Author Notes: I hope you all enjoy this second story of mine. This story will be running alongside two others I'm currently writing, so updates might be a little slow.
I still accept reviews from both users and anonymous visitors, so please review.
Enjoy.
Chapter 1
Just Say Goodbye
UFO's.
They seemed a slightly more common occurrence since the incident with The Source and Nufu. Most, of course, were simply paranoid or afraid people, illusions, or just a shooting star or some sort of man-made creation. This however, was of much more interest.
Last night, a light blue fireball streaked across the sky, very high up, just below the clouds. Experts had immediately dismissed it as a meteor falling to Earth, but eyewitnesses described it as being in a controlled flight. First it flew north, then swung left and flew west; and then it decided to turn towards the desert that resided near Jump City. Finally, it decided to fall to earth, after flying around the sky for near enough fifteen minutes. It had been described as a light blue, with a duller version of the colour surrounding the outside like an aura, leaving a long con-trail wherever it flew at a fairly fast speed of about sixty miles an hour, and about human in size, which made it tiny in the sky. Had the fireball decided to stop its flight and hover, the glaring light blue that covered the inner area could well have dissipated to reveal an alien… but that was the theory of the usual alien-mad geeks.
There was just one problem, when the police and other usual authorities had checked the desert; it was empty of any kind of damage. No landing site, no crater to indicate a crash, no nothing. Just the usual, dusty desert.
Robin was knelt on one knee, right hand skimming the ground. He brought his fingertips to his face, and rubbed his finger and thumb together, grinding up the dust particles into even finer ones. No disturbance.
Cyborg was walking around the area with Starfire following behind. He was using his scanners to search the area, keeping his right arm folded at his chest to keep an eye on any anomalies. Starfire was also checking the area, eyes flicking every which way possible for any movement. Of everyone in the city, she had been the most excited by far at the prospect of an alien landing. After all, another alien besides her… Perhaps even a Tamaranian friend?
On the opposite side of the desert, Raven was flying over the area, always looking for anything suspicious; but as with the others, she was finding nothing. Beast Boy was supposed to be flying with her, but he was walking below her instead, and not in a very enthusiastic way. He was moping, kicking a stone forward every now and then, not even bothering to check anything. Whatever his problem was, Raven could tell this was one Beast Boy did not want to talk about, so she kept scanning.
Two hours of searching had turned up nothing but some dusty Titans.
"We'll call it a day guys." Robin told them, dusting off his shoulder. "There doesn't seem to be anything out here."
"Oh but we must continue searching." Starfire exclaimed. "If we do not, our alien visitor will find himself confused and scared by Earth, much like I was."
"So the alien can kiss you and everything will be better." Raven quipped, remembering how Starfire had shared that kiss with Robin. She noticed Robin freeze as if in a heart attack, and Starfire turn pink on her face.
"Now Rae," Cyborg began, patting her left shoulder, "don't be bringing that up in front of the love-birds."
"We aren't love-birds Cyborg!" Robin yelled.
The boy wonder stormed past the collected team and began stomping to the tower. They all turned about and followed Robin, Starfire being closest behind with a sad look on her face.
"She's just my friend who is a girl."
Starfire immediately brightened up like a rising sun from Robin silent remark. He's only made it loud enough for Starfire to hear, and he didn't look back, but he knew only Starfire had heard it.
"Hold up! Where's BB?" Cyborg's head flung left and right in a frantic search for the green one.
"He wanted to be alone." Raven commented monotonously.
Alone…
That's what he wanted to be…
It's what he didn't want to be…
… Did she want it to?
He kept walking how he had been during the search for the mythical UFO. He couldn't care about it, so he considered it a myth. All he could think about was the blond schoolgirl, and what she'd said to him just yesterday.
'Things change Beast Boy. The girl you want me to be is just a memory…'
That was yesterday.
Beast Boy, a lonely soul wandering the desert where he'd first seen that blond angel, turned devil, turned redeemed statue, turned anonymous schoolgirl. This was the desert where he'd first seen her, walking in a valley, walled in on both sides by ten-foot high rocky cliffs. This was just a small passage to another part of the desert, barely thirty-foot long, but it was good to avoid the dust… and he was out here supposedly searching for a UFO.
