Hi, my readers! For those of you who really are out there, thanks. A writer has to have readers or inspiration is impossible. That should be a quote.....Anyway, thanks for support, tangible and intangible. This story probably wouldn't have been finished without you.

Some notes:

I noticed my story was mostly sad so far, so I decided since that went against the show I would change it. Yeah, there's some comedy this chapter. I know it's not that good, but I tried.

Also, I know it took much, MUCH longer to release this chapter but it is almost three times longer than my other two so bear with me.

Finally, you don't have to read this one, but my personal advice for reading this chapter is to read it like you would watch the show. For a lot of people that probably goes without saying, but I just believe that it's better that way. For a lot of people that probably did not make any since at all, huh? .....Well I try.

The most important note: Enjoy.

Second most important note: Review.....Please :)

Breaking Point

Hundreds of tons of magma flowed freely in the chamber, washing back and forth and creating tidal waves that would roll at huge heights only to break on the wall of the chamber and generate massive splashes of lava. The superheated gasses in the area provided a massive pressure that searched the rock walls and ceiling, desperately seeking a way out. It was only every once in a while, though, that they would find one, but if a fault should appear, then the gasses would all flock to it, utilizing the pressure to force the crack farther and farther up, ever widening and branching out the crevice, until the effects of the rupture could be felt even by those dwelling on the surface.....

A small tremor shook the empty kitchen of the Titans' tower momentarily, then disappeared like all the others, leaving the room as lifeless as it had been before, until someone broke the silence.

There was a long intake of breath, then, "Everyone! Breakfast's rea-dy!" Beast Boy began arranging the food he'd prepared hastily onto five plates at the breakfast table. He was holding a tray of oddly colored croissants when Starfire popped up.

"Breakfast?" she sounded disappointed, "Beast Boy, I thought you had said that you had given up making breakfast for ever and ever and that I was to-"

"That was a spur-of-the-moment thing, Star. Besides, you'll be glad I'm cooking again when you taste my brand new tofu-croissants." he said proudly, gesturing the off-color pastries, "Innovative, huh?" he moved his eyebrows up and down repeatedly.

Starfire threw an 'um, sure' face and said, "Why, of course, friend....." she flew pathetically to one of the seats and sat down, resting her head on her hands depressingly, staring at the 'croissant' on her plate. She sighed, "I suppose it is better than preparing a meal....."

"Star," Cyborg joked as he walked in, "Anything's better than you preparing a meal."

Starfire fumed, "Do not think that I do not understand what you-"

Robin, now seated at the table next to Raven (A/N: Where did they come from.....?) interrupted her, "Uh, Beast Boy, how old are these?" he gestured the pale croissant, holding it up between his index finger and thumb.

Raven took a bite, swallowed it, then dropped the pastry carelessly back onto her plate, reporting, "By taste I'd say two years, but unfortunately it looks like they were made this morning."

Robin sweatdropped and placed the croissant back onto his plate carefully.

"Oh, come on, Raven," Beast Boy said, arms crossed, "Tell me what you really think."

Raven just stared at Beast Boy seriously.

After a few moments of this awkward silence, Cyborg gave his own opinion while chewing with a straight face. "Hmm.....Wait. Oh. Yeah. She's right." After, he promptly (and dramatically) spit the croissant back out under the table, while a vein bulged in Beast Boy's forehead.

"Thanks, guys."

Starfire finished chewing the last of her own croissant, then stated, "Actually, Beast Boy, I think they are a wonderful culinary work." cheerful demeanor renewed.

Beast Boy's eyes lit up, "Really?!"

"Yes, your finest!" This made Beast Boy look even happier, more grateful, and more stupid than before. Up until, that is, Cyborg said, "Actually, I would argue that that proves our­­­ point."

Starfire suddenly clenched her fist and her eyes began glowing green.

"Hear, hear." Raven added emotionlessly.

Starfire growled, "Friends....."

Beast Boy now looked like he had before Starfire's compliment. He hunched down into the fetal position and pulled out an imaginary umbrella as an imaginary little rain-cloud flew over him, storming on him. "I have to agree." he said, downcast.

Starfire began to get even angrier, and starbolts appeared in her hands. Robin, watching all this, chuckled, "Cut it out, guys." Immediately after, a starbolt hit his croissant, causing it to explode and covering him with the remains, followed by, "Please be quite, Robin!"

Raven gave Robin a look of dull interest, then sighed, phasing through the floor.

Meanwhile, now seeing Starfire's mood, Cyborg was attempting to sneak away, but Starfire's hand gripped his shoulder, stopping him. He sweatdropped.

"Wait, friend....." The voice did not sound so friendly.

Beast Boy continued to get rained on and Robin watched as the commotion continued in the background.

"Star, you know I was only joking!" Cyborg yelled as he fled randomly.

"Then you will delight to sample my marglim pudding which is left over from two weeks ago!" Starfire called, chasing him with a pudding that looked a couple millennia out of date.

"C'mon Star, you know we all loved it--we told you....."

There is a flashback of the titans sitting around a table, all with said pudding in front of them, forced (A/N: How forced? You know how forced.) smiles on their faces, and tears rolling down their cheeks. Except Starfire, who was smiling earnestly.

"Then why was it not eaten!?"

"Well.....Whoa! Keep that away from me!" Cyborg runs back past Beast Boy and Robin, but is hit in the back of the head with the pudding. He falls down, and Starfire lands on top of him trying to force a spoon of the stuff in his mouth.

