It was nearly 1:00AM and Terra had to sneak back into her adopted families house after sneaking out to go talk to the Teen Titans. She got the answers she so desperately wanted about her forgotten past. However, the answers were not exactly satisfying. She felt even worse now, knowing she was a crazed villain who took over the city after being manipulated by Slade.
She eased the door shut with her left hand, using her right shoulder to apply counter pressure so it shut slowly but smoothly. She hung up her rain coat on the coat rack next to the door and turned to lock the door. After locking the door with a silent click she let out a small sigh of relief knowing she made it without waking anyone up. Or... so she thought.
She removed her muddy boots from the storm and placed them next to all the other shoes not currently being used. Terra then tip-toed her way to the bottom of the staircase and slowly stepped on each stair to avoid making any loud creaks in the hard wood floor the stairs were made of. Once she reached the top of the staircase she moved quickly to her room and shut the door behind her softly. She just wanted to get back in her room as fast as possible at this point. She put her right ear flat against the door and listened if anyone had woken up from her quick movement to her room. Nothing but silence returned to her.
Feeling satisfied, Terra turned towards her bed and walked across the room. She spun to her back as she flopped herself down on to her bed to stare up at the ceiling. She was exhausted and had A LOT of new information about her past to process.
She removed her sling from the back of her neck and placed it on the nightstand next to her bed and looked at her arm in its solid cast. So much has happened. It was almost hard to believe. The moonlight started to peak through the fading clouds of the now past storm and shined through the blinds of her window, lighting up her face. She turned to look at glowing orb in the sky. It gave her some comfort thinking maybe, just like the storm, the worst had come and gone.
As she stared out the window into the night she saw the T-Ship hover over the moon with a faint whirr of an engine like a plane far over head. It darted across the sky in the direction she remembered seeing the other Titans fly. She returned her sight to the ceiling before closing her eyes.
She thought about Beastboy. She hoped he was ok and wished she could take back everything she had done to him. It shocked her that even after everything she did he still cared and wanted to help her however he could. This made the pain sting a little more. She knew she didn't deserve a friend like him.
Terra fell into a deep sleep. Her dream of that unfortunate day returned, only this time she could recognize the rest of the shadows in her dream. At least... all but one. The Titans surrounded her begging her not to strike down Beastboy right in front of their eyes. She could see their faces. She could hear their voices. There was no doubt she was the villain in this picture. But when she turned to strike at whomever she knew was the real villain, she saw it was still just a shadow. A figure of a man trying to control her every move.
She woke up with a startled surprise to her alarm clock. She hadn't woken up to her alarm since Beastboy last spoke to her at her school. She switched it off and looked at the time. It read 6:30AM. She remembered this was her first day going back to school since the incident and she had an hour and a half to get ready before school started.
Terra rolled out of bed and let out a yawn with a long stretch. She didn't get much sleep but at this point she was getting used to it. She walked out of her room across the hallway and into the shared bathroom that she had all to herself. She got undressed, took a quick 10 minute shower, wrapped her towel around her budding chest and let the remainder of it fall like a dress covering the rest of her body down to her thighs.
She walked back across the hall to her room and closed the door behind her. She took the towel off her body and wrapped it around her long blonde hair to dry it faster. In her closet were multiple school uniforms she could wear throughout the week. She picked a fresh school uniform from her closet and got dressed.
Terra made her way down to the kitchen where she found her adopted father eating biscuits and gravy for breakfast. He had a news paper on the table infront of him and her adopted mother was at the stove making more breakfast for her. They both looked to Terra and smiled.
"Hey, there's my tough little trooper!" Her dad said excited to see her up and about.
"Goodmorning sweetie," her mother chimed in, "how'd you sleep?" She was doing a good job of covering up her disappointment as she already knew the answer to that question.
"I actually slept... fine," Terra knew she didn't get a good night sleep but it was still better than before. She also didn't want to seem suspicious so she played it off as best she could, "my arms still a little tender though."
"It's only been two weeks," her father respond, "It'll get better," his smile was warm and comforting. He really wanted her to be at ease after all this.
"I know," Terra said shaking it off. She head towards the table and sat adjacent to her father and waited for her mother to place breakfast in front of her.
