CHAPTER 14: THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS

Beast boy sniffled as they walked down the village on a worn, beaten dirt road, stopping occasionally at various shops to buy food. It was hard saying goodbye to the Red Daggers. But he knew it was, as Raven said for the best, it's one thing to do a good thing, but another, to change history forever. He hoped that their actions here had helped, but not that significant to alter history. It would be chaos if that happened, the future will all be thrown off balance.

Speaking of the future, Beast boy wondered, were they ever going to go home? Or were they doomed to stay in the past forever, stuck in the middle of Time?

Though, he must admit, the past was certainly very interesting, it was a nice break from fighting the same lame bad guys everyday.

Still, he wanted to go home, and though he'll never admit it to anyone, he missed Cyborg. He hoped he hasn't beaten his high score in that new game they just bought, "Attack of the Zombies II".

He wondered what he was doing now.

"RRAAAAAH!" Mallah came down hard from behind him.

Cyborg stumbled under Mallah's weight. He tried to get him off his back by swinging himself around. But it was easier said than done, if you've had a gorilla on your back, thumping your head with its large fists, you would know it was no easy feat, knocking it off.

But Cyborg managed, Mallah lost his grip and fell back. Cyborg aimed his blaster at him, then, he fired. Unfortunately, Mallah leapt out of the way, lifted an empty car and threw it towards the robotic man.

Cyborg blast it into bits, then dodged when Mallah came out of nowhere from all the dust and debris and aimed a kick. Cyborg grabbed the gorilla's arm as he tried to punch and swung him above his head, gaining the momentum, and then threw him to the wall of a building with all his might. The building walls cracked a little at the impact and Mallah groaned.

Cyborg looked around frantically, where was that remote now? He kicked away metal bits of the car on the road, searching for something rectangular with knobs sticking out of it. Finally, he located it, just a mere few metres away.

Sprinting, he picked it up to check whether it was broken. No, it hasn't. That thing sure was hardy. He now turned the knob faster, Mallah could be on him any moment now.

700, 600, 500 years back …

400, 300, 200 …

100, 50, 30 …

Then suddenly, a mechanical arm snatched the remote away! Cyborg was shocked, how was that possible? Wasn't he the only robotic man in Jump City? Looking around, he saw The Brain emerging from the dust, holding his device proudly.

I should have known. Cyborg thought, well, just another enemy to defeat. Nothing to it. He heated up his blaster again and took aim.

BOOM!

He fired, but to his surprise, his blue blast was deflected! When it was about to hit the Brain, some white-ish, blue-ish sphere was activitated around him and his blast just bounced off! It came straight at Cyborg and he ducked, almost a second before it hit his own face!

The Brain cackled evilly, "I have activated my force field! Your attacks are useless against me!"

Cyborg racked his brains for a solution to the problem. The Brain was now turning the knob the other way round, making the numbers increase. Cyborg revised what he knew about force fields. They were made of energy, electricity really. Positive electricity. He looked above him - Telephone wires, with a high amount of electrons flowing through.

Grinning, he lifted a huge metal piece of the leftovers of the blasted car and moved back a few metres. Concentrating hard, he used as much strength as he could and threw the heavy metal piece towards the wires. They snapped, and came crashing down with the car.

Cyborg threw off the car and grabbed the snapped wires. Sparks were seen now. Without much thought, he aimed the wires right at the Brain. The force field was activated but the wires weren't thrown back, they were stuck to the field and with electricity flowing through them, the negative and positive interacted and the force field was thrown off balance.

With a burst of electricity, The Brain was thrown back, shorted out. Cyborg ran towards the remote.

But at the same time, a frightened little girl of about 5, hiding from behind a trash bin, jumped out when The Brain hit a wall of the building beside her. Squealing, she ran out, towards Cyborg for protection.

Cyborg waved his hands out in front, gesturing for her to go back, but she didn't.

"No!" he shouted loudly.

The girl seemed to have heard this time but it was too late, as that was exactly the moment when she stepped on the remote on the ground.

