(A/N: I'm back! Next chapter will be very intense, so here's a cute segment about friendship and bonding to give you a break from Robin's angst. Don't worry, there will be plenty more next time I update. Mwahaha. Until then, enjoy the happiness!)

The sky over the roofs of Jump City was dark, dotted with tiny, glistening stars. Most residents of the city had returned home and gone to sleep by now, with a few exceptions still awake in Titans Tower. Cyborg had plugged himself in to recharge about an hour ago. Raven had retreated into her dark bedroom without a sound. Kim Possible had given her boyfriend a goodnight kiss on the cheek, phoned her father to ensure that yes, she was still at Titans Tower, yes, she was completely safe, and no, there was nothing scandalous going on. She then went back into Terra's old room and turned out the lights. Rufus curled up on Ron's pillow in Beast Boy's room, and Silkie did the same for Starfire. With a nervous glance toward the still shut door of the evidence room, Starfire also retreated into her pink bedroom. She did not sleep or have any intention to do so. She was giving Robin exactly one hour to come out before she would let herself worry. Surely he had just lost track of time. That left two boys awake in the Tower: Beast Boy and Ron Stoppable.

Ron, having finished brushing his teeth in one of the Tower's few bathrooms, creaked open the door to BB's messy room. He found his green friend hanging upside down off the top bunk with a goofy smile on his face, chatting on the phone.

"I know, right? Some people just don't get it!" Beast Boy expressed to whoever was on the other end of the call. "You should see the looks I get when I say that."

"Say what?" Ron asked, looking at him quizzically.

Beast Boy put his hand over the phone. "It's Tara," he whispered excitedly. "She's vegetarian too!" He returned to his conversation with the blonde cheerleader. "Hey, do you like tofu? You haven't? No way! Uh huh…okay…dude, the moment you can get over here, I have to show you this great tofu place downtown…Of course you'll like it. Tofu is, like, life itself."

Ron tried hard not to laugh as he put on his pajamas and listened. Did he and Kim really sound this dorky when they called each other? Probably, he figured.

"Great…okay…yeah, it's late over here, so I've got to call it a night. It's probably pretty late over there too…Okay. Nice talking to you. Goodbye!" He hung up and pulled himself up so that he was sitting upright on his top bunk, a big grin resting on his green face.

"So…some real sparks flying between you and Tara, huh?" Ron asked him.

"What?"

"Well," he explained, "you two met literally one day ago and I think you've called each other at least six times. Probably more. That's serious stuff."

Beast Boy looked a little nervous. "Is it?"

Ron sat down on his bottom bunk and replied, "Well, yeah. You shouldn't be worried about her, though. Tara's a cool girl. She actually had a crush on me freshman year. No worries, though, man, she got over it and I'm only interested in Kim, so it's not awkweird or anything."

"Awkweird," Beast Boy repeated.

"Yeah. It's like awkward and weird, but at the same time. Do you superheroes never use teen lingo?" Beast Boy didn't respond. After a few moments, Ron started to feel some concern. "You okay up there, BB?"

"Yeah, it's just…I don't know." Beast Boy's green shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh. "Tara's cool and all that, and she laughs at my jokes, and that's great, but I just don't know if…well…did Raven ever tell you about the first Terra?"

"Nope," Ron shook his head. "Everybody was talking about her earlier. Who is she anyway?"

"A friend," Beast Boy said. Ron could not see his friend's face, but his tone of voice was coated in sad memories. "A good friend, actually. Raven might disagree. She never seemed to like her much."

"Raven doesn't seem to like a lot of people."

"You got that right," BB laughed, then became serious again. "But Terra was awesome. She was one of us, and she could move the earth with her superpowers. She was nice, funny, smart, and a whole bunch of other cool things. Anyway, Slade tricked her into working for him. I don't care what anyone else says. He did trick her. He must have. She betrayed us to fight for him, and she nearly destroyed us too. At the last second, she changed her mind and destroyed Slade instead. She really was good deep down, I know it. It was totally obvious."

"Okay, so where is she now?"

Beast Boy thought for a bit about how to explain it. Even he didn't completely understand. "In defeating Slade, Terra had to sacrifice herself. She turned into a stone statue. After all the chaos was over, I visited her statue a lot. We put a plaque there for her and everything. Then, one day, I saw her at a local high school. I knew it was her. It had to be. She looked the same, talked the same, laughed the same, I mean, come on! Who else could it be? I even checked her statue, and it was gone! But she said she didn't remember anything about the Titans and that she didn't have powers. I took her to the Tower to see if she'd recognize it, but she didn't. At least, she didn't say she did. In the end, I offered a chance to get back on the team, and she turned it down. I haven't seen her since, but I know she's still out there somewhere. That's who I thought Middleton Tara was at the football game. They look a lot alike."

Ron leaned back on his pillow and processed what Beast Boy had just told him. "Hm…you think Terra Number One had an identical twin or something? That would explain a lot."

"No way, dude. She told us she didn't have any family."

