Note: I'm sorry these chapters are so short. I work long hours and when I come home I write until I'm calm enough to go to bed. So the chapters will be limited but there will also be frequent updates. Your kind words do me so much good. Thank you.
"Dude, I don't know," said Beast Boy. "It started about a week ago. I started hearing... voices. And I know what that sounds like," he added hastily. "For a while it just sounded like people talking. And then it started getting louder and louder. And there were more and more of them. And I could never understand what they were saying."
"And this has been going on for a week?"
"A week maybe. It's been getting worse." Beast Boy paused. "Eventually I decided to try to talk to them, but as soon as it I did, it got so loud, I couldn't even – I couldn't even think straight."
Raven glared at him. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Beast Boy glared back. "Because I thought I was going crazy. I didn't want you to know." He stood up and tried to pace inside the little bubble of energy. "I still think I am."
Raven shook her head. "No."
Her voice was so sure that Beast Boy stopped in mid-step. "How can you know? Just like that?"
Raven gestured at the window. "Because we're both seeing the same thing. Because those are strangers out there and not hundreds of copies of The Beast. Because you're doubting. Because this just... doesn't feel like you." She leaned back against the couch and stared, unseeing, out the window, where the human figures still crawled, silent as long as the two of them were in the energy shield. "You are too apart from this for it to be you losing your mind. Being insane leaches into your brain and changes you completely, or it splits you into parts. It can give you a fear that can drive you completely out of yourself, or a despair that will make you forget every second of your life, forever." One side of Raven's mouth quirked up, and her bitter smile made Beast Boy's stomach hurt as she continued, "I know all about insanity. This isn't it."
"What, then?" Beast Boy said, exasperated, frustrated by both Raven's words and the look on her face. "Is it an attack? Is someone trying to drive me nuts?"
"Who would bother?" Raven muttered to herself, but she considered it. Finally she said, "I don't think so."
"Great," Beast Boy grumbled, flopping back down on the couch beside her. "Great. We still don't know anything."
"We know it's not psychological," Raven said. "I'm almost sure it's not an attack. We need to see if it's something physical. But I can't do that here. I'll - "
Beast Boy grabbed her arm. "Wait! If you leave, your shield leaves, and I'll have to listen to the screaming again, and it will ..."
Just thinking about the return of the sound, Raven saw, was enough to make Beast Boy's breathing quick and shallow, and his eyes wide. He was already close to panic. As gently as she could she removed his hand from her arm. "Then you have two choices. I can try to leave you here with a shield but I don't know how well it'll work. Or..."
"Or..?"
"Or you can take a nice long sleep until we get this figured out."
"Sleep?" Beast Boy said hopefully. His shoulders sagged. "No, I can't, they'd get in, they'd kill me, they'd kill me!"
"No!" Raven said, louder than she intended, then more quietly, "No. You'll be safe. You'll be far away from the noise, and that's what's hurting you. As soon as we know what's wrong I'll come get you."
Beast Boy looked up at her from where he sat, huddled on the couch, and said in a small voice, "Promise?"
Raven abruptly turned away. He was so young and so scared, and even knowing what she was he would still trust her even though he was afraid he would die... she didn't want to feel this, she didn't... "Of course," she said coldly. "Are you ready?"
Beast Boy nervously waited, bracing himself for the return of the hundreds of screaming voices. On an impulse Raven removed her cloak and gave it to him, trying to ignore his grateful look as he curled up under it, cursing herself while Affection laughed and laughed. "Close your eyes and count backwards from ten."
He closed his eyes and began counting, When he got to five, Raven put her hand on his shoulder and quickly dropped him into a deep unconsciousness. She looked around at the energy bubble, then at the window. "And now we test the theory."
When she dropped the energy shield the sound was loud, but not painful as it had been before. Raven glanced at Beast Boy. He hadn't moved. He was safe for now.
Tired, unhappy with the few answers she had gotten, Raven shut her eyes and shifted away, back to Titans Tower.
-T-T-T-T-T
Cyborg restlessly tapped he monitor console as he leaned against it. "Not psychological."
"No," Raven said.
"Not an attack."
"No. I'm almost sure."
"Then what? –"
"We'll have to do a brain scan," Robin said.
"I know," Cyborg said gloomily. "Man! Why can't it be something simple for once, like him staying an elephant for too long and having a snout for a week? Or the time he turned into a – "
"Please – "
Robin, Cyborg, and Raven turned to Starfire where sat beside Beast Boy's gurney, guarding him as she had when Raven had begun her scan. "Please," she said again, "What animals of Earth are telepaths?"
