Yeah...um...I know it's been awhile, but when you're trying to pass school, (assist.)directing a play, designing a play program, trying to complete scholarships, and trying to be punctual to work...fan fiction just seems to slip the mind. But, here it is at last! Techincally, chapter five! It only took me four months. And I graduate in three months, so expect a chapter or two around that time. So, thank you for being with me this far! You guys make this possible!
The Beast Returns: Chapter 4
A week had passed since the tragic cruise ship catastrophe took place near the Jump City's ocean shores, and more news stations couldn't wait to get their gritty hands on the story. The Titans did their best to lie low during these events. Robin commanded a lock down, and that no titan was allowed to leave the island without proper disguise. Cyborg began to work on a new project that would give all the Titans the chance to leave the Tower whenever they please without the press jamming microphones down their throats. Cyborg's original prototype holographic rings went back to the drawing boards to create five new rings that accustomed to the other Titans. So, Starfire could still go to the mall, Robin could still join Starfire in going to the mall, Raven could still go to the bookstore, and Cyborg could still go to the auto shop without any notice. Only one Titan disproved of the idea, but he hasn't left the Tower the entire week, which was an abnormality to the other Titans.
Beast Boy has avoided everyone at all costs, and the others have notice this but have yet to press the matter further, not that Beast Boy cared. After the second day of this awareness, Robin warned the others not to pressure Beast Boy so he won't be tempered. Which was fine with everyone else, but the deed was hard to accomplish because Beast Boy was never around. When Beast Boy sits in the Operations or hangs out on top of the roof or the gym, he quickly halts his activities and leaves the room immediately when one of his friends walks into the room. The Titans had the sinking feeling that he was definitely avoiding them, but not to rile him up, they said nothing. It felt heartbreaking to the others that Beast Boy would issue a silent treatment and not give a reason for it, and the tension in the Tower was thickening because of it. In the past week, the other Titans notice how different Beast Boy acted during the day, when they had the chances to observe him.
Beast Boy never came down for any meals anymore. When this routine started, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven would wait patiently for Beast Boy to come down because they enjoyed eating together as a team, yes. Even Raven enjoyed this, for no one ever knew what the next day would bring whether it was victory or disaster. However, he never showed, and the problem got to a point where Cyborg felt guilty and made Beast Boy's food for him, but Cyborg would end up placing it in the fridge. Robin constantly wondered how Beast Boy was getting his food without coming down. Therefore, Robin felt worried that Beast Boy would not be able to get the proper nutrients to stay in shape.
Another strange act from Beast Boy is that he suddenly became very punctual for combat practice, and he hasn't missed one yet. It was strange because out of all the times to ignore the others, Beast Boy makes it a priority to make it to the main group activity of the day. Beast Boy never said a word during the entire time, and the Titans never tried to make a conversation.
Recently, Robin began to test the Titans in a more digital way in combat practice. Instead of watching the team run through the course from afar, now Robin can see what they can endure during their runs and strategize how to make the team even stronger in battles. The solution? The state-of-the-art 99.9 accurate portable wire-less heart monitor wristband, courtesy of Cyborg, of course.
Beast Boy arrived down on the field where everyone else began to gather. Beast Boy walked straight to the control booth, and he saw that Robin and Raven were already in position ready to go. Robin gave Beast Boy a strange look and Beast Boy returned him a small growl; then Robin finally tossed him his heart monitor.
The countdown was initiated and Beast Boy was off. Beast Boy ran across the obstacle course at high speed, and he transformed into different species of animals at the drop of a hat. He turned over robots, he passed through falling walls, he smashed cardboard dummies, and he dodged red-hot lasers. Robin noticed his intense change in practice as he watched on. Beast Boy improved his abilities everyday, and Robin felt impressed, yet extremely worried at the same time.
"Raven, come look at this," Robin took a glance at Beast Boy's gauge on the computer screen.
"What is it?" Raven said as she walked over.
"Take a look at his heart rate," he pointed to a certain scale and number on the side of the screen. Raven studied it for a moment, and she saw that his levels were normal. There was nothing wrong at all.
"Okay," she said.
"Now look at what he's enduring in the course," Raven lifted up her eyes to the green changeling battling it out on the obstacle course, he punched several robots in the air and dodged some electrical disks coming at him simultaneously. She still didn't understand.
"What about it?" she questioned.
