Once again, sorry for taking so long.

Chapter 10

"Sanctuary"

Raven pushed the scarf on her neck closer to her face, hiding her mouth more from the wind. "I don't remember it being quite this windy."

"I don't remember most of anything lately," Beast Boy said, smirking at her.

Cyborg rolled his eyes. Beast Boy, the first time he'd done it, had scared everyone with what he'd said, mainly Raven. "Knock it off, BB."

"You know I don't whine that much, Cy." His friend said.

Starfire shared a look with Raven, both smiled before turning away.

"Of course, friend." Starfire said kindly before getting a burst of snow in her face. She squeaked.

Robin helped her get the snow out of her face and hood, "You okay, Star?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Stupid wind," Beast Boy said, wiping some snow off his own jacket. "Its not even cold anymore! Just windy."

"Raven, could you shield us from it?" Robin asked, mimicking Beast Boy's own actions.

Raven nodded, putting her shield up around them from all sides so they were in a black bubble. They all sighed in relief, the wind-blown snow slapped against the shield, but other then that, they were safe from it.

"Why didn't we just do this earlier?" Cyborg asked, the thought finally occurring to him.

They all stopped and looked at each other, realizing their own stupidity.

"Uh . . . because we wanted to prove ourselves against the elements?" Beast Boy suggested.

Raven rolled her eyes, "Sure, let's go with that."

The climb was becoming more and more difficult. Every step had to be calculated, every move had to be though of before made. One slip up could cost the world its life. And every word was a risk for getting caught.

"How long have we been up here?" She panted, clinging to a side of the building.

Her strength was waning as well, "Somewhere around four hours."

"Come on," He sighed, "If we stay still to long, we'll freeze."

They all let out a huff before continuing up the building.

"STOP!" She screamed.

They all froze and watched as she moved slowly towards the window. She peeked inside before a light smoldered at her fingertips, and her hand easily fazed through it. In went the rest of her, they waited patiently for a few moments before -much to their surprise- the window shattered completely. Glass fell to the ground, along with a bundle of something. But before anything could even hit the ground, the things froze in midair, except for the bundle, that disappeared.

She looked out the window and waved them in, "Come on, hurry!"

They shared a nervous look before swinging the rope to the left, hurling themselves through it. They landed quietly, but the wind from the outside would've covered it up anyway. She waved her hands, rewinding it as if it hadn't been broken in the first place.

"You're too good at that," Her voice didn't echo, but she kept it low nonetheless.

She shrugged, her eyes were amused but her face was hard set. "I've broken a few things in my time, its not new."

He glanced at Her, and they both smiled. She hissed but said nothing, turning and walking down the hallway, dimming her light.

Number One was holding her legs to her chest. The air in her lungs didn't seem to want to stick, and she had no idea why.

The pain was almost unbearable, and heavy tears were streaking down her face. The aching in her chest made her feel as if somewhere in her core, something was deeply wrong.

"It'll go away," She breathed to herself, rocking in her position.

As if in disagreement, she felt a hard blow to her cheek, though nothing actually touched it. She made no cry of pain, but simply hit the floor, remaining on her side. Her eyes were unfocused, and she couldn't find the energy to see clearly. Everything hurt, or hurt so much she couldn't feel it anymore.

"Apprentice?"

Fear filled too, and as if even the pain was afraid of him, it left at once. She stood at once, wiping the tears off her face as if they had never been there in the first place. She placed the sunglasses over her eyes before waiting patiently for her approaching master.

"Yes, sir?"

"Where've you been?"

Crying. "I must have fallen asleep, what do you ask of me?"

"The Titans have returned."

The color drained from her face, "He should have died! I must have miscalculated, let me take care-."

"No."

She froze, fear rushing over her body, but never let it show. "What are your orders?"

He placed two hands on her shoulders and got down on one knee, staring hard at her face. Confusion replaced fear, and she tried very hard to resist question. She succeeded until he spoke.

"You haven't seen a mirror yet, have you?" She shook her head.

He got up, removing his hold on her (to her relief) and walked away. He came back shortly with a mirror, and kept it at his side until he was in front of her. "You're recent morphing must have affected your outer appearance, see for yourself."

He turned it towards her, and she stared, now in shock. It was impossible not to be. "No . . .!" Her quiet scream was louder then any actual one. Her chest was shattering inside her, "Why?" She demanded of him.

He glared at her, "Don't use that tone-!"

Her hands swung forward, knocking him backwards with an invisible power. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" She shrieked at him before running away and racing to her room.

He sat dumbfounded and angry before realization hit him. The only power he had over her was mental, and, she could unintentionally control anyone she wanted to.

'So that's why,' he thought.

She was silent.

"You will lure them here, and I will tell you then what to do. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir. How should I got about this?"

