Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. I own Rhea, Keb, their parents, and Delani (to an extent).
Author's notes: I've gotten one review so far, and that's great, but I'm a little bit apprehensive still about posting this chapter. I feel like it's rushed. So. Opinions? They're very good. And I'm not just trying to get reviews here, I'm totally insecure and I want to know how I'm doing.
A Matter of Pride: Chapter Two; Born
"Keb? Did you get accepted to that art college you wanted to go to?" Keb grinned and offered his mother the letter of acceptance from said college.
"It's less than half an hour away," he explained again, "so I don't have to move out. Unless you want me to," he added.
"No, of course not! The girls would be devastated if you left, and you know that Luke and I love having you around." Katherine Miller bounced her one-year-old daughter Delani on her hip, supporting the girl with one arm while holding Keb's letter in the other. Delani giggled lightly and held her arms out to Keb, begging to be held. Her brother obligingly took her and cuddled her tightly.
"And you know I'd be sad if I had to leave for so long," Keb replied. He smiled a little bit. His family was not the most normal - normal families did not have a seventeen year gap between children - but they were as loving as any.
---
Two-year-old Delani Miller looked at her family with big blue eyes. It was her second birthday. She didn't really understand that, but the general mood of happiness was contagious. Her older sister, Rhea, was smiling widely and holding Delani against her hip, occasionally bouncing the girl. Keb was smiling, too, in a more reserved manner. Delani liked Keb. He wasn't too loud and he wasn't too rough and he liked to play with her. Her mom and dad were busily lighting the candles on the cake and shifting a few brightly wrapped presents. Rhea and Keb came over, with her of course, and the four older family members sang.
"Make a wish, 'Lani!" Rhea chirped, jostling her gently. "And blow out the candles!" Delani turned her head toward her big sister and stared blankly. Rhea leaned toward the cake, holding Delani out toward it, and blew out the candle. She tried to make it look like Delani was blowing, but no one was fooled. Katherine Miller, Delani's mother, cut the cake into slices and put the slices onto plates. Each plate then received a scoop of ice cream, courtesy of Luke Miller, and then was handed to each person in turn. Keb mashed Delani's cake and ice cream together, a mixture which looked unappetizing but tasted good. Delani ate it eagerly, using her fork with the clumsy hand that toddlers use for such things. She didn't understand that it was her birthday, a special day, but she knew that her family was happy, that she was eating cake and ice cream, and that all was right with the world.
---
Delani Miller, four years old, crouched terrified in her bedroom. Something big was coming. She didn't know what, but she could feel it inside of her... rising... trying to break free.
Delani screamed as unbearable pain wracked her body. Everything disappeared in the blinding yellow light that came from her eyes and warm, almost burning energy surrounded her. Delani arched her back against the pain and clamped her eyes closed to block out the light - not that either did any good. The floor beneath her cracked and shook horribly. Delani was terrified and her terror only added volume to her screams.
She didn't notice her family in the doorway, staring at her. She couldn't see what they saw - little Delani, surrounded by a tornado of yellow light that came from no where, whipping her blond hair wildly, her eyes open but blank and giving off more yellow light. Her back was arched and she was screaming. The ground was rolling, like the waves of the ocean, except made of dirt and plaster and concrete.
Then, suddenly, the pain that threatened to consume her stopped. Her screams quieted. The yellow tornado around her died abruptly. Her expression turned to one of blank shock as the yellow light faded slowly from her eyes. The blue eyes closed. Delani passed out on the floor of her bedroom.
That was the first time she used her powers.
---
"Did we miss any? Delani, darling, why don't you check under the tree?"
It was Christmastime in the Miller household. Delani's sixth Christmas. The presents had been handed out, for the most part. There was a thick layer of snow on the ground outside and more falling. A cheerful fire roared in the grate and everyone had a heap of presents at their feet.
Delani obediently scrambled over her pile of presents and checked under the Christmas tree. She emerged with two small boxes and handed them to Luke, who usually read the tags and handed the presents out.
