"Can I speak with him, Dr. Marshall?"

The doctor eyed the man up and down. The spoiled heir to the Canterfield billions, who Dr. Marshall had taken care of since the collector was a spoiled little brat of three. The blond haired man looked fairly contrite, but Dr. Marshall wasn't entirely buying it. Just as he never bought it from Colin's father, mother, uncle, or sister.

"I would like to say no, Colin. I would very much like to."

"I… I know what I did was wrong."

"Do you? I gave specific instructions. The child was not to be moved. He was to rest and heal. I certainly did not authorize testing. You completely disregarded my medical opinion."

"I didn't!" protested Colin, raising up his hands in a confused gesture that was half defensive and half an attempt at being conciliatory. "I just got… distracted." He lowered his hands, as if realizing he was at fault. His eyes lowered to stare at Dr. Marshall's shoes, too ashamed to look the older gentleman, a man he'd looked up to his entire life, in the face.

"Go ahead," sighed the doctor. "Apologize to the child. And mean it." Dr. Marshall stepped to the side of the hall, letting Colin past him to enter the room.

Colin entered, to see Husky's dazed, half-conscious eyes focus on him and immediately sharpen into a glare.

"I'm sorry."

Husky wasn't buying it.

"I didn't mean for you to get injured."

"You think…" began Husky. The fish +anima winced as pain stabbed through his skull. He could mostly ignore the throbbing in his leg and arm, long as he didn't move, and the nausea had indeed mostly worn off – but the pain in his head refused to go away. He shoved past it anyway, disregarding his own body's warning signs. "You seriously think I'll forgive you? I hate your guts. Go drop dead."

"I lied to you about your friends. They did follow us into this world. I've already located them. They'll be here in less than an hour."

Husky's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion.

"You still can't go anywhere. Not until your leg is better – Dr. Marshall really will kill me next time. And I really don't think you'll be able to find a way to go back to your world, so I'll take care of you until…"

"Hah!" scoffed Husky, wincing again and setting a hand against the side of his head, mindful of his injury.

"Look, I want you to be…"

"Happy?" interrupted Husky, practically growling. "Seriously? Because I'm obviously some cute little pet that you can just throw treats at to make perk up and smile?"

Colin's face faltered.

"Idiot," grumbled Husky, the fire already going out of him from lack of energy. He laid back to rest against the pillow, staring at the ceiling. "Want to know where you went wrong?"

Colin frowned. Wait… was the kid giving him advice?

"There are thousands, maybe millions of +anima kids in my world. Most are homeless, friendless, lonely, and scared. Pretty much any of them would eagerly have gone with you. But you just had to snatch me. Idiot."

A strange sounding giggle actually broke from Husky's mouth at the thought of the tremendous odds against all of this ever happening. So many abused children desperately looking for some sort of stability, and Colin stumbles across the perfectly satisfied Husky and his friends.

"Stupid. It's all so stupid…" Husky turned his eyes to glance again towards a surprised looking Colin.

"I don't hate you because I got hurt. It had nothing to do with losing my friends… well, not much. What I hate… is that you never gave me a choice. Just like all those others…"

Husky's eyes were slightly dazed as he started giving in to the exhaustion caused from trying to speak so forcefully in his condition.

"Why do all adults never just ask?" whispered Husky, just as his eyes drifted closed.

For the first time since this all began, a stab of genuine 'If I could take it all back…' guilt worked its way through Colin's heart.


"You found him?" cried out Nana and Cooro together in delight. To Robin's shock, he suddenly found himself on the ground with the two children hugging him tightly and stringing together seemingly endless streams of thank-you's. He allowed his arms to wrap around the two children and looked up to check on Senri. The large teenager stood there, arms folded across his chest, absolutely beaming in happiness.

Robin allowed them their excitement for a few more seconds before freeing himself from Nana and Cooro's hug. "Look, guys – there is one problem. Husky's hurt."

A dangerous growl echoed throughout the room. Robin glanced over at Senri, unsurprised to see his arm shifting into a bear's. Deciding the teenager wasn't immediately dangerous, at least not to him, he turned his attention back to the two younger children.

