Posted: 11-2-04

Chapter 1: Descention

AN: And here's chapter one! I have problems with Prologues cause then the screen says that two chapter are up but technically I just posted Chapter 1, so... I don't know. It's just that nice, short, teaser-like prologues are cool and a new thing I've started doing... Anyway, I want to remind you that this is (sadly) an AU fic. Also, there is a lot of Terra's POV in this, it isn't necessarily what I think, it's what I think she thinks. I really hope you enjoy it! (crosses fingers)

Also, thanks to Anavrin14 for reviewing (and subscribing to my BB/T C2 community, I assume it was you at least XD)!!! It makes me happy to get things like that...

She stared at the wall across from her bed. The cold, gray stone stayed there, unmoving, although it really could have had she so desired it. She looked down at the small, round mechanism in her hand. Why? Why had he betrayed her again?

She sighed and let the hated device drop to the floor. When she had first come to Jump City, she thought that the Teen Titans sounded like a great organization. She thought that they were good people. She even thought they could help her. But it wasn't true. They lied to her and treated her as though she were inferior.

There was only one thing for her to do. Slade had said that he could help her. She wanted to control her powers, desired it more than anything in the world. After everything that had happened to her, she was willing to do anything.

He had helped her, training her in his underground base. She gained more control, and with that, confidence. She was ready to leave, to find another place to stay, especially now that she knew what she was doing. Slade wouldn't allow it, though. He had done her a favor, so now it was her turn.

At first, it seemed simple enough. Get into the Teen Titans and discover their strengths and weaknesses. Sure, she was still angry about her first encounter with them. And what harm could it do anyway? So she went back, and tried her best to pretend to be friends with the people who hadn't accepted her at first.

But then, the facade became easier. Maybe they weren't such bad people after all, and maybe she had misunderstood them. They seemed willing enough to accept her, except for Raven, maybe, but she still seemed to not mind her presence too much. She even thought that she might be able to stay with them and leave Slade for good.

Slade, on the other hand, had different plans. After she had spent a good amount of time with the Titans, giving him whatever information she could, he told her that eventually it was his goal to destroy them.

She didn't know what to think. Sure, she had been angry with them earlier, but she had never wanted them dead. And she didn't even worry about that anymore. She felt as though they really were her friends after all, and Beast Boy...

Beast Boy...

Terra shoved her face into her pillow and tensed at the thought of that name. Who did he think he was, anyway, playing with her emotions like that?!

Slade had told her a while ago that it was his plan to attack that night. She really didn't want to hurt the Titans, but Slade was the one who helped her control her powers. She obviously had more loyalty to him, right? But what had really made her not want to go through with it, she wondered. Especially now, after that terrible evening.

Beast Boy had come to her room, not unlike many other times, and seemed to want to talk to her. She tried not to hurt his feelings (and now wondered why she hadn't), but she had to finish this project for Slade. But then Beast Boy gave her that box. That heart shaped one with the mirror, and then asked her on a date.

She didn't know what to do. It actually sounded like fun to her (although she didn't know why now), but she did owe Slade for helping her. She turned him down, but then started thinking. Why did she have to start thinking?! She wouldn't be feeling like all hell had broken loose on her again if she hadn't thought about it.

Maybe she really did want to go with Beast Boy. Something inside of her hadn't really wanted him, or any of them for that matter, to get hurt, but he seemed to stand out among the rest of the group. She decided that she had to think of a way to appease Slade and save who she thought was her friend at the same time. So she just shut off the security to the tower. It seemed simple enough. And she was fairly certain that whatever Slade had planned, her not being there would keep the others safe enough.

She went to Beast Boy's room from the outside so the other Titans wouldn't notice her. If they saw her leave with him before the assault, she didn't know what they would think. And anyway, something inside of her said that she really wanted to go with Beast Boy. So she asked it out. It was probably the biggest mistake she had ever made.

She tried to be nice to him. She took him to one of her favorite restaurants with that great apple pie. Her mission for Slade, however, seemed to haunt her thoughts. She knew she couldn't stay there. She had to go someplace where she could keep moving.

She had always enjoyed that amusement park, so she thought that she should go there next. Somehow, though, Beast Boy seemed to notice that she was worried. She really wished he hadn't, because she tried her best to have a good time after that. And the worst part was that she did. She did enjoy that time with him. She thought that he was liking it, too. She thought that he was her friend. She even thought that...

Terra took a deep breath and sighed. She started feeling a few moist spots on her pillow, but took no notice of them.

That Ferris Wheel ride. What had she done to deserve the torture that she went through on that?

She knew that what had been going on with Slade would come out in the open eventually, especially after whatever he was doing at Titan's Tower. She wanted to know if Beast Boy would still be her friend even if he knew, although she knew she couldn't tell him, not then at least. After all, something had made her really like him. Whatever chemical imbalance that was, she still wasn't sure.

He promised her he'd be her friend. She should have remembered what had happened the last time he promised her something, but she didn't. She had felt relieved for some reason that she could count on him once this Slade thing became clear. And then he started leaning closer to her, and her heart started racing, and she felt herself leaning toward him as well...

It was right then that Slade decided to speak up. He told Beast Boy, all right, he told them both that she was still working for him. And they had both worked together to fight him off. She thought that he was fighting for her. Eventually, she knew she couldn't hide it any longer, so she told him the truth, that Slade wasn't lying. She told him that she hadn't wanted any of this to happen, that she still wanted to be with him.

And that jerk turned his back on her. He said that she didn't have any friends. After everything they had gone through and after everything she had believed about him, he treated her like something he had just scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

The wet areas on her pillow seemed to be getting larger. Why on Earth was she crying? She didn't need to waste her tears on that two-faced little slime ball. Beast Boy was a traitor, that was all there was to it! He took her heart, played around with it for a bit, and then threw it on the ground and dance on it with golf spikes.

Just then, Slade's voice came over the intercom.

"Terra."

"What?" she replied unhappily through her pillow.

"Are you ready to start our next plan to destroy the Titans, since you failed so miserably on this one?"

She sat up and sighed, and wiped the tears from her eyes. He was a lair. They were all liars. Why had she ever thought that they had cared about her? "Yes," she answered coldly. "I am."

AN: Well, there ya go! This is what I thought she was thinking, and I definitely needed to use it so the rest of the fic would make sense! As you can see, I'm trying my best to show a sort of "confused, mislead" side to her, because that's what I think the problem was! She was never really evil! And she did like the Titans! Anywho, I'll stop blabbering about the obvious and get working on the next chapter, where the AU really starts (cause, again, there's no Aftershock in this fic)!