Chapter Two – The terror of Terra

Robin paced the long hallway of the tower, hands in his pockets and head down. He was deep in thought when he heard a door creak open.

"Beastboy?" Robin was shocked to see Beastboy in the guest bedroom which was grudgingly given to Terra by his team-mates.

"What are you doing in Terra's room?" Robin glowered.

Beastboy rubbed his palm against the back of his head and let out a sigh. Stepping out of Terra's room, he softly closed the door behind him.

"Terra needed some…some company. She couldn't go to sleep." Beastboy said, unable to look Robin in the face.

"I needed to talk to her", Robin said, "Beast, she can't stay here, what if she's still working for Slade? What if she double-crosses us again? What if-"

"Robin she left Slade, she's not…not the same girl. She's changed and she's lost," Beastboy whispered, eyes caught on the floor. "She needs my help."

Robin was speechless. He was irritated, no doubt about it, but he had to take the word of one of his titans, so he pointed to Beastboy's left arm to change the subject.

"It didn't break right?"

"No," Beastboy supposed, lifting his arm up, "just fractured and a little sore, Cyborg got the worst of Raven's blow".

Beastboy let out a slight cough. "H-how's Rae?"

Robin groaned.

"She's not letting anyone into her room. Star and Cy have tried everything but she won't budge. All she does, day in and day out, is meditating", Robin said in frustration.

Beastboy felt a sudden lunge in his chest. "Oh, um…I was going to stop by her room, but I thought…maybe she wouldn't want to see me."

Robin nodded in agreement. "I think it's for the best that you don't, you know until she cools down."

Beastboy kept silent. He could feel Robin's defiant stare.

"Robin…I-uh. Terra…me..," Beastboy couldn't continue, he didn't know what to say.

"Beast, it's between you and Raven. I can't say anything", Robin alleged uncomfortably.

Beastboy slightly nodded, as Robin began to walk away.

"Robin!" Beastboy shouted. Robin turned around, a solemn look pasted across his face.

"I'm sorry, for everything. How I just left the team like that". Robin forced a smile and kept on walking when he felt a swift prick in his shoulder, "and I'm sorry for this."

Robin slowly began to collapse to the floor, his vision beginning to blur.

The very last thing he saw before he fainted was Beastboy's shouts for Terra, who, within a heartbeat, snickered at the fallen Robin and planted a quick kiss on Beastboy.

* * *

A slight breeze played against Raven's tangled hair as she let out a soft grunt.

Again, she thought to herself.

"Azarath, met-" Raven's mind began to race with the vivid image of Beastboy and the lost hours spent in the Tower together.

"Crap", she grumbled for the fifteenth time that cold morning.

Hovering over the tower's roof, legs crossed and fingers positioned to her temple, Raven tried to use all her strength to erase any memories that were, in the slightest way, significant to her.

Again, she thought to herself, more forcefully than the last.

"Azarath…Azarath…Azarath-" Raven broke from her repetitive chant as her eyes suddenly became cloudy and her mind mute from her struggle to defeat it.

"Beastboy?" Raven whispered, as she slowly sat beside Beastboy.

The sun was retreating as the yielding sky began to paint it to a soft crimson.

Raven stared at it, bewildered by the beauty.

Beastboy did not look up at Raven instead continued to let his head hang down into his hands.

Raven slowly let out a sigh.

"Beast?" she whispered again.

Nothing but the thundering sounds of the waves crashing below.

Raven grew anxious. She had never seen Beastboy in this state. He was unquestionably, the happiest person she had ever met or known.

Yeah, it killed her to be next to him when he was like that but something...something worse deep inside Raven was being disturbed by this Beastboy beside her.

"Beastboy she wasn't right," Raven pointed out to Beastboy. "I'm sorry for your loss but she was working for Slade. No-one deserves to die but…what if she killed one of us before her own death".

Beastboy let out a low snarl and turned to Raven.

Raven held her breath at the sight of Beastboy. His eyes were swollen and scarlet and his face was covered with diminutive cuts.

"I don't care", Beastboy growled.

Raven felt as though a truck hit her and rid her body of all feeling.

"You wouldn't have cared if one of us died instead of her?" Raven asked Beastboy.

Beastboy kept quiet and stared out into the deep cobalt sea.

