Flashback Chapter 5: Things left broken, a teen titans fanfic

AN:

YAY! I finally finished this chapter

So Here is what's going on im working 40-50 hours a week and full time in school which is another 12 hours of my time somewhere in between all that, hence the story didn't get updated for a while.

But here I is!

I have a goal to get this story done before the New Year and anticipate at least 2 more chapters…3 if I do an epilogue.

But alas I rant too long and you probably don't care anyway, ON TO CHAPTER 5!

Flashback 5: Things left broken

The Echrid's mind was troubled, things were not supposed to be happening like they were. Its scouting party that was sent to test the strength of the people at the chosen landing site was destroyed in less than a minute – this was not good at all something was very wrong – but what? For the tenth time now it went over the little data it had received from the scouting ship before contact had been lost but again, nothing was standing out any more than it did before, the few Echrid soldiers sent were simply outmatched.

Were its calculations wrong? Were the humans strong enough to fight its soldiers? No, the mind already knew the answer to that, there had to be something else going on. The hive mind then rescanned the data for anything at all, which took a little longer than a normal scan but came up with some results this time.

Around the boy that had destroyed the soldiers and ship was a temporal field of some kind, barely detectible but defiantly there, and temporal distortions meant only one thing, that boy was a time traveler come to help defeat the mind once it arrived on earth or something – and it was the something, the unknown that unnerved the controlling mind of the Echrid.

But there was a backup plan, a plan that not even that time traveler could predict, the mother ship still had enough magma created energy to fire the warp drives one more time that way it could arrive at earth faster, but would arrive with much less energy to produce soldiers to buffer its already impressive ranks.

So now there was a choice, The mother ship could warp to just over the atmosphere of the planet but then would not have enough energy to create reinforcement Echrid if they were needed, or it could fly on its present course and reach the planet in 3 months…but then a compromise was reached with itself.

Powering up the warp drive in the back of the ship the Echrid's mother ship would warp to the target planet's single moon, and fly the rest of the way with enough energy left for more Echrid soldiers to be created.

It would take twelve earth hours for the warp drive to fully power up but that was fine… it had all the time in the world.

Raven sat on the floor in the common room facing the window in a lotus position – she had just finished the most life changing talk a person could ever have in a life. After all it wasn't that often that one would get to have a heart to heat discussion with their own son before said son was even conceived.

In their talk Raven had learned exactly how Beast Boy, Cyborg and Jinx had died fighting each other. She had learned that the Echrid themselves were controlled by a single entity in that lived in the Echrid's mother ship and that this same entity would try to attack her own mind as well as Jinx's once the ship got close enough to earth. She also learned that Beast Boy was apparently a very caring and good father just from the way Ty spoke about him rather than what he said.

Raven had also learned something about herself, she learned from Ty that love was so strong of an emotion that instead of making raven lose control it would cause her powers to settle instead – a concept that was so counter intuitive that Raven had never even considered the possibility before, use a singular good emotion to temper and control the rest, it was genius. In fact her father had tried to do the exact same thing utilizing Raven's own anger to try to control the rest of her emotions at one point the dark girl just never thought that it could work in reverse.

But Raven had never given much thought to the emotion of affection, in fact that was one of those emotions that was powerful enough on its own she couldn't imagine what it would be like if the affection she felt for Beast Boy ever became love. Wow she thought realizing for the first time that this meant she could have a normal-ish life and actually show feelings for people without having to worry about them getting blown up, or everything around her getting blown up, or herself blown up.

She had been going about this the wrong way and for the first time in her life Raven was able to sit staring out of the common room windows that she had just repaired, actually feeling. Now she wasn't sure what she was feeling but it made her happy – of course, this was what happiness felt like, duh Raven she scolded herself, that must have been either rude or knowledge…or both.

Glancing at the clock she noted the time and thought that the rest of the team should be back from down town soon which meant it would be time to face Beast Boy, a thought that made her quite suddenly feel afraid – that must be timid kicking in – why was she so afraid of facing Beast Boy? What harm could possibly come from her admitting to him that there was something there that should be given a chance?

No her mind told her admitting any feelings to Beast Boy would be unfair for him and you, besides it would only fail in the end and you would get hurt – it isn't worth the chance of getting hurt. Her mind was right too, the last time she had trusted a man with her heart she found out that she was only being used as a way for Malchior to regain his power – Raven was used and discarded like a worthless tool. She shuddered involuntarily remembering how she was treated in that 'relationship' – but then Beast Boy was not a sociopathic dragon who wanted to regain his power either, in fact the only things Beast Boy ever had done to wrong her was some harmless pranks and jokes, many of which could be taken as the changeling trying to flirt with her.