A few minutes of silence pass and her mother brought a plate with bacon, eggs, and fruit at her seat before sitting next to her across the table from her husband. Terra was actually excited about this breakfast. After two weeks in the hospital she was craving real food. Not the knock-off hospital food they serve the patients. She grabbed her fork began digging in with her one good hand and started chewing aggressively.
"Hungry huh?" Her dad said with a chuckle.
"Sweetie, slow down," her mother said with care, "you'll choke."
"Oh come on, Linds," Carver said playfully, "she's survived way worse. Besides it's her first meal at home in a while. She can be a little sloppy just this once."
Lindsey looked at carver who had a smile on his face. She felt like he thought everything that just happened was just a big joke. She returned a fake smile and brushed it off while sipping on coffee she made earlier. After a moment of silence, aside from Terra's chewing, Lindsey spoke up.
"Honey, I have some errands to run today," she lied, "think you can drop Terra off at school on your way to work?"
Carver looked up at his wife and thought nothing of it. She really would occasionally have days where she had to run errands. Carver looked at Terra who was just about finished eating.
"How 'bout it? Think I should give you a ride today?" He teased.
Terra still had food stuffed in her mouth but she still worked up a smile and nod her head.
Everything seemed back to normal. Just the way the family would always behave on an early morning of a school day. They really were a picture perfect family.
The clock on the wall of the kitchens dinning room read 7:15AM and it was a half hour drive to Terra's school with the city traffic. Carver stood up and looked down at Terra finishing the last of her fruit.
"Ready kiddo?" He asked.
Terra took one last drink of her glass of water and looked back up at her dad.
"Yep!" She seemed really optimistic about the day. Like things might get better soon. She grabbed her backpack and through it over her left shoulder and walked out the front door her father held open for her, "bye mama!" She shouted before the door closed.
Lindsey smiled and waved at the door as it closed. Her fake smile disappeared and she thought about what Melissa said the previous night over the phone...
I want you to be the face of this movement. Your child was severely injured by the Titans and now she's sneaking out to go see them? That seems suspicious doesn't it? She could get hurt even worse.
Lindsey didn't want to be the face of whatever movement Melissa had planned. She just wanted to Terra to stay away from the Titans.
But if you want to make sure Terra doesn't end up further injured or, worse yet, killed... then we need a probable cause to file a legal action. So I propose we file an accusation of kidnapping. An investigation will have to take place but while it is we can file a restraining order and have it pushed through quickly.
Lindsey didn't like this idea but it would be a nail in the coffin to get them to stay away from Terra. She felt she had no choice.
Come by city hall tomorrow morning at 10:30. I'm holding a conference out front with a small group of parents who feel the same way you do. With your help we can get some strong support to get the ball rolling and have the Titans cease all "hero" activities immediately. With any luck, the publicity could help push through the restraining order in the same day .
Lindsey liked the sound of that. It would force the Titans to stay away from her daughter completely. If it was her only option that's what she'd do.
Terra sat in the passenger seat as Carver was car driving her to school. They had the radio playing quietly and for the first few minutes it was a bit of an awkward silence between them as a small amount of tension filled the car.
"So..." Carver said breaking the silence, "is there anything you wanna tell me?"
Terra looked at him and her eyes went wide. He only ever said that to her when she had done something wrong, or lied, or was hiding something and he always got it out of her one way or another.
"It's ok," Carver said trying to get her to relax, "I'm not mad... but I want you to tell me the truth."
"How'd... I thought..." Terra stumbled over her sentences trying not to let anything slip out.
"Terra, I could see your fresh mud tracks on the rug this morning," he said as if it couldn't have been more obviois, "and your coat was drenched."
Terra felt like a stone wall hit her in the face. How could she have forgot to clean up after she came inside from walking through the soaked field with Robin and Cyborg.
"I'm sorry," she sighed, "I uh... I kinda went to go see... the... Teen Titans?" She sounded like she just broke a law and was confessing in court.
"Really?" Carver said slightly shocked, "I guess they did say they knew you," he paused and thought about that for a second, "well... the old you," He sounded like he completely understood. As if he would have encouraged her to go see them at some point, "so what'd they say?"
