AKI: Hello wonderful readers. I keep forgetting to tell you this, I am going to try to update this story weekly. That means sometime on Friday, Saterday, or Sunday. I hope I can keepp that promise, so review with your comments, questions, and ideas, they are all welcome!


Waiting is Half the Battle

Chapter 4

Raven stood up and started to examine the room she was in. It was old, with wooded walls and looked like it had not been occupied for a long time via the dust carpeting the floor and the cobwebs that hung in the corners. There was a threadbare rug in front of a dirty window and a grand, yet worn canopy bed was pushed into the corner of the room.

Beast Boy morphed back into human form and putting a hand to his ditsy head stated, "Whoa, what a ride." Almost collapsing along the way, Beast Boy went and sat on the canopy bed. Once he got his bearings and realized what was happening he asked, "Where are we?"

Raven sighed and walked over to the grimy window. She looked out it without seeing anything then said, "I don't know."

"Soooo…" he said tapping his foot lightly, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know!"

"What do you mean, you don't know. Didn't you have a plan before you decided to let yourself be abducted here!"

"What about you? Didn't you make a plan?" she said voice rose, entering an argument.

"I was coming after you," Beast Boy exclaimed, voice raised also, "I thought you had a plan going off all by yourself! Weren't you thinking!"

"No, as the matter the fact, I wasn't. I was too worried about Robin and Starfire and Cyborg to think strategically. I can't believe I let you talk yourself into coming, You probably don't even know the meaning of the word strategically, let only think it."

"That is it Raven. You are always insulting me, but I am a valuable..." Beast Boy was cut off by a loud bang somewhere near, yet far off. They both went pale realizing they had been yelling at each other, so anyone could hear.

Raven, back to her calm, cool self, broke the silence, "This is no time to be fighting."

"Your right," Beast Boy agreed, "We have bigger fish to fry…not that I fry fish, but not is not the point, because that is just …an…expression…" the changeling wavered off his babbling at Raven's cold stare.

Raven sat down on the bed next to him, "We do not know when the kidnappers are going to make their demands of me, so we have to be ready, but I have a feeling that they are going to leave us hanging for a while."

"Right," said Beast Boy.

"So," said Raven prompting her thoughts, "We need to be prepared for when they come back." Raven paused like she was expecting to hear Beast Boy's quick thought ideas. When none came, she stated her own, "One we need to locate Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg. Two, we need to know what this T.M.R. wants. When I meet him, you should follow disguised, so you know what is happening, then try to rescue the others. But we need to sleep now, we will need are strength soon. We also need to have a take turns awake so they do not sneak up on us…more like you.

"Why just me?" he asked indigently.

"Because they don't know you're here." She answered coldly.

He turned into a more serious tone, "Raven, remember that time when Robin was seeing Slade and no one else could."

"Yes," she answered getting the jist of where this question was going.

"And when Robin locked down the tower, you kind of went inside his mind to find out what he was seeing and thinking."

"Yes, I remember and yes, I tried to locate them that way already."

"And…?"

"They're alive, or at least Robin is. He was easier to contact to because I had already been in his mind before…it was more open, you could say, but …"

"But what?"

"It was unusually blank, even for an unconscious person. There are usually many dreams, goals, and ideas floating around behind the conscious thoughts, but they were dormant."

"Are you sure they're not…"

Raven interrupted him before he could voice her worst fear, "Yes, I am sure! I can not access the minds of the dead."

"Oh…," was all Beast Boy could add to the morbid thought.

"Go to sleep, I will take the first watch."

"Are you sure?" he said, trying to be chivalrous, but already yawning.

"Yes. Go to…"

"ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…" Raven smiled at the already asleep Beast Boy. She levitated above the floor at the foot of the bed, legs crossed, eyes closed, yet awake and vigilant.

"Azarath Metron Zinthos," she whispered to herself then repeated, "Azarath Metron Zinthos, Azarath Metron Zinthos." As she chanted a chair against the wall started to rise of the ground. "Azarath Metron Zinthos, Azarath Metron Zinthos," Her head began to nod onto her chest from fatigue, yet she still muttered the incantation under her breath. Slowly, but surely she nulled herself into a sleeping trance, all the while the wooden, hardback chair floated inches above the floor.

