AN: Hello from sunny Siberia! It's been way too long since I updated this, but I've been horrifically busy. Teaching seven university ESL classes a week to three different years of students, while having zero prior formal teaching experience... it's been a hell of a ride, to say the least. Thanks for sticking with me, and to the anons whom I can't thank via PM for reviewing all my other stories, thank you!

Note 2: Tweaked a couple bits of this thanks to a helpful review by Qoheleth.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or Spain. Just in case you were unclear on that.

CHAPTER 11

As his portable supercomputer combed through footage from every available surveillance camera in Barcelona, Cyborg paced around the room, fuming at Robin's latest order. With both Beast Boy and Raven's communicators offline, one of the remaining Titans had to stay at the hotel in case one of their missing teammates showed up while the others were out combing the city. It made logical sense that Victor would be the one to remain behind, as he could do the most good from a technological standpoint. Still, he felt so helpless sitting in a hotel room while his best friend was out there somewhere; his feet should have been out on the cobblestones like everyone else's.

Just as he was about to complete another circuit, a swirling ball of blackness appeared in his path, and a screech echoed around the room. The pair he had been so desperately hunting materialized barely a foot in front of him. Raven brought her chin up from where it rested on Beast Boy's shoulder, and her arms unwrapped from around his chest, sliding down to his hips, ready to grab him once more if he fell.

The boy wobbled and held his hands to his sides for balance, and Victor gasped. A brutal-looking collar bristled from his best friend's neck. Both arms, his bare feet, and his left side were covered in dried blood, and judging by the horrifically pale shade of green his skin had turned, the blood was almost definitely all his.

When the changeling's eyes fell on Victor, they widened and he began shouting, grabbing ahold of the larger boy. "Cy, we gotta get you outta here! It's not safe! Slade set bombs here to—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up, Grass Stain," he said, hands under Garfield's armpits to keep him from collapsing. "I've had a machine scanning the hotel for listening devices and explosives ever since we got here. There are no bombs."

The boy stopped short. "No bombs?"

"Nope. Not a single one. We're safe here."

"Then Slade... lied... I could have..." His best friend blinked several times, as if confused, then his face contorted into a look of utter despair, and a high-pitched keening began in his chest. Beast Boy curled in on himself and dropped to his knees, head in his hands as he rocked back and forth.

Victor stared, paralyzed by the impossibility of the scene in front of him. He had seen the Green Bean cry more often than anyone, and that still only amounted to a handful of times. Never had he seen him this broken. And Raven was there, on her knees beside him, whispering tender reassurances as she stroked his hair.

"Okay, what's going—"

"Not now, Victor," Raven said, head snapping up to look at him. Her eyes shone with tears as well. "Just... call the others."

Without hesitation, Cyborg reached for his communicator. "Titans, we've got them. Beast Boy and Raven are back, and it's not good. Get back to the hotel ASAP." Message delivered, he took a knee to help his friend however he could.

Scant minutes later, Beast Boy's sobs had not even begun to subside, and Starfire and Robin entered the room, relief and concern written on their faces. Taking up a spot alongside the others, they knelt and placed their hands on their friend, reminding Gar of their presence. There was nothing more they could do.

It took a long time for the tears to stop, but eventually Garfield stirred, sat up, and wiped his eyes, heedless of the flecks of dried blood that rehydrated and smeared on his face. His mouth wobbled for a moment as he tried to force a smile onto it and failed. "Hey, guys," he said in a shaky voice.

A gasp came from Starfire, and Victor found her staring at Beast Boy's neck. "That is..." she declared quietly, eyes wide with fear.

Raven bobbed her head once in confirmation, a hand going to where Starfire's lay on his back. "Yes, it is, but they're not involved. This was only Slade, acting alone. Do you know how to remove it?"

The princess swallowed and nodded, fingers running to precise points on the collar. Her hands glowed green, and the collar fell to the ground, hissing and smoking.

"Okay, we need to know what happened," Robin said, face stony but voice tremulous. It did Cyborg's heart good to see that the Boy Wonder hadn't been able to wall himself off completely, even if he was trying to maintain objectivity as a leader. "Beast Boy, tell us—"

"NO." The room reverberated with the impossibly deep voice, and Raven's hands tightened on Garfield's shoulders, four red eyes flickering into being before fading out with a blink. Raven shook her head, and though she was marginally calmer, she still had a fiercely protective look on her face. "If you want to know anything, ask me. The only thing Gar is going to do right now is sleep."

"Rae," the changeling whispered. "As much as I want to, I can't. We have to get to the Watchtower and warn them what's going on. Slade's still out there, and he's got what he needs to take all of us down."

