Author Note

Terra is back.

DC Gothic – Red-X 2

Terra

Shadow Squad HQ – Jump City

"Are you sure this will work?" I asked Jinx as she ground something into a fine powder and added it to the small cauldron she was using.

My girl wasn't just a meta-human with the power cause misfortune, her mother had been an Indian Sorceress, so she could also do magic. What was interesting about that was the fact that Homo-magi didn't have active metagenes, which meant her father had been the one with the freaky powers. Jinxy had no idea who her Dad was, but she did know that she took after him in the looks department as her mother was normal in appearance judging by the photos Jinx had.

"If it doesn't work then we can try your Old One magic" my team mate and sexual partner said before asking me a question of her own "Are you sure that bringing her back is revenge?".

I could understand her confusion as Terra had been a Teen Titan for a while, and she had 'died' taking out Slade, so on the surface of things the geomancer might not seem like someone who would make Raven suffer should she be restored to flesh and blood.

"Earlier today Blackfire was telling me all about Girl's Night" I told Jinxy "And that got me think about how I could make Ray suffer for destroying the X-cycle mark two".

I wasn't too upset about my former ride as Gizmo was already working on the X-cycle mark three, now that Robin had delivered my first bike back to me. However this wasn't just about petty payback. I owed Terra for getting rid of Deathstroke and I wanted to thank her freeing me from that monster.

"My idea was to find out what she cared about most and then destroy one of these things" I explained to my fellow magic user.

I now knew a few things she liked that I could take away, but hijacking a local TV station so they wouldn't show the latest episode of some cartoon show about magic ponies was a little too public. The League wouldn't tolerate us if we started causing such noticeable trouble.

"But then Fire started telling me all about the time Ray told her that Beast Boy follows her around like a love sick puppy" I then informed Jinx And that when Terra was around that Beastie Boy diverted his attentions to our stoned friend here".

Unlike what the report the Titans had on their computer had said Terra had not actually fallen into the hole. She had in fact over used her powers to the extent that she ended up turning herself into a statue.

Then she'd ended up in a museum, which wasn't as odd as it sounded as she did look like a centuries old piece of art and in such a place Terra had been kept safe, at least until the Shadow Squad had come along and liberated her.

"Most women like to be thought of as attractive, even if they never admit it, and Ray is no exception" I then said

Jinx was hanging on my ever word, like she enjoyed hearing me talk so I kept going.

"So naturally she took an instant dislike to Terra the moment Beast Boy started falling for a girl who was actually willing to show him affection" I went on to say "And if she was to come back then Beast Boy would start mooning over Terra again".

Jinx smiled at me as she got on board with my evil scheme of evil.

"And poor little Rae-Rae won't have anyone to make her feel all special" my girl realised "She might even come running to you for some attention".

Which she wouldn't get as she and I were having a war of sort.

"If you have sex with her I will be very mad at you" Jinx then warned "And you won't get to smack my butt".

She did have a small ass, but it was cute and I did like slapping it. She made all sorts of fun sounds when I spanked her.

"Okay so the last ingredient for my potion is something that represents the person" my girl then said "Any ideas what that could be?"

I knew that she was testing me, as she wouldn't have started this potion if she didn't have everything ready.

"How about this?" I suggested while picking up a pinch of sand with my gloved hands.

I was in my suit, but I was keeping the mask off so as not to scare the girl should we manage to return her to human from.

"She was a geomancer" I pointed out.

It might work as even Terra's name suggested a strong connection to the element of earth.

"Let's give it a try" Jinx said just before she poured the potion all over the rock girl.

To my amazement it worked, and this was very good as I hadn't been sure I could create an Old One spell that could have restored Terra.

"Did- did they win?. . . I destroyed... did I help? . . Did they escaped? Beast Boy.. did he . . . and the Titans. I fell . . . . Slade . . ." Terra said between taking deep breathes

She was recovering from her awful experience very quickly. A few moments later she was on her feet.

"Who are you?" the blonde super powered girl demanded "Where the hell am I?"

My first impression was that she was kinda pretty. Her blond hair framed her face, and her blue eyes were bright. Over all she seemed harmless, or at least that was the impression I had right up until she attacked me and I ended up pinned beneath her. Which was more enjoyable than it looked.

