Prequel to The New Titans: The Beginning of the Start. This is how Raven and Beast Boy got together. Thought it would be a fun break from the Trilogy. ALSO, THIS EXPLAINS THE WEIRD MACHINE SLADE HAS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE START (if you haven't read that, don't worry, it will still make sense if you read this first, in fact, it will clear a few things up.

Please Read and Review and enjoy.

The battle had been raging all night. Slade had returned and he had brought his robot army with him, and it was up to the Teen Titans to put a stop to him. They didn't care at the moment how Slade returned, all they cared about at the moment was stopping Slade. Cyborg and Starfire were busy keeping the Sladebots at bay while Robin and Beast chased Slade up a cliff and Raven went to cut Slade off.

Beast Boy grunted as he continued climbing. He was only a step behind his fearless leader Robin in the climb, but he couldn't shake the feeling of uselessness. Everyone was doing their part and he was falling behind in the chase!

"Beast Boy! Come on we're losing him!" Beast boy grunted at the Boy Wonder. Robin just had to have everybody at his level. He continued to climb. Slade turned around to deliver another one of his boastful insults, sometimes he wouldn't shut up.

"Come on Titans, you really think you can stop me?" Beast Boy could feel the eyes behind the man's mask pierce through his soul, sending shivers down his spine. He looked behind Slade and smiled.

"They may not be able to keep up, but I can." Slade's eye widened and he looked back up the face of the cliff. Standing completely horizontal off the cliff wall, a blue-cloaked figure was blocking his path. The girl's cloak was swaying in the wind, revealing the girl's full figure. Beast Boy felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he realized that he was staring at the empath. Slade though, had regained his composure.

"Ahh, isn't it our little friend Raven? How's the old man? Still trying to use you?" Slade's voice spoke calmly, but the Titans could tell the venom in his voice. As much as the villain hated the Titans, he hated Raven the most. "Oh, and one question. Do you know how to swim?"

Raven looked at the villain. Had Slade gone crazy in the years he had been missing? She shook her head of the thought, Slade was always crazy, that's why he was a villain. Before Raven could respond, it happened.

The explosion came from inside of the cliff, blasting outward. It had been a trap all along. Beast Boy watched helplessly as Raven's eyes widened, flames engulfing her entire body. Everything seemed to be going in slow-motion, Beast Boy tried to move to help her, but it felt as if his entire body was tied down. He looked up to see Robin reach for his grappling hook, it was all going very slowly. Raven fell down the cliff, past Slade, past Robin… past Beast Boy.

"HOLY EXPLODING CLIFFSIDE!" Robin shouted. Beast Boy had noticed that he was making a lot of those comments lately, he didn't really care though – Robin may have been having "one of those phases." But that wasn't important now, Raven was falling and Beast Boy had to do something; so he did the only thing he could do… he followed.

Beast Boy pushed himself against the cliff and backflipped off its side. He kept his entire body straight to gain speed, he had to catch Raven. He had too.

He was slowly creeping up on Raven. They were quickly falling towards the small pool of water that was in the middle of the battlefield. Slade had said earlier that there was something really special about the lake, but the Titans hadn't gotten anything more out of him, and that's when the battle started.

Beast Boy reached his arms out to Raven and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her close to him in a protective embrace. The pool of water was closing in on them and Beast Boy did the only thing he could think of doing, he closed his eyes and transformed.

It was almost instinctively, changing into the Beast, but the change wasn't a second too soon. Beast Boy took the full impact of the blast, forcing him to return to his human transformation. He was completely surrounded by water.

Thank God I'm alive. He thought to himself, he looked through the murky water and saw Raven floating down slowly, tiny air bubbles escaping her mouth. Beast Boy quickly looked around, trying to find someplace where he could safely take Raven. His eyes finally rested on what looked like a cave, praying that there was air in it, Beast Boy swam as fast as he could, dragging Raven behind him.

The cave stood out in the murky water. The entire opening was covered in ancient looking symbols. I wonder what those stand for? Beast Boy shook his head, he could find that out later.

Beast Boy swam farther and farther into the cave, he looked back to check on Raven and each time he did, he swam faster. The bubbles of air were becoming less and less and soon, there'd be none coming out at all. Then he saw the light.

Beast Boy swam as fast as he could and threw Raven up to the surface. She landed roughly onto the cave floor, Beast Boy winced at the sight of her limp body rolling across the ground. He got out of the water and immediately but his head to her chest. He felt a little awkward that his face was so close to her chest, but politeness never saved anybody. He listened for the sound of her breathing, he couldn't feel it.

