The window that Cyborg had left rolled down in the T-car caused an unnatural wind to whip across my face.
That unnatural wind—think about that, Raven. Think about anything rather than what you're thinking about, which you mustn't name, because then you'll think about it.
The unnatural wind is a perfect memory to stuff into your mind. It will make you remember you hurt Beast Boy. It will make you remember Terra, and the jewelry box, and the cries of a dog through the night—those heart-wrenching cries that had only stopped two nights ago.
You must remember so you can hate yourself. It's been a week, but you mustn't let yourself forget what you owe Beast Boy.
"Okay, okay, I got one," said Beast Boy, drawing me out of my thoughts. For some reason, he'd chosen to sit in between me and Starfire today while Robin rode shotgun. I wish I'd chosen to ride shotgun. "Why are ducks so funny?" He paused for but a moment to let the question settle in. "Because they're always quackin' jokes!" He roared with laughter, but no one joined him.
"Pull over," I told Cyborg. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Oh, I see," cried Starfire. "It is humorous because ducks lack the large brain necessary for the telling of jokes!"
"Actually, Starfire," said Robin, "it just wasn't humorous."
I nodded and stared out the window. "Because Beast Boy lacks the large brain necessary for telling jokes."
"Come on, Raven, you know I'm hilarious," said Beast Boy as he leaned into my face. He crossed his arms, drawing him closer. "And I'm not gonna give up until I get you to smile."
Good luck with that. He doesn't know about the promise I made to myself. He doesn't know I can't humor him. He doesn't know that I can't give in to my emotions. I don't deserve to. He deserves better.
"Okay," he said with a smile. "Why did the aardvark cross the road?"
We pulled up to a stoplight.
"To beat up the idiot telling jokes about him?"
Cyborg and Robin started to laugh.
"Now that's funny," said Robin.
"Please," Starfire asked, "an aardvark is some form of duck?"
We sighed. Sometimes there's no point in telling Starfire the truth. It's best to let her be oblivious. Besides, it's not like she'll ever need to know the truth about that.
The light turned green.
We didn't make it across the intersection.
A large rock slammed into the T-car, flipping us over in the process.
I have never been in a car accident before. I've seen them on shows and movies, but I have never personally experienced it.
Time slows down. Details become obvious. Cyborg clutched the steering wheel; Robin held onto his seatbelt; Starfire hid her face behind her hands; Beast Boy crunched at my hand. We landed right-side up.
"That hurts!" I told Beast Boy.
"Sorry!" Beast Boy let go at once.
"Is everybody okay," Robin asked, loudly, as though we weren't all still in the same car with him. I checked; we were.
We climbed out the car with a united groan. It took me a moment to keep my head from spinning any longer.
"Terra," said Beast Boy.
That snapped me back to reality. She was back?
She was back. And she had changed outfits again. She had bolts shooting out of her head that reminded me of Frankenstein, and she was clothed in a metal bodysuit that had Slade's emblem on it.
"Hey, guys," she said with a sick smile. "Miss me?" She shot rocks at the car, causing us to run away from it. The rocks created a large dent in the right side of the car. Cyborg would be upset. When she ran out pebbles to throw, she picked up a large rock and slammed it onto the hood. The car exploded underneath it. There goes Cyborg's "baby".
It was nothing like an explosion in the movies. When this car exploded, it went up with a poof! and that was the end of it. Life is less exciting than stories.
Terra lifted herself up on a rock above us.
"Titans, go," cried Robin, as if we needed any instruction as to when we were supposed to be fighting the enemy.
She opened the ground and made a pillar of dirt shoot up. Robin crashed so hard into it that it made the pillar shatter. He didn't move. From the hole, she picked up a rock and tossed it into Starfire, and trapped her underneath it.
Cyborg aimed his cannon at her and fired, but only managed to break off a small chunk of the rock she was flying on. She threw it back into him.
Beast Boy flew up and barely managed to get a foothold on her rock. When he climbed up to her level, he said, "Terra, stop! We're your friends!"
"I don't have any friends, remember," she said bitterly before she punched him off of her rock.
