A green dog ran through the streets of Jump City. Of course, it wasn’t very accurate to
call it a dog, more accurately it was a green wolf, but most people who saw it pass probab-
ly wouldn’t have noticed that, just that it was green and doglike. Actually, calling it a
wolf would be inaccurate as well, since most of the time it was otherwise known as Beast
Boy of the Teen Titans.

Beast Boy cursed himself as he bounded across the street towards the smelting plant where
Robin and the other Titans had cornered the shape-shifting thing that had been terrorizing
the city. The young superhero should have been helping his teammates look for and fight
the creature from the start, but he broke off the search in order to conduct his own
search, a futile search for his old friend Terra.

But that was in the past. Beast Boy had accepted the fact that Terra either no longer re-
membered her former life as a Titan or did not wish to be a Titan anymore. As much as it
hurt to let go, in the end, he couldn't ask her to sacrifice her own happiness for his.

Beast Boy saw the smelting plant ahead of him. He could hear the sound of fighting inside
as he shifted form to gain the mass necessary to plow through the door in front of him.

”Don’t worry guys,” he thought. “I’m coming.”

* * *

Team Titans
A fan continuation of the animated series Teen Titans
Episode 1: The Hunt
Written by Crinos, edited by Captain Sarcasm

Authors note: All non-original characters are the property of DC comics and the Teen Titans
animation team. All original characters are the property of the writers.

* * *

The shifter looked at the four heroes surrounding it, seeking a possible opening. Its body
glowed red from the heat of the molten steel it had taken the form of. On its right stood
Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans, several freezing discs in its hand, and Cyborg, the
half-machine tech expert, his sonic cannon aimed at the beast. Floating on the other side
of the monster was Starfire, the alien princess of the planet Tamaran, her eyes and fists
glowing green with solar energy, and Raven, the soft -spoken and ever-cynical mystic of the
group, her eyes full of dark energy. The Titans held their position, waiting for the
monster to let down its guard.

The beast moved suddenly, warping its body and stretching out its torso, flying between
Starfire and Raven, the monsters legs following quickly as it landed behind the two
heroines.

“Titans!” Robin yelled out. “Don’t let it escape!”

The Titans moved, but the monster was quicker than its large size would indicate and in a
few seconds it had reached the large metal garage doors of the plant.

Unfortunately for the monster, Beast Boy had reached the door at the same time.

The door came off the hinges from the force of a green water buffalo crashing into it. The
force of the door striking it as Beast Boy plowed through forced the shifter back into the
room, and the other titans quickly moved out of the way as Beast Boy pushed the shifter
into the base of the vat of molten steel.

“Beast Boy!” Starfire exclaimed as she flew over to her friend, now back in human form.
“You have arrived!”

“Took you long enough,” Cyborg said as the other titans assembled around Beast Boy and the
downed creature. Robin then asked the question that everyone else was thinking.

“What happened with Terra? Did you find her?”

Beast Boy didn’t respond, he just looked down at the shifter, pinned underneath the
shattered remnants of the large green garage door.

“Beast Boy,” Starfire said. “Will you not tell us if you have located our friend Terra?”

“Starfire,” Raven said quietly. “That’s enough.” Beast Boy looked at the sorceress with
sad eyes and mouthed “Thank you.”

Raven nodded as the other Titans fell silent. One of Raven’s lesser-known powers was her
ability to feel the emotions of others. Raven could not read minds, so she didn’t know how
Beast Boy’s hunt for Terra had gone, but judging from the emotions Beast Boy was feeling at
the moment, it probably didn’t go well. Beast Boy didn’t have time to fill in the titans
anyway, since at that moment the shifter pushed off the door and rose to its feet, its
flaming body looming over the Titans. Beast Boy didn’t respond, he just looked up at the
beast with scorn in his eyes.

Rather than press the attack, the monster once again ran, this time bolting left from the
Titans and heading towards the hole it had made earlier when it entered the factory. Beast
Boy reacted first, turning into a cheetah and bounding ahead of the beast, blocking its
path as the other Titans took up the rear.

“No,” Beast Boy declared. “No more running. We end this here.”

Beast Boy became a gorilla and leapt up onto the flaming creature and forced it to the
ground. Beast Boy’s flesh sizzled at the touch of the monster’s molten form, but he didn’t
care, and plunged his hands into the monster’s body. The other Titans looked on in shock as
Beast Boy ripped a large red sphere from the monster and slammed it into the ground,
shattering it and spilling a dark liquid all over the ground. Beast Boy roared in triumph
as the monster melted away into nothing, then shifted back to his human form and collapsed
as the other titans rushed to his aid.

* * *

The Titans sat around the table in the main chamber as Raven finished adjusting Beast Boy’s
bandages. Though Beast Boy had only had his arms in the monsters heated body for a few
seconds, the damage was so extensive that a few seconds more and he might have lost usage 
of his arms. Nevertheless, Raven’s healing abilities were able to heal most of the damage,
and a generous application of aloe lotion would speed up the recovery. Robin estimated that
Beast Boy would be fighting fit in a few days.

“Dude, I appreciate how you took out that monster, but don’t you think you went a bit
overboard?” Cyborg asked, reaching for a slice of pizza.

“Yeah,” Raven added. “You could have just held him down and I could have gotten that
thing’s core out.” Raven added.

“It’s all right,” Beast Boy said quietly as he ate. “It’s what I get for bailing on you
guys all day.”

Robin added in the obvious comment. “That’s no reason to do something so reckless. You
really hurt yourself out there.”

Beast Boy looked down at his hands, his bandages hiding the scars of what he had done.

“No, this pain is nothing.” He said quietly.

“Please, no more mopeyness for Beast Boy,” said Starfire. “Why do you not regale us with
one of your jokes of the knock-knock?”

