Shoutout to 'Jarec' who inspired the use this character. Check out his stuff.

Chapter Four: Lost & Not Found

Cassandra Cain had been born to kill.

When David Cain, a member of Ra's al Ghul's 'League of Assassins,' was tasked with creating the perfect bodyguard for the league's founder and leader, he set out to create the ultimate fighter from birth. Deciding genetics had to be the basis of his creation, he searched the world for the most perfect female martial artist in existence. Upon finding Sandra Woo-San, Cain set about manipulating her into bearing his child, Cassandra Cain. Wanting nothing to do with her daughter, Woo-San abandoned her after birth to Cain. After which going on to lead the 'League of Assassins.'

From the time she was born, the child was trained by several of the league's best fighters, including Cain himself. Of the opinion that the ultimate fighting machine should be focused on nothing but combat, he denied teaching her how to speak or read. In turn, she became able to read body language to an almost superhuman extent, being able to read and predict movements with uncanny accuracy.

When she turned five years old, Cain started bringing his daughter along with him to his jobs to acclimatise her to death and killing and to see this as normal and acceptable. At the same time teaching her to never feel emotion and punishing her appropriately for so much as smiling or frowning. At age 8, Cassandra performed her first assassination at the insistence of her father. As she dealt the killing blow, she read the man's body language, realizing intimately what it meant to take a life. The experience emotionally damaged her severely, and she fled from her father, spending the next 9 years wandering as a mute, illiterate drifter.

The time was spent beating herself up mentally over the life she had taken and continuing her training wherever she could. Cassandra also took to helping people where she was able to try to atone for her sin. This might have continued indefinitely if she had not stumbled into Gotham City. Here, she encountered her father on assignment to assassinate the Commissioner of the city and intervened, saving his life. This was observed the Dark Knight himself, who recognized both her skill and desire to save human life and adopted her into the batclan as Batgirl. The next two years were spent continuing her training, learning how to speak, read and write and developing basic social skills.

Cassandra Cain now lives to protect.

It was this desire that drove her to investigate the figure falling from the sky. Flipping from building to building and swinging through the suburbs with her grappling hook, she made good time. After half an hour of searching in the dark, she eventually spotted a figure in a field, lying on their front with head turned away and limbs splayed. Batgirl approached slowly and stealthily, booted feet silent on the thin grass, and gave the body a look once over. Her eyes widened as she took in the green skin, pointed ear and undeniably male physique, most of which was visible as he was clad only in jade boxers. He was definitely not entirely human, meaning there was a chance he had survived the death drop.

Despite her urge to help, Batgirl still took her time in approaching. It was unlikely to be a trap, but she had no idea who this person was and if they were friend or foe.

He remained unmoving as Batgirl neared him, but she sighed in relief when she observed a tiny fluctuation in his carotid artery, indicating a heartbeat. This seemed to be the only good news, however. He had broken his back badly, a small white vertebrae actually protruded out through a laceration in his lower back, dried blood surrounding it. Both ankles appeared to be broken, a knee and shoulder dislocated and the other two cracked at least. There also seemed to be evidence of injuries unrelated to his recent collision with the ground. The male's neck was severely bruised, his shin bones seemed to have been fractured before the fall, his upper legs were dark with internal bleeding and several contusions and cuts on his face couldn't have been caused by anything other than fists.

Glancing around Batgirl observed a 4.4 inch dent in the ground 2.3 meters away, her sharp eyes calculating the measurements exactly. He had bounced. She knelt down over him, all apprehension gone; he was in no way a threat. But his chances of survival didn't look good.

Without hesitation, she took out her radio.

o - o - o - o - o

An obsidian sphere of light appeared in the center of the large living room of Titan's Tower. The ethereal energy slowly faded away to nothingness, leaving four teenagers in its wake. Only the bright half-moon shining through the large floor-to-ceiling windows provided any light. The mysterious and undeniably unsettling, if not straight up scary, atmosphere fit the moods of the heroes perfectly.

Raven and Cyborg immediately started for their rooms.

Watching their backs, Robin sighed. He really didn't want to do this but it had to be done. "Team meeting in an hour, everyone be back here by then." Neither gave any sign of acknowledgment and the automatic door swished shut behind them, but he knew they would be back.

