Author's Note: Actually, for a change, I really have nothing to say... except thank you. And King Cheetah, I'd love to collaberate with you. E-mail me (see my profile). It'd be a great honor. Also, GothicSarrow/Amanda H.-- thanks for your help. And thanks everyone else, just... thanks. And Instant Coffee. Yay. OK, I'm done.

Oh yeah, and "Sin City" does not refer to Vegas. FYI. Just... go with it.

Chapter 7: 5:00: Sin City

5:00

"O...K..."

Abby turned the map upside down, then looked up at the tall sky scrapers surrounding them. Smiling sheepishly, she turned to Ray, sitting on the bench, a very irked expression on his face.

"Ray, sweetie? I think we're lost."

"I told you to take the Blue line. But what did you say? 'No, no, Red goes right to the wharves. We can get to the Tower from there easy!' What the hell were you thinking?"

"So I don't know the subway system as well as I used to," Abby said with a shrug. Suddenly, something caught her eye. "Heeeey, how 'bout I make it up to you? Like, buying you some clothes maybe?"

Ray looked behind him at the store window he was standing in front of and shook his head vigorously. "Oh no, Abby, not now, we don't have time!"

Abby scoffed. "We have plenty of time," she said. "Come on, Ray. You're a kid!"

"I'm a teenager," Ray corrected.

"No," said Abby pointedly. "At this moment, you're a kid. So act your age for once and have some fun! You've been way too stressed out lately over this-this-"

"Life or death, save friends from total mental annihilation situation?"

"Yeah," said Abby. "It's not so bad, really."

"Riiiight," said Ray, slowly, nodding his head up and down. "Mental oblivion. Not so bad."

"Hey," said Abby, putting her hands on her hips seriously. "If you have time to argue with me, you have time to go shopping."

"Hey!" Ray said with sarcastic enthusiasm. "Maybe we can argue and shop at the same time and save time!"

"Sounds good to me," said Abby with a grin, snatching Ray's hand. "Now come on, buy two get one free in the shoe section!"

And with a baffled look on his face, Abby succeeded in dragging the young boy into the department store.

"Friend Cyborg?"

The half-robot was gazing out at the city skyline, but looked up at the friendly call and smiled at her. "Hey, Star, how are you doing?"

"I am doing well, thank you..." she replied, then frowned. "I always found that a peculiar expression. What exactly am I supposed to be doing well?"

"I don't know," said Cyborg, as if he'd never thought of it before. "You just kind of... do, don't you?"

"I do or I don't?"

"You don't. I mean, do. You just do. I don't think you can really do not... Can you not do? Or do not well?"

"I believe it is possible to not do well," said Starfire.

"Right," said Cyborg. "But you can't do not well."

"This conversation would be better suited for someone who understands your language in the first place." Starfire bit her lip. "But what is wrong with you my friend? Are you doing not well– or not doing well?"

Cyborg sighed. "I'm fine, I guess. My circuits are jumping up and down, but otherwise things seem pretty normal... don't they?"

"You are asking me. Why are you asking me?" Starfire's eyes were wide. "Is this a test?"

"No," said Cyborg, looking back across the sea. "Something's... I mean, well... everything... is not wrong."

"Not wrong..." Starfire muttered. "Is this like doing not well?"

Cyborg chuckled. "Not wrong, doing not well... I guess you could say it's a lot like that. I mean, things work, you get the meaning and all the important parts, but it just doesn't sound right, does it? It seems right, and technically, it is in some ways... but when it comes down to it, it's really not, grammatically anyway, where it counts. There's a better way to phrase it."

"You are confusing me," Starfire said. Cyborg laughed again.

"Yeah," he said. "You have a right to be confused. Come over here, Starfire." She allowed him to take her hand and guide her to stand beside him. "Look at that. Jump City. Our city. Everything's so peaceful, isn't it?"

"It seems so," she said.

"But it's not," Cyborg said. "There's a lot of crime going on at this very second just in that one city."

Starfire was alarmed. "What? But we must avenge it!"

"Easy, Starfire," Cyborg said with a smile. "I mean like pickpockets. Car-jackings. Muggings. Petty crime. It never stops. Not in a city like this one."

"I assume there is a point that you are to come to eventually? What is wrong, perhaps? Yes?"

Cyborg paused as he frowned and held his breath. "No," he said finally.

"No?"

"No," said Cyborg. "And... Everything is not wrong."

"And... this is a good thing?"

Cyborg turned to her, still frowning. "Star... honestly... I'm not sure."

"What are you saying!" Starfire exclaimed. "You are being quite mysterious!"

He looked at her solemnly. "It feels like someone's been changing our sentences around."

"Um... What are you doing?"

"Baking."

"Why do I have a feeling that's a bad thing?"

Beast Boy grinned at Raven over his shoulder as he stirred the dough. "I don't know. It could be."

Raven cocked an eyebrow. "And exactly what does this baking experience pertain to?"

Beast Boy shrugged as he poured rice into the mixture. "I don't know," he said. "Everyone's seemed a little stressed out. Actually, I guess I did this for you."