Oh my gosh Beast Boy has been flirting with me! She suddenly realized and almost lost control, managing to barely keep her powers stuffed down inside herself at least for now.

It wasn't like her powers were coming up out of rage or frustration like they usually did her powers had a momentary hiccup because she was ashamed that she didn't realize Beast Boy's feelings for her before now. Of course this brought up a new problem by, it was okay that the Changeling had feelings for her, but did she have real feelings for him?

If she didn't then her theory of being able to control her powers with love was just a fleeting thought and she would grow old and gray never knowing what love was and everyone would hate her and throw rocks.

No they wouldn't stop being silly wisdom told her but Raven already knew enough about herself to know that she lacked insight into most of her emotions and she needed to have a face to face with one emotion specifically. Standing up she close her eyes and phased into her room, snatching the magic mirror off of her dresser. She paused a moment then looked into the mirror and a moment later felt the familiar pulling sensation as she entered her own mind, after that the mirror floated back down to floor next to her bed where it softly landed.

Once she arrived in Nevermore Raven found herself standing atop a grassy, softly slopped hill – not the usual when she entered her own mind – clouds filled the familiar reddish black sky. Looking around she noticed a distinct lack of any emotions at all or traces that they lived there; the only thing noteworthy was another hill with a tree on top of it, next to the hill she was standing on.

Taking to the air Raven flew at the tree on top of the hill but was a little disappointed when she arrived as it turned out to just be a tree on a hill, nothing more.

"It's about time you arrived." Raven own voice said from behind her, turning around she saw a maroon clad version of herself smiling softly at her.

Affection had been waiting for her.

Beast Boy landed lightly on the roof of Titans Tower, arriving later than he planned because Robin had paged his communicator and he had to stop to read the message – which only told him that the rest of the team would all be late because they were helping the mayor plan an evacuation plan for the city so it would be empty when the Echrid arrived or some such thing the changeling really didn't read it. He had read the description on the back of the movie he rented and couldn't believe that old man had talked him into renting it as the short description made it look like the DvD case would gush out sappiness and pink hearts once opened – Beast Boy shuddered.

But hey tonight he was going to ask Raven if she wanted to watch a movie with him – and if she said yes then the night would be about what she wanted not what he wanted. Yes folks, Beast Boy can be selfless when he wants to be.

Walking down the stairs into the common room Beast Boy noted that Raven and Ty were not there, and shifted to a dog to sniff around a bit. What he smelled was that Ty had taken off down the hallway; presumably to the guest room he was staying in as he seemed to like it in there.

Raven however had no trail that was leaving the room, it was simply there and then absent. This told Beast Boy that she had probably teleported somewhere else and even though he couldn't smell magic it was a safe assumption. Shifting back to his normal self then he proceeded to the first place that he thought he might find their resident dark sorceress – her room – and it wasn't long before beast Boy found himself staring down Raven's door not knowing what to do.

Should I knock? Sure! Knocking is a good place to start. I should knock on Raven's door more often. Why am I so nervous anyway? Beast Boy though and gave the door a brisk but audible couple of knocks.

But there was no response.

Beast Boy waited a minute or so and knocked again a little more forcefully but still there was no response from the room beyond the metal door. Is she ignoring me? He wondered.

"Raven! Are you in there?" Beast boy called as he knocked on the door yet again, still nothing from the other side. "If you don't answer I'm going to come to use the emergency code to come in there!"

Still nothing.

"I'm entering the code!" Beast Boy yelled into the door as he slowly entered the override code, "I'm opening the door!" he said as the door slid open.

But what met him was only an empty room, a Raven-less room to be precise. Beast Boy looked around the room but sure enough Raven was nowhere to be seen the only thing that looked out of the ordinary was the fact that her mind mirror was laying on the floor instead of on the dresser where it usually was…maybe she was in her mind.

Beast Boy immediately discarded that idea as he did not want to end up trapped in Raven's mirror again for the sole reason of she would kill him dead. Than again there could always be an accident…

"Oops!" Beast Boy said as he 'dropped' – technically tossing the DVD is dropping it – the movie onto Raven's bed from where he was standing in the doorway.

"I guess I will have to just go get the movie out of Ravens room and then quickly leave." He said aloud as he entered her room and the door shut. Suddenly he realized he didn't have to do that as there was probably no one in the tower besides Ty down the other hallway, oh well.

