A/N:

I hate to do this, but this chapter will need a not-so-standard disclaimer. There is some subject material in this chapter that has been in the news a lot lately, and has been a hotly debated topic. Please do not take offense by the discussion in this chapter. The words have absolutely nothing to do with the situation that has been in the news or any other persons, living or dead. I tried to do this simply from Morgan's point-of-view. I don't have an agenda. I can take flames, but don't bother to flame me on thepoliticalness ofthis chapter--it's just a story!

It took a lot of work, but the Titans eventually were able to move everything out of the basement, setting it all up in one of the many empty rooms in the tower. I respectfully declined to be a part of this process, knowing that I wasn't quite ready to see those chamber-things again. Instead, I locked myself in Raven's room.

The others tried to lure me out on occasion, but I wasn't having any of it. I was upset and in denial, and I was content to keep these emotions to myself. Beast Boy told me (through the door) that Cyborg had found a lot of data in the computer and was trying to piece it all together to make sense of what had been happening. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to know. But I knew I couldn't stay in there forever. I'd insisted that the Titans stop keeping me as a prisoner only to make a prisoner out of myself. And I knew that I couldn't hide—that I would have to face the inevitable. Plus I was getting really hungry. After three days, I decided to sneak down to get some food.

It was 3:30 in the morning when I opened my door and crept out into the hallway. The tower was dark and quiet, but I now knew better than to assume that everyone was asleep.

I reached the common room with no distractions, and headed over to the cupboards to look for food, stopping short at the counter. A full plate of fresh Krispity Krunch Squares sat waiting for me.

I smiled softly. It was extremely thoughtful of whomever to do this for me. Sugar wasn't what my body wanted, but it was what my head wanted. I needed the comfort food.

I quickly ate one of the treats, my mouth watering before it even reached my lips. Then I grabbed another and began to eat it at a much slower pace. My mind was already drifting away from food and on to other matters. I knew where I needed to go. I needed to stop hiding.

I shuffled off down the hallway, hesitating outside the door to the makeshift laboratory. After a deep breath, I pushed the door open a couple of inches and peered inside. A gust of cool air rushed out toward me.

The lights were off, but the cryo-chambers were emitting that creepy fish-tank glow. I didn't see anyone inside, so I went inside, shutting the door behind me.

The room was cool, but not the same freezer temperature that it had been at the old house. The computer and generators stood around the side walls; the fluid-filled tubes lined the back wall.

I slowly approached the set of chambers. I could see that my body had been placed at the far end. Good. No point in rushing to face that again.

I forced myself to look inside the tubes as I passed them. Caucasian, African-American, Asian…all were represented in the small group. Slade had not discriminated in choosing his subjects. All of the subjects wore white scrub-like clothing, except for me.

Suddenly I stopped, counting the tubes. There were only six total. Hadn't there been seven at the house?

The girl. Where was the other girl?

I glanced side-to-side, trying to see if she had been placed somewhere else.

"She's not here," came a voice from behind.

I spun around, seeing Robin standing by the door. I hadn't heard him come inside. Damn, he was stealthy.

Just seeing him ruffled my feathers, though. "I should have known it would be you who would sneak up on me," I muttered. "Are you the only one around here who doesn't need a recharge?"

"I sleep," he replied.

"Yeah, sure you do," I responded dismissively. "So what did you mean by 'she's not here'? Who's not here?"

"The other girl," he said, coming up to stand beside me. "She's not here." His voice became quiet. "She was dead."

I stared at him like he was a grade-A moron. "No shit," I said a tone that matched my expression.

"You don't understand," he said. "Cyborg was able to retrieve an archive full of data on what was going on here. He spent over a day just going through it all. We've learned so much and wanted to share it with you, but you wouldn't come out of your room. We thought it best to wait until you were ready."

"How thoughtful," I said coldly.

"I've got all the info right here." He held a CD between his index and middle fingers. "Cyborg pulled out the parts that you thought would be interesting. Would you like to read it?"

