Disclaimer: I still don't own the Teen Titans.

Ascension of the Beast

Chapter VII

Passio Eius Pt 3 — Farewell To Childhood

"...so for the next seven months they worked with him to help him gain greater control of his powers."

"Seven months? Why did they stop?" Raven at this point knew that she probably wasn't going to like the answer, and Busara's depressed sigh and frown confirmed that it probably wasn't going to be pleasant, but she needed to know. "What happened?"

Busara didn't answer but instead gestured toward the screen. The title card for this clip indicated that the events of this memory took place seven months after the previous memory, in the Mtokifo District of Upper Lamumba. Gar's parents were loading up a boat with supplies, while Garfield seemed pretty happy about they trip they were going to take. "There was an isolated population of mountain gorillas downstream which Marie wanted to study. Since the Sakutia project was on hold and Dr. Register had been recalled to the States, Mark decided it would be a good time to take the trip his wife wanted to take," Busara noted.

"Baba," the effect that living in Africa had on young Garfield was clear in his use of the Swahili 'Baba' and 'Mama' in addressing his parents even in English, "when are we gonna go?" The boy was more than a little bored as his parents loaded up the boat, but he was also very anxious to get going. The boy had always loved wildlife, and it appeared that in his youth Garfield had a special disposition toward primates. He was clearly very excited at the opportunity to see gorillas in their natural environment—a fact which was driven home by his jumping and screams of joy when Mark finally told him it was time to go.

The river was rather wide, with perhaps 500 feet or so separating its banks even at this point far upstream. That said, it was difficult to determine its normal size just from this memory, as the grass sticking out of the water showed that it was riding higher than normal. The river obviously carried more than its fair share of sediment, as the water had a very dark grayish-brown tone which was nearly black. Near the banks, deadheads could be seen just barely poking above the water's surface, which was really not surprising given that the river seemed to be surrounded mostly by dense jungle. Perhaps more foreboding was the fact that, if they looked very closely, one could see the flow separation created in the water by the presence of deadheads and boulders which were now just barely under the surface and, thanks to the river's height and murkiness, otherwise invisible.

The boat wasn't tiny, yet it wasn't overwhelmingly huge either. It was basically a 20-foot motorboat, driven by twin outboard motors. The boat seemed to be quite new and looked moderately expensive. Raven was almost certain that either the Logans or S.T.A.R. Labs had imported it into Lamumba from either North America or Western Europe, most likely for transportation up and down the rivers where they were required to head out into the field in areas where there were no roads. However, the outboard motors, together with the known navigation hazards and the fact that every memory she was being shown was important, were causing Raven to feel a sense of impending doom.

As Mark piloted the boat, his wife was working on their son's education. Marie and Gar were sitting in the back of the boat, the woman pointing out animals and quizzing her son about them. "Okay Gar," she pointed at a bird flying parallel to the boat, "what kind of bird is that?"

The boy paused initially, carefully observing the black bird flying above them and by their side. "It's a fan-tailed raven," the boy responded, to which his mother smiled and nodded. "It's a member of the crow family and it lives in Arabia and East Africa. It eats opportunestly..."

"Opportunistically," Marie corrected her son. Apparently this was more than just a zoology lesson, as the woman seemed quite intent on building Gar's English vocabulary as well.

"Yeah, opportun-ist-ic-al-ly," Garfield sounded out the word slowly to make sure he'd said it right. "It croaks like a frog, and it's like one of the smallest birds people call ravens."

"Very good, Gar," Marie commended her son's display of knowledge on the subject. "Why is it unusual that we're seeing it right now?" Marie gave her son a bonus question.

"Two reasons, mama," Garfield began, "because they usually like to stay in deserts, and because they don't usually live this far south." Raven was impressed to see that Garfield was so intelligent as a small child, but this revelation raised more than a few questions. She chose, however, not to ask Busara about it, and presumed that Akili's currently silent nature may have something to do with explaining the infrequency of Gar's exposition of any sort of intellectual prowess.