Pulling himself up, Beast Boy began to push his hands against Raven's body, trying to force the water out of her. He looked at her face and realized he had to take a chance.

"Please don't kill me." With that he put his mouth against hers and blew, filling her lungs with air. He felt the sudden response and he pulled back, watching as she coughed the water out of her lungs. He put his hand on her back, rubbing it to try and comfort her as she hacked and spat the water out of her lungs.

As the pain from the fall subsided, Raven looked up at her green savior. He had a huge grin on his face, though it wasn't a smug smile, it was a smile of relief and happiness.

"Raven! Thank God you're alright! I thought I lost you!" Raven suddenly felt the warmth of his embrace engulf her body. She felt the blood rush to her face, and she thanked Azerath that Beast Boy didn't see her blush.

They just sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Beast Boy's ears suddenly perked up and his eyes widened. Quickly, he pushed Raven out of the way as an avalanche of rocks fell from the overhead. He tried to jump out of the way, but the rocks were too quick. Raven watched in horror as the rocks continued to fall, covering Beast Boy.. and the entrance.

"BEAST BOY!" Raven's eyes began to glow black as well as her hands as she furiously moved rocks aside. She continued to move the rocks until she saw a withered green hand sticking out, dusted and broken. Reacting to the sight of him, Raven worked harder, moving rocks around the hand. Pretty soon, the damaged body of Beast Boy was recovered from the wreck, but he was in a sorry state.

The sight of him made Raven's heart leap in her throat, but it also broke it. Seeing how the usually obnoxiously happy boy who was usually the peak of health and spirit, reduced to a crumpled state. He had even been more alive when Mumbo Jumbo had turned him into a shape shifting lamp. She felt tears forming in her eyes. She grabbed the broken body and pulled it out of the rubble, dragging the body across the rocky floor.

"Come on, heal." Her hands began to glow as she moved them up and down his body, she knew that her healing would only do good on some of the wounds, but he desperately needed medical attention. Exhausted, her hands fell to her side. She looked lazily at the form, it wasn't that she didn't care, it was that she was so tired from the healing.

She looked down at the body of her friend. She held her breath as she waited for the healing to kick in. She let out a gasp of air that she hadn't realized she had been holding as soon as he started breathing regularly again. She fell back against the wall, a little smile on her face. She was relieved, though they weren't in the clear.

The cave began to shake from explosions. Raven put up a weak shield to protect herself and Beast Boy from falling debris, though none would cause any real damage. The fight must be escalating. She thought. Better get out of here fast. She turned back to her green friend and shook him gently, trying to wake him.

"Beast Boy? I know you need the rest, but we got to move. Beast Boy, if you can hear me, get up." The animal boy groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He immediately groaned and winced at the pain. Raven rushed to his side and put his arm around her shoulder to try and support him. He leaned heavily downward as he almost passed out again. Raven grunted under his weight. He may have been thin, but his muscle made him surprisingly heavy. Raven suddenly felt a chill down her spine at the thought and the warmth of blood rushed to her face. She was so lucky that Beast Boy was semi-conscious, else he would've seen her massive blush. She felt extremely exposed and upon closer inspection, realized her entire robe was gone and she was only in her leotard. She blushed even harder. She felt so exposed and embarrassed, especially with a cute boy leaning on her heavily. Did she just think cute? Oh God, clichés! She shut her eyes in frustration… she hated clichés.

The cave shook above them, she sighed. She wished she was up there instead of having to having to take care of this child. A very muscular child…. Who was warm. Damn, no more clichés! She growled and continued forward, dragging "muscle boy" with her. She moved only a couple feet before the rocks behind them came crashing down. It was a close call and she was grateful.

"We are so damn lucky." She said aloud. She turned back around and came face to face with another wall.

…

"Shit."

They were trapped. She was alone, in her skin-tight leotard, with a guy whose muscles she couldn't stop thinking about. Joy. She felt Beast Boy stir underneath her arm and she felt that this was as good as time as any to have him be completely awake. She leaned in closely in his ear and spoke in soft whispers.

"Robin's name is Dick."

The effect was almost immediate. Beast Boy shot up violently and laughed hysterically.

"Haha, you called Robin: Dick! Ha ha!" he stopped and blinked for a while before he grimaced in pain. "Thanks for putting me in more pain Rae." He leaned his bloodied head against the rock wall the avalanche created and sighed. Today was not ending well. He looked at Raven and was actually thankful that he was green.

