//------------------------------// // The Truth // Story: Equestrian Titan // by Codex92 //------------------------------// Beast Boy weakly groaned as he came to. Squinting his eyes, he was no longer laying on the hard concrete street out in the middle of the city. He was now staring at the ceiling of Rainbow's living room, transported here by the girls, and was set down on the couch to recover. Though his entire body was sore, Beast Boy sat himself up with a grunt, clutching his side as he strained himself, but a hand rested on his shoulder and gently forced him to lay back down. "Don't move. You're hurt." He looked to his left, seeing the girls were all together waiting for him to wake up with Fluttershy trying to get him to lie down. Where he expected them to be relieved after remembering he got his butt whooped by the H.I.V.E Five, most of them stared at him with skepticism, some with confusion. Fluttershy did seem concerned, but she also looked hurt, betrayed. She backed away when he refused to lay back on the couch, looking away from him as she sat beside Rarity and Applejack. Beast Boy twisted around with a grunt, setting his feet on the ground as he leaned against the back of the couch. "What happened?" he asked. "Why am I here?...And the H.I.V.E. Five?" "We took care of them," Sunset said. "They're in jail." "And you're at my place," Rainbow chimed in. Beast Boy sighed. He didn't want them to fight the H.I.V.E. Five, but seeing how they came out unharmed, he was glad to know that the H.I.V.E. were stopped and arrested before they caused even more mayhem. "...Thanks for helping, but I could have handled them," he said. "Ya got smacked around like a ping pong ball and got knocked out," Applejack stated. "Ya couldn't have handled them if y'all were tryin' to catch a pig while greased with butter." "And if you think you're just going to leave in the state you're in, you're not going anywhere with us around," Rarity said. "Not to mention a lot of questions, Beast Boy," Twilight said. "Or should we call you by your real name?" Sunset grabbed something on the coffee table, and to Beast Boy's shock, she held up his mask. "Garfield." Beast Boy tried in vain to cover his face, but since they already figured out his identity when he was unconscious, he lowered his arms with a defeated sigh. "I knew I was gonna get caught eventually," he mumbled, dropping his lower tone to mask his voice now that they knew. "Keeping a secret identity was so much harder than I thought. How did Batman do it?" "Aha! So you were DC all along!" Pinkie exclaimed. Her accusation confused everyone as they all looked at the hyperactive party girl. "...What? I asked him if he was Marvel or DC when we met." "...What does that even-?" Sunset stopped herself, then shook her head. "Never mind. Pinkie Pie being herself." Beast Boy knew he wasn't going to get away so easily. He was badly injured, surrounded by the girls he befriended in this world, and with their magic, especially Twilight's telekinesis, they could easily drag him back so they can get some answers out of him. If there was ever a stressful time to be interrogated by someone, it had to be with his friends when he was caught in a huge lie. He caught Fluttershy looking at him, gulping nervously as he feared their relationship as a couple was going to end after he talked. "Why did you lie to us?" Fluttershy asked, trying to remain calm despite slightly trembling in fear of everything she shared with her superhero boyfriend was only a ruse. "...Not everything I said was a lie," Beast Boy mumbled. "Then what was really true?" Applejack questioned. "If you're not going to tell us, I can look into your head and tell the others myself," Sunset warned. Beast Boy sighed, giving in to their demands and sparing Sunset from witnessing the worst of his past life. "Ok. I'll tell you guys everything," he said. "You already know I'm not from this world, my names, and my powers." "'Names'?" Rarity questioned. "Beast Boy is my superhero name, but Garfield Logan is my actual, normal name," Beast Boy explained. "I always just went with my hero name since...well, you know. Shapeshifting animal boy." "And we're going to assume your home, 'Jump City', never really existed in this world at all," Sunset guessed. "In my world, that's where I lived," Beast Boy said. "I used to live with a few other superheros around my age, too. We called ourselves the Teen Titans, and we protected the city from villains like the H.I.V.E. Five, aliens from other planets, wild and dangerous creatures from Earth, even a super demon from another dimension who actually happened to be the dad of one of my friend's." "Aliens and demons!?" Rainbow and Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, but the looks on the others made them drop their wide grins. "And let me guess: your friends you told us about the other day are also your teammates?" Twilight asked. "With super powers of their own?" Beast Boy nodded, then held up his hand and lifted a finger as he listed each of his friends. "Starfire's actually an alien from a planet called Tamaran, Raven's a sorceress with demon magic, Cyborg is literally a cyborg, and Robin, the only normal one out of the five of us, uses gadgets and martial arts to fight crime." The look of surprise on the girls' faces was exactly what he expected them to have, even as they began to imagine what his friends looked like. "Yeah. We were a strange bunch. But we were like a family...even when we tend to get on