And was surprised to see just as furious a light shining in their eyes. Nana's face had spots of pink on her cheeks and her eyes were narrowed in rage. Cooro's smile had disappeared, replaced with a look of deep concentration and focus.

"What happened?" demanded Nana.

"I don't know the details. We'll find out when they get there. I'm telling you now so that you don't just rush in and snatch him up. You could hurt him even worse."

"We are going to him," said Cooro, absolutely no room for debate in his tone. His personality seemed to have completely shifted. It reminded Robin of Beastboy when he was informed that the Doom Patrol was in trouble. These happy go lucky types could sure get scary when they were angered.

"I know, and you will," said Robin. "I won't stop you. I'll stay back and get all the details from Canterfield and you guys can go to Husky – just be extra careful not to hurt him, alright? And don't try to move him until I find out what's wrong, okay?"

"We would never hurt Husky," said Nana fiercely. Senri nodded his head in agreement.


Canterfield was waiting on the front porch as a car and a motorcycle drove up the long drive to the main entrance. Above the famous T-car flew the alien Starfire of the Teen Titans and a familiar boy with crow wings. The one he'd spoken to in that other world.

The motorcycle pulled up and the rider took off his helmet, revealing the masked face of Robin, leader of the Teen Titans. The car's doors opened, and Cyborg, Raven, Beastboy, and the remaining two from that other world jumped out. The blond girl flew up with her bat wings, and the grey-haired teenager, again with a bear claw for an arm, charged forward. The two joined the boy with crow wings and dashed past him into the house.

"Hey! Wait a - ! You can't…!"

"They won't hurt him," said Robin professionally, approaching the rich collector. "I explained that he was injured and they had to be careful. They agreed. Now, from you, I require a full, in-depth report on the incident and everything leading up to it."

"You'll have to talk to the doctor for that," said Colin, not liking the way this teenage superhero was obviously looking down on him. Or that nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he deserved to be treated like a criminal. "And I already explained how the boy came into my possession."

Starfire's eyes flashed and Beastboy growled at hearing Canterfield's unwise choice of words. Raven's expressions was unknown, hidden behind the raised hood of her cloak, but her glowing eyes were narrowed. Cyborg held back Beastboy and Robin held up a hand to calm the others.

"We can do this here or we can do this at the station," said Robin, voice stiff with anger. "Of course, either way you're spending tonight, and probably the rest of your life, behind bars."

The tall, blond man drew himself up, frowning. "You have no right. I've done the research. I have done absolutely nothing illegal."

"Maybe not illegal," said Raven darkly. "But immoral, certainly."

"He would've been fine if he stopped fighting!" Colin defended himself. "And I'm perfectly capable of looking after a child!"

"Are you now?" commented Raven sarcastically. Robin shot her a warning look and stepped forward.

"This is getting nowhere. Starfire and I will take this man to the station and book him. Raven, Cyborg, Beastboy – you guys find that doctor and get the story out of him, then take a look around the mansion and collect any evidence we need for our case. Arrest anyone that gets in your way."

"You can't do that!" shouted Canterfield angrily. "Where's your warrant?"

"We don't need one," said Robin, though he knew that wasn't exactly true. Frankly, he didn't care at this point. "Now are you going to cooperate, or do we need to show you why we're called superheroes?"

The rich young man looked ready to argue some more, but an older gentleman had exited the manor and come up behind him. The butler set a hand on his young master's shoulder.

"Master Canterfield, it would be in your best interests to cooperate. We can settle this issue once and for all."

Colin bristled, but nodded. "Fine. Yeager, call my lawyers."

"Already done, sir. I'll come with you to the station."


"I sense him!" whispered Cooro excitedly as he dashed through the house, Nana right on his tail, Senri barreling through the halls just behind them. They ran right past a lady sobbing on a couch in one of the rooms, paying no heed to her, and actually did crash into a doctor-looking person standing right in front of the door they wanted to get through.

"Wait – children, what?" grumbled Dr. Marshall incoherently as Cooro and Nana brushed past him and Senri pushed him out of the doorway to enter himself.

