Hello all Solo Gamer here with the next chapter of The Beast Inside! Hope you enjoy! People seem to like this story so it shall continue! We left off with the defeat of Trigon and Logan's return to Jump City. What is waiting for the green teen when he awakens from unconsciousness? Read on to find out!

The first thing that the changeling noticed was the steady beeping of a heart monitor. As his thoughts slowly collected and he became truly aware of the world around him he realized something else.

He had no idea where he was, or how he got there.

The changeling shot up, trying to hurry and find out where he was and if need be figure out the quickest way to escape. His momentum was impeded when he tried to get out of the bed and he felt the cold tug of handcuffs bite into his wrists. Panic blossomed in his chest as he struggled against the cuffs, they must have been designed to stand up against super strength because they didn't even budge. The heart monitor next to his bed was beeping faster and faster as the panic grew. He had to get out! He couldn't take getting captured anymore! Just as he was about to reach into a core and summon his powers, a door he didn't know was in front of him swished open and four figures walked in.

A low growl erupted from his throat stopping the four figures from advancing. He didn't want them to see it, but he was afraid. The instincts of over a thousand prey animals all trained to flee this situation were clashing with over a thousand more predators that called for blood in an attempt to overwhelm him. It was only the years of practice that enabled him to force him those instincts down and keep himself contained to a mild panic.

When the titans entered the room of the medical bay they didn't expect the growl and it stopped them in their tracks. They looked at the figure cuffed down to the bed and couldn't help but wonder what happened to their friend, if that was him at all. The figure had the green skin, hair, and eyes that their friend had, but that's where the similarities ended. The figure was a lot taller than the Beast Boy they remembered, standing at a nice six foot two which was only an inch shorter than Robin. He was well toned, muscled but not overly so and cover in scars on his arms and chest that were currently hidden by bandages. His hair was spiked backwards, spilling all the way to just above the middle of his back (Think of Axel's hair from Kingdom Hearts), and the only article of clothing he was wearing at the moment was a pair of black cargo pants. Raven, deciding to break the silence that permeated the room, stepped forward and spoke.

"B-Beast Boy? Is that you?"'

He flinched at the sound of his old name as the figures came into focus as the panic receded and he was greeted with the sight of four familiar yet different people. The one on the far left was the biggest, a large half robot African American teen, and to the right of him was a boy Logan would describe as a walking traffic light with a domino mask. An orange girl who was almost as tall as the robot guy was next in line, while her skin coloration would shock others, seeing as he was green he had no room to judge. Last in line was a girl covered in a blue cloak, the one who had spoken to him. The hood was down, and long purple hair framed her pale grey face. Recognition sparked in his eyes as he gazed at the four people, and then he snapped them shut as pain flared in his head and memories assaulted him.

Waking up to hell on earth.

Deciding to come out of seclusion and coming to Jump City.

Helping his friends defeat Trigon.

His friends….

A cooling sensation surrounded his head, and the pain slowly lessened until it was nonexistent. He cracked his eyes open and shot back into the headboard, shock covering his face. His spiked hair had fallen into his face, and due to his hands being cuffed down he couldn't wipe it out from in front of his eyes.

"Beast Boy?" Raven asked again and she the slight flinch he gave when he heard his name before he returned to trying to blow the hair from his face.

She sighed as she walked forward and swiped it for him. He looked up at her and stared for a moment before he did something he hadn't done in years,

"Hey Rae….," he whispered, his voice raspy and quiet from the years of minimal use.

Ravens eyes widened in shock as tears began to pool in the amethyst orbs, her hands shakily rose and covered her gaping mouth. Logan turned and looked at the rest of his old team and offered a small smile.

"Hey guys….how's it going?" he asked, his voice slightly clearer but still quiet.

Starfire was the first to react from the three as she flew forward, almost warping across the room, and crashing into the changeling, giving him a bone-crushing hug as tears fell from her eyes.

"Friend Beast Boy you have returned!" she exclaimed in pure joy, before she retreated back suddenly, her emotions doing a complete one-eighty, "But…why did you leave? Why do you have so many scars?"

Logan looked down in sad remembrance as the memories of that day washed over him. He looked up into the face of the titans and saw the anger they all held, as well as the sadness, suspicion, and curiosity. He sighed lightly. He did owe them an explanation after all these years.

