Chapter Ten

A girl named Lilia

Terra turned to her bed and let out a screech as the battered and bloody form of Saria appeared before her. She covered her mouth and backed up against the wall.

"NO! It can't be!" Saria extended her hand and Terra felt herself pinned up against the wall. Terra's wide eyes gawked at the supposed to be dead girl before her. Saria hung her head while keeping Terra at bay and seemed to be taking in slow steady breaths. She finally raised her head to show Terra a pair of bloodshot eyes.

"I can wait no longer; you will fulfill your service to me and in so doing shall grant me another two millennia of life." Terra's mouth trembled.

"What are you going to do to me?" Saria coughed and spat an amount of blood onto the floor.

"I have failed here in this city, a failure which shall not happen again." She walked up to Terra and forced her down to her knees. "Be honored, you shall join the several others that have granted me the precious gift of life." She then placed her hands on either of Terra's temples, closed her eyes, and cocked her head upwards. In the next second Saria's hands began to emit a strange golden light. As soon as it came in contact with Terra's head her eyes rolled up and she knew only the feeling of being utterly drained.

"N-no," sputtered Terra. Saria's mouth curved into an ecstatic smile. She kept her eyes closed and her head cocked upward still.

"Oh yes, I can feel my powers returning. You are by far the best giver I have ever had. Don't be afraid Terra; it will all be over very soon. You will be rewarded in Heaven; this is generosity at its greatest."

"P-p-please sto-op." But Saria ignored her completely. The color in Terra's cheeks and eyes began to fade.

Outside in the hall Beast Boy slowly walked back to his room with his shoulders slumped over. It took him a while to remember the last time he felt so down, then he remembered, the day Terra first handed them all over to Slade. He sighed and reached into his pockets and felt an extra comm. link hidden away. He pulled it out and recognized it as the one he gave Terra. She probably left it on the counter and he picked it up to give it back.

"Well, I guess there's no harm in sliding it under the door," said Beast Boy metaphorically. He reached her door and held the communicator in his hand. He then gave the door a couple of knocks and cleared his throat. "Hey Terra, listen I know you don't want to see my ugly mug right now but I just thought I'd give you your comm. link, you left it in the common room." He waited for any kind of a response. "Terra?" He knocked once more and heard what sounded like a stifled gasp. "Terra are you okay?" He hit the panel beside the door but it buzzed in denial. He morphed into a gorilla and pried the open a crack. He transformed back to normal and saw Saria literally siphoning Terra's life out of her. Terra tilted her eyes in his direction.

"Beast Boy," she mouthed.

"TERRA!" Saria's head snapped in his direction and she forced him away and the two sliding doors snapped shut. The changeling ran up and tried again but found he couldn't make the barrier budge an inch. Beast Boy took darting about the halls shouting for anyone who would come to his aid. "HELP! ANYONE I NEED HELP!" Raven flew around the corner carrying some mission reports under her arm.

"Beast Boy what is the matter with you?"

"Its-Terra," he panted breaking his words apart. "Saria's still-alive." Raven's eyes widened. "She's doing something to her, I don't know what it is but it doesn't look good." The two made a beeline for Terra's room and stopped before her door. "The door's sealed I couldn't get it open," said Beast Boy. Raven handed him the reports and moved him back.

"Let me try." She put her hands flat against the door and within seconds phased through the solid barrier. Upon entering Raven gasped, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Terra's body now had a color resembling old milk. "YOU!" Saria quickly looked over at her Raven tackled her into the other wall. Terra fell to the floor and lay completely limp. The panel beside her door sparked and in flew Beast Boy accompanied by Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire. Raven apparently interrupted something vital because Saria passed out as promptly as Terra did. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg took a stunned looked between the two girls.

"Raven...Beast Boy, can either of you two tell us what's going on here." Robin darted his gaze from Beast Boy to Raven. Raven handed Saria off to Cyborg and helped Beast Boy hold Terra to her feet.

"I'm not sure, but Terra needs help…and lots of it."

LATER IN SICKBAY………………….

Beast Boy, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg all watched through the observation window as Raven tended to both Terra and Saria. She finally motioned that it was okay to come in and they did. Beast Boy bent over Terra and laid a hand on her forehead.

"How is she?" Raven set her stethoscope on the table beside Terra's bed.

"She's in a coma, she's lucky you found me when you did. Another second of whatever was happening and she would have suffered irreparable brain damage."

"Can she come out of it," asked Robin.

"It's too early to say. There never really is a way to tell how long someone will be in a coma; they could remain that way for ten minuets or ten years." Robin nodded and glanced over at Saria. She was restrained at her ankles, wrists, waist, and neck. Her hair had also begun to change from black to a shade of grey.

"What about her?" Raven shrugged her shoulders.

"She's dying."

"Dying," repeated Cyborg. They saw Saria's eyes slowly open and she took in several long and painful breaths. Cyborg walked up to her side and sat down.

"Careful Cy," warned Beast Boy. He looked back at his friend. "Not too close now."

"I really don't think she's in any condition to do much of anything."

"I agree with friend Cyborg," said Starfire walking to the other side of Saria's bed. Saria trained her gaze to the alien beside her.

