Chapter Text
Tim had thought Dick was better than this. It wasn’t fair.
The first couple days had been great, but now Dick and his team were off fighting some white shapeshifting monster thing and he said Tim wasn’t allowed to help. ‘We’re fine, Tim. You’re on vacation. Just hang out at the Tower until we’re done. Maybe take a nap. Catch up on some sleep.’ Tim had never agreed to be on vacation! And he wasn’t going to sleep in the middle of the day. He wasn’t a toddler. And it was so inefficient. Sleep was already a waste of time as it was.
At least Tim could work Gotham cases while he was here through his laptop. He could hear Dick’s ghostly, disembodied, disapproving voice, ‘That’s not being on vacation, Tim.’ Well Tim liked working cases. And he’d never agreed to being on vacation. Dick couldn’t complain, Tim had played videogames and watched TV and done- whatever stuff people did when they weren’t working- with Dick. He’d earned some case time. Dick wasn’t here now so Tim could do what he pleased.
As nice as getting some work done was, he hoped the Titans took care of this monster quickly. Tim was only here for a few more days. Bruce had gotten back from Atlantis yesterday and was already back on Gotham’s streets. Tim didn’t want to leave him without Robin for too long. And he had to go back to school. Stupid, stupid school.
He was lounging on the couch in the Ops room as he worked. Dick had given him a guest room, but this was closer to the coffee machine. He was wearing casual clothes plus the mask. Yes, technically everyone here already knew who he was but better to be safe than sorry. He was making good progress tracking this weapons sale. Black Mask was getting bold lately. Tim just needed to-
The sound of the elevator doors sliding open came from behind him.
Tim frowned, confused. That was fast. And Dick had said he’d call when they were done. How were they already back?
Sitting up, Tim turned to see-
“Beast Boy?” Why’d he come back alone? And why did he look upset? “Are you guys done already? Did something happen?” Was Dick okay?
Beast Boy glanced at him in surprise, like he’d forgotten Tim was here. But that surprise quickly faded back into stress. “Terra’s back,” Beast Boy told him anxiously, hurrying towards the main computer. “I don’t know how. But her body is gone, and I saw her at the fight today but she disappeared before I could talk to her.”
“Terra?” Tim blinked. The name sounded familiar. Oh. “That earth bending girl who betrayed you guys to join Slade?”
“It wasn’t that simple!” Beast Boy snapped. “And she did the right thing in the end. What matters now is that she’s alive!”
Okay… there was a lot that didn’t add up here. And Beast Boy was having a very emotional reaction, he might not be thinking clearly. He might be mistaken about seeing her, just caught a glimpse of a blonde girl who looked similar, but if her body was actually missing… Tim didn’t have enough information to work with. “So you saw her? Was she fighting the monster?” If she’d been using her powers then it had definitely been her.
“No, she was- I don’t know.” Beast Boy ran an agitated hand through his hair. “She ran like a normal civilian. She was wearing a school uniform, I think? I don’t know why. Maybe she’s trying to keep a low profile after everything that happened.”
“…she didn’t have a secret identity, right?” Tim checked. “I’ve seen pictures of her. That’s just what she looked like, right? She didn’t even wear a mask. And she’s a well-known figure around here. I don’t think she could keep a low profile in this city without serious changes to her appearance.” Well, Clark got away with just a pair of glasses. Honestly, so long as you weren’t a famous person, you could get away with a lot. But in the same city you were a hero and villain in? “How much like Terra did this girl look? Exactly like her? Like her but with her hair dyed brown? Was her makeup different? Tanner? Less tan? What’re we talking here?”
“Exactly like her!” Beast Boy insisted defensively. “She looks the same. It was her. I know it was!”
“You said her body was gone? She turned to stone, didn’t she?” Was that dead? Her file had said ‘undetermined’. They hadn’t been sure one way or another.
“Yes!” Beast Boy nodded rapidly. “I went to check if she was still there after I saw her. I thought I was seeing things, but she really is gone. The stone thing must have worn off while we were away fighting the Brotherhood.”
