-Chapter 3-
A green dog ventured into a side of town he'd never even known about until the escape of the bank robber. His head lowered to the cracked and worn asphalt below him, his nose twitched with every sniff he took. Curse that Robin... His leader had sent him to a remote place where even the most hardened of criminals wouldn't want to go! What made him think Mumbo would be here, of all places? It was so dirty and old.
Beast Boy strayed off course to the side of a curb, where a clogged-up storm drain had failed to store any rainwater. It was now kept in a nice little puddle that was sure to be cleaner than any drink in this area. Since he was thirsty from a tiring walk right after chasing Mumbo to the last spot they saw him, he bent down gingerly and prepared to lap up at least a small bit of water. But he stopped just short of it; something had caught his attention.
Even though he was currently colorblind, a much darker substance could be detected flowing lazily with the small stream of water that supported the puddle he was about to drink from. He cautiously sniffed it. It was a scent he didn't know, but he could make out what it was. Blood.
He raised his head to inhale the air around him. A familiar scent drifted with the currents of air that were pocketed all over the stale place. The scent was almost overpowered by the smell of blood, but it was unmistakable.
He morphed back into his human form and mentally scolded himself. He hoped dearly this scent wasn't the owner of this blood. He rounded a corner, following the trail made by the red liquid that would lead him to its source.
He stopped in front of a dark alley right near a brewery. A crumpled figure, which he couldn't quite make out, lay on the ground. The trail lead to this figure. As he walked up to it, he couldn't help but beg to anything that was listening that it wasn't...
He turned over the body, instantly recognizing it as a person, and whispered the girl's name, "Raven..."
He scooped her up extremely gently in his arms, which had gotten quite the burst of strength from the adrenaline now flowing through his veins. Normally this would've been a difficult task to accomplish because of his scrawny body, but when his best friend was in such danger as this, with blood gushing steadily out of her, well...changes would happen.
Though he tried as he ran towards Titans' Tower, he couldn't reach his communicator without dropping his cargo. It was made worse because he didn't want to bump her or shift her too much, as to avoid further harm. This made morphing impossible. He had to run on his own power to get her to the safety of her home.
He got nervous when he felt himself dash his foot against a fallen brick. Though he almost tripped and fell on an unconscious Raven, he somehow managed to keep his balance and keep running. But it was Raven he was nervous for; the jolt could've caused more harm than good.
Beast Boy ran past several buildings, and he felt the pressure of time running out every step of the way.
Once he burst though the doors to their home, it hit him that he hadn't even checked to see if the empath was still alive. He ran to his room and set her carefully down on his bed, not caring that her blood was soiling his sheets, and put two fingers up to her neck. Her pulse was very weak, but still there. And she was breathing, another good sign. She was definitely still alive.
But now a new thought came to mind: How long would she stay among the living? Though a dreadful thought, a very true one as well. The humanimal vigorously shook his head. This was Raven; she was a fighter and was probably trying to heal herself right now. But the sound of dripping brought doubts. He turned to see that the blood was starting to pool around her, the mattress not soaking it up fast enough.
The changeling fumbled for his communicator and, when he found it on his belt, pressed a button.
Robin's face flickered on the screen, "Beast Boy, it's Robin. Have you found Mumbo yet?"
The said character struggled to keep from panicking as he answered, "No, but I found Raven-"
"Raven? Wasn't she in the fight with Mumbo? She should've been searching for him like the rest of us," Robin interrupted.
"We've got way worse problems than Mumbo right now. I found her in an alley on the far side of town unconscious. Now there's blood everywhere and I don't know what happened! Tell the others to get to Titans' Tower right now. I think Raven may be running out of time and I have no idea what to do!" he replied in gush of words that would otherwise be uncomprehendable.
The tiny screen went blank for a second, and then Robin's face was back. "Okay, Starfire's the one closest to the tower, and she's on her way right now, but it'll take at least ten minutes. Try to clean up the blood until she gets there," the teen instructed.
Beast Boy hurried to turn off his communicator. Not daring to waste time fiddling with it, he dropped it on the carpet and used the nearest clean absorbent substance he could find: a pair of his pants fresh from the laundry. It'd have to do for now. He snatched the raiment and began wiping off his friend's blood.
In around twelve minutes, he heard the door to the tower open and light footsteps dashing in.
Though he didn't want to leave her side while she was in such a fragile state, he ran to greet his teammate. "Starfire, Raven's in my room. We have to hurry!" he said as he ran down the corridor, into the hall, and to his room.
The alien followed suit to find that his story checked out. Raven was indeed unconscious and bloody. She lay motionless on the bottom bed of her friend's bunk bed. The teen kicked a pile of dirty clothes out of her path and began to examine the empath.
