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Chapter 7
Friday thankfully rolled around after a long and often dull week, as it meant they would finally have the tower to themselves again. Cyborg departed in the afternoon to see his father for a tune up, at his place just outside the city. Robin and Starfire left not long after when a large, bat shaped stealth jet landed on the roof, making Beast Boy geek out over the Dark Knight's gear, before they were left home alone.
He had to run a quick errand into the city, to pick something up that had been delivered, so he left her curled up on his bed awaiting his return with anticipation.
She got the uneasy feeling when she woke up, still along in his bed. Her concern grew when she reached out, realizing it's morning, finding his presence, but it felt like she was viewing him through thick fog, barely able to make him out.
Finding him nowhere close, she left the tower, heading out into the city in search of him, checking the communicator first. No alerts, no calls for help, nothing. It was like he had vanished while out on his errand.
The thoughts of what could have happened to him plagued her, his communicator wasn't giving off a signal so she would have to do it the old fashioned way.
She spent all of Saturday searching for him without success, only stopping to eat and when her powers began to give out; her energy spent. She woke up Sunday morning, from a nightmare filled sleep that mocked and taunted her, wolfing down a quick breakfast and making ready to head out again. She should call the titans, if he was in trouble…
She stopped herself, she wasn't sensing pain, he might have just got stuck in animal form again, if she could find him…
It was about an hour later when the crime alert came in.
Gorillas again, a small army of them this time, had begun attacking the city, starting at city hall where they had taken the major hostage. It was the description of the leader that concerned her, a green ape was directing them, but it was king kong sized. Beast Boy couldn't grow that large, he had to do exact copies unless he wanted to risk hurting himself, so what was going on?
As she flew over the hall, the reports were confirmed, a massive green ape stood on the steps of the hall and directed a couple of hundred normal sized ones to spread out and take the city.
It was when she tried reading the creatures mind she realised what was going on.
Why this is simply marvelous, the creature thought to itself, a little chemical tinkering and it has so much potential as my new general. As long as it doesn't get any funny ideas at least. Oh, is that one of its teammates?
It turned to regard Raven hovering at face height, which was still around 5 stories off the ground. It was the four red, glowing eyes that raised its hackles, a primitive part of the brain telling it to run, that something was wrong. Dismissing this, considering itself to be more than it's base urges, the creature smiled and reached out to crush her, even as it felt her mind grab its throat.
Not the creature's throat, but the one controlling it.
How is she doing this! The host roared mentally, the attack to repel the titan swatted aside as her eyes burned into it.
"You dare…" she growled, now inside the creatures mind, bearing down on the mind inside who had possessed it.
"YOU DARE" she roared, her demonic side on full display as Anger raged at what had been done.
"You will pay/you dare/rend/mine/ you will burn" echoed from dozens of mouths around the mindscape, sending the creature cowering in fear. Every attempt to attack, or flee, to do anything at all were swatted aside like it was trying to fight a storm of furious psychic energy. As he tried again to run, shadowy hands burst forth from the demons cloak, grabbing it and tearing its disguise off, revealing it as another gorilla, but this time with some sort of mind applifier atop its skull.
"I SEE YOU" the demon roared, around the gorillas body it could feel its machines shatter, shards impacting his flesh as the backlash from the assault destroyed his lair. He had more pressing matters to hand though, as the cloak now opened like a giant maw, the promise of pain and suffering filling the air as he was dragged towards it. The demon above him grinning.
"No, Rae…" a whisper, but one that was still somehow heard over the multitude of voices, pulling the demon up short in surprise. Turning around, she regarded the small mental form of Beast Boy, battered and bloodied, laid on the floor behind her. She expected fear from him, she was about to tear his attacker apart, but instead all she felt was deep concern. "You beat this, you can do it again…" he managed, before slumping, the toll of the last two days being too much.
The gorilla lay in her clutches, watching as his captor regarded its downed companion, praying to any god that was listening that she would heed that plea. It felt like an age had passed before she finally turned back, a towering figure of demonic fury barely restrained as she inspected her captive.
"If he hadn't intereferred, you would be dead" she eventually growled, the hands holding him tensed before splitting him from Beast Boy's mind, sending the gorilla slamming backwards out of the remains of his control throne when his mind re entered his body.
"If you come near us again, I will not be so kind, Grodd." came one last message before she cut the link, having pulled his name out of his mind. Gorilla Grodd looked around the burning remains of his base, the machines controlling the gorillas broken beyond repair, which would have knocked them out if they felt even a fraction of that backlash. He had rarely encountered a mind strong enough to equal him at telepathic battle, let alone one that had torn through his defenses like they were nothing.
