Everyone know what alternate history is? In case you don't, alternate history is when some major point (called a node) goes one way instead of another. Examples include, Kennedy surviving the assassination attempt in Dallas or Hitler winning WWII. While watching Aftershock part 1, I saw such a node point for the Titan's universe. Terra goes all cocky, gets Raven mad, and then takes advantage of the dark mystic's distraction to pull her down into the mud where she somehow avoided drowning... That was an all or nothing ploy for the evil blonde. 'Daemon' Raven may be sloppy, but she is mind numbingly powerful and viscous. If Terra had screwed up there (and Raven was throwing a lot of stuff at her) she would have been, well, I'll let you find out what I think would have happened. Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans in any way shape or form. That honor belongs to someone at Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging that person. I don't seek to make a profit from this and hope that this doesn't get me sued... Please enjoy! We're picking up just as Terra finishes taunting Raven while dragging her down into the mud.

A Matter of Small Differences

By Wordbearer

"What hurt the most, Rae? That I tricked you? Almost destroyed your house? Or was it that deep down, you really trusted me?" Terra finished speaking and wore a smug look on her narrow face as she looked down at Raven. Raven was buried up to her waist in mud and a stony shell was creeping up her shoulders. Her head was bowed in apparent defeat, her eyes tightly closed. The blonde thought she saw a tear trickling down the dark mystic's mud-caked checks when it happened. Raven's eyes snapped open and these weren't the azure orbs that reflected the world with unhuman calm. These were four flame filled slits that looked at the world as something to be eaten or destroyed. Terra jumped back onto her stony platform and ripped loose a piece to ride up and back from her telescoping foe. Raven's cloaked swelled until she towered ten feet in the air, her black aura flaring like a bonfire. Her short hair stood aloft from her head as four angry eyes locked onto the retreating blonde.

Raven bellowed, "I trusted you! We trusted you!" Terra had to focus on dodging the barrage of razor edged steel objects hurled at her by the enraged telekinetic.

Not pausing a second, Raven added, "We gave you everything and you treated us like dirt!" Ripping a three ton computer processor from the wall, Raven accidentally tripped a circuit breaker. Terra barely dodged the massive projectile when the breaker overloaded, filling the room with static. Slade's transceiver squealed in her ear, distracting her from her surroundings for a fatal instant. Terra failed to notice the length of fencing that hurled itself at her from behind with all the speed and grace of an unfolding snake. Raven rushed forward, the mud boiling and freezing in her wake as Terra tripped and fell into the mud face first. Something in Raven's mind howled at her to tear this treacherous weakling apart and she was in full agreement with this Trigonian urge for once. Terra spat mud out of her mouth and looked up in time to see the hem of her foe's writhing cloak open up like a hungry maw. Terra gazed in fear at the ebony void within as she was pulled inside by living folds of cloth that that erupted from the mud around her.

Raven's blazing eyes flared in malevolent joy as she engulfed Terra and allowed a feral grin to dominate her face. She ripped metal from the walls and mud from the floor into a whirling hurricane for the destructive pleasure of it. Raven towered at the heart of the storm, her anger assuaged as she vented. Realization hit home as she thought about what she was doing. The contrite dark mystic shrank down to her normal petite proportions. Terra's huddled form was revealed as Raven's cloak withdrew. The blonde was horrifically ravaged. The metal of her uniform was both melted and frozen. Her flesh stained white with frostbite and lacerated by a thousand cuts. Terra's blonde hair was brittle and locks snapped off as she shivered in the mud. Terra's blue eyes which had blazed contempt at Raven a minute earlier, now gazed at nothing with cataract laced pupils.

Raven thought to herself, "Terra may have been an enemy and a traitor, but no one deserved to face the kinds of horrors my powers can unleash when I give into my anger." Sighing, the dark mystic knelt next to Terra.

Hands shaking with exhaustion and a sense of guilt that she didn't let into her eyes, Raven reached for Terra with white glowing hands and intent on undoing some of the damaged she had done. Terra's form crackled with black and gold energy, not reacting as Raven began her possibly futile efforts of healing. The dark mystic's erratic empathic abilities kicked in as she touched her fallen opponent. Raven slipped into a trance as she experienced first hand the horrors Terra had gone through under her cloak. The darkness was suffocating, cold, and pressing all around her. What felt like old blood dripped onto her body from above, as bird cries echoed all around her. She cried out in terror as she began to fall and ebony waves of power cut through her body. Burning and freezing, the waves slit her skin like expertly wielded razors. The sensation was like nothing she had ever experienced and she screamed into the hungry darkness as the barrage of cold blades engulfed her and she crumpled into the fetal position. She prayed that the fall would end and kill her...

