To paraphrase Rod Serling: for your consideration, Chapter 10 of "Resurrection: Phoenix Ascending." A collaboration between OobluebubblesoO and Nitebreaker

Chapter 10: Strangers in the Night

I don't own any of these characters. Still fun to think about, though.

Back at the Tower, Raven started from a deep sleep. There was something here…in the Tower? Or…in the room with her? She sprang out of bed, fully alert, every defensive spell primed and ready…

But there was nothing there. Carefully, she searched with all her preternatural senses….nothing. At least, nothing in her room.

She widened her search, hands glowing with black light, looking into other areas of the Tower (but carefully avoiding Starfire's room), checking for traces of someone or something coming into the Tower. Again, nothing. No trace of any intruder or intruding entity. And yet, she was certain…

She started to punch the 'alert' button, but refrained. She didn't know what was going on in Starfire's room, but, whatever it was, she didn't want to, as Beast Boy would put it, "bust any bubbles." Nor did she think it a good idea to bother Beast Boy and/or Terra; for all she knew, they might be doing the same thing.

So she picked up her T-Cell and dialed Cyborg's number. Being part machine, he always had his phone on him!

"Yo, Ray, whassup? Besides us, that is," Cyborg's voice came through the T-com. "Course, we probably aren't the only ones still up, if you know what I mean…"

"Cyborg. This is not a social call. Where are you?"

"Down in the garage. Why?"

"Something woke me up. Something, I think, malicious. I can't sense it now, but for a moment, I was certain something was here in the Tower with us."

Immediately, Cyborg got serious. "Any idea what?" She could mentally see him running through sensor graphs for the last few minutes, even as he spoke to her.

"None. And I can't swear it was of evil intent. But it was definitely furtive, like a thief would be. And no, it's not Red X, not unless he's learned to shield himself from me, somehow. Which I really don't think is likely."

"Sensor logs don't show anything. I'm running them now for the past two hours. Still nothing. Ray, I confess, I don't like this whole situation."

"How so?"

"There's a probe up there," she could envision his head tilting upward, towards the ceiling," that my sensors didn't detect. And still can't, I might add. Now you sense something that neither one of us can trace. Maybe the two are connected someway. What's your take on that?"

"There could easily be a connec-* Wait. Incoming call."

It was Beast Boy. "Rae?" He yawned, sleepily. "Are you alright?"

"Of-of course I am, Garfield. Why?"

"No reason. I just woke up with the feeling that you were in danger. Thought I'd give you a quick call 'n' see."

"You felt I was in danger? Me, specifically?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? But, well…" He didn't finish the statement, but Raven could guess the rest: I couldn't rest until I knew you were okay.

She smiled. He could be as endearing as he was aggravating, sometimes. "Wait. You were asleep? You're…you're alone?"

His image stared out of the T-Com's screen, puzzled. "Yeah. Wh—oh. I getcha. Yeah, Rae, I'll….I'll fill you in about…all that…later. But yeah, Terra's in her room. Probably asleep. But I dunno; that was one scary movie. Want me to check on her?"

"Something woke me up as well; a feeling of being watched. Yes, Gar, you might want to check on Terra. But I'm fine, and everything Cyborg and I can come up with is that we're alone in the Tower."

"Good. Yeah, in fact, lemme conference-call Terra….hm, she's not answering. But she may just have her phone off. I'll just zip over there and check." He paused. "Rae? I'm glad you're alright."

"Thank you, Garfield," she murmured into the cell. Terra's one lucky girl…

Beast Boy dressed hurriedly, and went down the hall to Terra's room. He signaled, then, when she didn't answer that, he knocked on her door. "Terra? You alright, in there?" He heard the sound of someone moving, then she opened the door, still wearing her sleep shirt, the oversize tee she always slept in, yawning and rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, Gar, I'm alright. Why? Is something up?"

"Maybe. Something woke Raven. She's usually a sounder sleeper than that. So we're just checking on everybody. It's probably nothing more than a bad dream, but you never know."

