III. Sa Likod

Terra was inside Robin's room. She knew she wasn't supposed to be inside his room without permission but she had slipped inside when Robin went training with Cyborg and Beast Boy. She had gone inside because of answers and curiosity, curiosity mostly.

She knew that Robin had tons of pictures, newspaper clippings, and files from wherever he got them. She wanted answers to the murder, but also, she wanted to see what he had in his room (she had gone in once but that was when she was working for Slade and she didn't have time to enjoy her visit). Terra was shocked to see all the horrific photos he had.

She twisted some strands of hair with her index finger at the same time she was chewing on her lower lip and staring at the gory pictures on Robin's wall. She stared at the photographs with wide eyes, first feeling some kind of fear and disgust then curiosity her fear forgotten at the time being. But she was still twisting her hair with her finger.

Stop twisting…stop twisting…she willed herself, but continued to twirl the strands of hair.

She had come upon one of Slade's pictures. She paused and even stopped twisting her hair. The picture of Slade was the regular size of what a photo would be, he was masked of course and only one eye was visible. The thing that disturbed Terra was that Slade appeared to be staring right at her, his eyes were cold, calculating as always and he seemed to be smiling, even with his face covered and only one eye visible, his eye had a certain look that behind the mask he was smiling secretly at her. Something behind the smile…something in the back of his mind…

Her hand came up to the picture and ripped it off the wall. Ripping it then throwing the remains roughly on the floor, not thinking about Robin and what importance it held to him. She didn't realize that tears started to flow down her cheeks right when she saw the picture of Slade. Placing her booted foot against the pieces that fell to the ground she crushed it and twisted her foot on top of it.

Stop twisting…stop twisting…

"Stop twisting me around, you fucking bastard…" she whispered and let out a little sob and wiped her tears.

She shook her head and scanned the rest of the photos. She didn't care what anger Robin would feel when he found someone had ripped up the photo he had of Slade. He would never found out who had done it and she was as sure as him that he had wanted to do the same thing himself, he just didn't have the balls to do it for some reason.

Terra came upon the photos she was looking for. The photos of the drowned girl had their own section on the wall. There were pictures of the girl as she was being covered by a white sheet while she lay on the stretcher, one of her as she floated on the water, face down and black, stringy hair pooling around her head, one as they carried the stretcher away. Terra had seen all of those pictures before, they were all old news. She looked at the section of this wall up and down. Checking to see if she missed anything and just as she thought there was one that she had looked over.

This was a perfect picture of the girl before her death. The girl was smiling shyly at the camera, her chin tilted toward her chest, and some strands of black hair fell onto her face. The girl's cheeks were a little flushed and her lips were thin but had a nice pink color. Her brown eyes look shyly up at Terra, kind of uncertain but confident looking in a way.

Terra felt her hand slowly rising to the picture. She heard a ringing somewhere, she wasn't sure where it came from. But something kept hearing the ringing in her head and the ringing seemed to block out any other thought. She watched her fingers trace the outline of the girls face, then her hair, then ever so slowly came to trace the girl's pink lips, back and forth her fingers glided along the photo, her eyelids felt heavy and all she saw was the girl's face, and her lips, and her hair, and she swore that she could actually feel the girl's hair skin and hair and lips…

"Ahem."

The clear sound of someone intruding snapped Terra out of her trance and she jerked her hand away from the picture. She held her hand securely against her chest, heat was rising to her cheeks and she suddenly felt like she had been doing something wrong or unacceptable. And in a way…she had.

Raven stood by the doorway, once again garnished in her cape and leotard. Her hood hid her face again, but she raised her hands and slid the hood off her head. Now, shadows were well away from her face and her pale skin stood out in the dark hallway. Terra almost thought that Raven's face was glowing. But that was such a silly thought.

Raven had just passed by and was heading for her room, but she saw that Robin's door was ajar. She had just seen Robin training in the gym with Cyborg, Starfire had been watching as well and Beast Boy was probably off somewhere else, and Raven was sure that that somewhere else was surely not in Robin's room. She hadn't exactly caught what Terra was doing. She had called Terra's attention before she could figure it out.

Her eyes moved to where Terra was standing, hands held against her chest, head down and eyes looking to the sides and not at her. Terra looked like a little girl ready to be scolded by her parents. This made Raven smirk a little. A ripped photo of Slade was a few inches away from her feet, and the picture of the murdered girl was on the wall right in front of Terra. Raven remembered seeing Terra examine some photo on the wall before she had intruded. It was quite easy to put two and two together.

