About this fic:

1. This a BBxRae fic. There will be BBxTerra moments, but the BBxRae essence will always be present.

2. Time will be very important. Please pay attention at the dates at the beginning of the chapters. For expected effects, I used the date of first exhibition of the episodes of the cartoon as the date their events actually happened.

3. It's a long fic. There are 36 chapters and it is complete and published in my profile in Brazilian Portuguese, my native language, and I decided to translate it to English. I'll publish as I translate it, but I believe it'll be at least one or two chapters per week.

4. I apologize if there are too many mistakes, it's the first time I publish something in English.

Thank you and I hope you'll give the fic a chance.

I do not own Teen Titans.

Chapter 1 – The Reencounter

Jump City, 2024, 1:00 pm

Tara Markov left the diner on a rush. She walked to the square across the street, looking for something in the old brown coat's pockets. Underneath, she was still wearing her waitress uniform, a pink dress and a white apron. She took a cigarette pack from a pocket and a green lighter from another. She pulled a cigarette with her mouth, staining it with red lipstick and returned the pack to her pocket. It was cold and the wind was strong. She covered the flame from the lighter with her free hand and sighed with relief when smoked. She closed her eyes, inhaling the smoke and leaned against a big tree, staying out of the wind.

It was her lunch time. All of the other waitresses ate at the diner, or went to another place with her boyfriends or sometimes with a client. She never lunched. The cigarette kept the hungry away. She was very skinny, and a little pale. Watching the playground, she saw a bunch of little kids playing, all fluffy from all the sweaters and jackets their parents made them wear. It was Saturday. Even cold, the parents couldn't lock their children home. Tara blew out the smoke. The children were screaming, annoying her. Even among the yelling, however, she heard a familiar voice, calling out for a familiar name.

"Gar!"

The cigarette swung between her fingers. She turned to the voice's direction, only to shrink behind the tree to the vision, being almost completely hidden.

The voice came from a rather short woman with long violet hair and a grayish skin, wearing an elegant black coat. She had a little girl with equally violet hair on her arms and looked annoyed. A car's door could be heard slamming.

"I'm here, Rae, calm down" answered a smiling man. Tara squeezed her hands tight.

The man was tall, with well defined muscles, and had green skin. His also green hair was a little longer than when Tara knew him, and the wind messed it up. He wore a brown jacket and also had a child on his arms, just as muffled as her sister, and a big bag on one shoulder.

"I don't think it's a good idea" said Raven "They could get a cold"

"Rae, you wrapped them up to go to the North Pole" said Beast Boy. "Besides, they're gonna drive everyone crazy at the Tower if they don't take a little air."

The two of them walked to the playground. Tara followed. The couple sat on a bench and put the children down, and they ran to the slide. Tara sat beside a near tree. She could be spotted if one of them looked behind. She put the cigarette out on the earth so it wouldn't smell.

Beast Boy lifted his arm and put it around Raven's shoulders and kissed the top of her violet head, and she leaned it to rest on her husband's shoulder. Tara felt a sting of pain.

'You are at my place, Raven' she thought, angry.

Raven moved, uncomfortable.

"What is it?" asked Beast Boy.

"Just a bad feeling…" answered the empathic woman, taking her hands to her chest. She searched for her daughters with her eyes. They were now playing at the seesaw.

Tara tried to control her rage flow. She had forgotten about the witch's powers.

"Everything's fine, Rae" Beast Boy hugged her. Tara looked away and held her emotions tight inside herself.

The both of them remain silent for a moment, then started talking about daily stuff. Tara got surprised with the life style they had now, and by what she heard, so had the other titans. They had two older children at school and a house in the city. Tara had already seen their oldest son. She heard about his birth, that was when she realized how much Beast Boy was over her. She saw him once in a while going to school. He was remarkably like his father.

She heard the little girl's yelling approaching, and saw that they both were missing the gloves and caps.

"Where did you left them?" asked Raven, disappointed "You better not have lost them"

"We borrowed them to our sandmen, mommy" answered one of them, carefree "Do you wanna see? Come on, come on"

Raven was dragged by the daughter to the sand box, and Beast Boy remained with the other one, delighted with her joy yells when he lifted her up above his head. It was beautiful little girl, blonde with green eyes and delicate traces.

'She could have been my daughter' thought Tara, jealous 'And I… I could make him much happier'

She looked at her watch. Her half hour lunch was over. She got up silently and walked away from the happy family, going towards the diner. She hadn't smoked enough. She'd spent the rest to the afternoon hungry.

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Tara arrived at a grimy building dragging her feet. She was tired. She worked hungry and missing her cigarette. The manager called her attention to her horrible appearance and made her spread blush at her face to look healthier. She went upstairs slowly, since she would get out of breath if she did it too quickly, because of the cigarettes. Stupid broken elevator building.