"I said: Who are you?" she repeated with anger in her voice.

The girl was tough but unfortunately for her I was Red-X so I soon she was the one pinned to the ground, Then I looked at Jinx who was very amused by what she saw.

"My name is Red-X, and the sexy lady over there is Jinx. We are the people who saved you" I explained to Terra "And this is our HQ".

When the former Teen Titan relaxed I slowly let her up.

"The Titans are fine" I assured Terra "And Slade is gone".

Understandably she still had some questions.

"But how did I get here?" she asked of me.

I was prepared to answer this.

"Like I told you this is our HQ" I said "I wanted to restore you, so Jinx whipped up a potion to make you flesh and blood again".

While someone else might have wanted more information on that subject, Terra accepted this and moved on. Not that this was odd as she would have encountered many strange situations and people in life such as hers.

"Slade?" she inquired.

She should know more about this than I did.

"As far as I know he fell down a big hole that had lava at the bottom, and since his kid is trying to kill the Titans it seems he's dead".

If Deathstroke was alive then he would have acted by now, of that I was sure.

"I can control my powers now" Terra told us as all the dirt left over from her transformation neatly piled itself into a nearby bin.

This seemed important to her, but I didn't know why.

"Raven is such a bitch" Jinx said suddenly "She could have fixed you like I did if she'd really wanted to".

That was true as Ray knew a lot about magic too, and even if she hadn't known a potion to restore Terra like Jinx had, then she should have been able to find one by now. She might have even tried and failed because when it came to magic then intent was very important, and Raven didn't like Terra.

That was one of things that made the arcane so different from science. A machine would function the same no matter how the person using it felt, but with magic the wrong emotion could drastically change the outcome of spell.

"I bet she left me like that on purpose" Terra then said "She never liked me, and I never liked her".

This was encouraging to hear,

"I owe you one for getting rid of Slade, so you don't owe me for arranging your return" I told Terra "But if you want to make Raven pay, then I have a plan that might interest you".

That got her attention.

"Nothing lethal" I told her "I just want you to go to Titan Tower and try to get Beast Boy to forgive you".

Terra misunderstood where I was going with all this.

"If this is some plan to hurt them then you made a mistake bringing me back" she warned.

I raised my hands in the universal symbol for peace.

"Like I said before: I owe you for Slade" I told her "That's the main reason I brought you back. The fact that your return will annoy Raven is a more of a bonus really. Demon-girl and I had a sort of breakup, and she destroyed my bike to get at me so I want to get back at her".

A moment later some sort of realisation struck Terra.

"Hold on, you're that Red-X" she said "Slade's apprentice who ran away. I think he was looking for you".

Her memory of this would also be clouded due to my wish.

"And you made sure he would never find me" I replied "And I know it wasn't for me, but still I'm grateful".

Either the blonde took me at my word or stopped caring as she went from suspicious of me to sad.

"I can't just move back into the tower" she lamented as she sat down on the floor "They all must hate me".

Heroes had a habit of giving people second chances, and trying to see the best in others. At times it could be very foolish, but it was an admirable virtue.

"Well you can stay here until you sort yourself out" I offered "Just make sure you tell the Titans that you're living here. I don't someone following you and thinking this is all some crazy scheme".

Just restoring Terra was enough for one day, besides this was yet another action that would confuse the heck out of the Titans and that was reward enough for me.

"You'd let me stay here?" the confused girl asked.

I wouldn't have dragged her down here if she wasn't welcome to stay.

"Sure" I told her "And if the Titans don't want you back then you can join the Shadow Squad".

Her facial expression told me she needed to know more.

"We're like a team of super crooks who do stuff for money" I explained "Nothing that hurts people, we steal stuff from big companies and we've even helped the Titans out".

Terra thought things over.

"I guess I could stay for a while" she said "I think I might need some time before I face BB".

With that settled I moved on to other important business.

"Well I figure it's time for dinner" I told the two girls "Whose up for some Chinese?"

Terra's rumbling stomach answered for her.

