As the dark water of the open ocean pressed down on him, Beast Boy morphed into a barracuda. A school of small fish scattered when he appeared in their midst. His barracuda instinct suggested grabbing a meal, but his human mind overruled that for the moment.

He swam in a wide circle as he tried to figure out what had just happened. Had they just tried to kill him, or did they just have lousy aim in sending him back? If Raven had been controlling that, she should have been able to put him right back into the Tower, with none of this dropping from the sky. So she had not been in control.

He needed to get back to the Tower. He swam at full speed to the surface and as the barracuda broke out of the water, it transformed into a bird and continued up. The bird was a Manx shearwater, which can fly at night, and had an almost supernatural ability to find its way back from an unfamiliar location.

He gained altitude and weaved around a bit until he somehow felt he knew the correct direction and then he was off. He paced himself because it would be a long flight.

But the hours flying gave him time to think. What had happened back in Azarath? He remembered Raven turning into Timid, and Azar saying for him to help her. What did that even mean? Timid was a part of Raven's personality. So why didn't she just say help Raven? Did she mean for him for him to go inside Raven's mirror again?

He also remembered the way the image of Timid had replaced Raven as he looked at her standing in the circle with the elders. Was that supposed to mean Timid was Raven? That made no sense at all.

The sun was coming up and shining right in his face as he flew East over the ocean, which made flying a bit more difficult. He saw a couple fishing boats and that meant he was probably getting near the coast. His wings were getting tired and he was gliding as much as possible.

And there was another question: Did he even trust this Azar person? Truthfully, he didn't trust anyone in Azarath, much less someone who was "dead". The only person he knew was Raven, and she had said for him to go home. But was that 'collective mind' thing messing with her head? All these questions made his brain hurt.

Finally he saw land, and then Titan's Tower. Exhaustion was overtaking him. He made a bumpy landing on the roof, and started walking for the stairwell. When he got close to the door and out of the sun, he felt his legs wobble beneath him and he needed to sit. Just sit for a moment. Maybe close his eyes…

The next thing he felt was the heat. He was being cooked alive. He opened his eyes and found himself still on the roof, but now sun was directly overhead. He staggered to his feet and, wiping the sweat off his face, went inside the air conditioned building.

There was a water cooler waiting inside, installed last summer by a thirsty Cyborg after a particularly intense rooftop basketball game. He drank several cups of cold water and began to feel like himself again.

He entered to the common room and saw no one. Were they away on a mission? But as he made his way to the kitchen, he saw a goth girl was standing there with her back to him as she tried to find something in the refrigerator.

"Raven?" he asked.

"Not quite, matey," she said without turning around.

Now he could see she had black hair with streaks of red, and a black strapless dress that frilled out a little and became red at her hips.

"Argent!"

"G'day, Beastie!" She said as she turned to greet him with a smile. He walked over and she gave him a hug. "I was beginning to wonder if you invited me here just to ditch me."

"But I thought you said you weren't coming until next week..."

She shrugged. "Got bored. Thought I'd pop over a bit early. Been here since last night."

"Where is everyone else?"

"Well, after finishing his workout, Robin's gone to grab a shower. Dunno where Starrie is off too, but us girls are going shopping this afternoon, so she better get her cute little arse back here and not forget. Cyborg is gone with his lady friend about an hour ago."

"Starfire would never forget about shopping," Beast Boy said. "I'm starving. What have we got in the refrigerator?"

"B'loody nothing," Argent grumbled.

"Let's see what we can find," he offered. "Would you like a cup of Raven's tea?"

Argent rolled her eyes. "As much as I love a good colonic cleanse, I think I'll pass …How about a pint of Cyborg's private reserve?" she added with a twinkle in her eye.

"I think that can be arranged," he replied as he got out a bottle for each of them, and she graciously opened both with a bottle opener she wore on a little chain.

He went back to rummaging in the refrigerator.

"Now I had all the ingredients for this before I left, and knowing my teammates, nobody else touched them. How would you feel about braised tofu with hoisin sauce?"

"I'll try anything once," she said.

Beast Boy pulled a wok out of a cabinet and began heating some canola oil. Then, in a flurry of activity, he had a cutting board out and was slicing up tofu, eggplant, onions, ginger, and several other ingredients, and tossing them in.

Argent sat at the counter while he cooked, sipping her drink and laughing at all of his jokes, especially the naughtier ones. She didn't ask about what had happened in Azarath. Instead, she wanted to hear stories about life in the tower, such as the one about missing parts of Starfire's uniform being found in Robin's room and explained away as part of a "laundry sorting accident."

She also wanted to hear about Cyborg's new girlfriend Rebecca. She already knew how Control Freak had sucked the Titans into the world of television and how Cyborg had met an actress from a Latin American soap opera. Beast Boy recounted how they had stayed in touch, and how he had gone to see her after he had hit a rough patch with Bumble Bee, and lately they had been seeing each other quite often.

When it was her turn, she told about some battles with villains of the southern hemisphere, including a giant robotic octopus, and she talked about her adventures in New Zealand nightclubs. As she talked, he noticed how she had the same eye rolls as Raven and the same dark humor, only Argent actually enjoyed a good laugh. And she was eating his tofu without complaint.

As they were finishing lunch, the conversation turned to his recent trip to Azarath.

"When Robin played Raven's voice message for us, it sounded a bit like the two of you were going off to get hitched," she said with a laugh.

"Not bloody likely, mate," he said in an imitation of her accent.

"Good," she replied. "So tell me what happened."

Beast Boy told her the story, but a short version which left out the personal details and only mentioned Raven's mother being alive and well and then his being asked to leave.

"What a stiff lot of blokes!" She exclaimed. "Glad her mum's okay, though."

"Yeah," he agreed.

"So who called her home? And what's she doing now?"

"I don't know," he said. "In fact, I need to go talk to Robin."

"Right, off you go then. I'll clean up here, no worries."

With a smile of thanks, he left as Argent began collecting the dishes and putting them in the sink.

.

.

Beast Boy rapped his knuckles on Robin's door. "Hey, Robin, you in there?"

The door slid open to reveal Robin putting some gel in his hair to get the spikes just right.

"Beast Boy! When did you get back?"

"Just a little while ago. I got dropped out in the ocean and had to fly back here."

Robin face-palmed with the hand that didn't have hair gel. "I was afraid of that something like that when I heard the two of you had gone together. You made her mad, didn't you? And for her to do that, it must have been something really big."

"No, it's not like that," he assured him.

He told Robin a longer version of the story, of course leaving out the part about kissing Raven or any personal details, but this time he did mention the visions from Azar and the battle with the girl Jerichana, and what had happened with the high priest and the elders. He also mentioned the Tamaranean Charand'r that they had met.

Robin sat on the foot of his bed and listened intently as Beast Boy paced back and forth telling the story. When he finished, Robin was deep in thought.

"What should we do?" Beast Boy asked.

"I'm not sure what we can do," Robin said slowly. "Or if we should do anything. Is Raven in danger?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "I don't know. I feel like something is wrong."

"Do you have any evidence?"

"There's the vision… And the way everybody there is creepy… And the way that girl fought Raven. The whole thing gives me a bad feeling."

"I don't know what that 'vision' was," Robin said gently. "And I don't think you do either. So I'm inclined not to trust it. And it just seems that the customs there are strange – Strange to us, but that is Raven's home. And the girl fought you, because you evidently broke some kind of a rule and touched her."

"Robin, I want you to help me find a way to get back there," Beast Boy said, becoming a little agitated.

Robin looked at the cascade of emotions going though his friend's face. But his response was calm and rational.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no."