LOVE WRITTEN IN STONE

CHAPTER SEVEN

"It's her." PT ONE

"Is this okay?.. I'm not sure if it’s me or not.." Standing in front of her full-length mirror hanging on her closet door, Tara fiddled with the ponytail she had pulled her locks of sunshine into. 

Today was the day she would hang out with her new friend, Beast Boy, the Teen Titan. Her nervous jitters had kept her awake through most of the night, playing scenarios in her head of all the possible things she could talk to him about.

 It shouldn't be that difficult to talk to him. He was a hero and she was sure he would have several adventures to share. It was her that she felt would be the bore. She was just a simple girl, other than being the doppelgänger to a more interesting girl that just so happened to be his best friend. Yeah, no pressure.

Tara huffed, ripping the scrunchy from her hair, letting fall against her back. "I'm trying too hard. It's not like I need to look nice." She glanced back at herself in the mirror. She never wore makeup. Her friends tried to get her into it once by doing her makeup on one of their many slumber parties. Needless to say, she didn't feel like herself at all. She wasn't into all the girly stuff other girls were. It made her different, but it never bothered her.

"..Until now.." She muttered pursuing her lips. "Ugh! I'm going to be late at this rate!" Tara moaned into her palms before taking a cleansing breath. "Screw it!" She grabbed her bag and hustled to the door, but stopped fresh out of the frame. She tapped her foot with annoyance and sighed, muttering crossly under her breath.

 Tara dropped her bag and briskly made it to the mirror, taking her brush in her left hand,  and strumming it through her hair. She leaned down and gripped her hair pulling the hair bow through it. She then stood straight and twirled her hair until she had a messy bun, then secured it with another hair bow. Pulling a few strands around her face she nodded feeling much better. 

"Well, maybe just this once." She ran her teeth over her bottom lip as she giddily trotted back to her bag, grabbing it, then ran down the stairs. 

….

"Everything is in place, sir." The man standing behind his master grimly stated as he remained in the darkness casting its ugly shadow over him. 

Slade nodded and gripped a small device tightly in his hand. "Do not fail me, good doctor. You know what’s at stake." 

He gulped and nodded faintly. "..Yes." He replied, tightening his clutch on the clipboard in his hands. 

"Good. Now, go wake our friend and make the preparations. We mustn't be late for our lesson." With a snide laugh, Slade turned his attention to the vast amount of screens in his bunker. Only one held his evil eyes, an image of a young, blonde girl exiting her lavash home on her way to school. "And it will be one the Titans won't soon forget.." 

….

As Tara pulled at the strap of her bag, she stood waiting for the light at the crosswalk to turn green. She twirled the bits of her hair hanging in her face with timid apprehension. Her heart fluttered continuously in her chest keeping her breath at bay. She couldn't help but smile thinking about her rendezvous with Beast Boy. 

Abruptly, from the corner of her eye, she noticed a figure standing to the side of her menacingly unmoving and inhuman. She whipped her attention to face it, ready for a fight, but the figure seemed to vanish. She stared for a moment longer, then turned back around to face the street only to be met with the sudden appearance of a bulking, black and white creature that stood on two legs as his arms hung lowly against its body standing on the other side of the crosswalk. This specimen definitely carried an eerie air about it as it just stood slightly hunched over with its beedy, blood red eyes staring her down.  Her heart bounded from her chest and she leaped back, almost tripping. When she jerked her head to look again, the creature was gone. She panted as the light switched from red to green and people began to walk by her. 

"..." Her blue orbs darted around frantically looking for the creepy pedestrian, but didn't see It anywhere. She shook her head, trying to calm herself down. "It's okay, stop being stupid." She told herself, she then jogged to catch up with the crowd and kept her eyes open for any more surprises. 

Tara, now standing at the grand staircase of her private high school, kept glancing around surveying the area. The encounter from earlier still had her rattled. For some reason, that guy reminded her of something evil. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was definitely up. She glanced behind her, and just as she feared, the creature was standing just behind the bared fence lining the school courtyard. Other students laughed and walked right by it not seeming to acknowledge the terror lurking around them. Tara shrank back against the outer wall and breathed heavily, blinking several times until he suddenly vanished. 