each other's nerves." "Well, it can't be as dramatic as mah own extended family when they come over to visit," Applejack said. "What happened to you before you ended up here?" Fluttershy asked curiously. Beast Boy grimaced sadly, wishing that sort of question wouldn't be brought up. He already gave the gist of his relationship with Terra to Fluttershy back at Equestria Land, and there was also his insecurities as the mutant hero he is because of his lost love. Fluttershy noticed the trepidation in his eyes; the same trepidation before he revealed why he was so anxious explaining to her about his love life and fears of being in a relationship. Since there was no way he was getting out of this without telling his new friends EVERYTHING, Beast Boy steeled his nerves and let out a heavy sigh. "...You probably won't believe me if I just tell you I 'ran away from the team and tried to go solo,'" he started. "A lot of things happened before I ended up through that portal of Twilight's...most of it not exactly the best. Dealing with a powerful super villain isn't the issue; relationships and socializing is another." "Relationships?" Rainbow questioned. "Dude, you're a superhero from your world. I think girls from your world would have been all over you and your guy friends after saving them from a monster." "After the long journey my friends and I went on to stop every single villain we've ever faced to unite all the other Titans teams across the world to stop them, Jump City made a lot of changes while we were gone," Beast Boy said. "Fame didn't bother me much before. I mean, I try to be a lady killer, but I act more like a goof trying to get their attention while trying to look cool." "Well, you certainly had Fluttershy's attention," Rarity said, making the animal lover's cheeks turn a light shade of pink. "So, what caused your mindset to change on how popular you were as a hero?" Beast Boy sighed, taking off his gloves and holding out both his hands. "My skin and hair weren't really supposed to be green," he said, then gestured to his face and short, shaggy hair. "I was human before I became Beast Boy. Ever since I turned into an animal shapeshifter at a younger age, my whole body turned green, and my ears are also a bit longer and pointy." "How did that happen?" Twilight questioned curiously. "And with your shapeshifting powers...you're able to transform into ANY kind of creature?" Beast Boy nodded in response to her second question, but he wasn't able to explain how before Twilight continued asking more questions. "Even creatures NOT from your world? Or planet?" "Uhh...Yeah, I guess," Beast Boy uttered. "I mean, there were a few aliens I could turn-" "On the news, we saw you turn into a slingtail to save the news reporter and cameraman," Twilight interrupted, a theory quickly peaking her scientific mind, along with hers and everyone else's curiosity with his powers. "Can you turn into a timberwolf?" Beast Boy shrugged, but complied. Envisioning the wooden canines in his mind, his body warped about in his spot on the couch, and if the gasps of awe from the girls were any indication, he must have pulled it off. Beast Boy looked down at himself, his body now a canine's, but made entirely out of bark, leaves, logs, and twigs. There was still the discrepancy of his transformations to the original creature he becomes; the bark's more green than any leaves attached to the twigs on his body, and the glowing green eyes were just big, white, pupil-less ones, which looked even more creepy with how lifeless they seemed. "Wow! That's...That's incredible! He can even turn into creatures from Equestria! I mean, he can turn into dinosaurs or extinct animals from hundreds of thousands of years in the past, but THIS is astounding! What else can you turn into!?" "Ok, Twilight, cool it down," Sunset interjected, stopping the nerdy teen from geeking out more than she is. Twilight cleared her throat, blushing sheepishly at her overreaction while Beast Boy changed back to normal. "I still don't know the real extent of my powers, but so far, I can turn into any kind of creature I've seen before," he said. "I can even turn into an amoeba. Though that experience when I had to get rid of a virus in Cyborg with Gizmo...that wasn't pleasant." "You worked with that little twerp before???" Rainbow questioned. "It's a long story. I'll tell you about that later," Beast Boy mumbled. "So...how exactly did you get these powers?" Sunset asked. "You said you were a normal person before." "Did you fall into a vat of chemicals that made you all green and give you animal powers?" Pinkie guessed. "...No. I grew up traveling the world with my parents," Beast Boy said. "You made the right guess before just out of pure randomness." "I did?" Pinkie asked, making the shapeshifting hero facepalm at her cluelessness. "A week after stopping those slingtails, you thought I was a mutant bitten by a radioactive monkey in a jungle," he rephrased. "Wait, so you're sayin' Pinkie was right about that guess???" Applejack questioned as the other girls shared the same shock at the random theory Pinkie came up with. "Well, I have no idea what happened with the monkey, but it was definitely not normal after what it changed me into," Beast Boy said. "In fact, what it gave me almost killed me." "Almost killed you!?" everyone exclaimed. Beast Boy began to regale the origin of his superhero powers and his life before being part of the Teen Titans. His parents, Mark and Marie Logan, were