I gazed at the CD for a moment, then looked back at Robin. "Can't you just give me the Reader's Digest version?"

"Is that really what you want?"

As I thought about it, I realized that wasn't what I wanted at all. I wanted to read about the details from the source. But it pissed me off that Robin could sense that. I snatched the CD from his fingers, and he pointed me over to a computer terminal where I could insert the disc. I marched over to the computer, sliding the CD into it.

It took a moment for the computer to read the data, and I found myself growing nervous. Ignorance was bliss, right? Why was I ridding myself of ignorance?

"There was a lot of notes concerning chemical compounds and model numbers and the other kids," Robin added. "I had Cyborg trim it down to the stuff that just pertains to you."

I nodded in understanding as the display flashed to life, text filling the page. "Was all this written by Slade?" I asked.

"It doesn't say," he responded. "We assume so."

I took a breath, and began to read out loud:

"'I finally have the means and contacts to begin human trials of my life extending serum. While my trials with rats have been extremely successful, I must know the side effects on humans before I dare to test it myself. I have chosen teenage runaways as my test subjects because they are less traceable than other virile demographics. As the previous studies have revealed, a subject's body can be void of life, yet the mind can still be active. I am hoping to be able to reanimate the subjects, as was done with the rats, or to discover some way to transfer the consciousness into another body.'"

So there it was. The master plan. Slade was trying to find a way to bring himself back from the dead. I guess that was a necessity for all villains with hero nemeses.

There was a break in the text before the next paragraph.

"'Subject H-4 was introduced today. Subject is of Caucasian decent, approximately 17 years of age, 5 feet and 11 inches in height, and 125 pounds in weight.'

"'Subject H-4 was given 10 ccs of the appropriate serum. As with the other subjects, it was ingested orally while mixed with soup. Based on my calculations and past experimentation, H-4's body should stop functioning within 84-96 hours of ingestion. I have verified that the tracker is in place so that I may locate her body at the appropriate time.'

"Subject H-4?" I repeated, glancing over at Robin. He was standing in front of the tanks, gazing in at the occupants. "Is that me?"

"Yes," he said, nodding. "He developed a designation system so that he could keep track of you. The letter indicates what version of the serum you were receiving; then he numbered each trial in that version."

My eyes widened as I realized what that meant—I hadn't been the first by any means. Goosebumps were running up and down my arms.

"There were others," Robin said, vocalizing my thoughts. "Lots of others."

"How many?"

"You sure you want to—?"

"How—many?" I interrupted sternly. "More than 50?"

He hesitated, then nodded. 'Yes."

My stomach dropped. Fifty. That was two school classes worth of teenagers…just gone. "But why didn't anyone notice?" I asked, knowing the answer as soon as the question had passed my lips. Slade had picked his victims carefully—zeroing in on the ones who were so angry and headstrong that they made sure that no one could track them down and send them home. Like me.

"Maybe someone would have if he had concentrated in one area. But he went all over—not just in Jump City. Some of his victims were 500 miles away from here."

My eyes drifted back to the screen and I continued.

"'Scans indicate that Subject H-4's body temperature began to fall at 12:13 am this morning. This was only 77 hours after ingestion of the serum. Subject's low body weight may have caused unforeseen side effects that affected the time schedule. I monitored the body until 2:30 am; body was retrieved at 3:27 am. H-4 was washed and attired and was sealed in chamber nine at 5:55 am. The machinery is now operating as H-4's heart and lungs. This will keep the subject's body in good condition until all life functions are restored.'"

The nausea rose in my throat again. The details of my death were right there, laid out in a neat and tidy paragraph. And he had washed and attired me. What else had he done that he hadn't bothered to write about? God, I was going to be sick.

I decided to keep reading so my mind wouldn't dwell on that.

"'Subject H-4's response has been better than I planned. H-4's brainwave readings are typically detected around 7 to 8 hertz, which is several cycles higher than any previous surviving subject.'"

There was another break in the text.

