Beast Boy looked down at the block of tofu, at its off-white color and crisp edges. It was a versatile food, tofu; his friends didn't appreciate it. Being in and of itself rather dully flavored, it took on the characteristics of whatever it was being served with. He'd whipped up stir fries with tofu that even Cyborg had confessed to liking, though to be fair he had needed rather offensive amounts of garlic and soy sauce for that. Though he tended to go with the firm variety, silken tofu made for creamy sauces and delicate deserts. He'd been with the Doom Patrol when the idea to go vegetarian had first occurred to him. They'd been in a fight and he'd turned into his first dinosaur. The ankylosaurus he'd used against Dr. Light in fact. The reptilian mind is instinctual, not overly intelligent but powerful, and the prey instincts had been so strong a young Beast Boy had become completely nonfunctional. The dinosaur wanted to destroy the threat, it hadn't known it was invulnerable, and it had taken everything he'd had to hold it back, to restrain the violent fear that had coursed through his armored body.

'This is what they feel like,' he'd thought to himself while Mento was ripping him a new one for freezing in the middle of a fight. 'This fear… this is how they feel before they die.'

His parents had been biologists and, for a short time, raised him in the African jungle. He understood the natural order of things. He knew his eyes faced forward and his canines were meant to cut meat. He knew that large amounts of protein were in no small part responsible for the evolution of Australopithecus into Homo erectus; more than that, he knew that the serum that had saved his life and turned him green had also enhanced his predatory features. Made him more of a killer than he already was. And yet that fear, the feeling of being a prey animal. Everything inside him wanted nothing more than to consume the flesh of others, like any human, but that fear. The idea of inflicting it onto something else, knowing what they felt, knowing their terror in their last moments. Pigs are smarter than four-year-old humans, more emotional and empathetic, but we eat the pigs and not the toddlers. Hadn't seemed right. So he stopped.

Mento had been personally offended; a child should eat what they were given, but Elasti-Girl had understood. Her softness had always been a source of strength for him and she'd taught him how to cook vegetarian meals. That you have to press the tofu first for about 30 min to get the water out, that the secret to vegetables was roasting them. It had been hard at first; he'd missed the elastic sensation of meat against his teeth and wholesome saltiness of their juices. The way he'd torn at the flesh when no one was looking. His body had cried out, revolted, but he'd stuck with it because he wasn't going to be responsible for any more terror. Because he didn't want to hurt anyone or anything. Not then, anyway. And slowly, it became easier. Slowly it became a part of who he was.

It hadn't been hard to eat the tofu, not for years, not since before he became a Titan. There had been one time… when the Beast had come out and he'd indulged in Robin's pork. Then it had been a simple matter of desire. He'd wanted it so he'd taken it. He'd had a lack of impulse control is all. He could've had the tofu instead just as easily. Now, though, something was different. Something was hard, like it had been in the early days when he'd weened himself off meat. As he stared at the tofu it stared back at him and, even though all he wanted was to eat it, the idea of putting it in his mouth repulsed him. For two days now, little by little, his vegetarian diet had been growing more and more repulsive. Beast Boy had gotten it down last night, but today.

Swallowing hard, Beast Boy breathed deeply, poured some soy sauce over the tofu, and cut off a corner with the side of his fork. The tofu compressed then gave way, too easily, and when he stabbed the corner with the tines they went in without any resistance. It had no smell, no flavor, and this spongey, grainy texture. Beast Boy felt very strongly that he didn't want to, but he hadn't eaten all day. And if he didn't do it now the other Titans would come for their dinner and notice his distress. Cyborg had already made a snide comment last night along the lines of the superiority of meat; if they knew Beast Boy the vegetarian was currently inclined to agree they'd go ballistic. He pressed his corner of tofu into a pool of soy sauce and swirled it around, sopping up the salty goodness, then he put it in his mouth. Willed his teeth to close around it and pulled the fork slowly from his lips.

