Authors note: so I recently watched "Things Change" again. This will do one of two things: send me into a depression that requires a lot of eating or inspire me. I guess it did the latter, thankfully. I so do not own the Teen Titans, DC, Cartoon Network or whatever brand names I happen to mention in this story. Hiatus over, enjoy.
Chapter 4
(Terra's POV)
I woke the next morning in my purple room for the last time. I thought back to yesterday's events and conversations. I still couldn't get over the fact that my parents knew who I was but they didn't tell me. I wanted to know why I wasn't in jail and I was in school instead. I needed to know how they knew who I was, were they told? If so, then by whom? Could it have been the Slade guy that everyone keeps mentioning in front of me when they think I'm not paying attention? What if my parents are spies for him?
I went down stairs to find the smell of pancakes and bacon; a typical breakfast in this house on the weekends. I glanced at the living room couch to find a green dog cuddling against a pillow. I smiled at how comfortable he could be anywhere. I wandered my way into the kitchen to confront my parents. My little brothers hadn't woken up yet, luckily. That will make this a lot easier.
"Good morning, Elizabeth. Or should we call you Terra?" My mother, Claire asked.
"You can call me Elizabeth if you'd like. I don't mind." After a moment of silence I took a deep breath. "How did you know who I was?"
Claire was silent. "I saw your picture on the news when everything was happening. It was right before your family and I left the city to find safety at my sister's house. Your face stuck with me the entire time I was there. Then when you were defeated I was able to come back. Your face just stayed in my head for the next year. Then your father came home one day and told me that a too thin blonde girl was admitted into the hospital after being found in an opening of a cave that looked like it could've once been a lair. I asked him if it was the girl who took over the city with the masked man. He told me it was you. I then asked if it were possible that you could be taken in by a family instead of going to jail like many people wanted you to. He told me that he would ask."
She took a deep breath and continued. "I went to the hospital the next day with him and talked to the doctors and the cops myself. I convinced them that with the proper care and family influence that you would be fine. Then you woke up with no memories or powers. This made it easier for the cops to hand you over to me. They put you through psychological examinations and physical and mental exams. They decided you were a normal 15 year old girl. It was like you had never been a terror. It was like all that time with Slade just vanished and you were able to live your life as Tara."
When she said "Tara" a rush of memories washed over me. I remembered a boy that looked a lot like me and a lab where we were both being kept. They were injecting things into our bodies as an older version of this boy stood watching. I remembered running through tall grass and turning around and looking at a castle behind me and wanting nothing more than to leave this place and my duties.
"Do you know anything about Tara?" I asked.
"Just that she was from a small kingdom in Russia called Markovia and her family, the Markov's, were the ones who ruled it. She was a princess who didn't want the princess life."
The word princess triggered it too. I remembered crushing someone under a boulder after my powers couldn't stay in control and the boy had to lift them out because he had better control then I did. I remembered grand ballrooms and dresses and being at a ball. I remembered men staring at me, watching my every glance as I flowed down a staircase and tripping at the end. When I tripped, the familiar man hung his head low like he was ashamed. I remembered meeting a black haired man in his mid-twenties and being told that I would marry him when I turned 18.
When I stopped the flashbacks, I was sitting in the kitchen against the wall, screaming. Beast boy was shaking my shoulders trying to get me to snap out of it. When I finally did I looked around. There was a hole in the yard and a boulder on the floor near me. Tears started to pour out of my eyes.
"Terra, it's okay. I need you to look at me." Beast boy, the one thing keeping me sane right now. "Look into my eyes, I'm here, everything is going to be fine but I need you to relax."
I held his gaze and I wiped my eyes. I was so fucking embarrassed that I did this. I knew regaining my memories was going to be messy but what was with me and making a fucking hole everywhere I am. My mom wasn't trying to get my memories back; I was the idiot who kept asking questions. I should've kept better control. My powers may want to come out and play but I should be able to say when, right? I was so mad at myself for this. I could have hurt someone just like I did in my memory. It could have been Bryan or Michael. They were so young and I could have killed them.
"I didn't mean to make her lose control." My mother spoke.
"What's done is done." My dad spoke. "Boys, I need you to stay out of the way while I move the boulder and be careful later when you're in the yard."
"I can move it." I spoke up with a little confidence in my tone. I wasn't going to let someone clean up my messes all the time. I could do this. Sure the fucking thing looked heavy but I know I can do this. I'm sure I used to do worse. Actually, I know I've done worse.
"Terra you should exhaust yourself." Beast boy took me hand.
"No, I can do it." I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. I took several deep breaths before I even started to picture the boulder in the kitchen. I imagined it soaring through the hair. I was feeling winded but I kept imagining it going through the door and into the hole that I had created in the yard. When I opened my eyes I felt exhausted. I feel like I had just ran 5 miles in the middle of the desert. On the plus side the boulder was out of the kitchen and it didn't create a hole in the wall. On the down side, it didn't make it to the hole. It made it to the patio.
At least it's a start.