"Oh. Yeah. Uhm. What about…." She gestured in the direction of Starfire's room.

"Don't know yet." He opened his T-cell. "Raven? Terra's fine. You think someone needs to look in on, wait, poor choice of words, you think maybe someone needs to check on Robin and Starfire?"

"I'd hate to disturb them on so little evidence. Let me do a discreet, around-the-edges type of probe…." Several minutes passed. Then, "They both appear to be still in there, and, if I'm right, both of them are asleep. I sense no danger from that direction. And neither I nor Cyborg's sensors can find any evidence of anybody but us here in the Tower. Perhaps I troubled all of you unnecessarily."

"No. I trust your senses, Rae. Remember, you didn't wake me up; that happened on its own. But I guess we can all go back to sleep."

"I suppose. Raven out."

"'Night, ya'll."

Terra looked at Beast Boy with fear in her eyes. "Gar? Could..could it be Slade?"

He shook his head. "Not likely. Usually Raven's ESP is only effective against magical or supernatural things. Even if Slade had the place bugged, she wouldn't detect it unless she was specifically and actively looking for it. No, this was probably just a bad dream on her part."

"What about on yours?" She had him there. And he could tell she was still scared. The notion that it might be Slade had rattled her.

He made a quick decision. "Terra? Tell you what. Why don't you grab some things and come watch a video with me. In my room. You can stay there tonight. And, uh. We can, y'know, talk."

She smiled. "That's sweet of you, Gar. I'm okay, you know, and I hate to be a bother to you…"

"You? A bother? To me? Have I slipped into the Twilight Zone or somethin'? No, seriously. I've slept all I'm gonna, anyway. When Raven senses something, it's probably a good idea for as many as can to kinda bunch up. And I got some wicked movies that the others don't seem to care for. So…whaddaya say?"

She brushed the hair out of her eyes, smiling. "I say, you're on, Mr. Garfield Logan."

Back in her room, Raven floated in mid-air, meditating. She expanded her senses outward-she could sense Beast Boy and Terra moving up the corridor, heading for his room, and could guess why. That actually made good sense, from a tactical standpoint: the fewer people isolated, the better.

She expanded her senses outward, the jarring emotions of the city crashing in on her, causing her to filter them out. Outward, ever outward….

Now she could sense the Justice League, far above the Earth's surface, as they struggled to get something, anything, on the alien probe. Hm. For that matter…

She turned her attention to the area of space where the action seemed to be centering. Strange. She could sense something there, but couldn't really "see" it, even with her mystical senses. But whatever it was, it seemed to be totally quiescent, so she doubted it was the source of her unease earlier.

Outward, ever outward. Now she could sense Mars and the asteroids moving slowly, ponderously in their courses. No life there; nothing that could have caused her to be alarmed.

Hm. There was something on Ganymede. She focused her senses on a spot where she sensed an anomaly….

{{hiccup. Sob.}} Something was here…

She stretched outward, seeking to identify whatever it was. Physically, there was nothing to see…or was there? She could see one spot in shadow that shouldn't be. {{Hello? Is someone there?}}

Again there was a telepathic equivalent of a sob. She got the impression that the entity was drawing tighter around itself, as if it were trying to hide. {{Hello? Are you in distress? Do you need assistance?}}

A moment, then a wave of emotion flooded over her, a wordless rejection, that her mind sought to put into words she could understand: {{Go away!}}

{{Are you hurt? Can I help you?}}

{{Go away! I don't want to hurt you, too!}}

{{Calm down. I'm here to help. Are you the entity I sensed earlier?}} No response. {{Are you hurt?}} Again, no response. {{Is there anything I can d-*}}

{{LEAVE ME ALONE!}} The sheer psychic force of the feeling/thought sent her soul-self reeling, end over end….

Consciousness fled…

She came to awareness with Cyborg and Beast Boy bending over her. "I think she's coming around, Cy."

