Chapter Thirteen: Chaoz Fantasy

Batman nodded approvingly.

"Good. Today you will settle into your quarters and familiarise yourself with the house and grounds."

"Oookay." Beastboy said, not realising they would start so soon. "You want me to just wander around?" He asked hopefully. Now that he had made a decision, his entire being had relaxed. Beastboy was not made for tense, life-changing moments in time. He preferred to go with the flow of the world around him. His release from the strained and difficult situation had him floating on air, only adding to the surreality of the situation. 'I can't believe this is actually happening.'

A low grunt came from Batman, almost amused at the naivety of the boy in front of him. "I possess too little trust in you at this moment in time to let you wander alone. You will be accompanied."

"by…" Beastboy trailed off, secretly hoping it wasn't him.

"By her." Batman gestured with an upward head nod, motioning behind Beastboy.

Beastboy turned around and almost fell off his chair.

There, leaning against the kitchen countertop, one leg propped up underneath her against a cupboard, stood a girl.

Black and white converse were on her feet, below simple, loose dark blue jeans. She wore a black t-shirt with the yellow batman logo on the chest peeking out through her toned crossed arms. A simple wooden bead bracelet adorned one slim wrist. He finally reached an open and honest, faintly Asian face surround by collar length, thick black hair that somehow managed to be spiky. Large, chocolate brown eyes dominated her striking face, but delicately strong cheekbones, a thin mouth and small nose completed it.

Beastboy consciously closed his mouth and momentarily forgot about the Batman opposite him. The girl exuded an aura of confidence and assurance, but also a sort of accessibility that he couldn't quite identify the source of.

"Eh, hi." Said Beastboy in a small voice as he rose, not taking his eyes of the girl and stood opposite her. The sharp mahogany eyes were the only things moving as they took in every contraction, relaxation, twitch and movement of his body, all while examining his emerald eyes.

"Hi." She simply replied, mouth barely moving.

There was a pregnant pause as they stood facing each other.

Beastboy felt supremely uncomfortable. He was well aware that this was the girl responsible for, in all likelihood, saving his life. And as thanks, he had gone berserk and attacked her. Unable to bear the tension any longer, Beastboy opened his mouth to speak, but Batgirl got there first.

"No apology. Batman already say sorry for you. It alright, I forgive."

Beastboy's mouth hung open, before he again deliberately closed his mouth. "How did you know I was going to say sorry?" he asked in awe.

There was no notable change in her face as she pushed off from the cupboard.

"Come." She said, heading towards the door Beastboy had seen Batman leave through. He tripped over his chair in his haste to follow her. Halfway though, he turned around to thank Batman.

He was gone.

Ninety three hours.

He had been gone ninety three hours.

Raven effortlessly calculated the time after a glance at her bedside clock, an old fashioned circular one with two bells on the top that sounded like what she imagined a school bell to sound like. She rolled onto her back in the middle of her queen sized bed and wondered why she had made the calculation.

She had enjoyed the past two days. After finding out that Beastboy was fine and actually off on an almost enviable adventure to Gotham, she had spent her days remarkably carefree. She had meditated without fear of interruption. Read in the main living room without the possibility of being annoyed. Basked in the quiet mornings that were devoid of meat based arguments.

It had been relaxed.

It had been quiet.

Too quiet.

Raven groaned and wondered if that cliché had really just ran through her head. She couldn't deny the validity of the phrase, but still. No one had come to bother her. No one had come to try to draw her out of her room while she read or ask her to watch a movie with everyone.

She took a deep breath and shook her head. She was overreacting. So it had been a bit quiet, it was an unusual change. It made sense that it knocked her out of her stride, she who treasured the reassurance of routine and the tranquillity of repetition.

It wasn't like it was going to stay that way anyway. Best to enjoy it while she could.

During the past three days, the emergency siren had rang four times. The first two had been for a small time robbery that had been taken care of fairly easily and the third had been an easily apprehended joyrider. Quiet by the titan's standards, but everyone felt the gap left by Beastboy. This had been more acutely accentuated during the fourth alarm which had signalled a rampaging Overload downtown. Robin had quietly cursed under his breath as he glared at the computer.

The four had returned an hour later bearing multiple singes and a few electrical burns. The fight had taken place the outermost suburbs of Jump City, too far away from the city for any fire hydrants. Starfire had had to physically grab the artificial intelligence and fly to the ocean to throw him in. Her tough Tameraneon hands had stopped smoking but were still causing her a great deal of pain. Raven had healed her as best she could but had been drained from blocking most of Overloads attacks.

Beastboy had not been present to morph into an elephant.

Raven glanced at the clock and realised that it was time for Robins debriefing. She sighed at the pain in her right shoulder as she rolled off the bed and made her way to the living room. She discovered the other three bandaged and exhausted heroes collapsed on the sofa in front of the tv and sensed in them all stress, pain and an awareness of their missing member. Raven sat down and Robin decided that some reassurance for his team was needed.

"Alright guys, not going to lie – that sucked. Star, excellent job, I know that hurt but it was the only thing we could do." Starfire lit up at the rare praise, the pain in her hands forgotten. "It was bad luck for Overload to appear when we didn't have our super soaker around, but we shouldn't have to wait much longer for Batman to call."

