Clash of the Titans by CidGregor

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.

Chapter 15

"Unnhh…Beast Boy, please, let me go! I am…most healthy now, truly! We do not…need to stay here…any…longer!"

Beast Boy kept his arms wrapped around Starfire's waist, holding her back from the medical room window she was attempting to fly out of. "Star, you are so not fine!"

"Yes, I am…" she argued. "I am…most capable of…fighting the villain Malchior!"

"Star, Malchior would wipe the floor with you right now! Look at you; you can't even break my grip on you right now, and you're like twenty times stronger than me! You should be able to rip away from me like tissue paper!"

Starfire had no response to that. She threw him a dirty look, but slowly, she stopped struggling, and Beast Boy at last released her.

"I'm just trying to make sure you're safe," Beast Boy said. "Seriously, Star, Robin would kill me if I let you leave before you were at a hundred percent."

Starfire gasped and glared at the changeling as though he'd said something very offensive. "Robin would do no such thing!" she insisted. "How you could even think such things is…"

"Star! Calm down, it's just an expression!"

"…Oh."

"Look, I know you're worried about Robin…and I'm worried about Terra, too…but they can handle things until we get there."

"I wish I could be as confident as you are, Beast Boy," Starfire responded softly as she turned to look out the window again.

"What do you mean? Don't you think they can take care of themselves?"

"I…do not know, Beast Boy…" she admitted. "Malchior has likely grown far stronger after stealing my powers…and…"

"…and what?" Beast Boy pressed.

"…I am getting…what is it you call it…a 'bad vibe' about this. I fear something terrible has happened…and I fear for our friends' safety. And Raven…"

Beast Boy laid a hand on Starfire's shoulder. "Hey…we'll get her back. I promise."

"Mmmm…I cannot stand this!" Starfire burst out. "I do not care if I am not at my full strength, I cannot stand here and do nothing while our friends are in danger! We must go to help them!"

"Star, we've been over this already!"

"But I…" she started, but suddenly stopped as an idea came to her. Her whole expression brightened immediately. "Beast Boy! I could ride you!"

Beast Boy gave her a blank stare. "Uhh…say what?"

"You could morph a large flying creature, and I could ride on your back while you fly to our friends! I would still be resting and recovering my energy, and not spending it flying myself! By the time we arrive at our destination I will be fully recovered, I promise! You could help Terra, and Robin will not cause you fatal bodily harm!"

Beast Boy slowly grinned. "Hey, yeah…now there's an idea I can get behind!"

"Then, we will go?" Starfire asked.

"Okay…but if you're still not ready when we get there, promise we'll lay low and stay out of trouble, alright?"

"Agreed!"

"Then let's fly! Grab on!"

Beast Boy climbed onto the windowsill and morphed into a pterodactyl. Starfire quickly climbed onto the changeling's back and wrapped her arms around his long neck for safety. Beast Boy turned to blink one great eye at her, then leapt out the window and spread his massive wings. He caught a strong wind almost immediately, and the two titans were up, up, and away in seconds.

Thousands of screams could be heard echoing through the streets as the horrible, reborn Earth Titan lumbered into the city limits. People abandoned their homes, leapt out of their still-running cars, and left their shops wide open and empty, all in attempting to escape from the looming monster. But no matter how many seemed to flee in fear from the monster, some still managed to get caught in its path.

"Mommy, I'm scared," a four-year-old girl wailed as she clutched her mother.

The mother held the girl close to her as they hid behind the wreckage of their car; in the panic of escaping the monster, another escaping vehicle had carelessly slammed right into her. The man had called out a hasty apology, but then ran for his life, leaving the mother with a couple of cracked ribs and her daughter with a bruise on her forehead.

"Shh, Lauren…it's going to be okay, baby," Sara whispered to the little girl. "Just hold onto me, okay?"

"Okay, mommy…"

The rest of the people had managed to get away, and were now watching the monster from a safe distance; Sara and Lauren were the only ones left on the street. And the Earth Titan was marching straight toward them.

"Mommy, make it go away!" Lauren cried.

