Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sometimes, a small problem that you don’t see coming can cause much more trouble than a large problem you were expecting. The Titans had learned that lesson several times over in their personal and professional lives, and were about to learn it again, and this particular problem came to them courtesy of one of the few entirely positive aspects of their superhero work; if you don’t count the moral satisfaction, the pride of a job well done, and various other rewards Robin constantly cited that did nothing to pay their bills.

Fan mail.

It understandably hadn’t been one of their priorities when setting up a base of operations, but roughly two months after they had established themselves as the de facto crime-fighting superhero team of Jump City, Robin had received a curious call from the Postal Service asking if they could possibly be provided with a forwarding address, due to the several hundred letters they had received addressed simply to ‘Teen Titans’, ‘Teen Titans Tower’, ‘Teen Titans HQ’, ‘Tower on Titan Island’, ‘The Big T-Shaped Building Where The Superheroes Live’, and many more variations thereof. And so, Robin made an arrangement for the post to be delivered to Titans Tower once a week, giving them a chance to see what Jump City’s citizens had to say to them.

That had been his first mistake.

While almost all of the post was positive, they received such a huge quantity of letters that if even five percent of them were negative, that still amounted to hundreds of hurtful and frequently hateful remarks. Starfire and Raven, not being residents of Earth, were hit with most of the xenophobic abuse, although being bright green, Beast Boy received more than his fair share as well, often being labelled a freak or mutant. Even as a half-robot who protected the city on a daily basis, there were still certain residents who couldn’t see past the colour of Cyborg’s skin. Robin was absolutely horrified to realise that he, by far, was receiving the least vitriolic abuse, although that wasn’t to say that he didn’t get a few irate fraudsters claiming that the Titans were financially responsible the damage caused by every supervillain in town, on the grounds that they weren’t stopped quickly enough.

But amazingly, worse than the negative remarks were the overly positive ones. Starfire definitely had the most inappropriate admirers, making lewd remarks that she would have to ask Robin to explain, only for his face to turn red and for him to snatch the letter out of her hands, claiming that they were being disrespectful but unwilling to explain exactly how. Raven had honestly found this amusing, right up until a fan with an apparent death wish had sent her a personalized set of lingerie with the message ‘thought you might look good in this xXxXx’. It took a great deal of persuasion from Robin for her to decide not to pursue the matter legally, or illegally for that matter. The boys were also not immune from this, and while Beast Boy was happy to joke that the ladies loved his pointy ears, the first time he received a love letter from a particularly dedicated female fan, outlining exactly what she would do to him if they ever met, his face turned beet red, he fled to his room in fear and horror, and refused to come out for the next three days, even when the alarm went off.

If left unchecked, this simple menial task could have completely destroyed their mental wellbeing, as well as their desire to actively continue their superhero activities. And so, Robin made the wise choice to employ a screening service that would filter through the hateful, the inappropriate, and the downright creepy, and only forward the sincere and suitable post onto the team. While they didn’t have a defined schedule due to the unpredictability in their line of work, this was why on the third Saturday of every month, more often than not, the Titans could be found in the Common Room, reading through stacks of twenty to thirty letters each, writing quick but appreciative replies and sharing any especially touching messages they had received.

It wasn’t a perfect system – they still received some truly bizarre sponsorship deals, and Starfire still had to deal with the more cunning of Jump City’s perverts, who would pretend that they needed help shopping for their definitely very real girlfriends, and conveniently enough, Starfire was seemingly always the same proportion that they were, so if she could just try on this top and send a picture back so that they could see how it fit, then it would be most appreciated – but despite these setbacks, Robin proudly asserted that this was an important exercise that kept the team grounded, and connected with the people they were protecting, while reminding them that every crime they prevented had a significant positive impact on the lives of others. And while his overly saccharine sentiments were often met with an eye-roll from Raven, or Beast Boy miming throwing up, none of them could deny that he had a valid point, and several of the messages of support and gratitude that they received genuinely raised their spirits.

It was for this reason that on this particular Saturday afternoon, the Titans once again found themselves gathered in the Common Room, working through the post. As time went on, and the establishment of the team as Jump City’s defenders and protectors became less of a novelty, the volume of letters had gradually slowed, but it was still enough to keep them occupied for an hour or two. And so, other than the rustling of paper and the scratching of pens, the Common Room was silent.

Well, mostly silent.

Beast Boy groaned and scratched his head. “Guys? I think I’m repeating myself, could I get a different word for ‘happy’?”

“Gleeful!” volunteered Starfire without a second of hesitation.

“Overjoyed!” chimed in Cyborg, somewhat competitively.

“Delighted,” added Robin, curtly and professionally, as if he considered it the empirically correct answer.

“Ecstatic,” deadpanned Raven in an emotionless monotone that made her sound sarcastic.

Beast Boy mulled them over for a second before announcing “… Delighted. Thanks Rob!” and scribbling his choice down in the response he was writing. Robin gave him a thumbs up without ever looking away from his own post, and though Starfire and Cyborg playfully complained at having not been chosen, they quickly returned to their own. A few minutes later, Cyborg was the one asking a question, sounded strangely subdued and uncertain.

“… Hey, do you think I say ‘Boo-yah’? too much?”

That got everyone’s attention – except Beast Boy’s, for some reason – as it was strange for Cyborg to sound so unsure of himself.

“What? No, why?” Robin replied curiously.

Cyborg held up three letters. “Three sponsorship deals today, one for a garage, one for gym, one for an all-you-can-eat steakhouse, and in all three of them, my only line is “Boo-yah!” Like… I’m known for more than just that, right?”

“Of course!” Robin immediately reassured, sensing that his friend and second-in-command may actually be doubting himself.

“… You have been kind of saying it a lot,” Raven reluctantly added. “At least, lately.”

“I enjoy it!” Starfire rebutted. “It is like what you refer to as a ‘catched phrase’. Like when Robin says “Titans, go!” or when Raven says “I am going to my room!” or when Raven says “Beast Boy, leave me alone!” or when Raven says “Be quiet, Beast Boy!” or similar occurrences.”

Raven frowned, mainly because coming from Starfire, it was hard to tell if she was joking or being entirely sincere, with the latter being more likely. But at the mention of Beast Boy, she realised that it was unusual that he hadn’t spoken up yet. Arguments about the merits of tofu aside, he could always be counted on to stand up for his friends. Glancing in his direction, she noticed that he was strangely fascinated by the unopened letter that he was holding, staring at it in a mixture of bemusement and possibly fear.

“You’re oddly quiet. Anything to add?” Raven asked. It took a second for him to realise that he was being addressed.

“Oh, right… sorry,” he quietly acknowledged. “I just, um…” he held up the letter that had demanded his attention without even being opened yet.

“This letter… it’s addressed to me.” He explained with more than a little apprehension.

The other Titans weren’t sure what he meant by that, but Raven was the first to comment on it. “Yes, Beast Boy, that’s typically how letters work.”

Usually, he would accept her sarcasm in good humour, or maybe stick his tongue out at her if he was in a bad mood, but this time he just silently rotated the envelope in their favour so that they could see why he was so concerned.

Unlike every other letter in his pile, it wasn’t addressed to Beast Boy. The name on the envelope read ‘Garfield Logan’.

It had been years before he had revealed his real name to his teammates, so for an outsider to know it was unnerving to say the least. With all eyes now on him, Beast Boy hesitantly tore open the envelope and began to read out loud.

“For the attention of, blah blah blah, I represent the firm of – dude, it’s a legal thingy. What do they want with me?” He raised an eyebrow in confusion before realising that the rest of his team were still waiting for him to continue. “We are writing on the behalf of our client, Mr-“

Beast Boy’s eyes went wide. His knuckles turned white as he clutched the letter in horror, then suddenly released it as if it was boiling to the touch. A strangled whimper emerged from his throat as he began to hyperventilate. Remembering that he had an audience, he turned to his friends, but he could barely hear what they were saying. He was suddenly acutely aware of the sound of his own heartbeat. Cyborg and Robin were asking him something but their words were muffled. Had it always been so hot in here?

The next second, his teammates were no longer looking at Beast Boy, but at a forest green cheetah, for the split-second before it bolted from the Common Room at top speed, disrupting a few piles of remaining letters in a gust as he ran out, faster than their eyes could track.

No-one spoke, but they were all clearly wondering the same thing. ‘What the hell was that about?’ The letter that had caused Beast Boy’s panicked reaction remained on the floor, and Robin turned to his each of his teammates questioningly. They could read his expression; he was non-verbally checking with them if they should read the letter. None of them felt comfortable invading Beast Boy’s privacy, but if he was hurting – and he very clearly was – then they couldn’t help him without knowing what the issue was. None of his teammates had any objections, so Robin cautiously approached the letter, picked it off the floor and read it to himself.

Raven was a little frustrated that he was keeping the contents to himself, but he muttered the occasional phrase while reading. “Garfield Logan, we represent… on behalf of our client…” He frowned and looked closer at the letter, murmuring two more words. “… Custody hearing?” Then, before he could elaborate, and before Starfire could ask what this phrase meant, he looked back at his team and asked a question that none of them could answer.

“… Who the hell is Nicholas Galtry?”

In response to their blank expressions, Robin strode out of the Common Room towards Beast Boy’s room, gambling that this was where his troubled teammate had fled to. He didn’t say anything more, but as he passed Cyborg, he handed him the letter for his own viewing before departing. Before Raven could even ask him to share the contents with the rest of them, Cyborg had already finished scanning it, and muttered a confused “What the hell?” before following Robin, passing the letter to Starfire as he left. Starfire followed them both without reading, leaving a mildly annoyed Raven to trail behind, grumbling all the while.

Twenty seconds later, she caught up to the team at Beast Boy’s door. Robin was knocking on it, struggling to find the right tone between authority and concern. “Beast Boy? We know you’re upset, we just want to understand why so that you we can help you. Please, let us in.”

There was a shuffling sound from inside the room. Raven tapped Starfire on the shoulder and indicated towards the letter, and she made an apologetic squeak and handed it over. She had tried to read it twice while walking and found it too hard to keep track of. As Raven finally began to read it, Beast Boy’s door flew open, although the boy himself was nowhere in sight.

The team entered; fortunately, Beast Boy’s room wasn’t quite as messy as it used to be, but Raven would still rather have had this conversation elsewhere. Beast Boy himself was curled up on the bottom bunk of the bunkbed he had asked Robin if his room could have – no one really knew why, it wasn’t like they ever had guests over, but they had no reason to refuse – and if Raven hadn’t been focussed on reading the letter, she would have seen that he looked as if he was on the verge of tears.

Trying to catch up with the others, Raven tried to read the letter as quickly as possible. “For the attention of Garfield Logan. On behalf of the firm of Dustings & Bell, we are writing to inform you that a suit has been filed in relation to…” she skipped ahead, “-still legally underage, and therefore we are seeking to re-establish the legal custody and guardianship under the care of our client, Nicholas Galtry.”

The words slipped out of her mouth before she was able to confirm for herself how Beast Boy was currently handling the news. “Hold on… you’re telling me that someone out there wants custody of Beast Boy?”

Once again, on a normal day, Beast Boy would have reacted to this with a laugh at best, or a frown at worst. Instead, he immediately burst into loud, clearly distraught and uncontrollable sobbing.

Raven slapped a hand over her mouth in a mixture of shock and regret before lowering it to quickly apologize. “Sorry! I’m sorry, I… I didn’t…” she trailed off. Starfire abruptly strode past her, bumping into her shoulder with a little more force than she would have usually done, and Raven recoiled in shame as Starfire set about repairing the damage she’d done.

“Friend,” she began softly and sincerely, “You are clearly in distress. I do not know who this man is, but there is no obstacle that we cannot overcome together, as a team. But… we will not be able to help you if we do not understand. So please, if you can bring yourself to… let us know why this troubles you so.” She slowly approached him as she spoke, until she was close enough to lay a gentle hand on his tear-stained cheek. He didn’t react for a few seconds, then slowly reached up to grab onto her arm for dear life, as a drowning man would clutch a life-saver.

As he seemed to calm down, Starfire tenderly wiped the tears away from his cheeks, not that they had stopped falling. Beast Boy was still, and then took a deep breath, as if it would be enough to make himself talk. It wasn’t, and he took several additional deep breaths in and out before realising that he would never be ready, but he had to tell them anyway.

“Back when… after my parents, uh…” he squeezed Starfire’s hand tighter. He had never directly admitted it to any of them, but they had all pieced together by now that his parents were no longer with them.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell us everything,” cooed Starfire, returning his squeeze, albeit much softer. Beast Boy nodded in relieved understanding and continued.

“Well… after that, I was… basically a pet, for a couple of crooks who found me. They weren’t very nice people, and they made me do things that I didn’t want to, but… I haven’t thought about them in a while.”

“… And one of them was Galtry?” Robin tentatively guessed. Beast Boy quietly shook his head as tears continued to run down his cheeks, their pace slightly quickened at the mention of his name. If Starfire hadn’t been so preoccupied with holding Beast Boy’s hand and stroking his hair, she would have nudged her not-not-boyfriend in the ribs.

“No… after the crooks got caught, the state found me. They needed to appoint someone as my guardian, so they tracked down my last living relative.” Robin was silent, not wanting to make the same incorrect assumption again. “Galtry,” Beast Boy continued, sniffing. “My uncle. My mother’s brother, but I never heard her talk about him, and he never mentioned her either. They weren’t close.” His voice took on a brief boldness, as if protecting his mother’s legacy by denying any connection to this horrible man.

“He’s your uncle?” Cyborg asked in shock. He was another member of the team who would rather discuss the life of Cyborg than of Victor Stone, but from what the others had gleaned, he maintained a close relationship with his remaining family. It was clearly a surprise to him that Beast Boy’s last living relative was the one causing him such concern.

Beast Boy nodded. “At first, he… it wasn’t so bad. He was never nice, but I had my own room. He told the social care people that he would try to home-school me, but he gave up as soon as he found out I couldn’t read. But I had food… and shelter.” He took another deep breath and looked into Starfire’s eyes, finding the comfort and security he needed to continue. “Then the care people stopped visiting.”

He began to shake softly, but couldn’t focus on staying still because all of his focus was on keeping his tears under control, now that they had slowed from his earlier desperate cries. “First, he stopped feeding me every day. He said that I was an animal, and animals didn’t need to eat as often as people did. Then he took my room away, he said I was taking up too much space. He bought a cage and made me stay in the basement. He only gave me canned dog food to eat. It was cold, and dark, and… he only came down to yell at me, or hit me. Whatever was going wrong in his life, it was always my fault.” Beast Boy had finally let go of Starfire’s arm, if only to wrap his own arms around themselves, trying to make himself a small as possible, as if he was trying to fit back into that cage.

“… That’s terrible, man. I never-“ Cyborg started, only for Beast Boy to cut him off.

“It got worse when he found out about my inheritance.”

“Inheritance?” Robin repeated. It had never occurred to any of them that Beast Boy’s parents had left him with anything but happy memories a profound sense of loss. Beast Boy nodded again and continued.

“My parents were biologists – great ones-“ Beast Boy began, and for the first time, through the tears, a small proud smile reappeared for just a moment. “And they left me with… well, I wouldn’t be set for life, but it was enough to take care of me. But they put it in a trust fund, where I couldn’t – can’t – access it until I’m eighteen. And if anything happened to me in the meantime…”

“… it would go to your legal guardian.” Robin finished with a dawning sense of unease. From the sounds of it, it was hard to imagine Galtry’s behaviour getting much worse, but it was clear that it was about to. Beast Boy nodded again, sniffed loudly, and curled even tighter into himself, ignoring Starfire’s attempt to hold his hand again.

“He was furious when he found out. He- he accused me of killing my parents for the money, he said I belonged in prison, and he…” Beast Boy buried his head in his arms, clearly not wanting to relive all of the details. “He hurt me… he hurt me a lot.” Every member of the team was silently furious, but also horrified, looking back at every memory they had ever had when they had laughed off an injury, when Cyborg had jostled him during an intense video game session, when Raven had smacked him on the head for telling one too many jokes. They had no idea that he was carrying around such a traumatic history.

