A/N: Well, I guess I was wrong last time about this chapter being the last. It seems there's going to be one more to go after this one, so hang tight. Anyway I hope you like it.
(40)
It was tearing her up inside. Razor blades in her stomach. Burning like battery acid.
Standing over the prone Beast Boy as he lay still unconscious on the green, metal bench, Terra wrestled with her thoughts, desperately trying to stem the tide of bad intentions now running through her head. From behind her the calm and collected voice of Ima still whispered in her ear.
"You can't leave him like this?" she said in a voice that was soft and yet clear as day. "And you can't let Raven win. She was the one that started this whole thing. What you do now is on her conscience, not yours."
Swallowing hard, Terra could feel the familiar buzz, the tingling sensation running through her body, as her powers came to the forefront of her mind. The ground beneath Beast Boy started to shake, rattling the bench and jostling his limp body. Before things could escalate further, however, the true gravity of what she was about to do came rushing to her mind, filling her with a terrible sickness. She inhaled sharply and once again holstered her powers.
"I can't," whispered Terra. "I can't. I can't do it. I love him."
"If you love him than prove it. Rescue him like you planned."
"This wasn't in my plan."
"Save him from the witch's grasp. Set him free. It's the only way now."
Crying out in frustration, Terra pancaked her palms against her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, wanting more than anything at that moment to block out the world around her. Unfortunately it did little to help as she could still hear Ima's voice ringing clearly in her head, ordering her to do what needed to be done; to do what was best. Grinding her teeth in aggravation she tried in vain to focus her mind on something, anything else, but nothing could be done. Still the voice of the brunette girl was the most obvious.
Tearing her hands away from her ears, Terra once again gazed down at the unconscious Beast Boy. Her breathing was fast and sporadic as she choked on the emotions raging inside her. Almost as if in a trance, she suddenly found herself raising her arms. Soon both appendages as well as her eyes were surrounded by the brilliant glow of her power. The ground beneath the bench once more started to tremble. She was unsure of the true intention of her actions and yet was certain it would undoubtedly be deadly. Her weapon was poised, her victim helpless, all that was left to do was pull the trigger.
"Terra stop!"
The new voice rang out sharply across the fairgrounds, penetrating Terra's consciousness and causing her to tear herself away from execution. Whipping around sharply, the blonde girl was quick to spot a lone figure standing mere yards away from her. The light may have been somewhat dim, but it took only a moments time to recognize the long flowing blue robe dancing in the wind.
"You..." Terra gasped in utter surprise before narrowing her eyes in anger.
"She's still alive," declared Ima.
Her stomach contorting in knots Terra glared at her rival, her emotional state at an all time high. What she had almost done...it enraged her.
"You're still...Why won't you just leave me alone? Why can't you just leave Beast Boy alone?" called Terra. She paused as Raven stood silent and unmoving, giving no answer. Her silhouette a black statue against the shadowy fairgrounds.
"Tell her what you really think of her, T," said Ima from behind.
Terra gave no acknowledgment to Ima, but instead remained completely fixed on Raven. Gritting her teeth, she glared at the empath with utter disdain.
"This isn't even about Beast Boy, is it?" she called. "It's about me. You can try to lie and say otherwise but even before Slade, since the goddamn beginning when I first walked in the door, you've hated me. Since the first day you met me you knew you didn't want me around. You had your own perfect little world with great friends who loved you and would do anything for you and you didn't want me anywhere near it. They were your friends and not anyone else's. I'm selfish? You're selfish!"
Once again Terra gave pause and waited for some kind of sneering, smart-mouthed response from her motionless rival, but once again she found the only sound traveling across the fairground to be the gentle shushing of the wind.
"Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"
Raven gave no response.
"Well?"
Still there was nothing.
Spitting at the ground, Terra dropped into a fighting stance.
"You want to fight me?" she shouted. "You want to kill me? You want me out of the way so you can have Beast Boy and the whole world all to yourself? Then come on."
Muscles tense, Terra brought her fists out in front of her as she readied her body for battle. There was no doubt in her mind that Raven was looking for retribution, and certainly if it was a fight she wanted of course she was more than willing to oblige. Digging her feet into the ground Terra was chomping at the bit, waiting for Raven to make the first move. As she braced herself for combat she regretted her earlier cowardice. Indeed this was the way it should have always been. Her and the witch, one on one, no distractions, no interference, just as she promised.
"Come on," hissed Terra again. "Come on."
Still, despite Terra's challenge, Raven made no aggressive movements. Seconds passed by as the two young women remained in their respective spots, neither making any sort of advancement on the other. Finally as a bead of nervous sweat began making its way down Terra's cheek she saw the dark figure slowly bring her hands up to the edges of her hood and gently remove the fabric from her head, exposing her face to the dim glow of the moon.
