Thanks for reviewing, guys. Again, please go the extra mile and submit a review from the bottom left. Thanks . Haha, and first chapter with two words in the title which is two-parter. This one will end in a cliffhanger.


Chapter VII : Completed Reunion Part 1


Just as I began to comprehend the newfound revelations, the Titan's screen flickered alive with scenes of robberies occurring throughout the city at the hand of Dr. Light and a few other unknown villains.

Robin, narrowing his eyes, continued their explanation but with finality this time.

"Look, we'll talk about this later. Right now, we have to stop crime."

Flashing red, the Titans' computer flashed increasingly urgently and direly as screams and cries of citizens echoed into the living room. However, the team stood still.

"Oh, and Terra, we haven't said this but welcome back. Titans, go!"

All of the Titans hurried through the door except Robin who stayed facing me.

"You coming?"

"Should I be?"

"We understand if you don't want to be a Titan again."

"There's not much of a choice is there with the predicament of Beast Boy's."

"It's not your fault what happened with Beast Boy."

"What if…he's dead?"

"Terra, we were both apprentices to Slade so we know him better than anybody else. And something in me tells me Beast Boy is far from dead. But that's just me. What do you feel?"

"I feel.. that Beast Boy wouldn't be dead in the hands in the Slade. But why-why do you think that?"

You obviously have a different perspective of Slade than I do then.

"If Slade wants Beast Boy as leverage against you, then he obviously wouldn't kill him. Worst case scenario – he kills him in front of you."

Leverage?

"So, then it is my fault, isn't it, Robin."

Robin realized my twist of his words. Pausing, he attempted to change the subject.

"What's done is done. But listen, we're late. Let's go. The others are waiting."

Nodding to his proposition, I followed Robin through the door where I ultimately caught up with him.

"Robin, you still have my uniform? I mean, it's okay if you didn't keep it. Beast Boy showed me my room last time."

"Of course. You're also the Titan here."

We arrived at the local bank where Dr. Light was supposed to be robbing with a few other villains. However, that was not the case. The bank seemed perfectly normal and unharmed. Befuddled, we stood there at the prospect of a false alarm. Had the local forces already finished Dr. Light?

As we simply stood there in confusion, Robin approached a nearby officer.

"Did anything happen here?"

"You mean, criminally?"

"Yea, we're the Teen Titans and we got an alarm back at the Tower which was sent from this exact location."

"No, sir. Nothing strange has occurred here. False alarm?"

"Probably."

Walking back toward us, Robin added to the confusion. Although the setting seemed perfectly normal, we all knew and felt something quite abnormal around. We knew not what it was, but a sixth sense lingered about. Everything seemed so likely yet so far-fetched – a false alarm; a patrolling officer on duty. Hearing a stomach growling from Cyborg, we finally dismissed the feeling. At his own stomach, Cyborg smiled.

"So…perhaps we should go get some pizza…," proposed Cyborg who had his hand patting his stomach as if calming it down.

"True, we did have a light breakfast. But maybe we should pay more attention to the "bank robbery". I don't think it's just a coincidence," replied an equally hungry Robin who refused to forget all about the bank coincidence.

"Yes, we shall indulge ourselves with the cheesiness from the pizza. I shall fetch the mustard." Starfire, who had contributed to the conversing flew past Robin searching for a pizza store.

Raven, looking indifferent, mumbled a few words incoherently.

The local pizza store. That was the place Beast Boy took me, wasn't it? That fateful day seemed all too cloudy to recall.

"So, what pizza do you like Terra?" Cyborg and I had little conversation every since I arrived at the Tower with troublesome news. Starfire was the upbeat and hospitable one who paid attention to my every need and Robin, well, he was the one I confided in. Finally, Raven could have cared less about my resurrection.

"Why would you want to be friends with someone who's so much trouble?"

"Cause I know who she really is"

"Supreme pizza with extra anchovies, hold the mushrooms – just the way you like it"

"I don't like anchovies – I'm allergic to them….."

"Um, I'm not really sure anymore.."

"Aw, well, it's fine, shall we get going?" Cyborg looked all too intent on getting food inside him.

"Yes, let us get the going." Starfire flew into Robin's face with pleading eyes.

