Ravens' friends found her the next morning curled up on the sofa, hugging a cup of tea to her chest like her life depended on it. It had been freezing in the living room last night, too, but bearable enough that she'd slept until eight in the morning. Running on only three hours of sleep, her brain was nearly fried when they all came in and stared.

"Raven?" Cyborg chuckled. "What're you doing, girl?"

Her head made a slow swivel to rest her dark eyes upon him.

"You."

"Uh, me?" He blinked. "Me...what?"

She stood up, her comforter billowed behind her in a phantom wind like a menacing shadow that made her look three times bigger; a cobra ready to strike.

"You did this t-to, m-m-maachoo!" she sneezed. The comforter dropped and Raven fell back on the couch against her pillows. Her eyebrows knit together and she sniffed. "Oh, great."

Everyone stood there a moment in quiet shock.

"Raven, what's going on? Are you sick?" Robin finally asked. "You never get sick."

Cyborg went over immediately to her to put his hand on her head. He consulted his right arm to scan her. "What did I do to make you sick?"

"The AC in my room is broken, it was freezing in there all night. In here, too," she mumbled beneath their stares.

Beast Boy tapped the side of his head once in realization.

"Oh, that's why you were pounding on Cy's door last night."

"You were?"

"Yeah, and you never woke up," she snapped.

"Sorry, Rae, I was out like a light," Cyborg blushed. "Don't worry though, I'll go take a look at it, but you've got a cold so stay here and stay warm."

Cyborg tapped his arm and the furnaces sprung to life, the vents whirring all around them as the Tower became warmer.

Oh, one little push of a button and now it starts working, Raven seethed.

"Be right back. Beast Boy, start the waffles!"

And that was the end of that. Everyone cheerily moved about their morning while Raven sat on the couch, alone and aggravated. The smells of breakfast and the sounds of quiet murmurings greeted her as she dozed against her pillows; basking in the warm air now filling the room.

Just as quickly as they dispersed they were back. Soon, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Robin were sitting next to her on the couch, armed with extra blankets from their beds. It was breakfast-in-couch this morning, and as they settled in it began to feel like a communal pillow fort. Beast Boy sat nearest to her and was raving about how he had some great movie marathon ideas to keep her busy all day long.

"I figured since you liked the one we watched last night, I could grab some that are similar? Action movies, romance plots? Or if you want epic fantasy there's always the Lord of the Rings, I mean talk about killing time-"

As he talked, Starfire brought her tea, toast, and jam. Robin saw that Raven was overwhelmed by the idea of being chained to the couch watching movies all day and intervened.

"We could play chess, too?" Robin asked.

"Chess?" Beast Boy huffed in dismay at his movie marathon being snubbed. Raven was about to say 'sure', but Cyborg had finally returned after the hour had passed.

"Okay," he began and caught everyone's attention immediately. "I ran every diagnostic I could, turned off the whole system on the upper floors, turned them on again, re-wired your room's circuitry, and checked the sealant on the windows."

Everyone waited.

"Well, nothing was wrong, is what I'm saying."

Raven frowned.

"That's impossible. It was like ice, I could see my breath. The hallway was substantially warmer, so it had to have been…" she frowned deeper, "just... my room?"

Cyborg shrugged. "I mean, it could totally have been weird last night, but it's fine now. It's even hot in there," he wiped his forehead for emphasis. "Speaking of, how are y'all still alive under all those blankets?"

Everyone but Raven, who was still thinking, shrugged unbothered.

"Suit yourselves. What are we up to?"

"Chess?" Robin suggested again.

Cyborg frowned. "No way, man! Come on, something we can ALL do?"

"MOVIE. MARATHON," Beast Boy argued again.

Cyborg shook his head. "No, no, no. Raven?"

Raven snapped out of her thoughts and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Get the game."

"The game?" Starfire questioned.

Raven sighed and, sneezing as she did so, resurrected the game box from where it had been hidden under her bed. It phased through the floor and landed perfectly in her hands. This time it was tape-free, though the surface art was now stripped from peeling the tape off.

"YES!" Beast Boy agreed. "This is perfect! This time, I wanna be the villain!"

"Oh, no!" Cyborg countered. "It's time I put Robin in his place."

"Bring it on, Tin-Man!" Robin smirked.

"Glorious!" Starfire grinned. "Raven, this is agreeable?"

She sniffed and shrugged. "I guess."