Marie looked ahead, trying to find an animal to point out which her son would have time to identify. "Okay, what's that?" she asked while pointing at a medium-sized antelope which was standing on the river bank, apparently taking a drink from the river. Garfield almost didn't get a chance to see it before they passed by it.

"Um," the boy hesitated for a moment, "a duiker?" He was correct, but it wouldn't matter much. Before his mother had a chance to reply, the boat was rocked by a sudden very hard shudder. The boat had apparently struck one of the navigational hazards hiding beneath the raised surface of the river. The hull wasn't pierced, but one of the outboard motors was torn entirely off the boat and the other's propeller was disfigured to the point of being completely worthless.

"Marie, come here," Mark said, in a voice that, although he seemed to be trying to keep a degree of stoic strength to it, nevertheless betrayed that something was very wrong. Marie immediately went to the boats cockpit, where she and her husband had a conversation which Gar couldn't hear. Nevertheless, the looks on their faces betrayed a sense of deep sorrow and concern.

They tried to stay strong for their son as they approached him. "Gar, baby," Marie Logan was finding it particularly difficult to speak without breaking into tears. "We n-need you to do something for us," her effort to maintain a strong front failed as she said it. Mark would have to take over.

"Son," the man was also finding the situation painfully difficult. "I need you to do your mother and I a big favor, okay?" he said, his voice in a loving tone. "We...we need you to change into a bird and fly away. Fly to shore, and be safe."

"Why?" Garfield, even at such a young age, could tell that something was wrong. His parents would never leave him behind. "What's wrong?"

"Just please do it, son," Mark was now finding it nearly impossible himself to hold the tears back. "Get away from here, and try to find your way back to Tawaba, he'll take care of you." Both Mark and Marie wrapped their arms around their son, but Mark was still the only one of his parents who could find the strength to hold back the tears long enough to speak. "Go, and remember we'll always love you. We'll always be with you." Mark was unable to hold the tears back any longer, and they soon streamed down his cheeks.

"It'll be okay, baby," Marie found the strength to say in a voice so sweet, one would not be able to tell she'd been crying without having seen it. "Please be safe. We love you," the woman gave her son a final kiss on the cheek. "Please go. Please be safe."

Garfield seemed to know now that this was a life-threatening situation. He really didn't want to leave his parents there. He really wanted to figure out a way to save them. But they were telling him to go with such urgency, he had to comply. He morphed into the first bird he could think of—the most recent bird he had seen. A moment later, a green fan-tailed raven took to the sky.

As he got into the air, he realized what the problem was. There was a waterfall a half mile downstream, and, with no working motors, the boat was a dead stick. Garfield frantically tried to think of a way to save his parents, as he circled the boat in the air. Every second now felt like an hour to him, but, since he couldn't find any way to save them, this ended up being the most tortuous moments of his entire life. As the boat went over the falls, Raven could feel as her friend's heart broke. The terror, the pain, the sorrow, the guilt—all these things which he had been feeling flooded over her.

As Gar flew down to the base of the falls, Raven could feel as his hope died. Mark and Marie Logan were dead. Their son flew to the nearest bank and returned to his human form; the only thing he could do now was cry. As the boy lied on the side of the river, crying himself to sleep, Raven's own emotions began to strengthen. Her mind couldn't get away from the thought that no one deserved that—especially someone as sweet as her Garfield. Normally the stoic, Raven found herself crying as the scene faded; and the odd thing was that she couldn't attribute it solely to his emotions—her emotions were driving her to tears just as much. "G-Gaaaar," she managed between her sobs, "w-why didn't y-you tell m-me?"

She hoped that was the last traumatic memory...oh, how did she hope it was, but her hopes were for naught. After Garfield woke from his tear-soaked slumber, he did as his parents had requested—he found his way back to Tawaba's village. The King took Garfield in as if he were one of his own, and this seemed to give the boy an elevated position in the village's society. Not that he noticed, of course, as he was still very much despondent from the death of his parents, and guilt-ridden from his inability to save them.