Picking up the elaborate mirror he looked in it and instantly felt a pulling sensation as he was sucked into its smooth surface. The mirror then floated in the air a moment or two before settling back softly to the floor, leaving no one in the room.

"What is all this?" Raven asked.

"This is my domain." Affection replied, "I know you may have been thinking it would be filled with hearts and flowers and such, but I as one of your emotion am much, much more than that – though I was not always this way."

Raven paused for a moment before asking, "How so?" she wasn't quite sure where her emotion was going with this but at the same time she was curious – Raven after all new almost nothing about this particular emotion.

"Well believe it or not Raven at the moment I am not your most powerful emotion, nor will I be unless you let yourself experience what I can do for you more often – what all of us can do for you." Affection stated then lowered the hood of her maroon cloak before continuing, "It was Knowledge and Wisdom that helped us come to this conclusion Raven, we discovered that for the last few years since we defeated Trigon our powers have been at a stand still. Not progressing but not regressing either just sort of existing with no real point. It seems that after your father was banished from this dimension you were then free to use your emotions with your powers, meaning that once you start using myself, as well as the rest of your emotions, we will only get stronger. But as I said, you have you use me if you want to have any hope of using all of us for good…each of us has a specific trait that I don't need to explain but myself, as well as anger, are the only two emotions that can use our power to guide the other emotions."

Raven just stood there under the shade of the tree as Affection stat down in the lotus position and stared at her. Was she right? After all her emotions were all a part of herself even if she didn't want them to be – but there was so much danger in letting herself feel because of her dark, demonic magic. There had to be a middle ground somewhere that didn't involve her having to completely suppress her emotions.

"I know what your thinking Raven, you may as well just talk to me." Affection said, interrupting Raven's thoughts.

"I sometimes forget you are all a part of me and know what is going on, forgive me for that." Raven said as monotone as she could.

"There is nothing to forgive Raven the facts are simple, if you if you want us to grow you must use us, including me." Affection said, "In fact Wisdom believes that it would be best if you started with me."

Raven Blinked – start with affection? What was she thinking? Just like Anger, Affection was one of the more difficult emotions to control. In fact the only way Raven ended up keeping her anger under control was by banishing the emotion to be locked into its own domain. Maybe she should do the same thing with affection…no affection was one of her few emotions that radiated pure good and she didn't want to push that away. But at the same time she didn't know what would happen if she let affection out for use.

Raven realized then that utilizing affection meant that her affections feelings – her feelings – would make themselves known when she was around Beast Boy. For some reason that hit her as a very bad idea, for as much as she wanted to be in a relation ship with Beast Boy she didn't think blowing up the tower when they kissed would go over very well.

"So what is it going to be Raven?" Affection pressed.

"You're making me decide now?!" Raven was surprised that she was pushing so hard.

"Well Beast Boy just entered your mind, so I suggest that you decide something fast – I shall wait with your other emotions until you make your decision." And with that Affection phased through the ground leaving Raven alone for the moment on the hill under the tree.

Beast Boy was here? What the heck! Why did he come into her mirror when she specifically banned him from that after the last fiasco caused by Beast Boy and Cyborg when they were accidentally were sucked into her sub conscious. But this was different as Beast Boy probably intentionally went into her mirror knowing she would be there – at least one version of herself anyway – this was a violation of her privacy. Infuriated now Raven turned her attention back to the hill behind her, and sure enough a moment later Beast Boy landed roughly on the hill, hopefully he broke something.

Raven phased over to the other hill to save time, appearing next to Beast Boy just as he was pulling himself off the ground rubbing his rear.

"Ouch!" He said, not noticing Raven was floating behind him, "Raven should really put a trampoline there or something."

"And just why should I do that if I'm the only one who is ever here?" Raven growled.

"EEK!" Beast Boy whipped around to see Raven floating there, looking very, very angry.

"Umm…hey! Fancy meeting you here?" he said lamely.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" Raven said through gritted teeth.

Suddenly Beast Boy didn't have an answer to that question, why had he come here? Oh that was right, he liked her and wanted to maybe tell her that or something, though by looking at Raven it seemed he had seriously miscalculated some things.

"Umm, I was just looking for you because I wanted to talk to you." Beast Boy said, honesty was probably his best defense at this point.

"Why couldn't you wait in the hallway or even in my room? Why did you have to come in my freek'n mind again?" Raven said through gritted teeth, willing herself to be a little more calm so she didn't kill the boy right then and there.

