AN: I do not own Teen Titans. Please refrain from reviewing until the end of the story. Thank you.

Chapter 3

The bus crept to a stop and Raven was surprised to see that the four hour drive was over. Now to pick up another ticket and transfer to the next bus. She grabbed her bag, shoved her book and pen inside, and exited the bus into the terminal. It wasn't exceptionally busy, unlike the bus station in Jump City, but there were a few dozen people wandering about with luggage or simple backpacks. She went to the nearest window and decided to have a quick look. She was very much out of the city now and in the midst of a flourishing town. Already a sense of relief had washed over her now that she away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

She went to the ticket window and prepared her ID once more. There was only one person ahead of her this time and once she reached the front of the line the man behind the desk seemed far less intimidated by her than the woman in the city had. She guessed that a bus station so far away from city rarely had to deal with villainous mischief and chaos. To him, she probably looked like nothing more than an expressive teenager trying to figure out who they were.

"Good afternoon, how can I help you?" he asked in a rather bored manner.

"I have a reserved ticket," she said, handing her ID to him. He punched in her information then clicked his tongue and shook his head. She didn't like that reaction and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Not on your end," he said, handing her the ID back as well as the freshly printed ticket. "But that's the line that's running late. One of the busses overheated early today so now all of the departures and arrivals have been put behind. I'm guessing it won't be here for another hour and a half. But once it does get here it'll pull into gate 3."

"Well an hour and a half isn't terrible," she said plainly. "At least it's not cancelled. I'm sure I can kill some time."

"Take a walk around the town," he suggested. "Out this door to the right there are restaurants and to the left are couple shops. When I need to kill time I head for the thrift shop, personally."

"Thanks for the suggestion," she said and after adjusting her bag in her shoulder headed for the door. She could sit and read but she had promised herself that while on this vacation of hers she'd explore the world around her. So off she went towards the thrift shop to see if she could find any old books that would interest her.

As she walked she felt the sun shining down on her and, knowing the people around here probably didn't care who she was, slipped her hood back and shook out her violet locks. It felt good to get some fresh air around her head. She then heard her communicator go off and quickly retrieved it from her pocket. She flipped it open and found Robin staring back at her. "Really? I'm gone four hours and you're already checking in on me?" she asked.

"Sorry, I know it's stupid to ask, but you wouldn't happen to have any idea as to where Beast Boy is, would you?" asked Robin.

"How would I?" she asked. "Last time I saw him he was in the common room with the rest of you waving me farewell. Why? He's not missing again, is he?"

"Unfortunately," said Robin with a frustrated sigh. "We just got back from stopping Dr. Light terrorizing a movie theater and he was a no show."

"Are you sure he isn't stuck somewhere?" she asked. "He might have gotten sucked down the air vent and gotten lost again."

At that same time, coming in the opposite direction, a beautiful customized hotrod lazily made its way down the road. The driver, none other than Ding Dong Daddy, was pleasantly enjoying a lollipop he may or may not have snatched from a toddler at a red light and humming along to one of his favorite tunes. He was returning from yet another cross state race, that he'd won thanks to his gremlin minions sabotaging the other competitors, and had taken a detour in order to stop by this particular town's antique store that was a treasure trove for vintage car parts.

He could see the shop up ahead but his attention was suddenly drawn to a young woman standing on the sidewalk with hair the color of lavender. He nearly drove off the road as he passed her by. He knew that girl. "Well look who Ding Dong Daddy's found. A Raven that's made her way too far from the nest." He felt a chill go down his spine as he remembered his last encounter with the Titans and his ultimate defeat that left him frozen for quite some time. He frowned and spat out the sucker. "Time for this hip cat to serve some revenge as cool as the other side of the pillow. And with no other Titans around this is made in the shade!" He swung the car around, just avoiding a collision with a minivan, and began pushing buttons and flipping switches on his dashboard. From the back a large machine arose and with a high pitched hum began to charge up.

