Hey everyone! Here's Chapter 24! Hope you enjoy it!
RPGPersona: The situation is certainly coming to a point where help is going to need to be forced rather than welcomed. And quitting cold turkey is rarely helpful, but may be required. It's safe to say that it's a tricky situation, one with no clear answer. Hope you're enjoying the story! :)
Bbrae-4ever fanfics: It was definitely a good thing for her to do! And it's definitely a hard habit to recover from, but very possible at the same time. I wasn't too happy with how short it was, but I feel like some chapters just need to be shorter while others longer. Glad you're enjoying it! :)
Please keep reading and reviewing! I really appreciate it! :)
Despite Raven taking his blade, the urges continued. And whenever the impulse would strike, it needed to be fulfilled. There was no stopping it, no matter how much the team tried. Soon after the destruction of his tool, he found more. He destroyed more pencil sharpeners and stole a knife from the kitchen. Instead of hiding them in his desk like last time, he placed them in much more veiled spaces, and each of them were in separate spots in case one was discovered. A few of the blades were kept hidden underneath the bottom bunk mattress. One was kept in a bedside table. The knife, which was significantly more difficult to hide due to its size, was tucked away in the closet.
Weeks were passing by, each one bringing with it more seclusion and more apprehension. Beast Boy was isolating himself away from the team, even going as far as to isolate himself from Raven. All the team members tried to talk to him. They would stand outside of his door and plead for him to come out. At first, he would respond, sometimes even coming to the door. His responses would be short, no emotion in his voice. They could see the deep bags underneath his eyes from his restless sleeps despite the fact that he would sleep most of the day. They would offer him food, but he would typically decline. Eventually, he stopped responding. If they were persistent enough, they could usually get a muffled response from him, but nothing more. Even though they knew that every day would bring the same response, they still tried endlessly. Every day, Raven would bring a tray of food to Beast Boy's door. The tray would always be taken into the room, the empty tray being placed outside once again.
The team was growing restless with the situation. He was becoming even more secretive. There was always a subtle hint of the smell of blood emanating from his room, as well as the occasional stifled weeping. They had truly believed that he would be willing to open up to them and allow them to help, but with each passing day, they knew that the likelihood of that happening was becoming slimmer and slimmer. It didn't help that there hadn't been any calls from the JCPD in the past few weeks. With no missions or crime to fight, their restless energy was spent in other activities.
Starfire delved into her cooking, constantly trying new Tamaranean recipes for her and her friends to try. There was always an abundance of the pudding of sadness, although Starfire was the only one to consume it. Cyborg spent most of his time down in the garage working on the T-car and other activities. He had originally tried to spend his time playing video games, but he couldn't get into the games knowing that his friend was falling apart. Robin spent most of his time in his office, obsessively going over crime reports from old missions in an attempt to focus his mind on something else. Raven, perhaps arguably the most affected by Beast Boy's seclusion, spent the majority of her time meditating and reading. Her first impulse was to seclude herself as well, locked in her dark room. But she knew that remaining in the presence of the team was important for both her well-being and the well-being of her other teammates. They were all taking the situation difficultly, and none of them had any ideas as to what to do to help. They felt stuck.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of empty, nervous days and weeks, the crime alert rang out through the tower, staining the walls a flashing red. Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven ran into the Main Ops room, finding Robin already at the computer reading over the alarm.
"What's up, Robin?" Cyborg spoke.
"It's André le Blanc. He's robbing a bank downtown," Robin announced. Before he could speak again, the Main Ops room doors swooshed open. All the Titans turned around and stared at the green teen who had entered the room.
"Beast Boy," Raven gasped. All four teens stared wide eyed at Beast Boy, who was just standing in the doorway awkwardly.
The most obvious change in their friend, by far, was his weight. His cheeks were sunken in, his skin pale and dull. His uniform hung off his body loosely. His hair was messy and tangled, and was long enough to start covering his eyes. His eyes looked lifeless yet nervous, darting around from teen to teen before finally settling on something random in the distance. He slowly began to walk to the computer, but kept his distance from the teens. His gait was somewhat shaky, but he held his own nonetheless.
