In Purgatory's Shadow

Summary: A year after Terra's demise, a mysterious girl comes to Jump city looking for her. Who is this girl, what are her intentions, and how far will Beast Boy go to get Terra back?

Chapter 1: The Arrival

She walked patiently through the canyon but stopped at a large pile of rocks that blocked her path. She looked upwards to see the cliff above where the rocks fell from, then looked back down at the pile. She approached the pile and placed a hand against it. Somehow, she could feel the presence of the one she was looking for; she knew this was her doing. Finding no other way to progress by foot, she reached for her water canteen and poured the entire contents onto the ground before her. Tossing the empty container aside, she focused her energy on the puddle at her feet. A blue light enveloped her eyes and the puddle crystallized into solid ice. Wrenching her fist, she beckoned her creation to rise from the ground, becoming her own hovering platform. Stepping onto her platform, she levitated high above the cliffs, and peered off into the distance towards Jump City, to the end of her long search.

Later on, deep within the city, the outside wall of a bank burst apart and the alarm rang throughout the streets. The cause of which was another frantic caper of the Great Mumbo, laughing hysterically as he sprinted from the bank with large, cartoony sacks of money in hand. Fortunately, everyone's favourite super powered adolescent quintet showed up to save the day.

"Oh, great, it's Mumbo," Raven moaned, "Possibly our most annoying villain."

"I don't know Rae, I'd say that Gizmo takes that title. That little twerp really gets my goat!" Beast Boy objected before transforming into a goat in an attempt to ram Mumbo off his feet. But the slippery villain pulled a large hoop out of nowhere and dropped it in Beast Boy's path, which caused him to take on chicken form upon running through. After skidding onto the pavement and returning to his human form, Beast Boy raised a finger, "Okay, so he is the most annoying."

"Stay focused Titans!" Robin demanded, "We have to get that wand out of his hands!" He then threw a bird-a-rang in an attempt to knock the wand out of Mumbo's hand. But the wand burst into a flurry of flowers. Mumbo then revealed that the wand was in fact in his other hand.

"Ah, ah, ah, the will be no stopping this show stopper!" Mumbo taunted.

"Yes there will be!" Starfire tried her best to retort as she flung a barrage of star bolts towards the manic magician.

Mumbo saw the attack coming and, with a "Mumbo Jumbo!" pulled his hat over his entire body. When it flopped back to its original size, a very surprised Cyborg stood in Mumbo's place to receive the full blast of Starfire's attack. Cyborg yelped as he frantically had to dodge an array of star bolts, but the last one managed to hit him in the face.

Starfire gasped as she thought that she dealt some serious damage to her friend. The smoke cleared and Cyborg was still in one piece, burnt and annoyed, but in one piece, "… ouch."

Mumbo snatched the hat from atop Cyborg's chard-black head and neatly placed it back in his own before attempting to sprint off with his ill-gotten goods. But his escape was blocked as Raven appeared in front of him, "You don't know the first thing about magic," she glared.

"A heckler eh? How would you like a good old fashion card trick?" He said as he pulled a deck of cards out of nowhere and began shuffling them, "Are you familiar with 52 pick up?" And with that he sprayed the entire deck at Raven's face, when she fell down on the ground, she discovered that she had been trapped inside a giant Jester card suit.

Enduring her situation, she sat up and sneered at her adversary, "What I meant to say was that you don't even know the most basic rules… like, for instance, misdirection!"

That was the signal for a particularly green frog to emerge from under Mumbo's hat and grab the wand with its tongue. Mumbo let out a "Nooooo!" before he turned back into his powerless, geriatric self.

Beast Boy leapt off the man's shoulder, regained his human form in mid-air, and landed on the ground with the wand clenched between his teeth. After taking the drool-covered wand from his mouth, he turned around to taunt his enemy, "Who's the chicken now?" He then commenced a little victory dance, "Oh yeah, who's your Beast Boy? That's right, it's me! Ah ha!"

"I'll buy the victory pizza if you promise never to dance like that again," Raven offered as she used her powers to tear the restricting card costume off of her.

Beast Boy eagerly agreed to her deal but then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Darting his head towards the crowd gathered on the sidewalk, he studied the faces, but couldn't find what he thought he saw, "I could have sworn I just saw… no, that's impossible."

Later, the group sat around table at a local pizza parlour. The server approached them with their pizza, "Here you go, one super hero special- one third pepperoni and bacon, one third tofu and broccoli, and one third… um…anchovy and… mustard."