He kicked a small stone forward a few feet, and followed on with his apathetic walk.
Three times now he'd lost her. The first time had been when she wrongly thought that he'd revealed the secret that she couldn't control her powers.
She ran that time.
The second time had been to Slade when he turned her into his apprentice. She'd gone to him to help her control her powers.
She ran that time too.
This third time he'd lost her to fear… Fear of everything she'd done, everything about her past.
She was running this time too.
Another kick of the stone, and another small hike to follow it.
Terra didn't deserve such things! Yet wherever she went she seemed to attract something to hurt her. He wanted to shield her from all of that, but she wanted to keep running. He had to respect that decision, no matter how much he thought it the wrong decision or that he had to help her… but he wanted to so bad…
He'd never experienced feelings like this before. Nor for so long. This was love… had to be love… or was it an illusion? Why couldn't he just say goodbye to her? Just say goodbye he told himself as he kicked the small stone again, and continued following it, not paying any attention to how far along he was in this tiny valley.
Everything around him reminded him of the blond angel. Rocks, the ground he walked on, the tower, the pizza place where they had all fought over the last slice of pizza, everything. At this rate he'd become some sort of stalker... He chuckled half-heartedly at the thought, a stalker of Terra? No... that wouldn't work. With Terra's skills, the ones she attained from travelling the desert, she'd easily spot him.
He looked up into the sky, just before giving a final, hard kick to the stone that sent it soaring. The sky was fully with white clouds, and the sun was riding high at the midday summer height. The sun reminded him of Terra's hair. He could almost see her face in the sun; though that was probably his eyesight going haywire from staring at the yellow ball of gas in space. He yanked his sight downwards, clenching his eyes so tight the blood vessels seemed to dance in a magnificent display of colour. He then opened them slowly, letting his eyes re-adjust to normal midday summer lighting. He could only mutter a single word.
"Terra..."
The foursome, being without Beast Boy, were walking about to the tower. Starfire and Raven could fly if they wanted, but walks often did good. Built muscles Robin said. They were half way out when Starfire stopped in her tracks and turned her head ninety degrees to the right, staring into apparently empty space of dust, with rocky outcroppings all along the horizon, and what appeared to be a network of caves, about four in total. The other noticed and stopped, all of them going unnoticed, staring at Starfire with confusion in there eyes
"Starfire, is something up?" Cyborg asked
"I believe I heard something."
Cyborg gave a quick scan with he sensors.
"Nothing." He told her. "Perhaps it was just a bug."
"Even if it is, I would still wish to check it out." She made her tone out as if she was asking Robin.
"Okay, but don't be too long." Robin conceded. "We'll see you back at the tower."
"Of course." Starfire nodded gently in recognition, then she hovered off the ground and flew towards the rocky outcroppings and caves with a silent grace. She never noticed the others continue there walk back to the tower.
She came to the entrance of one of the caves. She peered into the darkness, lighting it up with a green star bolt that she kept in her hand.
It was empty... No it wasn't!
It wasn't obvious, but there were many different leaves strew about the floor... Leaves in a desert were hardly common, especially gathered up in neat piles in a cave. Deeper inside the cave she noticed a stockpile of food; small yet adequate for a at least a week. She knew it was food from the look; because she didn't have a clue what the stuff was appearance. She did recognise the meat, covered in an overly generous amount of salt in order to preserve it, and four or five dozen balls of white... Rice maybe? Rice balls? Another quick scan revealed something else; a pair of swords, each gently curved, and one longer than the other, and tied together by a rope. Both rested in scabbards. The longer one measured around sixty-five centimetres, while the shorter one measure forty centimetres. The scabbards were wood painted black, with no distinguishing marks or features.
She heard footsteps. She sprang herself out of the cave and turned left, and pointed the arm with her star bolt in at the supposed attacker. When she saw whom it was that was walking towards her, her eyes widened in shock and amazement...
School was over. From the school doors a blond girl, winged by a black girl and a girl with red hair, both her height and age. She had sea blue eyes and clutched some books tight to her chest. She cradled them almost lovingly, as if they were a symbol of her new life.