Tara was glued to that wall in her awkward stupor of fright. Unable to peel her eyes away from the place that thing once stood, she barely was brought back to her senses when two girls' voices barraged her.

"Tara!" 

"Uh?!" With blunt shock, Tara spun to the right, gripping her book bag defensively. 

"Geez, girl. What's the matter with you?" Her friend Dionnie asked, placing a hand sassily on her hip. Her smile was ever pleasing on her slightly chubby face. 

"For real! You look like you've seen a ghost." Added Amber.

Tara forced herself to glance back at the fence seeing the man truly had gone. "You.. You didn't see it?"

"See what?" Asked Dionnie.

"You feeling okay?"

"Yeah.. Just fine. We should get to class." Tara briskly grasped her best friends’ hands and pulled them inside the building ignoring their protests along the way. 

While Tara and company rushed inside, the eyes of the strange creature followed his target with perfect alignment. His eyes became larger as it zoomed in on the blonde girl pushing the other two humans into the school, then peaking around to seemingly make sure she wasn't being followed. She then shut the door.

 The creature slowly sunk down to the ground becoming gelatinous until reaching the floor like a puddle of water. The water slithered into a sewer drain as it prepared for its first task. 

...

Meanwhile, Beast Boy was also thinking about his afternoon with Tara. He was unable to sleep, but that wasn't anything new to him. It had been difficult to get any sleep in since he met Tara and had to accept that 'Terra' was truly gone. But he had new hope now with his friendship with Tara. He was hopeful things would work out.

So, as the hours dragged their feet, and Beast Boy laid in bed fantasizing about his anticipated outing, he wasn’t expecting anything like what would come next. Without any regard to how it would make his heart leap from his chest, Titan’s Tower sounded her call to action with a blaring alarm. His room flashed a deep red color, totally eclipsing the warmth of the sunlight coming through his room’s windows. 

Beast Boy jerked from his bed only to hit the ceiling with his forehead. He yelped a helpless gasp before accidentally falling off the edge and onto a pile of wadded clothes. With a hiss, Beast Boy rubbed his forehead.

“Geez, what the heck is going on??” he groaned, throwing himself deeper into the pile. As if that would magically sedate the alarm system. 

It was then that his bedroom door slid open. He lifted his head when someone urgently called his name. “Beast Boy, we’ve got trouble!” Robin ushered him up with his strong arms. 

“What kind of trouble?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

“..Our friend is back.” 

Beast Boy’s eyes widened for a moment, then he chuckled trying to laugh it off. “No way.. You aren’t talking about who I think you’re talking about.. Right?”

“I wish I wasn’t,'' Robin responded, dramatically turning away with a flitter of his cape. He then paused as he opened the door. “Well? What are you standing there for? Titans! Go!” yelling over the alarms, Robin bounded from Beast Boy’s bedroom. Starfire and Raven followed soon after.

Beast Boy breathed in unsteadily as he turned to look at the slanted clock over his closet door. It was already one in the afternoon. Surely they could take care of this before his much-awaited rendezvous with Tara...

Right? ..

…

The day was agonizing. Tara restlessly kept glancing over her shoulder as she picked her books for the next class from her worn-out locker. She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out the bulky communicator in her hand. 

“Maybe I should call him.” she grimaced. “No, I don’t need his help. I’m sure I’m just seeing things. There’s no way that thing is real.”

But in this town, anything is possible. 

Ever since she met Beast Boy her life had been nothing but looking over her shoulder, worrying about the future, and the nagging feeling something was wrong constantly hanging in the back of her mind, relentlessly taunting her. If that creature was real, and after her, she could have another situation similar to Cinderblock on her hands. 

Tara shut her eyes with a soft tremble of her shoulders as she crushingly held on to her books, ‘..I’m scared.’ 

Suddenly, the earth beneath her feet shook. Other students felt it too as they all stopped and the bustling halls full of laughter and talking turned silent with soft yelps of fright from other students. Tara gasped and quickly turned around seeing the trees outside the windows still as could be. She shut her eyes tightly, preparing for something worse to happen, but as quickly as the quake came, it stopped unceremoniously. The wandering voices of the other students riled her from her thoughts as she glanced around thanking her lucky stars, albeit with a small headache starting to creep inside her skull. 

