Alrighty people, we're getting into the meat and potatoes of the story. I'm sorry if the last couple chapters weren't super interesting, but from now on the action and drama is gonna bump up, so I hope you like it. Cheerio!

Chapter Four: Shadows

Someone was in his mind. That was the first thing that registered when Beast Boy woke up in the dead of night. The top of his bunk bed came into focus. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and rose to his feet, instinctively using the techniques Mento taught him to block intruders.

Confirming there was no one in the immediate vicinity, Beast Boy threw on his uniform as quickly as he could. His headphones were placed safely on his nightstand. Beast Boy crept out of his room, sniffing for any intruders. He stalked down the hall, eyes wide and ears perked. Where was Raven? He needed to find her. He should get Raven first, she was the best person to have with you when fighting a psychic. Not only was she a psychic herself, but she was level headed and grounded. She had a tight grip on her emotions, and was the best at distinguishing what was real and what was not. Beast Boy stalked over to Raven's room, constantly scanning for a threat. He arrived at her room and knocked loudly. He didn't hear anything from inside, so he knocked again. Suddenly the door slid open, but there was no sign of Raven.

"Raven?" Beast Boy called. Her room appeared empty, but it smelled like she had been here recently. Odd, since it didn't smell like she had walked out of her room. Maybe she teleported. Beast Boy crept into her room, ears perked. He whispered "Raven?"

No answer. He was by her bed now. He looked behind it, and to his horror, Raven laid there, blood pooling around her.

"Raven!" Beast Boy yelled, rushing to her side. "No, no no no!"

He had to stop the bleeding, where was the blood coming from? Frantically, he searched her with his hands, but couldn't seem to find the wound. She was cold, though, too cold for someone, even a half-demon should be.

"Come on Raven, talk to me!" Beast Boy pleaded. Where was the blood coming from!?

Beast Boy paused. There was no wound. He couldn't smell any blood, either. Looking closer at Raven, he found it difficult to focus on her details. Mento once explained that mental illusions weren't like real illusions, they made you believe the thing the projector wanted you to see. The more you believed in the lie, the more power the projector had over you. The trick was to focus on the details. The human mind was good at categorizing information, but when it came down to the finer details, it found that hard to replicate.

Shakily, Beast Boy got to his feet. This Raven wasn't real. She wasn't bleeding or dying. He had to find the real her. Beast Boy turned and exited Raven's room.

"Beast Boy," Raven's quiet voice called. Beast Boy stiffened. She sounded weak and desperate. It was a lie, but still his heart broke as he walked away.

Beast Boy walked to the living room. No one was here either, no friends or enemies. Where would enemies be hiding? They had to be in the Tower, right? If so, where?

"We're everywhere," a voice chuckled. Beast Boy whirled around to see a tall, gaunt man standing by the elevator. His brown eyes glared at him, a lit cigarette between lips set into a permanent sneer. An unkempt beard covered his chin, and worn jeans covered his legs. His bony arms draped by his torso, knuckles white and scarred.

"No," Beast Boy gasped. It couldn't be him. He was in prison. He was gone.

The man chuckled, flicking his cigarette. "You think you could get away with taking what's mine and getting away with it?"

"You're not real," Beast Boy said, shaking his head.

The man sneered. "I don't need to be real to be right. You're a freak, Garfield."

"Don't call me that!" Beast Boy roared.

"Why? Because you're a freak? An outcast? You've lost every family you've ever had, you think this one will be any different? They will cast you out and disown you. You don't belong here," the man said, stepping towards him.

"Shut up!" Beast Boy yelled.

"You belong in a cage with all the other animals," he said. "I'm here to put you back in one."

"You lie!" Beast Boy yelled. "You're still in prison!"

The man was standing over him now. "I can't lie. I'm you."

The man erupted, green fur and claws tearing through his skin. His leather jacket was shredded as The Beast threw his head back and roared. Beast Boy lunged back, avoiding the swipe of razor sharp claws. Beast Boy snarled, lunging at the Beast in the form of a jaguar. It dodged, jumping back. Beast Boy pressured the attack, jumping at the Beast as a kangaroo to attack as a velociraptor. But he never seemed to hit it.

