Phoenix Blanche
by IronRaven

Teen Titans, the Justice League and related characters aren't mine.

This is very much a sequel to Phoenix Noir. You don't have to have read it, but it will help things make sense if you do. There may be more stories from this plot in the future, so keep your eyes peeled.

---

Beast Boy tumbled through the slipstream in the wake of the T-Car, until he could right himself, finding his wings. It looks easier on television. It had been a quiet day. Cyborg had suggested grabbing some pizza, and he and Raven had agreed.

Raven phased back into the world through the shadows of a storm drain. The drive towards downtown had been quiet, until there had been a report of a bank robbery in progress. Being two blocks away, then had beaten the police there. Three men were running out just as the Titans had arrived, vaulting into the back of the pickup truck.

Cyborg had given chase, the traffic mercifully light for the summer. The three men who'd piled into the bed of the pick were being bounced and jostled without mercy as thier comrade tried to escape, even going so far as to cut across a park. The wide, concrete steps the lead down into a long-dead river bed were to high for the T-Car to take and forced Cyborg to parallel the course of the criminals, giving the perps a short lead. When the truck left the park, they slowed, two of the still masked men jumping to the sidewalk, taking their chances on foot.

Cyborg growled, trapped between choices, when Raven spoke. "Beast Boy, let's go," and with that, she shadowstepped from the back of the car. Beast Boy hit the release on his seat belt, put his hands on the edge of his open window, and threw himself out, shifting as he moved.

Broad, feathered wings pounded at the air, as Raven joined him. From the air, two running men in ski masks stood out on the sidewalk like, well, two guys with ski masks on an August day. Not knowing what weapon had been used at the bank, Raven and Beast Boy didn't swoop in until the two had pulled off their ski masks, and shrugged out of their jackets, trying to blend in. Then one of the perps looked back, and up. With a shout, the two were off again, separating.

One of them dashed down an alleyway, dropping anything that had been in his hands to leap for a fire escape, pulling himself up it with practiced easy. Beast Boy landed on the metal stairway, summoning his most commanding voice "STOP!"

The thug didn't stop. Instead, he continued further up the stairs, taking them in twos and threes, pulling himself up with his hands by the rail. Beast Boy was right behind him, until they reached the roof. A sunbathing tenant yelped as the two young men flung themselves off the fire escape. Beast Boy pounced on his man, the two landing in a pile. The two struggled, rolling about, until the criminal got a foot up, pushing Beast Boy away. The green teen's back slammed into the half wall around the edge of the roof, knocking a the gargoyle a tenant had placed there long ago free. The quarter ton of concrete took wing, but utterly ignorant of flight, it plummeted towards the sidewalk.

Raven held her criminal in a bubble of blackness. The man smirked at her when she asked him a question, the expression changing to a leer when she asked it again. It was his eye who caught the movement first, his head snapping up automatically. Raven's eyes moved to follow. She tried to grab the stone monster, but it was too close. She was able to throw her criminal aside, so that he wouldn't be hurt, as her arms flung up in a gesture instinctive and futile.

Raven open her eyes. She should have been several feet shorter at this point, but she was unhurt. Had she had time to push the statue aside?

She looked for her thug, and was surprised to find him trapped under the gargoyle. It had apparently knocked him down, then landed on him with crushing him. If it had hit it from the side, it would have rolled over him, this took more precision than Raven had had time for. She'd had less than a second, she knew she wouldn't have had that much control over the object; even if she had, she'd wanted to pushing it the other way.

Raven spun blackness around a nearby garbage can lid, tearing it into a ribbon of galvanized steel, wrapping the man's wrists together and to the gargoyle. Pulling it about herself, she climbed into the sky, looking down to check on her teammate. She stifled a smile when she saw a green gorilla sitting on the second criminal. The day before, Beast Boy had tried to tell a 500-pound gorilla joke.

When Beast Boy threw her a thumbs up, she shouted to him that her guy was pinned on the sidewalk, and she was going to help Cyborg.

She lied.

She had seen the back of a familiar head running away. A blond head. So she IS Terra.

Raven circled, looking for the traitor. Terra was still running, but trying to speak on a cell phone. Raven quickly grounded, trying to blend in the with crowd, while wishing she was taller. Several times, she lost track of the geomancer behind a crowd or a building, but she was able to find Terra fairly quickly each time. The worst part was that Raven had to stay far enough back that it was less likely that Terra would spot her.

Raven almost missed it when Terra went down a side street. It was a dead end, Raven knew this part of town, and Terra's powers had a habit of being easily sensed by anyone who's feet were on the ground. She paused at the corner, listening. There were several voices, angry and low. Then the sound of someone being pushed back against a wall, the dull thump of meat on brick. Raven acted without thinking as she stepped around the corner.

Two young women were there with Terra. The muscular, red headed one had Terra pinned to the wall by her shoulders. A black girl, her face more relaxed than her comrade, was talking in a low voice on a cell phone. Three sets of eyes turned to Raven before she spoke. "Let. Her. Go."

Of the three, it was Terra who spoke first, her eyes wide with fear. "Raven! Stay out of this!"

