Second Chances, a teen titans fanfic

Title: Second Chances

Author: A Name Goes Here

Rating: PG-13 (could probably pass for PG)

Summary: Everyone makes mistakes, some are worse than others. But, when you make one of the worst mistakes of your life and someone offers you a second chance, what can you do?

Disclaimer: not mine.

Thunder rumbled ominously, pelting Titan Tower and the rest of Jump City, with an ice-cold rain. Even though it was very nearly three in the morning and all of the other Titans were fast asleep, there was one violet-haired sorceress that stared apprehensively down at the worn and tattered pages of one of her ancient books. Right there, right in front of her, written in the beautiful, flowing script of a language that she had nearly forgotten on her time on earth, was the answer to one of the questions that had been haunting them for the longest time. Biting her bottom lip anxiously, Raven scanned the title of the page over and over, as if expecting that it would change.

'Flesh From Stone.'

Terra…

It was right in front of her, taunting her, testing her, asking her if she could be brave enough to bring back the one girl who had betrayed them all, but at the last moment did the last thing and had ultimately sacrificed herself in the process.

Terra…

Raven had promised them all, Beast Boy in particular; that she would search through every single book and every single scroll she had in her possession to find some sort of cure for their friend. Now that she had it, though, part of her wondered if it was really a good idea. The normally cheerful blonde teen had quickly became one of the Titans once everything had settled down, but none of them realized that she had been working for Slade. What if…what if she was brought back? Terra had been stone for over a year now and so much had happened; what if she couldn't adjust to everything and sought the easy way out once more, with Slade- or someone worse…

I promised them…and myself, long ago, that if I found the cure, that I would try it…

Scowling darkly, the empath marked the page with a scrap of paper and began to gather up the necessary materials for the no doubt stupid thing she was about to do. If this worked, so many things would change around the Tower. Everyone was still hurt by what their friend had done; Starfire had cried for hours once they had returned home, openly mourning the loss they had all suffered. Cyborg had thrown himself into his work, searching his data banks as well as the internet for any information on what they could do. Robin hadn't said anything, but it was obvious that he was just as angry and hurt by the girl's betrayal. Beast Boy was depressed for weeks and didn't try to hide it. Raven herself had done a mix of what all of the other Titans had done; she had refused to speak about it, but she still worked through her books and scrolls to find a cure. Not that she would ever admit it to any of the other Titans, but once she had come oh-so-close to simply letting her feelings get the best of her and lash out in a mix of anger and sadness.

Please let me be doing the right thing…

Once the last of the materials needed were in her hands, Raven whispered her chant under her breath and moments later the unmistakable form of a glowing, black raven rose above the Tower, wings spread, flying toward the inner city.

Everything looked the same as it had a year ago; fresh flowers lay at the base of the statue- no doubt from Beast Boy, who came almost weekly- and there was still the vague light that came from an unknown source, throwing the cave into shadows. At the middle stood the statue, a soon to be person, assuming everything went well.

The girl's arms were stretched out, her face tilted up with an expression of both resigned horror and sadness.

There had to have been something we could have done to stop this…

Raven jerked her gaze away and focused on the task at hand. Twin bottles of salt were uncorked and a circle of protection was drawn around both the statue and the sorceress. Absently, she traced runes of safety in the air where they glowed brightly and then fell to the ground still glowing. The rest of the ritual was relatively easy, only requiring her to set a few more things up and then she was standing before Terra, biting her lip.

A promise is a promise.

Crossing her legs, Raven floated in the air, her eyes closed, her breathing slowing down as she found her center.

"Azarath," she whispered, "Metrion," swallowing hard, she managed the last word, "Zinthos."

She was on a beach, barefoot and in casual clothes- clothes she would never be caught dead or alive in, under normal circumstances. The air was salty and over-head seagulls called to one and other loudly, making Raven narrow her eyes in irritation. The beach was beautiful, but unfamiliar, definitely nowhere near Titan Tower.

"What. The. Hell." A stunned voice from behind her made Raven turn around and blink as she took in the sight of the familiar girl wearing cut-off shorts and a plain blue t-shirt. "No way."

"Terra."

"I repeat- what the hell? How- you aren't supposed to- wow, I so missed something didn't I?" Terra blinked and shook her head, her short blonde hair fanning out and then falling back into place. "You're inside my mind, right?"

