Title: Stone Cold Body, Warm Heart

Rating: I'd say PG-15.

Spoilers: Episode "Aftershock" and various other passing references to anything Terra-related

Disclaimer: The whole idea and related themes of the Teen Titans does not belong to me, it belongs to the Warner Brothers, so please – don't sue me…you'll be sorely disappointed.


Chapter 2 – Despair, Regret, Guilt.

Time.

I had a lot of it now that I'd been consumed by the Earth. But, no matter what Raven said, I would always feel that this was my just penance for turning so quickly to evil after the Titans had taken me in and trusted me with so much; their lives, their home…their friendship.

I don't suppose you'd be able to understand what Life had become for me, but if you ever found yourself kidnapped and tied to a chair with a blindfold on your eyes, I guess you would be getting close to what I was going through. Not very close, but you'd be on the right track.

I don't know who much later it was that the silence of my cavern was finally broken by footsteps once more; they were faint at first, but quickly grew clearer and louder as the owner approached me.

"Hey, Terra."

Beast Boy?

Now this was a surprise. I hadn't expected anyone but Raven to come and visit me when it was almost certain that I wouldn't be joining them in the land of the swiftly moving very soon. Raven thought "we" could get me out of my stone prison and back into the real world, but from what she said, and from the way she'd left, I could tell that this was going to be one of those long-term undertakings…months if not years before I'd feel the air on my face or the actual firmness of the Earth beneath me instead of just the constant thrum of Her heartbeat.

"I know I haven't been back here in a long time," the changeling's high voice paused, and I heard the crunch of loose pebbles beneath his feet as he fidgeted nervously. "But, I've been doing a lot of thinking."

Uh, oh. Those were never good words to start a conversation. I didn't think I wanted to hear this – no, scratch that. I knew I didn't want to hear this.

"We had some good times, didn't we?" More crunching pebbles, "I remember all the fun we had, how well we worked together…" a sudden far-away, echoing clak, as if Beast Boy had just thrown a rock off into the distant reaches of my cavern. "I think I really could have fallen in love with you if we'd had more time; it was so great to hear you laugh, and you were so exciting to be around."

I felt a strange, ominous sense of foreboding come over me as I listened helplessly to my green friends words. I doubted he knew that I could actually hear him, so it was likely that what he was about to say was exactly how he felt in reality, unobscured by any form of concern or fear of what I would think if I heard. The fact that he was speaking in the past tense was just the first clue that I wasn't going to like where this was going.

"But it was all a lie, wasn't it?" Beast Boy's voice turned cold all of a sudden. "It was all an act – all of it!" There was an abrupt swish of cloth and a sharp scrape and skitter of a boot kicking against the gravel underfoot angrily. "You used us – you used me!"

As suddenly as it had come, Beast Boy's anger vanished – replaced by a sudden sadness.

He sighed quietly, "It really hurt, Terra. And you never even cared, did you? Not even when you broke free of Slade's control." He paused for only a moment, "your saving the city could have been as much to save your own skin as it was to save the people of Jump City, but we'll never know for sure, will we; you've already proven that you're a very good actress, so we won't know if you're going to betray us again." There were footsteps, and then Beast Boy's voice from farther away now. "As Titans, we can't risk freeing you because none of us really know who you are – none of us will be able to catch onto your game until it's too late. I mean, you even had Raven fooled until the end. She's barely left her room since we fought you and Slade, and when she does, she's even more quiet and creepy than usual. When you betrayed us, it changed her…she's not the same Raven we've known for all these years. We can't risk that happening again." There were another few footsteps, silence, and finally Beast Boy's voice again, filled with regret, sorrow, and nothing good. "Goodbye, Terra."

A final Burst of footsteps.

And he was gone.

My friend – my very best friend from my Titan days was gone – just like that.

I'm pretty sure I'd have cried if I could have, but of course I couldn't.

Statues don't cry.


Author: Okay, short chapter…just something to get my creative juices flowing…for something else. I'm interested in this story, don't get me wrong, but it isn't my main project right now. Maybe when the action starts up…