Broken Day

Chapter 1

Beast Boy had to trot to keep up with his friends but he didn't mind. It was June, finally, and the last of May's rainstorms had tapered off and gone, leaving only bright, blue skies, sunshine and greenery. Inhaling brought the scents of grass and flowers, and his keen ears picked up the birdsong two blocks away in the park they were heading for. It was Starfire who had suggested yesterday that they have lunch in the park (and walk there!) and now she and Robin carried the loaded picnic basket between them while Cyborg had the checkered blanket over one shoulder. Raven was reading and walking at the same time, though her hood was down. Beast Boy thought she was probably hot under that heavy cloak but he didn't dare say anything to the empath. Instead, he hummed to himself, bringing up the rear of the group.

The Teen Titans received smiles and 'Hellos' from just about everyone they saw, the nice weather making people happier. Beast Boy couldn't help but grin when children, with their parents in tow, came right up to their favourite Titan (mostly Robin) to say hi. The more daring asked for autographs and so the group's progress slowed to a crawl as they tried to make their way through the gathering crowd.

Robin got most of the attention but because Starfire was right next to him, she got a good chunk of it, too, and Cy was always up for putting a smile on a kid's face. But then Beast Boy spotted a little girl with an afro of black hair that reminded him of Bumblebee and she inched closer and closer to a certain blue-cloaked Titan who had yet to get her nose out of her book.

"Hey, Rae," BB said with a nudge in her side. "Incoming."

Raven pulled out of her book and looked up with consternation. "What?"

Right then, however, the little girl was in front of them and quietly said, "Um, excuse me? Titan Raven?"

BB watched in growing amusement as the stoic girl looked down into wide and nervous eyes. "Yes?" she said slowly.

The poor kid twisted her hands together and suddenly looked at her shoes. "Um. Hi."

Beast Boy snickered into his hand and nudged Raven again who glared at him. With one finger to keep her place, she closed the book and squatted down. The smile she offered was as rare as it was unsure and it made the green Titan grin.

"Hello," Raven said kindly. Then: "What's your name?"

"Alexa. I'm six. My daddy calls my Aly." She pointed to a tall man whose broad features and kind, black eyes made BB think of a massive teddy bear.

Raven nodded to the man and returned to the girl. "Well, Alexa, are you having a good day?"

Tight, black curls bounced in the positive. "Uh huh."

"That's very good. You keep having good days, okay?"

"Okay!" Alexa smiled, wide and toothily, and ran back to her dad, waving her arms and pointing in their direction. Beast Boy could hear her excited chatter over the din of the crowd.

"You know, Rae," he commented idly as the people began to disperse a bit. "You're quite good with kids."

Raven pulled up her hood but not before he saw her face flush. "Shut up," she growled.

BB beamed at her but then felt his smile freeze on his face as something instinctual kicked up an alarm. Something wasn't right.

"Beast Boy?" Cyborg asked, noticing the youngest Titan's behaviour.

He crouched, placing one hand on the ground, his ears swivelling. Across the park and up and down the street, birds shrieked and dogs barked, sensing what he had.

"B…?"

"Earthquake," he rasped. Then louder, shouting to his friends and the civilians: "EARTHQUAKE!"

Everyone stilled at the word and it was eerily silent for three seconds, even the animals. Then it hit. The entire ground bucked beneath them, buildings swayed dangerously, and people stumbled as they tried to stay upright, clutching children, pets and each other. Everyone screamed. Starfire and Raven shot into the air to escape, grabbing Cyborg and Robin respectively. Beast Boy should follow. He should shift and fly up to join them but his senses pounded, overwhelming him. Terror and panic punched into his nostrils while his ears rang with screaming. He clutched his head, trying to drive out the noise.

Then, over the roar of shattering asphalt and concrete, and of terrified people, the young hero heard a very different cry: "Mommy, Mommy!"

He didn't have to scan the chaos for the source because his hearing already told him where to look. The boy, thirty yards away, was on his hands and knees on the roiling ground, eyes squeezed shut.

"Beast Boy!"

Something groaned, creaking, buckling. Beast Boy didn't notice as he shifted and leaped forward at the same time. The lithe, green cheetah weaved through the filling streets as people escaped the nearby buildings that threatened to crumble.

"Beast Boy, stop!"

He didn't hear. He lunged, landing on the boy and shifting again just as a dark shadow fell on them, and he knew no more.

-:-:-:-

It was still another four minutes before the earthquake ended. Four agonising minutes for four heroes who couldn't understand what was happening to their city, their people and their friend.

The Titans had swooped down from their place of safety in the air to redirect collapsing buildings and gather stragglers. When the four minutes were over, several edifices were down, glass, concrete and steel graveyards in their places, and the beautiful day was broken.

When the last of the tremors were gone, Raven landed and her violet eyes were massive in her pale face as she stared at the spot where Beast Boy had been, now only the destroyed remains of a three-story building.