"Husky!" shouted Cooro, jolting the silver-haired boy that'd been sleeping on the bed awake. Husky whimpered as a pain shot through his skull, but he quickly ignored that pain as his open eyes focused on his best friend, standing at his bedside. Cooro was actually twitching with the need to jump on Husky and give him a tight hug to prove to them both that this was real, but he was bravely holding himself back. Barely.

"Cooro?" whispered Husky in shock, trying to sit up and squeezing his eyes tight as pain dashed through his skull – pain he didn't want his friend to see.

"Husky?" whimpered a voice torn between anxiety and delight – a familiar and very girly voice. He smiled and turned his head to see Nana at his right, taking his uninjured hand in her own and hugging it tight to herself. She started crying.

"Nana? It's okay…" said Husky gently.

Of course, he couldn't see himself the way they could. He didn't see the bandages about his head, around his arm, his thigh, how terrible the straps binding down his leg looked. The bruises and smaller bandages littering his skin… Nana sobbed harder at catching the note of underlying pain in Husky's voice.

Senri approached and set a massive hand on Husky's head, then abruptly sat down next to the bed and lowered his own head to rest against the small boy's on the pillow, a protective arm stretched out over Husky's chest. A deep sigh of relief came from the large bear +anima, who only needed one word. "Husky…" he murmured wearily, smiling to himself.

"Where does it hurt?" asked Nana. "Can we…?

Husky smiled slightly. "Just watch my head and leg…" he said softly. He still hissed in pain when Cooro jumped on his bed and pulled him into a tight hug around his middle. Nana was right after Cooro, though she was more careful not to jostle him as she climbed in and snuggled against Husky's other side.

"Missed you," whimpered Cooro, suddenly sounding upset. "Don't leave us again… Missed you…"

Nana continued to cry, snuggled up against Husky's other side, her head resting on Husky's chest just below Senri's arm. "It hurt so much without you…" she choked out, echoing Cooro's sentiment. "So, so much…"

"Yeah…" whispered Husky, too tired and relieved to be embarrassed. "Me too."

And that's how the doctor found them when he returned with Husky's medication, three Teen Titans just behind him. A large teenager kneeling protectively at the bedside, arm draped over his patient, and the two children curled up on either side of Husky. All were sleeping, dried tears on their faces, but their expressions were deeply content as they shifted and snuggled closer together.

"Like a litter of kittens," chuckled Dr. Marshall.

Cyborg bit back a chuckle as he carefully recorded the image with his cybernetic eye, knowing Starfire at least would want a picture of this. Raven smiled at the view, and Beastboy nudged her, giggling at seeing such a satisfied expression on her face.


Downstairs, Meredith sat curled up on a couch, her face buried in her arms, finally finished crying but nowhere near ready to move on.

How could she have let things get to this point? How could she have been so stupid? That poor, poor child…

Her cell phone rang.

It took her several long moments as she interpreted the sound, fumbled to retrieve it from a pocket, and finally answered it.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Meredith Johnson?"

"Dr. Jorgenson? Oh, is this about the appointment?"

"Yes, I'd like to…"

"We're going to have to cancel," interrupted Meredith, wiping her eyes and clearing her throat.

"What on earth do you mean, doctor?"

"Um… the child was injured and…"

"The creature, you mean," interrupted the biology professor. "And we cannot just cancel an expedited appointment with the bureau! You might not be able to get another when…"

"Don't call him that. And we're not doing this."

"Excuse me?"

"Colin and I aren't doing this to the child. It's not right. I apologize for all your trouble, doctor, but…"

"Mere!" exclaimed her old professor, calling her by an old nickname she went by in college. "Don't back away from what could be the find of the century! This could put you up there with…"

"I'm not doing it."

"… Fine," grumbled Dr. Jorgenson's voice, sounding irritated. "You want out? Fine."

"Thank you, doctor."

"I still need to see the child. I'll be by later."

"Doctor!" she protested. "He's terribly injured and…"

"What's wrong with him?"

"Well… his leg's damaged. He can't walk. And he has a concussion," summed up Meredith, not really wanting to go into detail.

"I'll be prepared."

Click. Buzz.

Meredith looked at the cell phone, confusion written all over her face. That had gone… strangely.