"The level of the obstacle course is set on an automatic frequency, that way the difficulty of the obstacle course will change with difference in endurance levels between two people automatically. So, when a new person steps up to the starting point, that person may experience the course to be either harder or easier in the beginning. It depends on who went before them," Robin explained.
"Okay, I already knew that, but go on," Raven commented sarcastically.
"I noticed that in the beginning of Beast Boy's run that he breezed through it with ease until the obstacle course started to find his proper difficulty level. And now, the level that it is currently set on is actually higher than his usual endurance level. In fact, it's set higher than Cyborg's," Robin stated suspiciously.
"I still don't understand why this is strange," Raven asked.
"Because his heart rate and stress levels are normal, and yet just last week he said that he was going to pass out from all the exercises. Not to mention he misses meals on a constant basis, yet he excels in combat practice?" Robin finally pointed out, "it's just strange,"
"Well, what's the normal level that he usually endures?" Raven asked.
"Level ten," he replied.
"And what's he enduring now?"
"Level twenty-one," Raven finally saw his point, "and this is remarkable because he's only nine levels away from maxing out the computer," She looked at the monitor again, and then gazed upon Beast Boy hard at work out there. She did see a difference, a big one in fact, in his combat training. Beast Boy moved faster, concentrated harder, and was…serious. And that was never a good sign when Beast Boy was serious.
"Well, he has been improving a lot lately,"
"True, but within a week? That's just unheard of," Robin replied.
"Maybe he's finally found a passion for his job as a superhero,"
"I just hope he hasn't found his passion the wrong way," Robin said. Raven agreed. The buzzer went off to stop the time, and Beast Boy halted and left the field immediately to head back up to the Tower. Beast Boy didn't care to look that his time was a 1:10. Therefore, he didn't care to see Cyborg's face sink after realizing that he just broke Cyborg's precious record.
"I think it's about time we talk to him," Robin spoke. Raven glanced around.
"Do you think he's ready?" she asked uncertainly.
"No, not at all, but we need to know if he's hurting himself, and if so, then we need to intervene," Robin replied.
"Good," Robin glanced at Raven with a confused stare behind his mask.
"Good?" he questioned.
"I've kept my attention towards Beast Boy ever since the cruise ship incident. You know, just in case he ever decided to cool down. But every time I see him, and ever time he walks through a room…it feels like he's not there anymore. Like he's suddenly a different person," Raven said. She and Robin were watching Beast Boy walk towards the hill to the Tower. Raven could feel his tension and his hate blazing from his heart. It bothered her deeply.
"I'm worried about him," she thought accidentally aloud.
"How so?" Robin asked. Raven gave a slow sigh.
"His anger hasn't faded at all this past week, and I haven't had a clear thought go through my head since. He doesn't speak to us, he doesn't eat with us, and he's especially never around us," she said. She furrowed her brows slightly and tried to organize her thoughts, "Something is happening with him and I want to know what, because I don't want him to end up with a similar fate like mine,"
"You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?" Robin asked. Raven gazed forward with the sinking feeling inside of her. Her eyes looked upon the ocean and the ocean reflected the frown on her face. Robin didn't have special mind powers, but he could sense that this problem with Beast Boy was bothering her.
"I would never wish for this curse of barren emotion to befall upon any of you," she confined, "especially Beast Boy,"
Cyborg finished his run and Starfire began to position herself for her own. After Starfire, Raven usually went next, so she began to walk towards the stairs from the booth to join the others in their combat training. Robin watched her exit the station and walk down the stairs.
Cyborg whistled down the hallway when he opened the door to the elevators the next morning. Everyone was up and getting breakfast while Cyborg was trying to find his lucky wrench that he accidentally misplaced. Cyborg never worked on his car without his lucky wrench. The last time he upgraded his car without that lucky wrench, it randomly blew up in the Jump City streets in front of the pizza parlor. He never touched his car without it.
"Now I know I left it somewhere in this tower," he said to himself. He retraced his steps all over again in his mind. Was it in the kitchen? No, he used it once to tighten a squeaky bolt in the microwave and then placed it in his arm. How about the gym? Nope, he used it there to tighten the punching bag to the ceiling better because of a squeaky bolt. The evidence room? Nuh-ah, used it there to fix the glass panes on Control freak's remote, all thanks to a squeaky bolt.