She at last was in front of the door with the number 31. She turned the key and got in, without turning the lights on, laying on the couch. She didn't want to see her sad home again. Small, messy and sad. The Logan's house was probably big, clean and tidy. Perfect.

She got up and went to the kitchen. The last sun rays lightened up the room enough so she could make a sandwich. She ate it voraciously and then went to her bedroom's window to smoke.

Tara started wondering if she deserved all that. She laughed without humor. If the Jump City knew what she did to their city 20 years ago, she would have even less. Slade… It was all his fault. She wished she'd never trusted him and his smooth voice. She turned away from the people who really want her welfare. When she realized that, it was too late. And still, they forgave her.

She remembered of waking up at the dark and damp cave, a dead flower bouquet at her feet and a beautiful plaque with the words 'Terra. A Teen Titan. A True Friend.' She was too ashamed to come back, too scare to ever try and use her powers again. When Beast Boy found her, forgiving her in a blind way, she couldn't look into his eyes without feeling guilty. Besides, she had never loved him. He wasn't a reason strong enough to come back and face the other's disapproval and suspicion.

Nevertheless, as her life went by, Tara came to the conclusion that, even if she didn't love Beast Boy, she should have gone with him. She would love him with time. Maybe he was the only one that could make her happy. Besides, in the current conditions, anything would make her happier. She couldn't stay put in high school. She belonged to the world and travelling. At least, to a life of action. The most action she got these days was the constant changes of job and city.

Tara was jealous of Raven. She was angry at herself for leaving Beast Boy to the empath. If she had never left… he would now be hers.

She put out the cigarette and, with these thoughts, fell asleep.

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When she woke up, the sun was high in the sky and the apartment was illuminated. Tara got up and scratched her eyes. She turned on the TV and went to kitchen to make breakfast.

The News was on. A pretty lady informed that they would have a warmer week. Next, the anchor introduced a new about the arrest of a super villain and called for a report that was at the place.

"Great, just what I wanted, to hear about their marvelous services again" mumbled Terra, pouring hot water at a mug with instant coffee powder.

"At today's dawn, the super heroes Titans stopped the robbery of an antique and valuable piece of the Jump City Museum's collection" informed the reporter from a busy street, full of police men and nurses. The Museum rise behind her, old and impetuous "The criminal is the super villain formerly known as Control Freak, released two years ago for goo behavior. We still don't know which piece it was and what he intended with it. This historian, employee of the Museum, can give us more information"

The image expanded to show a nervous man with messy hair next to her.

"This particularly piece was a kind of clock, one of first ever made in the world, in Asia" he said, looking anxiously to the Museum "We don't know what he wanted, it doesn't make anything special. By the writings found with it, whoever made it believed it had mystical powers, but historians from a lot of places examined it and it doesn't seem to have any other value besides the historical one"

That moment Cyborg came out of the Museum, with the hand on the shoulder of an old and fat man. He was trying not to be too blunt. The man was extremely fragile. He was the Control Freak. He was on a pity state. His wrinkly face had a shocked expression, and he didn't seem to understand what was happening. He kept mumbling "It was the last piece, it was the last piece…"

The reporter left the historian to interrogate Cyborg.

"Please, could you tell the public the criminal's state? Do you know what he wanted with the piece?"

"Nothing to declare" answered Cyborg dryly, giving the villain to the nurses.

From the Museum came out a tall man with long black hair, using a black and blue uniform and a mask on his eyes. The reporter went to him.

"The Control Freak will be held at a sanatorium and treated there" he informed before the reporter could ask anything "He appears to be out of his mind, and he doesn't know what he's doing. Not even he knows why he came to steal this piece, and he's on a delicate health state. We didn't have to use violence to stop him."

"Just this one piece!" yelled the Control Freak from the ambulance, laughing hysterically "Then you could fix all of yours mistakes!"

"But there were found plans on him, right?" insisted the reporter, getting closer to Nightwing "You have no idea what he was planning?"

"He seemed to be building a time machine" said the hero, annoyed "But it was impossible for it to work, he was following no logic"

"Do you think he knew how to unleash the clock's mystical powers?" she asked, but Nightwing was already walking away. She turned to the camera "It seems they won't give us any more information. The Control Freak has an affect state of mind and…"

The hysterical laughs got louder. The nurses were about to inject a tranquilizer.

"It would fix all of your mistakes! Then you could be happy at last!" the criminal's face appeared on the screen, frightfully out of himself. The nurses closed the ambulance's door and the presswoman finished the report.

Tara was mixing her coffee and looking at the TV, but not seeing the images. Control Freak's words kept echoing in her head.

It would fix all of your mistakes… It would fix all of your mistakes…

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