geneticists, traveling all over the world to study the wildlife in the many vast jungles across the globe. Garfield Logan was brought up in these jungles, never given a single home to call his home with all the traveling his family did on their research. He was fascinated by all the animals he and his parents observed, and enjoyed traversing through the jungles to see all the different species the Logans studied. Fun soon turned to near tragedy when young Garfield and his family traveled to Lamumba in Africa, hearing rumors of there being a species of green monkeys in the country's jungles. While searching for the green-furred simians, Garfield encountered one and got bitten, contracting the deadly Sakutia virus that the monkey carried. This virus attaches itself to its host's DNA, rewriting its victim's genetic code, where they suffer with green skin and hair and only having a time frame of forty-eight hours upon being infected until it kills them. Thinking quickly, Garfield's parents managed to create a serum that mutated the Sakutia virus, saving him from dying, but it still left the young boy completely green. The mutation also gave him the ability to shapeshift into many different animals, thus giving him the superhero persona Beast Boy several years later. Things had taken a drastic turn when Garfield lost his parents. He told Sunset the truth about what happened to his folks, but left out the fact that he was also there and was the only one to survive. The storm got worse as their boat was getting destroyed on their latest, and final, explorations. His mother pleaded for him to fly away and find somewhere safe, where he obeyed, transformed into a bird, and flew away, leaving his parents to perish in that storm. Though he was orphaned, he didn't stay alone for long, telling the girls of his encounter and enlistment in a heroic group called The Doom Patrol, then leaving due to the leader, a powerful psychokinetic man named Mento, disregarded the young Beast Boy, the harsh discipline given to him and lacking to give the young hero any encouragement as a hero causing him to leave, then run into his new friends, thus forming the Teen Titans. The girls all listened silently with rapt attention, feeling sorry for the shapeshifter as he shared his tragic backstory, as any superhero gifted with incredible powers would have. Beast Boy even shared a few of his triumphs as a hero with his team of teenage misfits, even previous encounters with the H.I.V.E. organization and several other repeat villains. The nostalgic grin on his face made the CHS girls wonder why he still felt miserable, even when he considered the Teen Titans his family. "Beast Boy- er, Garfield," Sunset corrected, unsure what to call the superhero teen now. "Call me whatever you want, but, when around everyone else in this world, just my real name," Beast Boy suggested. "Right. Secret identities. Been there, done that, didn't stay secret for long, though," Sunset uttered, understanding that logic since she wasn't a native of this world either. "Anyway, Beast Boy, was there a reason why you unfortunately flew into Twilight's portal that night? You did mention before that you didn't run off to go solo." Beast Boy's smile quickly faded, getting to the nitty-gritty of how he accidentally wound up here. "...I ran away," he admitted. "But it wasn't because of my friends..." "What happened?" Rainbow asked curiously. "...Terra?" Fluttershy guessed. The dejected expression on his face made her guess spot on. The others had no idea who this Terra was, but if it was the same girl that he uttered earlier while he was fading in and out of consciousness back in the city from his defeat, they wondered who this other girl was. Fluttershy did, though she figured the real story behind Terra held much more than just her being an average girl with a strict father. "...Was she...part of your team, too?" "...For a while, sort of..." Beast Boy felt like sinking into the couch, or turn into a mouse and slink between the cushions. He felt terrible for lying to Fluttershy about his ex, or rather friend since they never officially went out with each other if their "date" meant to distract him from his friends didn't count. "...I may have fudged our story a little bit, Fluttershy, but everything between me and Terra were all true." "Like what?" Fluttershy asked. "...She had powers, too," he said. "She could move the earth with her mind. When we first met her, she couldn't control her powers. I assured her we could help train her to control them better, but she refused and swore me to keep it a secret...It was so obvious to the others, and when Robin mentioned it, she thought I told them, betrayed her trust, then ran away before I tried to get her to listen." "Geokinesis?" Twilight uttered in awe. "But...she came back, right?" Applejack wondered aloud. "Yeah. And she could control her powers better. She even wanted to join back with the team, and I was so happy she returned," Beast Boy said. He didn't smile, though, slumping more against the couch as he looked down at the floor. "I had such a big crush on her, and I wanted to ask her out since we first met. I had a chance, but she turned me down, even after I made her a present. She changed her mind not too long after, and we went out around Jump City by ourselves. We went to a restaurant she went to before sticking around as a Teen Titan, eating one of the best apple pies I had ever tasted." He glanced at Pinkie, reminding her of their first meeting