"Yeah, give 'er some air there. Yo, Raven. Can you hear me? How many fingers?" He held up two stainless-steel digits.

She blinked, realizing she was lying on the floor of her room. "Yes, I can hear you." Her head pounded; whatever she'd encountered was powerful. "I, I found something on Ganymede. It didn't seem to want to be bothered."

"Rae…something that far away, knocked you out? What was it?"

She sat up, noticing that Terra, Starfire and Robin were all in the room with her: Terra, still wearing her "Jump City Gremlins" sleep shirt, while Starfire and Robin were both attired in loose robes. Robin had his mask on; idly, she wondered if he'd worn it all during the evening's adventures. The notion made her smile through her pain. "I don't know what it was, or is. I was asking it if it needed help, and, well, it basically said for me to leave it alone. Very…forcefully." She winced, putting a hand to her head.

"Do you think it's connected with the probe?" Robin seemed perfectly at ease, in command, even if he was in a robe.

"No—o, I don't think so. And I don't think it meant to, to, knock me away like it did. It's just something that's hurting, and doesn't know its own strength."

"Just how powerful is it? Could you guess?"

"A guess? It's a cosmic entity of some sort, so I'm really unsure. But what I sensed of it was strong. Maybe potentially Trigon level, or close." Eyes widened. They all remembered (except Terra, presently chewing on the sleeve of her shirt) their battle with Raven's demonic father; that had been really, really close. And, really, they hadn't actually defeated Trigon. It had been Raven, calling upon her full powers, who'd finally won the battle and saved the Earth from a fate considerably worse than mortal death.

"Is it a threat? Should we take action?"

"No! No, it's not a threat, I don't think. I think it just wants to be left alone for now." She sat up a bit more, and Cyborg picked her up as if she weighed nothing. "Want me to put you in your bed, Raven?" All joking was gone from his voice. This was a possible threat he was talking about, one that had knocked her down from millions of miles away. That wasn't his definition of funny.

"I'm fine, Victor," she said, using his first name for emphasis. Not long ago, she couldn't have brought herself to be even that intimate with her teammates. He set her on her feet, arms outstretched to catch her, should she be unsteady. "It's alright, people, I'm okay. It just caught me off-guard, I guess. I'll just lie down a while." She went over and got in her bed, lying face up.

They filed out into the corridor. "Think we should alert the League, Robin?"

Robin thought hard. The League pretty much had their hands full with the alien probe. Still, if later on, something happened…."I'll call and leave a message for Batman. That way, at least they'll be notified." He reached for his T-Cell, only to remember that he wasn't wearing it. "I'll, uh, have to go get my, uhm…"

"Good," whispered Starfire in his ear, "because I believe we are not quite through." She pulled him on down the hallway, but not before the others caught sight of his beet-red face. Cyborg grinned, but didn't say anything.

He turned to Terra and Beast Boy. "Well, later, you two." And with that, he left.

Beast Boy turned to Terra. "So. Wanna check out those vids I was talking about?"

"Sure." Her smile lit up her whole face. She's like the sun, thought Beast Boy. I am so lucky…

Meanwhile, back up in Raven's room, the sorceress prepared for sleep, or tried to. The simple knowledge of the alien entity out there made that difficult, but she was comforted by just knowing that her teammates, no, her family was around her.

She tried some light meditation techniques. The thing on Ganymede wasn't a threat, of that she was fairly certain. True, it was powerful, but just wasn't interested in communicating, so that was pretty much that. Not her problem. Idly, on the verge of sleep, she wondered what it could be so upset about. Or what it even was. Well, maybe some other time…

{{Plink}} That was all, not even a coherent thought, just a feeling, something she recognized: it was aware of her, even across this vast distance. Sighing, she sat up. It didn't look like she was going to get much sleep tonight. Crossing her legs, she entered her meditative state. {{Look. If you're going to watch me, I wish you'd at least communicate with me.}}

{{Are you…alright? I did not hurt you?}}

{{No, you did not hurt me.}} She recognized the "tone" of the telempathic "voice": she was dealing with an immature entity here. A child, basically. A child on a cosmic level, true, but a child nonetheless. Raven had mixed feelings about children. {{Are you alright? It was your distress I sensed, across time and space.}}

{{Not alright. I am not alright. I will never be alright again.}}

{{Why? What is wrong?}}

{{Dead. They are all dead. All dead. Because of me!}} The woeful "tone" of the thing's "voice" was growing stronger, and Raven knew a moment of alarm. The thing, whatever it was, was strong, and apparently totally undisciplined. She needed to placate it somehow.