"Shh, honey, don't cry, it'll all be over soon…"

The screeching of metal on metal assaulted their ears as the Earth Titan snatched their wrecked car and the one that had hit them, and tossed them aside, leaving Sara and Lauren exposed. The monster stared down at them with its fierce eyes, snarled, and raised its fist high over them.

"Mommy!"

"Don't be scared, baby…" Sara whispered. As the monster's fist began to fall straight toward them, she squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms protectively around her daughter, even though it could do no good…

But the impact never came.

When Sara opened here eyes again, there was a girl standing between her and the monster's fist; a blonde wearing a black t-shirt and shorts of a pale yellow. The girl's hands were encased in a golden glow and pointed at the Earth Titan's fist, and amazingly the limb was frozen in place.

"What on Earth…?" Sara whispered.

The girl turned and looked at the mother and daughter through the blue-tinted goggles covering her eyes. "Hurry, get out of here!"

"I…I can't!" Sara said. "There was a car wreck, I think I cracked some ribs…I can't move without hurting!"

The blonde nodded her understanding. She took one hand away from the Earth Titan and aimed it at the ground around the threesome. The ground and street cracked and ripped in a jagged circle, and the three girls were lifted up and away from the monster. She carried them away to a nearby street, away from the Earth Titan, and set them down safely.

"Are you two okay?" the blonde asked.

"Other than my ribs, you mean?" Sara said, half-chuckling. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you, miss, whoever you are. You saved our lives."

Lauren jumped down from her mother's arms and wrapped her own around the blonde's middle.

"Thank you, lady!" the little girl squealed.

"I'm just…y'know…doing whatever I can to help."

Sara looked at the blonde. "You know, you look familiar…are you one of the Teen Titans?"

The blonde's expression suddenly saddened, and she averted her eyes. "Um…well…no, not…not exactly…"

"I could swear I've seen you before…"

At that moment two other figures approached, and these Sara recognized much more easily. Robin and Cyborg.

"What's going on?" Robin asked.

"The mother has some cracked ribs," the blonde answered. "Can you get her to the nearest hospital?"

"I'll take care of her," Cyborg said. He punched a few buttons on his forearm. "I signaled an ambulance, they'll be here for you in just a minute, ma'am."

"Good save, Terra," Robin said. "Now stop that monster before it gets any further!"

"On my way," the blonde answered.

"Wait, hold on…" Robin suddenly stopped her. He tossed her a small, round device colored yellow and black with a large letter 'T' on it.

Terra gasped. "This…no, Robin, I can't…"

"Take it," Robin said. "We need to stay in contact."

Terra stared at the communicator. "This…does this mean…"

"It means we need to stay in contact. Nothing more, nothing less…for the moment. Now go, stop the Earth Titan."

"But I…"

"GO, Terra!"

After only a moment's hesitation more, she nodded, and flew away on her rock to meet the Earth Titan head-on, leaving a stunned Sara in her wake; she remembered the blonde girl now.

"Terra…? But…wasn't she…the traitor?"

Sara looked back and forth between the two other titans, hoping for some kind of response…but they were both silent…and suddenly, neither of them could look her in the eyes anymore.

A wailing sound reached their ears; the sound of ambulance sirens.

"Looks like your help is here," Robin said blankly to her. "C'mon, Cy…we've got work to do."

And the two titans ran off, leaving a confused Sara in their wake.

"You should've stayed the pile of pebbles I left you in last night!" Terra shouted at the monster. Not surprisingly, it only roared in response, and swung a fist at her. She dodged the attack easily, floating aside on her rock and firing a blast of terrakinetic energy under the monster's guard. It slammed into the Earth Titan's chest, forcing it backward. Its stubby legs backpedaled wildly, trying to keep from falling over, and it only just managed the feat. It roared in fury, and threw one massive arm forward. It extended and shot straight toward Terra like a freight train. Terra's own hands came up and encased her in a glowing bubble, which the rocky arm crashed into and split like streams of water around the repellant bubble.

The streams suddenly halted, and reversed direction as the Earth Titan's arm retracted. Terra thankfully dropped the shield and retreated a bit, out of the monster's range. She was already breathing a little heavier than normal. That attack was a lot stronger than anything it had thrown at her in their first encounter. Malchior most definitely had used Starfire's stolen energy to give the monster a power boost. But that was okay. Terra still had plenty of power to spare.

