Chapter 5
[Present day]

"That had to have been hard for your father to decide," Robin said, "I don't know if I could have made that choice."

"Thing is," Terra said, "Papa didn't have a choice. Not after that. Those bullies that triggered my powers were the kids of certain high ranking officials and advisors. They were trying to discredit the crown through me. But, then, I kind of pushed the issue as well. I knew that my powers were growing and becoming more dangerous and without a means of controlling them, it was a matter of time.

Edward said, "I had wondered for a while about the unexplained quakes in that area, but, I couldn't barge in and find out easily. You see, I've been a citizen of the United States for a long time, even before I revealed what I am and how old I've become. I still have some of the original papers stored under my various names. But, I didn't settle on this name until the mid-1700s. At the time, it was still easy for me to simply alter my human form and move to another area of the country where no one would put things together.

"I made a deliberate decision, though, not to get involved in the affairs of other countries during peacetime by going there without permission. Granted, I still would go at times for relaxation purposes. Most countries friendly to the USA would process me as any other visitor with proper visas issued.

"In wartime, it was different. If I was fighting/spying for the Allies, the enemy got the hint eventually that it's tough to stop me since I can blend in pretty easy and my language skills would not mark me as a 'tourist'."

"Besides," Raven remarked, "When you can morph and teleport, you're hard to capture."

"Sure," Edward groused, "As long as I'm not knocked on my ass first. Then again, your half-brothers found out what happens when I'm captured and then used for their amusement. Damn fools."

Raven replied, "I'm not unhappy that they are gone. They got what they deserved for torturing you like that."

Edward shrugged, "I even gave one of them the chance to help me and he refused. They chose to die, far as I'm concerned. And, Trigon, he got the death he deserved as well for what he did to the both of us."

The others remembered how Edward could be when he gave into his true draconic nature. When he thought Raven had been completely corrupted, his nature exploded violently. It took a renewed Raven to break through and Edward could have killed her in his anger by accident.

They were, obviously, glad her emoticlones were mainly unharmed and they helped in the fight.

When he was attacking Trigon within Nevermore, he was chanting "This is for Timid…This is for Brave…This is for Happy…This is for the team…This is for Raven." When he tore Trigon's throat out, the snarl he uttered was "AND THIS IS FOR ME!"

But, that was in the past, far as Edward was concerned. He was more concerned with Terra right now. His long years of experience told him that she was barely scratching the surface of her story.

He knew that other things had to have happened to have caused her to be so full of anger when she turned on the team and why there were so many flashes of her temper and instability at times, even after her rescue. That's what bothered Edward the most.

Terra had, however, gotten up to use the restroom. Then again, everyone needed a short breather. So, seeing how night had fallen, Robin decided to give Terra a break.

She returned and sat down. Robin said, "I think we all need to let what we've learned thus far set in. There's a lot here, so, unless Terra objects, let's call it a night and relax with a movie or two."

"Actually, I'd like to continue, if that's all right?" Terra asked.

"You sure?" Edward asked.

"Stow it, Fire Boy," Terra said with a smile.

"Gee," Edward said, "I haven't been called that in a long time." He chuckled, though.

[October 1, 2005]

The King had made his decision regarding his daughter. He had to make the painful choice to send her away to protect the kingdom. There was a place in the United States where Tara could stay and hopefully be helped.

Since Tara's eruption a couple weeks before, she had been restricted to the Palace as there was an uproar with the population over the "unexplained" earthquake that occurred. The parents of the bullies, of course, were telling another story to the media and that wasn't helping matters any. They made it out like Tara was a monster who needed to be in jail, not holed up in the palace.

But, as much as the king tried to keep Tara from finding out what the media was saying, it wasn't helping matters much. Tara saw the looks on the staff faces and it wasn't the looks she was getting a year ago. People were fearful of the little blond girl.

Finally, though, the king realized that between her powers and the words of his current advisors and former advisors with the threat to the kingdom over his one night stand with Tara's birth mother, he would have to send his girl away, possibly forever.

So, one evening, he drew up secret documents stripping Tara of her official titles that would only come to light after she left the country. The story would be that due to her uncontrolled powers, she was a danger to the country as well as the region surrounding Markovia. They had already fielded queries from France and Germany about the odd quakes that, while quite mild, still registered on the seismographs.

He made the arrangements to have her "escorted" to the airport and taken overseas within the week. He knew he was forever breaking any trust between the two of them, and possibly Brion as well. The affairs of the kingdom and the safety of its subjects was paramount.

It was difficult, though, for him to explain to her that she would be leaving for a long time, but, he also knew that he has to break the news to her gently and to soften any blow.

The following day would be her last in Markovia and, well, Harold wanted it to be a good one.