Starfire freed herself from underneath the rock and caught Beast Boy before I could. I was grateful that she had caught him, even if I did wish that it had been me who'd done it.
Beast Boy, however, was not Terra's target—Robin was.
As he struggled to pick himself off the ground, Terra lifted two large rocks over his head.
I refused to watch my friend's skull be crushed—at least in this way. I lifted the rock from the T-car and held it over her. "Don't make me hurt you," I warned, hoping it would make her back off.
It didn't.
"Don't make me laugh," she shot back. Terra had never been stronger than me before, but she was definitely stronger now. She broke my control with ease and sent it flying toward me.
I tried to run from it, but I was thrown into a streetlight, and then tossed to the ground by its explosion at my feet. I looked up as a large rock hovered me, sure that it was my time.
At the last second, Starfire ducked underneath it and lifted it over her head. From behind her, Beast Boy came charging forward to help me up. We watched Starfire as she gave Terra a piece of her own medicine.
Terra sent the rock back to Starfire, who blasted it with her star bolts. Then, before the dust could settle, she blasted Terra with her eyes.
Terra flew backwards, into the pillar of rocks she'd created earlier, and slumped down, unconscious.
Starfire flew over to her with a sad face. "Terra," she said as she reached down to pick up the girl.
Idiot. Why would she do that? I wanted to warn her before Terra opened her eyes, revealing the ruse, but I didn't have the chance.
"You always were easy to fool," said Terra before she brought up another pillar of rocks, sending Starfire into the air. Terra stood up and dusted herself off.
Cyborg aimed his cannon at her.
Terra let out a groan and brought her hands to her chest. Two giant rock monsters rose form the asphalt and made their way toward us.
"That's a new trick," I noted. Since when could Terra do that?
They were hard to fight because they could travel through the ground underneath us just as easily as we could blink. Plus, they could regenerate their limbs and spewed sewer water at us every chance they got.
Robin said something I'd never heard him say before: "Titans, fall back!" He threw smoke bombs onto the ground, and rounded us up. "You heard me! Fall back!"
Beast Boy took a moment to join our circle. When he finally did, I encased the team in a ball of black energy and hurried to the Tower. It was no secret that we were going there, but it would probably be best if we had a head start against our enemies.
We stayed by the door, the first place that we thought they would come through if we were to be attacked at the Tower.
I took the first shift and guarding the entrance. I crossed my arms and gave my contribution to the silence in the room. The only sound that could be heard was Cyborg as he picked pieces of dirt out of his systems.
He sighed heavily. "I should've blasted her when I had the chance."
"I should've hit her with everything I've got," I growled.
Starfire frowned. "Why did I permit her to fool me again?"
Even Robin seemed a little down. "Why couldn't we take her down just like any other criminal?"
"Because," said Beast Boy, "she's not just another criminal. She's Terra. She was a Titan. She was our friend."
That did it for me. "Terra was never our friend," I told him angrily. "She was a liar and a spy. Trained by Slade and sent to destroy us. She's evil; always has been, always will be." When it comes to detecting evil in others, I am an expert. As I should be. After all, I am wicked.
Beast Boy turned on me, and for once, I actually saw him angry. "You don't know what you're talking about, okay, Raven? She's made some serious mistakes, but she's not—"
"Hey, man," said Cyborg. "Girl wrecked my car. Seems pretty evil to me."
Beast Boy lifted the coffee table and threw it into the wall behind him. "This isn't a joke! I knew her better than anyone! I know all the terrible things she's done, and I know exactly how messed up she is, but she's not evil! We can't just give up on her."
I frowned. He has no idea what he's talking about. He hasn't seen evil—hasn't tasted it, hasn't tempted it, hasn't been consumed by it. What would he know about evil?
Robin stepped forward. "Beast Boy, she's working for Slade."
"When you were working for Slade, did we give up on you?"
That was different. Terra isn't being blackmailed. Terra doesn't care about our lives—she tried to end it. Terra made the decision on her own to betray us.
"She gets one last chance," said Robin. "One. We have to break Slade's grip on her. We have to try to get Terra back."
I don't want her back. I don't know why he's pretending that he wants her back either.
"Trouble," cried Starfire suddenly as the alarm started to go off.
