A Matter of Pride: Chapter thirteen; Gone
Another two days were spent preparing after Terra accepted Slade's logo. She repeatedly exhausted herself practicing hand-to-hand with her master and, for short spans, she managed to hold her own. He gave her equipment so that he could monitor every aspect of the fight - tiny cameras that were rigged to the steel pieces in her hair, ear phones so that he could communicate with her at any given time. He drilled her on tactics to use with specific Titans though, really, he needn't have bothered. Terra knew their weaknesses and flaws and was quite eager to exploit them.
"Cyborg loves his car," Terra said at one point. "He spends hours with that hunk of metal. He thinks it's perfect - indestructible. If I destroy it, his spirit will be weakened."
"What that a threat?"
"No. It was a promise. Here's a threat: I will destroy the Titans."
"Good."
After thirty six hours of last minute training (and then twelve hours of sleep), Slade sent Terra out to eliminate the Teen Titans once and for all. Her eyes glittered with the prospect, the master villain noticed with satisfaction.
The Titans had forgotten her. They had let their guard down and, when she found them, they were laughing and joking. Time to fix that. She crouched down and placed a hand on her mount, a boulder taken from Titans' Island itself, then leaped off and threw her arm toward the T-Car. It was quite fun to stand in the resulting dust cloud that resulted, watching the car glow green and then one of the rear doors blast itself across the street as Starfire struggled to get out.
She waited until they were all out and the dust had mostly cleared before showing herself. Terra put her hands on her hips and balanced most of her weight on one leg. "Hey guys! Remember me?" Her first sentence was the cheerful greeting that a friend might give; the second, reminiscent of Slade himself.
"Terra!"
Terra smirked at them for a second more. Then she stretched her arms above her head, leaning back slightly, and threw them forward. With her hands, glowing bright yellow, came rocks. The Titans dodged easily and their T-Car took the brunt of the damage instead. Just like she had planned. Terra carried through on her threats. She called a large boulder to smash the precious car to pieces.
"Terra," came Beast Boy's voice. Terra called forward her anger to stop her heart from softening. He had abandoned her. He had broken his promise to be her friend, no matter what. Friends were trivial. Friends made you weak. What a fool she had been, and what an idiot he was!
The street beneat her cracked, lifting her up. She flew full-tilt toward the Titans. They charged her, as well. The road beneath her split and a pillar of rock shot out of it where Robin had just been. Pity. She'd have to try harder.
Starfire was preparing herself to shoot a starbolt at her. Terra easily took her out with a well-placed boulder. Cyborg's built-in canon fired a blue beam at her. Terra slid easily to one side and let it slice her perch. Then the severed half was used to pin him down. Beast Boy managed to clamber onto her piece of street.
"Terra, why are you doing this?! We're your friends!"
Terra leaned forward, her face an inch from his. The hypocrite. "I don't have any friends, remember?" she snarled. She punched him, knocking him away, but Starfire easily caught him. Terra tilted the rock at an alarming angle and somersaulted backwards as she jumped away from it. She landed by Robin. Towering above the fallen leader, Terra put as much ice as she could into her gaze. He was barely conscious. Remembering her threat, Terra called two boulders to finish him off. She didn't even bother to lift her hands or check to make sure they had obeyed. She could feel them responding to her. She could also feel when their loyalties split between her and Raven's telekinetic abilities.
"Don't make me hurt you," Raven warned, sounding dead serious.
Terra smiled. "Don't make me laugh." Raven's control was easy to break and she lost her footing just as easily.
Terra turned away. Robin was stirring. A quick glance downward made a wall of rocky spikes shoot up. It didn't take long for Robin to blast through them. Terra reeled backward from the explosion, lost her footing, and landed hard on one shoulder.
"Get up," Slade snapped in her ear. She pushed herself up and found Cyborg pointing his canon at her. Terra smirked. At this range, a blast from that thing would kill her. Cyborg didn't have the guts.
