Yu-Gi-Oh E-Quest: Malefic Wars

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 35: Behind the Mask/Doors.

EPISODE THIRTY-FIVE

Kori and Dick lay on the ground feeling really beat from losing to Sunset.

“We lost!” cried Kori.

Dick growled in frustration. “I can’t believe it!”

The other friends couldn’t believe it either.

“They lost the duel!” cried Rainbow.

“They’re going to get turned into cards!” wailed Pinkie.

The lightning was coming and ready to strike, but surprisingly, Sunset grabbed her special card and repelled the lightning off, sparing the couple from the consequences.

“What the--?” said Vic.

Raven blinked in confusion.

“Why did she save them?” wondered Cadance.

Sunset snickered as she lowered her card. “I can’t let you get turned into cards now, can I? Who would I duel then?”

Everyone gawked at her for what she had just said.

“That’s right…” Sunset said with a smirk. “As of now, you’re all my personal dueling slaves. I can duel any of you any time I want and as long as I want.

You’ll never have to worry about being turned into cards.”

“We’re not your slaves!” protested Raven. “And we’re not going to just duel you whenever you tell us.”

Sunset demonstrated her point by firing a blast of Malefic energy that just sped past her, blowing up a small pile of debris.

“You’re in no position to tell me what I can and cannot do. I’m the one with all the power, and I have great dueling skills as you’ve just seen, and I’m itching to try them all out as often as I please.

I live for dueling! The feeling of such power, and watching my opponents fall at my force!”

There was no doubt, she had gone completely insane with that evil that had her.

“So, which of you shall I duel next?” she wondered as she eyed at the group.

“Why not duel me?!” someone shouted.

Sunset turned, and everyone could see…

“Celestia!” cried Cadance.

She had followed the light from her finishing move during the duel, which led her to hop along the roofs and find her.

“Ha!” scoffed Sunset “You have a lot of nerve showing yourself around here, after you defeated me in our last match.”

“And you have a lot of nerve still being here after than.” protested Celestia. “I’ve come to finish what we started.”

She readied her duel disk, and Sunset looked ready herself.

When suddenly, everyone heard a loud scream coming from far away.

“NOOOOOOO…!!!”

“What’s that?” asked Kori.

Vic recognized the voice, “That’s Gar!”

This put everyone back in mind that he was out there, as were the others, and seeing Sunset was now fully distracted…

Dick hollered, “Run! Let’s go!” and everyone began to make a break while they could.

“No!” shouted Sunset, and she turned to try to use her powers, only for Celestia to use her own—blasting her feet with magical rays-- holding her in place.

“You’re not going anywhere. We have a score to settle.”

Sunset growled, but then revealed, “You can’t hold me down that easily.” and she magically broke free from bondage. “You don’t to realize that I hold the power of the greatest Malefican there ever was!”

Celestia was unmoved and tried to cast a duel beam on her to force her into a duel, which Sunset easily dodged by swerving, ducking, and leaping about. “Catch me if you can!” she taunted.

Celestia furiously chased after her.

While all the time, the friends managed to get several blocks away before stopping to watch their breath.

“I think we lost them.” said Vic.

“I don’t think it matters.” added Rainbow “They’ll just come after us again.”

She then angrily kicked a rock up the street. “I can’t believe what’s happened to them both!”

Pinkie was more sad than outraged, especially when remembering the horrible things Sunset had said about Friendship being worthless, and planning to keep everyone as her dueling targets.

None of this would end until the Princes Brothers were found and stopped for good!

“How are we supposed to find them now?” asked Cadance. “We just ran away from our big leads, and it’s too dangerous to stay near them.”

Even Dick wasn’t about to suggest going back where Sunset was waiting to pummel them all again. He and Kori were still a bit sore from losing to her.

“I can’t believe how ruthless she was.” Kori said as she thought back to Sunset’s dragon blowing her and Dick down.

“It’s worse than that.” said Pinkie “We only saw a few of her new cards in action. We don’t know what she’s really capable of doing.”

“She’s right.” agreed Vic “I mean just that Pendulum Scale of hers-- Zero to Thirteen! Who knows what monsters you can call out with that!”

Cadance then relaized, “Twilight! She doesn’t know about this!”

“Neither does Terra.” added Kori.

Everyone decided to find them and fast, and remembering hearing Gar scream, they felt it best to head off in the direction the sound came from.