"I don't know!" Beast Boy shouted, "Is it wrong for someone to want to talk to you?!"

That outburst instantly made Beast Boy feel like a shmuck, why did he have to yell at her? Seriously did the fact that he liked her mean that he would have to mean to her? What the heck Beast Boy. He thought at himself, cut this out before you make her hate you more you stupid jerk!

Raven on the other hand could sense Beast Boy's guilt after that sudden outburst, a fact that made her feel like forgiving him eventually, but first she had to get him out of her mind before affection or happy showed up. With one swift motion of her arms Raven reversed the Mirrors effect catapulting both of the teens from Ravens mind and back into her room. Raven landed gracefully on her feet while Beast Boy landed on his back – a useful little spell that she had learned after the last time someone had entered her head and shouldn't have.

Now standing in her room with the green Titan Raven glared at her friend, a friend that had knowingly violated the privacy of her room – as well as her mind – just to talk to her when in fact instead of talking, he had yelled at her…in her own head! With an immense amount of sheer willpower Raven pushed away the thoughts of banishing the boy to another world full of fire and hate, and was forced to revert back to a cold emotionless husk of a human being in order to function enough to talk to him again.

"Beast Boy if what you want to say to me but if it was so important than maybe you should have respected my privacy and waited till I was not in my own head – because you violated that privacy I no longer care what you want, now leave me alone!" Raven finished through gritted teeth.

Beast Boy blinked a moment before scowling and storming out of the room, shutting the door quietly.

Raven took a deep breath after he left; she was just starting to believe that Beast Boy might be capable of returning the feelings that she now knew she had for him but now – now she was wondering why she had that thought at all. An even better question was how the heck had they made a child together? Besides the obvious answer of they had sex at some point – Raven shuttered – she couldn't think of anything other than it had been the end of the world and she had been desperate to get laid.

Yes, that was it, the only reason that her and Beast Boy had been together in the future was that she had been desperate. Obviously Ty was here to help stop the Echrid so that Raven could be herself again safe and alone. Yes, that was it.

Her and Beast Boy together…Hah!

With a new sense of smugness Raven sat on her bed to meditate but instead of the soft mattress she was greeted with the sound of crunched plastic.

Quickly standing back up Raven turned around to see what looked like a DVD case and through a large crack in the case the disk was also visible. The art on the front of the case depicted an actor and actress she did not recognize in a warm embrace – both the male and female depicted as kissing each other in the rain – and the title scrawled in neat, white print across the top 'The Notebook'.

She picked up the ruined case and a shard of plastic fell from the front of the case to her bed as she opened it. She must have sat on it just right because the disk itself was cracked on one end, putting it in a DVD player would probably damage the player as well as the disk further.

Why had he gotten this movie? Raven thought, he hates this kind of movies…heck I hate these kind of movies.

But before she could give it any thought affections voice whispered softly in her head that he was doing it for her, Beast Boy was reaching out to her again just like he had done countless times in the past.

He cared.

Raven shook her head and looked at the DVD again – was it possible that someone actually wanted to spend time with her? that someone wanted to get to know her? She sighed and once again reset all the thoughts in her head, all this love business was just spinning her logic in circles none of it made any sense.

But then…love wasn't supposed to make sense wasn't it? Tired of the questions that plagued her mind Raven placed the ruined move on her dresser and walked out of her room to find Beast Boy and have a talk about all of this.

However, the Titan's little green changeling was in no mood for talking.

Sure it was probably wrong of him to go into Raven's room and then into her mind without her permission but she didn't need to say the things she did either. "You violated that privacy I no longer care what you want, now leave me alone!"

Leave me alone…

Alone…

The words repeated themselves in his head like a broken record that he couldn't turn off, and if he couldn't turn it off he may as well replace it with something else, like Linkin Park on blow-your-speakers-up volume level. But even with the stereo in his room threatening to explode and lying on his bed Beast Boy still couldn't shake the feeling that Raven didn't really want to be alone…but how could he feel like this when Raven had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him or his feelings.

Not that he had gotten the chance to tell her how he felt.

That being said, in Beast Boy's mind through all the hard rock and ADD realized that in his excitement to ask Raven on a date – he was being honest with himself now – and tell her how he felt about her he had intruded on her privacy and while forgivable, this was a mistake he had yet to atone for she did nothing wrong. Sighing Beast Boy hopped down from his bunk bed and turned off the stereo thinking all the while of how he could apologize to Raven but couldn't come up with anything. Though he did have the thought about flowers a few times, he figured that she hated flowers as everything in her room was about as monotone as she was.

