AN: I have some more of Schisma to post, but as I delve into the darker side of things in the latest chapter of that, I'm getting flooded with more ideas, especially about the relationship between Raven and Terra.
Disclaimer: You ask me if I own the Titans and I say, no, no, no.
Back to Black— Amy Winehouse
After the world ended, she came back.
With everyone else on earth as statues, reanimating one more person was no issue at all, really. To this day, I don't know if it was an unconscious desire on my part to make amends with her, or if it was simply an overflow of power.
Whatever the case, when she showed up outside our Tower late one night, I felt her presence immediately. Not many people had the ability or audacity to reach our island, so an extra soul at that proximity set off some definite warning bells.
There was no doubt it was her; few girls have that particular shade of blonde hair, or that much raw, unbridled terror at the sight of me floating down from the Tower.
Calming her down enough to talk was no easy task, but overall, it paid off. As it turns out, she wanted to say one last goodbye to everyone before starting a new life.
I couldn't have that.
Instead, I helped her create that new life, a far better one than she could possibly have managed on her own. Papers for an identity were fairly simple to purchase with the nest egg she'd kept in her backpack at Slade's hideout, but placing her in a loving family took quite a bit of empathic suggestion. To be honest, it bordered on brainwashing.
She'd only ever wanted to be normal, and that's what I offered her: normalcy, with the condition that she disappear from our lives forever, without a goodbye.
You see, I'm not a good person. Everyone has selfish impulses, but when I truly want something, I will always get it. Always.
And I wanted you.
There was a little spot of color growing in my heart. Somehow, over the years, you had managed to burst through all my defenses and track your little green paw prints through there. Ever since, that color has been growing.
If she came back to see the Titans, I knew there would be a tearful reconciliation, someone would talk her into staying, and things would eventually go back to the way they were. You'd go back to her, and I'd go back to black. The would be no more spots of color lighting up my life; you would be hers, and no one else in this world is dumb enough to try.
Left to themselves, things tend to stay largely the same; inertia is a powerful force. But I'm more powerful.
Now that you've found her, months later, I'm stroking you to sleep in my lap as a cat, whispering comforting words softly enough that I know only you can hear them. And though you'll never learn the truth, I know that all the pain and confusion you're feeling is my fault.
I'm the reason things changed... and I'm not sorry.