Helion's foot steps echoed off the stone walls of the temple. There were no more worshippers here, there haven't been for more then 300 years. But still they persisted, kept alive by their own waning power as it slowly seeps away. There are still a few who believe, but now most people are Christian or Muslim or Jewish. Fewer and fewer remember the gods in favor of the "one true God". That suited Helion just fine, but it did not go so well with some of the others. They missed being worshipped, being honored, feared. But they will learn to deal with it, there was nothing they could do. Helion entered the main hall, his eyes fixed on the opposite wall. That one tree still grew, over the years, slower then any other plant. It now covered the entire wall, and it still gave off and soothing glow from the depth of its bark. The only difference is that now there is a small pool of water in front of the tree now.

A woman sat on the edge of the water. She sat so still it she looked like a statue, and could easily be mistaken for one. As Helion walked forward, his foot steps echoed loudly off the distant walls. He stopped walking when he reached the pentagram that was burned into the stone floor. It brought back painful memories, but there was no time for that now.

"Gaia." Helion said, waiting for her to turn around. She did not. He sighed "Mom."

There was a long moment where the woman at the pool of water let out a sigh. She turned around, color seemed to fill in the area around her.

"What is it Helion. You know not to enter here without true reason." Gaia said, her voice seemed to come from all directions. "Or is it simply because you missed me that you came to visit. If it is I will will excuse it just this once." A smile graced the lips of the goddess

Helion smirked and took out a small vial the size of his little finger. "I'm sorry, but it is not just to visit." He tossed the vial over to the woman by the pool.

The glass container flew gently through the air and stopped in front of Gaia. It twisted and spun in the air but made no movement in any direction. After a few seconds it slowled down and eventually stopped. Gaia reached up and plucked it from the air and looked at it for a second before looking back to Helion.

"First you wanted a breath of life. Now you this?" Gaia asked smoothly. "What's it for?"

"I found Terra" Helion said

Gaia seemed to perk up at this. "You found her. Is she ok? Is she hurt?" she asked quickly. She even made a motion to stand up, but stopped herself. She took a small breath before continuing. "You found my daughter. Something must have happened for you to be here."

"She was turned to stone." Helion replied. "I managed to track her down to a place called Jump City. She was part of a group call the Teen Titans, saving people and the city. Her friends through she died."

A small smirk appeared on Gaia's face "So that's why you are here I take it?"

"A Gaia's breath of life made her real, Gaia's tears to bring her back." Helion said smiling.

"You should smile more, It suites you." Gaia said as she lifted the vail to her face.

She brought it close to her eye and leaned forward. A small tear welled up on the edge of her eye and fell into the vial. After a few seconds the small glass was full and a thin film covered it, holding the liquid in. Gaia stood up and walked over to Helion, stopping just in front of him. She pressed the small vial into his hand, then suddenly her other hand came up. She slapped Helion across the face. It was sudden and shocking. Helion had never known Gaia to do anything besides sit here in her temple and watch time pass by. Feeling the sting of the slap brought a whole new mental view of his mother into his mind.

"You never should have let her go." Gaia said, her voice still smooth but held a menacing tone. "Still Spartan at heart."

Helion rubbed his cheek for a second, then lowered his hand. "No, I just wanted her to grow up and have a normal live. My past had nothing to do with my decision."

"Didn't it. At age 7 you let her go." Gaia said slowly. "Not only that but you wiped her memories. Locking them away so she wouldn't remember who she really was. She had to fight with herself and with others to survive."

"Without the memories of who she was, she would've had an easier time fitting in. It's not my fault you gave her that power." Helion said, he didn't shout but his voice rose. "Did you want her to end up just like me."

Gaia had no response to that last statement. She just turned away and walked back to her small pool. Helion watched her, and she stopped halfway their.

"I'm sorry." Helion began to say before he was cut off.

"Just bring my daughter back." Gaia said quickly.

Things were just to weird for Helion. Gaia had had dozens of children over the years. Plenty of them had died, and plenty of them never returned to her. But for some reason she had an attachment to Him and his sister. That did catch Helion slightly off guard. He turned around and began to walk out.

"I will." Helion said half way to the door. Before he reached it, he disappeared in a flash of fire.

--

Helion looked at the small vial in his hands. It was tiny and looked so fragile, it was hard to believe that this little thing in his hands was one of the most powerful magical object on earth. Helion looked back up to his window. The lights in his room were off while the sky outside was black as night had fallen a few hours ago. This created a highly reflective surface on the glass of his window.