"Sorry kid," Cyborg said, powering up the thing.
Terra drove her fist into the street. Bolts of yellow flew toward both Robin and Cyborg. The power invested into small portions of the asphalt sent them flying. Terra didn't bother to see where they landed, but stood and brushed off the bandages that bridged the gaps between metal plates. Raven was still down, though Beast Boy and Starfire were moving to help.
It didn't matter to Terra which Titan was destroyed first. One was as good as any.
The street was thoroughly ripped up, now, and Terra had her choice as to which part of it would best suit her purposes. The one she chose was much like the boulder that had almost taken her life, the last time control had fled. It was fitting.
Raven, of course, lifted her hand (glowing black with telekinetic energy) to stop the lethal stone but it was Starfire that caught it and hurled Terra's weapon back to its source. What good she thought it would do, Terra didn't know. The result was a short tug-of-war game that only ended when the boulder exploded. Through the dust came the green beams of starbolt-like energy that Slade called 'Starbeams'. Terra, seeing a chance to take out Starfire for good, let it hit her. She made no effort to stop herself from flying backward, ignored the pain resulting from her crash. It was nominal compared to what Slade would do if she failed. Not that she would.
Still, it was easy to fake being injured. Starfire took the bait and flew over at once. The green energy around her hands (the part of Terra that believed her to be a Titan, still, idly wondered why all the female Titans had powers that involved glowing hands. She squashed this part before it could distract her) vanished and the alien knelt.
"Terra..." The genuine compassion in her voice made Terra long to abandon the facade... but it wasn't a facade anymore: it was who she was. Slade's apprentice stifled the urge to do something foolish and drew forward the cold killer that she had become.
Terra opened her eyes and grinned. "You always were easy to fool." Starfire received a jet of concentrated rubble as reward for her stupidity.
Starfire was angry now. Raven and Beast Boy were, too, though Beast Boy's eyes told differently from the fury on his face. Robin and Cyborg ran out from buildings on either side of the street to join their comrades. Grunting with the effort, Terra infused the cracks in the street with enough energy to keep Titans' Island floating for an hour. Out of it sprouted three huge, ugly statues not unlike the hulking Cyclops of ancient Greece.
"That's a new trick," she heard Raven say.
"How did I...?" Terra whispered, staring at her hands.
"You didn't. I did," Slade said into her ear. Before Terra could express her confusion, Slade continued. "Your new suit is more than a fashion statement, Terra. With it, I can tap into your nervous system. Your powers are my powers. My strength is your strength! We are one!" She could hear his yell and, though not of her conscious will, reciprocated it. Her arms lifted above her head, her body bowing backwards for maximum leverage. She brought both fists down on the street and cracks ran all up and down it.
The ... Things appeared behind the Titans and, without any real instructions from her, began to fight the teenage heroes. They were extremely effective. Since they were formed from her powers, they could do just about anything. Since they were made of stone, nothing could hurt them. The Titans grew increasingly more frustrated as the Things appeared and disappeared randomly, wreaking havoc and beating the Titans easily.
"Titans, fall back!" Robin yelled. He threw one of his devices at her. A smoke bomb. Terra inhaled sharply and then clapped a hand over her nose and mouth, coughing violently at the foul scent of sulfur. It stung her eyes.
"Can't see," she gasped.
"Rise above it, child!"
"You heard me! Fall back," Robin repeated. He threw another smoke bomb as Terra created a tall pillar beneath her, putting both clouds well enough away that they didn't bother her at all.
As the clouds cleared, Terra saw a figure standing where the Titans had been. In a minute more, Beast Boy was plainly visible. He stared at her with pleading, longing eyes... Terra sneered, fighting the urge to kill him where he stood. Let them regroup. It would be more fun when they had time to plan.
Beast Boy turned and ran from her, vanishing into the retreating smoke. Terra couldn't stop the small twinge of sadness when he was gone.