Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

Where No Man Has Gone Before

Chapter 4: An Apologetic Interlude

As Beastboy stood at the main doors of the Jump City Megaplex looking back over his shoulder, he couldn't help but grin. A very ebullient Starfire was leading a very flustered-looking Robin into the theater. Apparantly, Starfire's reaction to Robin's decision to go ahead and see the movie was a bit more enthusiastic than the masked teen had anticipated. I just hope the real reason he changed his mind doesn't slip.

Finally stepping out into the sunshine, Beastboy was at once intercepted by the teen aged theater employee with whom he had entrusted his package. The boy immediately thrust the package towards Beastboy and began speaking. "Here you are sir, safe and sound as promised."

Beastboy accepted the bags, noticing with some relief that it did not appear that they had been opened. He most decidedly did not want any more people knowing what he was carrying around. "Thanks for keeping an eye on it."

He turned to leave, but before he could, the boy spoke again. "Just so you know, we don't mean anything by it."

Beastboy faced the boy again, not exactly certain what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"

The boy, still looking a little tense, carefully explained, "Me and my friends, and what we call you guys. We don't mean anything by it. We all think you guys are awesome."

Beastboy, finally understanding, replied, "Yeah, thanks. And, uh, sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to freak out on you or anything."

The boy waved off the apology. "Don't worry about it. I totally understand. I just wanted you to know that we would never insult you or your friends or your girlfriend."

Girlfriend? Raven? Why does everyone keep saying that? "Uh, dude, she is not..."

The employee interrupted before Beastboy could finish, a small smirk playing on his lips. "I know, I know. Her name is Raven and she is not at all creepy." The smirk disappeared and was replaced by a pensive frown as he continued. "I don't even know why we call her that. We all think she is totally hot. I mean, you can't really see much with that cloak, cape thing she wears, but you do occasionally get a glimpse of leg or curves, and from what... "

With a blank expression, Beastboy raised his empty hand until it was between himself and the older teen, effectively stopping the stream of words. The employee looked on curiously at the hero's strange action. Beastboy morphed his hand into a large paw. The other boy watched silently, still obviously confused. Bright green eyes met those of the young man before shifting to stare at the paw. The young man's eyes followed the Titan's gaze. When long, razor sharp claws suddenly sprang from the paw, the boy jumped slightly. Quickly looking back at the changling's face, the employee was met with a furiously venomous glare.

With an uneasy gulp, the boy edged slowly towards the main entrance of the building. "Uh, right. Shutting up. I, uh, I better get back to work." And with that he bolted through the glass doors and scurried back into his place of employment.

Beastboy shifted the paw back to a human hand, still scowling in the direction of the employee's hasty retreat. Stupid pervert. Calling her names and then talking about her like she is nothing but eye-candy. I guess it's not enough that she keeps the city safe, she has to be ogled by jerks like him in the process.

Beastboy stalked off toward the Tower, continuing to castigate the theater worker in his mind. He had gone a full two blocks before he finally cooled off enough to realize that his nightmare trip was coming to an end. Almost done! Just have to get this back to the Tower and give it to Raven. With this joyous thought, Beastboy continued on towards Titans Tower in a considerably better mood, whistling a jaunty tune as he walked.

That tune was cut off abruptly when something large and heavy slammed into his side, sending him careening down a side alley.


"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

Raven wasn't entirely sure it was possible to meditate to clear one's mind whilst one was physically in their mind, but that was not important.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

Meditation was safe. It was soothing. It was comforting.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

These were all things that Raven desperately craved after hearing Crude say... No! Do NOT think about that. Don't think about anything. Just meditate.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos, Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

Finally, after several more minutes, Raven lowered her legs to stand and opened her eyes. She truly did not even know when or how she had started meditating. One minute, she was trying to get some straight answers from her emotions, and the next she was floating in search of serenity. The intervening time between the statements by Crude...Don't think about that!...and right now was all a little hazy.

Examining her surroundings, Raven noted the green grass, tall trees, blue sky, and cloyingly sweet smell. She was obviously still in the small clearing in the grove of trees in Happy's domain. Off to one side was Wisdom, levitating cross legged as she meditated, brown cloak flapping in the light breeze. Knowledge and Affection were sitting on the grass, carrying on a discussion in low whispers so as not to disturb others. There was no sign of any of the others. At least, there wasn't until Raven was quite suddenly pounced upon by an effusively energetic Happy.

"Rae-Rae! You're awake! Are you all better now?"

Detangling herself from arms, legs, and pink cloak, Raven answered in her standard monotone. "I'm fine."

Happy laughed while continuing, "I'm so glad! After all those things that Crude said..."

Don't think about that! Raven hurried to cut Happy off. "I'm fine."

Happy, still grinning, began to reply but was prevented by the arrival of the other 3 emotions. Wisdom, placid and composed as always, asked, "Are you sufficiently recovered from your..., trauma?"

