Unsurprisingly, Beast Boy's version of the dream had some edits. His description matched what she remembered up until she instructed him to chant. Then he blushed again, stuttered, and finished with: "... and I changed back. And woke up."
He looked at his feet, at the TV, out the window, at Cyborg working across the room – anywhere but at Raven. "Um... and then I woke up," he repeated.
Raven let it go. "Let's start at the beginning. When I taught you how to chant. What happened?"
Beast Boy brightened up now that they weren't talking about the dream. "Oh yeah! Dude, I wanted to ask you about that. I was sitting there chanting, and I heard my own voice. Lots of them! They were all talking and they wouldn't shut up."
"That's because you're human," Raven said dryly. "You're used to taking in and assessing input from all your senses. Your brain is constantly evaluating and responding. The point of meditation is to get you to settle that down and just concentrate on one thing."
"So I'm always talking like that in my head?"
Raven shrugged. "More or less. You're used to it. It sounds like it didn't work."
"No, it did." Beast Boy bounced on the couch and grinned at Raven. "I started thinking about how I feel right before I morph. Dude, that was tough! Trying to feel like that without changing. But when I did, everything just – went away. The voices, everything. And then The Beast showed up."
"You found a natural point of concentration," Raven said, a little surprised. "Good. How are the voices now?"
Beast Boy frowned. "I know they're there. When I woke up they were bothering me, but Cyborg gave me a shot and they turned down some. I don't want to keep getting shots, though. And, Raven – I really want to morph. But Cyborg told me I couldn't."
"Until you can control the voices, it's too dangerous." Raven let her eyes unfocus and looked at Beast Boy with her mind instead of her sight. He was alert, nervous, tense – but not panicking and not out of control with fear. "Do you want to try again?"
"I dunno..." Beast Boy said reluctantly. "What do I do if the Beast comes back?"
"I'll be there."
"You will?"
"We're going to try something different." Raven stood and tapped her communicator. "Robin, we need a monitor in the ward."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTt
Beast Boy was lying on the gurney again, awake this time, while Robin and Cyborg connected him to a monitor. Raven was giving them instructions. "Just monitor, don't scan. Start timing when he starts chanting and make note of any activity."
"What are you going to do?" Robin asked.
"Monitor. Beast Boy."
Beast Boy was laying still, trying to pretend he wasn't scared. "Do you want me to start chanting now?"
"Not yet. Take deep breaths." Raven settled in the chair beside the gurney and began to sync her breathing with his. Eventually his breathing got slower and more relaxed as he calmed down. Her voice barely audible, Raven said, "Start chanting – start thinking about him – I'm right here."
Carefully keeping her breaths even with his, Raven sat back and listened to Beast Boy chant, watching the energy building around his head and his heart. When she began feeling the counterpoint to the chant, a red-edged pounding that reminded her of the Beast's footsteps, she dropped her head and let her consciousness slip into his mind.
Beast Boy was standing in the common room of the Tower, his eyes screwed shut and his hands clenched into fists, chanting so loud he was almost yelling. The human figures were still crawling on the outside of the glass, still screaming, and Raven suspected that's why Beast Boy was practically shouting his mantra. She touched his shoulder. "He's coming."
"I know," Beast Boy said between his teeth. "I'm trying to keep him back -"
"No. You're fighting part of yourself. Let him in."
"But what do I say when he says let me out?"
Raven half-smiled. "We say no." She grabbed his wrist and turned to face the windows. "Open your eyes."
The light outside the window was turning white, a pervasive, endless glare like the flash of a lightning strike. The people crawling on the glass were blurred, then reduced to thin black lines, then smeared away as the light poured in and destroyed everything – the room, the glass, and the people. Raven and Beast Boy were left in blackness with the Beast standing before them.
This was not Beast Boy in a different form. This shape was alive with furious anger, glowing green and white, rearing up before them, breathing heat and sparks. Raven held Beast Boy's wrist a little tighter and took one step forward. "Keep chanting."
Beast Boy did, just as loud as before, though he could barely be heard against the Beast's roaring. Raven stood, relaxed, one hand holding Beast Boy's arm and the other lifted, ringed with black energy. She was half the Beast's size and it loomed over her, spattering her with spit as it shrieked at her.
LET ME OUT.
Brave grinned. Wisdom watched tensely. Rage waited, anxious to fight.
Everybody hold on, Raven told them, and looked up into the Beast's face. "No."
It came closer and raised a fist the size of her head. You do not even belong here! Let me out!
"No," Raven said calmly, almost indifferently.
I will – I will rend you! I will tear you away from here! Let me out!
Beast Boy's chanting faltered. Without looking back, Raven tugged on his arm and whispered, "Don't stop. Ignore him." She raised her voice and said, "You're going back where you came from and you're going to leave us alone. You do not belong here. Go away."
I will not! I will not! I will – I will kill you!
Rage let go of Beast Boy, threw back her hood and straightened, growing taller and taller until she stood level with the beast and her four red eyes glared into its white ones. The day will never come that you could hurt me, she hissed contemptuously. You have a child's rage with no thought or force. I have been living hatred for ten thousand years. We will meet again and you will listen to me. For now, you will go. A bolt of scarlet shot from her outstretched hand and wound itself around the Beast, breaking him apart into odd shapes of green light. You will go!
The light that had been the Beast exploded. Raven fell through a silent blackness for what felt like hours, until gradually she became aware of herself leaning sideways in a chair, resting her head against the steel rails of the gurney. Suppressing a groan she straightened. "What -"
Beast Boy was sitting up, resting his head on his bent knees. He turned his face to her and his eyes were full of tears. "Raven, I tried to hurt you! I promised I would never hurt you and I said I would kill -" he trailed off and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I would never –"
"That wasn't you," Raven said wearily. "Can you hear the voices now?"
Beast Boy paused and after a moment said, surprised, "No. They're gone."
Raven shook her head. "We've been backwards about this. The primate shifting, the changes into higher life forms – that wasn't accidental. He's trying to take over."