all AWOL, Stewart is going to move as quickly as possible to finish his documentary. If Drew and Sarah Rose say they were attacked when you and Beast Boy escaped then it's going to smear the entire team!"
"Temporarily," Beast Boy said. The changeling cut his hand through the air to keep Robin from speaking. "We'll all look temporarily bad. Big deal! We knew that would happen anyway – that isn't Raven's fault. Or Cyborg's," Beast Boy added when the acrobat turned to the oldest Titan.
"B's got a point, man," Cyborg said. "Right now we just need to work as hard as Stewart. Both versions need to get out at the same time. Then the public can make their own decisions."
Beast Boy could tell Robin didn't like the idea (Beast Boy wasn't too fond of it himself) but it was the best they had. In the end, the people would have to choose which version of events they trusted. Most of them would take a little of both. Beast Boy resolved to never look at a blog or a fanfiction about the Titans again. That was a branch of speculation he didn't want polluting his head.
Beast Boy hopped over the back of the couch and landed on the cushions. There was a loose spring somewhere, and it jabbed against him until he moved. Beast Boy didn't know what made him look over at Raven, but when the changeling glanced at the empath she was smiling. Her lips barely moved as she mouthed two words: thank you.
ooooo
Beast Boy woke up the next morning stiff. He'd fallen asleep as a cat and spent most of the night curled in a ball. The green kitten yawned widely and unfurled. It stretched out its legs and arched its back. Moments later, Beast Boy was picking himself off his hands and knees.
Beast Boy yawned and looked around the cavernous base. There was a steady click of plastic on plastic coming from the corner. When the green elf glanced in the sound's direction he saw Raven levitating off the floor. Her cape flowed gracefully around her slender frame and pooled on the floor. Floppy disks swathed in black magic were flying from cardboard boxes and arranged themselves in piles. Raven's sorting was the only sound save occasional whirring from the computer. It was taking the film off the stolen cameras and transferring it to an electronic medium. Beast Boy started when he realized Raven was the only person down here with him.
He took a moment to wake up before calling out. "Rae, where's everyone else?" His voice came out in a horrible croak, and Beast Boy swallowed. Raven finished looking at a floppy disk's title before sending it to one of the growing piles.
"There was an emergency. Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg are on the surface taking care of it," Raven intoned without turning around. Her voice sounded strained.
"Why aren't you up there helping?" Beast Boy asked hesitantly. "Why aren't I?" he added as the question popped into his head. Raven pivoted in the air. Her cloak slithered across the stone floor like a python. Her face was pale, and Beast Boy felt his heart jar as a flicker of pain shifted behind Raven's eyes.
"We're both wanted for aggravated assault," Raven said. Her features were composed, but Beast Boy could see something inside Raven, something timeless and enduring, being chipped away. "I have a history of violent behavior," Raven said, her voice threatening to crack, "and you've been known to be unruly and volatile."
Beast Boy felt his stomach clenching, and he was thankful he hadn't eaten recently. He felt frozen; his emotions churned violently within him yet his body, his mind, refused to acknowledge what he had heard, what he felt. The changeling stared at Raven, hoping she would smile brightly and laugh about the priceless look on his face. Instead, she gestured to a newspaper resting a few feet from him.
The paper had obviously been thrown (there were loose comic strips scattered around it) but the front cover leered at Beast Boy. A photographed Raven smirked in black and white, her body hovering feet from the ground while deadly tendrils shot from the frame and grabbed someone. At the time it had been Dr. Light. Beast Boy doubted the spin mentioned that. Another picture of Raven, this time dressed completely in white, showed a little girl trapped inside a mechanical monstrosity as Raven crushed it. There were tears in the girl's eyes.
Beast Boy shuddered and allowed his eyes to pan across the cover. Just as he'd expected, there were pictures of him as well. Pictures of Beast Boy morphed into an unknown creature and scaling an office building while his teammates attacked him. Pictures of Beast Boy hanging around Murakami High in the bushes, outside the grounds, in front of the girl's bathroom. Bile rose in Beast Boy's throat as he mechanically reached for the paper.
"Don't," Raven whispered. It sounded like she was pleading, but Beast Boy couldn't stop himself. His hand closed around the page, and Raven shouted. The paper was engulfed in freezing black magic and instantly shredded. Beast Boy let go of the newspaper with a yelp and watched the scraps wither on the floor.
