Author's Note: I know you all were waiting to see Beast Boy's reaction. I apologize for the long wait, and hope that I didn't disappoint anyone. Oh, and when I use ' instead of ", that signifies writing. So watch out. lol

Disclaimer: I don't wanna put this!! –cries like a 3 year old being forced to eat liquid spinach-

Poll: Were you content with the Trouble in Tokyo movie, or where you disappointed?

Previous Poll:

Me: for Cyborg, I would give him a Swiss army knife in his elbow, for Robin I would put him on drugs or something…you know…make him loosen up, for Raven I would make her confess herself to BB already, for Starfire I would take her off the drugs she's got to be on (and have her give them to Robin), and for Beast Boy…nothing.

Raven's Secret: Cyborg-make him get a PhD. Robin-happy. What more can I say? Starfire-new pet. Raven-new hairstyle. Beast Boy-get muscles

Chapter 10

False Security

The teenager sighed softly, not yet wanting to open his eyes. A bright light shone through the darkness, one he hadn't seen in God knew how long. Sunlight. It warmed his face, yet cooled him down. It was comfortable, relaxing, and rejuvenating. He missed sunlight. He missed weather all together. After all, in a basement, there was nothing but damp air and chilly temperatures. And that got old fast.

A persistent beeping sound continued to break through his mindscape, refusing to allow him to drift back into unconsciousness. Though his eyes were closed, he could see the gleaming metal of the monitor in all its cleaned glory encasing a sheet of glass, protecting the lights that glimmered beneath it. And the largest light was that of his heart rate. The pulsing red line would weave up, and down. Up, and down. Up, and down. It would never fail in its task to monitor the young boy whose life hung in the balance. It wouldn't give up on him. Not yet.

Over the sound of the rhythm, a quieter, fluffier tune, that of breathing, floated towards him. It was gentle and feathery, much like the sound of a steady breeze blowing through a tree's leaves. Barely audible, but it was there. It was so feminine, so beautiful, so recognizable. It was Raven. There was no doubt in Beast Boy's mind that the beautiful Raven was sitting just feet away from him, watching over him. And yet, there was no doubt in his mind that she wasn't. However much he hated it, he had to remind himself that this wasn't real. It probably never would be.

That thought was the only thing that kept him from waking up and smiling at her. It would only appease his captivators, and he couldn't do that to himself. Appeasing them meant his own torture. One he dare not deal with. And so, he lay quietly, barely shifting his position. He despised lying on his back. It was always so uncomfortable. When on his back, he felt as though he had no range of motion, and couldn't curl up into a protective ball and sleep. When on his back, he felt stiff, and trapped. Subconsciously, he shivered. He didn't want to be trapped anymore. He didn't know how much longer he could take it.

The girl beside him stirred in her sleep, a soft moan erupting from her lips. Maybe he could get just one look. After all, turning his head wouldn't hurt, would it? Refusing to question his actions anymore, he opened his eyes, and looked at her. She was so tired. Dark half moons covered the skin below her eyes, and her hair was a wreck. It was frizzy and tangled, as though she had been sleeping on her hand for days and hadn't brushed her hair at all. Perhaps that wasn't as farfetched as it sounded.

As he watched her sleep, her cheek resting against her shoulder, he smiled. One smile wouldn't hurt. He wouldn't let it hurt him. His eyes glimmered with their old spark, if only for a second. His hand tentatively reached out, but was quickly sucked back to his side. That he couldn't allow himself to do. He couldn't move. Movement would surely cause more pain.

As his bare hand brushed against the fabric, Raven woke up. It was a slow process, starting with a sigh. She rolled her head a bit, bumping it against the back of the chair. Her eyelids fluttered, and for a moment she looked as though she were going to groan and try to cover her head with a pillow. But instead, she opened her eyes completely, immediately focusing on the boy in the bed. A gentle smile passed over her lips.

"Welcome to the world of the living." She said calmly.

Beast Boy didn't answer. His smile vanished, eyes once again becoming lifeless. These next two weeks were going to be hard. He looked down, frowning. He felt horrible that he couldn't talk to her. After all, there was that off chance that she was real, right? But he couldn't take that risk. If she was real, he could just explain everything to her after a couple weeks and she would understand. Right?

"Beast Boy?" Her smile disipated, a worried look taking its place.

No answer.

"Beast Boy, please answer me." She begged.

Still nothing.

Before she could continue coaxing him out of his shell, the sliding doors opened, a weary metal Titan walking through. His concentration was focused on the chart in his hands, and he was mumbling something to himself. He took a quick glance at Raven, nodded a hello, and looked back down. Not a full second later, his eyes widened with realization, and he paused in mid step. Slowly, he raised his head, focusing on the green teenager.

