Guess what? I updated! Ha HA! I updated!

I'm still on vacation in Virginia, but I managed to get a hold of my father's friend's laptop, so I've been typing away for several hours, both yesterday and today. And since I haven't updated in a while (well, at least by my standards) I have for all of you my longest chapter yet! Still not really long, but significantly longer than my other chapters.

I want to thank you all for waiting patiently and pretending that you had a choice in the matter, except for the one reader who followed me up to Virginia and sat breathed down my neck while I typed. j/k. Any of you ever seen the movie "Misery"? Picture that. lol.

I see you're back, CloudPaladin, and thanks for your compliments. I didn't realize my style had changed, though I have been thinking about my story A LOT more often. And concerning the number of chapters, I have no idea. Not fifty, but I don't know beyond that.

Well, no more stalling. I couldn't stand not writing for four whole days, so this is what I came up with. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: [I own nothing, which is good cuz there's a lot of it.]

The Art and Dance of ReconciliationChapter Ten – Slipping

It had been even harder than Beastboy had thought it would be, but he could do it. He had to do it, no matter how difficult it was or how much it hurt him. He hated it, but he knew that he didn't have a choice. He would have to forget Terra.

At first, it had been hard for him to believe it was even possible. She'd been on his mind all day and in his dreams all night, and it seemed he would never be able to move on. "It's for her," he would tell himself. "The farther away from her I am, the better off she'll be." This was all that kept him from flying off and trying to find her, though it didn't help much beyond that. Nothing had been able to distract him completely. Well, except for one thing…

"Almost… almost… Ha! Gotcha!"

"Oh no you don't!" The sound of buttons being rapidly jammed filled the room, followed by, "BOOYAH!"

"Oh yeah? 'Booyah' this…"

Beastboy and Cyborg toggled the joysticks and mashed the buttons like there was no tomorrow, both of their bodies bent completely over their controllers, their eyes fixed steadily on the two cars racing on the television screen.

The two cars were almost even, with the blue car slightly ahead. Each was trying to run the other off the road until the finish line came into view. Beastboy punched in a series of commands and the green car in second place began to shoot out a large flame.

A large grin covered Beastboy's face as his car sped up and took the lead. The finish line was approaching fast, but suddenly Cyborg punched in a command and a big blue boxing glove shot out of his car and knocked the green one straight off the track! With no competition, the blue car easily coasted over the finish line and "WINNER P1" flashed on the screen.

"Like I said," he gloated, "BOOYAH!" It was now his turn to wear a large grin while Beastboy's jaw hung open, in shock at his defeat. He remained motionless while Cyborg danced around him in circles, chanting, "Who da man! Who da man!"

He stopped short, though, when Robin entered the room and picked up the controller before turning to him and asking, "You playing?" Cyborg proudly sat down and took the other controller, but the race was over within twenty seconds when it was his blue car that was sent flying off the track. "Booyah," Robin imitated, more saying it than exclaiming it.

"What?" Cyborg gawked. "How did you…"

"Excuse me," Starfire asked. "May I try the racing of the colored boxes?"

"Cars, Star," he corrected. "They're cars. Yeah sure, here's your controller. This button is to go and this thing is used to steer." He figured he could use a confidence-booster, but when the race started his car went out of control! It only took Starfire several seconds to force Cyborg's car off the track like Robin had, advancing his losing record even further.

"I am victorious!" she exclaimed happily, jumping up in the air. Cyborg was dumbfounded as she flew about the tower, shouting, "Boo-YAH! Boo-YAH!"

Now alone in the room, Cyborg knelt on the floor and held the Gamecube console in his hand, suspecting something to be wrong with it. After a few seconds, a tiny green gnat crawled out from one of the cracks in the system and buzzed annoyingly about the room.

"Alright man, you asked for it," Cyborg said, reaching over to the table and picking up a giant flyswatter. The gnat stopped short in the air and immediately grew into a small green human laughing hysterically on the floor.

"You should have… seen… your face!" Beastboy exclaimed between laughs, his arms clutching his chest as he rolled on his back. His face changed to look like a green version of Cyborg's, sweating and huffing with a small light bulb flashing on the top of his head. His face changed back and the two laughed for a minute before they were interrupted.