“Just my luck! Raven grumbled softly “We’d have to go find that jerk!”

“You say something?” asked Rainbow.

Raven hesitated “…No. Why?”

Rainbow had suspicion, but now wasn’t the time to bother.

Meanwhile, Gar was desperately trying to get his coverings back into place so that not an inch of his face was showing.

He was still shaken from having seen his reflection.

He softly, but angrily punched a wall with his fist in disgust. Then he clutched his head still annoyed by bad memories flood through his mind.

“I’ve got to get out of this world.” he said to himself.

He looked up at the rifts in the sky and how menacing they looked, with the sights of the towns in the world coming closer to being sucked into the darkness.

He was about to head off, when he noticed Sci-Twi’s fallen duel disk, and all the cards just laying about.

He would as well just leave them all be, but having a duelists honor, he gathered them all up and pocketed them, hoping to give them back to Sci-Twi… wherever she and the others had disappeared to.

The friends found themselves wandering in a stark empty place, like some giant fortress. It was very dark, and the floor was all misty.

“Where are we?” asked Spike. “Are we still in the Malefic World?”

“How did we get here?” wondered Terra.

Twilight and Sci-Twi were both stumped.

“Maybe it had something to do with those bright lights?” suggested Twilight.

Everyone recalled when Karle was vanquished and those bright lights enveloped everyone, including Gar?

“How come he isn’t here too?” asked Terra.

“I don’t know.” replied Sci-Twi “But we need to figure out where we are and how to get out.”

Up ahead was a strong wall, with several doors in a row, and very large door in the center, bound and chained.

“I’ll bet that big door’s the way out of… wherever this is.” said Spike.

The door was so big, and didn’t seem to have any knobs, or handles, or anything to get the chains off and open it.

Sci-Twi and Twilight both wished they were able to do magic, but they weren’t.

Suddenly, Sci-Twi could see a small glow of light coming from one of the other doors. “What’s that?”

The others could see the light too, and Sci-Twi and Terra moved in front of the door, which did have a handle on it.

“Uh… do you really think you shouldn’t open that?” whimpered Spike.

Sci-Twi agreed. Nobody knew just where they were or what all the doors really were. Who knew what was behind them?

Suddenly, the door began to quiver, making Sci-Twi and Terra back away in fear. The handle began to click, and the door opened revealing a large flash of light that blinded everyone.

When they opened their eyes, they could hardly believe them.

“We’re back… in the real world.” cried Sci-Twi.

They were all standing in a jungle, and the sky above them was normal-- instead of being all dark and full of shadows, it was regular nighttime, and the stars and moon were shining beautifully.

Terra and the others were overjoyed at first until Terra looked behind her and saw everything was all stark-black and empty. “Wait, no we’re not.”

Spike pulled on his ears and growled in frustration. “So much confusion, but where are all the answers?!!”

He was about to get it when he heard a voice narrating a story…

“My life was headed down a dark path…”

Terra and Sci-Twi’s heads perked up.

“That voice…” cried Sci-Twi.

“…Gar?” wondered Terra.

Somehow, they had stepped into a world that was the story of Gar’s life, and it all started when he was five years old, all the images played as Gar’s voice narrated the story.

*Gar’s Narration*

My name is Garfield Logan, and as far as I can remember, maybe I should never have been born.

I lived with my scientist folks, Marie and Mark Logan. They were wonderful parents to me, and even took me with them to the Amazon on one of their scientific expeditions.

…That’s when things began to go downhill for me.

I was bitten by a rare green monkey, and I fell ill. My parents were only able to save me using an untested serum they had conjured from extracts from The Amazon itself.

The serum worked and cured me, but there were side-effects that mutated me into a green, pointy-eared animal-morpher.

*Narration Pause*

Spike gulped hard in shock, while Sci-Twi was astounded “That’s how he became green?”

Twilight could hardly believe this. “Poor kid.”

Terra could only continue to watch as things only got worse from then on.

*Narration Continues*

My parents soon died in a flood, a tragedy that still haunts me to this day. If only I could’ve done something, I could have saved them…

…But that’s not how life goes.

Life is something you can never always control. Sometimes you have no control of it at all. No matter how you try to make things go right, they can still let you down.

I was taken in by my foster mother, and she vowed to raise me well… or she would have had she not been killed with the farm we lived on was attacked by thieves.

