Chapter 14

The last hours of the day seemed to fly by in a blur.

It was probably due to Robin's strict schedule that he and Raven had planned over those times they were holed up in the evidence room. Beast Boy was glad he never did end up eavesdropping on them, as he probably would have been bored to tears.

The evening started with a party complete with pizza and waffles. Cyborg even got out the good Canadian maple syrup (used strictly for celebratory purposes only), but no one's hearts were in it, and it was packed away early.

They had a couple of hours to kill while they waited for midnight; the hour in which Raven could pick her mysterious flower. The clouds had parted, and the full, round moon- the other requirement for harvesting the flower- shone brightly in the dark sky.

Over dinner, Raven had explained that in the future, she already had a supply of the flowers and kept them dried in a jar amongst her other magical materials. It explained why it had been so easy for her to make the portal getting here in the first place, and Raven had said they were used for certain advanced rituals that their Raven had yet to master.

Once she procured this final item via teleportation (from 00:00 to 00:07 - according to Robin's schedule), she would say her final goodbyes and distribute the mind-wiping memory brew that was currently bubbling happily on the stove in bright, purple bubbles. She would then go to Beast Boy's room and finalize the ritual. The portal to the future will open up, and she will waltz back into her time and wipe her hands clean of the past and the people she left behind.

It all seemed so simple, so straightforward it was as if they were planning a trip to the local zoo. See the elephants, visit the wolves, build a forbidden magical portal to the future, go by the snake house, and stop for ice creams.

But Beast Boy knew this was taking a toll on his teammates as they silently converged on the couch at midnight.

The atmosphere was tense as each Titan distractedly checked their watch every minute and side-eyed the door every other. For once, Beast Boy didn't feel the need to be the Titan's residential cheerleader. Instead, he sat uncomfortably in the quiet, trying to suppress the urge to tip the memory potion down the sink and hastily fly out the window.

He had had some time to think in the last few hours, and despite his misgivings about it, he understood Raven's need to erase her footprints here in the past. Although he was going to go along with the removal of his memories, he continued to practice the emotional walls he had slowly been building. He knew it was in some sort of twisted hope- it was unlikely that his body would somehow miraculously remember- but he couldn't help himself. A scrap of hope was something his optimistic mind could never give up on.

The minutes ticked by as the Titans squirmed in their seats.

As punctuality was a trait she was known for, Raven's dark magic descended onto the common room precisely on schedule. She stepped through her portal, and immediately, the tension in the air seemed to surge to dizzying heights.

She was back in her uniform; having returned all the clothes she had previously borrowed from Starfire and Cyborg. The formal attire gave her a more intimidating, regal air than Beast Boy was used to, and he couldn't help but remember the woman who fidgeted on his bed, who blew up cookie dough, who got angry when hungry. Her mystery and complexity were aspects of Raven that endeared him to her, and he felt a pang of regret that he would soon no longer know his friend in such a way.

"Did you get what you needed?" Robin asked once her feet landed on the floor.

Wordlessly, she gestured to the small white flowers in her hand. To Beast Boy, they looked like a common weed, the small petals no bigger than the nail on his pinkie, but Robin nodded at them like he knew its Latin name, genus and probably the exact time and location of its flowering.

A burst of jealousy threatened to spill over, but Beast Boy pushed it down. Instead, he went for humour and projected a mental image of Robin in overalls, a straw hat and gardening gloves with pruning scissors in his hand. With the image thoroughly and hilariously conjured, a laugh threatened to bubble up in his throat. Beast Boy shoved that down as well. Now was not the time for jokes.

Continuing her silence, Raven headed to the kitchen where the memory-wiping damned drink lay ready. The rest of the titans followed meekly behind her like lambs being readied for slaughter.

The foursome watched as Raven carefully measured the liquid into their cups and lined them up on the counter. The purple liquid gave off a silky sheen, and the grey fumes it expelled seemed to do pirouettes as it evaporated into the air. It was an innocent picture for such irrevocable magic, and Beast Boy had to remind himself of the life-changing power that settled within his everyday 'Meat is Murder' mug.

Once finished, Raven recited a few quick words with closed eyes and stepped back to assess her work. The magic was swift, and Beast Boy watched in fascination as the purple hue changed to a vivid red, then to a dark, chocolate brown. Raven nodded as if this was expected and cleared her throat.

"This is a memory potion. If I have done it correctly, you will only have a hazy recollection of this past week. Images, flashes- almost like a dream- but I will not be a part of it." The words were said robotically as if she was reading off cue cards and not about to witness her deletion from her friend's memories.

"Once you have drunk it all," she continued, "You will feel incredibly tired. I have made it so the spell will start working almost immediately, but only a long sleep will erase the week in its entirety."