The Beast whirled on him, snapping at him with its huge jaws, drool dripping from its mouth. Beast Boy dodged, and the Beast roared. Beast Boy snarled, pacing circling it in the form of a lion. The Beast circled him, eyes alight with fury.

Something was wrong. The Beast wouldn't hesitate to attack. And wait, the Beast was in him, how could he be fighting it? Hesitantly, Beast Boy returned to his human form. The Beast grinned, saliva falling from his lips. The drops never made it to the floor though.

"You're not real," Beast Boy realized. The Beast snarled, lowering itself into a crouch to lunge at him. Beast Boy didn't move. It charged, claws gleaming. It jumped, jaws open to devour him whole. Beast Boy tensed, his instincts screaming at him to dodge, to lunge out of the way. But he didn't move. The Beast crashed into him and disappeared. Beast Boy released a sigh, his muscles loosening.

"We're still a part of you," a voice whispered in his ear, making him shiver. "And we're never, ever, going away."

He needed to get a grip, he should never have fallen for that. Mento taught him better than that. He needed to focus. Oh, it seemed like Cyborg was awake now, his breathing changed. Starfire and Robin were still asleep, and Starfire sounded like she was having nightmares. Raven wasn't on this floor, he couldn't hear her breathing. Where was she? Was she kidnapped? Did they take her? Beast Boy growled, anger gripping his chest. Where was she? How dare they take her from him?

Suddenly, the red lights of the emergency defense system burst on, and the siren started blaring. Ah, that's good, Cyborg was activating the Tower defense protocol. Robin and Starfire were awake now. The steel curtains started falling down over the windows. Wait, no, that meant he would be trapped in the Tower. He couldn't be trapped, he couldn't be caged. He needed to get out, he needed OUT—


Beast Boy woke up as a fish. It wasn't the weirdest way to start the day, but Beast Boy wasn't sure how he got here. Odd, he'd usually remember turning into a fish, unless—

Oh no.

Beast Boy swam back to the Tower, a half hour journey from the middle of the bay. When he got back, Robin was waiting for him.

"Where the hell were you last night?" Robin demanded. Beast Boy cringed. He knew this was coming.

"I'm sorry, I-I saw things—" Beast Boy stuttered.

"We all saw things, but none of us smashed a hole through 6 inch bulletproof glass and the steel curtains and fled," Robin accused. "You're lucky Raven captured Phobia before she could cause any real damage."

"Phobia?" Beast Boy asked. "What was she doing here?"

"She broke in and uploaded some kind of virus to the Titans mainframe," Robin said. "Cyborg's looking into it. Then apparently she thought she could take a crack at us. That's her story anyway. I don't buy it. I'm going to question her later. The police have her in custody at the station. But first we are investigating a break in. Apparently, there was a burglary and assault downtown last night, and the police are stumped. Lieutenant Charles asked us to take a look. He said it looked like a meta did it, but it was unlike any he's seen before."

"When are we investigating that?" Beast Boy asked.

"In an hour. Hopefully Cyborg's done by then. If not, we'll go without him. Take a shower and report back here at 8," Robin demanded.

"Yes sir," Beast Boy said, turning and jogging off to his room.

"Oh and Beast Boy?" Robin called as he was by the door. "You're on grocery duty."

"Aw man," Beast Boy groaned. Grocery duty was the worst. Between Cyborg's excessive consumption of meat and Starfire's insatiable appetite, it always took 2 hours or more to get everyone's groceries.

Beast Boy returned to his room and checked his journal. The jerk hadn't updated, so Beast Boy had no clue about his nightly activities. Not cool, they had a deal!

Muttering under his breath about liars and stupid cheating bastards, Beast Boy hit the showers, sighing in relief as the hot water hit his body. He needed to get a better grip on his alters. This is the second incident in just a few days. Sure, it was bad when he was younger, but Mento and Rita had helped him grow out of it. Now they usually only appeared after huge life changing events, but even during and after the Brotherhood of Evil war, they hadn't been this active. Three days was a long time to be gone. And without any apparent reason, there was cause for concern. Of course, he could chalk last night up to Phobia's influence. She was a master at finding people's fears and was practically handed the perfect opportunity. But still. Three days. That was a lot.