We hurried to the living room and learned that Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Overload had been sprung from jail. Thanks to Terra, of course.
"We got three escaped criminals attacking three separate targets," said Robin. "Whatever Slade's doing, we have to split up and stop him."
"Robin and I shall defeat Cinderblock," said Starfire.
"Raven and I can take on Overload," said Beast Boy.
"No," I said suddenly, drawing their attention. "I can deal with Overload." He seemed shocked at the fact that I didn't want to go with him. Why was he surprised? He should've seen this coming.
Cyborg shrugged off my comment. "Beast Boy and I'll take Plasmus."
"What about Terra," said Beast Boy.
Robin said, "We'll have to worry about her when this is over."
I turned and started to leave.
Beast Boy followed me. "Hey, Raven! Hey," he cried as he realized that I wasn't about to stop for him. "I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have said what I did."
No, you shouldn't have. But there's no going back and changing it now. "Shouldn't you be with Cyborg right now?"
"Raven, come on, I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean to say any of that."
"You did say it." I struggled to keep my voice from wavering.
"Come on, Raven! It was an accident—a mistake!"
"You seem to make a lot of those, don't you?"
"You can't stay mad at me forever!"
Watch me. I can, and I will.
"Raven, come on." His voice cracked, as it often did when he was filled with emotion. He needs to learn to hide it better, like I do.
"Leave me alone."
He grabbed my hand, stopping me in my tracks. "Tell me you hate me, then I'll leave you alone. I won't bother you anymore if you can honestly tell me that you hate me, Raven."
I tried to get away from him, but he wouldn't budge. "Let go of me."
"Just tell me the truth! At least Terra was straight with me!"
I spun around. "Terra was never straight with you. If she had been, she would've told you from the start that she came back to spy on us—to spy on you. Don't ever compare me to her!"
He held my gaze. "Tell me the truth. Tell me you hate me, and I'll leave you alone."
Fine. "I hate you," I said through gritted teeth, my voice laced with acid. I hope it hurt him as much as it hurt me.
From the looks of his face, it did. "Raven," he whispered, barely audible above the silence in the hallway.
"Now leave me alone and go join Cyborg," I told him before disappearing through the wall.
I didn't cry. I didn't dare cry. Why cry when it was my fault? He asked for me to say it, but I hadn't been forced to comply. Not only did I lie to him, I also lied to myself. And I have hurt him again.
All because I was selfish. I wanted him to hurt as much as I did. And so, I had said the only words that I knew would bring him down.
And I lied. But it seems to me that lying is becoming more natural for me.
Witches always lie.
I don't even know where I went. I followed Overload's trail until it brought me to a factory. The scared workers ran outside. Good. That meant that it would just be me, Overload, and my non-witchy emotions.
I encompassed the entire factory with dark energy and appeared before the electric being. "So, Overload," I said in a voice that wasn't mine. This one was empty, it had no feeling behind it. "Think you can handle a total blackout?"
I shielded myself from his attack and pushed him backwards. He dodged my blasts of energy and traveled through the walls to avoid any further attacks.
I was suddenly struck from behind and fell forward. I quickly turned around and faced Overload as I said, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"
He broke through my ball of energy and tried to grab me. I knew better than to let him touch me again. I forced the water pipes beneath the walls and underneath the ground to burst open, showering him with water.
He shrunk to the computer chip that he had started out as.
Water began to fill the room as I walked over to him. Let the factory sink for all I care. "What is your mission? Why are you—" I was silenced as mad splashed me in the face, knocking me backwards.
"Hello," said Terra as my eyes rose to meet her. "Does the word 'decoy' mean anything to you?"
Overload disappeared into the ground.
"I had to find some way to coax you cowards out of hiding."
"Terra," I growled as I held up my glowing hands.
"Raven," she replied as she mirrored my movement.
"Traitor."
"Witch." She charged forward at me.
Big mistake. No one calls me a witch.
I blocked her two attacks and then lifted my foot to meet her face. I had the satisfaction of hearing something squish underneath my foot. I hope I broke her nose.
Terra leapt up and tackled me into the mud. Before I could get up, she grabbed me by my hair and lifted my head up.