"Correct," a gravelly voice.

Starfire gave an 'eep!" and involuntarily shot into the air in her fright. Cyborg yelled 'Woah!" and almost fell of the coach. Raven tensed and her hands instantly became shrouded in energy. Robin put away his bow staff had appeared almost like magic and sighed.

"How long you been waiting for that setup?" He asked the huge screen in front of him which bore the image of his former mentor.

"Approximately half a second." Batman replied stoically.

"Yeah right… so, where should we pick Beastboy up?" Robin asked eagerly. He had felt exposed with a missing team member and besides, he had missed the sprout. The team had felt incomplete without him.

"That has yet to be decided, but you won't be collecting him today."

"Please sir Batman, is our friend still injured?" Starfire spoke up, her worry of her friend's condition overcoming her trepidation at the imposing figure on the screen. She knew this man was Robin's Knorf-ka and was eager to make a good impression, but at the same time the man held an air of intimidation and power.

"Beastboy has made a full and remarkable recovery." Batman answered.

Robin's brow furrowed, it had been a long time since he had had to deal with the Dark Knight's roundabout way of talking. He had forgotten how much it annoyed him and didn't like what he could make out. Something was up.

"Explain." He said shortly.

"I have offered to help and train Beastboy and he has accepted my offer. He will be staying here indefinitely while I work with him."

An astonished silence filled the titan common room. Batman filled the void.

"I foresee his training taking no longer than a year, however due to the very nature of his him and his powers that is merely an estimate. In any case, I have already contacted several solo teen heroes interested in filling the temporary redundancy. I will send you the list and you can decide for yourself who you want to aide your team."

Raven eyes widened beneath her hood in paralytic shock. 'A year!?'

Robin finally found his voice. His dark, violent voice. "Put Beastboy on," he spat at the screen.

Batman turned on the screen to look at him "No," he said simply before elaborating, "He has made his decision and you will not influence it. One of my conditions of training him was cutting off all communication with you and your team. He will train like a member of the batclan, focused entirely on the job at hand with no distractions. I will of course keep you updated on his condition, but that will be all."

Robin snapped.

"You can't do this!" Robin roared at the screen. "I can handle you hacking our files but I will not allow you to steal my team members!"

Batman face remained unchanged but for raised eyebrow. "Your team members?" he asked.

Robins face around his mask was red with anger and embarrassment, "You know what I mean! This is unacceptable and I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"

"You do not have that power," Batman's sharp retort cut in. "It was Beastboy's decision to make and he has made it. That is final. There was never any formalisation of your team, he is well within his rights to take any leave of absence."

"He's a titan! A part of this team! We need him!" Robin roared at his former mentor.

"Really? Because you made him out to more of a liability than a team member when we last talked." Batman responded voice tight and controlled yet carrying as much venom as Robin's.

Robin failed to notice the looks his present teammates were giving him, but fought to combat the argument.

"He has some problems, but we can address them ourselves. Beastboy's is a key player in this team and he can't just leave because he was overawed at the sight of the batmobile and liked the look of Batgirl!"

Later on that day, the titans would try to figure out how the dining table had been bent and warped into such intricate and strained shapes. None of them saw or noticed the black energy. None of them. For now all they could do was watch in a daze of astonishment as the former master and student continued their verbal fight.

Batman responded. "This has happened before and no action was taken then to prevent it from reoccurring and now the 'problems' he has have escalated and changed. You have no idea why Beastboy does what he does and as far as I can see, you have no desire to find out. I can help him and I will."

This was an outrage. This was ludicrous, preposterous. But worst of all it was uncontrollable. Robin thought he had escaped Batman and his manipulation and intervention years ago, but now here he was sticking his nose in and screwing up all he had accomplished in the past six years. 'Damn it Beastboy! Why the hell did you have to go mental?' he cursed inwardly. Robin tried to find some logical argument through the red haze of anger

"We thought the issue was dealt with, he hasn't turned into the Beast for years. We helped him through it last time and we can do it again."

"Your idea of help last time was to physically restrain and interrogate him. I can do far better than threaten Beastboy with jail over something he had no recollection of. You and your team failed him." Batman's icy tone carried with it an air of disappointment.

Robin's temporarily tamed anger flared again at the Dark Knight thinly veiled insult. All reason left him, all he felt was old repressed emotion raging up inside.

"What the hell do you even want with him?" Robin screamed at the screen gesturing wildly, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Batman considered him a moment before replying.

"The same thing I did for you. I'll be in touch." Then the screen went blank.

Robin stared at the screen for a moment below letting loose a scream of frustration and anger. He turned while drawing his bow staff in one fluid motion and struck one of the floor-to-ceiling windows with all his might. The reinforced glass cracked under his attack, a spider web of fissures suddenly appearing.

He turned, breathing heavily, to the remainder of his team. "Why the hell did none of you speak up?!" he demanded.

Suddenly Cyborg was in his face, brandishing a metallic finger at him. "Oh, HELL NO! You are NOT going to take this out on us! We have no idea what the heck just happened!" Robin narrowed his eyes at his fellow titan and pushed past him to pace the floor between the tv and sofa, teeth grinding together and brow furrowed in anger.