So, he also had arranged for a party for her and while the party was going on, he would tell her what was to be. He didn't realize that it would be a mistake, though…

[Tower]

Terra stopped and it was apparent that what was about to be said was hard for the young terrakinetic to say.

Beast Boy pulled her into a one armed hug and said, "Why do I have a feeling that this is going to go downhill really fast?"

"That was the last day for a long time when I felt I had a home," Terra said, "It was before my heart was broken and my world started to crumble.

"Friends, this happy-go-lucky gal is a façade at times. I know you figured out that my life wasn't all it should have been. Sure, I stomped a few bad guys here and there, but, I made more enemies than friends before I came here. I had to learn to fend for myself, how to survive."

She yawned, though. That gave Robin an opening.

"Seeing how it's almost 11 PM, I'm calling a break until tomorrow morning," he said, "Sorry, Terra. This time, it's final. I want you to rest and relax."

"No argument there," she said, surprising Robin and Edward. Edward's empathic senses were on alert with her. She was already struggling to get through the narration and Edward knew that the worst was yet to come.

Raven stood up and yawned, "Excuse me."

The young empath was also being affected by the ebb and flow of Terra's emotions, but, was hesitant to draw those away from her. Edward had been teaching her when it would be OK to ease a person's emotional distress to a bearable point, but, not to remove it entirely. This was different, though. What Terra had been forced to go through had shaped her into the young woman sitting next to Beast Boy.

It was troublesome to Edward, though. His experience with mutants was limited to his friends from 1750 to 1790 when the exiled-in-time couple died. Then, Edward and his then wife mourned the losses deeply, even though Edward's life crossed theirs again in the late 20th Century when they were children into their teenaged years. His role, at the time was an observer, though. He only intervened directly a couple of times, to make sure that the man's history would unfold properly, but, left the guy to work through the issues as best he could. Edward knew that once a certain date passed, the couple would be exiled into his Colonial past. When he went through that purple flash and woke up he knew that the timeline was correct and he could move on with his life – no longer worried about altering an important timeline.

Terra, as well as the others, were still relatively new to him. He had, of course, followed the Justice League and was pleased to finally meet them recently. Joining the Titans, though, was a major swerve in his life. He certainly would never trade it for the world: He was marrying Raven soon and looking forward to trying to start a family with her.

He loved Raven deeply. Everyone knew that fact…even some of the Titan's enemies who had the misfortune of feeling Edward's wrath, starting with Plasmus so many months ago. He was still comfortably in jail, though.

He also loved, on a different level, the troubled geomancer. That was a sisterly love. But, he kept that at arm's length when she was talking to him as her "therapist". He had to do that or his effectiveness would be undermined. Terra understood that deep down, though.

But, as Edward and Raven headed for their room, he sensed that Terra wasn't the only one bothered by retelling her story. He could feel Raven's turmoil through the link. The emoticlones were in an uproar, and this was only after the first day.

They entered their shared quarters and as soon is the door closed, Raven sat down on her bed and Edward sat next to her.

"You OK?" he asked her out of concern.

"I'm fine," she said.

He reached over and took her hand, allowing his sense of calm to slowly ease the empath's emotions.

"Terra's come a long way," Edward said, "I don't think she's bothered telling anyone else her story until now. It's a huge step in the right direction."

"How do we know she's not telling this to make us feel sorry for her again?" Raven asked.

"She's not," Edward replied, "All those counseling sessions with her, that she started voluntarily, have told me that while she did manipulate the team before she was petrified, she's since realized that we're the only family she has now. She's more frightened of us turning against her and casting her out. Well, I should clarify that: It's always been a concern to her based on her past. What I think is that she had tried to fit in before and her powers got in the way. Unexplained quakes, mudslides where they normally don't occur eventually caused people to look at her, not with love and friendship, but, distrust and enmity."

"I know I didn't trust her at first," Raven said, "I don't know if it was being jealous or just because she was the newbie on the team. When she returned, I wasn't very nice to her. But, I had sensed she hooked up with Slade in the 6 months she was gone. I don't get, though, why she helped save the Tower when Slade's machine had successfully started to cause the ground under the Tower to collapse."

"Part of Slade's master plan, Rae," Edward said, "He had to get Terra inside the team, and, that meant eating several defeats. Her working to save the Tower alongside you did the intended job. It earned the team's trust, correct?"

"It did," she admitted, "They both played the team like fiddles…AND WE LET THEM!"

Raven's eyes changed to her enraged state.

"Rae, that was in the past…Or should I say 'Rage'?" Edward challenged.

"Does it matter?" Raven asked, her voice a blend of her normal voice and her demon side.

