Summary: Eight years the Titans have been apart. Eight years Slade has had his new apprentice. Eight years since Beast Boy lost control … and now it's all coming back at a blinding speed.

A/N: This is kind of an apprentice storyline, but it won't be like that one. This is just the Prologue, so you won't be able to tell if the story is shit from this. Please review, or flame, or whatever, I don't really care, this story is mostly just my try at horror/angst. Please tell me if I'm getting it right. Later there might be a vote on pairings … maybe. Possible slash. The parts with Beast Boy's POV may not seem like Beast Boy, but that's just my writing style.

Disclaimer: Picky, picky people. Alright. I don't own Teen Titans. Forget who does.

My Personal Hell

Prologue: Apprentice is a word … Control is a word.

Apprentice is a word. It is a noun that means somebody who works under a skilled professional in order to learn an art, craft, or trade and become qualified in it. An apprentice is a protégé, someone who is trained by someone else to become their successor. An apprentice becomes thusly so to train. To learn control of their art, craft, or trade. And an apprentice is normally the successor of that person, becoming like them in almost everyway imaginable. Almost like them. A person can never be truly like a person. Every human is in everyway unique. Humans are an amazing species to be able to have that. But when you try to take it all away, it's like trying to take away a person's soul. But some people don't really care about that.

Beast Boy's POV

As always, big events seem to begin on normal days, so I'll skip the lecture. One thing wasn't normal, though. After that battle with Slade, I had locked myself in my room. Raven had come around sometime earlier to tell me dinner was ready, but I still didn't come out. I was afraid. I didn't want them to know. Because if they knew, I'd be off the team faster then anyone could say some long and meaningless word like, 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious', or something like that.

Earlier, during the battle, I had been fighting with Gizmo, and I and chased him into a warehouse. There I had been searching for him. He came out from behind me and slashed at my back with one of those mechanical arm thingies that have razor sharp edges. It pierced my skin and I could feel blood trickling down my back. I sank to my knees, knowing that if I didn't get help soon, bleeding to death was inevitable.

Then something clicked. Something else snapped. I flung myself at Gizmo, a savage roar ripping itself from my throat. I could feel my skin changing underneath my clothing. My outfit ripped along my back as I felt a sharp pain on my spine. There was a loud crack as even more blood trickled to the floor around me. I twisted around to look at the cut on my back. I nearly fainted at what I saw.

Bat-like wings came out from my sides, looking like the wings of the Dragons' from those fantasy books that Raven sometimes reads. They were a scaly green that shone in the dim light of the warehouse, hanging loosely at my sides. That was when I felt a weird sensation all over my body and turned to look at my arms, at the same time removing my gloves.

My arms were covered in small, triangle-shaped green scales that were the same color as my skin. I stared at them, the looked at my hands. My fingers had always been claws, but the sharp nails were now growing at an alarming rate. I watched in growing horror as they became as long – no, longer – then my hands. A sharp pain in my lower back brought my attention to the area below the wings I'd grown.

By looking between my wings at the right angle, I could see a small, bloody nub that had appeared at the base of my spine. It began to grown, causing more and more blood to flow from the wound it had caused. It was long, green and scaly, with spikes every few inches along its length. After a few minutes of staring at it, I realized what it was. I had grown a tail.

Suddenly, it felt like I had lost control of my limbs, because they were carrying my forward on all fours towards Gizmo, who was staring at me with wide eyes. Another bloodcurdling roar echoed around the room, a thousand times louder then the last one. Gizmo screamed a few seconds before I hit him. After that, blood sprayed everywhere around the room.

That was when I bolted back to the tower. I stayed in my room for around six hours. It took that long for the wings and tail I had grown to sink back into my back. My claws still remained. I had tried nail clippers, but they had just bent the wrong way before falling apart.

I growled in frustration, throwing the clippers across the room. That was when I noticed the shadow at the window. It blocked the light from entering the room. It stepped off the sill and approached me. "Beast Boy," it said in a calm voice everyone in this tower knew all too well.

"Slade," I had responded calmly, turning to face the older man.

"Having a few …problems, I see?" Slade asked, walking slowly in a wide circle around me in a cautious manner. I couldn't tell because of the mask, but I think he was eyeing my claws in a wary way.

"None that would be of your concern," I countered coolly, proud of my calm façade. But I wasn't out of the fire just yet. In fact, I was walking into its center, as I was about to find out.

"I see. So you normally have claws?" Slade asked. I could almost see his smirk. Except that I had no idea that what his mouth looked like.

I chose to ignore that statement.

He chuckled. "Beast Boy, I thought you were the most controlled," he said.

"I am," I told him through gritted teeth. The parts of my claws that had sunk into my skin had returned to their full length, much to my horror.

He shook his head, like he was dismissing a two-year-old for lying. "Don't try to fool me. I'm an expert in these matters. I know that if you still had control, Gizmo wouldn't be lying in his own blood right now."

I had glared fiercely at the man, but he had stood there, watching me unfazed.

