Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nobody knows what happened on the night that the heroes fell. Few people knew how they fell, and those that did refused to talk about it. All they had to do was survive.

The biggest mystery of all was what happened to the Titans. They were the first team to be completely eliminated by the attack of the Super – villains. What happened to Beast Boy, the only survivor on the attack on Titans Tower is the biggest mystery of all.

Some say he died when in a tiny animal form, others say they hurt him like no one has ever hurt him before, and still others say that he got tired of all the fighting and retired to a simpler life.

But either way, he had never raised his voice or even transformed in nearly forty years. His few friends would barely even recognize him now.

A/N: I own nothing. All the characters belong to DC, the plot (parody/satire of Old Man Logan) belongs to MARVEL.

The farms were placed, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere near what used to be Portland, Oregon, which is now nothing but a giant pile of debris. The farms were placed in the middle of a valley, with giant hills and mountains surrounding one half, an endless dark forest surrounding the other, with a giant river splitting the middle.

The farms looked both very old and very new at the same time as if the farms were at first buildings used in a wild west movie, that has been renovated centuries later, making them look ugly, which doesn't make them look appealing at all.

Near the buildings were giant fields, each one of them growing large crops from corn to cabbages to carrots and so on, it would have looked picturesque, had it not been the piles of broken-down cars and tractors that were placed near the fields, between it and the barn that was hardly ever used.

There was only one way in and out of this place and that was an old dirt path that led from the infinite forest, into the highway that was a 4 hours walk away.

The sun was out today, not a cloud in the sky, and it baked the area like an oven, giving it a strong humid feeling like if this area is on the brink of becoming a desert, but some invisible, undetectable force is holding it back.

A large white stallion that looked and smelled as if it had never taken a bath, walked slowly down this dirt path as if it were walking on a minefield, it's legs shaking as if the bones has been turned into jelly. It looked as if it should have died a long time ago, but it somehow was still clinging onto life, whether if it wanted to or not.

On the stallion was a large man, he looked both very young and very old at the same time, he had some wrinkles in his face, along with a bit of silver hair, but he had the body of a young man no older than the mid-twenties, no older than the early teens. He wouldn't have looked out of place in a slum, with elf-like ears, had several chipped or rotten teeth that plagued his mouth, and his eyes were as dark as tunnels to whoever gazed at them for a moment. He was wearing a large leather jacket that was made of nothing but pockets, with pockets big enough to hold the entire planet in, to pockets so small that it can only hold a single penny. He wore a large blue jeans that had seen better days, shoes that had every stain imaginable all over them, and he wore a hat that looked to be an artefact from a movie from the 1960's.

The man had a greenish tinge to his skin, and his posture was more animal like than human. The man's name was Garfield Logan. He was used to be called 'Beast Boy', but nobody has ever called him that for nearly forty years. All that was missing was a cigarette in his mouth to make him look like out of a cowboy movie, but Garfield can't afford such a luxury if he wanted to or not.

Garfield was carrying a large, worn out, rucksack, like something a backpacker would bring when they go hiking around the world, and he was clutching it as if it contained all the treasure in the world.

A woman came bursting out from the house in the middle from the small row of houses, as if fired from a cannon and charged towards the man.

The woman didn't look as pretty as a supermodel, nor did she look ugly as an inbred cult member, but somewhere in between. She had waist long, shaggy black hair, eyes the colour of fire, a face that had too many scars and blemishes, and her body features were so, unusual that it was impossible to tell the age of this woman.

"Did you get it?" She asked, sounding out of breath from her run, looking up at the man.

The man opened the bag to show the contents of it as if this action was more than enough. At first the woman's face lit up as if she was presented with a winning lottery ticket, then her face fell as if she realised that she was one number off.

"Got half of the pills, and the seeds Linda" the man said, he sounded like he hadn't had a glass of water all day, and he eyed the contents of the bag as if it had personally insulted him "but Nick ain't got any of the rest."

The woman threw the man into a rib crushing hug "don't worry Gar, we will make it. I promise."

"How's the kids doing?" The man asked looking around him as if searching for something important.

As if on cue a tall lean figure came walking from one of the fields as if it had given up on a futile task. The figure revealed itself to be a young boy, no older than 17, and he looked like what Garfield looked in his prime, minus the green skin and the shifting abilities. He wore nothing but ragged overalls that looked as if it would fall apart if he made so much as an adjustment to it, and the pockets seemed to contain half of a toolbox. He was covered in oil and grease stains, and he certainly smelled like that too.

"Tractors busted out" The boy said "I have been working on it all day, did everything. Getting a new engine is out of the question, and all the spare parts has been used up"

The man nodded at the boy as if his attempts was enough to satisfy him. "Alright, James. Perhaps Nick and his allies would be willing to work on something. Now go back into the house and help your mom and your sisters with dinner."

James nodded and he and his mother walked back into the old house both talking unintelligible mutters to each other, as Garfield pulled the horse to the shed where a large pile of animal feed and water awaited the horse, and it guzzled it down greedily. Garfield patted the horse on the head, mumbling calming words to the horse.

He turned, looking down on the ground as if it can provide all the answers that he needed to get out of the situation that he is in. The ground was bare, save for a few patches of grass, and a single tiny green flower.

Garfield blinked, and suddenly he was a teenager again, walking out of the dark Titan's Tower. He remembered the smell of blood and how it stung in his throat and nostrils, he remembered the feeling how it covered him entirely, how the blood fell, dripping down into the ground. He remembered how cold it was, how the wind blew into his face, stinging him like nettles, and how darkness surrounded him. He remembered the taste of blood in his mouth, a taboo for him even now, he remembered the feeling of himself retargeting everything in his stomach, he remembered every shake of his body as if his bones were jelly, he remembered seeing a bright green flower, and it turning red the moment a drop of blood came into contact with it.

Garfield shook his head as if trying to surpass the memory. 'It is too late. Too far gone. There is nothing left. Only me and my family.' With that, he walked into the house.

Half of the house was made out of wood and looked as if it would collapse at any second, while the other half looked modern and can survive until the end of time. The fusion of the two made the building look extremely ugly and unappealing, but none of the residents cared. All they did care about was that if it was inhabitable. The kitchen and dining room was the point where the two met, with the kitchen looking like something of a sci-fi film with a hi-tech, cheap-looking stove and fridge, and the dining room looking like something from a western film, with cheap furniture and paintings that look like something out of anyone's grandparent's walls.

Garfield looked at his small family. His wife, Linda was serving soup to his eldest daughter, Rachel. Rachel was almost 22 and she looked as if she had a stroke, half of her face looked as if it had no muscles whatsoever, making it look saggy like excess skin. Her legs looked as if it was run over by a steam roller, confining her to a makeshift wheelchair made from bike wheels, shopping cars and a car seat. She lifted the spoon to her face, which was a difficult task for her as she is constantly shaking like her bones were made from rubber.

His second daughter, Stella, was wolfing down her dinner. Stella is 17 and she looked perfectly like her mother, with the black hair and fiery red eyes that can cause an inferno at anyone who looks at them, which looked far more aggressive on her. She looked as if she spent her entire life working out, making her look like a miniature bouncer at a nightclub. Her hands were dirty, covered in soil, earth and dirt.

James, Stella's twin brother, was simultaneously playing on a hand-me-down phone which had a worn-out letter 'T' on the back of it, playing a speed run game and helping to feed the youngest child, Jason, who was sitting on a worn-out highchair. Jason looked like Garfield, except for the eyes, where instead of having cool green eyes, he had fiery red ones. He was an oddly quiet baby, and that didn't really make anyone complain.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Nobody spoke to anyone, as they had nothing much to talk about, and all news was delivered through the actions, rather than words. Then, after Rachel dry swallowed all of her daily pills, Linda looked at her husband and spoke calmly.

"Gordon from the travelling market had offered $100 for James', or your phone." She said looking at her husband as if he understood what this meant.

"I am not selling the kids toys, Linda," Garfield said, tiredly, "I told you this many times, anyway, that phone is...sentimental to me."

"It's just an idea, Garfield," Linda said coldly looking "You know that rent is due in three days and we are short on money to give. Anyway, we have nothing worth selling left, and the kids know how tight things are."

"We don't mind Pa." James said looking up from his empty bowl "Anyway we barely got any time to play"

Garfield seemed to pause for a moment as if considering it then he repeated what he had said "I am not selling my kids toys Linda. Not now not ever." He got up as if this ended the conversation, about to take his dishes through to wash when Stella spoke "Mr Lam said that you used to be a superhero. Is that correct?"

Everything went quiet, nobody said a thing. Linda stared at her daughter as if she had violated an unspoken rule, Stella's twin brother looked at her as if she had punched him in the face, even the baby and the half brain dead girl looked at Linda in what appeared to be disgust, even the wind seemed to have stopped.

Garfield's face didn't change, there was an extremely long pause. Then Garfield said "You tell Mr Lam that superheroes are gone now. Now be a good girl and help your mother and brother with the dishes."

A few hours later, Garfield was out of his bedroom window. Garfield's and Linda's room wasn't very interesting, with only a bed looked to be from a museum. With a mattress and pillows that weren't too comfortable, nor was it as hard as a rock. The blankets were worn out, all decorated with faded pictures of galaxies, stars and aliens. A simple wardrobe a mirror stood at one end; a cheap unused desk stood at the other.

The views were picturesque. The bright sun setting down on the Oregon mountains. Garfield looked at the pretty sun and blinked.

He was kneeling down on the ground. The darkness was surrounding him, blood still covered his body, but all of it was dried up. He can hear nothing, feel nothing, think nothing. If he wanted to he would have knelt there until the sun exploded, he wanted it to end. He can't think, can't feel, he can't do anything. He heard the train, he heard the blaring siren of the horn, he saw the bright, blinding light. The grindings of the wheels. He felt the cold metal making contact with his skin. Waiting for the pain. Then a flash, sudden pain, then nothing, nothing at all. Blackness surrounded him. Then the phoenix…

"Gar?" The voice of Linda brought Garfield back to his senses. He looked to see Linda looking at him sadly, like a doctor delivering bad news to someone in a waiting room. "You know," she said with her seldomly used honey-like voice "Stella didn't mean any harm. She is still young, and it is only natural for anyone to be curious about what their parents did for a living."

Garfield said nothing. He didn't know if he wanted to go back to the abyss of his pain or talk about his pain. All he can do was grunt as a response.

"Just. Please don't be angry with her Gar. She is just a young girl."

At this, Garfield looked up to his wife and sighed heavily. "No. I am not angry at her. It's myself." He said, reluctantly. He looked on at the view. Refusing to think about his past. The Doom Patrol. The Titans. They were gone now. Only talked about in history books and in the fading memory of the elderly.

"How could I let things get this bad? You know what they would do if we don't make rent" he said pointing at the distance as if talking about an unspoken enemy "You know what happened to the Browns over the hill."

Linda nodded "But they missed payments three months in a row. This is our first time in almost twenty years."

Garfield looked on at the sunset as if it was the jury about to plead either guilty or not guilty, unsure on what to say or what to do.

"It doesn't matter. They can't look weak in front of Black Adam or the Penguin or Luthor or the other landlords. They have to punish people, otherwise, they will end up like Mr Freeze who was seen as 'soft' to the people in Alaska and parts of Canada. Or Two-Face who was seen as 'too weak' to rule Seattle."

Linda paused, more interested in her dirty fingernails than what Garfield was saying. By the time the sun was barely visible, by a mountain blocking it, Linda said "You know. You can just tell them that they will get double next month, Garfield. I am sure that they can be reasonable when they want to be."

Garfield paused, then looked at his wife like how a father would tell his children that Santa wasn't real. "These are Victor Stone's children Linda. And last time I checked; they don't do reasonable."

And with that, Garfield laid down in the bed and he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Chapter Text

A few days later

Garfield sat on his bed thinking about what he should do. Yesterday was the day that rent was due, and the Logan family was quite simply unable to pay up. Garfield wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, yet there were many things that had changed that night over forty years ago.

It was fortunate that Cyborg lived in a ‘Three strikes and you’re out’ ideology, which was significantly better than his predecessor, Cheetah. However, Garfield was worried about what the punishment for ‘strike 1’ would be. Perhaps they would cut off the water and power? No. Steal the most valuable object in the house? Possibly. Or maybe just the old fashion beat up to ‘send a message’. Garfield sighed. ‘Whatever shit that Vic’s kids or grandkids throws at me. I hope that I will be ready’

He walked out of his room and out into the porch, as if expecting to see the Cyborg gang waiting on the porch like one of those door to door religious people, and yet he saw nothing. Just the views of the mountains, forest, river and farm. He looked to his left and saw James holding a rifle. Garfield looked at the rifle in utter disgust and disapproval.

James looked up to see his father “Morning Pa. Waiting for the Cyborg gang” he said in a matter – of – fact tone.

“Put the gun away boy” Garfield said, sounding like a military general and an ‘old wise mentor’ and the same time. Gar wanted to establish his authority, yet he wanted to tell his son that having a gun out when the Cyborg gang is coming to beat someone up would not end particularly well.

“It’s okay Pa.” James said, adjusting his overalls. “Nobody will see it. I will just keep it close in case those goons give us trouble”

Garfield scowled, at his son looking at him with a ‘Do as I say’ look. “and the only way that that will happen is if they see the gun!” He said furiously. “Now put it away right now, or else they will vaporise us all!”

James stood up so quickly and violently that his overalls looked as if they threatened to rip “I was trying to help for ****s sake!” he said in an angry voice “I just want to do something about it!”

“Watch your language boy!” Garfield said almost reaching his boiling point “You stop that cursing you hear me!? And boy you are too young! If you do ‘do something about it’ your goanna get yourself killed!”

“…Fine!” James said throwing the gun over his shoulder “anyway we ain’t got any bullets!”

“I know” Garfield said “and do be careful on how you move about in those overalls. Clothes ain’t cheap, and I am not sure if you want to take up nudism”

“Whatever.” James said.

“Gar?” A voice cried. Garfield looked out to see Lina out on the front lawn looking up at the sky. “The Cyborg gang is here”

A dark shadow appeared from the sky and a large flying car that looked to be from the Doom Patrol appeared. Gar looked at the car in dismay, as he saw that it had been vandalised heavily with crude slogans.  Dust came flying around their landing site as three figures came stepping out of the vehicle. There was a large thin man that looked like if Cyborg and Raven, had a baby, which wasn’t possible as nobody has heard from Raven for a very long time. The man had dark clothes, a large leather belt and he had large black metal arms and legs with goodness knows how many weapons on them. The worst part of him was the face. He had a mouth with lips that looked like a balloon that was about to burst, razer sharp teeth that were all made of an ugly metal, a nose that would have made Penguin’s nose look like an atom, his left eye was the size of a dinner plate that was obviously fake with all the whirring sounds it made like a fly, while his right eye was the size of a pea. Worst of all he had no ears, where, in its place were two stubs which looked like it was made recently, but the attachments that can be seen, if you were to look at a certain angle told another story.

Next to him was a large man who had muscles the size of basketballs, he would have looked attractive, appearing in sports magazines, had it not been for the entire metal body that made up most of his chest and legs that looked extremely ugly looking, he was wearing nothing but a vest and jeans that looked like they could have used all the material in the world to produce.

Next to this man was a woman. She would have been pretty with her perfect eyes, hair, nose and teeth had it not been for her extremely distorted looks that wasn’t helped by her cyborg anatomy. She had a head that was both too small and too large at the same time and it wasn’t helped by a large metal dome that made up half of her skull. Her arms were too long, the flesh side being at a reasonable length, but her cyborg part made her look like she can extend her arm across the entire planet, and her hands were too big for her body. Her legs were the same story, with her feet being too small even for a baby, but Garfield knew that one kick from her can tear through metal. While she may not look the strongest, she does look the smartest and in command.

“Stone” Garfield said as if greeting someone he heavily dislikes, but doesn’t want to be rude to.

“Zeast Zoy” The woman said. She sounded as if her tongue was stuck to her teeth, which made what ever she said sound incredibly distorted.  

“Garfield’s fine” Garfield said in a voice of loathing respect.

“Oh, excuse me. We keep forgetting that you don’t like people calling you by your old name anymore.” The woman said in mock sympathy. “Oh wait, that’s right. Beast Boy died the nigh the Bad guys beat your asses. How forgetful of me.”

The two men surrounded Garfield like body guards, however Garfield knew all too well that they have no intention in protecting him from anything. “well now we will cut to the chase here Garfield. Because we know that you ain’t got this mouths rent, which is why me brothers are here today, too. You me Otis and Charlie?”

“Once or twice” Garfield said looking at the two menacing cyborgs with complete indifference.

“Well. You being such a Bad – ass all those years ago, they were worried that this might turn nasty. Of course, I tried to explain that you were a pacifist now. But you know what brothers are like.”

“Are you ready to take your punishment, Runt? Or do we got to platen your crappy little farm?” The giant Cyborg said sounding like an extremely inbred hillbilly, which in a fact, he is.

The goth cyborg shouted into Garfield’s ear. “Are you deaf old man!? Are yeah ready to take your beating?”

Garfield said nothing. No words came out of his mouth. He stood as still as a statue. His face giving nothing away.

The giant cyborg stood int front of Garfield, placing a giant finger the size of a water pipe on his chest “The punk tryin’ ta piss us off?”

Garfield scowled. In his minds eye he saw himself turn into a giant sabretooth tiger, disembowelling the two men in a matter of seconds. He can practically see the blood and guts flying and how they landed in the ground, imagining the screams of Linda and the kids, imagining how the two cyborgs screamed as he ripped apart the metal, he imagined all the sparks and him dodging whatever weapon they fire at him as he pounces for the kill.

Garfield pulled himself back into reality and muttered in a soft tone. “Yes sir. I’m ready ta take my beating.”  

“Good!” the giant cyborg cried and before Garfield had time to even blink he saw the hand of one of the cyborgs turn into a giant hammer as it came crashing down on his face. Blood came flying everywhere. He can feel every bone in his body crack and shatter.

More pain and blood came. The cyborg gang seemed determined to annihilate his entire body to see how far they can beat down the shapeshifter without killing him. As this happened the woman spoke.

“Oh Beast Boy. How the hell did they mess yea up so bad when you wouldn’t even defend yourself?”

As the beating continued the goth Cyborg cried “C’mon, Punk! Yea used to be one of the Titans! One of the most dangerous people alive! And we’re just a bunch of Hillbillies!”

The beating went on for a couple more moments. Garfield was used to the pain. Then right when he thought that they were going to spend the night, they stopped.

“Double next month. Or else everybody dies!”  

And with that they climbed into the flying car and vanished in a matter of seconds.

Linda came running fast towards the bloody pulp that used to be her husband. He was grevisouly wounded and yet it looked like he was slowly healing, and yet at the same time, de ageing? Parts of him looked like if he was ageing down to around 13, while the other parts that were left mildly untouched by the beating remained looking old.

Sure, she knew that Garfield’s powers extended beyond shapeshifting, but this was something else. That didn’t matter, she and James examined the body and helped carry it towards the house.

Meanwhile, Garfield was in his own mind, trying not to think of anything. Trying not to think of the pain weather physical or mental. All he can see was a glowing green phoenix, with emerald green fire flying around him. He can smell the mystical, hypnotising smell of the phoenix flames, feeling it healing him, feeling its smoothing voice like a mother comforting her child. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by an inky blackness, as he fell into the abyss of sleep.

Chapter Text

“It doesn’t look too bad to me.”

It was over a day since the Cyborg gang had Garfield wacked to a pulp. Garfield was laying down on his bed, with bandages over his head and hands. He looked even stranger than he had before he was wacked and that’s not counting the injuries. Parts of his face had restored themselves back to what Garfield looked like in his prime, so too was parts of his body. However, parts of his arms, legs and a few areas around his hands and face still looked like they belong to an old man, which created a strange combination of them both like a grotesque Frankenstein’s monster. He estimated that at least 50% of him is young and the rest is old.

Garfield was looking at someone who he thought he would never see again. An old man with Rapunzel like silver hair, and a giant white beard who was wearing large spectacles like what a blind man would wear, a large black jacked with a faded blue symbol on the front of it, large baggy trousers and cheap looking worn out shoes. He looked old and frail, yet he moved like if he was still in his prime.  

“That’s because your blind Dick Grayson” Garfield said smiling at his old friend.

The old Nightwing smiled looking down at where Garfield was. “Even so” he said in his casual commanding tone “Even though you have an unusual healing factor, judging by what your wife described to me, I can conclude that it isn’t what is used to be. Unless if…” The old Nightwing paused as if considering his next sentence carefully. “but anyway, that’s not important at the moment right now. What does matter is this. If you don’t find their money soon, and even I can tell that you ain’t got any little nest eggs tucked away.”

Garfield looked down at the blanket more interested in the pain patterns than what his friend had to say. Nightwing sighed heavily “I think you’re in a lot of trouble, and Vic is being generous with your deadline. But the only question is, what are yea goanna do about it?”

Garfield groaned; he didn’t like the sound of what this sounds like. If conversation goes the way he thinks he is going to, then he will be most displeased. “If you’re talkin bout fighting. I ani’t interested. I will never raise me fists again or…”

“Oh, I know. I know” Nightwing said, as if expecting this answer. “They kicked our buts when there were thousands of us. What chance would we have against them now? If you think your days are behind you, think again. My days of fighting super villains are far behind me. This, is more of a business proposition.”

Garfield’s eyebrows raised. He hadn’t expected this, and yet a son of Batman is supposed to be like this. “What kind of business?” He said, carefully measuring his words.

“A delivery job” Nightwing said casually

Garfield’s face didn’t change. Delivery jobs are suicidal depending on where you delivered it, how you delivered it, what you delivered and how long it took. All of which has an infinite number of variables. Garfield had heard that the Penguin had personally killed someone for being 5 minutes late with his delivery of refreshments, not to mention that going through Black Adam territory is suicidal. Then there was the concern that if the cargo was allowed or not. The supervillains seldomly did trade, but when they did it was though ‘trusted people’ and a whole list of requirements, and he was certain that Nightwing wouldn’t even be allowed to serve tea in the staff room in the sewers.

“Is it legal?” He asked

Nightwing cocked his head, with a thin smile “You’d ask an old sidekick to Batman if he’d ever break the law?” he said in a sort of mocking tone.

Then he became all business like as if he was 17 years old again and was leading the Titans against Dr Light or the villain of the week.

“I need to get a package to the east coast in two weeks, Metropolis to be more precise. But driving myself there is impossible, and due to certain circumstances, I need a navigator and I am willing to pay you $500 for your troubles. That’s an awful lot of dough Beast Boy…And an awful lot of rent. What do you say?”

Garfield paused. He looked at the door where he saw his wife and 4 kids looking on at this exchange as if it was an interesting movie, all of them staring at Garfield. He looked at Nightwing, who was gazing at him with a wide smile on his face. However, Garfield knew Nightwing long enough to know that he is almost always hiding something. What exactly did he mean by ‘certain circumstances’ and what exactly is he carrying? If he was carrying food and other necessities that’s fine, but why go to the trouble of actually finding him? Plus, if he did get the money, how would he get back? Sure, he can take whatever mode of transport that he took to get to Metropolis, but who knows how long that will take. What if he arrives a day or a week to late to find his family dead? Then there was the matter of the journey itself. Nightwing was asking him to go through the territories of the Penguin, Black Adam and Lex Luthor not to mention so many other landlords. And if he were to go with him, he would have to go through them twice! There were so many things that can go wrong, and yet. $500. That was enough money to cover the rent for at least 10 years! He looked at Linda, then at each one of the kids, then at Nightwing then out of the dark window, where nothing can be seen or heard except for the stars and moon.

“My name is Garfield, Nightwing” Garfield said slowly. “And I need sometime to think.”

“Sure it is. Sure it is.” Nightwing said giving a small fake mocking grin. “I will give you until the morning” His face fell to his usual resting ‘bitch face’ and he stood up as if to show his way out. Then, just when he was about to turn around he looked as if he just remembered something, giving a small gasp and Garfield can tell that is eyes looked wide as if it were about to pop out. Nightwing slapped his forehead lightly saying “Oh yeah! I almost forgot.”

Garfield stared at Nightwing as if he was his judge, jury and executioner. He should have known. Nightwing has an ace up his sleeve. He is going to get him to do this job whether if he wanted to or not and he is going to play the ultimate hand to force him into action.

“I can’t believe I forgot why I came here! I have just remembered! I remember now!”

He looked down at Garfield with a genuine smile, like a poker player about to reveal the Royal Flush to someone who had a straight flush or a 4 of a kind. Garfield just sat there, unable to do anything about what Nightwing has to say.

“If you don’t want to go that’s fine my me, I can find someone else who would do it for less than half of what I will give you. It’s a shame that your sons and their mom Raven won’t be able to see you again.”

And with that, he walked out of the door skillfully walking through Garfield's stunned family and disappeared.

Chapter Text

“Impossible. Raven is dead. She is gone like the rest of the heroes” Garfield had caught up to the old Nightwing who had for some reason, decided to linger around Garfield’s front lawn as if looking for a needle that he had dropped on the ground. “And on that matter how can I have a kid with her!?”

Nightwing seemed to take his time with his answer looking up at the night sky as if it held all the answers in the world. Garfield knew it was unwise to lose his paichence, especially with Nightwing, even if he wanted to use his powers or not.

Then he looked at Garfield with a look that almost mirrored his surrogate brother, Damian. “Well. For Raven’s status, yes and no. I do not possess the answers Gar, as it was over thirty years since I last saw her and she was in a half dead state, so there is no way for me to know that she is alive or not. As for the child, they are just some talks I got from Constantine who told me about a shapeshifting apprentice of his. On the subject of Constantine, I think that he would help us with Black Adam if the time comes, and if hes willing to. But the point is, what I said about the satus of Raven and what is apparently your kid is just minor rumours I heard. But you know me and rumours. I tend not to believe them unless if there is overwhelming evidence to support it, but the key thing here is this, its’s not a matter of fact that if I think it is true or not, but what does matter is if you think it is true or not.”

Garfield stood rooted to the ground, he had no idea what to say, his mind a whirr. If he stayed here then the Cyborg gang would come and destroy everything, and yet if he came, not only would he get enough money to keep them away from the Cyborg gang for generations, there is a possibility of him reuniting with Raven, his second girlfriend and maybe he can reunite with the son or daughter he never met, and maybe just maybe he can get the words he want that can finally bring him to peace. ‘Typical of the Bat family. Always manipulating people to get what they want and need’ Garfield thought to himself. He looked back at his home at the door where his children and wife stood watching him, with unreadable expressions on their faces. ‘Dam you to hell for making me do this Nightwing’ Garfield cursed in his mind ‘But I can see that I have no other choice’

“Very well Nightwing. You win. When do we start?” Garfield said in a grumbling defeated tone.

“Good!” Nightwing said clapping his hands together with an unreadable expression on his face “See you out here after Breakfast at 9:00 AM sharp. Now go to bed pip pip” he sounded like his younger self, back when he called himself Robin and was the leader of the Teen Titans. And with that, he turned around and walked away.

Garfield was left standing where he was. His face still looking grim. ‘Well played Nightwing.’ He thought ‘Well played’

7:30 AM

“I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t possibly do it! This is insane!”

Linda stood in front of Garfield, her face as hard as stone, her voice cracked like a whip on flesh. “I know we need the money, but what you are doing is suicidal!”

“Nice way to be woken up.” Garfield said muttering under his breath, looking up at his wife.

“Do you know how many dangers you are going into? The Penguins Plot? Black Adam’s Layer? The Luthor’s Quarter!? You know how bad each one of those areas are! You can get yourself killed! You can be delayed and arrive 1 day late and we would all be goners!”

Garfield should have known that this conversation would happen sooner or later, he knew what Linda was like whenever they travelled far away. She always has a tendency to have a panic attack when they went more than 20 miles away from the farm. Garfield looked up at her about to fire a small retort when he saw her face. A single tear was forming in her eye.

Garfield threw Linda a large rib crushing hug, it was then when Linda gave up a cascade of tears “I know you are doing this for us. Just please don’t get yourself killed! Please don’t be late! Please bring back the money!” Each word was becoming more inaudible with each sob “and if this kid of yours exists, maybe you can introduce them to the kids! They would love him.”

