A/N: Ok, here's chapter five. This chapter is entirely Terra POV, and probably the next one too.

Thanks to my reviewers. You guys are awesome!

Airella Vilka: Slade just seems the type for chess, doesn't he? Thank you. And yes, villains can sometimes be very predictable.

Imperator: Thanks. I'll be sure to watch out for those.

Io Europa 2010: Thank you! I thought going into the training would have been far to boring, so I just did the first day. The hug was just a 'spur of the moment' decision; it wasn't originally planned. But I thought it made a nice touch.

Scorpio Serpent: Thanks! Terra's a bit of trouble… for some reason, she's more difficult to write than Slade. Oh well. I'm glad you like her and I hope you still do after this chapter.

PsychoMindGames: Ah, darn it. I thought I had him. Oh well… Anyway, thanks for telling me that and I'll work to keep him in character. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Come on. If I owned the Teen Titans, would I be wasting my time writing this fic? Didn't think so.


Chapter Five: Going Back

Titans' Tower was slowly coming into view as I flew over the city, perched on a rock. This is gonna be interesting. I had no idea how the Titans would react to me coming back after all this time. Well, Starfire would probably be thrilled, seeing how she's always happy and Beast Boy might be a bit pleased, but I wasn't so sure about the others. I had a feeling Raven wouldn't be too crazy about me coming back. She never really liked me anyway.

It was getting close to sunset when I reached the Tower. I landed and was just about to knock on the huge door— then a volleyball landed on the ground right behind me. Looking up, I didn't see anyone and figured one of them got a bit too aggressive in the game. I picked the ball up, hopped back on my rock and started flying up to the roof. When I was about ten feet away, I stopped and chucked the ball onto the roof. I waited a few seconds, and then scaled the short distance up the tower.

They were there, all of them. Raven was off to the side, meditating, and the rest were staring at me in shock. I smiled at them, hands on my hips.

"So," I asked, seeing the shock wear off everyone's faces, "which team am I on?"

I hopped off the rock, which stayed levitated behind me. I watched as Starfire and Beast Boy grinned manically, then they were both racing toward me, squealing my name in delight. Starfire reached me first, and pulled me into another of her spine-shattering hugs.

"Oh, hello long-lost friend!" she said, not relinquishing her painful grip. If she doesn't let go soon, my head's going to explode. "You remember me, yes?" She finally let go, and I regained the feeling in my arms.

"Of course, Starfire," I said. "I still have bruises from the last time you hugged me." Not really, but still… Beast Boy ran up to me.

"Terra, you're…" He seemed to lose his nerve to do… whatever it was he was planning on doing. He looked very nervous as he tried to speak again. "I mean, I…" He paused again, and held out his hand to shake. "How's it… heh… wassup?"

He looked so cute… clearly ecstatic to see me again, but still nervous at the same time. This is too much. I decided to ease his internal battle and gave him a big hug. The expression on his face was adorable. I gave him a pinch on the cheek and he moaned, then promptly fell to the floor. Robin and Cyborg came over next.

"Well if isn't my favorite little rock-and-roller!" Cyborg said, giving me a high-five. He had the same attitude the last time I saw him. I liked him from the moment we'd met then, and that view wasn't about to change.

"Cyborg! Robin!" I said turning to him. So this wasSlade's first choice. Now that I'd had a chance to think about it, it was easy to see why Slade had seen such true potential in Robin. From what I'd seen of the Boy Wonder, and from what Slade had told me, he was an extremely good fighter and an awesome leader to boot. No wonder Slade was so interested in him. But none of that mattered. It wasn't my business what had happened between Slade and his former apprentice. I had a job to do.

"It's good to see you again,"Robin said, and we shook hands. Beast Boy popped up out of nowhere.

"Good! Is he kidding? It's great to see you again!" he said, grinning broadly. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" I decided now was the time to turn on the charm and blushed, praying it worked. It did, and Beast Boy dragged me over to Raven, who was still meditating.

'Raven, wake up" he yelled to her back. "Terra's back! Isn't that awesome?" She didn't move, but proved that she was listening as she spoke up.

"Super. Just help yourself to anything in the fridge and don't forget to lock the door when you leave."This last part was clearly meant for me. That evil… I knew she'd be a problem, but I was prepared.

