A/N: I don't own a thing.

I'm rewatching Teen Titans for the first time in several years. This is the result of me crying through the S2 finale.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment before you go; I'd love to hear what you think!

Chapter I: Homecoming

The sun came up, and Raven's eyes flew open.

Her first thought: no. Colored bleakly with a ringing disbelief, the word echoed through her head like it was an empty cavern. It drew her out of any lingering grip sleep had on her, and a sense of urgency began to run through her, starting from her chest and working its way down.

A wave of energy was crashing down on her, shackling her to the bed, though there were no physical restraints to be seen. She gritted her teeth against the unexpected sensation and began to mutter her mantra in order to focus and find the source of the sudden burst of pure emotion she'd felt. Closing her eyes, she exhaled through her nose and concentrated.

Her second thought: it can't be.

How many times had she wished for something like this to happen? How many nights had she spent staring off into that direction, waiting and waiting for something that never came? How much junk food had the Titans gone through while mourning in order to drown their sorrows in a way that was suited to their age?

Her third thought: I need to move.

She sat up and had to clench her body against the urge to begin trembling; whatever it was—no, she knew what it was—felt like it was waking up, like the longest day Raven had ever known was ended, and the blissful, soft dark of night had finally descended upon the world. She carefully slid out of bed, grabbing her cloak on the way out the door. The first room she went to was Robin's; she trusted him to wake the others, to trust her, to know what to do. When she raised her hand to knock, his door opened, and he blinked in surprise.

This early in the morning, they were usually the first ones up, though their morning routines did not typically permit them to meet until breakfast: Robin trained fiercely first thing, and Raven went up to the roof to meditate. But today was different.

"Raven?" Robin asked, and she saw that he was just finishing pulling on his gloves, "is everything okay?"

"You need to get the others," she said, swallowing down—what? Fear? Anticipation? Joy? She couldn't even say for sure yet, not without seeing it with her own two eyes. She would need the others there to confirm it was not something that had manifested outside of her mind due to that chilling, heavy grief that had hung over her for the last several weeks.

"What's going on?" He called after her, but she ignored him in favor of lifting off the ground. There was no time for delay; it was either what she'd—what they'd all—been hoping for, or it was something else entirely, and if the latter was the case then that would mean trouble for the Titans.

Raven was hoping. She thought she knew better; she tried to tell herself it was pointless to hope, because then, should she find the truth disappointing, it wouldn't leave her stung, wounded, hurt. But her emotions were threatening to spill out of her, each of them chanting faster, faster, faster! until she was out of the Tower in a flash. It seemed, she reflected idly, that they had all agreed on something which they could focus their energy, and so it was that she applied to concentrating while keeping her powers in check. She flew across the bay, hearing Starfire calling her name. A glance behind her told her that Starfire was carrying Robin and Beast Boy, in pterodactyl form, was lifting Cyborg off the roof—the last one out of the house, as per usual.

"Wait up, Rae!" That was Cy.

"Yes, Friend Raven!" Starfire's voice, as always, sang across the blue expanse towards Raven. Her friends all radiated the same emotion: confusion. Concern, too, but mostly they were confused. "Please tell us what is the matter!"

There was no time for discussion; there simply, suddenly, was no more time at all. Perhaps she should inform them on the way; perhaps leaving them in the dark was not the solution, but she was holding her breath. Her heart was pounding and she was really, truly holding her breath. Hoping. And wishing, too—harder than she'd wished for anything in her entire life.

"Hurry," she yelled over her shoulder, hoping they'd catch it, but she was already throwing herself into the wind. Her body moved seemingly of its own accord, though she knew better than to let her emotions have free reign. Her hood was down, it having been blown off her head by her rapid increase in speed; her violet hair streamed behind her, and her eyes stung from the keeping her eyes fixed forward, as if she were afraid to blink. As if, if she did, the feeling radiating towards her would vanish, and become only a remnant of a dream she'd had.

Yes, Raven had dreamed again. Not that she told the others. It wasn't fear, like that time her fear brought to life something from Wicked Scary; it was sorrow, bone-deep and cold, the kind of dark—perhaps the only kind of dark—Raven wanted to shake off like a dog with a wet coat of fur. It wasn't something they needed to know; it was hard enough, working to build their lives back up to how they'd been before—happy, ignorant of the grief that came from the death of a friend. Someone they'd found, loved, and lost.

Terra, Raven thought, pushing herself to go faster.

Hold on. We're coming.

She soared and dipped; her movements felt jerky and uneven. She was having trouble clamping down on her emotions—they felt her hope, her dread, her everything, and they were bursting to find out the truth just as she was. The only thing that kept her powers in check was reminding herself to focus. The willpower she'd worked so hard over the years to build.

Then—

She saw her. On a cliff overlooking jump city: blonde hair flying in the wind, wrappings from Slade's costume hanging off her like drooping leaves, blue eyes more brilliant than that of the sky. Raven felt their eyes meet, and nearly lost all concentration when the girl put her arms up and started waving.

She just about fell out of the sky.

Raven dove toward her, scarcely daring to breathe. She thought she could hear Beast Boy and Cyborg call out behind her, but one thing, and one thing only, drowned them out; it shucked off the sticky, inky darkness of grief and Raven suddenly felt so light she thought she needed to tether herself so she wouldn't drift away.

Terra was alive.