By the time of his seventh birthday, his emotional state had still made little perceivable progress. His once and future sunny disposition was completely absent. He was like a kid who...well, just lost his parents. Jelani seemed to have been set straight from his previous betrayal, and Mosi was as always supportive of the younger boy. However, the efforts of Tawaba and his family to raise Garfield's spirits had generally failed.

The court of King Tawaba had two resident shamans. The elder of the two was Mobu, who appeared to absolutely despise the green child. The younger of the two, Kweli, had the precise opposite disposition toward Garfield—he adored the boy, and added his efforts to assist the King's family in trying to bring him out of his depressed state. "Why do the holy men have such different opinions of Gar?" Raven asked. "I mean, I swear the older one looks like he hates him with an unholy passion, while the younger one seems to love him like a son."

"Mobu was a jealous and insecure man," Busara replied. "He was jealous of the esteem the King had for the Logan family and felt threatened by the scientific knowledge Mark and Marie brought to the village. His hatred for Mark and Marie transferred over to Garfield, especially after Garfield was welcomed into the King's household." Busara paused for a moment, clearing her throat. "Mobu ultimately ended up feeling that the Logan family's enjoyment of so much royal favor was diminishing his own influence over the King, and he was a self-serving hypocrite."

"Okay, that answer's half of the question," Raven responded, taking particular note of the fact that Busara had not answered why Kweli liked Gar so much. "What's with the other one, then?"

"Kweli, for one thing, has always been a tolerant and kind man," Busara's reply indicated more than ample respect for the man, "and he's always tended to strive toward embodying African ideals like, for lack of a better example, Ubuntu. Even though, Ubuntu—or Utu, as the Swahili cognate to the Nguni term would be—is more of a philosophy common to Southern Africa than to Eastern Africa...but it's not foreign to Lamumba by any means."

Raven was somewhat confused. "I recognize that you're the embodiment of Gar's wisdom and that Gar has a lot of respect for my intellect, but I need to remind you that I'm not omniscient," she tried to remind Busara that there were in fact things she wouldn't be aware of, "and I'm mildly ashamed to say that Sub-Saharan African is not exactly my strong point. What, exactly, does Ubuntu/Utu mean?"

"The most direct translation into English would be 'humanness' or 'humanity'," Busara said, in a manner most accommodating to Raven's needs. "In terms of the idea represented, it encourages mutual understanding, reconciliation, mediation, tolerance, good attitudes, and so forth, while discouraging vindication, estrangement, confrontation, cruelty, etc. It also defines justice in restorative, rather than retributive, terms. So, more or less, it's an ideal which encourages compassion and basic human respect."

"Sounds a lot like Gar," Raven stated, as much to herself as to Busara. Those were all qualities that, she had to admit, she'd seen in her green friend for as long as she'd known him—from his immediate and complete acceptance of everyone else on the day they met, in complete disregard of the flaws that had caused them all to be ostracized from society, all the way to the more contemporary hospitality he was showing her and Cyborg. She especially noted that, for all the overreactions and insults (many of which being more playful, but she had to admit there were occasionally some which could be construed as malicious) she had thrown his way over the years, she could only think of one time in which he'd shown any real form of rage toward her—when he was under the influence of the chemicals which caused the first corporeal appearance of the Beast.

"Kweli had a small influence on Garfield, and large influence on Tawaba," Busara explained, "who, in turn, had a lot of influence on Garfield." Busara paused for a moment, apparently recalling something. "There was another reason for Kweli's positive interest in Gar, although I'm not entirely sure of the specifics. It had something to do with Gar's morphing abilities. Upper Lamumba has its own religion, distinct from any of the faiths of other Swahili-speaking peoples. It's heavily based on nature worship, so it's certainly possible that Kweli saw Gar's morphing powers as a sign of divinity, or something along those lines."

As she directed her eyes back toward the screen, Raven saw a sight which made her feel apprehensive to say the least. It was apparently night time, but it seemed the village was having a great celebration of some sort, and Garfield was alone until Mobu approached him. The shaman said something, apparently in a successful effort to entice the boy to go with him. As they left the village, they were joined by two white men, who, Busara informed Raven, were treasure hunters and thieves. "Mobu promised them he'd show them the location of the legendary city of Majumbamawe and its treasure-filled temples if they killed Garfield."

