Raven sat up in bed, screaming.

Beast Boy came runn ing down the hall.  “Raven, what’s wrong?” he said.

“Gar! Someone’s in some sort of … psychic agony!” Raven said.  As he sat on the edge of the bed, she put her shaking arms on his shoulder.  “Someone reaching out … here!”

“Trying to reach you?” Gar asked.

“No,” said Raven.  “Trying to reach you!”

“Me?!”

Raven nodded.  “I don’t understand it, and I can’t sort out who it is, but the empathic signature is definitely seeking you.”

“Why can’t you tell who it is?” Gar asked.

“Something’s … garbled,” Raven said.  “Whatever happened has left the poor thing’s mind and soul … fractured somehow.”

“Can you get a fix on it?”

Raven’s focus shifted to the empathic scream.  “Ow!!” she said.  “Northern California, on the coastline.”

“Can you take us there?”

“Are you ready to go?” Raven asked.

Gar nodded.  “Let’s do this.”

Raven’s soul-self emerged and enveloped them both.  Instantly they were hovering over the northern California shoreline.  Gar shifted into the form of an eagle; Raven could fly on her own.

“Gar’s eagle eyes couldn’t spot anything immediately.  “Where is this person?” he asked.

Raven focused for a moment, then dipped briefly in the sky due to the empathic pain.  She pointed north.  “There,” she said.  “Not far.”

Gar started flying north.  In less than a minute, he spotted a puddle of something flesh-colored moving uphill on the beach.

Gar looked back to Raven, who nodded, clearly in pain.  “That’s … her,” she said.

Fear gripped Gar’s heart.  There were only a few “hers” who were significant enough in his life to be seeking him.  He was flying with one, and he’d lost the most obvious other once before.  He didn’t want to lose her again.

Gar swooped down and transformed into his normal green humanoid self as he landed.  He looked to the puddle.  “Hello?”  he said.

Immediately the puddle lurched toward him.  He reached out his arm to it and it wrapped itself around the outstretched limb.

Raven had landed.  “The empathic pain has eased considerably with your presence,” she said.

Looking only at the puddle, Gar said to Raven, “Can you tell who it is?”

Raven concentrated for a moment, then worry ran across her face.  “Gar, the images -- dating back to when you first started as Beast Boy --”

Gar looked at Raven.  “It’s Rita, isn’t it?  It’s my mom.”

Emotion overwhelmed Raven to where she couldn’t speak as she nodded.

“Mom?”  Gar said to the puddle.  It moved up his arm and wrapped itself around his torso, hugging him.

Gar was fighting to keep from crying.  “How did this happen?” he asked.

Raven’s brow furrowed.  “Whatever trauma happened, it was here this afternoon,” she said.  ‘And it involved Chemo.”

Gar nodded.  “He must have just … dissolved her,” he said.  “It’s a miracle she’s still alive.”

Raven was scanning nearby minds.  “Apparently, she stopped him as he was attacking,” she said.  “I’m picking up from nearby minds that Elasti-Woman saved the community.”

Gar patted the oozing gelatin.  “You done good, Mom.  Let’s get you some help.”

He looked pack at Raven.  “I’m assuming this is too much for your healing powers to handle, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Raven.

“OK, so we’ve got to help her some other way,” he said.  “Best ideas I’ve got are any STAR Labs remnants around and Project Cadmus.  I’m thinking Cadmus is our best bet.  Can we find any of the hidden locations and get her there?”

Raven’s face went blank.  “Got one,” she said.  “Let’s go.”

After another soul-self trip, the threesome found itself in the entrance of a Cadmus center.  Two of the scientists -- one male, one female -- and a guard were startled on their arrival.  The guard pulled a high-tech-looking gun., then relaxed when he recognized the two identifiable heroes.

“We need help!” Gar said.  “This … ooze is Elasti-Woman.  She’s still alive, but I don’t know for how long.”

The female scientist darted to an intercom.  “We need a stasis chamber and an analysis room, stat!” she said.