(Line Break)

Shadow Squad HQ – Jump City

"Terra this is Gizmo, Mammoth, Blackfire and Kyd Wyykd" I said introducing my gang to the potential member "And of course you already met Jinx".

Since it was dinner time we were all sitting around the living room while eating out of boxes of takeaway. I didn't doubt that it was odd to see a team of super villains doing something so normal, but the former Titan adapted quickly, she even sat on the floor and started eating.

"We've met before" Blackfire informed us all.

Terra gave the alien princess a long look and then almost stood up in shock as she remembered my other sexual partner.

"Let me guess" I said "You all went out on Girl's Night".

It wouldn't surprise me as apparently Rose had attended the last one as she wanted to murder all the Titans. The whole thing was super freaky in my book.

"That's when I first met T here" Jinx informed me "But she didn't stick around for very long some monster was on the lose".

Terra looked confused.

"I don't remember that" the former Teen Titan admitted.

For once that had nothing to do with my wish. Terra simply hadn't fully recovered from her time as an art exhibit. Something like that would naturally take time. Which was why I was trying to ease the super powered girl back into real life. It might have been more fun to leave her all confused on the Titan's front door, but I wasn't a cruel person.

"I tried to kill her to get at Starfire one time" Fire said as if was no big deal "But don't worry I'm so past that phase now. I'm more into humiliating her these days".

I was about to warn Terra not to ask about that, but I was too late.

"Why?" she question.

Those of us who knew what was coming sighed as the evil alien began a five minute lecture that went into great detail about why Blackfire felt that Starfire was personally responsible for the misfortune in her life. Even Terra, who had actually been interested to start with, began to nod off towards the end of the speech.

"You know you guys are a lot like BB and his friends" our guest said when we all started talking again "Super powered people all living together like they are normal. It's nice".

Well that was one way of looking at it, and it was a nice one given that Mammoth was eating a food container rather than use his chopsticks to take the food out of the box.

"So what about that plan to..." Jinx stared to say.

She didn't want to go into things with someone who wasn't in the group so she stopped, and Terra picked up on that.

"I can go eat in my room" she said.

In my view it would be easier just to change the subject.

"We can take care of thing tomorrow night" I said to Jinx before turning back to Terra "I'll pop out and get your stuff from Slade's out place after dinner".

I didn't think she'd want to sleep in the armour she was wearing,

"Are you sure it's okay for me to stay here?" the former Titan asked "I don't want to impose on you".

Everyone assured her that it was fine.

"We're trying to get new members" I told our guest "But there's no pressure to join us. The Titans need more people too".

That made Gizmo laugh.

"Maybe with you they might win a fight" he said.

Again Terra was confused.

"We've been running rings around them recently" I explained "But they aren't striking back because they have worse things to deal with".

And we had plans of our own too, which was why we weren't currently robbing Jump City blind.

"There's no desert" Blackfire then complained "I have seven stomachs to fill here".

At least she was eating slowly for a change. Normally she ate alone because of her complete lack of anything resembling table manners and she could empty the pantry faster than a family of hungry racoons.

"I'll pick up something on the way back" I assured her.

For some reason I was in the mood for cheesecake.

"Should I come with you?" Terra asked "I left a lot of stuff there".

That was a very bad idea as I'd just remembered something important.

"Ravager is after the Titans because she thinks they were working with you as part of a plan to kill Slade" I told Terra "I don't know if she's camped out there, but it's best she doesn't see you".

I could move around unseen on cameras so Rose could be doing her super villain thing in the basement and never know I was there. Which meant the only thing I had to worry about was Ravager wondering why someone had taken Terra's stuff. But she might not even be there, and even she did figure it out it didn't matter as Slade's daughter would be spying on the Titans so she would soon discover Terra's return no matter what I did.

"So keep your guard up" I warned the geomancer "She might come after you if she hasn't gotten over her issues by now".

Rose was more messed up than evil, so she might move on with her life. However I doubted it as she was a DC villain.

"She can't be worse than her Dad" Terra said dismissively.

Hopefully she wouldn't come to regret those words.

"Right I'm off to get T's stuff" I said when I'd finished my food "Get the van ready, Giz".

We had work to do and if Rose was there I would need the backup.