"What was that you were saying!?"

Robin briefly tried to quell the fight, "Uh.....Starfire....." but failed terribly, Starfire ignoring him. He sweatdropped.

By now Beast Boy has gotten bored of getting rained on and resumes normal posture, looking at the tray of pastries. "Well, there goes breakfast....." After a moment he shrugs and throws the tray aside. "Guess I'll go watch T.V." he said as he walked out of the room.

"What about now? Now is my pudding delicious?!"

"Somebody help me here....." Cyborg said, teary eyed with a mouth full of pudding.

(A/N: I know that's not really Starfire, but perhaps she is sensitive about her cooking. Why not?)

In an old, downtown district of the city a small tremor shook the ground, but due to the recent commonness of their occurrences, it went unnoticed. Not as unnoticed, though, as the large rock floating many hundred feet above ground.

There were two figures on top of the rock, one tall, arms crossed, watching the distant horizon emotionlessly. The other was much shorter and looked much more unsure of the situation, looking at the other every once in a while.

Suddenly the tall figure said, without turning around, "Stop here, Terra."

The shorter girl looked at him again, unsure, but only for a moment. Her hands then began to glow an odd yellow light and the rock on which they were mounted stopped traveling.

"Why, Mr.....Slade."

At first Slade did not answer, but then he turned around and faced Terra in a superior stance. "This is where you get off." He shoved the girl off of the rock and she began falling to the ground below. She was terrified at first but then seemed to regain some of her senses. Using her powers, she pulled a chunk of a building next to her out to catch her, which it did. Unfortunately, though, after that she lost her balance and rolled off onto the ground, the slab of stone landing next to her.

Sitting on the ground, she looked up at him pathetically. "Get.....off?"

Slade watched her, but said nothing.

Fire suddenly burned in the girl's eyes, "Get off!?" She threw her hands up dramatically at the rock on which Slade stood, but though her gloves began to glow, there was no effect, and the glow faded. The girl looked confused, then saw that her hair band was glowing like it had the previous night.

The rock Slade was on flew down closer to Terra after a few seconds, and Slade asked, "Do you really require an explanation, Terra?"

Tears appeared in the corners of Terra's eyes, "How could you do this to me.....? How could you leave me here!?"

"Terra, if you are referring to our deal, then you should know that there never was a deal--not one I intended to keep, anyway." Realization showed in Terra's glistening eyes. "This has been a trap from the beginning. I think you are beginning to understand now."

Terra growled. "You monster!"

Slade was unaffected. "Terra, do not blame me." Terra's rage faded slightly and she looked Slade in questioning bewilderment. "You are here because of your own weakness. This is the weakness you have shown to yourself, to your friends, and, now, to me. This is the weakness that always threatened to consume you, and this is the weakness that will now do just that, only this time a few of your 'friends' have been added to the menu."

Terra looked either terrified now or confused beyond understanding. The people in the area had also begun to gather around and see what was going on.

"This is the weakness....." Slade continued, bringing forth a butterfly hair clip, ".....That causes you to lose control." At this moment, Slade crushed the hair clip in his hand, and when he opened it again, the hair clip was badly bent and broken in places.

Terra's expression did not change, but the ground around her began to tremble. When the quake worsened, she turned her attention to it. "No....." she said, focusing by closing her eyes and clenching her fists.

The bystanders now began to panic and run off, while the quake steadily became more frenzied.

Terra's hair clip began to glow yellow again, and the ground remained somewhat calmer. When Terra noticed this she turned her attention back to Slade.

Slade said nothing but "Hmph." and tossed Terra's broken hair clip back to the ground. "I'm sorry, Terra, but things have officially gotten out of your control." With that, he drew a remote from his pocket with a similar 'S' design on it to the that on Terra's currently glowing hair band, and pushed one of the buttons.

Terra's corresponding hair band began to glow red, and immediately the rumbling intensified. Terra winced as though she had just experienced something unpleasant and fell to her knees.

Slade pushed another button on his remote and began to float off into the distance.

"What's.....happening.....?" Terra muttered through clenched teeth. Around her pieces of the street were beginning to collapse into the sewers below, until there was nothing but a dark hole all around her. All the while Terra was struggling, gripping her head as if there was an imp inside trying to destroy it, and groaning "No.....no....." over and over again. An odd and powerful reddish glow began to emanate from the depths of the pit around her. Suddenly, Terra's struggles increased and she cried out.

"No-o-o!"

All around her the ground bubbled up unnaturally as if a large hill were forming from the ground around her and lava erupted like a geyser from the dark hole.

Beast Boy walked into the living room casually and plopped down onto the couch, grabbing the t.v. remote. He turned on the t.v. and stared at it with dull interest until Raven suddenly phased up through the floor. Beast Boy was surprised for a second, but then relaxed again as he recognized her.

She looked at him briefly, picked up the book on the coffee table, and walked over to the chair behind the couch to read it.

Beast Boy turned his attention back to the TV, smiling absent-mindedly. He changed the channel, and a news report about the recent tremors came on, and his smile faded quite a bit. He changed the channel again and, displaying a picture of an old, farmer-like man in front of many tons of large rocks, said, "Bendham Quarry; 'We've got more rocks than we know what to do with!'" Beast Boy sweatdropped, and changed the channel again. This time the TV showed a professor gesturing a chalkboard with a pointer-stick. The chalkboard read 'Terra=Earth,' and the man said, "Here we see that the root 'terra' has a similar meaning to-"but was cut off when Beast Boy quickly changed the channel again as another sweatdrop appeared. Now the channel showed a young girl wearing a cute looking hair-clip in long, blonde hair, but Beast Boy did not stay on the channel even long enough to hear what was being said. Fighting back tears, Beast Boy squeezed his eyes shut and rapidly pressed the button on the remote, repeatedly changing the channel.

