Disclaimer: I do not own Batman Beyond or any of the characters. Although I do own the characters I have added.

DesertedMirage Says: This is the continuation of my fanfic Guardian Angel. I'm glad to have reached the next part of this story. It too, like GA, was written and finished years ago, and needs only to be edited for your reading pleasure. So I will be doing the same as I did with GA - posting it chapter by chapter as I edit.

So please enjoy the rest, and if you haven't read Guardian Angel, you won't know what's going on from here on out. So I suggest that you read Guardian Angel and Crashed Interlude (both under my profile) if you would like to know the details. Everything will be explained very soon. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy, my friends.


Guardian Angel: The Return

Prologue

Terry,

I dreamed about you again last night. I'm so glad you're still here with me, in my mind. Your clear, blue eyes. Your jet-black hair, boyish smile and laid-back humor. We were together, in a maze. Your hand was securely holding mine. You were speaking to me, trying to help me find my way back home. We were almost there when I began to wake up. I asked you if you would meet me again tomorrow night. You said that you would always be there.

Terry, my love, my only real love, your voice is gone from my ears. I can't remember the sound, so it's more like a feeling now. I wish I could hear you again. I feel angry at myself for forgetting your voice. But I know that it's strong and soothing. I know that it can comfort, that it can make me smile. I know this, even though I can no longer imagine the sound. You're like music, like a favorite song whose memory is dancing away. But I know that I love you. And at least I still remember your name, and your face. Their serum hasn't stolen that away from me yet.

Terry, I can't even recall my own name anymore. That was the first thing to slip away. They figured if I forgot who I was, if I changed myself, then they would have better control over me. But it's alright. It's just another word for "me." I wonder if you'd like my new name - it's "India." Pretty, isn't it?

But I'm afraid, Terry. It's all fading, slowly but surely. They found my sketches of your face yesterday. They burned them. Though they've murdered you, they don't want any part of you to remain in my memory either. I was so angry at them that I yearned to kill. But then I remembered your standard of respecting life, as the Dark Knight. I want so badly to be more like you. I don't want your memory to be in vain. So I'll live in your memory for as long as I manage to stay breathing.

Maybe tonight you'll help me out of this maze, as long as you don't let go of my hand…I'll keep breathing for you.

See you when I fall asleep, Terry. I love you.

~ India

A tear dropped onto the page as I set down my pen. I closed the diary where I sat at my desk, then slid it safely away into the secret compartment I had installed. I knew that it was silly to think of anything as truly "secret" about my life anymore, not within the agency walls.

I sighed.

But I had to try. I refused to lose it all without a fight…I refused to lose him as easily as they wanted me to.

My elbows propped on the wooden desktop, my face cupped in my hands. My eyes slid up to the window before me, overlooking the expansive, crystal lake. My focus shifted to my reflection in the glass, my copper-brown eyes staring dully back at me. They rarely smiled anymore, and were always alert, always sad, always hopeless.

My once bright pink hair was now dark brown. It was long and straightened, falling just below my shoulders. A single lock was bleached. A small, silver stud gleamed on the side of my nose, and my features had matured slightly to reflect my twenty years of age.

A boat pulling up to the docks stole my attention. My eyes followed it, watching the turquoise-eyed, brown-haired man alight onto the pier. His movements were confident and easy, now totally familiar to me. He had just returned from a mission. My spirits lifted slightly. We had a lunch date planned for that afternoon.

My sad expression remained, though, as I scooted my chair back and prepared to get ready.

I studied the disappearing scar on my mid-section while changing. I wished that it would stay, yet even scars had to fade away. Luna's bullet had been slowed just enough by my suit to keep it from reaching any vital organs. But she had crushed two of my ribs during the battle, having left me off of my feet for a little while.

I left my suite in the large island estate, hurrying down the wide staircase and through the ballroom out to the garden and docks. I was better trained than before, programmed to be a "Guardian Angel," as they called it. I had been snatched away from Gotham City in order to put my Batgirl skills to use for their underworld.

I slid on my suede jacket while traversing the courtyard, remembering the days when I used to go to the gardens to be alone, to cry…over Terry and the new life forced upon me two years in the past.

The foggy state of mind, the nightmares, the pain from the rehabilitation process, the grief over Terry. They had left me in ignorance while I recovered, until the day when they finally allowed me to meet my boss, when it was all explained…