"Ugh, my head…" Beast Boy pressed his palms into his eyes, his sinus ringing. "What happened," his emerald eyes cracked open and he surveyed his surrounded, in mounting confusion.

"Where…" then he noticed Raven, dressed only in a threadbare tunic.

Now, Beast Boy wasn't innocent, he had seen some pretty odd and…explicit stuff; part of the hazards of the hero business. He also wasn't new to the concept of Raven's skin, considering her regular attire was a legless leotard. But nothing prepared him to seeing her in so little, tied at the wrists, and unconscious. Her flawless porcelain complexion practically glowed in the dimly lit space…

Speaking of the space, Beast Boy could see only thanks to his feline DNA. They were in some kind of cart, completely enclosed in the splintering old wood boards. It stank of sweat and manure, not helped by the heavy sheets draped over the only open end. The box shook and jumped, so he guessed they were on the move. There was a steady clapping from outside, but he couldn't place the sound. A bit of course hay littered the unwashed floor.

There were four others in the box, seated on small benches nailed to the walls. The two closest to him were awake but silent, not making eye contact. The one next to Raven actually had a rag tied around his mouth.

It was about this time that Beast Boy realized his own hands were tied, as he reached out to wake Raven. A voice, with a thick accent, oddly familiar, came forth from the figure to Beast Boy's left. "Let her be lad, the headsman is a while off yet."

Beast Boy brought his hands back into his lap and looked across the box to the last two occupants, who appeared to be awakening.

"Aw, my head…"

"Cyborg!" Beast Boy could not have been happier in that moment, until he realized his friend shared in whatever awful predicament they were in.

"BB? What happened?" The final figure chose now to speak, voice snivelling and nervous, "What happened? I'll tell you what happened, the damned rebels happened!"

Once again the voice was eerily familiar, and Beast Boy stared at the shadowy face, trying to place it. "Rebels?"

"Yeah, rebels. The Empire was nice and lazy until they came around…" The heavy voice to Beast Boy's left cut him off, "Watch your tongue thief, you're in the presence of the true high king."

"Okay, now, I'm lost, so why don't we all calm down," Cyborg's hands were raised in a placating gesture, which showed him their odd colouring. He moved his fingers gingerly; it felt heavy, and rusty, like iron. Beast Boy saw it too, and straining saw his friend was indeed plated in iron. "The High King? Ulfric? But if they've captured you, then gods…where are they taking us?"

Beast Boy's mouth dropped open. Cyborg stopped fussing over his loss of tech and watched him. "What is it BB?" The other three figures also looked at him expectantly. "No way…" was all he could get out before a sudden jar signalled the end of their journey.

A number of footsteps were heard, and some huffing and whinnying. "Horses, of course…" Beast Boy continued, staring around with wide eyed wonderment. Cyborg couldn't take it anymore, "What is it Beast Boy?"

"Dude, I know where we are," The sheets over the exit were pulled aside and harsh sunlight shone in. On the floor Raven awoke with a start, covering her eyes. A man dressed in leather armour stepped into view, "End of the line prisoners."

As they filed out, Raven shrugging off Beast Boy's attempt to carry her, Beast Boy began to chuckle. "Helgen, I knew it!" the heavyset man from the cart nodded, "Eye, I used to be sweet on a girl from here. I wonder if-"

"Vilod is still making her mead with juniper berries mixed in? I don't know, never found out." The man looked incredulously at the small green lad beside him, who seemingly knew exactly what he was going to say.

"Green Bean, I'm telling you, if you don't tell me where we are I'll…" the cybernetic man stuttered, finally recognizing the place. He stared, with his one eye, at everything as he calmly got into line with the rest of the prisoners, about thirty in all.

Raven was behind Beast Boy, who, she just noticed, was actually taller than her now. "So to what nerdy paradigm did Control Freak send us this time?" her headache was terrible; she had to squint to keep out the light. Dimension shifting was especially painful for her, a by-product of her cross-dimensional conception.

"Skyrim," came the unanimous reply from her teammates. Unfortunately, Raven was still in the dark, literally as she had shut her eyes. Fiction, fantasy, comedy, romance, and all manner of geeky things she could handle, even enjoy; if it was in a book. Control Freak however did not read, as far as she could tell, so she had no clue what was happening most of the time during their fights.

An armoured woman began barking orders and the lightly armoured man began reading names off a list. Raven ignored them, focusing instead on the green boy in front of her. "What?" Beast Boy's ears dropped, "Awe Rae, you sat with me while I played this for hours…"

"No, I was reading in the room that happened to have the television in it. And my name is Raven,"

"Skyrim! You know, the RPG with the draugr, dragons, werewolves, vampires…Skyrim." She looked at her teammate with a blank expression, and he sighed, "You're hopeless."