"I'm fine." Don't think about that! Change the subject! Turning to Knowledge with a scowl, Raven asked, "Aren't you supposed to be watching Rage right now?"

Knowledge quickly glanced at Wisdom before responding. "We sent Crude to watch over Rage. Timid was getting a bit hysterical, so Brave escorted her back to her own realm."

"Fine. Make sure you keep an eye on her at all times." And with that Raven turned and began walking away from her emotions. She had only gone a few steps when she was stopped by the voice of Affection.

"Wait, Raven. Don't you think we should talk about the earlier... incident?"

Don't think about that! Raven did not turn around as she replied in her coldest voice. "No, I do not." She began walking away again, only to be stopped this time by a hand on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw that it was Wisdom.

"Raven, I really must insist that you stay a while longer. We have some very important things to discuss."

Raven glowered angrily. "Oh, you insist, do you? Well, I hate to break it to you, but that is not going to happen. I am leaving."

Raven again started to walk away, but was once more stopped. This time, though, it wasn't a voice or a hand that stopped her. It was the fact that her body from the neck down was encased in glowing black energy. She let out a short gasp as she was picked up, turned, and set down to face the emotions once again. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Wisdom slowly shook her head, her voice sounding weary. "I am truly sorry Raven, but I am afraid we can not allow you to have a choice in this matter."

Seething with rage, Raven forced her words out through gritted teeth. "No choice? Who do you think you are? AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

Nothing happened.

The rage she was feeling was transmuted into wide-eyed astonishment. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Once again, there was no effect. Beginning to feel a little panicky, she addressed Wisdom. "What's wrong with my powers? What did you do to me?"

"There is no cause for alarm. There is nothing wrong with your powers."

Raven eyed her dopplegangers suspiciously. "What do you mean? I can't..."

She was cut off by Knowledge. "Raven, you are well aware of how your powers function."

Affection spoke up. "You know that your powers are heavily influenced by your emotions..."

"Thats us!", Happy chimed in with a grin.

"So," Knowledge continued, "for the time being, your powers will not be available to you."

Raven's eyes darted from one emotion to the next. "So, what you are saying is..."

"That's right," Happy affirmed. "We won't let you leave until you talk to us."

Raven looked carefully at each of the emotions. Happy, as always, was grinning cheerfully. Knowledge was observing her inquisitively. Affection had a small smile. Wisdom stood there with very little expression, swathed in a peaceful radiance. Finally, Raven realized that she was going to have to talk with them. She really didn't have a choice. "Fine. What do you want to talk about."

The 4 emotions glanced at each other for a moment before all answering simultaneously.

"Beastboy."


What the hell was that? Beastboy sat up groggily, holding his aching head with one hand and his throbbing ribs with the other. It didn't feel like anything was broken, but he would undoubtedly be sporting an impressive array of bruises for a few days. He looked up, trying to get his bearings. Directly in front of him was a red brick wall. Looking to either side he saw matching walls, and deduced he was in a dead-end alley. Leaning against one of the side walls for support, he levered himself up off the ground and turned around to find out what had hit him. His eyes widened in surprise.

Standing between Beastboy and the alley entrance was none other than Control Freak. He was flanked on one side by a malefic dumpster, apparently the object that had slammed into Beastboy, and on the other side by what appeared to be an extremely pissed off mailbox. In one hand Control Freak held a remote control. In the other hand, he held a bag. A white, plastic bag. A white, plastic bag that was labeled Jump City Superstore.

Beastboy slumped back against the wall as he did his best to suppress a groan of frustration. This is SOOO not my day.


A/N: Hello, everyone. Let me just say that I am so, so sorry for how long it has taken for me to update. And I know that this chapter is very much shorter and less polished than previous chapters. There is a reason for both situations. In the second week of January, my power supply died and took my motherboard and processor with it. I had to wait for my tax refund check before I had the money to replace them. I have just recently gotten back up and running after being more than 2 months with no internet access.

This chapter was originally part of chapter 3. As I edited that chapter, though, I decided I wanted to stop it after the "I think we broke her line", so I decided to use this as the beginning of chapter 4. However, now that I can post again, and considering the time since my last update, I wanted to go ahead and get this uploaded just so everyone would know that the story has not been abandoned. I hope it doesn't totally suck. This really isn't a full chapter. It's just an apologetic interlude. There will still be two more chapters after this. I have already started on the next chapter, and will get it posted as soon as I possibly can.

Once again, thank you all so much for reading, especially to those of you who take the time to review.

One last apology, to any authors reading this whose story I used to review but haven't in a while. With no computer, I have not had the chance to keep up with my fanfic reading. I have something like 400+ email alerts sitting in my mailbox, so it will take me quite some time to get caught up. As I do, though, I will do my best to review as much as possible.

Finally, to anyone who might still be possibly wondering about the authors notes from last chapter, I am indeed male. So, kudos to all those who guessed correctly!