Disclaimer: I own zilch, and my last day of work before I move to Russia was this past Saturday, so I'm not making any money doing anything, much less writing fanfiction.

CHAPTER 8

Beast Boy watched in horror as Raven twitched on the ground, a puddle rapidly spreading along the cracks in the cobblestones. Slade stood by, impassive, blood dripping from his katana.

It was a scene pulled straight from Garfield's worst nightmares. It couldn't possibly be happening. There was no way.

When Slade knelt down and wiped his blade on Raven's cloak, Beast Boy knew it was real. He couldn't even have imagined such callousness.

With a scream that quickly became a primal roar, he morphed into a lion and launched himself at the villain, only to be repelled by a barrier of yellow energy that crackled around Slade's body. Garfield stumbled backwards, knuckles to the pavement in a runner's stance, and leapt forward as a wolf. Again he was tossed back, falling in a heap just a few feet from Raven.

"You can waste your time trying to get through the shield, Beast Boy," the oily voice remarked with an air of nonchalance, "But if Raven means that much to you, I'd imagine now would be the time to say your goodbyes. Your little witch is currently drowning in her own blood. Unpleasant way to die... frightening, too. I'd imagine she's too scared to use those healing powers of hers."

Sure enough, a glance back at Raven showed her thrashing, eyes wide as her mouth worked to form words. "G-guh..." was all that could escape her lips.

"She's calling for you, Garfield," the older man said. "I'll give you two lovebirds some privacy. When you're finished, come visit me at the Sagrada Familia church. If you're not there in half an hour, I'll have to assume you're up to something. You don't want that." As he turned to leave, the assassin shot one last remark over his shoulder. "Oh, and come alone, without your communicator; if you contact any of the other Titans, I'll set off the bombs I took the liberty of planting in your hotel room." With that, Slade sauntered off, fading into the darkness with each step.

Dropping to his knees, Beast Boy immediately stripped off his shirt and pressed it to the hole in Raven's chest, any thought of propriety miles away. He had to slow the bleeding enough, had to calm her down.

"G-Gar..." she choked.

"Shh, shh, don't talk, Rae, just focus. You've gotta concentrate and heal this."

"Can't," came the reply. "Sc-a-ared." The sorceress, even paler now, was clutching feebly at his shoulder, but even that proved too difficult, and her hand fell to the rough pavement once more.

Her heartbeat was slowing beneath his hands. There was no time left.

With a deep breath and a plea to whoever might be listening, Garfield went Away.

When Raven opened her eyes, all she saw was green. It bathed the blackness, illuminating blurry shapes with an otherwordly light. The color was comforting somehow, but she couldn't recall exactly why. A smile with a deadly fang, a voice on the cusp of manhood, a presence both uninvited and necessary as breathing... it was all connected to that shade of green. As her vision swam into focus, she found a horde of creatures staring at her: from gigantic to microscopic but still somehow visible, all manner of beast—

Beast Boy! This green, these animals, they were connected to Beast Boy somehow!

"Rae?" a scratchy voice sounded from behind her. In an instant, she was engulfed in a familiar embrace. "Oh god, I'm so glad it worked!" he exclaimed. "You're not dead!"

"Dead?" Raven echoed, too shocked to return the gesture. "Why would I be..."

Violent flashes slammed into her, sound and sight and pain and memories of fear, of darkness, of fading away. She had been dying, unable to harness her powers to heal herself.

"What happened, Gar?" she whispered. "What is this place?"

There was a loud sniffle in her ear, and the sound of a sleeve being dragged across a face. When he pulled away to look her in the eye, she noted certain oddities in his appearance. His ears were not quite so pointed, his protruding fang not as prominent. His hands were bare, normal fingers that occasionally flickered to include pointed claws instead of well-trimmed fingernails. "You were bleeding out," he said, trying to blink the last of his tears away. "I didn't have a choice. I brought you... well... I just call this place Away. It's where I go to get the animals."

Raven nodded, unsure of what else to do. "You look... different," she remarked, hoping he would catch her hint and explain.

