Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, the Joker, Batman, or any DC characters. I wish I did though.

Thanks to all my newest reviewers and people that have favorited my story. You guys are awesome.

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS

Bruce Wayne turned from the screen and pinched the bridge of his nose. Still dressed in his Batman armor, he knew that even if he had chosen to conceal his identity from the Titans, the pieces would fall together eventually. He might as well lay them out now.

"Alfred," he intoned. "Ready the guest rooms for four teenagers. Have the staff prepare a nice dinner. We're having guests."

Gar felt more than saw another presence inside his mindscape. A dull roar filled his ears, and soon it faded; giving way to a cold, ruthless voice.

"Beast Boy. Titan.

Garfield Logan. Renegade." The voice echoing through his mind gave a mirthless chuckle.

"Just a short time away from them and you have already endangered our existence. How on Earth did you manage all these years?"

"Who are you?" Gar demanded, turning round to see if he could spot the other occupant. "Show yourself!"

"Show myself? Hahahaha... You know already who I am. I, who have been present throughout all of your ventures."

Gar's face registered confusion and surprise, realizing at once that something had happened to him.

"Who are you? What are you?"

His words rang hollow as another laugh shattered the bleak silence. A figure washed into view, the facial features concealed by darkness. The head raised to reveal a pair of cat-like emerald eyes and a sneering face, razor sharp fangs protruding from a partially-opened mouth. Gar recognized immediately the green skin and dark green hair that went down to the shoulders, hanging like a ragged veil.

"*O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!"

The ride to Wayne Manor was an uneventful one. The remaining members of the team had sat in total silence, never breaking the silence save for one incident in which the Azarathian empath suddenly spoke.

"Batman... Batman is Bruce Wayne."

The team's leader Robin nodded gravely, staring at the darkened buildings whooshing past through the passenger window of the T-Car.

"Yes. Wayne had the assets, and the clues were everywhere. I never understood how Gotham didn't guess it."

Raven gave a slight nod, signaling her comprehension and the end of the conversation. The other members of the team couldn't care less who Batman's alter-ago happened to be. They cared about their teammate and his well-being and nothing else mattered now.

After an eternity in awkward silence, Cyborg finally pulled into a driveway blocked by tall, imposing gates marked with a giant "W". The oldest Titan looked for an intercom system, but before he found it, the gates opened of their own accord. Cyborg just shrugged and drove inside as the entrance shut behind them. Robin, who had been Batman's apprentice for years, was not shocked to find that the manor was in disrepair. It was probably another attack from one of the numerous Rogues in the Dark Knight's enemies list.

The car pulled to a stop and they piled out, making their way to the giant double-doors on Wayne manor's front steps. Cyborg managed to knock twice before the door opened. Standing in the entrance was an aged gentleman, whom the team presumed to be- and Robin knew to be- Wayne's butler.

"Good evening, young masters," he said in a slight English accent. "Please, do come in. Master Wayne shall be with you shortly."

"Thank you, Albert," Robin said automatically before brushing past the manservant. "Come on, Titans."

The group stayed together and followed the Boy-Wonder into the large foyer, where footsteps sounded through the empty halls, echoing across the tiled floors and bouncing off of the vast walls.

"Nice place you got here," Cyborg said to no one in particular.

"Thank you, Mister Stone," a refined voice replied. The team turned their eyes to the stairwell, where a man in a black suit descended down the steps, holding his body straight and his piercing gaze on the teenagers before him.

"Wayne," Robin said flatly. "We're here to see Beast Boy."

"I know, Richard. But..."

"No buts!" Starfire demanded. "You will take us to our friend now!"

Wayne looked surprised, to say the least. He was impressed with the concern the Titans had for Beast Boy. That could only mean one thing: The Titans had not removed him from their ranks.

"Very well. Follow me, please."

The entrepreneur walked straight through the group as they parted to let him pass. Robin looked irritated but followed immediately. Cyborg simply shrugged and went after his leader with the others following behind him. The Titans, in exception of Robin, were beginning to get tired of walking through the vast halls of the manor when suddenly Wayne's voice shook them out of their daze.

"Here," he said motioning to the vault-like door protected by an advanced security system. "Logan is in here."

"You mean Beast Boy." Starfire added as though she were insulted; her arms stiff by her side.

"Yes, of course..." Wayne said to ease the girl's temper. Placing his hand on a gel plate and placing his eye in front of the retina scanner, the system bleeped once after a moment or two and Wayne stood aside, hands clasped behind his back with a grave look on his face. The team went in front of him, entering the room with obvious impatience. Robin had stopped, as had the others beside him; their eyes wide. Robin's mouth turned into a thin line, his eyes narrowing. It took all of them a few minutes before any could speak. It was Batman's apprentice that regained his composure first.

