Disclaimer: This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Teen Titans and related characters are property of Warner Entertainment.

Teen Titans – What Grows From Deception

Chapter 39 – Consequences and the Resolution

Beast Boy pouted for a long moment, looking at the ruin of his room. But as was custom for him, he wasn't able to dwell on it that long before seeing the bright side of things. Rubbing the back of his head, he turned to Raven. The empath was staring wide eyed at the rubble too, her expression revealing that her 'oops' wasn't just a cynical rejoinder but genuine dismay. He would never understand how she got off calling herself emotionless when her eyes expressed so much.

And then she caught him staring at her eyes and nervous laughter and a lame joke came to his rescue. "Um... I guess there's really no way this made it more messy than it already was."

She didn't laugh. He knew she wouldn't. But neither did she break eye contact. "I really am sorry about that."

"Yeah... but hey, whatever it took to win right. Aionor's out cold and it's finally all over."

Now she looked away, flicking her gaze off to the side toward nothing in particular. "Not everything..."

Beast Boy looked away too, choosing the rocky ground to stare at. "Oh. Right. About that..."

"Friends! We are victorious!" Starfire touched down not far away. A green gloved hand grabbed her shoulder, firmly but gently, halting her intentions to grab up her friends in one of her trademark bone-crushing hugs. Robin.

"Hold on, Star." He said in hushed tones. "I think they need a little time alone right now, okay?"

Starfire looked at him blankly for a moment. Not because she didn't understand, but because she never expected Robin of all people to appreciate the need. Finally, she nodded. "Of course. Thank you. I nearly let my enthusiasm escape from me. I would have been most disappointed to ruin their moment."

Back over by Beast Boy, Raven worried her lip. Talking for her was hard enough, though not as hard as it had been before joining the Titans. But talking about her feelings—Those feelings—was something she dreaded. Hadn't she joust pours her soul out the night before, confronting him about his avoiding her? Why did she have to do it again now?"

"About what I said..." She began tentatively. His eyes drooped and her heart broke. He thought she was going to reject him, even after all this. Now she absolutely had to say something of substance. "About how maybe there really has been something between us? I think—I know there is. And I think I'm ready for it now."

Beast Boy goggled. He'd expected 'maybe' and 'I think' to be as far as things would go and was prepared to at least act like he was content with that. He had to blink a few times to ensure he wasn't dreaming. "Really? So you..." There really was no intelligent way to put it and admittedly, if there was, he wasn't the one to know it at any rate, "..wanna be my girlfriend?"

True to form, she danced around it, but she wouldn't have been Raven if she didn't. "I'm warning you though: it's not going to be easy. I'm not exactly like other girls."

"Yeah, but that's that part of what I like about you." Beast Boy surprised himself by saying that. Even more than he surprised Raven. To cover, he cleared his throat. "Besides... I'm not exactly like other guys."

And that was part of what she liked about him. "Other guys wouldn't have put so much effort into including me with the group, or tried so hard to try and make me smile, or put up with my powers slamming them into walls." She pointed out. "But you know what I mean. Thinks aren't going to be like..."

She almost said 'like there were with Terra', but stopped herself. No need to foul the mood. "Like how they would be with someone normal. I mean holding hands is going to be as big a step for me as kissing would be fore anyone else. I'm not used to this and I'm going to need time."

Beast Boy smiled a gentle smile, made slightly comical by his fang. "Rae, I get it. I totally do. I know that there are Things Raven Does Not Do and I can totally deal, okay? Like we both said, there's been this thing between us for a while, so all that really has to change right now is that we're, ya know, official, right?"

It was sweet and brave of him to say, but she felt the tinge of disappointment from him. He might say it, and he would definitely do his best to 'deal', but she could feel that he wished for more tangible proof that they really were a couple now. On top of that, when she'd talked about what he did for her, there was still pain; what she'd said was too close to what Aionor-as-her had said at the start of the whole mess.

Mustering up her courage and focusing on the parts of her emotional spectrum that wanted to do this for longer than she at first realized, she reached down and took his gloved hand in her slender one.

Beast Boy stared at the joined hands as if someone had just given him a gold plated Gamestation controller. "But you said..."

Raven blushed and cursed the fact that her hood was down and unable to hide it. "Just because it's a big step doesn't mean its not going to happen."

Of course, that wasn't the 'big step' that he Happiness and Affection were churning in the back of her brain for. She had to take it, or she might drive herself insane. "Beast Boy?"

Still looking at their hands and marveling at how good it felt, he replied absentmindedly. "Yeah?"

"I don't want you lingering on what she said that night." They both know that 'she' was Aionor, her name didn't need to come up. "But I don't want you to think it was any less true that I'm glad to have always had to here for me. So..."

Before she could think it through and sensibly stop herself, she leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He was warm and fuzzy, but as she'd never kissed anyone before, none of it felt unusual. "Thanks. For being here for me, Gar."

There was a brief surge of black energy, but it only smoothed out the sand in a five foot circle around them.

Beast Boy's face turned brown from the blush beneath his pelt. "I... um.. I mean always, Rae. You know that."

The distance between animal instinct and a uniquely human lack of common sense was always a short walk for Beast Boy. So it was almost predictable that with his emotions thusly charged and his sense of the dramatic (honed over years of pop cultural osmosis) piqued, his next move was a badly thought out one.

