A/N: So…I realize now that, whilst I was gone…many of you missed me. I missed you all too much. But never fear. To keep the flow, MOB needs and update, and I'm here to give you your fix. We're going to start stepping it up into high gear now too. All you Beast Boy fans out there, get ready.

Disclaimer: Still don't…although I wish I did…like all of you probably.

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Chapter 6: Nevermore -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This time, Robin had gone past worrying. Raven was slowly coming to, a brief stint in the land of lost consciousness. But her condition had no bearing, no real effect at all on Robin's
mood. It might have concerned him, had something much worse not come up. Something much worse, much scarier and worlds more disturbing then passing out.

Robin looked through the infirmary window, gazing at his fallen comrade. Cyborg was sitting by his side, completely turned off from the real world. Starfire could only stare and mutter half sentences and whimper. Deep down inside, Robin wanted to help; he wanted to pull him out. Even further down, he wanted to find out why. Why Beast Boy was having these horrid dreams…why he was losing his mind.

And why he was now comatose.

"Ro…Robin?" Raven muttered, her eyes flickering open weakly. Her entire body felt, more than anything, drained. She could tell by Robin's sombre and silent presence that things could have been better than she'd hope. "What's…"

"Coma."

The silence was a strong, scary, and awkward one. Raven could only adopt a questionable stare, and an alerted sense of presence as Robin uttered the single word with about as much warmth as an icy tomb. "What do you mean…"

"Beast Boy is in a coma Raven." Robin replied, same frozen tone. This time, Raven was fully aware. And with awareness came unbound horror. "He's been like that for the past seven hours…Lying there almost dead…" With that, he spun around, and stared into Raven, not her eyes, but deeper. He was making this a personal connection and she knew it. "What is going on?"

"Why would I know?"

"Shall I list the alarms that went off in my head? How about the fact that, before charging after BB, you yelled Slade? Or how in actuality, there was no Slade with the Slade-bots. How about the fact that you passed out when he did. Raven…our friend, our team mate, is lying within a medical bet. He is completely removed from reality. Comatose. You know something. I know you do."

"Robin, you're being unreasonable. You want answers, but you're looking in all the wrong places."

"Raven. You went into his mind, and refused to tell me anything. This time, you have to tell me. What is going on?"

Raven sighed exasperatedly. Every dodge she executed was met by another question, each one harder and harder to avoid than the last. But she made a promise. And with promises comes her respect, and her silence.

"I don't recall spreading things about you after I was in your mind, Richard." Raven replied, using his name to purely show who had the power. And it reflected it well, as Robin twitched hearing his name. No one knew it but him until now, or at least, until Raven had been inside his head. "What you're asking of me, is what you begged of me not to do the day after you're "nightmare."

"Raven, if I recall, I wasn't in a coma afterwards. Are you telling me you value your own mysterious knowledge more than Beast Boy's life!" Robin growled, slamming his hands down on the foot of the bed. The sound was loud enough to catch Starfire and Cyborg's attention, who eyed the pair curiously. They quickly found themselves uninvited when both Raven and Robin shooed them off before turning back to the conversation.

"Robin, I have put up with a lot from you, some good, and some bad." Raven muttered, very dangerously. Where her mono tone like voice once was, a clearly emotionally engaged voice began to follow. "But you will not, not, question my loyalty to my friends. Do you understand me?"

Slowly, Robin pointed towards Beast Boy, never breaking the almost lethal eye contact. "Then why are you hiding something that could help us?"

"Because, Robin. You would not understand his pain. You would use it against him."

"Now you would be questioning my loyalty, Raven. My friends come first. Always."

"Really? I recall a situation where you put your vendetta with Slade ahead of us. I can recall such a situation twice actually." Her voice had once again retained its mono-tone flow, but each word still rang true, and stung hard. "And both times, it came down to you against us Robin." She stared, unfaltering, into the Robin's masked eyes as he trembled with rage. A death-like silence filled the room like a toxic gas, threatening to suffocate the both of them.

"Slade is a madman." Robin finally said, his words dipped in venom, set aflame, and read to blow. "He's a madman who I swore to stop. Who I will stop!"

"You're more loyal to Slade and your revenge. That is why I won't tell you, Robin. Because you need to put things into perspective. Beast Boy is your number one concern, not what Slade is up to. At least, Beast Boy should be your number one concern."

