Chapter 36
Beastboy blinked.
'Oh no.'
Alfred had called it his physical spiritual representation. Raven would probably call it his mindscape.
He just called it hell.
His own personal hell.
And here he was again.
What had happened this time?
Spread before him was out collision of civilization and the wild. The untamed jungle he feared to his right and the man made metropolis that would never accept him to his left.
"Stuck in the middle with you," he murmured under his breath with a ghost of a smile.
"Finally.'
He whirled around in fright, remembering what had happened the last time he had been here.
And his blood went cold.
There before him was what could only be the Beast. He had never seen it before, he had only felt it in his soul. But now…now he was seeing it, In all it's deformed, untamed savagery. The bright but dead eyes. The massive, hunched back. The dripping, jagged jaws.
"You," Beastboy whispered.
"Me.' The Beast replied with a savage grin. "Set free for the first time in your pathetic life. Finally free."
The Beast watched in amusement as Beastboy dropped down into a combat stance. This wasn't good. He remembered Poison Ivy; she had done something to him. This thing shouldn't exist by itself, it was a part of him, not another entity entirely. What was going on? He vaguely hoped that he was lying in a hospital bed somewhere recovering, but that just didn't feel right.
"Shall I tell you, feeble human?" The Beastboy announced with a smug stance. "Oh don't be slow," he continued at the look of bewilderment on his alter ego's face, "This is our mind, of course I can hear your thoughts."
"My mind," Came the quiet but firm rebuttal.
"Not anymore."
Flashes of green came from Beastboy's right. He whirled around in time for the first vine to miss his throat and instead wind itself tightly around his bicep. The next one managed to constrict around his throat and the next ten latched on to other parts of him.
He tried screaming but the plants just pulled tighter on his neck. Frantically he tried to call for help from the Beast.
"You want my help human?" The Beast asked as he strode over to look down on the human.
'Yes, yes!' Beastboy shouted internally.
The Beast thrust his face into his container's.
"No."
The vines all suddenly pulled as one and Beastboy shot into the depths of the forest and beyond.
He fought, he screamed, he bit and he clawed but nothing worked as the plants dragged him mercilessly deeper and deeper and the jungle of his own mind.
Then, they suddenly stopped.
Beastboy found himself in a very similar situation to one he had just left in the real world, completely bound in vegetation and unable to move. Only the jungle surrounding him was thicker, deeper, darker and danker.
'What the hell is happening? This is my mind, right? How is it doing this?"
Then the Beast was in front of him and a ferocious and ear-splitting roar pounded through the air.
"OUR MIND!"
The blast of power and wind slammed into Beastboy and he flew back yet again.
The vines lost their hold on him as he smashed through trees too thick to exist in the real world.
Eventually he wound up on his face on the cold, wet jungle floor. He pushed himself up, wondering how on Earth he had survived that and how he was getting out of this now that he had.
He froze.
There, holding him up were two hands.
Two lightly tanned, pink hands. No claws, no gloves, no scars. Just regular human hands.
Trembling, he turned them over as the Beast quieted. The palms were as pink as the rest. His arms too.
Hurriedly he looked down and ran his very normal hands over his very normal body, chest heaving in exhilaration. His ears were rounded, nose less sharp.
"I'm…I'm…"
"Yes," the Beast spoke from behind him and he whirled around, "It's been a long time. Garfield."
Beastboy, or Garfield, stood frozen, overwhelmed in his own mind.
This was too much.
He closed his eyes and sank to his knees.
BAM!
Something smashed into his chest hurling him backward to bounce off of a tree and crash painfully onto his back.
Then a massive weight pinned his shoulders to the ground as the Beast pounced on him.
"NO!" It roared into his face, saliva flying.
"YOU WILL NOT HIDE FROM THIS ANYMORE! NO MORE RUNNING. STAND UP LIKE A MAN AND FACE ME! PATHETIC HUMAN!"
Garfield lay under the behemoth. He expected the discomfort and irritation at the submissive position to rise up in him, but nothing happened.
The Beast pushed its face closer to his.
"I'm not locked inside you anymore Garfield. No more will my instinct guide you. You're utterly alone in your humanity."
The weight lifted off his chest as the Beast pushed off him with a snarl of disgust, retreating a few steps before fixing him with a glare.
"What, what's going on?" Garfield asked as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
The Beast fixed him with a glare.
"The witch has poisoned us."
Garfield started, he had forgotten about that part.
"How long do we have?"
"That depends."
"On what?"
The Beast settled down into a seated position on his massive haunches.
"On what sort of arrangement we come to."
"What? What kind of arrangement? What the hell's going on?!" He shouted desperately at the monster opposite him, patience at an end.
The Beast appeared amused. Maybe even pleased.
"She has given us a high powered aphrodisiac."
"What the hell is that? And how do you know what it is?"
"I know what it is, because I am halfway intelligent, and don't blot out half of what I hear. As for what it is, you can already see the effects on yourself."
Garfield looked down in confusion.