Starfire finally succeeded in recapturing the terrified boy in a hug, and was trying her hardest to whisper soothing promises to him. Whether it was because he thought they knew enough, or he just didn’t want to hear any more, Robin attempted to speak up.

“You don’t have to tell us any more, Beast Boy. Really, you don’t.” His voice sounded hollow, as if he had been shaken to the core.

Beast Boy pulled away from the hug, shaking his head and aggressively wiping his eyes, as if he was embarrassed to be upset. “No, no… it’s… you should…” He clearly thought that the more they knew, the more they would be able to help. Trying – and failing – to hold back the tears, he continued.

“He stopped feeding me more than once a week. And the food was… it wasn’t nice before, but now it was worse; I think he was letting it go off. He couldn’t just kill me, but if I got real sick, I guess he thought that would be more believable. I was hungry all of the time, and when he came down, the food he kept giving me was worse and worse, but I had to eat it, I… I had to keep going, no matter how much…” he rubbed his throat. He could have feasibly been about to say ‘no matter how much he did to me’ or ‘no matter how much I wanted to die’, and none of them dared ask him to confirm.

As Beast Boy’s right arm began to shake, he instinctively rubbed his throat again and confessed the worst of it.

“One… one time. I hadn’t eaten in ten days. He brought down a can and just left, and I – I wolfed it down, and…” his hand paused, as if he was searching for scars that he still expected to find. “He put broken glass in the food.”

Everyone except for Beast Boy and Raven jumped as the lights in the hallway outside spontaneously exploded. It was easy to discern the cause; as soon as they turned away from Beast Boy, his teammates noticed that Raven’s four red eyes had reappeared, and she was seething silently in deadly, apoplectic rage. Gripping her fists so tightly that her arms started to shake, Raven closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, she had returned to normal.

“… Apologies,” she muttered, still too furious to be embarrassed. Her fury only mellowed when she realised that it wasn’t helping her friend, and she immediately tried to steer the conversation away from his trauma. “How did you get away from him?”

Beast Boy had finally run out of tears to cry, but he didn’t look any more relieved to discuss the next chapter of his life. “When I wouldn’t die… Galtry heard about a medical testing centre. He knew they tested things on animals, and since I was just an animal…” he shuddered. “He got a big payout from them. They tested things on me, and I… I…” Beast Boy could feel tears that he didn’t know he had left beginning to form in his eyes, so he swiftly moved to the end. “Sometime later, the Doom Patrol came to the facility and shut it down. They found me, and… that’s it.”

Everyone was surprised – in the worst way – to discover that the cheeriest, most happy-go-lucky member of the team had been through such a hellish upbringing. But there was one important element of the story that Starfire didn’t understand, and while she was reluctant to bring back any more bad memories, it was something she had to know.

“… I do not understand, then, why such an awful man would try to intrude again on your life,” she confessed quietly. Then, she suddenly grabbed Beast Boy’s arm again, and held his hand in a raised fist between them, not in comfort this time, but in vengeance, with eyes glowing a righteously furious emerald. “Especially when you are no longer the defenceless child he knew. Especially when you have friends who would happily…” For a second, her fury intensified, and Beast Boy winced under the pressure on his hand. Starfire immediately recognized this and released him with a hasty and shocked apology, but the message was clear. If Nicholas Galtry wished to return to Beast Boy’s life, he would have to go through her to do so.

“He probably just ran out of money,” Beast Boy offered as the boring but most plausible explanation. They were used to dealing with supervillains, tacticians, chessmasters who planned out every move ten steps ahead. Galtry was just an average man whose intelligence was as low as his tolerance for cruelty was high. “He was never the ‘thinking ahead’ kind of guy.”

“Well, whatever he is,” Cyborg said, not quite as openly angry as Starfire, but still relishing the thought of getting his hands on this man, “He’s gonna regret messing with you.”

“Right,” confirmed Robin staunchly. Glaring down at the letter as if it contained some kind of hateful, derogatory comment towards his friend, he immediately focused on the task at hand. “I’ll get in touch with these solicitors and make sure they know who they’re dealing with. Both us and their client.”

Beast Boy nodded mutely, relieved but not showing it. Before he knew what she was doing – not that she had much idea herself – Raven had stepped forwards and gently placed a hand against his forehead.

“W-what are you…” he could feel his anxiety spiking, and then dipping steadily, along with his energy in general. As his eyes finally dried, his limbs became heavier, and he felt himself sinking deeper into his bed.

“It’s been a rough morning,” Raven explained sympathetically. “Sleep.”

“No… no, I… I need to…” Beast Boy was fighting a losing battle, and just a few seconds later, the weight of his eyelids became too much, and his head fell back against his pillow. He would be out for a few hours; a restful, dreamless sleep. After what he had confessed, Raven didn’t want to run the risk of any nightmares.

Ordinarily she would have had to stave off a blush for such an act, but there were more pressing concerns. Raising her hood again – she had lowered it as she approached him – she briefly explained her actions. “I just cleared his head for a few hours. He’s asleep, but he won’t dream.” Turning to Robin, she stated calmly. “I think we all need to talk.”

They didn’t make it back to the Common Room; they had barely left Beast Boy’s room when Cyborg slumped against a wall and slowly collapsed to the floor. Starfire seemed to be holding onto Robin a little more tightly than normal, and was choosing to walk rather than fly; it seemed unlikely she could summon the happiness to do so. Only Raven seemed unaffected, not that anyone could see her expression under the hood. Cyborg held his head in his hands for a few seconds, groaning in disbelief, before looking to his friends, who seemed to have the same reaction.

“I just… wasn’t expecting that from him.” Cyborg explained bluntly, as if shell-shocked.

“None of us were,” Robin replied. “He’s always been very… secretive of his past.”

“Now we know why,” Raven finished. There was no wit or humour in her comment, just the uncomfortable truth.

Robin formed a fist with his right hand and buried it in the palm of his left. “I’m just… I’m remembering every time I said he needed to grow up, encouraged him to take things more seriously. If I had known, I would never…”

“How do you think I feel?” Raven interrupted, her voice more remorseful than annoyed. “Every time I’ve compared him to an animal, called him stupid… resorted to getting physical…” she glanced down at her hands as if she half-expected them to be covered in blood. She had never been outright abusive to the boy, but she certainly hadn’t shied away from the occasional slap when he had gotten on her nerves.

“It kind of makes sense though,” Cyborg announced as if talking to himself. “I mean, acting like a kid. Always wanting to be around people. Always trying to make them smile.” He couldn’t help but glance at Raven as he added that last one. “It’s like he’s trying to make up for lost time.”

“Or trying to make the most of what he has left,” Robin explained pessimistically. It made sense that he was trying to fit so much childhood into so little time, given what had been taken from him.

Raven had been leaning back against the wall, but slapped her hands against it impatiently and stood up straight. “Well, sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves isn’t going to help him. Robin, what’s the plan?” It wasn’t the most effective speech, but it reminded them all that they were hardly powerless in this situation, and there were plenty of things they could be doing other than moping.

“Right,” replied Robin, nodding a quick thanks to Raven. “I’ll focus on the legal side; like I said, I can get in touch with his solicitors, but… it’s possible but not likely that they’ll just drop this. But I can make sure he has the best defence. Batman knows a few people who handle superhero law, I’m sure this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

Robin turned to his second in command. “Cyborg, I want anything you can find out about Nicholas Galtry. Any criminal charges, any unsavoury connections; I don’t care if he forgot to pay a parking ticket twenty years ago, I want to know about it. The more we know, the more we can prepare for this. Leave no stone unturned.” Cyborg nodded affirmatively, already thinking of the best methods to gather information.

He always felt uncomfortable issuing what felt like orders to his girlfriend, but next he addressed Starfire. “Star, I want you as his emotional support. Don’t smother him, and give him space if he wants it – not that it seems likely – but always be aware of where he is and how he’s doing. Whether it’s as a friend to spend time with, or a shoulder to cry on, I don’t think it would be good for him to be alone right now.”

“I would be happy to,” Starfire replied quietly. Much like Beast Boy, she was always happy to spend time with her friends, even in less-than-ideal circumstances.

“Raven,” Robin began, and then paused awkwardly. It was clear to see why; unlike the others, there was no clear and immediate purpose for her to serve. Nonetheless, he was quick to recover. “You’ve always been a pillar for him in stressful situations. I think he might trust you more than any of us. You don’t have to stay close to him, but… make sure that he knows that you’re available, if he needs to talk. Hell, it might be a good time for him to learn how to meditate.”

If Raven was offended by the lack of responsibility assigned to her, she didn’t show it. She was only half-listening – although she absorbed the basics and understood them well enough – not out of apathy, but because from the moment she had discovered just who Nicholas Galtry was, every single one of her emotions was united behind a solitary goal.

And Robin wasn’t the only one who could make a plan.

Chapter Text

Just like any other mission, the Titans excelled at the roles they had been given.

Starfire rarely left Beast Boy’s side, not that she minded, as she had to explain to the poor boy constantly when he noticed how much attention he was getting from her. Whether it was taking care of Silkie, joining him on long, wordless flights that helped to clear his head, or just sitting nearby while he played video games, he was always near a friend, and after receiving that letter, he certainly appreciated it. He couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty, as if he was inconveniencing Starfire by requiring her self-appointed presence, but every time he voiced these feelings, she would reply “You never need to apologize for letting me spend time with one of my dear friends,” and his guilt was replaced by a pleasant, warm feeling of comfort and security.

Cyborg had been relieved to discover that the history of Nicholas Galtry was fraught with minor criminal charges and even the occasional conviction and fine, but Robin’s disappointed expression upon reading his findings had told him everything that he needed to know; that it may prove useful, but it certainly wasn’t sufficient to quash the lawsuit outright. Still, armed with the knowledge that Galtry had an aggravated assault charge and two fines for drunk and disorderly behaviour, it was certainly better than nothing. Once, Cyborg had risked asking Beast Boy himself if he could recall any of the potentially illegal actions that Galtry had forced him to take, but unfortunately Galtry’s total lack of ambition had saved him; there were no cold cases and no unsolved bank robberies, Galtry had just used his nephew to rob a few corner stores of probably less than ten thousand dollars in total.

Robin had been hard at work calling in every favour from Batman and ensuring that Beast Boy would receive the finest possible legal defence; which he quickly learned from Bruce did not automatically mean the most expensive, although that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have to ask his mentor for a little extra pocket money to cover it.

When Beast Boy was feeling better, he had tentatively asked Robin if any of his favourite lawyers could take the case, and it frustrated Robin that he couldn’t tell if Beast Boy was trying to joke, or if he had confused fiction and reality. As he had to explain to his disappointed teammate, the musclebound green lady was not available in their area, the spiky-haired man who shouted ‘Objection!’ was on a business trip to Khura’in, and the man from Albuquerque – with questionable morals – had left abruptly and was now running a Cinnabon in Omaha. Nonetheless, he had eventually found an excellent and dedicated lawyer who Batman had recommended personally, citing that this man had the sharpest legal mind that had ever worked with, although he refused to disclose whether this was in the capacity of Batman or Bruce Wayne. Regardless, after a brief exchange between Wayne Enterprises and the firm of Nelson & Murdock, Beast Boy’s defence was settled.

One of the first things that Robin had asked Beast Boy was how quickly he wanted this matter to be addressed. They couldn’t put it off forever, but if he wasn’t emotionally ready and needed more time to come to terms, there were certainly legal manoeuvres available to them that would push the date of any trial back. On the other hand, putting it off would just mean that it would linger over Beast Boy’s head for even longer, giving him more time to worry and grow more afraid. After thinking it over for an afternoon, Beast Boy had reluctantly chosen that he would like to get the entire affair over with as quickly as possible.

It had been possible to arrange much more quickly than the team had anticipated; due to the matter concerning one of the city’s active superheroes, Jump City wanted the issue to be resolved just as swiftly as Beast Boy did. As a silver lining, Robin had explained very carefully to the mayor’s office that as they all intended to be present to support their friend, getting word out to the media that all five of Jump City’s primary defenders would be indisposed on a certain day would be most unwise, and so the matter was being kept completely under wraps. Robin was pleased to hear from their legal team that apparently Galtry was extremely upset that he couldn’t use the trial as an opportunity to gain media attention.

The only one of Beast Boy’s friends not to step up to the plate was, oddly enough, Raven. She was never unkind or unconcerned towards him, but if there was any change in her behaviour, it wasn’t the kind that her teammates could perceive. She hadn’t taken Robin’s suggestion to teach Beast Boy how to meditate, and other than the occasional “How are you holding up?” when they happened to be sat on the Common Room sofa at the same time, she didn’t seem to be paying him any more attention at all. While Beast Boy was too preoccupied to notice, the rest of the team were all slightly displeased at her apparent apathy, although they kept their thoughts on the matter to themselves.

Just once, Starfire had suggested that Raven join her and Beast Boy for a day of activities to keep his mind off of the impending trial, and when Raven had succinctly refused, Starfire had asked, with not a hint of malice in her voice, whether she had any plans at all to interact with the boy before his appearance in court. Raven’s response had been curt; “Not really. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it and make him even more worried. Besides, it’s not like Galtry’s going to win.” While Starfire accepted her rationale, even the most unobservant onlooker would have been able to tell that Beast Boy was already extremely worried, and the extra support from one of his closest friends might have helped.

The relationship between the empath and the changeling had always been something of a mystery to the rest of the team; sometimes it seemed as though she barely tolerated him, and he was more than happy to keep his distance, unless he had a target for one of his bad jokes, or worse pranks, but at other times – usually in the wake of incidents such as Terra, Malchior or Adonis – they were each other’s lifelines, the closest of friends; perhaps even more than friends. But they wisely decided not to ask Beast Boy or Raven what they were to each other; after all, this was assuming that they knew.

Robin had received the news from City Hall five days after Galtry’s letter had arrived; the courts were willing to fit them in for an emergency hearing in just over a week. He had to run it past Beast Boy first – and while the changeling had been hoping to get this over and done with quickly, he hadn’t quite anticipated it being so near in his future – who agreed. The rest of the week, when they weren’t fighting crime, was spent preparing him for the trial; mentally, more than anything. Robin had even demanded they buy Beast Boy a presentable suit, on the basis that it would show the judge that he was treating the situation with dignity and respect, as any citizen should. Beast Boy asserted that this wasn’t necessary, and that his regular superhero attire wasn’t just more comfortable, but might remind the judge that he had saved the city several dozen times over; a cheap tactic, but one that couldn’t hurt. Cyborg had agreed, and so had Starfire, and even Raven added that Beast Boy didn’t need to wear a suit if he didn’t want to. It was four against one, so Beast Boy was sure that he had the argument in the bag.

…

Shopping for a suit hadn’t been as bad as he’d feared, but it was still exhausting, embarrassing, and Starfire blushed and said “Oh! You look so handsome, my friend!” at every single combination he tried on, which after the thirty-seventh try, was beginning to sound somewhat insincere, even though he knew that she meant it. He didn’t want to choose any outfits that he didn’t dislike, but it wasn’t fair to the ones that he liked either; once the trial was over, the suit would forever be ‘that suit I wore for the custody trial with my abusive uncle’, and he would never wear it again. Or he could burn it, that was also an option.

He eventually let Robin pick a suit so that they could return home sooner, and in exchange, he was allowed to choose the film they watched that evening. It was one of his and Cyborg’s favourite comedies, but even with freshly-buttered popcorn at the ready, he didn’t laugh once. Even Raven found amusement in a few scenes, but the intrusive thoughts swirling around his mind and the dread at the prospect of the upcoming trial were too heavy on his shoulders, and when the movie was finished, he quietly announced that he would be heading to bed early. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and he expected that it would take him some time to fall asleep.

Several hours later, when most of the rest of the team had also retired to their rooms, Raven heard a soft knocking at her door. She could sense the anxiety before she opened it, revealing a very tired and worried Beast Boy. Before she could ask him what he wanted, and whether he was okay, he spoke.