However, she didn’t notice the piercing eyes of the person who had been staring at her from a few lockers over. Contemplating whether or not what he just witnessed could be what he thought or not..

There was only one way to find out, he supposed with a smug grin. 

…

"He's not here!" Cyborg claimed as he scanned the perimeter of the local bank with his sonic eye. 

Robin glanced around holding his communicator with the coordinates of the sighing. He grimaced, "Maybe the information was a prank." He grumbled. The rest of the team stood near behind as they awaited orders. "Let's take a look around the block, just to be safe, then we'll head home." 

Just as he finished his sentence a sudden burst of energy erupted from below Robin’s boots, flicking him into the air like a ragdoll. When he landed it was in the arms of the princess of Tamarin who had rushed to catch his fall mere inches from hitting the pavement. 

"What the--?!" Another burst came from the ground pushing Cyborg to the left and into the bank's brick wall. 

"Stalagmites are erupting from the ground!" Raven confirmed as she rose herself into the air. 

"Stalagmites are the ones that go up, right? Or is it the stalactites?" Beast Boy asked as he leaned against the answer to his question. 

The others ignored his query as Robin yelled,  "Titans, go!!" 

"..Go where?" Cyborg groaned, holding his head with one hand and flicking a piece of rock lodged into his shoulder with the other. "I don't see who's causing it!"

Unsurely, all five darted around in place trying to discern where the fire was coming from. It was then the rock Beast Boy had propped himself against molted into a liquid state of mud coiling itself around him. The silver around him morphed into an arm, which turned into the body of the very thing they had been looking for. 

"The creature!" Starfire cried out. "It has Beast Boy!" 

"Let. Him. Go!!" Cyborg quickly gathered himself as he booked it toward his best buddy with his sonic arm raised for the offensive. The creatures stood there without seemingly caring about the charging cyborg until he was almost on top of him. Then, with terrifying speed, he slammed his overly long arms across his body sending him flying like he was as light as a toothpick. 

"Cy!!" Beast Boy belted. He struggled harder, turning into an elephant. While his body stretched and contorted, The Thing was unable to keep its grip and nearly missed the chance to dodge the large elephant’s foot from above.

Raven was quick to come to Cyborg's aid as he had trouble getting up from the attack. She put a hand on his back helping him up and healing him with her magic. 

"I'm fine." Cyborg stated while he strained himself to stand. ", but I am a little mad.." 

"So am I!" Starfire growled. Her gentle hands fluttered green, along with her eyes, as she hastily flew in pursuit of the creature. 

With each throw of her arms, her star bolts were released barely missing the monster who was now trying to flee on all fours. The other Titans gathered themselves again as they ran directly behind her. Beast Boy morphed into a horse, allowing Robin to ride him while Raven flew slightly above them. Carrying Cyborg with her on some rock from the road they fell into a formation.

Once Raven was flying above the thing, she dropped Cyborg. He cried out for the fight as he landed perfectly on the gliding creature making it stagger but not lose speed. Cyborg continuously slammed his fists into its head and back fruitlessly. 

The creature snapped his neck to look at Cyborg soullessly before it suddenly flipped itself on its back, colliding to the road with Cyborg who took the brunt force of the impact.

 It was so powerful, Cyborg was left indented in the road. The others, while alarmed and concerned for their friend, continued by in pursuit..

"Don't let him escape again!" Robin reminded sternly. "This creature is too dangerous to let it run free." Silently agreeing, all three of his loyal followers nodded. 

Raven was the next to try her luck. 

With a fluid motion of her wrist, Raven chanted her montra lifting multiple cars around the area with her telekinesis, flinging them at the monster. Yet with each throw, the monster would meticulously doge the attacks, even picking up speed. 

Raven decided to try something more drastic once it swiftly scuttled around the corner. Straining, she erected several walls of asphalt in a line hoping it would cause the thing to smash into them, or at least block it’s path, only to have the creature vault onto the ledge. It twirled, grabbing the edge of one of the walls as it went on the other side taking with it half of the wall. When it landed on the floor, the creature flung the piece, hitting Raven out of the sky and into the side of an apartment complex. 

Beast Boy screeched his hooves to a halt, unable to let Raven go, but his mane was pulled toward the direction of the creature by his rider. “We can't let him escape!” Robin urged. Beast Boy’s horse form whinnied, frustratedly pawing at the road before shaking his head and continuing on with more hast. 

