"Terra… You've betrayed us all."

Terra flashed her eyes around in the darkness. She couldn't see where the voice came from. She couldn't see anything. Darkness swirled around her, creeping into her nose and mouth. It filled her lungs. Fear ballooned in her chest. She knew the voice.

"You belong here. You will never fit in outside."

"Shut up." She pressed her hands in tight balls to her temples, trying to keep her heart from pounding out of her chest. Her eyes burned, but she refused to cry. Terra would never give him that power over her again.

"The world outside is cruel."

Every time the voice returned, it echoed from a different area. The words echoed, bouncing around the room, despite the fact that Terra couldn't see any sort of walls around her.

"You're wrong." She hissed, throwing her hands down. She turned to where the voice was last, trying to hold herself with strength and dignity. "I don't need you."

"You will see… You will be back."

The darkness was suffocating. Terra coughed harshly, covering her mouth with her arm. She still peered around the room, trying to find him. She needed to see him. As much as she hated him, the fire of her anger burning in her belly, she couldn't fight the desire. It was so ingrained into her very being. Terra's body yearned to be near him.

"It's just a matter of time."

The blonde snapped out of her sleep, gasping for air. Her heart thudded wildly in her chest, a caged bird flailing to return to the sky. Her pale blue eyes scanned the room. It was empty. The opposite end was still pristine for the new roommate that she was told could be arriving any time this week. Her own side was still a mess, her small blanket kicked to the floor and her suitcase sitting half unpacked.

Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she twisted the blinds open to reveal the sun shining brightly outside. How long have I been sleeping..? Terra stretched her arms out with a yawn. She didn't particularly feel refreshed. She had stayed up late the previous night to send in her writing samples to hopefully join the Jump City University newspaper.

Her phone sat on the small nightstand beside the bed. Terra plucked it from the table, checking her messages. She has a text from Amber. Her lips formed a smile before she even read the message. Amber McKinney was her closest friend. It was rare to find someone who would give you everything to start a new life, after all.

'Did u make it to JCU?'

Terra pushed her hair out of her face with a small sigh. She had forgotten to text her friend yesterday when she had arrived at the university. There was just so much to do - Terra had met with a counselor to get her finalized class schedule, toured the campus, and figured out what room she had been assigned.

She texted back quickly. 'Yes. sorry i got so busy.'

The blue eyed girl knew she should've remembered to text her friend regardless. It was the first time they had been apart for two years; Amber and Terra were practically inseparable. The two met online - something that Terra had managed to secretly gain access to, despite Father's strong wishes that she stay off of it. Terra had only been fifteen, but her whole world truly turned upside down with this new friendship. Everything she knew had been so blatantly wrong. Everything she had been told lies… The Father had insisted that she was just going through a rebellious phase, and simply kept her under a closer lock and key. It took Terra years to relearn the world, through a small gaggle of online friends that she could only really talk to a couple times a week with the strictness that her family had established.

The buzzing of her phone in her hands caught Terra's attention once more, tearing her away from her thoughts. She really needed to let the memories go, not dwell on them.

'Met the roommate yet?'

'Nope'

'Maybe tomorrow'

'How is momma doing? She miss me yet?'

Terra smiled at the thought of Mrs. McKinney. The woman had practically adopted her into the family without any second thought. She even paid for all of the counseling that Terra had needed. It felt nice to have a mother.

'She misses u so much sister. And i miss not covering your tables. Dinner rush 2nite sucked'

The blonde laughed at her phone, leaning against the wall from her bed. Amber had always hated working at her mother's cafe, but Terra loved the little family owned hole in the wall. Waitressing had always been easy for her. It was always fun meeting new people everyday,, especially since she had grown up only knowing such a small few…

Terra mentally scolded herself once more. It was hard to let her past go. She had been trying for years, yet her nightmares continued to haunt her. Her therapist back home - well, the home she actually felt at home with - had told her that the nightmares would ease off with time. But his voice was always there. Always taunting her. The familiarity of what she had grown up with almost made her want to go back.

But Terra knew she could never go back. Not after what she had done.

She shook the thoughts from her head once more, tapping the letters on her phone quickly.