Turning to the only other titan in the room, Robin felt his heart start to crumble at the sight of the alien girl holding back tears. He opened his arms invitingly and Starfire rushed towards him, catching him in a crushing hug and crying into his shoulder. Robin tried not to flinch as his already abused body protested at the super strength embrace.

Nevertheless, he raised his arms and returned the hug. She was so innocent, so caring, so deeply concerned about others well-being. Robin knew the sight of her teammate and good friend in so much pain and distress had deeply affected her. After a few moments, her iron grip relaxed as her sobs slowed. She needed comfort and reassurance. Two things Robin was having trouble finding in himself.

He tried anyway.

"It's okay, Star. Everything's going to be fine. You know Beastboy; he just needs to let it out. He'll be fine soon." As usual, his words were gospel to her and she rallied quickly, pulling back to look at him with teary eyes.

"I am most relieved to hear such news, friend Robin. However, I do wish this had not occurred. Friend Beastboy appeared to be calming when we encountered him after his victory over the enemy. Why did he return back to his rage?"

Robin tried not to flinch at both her question and the way she accepted his rash assurance that everything was going to be alright when he had no idea how this was going to play out. He needed some time to think.

"Get yourself treated and cleaned up Star, I'll see you in an hour."

The tall, orange skinned alien watched as her not-so-secret love left the room without another word or look. Sometimes, she just had no idea how his mind worked. But that wasn't uncommon for her.

Despite living on Earth for over five years, Starfire still found herself in situations where she had absolutely no idea what was going on around her. Most of the time, the explanations she received left her even more confused.

Her friends were patient in their help, however, and Starfire knew her acclimatization to terrestrial culture would have been nigh impossible without them. But even so, still she found herself wondering about the mysterious and handsome man that had captured her heart so long ago. Starfire felt she had been less than subtle in expressing her interest in him and saw in his eyes what she supposed was a desire for her also. However, this was inevitably followed by him shaking his head, taking a step back and excusing himself.

Was this behavior natural for human males? Was she doing something wrong? According to the large amounts of pop culture Starfire had consumed in the form of television shows, movies, books and magazines there was no real prelude to the act of dating other than mutual attraction.

Turning to a full-length mirror mounted on the far side of the room, Starfire wondered for perhaps the thousandth time if she was attractive. There was no false modesty here. She was well aware that as a Tamaranean, she was indeed desirable with her lusciously long locks, slim form and piercing green eyes. The problem was that she had no idea if the Tamaranean view of beauty came anywhere close to Earth standards.

She remembered using the 'interweb' to research some of the Earth's most attractive women. With a sigh, Starfire recalled how none of them had had orange skin, unnaturally bright eyes or the ability to bend solid steel. She had thought most of them seemed to be undernourished and possessed a shiny and stretched quality to their skin that reminded her of the plastic cups in the kitchen.

Starfire sighed heavily again, wincing as this agitated her wounded shoulder and reminded her of the night's events. Guilt rose within her.

One of the very people that had worked so hard to help her understand the odd world around her was missing and in pain and she was feeling sorry for herself over the way she looked. The battle-hardened warrior inside rebelled at the lack of loyalty and Starfire straightened up. She regarded herself in the mirror and formed a new resolve in her eyes to help her dear green friend. Giving her battle stained reflection a crisp nod, Starfire turned and headed for the shower.

o - o - o - o - o

Cyborg sat hunched over his work station, his six foot six, 385 pound, frame occupying a specially made, reinforced swivel chair. With a sigh, he dropped a magnetized screwdriver, put his hands behind his head and leaned back, heaving a sigh.

He couldn't concentrate. On returning to the tower, he had removed and replaced all his parts damaged during the battle with the white monster (he always kept a supply of backups), had a quick shower, and set about fixing the knee of his cybernetic leg the monster had crushed. Usually, he would analyze any harm sustained, identify the main weakness that had caused the impairment and set about improving it.

He was fairly sure that main hinge joint was still too fragile and vulnerable, but didn't have the heart or the mindset to investigate any deeper. His thoughts kept drifting to the best friend he had. The first friend he had had Since Victor Stone became Cyborg.

Victor Stone had been somewhat of a social butterfly before the accident that had necessitated the mechanical implants and prosthetics that now made up roughly %75 of his body. But he had been in a hole of depression and rejection upon meeting Beastboy for the first time. Cyborg smiled to himself. The memory of the dorky, masked, green hero nervously trying to make conversation always amused him.