"Tara, you had any more trouble from that green Titan?" The black girl asked as they continued walking, turning out from the gates to walk down the street.
"None at all." Tara Markov. Formerly known as Terra. This was her true name; this was her in a normal life. "I told you I'd sort things out didn't I?"
"You sure did?" The red-headed girl answered smugly. "God knows what he thinks you even saw in him? I mean he's green like a ball of snot and-"
She didn't listen to what the rest of the girl had to say, because she brought up the idea of him being a snot ball. No matter how much she wanted to hate him and his friends for what had happened to her, she couldn't. It was all her own choice. She chose to betray them, then leave them for a normal life. How could it work between herself and Beast Boy anyway? Well, it probably could if they tried, but she didn't want anything to do with Beast Boy, the Titans, and most of all, her powers any more. Her powers had always brought grief to everyone around her, so she decided to cut them off completely, never use them again, and protect the world from herself. She did that when Beast Boy had invited back to the tower two or three nights ago. He'd thrown a mud ball at her, and she could've used her powers to stop it, and perhaps, sent it straight back to his face. She decided against it in that one split second that could've made all the difference. She'd let it slap her in the face. How would things be now if she'd used her powers?
A dream.
Everyone would be better of if she was just plain old Tara Markov. It didn't matter what she wanted, the past was a memory now...
Ah yes, memories... That's all she had of him now; memories. She'd told him 'goodbye' in the harshest way possible... with no emotion. Her own words still rang hollow in her ears. Terra was just a memory now, she was Tara Markov, and she didn't care for Beast Boy!
"Tara!"
"Hmm?"
"Don't you agree?" The black girl asked her.
"Oh... yeah... he's a snot ball." She said that apathetically, deep down not believing it. Her eyes fell to the floor, ashamed.
Terra and her two school chums parted ways. They went off down another street, and she continued down the same one, walking a street of shattered hopes. She hated this street because it reminded all the time of the past she was trying to escape. On this street was the pizza place where herself and the Titans had always gone for a good pizza. She couldn't help but glance at it every time, and her god forsaken mind always managed to conjure up an outside view of herself and Beast Boy sharing a pizza together.
Just her and him…
A memory...
She walked faster, moving away quickly from the place that brought up all those good memories. She wanted to run away from everything. Running was always what she did best. She heard a humming overhead, and then she heard some screams, then a few more. She looked up as she slowed to a walk, and saw a fleet of about eleven typically sized blimps flying at a crawl about thirty feet above the rooftops, with the colours of the British flag holding in the gas. The engines were humming their ominous tune, and they were in an arrowhead formation. While everyone else screamed, she just shrugged and kept walking. And then came the voice of the leader, wearing a World War two British pilot's costume, standing in the cockpit of the front blimp.
"Hello my Duckies!" Mad Mod. Who could've guessed? "My little fleet now controls this airspace, so I suggest you all go home and prepare for my royal guards, because king Moddy is back in town."
Hmm. She was really going to do that. Terra just kept walking, an unnoticed speck to Mad Mod. It would be the usual story: the Titans turn up, bring down the blimps, and take Mod to jail; and with luck Beast Boy would notice... No, that wasn't what she wanted. If she didn't run, Beast Boy with his eagle sharp dark green eyes would notice her, but she just kept walking, apathetic to the situation. She could sort it out herself if she wanted to, but she'd told herself, No powers ever again! She heard irregular footsteps, three pairs. One was of a teenage boy, muscled for his age, as he went past her. Robin. The second was that of a huge metallic person, and he rushed past. A girl in a blue cloak flew past after him, so silent she hadn't heard her. Raven. The final pair of feet was the one she dreaded. From another teenage boy who was fairly small from his diet of tofu meals, but strong nonetheless, and he went past. Beast Boy. Against her will, she glanced up to see him look back, slow his run a bit, then get straight back after his friends.
She looked into the sky and saw Starfire dive in, forming in behind Beast Boy. Same old story… She decided to stop and watch the battle that was about to ensue from here.
Meanwhile, while running to an appropriate position, leading the team, Robin asked Starfire a question.
"Find anything?"
