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italics=in retrospect
Chapter 7
Beast Boy laid down on his bunk bed thinking of what had happened. It had surprised all of them at the time, but Beast Boy had a feeling he shouldn't be surprised by the events. Which was saying something, as it was him who had gaped the most. Somewhere in his subconscious, though, he had a nagging thought that he shouldn't be surprised. It was almost like his mind was questioning himself. He closed his eyes to remember the events more clearly.
Flash Back
The Titans had encountered Black Glass again. This time the fight was going their way. The glass was as fast as ever. But there was a lack of it in this rundown part of town, forcing the villain to rely more on hand to hand combat, a specialty of the Titan's proud leader. Taking more risks than usual they had almost managed to corner Black Glass. Cyborg had rushed up to fight her instead of using long range attacks thinking his armor would protect him from most of her glass.
He came in and gave a right hook, sending her flying. She hit the wall and then, "That's when it started," Beast Boy thought. The blonde got up, her head now bleeding, and looked at Cyborg furiously. The glass turned blazing red starting with the pieces nearest to her going outward. They shot towards the Titans in unprecedented force, speed, and accuracy. This was something that had never happened before, she had managed to step up her game.
"What the heck was going on in her head?" Beast Boy thought .
At the time, the rest of them had to adapt or get hit with the blazing red glass. However, their confusion showed on their faces even as they battled her. Raven was the one who had been the first to recover. Another person whose powers depending on their emotion was no big deal. Black was one that she had never encountered before. However, red was easy to decipher. After all, Raven got angry all the time, mostly at Beast Boy. The blood dripping into Black Glass's eyes meant that she had to constantly rub it away, staining her hands with her own blood and wasting precious seconds.
This time the fight was one sided in their favor with their opponent having more than a little disadvantage. She managed to blindly attack them with good enough aim until Robin called for them to retreat a little ways back. Beast Boy instead rushed forward changing his shape to avoid the multitude of glass as it was hurled towards him. Finally settling on the form of a panther he jumped towards her.
The girl had now collected herself, casting away the anger like an old coat. The glass formed a shield that floated above her right arm stunning Beast Boy for a time. She built a series of walls in front of her, then began to box herself in one side at a time. Soon the girl couldn't be seen through the glass on all sides. By the time Cyborg had managed to blast through it she had disappeared, leaving a hole in the wall. Again Beast Boy didn't wait for the others, blindly rushing through the hole before it could be enlarged or sealed off.
"I have done that," Beast Boy winced.
Before they could come through and alert the villain to their position, he told them, "I'll find her!" The building was a warehouse that seemed familiar, wasn't there a party he had been to in here? That didn't matter though, right now he had to find Black Glass. He crept around in the form of a mouse, sniffing the air for the scent of a human girl. He heard ragged breathing as he jumped up the steps that went to the makeshift upper floor. The smell was obvious to the mouse form that he had chosen-a dirty human, female, young, and-filled with fear. "What the heck"?
Black Glass was ripping a part of her jeans to bandage her head with, completely ignoring the baggy jacket that she wore. She heard a series of squeaks and turned directly to him, her eyes narrowing at what she saw. Some glass from a previously broken window shot up from the ground floor. He quickly dodged and changed form once again in under three seconds, something that he had been practicing recently for this purpose. The burned girl stood up, looking at the hyena that stood between her and the stairs.
She tilted her head to the side, taking in the hulking form that would easily rip through bone and sinew if it got too close. Beast Boy let out a few savage barks. "What the heck was this girl doing?" Suddenly the villain dropped to her knees and began barking at him. "What?" Beast Boy was too surprised to keep his animal form up. Black Glass got up, ran past him, bolted down the stairs, and slammed the back door when she reached it.
Robin, Starfire and Raven were waiting in front of the door. When she backed up, Cyborg was behind her with Beast Boy. She was trapped. Cyborg grabbed her from behind and lifted her off the ground. They were all poised and ready for action. This would be it.
"Come quietly and we wont ask for a larger sentence," Robin said to the struggling villain.
"For a normal villain that would be it," Beast Boy sighed.
