I do not own the Teen Titans or anything related to them, however I do own this story and all of the non-original characters except for Isis, who I have been given permission to use by a friend of mine and all are copywrited. This means you can not copy the story or any of the characters or use them without permission from their original owners. Check out the mini-fics by my friend, Starfire Fury, called Teen Titans: Alpha Humor, they're mini-fics about these characters and they're really good and absolutely hilarious, so go read them!

Teen Titans: The Alpha Five

Mind Games – Part 3

The waitress brought over Phoenix's order and after she had muttered her thanks her curiosity got the better of her. She waited for the waitress to walk away before craning to see into the kitchen. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Taiyou standing at the counter.

It took a while for his shift to end but as it did, Phoenix was waiting for him at the back door of the diner. She had reasoned that, if Taiyou wasn't responding to the name Taiyou, and that he hadn't returned to the Tower, then he must've been sick, but as she had seen that he didn't seem ill, she had to reason that he had lost his memory. At first she had panicked, but upon remembering that Taiyou was now answering to the name of Leo, she felt that there was hope as he was using a name from his past. He may not have realised this, but at least it was a start.

"Hi." She said brightly as he appeared, carrying some crates for his boss as a favour.

"Hi." He replied, briefly looking at her, but only for a split second, not long enough to register her in his mind.

"Need any help with those?" She asked, this caused him to stop and to try and look at her from around the crates, finding this hard to do he accepted her offer and, after she had taken some he managed to see her face.

"Thanks." He said with a smile. Whoever she was she was pretty, though it was unusual for someone to wear a mask… Wait… He tried to recall the image from earlier, but it would not come and so he was left looking at her slightly sheepishly now as he followed two steps behind her to round the back of the diner.

"Any sign yet?"

"Quit bugging me Ze and I can keep checking." Li muttered as he tried to keep an eye on the monitor on the dashboard as well as on driving the car.

"Li's right Zeru, we've just got to sit tight." Zeru nodded, normally he would've argued with them, but this wasn't normal times. He and Taiyou had been close, probably not as close as him and Li, but they were still best buds and Phoenix, well Phoenix was like a big sister to him.

"We just gotta find them you guys."

"We know Ze, we know." Isis said quietly, leaning forward to put a hand on his arm from her position in the back seat and he smiled back at her, glad of the small amount of comfort the small gesture gave.

"Thanks for the help, ummmm…"

"Phoenix." She tried her best to shake off the disbelief that she was having to prompt him with her name.

"Well thanks, Phoenix. The name's Leo." He smiled at her as her mind screamed 'You're name is not Leo, its Taiyou!' She smiled back. She had thought about telling him everything, about his powers, the Academy, the Tower, but if he had lost his memory, which it seemed he had, she didn't want to frighten him with so many extraordinary details at once. She had to take it slowly, piece by piece.

"Nice to meet you."

He'd offered to walk her home but she'd said that she was travelling in the area and that she hadn't picked out a place to stay. Taiyou, or rather 'Leo' had offered to show her the best place he knew to, after all it was where he was staying, and they had begun to walk there. They'd talked about random normal stuff mostly, but when Phoenix asked about his parents Taiyou couldn't reply.

"I don't know. I can't remember anything before a few days ago. I just remember waking up in some woods." Phoenix looked at him, concern in her eyes.

"I'll try to help you remember." He looked at her and when he did she saw something she hadn't expected to see.

Fear. He was scared. Scared, tired and alone, well she'd experienced what that felt like.

She raised a hand to his face, forgetting all about the current situation. She touched his cheek and as she remembered and thought of pulling her hand away she saw that he didn't look shocked or surprised, but thankful, looking at her softly as they stood, so close in the cold night's breeze beneath the lights of the motel.

As they inched together and they both closed their eyes they leaned in to kiss, though at the last moment Phoenix turned, pulling her head away and scrunching her eyes as if she were hurt. 'Leo' was caught slightly by surprise.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't kiss you." She said quietly. "I'm sorry." Though as she looked at his face he didn't look too hurt, just quietly understanding.

"That's ok, we don't have to."

"No, I want to, it's just, ever since I first met you… This afternoon-" She added hastily, trying to keep up the charade. "- I felt like there could be something between us, but not like this." A single tear rolled down her cheek and he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her comfortingly.

For a second she thought it was her Taiyou hugging her, comforting her, making her whole once more, but it was only a second and she was alone once again, with Taiyou so close, yet so out of reach.

What's around the corner? And what exactly has happened to Taiyou? Stay tuned to find out.