Author's Note: Here's the next installment of this story. Only a few more chapters to go...read and review minions!

Raven woke after several hours of restless sleep. She had been plagued with nightmares and finally gave up trying to get some rest. The boys were still asleep; Robin and Beast Boy had curled up together sometime during the night and didn't seem to be waking at time soon. Being quiet as possible, Raven made her way into the kitchen. She got herself a glass of water, not wanted to bother with the loud appliances at the moment. She didn't even know what time it was. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, Raven thought about what she had to do.

The entire night she had been thinking about going into Nevermore. She didn't have her mirror, but she could easily go there if she mediated. The only issue was that she wouldn't be able to defend the boys if something were the happen. She had increased the wards, the security system was on high alert, and she was still trying to find a better option than the one she had thought of. Resolving to talk to the kids when they woke up, she began to pull together a meager breakfast. She checked her communicator, but there was no new messages.

She didn't expect any, but the pang of disappointment and worry was eating away at her. The pitter patter of feet had her looking over into the other room. Beast Boy came in, his hair going in different directions, the shirt he was wearing handing off one shoulder. She had always tried to picture Beast Boy as a kid, but now that she could see it, the only word that came to mind was tiny. She kept her observations to herself and greeted her smaller teammate.

"Good morning," Raven saw no point at being quiet anymore and started making coffee. Beast Boy yawned and crawled onto one of the empty chairs. Robin rolled over from where he was still sleeping on the couch.

"He kicks in his sleep," Beast Boy said through another yawn. Raven smiled at him as she poured him some water.

"Are you ok, no bruises?" Raven didn't want to seem like a mother hen, but she could only imagine the others if she got the boys back covered in bruises. Beast Boy shook his head.

"I'm fine, I kicked him back," Beast Boy said. Raven frowned at him and he curled up a bit. "Not hard." Raven walked over to him and smoothed down his hair.

"Well, next time don't kick him, maybe push him over on the couch, ok?" Raven was eerily reminded of the three kids she had watched previously, but that situation wasn't much different than the one she was currently in. At least there wasn't a war going on. A loud groan had both of them turning their heads. Robin's face appeared from underneath the covers and Raven had to hold back a laugh at the disgruntled look on his face. Robin's mouth turned into a pout and Raven started to smile.

"Good morning!" Beast Boy chirped. The half-awake glare that was sent their way was nowhere near the usual level of sass that Robin had. The boy wonder untangled himself and shuffled into the kitchen. He lean against the chair Beast Boy was sitting on as he rubbed his eyes; Beast Boy pat his head in sympathy.

"Ok, today is going to be a little different," Raven had been debating this idea for a long time, but now she didn't have any other options. If this was the one to work, then so be it. Both of boys focused on her.

"Are we finally going home?" Robin looked more awake with the thought of seeing the others, and Raven tried to push away the crushing feeling that she was letting them down once more.

"Not yet, we have to fix some things first, then we'll go home," Raven didn't want to make any promises. As it was, this was a huge risk. Going into Nevermore always made time go faster and she was often unaware when she meditated. By choosing to go into the mindscape, she was virtually leaving the children on their own should an attack happen. Robin's shoulders sagged.

"Can we help?" Beast Boy's was looking at her with concern, concern that had no right to be on such a young kid's face. But then again, it was hard to imagine him, or Robin, as kids. Raven picked Robin up and put him on an empty chair. Raven ran her hand through her hair and tried not to grimace at the greasy feeling.

"What I need both of you to do is listen. I'm going to be setting up some more wards," Both boys looked confused at that, but Raven continued. "I think I have a way to help get you two back to normal, so I need you both to know that what I'm about to do might be scary, but, I'll come back."

Robin shifted on his chair so he was sitting on his legs. "Are you going somewhere?"

"No, I'm going to meditate to find an answer and then I'm going to come back and fix this," Raven had to make this work; she was running out of options and time. Who knew what was coming after then? Robin frowned at her.

"That sounds boring." Raven let a smile appear on her face at his comment.

"It can be, but I'm used to it. I just need both of you to be on your best behavior and trust me, ok?" Raven couldn't emphasize it enough. The rest of the morning was spent enforcing the wards and security and giving the boys stuff to keep them entertained while she was away. Finally, she picked a quiet spot and began to meditate. The sounds of the base drifted away and Raven found herself dropping down before one of the gates. She hoped nothing would go wrong before she got back.

She desperately needed to find a lasting solution.

