A/N: Hi world! *waves* Welcome to my take on the whole "Terra comes back" thing… "take" being a relative term meaning "wishful thinking", but that's what most FanFics are. And no, I did not make a mistake with the character categories. This is indeed an Aqualad/Terra Fic. Aqualad/Terra, Aquarra, AquaTerra, whatever floats your boat. But, while I love Aquarra to death, I hate stories where BB's poor little heart gets broken, especially for no reason. So, I have done my best to avoid that. Hope you like reading this as much as I loved thinking it up!
P.S. Sarasim will be in this story a little. The tale of how she got to this time period and why she is staying will be disclosed at a later date, possibly in my next Fic. This is set about three weeks after the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and my faithful sidekick: Rose the laptop.
You have had doubts in the past, made mistakes, Hilarious? Me? Really? Well if it isn't my favorite little rock 'n roller! We fight as one! Do you know him? Terra, stop! We're your friends! Trust is something you have to earn! I can help you. Yes! I promise Terra, no matter what. Wheredidyoucomefrom,howdidyougethere,whatisyourfavoritecolor,doyouwishtobemyfriend? I was Slade's apprentice once, I got out. So can you. I trusted you! We trusted you! We gave you everything and you treated us like dirt! Earthquakes, mudslides, avalanches. It's your life Terra, your choice. This will let me know if your in trouble… and keep me from causing you any in return.
"Uhg, why won't everyone just shut up?"
"Terra?"
"I said shut up."
"TERRA!"
"WHAT?"
Terra's blue eyes shot open angrily, only to come face to face with another set of blue eyes, these ones framed by a curtain of bubblegum pink hair.
The eyes blinked at her.
"You looked like you were having a nightmare, so I woke you up."
She blinked back, only now noticing the throbbing pain in her forehead.
"Oh, thanks Kole." she murmured.
Kole's eyes widened.
"You remember me!" she said, grinning. "Hey, Raven! You were wrong! She does remember me!"
"She's awake!"
Terra tried to bring the world into focus as three more figures, all farther away, and therefore blurry, seemed to appear out of thin air in front of her.
"Focus eyes. Focus, focus, focus."
Miraculously, the blonde's mental chanting seemed to have an affect on her vision. As soon as she could see clearly, she blinked in surprise, and immediately wished she hadn't.
"Sarasim, Argent," Terra nearly choked when she saw the last person. "R-r-raven."
"Damn you terrified squeaky voice, damn you."
"Terra, before we start explaining what happened, how much do you remember?"
The girl in question blinked for a moment before furrowing her brow in concentration.
"Um, I remember trying to stop the volcano, then I remember… not being able to move… or breathe… no… not needing to move or breathe… I think I turned myself into stone. Then there was a bright white light… then you three…" she glanced at Sarasim, Argent, and Kole. "Then… nothing."
She thought she saw a shadow of disappointment flit across their faces for a moment, but it disappeared before she was sure she really saw it.
"Well, you covered pretty much all the important "what's", so maybe we should just move directly to explaining the "how's"." Raven said, sitting down next to her.
"That would be helpful." Terra agreed, nodding.
The sorceress nodded back. "Alright. So, since the turning-yourself-to-stone part is pretty much self-explanatory, We'll just skip to the bright light, shall we?"
Terra nodded again, idly wondering how much nodding had and would be done tonight.
"I'm fairly certain that light was me banishing the demon Trigon, my father, from this dimension."
Terra blinked once… twice… three times.
"Why do you guys get to do all the fun stuff without me?"
"Do you think you get it now?"
Terra thought for a moment, frowning.
"I think so. You" she nodded to Raven. "And the other titans were trying to find a way to free me after I turned to stone. Then, you had to stop for a while to focus on your father, who came to this dimension, took over, and turned everyone on earth to stone. Then, you managed to banish him back to the hell he came from, and turned everyone back. And, since I was stone, I was changed back too. But, since I wasn't turned to stone by the demon, it only partly affected me. Which means that I've been turning from stone to human, back and forth, every few months for the past year. The last time I was human, I met you three," a nod toward guess who. "And, after I turned back, you found out about the whole stone to human thing, talked to Raven, and managed to find a way to free me permanently. Then you guys brought me- where are we exactly?"
"The master bedroom of the currently unoccupied room 108 in an apartment complex Argent's father owns."
"-Brought me to the master bedroom of the currently unoccupied room 108 in an apartment complex Argent's father owns."