But how? What was it, anyway? {{Who are you?}}

{{Confusion. I am me. I have always been me.}}

{{Do you have a name?}}

{{What is a name?}} Raven sighed; this was going to take a while, especially since they weren't really communicating by words, so much as feelings that Raven's mind automatically translated into English words. Yet, it was learning, and rapidly. Direct telepathy might be possible soon. For now…

{{A name is a means of self-designation. My name is Raven. That is what my friends call me. What are you called?}}

{{More confusion. I am not called anything. I have never encountered anyone to call me anything. Except…}} The entity paused, and Raven could sense it trying not to remember what had happened. She drew a deep breath.

This entity, whatever, whoever it was, was clearly traumatized, emotionally. She didn't know if she was up to the task of handling it. Still, there was nobody else. Then, without realizing it, she began to do what Starfire had done for Terra earlier. {{Tell me what happened.}}

{{I don't want to think about it!}}

{{Can you keep from thinking about it?}}

{{No! I mean, yes! I mean….{wordless muddle of emotions, impossible to decipher}….}}

{{Listen to me. You are experiencing something that others have experienced. I've experienced it, myself, although how it compares with your memories, I don't know. I want to help you, if you will let me, but first you have face up to these feelings. They won't go away, otherwise. I know this from personal experience.}}

{{Truly?}}

{{Truly. Now. Tell me what happened.}} And a cascade of emotions and images avalanched in on her….

It floated in darkness, all alone, but it did not know about being alone. It was in the darkness and the darkness was it.

In the darkness, unrelieved by even a single ray of light, it floated. It amused itself. It floated, it played, it danced, it sang to itself and told itself stories, though none of them would be recognizable as such to anything even remotely human. It did not know anything else.

How long it was there, none could say. It certainly couldn't; the very passage of time was a concept foreign to it. Indeed, such human concepts of "time" and "space" were utterly alien to it, for it was utterly alien to the race of man.

Then, once, something happened. Just when, would be impossible to say, for it did not reckon time as mortal beings do. A single stray photon flashed past it. Surprised at this unprecedented event, it "caught" the particle in its "tail" (if, indeed, it could be said to have a tail. Or a head, or anything else recognizably such), absorbing it into its being automatically.

A bright burst of tingly sparkly…feeling…shot through it. It was a good feeling; it wanted more. Perhaps there were more of these delightful particles somewhere?

It turned its attention to the spot where the photon had come from. Yes, there were more….

It moved forward, to investigate.

Such wonders! Why, here were many more such particles, all radiating from many many clumps spread throughout this new place it had found. Also, there were other, more subtle such radiations, which were even more pleasurable. Call them positive and negative….emotions? Yes, that was as good a term as any. It would certainly do for now.

Now its attention was drawn to a large solid object, encased in thick gases. Brilliant sparks, hundreds to thousands of earthly miles long flashed between the gas masses—clouds?—yes, the clouds. But there was nothing to radiate those wonderful packets of delight called emotions. While it enjoyed the energies present, it realized that, if it wanted to find emotions, it would have to look elsewhere.

Fortunately, there was a great deal of elsewhere to look.

It found a world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere (though, of course, it did not think in those terms), with an abundance of green growing things, that utilized the rays of the world's star to produce energy. There were also bipedal beings there, running in groups of twenty or more.