“She wants to be with Gar,”  Raven said.  “ She doesn’t recognize me, but she understands I’m helping her connect to him.  But she wants him there.”

“Then I’m there,” Gar said.  The male scientist nodded.  “Can she hear us?”

“I think so,” Gar said.  “She responded to my voice earlier.”

The scientist looked to the gelatinous form.  “Ms. Farr, you’re at Project Cadmus.  “We’re going to do what we can to help you, but first we’ve got to figure out what happened and what your condition is exactly.”

“We know she was attacked by Chemo, the old monster the Metal Men have faced,” Raven said.  Beyond that, specifics aren’t available.”

“Got it,” the male scientist said.  “Beast Boy, if it’ll make it more comfortable for her, you’re welcome to come along.  Raven, I think we’ll need you for whatever communication we can maintain.  Let’s go.”

Other scientists and assistants burst out.  Two carried a containment vessel that resembled an aquarium.

“If we get her in the vessel, it can start gathering data while we’re carrying her back to the lab,” the female scientist said.

Gar nodded.  He looked to the ooze.  “Mom, you heard them.  The best chance to help you  means getting in that … tank.  Don’t worry.  I’ll be right here.  You’re not going anywhere without me.”

The ooze slid down Gar’s arm as he placed his hand at the edge of the tank.  It flowed into the vessel, keeping a tendril in touch with his hand.  That moment was too much for Gar, as he felt his adoptive mother’s love even with her in this devastated state.  He began to sob uncontrollably.

Suddenly Gar felt a warmth enfold him.  Experience told him it was Raven, comforting him, sharing his emotional pain.  He looked to his girlfriend.  Thanks, he thought.

she replied.

It was better than two hours later before the scientists had their information.  A Dr. Thompson spoke to Gar and Raven.

Thompson shook his head.  “We don’t see how even the exotic chemicals in Chemo could have done this, but Ms. Farr’s entire bodily structure has been virtually dissolved,” he said.  “We found a single nearly micropscopic fragment of what we believe to be her skull; the rest of her is just protoplasm; sentient, and possessing hearing and possibly other senses, but without any bones or organs -- yet still alive.”

Gar was glad he was sitting down.  “Can you do anything for her?”

“Yes, actually,” Thompson said.  “We can regrow her organs, skeleton and other parts.  Normally, that would take months, but with her powers we should be able to accomplish it in days.  But there is a concern.”

“What’s that?” Gar asked.

Thompson looked at Raven.  “You said Ms. Farr’s mind and spirit seem … broken somehow,” he said.  “Does that include her memories?”

“I believe so,” Raven said.  “The memory images I’m seeing become … spotty starting in her teen years and continuing through the rest of her life.  How much of that is trauma, which would make the memories retrievable, and how much is actual damage, which might leave them permanently inaccessible, I can’t say.”

Thompson nodded.  “That’s what we were afraid of.”

“OK you’re going to need to explain that,” Gar said.

Thompson drew a deep breath.  “You see, Ms. Farr’s powers are voluntary.  How far we can regrow her may depend on what her mind will allow us to do.”

Gar looked at the vessel where the ooze now rested.  “You listening, Mom?”

“She is,” Raven said.

Thompson blushed.  “I’m sorry, Ms. Farr.  Your current … appearance caused me to forget you were paying attention.  My point is, how you look will depend in part on the genetics, and in part of where your mind will allow us to go.  You may well not look as you did before the attack.  Do you understand?”

“She does,” Raven said.  “She wants to know how soon we can start.”

“Right away,” Thompson said.  “We’ll have the process ready to begin within the hour.” He left.

Gar smiled at the ooze.  “Don’t worry, Mom,” he said.  “They’ll have you back to human again in a few days., and I’m staying here until they do.”

“And I’m staying with him,” Raven said.  Then she smiled.  “Gar, I think she likes me.”

He beamed at Raven.  “I told you my mom had good taste,” he said.