There was a pause, and Starfire forcefully nudged Raven.

“Uh, yeah,” Raven said, trying her best to sound enthusiastic. “I could sure go for a joke
to go with dinner. …ha-ha?”

Beast Boy gave a tired smile to his friends. “Oh all right, Knock-Knock…”

And then the alarm went off. The titans quickly rose and went to the control console to
find out what had happened. After typing on the console, the source of the distress was
made apparent.

It was the shifter.

“Dude!” Beast Boy shouted. “Didn’t we just take care of that thing?”

“Maybe there was more than one.” Starfire offered.

“Its possible,” Cyborg added. “My analysis of the stuff inside the last one’s core indi-
cated it wasn’t an organic life form. It might be a robot.”

“Whatever it is, it’s attacking a lumber mill on the outskirts of town!” Robin said. “We
have to stop it before it gets into the city! Titans, MOVE!”

As the other titans raced out the door, Raven stopped Beast Boy.

“Maybe you should sit this one out,” Raven said. “You’ve had a rough day.”

Beast Boy shook his head. “No, I’ve taken too much personal time as it is, you guys need my
help.” He looked down. “Besides, I can’t just sit around and do nothing right now. I might
go nuts!”

Raven looked on sadly as Beast Boy pushed past her.

* * *

Pandemonium reigned supreme at the lumber yard. The shifter had found a powered saw and
took on its properties; its body taking on a metallic sheen and its arms sprouted circular,
buzz saw appendages, and the lumberjacks fled in terror as it cut through random trees and
equipment.

“If you’re looking for your friend, you just missed him.”

The shifter turned around to see the Titans standing there, ready to attack.

“But we’ll be sure to send you right to him,” Beast boy added.

The creature turned and charged the Titans. Robin let out the battle cry.

“Titans, GO!”

Beast Boy was the first to rush the monster and morphed into a Triceratops, ramming head-
long into the monster, slamming it backwards into the trees. The shifter reared, and
brought its saw-hand down on Beast Boy’s head, but Cyborg fired on the thing’s head and
it blocked with both spinning hands, the metal deforming and the blades slowly grinding
to a halt before the creature’s blank stare. In the back, Raven concentrated, eyes closed.

“Azarath… Metrion… ZINTHOS!”

Beast Boy changed back to human form and rolled out of the way as a pair of felled trees,
sheathed in black energy, slammed into the shifter, knocking it back. Starfire and Robin
attacked next, flinging exploding discs and energy blasts at the monster, which shielded
itself with its broken arms. It reached out with one hand and grabbed Starfire by the leg
and flung her into Robin with enough force to knock them off their feet, but Cyborg took
advantage of its apparent lapse in defense and fired his sonic canon into the monster’s
back, blowing a massive hole in its side, but the monster was unfazed. Its head rotated
entirely around and it reached behind itself to grab Cyborg’s shoulder, and sections of
its body took on the same blue, metallic circuitry detailing as Cyborg himself. Its grip
on Cyborg’s shoulder strengthened.

“Uh-oh.”

The shifter flung Cyborg across the clearing with that one hand. Raven came at it again
next, flinging razor-thin discs of black energy at the monster that only seemed to dent it.

“YO!” Cyborg shouted as he rose to his feet, his face red with anger. “It’s one thing to
toss me around, but NOBODY, AND I MEAN NOBODY, JACKS MY LOOK!”

Cyborg let loose another sonic blast, but the monster turned and fired a sonic blast out
of its own arm, but it was soon knocked down and pinned by a huge, green Rhino. The thing
didn’t stay pinned for long, though, and absorbed the qualities of the ground beneath it
to once again sink beneath the earth.

“Dude!” said Beast Boy. “That thing can even copy us! How can we get at him now?”

Robin looked over to Raven. “Do it.”

Raven nodded and began to concentrate. “Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!”

The earth slowly began to tremble, mildly at first, but it soon grew stronger, and columns
of black energy erupted from the ground all around them, felling trees and collapsing the
ground. After Raven’s powers subsided, the Titans stood on a single column of rock sur-
rounded by debris, and there was nothing alive around.

“No sign of it,” Cyborg said. “It must have already left the area.”

“We can’t let it get away!” Robin shouted.

“We won’t,” Beast Boy morphed into a wolf and sniffed around. Picking up the scent, he ran
into the forest with the other Titans in tow. They ran after the creature for what seemed
like hours until they came to a small clearing in the trees. Beast Boy reached the center
of the clearing then morphed back into his human form.

“The scent ends here.”

“But where is the creature?” asked Starfire, landing on the ground.

“I don’t know,” said Beast Boy. “It’s been fading ever since we started walking. It could
be anywhere.”

”It could be right here, waiting for us,” said Cyborg.

“But it would have attacked by now if it was,” said Robin. “It’s getting late. We’ll camp
out here for tonight and start searching again in the morning.”

A few broken branches and a half-force Starbolt later and the Teen Titans were seated
around a roaring campfire.

“I wonder where that thing came from,” Beast Boy asked as he knelt over, picking up a
handful of dirt.

“It’s sure not from around here,” said Cyborg. “There’s no kind of tech like that anywhere
on Earth.”

“But what’s it doing here?” asked Beast Boy. “Seriously… what is it actually doing here?
All it’s done is show up and attack us… it isn’t stealing anything, it isn’t trying to
destroy us… it’s just got some kind of beef with us. Who do we have mad at us in space?”

Starfire had picked up a stick and was doodling absent-mindedly in the dirt.

“It doesn’t matter why it’s here. When we find it again, we’ll stop it for good,” said
Robin, and then turned to Beast Boy. “That reminds me, now that we have a minute between
the action, what happened with Terra?”

