Chapter Thirty Five:

Ravager looked around the open area, the tall and looming canyon walls, painted with moss and grass, sprayed with fresh flowers that sparkled against the sunlight's brushing. She had been lucky to make it here, there was a wide alert for her out to all Titan's, and though she gritted her teeth many times passing through authorities and anyone who looked affiliated to the Titan's, she had made it, and that was all that counted. Getting back to her father's base, would be a whole new problem she would think about when she had too.

She strolled on the cliff edge, walking the thin line with a side swipe of her booted feet, still feeling the effects of her footsteps however, looking down into the dark crawling of the endless fall below, before looking to the other side, and the bright welcome that could be just as less truthful. She felt the air pulling her every which way, but knowing the final footfall was her place to choose, if only she could keep clear enough mind to remember that.

Then she saw him, sitting there quietly, meditating and listening to the only voice he had, within his own mind. He had grown taller since she had last seen him, his blond hair was starting to look just the slightest ragged, blond curls falling around his face and shielding his closed eyes. As she drew closer, she knew he felt her presence, she could feel the stiffened tension that suddenly formed in the otherwise peaceful air.

Ravager stopped a few feet from him, his back turned to her, and she felt his confliction. She tried to stern herself, tried reining her emotions into a tight check, but they still dripped past her control, and though her squared shoulders and lifted chin resembled someone with a cool handle, her voice quivered with anxiety. "Jericho…" She said, trying to keep the whisper from her tone. His shoulders tensed, head bowed slightly.

"We need your help."

He was still trying to ignore her.

Ravager shifted her weight, wishing he would at least look at her, though fearing it at the same time. She wasn't expecting an answer, she knew he couldn't talk… no one had ever told her why not, but she guessed it had something to do with the same reason he never allowed his neck to show. "Look, I know you hate us or whatever… but-"

Ravager was forced to stop, as Jericho suddenly spun around, for the split second their eyes contacted, she felt every nerve in her body go numb as she was only allowed to elicited a small gasp as all air was sucked out of her body. She crumbled to her knees, feeling herself drain and refilled with new being. Her eyes went blind, she saw nothing but darkness, felt nothing but a wrap of sheik self being. She wasn't even sure, if who she felt was her own self, Ravager felt the loose of control, the fact she had suddenly lost her body, and was pushed to a far corner of her mind. No amount of struggle would fix it, no scream echoed from her lips, and she fought not to panic.

After she settled down, she heard a voice talk to her, and at once she knew what her half brother had done. Ravager fought past her initial anger that he had possessed her, and did what she could to calm herself again, though the closterphobic feeling was overwhelming.

"Why are you here?" Jericho asked.

"To recruit you." The words echoed, having no voice, but she instinctively knew whose it was, and the feeling and emotion behind it. The void of the mind left open all emotions and feelings, they were connected in this split moment, and the pool began to fill from both their conflicted views at one. Jericho's however, was less open, she felt him tighten against her, but then- this was his power, his ability, it made sense he had more control over his mind.

"No, why are you here. With Slade, doing his work. Why?"

"Something big is going down… he wants us near him…"

"That doesn't make sense, unless he is using us for something else. Slade doesn't care."

"Yes he does!"

"No, he doesn't."

"If we don't band together, we're going to die, Jericho, he knows that- he's getting us together for protection."

"That sounds pretty extreme for him." Jericho mocked.

"He brought Alex back."

There was silence.

Ravager quickly continued. "It's going to be bad, they're out for blood, Jericho, and we're going to get picked off if we stay separated."

There was more silence, before Jericho's voice lingered back, not as aggressive this time, but she could still feel the anger of the situation building. "Whose they?"

"Something to do with Zucco and Huffman, outside that, I don't know for sure."

"Huffman…It has to do with the Titan's geomancer, doesn't it?"

"Yes… she's with us."

"That's surprising. What for?"

Ravager was getting annoyed with all the questions, but answered anyways. "Protection."

"What does Zucco and Huffman need her for?"

"She's the next project."

"Who was the last?"

"You already know, it's the same reasons you and me are the ones getting hunted." Ravager paused for a minute. "He blames himself for this whole mess… you know."

"Good. Slade should."

Ravager again felt her anger begin to boil at the teeth and claw attitude towards her father Jericho insisted on expressing. "Shut up! Before I make you!"