The group started walking into motion toward the pizza store but Robin and Raven lingered behind in deep thought about the situation at the bank. I heard their conversation that was within earshot.

"Everything all right?" suggested Raven in her normal monotone voice. Neither alarmed or bored, she stayed by Robin's side equally examining the quandary.

"Not sure…." Was all I heard before their voices faded away.

Moments later, the two caught up with us. Robin, uptight as ever, narrowed his eyes as if searching for a lead to the problem.

"Well, at least, through everything that changed, the pizza store is still existent," stated Cyborg who glanced around at the newfound structures built in the city.

Perplexed at his statement, my eyes wandered around the city realizing that Cyborg was correct. The city did seem a lot more different now that I wasn't so obsessed with keeping my identity secret in the private school. And this happened all in, what, two days?

And where was Slade? What possibly could he be plotting?

We arrived at the footstep of the pizza store but found something we truly did not comprehend. Gasping simultaneously, for another moment, we just stood in awe.

"The building… it's been.. demolished." Cyborg stated the obvious as if the store would magically reappear when he said that.

All that was left aside from the rubble was a lone lamppost in flickering light. By now, the skies were getting darker and dimmer. The sun headed downwards.

"Well, I guess that's it.. we should head home." Robin suggested the logical thing to do but the team didn't move excluding Raven who simply picked up a book and read.

As I took in the situation of the demolished pizza store, I realized it was the last place I had ever gone with Beast Boy to eat. Taking a step backwards, I inhaled the air deeply looking up into the sky.

But as the lamp flickered in light, in my peripheral vision, I caught sight of a silhouette of a person perched upon a lamppost. Whoever it was, his legs were completely balanced upon the top of the lamppost while his hands supported him on the side. Then, the lamp's light flickered off again, and my vision was gone. Gasping, I comprehended the prospect of Slade's return. But no, the silhouette seemed too much like a young teen than a man. Flickering once more, the silhouette reappeared within my complete sight. Distracted for a moment, I summoned a rock to ride upon and flew to the same level of the lamppost. But when I reached the same height, the lamp flickered off and whoever was perched there had long since left.

"Terra, what's wrong?" Robin pounced on the prospect of a lead.

"Nothing, I thought I saw…" That was all I could say before I heard light footsteps pattering upon the concrete fading away.

"What'd you see?" Raven, who had looked up from her book, seemed also curious but I had left leaving a hole in the ground where a boulder should have been lodged. Bored at my leave, she picked up her book and once again started reading.

"Terra?" Cyborg had flipped on his flashlight and started pointing it at random places in hopes of finding me.

"She..just…left…" concluded Robin.

"But…why?" Starfire picked up the multiple questions.

"Did she run away again." Robin, who had the final word, sprinted off to find me.

By then, I had flown upon my rock in the direction of the silhouette. Were my eyes deceiving me or did I really see an outlining of Beast Boy upon that lamppost.

Using my ears to follow the pitter-patter on the paths the silhouette took. Just then, rain started pouring down upon me soaking me in its cascade. No longer caring for my soaked uniform, I proceeded to follow the shadow. The sound of impacting rain diluted the pitter-patter of foot hitting concrete but I could hear the echoes of it. I turned into an alley quite sure that it was the correct direction to go. And right before a turn, I knew I saw the green hair of Beast Boy's.

"Beast Boy, stop. It's me, Terra!"

The sounds of his running feet continued.

"Beast Boy, come back!"

The curtain of rain fell only harder upon me. I could no longer hear the patterns of sounds. I took turns here and there hoping to catch up to him. Thunder bellowed just as randomly.

"She ran this way." Robin had devoted to tracking me down despite the thunderstorm.

"Why would Terra run from her friends?" Starfire's hair soaked in the falling rain.

"She must have seen somebody and either ran to them or from them." Cyborg's face seemed completely serious from his normal mediocre smile he painted upon himself.

"In this thick of a storm, we can't follow her anymore. There's no way. Cyborg. can you track her down?" Raven had retreated her book into her cloak to avoid soaking of the pages.

"No can do. The heavy rain's just disrupting any signal of her. The thunder doesn't help either." With a defeated look, Cyborg quit pressing buttons on his mechanical arm and looked toward his companions.