Raven looked surprised. "M-me? But why?"

"Well," said Beast Boy, gritting his teeth as he tried to stir the strange concoction. He frowned as he let go of the spatula and it stuck straight up into the air. "You've been... strange lately, haven't you? Angrier, but... happier. More comfortable around us but... more scared. I don't know. I thought maybe some rice cakes would make you calm down. Uh, there's no eggs in here, FYI. You know."

Raven picked up a box and looked at it warily. "You put baking soda in rice cakes?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "You think I know how to make rice cakes?"

Raven smiled as she closed her eyes and nodded, as if she should have known better. Then she opened her eyes and frowned at him, putting the box down. "You're baking for me?"

"Yeah," said Beast Boy with that goofy smile of his. "You looked like you could use it. How about you stop worrying about Robin going psycho on us a while and just chill and eat some rice cakes."

"Robin..." and her eyes turned cold. "I don't have time to relax."

But Beast Boy pushed her down into a kitchen chair. "There's always time to relax."

"You don't understand," said Raven. Your simple mind never could, thought Larkin. "I have to get Robin under control before he does anything stupid."

Beast Boy simply raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Rae, he's been locked in his room all day. You really think he's gonna go anywhere?"

Inside Raven, Larkin thought a moment. The changeling does have a point... With Robin locked away from the others in his room, all Larkin had to do was wait until eleven o'clock when the effects would be permanent. Yes... Robin could wait.

Relaxing, she leaned back in her seat and smiled. "I suppose you have a point. So what is this strange new culinary delight you have concocted?"

Beast Boy looked at the mixture dubiously. "Um... well, if you put hot tabasco and orange juice in it, it's no longer cake at all, is it?"

Raven calmly raised her eyebrows. "You do know that 'rice cake' isn't the flour, sugar, frosting kind of cake, don't you?"

"Uh..." Beast Boy stepped away from the mixture and looked at it warily, then turned to Raven confused. "It's not?"

Raven bit her lip and eyed the red bottle by Beast Boy's elbow. "Tabasco," she said with a sigh. "And what other treats does the tongue await to test in that mixture?"

Beast Boy chuckled and said, "I don't know, why don't you try it and find out."

"Beast Boy, I'm sorry, but anything involving orange juice and tabasco is already a no for me. I, er, don't exactly have the highest tolerance for five alarm chilli sauce, if you know what I mean."

Beast Boy nodded. "I gotchya. Fortunately, someone in this tower knows how to hold his spicy food. Step aside, watch, and be amazed!"

Daringly, he dipped a spoon into the mixture and opened his mouth.

"At least with you, one thing's for sure," Raven said, eying Beast Boy with quiet mirth. "No animals were harmed in the making of this monstrosity. Well, not yet, anyway."

"Well," said Ray indignantly, standing on the busy street corner. "That was a total waste of half an hour."

"Waste?!" Abby exclaimed. "What are you talking about? I got me not one, not two, but three pairs of shoes and a cute skirt to boot!"

Ray cocked an eyebrow at her. "Uh... huh... Tell me again how that's not a waste of time?"

"Hey," said Abby, "don't treat me like I never did anything for you. Who paid for that Red Sox hat, eh? Eh?"

Ray frowned up at her from under the brim of his new baseball cap. "Yeah... thanks," he said flatly.

"Come on!" Abby exclaimed. "This was no more a waste of time than sitting around at the hospital rifling through dead files of people you have no right to be–"

"I have every right!" Ray snapped angrily, practically at Abby's throat. Abby frowned at him.

"What's wrong with you Ray, huh? Who is Angela Roth?"

"None of your business," Ray muttered, looking away into the gutter.

"Ray, if I'm going to help you, you're gonna have to trust me," Abby said, kneeling down on the sidewalk next to him. Ray sighed and looked her straight in the eye.

"You wanna know who Angela Roth was? She was a failure, a masochist, a nut job. She was a wreck, totally screwed up by the sadistic torture my father put her through. She was a manicurist at a salon once who had a thing for dark nights and cocain. Worse, she liked to dabble in things she had no business dabbling in. Such things brought my father closer to her. Angela Roth, Abby, was my mother, and more than anything, anything, I never want to end up like she did, do you hear me? I watched her mind dribble out through her ears, nose mouth, any where it could escape from her thick skull. I watched it as she hastened the effort with narcotics. I watched as she hurt herself, day after day, the scars on her arms and legs, the rope burns around her neck after the pills didn't work. I listened to her bang her head against the wall when she locked me in the basement in the dark for days on end. You think you deal with the insane, Abby, I lived with it. And not just my mother. It surrounded me. She surrounded me. But worst of all, so did he. He was the root of the true madness. He made my mother think the house was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. He made me believe that it was my fault. My mother was a failure, a crazy, drunken failure. And that's all they said in her obituary when she slit her own throat with the kitchen knife she had just finished making me a ham sandwich with. Me and the undertaker were the only ones at her funeral, and let me tell you, even he didn't want to be there. He could feel the evil radiating from her like raw heat. And let me tell you, Abby, that kind of evil? It burns."