"Hey Cyborg," Robin called from another room. "Can you give me a hand with this?"

Though he didn't know what 'this' was, he figured from Robin's serious expression that it must have been something concerning the Slade investigation. "No problem," he called back. "Be right there." With that, he got up, dusted himself off, and walked out of the room.

Now alone, Beastboy was able to survive the silence for about six seconds before his mind caught up to him and he was flooded with memories of Terra again.

"Why can't you just forget about her?" he scolded himself. His memories wouldn't give up; it just didn't feel right without her. He got up and made his way over to the couch, then stood over it. "She's gone—never coming back."

He plopped onto the couch and lay face-down, motionless.

"Forget her."

Terra awoke in the same room she'd been in earlier, now dimly lit, though there didn't appear to be any lightbulbs. She found that her wrists were still chained to the floor. She noticed now that her ankles were also chained together, but her attention was soon directed to the man standing before her.

She looked up at him and, as her eyes focused, was able to identify him as the one man she didn't want to see: Slade.

"Well," he began, his arms folded as he looked down at her nervous face. "I suppose you're wondering what you're doing here." She looked up at him helplessly, knowing that he could strike her at any time. Feeding off her fear, he smirked behind his mask before continuing, "I've decided to give you one last chance to repay me; to resume your role as my apprentice."

Terra was silent at first, for fear of what would happen if she declined his offer. She hadn't thought her life could get any worse. Then she remembered what had ruined her life in the first place; it had been Slade. He'd sought her out and pulled her in the day she'd left the Titans, and that had been the day she was turned against her friends. That had been the start of her mental war with herself, the moment that the one thing she'd wanted in life had become unattainable.

Control. It was the one thing she'd always worked so hard to achieve, only to end up farther away from it than when she'd started. Control over her life. Her unstable powers had made it impossible, flaring up whenever she thought things were getting better. She'd tried everything to tame her powers and take control. She'd lived alone, miles away from any other living soul. She'd accepted help from the Titans, training amongst other 'mutants' like her. She'd taken up Slade's offer, even if he was the Titans' enemy.

The truth of it was that Slade had helped the most. Only Slade had given her any significant control over her powers; the Titans had only comforted and supported her. Slade had given her strength and stability; her powers hadn't lashed out once during her time with him.

But it had come with a price. The whole reason Terra had wanted control over her powers was so that she could have control over her life. Slade had given her the opposite by making her his apprentice. He had forced her to betray her friends—her friends that had trusted her and cared for her. He had made her give up everything else in her life and obey his every command; he had given her power but had taken control.

Beastboy had freed her from Slade's grip and her life was starting to take shape again, but now she'd been dragged back—back into the blind abyss. She wouldn't go back; she could never go back to that hell, spinning around uncontrollably and growing to be more and more like Slade.

"You're out of your mind," she spat back, surprised at her nerve.

Slade stepped forward, causing Terra's strength to fade and be replaced by the fear she'd shown earlier. "Am I?" he mused. "What do you have to gain from them?"

"Let me go," she attempted to ignore his question, drowning out his voice by struggling against her restraints.

"We're a lot alike, Terra," he continued, unphased. "So I know how you think. What do you have to gain from them?"

"We're nothing alike!" she exclaimed, angered by the notion. Out of instinct, she jumped up at him, only to be jerked back to the ground.

Before she could react, Slade's arm swung fast and backhanded her across the face, sending her airborne for a moment before the chains yanked her back down. "Answer my question!" he shouted.

Terra slowly recovered as she got back on her knees, her hands unable to tend to the trickle of blood on her face or the tears slipping from her eyes. She was silent, paralyzed by her fear and shock.

Regaining his patience, Slade folded his arms again and paced about the room. "They won't take you, you know," he began. "Not after what you've done to them. Surely you must know they hate you now."

His words upset her, but she'd already accepted this on her own. Unable to stop herself, she countered with the same argument she'd given herself. "Not Beast—"

"Beastboy?" he interrupted with a laugh. "He hates you as much as the other Titans. You saw the way he fought for you; it was pity, not love."