at Sugarcube Corner and the apple pie he sampled as a first-time customer. Now she understood why Beast Boy looked so melancholy after eating such a delicious pastry; the taste somehow matched the same pie Terra suggested to him in that very restaurant on their unofficial date. "Then we went to an amusement park, where we managed to have some fun before it turned into a disaster. "Terra's 'father' was actually a tough foe we've run into many times. His name is Slade. He tried to take Robin away from us to be his apprentice, but when he failed to turn him around, he had his sights on Terra...And when she came back, she had been working for Slade, and mastered her powers with him." Terra's betrayal still hurt Beast Boy to this day, and it made him despise Slade all the more: first by trying to take Robin under his wing, then Terra, and even Raven after he was supposed to be dead when Terra fought back for control over her body. After Trigun, no one knew how he came back to life after serving the demonic creature, and he hoped he didn't see the mercenary in the flesh again, otherwise he'll make sure to mangle him and make sure he stays dead permanently before he tries to take away anymore of his friends. He composed himself, clearly glaring angrily at the mention of Slade, and he didn't want to startle the girls while they continued listening to his woes. "...She became our enemy, but I knew she didn't want to be a villain. We confronted her and attacked her, but I still believed the Terra I knew was still there. "We chased her and Slade underground deep under the city. She wore a suit that gave Slade complete control of her body, including her powers. When she refused, he forced her to attack us. We finally managed to break through to her, and she fought back against Slade's control. Unfortunately, while she used her powers against him, lava began to rise in the cavern, sending Slade over and burned him alive while also causing an underground volcano to erupt. It would have destroyed Jump City if Terra didn't sacrifice herself, using her powers to stop it from blowing up...She was turned to stone when we went back down to find her." The girls let out a gasp, astounded by the outcome of Terra's sacrifice, and even feeling sorry for her when she finally managed to turn herself around. "My goodness...How awful," Rarity uttered. "She gave up her life as an exchange for redemption," Sunset mumbled. "But...you said she came back," Fluttershy mentioned, startling her friends with the surprise twist. "How did she turn back to normal?" "I don't know. And we tried to find a way to bring her back after that," Beast Boy continued. "After we and the other Teen Titans all around the world stopped the Brotherhood of Evil, which was a group of all our worst enemies joining forces to take over the world, when we returned home to a newly changed city, I saw her walking down the street out of nowhere. I thought I was crazy, but when I went to the cavern where her body rested, it was gone." "Holy guacamole!" Pinkie exclaimed in shock. "But how did she free herself?" Rainbow asked with a scratch of her head. "Maybe, with her powers allowing her to control the earth around her, it could have been a slow process where she could manipulate the stone encasing her body, and free her from her sacrificial imprisonment," Twilight pondered. Beast Boy only shrugged, his guess as good as anyone's, even with Cyborg's best hypothesis barely coming close to what the logical conclusion was to her freedom. "So, she came back, but even though ya should have felt ecstatic to have her back, ya still ran away?" Applejack questioned. Beast Boy had a blank, distant stare, slowly leaning forward, ignoring the bit of pain from his movements as he hunched over in his seat. "...She had amnesia," Fluttershy answered. The other girls turned to look at her, then back to Beast Boy, their shock at the unfortunate news making them feel sympathy for the depressed shapeshifter. "Terra...lost all her memories...when she 'returned'..." "...Yeah...She did," Beast Boy mumbled. Sighing, he rested his elbows on his knees as he covered his face with his hands, the painful realization that the Terra she knew would never come back. "I got desperate...I tried to jog her memory, but all I did was pester her, upset her, and got her so mad at me that she didn't want anything to do with me...I pushed her away, all because I still clung onto what we had before...The last thing she said before I tried to give her my Titans communicator to convince her one final time...She said...things change...and the girl I want her to be is just a memory..." Beast Boy's hands grew wet as he shed tears recalling the last exchange he shared with the now normal teen girl he formerly fell for. The girls felt sorry for him and the worst way anyone could be heartbroken after such drama occurred between the two. He quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve, barely glancing up to see them pity him for his loss, especially from his current girlfriend, Fluttershy. "But...you couldn't really let go of her, could you?" Fluttershy asked, given a small nod from the shapeshifter. "You ran away because of heartache," Rarity uttered. "It wasn't just that," Beast Boy added. "After leaving Terra alone, I went to help my friends take down a monster that was wreaking havoc on the city since I saw Terra was 'back'. After I took out all my pain and frustration on it, taking it out on my own, I fell into a slump...It