"In a way." Raven shrugged, meeting the other girl's bright blue eyes. "I have an… offer, of sorts. It's been over a year, Terra and we've all tried to find a way to reverse this…" Trying to think of how to put this, the empath shifted uncomfortably. "I think I've found a way to reverse it… if you're interested."

Terra blinked. "You-you found a way for me to not be…" Shock was evident in both her voice and on her face. "You're not a figment of my imagination, or something, right? You're real and I'm not just going crazier than I already am?"

"I'm real." Holding out her hands and studying them, Raven sighed. "Terra, do you want this or-"

A loud, girlish squeal came from Terra and suddenly, Raven found herself being smothered by an excited young woman.

"Oh god, yes. You're real, and you're serious, you're real and…" The embrace ended suddenly as the earth mover jerked back, biting her lip guiltily. "Raven, everyone else… I betrayed everyone, I tried to kill all of you, I… there's no way that they'd forgive me, I've done way to much that…"

"You weren't there; you didn't see all of them… Trust is easy to break, but it can be regained. I can't promise you that everything is going to be okay, because it won't. I'm not going to make this sound good- you betrayed us, Terra." Raven's violet eyes narrowed. "You found our weaknesses, exploited them, and tried to kill each and every one of us. You almost destroyed the city. You lied to all of us. You-"

"I know," Terra swallowed hard, blinking back tears. "Damn it, Raven, I know what I did."

"Do you really? Do you understand everything we went through, because of you? I want you to think hard about that, because I swear-" she paused, fists clenching tightly. "We all know what you did, but believe it or not, we're your friends. Anyway, they'll probably forgive you, in a way." Raven brushed back an errant strand of hair and crossed her arms.

"What about you, Raven?" Terra took a step forward, biting her lip. "You said that they would probably forgive me, but do you think you ever will?"

To be honest, Raven thought uneasily, she probably would forgive Terra, if she hadn't done so already. "We'll see. I'm bringing you back, aren't I?"

"Yeah, yeah you are," Terra sighed shakily and offered Raven a ghost of her former smile. "So, you gonna do this fancy-shmancy magic shit, or what?"

Raising an eyebrow, Raven resisted the urge to smirk. "'Magic shit.' Eloquent as ever, aren't we?" There, sarcasm always made her feel better, she thought as she closed her eyes and found her center once more. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

Raven gasped as she was shoved back into her own body, falling to the ground with an undignified thud, tangled in her blue cloak.

"Ouch…" she muttered in exasperation, tilting her head up to look at the statue. The statue that looked exactly the same as before. The statue that should have been a living, breathing girl. What had gone wrong? The ingredients and the set up had all been correct; she had made sure of that. So why wasn't Terra, well, Terra? Raven's violet eyes swept over the stone girl, blinking when something drew her attention. At the base of the statue the stone looked like it was slowly melting away, being replaced by brown tennis shoes and then flesh and blood, moving faster as it went.

Raven slowly pushed herself to her feet, covering her eyes when the half-statue, half-human began to glow a blinding gold and black. Tendrils of the light came seeping out into the cavern, but were sucked back in as the light rapidly faded. Uncovering her eyes, the empath was flooded with a mix of relief, apprehension and something else, making her swallow hard.

Terra stood there for an endless moment, her ice-blue eyes wide, lips parted and then she collapsed, tumbling off of the stone pedestal and onto the ground in a boneless heap. Temporarily shocked into stillness as the truth of what happened had just sunk in, Raven blinked, then found herself moving forward and drawing the girl into her arms carefully, pushing back long, thick blonde hair.

"Whoa," Terra rasped quietly, eyes opening slowly. "You're like, touching me."

Rolling her eyes, Raven didn't say anything for the moment as she helped the girl stand on two shaky legs.

The neuron-interfaces were gone; in fact, Terra looked exactly the same as she had before the ordeal with Slade had started, from her black long-sleeved half shirt emblazoned with the yellow T, to her bright yellow shorts and brown gloves. "It worked; it really worked…" she said, raising one brown gloved hand to her face in shock. "Raven, you-"

Frozen with shock once more, Raven found herself enveloped in a bone-crushing hug, with the blonde girl burying her face into the front of her blue cloak and moments later shaking with badly repressed sobs. Torn between wanting to pull away from the hug and wanting to offer some semblance of comfort, she simply stood there staring at the walls of the cavern. "Terra, as…touching as this moment is," she drawled, falling back on her emotionless façade easily, "you would probably want to go back to the Tower…"

"Yeah…" Terra sniffed, wiping at the tear tracks on her cheeks and scrubbing her eyes to try and eliminate all traces of her tears. "Going back to the Tower… They don't know you did this, do they?"