Right on the red button that read, "GO"

The world started to tilt, then began to spin. Faster and faster, until all that Cyborg saw in front of him, was a dizzy blur. Then, he himself began to spin, everything was spiraling out of control now.

He squeezed his eyes shut, not entirely sure if he could keep down that six slices of pizza he had just eaten. Finally, the spinning slowed, and stopped. Cyborg felt himself hit something soft.

Opening his eyes, he saw that he had landed, face-down, on a tuft of grass. He opened his mouth to moan, but then, another had already sounded, just beside him! Surprised, Cyborg shifted his head a little and saw something green … As his vision gradually focused, he regconised what, or who that was.

"Beast boy?" he murmured in disbelief, then trying to sit up.

Looking around, he saw that Robin, Starfire, and even Raven was here! Then, he realised, they must be in another time and place … again. Well at least it wasn't 120 million years ago, that's for sure. Cyborg didn't think the Brain had held the remote long enough to turn the knob that far back.

Raven was the first to recover completely. She was now standing up, though a bit shakily, brushing dirt and grass off her clothes. Robin was second, and was now helping Starfire to her feet. Cyborg came up third, and Beast boy … well, he didn't look as if he could stand.

"It appears that we have been transported through the fourth-dimension once more." Starfire commented as she looked around her.

Robin and Cyborg looked quizzically at Raven.

"Time." Raven explained, "The fourth-dimension is Time."

"Dudes! How did this happen?" Beast boy wailed. Apparently, he has recovered enough to sit and complain.

Cyborg recounted what has happened in Jump City, up to the point where the girl accidentally stepped on the remote.

Everybody heaved a sigh in unison. Were they ever going to get home?

"Did The Brain give us a location?" Robin wanted to know.

Cyborg shook his head, "Only numbers."

"So we could be anywhere?" Beast boy's voice was becoming shrill, then he winced.

Raven looked at Beast boy. He was holding his right shoulder blade.

"You're injured." it wasn't a question.

"I was better." Beast boy said, "It didn't hurt that much when we were fighting with the Skulls on the Daggers' ship. And it didn't hurt a lot when we were on the Skulls'."

"Maybe when you're an animal, it won't hurt a lot. Because you may have thicker skin then." Raven said logically.

Robin sighed. They need new clothes to blend in, were lost, and with an injured teammate. Things weren't looking exactly sunny.

"Raven, do you know where we are?" he asked.

Raven surveyed their surrounding carefully. They were standing in the middle of a field of grass with a forest behind. Not very far away, were farmlands. With corn crops and potato crops growing out of the soils. The houses, were more like cottages and looked like they were from a fairytale book. Finally, she said, "It looks like Britain, or England, in it's middle ages."

Since it was still daytime, they decided to wait until nightfall to find some clothes. Everyone decided Robin should go, since Beast boy is down, turning into even a rabbit was painful, and since Raven was needed to heal him, so Robin was voted to be the most sneaky. The group walked into the forest for shelter. Cyborg agreed to find some food while Robin and Starfire went off to look for anything that they can built a shelter from.

That leaves Raven and Beast boy.

Raven sat him down on a log. "You should have told me about this before the injury became worse. When did this happen?" She questioned.

"Some pirate lodged an arrow into my back during the ambush." Beast boy said.

Raven surveyed the damage. The wound wasn't exactly deep, but since Beast boy didn't receive any treatment earlier, the cut was looking quite bad, with flakes of dried blood everywhere and Raven was sure, with some infection.

Grimacing a little, she looked away and took several deep breaths. Finally, when she's composed herself enough, she told Beast boy to remove his shirt. But she found out she was the one doing most of the work, since he's incapable of moving his right arm above shoulder level.

When that was done, she started to heal his back. Beast boy winced as her magic touched his skin, but soon relaxed. Suddenly, Raven was angry. How could he have been so careless and forgetful? Doesn't he know that a wound like this could cause death if there was any blood poisoning?

"You should have come to me earlier." Raven growled.

"What? But I thought -"

"You could die! There's already some infection, do you want to turn it into blood poisoning?" Raven fumed.