"I don't think you're really in the position to give threats, little sister." She felt the mocking malice drip from the voice he gave her, it was eerily similar to Slade's own choice of words. Ravager knew well that this wasn't his usual personality; she knew too well that the family brought out his worst; she also knew she had to fight better to keep her cool with him, they needed him. But at the same time, she also knew he resented her, maybe not hated her personally, but more of the symbol of a broken family she had become. Her being showed that Jericho had been denied the childhood he should have gotten.

It wasn't long before Jericho quickly began speaking again. "Where is Alex now?"

"He goes by Red X these days… and he's out getting supplies."

There was a scoff. "Figured that was him. Like father like son." He said cruelly.

"He's changed."

"Doubt it."

"Look, Slade's offering you protection, are you going to take it or not?" She spat.

"No, Rose, he's offering me tricks. He is trying to offer me whatever he was able to buy you with, but it isn't going to work. Maybe you'll learn someday, I already took my lesson about him, he's not who you like to pretend he is, he isn't out to save our worlds from collapsing, he gave them the shove. You knew coming here was pointless. I got Robin's alert- about your escape - this morning, but I won't tell the Titan's you where here, and only because your you. Now Go."

With that, Jericho recoiled from his half sister, she felt her mind expand and breathe again, and her vision came back to her as she began panting and gasping for breath. After catching it, with one hand on her throat, she stared at the back of her brothers head, her face sobering as she hung her chin, white hair cascading down around her shoulders before she turned away, noting he made no motion to watch her leave.

Her fists clutched at her sides as she stormed away from Jericho with hasty strides. She had failed, and wasn't sure how to fix it, shaking her head she kept trying to reconsider going back. It would be pointless, she knew though; Jericho was stubborn as his father when he wanted to be. If he didn't want to go, she knew she had no way to make him.

Ravager had made it some good distance within a short amount of time, when she felt herself being watched. She twitched, froze then looked softly over both her shoulders, frowning when she saw no one around the rocky canyon.

As a sharp kick to her already bruised back threw her face first to the ground, Ravager let out an instinctive scream. She threw her hands out to catch her fall, but in a split second thought better of it as she rolled onto her back and pulled her two katana's free from sheaths. Her brows turned inward sharply with a silver flicker, her gray blue eye darkened as she stared up at the man who had returned for her. She had been hoping she had lost him at Titan's tower, but now, here he was already, standing above her with knife drawn.

"Oh, no guns this time?" She asked, swinging her blades in a circle like motion and attempting to slash his stomach open. He jumped sideways before bringing his foot around for a knife drop kick to her head. Ravager rolled out of the way, and was forced to repeat herself as he continued to try and stomp her face into the dirt.

"New orders, I guess we don't need you alive after all. Lucky me." He said.

She grunted, feeling the rocky dirt scrape and bound around her as she rolled from side to side, before she finally back flipped back to her feet, and with a single movement screamed and brought her swords around her head and towards the man's shoulders.

Her knives had begun to cut flesh, when he ducked and brought himself to the other side, and quickly thrust a knife into her open side. Ravager screamed in rage, feel the puncture later, and after she rounded her leg up into his gut, moving her foot up under his chin and throwing her swords back around and then straight forward, on either side of her leg and puncturing his chest in two places.

But he kicked her foot away and backed out of her swords, but Ravager put more pressure on the blades, sinking back into him just as quickly as she barred her teeth openly, snaking her head up towards his, though she was too short to make it all the way. Her face had an animalistic look as if she were considering biting into him on the spot.

"Damn it, why don't you die?!" She hissed coldly, digging the knives further.

He laughed in her face, grabbing her wrists and forcing the knives from his chest. "Because, I'm better than your pathetic family." With that he suddenly backslapped her, sending the small girl flying and scraping across the dirt so that a loud and scrubbing noise dragged into the air as dirt rose around her body.

She coughed, blood spitting from her lip, Ravager watched it dripped into the dirt, pooling into mud before she spit more out and wiped her lip with her arm and scowling up at the man. Her fingers stretched and re-grasped one of her sword handles, her face twisted dangerously as she watched the darkly dressed man pull out a broad sword from his belt, the blade sung in the air with old age meaning. The beautiful glint of the metal was blinding in the sunlight, the heavy look of it was crushing.

