Disclaimer still applies: I own nothing except the plots/situations/ideas that I have placed the characters in and OCs.

Fractured Minds
Chapter 2: Rest and Relaxation

There were a couple reasons why Raven hated inter dimensional traveling: you had to travel quickly, quietly, clean up your own messes, and fight off inter dimensional entities looking for a ride. This is exactly how she came to be covered from head to toe in the foulest smelling purple gunk in the history of the Titans; even worse than Plasmaus. The gunk was courtesy of some hob goblins trying to slime their way onto Earth. The half-demon wanted nothing more than to teleport to her bed and sleep for a month but, she'd need to give Robin her status report first. He'd been waiting patiently off to the side while she re-oriented herself.

"That dimension is clear. There's no trace of them." Before she could escape she was stopped by Robin.

"I've been meaning to speak to you about this situation. Are you sure you can't manage two dimensions a month?" He asked the half-demon, ignoring the death glare that he received from her.

"Sure why not." He blinked in astonished surprise at her almost cheerful response before he was hit in the face by a ball of purple goo. "I'll get right on that while I'm still sporting purple hob goblin mucus that makes Plasmaus smell like roses. And then when I get back we can jump right into a serious discussion about the intricacies of inter dimensional traveling at 4 am."

She tried not to enjoy the sound of breaking glass but she was tired and his sheer idiocy was wearing on her already tested patience.

'He full well knows why I'm pacing myself.' There wasn't a answer from any of her emotions for even they had some kind of survival instincts. Also in this rare instance everyone was in agreement about how idiotic Robin was being at the moment.

He carefully wiped the purple gunk from his face and audibly gulped at the glass scattered around the strategy room. "Well, I um...I uh..."

She tamped down on the urge to grin widely at how flustered he was and a second later she started speaking, she would have liked to yell at him for even entertaining the notion. But her control was slipping, "Did you just spend four weeks trudging through the foulest smelling unidentifiable substances in the universe? Were you chased by ten hob goblins that can shoot loogies at you from fifteen feet away?"

She paused as the grin from earlier twisted into a sneer as she continued, "Are you at this moment standing in front of a very bossy, controlling, and not to mention a very inconsiderate asshole covered in said hob goblin snot, wishing for a shower in the vain hope that you won't smell like you just sat in a septic tank for several weeks when you get out of that shower?"

The look of abject horror on his face was all the prompting that she needed. "Of course not."

Throughout her rant he saw her eyes had turned red and that her second set had narrowed into slits above the first. Surprisingly other than the glass windows from before nothing else had imploded yet. And he was determined to keep it that way.

"You're right. I apologize and we will talk about this when you wake up tomorrow, if you wake up tomorrow." He said sounding thoroughly chastised.

'He will rue this day and-

'Rage. I will say this once and only once, we can't kill him.' the red emote let out a moue of distaste at her mistress for raining on her parade.

'Pouting isn't your strong suit. We can scare the hell out of him, if and when, he does something like this again.' It was rare when she agreed with her most volatile emotion.

'Aw, come on. Can we at least draw some of his blood?' Rage's question went unanswered as she knew that the emote was joking.

Hers was a slow and silent journey to her room. Even if she could have teleported directly there, she was too tired to even attempt it. Ten minutes later and she finally rounded the corner and saw the end of her misery; her room. Now that she was done tracking hob goblin snot all over the tower she phased through the walls and entered her private bathroom.

With a wave her clothes were off and from there her shower was a blur. How she'd stayed awake through it was anyone's guess. As the blisteringly hot water had zapped her remaining strength faster than her frenzied aerial escape from those hob goblins had. A weariness that nothing could match settled over her as she collapsed on her bed and before she could crawl under her dark blue comforter, she was in the world of dreams.

"Breakfast time, all the waffles you can eat!" The wake up call blared over the tower's inter comm system, it was one of the loudest in Titan tower history of wake up calls for Raven. But she was very much dead to the world.

As the cybernetic titan inhaled for another wake up call, he was interrupted by a slightly agitated forest green teenager.

"Dude, there is a better way to wake Miss demonic up. Now watch and learn."