Unnoticed by Beast Boy, Raven now stood watching Beast Boy just behind the couch, carrying her book in one hand and looking sorry for him. After a few moments she sighed and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could there was the sound of an explosion. It caught her attention, but Beast Boy looked even more interested as he leapt up off the couch with a serious expression on his face. He went behind the TV and looked out of the window overlooking the city, and saw huge amounts of smoke rising to the sky over one area.

As he was watching this, the other titans entered the room quickly, and Robin asked, "Does anyone have any idea what that was?"

Suddenly Beast Boy's stare became even more intent, and he backed away from the glass towards the others oddly. Cyborg, who was right next to him, was saying "You all right, BB?" but Beast Boy did not even hear him. He transformed into a bull and charged the glass, busting through it, sending cracks all through the window, and raining shards through the air outside. As he was falling to the ground he did a flip, transformed into an eagle, and flew off in the direction of the smoke, disappearing in the distance quickly.

At first no one moved, but then Raven charged through the hole after Beast Boy, tearing her cloak a little in the glass. She flew off after him so fast that she too was gone after a few moments.

The rest of the titans watched, stunned, as their friends flew off.

Beast Boy tore through the streets at break-neck speed, the breeze he left as he passed sending bits of litter into the air. He continued flying diligently, though, the same stern expression in his eagle's eyes.

He was stopped suddenly when one of Slade's androids jumped out in front of him. He transformed back into a human and landed, skidding, on the ground, bent over with his hand out to balance him. He looked up at the android first with surprise and then with anger. He charged it as a lion, pouncing on it and leaving a slice big enough to disable it. It collapsed and Beast Boy turned back towards the volcano, now as a human again, but was stopped when about twenty more androids appeared.

Past the androids, up higher on the street, Beast Boy noticed Slade standing, staring hatefully at him. Beast Boy growled without even thinking. "Slade....."

"I thought we had a deal, Beast Boy."

Beast Boy almost smirked, but his attitude was still very serious. "I guess I wasn't lying when I said I could never keep that promise."

"Hmph. I almost feel sorry for you." Slade finished, and then turned around, walking away and disappearing over a decline in the street.

Immediately the androids attacked by charging him. They almost caught Beast Boy off guard but he jumped away just in time, and, glaring at the machines, jumped back at them in a charge of his own.

The T-Car raced along a cliff on a narrow highway towards the city, carrying Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire towards the commotion. Cyborg was driving and looking nervous yet serious, while Robin sat thinking deeply in the passenger's seat, with Starfire in the back.

Robin grumbled thoughtfully, "You should've gone ahead of us, Starfire."

"And leave my friends behind? I could not do that!"

"BB and Raven did." Cyborg pointed out. This started an awkward silence in the car, so Cyborg looked back at the smoke and said, "Looks like we're missing something big."

"I hope not." Robin said.

The group of Slade-bots were standing there looking very apprehensive when one of there own was suddenly thrown into a couple of others, knocking them all down. While all of the other bots were looking at their fallen comrades, Beast Boy rushed forward as a gorilla, grabbing two more bots by the head and slamming them into the ground.

He charged farther forward, towards the volcano, growling, but the androids ahead of him received him with a rain of blows, which Beast Boy dodged by changing into a hummingbird. After evading them for a bit, he changed into a huge snake and tackled one of the bots in mid-air. He followed up with a tail whip to some of the surrounding foes. He then slid under a few more soldiers in front of him and reformed as a wolf, pouncing off of one of the henchmen and onto another, all the while approaching the volcano. From there he pounced again, but was checked and knocked backwards by a vicious blow to his midsection.

He landed on the ground, rolling, and changed back into a human, quickly getting up and charging forward again. His left arm was caught by a nearby android before he could get far, though, and he had to kick it off. Then another droid caught his right, and another his left again, until a swarm of them had him completely detained.

As soon as they had done this, two more appeared suddenly, carrying some sort of net, which they tightly covered Beast Boy with. Predictably, as soon as he could, he began to transform into large, powerful beasts, but no matter how great or how vicious of an animal he would transform into, the net would still bind him. He turned back into a human and cried in frustration.

"Let me go!"

His only answer was a bot landing in front of him with a laser in its hands, aiming at Beast Boy's head. The dark clouds of the volcano began to shroud the area. Beast Boy began to look frightened, then desperate, and his eyes constricted a bit as he watched the laser charge.

Before the gun fired, however, a large barrel surrounded by dark energy rammed into the android, and it was thrown back several feet. Beast Boy, and all the androids, turned around and saw Raven floating in the air above them.

Beast Boy cried out happily, recovering from his despair, "Raven!"

Raven remained serious, and, chanting her mantra, she caused the street beneath all of the androids to lift up and throw them a ways. She landed next to Beast Boy and, holding out her hand, caused a series of cuts in the mesh of the net, making it fall apart.

Beast Boy looked pretty grateful as he climbed from the remains of the web.

"Thanks, Rave."

Raven smiled, but before she could say anything the rubble where she had buried all of the androids exploded, loosing some unhappy-looking robo-soldiers.