Ravager readied again for a bloody battle, shivering, afraid, but unmoved as her fingers clutched the katana tightly. She waited for the last second, watched as the man lifted the sword with both hands straight in the air, ready to crash down on her. She opened her mouth wide, breathing inwards and ready to fly upwards for her life, when as the sword came crashing down towards her, it was blocked by another.

The noise was ear-bleedingly loud. The loud CLANG startled her as she scrambled a step back. Jericho stood to the side, gripping his own sword with both hands with a strained look on his face. His green eyes seemed to quiver, sweat beaded down his forehead as he looked towards Ravager with a grim look. She closed her mouth, blinking softly before nodding her thanks.

Ravager rolled to the side, as Jericho pushed the man's surprised blade away with another song of sharp swords dancing together. Jericho's face seemed to transform, his forehead dropped over his eyes, his frown set firmly in place. It was only then that Ravager could truly see how much he looked like his father, the squinted eyes and strong cheekbones gave him an aggressive look she knew he rarely showed.

The man backed a few steps, swinging his sword in the air a few times as he looked from one sibling to the other. "Two in one, boss should be happy."

Jericho was first to charge, holding his blade to the side as he rushed forward. But Ravager was quicker and smaller, she pushed past him and flew between the man's legs, bringing her knives against both inner legs as she did so, rolling to the other side while the man crumpled to the ground. Ravager threw her head around to see the next set of action.

Stopping just short of the man, Jericho roughly kicked the sword from the man's grasps before grabbing the man by his neck with his free hand and glaring deeply into his eyes. But Ravager saw something was wrong right away, and it wasn't long before Jericho stumbled away, eyes wide for a minute before they narrowed again, as the man laughed.

The man moved his arms out and the bones cracked together as they mended with unimaginary speed. As he stood up, and scooped his sword up with him, he gave Jericho a funny look, even though only his eyes showed through his ski-mask. "You don't think I was unprepared for that, do you? Really? I thought you kids where smart." He tensed his nick before shaking off Jericho's hand print from his feel and tapping then his fingers on his sword hilt.

Shaking her head, Ravager dove back into battle as her brother did the same. The battle was soon engaged in bloody dispute, the constant healing of the man, and his ability to take any hit they threw at him was testing both Wilson's patience. Jericho, though a little rusty on his overall sword form and martial arts, was a matched fighter. Ravager played well with his fighting style, even if hers was more playful and catlike in attack, they complimented each other well enough to keep serious injury at bay. Due to her small size alone, Ravager was thrown a good number of times to the ground, each time the dust choked her, and each time without fail Jericho held her back, it irritated her to a degree, and she was glad to get him back after a sharp cut to his arm stumbled Jericho, and allowed Ravager to cut between the two men and force the healing man back once again.

Her swords where getting bloody, crimson dripping off the tips with slow motion that hypnotized the mirror clearness of the metals. As she lifted them, the reflection of her eyes shot back at her, the crimson covering giving it a chilling look.

As the man rushed her, she dodged a knife wound and threw her body back up from the ground, swinging his sword from his grasps, and in a single flare of pure hatred, she brought her swords around her head in a swinging dance, her hair flaunting around her in a silver flail of chilling color, sparkled by the sun, she screamed as she gathered all her energy and forced it into the dance of death.

Feet curving into the sand, spinning her body around, her arms straining, bringing the swords higher as she spun, then with fast, but motion that could have been mistaken for slow motion to her eyes, she brought both swords together in sibling matchery, and into the man's neck with down sweep motion, cutting all the way through. The swords fell and hung down towards her hip as her whole body arched with them.

For a minute all was still; and then the man that was fighting so hard to take Ravager and Jericho from this world, fell to his knees, his head sliding off and rolling to the side as it did so.

Ravager scolded it, breathing heavily as she stood up straight and looked over her shoulder towards her brother, then turning further so she could see with her eye as her hair fluttered wildly about her head before settling.

"Don't you see?" She asked harshly. Jericho was quiet, letting the tip of his sword touch the bloody sand as he frowned heavily, looking down at the man, before his eyes hardened and looked to Ravager again. "They want us dead. All of us." Her own eye squinted towards him. "He almost killed me once, if you where alone, he'd kill you. We have to stick together." She paused. "I guess you could always just go hang out with those Titan's, but I won't, I can't, neither can Alex or Blondie. You're abandoning us." She hissed, pulling the blame game, and knowing how to tug at his weaknesses. "Besides, this goes deeper then you think, the Titan's won't be safe for long. Your choosing the loosing side."

