A.N. Again, sorry for being a sucky updater and all that. However, I am focusing on finishing this story before my others, just because it's been in the works for like two years. There should be only one or two chapters left after this. R & R, por favor, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Beast Boy

This was seriously the most trippy - and maybe the most dangerous - place Beast Boy had ever been. That was the only thing he was mostly sure of.

Lenore was like a giant crossover of ... everything. No one looked at his green skin oddly. Beast Boy was tempted to just transform into a pterodactyl right there on the sidewalk and see if anyone even gave him a second glance. But he had to focus. His mission to find Raven was totally failing. She'd been missing for too long for something bad not to have happened, and that meandering Train of Thought with the hick conductor and weirdy singing hobo had set Beast Boy even more behind.

He stopped in his determined wandering to stare through the window of a store called Satsuki's. A DVD set in the back - he could have sworn a picture of the Titans was on it. When he looked closer, there was a bookshelf there.

"See something you like?" said a voice from the left.

Beast Boy turned. A very human looking man in his mid-thirties was looking at him expectantly from the doorway of the store. Beast Boy peered through the window again, but the bookshelf was still in the place where the DVDs had been. "Uh, not really," Beast Boy said.

"Did you think you did?"

"Huh?"

"Did you think you saw something you'd like? Or maybe just something... familiar?" asked the man.

"Yeah, how'd you..." Beast Boy trailed off, suspiciously examining the man. This had to be the only normal looking dude in Lenore. Jeans, a white button-up shirt, blond hair and a short beard. A neutral, yet somehow knowing expression. "Who are you?"

"I'm Satsuki."

"Yeah, right. Dude, this isn't Naruto."

The man chuckled. "My wife was Japanese. I took her name when we got married down here."

That sort of made sense. "So that's how it works in, uh, this thing?" Beast Boy gestured in the direction of the general surroundings.

"Marriage works however you want it to in Lamech's Realm, Garfield," said Satsuki. "Why don't you come inside?"

"No thanks, I kind of need to keep looking for my - wait. How did you know my name?"

Satsuki smiled. "The few of us who were born here tend to have easy access to things like time, dimensional portals, and the mind, to name a few."

Beast Boy stepped back from the shopkeeper. This guy was too casual, too human for that comment. "Why are you telling me this?"

"More people have an interest in Raven than you think," Satsuki said. "And you should know, she doesn't belong in your world. She doesn't belong anywhere. That's why should leave her here, where no one belongs. It's the only place she can be happy. You do want her to be happy, don't you, Garfield?"

"She's happy with us. She belongs with us," said Beast Boy, backing up a few steps more. "Dude, you don't know her."

"Do you?"

"What? Yeah, of course I do. She's my friend-"

"Raven will always be vulnerable anywhere in your realm, especially Earth, where she was conceived. Realize this and go home," insisted Satsuki.

"No way am I going home! I don't care what you say, you're not her friend. You don't care about her like I do, and you can't stop me from bringing her back!"

Satsuki shook his head. "I'm not trying to understate your friendship. I'm trying to persuade you to do the right thing, because even though you mean well, Garfield, your desire to bring Raven to Earth stems from selfishness."

Beast Boy backed away. "No."

The shopkeeper smiled wistfully, and reentered his store, flipping the sign on the door to say Closed.

Raven

This was definitely the most amazing place Raven had ever been. The city of Lenore was ridiculously diverse, and for the first time in her life she felt like she intrinsically belonged. She could feel the magic at the city's core, as if she was immersed in a lake of it.

"Raven? We're here," said Slade.

Raven looked up at the building she had almost walked past. It was an emerald green pagoda with three floors. The roof and top portion of the walls of the third story had apparently been destroyed by some sort of supernatural disaster. "This is the hotel? Do you have a ceiling?" she asked.

"I didn't exactly have a large budget. And the room is on the second floor, so yes," Slade replied. He opened one side of the French door to the hotel. "After you," he said, with a gesture of his hand and a somewhat sarcastic gleam in his eye.

Slade

Raven took a step toward the doorway, then stopped. "What are we doing?"

Slade smiled a bit mockingly at her, trying to suppress the feeling that this was all about to go horribly wrong. "I'm sorry, I thought you were aware we were entering a hotel," he answered sarcastically.

She came close to glaring at him. "No, I mean me being here with you," she said. "What was I thinking? What were you thinking?"

What had he been thinking? Well, apparently he had been too busy misinterpreting nearly everything that had happened between them, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. He had thought the situation, though unconventional, was very clear to both parties involved. "I was thinking that perhaps you needed some time to recover after this... ordeal before you made any decisions."

"That's what I'm saying, decisions about what?"

"I suppose that's entirely up to you."

She glared at him; he maintained a business-like expression.

"Excuse me."

They both turned to see a man who resembled a spray-tanned vampire sporting a monocle. "You're blocking the door," he said, looking at Slade pointedly.

Raven and Slade moved to the side, no longer blocking any access port to the hotel. This merited a curt "thank you" from the creature. Raven seemed to realize how public a location their discussion was taking place in, and continued in a quieter tone. "It's not like we could, you know, be together when we go back, it would never-"

"Raven, I'm not going back," Slade interrupted.

"What?"

He had hoped to tell her under different circumstances that this, preferably inside and a day or two forward in time. "Earth has nothing for me. It hasn't for a long time, but I didn't really see that until I was presented with an alternate option."

She looked about as surprised as he'd thought she would, but considerably more angry. "So this bounty hunting thing you told me about on the train, that's your alternate option?"

Slade couldn't help but smirk at this. "Would you rather me continue my less legal career?"

"I -" she stopped, and most of the anger faded from her expression. "No. I just didn't think you were the type to run and hide from the world."

"I'm not. What is there for me to run or hide from? There really is nothing there for me."

Raven temporarily ignored the last sentence and focused on the question. "Gods, Slade, how am I supposed to know? Maybe it's your past or your mistakes, or maybe-"

Slade's eye narrowed. "No, Raven, I think you're confusing me with yourself."

The half-demon crossed her arms over her chest, hiding her reaction to his interruption in a second. "And I think you're confused if you think there's any chance I'm staying here with you. Goodbye, Slade."

All he could do - wanted to do? - was stare after her as she walked away, and soon became indistinguishable from the throng of beings like her.