Beast Boy sighed, turning the shower off. He might have to make another appointment with the Doc. He had promised her that he had them under control. To come back so soon, she'd request weekly sessions. And he didn't have time for that, he was a superhero! He couldn't be distracted by his own stupid fucking brain.

That's that then. He could put off seeing the Doc for a while. Besides, there's that whole bomb business. Robin will probably be having them running all over Jump City looking for the culprit. And then there was Phobia. She was hired to upload a flash drive? That's not fishy at all. Robin will probably have a theory or two about that. Anyways, he'd already been in the showers for almost a half hour. It was probably time to get out.

He did just that, putting on a fresh uniform. His fingers shook as he pulled on his gloves, as they always did when they were bare. He clenched his fists, tensing his muscles then letting them loosen. Fingering the weird spandex-like material of his costume, he looked at himself in the mirror. He gave himself a charming smile and winked. "Beast Boy, you bad, bad boy."

Beast Boy strolled out of the bathroom and plopped down on the couch, kicking his feet up on the console. He grabbed the TV remote and stretched his arms out across the back of the couch, flipping through channels. His ears flicked as he heard Raven exit her room and start making her way towards the common room.

"Hey Rae," he called as she walked through the door. "Heard you took down Phobia last night. Have any trouble?"

"None, no thanks to you," Raven snapped back.

"Ah, I knew you could handle it," Beast Boy waved. "You got us covered, the gal's in prison, no harm no foul."

"I didn't expect you to run off like you did. What did she show you?" Raven asked as she walked briskly into the kitchen.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Beast Boy said, sinking into the couch.

"It'd be better to deal with these issues, so a repeat occurrence does not happen in the future," Raven explained, stirring her teabag in a mug of water.

A growl rose in Beast Boy's throat. Is that all she cared about? Preventing some arbitrary future incident? She was just like Robin. "I think I'm good."

"You should reconsider. We can't have you running from every fight, now can we?" Raven drawled as she sipped her tea.

"Whatever," Beast Boy growled. Beast Boy debated bringing up the time Raven's fears literally manifested into monsters and attacked the team, but decided against it. Someone had to be the bigger person, and apparently that person was him.

"When you change your mind, I can help you," Raven said, taking her tea and leaving the room. Beast Boy snorted. Help him? Yeah right. At least the voices in her head were hers.

Robin and Starfire saw Beast Boy mindlessly swapping channels when they came into the common room fifteen minutes later. Robin called to him, "You ready to go?"

"Yup!" Beast Boy said, jumping up and scrambling over the couch.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Robin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…" Beast Boy checked his pockets. He had his communicator, his hair was dry, obviously he had his gloves and boots on. "No?"

"The TV," Robin smirked.

"Shoot!" Beast Boy lunged back to the couch, grabbing the remote and smashing the power button. The TV snapped off, letting him hear Robin's chuckling and Starfire's giggling.

"Alright, come on," Robin said, leading the way down to the garage.

"No way! Cyborg is letting you drive the T-Car!" Beast Boy squealed as Robin pulled the keys out of his utility belt. "He never lets me drive."

"That is because when he tried to teach you, you ran over three mailboxes and a park bench," Starfire giggled.

"Yeah, but how am I supposed to get better if I don't practice? Huh?" Beast Boy demanded.

"Beast Boy, you can fly and run fifty miles an hour. If you really need to get somewhere, you'll figure it out," Robin said as he climbed into the driver seat.

"What about that time I wanted a moped to chase those tofu cow-stealing aliens? Wouldn't it have been good if I'd had known how to drive then?" Beast Boy asked.

"This is Cyborg's car, if you want to learn to drive you have to ask him," Robin said. Beast Boy groaned, knowing that Cy would never let him touch his "baby" ever again after the incident with the paint. Which wasn't even totally his fault. Resigned to his fate, Beast Boy climbed in the back seat, Robin taking the wheel and Starfire in the passenger seat. The engine started, and they were off, zooming down the concrete bridge from the island to the mainland, one of many ways for the Titans to get to the city. They entered the city, a few of the nearby citizens giving off a cheer at the sight of the now famous vehicle. Beast Boy grinned and waved back, blowing kisses at his adoring fans. They weren't always greeted like this, as the Titans had become a familiar sight in the last few years, but it was always nice when they were.

