That dream had rattled him senseless for the following few weeks. It hadn't appeared again and thankfully he could sleep, but it was constantly on his mind. He had to split his focus between Raven, the baby, Jump City, training, and even eating. After a week of driving himself up the wall he'd taken to his own methods of meditation…more or less. He didn't sit cross-legged and mumble chants like Raven. He preferred a less orthodox approach, but one equally as relaxing. First thing in the morning was coffee, then when the chance presented itself he would head out for a nice fly in the sky, feeling the wind under his wings and watching civilians, plants, and sea below pass by. This kind of leisure helped greatly to relieve some of the stress of that dream.

Rita's words still echoed in his head though, the ones about his dreams representing his fears. When he was younger this was a bit more difficult to grasp but now that he was older he knew what he did and didn't fear. Reverting back to the bloodthirsty hellion he used to be had always been his biggest fear, even if he wasn't thinking about it.

He flapped his wings a few times to keep himself airborne.

Maybe now that Raven was pregnant he was becoming terrified of hurting her…or worse. He had told himself countless times that it was just a bad dream, but the harsh reality of this was that there was so much more to it than just a sequence of actions in his head. What if this all intensified because he didn't trust himself to keep his "directive", as Steve had so kindly dubbed it long ago, under control? The facts were, he wasn't made to have a conscience. He was never meant to be saved from the hellhole he came out of, let alone fall in love and start a family. The only thing he was made for was pure and total destruction…destruction of buildings, destruction of land, destruction of lifestyles, but most importantly…destruction of life itself. He was equipped to be the most hated, heartless, unstoppable weapon history would ever have had the displeasure of documenting.

He was never supposed to have been made a hero. He was supposed to have died the day the Doom Patrol destroyed his place of origin. It caved in, killed all the others, and being the only survivor made things worse. Then the second time he should've died, when Mento was convinced that he was nothing more and would never be anything more than an abomination with a taste for blood, and no problem in doing anything to get it.

Yet here he was now. A hero. A goody-goody. Some might even call him a savior. They acted like this role had always been his destiny…some part of an elaborate plan. They had no idea… He was capable of so much destruction even as a young boy and had proven it, albeit only to a select few who didn't know what they'd signed up for when they saved him and then allowed him to live.

So who was to say that he was incapable of it now? He wasn't a partial-morpher anymore and once again, as Mento said, he could now turn into anything they didn't want to go up against. His genes had been tampered with over and over, so perhaps it was because of this that his animals were significantly stronger than normal animals.

So it could be possible for him to…regress. Or…no…it was stupid to think that dream would have an ounce of truth to it. He loved Raven too much for that dream be even remotely close to reality. And to top that she was carrying his baby. He had a chance to right his wrongs, if that was even the slightest bit possible, and he was overjoyed that finally, finally, he was giving life back. With…Raven's assistance of course. She was choosing to start a family with him, knowing that with today's laws she didn't have to. Directive or not how could he hurt that? How could he hurt them? No way that was possible. This dream shouldn't have shaken his core.

And he couldn't tell Raven even though he did kind of want to—she was the person he needed to start confessing everything to, and being completely honest with her, but he couldn't do it. For one she was still so emotional that him eating the wrong way could cause the lights to go out. Two, if it shook him up this bad, he couldn't imagine what it would do to her.

He wanted to keep flying for just a while longer but it had already been two hours, maybe three. Besides, with his thoughts so depressing, a calming flight wasn't doing much calming.

He took as deep a breath as a seagull could and turned back towards the tower. It was far from an enjoyable flight back when he got that sensation again. It was down on the ground but he was passing over a wooded area. He had to focus on the tower and getting back but it was absolutely impossible to brush off this feeling. It wasn't as intense as before, and while he could morph into a faster bird, his desires were somewhat…predatory, if he didn't know any better. Perhaps that was the wrong word to use but something had clicked inside, for the third time. First the twinge he felt with Raven, then the time it had been so strong one could say he was all but forced to follow it, and now here it was again. Was it following him, perhaps…? Was there even something there? It looked less and less like there was anything.

Suddenly a scream pierced his thoughts. He tucked his wings and plummeted, occasionally pumping air. He expertly opened them back up right before a touchdown and morphed back, using the traction of his shoes to slide to a quick halt.

A woman was bent over herself, head in hands, crying next to a red SUV that had rolled onto its side. There were miscellaneous dents and scrapes from what he assumed to be the pavement from when it had flipped. And there were…marks. But upon a closer inspection…this red car changed shades. He'd seen it enough to know it was blood. There was some splashed across it, though not necessarily splattered… What in the world had gone on here…?

"Beast Boy!" a familiar male voice called out behind him.

He turned around and was greeted with Robin's always so serious face.

"Beast Boy, what happened?"

His mouth hung open and no words would draw forth as he tried to envision the scenario that could've taken place. But the marks on the vehicle were…scary…to say the least. They were animalistic in nature, and had been strong enough to shred metal. No human could've done this kind of damage…

Having no appropriate answer, he turned back to the car. This thing had been thoroughly wrecked and not due to the driver. There were some dents that went so deep they became holes. Something had rammed, pierced, and mauled this car. And judging from the bright to dark red color changes in seemingly random places, there was a victim. Who though? And what did this? Why an ordinary car that had no value? What ever happened to reasonably attacking an armored vehicle transporting loads of cash or other valuables?

