(A/N: I feel so bad that I haven't updated in so long! I have failed you as an author! I do not own Batman Beyond. Dana-lovers, do not read this story. There will be some serious Dana bashing in here. Other than that, enjoy! Firefly out!)

Ch.1: Unforgettable

Terry dragged his feet down the hall to his locker. Last night had him beat. Not only was Devil's Night (Halloween) a night for fire loving vandals but Dana also broke up with him… again. She had left seven emails, twenty-four texts, and seven calls; all before she called it quits on the last voice mail.

But, honestly, Terry wasn't complaining. Things were heading south for them anyway.

He stopped at his locker but couldn't get through to it. And the situation looked bad.

"Leave me alone," a feminine voice begged. Nash Nelson and some of his jock buddies where huddled around an open locker. "Why should we?" Nelson teased. "You're a pretty one." "Please, just go away," she asked, sounding a little frightened. "I just want to go through my day without any trouble." "Now who ever said we were trouble?" one of the other guys inquired.

"Leave her alone, Nelson!" Terry piped up. When the jocks turned to face him, Terry finally caught a glimpse of the girl they were torturing, but all he could make out was pale skin and a lot of black.

"How about you mind your own business, McGinnis?" Nelson sneered and stood toe-to-toe with Terry. "It's obvious she doesn't like what you're doing," Terry said. "So just leave her alone." His tone of voice grew dark, as did his aura. Nelson grew a bit uneasy but didn't show it.

"Whatever," he gave in. "She isn't my type anyway. Let's go, guys!" With that, he walked off, his teammates following behind him.

"You okay?" Terry asked the still shaky girl. Looking full on gave him a better look at her. Like he saw before, she was pale, but no so much that she looked sickly. Blue-green almost teal, almond shaped eyes were wide like a doe in headlights and black as sin hair was in low pigtails over her shoulders. She was short, coming up to just below his collarbone. Her clothes weren't in fashion like the other girls at school: a tight, black t-shirt and a dark maroon skirt with fishnet stockings and neon green converse. Black and white striped fingerless gloves went up to her elbows and matched her scarf.

The only thing that stood out was her necklace. It was an antique looking cross on a long chain. It was silver in color with two roses (one blue, one red) and vines wrapped around it.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said quietly. Terry smiled kindly and proceeded to remove his class supplies from his locker. "Thank you for helping me," she continued. "No problem," he told her. "Nelson and his goons don't know when to take 'no' for an answer." He stuck out his hand. "My name's Terry McGinnis, by the way. You new here?" "Yeah," she nodded with a small, shy smile and shook his hand. "I'm Tatiana Dean. My family and I moved in from Metropolis."

"Schway," he breathed. She was beautiful with a shy smile. I wonder how she would look with a truly happy smile? he thought.

They then walked down the school hallway. "Err, Terry?" Tatiana asked quietly. "Umm… I… don't know where any of my classes are. Can you help?" Terry took the piece of paper and looked. "Well, what do you know!" he exclaimed. "We have three out of four classes together. But I have P.E, not art." "Okay," she told him, moving to take the paper back.

But Terry thought he'd have some fun.

Before she could grab it, he pulled it away from her just out of reach. She tried to get it again. "Hey!" she yelled when he lifted it over his head. "Hay's for horses," he smiled.

Tatiana sighed. "And just when I though he wasn't like those jocks," she whispered, but still loud enough for Terry to hear. Caught of guard, he lowered the paper down. Before he could retaliate, she snatched back her schedule. "Hey!" he growled. "'Hay's for horses'," she mocked with a grin. But she was mentally smacking herself.

She followed Terry down the hall to their first class: math.

Tatiana sighed. She did not like math. Did the teachers really expect a lot of students to use most of the equations through out their lives? She knew she sure as hell wouldn't!

A little voice in the back of her mind scoffed.

'I don't know why you're even trying to be 'normal'!' the voice sneered. 'You know you're far from it. So why bother coming to this Hell hole?' Tatiana didn't give the voice the benefit of a response.

She looked around for a place to sit and saw an empty area in the back of the room. She started to walk over to it when Terry stopped her. "Where you going?" "To the back," she answered. "I hate math; it's the scorn of my existence, so I prefer to sit there. Sometimes teachers don't notice that I'm not doing my work." Terry laughed. "I think I'll join you. Teach let's us sit wherever," he said while following. "Cool," she said. "Thanks. To be honest, I didn't have many friends in Metropolis. At least growing up, I didn't."

They sat down and Terry frowned. "Why not? You seem completely likeable." "Well," Tatiana started. "Some people tend to avoid the orphans like being one's a disease." Orphan? the junior Batman thought. "What happened to your parents?" he asked cautiously. Tatiana seemed to deflate a bit. "They died."

Things were silent between them after the bell rang and class started. "I'm sorry to hear that," he whispered to her. "But I know how you feel, somewhat. I lost my dad about a year ago." All she did was nod. "I was ten when my mom died," she told him. "When I was put in the System, I knew it wasn't very likely I would get adopted. People want babies, not pre-teens."

Then she smiled. "Luckily, after six years, I met my, now brother, Marcel. I sort of became another member of the family and Mom decided to make it legal." "So now you're in Gotham, home of the worst crime in the state," Terry said sarcastically. "Hey, you guys have Batman, so it's not too bad," she laughed. "So, you know of Batman," he said. It wasn't a question but she nodded. "Bit of a fan," she admitted shyly.

