Set after both season finales- PP didn't happen

Chapter 1: A Friend Lost

"Beast Boy! Eagle form, now!" Robin commanded, jumping into a dodge roll as a small blast went off at his feet, Beast Boy didn't even spare him a glance as he complied.

It was yet another beautiful day in Jump City, the sun was shining, the sea was calm, there was even a nice breeze going… but of course heroes don't move to a city to enjoy the weather and scenery. If they did then the world would be a better place and they wouldn't necessarily be heroes. Today's outstanding problem was one Mumbo, a blue skinned magician with a magic hat, magic wand and a permanent smile, running away after overturning and robbing a bank van, bag of cash slung over one shoulder.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! You dumb kids will never catch me! Not after my next trick! Mumbo Jumbo!" The magician taunted, shooting several more blasts at the surroundings and the Titans.

Though they had gathered a small crowd of observers they were thankfully smart enough to stay out of the 'splash zone' as Cyborg had once put it. A few had their phones out, obviously filming the confrontation as many did when Meta-Humans fought, likely for some video on the internet. Though it annoyed some of his teammates to be watched like this Robin was just glad that it gave them some amount of culpability. Or evidence in the case they were framed for something, as other heroes had been.

Robin was jolted out of his thoughts when he saw a stray bolt of magic blasting his girlfriend. "Starfire!" Robin yelled, jerking towards her uselessly as she fell out of the sky, though thankfully she looked mostly unharmed and just stunned.

Cyborg dived from nearby, catching the falling Tameranien before she could hit the ground. "I got her, go with the others after the blue guy!" He huffed at Robin while Starfire gave a quiet "Thank you, friend Cyborg."

Robin nodded and took off after the cyan menace, he took the time to thank his lucky stars that there had been less criminal activity lately, meaning fewer injuries for him and his friends, and hoped it was the start of a quiet period. They never lasted long and he doubted it, and they tended only to herald something worse, but they were good while they lasted and it was a nice thought.

In the time it had taken for Starfire to get hit and Robin to start chasing Mumbo again, Beast Boy and Raven had continued chasing the still fleeing Magician, following him as he zigzagged into an alleyway away from the others.

Beast Boy, now a green eagle cried "I got him!", and began to dive bomb the still fleeing criminal aiming for his hat, one of the sources of his power. Unfortunately for the changeling a trapdoor opened in the air directly in his flight path causing the bird boy to vanish with a squawk as it snapped shut behind him, vanishing.

"Beast Boy-!" Raven gaped, silent for a moment before turning to the cyan mage and stopping him dead in his tracks as four blazing red eyes opened under her hood. "Where did you send him?!" She hissed as tendrils of black wrapped themselves around a now struggling Mumbo.

His perpetual smile began to fall "A Magician- 'hgn' -never reveals, 'urk' his… Ack!" Mumbo tried to get out as Raven quickly started squeezing harder and harder. Several snaps and pops were heard as Mumbo groaned in pain.

"This time you will, or I'm gonna show you what real magic can do!" Raven threatened, growing taller and hunching over to say close enough to hear the quickly breaking villain who's pain only increased as his hat crumpled and wand snapped under Ravens assault, reverting him back to a relatively normal human only now with several dozen broken bones.

When the spell that made Beast Boy disappear didn't revert as the magician lost his powers Raven felt… panicked, and angry… very, very angry.

The other Titans turned the corner to find a very angry Raven possibly murdering one of there regulars, and while they wouldn't miss him it would be better for everyone if he just went to jail. After a quick scan revealed no sign of Beast Boy, they got the gist of what had happened and knew that this was a delicate situation. Raven and Beast Boy had only started going out openly for about a month.

While all meta-humans knew the risks of getting attached and falling in love… nobody could be okay with only a month after dancing around it for a few years.

"Raven?" Starfire prompted softly, hoping to get her friends attention, floating nervously with her arms held close to her chest.

"Let Mumbo go Raven." Robin firmly ordered. He knew how bad this situation was for Mumbo, and in a different way for Raven what with loosing control of her demon instincts that she works so hard to keep a hold on, so he slipped into the leader role, as always, and used his 'I'm the boss, do as I say' voice.