Hair pulling now? That's what it's come down to? Isn't my hair short enough for her? I had hoped that I would've had a better fight against her. That was just pathetic. I swept her legs out from under her with my hand, causing her to let go of my hair.
This time, I was the one who tackled her. My hands found their way to her neck as the rest of her body disappeared underneath the mud. I counted the bubbles that came to the surface, waiting for when they would just simply die out.
A large bubble popped, sending me backwards. I levitated above Terra as she resurfaced.
She hardened the mud until they became solids that she could throw at me. I pulled a panel off of the ceiling and shielded myself. When the rain stopped, I threw the panel at her. Unfortunately, she was smart enough to harden a wall of rock around her. It broke off as the panel smashed into it, but she remained unharmed.
She molded the remaining rock into a large hand and formed a fist before she sent it at me.
I cut the rock in half and stood perfectly still as the pieces barely passed me without touching me. I lifted a large machine piece over my head and tossed it at her, but she flew away on one of her rocks.
A hammer made of mud forced me to the ground as it rapped on my head.
"You know, Raven," said Terra as I resurfaced, "I never liked you."
Since we were being honest with each other… "I never even wanted to know you. You may have fooled the others, but I always knew you were a liar."
"Oh, really? Is that why you let me live in your house, and steal all your secrets, and—"
"Shut up!" My anger sent a wave of mud crashing her way, but she blocked it with ease. I, on the other hand, did not have it so easily when she sent three streams of mud my way. I was knocked backwards into the wall.
"You're not getting mad, are you, Rae?"
The use of my nickname angered me as it came out of her mouth.
"Better be careful. Beast Boy told me all about your temper tantrums." She molded a mud ball to resemble my face when I was angry.
My glare set in even harder. How could he have told her that? Of all things? A flood of emotions settled over me. "Anger is pointless. My emotions are under control," I lied. I could feel it creeping up within me.
She made a series of mocking tones at me. " 'Anger is pointless'. And you're calling me a liar?"
I took a running leap at her and crashed back onto the ground as a mud hand grabbed my ankle. My anger was so close to spilling over that I could've thrown it up. I kept my head down as she moved closer to me.
"Come on, Raven, what stings the most? That I tricked you? That I nearly wiped out your team? That everyone liked me better than you?"
"Stop it," I warned.
"Is it that deep down inside, you really believed I was your friend? Beast Boy certainly did. You should've seen his face the night he learned that I was working for Slade." She laughed.
That was it.
I felt myself rise above her. Fear passed over her face. Good. Fear me. You're supposed to fear me.
"He trusted you! We trusted you," my not-me-voice yelled as I sent rocks hurtling toward her. "We gave you everything and you treated us like dirt!" I leaned forward, but found that I was being restricted by a giant pair of mud hands.
I struggled against it, knowing that I would overpower it in the end.
At least, I would have, had she not conjured up two more pairs.
They pulled me away from her, away from my anger. They pulled me down.
"Who's in control now," she asked me.
At the last moment, before the mud took away my vision, I was brought back from my witchiness. I was saved.
And I was drowning in mud.
I could only think about what I had last said to Beast Boy. Had I known that this was to be my last moment on Earth, I wouldn't have told him that I hated him. I wouldn't have lied to him. I would've told him the truth about my non-witchy feelings.
I gasped for air as the hands released me. My instincts told me that I was drowning, and I needed to save myself soon, or I would die.
A voice told me otherwise.
Try to remember, Raven! You are a witch. Witches don't die by drowning. No, they are hung or burned at the stake. You are not burning. You are not being hanged. You will live.
I would live. I would live!
My back hit the bottom of the floor. How high had the mud risen up in the factory? That didn't matter now, though. I had to get out of this situation. I had to get back to my mission. I had to get back to my life. I had to get back to my friends. I had to get back to Beast Boy.
I encased my body in a ball of black light and merged into the floor. When I came up for air again, I was in a cave underground. My lungs forced me to breathe again as I wiped mud off of my face. I coughed and sputtered so badly that someone would've thought that I was sick.