An inhuman roar burst out of her mouth and glass broke up and down the block. A few shards of glass took the time to attach themselves to her finger nails. She spat blood at Robin while managing to turn around and slice upwards at Cyborgs face. The two males were the center of attention as she dropped to the ground awkwardly landing on her foot. They lost her again, though they were getting dangerously close to capturing her.
This time she left behind little chaos, but one important item, her signature half mask lay on the ground. They didn't see her face in the confusion, but no one who wears a mask would dare to be seen without it. It meant a stop to her run for at least a few days, even if the problem itself didn't disappear. They had stopped playing nice, but maybe they had taken it too far. The reason that Cyborg usually used his cannon was that his strength could give a regular person a concussion or cracked ribs if he exercised control.
Robin made an announcement later that night concerning Black Glass. He said that it appeared as though there was a fragment of glass in the back of Beast Boy's neck that needed to be removed. They didn't know how long it had been in there. "I'll look at it after it's out of Beast Boy," Robin assured. "Maybe I should look at it too," Raven interrupted. "Her powers are controlled by her emotions after all."
"Then I just went into the infirmary," Beast Boy concluded.
Present time
Beast Boy touched his sore neck. He remembered the first time they encountered her. What had given her away was the cut on the back of his neck. Why on Earth had she done that? Did it give her some sort of power over him? That was creepy, she could kill him at any time and yet hadn't. Was he the reason she was doing this? No, she said that it was the Titans she was after. His memory wasn't so good though, and the Doom Patrol did go a lot of places.
Robin called him over the intercom to the medical room, saying that he should be the first to see this.
Beast Boy walked into the room ready for anything-well almost everything. On one wall was a projection of a collage of pictures. A small cat front and center, with the lines, "помогнете ми" scrawled all over it. It looked like the cat was made up of nothing but those two doodles on a closer inspection. The machine that projected it had the tiny shard of glass under a intense light that was reflected onto the wall opposite. Raven was standing in the corner looking visibly shaken with Robin closer to the door looking at Beast Boy carefully.
Beast Boy, however, was the one needing answers. What the heck was the cat about? He looked between Robin and Raven, waiting for one of them to speak. "It means 'help me'," Raven said finally before leaving. She brushed past Beast Boy as she went through the door with a paler than usual face. "Great! That helps a lot Raven," Beast Boy thought.
"She's been having dreams for the past five nights involving a small black cat that managed to worm its way into her mind. Beast Boy, do you have any idea on how long you had that glass shard?" Robin asked.
"I think I got it the first night," Beast Boy confessed. "It felt like there was someone who needed me to do something but I couldn't understand them."
"It's in Bulgarian. As an empath, Raven must have had it transferred to her then. Part of her doesn't want to fight us, it wants our help. It doesn't want to kill us, or we would have been dead on the first night. Raven managed to figure out what emotion black is. Fear. Black Glass is close to being terrified for some reason, it could be that she's being manipulated like Terra was. It also explains why she got angry at Cyborg hitting her so hard. She most likely thought we had gotten the message and were ignoring her," Robin continued. He went on about it being very easy to figure out the message, no code to crack or anything, just shine some light through and bam!
He glanced at Beast Boy as he was pulling up something on the computer. Beast Boy looked bad. Robin quickly cursed himself for bringing up Terra in front of Beast Boy of all people. Beast Boy's expression was being misread. He was simply deep in thought. "That explains it! You can't be surprised by something you already knew, and with that shard, I knew what she was trying to do. Or at least I knew instinctively. I don't speak Bulgarian. I couldn't figure it out! It took Raven and Robin butting in to get through. Curse my dumbness!"
Robin said he did a quick analysis of the type of wounds and their position in the body of Black Glass. A full blown Robin presentation with a slide show and pictures for those not medically inclined. The conclusion was not good. If she had no medical attention within the next 12 hours, they would be looking for a body, not a person. The Teen Titans would have blood on their hands.
*Short-ish chapter I know, but its more of a transition than anything. Please review so I know if I'm doing this right. This is going to be a really long fanfiction I warn you. At least 16 chapters. With a gag chapter at the end, 'cuz this stuff gets a little depressing after a while. Anyways sorry for being late on the update.*