"What has happened to Raven?" she asked.
"I don't know, I just found her like this," Beast Boy answered truthfully.
"We cannot relocate her to the tower's medical bay," Starfire observed.
"Why?"
"Any such movement could either prolong her suffering or ultimately destroy such vital organs as her brain by damaging her neurons," she replied.
Ignoring the too-smart-for-his-brain-to-understand comment, Beast Boy nervously asked if she would be okay.
"Even I cannot say. Her injuries are great."
"Can't you help her, Star?" his voice cracked.
"I will do everything I can, but I cannot guarantee her survival," she sorrowfully answered.
Just now registering the true severity of the situation, the changeling's eyes brimmed with unshed tears. They stung even worse as Starfire injected a steady stream of a saline solution into the empath's arm. She took the needle out and brought into view a different needle, this one containing many of the necessary nutrients consumed daily by the body. She injected this one, too, and he hated the thought of her being in such pain.
Starfire turned her friend's head to one side and saw the source of the blood. She gestured for Beast Boy to hand her a rag or something else to wipe the blood off with, and was handed a clean sock right off the top of the laundry stack. She glanced at him and he shrugged. Her own shoulders moved up and then dropped. She tenderly scrubbed away hardened blood and fresh blood, only to have more and more keep coming.
Now realizing that it wasn't going to clot, she wiped away the blood once more and headed into the medical bay, returning with one of those portable bag-hanger things that most hospitals have. She connected the tube to a needle and stuck it into her friend's arm, finally allowing the fluids to enter the victim's body. The fluids were completely harmless and helped, if nothing else.
"I do not know why her wound will not stop the bleeding. It continues even though I have cleansed it of her blood," Starfire pondered.
Just then, the door to the tower opened and it seemed as though the alien immediately knew who it was. In a flash, she was ran and came back with another Teen Titan.
"Robin! Dude, I never thought I'd be so happy to see you!" Beast Boy chirped.
"Same to you. But that's not the reason I'm here," he stated, turning his head to have a look at his friend. "You said you found her like this in an alley?"
"Yeah, but she wasn't moving and still isn't," he worried.
"I understand your concern, Beast Boy, but can't Raven heal herself?" he reminded.
"I thought the same thing, but when she wouldn't stop bleeding, I had to wonder..." his voice trailed off, scared to admit the worst.
"That's odd... I'll see what I can do," he said resolutely.
A glint of hope appeared in both Beast Boy's and Starfire's eyes. Robin knew more about medical needs than either of the two, so he would be able to help more than the both of them combined.
"Did you bump her on the way here?" Robin asked curiously.
"No. Well, I almost tripped but didn't. I tried to be careful and not jostle her alot," he replied.
"Well, you did a good thing by not moving her around too much. She'd already taken a pretty bad beating to her skull by the time you got there. I'm going to have to do an X-ray, though, to find out if anything's been broken," he said.
Starfire and Beast Boy nodded and went to get the needed machine.
Meanwhile, Robin kept examining her. True, her cranium had been hit hard, but why was this gash in her head still bleeding? Surely this would've clotted by now, at least if it was an ordinary injury. Perhaps more damage had been done than he first thought. Luckily, the X-ray should clear it up.
He lifted one of her eyelids to find that her eyes had rolled back. It looked less like she was unconscious, and more like she was sleeping. But he knew better. There was absolutely no way she could be faking this. He let her eyelid slide back down.
Starfire and Beast Boy had returned with the X-ray machine.
"Here is the necessary device for the sight of our friend's skeletal structure," she called, alerting Robin to their presence.
Beast Boy helped Robin move the X-ray towards Raven, where the Boy Wonder cranked a handle to lift the machine up a few notches. A bright flash of light filled the room, then died just as quickly. Now all they had to do was wait for the picture to come out, which didn't take very long at all.
Robin snatched up the picture as Beast Boy started wiping away blood again. He raised it to the light and held it firmly in his hands, but not enough to damage the photo. Every part of her looked normal, except her head. Her skull's front had caved in, and one of the shards had sliced an artery by her temple, along with a few much more minor blood vessels over the front of her brain. This perfectly explained the excessive bleeding; however, it meant her life was hanging onto its last threads.
"We can't move her, at least until she comes to. Beast Boy," the hero said, turning to his teammate, "you won't mind if we do surgery in your room, will you?"
Starfire looked at him with a worried expression, but Beast Boy had already made up his mind. "I just want her to live."
"There's no chance of her survival unless the surgery is performed. It's as critical as her condition. Make your final answer fast, because time's running out," he told the changeling.
"Then what are you waiting for?" he said, eager to hear his friend would be safe.