Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. I only own my OC, John Smith


Beeep…Beeep…Beeep…

Crud.

Damn clock! It can't be six 'o clock already! Where's the damn snooze button?

I fumbled blindly for the clock. I couldn't find it. I couldn't find the table where I kept my clock either.

Where's my table? Who stole my table?

I opened an eyelid that seemed as heavy as a Mack truck.

Steel walls.

Is that supposed to mean something?

I pondered this for a moment. No. Can't say it is supposed to mean anything.

Oh yes.

I'm in the Tower's infirmary.

Like I said.

Crud.

Beeep…Beeep…Beeep…

My heartbeat sounded regular. I was alive. That was good to know. A useful fact.

I raised my arm. No SHROUD. No bandages. No scars, either.

Hmmmm…

Looks like magical healing to me…

Somebody was snoring. Loudly.

I opened my other eye. The lights were low. Thank God for that. I felt terrible.

There was a chair next to my bed. It was empty.

I half-crawled, half-leaned over the side of the bed. Sure enough. Beast Boy was there, drooling and snoring, curled up on the floor.

"Beast Boy." I croaked.

No response.

"Beast Boy!" I tried again, with more feeling.

"Five more minutes, Rita…" he grumbled.

"Beast Boy!"

His head jerked up so fast it nearly bumped into mine.

"Huh? What? Dude!You're up!"

"Really?" I chuckled. "I feel really down."

"No duh…" Beast Boy was serious. I'd never seen him serious before. "You almost died on us, dude…"

"Yeah, I know." I managed to sit up and lean back on my pillow. I had never felt so physically weak before. "What happened?"

"You tell me." Beast Boy pulled up his chair and sat. "When Raven got you back you were out like a light. What was that thing you killed?"

"Raven's relative I think; but that's just a wild guess." I closed my eyes and sighed. "Where is she?"

"In her room. Sleeping."

"Oh." I admit I felt a bit disappointed. I had hoped for Raven to be there when I woke up. Maybe some tears of happiness. A proclamation of undying love…

Snap out of it. This is Raven you're talking about…

Beast Boy chuckled. "We put her there, dude. She had to rest. She teleported you back, healed you for five hours straight, fainted, recovered, came back and healed you again,till she dropped. She's been asleep for the last thirty hours or so."

I heard him up to the part where Raven 'healed me till she dropped'. Bed covers, blankets and pillows flew in every direction.

"Is she all right?"

"…Yeah." Beast Boy sweat-dropped, his face two inches away from my scowl. "She's just tired. That's all. Promise. Honest!"

"I want to see her."

Beast Boy backed off, his face set in a grimace of determination.

"I told you. She needs rest. And you do too."

I growled and made to stand. The room spun 'round me like a carousel.

"Like I said…" Beast Boy grinned, pushing me back to the bed with a single finger. "You're weak. If your blood pressure was any lower, it'd be negative. You're lucky Robin is blood type O, dude."

"What has that got to do with anything?" I moaned and blinked fast, trying to clear my vision. Black spots were dancing before my eyes.

"He gave blood, dude." replied Beast Boy. "Two units. Even after that, you nearly died of blood loss."

"Robin?" I asked, incredulous. "The Robin? Gave blood? For me?"

Beast Boy grinned nastily. "He didn't have much of a choice. It was that, or spend the rest of his days in the farthest, nastiest dimension Raven could think of."

I mirrored his grin.

That's my girl…


"So." Robin's voice was sharp and tense. "What do we know?"

Cyborg grunted an acknowledgement and dimmed the lights. The huge computer screen of the Tower's living room sprang to life.

"Not much." he said. "Most of what I'm gonna say right now is part speculation."

"OK, OK." grumbled Robin. "Go on."

"No, it's important!" protested Cyborg. "This might all be wrong. I…"

"Just. Spit it. Out!" growled Raven.

Silence.

"…Right." Cyborg wiped the terrified look off his face and turned to the computer. His fingers danced on the keyboard and a DNA chain appeared on the screen. "I take it you all know what this is?"

We all nodded. Even Beast Boy.

"A normal human DNA chain." explained Cyborg. "The well-known 'double helix'."

The image changed. A new DNA chain flashed on the screen. In places, the two chains split, twisted 'round themselves, and the 'double helix' became a 'triple helix'.

"Metahuman DNA." came Cyborg's voice from the gloom. "This is John. I got the genome mapping from a drop of his blood while he was unconscious. Sorry, man."

I shrugged. No matter.

"Right." Cyborg said. "Don't ask me how this triple-helix stuff works. I have no idea. Anyway. Moving on…"

Another DNA chain. This was a triple helix all the way.

"And this is Raven." concluded Cyborg. "All right so far? Good. Now this is part of the genome of the thing you fought, John."

I made a face. Robin scowled. Beast Boy 'yucked'. The DNA chain-if one could call it a chain-was twisted. Unnatural. It went from double helixes, to single strands of genes, to clumps of triple chain. It was ragged.

"What the hell is that?" asked Beast Boy, disgust in his voice.

"I don't know." Cyborg sighed. "It looks wretched, doesn't it? I have no idea how this thing could survive, with this kind of instability in his genetic material. I ran some simulations using similar strands of genes, and they all confirm that this…creature should be dead twenty minutes after it was conceived. Its DNA would have been torn to bits."

