"Ava" Mrs. Carleton scolded as she snapped a daydreaming Terra out of her thoughts during History class.
"Huh? Oh, sorry" Terra said, her face turning a bright red color with the feeling of embarrassment.
Slowly Terra felt the eyes of everyone else in the class turn their attention away from her and she returned to her own thoughts just as slowly. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at Mrs. Carleton, she always paid attention in class, was mostly an A student and usually participated. Why couldn't the woman just give her a break and not call her out on it the one day she was preoccupied?
Sighing she continued to block out the lesson and focus on the events of the past few days.
Her life was a lie.
Her parents weren't her parents and if Slade really knows then why is she still here?
She's still here, still walking around a normal high school, amongst normal people, and pretending to be the made up girl Ava Rogers.
But why?
Why was Slade letting her stay in this normal life? Why are her 'parents' still pretending?
Maybe they'll be gone when i get back ho-to the house. To the house. Terra thought to herself, quickly stopping herself from referring to it as home.
Was it a joke? Was this Slade's plan? To let her go on living a 'normal' life like he has no idea she knows until the guilt of her past, or her fear of her future, eats her alive?
She wondered this to herself as the bell rang, momentarily bringing her back to reality, only for her to fall back into her thoughts as she walked from the classroom to her locker.
I mean Slade's just waiting for the right moment to destroy me, or he's waiting for me to destroy myself, but either way i should get out of here
She continued to think like this, to mentally list all the reasons to run away. But still Terra could not bring herself to decide on running away.
Why was that?
She had run away all her life, ever since she got her powers she had been doing nothing besides running away, and now that they were active again she should be living in absolute terror of herself once more.
But she isn't.
She has control, she hates that Slade was the one to give it to her but she has it nothing less. But it's more than that, she doesn't want to run away. Opening her locker, correction; opening Ava's locker, Terra realized that as Ava she had been happy. Ava had father who loved her, a stepmother who at least cared about her, friends who she hadn't betrayed and most of all Ava didn't have any powers.
"But it was all a lie" Terra reminded herself upon looking into the small mirror on the inside of the locker door.
Moving a piece of hair out of her face and behind her ear Terra was about to shut the locker when instead she closed her eyes tightly.
"No" she said to herself before opening her eyes and staring back into the locker
"No more running" she promised.
"Just to be clear, Slade will sense me the second i enter his mind. If we're doing this, we won't take him by surprise" Raven warned.
The titans were sitting around the common room. Cyborg hadn't spoken since last night, he didn't even say anything when Beast Boy gave him the soy milk for his cereal.
"He knows everything that's going to happen, it's not like we could take him by surprise if we tried" Robin mused quietly to himself before lifting his head to properly address Raven. "Just be careful and i don't know what you'll find in Slade's mind but i'm willing to be you won't like what you see" the leader warned, Raven nodded.
"I don't intend to look around more than necessary" the empath assured before she began to float in her mediative position.
"Azarath.. Mentrion… Zinthos" she chanted in a breathy rasp of a voice. At the end of her mantra her eyes opened and glowed white and the black shadow of a raven flew from her body.
There was silence from the other four before finally Cyborg spoke up for the first time that day
"She might be gone for awhile, BB watch over her body. Make sure nothing happens" the cybernetic teen instructed the green changeling who looked over his shoulder only to find Robin and Cyborg exiting the room.
"Where are you two going?" He asked
"I'm just heading to the bathroom" Robin answered before leaving Cyborg alone in the doorway.
"I'm going to my room" he said as he turned to go.
This left Beast Boy and Starfire alone on the couch while Raven's body floated in front of them, Beast Boy turned to Starfire.
"I've got to stay with Rae, maybe you should talk to Cyborg" he suggested as Starfire played with her hair
"I believe he wishes to be left alone" she said sadly, Beast Boy turned his gaze to Raven.
"Maybe but i'm not sure that's what he needs" the changeling stated.
It only took Raven's soul a few minutes to locate Slade and even less time to enter his mind. Instantly she was faced with images, some she recognized and some she didn't, she tried not to pay much attention to the ones which she herself had no memory of. Suddenly, however, everything around her went dark.
"Ah Raven, i've been expecting you. Although i must admit even when i'm expecting it i still can't get used to the feeling of you entering my mind" Slade's voice came in a smooth and confident wave of sound.
"Robin i'm here to help you, you weren't always like this, it's not too late" Raven tried to reason with the man who had once been, and to her currently is, her leader.
But Slade's voice came in a chuckle
"I'll admit that i've made some mistakes. Taking control of Jump City and using Terra in order to do it for example, but rest assured my business here in the past is taken care of. Yesterday's incident was simply to acquire something which i need in order to return to my time" he said but Raven growled.