Just seeing her in only her dark purple, skin-tight leotard aroused him. He gently shook his head as to not disturb the wound as he tried to shake the thought. No! Bad Beast Boy! That is a no-no! he thought to himself. He just hoped Raven was too preoccupied to feel the sudden wave of emotion coming from him. He looked around to focus on something else to see if he could change his emotions. He looked down at his Doom Patrol suit and groaned at the sight.

His suit was, put simply, trashed. There were rips and holes everywhere and the large, purplish bruises on his body were ugly and visible. Great, now I need a new suit. He looked back at Raven and gave her a small smile.

"Well, it looks like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place," he gave a small chuckle at his joke, "You got any cards?"

Raven raised her eyebrow at her green friend. If he hadn't been injured she would have thrown him against the wall and used him as her own personal digging device. But he was right, they couldn't travel, even through her demon way of transporting, it was just too risky, and she most certainly cannot move any of the rocks or risk another avalanche. Looks like they were stuck in some special, mystical cave that Slade hinted at before the start of the battle. She remembered his words before they fought.

"My dear Titans, don't you realize that this hidden lake and what's hidden in it will be what ultimately causes your doom? So you better fight hard, things are about to get nasty!" She shuddered at the flashback, she always hated that cold, metallic voice that Slade had. It seemed always so smooth and suave, yet it still sounded so… unreal, almost inhuman. But she knew Slade was a human, Robin had seen his skull…

"Well Beast Boy, we should probably try and get in contact with the others so they could dig us out of here and holy shit what happened to your skin!" She had turned to Beast Boy to see him shaking against the wall, he looked like he was having an epileptic seizure. He was extremely pale and the only thing not shaking was his right hand, which looked almost glued to the rock. His normally green skin was now white and his eyes were rolled in the back of his head. The rock his hand was attached to was glowing brightly, almost brilliantly, but it didn't shine outward, it throbbed. It didn't make much sense to her but she couldn't dwell on it. She had to save Beast Boy.

Diving toward her friend, Raven latched both her hands onto Beast Boy's and pulled hard. She grunted as she pulled and tried to pry his hand off of the dreaded rock. She could feel her own power start to slip away as she came in contact with the rock, but she ignored it, she had to pry Beast Boy free. She pulled as hard as she could with her physical strength and, with all her might, pulled the pale, rigid hand from the bright, evil stone.

Beast Boy fell on top of her as she pulled him away from the messed up stone. He was now on top of her and shaking. Raven looked at his face, so near to her own, and grimaced with worry at the sight of Beast Boy's usually happy-go-lucky face was reduced to a quivering form of his former self. Raven held him close to her chest and held him tightly. She did this on instinct, it only felt right. She just felt she needed to protect him; he looked so week and frail. His jet black hair was now blonde and his eyes were a bright, ocean blue, and his skin was pasty white. He looked… human, and she never realized that she was actually a little envious of him. She felt the strong urge to touch the rock herself. Maybe place Beast Boy's hand on it again as well. They could both be human. He would never be teased again for green skin, she would never be called a freak again. They could end their worries right now, and yet….

The glowing rock was pulsating with power, calling out to her. Its temptation seemed too good. It seemed so good that it seemed wrong. It just didn't seem up to her to take away her only way to help people for her own selfish reasons. And to take away Beast Boy's power, his uniqueness, without his permission, seemed wrong. She would have to wait until he woke up to converse with him about it. But until then, they stayed away from that rock. She looked back at Beast Boy, he was already beginning to return to his normal tint of color. Ok, she should make a note of that: it doesn't last long if it doesn't stay connected long. But the effects are quick to take control. She felt Beast Boy stir underneath her. He flickered his eyes open and looked at his position to where he was sitting. Wherever his head was, it was in a soft, comfy place. Then he noticed they were strangely orb-shaped… and squishy. His eyes slowly widened in realization and looked upward, to see Raven's face. She was breathing heavily and not looking at him. She seemed to be staring at something behind him. Her arms were wrapped around him protectively. It wasn't that he didn't like his new predicament, it was just awkward. Had either of them consumed any alcohol in the past 24 hours? He didn't know. But he felt his safest bet was to play stupid… not an amazing feat for him. He also felt extremely exhausted and drained.

"Uhh, Raven? Is my head resting against your boobs? Because if so, I apologize right now." He looked down and saw his hand and his eyes widened.

"Oh… my…. God…" he said "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME! I'M PALE!" He pushed himself away from Raven's squishiness. He tried to stand but immediately fell back down as he scrambled around the little cave hole on his hands and knees. He stumbled around like a confused puppy, trying to make sense of the world around him. He couldn't comprehend what was going on, all he good do was stare at his hands and hope that it wasn't really happening. Raven stared at him with helplessness.