The Titans communicators started beeping and the three Titans remaining at the Canterfield estate quickly left Husky's sick-room to answer.

"Robin?" asked Cyborg.

"We've got trouble! The Hive Five are on the loose at the mall, and Red X is with them for some reason."

Raven glanced towards the room with the sleeping +anima. Even in their dreams, they were exhausted but content. She nodded to Cyborg.

"Shouldn't we…" began Beastboy, looking worried as his own eyes strayed towards the door.

"They'll be fine," replied Cyborg, setting a hand on his little buddy's shoulder. "We're on our way, Rob."

And they took off.


Dr. Marshall frowned as he reached over the other "+anima" kids to swipe a temperature reader over Husky's forehead.

"102°F," he grumbled to himself. "I'll have to get something from the pharmacy. The garbage on hand here would only aggravate his condition…"

He slipped a few items into his doctor's coat's pockets, threw some notes and miscellaneous medical tools into a large briefcase, and left the room with case in hand.

"Meredith!" he called out as he went down the stairs. The tear-ridden marine biologist looked up at him, from where she sat on a couch, staring at her cell phone.

"I'll be back in about an hour – keep an eye on Myrrha and his friends, would you? And when's Colin and Yeager going to be back?"

Meredith nodded, then frowned. "I'm not sure. But with Colin's lawyers, and the fact that Myrrha's adoption certificate is already filed, it can't be more than a few hours. He might get slapped with a charge for negligence or endangerment, but it'll probably be waived since the boy'll be classified as metahuman…"

"Good. Keep an eye on Myrrha's fever, and make sure he doesn't get too excited just 'cause his friends are here."

"Yes, Dr. Marshall."


Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

Meredith answered, foolishly not bothering to check through the peephole or window. Expecting just her old professor, stubbornly insisting on seeing her now-useless research and the subject in question.

She was met with a small army, all in black military-grade suits, who brushed past her into the manor, shoving her aside and spreading out in all directions. They were obviously following some sort of pre-arranged plan, as there was no hesitance in their movements.

Two grabbed Meredith and pulled her to the side, instantly hounding her with questions, which she was too stunned to answer. Or even listen to.

Screaming and shouting came from upstairs, shortly followed by what sounded like gunshots and the noises of a fierce struggle.

No way. Not happening. This is not happening.


"What's that noise?" asked Cooro sleepily, sitting up at the increasingly loud sounds of slamming doors and tromping boots.

Senri's eyes blinked open and it took him all of half a second to recognize the danger. He immediately formed his bear claw and charged towards the door while Cooro shook Nana and Husky awake.

Senri didn't even reach the door before it banged open, revealing at least eight men bearing strange machines, and even more in the hallway behind… Cooro thought the things in their hands looked like that strange thing that had knocked Husky out and hurt Nana in their own world, right before they came to this one.

The men lifted their tranquilizer rifles, but weren't fast enough to stop Senri, who barreled into them, claw swinging. Several went down, but more flooded into the room by the second. Cooro leapt to help, but was quickly overwhelmed.

Nana grabbed Husky in a fierce, protective hug and let out a supersonic screech. Several went down, holding their hands to their ears. A few more actually fell unconscious. But a couple seemed completely unaffected and fired their rifles. Apparently a few of the men were wearing earplugs, not that any of the +anima kids would know what those were.

Cooro, Nana, and Husky dropped unconscious with the impact of the first darts, the drug instantly knocking the children out. Senri went down, groaning, fighting the drug with everything he had.

The black-armored men ignored the fallen teen, stepping around him and fetching the silver-haired child from the bed. With quick professionalism, they unstrapped his leg and brushed Nana's limp arms out of the way. One hefted Husky up and headed out.

The man carrying Husky left the room and Senri let out a low, rumbling growl that alarmed the remaining men enough for them to level their rifles at the teenager again.

Senri forced his way upright, brushed aside the men as they shot at him and cruelly slammed their rifles against his body with the intent to incapacitate. Ignoring the pain and the drug trying to take over his system, he charged after the man leaving with Husky.


Dr. Jorgenson suddenly appeared in the entryway. He looked around, was handed a stack of research and scan results that had been found in the lab downstairs, and casually approached the shocked Meredith.