Beast Boy…

Raven's hood fell back when someone grabbed her, screaming into her face, "Help us, help us!" She wrapped the terrified woman in her magic and lifted her away, setting her down on an intact part of the curb. Taking off her cloak, she draped the fabric over her shoulders and laid her hands on her head, healing the shock.

"Take deep breaths and don't move," the empath ordered firmly before grabbing a young man who didn't look harmed. "Stay with her, do you understand?"

The man, who was only a few years older than her, swallowed and nodded mutely, sitting down and tentatively wrapping an arm around the older woman.

Curling her arms over her chest, Raven walked away to where Robin quietly hushed a group of small children and their parents.

"Raven, you're on medic detail until the ambulances arrive," her leader ordered once he spotted her. "Use your magic sparingly. Cyborg will help you, covering that half of the street. Here." He handed her three markers. "Green is stable, red is critical, black is dead. It'll help the responders when they get here."

If they do get here, Raven thought distantly, her fingers trembling as she took the felts. She didn't say it and turned away. She used a lot of green in the first fifteen minutes and sat them in groups to look after the people smudged with red. She used her magic as much as she dared, taking care of only the most serious wounds. She moved swiftly: green, green, red, red, green, green, green, red, green, red, green, red...

Black and black.

Alexa and her father, half-crushed in the rubble.

Raven tried not to cry as she drew a black circle on their foreheads and continued on. Plumes of dust were settling, papers, leaves and tiny flecks of debris swirling towards the ground. She watched them for a moment, and now the tears came. Trickling down her cheeks, they mirrored the dust and papers and leaves in their fall.

"Raven?"

Cyborg. It was Cyborg. She could feel the energy coming off him, his own worry and fear and it gnawed at her.

"Come sit, Raven. You should sit."

A gently hand cupped her elbow but she withdrew sharply. "Let me work," she hissed, and black magic sparked out a nearby window, shattering it. "I need to work." Her voice cracked. She couldn't stop crying.

Cyborg turned his mismatched eyes on her, one red and the other dark brown. The human side of his face was wet. "Okay," he said. "My side of the street's done. I'm gonna help Star with getting the survivors outta the buildings, okay?"

"Beast Boy?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Cy nodded. "I've got all my scanners searching for signs of life. We'll find him."

Raven nodded back and the pair separated, he to the crumbled buildings, she to the street, and her tears kept falling.

-:-:-:-

It was a good thing that the Teen Titans consisted mostly of super-humans or aliens because they worked well through the afternoon and into the late evening. Fire, police and EMS arrived shortly before two, exhausted but determined to work; rescue dogs scoured through the destroyed streets and buildings, and became more and more discouraged as the day wore on. Smoke from fires in the east blanketed the entire city as the wind blew and made for difficult vision and breathing.

Robin was still working. His cape was gone, given to a teenager with a distraught grandparent, and his skin was a squeamish grey. Robin was not Tamraranian or half-metal or a demoness. All he had were his stubbornness and waning strength.

"Robin?" Starfire's soft voice drifted through his hazy vision while he leaned against a streetlamp for a bit. Just for a bit.

He smiled weakly at her. "Hey, Star."

"Robin, you must rest." Green eyes were earnest and fearful, though the voice held steady.

"Too much to do," he mumbled, stepping away from his support and swaying.

Warm arms caught him, steadying him. "You do too much already. You must rest. Please? Robin, please?"

He had done well so far to keep his emotions in check. He had dealt with loss, after all. He had dealt with catastrophes and chaos. But his best friend's tender tone made him blink and turn his head away.

"I have to keep going, Starfire," he said. "They need us."

Starfire hugged him. "Friend Robin, we need you, too."

"But…Beast Boy."

The name was a metric tonne between them and Robin had to look up into her face to see her reaction, to understand what she was feeling. He was horrified to see tears on those golden-orange cheeks. Stretching out his hand he wiped them away, only to leave bloody and sooty streaks.

Taking a shaky breath, Starfire said, "Friends Cyborg and Raven are still looking for him, just as they are looking for others who may have also survived. Beast Boy will understand that you need your rest, Robin. You are only human."

The last four words were knives to his gut but he knew she was right. There was a time and a place for everything, even rest. He'd been trained to know that or he risked an early death and whom would that help?

"Okay," he agreed at last. "I'll rest."

Starfire hugged him tighter, holding his head to her shoulder. "Thank you," she rasped.

He let her guide him to a triage centre that had been set up in an arena half a block away. There was devastation everywhere and he tried not to look at it. Tried not to look at the bodies laid out in rows, tried not to look at the exhaustion and defeat on every face around him, tried not to look at the rescue dogs who whined in confusion and sadness when all they found were the dead.

They think they're failing, Robin mused to himself. They don't understand.