"Yeah, right." I mumbled, rubbing my arm where I had been bit. "Run those tests again, Cy. Take it from me, that thing was far from dead."

"No duh." Cyborg sneered. "I was baffled, to say the least. And then I ran into this."

The screen displayed a triple DNA chain.

"It's part of the creature's DNA. It translates to healing powers. Guess what." Cyborg's fingers danced on the keyboard and another chain, identical to the first appeared next to it. The screen flashed the message: '100 percent MATCH'. "The chain on the right comes from Raven. There is an identical gene in both Raven's and the creature's DNA."

Silence.

"I ran into more matches, after that. Mainly power-relative." added Cyborg. "All 100 percent matches."

"So…" Beast Boy was lost, but he hazarded a guess. "…they're really related to each other?"

"Yes…and no." replied Cyborg, a nervous edge in his voice. "The probability of that many 100 percent gene matches, even between relatives, is practically nil. It looks like…" he paused.

"Say it!" growled Raven.

"It looks like someone copied your genes and pasted them in this thing's DNA. Sorry, I know it sounds stupid, but…"

"No." I cut him off. It was like a join-the-dots image. "It isn't stupid. It's possible, if you have a genome synthesizer."

Cyborg snorted. "That's sci-fi, John. In twenty years, maybe, there are going to be genome synthesizers, but now they're…"

"STAR labs had their prototype stolen six months ago." I cut him off. "I was hired to retrieve it, but gave the case up when I joined the Titans. For all I know, they're still searching for it."

Silence.

"Oh man…" mumbled Cyborg. He was pale.

"Any idea who stole it?" Robin asked.

I shrugged. "My guess is Red-X. Teleportation was involved and the whole job…well, it fits his style."

"What would Red-X want with a genome thingamajig?" asked Beast Boy. It was a good question. "It's not like him to play the crazy scientist. He's a thief."

"Yeah, which means he probably sold the synthesizer to the highest bidder. Or, even more probable, he was hired to steal it in the first place." Robin replied. It made sense. "We must find out who the hidden mastermind is. I bet Slade has something…"

"Slade is in jail." I cut him off. "I know. I put him there. He's probably still paralyzed. And this is not his style. This was brutal and uncontrolled; Slade is more of a behind-the-scenes plotter."

Starfire sat up straight, her eyes glowing green with fury. Only then did I realize she had been quiet.Very quiet.

"That is despicable." she stated, her voice low and angry. "To play with someone's self, one's very being in such a way…Of all the people I know, only the Citadel would do such atrocities. Friend Raven…"

"Save it." Raven's voice was oddly expressionless.

"But, surely, you must…"

"Save it!" Raven hissed, two extra red eyes flickering in and out of existence on her forehead. Starfire backed away hurriedly, looking a bit hurt. Raven turned to Cyborg, forcing her voice back to her normal monotone.

"So who is it?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Can't tell. Obviously someone highly skilled in genetics. It would take a very good gene slicer to come up with something like this, even if it's barely viable."

"Any idea where it came from?" asked Robin.

Cyborg grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

He brought up a map of the US on the screen and pushed some keys. A line of red dots appeared, connecting Jump City with the West Coast. It was pretty much a straight line.

"Every red dot is an attack." Cyborg explained. "Mauled farm animals. Dogs. The police think it's a lion, or some other escaped animal. We now know better, don't we?"

"The creature seems to have followed a straight line to us!" Starfire noticed with some surprise. "Do you think it knew where it was headed?"

"Dude..."Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Of course it did. It was after Raven…" he looked around the room, suddenly uncertain. "…wasn't it?"

Cyborg nodded. "Maybe. But I don't think so. For one it was weak. All its magical power was constantly tied to healing its broken DNA. It had to strain itself just to stay alive. And look at it: John managed to kill it, for God's sake. Can you imagine what would happen if it had gone after Raven? She would've torn it apart!"

I crossed my arms with a grunt.Thanks a lot, Cy. I still had to admit that he was right though. Whatever the creature's purpose, it certainly would have stood no chance against Raven.

"So, what's your theory, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"I think they made it as some kind of test. To see if it was viable, before…improving it. I think it escaped."

Cyborg sighed.

"I think it was trying to go back to its mummy."


A/N: YES! I found time for an update. The moon DID look kind of blue-ish last night…

Hehe…evil cliffy. You know I like 'em…:-)

Sorry to any action junkies out there, but there won't be any action for a few chapters. Just angst-y whodunit. Story comes first.

VV: Lol. Yep, they are evil. The more I re-read the past chapter, the more the monster reminds me of a friend's dog. It's a poodle (I think). It looks up at you with big round cute eyes and bites your leg off if you come to close…(grin)
'De gustibus et de coloribus non discutandum'…Hmmmm…
It's hard to explain. The best I can do is this:
Word-by-word translation:
"Of tastes and colors there should be no discussion".
Actual meaning:
You like what you like. I like what I like. You shall not judge my tastes. I shall not judge yours. Each one likes what he likes, and everybody else should accept that.
Hmmmm…

Ghostalker: Read on and find out. (evil grin)

Xaleria: Yep. If I am to kill JS (which I might, who knows?) I'll do it in the end. Relax. You'll be able to enjoy his sarcasm and cynicism for a lot more chapters.

And I'm glad you liked it.

Next update will be up when I have time. Probably in a week.

Till then, cheers.

-Phaethon, out.