With an angry stab, Jericho pulsed his sword into the ground, cleaning it of the blood before lifting it and returning it to its sheath. Ravager did likewise, frowning towards him with the intense look she pulled well as she turned to face him fully.

"Are you coming?"

Jericho looked furious, his green eyes where stormy, his face wrinkled with frustration as he gave her a 'do I have any choice?' look, before nodding grimly.

The two left, headed back for the base; though neither noticed the man had yet to die, his hands itched, then started reaching around, finally finding it, wrapped around the decapitated head and began to restore itself.

--

--

Red X made it back to the base a day later after little trouble. He had caught some attention on the way back, his bike going way past the legal speed limit, but of course he hadn't been caught, and not even helicopter camera crews could have caught sight of him with his clever maneuvering. Upon returning, he noticed right away that Terra still hadn't returned, and had sawed his teeth slightly, before turning the items over to Slade with some hesitation, the man had seemed pleased, and told X to keep one of the tubes of xynothpiem.

"You're going to need it." He had said.

After that, Red X had recoiled; glad to get away from him as he tried keeping his mind busy on other things. But you could only polish a bike so many times, and the punching bags dreadful rips and tears were starting to make it less fun. Red X had even vouched to work on his suit every now and again, refilling where the xynothpiem was getting low, and testing out a few different things as he explored the suits countless possibilities. Meals where strict, Slade had designed specialized courses for everyone, and Red X was no different. He had picked at the protein filled dish with his fork, not really wanting to eat it, so usually ended up just tossing it to his pitiful wooden nightstand and leaning back on his bed, sighing and looking up at the ceiling with not much else to do. Well, there were things to do, Slade had provided him with plenty of training exercises, but the man refused to do anything with the thief, and he knew why.

He pretended he didn't, it wasn't his fault. But whatever. X wished Terra would stop stalling- he knew she was, she was so indecisive, and she couldn't make a choice to save her life. Or what was worse, she might make a choice, and not give up the trust she was probably savoring, because as he saw it, she seemed to think his trust didn't matter nearly as much. Sure, that hurt a little, but he ignored it, what did he care?

I don't care. He would say.

But as another day rolled onto the horizon, he found himself getting a little more scared. Scared Terra wouldn't want to come back, why would she after all? She would want to stay with the people she called her family, tucked up in their cozy tower, warm supper every night, she couldn't crime fight anymore, but what was to stop her from just living there? Quietly soaking up all the things that life had to offer.

Red X scoffed with disgust. Shaking his head as he threw his body around and kicked the punching bag a new sear through it. She didn't want this life anyways, she didn't like what he did, she didn't like him; the way he thought or acted. She had a chance for her perfect life again- Red X expected, and feared that she would take it.

He stopped, touching the bag to make it stop swinging and screaming on its hinges as he stared lost in thought. Coming to terms with his odd emotions was a new thing, and he felt he had little choice but to just accept them as they where or else feel the strange burn in his gut from self denial. He normally was good at self-denial; it was actually a very easy thing for him to swim into, but not this time, not this situation, not Terra.

And it pissed him off.

Red X hit the bag again, watching it swing off its hinges with a loud CLANK before flopping to the floor with a heavy thud. He chuckled at it, glad to see it destroyed in his own little morbid way, before turning to the entrance. Under the mask, his eyes narrowed as he grinned mockingly. His demeanor changed quickly, fluently, Red X came back, and pushed Alex back down, tucking him away for a different time; if he allowed another time.

"Hey! Joey, no see, eh? What've you been up to?" Red X strolled over with a easy stride, throwing his arm around Jericho's shoulders as Ravager rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Sitting on your mountain, playing guitar I heard humor. Sounds a little gay to me, but hey-" Red X lifted his spare hand and shrugged it in the air. "That's just me buddy. Nice hair by the way."

Jericho gave him a deep glare before throwing X's arm from his neck and turning away, soon then walking off in that direction.

"Okay!" Red X called. "See you later too!"

"Do you have to do that?" Ravager ask, lifting her brow as she crossed her arms, giving X an annoyed look.

"Do what?"

