Terra wakes up. It is dark everywhere, and the only sound audible to her is the slow, mechanical whirring of the newly-installed ceiling fan. She lifts her head off the pillow in order to check the time. It is 6:06. Terra thinks that it will be daylight pretty soon, so she had best get out of bed. Monday morning. Something stings her arm, and she clutches it. She removes her hand to take a look, and finds nothing wrong with it. Nothing visible now, at least. She had gone to sleep at 11:30, when everyone else was heading to their respective rooms. Everyone but Raven. Terra wonders if Raven had actually gone to sleep. Well, Terra hadn't actually fallen asleep right away; it was 1:06 before she was able to drift into unconsciousness, she reminds herself. She leaves her room and walks to the living room. She finds Raven sitting on the couch, staring at nothing. "Rae?" Terra asks, curiously. Raven turns around, and Terra sees the earphones from under Raven's hair. "What'cha listening to?"

"Coldplay." Raven responds, despondantly. "Did you wake up at six after six?" Terra nods. "Get used to it."

"Why?" Terra asks, shivering. She wonders where her slippers are.

"Because it will happen every day. You're marked, Tara, and that will force some... unique things to happen to you."

"So you said yesterday. Did it just get cold in here?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, it's cold in here."

"I'm freezing." Terra says, rubbing her arm.

"You'll get used to it."

"Another side-effect, eh?"

"Yeah. It's like a drop in your blood temperature or something. Why do you keep rubbing your arm?"

"I woke up and it just started stinging."

"Let me see it." Terra gives Raven her arm. Raven turns it over, and sighs. "I do not like the looks of this."

"Why?" Terra asks. "What's wrong?" Raven doesn't respond. "Rae?" Terra touches Raven's shoulder, and instantly begins to shiver. Terra feels colder than she had ever before. She thinks she is going to freeze to death. She collapses beside Raven on the couch. It's so cold, she tells herself. So cold. "R-Raven, what's... what's g-going on?". Her body is numb, and she is feeling more afraid by the second. Raven suddenly looks over at Terra.
"Stop being afraid, Tara!" She yells. She drapes the blanket she was wrapped in over Terra's shoulders. Terra's body is bright red now, and Raven doesn't know what to do. She does know that she has to warm Terra up before she succumbs to hypothermia, but she does not know how. Terra's pupils roll up into her head, and she stops shivering. Her arms drop limply to her sides.

"Oh God, oh God." Raven tries to calm herself down. She knows that she will not be able to revive - or, if need be, resurrect - Terra if she cannot focus. Time begins to slow, and then stops. Now, Raven truly notices what is happening to Terra. Her skin is no longer red, only pale. Very pale, in fact. Raven can see the blue of her veins through her skin. Raven shudders. Though, didn't the same thing happen to her before? Raven remembers it vividly. The fear, the agony. The stench of death had loomed over her, and there was only one person... no, creature to blame. Slade. No longer human in so many ways. Raven forces herself to focus on the present. She tries to remember what the others had done to revive her, but she is at a loss. She touches Terra's arm. It feels cold to the touch. Raven wishes she were wearing a sweater or... something, anything, but she's only wearing a black tank-top and shorts. Raven brings Terra into the current state of time. She touches her chest, where a faint heartbeat fails to catch her attention. "Come on, Raven, think. Think..." It dawns on her. She unfreezes time. She reaches inside Terra's shirt, and withdraws her hand. Blood. She focuses on Terra.

Now, she is falling. She unleashes her soul-self and floats gently to the ground. It looks to be an absolutely horrid place; wind swirls dust along the only visible path, crowded with large pieces of broken stone. A pool of magma surrounds. She hears a scream, and instantly recognizes the voice to be that of Terra. She remembers when Slade unleashed all of Terra's memories from the wall she had built up around them; the terrible memories of betrayal and rage that she never wanted to know again. Raven starts along the path, squinting to make out what's ahead through the dust. She sees a figure lying on the ground, hair blowing in the wind, covering her face. The figure is on her hands and knees, blood flowing freely to the ground, dying it red.
"Tara!" Raven screams. The figure looks over, face gashed, with a solidary tear running down her cheek, and collapses. Raven runs to the figure, and embraces her tightly. She concentrates, and then she is back in the tower. Terra's skin is still pale, yet only slighty; just as Raven's own skin is. At twelve after six on one August Monday, Terra is slumped on the couch in a pool of her own blood.

Terra wakes up, and feels compelled to scream. Her head throbs. She looks over at the clock; eight after ten. Did all that actually happen, or was it just a vision? Terra remembers that it doesn't matter one way or the other; her body would still have the physical scars. She finds herself wearing different clothing than her sleeping attire, which further validates her theory that it wasn't a dream. Her clothes would have been bloody, and Raven... Raven would have cleaned her up, changed her clothes and put her back in her bed. She finds herself wearing black jeans and a blue baby tee-shirt, exposing the gauze that now wraps her abdomen. Her arms are also covered in gauze, she now notices, pulling them out from under the blankets. She wonders if Beast Boy would ask about her wounds. She wonders how deep the lacerations are, then experiences relief as she notices a piece of paper with some writing scrawled on it on the bedside table. She grabs it (surprisingly, without any sudden pain) and reads it. A sense of relief washes over her. In the note, Raven informs her that the events were real. She goes on to mention that herself and the other Titans have gone out to run a few errands, groceries and the like. Raven writes that they're bringing back lunch. Terra puts the note back on the table, and looks once more at the time. She realizes that she is exhausted. She takes off her jeans (which, admittedly, were not very comfortable sleeping attire), replaces them with a pair of pink shorts, lies back down, curls up, and falls asleep.