"Is it so surprising, Mere?" he asked casually, though the smirk on his face and spark in his eyes betrayed his true feelings. "You don't want this project, so I'll be taking it over. You didn't actually expect us to just drop the finding of the century?"

"N-no…" stuttered Meredith. Her eyes widened in shock as one of the black military-suited men started down the stairs, a limp Myrrha in his arms.

"NO!" screamed Meredith, leaping forward only to be grabbed and dragged back by the two men standing at either side of her. "YOU'LL KILL HIM!"

"Certainly not!" exclaimed Dr. Jorgenson, insulted. "We merely…"

A large, grey-haired teenager charged after the man carrying the fish +anima, arm in the shape of a bear claw, actually roaring with rage. He reached the man, snatched Husky back, and slashed his claw across the man's chest, easily slicing through the armor.

The man screamed and shots fired. Meredith watched in horror as the teenager hugged the unconscious silver-haired child protectively to his chest even as dozens of tranquilizer darts found their mark in his arms and back.

What have we done? We started this.

The teenager slumped to the ground, still hugging the smaller boy protectively. After a minute, the teenager's body went limp. Several black-suited men charged forward and kicked aside the teenager, yanking the silver-haired child out of his arms. One lifted the child and set off.

Dr. Jorgenson approached the teenager, rolling the unconscious body over and eagerly examining the bear claw. "Fascinating…" he said, eyes sparkling.

Meredith was completely speechless, unable to do anything, as she spied the other two children, both unconscious, being carried down the stairs. Both children were in animal forms. The boy had feathers up his arms and huge black wings. The girl had bat wings and enormous ears.

Husky's friends. They must be the same thing Husky is.

I can't let Dr. Jorgenson find out!

"How very, very interesting…" continued Dr. Jorgenson. "Perhaps I should take these children too?"

"They're just normal metas!" blurted out Meredith, completely spur of the moment. "I've tested these kids too – nothing that hasn't been seen a million times in irradiated children and mutants."

He's gotta buy it. Please, please let him buy it!

Dr. Jorgenson turned to eye her. The marine biologist's eyes were sharp and sure.

"Absolutely worthless," she said, working even a bit of irritation into her voice. "Normal meta brats – let the League's researchers handle them."

"My, Mere, you sound like you've had quite the change of heart."

But his attention was off the remaining three +anima. After all, he had no reason to doubt Meredith. No reason to believe they were anything special, that their medical results would be anything like the silver-haired human fish kid she'd so eagerly told him about the day before…

"Return Myrrha. He's my project."

"I thought you were giving him up."

"Not if it means someone else taking credit for my work!"

Dr. Jorgenson laughed. "It's my project, now, Mere. It'll be my name on the published findings. You gave up that right when you called off the meeting. Rather rudely, at that."

Meredith gritted her teeth. "I still want in," she said firmly. "Take me with you. I've worked with the child…"

What Colin and I did was wrong… But who knows what these monsters have planned. And I can't help Myrrha if I'm not there.

Her old professor looked her up and down appraisingly, then shrugged. "Fine, have it your way. I can always use another sub-researcher."


Author's Notes: Please don't hate me for tearing away Husky's happy ending! He'll get one eventually, I promise! And remember, pretty much all of you did vote for a longer story…

Special thanks to Venas for all the great +Anima/DC ideas! I especially love the Halfway House idea, and I'd love to use it in a story once I can figure out a plot! (Idea listed on my profile.)

If anyone would like to volunteer to beta this story for me, please let me know! I could have used some serious help with this chapter, and I have a feeling things might just get more complicated from here on out… If it's any incentive, betas get to see advance versions of chapters before editing (which could be weeks before I upload the finished chapter) as well as be my sounding board for ideas! Plus you get "Veto Power" if you don't like anything I wrote in the unedited chapter or don't like a certain direction I may start heading in. Betas have the right to beta previous chapters as well, if he or she so wishes.

As always, please please please review so you can let me know what you think and drop me any ideas! I'm also eagerly trying to figure out if there's any DC supervillains that would be interested in Husky or any of the other +anima – let me know if anyone comes to mind!