"Beast Boy?" He said tentatively, stunned.

The changeling didn't reply. He blinked, but that was all. He didn't want to deal with his best friend, too.

"How long has he been up?" He asked Raven, noticing the boy's silence.

"Just a couple minutes." Her vision was still focused on her younger friend.

"Has he said anything?"

"No."

Raven sighed listlessly as Cyborg moved in, taking her friend's blood. She sat patiently, scooting her chair out of his way. The empath remained quiet as she listened to Cyborg's mutterings. He was obviously trying to get the injured Titan to speak.

"How are you feeling, BB? Can you say anything? Come on, help me out here buddy." He whispered.

Beast Boy just looked away.

"What happened to him?" That question was rhetorical. No one knew exactly what had happened, and at the moment it seemed that no one would.

"Is he okay?"

"I don't know…his heart rate is still pretty unsteady, and he lost a lot of blood down there. We don't have a match for his blood type, so we can only hope he can survive on his own. And his blood…it's tainted with some drug that I've never seen before. There are still traces of a hallucinogen, but the sedative is almost completely worn off."

"What do you mean 'still'?"

"When I first tested his blood, when we got back here, there was some kind of medication in his system. I could only figure out what part of the chemical was. It seemed there was some halothane, scopolamine, and a bit of psilocybin."

"In English?" Great, she was starting to sound like Beast Boy.

"Well, halothane is a drug commonly used to create a chemically induced coma. Psilocybin is used as a psychedelic drug, and is a main ingredient in Magic Mushrooms. They cause hallucinations. And scopolamine is a chemical that causes delirium, delusions, paralysis, stupor, and, in worst case scenarios, death. But there was only a bit of that in there, just enough to last a day, if that." Cyborg quickly tried to assure Raven.

"So, the drugs should have worn off by now?" The "death" threat had frightened her, but he wasn't dead yet, so she wasn't too worried.

"Yah, they should have. But I guess it is possible that some of the halothane and whatever else is trashing his system hasn't, and that's why he can't speak. Or perhaps he has just been dosed so much in the past week and a half that his body is just crashing on itself." He looked solemnly at his friend.

Beast Boy was starting to fall asleep again. He was interested in what was going on, and believed about half of it. Those sounded like drugs that Register would use, and the addition of drugs that Cyborg couldn't identify made it all the more convincing. He was big on making his own crap by combining everything he could get his hands on. So, pretty much everything. But come on, only a day's worth of scopolamine and psilocybin? More like a week's worth.

"I can't heal illness and drugs." Raven was near tears.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright. Either the drugs will wear off on their own in a couple hours, or I can get rid of them with counter drugs. And if they have screwed up his systems, I can treat that too." He smiled encouragingly.

Raven nodded.

"You should go sleep. I'll stay and talk to Beast Boy for a bit, see if I can pry anything out of him. Okay?"

Again, Raven nodded. She reluctantly stood from her chair, keeping her eyes locked on Beast Boy. It took her a full seven minutes to reach the hallway, and she never looked away from him. Even as the door was closing behind her, she was watching her friend, praying that he would be okay.

Once alone, Cyborg turned back to the changeling. He remained silent for a moment, taking one last look at the junk in his blood. With no new toxins identified, he looked into his green friend's eyes, looking for any kind of life. A spark, a glint of soul, anything to signal he was still the same kid. Nothing turned up.

"Can you hear me, B?" He asked slowly.

He only got a blink. Cyborg sighed with fear and sorrow for his friend. What the hell had happened to him? He couldn't help but feel guilty for the entire thing. If he had fixed the stupid security system, if he had kept the inside lock down on high alert, if he hadn't put windows in the medical bay, the youngest teenager might not be laying on what could be his death bed.

"We've worried about you, Raven the most. She hasn't been the same since you were taken." He tried to keep a conversation going with just him talking. It wasn't easy. "She's always either pacing in her room, or sitting in here. She hasn't left your side since we got you back, and that was almost a week ago."

Beast Boy's eyes widened. If that drug was only supposed to last a week, then was this all real? Was everything that had been happening true? Had Raven really just been sitting next to him, watching him, taking care of him?

"B?"

No, it couldn't be true. Everything the hallucinations said was a lie, which meant it hadn't been a week. A few hours was more like it. He had fallen asleep, and was awake now and still in that clammy room with two men watching his every move. He still wasn't safe. The surprised and hopeful look vanished, replaced by the previous placid, depressed look.