He was worried, worried about Raven. It had been 4 days since he had given her a list of instructions. 4 days since she left and did not return. He knew someone like her could take care of herself, but it should not take this long to do what he had asked of her. He was so focused on his thoughts, he nearly jumped out of his skin when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in." Helion said.

The door slid open and Beast boy walked in nervously.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Beast boy said, a nervous air about his voice. He looked around.

Helion's room had changed a lot over the last few days. There were now tan tarps on the floor of his room and plastic sheets covering the walls. In the center on the room stood the stone pillar that Starfire and Cyborg had brought up. It was the center piece and gave off a dull sort of glow so one could just barely see it. Beast boy stood in front of the pillar and stared at it slightly slack jawed.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you a few question." Helion said slowly.

Beast boy stopped and looked at Helion "Ask away?"

"How old are you?" Helion asked bluntly.

Beast by stuttered slightly at the suddenness of the question. "Me...I..I'm 21. Why?"

"Mhmm." Helion thought for a moment "21? And you still use the name Beast boy?"

"Yeah yeah, I know...I've been thinking about that. I know Robin is going to change his name and costume soon. Starfire has been helping him with the design, it looks pretty cool. And the name, Nightwing, is just plain awesome." Beast boy said, not paying any real attention to what he was saying. He placed his hand on the stone pillar and found it was warm to the touch.

"And what was your relationship to Terra?" Helion asked, a smirk appearing on his face.

"I..um...we... we were friends." Beast boy said loudly, but the very quietly, almost a whisper, added "Close friends."

Helion smiled and walked up to Beast boy. He was absentmindedly running his hand across the stone pillar. Helion could see his mind was far away, lost in memory.

"You loved her didn't you." Helion said.

Beast boy was to far gone to really argue. "Yeah, but I don't think it could be love. I was young, I didn't know what it meant to be in love. But I did know she was special."

Helion was slightly taken aback. Hearing Beast boy talk like this was an odd thing in the tower as he had come to learn in his 4 days of doing nothing. The shifter usually made jokes, bad jokes, but jokes none the less.

"She was special." Helion said slowly. "Tell me about her."

Beast boy began to talk. Helion suspected that he had no idea he was talking. Which was in fact true. Beast boy was reliving his past with the titans, verbally and mentally, the times when Terra was with them. He remembered their date, that one piece of pie, the amusement park. It all seemed so long ago. And it was. Years had passed since the day Terra died, and now this stranger claims he could bring her back. It was all so confusing, but Beast boy didn't focus on that, he focused on the fact that Terra was coming back. After a few minutes he returned to his senses and look around remembering where he was. He saw Helion standing next to him with a grin on his face, then turned his attention to the stone pillar. It was warm to the touch but looked cold odd. He had little time to think on this though.

"Thanks for answering my questions Beast boy." Helion said and practically shoved him out the door.

"Hey wait." Beast boy said and managed to stop himself just inside the door way. "What's that rock for anyway?"

Helion looked at the rock then back at Beast boy. "You love Terra, I can tell that much just by your expression when her name is mentioned. It's going to be really creepy for a 21 year old man to have a relationship with a 16 year old." Helion said, and pushed Beast boy out the door. "Oh, and you know what might be a good name, try Changeling."

The door slid shut in front of Beast boy and he was stuck standing in the hallway. It took him a moment to register all that happened in the last few seconds, and he still did not understand it. But he did understand one thing.

"Changeling?" Beast boy said as he walked away. "That's a stupid name."

--

"It shouldn't take this long." Helion said to himself as he walked towards Ravens room.

He was getting worried about her now. There was maybe one thing he needed that would take time to get, but not this long. Raven has been gone almost seven days now, one whole week. If that wasn't cause enough to worry then Helion didn't know what was. He reached Raven's room and stood in front of the door for a moment. He had heard from the others not to go in their, he himself didn't know why he was about to go in. Something just told him that Raven was back but went straight to her room without anyone seeing her. Helion raised his fist to knock on the door, but as his hand came down the door opened and he stumbled in.

Helion straightened up and look around. It was all very dark, very Gothic. It did fit Raven. There was a shelf full of books and against his better judgement Helion walked over to it. He scanned the bindings of the books and one of them caught his eye. A large blue book on the top shelf seemed to glow red and pulse ever so gently. Helion reached up and took it down. The title was in Greek and a small grin appeared on Helion's face as he flipped the book open. In the center pages of the book was what caused the red glow. Helion looked down at the illustrated pair of eyes. Eyes so familiar to him, eyes that had a pentagram around the irises.