It was vile, like paper. His body mobilized to reject it, but Beast Boy was quicker, forcing it down. Instantly his stomach fought back, clenching and churning. Beast Boy set the fork down and gripped the counter, opening his mouth and trying to breathe normally. It was useless. Heat rose up his neck and into his face, his jaw ached, and inside his mouth saliva was beginning to build. He knew what came next and made it over to the sink just in time for his body to vomit the barely masticated chunk of tofu back up. He heaved into the basin, holding the head out of the way so he could fit half his torso into the sink. Once, then again, his body heaved, expelling stomach slime and acid. His throat burned and his body ached, but after that his gut seemed satisfied.

Something's wrong, he thought urgently. Something's wrong with me.

Nothing is wrong, answered a voice inside him, more of a sensation than actual words. Pain seared across his skull like an electric current and he let out a low whimper, pressing his palms over his eyes. Everything is as it is meant to be. You are as you were meant to be.

"Beast Boy?"

Raven's voice cut above the pain and the skin on his back pricked as she came up behind him. He knew he had to act now, to tell her that something was wrong- had been wrong for days now, but he couldn't think over the pain. The pain in his head and the hunger in his stomach, they were drowning him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," said his voice from still inside the sink. He turned on the water, drank a mouthful which he swished around and then spat out, and then straightened. Without looking at her he started to flush the vomit down the drain. "Bad tofu. I let it sit for too long."

"Food poisoning usually takes a few hours to set in," she said skeptically.

"My body works differently than yours," he dodged, sounding believable but avoiding her gaze all the same. "It's just the tofu. I'll need to get more."

"Why do I feel like you're lying to me?"

"I dunno," he shot back, tucking his chin to his chest and finishing his task, keeping his back turned. "Because you're paranoid? Geez, I go out for one night and everyone loses their minds."

"Paranoid," she repeated, the slightest hint of offense slipping into her voice. "Beast Boy, you didn't "go out for one night," you were missing. You don't remember what happened and now you're sick."

"I told you, the tofu's bad."

"And staying in your room all the time? Avoiding your friends and then acting like a jerk every time you do speak? Is that bad tofu too?"

"I'm fine…" he trailed off, leaning heavily on the sink.

Inside him a voice was screaming, the real Beast Boy, the one that agreed with her. He didn't know what had happened or what was happening and it scared him. And yet the whispers were louder, the feeling of his instincts squirming inside him was louder. They brought pain into his head every time he resisted or asked questions and he couldn't overcome it. Beast Boy brought a hand up to his face again, pressing the space between his eyes into the heel of his palm and entwining his fingers in his own hair. Raven approached him and, when he still didn't turn around, reached out to him. Pressed a cool hand between his shoulder blades and establishing a more intimate empathic connection.

"You're hurting," she observed. "Beast Boy, why won't you admit that? Why do you keep lying about it?"

"Why do you care," he snapped suddenly, turning abruptly to face her and catching her wrist.

His eyes were an olive sort of amber, barely green at all anymore, and the pupils were dilated, vast and black. In them she could see hunger and anger, not mischief, not happiness. It was true, she hadn't spent a lot of time looking into Beast Boy's eyes, what with the intimacy attached to prolonged eye contact. Even when they had been… vulnerable, with each other, she'd tried not to look him in the eye. Because when she did, when she caught him looking at her, she could see desire. That perplexed her and she'd brushed it off, putting all thoughts of his eyes out of her mind. Now, though, she summoned them and remembered that his eyes were not amber. They were soft and the same shade of green as a pine forest, dark such that the black of his pupil blended seamlessly into the green.

"I've always cared," she answered defensively.

"Now who's lying," he snorted, still holding her wrist and keeping their bodies close.

"Just because I don't show my emotions doesn't mean I don't have them," she snipped, tugging at her wrist.

Her struggles just made him tighten his grip and Raven started to become concerned she was going to have to fight him. In his eyes she was starting to see desire overcome the anger, but it wasn't like before. It was a twisted, animalistic sort of desire, his hunger focusing on her. For the first time Raven considered the possibility that Beast Boy, at least, the one they knew, wasn't in control. And yet the controlled way in which he was breathing, the tension in his hand that suggested he was holding himself back, these things were undoubtedly Beast Boy, a Beast Boy in the throughs of a powerful emotional response. Had she just… never noticed before?

"Don't tell me that," he said in a low growl. "Don't pretend like you're not over the moon about this. You should be happy I'm out of your hair."