It was at that point that everything seemed hopeless; maybe I should just give up. Beast Boy thought grimly, if Raven doesn't want to explore anything between us I won't push her, I owe her that much I guess. He figured that it was his responsibility as her friend to keep the friendship as just that if Raven did not want to peruse anything more. However this was not a decision Beast Boy took without feeling like he just tied a few tons of weight to his heart then throwing it overboard into the ocean of eternal sorrow to drown and die. Wow beast boy going all Goth now, chill out dude. He thought, really there was no reason t hat he should be feeling more than conventional sorry for potential love lost but he had a feeling that knowing he couldn't be with Raven was going to be a lot worse than when Terra had betrayed him.

He was thinking of how he was going to deal with this new found depression when there three soft knocks at his door. Blinking he wondered why anyone would knock that softly but his keen animal senses told him that whoever it was probably didn't want him to hear that they were knocking.

Rushing to the door Beast Boy jammed the button to open it and was almost ran into the last person he expected to see. Raven stood in front of him with a strangely depressed look on her face, what emotions the Changeling could read off of her told him that she was sorry about something but what he couldn't figure out – he was the one that was sorry anyway Raven should still be mad at him not depressed – nothing seemed to be making any sense anymore, and Raven wasn't faring any better than Beast Boy.

She Stood across from him sensing the utter confusion that was radiating off of the changeling like shockwaves of emotion. Sadness, anger, surprise, happiness, love, love for her…Raven wasn't quite sure what to make of the last one but of all the emotional ADD that Beast Boy was going through his love for her was the most easily recognizable of all of the emotions, it was also the strongest. It made her realize that not only had she seen this emotion from beast boy before but she has willfully dismissed that particular emotion whenever she felt it from him in the past, how could she have done that? A better question though would be how could Beast Boy still love her after she had denied him so many times?

It was simple really, Raven thought, you are an idiot.

"Raven?" Beast Boy said, breaking her from her thoughts.

"Beast Boy." Raven almost whispered.

An awkward silence took over.

"A-Are you alright?" Beast Boy stammered.

"Yeah…yeah…" Raven replied.

Awkward silence.

"Listen…" Beast Boy said, looking at the ground with his hands behind him, "I'm umm – I'm sorry I went into your mirror, I know that's something that's very personal to you and well…I was an idiot because I was excited to talk to you and…well there's no real excuse I'm just an idiot, I'm sorry."

Raven analyzed everything he said as she took it all in, he knew he was in the wrong for going into her mind – that was good – but he had a reason for wanting to talk to her right away, it must have had something to do with the movie that she sat on and destroyed. But the most noticeable thing to Raven was the overwhelming guilt she could feel radiating off him so strongly that it had replaced the feeling of love, blinking Raven realized that she caused him to feel that way by yelling at him, sure he had intruded on her privacy but she could have reacted differently than she did – she wanted the feeling of his love for her to come back!

It was then that Raven realized just how much he meant to her, even with all of his annoying traits and her pushing him away he still loved her and wanted to be with her, even though she had lashed out at him in frustration on more times than one could count he was the one that was there for her when she needed a friend, he was there when she was down on herself, and he was there for her when Malchior broke her heart.

You love him a familiar emotion whispered in her head.

"Its…okay." Raven said carefully, she loved the boy but didn't know how to tell him she did or if she even should.

You should tell him.

"Really...umm…Are you sure? You can throw me out a window if it will make you feel better." Beast Boy said wondering why Raven was forgiving him so easily, something was up.

Tell him tell him tell him tell him! The voice of affection whispered in her head again and for as much as Raven wanted to tell Beast Boy how she felt she didn't know if she could.

"Do you want to umm…talk?" The changeling suggested and motioned into his room, while he wanted to talk to Raven he was wondering how on earth those words came out of his mouth now of all times, and to suggest his room as a place to talk…right Beast Boy real smart there.

"Sure." Raven said timidly and walked into Beast Boy's room as he stepped aside to let her in, she wove her way through the piles of clothes and other things to sit on the edge of Beast Boy's bed, while the changeling himself sat at the singular char in his room across from Raven. An awkward silence settled between them as neither teen could muster the courage to look at the other – Raven pretended like she was staring out the window while Beast Boy simply stared at the floor.