"Jeez, we have a lot of squeaky bolts in this tower," He moved his arm up closer and pressed the secret compartment in his chest open. Then, he quickly stopped himself by slapping his forehead. "C'mon Cyborg, if the dang wrench was in there in the first place you wouldn't be in this dumb elevator lookin' for it to begin with," He sighed at his lack of common sense.
Well, there could only be one other place Cyborg may have used it and misplaced it at the same time, and that's the infirmary. Robin had a computer malfunction in there after trying to treat Starfire to some unidentified alien disease, which caused her to puke strange pudding slugs; she ultimately got better the next day. However, the Titans were without a computer to monitor vitals in there, so it was an important machine to be restored.
The elevator halted at level one and opened the doors. Cyborg stepped out into the corridor and opened the door to the infirmary that was across the hall. He started whistling again, so he did not notice Beast Boy placing a few special things inside a small shoebox on the other side of the room. When Cyborg heard Beast Boy quickly shut the top of his box, he stopped whistling.
"Oh, uh…hey, BB," Cyborg said, and he went straight to high alert mode, "I, um…didn't see you there, heh…" he cleared his throat, "You haven't um…seen my good wrench anywhere in here have ya?"
"No," Cyborg looked up at Beast Boy's shocking low-toned remark. His voice almost did not sound human. It was low, dark, and mysterious like he had a good secret to hide, and Cyborg had a faint idea that the secret was hidden inside that shoebox. However, what captured Cyborg's attention the most is how awful Beast Boy looked. His jade green hair grew disheveled, his skin looked pale and clammy, and he had dark, hollow bags under his eyes, but what was almost too surreal to believe was that Beast Boy had five o'clock shadow and it was noon. However, he looked…defined? Weird…Cyborg notice that Beast Boy looked taller and that his muscles were a bit more toned and well, muscular. That threw him off for a moment, but the way he carried himself and the way he expressed his face made Cyborg feel sympathy for him, after all Beast Boy is his best friend.
"Hey, man, are you alright?" he asked softly, "and…I mean no disrespect, but…you look awful," Beast Boy backed away and stiffened.
"What do you care?" Beast Boy growled.
"Nothin', nothin', I didn't mean anythin' by it," Cyborg raised his hands in defense, "I just…wanted to help,"
Beast Boy still kept his guard up, and he did not move. Not that he had much of a choice, Cyborg was blocking the door. Well, Cyborg sensed that it was time to move to a different subject because Beast Boy wasn't about to let him help him with his physical problems.
"So, uh…what's in the box?" Cyborg asked, Beast Boy growled at him. Cyborg got on his guard.
"None of your business," and Beast Boy walked passed him leaving Cyborg speechless.
Raven breezed through the power-pressured door into the Ops. later that afternoon. She had the sudden craving for tea while reading on of her more recent novels. She noticed that none of the Titans were here, but she figured that she wasn't that far ahead. The others would be there in a few moments and begin to snoop about for some lunch.
Raven figured that she might as well boil her a pot of water before Cyborg takes command over the stove again. She knew that water never boils while she's watching it, so she sat down on the sofa and decided to take advantage of the alone time she had while she could. She only heard the small breath of air escaping her mouth as she relaxed even more into the cushion. She opened her book and began to read.
Like her meditation, reading was always an escape from reality for her. That's why her reading time was always important. Therefore, she read at every waking moment. However, there was always something happening to snap her out of her fantasy reading. Like the alarm going off, her friends busting through the door to look for food, Cyborg and Beast Boy playing video games, Beast Boy fighting Cyborg about tofu, Beast Boy cracking a joke, or most likely just Beast Boy. Uh oh, here comes that guilty feeling again.
She stopped reading her second paragraph and closed the book. Great, of all the times she had to start feeling guilty it had to be when she actually had a moment's peace to herself. Well, Raven couldn't help feeling this way. Her friends did mean everything to her, and with Beast Boy's new attitude and him avoiding everyone, she couldn't help but feel worried.
All this week, Raven was able to accomplish everything she wanted to do without Beast Boy around. Raven finished her meditation without interruptions, she tried out several new flavored herbal teas, which she had to go to the store for and she never had time for that, and she finished three books within one week. This is what she wanted right? Then why did she feel guilty and slightly alone?
Raven felt that she needed to talk to him. Everything that was going on just wasn't right. Beast Boy was always the happy one. So, at the same time that Raven felt slightly happier, this bad feeling inside of her just hit rock bottom. Now, she didn't want to read any longer. She wondered where he could be right now, and if she could go talk to him by herself.