"I'm not," she shot back, looking down and into his eyes that were all wrong and yet somehow still Beast Boy. A Beast Boy who was out of control. Without thinking, she had a slip of her own: "I miss you. I'm worried about you."

A series of transformations passed over Beast Boy's features. First there was this happy relief, like he'd waited a long time to hear her say that. Like it validated some faint hope inside him. He let go of her wrist and instead reached for her cheek, running his abnormally cold fingertips over her skin. She didn't know what Beast Boy's regular temperature was, but had always assumed he'd run hot. The cold of his hand on her face sent a shiver down her spine. He tried to smile at her, but froze, frowning instead; his gaze fell to the floor and he looked at it like it was speaking to him, saying something cruel but compelling. And in his head she could sense whispers, almost beyond question but not so much so that she could make a real accusation. His face looked sad, then angry. Defiantly, he swung his eyes back up to hers and snarled at her.

"Nice try," he mocked. "But I'm not going to let you manipulate me. I'm not sick and I'm not taking any of your tests. So just drop it."

With that he side stepped her and, leaving his dishes again for someone else to clean up, left the living room. Raven watched him go with a little frown on her face and a tingle in her stomach. She was now certain of two things: one, that there was something terribly wrong, be it psychological trauma or a physical invasion and two, Beast Boy was… attracted to her. She would need to gather evidence for the first, something concrete she could bring to the rest of the team so they might circumvent Beast Boy's consent to be tested. As for the second, she really didn't know what to do about that. In retrospect she'd suspected, but, not viewing herself as a desirable woman to begin with, she'd simply dismissed the possibility. Now, though, she'd gotten a glimpse of his feelings for her, unfiltered and unrestrained. He'd reached out for her and she had not pulled away. What did that mean?

Wordlessly, she turned back to the tofu and soy sauce. A simple dinner Beast Boy favored when he didn't feel like cooking. Not nutritionally balanced at all, what with the total lack of a vegetable, but enough to sustain him. Usually he made it look nice with some green onions as garnish. Not tonight though. She picked up his fork, cut off another corner, and placed the tofu on her tongue. Not finding anything immediately offensive, she closed her mouth around it, chewed, and swallowed. It was as she suspected: the tofu was fine. Beast Boy, however, was not.

It had now been a full 50 hours since Beast Boy had eaten and he was ravenous. His head ached constantly and his stomach hurt like it was trying to eat itself. But he couldn't even stand the sight of tofu anymore and he couldn't keep down beans or vegetables. Everything he put in his mouth except water came right back up. After Raven had caught him the first time he'd stopped doing it in the sink, sneaking food back to his room with its attached bathroom where he could vomit into a toilet directly. The Titans had noticed his absence at mealtimes, and this had only served to heighten their concern. It wouldn't be long now before they turned on him, the voice inside his mind said. It wouldn't be long now before they took him up on his offer to hold him down and run tests. This couldn't be allowed to happen. He didn't know what they'd find, only that it didn't want to be found. The whispers lurking inside him, changing him. In his gut Beast Boy knew that it wouldn't be long now before those whispers and his own will became one and the same. That scared him and thrilled him and confused him; he wanted to tell his friends before that happened. However, the whispers wouldn't allow that. So instead they played this game in which every move he made was wrong.

He ducked nimbly out of the way as Adonis took another swing at him, holding himself back, restraining the impulse to simply tear him apart and be done. If Robin had had kittens over a few cracked ribs, Beast Boy didn't want to think about what he'd do if Adonis came to any harm. Beast Boy had to be careful, cautious, or else the secrets inside him would be discovered. Even the whispers wanted him to stay calm, but the Beast Boy they were creating was an animal that wouldn't be held back. Eventually Beast Boy sensed this would be desirable, that some force was going to unleash him on the world, but for now, under the Titan's watchful stares, he had to act incompetent. Beast Boy saw the next hit coming and an image of himself ripping out Adonis's trachea flashed before his eyes. He froze and the hit landed in his already aching stomach, sending him back into a pile of crates. The back of his head collided with the hard edge of one of them and his vision went white, ears ringing.

"So much for the animal," Adonis mocked, bringing up his mechanically encased fist to admire it. "Seems the Titans are no match for my new suit!"