"So umm…what do you want to talk about?" Beast Boy finally offered now unsure why he asked the girl to come into his room.

"I…I don't know what to do about you Beast Boy." Raven sighed.

"Umm…what do you mean?" Beast Boy asked becoming a bit nervous.

"I…" Raven thought about what she was going to say a moment, "I don't understand you...you do things like make jokes all the time to try and annoy me and intrude on my privacy, but at the same time your more of a friend to me than most of the other Titans by actually caring about what's going on with me or what I think and feel."

"I found the movie you got for us Beast Boy." Raven said thinking I sat on it and broke it too but I'm not going to tell you that right now because it hopefully doesn't matter. "and while its not the type of movie I would like – at all – I really appreciate the gesture and… you've been such a good friend for me when I haven't been and I just want you to know I…I want to be a friend back, I want to be your friend and maybe…maybe more than friends." The butterflies and knots in her stomach didn't help Raven at all as she struggled through trying to tell Beast Boy her feelings but she somehow made it through.

Beast Boy thought a moment before finally speaking, "Raven I…

Ty sat on the edge of the roof atop Titans tower mulling things over as the sun began to edge towards the horizon. It was calm up here, a good place where he could sit and sort through his frazzled nerves. Seeing the Echrid had provoked a response that he knew was coming but didn't think his anger would be so strong and even after the short li ved battle was over he was still harboring that anger. So he left the Titans where they were and went to calm down before he destroyed the whole city or used so much of his power that he would die, whichever came first.

So now he sat on top of the tower listening to the gentle waves caress the shoreline in a rhythmic beat. His messy hair swayed slightly in the breeze as sunlight glittered off of the rune covered armor he wore and as he swayed his legs over the edge of the tower one thought kept forcing its way to the front – he had certainly made a mess of things. He had told his future mother everything he knew about her and Beast Boy's relationship, how he had come into existence, why he wore the armor he wore and how his powers worked compared to hers, and anything else he could think of that seemed relevant and in doing so had created a paradox that focused around him. Now if anything that would have prevented him from being born were to happen he would simply cease to exist – there was a scary thought – but the fact that he was still here told him that even though he had irreparably changed the future, perhaps he could stay long enough to ensure that future would turn out for the good.

After their talk Raven seemed to have a lot on her mind and excused herself while Ty had opted to simply fly up to the roof and sit for a while and think things through. But his solitude didn't last for long as about five minutes ago the T-car drove up the lane and into the tower and he assumed Robin would want to talk to him as well – Ty after all didn't hold much back when he saw the Echrid scouts and that would defiantly peak Robin's interest – his assumptions were confirmed when the sound of the door to the top of the tower was open and shut, followed by crunching gravel as the Boy Wonder walked up behind him.

"Hey." He said, "That was …quite the show you put on back there."

"Yeah." Ty responded, not looking away from the sea, "I have some issues with those aliens."

Robin snorted, "That's putting it a little lightly."

He then walked up beside Ty and stood facing the bay watching the scenery, though the view was far from his mind.

"I know a bit about time travel you know." Robin stated, "I know that the fact that both Beast Boy and Raven know about you means that there is some sort of paradox that focuses on you now…and if anything were to happen that changes your future you wouldn't exist anymore. Cy's paternity test proved you're their kid so that leads me to question I have."

Ty looked up at Robin not really surprised that he was as well informed as he was; maybe he contacted Batman for help on the research or something.

"If you help is somehow defeat the Echrid that will change your future as well, change it so that the Echrid didn't exist in that timeline, a new future will be created where your experiences and people and time never happened, you do have to realize that even if were successful you still will not exist anymore…your on a suicide mission you know that right?"

"Well it can't really be suicide if I never existed in the first place can it?" Ty smirked darkly, "If I was interested in self preservation I don't think I would have come back in time in the first place Robin. I know full well what will happen if we are able defeat the Echrid, and if I can change the future by sacrificing myself so billions of others can live I think that is not a small price to pay at all…you would do the same thing."

"Yeah, I suppose I would." Robin said, he was proud of the boy's determination to defeat the Echrid even if it cost him his life, however he had probably learned that from an older version of himself so it was expected.

"You know if there is any other way that we can get rid of the Echrid and save you we will." Robin stated mostly to make himself feel better about the situation.

"Nope." Ty said, "If the Echrid live I live, if they die I die – so to speak – because if we win, my future will simply cease to be and trust me when I say that is a very good thing." Ty smiled up at Robin then stood up.