"AH! IT BURNS!"

Raven could not help but chuckle at the sight of the shape shifter changing forms from one animal to another as if it would stop the scalding sensation taking over his taste buds. He ran around the house like the Roadrunner eluding Wile Coyote waving at his out-hanging tongue.

Finally (Larkin couldn't help it) Raven reached for the tabasco bottle. Unthinkingly, Beast Boy snatched it and chugged it only to come to an immense shock. Spewing red everywhere, he ran to the sink and stuck his head under the faucet.

By now, the normally controlled Raven was in hysterics and as a result of this strong emotion, the tap broke and the water sprayed Beast Boy full in the face like a sprinkler.

The kid sat up, spitting like a cat, but more from the water that had drenched him than anger. Through it all, he was still smiling. Raven shook her head in subtle wonder.

"You funny little green man," she said flatly.

Beast Boy turned into a dog and shook himself, successfully drenching Raven in the process. True to the Raven they all knew and loved, her face showed nothing but mute annoyance as she kicked the dog. In return, he jumped on her and began to lick her face.

"Agh! Get off me!" Raven declared, throwing the dog into the living room.

As he rolled into the coffee table, the canine cringed and whimpered. Swiftly, he was in his usual form. "Damn, Raven, I didn't know you were that strong."

Raven smiled mysteriously. "There's a lot you don't know about me Beast Boy." She noticed he was cradling his arm and, to Larkin's internal surprise, frowned in genuine concern. "Did I throw you too hard?"

"No, no..." Beast Boy muttered, looking at his arm. Raven gasped as she noticed a large gash on it. Hearing her, Beast Boy looked up. "Chill, it's OK... Ow."

"I'm sorry," she said, kneeling down to get a closer look at the wound. "I can fix it if you like."

"Yeah, sure," he said.

She went to the kitchen to get a cloth and antiseptic and returned. "Um, you might wanna give me your arm," she said after she had waited a while watching him cradle it with a small pout.

Slowly, he held it out to her, and she dabbed at the wound.

"Ow! Hey, don't touch it!"

"Stop being such a wuss. Hold still..." She bit her lip and he grit his teeth as she cleaned it. Smiling, she leaned back with a sigh and looked at her handiwork. "There. I'm gonna wrap it for a bit, OK? Just until the blood stops and the antiseptic's done its work."

"Yeah, whatever," Beast Boy mumbled.

As she wrapped it, she could feel Beast Boy's eyes on her and looked up at him, skeptically. "What?"

"Nothing!" said Beast Boy with a shrug. "It's just... I never knew you played doctor."

Raven frowned, unamused. "Not funny."

Beast Boy, goofy grin in place, merely shook his head. "On the contrary, I find it hilarious."

She hit him, but this time lightly as she cracked a small smile. "You're a card."

"Card? Wow, I didn't know people still used that word."

"They do where I'm from," said Raven.

"I also don't remember the last time you complimented me, Raven," Beast Boy said with a mocking grin.

"Oh, come off it," Raven muttered. "I've... complimented you before, I'm sure. I do like you... don't I?"

"You tell me," Beast Boy said with a shrug, leaning back against the couch.

Raven sat up and thought a minute. She frowned. "You're comical..." Beast Boy grinned. "Good for a laugh, especially to laugh at." The grin disappeared. "You remember to have fun, which is a good thing... You aren't entirely aware of your surroundings, which can be irksome when I'm trying to get your attention... But that's just you. You remind me that life isn't full of responsibilities. We are children– kids. We should act like kids. So yes, I suppose I do like you."

"Well," said Beast Boy with a grin. "I'm glad that after all the years we've spent together, you've finally made that decision."

"That didn't take me years," said Raven with a genuine smile. "Merely a couple of hours."

Abby stared blankly at the fuming little boy before her.

"Oh," she said curtly. "Well. Maybe we should find that metro station again?"

Ray was breathing hard as he clutched a bench to keep stable. Too weak to speak, he simply nodded.

"Oh honey," said Abby, kneeling down next to him and putting his arm over her shoulder to support him. "Something funny going on in your head again?"

He closed his eyes, swallowed, and nodded. "I... I shouldn't have... shouldn't have got all worked up about... about..."

"I gotchya," Abby said, sympathetically. "I don't think you're up to this excursion, sweetie. I don't know why I brought you. You're obviously sick–"

"No!" Ray hissed angrily, throwing Abby's arm off of him. "I will not go back there. If I ever go back there, it'll be to stay. And I don't want to stay there. Please, Abby... if I die, let it be with my friends. Even if they don't believe me... please, just let me be there."

Slowly, Abby nodded. "I don't think this is such a good idea anymore, Ray..."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" the boy asked curiously. "You... you said you believe me. You know I'm Raven."

Abby was startled. "I... I don't know, I... habit, I guess. At the hospital, it made more sense..."

"Whatever," Ray said, shaking his head. "We need to go."

"We do indeed," Abby agreed. She took his hand and led him to the nearest Metro station.