"Don't you EVER try and tell me how to lead!" Robin yelled, loud enough to once again catch the attention of Starfire and Cyborg. It was an extremely emotional time, one that teetered on the edge of a pot with boiling water, and a stove on high. "At least, Raven, looking into his mind yourself. Then tell me what you think. I'll let you decide." Robin growled, his nerves stretched past the point.

Closing the gap, Robin came as close to Raven as he could, keeping the next words as quiet and private as possible. "But if he dies, then it's on you." With that, Robin pulled away, and left the infirmary, driving his fist into the door on his way out. If had stayed any long, even a breath of a moment longer, Raven quite possibly would have thrown him around like a rag doll. What hurt much more than his words though, was the honesty and truth behind them. The minute she heard he had gone comatose, she found herself duelling with her moral sense of right and wrong, and her oaths to Beast Boy.

A long, stressed and greatly pained sigh escaped her lips as she gripped her head between her hands, and breathed in deeply. She had only been seconds from blowing up almost everything in the room. Slowly, she felt her emotions slip beneath her veil of self control, as she slowly sat up, and reached for her cloak. Throwing it on as though it was nothing, she sat on the bed, allowing her mind to clear itself, to focus unto the task ahead.

"I'll fix this Beast Boy."

----- Winry's Lab ------

Sighing deeply and painfully, flopped down onto her chair, placing the completed collar frame onto the table. It checked out perfectly, meeting the shape and design requirements. Now all she had to do was turn it into from a collar, into a method of control. A token of slavery to the unlucky and eternally damned soul it would find itself wrapped around. Now, all she had to do was the impossible. She figured that an injection of nanoprobes could solve the control issue, and in that case, needed to rig a beacon system within the probes.

However, it was the serum that bothered her. Making probes radio-receptive and sending shocks of electricity was one thing, but this serum was not only completely new to her…but it was completely unbecoming of whatever character Slade might still have.

Basically, Slade labelled it the anti-serum. It would counteract a serum used to for the Were-beast mutation into a recession. The only way it could possibly work, though, was if the form was unleashed first. It would be a most delicate procedure to create such a serum though. If done even slightly wrong, it could very well have a definite negative effect upon him. It could even kill him if the dose was too potent, or too weak. It could kill him if the serum failed completely, and if she killed his new pet, then Slade would take great pleasure in breaking every bone in her body, and dropping her in a lake to drown.

That was his idea of a merciful death. A slow, painful death by drowning. She had seen him do it once before, and it disturbed her in ways she could not fathom.

"He wants to remove civilization from the beast..." She muttered, slowly realizing the whole picture. "Take the city out of the animal and put the jungle back in…that's sick…even for him." She quipped into the empty room, rolling her eyes before picking up the collar, and returning to work on it. "Just keep biding your time Lin…just keep biding your time." She chanted, as she began the real work behind the collar.

------ Infirmary------

"Leave." A voice muttered, breaking the sombre silence that existed. Cyborg and Starfire quickly turned to protest, but one look into her eyes, and they could tell that such a contest would be useless. With a great deal of grumbling and curses from Cyborg, the two left to go find Robin, and watch the streets. Slade was out and about, they all knew it. And since that was the case, Robin needed to be watched, from either a friendly standpoint, or a cautious standpoint.

For the longest time, Raven just stared at Beast Boy. He was pale and barely moving. Machines along side him monitored him endlessly, his entire body hooked up to computers for the slightest detection of destabilization and worse. Comas were and are ugly and disgusting things. They can destroy the mind faster than any drug, and leave you cold and lonely forever. Raven could manage such a fate; she had been for her whole life. Cold and lonely. Beast Boy would not.

Not for a day, not for an hour, not even for a handful of minutes. It would be a death sentence for him.

Sitting down beside him, Raven reached out, and took one of his hands, gripping it tightly. Once again, she would dive into his consciousness and try to help him, afraid of what she might see. Beast Boy was suffering nightmares of the worse kind. And what made it worse was that they might very well be premonitions of the future. If this was the case, then what she had to worry about was not what caused his Coma, but what he is afraid to wake up to. There was nothing more blocking, more interfering, than fear.

Crossing her legs and taking one last breath, Raven began to chant her mantra. With nought but a few moments, her consciousness drifted into Beast Boys.

------ Beast Boy's Mind ------

Unlike the last time she had been in here, Beast Boy's mind was empty. A total blackness. Where there had been a recreation of the tower last time, there was bet an infinite amount of black space. Typically, comatose patients experience "second realities." Things that feel so real and true that they had to be there. That was what typically destroyed the mind, was that belief.