"We'll stop you Slade. Even if i don't stop you today there's always tomorrow. I know who you are and when you get back i'll know" the empath threatened but Slade knew how empty, and ironic, that threat was.
"Believe me Raven everything will make sense one day but until then, here. This might save us both some trouble later on" Slade said and with that an image flashed through Raven's mind.
Raven opened her eyes to find that she and Beast Boy were alone in the common room and as she lowered herself onto the ground he looked up from his video game.
"Remind me to never let Robin leave you to watch over me again" Raven said in mild disappointment as her green teammate paused his game and put down his controller.
"Come on you know i'd protect you if something happened, what was i supposed to do? Just stare at you for twenty minutes?" He asked causing Raven to look at the clock with a frown
"I wasn't even gone for ten minutes" she said, sort of annoyed that he was so impatient but then again she supposed that it was better he had been playing his game, she wasn't sure how she would feel if she came back and he was, as he said, just staring at her.
"Anyway, did you get through to Slade or Robin i guess?" Beast Boy asked with the fear that Raven's mission hadn't been successful, he had been expecting she would be gone a lot longer.
"I'm not sure. He said that he's made mistakes and that he's going back to his time. He said that he's done in the past, whatever he was after he got it" Raven admitted, unsure of if she should be relieved or fearful. "Then he showed me an image, of the probes he put in us over a year ago" she explained and Beast Boy looked at her in confusion.
"I thought we got rid of those?" He asked
"So did i" Raven said.
"Scan shows BB's all clear" Cyborg announced less than an hour later as Beast Boy sat in the common room, once again hooked up to the machine which checked for the microscopic probes and displayed his blood veins on the large television screen.
"Then why did Slade show Raven the probes?" Robin wondered aloud and Cyborg turned to his 'sister'.
"He didn't say anything else?" He questioned, Raven crossed her arms
"I already told you, all he said was that everything will make sense one day and that the image he showed me might save us both some trouble" the empath repeated.
"Perhaps Slade has forgotten that we no longer contain his probes" Starfire suggested from her seat on the couch.
Before anyone could answer the elevator door opened and Terra walked into the common room, she gave the group a quizzical look the second she entered.
"Are you guys experimenting on Beast Boy?" She asked as she set her backpack down on the couch and Beast Boy frowned.
"When i went into Slade's mind he showed me a picture of the probes he used to have on us but as you can see they're no longer there. We're trying to figure out how it's important" Raven explained while Terra took a seat next to Starfire.
"Gross" she remarked but then took a closer look at the screen "wait where exactly were the probes?" She questioned.
"Um, in our blood, why?" Cyborg questioned as all five titans turned to Terra, her mind racing as she put the pieces together.
"On the red blood cells?" She questioned and Cyborg looked at her in slight surprise.
"Yeah, why?" He asked as Terra stood up and walked closer to the screen.
"Looks like school did me some good" she muttered under her breath "We just went over this in science class, red blood cells only live four months on average before they're replaced by new ones" she explained.
"Which means that after a few months the probes would've been dead" Cyborg concluded
"But that doesn't make sense, Slade said that the probes could go undetected for decades and i know myself, i know i wouldn't overlook a fact like that" Robin said and Terra nodded.
"Which means Slade only needed the probes for four months max, whatever he came back for it's already happened" Terra theorized and Raven gasped.
"The prophecy" she exclaimed in almost a whisper
"What?" Terra asked, completely lost.
But the other's paid no attention to Terra's confusion and Raven met Robin's gaze.
"My birthday, it passed just four months after you had worked for Slade" she said but Cyborg shook his head.
"Hang on, we beat your dad-" the robotic teenager began only to be cut off
"Because of Slade" Beast Boy interrupted, the others all turned to look at him as he finished disconnecting the last of the wires from himself.
"Don't you guys get it?" Beast Boy asked "We've been looking at this all wrong!" He continued "The only reason we beat Trigon was because Slade led us to Raven, that's why he came back"
"What about taking over the city? Before the prophecy?" Robin questioned but Beast Boy had it figured out, Slade isn't the enemy.
"Raven left us some of her power before becoming the portal, so that we could survive. But without Slade we never would've found her so when it happened the first time around, before Slade came back, we survived, but that was it. So after years of living in chaos Robin decided to come back in time and help change the future the only way he knew how, by training us, and became Slade. Cy built the robots to do Slade's dirty work as a villain, the probes and taking over the city were just challenges, Slade knew Terra wouldn't be able to kill us and that Robin wouldn't let him do it, even if he did have it in him. That's why, until yesterday, we didn't see Slade after the prophecy. His work is done, he's been trying to get home" Beast Boy explained.