Raven had yet to move, eyes still wide. Starfire was having trouble comprehending the situation.

"No formal report was ever drawn up over the first Beast incident. How did he know the details over how we handled it?" Robin fumed to himself in a voice tight with emotion, hands still clenched tightly around his staff.

Cyborg turned to fully face the team leader, crossed his arms and held his head high as he spoke.

"You didn't make a report. But I did."

Robin stopped pacing. Slowly, he turned to face the titan, face like thunder. Cyborg knew there was no point in hiding it. Robin would comb through every file on the entire titan database in his zeal and eventually come across the document. No point in trying to hide it. He continued before Robin had a chance to respond.

"I recorded everything that happened in the med-bay after Beastboy's first transformation. Batman must have found it on my personal hard drive."

Robin let an uneven breath out through his teeth. Starfire watched the two square up with nervous eyes shifting between them and a hand over her mouth. Raven had snapped out of her stupor and was also regarding her fellow titans. Her attention had been caught at Cyborg's confession. The first Beast incident was one that she had never really understood, having been unconscious for a lot of it. She didn't know any of the details about what had happened in the med-bay, and she was curious and suspicious enough to focus through her still shocked emotions.

Robin's voice came, low and taught with barely contained stress, "My orders were to erase any and all evidence of that event."

Cyborg met his gaze evenly, "I know."

Robin broke, "Why did you not FOLLOW MY ORDERS!?" he bellowed.

"BECAUSE YOU WERE OUT OF LINE!"

The room fell silent with the immediate rebuttal.

No one had called out Robin in such a way since Red-X. Cyborg pressed on, knowing he was all in now.

"You handled the situation a downright stupid way. And like an idiot I sat back and watched you lock him into a chair in direct sight of the very person he had just supposedly kidnapped! It was so out of character for you to act so damn illogically that I videoed the whole thing so I could try to figure out what the hell was wrong with you!"

'Locked in?' Raven thought in disbelief, emotion cracking through her mask of a visage.

"And you never told me about this? Never told me that there was actual footage of a teen titan going on a rampage in the tower itself? You have any idea what would happen if that got out?! Our public image would be destroyed! Our credibility gone! No one would trust us, We'd be finished! That's why I gave the damn order in the first place!"

"I made sure no one would ever be able to find it. I have no idea how Batman was even able to access it but that's not what this is about! This is about whatever the hell your problem is with Beastboy!"

There it was. The gauntlet had been thrown. Robin narrowed his eyes at his second in command, filled his lungs and opened his mouth, but that was when a blast of emerald energy shot between him and Cyborg, blasting through the already damaged window

"You will stop the yelling now!"

Starfire's clear, strong voice rang out and Robin closed his mouth but kept his eyes on Cyborg. The sound of broken glass tinkling onto the floor filled the lull before Starfire continued. "We are all most distressed at friend Beastboy's situation. This is not the time to discuss past events!"

Robin regarded his team. Cyborg was still glaring at him, eyes narrowed. Starfire was clearly not going to tolerate a single word from either of them. And Raven looked…shell-shocked was the only word for it, though her eyes were fixed on him in a manner than he didn't like.

Turning on his heel, Robin passed through the sliding doors out of the common room.

They slid shut behind him.

Gotta say, hardest chapter so far to write. Not the opening with BB and Batgirl, but the revelation scene. Even now, I feel sorta' uncomfortable uploading it; something about the reactions of the titans just doesn't work for me but I don't think I can rewrite this chapter yet another time.
Anyway, thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated.

Review Responses:
Forsaken9 – Thanks man, I'll try!

EX3451 – I have actually spent a lot of time planning out this story. I know where I want it to go, all I need to do is write it now! Fantastic to know the effort has been worth it :)
Ah, Alfred. I'm really looking forward to writing him, not entirely sure why but we'll see.
Thanks, I'm happy with Batman's portrayal so far. I'll try to keep it up.
Haha, MINDBLOW! :)

LiumD – I know it wasn't really much of an introduction between BB and Batgirl, but that should feature next chapter.

The Brod Road – I'm looking forward to exploring and developing the dynamic between BB and Batgirl, should be interesting to say the least, but we'll see.
Beastboy will definitely be clashing with Batman, and hopefully lead to some good doses of humor. Have to wait and see! Thanks for reviewing and commenting.

FF8Cerberus – Yeah, I hope I can pull it off too! Hopefully your question was answered (to a degree) in this chapter.

Alec33 – You know what mate, I'm going to aim for somewhere directly between the two of those. Cheers!

Thettbiggestfan – This has mostly been plot development so far, but hopefully I'll be able to get into some serious character development soon.

Jesusfreak124 – The transformation Beastboy underwent when he broke out of the hospital was his 'Changeling form' the same one he had at the beginning of this story. Perhaps I should have made that clearer :L

Iamking – I'm glad you approve.

Dis-Appearing Writer – Thanks, I liked that scene as well :)

So yeah, not my most confident chapter. Any and all criticisms are welcome.
Cheerio'
CJB