As they all filed groggily into the dining room, Beast Boy immediately noticed that Wren was not her usual perky self on this particular morning. He was going to mention it, but all that came out was a gorilla-ish grunting sound. Wren smiled a little at him and served him up an egg-substitute omelet.
When everyone had been served, she took a bit of egg for herself and sat down at the end of the table.
"I have something to say," she began, but suddenly Beast Boy's voice returned to him and he interrupted.
"I'll say you do! Where the heck did you go last night? We're up all night chasing giant bird monsters and you're off somewhere hanging out all alone? I bet we could've used your help last night! We might've caught that thing if you'd have been there! Why didn't you—"
"Beast Boy, shut up! Let her talk!" said Raven, and the boy went silent. "Please continue, Wren."
"About last night. There was no way I could've helped you catch that thing. Because it was me."
"I TOLD YOU SO!" shouted Beast Boy in Cyborg's face, but nobody was listening. All eyes were on Wren, and her eyes were on her hands again.
"What?" said the four voices of Robin, Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg.
"I'm a Siren. Or half of one, really, and half a werewolf. Every full moon I transform fully into my bird form. What you saw on the obstacle course, that was only a partial mutation. You all were too far away to see my feet and hands change shape. You didn't see my talons. I had to hold back with all my might to keep my wings from sprouting."
Silence. They don't believe me. What if they make me mutate right here? What if I can't control it and I hurt someone, she thought. Sure enough—
"I want to see you change into the bird thing." It was Beast Boy, of course. Raven shot him a look. A don't-you-have-any-sensitivity-at-all look.
"Is that really wise? Can you control it?" said Robin. Wren shook her head.
"Usually I can control myself. Except on the full moon, when my werewolf blood makes me go berserk. And when my negative emotions are really strong I can't help myself. Sometimes people get hurt."
"How can you be a Siren and a werewolf at the same time?" asked Cyborg.
"My mother was a Siren, Lecosia, and my father was a werewolf, Moires. Both of them are fairly famous if you study mythology at all. My father met my mother when he was on a sea voyage away from his homeland in Greece. Because he was a werewolf, he was thought of as criminal. They were taking him to prison. But the boat passed too closely to the Sirenum Scopull, the three islands where the Sirens live.
"Because he was a werewolf with better-than-human survival skills, he lived through the crash on the rocks and stumbled up the shore, where he met my mother and her sisters. Normally they would have killed him, but it was love at first sight. They were married, and later I came along.
"My parents hoped that I would only inherit their human traits, but it was not to be. And here I am, a monstrous abomination of nature…"
"You are not an abomination," said Starfire. Wren tried, and failed, to smile.
"Moires and Lecosia are legends from thousands of years ago. How can you only be seventeen?" asked Raven.
"Because Sirens are the daughters of the River God, Achelous, so they are immortal. And werewolves are immortal to an extent, they only die from injuries fatal to the brain or the heart. You can bet your left arm that my mother did everything in her power to keep him from being struck in his vulnerable spots. I really am only seventeen. My father died when I was twelve, and for the last five years I've been living on the Sirenum Scopull with my mother and my aunts. "
"Why did you leave? Weren't you happy with your family?" asked Robin.
"No." A tear slid down her cheek.
"I still want to see you transform," repeated Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy!" shouted Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Robin all at once. Wren actually giggled a little.
"Okay, but not all the way. It's too dangerous. Agreed?"
Five heads nodded.
"Okay. Are you ready?"
Five more nods.
"Alright." Wren stood up and walked to the center of the living room, a good six or seven feet from everyone else present. She took a deep breath, and let out a piercing, horrifying scream. Wings tore through the back of her shirt, feathers sprouted all over her arms and neck, and her hands became lethal talons. She had metamorphosed only the area between her neck and her waist, but it was still terrifying to behold. Starfire let out a shriek.
A breeze came out of nowhere and Wren's hair blew in the wind.
"Once you get over the fact that she's half bird, it's sort of beautiful, don't you think?" said Raven, who was completely unfazed by all of this. The other Titans stared at her.
"Really? You think so?" asked Wren, surprised at this cool reaction.
"Yeah, I do," replied Raven with a small smile.
"Okay, you can change back now, I'm a little freaked out by all of this, ya know?" said Cyborg. The smile that had been about to show up on Wren's face changed its mind and became two watery eyes. She morphed back into a normal girl immediately and quickly left the room.