Gradually, though, he had succeeded. As much to his own surprise as anyone else's, Cyborg found himself trusting the Grass Stain. Believing that the changeling didn't care he was half monster. Not that Beastboy himself could talk. Maybe that was why he never put off by appearances or countenances. He had always had to work hard to make friends, to show people he was more than just a green skinned half animal, all the while believing that he wasn't just a lime monster. Cyborg respected the fact that he had managed to maintain an upbeat, optimistic attitude in spite of all the crap he had been put through.

Beastboy didn't seem to see the hulking metallic side of Cyborg like he didn't see the orange skin of Starfire or the icy cold demeanor, gray skin and dead eyes of Raven.

Cyborg snorted into his hand.

Ah, Beastboy and Raven. By far the most entertaining relationship in the entire tower. Robin and Starfire were more frustrating to observe than anything else, Starfire and Raven had become fast friends and Raven and Robin held mutual respect for one another. No, no Beastboy and Raven were better than any daytime TV show.

Cyborg had often wondered what drove the green changeling to risk bodily harm time and time again with his pranks, god-awful jokes and general annoyance, all directed at the empath. Possibly he got a kick out the danger, like poking a sleeping bear with a stick. Maybe he just wanted to get a response out of her. Or perhaps he was simply doing what he had with Cyborg, only it was taking much longer to draw Raven out of her shell. If that was the case, he had definitely made progress.

When the team had first come together, Cyborg and Beastboy cemented their relationship quickly and Starfire and Robin hit it off in no time either. Raven was undoubtedly the odd one out. Cyborg couldn't deny that he had been wary of the gothic half demon, with her expressionless face, short fuse and general heritage. He was the last one to judge people on superficial things, but a half-demon? He was sure the others had felt the same unease as he had.

Except, of course, Beastboy.

Over the years he had worn her down and the two seemed to share a love/hate relationship. Well, okay, perhaps 'love' was a little strong, but he had been the only one who volunteered to knock on her door after the whole 'Malchior' incident. And that said something. After defeating her father Raven had relaxed greatly and began experimenting with showing more emotion. Cyborg had considered her his family long before that but she was definitely more pleasant to be around now. She smiled more, was more conversational and generally showed more feelings.

'Which directly contradicts what she said to me earlier about having to let her feelings out.' Cyborg reflected, remembering the devastation Raven had caused. He had been skeptical of her excuse; it didn't make much sense to him and had sounded a little mechanical and she had been especially affected by the state Beastboy was in. 'But surely that wouldn't account for the level of her response. She didn't seem that upset the last time the Beast made an appearance. But then she was unconscious for most of that event if I remember right. Maybe she likes the Grass Stain more than she lets on. Be hard not to I suppose, given the way she treats him,' he thought with a smirk.

So yeah, perhaps Beastboy was on a mad quest to make Raven experience emotion the way he did – to the full.

Cyborg laughed to himself and picked up the screwdriver.

'Or maybe he's just masochistic.'

o - o - o - o - o

The female in question stretched beneath a powerful stream of hot water in her private shower, feeling the grime and muck of the earlier battle wash off. Raven relished the feeling. Upon shutting her door, she had immediately sat on her bed, adopted the lotus position and meditated for 45 solid minutes, floating softly as she reined in her emotions and caged them within herself. Rising, she had felt stiff and dirty and decided a shower was called for. Quickly stripping off her damaged and muddy leotard, cape, boots and underwear, she had stepped into the shower.

And now she was alone with her thoughts.

Raven exhaled deeply and leaned her head against the wet, tiled wall underneath the shower nozzle; wet, violet hair framing her vision as she felt the strong spray massage the back of her neck. It had been difficult, but she had managed to control her emotions enough to hopefully last the meeting Robin had called.

The intensity of her feelings had surprised Raven. However, without the use of her meditation mirror, it was difficult to distinguish individual emotions from the tide of temporarily tamed sentiment inside. She was unsure of what had happened. Casting her memory back, Raven was unable to remember when last she had exhibited such strong emotion apart from in anger. And she had let it out…

Raven groaned and lifted her head, allowing the torrent of water to strike her forehead for several seconds before turning the temperature up slightly and turning around.

She still couldn't believe she had lost control, recalling her surprise at the wide circle of destruction surrounding her when she had opened her eyes. What if her team had still been around? Raven shivered in the rising steam, unwilling to even picture such a scene. She could only be thankful they had had the strength to give chase to Beastboy.