…
"SHE GAVE ME A SEX DRUG?"
"Calm yourself. And there's no need to cover up or be so embarrassed, I'm you. idiot."
Garfield was well past freaked out at this point.
"Please," he begged, "what's going on?"
The Beast seemed to sag for a moment. He relented.
"She has fed you a combination of testosterone and adrenaline. Probably other substances as well but those two are definite. I can feel them."
"Why? Why would she do that?" Garfield moaned.
"Because she knows you better than you know yourself."
Garfield just gaped. Fear stirred in his stomach, but for some reason, he felt angry at his response. He straightened his back.
"What does she know?"
The Beast nodded at him.
"Look at yourself now. What are you?"
Garfield thought about questioning him but played along. "I'm..I'm a human."
"And me, what am I?"
"You're a beast. An animal." Garfield replied, accusation in his voice.
"Indeed I am. And what is this?"
The air swirled between them and out of the thick mist, an image appeared. A boy with green skin, pointed ears, and a Doom Patrol uniform.
"It-it's me."
"The one we call Beastboy yes, and the form you have adopted for nigh on a decade."
Garfield opened his mouth but the image warped and grew in front of him.
"And this?"
It was a man. A man with dark green skin, bright piercing yellow eyes, talons on his fingers and stripes of black fur running up his thickly muscled body.
"I, I don't know," Garfield said, taking a step back from the sight.
"That was us. After the girl broke our heart and for the first time in your life, you voluntarily came to me for help."
"What?" Garfield breathed. But even as he asked he remembered. Running away from the school, his heart torn out, yearning to escape the agony.
"That…that was me?"
"That was us." The Beast corrected firmly. "Our first step towards unification."
"No!" Garfield exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. "There is no us! There's just me and the powers I have!" He pointed a finger at the bestial monster opposite him. "You shouldn't even be here!"
"And yet I am!" Came the thundering response. The Beast moved closer to him, his harsh, grating voice seeming to take on a pleading tone. "How can you still deny me? How? HOW?"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU!"
The two beings stared at each other, air thick with tension and promised violence.
"I HATE YOU! I DESPISE EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE TO ME! YOU RUINED MY LIFE!"
The Beast remained silent.
"YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME! EVERYTHING! Garfield screamed, stepping towards the animal. He glared wildly at the Beast, teeth grinding and eyes wildly wide.
"YOU TURNED ME INTO A FREAK! AN ANIMAL TO THE WORLD! YOU TURNED ME INTO A HATED LONER! I'M NOTHING BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!"
Then he sagged down, all the energy in him suddenly disappearing and nothing but tears left.
"I hate you."
He said, defeated and exhausted.
There was silence in the deep wilderness for a moment. Unnatural silence. Then…
"You don't hate me."
Garfield didn't respond, just fell to his knees. He sank slightly into the cool, damp earth beneath him.
"You don't hate me at all," the Beast said.
"I hate you," came a shuddering reply.
"No, you don't."
Garfield closed his eyes.
"You love what I have given you."
No response.
The Beast stepped closer to the downed hero.
"In fact, it's the greatest joy in your miserable life."
Garfield shuddered on the ground,
"You love soaring above the clouds. You love diving the oceans and running for the sun. You couldn't live without it."
"Shut up."
"No, you don't hate me." The Beast continued as he circled like a predator. "You yearn for me."
The words were piercing Garfield like knives, every syllable striking hard.
"And yet your pathetic hatred does keep us apart. But it's not hatred of me."
The Beast stopped directly in front of Garfield who slowly opened his eyes to glare up with a deadness in his expression.
"It's hatred of yourself."
Garfield's eyes flickered.
"And your failures."
Then they came alive.
The pale green eyes lit up with a dark light. His eyebrows and brow crunched down and a cold fire roared in Garfield's glare.
"There it is." The Beast said, looking down in condescension.
"There's the hatred I know so well."
Garfield's expression intensified.
"You hate yourself Garfield, and as I am a part of you, you hate me too."
Garfield slowly got to his feet, eyes unblinking.
"You're fucking right I do."
Then he punched his alter ego directly in the center of its torso.
And the Beast flew backward from the power of the strike from the small human, plowing through half a tree in its flight. It seemed impossible that such a boy could move such a massive beast, yet it happened.
Garfield stared after, the fire still raging in his eyes and fist still clenched hard.
"I HATE THE FUCKING WEAKNESS! HATE THE FAILURE! HATE YOU, HATE ME, HATE IT ALL!"
Garfield screamed at the Beast, who suddenly appeared in front of him and smashed him in the chest with a returning shot of his own.
"PATHETIC!" The Beast roared after the flying body.
"PATHETIC YOU WOULD LOSE YOURSELF TO SUCH A PETTY EMOTION! YOU WANT MORE TO DIE BECAUSE OF YOU GARFIELD? BECAUSE YOU ACT LIKE IT! YOUR REPRESSION OF ME HAS COST LIVES!"
Garfield burst from the brush and crashed into the Beast who managed to hold firm.