didn't help that I see her walking around the city, hanging out with her new friends or going to her new school, which only made me feel worse..." He looked back down at his hands. "...I even started to feel self-conscious about who I was around the new Jump City that changed so much. Out of my whole team, Cyborg and I feel like the only ones who stand out by appearance. The only difference is that Cyborg was still human with robot parts; I'm a mutant green-freak who turns into animals. And what's worse, when Starfire was sent forward into the future where the whole team got split up after trying to stop a villain named Warp, she told me older me locked himself in a cage to protect himself from being harassed by people because of our looks and mutant shapeshifting. I felt just as paranoid as my older self, but I suffered through more depression because there would be no one in the city who would look at me as a normal person like my friends..." The girls looked at each other, startled to hear Beast Boy expressing how much he hated his appearance now when it clearly never bothered him after he was bitten by that monkey and survived thanks to his parents creating that serum to mutate the virus it gave him. "...Well, even though you have superpowers, you seem pretty normal to us," Sunset said. "I even lived in a completely different world, and despite me being the evil queen bee out of spite toward my mentor back home, I was forgiven, changed my ways, and I feel much more accepted by everyone at CHS." "Define normal when everyone else from my world has either white, black, or brown skin when mine looks like I bathed in radiated green sludge every day of my life," Beast Boy said while holding his hands up again, emphasizing his green skin and hair tone to the girls again. "I'm not sure if any of you realize it, but to me, all of you have different colored skin that varied out of whatever section of the rainbow you came out of, and far more colorful. The only ones who would look normal in my world would be Applejack and Pinkie Pie." The girls looked at themselves, though as most of them imagined how different they would be from people from Beast Boy's world, Pinkie was the only one who nodded. "Eh, he's got a point. Although, I still wonder if Rainbow Dash's hair is really just a wig. No one has that many colors in their hair naturally." Rainbow's eye twitched, letting out an irritated huff as she glared at Pinkie. "Pinkie, this IS my natural hair color! My dad's got the same rainbow hair that I do!" she argued. "So HE'S the one wearing the wig?" Pinkie questioned, which made Rainbow facepalm in frustration. Even though Pinkie's random accusations over Rainbow Dash and her dad's hair were a bit funny, Beast Boy didn't crack a smile as he let out a sigh. "Well, I guess that's everything about me you need to know. Who I am, where I came from, how I became Beast Boy, and why I wound up in your world. But now that someone's managed to build a portal from my world to reach this one, I'm afraid there's going to be even worse villains than Control Freak or the H.I.V.E. Five that'll come through." Letting out a grunt, Beast Boy moved to stand on his feet, grimacing with each movement as he hunched over slightly while clutching his side. "Who knows when they'll show up?" "But we can help you," Twilight insisted. "We've got magic, too! We whupped those H.I.V.E. Five jerks and sent them running!" Rainbow added. "You might be able to turn into huge, extinct animals, alien monsters, or even creatures that pop out of a storybook, but you're still just one person, Garf!" "If ya fought evil with a team, then you'll be needin' one to help ya when more enemies from your world show up," Applejack said. Beast Boy lowered his head, grateful for their help, but if anyone like Slade appeared, there would be no way they could stand a chance with someone as tough and intelligent as him. He really couldn't take on their greatest foes on his own, and he knew his own powers wouldn't be enough for some of the worst of them, especially if they have longer range or, at worse, hypnotic skills that could turn him into a drooling, brain-dead puppet. Going solo never truly lasted for long: leaving his parents to escape the storm that took them away, running away from the Doom Patrol because of the harsh nature of the leader, Mento, and even now from his depression and self-consciousness about his appearance that led him into the mysterious portal and appear in this world. Even though he didn't want to put them in danger, just knowing their magic can take on evildoers from his world along with mystical creatures from a different world, he didn't have to worry too much about protecting them. At least a little bit. "...Maybe a little help wouldn't be so bad after all," he said. "It would save me the trouble of getting banged up every now and then." Beast Boy let out a small laugh, only to grunt as laughing even brought him pain. "I need to rest up...Uhh, I can still sleep here, right, Dash?" "Of course, but just because we know you're a superhero, that doesn't mean you're skimping out on rent," Rainbow reminded teasingly. "Yeah, yeah. Even in my world, I had to pay for my stuff. Saving the day doesn't always mean free stuff." Beast Boy approached Sunset, who gave him back his mask, then began to limp his way upstairs, almost tripping over himself from the pain, but Rainbow quickly caught him with her lightning speed. "Need some help, Garf?" Rainbow offered. "I'm