Cyborg was slowly growing more and more annoyed. They had been sitting in this room for who knows how long and Raven was out there with his friends. He didn't know where they were, and the increasing demands from their captor wasn't allowing them a lot of time. He, or she, wanted to know where the kids were. The sickening thought that he didn't want to think about was all that he could ponder on at the moment. Starfire was pacing in the next cell; Aqualad was watching her but made no move to stop her. At least she had stopped trying to break through the walls.

Speedy was slumped against the glass paneling and tapped his fingers on the concrete floor. The archer had been silent since the overhead voice had spoken to them, but then again, they all had. They didn't want to give away any information; even though they didn't have any and it was likely that Raven was already concerned about them. It wasn't like them not to check in and Cyborg hoped that Raven would be smart enough to maintain the radio silence. She had to until they found a way out of here.

"We should have gone underground after we lost them the first time," Cyborg said when he couldn't stand the silence anymore. Starfire looked up sharply and walked over to the glass separating them.

"And then what would we have done?" Starfire's eyes were red, like she had been holding back tears, and she likely was. The fact that they didn't know what was happening to their friends gave them all reason to worry.

"We wouldn't be here, that's for sure," Speedy quipped from his spot. Starfire glared at him. Aqualad stood up and walked over to them. He looked tired.

"Look, we can't waste time talking about what we could have done. The bottom line is that Raven is out there, somewhere, and we're stuck in here with mister mysterious," Aqualad said as he glanced up at the ceiling. No voice came out and Cyborg grit his teeth. He rubbed his hands over his face and tried to think about their options. They could try and break out but none of them could get past the walls. They didn't have their communicators; if Raven did call, the stranger would have her location and who knew what would happen to them.

"So, what do we do now?" Speedy finally asked. "We can't break out, can't figure out who is holding us, and we don't know where Raven is." Starfire sank down to the floor and rested her head on the glass. Cyborg wished there wasn't a stupid wall between them; his friend looked close to tears.

"There has to be something here," Cyborg blurted out. "No one builds a room without a failsafe. We find that, then we can get out." He and Speedy started to search the walls again. The paint was fresh, and there wasn't any loose paneling pieces.

The only possible thing they could try and tamper with was the speaker on the ceiling. Cyborg pointed it out to Speedy. "I'm gonna put you on my shoulders. You should be able to reach it." Speedy eyed the speaker panel with trepidation.

"Sure, then what? It's not like I can pull a screwdriver out of my hand like you, Mr. Roboto." Cyborg glared at him before yanking him over.

"Only B gets to make the robot jokes. Now, get up there and see if we can tamper with it." Speedy muttered under his breath as he climbed up Cyborg.

Speedy reached for the speaker as he balanced on Cyborg's shoulders. The android was holding onto his ankles, and craning his neck to see what Speedy was looking at. "Can you see any screws?"

The teen arched looked down at his friend. "Right now, just a speaker panel. Give me a second, will you?" Cyborg adjusted his grip and Speedy shifted his feet on his shoulders.

"Can we even get into it?" Aqualad was pressed up against the glass, both he and Starfire trying to see what Speedy was doing.

"There isn't any screws, maybe we could cut through here." Cyborg helped Speedy down from his shoulders and brushed off the thin layer of dirt that the archer's feet had left there.

"Cut through with what, our teeth? None of us have our tools and all of my gadgets are gone." Starfire growled and started passing again. Aqualad tried to get her to stop, but she jerked her arm away before he was able to grab it.

"We will figure out a way to get into the device," Starfire ranted as she ran her hands through her hair. It was going in several directions but Starfire didn't seem to care.

"This is taking too long! Every moment that we spend locked up in here is too long for the others." Starfire's eyes had narrowed to slits and if she had been able to use her powers there would have been several crater sized holes in the floor. A light bulb went off in Cyborg's head.

"Well I don't see you doing anything!" Cyborg had no clue if this would work, but he had to try. Starfire's head snapped to him. Her eyes were glowing, but it wasn't strong enough…yet.

"Excuse me?" Speedy backed up as Starfire balled up her fists. Cyborg scrambled for another jab.

"All you've been doing is screaming at everyone to do something. And what have you done? Nothing, it's like you don't even care about the boys!" Cyborg barely had enough time to duck before a blast of green flew over his head. It took out the wall between them and half the wall behind him. Everyone had stopped; nearby, an alarm system had begun to go off.

"You knew that was going to work?" Aqualad asked as they fled the room. Cyborg gave Star a quick hug.

"I guessed," Starfire kept paced beside him. "Sorry about what I said." Starfire flashed him a small smile.

"You are forgiven. Now, let's go get our friends."