Robin took them to the upper east side of the city, more commonly referred to as Pacific High, for a variety of reasons. This is where a lot of immigrants and lower class individuals lived, and as a consequence, had a higher crime rate. The Titans rarely came here though, as they dealt with villains and threats the police couldn't handle, and people like Dr. Light and Killer Moth wouldn't come here to rob anyone.

There were five cop cars surrounding one of the apartment complex, and yellow caution tape wrapped around the front, preventing anyone from entering the building. A police officer greeted them, holding the tape up for them to enter and they were led to the third floor of the complex. The room was trashed, tables and chairs flipped and the TV smashed. There were various sized holes in the walls, some seemingly fists, others the imprint of a body smashed into it. Beast Boy sniffed the air. It smelled like drugs, familiar almost, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Robin whistled. "This sure is a mess Commissioner. But what exactly did you want us to look at?"

Commissioner David Hayes, a heavyset man with greasy black hair and a short mustache frowned at the teenagers. "Titans. Glad you could make it. Sorry for the unusual call, but I'm worried this case might be out of my jurisdiction."

"Don't worry Commissioner, our jobs are on the supervillains, I'm happy to leave the common criminals to you and the JCPD," Robin said.

The Commissioner seemed to narrow his eyes at that, but continued. "It seems like some kind of meta broke into the flat of Tyler Russells, a forty one year old caucasian man and assaulted him. We got a call at about 2:30 last night from a neighbor, reporting Tyler screaming. When we arrived, we found his apartment like this and Tyler on the ground in the living room, covered in blood. We provided first aid and got him in an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. Luckily, none of his injuries were fatal, but he lost a lot of blood. When he was stable enough to be questioned, he revealed that he had been woken up in the middle of the night when he was thrown through the wall of his apartment. He never saw his attacker, he said he was assaulted from seemingly all directions at once. And what's more, this attacker never spoke. Tyler said his assault continued for several minutes until he collapsed. He never heard the attacker come or go, it was like he had just disappeared. We've checked the entire apartment, but there are no signs of forced entry. He has an electric security system, and his door was not unlocked at any time during the night."

"Can you describe the nature of these injuries, Commissioner?" Robin asked.

"Tyler suffered six broken ribs, a punctured lung, deep lacerations on his arms causing permanent nerve damage, less severe lacerations all across his body, dozens of fractures of the bones in his arms and legs, and a minor concussion. It seems his attacker used a combination of bladed and blunt weapons to assault him. We're still trying to determine the exact weapons used to assault him, but in all honesty I'm not sure we will. The assault happened all across the apartment, as you can see. All the damage to the apartment is a direct result of the attack last night," the Commissioner explained.

"I see. Do you have any potential motives?" Robin asked.

"Not really. Tyler is a registered sex offender and an avid alcoholic and smoker. He works a low level accounting job at Kline Inc., never married, doesn't have any close friends or relatives. As far as we can tell, this attack was completely random," the Commissioner told him.

"What exactly was taken? How's you figure it out in all the mess?" Robin asked.

The Commissioner shifted his glasses. "We know for certain his wallet was taken, his driver's license, insurance card and debit card are all missing. The attacker didn't take much besides that. The safe Tyler keeps was broken into and the contents are missing, including a Walter WMP Optic Ready pistol and two thousand dollars in cash. We dusted for fingerprints but couldn't find any."

"Alright. Do you mind if we look around?" Robin asked.

The Commissioner lifted his arm towards the ruined apartment. "Be my guest."

Robin immediately went to one of the walls, tapping his mask as he did. Beast Boy decided to turn into a bloodhound to see if he could pick up any scents, maybe blood. But he only detected one person's blood, probably Tyler's. He walked around the apartment, sniffing each of the rooms that had significant damage in them. There were a couple scents that didn't match anyone here, one likely a woman who smoked, and a man that smelled strongly of energy drinks. Neither was likely to be the attacker.