I watched helplessly as my last parental figure was taken from me in an explosion, and as for me…

I was captured by the thieves and enslaved to work for them. They were horribly abusive people who beat me nonstop, hardly ever fed me, and their evil boss tried to kill me when he found out how much a kid like me with my animal powers was worth!

I would have surely lost my life had the Doom Patrol not come and saved me.

They took me in and trained me to control my powers, eventually making me their newest and youngest member, even raising me like a foster son, and how I got my nickname “Beast Boy.”

It felt rather cool at the start-- being a hero and all that, and helping to save the world, but to really be a hero was far from anything I had imagined, especially the way my so-called “Family” treated me.

To Mento, my foster dad; he only saw me as an asset, nothing more than a mere convenience-- only seeming to care for me when I was needed, or when my animal powers came in handy. Other than all that, he was pushy, grumpy, and always caring more for success of missions than being a parental figure.

The worst of his traits is when people dared to disagree with his ideas or his plans.

The rest of the Doom Patrol was in trouble, and Mento ordered me to just go on and leave them, to stop our enemy, The Brain, from escaping, but I couldn’t do that. I already lost enough people in my life; I couldn’t lose another family!

So, I saved their lives, and the bad guys got away.

Mento was furious, and he really let me have it.

“You let them get away! How could you be so foolish?!”

“Hey! I saved your lives!”

“No, you didn’t! All you did was delay our destruction! Because you didn’t stop them, the whole world could be put in danger!”

Some “father” he was. Always scolding me when I messed up, hardly showing any gratitude, and always making me feel like I should never have saved him.

I couldn’t take it anymore! I wanted a family, but not a bunch of slave drivers who really can’t understand love and appreciation.

So, I quit the team, and I struck on my own.

*Narration Pause*

The images all vanished away, and the friends found themselves back outside, and the door slammed shut.

The friends were all horribly hurt in shock.

“What a jerk!” Spike growled. “He saves their lives, and he doesn’t care in the least?”

Of course, he, like the others, couldn’t believe all the misery and suffering Gar had gone through especially Terra.

“You never told us he went through all this.” said Twilight.

Terra shook her head admitting, “I didn’t know.”

Sci-Twi was still curious wondering softly, “How and why are we seeing all this?”

Just then, the second door opened wide, and everyone was thrown into another part of the story.

And it showed Gar having spent a great deal of time on his own.

*Narration Continues*

Finding a better place proved harder than I thought. People would take one look at me and be repulsed because of my appearance.

“Eww, he’s green.”

“You look gross.”

“Get away from me, freak!”

Even when I a took a simple sip from a drinking fountain, people would look at me like I was some sort of virus.

“What’s he doing?!”

“Call the cops!”

“Get out of here!”

I didn’t know how much more I could take. I resorted to wearing my Doom Patrol mask all the time, like a secret identity, but of course, being green, made that too hard.

Then I got a little bit of luck shining my way, I met my future teammates-- Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and after much convincing, we all agreed to form the Teen Titans of Jump City.

Finally, I had a home, and people I hoped I could call “My Friends.”

But the pain in my life was still there. Every day I couldn’t help but think back to all that I had lost, and how badly I was treated.

Most heroes have bad backgrounds and tragedies in life that make them what they are. So, they try to find ways to cope with it.

I tried to take up being the comic-relief-- telling jokes, being the funny and cool one, even a few immature pranks here and there-- all the supress the pain from my hardships.

The Titans only found me annoying, and though we all tried to be good friends, it didn’t seem that way.

I try to bring joy and smiles to people to help them forget their trouble, but they only see me as a good-for-nothing goofball who never would amount to anything.

Especially Raven…!

Always so rude and pushy, always so grumpy, and miserable. Liking it better when I’m not around.

We had a few goods times… and I even cheered her up once when her heart was broken.

In the end, she was just too mean for her own good.

-Always insulting me…

-Always giving me rude attitude…

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish Beast Boy were here. He could sniff out the creature.”

Even when we throw her a nice birthday party because we love her… she just up and throws and tantrums and destroys it!

-And even resorting to smacking me, or being totally unsympathetic…

The others were hardly any better.

Like Raven, we had some good times, but they also would treat me as just an immature kid. They would hardly listen to me any time I had an idea, even if it were a good one, and they would always give me a look to keep quiet, or not say anything.

