Chapter 6

Friday's closing school bell rang at Murakami High, and virtually every student ran down the halls, eager to escape the confines of the classroom for the glorious weekend ahead. Of those that lingered, a blond teen entered the girls' locker room and noted a couple other gossiping girls at the sink farthest from her, but didn't pay them any mind as she ruminated about the Teen Titans and their recent battle.

After what she had witnessed, the girl had been unable to keep her mind on her classes, causing this school week to not go tremendously well for her, especially in chemistry. It wasn't so much the trauma of seeing Starfire swallowed whole that had caused her grades to take a hit, but the fact that she'd spent every waking minute of her free time this week searching all over town in an attempt to locate the Titans doing what they do best...saving lives; and if she were being completely honest with herself, her secret desire was to swoop in and save the day, and once revealed it was her, Terra, that all would be forgiven. However, to her utter dismay, she hadn't come across the Titans anywhere in Jump City since that intense attack at her place of employment.

Even though the Titans were known to blow off steam just like their teenage counterparts, they didn't typically go on vacation when trouble was afoot; so where were they? It's not like they've scattered to the ends of the Earth, right? she thought. Oh, who am I kidding? The Teen Titans could have flown off to a whole other planet for all I know!

Distancing herself from the girls that crowded the far row of sinks, she gazed at herself in the mirror for what seemed like an eternity, but her blue eyes merely stared back, giving her absolutely no answers to her unspoken questions. Seemingly subconsciously, the girl flipped her hair, changing her part from the center to the left. When she was satisfied with the results, she ripped out five sheets of paper from her notebook and began writing goodbye notes: one to her high school principal saying that she was going to be withdrawing from school, one to each of her school friends letting them know she would not be there to hang out with them anymore, one to her employer explaining that she was quitting her job, and one to the landlord of her apartment, notifying him she was breaking her lease. Though she had no luck up to this point in locating the team, she had decided that if she couldn't find them or she weren't welcomed back with open arms, the worst that would befall her is that she would return to school and this new life she had created for herself. Strategically sound or not, this was how she was going to proceed.

As she opened her locker to first neatly stack her school books, gym clothes, and school laptop and then to gather up her few personal belongings, a voice suddenly taunted, Tired of doing your homework?

She had been hearing this voice ever since she had bore witness to the Titans' recent battle. Its foreboding tone gave her the impression that it knew her greatest weaknesses, but how was this possible? Where had the voice even come from? Lately, it seemed to her as if literally everything were telling her to return to the Teen Titans; not only were they most likely the only ones who would know how to rid her mind of this creepy voice, but she also desperately desired to help the team.

It's true she'd had a great time with her high school friends, but currently only two thoughts dominated her every waking hour: Where are they, and will I be welcomed back on the team once I find them?

Lost in her own world, the blond had not realized that the two girls chatting nearby were her best friends, Dionne and Amber, and only now because Amber directed a question to both her and Dionne: "Hey, do you two want to have a girl's night out tomorrow? We could go see that new movie that's coming out!"

"Totally!" Dionne replied enthusiastically.

"Actually, I'm not…. I can't...," the blond girl stammered. "I hopefully won't be returning to school," she finally managed.

"What are you talking about?" Dionne asked in confusion. "Why wouldn't you come back? You can't honestly think you're not going to graduate after bombing that last chemistry exam, right? I mean, one lousy test isn't going to mess with your GPA, seriously."

Taking a deep breath, she opted for a full confession to her two faithful friends who deserved to know the truth, "I'm not...who you think I am, Dionne." Before allowing either one to interrupt her, she rapidly blurted out what she had been longing to tell her friends since the battle against the Lufetahnese had taken place, "I'm Terra, the Teen Titan." With this announcement, Dionne's face crinkled in scrutiny while Amber smirked and rolled her eyes as if to say, 'Yeah, and I'm the queen of England.'