Beastboy…

Why had the events surrounding him today evoked such a strong reaction in her? Her logical mind immediately grasped the facts. For one, it was her only her second time observing him in one of his Beast states; the first time being brief and fleeting. This time she had been up close, seen the bloodlust in his animal eyes and the saliva on his jagged fangs. It was enough to evoke a reaction in anyone. And the obvious agony her teammate had shown when they had confronted him was, of course, disturbing and worrying. Plus, no one had any idea where he was and there was no guarantee of him returning unharmed, also a natural cause for concern.

But there was more to it than that.

Raven slid down the slick wall, landing on her behind with knees bent up in front of her, the spray from above like a hot rain and considered Beastboy.

Theirs was a complex relationship, but one that she thought worked. Sure the first few years had been rough… Well, that was putting it lightly. Raven had been shunned and ignored her entire life, bereft of any real friendship or closeness. Joining the team had forced her to live in close quarters with people her own age, one of which was a hyperactive green socialite. A male hyperactive green socialite.

Fear, severe introversion and a complete lack of social skills prompted her to spurn all his initial attempts at tentative friendship and even conversation. Raven had tried to rationalize it. She was there to fight crime, to try to do some good in the world before bringing about its destruction. She didn't need anyone, she didn't need friendship. What was the point if it was all going to be short lived anyway?

This cynical, but at the time reasonable, way of thinking was slowly worn down, however. Raven saw how the others accepted each other. How an emerald, pointy eared shapeshifter could laugh and mess around with a rocket-armed half robot. Eventually she came to have faith that they accepted her too. A sense of belonging had hesitantly developed in her. Regularly saving each other from injury and fighting crime together had also helped establish this connection.

And so she came to have a budding faith in her friends, faith that they would protect her like they protected each other. Faith that they didn't care her skin was a freakish gray. Faith that they didn't care about her heritage. Faith that they cared about her. This newfound confidence took some time to grow, but as it had, Beastboy had always been there with a conversation starter, looking to engage her in some way, trying to break through the walls she had erected around herself. Truth be told, Raven had no idea why he hadn't simply abandoned her as a lost cause after months of cold and sometimes violent treatment when he overstepped a mark.

But even going too far showed her that he did want a reaction from her, that he was interested in her. Again this was a completely new phenomenon for Raven and all this attention was coming from a teenage boy, only contributing to her nervousness and insecurity.

Raven cringed slightly as she recalled the incident which her meditation mirror when Beastboy and Cyborg had accidentally ended up in her mind. The catastrophe had turned into a positive experience (didn't mean she had to like it), with Raven finally realizing her friends were more like her family and the boys realizing there was far more to Raven than they had thought. The reason for her behaviour was also made apparent to them, spurring Beastboy into continuing his campaign to make her smile.

A small smile graced Raven's lips as she thought back to him knocking timidly on her door when she was at her lowest point in years. 'You think you're alone, but you're not,' he had said, inspiring the most affectionate action Raven had ever instigated. He had even said he'd been glad she had been born after her disastrous birthday. Beastboy had always been there for her, always wanted her to join in games or watch movies, seemingly wanting her company and nothing else. Always willing to be the butt of her sarcasm and responding with nothing but a weak comeback. All in all, he treated her like a person, like she wasn't a creepy half demon, but just an ordinary girl. She would always be thankful for that. Even if she didn't show it.

But recently she had been able to demonstrate things like that more. Since defeating her own father and breaking his influence on her life, Raven had been free to express herself more freely. Like when she had attempted to comfort Cyborg when the T-Car was totalled or when Starfire had that breakdown about Robin's aloofness. Or when Beastboy had slipped into self-hatred after his transformation into the Bea…

Ah.

She cringed as the vivid mental picture of a roaring Beastboy inadvertently filled her head. Blood and saliva flying from his open jaws. Rage and agony in his beastly eyes. A complete lack of humanity in his face. The sight that had disturbed her so deeply.

Physically shaking her head, Raven banished the image from her mind. She would dwell on that later. According to the waterproof LED clock sitting on the sink, she only had four minutes before Robin's meeting. Sighing she reach up and turned the shower off.

o - o - o - o - o

Hissing in pain as the liquid solution poured onto the large laceration on his right knee, Robin fought the urge to stop emptying the bottle over his injury. The fluid compound was one he had used for years on cuts such as the one he had sustained during the battle against the white monster. But that didn't make it hurt any less.