Raven bit her lip and got ready to try and change the subject like she did the first time,
but Beast Boy, who raised his hand before she could speak.

“It’s all right Raven,” he said. “You deserve to know what happened, all of you.”

Beast Boy found it difficult to talk to his friends at first, a rare occurrence for him.
But, with some gentle coaxing from his friends, he managed to retell the events of the
previous day – He told them how he took ‘Terra’ out for Pizza, and back to the tower. He
told them how he threw mud in her face to try and make her remember who she was. He told
them how he defeated one of Slade’s robots in the abandoned theme park. And he told them
how he finally gave up trying to convince Terra of her past in order to help his friends
fight the creature.

The Titans all stared at him, jaws wide.

“Whoa…” Was all Raven could manage.

“Beast Boy…” Robin started. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“It’s all right,” interrupted Beast Boy. “I’m sorry too. I should have told you about that
thing with Slade earlier.”

“THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!” Starfire stood up. “Clearly the Slade has done something to Terra
to make her forget her past and true identity! Come, Beast Boy, you will take us to Terra
now so we may free our friend from his evil clutches!”

“Starfire,” he said. “I really don’t think Slade has anything to do with this.”

“Beast Boy’s probably right,” Cyborg said. “The last time Slade messed with Terra, she
messed him up right back. He’d have to be crazy to go after her again.”

“Regardless, we must go make Terra remember!” Starfire insisted. “We must help our friend,
it is what we should want.”

“Starfire!” said Beast Boy firmly. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“But… Beast Boy,” she said. “She is our friend, and …and you love her!”

Beast Boy froze in midthought, and everything went silent except for the far-off call of a
bird. Then he nodded and smiled. “You’re right, I do love her…” None of the other titans
noticed, but upon hearing this, Raven briefly gritted her teeth, then stopped, wondering
why. She didn’t know why hearing this statement from Beast Boy would cause that. Beast Boy
went on. “And that’s why I think we should leave her alone. I mean, when she had her powers
they did nothing but cause her pain. She wandered around, trying to find a place to fit
in, but she could never find a place to call home.”

“But she did find a home,” Starfire said. “With us.”

“But she still couldn’t control her power,” said Beast Boy. “That’s why she went to Slade.”

“But in the end she turned on Slade,” Cyborg added. “She saved us all.”

“And she got frozen in stone because of it,” Beast Boy said. “The point is, when she had
her powers the only thing she ever had was misery. But now her powers are gone. She does-
n’t have any of the concerns or burden that we all have because of her powers, she’s just
a normal kid. I think we should leave it at that.”

There was another period of silence, this one more thoughtful than the last.

“I know what it’s like to want a normal life,” Cyborg said. “I’m with ya BB.”

Raven spoke next. “I know better than anyone what it’s like to have powers that are diffi-
cult to control, and what it’s like to be denied a normal life. I’m happy that Terra has
found a life like that, if we tried to force her out of that, we’d be no better than
Slade.”

“I still must disagree,” said Starfire. “Friend Terra does not even know who she is. If
she doesn’t know herself, she can’t decide if she should return to her old life.”

Robin stood silently for a second. “I agree that we shouldn’t try and force Terra to come
back, but at the same time I can’t ignore Slade’s presence. If nothing else, we should
keep an eye on her for a while until we determine if Slade might come after her again.
We’ll pick up the remains of the Sladebot while we look tomorrow. For now, let’s just
rest up.”

The other titans nodded and shortly after they were all asleep around the dying embers
of the fire. Starfire, however, was unable to fall asleep and stayed up, looking at the
stars, a haunted look in her eyes.

“Nnng…” Robin turned over in his sleep and his eyes opened slightly. “Star…fire?”

Starfire glanced over at him, then away. Robin got up groggily and walked over.

“Hey Star, are you okay?”

Starfire shrugged.

“Truthfully, I am not all right with the decision to leave Terra be. However…” Star
clenched her fist, forming a ball of green energy around it. “There are certain events
in my own life that I do not care to remember. In that regard, I am happy for my former
friend and her normal life. But… Robin, I fear that I may know where this badness-
causing robot is coming from.”

Robin sat down next to her and casually put an arm around her shoulders.

“I’ve never spoken to you of the Citadel, have I?” she asked.

“Once, I think,” said Robin. “Just a bit after we first met. You said it was …not nice.”

Starfire nodded, and pointed directly up at the sky. “Do you see the blue star above us?”

“Vega. It’s the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere.”

“Vay-ga,” she said, rolling the word around in her mouth as if tasting it. “We call it
Nos, the final letter in our ancient Kwalsaplek. You might call it ‘Omega.’ That star is
the central star in the Citadel’s territory, a cluster of nearly 30 stars. You can’t see
them from Earth because the light from Nos overpowers them all. The Citadel is constantly
trying to expand, and my homeworld of Tamaran is the last planet to hold out against
them. My father and mother had been killed when I was very young, and my brother Ryand’r
went missing before my sister claimed the throne. I think they sent these… things. I
think they came for me.”

Robin smiled and patted her on the shoulder, “It’s all right Star. You don’t need to
worry about that. The Citadel has no idea where you are.”

“I would not be so sure about that.” Starfire and Robin could not even react as the
shifter erupted from the ground, knocking Robin away and grabbing Starfire with one
giant hand. “The Citadel knows exactly where you are.”

Starfire screamed as she struggled against the monster, waking up the other Titans.
The monster responded by placing his sharp fingers on her face.

“Do not come any closer,” he said. “The Citadel requested this Troq to be delivered alive,
however they did not specify that she had to be unharmed.”

“Explain yourself!” Starfire struggled harder. “What are you? Why are you after me?”

