Chapter Nine:

The metal around her wrists where cold, but were little to feel compared to so much she had already. Her head hurt, dizzy from the blood loss as the tests where continued. Only a day or so ago Terra had sat in a cell after she used her powers. Huffmen had demanded that more tests where run on her, and to make sure that her energy kept drained. It was taking its toll on her however, Terra's eyes drooped as her breathing stayed slow and steady. Laying down against the metal platform, she endured the 'tests'. Angie seemed thrilled with the information they where learning by the hour, Terra heard her exclaim about the mass of energy that the blondes small body was housing. Of how she had never seen such an amount before in her life. But Huffmen had only come in to see the results a few minutes ago.

Terra wasn't paying attention to most of their talk, her mind was drifting off. Her hands trembled, and her head felt light and airy. It was a weak feeling, a helpless... lonely feeling. And it lodged deeply inside her with a pain. It seemed like effort to move, so she stayed still. Terra figured to herself, that Huffmen had planned at least that much. As the rest of the day wore on, Terra felt colder and colder. Frozen... bitter and no more than a tool. No longer a person... no longer a living being who only wanted a decent life, just a tool. An hour later Terra was unstrapped from the bed and white band-aids where put over her needle punctures.

But as the day wore on, as Terra sat in the rec room with the other teenagers, she only grew farther from the outer world. She sat in the very corner, her knees to her chest and her head often buried over them. Quietly, oh so quietly she would cry to herself. Without tears, for it felt as if that part of emotion had bottled up. As if tears where something she had used up already in the past. No one heard her, but they knew. Terra though would take no comfort in them talking... she just tuned all other voices out. She only felt the cold winter of her heart. It was a bitter sting that kept her awake at night, and left her utterly weak.

Terra muttered to herself, to where the lyrics came from, she didn't know. It was the only part of the song she could remember, but she uttered it to herself quietly.

"Home is
Only a memory
One thing
That I will never see
Though I reach out and scream
No one saves me
Through wind and the rain
Past in night and the day
Walking by no other soul...
I'm alone"

True or not, it was the feeling that she felt. She hated it, and tried wishing it away, but nothing worked and Terra only fell further. Trying to regain her strength... trying to grasp onto her hope for revenge and heroism. If both where possible to have. Terra was on an emotional roller-coaster, and nothing she did could make it stop. Her anger and pain couldn't quite balance themselves out yet. She was in either one without the other one moment, then switching the next. It confused her, and made her unsure about herself. But as quietly as she burned and froze from the inside, Terra kept it all to herself.

The next day Terra was enduring the same tests, she didn't know the point in it anymore... but ignored and waited. Until a loud voice busted into the room as a man, actually, it was the "Average Joe" again. Terra slowly turned her head, as he spoke quickly.

"Sir! Mister Huffmen...Changing isn't far off, and Champ has him in sight, sir." Terra wondered to herself who 'Champ' could be. But nothing came to her.

Huffmen turned to the man, grinning faintly, and sending a ray of wrinkles to appear on his face as he did so. "Logan?"

The man looked down at his clipboard. "Garfield Logan, yes sir."

Terra felt a pulse attack as she forgot to breath for a moment. Her eyes grew large on her face. She could not find words to describe, a mixture of panic and rush filled her. Soon then, her eyes narrowed, as if she thought she could somehow defend the person they seemed to be after. Power vibrated, filling her quickly. "No!"She screamed in to the air, making everyone turn to her.

"No?" Huffmen asked, putting his hands behind his back with an innocent face as he turned to her. "Child, I don't think this is any of your business."

"Don't you dare lay a finger on him." Terra growled, as her rage surfaced and made her blood rush inside her. So hard did she want to lash out at the very thought of them putting Beast Boy through even a percent of what she endured here in the past, that she trembled. Wishing for her power to come back to her, to allow her to call it to her work.

"Geomancer, I don't believe you have any place to speak in this matter." Huffmen answered, his voice lowering into a warning tone.

"If you touch him...Any of them..." Terra's tong worked on it's own, aided only by the monster inside her that screamed orders. "Then I'll have you so close to death that you'll want it before I'm done." She growled, no... snarled. Her eyes lower into the deadliest look as a yellow ting started to show. She shook with her anxious hate and urge, so much that faintly she could feel her power start to come back to her. She couldn't let Beast Boy come to the same fate she had in the past, she would not allow him to become someone's lab rat, to be tested on and forget the very meaning of sunshine. Her past could not become his future.

"Induce her, now!" Huffmen snapped, and Terra was punctured with another shot so that her power. He also not looked snarling, his bushy white eye brows lower into a dominating look as he lifted his chin up into the air and glared down at Terra. Who laid helpless, dizzy... without help. Terra closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as her head became clouded over with a urge to fall into a deep sleep. One that she might find her perfect world again, and hide away from the real one that lashed out at her so hard. But she fought against the urge, she pushed away the temptation to hide away while others suffered. Though her words came out slurred and emotionless. "What do you want with him?"