"This one's to Rhea, and this one's to Delani," Luke read, "Both from Keb." He smiled and handed each girl their present and watched as they eagerly tore off the paper. White boxes lay underneath the pretty wrapping, and inside the box a hair clip that glittered in the light. Rhea's clip was in the shape of a heart, pastel purple. Delani's was a butterfly, pale blue. They both squealed and leaped at Keb, thanking him in delight and promising that they would wear their clips every day, forever. He laughed and hugged them back. Despite the ten-year difference between the sisters, they were remarkably similar.
---
The summer sun beat down harshly on the Miller family home, a lone house in the middle of a very forbidding series of cliffs, but none of the five occupants paid it any heed. Keb was in his room-slash-study, working on a project for his college classes (though it was summer vacation and no one was really sure why he bothered). Rhea sat on the couch watching television. Luke, Katherine, and Delani had gone for a walk through the cliffs.
Delani, six years old, was nervous. She could feel the strange power building inside of her again - this was the fourth time, and every time there had been a bad earthquake and lots of pain - but she smiled to cover it. Luke and Katherine suspected nothing. Delani was glad - she didn't like to worry her parents.
They were almost a mile away from their house when the power finally broke. Delani stiffened and froze, her jaw clenched as she fought against the pain. Her eyes were wide but unseeing and the yellow glow again faded into existence. Luke and Katherine recognized the symptoms instantly and looked at each other. They didn't know what to do. There was no way for them to help.
Delani screamed and fell to her knees, clutching her head. The yellow whirlwind whipped into being, blowing small stones and making the large ones rumble. The earth began to shake.
Delani's parents dropped to their knees beside their daughter. Both attempted to wrap their arms around her, only to have the winds intensify and block them from her. Larger rocks joined the small ones in their circling, recklessly and restlessly, hurtling through the air in infinite loops around the small girl. They would never hit her. The parents, however, were under no such protection.
Luke and Katherine Miller died that day, so near to their daughter, each struck by small, seemingly harmless stones at speeds that killed them instantly. Luke tried to protect Katherine, but to no avail, and each had tried so hard to reach Delani. All this while Delani screamed.
---
Rhea and Keb felt the earthquake even in their home, though it was milder than what Delani and her parents experienced. Keb came to find Rhea, and she to find him, and they shared a concerned glance. Though natural earthquakes were not unheard of in Colorado, they both knew that it was caused by Delani's powers. They ran together without speaking to find their parents and sister.
Delani was curled up beside the unmoving forms of Luke and Katherine Miller. She was sobbing, her arms and legs torn and tinted red with blood. Rhea touched her shoulder while Keb crouched nearby, both concerned for their sister rather than their clearly dead parents. Delani's head jerked up and she looked at her siblings desperately.
"They won't wake up," she whispered. Her voice rose to a cry, then a plaintive wail. "They won't wake up! They're being mean - they won't wake up and it hurts... it hurts... Mommy! Daddy! Wake up!" She collapsed again, sobbing. Keb put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. He picked her up and stood himself.
"Rhea and I will wake them up later," Keb lied to her soothingly. "For now, I think we need to get you some help. Rhea?" He glanced at his step-sister and she, understanding, moved to block Delani's view of their dead parents. The three siblings, now orphans, started home.
---
Their parents' funeral was a quiet affair, just the three of them really, standing at the graveside after the caskets were lowered. Morbid. Delani didn't really understand what was going on, but she was sad all the same. She knew that her parents wouldn't ever wake up or come home again.
That night, Rhea sat in her room, brooding. "Delani," she whispered. "It's her fault that Momma and Daddy died... it's her fault... It's her fault!" A raging anger flared up in Rhea. Delani's strange powers had been the cause of her parents' death. She was the only one with such powers. Of course it was her fault. Rhea scowled.
