A/N: Sorry about the wait on this one. I know it's weird to take a few days when I'm used to updating daily. I simply took a break because I wanted to read some other fanfiction and writing samples, expand my vocabulary, and refine my writing technique. I hope it shows in this chapter. Enjoy!

"Garfield, did that rude boy's comments hurt you? I hope you know you don't smell unpleasant."

Yeah, they bothered him. But not necessarily because of what was said about him. Beast Boy was more worried about the blatant disrespect those goons had for her. He was lucky that she didn't sneak out without him. Not that she couldn't handle herself, but she is a naive girl and...well, he worried about her.

"Hey, what? Nah, they don't bother me. Some guys are just jealous of all my awesome, that's all." She could probably see right through him, so he tried to put on a big grin to mask his uneasiness.

"Can I be truthful with you, Garfield?" She said suddenly.

What? What could she possibly have to say? He can't think of anything she might have been dishonest about.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. Suddenly she was leaning in close, pulling him down so she could reach his ear. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, his breath hitching in his throat. Calm down, calm down, there's no way it's about what you think…

"I stole those lines that I used on those guys from a daytime soap opera wikipedia page," she whispered.

She released his shirt collar and stepped back, but he didn't move. His brain was still...processing.

What. What? He thought. Does she mean the guys over there? The stuff she said to them? He supposed it hadn't really sounded like her at the time. He glanced at her, only to catch a cheeky smile on her face while her purple eyes glimmering.

"You were trying to make me feel better, weren't you?" He said, feeling a sincere grin spreading on his face.

" 'Guilty as charged!' " She said, making a silly face he assumed was from the TV show she was quoting. He couldn't help but chuckle at her sincere silliness. He felt a stab of guilt as he brushed off the disappointment of her confession.

He was starting to wonder if he should go ahead and take her to the Ferris Wheel, but before either of them could say anything else...

"Titans, respond!" Robin's voice crackled through their comms. He heard the other Titans responding, began to reach for his, and then remembered he had snuck her out of his bedroom window and started to panic. Oh, man, Robin was going to be so mad. Still, if he didn't respond, they would just be madder.

"This is Tesla responding to call for Titans. What is the emergency?" Beast Boy stared at her blankly. She was the one who was so worried about the others not knowing, and yet she didn't hesitate for even a second to pick up the comm and give herself away. He shook it off and squeezed in next to her so at least they would know she didn't wander off alone.

"Beast Boy is here, too," he said, throwing up a peace sign at Robin's visage on the screen.

"Good, glad I caught you gu-wait, where are you?" Robin said, his face growing huge as he looked closer into his comm. "You know what, nevermind, that's not important right now. Just meet us at the included coordinates. We just found a glimmer of your memories, Tesla. One of them is active right now, and we're going to get it!"

Robin signed off quickly and the screen went blank. Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief. Safe, for now.

"Well, Tesla, let's get going, huh?" He said, reaching his hand out to her. The smile he received was so genuine it made his heart melt.

She took his hand, sending tingles all over his body as they started to float. Her eyes began to glow, her face determined and excited at the same time.

"Let's go get your memory back, Tess."

After a quick stop-over to change into appropriate wear for a mission, Beast Boy and Tesla landed outside an abandoned, half-collapsed other Titans were waiting patiently, and none uttered a word about their trip to the city. Tesla could tell that Beast Boy was hoping it would last, but she was ready to accept the consequences of her actions, just as soon as this memory was in its proper place.

"Alright, Titans, this memory blinked onto my radar from this location about half an hour ago, and has since gone dead," Robin said, straight to the briefing. "I dug around into this building's history, but I couldn't find anything significant. Before the fire that took this building, it was just a place called Sunnyside Daycare. I don't know if it's significant, but at least it's something."

"But how will we find the memory?" Starfire interjected. "How can we know that it is still present?"

"I feel it," Tesla said, closing her eyes. The building seemed to have a heartbeat that called only to her, a special, familiar feeling. "In order for it to have appeared, it must have been accessed in some way. If there is any surviving computer equipment, that is where it should be."

She paused for a moment, mentally pulling up the floorplans of the building to mark potential places.