"It's definitely a meta of some kind," Robin said. "I'm tempted to say a size changer. It would explain how they were able to enter the apartment undetected, and it also explains the differently sized holes in the wall. They're either extremely durable too, or were wearing some kind of armor, there's no trace of any blood in the damaged areas. I'd guess armor, considering they used weapons against Tyler. However, there are a variety of villains with the ability to teleport that use bladed and blunt weapons. My friend Donna has experience with a couple of them. I'll contact her to see if she's had any issues with her rogues gallery recently. I'm going to do some digging into Tyler's background to see what made him a target. I'll call you later tonight with anything I find."

The Commissioner nodded. "Alright. We'll be here another hour or so. If we find anything we'll call."

"Thank you Commissioner. Good luck," Robin said, his cape twirling as he turned to leave. Starfire and Beast Boy followed behind him. He ducked under the police tape and got in the T-Car. The engine revved as they took off towards home.

"So Beast Boy, where exactly did you go last night?" Robin asked.

"I took a swim," Beast Boy answered. "Swam all the way out to the Gordon Ridge before I got a hold of myself."

"Hm. I see. Care to explain what this was doing in one of the holes in Tyler's walls then?" Robin asked, holding up a green hair.

"Wuh-you don't really think I did that, do you? I mean Robin, buddy, boss, I would never—" Beast Boy stuttered.

"Relax Beast Boy, I don't think you attacked Tyler. I think someone is trying to frame you," Robin said.

Starfire gasped. "But who would want to frame Friend Beast Boy?"

"You were the one who discovered the bomb Monday. No one else would have been able to find it. Whoever this bomber is will likely try again. It was too intricate to be homemade, whoever made it likely has the resources to build another. If they use the same materials, there's a risk you will find it again. I think they wanted you out of the picture. A shapeshifter, especially one of your caliber, could have easily broken into Tyler's apartment and done the damage caused there. But the alignment of the damage seemed too purposeful. It seemed to be painting an image," Robin explained. "The timing adds up with Phobia's attack too. Phobia was an odd choice to upload a virus. I'm starting to think she was sent to get you out of the Tower. Whoever hired her to break in probably ordered the attack on Tyler, and is responsible for the bombs."

"It's one twisted dude that's messing with us," Beast Boy said.

"Indeed," Starfire muttered.

"I'm gonna start up patrols again," Robin said. "I'll get started on working out the schedules tomorrow."

Before running off to face the Brotherhood of Evil, the Titans would individually watch for crime around the city for periods of time, usually being the first on scene in case of an attack and minimizing the damage wherever possible. It was a good way to deter crime and also gave the public a chance to interact with the Titans a bit. Beast Boy seemed to be the only one to capitalize on that last one though.

Ever since the Titans left to fight the Brotherhood of Evil, crime had dwindled. Without the HIVE Academy or Slade, there was little incentive for villains to stay. A few stayed behind, Dr. Light, the original HIVE Five, minus Jinx, and Killer Moth chief among them, along with Johnny Rancid and Punk Rocket, but others like Mad Mod, Kardiak and Professor Chang had left for more lucrative cities. Overload and Plasmus were safe in prison, and no one had seen Cinderblock in a long time. With crime rates falling, and coming off the tail of a year-long war with the Brotherhood of Evil, Robin had seen fit to get rid of the patrol. Instead they kept someone on standby, just someone in the Tower that could quickly determine the crime and respond as quickly as possible.

"I'm sure Raven's gonna love that," Beast Boy said.

"So am I. That's why you get to tell her," Robin said.

"What!? Why me?" Beast Boy asked.

"You jumped out a window. Figured you'd know how to land when she throws you through another," Robin stated.

"Noooo," Beast Boy groaned, sliding down in his seat. "I'm so dead."

Starfire offered him a consoling smile. "Good luck Friend Beast Boy. I will prepare funeral arrangements in case of your demise."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Star," Beast Boy muttered.

As they pulled into the Titans garage, Beast Boy noticed Cyborg waiting for them, tapping his foot impatiently. Beast Boy hopped out of the car to greet him.

"Hey Cy, what's up?" Beast Boy asked.

"Not much. Just the fact that I'm gonna have to redo the entire Tower's security!" Cyborg yelled.