Feeling rather low all of a sudden, Raven stood up and walked over to the ceiling-floor windows and leaned against the wall to gaze at the afternoon setting city. The sun was just high enough not to see it in the sky but bright enough to reflect off the ocean's waves.
That's when she saw a figure standing at the shores of Titan Tower's island below. There was a glare in the window, and Raven had to do a double take to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating. At first, she thought it was Robin, the silhouette was tall enough and muscular enough to be him. However, when she saw this figure transform shape and jump into the ocean, she concluded that it definitely wasn't Robin, it was indeed Beast Boy.
Raven moved over a bit to get rid of the glare of the sun in the window and continued to watch the spot where Beast Boy once stood. She thought that Beast Boy was just taking an afternoon dip, in the ocean, in the high afternoon, by himself. One could hope right? Raven knew that this could take awhile since Beast Boy did have the ability to breathe underwater, but she would wait, she wanted to know what he was doing.
Suddenly a wolf popped out of the water carrying something that was frantically moving inside his mouth. Raven pieced together that Beast Boy had…caught a fish? His wolf form shook his head violently left and right trying to silence the creature. Then the wolf did something that stunned Raven so much that she fell short of breath and looked away in disgust. The wolf began to eat the fish. She saw him crack the spine, chew the muscle, and swallow it whole. The entire scene sickened her. Besides the reason that Raven couldn't stand raw fish, it was the fact that Beast Boy, the animal-loving tofu-eating vegetarian, was killing and eating a live creature.
After he finished eating, Beast Boy transformed back into his human form. He wiped his mouth with his forearm and tossed the meatless fish behind a large rock close to the water. Beast Boy began to walk away and head back to the Tower, Raven watched him the entire time, and she noticed how different he really was now. It scared her, that even Beast Boy could change so suddenly and so unexpected that he could never come back to his normal self.
Once Beast Boy was inside the tower, Raven decided to do a little investigating. She disappeared from the window and magically reappeared in front of the rock with her black aurora fading away. Raven's eyes widened at the sight shown before her. She had to place her hand over her nose to stop the smell coming from the pile of dead rotting fish beneath the large boulder.
Beast Boy removed the syringe from the underside of his arm as he sat on his bottom bunk in his more than usual messy room. He gave a silent sigh of relief and placed the small plastic tube back in his shoebox tucked safely underneath his bed.
Once everything was put away, he sat there in silence, thinking. Thinking of what has become of him these days, thinking of his friends and how much they have avoided him lately, thinking about that mysterious changeling he met on the ship. All these thoughts brought negative feelings to his heart, but by the end of the day, these negative thoughts would get so heavy and so consuming that it would make him angry. Therefore, by making him angry he would have this urge. This strange lustful urge, an urge that involved action, it involved running, and it involved killing. It was a primitive urge, and this feeling alone scared him.
The only thing keeping him sane was the medication that he was taking. Ever since he first injected it into himself he felt relief that maybe this monster inside of him was finally gone. Eventually, he would get that urge again, and that would tell him that the monster was indeed still alive inside of him. Afterwards, he took more and more, until it consumed his daily life and he became addicted to it.
He couldn't let his friends know what he was doing to himself, for they wouldn't understand. They would judge him too quickly at first sight and think he's some drug addict trying it out for fun, but what they don't know is that Beast Boy is doing them a favor. He's making himself more mature, and to him he's finally becoming a man. And he knew that's what his friends wanted from him; to grow up, and become more like them. However, things are easier said than done. This task was stressing out his mentality so much that he couldn't stand to see the others even look at him. Therefore, he felt alone, but he didn't want anyone to see him, so his emotional state was pulled so far that he couldn't feel anything…except rage.
He had rage for everything it seemed like, and even he noticed this, but he didn't know why. Everything his friends did, everything that he did, everything that normal people he hasn't even met before did just pissed him off more. He hated the world and had no reason for it. However, he did have a reason for someone, and that particular someone was that special guest on the cruise ship dining hall. Beast Boy wanted to find this…man…he wanted to hunt him down, and he wanted to release all his pure malice on him.
Beast Boy suddenly started to massage his temples with his fingers to sooth the huge headache coming on. Beast Boy started to sweat and breathe heavily in and out. He needed to calm himself down.