As Raven pulled back, he leaned forward and kissed her fully on the lip. For a moment, it was perfectly magical feeling her soft lips on his. And in the next, actual magic flared up, stoked by her shock and a number of other emotions.

He found himself bouncing and tumbling through the dirt, finally sliding to a stop before the front doors of the tower, staring up at a familiar face. "Ugh. I think that's one of those things we're gonna have to take slow."

"Just had ta push it, didn't ya grass stain?" smirked Cyborg.

Raven quickly glided over to him, looking worried. "I didn't actually mean to do that."

"Bet it was still satisfying." said Cyborg. Raven didn't disagree.

"Cyborg!" Beast Boy let Raven help him up and made it a point to put his arm around her. She squirmed uncomfortably at first, but made no effort to throw the arm off. "How did you get here with no T-car and none of us helping."

"Man, don't remind me what that stringy haired little monster did to my baby." Cyborg grimaced as if in pain while stepping to the side to reveal Control Freak. "But anyway, Freak clicked us over here with his remote.

Control freak grinned proudly. "And just in time too, because not only did we stop Aionor from getting away, but we picked up some neat souvenirs." From out of his coat, he produced three puppets; one was the Puppet King, who hung sullen and resigned to his fate. The other two, likenesses of Aionor and Malchior, were slapping at each other with their little puppet limbs.

"Look what you've done, you horribly child!" Malchior was shrilling.

"None of this wouldn't have happened if you weren't so full of yourself " Aionor retorted.

"Any you still would have betrayed me if I did!" Malchior replied before Control Freak stuffed them back in his pocket.

Robin strolled over with Starfire, looking most pleased with his team. "That just about wraps it up then. I guess I owe you an apology, Control Freak: you actually ended up helping us after all."

"So I still get that Robin costume?" Asked the eager dork.

Robin made a face, but managed to shake it off. "Better. As long as you promise to use that remote of yours for good from now on, I think you've earned Honorary Titan status.

Actual tears appeared in Control Freak's eyes. "I... I'm just so happy right now!" With that, he leapt at Robin to wrap him in a hug.

Mortified, Robin looked to the others for help, only Starfire was beside herself with happiness too and the others were trying to stifle laughter.

After that had lost its novelty, Cyborg looked up at the tower, which now had almost all its windows busted out, chunks torn out of it, and one entire room ripped out of one of the arms. "Repairs to the tower are gonna take weeks. It might not even be livable for a while."

Beast Boy smiled mischievously. "Ya know... it has been a while since we've had a vacation." Out of nowhere (or possibly from the debris of his room now littering the island), he produced a pair of Mountie hats and put on on his head and one on Raven's. "I say we go to Canada! I always wanted to see the Taj Mahal."

Having extricated himself from a blubbering Control Freak, Robin bent down and picked up a sombrero. "Actually... after Tokyo, didn't you say something about Mexico?"

End What Grows In Deception.

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Teaser – Teen Titans: Menace in Mexico City

The flutter of huge insectile wings filled a back lot in El Paso, Texas. The source was a human shaped being dressed in a blue and black, skin tight body suit, which sported not only massive insect wings, but horned shoulders—he was known as the Blue Beetle, the third to bare that name in fact.

"Don't tell me I'm wrong bugsuit," He was saying. "I know I saw Brenda go this way. And if she's in a bad part of town like this, she's got to be in trouble."

A second voice came form the suit itself, designated Khaji-da. It was in an impossible language, both organic and technological in sound.

"Look, I know you've got advanced sensors and junk, but I know Brenda when I see her.."

"Actually, Jaime, it looks like you don't."

Beetle whirled around to find Brenda Del Vecchio. She looked as she always did; same short, red hair, same spray of freckles across her nose... but not the same 'floating six feet above the ground'. "Brenda? What.."

Khaji-Da spoke again. Something about it's neural dampers being overloaded. Jamie didn't know what those were.

"Sorry. I'm not really Brenda." said Brenda in a different voice entirely. She sounded actually apologetic. "I just had to look like her to get you alone."

Then she started to change. Her hair became a brighter red and longer, her face rounder, her limbs longer. Even her clothes melted and flowed going from jeans and a pink shirt to a red, white and blue sailor suit straight out of a schoolgirl anime. Strangest of all, she turned green.

"Gah!" Beetle blurted out, knowing that didn't sound heroic at all. "Shapeshifter! Scarab, I need... what do you mean we should do what she says? Scarab what's..." And then, suddenly, he found that he agreed. They should do absolutely everything Miss Martian said.

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A/N – And there you have it. Teen Titans: What Grows in Deception. I hope this was an enjoyable read for everyone and that it felt like a feature length Titans movie, which is what I was going for.

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed and I'm very sorry for the typos, weird formatting and other problems that cropped up. I'll revise this sometime in the future to fix those.

As you can tell by the teaser, there is a sequel in mind for this, involving TT animated versions of Miss Martian, Blue Beetle and Cassandra Cain. Keep an eye out for that, plus the spin off about Control Freak; Freak Out, Geek Out, already on this site.

And finally, if you enjoy my writing, I highly recommend you check out my original web serial The Descendants, which you can find on my profile. It's a superhero series with lots of young heroes. Titans fans will especially appreciate the offshoot series Liedecker Institute and Descendants LA.

Thus ends my first attempt at fan fiction. I feel that this has been good exercise for my writing muscles and a great experience all around thanks to those of you who reviewed. Thanks for everything... but don't expect a kiss.