"Nothing." She answered politely despite the obvious situation. "It was just a bug."
Robin stopped, and the Titans formed a circle around him.
"Okay Titans, here's the plan." Robin had it all formed up in his head. "Me and Cyborg will go the rooftops and distract Mod from there. Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, you guys burst the blimps. Everyone got that?" A simple plan, but definitely effective.
Each Titan nodded in turn, telling their leader without words that they knew the plan.
They heard a sound of strong gusting helium. Each Titan turned their gaze to the sky to see a deflating blimp at the bottom left corner of the formation, two large humanoid sized holes in either side of it. A second one of those sounds was heard, and there another blimp, this time at the bottom right of the formation, also deflating.
"Look!" Cyborg shouted, pointed to just past the second deflating blimp.
Right there was a human sized light blue fireball, working it ways through the formation of the blimps. The next two in the arrowhead formation began deflating, then the next two, then the next two, working its way all the way to the front blimp.
Mad Mod knew his blimps were deflating.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" He checked his equipment, but nothing he knew about was showing on radar. "God damn!"
He was suddenly sucked towards the door, but held on to his monitors until the de pressurisation of the cockpit quickly ended. He turned about to see what had managed to rip the door open. What he saw was both wonderful and scary, because it was coming for him. He didn't have much time to get the measure of the being. He just saw a humanoid, wreathing in a light blue aura that was like a burning fire, but was really just light.
"Oh... cods-wallop!"
The Titans saw Mad Mod begin falling from the sky. Starfire immediately flew upwards and caught him in her arms, bridal style. Mad Mod immediately grinned.
"Well thank you kindly me lady." He said in his stereotyped English accent. "Perhaps you'd care to let me go free then?"
"Perhaps you would care to be puréed on the ground?" Starfire told him in an unusually malicious way, with her voice still retaining some meagre presence of innocence.
"No no... I'll make do."
Starfire hovered back down to Earth, touched her feet on the ground and dropped Mad Mod by letting her arms move wide. Starfire and each of the Titans looked up to see the blue fireball leave the cockpit, and move about thirty feet away from the blimp before stopping in mid-air. A moment of inactivity, and then a bright blue beam blasted from the fireball in the sky, piercing straight through the blimps skin and igniting the Helium inside. The blimp went up in a real fireball of bright reds and oranges. The bright blue fireball suddenly blasted off at a blistering speed, so quick it was that it was out of sight in at least a minute. It would've disappeared earlier had it not been for the fireball's glow.
"We'd better get out of here before that Helium makes our voices squeaky." Cyborg advised.
Raven was the first to begin to leave. Robin, Cyborg and Starfire followed, with Mad Mod being dragged along by Starfire by his goggles. Beast Boy didn't leave however... In his head it was to check on the civilians. In his heart, it was to find Terra, and this was one of those many times when the heart rules the mind.
He ran the opposite way his friends were going. He didn't have to look far. As soon as he rounded the first corner, he saw a girl with long blond hair in a schoolgirl outfit.
"Terra!" He called.
She didn't appear to respond. He knew she'd heard him. He didn't bother calling again but ran after her. He managed to catch up with her very quickly. He went around her and stopped in front in her, facing her with a hard but concerned expression. She stopped in her tracks, not looking up from the ground beneath her feet. She didn't want to him in the face. She clutched her books tighter.
"Are you okay Terra?" Beast Boy asked her.
"I'm fine..." She told him slowly and calmly. "Excuse me." She made to walk around his left, but he stopped her with his hand, putting it onto her right shoulder. She glared at him harshly, and he glared back.
"This has got to stop Terra!"
"Why? Because you can't get over me?" She yelled at him, her resolve at seeming to be an amnesiac finally cracking. "You want the truth? Fine!" She pulled away from him, always keeping her books close to her chest. "I remember everything; okay? But I don't want my past! All I ever did was hurt people; including you, so everyone will be better off if I'm just a schoolgirl named Tara Markov! Okay?"
Beast Boy was left dumb-founded and utterly limp for words. He knew it! She did remember, but she'd just come out and said that, basically, he never wanted to see him again; and inadvertently thrown in her real name. In just stared at her, eyes glinting with contained tears. Terra, though her heart was suddenly wrenched left and right by the green changeling's near tearful face, took this opportunity to leave.