“Hi Raven. Um… could I ask you for a favour?”

She nodded impassively.

“… You know when I got that letter, and I was freaking out, and you did… that thing, that made me go to sleep? Could you do that again, please?” Raven involuntary let out an exasperated sigh – it was far from the first time that he had requested the use of her powers, “Hey Raven, it’s raining, could you teleport me to the comic book store?” “Rae, when the guy at the stall isn’t watching, could you just… nudge one of the coconuts a little? I really want to win you something!” and she usually denied his requests – but he hurriedly added before she could answer him.

“I know, I know, your powers are serious, and not to be taken for granted, but… just this once? Please?” She could tell that he meant it, and her features softened. From the looks of it, he had already spent a few restless hours failing the task himself.

With a reassuring half-smile, she replied “Sure. Just this once.” Beast Boy exhaled with relief, while Raven opened a portal directly to his room and led him through it. He was fortunate that he hadn’t woken her, but even if he had, she probably still would have complied. As she approached his bed, she noticed two damp patches on his pillow, on either side of where his head would usually be laying, and frowned. While he was still following through the portal, she quickly seized the pillow with her powers and flipped it over. She didn’t want him to notice that she had noticed something.

The portal closed, and Beast Boy quickly got into the lower bunk of his bed; it felt strangely embarrassing to do so in front of Raven, but without her help, he knew that he would never have fallen asleep tonight. Raven took a few deep, meditative breaths, before he interrupted her process with a question.

“So, can you like, use this on yourself too?”

Raven’s concentration was broken, but she wasn’t upset about it; when they had first met, she had assumed that questions like this were Beast Boy’s attempts at making small talk, before she realised that he was just genuinely a very curious young man who liked to find out as much as possible about people. “Not really,” she answered, “I need to be awake and alert for it to work, so if I started to fall asleep, then it would stop working.”

“Oh,” replied Beast Boy. “That’s not fair. So you can help everyone else, but not yourself?” He sounded offended on her behalf, as if he would be willing to personally travel to Azarath and berate the ancient order of monks for their lack of consideration. She had no doubt that he would have done it, too. But she was used to the drawback of her powers, and simply shrugged, before stepping forwards and placing her hand firmly on his forehead, as she had done before.

“Oh, ok, so… good night, I guess.” Beast Boy quickly stammered, blushing slightly at her touch. Raven paused, leaving her hand in place but not beginning to calm his mind just yet. Before she knew what she was saying, she was trying to soothe his nerves with words instead.

“I know that tomorrow is going to be hard for you,” she stated sincerely, “but… do you remember last night?”

Beast Boy felt a twinge of panic, as if he was missing something important. “Uh, what about last night, Rae?”

“I mean, it probably feels like it was only five minutes ago, right? You were probably already asleep. The present always feels slow, but the past always feels like it rushed by so quickly, right?”

Beast Boy still felt as though he was failing a test. “Um… I guess.”

“Well, tomorrow night, you’re going to be here, and you’re going to be so relieved that it’s all over, and you’re going to look back on it and realise that it just flew by, okay? We just need you to hold on until then.”

“… Um, sure,” he replied, appreciative but clearly not wholly convinced. Raven frowned.

“No, I mean it. Tomorrow night you will be back in your bed, in your home, with your friends, and it will all be over for good, and you will never have to think about him ever again, okay? I promise. I’m certain of it.” Raven smirked as she felt her caustic sense of humour bubble up again. “And I’m a lot smarter than you, so you’d better believe what I’m saying.”

The comedy movie that evening hadn’t done the trick, but that had gotten Beast Boy to laugh. Only a quiet chuckle, but still enough to assure Raven that she had done the right thing having this talk with him. “Okay Rae. I believe you.”

“Good,” she replied curtly, before finally focussing her energy and beginning the process of clearing his mind. The effect was almost immediate, Beast Boy’s shoulders untensed, and he sank lower into his mattress with a contented sigh.

“Rae… thanks,” he barely managed to murmur before her work was complete, and he was fully asleep, once again free from the potential harm of any nightmares. Raven admired her handiwork – and certainly nothing more than that, she told herself – with a smile, before teleporting back to her room and preparing for bed herself.

After all, Beast Boy wasn’t the only one with a big day tomorrow.

.

The hearing wouldn’t officially start until 10am, but Robin insisted that the team try to make it there by 8 at the latest. He knew that being there wasn’t exactly going to be pleasant for his friend, but hopefully the longer he was there, the less uncomfortable he would feel. Being cross-examined five minutes after he had arrived would surely not put him in the best of spirits. And so, the team awoke surprisingly early – normally, Raven would have joked about how unusual it was to see Beast Boy up at 6am, but it didn’t seem appropriate today – and with a hearty breakfast of waffles and syrup prepared by Cyborg, they were dressed and ready to go by 7, with Beast Boy grumbling that none of the others had to wear a suit.

The drive over was as tense as it was silent; the only conversation was a brief exchange after a minute of uncomfortable dead air in which Cyborg asked his green friend if he would prefer to have the radio on, which Beast Boy quietly declined. The silence was uneasy, but everyone was happy enough to leave it unbroken; nobody was sure what they would have wanted to say anyway, least of all Beast Boy.

As they arrived at the courthouse (to avoid unwanted attention, they would be allowed to use the internal parking usually reserved for judges and legal staff) they were each – except for Robin – slightly taken aback at the sheer size of the building. It was ironic; every one of them had been involved with putting hundreds of criminals behind bars, but the process for them had always ended with waiting for the authorities to arrive. None of them – again, except for Robin – had ever really understood how much more there was left to do after handing them over to the police. But now wasn’t the time to think about it.

Robin led the way, with Beast Boy trailing nervously behind him, and after checking into the reception, where they were instructed where to go by a clerk who was trying very hard not to act starstruck, they arrived at Courtroom No. 3. Robin placed his hand on the door handle, then paused for a moment and turned back to his friend. “The trial doesn’t start for a few hours. Do you want to go to the canteen or something, get something to eat, or some fresh air?” Beast Boy was tempted to ask where this considerate side of Robin had been the day before, when he was insisting that they all wake up at 6am, but it hardly felt appropriate.

“No thanks Rob, let’s just…” he couldn’t find the right words, but Robin knew what he meant. Robin took a deep breath – while Beast Boy took a deeper one – and opened the door.

The courtroom was vast and intimidating, but mostly empty, except for one elderly court stenographer who was slightly surprised by the appearance of anyone else, but also one other solitary figure, sitting in a dark red suit at the defendant’s bench on the opposite side of the room. His head turned in the direction of the door, and he smiled a warm, confident smile.

“Hey, my client’s here!” He rose from his seat, and while Beast Boy was initially thrown off by his decision to wear dark sunglasses indoors – to court, no less – it made sense when his lawyer grabbed his nearby stick and strode calmly towards them, half-heartedly waving it to ensure he didn’t bump into anything… or rather, to give off the impression that he was ensuring he didn’t bump into anything.

“He’s blind?” Beast Boy whispered to Robin, not judgementally, but just in surprise, as if this was something that he would have expected his friend to inform him of in advance. Robin appeared to be just as surprised as Beast Boy, however. It seemed that Batman hadn’t mentioned this.

Beast Boy had thought that his whisper would have gone unheard, but apparently his lawyer had heard him anyway, although fortunately, he just let out a chuckle and extended his hand for a friendly shake. “Guilty as charged. And don’t worry, I’ve heard all the jokes. Turning a blind eye, the blind leading the blind, all of that. But hey, justice is blind, right?” Beast Boy was too nervous to laugh, but he at least accepted the handshake. Who was this guy?

“Sorry, I haven’t properly introduced myself yet. My name is Matt Murdock, and I’m here to help in any way that I can, Garfield. Can I call you Garfield, or would you prefer something else?”

“Uh… no,” Beast Boy hesitated and then answered too quickly, “Garfield is fine, I…” He suddenly remembered. Garfield had been on the letter that had been sent to him. Garfield Logan. Nephew of Nicholas Galtry. Beast Boy’s heart raced as he tried to correct himself. “I mean… maybe I…”

“Alright, Beast Boy it is,” cut off Matt, seemingly able to tell his client’s wishes while placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Well, Beast Boy, it’s very nice to meet you. I have a few small matters to discuss with you; your friends are more than welcome to join us if you’d like.”

“How…” Robin finally spoke up, voicing something that had been nagging at him for the last minute. “How did you know it was us when you heard the door open?”

If Matt Murdock was alarmed by this question, he didn’t show it, but he did pause for the slightest of moments, whereas everything that he had said before was curt, concise and immediate. “The receptionist gave me a call to let me know when you arrived.”

“You have a phone?” Beast Boy asked, immediately feeling stupid as soon as the words had left his lips. He got the feeling that if it wasn’t a stressful day, Raven would have many things to say about this, but as he glanced back at her, he was shocked to see that she already had her head in a book, barely paying attention to the conversation in front of her.

Matt Murdock laughed the question off in good nature. “Yes, Beast Boy, I’m blind, I’m not deaf.” Beast Boy tried to apologize, but Matt brushed it off before continuing, clearly having not taken offence. “Apologies, lots of hands here that I haven’t shaken yet. Now, can I give you the good news?” That got the whole team’s attention; even Raven glanced up from her book. There was something about this ‘Matt’ character, something charismatic, but also extremely trustworthy, that put Beast Boy at ease; or at least, as far at ease as he could possibly be in this situation.

Sensing no protests, he continued. “Well, the good news is that frankly, in my professional and personal opinion, this is the easiest case I’ve ever come across. When the mutual acquaintance of your friend here,” he briefly indicated towards Robin, “got in touch with me, I figured that it was probably something difficult. But honestly speaking, this is one of the most blatant open and shut cases that I’ve ever seen. So, I know you’re probably still nervous, but just be aware; you’ve won. There isn’t a chance in hell that you’re going to lose.”

Beast Boy’s resolve hardly changed. He had known from the start that there was almost certainly nothing to worry about, but that wouldn’t make this day any easier. Still, he didn’t want to appear ungrateful at the sound of such good news, so he forced a smile. “Thanks, Mr Murdock. That’s good to know.”

Matt placed a hand on Beast Boy’s shoulder again. “I understand that this must still be unpleasant for you, but I just want to be absolutely clear. I worry that you think I am saying ‘We have a very good chance,’ and that’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying, is that if for whatever reason, the Judge ruled against you, you would have a successful lawsuit against the city, and the Judge would be disbarred within the hour. There are zero outcomes to this situation which end in anything other than you returning home with your friends at the end of the day. Zero. Believe me on that.”

His words were starting to sink in, and Beast Boy was starting to feel a hint of relief in the bundle of screaming, anxious nerves that was his mind. It was nice to know that no matter how badly things went, it would all be over soon enough. But there was something about the way Matt had phrased this news that piqued his unease again.

“You said that this was the good news. So… does that mean that there’s bad news?” he asked tentatively.

Matt smiled in response, but not quite as warmly as before. “You’d make one hell of a lawyer, kid. But… no, honestly, no bad news, beyond what you already know.”

“What do we already know?” Beast Boy’s voice was already growing smaller, more afraid, more paranoid.

Matt tried to force more sincerity into his smile, and it half-worked. “There’s nothing that I’m not telling you, I promise. There’s no way in hell that you’re losing this.” Beast Boy could feel the ‘but’ coming and stared back until Matt relented. “… But, the other side also knows that there’s no way that you’re losing this. They have no leg to stand on; trust me, I’ve checked every avenue of this, family law, estrangement, emancipation protocol, they have zero chance of winning. But, they must know that they have zero chance of winning, which means that… this man-“ Matt wasn’t sure if Beast Boy wanted to hear the name of the figure behind his unfortunate experience.

“Galtry,” cut in Beast Boy, still afraid and a little nauseous to think about him, but not wanting to afford his abuser the power to upset him merely by hearing his name. “You can call him Galtry.”

“Right, thanks,” continued Matt with a nod. “Well, Galtry’s team know that they’re not going to win. Which means that they’re likely going ahead with this either in an attempt to get attention – which I understand your friend here,” he indicated towards Robin again, “shut down immediately, very nicely done, I might say. Or alternatively, and most likely, it seems, this is just one final attempt by him to… harass you. From what I’ve heard, he may well be foolish enough to think that he’s got a chance at winning, and I’m sure the lawyers he’s paying are telling him that, but… more often than not, a case like this, it’s just one last-ditch effort to inflict harm. But that’s nothing that we didn’t know, and it’s nothing that we haven’t prepared for.”

“So, what do we do?” asked Beast Boy, his voice still weak and childlike, but at least showing signs of being proactive.

“We play along. We let him ask his questions, we let him try to steal your limelight, and we let his legal team humiliate themselves pretending that they have a case. Then, at the end of the day, we win and you go home. I can’t pretend that this is going to be easy for you, but there is nothing that you could do or say that would change how this day is going to end. If you ever feel overwhelmed, we can call a recess. I’m here for you, your friends are here for you, and while it might not feel like it, the legal system is here for you.” Matt Murdock had a way of delivering lines that felt completely natural, but sounded pre-prepared. “Now… there’s still more than an hour before this starts, would you like to go grab a sandwich or something, stretch your legs?”

Beast Boy wanted nothing more than to leave, but he knew that if he did, there was a good chance he would never have the courage to come back. “No thanks. I’m ready.”

Matt nodded sympathetically. “Alright then. Come sit over here with me, and your friends will be sitting just two rows behind you the entire time.”

As Beast Boy began to follow his lawyer, he turned to face his friends. It would be a while until he was this close to them again, in more ways than one. “Um… I guess this is it, then.”

“I guess so,” replied Robin, patting him on the shoulder. “Just stay calm, remember what we practised, and know that we’re all here for you.” He was trying to put on a strong front, but it was clear that it hurt him as the team leader to have not been able to prevent this experience from happening.

Starfire was next, and she decided to forego the shoulder-pat in favour of one of her trademark bone-crushing hugs, which Beast Boy didn’t complain about. “We will be back home before you know it.

Cyborg had always been a man of few words in tense situations. “You’ve got this, man,” he affirmed with a solemn nod, giving his best friend a soft punch in the shoulder.

As the rest of the team made their way to the rows behind, only Raven was left. He was never certain how their interactions would go; sometimes she was the closest of his friends, and sometimes she treated him like a colleague she barely tolerated. Still, he braced himself for whatever words of wisdom she had to impart for a moment like this.

Raven raised her eyes from her novel, briefly nodded in sympathy, and then followed the rest of his friends to the back of the room.

Beast Boy was slightly bemused by her behaviour, but grateful in a strange way, that at least it gave him something else to think about. With his mind mostly on the upcoming worst day of his life, but also slightly on the odd behaviour of his teammate, he followed Mr Murdock to the defendant’s bench and tried to mentally prepare for what was to come.

Chapter Text

As Beast Boy sweltered under the spotlight – literally and metaphorically – he wished that he had stood his ground against Robin and not conceded to wearing a suit. It was uncomfortable, the sleeves felt slightly too long, and the tie he had struggled to put on (before Cyborg just did it for him) was just getting in the way. He was still fidgeting, playing with his hands or softly tapping his feet, despite Robin having coached him not to do so. He looked and felt like a child playing dress-up with his parents’ wardrobe.

When he had half-heard someone telling the court to ‘all rise’ as the Judge entered, he almost forgot that this included him, until Robin loudly coughed and he snapped out of his daze, standing up so quickly that he almost tripped over. The Judge’s expression had remained unreadable throughout, although Beast Boy supposed that part of his job was to remain impartial. He shuddered; the idea that someone was treating the disgusting – but unproven – abuse at the hands of his uncle as ‘impartial’ made him even more uncomfortable than his ill-fitting suit.

