Jungle heat pressed in on all sides but Beastboy barely paid it any heed. Nor did he notice much the caws of the jungle birds or the screeches of the monkey's. He'd heard them all before, he'd known about how the jungle land felt and sounded as well as he did the streets of Jump City. After all, he lived in the city, but he'd been raised her. In the wilderness. And he recognized this place instantly.

Upper Lamumba, Africa.

The place where his parents had saved his life, though they'd altered his body and given his skin its strange emerald hue. Where he'd acquired the gift of metamorphosis, able to assume the form of any animal, living or dead, from this world or another's. But the place held more significant to Beastboy than just that. This was where he'd first become Beastboy, after all. This was where he'd lost something precious to him, where he'd promised to use his powers to do what was right and good and help people before -they- lost those precious to him.

This was where his parents had died. A boating accident.

An accident he could have prevented.

Part of Beastboy's subconscious recognized the nature of the dream he'd entered into. He had it every night. So he was somewhat relaxed, even as he tore through the underbrush towards the river in the form of a green cheetah, heading after his parents. He needed to catch them in time. But again, his subconscious remembered he'd done so in his dreams, every night. He caught them in time and saved them... each time in a more heroic way than the last. He'd saved them and they'd continued to live together as a happy family until the alarm by his bed buzzed and awoke him, ending the dream.

However this time the dream was... a little different.

Beastboy kept moving faster... and faster... his legs pounding against the ground until there was no more ground beneath him and he realized he'd been heedlessly hurled into the fast flowing river that he'd sought. Instantly his fur was soaked, but that vanished in seconds, replaced by green scales as he assumed the form of a crocodile to allow him better navigation in the water. There, he spotted them instantly. His parent's boat, with the two scientists in it, being carried too far downstream towards the rapids. Beastboy went after them, using his powerful tail and legs to propel himself forward.

But as he neared the poor Logan's boat, with his mother and father, Mark and Marie, inside, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

The water suddenly ran crimson with blood, nearly obscuring Beastboy's vision. At first he was shocked, then he remembered, his mother had cut herself on a loose nail. The boat jostled her. But a dim part in the back of his mind told him that his dreams had never let that happen before. Ignore it, he moved faster, trying to catch up to them. As he did, he planned to leap aboard, change into another animal, and carry them to safety.

Instead... he opened his mouth wide and sank all fifty-six of his sharp yellow teeth deep into his father's arm, tearing it clear off his shoulder and letting a torrent of thick, hot red blood wash over them both. Beastboy's mother, Marie, gave a scream as she saw him attack their boat, seeing the great green crocodile hungrily munch down on the arm, then take another chunk out of Mark Logan, ripping him to bits in moments. At that moment the boat struck the rapids and crashed hard into a rock, sending Marie and the remains of Mark overboard to their terrible death's, as they had a few years ago, shortly after the emergence of Beastboy's powers.

His body reacted without thinking, for Beastboy could not think. He was aghast at the terrible thing he had just done. No, he hadn't done it... he couldn't have! He loved both of his parents deeply, they'd been the best mother and father in the whole world. They'd saved his life when he'd been a toddler, and done everything they could to bring him up happy.

... and he'd repaid them by killing them by both.

Beastboy barely realized as he dropped down onto the river's bank in his humanoid form. But something else did. Something inside of him. Something primal and dark and sinister, something... instinctive. Something animal-like. Something that always lurked on the corners of his mind. But now it pushed them aside, and his human thoughts, his conscience and his morality, were pushed to the edges.

A sudden scent came to his nostrils. A familiar scent. He recognized it instantly, even without his primal self telling him what it meant. She'd always worn it. It was perfume, the sweet scent of jasmine mixed with the earth's dust and sweat, which always seemed to accompany her, no matter how recently she'd bathed.

"Terrraa..." he rasped out, grinning like a wicked animal. His tongue snaked out, running along the edge of his sharp teeth. Teeth that had, until today, been content to tear into tofu instead of flesh. Even as his higher reasoning was shocked by his body's words and movements. But he was powerless to stop himself against his primal urges.

His body shifted again, assuming the form of a great green wolf with his own eyes staring out balefully. Taking another swift sniff to locate the scent of his prey, Beastboy took off, bounding through the jungle after her, even as he tried to stop himself.