"C'mon, we're lucky he's even here, we'll be luckier if he stays." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Speak for yourself." Red X tilted his head for a minute, then looked to where Jericho had left down the hall. "Personally, I don't think he likes me very much- OUCH!" Red X hissed the last bit as Ravager harshly swatted the back of his head.

"Don't make him any madder than he already is," Ravager hissed at X, her brows narrowing like a snakes towards him.

Red X just shrugged anyways though, rolling his shoulders back as he looked around, then turned back to Ravager with a slightly different tone. "I'm going to go, I should be back in a day or two, think you can keep Slade out of my nerves that long?"

Ravager lifted her expression into a questioning one at him. "Where are you going?" She paused, a sly little grin wetted to her lips as she gave him a squint-eyed look. "Oooh, about Terra, eh?"

Red X stared at her blankly, shrugging his shoulders, before walking down the hall.

--

--

Her heart felt like it was starting to thud in her throat. No matter how hard she tried to swallow it, it wouldn't go away. She tried drinking it down with everything from water to orange juice, tried shoving food down her throat, and even rubbed it occasionally, but the lump was still there, the thudding and rumbling of her worry and self conscience.

Terra skirted around the construction zone, staring briefly at the tarp that was draped over the opening in the wall, where the man had broken in two days ago- the same man no one had heard of since, or spotted. She knew Robin was frustrated, and had stuffed himself up in his evidence room for hours at a time. He was there now, and the others were busy with their usual work.

She had been planning this night for awhile… but her fingers where shaking horribly, her guilt fueling her paranoia as she looked over her shoulder constantly. She had started stuffing herself away from the others for longer periods of time over the past few days, they were already less use to her presence, and with her now keeping to her room most of the time, she started to drift. Beast Boy hadn't come after her, hadn't spoken to her except when to be polite, or give a friendly answer to a question.

Terra was lonely all over again, she felt the drape of no one else but her own being; and she didn't like who she was stuck with. She hated being alone, she hated it with a passion; the coldness with no warmth to protect her from was so empty and worthless. She longed for company again, and though it was her fault, Beast Boy was no longer able to give her that company, she missed his jokes, his presence, his hugs, she missed having him as her best friend if nothing else. Terra was longing for that special company again, and the more she tried to think on it, the more she wanted to just go back to X, to try and make up for their fights and feel his company there.

But she couldn't go back without something, and tonight she was going to attain it, Robin's suit case was her target, and it made her tremble to think on, but Terra was longing for a close friendship, she needed it, craved it, and out of selfish desire was working towards it.

Terra turned the hallway corner, soon stopping then as she came to Robin's room. She looked at it, before puffing her chest and breathing inwards with a quick gasp of breath. Gathering her courage, Terra lifted her hand and gently knocked on the door. No one answered. She looked around, finding herself alone, she sucked in her breath and pressed the door open slightly, peeking in and looking around the dark room. No one was inside either, so she quietly stepped inside, closing the door behind her she didn't dare turn the lights on. Terra didn't fear the camera's, they were mostly offline, she had seen to that with a guilty conscience.

Terra tried hurrying through her task, feeling the pounding in her throat all over again. She gulped, but it only hurt. Her fingers fumbled, as she tried to get a grip over herself. She softly went through boxes and drawers, pushing past everything that wasn't what she was looking for, before carefully putting it in the exact same place it had been. For a moment, the geomancer feared that the case wasn't even in here, her mind was racing, she was out of practice in these things… though if that was a good or bad thing she wasn't sure right now.

Sitting back, the girl forced herself to take a deep breath, calming herself slightly, as her nerves where still on haywire. She looked around, trying to think like Robin as her brows furrowed in thought, sitting on her knees she thought harder, biting her bottom lip as her hands pattered on her lap nervously.

She crawled to his closet, opening it and then pushing herself in, still on all fours. She looked around, standing up and going through the shelves and the top drawers before humming a short grunt of frustration. An idea came to her, and Terra blinked and fell back to the floor, running her hands over it before she pulled the carpet from the edge of the closet, and a small grin came over her face. She shivered, pulling the carpet back further to reveal a small latch. She opened it, dust puffed out at her and she forced herself to bite back a cough.

But there it was, slightly covered in dust, but the case was there. Silver with the infamous R symbol on the front. She bit back a moan of protest, cringing her eyes shut as she trembled and reached into the small opening, pulling the case out and closing the latch.