Galtry’s lawyer was the first to make an opening statement. Beast Boy tried to drown it out; there was something so despicable and unsettling about hearing this man try to make the case that Galtry was just a concerned relative, who had spent years searching for his lost nephew, when this couldn’t be further from the truth. There was no legal paper trail showing that Galtry had sold Garfield to a medical testing centre, as was expected, but that didn’t make the pack of lies any less nauseating. On the brighter side of things, Beast Boy noted that no less than three times, this lawyer used the phrase “While there is no established legal precedent…” Matt had softly nudged him the third time it happened, confident grin back on his face. In a courtroom, admitting that something had no legal precedent had about the same effect as asking the Judge ‘pretty-pretty-please’.

Mr Murdock’s opening statement was a sight to behold. In just ten seconds, he introduced himself, summarized the case, and made a small joke about this being his first time in Jump City. He never came across as arrogant or overconfident, just someone who was overwhelmingly certain that this trial could only end in his client’s favour, and he had the research, the facts, and the arguments to back it up. Beast Boy was tempted to look at the opposing bench to see if the other lawyer was sweating, but he didn’t want to risk catching sight of… him.

To the surprise of no-one, Beast Boy was the first witness called for cross-examination; the entire case, after all, depended on his allegations of abuse. Robin had tried not to sound too melodramatic while also preparing him with the honest truth of the stressful experience he was about to endure, and how best to do so. Always think before you speak, but don’t take too long to answer. Stay as calm as you can, under the circumstances. Try not to look at the Judge too much, but don’t go out of your way to avoid looking at them either. And always tell the truth, but don’t voluntarily divulge information that you weren’t asked about. These contradictory commands flooded Beast Boy’s head with anxiety as the prosecutor stepped forward for questioning.

“Mr Logan,” he began, “I understand that you do not wish to return to your uncle’s custody. Is this correct?”

Beast Boy fought the urge to glance at his team for guidance; Robin had warned him that the prosecutor could try to trap him using his own words. “Yes… that is correct.”

“I believe that you feel very strongly about this, in fact. Would it be accurate to say that you are determined, in fact, not to return to your uncle’s custody?”

“… Yes.”

“How determined?”

Beast Boy froze, unsure how to answer, or what exactly was being asked of him.

“Apologies,” continued the prosecutor, “I believe a better question would be; what would you do to avoid returning to your uncle’s custody? How far would you be willing to go?”

Beast Boy already hated this. Recognizing that there was no possible good answer, he spent a little too long thinking of his response. “I wouldn’t break the law, but other than that, I would do anything to-“

“Anything?” The prosecutor repeated back to him, and he already felt as if he had made a mistake. “Never mind that,” Galtry’s attorney continued, “I know you may feel pressured, being in a court of law after all, but surely if the crime was something small, like jaywalking, you would feel comfortable doing that if it secured a future free from your uncle?”

“… No?” Beast Boy replied, obviously unsure of himself.

“No? You claim that your uncle abused you severely over the course of more than a year, and yet you are such a model citizen that you wouldn’t jaywalk to avoid him? That sounds implausible.”

Beast Boy began to panic. “… I don’t know,” he replied honestly.

“I’ll tell you what I believe,” the prosecutor began harshly, “I believe that you would commit a crime to avoid returning to your uncle’s custody, whether that crime was something small and harmless like jaywalking, or potentially more dramatic, such as perjury, or making a false allegation of-“

“Objection!” interrupted Mr Murdock with a hint of contempt, as if he was embarrassed on the prosecutor’s behalf at this amateur line of questioning. “The prosecution is obviously trying to trick my client into incriminating himself one way or another; accusing him of being willing to break the law is meaningless unless you have evidence to suggest that he actually has.”

Beast Boy breathed a huge sigh of relief. His initial impression of Mr Murdock had been good, but it was still reassuring to see that his confidence was well-founded.

The Judge seemed to agree. “Sustained. Please move on, counsel.”

Beast Boy was hoping that the prosecution would look frustrated, as if their main line of questioning had been struck down. Unfortunately, this was just one of several angles they were willing to try.

“My apologies, your honour,” began the prosecutor, who Beast Boy noticed was not apologizing to him. “Moving on; I understand that you have been a superhero for several years, Mr Logan.”

Once again, Beast Boy paused for a little too long. “That is correct.”

“In fact, you were in the Doom Patrol before joining the Teen Titans.”

“… Yes.”

“How many years of service have you spent as a superhero?”

Beast Boy was never great at doing maths, but he was even worse under pressure. He joined the Doom Patrol when he was nine, but he didn’t go on any missions until he was ten, and he was currently nearly sixteen.

“… Five. And a few months, two or three.”

“Five!” the prosecutor repeated in feigned admiration. “Five years as a superhero. That’s very admirable, Mr Logan.” He paused, as if waiting for Beast Boy to say ‘thank you’, which he never did. “How often in your line of work would you say your life is placed under threat?”

That was another large question that Beast Boy wasn’t equipped to answer. “I… I don’t know, it’s hard to say-“

“Understandable, let me rephrase. Would it be fair to say that you undergo at least one mission every day? On average?”

The real number was undeniably larger, but Beast Boy didn’t feel like correcting him. “… Sure, on average.”

“And on these missions, whether they’re against supervillains or regular criminals, your life is in danger on a regular basis, correct?”

“… Correct.”

The prosecutor stopped and stroked his chin. “So… you’re a minor – under the age of eighteen – and since the age of ten, without any guardian, your life has been endangered more than… one and a half thousand times at this point. That sounds a little… unsafe.”

Beast Boy shot a panicked glance back at his teammates for help. After all, this argument could be used against any of them. It was just that at this moment in time, it was only being applied to him. If they were giving him any signals, he couldn’t read them. Raven didn’t even look up from her book.

“Well… yes, in this line of work-“

Cutting him off, the prosecutor asked “If these super-teams had contacted your uncle and asked for his permission for your life to be placed into jeopardy, do you think that he would have consented.”

For once, Beast Boy had an answer. He knew that Galtry would have refused, but he also remembered several very illegal things that Galtry had forced him to do for money.

“Not unless there was money in it for him.”

The prosecutor frowned. “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed, Mr Logan. It was a yes or no question.”

“It didn’t have a yes or no answer,” replied Beast Boy.

The prosecutor looked at the Judge, as if expecting them to admonish the changeling, but to his visible displeasure, the Judge seemed to have no objection to his answer. Even Mr Murdock had a hint of a smile on his face.

“Moving on,” hurried the prosecutor, “but remaining on the topic of your heroism, you’ve been living as a superhero for… five years, you said. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“That is, sincerely, admirable. As a resident of Jump City, I thank you for your service.” The prosecutor paused again. Beast Boy once again did not take the opportunity to say ‘you’re welcome’. “I imagine you must have a very strong sense of justice.”

Beast Boy didn’t know where this was going, and that made him more nervous that if he had known it was a trap. “Yes.”

“Just as an example, if you happened to look out of the window and see a mugging, would you intervene?”

“… I would let the court know first, but yes; I would try to intervene.”

“Commendable, truly. And even if this mugger was armed, you would act?”

“Yes, I have enough experience to know how to handle that situation, and I don’t believe I would be putting myself in unnecessary danger.”

“Oh, no, no,” responded the prosecutor, “Forget about the danger. I just mean that if you witnessed a wrong, you would take action. That is truly a selfless and wholly respectable trait; I mean that.”

The faux-sincerity was making the hairs stand up on the back of Beast Boy’s neck.

“It’s just…” the prosecutor placed a hand on his desk, in front of Galtry, who Beast Boy had still succeeded in avoiding looking at for the duration of the trial so far, “For an individual with such a strong sense of justice, and morality, and knowing right from wrong, I can’t help but notice an inconsistency that doesn’t add up.” He waited for Beast Boy to ask what the inconsistency was, which he didn’t. “It’s just that… your primary argument – only argument, really – against returning into the care of Nicholas Galtry, is that you allege that he behaved abusively towards you. Extremely abusively, I might add.”

“… Yes,” Beast Boy confirmed, not liking where this was going.

“You say that this man – who has never been accused before of committing a crime of the nature you suggest – behaved in an almost torturously unbearable manner, reprehensibly sadistic and with no regard to your wellbeing, and yet…” A shiver ran down Beast Boy’s spine as he realised the argument against him. “By your own admission, you are a noble and heroic individual, willing to step in to ensure that justice is done. So why, then, did you spend five years on two separate superhero teams, and not once seek legal retribution against this man?”

Beast Boy froze. This was exactly the kind of question he knew he shouldn’t take too long to answer. “I… I was trying to forget about him. I didn’t want to think about him at all.”

“I find it very unlikely,” continued the prosecutor without acknowledging Beast Boy’s answer, “That a hero such as yourself, with such a strong moral compass, would conveniently forget about years of abuse, right up until the moment this man re-enters your life.”

“I didn’t ‘forget’ – you – you can’t forget something like that, I just didn’t want to think about him ever again-“

“Five years. Five years to tell your friends that this man had abused you. Five years to protect other people from his hypothetical abusive behaviour. Did you know that Nicholas Galtry regularly babysits for his neighbours? A pillar of the local community. I suppose according to you, those children were in danger? And you let them remain in danger without acting?”

“I didn’t… I’m not,” Beast Boy was getting flustered, tears slowly beginning to appear in his eyes. He looked at his team for guidance, but they-

“Excuse me, your Honour, I’ve noticed that the defendant frequently looks to his associates when asked to provide an answer to a straightforward question. I believe they may be providing him with non-verbal signals, coaching him to give answers that undermine my client.”

“What? No, no- I just…”

Mr Murdock got to his feet. “Objection your Honour, to this entire line of – frankly, morally reprehensible – questioning. It is not even remotely unusual for a victim of abuse to not want to revisit their experiences, not even to bring justice to their abuser. This is a-“

“Excuse me your Honour, nothing about this case could be considered ‘usual’, we are talking about a superhero, an individual with a strong sense of justice, inexplicably-“

“-A superhero who you have repeatedly pointed out is a minor, making it all the more understandable-“

“-all the more reason why the appointment of a guardian is of utmost importance, wouldn’t you agree?”

The Judge was banging his gavel, shouting something to the defence and the prosecution, and possibly Beast Boy too. He could barely hear a word over the shouting, the confusion, the back-and-forth between the two sides arguing whether or not he would be returned to his abuser. Just barely over the white noise, he heard “He hasn’t even looked in my client’s direction, plain as day, an obvious attempt to influence the outcome of-“ and out of panic or pettiness, he finally glanced towards his uncle.

Galtry.

Nicholas Galtry had aged a few years and cleaned himself up well for the trial – his suit fit much better than Beast Boy’s did – and he was almost unrecognizable without some kind of cane or strap in his hands, and a cruel grin on his face, but it was still him. The greasy black hair. The permanent frown and the smug half-smile. The utter insincerity around everything that he did. Those cold, dead eyes. For a moment, they met his, and for just a second, he risked a smirk. And just for one second, Beast Boy was back in that cage in the basement, surrounded by the stench of rot and waste, starving and unsure if he was even going to be fed that week.

A smirk that said “I haven’t forgotten. You’re mine.”

“No!” Beast Boy exclaimed, backing away in his seat as the tears that had been brimming in his eyes began to spill. “No, no no no no no no no no no no no no-“ he muttered repeatedly, directing his gaze to the floor and breathing heavily. He appeared to be having a panic attack. The lawyers were still shouting and he wanted to cover his ears. He wanted to run. He wanted to know that he would never see that horrible man again. He wanted, he wanted, he wanted, but he couldn’t act, and it made him feel just as small and helpless as-

A huge gust of wind seemed to blow through the court, sending papers flying in every direction. The Judge tried in vain to regain control of the situation, but it was too late. Starfire, unaware of the customs of the trial – not that it would have stopped her – had flown out of her seat and onto the witness stand, where she buried Beast Boy’s head in her shoulder and held him gently, whispering soothing thoughts to him. The prosecutor was screaming something about witness-tampering, the Judge was shouting orders to whoever could hear them, and even Robin had joined the fray, having to advise the Judge that while he didn’t wish to overstep his boundaries, any attempt to remove Starfire from the witness stand would go extremely poorly.

“Please…” Beast Boy whispered above all of the chaos, “Please don’t let him take me.”

“We would never,” assured Starfire. “No matter what.”

With court well and truly disrupted, the Judge admitted defeat and loudly declared a fifteen-minute recess for the defence and the prosecution to each compose their witnesses. Starfire remained at the witness stand, holding Beast Boy tightly until she was sure that his tears had stopped, and then helped him back to where their friends were seated. Her expression never changed from one of utmost dedication and support, except for a brief frown when she noticed that Raven was still reading her book.

She gently lowered herself and Beast Boy until his feet were touching the floor. In the presence of his trusted friends, his tears were slowing, but at the cost of feeling embarrassed to have lost his composure, as if he had let them down, not that any of them were thinking that. “Sorry,” he stammered, frantically wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his suit jacket. “I’m sorry, I know I messed up, I know I didn’t-“

His self-criticism was stopped by another tight squeeze from Starfire, and a reassuring hand on his shoulder from Robin, who had stood to comfort his friend. “Hey, hey, it’s fine. You did great. You didn’t fall into any of their traps, and… you showed them how serious this is to you. It’s – it might not seem like it, but it’s going well, really.” Robin tried to sound assertive and confident, but with all of the chaos of the trial, there was a hint of worry and doubt in his expression that was extremely unusual for him.

“I agree,” added Starfire, with an open hint of anger. “You have done nothing wrong today. The unpleasant man asking those questions of you… his behaviour is most despicable. I would be only too happy to intervene if he upsets you again.” Her eyes never left Beast Boy, but it was clear that she was speaking to Robin as well. Whether she was asking for permission or warning him of what she was going to do regardless was anyone’s guess.

Unfortunately, at that moment a very nervous and underprepared bailiff cleared his throat behind the group, signalling his presence. As the teens turned to look at the man in court uniform, he immediately wilted under Starfire’s righteously irritated gaze and stuttered out his brief message in a high-pitched squeal.

“Um… Judge Carroll has requested that the-the-the team member who disrupted proceedings by approaching the witness stand without being summoned, should, should remain outside of the courtroom for the remainder of the trial.”

Despite the stammering, Starfire seemed to understand the request, and raised an inquisitive and intimidating eyebrow. “I see. And how is the Judge planning on enforcing this… cowardly request, that he could not deliver in person?” she asked, glaring daggers at the terrified bailiff.

Before the bailiff could faint in terror, Robin loudly pretended to cough and asked Starfire to speak to him outside for a moment. Cyborg got out of his seat too, explaining that he had skipped breakfast that morning and was hoping to quickly find a cafeteria, or failing that, a vending machine.

“Hey, B,” Cy asked in concern. “You coming? It might be nice to get out of here for a few minutes.”

Beast Boy would have immediately agreed, but he quickly glanced back towards the prosecutor’s bench. Galtry was no longer there. That meant that Galtry was somewhere else in the courthouse, and bumping into him was currently his greatest fear for a whole litany of reasons; he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t flee, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t attack his uncle, he couldn’t guarantee that he would be in any condition to continue the trial. If Galtry wasn’t in the courtroom right now, then the courtroom was where he wanted to stay.

“No thanks, I… I think I’d rather stay here,” he replied quietly.

His reasoning was obvious, and Cyborg seemed understandably uncomfortable to leave him with only Raven for company. The alleged empath was still reading her book. “You know what? I’m not that hungry.”

With some effort, Beast Boy forced a genuine-looking smile onto his face. “Nah dude, go get a sandwich or something, I know you must be starving by now.”

Cyborg opened his mouth to disagree, but was cut off by a loud, angry grumbling noise from his lower torso. It was either a very large stomach rumble, or a very minor earthquake. Beast Boy laughed – a small one, but a real laugh, for the first time that day – and Cyborg reluctantly agreed to find something to eat and return as quickly as possible.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” Beast Boy assured him. “I’ve got Raven to keep an eye on me.” At the mention of her name, Raven’s eyes briefly darted from her book to him, but then returned immediately with no comment. Even Robin and Cyborg were beginning to feel displeased with her completely apathetic presence, but they knew better than to challenge her on it; at least, at this time and place. Promising Beast Boy that they would return as soon as they could, the three left the courtroom, uneasy over their friend’s wellbeing.