Raven was immediately shocked by the revelation. How could a supposed holy man ever go to the point of conspiring to kill a child just because of some petty worries about declining influence? Raven's emotions were beginning to go crazy again: Timid was terrified, Happy's smile had faded, Brave's head was down, and Rage was muttering about how worthless and excuse for a sentient being Mobu was. But she knew that the green boy would ultimately survive this close encounter with death, so she focused on the object of a bit of curiosity instead. "Majumbamawe?"

"It's an ancient city," Busara said, "or, at least it's supposed to be. The legend is that Majumbamawe was the capital of a pre-colonial kingdom of the same name, which encompassed all of present-day Lamumba, as well as large areas of surrounding territories. The legend also tells that Tawabas ancestors were the Kings of Majumbamawe. However, the Europeans never set eyes on the city—the prevailing wisdom is that it never existed, but the legend says that when the Europeans arrived, the leadership of the kingdom knew from the experiences of other peoples what was going to happen, and chose to abandon the city and allow the jungle to reclaim it in order to protect the priceless treasures kept in its palaces and temples." It appeared, from the way Busara was talking, that Garfield himself wasn't certain whether or not the city actually existed.

Mobu had led Garfield and the men into a small tunnel, presumably leading to one of the temples. The corrupt shaman then stopped and demanded that the men fulfill their end of the bargain and kill the boy, refusing to lead them any further if they didn't. They refused, demanding that they be shown the treasure first. The ensuing argument evolved into a physical struggle and Mobu was pushed into one of the tunnel's supports. As the support gave out, the tunnel caved in, killing Mobu and nearly killing Garfield as well, if not for the intervention of the men who were supposed to kill him.

These men, however, were anything but guardian angels. The only reason they took him was because they figured that without the treasure, at least they could try to gain profit from selling him to human traffickers. Before that plan was fulfilled, however, Garfield made the mistake of allowing them to witness him morphing. The men quickly realized what kind of asset this could be and began grooming him to use his morphing powers to infiltrate buildings and stealthily steal valuable items.

The conditions under which Gar was kept were horrifying, however. He was a slave—there was simply no other word for it, and even that word does not seem to carry the appropriate emotional weight. The men subjected the boy to routine physical assaults, beating him with fists and whips, shocking him with shock collars and cattle prongs, and threatening to kill him if he ever even considered going to the police. As Raven saw the unfolding horror, she could not keep her eyes focused on the screen very long. Her human instincts made her feel sick to her stomach upon witnessing such cruelty committed against such an innocent and sweet young child. Her stoic front failed again, as the tears rolled down her cheeks like twin waterfalls. Rage was demanding the men's complete physical and spiritual annihilation—no one should ever do that to her Garfield.

Eventually, the men decided that Africa didn't have enough wealth for their perfect operation, so they smuggled the boy into Europe. The men began sending their little green slave after targets of increasingly high value. By the age of eight, Garfield had quite a track record of robbing some of Europe's most opulent museums and displays.

With greater wealth of pickings, however, fate intervened in the boy's case once again. After having stolen some very expensive items from the Louvre, deliverance from slavery came. His masters were not well equipped to deal with the psychological strain of wealth. Paranoia began to set in—paranoia which was, luckily enough, directed against each other rather than the boy. One night not long after the Louvre heist, the men began to argue with each other—each accusing the other of skimming more than his share from the proceeds. The argument turned to fisticuffs, then weapons were drawn. In the end, the criminals killed each other and Garfield was free.

The boy was able to eventually find his way to the United States Embassy in Paris. After recalling his incredible story to the stunned embassy staff, he requested to be sent back to Tawaba's village in Lamumba. However, given that he was a United States citizen, the State Department was dead set on returning him to the United States. Instead, he was sent to California and placed in the care of a man by the name of Nicholas Galtry.