"Could have been lying. Maybe there was a good twin and an evil twin and when one got turned into stone, then…"

"No!" Beast Boy jumped to the floor and stood there defiantly. "She wasn't an evil twin! She wasn't really even evil. The only time she lied to us was when Slade got to her. We were the only family she had. Everybody before we met her shut her out because she couldn't totally control her powers, so she thought Slade could help her with her problem, but she made a mistake and she wasn't really a liar on the inside, I know it!"

"Are you sure, though? I mean, seriously, the identical twins theory would explain, like, everything. Except Tara from Middleton because I don't think…"

"It's not about the easy explanation," Beast Boy argued. "It's about the truth."

"Okay, dude. I got it. No identical twins," Ron conceded. "But what does this have to do with…oooh, I get it," he suddenly realized. "You and Terra were a couple, right?"

Beast Boy looked down, then back at Ron. "Kinda. We went out once. I liked her a lot."

Ron stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm…I see now. So you're not sure if you've moved on enough from Terra Number One to start anything serious with Tara Number Two."

Beast Boy shrugged, "Basically. The other Titans all think I'm just pretending this Tara is the first Terra because I can't move on yet, especially Raven. They think I'm 'immature' or something. Well, maybe I am, but I know what's real and what's fake. I think Tara's nice and I want to get to know her better, but if the first Terra's still out there somewhere…I just don't know, dude."

"Wow." Ron slumped back onto his lumpy pillow. "That was unexpectedly deep."

Beast Boy chuckled a bit. "Ha ha, yeah. If I get much deeper, I'll start sounding like Raven." As a joke, he transformed into a raven and ducked under the top bunk, circling around Ron's head a couple of times before dropping down beside him and resuming human form.

"You have got to tell me how you got your superpowers," Ron told his friend, scooting over to make more room for him. "Was it magic? Or science? From my experience, those are pretty much the only two options."

"Science, dude," BB said, relaxing a lot now that the discussion had turned lighter. "Genetic manipulation. My DNA can shift around into the code for any animal on earth, and probably off the earth too."

"Really? Ooh! Do a platypus!"

Beast Boy instantly changed into the shape of a green cross between a beaver and a duck.

"Wow," Ron said, in awe. "You know, I've always wondered what it's like to be a platypus. It's like you're a mammal with a beaver tail, but you have a duck bill and lay eggs too. They're like the most indecisive animals in existence, but nobody's telling them 'you have to be a beaver' or 'you have to be a duck'. They just float along being platypuses, and it's totally badical!"

Beast Boy shifted back to his normal shape. "Dude, you have a weird way of looking at things," he commented.

"Just my essential Ron-ness coming out," the blonde boy said proudly. "I just say what I want to say, do what I want to do, and think what I want to think. There are only a few gifted individuals capable of understanding my genius, but the rest will come around, you know, eventually."

"Oh yeah?" Beast Boy grinned. "So what exactly does your 'essential Ron-ness' think right now?"

Ron had a look on his face like a philosopher deep in thought. "My essential Ron-ness thinks…that…I need cheese puffs." He looked down sadly at his stomach.

BB laughed and jumped out of the bed. "Dude! You had, like, four slices of pizza! Kudos for not eating meat, though," he added as he mounted his top bunk.

"Hey, today I have been through a car chase, a brutal training exercise, and still have to kick Cyborg's butt at something major tomorrow. Give me a break!"

"Uh huh. Sure." He reached down and hit the lights. "Well, I'm going to sleep. We've got to chase Slade and Shego around in the morning, and I am so not looking forward to dealing with Captain Obsession."

Ron craned his neck up to look at his teammate. "Oh come on, Robin isn't that bad. He's a total hero."

"You mean he's your total hero. He's a great leader and loyal friend, but sometimes the whole obsessed-with-Slade thing drives us all nuts."

Ron ducked back into his bed and put his head on the pillow. "I guess he is a little uptight. Maybe he could take a lesson from the Ron Stoppable school of going with the flow."

"Yeah. That's gonna happen. G'night!"

"Night!"

Silence descended into the dark room. Ron felt his eyelids getting heavier and he drifted off. The objects in the, admittedly very messy, room became blurrier and blurrier until…

A giant green monkey face popped into the middle of his field of vision!

"Aah!" Ron screeched, sitting up so hard that he hit his head on the top bunk. "Evil green monkey!"

The monkey laughed and morphed into the familiar shape of a certain green skinned, pointy eared boy. "I got you so good that time!" Beast Boy hooted. Ron reached onto the floor and through a wad of socks at him. He missed, but Beast Boy was now finished with his little prank and stayed up on his top bunk. "Sorry, dude, I couldn't resist. Ha ha! Good night, Ron!"

"Good night, grass stain," Ron replied, picking a name that he had heard Cyborg use before out of annoyance.

Silence descended again, for real this time. Both boys began to drift off, their consciousness fading into the black stillness of the night…

"Beast Boy?" Ron whispered.

"Yeah?" BB breathed back, barely awake.

"I still want cheese puffs."

The green one groaned, "Dude, just get up and get some. The door is literally right in front of you."

Ron quietly slid off the surface of the bunk and stood up. "You want any?" he asked, before turning the doorknob. Beast Boy would normally have said yes, but he was already fast asleep, curled up in a green ball on his bunk. Ron opened the door, slipped out, and closed it without another sound.