"You almost died, you know." Cyborg sighed. "Raven saved you. When you snap out of this, you need to thank her. God, if I was you, I would kiss her and marry her right now, drugged up or not." The metal teenager smiled at his joke, but not as he usually smiled. It was a sad, I-wish-I-could-do-more smile. "Starfire's planning a party. She thought that your return should be celebrated. Everyone does. She's invited every honorary Titan she could find. Hell, I bet half the world would turn up if we invited them. Everyone's been so worried about you, man. You don't know how popular you are. When you kicked ass during the war against the Brotherhood of Evil, you earned a lot of respect. Everyone looks up to you now. If you wanted to, I bet you could give Robin a run for his money in leading the Titans. I think you would be a better leader than him. He's always so serious. You know how to have fun, and how to comfort someone when they need a shoulder to cry on. You know everything."

Beast Boy turned his head, locking eyes with his friend. Tears were starting to peak over his eyelids. Screw what would happen to him. He couldn't take this. He wouldn't say anything, he couldn't risk that much. But being silent for two weeks wouldn't kill him. Already his muscles were aching with the need to move. A smile crept over his lips, and he mouthed a "thank you".

"Welcome back, buddy." Cyborg grinned, barely able to contain his joy.

'Raven.' Beast Boy silently tried to say. Speaking without…well…speaking was hard.

"Raven?" Cyborg repeated.

Beast Boy nodded. He wanted to make sure she was okay. He wanted to talk to her. He missed her. And he prayed she missed him just as much.

"I'll get her." Cyborg stood, eager to fetch his friend. He knew she would want to talk to Beast Boy.

The changeling grabbed his arm. Confused, the black teen looked at him. Beast Boy shook his head. He motioned for a pencil and something to write with. Still baffled, Cyborg handed him the clipboard and a pen.

'Let her rest.' The green Titan wrote.

"If you say so." He shrugged. "But…why can't you talk?"

At the question, Beast Boy grew solemn. He was getting carried away. He was starting to convince himself that this was real, and if he did that, he could wave bye bye to getting off easy when he woke up from his delusions. The metal Titan stared at him quizzically.

'Long story.' He simply wrote.

"So…are you even capable of speaking?"

'Yes.' Beast Boy turned his head. He knew Cyborg was going to either scold him for scaring them like that, or pity him for being so scared to talk.

"Okay."

'What?' Beast Boy stared at him. Neither of his assumptions had been correct, apparently. But of course, they wouldn't be. Nothing was supposed to make sense in a hallucination, and yet everything was.

"Okay. I don't want to push you into something you don't want to talk about."

'Oh. Thank you.' The half of Beast Boy that hadn't died down there in that basement and wasn't trapped in the knowledge that this was false, smiled gratefully. But the half that had been lost to the two men didn't. Though his lips curved upwards ever so slightly in a ghost of a smile, his eyes were grey and dead. Cyborg gave him a sympathetic, and guilty look.

"This is my fault." He finally blurted. He suddenly seemed exhausted, and fell into a chair next to Beast Boy.

'Don't you dare say that.' He wrote.

"But it is. I should have made sure the security system was working. I should have made a faster uprgrade. I should have-"

"Shut up."

"-watched out for you. I should have put all systems on high alert. I…wait…what?" Cyborg looked at his friend in the bed, dumbfounded. Did he just…say something?

Beast Boy sank down in his chair, silently scolding himself. He shouldn't have said anything. Register and Galtry were probably sitting on the edge of their seats in suspense…literally. Now that he had spoken, they would wait for more conversations. They would monitor what he saw, or, thought he saw. They would test and experiment on him. It was going to be a living hell when he got out of this.

"Beast Boy?" The half-robot scooted his chair closer, a large hand resting on his shoulder. "You're safe, don't worry buddy."

Before the changeling could respond, the doors slid open. A tall, sniffling girl was revealed, her red hair hanging over her shoulders unceremoniously. But, as her eyes fell upon Beast Boy, the swollen red coloring in her eyes vanished, and she immediately perked up.

"Friend Beast Boy! You have awoken!" She whipped towards him, her feet never touching the ground. The alien's arms wrapped around him, crushing the life out of him. He gasped, but didn't tell her to stop.

"Starfire! Let him go!" Cyborg did it for him.

"Oops." She immediately looked guilty, and daintily set him down.

He could feel that a few stitches had been torn, and that he had begun to bleed. Pain radiated dully from the inflicted areas, and he wondered why Raven hadn't healed him completely. He knew that his injuries had been bad, but had they really been bad enough that she couldn't complete the healing process? He knew that whenever she used her energy to heal someone, she absorbed part of their pain. If the empath couldn't fix him completely, it meant that he truly had been near death.

Cyborg moved quickly, fixing up what needed fixing, and forgiving Starfire repeatedly. She continued to mutter her apologies, however, and refused to accept the forgiveness. Once the new blue material had sown the gashes together, she began rambling about the party she was planning.

"It is to be held as soon as you are healed." She said, excited.