"Alright then." Robin relented, Ty was right though he hated to admit it, so if they were going to save humanity they were going to do it right and get it done on the first try. "Let's see how Cyborg is coming on some sort of power enhancer for your time machine." He grinned and both boys set off to Cyborg's lab which conveniently doubled as his room.

"Raven I care about you…and not how I care about the others I care about you a lot heck it might even be love!" Beast Boy said as he paced about the room and Raven gave an audible gulp when Beast Boy used the 'L' word, "I don't know if its love or not Raven but what I do know is that I like you an awful lot and I…"

"Beast Boy." Raven interrupted him, "Before you bear the rest of your heart to me you should know how I found the movie you rented…I sat on it and it broke in two."

Raven couldn't let him sit there and express his feelings for her if she wasn't going to be honest as well – and with that part out there was only one part left to go, her own feelings. But before Raven could say anything more Beast Boy went from shock to laughing himself silly.

"Really? You broke it?" Beast Boy said between laughs, "That's awesome!"

Even though Raven usually would find this kind of laughter annoying for some reason she couldn't help the corners of her mouth coming up as well into a small smile as the changeling calmed down.

"You know I really didn't want to watch that either." Beast Boy grinned.

"Then why did you get it?" Raven already knew the answer but she was following the promptings from the emotion Affection at the moment, and so far it was leading down a scary, but potentially wonderful path.

"I don't know." Beast Boy sort of blushed if you could call it that and smiled at Raven, "I guess I just wanted to do something with you I suppose." Beast Boy walked boldly over to his bed and sat down next to Raven, "I know we see each other all day and on missions and what not but I really just want to get to know you Raven."

"I don't know that you do." Raven said and turned her head away so she didn't have to look at him, she was ashamed enough of her demon heritage to know that if Beast Boy really got to know her he would wind up hating her, "The more you get to know me…the less you will like I promise." She tried to dissuade him from perusing this conversation and further, while part of her wanted desperately to be with him, the other part was terrified of eventual rejection.

"Raven." He said softly, "We wouldn't be sitting here talking about this while our child from the future is walking around the tower if I didn't think that there was more to you than that."

Raven was silent still looking down at the floor as if there was something very interesting there. Raven could again feel Beast Boy's love for her radiating off him in soft waves, each wave having a calming affect as they washed over her.

"So…you don't want to fix and watch that movie then?" Beast Boy asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

"I think some things are better left broken." Raven said as the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile while Beast Boy laughed hard enough he had to hold his stomach with his hands. But as he finished laughing Beast Boy smoothly placed an arm around Raven's shoulders causing her to flinch at the contact but not move away. She also didn't dare look up now that Beast Boy was so close, her emotions were on panic now and she was afraid what would happen if she were to try to speak.

"Raven…" Beast Boy said softly and she led her breath and looked up at him.

Their eyes locked then and for the first time in their lives they saw each other; for Beast Boy looking into Raven's eyes was like looking into the reflection of his own soul, everything he ever wanted or needed was there. For Raven it was swimming in a sea of emerald where she could feel how much Beast Boy cared for her clearer than she ever had before. As they stared at each other Raven was only vaguely aware of how they were drifting closer and closer together and was only able to whisper Beast Boy's name, eyes fluttering shut just before their lips met.

Electric fire danced between their lips and up and down their backs as they kissed – Beast Boy knew he had taken a very dangerous chance in kissing Raven but the payoff was instantaneous, Raven responded to the kiss by wrapping her arms around his shoulders to keep him close to her while slowly deepening the embrace. Raven had never felt this way before, it was the feeling of pure joy being in Beast Boy's arms while kissing him softly – it felt liberating even – she was aware then that Affection inside of her was growing in power exponentially and in an effort to not overdo it and end up doing something they would later regret, Raven ever so slowly broke the kiss.

They looked at each other again then and Raven couldn't suppress the small giggle that escaped her when she saw the goofy grin Beast Boy had plastered on his face but did a good job covering the giggle up by clearing her throat.

"That was nice." She said.

"Yes, it was." Beast Boy smiled at her keeping himself from saying anything stupid that would ruin the moment.

Raven smiled back and leaned into him, resting her forehead in the space between his shoulder and neck, which was very comfortable.

"Beast Boy…If we are going to be in a relationship I need to ask something of you." Raven almost whispered from his shoulder, Beast Boy could feel her tremble a little so he tightened his arms around her briefly to let her know everything was going to be ok.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I need you to be patient with me Beast Boy." She said and looked up strait into his eyes, "I'm still learning how to feel and all of this…everything is so new to me right now, I want to be in a relationship with you but I need you to be patient, can you handle that?"