Beast Boy cautiously sat down in the empty seat next to Raven. She didn’t acknowledge his presence. He glanced at her nervously a few times, but with no response. He felt as if he should say something, but to his surprise, she spoke first.

“I know that this is hard for you, but trust me, it will all be over soon. Just take some deep breaths, and try to hang in there. I know you can do this.” She sounded completely sincere, but the way that she didn’t even look at him made her attempt at comfort slightly less reassuring.

Beast Boy sighed. “I know, I know… thank you though. I just… I don’t-“

“I know that this is hard for you,” she interrupted, “but trust me, it will all be over soon. Just take some deep breaths, and try to hang in there.”

Beast Boy was now worried for a slightly different reason. She still sounded genuine, but it was almost robotic, the way she had just repeated herself with the same tone and inflection.

“Raven?” he asked, gently touching her arm as if to confirm that she was still there. She finally looked up from her book and glanced in his direction in a distant, non-committal sort of way; as if she was looking at him, but not actually seeing him.

“I know that this is hard for you-“

“Okay, okay…” Beast Boy interrupted, retreating back into his seat. Whatever was going on with Raven, he could ask her about it later; if he felt the need to query it at all. It wasn’t exactly unusual for her to be acting strangely around him in an unfamiliar situation like this. Trying and failing to calm himself, he decided to take her advice, took a few deep breaths, and tried his best to keep his composure until his friends returned.

Chapter Text

Galtry was having a hard time hiding his contentment. This was going perfectly. He knew from the start that he was unlikely to actually get custody, but it wouldn’t stop him from filing lawsuits in every state he had ever known the Titans to operate in. And that was just for custody; there were still child endangerment charges, potential neglect; he wondered if he could sue Beast Boy personally for emotional distress? All the while appearing on every TV sofa he could, playing the role of a doting, worried uncle, raising valid concerns over the danger his nephew was in. As if it was possible for anyone to care about that worthless green freak.

Galtry hurried into the men’s restroom, finding it empty. Finally free from the view of everyone else, he broke into a huge smile. Galtry didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘ironic’, but on some level he found it amusing that a boy so entirely worthless was about to result in his biggest payday yet. He almost hoped that he didn’t win the case, but if he did somehow win custody, there were years of payback to be had. He didn’t even care if he got caught this time; it would be worth it just to see the look of terror on Garfield’s miserable little face.

Rushing to the sink, he ran cold water over his hands, and then leaned in closer to the mirror. Raising his index fingers, he wiped as much moisture as he could underneath his eyes, and then rubbed them a few times for good measure. If that little shit could turn on the waterworks, he could pretend to as well. So preoccupied he was, he didn’t notice the footsteps behind him, nor did he realise that he hadn’t heard the door open or close preceding them.

Galtry turned around and came face to face with four furious glowing red eyes, and before he even had the chance to scream, a hand covered his mouth, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him backwards into the restroom mirror. Again, and again, and again, as shards of glass littered the floor around them, and the impact became more visceral as the back of Galtry’s head was quickly covered in blood. Eventually managing to restrain herself, Raven carelessly dropped him onto the floor, never taking her four eyes off of him, pausing but obviously not finished demonstrating her wrath.

With a possible concussion coming on, Galtry squinted through the pain and made out the image of his attacker. The navy-blue cloak gave it away; he hadn’t learned the names of them, but she must have been one of the freak’s friends. He tried to chuckle to himself – after all, she had just openly assaulted him; in a courthouse, no less – but was having trouble getting enough air to speak. Raven stepped forwards, intent on not letting him get the chance, before she paused.

There was broken glass on the floor next to Galtry, from the mirror she had just smashed him into. Broken glass. “He put broken glass in the food.” Raven’s emotions had all been united on their plan so far, but Rage erupted to the forefront and demanded a slight amendment. “Make him suffer. Please. Let me teach this scum a lesson.”

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” replied Wisdom, and Raven had to agree. “Do what you came to do, and leave.”

“You know he deserves it. Why hold back?”

“This isn’t about what he deserves, it’s about Beast Boy.“

Then, Rage took Raven by surprise. She had only ever tried to appeal to Raven’s sense of righteous fury by painting her potential victims as deserving targets, and she was certainly still trying that now. But rather than focussing on Galtry’s depravity, she forced an image into Raven’s mind for a split-second. An image of a small green child, scared and alone, crying in a cage in a basement somewhere.

Blood was trickling out of his mouth as he gasped through the tears, rubbing his throat. Surrounded by waste, filth, blood and vomit, his pathetic chokes and cries were the only source of sound. Starving, dehydrated and clearly malnourished, all he could do was lie there in agony, imagining prayers that would never be answered that his Mommy and Daddy would come back to save him from this vile monster. But the greatest fear, deep down in the pit of his stomach, wasn’t of the evil man, but of the possibility that the evil man was right. That he deserved all of this, that he was responsible for his parents’ deaths, that Galtry was doing the world a service by keeping him locked up. That doubt would never quite go away, and Garfield wiped his eyes and curled onto his side, waiting for whatever the next day would bring; be it death, torture, or a brief moment of respite.

…

Raven surrendered full control of her spiritual body to Rage before she was even aware that she had done so. Normally, such a transformation was the result of a struggle, and there would be loose vectors of dark magic emanating from Raven’s body; Rage’s demeanour would be unhinged and unpredictable, as she didn’t know how long she had seized control for and immediately set about causing as much chaos and destruction as she could. This time, having been willingly allowed into the driver’s seat, Raven’s eyes simply narrowed and a sadistic smile spread across her face as Rage took control.

Pointing at the broken glass, she commanded, “Eat it.”

It took Galtry a few more seconds and more than a few coughs to regain his voice. “What?”

“Eat it,” Rage replied instantly, pointing in the direction of the fractured shards of mirror again, as her smile grew in a way that wasn’t quite natural.

Galtry tried to tentatively crawl backwards, but his back hit the wall immediately. “Listen… I don’t know what you’re playing at, but you-“

He never saw her move, but in a second, Raven was upon him. Directly in front of him, he could smell the hint of fire and brimstone as she grabbed the back of his head with her left hand, yanking him backwards by the hair in order to force his mouth open, and haphazardly grabbed a handful of glass with her right, forcing it into his mouth and keeping her hand pressed firmly over it so that he had no chance to spit it out.

“Eat it! Eat it!” she demanded hysterically, forcing his jaw up and down. The glass hadn’t been as sharp or as jagged as Rage had been hoping for, but that was little comfort to Galtry as his mouth was slashed, sliced and torn up internally by the demon before him, furiously forcing him to chew on the dangerous mouthful. The odd piece came dangerously close to the back of his throat, and he tried to retch to avoid swallowing, only to be denied by Raven’s hand, still covering his mouth with superhuman strength.

“How does that feel, you pathetic worm? Wretched vermin! You parasite, you - you cancer, you-“ Rage noticed that Galtry’s face was beginning to turn blue, and while she would have loved to continue, she reluctantly decided to return control of the spiritual body she was possessing to Raven. Much the same as how Raven rarely relinquished control to Rage willingly, Rage had never done the same, and so rather than being forcefully subdued, it felt more as if she had peacefully taken a step back and allowed Raven to take the wheel. By force of habit, she began to retreat into Raven’s inner psyche, but Raven herself compelled her to stay, to a certain degree. She thought that the glowing red eyes and demonic snarl would continue to help in the intimidation of Galtry, which had only just begun.

Raven eventually released Galtry’s mouth, and he fell forwards onto the floor, choking out glass and blood, with several hacking coughs to be certain that nothing had gotten lodged in his throat. Raven idly continued to watch him with seemingly apathetic disdain as he began to recover his breath. Blood continued to trickle out of his mouth.

“You’ve… you just ruined your friend’s defence, you know that?” Galtry spat through a mouthful of blood.

Raven rolled her eyes, unimpressed and unconcerned by the threat. “I’m no lawyer. But where’s your evidence?”

“Evidence?” Galtry would have laughed if it didn’t hurt to move his mouth at all. His mouth was completely torn up, he just had to tell his lawyer what had happened and-

Raven raised her right hand, and it glowed with dark magic. She didn’t need to be close to someone to heal them, but if she was next to them, she could heal them gently; dulling the nerves while rapidly accelerating the natural recovery of the body. It took a little extra effort and a little more concentration on her part, but it was worth it to avoid any discomfort for her friends.

Needless to say, Nicholas Galtry was not one of her friends. His mouth burned in agony as dozens of wounds were seared shut. The back of his head, too, burst into pain as if he was experiencing several concurrent localized migraines. He tried to scream, but the dark energy worming through his head garbled his words until all that came out was an incomprehensible moan. As the pain suddenly vanished, leaving Galtry with no scars – of a physical nature, at least – Raven smiled at her handiwork.

Galtry cautiously checked the back of his head to find that his wound had disappeared. Before he could even question her, Raven raised her hand again; he flinched, but he wasn’t her target this time. The glass that he had coughed up, as well as the little she hadn’t stuffed into his mouth to begin with, vibrated momentarily on the ground before launching through the air and back into the mirror. It would have been an impressive spectacle, were he not terrified. As the last chip of glass flew back into place, a small hole remained behind in the mirror. Raven frowned, and Galtry immediately felt her power seize his body again, as she scanned his mouth, quickly finding what she had been looking for. With a firm mental grip on the missing shard, she ripped it out from beneath Galtry’s tongue; he let out a startled cry of pain, whether from the removal, or from the burning sensation of Raven immediately healing the wound that remained, or both. As the last shard returned to the mirror, Raven smiled again. There was no evidence that Galtry had ever been assaulted.

Had he been a little smarter, Galtry would have kept his eyes from wandering to the security camera perched over the exit door; this was a courthouse, after all. But had he been a little bit smarter, Nicholas Galtry would never have been in this situation to begin with, and Raven quickly followed his gaze, almost disappointed at how open and idiotic his thought process was. With a wave of her hand, the security camera was violently wrenched from its position and flew into her palm, where she made sure Galtry was watching before she effortlessly crushed it into dust.

“The camera sees what I want it to see,” She warned, opening her hand and somehow reassembling the camera out of nothing, sending it flying back to its original position. “You have drastically misunderstood your position.”

She saw the attack coming before he had even removed the taser from his pocket, but she knew that she was in no danger, so she simply let him. For a moment, she debated whether she should pretend that he had caught her by surprise – maybe even that he had actually managed to incapacitate her – after all, she knew from experience that despair tasted so much better when paired with the destruction of a false hope. But if there was one emotion that she never wanted Galtry to feel again in his life, however fleeting, it was hope, and so she simply let the barbs from the taser pass harmlessly through her presence and bounce off of the door behind her.

Whether in fear or in shock, Galtry dropped the taser completely. In an instant, it had been summoned to Raven’s hand, and she eyed it with disinterest. “Not a bad toy,” she muttered dismissively, before crushing it into dust in her hand. Unlike the security camera, she didn’t feel the need to reconstruct it before turning her attention back to Galtry with a twisted grin on her face. “But I can do better.”

She extended the index finger and thumb on her right hand, before closing them together as if grasping something. Galtry felt unnaturally as if something had a hold on his forehead, and glanced at Raven in pure terror.

“Burn.”

Every nerve ending in Galtry’s body lit up in unspeakable agony at once. It was immeasurably worse than the worst pain that he had ever felt; if not for Raven’s dark magic ensuring that he was alive and conscious for every moment, his body would have easily given up by now, and his mind would have snapped almost instantly. While she could have easily silenced him, Raven closed her eyes to greater appreciate his anguished screams of terror. Not even the finest symphonies of the most talented composers of all-time could compete with the serenade she was taking in, and she relished every moment.

After just fifteen seconds – still enough to feel like an eternity for Galtry – Raven released him from her magic and he collapsed to the floor again, his body spasming in the aftershock of her treatment. Giving him no respite, she grabbed him by the hair and forced his head up so that he could look into her four furious eyes as she delivered her ultimatum.

“You are going to leave him alone. Or I am going to make you. End of story.”

When he wasn’t able to respond, she sighed and, with a single wave of her hand, reluctantly removed a decent amount of the pain he was feeling; not enough for him to be comfortable, but enough for him to be able to state a response. Galtry unwisely used this brief moment of recovery to attempt to spit at her. He didn’t have the energy, and it barely left his mouth.

“Yeah… right. You’re a hero. You’re all heroes. All you can do is pain. And I can handle pain.” He laughed mirthlessly as if trying to antagonize her, which he may well have been stupid enough to try. “I put up with your green friend for almost a year. Unless you have the guts to kill me, you-“

“Kill you?” Raven interrupted. “Oh, no no no, I don’t want to kill you. Much too fast. You don’t deserve ‘fast’. Ending your life… so unimaginative. There are so many fates worse than death that I would like to show you.” She smirked again, and he knew she wasn’t kidding.

“But for the sake of our mutual acquaintance… yes.” Raven confirmed. “I will kill you.” Her tone was calm and casual, as if admitting to cheating on her homework. Galtry’s only hope in this situation was that she was bluffing, so he stuck to it fiercely, and scoffed unconvincingly at her assertion. Raven’s smile fell, and he immediately knew that he had made a mistake.

Raven was only too happy to demonstrate the myriad of possibilities she had planned. “If I was short on time, I could always go straight for your brain.” As she spoke, Galtry was struck with the worst headache he had ever felt. “Easy enough to make it look like an aneurysm. But I’d really rather not. I’d rather make you feel it.”

Galtry’s headache slowly began to subside as he felt a sharp pain in his chest, like heartburn, only so intense that it felt as though his heart was actually burning. “The heart, another option. I think I would prefer it; gives you just enough time to reflect on what’s happening. Why you deserve it. How powerless you are to stop it.” She snarled. Galtry clutched his chest in horror, taking several deep breaths in, until he opened his mouth to inhale and realised that even that ability had been taken away from him.

“The lungs. My favourite. To take in the sight as you choke and die. To see the light go out in your miserable eyes. To watch your spirit gradually concede as you weakly attempt to-“ Raven couldn’t help but laugh in glee as she imagined the sight of Nicholas Galtry slowly, feebly trying to hang on to the wretched existence he called a life. It was such a beautiful thought that she barely took in the sight of the real Galtry, puffing and panting for air that he was unable to breathe in. Her smile narrowed, but never quite disappeared, as she released him from her power and he desperately took in several deep breaths of air.

“So yes,” Raven concluded. “Leave him alone, or I will kill you.”

Galtry, finally understanding the situation and appropriately horrified by it, was incapable of speech. Scared to take his eyes off of the demoness before him, she could sense his temptation to run for the door as fast as he could. She could sense the immense fear that ran through him, the intent to leave and never come back, the overwhelming desire to never see this girl again, but she could also feel something else. A refusal to back down, a proud, incredibly stupid ambition to get as far away from them as possible, then resume plotting his revenge. It was such a tiny piece of his soul that he would probably never even act on it, but Raven was more than happy to stamp out that risk completely.

“Go.” She whispered, releasing him from her presence, nodding her head towards the door behind her. Galtry hesitated, fearing that this was almost certainly some kind of trap. “Go!” she repeated, more of a command than a suggestion, and Galtry shakily got to his feet and began to do as he was told. Raven said nothing, but continued to smirk in a way that made his blood run cold.

He didn’t know what she was up to, but she wasn’t preventing him from leaving. Stumbling towards the door, he cast a cautious glance behind himself, but she remained in the same position, smiling confidently. Trying to shrug off his nerves, he burst through the door.

Heat.

The first thing to hit him was the searing, red hot heat. His vision blurred, whether it was the result of the sweat immediately drenching his face, or whether his eyes were genuinely unaccustomed to the sight. All around him, red, on red, on red. Fire. Lava. Bodies burning. Blood boiling. Red on red. An underground cavern with no ceiling or floor, filled with the souls of history’s greatest monsters as they begged for mercy they didn’t deserve and would never receive. Unrecognizable, save for the screams and moans that would never subside, in service of a higher power that would never be satisfied.

He wasn’t in the courthouse any more.