He paused, then he turned and stood by the door. "It's in your report."

How could I have forgotten that!? "Of course, my apologies."

"Are you alright, apprentice?"

Since when does he care? "Of course, just tired-."

The door slammed shut.

She sighed and walked to her report file on the

Everyone was beginning to doubt it's worth until something hard hit the front of Raven's shield. They jumped in surprise, because so far it had been an easy walk.

Raven pulled the thing back with her powers and into the safety of her shield.

"It's a . . . rock?" Beast Boy questioned, going to touch it.

Robin smacked his hand, which he pulled back quickly, glaring at him. "We can't risk you getting hurt again," He insisted, "Cyborg?"

The rock was glowing a white color, and Cyborg scanned it. A red light filled the comfort of their black shelter before a metallic voice that belonged to none of them said, "OBJECT IS SECURE."

Then, as if in response, the rock glowed brighter. All of them raised their arms to defend their eyes, and then it stopped. They lowered their arms in time to see it crack open, revealing a bunch of kids in hologram form. Three, to be exact, that all had covered faces. In fact, they knew those kids.

"You've been lied to," A very intellectual and soothing voice said. It was the girl's voice, the blonde they'd seen earlier.

"And it's our fault," The other girl said politely, but with a more normal attitude to it. "We've been in hiding too long-."

"Go," The boy interrupted, playing with a computer in his hands. Then he turned and pointed right, "That way. From the coordinates in which you are standing on, just go straight that way."

"And hurry," the second girl said, "We don't have much time."

It spurted out and flicked off, turning into nothing more then snow and gently floating to the ground. They stood and stared at the spot said snow had landed until a small cough interrupted the quiet.

"Friends, should we not continue walking?" Starfire said quietly, her eyes focusing on her shoes.

"Er, yeah," Robin said, and they kept walking in awkward and confused silence, though it forced them to ponder in their own confusion, which didn't do anybody any good.

They walked until they found themselves completely worn down by the time they reached their destination, which was probably the most annoying of it all when they realized that it was their destination.

"I give it a three," Beast Boy said, framing it with his hands.

"I give it three seconds," Raven replied, voicing her opinion of the buildings stability.

Cyborg had scanned it already, "It's safe," He assured them. "And there's no life forms inside."

"Then we better get inside before we freeze out here," Robin said.

"We're in Rae's shield," Beast Boy said, knowing he was pushing it with the name. Raven herself said nothing. "We're okay."

"Despite your belief, Beast Boy," Raven said icily, though she didn't know why, "I'm not invincible."

"Oh, well-?"

Before Beast Boy could come back with some stupid remark, he was grabbed by the collar of his jacket and literally dragged inside, despite his protests. Raven released her shield around them as they approached and then felt an instant whip-lash, like someone had just back-handed her across her head as hard as they possibly could. She said nothing, but stiffened as they walked. No one noticed.

The moment they were inside, they realized just how freezing they were, despite Raven's protection for them. They all sighed in relief.

"Finally, we've got a place to relax," Beast Boy said soothingly. Everyone realized then just how beat they were.

"Yes," Starfire paused and glanced at Robin, "We are resting here, correct?"

Robin nodded, "Yeah," He looked at his pooped friends, "We're in no condition to do any more walking-."

"Raven?" Beast Boy sat up from the couch, alarmed.

Raven pressed her back to the wall, and was somehow peripherally aware that Beast Boy had jumped over the back of the couch (which probably wasn't that hard considering he always did that because he was too lazy to walk around it. "It's a waist of time," He'd claimed once. Raven had simply said the conversation was a waist of time and ended it abruptly).

A hand grabbed her from under her arm and around her hip, "Raven?"

The voice was distant, and dream-like. It was very soothing, at the same time. Raven registered how tired she was and leaned her head to the side, feeling something hard but comfortable support her. She heard words that sounded like muttered, but was vaguely aware of it.

"Isn't that cute?"

"She's tired, it's not my fault!"

"You didn't have to rush to her, BB."

". . . So?"

Raven leaned farther into the thing pillowing her, surprised a how warm it was. She felt herself shift, and a chorus of 'oohs'.

"Is there a bed or something I can put her on?" A nervous voice said, but Raven could somehow sense admiration and pride in the voice, but more reluctant to feel it at all.

"I do not know, let us explore."

". . . Can you carry her, Beast Boy?"

"Yeah."

Raven felt the ground disappear from underneath her, but her pillow remained intact, so it didn't matter to her. She took a deep breath, and heard a small giggle. It was slowly dawning on her that Beast Boy was carrying her through the house, and was her comfortable pillow, but didn't really care. Apparently her power exertion had been a bit over her limit, and therefor collapsed. She listened to what she was pretty sure was Cyborg's explanation, and was thankful he didn't mention Raven was probably still awake, though she could sense he sort of knew. And he was the only one. Otherwise Beast Boy would have gotten someone else to carry her, though she had no idea why. It would have been a hassle, and she wasn't fond of the idea of being the 'hot potato'.

