As soon as the door closed behind Raven, Terra, and Gar, Alix surged to her feet. "I do not know about you two, but I, for one, am sick of being left in the dark."
Erik and Henry nodded their consent, and all three crowded around the bedroom door, through which, they could hear quite clearly.
"Does this have anything to do with what happened at the Civic Center? Do you think that guy was the one who tried to have that crystal stolen?" Terra's voice was fraught with worry.
"That guy's name is Sound, and yes. Something about what Henry asked earlier; Sound could not have known about the attempted theft unless he had a part in it," Raven replied.
"He mentioned his sister. How...what happened to her?" Terra asked, as if she was afraid to hear the answer.
There was a pause, during which the three eavesdroppers shared a look.
They heard Garfield begin speaking, his voice equally as cautious as Terra's. "After you were turned to stone we tried everything we could think of to bring you back. A few years later, I'm sorry to say, we had just about given-up, but then Raven introduced us to this little girl named Melvin, who had the power to create things from her imagination. We thought that if she could imagine you alive, then her powers would somehow turn you back."
Turned to stone?! The eavesdroppers wondered in unison.
Terra's voice was then so quiet that Erik, Henry, and Alix had to strain their ears in order to hear her. "But it didn't work?"
Silence.
"She died?"
Silence.
"And you knew this would happen?" Terra asked, her voice louder, angrier.
"No," Gar said quickly. "Of course not! If we had known, then we wouldn't have had Melvin try in the first place."
There was another pause.
Raven spoke softly, barely audible through the wood door. "I knew."
-O-O-O-
Raven stared at the bedroom floor, ashamed.
"What?" Gar asked incredulously from his seat at the room's small desk.
Terra was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Raven could sense shared feelings of confusion from the two, and also from the three that she knew were listening-in on their conversation from behind the closed door.
"I knew," she began again, "that it was a possibility."
"Then why did you let her?" Terra demanded, her voice bordering on enraged once more.
Raven seemed to shrink even more, not knowing how to respond to Terra's question. Perhaps she should have talked it over and made sure that everyone knew of the risk that Melvin was taking, but with each passing day that Terra was trapped, Gar had been becoming more and more depressed, and if Raven had rushed into things, it was only because she couldn't bear to see him that way. So she had jumped at every opportunity to bring Terra back, every opportunity to make him happy again.
It's my fault Melvin died. This is why I can't succumb to my emotions; because of my...love...for him, an innocent girl is dead. Raven shook her head as if to clear it.
"It doesn't matter. What does matter is that Sound blames you and I, Terra, for Melvin's death."
"As he should." Raven heard Terra think loudly.
"Garfield, why don't you entertain your other guests, the ones who have been eavesdropping on our conversation," she suggested.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Terra stiffen.
Gar shot Raven a meaningful look before he stood up and left the room.
-O-O-O-
Terra's eyes followed Raven as she moved to sit where Garfield had been sitting a moment ago.
"Terra," Raven began in the tone of a doctor bearing hard news, "if we don't fix the crystal soon, it is very likely that-."
"I'll be turned to stone again," Terra finished numbly.
Raven nodded grimly.
"How long do I have?" Her voice was a whisper.
"It's hard to tell, but at the rate it is progressing, I would guess four days at the most, two at the least."
Terra bit her lip, trying to keep herself from panicking. Shouldn't I have some sort of bucket list? Isn't that what people do when they know they're...dying?
"There's something else," Raven said.
Oh, Great. What now?
"The day you stopped the volcano, the explosion of your powers created a massive air pocket underneath the city. Earlier tonight, Sound told me that he plans on using that air pocket as a sinkhole. A sinkhole large enough to swallow most of Jump City."
Terra sighed. Once again, the city is in trouble, and it's all my fault.
"He said that he is going to set it off tomorrow, unless you and I meet him at the old observatory before six a.m. tomorrow morning."
"Well then," Terra remarked, "I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?"
-O-O-O-
Raven watched Terra leave the room, mulling over their options. No doubt, Sound had some sort of device ready with a remote detonator to activate the sinkhole; from the vantage point of the Troy Observatory, he would be afforded an unobstructed view of the city. It was certainly a trap, but Terra was right. We don't have much of a choice. And Raven wasn't sure that if it came down to a fight that she and Terra would be prepared to defeat Sound. She didn't know how extensively he had been trained by Slade, but he would certainly be a formidable opponent.
Raven was also becoming increasingly worried about Terra, she hadn't told the blonde that her prediction of two days was an extraordinarily optimistic one. Terra would be lucky to make it through tomorrow.