When I got up, I walked around in the darkness. It was where I belonged, the darkness. It gave me time to think. I realized as I walked around that it had all been a trap, and we had all fallen for it. Their plan had been to separate us, and we had eagerly complied.
I wasn't the only one Terra had probably tried to kill. I wondered if any of my friends survived her attack.
The voice told me to stop worrying. My friends and I made up the Teen Titans—if anyone were to make it through attempted assassinations, it'd be us.
I was thrown backwards suddenly as I bumped into something. Instead of crying out in pain, I held up my hands and prepared to fight whatever the darkness had to throw at me.
Instead, I was blinded by the flashlight that was built in on Cyborg. "Raven," he asked.
I imagined how primal I must've looked just then. Mud caked all over my body, my hair in disarray, a wild look in my eyes…
Beast Boy nearly forced me to the ground as he hugged me. "Raven," he cried. He backed up nearly as fast as he had come onto me. "Sorry, I—"
"I didn't mean it," I told him. It was the closest thing to an apology that I could muster at that moment. There were more important things to worry about.
He smiled at me. Oh, how I would've missed his fanged smile! How I would've missed his spiky green hair and emerald-colored eyes. How I would've missed the way he goes about his day and his horribly hilarious jokes. I would've missed it all.
"Where are the others," I asked.
Cyborg turned and revealed the others. After Starfire had hugged me to death, Robin called us all together.
"No more chances," said Cyborg.
Starfire nodded. "No more trust."
"And no more mercy," I added.
"She's just another criminal," said Beast Boy with crisp bitterness.
"And we're going to stop her," said Robin with determination. "No matter what it takes."
And that's exactly what we planned. Her destruction. We waited and listened as the city above us was taken over by Slade. With no one left to stop her, Terra hardly needed to do anything to bring Jump City to its knees.
We waited patiently, despite the torture it put us through as we listened to the screams and cries above us. Finally, after fifteen hours, it stopped. It was time for our plan to commence.
We made our way to the surface and looked down on Terra and Slade's drones as they patrolled the streets. "Sector Five is secure," she said to no one. She was probably talking through an earpiece, just like the one Robin had used when he'd been Slade's apprentice. "Pretty quiet up here since all the people cleared out."
Don't get used to that, Terra. Once we take you down, they will return. Life will go on. Without you.
She continued down the street until she was facing the Tower. "Well, we did it. They're really gone."
And that was our cue.
I wrapped my dark energy around one of the drones and pulled him into the cover of the fog bank around us before breaking him apart. Cyborg and Robin took out the two drones that came to check on their friend. Starfire blasted Terra off of the rock she'd used to carry her through the air.
She saw our silhouettes. "No!" she cried. "I destroyed you. You're all…" She stretched out her hand, but I moved us before she had time to strike. When the dust cleared, all she saw was an overturned car.
Beast Boy ran in circles around her, making her turn this way and that; Cyborg punched her forward; Starfire blasted her to the side; I became an actual raven and grabbed her with my feet before lifting her into the air. She escaped from me, only to have Robin knock her down onto the ground. Beast Boy, in the form of a wolf, growled at her.
"Beast Boy! Beast Boy, stop! Aren't you even gonna talk to me?"
After all she did, she still expects him to want to talk to her? A girl has to realize when she's lost at some point.
"There's nothing left to say," said Cyborg.
"You attempted to annihilate us," cried Starfire.
My hands clenched into fists. "Did you think we wouldn't take it personally?"
"It's over, Terra," said Robin as he closed the circle we'd made around her.
She looked around and did exactly what I had expected her to do. She jumped up into the air, landed on a rock, and took off.
"She seems quite scared," said Starfire.
"Scared isn't the same as sorry," I told her.
Robin frowned. "I don't care how she feels. Terra's a dangerous criminal and she has to be stopped."
"She will be," said Beast Boy. "I'm going to make sure of it."
Cyborg's arm began to beep. "Got a lock," he told us. "She's headin' east."
I caught us up to her.
She peered around the corner, just in time to get a glimpse at Cyborg as he crashed into her. She threw rocks at me and Cyborg. Cyborg punched through his; I lifted mine into the air and threw it back. Finally, I got the satisfaction of knowing that it finally hit her.