They entered the centre to controlled chaos. Babies and children cried, pets complained, adults demanded answers to questions like 'What about a tsunami?' 'What do you mean the entire east side is on fire?'

But there was no tsunami warning (thank goodness) and the east's fires were under control.

Starfire stopped a burly woman in a black jacket with the word MEDIC in large, white letters across her back. "Please," she said gently, "my friend is tired. Is there a bed?"

Robin watched dazedly as the medic's sharp, blue eyes fell on him. Whatever she had been about to say died and she smiled wanly. "For the Teen Titans, anything," she answered. "This way. We've a separate area for the First Responders."

Robin nodded mutely while Starfire sighed, "Thank you. Come, Robin." She pulled him along and the Boy Wonder stumbled to keep up.

"He has been going the non-stop since the quaking earth happened," Starfire explained to the medic. "He does too much."

"You can't fault him for it, dearie," was the kind reply. "We humans might not be as strong as you, but we have our own strengths. In our hearts," she explained when the girl looked at her quizzically. "Good people do good until they drop. That's just how we roll on Earth."

"I see." It was impossible to tell if the alien was being truthful or not. They had seen far too much bad, after all.

"Here." The woman showed them to a series of canvas tents, guarded by navy and army personnel. Robin didn't know when they had arrived but he was still grateful to see them. To a young sergeant, the medic said, "Make sure Robin is not disturbed for a few hours."

"Yes, ma'am" was the immediate response.

"Come, Robin." Starfire led him into a tent that already housed a handful of slumbering firefighters, and settled him down on a low cot. "Sleep, my friend. I will return later." Her smile shook as she pulled a blanket up to his chin.

He caught her hand before she left. "Thank you, Star," he whispered.

She kissed his forehead, intertwining their fingers for a prolonged moment. "Rest," she urged.

Robin didn't need anymore telling; his eyes closed and he was asleep in seconds.

-:-:-:-

Everything hurt. That was how Beast Boy knew he wasn't dead. He kept his eyes closed for the time being and fell back on his other senses. He heard a heartbeat nearby, slow and even, and quiet breathing that were not his. He smelled blood, sweat, dust, concrete and metal. He tasted blood in his mouth. He felt the rough asphalt beneath his large hands and feet, felt the weight of something across his shoulders (steel beam, concrete slab?), felt another something sharp dig into his back, and felt blood run down his side. He was wounded, hopefully not too seriously.

But what about the boy? He was alive, obviously, going by the heartbeat and breathing occurring just beneath his belly, but was he hurt? He couldn't smell the difference right now between his blood and the boy's. Maybe in a minute, when his head cleared.

He dared to open his eyes.

Blackness.

Not even a smidgeon of light. Not even his superb night vision helped in here. Wherever here was, though BB had a nasty suspicion that they were trapped under a collapsed building. A freaking miracle they hadn't been crushed.

Keeping an ear out for rescue and the other trained on the unconscious child beneath him, Beast Boy let his thoughts swirl to his friends. He hoped they were okay. They had to be okay. They were strong and fearless, even Robin who was just as human as he was but better in every way that mattered. BB's great head drooped with despair. He was always messing up somehow…

Cough, cough! A wheezy sound. "Mommy?"

BB huffed, tried to shift his weight to check on the boy but felt the weight resting painfully on his body shift in response, and he instantly stilled. There would be no shifting and no moving until that weight was gone, until they were rescued. Bracing himself against the floor and whatever hadn't turned them into pancakes, he lowered his head a bit more to check under him, sniffing for any sign of injury. He breathed with relief when there was none.

The boy couldn't see him in the pitch dark but he doubtlessly heard the animalistic noises, and touched the right foreleg of the furry mountain.

"Are you a dog?"

Beast Boy couldn't help but chuckle at the question – stress did it – and crooned softly. Small hands found his large muzzle and dragged through the thick fur along his neck, caressing up over his brow and feeling his massive ears.

"You're a big dog. Do you know where my mommy is?"

The Titan whined, hoping the kid would understand.

He did. Curling up between his forelegs, he stroked one of them. The soft touch soothed Beast Boy's nerves, his animal side reacting to it. He could count on one hand the number of times his teammates had petted him while he'd been in another shape. He guessed they'd felt uncomfortable because they had always looked horrified after realising what they'd done, had always apologised despite BB's attempts to explain that he enjoyed being touched without sounding too weird. He knew animals offered a level of comfort few humans (or aliens or cyborgs) could ever attain and so he had tried to offer it whenever his friends had been low with varying results, though none were positive for them. Now his comfort was being sought and now he was more than ready to give it.

He nudged the boy gently, whiffling through his hair and along his shoulders which produced sleepy giggles.

A hand rubbed his nose. "Good boy," the boy whispered. "You'll stay with me, right? You'll protect me, right?"

Right, Beast Boy vowed, nuzzling him. I won't mess this up.

-:-

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