A Thing of the Past, Chapter 7

"Beast Boy, wake up! Raven's missing!" Robin yelled from my door.

My eyes snapped open. "Wha-?" I said dumbly, still not fully awake. I tried to unwrap myself from my sheets and ended up falling out of bed. "Oof!" I grunted when I hit the floor.

"This is no time for fooling around, Beast Boy," Robin said irritably. "Get dressed and meet me at Raven's room." I heard my door close.

I could only sit there in a daze. Raven's missing? I thought confusedly, finally getting the sheets off. I stood up slowly, looking around for my socks. Questions kept popping into my head as I began to panic. Had she been kidnapped? If so, then by whom? Was there a ransom note? Had something worse happened? Was she all right? And where in the world did I put that other boot!

My head began to hurt from all the unanswered questions floating around in there. "Stop it," I scolded myself out loud, shaking my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts. "Just think positively," I said calmly, finally locating the lost boot. "She's probably just fine," I said as I began to take off my pajamas. "Robin's probably just overreacting." I looked at the clock on my wall. "See," I said reassuringly, putting on my costume, "it's hardly past eight. She probably just went out to get some more tea or some new books. Something like that."

I knew I was only kidding myself and quickly finished strapping on my boots. I ran to Raven's room, stopping right outside her door, panting slightly. Even though I knew that she was gone, there was no way I was going to enter Raven's room without knocking first. The last time I entered without her permission, Cyborg and I ended up in her mind. I so did not want to go there again.

Suddenly, the door slid open to reveal Robin on the other side. "It's about time," he said crossly, going back into the room. I entered slowly, looking around to see if Raven's room had changed any since the last time I had been here. Nope, still dark and creepy.

At first glance, everything seemed normal enough. "So, what makes you think she's missing?" I asked, loitering by the door.

Robin was kneeling by Raven's unmade bed with some kind of strange glasses on. "One," he said as he stood and placed what looked like a tissue in a small baggie, "this has been doused with chloroform. It's nearly dry now, meaning it's probably been sitting here for awhile. Since chloroform is colorless, this could have just looked like a regular tissue tossed aside carelessly." He threw the baggie over to me. "Take a whiff."

I looked at him cautiously before opening the baggie and sniffing. "It doesn't smell bad," I commented, closing the baggie and tossing it back to him. "It's kinda nice, actually. Not that I want to make a cologne out of it, or anything."

"Exactly," he said, placing the baggie into his belt. "Another trademark of chloroform. I'm going to take this back to the lab and see if I can get anything else out of it. Two," he continued, making his way over to Raven's vanity, "the mirror over here is missing." Sure enough, there was a sort of frame on top of the vanity where a mirror could sit. "Yet, if it had been accidentally broken, there would be pieces over here somewhere. There are none. Instead, the broken pieces are all over there on or around the bed." He removed his strange glasses and pointed to the head of the bed. I moved closer to get a better look. There were a bunch of little pieces of mirror scattered about, some on the pillows, the sheets, even the floor.

"My guess," Robin said as he moved to the other side of the bed, "is that Raven was taken by surprise by her captor, yet was able to get in a couple of shots with the mirror by using her powers." He pulled out another baggie from his belt. "One of the pieces had a thread stuck on it which I wouldn't have been able to find without my night-vision glasses. It appears to be black, though it's hard to say in this light. I'm taking it back to the lab to analyze it." He put the baggie back into his belt.

"And three," he pushed on, moving over to the windows and pushing aside the curtain, "this window has been broken." I came over and stood beside him. The window on the far left, closest to the bed, had been smashed open, yet there was no glass on the floor. I mentioned this to Robin.

"Good eye, Beast Boy," he commended. "That's because all the glass is outside. Somebody broke it to leave, not to enter. For some reason, the captor was not able to leave the same way he came. Which is puzzling. The alarm should have gone off when the window was broken. Somehow the captor knew the codes to get in and shut off the alarm. And the only ones who know those codes are the Titans." He turned and looked at me suspiciously, crossing his arms over his chest. "You were the last one to see Raven. Care to tell me what happened last night?"

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently, still looking at the window.

"Don't play dumb, Beast Boy," he said angrily. "I came home last night to find Starfire and Cyborg cleaning up the living room. The TV, the kitchen table, and a bunch of lights were broken. You and Raven were the only ones here. Any idea how that happened?"

I began to wander around the room, trying to find anything else that might help us. "What's there to say?" I retorted. "Raven lost control of her powers. Big deal. It's not the first time it's happened."

"But why did she lose control of her powers?" he argued. "Did you say something or do something—"

I spun around and scowled at him. "Why is it always my fault?" I interrupted him furiously. "Everything that's wrong around here is my fault. Why don't you just come out and say it: you think I did it, don't you?"

He only stood there, staring at me sternly. He didn't say he blamed me. Of course, he didn't say that he didn't blame me, either. "I'm outta here," I muttered and began to leave.

"Just tell me what happened," Robin said quietly.

I lost control. "We had a fight," I yelled. "There. Ya happy? It was my fault, okay? We had a fight, I said some stupid things, like always, and she let some of her emotions out causing her to break a few things." Tears began to well up in my eyes. "And now she's gone." My voice was beginning to tremble.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around slowly. Robin had a sympathetic look on her face. "I don't blame you for anything," he said, trying to console me. I wiped my eyes with my gloves, trying to keep him from seeing me cry. "We'll find her. I've already got Starfire and Cyborg out searching the city. If you'd like, you can go and join them. I'm sure they'd welcome the help. As for me," he said, returning to his normal determined and businesslike self, "I'm going to take this stuff down to the lab now."

He began to leave, but stopped at the door, not turning around. "Oh, yeah, and if you have any ideas about who may have done this," he said carelessly, "anyone who may have been aware of our codes, let me know, okay?" He left without another word.

I stood there for a moment, staring at nothing in particular, thinking about what he had said. And then it came to me: he was referring to Sara. Or did he mean Terra? Did this mean he knew she was back? I panicked and morphed into a crow, flying out the broken window, knowing only that I had to get to Terra as fast as I could.