The shifter tilted his head. “I suppose there is no harm in telling you. My creator called
me a Mechanical Intelligent Mimetic Infiltration Construct, or “Mimic,” created to
infiltrate hostile environments and capture enemies of the Citadel. My counterpart and I
were sent here to bring back the Troq on the orders of the Citadel’s new leader.”

“And who might that be?” Raven asked, her hands crackling with dark power.

The mimic shook its head. “She prefers to be anonymous right now. All you need know is
that soon the citadel will rule the entire galaxy. If I were in the regrettable position
of being you, I would get used to bowing.”

“So… wait…” Cyborg asked. “If you’re here for Starfire, why the whole runaround?”

“It is quite simple, really,” The mimic began to turn orange, copying Starfire’s skin
tone. “My counterpart and I were programmed with knowledge of your vehicles and other
resources. We both knew that if we made our move in the city you would not stop till you
had retrieved the Troq. We also knew that, were we to both attack, you would find some
way to defeat us both. So my counterpart attacked you in the city and I lured you as far
away from your precious base as possible.”

“You sacrificed your own partner just to get to us?” interrupted Beast Boy.

“It was the only tactically viable plan, and it could have just as easily been me. From
here, it will take you hours to get back to your base and get your ship ready to chase 
after me, and by then I will already be halfway to Citadel space.”

Robin’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think we’ll let you get to your ship?”

“How little you understand. The Troqs can travel through space without the aid of a vessel
…and I can take on all their abilities.”

“TITANS, STOP HIM!”

But the mimic had already taken off, leaving the Titans in the dust. Robin pounded his
fist on the ground as the pair streaked out of sight.

“Grrr… How could I be so STUPID! It was an obvious trap, and I fell right for it! He was
playing us the whole time.”

“I can get to them.”

Robin looked over at Beast Boy, who was looking up at the sky.

“Beast Boy, no you cant,” Raven said, “Even your fastest flying animal can’t match that
speed. I can’t fly that fast either.”

Beast Boy turned to Cyborg. “I can make it, but I’ll need Cyborg’s help.”

“What can I do?”

“I’ll turn into a Peregrine Falcon, and then you shoot me out of your cannon while Raven 
uses her powers to give me a boost. I can speed up and catch up to him.”

“I can’t do that, BB,” said Cyborg.

“Don’t worry about me, Raven can protect me! Right now we’ve got to-”

“No, I mean I can’t do that. I don’t have a cannon.”

“You WHAT? What do you call that thing on your arm, then?”

“It’s a *sonic* cannon! It just generates a concentrated beam of infrasound! I can’t put 
you in it and fire you out, and if you did, you’d be liquefied!”

“Well, turn down the intensity or defocus the beam or some kind of technobabble thing you
do! Raven can protect me from the rest of the energy!”

“Beast Boy, I don’t know if I can-” began Raven.

“You can, Raven,” he said. “I believe you can.”

“Are you crazy?” Cyborg shouted. “Have you even been listening to me? You’ll never survive
this!”

“It’s a suicide mission,” agreed Raven. “You can’t…”

“THERE’S NO TIME FOR THIS!” Beast Boy yelled. “Every second we spend debating this that
thing gets farther away! We have to do this right now or we’ll never catch them! I don’t
want to lose another friend today.”

Robin, who had been staring at the ground with his arms folded since Beast Boy first
spoke, looked up. “Do it.”

Cyborg and Raven looked at him. “You sure about this?”

“Not really, but we have to try something,” Robin sighed. “It’s your show, Beast Boy,
let’s do it.”

Beast Boy smiled and morphed into the falcon, and flew onto the emitter of Cyborg’s sonic
cannon. Raven sheathed Beast Boy in a shell of black energy and Cyborg sighed as he took
aim at the shifter, now a tiny speck in the air.

“I really hope you know what you’re doing, Beast Boy.”

* * *

“We will be breaking the Earth’s atmosphere in a few minutes, Troq,” the mimic said. “I
suggest you take a final look, as you will not likely be returning under good 
circumstances.”

“Tell me,” Starfire said. “Why do you insist on calling me by that name?”

“I apologize, as I mean no unnecessary disrespect or cruelty,” the mimic said. “But my
programmers have forced this verbal pattern upon me, as it will supposedly achieve the
proper atmosphere of intimidation and dominance.”

“It does not matter, for your evil plan will fail and my friends will-”

“-not get to you in time. As I explained to you earlier, by the time your friends get back
to their ship we will be halfway to the Citadel. Once we are there the entire Tameranian
Space Navy will not be able to-”

The mimic was interrupted by a loud noise from the ground.

“What was-“ it began, but was interrupted by another, this one louder than the last, and
then five more in quick succession, each growing louder and louder. A small, black shape
was rapidly approaching the shifter, breaking a new sound barrier every few seconds.

Starfire smiled. “It is my friends.”

There was a final sonic boom and the black energy peeled back, letting a green, winged
shape streak upwards. The mimic swiveled its head directly upward to see what had
happened and saw the claws of a small, green bird of prey alight on the center of its
face. A moment later the mimic knew what it was like to try and fly while balancing a
humpback whale on its nose.

“Oh dear.”

* * *

Robin, Raven, and Cyborg were only able to see the merest speck of green appear in the 
sky before they saw a large burning mass plummeting to earth. The three ducked behind a
ridge of rock as out of the way as the mass struck the ground, sending up a dust cloud
that could be seen for miles around.

“Starfire!” Robin screamed into the smoke.

“Beast boy?” yelled Raven.

Cyborg pressed a button on his wrist and a small fan popped out of his left shoulder,
clearing away the smoke.

“Look!”