"You said it was Joker venom," Robin said gravely, looking at his former teammate. "Do you think he might have…"

Wayne gave a tired sigh. "I don't know, Richard. There's no telling what effects it could have on his mind. He might wake up just fine. He might not wake up at all." At this, the detective's face fell. "Or worse."

"What do you mean, 'Worse'?" Raven asked, stepping forward to the glass as she placed a hand on the cold surface.

"Joker venom is a very complicated poison. It over-stimulates the part of the brain that controls the function of laughter, causing the victim to laugh uncontrollably until they effectively die from lack of oxygen. However," he said as he motioned to the suspended shapeshifter, "it seems that your friend here has a form of the cure in his genetic code. Likely because of his polymorphism. At first, he was privy to the normal effects, but the laughter soon stopped and he entered into a catatonic state. He won't die, that much I can tell." At this point, Wayne gestured to a giant computer screen directly over the tank; the team recognized the reading to be scans of Garfield's mental state. A single line moved in a regular pattern across the screen.

"Right now there is a degradable chemical inside his cerebrum, sending me the most accurate readouts possible. See that? That's a reading of his current mental activity and stability. Right now he's perfectly stable, save for the coma." He added with a grim expression. "But… I don't know what his mind will be like if he ever wakes up. He could be a danger to himself. Or others."

"So, you're saying Beast Boy might not ever be… Beast Boy, again?" Cyborg said disbelievingly.

"I'm afraid so. But I'm working on trying to wake him out of his coma, so right now that's all I'm worried about." Wayne replied, once again finding himself staring at the unconscious teenager.

"Thank you, Mr. Wayne," Starfire said quietly, clasping her hands in front of her as she looked down at the tile beneath her feet.

"It's fine, but I have something I'd like to ask you all."

The group turned their eyes to him as they awaited his question.

"Why is he in Gotham?" he asked suspiciously. "Isn't he supposed to be in Jump with you?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire's eyes all shot directly to Robin, who remained stoic as ever.

"Robin decommissioned him without our knowledge. B left the Tower before we got a chance to see him." Cyborg explained, his human eye glaring at his leader. "Right now, we're hopin' to have him recover so we can explain everything and reinstate him."

"Ah," Wayne interjected. "Well, then. It seems my protégé is as hasty as he was years ago."

Robin's face twisted into a snarl as his temper rose.

"It was you who…"

Before the Boy Wonder could finish, however, the life support monitors began to beep noisily as Garfield's heart rate rose dramatically. The shapeshifter began to twist and thrash about in the cylinder, swishing the water so fast that it started to froth. Raven backed away and Starfire's eyes widened in shock. Wayne rushed over to the computer monitors and read for a split second before typing in a quick command, releasing the hoses from the green boy before he strangled himself.

"He's waking up! Mental activity is off the charts!"

Garfield's wild movements increased in their fervor as his bones began to shift. It looked like he might morph, his shoulder blades moving visibly beneath his skin as his vertebrae elongated and Garfield grew in size as his other appendages made the same adjustments in proportion to everything else. After a heart-stopping minute of morphing, the shapeshifter finally stopped moving, his chest rising and falling at regular intervals, and the group released their tension. The room once again settled into silence as Wayne ran more diagnostics.

"He's awake, now." Wayne pointed to the screen above the tank as the line began to even out into a straight line with a few rises every once in a while.

"What… what the hell was that?" Robin asked in a tone unfamiliar to the rest assembled.

"Garfield's physical structure just changed. His measurements are different. He's increased in weight by thirty pounds, and it seems his height changed, as well. Seems like it was a subconscious transformation. He probably did it on reflex."

"Reflex?" asked Cyborg. "Then that means it responded to something. What was the trigger?"

Wayne perused the readings as he formulated a hypothesis for Garfield's sudden shift. He looked up and noticed that the line on the screen was beginning to jump again.

"Look."

The Titans turned the sight to the screen again and watched as the line started to erratically fluctuate before finally splitting in two.

"What the…" Cyborg mused.

Cyborg never finished his sentence, for at that moment, the ex-Titan's eyes shot open, scanning over the inhabitants of the room and looking at the tank in which he floated. His right arm reared back before increasing in size and muscle mass and crashing into the glass, forming a large crack in the center of impact. The green teen's eyes squinted as the arm reared back again and slamming with devastating force into the plexiglass pane. The crack widened as fluids began to seep out of the crevice.

"What's he doing?" Wayne pondered aloud as klaxons blared in the laboratory.

The former hero suddenly let out a beastly roar of hatred and gave one final strike against the glass separating him from freedom before it eventually gave in, exploding outwards from the pressure and from the monstrous punch. The green boy landed on his feet and looked around with dark eyes, his arms going from large and muscular to slim with claws. He lunged forward suddenly, swiping at Robin's head but missing as the Boy Wonder ducked, barely avoiding the claws as they made contact with the steel walls behind him, grating deep into the metal and emitting a terrible screech. Garfield turned around, his eyes darting from person to person before crouching as though he were about to pounce.