"Don't count us out yet," spat Robin, jumping from the rafters and giving Adonis a hard crack on his helmet with his bo staff.

Adonis let out a yelp of pain and spun, catching the Boy Wonder as he landed with another mechanized punch. Robin absorbed most of the blow with his crossed forearms, but was sent stumbling back. His victory was short-lived; Cyborg nailed him in the chest with his sonic cannon and then it was Adonis's turn to stumble. Beast Boy, recovering himself, had another vibrantly intrusive thought about burying his snout into Adonis's soft abdomen and tearing out his intestines. His breath stilled and his eyes went wide. This was the first time he'd been in a sustained fight since… and before, he'd had no problems hurting Dr. Light. Adonis was a criminal, sure, and he was there to steal a shipment meant for the nearby laboratories. He hurt people, but did that mean he should be disemboweled?

Yes, affirmed the whispers in his head. But not while they're watching.

I can't, he whispered back. My stomach hurts and I…

Raven levitated in, her eyes alight with raw power, but she'd overestimated how stunned Adonis was. He leapt at her, grabbing her out of the air and slamming her onto the ground. Held her arms above her head and straddled her waist. She looked so small next to his armored suit and, even though rationally he knew she was more than capable of getting out of this on her own, his instincts screamed at him that she was in danger. That Adonis was hurting her.

Beast Boy lost it. Transforming into a cheetah, he let out a monstrous roar and ran towards Raven faster than any of the other Titans could even think to help her. But when he got there he didn't tackle Adonis like he usually would have, going after his suit in an attempt to disarm him. No, when he got close he transformed into a saltwater crocodile and bit into Adonis's side. Not just hard, as hard as he could. He felt the crumpling of metal, the current of the electric bits as he severed wires, and then something soft. Something warm and then wet. Adonis positively howled, rolling off Raven and taking Beast Boy with him. The struggling just made Beast Boy's teeth sink in deeper and in his white eyes a frenzy was building. Grabbing the crocodile's jaws, Adonis pried them apart and then threw the green reptile as hard as he could. It wasn't hard enough and Beast Boy transformed back into a human, skidding across the floor in a crouch.

His lips were parted and his fangs shown red with Adonis's blood. Time slowed down as Adonis watched him. First he inhaled, nostrils flaring, picking up the scent of blood on the air. The suit had taken most of the blow, but still, Adonis could feel warm wetness making its way down his side. Then Beast Boy brought a hand to his lips, touching the blood and bringing his fingertips to his nose. Smelling that. His eyes rolled back in his head and his tongue ran slowly over his teeth, tasting the red essence of Adonis's fragile life, savoring it. When he looked at Adonis again it wasn't the way a hero looks at a villain, not the way a person looks at an opponent. Beast Boy was looking at him like he was something he wanted to kill and eat, the way a predator looks at prey. Adonis was so caught off guard with fear he didn't even notice Cyborg behind him, ripping out his power supply and rendering his suit harmless.

"Leash your dog," he chastised when he found his voice, not bothering to resist as he was hauled to his feet and handcuffed.

Beast Boy curled back his lips and flattened his ears against his skull, snarling. Adonis could still see he wanted to kill him, the hunger in his eyes, but for the moment the hero was back in control, and he restrained himself. At least mostly. His amber eyes flicked to Cyborg, who was staring at him critically, over to Starfire, who had her hands over her mouth, to Robin with his arms folded and that analytical look in his eyes. Then, finally, to Raven. She was standing and looking passive, but when she moved, coming to his side and placing aa restraining hand on his shoulder, he could tell that he'd scared her. Beast Boy closed his lips around his fangs and swallowed, shuddering at how good the blood tasted. How right it had felt to bury his teeth into flesh once again, the thrill as his jaws had tightened on squirming prey. They'd seen it too, his friends had all seen him slip. They'd do something about it.

Without staying to see what, Beast Boy transformed into a hummingbird and flew faster than the eye could track from the warehouse. The others could take care of the arrest without him; for now, he needed space. And time to think of an excuse, something believable. Even if they could've, no one followed him and he sped towards the city, off into the pale light of a waning moon.