She crouched uncomfortably behind the rock, watching each move. She wished she could be out in the open, but ever since he had found her, she had to be more careful, a pain in more ways than one.
The fight finally came to a conclusion, and she let out the breath she had been holding. It made her uncomfortable to watch and not be able to do anything. It was ironic, seeing as she had once been that very danger.
"Alright, pizza time!" he shouted, pumping his fist into the air. She smiled. He was so carefree…most of the time.
She kept her face hidden behind the large menu at the pizzeria. This was probably too close, but she didn't really care at the moment. He was still trying to make Raven laugh. Each joke fell flat with the dark girl, but she could hardly stop herself snorting out loud, and some sharp laughs slipped through. She saw some of them look her way, but was confident that the ridiculous size of the menu would keep her well hidden. She was wrong.
Beast Boy left with Raven and Robin right away, and she was so fixed on him that she did not notice the two left behind, and got up to leave.
"He did see you. Little grass stain wasn't crazy after all." She froze with her back to them. Her first thought was to run. She had been able to fool him, but she had always known how to do that a little too well.
She turned slowly. Starfire and Cyborg were staring at her intently.
"I'm sorry, what?" she said in the sweetest, most polite voice she could muster at a time like this.
"Terra, Beast Boy said he saw you. We did not believe him, but he was right."
She took a deep breath. This was going to take a level head.
"Why does every one keep calling me that? I ran into your green friend a few weeks ago, and he called me Terra too. I'm not Terra, I don't know any Terra, and from what he told me, I don't know why anyone would want to be her."
She lowered her eyes. Crying right now would be too much.
Starfire narrowed her gaze at the blonde girl, looking at her skeptically.
"Are you certain? You look very much like our friend Terra." Her eyes snapped up, staring at the red head in shock.
"You call her your friend, after everything that happened…well that he told me that is…" she said quickly.
"Of course we do. Sure she had a really rough patch there, but she sacrificed herself to save us all. That seems like a great friend to me." Cyborg smiled, and she thought she saw something knowing in that smile.
"Terra, nobody hates you." he said.
Her eyes flickered back and forth quickly between the alien and the part machine. They had been her two best friends after Beast Boy, and it hurt almost as bad to leave them behind as it did him. But she was lying to protect him, wouldn't letting them know blow the whole thing? Wouldn't he find out?
"I…don't know what you're talking about. I've got to go." and she indulged her first instinct, and ran.
She didn't know what made her come here. It was a terrible place, an awful memory, and yet somehow now it felt safe. She stared at the plaque mounted on the empty pedestal of stone. "Terra: A teen titan, a true friend."
"Hey Terra! Well I guess you're not actually here anymore are you." She spun around, fear etched into her face. What was he doing here? Just as the footsteps became audible she dashed over behind another boulder, and peaked out as he came into view.
He looked up at the empty space, a smile on his face. Then the smile was gone, and he sighed heavily.
"What am I doing here?" he asked the empty cavern. "This was a little crazy before when you were still in here, now you're gone, and this is just outright insane. But it still sorta feels like you're here, ya know? You don't know. Geez, what am I doing?"
She watched, her heart breaking a little more with each word. Of course it still felt like she was there, she was, not ten feet away from him, and he didn't even know it. He couldn't ever know it. He needed to be free of her, and she thought she had done it. Maybe he never would be. Maybe he would stay broken forever, just like she would, and they would just drift along, miserable for the rest of their lives. No, she would be miserable; he would go on with life. He had a future, and she was nothing but a past.
After half an hour of listening to him talk to an imaginary version of herself, she finally watched him go. She stood up, and stared at the pedestal. And right then and there, she made her choice.
Beast Boy dreamed of her again that night. He had overheard Starfire and Cyborg talking, and had just caught the word "Terra" before they spotted him and changed their subject. He went to visit…well not her, but the place that seemed to be all he had left of her. Sure her room was just down the hall, but it just didn't seem as real. He had dreamed that she had come back for him, just like he always wished she would. She had touched his face, kissed him softly on the forehead, and just before he woke up, she said "I will always love you." He sat up and looked around his disheveled room. He didn't know what the matter with him was, but he rolled out of bed (he had chosen the bottom bunk this particular evening) and pulled on his shoes before transforming into a hawk and soaring out his window.
He didn't bother transforming back until he was right in front of where she used to be. It didn't feel the same as this afternoon. It was just a cave tonight. He sighed and started to turn away, when a fluttering caught his eye. There, stuck into the corner of the plaque was a white piece of paper, fluttering in the small movements of the cave air. He frowned at it, but picked it up, and began to read.
Never forget, I will always be with you.
Love, Terra.
The note didn't fall from his hand as he whipped around, looking for her. She had to still be here, she had to. But then he remembered the feeling he had gotten earlier. She had been here. She had been watching him. He glared back down at the note. It had been her all along. She had lied to him, made him look like an idiot, and then she had watched him babble to an empty cave; and all he got was a note.
"The girl you want me to be is just a memory." her words replayed in his mind. "Things change Beast Boy."
He contracted his fist, and the note crumpled on the bottom.
"Why?" he said to the empty cavern.
But then he looked to the note again.
I will always be with you.
And he knew…that she was right. She would always be with him, in his mind, in his heart, and in every part of him. Maybe she would never physically be near him again, but he thought that this would be okay, would be enough. She couldn't come back. Despite the fact that they had forgiven her, she had not forgiven herself. She couldn't be that girl anymore; that girl who had betrayed her friends, even if she had saved them in the end. And she wasn't going to drag him down with her. He smiled.
"Good-bye Terra. I know I'll always be there with you too."
From her perch at a cave vent on the surface, Terra smiled just before she rose up on a piece of the ground, and flew off into the night.