'I hope i can find a job half as good here.'

Terra had worked her ass off to get this full ride to one of the best universities in the state - Jump City University. She still wanted to be able to do things around the town though. Buy herself some new clothes. Or something to decorate her dorm room with, she thought with a frown. The only things she had packed in the box sitting in the corner of the room were her laptop, an old desk lamp, and a picture frame with a collage that Amber had gifted Terra as a going away gift. Most of her labor at the McKinney's cafe was as a payment for letting her stay in their home. Terra had refused to accept an hourly wage, simply scrapping together her tips to pay for things as she needed. She sent another text to her friend.

'Nothing will be as good as you guys tho'

Terra set the phone back on the nightstand and turned her attention to a pile of clothes from her suitcase to start filling the drawers on her half of the room. The clothes weren't exactly stylish, but they were clothes that she had picked herself. Unlike the clothes she was provided in her birth town.

Terra gave herself another mental slap on the wrist. Half of the reason she was even here was to forget about her past… Forget about the Family and the Father and the horrors she had grown up was her fresh start. Nobody knew Terra Mark here. She could be whoever she wanted to be. This time, she was even doing it all by herself, not depending on a generous family to provide for the hopelessly lost runaway that she was.

Her attention was drawn away from her thoughts by a quick rap on the door. Terra eyed the door, confused for a moment. "Who is it?"

The door opened to reveal a girl with bright red hair, loosely braided and falling down almost to her butt. She wore a pair of black leggings, and a baggy t-shirt, with a big smile on her face, "Hello there! You must be Terra."

Terra set the clothes down in the drawer neatly, and held out a hand. She had to look up to meet the eyes of the girl - eyes that were so green that Terra thought they must be fake. This girl was tall. Terra had always thought of herself as pretty tall, standing at a solid 5'8". This girl had to be at least six foot tall. "Yeah that's me." Instead of taking her hand, the behemoth of a woman pulled her into a tight hug.

"Oh it's so wonderful to make acquaintance with you!" She said gleefully, releasing Terra from the hug. Terra laughed sheepishly, rubbing her arms. "I am called Koriander Tamaran - but you can call me the nickname of Kori."

"You must be my roommate?" Terra asked cautiously. The redhead nodded energetically. Terra forced the smile to stay on her face, despite her confusion. Terra didn't want to come off as rude, but the way this girl talked was seriously throwing her for a loop. It was the weirdest thing she had ever heard, yet she couldn't quite pinpoint an accent of any sort. Then again, Terra was sure that we she first escaped the cult she had been raised in that she probably seemed just as odd. "Right on. Nice to meet you, Kori. Where are you from?"

"My family did partake in the traveling frequently. My birth was in Thailand, but I have occupied almost every place, it feels." The girl pulled her suitcase closer to her and nodded her head to the empty bed on the other side of the room. "Is this the side I shall reside in?"

"Yeah, knock yourself out." Terra turned back to her suitcase. She'd have to get used to this roommate, but it was a million steps up from the family she had grown up with.

"Perhaps I will do the knocking another time, since I am already in the room, no?" Kori asked.

"What..?" Terra glanced back at Kori, who was opening her suitcase and starting to make her bed. The way Kori spoke was definitely going to take some getting used to. Terra shook her head, "Nevermind… What're you majoring in?"

Kori continued to make her bed, "I am in linguistics studies."

That's ironic… Terra thought to herself sarcastically. She scolded herself almost instantly. English might not even be her first language. There was no need for her to be judgmental. "Rad; I'm majoring in journalism with a minor in photography. I want to be a reporter."

"You want to be on the network of television?" Kori glanced over excitedly. "How thrilling!"

Terra nodded. She had never been very good with small talk. Or talking in general. People were not her strong suit. Perhaps it was her issues with trust, maybe her habit of internalizing her feelings until they were unbearable. Either way, she didn't want to let anyone in that wasn't 100% necessary and Kori had yet to earn that trust.

With the few sets of clothes she owned unpacked, Terra moved to the box she had sitting on the floor of living essentials. She looked at her own sheets - which were white and bland compared the Kori's brightly colored purple ones. After she found a place to work, Terra would have to find herself a new bed set, she told herself.

