My name is Terra.
I have done bad things.
I have betrayed my friends.
I have broken every trust we had.
I have become a monster that everyone fears.
My name is Terra.
I was born into a world that did not understand me.
I was born into a world that hated and feared me.
I was born into a life that was cursed.
I will conquer this darkness.
My name is Terra.
I am alive.
I am not dead.
I am a butterfly.
Let me spread my wings.
The earth urged me awake with the dire warning of danger...something bad was happening above ground. I shot up and hissed in pain...something was hurting. I opened my eyes slowly and was surprised to find that I could see! Studying my surroundings that horrible day came back to me once more in a tidal wave of frenzied emotions and blurred images. Slade made me so very angry...so angry that I broke myself in two just to be rid of him. But I wasn't. I know that now. I know many things now that I have been given the chance to think and reflect on all that I have done. I searched my body for an injury that I knew must be there and I found them...the Earth had taken Slade's armor from my body but at a price. I have my scars crisscrossing my body now and some of the wounds have not healed yet...I must have torn them when I moved. I touched the place where those cables had been put into my skull...wounds lay there as well. Dried blood and new blood soaking my hair...I was a mess. I will not deny that. I inspected myself thoroughly and realized that I had grown inside that stone casing. How long had I been asleep? Rearranging myself so that I was on my knees I braced myself and pushed upward. Various bones cracked and groaned as I swayed unsteadily before righting myself completely.
Danger...danger...tremors were snaking through the earth...even I could feel them at this level. I growled under my breath...anger. I was getting angry again...no...no. I had to calm down or I would become...I inhaled deeply and exhaled...chanting my mantra over and over until I felt confidence returning. Closing my eyes I raised my arms and the earth moved me up towards the surface at a frightening speed. I was in power again...I was in control. I had a purpose. To stop the danger that the Earth had warned me of and then to find the Titans, to make amends.
Meanwhile...
The morning began at the Tower as it usually did nowadays...StarFire would arise first to watch the sunrise as she tended to her garden...Robin would train for a few hours...Raven would meditate in perfect silence, readying herself for a potentially stressful day. Cyborg would appear from his bed room and make breakfast, calling everyone down. They were relatively happy but still, they missed the humor of Beast Boy, albeit it could be sometimes annoying. Every time a foreign noise was made they, at first, thought that it was Beast Boy...coming back with apologies in hand...but no more. StarFire had become the only one who ever went to visit the rogue Titan, sometimes coming just to talk or to convince him to come back, but to no avail. They all resumed their lives as though nothing had happened, as though Terra and Beast Boy did not exist. Sometimes this puzzled StarFire, for she, with all her social ineptitudes, always remembered friends. Things were happening just as the future that she had been thrown into once predicted...only more slowly then before.
Rising up from tending her whimsical garden StarFire stretched and gazed towards the rising sun with the faintest glimmer of a smile. She had always liked watching it rise...knowing that perhaps one day it would never rise again. She appreciated the small gifts this life gave her, the friends she had made. She loved them all...but she was secretly afraid. Her fear was something she never truly confessed to; never told anyone else about because they could no longer help her. She was the only one that could save their friendship, it seemed. For the others suddenly did not seem to care. Without all of them together they were not truly the Teen Titans. Emerald eyes sparkled with tears of confusion as words were uttered quietly from her lips. "I cannot change the future...if only Terra were here. Beast Boy would be happy and everyone would rejoice and be as one...as we were..."
In her room Raven meditated...relaxing her body and attempting to rid herself of bothersome emotions that might cause her own powers to spin out of control. Her body had loosened during the time she spent relaxing...darkness fluttering in and obscuring the faces of her friends as she slipped into an almost-dream. Heart beat slowing as the Half-Demon began to sway from side to side, stumbling over her mantra. "Azarath, metrion, synthos....Azarath....metri-"Words were lost to her as StarFire's pain beckoned, the sounds of her keening filtering in and filling up the holes that had once existed. Raven shook her head in annoyance and sighed softly...StarFire had been doing this every morning now since Beast Boy had left the Tower.