"I'm sorry Gar, but calm down. You seem to returning back to normal. Just give it a little time and let me heal you." She reached at him with her hands and Beast Boy flinched back, but he compiled and let her begin the healing. He immediately felt the effects as his strength returned to him. He looked back at his hands as they turned from a pale white back to a dark green. He flexed his fingers in experimentation, he felt a sudden wave of relief as his normalcy returned to him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it just left him.

Beast Boy looked back up at Raven, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her.

"Thanks Rae, I owe you one." He finally tore his eyes from her and looked down at his hand again and whispered, "I guess."

They stayed silent for a while. Every so often they would look at each other, only to turn back away. Blood red rushed to their faces, the pulsating rock gave light in slow, methodical rhythm and seemed to keep track of the time for them. It was maddening. Plus it was freezing cold in the cave and Raven was shivering in her leotard. She put her arms around herself to try and keep from shaking. Why did it have to be so cold? She felt a warm, fury object wrap itself around her; she looked up to see a green polar bear wrapping itself around her. She leaned into the soft, furry mass and closed her eyes as she rested her head against the green fur and fell asleep.

It must have only be a few minutes before Raven woke back up. The fighting upstairs was still going on. She couldn't believe that the fight was still raging onward. Seriously, how long does it take to destroy a couple hundred robots? The others were really beginning to slack off.

She turned toward her source of warmth. The green polar bear was sleeping soundly still, but the strange rock was still pulsating rhythmically, it was still as annoying as before. Only this time she was tired and mangy, all she wanted to do was destroy it. Maybe she will?

Grudgingly and tiredly she raised her hand and formed a dark mass of power. Aim wasn't really a concern for her, the annoying piece of earth was only a few feet away, and she fired at it. It made contact immediately, but the power was sucked into the rock in a sucking warp. Raven lowered her hand. She figured it would be useless, but it never hurt to try and shut it up. Only, instead, she made it glow brighter. Groaning she laid her head back down and tried to get some sleep, the explosions up above, though, kept sending small pebbles from the cave ceiling down upon them, making it extremely hard to sleep. Beast Boy, though, seemed to not mind as the pieces of rock drizzled down on him and bounced off his furry flesh. She tried to bury herself deeper in the warmth, but now she was already awake and couldn't fall back asleep. It was kind of hard to sleep with explosions rocketing above your head. She felt Beast Boy stir, even as a bear he was having trouble with sleeping.

"Beast Boy?" she said. She got a growl for a reply. Obviously he was very sleepy and getting very little of it. "Do you think we will die down here?" She felt the shape behind her shift back into a human. She gave a small squeak of surprise, something she never did… EVER… as her head fell into Beast Boy's lap. Her face lit up red like Christmas lights. Beast Boy looked down at her solemnly, he didn't seem to notice their current position, Raven wondered if he cared.

"Raven, even with all your healing, I'll still need medical attention at the tower. I can't teleport with you in this condition and even if I could, I would be a risk to everybody up there," he motioned towards the fight above them, "I'd only get in the way. Also, we can't just leave this crazy-ass rock here, it may be what Slade was searching for." Raven pondered this logic. She hadn't even considered the possibility of Slade wanted that rock; with it, he could do a lot of damage.

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a small cough. She looked up to see Beast Boy turn as red as a green guy can. She gave him a quizzical look and raised her eyebrow at him. Then she realized – their position. She blushed an even more crimson shade of red and pushed herself off quickly and turned to face the other direction away from Beast Boy. She could feel his quizzical stare burying itself deep in her back. She felt as though she needed to break the awkwardness.

"That… never… happened." She said.

"Agreed." Then they went back to their prolonged silence. Raven twiddled her thumbs in boredom. There was another massive explosion and she was almost certain she heard someone yell "holy hole in a doughnut," but that could've just been her imagination (if you never heard of Adam West's 1960's Batman, you should look it up, Robin says that kind of stuff all the time, half of the quotes the he says here are related to that series and I will continue it in the trilogy, so anything that sounds extremely out of place from the Robin you all know, it's from that).

Beast Boy began to mutter himself and pick up small pebbles and play with them. Raven pricked her ears at a single sentence: "I wish Terra was here, she could move all this stuff out of the way."

Raven felt a wave of sadness hit her. She couldn't believe that Beast Boy still felt that way towards Terra. Then the anger and jealousy hit. Why did he still care about that traitor! Sure she helped them in the end, but she still broke his heart when she came back! She didn't DESERVE him. It was just wrong.