The others all looked at him dumbfounded but his theory made perfect sense, no matter where they tried to find a hole in it.
"Oh i knew Robin and Cyborg would never betray us!" Starfire exclaimed, happily flying over and enveloping Robin into a bone crushing hug.
"So now that the undercover stuff is all over and everything, are you going to be sticking around?" Beast Boy questioned Terra as the titan's small celebration of the revelation finished up and everyone began separating to their own activities.
Raven was now in front of the windows meditating, Starfire and Robin had just finished cleaning the mess in the kitchen and had left the common room and Cyborg said that now that all this was over he needed to work on the T-car, as he left for the garage Terra grabbed her backpack.
"Sort of, i want to be a titan Beast Boy, i really do, but i can't run away anymore" she began to explain.
"Terra your parents aren't-" Beast Boy began but Terra cut him off.
"I know, believe me i've already left a note explaining that i know everything. I mean i can't run away from my powers anymore. I'll visit i promise and maybe someday i'll come back for good but for now, i need to go home" she explained, Beast Boy simply gave her a blank expression.
"Home as in…" he trailed off with his question.
"Home as in the place i ran away from when i got my powers" she explained and once again Beast Boy didn't say anything, just stared at the ground with a disappointed frown on his face.
Terra looked at him sympathetically "Beast Boy i haven't seen my family in six years, i have to go back. I have to" she explained and Beast Boy nodded as he dug through his pocket.
"I know, just stay in touch alright?" He asked of her as he once again held out the spare communicator.
With a smile Terra took the small yellow circle from her friend then hugged him. It felt good to have his arms around her again, the last time he had hugged her was right before she sacrificed herself.
"I will" she agreed before pulling away and standing up, she glanced over her shoulder to look at Raven.
"You know she cares a lot more than she lets on" she said before turning back to Beast Boy who nodded.
"Yeah" he agreed
"See you later" she said and then left the tower.
"Bye" Beast Boy said just as Terra stepped into the elevator.
Once she was gone Beast Boy turned to look at Raven.
She was a mystery which he thought would never be solved but maybe he was wrong; maybe Slade wasn't the only one who had been giving cryptic clues.
"How old were you?" He asked nervously
"What are you talking about?" She asked in annoyance
"When you started locking yourself away, when you shut yourself off, how old were you?" He asked again, being more specific this time.
"Beast Boy-" she began to say but she was cut off.
"You have to meditate, to control your powers. It would be so easy to just lock yourself in your room for that, or the roof, anywhere quiet. Sometimes you do but sometimes you're out here in the living room, or when we're all playing on the roof you sit off to the side to meditate. You like being around us, you want to be with everybody else, you want to open up but you don't know how." Beast Boy said sympathetically, figuring out most of this as he said it.
"Rae, you can feel. You've just forgotten how" he said in an almost pleading voice.
Raven opened her eyes slowly but still in surprise, she didn't think that anybody, especially Beast Boy, had picked up on her habits. The truth is that he's right, she did test her limits and try to be around the others as much as possible.
"Beast Boy i need to be in control of my emotions" she told him, still not meeting the gaze of the green boy behind her.
"That doesn't mean you have to lock them away… and you know it" he told her and before she could argue he continued. "You didn't know it when you started, i don't know how old you were considering you won't tell me but i'd bet you were little. You couldn't control your powers and you were scared, and the fear only made things worse. So you decided to stop feeling and now that you've realized it was a mistake, that it confined you to live like you're in a cage, you don't remember how to free yourself" he finished, getting nervous that he was dead wrong.
But with a sigh Raven descended onto the ground and turned around, but she only looked at her feet in shame.
"I was five" she confessed, Beast Boy nodded and as he placed a hand on her shoulder she looked up. He was looking into her eyes, waiting to see if she would tell him more, and with a shaky breath she did.
"I was about to turn five when my powers began to grow to powerful for me to control, so the monks locked me away." She began, suddenly looking angry and taking a deep breath to keep it under control. "I spent the first few months doing nothing but breaking out into fits of rage and sadness. I would cry, throw things and pound against the walls and floors for hours, but no one ever seemed to notice. After awhile i realized that if i wanted to get out i would have to control my powers so i decided not to feel, they let me go just after i turned six" she explained.
By now she was looking away from Beast Boy and after a minute he gently placed his knuckles under her chin and turned her face back to him.
"I'm sorry, but you're not alone anymore. I promise" he said and when she reacted by throwing her arms around his neck he didn't push her away like last time, no instead he wrapped his own arms tightly around her and refused to let her go.