Garfield released Linda from the hug, she looked at her husband with tears flooding out of her eyes, and a small smile on her face. “I made your favourite. Fried Tofu with cabbages, garlic, carrots and rice. And if you can, pick up a souvenir, we could do with an exotic decoration or two.”

They kissed.

Garfield went into the kids room, to say his farewells. The kids room is the most modern room in the building. It had two bunk beds, a worn-out beanbag chair, a small pile of books and a few cheap electronics. On the bottom bunk on the bed closest to the door laid Rachel. She was staring at the top of the bunk bed as if it contained all the answers in the world. She tilted her head up and her face lit up with glee “Dada!” She cried extending her arms out as if hugging an invisible friend. Garfield smiled at her as he came to sit by her, and returned the hug.

“Daddy’s goanna be away for a while Rachel” Garfield said looking at her. Rachel’s face seemed to drop slightly “But I promise you that I will be back for you. Perhaps I will bring yea back a present.”

Rachels face lit up once again like if he had announced that Christmas has come early “peasent?” she said

“Yeah I will bring you back something.”

“Promase?” She said

Garfield smiled “Yes I promise that I will bring you back something. You might even get to have a new brother or sister”

“New…sibling?” Rachel said, not really comprehending what was going on

“Yeah. You might have one. You might like them” Garfield said unsure on how to break this to his almost brain dead daughter.

“I love yea dad!” Rachel said smiling

“I love you too Rachel” Garfield replied.

They embraced

James and Stella sat in front of Garfield as they ate their breakfast. They were eying their father with what appeared to be sadness.

Garfield wasn’t sure if it should be him or the twins that should break the silence. He dug into his tofu, vegetables and rice bowl, something that was reserved in the Logan family only for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. Garfield was eating a steady portion, however the twins hardly touched theirs.

“Father” James said. His voice sounding extremely sincere. “We understand about what you are about to do and…” but he seemed unsure on what to say. Stella looked as if she had no idea how to string sentences together.

Garfield put his fork down and looked at the twins straight in the eye. “James Logan. My first son.  You are the brains of the family. I want you to help them whenever they have a problem in the house. I want you to look after your brother and your sisters. I want you to think with your mind and not lash out at anything whenever trouble comes, and when it does, I want you to accept your twin sister’s help.” Garfield turned to look at his second daughter. “Stella Logan. My second daughter. You are the oldest of your siblings who can look after your mother and your siblings. I want you to look after them. Fight for them whenever trouble arrives. Just promise me that you will listen to your twin brother for advice, and I won’t get upset that you destroyed a farming tool. And I want you both to behave yourself. And look after yourself, your family and the farm.”

Both James and Stella saluted at their father “Father. We will not fail you.”

Stella was holding something in her hands “Dad. I want you to have this. You might need it more than I do.”

She was holding out the phone, or rather, what used to be his phone. Garfield

Garfield opened up his arms for a hug. James and Stella practically fell into them. “I love you dad” they both said.

“And I love you too.”

They broke apart.

Garfield looked down at the cheap crib. He looked down at Jason. The youngest in the family. So young and innocent. Still asleep. Garfield remembered the time he was born. Linda wasn’t sure if they can have a 4^th child and yet here he was. He remembered the delight of Linda’s face when she realised that she was carrying a baby. He remembered the day Jason was born, Linda was screaming her lungs out, so much blood, and out popped the little, tiny Jason, and how it smiled and laughed at everything and at how he hardly ever cried. Garfield picked up the small body of Jason. There is something about holding a baby that unlocks parental instincts, and Garfield was clueless on why. He thought that it could be simply the warmness or even the tiny heartbeat or the slow breathing. No matter what it is. Garfield felt it now, as he gave Jason a large hug. Jason woke up and smiled and laughed at the sight of his father.

“I love you Jason.” Garfield said as he held up Jason looking at him in his bright watery blue eyes.

“Dada” Jason said as his reply. The only word he knew. Garfield chuckled as he lowered Jason into the crib and walked out of the room.

He smiled and let out a tear

“What the hell are you doing in the Driving seat you old fool!?” Garfield cried. He was standing in front of his yard, his family looking on from various points around the house after saying their various goodbyes.

Nightwing was sitting in a pure back and dark blue jeep, that was obviously made by Batman. The car looked both very old and very new at the exact same time. The metal was old and looked as if it can fall apart at any moment, however it seemed to have got a new paint job, along with having first class interior seating and equipment.

“Well. This is my car, aint it? Your job is to read the map, nudge me arm if yea see any pot holes or anything in our way.”

Garfield got into the car. The seat felt so comfortable, and springy and relaxing that he was tempted to fall asleep on it right then and there, but he knew better than that in front of Nightwing.

“So, was this a Boatmobile?” he said in a curious tone.

“Yeup” Nightwing said as he revved the engine as it started up like a racing car. “Built by the old man himself…and customised by me and one of my ex wives. Now fasten your safety belts. This Mile’s got a hell of a kick.”

The car lurched forward charging full speed towards the dirt path in the forest, making everything that it passes a colourful blur.

“It’s fast” Beast Boy said. It was the fastest he had ever gone for nearly 30 years. Which was the last time he ever set foot in a vehicle.

“It has to be if we’re gonna cross the four main kingdoms. Now turn on the Sat – Nav and tell me if we’re driving in the right direction.”

Garfield switched on one of several screens that lined up the BatJeep, and a map of what used to be the United States of America showed up.

In the ‘New age agreement of 2024’ the USA was divided up into several areas. Lex Luthor had got the East coast, Black Adam got most of the inner east land of the United States, Cheetah had got most of the West Coast, however Cyborg overthrew her and took her place nearly 10 years later. Eobard Thawne had also ruled most of  the inner west land of the United States, however Penguin, or to be more precise his son, had somehow managed to take him down almost 30 years of a tyrannical rule. Gotham was a city divide upon itself, however to Garfield’s knowledge it was now nothing but a pile of debris.

Garfield looked at the screen as a line showed the way to their destination.

“One mile gone. Three thousand more to go” He said

“Awesome!” Nightwing said looking at Garfield with a wide smile, his hair and beard flying rapidly in the wind as he somehow managed to manoeuvre the jeep when he is blind “Get ready for the ride of yea life Beast Boy!” as he slammed on the accelerator to enter the highway

Chapter Text

“We ain’t exactly keepin’ a low profile here Nightwing!” Garfield said looking around him

He and Nightwing had driven for a few miles to find themselves in the strangest traffic jam that Garfield has even seen. They were on a large empty desert plain, with sand and dust making up most of the atmosphere here, along with other assortment of gases from soot to car exhaust to gases that Garfield was 99% sure was deadly in large doses.  Around them was a large collection of odd vehicles.

There was a car that was made out of at least 100 different car scraps that seemed to be running on an large wind sail, there was a car that looked to be from the 19^th century still running good as new. There was a demented old man in a bikini top and a kilt riding a skateboard, a large assortment of horse drawn chariots all of whom seem to be renacting a Ben Herr movie scene, an armada of large trucks all of whom seemed to have various things happening in them. Garfield saw what appeared to be a funeral where all the guests seemed to be glad that the deceased is dead, in another he saw a restaurant that seemed to have broken out in a small war with people firing guns, arrows and god knows what else over what appears to be a bowl of fruit, and in another he saw a wedding where the groom seemed to have just learnt how to tie his shoes, while his bride to be seemed to be old enough to be his mother and in another he saw a cross between a hotel, a red light district nightclub, a casino, a library and a school, with thousands of people partying in it.

Around him various people of all different groups and ages seemed to have decided to have a duel in the middle of this ‘traffic jam’. He saw a large group of teenaged boys and girls having a gun fight while blindfolded, while at the same time a man who was as fat as a beach wall was lazily having two sword  fights at the same time with two men in ninja suits fighting him, but the fat man seemed almost bored with this fight. He saw a wrestling match between a large young woman and a small old man, with neither making dominance over the other. 

He noticed a 90-year-old woman who seemed to be wearing every known clothes in the world, carrying what looks to be a fusion between a machine gun, a revolver, a flame thrower, a missile launcher, a laser gun, a cross bow, a bow and arrow, a harpoon gun and a spear launcher. Garfield watched as she vaporised a middle aged man, who seemed to be dressed up as the mummy, after she touched one of several triggers on this insane weapon only to get shot in the eye by a naked 9 year old boy, who had war paint on him that made him look like a fox, he was holding a cheap looking bow and a quiver with an infinite number of arrows.

Garfield looked at the dying woman twitching on the ground with blood spurting out of her eye every second. The boy who had fired the arrow walked up to the corpse and picked up her no longer needed weapon, which was a remarkable feat as it was twice his size, but he lifted it up like if it was a toy. “This is my fucking gun now” he said looking down at the old woman who was now no longer moving. A middle aged woman wearing full samurai armour came charging out of thin air brandishing a samurai sword heading full speed at the boy. For a moment, Garfield thought that the boy was a goner, as his super weapon was slung against his back and he would have no time to withdraw his weapon, aim and fire, only to see a storm of arrows that seemed to be getting fired out of the boy’s body.

“But I ain’t giving up me bow and arrows” he said, looking down at the woman’s body, who’s front was now nothing but arrow ends. “and next time, don’t wear anything if you wish to attack me. Sound of moving cloth is bad at stealth for me” and with that he ran away, almost vanishing in the dust cloud.

Garfield watched this scene in a mix of amusement and disgust, he wanted to intervene, but at times like this it is better to do nothing then use the hero factor. However, since they were on a vehicle that used to belong to an icon, he wasn’t so sure if they chose the right place to go.

“Well that’s good” Nightwing says “The Bat – Jeep loves the attention! Besides, I got Beast Boy as my wing man! Who the hell is gonna mess with us?”

“I already told you...” Garfield said in a tired voice “…I ain’t that guy any more.”

“Yeah, well” Nightwing said as if he expected this answer. “Lets just say I don’t think you’re as harmless as all those idiots think you are”

“Perhaps” Garfield said looking on at the ongoing battles, unsure if he should mention it to Nightwing “Perhaps”

“The animals are still in there Beast Boy” Nightwing said, suddenly swerving the jeep to go off the traffic jam and into the barren desert field. Sand and dust blew into Garfield’s face and he winced as it stung into his face “and I can smell them Beast Boy” Nightwing continued.

By the time Garfield got the sand out of his eyes he looked ahead of him and felt his heart leap into his mouth. The Bat – Jeep was driving full speed towards a large cliff with a fall at least a hundred meters up, and down below was a large pain of desert that led onto California.

“Nightwing! look out!”  Garfield practically screamed at the old man’s ear, but Nightwing seemed to have gone deaf. Instead he casually drove full speed towards the cliff like if it was the finishing line in a racing track “Nightwing!!!!” Garfield bellowed practically shaking Nightwing violently, grabbing him by the shirt and tugging on it up and down trying to warn Nightwing that they were heading full speed towards their doom.

“Would you relax?” Nightwing said in an impossibly calm tone, giving a smile that showed that he was enjoying whatever he was inflicting upon his old teammate.

Garfield was about to jump out of the Jeep when Nightwing floored the accelerator and before Garfield had even had time to reach for the seat belt buckle, they were falling, falling, falling.

Garfield’s life began to flash before his eyes, he saw his parents laughing when they went on a canoe ride, that would be their last. He saw the day he first joined the Doom Patrol and how he took down those bunch of goons. He saw the day he first joined the Teen Titans and how he fought the crazed Starfire. He saw Terra and how she both betrayed and saved the Titans. He saw his fight with Trigon as well as his other fights with HIVE and Brain. He saw Terra now living a new life and how he had to move on from this. He saw the day that he admitted his love for Raven and how she indifferently accepted it with a very tiny twitch of a smile. He saw the Phoenix. He saw the large crowd of villains, all crowded in Titans Tower all looking at him menacingly and how he attacked them. He saw the train heading full speed towards him. He saw a much younger Linda in a bar looking at him with sorrow in her eyes.

BUMP!

Garfield opened his eyes. His entire body shook as if he had jumped from the highest diving bored into the swimming pool. His body felt as if they had turned to rubber and he can hear his heart beating rapidly, and he felt that he almost bit his tongue off. By the time the odd sensation in his body was over he realised that they were on the ground now. A giant dust cloud had invaded the air around them, and yet the Bat – Jeep was fine, all of it was in one piece. Not even a scratch to the paint work or a burst to any of the ambiguously dated tires.

Nightwing was laughing hysterically like if he had just heard a hilarious joke or had just been on a euphoria releasing roller coaster ride.

“Oh how I wish that I can see to have a look on your face!” Nightwing cried still laughing, turning his head to look at the Garfield who realised his face was frozen in shock with his mouth still opened in a half scream and his eyes looked as if they were about to bulge out.

“Wha…how…” Garfield sputtered still unable to comprehend what he had experienced.

“Dude.” Nightwing said, becoming more business-like “This is the Bat – Jeep. My surrogate father made it to survive a fall from outer space and attacks from Superman, Doomsday and even Darkseid himself and even though most of that nifty gear is now no more, it can most certainly survive a fall from a small cliff.”

Nightwing continued to drive as if driving off a cliff and surviving it was as normal as taking a drive through order.

“Don’t do that please!” Garfield said almost growling at Nightwing.

“Don’t worry Beast Boy!” Nightwing said “If we were to drive into Atlantis I will make sure you know before hand”

Chapter Text

Star City has changed a lot the last time Garfield had visited, once it was a thriving city, filled with thousands if not millions of people. There used to be entire districts, streets and city blocks filled with stores that never closed, restaurants and hole – in – the – wall establishments that served world class food and so many other stuff from bars that always had a party in it to clubs where people can relax and say nothing.

Now Star City looked as if it had been through a war, which in a matter of speaking it had. Every single building bigger than 4 stories tall stood in a tremendous wreak as if it had been bombarded, shells that used to be cars and trucks laid scattered all over the place like if a giant toddler had a tantrum and had thrown all the cars all over the place.

Nothing lived in the tremendous wreak that was Star City. The last inhabitants had packed their bags over thirty years ago.

Darkness had engulfed Star City, everything from the wreak of skyscrapers to a half broken car was covered in shadow, the only source of light came from the dim half-moon and the bright lights that came from the Bat – Jeep.

Garfield found that navigating through the maze of wreaks was difficult at first, epically at what used to be the central areas, however that area was long behind them.

“So...” Garfield said finally breaking the question that was lingering in his mind ever since he got into the Bat – Jeep. “This cargo that we are moving to Metropolis. I gotta ask…is it drugs you got back there? Or is it some kind of weapon?”

Nightwing looked as if he dreaded this very question, his face looked grim as he gripped the steering wheel so tightly that Garfield was surprised that it didn’t break. “Don’t ask me stuff like that, man…please?” he said, his voice sounding like he was on the brink of crying “I don’t need reminding how far I’ve fallen”

There was a long pause as Garfield and Nightwing sat in silence as the Bat – Jeep drove slowly down the dirt road “Beast Boy…just let me know if we drive past a supermarket or a warehouse or something like that. I think we may need to stock up on supplies.”

Garfield looked around him, complying with Nightwing’s request. There were a couple of barren skyscrapers, several collapsed store fronts, and piles and piles of car shells, but nothing what Nightwing had described. Then they passed a large collection of skyscrapers that looked to have collapsed like dominoes when Garfield saw it.

The building looked like any oversized supermarket, with too many shelves, too many windows and too much space available for parking. However half of the building seemed to be underground, which makes the building look to be in a strange angle.

“Wha the?” Garfield muttered observing the strange sight in front of him

“Do you see what looks to be a supermarket, with half of it appearing to be sinking underground?” Nightwing said casually as if it was an ordinary thing to see

“Yep” Garfield replied “What…”

That was when Garfield saw the most oddest thing in the world. What looks to be an overgrown mole, with an ugly orange fur, strange looking hands that looked to be a cross between a giant scooper and a drill, warts the size of baseballs, and eyes bigger as big as basketballs. It looked up at Garfield only to close it’s overgrown eyes as if the Bat – Jeeps lights was torturing it. It then scampered away into the darkness before Garfield had time to even fully comprehend what he had just witnessed.

“Molloids” Nightwing said trying to locate where it had gone as if he can sense it’s movement in the air.

“What?” Garfield said in confusion

“They are an underground race. Little orange guys who go blind in the light. Some folks believe that they are the planet’s immune system” Nightwing said, sounding like a bored low budget documentary presenter. “They were resting down for god knows how many years, but the moment the population hit 8.5 billion people, the planet released the, to thin us all out. They had a feast in Asia, occasionally hitting Africa and only once or twice they hit Europe. Star City is the only place they attacked.”

Garfield paused as if trying to take everything that he heard in “So…they sink entire cities?”

“Yes. Right beneath the ground. That supermarket over there was at the very edge of ‘the blast range’”

They had now driven into the abandoned parking lot, which had nothing except for an armada of abandoned shopping carts, the burnt out remains of what used to be a gas station and the occasional car shell and crate pile.

“So, what now?” Garfield asked Nightwing looking at him as he directed him to stop in a spot not far front of the dark store entrance.

“We grab some food and go. The Molloids won’t hurt us as they dislike human food.” Nightwing replied stepping out of the Bat – Jeep.

Garfield followed him as they both set foot into the store. The coldness hit Garfield like a wreaking ball. The air was ice and he can feel the coldness infecting every single cell in his body making him shake uncontrollably. The smell of rotten food all from the meat section murdered Garfield’s nose making him wanting to vomit everything. Piles of food, from canned goods, to opened cereal boxes to content of shattered bottles of every liquid from cheap soda to world class olive oil flooded the floor.

“Just get some canned goods, some drinks and some of the fruits and vegetables. They are genetically altered by Luthor as a sign of ‘good will’ after killing Superman. They never rot, which doesn’t quite make up for him taking over the world, but…whatever”

“I see” Garfield said, picking up a half damp tote bag with a faded picture of what appeared to be Supergirl and started picking up foods from the produce isle, as well as grabbing several canned soup and beans, while Nightwing did the same with other stuff.

“Done?” Nightwing said after a while.

Garfield nodded. He had got enough food for himself to last the entire trip. Nightwing gave a thumbs up “I think we might encounter a gang or two when getting out of here. Thank god that I have got my Big, Bad Beast Boy here for protection!”

Garfield’s face turned cold as he repeated something that he had said to Nightwing several times in the trip.

“The name is Garfield. Nightwing”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” Nightwing replied, in a voice that clearly showed that he hadn’t. “You’re just a simple farmer helping me out for some rent dough right? Anyway, your wife and kids are back in the next state, man. You ain’t gotta pretend anymore”

They have stepped back into the parking lot, which gave Garfield a considerable amount of whiplash, stepping from the cold damp supermarket and into the hot and dry outside.

That was when Garfield heard it a loud roaring sound, he turned and to his absolute horror he saw something that sent his hear to his mouth. Atomic Skull Riders. Four of them, all of them riding large motorbikes with wheels of blue fire, all of them brandishing weapons. One of them was carrying a long chain with a bloody looking anchor, another was carrying a large samurai sword, another was carrying an African spear and another was carrying a giant baseball bat. A trail mark of blue fire was made with every move that their bikes made, and all of them were hollering bloody murder. All of them looked the same, with the white and blue war paint, eyes that looked as if it had never rested and far too many piercings that wouldn’t look out of place in a rock concert. They were all wearing the same leather uniform that showed random pictures of skulls and bones and random symbols.

The one with the samurai sword flew up into the air and struck Nightwing in the face with his giant boot. “Ugh!” Nightwing cried as blood came flying out of his now broken nose. The samurai sword wielding Atomic skull started to circle around Nightwing like how a vulture circles around its prey, leaving a circle of fire around him.

“Keep ‘em away from the Bat – Jeep man! Don’t let ‘em touch the Cargo!” Nightwing screemed at Garfield, but Garfield didn’t need to be told. He was already running towards the Bat – Jeep as fast as his old man legs can carry him. The one with the chain and anchor was hot on Garfield’s heels, and as if he was in a cowboy movie he threw that chain and before Garfield realised what had happened he was on the ground swallowing dust into his chest and lungs with a giant chain wrapped around his feet.

“Whats the matter pig?” The chain welding atomic skull screamed at Garfield “Stand up!”

He lashed out practically whipping Garfield’s front side like a whip “Fight back!!! What the hell’s wrong with you man!!!??”

White hot pain seared though out Garfield’s body, blood came pouring out through many parts of his body. Yet he didn’t even lift so much as a pinkie finger to defend himself.

“I will never hurt…another living soul…to not turn into anything…you can do to me what you like boy…but I refuse to strike you back!” He said as a response to each blow delivered.

“Well that’s pretty stupid!” The baseball batt wielding Atomic skull cries as he struck Garfield in the head, blood came cascading out of his face. The spear wielding atomic skull threw a spear almost going straight through his chest.

All 4 atomic skulls headed towards the Bat – Jeep laughing to themselves

“Now lets see what they got in here!” one of them said opening the boot of the Bat – Jeep

“it’s drugs man!” another said “The blind guys a courier. I heard about a shipment on its way east and…”

But that was all it managed to say when a batterang flew out of the night and into the neck of the atomic skull.

The other atomic skulls panicked looking into the darkness, looking for their attacker. Garfield  could almost hear Nightwing smiling “That’s right bitches. Just keep making noises”

A hail of batterangs came flying all of them severing the necks of all the Atomic skulls in seconds. All of them collapsed in a pool of their own blood, coming out of their twitching, jelly like bodies like a squirting fountain of blood.

Garfield looked down at himself. The beating wasn’t too severe, true his healing factor had helped but he still looked like a Frankenstein of his older self and his younger self, with the older part still having some dominance over the younger, but something in Garfield’s mind told him that this won’t last for long.

“Nightwing?” Garfield said looking stunned at his old friend “What have you done?”

“What have I done?” Nightwing cried almost sarcastically stepping over the corpse of the samurai sword wielding Atomic Skull. “Oh don’t you start! I am pissed off with you as it is!”

He sounded like a father who was telling of his kids for doing something illegal. “You have taken an oath not to turn into any animal!!!??? All of a sudden your this…this beautiful pacifist!?”

Garfield looked at Nightwing with a small glare “I have been telling you that ever since we were in Oregon”

“Yeah!” Nightwing practically screamed so loud that Garfield was sure that Black Canary would be proud “But I didn’t think that you meant it!”

Nightwing seemed to pull himself together, and after some heavy breaths he whispered “What the hell did they do to you man?”

Garfield blinked, and then he was back in the battle of Titans Tower.

He saw Blackfire coming flying up to him with bloody murder in her eyes. He saw her eyes glow as he turned himself into a wolf and he pounced at her, flying in the air and he slashed at her neck. He saw, felt, and smelt the blood as it came flying out of her neck. He saw how her body twitched, and how it laid still at his paws as he came crashing down onto the floor. His senses and mind were overwhelmed when he examined the scene around him. He saw other villains too. And they were all surrounding him. He saw what looked to be a tiny version of Trigon, ‘his son perhaps’ seemed to be relaxing on Raven’s favourite chair, with Raven herself a bloody pulp on the floor, and he was using her as if she was a footrest, not taking notice of his dying half sister. He saw what appeared to be a strange goo like alien he never seen or heard of before holding the corpse of Blue Beetle, and him looking as if he was about to devour him whole. He saw the body of Starfire, almost lifeless and on the brink of death, blood flooding out of giant holes in her chest. He saw several other villains, he saw Ocean Master beating up Aqualad, what appeared to be two evil speedsters one, one was Professor Zoom, the other he didn’t recognize both of whom was destroying the speedster Mexican twins, and front and centre of it all was Slade, who was holding the limp body of Robin, Damian Wayne, like a trophy.

Garfield pulled himself out of the memory. He wanted to forget it. He wanted to forget it ever happened. He wanted it expelled and destroyed from his mind. But his mind seemed determined to play the memory, over and over and over again, whenever Garfield closes his eyes, he can feel the blood of Blackfire going down his arm, whenever Garfield was asleep he saw himself attacking the alien as a large green dragon, remembering his expression of horror as Garfield wrapped around him like a snake and he felt and heard ever bone in its body break. Whenever his mind is left to wander, he remembered how he disembowelled Slade, as he attempts to use the body of Robin like some makeshift shield, remembering how each drop of blood flew into the air, and how each single organ flew up into the air like a firework, and the image of his battle with the Trigon’s son and how he turned into a phoenix to fight him off, and resulted in him unleashing an inferno that fried it to a crisp.

Garfield looked into Nightwing’s eyes hoping that all of his memories can be seen through his eyes. “They broke me bub.” He said “Only reason I’m still alive”

Chapter Text

Las Vegas is completely unregainable. Garfield remembered when this city had a certain atmosphere that gave people a sense of wonder, joy, delirium and awe, he remembered that this place used to have casinos on every street, loud music playing from bars, and lights so bright that it would be impossible to tell if it was day or night. There was just something special about it that makes Las Vegas so iconic.

Now Las Vegas was quite simply in complete and utter ruin. Everything was at the point of looking as if it would collapse at any moment. Garfield saw bridges that were broken up making them look like weird incomplete statues, every single building looked damaged in someway, and there was a large assortment of people that were each doing something so bizarre that Garfield couldn’t comprehend what he is witnessing.

He saw several people wearing tacky superhero cosplays Garfield saw an old man who could have passed off as Control Freak’s obese twin brother wearing a Superman costume that was too small for him, while he was making advancements on a woman that looked as if she wanted to die on the spot. He saw a middle aged woman in a very convincing Wonder Woman costume, but he was sure that Wonder Woman would be insulted by that fact that she was running around screaming bloody murder while whipping every person she passes and he saw a Batman person who was an auctioneer on a black market, and he had just sold what appeared to be a box willed with weapons. And the sign that used to read "Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas" now reads "Welcome to Lantern Falls" that was graffitied on with green paint.

Then there were the markets. Tents lined up the streets selling everything imaginable, old phones, clockwork birds, postcards, giant bags of seeds, giant piles of food, bottles of water so big that it could have contained all the water in the ocean, glasses, exotic looking animals screaming in cages (Garfield winced at this), computers that still worked, weapons similar to what he saw the naked 9 – year – old boy use when in the traffic jam, organs that came with a free operation, slaves and so on.

“Sometimes I feel insulted that they didn’t kill me.” Nightwing said to Garfield, who was still examining what used to be Las Vegas “Like I was so insignificant that they didn’t need to worry”  

“What do you mean?” Garfield asked who was sucked back into reality by this remark

“Well. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Lanterns, they were targeted and taken down in the first few hours. But the bad guys basically ignored me.”

Nightwing looked as if he had been wanting to say this for decades and now he had decided that now was the ideal time to let it all out “Was it because they thought that one of the Robins used to be one of them? If so then they got the name’s mixed up. Or is it because they thought that I was a joke because I have no powers? But if that’s true then why kill Batman and the Robins? Anyway, you saw how much I can still kick butt. Even with the Glaucoma and me being blind I can still take care of myself…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re still a regular badass Dick, now where do all these crowds come from?”

Nightwing sighed heavily “We are at the place where Professor Zoom, and some red and violet lanterns finished off our last green hope. You have never been this far before?”

“No” Garfield said a bit too bluntly

“Well.” Nightwing said as if trying to find the right words to describe something “This is where they come to pray that the Superheroes come back. You know…like the old days where almost every year where they die and then they just rise from the dead a couple of weeks or months later with some cool new costume and maybe a boost to their power?”

“Ain’t goanna happen” Garfield said looking around him. The markets had all changed in what they were selling the further down the road they came. Now they were selling superhero merchandise. Dolls of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more were all on display, then there were replicas of superhero weapons from rows upon rows of convincing looking Green Lantern rings, to crude looking Batterangs, he even saw someone in a costume of himself that was so convincing that for a moment Garfield thought for a moment that he was looking into a mirror that looked back in time into his younger naive self.

“Don’t I know it” Nightwing responded “But it’s futile telling them that. Even when I announced who I was and delivered this they still refused to give up believing. The human spirit dies without a hope in their coffee.”

“So…” Garfield said casually “Who’s in charge of this place? Does Nevada fall under Stone’s jurisdiction?” He said his old friends name with a hint of resentment, that Nightwing notice. It was futile speaking about what happened to Cyborg, as there was no need to talk about how they felt. “Nah.” Nightwing said as if unsure how to respond to Garfield’s subtle remark “Penguin’s the landlord around these parts, man. Cyborg has just got California, Oregon, and parts of Washington state and a bit of Mexico and Arizona.”

