Disclaimer I do not own Teen Titans or any of it's characters

AN: Oh my gosh I am SOOOOOOOOOO sorry it took so long to update. I still love this story and I appreciate your support but it's been hell trying to write this chapter up until now. Every time I would start it would come out horrid and then I would get frustrated and forget about it. Believe it or not I've had writers block for months almost half a year! Gah! If anyone is still reading this billions of Kudos to you! A lifetime supply of kudos in fact! Especially Evil Excalibur who has commented so many times and came back for every chapter even after months of nothing from me! I would also like to thank Archer of the Titan, Rhys Davies, and Tarah, for commenting and Moony (pyro ducttape mistress of doom) for being awesome and Wolfielee for your ever annoying grammatical related comments! and now to all your immense relief this authors note shall finally end and the story shall resume where we left off…

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The thumping of boots on cement echoed through alley after alley, street after street, on and on and on. It was dark now and the streetlights with their bright solar powered light illuminated a girl with long blond hair and a panicked expression as she ran.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no! I'm so lost!" She cried out in frustration. The thumping of boots slowed replaced by the thumping of a terrified heart. It was late. Really late and Terra had been running for hours with no sign of the ocean or the Titan's tower. The city seemed endless and devoid of any familiar landmarks. Even the street names were different!

Terra came to a stand still beneath one of the lights slumping down to sit on the polished curb. She bit her lip trying to keep herself from crying but she had started to tremble anyway. She was in the middle of a city at night with no idea where she was or where she was going. She had probably just offended all her new friends and her conflicting emotions were duking it out in an all out life and death battle.

Oh come on pull yourself together! She scolded her self blinking away her tears and clenching her fists. I can't give up that easily. I wont give up that easily! She stood up again and with her powers, lifted a circle of cement out of the sidewalk hopping on top of it and guided it upwards. She could feel the strain on her newly regenerated powers and knew she couldn't hold out long like this. I only need a view! Just enough time to figure out where I am! She silently pleaded with whatever might hear and help.

She managed to clear the rooftops and grinned with relief catching sight of the Titans Tower in the distance and the ocean beyond but then she gasped letting out a shriek of pain and she lost control of her block of cement and tumbled to the ground unconscious. Lucky for Terra she happened to land in a dumpster or that would have been the end of her. ((life is all about perspective!))

"Mommy?" A little boy sitting in bed called in a small frightened voice to his mother. The boy had drawn his blankets around him tight and was staring out his bedroom window beside his bed with widened terrified eyes into the alley below. Across the street was a Chinese take-out restaurant and their dumpster sitting out their below his window always gave him the creeps at night but this night was different. Tonight there was something down there. Something big! He had heard it land about an hour ago and it had woken him up.

"Mommy!" He called again louder voice shrill from fear. What if the thing had already got her! What if it was eating his mom's brains out right now in the other room down the hall of their 6th story apartment!

"MOMMY!" The thing had started to move. He could hear the trash heaving about in the darkness below and he gripped the hard cool metal tube of his ultra bright flashlight his dad had gotten him for his birthday last year so that he could check for himself what the noises in the alley were and not have to wake up his parents, particularly his father who had to go to work at four thirty in the morning every night, after hearing stray cats dumpster diving. He slowly clicked on the light and shone in down through the old window into the darkness below he trained it on the dumpster and then… The flashlight went out! He had dropped it and jumped back wards off the bed screaming at the top of his lungs and crashed to the floor. He writhed about in his blankets tangled around his legs convinced they were monsters claws dragging him back towards the window!

The lights flickered on and an anxious looking woman in her late thirties came running into the room.

"Tony! What is it? What's wrong?" Tony didn't answer for a long time, just lay sobbing on the floor. His mom bent down next to him gathering him in her arms and stroking his hair till he calmed down.

"Th-there's a- a g-girl in the d-dumpster!" He stammered out and broke out into sobs again. A man came into view in the doorway looking tired and grumpy.

"Nightmares again?" He asked his wife.

"He says there's a girl in the dumpster outside." The father frowned picking up the dropped flashlight and flicking it on. He knelt down on the boy's bed and peered down through the window training the flashlight on the dumpster and then recoiled from the window looking deathly pale.

"Holy m-"

"ROBERT!"

"Sorry… there really is someone down there…" The man was halfway out the door when the boy broke out in hysterical wailing again. "I'll go check it out. You stay with Tony and maybe ring the police."

The woman nodded cradling her son and rocking him back and forth looking stricken herself. Poor boy. We need to get him shutters….

Terra sat up with a groan. Something smelt awful. It took her a moment to realize that the smell was coming from beneath her and that the squishy stuff she was sitting in was leftover food and cardboard boxes and who knows what else.

"EWWW!" She shrieked jumping up out of the dumpster and landing with a thud on the dark pavement. She shivered picking some unidentified substance off her arm. A door opened to her right flooding light into the alley and the silloet of a man appeared in the doorway.

"Hello?" The man called out into the alley shining his flashlight around till it landed on Terra. She froze like a dear in headlights then turned tail and fled.

"Hey come back!" The man called after her but she was already gone. She had seen what she had needed to see and was on her way home.

He sighed clicking of the flashlight and shutting the door. He locked it before going back upstairs. Kids these days…

Terra ran for what felt like hours all the while whishing that she hadn't made a wrong turn and was headed in the wrong direction till at last she reached the coast line and Titan's Tower illuminated by hundreds of glowing windows pierced her sight like a gift from above. She smiled wearily and lay down in the sand falling asleep exhausted. She would fly to the island in the morning. Right now she didn't think her powers could take it.

Animal sat in the window of his room perched on the thin sill. Oh Terra where are you? He wondered scanning the skyline of the city in vain. He had waited for hours for her to come back before going off to look for her but the city was so big and it had gotten so late that the Adults had forbade them from looking anymore that night saying they could start again in the morning. Beast boy had assured him that Terra could look after herself and that seemed to be enough for the others but he was still worried. Terra was new to the city. What if she was lost? She was all alone, and what if someone tried to hurt her? Animal grew sick at the thought.

He was about to get up and go to bed when something bright yellow appeared in his peripheral vision. He sharpened his eyes to that of a hawk and searched for whatever it was. He caught sight of Terra standing on the thin strip of beach before the water and grinned. Throwing open the window he morphed and flew to her aid.

He landed in the sand beside Terra transforming back to himself and knelt down beside her. He shook her gently but she didn't wake up. His stomach clinched in worry and he picked her up. Sand shook from her hair as her head lolled and he held her tightly afraid of the worst. But he could hear her heartbeat and her skin felt normal, not cold like death. He hugged her tightly sprouting wings and carrying her over the water and through his open window into the tower. He carried her through the halls to the room she had chosen and set her down in her bed.

"Goodnight." He told her brushing some loose tendrils of bond hair away from her face. She shivered in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open for a moment landing on Animal. She smiled and fell into a deep peaceful sleep.

A hand rested on Animal's shoulder making him jump. He looked up to meet the unreadable gaze of his mother.

"Get some sleep." She told him in a tone that read that read a deep weariness and her love for her son.

"Okay mom." He glanced back once at the sleeping Terra before turning and walking out of the room.

Raven's motherly expression faded as soon as the automatic door slid shut replaced by one of anger and fear. She turned to look at the girl that had once caused them so much grief and couldn't help but think. Why did you come back?