Raven charged forward, attacking, and Beast Boy was about to follow, but then he stopped and looked back at the forming volcano worriedly.

"Go!" Raven called back to him, "Help Terra!"

The ground shook with the vibrations of the incredible seismic activity in the area. Beast Boy looked back at Raven, concerned, and opened his mouth, but Raven interrupted loudly.

"I'm sure, go!"

A few moments after that, though, Raven was hit squarely by a laser, and was thrown a long ways back. But Beast Boy, who had not gone, caught her.

"Still sure?" he asked jokingly.

She looked at him for a second, then said, "I appreciate your concern, but if you don't stop Terra it won't matter whether or not we beat these guys at all."

Beast Boy got serious again and nodded. He helped her back to her feet and flashed her a quick smile before they both rushed off in opposite directions.

Terra sat in the fetal position, holding her head in her hands, squeezing her eyes shut. Aside from her eyelids twitching she didn't show many signs of life at first, but then she opened her eyes all the way, revealing a bright yellow glow, and two tears rolled out of her eyes.

Terra had opened her eyes as she heard Beast Boy's voice calling her name, half-muffled through the swirling smoke and gasses, from the other side of the pit. She saw his silhouette waving at her, and she looked back hopefully for a second, but then closed her eyes tightly again and hung her head down between her knees, clenching her teeth.

"No, Beast Boy.....Don't come near....."

Beast Boy tried to see in from the other side of the flames, but couldn't, and stopped waving. He looked in unhappily, tried to reach through with a hand, but quickly withdrew it from the heat. He looked forlorn, but then looked around him, then straight up, where, hundreds of feet in the air the gasses and heat waves began to dissipate. He quickly transformed into an eagle soared directly upwards until the gasses at his level were so thin he could see all the way through. He moved into the circle of heat and saw, in the center, an island of rock, on which perched a cowering form. After resisting another powerful wave of heat, he dove straight at the island.

Raven dodged another one of the endless drones diving at her, and countered by seizing him with her powers and sending him into a couple of his 'friends.' She readied herself for another one of he perpetual assaults, but it never came. She watched confusedly as they all assembled wordlessly into a defensive position. They all began to pull out their laser weapons and Raven conjured a huge wall of energy to shield her. They began firing relentlessly, but none of the shots got through, Raven was wondering if they thought that that was actually going to work when she realized at the last moment that a robo-ninja had snuck up behind her. She was not fast enough to block the powerful kick that ended with her on the ground, surrounded by the androids, they all aimed their weapons at her, for a moment she didn't know what to do, but she was rescued suddenly by a sonic blast that knocked several of the surrounding bots off their feet.

"So are we missing the party.....?" Cyborg asked, smirking and gesturing his sonic cannon at the robots.

"--Or is Slade looking for trouble again?" Robin finished, cracking his knuckles with a tough looking face.

The robots were unaffected by their comments and launched a stream of lasers at the newcomers, turning their attention away from Raven, who now had a grateful expression similar to Beast Boy's from earlier. That expression disappeared, though, when one of the droids pointed his laser back at her. Starfire struck first and disabled the bot with a powerful kick. She turned back to Raven, concerned, "How do you fair, friend?"

Raven smiled a bit, "Good." and rejoined the fray.

Beast Boy narrowly evaded another flying piece of flying molten rock, still aiming for the pillar in the center of the red-hot pit. However it was getting more and more difficult to fly straight and the heat was hardly bearable. He looked at Terra again, and with a final attempt, threw himself down onto the rock, landing in human form. He looked over at the girl.

"Terra!"

Terra leaned back, looking at him with her glowing eyes, then pleaded with him, "No, Beast Boy you shouldn't be here--"She gestured her hands in front of him as if to ward him off.

Beast Boy stopped her by grabbing her hands, and said as soothingly as he could, "Neither should you, Terra."

Terra looked like she wanted to believe him, but then dropped her head again as with shame. "You can't help me....." she muttered.

Beast Boy's eyes drooped a little. "Yes I--"

Suddenly Terra's hair clip glowed violently red again and Terra gripped her head in pain. Beast Boy looked at her hair clip, and, recognizing the 'S' mark, reached out and grabbed it in anger. He immediately became aware how hot it was, though, as it burned him, and he let it go.

Terra kept her hand on her head and looked back up at Beast Boy, "Go now, before it's too late!"

"Not without you!"

At that moment, the ground began to rumble even more fiercely than before. The smoke arising from the pit began to grow concentrated in one area, and suddenly a huge swell of lava lifted up above the level of the rock the superheroes were on. It quickly caught Beast Boy's attention, and he stared wide-eyed until it reared up almost 100 feet above their heads.

Then the humongous lava bubble swelled and burst, flinging pieces of lava all over the place, and reducing the mass by a large volume. From the explosion, however, two appendages burst forth and a head emerged on top. Following this, the monster signified its coming into existence through a powerful and feral roar out of a very wide mouth below beady red glowing eyes.

"No....." Terra muttered under the bellowing, still covering her head with her hands.

Beast Boy and the rest of the titans stared, awed by the behemoth. As it ended its roar, it swelled great waves of heat and smoke, and the rest of the area seemed to darken.

Before the titans made their next move, the magma monster did. It leaned forward, covering some of the street with its mass, swinging its fiery fist in front of it. In the last moment, Robin cried, "Move!" and the titans scattered just in time. The fist struck, but no one was hurt. The monster remained where it was for a moment, leaning forward from the well of lava.

