Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, but I do own all of Saphiria. For that reason, I didn't forget to interview Nem for all of you crazed fans.

Me: So, Nem. May I call you Nem? Or do you prefer your full--

Nem: NO! Nem! Nem is fine...

Me: OK, Nem. In the fic, you have a friend named Kudio.

Nem: Yeah.

Me: Can you explain your relationship with Kudio?

Nem: -blushing- He's...my friend. He's a first term monk...at the convent next to mine.

Me: Can you go beyond that?

Nem: -still blushing- Can we change the subject, please?

Me: -annoyed- Fine fine... So, about Kudio...

Nem: That's the same subject! Change the subject!

Me: But I like this subject.

Nem: Well I don't, OK? How about we talk about something else, hmm?

Me: Fine! I don't remember making you so persistant...

Nem: Whatever...can I leave now? You're making me uncomfortable.

Me: Have you forgotten who's in charge? Me! I am your creator! Do you want to find Rella? Do you want Kudio to kiss you or not?

Yeah...Nem kinda transported her self out of that one... On with the Chapter!

Chapter 23: Witnesses

Beast Boy stared blankly at Scorpio's back, unsure if she was awake or not. If she was, she wasn't showing any signs of it. And if she wasn't, at least she wouldn't notice him staring at her back, trying to catch any faint glowing. Raven had been gone for a full hour now. She turned to face him, her eyes closed. She was sleeping, but she was probably having some sort of dream. She didn't seem very comfortable.

She opened her eyes and squinted, looking at him through the dim light that was dawn. He froze.

"Where's Raven?" Scorpio asked, getting up and looking around the West Bay. "Wasn't she just here?"

"She um...she...she went to...get Robin. Yeah! Robin and Starfire...she went to get them..." He got up and handed her a glass of water. "Before she left she said you had to drink a lot of water."

She took the water and drank it against her will. Her throat was dry but she didn't feel like drinking. After what had just happened she felt like leaving to somewhere and never coming back. "You're the worst liar in the world, you know that?" She said, eyeing him playfully.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're the worst liar in the world. Worse than Nem." She set the half empty glass down and stretched her arms above her head, noticing her stare. "We still have to get that curse off of you," she stated impatiently. "Before I leave."

He got off his chair and stood infront of the bed. "We can't do it either way, remember?" He asked, still admiring her skin under dawn's light. "And where are you going?"

"We can do it now," she said.

His heart jumped. What did she mean? Had she grown to like him? A smile tugged at his mouth but he kept looking at her, still confused. "What do you mean?" He asked, speaking his mind.

"I mean that now we have a Saphirian herb. See?" She pointed to the night stand where a small bowl of orange powder was sitting, and next to it, a jar of Sagittarius Root. "Grab that jar."

His heart sank at her answer, reaching for the jar and handing it to her.

"This," she said while opening the jar, "is the nastiest stuff you're ever going to eat." A faint smell of vomit escaped the confines of the jar and into his nose, making him want to run out of the room for fresh air. They both wrinkled their nose at the smell and she looked at him, getting out of bed. She walked up to him and stood infront of him, smiling just a bit and blushing right over her cheeks. "Here's what I want you to do," she told him, handing him the jar and turning around so her back would face him. "I assume you know the curse?"

He remembered the curse, the horrible gypsy that came in his dreams and hers, mocking them with her words. "Yeah."

"Ok...um..." she squirmed uncomfortably in her spot, looking for words that would describe what they would do and trying to get used to her still tired legs. "When you eat one of those roots, look at my back. When you see...like a faint red glow, recite the curse as best you can. Got it?"

She felt his stare and he managed a "yes". He braced himself.

"Ready?" She asked from over her shoulder.

"...Ready..." He answered, slipping the shortest strand of the foul root he could find. He put it in his mouth and chewed, growing dizzier as he did. The world tilted and he fell on the bed, still pushing himself into a sitting position and facing Scorpio's back. It started to glow in scarlet, but he couldn't remember anything.

"Beast Boy? Beast Boy, you have to say the curse? Can you remember it? Beast Boy?" It was Scorpio's voice. Why did she seem so far away. He was drifting...the only thing he could see was that scarlet color, her reached for it, wanting to pull it closer. He felt it, warm and inviting in his hands...

"Beast Boy! Stop! Don't!" The color drifted away, the world wouldn't stop spinning. Why wouldn't it stop spinning? Where was that drawing color going? Where was Scorpio? He felt himself fall again...

Scorpio had moved away and turned around, looking at Beast Boy. He had fallen backward on the bed, his eyes closed and his face expressionless, his body sober. She bit her lower lip, beating the Scorpion inside of her who wanted to lunge at him while he was vulnerable. He quikly closed the jar and opened the door and a small part of the window to air the room out.

Oh my God...

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Robin, Starfire and Cyborg landed on the roof of Titans Tower, all of them getting out of their pods and stretching at the thin light that was morning. They were all tired and beaten, especially Robin. Slade and his last apprentice had gotten away, a major threat to the city.

