COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER

I DO NOT own the TEEN TITANS! All rights to the characters belong to DC and CARTOON NETWORK.

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Chapter 1

Jump City was unusually peaceful in the two years that passed since their protectors, the Teen Titans, defeated the Brotherhood of Evil, especially during the night hours where all the buildings would glitter their little lights that reflected off the dormant body of water surrounding their T-shaped landmark.

The Titan's Tower stood regally after all this time, its original five founders refusing to let complacency stop them from maintaining vigilance for any threats that did surface occasionally, but they were mainly just Monster-of-the-Week occurences; it's been forever since a Big Bad Villain reared his or her ugly head to cause some real trouble.

Other than that, the place never felt so much safer. What else was there left to do?

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Inside a peculiar room, dressed in silked curtains, riddled with books and decorated with ancient magical artifacts, an empath shot up on her bed, glistening with sweat and breathing hoarsely.

Rubbing the moist off her face, she straightened herself and crossed her legs to take in a deep breath so she can calm her pacing heart.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." She murmured, over and over again until she was stable once more.

Raven immediately checked her bedside clock and groaned to see that it was only two in the morning.

"Great..."

While she had calmed herself, her mind wouldn't let her go back to sleep; it was all thanks to this bizarre dream that she could hardly even remember. Nonetheless, she concentrated hard enough to dig out the images she could find to try and piece those clues together.

Water along a muddy river, ripples swirling around rocks like serpents...

Trees, vines and foliage entangled together under the gleaming sun rays, inhabited by cold-blooded reptillian wildlife...

Two adults, an man and a woman whom she had no familiarity with, marked with fresh cuts all over their bodies, painting them crimson red beyond recognition...

And finally...

The hulking form of a werebeast glowering over the corpses with eyes that are as deathly as its pearly white fangs and sword-like claws sparkling the same ruby under the moonlight.

She wondered why of all times she dreamed of this now. The beast form, she could understand since it took her back to that incident with Beast Boy and Adonis, but those people in the jungle... that part didn't make sense.

Then again... when did dreams ever make sense?

Shaking it off as a nightly nuisance, Raven got out of bed and made for the common room to make some herbal tea, careful not wake anyone in the corridors.

As she faced the large window overlooking the shore, her thoughts wandered over to the green changeling, and everything they've been through with the team — this was happening rather frequently, in fact, and it made her unsure of how to deal with it.

Not wanting to bother with that situation or anything that required use of her brain muscles this late, she finished her tea and turned her sights to the rooftop.

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When she straight-up phased to the top floor, she immediately sensed that she wasn't alone. Looking to the edge, she found Beast Boy himself sitting there, facing the luminescent starfield.

"Couldn't sleep either?" he called out without having to face the sorceress.

Raven moaned as a response. Folding her arms, she went over to sit down next to him with her legs tucked in.

Being this close to each other, they were both reminded of how much had changed physically.

With a sideglance, Beast Boy took in Raven's beautiful features. She had allowed her indigo hair to grow to its full length, as evidenced by the way it danced to the gentle breeze. As well as that, she now preferred to wear all white as opposed to black, much like the form she took when she defeated her father, Trigon.

But her most notable feature wasn't her calm face that matured to look more womanly, but her modest smile that gave her a more approachable vibe.

When Raven took her turn to glance her her teammate, he quickly averted his eyes back in front, but not before she caught him and smirked.

Beast Boy's changes were more drastic. Firstly, he was a couple of inches taller now, which didn't seem much at first without mentioning the fact that he managed to finally surpass her in height. His shoulers were broader, which gave the rest of his lean body that V-shape. He also ditched his old Doom Patrol outfit for a white-red striped getup with his sleeves cropped to display the definition of his arms.

Most importantly, his face had lengthened somewhat to take on a more mature appearance, along with his hair that he now slicked back to resemble a lion's mane, having also decided to let it grow out a bit. The only two featured he retained here his pointy elven ears and the single fang that portruded upward from the left side of his mouth.

The male Titan decided to clear the silence. "You okay, Rae?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Just because we're getting along now doesn't give you the privilege of calling me Rae."