Beast Boy watched, very concerned, but then turned back to Terra, who was having more trouble than ever trying to control her powers.

"Terra....."

She looked up weakly, "Beast Boy, you have to go....."

The rock they were standing began to shake awkwardly in a way that challenged its structural integrity. "No way, I'm not leaving you now, Terra.....not now." He looked around, but since the monster had risen the heat and lava flow severely inhibited any sort of escape from the rock.

Robin attacked first, landing beside the thing's arm, and throwing three explosive disks, which stuck into it. He rolled out of the way as the disks exploded, severely damaging the thing's arm. The monster cried out, but regenerated its arm completely (A/N: remind you of anyone?). It followed up by bringing its other arm down where the dumbfounded Robin was, but Robin used his grappling hook to escape.

The monster watched Robin escape angrily, but then Starfire caught his attention as she floated in front of him. She already looked rather upset, but as she gathered energy into her hands, her expression deepened until she cried with righteous fury, launching a continuous and ferocious flurry of starbolts. The array caused so much damage that the monster was forced to move back.

It finally retaliated in a fit of rage, by throwing its arms out, and swatting aside many of Starfire's blasts. Starfire threw her own arms up to shield herself from the heat, and as she did so, the monster swung his arms all the way around to his side, and leaned forward again, opening its mouth and unleashing a torrent of flame at Starfire. She narrowly dodged, but was overwhelmed by the heat and collapsed down onto the street.

As she lay there the monster looked down at her, beginning to open its mouth again, but before he could breathe any more fire, Cyborg landed between it and Starfire defensively.

"I don't think so!"

The monster looked indignant until Cyborg blasted it directly in the chest with his sonic cannon, causing the monster to lose much lava. The beast was obviously surprised, and reared back, crying as the hole in its chest continued to spread bit by bit.

Cyborg smirked victoriously, but the monster proceeded to take a monstrous breath, and the cavity in its torso was immediately regenerated, and it looked back down at Cyborg, confident once more.

Cyborg wasn't looking so confident, he became serious again and called to his left, "Raven, can you supply some water?"

Raven, floating there, nodded, she looked up at the building behind her, and with her powers seized a water tank on the roof. It tore from its bonds and flung itself at the giant lava formation. The behemoth wasn't able to dodge and was covered in chilly water. Its body hissed and it cried in pain and displeasure, drawing back toward the volcano until it passed Beast Boy and Terra's rock.

All of the members of the team looked on happily at the powerful blow, but when the monster didn't collapse or fall back into the pit, their smiles faded, and when it leaned back forward too far for them to see its face, they watched worriedly.

All that could really be seen of the monster was what it had for fists clenching in effort, and as it did the hissing grew louder, the heat waves expanded, and it grew back up to its full height as its sheer potency evaporated the last of the water away, and it glowed a powerful yellow, then red as its eyes shown brightly, and it roared again, bringing back its element of intimidation effectively.

The titans' looks changed back to fear, as it began to look like this monster would not go down easily, if at all.

Beast Boy's was no exception to worry as he looked into the eyes of the lava monster from the lone pillar. As he watched their intense red glow, emanating like a powerful and unusual energy, he looked back to Terra's hairclip, noting the similarity in their auras. His look suddenly became more determined.

As the gigantic plasma monster began to move back in for an attack, the Titans braced themselves again. But before the monster arrived, Beast Boy suddenly landed in the way. Everyone but Terra was surprised to see him, including the monster, which stopped, then drooped its lids in annoyance.

Beast Boy remained determined, however, and jumped upwards towards the monster's face suddenly, transforming into an eagle. The monster showed a little more concern at this, and moved back a ways, but Beast Boy continued to close in, slowly rising until he was about fifteen feet above and away from the monster's face. At that point he did a flip, turning into a massive gorilla. With a powerful roar he fell, closing the distance, and drove both of his tremendous fists into the giants eyes.

The red glow resonated from behind Beast Boys fist, and the powerful heat even showed an effect in the gorilla's face, but after a moment the monster began to roar, throwing its arms into the air. After this, circuits of energy drew red lines down the monsters body, originating at the eyes. (A/N: You know the parts of Cyborg's body where blue lines glow when there's energy flowing through them? Those, except for big and red.) As this happened the monster stumbled back, as its roar grew the loudest, its body began to glow yellow instead of red, as it had before, and the lava-like texture of its skin turned black, and it crumbled like a sandcastle. As its huge form landed on the street in a pile, it created both a large, thick cloud and a pile of ash.

As the dust settled and the sky lightened, the titans looked on, not celebrating victory, but fearing for their friend.

"Beast Boy?" Robin called half-heartedly.

The concern in their eyes lessened as the piles of ash began to shift and a gruffed-up looking Beast Boy emerged, eyes closed, clenching two steaming fists and panting.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire cried happily, reflecting the feelings of the rest of the team.

Beast Boy opened his eyes and stared at his fists until Starfire came from behind him, grinning gleefully and drawing smile from Beast Boy.

"Friend!" she cried as she hugged him, "We are glad you are unharmed!"

Robin ran up next to them, looking a little more serious, "You all right there, Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy rubbed a bruise on his arm, "Been better."

Cyborg came up now and smacked Beast Boy on the back a little too hard, but was smiling in a friendly way and laughing, "That was awesome, man."

Beast Boy laughed modestly, scratching the back of his neck, "Naw....."