Beast Boy glanced up at Raven, half-expecting her to attack him. Her eyes were closed; her shoulders were tensed. Raven was hurting. Beast Boy gaped at the shredded paper – both for what had happened to it and the why behind it. Soundlessly, Beast Boy rose to his feet and walked over to Raven. The green elf reached Raven's side and collapsed next to her. He had spent so many years trying to be more than a freak people feared – all of the Titans had struggled to prove themselves to the city. To the world. And it looked like it was all being undone.
Beast Boy grasped Raven's cloak and pulled it down. She opened her eyes and scowled at the changeling before allowing herself to be pulled from her hovering stance. Beast Boy waited for Raven to sit next to him before draping his arm across her shoulders.
"I'm fine, Beast Boy," Raven said. Her voice was tight.
Beast Boy nodded and stared at the opposite wall. "No you're not. But this is for me," he said. Raven shifted under his arm, and he grabbed a fistful of her cloak. The empath sighed and leaned into Beast Boy, taking as much comfort from him as he was getting from her. They sat like that in silence: Beast Boy's arm around Raven, Raven's head on Beast Boy's shoulder, and both too devastated to care about their position.
"It's hard to imagine that works," Beast Boy said. Raven nodded against his shoulder but didn't speak. "I mean, we've done so much. And everybody has just… turned on us."
"They haven't," Raven answered. Her voice lacked conviction, but her tone was steady. "This is only temporary, you said so yourself last night. People will remember the good things we've done once the public outcry dies down. Until then…" Raven tapered off and waved at their underground lair. Beast Boy wished Raven sounded more certain.
The changeling frowned at the bland stone cavern and looked to the boxes next to him. They were stuffed with floppy disks, each bearing Robin's unique scribble. The elf craned his neck to read the titles. Every disk had a date and a Titan's name on it. They were color-coded – blue, black, red – but Beast Boy didn't know which color meant what.
Raven felt him shift and lifted her head off his shoulders. The abandoned shoulder felt cold, and Beast Boy fought the instinct to shiver. "We shouldn't make a habit of that," Raven said as she scooted away from Beast Boy. He frowned.
"Those are the records not logged in the tower," Raven continued as if nothing happened. She waved her hand, and a stack of the disks was embraced by her powers. They flew toward her and landed in her lap. The first disk had Raven's name on it, and, judging by the sorting she'd been doing, the ones under it were also hers. "I figured these records would be more accurate than the ones in the archives, because of the censoring Robin did on the official reports. I…"
"Needed to see what actually happened," Beast Boy finished for her. Raven nodded. The article written about them was obviously horrible if it shook Raven. Nothing ever got under her skin. "Did you see any about me?" Beast Boy asked. Raven dipped her head somberly in the direction of a large stack of disks.
"Blue are missions you did well. Black are neutral. And red are screw ups," Raven supplied without being asked. Beast Boy's eyes widened. It was a wonder Robin ever got to sleep. Or eat. Or use the bathroom. Beast Boy reached for the stack Raven had indicated, but his reach fell short. Scowling, the changeling got to his feet and walked to the pile.
Beast Boy scooped up the records and gauged the ratio of colors. Most of them were black. The elf slumped down next to Raven and flipped through the disks. The past months had a lot of blues, due in no small part to Beast Boy's development during the Brotherhood of Evil conflict. The changeling smiled faintly at the disks before setting them aside. The red disks were what he was interested it; his failures suddenly held a morbid fascination for the shape-shifter. Since this whole mess with Sawchak started with one of Beast Boy's mistakes, he found that appropriate.
Beast Boy frowned at the red disks, shuffling through them for earlier dates. Finally he found a familiar one: the date matched the fire that killed Sawchak's sister. Raven didn't look up from her own disks; she was too absorbed to notice when Beast Boy stood and walked to the computer.
Beast Boy managed to pause the film download after a little tinkering, and the computer purred to a halt. He could resume the process when he was done. Beast Boy found the A drive easily and popped the disk in. The computer winked at him before the screen loaded. The file was divided into multiple sections: demeanor, response, combat, and technique. Beast Boy quirked a brow at demeanor; he'd never known Robin was giving him a hero grade.
He ignored that file and clicked on response. The file had only a single Word document in it, and Beast Boy read it quickly. Apparently, he'd switched the broad channel transmission off and only contacted Starfire that day so many years ago. Beast Boy moved to combat only to find it empty. That was no real surprise, there had been no fighting. Beast Boy swallowed the lump in his throat and opened technique.