The landscape was covered with the strange white substance that had made up the mimic’s
base form, spread out in blotches around the shattered core. Starfire stood next to it,
having suffered little more damage than a bad hair day and a tear in the side of her skirt.
She was fortunate enough to be a Tamaranian, a species capable of surviving extreme
conditions. Her back was to the Titans, and she held something in her arms.

“Starfire!” Robin rushed down the lip of the crater to see her. She slowly turned around
to face her teammates, her mouth a thin, straight line, her large eyes staring straight
ahead but not seeing. “I’m so glad you’re all right” he said, throwing his arms around
her. “I was so worried about you! Where’s Beast…Boy…” he then seemed to first notice that
Starfire was holding something in her hands. “No…”

Cyborg and Raven arrived at the bottom of the cliff just in time to see Robin back away
in shock and Starfire, still stunned, open her arms. Tameranians were indeed capable of
surviving tremendous physical trauma. But there was no way, even with the bodies of the 
mimic and Starfire taking the brunt of the impact, that any living thing on Earth could
survive that fall.

In Starfire’s arms was the body of a small, striped kitten. It was green.

“No…” Raven whispered as Starfite laid their teammate’s body on the ground. The form of
the kitten faded and lost its shape, spreading out like a liquid before resolving into the
skinny, green-furred boy they all knew. Robin and Cyborg closed their eyes and stood in
silence.

“He died protecting the people he cared for,” Starfire said solemnly, tears running down
her cheeks. “He… he said… he said ‘You know you can’t resist the face…’” Starfire lost
all her composure and ran to Robin, burying herself in his arms. Raven knelt down next to
Beast Boy.

“Beast Boy… come on, get up, joke’s over,” Raven gently shook her friend, trying to raise
him. “Come on Beast Boy, get up, make a bad joke, and say something stupid, anything,”
Tears streamed down Raven’s face as she shook him harder. “Beast Boy, please, don’t leave 
me!”

Cyborg put his hand on Raven’s shoulder, “Come on Rae...there’s nothing we can do for
him now.”

Raven was silent for a moment, and then she opened her eyes.

“NO.”

Starfire looked up at Raven, her eyes red from sobbing, and Cyborg took a step back as
Raven began to gather energy.

Raven’s power was based off of emotion. The more she felt, the stronger her power.

When Raven used her powers offensively, she powered them with negative emotions:
bitterness, loneliness, anger; all emotions that came easily to a half-demon. In order to
use powers to transport herself and others she used emotions of longing and of curiosity.
To defend herself and friends with barriers she used emotions of compassion and happiness.
To use her least-used ability, the ability to heal, she used the emotion of love.

In the five years she had been with the Titans, she had seen a change in Beast Boy. When
they first met, he had been nothing more than a child with a huge case of hero worship
and bad sense of humor to, and she had seen him grow into a deep and caring individual,
and a leader of men. He was still a prankster and a jokester, but there was more than
that now. Or, more accurately, it had always been there.

Once, before going off to battle the innumerable army of demons Trigon had summoned,
Beast Boy had given Raven a penny “for luck”. It was such a simple gesture, childish even,
but at the time when the event she had vainly fought her entire life to prevent was
inevitable, it had meant the world to Raven.

Raven’s power was based off of emotion. The more she felt, the stronger her power.

And right now she was feeling stronger than she ever had before.

* * *

Beast Boy opened his eyes and looked around. Everywhere he looked, there was a white
emptiness. He tried to move, but found he could not, yet for some reason he didn’t feel
alarmed. The pain that was consuming his body a few seconds ago had subsided and he felt…
comfortable. Even serene.

“Wow…” he said, to no one in particular, “Did I…is this…am I in…wow…”

“Wow indeed,” said a young and surprisingly perky voice. Beast Boy looked over to see
that a pale-skinned girl in a black halter-top, jeans and leather boots was illogically
standing in the nothingness. Her hair was short, jet black and somewhat messy, her lips
were black and she had a spiral tattoo beneath her left eye, and she wore a metallic
studded belt with a chain wallet and a silver ankh pendant. She looked like one of the
people Raven hung out with at her poetry readings, but the look was totally ruined by
the floppy hat. “Yes you did, no this isn’t, and you’re actually in limbo right now.
Also, wow indeed. Again,” she giggled.

“Oh, okay,” Beast Boy said nonchalantly, then floated happily for a few seconds until
what the girl had said sank in. “DUDE? I’M DEAD!?!”

The girl nodded, “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“But… that means…” out of habit, he tried to point frantically. “Y-y-you’re…”

“Yessirie bob, I’m Death!” She snapped her fingers and smiled. “You know, I don’t care
what Destiny says, you’re pretty smart.”

Beast Boy had passed the calm shallows of serenity and had just traveled through the
swirling rapids of terror and was now sailing in the vast open seas of confusion. “Um,
did you just say ‘Yessirie bob’? No offense, but you don’t really strike me as the ‘Death’
type.”

Death chuckled, “You know, if I had a quarter for every time I heard that…”

“…okay…so, why can’t I move?”

“What? Oh that! Yeah, that happens to everyone, you should be able to move in about… now.”

Sure enough, the numbness that Beast Boy had felt earlier suddenly subsided and he
promptly fell to what was apparently the floor. Sitting up, he gently poked the nothingness
beneath his feet. Death giggled demurely.

“Just as funny in person,” she said.

“In person?” Beast Boy asked, standing up. “Were you watching me, or something?”

“It’s kinda part of the job,” she smiled. “You wouldn’t want me to show up late or
anything.”

“So you’ve seen me in the shower?”

“Hah!” she exclaimed, and then laughed for almost a minute. Beast Boy glared. “No, no…
hahaha… I didn’t mean it like that… It’s just funny that you’re worried about that now.”