"Oh, I'm soooo sorry that I'm actually concerned for your safety!" she huffed and crossed her arms, turning her back the shape-shifter, tears were forming in her eyes. Since when did she go soft? "Maybe I should've let you return to human with that blasted rock! Then you and your precious Terra could be together!"

Beast Boy blinked a little in shock. He hadn't meant it in any way like that. Sure he still cared about Terra, but only in the past friendship-hope-you-regain-your-memory-back kind of caring. He was confused. Sure it was tempting to grab ahold of that rock again – to be normal, never have to be responsible for another's life again. No more guilt for defeats. No more of Robin's constant talk of working-out and Batman and his French… God how he hated his French. He always had to tell Beast Boy that "if everyone learned each other's languages, world peace would be acquired," bullshit. But there was just something… wrong about it. It seemed UNNATURAL to return to normal, and he didn't plan on doing it soon.

Beast Boy looked up at Raven. He crawled silently to her, gently he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. It just seemed right to do that, and she didn't protest, maybe she felt the same way too? That, or she was beyond scared and they were both going to die. Either way he didn't care, it was nice.

He held her in the embrace. Neither wanted to move. It was the perfect moment, to be cliché, but it was true.

"Beast Boy?" Raven whispered. Beast Boy gave a small, question hmm in response. Raven stayed silent for a moment, trying to find the words to best phrase her next question.

"Do you...? Do you sometimes wish to be normal?" she bit her lips. It was the first question she needed to ask if she was going to go ahead with what she intended. Beast Boy was still silent for a while, thinking how to best answer the question. He spoke slowly and deliberately, carefully crafting his words into an intelligent structure that he was surprised he had.

"Raven, I've been giving this a lot of thought…. Just because I've always wanted to be normal, doesn't make it right. I mean, we fight villains all the time who want money or power or whatever, but that isn't right. So we have this amazing power and stuff, but yet, we have to sacrifice all our wants and desires for the needs of others, and that itself is right. So yeah, I guess I do want to be normal, but I need to be a hero."

He was silent for a moment. Raven contemplated his answer. She never realized how deep Beast Boy could really be. Maybe this could work out after all? A small light shined above them and a small, red eye was seen peeking through it. Raven and Beast Boy moved out of their embrace and looked up at their bulky friend, a huge smile on his face.

"Cyborg! Can you see them down there?" Robin's voice was heard in the background, Cyborg's smile was huge.

"Oh they're in there Robin, and they're doing JUST FINE." He stretched the last two words very seductively, leaving plenty of room for the imaginative mind.

"Well get them out! They need medical attention do they not?" Starfire could be heard in her usual, caring voice. It seemed like the entire gang was alive and OK, save for Beast Boy's internal bleeding and broken bones that is. Raven smiled. She was glad to get out.

Back at the Tower:

Beast Boy was sitting on the edge of the Titan Tower roof. His legs dangled from the top, swinging back and forth nonchalantly. The sun was just rising and he had a spectacular view. He sniffed the morning air and sighed. He really should get up this early more often. It was nice, quiet, and gave him time to think, something he rarely did. His arm was in a sling and he had bandages all over. Just last night Cyborg had cleared him to walk around and leave the medic room. He looked down at his hand, still as green as ever. He sighed. For his entire life, he always wanted to be normal, and once it was finally in his grasp… and he let it go. He could've finally been normal, no more responsibilities as a hero, nor more being a freak show. But he knew he made the right decision. Sometimes, the right thing, is always the most painful thing you could ever do.

His ears pricked up at the soft sound of walking. He sniffed the air and knew at once who it was.

"Raven, you don't need to be quiet. Just approach me, I don't mind."

He heard the footsteps pause for a moment before continuing to him. He saw Raven sit down beside him. She was quiet as they sat there, watching the orange sun rise in the sky. Finally, Raven broke the silence.

"How you feeling?"

It was such a simple question. Asking just how he was doing. But it meant so much to him.

Beast Boy looked at Raven and smiled. Just seeing how the orange sun shined upon her usually dark figure and gloomy attitude, seemed to make being green a little bit better. Who knows? Maybe being a green freak wasn't so bad after all?

In the cave:

A robotic arm grasped the glowing rock. Slade had to be careful not to touch it. It had taken them days to finally reach it, but now he had it. The doom of the Teen Titans was now in his grasp. He smiled behind his cold, metal mask. All he needed now… was time.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this explains a lot about my first story. And for those reading this before that, you'll get it once you read The Beginning of the Start. So please, give me your thoughts and opinions on this and what you expect to happen next. Who knows? It may just give me an idea. So thank you so much for reading. Keep looking out for the next chapters and updates.