Beast Boy's team mates watched in silence as he went about the kitchen collecting various items and began brewing tea for their resident half-demon. But instead of grabbing an old standby, Camille, he used a tea that he found her using a few months ago.

Twenty five minutes later and Beast Boy had perfectly brew tea and all without burning the tower down in the process. Before anyone could stop him he had balanced two steaming mugs of tea in one hand and was walking into the elevator. As the doors closed Robin turned to Cyborg and said, highly amused, "Cy, I bet you fifty bucks that he doesn't last twenty seconds."

"Oh no. If he makes it more than twenty seconds you have to take Star out on a date. If he doesn't last twenty seconds then I will go on a blind date." Cyborg's hand was extended toward Robin. A split second later his hand was firmly shook.

"Agreed." Come on Beast Boy don't let me down now. Thought Robin who was breathing easy as there was no way he would last twenty seconds.

"You do realize that they're making bets on how long you will survive, right?" She was still very tired even with ten hours of sleep. The two of them were sharing tea in her room, a rarity for them of late.

"I know but Robin is going to be surprised." His grin was innocent enough but she wasn't fooled as she felt the overwhelming waves of smugness and satisfaction coming off of him.

"Do I even want to know?"

He nodded and with a grin still plastered on his face answered without missing a beat. "I had Cy bet on me and if I lasted more the twenty seconds, Robin has to take Star out on a date."

Nearly choking on her tea she blurted out,"You didn't."

"I did. I figured it was about time the two started going out. After all nobody else here and I apologize, not even you, have to smell the pheromones coming off those two 24/7. It was beginning to drive me crazy and well you know how I like to play match maker." He took a sip of his tea.

It was a hobby of his to match make in his spare time. She was the only one of the Titans who knew about it. She gave him her word that she wouldn't tell anyone. After all he was the one that helped her and Jinx get together. It was, surprisingly, one of his better ideas; even if they grew apart a couple months later. The break up wasn't quite the disaster that both were expecting and they walked away as friends, this surprised no one.

"Get pictures for me." Her voice was toneless but she'd never been quite as able as she had been in hiding her emotional ticks from him. They'd grown closer over the last year or so. "Robin ambushed me last night. And you'll never guess what he had to say.

"I'd say your joking but that never ends well for me." He chuckled to himself before continuing, "Even I can see how much this whole dimension hopping misadventure is taking out of you. Not to mention that you have no back up and have been severely injured several times. He needs to back off and realize that you're the only person here who can keep doing this month after month. If it was me, I'd have been driven insane by now."

If she had been told that Beast Boy and her would be best friends when the Titans were formed she would've had them committed. As it was, she was grateful and caught off guard that he seemed to understand that she required down time. The kicker was that it was Beast Boy who got it the most.

"Thanks and don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She said failing to convince him that she would be. There was something that she wasn't telling him or anyone else but he knew better than to press her for information.

"Well... I used the last of that tea." She raised an eyebrow at him, she'd never admit it but a thrill ran through her as she felt his fear spike, as if to say I have a lot of tea.

"I think it was Jasmine? I'll go and get more of it for you." He gulped and was praying to any divine beings who pitied him at the moment that he wouldn't be incinerated or flayed.

'Patience Red, this gives me a brilliant idea.' Intelligence turned to eye the Red Menace as she continued 'Things have been hectic of late and with the tea gone we have a chance to go see Iroh, which we've been unable to for a while. We will also get a reprieve from traveling to a dimension that we potentially know next to nothing about.'

'She does make a compelling argument Rage and you'd be hard pressed to refute that.' Her voice brought a calmness to Rage's ire.

'Fine I won't flay him.' the emote hated it when their mistress was decisive and exerting her will over them.

"Um…hello earth to Raven, anybody home? I would really like to get the flaying of my green hide over with. I have other things to do today." Like sleep before my patrol begins. His words finally wormed their way through to her.

"As you wish." Beast Boy was a shade of green that can best be described as 'not liking my chances of surviving'. He closed his eyes waiting for the pain to start, and waited and waited. Until he opened his eyes to find himself in the organized chaos of his room holding two empty mugs of tea in each hand.