The Titans soberly nodded, and all grabbed their respective cups. Beast Boy eyed the contents warily. Cautiously, he placed his nose over the cup and quickly recoiled from the sharp aroma. He was about to comment on its scent, but seeing his teammates steadfastly gulp down the brew, he closed his eyes and started drinking the tea-like elixir. It had cooled down unusually quickly but had an acrid taste that made Beast Boy subtly wince. Clenching his fist to help him power through, he carried on drinking.

Ordinarily an animated group, Ops felt peculiar as the Titans were quiet but for the subtle sounds of the sipping and swallowing of the bitter potion. Eyes were avoided, and faces were grim at each momentary pause between sips.

Cyborg was the first to finish.

With a flourish, he set down his cup and swept Raven up in a hug. "I'm not a big one for goodbyes, so I'm gonna run. Tell future me to keep on truckin', alright?"

Raven grinned at him, the first sign of emotion since she came into the room. "Of course. Thank you, Cyborg. I hope to never wear one of your t-shirts ever again."

Cyborg howled with laughter and headed to his room where, as planned, he would delete everything his mechanical eye had recorded over the past week.

"Take care of that baby of yours!" He waved and gave Raven a sad smile. The moisture in his eye was unmistakable, even at such a distance.

Starfire was next.

Her tears, which had silently begun the minute the potion touched her lips, were now streaming down her face. She was silent as she put her arms around Raven's neck. Her long hug looked exceptionally fierce, and she had to be gently reminded by Robin to be careful; Raven could not go into the future with a bruised or broken spine.

Starfire nodded and wiped her face as she broke apart from Raven. She sniffed loudly before rubbing her hand on Raven's bump as she whispered a few words in Tameranian. With a sad sigh, the alien bravely stood up straight and tried to smile at her friend. But it was no use, and she burst into more free-flowing tears. With her hands covering her wet eyes, she raced out the door with a loud sob.

It was just Beast Boy and Robin now.

Robin was next to finish, and Beast Boy tried not to glare at him as he wrapped his arms around Raven and whispered into her ear. He could hear every word, but they did not seem to be the words of a partner bidding a tearful farewell- only the words of one friend to another. This momentarily confused Beast Boy, though he could not remember why. Before he could knit the fabrics of this thought back together, she was looking at him, and everything else was shoved away.

He had practiced what he wanted to say to her before she left. He had scripted out the words, and the gestures he would use, and he had imagined what she would say, what she would do in return. But as he looked into his empty mug, which had been gulped down even before Cyborg's had, everything started to become a little fuzzy.

He could remember that he wanted to be the one to see her last.

Well, that one can be ticked off the list, he thought, and he gave the empath a loopy grin.

Then he wanted to say something about…errrrr….

It was something. And that something was profound, heart-wrenching, tear-inducing poetry. At least… he was pretty sure it was.

What did it have to do with again?

Was it about… love?

Yep, it was definitely about love. Isn't it what makes the world go round? Screw gravity, rotation and the magnetic poles- a specific set of emotions characterized by attraction and affection is REALLY what makes the Earth spin on its axis!

He snapped his fingers.

Of course! How could he ever forget?

He stood up straighter and had to steady himself as he seemed to be losing his balance. When did the floor start tilting?

"Mama," he said, eyes shining, "I loved having you here!" He clasped his hands behind his back, grinned a smile as wide as the Atlantic, and fluttered his eyelashes a couple of times to show the depth of his emotion.

Raven studied him before she crooked a single eyebrow. "It was great being here, Beast Boy. Thank you for everything." The monotone held a hint of sarcasm that made Beast Boy lurch in quiet bewilderment, and he stumbled as he unclasped his hands. Did she not know how long it took him to come up with these soul-bearing words?

"Right," he said, scratching the back of his head and blinking rapidly. Didn't he have a nap a few hours ago? Why was he so…..

Oh yeah! How could I forget?

Beast Boy giggled into his hand and was delighted when Robin started chortling along with him. They looked at each other, and the giggles quickly spilled over into side-clenching belly laughs.

"You both need to lay down," Raven said with raised eyebrows. She opened her arms and herded the boys to the middle of the room, making sure they didn't trip on anything (like their feet) on their way.

The two Titans fell onto the couch in a fit of giggles.

"Sleep," Raven said softly once they were settled and the laughs were dying down to schoolgirl titters.

On light feet, Raven picked up the flowers and started moving to the exit. Beast Boy watched her shadowy image as she turned around to say her final goodbye.

But something about this felt wrong to Beast Boy. He was missing something important, but his jumbled mind couldn't place what it was.

Shaking his head to get some clarity, he frowned as a sober part of his brain tried to take over.

It occurred to him that the words he had spoken out loud were not quite having the effect they were supposed to have. He didn't even get a hug, dammit!