"Yes, it does Rage," Edward said, "You think I haven't felt the sense of betrayal you feel? How do you think I felt when my first beloved turned on me? That's haunted me for centuries. When she snapped once and for all, she ripped my heart out, stomped it flat and put the crumpled remains back. I had thought I moved on, over time…But, guess what? It took someone else nearly 2650 years later to really help me move on. And, there was almost 50 years of happy marriage before she was killed in a fight. That's what Raven sensed, Rage…A lonely Dragon."

Edward sighed as Raven returned to normal. Edward gathered Raven into a hug as she fought her emotions.

"I'm sorry," she said, but, Edward gently put a finger over her lips.

"It's OK, honey," Edward said to reassure her, "No harm, no foul. Terra's got you in a foul mood. Want to meditate for a while?"

Raven nodded and started to levitate. She took Edward's hand and they both started to meditate on the issues.

[Beast Boy/Terra's room]

"Thanks for being there, Garfield," Terra said with a sigh, "I really appreciate this."

She snuggled into Beast Boy's shoulder, comforted by his deep love for her. Deep down, she knew that he loved her from even before she turned against the team, but, all the rejections from before ate at her. She had forgiven the team for their rejection, but, she was having a hard time letting go of other incidents where she was almost chased out of town due to her runaway powers.

The accident had altered her personality as well as caused other issues, obviously. Issues that Edward was helping her with as best he could. But, even his experience was sometimes not enough to prevent her from lashing out. That's when she needed rescued the most, though. That job mainly fell to Beast Boy. They had learned to not only trust each other, but, he was able to move on from his parents' death and his rejection of Terra when she betrayed the team. Had he reached out to her despite Slade being there, she might not have changed sides.

Beast Boy gave his girl a kiss on the forehead and replied, "You don't have to thank me, Terra. We love each other and that will get us through a lot."

"And, that from the guy who was always telling jokes," she jabbed with a smirk, "The guy who Raven thought was immature."

"Hey!" he said, "Cut me some slack, girl. I'm still funny to you, and, that's what matters. Then again, Raven's not been giving me as much grief since she and Edward got together."

"Of course, silly," Terra said, "Raven and Edward are just as much in love as you and I. I'm happy that they are getting married soon. They've rubbed off on the whole team, even though I feel bad for Cy. He still hasn't found anyone close by."

"Well," Beast Boy said after a moment, "I do think that he likes BumbleBee a bit. I've overheard bits and pieces of their conversations."

"Remember the last time you got caught?" Terra reminded him.

He said, "These pointed ears are good at catching things. I just tune out conversations now meant for me now. Last time, I couldn't taste anything for almost a day. That extract really did help teach me a lesson. But, I will get Edward back at some point. I know he put you and the other up to that."

"Sweetie," Terra said, "Edward was pissed that you intentionally eavesdropped that time. Robin wanted to kick you out immediately, but, he wanted to give you a chance to learn the lesson without taking such a drastic step. He allowed Edward to prank you instead. You're lucky that Edward is our big brother figure who isn't afraid of the tough love. But, even when he's angry at someone on the team, once he's had his say, it's done with."

Beast Boy nodded, "That's true. I remember when you and Raven almost got into it for real. He was pretty ticked at the situation. But, he had a point, my love. He was protecting you from an angry Raven. And, honey, when Raven does lose control like that…well, Dr. Light took a trip that he hasn't forgotten. Why do you think he's afraid of her? When she released him, he was badly traumatized mentally. We had to actually put him in the mental ward before he went to jail. All she had to do is mimic that and he tends to surrender."

Terra sighed, "I know. Edward treats me almost like his daughter at times, his sister at other times, but, always as a friend first. I really didn't mean to kick Raven there, but, I'm glad he intervened. But, I feel bad for the verbal cheap shot as well."

"Let that go, Tara," Beast Boy said, "They forgave you, right? Edward said what he needed to and, didn't he pull you into one of his hugs afterwards? That's his way of saying, 'I don't like what happened, but, I forgive you regardless,' or, 'Stuff happens.'"

Terra sighed as her eyelids drooped and a few moments later, she was fast asleep.

Beast Boy also went to sleep, as did the rest of the folks in the Tower.

Hi, everyone,

No, I haven't forgotten this one. I figured an interlude chapter was needed, mainly to give me some breathing space. Chapter 6 might skip ahead a little while I am pondering the next phase in Terra's past.

Speaking of Terra...It is 100% confirmed that she is in the new Teen Titans GO cartoon. Tara Strong recently discovered the thrill of Twitter Vine and posted a Vine with Greg Cipes ("I like...uh...to eat"), Khary Payton ("Booya"), Hynden Walch ("No more with the filming") and Ashley Johnson (started to say "Terra") in character. Sadly, I can't put the link in here, but, I'll kick it to my profile instead.

"Tiny Titans" will be updated next, methinks, then, some time with the Honeymoon story.

TTFN!