[For the animal's soul is mine, We will be completed right before your eyes, I have no control this time, And now we both shall dine in Hell tonight.]

With a start he grabbed for his communicator that was blaring Disturbed's song "The Animal" it played only when Raven sent him messages.

That tea isn't something that you can pick up for me at Teavana. I should have gone to get more of it before this whole misadventure started. Thanks for the amusement and the tea. Let the others and Robin know that I'll be asleep for a few days.

He almost did a fist pump when he read 'misadventure' but refrained and responded with,

Of course you, would have tea that's Slade level of difficult to find. Say Hi to the pink one for me and no problem.

Her lack of energy worried him. He remember the lecture that she gave to Robin about how taxing it was for her to travel between dimensions, let alone taking the team with her, back when the Justice League contacted them about the missing villains from the gallery of frozen statues who'd since been de-frosted and thrown into an, apparently, unescape-able prison.

He sighed and quickly sent a text to Robin. Once he got a confirmation back he set the empty mugs on his nightstand. He hated night patrol as it made the Beast even more difficult to reign in.

Two days later…

The sun was setting when she emerged onto the roof. She'd slept for two days straight and wanted to meditate before her impending talk with Robin. She'd just settled into the lotus position when she heard the doors to the roof open. "Can it wait?"

"No. The Justice League is riding me hard about the search." He said as he walked around her to stand by the railing.

"And that gives you the right to take out your frustrations on me." She heard him exhale a tired breath. A sign that she was used to him, using to convey his version of the 'I messed up but you just don't understand where I'm coming from' speech. They'd out grown the necessity of him actually saying the words a long time ago.

"Look Zatanna-"

He suddenly found himself upside down and face to face with four red eyes, "So she's the one whom suggested the increase."

"She seemed to think that you were making excuses and were being awfully rigid in your unwilling-ness to do more..." He stopped talking as the coldness around his feet started rolling down his legs.

"Had you mentioned her to me eight months ago I would have broke every window in the common area. But now I am reduced to reacting like this." She waved her hand in front of his face and as she did so, he started swinging like a pendulum. Her eyes lit up with malicious glee at the green tinge to his skin. "My control is wavering and its wavering because traveling between dimensions is taxing on my human half. Every time I leave, I have to rely on my demonic half more and more. I've told you this already."

He could only send the feeling of knowing that to her in answer. For he was still swaying violently and the coldness was over taking his body, which made it hard for him to open his mouth. This served to be jarring enough for her to immediately let him go. "You also expressly forbid me from telling her, and by extension them, that." He said once he forced the bile in his throat down.

"She's the reason why we had to fight him on our own." His astonishment and anger hit her full force. She started speaking before he could, she would likely have killed him if he was allowed to defend the Justice League, "When I first arrived in this dimension, I went to the Justice League and told them everything."

She turned away from his searching eyes. "I fled Azarath after he cajoled Rage into revealing the prophecy to me. I leveled the temple of Azar and if my mother hadn't been able to calm me, he would have ascended."

"I was scared of what I'd seen in the visions that Rage gave me. The Earth scorched and yet still burning with stone statues of its denizens frozen in the throes of agony. Flocks of ravens, a blood red starless sky and his shadow looming over me." She put a wall in between them to stop him from touching her, she couldn't handle the physical contact just then and when she saw him move back to the railing, she let the wall fade.

"I remembered the lessons on Earth that Azar gave me and while it was only in passing, she mentioned a group of powerful individuals; the Justice League. Martian Manhunter, Doctor Fate, Zatanna, Green Lantern, Superman, the Flash, and Aquaman were at the Watch Tower when I requested an audience. When they met with me, Zatanna knew of Trigon and once they sent me out of the room; she convinced the other members that my plea for help was a ploy by him."

Her soul-self covered every inch of the the tower's roof. She tried to will it away but it was stubborn. "I felt their disgust, their hatred, and their willingness to destroy the hopes of a frightened girl who'd one day be at the mercy of a terrible demon. Zatanna is the reason why I ran out of the library that night. Why I was so closed off from you guys." 'Why we still are.' Rage adds silently for her mistress. Knowing that she is unable to speak this truth.

