Within
Since the Titans had been waiting patiently for Raven, and she was ready, they gathered in the living room for one final rest before heading out.
As the T-Car sped along the paved roads through the city, getting closer to the outskirts, Raven had all of her books and such with her. She knew that she was at last ready to take on the challenge.
Beast Boy turned to Starfire and started talking with her about her cooking the other day, which he evidently found gross. After saying so, Starfire looked deflated. Cyborg and Robin were in the front seats, conversing about how Cyborg whooped Robin at Ninja Monkeys XVI. Only Raven seemed to act like she cared about Terra.
Why?
Sure, Raven hadn't been that close to Terra, but she was closer to her than Robin and Cyborg were. The scenery of trees and debris rushed by as the car passed through the center of the park.
They were coming closer and closer to the site where Terra had given her life from the wrecked steel and winking orange glass that was Slade's lair. Closer to where it all began and it all ended.
She knew that Slade, regardless of what Robin thought, had gone his own way since the end of the world was reversed.
Finally, Cyborg stopped in the arch-nemesis'-lair-turned-canyon, where the small, braced figure of Terra stood rigid on the outcropping. As always, the plaque was there, stating in seven words stories of sadness, sacrifice, and betrayal.
But now, as the rising sun glinted in the distance, the fizzy golden figure that was Terra's current form stood in front of it, smiling at the Titans and wandering over to them.
Just before she could reach the group, her legs began to fade upward and out as she advanced toward them. She backed away in fear, and her legs reappeared.
"You won't be able to go too far just yet," Raven told her, coming to the center of the canyon and opening her books.
She placed them in a circle around Terra's statue. She pointed to Terra, and gave her a gesture that meant to go further back. Terra gave her a quick sound of protest, but she stumbled on a rock and disappeared into her own solid body.
"You'll have to stay there."
As Raven stood on the outcropping, the rest of the Titans behind her, she closed her eyes and motioned with her hands. Then the chanting began.
It was beautiful, as Raven's husky yet gentle voice spoke the words of power from sheer memory. The last time she had used this spell, it was over a year ago.
"Hezberac et morinei gostwenthen verbisnex... endobrium bis pendruae paransic cortis rex!"
Her last words echoed throughout the empty spaces as thick black tendrils of shadow energy rushed from the chakra gem on the half-demon's forehead. Her final cry was heavy through the city as the pages of all of the books filled with interdimensional symbols shredded themselves into bits and swirled wildly around Terra's grave.
From inside the tornado of papers and magic, a scream came abruptly, and a figure began to form from the dusty swirling mass. It was black, lined with white. Burning gold eyes shone through the murky spiral. All five of the Titans backed away as the twister of power faded, and the stone figure of Terra cracked.
Just a small crack began to form in the center of her forehead, and the rumbling sound from within caused it to split down to her chest, blasting her head in half as it continued down.
The two parts of Terra's stone face fell from their setting atop the cold shoulders; they fell and shattered as they hit the ground.
The cracking continued, spreading down to her stomach and her middle fell off in chunks, crumbling into several more pieces as they each collided with the stone surface. The crack continued to fall down in two separate directions, one heading straight under her thigh and splitting her leg in two, the other rushing down the side of her hips as it finally reached the bottom.
What remained of her legs fell over with a thud onto the earth, only fragments.
Beast Boy began to sniffle then burst into crying, tears streaming down his green face and softening the earth beneath his boots into mud, slowly but surely. Besides her statue meeting its demise, nothing else had occurred.
Just before he was about to drop to the ground in sorrow, a bright yellow light gently bathed over the area, beginning from the place where Terra's feet once stood. It lightened up the circle of stone walls until everything was overcome with a soft glow.
Had they failed? No – a rumbling began from the source of the light, underground, until it slowly became louder and louder, traveling up from the core of the planet. It grew deeper and more powerful with each second.
Just as it hit the surface, the ground where the light emanated from began shaking violently, and as the sound was ear-shattering to bear, it ended in a BANG and a pool of yellow light flashed from the source.
The light seemed warm and inviting, and from within the depths of the ground, a figure began to emerge.
It was a relatively small and thin figure. First, a battered and dirt-stained steel gloved hand rose up from below, its palm and fingers covered in a black cloth covering. The cloth was even dirtier than the steel, and torn.
The other hand, and now the arms of the figure appeared. They had steel rings around the elbows and were protected by old, grey cloth wrappings. Then, the head emerged, once brilliant blonde hair caked with dirt and mud. Clear, blue eyes shone through the dirt-covered form.
Up came her torso, covered in a steel breastplate and a round symbol, covered so much in filth that it was impossible to see what symbol was underneath. Shoulder pads, knee pads, more shredded cloth wrappings, and a filthy pair of steel boots emerged from under the Titans' feet. Atop her head, two antennae-like things were placed on a pair of berets.
She was so skinny and bony that she had barely any shape to her at all. She looked way too small for her sixteen years of age, but then, she had been frozen since age fourteen and stones do not grow.
The figure turned around, so that the Teen Titans could see all of her. She gave them a sure smile, and her dark eyebrows shot up at the fact that she was alive. Alive! After almost three years of waiting she was finally free to be with her friends again, to beat the bad guys.
It's what she did best, and she was happy to go back to that life. As she opened her thin lips, the Teen Titans stood in joyous awe and listened carefully to what she said.
"Hey guys. Miss me?"