Slade calmly picked an imaginary piece of dust off his suit and waited for me to reply. There was silence for around a minute before I asked, "What d'you want?"

At this Slade merely smiled. That irked me more then anything else. "Well?" I asked expectantly, my foot tapping of its own accord.

Slade watched me for another minute. Then he finally spoke. "Changeling," he addressed me as, "do you remember why Terra became my apprentice?" He asked coolly.

I nodded stiffly, afraid to say anything because if I did, I was sure to start crying.

"I think you have a problem identical to hers."

"What would that be!" I yelled, thinking he was dissing Terra. My voice cracked and I allowed the tears to fall freely down my face. "That I can't stay loyal to my friends!"

Slade shook his head. "I was suggesting no such thing." He looked at me before continuing, apparently sizing me up. "I was thinking something along the lines of control. And I was beginning to believe that it is there you might be lacking."

I faltered. "I – uh – I don't have any problems with – that – sort of thing," I said, unable to look him in the eye. I was really, a very bad liar.

Slade saw this too. "I'm not here to play games, Changeling. I am here to offer you something."

"What, then?" I asked, not turning my back to him. It wasn't me following rules so much as animal instinct leading me now, and my instinct screamed, RUN!

"If you come with me, if you swear to serve me, only me, and no one but me, I can help you gain control. I can give you back the control you lost in return for your undying, unwavering loyalty. Or …" Slade turned back to the window. "I can leave you to stumble through the rest of your life, unable to control the new abilities that come with what you did to Gizmo. What you did back there was only the beginning. Just a mere teaspoon in the ocean of your actual power."

I snorted. "You expect me to accept that?"

"No." The masked man shook his head. "I expect you to refuse my offer and kill all of your friends within the week, and come running to me, begging for help, by the end of the month."

My eyes widened. "You're wrong," I hissed. I felt that pain on my back again. I took several deep soothing breaths, not wanting to show Slade that he was right.

Slade smirked. "You really think you have control? Don't make me laugh. You have no more control than Terra did. As a matter of fact, you have even less. Do you want to have your friends' deaths on your hands?"

I gritted my teeth, managing to choke out between my sobs, "no."

"Then will you come to me?"

Looking back, here and now, I suppose I made the right choice at the time. But I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't decided what I did. But there's no point in bemoaning the past. You can work for a better tomorrow, but there's no making a better yesterday. You can't change the past, and although you can try to make up for your mistakes, no one will forget what you've done. I had looked up at Slade and said the one thing I regret even now.

"Yes."

"Welcome aboard, apprentice," Slade said briskly, pulling out a small hypodermic loaded with a potent sedative. He took a second to aim and then fired with a bang.

My last memory of Titans' tower is someone screaming my name.

Unknown's POV

I heard the gunshot. I heard the deafening bang. I heard his body thump to the floor. "Beast Boy!" I screamed, running towards his room. My heartbeat was thundering loudly in my ears. The run seemed to take me forever, even though, in real life, it was only a few seconds. But, even though that was the case, by the time I got to his room, it was too late.

Slade had picked him up, loaded him over his shoulder, and walked over to the window. I stood by helplessly as the masked criminal jumped out of the window with Beast Boy still on his shoulder. I was in shock. I yelled at my legs, ordering them to go forward. But they wouldn't listen.

He was gone. He didn't know I liked him – no, was enamored with him. It was my own fault for that, not telling him sooner. But I never though he'd join up with Slade. I had thought he was honest, true. The fun-loving changeling that everyone liked but pretended to be annoyed by. The boy I loved.

I could have protected him. I should have protected him. I know I could have. But I didn't get there in time. I failed him. I should have tried harder. But here isn't any time for should-haves, or could-haves, or would-haves. Those things already happened.

But I can't move on.

I had loved him, and he had left. That's what one gets for loving. I had tried to convince myself that Slade had kidnapped him, but I wasn't fooling anyone, least of all myself. I had loved him, and I had been too stupid to tell him when I had the chance. God, what an idiot I had been. What and idiot I was. But I had loved him.

I still do.

Control is a word. It is both a verb and a noun. To control something or someone is to have power over them, to be in command of them. To run them, how they live, how they breathe, how they are. To have control over something, like abilities, is to be able to run them properly without them getting out of hand or doing anything without your consent. If one has control, one rules. One is the master. One does not need endless hour of practice.

Control is a word that goes hand in hand with apprentice. A master has control over his or her apprentice's action, telling them how they should train to obtain certain abilities. To have their apprentice be obedient and take their every command without argument. Others like to see their apprentice challenge them; show them that they can fight, that they're not afraid. Which kind of master is Slade, you may ask? Only time will tell, my friend. Only time will tell.

A/N: So, how was that? Please suggest improvements, I'm dying to know if there's anything I can fix. Also, guess who that was, right at the end. Ideas, please and thank-you. Who do you think Unknown was? Please tell me! I want to know if I was too obvious! And if you can't guess, who do you want it to be?