"Beast…boy?" Raven muttered, slightly worried, though no ordinary person could tell. "Are you here?"

A whimper responded from the darkness. Raven turned towards it to see Beast Boy, his arms wrapped around his knees, curled up in a little ball. "Raven…What's happening to me?"

"You're comatose Beast Boy. And judging from the lack of scenery, I'm thinking that this is somehow intentional."

"Because, you know, I can just slip into comas at will." He muttered, emotionally crippled. His voice was more a mix of anger, depression, and confusion than anything else. "When I want to, I just disappear into my landscape of total nothingness."

"No, but for you, it's not impossible. I am judging that, from your experience as animals, you have found out how to, for the most part at least, hibernate. A coma and hibernation are not that far apart."

Beast Boy just stayed silent, aside from the odd sniffle. "You think this is purposeful?" He muttered.

"I think you want to avoid Robin and Slade. But I think you're afraid to stay like this. Quite simply…I think you're lost."

"Lost? In a few days, Slade will come for me. He promised. Not you, not Robin, me. Tell me Raven, don't you think I have the right to be afraid." Beast Boy replied, as he struggled to sit up. He turned his back to Raven, avoiding eye contact with her at all cost. "Robin will use me as bait to catch Slade. Slade would do the same."

Raven growled, a sound that she hardly ever made. However, it was scary nonetheless. "Robin wouldn't dare. If not by his own code of ethics, then by me, Cyborg, and Starfire standing in between him and doing so. But Robin needs to be given the chance to help you. No one understands Slade more than him."

"You're going to tell him aren't you? If I refuse, you'll do it…"

"I…" Raven began, feeling a pair of emotions boiling within her. Betrayal and exposed. "I have to…"

Her words echoed in the empty space, first growing quiet, than roaring loudly, before finally being overtaken by silence.

"Leave." Beast Boy replied, his word bleeding sorrow. Raven knew that anything more would be pointless, would be useless. She had betrayed the trust for possibly her closest friend. Looking on, she could see Beast Boy collapsing inwards.

'I am doing this for him…Even if he hates me forever for it.' Raven's mind rang, as she disappeared from his mind, leaving a broken and betrayed Beast Boy to the emptiness within him. Soon though, his mind filled with two things. Two things he never wanted to see again, but knew were true. Words and voices, both saying the same thing.

"She'll tell Robin, fearing you."

Once more…Slade had been right.

------ Titan Tower ------

Raven reared backwards with a jolt, a common after effect of diving into ones mind. For a brief period of time, her mind was discombobulated, but soon everything fell back into place. Beast Boy was still comatose, and Raven had probably dealt a destructive blow to Beast Boy's heart. She didn't need to read him to understand that. He put his trust in her, and she betrayed it. Life doesn't quite deal harsher blows than that.

Making her way slowly to the main room, she forced her body to rid itself of any signs of her previous conversation. What she had to do now was going to be the hardest feat she ever attempted. However, she had a chance and a choice to do differently, and she chose this. Decision made, now she had to walk that path her choice created.

"Robin." Raven muttered, unintentionally getting the attention of all three Titans. "Come with me." She finished, walking off. The three glanced at each other curiously, before Robin leapt off the couch and went off in Raven's direction. Cyborg and Starfire could only exchange blank stares, before turning back to surveillance of the city.

Making his way to the infirmary, Robin attempted his best to mentally prepare for whatever Raven would say or do. Entering, he turned to see Raven staring down at Beast Boy, watching him methodically, staring for any last minute signs of recovery. Robin fought back a whimper of sorrow as he watched his comrade suffering, but ultimately remained stone-faced. Whatever Raven had seen, it was enough to coerce her into talking.

"Sit down." Raven spoke, her voice emotionless. Robin did so with no fight, locking eyes with Raven. "What I tell you stays between you, me, and him."

"I think I should decide that for myself Raven. Cyborg and Starfire have every right to know if it is serious."

"Robin, this isn't up for discussion. You might lead the Titans, but this is my condition. Hate me for it if you want, but this is either between us, or just between me and him." Raven responded, her voice lifeless. It was her eyes that conveyed the meaning to the words. "Deal?"

"…Fine." Robin growled, as though his favourite toy had just been taken away from him.

A deep sigh escaped Raven's lips before she started. "Slade is after Beast Boy."

Robin's reaction was nothing she could have ever expected. Instead of adopting his typical attitude, or slipping into his state of paranoia that he adopted with his grudge against Slade, Robin remained completely stalwart. "What could Slade want with him?"