Raven was enraged; she couldn't come to terms with what she was hearing.

"She was the enemy Beast and if that's the way you feel about the team then I guess she deserved to-" a deafening snarl ripped out of Beastboy as he lunged at Raven.

Raven hastily flew in the air, scarcely missing Beastboy's attack.

Beastboy slowly but surely got up from the ground, nostrils flaring, when he caught sight of Raven, bleeding from the side of her face.

"Oh Jesus Rae I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Beastboy cried coming back to his human senses, "I swear I wasn't thinking."

Beastboy ran to Raven's side and held her face in his large hands.

Raven didn't realise to that point that she was even bleeding.

"It's small Beast and an accident, it's nothing." Raven hurriedly said, trying to free herself of Beastboy's hold.

It was nothing, a slight scratch not even deep enough for a bandage, but Beastboy, consumed with guilt and shame, ripped a part of his suits sleeve and placed it on the tiny cut.

They were close. Close enough for Beastboy to hear the slight twitter of Raven's heart; close enough for Raven to read his growing emotions.

Pulling herself away, Raven began to stutter.

"Beast…n-no. You're just in a hurting phase," Raven softly said, her dark mauve eyes penetrating into Beastboy's hard stare, "you want Terra."

A slight smile crawled itself across Beastboy's face.

"I want Terra Rae…" Beastboy breathed, drawing Raven closer to him and placing a hand on her back, "but I need you".

Raven felt all of her emotions building up, fearing she was going to lose control at any second but there was no time for trepidation; Beastboy leaned into Raven's lips, forcing hers to part.

Slowly, at first, Beastboy began to massage his tongue with Raven's, unwillingly forcing Raven to mimic the action.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours.

Neither Beastboy nor Raven could tell how long that kiss lasted.

Beastboy ran his hand through Raven's hair as he pulled her closer into his body, while his other hand softly caressed the curved arch of her back.

It was only after the fourth light bulb overhead the roof's entrance door exploded from a dark force within Raven, did Beastboy pull away.

Flustered and out of breath, both Beastboy and Raven could not keep a straight face.

Beastboy let out a small, nervous laugh, "that was…uh…did you…uh…Rae."

Beastboy ran his fingers through his tousled hair, a habit only sprung from an uncomfortably nervous situation.

"Rae", Beastboy moved closer to Raven, "I love-"

"Raven!"

Removing her fingers from her temple and descending to the ground, Raven saw Cyborg at the entrance of the door, on his knees.

"R-Raven run" Cyborg lastly shouted as he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

"Cyborg what-"

The entrance to the roof was burst open and disintegrated by a massive flying rock with none other than Terra on top.

"Azarath Metri-"

Terra, hearing Raven's chant, aimed a part of the rock she was atop of at Raven, who was too stunned to move out of the way.

"You know you really should shorten those weird chants of yours", Terra said through laughter.

Raven was on the floor unable to get up because of a strong burning pain in her right knee.

"What did you do the Titans Terra?" Raven shouted, anger fighting its way out.

Terra stopped laughing and jumped off the floating rock, her blonde locks thrashing in the brutal wind.

"Me?" Terra suggested sweetly, "why Raven I didn't do all of this, some yes, but all?" she started to giggle, "Beastboy got the other two".

Raven felt the earth stop spinning. The world seemed to come to an end; colliding, if not, with time itself.

She let go of all emotions and let rage consume her entirely.

Four scarlet eyes blasted through Raven as a mist of black began to swirl around Raven's body, lifting her up into the now violently murky sky.

Raven began to screech a blood-chilling scream as she felt powerful sparks erupting from her fingertips and through her body -- an ear-splitting slash brought Raven to herself.

Terra had rapidly thrown a needle-like dagger into Raven's chest.

Raven spiraled down to the rooftop's ground when Terra flew high on the floating rock and seized Raven's neck, swinging her body over the edge of the Titans' rooftop.

"Raven", Terra silently whispered into Raven's ear, "his all mine now".

Terra let go of Raven and watched as her petite body began to plummet into the awaiting hard land.

Raven could not use her powers, she was frozen; frozen to her very core, and she couldn't even blink, or think.

The last thing Raven was conscious of was the approaching concrete and a green blur in the far distance.