"Even if he doesn't get along with Aqualad I doubt he'd run away because of him," said Raven, who'd grown bored with this conversation as soon as she'd found out it was about Beast Boy's whereabouts. "That would mean admitting defeat and we both know he's too stubborn to do that. I'm guessing he went out to have fun and the battery in his communicator is…"

She paused when the sound of tires screeching caught her attention. She watched as a hotrod drifted by her and she made eye contact with a laser pointed right at her person. Before she had time to move a bright light shot out of it and hit her dead on. She was knocked clear off her feet and fell into a row of shrubbery that sat in front of a dentist's office.

"Looks like Ding Dong Daddy set the neutralizer a little too high," the potbellied villain said, pushing buttons to retract the laser. "Just wanted to rattle your cage a bit and that's the word from the bird. You put Ding Dong Daddy in a square situation when you froze him with the other cats. But before that happened he got some unreal assistance and now he's rebuilt his neutralizer to tune out all of your powers for far longer than a few hours. You're looking at days of being nothing but strays. I hope you enjoy your stay in nowheresville." He revved his engine, said, "Catch you on the flip side," and in a cloud of smoking rubber turned his car around yet again and sped off down the street.

Raven pulled herself out of the bushes and moaned. "Great. Just great."

Behind her she heard someone else groaning and thrashing about in the shrubbery. She jumped out and saw a disheveled Beast Boy tumble to the sidewalk, wearing her duffle bag like a shirt. She stared at him for a moment, trying to process what she was seeing, then realized there was a voice calling her name. Robin was having a fit on the other end of the communicator.

She quickly picked it up and said, "Yeah, I'm still here. I'm okay."

"What the heck just happened?!" he asked.

"Well it appears Ding Dong Daddy just got some sort of revenge on me," she said, picking bits of shrub out of her hair. She then turned and looked at the changeling who was still quite confused on the ground. "And you'll never believe who's here with me." She turned the communicator so that the camera recorded the image of Beast Boy trying to free himself from the duffle bag.

"You've got to be kidding me," Robin sighed. "What the heck is he doing there?"

"I don't know but I'm about to find out," she growled and closed her communicator.

Beast Boy managed to pull the duffle bag he'd completely destroyed off of himself and shook the twigs and bits of vegetation from his hair. He wasn't sure what had just happened. One moment he'd been nesting in the fibers of his teammate's clothes and the next he was back in his human form. He turned and saw a very unhappy Raven staring at him. Jig was up.

"Uh, heh, hi," he smiled lamely.

She crossed her arms. "Would you care to explain yourself?"

"N-No, not really," he said, which was the truth. He didn't want to tell her.

"Well you're going to," she frowned and reached her hand forward to manipulate her dark energy so as to grab him. Beast Boy winced and prepared to be snatched…but nothing happened. He opened his eyes and saw her looking at her hand, confused. She tried again but still there was no affect. "Azareth Metrion Zinthos!" But still there was no change. She then frowned and groaned with realization. "Ding Dong Daddy's laser."

"What?" asked Beast Boy, thoroughly confused.

"He shot me with his neutralizing laser and said something about tuning out my powers," she said. "Guess I'm powerless for the time being. That probably goes for you too."

"Oh…that would explain why I changed back," he said, looking at the remains of the duffle bag. "Sorry about that."

"I don't care about the bag, I care about why you're here," she said crossly. "So start talking or I'll bury you under that bush."

Beast Boy looked at the shrubbery that was now quite mangled, and had Raven's clothes scattered about within it, and gulped. Even without her powers Raven knew how to take down a grown man. He began to think as quickly as he could, possibly the quickest he'd ever thought in his life. He couldn't tell her the real reason he was there or else she'd send him right back home. So what could he tell her that would allow him to stay with her on this trip? He thought and thought, his heart pounding in his chest as the seconds passed and Raven's eyes demanded an answer, and finally he blurted out the best thing he could think of.

"I wanted to go to the book signing in Civic City!" he said at last.

She blinked then replied with a confused, "Excuse me?"