"I think it would be wise to get off planet for a while," he muttered to himself, salvaging what little he could, before departing in haste. He didn't know what the hell just happened, but he knew what it felt like to be spared by an apex predator and he wanted to be as far away from that thing as possible.
Back in Beast Boy's mind, Raven was struggling to calm down. Fury had overtaken her with such force she had almost killed Grodd, if not for the unexpected intervention, she wasn't sure what she would have done.
"Come on BB" she muttered, forcing herself down to check on him, needing to get him to change back to normal. Finding him unresponsive, she dipped into Nevermore.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE LET US KILL HIM" screamed Anger, her red cape billowing in an unseen wind as the other emotions tried to hold her back. To her surprise, Happy, Passion and Courage were holding their own against Anger, the middle one in particular looking a lot stronger than normal.
"Enough!" she shouted, slamming her hands into the ground and forcing her Emotions into submission through pure force of will. "Beast Boy is hurt and I can't help him with you fighting between yourselves!"
"Grodd should die" Anger growled, cowered slightly but still standing firm.
"He wouldn't want us to do that, it would hurt him beyond belief" retorted Passion, Anger glowering at the interruption, but being linked to the rest knew it was true.
"We can sort this out later, right now I need your help" Raven told them, waiting until they were all in agreement before leaving Nevermore.
Back in his mind she frowned. Outside she could feel the gorillas had collapsed, but the one she was in currently was just stood there. Mentally or physically, something was hurt too badly to react.
"Work with me here" she sighed, taking the only course of action she could think and tapping into his mental form. Pushing through all the pain and confusion, she found the part of him that controlled his powers, finally forcing him to change back to normal, barely able to withstand the pain of whatever Grodd had done to him to change him so much.
Leaving his mind, she scooped up his unconscious body and flew back to the tower.
Cyborg had just got the all clear for his tune up and was backing his things up when he got the call from Raven.
"Get back here, Beast Boy's injured and there's too much for me to heal alone!" was the snapped message he got, not even able to say hello and jumping straight in the car; his body moving before his mind caught up.
When he got back to the tower, he raced to the infirmary, finding his best friend laid out on the bed, covered in cuts and bruises. Raven was knelt next to him, both hands pressed on his body and her healing aura glowering, but faded compared to normal. He only needed one look at her gaunt, sweat covered face to know how bad it was, so got straight to work.
They worked through the night, until Raven passed out, her energy completely spent and Cyborg deposited her in the bed next to Beast Boy. When Robin and Starfire returned the following day, they were shocked to find both of their teammates in comas. Raven was physically fine but over exerted herself, Beast Boy on the other hand was still healing physically, but mentally was showing cracks; his brain scans were all over the place.
"Come on guys" Cyborg whispered as he ran over their charts again. He was not going to lose his best friend and unofficial sister at the same time if he could help it.
"What is this place?" the changeling wondered out loud, staring around at a broken forest. He could have sworn he heard something in the distance, but it was too far away for him to make out.
"Why it's my home" growled a voice from behind him, a monstrous green werewolf-like creature stepping out of the woods. Memories of past encounters flooded the titans mind as he fled into the woods.
It felt like it carried on for days, weeks, every time he would collapse of exhaustion, the Beast was there, haunting him, tormenting him. Let me out, it whispered, seeking to gain control, for good this time.
The monitoring equipment hooked up to Beast Boy spiked, sending Cyborg running over in concern to check.
"What the hell is happening to him?" he wondered, not noticing the faint ripples on his friends skin.
"I wouldn't have fallen for that ambush" the Beast shouted at him, smashing its way through the trees. "You're too weak to use your powers boy, why not let me take charge and I will show you what we can really do!"
"No, you're just all the bad parts of me, you would hurt everyone" Beast Boy shouted back, trying to find some way to escape.
"I am you!" it howled in fury, right before it recoiled from a beam of light that lanced out of the sky and illuminated them both.
"You will only ever be a part of him, he will always be more than you can ever be" came the monotone voice he so knew and loved. "After everything we have been through, if you think he will fall so easily then you don't know him at all. If needed, I will stand in your way, our teammates will stand in your way, you will always fail!" The last part been accompanied by a howling gale of thought.
"You heard the lady" Beast Boy grinned, turning to face the Beast, "time for you to go now, I can't be disappointing a lady now, can I?"
"I will be back, you will never be rid of me!" the Beast growled in frustration as it was forced back down, howling once more in outrage as its cage door was slammed shut on it again.
"Thanks Rae, I'll see you soon" he whispered to the sky as he felt her fade away, the effort of breaking through the Beast's control taxing her after the healing.