“Oh yeah…” he said. “I guess it is kinda funny… ha ha…”

“Wow…” she said, panting and wiping away a tear. “Most people are so serious when I come
to see them. It’s nice to have a lighter point of view for once.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Nobody else thinks I’m funny.”

“Nah, they’re just not as good at showing it. That Raven girl, she’s a lot more like you
or me than she wants to admit.”

“Wow, really?”

“Swear to the Source. Incidentally, don’t worry about the shower thing. It’s nothing I
haven’t seen. Not bad for a kid, either,” she winked.

Beast Boy turned as red as a green-furred boy can. “I am *not* a kid!”

“Sure you’re not,” she said, smiling. “And I’m Mary Poppins.” She looked at her watch.
“All right then,” she said, extending her hand. “Time to go.”

“Go where...?” he began, then sat back down. “Oh…yeah… I forgot.”

Death sighed. “I never get used to this part. I am really sorry about this, honest, but
look at the bright side; at least you’re going to the nice place.”

Beast Boy smiled sadly, and then suddenly looked up. “Wait, what about my friends? Are
they all right? What about Star?”

“They’re all fine.” Death said, putting her hand on Beast Boy’s shoulder. “The mimic took
most of the damage from the impact. Koriand - sorry, Starfire’s okay, so are the others.”

Beast Boy sighed, then slowly got up. “All right, then I guess we can go…”

“NO!”

Death and Beast Boy looked over to see a glowing, black bird appear on the, for lack of
a better word, wall of the nothingness, and in the center stood-

“Raven!” Beast Boy exclaimed, running over and embracing her. Death smiled.

“Wow, that’s a lot of power. Even for you.” Death commented. “You must really love this
kid to be able to generate enough power to pierce the veil.”

“Pierce the veil?” Beast Boy was confused, but quickly became excited. “You mean I get to
go back?”

Death nodded, “It’s a rare, once in a lifetime thing, and in all honesty I really
shouldn’t be allowing this, but I like you two, and you make a cute couple, so yeah,
I’ll allow it.”

Raven and Beast Boy blushed as Death’s smile faded.

“Now, Raven, you understand what doing this entails,” she said sternly. “Taking Beast
Boy’s soul back to the mortal plane means that your souls are going to be close, real
close. You’ll be able to know things about one another that you never knew before, and
all your deepest, darkest secrets could be laid out on the table. Can you handle that?”

Raven and Beast Boy looked at each other, and then silently nodded.

“And you know that this brush with… well with me, will result in both of you having
drastically reduced natural life spans. I mean after this neither of you will probably
see 60. Although with the way things work in this hypertime, you’re liable to wind up
staying 30 for 60 years. Bloody hack editors, there’s no accountability.”

Beast Boy and Raven looked at each other, and then nodded again.

“And you also know that the strain of doing this may reduce or even burn out your powers.”

Beast Boy looked at Raven, “Raven, I don’t want you to…”

Raven put her fingers on Beast Boy’s lips, silencing him. She addressed Death.

“Yes, I understand, I don’t care,” She looked at Beast Boy. “He’s worth it.”

Death smiled, “No argument there. Your mother would be proud of you Raven. You really
surpassed her expectations of you.”

Raven smiled, “Thank you.”

“Alright,” she said. “There’s just one more thing we need to do to make the soul-
transferring voodoo work. I need to come in contact with both of you at the same time.”

Raven stared at her blankly for a minute, and then raised an eyebrow. “This is just an
excuse for a group hug, isn’t it?”

“This girl can read me like a book!” she giggled, putting her arms out in front of her.
“C’mere!”

Smiling, she embraced the two of them. Beast Boy put one arm around her and, after a
second, so did Raven. Death gave each of them a quick peck on the cheek and then let
them go.

Death smiled, “All right kids, get out of here, your pals are waiting for you. Take care
of each other, and take care of your friends, especially Starfire. I feel she may need
support more than anyone else.”

“’Bye Death!” Beast Boy waved, stepping through the portal. “It was nice meeting you!”

“Same here, fuzzy!” she called back as he vanished, leaving Raven behind.

“We met once, didn’t we?” asked Raven. “Midnite’s place, in L.A.. You called yourself…”

“…Didi,” finished Death.

“Well, next time you’re on the mortal plane, look me up. I’m buying.”

“It’s a date,” she grinned. “I think I’ll be calling myself Susan that time.”

“Susan.”

“It’s a pretty name,” said Death. “It means ‘lily.’”

“Susan.”

“Very somber flower, the lily.”

“I’m gonna go now… see you around… Susan.”

Raven vanished in the dark energy, leaving Death alone in the void.

“Why did you let him go?” A brown-cloaked figure appeared behind Death. “It was his time
was it not?”

Death shook her head. “No Destiny, I had a feeling that something like this would happen.
I just came because I like to see mushy stuff.”

Destiny gave a shrug. “Regardless, It’s a good thing he isn’t dying. I see dark days
ahead for the Earth.”

“Worse than the season with Trigon?” Death looked down sadly, “I hope those kids can
handle it.”

* * *

Black energy enveloped the pair, creating a column of black light which could be seen
from space, captivating the other Titans. Within a few minutes, the energy subsided, and
Raven stood, smiling.

Slowly, groggily, Beast Boy opened his eyes.

“Dude… am I in heaven?” Beast Boy looked at Raven. “I must be, because the angels all
look like Raven.”

“BOOYAH,” Cyborg Cheered, “HE’S ALIVE!”

“Raven, that was GLORIOUS!” Starfire exclaimed as she raced over and hugged her friend.
“I had no idea you were so powerful!”

Raven blushed, “Neither did I to be honest.”

Robin smiled at Beast Boy. “Great job Beast Boy. Can you move?”