"She shouldn't waste her time mourning his loss...he will return once he realizes that nothing he could ever do will change what has happened to that traitor." She started, amazed at how angry and ugly those words had sounded just then. In spite of herself she felt pangs of guilt course through her...You are cruel to say such things. Such comments warrant yourself more trouble and sorrow at your friends' expense. Chiding words fading to an echo Raven shook herself out before beginning her meditations once more.
Cyborg was busying himself in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for the remainder of his friends. Cyborg was as good a cook as any...with Beast Boy gone they no longer had to suffer through eating tofu. But even though he was gone they still kept it in the back of the fridge in the quiet hopes that maybe one day he would return. Cyborg tried not to think about his wayward buddy...focusing his attentions on scrambling the eggs and cooking the bacon at the same time. It was easier not to think if you had things to do. So Cyborg had turned himself into the Repair Man...fixing up everything and updating everything in sight. Sometimes Raven came to help him...the two working in comfortable silence until one needed a part or asked a question of the other. Out of all of them Cyborg and Raven had the most easy-going relationship. They were simply more comfortable around each other then Robin and StarFire where they lived in the land of awkward silences and embarrassed pauses.
Sighing softly as the eggs and bacon were ready he pressed a button and spoke over the inter-com; the tinny echoes of his voice bouncing off the walls and eventually coming back to him where he stood, alone in the kitchen.
Robin had been busy training when Cyborg's voice drifted in and interrupted him. Breakfast. He ceased in his assault on the forlorn punching bag, debating whether or not he should go down to breakfast. Things seemed to be getting harder...not easier as Robin had secretly hoped it would be with Beast Boy's departure from the Tower. Withdrawing from the training room he exited out into the corridor...a cool draft of air created by the doors sliding closed behind him. He was given reason for pause because just then StarFire appeared, her hands clasped in front of her and her gaze downcast. He felt his mask tilt up in confusion as he spoke out softly, breaking the solemn silence,
"StarFire, is something wrong?" His voice brought her from her reverie so fast that her cranium almost hurt from the speed it took when it shot up in surprise. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and now she had ended up where Robin had spent most of his time since Beast Boy had gone. Managing a small smile as she processed his words she found herself speaking in a quiet, not-so-exuberant voice.
"Oh...no, Robin...nothing is wrong. It is just that nothing...nothing is right. I was thinking about Beast Boy. I miss him." I miss us...the way we used to be. Her emerald gaze ascended upward to meet his solemn gaze...the tall alien girl pausing mid-step. She was so close to him...she could see the shifts in his mask, his facial expressions not entirely hidden from her.
"I think we all miss him, StarFire...it's just that.—"
"I do not like these excuses, Robin! We are his friends and we are supposed to be together, are we not? We were the Teen Titans once but now we have lost that faith in ourselves! What is happening to us? We ARE drifting apart...just like the future I saw. I am...I am sick and tired of being the only one that will communicate with Beast Boy .Do you have nothing to say to him?! Nothing to say at all?" Her emerald eyes were suffused with anger as she went rigid...her lips thinning to a straight line of sorrowful fury.
"We still are the Teen Titans, Star...we still are...we're just different people now...things change here on Earth."
"And so you seek to exclude me from the population that dwells here on this planet? I do not understand you at all anymore, Robin! You are deceiving yourself! You will not see what I see...what everyone else sees. The Teen Titans are no more without all of us together! I do not like that you lost faith in Beast Boy...can you not see that he needs us more than ever now? He has lost his Terra...and we have not been helping him find a cu-"
"THERE IS NO CURE, STAR! THERE ISN'T ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP TERRA!" Robin's eyes flashed as his voice was raised...StarFire's eyes widening before she pushed past him, a forlorn expression on her face.
"We are drifting, Robin...the Teen Titans are dying."
The Teen Titan are dying...dying...dying...the words echoed over and over in the young man's mind...his jaw clenching as he stormed after her. She was right...but Dick Grayson was not going to admit this. He had to keep hoping things would fix themselves. What disturbed him even more was the fact that he KNEW and yet he did nothing....