Starfire frowned a little. "You three play the first circle. Raven and I shall rest. We shall… become like vegetables, if you will."

Robin raised a finger in hesitation. "Uhhh, Star, we really could use even teams…"

"Oh, no! You can't use your girlfriend as a crutch, and you don't have Raven to be your extra strategist this time. No, no, no. It's two on one. Let's see if the good guy wins this time."

Their fearless leader cracked his knuckles. "Bring. It. On."

Raven watched with actual interest, draped over the back of the couch, and quietly allowing Starfire to methodically play with her hair. It was strange how invested she was in the game. How she feared that Robin would lose his Army of the Blessed because Cyborg had deployed his Wild Hunt card. She knew that there would be no way the army could make it through the forest without Robin's General being hunted by the Black Beast of Gore, which would delay his turn. Of course, if Robin could roll higher than ten out of twelve, he would be able to defeat it, but even if he did, Beast Boy's spy was still somewhere infiltrating Robin's forces and taking down his defenses.

What am I even saying?

Raven couldn't deny that she liked the RPG game that Beat Boy had brought home. It had the same feel of her dark fantasy books mixed with the intricate strategizing of chess. She almost wished she were playing, but then she sneezed again into her crew neck sleeve and wished she were dead instead.

Human colds were terrible, it turned out. Ever since her father Trigon had been destroyed, Raven had known that there was a little less demonic energy within her. This meant that her mother, Arella's genes, were kicking in; reminding her how human she actually was.

Thanks, mom, she grumbled internally, but secretly couldn't help but be overjoyed by being a little more human - even if her skin was still a pale grey color.

"You are feeling…?" Starfire didn't seem like she knew what to ask.

"It's okay, Star." Raven rested her chin back down on the back of the couch to watch the boys play their game at the table. "Thanks."

Starfire nodded and kept playing with Raven's hair. The boys finished their game by stomping Robin into the dust. He fumed about it but challenged them to a final rematch. A 'best two out of three'.

"You're on!" Beast Boy declared.

"But," Robin interjected. "I should get the girls back. If I lose again, your data would only conclude that you're successful with a team. Which is what we all are, right? A team?"

Cyborg wasn't moved. "Oh, no you don't. You can play without them."

Beast Boy, out of the corner of his eye, saw the crestfallen look on Raven's face. "Aw, come on, Cyborg. Let them play."

Cyborg huffed and grumbled that 'Beast Boy better not mess this up', but Beast Boy just grinned and shrugged. Raven perked up and she slowly shuffled over to the table with Starfire, keeping her blanket wrapped firmly around her and tissues nearby.

"How do you people do this whole sick thing?" she sighed as she sat down.

"Actually, Raven," Starfire chimed in. "When the people on my planet aren't feeling well, the consequences can be a tad catastrophic. That's why all our homes and buildings are made of the strongest space rock from Runeterra Omega." She set the tea down on the table. "Your condition does not seem nearly as dire."

Raven almost felt chided, but she smiled at Starfire's perspective.

"You're right, I'll remember that."

"Okay, BB," Cyborg reshuffled the cards and handed Beast Boy a die. "Roll for who goes first."

Beast Boy rolled a two. He could feel Cyborg's frustration.

"Wow, that's so hard to beat," Robin grinned and rolled a six. "Looks like we're first!"

The game played out nearly the same way as the night before. Robin's team was just barely in the lead with Raven's strategic maneuvering and Starfire's instincts, but Cyborg and Beast Boy's brute force was incredibly overwhelming.

Raven found herself struggling to focus as the game went on. Her senses must have been more impaired than she thought because her vision was starting to go blurry.

"You okay, Raven?" Beast Boy asked her.

She nodded, but she frowned down at one of the troll pieces that looked suspiciously like a dragon.

"Does that look like…?"

Her ears were ringing, and Raven couldn't understand her teammates' words anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut and swayed back and forth before she felt a sickening lurch in her stomach.

As she fell forward toward the tabletop, everything went dark.

...

Beast Boy was starting to think that Raven was getting him sick.

Does it work that fast? He wondered.

His mind became very foggy and disoriented all of a sudden. When Cyborg asked him something, he just couldn't focus on the words. Then, Raven's head hit the table with a horrible crack, and she was out, her eyes closed shut.

Beast Boy jumped up with alarm, he called her name, but he couldn't hold his balance as he stood. Then he fell backward, knocking over his chair, and then everyone else was falling too. Just as he hit the cool, kitchen tile, he realized he was going to pass out.