They walked toward the hallway door without saying anything, they were all too tired to. It was November 3, and the wind chill was high. The last thing they wanted to do was hold a conversation in the cold air.

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Nem got up and blushed at Kudio, and though the light was dark, she knew he was red. She moved away, sorry that he had gotten the best of her at her time of weakness.

"We should probably go inside--" she began.

"Not together. You know Sister Mya will get the wrong idea." He smiled at the darkness of the pond. "You want to see a trick?"

"OK..."

Kudio moved up next to the water and knocked his fists together. Thin ribbons of water came out of the pond like steam and surrounded him like a ball, moving faster and faster until she couldn't see him anymore. The ball vanished and so did Kudio.

Nem smiled. It was nothing new. The monks always got better moves than the nuns did, and she wasn't even a "real" nun yet anyway, so it didn't matter. She walked inside and up to her room.

Luckily no one had heard her or seen her, and the usually spying Sister Mya had gone to sleep long before. Nem looked around her room. The same 2 beds. The same window. The same desk. The same drawers. The same everything. She took off her cloak and changed into her pajamas, plopping down on Rella's old bed.

She smelled the pillow, holding it closer to her face. How much she missed her, she would never know. Her Scorpion sister could have been dead, and here she was, trying to look for her in her old pillow, which now no longer even held her smell. She couldn't go to Azarath, she didn't know how. She would have to wait...wait and wait and wait...

Suddenly a black aura covered her own bed, and out of it came a tall, pale girl with purple eyes and a blue cape, staring at Nem in a sudden silence.

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Here was Nem, infront of Raven, eyeing her like a deer in headlights. Her long hazle hair spilled about the bed and her eyes huge in fright. Raven decided to begin.

"Your sister needs you," she began, looking for the right words. Raven had no patience for those younger than her, and Nem was but 12.

"What..? How do you know my sister?" Nem asked her quietly, getting up from her position and sitting on the side of the bed. "Who are you?"

There it was. See? Raven had known. A 12 year old, of course, asking basic questions that Raven did not have time to answer.

"Your sister, Rella, needs you. She came to our dimension a while back, and I'm one of her friends. Do you want to come with me or not?" Raven rolled her eyes to the low ceiling, expecting more questions to be fired.

"How did you get in here?" Nem asked anxiously, eyeing Raven's chakra. "Are you of Azarath?"

Here we go... "You're going to have to trust me," Raven said hastily, holding out her hand. "We don't have time for an interview, we have to leave now." Raven paused and looked at Nem, who had her hands crossed over her chest. "Do you want to see your sister or not?"

Nem's eye brows floated up toward her forehead and her lip trembled. YES! YES! I want to see my sister more than anything in the world, and know that she's OK!

Raven heard her thoughts. "Then you're going to have to come with me." Nem took her hand and shook it.

Nem didn't ask anymore questions. She got up and pulled her blue cloak over her pajamas and stood infront of Raven.

A black mist covered her surrounds and blinded Nem.

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There was no light, nothing but darkness and fog. Nothing but a vague eternity and a tinted cloud. Nothing. He couldn't feel his legs or arms, he couldn't feel anything but his own weight in a sea of sky...

"Beast Boy...please...I'm so sorry. This is all my fault! I'm so stupid! Oh my God, please Beast Boy, get up..."

He wanted to die, really. Nothing meant anything to him anymore, and that voice...it sounded so familiar. Words came to his mouth and took over. He did not protest.

"Shall beyond the hottest fire,

Go beyond the heart's desire,

To please respect and account his sire.

Shining armor thou shall ark,

And follow thou's love through blind dark,

Once set eyes on a Scorpion's mark..."

Scorpio heard him, her eyes lit. He opened his eyes carefully, not knowing what had just happened, and why Scorpio was in tears next to him, holding his gloved hand and smiling hopefully.

"Are you feeling OK?" She asked him, heading for the glass of water that he had first handed her. "I'm so sorry, I'm such an idiot..."

"What happened?" He asked, refusing the water and looking at their hands.

"It's my fault." She grasped his hand tighter. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think that Sagittarius Root would do something so...extreme. You only had one..." She shook her head and looked at him, her cheeks stained with tears. "I thought I lost you..." She added quietly.

His head returned to him, the memory of what had happened and the fact that he no longer thought about seeing her mark. He thought about what she had just said, realizing she had worried about him. He smiled. "Is the curse gone?"

Scorpio nodded, wiping her tired eyes. "Yes. Gone forever."

"And I'll be OK?"

"You should be fine."

He smiled again, feeling her hand in his. The curse was not the problem. He had not wanted to save her because of the mark. He had wanted to save her because he had worried for her, as she had just worried for him now. He gripped her hand a bit tighter, and it brought her back to the universe, breaking their gaze and slipping her hand away in a swift motion.

"You want something?" She asked, her face crimson. "Tea, anything?"

Disappointed he shook his head and looked out the window.

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. This chapter took so long. I don't know why it did. It just did. OK. I can't promise anything longer for the next, unfortunatly. Remember to review!