And being hero didn’t help much either…

I put my life on the line every single day, I bust myself up, and people only seem to like the other Titans better, while treating me like I’m invisible.

-No Thank you
-No kudos
-Not a single mention.

Even if I did get a little recognition, it hardly felt like much, especially if they others kept looking down on me and Raven kept smacking me and treating me like I wasn’t important.

Some life being a hero-- they only care about you when they really need you, and then they dump all over you when they don’t.

My patience still held. After all, heroes just do it because “It’s right”

Me and Cyborg, we even got into dueling. It was a great game, and we became such fanatics about it, and we were always dueling each other…

…I always got slammed.

“BOOYAH, who’s da duelinator!”

“Man, you stink at this game.”

“I’m ready to kick your butt again.”

…It wasn’t winning or losing that mattered to me, but just playing with my buddy, and feel like I was fitting in that helped.

I got a little better as I went along and got sweet new cards, but still I didn’t know if this was really going to work out.

It felt like the Titans were no different than other people I met-- either dying on me or just plain up betraying me.

*Pause*

Princess Twilight Sparkle had never seen anything like this in all her years.

“Such abuse!” she gagged. “In Equestria, I’ve seen bickering families with more dignity than this.”

Terra could shake her head in disbelief as she felt tears coming to her eyes. “I never knew what the Titans were really like.”

Then suddenly, she realized what was coming next. “Oh, no…!”

The memories then showed of when she and the Titans first met, and how she and BB began to fall in love.

*Resume*

Her name was “Terra.” She wasn’t like other girls I knew. She was fun, exciting, and way cool. She thought my jokes were funny, and for the first time in my life… someone was willing to look past my flaws and see me as a cool and understanding guy I could be.

*Pause*

A pretty song played as images of their blooming relationship went by-- all the times they were growing closer and enjoying each other’s company, a real perfect connection!

(19 You & Me)

Terra smiled lovingly at the images, especially when he taught her how to play Duel Monsters, and when he gave her the Heart-Shaped Mirror Box he had made for her, along with the “Change of Heart” card.

“Beast Boy…! It’s-- I don’t know what to say.”

“Beast Boy, you’re my definition of fun.”

…But the warm love was not to last. Nobody really had to hear the narration to know what came next…!

Terra running out on him after the misunderstanding, her alignment with Slade and breaking his heart, then turning against the Titans, only for Gar to help her regain control.

“You were the best friend I ever had.”

Then she turned herself to stone to save the city from destruction, and she was gone… for a while.

*Resume*

All the time I missed her so much. I would always think back to how much she meant to me, and how desperate I was to someday have her back in my life.

I did my best to cope with waiting. In my spare time I would secretly study gameplay-- not just for Dueling, but for all video games, board games, simple games, like chess, checkers, even tiddlywinks.

I just wanted to become a better player.

Then, when Terra finally came back… things were about to change, from bad to way worse!

*Pause*

Terra bit her finger and looked away, not wanting to see the next images. Not that it mattered, because her memories still housed those very images herself.

“Things Change, Beast Boy! The girl you want me to be is just a memory.”

The other friends were even more heart-broken and outraged than ever to now see the entire episode before their eyes.

Princess Twilight felt faint. Never had she seen friends not only fail but get thrown out like a sack of garbage in such a manner in her entire life.

“The guy already suffered enough in his life.” said Spike. “No wonder Gar was having nightmares and grumbling in his sleep.”

Sci-Twi was completely baffled. “Someone who lived like this would’ve likely done themselves in ages ago!”

Terra said nothing, she was weeping softly into her hands. She never knew that Gar had it so bad in his life, and all she did was add to the misery by demanding he leave her to live her own life-- caring only for herself and her own well-being.

She didn’t even care about the Heart-Shaped Mirror Box, or the Change of Heart card either.

“Gar.” She wept so softly; she couldn’t be heard “…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”

The door slammed shut.

Terra fell to her knees, and the two soul cards fell from her jacket collar. Her tears splashed had on the cold stone floors, nearly wetting them had Sci-Twi not scooped them up.

She looked down at the shaking, sobbing woman, and honest didn’t know what to feel for her.

That’s when the third door, on the other side of the locked gate, opened wide.

“There’s more?” asked Spike.

“How much more can there be?” added Sci-Twi.

