Jaded Eyes
Mirror and Image
Garfield. Yes, Raven was definitely going to get a lot of mileage out of that. Smirking, she glanced over to the cockpit where "Garfield" was currently sitting, a small, but happy smile resting on his face. It had struck her as odd at first; that the Doom Patrol referred to one another by their given names. Within the Titans, they were simply super-heroes. Their given names were never spoken. Yet they were closer than a family at times.
The Doom Patrol hardly seemed close, by contrast. Mento - Steve - was almost like a drill sergeant, snapping orders and expecting them to be followed to the letter. Beast Boy's less than enthusiastic response to their summons of him indicated something of how they had separated, and it wasn't pretty, however it occurred.
Less enthusiastic was an understatement. Beast Boy normally had a pair of brilliant emerald eyes that could, if Raven wanted to be poetic, be described as chipped jewels. However, this encounter with the Doom Patrol had a different color to describe his eyes. Jaded.
This whole excursion, facing off with Beast Boy's old enemies, the Brotherhood of Evil, had brought to light just how little they knew about their shape changing friend. Beast Boy - Beast Boy! - was a former member of the Doom Patrol, a legendary hero group rivaling the Justice League, and the bat-family of Gotham in fame. That meant that he had been fighting evil for as long as Robin, if not longer. He had more experience, yet he still portrayed himself as a hopeless fool. There were so many questions that this battle had brought up.
"Dearest friend," Starfire's voice came over the communicator, "it is good to see that you have resolved your differences with the Patrol of Doom."
Beast Boy chuckled softly.
"I still can't believe you were part of the Doom Patrol," Cyborg added, the slightest hint of reverence in his voice. "How come you never told us?"
"I already told you," the changeling answered. "I was given a choice, and for the Doom Patrol, I made the wrong one."
"For the Doom Patrol?" Cyborg asked, incredulous. "What'd you do, cook that fake-meat tofu of yours for them instead of real food?"
Beast Boy shook his head sadly. Leaning back from his consol, he gave a soft sigh. "No, I wish it was something like that."
"I am glad that it is not," Starfire replied, her voice like sunshine, "for they would be poor friends if that was a reason for dismissing you."
"One thing you have to understand," Beast Boy continued, "is that with the Doom Patrol, every mission was supposed to be our last. I didn't really understand that back then. Steve's real strict on training. If you think Robin's tough, you don't know what it's really like to be trained."
Cyborg whistled appreciatively before laughing. "So why do you try so hard to get out of training now?"
Beast Boy laughed openly. "Because it's nice to be able to!"
"You realize," Robin's smiling voice came over the speakers for the first time, "that I've heard every word. I definitely want to hear about how the Doom Patrol conducted their training."
There was a long pause, and from Raven's position, she was sure that Beast Boy was paler.
"Don't worry BB," Cyborg stage-whispered. "I don't want to go through the Doom Patrol's training either. We'll think of something."
"They sound as fearsome I have perceived them to be." Starfire stated. "How did you come to be a member of the Patrol of Doom?"
There was a nervous chuckle. "You don't want to hear that."
"I'll admit to being curious as well," Robin added.
More nervous laughter. "You wouldn't believe me."
"Oh this I gotta hear," Cyborg drawled.
Raven smiled to herself. Trigon had forced her to talk a lot about her life before the Titans. Granted, there were still parts that she outright refused to discuss, the bulk of her life was now known to her team. Scratch that, her family. And nobody was more of a pest to get her to open up than Beast Boy. Now he was getting a fair bit of payback. Now he was going to talk about his life to the team. She reveled in how it obviously made him as uneasy as talking about her life made her uneasy.
"Let me guess," Raven spoke for the first time, her monotone sounding strange to her own hears in the cockpit, "you're some sort of unwanted son that joined to annoy his forgotten family." She allowed herself a smirk at her own sarcasm.
As expected, Robin and Cyborg had a hearty laugh while Starfire offered a more diffused chuckle. Raven could picture Beast Boy with his indignant look that he usually gave when she teased him. Ears drooped, lower lip out in a pout, and corner of his mouth threatening to rise to a smile of his own as he tried to think of a proper comeback. It made Raven smile a little more.
"Actually, that's not that far from the truth."
All laughter ceased.
"Come again?" Robin asked, his voice confused.
"Steve and Rita, Mento and Elasti-Girl, are married," Beast Boy replied. Raven watched as he twisted in his cockpit, turning to Robin. "A few weeks later, they adopted me."
Cyborg was incensed. "You're telling me a good-looking girl like Elasti-Girl is married to Mr. Drill-sergeant-and-I-have-a-UFO-for-a-helmet?"
"But when we met, you said you were ex-Doom Patrol," Robin ignored Cyborg. "You left your family?"
"Beast Boy," Starfire's voice was filled with confusion and sadness. "I do not understand. Why did you and your family separate? I had thought that your differences with the Patrol of Doom originated with their leader, Mento."
Beast Boy twisted in his seat again, looking away from the Titans. Raven sat back. She never would have thought Beast Boy had just left a family when the Titans formed. He was always so cheerful, trying to be funny, trying to get to know everyone, trying to get everyone to hang out together, trying...