The man raised his eye brow and frowned, shooting a warning look at the man with the needle, making him coward back before turning back to Terra. "How does it matter to you, my dear?"

"Answer me!" Terra snapped, though it was a struggle to bring her voice to the quickness that her comment had used.

The man seemed almost impressed, in some sort of cold way. As he looked onto Terra like someone looking onto a highly prized trophy. "While following you, we we're able to stumble across that little band of lab rats. Getting more information from the government we found out that he was one of ours. So it is about time he comes home." Huffmen spoke coldly, sending a shiver down her spine. He walked closer and leaned down to her, and Terra snarled again. "We have you under full watch, nothing you do is going to stop anything we want to do. So just get those thoughts out of your little head."

Terra narrowed her eye brows again and spat in his face. Making Huffmen draw back quickly in disgust and wiped his cheek off. "Take care of her, now!" He cried. Terra remembered no more, accept waking up the next morning and being taken into the rec room.

"Terra!" Vix cried, running to her, followed by Fuse. Both looked afraid and anxious as Terra looked back at them, feeling as pale as she looked. Her blue eyes turned to each of them in their turn, but she pushed pass and walked back to her corner. Feeling their eyes linger on her as she did so, but not turning to return their looks. As she sat with her back to the wall, facing a sitting area she crawled up. Holding herself as she drowned in a sea of thoughts, a deep and endless sea that never seemed to end. If she had never gone to Jump City, obviously she would have still somehow been joined up with Slade... the very name felt like poison in her mind. She would have never lead Area 51 to Beast Boy... right?... No, wrong. Slade's whole purpose for her was to take out the Titan's, A.51 still would have found out. It made her furious, that no matter what somehow someway she could pin blame onto herself.

But now the past was just a bitter poison that she gave herself, right now... she had to think about what was to come. How would she stop them from capturing Beast Boy? No way could she stop them from her current position, she had to get out and find him before they did. What of her previous mission? Huffmen? Terra sighed to herself, yes... she wanted to torture the man, she wanted to make him suffer until he begged for death. But there were more important things than her own vengeance, she had to keep Beast Boy from coming to this sentence. She had to tell him to get away as fast as he could.

"Hey."

Terra snapped awake from her thoughts and looked up, a small frown planted on her face as Fuse stood above her. She didn't answer though, but her eyes watched him as he took a seat next to her. He reminded her of someone, his messy hair and skinny figure. His voice, a little on the rusty side, and the way he grinned sometimes. She couldn't put her finger on it though, maybe she had just been away too long to remember all those little features of her old friend.

"If I tell you a secret, will you at least try to cheer up?" Fuse asked, looking to Terra with a forced look of humor.

Terra didn't say what she thought. She didn't state that all hopes of cheer had already left her long ago. But shrugged instead.

"Have I ever told you my last name?" Fuse asked, then went on when Terra shook her head 'no.' "Logan. Matthew Logan." He said with a 007 like tone that was meant to make her giggle... it didn't work.

But Terra stared at him, she knew that name. She knew it too well, it belonged to one of her ghost memories, one that she held close and dear despite herself. "Your-"

"Related to Gar? Yeah. I'm his cousin actually. This whole place." Fuse swept his hand over the room. "The whole family was in on it. No one ever really mentioned what happed to Gar, I was little when he disappeared. But I heard a rumor that his parents where out lookin' for that stupid monkey thing to take back to here. And he got bitten instead, they knew that this nice little daycare here would be looking for him since his mutation was a success. So they put him in some Indian guys care and then blew their ship up to keep Huffmen from getting any information. How Gar got back here, I don't know... but I don't know of any other green guys but him." He laughed weakly, but Terra was too shocked to speak.

At first she enjoyed the feel of a new emotion besides fear and pain. But as that selfish thought passed she turned her eyes back ahead. Beast Boy had escaped this place once... but it was threatening him again. This story wasn't about her anymore, it added a new character. One that she had to protect.

"Matt, we have to save him." She whispered, her wide eyes still looking ahead.

"What'd you mean?"

"Their after him again... we have to get out of here and keep that from happening." Terra could feel a slight tinge of emotion in her voice. She guessed any conversation about the one person who taught her how to feel blissful emotions did that to her. But it was an idle thought, more things where important than her feelings right now.

"Tara, you've been here as long as I have. You know there is no way on earth we could possibly get out." Fuse hissed quietly, incase anyone overheard. "Can we point out guards, top of the art computers. Oh, and the thirty foot thick PURE steel walls?"

Terra looked away, as her stomach rumbled and her power hissed. Steel was an earth element, just like rock or sand. A small, very small faded grin appeared on her face as she turned to Fuse. "I can do it."

Sorry no Beast Boy in this chapter guys. Well, there is, but not his whole point of view or anything. I got Writers Block on him. xP

Btw: I own the rights to the song lyrics up there. So I'm not breakin' any rules for stealing song lyrics or blah blah xD Hope you all enjoyed! And don't forget to push that purple button that says "REVIEW!"

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