Avani Rogers was your average fifteen year old high school sophomore, or at least she thought she was. She considered her life to be pretty normal, she went to school and got good grades, she lived with her dad and stepmom and she babysat for her neighbor's five year old daughter on Friday nights. But then one day she met someone, someone who told her that everything she knew was a lie. He told her that she used to be somebody else, that she had powers which she couldn't even imagine.
That someone was Beast Boy of the Teen Titans.
At first she had pitied him, he had obviously lost someone close to him and she reminded him of the person. So she had let him drag her around the city and back to Titans tower but she wasn't Terra, whoever Terra was. She wasn't the girl Beast Boy missed so much and after nearly two days she had managed to convince him of that. But there was one thing about Beast Boy's whole story that was unsettling to her, one thing that had been eating away at her ever since he first asked why she couldn't remember.
She only remembered high school.
She had no memory prior to her first day as a freshman and no matter how many times she stared at the photo albums underneath the coffee table in the living room at home she couldn't remember anything about her life before high school.
The curiosity had been pestering her mind for weeks now and finally she decided that it was time she do something about it.
She had thought of talking to her friends but quickly pushed that thought aside, they hadn't seemed too thrilled about her hanging out with Beast Boy in the first place. What she needed was someone who could tell her for sure if her life was truly a lie or not, someone who could actually determine who she really was.
Only one person came to mind but Avani knew it was a risk.
"Mail call!" Cyborgs loud voice echoed throughout the tower as he walked into the common room with the days mail.
It was a typical afternoon for the titans. Starfire was sitting on the couch, intently watching her favorite show 'World of Fungus', Robin was sitting with his arm around her, though he seemed to have very little interest in the show. Raven was sitting on the end of the couch with her nose in a book and Beast Boy was in the kitchen whipping up his latest tofu based creation.
"Sweet! My National Geographic!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he took his magazine from the pile in Cyborg's hands.
Robin got up from his seat but neither Starfire or Raven did the same.
"Friend Cyborg would you mind just leaving my mail on the counter please? I will take it after World of Fungus has ended" Starfire asked since she didn't want to miss a second of her show but as he sat back down with his own mail Robin placed his girlfriend's magazine on the coffee table in front of her.
"Oh thank you Robin" Star said gratefully, taking her attention off of her show just long enough to say her thanks.
"Yo Raven there's a letter here for you" Cyborg called.
Raven cocked an eyebrow as she closed her book. She never got mail. She didn't subscribe to any magazines and she had no family to send her anything, unless her mother had somehow figured out how to mail something from Azarath. Standing up and placing her book down in her seat Raven went over to the counter and picked up the letter. She didn't recognize the return address on the envelope but it was located here in Jump and the writing was hand written, it was something personal.
"Whose it from?" Beast Boy asked as he began to peer over his teammate's shoulder.
"I don't know" Raven replied, she then walked back over to the couch, picked up her book, and left the common room.
Once Raven was alone in the confines of her room she placed her book on top of her bed before sitting on the mattress herself. She closely examined the envelope in her hand, the writing was relatively messy and was done in pencil, like the sender had been rushing to address it. She knew it could be a trap, it wouldn't be the first time a villain had sent their evil plan through the mail. But despite that possibility Raven opened the letter.
Dear Raven,
I'd like to start this by explaining who i am but i can't because that's what i need your help with. My friends call me Ava, i'm the girl Beast Boy mistook for your friend Terra a few weeks ago. The reason i'm writing you is because i told Beast Boy that i'm not the girl he remembers but ever since he talked to me i've realized that i don't remember anything about my life before starting high school. I've heard that it's possible for a person to suppress unwanted memories and whether i am your friend Terra or not i know that is what's happening to me. I've heard that you know a lot about the mind and i don't know if you can help me remember or if you even want to but i don't know where else i can turn. My parents keep insisting that what i see in our family photos are the truth but i just can't remember and to me some of the pictures almost look like they were faked. I know this sounds crazy but i need to know the truth, please meet me in the library, Friday at three, please.
~Ava
P.S. Please don't tell anyone about this, especially Beast Boy. I don't want to get anybody's hopes up.
For a minute Raven just stared at the letter. If it was Terra then clearly she really doesn't remember because she was certain that no matter how desperate Terra would never go to her for help.
When Friday came around Ava went straight to the library after school. She decided to sit at a table in the teen section, it was hidden in the back of the library and not visible from the front entrance but once you made it past the first row of book shelves the front three tables became visible and Ava and opted for the second one. She sat there reading a book, or pretending to read a book, she actually just picked up the first book she saw and stared at the first page, turning it whenever she began to feel she had been on the page for too long. Every time someone walked by, Ava looked up, and after about twenty minutes the purple haired titan appeared in the entrance to the section.
"You came" Ava said in surprise, she hadn't really been expecting Raven to show up
"I came to warn you" Raven said as she took the seat across from Ava.
"Warn me about what?" Ava asked confused
"About what you're doing. If your mind truly has blocked out all memories of your past then whatever happened to you was traumatizing, it's not something you want to unlock" Raven explained. She had to admit that Ava really was the spitting image of Terra, right down to the overuse of mascara.
"Nothing could be worse than what Beast Boy told me and if it's that then i already know" Ava argued.
"You may know the facts but you don't remember. Your memories are where your emotions lay and having all that wash back over you can be more than you can handle" the empath advised. She could understand Ava wanting to remember her past, but in her opinion at least, the price is too high.
