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The team arrived at Terra's grave, below the ground. Each Titan had their respected weapons unsheathed. Raven and Starfire floated gently in the air as Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy stood ready on the earth.
Beast Boy was growling softly in the form of a cheetah, his fangs bared and ready.
No one was there, only the solemn statue of Terra, the plaque still glimmering gently in the dim light. The roses had wilted, but new ones had taken their place. The group approached her and noticed the metal plates still dug into her rock flesh that the team had witnessed the Slade-bots putting in not ten minutes beforehand.
Beast Boy gave the new flowers a sniff and recognized the thick industrial scent of Slade. He had been there, no question. But where had he gone?
"Where is he?" Robin snarled under his breath, scouring the area for any sign of movement.
"Typical Slade…" Cyborg observed, lowering his sonic cannon and snatching the bouquet up.
His scanners buzzed to life.
"There's most likely a fingerprint or substance on here that might give us a clue to where he's hiding," the robotic boy explained.
As the machinery within Cyborg's forearm beeped, the rest of the team idly wandered around, searching for any more clues the mysterious Slade may have left behind.
Raven shifted pebbles of interest around with flicks of her fingers. Starfire flew in the damp, dank air of the cavern, perhaps trying her luck for a "Be Back Later" note. Robin snatched certain clumps of dirt up in his palm and rubbed it in between his index finger and thumb. Beast Boy continued to scout about, morphing from groundhog to greyhound as he scurried, trying to detect as many scents as possible.
Unfortunately, they all ended up with dead ends and wasted time.
"I knew this was pointless," Raven gloated stiffly.
Now in the form of a bat, Beast Boy landed expertly on the ground beside Raven and gave her a disgruntled screech of protest.
"She's right, man," Cyborg defended. "Slade was probably just trying to distract us. He's probably robbing a bank or a chemical warfare lab as we speak."
"Not to worry friend Cyborg and Raven, we can still catch enemy Slade," Starfire squeaked optimistically. "Then perhaps we can celebrate the victory with mustard and the watching of shirtless males fighting in a different language?"
"You mean Kung-Fu movies?" Cyborg questioned in confusion.
"Yes! Oh, that's exactly what I meant!"
Raven, Cyborg, and Robin shook their heads in annoyance.
"There doesn't seem to be much here, that's for sure," Robin contemplated. "Might as well go back to the Tower and see if we missed anything while we were out."
The team shrugged and gave relaxed nods, beginning to trudge out of the depressing cavern. Beast Boy remained loyal to the spiked, uneven ground.
Robin turned at last minute and raised a serious brow.
"Coming Beast Boy?"
His shape expanded back into the happy-go-lucky kid they all expected him to be, but now his face was masked in sorrow and frustration as he sat on the ground.
"No, I think I'll stay here a while," he retorted gently. "Pay my respects, you know?"
Robin's stone face softened ever so slightly and he nodded his permission before he left with the others.
The green kid, who wasn't a mere child anymore actually, sat humbly, shoulders slumped in front of the frozen Terra, still recognizing the tear set in stone on her face and her martyred outstretched arms.
He had tried to keep his emotions deep inside, bury them in the grave of his mind, but it proved impossible. His friends never understood or contemplated that he was capable of change.
The irony was thick; the Titan that transformed the most was forever forced into a mold in his friends' eyes.
Just like Terra. He related.
His thoughts, his actions, his voice, all reflected his old personality. But, as he grew older, now in his nineteenth year, the joke of puberty became far less funny. It wasn't puppy love that he felt towards the blonde girl who haunted his dreams. It was something much more real.
It had taken him a year to realize that. A painful three hundred and sixty-five days of hollow feelings and disgust for his former self. He had been darker than Raven, but they, the Titans, still were eager to shape him back into his adolescent self.
It had been like those days never existed, that his true and deep emotions were just a bump in the road and could be swept back under the familiar carpet, again.
As he stared upon his old, close, best, truest friend, he noticed the similarities: To be afraid of the power inside of you, to be cast into an unstable shell, always carved in rock.
She was the only one who had actually seen every side of him. She had witnessed his anger, his happiness, his extreme insecurity, the façade he put up, and she accepted him.
His guilt came in crushing waves.
I had doubts about her. All she ever gave me was acceptance, and I spat it back in her face.
"I'm such an idiot…" he muttered to his chest, his pitch of voice ringing in the cave.
He began to weep a little, letting his actual personality express for the first time in who knew how long.
"Poor boy."