"No … is it that serious?" Beast boy asked, fear now imminent in his voice. Then he winced again, Raven was applying too much pressure onto his back.

Raven again, took several breaths to calm herself. She mustn't let her emotions get in the way, she lessened the pressure and he visibly relaxed once again. Finally, after another minute or two of silence, Robin and Starfire returned with wood and branches and big leaves. Raven quietly told Beast boy to rest and then she left to help Robin and Starfire in building some sort of tent.

When night came, everyone finished their dinner (well, it wasn't much of a dinner. Just some nuts, and berries), Starfire, Beast boy and Cyborg prepared to sleep. Robin got ready to leave.

"I'll be back with everyone's clothes." He promised, then went off.

Raven sat down on the log and watched the fire they built burn. She then added more dried pine cones to feed the fire. She watched the flames leap and listened to the crackling noises they made as they licked the pine cones greedily.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Raven jumped as she was wrenched back into reality. Turning around, she saw Beast boy emerge from the makeshift tent.

Raven ignored him and turned around again. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of an answer, it had been a tiring day, the last thing she needed was a conversation with Beast boy. Somehow, just recently, every time she talked to him, some emotion in her would get evoked. It was strange and it only happened with him.

She decided then, she would not speak. Perhaps, he'd go away.

Unfortunately, Beast boy obviously couldn't read body language and chose to sit himself right beside her.

"I'm feeling better, thanks to your healing." Beast boy said gratefully. Raven just nodded.

Beast boy searched her face. Again, it was a mask. He hated that, though he did understand why keeping her emotions under control for her is a must. But he's always thought that if she connects with them, embraces them and acknowledge that they are real, at the same time keeping them under control, she'd had a better understanding of her powers and abilities.

Beast boy was silent for a moment, pondering. She seemed to be absentmindedly throwing small twigs into the fire. Was she angry at him? Then, he remembered when she was healing him in the afternoon, she sounded upset.

"Raven, are you angry?" Beast boy asked.

He saw her hesitate, then shake her head.

"You sounded upset this afternoon." he pressed, "Is something wrong?"

Finally, a sigh escaped from the girl's lips. "I'm just worried … I guess … a little."

Beast boy was stunned, "About me?"

Raven looked at him, "I hate you. But I don't want you to … I don't know, die or something."

Beast boy knew that this could possibly be the nicest thing she's ever said to him in his entire life. Somehow, his heart felt lighter that Raven did care!

"That means a lot to me, Raven." Beast boy said, smiling widely.

Raven blushed. Surprised at herself, she stood up quickly and lifted her hood up to hide the red. She chided herself silently for even opening her mouth. Didn't she remind herself earlier that she would not speak to him? Why does this keep happening? She made a mental note to meditate as soon as possible.

"I'm going to get some rest." she said hastily and started to walk away, towards the trees. There was no way she's going into that tent, not when Beast boy was also going to sleep inside. Besides, Starfire and Cyborg were also sleeping in their, she honestly didn't think she could cope with having to share a small tuft of grass for sleeping with three other people.

At least, in the treetops, she could meditate with peace. No one would find her up there.

"Goodnight Raven." Beast boy called.

Raven stopped unexpectedly. She needed to fly up, now, but somehow, her feet stayed rooted to the ground. She didn't want to, but somehow, she felt guilty if she didn't …

"Goodnight." she answered softly, then shot up.

Beast boy gaped, she really didn't expect a reply. Frowning, he went back to the tent, looking back at what had just happened and thought hard … Which is probably something he hasn't done since he was born.

But she was Raven after all, and for some reason, with her around, she was making him feel and think differently.

Beast boy shook his head and dismissed the idea. It's probably just the exhaustion from intensive time-traveling.

And then, as soon as he laid his head down on the grass, Beast boy fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A/N: Hey, my good people, from chapter 14 onwards will be dedicated to BB and Rae's relationship, as I promised. Oh and are my chapters too short? Too long? Just right? I'm keeping it to 2500 words max but if you feel I should add on/cut down, feel free to tell me.

And OMG! THANK YOU for all the reviews! You guys are really giving me the inspiration to write! *tearing*