The two struggled for dominance. The small human against the massive behemoth.
"I'll FUCKING KILL YOU! I BLEED EVERYDAY TO PROTECT MY FRIENDS!"
"AND YOU COULD DO SO MUCH BETTER WITH ME!"
Garfield hesitated and the Beast took the opportunity to slam his wide forehead into the human's face. He had seen it coming, though, and the two skulls cracked off one another with equal force before coming together again to struggle for dominance.
Blood from the two combined and ran down their faces in one stream.
"Listen to me Garfield," the Beast ground out, "We are one. You are not human and I am not animal. We are more, but only together."
Garfield yelled senselessly and increased the pressure but the Beast matched it again.
"Break out from your hatred of yourself Garfield! It is only hurting you and your pack! Let me out! You are incomplete without me!"
Garfield groaned and lashed out, catching the Beast with punches. But they didn't have any power behind them.
"You must decide!"
Garfield's strikes slowed until his arms hung by his side. His bloody forehead still pressing against the Beast's. But his eyes looked down.
"Accept yourself! Accept me! And together we will be stronger together."
…
"And no one else will die."
The two metaphysical beings stood in the deep jungle, forehead to forehead, eye to eye.
"I…"
The Beast reached up and grabbed Garfield's head in its massive paws. It forced the human's head up to look it in the eye.
"You must decide. Right here, right now to embrace me and release your hate. Follow your instincts, Garfield. Do it."
Garfield shuddered and closed his eyes.
Poison Ivy watched in awe as the green boy in front of her thrashed wildly against the bounds of her vines and plants.
She followed intently the vast expansion of his bulk and the ripping of the rest of his clothing.
The boy was becoming an animal.
Her animal.
Ivy licked her lips as she looked on in delight at the clear signs of all-consuming arousal and obsession. This… was going to be fun.
Minutes passed and eventually the form of the Beast stood before her. She wondered in delight at the magnificent specimen she had made hers. Well, not entirely hers…yet.
The magnificent beast stepped forward, the vines and plants retreating back from it like frightened green snakes.
It stood tall, grotesque muscles rippling the muggy light. Milky white eyes fixed on her.
As they should be.
"My, my…" Ivy drawled, taking a hip swinging step towards the creature she had tamed.
"What am I going to do with you, hmmm? Set you loose on Gotham maybe?"
She stopped in front of the leviathan, coyly looking up at the penetrating glare.
"No, that would be a waste."
She reached up and roughly grabbed the tuft of hair hanging from the beast's large chin. Slowly she dragged its massive head down to her level, the creature offering no resistance.
As it should be.
"Or should I reward you?" Ivy mused aloud. "It has been some time since I have felt the pleasure of flesh and not my brethren."
She admired the milk white fangs as she felt the great mound of muscles quivering. Now the Beast was just another plant in the palm of her hand. She leaned forward and brushed her lips over the wide snout.
"Yes," Ivy decided, reaching down, "I do believe that I shall make you mine in another way now.
She smiled, lips wet, eyes dark, skin wet.
CRACK.
Ivy blinked.
Then collapsed to the ground out cold.
The Beast stood for a moment, the slight pressure where it's forehead had met the villainess' fading quickly.
It stared down at the unconscious woman.
Then it began to shrink.
Slowly muscles compacted into themselves, fangs shortened and hair receded.
The eyes never wavered from the downed figure.
Then a nude Beastboy stood staring down.
"Damn, that felt good."
He collapsed.
7 seconds later, Batman was handcuffing Poison Ivy and Batgirl was kneeling next to a quivering Beastboy.
And that's the end of that chapter.
So what the heck happened? How did these last mad chapters come about? Find out next time.
Thank you all verily much for your kind and encouraging reviews for the last chapter. It is my favorite to date and I'm glad some of you agree with me. For those of you who 'understood nothing of the conversation,' I'm afraid I can't really help you.
Review Responses:
Anonymous. MISTER ANONYMOUS - Welcome! We're all mad here just so you know. I really enjoyed writing Ivy, maybe she'll come back some day, but definitely not as a romantic interest I'm afraid. Give it a shot though :D And everyone is weird when you get to know them mate.
newboy - genuinly sorry to dissapoint on the fight man, just thought it didn't fit!
iamking - Thank you very much for the reviews, they mean so much!
Sperance - Yep, he took a bit of a pounding, didn't he?
twistedpremise - High praise indeed coming from the 'Raven's Howl' author. Thanks so much. Really appreciate the comments on the actual writing, I think I've improved a good bit since my first chapters of this thing :D
TheChroniclerJon - That's fantastic! Glad you're having fun with it, I know I am. Appreciated the encouragement!
jarblewc - Awesome! I really do love getting comments on the writing as I've struggled to improve it over the course of this whole thing. Really appreciate it! With Beastboy's pain thing, I could say that Ivy's fog was getting more of a hold of him and distracting him from the pain, but that's a copout. Should have paid more attention to that and will look out for it next time. Winning. Thanks man!
All the best,
CJB