Raven ripped herself away from Terra, breathing heavy from the raw impact of the vision, and stumbled over a submerged object in the mud onto her butt. Objects danced in the air, borne up by black bubbles of power before she got control of herself. Her eyes flickered ruefully as she set about her task once more, careful to control her empathic senses this time. She set her face like stone as she worked, trying to not let the multitudinous nature of Terra's wounds get to her. Raven left as soon as the authorities arrived.

Mud flaking from her cloak as she walked out of the vault, she could hear the officer say, "Captain Kaiper to HQ. I need a med-team ASAP. Wounded suspect has multiple serious wounds..." The door slipped shut and cut off the captain's voice as Raven made for the exit.

Raven landed near the base of Titans Tower and leaned against the wall in exhaustion. Prolonged levitation was more of a drain than she let on and she was not in the most stable of moods after what she had gone through. Calming herself, she entered the tower and made her way directly to the main hall. As she approached, Raven could hear Cyborg excitedly exclaim to his teammates as they clustered around the counter.

"So we have Plasmus against the ropes, wheezing through that gaping hole he calls a mouth when Beastboy goes ox and sends the brute...." Cyborg trailed off and picked up again as he caught sight of the mud-drenched telekinetic entering the room.

"Hey, Raven. How did it go with Overload?"

Robin added, "I'm officially curious too, as you didn't report in on time."

"Stellar. Things went great." Her voice was a sardonic monotone and Robin quirked an eyebrow in return.

Noticing something, the boy wonder asked, "Why are you covered in mud? Overload was supposed to be attacking a vault indoors."

Her answer was curt and severe, "The mud was courtesy of Terra. She showed up after I had subdued Overload and she was the hard part of the fight this evening."

This response locked every Titan's eye on her. Raven didn't outwardly react, but she braced herself for the barrage of queries that should soon follow. The others' eyes begged answers, yet the dark mystic held her silence.

Starfire was the first to speak, "Friend Raven, please tell us what happened. Since you are reasonably unharmed, I assume you were victorious over the foul Xen'trop Guani'ek." Beastboy looked hurt at the alien's perceived insult.

Raven spoke aloud, "I won; in fact you cold say that Terra won't be a problem anymore."

"That was an understatement on your part," Raven chided herself.

Beastboy blurted out in a high tone, "What happened? What did you do to Terra?" Hurt flickered in the depths of Raven's eyes along with black guilt for an endless moment. She swallowed lightly, eyes darting from face to face in an uncharacteristic display of nervousness.

Her response was low and carefully free of emotion, "I lost control, gave into my anger. Terra went under my cloak and came out like Dr. Light." Various looks of anger, horror and, for Robin, thoughtful reflection crossed the Titan's faces as they remembered the shattered condition of the formerly arrogant villain.

With this Raven turned to go, seeking some solitude to sort this out alone. She was about to walk through the door when she was stopped by Starfire's hand on her shoulder. The others had hung back. The dark mystic looked up at Starfire with eyes that bled with repressed distress.

The alien insistently said, "Raven. It is clear that you are upset and left much out of your story. Please just..." She faltered as Raven stared at her and the other tore herself loose from Starfire's grip with as much a look of panic as any of the Titan's had ever seen.

Raven murmured to herself as the door closed, "I need to be alone."

Cyborg said, "Either she's pretty upset about this or I'm a worse judge of people's character than Jerry Springer."

Robin added, "There's a lot she didn't tell us. If Terra pushed her to unleash her anger, it must have been an ugly fight."

Beastboy sighed in response, "Yeah. I can see that now." Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire gave him a funny look, prompting the changeling to get onto another subject than Raven.

"I just hope Terra's ok. We should find out where they took her for treatment."

Shaking his head decisively as he spoke, Robin added, "Tomorrow. It's been a long day for all of us. We'll bring it up tomorrow at breakfast." The others nodded reluctant agreement.

Terra lay on a hospital bed across town. Her blond hair was shaved off and the places where her body armor had been cut away from her flesh bandaged. The walls were padded to insulate her from all sound. The beeping of her heart monitor was enough to make her shiver with fear, her blind eyes darting around the room in paranoid search for threats. Her mind replayed memories like a broken record: sharing pizza with the Titan's training with Slade in an abandoned quarry as he shouted instructions, holding the Tower up alongside Raven with twin pillars of gold and black power, entering the password and deactivating Cyborg's security the night of her betrayal, a thousand memories of trust and deceit danced in front of her mind's eye. She stole of moment of lucidity from the madness, a tear welling up as she grieved what might have been. No friendship, for the Titan's would see her as another defeated enemy. No glory, for Slade would see her as a broken tool, unworthy of his attention. She was alone. The tear left a glistening trail down her bandage swathed check as Terra's fear-ravaged mind slipped into madness once more. Sleep eluded her desperate grasp, leaving her alone with her daemons in the dark.

So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care one way or the other? If you see fit, leave a review and tell me what you think. Before, anyone asks, I don't hate Terra, she was just a wasted character that needed to go down one way or the other... (shrugs) Thank you for your time.