"Why? What did you find?" Robin asked.

"A virus to override our security system and rewrite all the passcodes. It was a pretty sophisticated virus so to be safe I'm wiping the whole security program and starting from scratch. It'll probably take a couple of days to get everything up and running again."

Robin frowned. "Alright, do what you have to do. I'm going to be starting up patrols again, at least until we find this bomber. I'll have someone stay up at night until you get the security working again in case anyone else has any ideas about breaking in."

Cyborg nodded and turned on his heel to head back inside, muttering some kind of computer nonsense. Robin turned to Starfire and said "Can you take watch for today? Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. I'll send Raven to tag you out at 4:00."

"Of course, Friend Robin," Starfire said, taking off into the sky.

Robin turned to Beast Boy next. "I'm going to do some research. Just inform Raven of the patrols and then get started on groceries."

"Ah man. Ok Robin, good luck," Beast Boy said as they trudged to the elevator. It dinged open to the main floor and Beast Boy made his way over to Raven's room. Steeling himself, Beast Boy knocked on Raven's door three times. After a moment of silence, the door opened half an inch. One cold eye stared at him.

"What?" Raven demanded.

"Robin wanted me to tell you that he's starting patrols up again. Starfire's out at the moment and you're replacing her at 4:00," Beast Boy informed her.

"Is that all?" Raven asked.

"Is there anything you want at the grocery store?" Beast Boy asked.

"More tea," Raven answered before the door slammed shut.

Beast Boy sighed. Oh well, it's not like he expected much anyway. Time to get the groceries. Since Cyborg wouldn't let him take the T-Car, he was stuck flying over to the grocery store. Which sucked, because it meant he had to fly back. And the bags they had were not meant for flying. Nor swimming. Maybe he should ask Cyborg for some more durable bags.

"Let's see, we need some veggies, gonna get some tofu, some yogurt, mustard of course, relish, mayo, cereal, waffle mix, pop-tarts, some white bread, rye bread, hamburger and hot dog buns," Beast Boy muttered. "Gah! Look at all this meat. Ground beef, steak, pork, chicken, bacon, venison, salmon, shrimp, lobster. How can anyone eat all this? Well, Starfire has nine stomachs, so I guess that's fair. But there's no way Cyborg and Robin eat this much. No way!"

Grumbling the whole time about cannibalism and animal slaughter, Beast Boy went throughout the store collecting the various items on his list. But finally there was nothing else on his list. Grimacing, he mentally steeled himself to go over near the raw meat. He pulled out his nose plugs and shoved them in his nose, and grabbed disposable plastic gloves to put on his fabric gloves. He went through the frozen meat section as fast as he could, barely even looking at the meat before shoving it in a plastic bag, tying it as tightly as he could and moving on. Beast Boy checked out with his Titan's credit card, on which he had a monthly balance. He'd get Robin to pay him back later. Boy Wonder gave himself the most money. Greedy man. Once he felt like the bags were secure in his pterodactyl claws, he took off towards the Tower.

After he was done putting the groceries away, Beast Boy fell back on the couch with an oomph. Raven was sitting there, reading some book.

"Man, I still can't believe how much meat Cy eats," Beast Boy groaned. "I mean, think of all the animals he's killing!"

Raven just shrugged. "Food is food."

Beast Boy gasped, putting his hand on his heart in mock hurt. "Raven, how could you say such a thing? Truly, this puts a tear in my heart."

"Just like Phobia did?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy stopped his act and glared at the empath. "I told you, I'm fine."

"Beast Boy, Phobia's powers do not create fear. They capitalize on preexisting fear. Whatever she showed you had the very real ability to make you run away like you did," Raven said. "If you want to be a better hero, you need to get over whatever fear Phobia showed you."

"Oh, so now you think I'm not a good enough hero?" Beast Boy snapped. "I recall taking down Dr. Light all by myself just Monday."

"I could take Dr. Light down just by showing up," Raven argued.

"Unfair advantage," Beast Boy dismissed. "I'm a fine hero. Maybe you should work on being a better friend."

Beast Boy got up and stalked out of the common room, wishing he could slam his sliding door.