After their classes, Terry invited Tatiana to lunch. "You'll get to meet my other friends, Max and Howey. I think you'll like them." "Alright," she blushed. There she was, shy Tatiana again. "Hey, it'll be alright. Didn't you say your brother was a student here too? We might see him," Terry comforted with a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm already right here, so why look?" a guy wondered from behind them. Terry and Tatiana turned around, only for Terry to look up a bit. This guy was huge! He was easily a head taller than Terry.

His mixed skin was pale somehow but that didn't stop him from dyeing his long dreadlocks the same pale green as his eyes.

"Hey, Marcel," Tatiana greeted. "This is your brother?" Terry asked in disbelief. "Terry, you seem to be forgetting that I'm adopted," she told him. "Mom tends to forget you're adopted," Marcel clarified. He and Tatiana laughed.

"Marcel, this is Terry," she introduced the two. "He was helping me with me classes and dealing with a group of idiots." "Nice to meet you," Marcel said and then his smile turned to a frown. "And there are many, complex levels of idiocy. Which one was bothering you?" "The meathead, Neanderthal kind," Terry told. "He goes by the name Nash Nelson. Guy's been bullying me for years." "Whoever he is, he better leave you alone, Tatiana, or someone's going to get themselves an ass whooping."

"Marcel!" Tatiana stared at him incredulously. "What?" he shrugged, seemingly clueless. Terry just laughed. "Join the club."

They sat down at Terry's usual lunch table, where two others already sat. "Hey, guys," Terry greeted his friends. "S'up, Ter?" Max smiled. "Nothing much," he shrugged. "But I want you to meet some people. This is Tatiana and Marcel Dean; new students from Metropolis." The two waved at Max and Howey, though Tati seemed to shrink back a bit in shyness.

"No need to be shy, girl; we're all prisoners here," Max joked. Tati giggled a little bit and everyone started to eat.

Tatiana and Marcel pulled out their home-made lunches. "You guys bring your own food?" Howey asked, curious. "Yep," Marcel said around a mouthful of pasta. "Mom doesn't like the food public schools give us. Says that prison food has more nutrisional value." This made Howey grimice and push his tray away.

"So, why did you guys move?" Max asked. "Gotham's quite a ways to go for a change of scenery." "Not to mention the crime," Howey added. "I mean, sure, we have Batman. But even he can only do so much." "Well, our mom got a job offering in Wayne-Powers' science department," Tati finally piped up. "Though she doesn't like the way Powers is running the place." "I agree with that," Terry nodded. "My dad worked there before he died, and I actually work for Mr. Wayne now. He's not even happy with things."

"Dude, you work for Bruce Wayne?" Marcel nearly flipped his lid. "Oh dear," Tatiana mumbled, ducking down. "Marcel has a love of the old timey stuff. I'm starting to think he was born in the wrong century." 'Oh ho, chicky! Nice one!' her little inner voice laughed. Oh, how true Tati's joke was!

"Anyway, what electives do you guys have?" Howey asked.

"Art."

"Technology."

The bell rang to get to the next class and Terry led Tati to the Art classroom, which wasn't that far from the gym. "See you later, Tatiana," he waved. "Bye, Terry. And thanks for being a friend," she blushed, looking at the floor. "No problem," he smiled.

Later, at home, Tatiana doodled in her sketch pad absentmindedly. She yelped a little when a warm body came crashing down on her from behind. "Mom!" she laughed, trying to push the older woman off of her. Claire laughed too and smiled down at her adopted daughter.

Claire's dark brown hair and pale skin gave her a Gothic appearance and, along with her young looks and slim build, never hinted to having given birth to Marcel.

"Soo," she started, leaning against Tati's headboard. "How was your first day at school?" Not like she needed to ask; Marcel could never keep secrets from his mother. "It was okay," Tatiana shrugged, trying to discreetly close her sketch pad. Too late.

"Who's this?" Claire snatched it from her. "Mom," Tati groaned. "Oh, he is cute!" the older woman grinned at the well done sketch of a smiling Terry. Knowing she'd never get it back without answering, Tatiana told her. "That's Terry from school. He helped me find my classes and shooed away some idiots." Claire nodded and put an arm around her daughter's slim shoulders.

"I know adjusting to so much in such a short time can be stressful," she mentioned, almost sorrowfully. "Some things will be difficult, but you won't have to face them alone like I did." "I know. But you had Marcel to take care of and that's what's kept you sane." "True. But if you need help, you can talk to us."

Tatiana nodded before flipping the page on her pad. Another drawing was there, somewhat a self portrait. One half of Tatiana's face was on one side, smiling and full of warmth and light. But the other half was different. The smile she had was strangely twisted and seemingly evil. Her teal eye in that one was changed to a bloody red.

"She's been popping up more and more lately," Tati confessed. "She's actually starting to invade my day life." Claire frowned in sadness, wrapping her arms around her daughter in comfort. "I'd be lieing if I said it gets better," she said into Tati's black hair. 'Why does it always seem to happen to the sweet ones?' Claire's little voice wondered. She could hear her nearly in tears. "Our Alters always take on who we are inside, whether they are outwardly shown or not," Claire pointed out, lifting Tatiana's face to look at her. "They might be unethical, even insane. But one thing is for certain; if you aren't evil, neither are they."

She kissed her forehead. "Time for bed, sweet dove. We both have a long day tomorrow."

"Night, Mom," Tatiana whispered as the voice in her head echoed the same.

"Good night, loves."