A/N - I realise that a lot of the drabbles so far have been from, or concerning the Terra arc. Not that I'm apologising for that, just saying that I noticed it.


FRACTURE FIVE


Belonging

Continuity – Between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'.

Once, Terra said a sentence that lifted at the end like a whiny child, and Cyborg looked at her even though his head was turned away. "Why did you come back?" he asked. "Really."

And she had pouted a little, and stuck out her lower lip. "If you don't want me here - "

"No, no, that ain't what I meant," he was hasty to placate. "I just thought girls had some special social strata thing that guys like me don't understand. Only, you don't seem to bond with my girls the way … y'know."

His girls. She'd felt a flash of jealousy at the implication, if only because she had never been anyone's Terra. "I missed everyone," was all she said. And he nodded, and they went back to fixing the carburettor.


Tags, Titles and Handles

Continuity – Somewhere before the start of Season Three.

"So what should I call you, anyway?"

She watched him through half-lidded eyes, sprawled calculatingly across a bank of cushions that wouldn't have looked out of place in the quarters of a sultan's harem. By comparison, he sat straight-backed, an iron rod inserted down his collar. His eyes were wide and intense – so much so that the inverted colours only added, not detracted from it. He looked like he knew what he was about.

She liked that.

She shrugged slowly, languidly, curling one shoulder and making a deeper hollow in her collarbone. "I ain't got no name," she said mildly. "But if y'all gotta call me something, call me Bumblebee."


School of Thought

Continuity – Either between 'Terra' and 'Titan Rising', or between 'Betrayal' and 'Aftershock: Part I'.

There was a moment between seeing a punch and taking it that Terra lost her mind. Not 'ga-ga, me go crazy' lost it, but felt it go someplace else before the thud of knuckle brought her crashing back to reality.

She might have tried to explain it to Slade, but something told her he wouldn't understand. When Slade fought, he fought with all his being. He had no time for daydreaming in the middle of combat.

She wasn't sure how she could explain it, anyway – that brief interlude when she was certain she could feel the wind in her hair, or a hand slipping into hers, or the breath squeezed from her lungs by an overzealous hug. Maybe she was having an out of body experience. Or maybe all the hits to her head had scrambled her brain.

Maybe she was just going mad.

WHUMP!

Slade stood over her, tutting. "You'll never learn if you don't concentrate."

She spat blood into the dirt. "Yes, sir."


In Search of Crackers

Continuity – Between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'.

Terra knew there was no earthly way to sneak up on Raven. If she didn't hear your footfalls, she sensed your mind long before you saw her. So she didn't bother to disguise the fact that she was in the kitchen, looking for that pack of graham crackers she'd spotted at lunchtime, while Raven sat reading on the couch. Every now and then Terra would shoot the other girl furtive looks, but Raven never stirred, despite obviously knowing she was there.

The book was huge, with gilded pages and imitation emeralds studded across the cover. Or maybe they were real. It was difficult to tell. Either way, the book made Raven look slightly smaller, as though it would crush her should it fall.

Terra didn't understand Raven. She didn't understand how she could be so fragile and so strong all at once. She didn't understand how she could look at death every day and tell it to fuck off, but lock herself in her room for hours because she was frightened of something inside herself. She didn't understand how muttering a few weird words was supposed to help any, and she definitely didn't see why Raven felt like she had to cope with all the important stuff on her own.

"Was there something you wanted?" Raven asked without looking up.

"Nope," Terra replied, fishing out the crackers. "I'm fine, thanks. Peachy keen."


Ruminations

Continuity – Waaay into the future, after all the episodes are done and dusted.

"Grandpa, who was Terra?"

Garfield froze, though you couldn't really tell. For a man who'd spent most of his life leaping in and out of danger like a gazelle – sometimes literally – he seemed to spend an awful lot of time in his armchair these days.

He turned stiffly to look at his granddaughter. "Why do you ask?"

She scrubbed at the back of her neck – not pale green like her mother's, but a vague lilac that took him back a few decades. "Just something Alex said."

Ah yes. Alex Grayson, love of her short life, who could say he kicked the moon into orbit and have her believe him.

"Terra was … a friend. From a long time ago."

"Oh. But not anymore?"

"No. Not anymore."

That seemed to pacify her a little. "What was she like?"

Garfield thought of all the ways he could describe Terra; all the different descriptions he'd thought up over the years; all the facts that had come to light after she was gone. They bubbled to the surface of his mind like fizz in a shook-up soda bottle. But instead of giving them voice he said, "She used to like hanging upside down from trees with me."

"Like a bat?"

"No. More like a possum."


Smoking Odium

Continuity – The Raven vs. Terra battle in 'Aftershock: Part One'.

I hate you, Raven.

I hate the way you took so long to warm up to me. I hate the way you forever looked sideways at me when we were all relaxing, so I got tense and jumpy. I hate the way I always suspected you knew more about me than you were letting on. I hate that you never confirmed that. I hate that you can stand next to the Titans now, even when they're not here, and make like I'm the bad guy – that I've always been the bad guy. I hate that you weren't willing to give me the chance they gave you.

Yeah, I know about your little 'secret'. Daddy's not such a nice dude, is he? Amazing what Slade's research turned up, isn't it?

You should be as fucked up and miserable as me. But you're not. You're all determined and righteous and facing me down in some heroic last stand.

Hypocrite.

I'm enjoying making you drown in filth. It's not the metaphorical filth you put me in with your words, but it'll do in a pinch. Even demon-spawn have to breathe.

I hate you, Raven. I hate everything you stand for, everything you've done, everything you kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really offered me. Well, guess who's holding all the cards now? It pays to treat people good when they're at the bottom of the heap.

I'm on top now.

And guess what? You're not.

You're not even at the bottom.

Goodbye, Raven.


END FRACTURE FIVE