Here's the next chapter. I'm really proud of this one and I got it out pretty fast too. I'm sorry if it takes me awhile to update, I'm doing my senior project right now and I have to work, so that takes up quite a bit of my time. Like I said, I'll try and get these chapters out every three or four days. Also, some of the reviewers have stated that they wouldn't read this anymore if it became a slash story, which is really a shame, but I'd hate to lose reviewers so I guess it's not going to be one. I wasn't sure if I was going to have it be one anyway, so oh well. And finally, feel free to email me anytime with suggestions for the story, I'd love to hear them.

Sorry for the long author's note, I hate it when writers do that, but here's the story. Enjoy.

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"I can feel it. Right now, it's sitting somewhere inside me and waiting to… I don't know, take over, I guess. I've felt it grow stronger, hungrier for the most awful things. Raven, you cannot even image the things it makes me see, the images it puts in my head." Beast Boy sat on the edge of Raven's bed with his forehead in his hands, his elbows on his knees. Raven, whom had pulled a chair up to right in front of him, stayed quiet and let Beast Boy do most of the talking. At first the shape-shifter had refused to speak, denying that there was anything wrong with him, denying that Raven had seen him in the kitchen the night before. But soon, after much prying, the floodgates had opened and everything came spilling out.

"What exactly do you mean by 'it'?" Raven asked finally. "Do you mean The Beast?" She, of course, was referring to the primal persona Beast Boy had taken on after their fight with Adonis all those years ago. Since then, The Beast had never been a problem again.

"I don't know," Beast Boy mumbled. "I guess it's similar, but last time when I was dealing with The Beast it was never like this. I mean, yeah, The Beast influenced my actions, you saw the way I acted, but he was never this… violent." Beast Boy spoke the last word in a whisper, and visibly shuddered. Whatever was happening to him was obviously incredibly disturbing to the Titan.

"So why do you think that drinking is the only thing that can help you?" Raven asked softly, shifting uncomfortably in her chair.

"I told you," Beast Boy said, quite obviously annoyed, "I've tried so many things to keep it at bay. At first, in the very beginning-" Beast Boy was cut off by Raven.

"You never said how long ago this started." She didn't feel good about interrupting him, but felt that this was a crucial fact that might need to be explored further in the future.

Beast Boy lifted his head from his hands and let his arms drop to hang down between his legs. He was leaning forward slightly and Raven could see the chain of a necklace disappear down into his white t-shirt. "It's hard to tell," he said, speaking slowly, thinking out his answer.

The entire time they had been in Raven's room, Beast Boy had not once looked her in the face, and when the dark Titan thought about it, she realized that it wasn't very often that she was able to directly see his wide, dark eyes. He seemed to avoid people's faces. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well," he continued, "it's hard to tell because… I think I have to show you how it feels first."

"How what feels?"

"How it feels when… when it starts to bubble up out of me." His eyes blackened. So did Raven's. The darkness of the room blanketed them. It choked them, pouring into their mouths and down into their lungs. It pushed in on them, holding them tight. It created a wall between them, making them feel miles and miles apart. Inside Raven felt that if she reached out a hand now, she would never be able to touch Beast Boy. At that moment, he was much too far away. But soon, very soon, Beast Boy would bring her closer than she had ever been before.

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"What are they talking about in there?" Cyborg had pressed his robotic ear up against the door to Raven's room. Even with its amplified hearing, it could not breach the spells Raven had cast in order to ensure her privacy. Robin and Starfire had latched their ears upon the door in any place that their massive friend's frame did not block.

"I feel that it is not right for us to try and eardrop on our friends," Starfire said, concentrating hard on hearing through the door.

"I think you mean eavesdrop, Star," Robin said. His own ear was both freezing from the cold of the metal door, and painful from pressing hard into it. "And if you're so worried about it, why haven't you stopped?" Starfire ignored Robin and tried to think of other ways to hear what Beast Boy and Raven were talking about.

"She's right," Cyborg said, pushing himself away from the door. "I don't feel good about doing this." Starfire and Robin scrambled to get to the places their ears hadn't been able to reach when the metal teen had been in the way. "I'm just so worried about Beast Dude though. Raven knows something we don't, and the little green guy doesn't seem too happy about her knowing it."

"You should have seen him in the hall when Raven was leading him to her room." Robin gave up on hearing through the door and had let himself slide down the smooth wall, sitting cross legged with his chin in his hands. "Beast Boy looked like he was going to fall apart."

Starfire gave up on hearing through the door as well and decided to tell the others of another method she had been thinking of. "Perhaps I could fly up to Raven's window and see what it is they are doing." She nodded confidently at her own plan.