“It appears it is heading for the school!” Starfire noticed as she lowered her flight to the level of her leader.

Robin clenched his jaw, “We have to get there first before the creature can hurt anyone else.”

….

The bell for the third period hadn’t rung just yet. Tara was thankful for that considering she was late thanks to the unexpected quake. She hadn't been the only one as more students from her class poured in when she anxiously sat down. Unable to keep still, Tara bobbed her left leg up and down while running her fingers through a strand of her golden hair. Her attention was on the window beside her seat as she worriedly kept watch.

'.. Something's wrong ..' Her own thoughts surprised her. She blinked, puzzled, before a hand forcefully grabbed her shoulder snapping her to look up. 

"..What." Tara demanded with a frown as her least favorite person smugly towered over her. 

"Quite the little quake we just had, would you happen to know anything about it?" Jason asked implyingly. 

"Sure I do, maybe if you paid attention to Earth Science last semester you'd know stuff about it too." Tara retorted unamused. "Now let go, Jason." her eyes coldly stared at him, however, it didn't deter him, it only seemed to fill his flame as he condensingly laughed at her. 

"No, I meant you did it, Tara. Oh! Wait. I forgot that's not really your name, is it?"

"What the hell are you getting at?" Tara stood forcefully, slapping his hand off her. 

"Dude, what are you doing?" Carter, who had just walked in with Jaired at his flank softly butted in only to be promptly shut down. 

"Stay out of it." Jason ordered. "I'm going to expose her."

"Expose her? She didn't do anything." Jaired gravely stated.

"I said, 'Stay out of it!'" He pushed Jaired into his seat and stepped intimidatingly in front of the smaller girl. "She needs to know her place in this city"

"You're a lunatic." Tara gruttled, closing the gap between them to push her face close to his. Her menacing eyes were dark and jagged. "And I'm reporting your ass to the principal right . now." With those quiet, threatening final words she stepped away and quickly gathered her books to flee the scene only to be tripped on her way by Jason. She fell on her knees making Jaired flinch and Carter gasp. They reached a hand to her only for Jason to shoot them a look. Cowering, Jaired sank back in his seat and Carter crossed his arms, turning away. 

"What the hell, Jason?!" Tara shouted. The other students quietly watched, unwilling to break up the skirmish in fear of the argument being turned on them and others wanted to see what would happen so they could gossip about it later.

"You should be grateful that's all you've suffered. You deserve a lot worse for what you did to this city." 

"I didn't do anything to this city! I'm not Terra!" Tara frantically stood and stomped her foot at him screaming in his face only for Jason to lightly shove her back making her stumble as he yelled his retort.

"You can deny it all you want, but we both know that no matter where you go or what false name you align with it won't change the fact that you're the villain that took over the city, betrayed the Titans, and almost killed us all!" 

"Jason!"

"Cut it out!"

Both of his lackeys desperately called out to him simultaneously, but he was too high off his adrenalin to listen as he backed her into a corner. 

Tara panted as sweat beaded on her forehead. Her heart was beating as if she had run a marathon as panic and fright strangled her body. Never had she ever felt that type of weakness before. It was more than she could bear. 

"I'm not Terra!" with a scream, Tara shoved Jason with all her strength. Once her foot touched the ground,  a shattering quake trembled beneath the school. Books, old projects, and busts of William Shakespeare and Mark Twain fell from the large display shelves, shattering. The students cried out in terror, some going so far as to hide under their desks. 

Tara gasped heavily and shrank into the corner covering her head. When her eyes clamped shut the tremors softly came to a stop. The students’ cries died down and everyone stood up, glanced around, then focused their eyes on the cowering girl. They stared at her with looks of disgust and fear. 

“Wh-Why are you looking at me like that?” she stuttered. Jason looked the most revolted, then went to a large, satisfied grin. 

“Well,” he began with his arms crossing over the other, “Looks like I was right.” 

“That wasn’t me! I’m not her! I’d never do such awful things!” desperately Tara yelled her claim but it fell upon deaf ears. Her classmates continued to stare at her with discomfort and shock. Some even slowly backed away. “..I… I’m not..” with tears forming in her eyes she felt the darkness swallowing her in the palpable aurora splashing intensely over her. She wanted to flee. She wanted to hide: to crawl into a deep hole and never see the light of day again. 