A few ragged chunks of floor remained outside the entrance to the restroom, and the rest was just pain, incarnate. The agonized screams of the souls of the damned were overwhelming. The smell was worse. As far as the eye could see, this place was nothing but an eternal torture machine with no master. It was the truest expression of Hell that he could have ever encountered.

“Like it?” asked Raven maliciously, hovering forwards to his side. Galtry was speechless.

“You were wrong about something else. I’m not a hero. My friends are.” Raven said with some pride, whether at her friends, or at the spectacle she beheld. Her inheritance. “Me? I’m the rightful heir to the throne of Hell.” She glared at him in utter sadistic glee. “And I’ve moved your admission date forwards.”

Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, she laughed as she soared into the infernal hellscape, until she reached a satisfactory vantage point. She soaked in the intense feelings of dread emanating from the worthless wretch within her grasp as he saw the fate that awaited him; the fate he so richly deserved. Too shocked to move, too shocked to fight, too shocked to even beg for mercy that he knew wasn’t coming, he simply took in the view in horrified silence; not that he would have been heard over the chorus of the damned.

“Goodbye, Nicholas Galtry.” She announced, before dropping him into his new home.

The heat grew as he fell; he couldn’t tell whether it only felt as though his skin was melting or if it actually was. He was plummeting fast towards a pool of lava, fire or boiling blood, not that it would have mattered which. All thoughts of the payday back at Jump City courthouse had been replaced with pure, unrestrained existential dread, and the only person he knew was capable of sparing him was a demon who despised him. Unable to properly process the fear he was feeling, Galtry’s brain completely stalled as he approached his landing point, leaving him with barely the capacity to scream. He closed his eyes.

…

His eyes remained closed, as if refusing to see his fate would somehow prevent it from coming true. It wasn’t until several seconds later, when he heard her devilish chuckling, that he realised he was elsewhere. His eyes shot open as he took in the familiar surroundings; he was back in men’s restroom. The floors, cold and slippery. The mirror, somehow unbroken. And – any relief he felt was shattered as he remembered – the demon, happy to watch him die. Before he could even begin to beg, she laid out her terms in excruciating detail.

“I am begging you…” she began “to think that I am bluffing. Begging for you to take the risk. You have no idea how much I want for you to think that I am lying, and leave me with no choice, but to…” she grabbed him by the neck again and forced him to look into her eyes. In an instant, he was viewing their confrontation from out of his own body, floating several feet above them. He had no time to ponder his situation though, as he saw firsthand how Raven’s grip tightened until his neck finally snapped with a sickening crunch, and she let his lifeless body drop to the floor. Even as a ghost, or spirit – he didn’t have a clue what he actually was at that moment – he could feel the injury as it happened. Raven’s head snapped up, staring directly at his incorporeal form, and smirked.

He blinked, and suddenly he was back on the floor, still very much alive, but staring into those rageful eyes, with a lingering feeling of pain in his neck. It could have been a vision, but for all he knew she could have killed him and brought him back to life. Her point was well and truly received; Raven had absolutely no qualms killing him.

“You are going to leave him alone. Forever. No contact, no more of this… frankly I don’t care what you do, as long as it is far, far away.” Galtry dumbly nodded as if he was a misbehaving child being reprimanded by an intimidating teacher. “He will never hear from you again. I will never hear from you again. Because if I even start to consider that you will cause him pain…” With her dark magic, she summoned a construct that bore an eerie resemblance to the human heart, hovering over her left hand. Without breaking eye contact, she slowly squeezed it tightly within her grasp, dark thick liquid resembling blood pouring through the gaps between her knuckles. Galtry felt his own heart shudder, not sure if it was the fear or if it was somehow connected to the illusion she had conjured.

“… I’m glad we understand each other.” She concluded, getting to her feet and raising her hood back over her features. Her extra pair of red eyes no longer visible – whether they had vanished or were simply covered up – she once again looked exactly like the ordinary, pale-skinned girl who had been sat with her teammates for the duration of the trial.

Her eyeline dropped slightly and she sneered in disgust. “Clean yourself up,” she dismissed, turning to leave the pathetic man. He didn’t understand why, until he looked down. Somewhat unsurprisingly, at some course over the demonstration of her powers, he had pissed himself.

Whether it was one last attempt to regain control of the situation, or whether her new form had left him feeling emasculated at having been so thoroughly intimidated by a teenage girl, he attempted one final, foolish parting shot.

“I… I could tell your friends.” He choked out, the words dying on his tongue as she turned back around and glared at him, as if in disbelief that he could be this stupid. Still, she did him the courtesy of actually considering the point for a second, before responding in the same demonic tone that she had threatened him with.

“What makes you think they would be able to stop me?”

Uninterested in whatever his response was, Raven vanished from the room, leaving only Galtry in a puddle of sweat, urine, and utter terror. Nobody would view the security camera footage, but if they did, they would have just seen Galtry cleaning his hands and then appearing to have a panic attack before fainting and relieving himself. Raven had never been there to threaten to take his life, nor to demonstrate how easily and gladly she could do it.

Chapter Text

As her astral form invisibly returned to the courtroom, Raven quickly relocated her physical body; Beast Boy was still sitting next to her, fortunately not trying to make conversation. Still, as she re-entered her body with ease, his eyes seemed to dart back to her as if something had caught his interest. It would have been impossible for him to know that she had been elsewhere – for all physical purposes, Raven had been in the courtroom the entire time – and she looked back at him and snapped “What?”

Beast Boy recoiled from her unwarranted hostility. “I… nothing, sorry,” and after her delightful excursion with Galtry, Raven remembered exactly who she was doing this for and why, and suddenly felt awash with guilt.

“No, I’m sorry,” she quickly backpedalled, which was most unlike her. “How are you holding up?”

Despite it being a simple and predictable question, Beast Boy still had to think about it before answering. “Uh… okay, I think? I just… wish that this would all be over already.”

“It will be,” she asserted, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. He seemed a little surprised by the minor gesture and smiled appreciatively.

“… Can I ask you a stupid question?” he murmured, but before she could respond, the door at the back of the courtroom burst open. Nicholas Galtry was back, and looking as though he had suffered several simultaneous heart attacks during the recess, and may or may not have been suffering another one now.

Beast Boy glanced over at the noise and then winced when he realised who it was, shrinking back towards Raven and immediately starting to breathe more heavily. Raven used her grip on his shoulder to lightly but firmly redirect his line of sight back to her, for his own good, but she was also observing Galtry with some curiosity. He had made a beeline straight for his lawyer and was frantically explaining something that Raven couldn’t hear. She frowned. She hadn’t been bluffing; if the worst came to the worst, she would quite happily send him to one of the many dimensions she had access to that closely resembled a mortal’s perception of ‘Hell’, and she would take the credit and the blame for doing so in a heartbeat, even if it meant being kicked off of the team, as long as Beast Boy was safe. But she hoped for the boy’s sake that Galtry would make the first smart decision of his life, and run.

Noticing that Beast Boy had fallen silent, she encouraged him to continue. “Hey. What was your question?”

She hadn’t even called it a stupid question; she must have really been trying to be patient with him, Beast Boy thought. “Oh, right. Um… well, it’s not like I’m seriously thinking of it or anything, and I know it would just make things worse, but… if I asked you to, could you just… take us both back home?”

Raven understood the sentiment. It was nice to have an escape plan, even if you had no intention of using it. “Of course. Just say the word.” She lightly rubbed his shoulder, and he seemed to relax. A small grin appeared on her face. She continued “Besides… then Robin could kill both of us.”

For only the second time that day, Beast Boy laughed. It had only been a tiny giggle, and it could have been at Raven’s comment, or at the mere fact that she had attempted a joke, but Raven immediately realised how much she had missed that spark, and how glad she was that it was back, however briefly.

“I said I’m dropping it!!!”

That got the attention of them both. Beast Boy overcame his nerves to glance over at the prosecutor’s bench, where Galtry was frenziedly trying to talk over his lawyer, who seemed confused and concerned to say the least. Mr Murdock himself sauntered over to the bench to offer any assistance, and it appeared that a quiet but tumultuous argument between the prosecutor and his client was underway. Eventually, Galtry removed an old chequebook from his pocket, ripped out a cheque, scribbled a hasty signature but left the amount blank, practically threw it at his lawyer and darted straight for the exit.

He paused only to glance back in Beast Boy’s direction, although it wasn’t Beast Boy he was looking at. It was the pale girl in the navy-blue cloak with her arm around his shoulder, who seemed to hold her friend a little tighter as he winced at the sight of Galtry looking at them. She looked completely nonplussed by his attention, ice-cold in her neutral demeanour with only the mildest hint of displeasure towards him. It was more than enough.

Galtry charged through the doors of the courtroom and headed for the exit immediately. Within five minutes, he was in a cab. Within thirty minutes, he was at the airport. Within an hour, he was on the first flight out of the city, even though it wasn’t traveling anywhere near his home state. And for the rest of his life, he would stay as far away from Beast Boy as possible, and especially his pale-skinned witch friend. He could have easily learned her name, but he was terrified to know anything more about her than what she had shown him herself.

When a person’s body and mind had spent enough time preparing for the worst-case scenario, it could be hard to accept that it was all over so quickly. Beast Boy’s body finally un-tensed somewhat upon seeing what was undoubtedly good news for their case, but even as Mr Murdock approached them both to debrief them on the situation, he still couldn’t relax.

“After a brief discussion with the opposing counsel, it seems that Nicholas Galtry is withdrawing any claim he has of custody over you. He agreed for the matter to be dropped with prejudice, meaning that he can never file a claim of this nature again. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but essentially… it’s over.”

“That’s great news!” replied Raven with uncharacteristic warmth. She looked more relieved than Beast Boy did, which worried her.

“That said, there are still some proceedings left – mainly just paperwork and a few statements – but I’m going to talk to the Judge; I think I can persuade him that it would be best for your wellbeing if you didn’t have to stick around for all of that. Hopefully, you should be able to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Th-thanks!” stammered Beast Boy, still seemingly more shocked than relieved. Mr Murdock seemed to recognize this, and gave him a friendly pat on the arm. It hadn’t been his first case dealing with a superpowered minor, after all.

“It was a rough day, kid, but you did good, and you won. The hard part is over, just a few more minutes and you can get out of here.”

“Thank you,” replied Beast Boy, who had pulled himself together and was trying to sound a little more sincere. “Seriously.” Mr Murdock nodded appreciatively, and then departed to speak with the Judge, as Robin and Cyborg sidled back into the courtroom.

“Uh… did we miss something?” Cyborg asked in confusion. Raven could still see smudges of mayonnaise where he had wolfed down some cheap sandwich from the cafeteria in order to return as quickly as possible.

“Galtry dropped the case and left,” Beast Boy answered as if in a trance. It was likely he hadn’t internalized the news just yet.

“Seriously? That’s great, buddy!” he lightly jostled Beast Boy’s shoulder, which Raven had distanced herself from upon hearing Cyborg and Robin return. “I’ll go get Starfire.”

“Wait, Cy, the Judge asked-“ Robin started, but it was too late, Cyborg was already heading back towards the door. He shook his head; why did everyone else on his team have such disdain for legal authority? Still, that was hardly the issue of the day. “Beast Boy, that’s amazing news! Did Mr Murdock say when we could leave?”

“He’s talking it over with the Judge now,” Raven answered on Beast Boy’s behalf, “But he thinks it should be soon. He’s going to make the case that-“

“FRIEND!” Starfire shouted as she flew straight through the double-doors and back into the courtroom, coming to a stop before Beast Boy. “Is it true? Is the trial over?” Unable to bring himself to speak, Beast Boy just nodded, and Starfire immediately swooped in for a hug and uncontrollably floated several metres into the air, her unrestrained joy impossible to subdue. Where he normally would have commented that she was holding him a little too tightly, this time he hugged her back even tighter, burying his face in her shoulder again. After several seconds, she loosened her grip ever so slightly, and was shocked to hear a slight whimper coming from her teammate. He was crying.

Lowering herself gently to the ground, she released him in confusion as he continued to sob into her shoulder. “Are… are these tears of relief?” she asked hopefully.

Beast Boy paused, swallowed, and then nodded with a smile on his face. “Of course, Star,” he lied.

It was at that moment that Raven first felt regret at letting Galtry leave here alive. Sure, it would have been a PR nightmare for the Titans to deal with, but simply scaring him away didn’t undo the years of trauma and abuse that Beast Boy had suffered, and he wouldn’t just magically be okay again now that he was out of the picture, especially after such a stressful day. Not that Galtry’s death would have improved the situation either, but it would have certainly made her feel better.

Starfire also seemed to realise that Beast Boy was lying, but didn’t push the matter. “Good. I am relieved too,” she replied, holding him close until for the time being, he had no more tears left to cry.

.

“To Beast Boy!” toasted Cyborg as he held aloft a large, slightly soggy slice of vegetarian pizza. He had insisted that the Titans order food in to celebrate their victory, and in an attempt to boost Beast Boy’s spirits, had spontaneously decided – against every carnivorous urge in his body – that in order to properly mark the occasion, every pizza had to be vegetarian. Beast Boy had laughed when he heard the idea, and was quick to reassure his teammates that it wasn’t necessary, but the fact that it had made him laugh at all was enough for Cyborg to go through with it. They had even heard Cyborg on the phone, inquiring if it was possible to add tofu to the toppings (it hadn’t been, to his secret relief.)

“To Beast Boy,” echoed Robin before taking a bite of his own broccoli and sweetcorn pizza. Robin admired Cyborg’s creativity and dedication to lifting his friend’s spirits, but wished that he had limited the vegetarian pizza gesture to just himself.

“Oh! Yes, to Beast Boy!” added Starfire as she finished spreading her second jar of mustard over her own pizza. It would end up tasting exactly the same as if they had called in their usual order.

“To Beast Boy,” deadpanned Raven, not showing a huge amount of emotion, but openly smiling and holding forth her own slice of Margherita pizza with added red and green peppers.

“Thanks everyone,” acknowledged a slightly deflated Beast Boy. They hadn’t fought any criminals today – at least, not in the usual way – but he still felt more exhausted than if he had gone five rounds with Adonis. “It’s good to be back home.” He paused. “With my real family.”

Raven’s smile grew ever so slightly, Starfire beamed at his comment, Robin placed a hand on his shoulder, and Cyborg playfully jostled his hair.

“Still though,” Robin began tentatively. He clearly didn’t want to question their good fortune, but it was the detective in him. “I wonder what made him drop the case like that?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Beast Boy was quick to reply through a mouthful of Veggie Supreme, extra Supreme. He was telling the truth, but he didn’t seem to consider it an uncomfortable topic to broach, to Robin’s relief.

“I think it’s pretty obvious what put him off,” added Cyborg, nodding towards the two girls. Only Beast Boy noticed that Raven seemed to tense up a little, but Starfire’s reaction was more obviously noticeable. She almost dropped her slice of… well, at this point it was more mustard than pizza, but fortunately for her – and the carpet – her grip loosened in surprise, but she didn’t drop the snack completely.

“I… don’t understand,” Starfire asked earnestly.

“Well, when B was…” Cyborg obviously didn’t want to recall anything too traumatic, and quickly wondered how best to phrase his explanation. “When B was having a hard time today, you flew straight up to him in the middle of the courtroom. That would have told me two things; first, just because we work within the law didn’t mean that we were gonna respect anything that happened in there. The judges and the lawyers could have said anything, and it wouldn’t have mattered, we weren’t going to let anyone mess with our buddy.”

It wasn’t the most eloquent explanation, but it was sincere enough to mean something. And even with the danger gone, even with the happy mask back on his face, Beast Boy would need more support like that to move past what had happened. “Thanks man,” he replied, quiet but grateful, and then he paused. “Wait, what was the second thing?”

“Oh!” Cyborg seemed to have forgotten. “Well, imagine if you sued someone, and then you saw – in person – that their friend could fly and shoot lasers from their eyes. Like, no-one else thinks it’s a coincidence that he saw that, dropped everything and ran?” He was half-joking, but it was certainly a plausible theory.