Lovely! It descended through the atmosphere and alighted on a nearby rock. The bipeds stared momentarily in amazement, then turned and ran. It flashed to a rock in front of them, and they turned again. It pursued them, lightly touching their flanks or hindquarters, playfully nudging them, which seemed only to increase their speed, even as they turned and ran in a circle. It flashed among them, laughing, dancing, spinning, spurring them on to even greater speeds. Then it paused.

This action produced emotions, true, but not quite the sort it found most pleasurable. Rather, these emotions had a somewhat sour, metallic "taste"….not really satisfactory. Not what it really wanted. It withdrew a distance and settled down to watch its newfound friends.

After a while, the bipeds ceased running in circles, and drew together, with the smallest—the youngest, it realized-in the middle. Their emotions remained a confused mass of both positive and negative. Some of them seemed in need of physical recuperation (and what an odd thought that was! Imagine, a being with only a limited amount of physical energy!), so it decided to let them alone for a bit. It withdrew into space; it would find something else to play with, then return and resume the game.

There were some superb rocks floating not far off. It examined these; why was there no green growing matter on them? It found one, and grasped it, turning it over and over.

It was rough-textured, with grooves on two sides. One side sported a smooth line down the middle. It turned the rock over a few more times, then tired of it, and gave it a push outward.

It hadn't really intended to throw the rock at the other rock; that was an accident. However, the first rock collided with the second in a most satisfying way; it could almost hear the "crunch" of the collision, though of course, with no air to carry sound, such was impossible.

If the being had had hands, it would have clapped them together in delight. Here was a fun game! It grasped another rock and threw it, this time aiming deliberately for yet another asteroid, and was again rewarded with a satisfying collision. The two asteroids broke apart, their pieces spinning off through space. It did this several more times, when the thought occurred to it: perhaps its newfound friends on the planet below would like a rock of their own to play with?

{{Oh, no,}} Thought Raven, in the here and now.

{{Oh, yes.}}

It looked around. Only the best would do for its new buddies. It chose a nice, big rock, instantaneously calculated the necessary vector, and gave it a playful slap.

The asteroid —several earthly miles in diameter—tumbled end over end towards the unsuspecting planet below.

The being was so happy! It danced and flashed from rock to rock. Soon, its new friends would have a splendid new toy to play with! And then, maybe it could show them new ways to play with rocks, and maybe they could show it still more new ways. And they would laugh, and run about, and dance, and sing, and be so very happy together…

The asteroid began to glow as it encountered the outer atmosphere of the planet. By this time, it was traveling well past three times the speed of sound….

It struck the planet's surface with titanic force, releasing power equal to several hundred thousand megatons of earthly TNT. Firestorms hundreds of miles high erupted, spreading outward around the planet.

Again, if the being had had hands, it would've clapped them in delight. Such a marvelous fuss and roar! But now there was more of that peculiar "sourness" it had encountered before. It would have clapped its hands to the side of its head, if it had had hands, or a head, or ears, which it didn't. Well, perhaps this was to be expected; after all, it had never had friends before. It didn't know how they would react to its gift. Perhaps they were displeased with it; maybe they had hoped for a bigger rock.

But now the signals were fading out. The being was puzzled; why should that be happening?

It waited a little bit of time and rippled back to the planet on wings of night.

Puzzlement! Its friends were gone! But where could they have gone to? It knew they did not possess the ability to travel through empty space, as it did. Nor was the rock anywhere to be found…oh, wait. It had broken up so thoroughly upon hitting the planet that tiny bits and pieces of it were floating about in the planet's atmosphere. That might not be a good thing; not only could its friends not play with the rock, but the dust in the atmosphere would block the rays of the sun from the green growing things that they fed upon. It knew the bipeds desired the green growing things (although why, it wasn't too clear on), so perhaps a little cleanup was in order.