It didn't go as well as he could've hoped.

"Not uNtiL he tELls me wHere he SenT BeAst BoY." Raven hissed, a dark echo beginning to form behind her words as she steadily lost the battle with her 'inner demon' so to speak, Mumbo squeaking in pain as more bones popped and cracked.

"Raven, we need him alive to tell us where he sent Beast Boy." Robin tried, and in a softer voice, "Besides, I know you don't really want to kill him, you know that Beast Boy wouldn't want you to kill him. Just let him go."

Raven hissed and snarled but stopped squeezing the life out of Mumbo.

Seeing Robins plan only work so far Cyborg decided to try something else. "Ray, We don't need him to tell us, BB Still has his communicator right?" Cyborg said in a reassuring tone. "Once we put Mumbo in Jail we can all head back to the tower, find his signal and go get him back in time for dinner, alright?"

As if to back Cyborg up, Raven's communicator started ringing. The moment she felt it shaking and heard the ringtone she had set for Beast Boy she dropped Mumbo like a sack of rocks, returning to her normal form.

"Beast Boy!? Where are you? Are you okay!?" Raven asked desperately trying (and slightly failing) to keep the panic out of her voice as Robin moved to "restrain" Mumbo, who had fallen limply to the floor whimpering in pain, and the other Titans crowded around her to hear what was said.

After a minute or two and through some kind of unearthly static they heard, "Raven? Are you there? I'm not Sure where I am but it looks kind of like your meditation mirror, only there's green everywhere and there's these purple doors floating in the sky… I'll try to find a way back on my own, but I'll keep the communicator on so you guys might find me." before the communicator clicked off.

"Okay, so not as clear as I would've hoped, but proof that BB is fine so far! All we need to do is go get him!" Cyborg asserted confidently. "All we need to do is go back to the tower, I can get a lock on his signal, clear up his message and we can all get some rest!"

Robin huffed as he put Mumbo on his shoulders, "I agree, you three head back to Titans Tower and get to work finding Beast Boy, I'll get Mumbo to jail… or a hospital... Maybe both."

The others nodded and Raven had the dignity to look slightly ashamed. Starfire picked up Cyborg and the girls began the flight home as Robin gently carried the broken, frail man who had caused this trouble in the first place to the nearest police car. There were several people cheering another victory for the Titans, though a few did notice the absence of Beast Boy, and began to wonder.

"You had better be okay Beast Boy…" Raven mumbled to herself as they flew. "And I better not get an ulcer from this because of you!" she thought.

In a time locked tower, in an endless expanse of green and black and purple, a lone figure glanced into a mirror. Having already seen what was reflected there a million million times before he simply smiled.

"All is as it should be." He hummed.

The call had gone out a little over an hour ago, the response had been sent back ten minutes later, to the dismay of the people hearing it.

There was no help coming.

And stop calling with insane nonsense, Ghosts? This hot line was for real emergencies sir. You could be putting people in danger.

The people of Amity Park had come to terms with the fact that the world wouldn't believe them, even after their town had been swallowed by the Ghost Zone itself, but they felt they needed to try, to at least put in a token effort to save themselves.

Up above, two entities fought, one burning a harsh white and the other almost made of shadows. The sky was dark with their fight, flashes of burning pink or sickening green lighting the swirling thunderhead.

Though the people of Amity Park would have preferred both creatures leave, along with all the other undead horrors that plagued the town, if they had to choose one or the other creature to win their duel they would choose the brightly lit one.

At least when he won, he left them alone after.

Beast Boy was… a little lost… kind of…

Okay, he had no idea where he was, how to get back, or even what he was breathing. He assumed it was air but it was… cold… and not in the 'it's a bit nippy outside' kind of way but more like 'there is something here that doesn't like you and you can feel it in your chest and on the back of your neck' kind of way. Not to mention he didn't know anyplace that had doors just suspended in the air like that.

Oh and also his instincts were screaming at him to get out as fast as possible. Sometimes being every animal that ever was had its downsides.