“So…” Garfield said looking around at all the Superhero merchandise “What’s with all the trinkets, statues and dress up? I doubt that the President would be amused with all of this superhero memorabilia.”

“Ahhhh” Nightwing said sounding like a wise old mentor in one of those old movies “Nut he turns a blind eye when there is money to be made. Las Vegas, or what some call it ‘Lantern Falls’” he said gesturing towards all the markets, which were Garfield realised all were selling large green lanterns “…is the number one tourist attraction in America. And we are approaching a sacred area”

They have arrived at what used to be the entrance patio to a half destroyed 5 star hotel, and right on top of the large magnificent fountain, was a large green lantern, that used to belong to one of the Green Lanterns, and there was a large crowd of people, all of various ages, shapes, sizes and ethnicities, and all of whom were wearing green, were all bowing and kneeling at the lantern. Garfield looked on at this as the people continued to bow down and pray as if they were peasants in the middle ages and the lantern was their king. Monks, all wearing green robes were muttering the green lantern oath in every known language in the world and all the people were echoing the monks words.

Garfield continued to observe this scene, then Nightwing drove off going down towards a large almost empty street.

That was when Garfield saw it. Something or someone he thought he would never see again. A medium sized robot was standing in the middle of the street as if expecting them, the robot looked simple enough, with a simple silver metal body and wearing a large oversized trench coat, and where it’s head should be was a large jar, with what looked to be a skull printed on it, with a giant brain inside. Garfield looked at it’s head with displeasure, even though it has been over 40 years, the only thing that seemed to have change was the bright green number 4 on the skull’s head and it’s weak looking body.

“Nightwing!” The robot cried as Nightwing hit on the brakes when he heard the voice “Thank goodness you’re here! It’s me Brain number 4. Did you get the message? The message from Wendy?”

“Excuse me?” Nightwing said, highly confused on what the robot was saying.

Garfield looked at the Brain with visible dislike. The last time that the two had fought, he had nearly succeeded in taking down almost every teen superhero almost eliminating an entire generation of new heroes and Justice League members, had it not been for him and several other honorary Titans they would have won, and god knows how that would effect this horrific future. Perhaps it would move it ahead of schedule.

Nightwing seemed to have read Garfield’s mind and he whispered into Garfield’s ear “To put it simply, he had reformed, and he thinks killing them is a step too far.”

Garfield nodded, but the scowl on his face didn’t leave. He gripped his Titan’s phone in his pocket as a small reminder on what Brain had done.

“No, we are just passing through Brain. My friend and I are heading to Metropolis, man. We only stopped here for a Coke and some Chips”

“Incredible!” Brain said “This is the town where miracles happen.”

He started to gesture at them like a tour guide and Nightwing gestured that they should follow. Garfield got out of the car and followed Brain reluctantly with Nightwing following next to hm and the Bat – Jeep following them like a donkey on a rope.

“Come on!” Brain said sounding like an over – enthusiastic tour guide in an amusement park “Wendy’s over in the garage!”

“Who’s Wendy?” Garfield asked Nightwing curiously

“Ex – wife number four” Nightwing said, making it clear that this is a subject that shouldn’t be discussed “I never tell you about this one? She’s Guy Gardener’s oldest daughter. She has a really great sense of humour”

Wendy’s garage looked like any normal garage, with tools all over the place, one of those hydraulics machines that lifts up cars, the smell of oil that murdered the nose, the ground so sticky that it could have been a glue and all that. Working on what looked to be a fusion between a steam train and a large RV was a large tall woman with hair so short that she was practically bald, with bright blue eyes, and a resting serious face.

She was wearing a large, oversized orange and yellow uniform that had every known stain scattered all over it. She looked up from the RV – Train to see Brain number 4, Garfield and Nightwing approaching her. She threw down the filthy rag into an overflowing tool box and scowled “Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Filling her head with all your nonsense…” She shouted at Nightwing like a cop interrogating a suspect.

“Excuse me?” Nightwing said, looking at the other direction almost deliberately, as if he knew what the answer was.

“Well!” Wendy said standing in front of Nightwing like how a parent would stand over their teenage kid who had decided to go on a joyride in their car “Ashly and her friends formed a super – team, Dick, and they said that they didn’t like the way Penguin ran this place, and they were headin’ north to take the big man down.”

“All three of them were captured, boys. They say he plans to execute them first thing in the morning.” Brain number 4 said with no emotion in his voice whatsoever.

“Couldn’t you tell her your drug – dealer stories? At least THAT way she would be earning a LIVING!” Wendy cried looking at the old Nightwing with a stare so fierce that even the blind Nightwing felt it. But Wendy sounded like what she was saying would do no good on what is about to happen.

Garfield looked on at this scene, unsure on how to react or what to say. Then he said “I don’t understand. Who are we even talking about here?”

Nightwing and Wendy didn’t even look at Garfield. Instead they simply bowed their sorry heads down as if in prayer.

“She’s talking about Ashly man…our daughter”

Chapter Text

“To be honest, I never really had Ashly as the Superhero type” Nightwing said.

They were sitting in the dank break room of the garage, which is nothing more than an oversized walk – in – closet. It only had enough space for a tiny table, 4 uncomfortable plastic chairs, a white overworked mini fridge that can be found in any hotel in the world, and a tiny kettle.

Nightwing, Garfield and Wendey was drinking a cup of strong black coffee, while Brain number 4 didn’t drink anything.

“Well!” Wendy said tisk tisking to herself “That would be because you walked away when she was only 4 years old Nightwing! The closest thing she had to a father was Brain number 4!”

“Please don’t bring me into this” Brain number 4 said in what sounded to be fear

Garfield sat watching this altercation with something close to amusement. He was surely tempted to take out a bag of popcorn and eat it like if he was watching a movie, but nobody has ever had popcorn for nearly 10 years to Garfield’s knowledge.

“And besides!” Wendy said practically screaming at this point. Garfield was strongly reminded of Amanda Waller when he had an unpleasant encounter with her at a ceremony “What are you talking about!? Her father is Nightwing! Her grandfather’s is a Green Lantern and Batman! Being a superhero is hardwired into her DNA!”

“Even so!” Nightwing said in almost equal feroicity “She always struck me as an ‘evil badass type’ for use of a better word, like the Red Hood, or Red X. She never really seemed especially ‘Alturistic’”

“Excuse me!” Wendy fired back adding too much emphasis on each let of ‘excuse me’ “But are we even having this conversation!” She took several deep breaths and suddenly she sounded like any concerned parent when they hear that their child’s life is in danger. “Our daughter is about to be executed by the Penguin here! So are you goanna help her or are you going to let her die!?”

Nightwing finished his coffee in one glup and almost punched through the table “Of course we’re going to help her! I am not a complete dirtbag!”

Garfield didn’t like where this was going, not one bit. He was here to deliver a package to Metropolis as well as get some answers to Raven and what could be his son. He hadn’t signed up for a rescue mission, he hadn’t signed up to stop an execution by the Penguin, who currently rules almost a quarter of the country. No. He didn’t sign up for this not one bit. “Speak for yourself” was all Garfield managed to growl.

“What?” Nightwing cried out in disbelief staring at Garfield as if he had mortally offended him

Garfield looked on stone faced at Nightwing “I got hired as your map reader, bub. I ain’t fetting dragged into one of ye stupid adventures!”

“Are…you…kidding…me!?” Nightwing shouted in complete disbelief “My daughter is going to die! And your going to do nothing!?”

“The deal was that I help you get into Metropolis! I ain’t going up against the Penguin! Bad enough that you got me running drugs for you jackass.”

“Hypocrite!” Nightwing shouted sounding like a boot camp instructor. Then he visably, with great effort tried to pull himself together. “I am letting you see Raven if we had the chance. I don’t know if she is alive, I don’t know if your kid, if he exists, is alive. I am letting you see what could be your kid. And you won’t let me see mine.”

Garfield paused, trying to think, but Nightwing doesn’t seem willing to et the topic go down “I’ll pay you double. Plus, a day with them” He said in a completely monotone voice that gave nothing away.

“What?” Garfield said almost completely perplexed

“You need to clear you debits with the Cyborg gang, right? You help me save my daughter, and I will double your money, and if Raven and that kid of yours is alive and does exist then you can have a day or two with them.”

Garfield paused. He was unable to think. Nightwing is offering $1000 now, and on top of that he will let Garfield spend time with what could be his son, and on top of that he can finally rest in peace if he got the answer that he wanted from Raven. But Garfield still refused to do one thing. Fight or transform. He tried to suppress the memory as he responded with a cold hard stone face “I still ain’t fightin”

“All I am asking you to do is read a frigging map, drive the Bat – Jeep for a bit and look through binoculars Garfield!” Nightwing said sounding like his younger self when he led the Teen Titans “I promise that the absolute, total, worst case scenario would come to you punching one person”

Garfield paused, trying not to give anything away, he knew that Nightwing is blind, but knowing Nightwing, Garfield knew that it would make no difference, Nightwing can manipulate anyone to his side if he needed to, and he played his part well. Knowing that either option would have the same result he chose his next words very carefully “And that’s it. Read a map, look through binoculars and drive. Is that about it?”

Nightwing saluted “Scouts honour” he said with a small smile on his face.

Garfield didn’t know if Nightwing had even been in the Scouts or not, but it would have made no difference with his days as a trapeze artist and his training from Batman. He nodded “Okay. It’s a deal. But just so that we are clear, I’d rather die than turn into any animal again. Understand?” Garfield said looking at Nightwing intently.

Nightwing shrugged. “I reckon that I can fight my own battles. Now c’mon. We can’t waste anymore time here. The Penguin lives in what used to be Salt Lake City, and that is a 12 – hour drive.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Garfield said with a voice with less emotion than Raven can produce.

“Look.” Nightwing said looking up at Garfield. “I know that the schedule was tight as it was, but Salt Lake City is still on the way, and I swear that this won’t take long. You have my word that I’ll have you back in time to pay your landlords, Garfield.”

Garfield nodded “We’re both in this for our kids now, Nightwing” Garfield said almost smiling “We’re only doing what we have to”

Nightwing yawned loudly and stretched his arms and legs to their fullest, and Garfield could swear that he could have heard a pop or two coming from his bones. Nightwing gazed up at the ceiling, which had nothing but a cheap LED light fixture on it, but his face looked as if he was looking at the milky way galaxy. “I still can’t believe that she’s actually out there calling herself a superhero. I mean, I know that it’s insane in the current climate, but man…I gotta be honest with you…” he looked down at turned his head at where Wendy was sitting who was watching Garfield and her husbands exchange as if she was watching a mildly interesting television programme. “…I’m so frigging proud of her”

They were about to get up, when Brain number 4, lifted a hand, holding something small in it.

“Mister Garfield Logan?” He said, extending the hand to hand over the thing in his hand. “For luck, sir”

Garfield took whatever it was from Brain’s ice cold metal hand and looked at it. It was a simple cheap key chain. Something you would find in a tiny airport gift shop for $1. A smooth silver ring, with a short cheap looking metal chain was holding a large circle. Inscribed on the circle was the letter ‘T’, and the word ‘Titans’ written in calligraphy just below it.

Garfield looked at the key chain on his old wrinkly hand as it was a bomb about to detonate, and suddenly Garfield was back in the forest.

He can still feel the blood. How the luke – warm blood ran down his arm, his face, his chest and his legs. He remembered every harsh breath he had taken, every rapid beat of his heart and how the cold wind stabbed his face, and how it mowed his hair. He remembered the tears that came down from his face, how it came down from his eyes, reacted with the blood on his face and how it had turned red. He remembered how each and every single drop of blood came down onto the earth, infecting the flowers, grass and earth with a drop of an infectious diseases red.

He remembered how his eye had stung, how it felt like it was being stabbed when he saw the train coming for him, he remembered the shaking of the ground that reminded him of Terra, as if Terra can do anything about what he had done. He remembered the sounds of the train, the clattering of the wheels, the deafening horn blasting into his ears. He remembered how cold, how cold the rail was, and how it seemed to freeze into his neck, like a tongue on a metal pole. He heard the wheels approaching his neck and…

“Come on dude!” Nightwing’s command immediately drew Garfield back into reality. He was standing in front of him with an unreadable expression on his face “I’ve seen people on wheelchairs who were faster on their feet.”

Garfield looked at the key chain, then tucked it into his pocket. “Yeah. I’m coming.”

And with that he got up from his chair, and went out with Nightwing.

Chapter Text

Rice – Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City.

Night has fallen on Salt Lake City. It seemed to smother the entire city in darkness. The entire area was covered in shadows, and dilapidated buildings stood, not a single sign of life shown in the any of the abandoned office blocks, oversized supermarkets and homes. It was as if every single living thing had vanished from the face of Salt Lake City, leaving it an abandoned ghost town. Not even the pigeons, that once plagued the city a lifetime ago had decided to stick around.

Rice – Eccles stadium however was another story. It was as if the entire world had decided to come and witness what was going on. The stadium was a bit derelict, but compared to all of the other building that surrounded it, the stadium still looked magnificent. It was a simple stadium, rectangular shaped, hundreds if not thousands of seats for all the fans that used to occupy them, and a large field in the middle which can host almost any sport imaginable. The noise inside the stadium was deafening, cheers, roars, jeers and applause was scattered all over the stadium, as the crowds made as much noise as they can at the sight that was in front of them.

The entire pitch was dark, but a giant spotlight shone down right in the middle as if God himself had decided to shine the sun at this single spot in the stadium. In the middle of the stadium were two, simply designed, giant metal poles. Two people were chained by their necks by giant handcuffs, to the giant poles, and they looked, quite simply horrified.

There was a young man dressed up in a well-made Flash costume, who looked as if he had dislocated his jaw, due to the waterfall of blood that came out from his mouth, not to mention all the giant wounds that can be clearly seen on his skin, from what looked to be a giant burn on his back that seemed to have come from a flame thrower, and an abundance of bullet wounds on his legs.

The other was a middle aged man, wearing a cheap looking Superboy costume, that was now almost destroyed. His legs and arms looked as if they had been through a car crusher, with all of it distorted, and going in weird angles. A giant puddle of blood, both old and fresh, surrounded them as if to remind them of their injuries.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!!!! Boys and Girls!!!!!” A voice boomed through the loud speakers, and at the sound of the jeering crowd who was yelling insults at the two men, suddenly increased the sound ten – fold, all screaming, cheering and applauding, the sense of elation was so contagious it almost infected the two men, but they knew better than to applaud and cheer. They knew that something bad was about to happen.  

“I would like you to meet The Flash and Superboy!!! Two of those three so called ‘New Superheroes’ who waltzed into town to save everyone from the Penguin!!!” The voice was rich in sarcasm, like how a dinner host would introduce a family member that they dislike, and at the end of the voice’s words the entire crowed started to boo and shout insults at the two, almost all of them throwing random things at them from empty beer cans and boulders, but they were too far away to even hit their foot pinkie.

Another bright light lit up from the stadium, this time going into another part of the field, showing three men; and at this the crowed cheered even more as they looked down at their leader. Two of them looked like simple bodyguards, with overgrown muscles, one of them is underdressed wearing only a simple vest and boxer shorts, the other was overdressed wearing a well made suit as if he was about to attend his daughter’s wedding. Both of them were carrying large artillery guns that would have needed at least 4 people to operate, but they carried it around like how a child would carry a plastic toy gun.

The third man was sitting on a large leather couch, and he was sitting on it as if it was his throne. The Penguin. Or to be more precise The Penguin the 2^nd. The Penguin couldn’t have looked more different than his father, instead of a pale skin like a vampire, he has skin that looked like a baked potato as if he had spent his entire life inside an oven, his bald head gleaming in the light, instead of being ‘large’ due to his weight, he was large due to his large muscular body that made him look more muscular than his bodyguards, instead of wearing the sort of clothes you would wear to a fancy dinner party in a fancy restaurant with your rich friends, he wore giant sunglasses the sort that spies wore in movies, a plain simple white shirt, an oversized leather jacket, simple dark green jeans and the most flashy accessories. He had a watch the sort that scuba divers would wear, a giant rectangular ring that glowed in the light as if it had been polished 24/7, a giant necklace showing a picture of a penguin stabbing a bolt of lightning, and an oversized belt that had the words ‘Penguin II’ engraved on it.

The man was holding a microphone like a singer at a rock concert. “That’s me incidentally” his voice echoed through the stadium, drowning out the sounds of the crowd by his slick, smooth voice. “Unfortunately…” he said allowing the word to roll out of his tongue as the crowd cheered on “what these boys seemed to forget is that they were going after one of the most evil badasses in all creation! I mean, I am the guy who killed reverse Flash after all!” The crowd cheered and applauded at this as if he had done something noble and heroic.

“You remember Reverse Flash?” The Penguin said solemnly, sounding like a commercial presenter talking about the destruction to the environment, as the crowd suddenly went quiet, as if they all simultaneously recalled a horrific memory, as they all recollected dark times. Nothing can be heard I this long pause. Not even the wind, nor a drop of water dared to break this silence “He got this place after that ‘Superhero holocaust that he engineered with Black Adam, Luthor, the cat chick and everybody else?” Again nobody said anything, not a sound can be heard, even the two prisoners knew better than interrupt this silence.

“But…” The Penguin said, his voice turning from a sence of sadness to that of jubilation “the big man made one stupid mistake, boys and girls!” He shouted into the microphone, and as if one cue, everybody, everyone in the crowd, to the bodyguards to the Penguin himself all shouted the same phrase “…Bitch got old!”

The entire crowed erupted into cheers and applause again as if reminiscing a victorious battle that they have won. As the silence died down, the Penguin made a hand gesture to the two prisoners who saw this as their cue to speak.

“Please!” The man in the flash costume cried, who sounded like he was gargling on his own blood “Just…tell us what you did with Ashly!”

The crowd was about to express their anger, but the Penguin raised up his hand as if commanding them not to speak. The Penguin, slowly stood up from the couch and looked at the two men like they were an interesting lab specimen.

“Your skinny ring – leader?” He said casually as if he was having an afternoon tea with them “Well…Let’s just say I’m still thinking up of something…nasty. You two have fought with honour, and I respect that. I always respect a fighter who fights with honour, and even though I can’t offer you an honourable death, I say this. You guys got off light.”

He made a gesture and suddenly a rumbling sound can be heard, at first the two men thought that it was an earthquake and that they were going to be sacrificed into the earth herself, they looked down onto the ground as  if expecting to see a large crack opening up to swallow them. Then they heard a large roar like a lion and they looked up, to see what was standing in front of them.

The last thing that the two men saw in their lives were two, green raptors, with teth so sharp that they looked as if they can tear through metal, had they had the time they would have been amazed to see a species brought back from extinction standing in front of them, they would have made a lot of Jurassic Park references and gaze at the immense beauty of the creature. Unfortunately, one doesn’t do any of these if this creature was about to bite your head off.

Neither of the two men had the time to scream or shout as the raptors bit off their heads and swallowed them whole.

There was a bright flash, it seemed as if the sun seemed to have came crashing down onto the stadium, flooding the stadium with it’s light, the crowds cheered as they watched the raptors guzzle up the pulp that was the two members of the resistance. Blood came flying everywhere, splattering onto the poles, the chains and into the crowd itself, organs flew up into the air and the raptors caught them into their mouths like if it was some sort of grotesque party trick.

45 minutes later

The crowd outside of the stadium was elated, all of them cheering as the Penguin stood outside of the VIP entrance, his two bodyguards standing next to him.

“Can’t believe those punks came after you like that” One of the bodyguards said, looking at the jubilant crowd all of whom were cheering and yelling support for their saviour the Penguin.

“Ah well.” The Penguin said looking around him beaming at each member of the crowd as if each one of them had helped him win a war in someway or another. “A little blood lettin’s heal thy every now and then boys!” He said, as he held up his hands, both of whom proudly showing the ‘victory’ hand single.

“just to let everyone know who the Top dog is!”

Nobody noticed the two figures watching them from the abandoned multi story car park from across the street, and if they did, they wouldn’t have remarked on it. After all, three thugs had just tried to kill their leader, and he obviously needs a bit of security, these figures are there for his protection. But these were no new body – guards, they were Nightwing and Garfield and they had no intention on protecting the Penguin at all.

Chapter Text

“So…” Garfield said lowering the special binoculars, to face Nightwing who was standing right beside him asking for his observations “Penguin has came out of the stadium, and he is getting rock star reception down there.”

Nightwing nodded “I can tell. The loud cheers and screams are enough to give it away.”

“Okay…” Garfield said unsure on how to respond to this statement “so what’s the matter with these clowns? The guy’s a psychopath, and they must know about his father who must be just as or even more of a psychopath than him!”

Nightwing sighed heavily “My friend. How much have you missed?” He seemed to take his time marching around the roof of the empty multi – story car park as if trying to think of the right words to string together “This shows how bad things were under Prof Zoom.” He said rather bluntly “The Penguin’s a ‘street fighter’. A man of the people. He had worked his way up from nothing but his father’s awful reputation that he ‘tries to drop’ and people respect that. Plus he keeps them entertained, but my real question for you is this. Do you have anything on Ashley?”

Garfield pressed one of a series of button on the binoculars, and he placed it to his eyes. Nightwing had told him about the various features of these binoculars from the typical X ray vison to heat sensors and a bunch of other stuff from detecting speedsters to a zoom so powerful that it can detect an out of place atom.

Garfield was using the infrared heat sensor setting and even though he had no idea what he exactly he should be looking for and Nightwing didn’t really help only saying “You will know when you see it.” After a while of looking around the area something caught his eye. A three figures, one of them sitting, the other two holding something that appears to be weapons and to Garfield that can mean only one thing.

 “I belive that she’s locked up in that customized mall across the street. Security’s tight. Maybe fifty bodies from the ground to the roof, each one armed to the teeth. It ain’t goanna be easy Nightwing”

“Good!” Nightwing said walking briskly to the Bat – Jeep as if Garfield had just announced what todays weather would be like “It’s a good thing that I got my genius plan!”

Garfield looked at Nightwing with a stone face “Just make sure that it doesn’t involve me.” He said coldly “I already told you…”  

“…That you will not be a party to violence here.” Nightwing said finishing Garfield’s sentence “Relax Powder – puff, all you’ve got to do is drive.”

There were two men who guarded the cell of Ashley were bored. They wanted to watch the execution of her two teammates, however the Penguin had insisted that they should watch the girl, the two men knew better than complain, so they did as they were told. The first man’s name was Antony. He had a fresh young face, had long hair with hair as thick as iron, and a giant black goatee. A giant tattoo of a dragon can be seen tattooed on his entire chest and neck, he was so thin that he looked as if a single gust of wind would be enough to send him flying like a kite and he wore giant sunglasses so thick that the glass seemed to have come from the viewing window from an aquarium. He was holding a worn out rife as if it was his new-born kid, stroking it as if it was his pet cat. He was wearing a simple brown shirt, simple khaki trousers and cheap looking hiking boots.

His partner, Roberto, looked old enough to be his father or even his grandfather, even though they were brothers. Roberto was practically bald as a boiled egg that seemed to have cross bred with a dried up raisin. He had no hair, not even an eyebrow on his head. He had a thick upper lip, and he had muscles so large that he looked as if he can destroy an entire building with just a couple of well-aimed and coordinated punches. He too was a military uniform that seemed to have come straight out of a war movie, complete with an antique metal helmet, medals and badges he didn’t earn and thick leather boots that would guarantee removal of the feet if one were to wear it too long. Roberto was smoking from a giant cigar and this annoyed Antony. Not because these types of cigars emitted a foul smell, but because they could have sold them for a 3-digit figure.

Roberto looked at their prisoner as if she was a priceless treasure. They stood guard at a jail cell that had a simple bed and toilet and not much of anything else. The bars were a highly complex red laser, that upon contact would sever any part of the body that it came into contact with. Ashly looked like if Guy Gardener was a girl. She had long rust coloured hair, brown eyes and a perfect looking body structure. Had she been born at a better time she would have appeared in the front page of every beauty and adult magazine in the world. She had scars all over her body and she was examining them as if they were extracts from her favourite books. She was wearing a rather provocative green lantern costume and was looking around her as if everything had personally insulted her in some way. She knew that the men were forbidden to touch her or harm her in anyway, the Penguin, villain or not still treats his enemies with honour and respect and doesn’t tolerate any harm infected to them unless if it was their execution.   

“I don’t get what yea so angry about anyway.” Antony said looking at Ashly as if she was an acquaintance that he barely knew who was on their death bed. “You don’t like living here, you should try spending a week in Black Adam’s area.”

Roberto sneered “Penguin looks after us Lantern – Bitch.” He said with disgust, not caring about his foul language “All he asks in return in a bit of loyalty”

Antony looked at Roberto as if he had personally insulted him, and he turned to the girl sounding like a doctor about to deliver bad news “I guess it must be in the blood. Your papa is Nightwing. Your grandpapa is Guy Gardener, and your other so called grandpapa is Batman. I respect that, and so does the Penguin. But I ask you. What the hell were you thinking? That you and your friends were goanna save everyone?”

Ashly looked up at him. Her face giving nothing away.

Garfield was screaming for his life, glass was shooting through the air like bullets, dust, concrete and various other powdered stuff filled up his lungs. His feet were stiff on pressing on the accelerator, the seatbelt threatened to cut through his skin like a cheese wire, he felt all the blood rushing into one side of his body, making one side feel too warm and the other too numb and stiff and his hand was frozen on the gear shift. Whatever this plan that Nightwing had, it was completely insane.

He and Nightwing was hurtling full speed on the side of a building, about to kamikaze into the side of the building where Ashley was being held prisoner. Garfield knew that the Bat – Jeep could do something like this, but actually doing it was more terrifying than witnessing it happening, not to mention actually getting the Bat – Jeep onto the side of the building was terrifying onto itself.

“Faster!” Nightwing bellowed unhelpfully as he struggled to hold on “We need to reach at least 200!”

“This genius plan of yours!” Garfield said stugging to gain a steady control of the wheel “It wouldn’t just be smashing though the walls like eh Kamikaze and you killing everybody would it?”   

“Yep!” Nightwing said through gritted teeth

 “That aint genius! Even for a son of Batman!”  Garfield said risking a glance at Nightwing

“It is if it works!” Nightwing hollered, and at that exact moment, the building ended and the two old men found themselves flying full speed towards the large looming brick and glass building as if they were fired from a cannon.

He closed his eyes as he saw his own horrified expression and Nightwing’s giddy face reflected back at him from the well-polished window.

Jonathan looked at his two cards once again and tried to suppress a smile. He was sitting in what used to be an office in a mall but is now their den. The room was practically empty, it had a few rows of beds, a couple of uncomfortable chairs and a small table used for poker.

The air smelt of musky cigarette smoke and damp sweat. He looked at the three men who sat in front of him, their faces completely blank giving nothing away. Jonathan was personally chosen to work for an associate of the Penguin, who had observed his brilliant mind and physical power when he fought in one of several boxing arenas. He uses his word to irritate them into exhaustion, then go for rapid blows to take the enemy down. Jonathan had only had to hear the words ‘work for us’ when he immediately joined. There he rapidly rose up the ranks, helping smuggle good from drugs to weapons, oversaw one of several production plants producing goodness knows what, and ‘taking out’ those who had gone against the Penguin’s code which included anyone from rapists to people who kill without honour, that now almost 5 years later he is considered to be ‘the Penguin’s right hand man’s, right hand man.

The men in front of him were triplets and they were considered to be one of the Penguin’s greatest assets. All three of them looked so identical from the way that they dressed to every single scar and developed muscle that they could have been made in a factory.  They had the same auburn hair, the same dark tunnel eyes, the same thin lips, the same oversized hands, they wore the same plain but formal military uniform that didn’t even have a single wrinkle on it and they had the same looking gun swung onto their back.

The men’s name were Andy, Brian and Charlie and they were one of the Penguin’s assassins personally trained by Ra's Al Ghul who now rules half of Asia and Slade himself who now resides in parts of Europe. Many people believe that they were highly involved in the death of Professor Zoom, which is highly believable weather if it is true or not. The men were born seconds apart with Andy and Brian were born merely 5 seconds apart and Charlie following a few seconds after and they hadn’t been separated for longer than that.

“I raise” Jonathan said pushing his small pile of chips towards the Everest of chips that were piled in front of him.  He looked at the 5 cards on the table once again as if they were his only hope. The card were from Green Lantern falls and they, of course had drawings of superheroes on them Jack of Hearts (Batman); King of Hearts (SHAZAM); Queen of Hearts (Raven); Ace of Spades (Superman); Jack of Clubs (Martian Manhunter).