"Raven, I didn't know you've been reading up on me." Helion said aloud to himself.

"I was, but I can't find that book in any language I can read." Raven's voice said and Helion nearly jumped out of his skin.

He snapped the book shut and turned around. "That's probably true. There is only one copy of this book in existence. Where on earth did you get it?"

"Thrift store, You'd be surprised on the price of what people sell when they don't know the value." Raven said as the book was enshrouded in a black aura and floated back into place on the shelf.

"When did you get back?" Helion asked

"Just now." Raven answered as she floated into her room. "What are you doing here? No one should come into my room."

Helion walked a little to the side and stood in front of a dresser. He lifted a small mirror and he felt more then saw that change in Raven's mood. He looked at the reflective surface for a second, and his reflection looked back. But after a short moment his reflection shifted and showed the land he knew as Nevermore. Helion smirked ever so slightly.

"Did you get what I asked?" Helion asked, ignoring Ravens question.

"Your not answering my question." Raven said, her voice more stern. "What are you doing in here?"

"I was just feeling a little curious about you maybe." Helion said as he turned to face Raven. "And I do have a promise I have to keep."

Helion turned the mirror to face Raven and smiled. The hand that was not holding the mirror passed over it. Helion took his hand away, and there was an image of Raven dress in a deep red robe looking out from the mirror. Raven looked it in surprise, no one should be able to do that with her mirror. Helion looked at Raven for a moment before setting the glass down and walked over to her.

"Did you get what I asked for?" Helion asked again, this time getting a response.

"Yeah, I got the ingredients." Raven said walking over to a table on the far wall.

She reached into the folds of her cloak and took out a small bag. Reaching in she took out 5 different objects and laid them down on the table one by one. She placed the bag on the side and turned to Helion.

"What on earth could you possibly use this stuff for?" Raven asked, picking up a small mint leaf. "None of this has any magical value when used together, but separate they are extremely powerful. Like this one, a Gargoyle egg. This thing is a really potent magical amplifier, but combined with this bit of Mint it loses all its power."

"That's because the Mint is not for the egg. The egg is for the mint." Helion ginned. "Raven, you need to think outside the box. I will be back in a second."

Raven was about to speak when Helion vanished in a flash of fire. He reappeared seconds later in another flash, but now he was holding a pot full of dirt for a plant. He took the mint leaf and placed it on top of the soil in the pot.

"you got the right mint leaf right?" Helion asked as he watched the leaf intently.

"Of course. How you knew the exact location of a single solitary mint plant is beyond me, but I got the leaf from the very top of it." Raven said as she placed the Gargoyle egg down.

"Good." Helion said as he straightened up.

Helion took the Gargoyle egg and cracked it over the clay pot. The goo oozed out and landed on the small leaf. The leaf began to give off a gentle glow and began to take root in the soil. The leaf actually grew into a full mint plant in a matter of seconds. Helion threw the egg pieces into the trash bin next to the desk.

"I had no idea a Gargoyle egg could be used to regrow plants." Raven said, her voice full of surprise.

"Because it can't, just this one." Helion said as he picked up the potted mint plant and looked at it carefully. After a few seconds he nodded to himself satisfied and looked at Raven. "Thank you for this, I really appreciate it."

"It ok, its for Terra." Raven said as she watched Helion picked up the 3 remaining objects and walk to her door. "I think we all just want her back.

"Don't worry, I know." Helion said before exiting, leaving Raven in a state of confusion.

Helion walked back to his room quickly and shut the door behind him. He put the 3 things down on the side of his desk, and potted plant he placed in the center. He pulled his chair out and sat down. Leaning forward, he gently blew on the leaves of the plant. He waited a moment then smiled.

"Minthe." Helion said quietly. "Come on out."

The leaves of the mint plant rustled gently. A very tiny purple hand seemed to part the leaves, and the tiny purple hand was followed by tiny purple arms, followed by a tiny purple body, then a tiny pair of clear wings.

"Hey, remember me?" Helion said, he was rewarded by the sound of dozens of tiny bells. The small purple fairy-like person flew up to Helions face and he saw her smile.

"Welcome back Minthe." Helion said as he lifted his palm up and Minthe stood on it. "I need your help."