Chapter 6 (Redux)

Raven felt the whole stop, albeit figuratively, as she tried to process this brand new terrifying information, icy thorns now prickling the back of her neck.

"Your heart...?" As she tried to speak, her jaw was almost welded in place while her lips dried and hardened, restricting its movements. "I... don't understand."

"Cyborg compares it to cardiomegaly." Beast Boy explained as soberly as he could while casting his eyes down momentarily. "It's severe."

The empath scrambled for words, her emotions threatening to bust open her skull. "A—Aren't there ways to treat it?" She demanded, a visible quiver breaching her voice.

"I'm on some meds." He answered, and took out a carton of ACE pills from his pocket to show her. "I've taken extra care not to take them while you or Starfire were around."

"Why?" Her tone raising, Raven forced the changeling to look back at her. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

"I was going to!" He yelled without meaning to. Realizing this, he allowed himself a deep breath before continuing. "I just didn't wanna freak you guys out."

"That doesn't make alot of sense."

"I know that!" Groaning, Beast Boy hid his head between his hands, clutching his hair. "I've been trying to make fucking sense of this myself!"

Straight away, he shot up off the sand, grabbed his shoes and started his march off the beach in the direction they came from. Raven, shocked by his rare profanity, chased him down shortly, still craving for proper answers.

"Can you just stop for a minute?" She demanded. Surely enough, he stopped to let her swerve in front of him. "You need to talk to me!"

Beast Boy flailed his hands, his mouth hanging loose while words eluded him for a bit. As the empath watched him like this, she couldn't help but note how the moonlight on one side of his face contrasted against the shadow on the other.

Quickly regaining some composure, he stood firmly. "Both Robin and Cyborg and doing everything they can to find a solution." He pointed out. "I'm the one who made them swear not to say anything until I was ready."

"Have they found anything?"

"Nothing, so far." He shook, a dark frown lining his features.

"What about surgery?"

"That won't help, either."

"Why not??"

Sensing Raven's throbbing distress, Beast Boy took hold of her shoulders and leaned closer to speak softer. "Even if I could find a donor... my DNA is far too unstable to accept any other organs."

All at once, the empath felt the ground shrink beneath her feet, everything else shattering around her, her own heart pierced by a red-hot knife.

"In truth... this was a long time coming." His eyes began to glisten. "Ever since I transformed into that beast the second time, back when we were all fighting hell to keep you safe from Trigon, I began to feel these chest pains, but they weren't really serious then."

"That explains why I've seen you touching your chest more often." Raven stated, a ounce of sensibility returning. "I thought it was just one of your new habits."

"Yeah..." Beast Boy trailed off, facing the sea again. "Besides, I would never under any circumstance ask anyone to give up her life for me."

Raven raised an eyebrow at his peculiar choice of pronoun. "Her life?"

"His or hers, I mean!" He blurted in haste to correct himself. "On the other hand... I would gladly do vice versa if I could, especially for my family."

"Don't say that, Beast Boy!"

The fire brewing within her being finally erupted. All at once, swirls of her... dark energy... kicked up the sand around them and dimmed the night sky even further than either thought was possible. Her cape rippled wide open, creating the shape of wings, her violet hair thrashing upwards like wild serpents on Medusa's head.

"Raven!" Beast Boy cried as soon as he caught on with what was happening.

When her feet started floating off the ground, he clung to the girl tightly in hopes of anchoring her.

"You have to stop!" He tried yelling, though he could barepy hear his own voice over the immense force. "Please, it's okay!"

"No... it's not." He could hear her muttering. "It's my fault..."

"No it isn't!" He brought himself closer so that their noses and mouths were almost touching. "It's not your fault!"

"It's my fault..."

"It's not!"

"It's my fault."

"No!"

"It's my fault!"

"STOP IT!" He was almost screaming through his parched throat now, desperate to get through to her.

If this continued any longer, her powers could wipe out the whole city.

Suddenly, he embraced her tighter, bringing his lips close enough to her ear. "I'm sorry, Raven." He whispered. "Please... I'm right here."

"Beast Boy..." Huffed the wild empath; it was working.

"I'm still here." He went on, placing a hand on her tear-lined cheek. "I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

The brewing eventually settled, and he felt both their knees planting back down on the beach again. Grounded once more, he still held onto her until everything normalized completely.

"I'm sorry." She choked out, ripping herself away to hide her face in shame. "I—I don't know... w—why I lost control. It shouldn't have h—happened."

"It's okay, Raven." She was pulled back into another embrace. "It's no one's fault."

"What are we going to do?"

"We fight, no matter the odds." He declared. "We're Titans, after all."

(SCENE BREAK)

Back in the tower, Starfire was present in the common room with Robin and Cyborg, whom were busy studying the berserker on their big screen, scratching their heads to try and figure out its origins.

"Why must we trouble ourselves with this monster again?" Asked the tamaranian, genuinely curious. "We stopped it, did we not?"

"Technically, it was Beast Boy." Cyborg interjected, shuddering at the mental image of its remains that were discovered later on.

"We need to find out who was behind this attack." Robin informed straightforwardly. "This monster didn't just come from anywhere."

"How can you be sure, Robin?"

"Because my gut tells me so."

Starfire looked to her biggest teammate in confusion, only to recieve a shrug.

That was when the door behind them parted to reveal Beast Boy and Raven entering to join them.

"Friends!" Delighted to see them again, Starfire whooshed over without a second thought to swoop the returning couple in a bone-crushing hug. "I am more than elated to hear how your date blossomed!"

"T—Thanks, Star..." Beast Boy wheezed.