But he couldn't.

Bright, intense white light. So bright it burned the human eye, and anyone else who awoke to find themselves peering up at such powerful white lights would've immediately shut their eyes and rolled their heads to keep their vision.

But not him...

Not now.

Cyborg slowly, painfully, sat upright. His entire body felt strange and only... half there, really. Like he was on painkillers. Or still half-asleep really. Something just... didn't feel right. He shifted again, sitting up right, pressing a hand to his left temple, trying to figure out what was wrong. Was he sick? He didn't get sick often. One of the benefits of having so little remaining flesh was that it was harder for bacteria and the like to affect him, and even if they did, he had built in defenses right in his mechanized flesh. The only real time he remember being really, truly sick was that time Beastboy got his cybernetics infected with a computer virus.

System Operational

Cyborg almost gave a sigh of relief. As much as he sometimes hated the computer side of his brain, it was reassuring to have a constant update of his physical condition at all times.

Query, he thought instinctively, well accustomed to dealing with the unique nature in which his brain worked. What happened?

Unknown. No records for the past 46.9 hours. Before that...

Cyborg was suddenly reminded of last night. Oh yes, he remembered it well. He'd headed for some downtime and to recharge. He didn't exactly sleep... hell, he didn't really -need- to sleep. But it gave him a slight sense of psychological comfort to sleep. And to dream.

Suddenly the door opened, and Cyborg turned his head in alarm, wondering who was there... or where he was. Two days was a heck of a lot more time than he would've needed to nap. Maybe he'd been kidnapped or attacked or damaged or... But he felt a vast sigh of relief well up in him as he saw who it was.

It was his dad.

"Dad... hey..." he started to say, but then immediately stopped. His voice sounded wrong, somehow. Those were his words but they sounded like... like... well he couldn't tell. Something on the tip of his tongue. Then he realized something else. Something else that chilled him. He couldn't feel his tongue. Or his mouth for that matter it felt... wrong. Inorganic. Mechanical.

"Oh son, you're alright... that's sooo good," said the elder Stone, making his way inside the room. Something seemed strange about him too. He seemed to have a lot more gray in his hair, and had a nervous tic under his eye. And he didn't seem to be... well... blinking.

"Father... what am I doing here? What's going on?" he asked, sliding off the operating table he'd been laying on. That also didn't do much to calm him either. That last time he'd laid on this table was... he shivered to think of it... the accident that had left him less than completely human.

"It's okay son... everything is going to be fine," said the elder Stone, laying his hand on Cyborg's arm. But that too-wide smile didn't leave his face. "I just needed to finish what I'd started, that's all."

"Finish... finish what you started?"

"Oh yes of course!" said his father. "You didn't think I'd finished with you, did you? Oh my silly boy... come come... let me show you what I've done..." he said, taking Cyborg's hand, guiding him. Cyborg reluctantly went with him, but then cringed as he realized their destination.

The mirror.

The same mirror he'd peered into that night. Without even thinking about it, Cyborg's mechanical mind provided him with a flashback, a series of events that had happened so long ago.

Hesitantly, the elder Stone pointed a trembling finger, directing Victor's gaze to a mirror occupying the far wall. Victor turned, looked...

... and saw himself. One half of his face, the right half, was still mostly human, with his smooth, dark skin visible and his chocolate brown eye, wide with fright. But the other side... was all machinery. Glowing white and blue with visible circuits and chips, all artificial. And a red orb that peered out from under his chrome brow in place of his other eye.

He was no longer human.

He was... a Cyborg.

A crash of thunder split the air.

Error. Error. Error.

What happened next was a blur. There was a crash, a scream, Victor's dad crying out but Victor couldn't recognize any of the words. He smashed blindly through the wall, running on his two legs, trying to get away.

"What did you do to me?" said Cyborg, yanking his arm back suddenly from his father's grip. He couldn't go near that mirror. He didn't want to see. He couldn't... he shouldn't. No. No, something was horribly wrong. He knew it.