As her soul-self receded from the roof a silence settled over them. Robin was reluctant to break it, not until he though over what she just dropped on him. He reasoned that she was only telling him because of how worn out she was. At this realization he took a moment to observe her; she was barely two feet in the air, her eyes had a dullness in them, her movements were listless even though she'd slept for two days straight, and she'd slept for forty eight hours solid. "Your right. I shouldn't have ambushed you like that. Take all the time you need to recharge and when the Justice League calls back, I'll tell them to stop expecting miracles when they ask for help cleaning up their messes."

"I won't be able to rest if the Justice League puts pressure on us by sending a baby sitter to the Tower." She smiled at the surge of irritation in him.

"Where else would you go? Another dimension?" At her nod, he froze, fighting with his urge to say no. But then a light when off in his head.

"Absolutely not," His smile was frightening as he continued, "without some back up. I want you to take Beast Boy with you."

"I've been to the dimension before Robin. I'll be perfectly fine." She didn't have a problem with taking Beast Boy but they both found amusement in making it seem like they both still barely tolerated each other.

"I wouldn't care if you'd been there a thousand times. This isn't up for discussion he goes with or you don't go at all." He was using his 'I dare you to argue with me' voice. The reason he was adamant about Beast Boy accompanying her, was to get him back for his underhanded tactics. He liked Starfire but he wanted to ask her out on his own and now he was feeling rushed, he didn't handled feeling rushed very well.

"He can come. But I'm warning you I will sent him back if he does anything particularly aggravating." She said through her teeth.

"When do you plan on leaving?"

"Today."

"Yo, Rae I promise that I won't be a nuisance." he said as he approached her door, attempting to drown out the snickering from Robin who was following behind him. The green titan was fighting his urge to laugh at his leader's pitiful act of revenge. Although if me and Raven weren't on the same page I wouldn't be as relaxed.

His thoughts were cut short as the half-demon's door slid open. All that was visible of her were four red eyes. "And I will merely tolerate your presence."

Before he could blink a tendril of black snagged him around the waist and pulled him past the threshold. Once he was safely in the room, he started screaming bloody murder and she put extra effort into growling at him. Outside the door Robin was grinning at the sounds he heard. "Have a good trip you two."

Abruptly the screaming and growling gave way to side splitting laughter and an amused chuckle. It was only natural that the half-demon could speak right away.

"Its great that he picked you to join me on this vacation." She waited for his laughter to die down and his attention to be directed at her, "There are unusual animals in the dimension that we are going to. And you could learn a thing or two from said animals."

She was near overwhelmed by his curiosity but before he could rapid fire questions at her, he was forced to doge the strange bundle of clothing that she threw at him. He saw what looked like a dress in green and gold, dark brown shorts, a black belt, and black leather boots. He was distracted by the dress and therefore was unprepared to catch a green hat that bounced off of his face. He quickly scrambled to pick the hat and clothing up off the floor.

"That's your new uniform." She said and at his unspoken concerns, which she found highly amusing, she elaborated further, "I made them in my spare time." At his incredulous look she rolled her eyes. "Back when I still had time to spare. Anyways those clothes should hold up better than your normal uniform and if you need to transform they won't get destroyed. They'll help you blend in better too."

"Thanks but I'm still going to be green." He said his tone was both grateful and resigned as he walked toward her bathroom to change.

"I worked a glamour and a translation enchantment into them. So as long as you wear them, your skin will be pale, your eyes and hair will be dark green. You will also be able to understand the language spoken there." She said to his retreating back.

As soon as the door to her bathroom was closed and locked she went over to her closet, locking the door once she was inside. She walked to the back of the space and located the clothes she would wear plus the ones she was taking with. She focused on Beast Boy, making sure that he was still in her bathroom and once she was satisfied that he was still there, she changed.