"Yeah," he said, hand tugging at his hair, and for a moment, he flickered entirely into the Beast Boy she recognized. "This place shows everything the way it's supposed to be. The Plutonium Ideal of each animal, y'know?"

"Platonic," she corrected automatically.

"I dunno," he replied, not missing a beat. "Around springtime, these guys can get pretty horn— uh, I mean... what?" He trailed off, looking down as one hand scratched at his head.

"The Platonic Ideal. As in from Plato, the philosopher," she said. "Everything has a perfect, ideal form that allows us to perceive and interpret what we see in our reality according to that form."

The changeling winced. "Yeah, that one."

"That much makes sense... but why do you look different, and why do you keep flickering like that?"

Another embarrassed smile, and he reverted to his more human-looking appearance. "I still haven't really gotten used to the whole looking like a vampire elf thing. As much as I may say chicks dig the ears, I really don't." He hung his head, and she was surprisingly disappointed not to see drooping ears. "I don't see how I look now as how I should be. Then again, you're one to talk," he said, pointing at her.

Raven hazarded a quick glance at the parts of herself that she could see, and nearly screamed. Trigon's sigils snaked along her arms, but they were muted, and like Garfield's more human appearance, they flickered in and out of being along with a set of impossibly slender fingers with claws at the tips.

Hyperventilating, the sorceress turned away from her friend, unwilling to let him see her this way. She hid her face in her hands... and gasped as her fingers ran into a pair of horns.

That was when she screamed in earnest. A wind rushed through the emptiness, howling and whipping the animals into a frenzy.

In a flash, Garfield was beside her, murmuring reassurance in her ear. "It's okay, Rae. It's part of who you are and how you see yourself. It doesn't mean you're losing control or anything bad. It's just your self-image." He tilted her face up toward his. Was he taller in real life, or just here? "Besides, in a really... exotic, bad-girl kind of way, it's kinda... hot."

Heat filled her face, and she suddenly became aware of just how close their lips were. It would take only a few inches more to bring them together.

No sooner had the thought occurred to her than the green boy dropped his hands to his sides and took a few steps back, coughing nervously. "Uh, anyway, this place can be used as sort of a storage area sometimes. I haven't quite figured out what I can and can't keep here, but I know it worked with that book from earlier, and you seem to be doing okay."

"So then, I'm healed?" Raven asked. "Just like that?"

"No, no, no," he interjected, waving his hands. "I don't automatically recover from injuries every time I turn into another animal, so I'm pretty sure that's not how it's going to work for you. If I took you back right now, you'd be dead in a few seconds. The pain and damage might not exist in here, but it'll all be back as soon as you're out in the real world again. That's why you're going to need to be as focused as possible when you get out there." He gestured upward, and for the first time, Raven noticed that the "sky" was an abstract view of cobblestones and tall buildings.

"Right now I'm a bunch of amino acid goo, lying in a puddle of your blood," he said. "Not exactly the sexiest thing ever, but that's what happens when I stay in Away. When I get out there, the view will change a bit, and you'll see what I see." Shifting from one foot to the other, he summoned the courage to take her hand. "I have to go now; I don't have a whole lot of time left before Slade's deadline."

"No, Gar!" she cried. "You don't know what he's got planned for you."

The little green shapeshifter gave her a smile that spoke of wartime and sacrifice. "Nope. But I do know what he's got planned for the others if I don't go. I have to do it, Rae. No matter what you see and hear out there, you have to meditate and get focused enough to heal yourself. I'll come back for you as soon as I can." He pulled her into a hug, and she felt lips brush her forehead just above her chakra stone. Then he was gone.

AN: The concept of Away comes from Kryalla Orchid— specifically, Locked Hearts. She gave me permission to borrow it, so I'll be running with it in a direction that suits my purposes and also hopefully ties it in with some comic lore. Also, thanks to Bob (who reviewed as a guest, but left some awesome pointers), I've redone a couple of finer details in the earlier chapters. I've been getting some of the best constructive criticism I've ever received on a story here, and I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to share your thoughts with me.