Cyborg — Resisting Temptation
"Beast Boy, relax, I'm just doing some more tests on Terra's statue. You wouldn't have anything to do whether I let you come or not," Cyborg said, rolling his eyes as he entered the large cavernous area serving as Terra's grave. On the screen of his arm, Beast Boy continued to whine about being left behind before Robin finally pulled the teen out of the screen.
"Good luck, Cyborg," the raven-haired leader said. "Hope you find something this time."
"Yeah," Cyborg sighed. "Hopefully."
With that, he ended the transmission and looked up at his old friend's stone face. "Hey, Terra. Hope stone life is treating you well."
Chuckling weakly to himself, he set out his tools to begin testing on Terra's rock. As he reached out to chip off a portion of Terra's once-steel boots, he paused and looked up at the girl's cold face.
"You know, Terra," he said slowly, setting his tools back down. It wouldn't hurt to talk a little—maybe she could actually hear him. "I like to think that we were good friends, but I honestly never really understood you. I couldn't understand why you waited until the last second to turn away from Slade. I didn't get why you would even go to him in the first place. I'm sure he wasn't a good teacher in any sense of the term."
He paused again, thinking over his feelings. "Recently, I went undercover at HIVE Academy. The headmaster, Brother Blood, is a maniac—but a persuasive maniac. He used mind control to order the students around. Almost managed to take over my mind too if it weren't for my cybernetic parts. When I got home after the whole thing was over, it struck me how tempting evil had been. Brother Blood had fed me sweet fantasies—promises of power, of making me fully human again—and the only reason I'd been able to refuse it was because my machine side had kept me conscious and reasonable."
Sighing, Cyborg shook his head with a rueful little smile and took up his tools again. Chipping off a piece of stone from Terra's shoe, he dropped it into a ziploc bag for later analysis. "I know that Slade is a million times worse than Blood, so I guess what I'm saying is...you're really something, girl. I turned away because of my machine side, but you're fully human—and with so many insecurities and fears and problems that I don't have." He chuckled. "How did you do it?"
Beast Boy — Losing Control
"Hey, Terra," Beast Boy chirped cheerfully, brushing withered flower petals off Terra's pedestal before setting a fresh bouquet of flowers down before the plaque. "Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Things have been pretty wild up in the city."
With a sigh, he plopped down before Terra's statue, leaning his back against her platform. An unusual silence descended upon them as Beast Boy stared at his fidgeting fingers. Finally, he sighed. "Well, we still haven't found a cure yet, and I'm not sure if you can even hear me or not, but...I needed to get this off my chest."
Terra's statue remained silent.
"I never really understood you, Terra," Beast Boy admitted guiltily. "I tried—believe me, I really tried. But to be honest, I never understood your desperate need for control. I mean, I never judged you or blamed you or anything, but I've always wondered why you just couldn't control your own power. Like, I've never had any problems with my powers. I just imagine the animal, will my body to change and—poof! I'm an animal."
He paused, taking comfort in the silence of Terra's cave.
"Last week, we had a fight with Adonis, and we got drenched in this weird chemical that made me go crazy. I've got this Beast inside of me now. I never know when he's going to come out, but I can feel him there. He's always there. It's terrifying." he tilted his head back to look up at Terra's stone face. "This is how you felt with your powers, right? They were your own personal Beast."
Silence.
Beast Boy sighed and got to his feet, brushing off his clothes. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that I get it now. Knowing that at any moment, you could do something you didn't mean or even want to; feeling like someone else is controlling you when there's really no one to blame but yourself… I get it now."
Raven — Giving Up
The cave's inky darkness immediately brightened slightly when Raven teleported in, levitating several candles around her. Quietly, she set the candles down near Terra's dark pedestal before taking a seat on the ground before the statue. A long moment of silence passed before Raven was ready to speak.
"Hello, Terra," she finally said. For once, thoughts of the blonde did not stir up feelings of pain and anger. "Let's be honest here. Out of the five of us, I'm the one who can relate to you most. We both have a lot of power—more power than we really should have. So I understand your need for control. I can even understand why you went to Slade—because he promised you control. I'm probably the best person to understand that. What I didn't understand was why you went through with Slade's plans even after you spent so much time with us. We trusted you."
She paused to tame her emotions, taking deep meditating breaths. "I'm turning eighteen in a month. I haven't told anyone yet, but there's a prophecy about me. The world is going to end on my eighteenth birthday and it's going to be my fault. Before that happens, I just needed to tell you that...I understand now. And I forgive you. There comes a point to some things when you have to just give up and accept things."
The empath looked up at Terra's stone face, her violet eyes softening slightly. "You gave up and followed through with Slade because you felt helpless, didn't you. Well," she sighed and got to her feet, banishing the candles back to her room with a flick of her wrist. The cave fell back into darkness. "I'm giving up too. It was nice being friends, Terra. I'm not stupid enough to think it was all a ruse."