Once he had made sure that nothing was going to eat him in the next ten seconds via panicked looks in every conceivable direction, he figured that he should make sure his girlfriend (and how wonderful it was to say that!) wasn't losing her mind with worry over him.

Clicking on his communicator he called Raven and waited for her to pick up for a few minutes, eventually he was greeted with a burst of popping and crackling static that sounded vaguely like "Beast Boy!? Where are you? Are you okay!?"

Beast Boy immediately responded with "Raven? Are you there? I'm not sure where I am but it looks kind of like your meditation mirror, only there's green everywhere and there's these purple doors floating in the sky… I'll try to find a way back on my own, but I'll keep the communicator on so you guys might find me."

Beast Boy's first thought was to transform into a bird of some kind but he decided against it, his instincts were already acting up and they were always stronger when he changed, if they got any stronger right now he would panic and considering the size of this place he would probably be lost forever, too frightened to change back and just desperately trying to get away. This meant that he needed to somehow traverse this place on foot… "Well, the rocks float, maybe gravity is weird here and I'll be fine?"

After psyching himself up for it, Beast Boy squared his shoulders, grit his teeth and dashed forward, tensing his legs for a jump. For a moment after his feet left the ground he was afraid he had made a horrible mistake as he had felt the pull of gravity only increase like it was trying to keep him grounded, but a few moments later he was soaring towards another floating rock like gravity had just decided he wasn't worth it and let go.

At least, it let go until he go close to the other floating rock, then it came back with a vengeance. Beast Boy found it strange that the dirt here tasted vaguely of lemons, however he didn't find it strange that it still tasted like dirt or that it took him two more tries before he stopped tasting it.

Eventually he found what looked like a solid pathway winding off into the distance and after getting to it found it to be very stable, so seeing no other real options he picked right and began to walk down the path. As he walked in silence with only a quiet background noise that almost sounded like a constant gust of wind he had time to think.

"Okay, this place is like, way too creepy. I wish I wasn't here, or at least that it didn't make my skin crawl… I hope Raven is okay, she does have a habit of worrying over nothing… Though I guess me being trapped in some strange other… place? Realm? Dimension? Whatever, the point is this is actually an okay time to worry, but Ray might give herself an ulcer or something… I wonder how far this goes? Is it forever?… How will I get back?" Beast Boy paused his thoughts for a moment before smirking, "Man, I really have a lot of questions today, Ray would be proud!" He thought self-deprecatingly.

After a minute, (Or had it been longer?) he noticed that some… no most of the dots in the distance were moving. Maybe not fast, but they were moving, and it almost looked like they were following the big green spiral in the sky.

Beast Boy decided to rest a bit, even though he hadn't been walking for all that long, a few hours at the most, his legs hurt like he had been walking for most of a day or so. He noticed that his legs seemed to recover faster then normal seeing as he felt fine after only a couple minutes or so, regardless he felt better so he started walking again.

After a few bends and turns of the path he found himself at a fork in the road. Seeing as both paths looked mostly the same, one looking a bit more worn then the other, he turned right and kept walking. What felt like half an hour later, Beast Boy had his first experience with a native of this place.

Whatever he was, he was pale. White suit, white face, white pants, his boots, gloves, belt and hat were black but looking at him only made you think of how white he was. It was like the black only accented the white and made it even more all consuming on his figure.

Beast Boy had to control himself when the white things blazing green eyes locked on to him, his instincts flaring to an almost uncontrollable degree. He didn't know why, but it felt like a predator more dangerous then anything he could turn into had just seen it's next meal.

"You there!" it commanded in an unearthly, echoing voice which clashed strangely with its southern drawl, "Who are you? What's your name?"

"Uh, My name is… Beast Boy?" He responded, not wanting to upset this person.

"Beast Boy huh? You one of those Beast-Kin from further in the spiral?" It asked dismissively.

"Uh, no? I'm not… from here exactly, could you tell me where this is? Please?" He asked submissively, trying to hide his fear.