"There were three floors and a basement. No computers were on the main floor, but the basement was a records room, and the top two belonged to unrelated businesses. The fire only took out the left half of the top three floors. There may be something that could work with a little boost on the top two floors or in the basement," she concluded, using the visual emitters in her wrists to show the rest the floorplan in question.

"Alright, so we each need to take a techie?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes," Robin replied. "Starfire and I will take the top floor, Cyborg and Raven the second, and Beast Boy and Tesla the basement. If anyone finds anything or runs into any trouble, then give everyone else a ring, got it?"

"Got it," came the unison response.

"Alright. Don't worry, Tess, we'll get that memory back for you in no time. Titans, GO!"

The others quickly scattered: Starfire gripped Robin under his armpits, whisking him up to the top floor in a heartbeat; Raven flew in through the exposed 2nd floor, and Cyborg jumped up after her in one leap. Tesla and Beast Boy were left at the entrance to the daycare, and without further ado, they took off inside themselves.

The main entrance door still worked relatively well, and Tesla had no problem pushing it out of her way. The remains of what must have once been a lively daycare could be seen, even in the low light. Beast Boy morphed into a bloodhound, sniffing determinedly at the ground. Probably trying to catch her scent, she thought. She turned her eyes to nightvision mode, attempting to improve her vision. The stairs had to be somewhere, but the fire had obscured what should have been a sensible floorplan, so it was guesswork. Her heartbeat resounded loudly in her ears and she tried to push down the feeling of uneasiness rising in her chest. Without Beast Boy's talking to fill the silence, she was forced to confront her uncertain future. Of course she wanted her memories back, but what did they hide? The scientist who created her must have scattered them for a reason. What if she was dangerous? What if this memory brought out something that could hurt her friends? What if - -

A hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks, and she spun on her heel, bringing her opposing palm for a concentrated strike. Beast Boy caught her wrist, redirecting her attack expertly. His concerned eyes met her panicked gaze, searching for an answer in her face.

"Dude, Tess, are you okay? You look really freaked out."

Tesla felt her breath hitch, and let it out with a long exhale. She didn't realize her thoughts had been broadcasted so clearly on her face, but if anyone could read them it was probably him.

"Yes, I'm alright. No need to worry about me, Garfield." She put on a smile, hoping to come off as relaxed. His eyebrow bent upward in a suspicious glance, and then she felt his hand take hers firmly.

"I don't believe you, but okay," He said with his usual smirk. "Let's just try not to get separated, in case you do freak out, 'kay?"

She nodded in agreement, letting him lead her, only half-hearing him say that he'd found the stairs. She was silly to worry, for she knew her new friends would never let her down. If Beast Boy had anything to say about it, she would never be capable of any evil. She followed him determinedly down the crumbling staircase, electing not to remove her hand from his. If one of them were to fall, it would at least be alright if they were holding hands already, she reasoned. There was an eerie sense of silence as they went down the steps, as if the basement was a different area entirely. Beast Boy was trying to fill the silence with some jokes about the surroundings, but seemed to be struggling to find good material and eventually fell quiet again.

The staircase seemed impossibly long, but finally emptied out into a cramped space filled with filing cabinets and cobwebs. A light bulb hang from the ceiling, prompting Tesla to send a live jolt to occupy its wires momentarily. As dim light filled the cramped space, she switched her nightvision off, rubbing her eyes. Nightvision seemed to make her eyes and head hurt.

"Hey, that's a useful trick," Beast Boy said, smiling at her. He released her hand and began searching through the filing cabinets. She felt a twinge of disappointment, but elected to turn back to the real task at hand and began searching as well. "Do you feel anything down here? Anywhere it might possibly be?"

"It could be anywhere in the building," she said. "The signal is just as weak here as anywhere else. I suppose it will only get stronger once we find it?"

"Oh, maybe."