As soon as she set first gaze on the girl's unobscured face, Terra immediately felt a twang of surprise race through her. In truth she was expecting the red eyed demon she had met several times before, the cold unfeeling stare and defiant sneer of a woman who wanted nothing more than to take her apart. What she got instead, however, was something entirely different.
There was no anger or rage to be found anywhere in Raven's face. There was no infuriated scowl or wolf-like sneer. Her eyebrows arched softly above her violet eyes and she gazed upon Terra with not malice, but rather a kind of sympathy and understanding. This woman- this Raven -was not the same person encountered days before.
However, despite the sorceresses unchallenging stare and passive stance, still Terra remained on her guard. After everything that had happened between them, there was no reason to think she didn't still have a fight on her hands.
"Well?" Terra called to her rival, who still stood a few yards away, arms at her sides. "What are you waiting for?"
As Terra continued waiting for Raven to make the first move, the empath instead simply let her gaze drift from the blonde to the still unconscious Beast Boy beyond her. For a brief moment she stared at the motionless boy, the barest trace of despair on her face. Then at long last she spoke her first words.
"Is he alive?" she asked, keeping her gaze fixated on the green man.
Following Raven's gaze, Terra looked to the boy behind her. Her heart withered for a moment before once again returning her gaze to the woman in front of her.
"Of course he is," she answered, keeping the firmness in her voice. Once again her muscles tightened as she resumed her fighting stance.
Once again Raven returned her attention to Terra, her face just as calm and compassionate as it was before. For a moment she stared Terra up and down, studying her aggressive stance and hard, defiant glare.
"I'm not here to fight you, Terra," she said finally with a deep sigh. "I don't want to fight."
Terra's muscles relaxed slightly before Ima's sharp voice snapped them back in place.
"Bullshit," said the brunette. "It's a trap; she's lying."
"You're lying," shouted Terra.
"She hates you," said Ima.
"You hate me," shouted Terra. "You've always hated me..."
"I'm done hating you," answered Raven suddenly, her voice raising only enough to be heard without sounding threatening. Once again in charge of the conversation, her passive tone resumed. "I don't want to hate you anymore. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that things had to get this far before..." She paused and took a breath. "I'm sorry that I let things get this far. I'm the one who's supposed to be the superhero here; I'm supposed to keep the peace. I shouldn't have let my own personal feelings get in the way. And for that I'm sorry."
Once again Terra felt her aggressive stance weakening. She wasn't sure what Raven was getting at, and yet the more she spoke the more she found herself calmed by the woman's words. Ima on the other hand was hearing none of it.
"Oh she is so full of it," the brunette scoffed. "Stay on guard. That witch is just biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike."
Ima's powerful words. Once again they shooed away any doubt Terra was feeling in her actions. They drained the life out of Raven's supposed confession, and once again Terra was in anticipation for the fight to come.
"I'm sorry..." Raven said again.
"Ignore her," said Ima.
And she did.
"I really am..." said Raven.
"She's not." said Ima.
And she believed her.
Feeling her breath quicken, Terra's fists clenched tightly. She could feel self-righteous anger growing inside her. She could hear Ima whispering in her ear, feeding her confidence just like she always had; holding her hand, walking her through the fog, assuring her that her blows would be mighty and just. She felt her legs ready to propel her forward when suddenly Raven's voice once again penetrated darkness.
"Terra," she called. "What can you tell me about Ima?"
At first Terra scoffed at the request.
"Ima? What does she have..." Then it dawned on her. "Wait, how did..." She turned around and stared at the brunette girl behind her. "How does she know your name?"
"It must have been that rat Gizmo," Ima answered quickly. "Now keep focused."
"Right," said Terra, turning her attention back to the impending battle. "Ima has nothing to do with this."
"She does," answered Raven. "Everything that's happened so far, everything you've done has been because of her, hasn't it?"
"She's wrong," said Ima quickly. "This is about you and her."
"This is about you and me," shouted Terra.
"It may be between us, but it's for her," answered Raven, raising her voice. "She tells you to do things, doesn't she? Things you want to do, but you know deep down are wrong. She rationalizes them for you until you believe they're right, doesn't she?"
"Don't listen to her. She's a witch and a liar. She's just trying to manipulate you."
"Ima's my friend," said Terra.
"Ima's not who you think she is," said Raven.
"Don't listen to her," said Ima.
"Don't listen to her," said Raven.
"Enough," said Ima.
"Enough," shouted Terra.