They ate breakfast in a tense silence...casting covert glances at one another, as though nervous that one might explode into a million pieces. Finally that tense silence was broken by the familiar tones of a city in need. "Titans, trouble!" The words shot from his mouth automatically...and everyone jumped to their feet and darted out the door....Raven helping Cyborg move faster as they flew together...StarFire and Robin temporarily forgetting their troubles as they flew towards the source of the problem.
An unpleasant stench greeted their nasal cavities and they all choked; eyes streaming. It smelled of rotting flesh...garbage. Fish. Raven had the sense to put up a shield...trapping the disgusting scent from outside as they approached the dark cloud ahead...right in the middle of the city. "Whatever is producing that disgusting stench...it's made of dead things...or maybe it is already dead." Just be careful... the warning was in her words...a collective intake of breath taken as they moved forward, gazing around them. Moving into the dense cloud they could see nothing...the shield removed Raven took a breath and turned, "It is breatha---"
A large object swung down from the skies, hitting Raven before she could react...sending her out of the cloud and out of sight. "RAVEN!" Cyborg blundered through the culminating shadows...presumably towards whatever had knocked his friend out of commission. StarFire jettisoned forward with Robin's hand still clutched tightly in hers, emerald eyes glowing bright neon green...the color of her anger. Hearing the angry roars of the creature they were to fight, they soon saw the creature responsible for the horrific smell...and the terror of the citizens.
The creature possessed three red eyes...set in the middle of it's disgusting body...rotting flesh dropping in ribbons from the slathering mouth and various other parts of the body. Large horns adorned its head...curling out and then inward like a ram's. Cyborg was already ripping into the creature like there was no tomorrow...Raven joining him as the creature moved with frightening speed ripping and knocking at the creatures as though they were not but harmless flies. A dull roar emitted forth as fetid drool spilled downward. One meaty arm smashing cruelly into StarFire before she could get in a second shot...knocking her to the ground which she promptly shot up from...a scream of rage escaping from parted lips as the Titans began to draw the behemothian corpse backwards and down the street...the cloud moving with them.
"What...what is that thing?" Robin asked once he could properly catch his breath. His eyes were wide, fixated upon the monstrous creature blundering blindly about...crashing into buildings as it sought to get away from the source of its pain. The four Teen Titans. It had to rid itself of the bothersome creatures...had to find what had awoken it.
So as the Teen Titans advanced upon it once more he stumbled forward, a guttural roar that shook the windows from their panes reverberating in the heads of all who were to bear witness to the fight. As StarFire attacked she was knocked back by one of the rotting arms...knocking into Raven and sending them crashing into the pavement, the force of the impact rendering the two unconscious. Robin and Cyborg diverted the creature's attention...making sure the creature would not turn around...but then...it did and a meaty paw was suddenly driving downward...towards them...so close...too close. "NOOOO!!!"
But then a roaring that preceded all rational thought erupted not from the beast that they were fighting...but from the ground...before the creature could hit the two unconscious girls a wave of rock shrouded the arm...someone that they had never expected to see again had reappeared from out of the ground. Robin and Cyborg gaped...in shock at the familiar figure standing in the rocky dust. Terra's voice was quiet...but loud enough for them to hear what she was saying to the creature struggling in the Earth that had imprisoned its arm. "Do...not touch...my...friends." Raven and StarFire awoke just as a wave of rock rose up from the street. Raven's eyes widened as did StarFire's watching in stunned awe as the disgusting creature began to sink into the ground...roaring and screaming as it was dragged into a stony silent grave from which there was no escape.
The boulder that Terra had been levitating upon sunk towards the ground...as the dust settled and the black cloud dispersed Cyborg and Robin gaped and turned their backs. Terra had slowly risen to her feet...blood covering her face and hair...and parts of her body...long locks woven with obsidian hid her chest. StarFire and Raven gaped a moment more before they both rushed forward...draping their cloaks around the exhausted girl as she sagged against him. She had not been fully recovered upon taking on that monster...she had over-exerted herself once more. "I-I'm sorry..."
"It's alright, Terra...let's just get you home...we'll help you get better..." Raven was surprised at the concern in her voice...apparently the boys had noticed as well because they were looking at her now with a curious expression on their faces; still in shock.
"Home..." Terra whispered softly...looking around she suddenly looked quite frightened.
"Where's Beast Boy?"