Developed by the Batman himself, the unique lotion possessed a variety of significant healing properties. Made up of a combination of antitoxin, a variety of balms and salves, antiseptic and a light peroxide, it effectively cleaned the wound, removed any dead or dying cells and promoted blood clotting and skin regeneration, helping the damaged area heal quickly while eliminating any risk of infection or other negative side effects. He received a regular supply from his old mentor with his regular equipment as only he knew the entire formula.

Eventually, the bottle emptied and Robin sighed in relief as the pain began to recede and it gave him an excuse to abandon that particular train of thought. Instead, his mind wandered, as the rest of his teams had, to the recent events involving Beastboy.

Robin had always suspected Beastboy would lose control again. To his mind, it had been nothing but a matter of time before the Beast made an appearance in some form or another. When the original incident had occurred, Cyborg had claimed he had managed to concoct some form of suppressant drug to counteract what had happened to the changeling but hadn't shown Robin what the remedy had consisted of.

Hacking into Cyborg's computer had taken over two hours that night by the full moon, the invasion of privacy only made possible by the failsafe Robin had integrated into the entire titan mainframe at the team's founding. Then he had required another hour to manually find the document as his cybernetic team mate only had to hook himself into the system to merge with it, making manual searching obsolete.

After moving past a hidden file he had found impossible to open, Robin finally found the recipe. His suspicions had been confirmed as he found the medication to consist of merely a mild relaxant and light anti-depressant. Cyborg knew as well as he did that Beastboy's…condition had been instigated by fits of anger after the initial dousing of the chemical that had drenched both himself and Adonis. Cyborg's treatment had simply calmed the changeling down until the foreign substance had been flushed from his system. It had not addressed the issue, but Robin knew that no drug would be able to do that.

Beastboy was inherently unpredictable. There was no pattern in anything he did. From his fighting style to his varying everyday habits, there was no telling what random erratic impulse he would follow next. And only half of those unforeseeable urges he followed blindly were human. Granted, Robin knew Beastboy worked to ignore the majority of his animal instincts, heck Robin required it. But he was still forever scarred by the time the green guy had gotten up the morning after his Beast attack and walked out his room completely naked. When Robin had reasonably started yelling at him in the kitchen, he had done nothing but look down at his nude form in mild surprise and shrug. Apparently, animals didn't wear clothes.

Robin's eyes narrowed at the memory, at the frivolous way Beastboy had dismissed his animal instincts. And he had hardly been in any position to act so flippantly. Robin had seriously considered dropping him from the team after he had kidnapped Raven and attacked the team in a ferocious rage.

He remembered crouching in front of a restrained Beastboy, asking if he would explain his actions. But he wouldn't cooperate; all he did was stare at a practically comatose Raven with an unidentifiable look in his eyes, which inevitably meant something bad. Upon further questioning, Beastboy became enraged and transformed into his more natural state, breaking his bonds and quickly dispatching the entire team. Robin rubbed his jaw at the memory with narrowed eyes. That thing could hit hard.

When the whole fiasco was over the team had believed Beastboy to be protecting Raven the entire time and simply forgotten about it, assuming it was over. But Robin had known better. He knew there was a vicious, bestial side to Beastboy that was as changeable in its attitudes and loyalties as it was inhuman and powerful. He was nothing but an animal in that state after all, without any morality or consciousness. And Robin had always known that his other side wouldn't disappear and unavoidably resurface again.

Well, he had been right.

Beastboy had shown no loyalty to the team at all today. Sure he had killed the monster, but that had been in a blind rage; it could have easily been any one of them. And the very fact that he had killed the thing showed how merciless and feral he was. Robin was convinced the only reason he hadn't attacked all of them was due to his injuries and the fact he was outnumbered. Well, to be fair, he had calmed down and was starting to change back to his regular form at the sight of his team, before he had quickly reversed back. Robin had no doubt that Beastboy had no intention of hurting anyone, but the fact remained that he was a liability. An uncontrollable liability. A very serious team meeting would have to be called once he had returned.

'Not looking forward to that,' thought Robin as he rolled a clean uniform down over his knee, the liquid now dry. He really did like the guy. He stood with barely a limp, a light painkiller in the solution easing the sting of the cut, and walked out of the room to attend the meeting he had called.

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G'luck.

CJB