Beast Boy's eyes fluttered as he started to fall back asleep. He was interested, truly he was. But he knew it was all for naught, and he was exhausted anyway. Being awake for a half hour really took a lot out of a person.

Cyborg noticed the changeling start to nod off, and quickly shuffled the princess out. She left quietly, understanding that her friend needed rest. With a final, joyful smile, the door shut behind her. The metal Titan, too, turned to leave.

"I'll go get Raven." And, not giving Beast Boy time to speak or whatever it was he was going to do, he left.

The changeling sat quietly, his eyelids fluttering. Spikes of pain were still flowing from the new stitches, but he didn't mind. It was a small twinge, and nothing more. Nothing at all, compared to what he had been through. As he was about to hop aboard the Dreamland Express-he smiled softly at the remembrance of that one Power Puff Girls episode. Boy was he glad he didn't have a curfew-, the doors again slid open. This time, the girl it welcomed was not an alien, but a half demon. She walked over silently, her felt boots shuffling on the tile floor. Her right hand was draped over her left shoulder, as if looking for comfort from herself. The dark half moons were still there, though her hair was no longer a wreck.

"Hi." She sat next to him.

He nodded softly, relaxing.

"Cyborg told me that you were awake." She stated, searching for something to talk about.

Again, he nodded. Wasn't it obvious he was awake? No, I'm probably not awake. He thought to himself. Why couldn't he just let himself live the life he missed so damn badly? Why did he have to keep holding himself back? So what if he was going to be killed in the near future? Why couldn't he just enjoy the present, and live what he was missing? Oh, right, because he would be tortured and tested if he did.

"You don't need to be afraid anymore." Her hand now found his in its search for reassurance.

He returned the grasp, squeezing a bit. He did need to be afraid. And he needed her to chase away his fears. The real her. The one he loved. Not some copy.

"Please talk to me." She begged quietly, her voice strained.

Sometimes being an empath got on her nerves, especially when her friends were more upset than usual. But for once, she wished her empathic abilities were stronger. She could sense some fear, a taste of confusion, but mostly his emotions were blank. Killed off in that dark room she had found him in.

He shook his head in the negative. He couldn't talk to her. God, he was sick of this! He was spinning in circles. To speak, or not to speak, that is the question. Damn Shakespeare…that had been Shakespeare, right? Ah, what did it matter to him? Shakespeare hadn't been tortured with hallucinations, as far as Beast Boy was concerned.

"Damnit Beast Boy!" Raven blurted, thrusting herself from her seat. He noticed she was crying. "What the Hell happened to you?" She crumpled to the floor, her head resting on his arm.

The door to a closet blew off its hinges and turned into a bunch of metal toothpicks. Beast Boy's hand slowly caressed her hair, combing it through his fingers. Real or not, she needed to be comforted. He hadn't been the only one to go through Hell, apparently.

As her muffled sobs softened, she lifted her head. Every few moments she would sniffle, but for the most part, her eyes remained locked with his. Her amethyst orbs flicked back and forth ever so slightly in an endless search. Her brow began to crease as a frown made its way across her lips. Beast Boy gave her a questioning look, though it was disheartened. He didn't really care anymore what she was looking for. Either she wouldn't find it, or she would, they would click, and everything would vanish in a couple weeks, fading back into the tortures of his underground pain-box.

"I'm looking for hope." She admitted quietly, seeing the look he tossed her. (A/N: "and I will bring you hope". Sorry, total X-Men freak here)

He leaned back in his bed, his neck resting against the pillow. Though the peak of his head leaned heavily on the metal headrest, he didn't move. Sure, it was uncomfortable, but he didn't pay attention. He had other, more pressing things to think about. Like what he was going to do for the next couple weeks.

Raven remained by his side, her hand never letting go of his. Though he didn't let go either, he didn't grip it as strongly as he wanted to. His face was drawn with lines of stress and weariness. Why didn't the men just kill him now? Surely they would get bored of his pain. Surely they would grow weary of watching him scream the same scream, wriggle the same wriggle, and slowly die within himself. Surely, they would eventually put him out of his misery, like the worthless dog he had ended up becoming. They couldn't do this to him forever, could they?

"Why won't you say anything?" She asked, near a whisper.

Tears were starting to stream down her cheeks again, but she didn't go into another fit. She wouldn't allow herself. He looked at her, his eyes no longer their emerald tint but a deep olive, nearly grey. The green teenager remained silent, if only for a moment.

"They'll hurt me." He admitted, matching her quiet tone.

"They can't hurt you anymore." She promised him. "You're safe. You're in the Tower. The security system is back on, and no one comes within a half a mile without us knowing. You're safe."

"Am I?" His tone was doubtful, unbelieving. Was he, truly, safe? Had they really come and saved him from the two men? Was this all real? Or was this entire scenario just another nightmare?