Eyes glowing with yellow energy, Terra threw her thin but powerful arms into the air, causing several dozen chunks of earth the size of dishwashers to leap from the ground. With another powerful gesture, they were sent hurdling through the air at incredible speed to where a now battle ready Raven stood waiting. The empath made no move to dodge or block, instead becoming intangible and letting the deadly boulders pass though her body with no resistance and then tear though several tents and game booths behind her.
"Terra, listen to me," shouted Raven, her hands now glowing with black energy. "We don't have to do this."
Terra heard none of Raven's words as she took several challenging steps forward.
"You're just jealous. You've always been jealous," the enraged blonde shouted.
With the speed of a cheetah she sprinted forward, immediately closing the gap between her and her rival, and went on the attack. With awe-inspiring strength and speed she dug into her Raven with lefts and rights. Kicking and punching she attacked the empath with everything she and her suit could muster. A few blows managed to be dodged or blocked, but soon she broke through, delivering a hard right to the violet haired sorceresses' cheek, spinning her around till she faced the opposite direction. She then delivered a devastating straight kick to the middle of pale woman's back, knocking her stomach first to the ground. It was a swift and brutal display of just how outmatched the empath was.
"Beast Boy's love was all I had left," said Terra, stalking her fallen prey. "But you couldn't even let me have that. You had to take him from me, just like everything else."
Getting up on her hands and knees, Raven coughed and spat on the ground.
"I didn't TAKE anything," she hissed through gritted teeth.
With lightening fast speed Raven thrust her leg upward and outward in a sudden and brutal kick, catching Terra right in the stomach. However, the force of the blow seemed to have little effect. Terra was stayed for merely a second before responding with a kick of her own right into the ribs of Raven, sending her sailing through the air and before rolling across the hard dirty ground. Terra once again pursued the falling girl as Raven again attempted to right herself.
"Terra," she wheezed. "Would you listen to yourself? I didn't take anything from you. Especially not Beast Boy. You were gone for six years. You left, remember? You ran away and left him behind."
Thrusting herself up and away from her opponent, Raven took to the air before Terra could get any closer. Immediately she surrounded a trio of old and broken popcorn vendors in wave of black energy and sent the objects soaring like missiles toward Terra. The projectiles would fail to find their targets however, as the blonde simply threw up a wall of stone in front of her, letting them harmlessly crash and fall to the ground. Then with a wave of her hand, she split the wall of rock into three even chunks. Immediately each piece of earth began to take shape. The sound of grinding rock and stone filled the environment as each chunk formed a robust body with arms and legs. It was only a matter of moments until three stone golems roughly eight feet in height stood on the fair ground.
No sooner were they birthed then did the golems charge. Massive arms and legs pumping back and forth, they ran straight for the awestruck Raven who immediately took to the air. This would do little good, however, as the golems quickly followed suit. Surrounded in yellow energy the monsters followed her into the sky, pursuing her with the blood thirsty vigor of a wolf pack. Raven gasped in pain as one of the brutes roughly grabbed her by the ankle. Immediately she sent a disk of black energy shooting forth, deftly slicing off the offending brutes limb and freeing herself. Almost instantly, however, the other two surrounded her. One threw a punch that most assuredly would have decimated her had she not managed to go intangible in the nick of time, allowing the blow to pass through her and strike the golem behind her. Shooting her hands out to either side of her, the empath then summoned all the strength she could, encompassing each golem in black energy. Viciously the two were abruptly driven together, causing giant cracks to appear in their stone bodies. Both were then sent hurdling into the third, and soon all three went crashing violently into the ground. With all three beasts consumed in energy, Raven drove her hands together, mimicking a crushing motion. At the same time the golems on the ground were compacted together, once again becoming a single chunk of earth before exploding and sending a torrent of pebbles raining down on the ground.
Breathing heavily, Raven searched the ground for Terra, but was unable to find her. With her guard still up she attempted to sense where the blonde was, but alas would not be quick enough. Just as a wave of rage swept through her mind, she felt a powerful blow strike her square on her back in between her shoulders. She saw stars as she was sent crashing to the ground with a terrible thud.
Following casually behind, Terra landed gently on the ground. She stepped from her rock transport and slowly approached Raven who now lay motionless on the ground, facing away from her.
"I knew she'd be no match for you," said Ima from behind her.
"She never was," answered Terra coldly.
Getting down on one knee, Terra glared at the fallen Raven. She placed a hand on her and effortlessly rolled her over. Immediately surprise raced through her as she found Raven's eyes glowing a pure and powerful white, and suddenly felt the pressure of small slender fingers pressing into her temples. Her body went rigid and her mind burned, and suddenly there came the feeling of an incredible power coursing through her being.
"What are you..." Terra managed to hiss out through the strain.