Keeping her face stern and strong, she shoved her way past beast Boy's hand and kept on walking. She let her head hang low again, and she kept on walking. Her eyes clenched shut unconsciously...
"Garfield Logan..." That was Beast Boy's voice. And... that was his real name.
Then she realised... she'd given him her real name, and she hadn't even realised it. She hung her head lower so that the front part of her hair hung over her face, shadowing it and protecting the pink blush from daylight.
Beast Boy just stayed still for a moment, not bothering to see that people were staring at him. The left arm he'd used to briefly stop Terra was slowly lowered. He stared off into the distance where he wanted Terra to be; before turning round enough so that his left shoulder was facing Terra. He kept his head turned just enough to see Terra walking away from him; she seemed to walk slowly, like everything was suddenly in slow-motion. He imagined autumn leaves falling around her. She was an angel to his eyes, and one he could never again be with.
She'd left it up to him to say... she could almost hear telling him; '...Just say it Beast Boy. It's best... for both of us.' So he... couldn't say it. This would not be goodbye... he knew somewhere that it was over, but his heart told him to keep trying at a later date, and the heart often rules over the mind in these circumstances.
The walk away also symbolised something; her leaving her past behind, moving onto the future... She'd be alone, but everyone would be better off without her involved, especially the she cared for so much! She wanted him to say goodbye because she couldn't put it into words herself, but begged him in her head not to... She wanted to be with him, but this was for the best... She'd only cause more pain... She wanted this and she didn't...
All they would have are memories of each other. The times they shared, the feelings, the almost first kiss... all memories now...
Back at Titans tower, Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Raven were all in the main room, standing in a diamond formation, and all facing each other. Beast Boy had returned about an hour ago, and had gone straight to his room. No jokes, no pranks, not a word. Just silence and a face that bore the look of a shredded heart. The four were discussing the fireball that had helped them, or rather stolen the spotlight, against Mad Mod.
"So you're sure you found nothing?" Robin asked.
"Nothing." Starfire answered calmly. "I am sorry I cannot be of more help."
"So what do we do know?" Cyborg enquired to Robin. "Wait for Mr.Light-Show to turn up and then catch him?"
"That's really going to work..." Raven told him dryly. "Look, I don't know what that thing is, but I could sense a mind from it. Whatever it is, it's alive, and it could be human."
"Or an alien..." Robin added in, his right hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully
"I hope it is a friendly being." Starfire said hopefully. "It appears to be so far."
"We should be cautious about it though." Raven pointed out in her usual monotonous voice. "It could trying to gain our trust, then it'll take us out."
The other three Titans nodded, agreeing with Raven whole-heartedly.
"I'd like to know about its powers though." Robin mentioned.
"My eye sensor got some scans in." Cyborg told them, tapping his mechanical red eye. "They were short, quick, and didn't pick up much, but I got some." Silence reigned for a second or two, as if the mechanical man was trying to build up suspense. "Whatever its powers are, they aren't light." Again, silence, no Titan knowing how to respond. "It looks like light, but it ain't. I don't know how to explain my readings... but its powers seemed like an energy of some sort. Just not light energy."
"Yes, that is interesting; but I am concerned for friend Beast Boy." Starfire interjected. "He seems most troubled."
"Think he's still seeing Terra?" Cyborg joked, pointing the green changeling's latest visions.
"... You're worst than him." Raven commented in an annoyed tone.
"He's too determined about his view for them to be illusions." Robin said, his logic overriding all other views. "I think Terra is actually back. We've checked the memorial, and no statue. Whatever is troubling him, it's not illusions of Terra."
"Terra's rejected him." Raven said with a knowledge no other Titan knew she had. "It's the only possibility. Remember when Terra was turned into a statue?" Each Titan said or did nothing, but silently told Raven they remembered only too well. "Beast Boy was practically was in so much pain, and when we couldn't find a cure it only got worst. He healed somewhat, time helped that, but now that she's back and has rejected him again, how do you think he feels?"