The three men each silently pushed their juggernaut pile of chips forward in response, and Jonathan fought to suppress a smile. He gestured at Andy to show his cards first. And indifferently turned over his cards, his face, like his brothers was as blank as ever. The King of Diamonds (Green Arrow) and Queen of Clubs (Supergirl) stared at him as if daring him to procced.

“Two pairs!” Jonathan cried with a smile “Not bad Andy, not bad at all! And you Brian?”

Brian, who was sitting at Jonathan’s left, turned over the cards with as much emotion as a kid who has been told to do their chores after getting scolded at. The Queen of Spades (Wonder Woman) and the 10 of spades (The Flash) seemed to be attempting to mock Jonathan at a loosing argument.

“Three of a kind! Nice hand! But…” Jonathan said he then picked up his cards and turned them over with skills that would impress a croupier. The Jack of Spades (Captain Atom) and the Jack of Diamonds (Aquaman) stood on display proudly. “Beat that! A four of a kind! You can’t…”

But Jonathan didn’t have time to finish his retort as he saw Charlie turn his card to reveal the 10 of Hearts (Beast Boy) and the Ace of Hearts (Nightwing). Jonathan blinked and swore every word that he knew. A Royal Flush. He had lost. He looked at Charlies cards with such ferocity that he wished that he could personally kill Nightwing and Beast Boy, if he knew where they were.

Charlie was pulling in the chips to his pile and gave a flicker of a smile to his brother as if sharing a private joke. Jonathan swore again and looked out of the window as if expecting to see something better out of it.

The last thing that Jonathan saw in his life was a Jeep that looked to belong to Batman hurdling full speed towards him with what looked to be an old Nightwing on the passenger seat holding what looked to be a strange looking gun at him and a strange looking Beast Boy who looked neither old or young at the same time.

The Jeep collide with the window and came crashing into the room. Jonathan and Andy was killed almost instantly, crushed by the Bat – Jeep as it cannonballed into the room sending blood, organs, chips and cards flying everywhere like some grotesque party cannon.

Charlie and Brian (who somehow stood out of the way of the collision) didn’t even have the time to draw their weapons when they were both simultaneously slashed in the throat with a bat – tearing. Brian was killed almost instantly at the same time his brother Andy died, Charlie died mere seconds after Brian did.

Antony heard the deafening crashing sound and signalled to Roberto to stay put, as they both withdrew their weapons. Roberto looked around him, there were to possible entrances, the door that led to the Penguin’s private area and the door that led to a corridor and the break room. He heard a crashing sound, wood flew everywhere and it stung into his eyes painfully, as he saw Antony’s head get turned into a kebab with a samurai sword by an unknown assailant. “Ashly!” a voice hollered “Where is the control panel?”

Roberto was confused. He was trying to get the splinters out of his eyes and yet it seemed that this was an attempt at a jail break. He was about to aim blindly at whatever assailant attacked him when he heard the words “31 Inches to the left of my voice!”

Those were the last words he heard when an arrow struck the control panel of Ashly’s cell door and another one hit Roberto’s solar plexus, instantly stabbing his heart.

Ashly took a step out of her cell, only glancing at her aged father, unsure on what to say or do when the second door burst open and out came the Penguin himself still wearing his gangster uniform and a look of confusion on his face. “What the hell’s going on in here?” He cried as he tried to comprehend what he was witnessing. The last thing that the Penguin saw in his life was the woman Ashly brandishing a giant rife like a club running full speed towards him.

“You made your first mistake Penguin!” Ashly cried and she swung with all her might at the Penguin’s head.

"YOU GOT OLD!!!!!!!!!"

The Penguins head came flying off. Blood exploded everywhere as the Penguin’s face flew up into the air with a final look of horror.

“Ouch” Nightwing said, as he felt the Penguin’s head roll to his feet. “That as messy as it sounded?”

Ashly examined her father with next to no emotion on her face. Then as calmly as hailing a taxi, she wacked the side of her father’s head, more gently this time.

“Worse” she said coldly as her father cried out from shock from the pain.

Nightwing fell to the cold metal floor, and he looked up at Ashly as if he could see again “Ashly! What are you doing!?” He cried out in confusion and horror

“What I came here to do” Ashly said in a monotone voice as if this was something she did on a regular basis “Seize control from the Penguin”

“Bu…but…” Nightwing cried in confusion unable to understand what is going on. “But I thought that you had came here to free everybody!?”

Ashly laughed, a cold hard laugh. “That’s because you’re stupid dad.” She looked down at her father with so much disgust, anger and ferocity that even a blind man can sense it.

She gestured at the thugs that seemed to have appeared out of thin air, she knew that hey now worked for her now, but she wanted to kill her father personally.

She lifted the gun, not to shoot, but to club her father to death. “I killed the Penguin more or less the same way he killed Prof Zoom. And now it’s time to show these boys what their new boss is made of!”

Nobody realised or saw the Jeep in the next room across from the corridor. Nobody saw the hunched-up figure with his hands on the steering wheel with death in his eyes. But nobody did and Garfield knew that if he did nothing he would die, and he can’t afford that to happen. His face turning cold he swore. “Damn you to hell for making me do this Nightwing” He growled.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Titan's Tower, 40 years ago

The dark night sky seemed determined to smother Titan's tower in all its glory. Yet it still stood strong as a symbol for Jump City. Inside one of its long corridors Beast Boy was playing one of his favourite video games on the Titan's supercomputer. This one a car racing game that he had pre – ordered, the moment that the parcel had arrived in the mail after dinner, Beast Boy had immediately raced up into the computer room and started to play.

He didn't know how long he had been playing, nor did he care, all he did care about was upgrading his car and gaining points. He smiled as his car came crashing into the finishing line, the electronic music blared cheers and loud applause.

Beast Boy knew better not to shout out for joy, Raven would crucify him for waking her up at whatever hour it is even if they were 'together'. Welp that's level 14 cleared' Beast Boy though as he yawned stretching his legs and rubbing his eyes. 'I'll give my eyes a quick rest, then I'll clear one last level then I will go to bed.'

He looked up at the cold dark metal ceiling and allowed his mind to wonder. Quite a lot has changed over the years. The Titans are among one of the most loved superhero teams in the world and Beast Boy relished his new status. It had managed to get him accepted into college to study Zoology, even though he could have obtained his diploma anytime he wanted. He could write an entire essay on any animal simply due to his experience. He thought of the team and all of his friends. Nightwing and Cyborg had already left the Titans leaving Starfire in charge of the Titans and even though her personality hasn't changed much over the years she had managed to be a bit more of a 'leader' and she had shown some signs of 'maturity'. Then there were the two Robins, Jason Todd who Beast Boy liked to Damian who is useful to have on your side whenever shit hits the fan but can really get on anyone's nerves. He thought of the other teammates from Blue Beetle to Aqualad all of whom Beast Boy has an 'up and down' bond with, then there was Raven. Beast Boys face turned red at the thought of Raven. Ever since he saved her from Trigon they had started being 'together' for almost a year now, and all his teammates have, for use of a better word, had 'unique' reactions.

Cyborg had bombarded him with so many jokes raging from 'What is Miss Demon Girl like in bed?' to 'What is it like to kiss a demon girl?' to 'do you need to turn into an animal that can't die in order to see her in all her glory'?' At least Nightwing, who had left the Titans only a year and a half prior had been more 'mature' and only congratulated Beast Boy for it. Starfire had been acting as 'Aphrodite' whenever he and Raven are in the same room still acting like her teenage self even though she was already in her early 20's. Damian Wayne's Robin reaction was, Beast Boy was clueless to think of a suitable word, interesting, he had responded without saying anything when the entire team found them embraced in a kiss in Raven's room, however he seemed determined to spy on them as if them being alone together meant that they were planning a murder, and whenever Raven or Beast Boy found him in his hiding place, Damian bombarded them with interrogation questions as if he was the 'bad cop' in a 'good cop, bad cop' skit. Jason Todd, who was indifferent about his team – mates love life, had to both literally and figuratively whack some sense into Damian. Blue Beetle had been 'supportive' and he found it wise not to talk about it unless if Beast Boy brought it up to him. The rest of the Titans from Kid Flash to Aqualad ranged from 'It's your relationship not mine' to ''goodish cop' interrogative'.

Beast Boy shook his head wildly to picked up his controller to start the game again when the screen suddenly turned black then turned red flashing like a siren. Beast Boy blinked rapidly. What was going on? A giant message appeared on the screen. It was a distress call from…Beast Boy blinked rapidly again in complete disbelief. Beast Boy had to put his nose to the screen to make sure that he had read the message correctly, the Justice League? Beast Boy's thoughts turned mad, what incident could be so bad that it could warrant the Justice League to call for the Titans? Darkseid? Alien invasion? Those nutters from another dimension? Then another distress message popped up, another distress message, from…the Doom Patrol!? Beast Boy felt as if he had been punched in the face. He had been a member of the Doom Patrol before he joined the Titans, and he had been confidant that the Doom Patrol could handle themselves, but apparently not. Then another distress call, Atlantis, then another, then another and another, and within seconds the entire 3-meter-wide and 5-meter-high screen was flooded with distress call from every superhero, every superhero team and more.

Beast Boy couldn't even comprehend what was going on? Is this a simultaious attack? On the superhero community? But that would mean…

The explosion hit Beast Boy so suddenly that he didn't have time to cry out. He was sent flying through the air like a rag doll, was thrown straight through the glass door which shattered instantly, almost stabbing Beast Boy several times in his unprotected areas and he fell into the hard wood floor of the corridor. Beast Boy's mind was a blur, his vision seemed to have gotten cloudy, all of his senses seemed to have been almost frozen as he heard a large hissing noise as what felt to be gas hit his face. Beast Boy cried out, his body felt weak, his limbs won't obey his thoughts and his lungs felt as if they were on fire and his ears felt like they had been turned into a foghorn.

He closed his eyes as he tried to command his body to obey his thoughts. 'Come on Beast Boy! Get up! The Titans need you!'. It was this that finally managed to make him regain control and Beast Boy finally got up and looked around him. The area around him looked like a full-scale war had happened. Half of the corridor was nothing more than debris, wires and pipes.

"Hello? Guys?" Beast Boy cried, his voice sounding like he had been shouting himself hoarse all day.

He turned to see the staircase that led to the lobby of Titans tower and he walked towards it like he was walking on a minefield. The first thing that hit him was a foul smell, an all too familiar smell of death. Moving more faster he stood at the balcony that looked down into the lobby and felt his eyes come out of their sockets.

The lobby in Titans tower was a blood bath. He saw all of the Titans in the lobby, Raven, Starfire, Blue Beetle, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Aqualad, Kid Flash, the Mexican speedster twins and all the rest. Dead. Standing over their corpses was an army of villains. Beast Boy had seen villains' team up before, but this is something else. Right in the centre of the room was Slade, and he was holding up the corpses of Jason Todd and Damian Wayne as if he was a director who had just won two Oscars, near him was Blackfire who was stopping on the corpse of Starfire as if she was a trampoline. On the other side of the room was what looked to be an alien looking down at the body of Blue Beetle as if it was a pot of gold. Appearing out of thin air was what appeared to be Reverse Flash and what looked to be two doublegangers of him were holding the bodies of Kid Flash and the twins as if they were garbage bags. Ocean Master was carrying a golden trident with Aqualad impaled on it and Ocean Master looked at it as if it was a marshmallow. Lounging on a large sofa was what looked to be if Trigon was shrunk down to the size of a 12-year-old boy, 'his son perhaps?' Beast Boy thought, and he was using the bloody pulp that was the body of Raven as if it was a footrest. There was a giant puddle of blood that covered the floor, creating grotesque ripples with each movement that the villains made.

Beast Boy felt his heart rate increase, he felt his breath go rapid, his thoughts was a giant mess, he didn't know how to react either to cry, to run away from this or to lash out in pure vengeance. He wanted to run, to get the hell away from here, but his legs refused to move. It was Blackfire that saw him first. Raising an arm, she pointed at Beast Boy as if he was a mildly interesting painting in an art gallery. "Hello, Beast Boy!" She cried as she flew up to him, an insane smile on her face "This is the big one!" She flew up heading straight toward him, her eyes glowing darkly aiming straight at him. Beast Boy immediately shifted into a wolf, feeling the intense strength enimating from his new form. Black fire chuckled "Do you know how many super – villains there are for every super – hero out there? Twenty? Fifty? It was only a matter of time before someone organised all that latent talent…"

Blackfire raised up her arms about to shoot, when Beast Boy pounced, he felt the cold air whip into his fur as he landed right on top of Blackfire. Blackfire was so stunned that she began to fall, and Beast Boy immediately took advantage of this. Everyone here had killed all his friends, his family, his lover. No way he was going to play nice, he wasn't going to hold back. He will kill everyone in this room or die trying to! He could see nothing but pure red rage. He raised his claws and slashed at Blackfire's throat. Blood was sent flying everywhere, the strong bitter sent and smell overwhelmed Beast Boy's senses, and he saw Blackfire's head flying off as if it was a champagne cork. He came to the ground with a crash as he growled an angry growl, a growl filled with hatred and fury sending a message to all of the villains in the room that they were about to die at the hands of Beast Boy as a punishment for killing the Titans.

Slade was the first to respond, dropping the body of Jason Todd he withdrew his gun and started to fire at Beast Boy, but Beast Boy was ready for this. He shifted into a peregrine falcon he flew at top speed towards Slade, dodging the bullets almost lazily heading straight towards him. Slade looked for a moment almost panicked as he lifted the body of Damian Wayne like a shield to protect himself, but Beast Boy didn't care, shifting into a lion, his claws ripped through Damian Wayne's corpse, almost ripping him in half. Blood splattered all over his fur, Beast Boy saw Damian's organs fly everywhere, with most of it landing on Slade. Slade only had time to remove Damian's heart from his eye to see Beast Boy slash at his chest, ripping up his armoured suit sending his bloody stomach and intestines come out of his body like candy from a piñata.

He turned to see Reverse Flash and his two doublegangers about to make a move, all three started to run towards him at tremendous speed. They started hitting punch after punch after punch at Beast Boy's lion body and he cried out in tremendous pain. Each punch felt like they had broken a bone, but he didn't care, he wanted them dead. He immediately shifted into a crocodile and began to bite rapidly in the air hoping that he would make contact and, crazily he did. On the first bite he tasted a bitter stong taste as he saw Reverse Flash come crashing down onto the ground, with his left foot completely removed. Beast Boy turned to the two doublegangers who froze on the spot, looking on at Reverse Flash who's leg was squirting out large quantities of blood rapidly. Beast Boy seized this opportunity, he shifted into a peregrine falcon again he shot up into the air like a canon, then shifting into an elephant, he fell, landing right on target with a sickening splat on the two speedsters. Beast Boy shifted back into his normal form, he can feel the blood all over himself as he stood up to see that they were nothing more than two deformed red stains on the floor.

The red alien goo monster came charging up at Beast Boy leading the attack with all the other villains including what he thought to be Trigons son all began to charge at him. Beast Boy began to panic, animal he was, there was no way he can take down an entire army of villains…unless. Beast Boy remembered the last time he had faced Trigon and how he had shifted into an animal that disintegrated an entire army of demons. Surely that would work here?

Beast Boy extended his arms as if expecting a hug, then he shifted into a giant bird. But not just any bird. A giant emerald green phoenix, Beast Boy found it futile to describe the exhilarating sensation of the phoenix, from its immortality that came as a new wicked healing factor for him to its soothing sing song voice but he was only interested in one of its abilities. He raised his colossus wings and gave an enraged cry of pure anger, fire came flying everywhere and it vaporized almost all the villains in the room, turning them into nothing but burnt out shells, the smell of phoenix flame was hynotising and dazing but Beast Boy wasn't interested in such trivial things. Two villains still remained, the alien and the demon but the Phoenix had done enough. The alien was no longer gooey but still looked out of this world from its body structure. It looked dazed, confused and weak and Beast Boy took advantage of this. He immediately shifted into a giant Asian styled dragon, and like a Boa constrictor, it wrapped its long body around the alien until he heard a soft series of cracks then a soft squelching sound and looking down at his new immense body Beast Boy saw that the alien was nothing more than a bloody pulp.

Beast Boy turned his attention to the last villain. Trigon's son. Beast Boy never met him, nor did he know that Raven knew him, but he didn't care. This one had killed his girlfriend, and the killer had also killed what could be their own half – sister. Beast Boy wanted this one to suffer to feel as much pain as possible before Beast Boy gave him the luxury and comfort of death! Which is why Beast Boy broke one of his number one rules. He turned into the form that he swore not to turn into ever again. The Beast. Trigon's son was stunned by the phoenix attack and why the time he regained control he saw a giant beast flying at him. Beast Boy attacked blindly, he saw blood, flying everywhere as he ripped off each limb, not caring if it came off completely or not. All he can feel was pure, red rage. He slashed and slashed and ripped everything apart. The demon tried to fight back, but Beast Boy only increased his ferocity of his attack. He felt it's right leg rip off, and her used it as a club to beat it up until the leg was left a usless pulp in his hands. Then he continued the bloody attack. By the time he saw the demon's eyes close, Beast Boy shifted back into his normal form. Looking down at the body of the murder of his girlfriend with complete disgust. All that was left was it's head still attached to it's falling apart neck, a mangled left arm and stumps where it's legs and right arm used to be was shooting out blood like a fountain.

"Beast Boy…" The demon said, slowly opening it's eyes looking at Beast Boy with pain in it's eyes. It lifted a hand to touch Beast Boy's face. Beast Boy was confused. The demon stroked Beast Boy's face, it's hand was surprisingly soft and smooth. What the hell is it doing? He had just brought it to the brink of death and yet it is acting like if they were lovers. "…I…I love you…"Then, it's arms went limp, the demons body went limp and it remained still.

A cold misty blue fog seemed to have drifted into the lobby of Titan's tower. Beast Boy's sences smelt the putrid smell of blood wich didn't go well with the cozy phoenix flame. Beast Boy could taste the disgusting taste of blood. Beast Boy spat out his saliva determined to get the taste out of his mouth as if it was poison. He was covered in blood. His arms was drenched in it, his legs up to it's ankles in it, and he can feel his hair getting dyed red by it.

He looked down at the body of the demon, and stared in horror at what he saw. Raven. The demon was Raven. All of her limbs were ripped apart as if by a savage animal, and her left arm was left as a mangled pulp. Her neck and the stumps where her limbs used to be was spewing out blood like some grotesque fountain, and her face looked as if it had almost been ripped off by giant claws. Beast Boy's claws.

"Oh dear…" A soft voice behind Beast Boy said. Beast Boy slowly turned his head to see who has spoken. The instant he saw who it was, everything made sense. Yet Beast Boy didn't know how to react. He only stared at the figure who was looking on at Beast Boy with an unreadable look on its face, and yet it had no face to be seen under it's giant mask. Scarecrow. Beast Boy had heard all about several of Batman's foes from Nightwing, Jason Todd and Damian Wayne but he never met much of any of them in person. Yet here is one of them now. Scarecrow and his gas that can make anyone see their worst fear.

"Did you really think that you can do this alone? Take down an entire army of supervillains? Talk about delusions of grandeur with a hint of fear and anger. But your friends. People who would hesitate. That is a different matter entirely. True I did restrain them, but I gave them a tiny fighting chance against you."

Beast Boy said nothing. He only looked down at the mangled corpse of his girlfriend. Unable to react.

"My name is Scarecrow." Scarecrow said unnecessarily, "My thanks on behalf of the criminal community." And with that he vanished as if he was never there. Vanishing in a puff of fog.

Beast Boy looked up around him hoping, beyond hope that he wouldn't see what he didn't want to see. He was wrong. Damian Wayne laid on the floor, ripped in two, his organs laying scattered eveywhere, with Jason Todd lying next to him completely disembowelled, organs, bones and his own blood was still flooding out of the giant hole in his chest. Both of their faces were blank with shock and fear. Starfire laid on a pool of her own blood, her neck ripped apart as if by a deranged wolf. Kid Flash laid on the floor, drenched in his own blood, completely still, his left foot completely chomped off, his face showing nothing but pure pain. Blue Beetle was nothing more than a burnt out bag of skin, a bloody pulp on the ground his skin was still on fire. Nothing remained of the two Mexican speedster twins, all that was left of them were two large red splotches on the ground, nor was anything left of the rest of the Titans. Everyone else was just a giant shell on fire that used to be a living being.

Beast Boy screamed.

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Nightwing stared at the campfire. He and Nightwing had setted up campfire near a large row of boulders before Garfield told his story. By the time he finished the night sky was showing the picturesque views of the night sky, flooded with stars and galaxies. The only sound that can be heard was Garfield's voice, the cracking of the fire and the soft howling wind. Garfield looked on at Nightwing expecting him to react violently for killing his two brothers, but he didn't say much of anything. Then he lifted his head up at Garfield and said "so…you murdered the Titans" there was no sign of emotion in his voice. No sign of anger, no sign of sadness, no sign of sympathy. Nothing.

"Yes." Garfield said hugging his legs and staring at the warm fire that lit up the night sky. "But I didn't know that it was them Nightwing. Scarecrow made them look, feel and smell different. I swear to god…I had no idea!" and at that Garfield burst into tears. Nightwing looked on at this and patted Garfield on the back. His face giving nothing away.

"What happened then?" Nightwing asked after Garfield managed to pull himself together.

"Who knows?" Garfield said sobbing "All I remember was walking through the woods, the trees, my tears dissolving me face and the blood running down my skin…It could have been hours…it could have been days…it could have been weeks…all that sticks in my mind was the leaves bein' wet, how the blood fell to the ground, and the taste of blood in my moth…and the animals…the animals were so scared of me. All of those battles, the battle of Vegas, Metropolis, Gotham…It didn't even register. They broke me so bad that I couldn't even think…All I wanted was to hurt myself. Pay a price for what I'd done…so I waited on a freight train…and killed Beast Boy dead…"

Nightwing sat down silently by the fire, unsure on what to say "But a train couldn't kill you." He said finally in a solemnly voice "Not with your phoenix healing factor."

"No…but it hurt…" Garfield said, tears cascading down his face. "…and sometimes that's enough."

Garfield thought of how the train had sliced off his head, every spark that it made, the sheering pain of it and the painful regeneration that came moments later. He remembered everything. How the wind blew into his ears, how the horn blared into his ears, and the rest.

Garfield felt the tears dissolve into his face as he looked up at Nightwing "Now you just try telling me that Beast Boy deserved to die. You just try telling me that I have been a fool to hide the animals for forty years!"

Nightwing cocked his head in confusion "I wouldn't dare…"

"I'm a farmer now Nightwing." Garfield said looking at his friend "This body aint do nothing but tend the land. So, don't even ask me to fight again. You hear me? I will never hurt another living soul! Your call brother"

Nightwing nodded "I understand." He said. There was a long silence as the two men listened to the fire as they thought about everything that led up to this moment. Then Nightwing said something that Garfield has been waiting to hear for forty years. "I don't blame you for their deaths Garfield. I don't blame you at all."

"Thank you…" Garfield smiled as he laid down, and finally allowed the abyss of sleep take him away.

Chapter Text

The Bat – Jeep drove silently ploughing through the flat Illinois ground, leaving nothing behind but a large dust cloud behind it. Nothing can be see in the endless landscape, save for a couple of hills, a few forest patches and a couple of stray dinosaurs that acted as if the Bat – Jeep was invisible. Garfield sat in the passenger seat of the Bat – Jeep looking around him as if everything around him has personally insulted him in some way or another. Garfield turned his head to look at Nightwing, who’s face gave nothing away, his long wild hair whipping around like a windsock in the air.

“That story you told me man” Nightwing said suddenly as if he was fed up with the long silence “About what happened to you, in Titan’s Tower…”

Garfield said nothing. His face was as stone cold as ever, however there was a small flicker of shock that can be detected if one were to look hard enough. He wanted Nightwing to shout at him, to yell at him, to tell him off, to hit him, to harm him! He had personally murdered his two brothers and his girlfriend and yet here he was talking to him like how a mother would talk to their 5-year-old child who accidently broke their favourite mug. He didn’t deserve to be spoken to like this!

“Well. I’m sorry for making you do this, Garfield. If I’d know what you’d been through…I…I at first thought that the Titans…that they…they were taken down by a rabid Cheetah or something like that.”

Garfield could tell that Nightwing was only telling half the truth. He had known Nightwing for a good portion of his life and he can tell whenever he mixes the lies with the truth, but the hardest part was figuring out which one was the truth and which one was the lie, and something inside Garfield told him that Nightwing knew the truth about what happened before he even stepped a foot inside his farm. The only question was how long? It could have been when Nightwing went into the crime scene that was Titan’s tower, but when could he have done so? An hour later? A day? A month? A year? With Nightwing combined with the villains taking over, it was impossible to tell. He rummaged through his pockets and withdrew his faded-out Titan’s phone. Part of him wanted to throw the god – dam thing away. To destroy it, and by doing so it would erase the memory of that night. To make him forget everything and yet at the same time something was stopping him from even letting a drop of water come into contact with it, as if its entire existence is tied to him being alive and so much a scratch to it would cause permeant damage to his body.

“Forget about it pal” Garfield said solemnly. He eyed the GPS screen in front of him as if it can provide all the answers he needed. “So. We’re in Illinois now, which means we entered Black Adams Lair.”

Nightwing sighed as if recalling an unpleasant and embarrassing memory “Yes. Black Adam has been a bit…complicated lately. Over thirty years ago nobody dared even scratch a car in fear of facing Black Adams wrath, but now…he has been…up and down. One day he would unleash the door of hell on a someone who nicks a can of soup from a supermarket when he is on the other side of his territory, the next one could commit murder in front of him and he wouldn’t even lift a figure to stop them.”

“Right…” Garfield said, unsure on how to respond to this statement

“The last time I heard from Raven, she was under intensive care from Constantine in the house of magic, and I know that it is permanently rooted here in Black Adam territory for some reason” Nightwing said. He sighed the most Un – Nightwingish sigh. “The past only hurts if we let it catch up with us Garfield. We learnt that time and time again. Am I right?”

But Garfield wasn’t listening to Nightwing. He was looking in silent horror. at the horrific thing that was right behind them.

At first Garfield thought that he was looking at a giant T – Rex, with a body the size of a truck, legs as big as a house that caused earthquakes with each tip toe it made, a tail as long as a stadium thrashing rapidly in the air like a shower head on full blast water, eyes the size of dinner plates, a giant nose with each nostrale the size and width of an entrance to a tunnel, arms as big as a man, a mouth as wide as a monstrous rocky cave, teeth as sharp and as big as stalactites and stalagmites that looked as if it can tear through metal like marshmallow, and an endlessly long slimy tongue that could easily serve as a waterslide provided that someone is stupid and brave enough to even enter the mouth of the dinosaur. Garfield had personally transformed into on a number of occasions and seeing one in the flesh rather than actually being one is simply magnificent to behold to see something that was thought to be gone from the face of the Earth back from the dead. This magnificent sight and awe-inspiring feeling was immediately followed by pure horror as he realised that there was something off about this particular creature.

He knew that dinosaurs came in many colours from green to grey just from this road trip alone, but this T – Rex was pure black. No wait. It looked like it was covered in black gooey tar. Then Garfield thought that he was looking at Black Beetle, one of Blue Beetle’s mortal enimies, but that was impossible, he knew for a fact that…what was his name again? Garfield had forgotten the name of the person that wore the Black Beetle alien suit, but he knew for a fact that he had died over twenty years ago from one of the various stories that Nightwing told him whenever they got bored in their travels. So what was it doing here?

Finally, Garfield realised what he was staring at. The Black Beetle had found it’s new host. A T – Rex and it doesn’t look happy at all.

“Holy $%£&!!!!!!!” Garfield shouted in pure horror as he saw the Black Beetle T – Rex come storing full speed towards the Bat – Jeep. It was 100 meters away, 50 meters, 25 meters. Nightwing seemed to have deciphered that Garfield was looking at something bad and floored the accelerator, but the T – Rex lazily increased its speed causing meteor sized craters, dust clouds the size of a skyscraper shot up into the atmosphere and city destroying earthquakes with each step it made. It unleashed a hideous monstrous deafening cry of anger that sounded like a cross between a fog horn, nails on a chalk board, and a million babies screaming on a plane, the hideous sound was so loud, so loud that it almost flipped the Bat – Jeep over had it not been designed to face off against metahumans like Black Canary.