"Showing you the truth," answered Raven.
Suddenly Terra's vision was filled with a blinding white light. It burned at first, but soon subsided, giving way to a calm and serene glow. Instantly her mind was filled with visions of the past. She saw herself, a young and frightened girl, rejected and unloved, searching for hope and finding none. She saw a poor and miserable young soul with no guidance and no moral bearings forced to seek comfort within. All she wanted was a friend: someone to talk to, someone who understood her plight and, in time, someone who could justify her actions, no matter how hurtful or selfish they may be. She needed someone to reinforce the cold hard truths she'd come to learn from the world: to look out for yourself and your own interests. Because, after all, nobody else will.
Terra wanted happiness. But sometimes the only happiness is what you make for yourself.
Seemingly as fast as it had come, the white glow vanished. Terra now found herself roles reversed. Now she was the one on the ground, hands and knees, looking up at Raven. The girl now stood over her with a hand on her shoulder and a soft and compassionate expression adorning her face.
"It's okay," she said in a voice just above a whisper. "It's going to be okay."
Looking up at the woman above her, all Terra could manage in response was a meek and quiet, "What?"
"I understand," said Raven. "I know what you're going through; what it's like to have a darkness inside of you, influencing your behavior. It can be very difficult to get under control but it's not impossible."
Almost not hearing Raven's words Terra found herself staring blankly at the empty space in front of her.
"I'm crazy," she whispered.
"No, you're not," answered Raven. "You just need help. I can help you."
Shaking her head slightly Terra continued to stare blankly ahead. Her breath coming in short gasps she began babbling to herself, "All this time...I made her up. Ima's not real. I made her up. All this time Ima wasn't real. She's not real. Ima's not real," over and over again. Each time she said it her breaths became shorter until she was practically hyperventilating.
Getting down to her knees, Raven placed a hand on each of Terra's shoulders and looked her hard in the eyes.
"Terra, listen to me. You have to breath," she said firmly. "I know this is a lot to take in, but it doesn't have to be the end. I can help you." Gripping her shoulders, she began gently encouraging the girl to breath, repeating, "Just breath," again and again.
Slowly but surely, Terra's breaths began to slow and become more regulated. Breaking eye contact with Raven, Terra looked down to the patch of ground between herself and the woman in front of her. In and out, her lungs processed the life giving oxygen and soon her babbling began to slow as well.
"She's not real," said Terra finally in a slow and even voice. "Ima's not real."
With a small and weak smile crossing her face, Terra soon found it in herself to raise her head. However, shock and fear would immediately shoot through her body as she suddenly found herself staring into the enraged face of Ima.
"She's lying," shouted the brunette illusion wickedly, her voice twisting from its usual tone to a low an distorted growl.
Yelping out in fear, Terra shoved Raven to the ground and scrambled to her feet. She turned to run but suddenly found herself once again face to face with the devilish Ima as she bore down upon her.
"You can't really be listening to her, can you?" shot the girl angrily.
"Go away," shouted Terra. Pressing her palms hard against her ears the blonde girl did her best to block out the illusions horrible voice. "Leave me alone."
"You need to kill her," shouted Ima. "You need to kill her for what she's done. She deserves it. She deserves it like all of them deserve it."
"No," shot Terra, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt gentle hands come to her shoulders, but quickly shoved them away. "Stay away from me!"
"Terra, it's alright."
"Kill her!"
Suddenly there came a low rumble.
"No!"
"I can help you."
"Kill her!"
Yellow energy danced out from beneath Terra's eyelids as the rumbling intensified causing the tired old carnival equipment to creak and groan loudly as it swayed back and forth.
"Leave me alone!"
"KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER KILL HER!"
Rage tore through Terra's body. Growling like an animal she felt the suit's augmenting abilities kick in full force accentuating her powers to a level never before even conceived. She opened her eyes wide, allowing the energy to spill forth from her eyesockets and bathe the ground in an eerie and unnatural light.
Ima may not have been real, but she was still right. Eventually everyone turns on you in one way or another. And Terra had been betrayed for the last time.
"EVERYONE, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Letting out a primal scream a massive tremor ripped through the landscape. The earth cracked as mountainous rock formations sprang up from the ground like massive spikes, piercing the sky for a brief moment only to then crack and crumble to the ground, throwing huge chunks of rock through the air and kicking up torrents of dust and dirt. The carnival attractions teetered back and forth and soon began tumbling to the ground.
Terra, Raven, Beast Boy, Ima... They would all go down together.
A/N: Just in case for some reason you missed the Author's Note at the beginning I'll put one here too. This is not the last chapter. They'll be another one soon and THAT will be the last chapter. Keep reading. - Sir Alwick