Still quivering miserably, Terra confessed, “There’s a lot more, and it’s way worse!” She really sounded like someone who didn’t want to see the next images, but she like the others had no choice, and they were all pulled inside to the next part.

It showed that after the Things Change stuff, Beast Boy really fell hard into depression.

He did respect Terra’s wishes and stopped trying to convince her to come back to the Titans, or having a relationship with him, but it didn’t do him a bit of good.

He had never felt so hurt, so betrayed in his life.

*Resume*

How could the love of my life-- the one person I ever felt I had such a connection with-- just stab me so hard in the back that it came out through the dying remains of my already hurt heart.

Why was all this happening to me?

Why did every person I ever try to befriend, or love die on me or betray me?

Even my so called “Friends” the Titans were totally unsympathetic with me.

“You need to let go of the past.”

“I know it is hurting you, but we all must do the moving on with our lives.”

“Yo’ man, crushes come and go. You can’t let ‘em rule you.”

“…Go cry me a river!”

How could they not understand or care about what I was going through? How could they just demand I up and get over it like that?

They just never understood how it felt to be in so much pain like me.

Sure, they all had their bad backstories, but they all managed to move on and learn live in positivity, while I was always spinning deeper into darkness! I hadn’t much to move on to at this point.

Games were longer fun, the sunlight didn’t feel so bright and warm, and even life itself wasn’t worth living. Even dueling was losing its charm with me.

Every time I saw “Change of Heart” I thought of Terra, and how it was her favorite card-- and how she rejected it claiming she didn’t like dueling-- all part of her lies and desperation to forget her past.

Not that it mattered. It wasn’t as if I had anyone to duel with!

All I could ever do was go out for walks, try to clear my head, and try find my strength again, and while there were loads of people in Jump City who did duel… anyone whom I challenged, it was always the same-- just one rejection after another.

“No way!”

“Get lost, loser!”

“Don’t even think about it!”

“As if I’d duel you, freak!”

What was with them all?! Didn’t they even know I was “Beast Boy,” The Teen Titan, a hero?!

It was more like they didn’t care, and I soon fond out why…

You’re only ever a hero if people “consider” you one, and from what I found, it really hurt.

All around me stores only carried merchandise of the other four Titans, and people only seemed to look up to them more-- deeming them either cooler, or better looking than me.

Even when the Titans and I were called in action, and after we save the day, and tons of people crowd around for selfies and autographs… guess who was the only one they ignored like he was invisible...

…That’s right. No respect, no notice, not even an ounce of credit for my services or trouble!

Life just got worse and worse. Even my own so-called “Friends,” the Titans were starting to change for the worst!

-Always telling me to “Grow up” or “Move on!”
-Never listening to me when I even had good ideas.

-Vic didn’t even seem interested in playing video games or dueling with me anymore. Preferring to work on his car, or new inventions, or even study up business than had fun occasionally.

“I don’t have time. I got better things to do. It’s time to grow up and be a man.”

And Raven, constantly smacking, berating me, abusing me, being hard with me, and the others just sat there and let it her do it, even when I didn’t say or do anything.

It was like just being around them was all so annoying, even when I made simple suggestions, like a vacation in Mexico!

WHAPP!

“What was that for?”

“I just felt like it. You got a problem with that?!”

Whenever I tried to stand up for myself, they would always take her side.

“Beast Boy! Leave her alone!”

“What’s gotten into you, man?”

“You are behaving like a royal zarbnarf!”

They made me so mad I could just push them all over! It became clear now I could no longer see them as friends, but rather just teammates. Whatever good times we had now all seemed small and meaningless.

I really didn’t have much worth fighting for.

-No one in the city looked up to me, or even cared of my suffering…
-My so-called “Friends” were now more like enemies…

…And then the city itself was undergoing bad changes.

*Pause*

Sci-Twi remembered this, “All those renovations to the city just so greedy businessmen could make more of a profit, which caused consequences for others.”

She was right. She saw it all… fun places like candy stores, shopping malls, the city park, were all being replaced with office complexes, factories, and other places of hard work.

People were losing their jobs, their homes, and the other four Titans were all in on it.

*Resume*

“We’ve been offered deals.” Robin announced.

Some deals they were, deals set up by those greedy capitalists to help them break down more buildings and renovate the town all for their own profits!