“I did not employ the use of my eye beams,” Starfire corrected. “Although I was sorely tempted.” Unlike Cyborg, she was not even remotely joking.

It was an extremely plausible theory.

“Well, whatever the reason, I’m just glad to be back,” announced Beast Boy, casually steering the conversation away from Galtry. “I don’t think I could’ve gotten through today without any of you, I mean that.” The team were pleased that he was feeling better, but there was still something slightly unnatural about a sincere statement from Beast Boy that didn’t contain a single joke.

“And Cy… don’t think we haven’t noticed that you haven’t taken a single bite of your pizza yet.” Beast Boy added with a grin, drawing everyone’s attention to Cyborg’s untouched meal – save for the solitary slice he had removed to propose a toast, and then lowered back into the box.

“What?” replied Cyborg defensively, as if being accused of a crime. “I’m just… savouring the moment, waiting for my appetite to… build up even more!” he obviously lied.

“Uh huh,” answered Beast Boy, staring back at Cyborg and his pizza in patient expectation.

“… Oh, fine,” Cyborg cracked, picking up a slice and taking a generous bite. He moved the contents around in his mouth like a sommelier sampling a fine wine, contemplating the texture, taste, and mouthfeel. Eventually, he swallowed the mouthful, and noticed Beast Boy still staring at him as if expecting a verdict.

“… Not as bad as I thought.” He admitted.

“Really?” replied Beast Boy in surprise.

“Yeah… it’s much, much worse.” He laughed. “I don’t know how you put up with this stuff.”

When even the Meat VS Tofu argument had been reduced into a friendly exchange, Raven knew that Beast Boy was at least on the path of recovering back to normalcy; or whatever passed for normalcy, in their line of work. Having already eaten a few slices of her own pizza – and turned down an offer from Starfire to lend her some mustard – she began to close the box so that Cyborg could put the rest in the fridge for later.

“Well, this was nice, and thank you Cyborg for the…” she glanced at her pizza again as if she half-expected it to sprout legs and try to escape, “wonderful meal, but I’m feeling a little tired and I’d like to meditate before I head to bed. Goodnight, everyone.”

There were some half-hearted protests, but everyone knew better than to force more social interaction out of Raven. As she walked past Beast Boy, she gave him what she hoped was a sufficiently meaningful smile.

“I’m glad that you’re okay.” She stated sincerely, before departing to the corridor and heading straight for her room.

Barely ten seconds had passed before Beast Boy let out an exaggerated yawn that would have sounded forced, if he hadn’t also been genuinely exhausted.

“Thanks for the meal, but I think I’m gonna hit the hay as well. I didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep last night, so…”

“Say no more, man.” Cyborg replied. “I’ll make sure you have plenty of leftovers in the morning.”

“Thanks Cy. Night, all!” he announced, darting in the same direction as Raven. If they knew that he was going to talk to her, they didn’t raise it with him. And as the three resumed eating their meals in the Common Room, Cyborg only had one question to ask.

“… Okay, would both of you keep it a secret if I called back and ordered a meat-lovers?”

Robin shook his head in authoritative disapproval, and then quietly added “Two, please.”

Starfire crossed her arms and said “Hmph!” as if she wouldn’t have had the same reaction if mustard wasn’t suitable for vegetarians. They all suspected to some extent that Beast Boy had left to say something to Raven, but after the day they’d had, they were just grateful to have him back, healthy, happy and safe.

.

“Rae, wait up!” panted Beast Boy as he struggled to catch up with her.

Pausing and turning on her heels, she decided that she would let him get away with his nickname for her, just this once, although she was slightly amused at how out of breath he seemed to be from what couldn’t have been a long jog; if Robin had seen, she knew he would have been assigned extra training. On any other day, at least.

“Yes?” she acknowledged, with a little more happiness than normal, but not uncharacteristically so.

“I just wanted to, uh… say thank you, for today.” He said quite seriously.

Raven raised an eyebrow in response. “You’re welcome, I guess. I don’t think I did a great deal though. If anything, I think Starfire spooked him off.”

Beast Boy laughed, but there was something off about it – neither false nor forced – that revealed that he didn’t quite believe her. “Yeah, that was probably it. All the same though, thank you. Really.” He sounded very sincerely grateful, but she saw no reason to reveal the entire truth unless she was already certain that he was aware of it. Nodding in acknowledgement, she turned to resume the journey to her room. It was then that Beast Boy finally voiced his suspicions.

“I… couldn’t smell you.” He eventually eked out. Raven paused and turned back again, a quizzical expression on her face. Beast Boy laughed awkwardly at his poor phrasing and rubbed the back of his head.

“That doesn’t sound right. I mean, when we were in the courtroom together… you were sitting right next to me the whole time but, I couldn’t smell you. You normally have this scent – it’s nice-“ he bumbled, trying to explain without embarrassing himself one way or the other, “I mean, it’s cosy. Everyone in the tower has one. But yours disappeared for like, five minutes.” If Raven was reacting to this, it must have been internally, as she continued to stand, arms folded, watching impassively.

Beast Boy continued “So… it disappears for five minutes, and then suddenly it’s back, and a minute later Galtry comes back, all sweaty and terrified and… I think he needed to change his pants, and he drops the charges and runs. It doesn’t take a genius to…” he trailed off, seeing no need to explain further. Raven’s expression remained neutral, so he quickly added in the other detail he’d spotted. “Also, you were reading your book for five minutes without turning the pages.” It wasn’t a Batman-level deduction, but Raven couldn’t deny his powers of observation. But she could certainly deny other things.

“… I’m not sure what you think you smelled,” she replied dismissively but not impatiently, “but I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if it makes you happy, believe what you want.” She wanted to deny the point without outright gaslighting him; that would be the last thing he deserved after a day like this. Beast Boy smiled at her entirely predictable response and seemed to respect her decision to deny responsibility.

“Well… all the same, thank you. Seriously.” He sounded so sincerely grateful that she couldn’t help but smile back. She could sense that he was tempted to go in for a hug, and while she would have groaned, rolled her eyes, and only half-accepted it without reciprocating, she still would have let him. But for once, he seemed to be respecting her physical boundaries, and instead he extended his right arm for a handshake. Raven paused for a moment before accepting, shaking his hand almost professionally, and, satisfied with the conversation, Beast Boy turned to leave.

Raven didn’t let go of his hand.

It took him a second to realise as he turned back that her grasp had tightened – not enough to hurt him, she would never hurt him – but she held him with an ironclad grip. With her hood up, her expression was inscrutable as she refused to let him go. A smarter man would have worried, panicked and fled, but Beast Boy was never smart when it came to Raven, and would also take the opportunity to push her buttons rather than flee.

As he heard a subdued, almost choked sob coming from her, he gently lifted his hand to her hood and pulled it back. As suspected, he found himself staring into Raven’s four glowing red eyes, but despite their association with rage, he didn’t feel afraid. She could sense his lack of fear, and it made her squeeze his hand even tighter for just a second. She seemed to be staring at his hand, or the ground beneath, but after opening and closing her mouth a few times, unsure of what to say, she eventually lifted her gaze and made eye contact.

“… You’re mine.” She growled in a low, demonic voice. It was immature, possessive and the stuff of children’s nightmares; a demon claiming ownership of your body, your life and soul.

Beast Boy found it strangely adorable.

Placing his other hand on top of her own, he replied “I’m yours,” in acceptance and approval.

For a brief moment, he could have sworn that she seemed to smile, before she resumed her cold, business-like exterior. Her grip on his hand didn’t weaken, however.

“That… that means that you fall under my protection. Do you understand?” She asked, more of a command than a question, but he was still utterly unafraid as he nodded in response. “I understand,” he replied, still smiling warmly.

“Good,” she replied quietly. “… Good.”

Then, to his surprise, she hugged him. It didn’t make any logical sense; she was part-Raven, and part-exclusively the side of Raven that dealt in anger, fury, and delivering righteous justice to those who displeased her, which on several occasions seemed to include him. But she hugged him all the same, enjoying the warm embrace which he quickly returned. Without moving back, she murmured in his ear.

“You know that if anyone else ever makes you feel the way that he did, you can always talk to me, right?” she asked, unable to keep the fury and venom out of her voice at even the hypothetical people she imagined who had to gall to threaten the wellbeing of someone that she cared about. Beast Boy could feel her grasp tighten and her hands heat up as if the mere thought was enough to make her want to incinerate something.

“Of course, Rae. I know.” He reassured her.

“Good. Because I’ll… take care of the problem.” She promised, leaning back from the hug, with a slight edge of pre-emptive fury at whoever would be so stupid as to do such a thing.

“I know you will. And where I can, I’ll try to protect you too,” he vowed back. Raven smirked; there was the more arrogant side of her Rage that he was used to seeing. It was clear that she doubted that there were many problems could that pose a threat to her but be handled by him, but she didn’t put those thoughts into words, and seemed to appreciate the sentiment.

She had one more, quite basic thing to say, but the words seemed to stick in her throat until she finally forced them out.

“I… like you.” She reluctantly admitted. From Raven, praise like that was rare enough. From Rage, it was practically a declaration of love. Even Beast Boy knew better than to push his luck now.

“I like you too,” he replied, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “A lot.”

Raven smiled again and, before she could stop herself, grabbed his head and pulled it towards her so that she could place a tender kiss on his forehead. She did so with no shame or hesitation, but as soon as it was over, Rage seemed to return fully under Raven’s control, and Beast Boy was left staring at the very shocked and blushing empath, who quickly let go and pulled her hood back over her head.

“That was, uh…” she stuttered, pointing a shaking finger at the spot where she had just kissed him, “That was a protection spell.” She could be a very convincing liar when she needed to be, but this wasn’t one of those times. “Just thought it might help,” she murmured.

Once again, Beast Boy wisely decided not to push it. “Well, I think it’s working. I feel safer already.”

Even with her hood up, he could see how much her blush deepened as she took an embarrassed step backwards. How could this idiot, who she sometimes felt could barely string a sentence together, so frequently say things that would leave her legs turned to jelly and her heart beating out of her chest?

“Well… I really do need to get some rest. Good night, Beast Boy.” She hurried, retreating to her room and closing the door before he could return the sentiment. All the same, he replied “Good night, Raven,” to the empty corridor, before returning to his own abode.

It hadn’t been a lie. He really did feel safer.

Today had been an emotional rollercoaster filled mostly with drops, and the remnants of anxiety from his encounter with Galtry hadn’t entirely subsided. But no matter the stress, the heartache or the memories that plagued him, knowing that Raven was nearby and looking out for him, he felt that he could take anything that the world could throw at him and make it through to the other side. The memories of those years would never stop haunting him, but they were part of a journey that had led him to where he was now. That had led him to her. And no matter his past, present or future, it made him feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

How many other people could say that they had a half-demon as their own personal guardian angel?

Chapter Text

Five Years Later

.

“Good evening, Nick!”

‘Nick’ jumped in alarm, the same way he reacted to any loud noises. Or quiet noises. Or noise in general, really.

“Oh, um… good evening, Samantha!” he stammered nervously. She eyed him with some curiosity before leaving. Nicholas was something of an enigma in the office; he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, and ate a quiet lunch by himself. He was comfortable enough with small talk, but any questions about his personal life, no matter how mild, caused such a severe and visible anxiety that everyone else had long since given up trying to pry anything out of him. Several of his colleagues had long-suspected that he was under some kind of witness protection program. Which was almost true, in a manner of speaking.

Nicholas G had arrived in the city one day with nothing but a suitcase and small rented room at a nearby Bed and Breakfast. He was quickly running out of money, he had no previous references for a job, and he also appeared to constantly be sweating profusely. Despite this, he had somehow landed a reasonably steady job making telemarketing calls on behalf of an animal charity. One of the few opinions that he seemed to be comfortable to express was that he very much loved all animals, and was very much against the abuse of them. Which was… nice, but something about the way that his eyes darted as he spoke, and his sweating somehow intensified, made it seem to some as if he was overcompensating for something.

That said, nobody really cared enough about Nicholas Galtry to pry too deeply. His colleagues found him pleasant and considerate enough, in an awkward way, and his manager considered him to be one of his most dedicated employees, at least in regards to timekeeping. His landlady said that he always paid his rent on time, and his neighbours – the few that he had who were even aware that he existed – would have described him as a quiet man who kept to himself.

As the work day drew to a close, Galtry saved and closed his spreadsheets for the day and waited patiently for his computer to power down. While he was often the last worker in the office for the day, the large office building was home to many small companies who worked later into the night, so he was far from the only one who heard the unexpected announcement that was shortly made. Although he definitely had the most drastic reaction, at least internally.

“Hello? Can everyone hear me?”

It was him. Garfield. How… how had he found him? Why had he found him; oh God, that was an easy one. Revenge. He had left no trace, no trail of breadcrumbs to follow, and yet here his nephew was. And where his nephew was… his witch friend was sure to be close behind. Galtry was in such a panic that he only half-heard the rest of the message over the outdated office intercom.

“My name is Beast Boy, of the Titans. I apologize for the interruption of your day, but we are currently working in conjunction with the Justice League. While it is extremely unlikely, this city is one of several potential targets for an attack by off-world forces. For this reason, an evacuation is currently in progress. Please make your way to the ground floor of this building, where members of our support team, volunteers, and law enforcement will direct you to the nearest meeting point, where you will shortly be transported to a secure shelter. This is not a drill. Please, make your way to the ground floor as quickly as possible.”

Galtry’s choice could not have been easier. Follow the crowd of people who were orderly making their way downstairs, potentially bumping into his nephew. Or remaining upstairs, and risking death at the hands of an alien invasion. Death was certainly the preferable option. Hell, death at the hands of anyone other than his nephew’s psychopathic witch friend would be better than meeting her again.

The office that Galtry worked in was close to the back of the third floor, which made it easy for him to avoid detection as he retreated back into his workplace while everyone else was occupied leaving theirs. On the off chance that anyone looked back, he quickly ducked behind his desk, waiting until the sounds of people leaving faded. What had the announcement said? ‘Extremely unlikely’? He’d definitely take his chances with the aliens.

As the faraway murmur of the departing crowd slowly faded to silence, Galtry breathed a sigh of relief. What was it that the demon-girl had said? “No contact… He will never hear from you again… Leave him alone, or I will kill you.” Despite the dramatic effect these words had on him, Galtry couldn’t recall them all, or in the correct order. He only remembered the parts that scared him, which unfortunately for him, was most of it. As much as he was terrified of reuniting with Garfield, reuniting with his friend would be much, much worse. He doubted that he would survive the encounter.

All he had to do was wait it out, and hope that he wasn’t found. It was all he had done for years. He could continue now, surely.

…

And then… she appeared.

No longer the inexperienced teenager, but a full-bodied adult woman. Her hood was down, and her hair was slightly longer, not that it prevented her from scouring the offices. Galtry immediately retreated further under his desk and quietly huddled his legs closer to himself, in the foetal position. No. No. She wasn’t here. She couldn’t be here. He – he had done what she asked, avoided him, and especially avoided her. It wasn’t fair, she couldn’t… but she could. And she was right there.

“Please don’t be alarmed.” Raven began, and while she had grown more accustomed to speaking to the public, her soothing voice, if anything, only terrified Galtry more. “But I can sense your presence. You need to evacuate, now.” She commanded, firmly but fairly.

Galtry hoped that she was bluffing. He had spent the last five years of his life hoping that she had been bluffing. ‘Sense your presence?’ That had to be made up… right? He couldn’t even hear any footsteps, so she couldn’t have been approaching him… unless she was levitating, of course. As she entered the office and her shadow was cast upon the floor, Galtry flinched and tried – and failed – to hide himself further.

“… I can see your feet,” she deadpanned, albeit with no malice. After all, to her, he was just another panicking citizen who had failed to heed their warning; far from the first that she had dealt with today. Still, as she leaned down to get a better look at the man she needed to escort out, his heart froze and his blood turned to ice in his veins.

“Sir, you need to-“ Raven paused as she finally got a good look at the sorry man before her. Her words died in her throat as she momentarily narrowed her eyes in anger, only for them to return to normal a second later. Galtry wasn’t sure which he found more terrifying.