"Okay…round two," Terra muttered. "Okay…he's stronger this time…it won't be so easy to just blow him to bits this time…I'll just have to…have to…"

Terra trailed off as she realized she was being distracted by a low, collective muttering from behind and below her. She turned and looked, and was shocked to see a crowd of people gathered in the street behind her, watching the scene. She couldn't hear much of their mutterings, but she did manage to catch a few snippets.

"…that's the one…"

"…I thought she died…"

"…what is she doing here…"

"…but I thought she…"

Terra knew immediately they were talking about her. She supposed she should've expected it; she was showing up again after half a year of absence. But that wasn't what concerned her at the moment; right now that crowd was way too close to the action.

"What the heck are you all doing?" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"

Her words of warning came too late, however. Opting to try for an easier target, the Earth Titan tore up a huge section of sidewalk, and threw it toward the crowd. A gasp rose from both Terra and the citizens. The latter ducked and covered, but the former swooped down to the ground and planted herself between the crowd and the massive projectile. Her powers halted the chunk of earth and cement a few feet from impact, and hurled it straight back at the monster, guided by her own terrakinetic energy. It hit the Earth Titan hard and sent it reeling backward again, leaving it to stumble for balance for the next handful of moments.

"All of you, get away from here!" she said, turning to the people. "It's dangerous, you can only get hurt if you stay here. Hurry, go!"

She was met with stony silence, but she didn't notice. In fact, she had already half-turned back toward the Earth Titan and started moving back toward the battle…until a lone voice spoke up.

"Why should we listen to you?"

Terra froze. She spun back. "Huh?"

"You heard me. Why should we listen to you?" a hard-faced man demanded from the front of the crowd.

"Eric, please, don't, she just saved our lives…" a woman next to him half-whispered.

"Stay out of this, Meg," the man cut her off.

Terra shook her head. "I don't have time for this; I'm telling you for the last time, get out of here, now!"

Terra turned away again and started back toward the Earth Titan, but before she'd taken three steps, she felt something strike the back of her head, hard.

"Ow!" she cried out. She rubbed the spot, and felt something warm and wet on her skin. She brought her hand back around to her face, and saw there was blood on it. She glanced around behind her and saw a sharp, jagged rock on the ground lightly stained red; someone had thrown it at her. She glanced up, and saw the man who had spoken earlier, Eric, standing just in front of the rest of the crowd, glaring at her furiously.

"What…?" Terra started.

"Shut up!" Eric shouted at her, cutting her off. "We don't want your help, you hear me? We don't need a traitor like you around here. We don't want you here!"

For a long moment, Terra only stood there, her face pale and her eyes downcast, dead. Of course, she realized. Beast Boy might still care…and Starfire…and maybe even Robin and Cyborg…but no one else does…I wrecked their city…destroyed their homes…of course they hate me…they don't want me back…they don't want me to help them…

A primal roar from the side of the crowd jerked her out of her funk; a great green gorilla had bounded into view and snatched up Eric, snarling at him.

"Whoa-aaaahhhhhh!" he wailed.

The gorilla turned to the crowd and bellowed again, and they finally seemed to get the message; they scattered, screaming.

"D-d-don't kill me…" Eric stuttered. The gorilla complied, dropping him to the ground on his backside. In a flash, the gorilla was gone, replaced by a green-skinned teen.

"Don't you ever talk to her like that again," Beast Boy growled at him. "Get it?"

"G-got it."

"Good. Now you heard the lady. Get out of here."

Eric scrambled to his feet and ran for it, stumbling a few times as he went before he was out of sight.

"Terra? You okay?" Beast Boy said, offering her his hand.

"Not really…" she admitted. "But we have other things to worry about now. Is Starfire okay?"

"Yes, Terra, I am well," Starfire said as she approached from behind the changeling. "I rode on Beast Boy rather than fly myself so I could have more time to recover, but I am not at optimal strength yet, so Beast Boy instructed me to 'low lay' for the moment.

"Lay low," the green titan corrected automatically. "Terra, I need to stick with Starfire. You know what we need to do, right?"