"Slade wants…" Raven began, finding that she was, to her chagrin, struggling to complete the sentence. If the Slade part did not alert Robin, she was sure this would. "Slade wants Beast Boy's Were-beast form…"

"What!" Robin replied, stunned. How Slade could have known about Beast Boy's mutation horrified him, but the fact that Slade truly wanted to get his hands on it made him even more afraid. With a power like that on his side, Slade could truly rain destruction upon the city. Beast Boy himself, in that state, was nearly unstoppable, and they all knew he was holding back on them.

If Slade had control, holding back would not be an option. The though of Beast Boy like that, in full fury, truly horrified him.

"Slade wants the Were-beast Robin. That is his interest in Beast Boy."

"If he does…Beast Boy would be destruction embodied…" Robin replied, eyeing his green comrade carefully. Had he kept his eyes on Raven, he would have seen her eyes quickly adopt a red glint.

"That is your worry. What about Beast Boy himself Robin? You know what Slade will do to him. Are you really more afraid of Slade having his powers as opposed to Slade torturing and destroying your friend?"

"Raven…Beast Boy is my friend. But what he had inside him, that darkness…it scared me. Just as much as Slade scares me. I'm afraid for him, I promise…but I can't help but wonder what would happen if Slade got his hands on Beast Boy." Robin muttered, before his head flopped down in shame. "I'm horrible for thinking like that, I know."

"No, you don't know." Another voice cracked. Raven and Robin, in tandem, whipped their heads towards Beast Boy. How long he had been awake they couldn't tell, but he was awake. "I scare you just as much as Slade does? That what I can do, am capable of, causes you fear?"

"Beast Boy, what I meant was…" Robin started, before he made eye contact with Beast Boy. His soft eyes were replaced with hard ones, the kind that made it nearly impossible to lie to someone.

"Go away."

"Beast Boy…just listen, please?"

"GO AWAY." Beast Boy repeated, a much more definite sting to his voice. Robin and Raven knew that, at this point, it would be foolish to continue. Sighing in defeat, Robin stood up and walked away. Raven, however, could only look into the eyes of Beast Boy helplessly, who returned her glance just as coldly as he did Robin's.

"I trusted you Rae…"

"I know, but…"

"I trusted you, and did just what Slade said you would…you told Robin. And Robin's afraid of me. Thanks to you, I'm a monster now. Go away."

"Beast Boy… I needed to tell him. He was the only one that could help."

"Help? Did he sound like he wanted to help to you? "

"He was evaluating the circumstances."

"Lock you away in fear and turn you into a menace before your friends' eyes, just like I would. Face it, if you go to Robin, he'll be just as cruel to you as I am, and you know it to be true." Beast Boy recited, catching Raven completely off guard. "That was what Slade told me about telling Robin. And I can see even now that it is coming to be. Soon, Robin will hide me away for my 'protection' but really, it'll be for his protection. I scare him, and he won't hesitate to make sure that I don't become a threat. Now go away Raven…" Beast Boy stated, his voice cracking midway, before going back to the icy cold tone he had when addressing Robin.

Raven wanted to say something, anything, to evaporate his fears, but even she found herself drawn to the truths in his words. Robin admitted he was scared. Not of the though of what Slade would do to Beast Boy…but of the thought of what Slade could do with Beast Boy. It made her sick to believe that Robin could think like that, but he had.

"Beast Boy…" She muttered weakly, before turning around and walking away. As she left, she could hear him weeping into the pillows. It broke her heart. He, who had at one time been a thorn in her side, and a constant joke as far as being competent went. Yet he had always been the "comic relief" when they needed it. Watching him suffer now was like watching a knife digging into her skin.

And yet, in the back of her mind, try as she might, she could only blame one person. It was not Slade, who in honesty deserved all of the blame, and it wasn't Robin, who also deserved some. Watching Beast Boy right now, she could only blame one soul for his tragedy and suffering.

Herself
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A/N Hah HA! Lot's of talking, I know. Needed to regain the flow, if yah know what I am talking bout. So, Slade's statements come true, well true-ish. Robin admits his fear of Beast Boy, and Raven blames herself. Poor girl. And yes, just in case you are all wondering, I AM ALIVE! THIS IS NOT ME FROM THE DEAD! In the next chapter…the story changes. Completely. Till then, peace out, and play Tales of Symphonia. Your lord and master commands it.