Raven just floated behind them smiling, "At least it's over."

Beast Boy looked up, suddenly serious again, through the remaining smoke and debris falling through the air, and saw the pillar of rock on which he and Terra had been sitting earlier, empty, and watched as it collapsed into the now-receding lava.

"No it's not." he stated absent-mindedly as he quickly got up and ran back toward the pit. As he ran off, two items he had been clenching in his hands dropped to the ground and caught Robin's attention.

Terra trudged along the empty street alone and imperceptible, holding her head near her glowing, red hair clip with one hand and letting the other hang at her side. She looked like she had taken a beating, with many marks and bruises, and one of her eyes was closed in some sort of injury.

"Can't do anything....." she muttered, ".....No good....."

She looked completely forlorn, her eyes staring blankly at the ground as she moved slowly over it. She collapsed onto her hands and knees. Some emotion showed in her eyes as tears formed and rolled down her cheeks. She lowered her head more and sniffed a little. Her headband began to glow red again, and the ground around her began to tremble. Then some small rocks began to move in circles around her of their own accord, picking up pace, until they were moving faster than could be seen and larger rocks began to pull up from the ground, following their smaller counterparts. She took no notice of any of it though, and continued crying, until the rocks about her were moving so fast that the wind followed suit and eventually began to pick her up.

She opened her eyes in terrible realization and looked about her fearfully. Slowly she stopped focusing with her eyes, though, and let the winds carry her. "This is it." she muttered, her eyelids drooped but otherwise she seemed indifferent now to her current position.

All of a sudden Beast Boy cried desperately from somewhere behind her, "Terra! Wait!"

She whipped around as best she could, looking hopeful at first but then closed her eyes and shook her head. "Don't Beast Boy! Stay back!"

Beast Boy looked almost hurt by her words, but after building up determination charged into the whirlwind and at Terra, who was curled up into a ball in the center, looking defeated and alone. Though picked wildly up by the winds, he reached out for her, but could not reach her as she was positioned. She made no gestures towards him, watching in terrible uncertainty, but as he was pulled away into the outer edges of the rocky tornado, he called her name, and she continued looking at him with her bright yellow eyes.

Beast Boy spun around on the outside of the hurricane, throwing out his arms to try and reach Terra, but she was just too far out of his reach. She watched unsure, and then another look of forlorn desperation crossed her face and she buried her face between her knees.

"You should have left me alone, Beast Boy.....I always knew this would happen....."

Beast Boy looked determined, though thrown violently by the winds, "Nothing is going to happen, Terra!"

She did not respond right away, "You should have left me alone......"

Beast Boy cried in almost furious desperation, "You're not alone!"

Terra opened her eyes widely, still glowing, but saw suddenly that the other titans had gathered outside the tornado, and were watching in uneasy concern, unsure of what to do.

Terra became aware again that Beast Boy was trying to establish a hold on her from his location at the rim of the tornado, and reached out a hand, but drew it back quickly to her head, wincing in pain.

"Just take my hand, Terra!"

She reached out again weakly, hand shaking, towards Beast Boy's. Beast Boy was stretching as far as he could, but couldn't quite reach. One of Terra's hands was still grasping her head in pain, but in a burst of inspiration she reached out with both of them and grasped Beast Boy's, and immediately after that, Beast Boy's grasped one of her hands with his other. He pulled her to him and he held on tightly. Terra looked at him and his wounds, but Beast Boy's attempted lighthearted smile caught her attention.

"It's gonna be all right, you know that." Beast Boy said, but with some doubt in his eyes.

Terra didn't show much emotion at all as she stared, but the yellow glow faded and her blue eyes shone like the norm, and Beast Boy smiled happily in return. Tears suddenly formed in her eyes, and she hugged Beast Boy, and though Beast Boy didn't stop smiling, tears appeared in his eyes as well.

The red glow of the hair clip which had shown so brightly finally began to fade, and slowly the winds slowed and the rocks settled until both the forms inside the whirling winds settled down on the ground. They didn't move for a moment, and the titans watched as they had before, only less uneasily or concerned.

After Terra's 'S' hair clip had stopped glowing, it short circuited and fell to the ground uselessly.

Terra suddenly became aware that the tornado was gone as she looked around, slowly gave a huge and authentic smile, and hugged Beast Boy again.

Beast Boy blushed but looked as far in Terra's direction as he could, with a serious expression, but also a smile, "I told you I'd always be here, Terra, and I always will."

Terra gave a smile as understanding as Beast Boy's, though they were not looking at each other.

The other titans generally blushed and sort of distracted their gazes except for Starfire, who giggled happily.

"All right, y'all, we've got Night of the Living Undead parts one, two, and three, and you know what that means--"Cyborg shouted cheerfully from the space in front of the T.V.

Terra, wearing a bandaged butterfly hair clip, looked on from the couch, smiling awkwardly, not sure what to make of the half-human's antics.

Cyborg continued, unphazed, "--six-and-a-half hours of crunching, munching, bone-grinding horror!" he said enthusiastically, making several bad visual illustrations.

Terra laughed, even more awkward than before.

Cyborg sighed and scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry, guess I just can't do it quite like Beast Boy."

"Uh.....Where is Beast Boy, anyway? And everybody else for that matter." Terra changed quickly, looking around the empty couch. When she heard a "Right here." from behind the couch, she lolled her head upside down to look behind her.