"Raven! What's wrong with him?" Robin demanded in his leader voice.

The empath cringed as she raised her hand to the changeling, shrinking away from the spiritual contact.

"He's… he's actually resisting me! His emotions are gone, I can't read him!"

"Do something, Raven! We can't risk putting him back into the coma!"

"I can't!" she repeated. "There's nothing for me to control! His mind is blank! It's like it isn't even him anymore!"

"Looks like we have no choice, then." Robin whispered. "TITANS! SUBDUE BEAST BOY! GO!"

Cyborg trained his sonic cannon on Garfield, maintaining a steady arm to blast his friend should he need to.

"Don't make me do this, B! You gotta stop, man!"

The feral Logan stopped growling and turned his head in Cyborg's direction, giving an eerie grin and chuckling.

"Not Beast Boy… Break. Cyborg."

The man-machine's eyes widened, preparing to fire just as his target leapt into the air, claws flashing in the dim light while the Titan unleashed his sonic blast, hitting his friend in the middle of his jump. The force of the impact threw Garfield across the room where he crashed into the wall, denting in the steel and buckling under the stress. A bird-a-rang struck close to Garfield's ear, implanting itself next to his head. The changeling growled and pried himself free of the crater, leaping into the fray as a black energy surrounded him like a cocoon, enveloping his arms to keep him steady. Robin appeared in front of him as quick as a flash, brandishing a syringe filled with a tranquilizer. Garfield's legs lashed out, smashing into Robin's chest as a loud snap reverberated throughout the small room. The black energy surrounding him suddenly released him as a starbolt crashed into him, exploding on contact and blinding him from the flash. A slight hum, a pause, and then a loud decompression of air as Cyborg fired another sonic blast. Garfield crossed his arms to protect himself, and the blue energy collided with him with the force of a freight train. Once again, he found himself lying on the ground as footsteps alerted him to someone's approach. He quickly bounded to his feet, and jumped as fast as he could to the source of the noise; his shoulder crashed into Cyborg's chest and dented the center plate as sparks emitted from the electronics underneath. The large Titan grunted, backpedaling from the blow and charging up his cannon once more.

A shadow fell across the floor, and a large black shape blotted out the light. Garfield turned to the disturbance as his eyes fell upon the masked visage of Batman.

"Take care of Robin," he commanded the remaining three Titans. "I'll handle Logan."

"Bat," Garfield growled out, sounding like a predator ready to devour an irritating prey. The vigilante descended on him, flinging a trio of explosive bat-a-rangs his way. They landed just short of him, detonating at his feet and obscured his vision with a dense cloud of smoke. A fist connected with his stomach, followed by two more to his face; falling to his knees, he struggled to get the air he needed to breathe. Darkness encroached at the edges of his vision; eating away at his consciousness.

Batman bent over and picked up the syringe that Robin had intended to use on Garfield a few moments earlier. Flicking it with his finger, he slowly approached the boy before him with caution.

"WARNING," the computer's synthesized suddenly voice rang out. "SUBJECT IS UNSTABLE. WARNING."

Batman whirled around to glance at the computer screen above the empty tank and saw the two lines from before suddenly zigzag and merge into one thick line, rising and falling at a dangerous rate. Turning back around, Garfield was already on his feet, shaking his head to clear out the grogginess. Batman knew he had to get him under control now. Diving forward toward the shapeshifter, he thrust forward with the needle to sink it into Gar's heart, but a clawed, green hand caught his wrist and swung him about in a wide circle, smashing him hard into the floor. With the breath knocked out of him,the Dark Knight gasped for air as he watched Logan turn tail and leap through the tall, stained-glass windows. Getting to his feet, he rushed over to the broken window and peered out only to find an empty sky and no one in sight.

"Damn!" he pounded a fist on the sill, grinding his teeth in frustration. He heard the heavy footsteps behind him, like metal on the tile floor.

"Mr. Stone."

"Where's Beast Boy, Wayne?" Cyborg asked, trying to keep his cool despite what he knew to be bad news coming soon.

"He escaped. The boy you fought wasn't Beast Boy. He wasn't even Garfield. I don't know what happened, but as he fought me, he changed back. Has he ever experienced any form of schizophrenia?"

Cyborg was quiet for a moment before quietly answering.

"…Yeah. Yeah, he has…The Beast."

(A/N2:

*O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!- A classic line from "Richard III" when Richard's bloodthirsty persona was referring to his conscience, which he believed to be his weakness. I thought it might be appropriate.

Anyways, thanks to all of my reviewers who have urged me to continue the fic. I'd long since had this chapter in development, but never could decide where to go with it. Special thanks to: CerberusX for his devotion and helpfulness; Slade 8833 for his constructive criticism; and lastly, all the rest of you who are encouraging me! Please, R&R!