I was practically the only one who could see this.

“You do not wish to join our new business?” Starfire asked. “But it is a great chance to make lots of the cash, as well as plan for our futures.”

“She’s right…” agreed Cyborg. “It’s not like we can really be heroes forever. Its time grow up, find jobs, be new people.”

“I won’t have any part of it!” I protested. “You guys think this is some opportunity, but you’ve been brainwashed by these dudes, and frankly the city doesn’t even need anymore changes like this.”

Robin merely brushed it off, thinking I was just protesting to change entirely. “Beast Boy, I know you’ve been having it hard, but you need to suck it up and get with it.

Things Change in life, it’s the way of progress, and it’s all part of growing up. Batman taught me this, and Starfire and Cyborg are right; we need to get out of the past and start thinking about our futures.”

It was official, he was lost and beyond hope.

“The city won’t have a future if you keep this up! You’re going to kill it with all these changed!”

WHAPP! Raven had swatted me again.

“No one’s interested in you’re being a crybaby just because things aren’t going your way.”

As usual, the others were on her side, and left me to wallow in my misery.

“We’ll talk when you’re ready to grow up!” growled Robin.

Oh, did I feel alone. I never felt so alone, so unwanted, so unappreciated in my life!

*Narration ends*

Another song played as images were shown of poor Gar walking miserably down the streets. (“Behind Blue Eyes”)

All around him the sights only added to his already unbearable misery…

-Happy parents with their kids…
-Couples on dates…
-Friends being great to one another…
-Even duelists having fun…

…All the joy and happiness Gar craved, but was always constantly denied of.

Then there was all the changes occurring, and most people in Jump City either didn’t seem to notice or care, not even when he tried to warn them.

“The changes are bad!”

“You’re going to lose your homes and your jobs.”

Everyone just laughed at him…

“You’re delusional, you retard!”

“You just can’t accept changes.”

“You need to learn to grow up.”

…Obviously, they didn’t realize the danger they were all in, or they hadn’t yet been affected like some, or they were just all part of the greedy changes and they didn’t care if they were ruining other peoples lives.

“Stuff happens.”

“You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.”

“Sucks to be them.”

Princess Twilight was officially ready to blow her top. “How can people be so cruel; so heartless. If they lived in Equestria, they’d be banished for things like this!”

The only person in life who ever felt close to or happy with, who ever understood me well, was Terra, and even she didn’t want anything to do with me-- like everyone else!

Even Terra herself never truly realized how insensitive the people were being, having been unaware of it at the time.

That’s when the next images showed of her and Gar talking in the park one afternoon.

She remembered that time only too well…

“I felt so guilty of telling him to stay away. I knew that I hurt him, it didn’t feel too easy for me either.”

“Well then, why did you dump him again?!” Sci-Twi almost yelled at her. She only asked in a rhetorical way, because she and the others already knew the answer, and they gave her angry looks.

Terra was so upset, she couldn’t answer them, and didn’t have to.

Even the next images showed why…

As she explained once before, she couldn’t focus on her school work, think straight, or even sleep well at night.

She even began narrating the next parts that happened herself.

“I felt I had to talk to him. I couldn’t stand this guilt-- this pain anymore. I thought maybe we could come to peace with what happened.”

The images showed just that…

She found Gar sulking in the park one day after she had just gotten off from school, and while she felt very uncomfortable, she had to go in and speak to him…

…Not that it helped, especially when she found out he had been moping ever since she dumped him.

“Beast Boy, can’t you understand? I’m doing this for both of us; try and make our lives better.”

Unamused, Gar sneered at her. “I don’t think so. You were doing it for yourself, just like you are now. You hate feeling guilty for what you did to me… to yourself… to us… and now you’re in a desperate hurry to clean your mind of it.

I want to wish you a lot of luck. I hope it takes the rest of your life!”

He walked off insisting. “I left you alone. I respect your wishes… now you respect mine, and keep away from me.

…That’s what you wanted after all.”

Then he left, leaving Terra feeling worse than ever.

Sci-Twi and the others couldn’t feel the least bit sympathetic for Terra at all.

“Could you have been any more insensitive?!” Spike balked at her.

Even Princess Twilight felt sick to her stomach, even as just a spirit trapped in a card. “It’s no wonder he scoffed at friendship and love-- it never worked with him.”