"Let... go... NOW!!" Growled Raven, fighting to free herself from her grasp.

Startled by the empath's burst of anger, the red-haired alien released them immediately and backed off nervously.

"I am sorry!"

"Sorry!?" She was hit with a haggard glare. "You could have killed him!"

"K—Killed him...?" Starfire's handa flew up to her chest, her feelings hurt. "H—How could I?"

The two oldest guys of the team shut off their screen to join the commotion.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked alarmingly.

"Yeah, what are you yelling at Star for?" Added Cyborg.

Raven shifted her glare to the two and cooled down, replacing it with a melancholic glimmer — with this short exchange, they realized understood right away and averted their gaze.

"Don't worry, Star!" Beast Boy made haste to assure the sensitive girl. "My bones have extra calcium in them, so they won't break so easily as she thinks."

No one shared his high-pitched cackle, his poor attempt to lighten the mood, as the awkward vibes loomed ever more presently.

Clearing his throat, he decided to stall things no further and turned to the tamaranian princess, his throat hardening with dread.

"There's something you have to know." He broke the silence, his voice deepening. "Could you guys leave us alone, please?"

Nodding respectfully, Robin led the others out of the area room while Beast Boy took Starfire to sit on their sofa where he held her hands to break the news.

There wasn't another sound in the room that could be heard, other than the details he shared, followed by frigid gasps and muffled sobs from his friend.

"I'm sorry." The changeling apologized meekly.

It broke his already wounded heart to see Starfire, one of the most spirited people he ever knew, reduced to a tearing bloodshot mess because of him.

Ultimately, this strong woman flung her arms around her green friend, gentler this time, and crumbled. Beast Boy didn't mind at all, for this showed how much he meant to her; to him, she was like a big sister.

"Your friends are here for you." She croaked. "We will fight for you in any way we can."

A warm smile stretched across his face.

(SCENE BREAK)

Unable to sleep nor meditate, no matter how hard she tried to clear her head, Raven dragged herself to her dressing table where she picked up a special handheld mirror. Bringing it close, she noticed dark rings under her eyes that were signs of either stress or fatigue.

The aching sorceress wasn't going to wait until tomorrow to scrape the bottom of the barrel — or in this case, the abyss of her own mind — she wanted to find answers now.

And so, she transported herself through this mystical wormhole into Nevermore, the home of all her personified emotions.

Here in the astral domain, Raven promptly discovered how devastated the place had become in her absence with its rocky formations blown out of proportion, their large chunks strewn all over the terrain like a war-torn country.

"Looking for me?"

She spun around to find a bespectacled version of herself standing in a yellow cloak with her arms folded, her inquisitive countenance glinting through the darkness of her hood.

"Knowledge?" Raven approached her other self with caution.

"Yes." She answered frankly while adjusting her glasses. "Did you really need to clarify?"

"What happened here?"

"You should have already worked that out for yourself." Sighing briskly, the emotion nonetheless decided to stream the information. "Ever since you found out about Beast Boy's condition, Fear and Rage have been running amock like an unstoppable hurricane, leaving destruction in their wake, as you can see."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Confront them."

"No!" Raven shook, boring her fingers into her temples. "Not that!"

"I'm sorry." Knowledge interjected, deducing her real question. "I can't provide you with answers on how to fix his condition. All I can do is store information that you have collected over the course of your life."

"There has to be something." Issued Raven. "It's my fault that he's like this."

"Why? Because he allowed the beast to take form when he saw that other monster pinning you down?"

"Because I didn't fight harder!" She wailed, and then panted for a bit. "I have to save him..."

Right then, she heard a cry, accompanied by rushing footsteps, and turned yet again to see another one of her emotions barrelling towards her; it was Timid, shrivelled in her grey cloak.

The frightened clone fell against her originator and bawled into her shoulder, messing it with her tears and snot.

"B—Beast B—B—Boy is g—going to... d—die!" She hiccuped. "I... d—don't... want that t—to... h—happen!"

At first, Raven went rigid, not used to being a source for comfort, and looked back to Knowledge to find that she was no longer there. After about a minute, she took a queue from Beast Boy and hugged her cowering self, stroking her back and hair.

"I won't let that happen." She stated quietly. "I'll find a way to save him."

"You p—promise?"

"I promise."

(SCENE BREAK)

Far elsewhere, a figure clad in black armor watched a bundle of screens, his hands tied behind his hand as they displayed drone footages of that gruelling battle of the beasts; he observed it over and over like a calculating chess player.

"Impressive." He said no one in particular, his calm yet venomous voice thrumming through the confines of his dark lair. "Who would have thought that the class clown had it in him?"

Turning his back, a diabolical idea blossomed in his head like a butterfly sprouting its wings for the first time. Beneath the bronze mask veiling his face yet exposing only one of his vigilant eyes, he couldn't help but smirk.

"This is perfect."

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Author's Note: You all deserve an explanation if you hadn't already received it. I had a horrific case of writer's block, as well as life in general getting in the way. I posted a previous version of this chapter before, but shortly deleted it. The reason is that I was forcing myself to reach two-thousand words when not much progress in the plot had been made. I had to step back for awhile and re-evalutate until I finally I got my mojo back.

daniele583: Yes, his heart is at high risk of either failing or exploding.

Guest Reviewer: Which part are you saying that I was going overboard with? There's a typo in your feedback that's confused me. I'm just curious.

This will NOT happen again, I promise you. At the same time, I won't be updating as regularly as I used to, but if you stick around, your patience will be rewarded. If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review or question and I will respomd to them in the next entry. Thanks!