She had just set the case beside her lap and had pulled the carpet back when she heard voices outside the room. Terra's eyes went wide for a moment as she snatched the case up into her arms and pushed her back to the far end of the closet, past the numerous uniforms as if they could hide her completely. She heard the door open and cringed her eyes closed, biting another moan as she cupped her hand over her mouth.

"Fine." Robin's voice came, louder now that the door was open. "You can look in here, but I don't think the cat got in here."

"We've looked everywhere else!" Allen cried, she could tell he was walking inside as well. "There was fur on Silkie's mouth, if I can't find Poe, then I'm gonna kill that bug!"

"Good luck with that." Robin said boredly, his voice wasn't moving, so Terra assumed he was standing in the doorway. She could envision him, arms crossed, leaning on the frame as he waited impatiently for the search to end.

A small 'meow' caught her attention. Terra blinked, looking to the far other end of the closet with some chore of movement, lifting a few pant legs to see yellow eyes looking back at her. Her own eyes went wide all over again as she stared at Poe, who stared right back, purring he started stalking closer to her.

Terra felt panic. "No no no, go away Marshmallow." She whispered her own little name for him. "Shoo!" She hissed in the lowest possible voice. "Poey, please." Terra tried begging, but the cat only stopped a few arm lengths from her, purring as he licked his paw and cleaned himself. "They're going to find us Poe-Poe," she moaned to him, trying to lean as far away as she could.

"Meow."

"No, shhh." She hissed.

"Meow?"

"No." She moaned again, throwing her hands to her lips as she heard someone walk closer to the closet.

"Did you hear that?" Allen asked, walking towards the closet.

At hearing his owner's voice, Poe purred louder, arching his back up and brushing around Robin's uniforms as he let out a couple more loud meow's. Terra shuddered as far back as she could as she saw the light reach into the closet as the door opened.

She went into instinctive mode; she cleared her mind of all thoughts, thinking on nothing, bleak, nothing. Not trying too hard, not to give away her brain patterns to someone mentally sensitive. Allen peeked his head into the closet, but she couldn't see him past the uniforms, she held her breath, watching as Poe skirted out towards Allen, bounding up into the boys arms and purring so loud Terra could still hear it.

"Phew… I was starting to think you'd been lunch." Allen laughed, turning away from the closet, leaving it open as he cradled Poe out of the room. Terra listened as Robin's footsteps followed, not daring to even breath until she could hold it no longer.

All at once she let her breath exhale in a sudden whoosh as she hung her shoulders and dipped her chin, fighting back the guilty tears, she shook her head, hugging the case to her chest as she crawled to the edge of the closet, seeing no one in the room; she exited it and stood in the dark room.

She looked around, trembling with weak legs before she saw the window in Robin's room, sighing, she made a deadbolt for it, knowing it to be her quickest answer. Before she vaulted from it, she looked over her shoulder, her lip pushing up against the other as she hoped Beast Boy got her note.

Shaking her head, Terra jumped from the window, feeling the rush of air swirling around her, before her eyes glowed calmly and the earth rose to her need.

She got to land as quick as possible, throwing her chunk of earth into the lake, not watching as it splashed with high waves behind her as she threw herself headlong into the woods. The back path Ravager had shown her, Terra remembered it, she pumped herself faster, sawing on her bottom lip.

Voices, so many of them, in her head, she heard them, she wished them away, but they would not be silenced by something so weak as her self-will. They slithered like venom, she heard the accusations, she knew them to be true. Once a traitor always a traitor. There was no greater good, she chose the wrong path, she had to of, this didn't feel right, this didn't' feel like she was helping anyone. She was so alone, even now, so lonely, so broken, so much in need. Where was her knight to save her? Did she have one? She didn't deserve one. She didn't deserve anything, the Titan's were beyond her treachery in all ways; she wasn't even fit to be spit at. She wasn't helping anyone.

She ran harder.

You had a chance to get out of trouble. You had a chance to mend it all. Look at you now. Chasing X of all people, what for? He can't offer you anything. Slade's promises are empty, your empty. You're worthless, helpless, and now friendless for sure. Good going, aren't you just the little hero to save the day? Ruin this chance too, ruin it all. You ruined your family, you ruined your chance to be the good girl, you ruined your chance to help people, and now you're going to ruin any chance of having friends, any chance of having a family again. Good going.