Terra was stuck... How was she about to tell her father she was an apprentice to the city's worst criminal mastermind? How she almost destroyed the city. How she almost killed the Teen Titans, the very people who saved her life a couple weeks ago?
"I... really don't wanna talk about it," she said shamefully and she turned her head to look out the window of the moving car. It broke her heart now that she thought about it. She thought now maybe it was better not knowing any of it.
Carver looked over to see his adopted child struggling again. She went from a optimistic and enthusiastic girl to a depressed and broken young woman just in the duration of their small car ride. Carver was worried. Maybe Lindsay's feeling towards the Titans had some truth behind them after all.
"Did they hurt you?" Carver asked bluntly. He was starting to take the role of the over protective father.
"No! No no no. Nothing like that." Terra immediately respond trying to clarify, "but they told me something about myself that I'm having a hard time... accepting," Terra knew what the titans hand told her was true but deep down she didn't want it to be.
"So what Robin said was true then?" He asked with a little excitement, "you were a Teen Titan?"
"Sorta," Terra said trying to figure out how to explain this, "but I... gave it all up," her voice made it obvious that what it wasn't a good thing.
"Did they at least know why the first thing you could remember was waking up in that cave?" Carver asked trying to get some answers.
Terra was quiet. She knew that if she answered that honestly she'd have no choice but to tell her dad everything and she didn't know how he was going to take it.
"Um..." She didn't know what to do at this point. It seemed like she was in a lose-lose situation: Lie to her father and make it harder on herself or tell him the truth and possibly be disowned by the only family she has.
"Hey," Carver said putting a hand on her shoulder. They had stopped just outside her school and were a little earlier than they expected, "you can tell me anything and I will always love you no matter what. Call me crazy, but I believe we were meant to find you out there that day. Nothing will change the what I think of you," he sounded like he knew it was something painful that Terra was holding back from him. For a first time father, he was doing an amazing job at understanding the mind of a teenage daughter.
Terra teared up and wrapped her good arm around her dad across the car. She felt she truly did have a father. Not just a guardian or someone that took her in. A real father. As if he raised her from a little girl.
"I..." She paused wondering if this was a good idea, "I was a bad person," Terra began sobbing into her fathers chest, "I was such a terrible person!" Her sobs grew stronger and she started to gasp for air in between every two or three of them, "I hurt the only friends I had and I... I... I almost destroyed the entire city!" She lost it.
Accepting the truth of her forgotten past was more painful than all her current wounds. Her broken arm... Her cracked ribs... They were nothing compared to the pain she felt now. Terra was so upset and broken that she wanted to end it all. She didn't want to live with what she knew about herself now.
Carver sat there for a second in shock. He couldn't even fathom the idea of this beautiful gentle soul ever harming anyone let alone being capable of destroying a city. If it weren't for her balling so hard into his chest he would have thought she was kidding. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tightly but remembered her injuries were not yet fully healed and decided to hold her gently.
"Sweetie..." He began trying to console her, "don't you see what this means?" He sounded kind and caring like he meant every word he was about to say.
Terra sat up still sobbing and started wiping the tears from her eyes as she looked up at carver ready to hear the worst. She looked at him and shook her head not knowing what he meant.
"It means you are a good person," he saw Terra's face look unconvinced and began to explain, "who ever you were in your past... that's not you now. And you don't want to be that person anymore anyways. Look at how you're reacting to this," he pointed to her tears still streaming down her face, "you really think a terrible person would feel the way you do right now?" He smiled at her knowing fully well Terra was not some monster her past portrayed her as, "as far as I'm concerned your mom and I, and this whole city is lucky to have who you are now."
Terra grew a smile but continued to sob in the passenger seat. Hse leaned towards Carver once more and he held her close again.
After a long moment of silence Terra's tears began to slow to a stop and her sobs faded away as she thought about what her dad said. He was right. Whoever she was in the past isn't who she is now. She knew she was a good person. She knew she had a lot to offer this world. Now she could see she's been given a second chance at life and there's no way she was going to waste it by making the same mistakes twice. Whether she could remember them or not.