“I’ve been trying,” he said, glumly. “I feel like Plastic Man after a bachelor party.”

Cyborg smiled. “Don’t worry about it, man, I’ll carry ya.”

Robin smiled as Cyborg lifted his friend up. “Titans, lets go home.”

Starfire dropped Raven and took on a more serious expression. “Robin, about what that
thing said…”

“Don’t worry about it Star,” Robin said reassuringly. “We’ve beaten all kinds of bad guys
before. I bet we can take these guys.”

“Yeah, they won’t know what hit em!” Beast Boy chimed in, weakly.

“Still,” Raven added. “I wonder who this new leader that thing was talking about is.”

It was at this moment that Beast Boy noticed an odd breeze.

“DUDE, I’M NAKED?! WHY AM I NAKED?”

Cyborg shrugged. “Your clothes burned off when you were freefalling man, its no big deal.”

“NO BIG DEAL? I DON’T HAVE ANY CLOTHES!”

“Beast Boy, your clothes vanish when you turn into animals,” Robin pointed out. “You
spend one half to three quarters of the day naked.”

“Yeah man, and look at me,” Cyborg added in. “I’m technically naked too. It’s really no
big deal.”

Beast Boy considered this, “Hmm, good point. Okay, forget I said anything. Although I
never noticed that thing with the clothes before…”

“I can do the naked as well, if that will help,” said Starfire, but Raven stopped her
before Beast Boy suffered a near-fatal nosebleed.

* * *
Across the stars, in the gloomy throne room of the Citadel flagship, a bloated, fat green
alien snarled as he watched the Titans on the monitor.

“SMEGMA! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!” The fat alien roared. “How could my Mimics fail so
completely?”

“Don’t worry about it, Gargaux,” the shadowy figure seated on the throne said calmly,
the two Gordanian guards flanking her grumbled in annoyance. “You’ll get another chance.”

Gargaux bowed to the seated figure, “Oh thank you, Your Imperial Majesty! I assure you,
I won’t fail again.”

The figure smiled. “I know you will not. You see, I failed to defeat the Titans twice
already, so I understand that things don’t always go as planned. So I will give you one
more chance to defeat them, and my dear Sister as well.”

“Oh course Your Imperial Majesty, thank you ever so…” Gargaux did a double take. “Sister?
You mean that Troq was your-”

A purple bolt of energy whizzed past Gargaux’s head, burning a black scar on the nearby
wall.

“It’s hard to believe that so much intelligence would come with so little wisdom,” said
Her Imperial Majesty, The Empress Komand’r the First of the Citadel, known better on
Earth simply as “Blackfire.” “While I do appreciate the nuances you added to your
creations in order to make my sister squirm,” her voice dripped with malice, “Mention
that word in my presence again and you will die in ways I had only reserved for my sister.”

“Uh, I’m… I’m sorry Your Imperial Majesty.” Gargaux stammered. “I’ll go… go work on my
next plan to kill the Titans now.”

“You do that,” Blackfire smirked.

Gargaux waddled as fast as he could from the throne room and Blackfire leaned back in
her throne. The Citadel had been the ancient enemy of the Tameranians since before X’hal’s
time, and she had broken them, tamed them like a dog! Soon her own people would fall, and
her sister would be begging for scraps at her feet. She knew it was cliché, and she knew
it was inviting death, but she had to do it. She had to.

She threw back her head and laughed hard enough to ring even in the vacuum of deepest
space.

* * *

The Titans had returned to the tower and were just now bedding down for the night,
despite it being early morning. All of their usual Rogues Gallery had been contained,
and everyone felt that they had earned this good night’s sleep. Everyone that is, except
for two. Beast Boy lay in his bed as Raven bathed him in dark energy, healing burned
tissue and mending bones, but even with her extensive healing it would be likely that
Beast Boy would be bedridden for at least a few weeks.

“Well,” Raven said, extinguishing her powers. “I’ve done all I can. On the plus side it
doesn’t look like I lost any of my power when I brought you back.”

“That’s good,” Beast boy said, calmly. It was weird, but even looking at Raven now gave
Beast Boy a peaceful feeling. They eventually realize that they had been staring at each
other and looked away, unsure of what to say, but eventually Beast Boy broke the silence.

“I’m… sorry about earlier.”

“Sorry, about what?” Raven asked.

“Sorry I said I loved Terra.”

Raven blushed. “It’s… all right. I know how you feel. I love her too.”

“You sure?” Beast Boy smiled. “Maybe you just think you love her because I loved her
and you felt me feeling it when you brought me back. Or maybe you felt me feeling about
you what I thought I felt about her. You feelin me?”

It was rare that Raven laughed at anything, let alone Beast Boy, but the fact that he was
able to coax a chuckle out of his friend was good enough for him.

“See? I told you I was hilarious.”

“Only in rare cases,” Raven smirked. “I always thought you were some prankster that never
took anything seriously, but when we passed through the veil…”

“I know,” Beast Boy said, smiling gently. “I felt it too. It breaks my heart that you
have to restrict all your emotions so much when you have so much to offer the world.”

The two of them looked down. Their hands had somehow found each other as they spoke.
Raven and Beast Boy’s gazes met and Raven leaned down.

“But you know…” she whispered. “…somehow…”

They were both feeling it; things they had only seen glimpses of in one another had
been seen in crystal clarity.

“…I think…” he whispered back. “…I knew from the start.”

It was just as Death said; they were now as close as two people could be.

Soul mates.

Someone started clapping. “Bravo,” said Slade, standing inside the half-open window.
“I give it four stars.”

Raven leapt up, cursing herself for not setting the security system before coming up to
be with Beast Boy, her hands crackling with energy.