She ran her hand along the filing cabinets, listening to Beast Boy humming to himself. Her heart banged loudly in her chest again, synchronizing with the signal from her memory. The mechanical hum of the memory betrayed her close-to-human heartbeat, yet another reminder of her artificial life. If she could just hone in on the signal, this would all be over. She paused. Her hand rested on a large, cold metal surface. She pondered what had made her stop. Beast Boy's humming was distant. How far had she walked listening to her own heartbeat? She ran her hand down the metal object. She didn't need to probe it to know it was what she was looking for. The case was huge, but what it contained was small, concentrated, and made of a mysterious energy. She noted it was made of the same alloy as her stasis chamber, meaning she could probably…

She jumped back, startled, as the metal moved under her hand. She hadn't expected the open sequence for her chamber to actually work. She sucked in her breath, waiting as the clicks and whirs died down. A blue light washed over her.

Beast Boy hummed a tune to himself while he searched through the filing cabinets. He supposed it was natural for Tesla to be comfortable in long silences, but he wasn't built that way. He needed background music, a theme song, if you will. But he tried to keep it quiet. He didn't want to wreck her concentration.

"Friends, this is Starfire. Robin and I have had none of the luck on the top floor." Starfire's voice crackled from the communicator on his belt.

"Nothing here," confirmed Robin. "How is everyone else doing?"

"No sign of anything yet," Raven buzzed back.

Beast Boy plucked the communicator off his belt, buzzing in. "Yeah, nothing down here so far, but-" he was cut off by an audible gasp, almost a shriek. Robin's voice crackled back with concern as he whipped around to the direction, but he couldn't hear it over the deafening hum, followed by an explosion of light. Without a second thought he was shooting towards the source, morphing into a swallow for speed and movement, then touching back down in human form.

The light was nearly blinding. He could hear Robin's voice echoing from the communicator, barely making out that he was detecting readings similar to an EMP grenade. His hands clamped firmly over his ears to try to deafen the hum, and he struggled to keep his eyes open, scanning the area to try and find Tesla. He felt a chill and heard voices: Raven had transported the others to them via her teleportation skills. He was about to turn to call to them, but suddenly his frantic eyes found their mark.

The hum disappeared, his friend's voices sounding distant and lost. His heartbeats threatened to break his eardrums, hammering loudly. He couldn't tell why the silence came, but his emerald eyes stayed trained on the girl. His mind was screaming at him to move, but his body wouldn't listen, so he could only watch at first. Tesla was in the middle of the light, her body enveloped in some kind of electrical charge. Small bolts licked Beast Boy's skin as he watched, making him wince. Her body contorted in an inhuman twist, electricity crackling and threatening to break her. Her eyes were dull, but there was no mistaking her message as her fingers struggled against the voltage, reaching towards him.

"Beast Boy, don't!" Robin's cry of warning was too late to stop the changeling from reacting. Beast Boy sucked in his breath as his fingers closed around her wrist, bolts of electricity wracking his body for a split second. He steeled himself and yanked, pulling her to him, wrapping his arms around her.

The roar died suddenly and darkness returned to the small basement. The shapeshifter and the girl fell to the ground along with the clatter of something metal. He hadn't even realized they were floating, he thought blearily. Someone's hands tried to remove Tesla from his, but his grip tightened, bringing her closer to him and burying his head in her neck, soft turquoise curls tickling his ears.

No, don't take her.

Adrenaline surged through his body as he sat there, only half hearing the voice of their leader talking to him soothingly over the ring in his ears. His eyelids drooped as the adrenaline subsided, and he felt Raven's hands on him, bringing the familiar cold feel of her healing, and he cursed himself as he drifted off into an uneasy unconsciousness.

A/N: It's a bit on the short side comparatively, but ending the chapter elsewhere felt clunky. This seemed like a much more natural ending. So there you are!

Please review (and favorite, if you like)!

Here are some examples of Tesla I made up using dollmakers from DollDivine (Remove spaces to access):

Tesla Main Outfit (Courtesy of X-Girl Maker): s1242. photobucket user/ Gracie11Facie/ media/ TeslaMain. png. html?sort=3&o=0

Tesla "Date" Outfit (Courtesy of Urban Chic Deluxe): s1242. photobucket user/ Gracie11Facie/ media/ TeslaOutfit1. png. html?sort=3&o=1