They all knew how he must feel, but no one said anything. They didn't need to. That was also the end of the discussion... They all got to their usual things. Cyborg cleaned the T-Car, Starfire prepare the evening meal, being sure to make many tofu foods especially for Beast Boy, Robin went to the training room, and Raven left to meditate.
In her room, Raven hovered above the ground, in the usual cross-legged position, eyes closed gracefully, and chanting the repetitious words of 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos'. This was beginning to prove much more mysterious than she first thought. The mind she sensed from 'Mr.Light-Show', as Cyborg had so aptly put, had been... unusual, in that it was somewhat closed off. She sensed the spark of intelligence, but much else was hidden. True she never got a good look in because she wasn't concentrating, and she didn't have the kind of close quarter contact needed for a full inspection, but she should have be able to feel more from the light blue fireball if that intelligence wasn't just an illusion. There were mind barriers put in place; poor ones, but they did a neat little job against the weak mind probe of Raven. When she got closer though...
She did sense a couple of things though; a deep-rooted anger, and from that anger came another feeling... suspicion of the Titans... all except one. She couldn't tell which one; again, because of the weakened nature of her mind probe, but the fireball trusted one of the Titans with its life, like it loved that Titan, and was the only one on this planet that it felt it could trust...
Things to ponder for another time though... and she'd find out where the fireball's refuge was another time. This was one of her few moments of peace in the tower; and she would enjoy it. Her mind eased from it's wonderment of the world, becoming emptier and emptier. Since the defeat of her father, she didn't need to meditate as much, but she kept it up at it's usual pace. She enjoyed the activity... but she couldn't fully empty her mind this time, she nether could when one of her friends was in the state Beast Boy was now. No matter how much she denied it; she had always been grateful for the company of her friends, and that included Beast Boy.
He sat on the bottom bunk of his bed. The room was messy, with comics strewn about the coloured green bedroom, and bedsheets ruffled from top to bottom. In his hands he held the butterfly haircomb he'd given Terra before her betrayal. He'd always kept it as his own personal memorial, and was now holding it tightly to him, as if to coax Terra back to him. He glanced up from the haircomb, expecting her to pop into the room suddenly like she'd wished a genie to do that. No such luck.
"I sure am a lucky guy aren't I?" He idly muttered to himself.
There was a knock at the door. Strangely, he felt too weak to stand up and answer it, so he just muffled a 'Come in' to whoever was knocking... Terra maybe? No. It was Raven, her cold expression contrasting with a concealed concern in her eyes as she opened the door slowly.
"Hey Rae; need something?
"To see how you are doing." She told him with a soft harshness. "You and your problems are preventing me from meditating."
"Really?" Beast Boy gave a small laugh, and moved his gaze but down to stare at the haircomb still clutched in his fingers. "I knew I had that kind of effect on you."
"This'll be the only time." Raven told him firmly, stepping into his room and closing the door behind her with one hand. "Now what's wrong?"
"Nothing...
"Beast Boy; I'm an expert at keeping problems to myself, and I know when someone else is doing it."
"I don't want to talk about it!" He yelled at the haircomb but also at Raven.
She was shocked. She'd never seen him this angry... it was just a wow moment. She was an expert at keeping problems to herself, and she knew, unlike the teenager she was trying to help at the moment perhaps, when it was time to back off, and this was that time. She opened the door without turning around, and back-stepped out of the room. As she closed the door, she told him something.
"You know where to find me if you want to talk about it."
She closed the door fully, leaving Beast Boy alone in his room as she should be. There was no doubt in her mind now. She walked the corridor back to her room... The problem was Terra, and he could only deal with it himself.
Beast Boy clutched Terra's haircomb tighter, allowing one of his salt water tears to drop onto it with a tiny splash onto the hard surface.
Deep in the desert, the light blue fireball fell to earth at blinding speed, but slowed to a crawl and landed to the ground with a tiny thud. The glare began to fade since it was no longer flying at speed, and retreated into the cave before fading into a silhouette and disappearing into the darkness of it's refuge... It didn't like the darkness, but this was the best place...
To hide...
Author Notes: Well, there's chapter 1. Onto chapter 2, and hopefully you've all enjoyed this chapter.