"'I now have eight subjects in the cryogenic chambers designed by Doctor Victor Fries: C-6, D-12, F-6, F-7, G-4, G-9, H-4, and I-5. I have decided to not introduce any more subjects until I can fully understand why these eight have survived all processes and find a way to duplicate the procedure at will. I also have yet to determine a method to restore all life functions to the body. Four subjects have been lost in recent attempts (see Subjects D-5, G-3, G-5, and H-1).'"

Eight subjects left. Which meant that he lost another one even before we came along.

"'I am postponing all experimentation. Recent developments have required my attention elsewhere. I will be storing all my research on many redundant systems. Self-generating power sources will sustain the cryogenic chambers, where my subjects should be preserved until I can return to them. I am having them keep the room in perpetual cold, which I believe will be less taxing on the subjects. I probably should have all chambers and subjects destroyed, but I do not wish to take these drastic steps when I have come so far in my research. All mentions of my name and my associates have been removed from these records in case these things are found by another party.'"

That was it. Nothing else.

"Wh-what happened?" I stammered. "Where did he go?"

Robin didn't seem happy about answering my question. "Based on the date, it was around the time when he began to get really interested in the Teen Titans."

"You mean he began to get really interested in you," I clarified.

"Not just me," he returned defensively. "Terra, too."

"Oh yes, excuse me," I drawled, getting up and strolling over to him. "The point is that he decided to stop playing God and left my body bricked up in a basement so that he could go play master and apprentice with you."

He gaped at me. "Are you blaming me for this?"

He was right, of course. He didn't deserve to be blamed. It was all Slade's fault, and I knew that. But Slade wasn't in the room at that moment.

"Maybe he would have succeeded, you know?" I said. "Maybe if he had stuck to it, I would be alive right now."

"You are alive."

"Does that look alive to you?" I snapped, pointing to my body, but not looking at it. "'Cause I'll bet my life that thing hasn't moved in two years. It doesn't breathe and it doesn't have a heartbeat. It—is—dead."

Robin's brow furrowed. "Hey, calm down. Don't you see? You are alive. You have extremely strong brain activity, which is probably why you're manifested as a ghost. We can figure this out. We have contacts with some of the brightest minds in the world. We can put you back in your body."

"What about the others?"

"We'll help them, too."

"Do you think they've been ghosts, too?" I asked. "Wandering around alone for all this time?"

"I…don't know."

I stepped up the chamber holding my body, gazing inside. The shell should have been worm food, but it looked better than it ever had when I had been behind the eyes.

Go back to my body. And then what? Return to the eighth grade? Get a job and become a productive member of society? There was no way. Mother Nature had already been screwed with when I died; why should we mess with nature again? Did two wrongs make a right?

Of course, was I jumping the gun. They didn't even know how to put me back. It was all theory at this point. It's not like they knew how to expel me from Raven's body. We really hadn't made any progress—except now that we had our own room full of dead people.

Hee hee. 'I see dead people.' It was funny and sick at the same time.

Then I realized something. "Robin," I began, turning toward him. He had been standing next to me, waiting patiently. "If we have brain patterns, then why do we need the machines?"

"You read it in Slade's notes."

"I read that he wanted to keep our bodies in good condition. But why do we need the machines otherwise?"

He let out a slow breath. "Because you'll die without them. The brain can't survive that long without help from the rest of the body. Slade's serum kept the brain damage at bay until he could retrieve your body, but it can't sustain you indefinitely."

"So the other girl died…"

"…Because her cryogenic chamber had failed."

My eyes drifted down to the floor, where I could see a mass of cords running out of the back of each chamber to the generator. "So," I began slowly, "what if someone were to pull the plug?"

I could see the alarm spread across his face. "Morgan, what are you saying?"

"What the fuck do you think I'm saying?" I barked. "What right do you have to make decisions for these people?"

"We're just going to help—"

"What if they don't want to be helped?"

He released a long breath. "Calm down, okay?"