Kole nodded. "that's right."
Terra turned to Raven.
"You guys have really been looking for a way to free me all this time?"
"Yes."
"Even you?"
"Yes." the tightness in her voice made Terra a little afraid that Raven was daydreaming about what would have happened if, during their fight, Terra's control had faltered just enough for Raven to get free. And get at her.
When Raven left to answer a knock at the door, Kole turned to Terra.
"Terra? Ummm…. There's something else we wanted to tell you."
"What?"
The three other girls shifted uncomfortably on the designer sofa for a few minutes before Argent sighed.
"Love, there's no gentle way to put this, so we're just going to say it: Raven stole your boyfriend."
"Good."
Caught off guard by this statement, the three girls stared at her for a moment. Or rather, four girls, as Raven had just reappeared in the doorway, and had obviously heard everything both girls had said.
"…Good?"
Terra nodded.
"As much as he means to me, I don't think I can ever trust myself around him again after all the times I've hurt him. As friends? Yes. As something more? I'm not sure. I don't want to risk it. I wouldn't be able to handle the guilt. And I sure as hell wouldn't be able to risk hurting him again by telling him all that to his face."
Sarasim reached out to cover Kole's ears.
"Watch your language! There are extra-virgin ears present!"
It would be impossible for an outsider to imagine how darn good the laughter felt to the five young heroines after the serious descussion earlier, and the tension of the past few moments.
"If what you said is the truth…" Raven started, as the laughter died down. "Then I think you could just tell him. Once, back when we were still trying to get you free, he told me that he wanted only two things. The first was for you to be alive. The second was for you to be happy."
Terra was silent.
"Oooooor, you could wait for a while for more of your memories to come back. By that time, who knows? You might remember something that could help you tell him. Or you might change your mind."
"That last one isn't very likely." Terra scoffed. "But… a little time would be nice, if I could walk around town without worrying about him seeing me."
"Don't you worry 'bout that, love. We'll 'andle it. Right now you just need to focus on resting."
Terra smiled at Argent.
"Rest does sound really good right now."
"Then you should try to get some. And girls," Raven said, turning to the other three. "He's here."
For some reason, this bit of information seemed to worry the others slightly.
"Who's "He"?" Terra asked.
"Someone who's not as important as you trying to get some sleep right now."
"Alright, alright. I can take a hint. 'Night."
Terra didn't fall asleep right away, opting instead to think about Beast Boy, and the things she had said about him. And herself.
"I lied before, guys. It is likely that I'll change my mind. But it's just as likely that I won't. I like BB, but I'd just feel afraid around him if we were anything but friends. On the other hand, I think I remember loving someone else, sometime during one of the times I was human, before I met you three. The trouble with that is, I can't remember anything about that time, not even who he was."
She sighed, and switched to trying to sort out her feelings. Whenever Terra did this, it sometimes helped to compare her feelings to something earth or rock related. But, as she could think of nothing earth related to compare her current feelings to, she settled for something similar. The sea.
"I just feel like there's some kind of "storm at sea" blowing my mind into a mess. My thoughts are like waves tossing and rolling and trying to tear each-other down, and my mixed up feelings aren't helping. We can just say the feelings are the hundred-mile-an-hour winds mixing up the sea even more." Terra groaned as another pounding headache split her skull. "And the headaches are the chicken that gave salmonella poisoning to the crew of the ship sailing on our little metaphorical ocean." She thought, irritated. "I just need time to let the wind settle, calm the waves down," Boom, boom, boom. "and to throw out that darn chicken."
She finally got fed up with the headaches and focused on going to sleep. As she dozed off, she listened to the soft drone of voices outside the door, and her sleep-muddled mind managed to catch a few words.
"-that she couldn't remember."she managed to pick up from Raven's voice.
"It's alright." that must have been Him, as he was the first male voice she'd heard so far.
"I didn't really expect-"
Whatever He didn't expect, she would never know, as she fell asleep at that very moment, wondering where the heck she'd heard that voice before.
A/N: The bold/italicized/underlined words at the top are all quotes from the show except the last one. See if you can guess who said them, and, as a bonus, what episodes I got them from. The italicized words after the quotes are thoughts, and the italicized/underlined words are when people are speaking in low tones, or when they are otherwise difficult to hear. This is the first time I've ever written a multi-chapter story, or a story of any kind, so please review and tell me what you think.
