Souls

As the car skidded along the main road and Raven's flesh continued to burn in pain, they reached their destination. The light faded through the stained-glass windows as an outcropping jutted from the heart of Slade's previous lair. A small statue stood there - long hair flowing in the breeze, arms spread wide bracing for the worst to come. A withered, brown bouquet of dying flowers lay at her feet, and a plaque was set below that, reading:

TERRA

A TEEN TITAN

A TRUE FRIEND

Starfire pulled out the magical ingredients one cannot describe as "from this world". She handed them to Raven and stared at the petrified Terra's figure in sadness.

Raven fell promptly to the ground, sitting cross-legged with the chalices surrounding her. She pulled a glinting knife from the interior of her cloak, and without warning, it lashed out at her free upper arm, slicing it open with a fresh wound from which blood started to trickle slowly.

The other Titans looked horrified, but only for a second as they realized that it was a small price to pay. She picked up a vial of white powder and poured it into a large glass bowl at the center. She dabbed her cut with a finger and stirred it in with the lavender dust she was adding to the concoction.

As the last act, Raven held the bowl in her hands and tossed the contents into the air, as a thick shower of stardust fell down upon everything in sight.

It wasn't over yet, though. Raven muttered slowly in the beautiful Kaean tongue.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos... Tean oraltarez alentaro... Gaendo maehes renta evyanai taren!"

A mass of smoke boiled from the ashes scattered everywhere and swirled above the heads of the Teen Titans and the frozen young Terra, then gathered around her. A flash blinded the eyes of the team, but they knew whatever Raven was doing, it had worked.

A figure of golden light stepped forth once their view had faded back. It was Terra, but only her spirit, a glowing silhouette. Her body was still trapped in its stone encasement. But she smiled lovingly at the team.

"I'm free."

"Not yet," Robin observed. "Just partially."

"It's cool. I can wait. I'm just so glad to see you guys again! It's been what, almost two years?"

"Long time with nothin' happening," Cyborg remarked. He reached out to give Terra a high-five, but his hand slipped right through her.

Puzzled, the other Titans all looked at Raven as if she knew why that happened.

"You cannot touch her yet," the cloaked Titan answered their silent confusion. "She has no body."

"Oh well," Terra shrugged. She seemed so carefree compared to the distressed girl they had known so long ago.

"It has been a long time, though," the earthmover remarked.

Her words, though happy, seemed far-off and foreign. Almost like everything she did existed in another realm; like the spell Raven cast was what barely brought her faint image and voice into the real world.

"So, almost two years," she repeated. "Geez, how old are you guys now?"

"Fourteen," squeaked Beast Boy.

"Fifteen," answered Robin.

"Eighteen, y'all! I'm legal!" exclaimed Cyborg.

"Zem'br'akk!" Starfire giggled. All heads turned to look at her, obviously not understanding the alien timekeeping system.

"On my world, this is seventeen years," she explained. The alien was blushing slightly.

"And, uh..." Robin began.

Raven came up behind him and finished his sentence. "I just turned sixteen." She looked down at the ground coyly as she said this.

"Cool," Terra remarked. "I... I'm only asking to remember how long it's been. I don't even remember anything that happened besides hanging out with you guys. You all seem the same."

She scratched her barely-visible head in awkward silence.

She doesn't remember, Beast Boy told himself. This was probably a good thing.

"No way. I'm way taller now," he boasted, trying to lighten the mood.

Raven slumped forward into Cyborg's arms again. "Kaean spells really take it out of me," she huffed.

"Come on Terra, come back to the tower with us!" Beast Boy yelped hurriedly.

"She can't," Raven told him as she shook her head a little. "She's still bound to her statue. She can't eat or fight until she gets a real body again."

Beast Boy looked very disappointed, but Terra gave what they made out to be a smile.

"It's okay. I'll just stay here. You can go back home and chill for the night."

As she said this, the jewels on Raven's cloak and Starfire's neckplate, Cyborg's mechanical eyes, Robin's communicator, and Beast Boy's belt all began to flash red wildly.

That meant only one thing: trouble. Raven sighed wearily.

"I'm too tired," she told the others, and staggered towards the T-Car. "I'll wait."

"But Raven—" Cyborg and Terra stopped Beast Boy before he could tell Raven that she was needed.

"Y'all can stay there while we bring down Mynde. My sensors can tell where he is and stuff," Cyborg comforted.

"Yeah. It's for the best," Beast Boy added.

Raven's eyes widened. "M-Mynde? But he'll suck your minds out like last time! I have to go with you."

She unbuckled her seatbelt, but Cyborg stuck his head in through the window and scowled.

"Alright... I'll stay here. But if you really need me, I—"

This time, Robin stopped her statement. "Mynde might be insane, but he's not that dangerous. We'll be fine."

"But he'll be sure to steal your mind—"

"He's not stealing anything. I promise."

Raven nodded. She trusted her leader to bring down the flexible mime, who often robbed from banks and jewelry stores undetected.

The rest of the team got in with her, while the vision of Terra looked at them with eyes that said "Go. Your city needs you."

The car sped out downtown and skidded to a halt when a mass of twisting limbs shrouded in mist was bubbling away from the other direction.