"Raven!" he slurred and leaned onto the back of the couch. "Wait, Mama!"

Scrambling off the sofa, he bounded across the room (only tripping up once) and jumped in front of the empath.

The words were on the tip of his tongue, but the fast movement made his head spin, and he couldn't remember what he was going to say.

Things were starting to go hazy and wait- was he seeing things? Why were there now two Raven's, and why were they so blurry?

"Beast Boy," a gentle hand reached out and touched his cheek. "Rest now."

He choked on a strange mixture of a laugh and a sob. Why was he sad again? He was going to say goodbye, but he couldn't remember why it was such a bad thing. Farewells were all a part of life- why was this one so painful? Why did he feel this ache in his very bones? Was it because… because… wait! Maybe it was because the pain was in his funny bone!

BAHA!

With a chuckle at his internal joke, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "See you later, alligator." With a drunk-like giggle, he morphed into an American alligator and chomped his wide teeth twice.

Raven's expression softened as she stared down at the green reptile.

The corner of her lip turned up ever so slightly, and she whispered, "Goodbye, Beast Boy."

Before he could change back, she was out the door, her blue cape billowing behind her as her silhouette faded down the hall.

Switching back to himself, Beast Boy sat on the floor, eyes glued to where she had stood. He was still incredibly tired, and a large part of him wanted to curl up on the carpet, but another part of him knew that something was going unsaid—something big and something important.

But Robin was still laughing on the couch, and he never got to see his serious friend let his inhibitions go in such a way. There was no way he was going to let this rare opportunity go to waste. Whatever it was with Raven, he could ask her when she got back. Where was she going again? Beast Boy shook his head and smiled at his leader.

"Dude, we should totally watch something!" He did a flip and landed hard on his butt.

The pair looked at each other and burst into cackles.

Beast Boy, through giggles, picked up the TV controller and put on the Titan's favourite streaming service.

"We need something funny and cool," he said to Robin, who nodded despite his amusement winding down.

He flipped through the titles, not getting any inspiration from what was showing. Robin shouted in the background, giving suggestions and laughing at his own joke about a ninja thriller comedy. He flicked over a couple more titles when something caught his eye. Something about it made a part of him giddy, and another part of him stand up in attention. Clearly, this particular movie was poignant in some way.

The four-worded title blinked at him in their orange, yellow and blue, and Beast Boy heard himself say, "Let's visit Hill Valley in 1985."

Robin had stopped laughing by now and was slowly sinking into the couch, a lop-sided smirk on the side of his face.

"Huh?" he sleepily asked, lifting his head from the comfort of the couch cushion.

"Yeah," Beast Boy replied, a little more energy coming to him now. "It has everything- action, sci-fi- it's an American classic!" His words were slurring slightly, but he didn't think Robin registered it.

Robin looked at the screen and scoffed, "No."

"C'mon! It's got a banging soundtrack, the performances are top-notch, and it makes you think about consequences, destiny and all that stuff! It's perfect!"

He was lying on the couch now, spread out with one arm resting under his head while the other held up the remote. He had to squint to read the blurb next to the movie's famous picture of its hero and the time-travelling car, and the actor's orange vest looked a fuzzy red to Beast Boy's tired eyes.

Robin grunted beside him, and Beast Boy wondered what else he could say about the movie to make him change his mind. As he was about to list some interesting facts, Robin mumbled, "I can't stand that movie."

Although not exactly sure why, Beast Boy felt his whole body go rigid. For a brief moment, his dizziness stopped, and his drowsiness ceased. His eyes went wide, and he bolted upright in surprise- this was significant in some monumental way.

"What?" he practically shouted at his friend.

"Hmm?" Robin hummed. His eyes were closed behind his mask, and he seemed to be in that half-awake, half-asleep limbo.

"You don't like it?" Beast Boy barked as he leapt to Robin's side and shook his friend awake.

"Huh? What?" Robin frowned, evidently not impressed that Beast Boy had taken him away from his slumber.

"The movie," Beast Boy practically shouted as he pointed to the screen and repeated, "You don't like it?"

Robin yawned and peered at the screen before turning his back to him and snuggling into the couch cushions.

"No. It's cheesy and too goofy for me," he breathed. "Doesn't matter. G'night, Beast Boy."

Beast Boy stared at Robin's back, his black cape spilling over the couch and lightly touching the floor. His friend's chest rhythmically went up and down, and although his eyes were on him, Beast Boy was seeing another moment in his mind. It was here, in this room, where Raven had shyly confessed that her husband loved the films and made her watch them every year.

He stood slowly on shaking knees, and another memory of this week flashed before his eyes. Raven, confessing to everyone that her husband didn't eat meat as she pointedly looked away from him.

