I'm not normally the creative type. But I wrote thisduring one night of, I'd have to say, high creativity. Being familiar with the stories of Teen Titans and Static Shock, this story seemed a natural fit. References Teen Titan's eps "Terra", "Aftershock 1 & 2" and Static Shock eps "Junior" & "No Man's An Island".

Assuming my continued effort and explorationof this ongoing storyline, this takes place shortly after the series finale of Static Shock with both series existing in the same continuity as their airings on KIDS WB & CARTOON NETWORK.

I claim no ownership of all characters in this story. Reviews are welcomed.

Edwin Alva, Jr. was grateful for the change in scenery. Not just in getting out of the numerous laboratories at Alva Industries, but especially in getting out of Dakota. Granted it would be a short, but very important, business trip. Being put in charge of purchasing land for his company's new West Coast Headquarters at Jump City was a great responsibility and a big leap of faith by his father, Edwin Alva.

His father was still an unforgiving, relentless perfectionist who demanded results from everyone under his employ and was totally engrossed in the success and performance of the company bearing his name. Edwin accepted his father the way he was. Though he wasn't much of a father to him, Alva Jr. managed to patch some things up with him in the 8 months he's been working for him. Being trapped as a stone statue for 3 long years, those 8 months saw much change in his views toward his father. On the elder Alva's part, he'd given himself a chance to listen to what his son had to say, and even let himself be impressed at what his son is capable of. Edwin kind of liked where the relationship was now.

Alva Jr. found a good piece of real estate overlooking Jump City Bay. He and 2 engineers working out of the temporary annex just outside Jump City's limits looked over the property which spanned nearly 1.5 times more space than Alva Industries main HQ in Dakota. They knew the underlying foundation was somewhat shaky but with some environmental shoring-up of the lower strata, a new complex could be built here. He found out the hard way how shaky that ground could be when he stepped on a weak patch of ground and fell 6 feet down.

Alva Jr. landed with a thud on the hard surface. Fortunately he used his arms to absorb some of the shock of the fall and avoid any injury. Nonetheless, he knew he would be pretty sore the next day.

"Mr. Alva, can you hear me?" one of the engineers shouted from above.

"Yeah I'm here," Alva Jr. said boringly.

"Are you alright?"

He didn't want to heedlessly worry his men. "I'm a little sore but I'll be alright."

"There's a small cavern down here" Alva Jr. called out. From the sunlight shining through the hole he came through, he could see a cavern stretching off into the darkness. Just outside that darkness, he could see a strange figure in the distance.

"There's something else down here," he said, curiosity filling him. He didn't understand why he was curious with the figure beyond. For all he knew, it could just be a outcropping of rock sticking out from the hard surface. But he had the sense there was something more to it than that. And he wanted to find out. "Bring down a flashlight, I'm going to take a look."

Using the flashlight the engineers kindly lowered down to him, Alva Jr. carefully walked down the cavern toward the mysterious figure that tugged on his curiosity. As he drew near, his eyes became more entranced at the slim figure as it slowly became apparent. "What the..." he whispered silently. It wasn't a rock outcropping at all. It was a statue.

It was shaped in the figure of a young girl, probably in her teens. Its arms were outstretched, like they were trying to block something coming towards it. Its hair flowed towards the back. But the one thing Alva Jr. really noticed was the strained look on its face, the look of someone using great effort to stop a force greater than your own. Despite the gray, dull color of the statue, it looked almost lifelike to him. Still entranced by it, he whispered with deep sincerity, "How beautiful".

Looking down, Alva Jr. saw a plaque placed next to the slab where the statue stood. Shining the flashlight on it, he noticed words engraved on its surface. Three lines, short, simple, eloquent. He read them out loud:

TERRA
A TEEN TITAN
A TRUE FRIEND

Many questions swirled through Alva Jr.'s head. He was asking himself, "What happened to her?" "Why shape a statue of her like this?" "Why leave this statue down here where no one can see it?" He figured that this was a memorial to Terra, but why would the Teen Titans leave it here of all places. It seemed so far out of place in a barren, dark cavern. He knew the Titans were the only ones with the answers to his questions, but he knew he had to keep his primary mission in the forefront.

Alva Jr. was about to leave the cavern to return to his company's site search, but he felt like he didn't want to leave the memorial behind. He thought how lonely it must be to be stuck down here with no one to visit you. Alva Jr. waved it off thinking to himself, "It's just a statue, how could it be lonely". Still it tugged on him like a child tugging someone's sleeve begging him or her not to leave. But leave he must, and said to the Terra statue, "I'll be back later". He reached out and touched the statue's face as a parting gesture.

"Help me!"

Alva Jr. gasped and pulled back his hand on impulse. "What was that?" he said out loud. A voice, a young, female voice cried out in a loud whisper. But he didn't hear it through his ears. He heard it in his head; at the moment he touched the face of the statue. "Your not crazy, Edwin, you know you heard that" he said, shaking off any notion that said otherwise. Ignoring the urge to leaving right then and there, he decided to touch the face and see what happens.