Robin, the speaker, stood in front of Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy. Terra watched them for a second, and when they didn't say anything asked, "What's up?"

"The ground?" Beast Boy quipped.

"We were just going to have a quick meeting--" Robin continued, but Starfire interrupted.

"--About the nature and importance of our costumes!" she piped giddily. Raven looked at her silently.

Robin looked back to Terra from Starfire and said, "Short meeting. We'll be back in a few minutes, wait up for us."

Terra looked for a moment, head still upside-down, eyes wide in interest. "O-okay.....So why isn't Cyborg invited?"

Robin gave a serious look that made it obvious he thought she should have included herself.

"Uh....." Raven began.

Terra laughed, turning back over finally and saying "Never mind," causing Cyborg to blush. "See you guys in a few."

As they left the room she turned back to Cyborg, reclining casually. "So, got any snacks?"

Cyborg glanced at her for a second, sweatdropped, and said, "I'll get on that." dashing out of the room.

Terra snickered until he left the room, then changed her expression, jumping off the couch determinedly.

The door to Robin's examining room opened, allowing Robin, followed by Starfire, followed by Beast Boy, followed by Raven.

Robin walked to the desk in the center of the room, strewn with odd pieces, clues, and papers. He leaned on the desk with a much more serious expression on than he had had back in the living room, looking it over.

No one in the room had spoken yet. Starfire floated from wall to wall, observing the newspaper clippings, while Beast Boy spun around and around in a daze, looking very out of his element. Raven walked along the walls, noting several recent articles involving either Slade, Terra, the recent tremors, or the lava monster incident. Various clippings on these subjects were connected by pieces of different colored yarn. Raven said to the wall, speaking to Robin.

"I take it this meeting isn't about our costumes."

"No." was Robin's only reply. He hadn't looked up from his desk. He finally snapped back to reality and grabbed two specific pieces of evidence: the 'S' hair clip and a larger piece of advanced looking machinery with a similar insignia on it. He turned around, facing his teammates and gesturing the two objects.

"This is about our most recent case."

Everyone watched with fair seriousness. Starfire landed on the ground, looking at Robin with concerned curiosity. Raven simply faced him and stared blankly, waiting for him to continue. Even Beast Boy turned stern, who had been turning around confusedly with his hands clasped behind his head. He looked sideways over to Robin, dropping his arms limply.

"I've been examining the evidence from this one and doing a lot of thinking....."

When Beast Boy's eyes caught the two objects, he crossed his arms and brought his head straight forward sharply.

"I have been thinking and I'm pretty sure this was our closest case ever to a real defeat." Beast Boy's face looked uncharacteristically dark.

Raven's eyes focused into an even more rapt attention. "What kind of defeat?"

Robin looked at her, and then held the two objects further out into the air. "These were the most important pieces of evidence. The first one--"lifting the smaller item higher.

"--Terra's hair clip." Starfire pointed out.

"Yes." Robin concurred, "Well I think it's obvious where it came from--Terra told us--but that got me thinking. Why? Why would Slade want to help Terra?" Robin paused for a short moment, but just before he was about to start again, Beast Boy added, "He didn't." with little to no feeling, "I think we all figured that out."

"Right, well....." Robin said off tempo, offset by Beast Boy's comment, "That brings us to the second piece of evidence." he continued finally, holding up the larger piece of equipment. It was new to Beast Boy and he looked up now.

The device was sort of round shape, and had various jutting pieces of technology that had been exposed do to its having been ruffed up. It had several energy veins and one, large 'S' insignia similar to the hair clips on one side.

"I found this after Beast Boy miraculously defeated that monster, and I've been experimenting with it. I'm pretty sure now that Slade had a lot to do with that incident as well."

"How?" Starfire inquired.

Robin continued wordlessly. He took the hair clip and larger device and held them both out obviously, then he slowly brought them close together, then stopped. At first there was no effect, and the titans stared blankly, but then the hair clip began to glow that red that had infested the monster, but slowly. After that, the larger mechanical item followed suit, and they pulsed synergistically.

The titans watched, interested, until Robin pulled the objects back apart, stopping the effect.

"It's obvious these things were made for each other....."

"The hair clip was acting as a conduit connecting to the other device; the eye of the magma beast we battled." Starfire added, understanding.

Raven continued for her, "And what you're saying is that, for some reason or another, Slade used Terra to create that behemoth."

"Exactly. But to tell you the truth, I expected you guys to figure that part out for yourselves."

"What else is there to understand?" Starfire asked, more worried now, while Raven listened intently.

Robin paused for a moment, letting the two hands with evidence in them to drop to his side. "Slade could have sent any sort of monster after us--he could have assaulted us right here in the tower if he wanted to. But he knew that wouldn't work. He knew a frontal assault would never be enough. There was more to his plan." His eyes narrowed.

"Robin--"Starfire began, unsure, knowing Robin's relationship with Slade.

"No, the plan was too exact. Slade's tactics were too purposeful. He--"Robin stopped suddenly, as if to prevent himself from saying something unfortunate. "For the past few days, Slade's target was not us as a team, it wasn't even Terra....." he looked down for a moment, then back at the rest of the team, "It was Beast Boy."

Starfire looked surprised, but neither Raven nor Beast Boy did. Raven looked at Beast Boy, not emotionlessly, but with sorrow. Beast Boy didn't do anything, he remained with his arms crossed, head bowed so low his face could not be seen.

"Slade baited Beast Boy continually until yesterday, when he sprung the trap, luring Beast Boy into a situation which could have destroyed the team."