"You mind removing these cuffs?" he asked his voice clearer and louder, "I'll tell you guys about where I've been in the commons room if you don't mind, my instincts are making it hard to stay calm cuffed down in a place like this."

Robin stared at him with unrestrained suspicion. He didn't trust the changeling, and Logan knew he didn't deserve their trust. Robin opened his mouth to answer, but Raven beat him to it as dark energy covered the cuffs and they broke, freeing him. Instantly the instincts he had been forcing down lessened to the normal hum he was used to, and he stood up and stretched, popping his back as a relieved sigh worked its way out of his mouth.

"Oh yeah, one more thing for future reference," he said as he looked at them, his gaze steely but sad, "Don't call me Beast Boy, It's Logan now."

He walked out of the door, his friends in the lead as they took the familiar rout down to the room he remembered spending a countless amount of time with his friends in. They reached the door and it swished open, revealing the commons room. Logan smiled, it hadn't changed a bit. He walked down and stood in front of the large television mounted on the wall while the titans filled in on the couch awaiting Logan's answer. He looked on in silence for a moment, feeling the tension in the air, before he began what he knew was going to be a painful conversation.

"You guys wanted to know where I've been right?" he said as he began his tale at the least emotionally damaging part, " Well after I left, for the first couple of months I just wandered, making sure to stay away from people as I did so I wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Why would you hurt someone friend Be…Logan?" asked Starfire.

A sad smile crept upon the changelings face as he replied,

"Because Star. I'm dangerous. It took me till a few weeks ago until I felt I was safe enough to be amongst the populous again, and even then I didn't go because I was worried I would relapse and…"

It was Robin that spoke this time.

"What makes you so 'dangerous' that you had to leave the team? That you had to leave civilization for three years?"

"I couldn't control myself at the time."

A puzzled look crossed over everyone's face when they heard the changeling's explanation.

"What do you mean you couldn't control yourself?" asked Raven, a slight edge in her voice hinting at the anger she truly felt, "What do you have to control that makes you a danger to others?"

"My instincts."

"What's that supposed to mean BB?" asked Cyborg as he looked at his former best friend.

Logan flinched and then growled at the half metal teen before replying,

"I told you, call me Logan," he growled out, shocking the group, "I haven't been Beast Boy for a while now."

A silence filled the room as the changeling calmed himself down before he continued his explanation.

"How do you think my powers work?" he asked the group.

They remained quiet as they pondered the question. Truth be told, none of them really knew anything about their green friend, where he was from, who his parents were, how his powers worked, what his life was like growing up. It saddened them a bit as they realized they didn't know their friend like they thought they did.

Taking the silence as his answers he began to explain.

"My DNA holds the genetic coding for every animal on the planet, some mythological creatures, demons, and even some animals not of this world," He explained, "Catching their attention, "How I transform, or at least how I used to, was I had to focus completely on the animal I wanted to come. I had to visualize it inside and out. One wrong thing and not only would the transformation fail, I could very well kill myself in the process."

Shock and horror crossed the teams face as they digested this information, and before any of them could get a word in he continued.

"Now, my powers are not magic based. I didn't just pop into another form, no it doesn't work like that. My body altered itself at the molecular level in a matter of seconds. Muscles stretching, bones breaking and forming into new shapes, blood changing, organs shifting, all in the blink of an eye….if it lasted any longer than it did, I probably would've passed out from the pain each time I shifted."

"Wait," Robin uttered, growing pale as he processed the information he was hearing, "You're telling me that your body broke itself down and then reassembled every time you shifted?"

Logan nodded his head in confirmation. Tears welled in Starfire's eyes as Cyborg's mouth hung open in shock. Raven had retreated into her hood, but the quivering of her shoulder showed she wasn't ok.

"That's only the physical side of the transformation though," continued the changeling, "Remember how I said my body contains the genetic coding for all those animals allowing me to transform into them at will? Well there is a side effect. All their instincts, whether they're predator, prey, mammal, amphibian, it doesn't matter honestly, are constantly bombarding my head in an attempt to take over as the alpha of my body. If I were to give in, they would take over and I would be lost in a sea of animal instinct."

The group paled even further. Not only did his powers suck physically, he literally had to battle the instincts of over a hundred thousand animals daily, and not once had he complained about it.

"Oh god," whispered Cyborg, "I'm sorry man."