“Calm down,” Slade said, raising his hand. “If I wanted to harm you I could have taken
both of you lovebirds out while you were ‘sucking face.’ I could have even snuck into
your friends rooms and played with them for a bit.”

Raven stopped advancing, but did not lower her guard, “What do you want Slade?”

“A minute alone with Beast Boy.”

“Leave my injured friend alone with you?” Raven’s eyes narrowed. “You must take me for a
fool.”

Beast Boy looked at Slade, then at Raven. “It’s okay Raven, let him talk.”

Raven looked at Beast Boy with pleading eyes, and then nodded. “I’ll be right outside if
you need me, all right?”

Beast Boy smiled to Raven and nodded.

Raven looked to Slade as she melded through the wall. “You hurt him, and I’ll make what
Terra did to you seem like a skin rash.”

Slade pulled up a chair and sat backwards in it over Beast Boy. The Titan scowled and
looked away.

“So… You and her are an item now? Guess I’ve been out of the loop longer than I thought.”

Beast Boy was silent.

“Anyways, congratulations on coming back from the dead. Death’s a real fun girl, isn’t
she?”

Beast Boy spoke calmly, “Don’t pretend that we’re old buddies or anything Slade. We’re
enemies. Now say your peice and get out of my room.”

Slade sighed. “They grow up so fast, don’t they? Anyways, I came to thank you for ex-
plaining Terra’s situation to the others.”

Beast Boy’s head seemed to snap around. “How did you know about that?”

“When you fought my robot at the carnival it attached a minute surveillance device on
your clothes,” Slade explained. “I heard everything up to the point you destroyed the
mimic.”

Beast Boy stared daggers at the villain, “I swear Slade, If you come anywhere NEAR
Terra, I’ll…”

Slade raised his hands. “Relax, Beast Boy, I have no intentions of bothering Terra.
Honestly, I’m glad that things worked out for her too.”

Beast Boy looked away, “I bet.”

“I’m serious. Despite what you may think, I did care about Terra.”

“How dare you say that!” Beast Boy said, sitting up in bed and glaring into Slade’s
single eye. “You used her, you took advantage of her, you brainwashed her and turned
us against us. You used her like a puppet-”

“I had a son her age once.” Slade said, casually, as if he was talking about the weather.

“You- what?”

Slade nodded. “Or he would be her age, if he were alive. She reminded me of him. They
had the same eyes,” he sighed, and seemed to sag visibly. “I may not look like it, Beast
Boy, but I once had a normal life… I had a normal family, with a wife and a house and a
car and 2.5 kids.”

“What happened?”

“Oh… work got in the way. We had a bit of a fight,” he tapped the black half of his
helmet. “Soon after, she died. Badly.”

Beast Boy stared.

“It wasn’t me, if that’s what you’re thinking. I still loved her… and even were I to kill
her, I would have left my son alive,” Slade shrugged and stood up. “Just wanted to get it
all in the open. Anyways, as I was saying, I know that I did some terrible things to her,
but in my own way, I did care for her.”

Beast Boy nodded. “You know, for some reason I do believe you when you said you care for
Terra. But it makes me sad that someone that used to be so normal could get so twisted as
to do what you did to Terra in spite of your feelings. My real family’s dead, too, and
the guys that I consider my family barely talk to me, but I don’t try to rule the world!
What happened to you?”

Slade didn’t respond, he simply walked to the window.

“That isn’t important. I simply came to confirm something: We both agree that Terra
should be left alone.”

Beast Boy nodded, “Yes. But don’t think that changes anything.”

“Certainly not,” he couldn’t tell with the mask on, but Beast Boy was sure that Slade
was smiling. “You know, I actually owe you Titans a favor, now that most of the other
villains are on ice; there’s less competition.”

Beast Boy smirked. “Do get too confident. You’ll be joining them soon enough.

Slade nodded and gave Beast Boy a two-fingered salute as he leapt out the window.

Beast Boy looked to the door. “You can come in now.”

The door slid open, and Raven, Cyborg, Starfire and Robin fell into the room. Beast Boy
laughed in spite of himself.

“You okay Beast Boy?” Robin asked as he got up.

“Yeah, I think he just wanted to bury the hatchet on the whole Terra thing.”

“I’ll say,” said Cyborg. “Anyways, you really think he’s going to leave Terra alone?”

Beast Boy sighed, “I think so, and he could have gotten her by now if he wanted too.”

Robin nodded, “Still, we should be careful, Slade may no longer be targeting Terra, but
he’s still our worst enemy.”

“I know,” Beast Boy said grimly.

“I cannot help but feel …sadness for him,” said Starfire. “The thought that such could
happen to turn a normal man into such a… such a…”

Robin slammed the window shut. “It happens more often than you’d think. But it’s not always
a bad thing. I think we all need to get to bed.

Starfire yawned. “It has been a long day, and I would like to go to the sleep now.”

Cyborg nodded. “I’m going to activate the security system now so we don’t get any more
visitors.”

Cyborg, Robin and Starfire departed the room, leaving Raven and Beast boy alone again.

“So…” Beast Boy said after an awkward silence. “Where does that leave us?”

Raven leaned over Beast Boy and gave him a little peck on the forehead.

“Goodnight Beast Boy,” Raven said gingerly as she left the room, “Tomorrow I’m making
waffles.”

Beast Boy smiled as he drifted off. Waffles sounded good. Waffles sounded good indeed.

* * *

STARRING:

Beast Boy: Greg Cipes
Cyborg: Khary Payton
Raven: Tara Strong
Robin: Scott Menville
Slade: Ron Perlman
Starfire: Hynden Walch


WITH:

Blackfire: Hynden Walch
Death: Tara Strong
Destiny: Khary Payton
Gargaux: Glenn Shadix
The Mimic: Brent Spiner