He set his hand on my arm, but I was having none of this physical contact bullshit. The previous bruises still hadn't disappeared. I knocked his hand away.

"Back off, okay?" I mimicked in his tone. "You're so blinded by your hatred of Slade that you won't look at what is best for these people!"

I dove for the cords behind the tank that held my body. Robin's weight slammed into me as he tackled me away. I banged into the base of the neighboring tank, landing on my side with Robin around my legs. I reached my hand back toward the power cords, but he crawled up and grabbed my arms, pinning them down above my head.

"Get off of me!" I yelled, twisting my body in an attempt to get away from him. But he was quick and strong, and I could hardly move. My head began to panic. "NO!" I shouted.

And then it felt like something snapped inside of me—setting something loose that made my blood hot as it immediately spread through every inch of my body.

A loud crash echoed through the room, and suddenly I was being doused with icy liquid and sharp shards of glass. Robin scrambled away from me; I sat up, sputtering for air. Something large hit the floor beside me with a thud.

The waterfall stopped and I opened my eyes. I was sitting in a cold puddle of liquid and pieces of glass. Beside me, lying facedown on the floor at an unnatural angle, was a body. I glanced up, seeing that one of the cylinders had essentially exploded from the inside, dumping all of its contents out on top of us. All of its contents.

What on earth had happened?

Robin jumped up, flipping the boy's body over onto its back. He leaned his head down near the boy's mouth, trying to feel for a breath on his cheek as he gazed at the boy's chest. Then he felt for a pulse. I knew from his expression that he wasn't finding either one.

He pinched the boy's nose, then leaned over and gave to long rescue breaths. "Help me," he snapped as he locked his arms above the boy and began to deliver chest compressions.

"No," I said angrily.

Robin was obviously livid about my response. He pulled out his communicator, barking at the other Titans to come down and assist him.

I rose to my feet, my limbs feeling like gelatin and my teeth chattering violently. My mind swirled. I should have wanted to help him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't help but feel that what had happened—however it had happened—was justified.

I just wished that it was my body on the floor instead of that boy's.

Hmm. I wonder what would happen if my body finally died. Would that allow me to move on with my afterlife? Would it kick me out of Raven's body?

I crouched in front of the control panel at the base of the cryogenic chamber that held my body. I could see all kinds of flashing lights and moving lines, which were monitoring all of the systems inside. It couldn't be too hard to shut down, could it?

I glanced over my shoulder at Robin, who was counting out loud as he delivered his chest compressions. He wasn't paying any attention to me at all any more. I could actually go right for the power cord as I had originally planned.

So that's what I did. I reach my fingers back and yanked the cord out of the power socket. The internal light switched off; the control panel went dark.

For a moment, there was no change.

And then my chest began to burn. Within milliseconds it felt like my chest was on fire. My lungs screamed for oxygen, and every breath I took did nothing to ease the pain. My limbs grew heavy.

The door opened and the other Titans came into the room, responding to Robin's call. The lights overhead suddenly illuminated the room. Cyborg and Starfire immediately ran to Robin's aid. I could see Beast Boy glancing over at me.

People were talking, but it sounded very far away and echo-y, like they were at the end of a tunnel. Dots appeared in front of my eyes, steadily becoming more and more dense. Then I felt a sharp pain in my head.

My vision suddenly cleared, and I was standing in a black room. No, not really a room, but a void. It was like standing in space, but with no stars, no planets…nothing. Just blackness. It felt like ground was under my feet, but I couldn't see it. The same emptiness was all around me. But the pain in my chest and veins remained, worse than ever.

And then I realized that they were my feet underneath me.

"Who are you?" asked a low voice behind me.

I spun around, coming face-to-face with Raven. Her eyes held a steady gaze, as if she was willing to give me a chance to explain myself but would vaporize me if I said the wrong thing.

"I'm Morgan," I replied.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What are you doing here?" she asked. I now understood what Robin had meant when he said that Raven had a "dispassionate" voice. It did seem to be rather unique, but not at all unpleasant.