He slowly took out a slip of smooth silk paper. He glided the picture between his finger and thumb until it set in his hand upright. It displayed three people standing together in front of a single green tree with a lion under it in the plain lands. One person was a tall well-built man with short curved blonde hair. He had a smile that was so wide it stretched ear to ear. Next to this man was a woman, she was a thin woman with long brunette hair. Her smile was a small shy one as the man had his arm wrapped around her. The woman held a small young child in her arms. The toddler had light blonde hair like his father's while he playfully waved to the camera taking the picture. As Beast Boy gazed upon this old photograph, he couldn't help but shed a few tears for his loss. He missed his parents dearly.
Suddenly, he heard loud knocking on his door.
"Beast Boy! Come out! We're having a team meeting!" Robin's voice shouted through the other side of the door. Beast Boy growled from the inside and at first ignored him. However, he knew how stubborn Robin is, and he knew that Robin would get what he wants one way or another. He figured he shouldn't open the door because Robin isn't worth interrupting his moment of silence.
"Beast Boy! I know you're in there! You can't stay in there forever!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes, and he knew he wasn't going to get out of this. Now, he knew how Raven felt in that moment when he would knock on her door. Finally, Beast Boy opened the door, and Robin was face to face with him. Robin wasn't expecting Beast Boy to come out so easily, and after all that yelling to try to get him out, Robin didn't have anything to say to him, so he just stood there. Beast Boy snorted and walked passed him to the Ops. where they usually have their team meetings.
Beast Boy opened the door to the Ops. and found the other three Titans sitting on the sofa waiting for him. Cyborg and Starfire turned around and stood up in front of him while Robin walked through the door behind Beast Boy; Raven just sat on the sofa looking at the ground. Silence spread throughout the room like the plague against their tongues, for everyone was waiting for somebody to speak out. However, the question is who was brave enough to do so?
"Please sit down, Beast Boy," Starfire, brave Starfire spoke first. Beast Boy didn't like her tone, and it wasn't because she was rude, he just didn't like the fact that perky Starfire could be so quiet. However, he obeyed her words and sat down at the end of the sofa away from everybody else. Robin came in and stood behind everyone on the sofa. Getting annoyed by the awkward silence that hung in the air, Beast Boy spoke first.
"So, what's this about?" he said. The Titans bowed their heads slightly.
"We are concerned," Starfire continued, but she didn't continue afterwards. Beast Boy lifted his brow in slight confusion.
"Okay…what about?" He relaxed into the back of the sofa and crossed his arms and legs. The Titans all glanced at each other and an unsettling feeling spread across everyone's chest.
"We're concerned about you, B," Cyborg replied.
"Me?" he said, "Well, I can assure you that there's nothing wrong with me,"
"Well, something wrong is going on here, and we would like and explanation," Robin stated simply, keeping his cool.
"You're just not yourself anymore, B," Cyborg said. He bowed his head forward, "We barely talk anymore,"
"And your behavior has been very strange lately," Starfire commented, this was a first for Beast Boy to see Starfire so concerned and serious, "we would just like to know if there is anything upsetting you, and if we can do anything to help you,"
Beast Boy looked at them all. Robin had this stiff look on his face, like he was holding something back inside him, and the way his body was positioned and how his face was contorted it seemed he wanted to let it go deeply. Cyborg watched Beast Boy with sad and desperate eyes; he looked defeated which didn't faze Beast Boy at all. Starfire was waiting patiently for an answer, so she kept her head forward and she didn't have a smile on her face. Beast Boy gazed over to Raven. She wasn't even looking at him, and he actually noticed when he walked through the door that she didn't even try to make eye contact with him like the others did. This seemed nerving to Beast Boy. Was she too good to look at him? Or too afraid? He though it was the first one, simply because of how the way he thinks she acts.
"No, nothing," Beast Boy stated simply, "We done?" he started to stand up.
"No, we're not," Robin said defiantly, "sit down," Beast Boy sat back down.
"Fine, continue," Beast Boy blew him off. Robin furrowed his brow.
"We're concerned Beast Boy, but we're more confused than worried," Robin said. He walked to the side of the sofa.
"Yeah, why the sudden change?" Cyborg asked.
"What do you mean?" Beast Boy asked confused.