He could only throw up his hands in response. "Okay, chill." The sorceress softened, giving the changeling the opening to face her. "Seriously, though... are you alright?"

"I'm fine." she said bluntly, "Just couldn't pass the time with sleep."

"Oh, so you came to see me?" Beast Boy bounced an eyebrow, which earned him an eyeroll.

"Don't flatter yourself, Garfield."

Raven couldn't resist using his real name to embarass him, and it worked enough to make him back off.

Still, she had to wonder why he was up here? Her empathetic powers were able to pick up signals of uncertainty and... fear, which were all ringing from him.

It was only when he started rubbing circles over his chest, as if there was discomfort in that area, that she questioned him. "What are you doing up here?"

Expecting a half-assed excuse, she is surprised to hear an honest reply from him. "Nightmares..."

Him too?

"Was it about the tofu invasion again?"

He shook, his expression darkening. "It was about home, back in Africa." He cleared his throat and inhaled. "I saw my parents again..."

Raven was already sensing more to this, and she wanted to dig deeper.

"Your parents?"

"I was with them again, but..." He shuddered. "They were dead." His face hung from the sky.

A while back, Beast Boy opened up to everyone about the boating accident that orphaned him, and this was long before he found the Doom Patrol. Needless to say, it touched them all deeply, and as well as that, it seemed to have strengthened their bond that much more as it gave everyone a deeper understanding of where their green friend came from.

"Was it about the accident again?"

Beast Boy tensed harder, his fingers still digging for his heart. "N—No... it wasn't." His voice began to falter. "It was something else."

Raven glimpsed back into her own dream and connected a dot. "Was it the beast?"

After a minute of hesitation, he only nodded while looking further away from the girl. "I saw it... standing over their bodies... with blood everywhere."

This confirmed it; the dream she had might not have actually been hers at all, but why?

"Are you afraid of losing control again?"

"No." He shook and took his hand off his chest to wipe his face. "That's not it." There was even a sniffle.

"You can tell me." Raven assured without sounding like she was trying to prod him.

When Beast Boy returned his gaze to her, his eyes got that extra sheen under the moonlight — he was holding back tears.

"Thanks, Raven." He gave her his trademark warm smile. "Just give me some time, first."

A little disappointed by this result, she nonetheless nodded in respect. She had to admire his developed maturity, despite retaining some of his boyish quirks.

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Beast Boy took a trip to the bathroom to do his usual business before he went in front of the mirror to linger there for a while.

He hunched over the sink, both hands on the ceramic holding his weight up, squinting hard to banish those foul memories into oblivion.

"Dude, why did I have to dream of that again?" He lifted his head to view his reflection through the steam — his cheeks sagging, which he assumed was from lack of sleep.

But when the light above him flickered, something he saw right in that split-second threw him against the wall behind him.

"No!" He cried.

What he saw in that moment of darkness was the same grizzly face of that beast baring its teeth at him... the same one in his dream that stood over the mutilated bodies of his parents.

"No, no, no, no, no!" He grasped his scalp. "You're not here!"

There was low monstrous chuckle that came from everywhere at once.

"Get out!" He groaned, his teeth chattering. "Stay away from me!"

A sharp trio of knocks jolted the Titan back, and the laughter faded.

"Yo, B!" It was Cyborg voice. "You okay in there? I heard some yelling."

Beast Boy took only a second to conjure his best excuse. "Yeah, I'm okay, Cy! I was just c—constipated!"

He smirked when he heard a shudder of disgust from the other end of the door, which meant that it worked.

Regining some semblance of composure, the changeling marched past the puzzled cybernetic Titan back to his room to hopefully get more shut-eye.

This, however, was only the beginning...

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Author's Note: Hello, dear readers! Yes, I am back this time to write a story around one of my favorite cartoon shows of all time, centering mainly on my favorite two characters. There will be action in the next issue, and there could even be blood! You want to find out? Stay tuned! Feel free to leave a review or question, and I shall answer them in the next entry, depending on what they are. Cheers!