"Next, the little orc!" Beast Boy continued to chatter with Raven as a soldier came up to him. He was interrupted by the large man's hand shoving him. "Move it prisoner, to the block." Raven looked away from him and out to the clearing where they were headed, realizing with mounting dread that it was an executioner's block.

Beast Boy shrugged off the soldier, "Hey, I didn't get to choose my race…or name!" Cyborg also saw the headsman's ax, and shushed Beast Boy, pointing to the space where he was being pushed.

"Oh, the block…forgot about that." He stopped mid-step and ducked under the guard's next shove. He tripped the next, nimbly skipping between the guards, mindful of the archer by the well. It looked like he was going to get away, indeed he was just about to shift out of his bonds when a dark blue light entrapped him.

"Now, foolish Orc, you will pay for your crimes." Control Freak stepped from the shadows of the outpost, dressed in rich Thalmor garb. "Thank you ambassador Freak…"

"Silence! General Tulius, I expected more from you. Now prisoner, to the block!" His chubby fingers wiggled in the air, sending Beast Boy floating back to the executioner.

Raven rolled her eyes and sighed at the amateur magic. She reached out for her own, but to her horror, found she couldn't access it. Her empathy and soul self were still there, but she couldn't access her telepathy.

How Control Freak managed to block that remained a mystery, as she began the slide out of her bonds a rumble sounded somewhere in the mountains. Everyone stopped and looked around, Raven included. She knew that sound, she was almost infatuated with one of its kind a while back.

"Looks like you forgot about Alduin." Cyborg said, tearing out of his own bonds. The soldiers eyed him wearily, but at a distance, fearful of his dwemer plating. The rumbling roar came again, louder this time. The prisoners whispered amongst each other, Raven heard the term 'world eater' thrown about.

Control Freak, or Ambassador Freak of the Thalmor Embassy, simply smiled. "On the contrary my dwarven foe, he shall be your executioner." Beast Boy finally kicked free of the magic bindings and laughed, "Yeah, 'cause you can control a dragon,"

Beast Boy hunched over, back tense, then stood up, confused. Obviously Control Freak had removed his shifting abilities too.

The roar came again, definitely from something living, and growing closer. General Tulius, and older man in ceremonial armour shouted as he saw a shadow in the sky, "What in Oblivion is that?"

From the roiling clouds descended a massive silver dragon, plummeting with poise and grace to land on the keep. It was majestic and arrogant as it examined the humans and humanoids below it, and shouted in a voice like breaking concrete, in some language unknown to Raven.

The guards and prisoners scattered, leaving only the title characters in the courtyard as Alduin lifted off and began to wipe out the city. Beast Boy dragged his naturally sharp nails over the bindings on his wrists and felt them snap. He chuckled as he imagined a bar above his head reading 'Lockpicking level 16'.

Control Freak laughed manically and threw bolts of lightning at everyone. Cyborg charged him, discovering that the other's spells reflected off his plating. Raven used a dropped dagger to cut her own bonds, looking up into the sky as Alduin made another pass. She frowned, muttering "I hate Dragons," and ducked down, hoping to sneak behind Control Freak in the chaos.

Beast Boy picked up a steel sword from the dirt and called out, "Dude, the Thalmor suck. Who likes elves anyway? They are almost as popular as Argonians these days!" That caught Control Freak's attention, and the fat 'elf' turned to the green boy and shouted "Fus Roh!" The resulting wave of kinetic energy washed over Beast Boy, who murmured a word of his own, dissipating the magic.

"That's it? Unrelenting force?" he taunted, knowing Control Freak could do better. Beast Boy was ready for anything, and could remember twenty complete shouts, and some other words. He had this, he was gonna kick his butt, take his remote, send them home and be crowned awesome. Maybe Cy would even let him have tofu pizza later.

Unfortunately, Control Freak was also a geek with way to much free time. He shouted again, blasting Cyborg away from him, and turned completely towards Beast Boy. He never got to shout though, as a heavy wooden club hit the back of his skull. Control Freak dropped like a rock, leaving a smug Raven standing where he had been moments before.

"Dude, I so had him!" Beast Boy whined, dropping his sword to cross his arms in mock annoyance.

"Well, I was faster." Raven dropped the club on Control Freak's stunned self, stepping back as Cyborg approached, "and since I saved both of you, you can be the ones to search him for the remote." Cyborg held out his fist to the little half demon, who reluctantly reciprocated. Baby steps, she told herself.

Control Freak, it seemed was not through though, and as Cyborg rolled the obese miscreant onto his back he noticed a device on a necklace he was wearing. It was blinking rapidly, and then a bright light appeared from its core, expanding. "Aw, not again…"