She tried to fly away again, but this time, Starfire was ready for her. Starfire punched through Terra's rock, forcing Terra to be back on the streets with us. Starfire blasted her with her star bolts; Cyborg blasted her with his cannon; I did what I had wanted to do to her since I'd met her.
I dropped a bus on top of her.
She appeared out of the ground and found a rock to carry her. Despite our efforts, she managed to get away from us, but not before the ground opened, revealing our three decoys from the night before.
Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Overload let out a terrifying screech as they merged into each other, becoming one monster, Ternion. Remember how I said that my fight with Killer Moth was my most disgusting one? This tops it by far.
"And I thought they were ugly before," said Cyborg.
"Titans, go," cried Robin.
Ternion pounded the ground with his fist, causing us to separate. Robin leapt into the air and threw explosives into his face. Ternion roared and fell to his knees for a brief moment. It stood up and sent strands of itself to wrap around Robin.
Robin, after being electrocuted by the strands, fell to the ground.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" I lifted the abandoned cars on the side of the street into the air and flung them into Ternion's face. Then, I flew down to Robin to make sure he was okay.
Ternion stood up and roared again.
Starfire flew past us with a battle cry and went through its chest. Gross. She didn't emerge with any slime, though. She immediately turned and blasted it with her eyes.
Ternion pushed her into the building behind her and then turned to face Cyborg as he aimed his cannon. Without any hesitation, Ternion used its tongue to gobble Cyborg up in its mouth. He spit Cyborg out moments later.
I flew forward and shot energy blasts at Ternion, sending it into the building behind it. It was quickly overturned by Starfire when it tried to stand again.
Shots fired from behind told us that the drones had joined the fighting. They circled around us.
Robin looked at me. We had planned this. "Raven, now," he cried as he threw a device into the air.
I reacted immediately. I barely even heard the explosion as I used my dark energy to shield us. The explosion destroyed all of the drones that had surrounded us. I dropped my shield with a half-smile.
The little bit of a smile I had mustered disappeared as Ternion got to its feet. I slammed a bus into its face, initiating our attack on the creature. Robin, with the help of Starfire, jumped onto Ternion's back and placed a device on it. The device electrocuted the creature, knocking it unconscious.
"We're gonna need a bigger jail," I muttered as I watched the beast sleep.
"Where is Beast Boy," asked Starfire with a look around.
Even I had missed when Beast Boy had disappeared. I'd assumed that he'd been with us the whole time, but apparently he hadn't.
Robin pulled out his T-communicator and said, "Five kilometers east and eight hundred meters below the surface."
I didn't know where that was, but it didn't take us long to get there. The sight made my witchy heart pause for a moment.
Beast Boy was trapped underneath a rock. He looked up as Terra raised a hand to finish him off. "Terra, no," he begged.
"He's too powerful," she told him with tears in her eyes. "I can't stop him."
"Yes, you can. It's your power, not his. You can still control it. You can still do the right thing."
"It's too late," she said as four sharp rocks hovered over Beast Boy.
"Stop," cried Robin as he swung down into the cave.
"Strike, apprentice," said Slade, "now!"
"Terra, no!"
I appeared behind her with my hands raised. I was ready to kill. I wanted to kill. I wanted to kill her. "It'll be the last thing you ever do." I wouldn't let her get to that point, but I would kill her anyway.
We held our weapons in our hands, ready to strike if she forced us to.
"I gave you an order," Slade bellowed. "Do it!"
Starfire's hands glowed a little brighter. "Please, Terra, no!"
"Don't do it," said Cyborg with his cannon aimed. "Don't do it!"
They urged her not to do it; I made sure she knew what would happen to her if she did do it—or try to.
Suddenly, with a loud battle cry, Terra aimed the rocks at Slade, who jumped out of the way. She chased after him in the cave.
Cyborg lifted the rock off of Beast Boy, and I helped him to his feet. We watched Terra as she took on Slade by herself. I had to admit, she was doing a pretty good job. But she didn't finish. She left Slade when he fell to the ground far below. She believed he was finished.
He wasn't.
He jumped back onto the ledge and held her up by her breastplate. I didn't know who to root for. I wanted both of them dead, but who did I want to see live through this?