"Tara. Tara, wake up..." Beast Boy nudges Terra's shoulder, and is met with a moan. Terra's eyes slowly open, and she is met with the face of her love.

"Gar..." Terra says, reaching up to touch his face.

"This is the part where you start to feel better." Beast Boy replies, smiling. "Lunch is here, if you want it."

"Kay." Terra answers, yawning. It was a rough morning, and though she still feels exhausted, she forces herself to wake up. "I'll be out in a minute."
Beast Boy nods and leaves, but he's held back by one question."What really happened while I was gone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Rae told me..."

"Tara, we can talk about that later. Just... not now, alright? You don't need to worry."

"We'll talk later."

"Tara, I might be able to help you regain your powers." Raven calmly motions to the floor. Terra sits. "Though if this works and you regain the use of them, you must understand that it will make you more dangerous than ever before, and Trigon will want you more than he does now."

"I understand." Terra replies, sighing. "I feel so useless without them. So angry and...", Terra searches for the right word to use, and finally settles on one that has haunted her, "depressed. Everything's fucked up all over again. I can swear now, can't I?" Raven nods.

"Swear your heart out. It won't make a difference." Raven responds, rubbing her wrist. Terra wonders what had happened before, the thought just now coming back into her mind, though no one could blame her: she was home.

"Rae, Gar seemed a little... decisive when telling me about what happened when I was gone. I just want to know what was so serious or important." Raven sighs.

"That was a long time ago. Well, metaphorically. In real time, it's only been two months. When Trigon first came into the world, he spread - and fed off of - fear and anger. He almost destroyed us all by having us at each others throats. Those were some bad times, and there are bad memories to accompany them. You know how that is." Terra nods. She remembers the things she had shut away, and shudders. Even now, nine months later, they upset her stomach. "So, we all went into individual therapy, because there are things that happened that none of us want to talk about. We were all traumatized. You're better off just not asking. Now, Tara, I need you to concentrate. Look at me." Terra stares into Raven's eyes, and her mind goes blank. Her consciousness is gone, but she still sits erect, staring into Raven's eyes. Raven unleashes her soul-self, whose wings envelop both females sitting on the floor. There is darkness, but Raven knows what she is doing. She pushes herself on and on, and then, once completely satisfied with what she has done, she, too, drifts into unconsciousness. Terra suddenly awakens and begins to panic. Her heart pounds in her chest like a jackhammer, beating faster and faster. She feels afraid, afraid of death. She feels as if she is about to have a heart attack, but then, silence. Terra's breathing slows, and she feels fine once more. She sees Raven lying unconscious on the floor, and realizes the futility of trying to revive her. She takes a deep breath.

"All right, Tara. Do or die time." She tells herself, and concentrates on the far wall. Her hands begin to glow and pulsate with a yellow aura, and she smiles and laughs at the prospect. She runs out of the room and into Beast Boy's, where she jumps at him and he barely catches her.

"Why are you so... happy, Tara?" Beast Boy asks, smiling and thinking that it's hard to resist Terra's enthusiasm.

"I got my powers back!" Terra yells, excitedly. To demonstrate, she concentrates on the wall of his room and her hands are enveloped in a yellow aura once more. "Though I can't go to sleep, or my delta waves might..."

"Might what?" Beast Boy asks, confusedly. "Tara, what are you talking about?"

"I... don't know." Terra responds, unsure. "Gar, I think it's about time I told you something. It's not something I'm particularily proud of, but I think you should know, and, please, don't tell the others."

"Tara, you can trust me with anything." Terra nods, and takes a deep breath.

"While I was away, I took some-" The door opens, and Raven walks through.

"So," she asks with a grin, "how do they work?"

"They're great. Thanks, Rae."

"Raven, Tara was just about to tell me something, so would you mind, um... leaving?" Beast Boy asks. Raven nods her head.

"I already know. It's all out of your system now, Tara." Terra nods, and Raven leaves. Terra stares into Beast Boy's eyes; she knows that there is a nervous look on her face, but she does not care.

"You took some what? Tara, what did you take?"

"I took some... heroin. You have every reason to be disappointed in me."

"I'm not going to judge you on what you do or did. The reason I love you is because you are who you are." Beast Boy wrapped his hands around Terra's, who was now looking down at the floor in grief. She closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. She looks back up, opening her eyes, and Beast Boy is no longer sitting beside her; she is standing on a small rock formation, surrounded by lava.

"Rae! I need your help!" Terra cries, but there is no answer.

"Tara?" Beast Boy asks, concernedly. Terra hasn't lifted her head up to see him. In one fluid motion, Terra holds a sharp rock at Beast Boy's throat. "Tara, what the hell are you doing?" Beast Boy asks, frightened. Terra opens her eyes, and Beast Boy sees the one thing he wished he would never had to see as long as he lived. Blood flows down Terra's face, staining her hair, and her irises are crimson red. "Trigon!" Beast Boy yells, bringing everyone within the sound of his voice - Raven, Supergirl and Kid Flash - to his room. Terra's body begins to pulsate with yellow energy, which quickly turns red.

"He's killing her." Raven observes. "From the inside out."