It formed itself into a vast sphere several hundred miles in diameter, and began drawing in the planet's atmosphere, filtering out the dust and small particles, and expelling the now-cleansed air. Its friends wouldn't have a rock to play with, but there was no helping that now. It would just have to get them another. And this time, it would just deposit it gently on the planet's surface. It really should have known better, it rebuked itself, than to think that the rock would be undamaged by its impact on the planet's surface! But first…

Draw air in, expel air out. Draw air in, expel air out. Over and over. It was glad it didn't have to do this, as it was a lot of work, but nothing was too good for its little friends.

Finally, the air was clear again. There had also been some residue from the interior of the planet; apparently ruptures in the surface had periodically allowed a portion of the planet's inside into the outside, at one time or another in the past. The being would have "tsk'ed" to itself, had that concept held any meaning for it; planets did not seem like very stable places to live. But such pollutants were easily dealt with as well.

Now. Where could its friends have gone?

Finally, on the opposite side of the planet, it found two of the bipeds. They were stretched out on the ground, not moving. It moved forward to investigate. They were not emitting the emotions that had first drawn it here. What could be wrong?

It nudged them. They did not move, and still refused to emit emotions. Were they angry with it?

It scoured the planet for the tender grass and shoots the bipeds fed upon. Evidently, the asteroid had not been good for the planet as a whole; there was a lot less green growing things now. But it found some and brought them to its friends. {{Hello! I found some of those things you eat. Are you hungry?}} The bipeds made no reply, and still emitted no emotions whatsoever. The being was beginning to be alarmed about that…

It placed the tenderest shoots just in front of their snouts. Surely they could see them, smell them. But they made no move to eat. The being even tried to feed one, pushing the shoots into its mouth. Maybe they were just weak; the being knew they liked to run around a lot. Maybe…Maybe if they could recover their strength a little, everything would be okay, and it could find out where the rest of the bipeds had gone. But they made no move to eat.

Now fully alarmed, the being examined them, turning its sense of perception on them like x-ray vision, inside and outside. Their internal differentiated parts did not seem to be working; the fluid flowing through their veins had ceased to do so. And the parts of them that had previously produced those wonderful emotions….wasn't functioning.

The being considered. Its two friends were now no different than the rocks and dirt. Yet they had been alive, and joyously emitting emotion. Now they were still, and emitted no emotion.

They had been alive, and now they were not. It sat back, and thought.

It reviewed recent events. The bipeds had been alive before the being sent them a rock. Now they were not alive.

The being was a supremely logical entity. When it finished its calculations, it was confronted by two fundamental, undeniable factors: one, its friends had been alive prior to the asteroid, but were not-alive now. They were dead.

And IT had killed them.

Wailing in anguish, the being fled into the infinite night of space.

{{That is what happened}} concluded the entity. {{I did a bad thing.}}

Raven's head was reeling from the "download" of the images and emotions she'd received. This thing, this entity, had murdered an entire world….all in a spirit of play?

And yet….it hadn't known.

Raven thought fast. The entity was at a kind of crossroads, here. And it was powerful. There might, she conjectured, there just might be certain tactical advantages to letting it stay traumatized to the point of wishing no further contact with mortal beings. Maybe she should encourage it to have nothing further to do with humans, or related beings….

And yet…it was a child. An infant, really, that had acted without knowing the consequences of its own actions. Could she really do that to it, from a moral standpoint? She remembered that her own people, in Azarath, had wanted to kill her when she was born, lest she let Trigon's evil loose upon the worlds of men. She was alive only because the High Priestess, Azar, had spoken up for her, taken her under her wing.

She sighed. No. There was really no question about it. {{Listen to me: yes, what you did was bad. But that doesn't mean you're bad. You acted hastily, without thinking things through. But you acted out of ignorance, not evil. You are not bad.}}

{{Sniff. Truly?}}

{{Truly. Now listen to me…}}

Meanwhile, back in Beast Boy's room, Terra couldn't decide if she wanted to laugh, cry, or throw up. Or some combination of the three.

Beast Boy had been right on the money about his collection. A vast array of movies, old and new, that somehow never made it to the big time. He even had a copy of the original Nosferatu. She didn't think they even made that one any more. It was actually laughable, to see the vampire slinking around the set, trying to look so sinister….things had sure come a long way since then!