“I- guess that’s possible?” Tim said uncertainly. “We’ve never dealt with people turned to stone before. We don’t know how it works. It’s weird that she’d hang around though. You’d think she’d either leave the city to get away from the people most likely to recognize her or she’d reach out to you guys.” Tim wasn’t clear on if Terra had a genuinely turned good in the end or if she’d just turned-on Slade for being a controlling, abusive asshole. Dick didn’t talk about it, so Tim had never gotten the details. Dick believed she’d realized the error of her ways, but he could be a bit of an idealist at times. So Tim wasn’t sure how to view what she might be doing now. This could all be a trick. This could even be some sort of setup by Slade and the girl wasn’t actually Terra. “Did any of the other Titans see her?”
“No,” Beast Boy sighed frustratedly. “They were busy fighting. And they want to wait to look into it until Shifty’s taken care of.”
Tim frowned. “You haven’t caught the monsters yet?” A rampaging monster was the more pressing issue. “Did Terra seem to be in danger? If not, I think finding her can wait.” It sucked, but it was the logical choice.
“I don’t know if she’s in danger or not until I find her,” Beast Boy scoffed. Well, there was truth to that. If the others were doing fine with the monster, one of the benefits of having a team was splitting up to multitask. So Tim supposed it was okay. “I need to know,” Beast Boy stressed. “The others can handle the monster. I can’t wait on this.”
“Alright, I can help you track her down,” Tim offered. He opened the programs he’d need on his laptop. “Where did you see her? What street? Did you recognize the school uniform?”
“You’ll help me?” Beast Boy asked, surprised for some reason. Did he think Tim couldn’t?
“Yeah, sure,” Tim shrugged, fingers flying across the keyboard. “So, location? Uniform?”
Beast Boy told him the street name then continued, “It wasn’t one of the local schools. I know all the school uniforms in Jump. It was a dark blue skirt, and a white shirt. A black tie, I think? Um, I didn’t see a logo or anything.”
“Well, I’ll be able to track it down once I-” His eye caught on a video clip. “-oh. Some idiot hung around the fight and recorded it. I hate it when they do that.” Not that Tim could really throw stones at that particular activity. But Tim had always kept a safe distance back. Usually. Most of the time. He’d been fine. “Let’s see…”
Ah, there, in the back lefthand corner. Pausing and zooming in, yeah, the girl really did look like Terra. Even her hairstyle was the same. He brought up an old newspaper photo of the Titans when she’d still been a member to directly compare (his laptop didn’t have easy access to their files for her). “Huh. Definitely a very strong resemblance.” Same blonde hair, same blue eyes, same facial structure, very slightly taller but she was a growing teen and this was an old picture. He started an algorithmic search for the uniform with an initial radius of one hundred miles. “Hm, she didn’t really have any notable freckles or scars…” Tim replayed the part of the video she was visible again. “Where was she before…?”
There was a high end clothing store nearby with an outward facing camera. He scrubbed through the feed.
“Huh, that’s odd,” Tim muttered to himself.
“Odd? What’s odd?” Beast Boy questioned urgently, leaning over the screen.
“Everyone notices the Titans before the monster since the monster is camouflaged, “Tim observed. “And you guys don’t bust in there guns blazing, so people’s initial reaction was very meh. It’s like ‘oh cool, they’re here’, but no one is worried or especially surprised. Everyone on that street sees you’re there.”
Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. “Ok? So?”
“So she clearly sees you. See here?” He pointed at the screen and replayed the last few seconds. “She saw you. But she didn’t react. She doesn’t look worried or excited, she’s still walking in your direction. That isn't someone who doesn't want to be seen by you. It doesn't seem like someone who wants to reconnect either. She seems very uninvolved.” Without knowing who she was, or at least who she looked like, Tim would not have picked her out of the footage for anything unusual. Very average civilian.