The armor she was working on wasn't finished completely yet so she threw on one of her favorite band t-shirts and a pair of black cargo shorts. Unlike Beast Boy she required no help blending in; as she wasn't planning on being seen by anyone other than Iroh. Her cloak was reversible, one side was black with gold stitching on the hem and the other side of it was dark red with silver stitching; each side had the faint outline of a dragon stitched in gold and silver respectively. She preferred the black side. The clasp for the cloak was in the shape of her namesake, it too was gold and silver.

She moved over to the shelf with the finished pieces of armor and grabbed the enchanted bracers each of them concealed four knives, if never payed to be unprepared even when traveling to parts known. She decided on her steel-toe combat boots but like with the rest of her clothing she enchanted them to be near indestructible. Once properly outfitted she wistfully glanced at the unfinished armor one more time and before she could change her mind, she snapped her fingers at the work bench. The entire bench, her raw materials, the half completed chest pieces, and her dimension travel kit were sent to Nevermore. 'Its times like these that I don't mind being me.'

'Are the other times really so bad?' They both knew the answer to this question.

She walked out of her closet and was surprised to see that Beast Boy was still in her bathroom. She waved the door open and saw him fidgeting with the hat so that it would sit straight on his unruly hair. With a flick of her wrist and a spark of black later the hat was straightened and when Beast Boy turned to thank her, his jaw hit the floor. "You look great Raven. Black is a good color on you, not that the blue isn't nice on you either."

"Thank you, it took me seven months to make it, your clothes, and everyone else's. Come on the others will want to see us before we leave."

"Friend Raven, what happened to the blue. The depressed feelings haven't taken you from us." It was a concerned Starfire that greet them when they entered the common area of the tower. The alien princess remembered what happened to friend Raven when she traveled into the future. It still gave her nightmares to this day.

"No the depressed feelings haven't taken me anywhere Star. I've been meaning to switch over to a new uniform for awhile now and I've out grown my old clothes anyway." The half-demon assured Star while trying not to levitate every thing that wasn't nailed down in the room as her amusement bled over to her powers.

"And where is the green one? I do not see him." She asked scanning the room for Beast Boy.

"Uh Star I'm right here." As he said that her eyes zeroed in on him and than she rushed him, to begin squeezing the air out of him.

"I'll miss you too Star. Can't breathe." He gasped out and after another second or two she released him. "The missing you is already here, Friends."

"I though your favorite color was pink, Rae." Raven narrowed her eyes at Cyborg and was contemplating how best to destroy the couch.

"I thought you were allergic to formal attire and why are you wearing your holo-ring?" She spat back ignoring the slight twitching of her mouth as she forced the dirty dishes back into the sink with care.

A smile broke out on his face and he said, "Victor Stone has a business meeting with Tokyo Electronics and Larry's Gadgets today. Both of whom have shown interest in helping a fledgling inventor get off the ground. Have fun on your vacation."

He turned back around to watch 'Pimp My Ride' on TLC.

"I will. Good luck with your meetings today Victor." she said gesturing for Beast Boy to proceed her into the elevator. Just before the door's shut Cyborg said, "And Grass Stain being in another dimension is no laughing matter, listen to Rae, and don't die."

"Can you believe him? I'm not that immature kid anymore. Why won't anyone cut me some slack?" He fumed indigently to Raven. Almost a second later he pointed at her. "You don't count."

"You're bright green, you have a purple tongue, and you've used it to pick your nose like Stitch ever since the Titans met him and Lilo." she deadpanned.

"This is very true." His response got a chuckle out of Raven.

"You set yourself up for that one."

"This is also true." They both chuckled at that but their shared amusement died quickly as the doors opened to a stern faced Robin, who was waiting for them.

"Hey you two."

Raven was instantly on alert as she picked up his apprehension. She had the distinct feeling that she wasn't about to like anything that he was going to say. And seconds later she was proven right.

"Raven listen I know this is supposed to be R&R for you. But I would like you to keep an eye out for the escaped criminals."

Before Beast Boy could open his mouth to verbally shred their leader to bits the half-demon was a step ahead of him. She used her powers to pin Robin in place as she growled. "That depends on if its just you asking or if the League is telling? And have they gotten anywhere with narrowing down who broke out?"