"Actually," I began, choosing my words carefully, "I kinda wasn't planning on leaving this time. I'm ready to take you guys up on your offer. I wanna be a Teen Titan." Silence greeted me. They all looked confused and a bit uncomfortable, and Slade's warning proved true. He told me this might happen. But he also told me how to handle this.

"Uh…" Beast Boy said, breaking the intense silence. I fixed a look of hurt and rejection on my face.

"Right, got it," I said, backing off from them. "Didn't realize the offer had an expiration date." I turned and began to walk away. Three, two, one— I felt a hand on my shoulder. Excellent. For emphasis, I sniffled a bit and forced tears to form.

"The offer didn't expire," said Robin's voice, right behind me. So he was the one who stopped me. I was kinda expecting Beast Boy… whatever. "We're just concerned." You'd better be. I turned to face him, and found Beast Boy standing close by.

"Yeah, it's cuz, well, um," he stuttered, clearly trying to say what he meant without offending me, "last time, when you kinda freaked out and ran away, you didn't exactly… uh… you couldn't completely… uh—" Raven came over and cut him off.

"You couldn't control your powers," she said flatly. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Beast Boy let out a yelp and looked at me nervously. I grinned, and he eased up a bit.

"Hel-lo? That's why I left." I got a skeptic look from Raven, which I ignored. "Robin said I needed practice, so I've been practicing." I pulled on my new goggles and grinned at them. "Check it out."

I jumped backward and landed on the rock I used to get up there, which was still floating behind me. Concentrating hard, I brought up three other boulders and jumped onto the nearest one and brought it and the spares up higher above the Tower. I took the lead and guided the four rocks through a series of loop-de-loops and dives, looking like some sort of roller-coaster. During a loop, I dropped from my rock and landed on the one at the rear of the line. I zoomed past the Titans and got a quick glance at their reactions. They looked impressed, even shocked, all except Raven, who still had a stony expression.

I made the rocks form a diamond shape and did a lap around the Tower, skimming the water andforming waves. I embraced my new sense of control. It felt so nice to just zoom around, without having to worry about losing control. I zoomed away from the Tower, making the rocks fly away from each other as all four climbed upward. I did a few barrel rolls as the other rocks got into position. When they were, I made all the rocks, including mine, to zoom straight toward each other. At the last second, right above the Tower, they met and all four zoomed upward and I jumped down to the roof. I landed in a crouch as the rocks continued their climb, spiraling. I stood and focused, groaning with the effort, and the four rocks exploded.

I looked around at the Titans. All except Raven, go figure, were gazing at me, open-mouthed and awestruck. Starfire 'awed' and Beast Boy let out a long 'oh', and Cyborg said "Fantastic," softly, awestruck. I grinned and propped my goggles on top of my head.

"See? I've got everything under control," I said triumphantly. Then, without warning, the ground began to tremble. What the… I looked up when it ended to see them looking at me, very annoyed.

"Wasn't me," I said truthfully, blushing.

"Let's go check the computerand check out the rest of the city," Robin said, heading toward the stairs. "You can come too, Terra," he added. The rest of the Titans followed him. I hesitated, but went as well. Well, this could change things. I followed the others down the stairs and into the main room, where Robin had already pulled up a map of the city. There were four pulsating dots close together, forming what looked like a line.

"Earthquakes," Cyborg said as we studied the map. "Small ones, but they're happening all over the city."

"Too many to be natural," I added. It was true: I knew about earthquakes, and this was no exception.

"That's because they're not earthquakes," Robin said from beside me. I looked at him, perplexed. "They're a trail." I glanced up at the map. Sure enough, two new dots had appeared at one end of the line, and two disappeared at the other end. The Boy Wonder's right. What's going on? "Something's moving under the city. We need to find out what. Titans, go!" And the five of them took off. Robin and Raven both stopped after running a few feet, then turned back to me.

"Are you coming or not?" Robin asked.

"Does this mean I'm on the team?" I asked hopefully. Better get this done sooner than later.

"It means we could use your help," he said. Damn. I nodded to him and ran past them, lightly brushing against Raven. Oh well, I thought as I caught up with the others. Maybe if I pull this off, they might trust me.

A/N: Alright, that's it for now. I was gonna go on longer, but decided to cut it here. The next chapter should be up on Monday or so. I can't make any promises.

For the record, I feel I should mention that quotes directly from the episodes are courtesy of transcripts, (can't find who writes 'em). So major props to them for keeping this fic's dialogue on track. (However, if it's not on the show, it's original)

REVIEW NOW!