They'd been spot-watching various videos, not really watching any of them all the way through. They'd just get to "the good parts," and then move on to the next one. He had a pretty complete horror library. After watching Christopher Lee bare his fangs for about the fifteenth time, she called a halt to it. "I am exhausted," she said, stretching and yawning on Garfield's bed. "Maybe I'll call it a night." She slipped under the sheet. He'd long ago replaced his bunk beds with a regular queen-sized, for which she was grateful.

"Sure, Terra. I'll just be right here." He morphed into a green dog and curled up beside the bed.

"Oh, no. Not the green dog routine. C'mon, Gar. Change back. I want a boyfriend, not man's best friend." Obediently, he changed back. "Uh, Terra…" Scratching his head. There was only one bed in his room.

She patted the bed next to her. "Right here, silly. Don't be afraid."

"It's not fear I'm feeling right now."

"Gar, honey? I know we talked about this, and we agreed to wait, but…dammit, I just want you in bed beside me here. Just…I just want you here. With me. Tonight. 'Kay?" He started to get in when she giggled. "You normally sleep in your uniform?"

"Oh, right. Uh, no. Be right back." He grabbed a pair of sleep pants and dodged into the bathroom, changing in there. Came back out and slid into bed beside her. She snuggled into his bare chest. "Mmmm. I'm glad you aren't one to sleep in a tee shirt or top."

"Hey, no fair. You get to sleep inna tee shirt."

She looked up at him. "Want me to take it off?" she whispered in a seductive voice. "Gotta warn ya: I'm not wearing anything underneath it…" She laughed as he sputtered, unsure what to say or do. "I'm sorry, Gar. I didn't mean to tease you—well, yeah, I guess I did, but… I'll behave." Then she sobered. "Gar? Can we…talk?"

"'Course. What do you want to talk about?"

"About…what happened before. With Slade. Are—are you up for that?"

"If you are."

"Yeah. I, I feel like I owe you an explanation or something."

"You don't."

"My head knows that, but my heart isn't listening. I, I just hope you won't hate me if I tell you I wasn't exactly forced into it."

He curled his index finger under her chin and turned her face up towards his, his expression serious. "Terra. It doesn't matter. I don't care if you were the one who initiated it, you were lost, alone, frightened, and vulnerable. You thought the world had turned against you. Slade took advantage of that, that's all you can say about it. It was no different than if he'd tied you down or something." He paused a moment. "I sure didn't help things any, what with what I said."

She buried her face in his chest, just enjoying being close to him for a moment. I've gotta be the luckiest girl on Earth… "Gar?"

"Yes, Terra?"

"I have a confession to make." He waited. "I, I really…." She fell silent, unsure how to continue. Then the words came out in a rush. "I really wanted my first time to be with you. I mean, I…even tried to imagine it was you," and he could feel the heat radiating from her face as she spoke, pressed up against his chest, "..but, but afterwards, I was kinda glad it wasn't."

"?"

"'Cause it hurt. And there was all this blood…." He could feel tears running down her face and his chest.

"Shhh, Terra, it's okay, it's alright. I know it was bad, but that's over with. You're here, you're safe, and Slade will NEVER have you, not as long as I'm alive."

She was silent for a moment. Then, "Gar? If, if it looks like Slade's gonna get me, will you-*"

"Stop that. That won't happen, I tell you. I'll be here for you." He drew a deep, shuddering breath. "I promise to protect you, Terra. With my life, if it comes to it. I further promise, right here, right now, to love, honor, and cherish you, all the days of my life. Especially cherish."

She was silent for a time. Then, in a shaky voice, "That's..that's…" Her shoulders shook, and he realized she was crying again.

He held her. It felt so good, just to hold her, after all this time. "Shh, it's alright, Terra. Let it out. I'm here for you, and I'm gonna stay here for you. Always. Forever."

To be continued…