"Help me!" This time, Alva Jr. didn't recoil and continue to lay his hand upon the statue's face. "Help me, please!" he heard the voice in his mind again. Now he thought he was going crazy, but didn't step back. Instead, he continued with this connection he seemed to make with the Terra statue. And he said, both out loud and in his head, "Can you hear me?"

"I hear you," the female voice cried out, "my God I hear you and you can hear me!"

Alva Jr. kept his composure at the female's crying out and started to think he was not crazy and he was not hearing things.

"Who are you?" he asked in utter curiosity.

"I'm Terra," the voice said in a more subdued tone, "and who are you?"

"Edwin Alva" he replied, not thinking at all about the strange conversation taking place between him and a statue.

"I haven't been aware of anyone here for a long time. Please don't leave here so soon."

"I won't" he said, and meant it. Something about this whole situation he's in told him to stay and play this out. But he needed to know something right now, so he asked the voice, "Terra, are you this statue I'm touching right now?"

She replied, "Yes I am".

Emotions flowed within Alva Jr. Sympathy, understanding, pity, and sadness. Thoughts rang out to him, considering this girl's plight. It was just 8 months ago when Static, Gear and Hotstreak freed him from the lifeless, stone prison his body became when he tried to use all of the bang baby gas in a moment of rage towards his father. That moment cost him 3 years of his life suspended, lifeless, but not dead. Totally unaware of what's going on around him. And now he's found another person, trapped like him before, between life and death. But in this case, this one was aware.

Alva Jr. thought how he was able to hear Terra's voice. He remembered how the doctor's who conducted tests of his blood after he became human again said that small, trace elements of those bang baby gases are still in his system. Except that since they were in such very small amounts, they shouldn't affect him. He thought perhaps those same trace elements made him sensitive to something in that same condition he was in 8 months ago. Or in this case, someone.

"How did this happen?" he couldn't help but asking.

"I gave into my fear, I betrayed my friends, and now I'm paying the price". Terra said quietly, regret and resignation in her voice.

He felt sorry for her. He understood exactly how it felt being alone, unheard. He was there for three years.

"Your friends the Titans, haven't they tried to help you?"

"It was them I betrayed. They won't help me."

Alva Jr. could not believe that statement. He would not believe it. His father Edwin Alva worked day and night during those 3 years looking for a way to restore him to normal. His father did it despite the fact his son tried to destroy the business he had built. If his father could forgive him and give him a second chance, why couldn't the Teen Titans?

At that moment, Alva Jr. decided. He can't allow another to go through what he went through. Such was too harsh a punishment. He needed to do the right thing. With determination and conviction in his voice, he said to her, "I'm gonna help you."

"How?" Terra replied.

"I'm gonna restore you to normal."

"Can you do that?" she said quizzically.

"It's been done before. I'm living proof."

"I'm grateful," Terra said, tentative hope filling within her, "but why are you doing this, you don't know the full story."

He didn't need to know. He only knew that he had to try to see her free. He said to her, "Everyone deserves a second chance."

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The time was 6:30 p.m. and the Teen Titans had just finished dinner. Two empty pizza boxes remained of the veggie-lovers and meat-lovers pizza that had previously occupied them. Raven was drinking her normal herbal tea while floating about 7 feet off the ground. Starfire helped Robin clear the table and get the dirty dishes and glasses into the dishwasher. Beast Boy and Cyborg lay out on the sofa, their stomachs almost bursting from the seams, the product of eating too many pizza slices. Beast Boy and Cyborg belched at the same time and said, "Man, I'm full."

When the alarm sounded, both barely were able to get off the couch.

Robin rushed to the main control panel. "We have a communication signal coming in. Audio and video feed." He pushed a series of buttons and a young man, barely in his 20's showed up on screen.

"Teen Titans, I am Edwin Alva, Jr."

"Mr. Alva, what can we do for you?" Robin answered neutrally.

He felt this was the best shot he would get for his plans. He knew he had to make it good. And he knew he needed to get to it.

"This concerns your friend, Terra."

That moment, each of the Titans had that same feeling of sadness. Their fallen friend, someone they shared good moments with, who had lost her way, betrayed them, but in the end saved them all, sacrificing herself in the process.

Beast Boy was about to blurb out something to Alva, but Robin motioned to him to calm down. "What about Terra?" Robin inquired.

"I'll get right to the point. There may be a way of restoring her."

The surprised looks on their faces betrayed the Titans feelings. In the intervening years, they continued in their research on restoring her, but to no avail. All their efforts failed. Now this guy comes along and tells them there's a chance. Can he really have a way? Is he telling the truth? Or is this some kind of sick joke? These were questions going through the Titans minds, especially Beast Boy's.

Robin finally managed to say, "We're listening."

To be continued...