“Stop it!” slapping his thick textbook against his desk with rough force, Jaired scowled at the other students, outraged. “You idiots are seriously going to witch hunt her just because of a little earthquake? It doesn't mean anything, especially here where we have recurring earthquakes and heroes battling villains, making all kinds of noise! Besides, she's been our classmate for almost a year now!” and just like that, another rumble came from below the earth, shaking the building. The students gasped and slowly backed away from the crowd they had formed with regret washing over their faces. Jaired only shook his head, “See? You should be ashamed. And as for you,” he cast his piercing eyes to the fidgeting cause of all this, “Hell, I’m ashamed to even call you my friend, Jason.” 

With that final nail on the head, the classroom went silent. Shifting under the student's eyes locking onto him, Jason glanced to his feet, sheepishly.

He looked to the side and threw his arms over his chest with a defiant click of his tongue, “..Maybe I was jumping to conclusions..but-!” It was at that moment the door burst open and a frantic Miss Thompson scuttered in. 

“Everyone to the bunker! The Titans are in a battle with a villain outside campus, it’s too dangerous to stay in the classrooms!” as she strained her voice to be heard over the blaring alarms, the students scrambled to gather their things and pushed by each other in their panic. Tara was still glued to the corner of the room. At any moment she felt like her head was going to explode with the serging pain she felt and the hyperventilating wasn't helping. 

“Come on!” Jaired grasped hold of Tara’s hand tightly, yanking her to her feet and pushing her out of the room. She followed blindly behind him as several students screamed and jolted through the cramped halls. Tara’s mind wasn’t focused on any of that. Her warard eyes had spotted the heroes of Jump City outside the large windows of each class they passed by. Risking life and limb to protect the students from being bombarded with the clash. 

 What or whom they had found themselves in battle with she couldn't be sure, but she had a sudden thought still in her mind. 

'Is Beast Boy okay? ' It was then that the sounds of panic, alarms, screaming teachers and shuffling feet registered to her and for a moment she was frightened. She was nothing. She was fragile. She wouldn't be able to save herself if the moment came to do so. She was a worthless, pathetic, normal girl. For just a moment she wished that she was actually Terra. Maybe she could help Beast Boy and the other Titans. Maybe she could save the students. Maybe she could be a hero. 

As if the universe wanted to rub it in her face that she really was destined to fail, the water sprinklers burst to life. It slowed the students for an instant before another alarm overpowered the previous one. One student screamed what they all now feared.

“FIRE!!” 

…

“Cyborg!” Robin called out as the sonic blast ruptured through the air hitting the creature as it climbed the wall of the illustrious school. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just a scratch!” With a cocky smirk and tone to match, Cyborg aimed once again at the creature, fired, but missed as it was now aware of the fourth contender. 

Cyborg himself was slightly scuffed up from the last attack, and he had a significant cut on his head that needed to be treated, other than that he was fine. Suddenly, he felt the pain of that scratch disappear, replaced with a pleasant cool feeling. He glanced up seeing Raven hovering above him, smiling. 

“Did you think you could have a party without me?” she quipped. 

Beast Boy beamed, relieved. Raven also seemed to be fine giving the whole team a morale boost now together again. They simultaneously turned to face the creature, but were breathless to see it had disappeared. 

“It..vanished?” Starfire gravely uttered.

“Just like before.. Gerr!!” Cyborg growled and punched a nearby tree in the courtyard. 

“It can't have gotten far! We need to split up and--” Robin’s order was interrupted by the screech of an alarm and shuffling coming from the school itself. There was a rumbling beneath the ground too, as Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy all started to stumble. But as quickly as the rumble started it stopped, and the alarm from before was replaced by a different one. 

“The fire alarm?” Raven pondered. 

“Maybe the earthquake caused it,” Cyborg added.

“No.. It has to be the thing.” Robin clenched his fist. “Titans, new plan. We need to make sure the students are safe from this fire. Raven, Starfire, you two can survey the area and find where the source is coming from. Until the firefighters get here, I'll need Cyborg to connect to the hydrants and try to put the fire out.” 