"Man, you don't eat with us, we hear strange noises coming from your bedroom, we barely see ya, and when we do see ya, you either walk away or snap at us. You're just not yourself anymore," Cyborg replied.
"But besides all the disappearances and attitude change, you seem to be very punctual to combat practice, and you excel at it," Robin pointed out.
"What's your point?" Beast Boy asked gruffly. He didn't like the attitude that Robin was giving him. Robin took in a deep breath.
"What are you doing to yourself?"
"What?" Beast Boy shocked that he asked.
"Robin," Starfire warned.
"No, let him finish," Beast Boy commanded. Robin walked around further in front of the sofa.
"Lack of eating, thriving in combat practice, sudden change in attitude, you are doing something that we don't know about, and you can't hide it any longer. So, answer the question. What're you doing to yourself?" Robin asked again crossing his arms.
"Robin, enough," Cyborg commanded. He looked back to Beast Boy again, "Look, B, we just…want to know what's going on that's all,"
Beast Boy stared at them all, unmoved by their words and completely surprised that they finally had the guts to talk to him. But this confused him the most, they thought that something was wrong with him. He knew that there was nothing wrong with him. The team only hallucinated something being wrong with him, when it was them who had the real problem. Beast Boy believed that they just couldn't take the truth.
"So…this is how it goes, huh?" Beast Boy said simply, "you know, I think I could relate this to a problematic conflict from a crappy soap opera. I'm sure you guys have totally seen it. It's the one where the family gangs up on brother because they suddenly assume that he's is addicted to drugs or something," he stood up, "but what's so great about that conflict is the irony of it. It turns out that he's not addicted to drugs and he's not doing anything to hurt himself. But, they sit down have a 'family conversation' while he tries to convince the others that he's not a drug addict, but what happens? Uh-oh! They don't believe him! So, he decides to run away, maybe join the bad crowd to teach his family a lesson, and he decides to add a bonus and he take drugs just to tick them off some more. Wow, who would have guessed that would ever happen!"
Beast Boy was obviously toying with the other Titans, he was angry at them. Beast Boy believed that they would never understand or believe in him, and especially since they've never made an effort to say anything to him before this. The others didn't know what to say to this, Robin kept his expression firmed, both Cyborg and Starfire listened and bowed their head a little more with every word that came out of Beast Boy's mouth, and then Raven started rubbing her temples as beads of sweat started to form around her crown.
"So," Beast Boy finally sat down, calming down a bit, "I don't really feel like confessing anything to any of you and wasting my precious energy when I know none of you will believe me anyway. So, I'm not going to say another word," Beast Boy furrowed his brows and revealed a sharp aggressive stare.
Robin tensed at Beast Boy's strong look of anger; he wanted to just let out what was on his mind desperately. The others were, like Robin too, disappointed in Beast Boy's answer. They obviously knew that they weren't going to get much more information out of him, unless they wanted to push it out of Beast Boy the hard way. But their hearts were too sunk to do such a thing to him at this point. Then, they all sat there in silence, unfortunately the Titans didn't know what to say to the green changeling, so the green changeling was getting impatient; if they were done they needed to stop wasting his time. Beast Boy kept tapping his fingers against the cushions of the sofa. Beast Boy allowed one more look around at all the Titans, he noticed how fragile they are taking this situation, he studied their facial features and how they seem so degenerated and confused. Beast Boy rolled his eyes at them, and he secretly wished that they would get over it.
"We done now?" Beast Boy asked again, but this time with more aggression in his voice. Cyborg took in a deep breath, and thought about what to answer to that question.
"No, we're not," Cyborg said, "There's…still the cruise ship…that we have to talk about,"
"Oh, great," Beast Boy groaned sarcastically, and rolled his eyes once again.
"We just want to know what happened with you over there," Cyborg replied reasonably. Beast Boy groaned again.
"Man, what does it matter?" Beast Boy sat up, "I was sent down to the bottom of the ship to keep it stable. And it looks like that I wasn't strong enough, brave enough, or smart enough to do it. Well, lemme just tell you, that it wasn't my fault; somebody just made one wrong decision," Beast Boy looked in Raven's direction, still tapping his finger. Raven didn't dare look at him, so she just kept rubbing her temples.
"Beast Boy, everything that you did on that ship does matter," Robin stated, "because everything you did has to be a reason to why we failed that mission," When Beast Boy heard Robin say this, he took this extremely offensive.