“There’s only, like, two seconds before the monster attacks,” Beast Boy argued. “She didn’t have much time to react.”
Tim nodded. “True. But the lack of immediate reaction still seems odd. She was a good enough actress to act as a double agent for months though, so she could have just held a straight face really well.” Fooling five capable people, one of those people also being an empath (though Tim wasn’t super sure on how Raven’s powers worked, he assumed she wasn’t constantly reading other people’s emotions. She probably turned it on and off) was no easy feat.
The computer beeped. Three potential school matches had been found. He only had to glance at them to find the true match. Silver Creek. Should be easy from here. Just look at all the girls in 8th and 9th grade…
Beast Boy frantically scanned the screen. “Did you find her?”
“Shh,” Tim waved. “Give me a minute. I’m trying to focus.” Fortunately, the class sizes weren’t very large.
“Oh, okay,” Beast Boy moved back to give him space, but was still vibrating with nervous energy. “Sure.”
A minute and thirty seconds later and Tim triumphantly announced. “Found her!” He pulled up her school ID picture. “She’s Skylar Morris from Silver Creek in Oakland. There’s an advertisement for a field trip to the Jump museums in their school paper, that’s probably why she’s here. She’s been at the school at least since the start of the school year. Not seeing her there before that…”
“She’s been free that long?!” Beast Boy gasped.
“Seems that way,” Tim hummed. “If you could get a hair from ‘Skylar’ I could run the DNA.”
“Don’t need it,” Beast Boy declared confidently. “It’s obviously her!”
Tim bit the inside of his lip. “I think there is a decent chance that it is,” he placated. “But you shouldn’t jump in there like it’s one hundred percent her. It could be a lookalike.” Tim had seen five lookalikes of himself in just the last year (one of them had been a girl, but that wasn’t important) while researching on the internet. Granted, Tim was pretty much just a basic white dude, but there were people out there who looked very much like people they weren’t related to. “There are things not adding up.”
“She must have amnesia,” Beast Boy reasoned. “Maybe being turned to stone messed with her head. Because she would have tried to come see m- us, otherwise.”
“Memory loss is plausible,” Tim admitted. “But there are a lot of holes in that theory. Not, like, outright contradictory evidence holes, but, like, how did she get to where she is holes. How does someone, a kid, wake up in a strange place without memory go from that to private school? She’s been there for a while too, she must have started there very soon after unstonifying. It’s not the fanciest private school out there, but it isn’t something an amnesiac kid in the foster care system would be going to. Even with her memories, someone would have had to help her.” No way someone had adopted her so quickly, right? The parents would have to be loaded and, or super corrupt to rush through the adoption process that fast. “And there are her powers to consider too. If she lost her memory of how to use them it seems like accidental activation should have drawn attention.”
“I’ll go talk to her,” Beast Boy decided. “I’m sure I’ll be able to jog her memory.” He dashed towards the elevator.
Tim stumbled to his feet. “Hey, wait! There’s still more research to do. I can figure out who her guardian is if you give me more time.” They shouldn’t just charge in there.
“You can call me if you find anything else,” Beast Boy waved off. “It’ll take me like an hour to get there anyways.”
“Uh, I mean, I guess?” Tim said uncertainly. “But- I should come with you, right?”
“Nah, she doesn’t know you,” Beast Boy declined. “You’ll probably scare her off.”
Tim hesitated. His brain told him letting Beast Boy, who seemed to very emotionally compromised, go alone would not go well but… Beast Boy was a way more experienced hero than him. And Dick had been fine letting Beast Boy work this alone. Tim wasn’t a Titan. He was barely even a Robin. What right did Tim have to go against the better heroes?
Beast Boy must have taken his silence as agreement. “Thanks so, so much for your help. But I need to talk to her myself.” And the elevator was already closing in front of him.
Alone again. Tim sighed. Oh well. He was probably more useful researching from here anyways. It would be fine. Beast Boy was a real superhero, he must know what he’s doing. Tim plopped back onto the couch.
So where was this girl living?