AN: I can honestly say this is the most awful thing I have ever written. I wrote this years ago, and just thinking about it makes me cringe. I hate that this exists, but to start off my birthday celebration, let's look at how utterly awful I used to be and be glad that I've improved.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

For Mari, someone who had spent most of her life fighting to find her own place in the world, life had never been easy.

The half breed daughter of the princess of a world that no long existed and a missing human father she had never known, she had experienced her fair share of anger and pain.

Constantly trying to hide who she was, both to protect herself and to try and seem normal, she had lived much of her life as a lie. There had been very few people she had ever been able to open up to, with her mother being the first and foremost of her friends. The others, she could rightly say, were not the most average of people, if their own alien heritages and superpowers had any say in their 'human rating.' But even then, there had never been anyone quite like her, someone that had had to deal with balancing between two worlds that they would never really belong to. No, in most aspects of her life, Mari had always been alone.

In fact, there had only been two times in her life that Mari could truly say she had really lived, that she had felt needed and wanted, loved and useful. The first, and more recent time, was when she was following her parent's footsteps, treading down the dangerous path all heroes walked with her head held high, using her birth-given gifts to help those to weak to help themselves. Fighting together with her team, protecting their city with pride, she had felt like a part of something greater then just herself, a feeling that she had always longed for. Thankfully, as each member of her team settled into their roles, that feeling was becoming more and more common, filling the hole that threatened to tear her heart into two.

The second, and most valued time, despite its previous commonness, had been those moments when her mother had drawn her into a hug, holding her close in a safe embrace that promised tomorrow would be better then today, despite how gray the coming dawn looked. It had been those moments that, no matter how old she had become, had made her fell like a child again, happily nestled in her mother's arms, so sure that everything that was whispered to her in a strange guttural language that she somehow understood was true, because Mommy was saying it. That Mommy was right, so tomorrow would always be better then today, for that's just how things went.

Too bad Mother turned out to be wrong, for nothing could get better after this.

In a way, although it made her feel groggy and drained, Mari couldn't help but feel glad that the pattering rain soaked the long black dress she had donned for the day, the blackened sky hiding the shinning sun from view. If it had been a clear beautiful day, one of the ones they had both loved so much, that had made them feel so full of life and love, it was have just been another stab in her already fracturing heart. No, rain fit the occasion perfectly.

How else would she hide the tears that slipped down her face as her mother's coffin was slowly lowered into the earth before them?

All around her, seeking shelter under umbrellas and impromptu rain coats, she could hear the funeral party muttering their condolences for her loss, telling her what a great woman her mother had been. How her time as a Titan had saved more people then any of them could count, some of who had come to pay their respects to the passed hero. How, even after she had retired from the crime fighting business, she had continued to do her best to save people, doing her best to bring light to the darkness that had such a strong hold on the world.

Truthfully, she didn't care about all that her mother had done in her life. All Mari cared about was the fact that she was gone, and she never even got to say goodbye.

As the rain continued to fall, the murmuring slowly began to fade away as friends and family members left her to mourn, her pupiless eyes fixed upon the hole her mother had disappeared into. For a single, delirious moment, panic crushed her heart as the thought that, perhaps, her mother wasn't dead, wasn't dead but just sleeping, threatened to send her over the edge into the grave, desperate to tear open the casket before her mother was buried alive. Taking a single step forward, a cry drawing itself from her lips, Mari was stopped by a single hand placed lightly upon her shoulder, her final fragile piece of hope crushed by the touch.

Turning to look at the person who had stay behind with her, Mari couldn't help the breath that caught in her throat, her eyes widening ever so slightly as she took in the man's features. Too pale skin that looked as if its owner had spent far too long in the dark, slightly graying black hair that hung in a curtain around his face, and startling blue eyes that shimmered with unshed tears faced her, combining into a face she well knew, though she had never met the mad who stood before her in her life. Turning back towards her mother's final resting place, Mari let the words that had welled up upon her tongue fall from her lips, letting nothing of her knowledge about him known.

"How did you know Mother," Mari asked, her throat closing around the final word as she tried to stop a sob.

Tightening his hold on her shoulder, the man with blue eyes silently played with a rose he had pulled from his pocket with his free hand, his slightly trembling lips pressed together. Without saying a word, he gently let the flower fall from his grasp, almost floating down to rest on top of the partially buried coffin. Turning, his arm tightening around her shoulders so her face was buried into his chest, the man held Mari as her sobs increased, his own face struggling with the feeling that threatened to overflow from within him. Finally, laying his head to rest on top of her, his soft voice answered her previous question, causing her to only clutch closer to this man she had never know before, taking the small amount of comfort that she could from his presence.

"She's someone I use to love."

For a long while the two stood there, grasping each other to ensure that the world was still here, still real, that their loss hadn't taken away the rest of their reality with her. Finally, as her sobs died away to slight sniffles, it was with a slight sigh that the man detached himself from the hug, his fingers automatically wiping away the remaining wetness on her cheeks before falling to his side. Without saying a word, he turned back towards the entrance of the cemetery and began to leave.

Watching as the man who had held her until her tears had run dry walked away, his head hanging in silence respect and the heavy burden of sorrow that sat on his chest, six soft words drifted across the distance to her, each one filled with pain she had thought unimaginable before today. Watching as her father, recognizable only from the few pictures her mother had shown her over the years, walked away, it was all Mari could do to not call after him, the words ringing within her ears holding her still as he disappeared into the gloom.

"And she's the only one I still do."