Then the though of being a vegetable made her inwardly laugh, considering she was also in a semi-coma-awake-exhausted faze at the moment and was enjoying it.

Beast Boy, who was oblivious to Raven's awareness, carried Raven all the way until they found rooms at the end of the hallway. There were five of them. The others split up, going to their rooms separately and wishing Beast Boy a good night.

"Night!" He hollered back, but just so he wouldn't wake his comrade.

He walked down to the last rooms, and turned right, walking into the room. It wasn't anything special, but it was a mess either. Someone had tried to make the best of their situation.

Beast Boy walked over to the bed and sat down on it, somehow being reminded of Ella. Through this whole time, it never occurred to him what she'd done, but he still decided it didn't matter. Putting Raven in the bed vaguely reminded him of how a dad would put his little girl in her bed, how he would do for Ella one day. He smiled at the thought, and then shuddered because he was getting carried away. He put her down on her bed, tucking her in, and then froze.

There was blood on her hand.

He let her off him immediately and searched the room until he found a band-aid box in one of the drawers. He pulled a big one out and took her hand lightly in his, sighing in relief as he wiped the blood away. It was just a snagged splinter cut, it looked like. The splinter wasn't even in her hand. He was surprised she hadn't felt it.

"A half hour in here and already you're bleeding," He muttered to himself more then her, "And you call me clumsy."

'Well you are,' Raven thought silently. And without Beast Boy's knowledge, Raven inwardly tried to search for feeling any pain. She found none. She decided she was just truly that tired until she felt some time of material brush across her face in the shape of a hand, removing hair she hadn't noticed had fallen there before she completely went unconscious.

Beast Boy left the room, shut off the light, and closed the door behind him before entering his own room. He hadn't removed Raven's cloak because honestly, the blankets didn't look all too warm (not to mention Raven probably wouldn't have been very happy to know he had removed any part of her clothing. He shivered at the thought, and just how wrong that sounded).

When he entered his own room, he took off his shoes, turned off the light, and pulled the covers over him (and they were warm, in fact). The moment his head hit the pillow he was out cold.

8:00a.m.

When Starfire awoke, she heard footsteps.

"Hello?" She squeaked. Nobody answered.

Starfire was debating on whether or not to investigate when her door opened. She nearly screamed until she saw the faces.

"Oh, friends," She sighed in relief, "What wakes you at such an hour?"

"We're having a secret meeting, Star," Robin said, both entering the room.

Starfire misunderstood, "Then I shall go fetch Raven and-."

"NO!" They both shouted, and then shut the door behind them before they could be heard.

"It's a secret meeting, Star," Cyborg said, "Just us."

"Oh," Starfire became confused. "And . . . what is this secret meeting of?"

"Beast Boy and Raven," Both said in unison.

Starfire's eyes widened, so Robin continued. "Star, don't you think they've been acting a little weird around each other lately?"

"Does is truly matter, friends?" Starfire questioned back. "For all we know, they could have had a fight, correct?"

"But if they had a fight," Cyborg said, sitting on a chair in her room, "They'd have ignored each other- er, Raven would have ignored Beast Boy. So it has to be something else."

"Is it any of our business?" Starfire asked, trying to understand her friends concern.

"There our team, Star," Robin said, sitting down next to her. "Of course it's our business."

"Well what have you concluded is the matter?"

Both Cyborg and Robin shared a look before saying, "They like each other."

Starfire's face went pale, her mouth dropped, and her eyes widened before they looked away. "Th-that is most impossible!"

Robin gave her a hard look, "You know something, don't you?"

Starfire sighed, "Yes."

"Tell!" Cyborg shouted before getting a dirty look from Robin. "Right, sorry."

Starfire shook her head, "I wish I'd never heard it . . ."

Starfire got up from spending the night in Raven's room, not having felt comfortable in her own by herself. This house was, in fact, very strange to her and she was frightened of it. She had asked Raven, of course, but she'd been half-asleep. It was around six when she left, and when she heard it.

Both boy's got the same reaction Starfire had, and jumped. "SHE WHAT-!?"

"SSSSHHHH!" Starfire hissed urgently. "It was just sleep talking, friends. It probably did not mean-."

"Starfire!" Robin whispered, "When you're asleep, you're subconscious says things that you mean, but wouldn't say aloud."

"Because they are not true?"

"Because you're scared," Cyborg replied.

And that's where I'm going to end it.

Haha, you silly peoples. You didn't actually think I was going to tell you what Raven said?

Not yet, at least.

Truthfully I'm just happy I got this chapter done.

Until the next one my dearies!

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