"I have more things to bring from my motor vehicle. I will be gone for just a moment of time!" Kori smiled brightly before heading out the door to get the rest of her things. Terra considered offering an extra hand, but by the time she opened her mouth, the girl was already gone. The young woman hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until she let it go in a gentle sigh.

"It could be worse." she reasoned with herself, reaching into the box to pull out her pillowcase. "At least she seems nice."

Terra quickly remade her bed - setting the pillow back at the head and pulling up her thick woolly blanket back on top. The blanket had been a birthday gift from Amber, despite the fact that Terra really had no idea of the actual date of her birth. In her birth town, children were raised very differently than people outside of it. Children were heavily planned. Women would only be allowed to partake in intercourse at all during a single month of the year, so that children would be born all at the same time. It helped the Father make sure that schooling stayed simple. Not only that, but each mother gave up every right to their child at birth. Only women that were specifically assigned to be Den Mothers could raise the children. It was their only job. Terra didn't do the best with children, so she remembered being super frightened when she turned 16 that her assignment would end up being Den Mother…

Terra and Amber had picked out a day after extensive research of astrology and horoscopes. Personally, Terra thought the idea of fate and astrology and things were a bunch of bullshit, but it was something Amber always enjoyed. Apparently she was an Aquarius. Terra picked up the picture frame from her suitcase gingerly, her eyes tracing the memories fondly. She set it on the nightstand. The last thing in the suitcase was her camera.

It was her biggest purchase of her entire life. Some people might not think it's reasonable to spend such a large sum of money on something so frivolous, but a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Terra had decided very quickly in life that journalism was something she wanted to pursue. She wanted to uncover the truth and bring light to injustice in the world.

She lifted the camera, looping the strap around her neck. Terra was tired of sitting in the empty half of her room and thinking too much. With that thought in mind, Terra grabbed her phone, slid her backpack onto her shoulder and headed out.

She offered a smile to Kori in the parking lot, who waved excitedly at the blonde as soon as she opened the door. Not wanting to get stuck in a conversation, Terra hurried down the stairs and followed a path towards the Wolfman Arts Building.

It was a large, boringly square building; which struck Terra as odd, considering that it was the building that housed all of the art classes. It was full of windows, likely so the artists could get the best and most natural lighting possible. Terra pulled her camera up and took a shot of one of the open windows, where a ceramic piece sat, presumably so the paint on it could dry. She checked the screen to make sure she was using a good shutter speed, and continued down the path.

It didn't take long for her to reach the Student Center, which was busier than she thought it would be. Students filled the campus bookstore, making Terra glad she had got her books paid for by the school and sent to her for free. The smell of pizza wafted through the building. Terra followed her nose to the cafeteria. Her belly grumbled.

She tried to look nonchalant, but the emptiness of her pockets dragged her mood down. All of her money had gone to transportation and school supplies, so she really didn't have the cash to spare at the cafeteria. She would be provided a school ID when classes officially started that she could use as a form of payment, since her scholarship included food at the school buffet three times a day.

The pizza shop that filled her senses, however, was independently owned - as were a couple of the little built in business in the student center. If she wanted pizza, she'd have to scrape that cost herself.

Making a mental note to find a cafe nearby that she could work part time for extra expenses, she continued through the student center. Finding nothing else of interest, she made her exit.

The other end of the student center opened up to a square. Bricks in the bottom had names engraved of people she had never heard of, and the centerpiece of the outdoor area was a large sculpture. It was abstract, but resembled two people like figures that were doing some sort of dance. She stopped walking and held up her camera to snap a picture of it.

Terra checked her photo out, smiling at the shot she had got. The sky was bright and blue, making the dark metal stand out. The campus was beautiful. She was excited to see what secrets that she could find within it and expose. What injustices she could help bring light to. This was a whole new chance to rewrite her story.

As she was peering at the picture on the camera, Terra didn't even notice the Frisbee that was flying towards her. Or the large dog that was following, tongue lolling in excitement. The Frisbee her her first, but the dog barreling into her was the thing that really knocked her over. She let out a small shout of surprise, trying desperately to hold her camera above her as she ate the concrete below.