"Terra, can you hear me? Terra, respond. Where are you?" Robin's final effort proved to no avail either as he continued to scream into his communicator. His effort deemed just as unresponsive.

"If it was Slade, she only fell into another trap," suggested Raven responding to Robin.

"We can only hope now." Robin's hair was soaked with the pouring rain which had ruined his gel. He may have had just lost a Teen Titan.

"Beast Boy, it's Terra. Where are you?"

I was sure he heard my yells as he wasn't too far away. Although I could not find him within the maze of the alleyways, I knew I was close to him. Finally, I took the rock supporting me in midair higher. At a high elevation, I tried to locate Beast Boy but the rain only fell harder and harder blurring away my vision. If it wasn't for the rain…I would have located him already….

Panting hard, I had finally given up due to the rain. Tears streamed down my face at the hopelessness of the cause. If there was no rain, my face would have been flooded with tears.

"BEAST BOY, please talk to me…." My voice, from a scream, descended into a tiny sob.

Putting my hands to my face to wipe my tears, I attempted to continue the search.

There was no response or reply that I could hear. Running only faster in random directions, I quickly got lost in the downpour. Panting for breath, I knew I had lost him already – and for the fourth time. The first – where he learned of my betrayal. The second – my sacrifice. The third – my confrontation with Slade. And now, here was the fourth.

I tripped over a large piece of rock that I had overlooked in all my hopelessness. No longer having any stamina or mentality to continue, I cried with my face in the dirt and my hands in the soil. Why did he run from me? What did I do? I didn't even get to say…goodbye….

Hope you're not expecting a goodbye kiss.

Terra, you can't

Watch me.

And though I gave up, the storm did not. It poured ever so violently. Kneeling powerlessly in the mud, I quietly sobbed now.

And then, as I gasped for air, I breathed in excitement and thrill. Before me, Beast Boy came out from the shadows. He stood there with a solemn look neither lending me a hand nor a caring look. His tooth stuck out of his mouth as normal but everything else seemed different. His face shared a controversial look one in sympathy – the other in hate. Simply standing before me in the rain, he was no longer the Beast Boy I knew. He didn't even whisper my name like you normally would have.

"Beast Boy…you came back."

No reply.

"How'd you…get .."

No reply.

Sniffling, I bowed my head in his cold stare.

"I'm sorry, Beast Boy. For-for lying to you.. and…g-giving you trouble. But n-now everything's n-normal. We-we can forget about it, can't we? I can be with you again. We can be Teen Titans again, partners in fighting crime."

His cold stare did not shift or change. Finally he responded.

"I have a partner already – and its not you."

Confused, I stayed in my kneeling position in the mud – hands to my sides – knees in the mud and a bowed head. I couldn't look him in the eye.

"Beast Boy, what're you talking about…"

"Shut up. I'm not a Titan anymore."

"Beast Boy, what are you saying? I'm sorry for everything. Can't things be like they once was? You don't have to be a Titan, Beast Boy. I'll go anywhere with you. I'll be anything you want. I'm sorry."

He shook his head in disapproval.

"You just don't understand, do you."

This time, I looked him in the eye. They showed no redemption and now, no sympathy only a hard and cold stare.

For a moment there, silence emerged between us. The sounds of the rain continued even more violently. Unable to comprehend his meaning, I responded by looking him in the eye. And then, he replied with actions. And actions speak louder than words, don't they?

He reached in his pocket and retrieved a badge with an emblazoned 'S' upon it. Slowly, he perched it upon his Titans' uniform. It fixed quite easily on his leotard and as he did this, his eyes never left mine – he never shifted his gaze in insecurity.

But in that instant, I knew what he meant.

"Why, Beast Boy…"

"Why? Because, Terra, things change."

By finally using my name in the conversing, he signaled that the discussion had ended. He took steps back into the darkness and disappeared in the cascades of rain. The mud splattered about.

And somewhere out there, I knew – I just knew – Slade smiled in complete glee over his triumph – his triumph of obtaining a 3rd apprentice.


Thanks for reading again and support. This and Chap 8 was actually one chapter but I decided it would be too long so I divided it and added a slight cliffhanger. I just want to see the response upon it before I post up the next chapter :)