“… Oh,” she muttered coldly. There was an uncomfortable pause in which Galtry felt as though she was weighing up the pros and cons of killing him right then and there, or at best, leaving him for dead, when she did something surprising.

Shaking her head as if ridding herself of a bad memory, she continued in a curt, professional manner. “We need to leave the building. It isn’t safe here.” And then she turned on her heel and began to lead the way out, as if unaware that she was speaking to the man who had tortured the only soul on this planet that she truly loved.

Galtry didn’t move, and Raven looked back impatiently. “We need to go, now.” She reiterated half-forcefully, and he finally found the courage and energy to stand up and begin to follow her. With a wave of her hand, she created a dark portal for them to travel through. “I can take us straight outside if you’d-“

“NO!!!” Galtry flinched at the sight of her powers. The last time he had been through one of her portals, she had shown him a vision of hell that had never quite receded from his mind. Raven recalled this as she couldn’t help but let out a tiny smirk of pride. She would have normally felt ashamed at someone being so openly fearful of her, but in Galtry’s case, it was nice to see that the message she had provided for him years ago had been received so clearly.

“… Alright, stairs it is then,” she continued emotionlessly, leading him swiftly towards the staircase as he followed her, cowering and jumping at every loud – or not-so-loud – noise.

The stairs. She could push him down them and heal him and then push him again. Or she could – she could probably fuse him into the stairs, leaving him trapped, inanimate and immobile in concrete and rock. She could rip out his heart and feed it to him, trap his soul in an endless void of pain and torture, or she could – she could… she could hold the door open for him?

Raven threw another impatient glance behind her as she held open the door to the stairwell. “Hurry up, please,” she requested impersonally, and he did, half-expecting her to slam the door back into his face and break his nose… but she didn’t.

As they hurried down the stairs and out of the front door, Galtry felt momentarily at ease at being out in an open, public space, followed by the horror that Raven could easily kill him no matter where they were. As she turned to face him again, he braced himself for the worst, when…

“Please make your way down the street to the left. That’s where members of the public are currently being gathered. We’ll let you know when it’s safe to return; if it isn’t, then you will be transported to a safe environment where you will be provided with food and water until it is safe to resume your normal schedule. Are you ok to walk yourself, or would you prefer to be accompanied?” There was still just a hint of malice in her voice, as if speaking to something unpleasant that she had stepped in, but… there was no trace of a lie. She had safely escorted him out of the building and directed him to a safe zone. It was a most peculiar way for the ‘heir to the throne of Hell’, as she had previously put it, to behave.

Not wanting to count his blessings, Galtry dumbly nodded and began to make his way down the street. He could already see the crowd of people grouped together under the watchful eye of the police, and one or two support members of the superhero team who he had desperately avoided keeping tabs on for the last five years.

Unfortunately, a clean getaway was not to be.

“Rae!” Beast Boy – well, he was hardly a boy anymore, now in his early twenties – flew down in the form of a green eagle and then morphed into his human form just behind her. For the first time since seeing Galtry, Raven panicked, and immediately turned to greet her friend with a little more enthusiasm than she would normally.

“Hey, you found somewhuuuuum-“ the changeling was cut off as Raven firmly pressed her lips onto his and placed her hands on either side of his head, ensuring that he couldn’t see anything but her. With her own eyes closed, she gently explored him, running her tongue over the cheeky little fang that she loved so much that was always popping out of the corner of his mouth. Beast Boy was panicking himself a little too; it was most unlike Raven to be so… brazenly affectionate in public, but he certainly wasn’t complaining, and by the time she broke off the kiss some eight or nine seconds later, he was too dumbstruck for words.

“I’m glad that you’re back,” Raven admitted honestly. “Let’s go regroup with the others.”

“Um… s-sure,” Beast Boy stammered, completely stunned by the display, before, to her horror, briefly moving past her to address the figure she had found in the office building.

“Sir? You need to make your way to- to… to…” his breathing stopped as he saw who he was speaking to. Nicholas Galtry. The abusive uncle. The man he hadn’t seen since the court case where he had tried one last time to inflict cruelty on the boy.

Raven gripped his arm. “Come on, let’s get back to the others,” she reassured him, offering him a way out if needed. Beast Boy looked at her, then back to Galtry, and then took a deep breath and gently shook his head.

“No, it’s… it’s ok.” He turned to Galtry. “Hello.”

Knowing that saying the wrong thing could easily result in his nephew’s demonic girlfriend disembowelling him on the spot, Galtry dared not speak, but simply nodded back in their direction.

“… Well, sir, the public are currently gathered at the end of West Street, as you can see,” Beast Boy explained, his voice shakier than normal, but a far cry from the boy who could barely stand to look at him. “So please make your way there, and… someone from the team will let you know when it is safe to return.”

Galtry was too terrified to even move, so Raven helped him along. “… You can leave now,” she asked quietly, and they both knew that she wasn’t really asking. With a terrified jump, Galtry ran all the way to the end of West Street and didn’t look back.

Beast Boy let out a breath that he didn’t realise he had been holding in. Raven squeezed his arm a little tighter. “You ok?”

“… Actually, yeah,” he replied honestly, with a sense of relief. “I mean… it’s not nice, but… you know. He’s just some guy. I’m not scared of him anymore.” Raven could tell that he wasn’t being completely honest, but he was at least significantly less scared of him than he used to be, and that was progress.

“You’re not the same boy that you used to be,” she reminded him, with another kiss on the cheek to help, “You’re an experienced, mature young superhero… with, as I believe you would put it, a ‘smokin’ hot, super-protective babe of a girlfriend’,” Raven grinned, planting more kisses on his cheek.

That seemed to un-tense her partner considerably, and he cast an eye in the direction that Galtry had disappeared to. “Yeah, you’re right. Hmm, maybe I should thank him.”

Raven said nothing, but her face fell and her eyes bored into Beast Boy as if he had just made an extremely unfunny joke, which he supposed he had. He laughed awkwardly and tried to verbally take a step back. “I mean… not really, obviously. I just mean… that whole ‘trial’ thing. That was… that was the first time I really saw how much you cared about me.” He smiled. She could tell that it was one of his fondest memories, and that filled her with more pride and joy than a thousand defeated supervillains.

“And that convinced me to be more honest about how much I cared about you,” he continued, kissing her gently on the nose, which he knew that she hated; because she secretly loved it.

“I guess so,” Raven replied with a smile, before she frowned softly, not wanting to give that terrible man any credit for how they had ended up together. “Although… we would have gotten together sooner or later, I’m sure.”

Beast Boy let out a forced laugh and scratched the back of his head. “Well… I was actually pretty sure that you hated me, so I… probably would have taken my time to make a move. But I guess if you were stuck in the tower long enough with a handsome stud like me, it was only a matter of time before you succumbed to my irresistible charms,” he proudly boasted.

Raven had used to hate his boasting, until she realised that she had misinterpreted it. It wasn’t sincere smugness, but a self-deprecating joke, poking fun at how unlikely he found it that anyone would consider him in that way. Ever since then, she… well, she still hated his boasting, but in a completely different way. Which is why, instead of lightly smacking him on the back of the head, she pulled him into another passionate kiss. And when she broke it, several seconds later, she only had this to say.

“Damn straight.” She confirmed with a sultry yet sincere smile that left him blushing.

She giggled at how flustered she could still make him after years of dating, before grabbing him by the hand. “Come on, let’s get back to the others,” she took the lead, and he followed, only stopping when an uncomfortable question barged to the forefront of his mind.

“Sure! But, uh… do we need to tell them about… this?” he nodded again in the direction of the public. Where he was.

“Only if you want to,” she replied with her full support, giving his hand a soft squeeze of reassurance.

“… Honestly? Nah. It’s not important,” he admitted, and she could tell that he was telling the truth.

She could tell it was no longer necessary, but she still kept a tight hold of her fiancé’s hand as they left to find the others.

.

From the other end of the street, hidden within the crowd of others, Nicholas Galtry had been cautiously watching the terrifying twosome; his idiot nephew, and the psychotic witch who had threatened his life. He watched them hug, he watched them kiss, and he watched them leave together, hand in hand. Despite their history, and despite his previous treatment, there was something about the innocence and the sincere happiness shared between the two that uncontrollably filled him with…

…

…

with…

…

Anger.

How dare they! The worthless green freak and his demon friend? How dare they get a happy ending! They were the last two people in the country – on the planet, perhaps – who deserved to find happiness. Right then and there, Galtry made a decision. Years ago, he had been humiliated into believing the witch’s lies; that she would hunt him down and end his life if he continued to cause trouble for the useless shapeshifter; who should have been back in his custody years ago! But now… he could see that it had been a bluff. Obviously; it must have been a bluff, she was a superhero for God’s sake. Which meant that his life had never been in danger.

And that there was nothing stopping him from trying again.

He may have been older, but in the darkest, most private moments of his life, Galtry had fantasized about how he would have taken revenge, if he could. Publicity. That was a key element in his plan of attack; force his way back into Garfield’s life by any means necessary. Force him into the biggest spotlight that he could find and use it to uncover his greatest insecurities and use them against him. He could make public what that psycho-witch had threatened to do to him; there was no proof, sure, but there was enough anti-Metahuman sentiment around that he knew he could find an audience. This… this could work.

Galtry smiled for the first time in years. And then he looked up, and his smile disappeared just as quickly as he had found it.

Floating several feet off the ground, staring directly at him, was the same red-cloaked, four-eyed furious demon that he had encountered at Jump City courthouse all of those years ago. The complete lack of reaction from the rest of the crowd told Galtry that she was not visible to the rest of them.

Only him.

Before he had the chance to react, she dove towards him and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, soaring into the sky as her unwilling passenger barely had the presence to scream. He wondered again why no-one was reacting to this, only to look down and faintly see the human body of Nicholas Galtry, still standing in the crowd with an inexplicably frightened expression on his face. Whether it was his soul, an astral form, or something else, she had removed his consciousness from his body in the same way that she had done back at the courthouse. If he remembered correctly, she had broken his neck shortly afterwards.

As they reached the same height as the tallest skyscraper in the city, Raven stopped rising. There were no elaborate tricks this time, no flowery threats, she simply leaned in close to his ear so that he could hear her whisper. He didn’t know why; they were half a mile off of the ground, but the effect was as chilling as it was intended.

“… The sole reason I have continued to allow you to draw breath…” she growled, “is his mercy.”

Incapable of forming a more coherent response, he simply nodded, as she continued.

“So… I would advise you not to take that mercy for granted. Or else…” she smiled as she dropped him, and while he currently possessed no physical form, he plummeted towards the ground as if he did. With one last terrified glance skywards, he saw her sarcastically waving him goodbye as he fell, faster and faster, closer and closer to the ground, seconds to go before he-

He blinked. He was back on the ground. He hadn’t fallen – at least, not from the height that she had dropped him from – but he had lightly stumbled backwards onto the ground. A few people around him shot him an odd look – after all, he had just tripped over… well, nothing – but they were content enough to leave him be.

He did not know if she same could be said for the demon-girl… who had seemingly sensed his brief change of heart and once again taken matters into her own hands. Hands that could easily end his life in an instant, if she so chose. With no remorse or hesitation.

…

You know, maybe this life as an animal charity telemarketer wasn’t so bad after all. There was really no need to… do anything stupid, after all.

Galtry made a mental note that when this was all over, he would have to ring his doctor to get a repeat prescription for his incontinence medication again.

.

Raven had unfortunately had to let go of Beast Boy’s hand in order to fly back towards the rest of her teammates, while he had to transform back into an eagle to do so. Because of this, she was free to… zone out, so to speak, for ten to twenty seconds, before they arrived. She was unconcerned as they landed, however. She was sure that no-one would notice.

“Raven? Are you ok?” Beast Boy asked in mild concern. “You kind of zoned out there for about ten, twenty seconds.”

Curse his hypersensitive senses. This was exactly why she hated birthday shopping for him.

“Really? I’m fine,” she denied flatly, but not coldly.

“You sure? Because…” Beast Boy said nothing, but tapped his nose. She still didn’t understand how that worked; her physical body had remained here. And yet… it was irrelevant. He already knew, but she didn’t have to go into too many details.

“I’m fine, Gar. Just…” she sighed in frustration and mild embarrassment, “… catching up with an old friend, that’s all.”

“Oh really?” Beast Boy replied with a smile, knowing full well what she meant. “Well, what did you and this ‘old friend’ talk about?”

“Well…” Raven would have blushed, but it wasn’t as if she felt even remotely ashamed of her actions. “He… made some lifestyle changes since I last saw him, and I just let him know that I thought that they were a good idea.” She explained diplomatically.

“Uh huh,” Beast Boy replied, folding his arms and waiting for the rest, which he somehow knew was to come.

“… And…” Raven rushed the rest out folding her own arms and blowing a strand of hair out of her face, “Maybe I also gave him a quick reminder of exactly what would happen if he didn’t keep those changes up.”

He wanted to laugh. He wanted to thank her. He wanted to express his appreciation in a sincere but not embarrassing way. But the words came out before he could stop them. She hadn’t misquoted him; he really did have a smokin’ hot super-protective babe of a girlfriend. She had changed his life back at the courtroom in Jump City, and only continued to change it ever since.

“I love you.”

It slipped out so naturally, so honestly, and so gratefully, that Raven was taken aback, but recovered with a small blush. Making her way towards him, she kissed him again; not to shut him up or keep him preoccupied, but to try to convey the emotions that she was never quite sure that she could put into words. But that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t try.

“I love you too.”

Beast Boy wrapped his arms tightly around her, soaking in her presence, her scent, her affection, and her protection. Her promise to protect him had never been broken before, and it wasn’t about to be now.

The loving couple were suddenly distracted by a high-pitched squeal of delight, and breaking apart just enough to see who it was, they observed an overjoyed adult Starfire, who was hopping up and down in excitement.

“Oh! What a romantic display of affection prior to battle!” she praised with joyous tears in her eyes. Her partner was not nearly so excited.

“… I still don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing you two like this,” Nightwing admitted with a perplexed look on his face. “Anyway, how did the evacuation efforts go?” Just like him, straight to business.

“A few stragglers on Fifth and Main, but everyone got out safely.” Raven explained concisely. She didn’t feel the need to bring up who they had bumped into, nor did she feel the need to create any more distance between herself and Beast Boy, who she still had an arm around.

“Good, because we got word from Vic,” Nightwing informed them, somewhat explaining his rushed demeanour. “According to figures from the League, this is the most likely landing point for the invasion, so… we need to be prepared.”

“You got it, Rob.” Beast Boy affirmed seriously. His arm hadn’t left Raven’s shoulder either. A younger Beast Boy would have made a joke to dispel the tension, but he had finally learned that Nightwing hadn’t appreciated his attempts at levity. He also didn’t appreciate still being called ‘Rob’, but that habit was proving much harder to break.

With a very solemn nod, Nightwing returned inside to await more contact from the league, with his not-not-girlfriend – who had recently officially been promoted to ‘girlfriend’ – trailing behind him. Beast Boy and Raven took in the view of the huge, mostly-empty city. There was something slightly unnatural about the emptiness, but there was nothing to do but wait.

“Are you nervous?” Raven asked, noticing Beast Boy’s silence and worrying that it could be fear.

“No,” he answered immediately, and honestly.

“Oh. … Why not?” she replied, a hint of playfulness in her voice that would have been unthinkable even a few years earlier.

“Because you’re here,” he replied. That earned him a very meaningful look of appreciation and a tender kiss on the cheek, but it was nothing less than the truth.

He hadn’t expected it, but if anything, he was relieved that they had bumped into his uncle today. Because all it had done was confirm how far he had come, how much he had grown, and how much safer he felt; not just because of his friends, but because of the confidence that they had helped him to find. And he knew most of all who was responsible for those positive changes.

He held Raven close, resting his head on her shoulder, and waited patiently for whatever was about to come, knowing full well that as long as she remained by his side, there was absolutely nothing that he couldn’t handle.