"Oh, geez, dude! I'm so sorry. I didn't even see you there."

Terra didn't even look up at the boy speaking to her, instead inspecting her beloved camera. It was still intact - luckily she managed to take most of the fall. She could feel her elbow burning, so she checked it out, trying to sound nonchalant, "No biggie, man. It was an accident."

Finally deciding that her camera was in fact unscathed, she turned her attention to the boy. His skin was tanned, with a light dusting of freckles across his cheeks. His eyes were a dark foresty green, sparkling with concern as he eyed her, and his hair was dyed sloppily a similar dark green color, only the roots betraying the auburn color underneath. The dog sat obediently at his side, wagging its long tail and looking at her with what Terra could've sworn was a smile.

"Bad girl, B." He scolded the dog, but the harshness wasn't there at all. He almost couldn't stop smiling at the big thing. He laughed sheepishly at the fluffy golden retriever. "She's a good girl, really. But she gets kinda… kinda cray about her Frisbee."

"So I see." Terra laughed good naturedly, "You said her name is B? Can I pet her?"

Just at hearing the word pet, the dog's tail started to swish eagerly. "Of course! B loves people." He answered. Terra reached her hand out cautiously at first, but the golden licked her hand before making herself comfortable right in Terra's lap. The blonde girl laughed as the dog nuzzled into her face, licking her face. She wrapped her arms around the dog's neck, only further exciting the pup. The fur was soft and glossy.

"I've never had a dog before…" Terra mumbled as she petted, almost talking more to herself than to anyone else. Pets were strictly against the rules at her original home, and Amber's brother was allergic, so interacting with pets wasn't something she frequently got to do. The green haired boy gasped dramatically at the statement.

"Never? That should be illegal. Dogs are the best!" He scratched the back of his head with a sheepish chuckle. "At least when they're not knocking over pretty strangers."

Terra was almost speechless, the breath taken from her momentarily. Boys were always so off limits where she was raised, and when she moved in with Amber she did all of her schooling online to get a GED since she was too old to actually enroll in a high school. She had no idea how to act. Terra tried to make her mouth form words, her ears heating up slightly. "She was just trying to get her toy."

He squatted down to offer her a hand with a laugh. "Yeah, you're right, I should've been paying more attention. Sorry dude."

Terra took his outstretched hand. He heaved her up with a surprising amount of force for his slim build, Terra teetering on her feet slightly and pulling her camera closely to her chest. "No problem, man, Really."

They stood together, Terra feeling her cheeks start to heat up as the boy looked at her. The blonde couldn't help herself but meet the boy's gaze, his eyes bright and friendly.

"I feel like I should make it up to you or something. Maybe I could, you know, but you some lunch."

Terra blinked a couple times before letting her lips turn into a smile. Was she being flirted with? Is this how these things happen? Her gaze turned to her feet, her blonde hair falling in front of her face, almost as if it would shield her burning cheeks from the boy. "I could probably find some time before classes start."

Her hand was still in his. She peeked at him from around her hair. The dog barked, causing her to jump in surprise, pulling her hand away. The boy laughed again, patting the dog's head with one hand and pulling his phone out from his back pocket.. "My name's Logan. Logan Garfield. Can I have your number? We can set up a time — have you tried the bakery downtown? They've got really good donuts."

She took the phone in her hands and typed her number into the phone as she spoke. "I'm Terra Mark. I'm new to town, so I haven't been much of anywhere."

"I actually grew up here, so I know all the best places in town." He puffed out his chest proudly, Terra giggling at him before handing the phone back. "I'll text you!"

"Right on." Terra nodded at him. He gave her a wave before heading off. B looked at her for a second before giving the blonde a lick and following her master. Terra watched him as he left, unable to keep the smile from her face. Maybe college wouldn't be so bad after all.

A/N Thanks for reading! Hopefully you guys like the new interpretation of some of our beloved Titan characters! Update: This chapter was rewritten as of 7 November, because I really wasn't happy with it.