Raven, whose husband has unique DNA. Raven, who knew how to make the cleaner he loved, whose future room is his current one, who blew up cookie dough at the mention of his future wife. Raven, who knew a specific, sentimental African proverb and, most importantly, out of all of these facts; whose husband loves a silly, time-travel trilogy.

Despite his body's overwhelming urge to lay his head down on a pillow, his mind was buzzing and demanding movement. Shifting into the fastest animal he could think of, he was a cheetah, and his paws pounded the halls toward his room. With each step, the past week came to him in flashes, and he willed himself to remember.

He skidded to a halt once he reached his name on the door. The shift back to his human self was a difficult one as the cat in him wanted to curl up and drift off on a warm blanket. He cradled his head in his hands as he morphed to try and stop the spinning that was now making it difficult to see.

Resisting the urge to barge in, he shifted again- only this time into a small spider and squeezed himself under the door. Something told him not to interrupt Raven as she made the ritual's spell, so he used his spider eyes to watch and wait until she was done. He knew the portal wouldn't stay open for long, so he had to move quickly and carefully.

The lilt of Raven's voice as she recited the incantation made the walls vibrate soothingly. It was as if his little spider legs were being rocked to sleep, and he felt more at peace here in her presence than he had all day.

Realizing what was happening, he crept down the wall and landed on the floor as a mouse. Then a guinea pig, a tarantula, a moth. His shifting was a momentary reprieve from the waves of tiredness that were getting harder and harder to ignore. He would be taken under very soon.

He had to then shift into something bigger as Raven's voice had stopped, and a gust of wind sent a vortex through the room. He became a tabby cat and dug his nails into the floorboards as he feared the small tornado would take him away.

Items started shifting around him; a few comics were swirling around like colourful birds, and the furniture groaned as it was threatened away from its spot. Then, with a sound as loud as a thunderclap, a small dark hole appeared, slowly opening up right in front of his bunk bed. It would have been loud enough to wake the dead, but Beast Boy only felt his eyes getting heavier and heavier.

The wind blew fiercely as the opening grew bigger. Strangely, there was no sound after the rumble that opened the portal. Not the wind blowing around the room, not the flying papers and comics, not even the subtle sound of his heart's beating could be heard. It was almost as if the mute button had been pushed during an explosive action movie.

Although it seemed like a few minutes to Beast Boy, it happened in mere seconds. It gave him a cold, eerie feeling that he felt in the tips of his cat ears and made him twitch his tail in distress and discomfort. The fur stood up on Beast Boy's haunches and sent tremors down his spine. This was a bizarre and macabre magic, and Beast Boy wasn't sure how long he would last in its clutches.

He was shaking now in frozen cold, fear and fatigue, and he knew he was bound to pass out in minutes. He could feel the pull of the portal's power, and he dug his claws lower into the floor to resist moving toward its black depths.

His cat eyes darted about the room, trying to find the one who had made this happen, who had come into his life with a pleading request and was leaving it with nothing but unanswered questions.

There she was, her hair noiselessly whipping around her pale face as she gazed, hypnotized by the obscure shadows of the portal. One more step, and she would be within its dark embrace.

This was his moment.

"Raven!" Her name was out of his mouth the moment he had lips to form it.

Her head darted to his face, her features bright with surprise.

"Beast Boy?" she asked, her words bouncing around the room in an echo. "Beast Boy- what are you doing? I have only seconds-"

"Raven," he interrupted, "I need to know."

She wrinkled her nose and tilted her head as if to question him. Her cheeks were pink from conducting the ritual, her alluring lips parted, and her indigo eyes shone with concern and amazement. Beast Boy, in his delirium, swore she was an angel on her way back to heaven.

"I need to know," he repeated, pushing down the attraction, the dizziness and the exhaustion to finally, boldly ask, "Who is your husband? Is it… is it- "

"Garfield."

He was so startled to hear his name- his real name that he froze, his question stolen from his mouth.

"Gar," she whispered, and although he hated that name, hated the old-fashioned images it conjured or the comparisons to a fat orange cat, he loved the way his name fell off her lips. The warmth and affection in its pitch, the captivating smile that curved into her cheeks, the adoration that gleamed in her eyes as she uttered it.

"I will never forget this time I had with you. Thank you."

If he was frozen before, he was now the spring after a long, cold winter, and he melted, feeling so privileged that it was him, Garfield Logan of the Teen Titans, to make Raven of Azarath smile with such tenderness.

And he would never remember it.

The thought sent him reeling, and he could not fight the tiredness anymore. He collapsed in a heap on his bedroom floor just as Raven turned back to the swirling portal.

He cracked open a single eye in a last attempt to fight the impending sleep. As it slowly closed, he saw a figure in blue silently pass from one time into another, taking with her all traces of the past week.

Including his memories.

Authors note:

Ummmmmmm…. Soooo… See you next week?!