"I'm…not sure," I admitted, trying to rub my chest in an attempt to ebb the burning pain, but finding my hands very uncoordinated. I fell to my knees, talking to Raven through gritted teeth, "But I think it has something to do with the fact that you and I are in the same body."

Shock ran across her face. "What?"

"Yeah," I grimaced. "You did a spell that joined us together."

"So why don't you un-join us?" she asked.

"Do I look like I would know the first thing about how to do that?"

She was quiet, watching me with a frown on her face. "Are you feeling all right?"

Sarcasm threatened to overflow from my mouth, but I was in too much pain to actually say most of them. "Just dandy," I moaned.

She knelt down beside me. But then her eyelids began to droop, and her body swayed a little bit. She looked a little bit like a toddler that was way overdue for his nap.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"What's…happening?" she murmured, shaking her head in an attempt to shake off the sleepy feeling.

The pain in my chest and veins suddenly dissipated. Everything felt strong and perfect again. My hands patted down my chest. No pain at all.

Then I realized what was happening. This was just a vision—a meeting with Raven in the back of my mind as I teetered near death. But the Titans must have been close to reviving me. I was going to wake up, and Raven was going to slip into the background again.

"Raven," I began, "Do you know of a way to separate us?"

She collapsed, and I dove to catch her. Her head lolled around and her eyes didn't open. I gently helped her to lie on the ground.

"Raven!" I shouted, shaking her. Her eyelids opened a little bit, but her eyes were rolled up into her head. "If you know of a way to fix this, you need to tell me.

Her lips parted and moved a bit, as if she was trying to make noise but was just too tired. "Assss…" she said.

I stared at her. Certainly she wasn't saying what it sounded like. I shook her again. "Come on!"

"Azzzerrrath," she slurred. "Metreee'nnn…"

She stopped. I shook her more, but it didn't help. She was asleep.

A flash of light surrounded me, and suddenly I found myself on the floor of the laboratory, gazing up at the concerned—and yet somewhat pissed off—faces of the Teen Titans.

"How are you feeling?" Starfire asked as she helped me sit up.

I glanced back at the chamber that held my body. Its lights and control panel were functioning again. Looks like they'd managed to plug me back in.

I could see the form of the boy that had been expelled from his cryo-chamber lying where he had been before, a sheet covering his body. Obviously they had been unable to save him.

"We should have taken your body out of it's cryo-chamber and put his in," Robin snapped.

I turned, staring back obstinately. "Then why didn't you?"

He didn't answer, so I looked at the others. Cyborg was the one that answered, "Because you were dying. We couldn't let you and Raven die."

"Actually, you were getting Raven back," I said, rising to my feet. "I was dying, but she wasn't."

"How have you gained this knowledge?" Starfire asked.

"I saw Raven," I said. "We spoke. I asked her if she knew of a way for us to be separated again."

"What did she say?" Robin questioned.

"Some gobble-dee-gook," I said. "Azzzerrrath Metree—"

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos," the others chimed together.

"Oh, you've heard of it."

"Dude, it's, like, the only thing she says," Beast Boy droned.

"It's how she uses her powers," Cyborg explained.

Good information, I guess. But I wasn't sure how it was going to help me.

"I should take you to jail, you know," Robin said, "for killing that boy."

My eyes wandered back over to the sheet; my blood began to boil again in my veins. "Then why don't you?" I asked irritably. "God, the way you act… You make it sound like I'm glad things are this way. But you know what? I would be more than happy to switch places with that boy—to be really, truly dead. No more of this ghostly wandering or body sharing. I just want to be done with it all! I'm so sick of this—this bullshit!"

As soon as the last word was out, one of the florescent lights overhead exploded, letting out a loud bang! as it showered glass down on us.

I covered my head with my hands and lowered my eyes to avoid the glass. "What is going on?" I screamed.

"I'm going out on a limb here," Cyborg began, "but I'm guessing that you've tapped into Raven's powers."

Suddenly I didn't have anything to say.