Terra's entire body turned yellow. "You can't control me anymore!" Her power exploded within her, causing the underground cave to shake and rumble.
"Terra's power," cried Robin as a blast of lava shot up from the ground. "It's triggered a volcano!"
Of course it has. The girl couldn't have a normal control of her superpowers.
"Big enough to take out the whole city," said Cyborg. "And way too big to stop!"
I shielded myself from a trickle of lava as it fell down on me. "We have to get out of here," I told them.
But I didn't get out of there. No, I ran with them, I saw Beast Boy stay for Terra, but I didn't move any further. Something had caught my eye. A closer look told me that it was Slade, crawling up to a safe ledge from the lava.
I decided right then and there and if one of them had to die, it would be Slade. He was the cause of all of our problems. Robin's betrayal, Beast Boy's pain…I would not allow him to live another day longer after he had caused so much.
I was in a fighting mood. I was a witch. I was Raven the witch, who was in a fighting mood—and ready to kill.
You don't have to be as big as Cyborg to do a lot of damage with your elbow. I jabbed mine into his front, where Slade's ribs gave way to much softer stuff. Down he went. I stamped on his stomach, which resulted in a most satisfactory sound.
I flung myself upon him.
Down went his skull. Crash! Onto the cobbles.
You can win a fight if you don't care about getting hurt. I have a good head, and I used it. Crack went my skull against his.
See the lovely stars, Slade? I saw them myself, red blobs splatting against my eyeballs.
Slade threw me off of him and lunged at me.
Not just yet, Slade. I'm not done. I haven't killed you yet.
I outstretched my hand and encased his body in dark energy. He froze in midair, where my power has stopped him.
The earth moved me, trying to shake me off. Shake my wickedness away. I tasted lightning again as I fell up into witchiness.
A skull sat on Slade's right shoulder. It stared at me as though we were acquainted, which we were. We'd met once, but I couldn't think where.
The eyes of the skull were black holes held into place by bone. They were no more than holes but they recognized me. The skull worked its jaw back and forth.
When a person has already seen Death—seen it once, at least—you'd think she'd remember whose shoulder it had been sitting on. But this particular person did not. I only knew that that person had died.
I knew that Slade was soon to die.
Death had no lips, but it was smiling.
Dead finger-bones chittered. It was waving? Yes, a friendly little finger twinkle, waving goodbye. Death vanished all at once, and I returned to my mind.
Slade was drowning in fire. He was sinking into the lava. His mask slipped underneath.
Slade was dead.
I had killed him.
My witchiness had killed him.
I left Slade and merged into the shadows. I joined my friends, who were so busy trying to get Beast Boy to leave, that they hadn't even noticed that I had left. We ran from the caves with Terra's screams trailing behind us.
When we returned, we found that she had been hardened into a statue. A statue! Of all things! She now had a monument to her.
Beast Boy saw to it that we gave her a funeral. I stood next to her headstone. Normally, I would've been next to her grave—not to dance on it like my wicked mind would tempt me to do—but there is no grave. You need a body for a grave. Terra's body was now a statue.
"I shall miss you, friend," said Starfire as she placed roses at the foot of Terra's statue.
"We'll be searching for a way to reverse the effect," I said. Did I actually mean that? Did I really want to save Terra? Could it be that I truly wanted to save Terra? I'll never know. We witches don't go in for self-knowledge.
"We'll bring her back," said Robin.
Cyborg nodded. "Someday."
Beast Boy placed her headstone beside the roses. "I'll never forget you, Terra."
My thoughts drifted like cold ashes. I killed someone. I promised Mother. I broke my promise.
And now he was bound to come.
You mustn't forget to hate yourself. When you hate yourself, you don't spend time satisfying your selfish needs. When you hate yourself, you can take care of other people. When you hate yourself, you don't make mistakes that you'll regret.
I read Terra's headstone: a Teen Titan; a true friend.
Thank you, Terra. Thanks to you, now I understand. Now I know what I have to do, and how I have to do it. I know how to protect my friends.
It's strange how a person can have a distinct distaste for herself, but still she clutches onto life.
I hate myself.