"No, no," If he could have moved his arms he would be attempting to wave her concerns off. "I'm just asking and they're still not sure."

'Typical JL bullshit. Oh we can't possibly have anyone else help us identify the prisoners but were going to have you, demon spawn, go on a wild goose chase for random villains. That is until you're already neck deep in blood and bodies before we narrow down our list of suspects.' The emote was pacing back and forth as she ranted about the ineptitude of the JL.

'Feel better?' She asked with just a touch of amusement, Intelligence hated all the posturing and jurisdiction crap that the JL was enforcing now.

'No but you'd better let Boy Blunder apologize again. He does feel really bad for ambushing us like that.' She said smirking as her mistress sighed tiredly.

She released the grip her powers had on him and asked, "What happened while I was gone?"

He gulped apprehensively but soldiered on,"Slade appeared and he beat our asses into the ground effortlessly. When the League stepped into take him on...they gave me instructions to carry out."

Her reaction to hearing about Slade's reappearance went unnoticed by him but Beast Boy heard several of the tower's windows crack. He had to force the Beast back as he stared at Robin. Whom was obviously insane or was dosed with something as there were only two things that set Raven off, going into her room uninvited, and Slade; of which Robin was well aware.

"Why?"

Beast Boy felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and his throat went dry. She was using one word questions this wasn't going to be pretty. Robin seemed to noticed, at last, how what he said had affected Raven.

"Why wasn't I informed that Slade had returned? I owe him." Her eyes were red and the cracked windows from earlier shattered. At this she forced her anger back. "Maybe it was one of your better calls, to keep me uninformed about it."

There was a chill that settled into Robin's bones as she'd spoken to him. He couldn't quite hold back the shudder that traveled through him. He was unsettled by Raven and he'd not learned how she kept managing it, especially after what they'd experienced together.

"Yeah...anyways have a safe trip and stay as long as you feel is necessary." he said and then turned to address Beast Boy, "Listen to Raven and don't goof around."

Beast Boy let out an annoyed huff and was about to give Robin a piece of his mind when the tower's sirens went off.

"Duty calls. I'll see you guys when you get back." He said, right before jumping off of the roof.

"Not one word Raven." Despite the venom in his tone he had a smile on his face when he directed his attention to her. "So how exactly does this diagram help with inter dimensional travel?"

His question went unanswered as Raven was busy using her powers to inscribe demonic runes around the third largest circle that the aforementioned diagram had. He saw that the two smaller circles already had runes around them.

"Ordinarily I would use my soul-self to find holes in the integral reality mazes that keep all dimensions fully intact and separate from each other." She paused here to pull out one of her old cloaks and placed it inside the largest circle. "And the reason why I can find these holes and pass through them unharmed is because Trigon was my sire and he, himself, was an inter dimensional demon. However you're traveling with me this time. Hence the diagram; and its purpose, is to trick the reality mazes that we'll be passing through. Too see you as an inter dimensional being that is allowed to pass through the mazes."

He was surprised that she spoke easily of her father but then her tone of voice registered with him, full of self-loathing and hatred. "What would happen if you didn't use the diagram?"

"The maze for our dimension would kill you."

"It does much worse than that doesn't it?"

A nod was his answer and before he could ask her to clarify she spoke. "Go stand in the center of the circle with my cloak in it."

Once he was in the center of the circle, she stepped into the one that was interlocked with his, as she did so he noticed that the cloak she placed in his circle had been repaired with dark red thread.

"What-"

"That cloak will act as your anchor to this dimension as well as your passport through the mazes; it will also lay the groundwork for easier travel to and from where we are going. In addition if anything should happen and I decide to send you back, the diagram will transport you and anyone else back here unharmed. That's why the diagram is so big." She said in response to his curiosity.

"Dude... that's awesome."

'Not the word I would use.'

'You know he means well.' The emote had developed a soft spot for Beast Boy ever since they met and from the moment he made her laugh.

'Besides someone needs to be enthusiastic about our awesome skills.'

She mentally shook her head at Happy.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos" As she said her mantra, he felt a mind numbing chill suck him into oblivion.

Songs in this chapter:

'The Animal' By Disturbed