"Hmm? Not from here... he he... well I imagine not, almost nobody is." It said with a smile that came off as less then sincere, "Must be fresh of the boat if you don't know, this is the Infinite Realms, also known as the afterlife or the land of the dead. Only two ways in here kid, either you fell in a portal and are as good as dead, or you are dead." It gave a small chuckle at the dismayed face that Beast Boy made.

"WHAT!? But I'm not dead! I was just fighting Mumbo a few hours ago!" He yelled deigning the idea that he could be dead.

The obviously wrong spirit glared at him, "Hey, yelling at an officer of the law is not only against the rules, its rude. However, since it's your first offense and you are obviously new I'll cut you some slack and let you go with a warning." It then rubbed it's chin, "Although… you do have an awful lot of flesh on you and I suppose that counts as human world contraband, not to mention your cloths, your effects…" By this point Beast Boy had started to hyperventilate, and seeing this the spirit nodded a bit "Since you seem to still be alive 'could make a case of innocence though inability to discard… Then again, were you always green? I might have a case for impersonating a ghost…"

The Ghost, as he had identified himself, had taken out a smallish book and started skimming the pages mumbling and murmuring to himself. Beast Boy did not like what he could catch, such as "Ten thousand years for…" and "But a removal of five thousand for…" and so on. After a few moments a new voice interrupted the white ghost.

"Hey, Walker! You picking on a newbie again? You know the Observants will get pissy with you if you keep imprisoning every ghost that comes your way, and even you can't play innocent forever!" a female voice said.

Beast Boy turned and almost yelped. There was a rocker chick with skin almost as pale as 'Walker' and bright flaming blue hair. She was decked out in skulls and black and her hair was fire. Like her head was on fire and the fire was blue and the fire took the place of her hair, it even flowed down at parts in ways that fire shouldn't but it was all fire.

Beast Boy had been quietly losing his mind at the thought that maybe he was dead, then when the Ghost, Walker, had said he was still alive worried that said ghost would correct that fact, and now there was a girl with fire for hair and he just really wanted Ray right now and-

"Ah, Ember, come by to serve your sentence at last? Or do you just want to add a few more years on by resisting arrest?" Walker said, his attention pulled from Beast Boy for now.

"Pfft, how long do I even have? A few thousand? Like I'd ever settle for that low." Ember said with a cocky grin, she then turned to him and said, "Hey, if you don't want mr. Clean here to lock you up for the rest of your life and then some, I'd suggest going back the way you came, then at the intersection turn left, not right, got it?"

Beast Boy didn't wait to say anything or question how the ghost knew which way he went to get here, he just nodded before sprinting away, hearing a battle start behind him with small explosions and calls of "Back off!" and "Stop resisting arrest!" Soon he couldn't hear anything other then his own feet pounding the ground as he ran.

When he got back to the intersection he turned to the path he hadn't taken and, putting his trust in this Ember girl, started jogging down the path. While he didn't feel like he was going any faster then before he did feel like he was going farther then before… which he didn't understand.

"I have so many questions…" He started to shiver, violently, "Like when was there all this snow everywhere?!" Suddenly he realized that he was surrounded by snow and ice and he felt tired and his legs hurt like he had ran a few miles straight and he felt like he hadn't slept in a day or two and… and…

The last thing Beast Boy saw before he fell unconscious was a few different shades of white and blue moving against the white, blue and green he had found himself in.

"Ray…"

Authors note: Hey everybody! I hope you liked this first chapter! ... Mostly because you probably won't be getting another one for quite a while...

Sorry, but I am a very slow writer, I edit and go over it all myself, mostly going over old stuff and rewriting it over and over again. I could let the chapters go as I finish them, but I've tried doing that before and it just makes me feel pressure to write, which makes it less fun and overall makes the quality of the work suffer. I'm going to be trying a new thing where I release the chapters in batches, after this of course. This was mostly to feel out the waters and secure this story as something I have to work on. Leave a review and tell me what you think, what you hope for, what you fear, what you keep quiet to yourself only letting out at 12:42 at night into the pillow, confidant that not even the demons in your closet will hear, and where you think the story will go! I always love to hear other opinions, even when they're wrong!