Raven nodded to herself. Beast Boy's behavior when the team first got together made sense now. He was trying to find his place in what he considered to be his new family. Add on that his new family was much more relaxed that how the Doom Patrol sounded, and it was understandable why Beast Boy sometimes came off as the ultimate teenager. He was living experiences that the Doom Patrol had denied.
Beast Boy sighed. "Like I said before, the Doom Patrol went into every fight expecting it to be their last. We were heroes, and we could perform the ultimate sacrifice if we had to."
A small laugh. "Heh, I didn't understand that. I was just going on an adventure with my family. I didn't want anyone hurt, so my priorities were a little different."
"You wished for the safety of the Patrol of Doom before capturing the villains you fought," summarized Starfire. "That is wondrous! You cared a great deal for the Patrol of Doom, yes? That is something to celebrate!"
"No, Star," Beast Boy whispered. "It wasn't. It wasn't something I even noticed. All I saw was that Steve could get frustrated with me for some small thing I'd done in a fight, and put me through extra training. I don't think the Doom Patrol even noticed it. Cliff and Larry, Robot Man and Negative Man, were always trying to play with me, Rita was like a mother. But Steve was never happy."
"Sounds rough," Robin quietly agreed. No doubt, he was probably talking about his own experiences with Batman.
"Hey!" was the defensive reply. "It may not have been all sunshine and roses, but I have a lot of good memories with the Doom Patrol!"
"Glorious!" Starfire enthusiastically responded. "Pleasant memories are something to be cherished and held dear, especially when dark times emerge."
Raven couldn't help it. She snorted. Granted, it was her better memories that had helped her through her fight with Trigon, but Starfire's wording of it just sounded far too positive for her tastes. Silence fell across the various cockpits as they continued to fly. Raven took the opportunity to glance around. Cyborg was looking at Beast Boy's cockpit, Starfire was smiling to herself, and Robin seemed to be concentrating on piloting. Beast Boy was slouched in his seat, head turned. It was times like this that Raven hated having individual cockpits. They got in the way.
"When did you realize your ideologies clashed so much?" Robin asked, breaking the silence.
"In my last fight with them," was the quiet reply. "Take yesterday's fight with the Brotherhood of Evil. The Brain said that it was ironic that I was given the same choice. Well, when it came down to it, I choose the same way yesterday that I did back then."
"You let the Brotherhood of Evil escape so that you could save the Doom Patrol." Raven had to smile inwardly. Beast Boy always put the safety of others before capturing an enemy. She couldn't help but wonder where he had gotten that philosophy, especially if the Doom Patrol tried to eradicate it from him.
"You preformed exceptionally," Starfire was the first to speak, big surprise. "You stayed true to your beliefs and because of such selflessness, we are all here. I thank you Beast Boy. Were it not for you, we may have fallen."
"Yeah, BB." Cyborg was quick to follow. "No telling what woulda happened to us if you hadn't helped. No telling what would have happened to you if you went after the Brotherhood by yourself. With a group like that, you need strength in numbers."
"You did the right thing," Robin agreed. "A team is only a team if there's more than one. Putting everything on yourself doesn't do anyone any good."
Raven sighed. They were all forgetting one thing. The cost of Beast Boy saving them was letting the Brotherhood get away. That lead to the argument the Titans and Doom Patrol had, as well as the Doom Patrol getting badly injured in the battle the next day. Despite all that, the Brotherhood had still eluded them, becoming the Titan's top priority. Beast Boy wasn't the smartest of their team, but he wasn't stupid. He understood the consequences of his decision, and that long-term, it may have been "smarter" to take out the Brotherhood when he'd had the chance.
That was the problem with long-term results. Nobody knew what they'd be.
"Beast Boy," she started. Raven wasn't the type for long speeches, but if nobody else was going to deal with it, then she had better. "We don't know what will happen with the Brotherhood of Evil. Until this is all over, we have no idea what the repercussions of your choice will be. But Mento went by the idea that you shoot first and ask questions later. So did the rest of the Doom Patrol, otherwise they'd have stepped in on your behalf between you and Mento.
"But you made sure they were around to have the option to step in on your behalf. You made sure that we were around so that we could and did step in on your behalf. You and the rest of us want to give people options and choices. So the Brotherhood got away because of a choice that you made. You just ensured that there were more people to fight the Brotherhood of Evil and that we have a chance to regroup, study, and plan how to take them down.
"That's what makes your choice the right choice."
Beast Boy turned in his cockpit and smiled.
"Raven's right," Robin agreed. "And I think the Doom Patrol sees that now as well."
"Were it not for your actions, the Patrol of Doom might not have had such an opportunity." Starfire's voice was sunshine again.
"Yeah, I'm glad you stuck around with us rather than going back to the Doom Patrol," Cyborg's voice was teasing. "You'd have a hard time goofing off and retraining them how to think."
Beast Boy's smile grew larger and Raven was certain that there were tears in his eyes.
"Glad you're on our team," Raven said, "Garfield."
The End