She said nothing of her growing dislike for her younger sister, however, and the three lived in peace for another two years. Guardianship was not an issue, as Keb was a legal adult and both qualified and willing to take charge of his younger siblings. Money was not an issue either - Keb's artwork sold well enough to accomodate them, even if they had little to spare when all was said and done. The two older Miller siblings decided it would be best if Delani learned to control her powers. These lessons started when she was halfway through seven. The random outbreaks of energy lessened in the six months that these sessions went on, as if her powers were satisfied enough to have a constant outlet. It didn't take Delani long to find the trigger to release her powers, though she could not always control how much energy would escape and what, exactly, would happen.
---
"'Lani, have I ever told you what your name means?" Keb asked, looping an arm around his younger sister. It was evening and she was exhausted from the day. After school, she had attended another of Keb and Rhea's makeshift lessons.
"Nuh-uh," Delani said tiredly.
"I think it was done on purpose, our names," Keb mused aloud. "Rhea means 'earth'. Keb does, too. But Delani means 'heavens'. So the three of us are like heaven and earth, all living together. Isn't that neat?"
"Mm-hmm."
---
Delani was eight - old enough to really understand the sheer bliss that is summer vacation. And old enough to enjoy it! Her only friends were her older siblings, though Rhea was eighteen and seemed to be colder and more distant than she had been before. Not a lot, but little girls know things like this. Delani was particularly sensitive, it seemed, when it came to her sister's emotions.
"Here, 'Lani, catch!" Keb called, chucking a fist-sized rock at her. Delani laughed and pointed at it. A crackle of yellow energy flew from her fingertip, catching the rock. Delani swung her arm in a wide arc, turning as she did so, and sent the rock flying into the cliff face. It shattered, sending a cloud of sparkling dust down. There must have been some sort of crystal inside. Keb threw another rock to her. This one she caught and send flying straight behind her into the opposite cliff. It rumbled angry at her and suddenly both of her siblings looked panicked. But there was no problem, was there?
"DELANI, LOOK OUT!" Delani looked up to see the cliff crumbled just above her, sending a hundred pounds of boulder crashing down.
Delani froze, watching it with terror-filled eyes. Rhea and Keb, however, were suddenly in motion. Keb was in better shape than Rhea, but she was the one that got to the site a split second before. She collided with Delani and her momentum led the two safely out of harm's way. Keb was not so lucky.
And suddenly, the family of five was reduced to only two.
Rhea slowly climbed off of Delani. The dust was settling and she wanted to see if Keb was alright. He wasn't. There was... a hand... sticking out from underneath the boulder. Keb's hand. Rhea choked, alerting Delani. She, too, saw and recognized the hand.
Delani screamed. Her powers eagerly leapt at the chance to cause chaos and the familiar whirlwind of yellow appeared. Her eyes stayed lucid, however, and she continued to stare at her brother's hand... The cliffs seemed to crumble, crumble beneath the driving force of yellow wind, stones whipping every which way at dizzying speeds. They struck, bounced, struck again. The cliffs. The boulder. Their house. Rhea. Delani herself. They weren't picky. Rhea cried out with each blow to her body. She heard the blunt crack of bone and felt the searing pain. And then there was another pain, as well, a hot flash from hip to opposite shoulder. Rhea saw the red. She felt sick. Blood.
Delani hadn't notice, and didn't notice as Rhea collapsed, clutching futiley at her stomach. When she did, the storm of her powers intensified. Her hands were torn to shreds, as they moved instinctively to block the stones from her face, and her torso and legs were only a little bit better. Her screams grew louder.
The rock beneath her rumbled and lifted, carrying her on a platform of the same stone that had killed her entire family. Delani didn't have the strength to stand anymore - or perhaps it was merely will she lacked. In either case, she collapsed on the stone platform and let it carry her where it pleased.
"Keb, Rhea, Mommy, Daddy," she sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Tears spilled freely down her cheeks. Her wails were wordless for a time before she found the words to continue. "My name... Delani... I don't deserve to be Delani! I don't deserve to be heaven! I killed you, I killed you, I'm sorry..." Now, nameless, the girl curled into a tight ball. She shivered from a nonexistant chill, ignoring the pain that burned her hands. "Rhea... Keb... earth. My name... my name will be earth. Terra. Because it means earth."
Delani Miller was dead. Terra was born.