To say that Beast Boy was startled was an understatement. He knew that he was heading towards Raven the whole time. But… he had reached her! She's… right in front of me.

But as he stared at her, he noticed the obvious changes that had come across her. From her dark skin to her burning eyes, Beast Boy felt himself instinctively cringe away. The amount of demonic energy that she emitted urged him to flee, but he remained solidly in front of her.

"Raven, is that you?"

His former teammate gave no response, nor did her expression reveal anything about what she felt. The expressionless mask she had always wore was perfected, revealing nothing to him. Then her lips parted, and the corners of her mouth turned downward in a scowl.

She broke the silence and burst into rage. When she spoke, her voice was hard and cold. "Thanatos, why is this weakling here?" She demanded as she rose from her throne and took slow, bored steps towards Beast Boy. Her purple eyes held an insidious red glow to them, and he felt his soul being cracked and searched.

The named Demon knelt as she moved past him. "I told you, he fought his way past our guards and made his way here." Beast Boy hadn't fully come on his own, however. I defeated the guards... and then I was summoned here through dark magic. Thanatos is lying!

If Raven realized it, she didn't give off a reaction. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway." She spun around and slapped the demon across the face. "Make sure it doesn't happen again. If things seem to be going poorly, fix them before they become a bigger problem!"

Thanatos flinched before his master's wrath, then straightened and nodded. "Yes milady." Raven straightened, and turned to Beast Boy with narrowed eyes. Beast Boy straightened as well and met her gaze despite the shivers that were trying to sneak up his spine.

Then his eyes wandered down her body, observing her darker skin that was marked with the shadows caused by the flickering flames in the room. She remained as beautiful as ever to Beast Boy… even in this darkened state.

But he would have to bring her down if she didn't come back.

"What do you want Beast Boy? Let me guess…" she took a step towards him and frowned. "You want to try and drag me back." It wasn't a question, but a statement. "Sorry, but I'm not interested."

"But Raven-"

"I do not listen or heed any weak mortal." Her eyes narrowed at him, appearing catlike doing so. Beast Boy tried to continue his sentence, but found that the words would not leave his lips. He could only stand frozen and watch her smirk. "I am way powerful than all of you could ever be now."

Thankfully, while his words and body may be frozen. His thoughts couldn't be. Has… has she changed too much?

He tried to press himself to speak, but a strange barrier prevented his words. Tentatively, he reached around his head for the ability to do anything, but the barrier prevented him from accessing some places. This thing was done by her magic. I need to get out of this. If I don't she'll kill me!

His mind scrambled through what unblocked places there was inside his head for a way to break out. Then he remembered. A memory flashed through his mind.

"Beast Boy, you can't just let the enemy control you." Raven stood over Beast Boy. His hands dropped from his head as the lingering effects of Raven's spell drifted away. Robin had suggested battle training to teach each other how to fight against certain enemy tricks that are similar to the Titans, this day was magic. "Mind penetration and mind control are dangerous things, and they can make things worse than if they just killed you outright."

"I knoooow," he groaned. "It's just so difficult though!" With a sigh he stood up and grabbed Raven's shoulder for balance, which she quietly put up with. "Besides, what am I even supposed to do about it when I'm frozen or something?"

She sighed, a long and drawn-out sigh. "You have to use what meagre mental power you do possess to do it."

Beast Boy closed his eyes and spent a few moments in silence. Then, "I don't get it. What does that mean?"

Raven stepped away from Beast Boy's hand and gently placed her own on his forehead, then closed her eyes. "Focus on something, anything… The feeling of my hand on your forehead, the scent of the breeze or even just the voice of my words, for example."

Beast Boy listened to her advice, and directed all of his focus into the feeling of Raven's hand, the soft and gentle cold touch against his warm and sweating forehead. "Okay."

"Now-" she removed her hand, but Beast Boy kept his focus together and listened to what she was saying. "-take that focus, that willpower. When I invade your mind; focus your willpower, and drive me out."

Beast Boy nodded and breathed in deeply, then released his breath as he felt himself ready. He heard Raven mutter her usual spell and felt something penetrate his mind, poking and prodding it's way around.

Swallowing the panic that tried to worm its way into his mind and dispel his focus, Beast Boy squashed it and turned his attention back towards the presence. But the distraction had scattered his ability to keep together his attention. Raven realized this, and dug in deeper.

The pain when she had first entered was subtle, more of a dull ache. But now that she was reaching farther and farther in, the pain was starting to increase until it reached the point like a dagger digging into simple flesh.

He knew that Raven didn't mean to harm him, but the demoness's power was stronger than Beast Boy expected, and he had trouble gathering his focus up again. He grunted in pain, causing the force to hesitate slightly, before it continued pushing farther in.

You can't let her do this BB… If you fail here, you'll never be able to do it. He gritted his teeth and focused on the pain, putting all of his attention on the feel of it. While this only amplified the pain, it allowed Beast Boy to gather his willpower to one point, and with a shove he pushed it against the blade that was Raven's mind, driving her back. She backed out quickly with a jerk that made Beast Boy shudder, before his mind felt free again.