"No," Raven admitted, making sure that the blonde could stand on her own before going to break the protective circle and then gather up the materials once more. "I didn't want to get their hopes up if I wasn't actually able to do this." Plus, I'm not quite sure how everyone is going to react. The happy theory is just that: a theory. I hope this doesn't backfire…

Taking two shaky steps forward, Terra lay a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder. "Raven?" she murmured, biting her lip. "I just want to say… thanks, and I'm…I'm sorry. For everything I've done, to you, to everyone, I'm so sorry. If I could change it back, make everything all better, make it so that none of this ever happened, I would."

Face unreadable, Raven turned to regard the geomancer steadily, doing a brief sweep over her emotions. "But, you can't," she began, "The only thing you can do is try to build back what you destroyed."

"There's not really another choice, is there?"

"There's always another choice. You could leave, right now. You could try and forget everything that happened, try and start over once more and leave this entire thing behind. It would be the easy way out. That's the real question right now. What are you going to do? You have your second chance at life, Terra."

Terra didn't respond for a few long moments, her face unusually serious as she considered what she was going to say next. The half-demon was right; it was a second chance at life. There was so much that she could set right, so much that she could do that she never did before she had been turned to stone, so much that was never said…

"You can answer later," Raven murmured softly, a second later taking her raven form and transporting them both back to the tower.

"Oh man. Little warning next time you pull that?" Rubbing her arms in an effort to chase away the chill that came with traveling with Raven, Terra gazed around the dark room, taking in the sight of the dusty bookshelves, unmade bed, and the ancient scrolls and books that were strewn across the ground haphazardly. It felt so strange to be back in the tower, back in the only place that she had ever considered home. It was even stranger to know that almost everyone she betrayed was fast asleep, not knowing that she was even there instead of in her stone prison.

Raven didn't respond; instead, she made her way over to one of her desks and rummaged around inside for a moment before pulling something out.

"Wassat?" Peering over, Terra felt herself sinking back into her normal personality, shoving back all worries and doubts for the moment. Her mouth worked soundlessly for a minute when she saw what Raven held in one of her smaller hands. "Y-you kept that?"

"You never asked for it back," Raven replied quietly, holding out the pair of goggles that Terra had given a day that seemed so recent, yet so long ago. "Here. They're yours, after all."

'The real question is, what are you going to do now? You have your second chance at life, Terra,' the geomancer recalled, swallowing hard. She's right, too. And there are things that I need to set right before I do anything else- things that need to be said…

"Terra?"

Tears were making their way down her cheeks before she even knew that she was crying. "Raven, I'm so sorry," Terra said, reaching out and closing Raven's hand around the pair of goggles.

Whatever Raven was going to say was interrupted by furious pounding at her door.

"Raven- is that-?"

"Robin…" she muttered, glancing over at the clock that was blinking 6:45 in glowing green numbers. Battle practices are earlier now; I forgot…Scowling, her hand fell to her side as she sighed heavily. So much for a gradual sort of introduction.

"Wait," Terra grabbed the other woman's arm tightly, pulling her back to face her. "You know how you said that I had a second chance? You're right, and there's something that I need to do before-"

She pressed a ghosting kiss to the lips of the stunned, dark Titan, and grinned impishly. Before Raven could react, Terra had jerked away and made her way to the door, sliding it open and standing before Robin.

"Hi, Robin."

A promise is a promise…Raven's mind was still unable to wrap around what had happened, but she was vaguely aware of both Terra and Robin talking rather awkwardly. Everyone deserves a second chance… And now Terra had it… 'You know how you said that I had a second chance? You're right, and there's something that I need to do before-' Terra's voice echoed in her mind as Raven's emotions rioted out of control, only to be stomped down a moment later.

"…Raven? Are you coming?" The soft, almost uncertain voice of the blonde brought Raven out of her thoughts. "And…can we talk, later?"

"Yeah," she answered, drawing her hood up, throwing her face into shadow once more. She set the goggles down on her bed. "I'm coming."

Thanks ever so much to my lovely beta Haloisi and to Bella, both of whom beta'd this for me.

This is my first fanfic in a long, long, long time, so let me know how it is. xD Thanks!

-ANGH