The room where the debriefing took place was suitably intimidating; the founding members of the Justice League sat high above the Titans behind an oversized, near-indestructible version of a judge's bench, Zatanna also present as a special liaison for matters pertaining to magic. Raven had been in this place once before, and she felt no less like a criminal on trial this time. If she were to ask Beast Boy, though, he would probably say it reminded him of the live TV stream of boring Senate meetings, or maybe Judge Janie. His brand of oddball optimism was one of the first things that had somehow transformed from annoying to endearing over the years.

They had all given testimony, being sure to omit Batman's warning to Robin in their accounts of what had transpired. While Raven was fairly certain the leak had been sanctioned by Superman at the very least, that didn't mean this wasn't a test of the Titans' ability to keep a secret. With Batman, everything was a test.

Chronologically, it had made the most sense for the other three to speak first, as they hadn't had as much to say about the most recent events. Robin had supplied the general summary, with the others supplementing details where pertinent. By unspoken agreement, the schism in the hotel had been left out; it was immaterial, and a private matter between the five of them. Beast Boy had simply snuck out for a walk and been tracked down by Raven... and then came the part of the narrative that was only theirs.

They traded off as necessary; often one of them would slip an extra detail into the other's story, and Raven found herself taking over whenever Garfield lapsed into uncharacteristic moments of brooding. Upon the insistence of Zatanna and Hal Jordan, Beast Boy explained the nature of Away as best he understood it, Raven adding Alan Scott's theory but not yet mentioning him by name. The younger Green Lantern perked up visibly at the idea.

The events at the Sagrada Familia were a stumbling block. When Garfield fell silent and Raven tried to give her account, Zatanna rebuked her, insisting that the testimony come from firsthand knowledge. Summoning up a swell of courage to beat back terror that was palpable even to the least observant among them, Garfield took hold of the empath's hand, squeezed, and began in a low, shaky voice. Whenever his emotional turmoil grew too great, Raven would siphon away as much as she could safely handle without her powers flaring up; the last thing they needed was for him to break down in front of the Justice League, but blowing out the lights in the Watchtower was close behind.

Gar kept the details of the torture sparse, concentrating instead on the information the assassin had given while he gloated. Still, the scene floated in his mind, at times growing so vivid that Raven's sight was overwhelmed with images of Slade raising the bloodied hammer again and again. Finally, mercifully, he came to the point in the crucifixion at which he lost consciousness.

The young sorceress picked up the narrative, explaining the temporal halt and her call for help. At the mention of Alan Scott's appearance, the panel erupted, and she had to raise her voice via magic to make the final sentence of her testimony heard. When Raven was done, as she had predicted, Zatanna's voice was the one that cut through.

"You kidnapped one of Earth's greatest guardians, leaving the planet undefended, to heal a second-rate teammate on a second-tier team?" she spat, disdain dripping from each syllable.

"I did nothing of the sort," Raven shot back. "I'm going to ignore your childish insults in favor of actual facts, and those facts are as follows: I stopped time and called for help. I know you heard that call, Zatanna, daughter of Zatara, Earth's greatest magician. Healing is child's play for a descendant of the Homo Magi, but you chose not to answer; I'm certain you had something more important to do. Alan Scott, out of all the people in the world that my distress call reached, chose to respond. And despite the taxing ordeal that healing with a Lantern's powers involves, he willingly chose to save our lives." A wicked, bitter smile squirmed around her lips. "I wonder... if no one had answered and I had gone to my father for aid, finally proving you were right about me, would that vindication have been enough to quiet the screams of the millions who would have died?"

The entire room stared at her aghast. Beast Boy's eyes shone with shock and disapproval, and in the silence, his whisper of, "No, Rae, no..." echoed like a shout.

For the first time since Robin's testimony, Batman spoke. "You mean to say that you would have destroyed the world to save Beast Boy, sacrificed millions of lives for his?"

Raven looked down, chewing her lip. "I can't be sure; that wasn't what happened today, but is it a possibility? Certainly. I'd like to think I'd take the higher ground, but apart from the four people standing here with me, there's no one on Earth to whom I owe anything."

Superman bristled. "You owe more than you—"

"Do not presume to lecture me on my duties to Earth, Kryptonian," she snarled. "I have spent every one of my days on this planet dedicated to serving its interests. Again and again, I have saved its people, often at a terrible personal cost. And the one time, the one time I called for help, the only person to respond was the man who had furthest removed himself from Earth. I owe you nothing, and I owe this world nothing. So you'll have to forgive me if I value my family's lives more than the cattle we protect."

Again there was silence. Finally, Batman stood. "We will confer in private. You'll be escorted to a room where you can all rest until we reach a decision."

"Decision?" Beast Boy asked, cocking his head. "What's there to decide?"

"Among other things," Superman replied, "The matter of what to do with her." He pointed down at Raven.