"I'm hoping to rejoin the team," she continued, her tone reflecting her sincerity that this was not a gag. Now, both girlfriends stared at her as if she'd lost her everloving mind, but she carried on. "You two were my best friends here," she declared with a sentimental smile, using the past tense as if this were the end of their friendship, "but there's somewhere else I'm supposed to be, somewhere else I truly belong." Understanding that they were most likely confused and uncertain, she promised, "I'll never forget you and all the fun times we've had together."

She sighed as if her lungs were a release valve for all the sadness and second-guessing she was experiencing. Sometimes all the air in the room was not enough to deal with goodbyes, but she had to move forward with her life so she forced herself to slip both precious friends the personalized notes she had just finished writing moments earlier. "Good-bye," was all she offered as closure to the two people who had mattered most to her when she was just another teenager at Murakami High and not Terra, the Teen Titan. Then, without any more hesitation or indecision, she took a deep breath, turned, and walked away from this life she had come to enjoy.

First things first, she attempted to locate the principal, but he was MIA, so Terra headed to the school's mail room and slipped her note to him into his personal cubby, and then off she went to deliver the remaining letters to her landlord and her boss. She could have just sent them all emails, but that seemed so impersonal, and she was glad for the time it gave her to wrap her mind around the closing of this chapter in her life.

With her goodbyes complete and her knapsack packed, she set out to go underground. It had taken all week, after seeing the final battle against the white monster, to come to this decision; but now, standing alone, she understood deep down that destiny had come calling and she was answering back. But first, she resolved to retrieve something eight hundred meters below ground, to prove not only to the Teen Titans but also to herself that she was a part of the team.

As Terra peered inside the enormously intimidating headquarters, she shivered almost imperceptibly. She didn't like this lair; it represented all her worst mistakes. The fact that she now roamed free after somehow having been magically resurrected still befuddled her. At this point, she wouldn't put it past Slade to have been brought back to life himself, even though she and the Teen Titans had seen him drown, or rather melt, to his demise in volcanic lava.

Doing her best to shake off any bad vibes, Terra swiftly maneuvered her way through the base, noiselessly treading as if she were walking on tiptoes. Eventually, she made her way to a specific stone pedestal, more precisely to the one where she had come to rest as a statue. Although the plaque on the front of the pedestal had caught her eye when she had been liberated all that time ago, she had not paused to really absorb the three lines during her speedy escape, because, at that point, all she had cared about was her freedom and forgetting her past. Now, taking her time, she was able to focus on the words, her heart breaking a bit as she read them aloud:

Terra

A Teen Titan

A True Friend

Wiping away the mist forming at the corners of her eyes, she became resolute; she knew what she must do even as she stingingly recalled the brief squabble between Robin and Beast Boy in the supermarket: "I highly doubt it's working for Slade now, since he already learned enough about us through Terra," Robin had said.

"Don't ever insult her!" Beast Boy had retorted defensively.

That simple exchange made her waiver. Have I reformed? Am I a good person? I tried to redeem myself when I defeated Slade and saved the entire city from the volcano, but is that enough? Can I ever make up for all my past wrongdoings?

As she fretted over her regrets, Beast Boy's words played back to her: It's your life, Terra. Your choice. It's never too late to change. The schoolgirl, encouraged by those words, hesitantly raised her arm, focusing on the plaque. Her eyes began to glow bright yellow, her hands emitting a similar aura as she levitated the plaque and then clutched it to her chest. As if the words engraved on it gave her strength, she grew more confident to face her former family. Terra harnessed her powers and, holding the plaque in her hands, wielded the sentimental but useful piece of stone to fly toward Titans Tower, all the while, in her heart, believing that she would be welcomed back. As she soared through the sky, she only allowed one thought to run through her mind: I am Terra, a Teen Titan, a true friend!

The week when Terra was searching for but unable to locate the Teen Titans after watching them battle at her place of employment is when Trouble in Tokyo entwines with my storyline.

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