Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans

Chapter 5. Homecoming

Terra had packed her backpack with all of her worldly belongings, which wasn't a lot, and had hit the road by sunrise the next day. She knew where she was going, and she knew how to get there.

She had changed into new garb she had purchased with the charity money the nurses gave her from the burn unit. She now sported no uniform, but a grey T-shirt, jeans that fit to a glove, being fashionably too long, working gloves, some brown hiking boots. And... a small butterfly clip.

It's not like the old one, but...

Terra gathered a bolder from the ground, and she hopped into it, gliding into the sky towards Lawrence, California. It wasn't that far from Jump City, really. Just about ten miles out.

She felt clean and new. She loved it. She had taken showers before, in the Motel 6, but this time, after remembering... it felt better. She actually smiled as she rode over the city. In fact, she felt so ambitious she decided to take a swing by Titans Tower.

It looked calm this morning. As she got by the area with no windows, however, she heard voices conferring.

No changes. The team went on, as if nothing had happened. Did Beast Boy tell the others...?

She ached to fly by the window side, but she was scared. Were they around there? Then she would be busted. She would blow her plan of moving on.

She wasn't lying to Beast Boy, not really. She was just giving him that extra push to move on, like the scar on her chest did to her in the locker room. But secrets are never kept. Not for very long, at least. Some way or another, they're discovered.

She decided, since she felt so good, to go ahead and swing by the window side. She flew around to it, and she found Starfire looking out.

Terra remembered how Starfire had never lost her wonder for Jump City. She always found it facinating, and she looked out at it every day. The bay, Terra had to admit, was beautiful and a sight to behold.

She was on the edge, so Starfire didn't see her until Terra rapped on the window. Starfire looked up, and she gasped.

She flew up, and looked Terra face to face.

"Friend Terra!" she squealed, muffled, through the strong glass. "Hey, Star," Terra smiled, noticing how Starfire was just on the brink of breaking through the glass to give her one of her infamous squeezers .

"Oh, friends! Come look at this!" Starfire shouted. "No, Starfire-!" Terra stammered, and she covered her face with her hands as she shot off westward.

The Titans rushed in. "What happened, Starfire?" Robin asked. Starfire looked back, and pulled up short at the disappearance. She shook it off, and turned back, smiling. "I saw Terra!"

"See, see? Told you!" Beast Boy gloated. "But, you said that yesterday, Terra didn't remember anything," Raven said, confused.

"That cannot be, Raven. Terra said my name when she saw me!" Starfire protested.

"She did?.!" Beast Boy squeaked. "Yes," the Tameranean replied proudly.

"SHE REMEMBERS! I KNEW IT!" he shouted. "I DIDN'T EVEN MENTION NAMES, AND SHE KNEW IT!.!"

Terra, who had snuck back to the windowless side, heard him and smiled gently.

I do remember... Aren't you proud?

She sighed and soared off towards the place she never imagined herself returning to: her hometown, Juricksville.

Terra arrived at the entrance of the town quickly. She placed her boulder in the neighboring canyon, and began to walk into town, trying to stop shaking from nervousness. She would be alone, but she didn't care at the moment.

I want to put all this back. Without causing pain.

Terra looked around, and noticed some older citizens were staring at her. She looked straight ahead, heading for her old house. She knew she would be recognized, recognized for the disasters she's made all over the state and the states around it. She knew it, so why did she even worry about why they were staring?

A few minutes more, and she came upon the outskirts of town, where she came upon an old run-down shack that was so ruined she couldn't even consider it a house.

Terra knew she couldn't live in it. Oh, well. She could sleep outside. She liked stargazing, anyway.

"Stars... because you liked to sleep outside."

"Not me. I hate camping out; too many bugs."

Terra flinched at the memory. Oh, Beast Boy! I wish I could face you now... but I can't... maybe later.

She looked at the house, still, memories flooding in...

BBB

"Terra! Where are you, bitch?.!"

To say Terra's father was angry was an understatement. Her father was drunk, and agitated. Never a good combination. Especially if you're a vulnerable seven-year-old.

Terra tried to keep quiet as she hid in the broom closet, but it was hard. It stank in there, like Clorox. She was allergic to Clorox; it made her sneeze.

She couldn't hold it in - her father was right outside -

"ACHOO!.!"

The door swung open and Terra was thrown out roughly into the cramped hallway. Just as she was sitting up, rubbing her head, her father got her to her feet, yanking her ear, and yelled, "What happened?.!"

"I-I don't know..." Terra sobbed, wincing from the pull on her left ear, "Jus-Justin, this boy in school, called me a bad name, and I got m-mad, and suddenly these rocks came at his head..."

Her sobs became hiccups. Her father slapped her face. "QUIET! Now, what else happened?"

"He-He-He fell to the ground, and he-he began bleeding out of his ears, nose, and mouth..." Terra's sobs became hiccups once more, and she began to scream hysterically, her words coming in gasps, "DADDY, I'M-SO-SORRY! I... JUST CAN'T-CONTROL IT! I T-TRY TO... BUT... I-I CAN'T!"

He threw her down roughly.

"I should've suspected it was you and your damned emotions," he growled, "God, you're such a fucked-up loser! Your GODDAMNED emotions were the cause of all this! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN MOTHER!.!"

Terra laid there, quietly taking it in. She was used to it all. He said those same words to her ever since she could sit still long enough to listen. Except for that last part about her mother's death.

"Dad, Momma was sick, she was dying anyway," she sniffled, sitting up, "She asked me personally to kill her... so she would be put out of her misery." Then, she got angry.

"DO YOU THINK I KILLED HER ON MY OWN WILL?.! DO YOU THINK I WANTED TO KILL HER? DADDY, I LOVED MOMMA!.! BUT SHE BEGGED ME TO KILL HER... She looked awful... she was crying... as she laid in bed..."

Her father growled and picked her up, carried her outside like a sack of potatoes, and threw her into the yard. But he wasn't done, oh, no. He took her clothes off, all of them, and pushed her down.

He went to the barn, grabbed the horse whip, and walked back to her, still in the grass.

Before Terra's mother died, and her father took over as a drunk, they used to have a nice farm, with horses, sheep, goats, cows, and chickens. But her father soon ate the cows and chickens, and was currently starving the horses and goats. Some were already dead. The barn reeked with decaying flesh, but the man was too drunk to feel or smell it.

Terra's father reached her before she could get her senses together again. He let the whip lash itself against her tiny, bony, naked back. She held back a scream. She couldn't cry, though. She already did that too much. She was dried out.

He whipped her until she was practically skinned. Everywhere was bloody on her. Everywhere, even her face and her lower femininity. Every square inch was bloody.

After those antagonizing two hours, her father dropped the whip and left her there. She supposed he thought she would die, but she didn't.

She was tougher than she looked. Always was, always would be.

A few hours after the whipping, Terra crawled over to the swimming hole and cleaned herself up as much as she could. It was torture; everything stung.

Terra ran away from that house at sunrise, snatching some clothes from her closet, and stole her father's pocket money from his wallet. Lucky for her, he had $500 in it. The other lucky part about all this was that her father was asleep from hangover. When he was asleep like that, he could snore through World War III.

They actually had good money; her father just spent it all on booze.

It took nearly a year for Terra's skin to be healthy once more. She learned to fly on boulders in the canyon and levitate rocks for self-defense, lived in caves, and learned first aid in the wilderness. She went to the stream to bathe, and she learned to sleep, really sleep.

Sleeping under the stars did that to you.

She went to towns all over California, blowing all of her father's money by the time she was twelve. She only spent it on food, clothes, and a backpack with other camping supplies.

Terra Markov was on her own.