Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ The Return of the Beast Within ❯ The stress is building ( Chapter 1 )

CHAPTER ONE

 

One night in Titans tower, Beast-Boy was tossing and turning in his sleep, and twitching nervously. “Mmm… no, don't leave me…!” he muttered softly.

 

He was obviously having nightmares again about his dark past life. How he was mutated after contracting a disease… Losing his parents... and all his ever foster parents and being left alone with no one to care for him. Being despised by people, and being wrongfully kicked off the Doom-Patrol.

 

Worse than that, his biggest nightmares were of his wife, Terra… before they were married. He still kept seeing her as Slade's apprentice trying to fight off his controls, which ultimately ended her up turning into stone… only having to return a s high-school girl with amnesia, and trying to force him to believe…

 

“Things change Beast-Boy. The girl you want to be is just a memory.”

 

Deep down inside of him, you could hear the sound of his heart falling to the floor and smashing into a-million pieces. He had lost! He had failed! His future was finished!

 

“Come with me…” he would ask her one last time.

 

“You go. You're the Teen Titan, that's who you are, it's not me. I'm not a hero. I'm not out to save the world. I'm just a girl with a geometry test next period and I haven't studied.”

 

Then she was gone leaving poor Beast-Boy to run out of the building to nowhere. That's where his nightmare began to grow worse. All that heartache, all the stress… it was growing to be too much for him to fight anymore. Being mutated, unappreciated by many, losing all his loved ones cruelly, and the love of his life dumping him…

 

Beast-boy could feel himself aching and throbbing inside as his head ached, and he began to transform right before his own eyes. He then let out a huge growl and then…

 

…he woke up! “Gah…!” he was all sweaty and breathing stressfully. “Dude, Not again…?” he cried to himself. This had been the twelfth time in three days he had been tortured by nightmares from the past, they just refused to leave him be.

 

His head ached a little bit, but this was no ordinary headache. “Oh, man… he's coming back!” he thought to himself.

 

Just then, the alarm sounded and Robin called the Titans to-arms. Beast-Boy ran off to join them.

 

…

 

Slade had made an unsuccessful attempt to break the security of the Jump-City atomic center, while trying to gather materials for his sinister-projects, and he set off the alarms. He was fortunate enough to escape the atomic-center without getting caught by the guards, but he wasn't able to make it safely into the city without being confronted by the titans.

 

“Well, well…” he mocked. “What are a band of heroes like you doing out on a night like this?”

 

“Don't try that on us, Slade!” Robin sneered. “What do you think you were up to in the atomic-center?”

 

“Yo' man… don't you tell me you're up to somethin' nasty again.”

 

Slade simply grunted and then he leapt across the rooftops. “TITANS… AFTER HIM!” shouted Robin, and the chase was on.

 

Slade leapt from roof to roof trying to escape, but Starfire was trailing him from behind. “Surrender Slade… you will not escape this time.” And she began to fire her star-bolts, but Slade managed to avoid each one of them, and caused Robin's wife to crash into a taller building.

 

“I beg to differ, Starfire…” Slade hissed at her, but then he was attacked from behind by Copy-Cat. “WHOA…!”

 

“And I beg to re-differ with you!” hissed the Psyconian Prince as he unleashed his X-men claws. A large fist fight was engaged with Copy-Cat swiping his claws and Slade dodging them. Finally he slipped and Copy-Cat was able to reach out and touch him copying his form. “My, such impressive foot-work…” Slade commented, “I've always wanted to face myself before.”

 

The battle continued, and the two Slades eventually fell down into the streets. Cyborg aimed his sonic-cannon “Aw, man… I can't tell which is who.” He cried. He remembered that copy-Cat still had his Robin's mask on, but it was too dark, and the Slades were moving too fast for him to get a good look.

“All right then… let's make it easier.” Raven said. “Azarath… Metrione… ZINTHOS!” Using her powers she bent a set of lamppost to bind the two Slades so Cyborg could get a good look at them. He poised his aim at the one who wasn't wearing a Robin's-mask. “Say nightly-night!” he mocked, and he fired at the Slade, and Raven let the other one go…

 

The other Slade changed back into Copy-Cat. “Swell shot Cyborg…” he said, “And well thinking Raven.”

 

His lady-friend smiled at him, but when the dust cleared, the real Slade was gone. “Yo' where'd he go now?” Cyborg asked.

 

Terra came flying past on a flying-rock. “He went this way guys. Follow me!” she said, and all the Titans began to follow her.

 

Slade had retreated deeper into town before the Titans caught up to him. Robin and Terra went first. “Give it up Slade!” Robin shouted at him.

 

Slade sniggered, “Hmm, mm, mm… now why ever would I want to that?” and he whipped out a metal-rod and began to combat with Robin. The two fighters landed several hits, but neither one of them was willing to back down…

 

That's when Terra bombarded Slade with a huge boulder. “ARGH…!” sadly, she accidentally sent him further up the street and out of their sights. “Oops… sorry.” she said.

 

“Don't worry… it's not over yet.” Robin said. Then he whipped out his communicator. “Beast-Boy, get ready. He's coming your way.”

 

…

 

Beast-Boy was ready, and then he saw Slade coming fast. As quickly as he had recovered from being hit by the boulder, he was whammed by a green triceratops, and shoved right into a building. A Very familiar one that Beast-Boy remembered all too well.

 

“Murakami-High…?” Terra's old school from when she returned, and his old school from when he tried to quit the team and become a regular boy. It brought back so many incredible painful memories… enough to kill a stampede of elephants.

 

Just one look and Beast-Boy was already having flashbacks that began to slow him down…

 

“You don't belong here Terra…”

 

“Stop CALLING me that!”

 

“It's who you are.”

 

“What do you want from me?”

 

…

 

Beast-Boy began to feel his head aching again, and his insides lurch with agony.

 

“What's the matter Beast-Boy? Still bothered by changes?” Slade mocked, but he soon regretted saying those words as Beast-Boy let out a huge ROAR, even though he was still in his human form…

 

The Titans finally reached the school grounds and the first thing they saw was Beast-Boy beating Slade to a bloody pulp without even transforming. Then Terra looked up and saw her old school and she began to realize that Beast-Boy was obviously being haunted again by the past that nearly broke them up for good.

 

Finally, Beast-Boy gave Slade a huge SLAM and sent him flying miles, and miles away. “I'LL BE BACK, TITANS…!” he called before going out of sight.

 

Beast-Boy growled like a banshee, literally, but then he came to his senses with his head aching badly. “Dude… what a migraine.” He groaned.

 

“Beast-Boy…” Terra said as she came over to help him get up. “Are you alright…?”

 

Beast-boy looked up at his wife, but he gasped as the image before him morphed into that school-girl that nearly destroyed his last hopes years ago…

 

“Why can't things go back to the way they were? You were so happy then.”

 

“Things were never the way you remember. Now just leave me alone!”

 

And that's when he began to feel strange inside again. This time was more painful and more powerful than the last. “Beast-Boy…?” said Terra.

 

He got to his feet, “I'm fine…” he said with a sour sneer on his face.

 

“Yo' you could've fooled me.” Cyborg said.

 

Beast-Boy stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. “You better mean that as concern!” he growled. “I'm in no mood for jokes!” and then he stomped off.

 

The other Titans were shocked that he acted like that. “Our friend is angry…?” asked Starfire, “What have we done wrong?”

 

“I don't think we've done anything Starfire.” said Robin. He began to feel something familiar about the way Beast-Boy had acted… as if he had seen this somewhere before, but Terra was the only one confused by all this.

 

She still didn't know…!