"So, that's it then," Beast Boy raised his voice and stood up, "you're gonna blame me for everything that happened? It's now suddenly it's…my fault that we all failed? Well, screw you! Screw all of you!" Beast Boy walked over to Robin staring him down.
"I am not the only one responsible for this tragedy, everyone in this room is responsible! So, you pinning it on me is not helping anyone! And if anyone in this room has to take blame for what happened on that ship, it should be you, Robin!"
"What?" Robin glared.
"You talk to me about stepping up and being a man, but you should talk! You're the leader of this team, and you should represent it by taking most of the responsibility of those decisions that were made. And NOT blaming the cause on me because you think I'm too juvenile to think any better! At least I'm being man enough to take some the blame! Unlike you, Boy Wonder," Beast Boy poked him in the chest.
"Don't talk to me about leading a team," Robin said menacingly. Beast Boy got closer.
"Then don't talk to me about being a man because I'm twice the man that you will ever be," Beast Boy growled.
"If you are so man enough, as you say you are Beast Boy, then admit it," Robin said slowly, "what happened to you on that cruise ship?"
Beast Boy was silenced. He wasn't about to spill everything that happened on that day. His plan was to keep his experience with the changeling to himself, and find that villain himself. So Beast Boy could hunt him down, knock his lights out, and receive the glory that he deserves. Then, prove to the Titans that he's not a comical screw up.
"I don't have to answer this," Beast Boy walked away from Robin, and began to go to the door. Robin was furious.
"Don't have to answer—Beast Boy! You are a Teen Titan, you battle super villains day and night, you've saved the world, you've saved lives, and you've saved us…yet if you can't trust your own team and allow yourself to answer one simple question. Then you're a coward!" Robin shouted at him at the door.
Beast Boy turned around painfully slow that they could hear the cracking of his neck when he turned. Beast Boy's eyes were wide and hollow, his eyes looked primitively angered. His pupils were dark along with his heart that stung against his chest. Sweat beads rolled down his forehead when Beast Boy began to walk towards the sofa again. However, Beast Boy was in no mood to talk to Robin anymore.
"And you're right, I won't think much of you now, and you're right in saying that you don't deserve this team or maybe you're not good enough to be on this team. Every time you are up against a major problem you runaway from it like the child you are! All the anger, all the silence, and all the bad attitude crap; it's all because your stubbornness, and it's all because you can't cooperate!"
Beast Boy was back in front of Robin breathing hard, ready to attack. When suddenly, Robin turned him around with his fast reflexes, took out a bird-a-rang, slice the back of Beast Boy's uniform right down the middle. The force pushed Beast Boy to put his weight on the sofa as his uniform slide off and revealed the slash marks on his green skin.
Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven were all completely shocked. Not just at Robin's rash behavior towards Beast Boy, but just the fact that Robin had found proof that Beast Boy was attacked. Beast Boy was enraged, Robin definitely had no right in this one. He discovered that he was breathing harder and harder as he attempted to control his primitive instincts from going out of control, because Robin was about to push him over the edge.
"How…did you…know?" Beast Boy asked between his breaths.
"I watched the infirmary tapes," Robin said simply, "Now's the time to cooperate Beast Boy," Robin knelt down next to him, and he heard Beast Boy growl behind his breath, "For the last time, what happened to you on the cruise ship?"
Before he even had the chance to answer, the alarm went off and the room started to blink in red lights. Robin immediately stood up and ran to the computer. He typed in a few things and they had their mission.
"Titans, trouble," Robin said, "let's go,"
Robin ran out of the room ready for battle while the others still sat there still on the sofa; they were still traumatized from what they saw. Beast Boy didn't hear their footsteps get up and leave the room, and he didn't see them either for he was still bent over the sofa. However, he finally turned around.
"What're you lookin at? Go already!" Beast Boy shouted. The others flinched at his outburst, but they slowly stood up and walked out of the room and left Beast Boy still bent over the sofa.
It's not one of my best chapters, it's more or less a filler. Letting you know what's going on. The next chapter will be really good, lot's o' action, baby! Anydangway, I've been in like essay-writing mode lately, and I dislike this chapter because I kept thinking that I had to be proper in wording it correctly. Well, I kept telling myself that I didn't need to be proper because I'm not turning this in or anything. It didn't work. I guess you guys are stuck with my properness/choppyness until I get out of school. Til then, please, keep R&R!