"We…we have to stop Malchior and the Earth Titan," she said.

"Right," Beast Boy said. "Okay…we'll worry about Malchior later, for now we should just focus on the Earth Ti…hey…where'd it go?"

"Huh?" Terra gasped. She spun around; sure enough, the monster had completely vanished.

"What…? But it was right here a second ago!"

Terra's new communicator crackled, and Robin's voice rang through. "Terra, I can't see the Earth Titan anywhere! Did you destroy it already?"

She opened the device. "N-no…it attacked this group of people…I went t-to save them, but by the time I did, it…it just…disappeared!"

"Giant rock monsters don't just disappear all on their own," Robin countered. "It had to have gone somewhere…"

A sudden rumbling cut the Boy Wonder off. It was an extremely familiar sound…

"Is this not the same sound we heard when the worms were burrowing underground?" Starfire reminded them all.

"Yeah…it is, isn't it?" Beast Boy agreed. Is something tunneling around under us?"

Terra breathed in sharply. "Oh no…"

A split second later a huge, rocky hand exploded from within the pavement at Terra's feet, sending slabs of broken concrete flying in every direction. The hand reached and closed around Terra's petite body as the earthen monster connected to it climbed out of the fresh hole in the ground, and began to throttle the life out of her.

"NO! TERRA!" Beast Boy cried out.

"Nu-uh…no way are you going to beat me like this," Terra snarled. "You hear me? NO…FREAKING…WAY!"

The gold in Terra's eyes flashed like the sun, and her power threw the Earth Titan's fingers apart so quickly they broke off and shattered. A glowing platform of stone rose up to catch her; she landed on it smoothly and unleashed a furious wave of terrakinetic energy into the monster's body. The Earth Titan was lifted clean off the ground by the blast and hurled clear out of the city, slamming to a halt back in the quarry from where it had first come.

Terra let her platform set down on the cracked street. She lowered her hands, the gold glow in them, as well as in her eyes, fading. She fell to her knees, breathing hard.

"Wow…" Beast Boy whispered.

Rushing footsteps, one set loud and clunky, one rapid and light, told them Robin ad Cyborg had arrived.

"Beast Boy, Star, good to see you guys!" Cyborg greeted.

"You feeling better, Star?" Robin asked.

"Yes," she said, only half-listening; the other half was marveling at Terra's feat. "Robin…did you see…?"

Beast Boy, too, was still gaping. "…Terra, that was…that was…"

"A futile effort."

Five heads spun toward the new voice; a pale, blue-robed figure stood at the corner of a nearby rooftop.

"Malchior!" Robin hissed.

The sorcerer's cold laugh rang from Raven's possessed mouth. "Your efforts are wasted, you foolish mortals," he said. "The Titans are indestructible! Not even the gods of Olympus could destroy them! What hope could you possibly have?"

"We will stop them, Malchior, and we'll stop you too, I can promise you!" Robin said.

"You will not stop me," Malchior said. "I command more power now than you could possibly fathom!"

"That is power that you have stolen from me!" Starfire shouted.

"Oh no…" the villain sneered at her. "I command much more new power than yours, ignorant little Troq…"

Starfire recoiled as though she'd been slapped. "How DARE you!"

Starfire flew forward, Starbolts blazing at the ready in her hands. But before she was within five feet of him, red fire shot at the Tamaranian. She jerked reflexively, but it still flashed across her shoulder and knocked her out of the air. Robin dashed over and placed himself below, catching her smoothly.

"Dudes…this is not good…look!" Beast Boy pointed. The titans looked, and gasped as one.

Raven's body was morphing…her uniform seemed to melt away into scaly red skin; her nailed elongated into wicked claws; her hair grew long and turned white. Her neck stretched until it was perhaps twenty feet long; her face stretched outward into a lizard-like snout; and great scaly wings and a long, spiked tail sprouted from her spine.

"Oh no…" Robin said. "Rae's demon side…that's the power he's tapped…"

"And now he has revived his dragon body!" Starfire said.

"Not just revived…upgraded," Cyborg added grimly.

The dragon snorted a jet of red-hot flames. "NOW, MY DEAR TITANS…NOW YOU ALL DIE!"