She looked up at him with eyes that told Beast Boy if he were to say no it would crush her whole world, not that he would ever do that, Raven meant everything to him now, and if he had to wait a few weeks before actually telling her that he loved her so be it. Beast Boy then leaning into her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Trust me Raven, I'll do my best not to hurt you and if we need to take it slow, that's fine. I'm just happy for the chance." He gave her that goofy grin again which made her smile. They sat there in each others arms for a while just enjoying the feeling of closeness when Beast Boy asked.

"So, what should we do now?"

"I suppose we should go find the others, they are probably back." Raven suggested and Beast Boy nodded. Firmly resolved to be together and take it slowly Raven and Beast Boy walked from his room with their hands intertwined and Raven's pulled back – both Teens feeling more and more comfortable with each other as they held hands.

The Echrid mind watched as the wormhole it was generating slowly got larger, it could clearly see earth through the distortion in space now, but it was not yet near large enough for the whole ship to fit through. Reaching out with its formidable psychic powers the Mind of the Echrid scanned the planet for anything that would be of use. While most humans were susceptible to the Echrid's controlling powers they were still human and thus useless, however it could detect two powers on the planet that while human, could prove useful. Both of these psyches had their own latent psychic power behind them but one mind was protected, and the other was not.

It was like a buy one get one free sale.

The Echrid mind focused and launched a tremendous attack against both of the minds it could detect knowing that it could at the very least it would gain control of one of them, now it was only a matter of time.

Meanwhile in Cyborg's room everyone was gathered around a table in the middle of the room watching Ty and Cyborg fiddle with the time machine.

"So basically, the whole city is going to be evacuated in the next forty eight to thirty six hours and because of the danger that is presented here." Robin said, "Jump city takes its alien invasions seriously and the populous is going to be evacuated to the surrounding areas, including Gotham city."

"What about other Heroes? Isn't anyone going to come to help?" Jinx asked as she watched Cyborg and Ty fiddle with the Flashback drive in an attempt to attach some large, powerful looking batteries to it.

"Indeed, will no one lend is aid?" Starfire added.

"All the Heroes that I've contacted are worried about defending their own cities so it looks like when the Echrid land its just going to be us." Robin said with a grave look on his face, "I don't like the odds but what else can we do? No one believes there's going to be as much destruction here as Ty thinks there will be."

"Let 'em stay where they are then, with a smaller group we should be able to strike more quickly and from the sound of things, if this time machine plan doesn't work were all screwed anyway so…" Cyborg shrugged and didn't finish his sentence; he didn't have to say that they would all be doomed if they fail.

It was then that Beast Boy walked into the room with Raven in tow, they had decided to keep their new found relationship to themselves for now, but stayed closer than what was considered usual to each other when Beast Boy asked how the thingy was coming along.

"The time machine is coming along fine, these batteries are ten times more powerful than the ones I use so with eight of them attached it should be enough to warp whatever it is into whatever time we need to warp it to." Cyborg answered with a Grin.

"The trick is going to be getting the time machine into the mother ship so that it will actually port them away." Ty added.

Robin mulled this over while Ty and Cyborg attached the last of the eight batteries they were using to the flashback drive. "A quick strike would probably be our best bet, hit it before they know what's happening."

"Yes this plan is a let is strike them down before they can strike us, like at the battle of zuklotarg!" Starfire beamed.

"Right." Jinx smirked, "Like zuklotarg…"

"It will still be easier said than don-" Raven froze the outer defenses of her mind had been breached and the middle defenses were beginning to fall, she was vaguely aware that Jinx had grabber her head and fallen to her knees screaming in pain and knew somehow she was next. Raven mustered her strength and pushed back against the forign entity that was trying to pierce her mind.

"Something!...attacking us…my mind!" Raven got out through gritted teeth as she grabbed her head her own knees gave out but Beast Boy held her up.

"It's the Echrid!" Ty shouted over Jinx's wailing, "It's already attacking their mind, trying to take it over!" He ran over to Raven who had falling completely now into Beast Boy's arms as she tried to fight back against the alien force.

Raven realized that whatever this was, it was more powerful than anything she had faced before and if she could not stop it, both jinx, and herself were going to die. And as the pain in her head began to increase her vision began to swim and darken, somewhere she could hear Beast Boy franticly calling her name …