“What should I do?” Beast Boy questioned.

“Prepare for the wounded,” Robin stated.

…

The smoke was now able to be smelled as the student body continued to rage down the halls more unfocused than ever before. No teacher would be able to salvage this horde now. Every single one of them was in a “fend for yourself” mentality. Not one of them was focused on helping their fellow classmate, all except for the sweet boy securely pulling Tara along with his hand.

“Come on! We have to get out of here! The bunker is out if there's actually a fire, so we need to get out of the building!” 

Tara speechlessly followed behind doing her best to keep up with the introverted track star of their school. 

Yes, she would make it. She had people to live for. She had people to fight for. 

Tara suddenly tripped over a discarded book bag from one of the many fleeing students. Jaired jerked to a halt. "Tara!" He coughed as toxic fumes filled his lungs. Tara immediately looked up, seeing the fire spreading quickly overhead, engulfing the classrooms. Bits of the halls were coming apart and collapsing around them. As they landed, small embers arose from their broken parts. 

When Tara was helped to her feet by her hacking rescuer, she yelped, feeling her ankle surge with pain. Her bad ankle had been twisted again. He saw the true depth of terror rattling her eyes so he hastily asked her, "What is it??" 

"My ankle. I can't walk." She uttered. 

"I'll carry you! We're both getting out of here!" He made the move to lift her, but was interrupted by another piece of debris falling from above. Tara noticed in time to push him from her to safety as the debris fell between them. The fire that blazed over its surface cackled at them. Jaried covered his face to shield from the flames. "Tara!! Are you okay?!" Desperation cracked his voice. 

"I-I'm okay! But you need to get out of here!" 

"I can't just leave you here!"

"You have to! Here!" She fumbled in her pocket to pull out the slightly cracked communication device Beast Boy had given her. "Take this!" With all her might, Tara flung the device over the tips of the flames. It landed in Jaried’s hands perfectly. He stared at it, breathing heavily. "Find Beast Boy! Tell him where I am! He'll know what to do!" 

Through the flames, she saw the pure conflict contorting his face. He moved towards the exit, and then towards the fire, but was unable to make a choice. 

"It’s okay." She reassured him. "I know it will be. But you have to go!" 

"..Tara.."

"Go!!" Her command seemed to dull the total chaos around them. To Jaried all he saw was that brave smile on her beautiful lips urging him to keep going forward. When the world came back into focus he clenched the device in his hand with a growl. 

"I'll get help!" His voice cracked, tears forming in his eyes as he turned away, keeping his eyes on her until his back fully faced her instead. 

She watched him run till he turned the corner of the hallway fading from sight. She was relieved, but the crackling of the fire rained in what little of that she had and was replaced with fear.

Tara crawled over the splintered hallway until she could reach the wall. Standing, she propped herself on it, taking a breath only to have her lungs reject the foul air. 

‘Burns ..’ She thought, clutching her throat. 'Gotta get out of here!', Tara used the wall as a crutch as she trudged through the putrid air. 

"Everyone, gather in the courtyard!" A teacher waved frantically as he gathered the fumbling students who poured from all exits of the school only to come together in the front of the campus just as their fire drills had taught them. 

The students were mostly unscathed. They all gathered in groups as the teachers tried separating them by class to get a head count. The Titans stood by helping the injured get to a more segregated area for the ambulances to have easier access. Beast Boy had just finished helping a limping boy sit down against the fence when he heard a distressed cry calling for him. 

"Beast Boy! Where's Beast Boy?!" The young man stumbled out of the fire infested school.  His body was covered in ash and small cuts. He lost his footing tripping onto the swaying grass. 

The Titans rushed to his side, Starfire was the one that got there first. She eased him as he hacked up dust. "It will be okay. Breath deep, cleansing breaths." 

Jaried shook his head vigorously, "No. She needs- help!" He continued to choke on air. "She told me to run… I didn't want to! But she was trapped, I couldn't get to her!" Beast Boy’s heart sank and his ears dropped with his mouth. "She told me to find you and give you this." His shaky hand held up the broken communicator, placing it in Beast Boy’s hand. 

The Titans collectively glanced at the beast boy with puzzled expressions as his only grew with more terror. 

"No.." he breathed.