It was barley five minutes Raven awoke with a start when she realized she had fallen asleep. With her awakening the chair dropped with a dull bang to the floor. The sleeping Beast Boy made a grunt in his snores. Raven glared at him for his peaceful rest, while she was awake before she remembered she told him to go to sleep in the first place.

Then she thought to herself, "This is going to be a long night…"

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Beast Boy had a rather pleasant night of sleep. The worries of the days previous were lost in deep sleep and sweet dreams involving mopeds and girls. He would have loved to companied this peaceful rest with a restful morning, were he slowly awoke himself late in the morning by the sounds of chirping birds, the sunlight coming threw a crack in his curtains, and the scents of tofu meat being cooked by someone else for his breakfast. I am sorry to say he had no such luck.

He was awoken by being shook roughly by hands grasping his shoulders, and an urgent whisper calling his name, "Beast Boy, Beast Boy!" As he slowly opens his eyelids a slit, he sees a teenaged, gray skin girl peering down at him. If he had been fully awake he would have known it was Raven and were he was, but as he was not, he was slightly disturbed to find himself in an unfamiliar place, with a girl that was now glaring at him, and in a bed that was definitely not his own. When he finally registered in his brain, he shot straight up in bed and let out one of his girly screams before Raven slapped her hand over his mouth.

"What are you trying to do? Get yourself caught?" she asked him after she took her had off his mouth and was wiping it on a section of her cloak

"Raven? Is that you?" he replied, remembering where he was, while letting his eyes accustom to the surrounding dark. The sun had not yet risen above the horizon in the east.

"Who else do think it is?" she wondered out loud sarcastically.

Beast Boy ignored the question and asked his own, "What time is it?"

"About five thirty."

"In the morning?"

"No, at night."

"I thought we were going to take turns at for a night watch."

"I lied."

"Why, exactly?"

"I knew you would fall asleep." Beast Boy could not deny this so he just grumbled to himself, under his breath. The now rising sun's rays began to find it way threw the grimy window's glass and illuminate the room. This did not make their situation seem any better, for now, the two inhabitance of the room, could clearly see the thick layer of dust on the floor and the muse nest in the far corner.

"So..," began Beast Boy, breaking the silence, "What do we do now?"

Raven looked him in the eye and in all seriousness said, "We wait."

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Meanwhile The Lord Voldemort, also know as T. M. R., Was gloating to himself because of the success of the first stage of his plan-capturing Raven. He paced the floor of his study. Well, technically it was not his study, but that mattered little to a man bent on revenge and controlling the world. That old fool, Dumbledore, would never see it coming. This plan was so different from anything anyone would expect and only his most trusted Death Eaters knew the basic plan.

A faint smile traced his lips as he thought of the havoc he would soon cause. The wizarding world was practically at his fingertips. The Ministry of Magic was in ruin since they discovered his return. Yes, there were repercussions to that incident and yes, he and his Death Eaters lay low for a while, until they broke the newly convicted Death Eaters out of prison. But now that they were out in the open, killings were happening spontaneously and frequently, yet those were just a diversion to his true plan.

Only three things stood in his way to victory: Hogwarts, Dumbledore, and Harry Potter. There would be a time for that filthy, half-blood Potter, but now his sits were set on Hogwarts and Dumbledore. Those two were connected, Hogwarts would not fall as long as Dumbledore as around, but the good thing was Dumbledore was getting weaker and older. Of course he was still strong, but not as strong as he used to be. Voldemort recalled their duel in the Ministry of Magic the summer before. In the past Dumbledore would not have needed his bird to save him….

There was a knock on the door.

"Enter," replied the Dark Lord's steely voice as he stopped pacing and faced the door.

In stepped Lucius Malfoy, who bowed low before standing up straight as saying, "You wished to see me, Master?"

"Yes," he replied shortly while his thoughts were elsewhere, already goading Dumbledore's fall. "I think it is time I gave our guest a proper welcome," he said with only the hint of a smirk.

"Lucius Malfoy bowed again before exiting, "Of course, Master."