His stomach churned, and his ears were ringing; spots shone in his eyes, and more than anything, he thought of Raven, who had fallen first.

...

Beast Boy awoke upon warm earth that was bathed in the light of a setting sun.

He carefully rose from his position and shook his head again, feeling queasy and disoriented.

Sunset? It's not even the afternoon yet, he thought to himself. How did I get outside?

"BB, you okay?" Cyborg's voice came from behind him.

Beast Boy turned to see his friend crouching next to him, already on his feet.

"What?" Beast Boy moaned, struggling to rise.

"Are you okay, man?" Cyborg repeated.

Beast Boy wasn't sure.

"Come on, get up. You need to see this."

Beast Boy let Cyborg haul him to his feet. As he stood, he realized the dirt he had woken upon was actually a road. It was long and twisting, weaving in and out of a forest that surrounded them.

Cyborg pointed down the road to the west, and as he did, Beast Boy could see what he meant. In the very far distance, bathed in the light of the setting sun, was a structure - a big one.

It was a medieval-looking, black stone castle with purple flags and purple thatch roofing. It was sitting upon a crested hill that was covered in bramble thorn trees and a wrought iron fence. Colorful birds sang over their heads and flew toward the castle, and a warm summer breeze picked up, ruffling Beast Boy's hair.

"Where are we?" Beast Boy asked.

"You're asking me? I've got no clue, man."

"Wait…" Beast Boy said slowly. His pointed ears twitched a little.

"What is it?" Cyborg asked.

Beast Boy pointed to the sky above them.

Robin was falling. They could hear the distinct sound of his screams as he plummeted toward the earth.

"I got you!" Cyborg shouted suddenly, running around like a maniac with his arms open. Beast Boy quickly tried to think up a soft, fat animal for Robin to land on.

"Are polar bears fluffy enough!?" he cried, but Cyborg didn't hear.

Suddenly, an orange and purple blur appeared from somewhere out of sight and caught Robin mid-air. The screaming stopped, and after a moment, Starfire and Robin appeared over the treetops. She gently set Robin down on the ground next to her companions and then landed gently on her feet.

"Phew," Robin breathed shakily, "that was close."

Beast Boy and Cyborg let out long, terrified breaths.

"Indeed," Starfire agreed. "Tell me, friends, where are we?"

Cyborg checked his scanners, as he usually did in this sort of situation, but was unable to place where they were or the source that had put them there. Then he frowned.

"So…you're not gonna like this, because I've said this before and no one ever likes it when I do say this—"

"Just spit it out, dude," Beast Boy said. He was pacing around the treeline, smelling and listening for signs of danger. Then he pulled on one of the leaves attached to the nearest tree, just because he wanted to, but found it to be un-pullable. Like a plastic imitation, the leaf wouldn't come off.

Strange, he thought.

"Yes, just tell us, Cyborg," Starfire insisted.

"We're still inside the tower."

Everyone groaned as a collective. It was frustrating how often this happened to them.

"Of course we are," Robin seethed. "This must be something, what? Supernatural?"

Beast Boy turned and frowned, suddenly realizing they were down a team member. "Speaking of supernatural, where's Raven?"

Everyone looked around them and counted four instead of five.

"Crap," Cyborg slapped his hand to his head.

"But Raven is ill!" Starfire cried. She flew up high to scan the forest canopy. Her voice carried as she did. "What if she is harmed or is unable to journey and find us?"

"Can you sense her? Track her? Is she on the radar?" Robin turned to the team's pair of GPS systems - the robot and the bloodhound. Cyborg and Beast Boy set to work. Starfire could be heard shouting Raven's name in the sky as they did so.

After a few minutes of pacing the perimeter, and seeing the head of a green hound pop-up behind bushes and trees to no avail, they regrouped.

"So far, nothing," Cyborg called over his shoulder.

"I'm not picking up her scent, either," Beast Boy agreed, returning to them.

"We should just start walking," Cyborg finished.

"Start walking where?" Robin frowned at the castle in the distance. "None of this makes any sense, and if we're still in the tower that means someone is messing with us."

"Or it's Raven pulling a spooky, unconscious Halloween tantrum again," Beast Boy offered, worried. "I don't like it that she's not here."

"It could be her doing?" Cyborg shrugged.