"STOP IT!" Terra stopped, screamed, and with an all her might, threw the box as far as she possible could. She sobbed loudly, crumbling to her knees as the case clunked against the dirt then stopped not far from her, shining in the moonlight as she buried her face into her palms and cried to herself. Blond hair falling around her, broken symbols fragmented to the floor, she hunched her back and bent down lower to the ground, feeling the beckoning power of it reach for her. But it didn't offer safety of comfort either, and she pulled back away.

"What were you thinking?" She sobbed to herself, lifting her eyes from her palms, her hands still covering her lower face as she stared shakily towards the case. "You weren't. You stupid- stupid." She shook her head over and over again, feeling her hair slash against her skin.

For a long time, Terra sat there, drowning in her own self pity, her own sight of her own being. The vision of what she saw of herself now in full, it was downing to her, it hurt, the pain was scraping up against her insides, then clawing back down with un-cut claws.

As she calmed herself down; Terra looked to the case, disgusted with it, and what she was making it stand for. But as she sat in the woods, feeling alone for all but the inner demons inside her, she felt curiosity. What was she risking her immortality with the Titan's for? What was so good, so evil, so everything that she was putting herself in a place that there was little to no chance of going back from. A final choice, to where she was condemned by her own fate, by the sadistic guardian angels that scorned around her.

Her face twisted. She had tossed the case far, it was sitting there, gleaming, silver, and in the light it was a shadow against its shell. But she had to know, what was in it?

Crawling on all fours, Terra left the shade of the pine trees, and collected herself to the clearing. She stopped, sitting on her knee's as her hands reached and cradled Robin's case in her lap uneasily.

She stifled. "I have to know." She whispered. Without redemption, she had nothing left but the bleakness of living between it all. What did she really trade her life for? Closing her eyes and tilting her head up, Terra opened her mouth, letting the inside of her mouth feel the cold air as her fingers opened the case. The un-oiled hinged cried out, and she opened her eyes and looked down.

Papers, stacked neatly, but unorganized; Terra cringed her face, her brows creasing as she started slowly, her fingers fishing around, scanning the papers briefly, before she started moving faster.

Most of it looked like portfolios, some of it was records, miscellaneous things, but one caught her eye. Terra stopped, her hands pausing, her eyes blinking twice, and then she pulled the gathering of paper held by staples out from the rest of the pile. Both hands gripped the portfolio, and without the support, the case fell backwards from her lap. She stiffed another sob, still trying to keep herself calm as her chest heaved, and she reached and pulled the tears from her face with her sleeve before her lowered eyes looked to the papers with fresh vision.

The picture looked so familiar. It was a younger boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen. He had sharp features, but a strong jaw he had yet to grow into. His brown eyes looked stormed, something brewed within his soul. Shaggy brown hair scattered his golden-tan face, deep shadows dark under his eyes and pointed nose. Terra frowned open mouth, scanning the paper until she found a name.

"William Alexander DeFarge." She whispered as her heart began to race as she became excited with an inhuman thrill. Her eyes swarmed again, before she came to a birth date. Adding the numbers, the boy in the picture would be either 17 or 18 this year. Terra stopped, feeling something freeze in her blood as her blue eyes turned back to the picture. The brown eyes and hair where common things, but the young boy held one thing that set him apart, one thing that she could only say belonged to one person she knew of, the sharp and thin scar running across his face.

She knew who she was looking at… it was Red X.

13 PAGES BBY! OH YEAH

MAUAUA! Elie, you told me to update soon, so I did. Like, right after you posted that review, LMAO! Actually that was just really good timing on your part- I finished this soooooooo quick O_o

Confession though; I had most of this written out. All I had to do was glue the scenes together. The next chapter will be much the same, so if another fast update comes up, thats why. I have from this point on, pretty much planned out to the detail, so the chapters should start getting easier for me, therefor quicker for updates ;D!

I hope this wasn't rushed, and that I played Jericho right. I've never played him before as long as I can remember, so I'm trying really hard. I had to evolve him a little for this story, and do more of his comic-book self then the cartoon. Thus the sword... otherwise he would not have fit in well. Please let me know what you guys thought of this!! I have a bad feeling I totally screwed Terra up in this chapter somehow... I don't know, please help, LOL.

And oh boy -rubs hands together- X's full name is shown, time for the ultimate drama to really start -evillaughter-