good. I've been beaten by worse," Beast Boy assured. Rainbow let go of him once he was stable on his feet, but stayed close in case he was going to keel over again. He reached the stairs fine on his own after that near fall, climbing up the stairs while holding himself up with the railing. Halfway up, he stopped and looked back at the girls; specifically at Fluttershy. Even though she and the other CHS girls accepted him for who he is, there was still a lot that was needed to discuss with Fluttershy alone. He turned away, giving them a small wave as he continued his ascent, finally limping into his room and collapsing on his bed with a grunt. For a long while, Beast Boy stared at the ceiling, wondering what the future of his relationship with Fluttershy will be after revealing everything about himself. The next day was thankfully the start of the weekend, which would hopefully give Beast Boy enough time to get back on his feet. Throughout the rest of yesterday and today, the news stations and social media blew up over the H.I.V.E. Five's attack and their defeat by Beast Boy and the CHS magical girls. There wasn't a lot of footage on the aftermath, thankfully for the shapeshifter's identity staying hidden, but what was there was enough to get a lot of attention from excited fanatics wanting to see more action with the huge variety of animals Beast Boy could turn into. The girls also got their fair share of the fame as well, but they only insisted they were helping the real hero since he was completely outnumbered, leaving out the part where he was beaten by the H.I.V.E. Five to avoid any die-hard fans from them taking the glory from the newest young hero. Fluttershy decided to walk down to the shelter today instead of drive since it was a nice day out judging by the birds chirping as they flew over the area. As soon as she entered the shelter, she gasped when she saw Beast Boy at the reception desk, or Garfield Logan, rather. After seeing him take a beating and getting blown up by a rocket, she expected him to be bedridden for a week. "Bea- I mean, Garfield!?" Fluttershy exclaimed in surprise. "Hey, Fluttershy," he greeted. Fluttershy approached the desk, looking around to make sure the owner or anyone else was around. "You should be resting," she chided. "I heal pretty quickly," Garfield nonchalantly said. "I'm used to getting pummeled or blown up when fighting villains." "Well, getting blown up by those rockets scared the daylights out of us," Fluttershy said with an irritated frown. Garfield giggled sheepishly in response. "Right. I really didn't stand much of a chance facing them all by myself," he said. "But, uhh, remember when we first met? With those manticores?" "Yes," Fluttershy said. "I still remember you got stung by the last one's stinger." "Heh. Yeah, that really hurt," he said, subconsciously rubbing his back from the painful manticore sting back then. "And that poison was a lot worse. I'm kinda lucky turning into a honey badger helped me tolerate the poison enough until it felt like I was stung by a wasp. All hail the mighty honey badger." While Garfield praised the dangerous, furry predator, Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle as he raised his arms, acting like the honey badger was an all powerful deity. "But, yeah, I'm actually ok. Just feeling a little sore from yesterday." "I still think you need to rest, but I won't stop you," she said. Fluttershy clocked herself in and got to work with the pets in the shelter. Luckily, it was just the two of them working today, though both teens were feeling anxious around each other. Garfield felt his throat dry anytime he tried to spark some kind of conversation, mostly to explain more to Fluttershy and answer any lingering questions still floating in her mind. Even the pets could feel the tension between the two of them. After what felt like an eternity, Garfield finally broke the silence. "...So...are we still going out?" he blurted out, mentally beating himself up for making this more awkward than it already was. "...Umm...Who said we were...breaking up?" Fluttershy questioned. "I-I...I don't know," Garfield mumbled. "You're...kinda dating a superhero? And I just told you and the others about my real life, which I had kept secret? I'm...kinda expecting us to break up...with the hopes that we could still at least be friends." Fluttershy stopped cleaning one of the cages she was working on and turned to give her boyfriend a dumbfounded gaze. "...Yeah, relationships don't really work out for 'Beast Boy' all that well, as you know..." "Oh," Fluttershy mumbled. "...Do you...want us to break up?" "N-No! Of course not!" Garfield stammered. "It's just...I-I mean, I told you about Terra, and...well, part of me still...And living here compared to my old world..." Garfield grunted in confliction, unable to find the right words to explain what he meant. He gave up and sighed heavily, plopping himself into a nearby chair. "...I don't know what I'm trying to say..." Being the patient young woman she was, Fluttershy approached the distressed shapeshifter, kneeling beside him while gently grasping his hand. "Garfield, I think we all know how difficult it was to tell us about the real you yesterday, but I don't think anything different of you at all," she assured as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Garfield glanced at her, ensured from her gentle gaze and calming smile that she trusts him despite hiding his true identity from her and their friends. "I