Robin shook his head. "She was with us during her horror-movie breakdown, remember?"

"So?"

"So, this isn't like then."

Cyborg crossed his arms, irritated by all the questions up in the air. "So who's doing this, huh? Because I'd like to find out and smack the crap outta them."

Starfire floated down, defeated. Her toes touched the earth, and she sank down to her knees sadly. "Perhaps it is someone we've never encountered before?"

Robin started counting on his fingers. "So we have a few options. It could be Control Freak, Mumbo, Mad Mod, or Master of Games."

"Or Larry," Beast Boy grinned.

Robin shuddered. "I don't think so, but let's hope not."

"Seriously, guys, let's just start walking," Cyborg said again, trotting off in the direction of the Castle.

"No!" Robin interjected. "Every time we get sucked into another dimension or into a magic hat we never think things through until it's almost too late. Let's stay and talk this over."

"Or," Cyborg snapped back, "Raven's somewhere in the woods, hit her head on a rock or is shivering, sick, cold and it's getting dark."

Beast Boy's ears flattened. "He's right. She's our first priority."

Starfire nodded, worried, behind Beast Boy. They all looked to Robin, who was clearly outnumbered. He sighed and ran both hands through his hair.

"Fine," he conceded, "but we stay on our guard, and we do not split up."

Starfire floated gently ahead of them as they started walking. "Perhaps we shall hear her coughs from afar and locate her through her disease?"

"It's a cold, not the plague, Star," Cyborg pointed out, sarcastically.

He backed down when it looked like Star was going to rip him a new one in Tamaranean.

Their walk pulled them deeper into the woods, seemingly endless, and yet the castle didn't look any closer than it had been before.

The sun was now disappearing behind some mountains in the distance. It grew darker with every step and the team crawled their way through the quiet forest with little progress.

Beast Boy groaned at their snail's pace and briefly considered morphing into a cheetah to leave them all in the dust. But between Robin's seething expression, Starfire's worry, and Cyborg's determination to get going, he thought it would be pretty rude to leave them behind to themselves.

Not to mention ill-advised.

The tension in the group was so thick he was sure he could take a generous bite out of it. There was a small, yet very detectable power struggle between the two older males of the team, and Beast Boy was not about to rock that boat again.

They rarely had these moments anymore, not since the team had first begun in their early years. He wanted to chalk it up to worry over Raven, but he also thought everyone was frustrated with being 'had' by some random villain again.

Beast Boy grumbled internally about how his life seemed to stay pretty much the same no matter how old he got. Villains were constantly trying to mess with them. Things were always a little rougher than he'd like them to be: kidnapped friends, broken bones, and a city that was usually swamped with problems.

His team? Well, now that he was growing older, he realized that they each had their baggage; flaws he'd never recognized in his youth. It made each of them unique: a family like no other.

He also realized that he'd started collecting his own baggage over the years. The Terra thing? Yikes. That had messed him up pretty bad. He'd trusted her so much, loved her, put all he had into giving her everything she'd ever needed or wanted. What had he gotten out of that?

Heartbreak, that's what.

His first family? The Doom Patrol? He was growing older without them. He was changing, seeing new things; making his own choices. Would they be proud of who he'd become? What would they say about his height now? The last time he'd seen them he was still sixteen or so. Now? Now he was nineteen and taller than he'd ever thought he'd get.

There was a lot that Beast Boy considered in the silence of their walk, and he'd tried to put the worry out of his mind, but right now, he was just frustrated and annoyed with his friends.

Like Raven. Who just up and disappears the way that she does? He fretted angrily. When we find her, I'm giving her a stern talking-to about interdimensional homing devices. Or installing a pet-microchip. After all, Robin made him get one, which was still totally unfair.

"Wait," he asked, "are we in another dimension if we're still in the Tower?"

"Uh…" Cyborg frowned at his arm, "I don't…think so?"

Robin thought about it. "I don't think so, either. It could be that we're all hallucinating within the same frequency and that our bodies are still slumped over that RPG game," he finished.

"Oh…" Beast Boy frowned. "That's gonna be a major headache afterward. I'm pretty sure I took the chair out with me."

Cyborg patted his shoulder. "No worries. I'm probably drooling all over the board game, so sorry about that. I'll get us a new one."

They laughed a little. It helped.

Starfire shivered, her nerves were on edge. "You don't suppose…" she began, "that we are being watched, do you?"

"What would make you say that?" Robin asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know."