"That won't work, Star," Cyborg told her, sliding down beside Robin. "Raven always keeps her curtains closed." Starfire's face fell and she too slid down the wall and came to a rest. There was a long drawn out pause as the three each tried to come up with a plan whilst at the same time feeling bad about the prospect of spying.

"Hey," Cyborg said after awhile, "all the rooms in The Tower are equipped with cameras, right?"

"That's right," Robin said, seeing exactly where he was going with it. Starfire's eyes suddenly went wide.

"THERE IS A CAMERA IN MY ROOM!" She shouted. The two boys scooted away from her as quickly as they could. Robin held up his arms defensively, hoping to calm the raging alien.

"There are cameras all over in Titans Tower, but none of the ones in any of our rooms are ever on," Robin told her. She did not look convinced. "I swear it, Star," he said.

"You had better not be lying, Robin," Starfire warned him, "or I will make you pay." She had learned these words from Raven and they seemed to be quite effective.

"So do you think we should do it?" Cyborg asked after Starfire had been appeased. "Should we invade their privacy like that?"

"I think we should-" Robin started, but was cut off by the sound of Raven's door sliding open. Cool air rushed out to caress the skin of the three spying Titans. They all turned to see who was coming out. Starfire gasped.

"Beast Boy?"

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"I don't think I can put it into words, Raven." Beast Boy sat up straight, cracking his fingers. "I can't put into words exactly how it feels, but I need you to know what its like."

"I see where you're going with this, Beast Boy," Raven said, also sitting up straighter. She was still trying to get the green Titan to look her in the face. He was clever though, looking just over the top of her head or to the side of it, creating the illusion that he was looking right at her. "And I can't do that."

"You started this Raven," Beast Boy said, "I didn't want to say anything, I was fine with how things were, I was taking care of it."

"No you were not," Raven spat, "you were just covering the problem up." Beast Boy ignored her remark. It stung, but he needed her to feel what he felt, and it would never happen if she were to get mad at him. Well, madder. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"Please do this Raven." He stood up and stepped across that infinite gap that had separated them. He passed through that wall of darkness and came to kneel beside Raven's chair. "I need you to understand."

Raven sighed and thought for a moment. Would it be wise to look into Beast Boy's head? It wasn't such a bad idea. If Raven did, she would know exactly how the changeling felt. It might even bring her a step closer to understanding what "it" was that haunted him. But there was an incredibly large problem. It was the reason Raven was hesitant to go through with this. Looking into someone's mind was not an easy task, and people tended to lock things away inside themselves, things they did not want others to see. For a person like Beast Boy, this was especially true. What if Raven saw or felt something she wasn't supposed to? What if she uncovered a secret that Beast Boy had folded up and hidden away at the corners of his mind? It was something she was really hoping to avoid, but it was a risk she would have to take.

"Okay," she spoke finally, "I'll do it." The corners of Beast Boy's mouth twitched into a little smile for just a moment before returning to a straight line.

"What do I do?" He breathed, barely above a whisper, seemingly in awe over an event that had yet to occur. Raven stood and pushed her chair out of the way, kneeling in front of Beast Boy so that they were just inches apart. She could smell his breath, minty from his toothpaste with a tinge of orange juice from this morning.

"Close your eyes," she said. He did so the moment the words left her mouth. "Relax. Breathe slowly, calmly." His breathing changed immediately. "Concentrate on the memory you want me to see and nothing else at all." A look of concentration passed across Beast Boy's face as he picked out the perfect memory. "Are you ready?" Raven asked. Beast Boy nodded.

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Starfire gasped.

"Beast Boy?"

The green titan stood at the door to Raven's room, head facing toward the ground. The figure of Raven could be seen standing a few feet behind him. She had balled her hands up and pressed them to her chest, her head hung down as well.

"Now you know," Beast Boy spoke softly. "Now you know… what it's like to have this thing inside you." He lifted his head and the other Titan's could see that tears were falling freely from his eyes, little streams of sorrow dripping down to stain the floor and the white of his shirt. But his face contained none of the sadness that his eyes hinted at. It was completely blank and unfeeling. "Now you know," he continued, "why it is I go to that bar." He stepped over Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg, whom still remained slumped on the floor, and headed down the hall.

"Beast Boy!" Raven called, emerging from her room. She too was crying. But unlike him, her face held an obvious hurt. The green Titan ignored her and continued on, disappearing around a corner.

"Raven?" Robin stood and placed a hand on the frightened girl's shoulder. She recoiled from his touch momentarily before leaning back into it. "What happened?" He asked.

"I… I looked into his mind," Raven said, a shudder passing through her frame. "He said I needed to know." She placed her hands over her face. "The things I saw and felt," she continued, "were more horrible than anything I could have ever imagined." Cyborg and Robin exchanged wary glances.

"What did you see?" Cyborg asked, standing and closing the distance between himself and Raven. "Tell us what you saw."