Ava sighed, she knew that Raven was right. A part of her wanted to unlock these memories to prove that she isn't Terra, to escape the guilt that she could've done these terrible things. But what if she was Terra?
The guilt would be unbearable.
"Regardless of what your past is it's in the past, whatever happened to you before it's over and you're safe now. You have a chance to start over Ava, take it." Raven advised and it almost looked as if Ava was going to listen to her, almost.
"How do you know i'm safe?" Ava finally asked but Raven only raised an eyebrow.
"My memories, my past, it's all gone." Ava said as she dug through her school bag for something.
"This is a picture of my parents, if i really am Terra then i don't think Slade would stop watching me based on what Beast Boy said. Do you think they could be working for him?" Ava asked, handing Raven a slightly bent photograph.
Raven took the picture and her eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, it couldn't be. The man in the picture was smiling with a ridiculous looking grin while the woman seemed rather annoyed with him. It was hard to tell where they were exactly, it looked to be some type of formal party based on their clothes but the lighting in the picture was obscuring the background, regardless Raven recognized the people, Madame Rouge and Dr. Light.
Raven took a breath to calm herself as she handed Ava back the picture, Ava could tell that something was wrong.
"Ok maybe you are Terra, even if you're not you are still in danger. These people, they aren't who you think they are" Raven explained
"Then who are they?" Ava questioned but Raven looked around the library as if to make sure that they weren't being watched.
"Are you sure you want your memories back?" She asked, almost in a whisper of a voice.
Ava nodded and when the empath stood from the table Ava mimicked her action.
"Take my hand" Raven instructed, Ava looked at her skeptically for a moment but did as she instructed and with that Raven teleported them out of the library.
"Whoa" Ava said when the two landed in a dark and almost depressing looking room.
"Where are we, and why is everything in here so creepy?" Ava questioned as she looked around and noticed the queen sized bed across from where they were standing, she didn't have time to take back her comment before Raven answered her question.
"We're in my bedroom" Raven answered dryly, despite having figured that out for herself a millisecond before Ava's face still turned a bright pink color.
"Oh, sorry i didn't mean-" she began but was cut off.
"It's fine, i hear it enough anyway" Raven mumbled the last part but Ava still caught it, however she decided not to comment on it.
"So how does coming to your room help me remember? Beast Boy already tried familiar places" Ava questioned as Raven grabbed a pillow from her bed and placed it on the floor.
"If Slade really is watching you then we needed to come somewhere he couldn't have spies, plus you wanted this to be kept a secret and nobody ever comes into my room" Raven explained, Ava smiled upon hearing that Raven had respected her wishes to keep this between them.
"Sit" The empath instructed, pointing to the pillow on the floor.
Ava did as Raven asked and sat criss-cross on the pillow
"Before we do this you need to promise that you'll tell me everything you remember. No more secrets, no more lies, you tell me exactly what you remember" Raven said, her monotoned voice taking on just a hint of anger.
She knew Terra had reverted back to good before turning to stone but even before working for Slade she had kept secrets. Raven had never particularly enjoyed talking about her own past so she had respected Terra's wishes for the same privacy but things have changed, she wouldn't be tricked again.
Ava nodded but said nothing, Raven went and stood behind her. The process of using her powers to uncover lost memories was a tricky one but it was possible. Raven placed a hand on each side of Ava's head, just behind her temples. The key was using jet the right amount of healing magic and regular magic and soon Raven felt what was the equivalent of an electric shock in her hands, and Ava leaned over so fast that her head nearly smacked the ground.
"I remember" Ava said through her gasps for breath, she felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.
"What do you remember?" Raven asked, Ava remained on her hands and knees, staring at the floor while she processed everything racing through her mind, seemingly at a million miles per hour.
"My name is Terra" she said and despite having been halfway convinced already that Ava was truly Terra, it still sent a shock through Raven.
Terra took a breath both to calm her racing mind and to control her once again active powers, then she remembered her promise to Raven.
"My name is Terra Markov. I was nine years old when i was kidnapped and experimented on, three months later i escaped. A week later i was found but less than an hour later i almost killed my own parents. I ran away and eventually was found and put into a foster home for kids with special needs, i ran away on my first night after i accidentally hurt one of the other kids. I spent the next couple years in and out of foster care until i was fourteen and found you guys. Beast Boy found out i couldn't completely control my powers and i made him swear not to tell, we fought Slade in the mines where he said he could help me and after Robin found out i couldn't control my powers i ran away from here and four months later accepted Slade's offer to help me in exchange for working for him. I lost myself during that time, i betrayed you guys and to make it right i brought down Slade's hideout and turned myself to stone in the process, when i woke up i had no memory of who i was or what had happened to me. I was still underground in the rubble of the hideout and i passed out, when i woke up again i was in the back seat of a car and thought my name was Ava Rogers" Terra ranted, pausing to catch her breath.
Raven was taken back by all of this, she hadn't expected Terra to tell her about anything before they met. She was about to say something but Terra beat her to it.
"There's one more thing" she said, almost in a warning tone.
"What?" Raven inquired and for the first time, Terra looked up.
She didn't turn to face Raven, instead she stared straight ahead at the door as her eyes narrowed in a mix of anger and pain.
"I know who Slade is" she confessed, her voice almost deadly.