"Friend Beast Boy! It is so good to see you once again!" Starfire said. Unable to hold herself back, she flew rapidly towards the changeling and embraced him in a strong hug, nearly knocking him to the ground. The other three teens approached the two.
"Hey B, it's been awhile," Cyborg said, shocked to see his friend in such a condition.
Beast Boy simply nodded, not speaking.
"Are you planning on coming with us on this mission?" Robin asked, eyeing the frail boy up and down.
"Of course. I'm still a part of this team, aren't I?" he said, his voice was scratchy, as if it hadn't been used much as of late.
"Yes, of course you are. It's just," Robin looked at the other teens briefly before continuing, "We haven't seen you lately and didn't think you'd be up for a mission."
"I'm fine," Beast Boy retorted.
It was beyond obvious that he wasn't fine, but they didn't want to push it into an argument; an argument about this was the last thing that any of them needed.
"Fine. But please try to be careful on this mission," Robin said. He would make sure to look out for his younger teammate during the battle, and he knew the others would as well. He was also aware that it probably wasn't the best idea to allow Beast Boy to come on the mission, but the changeling was so stubborn and fighting with him was basically pointless. "Titans, let's go."
All of the Titans headed out towards the city. Starfire flew ahead, while Robin and Cyborg went in the T-car. Raven and Beast Boy flew out as well, together. They soon arrived at the bank where André le Blanc was illegally taking out money.
"Hon-hon-hon, well if it isn't the Titans," André le Blanc laughed as he saw the Titans approaching him. He was standing in the money vault, quickly filling a white sac to the brim with large bills.
"It's over, André. I suggest you surrender now," Robin stated sternly, eyeing the Frenchman.
"You are no match for moi, Titans!" the Frenchman yelled as he threw the sac over his shoulder and began to run.
"Titans, GO!" Robin yelled, and the teens took off.
Starfire and Raven immediately took to the air and sped towards André le Blanc. Starfire shot starbolts down at the man while he dodged them. Raven encased different large items in the bank in her dark energy and threw them towards him.
"You think you can stop me, but you are wrong!" André laughed once again, making his way towards the bank exit.
Cyborg shot his sonic cannon at the man, knocking him to the ground.
"Sacré bleu!" the Frenchman yelled as he hit the ground in shock. He stood back up shakily, grabbed his money sac once again and continued towards the exit.
Robin threw a birdarang at the man, tearing the money bag. Some of the money started to seep through the hole, but André le Blanc did not notice and continued to the door. Suddenly, the Frenchman stopped cold as he looked up in horror at the empath as she rose up in front of him, eyes glowing. She encased his bag in her energy and removed it from him, leaving him standing there alone. He pulled a rope out of his pocket to throw at the empath, but she encased it as well in her dark energy and tied the man up with it.
"Euh, je suis dans le pétrin," he laughed shakily. He tried to escape from the tightly bound ropes, but could not.
"It's over, André," Robin stated as he stood before the Frenchman on the ground, who pouted at his defeat.
Beast Boy went over to the money that had spilled from the bag and began to pick it up. Once it was all retrieved, he carried it over to the discarded money bag, which he then picked up and handed to a bank security guard. He then rejoined his team as the JCPD handled André le Blanc.
"That was most easy!" Starfire stated happily, clasping her hands in front of her chest. "To celebrate, shall we go out for the pizza?"
"That sounds great, Star," Robin agreed.
"Let's head out then! I could use some pizza," Cyborg stated, and they started heading towards the exit. When they noticed the absence of a certain changeling, they turned back to see him still standing where he was.
"Beast Boy, aren't you coming?" Robin asked, hoping that he would say yes.
"I'm not that hungry. I think I'm just going to head back to the tower," he said. Before he could depart, though, Raven emerged from the ground behind him and began to push him forward towards the rest of the team. His eyes were wide, not expecting the sudden ambush.