As soon as the server placed the pizza down on the table, Starfire rubbed her hands together, licked her lips, and began to engorge herself with her part of the pizza. She looked up to see everyone staring at her, "I am sorry, would any of you like a piece? It is of the same flavour as that of the pulverized Giffolsnaz of Yongrek 6." She offered with a smile.

"Remind me never to go to Yongrek 6," Cyborg said under his breath.

"What's the matter Cyborg? A little sore that you didn't get a shot in at today's battle?" Robin smirked.

"Man, you know I'm sore because not only didn't I lay a single hand the pointy nosed weirdo, but becasue I also got blasted square between the eyes by somebody's star bolts!"

"Sorry," Starfire muffled through a pizza jammed in her mouth.

Beast Boy chuckled then saw somebody walk right past the window, "HA! I knew it!" He shouted as he stood up and pointed frantically.

Everyone looked in the direction that Beast Boy was pointing in but none of them even knew what to be looking for. They all turned back to look at Beast Boy, "Okay, what are we supposed to be looking at here?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy stood frozen for a moment then dropped his arm, "Um, you know what? Never mind, I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me or something. Heh-heh."

"Never a dull moment with you around," Raven sarcastically remarked.

It was getting late into the evening when the Titans made their exit from the pizza parlour, "Man, after a long day of crime fighting, I think I'm ready to head in for the evening," Cyborg commented, "Maybe I can squeeze in an hour of video games before plugging myself in for the night, what do you say BB?"

"Huh? Yeah, video games," Beast Boy responded inattentively.

"What's the matter Beast Boy?" Robin concerned, "You haven't been very talkative lately."

"Not that I'm complaining," Raven added. Robin shot an icy look at her and she backed off.

Beast Boy sighed and turn his head, which is when he saw the person he witnessed twice before walking down the sidewalk. This time they made eye contact, which caused the mystery person to back up and slip around the corner. "Hey, wait a minute!" he shouted before running off after this mystery person.

"Beast Boy!" Robin yelled as he chased after his erratic friend with the rest of the Titans following.

Beast Boy skidded around the corner to see the back this mystery person's head sprinting though a crowded sidewalk. "Wait, come back!" he yelled before transforming into a humming bird to dart through the crowd. His friends then came around the corner but lost sight of their shape-changing comrade in his tiny form.

Beast Boy frantically made his way though the labyrinth of pedestrians chasing after this illusive figure, the mystery person slipped into a back alley and Beast Boy followed. Since it was not crowded in the alley, Beast Boy returned to his human form to see a shadow of the figure run around a corner of the alley, "Please don't run! I just want to…" He turned the corner to find a dead end with no one there, "… talk."

He stood dumbfounded until his friends came up behind him, "Okay, seriously Beast Boy, what is going on here? What did you see?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy took a moment to collect his thoughts then turned around to face his friends, "You're not going to believe this… but… I saw her!"

The Titan's exchanged looks, "Please friend, who is this person of which you saw?" Starfire pleaded.

"I… I saw Terra… " He looked at them with hope in his eyes, "She's alive!"

Robin gave him a very concerned look, "Um, Beast Boy," He said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "It has been a year now… Terra, she is still… she hasn't… we never found a cure, remember?"

"But, but I saw her. I swear!" Beast Boy protested, "Maybe she cured herself! Maybe she has like amnesia or something and didn't recognize me!"

"I think you just thought you saw her, Mumbo's tricks must have gotten to your head. C'mon, we should go back to the Tower now."

"Yeah… yeah, you're right. I- I just need to get some sleep." Beast Boy agreed.

As the team began to leave the alley, Starfire stopped, shivered, and rubbed her arms, "Brrrrr, has it become colder here?"

"You must have just caught a cool breeze," Cyborg explained, "It'll be winter soon, so may as well enjoy this warm weather while it lasts."

Upon the rooftops, the mysterious figure looked down on them, "So they know her… but am I too late?" she asked herself before slipping away.

Author's Notes:
So this is my first Teen Titans fan fic. I've always enjoyed the show so I though it was time to contribute to the fandom. That and I usually write for Disney's the Weekenders but the fan base is very low for that show and I would have to twist people's arms to get reviews out of them. Just so you know, there will be no sex, swearing or anything of the like in this story, I'm going to keep it as a TV friendly plot. Well, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I've seen stories for the Titans get like 10 reviews per chapter so I'm hoping to get a good response. I also aim to make future chapters longer as well. Oh, and I heard that Terra may be coming back in the TV series in "an interesting way" for season 5. Since I don't want to conflict with the TV series, consider this my own rendition of season 5.