“WHAT THE £$%& IS GOING ON GARFIELD!!!????” Nightwing bellowed, swerving left and right in zig zags so violently that Garfield felt himself about to throw up all of his internal organs.

“I DON’T KNOW!?” Garfield cried looking on at the thing that was chasing them “A T – REX WITH BALCK BETTLES FACE ON IT!!!! DOES IT REALLY MATTER!?”

Nightwing unleashed a tirade of unintelligible words as he began to punch violently at the dashboard trying to find a particular button. He switched on the radio which blared a weird Egyptian sounding song, he unleashed a flame thrower which emitted an inferno from the back of the car, but the beast that was chasing them walked through it without so much as breaking phase, it was no so close that Garfield could smell it’s breath that smelled like all the foul smells in the world from clogged up sewers to the bowls of a slaughterhouse had merged together. The smell was so strong and bitter, that it murdered Garfield’s nose and he swore that he could have thrown up everything inside of him including his own skeleton. He felt a drop of it’s saliva fall on his right hand and it burnt into him like acid, while sticking onto it like some kind of superglue. Finally, Nightwing found the right button and out of thin air a large weapon that looked to be a fusion between a machine gun, a revolver, a flame thrower, a spear launcher, a bow and arrow, a harpoon gun, a tank, a laser gun and a missile launcher came out of the back of the Bat – Jeep.

“Now will you start blowing holes in him please!!!!” Nightwing screamed at Garfield.

Garfield didn’t have to be told. He aimed this bizarre weapon, only briefly feeling the immense power that he had held in his hand, a weapon that took down over 12% of the superheroes. Garfield looked down at the piano keyboard of triggers that he started to slam down upon. At once so many things were fired from the weapon so rapidly that they became a blur, the sound was so loud that it only added to the loud sounds that came from the super T – Rex, but nothing, not even an armada of heat seeking missile seemed to have stopped it.

Garfield swore as a well-aimed tank missile came into contact with the T – Rex’s mouth immediately dissolved in it’s acid like mouth as if it was a cheap mint.

“Are we anywhere safe yet Nightwing!?” Garfield screamed still firing as many weapons as he could at this juggernaut of a beast “Because I ain’t kicking it’s ass!”

“I’m BLIND!!!!” Nightwing practically screamed still driving in random and sudden swerves and violent zig zags. “YOU TELL ME!!!”

Suddenly, the black T – Rex is right in front of the weapon it opened it’s mouth to gobble up the Bat – Jeep, Garfield could now see the grotesque insides of the beast, he saw what looked to be half of a jet plane near its grotesque interior muscles, his eyes, nose, and mouth were overwhelmed with the stench and he felt himself getting stabbed all over by the dinosaurs teeth, he felt the numb pain as he felt his blood flood out of his body, he tried to aim the weapon inside of the beast, but the weapon clicked uselessly to show that it had ran out of ammo. He felt himself about to be sucked in and…

That was when everything happened at once. First, he saw pure, royal black about to get swallowed whole by the beast, then he heard an all too familiar sound. The sound of a phoenix. It’s hypnotising, soothing, calming cry seemed to grind time to a halt. Even the black T – Rex seemed to have stopped mid gulp to listen to this phoenix song. Then flames. Giant, royal blue flames! The flames around the black T – Rex seemed to be cutting through the thick skin like a cheese wire, leaving the large royal blue flames on the cut marks of the T – Rex’s skin, Garfield closed his eyes and then…he opened them again and found himself back in daylight. The cool afternoon breeze blowing into his face.

He looked around him. They were on a large plain with next to nothing to be seen on the horizon. He turned to see what looked to be the body of a regular T – Rex, with its head and neck missing, where it used to be was a large ring of royal blue fire. Around the Bat – Jeep was the burnt out shell that used to be the head of the T – Rex, and on top of it looking both very proud and very distraught was a royal blue phoenix.

The phoenix looked young. It was relatively small around the size of a medium sized dog, it had a small black beak no bigger than a walnut, talons no bigger than an over sharpened pencil, an impressive 1-meter wing length and the most beautiful feathers imaginable. Each feather was a delicate shade of blue, and each single feather seemed to be on fire with a similarly coloured blue flame, which gave an almost hypnotising look and smell. It gave a soft, soothing caw, a soft, warm, comforting, soothing and relaxing song came out of its beak that can bring anyone to sleep, and then, the phoenix vanished suddenly to be replaced by a small young boy.

The boy looked like any 8-year-old boy in terms of size and physical posture. He wore nothing but a large purple cloak, a blue t – shirt, blue jeans and glasses as thick as carboard. But there were several things that made him almost instantly unique. The first thing that struck out about the boy was his royal blue skin that made him look like a cartoon character, on his forehead was what looked to be a large sapphire that even from a distance looked like something menacing was inside of it, the boy also had large, wild blue hair that made it look like he had a tempest on his head with it going all over the place and finally then there was an over – sized fang on his mouth…just like Garfield’s.

Garfield sat frozen unable to speak on what he was looking at. He stared at the boy so intently that he felt his eyeballs about to pop out of their sockets. ‘No…wait…it can’t be…there is no way that…there is no way that…that boy is…’

But the boy seemed to have read Garfield’s mind, and gave a small smile “Yes. I am real. Hi Dad.”

Chapter Text

Titan's Tower, 40 years ago, 1 hour after Beast Boy left

Raven was dying. That was all she knew, and all she can think about. Pain, numb pain was all over her body, she felt cold, so cold, so cold that it made being naked in the arctic in the middle of winter look nice and toasty. Her cloak was damp with her blood, one move made it feel like a sponge was seeping the lukewarm liquid back into her skin and it stung into her like acid. Her bone, they ached and wobbled and wiggled as if they had been turned into somewhere between glass and jelly, moving violently on their own, but if you were to interfere it would shatter apart into a million pieces, making moving around futile. She can see nothing but darkness, hear nothing but the cold wind blowing through smashed windows, along with drips of what could either be water or blood, the smell of blood, death and phoenix flame was so overwhelming to her nose that it murdered it.

She felt her tears dissolve her face as she thought back to Scarecrow's surprise attack on the Titans. She was trying and failing to teach Starfire a new language (Chinese), when the gas bomb suddenly hit them and Raven found herself completely unable to move, as if she had been turned to stone. She had to how one simple gas bomb paralysed them completely. She was unable to do anything as she watched Scarecrow dragged her and Starfire into the lobby of Titans tower where everybody but Beast Boy was gathered around for their horrific execution. All she can do was watch in pure horror as Scarecrow unleashed a full blast of the modified fear toxin that Lex Luthor modified into the room that Beast Boy was in and watch him do what Scarecrow wanted him to do.

She wanted to scream to shout, to try and use her magic to do something but there was nothing that she can do. All she can do was watch as Beast Boy began to viciously attack all the Titans, all of them were unable to move unless if Scarecrow, who attacked them with goodness knows what were only able to move about slowly so that Beast Boy can get the execution done faster. Then Beast Boy turned on her and…Raven tried to suppress that horrific memory.

She had no idea what happened to her boyfriend. She wasn't even sure if she would even see him again, even if she makes it out of this state. She thought of their 'date' they had a few nights prior that ended in too much to drink and an awkward awakening. Raven wasn't sure if she can get pregnant, but the status of a child that may or may not be inside of her was the least of her concerns at the present moment. She was afraid for her life.

Her mind was a whirl, her mind was going in so many directions that she was found it hard to believe that she hadn't made half the universe under Trigons control or something like that. All she can think about was trying to pull herself together, but she couldn't. All she had left was her left arm, head, neck and half of her chest.

It was getting difficult to breathe. It was like trying to breathe through wet cement that was drying up. Her lungs were getting heavy like water was gushing into them. She gasped trying to get so much as an atom of oxygen into her lungs.

She came in and out of consciousness so many times that she didn't know how long she was out for, nor how many times. She could have been out for a couple of minutes, a couple of hours, hell she could have been out for days or weeks or a month or even a year! Time was mocking Raven. Her body was turning against her, one moment she felt that she had enough strength to get up, to call for help, to try and teleport somewhere or something like that, she tried to do something, but whenever she tried to do that, it either ended in her only teleporting a couple of feet at best, or producing nothing. Other times she felt so weak that she welcomed the comfort and luxury of death, but her demon side rejected such a weakness. She wondered about everyone else, where was Nightwing? Cyborg? Superboy? Hell she would even welcome seeing Slade or even Trigon if that meant her getting out of this miserable place.

Which is why that when she was lying down, goodness knows where in Titan's tower that hearing someone coming was so sudden and shocking to hear footsteps. Raven's heart almost exploded when she heard the soft squelching sound, that sounded like a gunshot to Raven's ears, of the person walking through the bloodbath of the Titan's Tower lobby.

She heard a flicking sound of what sounded to be a lighter and at once she knew who it was. John Constantine. Raven has a, for use of a better word, complicated relationship with Constantine. True they were, debatably, equal in terms of magic, but she defiantly doesn't see him as a friend, more like a colleague or a useful ally.

"Ugh, what happened here?" Constantine's voice rang out though the lobby of Titan's Tower. "Looked and smelled like a rabid demon and phoenix attacked everyone here."

The strong smell of tobacco hit Raven and it made her want to throw up. The smell of blood, death, phoenix flame and cigarettes don't seem to mix very well, however she couldn't feel her stomach. Hell, she didn't even know if she even had a stomach.

She felt herself once again drifting back into the status of unconsciousness. The last thing that she saw was a blurry face and the blinding light of a cigarette.

.

.

.

.

Garfield opened his eyes wearily. He felt as if his bones weighed a ton and that he had slept for over 10,000 years, he felt his heart beating rapidly, he felt every drop of sweat that came out of his skin, he tasted blood in his mouth and he spat it out, not caring about where it landed on. He looked up to see nothing but a blinding white ceiling and parts of a LED light that seemed to be from a lighthouse. He was lying on one of the most softest, warmest beds, sheets and blankets that he had ever laid on for…well…almost a life time ago.

His mind was a whirr, with so many thoughts rapidly running through his head. That blue boy, looks just like him, except he's blue combined with several of Raven's features from a gem on his forehead to a purple cloak His entire mind seemed to have jammed. He lifted an arm, and after much effort he managed to raise his arm up so that he can look at his hand. It still looked like it's old – young Frankenstein – like self, with some areas wrinkled like a purine, others looking like what it used to look like in his prime.

He lifted his head, which seemed to weigh a ton, and he tried to have a look around him only to see that he was surrounded by what looked to be frames that you see in hospitals with blank white sheets, which made sure that nobody can see in, or out. He could be in any hospital, clinic or treatment centre in the world. He had no idea where he was, nor how long he was out. All he could remember before waking up in this place was the blue boy smiling at him and then darkness, as he, looking back, seemed to have fainted in shock.

"Hello Beast Boy." A soft, ghostly voice said. An all too familiar voice.

Garfield froze. He seemed to have turned to stone. All the thought in his chaotic head seemed to have vanished into nothing as he became as stiff as a statue. He could feel nothing. He can only stare at the figure that was hovering over him. Stare in complete shock as if he had seen a ghost, which in a matter of fact, he is.

Raven's ghost looked down at Garfield with an unreadable expression. Her looks hadn't changed much, only ageing around 8 or so years, and her ghost form seemed to have recovered from his attack. But something told him that something else was in play. Raven's face looked somewhere between anger, sorrow, interest, pity, frustration and exhaustion.

"R...R…Raven?" Garfield squeaked. He looked up at her ghost, feeling the tears dissolving his face "Are…are…are you dead? Am…am…am I dead…is…is this heaven…how…how long was I out?"

Raven looked on at Garfield with a look that doctors give to someone in a waiting room when they are about to deliver bad news. "Well for one, no, you are not dead Beast Boy you are very much alive. Two, this is not heaven, this is the sick bay in the house of mystery. Three, you were unconscious for an hour and I see that you still drool a bit when you are unconscious and asleep. As for me, I am not dead, nor am I alive."

There was a long pause, neither party unsure on what to say next. With so many things that has happened in the past 40 years, where does one even begin talking about things to catch up. Garfield had to explain why he gave up being a superhero, why he hadn't even transformed for so many years, that he has a wife and family, that Cyborg is bullying him for rent money, that he was sorry for what he had done the night the Titans were murdered and how much pain he was in, and how he was sorry for letting so many bad things happening around the world. He thought that Raven would also have more or less the same problems from having a child and he had no idea what antics that they would get up to. Then Raven, out of nowhere said the words that Garfield both wanted and didn't want to hear for so many years.

"I don't blame you for what you have done Beast Boy" Raven said in a voice that sounded like almost genuine sympathy "In fact, none of the Titans do. We all knew that it wasn't your fault. It was Scarecrow's"

"No!" Garfield almost yelled, he yelled so loud and in a voice that made all of his emotions that he had felt in the past 40 years unleash all at once "It's all my fault! I should have known that it was a trick! I should have know that something odd was going on! How none of what I saw made much sense! I should have realised that…that…if I hadn't…it's all my fault!"

And with that Garfield burst into tears, blubbering gibberish that even Garfield couldn't even decipher, his mind was once again back into a jumbled rush, so many things were going on in his head that he was shocked that it hadn't caught on fire due to him being so overwhelmed. Raven. Alive. His son. The Titans. Scarecrow. His family. His wife. His kids. Everything.

The cold chill struck him so suddenly, that it instantly ceased all of his chaotic thoughts. His mind was getting whiplash from all of this. He felt his body turn to jelly as found himself shaking violently from all the emotions combined with the sudden chill. He opened his eyes to see that Raven's ghostly form was trying to hug him. Her face was of that of pure sadness, pity and sorrow. Something inside of him told him that if she could, she would have been crying buckets.

"No. Blame me. I should have been able to stop Scarecrow, but I didn't. I should have done so many things, but I didn't. It's my fault Beast Boy. All my fault!"

No more words were needed. Nothing more was need to be said between them. They didn't know how long they were embraced with one another. All they needed was each other after so many years apart. They kissed, hard cold air making contact with warm sold flesh.

Finally, after 40 years, Garfield slept, in peace. No more nightmares. No more memories of that night. Nothing. He finally slept in peace.

Chapter Text

A/N: I own Pheonix (for now)

The boy went by many names. ‘Beat Boy the Second’, ‘Phoenix’, ‘Shifter’, ‘Blue Beat’, ‘Animal Boy’, to name a few. Right now, he is settling by the name ‘Phoenix’. He had royal blue skin, hair that looked like a tempest and eyes the colour of fire. Some key feature of his appearance includes the dark sapphire that laid on his forehead just like his mother, giant silver spectacles, along with pointy elf like ears and a large fang that looked to be from any wild animal that made him look like his father. The boy was quite short, he looked to be around 8 years old, but in reality, he was almost 40 years old. That was the result of getting born in the House of Mystery, by a half demon for a mother and a unique Metahuman for a father.

Phoenix was born in the wrong time and at the wrong place. Had he been born at a more ‘peaceful’ time he would have been one of the most powerful beings in existence, and that’s not even including his unusual birth. Quite how Raven managed to remain pregnant after Beast Boy attacked her was something only God knew the answer to.

Phoenix had both his father’s powers and his mother’s which made him extremely unique. Having the ability to turn into any animal is powerful enough. But if one were to use their imagination, they can do anything with it. For example, turning into mythical creature is powerful enough since they would inherit the abilities that they have from dragon fire breath to Phoenix healing, which can help in any situation. Then there are things that come as a bonus to it from increased senses, the ability to communicate with any creature and so on. Then there was his ‘quarter demonic powers’. True he was nowhere nearly as powerful as his mother in terms of power, but even possessing parts of it made him one of the most powerful magical users left alive.

Phoenix was many things, he is powerful, he is most certainly strong and clever and brave. But he isn’t stupid. He knew that trying to take down the supervillains would only end in disaster, and that isn’t including his ‘compromise’ with his grandfather, Black Adam and Darkseid.

For so many years, he had wanted to find his father, but due to so many circumstances this made it almost impossible, until now. Phoenix sat on a simple plastic chair, looking down at the passed-out body of his father unsure how to react or what to say or what to do when he awakens.

For one thing he wanted to scream at him, to know why it took him so long for him to turn up, but he already knew that he only found out about his existence mere days ago. He wanted to tell him all the things that had happened upon his ‘retirement’ from all the crazy business from Trigon to Darkseid to Black Adam to Mr Mxyzptlk that he and all the remaining ‘superheroes’ had to deal with, but he knew that it would contribute next to nothing except make his father feel worse and he wasn’t sure how it would influence his view on him, he wasn’t sure if he would either be proud or indifferent. Then he wanted him to do so many things with him, from receiving training from one of the greatest shapeshifters in the world, hell he would even settle for a game of catch.

He looked around him out of pure boredom. The sick area in the house of mystery looked like something out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The room was long containing hospital beds that ranged from something you would see in a 12^th century castle to something that can be found in a spaceship set 10,000 years into the future (Which is currently occupied by a Raven in a coma), cheap to priceless furniture, and paintings that ranged from something you would see in the corridor of a tiny airport to something you would find in a famous art museum.

Phoenix once again looked down at the sleeping body of his father and finally deciding that he had enough of waiting. He had waited too long for this and he wanted to talk to his father. True, he had saved him from that dinosaur, and true he had carried him to the house of mystery, and true he had let him rest for the night, but now was almost 10:00 in the morning and he was done waiting. Without really thinking why, he decided that he was going to wake his up telepathically, he could have simply woken him up by shaking him or speaking, but something inside of him told him that what he had to see would be of great interest.

He closed his eyes focusing all his concentration on his father. He felt an odd, numbing sensation, like being tossed around underwater in an ice cold rapid. Moments later he saw a pinprick of light that rapidly got brighter and brighter, and wider and wider, and then…he found himself standing in what at first appeared to be a large maze with bright lights all around him, dazzling him.

Phoenix guessed that he must be somewhere near or in the centre of the maze, with passages going in so many directions, left, right, diagonals, up, down and directions that is utterly incomprehensible. The maze had a strong odour making it smell like a combination of sweaty underwear, wet dog, old dung and the sort of smell you would find in a farmer’s market.

Then Phoenix noticed the walls. At first, he thought that they were made of a simple metal. Then he realised that they were cages, and inside them was a large collection of animals. He saw several animals displayed around him, he saw a large green anteater fast asleep, it’s long tongue flapping wildly like a flag in a typhoon, next to the anteater was a zebra with dark and light green stripes instead of it’s typical black and white stripes who was running on the spot as if it were on a treadmill. He saw a baboon playing with a chimpanzee in the next cell, he looked at what appeared to be an arctic fox embracing a small rabbit as if it was his lover and above him he saw a dragon, a phoenix and a falcon doing what appeared to be a weird sky dance. It was quite possibly the strangest zoo that Phoenix had ever seen. Phoenix was so mesmerised by what he saw that he completely forgotten what he was doing here.

He walked up to a random cage, this one holding what appeared to be a large green phoenix that was fast asleep on a perch. It was then he realised that something was odd. The cages had no lock, or rather no visible area where the key should go. The bars were so thick that it looked as if it could contain the entire Earth inside of it like a ping – pong ball. However, the bars looked to be slowly dissolving as if it was reacting to a weak acid. He looked at the phoenix sadly in it’s cage, unsure on how to react to this.

“Are you awake?” He said softly to the phoenix with utter sorrow.

The moment the words left his lips he was thrown back by a strong invisible force so hard that he felt like he was fired from a cannon. Before Phoenix can even comprehend what was going on he was face to face with his father, who looked extremely shocked, angry, miserable and happy at the same time.     

“What was that!?” Garfield cried out in shock, shaking his head violently “I head a voice in my head and…” then he noticed Phoenix and gaped.

Phoenix stared back at his father smiling “Hi dad.” He said with a weak attempt at a smile. Before he knew it, Garfield had embraced him in a rib crushing hug.

“Son” Garfield said, his face dissolving with tears.

Sometime later…

The dinning room in the house of mystery looked like the inside of a glass bottle. The room was entirely circular with walls that curved all the way up to the celling like a soda bottle.

The walls were decorated with wallpapers that constantly changed as if it couldn’t make up it’s mind on what to be. One moment it was the wallpaper from the bathroom in an 17^th century European manor, the next it displayed a highly detailed map of the universe, and the next it reverted into the wallpaper design that can be found in the bedroom of the least favourite child in a rich family and the next it displayed what appeared to be photos documenting historical event ranging from the big bang to the fall of the superheroes.

In the centre of the room was a large round wooden table that looked like something out of King Arthur. Around this table were 5 large silver chairs that were not quite thrones, but not quite office chairs, but something in between. In front of each chair was an assortment of golden tableware, a golden spoon, fork and knife along with a plain golden goblet, an oversized golden plate and a tiny golden bowl.

All 5 seats were occupied. The first was occupied by Nightwing who looked as if he had no idea what to say or what to do, on his left was Raven, still in her ‘ghost’ form which made next to no difference to what she was 40 years ago except for the fact that she looked like solid air. Next to her was Garfield, still looking like the Frankenstein between his older and younger self, with the latter finally getting dominance over the older. He looked as if a thousand thoughts were going around his head, his eyes were spinning so wildly that it seemed to be hypnotising anyone who so much as stared at them. Next to him was Phoenix who was looking around all the people at the table as if he wanted to say something to them but is wanting their permission to speak. Finally, there was Constantine.

Garfield had met Constantine a couple of times, and he found him to be an interesting person. Now looking at him now, he knew that something terrible must have happened to him. For one, he had an eye patch over where his right eye was, which also covered up half of his face, he also was smacking chewing gum as if his life depended on it, his hair looked as if it had never been cut, washed or combed in the last 40 years making look like if he was wearing an old wig from a play about Rapunzel. He seemed more interested in looking at the wood cracks on the table than at anything else.

The 5 sat in silence as if they didn’t want to be the one to break the silence until finally, Constantine spoke. “So Nightwing, Beast Boy. Long-time no see.”

Nightwing nodded at Constantine as if that was all he could say to him. Constantine frowned a bit as if he expected more from him. Then he turned his head at Garfield, “and Beast Boy, or Garfield as I understand is the name your going by, how are you?”

Garfield blinked, unsure on how to answer this question. He wanted to say so much and yet he had no idea on how to express them. Constantine seemed to have noticed “As I understand so much has happened to you, but I am not going to talk about it now. I understand that you want to spend some time with Phoenix here. I also heard that he is planning to go to your home in Oregon when you leave, so that he is in a ‘more ideal location’.” he gestured at the boy, who looked up at his father with an unreadable expression on his face. “I also know that you also have some business to do in Metropolis” he looked at Nightwing with a piercing glare at this statement who seemed unfazed by this.

“Correct…” Nightwing said sounding more like his adopted father than himself “Now if you don’t mind if you told me where you put the Bat – Jeep, that thing cost me…”

“First, the Bat – Jeep didn’t cost you anything Nightwing” Raven said sounding like her younger self “You won it in a card game with the Riddler and even then, you cheated. Second, we know what you are delivering.” Raven gave more emphasis on the last sentence as if accusing Nightwing of a crime.

Nightwing bowed his head as if in shame “I want to be out of here in 24 hours please.” He said after a long pause

Constantine nodded as if Nightwing had delivered the answer he wanted to hear, then he looked down at his empty plate and muttered “Toast” Garfield blinked, a small pile of toast has appeared on Constantine’s plate.

Looking down at his plate he muttered “Tofu – eggs” the instant the words had escaped his mouth a small pile of tofu – eggs had materialized on his plate as if out of thin air.  

Garfield picked up his knife and fork and began to eat it. It was the most delicious thing he had even eaten in a lifetime, and he savoured the beautiful taste that relished his mouth like liquid gold.  

Sometime later

Constantine, Nightwing and Raven seemed to have decided that it was best to leave Garfield and Phoenix alone after they had finished their brunch, which is why not long after Garfield finished gulping down his 4^th helping to soymilk he found himself alone with his son. There was a long silence as neither person seemed to have any idea what to say to each other. Garfield looked at his son with utter sorrow.

For so many years he had lived on as an aimless drifter, and all this time he had a son. He didn’t know what to make of it. He had been informed of his existance almost a week ago and now, now, now he had no idea what to do or what to say. How does one even make up for 40 years of separation?

Phoenix’s face seemed to give nothing away, and for a moment he was reminded of Damian Wayne, even though he can tell that this kid was more, for use of a better word ‘humble’ than him.

Phoenix seemed to be lost in deep thought until he broke the silence. “So. What games do you like to play? Chess? Cluedo? Scrabble? Monopoly?”

Garfield was taken aback. After so many years apart the first thing he offered to do was play a board game? Without really thinking about it Garfield muttered “Chess?”

No sooner than the words left his mouth a simple chess board appeared from thin air, whites on his side, black on Phoenix’s side. “Alright then, lets play then shall we?” Phoenix said with a small smile.

Garfield paused, taking his time examining the pieces. Then he lifted his King’s knight and moved in front of the 3^rd pawn. Phoenix did the same.

“I heard that you have got remarried around 25 years ago.” Phoenix said casually as asking for the next weeks weather as Garfield moved one of his queen’s pawns.

Garfield frowned at this as Phoenix moved his pawn to threaten or bait the pawn he just moved. “Yes…” Garfield said slowly moving his hand as if he knew that he was about to make a mistake as he took the pawn that Phoenix just moved. “I did…” He wasn’t willing to talk about Linda if that was what Phoenix was implying.

“Well you see…” Phoenix said, moving one of his knights to block the pawn, “I have been thinking of, well, visiting your family in Oregon…”

Garfield paused, thinking about what he said. Then he moved his Queens bishop to threaten one of the knights. “…so you want to live with me or…” he inquired not sure on how Linda and the others and the cyborg gang would react when they discover about Phoenix.  

Phoenix turned into a small monkey and smiled at Garfield goofy as he moved the pawn in front of his king “Oh, no…no…not to live, just well…visit.”

“Oh…Okay then…” Garfield said, moving another of his pawns to give his king’s bishop space to make it’s move “it’s just that…well…”

“let me guess.” Phoenix said shifting into a wolf and moving his king’s bishop to take one of his pawns “is it that your afraid that your wife or mom would get ‘jealous’? I can answer for mom, she is aware that you thought that she was dead, but not for your new wife.”

“Her name is Linda.” Garfield said, moving another of his pawns to threaten the bishop “and no, she told me that she doesn’t mind.”

“Really?” Phoenix said, shifting into a fox and taking the pawn that Garfield just moved “What did she say about mom though? Did you know that she is almost finished recovering? And check.” He said with a small sly smile.

Garfield almost froze as he finished moving one of his pawns to block the bishop “I…I beg your pardon?” he said in utter shock. His mind seemed to have jammed like an old office printer.

“Mom is getting better after so many things happening to her in the past 40 years.” Phoenix said, as he moved his bishop back into a retreat. He sounded like a war veteran reminiscing about all his dead friends.

“what sort of things?” Garfield said pressing on, he knew better than to shout or yell. He pulled himself together and glared at Phoenix, trying not to look hostile, as he moved his bishop putting it next Phoenix’s bishop as if that would get him to speak.         

Phoenix paused as he turned into a cat and moved the pawn on the other side of the board to threaten the other white bishop “Oh, nothing much. Darkseid 20 years ago, grandfather almost every 10 years, she almost always ends up with some sort of massive injury that made her into a coma for a long time. Right now, she is recovering from a surprise attack from Mr Mxyzptlk that happened almost a year ago. Constantine managed to trick him into saying his own name backwards though so that was the end of that. She would be fine in a couple of weeks”  

Garfield paused as if he just realised a small flaw in what Phoenix just said. “Wait…after what I did to her…how long did it take for her to recover?” moving his bishop back as he spoke.

“Oh…around 2 years.” Phoenix said indifferently, moving his knight as he did so.

“But then…” Garfield said, sputtering in disbelief “but then…why didn’t she try to find me!?” he moved a bishop back so violently that it almost snapped in two.