Terra’s stomach ached in shame, especially with happened next…

…The police had arrested Gar.

“What’s happening now?” asked Spike.

Terra confessed. “It was Jackie and Jillian. They called the cops on him.

They suspected I was having trouble with him, and they felt he was the reason why I wasn’t concentrating well.

Even though he quit stalking me, they saw us in the park and though he was, so they called him in, and they tossed him in jail.”

“And you just let it happen?” asked Princess Twilight in utter disbelief.

“I never wanted it to happen!” protested Terra. “But I was in panic. I couldn’t just up and tell the girls who I really was, nor could I tell the cops either.”

Spike gagged, “Oh, right… because that would mean you’d blow your cover and lose your “precious” normal life!”

The two Twilights were not pleased, especially in the next scenes showing Gar behind bars, with special handcuffs that prevented him from using his animal morphing to try and escape.

The Titans were there, looking at him angrily through the bars, and instead of trying to be helpful, only scolded him.

“I cannot believe you stalked that girl again!” sneered Robin. He still didn’t believe the girl was Terra, having never actually seen her.

“You are that obsessively insane.” said Starfire.

It was in vain that Gar tried to insist, “I didn’t stalk her. She came to me!”

“Do you have any proof of that?” asked Cyborg.

“Just find her, talk to her, she’ll confess!”

“Yeah, right…” Raven scoffed. “And just when I thought you couldn’t more pathetic!”

She refused to even read his mind, assuming like all the others he was crazy due to his behaviour lately.

“You need serious help, Beast Boy!” said Robin. Then he and the others all left into the next room to talk to the police and the Js, who made the call.

Terra was not present.

After a while, the cops and Titans had talked a lot, and the police agreed to release Gar from his cell and release him to the custody of the Titans…

Gar, finally having been pushed over the edge with all the abuse, neglect, and misery-- the second his cuffs came off, he made a break for it.

“Beast Boy!” Robin shouted, and her and the Titans gave chase.

“Wait! Stop!” called Starfire!

At the doorway to the building, Gar changed into a T-Rex and tail swatted Robin hard, knocking him clean into Starfire, then into Cyborg, and then into Raven, knocking them all down and giving him a clean chance to escape and flee Jump City.

The Titans had just gotten up and were ready to go after him, when a police car pulled up, and they had Terra with them.

The Titans were ever so surprised. This was the first time they had actually seen her since Gar had made claims, he had seen her.

Terra felt so guilty. “When I found out Jackie and Jillian got the cops involved, I ran and hid. I couldn’t let them take me in and question me.”

She looked over at Spike in his card, and he was very angry.

“You’re right-- I was trying to protect myself and hang on to my normal life, all because I didn’t know any of Gar’s trauma and stress.”

The others all shook their heads at her, unable to feel any more disappointed.

The memories had ended, and the door was shut, but Terra continued to explain…

“The police found me, and questioned me what this was all about, and since the Titans were there, they went into deep details.

I was exposed and forced to admit everything, including my history with the Titans, my past relationship with Gar, and the crimes I committed when I served Slade.

I was very lucky the police hadn’t pressed charges against me, but my normal life was history!

The Js couldn’t believe it, and instantly wanted nothing more to do with me. I was expelled from Murakami High, they found out about my history and didn’t want a former criminal in their history and placed in the Titans’ care. Not like I had much else of a choice, I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes, and she didn’t have to go much further. They all knew the part of the story from there…

The city soon fell into decline because of the greed, and stupidity which caused people to flee, but it was far worse as Terra told them.

“The changes caused so much trouble to stocks and industries across the country. Some people were so devastated and lost so much, they even committed suicide-- like a second Great Depression!”

“Wait, what?!” snapped Sci-Twi. “The Titans never told us that.”

“Come to think of it…” added Spike “They never told us about how abusive they were to Gar at all, or any of this stuff.”

Princess Twilight didn’t know how much more of this she could take, and the number one question on her mind was the same everyone else.

Where were they, and why were they being shown all this?

Author's Note:

One of Raven's quotes from THINGS CHANGE is...

I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I wish Beast Boy were here. Maybe he could follow the scent.

It shows to me that she doesn't really look past his flaws and doesn't really see him as a trusted ally or friend, but more an annoyance.

And the way she acts so bad to him on TROUBLE IN TOKYO...

...Which really makes her bad in my view