don't want you to hide anymore secrets from us, or hide anything you're really feeling from me. I'm here to listen just like you promised after what happened when that robber held us hostage." Garfield let out a small laugh after a minute of silence, then shook his head. "And I thought you girls getting shot by that guy scared the heck out of me," he jokingly said. Taking in a deep breath, he calmed his nerves and collected his thoughts. "I guess I'm...still a bit worried about how our relationship will go." "Like what?" Fluttershy asked. "Well...Have you read stories about heroes, with or without superpowers?" Garfield asked, to which Fluttershy nodded slightly, mostly overhearing a few things with Rainbow Dash, Zephyr Breeze when he was into comics, and some of the younger boys at school talking about certain characters. "With all the dangerous stuff that's been happening, and villains coming through from my world, seeing anyone put in danger is bad enough, but when it's someone you care about..." "It's worse," Fluttershy finished. "Yeah..." Garfield let out a small sigh. "I still have feelings for Terra...Whenever I let her down, or she runs away, I always blame myself. I feel like I did or said something wrong and I can't find a way to fix it. Even when I do, I still lost her, and now she will never be the same." Then the nightmare he had when his feelings for Fluttershy began to grow, which only terrified him more if Slade ever decided to discover this world. "...I'm also...a little scared to see you get in trouble, and I'm afraid I'll end up letting you down, too. And, I can see you can sorta defend yourself, but only with some other animals you bump into. Kinda hard to find a tough beast in a city, though." "Mhmm?" Fluttershy hummed, letting the shapeshifter know she was listening to him. "...Those nights when I barely slept that whole week...I had the same nightmare over and over," Garfield continued. "It was about Terra at first...and Slade. I knew she could protect herself with her powers, but when I tried to save her, I blink, and instead of her being held hostage by Slade...you were in her place." Fluttershy was surprised to hear that. She was able to tell that something was bothering him with that week of misery, but she didn't think it was just about his old crush and losing her forever. "I think part of me wanted to ignore what I felt in my heart while the rest wanted me to cling onto Terra..." "So you had a crush on me, too?" Fluttershy asked. Garfield nodded, though he was still upset. "...But, you were afraid that...I would have been taken away from you. Like with Terra." He nodded again, feeling ashamed to be pulled between the girl he's with now and a girl who had purposefully changed her life and would never be the same girl he knew anymore. Fluttershy could see his heart was conflicted, so she squeezed his hand again, then stood up and helped him up on his feet as she looked him in the eyes. "Garfield, do you love me?" "Of course I do," he answered without hesitation. "Do you still love Terra?" Her next question made Garfield cringe, but before he could stammer out a nervous response, Fluttershy pressed a finger to his lips. "Answer honestly. I won't be mad with whatever you really think. Do you still love Terra?" As Fluttershy lowered her finger from his lips, Garfield frowned, hung his head, and sighed sadly once more. "...Yeah. I do," he mumbled. She tilted his head back up, gently forcing him to keep eye contact with her. "And if Twilight found a way to make a portal connecting your world with mine, would you try to go back to being with Terra if she ever did regain her memories?" That question made Garfield's heart drop to his stomach. Even after Terra gave him a reality check before he finally gave up, there was still a part of him deep in his heart that believed the old Terra could come back. He wasn't even sure how to answer Fluttershy if that possibility would occur, or if Twilight could find a way to configure her portable portal to create a gateway to his world. He did miss his old friends and worried about how they thought about his disappearance, but he seemed to have a much better life here in Fluttershy's world. Aside from getting back into his heroic duties as Beast Boy with the Equestrian world's creatures coming through the magical portals popping up randomly in, along with villains from his world managing to create a portal connecting their worlds, no one turned a blind eye to his appearance, and the girls found his animal shapeshifting powers fascinating, even with all the fanbase he's given from the city when his efforts caught on the news or someone's phone recordings. He finally found his voice and responded. "...I...I don't know," he answered, highly uncertain whether to say yes or no. He thought Fluttershy was going to gently chide him and answer her as honestly as he can, but she remained silent, letting him give his highly impossible answer to such a simple, yet complex question. "I mean...maybe? But...I doubt Terra will ever remember me again..." "And what if she did?" Fluttershy asked. Garfield grimaced, glancing down in shame as he can't give Fluttershy a simple answer. She surprised him with a kiss on the cheek, still giving him a calm smile without any hint of jealousy or even slight anger for thinking about Terra. "I know you've been through a lot, but I want you to be happy with who you want to be with. Even if you still choose Terra, I'll understand, and I hope we'll