Striding over to Terra, Raven said nothing as she bent over and picked up a piece of Slade's torn up picture. She stood up again and let the piece fall from her dainty fingers and flutter back down to the ground. She glanced at the victim's photo for a moment and brought her gaze back to Terra.

"Don't you think Robin will be angry?" Raven said and hinted at the torn picture.

Terra shrugged a little. "Probably, but it wouldn't matter since he wouldn't know who done it."

Raven shrugged as well. She threw a glance at the girl's picture one last time and went over to sit in a chair that was thrown aside in a corner. When she sat Raven's figure was once again hidden by the shadows. Terra let her hands slowly fall to her sides. Raven probably didn't know what she had been doing to the girl's photo earlier, that or she didn't care.

"Do you know anything about the girl?" came Raven's voice from the corner of the shadows.

Terra shook her head. "Not a clue. How 'bout you? Know anything?"

"The girl's name was Georgia Mills. She came to stay here for the summer with her Grandparents. I heard she's from Gotham, nice place to choose for the summer, don't you think? Jump City seems like the best place for a vacation. Unfortunately, it didn't end well for her," as Raven spoke, Terra moved from her spot to Robin's table. She moved the newspaper clippings and documents and papers aside and sat on it. Terra listened carefully to everything Raven said, and all the while Raven remained hidden in the shadows, no sound of fidgeting or moving came from her besides the sound of her voice. It bothered Terra a bit. She thought that Raven did that on purpose to freak people out somehow.

"From what I heard, Georgia had just turned fifteen last January 23. Slim, short, and a bit on the brittle side. She was just 4'11. Spent most of her time reading and studying, she was never really that healthy either, her parents told Robin that she easily got sick," Raven tilted her head a little to the side and crossed her arms over her chest, "she liked being called 'Greggy' by her friends, not that she had many. She wasn't very outgoing."

Terra gazed at Raven's shadowed form with curiosity. "Sounds like you know her well. Were you guys friends or something?"

Raven gave an exasperated sigh. "She lived in Gotham. I don't go to Gotham very often. In fact, I almost never go to Gotham. It was 'Greggy's' first time in Jump City. You guys know almost everything about me. So how could we be friends? And didn't I just mention that the information was given to Robin? So naturally it would be passed on to every other member of the group."

"Oh." Was all Terra said.

Raven stared intently at Terra, her eyes had dark circles under them, her shoulders slumped, and her hair mussed. It looked as though she hadn't slept in two weeks and wasn't even aware that she didn't need it. Raven felt pity for her.

"Terra, you need to get used to it," Raven said gravely.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Terra asked, confused, eyes big and innocent.

"You'll have to get used to death. If we are to protect this city you should be aware that death happens all the time, to both the wicked and innocent. Get used to the pale, dead faces of the innocent because you will be seeing them more often."

"I…I know. I am used to seeing dead guys…or at least I thought I was…It's just…it's just that I've never seen an innocent person's dead body…the body of somebody who wasn't guilty of anything. The bad guys sure, I don't mind seeing a ton of their dead bodies heaped up in a pile, but not the blameless…I don't think I can, I don't ever want to get used to it..." Terra had her head down and her eyes look wearier than earlier. Talk made her weary, thinking made her weary, death made her weary.

Raven finally rose from the shadows and looked Terra in the eye, though tired Terra stared straight at her as well. The light was upon Raven's face again and was clearly seen by Terra. "Get used to it, Terra. In your boyfriend's own words, get real, this is reality, Terra. And it isn't anything pretty. It's mean and ugly as hell."

As Raven finished she walked out of Robin's room and left Terra sitting on Robin's desk with her head down, hands between her legs, and mind as messy as her bedroom.

Terra lay in bed with her earphones blaring. She sang along with a tiny voice, and her lids were slowly dropping but she tried to keep them open…but they were just so heavy…

"So this is how you mend…on intricate floors…a lovely way to sow…all the slits inside you…" she sang with s sleepy voice.

Before she drifted off to a deep sleep she saw the face of the late Georgia Mills in her head. The picture of her shy, smiling face floated around the dark walls of Terra's room.

Before her eyes finally shut she mumbled, "I've seen her before…"

AN: I'm still alive! But inspiration hasn't come yet…give me a muse…

Please go here--- http/ www. soundclick .com/bands/1/kjwanmusic. htm

That's the song that inspired the whole fic. Please, listen to it!