"My car…" the woman sobbed. "My car, it was a gift…"

He supposed the only thing valuable about this car, especially given that none of its parts had been stolen or went missing, was this lady's attachment to it. A grudge, maybe? But what about the claw marks? And the lady didn't have a scratch on her as far he could tell, so obviously she wasn't the victim.

Starfire effortlessly picked up the vehicle and returned it to its proper position.

"There are claw marks on this," Robin pointed out, looking at him almost accusingly. "And whatever did this didn't seem to have much trouble cutting through metal like it was butter."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I hope you're not implying I did this."

"You're sure the Beast is still under control, though, right? That incident was…slightly traumatic. And this kind of damage was exactly the kind of thing we saw."

"Robin…we must not doubt our friends," Starfire softly said, landing beside him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Beast Boy would not have attacked anything without reason."

"Except food," Cyborg joked as he entered the scene. "But what happened here? The car looks like someone did try to eat it."

Or prey… There was a fight, or at the least a violent kidnapping. This car simply happened to be in the middle of it, and was probably attacked in the process. The target may never have been the car at all but it was hard evidence that this was no human-to-human combat.

Cyborg walked up to the vehicle and raised his arm to it, scanning the marks and eventually noticing an organic change—the blood.

He changed into a bloodhound and hardly paid attention to what Cyborg was shocked to discover. His nose could pick up any animal, fume, substance…including humans. But this scent…

He lowered his nose to the ground and concentrated. It was familiar but it wasn't human. It smelled like…a twisted bear…? But it was mixed ever so slightly with a human scent. Maybe the bear and victim became so entangled that it created this odd smell.

"Raven's back at the tower, right?" he asked everyone after he transformed back.

"When we got the distress call about a car we thought she should stay home," Robin answered.

"There wasn't enough information to go on, we didn't know how safe she would be," Cyborg added.

He nodded his head and stood up to face them.

"It was a bear," he said. "A human was also here."

For a moment everyone looked confused, but it was Starfire who spoke up first.

"Are bears native to this area of human habitation?" she asked.

"No. Even if they were, their claws wouldn't leave these kinds of markings," Beast Boy answered. "It could also be a person that sprayed themselves with bear musk. It's pretty tricky to get past that kind of thing, even for me."

And that was no lie. He had mistaken hunters for a doe in heat before, and duck calls for actual ducks. People knew how to avoid being tracked and this could've been one such person. All they had to do was hide their scent and cover their footsteps and they disappeared. It was the only other explanation behind the mixed smells from the car. Not to mention that he also had to sift through the normal oil and metal scents given off by any car. This had some possibility of messing him up on the finer details, such as who it was and if it was anyone he knew.

"You think they might've been training it how to drive or something?" Cyborg mumbled, apparently only realizing the stupidity of his "joke" after he said it.

"It smells like a female bear. Hunters use a female animal's natural pheromones to lure males. So, it could also be that the person sprayed themselves and a jealous female came along."

Likewise if Aqualad was able to pick up pheromones, due to his animal powers, that could've been why he never left Raven alone. He was positive that he himself had picked it up unknowingly and therefore became "jealous". The scent was strong now but back then why hadn't he recognized it? Maybe it was just…too early? Or maybe it was because he never morphed into an animal with a sharper sense of smell around her.

"I don't understand this…" Robin sighed. "Bears never attack random cars and— Beast Boy?"

He shot his eyes over. "Hm?"

"You of all people know about animal instincts, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so."

"How often do bears feel the need to attack people?"

It didn't take much thought. "It's pretty rare. They usually only do it when they feel threatened. Other than that they don't even care we exist." He rubbed his chin for a moment. "Unless it has rabies."

But he didn't make out any diseases or other abnormalities that could be picked up via scent.

"How often does a bear go into a populated area? And why would it?"

"Hmm. It's usually to get food if they do come. It doesn't happen very often though, and I've never heard of one in the middle of a city this big."

Robin inhaled. "Then for now we have to assume someone brought it here."

"But why would someone transport a such vicious animal here?" Starfire wondered.

He wanted to say it could've been an animal rescue in which the animal got loose before it arrived at the veterinarian. But…that hardly made sense. This SUV had been tipped over and mauled. And bear claws were not capable of making such clean cuts through this kind of material. What if he had been the one doing this…? He was more than capable of it. Maybe in his sleep he had lashed out and attacked a random car, which would explain the markings and maybe the scent left behind.

All except for the blood... He was made to do this, not just to a car but to everything…living or not. But he'd changed. Rita helped him become the good guy now, on a good team, with good people. He was the one who fought evil, he wasn't the source of it anymore.

Right…?

This whole thing was becoming too frustrating and worse, scary. He wanted to believe it couldn't possibly have been him but Mento was 100% accurate when he said this was exactly what he was always meant to do. Now it felt like he was just forcing himself to believe it wasn't him for his own selfish sake.

He morphed into a falcon without warning and flew as fast has he could back towards Titans Tower. He forced himself to believe that this was insanity—that he'd changed forever. There was no chance he would revert back to what he was. Granted there was no way for him to take back what he'd done in the past but he could prevent doing it again in the future. But if it was he who destroyed that car then it could be the start of a new chapter…

No. Even at the expense of his life he would never allow another massacre to happen again, because if he did, now that he was fully trained and unconfined, a massacre would turn into a holocaust. Countless lives...snuffed out in a twinkling…for nothing.

A/N

Those of you who took the time to review, thank you. :) I'm glad you like this story so much, and I hope I can continue to entertain you! Here's to another chapter!