"Why, I finished you, son," said Cyborg's father, ignoring his son cowering behind him, and picked up the mirror in question. He turned it to face Cyborg who, paralyzed by fear, could not find the strength to turn away in time to avoid the image contained therein. The reflection of what had happened to him. But it now all made a horrifying, dreadful sense.

Two red glowing eyes peered out from under both of his chrome brows, separated by a steel nose. No sign of his dark flesh remained, not a single trace of his humanity was present. He was simply a machine.

"NO!" he shouted in his mechanized voice, lashing out with his fist, shattering the mirror. The blow tossed his father to the ground, but Cyborg barely noticed. He rushed to the door, tearing it clear off its hinges. No, this couldn't be! He had to get out. He needed to escape. Cyborg turned blindly, running without any sense of direction. When next he slammed into something solid it caught him totally by surprise, and he staggered backwards, peering up at what it was.

Another mirror, reflecting him in all his hideous mechanized glory.

"Behold the wonders of science," came his dad's voice behind him. His words were edged with madness.

"NO!" Cyborg lashed out again, shattering the mirror. But another lay a short distance behind it. Cyborg turned, trying to run a different direction, but everywhere he looked, all he could see was himself. No longer the Cyborg, the part-man...

... Machine, the no-man.

Stars shined above, cities shined below. During the night especially it was always the prettiest time for her. And so she tended to sleep during the day wherever she was, cruise the skies at night, riding the great boulder that had become her ship.

Terra smiled, free at least. Free to wander, free to use her powers as she saw fit. No longer was she cursed to destroy that which she cared about. No longer was she slaved to a heartless master. She was as free as the land that answered her calls. She -was- lonely, it was true, and she often wished for Beastboy at her side. But such was not to be her fate, it seemed. She was again a aimless wanderer, cruising the world.

Terra dropped her stone in lower, cruising down at a level below the clouds to see what particular city she'd come across today. To her surprise, she recognized it almost instantly.

It was Jump City.

Quietly amazed, she dipped in closer. She saw sights she recognized, though it was dark and silent in the nighttime, the city quiet as most slept. She saw the ferris wheel where Beastboy and she had nearly... she blushed to think of it. Had Slade not interrupted them, at least. She saw the pizza-shaped pizza store where she'd hung out with the other Titans. She saw the mall where she and Starfire had gone window-shopping.

And there, on the edge of city... Terra gestured, letting the rock speed between skyscrapers to take her closer...

... Titan's Tower.

Terra gazed at it quietly, serenely, sitting on the edge of her floating boulder like it was a seat, peering down at her first, real home. Markovia had never been a real home to her. Not somewhere she'd been accepted. Not somewhere she'd been trusted... or even liked. But here, at Titan's Tower... she'd had everything. A roof over her head... three meals a day... a family... two protective older brothers... a guiding older sister... the closest of friends...

... a boyfriend...

... Terra sighed softly, her eyes wet with unshed tears. She'd had it all, and she'd lost it. Because she'd betrayed the wrong side. Because she'd sided with Slade against the Titans, rather than confess her nature as a spy and turn them against him instead. But he'd so completely brainwashed her with his teachings of violence and hatred. She'd swallowed them so completely, so eager for the control he'd given her she hadn't noticed until it was far, far too late.

Terra idly brushed away the tears from her eyes, again peering down at the home that was no longer hers. However, as her vision cleared, she gave a sharp gasp. Standing on top of Titan's Tower was a sinister figure that, even from a distance, she recognized all too well.

Slade.

The psychotic mastermind was engaged in a fight with the Titans, she was totally shocked she hadn't heard the sounds of exploding starbolts and plasma blasts until just now. But she did now, she could see them fighting. The Titans seemed to be at a disadvantage against their sworn enemy. They were unable to hit their opponent, unable to touch Slade as he leapt away or batted aside attacks meant to destroy him. He was toying with them.

Golden yellow energy poured from Terra's eyes as she launched her boulder forward, assuming a battle-stance. She'd crush...

... wait...

The boulder halted in midair, jarring so suddenly that had Terra not been the one who stopped it, likely it would've pitched her clear off.

... whose side am I on?

She shivered fearfully. She didn't know. The Titans had offered her a home, but Slade had offered her control. She owed them both a great deal, she couldn't make such a simple decision so suddenly. Not now.

