Well everyone, I'm just going to say this: Enjoy!

Beast Boy

It's been five years.

Five years and I'm standing at the kitchen table, noticing the little changes in the Tower that have actually changed everything. The new TV, the latest GameStation, the grey couch we bought once Silkie had babies on the black one. Over time, the room became a new room, and I never noticed until now.

We've had this kitchen table since we started as a team and it always had a large crack where the legs met the table. I never gave it much consideration- until today when I was surveying the room and noticed that the crack isn't just a crack- there's a folded piece of paper lost in it. With curiosity, I pull out the paper, feeling the dust engrained in the fibers, and wonder how long it's been hiding.

"I'm so sorry," The handwriting's a dead giveaway, "I learned last night what I truly did to you guys and I don't think I'll be able to look you straight in the face for a while. I'm going to leave, but I hope to come back and I hope you'll greet me with open arms. Until then, I need time alone."

Out of nowhere, I feel my stomach lurch and I'm suddenly hunched over the kitchen sink dry heaving. Why did she hide this note in the table? Did it fall there accidentally? It must have, Robin never said anything about her saying she would come back. She must have thought we would read the note and wait for her return. Instead, when she moved on, we had to move on too.

She said she was going to come back. But it's been five years and she has never shown up on your door. The age old question resurfaces: Where is she? along with wondering where she is and what occupied her so that she did never come back. The idea crosses my mind that maybe she's no longer alive and that's enough to turn my dry heaving into vomit.

I recompose myself and stand back where I found the note. I can help but realize that it's only when I stood in the exact same place as her, the exact same situation too, that I found her goodbye.

Raven comes into the room and notices my rigid stance, "You okay?" she asks. Raven's changed over the years. Her robes are white and her hair is messier. Her stoic expression has never faded.

"Yeah," is all I can muster.

"Are you done packing?"

"Almost."

"Well, the cab'll be here in an hour. Be ready," and she exits.

It just so happens that a photo in my wallet is form seven years ago, when Terra was a Titan and a spy for Slade. I pull it out of my pocket and see the six of us posed with the Tower and its old furnishings behind us. Terra and I are on the end, me squishing her in because she didn't want to be photographed. But she's laughing at my gesture and I remember that even though she was a spy then, she truly did want to be part of the team.

She looks so young. We all do, it's an old photo. But she's got a naïve face that reminds me of how lost she was- and possibly still is.

She left, but it was only a little while before we all started packing our bags. Two years after her departure, Starfire and Robin announced they were moving in together in an apartment a few towns away. They've stayed in touch since and I see them at least twice a week, but their departure reminded us that we were the Teen Titans, and we quickly grew out of our title.

We decided to pass on the legacy to other teens looking to be heroes, and quickly two kids moved in looking for guidance and control. Raven, Cyborg, and I stayed on the team but it was only a few months later before Cyborg said he wanted to pursue other things. He still comes over frequently and he still makes all of our technology, but his absence was a sign. It was going to end soon enough.

Raven and I both wanted to stay, so we added two more Titans to the team and soon the four new Titans became part of what I consider my family. We tore apart the old Titans' bedrooms and redecorated according to the new ones' preferences. When we let in a fourth Titan, Raven convinced me that we had to redecorate Terra's unused bedroom.

That's probably the last time I ever really thought of her this deeply. We cleared out her things and repainted the desert sky and wiped off the dust. I broke down in tears when I saw her heart box still there, untouched, and was more upset for no reason when we never located her butterfly clip. After that day, Raven hugged me and I never thanked her for it. It was the only time the new Titans heard or saw anything about Terra and they knew better than ask for more.

It wasn't long before I realized I was too old for this job. I love the new teens, but they are young teens and I decided I needed to work with people my own age. I gave Raven my leave and she understood, confiding that she would stay until the Titans were completely ready to work on their own before she found a new niche too.

I look back now at the photo in my hand, my team grinning through their pubescent faces. Back then I thought the Titans were my whole life, but here I am with my whole life in front of me. I look at Terra's face again and remember how I thought Terra was the love of my life. In the end, we shared one kiss.

She never came home, and eventually I had to move on. I tried to find her after she left but with no trace, the Titans convinced me it was time to let her go. At some point, I did. I dated other girls, had some very serious relationships. I have no one right now, but it goes to show that even though my heart seemed set on her, I picked myself at some point and stopped waiting.

But now this letter brings back every worry I thought I had subdued. She left with so many unanswered questions that I just became numb to over time. Terra knew how to get herself in dangerous situations and the fact that she never actually returned even though she planned to makes me sick again.

I have to remind myself that she's gone. Even with all my searching, hoping, and waiting, there's no way I can get her back. She fled and whatever she got herself into impeded her return. I take this reality with so much more sensibility than I would have five years ago.

The door slides open again and this time it's the new Teen Titans, "Oh, hey, guys," I say, slipping the note in my pocket, "I was just about to come say goodbye."

"Raven told us you were taking too long so we had to come find you," Steph, the matter-of-fact redhead said. I laugh, because my emotions are so shot from Terra's letter that it's the only way I can hide them.

After promises and emotional goodbyes and long hugs and Raven yelling that the taxi is on the mainland, as close to our island as it can get, I head out of the room. I look at the common room and see the new Titans disperse into their daily activities of television, games, and reading. I smile at how they have found the Tower to be their home, the way I will find a new home. The way Terra must have found a new home.

The way I have to hope- for my sanity- that Terra must have found a new home.

Well, that's the final chapter. It took me MANY different endings to find one I felt really fit. Please review since it's the end! I'm not sure if I'll be doing another story soon, but we'll see! Thanks to all of you who have given such good criticism, reviewed for every chapter, and have stuck with me through the whole story! You guys have revived my passion in writing and I hope to write more soon!