"I…suppose it pleases you to see me like this. The enemy destroyed, bruised, broken, helpless as a baby." Starfire shook her head.

"I do not wish death upon anyone." Saria took in a sharp breath. "No matter how atrocious they have acted towards me and my friends."

"It is one thing to say such things; it is another to live by them."

"Alright listen," said Robin stepping up behind Starfire. "We have no idea what you've done to Terra, but whatever you did you better undo it." Saria gave Robin a stiff look and turned her head away.

"I cannot."

"Can't or won't," spat Beast Boy.

"Why are you doing this," asked Cyborg. "Its obvious now that you could have escaped a long time ago and found someone else to sap the life out of. Why stay here and jeopardize being caught?" Saria looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes.

"My name is Lilia, my real name I mean. I was a priestess in the temple of Horus, I was recently married to a ranking soldier of the Pharaoh's army. We were very happy together."

"I already like where this is going," whispered Robin to Starfire. She hushed him allowing Saria to continue.

"Then one night I went searching for him throughout the city, as he was exceedingly late in returning ho-home." She let out a series of harsh coughs and stutters. "I noticed his armor outside the hut of one of the slaves. I peered trough her window and discovered they were engaged in…intercourse." Cyborg's eyes widened, Starfire put a hand to her mouth, while Robin glanced nervously at Raven and Beast Boy. "I felt rage like I had never known before; I knew I should kill her on the spot. However I had a revelation, I knew of a better way…a better revenge."

"What did you do," inquired Raven. Saria paused to allow another spasm to pass.

"I made a pact with the great god Sokar." They all looked over at Raven with perplexity. She nodded.

"Sokar; basically the Egyptian version of Satan. His lands were described as filled with oceans of fire where the damned writhed in eternal agony." Cyborg cast Saria a shameful look.

"You made a deal with the devil."

"He granted me the powers I needed to not only wreak my vengeance upon her but on all the vile wretches who would tempt a man from their spouse."

"He gave you the ability to completely seduce any man," finished Cyborg. Saria nodded with a small smile.

"The look on my husband's temptress' face when I won him back with ease was more priceless than love. I was then able to charm all around me, and soon I was the one ruling the Pharaoh." She smiled slightly at her past. "However my new powers came at a price; I am granted immortality so long as I can siphon the life force from a female I deem as treacherous as the one who charmed my husband. And in so doing I would send her to Sokar and appease my end of the pact, he would then allow me to continue possessing my abilities."

"So you not only destroyed lives of loved ones you also killed a few of the women and supposedly sent them to hell," said Beast Boy. Saria bobbed her head slightly. "And that's just what you were about to do to Terra."

"If I do not I will die."

"Then die." With that Beast Boy gripped Terra's hand and stormed out of sickbay. They all stared after him for a moment. Cyborg then twisted back to Saria.

"Saria, Saria listen to me." She ignored him. "Lilia." She closed her eyes her lower lip trembled.

"I have not been called that for over four thousand years." She looked up at Cyborg pleadingly. "A giver…please." Cyborg sighed.

"No."

"I will die if I don't!" Her outburst caused a gut wrenching cough.

"We can't just give away an innocent life to you, and it doesn't look like you have much time left. I'm truly very sorry to say this, but it seems to me that your almost done."

"What would you have me do?"

"Help her."

"Impossible, I will not sacrifice myself just so one more treacherous wench may live."

"Not all women and girls are like the one your husband fell for. And for the record it was largely his decision to run off with her in the first place." Saria once again tried to ignore him. "Sokar has made you into something your not. Don't you see what's happened? You've done and become what pulled you and your husband apart from the beginning. You've stolen men from their true partners just to satisfy your own demons. Look at her." Saria reluctantly turned her head and glanced at Terra not far from her. A breathing tube was attached to her nose though her breathing was still very erratic. "She's been trying her hardest to try and win back our trust, I didn't really believe it at first, but it's what she really wants. And now she's in a coma she may never come out of. If you kept this up soon the whole world would be as you were when you saw them together that night." Saria lowered her gaze. "Is that what you really want?" She looked up at him allowing tears to escape her.

"H-he betrayed me. We drank from the same chalice of our wedding day. And he betrayed my love."

"I know, but you can't blame others for what they did. Again, is that what you really want?" She shook her head.

"No…" he smiled down at her. She let a shudder and nodded. "Bring her." Robin and Starfire wheeled Terra's bed beside Saria's while Raven kept a close check over her vitals. She took her cold hand and took a deep breath. "Forgive me." A gold lining then enveloped both her and Terra making them both arch their backs. Lilia then gave out her last breath and lay motionless. Raven brought up Terra's life signs and saw they were returning to normal.

"Looks like Terra's going to be fine," she said writing notes down on a clipboard.

"And Lilia," asked Starfire. Robin helped Cyborg cover her head with a sheet. Raven bit her lip.

"She's gone."

Just one more till the end of this one. I know this was a short chapter but I did have a little trouble with it all the same. It is just so surprising how difficult it can be to articulate one's thoughts into words. Oh well, hope you liked it. Until next update!