"Good job. I was worried I'd have to pull out of my own accord," Raven commented, giving him a rare smile to congratulate him. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with an emotion that was almost never there. Is that… pride?

Still, the relief he felt was tremendous, he lunged at Raven, and wrapped his arms around her in an excited hug. She let out a yelp at the motion, but tolerated his touch after-wards stiffly.

Beast Boy's eyes widened, he knew what he could do. That's right… I can break out of this! Raven's expression turned uncomfortable, as if she knew what he could do. But it lasted only an impossibly short amount. Did he imagine it? It didn't matter, at least it didn't at this point.

He used the brief moment of her distraction to gather his willpower, before willing the spell out of his mind.

"Hah, you really think a small trick I taught you before is going to work?" He watched, still frozen, as a prideful smirk distorted her dark but striking features. "I may have been easy to push out before, but my power dwarfs even what my father's was. You're nothing before me now."

She leaned forward; her hand was reaching out to touch his forehead again. And Beast Boy knew that this wouldn't be some training session. How… how do I get out of this?!

He felt a poisoned dagger pierce his consciousness, and the force of it made her previous attempt a year ago feel gentle and delicate.

She made no attempt to leave his mind untouched either with her intrusion, every thought she snatched and inspected before she let go. Beast Boy wanted to flinch away but he couldn't, so he just stood there in silent agony.

Eventually she got tired of just grabbing at stray thoughts, so she began to head towards his memories as well, ones that were locked behind a wall that nobody could cross. Beast Boy tried to block her out, and keep the barrier standing.

"You think you can just block me out? When you couldn't even drive me out in the first place? Hah, you never ceased to amuse me Beast Boy," she purred. He groaned through closed lips in pain as she dug in harder. She gave a deep push, a tremendous shove, and the barrier shattered. Beast Boy cried out in pain before it subsided until it was just a lingering ache. He heard her chuckle, like she enjoyed the pain she invoked in him.

Meanwhile, Raven prodded and poked around in his mind. Then, she reached something, and froze.

He didn't know how long they just remained like that, with his head aching and Raven's presence inside. But it finally ended as she drew out of his consciousness like a blade slowly being pulled out of a wound. Except there was no squelching sound.

When Raven pulled away and Beast Boy found himself in control of his action, there was a thoughtful glint in her prideful eyes. "You know what?"

Beast Boy shook his head, although he tensed as well when the movement brought pain to his body. She looked at the motion with a twinge of amusement, before it was swallowed by the darkness in her eyes. But she caught Beast Boy with so much surprise that he forgot about his pain with her next words.

"I'll come back. And I'll rejoin the team," Raven told him, a slight smirk was spread across her face, but her eyes were fixated on him intently. Beast Boy had to take a step back as his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to speak, but someone else asked what he was going to at that moment.

"What? Are you insane Milady?" Thanatos gasped, his large strides made little noise but allowed him to move hastily to his master's side. Raven herself glanced his way, but didn't speak at all; they just stared at each other. They didn't seem to need sound though. Raven turned away from their unspoken conversation and once again fixed her red-tinted gaze of Beast Boy.

"No. I'm fully confident in my choices Thanatos, and I will not be challenged in them," she said as she spun around and blasted him with a small wave of dark magic and pushed Thanatos back. "And I think I will return to the titans with the power I had obtained from my new position."

Beast Boy couldn't tell if the glance that Raven threw her servant was satisfied or not. But it didn't really matter. She's really going to come back!

"However-" Raven announced, making Beast Boy's heart drop a bit. "If I'm going to be put into jail or imprisoned by the other titans, I will not hesitate to kill them all." She narrowed her eyes at Beast Boy, and he understood.

"Yes, Raven."

"Good." Raven gave Beast Boy a nod and reached a hand out to her servant. She muttered a few long and garbled words before the was covered by large black thorns. And a self-satisfied smirk grew on her face. "This will keep him sealed forever."

"O-Okay," Beast Boy managed to say. With another hand, Raven reached out and created a dark portal. The island of Titan's tower could be seen glimmering within it.

"You don't need that silly device. I can bring us back without such a stupid thing." she purred and gestured for Beast Boy to go first. "Shall we go? Hopefully back to the old times."

Beast Boy nodded with the happy-go-lucky smile that he usually used. But inside his stomach knotted itself as suspicion rose. This wasn't his Raven. While at first he was too surprised and happy to see that she was willing to come back, that had melted away the moment her new reactions were revealed. This Raven was not his, and would not be trusted. He would keep his green eyes on her and restore the original. That was his new goal.

And like he had finding her, he would achieve it.

Yes, I know. I'm lame and a liar for taking this long to post. It was just one thing after another with this honestly.

I had trouble getting a good start, and then it just took awhile to make this in general. And I didn't get much done during Winter Break because of RL stuff an a secret santa gift that I had to work on. Here it is now though.

Although I feel that this is disappointing and anti-climatic or something. What do you guys think? Was this chapter any good?