Phoenix shifted into his namesake and gave a sad sympathetic look at his father. “I thought the answer should have been obvious.” He said as telekinetically moved his knight to take another of Garfield’s pawns “she thought that you were dead. I mean, there were so many villain battles from Darkseid, Luthor, Black Adam, the lantern corps battles that happened in the days and weeks that followed that she thought that you were a casualty. Anyway, you thought the same too about her, and me if you count a zygote which I was at the time of what Scarecrow did”

Garfield nodded as if he had made a fair point and moved his queen to face Phoenix’s knight. “Yes, but what have you been doing all these years? I mean you have had 40 years to…”

“to what?” Phoenix said, shifting into a lion. He didn’t sound angry at all, but rather overly restrained with a pinch of looking annoyed “we have a ‘cynical’ Constantine who is trying to do as much as he can with powerful being watching his every move, a weakened Raven, an off the map Nightwing and myself who ages slowly. And who do they have? Luthor, Black Adam, Professor Zoom, Ra’s Al Ghul, Darkseid; the red, orange, yellow, and violet lantern corps, Ares, Cheetah, do I need to continue?”  He moved the knight to take another knight

Garfield sighed as he moved his king “Your…your right…” he said “I’m…I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be.” Phoenix said coldly as he moved his knight again.

“Well…” Garfield said, moving his king again. “I think that my kids would like you…”

Phoenix smiled slightly “Yeah. I haven’t had much of a chance to interact with people my age.” He looked up at the ceiling as if expecting it to make a comment on what he had to say. He moved his queen without looking at it.

“Like who? I killed almost all of the young superheroes a long time ago.” Garfield said, moving his bishop to almost reach the end of the board.

“I barely remember Billy Batson, but he died almost 37 years ago at the hands of Black Adam.” Phoenix said, sounding like someone who was asked to recall a distant, unpleasant memory. He shifted into what resembled a tiny elephant as he telekinetically moved his knight to take one of the bishops “I do remember Johnathan Kent. We used to like to play board games, video games, and listen to music when I was little. But he was vaporised by Trigon as a punishment for not joining his side 30 years ago”

“Oh…” Garfield said moving his queen to move it next to his castle

“I don’t need your pity.” Phoenix said in a sad voice, moving his pawn “Just tell me about your kid’s will you? If you don’t mind?”

“Well, there’s Rachel.” Garfield said, almost taken aback at this comment. He paused for a moment, then he moved a knight “she is the oldest, 22. She…well…had an accident a long time ago and now she is on a wheelchair and is ‘brain dead’. But she is still a sweet, sweet girl.”           

“I see…” Phoenix said “any others? And check” He said moving a bishop

“There’s James, he is 17.” Garfield replied with a smile, moving his king “He’s the brains of the family. He can fix pretty much anything that he can get his hands on. One time he managed to fix a WW1 plane with just the scrap parts of a car engine.”

“really?” Phoenix said with a raised eyebrow, moving his knight “very impressive.”

“thank you.” Garfield said with a small smile, moving his queen “then there is his twin sister, Stella. She is the muscle. She can destroy almost anything that she get’s her hands on. Like there was this onetime we had an encounter with a guy who was threatening us with a large rifle, and she just casually ran up to him and bent his gun into a monkey’s fist knot!”

“Impressive” Phoenix said, moving his knight “The Monkey’s fist is considered to be the hardest knot to tie. Cheak”

“then there is little Jason. He is only a sweet little baby.” Garfield said smiling, moving his king.  

“Cute” Phoenix said, moving his knight again. “Tell me about Linda. Cheak”

Garfield sighed with a weak smile. “Linda is a nice woman. She is caring and she does care about me and my kids. I know she is capable of handling herself, she took down a large group of thugs on her own when she was in her prime.” He moved his king “In fact she welcomes you. I bet that when you arrive there you will be welcomed with open arms and I promise that nothing bad happens to you there”

Phoenix nodded as he took Garfield’s queen with his bishop “I sure do hope so. I hate being confined in here. I want to go out into the sun and going out is a rare treat for me.”      

“Your welcome” Garfield said moving his bishop

“Thank you” Phoenix said, shifting into a fox, and telekinetically manoeuvring his bishop to take a pawn. “Checkmate”

Chapter Text

It was one of the strangest rooms Garfield had ever seen for a very long time. The room was completely bare and long, around the length of a sports ground that can be found in the 2^nd richest area in a city. It was dimly lit, with ugly metallic walls and floors so well polished that it could have been a mirror. The air in the room changed constantly, one moment it was so cold that Garfield felt his blood turn to ice and his lungs get stabbed by ice, the next moment it became so hot that wearing clothes felt like pure torture and he was sweating so heavily Garfield was surprised that it didn’t flood the room.

In the middle of the room, at least 20 meters up was what looked to be a commentator’s podium that seemed to have come from an Olympic stadium that seemed to be filled with high tech equipment, but it was obviously empty except for the equipment. 

In the middle of the room was Phoenix in his Eastern Dragon form looking at his father with keen interest. Garfield returned the look. Phoenix was relatively small in his dragon form, no longer than a basketball court, the gem on his head changed from the size of a small tangerine to the size of a watermelon and it glowed arrogantly in the dim light. Each of his scales were brilliantly blue and upon a further inspection, each scale seemed to be on fire.

“This dad, is the place where I train to use my powers.” Phoenix said shifting back into his normal form, looking as if he had forgotten why he had turned into a dragon in the first place. “Even though I know that fighting them” he said the last word pointing at a wall as if talking about an unspoken enemy “is suicidal and futile. But I still find it useful to have something to defend myself when the time comes.”

Garfield nodded slowly, unsure on how to react. “So…what exactly can you do?” he said measuring each word as if the wrong one would result in his execution.

Phoenix gave a tiny smile “Well.” he said, unsure on where to begin “you already saw my shapeshifting powers and my telekinesis…I think I can show you some of my other powers and abilities…Wait…watch this! Oh, wait and I think you need to stand back a bit.”

Garfield moved slowly to the wall in confusion, unsure on what he is about to see. The moment his back was inches away from the frying pan/freezer hybrid walls, Phoenix began to run at a fantastic speed. For a moment Garfield was convinced that he was about to run into the wall, but he was wrong. When Phoenix was half way from hitting the wall, he leapt up as if making a karate kick in mid-air. Then suddenly out of the soles of Phoenix’s feet came a gigantic burst of blue fire.  The fire was so bright that Garfield closed his eyes. The heat from the giant fireball was so hot and so cold at the same time that his body was sending him mixed messages, and the smell of the fire was the most seductive smell in the world, it smelled as if someone had crammed all the best smells in the world from the smell of a fireplace in winter, to the smell of a bakery that uses too much sugar to the smell of a new car and putted them together.

Garfield clapped blindly; he was impressed on what Phoenix had done even though he had no idea what he had just witnessed. “Very impressive!” He cried “What was that by the way?”

“I have some fire manipulation.” Phoenix said modestly as Garfield’s vision slowly came back to him. “I admit that I made a few mistakes in that move. I just shot out a single blast from my feet. I was supposed to shoot rapid blasts from my hands and feet, which I find to be much more effective and…” He stopped as if he had no idea what he was supposed to say next. He shook his head vigorously as if he was a dog shaking water off from his fur.

“Let me show you what else I can do” He said as if trying to make up his mind on something. Then he gave a quick nod. “Alright, watch this!”

He took a couple of steps backwards and made a face as if he wanted to throw up his entire skeleton. Garfield looked at this with obvious confusion ‘What is he doing?’ But no sooner had the thought came into his head, Phoenix vanished into thin air with a swift POP!

Garfield blinked rapidly, unsure on what he had seen. One moment Phoenix was there, the next moment he was gone! What had happened to him?

Garfield was about to cry out when there was another swift POP! And Phoenix was back where he was, but this time he was holding what looked to be a samurai sword.

“Guess where I had been?” Phoenix said with a goofy smile on his face as he threw the sword at his father, who caught it in mid – air.

“What the…” Garfield said in utter confusion as he examined the sword’s sheaf as if he was an art dealer examining a priceless painting. Garfield touched the beautiful engravings of a large wolf and a dragon that was carved onto the sheaf along with a phoenix on the sword handle “Where did you…”

“Popped into Japan to nick the closest thing to me!” Phoenix said as if teleporting halfway around the world to steal the closest item to them was as ordinary as making a phone call. “I already have a large bunch of weapons, so I think that you can have it!”

Garfield adrew the sword. It was simple the silver blade shining like the sun, glinting in the faint light. He was disappointed that it had nothing engraved on the sword, but he didn’t care.

“Wow…I…uh…” Garfield was lost for words, unsure on how to respond to such an action.

“Save your breath.” Phoenix said pacing up and down as if trying to remember something. “I would teleport you somewhere, however after what happened last time, I think that I would not take any passengers.”

“What do you mean?” Garfield asked in confusion putting the sword down  

“Oh, I may have…I may or may not have almost killed…Superboy…b…but that incident was resolved a few days.” Phoenix said looking up at Garfield. Something inside Garfield told him that Phoenix didn’t really want to talk about what had happed, and he knew that he wasn’t ready to tell him about what had happened to Superboy, yet.

Phoenix began to walk up to Garfield as if he was on a minefield, an unreadable expression on his face. “Dad. I want to show you something right now.” He said suddenly serious. “Put your hand on my head. Now. Please.”

Garfield was so taken aback at this that he complied without realising it. He lifted his hand and placed it on Phoenix’s head. The instant his hand came into contact with Phoenix’s tempest like hair he felt a strange sensation as if there was a giant hole in his hand and that a powerful vacuum was attempting to suck everything from inside Garfield’s body, he felt light headed and heavy as if his entire body has turned to stone making him want to pass out, and yet at the same time he felt a terrific surge of energy enter him making him feel a great sense of delirium, he was surrounded by blue and green light making him feel like he was in the world’s largest kaleidoscope, and then…

Garfield opened his eyes to find himself in what appeared to be an infinitely large field, with long grass and the occasional patch of forests. The sun was out shining not too hot nor too cold and the wind blew comfortably in his face.

Garfield then noticed that he wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by the strangest assortment of animals he had ever seen. He saw a blue deer that appears to be in deep conversation with a blue bear, he saw a blue rabbit that seemed to be doing a tap dance on a tree stump with a large crowd of blue animals and looking up above him he saw a blue phoenix, several blue dragons and birds doing what appears to be some kind of sky dance.

“What is this place?” Garfield said in utter confusion

“You are standing in one of the areas in my mind” Phoenix said indifferently looking around him as if the sight was only mildly interesting television programme.   

Garfield suddenly recalled the time that he and Cyborg went inside Raven’s mind which led to an, for use of a better word, ‘interesting encounter’ with Raven’s emotions. He began to look around him to see if Phoenix had more or less the same thing, but Phoenix put up a hand, his face utterly blank “If you are wondering if I have the same ‘mental emotion condition’ as mom,” he said sounding more like his mother “You are correct. However, most of them tend not to go into this area, so if we stay here, we would be fine.”

Garfield nodded, still not sure on what Phoenix was doing. “Alright…” he said trying to think on what to say next “So…why are you showing me this?”

Phoenix looked up at his father as if the answer should have been obvious “I want you to look around you, and tell me what you see, and then I will show you something else then you will understand”

Garfield blinked looking around him, but all he can see was just a large assortment of blue animals all of them roaming free each one doing a large assortment of things. “I see animals…that I believe is what you…we use to shapeshift?” Garfield said trying to comprehend on what he is seeing.

“Yes...” Phoenix said, adding too much emphasis on each letter “…and what is their status?”

“Uhhh…they are roaming around free…but…” Garfield said almost confused, but Phoenix acted as if he had answered the one-million-dollar question.

“Correct!” Phoenix said, clapping his hand loudly.

The moment Phoenix lowered his hand the environment around Garfield shifted so suddenly that it gave him whiplash, it was like one moment he was in one channel in a TV show, the next he was in another, and Garfield had experienced a lot of that from the late Control Freak.

The area around him was radically different now. He was still surrounded by animals, but there were two key differences between what he saw in Phoenix’s mind and what he can see here. For one thing instead of being in a large field he was in what looked to be a dank, dark prison, with rows and rows of cells each one having impossibly thick bars and no key hole which made it look as if it would never let their prisoner free. The next thing he noticed was that each of the cells in this dark prison was filled with a certain animal, but instead of it being blue, they were green.

Garfield saw a tiger circling around in it’s cage it’s face willed with sadness, he saw an exhausted looking  dragon, he saw a fox embracing a rabbit as if it was it’s lover, he saw a whale in a giant aquarium sized tank and it looked mournfully around him as if he was watching the funeral of a friend.

“What is this place?” Garfield said, hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t what he thought it was, but Phoenix looked at him with what looked to be a mocking face.

“We are in your mind now.” Phoenix said looking around him as if everything had personally offended him but he didn’t want to be rude. “and look at the differences between it”

Garfield’s legs seemed to have turned into stone. He was unable to comprehend on what he is seeing. Garfield hated the mistreatment of animals, he made it a law to never touch meat, to use products that wasn’t tested on animals, hell whenever any of his friends got a pet he had to talk to the pet to make sure that they were getting properly treated, which ranged from the indifferently of Raven’s pet rabbit, the traumatised cat of Starfire and the entitled dog of Damian. But now looking at this, seeing himself in a zoo, one of the places that Garfield hated, made him feel broken.

That was when he saw the two damaged cages. They were conveniently placed right next to each other as if they wanted it to send a message. The cage on the left housed a large green Phoenix and it’s entire cell seemed to be on fire, a large green fire that seemed to be slowly dissolving the bars of the cell like a weak acid on metal. It was looking around it’s surroundings without a care in the world. The cell right next to it housed something that Garfield thought he would never see again. The Beast. It looked the same as it ever had as if time had never passed, but it looked more hairy and it’s claws were more sharp. It gave a monstrous, deafening roar as it lashed out at the bars that had so many scratch marks that it created large holes in the metal.

Creak. Creak

The two sounds rang out around them like a cannon getting fired. Garfield looked on in horror as he saw what it was. Two bars, one from the Phoenix’s cell the other from the Beast’s. They were bent ever so slightly, and if they were to be bent ever further, they would be unleashed out, unleashed into Garfield’s mind.

Chapter Text

Garfield gasped for air as the ice cold water dripped down from his face and into the glass sink, water cascading down from the tap so hard, that had it not been tightly secured it would have been sent flying into space.

Garfield’s mind was still a whirr when he finally found the guest room he was staying at, which looked to be the most expensive hotel room in the poorest country in the world, the room was around the size of the castle’s grand hall that belonged to the youngest child of a poor kingdom.

It had two large beds that belonged to the 2^nd  and 3^rd least favourite child in a rich family, a cheap television that can be found in any college dorm room, a large wooden desk that belonged to the 2^nd in command for any James Bond villain, a large collection of sofas that can be found in the waiting room of a small technology company and a small galley of paintings that can be found in the corridors of any hospital and airport around the world.

The bathroom wasn’t too big nor too small, it just had enough room for a bathtub that belongs in the servant’s quarters of a mansion, a toilet that looks to be from a public toilet that is too well maintained, a sink that seemed to have come from a forgotten part of a palace and a giant mirror that had a thoughtless frame around it.

Garfield looked at his reflection panting as if he had ran a marathon, trying to recover on what he had seen. Garfield had seen many crazy things in his life, gods, demons, countless alternate dimensions, to name a few, but what Phoenix had shown him was one of the few things that really shook him to the core. He looked up at the mirror, gazing hard into his refection for the first time in over 40 years. He had no idea what to think, hell, he had no idea what he saw even meant.

He looked at his body, it was still the usual old – young Frankenstein monster version of himself, as if something inside of him is trying to keep him young, but something, or someone is holding it back. Why was this happening to him? He knew he had Phoenix like healing ever since he became a Phoenix in that fight with Trigon a year before the Heroes fell, and yet, 25 years ago this stuff is happening to him, like some part of him is preventing him from ageing and the other isn’t. That’s not even mentioning whenever he receives massive wounds which has various degrees of results on how it heals him. Isn’t this his power’s failing him? No. He hadn’t even used them for a very long time, and Garfield wasn’t willing to even try to test it out. And yet…

That was when he heard the voice that he had been trying to suppress for over 40 years. ‘You think that you can suppress me?’ the growly horrific voice roared in Garfield’s head. Garfield’s animal forms seldomly spoke to him, however there were several exceptions from the parrots that always echoed whatever he heard to all the mythical animals from the wise dragons to the odd centaur, but this time Garfield can sense that it was the savage Beast that was talking to him. ‘How long has it been since we last spoke? 35 years I suppose?’

“Shut up!” Garfield cried out in his head “Please shut up! Leave me in peace! Please!”

‘No!’ The Beast yelled back ‘I will not! I will not go down you coward!’

“Coward. I am no coward!” Garfield yelled in indignation  

‘Are you!?’ The Beast sneered ‘Yes. We killed your friends. But you could have gotten revenge on them. You could have stopped them from taking over the world, hell even the universe by now. And what do you do? Refuse to let us out. You need us. You are an animal like us. Killing, it’s in your nature isn’t it? Why haven’t you got revenge? Why haven’t you gone and hunt Scarecrow down? You could have stopped the villains taking over the world, and yet you cling onto what you have done. You are weak! You disgust me! You refuse to act when you could have done something! You don’t have the guts!’

“No! I will not hurt anyone ever again! I will not let anyone feel my pain! I just want to protect my family…my freinds…please…”

‘Yes…your family.’ The Beast laughed ‘I am on the same page as you on that thing, but your friends. No. Nobody here understands you. Nightwing has no powers, he doesn’t know the conflict inside. Vic has betrayed you. You don’t even know Constantine that well if you mean all the ‘heroes’ that are left. Raven doesn’t have to go on a hair-raising trip to get rent money of all things, and what do you know about Phoenix? What exactly have you done for your new member, Phoenix? I mean, he has clearly been through so much, and you could have so easily have been there for him. If you have refused to stop fighting, then, maybe you would have been a better father to him!’

“I…I am trying to…” Garfield said but he couldn’t find the right words to say

‘Chess and that power show off!? Don’t make me laugh! You barley even know him enough to be worth to be his father. While you drift off in your misery on what you have done, he is doing something.’

“Yes, but...”

‘and what will happen if things go wrong? I mean we have had so many close calls, but we all know luck doesn’t last forever. You will have to kill, again do you? Or do you want to be killed? Are you a coward!?’

“No! I…I…I…”

The sound of the door knocking brought Garfield back to his senses, shaking his head violently as if he can shake the Beast out, he walked up to the door to see Raven looking at him awkwardly.

“Hi Rae.” Garfield said looking at her hard air self. “What is it?”

“I’m fine Garfield, I just had a minor, disagreement with Nightwing.” She said looking at her lover “It’s just that when I found out what Nightwing had in the Bat – Jeep, I knew that something was up and…well…it’s just that what he is planning is…well…delusional…”

“What do you mean?” Garfield asked tilting his head

“I think that it’s best that you hear it from Nightwing’s mouth and not mine…” Raven said looking at him as if she had enough of talking about this “anyway…how was your time with Phoenix?”

Garfield gave a small faulty smile “I wanted to enjoy it…but all we did so far was just play chess and…er…”

Raven sighed “I think the word would be ‘showed what your mind is like’ Garfield” she said looking at Garfield in utter sorrow “For one thing, don’t blame him for acting like this, as I said earlier he has been through so much and he has no idea what to do with his father.” Garfield nodded at this as Raven continued “and I too can sense what your mind is like. I can see that you are trying to suppress all the animals inside you. Not letting them out, especially the Beast and the Phoenix. I understand why, after what Scarecrow has done. Do not argue, do not interrupt. I understand that you are in pain after what you have done to the Titans, and don’t go acting like you are so ‘misunderstood’ and ‘nobody understands me’ and all that”

“I’m not!” Garfield said, completely taken aback at Ravens lecture “When did I…”

“But I can hear it in your head Garfield. But let me get straight to the point. Some of them are ripping you apart and others are tying to help you even though you may not realise it. The Beast is taunting you, reminding you on what you have done, and even though you may not know it the Phoenix is trying to heal you. And if you still think that you feel so ‘misunderstood’, look at me, the daughter of Trigon, you know about the link between me and him and my internal battles within. Phoenix, our son has been though almost the same as I had, but all the friends that he had died fighting Trigon…So don’t kid yourself please. Don’t listen to the Beat. However, I say this. Sooner or later there will be a time when you will have to transform again. If it’s tomorrow, next week, a month or in a year, it will happen. And I promise you, even though times can get tough, things can get better.”  

Garfield felt the tears dissolve his face, as cold hard air began to crush his ribs as he and Raven embraced.

“Now, lets say you, me and Phoenix go to the library and talk about ‘old times’.” Raven said

‘Old times’ Garfield thought as he began to walk out of his room, ‘how would younger me look at me now? What would he think of me?’

A monster. A loser. That’s what he thought, or maybe, just plain, old, broken.

Chapter Text

The sun rose up half-heartedly in the hills of New Jersey as Nightwing dragged Garfield out of the House of Mystery, with Raven and Phoenix close behind watching on in something close to amusement. Snow was falling, not quite blizzard like, nor was it falling like a drizzle but somewhere in between. The cold stabbing the skin and it looked as if any moment it would turn into a blizzard judging by the large storm clouds gathering all over the sky like ink spilled on paper.

Garfield had a up and down sleep. True, he had got the forgiveness he needed, but that was replaced with the news of the state of his mind which didn’t bode well for him. Phoenix was embracing his mother as he stepped out of the house of mystery. “I will be fine mom; I love you and I hope that you will get better; I promise that everything will be alright” Phoenix said.

 Raven gave a weak smile as she patted Phoenix on the head “I know, I know” said as if trying to pull herself together “It’s just that…well…”

“Everything will be fine mom, I promise.” Phoenix said smiling up at her “I love you Mom.”

“I love you too Phoenix.” Raven said giving one final cold embrace as Phoenix stepped out of the House of Mystery. Raven looked up at Garfield “I hope your family in Oregon will take care of him.” Raven said “I think I would see you there in a couple of weeks…I…well…” Raven seemed to be struggling to find the right words for some reason, and at a look at Nightwing, she hastily said “Phoenix will explain everything when you get back”

Garfield nodded unsure on how to react as he walked up to her as if the door of the House of Mystery was the furthest she could go at the present moment “I love you Rae, and…it’s just that…with so many things happening…you alive…Phoenix…Linda…I just…don’t know what to do…and”

“Well now that you know that Phoenix and I are alive” Raven said looking up at Garfield with an unreadable expression “you have enough time on your way to and from Metropolis to think of something to do with him and me when all of Nightwing’s business is settled. As for what happens to us…”

“What do you mean?” Garfield asked, already knowing the answer

“I mean what happens to us now that you have Linda.” Raven said, now looking as if she regretted brining the topic up “I understand the circumstances and all that but there are still some issues. The A answer is ‘I love you Raven and there is nothing that will separate us’ the B answer is ‘We will cross that bridge when we get there’ and the C answer of a threesome isn’t going to happen. I prefer answer B.”

Garfield nodded slowly “Goodbye Rae” he said sadly as the door of the house of mystery closed and vanished. He turned to see Phoenix already flying away into the sunrise, fighting the snow on his way west.

“Look, I know that you are not happy that I kind of dragged you out of there” Nightwing said as if realising that he had done something extremely offensive “I know you want to spend some time with Raven and Phoenix and all that jazz, but we really need to rush. Anyway, Phoenix is going to your little farm, and Raven said that she will be better in a few days or weeks so there.”

Garfield can only grunt in response, unable to think. Nightwing seemed to take this as an almost acceptable answer, he sighed heavily. “Look. The sooner we get this package delivered. The better. I…I just…” He paused trying to gather his thoughts.

They were driving on a large empty road. The blizzard seemed to be getting worse the further east they went. The snow seemed determined to start another ice age. But had it not been for the Bat – Jeep’s roof and well-designed heating system they would have died of frostbite. 

“Just what?” Garfield said his tone just as if not colder than the hostile environment outside. “Are you creeped out by ghost Raven or my son or…”

Nightwing held up a hand for silence. Garfield immediately complied at the look, or rather the energy coming from Nightwing’s face. “Silence. I want to be as far away from them so that I can tell you this.”

He floored the accelerator as if the more distance he can get from three magic users the safer he would be. Garfield watched the field of white around him get more wilder and wilder and the environment got madder and madder as the Bat – Jeep increased it’s speed.

“Remember that time we went into the multi – verse?” Nightwing said suddenly.

Garfield blinked rapidly, how could he not? He had been in so many adventures in the multi verse that he was already losing track.

“Yeah.” Garfield said “How could I not? There were the annoying bobble head versions of us, the horrifying ‘murderous’ versions of us, which in present standards is almost normal…”

“Not to mention those nutters in Earth – 3” Nightwing said as if addressing something disgusting, he found in a rubbish bin. “But what I am referring to is that ‘Evil – Superman’ universe. You know, the one when he became a tyrant?”

Garfield sighed as if remembering something that he wanted to forget “How could I not?” He said “That place makes this place look like paradise. Vic a servant to the tyrannical Superman (we should have been warned about that), Dark Raven as a ‘disciple’ to Trigon, Starfire driven to insanity, Damian ‘killing’ you, becoming a ruthless follower of the Tyrannical Superman and then pulling a Zuko and getting himself killed, you and Batman leading the resistance and me leading a broken Titans. We all remember that. Yes Nightwing, we all know that adventure, but what has this got to do with the delivery we are making.”  Garfield looked at Nightwing as if expecting him to answer, but he seemed to regret bringing the subject matter up.

That was when Garfield saw the statue. To say that it was giant would be an understatement. It was so big that no words would be good enough to describe it. It was so big so immense that it seemed to cast an invincible shield against the stormy sky as if the clouds were intimidated by its size. The statue was of a man, wearing a simple suit and had a giant bald face and a cunning smile. Even though he had never seen him for over 40 years, the face of Lex Luthor hadn’t changed one bit. That was when he saw that there was something in his hands. At first, he thought that they were large dolls or small figurines. Then he saw that they were other statues, the statues of members of the Justice League. Even from a distance and in heavy snow, their distorted faces can be seen as if they were right in front of their face. He saw Superman looking as if he is getting ripped in half, he saw Batman looking utterly horrified, he saw Wonder Woman looking as if she had accepted death to name a few.

“If you can see a giant statue of Luthor that means that we are almost here.” Nightwing said increasing his speed, as the skyline of Metropolis became visible in the dark stormy sky.

Metropolis had changed dramatically the last time Garfield had been there. True, there still looked like it had over 40 years ago, but with several differences. For one thing all of them had a giant screen with the letter ‘L’ displayed along with other slogans such as ‘Love with Force’ and ‘Power, Work, Money, Family’ and a photo of a bald old man with a blood shot eye with the words ‘always watching you’ and there seemed to be a suspiciously high amount of security cameras in every street as if Metropolis had decided to become Fort Knox. Then there were the cars. There was an armada of old wreaked cars driving idly as if it had nothing better to do, Garfield saw what looked to be a fusion between a steam train and a second hand car driving down the street as if it was reacting a car chase scene in a movie.

Then there were the people. Several people were dressed as if they were in the middle ages wearing large ragged hoods carrying backpacks that seemed to have everything in the world in them, he saw people who seemed wearing outfits from a 1950’s cowboy movie to people wearing giant gas masks and hazmat suits. All of them were acting as if they had a gun on their backs.

The giant statue seemed to be placed right in the middle of Metropolis, and Nightwing seemed to be determined to avoid it at all costs.

“You might have known this already Garfield,” Nightwing said sounding like a wise old mentor “but this trip we made, it wasn’t what you think dude. The whole drug running thing was just a cover story.”

“What a surprise.” Garfield said sarcastically, his face giving nothing away “You better not be ripping me off here bro. I go back home without that cash, or else the Cyborg gang’s eating me kids and Phoenix for breakfast.”

Nightwing had stopped at what appeared to be the very edge of a boarder of a slum area. The whole area stank of every foul smell imaginable from raw sewage to rotten flesh all of it contained into one condensed area. There were only three types of buildings here. Brothels with blinding lights and giant life-sized posters that each aim different target audiences, destroyed bars that almost always has some sort of argument going on both physically and verbally, and slums that were held together by sheer willpower.

“Relax short – stuff. I’m an ex – superhero now. Anyway, you will get your money. These guys that we’re meeting had cash to burn. I just wanted to give you a heads up before we made contact. Plus, I thought that you would be glad that I wasn’t running drugs this time”

Nightwing gestured at an alleyway, as he withdrew a large silver briefcase out of thin air. The ally was between a tall thin glass bar that Lobo would consider to be ‘too extreme’ to even enter and a small wide brothel where people of all ages stood outside almost naked like some crude door – man.