The folder was stuffed. Beast Boy remembered waking up in Titan's Tower and having private training lessons with Robin. He hadn't known it was all recorded. Spreadsheets, graphs, analysis, all of it was mapped out – from how long he could maintain an elephant's form under stress to how slow his transformations became when he was tired. Beast Boy popped the disk out and twirled it between his fingers. He hadn't given Robin enough credit: it was a little creepy, but it was way useful.
"So what do we do now?" Beast Boy asked. The question wasn't directed at anyone and he got no answer. "Raven?" Beast Boy asked. The changeling turned around to see Raven shuffling red disks together in her hands, utterly oblivious to the world around her. "Raven," Beast Boy said again.
"I don't know, Beast Boy. I've tried and it hasn't been enough. There are probably all sorts of people on the surface with cameras and helicopters: we can't leave. The others won't come back until they're sure it's safe. We're stuck down here, and I don't know what we should do." Her shoulders slumped; her eyes glazed over.
"Well, if you don't have an idea and I don't have an idea… can we just talk?" Beast Boy asked hopefully. The elf slipped the disk into his pocket and slid down to the floor. He crossed his legs and stared at Raven.
"I'd rather not, Beast Boy," Raven said.
"For starters," Beast Boy said, ignoring Raven's comment; the empath gritted her teeth, "did you have any clue Robin spent so much time on records? I had no clue. I mean, man… it's frightening."
Raven took a deep breath and answered levelly. She was stuck down here with Beast Boy anyway; it made sense to make the best of it. "I did know," she said. "In fact, Starfire and I have been trying to get him to stop." She caught Beast Boy's expression and added, "I know – it'll never work. That's why were just trying to come up with a more time-efficient system."
"Man! I miss all the good stuff. When were you guys going to tell me? I can help," Beast Boy said. Raven eyed him skeptically, and he added, "I would try." Raven's lips curled up and she quickly mastered her facial muscles. Otherwise, Beast Boy might make the mistake of thinking he was funny.
"We weren't going to tell you. The last thing we needed was for you and Cyborg to turn the whole thing into a game of insults and blackmail." Beast Boy looked up with mock-hurt etched onto his face. Raven ignored him. "Robin needs to loosen up and stop treating himself and the team like a lab experiment. He does not need jabs about how he should get a girlfriend."
"I'm shocked, Raven, that you think so little of Cyborg and me – even if Robin really needs to get a girlfriend." Raven rolled her eyes, and Beast Boy chuckled weakly. "Okay, so we would totally dangle it over his head forever… but, but we would wait until he was unpsychotic. We do have some common sense and decency."
"I'll vouch for the second one," Raven sighed, "but I cannot support a claim of common sense from a man who just created the adjective unpsychotic." Beast Boy smirked at Raven: her brooding expression had lightened, and there was the tinniest flicker in her eyes that said a smile was fighting to escape her lips. And she'd called him a man. Then what she said registered.
"You mean unpsychotic isn't a word?" The elf's ears wilted. That had been one of the fanciest words in his vocabulary. And apparently it wasn't a word. He shook his head, disappointed, before looking up at Raven. His expression seemed to say "Oh, well."
Raven put her hand to her forehead and inhaled. "No, Beast Boy, unpsychotic is not a word."
"Well, I tried, right?" Beast Boy grinned. "That has to be worth something, eh, Rae." The half-demon smiled. The cavern seemed to brighten to Beast Boy. The stone was more comfortable to sit on; the chill disappeared like a fly before a flyswatter; the oppressive atmosphere, the knowledge that he couldn't leave because no one on the outside would believe – let alone understand – what was happening, vanished like the numbness from recently gloved hands.
"Maybe… if you don't blow it," Raven answered vaguely. Her smile slipped away, but Beast Boy saw the meaning behind the gesture. It was a fleeting thing and he almost missed it, but the second Beast Boy saw just how grateful Raven was, he felt like a helium balloon. The demoness had been miserable, crushed by cruel propaganda and old mistakes. Beast Boy had taken them all away and scattered them to the wind… even if only for a moment, and Raven had repaid him with a smile. A real smile.
The two sat in amiable silence, stealing looks at each other and looking away again. Beast Boy felt like something important had just happened between Raven and him. The changeling couldn't have been more right. The silence stretched on in one of those rare extended silences that communicate more than words. What neither Titan realized was that they were being watched. The little red light hovered in the entranceway to the cave. With a small click, the camera switched off.
Author's Note: Well, I hope everybody is enjoying. Regardless, if you could, take a moment to tell me what you enjoyed and what you didn't like. Look for the next update by the end of November. It might not be there, but keep your eyes open. And, of course, happy Halloween!