However, what happened next managed to neatly convince her chosen course of action.

A great green lion roared and launched itself at Slade, slashing with its great claws, but the masked criminal launched out a bone-shattering punch to the animal's face, sending it crashing to the ground on the edge of the rooftop. There, it reverted to its usual form of Beastboy, though he was unconscious and badly hurt from the attack. That was all the prompting Terra needed. She launched herself forward, reaching out with her powers to grab great boulders of stone and earth from Titan's Island and threw them with all her might at Slade.

"Well well, the final Titan is here," said Slade quietly, dodging aside the rocks and landing atop of one of them, seemingly with minimal effort. His casualness only enraged Terra further. "Perfect. Now I can destroy you all in one blow."

"You're the only one whose going to die, SLADE!!" she roared, lifting up yet more and bigger boulders to throw at the criminal mastermind, who dodged aside or over them with speed and agility unmatched by any normal man. Terra's rage grew, and with it her power. But had she been more careful, had she noticed what she was doing...

... great chunks of the island were being hurled at the Tower, making it tremble. Coupled with the fact that its supports had been torn away in Terra's blind rage, the Tower was starting to tremble. She saw none of this, however. She saw only her enemy, her hated enemy who'd hurt the only boy she'd ever loved.

She was going to destroy him.

A final boulder finally crashed into Slade, who made no effort to move to dodge it this final time. It had been entirely too big. However, just as it was about to strike, Slade seemed to shimmer and vanish before her eyes. But the boulder slammed fully into the Tower as well, and its supports snapped, the Tower toppled, crashing down against the island as Terra gasped in shock. Instantly she flew in close, the smoke blinding her. She waved it aside, manipulating the tiny dust particles as easily as the larger stones, and then gave a horrified cry as she saw what awaited her below.

Amongst the broken pieces of the Tower's steel and glass lay five distinct shapes. All of them broken, battered, and quite, quite dead. The closest lay at Terra's feet, and she knelt down, hesitantly, wishing with all her heart it was not the truth... but it was.

Beastboy was seriously hurt... and dying.

Author's Notes:

Actually I suspect Beastboy's nightmare/greatest fear is going to be introduced to us in 'The Beast Within,' an upcoming Titan episode. Hopefully my guess won't be too far off the mark. Cyborg's nightmare was obtained mostly from 'Sum of his Parts' with some added flashbacks to 'Secret Origins.' There is a reason I've inserted Terra in her despite her animated demise, it'll all be explained soon enough. Her nightmare was easiest of all, since she lived through most of it in every episode we saw her in. Next chapter: Our villain is revealed, as well as some more explanations concerning the terrible events plaguing Titan's Tower.

Nariko: Oh I intend to, believe you me.

Katergator: Maybe even faster! Faster than a speeding bullet!

Todd fan: Me too actually, I really wish I could get more details. You'll see plenty more of Trigon to come.

Spazzfire: Terra in the Yukon probably wouldn't be recognized. I say go as a female Cyborg, you can get your own built-in heater.

Poochie14: More on its way, fast as can be.

Crystal Renee: Yup, one's 'real.' Not exactly coming back but she's involved, it'll be explained later. Careful with the IY DVD's, they can quickly eat into whatever cash you have. Titan websites? Comic or Animated?

ViciousAssassin: Not quite what you expected, was it? Good to see you're sticking to your guess, care to change it now? And yes this is before Wavelength, I will not violate continuity, you know me. I have an explanation ready and an escape plan up my sleeve.

InnoscenTorn: Humor? This is the horror angle! Horror!! But glad you're enjoying it regardless, for whatever reasons. Starfire's, hmmm? Care to change your mind now?

Dragonblond: Hooray, Dragonblond's reading my story! And she helped to inspire it too!! Yay!!! Arrrrgh, I should put pumpkins by Titan's Tower!! I forgot... noooooo...!!! Have fun.

Tigress419: Certainly does, eh? Seems we're all Canadian here. Now its time to give Terra somethin' to cry a-boot!

Ray1: Well, not quite. Actually this more closely resembles what I did with the X-Men waaaay waaay back in 'Nightmares.' Though I'd like to think I've improved a lot since those days.