The ally way was practically empty save for a giant of a woman that seemed to be wanting to shatter a young boy’s pelvis with her own pelvis, two drunk men shouting random gibberish and a small group of young girl seemed to be doing synchronised swimming in a giant dumpster.

Nightwing pointed at a small wooden door that was graffitied with the anarchy symbol, and he pushed open the door.

The room looked like the 2^nd room in a small café. With concrete walls, a few LED lights and a small collection of wooden tables and chairs.  There were around a dozen people in the room, all of them looking like they had just been to a punk rock festival with hairs dyed in so many colours, to oversized accessories such as sunglasses that could have blocked out a lighthouse to earrings the size of a cruise anchor chain. But one man stood out from this group. He was wearing a well-tailored white suit with a red tie. He had black hair that was perfectly combed and a handlebar moustache that looked as if it was trimmed with a slide rule.

“Nightwing!” The man cried jumping to his feet and giving off a giant warm laugh. He sounded like anyone’s favourite uncle that preforms magic tricks in birthday parties and gives out giant candies for Halloween. He ran to Nightwing and held him in a tight embrace a giant warm smile on his face “I am so pleased to see you my dear old ally! How are you? Are you in good shape? We thought that you got killed in Utah, but I knew you would survive! I always knew!”

“Ah it was nothing that we couldn’t handle Tobias.” Nightwing said joyfully “We got blown off course for a couple of days. But the merchandise is as safe as houses”

“You mind if we take a look?” Tobias said gesturing at a small table. “The table is on your left”

“Be my guest.” Nightwing said placing the brief case on the table and opening it up.

Garfield had to look over the large man’s shoulder to see something he had never seen in a long time. When the Teen Titans and a Justice League from another universe got into a universe where Superman was a dictator, Batman and a not – evil Lex Luthor had developed pills that gave people powers almost like Superman. Even though he had never taken them himself he saw Nightwing take a small sample when facing against an evil Wonder Woman who was like a ‘Lady Macbeth’ to quote Raven. Even though the pills look like any normal pills, there was some kind of aura that it gives out that makes it almost special and recognisable. This is what he saw inside the case, a delicate row of bottles each filled with goodness knows how many of these pills.

“100 bottles of the Superman pills from the ‘Dictator Superman’ universe. Each one containing enough pills to last the user for over a year. 100 members of your rebel alliance. And unlike their predecessor these pills have no drawbacks whatsoever.”

“What?” Garfield cried out in disbelief, unable to comprehend what Nightwing was doing.

“Tobias is the front man for a super – team being put together and my contacts around the world were willing to lend a hand.”

Tobias was examining each and every bottle as if he was an art collector and was examining for forgeries. A small smile on his face to rival that of Lex Luthor. Then he closed the case and looked at Nightwing as if he had given him the winning lottery ticket. “This is beautiful, Nightwing! This is all we need! The villains are either dead or divided or old or fat. This is all we need to start the next Justice League team”

Nightwing sighed as he took a seat sitting in front of Tobias. “Well, I’m afraid that there still some tiny small print you and I haven’t really talked about Tobias” Nightwing said weakly

“Not a problem!” Tobias said enthusiastically “How mu…”

But Nightwing held up a hand “no. it’s not money. Not for me anyways” Nightwing said gesturing at Garfield. Tobias looked up at Garfield like how a grandfather greets their favourite child “All I’m after is a cast iron assurance.” Nightwing said

“Which is?” Tobias said with peak curiosity

“A place on this super – team, and a bottle of these pills” Nightwing said as if he had been wanting to say this for his entire life.

“Is this a joke?” a large thin woman said smacking on chewing gum loudly, but Tobias raised a hand. “Once a Titan, always a Titan huh?” Tobias said gleefully.

“Luthor and Scarecrow killed my friends and family dude.” Nightwing said “Cyborg betrayed us. Do I need to continue? When they’re going down I want a piece of them. You understand me? Now either count me in, or the deals off.”

Tobias gave another giant warm laugh “It’s a deal old man! And anyway, I was planning on putting you on the team anyway!”

Nightwing gave a giant smile “Awesome! You have no idea how much this means to me!” He said his voice cracking up as if he was about to cry “I feel like then I became Nightwing and made the leader of the Teen Titans. Just have someone believe in me like this…”

Nobody noticed the large men standing at the doors. They were dressed in combat gear with camouflage trousers and vests, giant helmets and oversized boots. They had brand new black machine guns slung on their backs, but now they slowly raised them up, pointing them at Nightwing. But, Garfield’s animal like senses picked it up, he slowly turned his head in shock as he saw them aiming straight at him. “Nightwing?” Garfield said weakly, but that was the only word he got out before he felt a rapid sense of pain as the men opened fire on him, blood flying everywhere as bullets were bombarded onto his body.

Nightwing whipped his head around, his face in utter alarm, unable to process what has just happened “What the hell!?” Nightwing cried. But that was the only thing that left his mouth when Tobias stood up and fired a pistol that appeared out of thin air, hitting Nightwing straight in the solar plexus. “Down boy.” Tobias said grimly as Nightwing screamed in pain.

“We work for the president.” Tobias said sounding like a priest giving the last words before a coffin is lowered to its grave.  “And you just walked into a sting Nightwing.”

“There is no super – team.” A gruff tattooed man in a leather coat said looking down at the two bodies as if it was something disgusting in a rubbish bin. “No rebel alliance.”

“You really think that the president wouldn’t know every conversation that goes down in this town” Tobias said looking down at Nightwing who was clutching the bullet would in pure agony as he looked up at Tobias with pure rage.

“What do you want me to do? Beg?” Nightwing said, as if every syllable was pure torture for him “You think because I’m old and blind that I am going to give you that satisfaction? Is this the part where you tell me your whole plan, and you come up with some convoluted way to kill me, and I find an equally convoluted way to escape? If so…” he said still groaning in pain, “DO. YOUR. WORST.” He said, adding too much emphasis on each letter.

Tobias looked down at Nightwing with a bored face as if he was a fly flying around him. He stood utterly still, as if his legs had turned into stone. Then he nodded. “Okay.” He said in the most casual tone as if he was announcing the next weeks weather, and fired a single shot into Nightwing’s head.

Chapter Text

Metropolis, 40 years ago.

The entire world was on fire. There was no other way to describe it. The loud crackling that sounded like gunfire, the strong choking smoke destroyed the lungs and the overwhelming smell murdered the nose. Rubble that was once an apartment complex laid down on the street as if it was scattered randomly by the wind. Lying on top of a large concrete slab was Superman, and he knew that he was going to die. A giant bloody rip on his chest as if it was made by an axe threatened to disembowel him, his left eye was ripped out, wounds that resembled giant holes were scattered all over his body with blood pouring out like a hole in a giant barrel and he was clutching a shield that belonged to Wonder Woman who mere minutes ago was killed by Ares and Darkseid. The shield was the only thing that was left of her that wasn't broken in anyway. Mere hours ago, he was in the Watchtower with the rest of the JLA, but that felt like a lifetime ago. Superman was mumbling under his breath; however nobody would be able to understand him due to him gargling on his own blood.

Lex Luthor, in his warsuit was looking down at Superman with keen interest, a sly smile on his face as if the dying Superman was a comedy movie. "What are you whispering Superman?" Lex said manuvering his warsuit towards the dying Superman "Is that a prayer?" Lex laughed softly under his breath at his own sick joke "Well. There is no god here today. Just me." Lex said looking down at Superman's bloody face as if it was a priceless piece of art. He turned his head around him, observing the inferno that surround him as if it was a sunset. "Why didn't we think of this years ago, eh?" Lex said as if he had finally solved a problem that had been bothering him for years. "I knew you couldn't beat us if I ever got them organized. True there is the Injustice League, Suicide Squad, HIVE, The League of Shadows and all that, but nobody has managed to organize all these groups together."

Superman mumbled something inaudible under his breath as if trying to object to Lex's statement. Lex turned to face Superman as if he had forgotten if he was there "Do you know what's coming next?" He said with a sly smile on his face that even a fox wouldn't have the nerve to pull "We are going to divide this country and the world among all our chief lieutenants." He walked towards Superman until he was mere centimetres from him "Cheetah wants California, Black Adam wants the Bible – Belt, Reverse Flash wants Vegas for some godforsaken reason, Ares will have Southern Europe, Ra's will be getting a third of Asia, Gotham will be divided into goodness knows how many people and so on." He looked at Superman who looked as if each sentence that he said inflicted some kind of torture to him. Lex smiled at his as he said the sentence he wanted to say most of all "Guess who gets the White House? Permanently?"

Superman said nothing, his face giving nothing away as he struggled to lift Wonder Woman's shield as if it can provide some sort of protection against whatever Lex was about to do to him. He looked as if he was about to throw it at Lex's head like a frisbee, but Lex merely laughed as he picked up the shield from Superman's grip like a child removing the wings from a fly. "Thanks for the Shield." He said as if Superman had given him a late birthday present "I am putting this in my trophy room, next to your corpse." He knelled down in front of Superman, a kryptonite dagger appearing in the warsuits hand as if withdrawn from thin air "Shh don't get upset." Lex said lowing the dagger to Superman's face as if he was a mother singing a laudably to her baby child "It'll be all be over soon."

5 seconds later, Superman was dead at the hands of Lex Luthor.

Now…

The White House looked like how it always had been as if nothing has ever happed in the last 40 years. The large green lawn, the large white building with too many windows, and so on. However, there was only one small difference. A giant statue of Luthor was placed right in the middle of the lawn as if anyone needed reminding on who occupied the building. The inside of the White House hasn't changed much, however Lex had added several new rooms to the White House.

The Trophy Room was one of the strangest. It looked to be a one of the small rooms inside a large art or history museum, with large glass display cabinets, dim lighting, even a couple of leather sofas, random assortment of pot plants and a water cooler. The only difference was that instead of priceless paintings or rare artefacts being displayed, it displayed belongings that used to belong to superheroes. Batman's costume was hung up still with the Armor piercing bullets that was fired by the Joker, a large box showing the rings that used to belong to the green, blue, indigo, white and even a few yellow lantern corps, half of Zatanna's hat, Wonder Woman's snapped lasso of truth, the Flash's shoes, the bow that used to belong to Oliver Queen, and so on were displayed, even the warsuit that was used to kill Superman was shown as a casual reminder on what had happened that fateful day. But there was another display case, it was placed in the end of the room, placed deliberately on top of the main display case so that it would be one of the first things that people see upon entering the room. Wonder Woman's Shield, the last thing that Superman tried to use before his demise.

A man was sitting on the end of the black leather bench, observing his trophies as if each one was priceless to him. Time hasn't been good to Lex Luthor, his face resembled nothing more than an oversized wrinkled peach, his bones looking as if they were made of glass, his limbs shaking as if it was made of jelly and not flesh and blood. Lex was wearing his usual oversized green trench coat and as if to add insult to injury he was wearing Superman's costume, still stained with blood, as if he wanted to hurt his nemesis even in death. Luthor wished that he had still kept the corpse, however 30 years ago the body had finally decayed and he was forced to throw it away. He looked at his trophies as if he can talk to the dead, a sly smile on his face "Even now I'd beat you." He said, his voice still as smooth and calculating as ever "Even as an old man, I'm still strong! My wife thinks that I'm morbid. But I consider your uniform to be the most glorious of all my prizes!" He sighed as if recalling the happiest memory of his life "The ancients wore the skins of their fallen foes." He said sounding like an over enthusiastic history teacher "So, why shouldn't I be allowed my eccentricities?"

A soft buzz came from a hidden intercom and a robotic voice spoke "Mr President." The voice said, it's voice having no emotion in it whatsoever "Tobias have those corpses that you have requested along with their package. Do you wish to see them later or…" Luthor raised up a hand "Just send them in" He said looking up at the shield, as if it was the Mona Lisa herself.

Behind him a soft hissing sound was heard as four men came in. One was Tobias who was holding the briefcase as if it contained all the treasure in the world. Behind him was a large and muscular man, and he was carrying two large body bag as if contained all the money in the world, with what looked to be a general from the 18th century walking behind him, his face giving nothing away, he too was carrying another briefcase, but this one was thicker and looked more cheaper.

"So, this is the 'Superman pills' that had everyone so excited?" Luthor said looking at Tobias as if he was delivering good news "All that trouble over one little box."

Tobias laughed "You understand sir. Superman rising from the dead is a very potent myth around the world"

Luthor smiled as if Tobias had told him a very funny joke "Well." he sneered "He's not coming back this time Tobias"

The man carrying the body bags was looking around him in awe. The man wasn't pretty, he looked as if he was a product of mass inbreeding (which he was), he had very little hair with a nose that was too small for a baby, eyes that looked as if it had never slept, a mouth that was swelling up like a balloon, an oversized tongue, ears that would make Dumbo jealous, hands that looked as if it can crush a car, and feet so big that he preferred to go bare foot than go into the trouble of finding a shoe maker. "Vre vall zese dings core veal?" He said curiously

Luthor smiled at the man as if he was a child who asked a cute question "Oh yes." Luthor said "This is my trophy room. This is where I come when I need to make decisions on my own. What a better place for inspiration than here among the corpses of my enemies?"

The man lowered the body bags onto the floor and Luthor approached one of them. He looked down at the body of Nightwing as if it was a mildly interesting television programme. "I still can't believe that you have got Nightwing in here" Tobias said in a bored voice.

"I know." Luthor said "I never really rated him either, but credit where it's due. It would seem churlish now not to stack him with the Kents and the Batsons." He turned to Tobias and looked at him like how a General would look at a Private "How many more are out there Tobias? How many other would be heroes holding meetings in their basements?"

Tobias gave a small smile "Nothing that we can't handle Mr President" he said

Luthor smile as he gave a loud clap, as the general passed him the silver briefcase "You have done well my friend!" He said "This money you were using to flush them out…" he opened the case to reveal that it was overflowing with banknotes "…I want you to keep it and have some fun."

Tobias looked as if Christmas had come early, a giant gleam in his eye. He looked as if he wanted to say something back, when one of the men shouted out in horror "Sir!" he yelled his voice ringing out like a whip crack "There is something wrong with the accomplice!"

The General walked up to the man in keen interest, Luthor only looked at this scene in puzzlement "Of course there is. You have riddled him with bullets."

"No!" The man said "His wounds are disappearing he's…" But the man never had a chance to finish his sentence when the corpses foot launched out it's foot to kick the man right between the legs. The man cried out in pain as he staggered down to his knees as the leg launched out another lick at his neck, breaking it. The General and Tobias ran towards the body, and what can only be describes as a flurry of punches and kicks and screams and bone snaps, both the General and Tobias laid dead on the floor.

Garfield Logan stood above them, blood no longer coming out of the bullet wounds, but the scar still remained. Garfield wasn't happy. Not happy at all. He looked up at Luthor and growled a beast like growl "You're goin' down Luthor."

"Well, well, well." Luthor said in fake shock "This is an unexpected surprise. The Beast Boy. I thought that you had walked the path of the righteous man these days Beast Boy. Is it because we killed your little friend?"

Garfield let out another animal roar as he charged at Luthor, but Luthor dodged his charge as if he was made of air. Garfield turned to make another attack, but Luthor had already made his move hitting Garfield straight in the face. Garfield's face turned numb as he felt his nose break and bleed. Luthor took advantage of Garfield's stunned condition as he punched him again under the chin, sending Garfield staggering back, blood sent flying from his nose and mouth. Luthor struck again, this time hitting Garfield straight in the solar plexus, hitting him so hard that Garfield was sent flying back as if fired from a cannon. Garfield's entire body came into contact with the glass display cabinet, glass stabbing Garfield's back, Aquaman's trident struck him in the head and Supergirl's cape got tangled around his arm. "Look at you." Luthor said looking down at Garfield, his voice rich in euphoria as if he missed fighting superheroes "you're just out of shape. You won't even shapeshift anymore" he said in false sympathy in a sing song voice "Oh, what have we done to you Beast Boy? Had my modified fear toxin really shaken you up this badly?"

Garfield growled and charged at Luthor screaming bloody murder, only for Luthor to withdraw Harley Quinn's mallet out of thin air and struck him on his side so forcefully that Garfield was sent flying again into another display case. "Your pathetic" he cried out, taking out a tiny remote, and pressing a button. For a moment, Garfield thought that the entire room was about to blow up, but then he saw the large bank vault like doors were closing "Automatic locks" he said through gritted teeth, as he picked up a sword that seemed to have belonged to a member of the Suicide Squad. Luthor raised up the sword to deliver his final blow "You should have stayed in whatever hole who crawled into you little, what the Germans would call, Arschkriecher! At least that way you could have died in your bed!" He cried.

Garfield was looking around him, still dazed and confused, his hands were groping around him, frantically looking for something, anything that he can use. His hands kept of touching broken glass that stabbed his hands but he didn't care, he needed something, anything to use. He touched cold metal. He didn't care if it was a sword or a metal rod, whatever it was he wasn't going down like this! He just had time to grip the metal thing and lifted it up to stop Luthor's sword.

CLANG!

Garfield looked up to see himself holding Wonder Woman's shield, and it had completely blocked Luthor's blow.

"No!" Luthor cried out in horror, he raised the sword again to make another attack but Garfield didn't give him the chance, he hit Luthor right in the throat with the shield. Blood came flooding out of Luthors face and to Garfield it looked like a work of art. Still screaming bloody murder, he struck Luthor, again and again with the shield until, he hit right in the chest where he was sent flying to another display case, glass erupting around Luthor, stabbing him all over his backside. "STAY DOWN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Garfield hollered as he watched Luthor fall down onto the ground, blood oozing from his back.

Luthor looked up at Garfield as he watched him pounce like a cat onto him, the shield still raised up high, aimed directly at his throat. Luthor made another sly smile "Don't make me laugh" He sneered "You don't have the GUTS!" He said laughing in a way that would terrify the Joker.

Garfield let out a loud roar and he thrusted the shield down, blood was sent flying everywhere, and Luthor's head was sent flying through the air like a champagne cork, his face still frozen in his smug, sneering smile.

Garfield looked down at the headless body that was now squirting blood like some foul fountain. He didn't know how to react, or what he was about to do next. However, before he can even comprehend what he had done, he heard it, strange sounds outside, then a loud voice "Everybody back! We need to blow the doors!"

Garfield cursed under his breath, in a few seconds Luthor's men would in here, and goodness know what would happen then, and even if he did make it out, he can't make it back empty handed. "Can't let the kids down. Can't let the kids down." He mumbled under his breath. "Gotta find something to fight them with…"

Then his eyes rested on Luthor's warsuit and he made a small smile. Surely Luthor won't mind if he borrowed it for a while.

The explosion came, as Garfield had expected it, mere seconds later. A giant ball of flame sent the giant metal door ripping up into smithereens. A large ploom of smoke made up the air inside the trophy room. A large crowd of men came storming in, looking like Strom troopers in Star Wars. "Mr President!" A man cried "What's going on? Are you okay sir?"

The smoke made it impossible to see what was going on, they had entered what looked to be a war zone, and they saw what looked to be a large figure standing in the middle of the room. What was it? A robot? By the time they realised what it was it was already too late.

"Fall back!" One of the men cried, but he had hardly made it two feet before a tank missile hit him in the chest. The entire room blew up in a deafening explosion, a giant fireball ripped through the east wing of the White House destroying it completely.

Garfield looked at his creation sitting in the controls of Lex's warsuit. It was all too easy, it was like a video game. He made a small smile as he looked around the trophy room one last time. He spotted the briefcase filled with money and he immediately snatched it up, giving a small smile at the corpse of Tobias "Reckon I need this more than you do Tobias"

Percy hated working for the President, but he had no choice to. Percy was a small thin boy, almost 18 years old with messy blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a stiff dark blue uniform that belong to someone who worked in a fancy hotel in the 1920's and it was seemed determined to squeeze him to death. Percy never wanted to set foot inside the White House. But when he was only 13, he was, after a series of events, practically dragged into the White House for several reasons.

For one, the President always needed more staff and he found younger people to be more reliable as they tend not to have a weaker 'hero factor' than their parents. Another reason was more complicated. Whenever the villains catch people who go against them, they either ended up in one of three ways. Either a) they ended up dead; b) they were forced to work for the villains; or c) they were kept as 'entertainment' for the villains if they were seen as 'a mere pawn' this ranged from Atlanteans as 'water dancers' to metahuman 'talent shows'. However, this was seldomly done as it also required someone that they cared about also being captured to be used to prevent them having any 'funny ideas'.

Percy had definitely not joined any resistance groups however, one of his friends had. Percy was born on what used to be Rhode Island, who's waters had lately become populated with several 'not – quite undesirables' from all the ocean kingdoms. Percy's father died before he was born, and his mother died in mysterious circumstances when he was only 5. Percy was then brought up by his mother's friend, Edna, who was a banished Atlantean. The President was indifferent to such a thing, as they didn't cause much trouble nor did Ocean Master who didn't see them as important enough to go after.

However, some Humans and Atlanteans attempted a resistance group against the villains and five years ago, as their first act they attempted to blow up the President's yacht, which didn't end well. Percy wasn't involved in the assassination attempt, however his best, and only friend Zachary. Zachary, like Percy was an orphan and he looked like if he can pass off as his twin brother but instead of legs he had magnificent blue scale. Zachary was personally captured by the President and that would have been the end of him had he not decided to keep him as some kind of foul entertainer, as he was impressed by his swimming skills. Which is why Percy was dragged in the moment the President found out of his existence, as he was the only person that Zachary cared about.

Zachary was made to do ridiculous feats whenever the President had grand conferences, such as leaping from a tank, doing some trapeze stunts in the air and having to dive back down into another tank. This was pure torture for him. However, he knew that if he got so much as get a drop of water on the President's spoon, Percy would be executed on the spot. So, he did as he was told and tried not to do anything stupid. Occasionally, the President would make Zach and Percy do tricks too cruel for circuses together for his own sick amusement, which always ended with Percy having to hug a crying Zach afterwards to sleep.

Percy in turn tried not to do anything stupid. Percy had personally witnessed a woman get gunned down simply for being two minutes late with the President's tea, and he had seen a man get cut in half when he didn't call the President 'the President'.

Zachary's new home was in one of the back, neglected gardens. It resembled nothing more than a small swimming pool with a small hut placed in the deepest part of the pool. Percy looked down at Zachary like how one would look at a lover, Zachary returned the favour.

"How was your day today?" Zachary asked casually, looking at Percy with an unreadable expression on his face. They knew that their interactions were being recorded and watched and they already came to a silent agreement that escape was futile.

"Just more cleaning today." Percy said "The Pres thinks that he would be getting Nightwing's corpse tonight. He anyone that gets in the way about this. Mind if I join you?"

Zachary nodded, and Percy began to hastily get out of his uniform as if all the clothes he was wearing was causing pure torture, and moments later Percy now wearing a small swim suit got into the ice cold water slowly as if creating a ripple that was too strong would cause his execution

Zach gave a sad sigh as if he couldn't handle anymore defeats "and I bet that he would hold another gala and he would make me reenact a mission impossible or die hard stunt where I have to crawl through the air vents, do Tarzan swings and rescue you from drowning chained up in a 100 digit lock in a piranha tank." Zach said, holding Percy at a small embrace.

Percy sighed as he looked at the White House. "At least that would have been better than the time he killed the Question last year." He said, as if talking about an unspoken incident.

There was a long pause as they looked up at the night sky, trying not to think of their bad situation "I wonder what stunt he is going to make us do next?" Percy said looking at the White House as if it had mortally offended him. "Independence Day where the White House blew…"

But no sooner as the words gotten out of his mouth when the explosions were heard. To them it looked as if the sun was about to appear from the White House, so bright and flashy and loud, so loud that it rang out at the ears of the two boys. The boys screamed out if fright as the explosion died down, not realizing that they had suddenly grabbed each other in a hug so tight that it threatened to crack their ribs.

"We're going to die!" Zachary screamed out in pure horror as they heard another deafening explosion, this one a lot closer to them, they heard screams, shouts and yells, as giant dust cloud enveloped the air.

"I love you Zachary" Percy hollered, tears falling from his face as he hugged Zachary as if it was the last thing he was about to do in his life. There was a long awkward silence as the explosion died down. The two boys unable to react on what has just happened.

Then they saw the warsuit standing near the pool. At first, they thought the President was in it, but before Percy can think of something to say they saw that it wasn't, but a old wan with green skin. "The President is dead." Garfield said gruffly looking at the two "and if I were you, I think that you should get out of here."

And with that, he pressed at some buttons, and the warsuit blasted up into the sky. There was another long pause, broken only by loud sirens that rang out everywhere, with people shouting inaudible yells and shouts. Then Zachary spoke "You know that giant fish tank with wheels? Can you get it for me please?"

Percy nodded frantically, as he got out of the water and ran to a shed, not bothering to put his clothes back on.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"I'm still ticked off Pappy Stone wouldn't let us eat all the kids. They looked delicious Woody!"

Two figures were standing in what used to be one of several pools in a large water park. 40 years ago this water park used to draw in thousands of people every day especially during the summer months, filled with excited children, teens looking forward to having a good time with friends and adults who want a break from their miserable work life. However, the park has changed ever since Cyborg took over. The large building that used to contain the changing rooms looked as if a bomb went off inside, leaving it a soldering wreak; the waterslides were falling apart due to the Cyborg gangs consistent use making it look like broken bridges, each broken in a unique way from it falling over to having a giant hole on the side; the pools that used to contain crystal clear water has now turned black as ink; and the dark night sky seemed to smother the entire water park in it's darkness, the cold night air howled a mournful song as if morning the death of a loved one

In one of the pools were two cyborgs, one of them was a large bald man with a mouth so big he looked as if he can swallow an entire horse and his cyborg arms made him look as if he can rip the horse in half. The other man looked almost similar to the other man in terms of cyborg parts, but he was thinner and taller which was enhanced by cyborg legs. Both of the men were wearing old clothes that were stained with blood and they were using the dirty pool water to wash it off.

It was the fat cyborg that spoke, looking at the faded blood stains on his hand as if it was his favourite food. The thin cyborg, who was called 'Woody' turned onto him in restrained anger "Rufus!" Woody said sternly sounding like an older sibling telling off their younger sibling, which is unusual as the thin cyborg is 5 years younger than Rufus "It wasn't snack time! Anyway, Pappy took us there to send that old fool Garfield Logan a message! Plus, we now have a bonus of that Meta kid that took us an hour to take down, Gordan is lucky to be alive"

Rufus spat onto the water as if thinking about an enemy that he hated "Ah, but his wife's dead body would have been enough." He said licking his lips "I find redheads to taste like turkey, and I just found out that redeyes to taste like bacon! The least he can do is let me eat he entire head…" but Woody interrupted him "Would you shut up and clean yer god damn blood stains!?" Woody yelled hitting himself with a tsunami of water. "Beau and Like got the video workin an Billy – Bob found several movies. Tonight were seeing this Jim Belushi movie where hes a cop and his partner is a dog." Woddy said with a smile to rival that of the Joker. "It looks pretty damn hilarious!"

There was a soft PLOP sound like something heavily falling gently into water. Woody turned around to see that Rufus had vanished as if into thin air. "Rufus?" Woody said in a confused voice "Aw, Hell. You don't need to sulk just because I was yelling at ya!" he said .

He looked down at the water as if expecting too see Rufus come up from the bottom of the pool. Then something came up from the surface of the water. It was Rufus's head. Ripped off with his face frozen in that of pure fear. His cybotic libs looked as if they had been through a car crusher and his chest was ripped apart as if it had been through a shredder.

"Rufus?" Woody said staring at the remains of his brother in pure shock and horror.

The last thing that Woody Stone saw in his life was a giant green shark leaping up into the air, it's mouth open wide as if it was going to rip him apart. Woody opened his mouth to scream, but the scream died before it had the time to reach his lips as the shark ripped his head off.

Moments later Beast Boy emerged from the pool soaking wet and spitting out wires and blood. His face still frozen n that of pure red rage as he shifted into a cheetah and began to run to his next destination. He didn't even turn back to look at the corpses.