"Ma'am, there is a complication... The sorceress... Yes, Ma'am." The girl on the phone nodded towards the device, before holding it out to Raven. "It's for you."

Terra struggled against the girl holding her in place. "Raven! You need to leave, now! This has nothing to do with you."

The oddest part of all of this was that Raven couldn't only sense real fear for her, from Terra. Not fear of Raven, or of the other girls, not even the redhead. The girl with the phone was almost serene. It was a little surreal, particularly as Raven took the phone. "Hello?"

"Miss Roth." Raven's heart stopped, her blood instantly frozen. That was her real name, her Azarathian name, it's meaning was only approximated by the one she had taken on Earth. No one should know that name, not Slade, not a Skath cultist, no one. The voice continued. "This is a private matter between Terra and the American government. She entered into this arrangement by her own choice, and of her own free will. Your assistance is neither requested nor desired. If you continue to interfere, we may take a significant interest in the Titans. Do you understand?"

The voice was female, deep, powerful. It was a voice that was very used to be obeyed, and it knew things that no one should know. Raven's hand was shaking, her focus still rattled when she spoke an acknowledgment, and handed the phone back.

Terra slumped as the phone call was terminated. Her voice was tiny when she looked up at her escorts. "Can I talk to Raven, alone?"

The two girls nodded to each other, stepping back about ten feet, watching, silently. As soon as they did so, Raven took the three steps to the blond. "Terra- How-"

"No questions, I can't tell you." Shoulders slumped, her hair in her face, Terra couldn't look at Raven, not even her feet. "Please, just listen. I made a promise, and I broke it." Raven opened her mouth, her hand half raised, but Terra continued to speak. "I guess I'm just a screw up. I need to hold my end of the bargain, for once." She took a shuddering breath. "Take care of Beast Boy for me, Raven."

Terra turned to her escorts, raising her head. She didn't look back towards Raven. "I'm ready; take me to Waller."

The three stepped past Raven, towards the street, when the stopped. Terra raised her head, looking over her shoulder at the friend she had betrayed. "Raven, in the cave, would you have?"

The memory of Terra about to kill Beast Boy washed over Raven's emotions. Even now, it was like a fresh wound. Raven nodded.

"I would have thanked you." Terra and the other girls stepped towards the cab that had appeared as if by magic, and in a moment, they were gone.

---

Raven slowly made her way back to Titan's Tower. Memories and emotions were awhirl inside her. Only a few things broke, and they were all small and unimportant.

She entered the Tower via the garage. She had expected it to be empty, but Cyborg was inside, working on something to put into the T-Car. "Hey, I was starting to get worried. What happened to you?

"Sorry, I lost your trail."

Cyborg's eyebrow curled down in concern. "Why didn't you use your communicator?"

"I forgot to recharge it." Raven shrugged, sadly. "I had to deal with a mugging while searching for you. Did you catch your guys?"

"Yeah, after they flipped their truck. The used highway flares and some wires, the only danger was from their driving." Cyborg snorted. "And they were crying like little kids when I checked to see if they were OK. I gotta tell you, the quality of the bad guys in this town is dropping."

Raven managed what was a tiny smile, even by her standards, at that. "Where's Beast Boy, is he alright?"

"He wasn't hurt." Cyborg looked up at the ceiling, though the levels of the Tower. "He's in her room again."

---

Beast Bow was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at the tan carpet. He'd chosen the sand color himself. He'd painted the entire room.

Raven stood in the open doorway, watching him, trying to understand her own emotions in this whole mess. When she finally had some semblance of order, she entered, sitting next to him. "She's gone."

Beast Boy's features hardened into a bitter scowl as his body stiffened. This was an old and too often held discussion. But never with Raven. "How do you know?"

"Because she hasn't come back."

Beast Boys hands tightened on his knees, the claws piercing the thick leather of his gloves. Terra had liked his hands, she'd called them primal. Sadness mixed with bitterness on his lounge. "But she has, I've seen her. I've spoken to her."

"Or someone like her; either way, she doesn't want to see you."

"But why?" The words came out as a sob. Today was six months since they had discovered she was back. "What did I do?"

Raven looked at his face, seeing it in profile. The light here was dim, simulating late twilight. Even in this light, she could see the gleam in tears still unshed, still held in. They were turning toxic, poisoning his soul. "Maybe she wants to be normal, and forget what she's done. That means she has to forget her past, her time with us. With you. If that is what she wants, if you love her, let her have the one thing we can't have. Let be like everyone else." She set a comforting hand on the nape of his neck. "It doesn't matter that it is our friend's body, she doesn't want, can't be, that person again. People come, people go, and all we can do is remember them the best way we can."

Without a word, Beast Boy clutched Raven in his arms, hugging her tightly, as the pain came in waves.

"It's OK, Garfield, let it out. I know it hurts."

There were things he'd never told anyone about the night Terra had left, things buried under even more pain than Raven could reach through. She'd made him an offer, to join her, to join her with Slade. She had promised that they would always be together if he did. But the worst part was the words that had almost left his mouth.