"Meh…don't worry about it. I'm used to it. Anyways I was fine up until a certain incident."

"You mean…" began Raven before Robin finished her sentence, "The Beast Incident?"

Logan chuckled and scratched the back of his head,

"Yeah that. The chemicals that spilled on me that night amplified not just the instincts of the animals inside of me, but my own instincts as well giving birth to the Beast."

"But, I cured you when I gave you the serum!" shouted Cyborg.

"No, you only erased its physical form, the mental effects from the chemical couldn't be reversed."

"What do you mean friend?" asked a sad Starfire.

"The Beast was a conglomeration of all my negative emotions and primal instincts. Now, if I could've dealt with them separately I would've been fine, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. The combination of the Beast and all those instincts stuck inside me began to wear on me. I began to hear the whisperings of my darker side, begging me to spread death and destruction. It became harder and harder everyday to control myself."

Raven didn't realize it, but tears were falling from her face as she heard her green friend speak. He went through something similar to her with her darker side being influenced by Trigon. She was able to beat her dark side, which was why she could feel freely now, but it didn't sound like this story was going to end happily.

"I fought for months, hoping desperately that I would be able to beat it. That I could control myself, but it wore me down. I could feel insanity grabbing a hold in my mind, and then it happened…the day I left….I came close to killing Raven."

The group remembered that day. They had noticed that he had been acting strange for a while, and they wanted to help him. Raven had approached them in hopes that he would open up, but he attacked, tackling her to the ground with an insane grin on his face. He loomed above her for a few seconds, leaning lower and lower to her exposed neck before a glint of sanity reached his eyes and he realized what he was doing. He fled to his room and never came out, until yesterday that was the last they saw of the green teen.

"I knew I couldn't stay, not knowing that I could snap at any moment and kill you guys. I realized that night that I wouldn't be alright for a long time, that at the moment I was nothing more than a monster. So I left and never returned, until now that is."

"We would've helped…" whispered Raven.

"Wasn't an option. I wasn't going to risk yours or any one else's life."

Silence reigned in the room as the group finally got an answer to the question they had been asking themselves for a long time. Why? Why had their friend left them? After what felt like hours pass, Starfire broke the silence, a question nagging her ever since she first saw the changeling.

"Are you…going to stay friend Logan? Or do you have to…."

Logan, for the first time in a while, gave a wide smile that reminded them of the young Beast Boy they once knew. He walked up to the sad looking Tameranean and before she could ask what he was going to do, pulled her up into a hug. Unnoticed to him was the slightly jealous glare sent their way by Raven.

"Of course I'm staying," he replied, smiles appearing on the faces of his friends, "I'm ok now."

Liar.

"So I'll be fine. I just have to get used to being around people again. Years by yourself in the woods does that to you, so yeah I'm here to stay….at least if you guys want me to. I totally understand if you guys hate me for leaving and all…."

Logan's rambling was silenced as he was engulfed in a large group hug.

"We don't hate you green bean!" shouted Cyborg as he rubbed Logan's head.

"Yeah, we were just worried because you left so suddenly and without explanation," explained Robin.

"You'll always be our friend so of course you can stay, but if you ever do something like that again with no explanation I'll send you into a dimension of ice and death," said Raven getting a shiver out of the changeling.

"Oh this is most joyous! We must do the catching up! And go to the mall of shopping! Ohhh this is so exciting! I must sing the Tameranean folk song of joy and make the pudding of Happiness!"

Before Starfire could begin her song, the room flashed red and an alarm blare through the room.

"Titans trouble!" shouted Robin before running out the door followed by all but Logan.

Raven stopped at the door, being last of the four, and turned back towards Logan.

"So are you coming or what?"

"Oh, well…" muttered the changeling, "I don't know if you guys would want to come with you. You know I haven't been here in a while and I might mess up the dynamic…."

"If you don't get over here and come with me," she said as a smirk found its way on her face, "I'll come over there and make you."

A matching smirk spread across Logan's face as he ran over to the door, following Raven out. After years of separation, the Teen Titans were whole once more.

And Scene! That's it for chapter three comrades! Logan has been accepted back by his friends after they heard his reasoning for leaving, but has he told them everything? Is everything really going to be ok now? Come back soon for the next chapter of The Beast Inside to find out! Be sure to check out my other fanfic Hydromancer while you're at it!

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