"But he told me he loved—"

"He lied." Slade turned to face her and continued, "If he cares so much, then where is he? Certainly not looking for you; my security shows that nobody has even tried to approach our location." Terra knew it was possible that he just didn't know where she was, but Slade quickly pressed on, "He didn't look for you the last time you 'disappeared' either. Do you remember what happened; do you remember why you ran away?"

Her secret had slipped and the Titans had found out about her inability to control herself. Beastboy had been the first person she'd ever trusted with that secret and she'd trusted him wholeheartedly, but within hours everybody knew and she'd been humiliated right out of the Tower.

"He betrayed you," Slade answered for her. "He lied then, and he lied now."

Terra fought hard to resist his logic, but it made sense. Still, she knew he had to be wrong. This was how he'd roped her in the last time—by twisting the truth and making her feel helpless and alone. But she remembered what had happened the last time she'd accepted his help and knew that nothing was worth losing her life like that again.

"I'll never go back," she stated firmly. "You're wrong. You were wrong then, and you're wrong now."

Neither spoke for a minute, instead staring each other down.

Slade broke the silence when he turned his back to her and said, "I see."

He walked out of the room, leaving Terra alone in confusion. What was going to happen to her now? She was sure he wasn't going to set her free after that, so how was she supposed to escape?

She didn't have much time alone with her thoughts, however, as Slade soon re-entered the room He held two identical helmets, one with a blue diamond in the center and one with a red diamond. He placed one helmet on the floor and approached her with the other. She instinctively tried to back away, but the chains held her in place once again.

"I was hoping this would be done willingly," Slade commented as he held her chin in one hand and the helmet in the other. His touch sent a chill of ice down her spine, followed by an immense fear as he fit the helmet on her head and fastened it in place. He continued, "It would have been much quicker."

Once the helmet was secured, he walked over to where he had left the other helmet—the one with the blue diamond. "But you've chosen the hard way," he said as he stepped into the shadows and then removed his mask. It was too dark to see his face, but she could make out the image of him putting on the other helmet. "And the painful way," he added with a smirk.

Her face went pale for a second at this remark, but she tried to hide her fear, knowing that he delighted in it.

"Brace yourself," he said, knowing there was nothing she could do.

He lifted his arm and pressed a combination of buttons on his wrist, and the diamond on his helmet began to emit a faint blue light. She could tell that the diamond above her was illuminated in the same way, but what scared her most was when her eyes started glowing a bright gold, as if she were lifting a heavy boulder. She felt as if she were using her powers, but there was no earth in the room, nor could she detect any within range.

The feeling grew stronger, and she soon felt that her powers were maxed out. Had she been trying to lift something, she would have given up at this point. But her powers kept going, clearly out of her control. Both diamonds now glowed the same bright gold as her eyes, and she could feel her energy being drained. Already panting heavily, she didn't know how much longer she could hold out; she'd never pushed herself to this extreme.

"Now it gets interesting," Slade announced, entering another series of commands on his wrist computer.

The diamonds began to glow brighter and brighter, now radiating with pure white light. Suddenly, Terra could feel her powers being worked even harder, more than she knew was possible. She cried out in pain as she could feel her life energy being depleted, and she soon dropped to the floor. But it didn't help; Slade enjoyed the thrill of watching her squirm frantically on the ground in pain. She curled up into the fetal position, tears soaking her face, with too little energy to even muster a scream.

A warning light started flashing next to the buttons on Slade's wrist, and he saw from her slow, drawn-out breaths that she didn't even have enough energy to breathe. He was to terminate the process immediately if she were to live.

With a smirk, he instead let the device drain one last surge of energy, then watched with satisfaction as Terra stopped twitching and lay limp on the floor. "So our first session is a success," he thought. "If she's lucky, then she's dead."

How was that? You know the drill, reviews, criticisms, flames, whatever-the-opposite-of-flames-are, and anything else.

This chapter went from one extreme to the other during the scene change, so tell me how each of those was.