Galtry was Mark Logan's half-brother and a skilled attorney. However, from first sight, something about him seemed sinister to Raven. He seemed like a cold man, who really didn't care the slightest about Gar. Indeed, he didn't even seem to really know Garfield's name; Galtry called him by the name 'Craig'. But the truly concerning thing was that, while Garfield was in Galtry's care, a series of "accidents" occurred. In each case, Garfield only avoided death by the skin of his teeth. Was the boy the unluckiest child ever to walk the Earth, or was something else going on?

One fateful day, Galtry had taken Gar with him on a business trip to Midway City, Michigan. Here, Garfield once more just barely avoided injury in what would have been a fatal "accident," but this particular incident would change everything. Garfield finally became fed up with Galtry's complete lack of concern for his well-being, so he ran away.

After a couple of days wandering the streets, Gar encountered a building which would forever change his life. Sandwiched in between Slumville and the Downtown Financial District and not far from the MCPD headquarters building, there was a Victorian mansion surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers. Garfield was familiar enough with the famous superheroes of the world to recognize this building: it was the headquarters of the Doom Patrol. At that moment, he decided he would not rest until the Doom Patrol accepted him as a member.

The boy took to the form of a small rodent and snuck into the building. For several days, the team attempted to capture him, as he took multiple forms (including his normal human form). Initially, the Doom Patrol were not too keen on the intruder's presence, but as he proved next to impossible to catch, they quickly gained a large amount of respect for him. They finally capitulated after a few days, but the conversation they had with the boy left them with a problem. His guardian did seem like a very suspicious individual, but Garfield was entrusted to his care by law, so the Doom Patrol had to return him. Nevertheless, Rita, who had quickly taken an almost maternal fondness for the boy, insisted that the team keep an eye on him to ensure his safety.

What the Doom Patrol found during their observations of the situation was horrifying. The "accidents" which had been repeatedly occurring around Garfield during his time with Galtry were no accidents at all. The man had been hiring several hitmen to try to kill the boy. Apparently, Galtry had felt that Mark and Marie's estate rightfully belonged to him, and that "Craig" was in his way. The man had also apparently been embezzling the living allowances Garfield was being paid from the estate. With the evidence they collected, the Doom Patrol were able to send Nicholas Galtry to prison. Soon thereafter, Steve and Rita legally adopted Garfield, welcoming him into the Doom Patrol family.

Author's Notes
A lot of the details of this chapter were artistic license, albeit presented faithfully to the plot of Gar's past. So, the big picture is still canon, but the small picture not so much. Some of the license was taken to make it fit in better with the story, although in most cases it's there to provide more sharp detail than the original story provided. I've also added new characters (for example, Kweli is an OC I retconned in because he's already been pretty useful to the plot in this chapter, and will probably be quite useful in the future). Majumbamawe is another example of an element I added; the story, as I recall it, was that Mobu was going to show the treasure hunters/thieves the way to get to a temple full of valuable treasure, but I decided to add a lost city to it to give it more dimensions. The important things are generally canon, though. s far as the basic big picture is concerned, at least; again, what I've manufactured tends to be minor details.

This chapter marks the conclusion of the Passio Eius arc of the story. Raven now knows about the tragic things that occurred in Beast Boy's past. So, looking forward, the question is now how that will affect the relationship between the two and how it will affect the development of the story's plot.

I've also made it a point to include instances of Raven attributing possession of Garfield without really realizing it. I.e., thinking of him as her Beast Boy, or her Garfield. This actually began a couple chapters ago, but it's beginning to happen more frequently in this chapter.

Hairul The Nightrage Beast-Indeed.

JasonVUK-Yeah, I actually started crying a little myself when I was writing this chapter, particularly the part where Mark was telling Gar to fly away.

Annatheavidreader-I've had Busara do that with some of the dialogue in this chapter, but none of the earlier Swahili dialogue was so important to warrant Raven needing to really know what was said. I certainly agree that Garfield—as much as the character himself tended to deny it—would almost certainly be psychologically scarred, with a certain tendency toward survivor's guilt (and on top of that his guilt has been portrayed in the comics). Although the survivor's guilt issue is probably going to remain on the back burner as far as this fic goes, until a specific trigger is encountered (I already have a moment in mind, though).