still be friends in the end." Feeling a bit more reassured, Garfield gave Fluttershy a small smile, even when his true answer was still uncertain. "I'm not sure if I can answer that 'what if' question, but I'm content being with you, Fluttershy," he said. She nodded in understanding, then leaned forward and gave him a small, loving kiss on the lips, which he returned in kind. "Heh. Sorry for being a downer." "It's ok. I know it was a hard question to answer," she said. "I thought you were going to give me that mean glare you used on me when you took me to that amusement park to get the answer out of me," Garfield said. "Huh? When I...used my 'Stare'?" Fluttershy asked. Garfield tilted his head curiously at what Fluttershy called it, then looked around when he heard some of the animals around them whimpering or hiding at the mention of the word. Seeing his confusion to the pets' reactions, Fluttershy bit her lip, feeling awkward explaining her special technique to tame her out of control animal friends. "I call it that when none of the animals calm down and listen. I give them a stern glare, and they obey without looking away. I call it 'The Stare'." "Uhh...Do they also...not argue back?" Garfield asked. "Mhmm. Rarity suggested I use it on you when you were mopey if you refused to go to Equestria Land with me. So I gave it a shot, and I was surprised it worked." Despite being gypped by Fluttershy's stare, Garfield gave his girlfriend a blank stare at her shock. "Helloooooo? 'Beast Boy'?" he reminded the animal lover. He even shapeshifted into a few different pets to emphasize his point before turning back to normal. "Of course it worked on me! No wonder it looked like you were staring into my soul and holding it over an abyss if I so much as said one thing to get you more mad!" "Oh," Fluttershy mumbled, blushing in embarrassment as she only realized her Stare worked after finding out about Garfield's powers. "Umm...I-I didn't...really think it would work when I did it before I knew you were..." She twiddled her thumbs bashfully while hearing Garfield let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm sorry." "Well, if you didn't, I wouldn't have had a good time and a nice distraction from my own thoughts," he said. "At least your 'Stare' doesn't put me in a hypnotic trance." "Why?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "I...had a pretty rough experience with hypnosis with a villain called Mad Mod. He's actually an old British guy who uses technology to turn 'misbehaving' teenage superheroes like me and my friends into refined citizens," Garfield explained. "And I was a huge victim to being hypnotized. That's why I stopped trying to charge See-More when that eye of his started spinning like a hypno wheel." "Is that a weakness of yours?" Fluttershy asked. Garfield sighed and nodded his head, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment as he looked away from her. "...When I fall in a trance, I stand around like a brainless doll and drool all over myself," he admitted. "What's worse is that I could be stuck like that forever unless someone says or does something that makes me laugh." "Oh...Well, if that does happen, Pinkie Pie can find a way to make you laugh," Fluttershy said, then giggled a bit. "...How badly do you drool?" "Mmph...Like I waded through a pool of saliva," Garfield grumbled, stretching out his shirt with both hands. "I soak the front of my shirt with my drool." Fluttershy couldn't hold back her laughter as she imagined a hypnotized, brainless, drooling Beast Boy with his eyes swirling like a black and white hypno wheel and his clothes soaked with saliva. "Do NOT tell anyone else about this. If Rainbow pranks me, I am going to trash her house like a rhino in a china shop." "I won't. I promise," Fluttershy said as her laughter petered down to giggles. The two eventually got back to work, but with less tension between the couple. They finished cleaning the cages and kennels, checked on the sheltered pets to make sure they were healthy, and made sure to feed them all before their shift ended. Garfield told a bit more about himself and some of the more fun adventures he's had as a Teen Titan, even turning into some other exotic creatures Fluttershy requested to see as long as they were small enough to fit in the building. He also got Fluttershy with his own "special ability" to make any girl crumble under his might with "The Face": shifting into a green kitten, acting cute and getting attention from Fluttershy, treating it like a bit of revenge for getting "Stared". Things seemed to be getting back to normal for the heroic shapeshifter after his massive reveal to his new friends and girlfriend. Unfortunately, Garfield didn't reveal every secret he had. One he still wanted to hide from Fluttershy and the girls was the monstrous werebeast form. Even if he had to use it out of desperation, he might not be able to control it and hurt anyone in his path. If he can't tame it, he doubted that Fluttershy could with her magic, and he wouldn't forgive himself if he hurt her or any of his friends in this world. He didn't want to risk losing the new life he made for himself, even if his old one as a hero had to come back due to his foes from his world were arriving and protecting the city from magical portals popping in and dropping creatures from a different world into a new environment to wreak havoc. He would have to enjoy what peace he can until his old team's worst enemies decide to come through.