"Uh, yeah, that book signing thing you're going to," he explained. "I actually really wanted to go but, um, knew that if I told everyone they'd just laugh at me cuz, you know, I don't usually read or anything. But I read those books you like so much and I'm totally a fan now! And this is the only time the author's ever gonna be in America and since you're taking your vacation this week that means there's no way I'd be able to go, too. So I stashed myself away in your bag so that I could go, too."

He watched as she looked him up and down for a very long and quiet minute. He hoped she'd believe it. He honestly couldn't even remember the author's name so if she asked him questions about the books he'd be royally screwed. But, he had to admit, it was a pretty good lie. He'd covered just about all of the bases. He often surprised himself with how quick he could think when his life was threatened.

She finally let out a sigh and said, "Unfortunately, since my powers have been subdued, I can't feel your emotions. Therefore I haven't the slightest idea whether you're lying or not."

"It's the truth, I swear," he said as convincingly as he could. "I know I probably should've just talked to Robin about getting time off but I knew he'd never let me go. You know how he is. And I honestly didn't want anyone to know that I'm such a big fan of…hers. It's not exactly a series for guys like me, right? You know that if Cyborg found out he'd never let me live it down."

She gently nodded at that, it did make sense, then said, "I can understand why you'd want to keep your appreciation for Melita Funar's writing a secret. I really would never guess that you'd enjoy her work." She thought then her brow creased and she gave him a suspicious look. "Just answer one thing for me."

"Okay," he said, his voice cracking.

"What language were the books first published in?" she asked.

Beast Boy's eyes went wide with panic for a moment but then he thought back to the conversation Robin had had with Aqualad only a few hours before. Sitting on the couch, he'd said the author was Russian and Robin had corrected him. "Romanian!" he said, proudly.

"That's…right." Raven was genuinely surprised that he'd answered the question correctly. She couldn't understand how he'd know something like that unless he was a fan. He never kept up to date with what she was reading, after all. "I guess you are a fan."

"Told ya," he said with his toothy grin. He then looked uncomfortable and asked, "So…what're you gonna do with me?"

She thought for a moment then took her communicator back out. She dialed Robin and he soon picked up. "So do we have any answers?" he asked.

"Beast Boy, in his infinite wisdom, decided to stow away in my bag in order to accompany me on my vacation," she explained. "He wants to go to one of my destinations and knew you wouldn't let him leave because of the shortage of Titans there would be in the city."

"So he just up and left without leaving so much as a note?" Robin fumed.

Beast Boy realized that he'd never thought about what would happen once his friends at the tower realized he was missing. "Uh, my bad," he said sheepishly.

"Anyway, I only discovered him because Ding Dong Daddy was passing by and shot us with his new and improved neutralizer," Raven continued. "This one has stripped us of our powers for the time being. I'm not sure for how long."

"Last time you and Starfire were hit with his flight neutralizer you couldn't fly for a few hours," Robin remembered.

"Well this time he said something about a few days," Raven replied.

"Wow, great start to your vacation," Robin said sarcastically. "Well buy Beast Boy a ticket home and I'll reimburse you when you later."

"Actually…I'm not going to send him home," said Raven.

Both Robin and Beast Boy were surprised by this.

"Come again?" asked Robin.

"Well he's going to be of no use to you guys," she explained. "His powers have been neutralized."

"Yeah but…do you really want Beast Boy with you on your vacation?" asked Robin.

"I don't want him with me but he's here and he wants to go to a destination I want to go to," she explained. "It'd probably better for me to have a travel buddy anyway since I no longer have my powers. Let's let him enjoy this week and then when we get back we can both punish him accordingly."

"Well…okay," said Robin, still unsure if he was really talking to Raven. He just couldn't fathom her wanting Beast Boy with her on her long awaited, meticulously planned out, vacation. "But if you get sick of him send him home. Beast Boy!"

"Y-Yeah?" he answered, looking into the communicator.

"Behave," Robin growled and pointed at him with a seriousness that rivaled his mentor and made the hair on the back of Beast Boy's neck stand on end.