Robin looked intently at Beast Boy, and did not say anything for several seconds.

Starfire looked between he and Beast Boy repeatedly, then looked at the ground. Not looking satisfied with the situation, she said, "Robin.....we understand. Is the meeting over now? Perhaps it should be over now.....?"

"No, Starfire." was all Robin said. He walked over to Beast Boy and put a hand on his shoulder. "This was a tough case, Beast Boy, tough in the worst way. Not for all of us, either, but I want you to know I understand. We can't....." even Robin looked defeated by his pity for a moment but then continued boldly, "We can't let things like this happen more than once."

Beast Boy looked back up at Robin, and was about to reply when a noise in the rafters above them caught everyone's attention. The noise was followed immediately by silence, but then by quite a racket as a support beam near the ceiling broke crashing to the ground with some pieces of ceiling and a disgruntled person.

"Gya-ah!" Crash

The titans quickly faced the new entity in defensive stances, waiting for it to recover. As it did though, they relaxed recognizing a slightly ruffed up Terra climbing out of the ruins.

"Terra?" Starfire asked. She gasped, "But you should not be here! Cyborg was distract--entertaining you!" nonetheless Starfire was helping Terra move some small rubble from her person.

Terra smirked painfully, "No, it's all right, I'm glad I heard." She got to her feet and stood there, dusting herself off and then looking at the ground. The room became serene again.

Starfire looked sorry, "We did not mean for you to--"

Then the door opened, however, revealing a confused looking Cyborg, "Hey. Any of you guys seen--"he stopped as he spotted Terra, "Oh." He sweatdropped.

Starfire flew over to him in righteous agitation, "Friend! How did you let Terra evade your sight?" she said scoldingly.

Cyborg looked like he didn't know how to answer, but then realization came over his face. "Oh, so that's why there was this pathetically unconvincing puppet of Terra left on the couch when I got back....." he gestured the living room couch in his hand (A/N: yeah, the whole thing) with said 'pathetically unconvincing' puppet on it, made from various household objects, obviously meant to look like Terra.

"'Pathetically unconvincing!?'" Terra ranted, super-deformed. She then returned to her normal form, though, crossing her arms.

After a second Robin broke the silence, "Terra.....about the meeting. I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but, well....."

"It's alright, Robin, I already told you I'm glad I heard. And I agree with everything you said." she paused for a few moments, looking at the ground, "I think I've caused way too much trouble for you guys."

Starfire gasped, "Does that mean.....?"

"--You're leaving?" Raven finished.

Terra looked at Raven for a moment, then back at the ground. "Yeah."

Back in the titan living room, Terra strode with her pack in her hand towards the elevator that led to the front door, the other titans following her but being ignored.

"We did not mean to make you go, friend. Please!"

Starfire's pleas were ineffective, and Terra was fast approaching the door.

"Come on, Terra, reconsider." Robin asked as she was next to the door.

She stopped, then turned around after waiting a moment. She looked determined. "I appreciate your concern, but we all know this is for the better."

No one spoke for a moment, but surprisingly the silence was broken by Raven, "I'm not so sure."

Robin and Starfire looked at her, but Cyborg followed up, "I agree with Raven. Think about this."

Terra's determination did not fade, but her look gained sympathy for the others. "I don't."

She turned to leave, and for a moment no one stopped her, but then Beast Boy ran from the group of titans and caught Terra's hand before she got to the elevator. She turned and looked at him.

Beast Boy's face was still dark, and couldn't be seen because his head hung so low. "You forgot something."

Terra looked like she didn't know what, and continued looking that way as Beast Boy let go and backed a few steps away, watching her now and smiling. She then realized that Beast Boy had left something in her hand and looked at it. It was the titan communicator each of the others had. She stared at it continually, looking bewildered.

"Don't forget, Terra, you're a titan now, and no matter how far you get, you'll always be part of the team." Beast Boy was looking up at her now, a reassuring expression on his face.

Terra looked to the other titans, who all smiled and nodded approvingly.

Then she looked back at Beast Boy, slowly smiling with tears forming in her eyes. She hugged him.

"Thanks, guys. I'm going to miss you all."

"We'll miss you, too, Terra." Beast Boy said, hugging her back.

They broke the hug, and with one last smile Terra stepped into the elevator and disappeared.

The titans moved to the window on the other side of the room to watch for her, and saw down at the base of the tower. She waved 'goodbye' to them as widely as she could, so they would see, and they waved back. Then she lifted off of the ground, levitating on a rock. She turned around and launched out over the water with great speed, and moved across the blue expanse with the wind blowing in her hair. She smiled, appreciating the feeling of freedom, then sighed, her smile fading a little. She looked down at the communicator that Beast Boy had given her, stared at it for another moment, and renewed her smile. Tucking the communicator into her pocket she flew back into the waiting world.

Well, that's it, the end of this story. Hope you enjoyed, hope you reviewed, and I would like to make a final expression of appreciation to my readers. One more thing though.

I figured since it's free here I might as well get in some advertisement. I don't know how soon, and I can't give that many details, but soon I plan on launching a large-scale story that will be a comprehensive collection of 'episodes' (TT fics). If I get it going then I'm going to be putting a lot of effort into it, so look for it! It's going to be called.....uh.....let me think.....Teen Titans: Sub Season 1.....yeah. Not that great, but self-explanatory. See you then if I see you!

-Cloud Paladin