Sonny Jordan's Bar was a favourite destination for some of the members of the Cyborg gang. It was a simple bar with a handful of tables, a medium sized counter and a small row of outhouses. Sonny was a thin old man with very little hair. He looked up weakly at the three cyborgs sitting at the counter. Edward, Eddie and Eduardo are triplets and they made sure that they looked exactly alike, right down to how much hair they have on their head. They all look as if they had been in a rock concert with a mohawk with hair that was oozing with hair gel, half of their face was robotic as well as all their muscular looking robotic limbs which clashes with their plumpness. One of the cyborgs let out a laugh that sounded like a cross between a seal laugh and a machine gun fire "Oh Edward!" Eddie said through his hysterical laughs as he took a swig from his can of beer "Sometimes I don't know what retards we are! I mean stealing all their gadgets and stuff I can understand, the wheelchair of that weak girl yea I can see that. But what the hell kinda pleasure does a grown man get from a baby boy's stuffed fox toy?"

The cyborg called Edward was looking at the stuffed animal that used to belong to Jason Logan as if it contained all the money in the world. He sniffed at it greedily as if he was a blood hound and said "I like raggedy Sly. He's got a cute face. Have a sniff at his face Eduardo. You can still smell the baby milk." He said pratically shoving it at Eduardo's face, who shoved his arm away "Oh, man. This is too messed up even for me!" Eduardo said

Eddie turned to look at Sonny with a large smile on his face "Grimmie five more beers old man!" He hollered at Sonny's face "My boys and I are out celebrating a job well done! And maybe if we're in a good mood, you can have a rent free month!"

"Wh…whatever you say Master Eddie. Just, don't cause any trouble." Sonny said, trembling like jelly. Eddie slammed his arms onto the table and lowered his body so that his face is directly in front of him. He made a Joker like smile as he stared Sonny down, examining every wrinkle on his face, every hair on his face as if it had mortally offended him in some way. He laughed a sly laugh.

"Aw C'mon dude." He said sounding more like the Joker than ever "Is this a face that's goanna start trouble?"

Sonny began to sweat nervously as his lips began to tremble in fright. Eddie made another wide smile as he examined the terror on his face. Eddie was about to fire another retort when suddenly, all the lights went out, leaving them in complete darkness.

There was a soft tinkle sound like cheap glass getting broken, as the cold nights air flooded into Sonny's bar. Edward swore loudly, Edwardo almost fell from his bar stool with a loud crash. "What's going on?" Edward cried, as he heard sounds of what seemed to be a fight.

"Get outta my way you little" Eddie cried out to some invincible force.

"Somebody find the flashlight!" Edwardo said who was punching his arm like crazy. A light got emitted from Edwardo's hand as he shone it down onto the spot where he heard Eddie speaking to something. "Eddie? Is something…" Edwardo said, but he didn't have time to finish his sentence. The Beast was standing over the body of Eddie, who was now ripped to shreds, his chest disembowelling all of his guts, his cyborg arms were tossed to the ground as if they were useless twigs, and Eddie's face still frozen in his Joker like smile hung from the mouth of the Beast, it's hair stuck in it's teeth as if it was a vegetable. Blood and hydraulic fluids was stained all over the Beast's fur as it growled menacingly at Edwardo and Edward, both of them were frozen on the spot unable to comprehend what is going on. It's eyes were locked onto the stuffed fox as if it's mere presence had mortally offended the Beast. It let out a gigantic roar as it pounced straight at Edward and Eddie, with murder on it's eyes.

Madame Heff is the 2nd richest person in the area controlled by Cyborg. Madame Heff was an old woman, with silver hair, a face like a wrinkled purine, she had a sweet honey like smile and wore enough jewellery to sink the Bismarck. Her house looked like a giant horseshoe, with ornate brick walls and 19th century styled windows. It had over a 100 room, spread out like a maze with doors inside corridors that led to another corridor. Getting lost inside Madame Heff's mansion became so common, that her staff and Madame Heff herself needed to carry a map at all time . An armada of cars lined the outside lawn of Heff's mansion along with the flying car that used to belong to the Doom Patrol, that was now being used by the Cyborg gang.

Inside one of the master bedrooms of Madame Heff's mansion were three cyborgs. Two of them were large muscular men who all looked to be wrestlers, tall with well-built muscles which was augmented by their cyborg limbs. The other cyborg was an even larger woman who looked to be a supermodel who got in a large fist fight, which left her face extremely scarred and disfigured, which didn't really go well with her cyborg parts. All three of them looked as if they had been on fire both by the giant burns on their skin that looked as if it was about to fall off, and the cyborg parts that looked as if it was 50% to the point of blowing up. The room contained a large bed that even the most selfish, egotistical king would consider too be too big, which is why the entire bed was filled with unconscious young men and women. While it's true that the Cyborg gang had done inbreeding on multiple occasions, they still find it useful to expand the 'Stone' genes down to other generations, which incudes using prostitutes and all that stuff. Only a handful of the Cyborg gang can successfully breed with others, and they include Beau, Kirk and Jenny.

Jenny looked down at a young handsome blonde boy who looked as if he still clinged onto his young innocence. "Well Madame Heff" she said looking at Madame Heff as if she had just saved her life "What can I say? I thank you for your hospitality."

"My pleasure Jenny" Madame Heff said looking at Jenny as if she was her own granddaughter.

"Please be sure to thank the ladies and boys once they all regain consciousness" Beau said looking at the sleeping bodies of the women greedily.

Madame Heff smiled at Beau as if he was a child who had done something cute "Just be sure that you tell yea pappy what a good time you boys and girls had and maybe he'll knock a little off our rent this month." She said

Kirk nodded as if Madame Heff had just said something he was already planning to do "Of course we will be!" he said giving Madame Heff a hand and escorting her as if they were at a fancy ball. "We always do whenever we come to visit!" He said.

"So." Madame Heff said curiously as they stepped down the castle like spiral staircase that led to the entrance way "what was you out here celebrating here anyways?"

Kirk let out a small sigh as if thinking of something unpleasant "Trust me sweet cheeks." He said in a small voice "You don't want to know." Madame Heff nodded as she gestured at the door. "I have some business to attend to. You boys and girls can show yourself out." She said bowing at them and vanishing through a door under the staircase.

Jenny opened the cathedral like doors to and stared in horror into the bowels of hell. There was a giant semi-circle of fire that completely surrounded the house. The fire wasn't huge that it can reach the stars, nor was it too small like a weak campfire but something in between. Then the Cyborgs realised that the fire was green, a brilliant emerald green that burned rapidly as if setting fire to the very air around them. A large ploom of smoke seemed to smother the entire front porch, but a soft gentle wind began to fight the smoke away. That was when they saw the figure. The figure was quite short, wearing a large jacket that was made of nothing but pockets, pockets that were so large that it can hold the entire planet in, to pockets so small that it can only hold a single penny, the figure wore large green trousers that which a cowboy uses, and a green t – shirt that was stained heavily in fresh blood; It wore large boots the size of a small dolphin that looked as if it had been dipped in red paint or was it…blood. Finally, the figure wore a large hat that looked as if it belonged in a cowboy movie. Very little of the man's face can be seen under the hat, but it's mouth looked up at the cyborgs in raw anger, a greenish tinge to the skin made it look even furiouser.

"May I help you?" Beau said in confusion.

The figure didn't say anything it still remained where it stood observing the three cyborgs as if he was insulted on what he saw. "Try me..." The figure said. Before any of the cyborgs had time to react, the figure was immediately replaced with a giant dragon, it's entire face on fire as he smiled at their faces of pure horror on them as he screamed "…YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Titan's tower hadn't changed much in the last 40 years. True it still looked as it did in it's prime, however there was one major difference. The island was considerably larger than before, and the dessert plain land was a large row of delipidated white caravans, all of them inhabited by members of the Cyborg gang. All of them busy with whatever task they had to do. Looking up from one of the rooms, a short cyborg woman called Fiona looked around the views as if expecting to see something appear any minute and the more time passed the more frantic and afraid, she looked.

The room she was in resembled nothing more than a short corridor with nothing but a small couch and a crib where a small undersized baby was sleeping. The end of the corridor was cast in shadow as if the light was too afraid to go further. She turned to face the shadows as if she can see what was hidden in it, and she looked as if she didn't know which one she had enough nerve to stare at.

"You think that he's gonna come here pappy?" Fiona said, now deciding to stare at the baby as if it both awed and disgusted her at the same time.

"We killed his wife and children and captured another of his kids" the shadow said softly. At this Fiona looked up as if she had been given permission to. Up where a chandelier should have been was a giant birds cage, and inside of it, looking extremely murderous was Phoenix, tied up in way that made it impossible for him to move, with a giant red X taped onto his mouth, a giant blindfold covered his eyes, giant earplugs that can block a hole in a sinking ship were placed in his ears and what looked to be a giant metal dog's collar chained to his neck. Fiona looked at this then turned back to the shadow looking as if this sight was a mildly funny joke. "Even though there's so many of us?" The Fiona said "You think he's gonna come here looking for revenge?"

The shadow let of a loud laugh that sounded like a seal laugh and a machine gun firing. "Oh…you bet your ass that he's commin here." He said

BANG!

Fiona whipped round to see a giant plume of smoke emerging from the very last caravan that was the furthest from the tower. At first she thought that it was a gas leak and looking by the commotion many of the tiny speaks that were several members of the Cyborg gang were running to it as if desperate to find out what was going on. "God I missed these fights" the shadow laughed as he looked on from his shadowy corner watching the scene play before him as if he was watching a movie he loved.

Fiona whipped out a pair of binoculars out of thin air as she looked down to see what was going on. She saw nothing but a giant cloud of smoke and…was that the doom patrol's ship? She looked harder and her eyes widened. Beau was sitting in the captain cockpit. But there was something wrong. He was wrapped around in giant chain, making him unable to move. There was something else too, what looked to be giant piles of candy bars that filled all of the seats up to the point of overflowing, and what was that on his mouth? Fiona increased the zoom on her binoculars, to see that it was some kind of digital clock that was taped and gagged onto Beau's mouth, the numbers reading 00:02. Beau looked scared, afraid, his eyes wide, sweat flooding from his face as Fiona finally understood what was going on. She only had enough time to scream a single curse word when the bomb went off.

The explosion ripped through the fleet of caravans like a giant fireball ball destroying everything in it's path. The entire sky and ground was on fire, some of the cyborgs that weren't in the bombs range froze, rooted to the ground unable to understand what was going on. Then a voice. A loud angry beast like voice whipped through the air as if God himself had delivered judgement upon the cyborg gang. "No more games! No more talking!" A figure in the mist roared. A shrimpy looking cyborg looked up in horror at the source of the voice as he saw the giant green Beast come stampeding towards him, with pure red anger in his eyes "I'm just here to kill you people!" as he leapt in mid – air decapitating the shrimpy cyborg in the process.

A small crowd of cyborgs began to run at speeds towards the Beast, all of them firing their weapons, but the Beast dodged them as easily as if their blasts was moving in slow motion. He let out a murderous roar as he leapt up and grabbed a monolithic looking cyborg and ripped him in two as if he was made of paper. Blood, wires, and broken circuit boards came flying everywhere, as the Beast charged again, punching cyborgs straight through the chest left and right and centre, blood, wires and broken circuit boards flooded the floor as all the cyborgs tried to take this juggernaut of a beast down, only to get ripped apart in the process. The Beast let out an animal-like cry at each blow that he made, heads came flying up into the air like champagne corks, limbs got ripped apart as if they were cheap toys to a child having a temper tantrum, and the ground was flooded with their remains.

"STONE!" The Beast cried looking up at Titan's tower as if challenging his new opponent. "STONE! GET OUT HERE AND FACE ME YOU COWARD!"

There was a long silence, as if the Titans tower had just been roused from a deep sleep. Then there was a soft tinkle, as a window broke, showering the Beast in glass that stabbed his face, but the Beast didn't care, he can now see his opponent, the man who had ordered the death of his family leap from the window and land in front of him looking ridiculously calm.

Time had been cruel to Victor Stone. His cyborg parts looked as if they had augmented greatly making his weapons look like a tank, the cyborg part of his head were at least twice the size of his normal head, his legs looked as if they contained nuclear missiles and his chest looked as if they were made of all the metal and computer parts in the world. But his normal flesh and blood parts looked horrific. Wrinkled up like a rotten prune it looked more like rotten flesh that had aged than anything else, which was made worse by giant boils and blisters that plagued the skin. His face was the worst part. The cyborg part looked more or less the same, but the flesh and blood part looked rotten, some of the skin was peeling off exposing muscles that looked as if it was undergoing pure torture when exposed to the air. His eye was constantly twitching as if it was sending a message in Morse code.

"Would you be quiet" Victor said sounding like an overworked librarian "You're going to wake the baby"

Suddenly he launched up a fist striking the Beast straight in the chest. The Beast cried out as he was flung into the air as if fired from a cannon. He landed hard onto the remains of a caravan, the Beast cried out as it tried to pull itself up, but Cyborg was on it's tail "Just like old time huh Beast Boy?" Cyborg yelled as he leapt into the air and kamikazed himself straight towards the Beast. The Beast managed to get out of the way in time as Cyborg crashed down onto the ground so hard that the Beast was surprised that the Earth hadn't been pushed out of orbit. "It's been years sine I had something good to fight! Boo Yah!" Cyborg sneered as if relishing every moment.

The Beast threw his fist at Cyborg, but Cyborg dodged his blow easily "A lot of folks say that I went mad. That the radiation from the mother box and all that stuff did something to my brain!" He said laugthing maniacally, as he delivered a large kick to the Beast's chest whinding it. "The only person who was like me was Bumble Bee!" He said dodging another of the Beast's punches as he struck the Beast straight in the face.

The Beast stumbled down onto the ground to look up in horror to see Cyborg lift an old car car up like if the Beast was a fly, and the car was a fly swatter. "I told my boys and girls that we had to make an example of you!" He roared as he threw the car at the Beast, who dodged the metal shell just in the nick of time "But the honest truth was that I wanted my old Beast Boy back!" Cyborg roared as he threw a giant bolder at the Beast as if it was a cannonball "I got bored being a landlord! Bored of being a super – villain! I needed someone cool to kill to make me feel alive again!" Cyborg continued as he threw the corpse of a particularly large and obese cyborg.

"SHUT UP!" The beast roared, ripping the obese cyborg in two, showering himself in greasy blood and gucky oil. The Beast charged at Cyborg striking it in the chest. It smiled as it heard a loud smashing sound of glass breaking. "THIS ISN'T A JOKE!" He roared as he threw another blow at Cyborg "This isn't another one of these stupid fights!" He continued, grabbing Cyborg by the shoulders and kicking him in the chest so hard that he was certain that he broke something. "this is where it ends you redneck son of a bitch!" He screamed as he punched Cyborg right between the legs so hard that it went straight through. Blood began to pour rapidly and to the Beast it smelled delicious "That's for my wife and kids!" He roared at Cyborgs face.

"Right! That's it!" Cyborg yelled furiously swatting the Beast away like a fly, and hitting a button on his arm "I have managed to reverse engineer Bumble bee's powers!" He said through gritted teeth "This is how I defeated Cheetah! You shouldn't have made me angry Beast Boy!" He said as the Beast looked up in horror as Cyborg began to grow, and grow, and grow until he was the size of Trigon at the time that he took over Jump City all those years ago. "PEOPLE PISS THEMSELVES WHEN I GET ANGRY!" He roared as he snatched the Beast from the ground so fast that the Beast didn't have the time to react. Cyborg stared at his fist that contained the Beast as if unsure on what to do, then making up his mind he shoved the Beast into his mouth. Blood came oozing down from Cyborgs mouth as he bit down, crushing the Beast dead as if it was a juicy berry.

Chapter Text

Pure darkness. That was what surrounded Beast Boy. He can see nothing, feel nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing. He felt totally blank. Is this what death felt like? Slowly he tried to move his limbs. They rose normally. He felt exhausted both physically and mentally. The beast like rage that was burning inside of him was dying down now as he slowly began to recollect everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. Nightwing was dead. Linda. His kids. He felt the tears dissolve his face as thought about them. All of them murdered.

He had already, to a certain extent already avenged the death of Nightwing by killing Luthor, but his family was another matter. He had come so close to avenging them, so close to doing something he should have done a long time ago, and yet he failed. All the Cyborg gang may be dead, but Victor Stone still remained. He looked back at the fight they had and felt like slamming his head upon a wall. Why hadn't he just shifted into several animals when fighting him? He could have shifted into an elephant or a dragon or even a demon and it would have done the job. Hell, he could have turned himself into a fly, fly into Cyborg and made himself into a whale! But no, in his blind, impatient rage he stuck to the Beast and it got him killed. But is he dead though? He closed his eyes to try to clear his thought, but it made no difference whatsoever.

That was when he heard another voice, at first Beast Boy thought it was going to be the Beast, but instead of the beast like, cruel, angry voice that the Beast typically spoke in, it was a soft, gentle, almost motherly voice that spoke.

'Beast Boy' the voice said in a soothing cool voice, it's very sound soothed his nerves.

'Who are you?' Beast Boy thought

'I am the Phoenix' the Phoenix said soothingly and for a moment Beast Boy saw a tiny flash of green flame.

'What do you want from me?' Beast Boy thought confused to the fact on why the Phoenix had chosen this time to speak to him now

'I thought the answer would have been obvious' the phoenix said 'Your in pain, and I want to help you.'

'How can you help?' Beast Boy thought 'There is nothing to fight for except revenge! Cyborg took everything away from me! He killed Linda! He murdered the kids! How can you possibly help me!? And even if I can get out of this situation, I don't know what to do with my life anymore! This world is already broken!'

'There is nothing that can be fixed. Look at you. I can heal you'

'Thank you, but what can you do for everyone else? We can't fix an entire world that has decended into chaos and anarchy!'

'There is one thing that I can do. Protect our family!' the voice said as Beast Boy saw a giant green fireball explode from his chest.

Billy – Bob is the runt of the runts in the Cyborg gang. His father, Wilfred, was Victor Stone's youngest child, his mother was also his aunt. He was extremely short, less than 6 feet tall which Billy – Bob hated as almost all his family were over 6 feet tall by the time they reached 18, and he was already in his mid 20's. Runts in the cyborg gang had cyborg parts that were more 'defensive' than 'offensive', meaning he is equipped with nothing but shields, which is useful very seldomly. Billy – Bob's right arm was cybotic as well as his left leg and a part of his left head and nothing else. Billy – Bob walked through the blood bath that was the fight between Beast Boy and his entire family, he looked down at each corpse that he passed without a word as he looked up at the colloso figure that was Victor Stone who was looking around him with a bored look. He had assumed his giant form and is leaning on Titan's Tower as if it was a rest post.

"Pappy Stone?" Billy – Bob yelled softly when he arrived at the giant foot of his grandfather, who looked down upon him as if he was a god, and his grandson was an ant "It's your Grandson. Billy – Bob. I went to my friends to get some DVD's, but when I got back the whole crew is dead."

Cyborg let out an annoyed grunt. Billy – Bob looked around him as if unsure if he had permission to speak or not "Did Beast Boy really do this? Did one man really kill our entire family?"

Cyborg sighed mournfully "That he did Billy – Bob. But I fought him and beat him and made him my supper. He isn't going to be hurting us anymore."

Billy – Bob looked around him stuttering like crazy "B…but he…he had wiped out….he has….he has whipped us all out…Far as I can see…the…the Cyborg gang is just you and me now…."

"Plus little baby Vic the 4th." Cyborg said pointing at a crib near his right foot where a tiny baby Cyborg was dozing peacefully. "Don't forget my little favourite now Billy – Bob. But you and me are all we need to keep this thing going on son. Once we grab ourselves some women from Heff we can start this whole thing over. That's what Cyborgs do. Adapt to survive. Booh Yah" Cyborg said now looking extremely queezy as if he had stomach-ache.

He turned back to look inside the tower to see the blue boy still struggling in his cage furiously. He gave a small smile. The boy had obviously known that his father is gone even with all his senses blocked and the collar that blocks powers attached to his neck. He had been going crazy for the last few hours. It was fun to watch people who are extremely powerful squirm in anger at him, he even removed his blindfold just to see how he looks at him. If looks can kill, Cyborg would have be killed 500 times over. But now he couldn't enjoy watching this scene go on as he felt an immense, internal stabbing, burning pain in his chest.

"You okay Pappy?" Billy – Bob asked ow highly concerned "You don't look so good."

"I'm…fine…" Cyborg said gripping his chest in immense pain, his head now sweating gallons of sweat "Just…had this weird cramp for almost an hour…and…" Cyborg let out an enormous scream of pain as he fell down onto the floor riving with pain, his limbs flying all over the place, miraculously not hitting the tower, Billy – Bob and the baby. "Jeezus My guts!"

Billy – Bob ran towards Cyborgs head who looked as if he was beaing tortured, now realising what was going on "Wait a minute!" Billy – Bob panted looking at his Grandfather in horror "Did…did you say that you ATE Beast Boy!?"

"Y….yeah!" Cyborg bellowed sounding like a machine gun fog horn "No big deal! We…we have been snacking on our own foes and…and uncooperative metas for years…Billy – Bob!"

"But none of them had shapeshifting or healing factors!" Billy – Bob scremed

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Cyborg bellowed in pain. Then there was a blinding light as a giant ball of green burning hot fire exploded straight from Cyborgs chest, as if it was a Xenomorph from Aliens. Billy – Bob lifted a had to block his eyes from the blinding light as he heard what sounded to be a beast roar combined with a loud angry bird cry as he looked up to see a magnificent green phoenix, it's wings spread out as far as the eye can see, erupted from Cyborg's chest as if fired from a cannon, it's wings were covered in blood, but it was quickly turned into vapour by the heat.

"Fuck you Beast Boy" Cyborg gargled looking up at the green phoenix, then his head fell back, and his body remained still, never to move again. The green phoenix landed on top of the Cyborg and shifted into a boy. "What's the matter Stone?" Beast Boy said savagely "Something you ate?" Beast Boy looked down at Billy – Bob. He looked as if he had been deaged down to his prime from his body structure and size, however there was something on his face and his eyes that showed that he had seen to much.

"Don't kill me!" Billy – Bob cried looking at Beast Boy as he went on his knees begging for mercy. "Don't kill baby Vic!"

Beast Boy examined Billy – Bob as if he was disappointed at what he saw, then turned to look at the small crib, then looked up at Titan's tower to see Phoenix looking at him as if he was God himself. He looked at the crib where the Cyborg baby was still fast asleep. "Cyborg robbed me of my family." Beast Boy said gruffly "…Only fair I should take his away."

2 days later…

The funeral wasn't large, but to Beast Boy it was enough. Only a handful of people attended the small funeral. 5 small wooden crosses were placed on a small dried up field, each one written with the names of the dead. Linda. Rachel. James. Stella. Jason. A small flower was placed in front of each cross, a small belonging was placed in front of each cross. Linda's flute. Rachel's pen. James' wrench. Stella's dumbbell. Jason's favourite pillow. Beast Boy kneeled in front of the crosses with tears in his eyes as he looked at each cross mumbling a quiet prayer under his breath.

Donovan was dressed in a well-tailored blue suit looking at Beast Boy with pure sympathy in his eyes. "Everybody loved Linda and those kids." Donovan said sounding like an old vicar "They were beautiful Mr. Logan"

Beast Boy took a long time to answer, choosing only to stare at the crosses and the rising sun that illuminated the sky in all sorts of blues, pinks, greens and yellows. "The best." He said in a measured voice, trying not to cry.

"It's good that you got something to honour them with though." Donovan said looking at the ground as if expecting to see an ant agree with him.

"It's something" Beast Boy said staring straight at the sun as if expecting it to give him an answer.

"You sure that you're ready to walk away and leave all this behind?" Donovan said to Beast Boy sadly.

Beast Boy sighed heavily "All I got here are memories Donovan." He said looking at him as if he would never see him again "And I can take those wherever I go."

He looked down at the graves one last time as he put his hat on his head, he looked up at the sky and spoke as if talking to some invisible friend "My wife and babies don't live here anymore. My new ones though…" he said as if unsure on the right words.

"Do you really think that you can go out and take them down Mr. Logan?" A short man with heavily tanned skin said looking at Beast Boy as if he was about to do something stupid. "You really gonna bring the law back to this country?"

Beast Boy turned to look at Phoenix who was standing a few feet away from him standing awkwardly in front of the graves as if unsure to find the right words to say to the dead. "Why not?" Beast Boy said looking at Phoenix "We got nothing better to do."

"You do realize that it's impossible right?" A short cowboy said sternly.

Beast Boy made a small laugth "A friend of mine told me that there was no such word."

"And who might that be?" The cowboy pressed on looking at him interrogatively.

"The same man who taught me to forgive myself." He said, then he pointed at Phoenix then at his rucksack, which now contained the baby Victor Stone the 4th. "Besides. I have my other son, my other wife, and a little partner to help me out." He said with a grim smile "And there is a nice poetic justice to Victor Stone's kid to be one of the first in my team." He turned to look at the cyborg that was looking around the views in awe and amazement "You comfy there little bud?" He said like a mother to a child.

"Things have changed, you silly old fool!" An old blond woman said eyeing Beast Boy in anger. "This ain't a world for superheroes and super – teams and big, grand plans! All you gonna do is get yourself killed!"

"Oh yeah?" Beast Boy said looking at Phoenix who then shifted into a blue horse. Beast Boy leapt onto it's back and Phoenix let out a short cry, then steadied himself "I'm alright dad!" He said with an odd tone in his voice.

Beast Boy nodded as if that was a satisfactory answer and then he turned back to the blond woman "Well, they killed me 40 years ago bub." He said as the blue horse began to move "…and I got better. I figured that I have kept my head down long enough"

And without another word, he rode off into the sunrise.

Chapter Text

He should have blown up Titans Tower. He should have destroyed everything inside. He should have done more than just release Phoenix and go. He should have known that Cyborg was prepared for things like this, Beast Boy should have known.

However, Beast Boy hadn't, and Cyborg was taking this into his advantage. For over 10 years, Victor Stone had known that this body would no longer last, and he had been determined to find a way to do something that he should have been doing a long time ago. Make himself immortal. His body he couldn't save without damaging some critical functions, and he wasn't willing to take any risks in that. But his mind. His mind is something that he could save.

The moment Beast Boy had renacted a grotesque Alien scene, a computer monitor in one of the many computer rooms flickered to life, a large scroll of text began to rapidly scroll down as it began to begin phases of the protocol that was hardwired into it's systems. The line of code began to scroll down faster and faster until it became nothing more than a blur, and then. It stopped. A small light came on automatically illuminating an large corridor near the large computer moniter. Inside this large coridoor was endless row of glass cylindrical pods. All of them containing a large blurry figure. All of them filled with what looked to be dark smoke.

Then a robotic voice spoke from a speaker "Well played Beast Boy. Well played" The voice of Cyborg spoke with a harsh laugh. "You might have destroyed my body. But I have been waiting for an excuse to use this for a very long time. You can run. You can hide. You can fight, but sooner or later, I will kill you dead! And I will make sure that it would be the greatest fight in the history of the universe! Boo Yah! And that's not even accounting for operation Macedonia!" As he let off another maniacal laugh as one of the pods hissed open.

Many miles away…

The desert of California was empty. Nothing can be seen for hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The sun shone down onto the dessert like as if determined to vaporise every living thing that inhabited it, turning everything, even the very air itself into dust and sand. A single green lizard laid on a tiny cactus as if waiting for death to come and collect him, it's eyes rotating wildly looking for anything more interesting to look at other than sand and dust and it's tail moving rapidly, whipping the air around him.

WUFFF!

The loud noise came so suddenly and so unexpectedly that the lizard practically lept out of it's skeleton to see a giant mushroom cloud of sand develop right in front of him. The giant cloud of sand stampeded towards him. The lizard closed it's eyes as the very air itself began to both stab and incinerate him, it closed its eyes waiting for all of this to be over.

Moments later the stabbing sensation stopped, and the lizard looked up to see what caused such a thing. It was some kind of flying machine, and a very odd one too, looking like a giant strange looking 'T', with at least 5 curved windows on the top and two giant jet engines that looked as if it had exploded on the two sides of the horizontal line that made up the 'T'. The lizard cocked it's head curiously as it watched 5 small figures, two boys, two girls and a cyborg get out of the vehicle slowly, dazed and confused, looking around them in utter confusion.

"Where are we?" Robin said, as he stared at the desert, unaware of the horrific dangers that laid ahead.

To be continued…