"Hungry or not, you're going to eat. You need to get out of your room and be social with us. You can go back to the tower later when we all go back," she said, pushing him until he was standing next to Starfire. Instead of responding, he simple let out a deep breath of defeat.
They started walking towards the pizza parlor. They didn't get far though. After only a few blocks of walking, Raven noticed Beast Boy pale considerably all of the sudden.
"Beast Boy, are you alright?" she asked, latching onto his shoulder. She could feel his body shaking ever so slightly.
"Yeah, I'm fi-ine," he mumbled as he fainted, falling towards the ground. Luckily, Raven caught him before he made contact with the pavement and slowly lowered him to the ground. All the teens crouched around him, surprise and concern covering their faces.
"What has happened?" Starfire asked nervously.
Cyborg scanned Beast Boy's body with his arm scanner, looking for any abnormalities in his health.
"Think he just passed out. Probably from hunger or dehydration," the metal man said. "We need to get him back to the tower. I need to put an IV line in him."
Cyborg picked up his friend as Raven created a portal to the tower. All the teens stepped through it and into the Main Ops room. Cyborg immediately began heading to the infirmary, the other teens following closely behind. As soon as he made it to the room, Cyborg set the smaller boy onto a table and brought an IV stand closer to him. He began to prepare the saline drip and the needle as the other teens stood off near the wall closest to Beast Boy.
Cyborg approached Beast Boy's unconscious body, IV drip ready. He grabbed one of his arms and paused for a moment. He took a deep breath to prepare for what he was about to potentially see before rolling the sleeve up. No amount of preparation could have readied him for what was under the sleeve; there was a collective gasp from all the teens.
Beast Boy's arm, which was much thinner than normal, was covered in cuts. The green skin was angry and crimson, some areas purple and bruised. Some of the wounds were very deep, exposing thin layers of fat underneath. Beast Boy had obviously tried to keep care with those more serious wounds, as there were band aids placed on top of those, attempting to pull the meat back together. Other wounds were not as deep, but they were plentiful. There seemed to be hundreds of the smaller wounds littered up and down his arm. They even traveled up onto his bicep. They imagined they traveled up higher onto his shoulder, but it was still covered by his uniform.
"Ah man," Cyborg uttered quietly, not expecting to see his friend's injuries to the extent that they were at. He began to place the IV line into the crook of Beast Boy's elbow, easily finding a vein. He started pumping the saline through the dehydrated and malnourished boy. He then moved over to a medical cabinet and started rummaging through the contents, soon finding the materials he needed. He walked back over to his friend and started sanitizing and prepping his arm, as well as giving him a general anesthetic so that he wouldn't wake up during the procedure. "He needs stitches."
He started to stitch up the deeper wounds, and after quite some time, one arm was completed. He then moved to the other arm and pulled up that sleeve. It looked to be about the same as the previous arm. He sanitized and stitched up those wounds as well.
"Raven, do you know if he does this in any other spots besides his arms?" Cyborg asked.
"I know he's done it on his thighs before, but otherwise, no. I don't know of other spots," she replied.
Cyborg pulled down Beast Boy's pants just enough to see onto his thighs. They had some wounds as well, but not nearly as many that were on his arms.
"He's going to need stitches here as well," he said gravely. Cyborg got the changeling's thighs exposed and ready for stitches while making sure that more private areas on the boy's lower body were covered. Since there were fewer wounds on his thighs, the stitches didn't take nearly as long. Before he put away his medical supplies, Cyborg briefly checked over the rest of his body to see if there were any more wounds, but he couldn't find any. "He should wake up in a few hours. When he does, I'll administer a pain medication so he doesn't feel the stitches too much."
"I'll stay with him," Raven said, choosing to take watch. The other teens nodded solemnly and headed out of the infirmary. Raven took a seat next to Beast Boy and held one of his hands in between both of hers. She laid her head down on his chest and lightly stroked her thumb across the back of his hand. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest underneath her head, and it slowly lulled her into a restless sleep.