A/N: Sorry this is up so late! My Saturday was messed up… my sister was supposed to have a concert and then she didn't and then I was watching a movie and eh… it just got out of hand. Same for Sunday, my friend called me at nine in the morning and I spent the day with her hanging out at the beach. So I' m updating now. Oh and librastar- If you'd like all of truth or dare I could email it to you, I don't think I can post it again without having to change a lot. (pouts.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, otherwise there'd be new episodes more often than just select Saturdays.
"Which one?" I asked fearlessly.
"All of them. You no longer can control your powers, you are back from the dead, your life depends on this clip," Slade held my small blue butterfly hairclip in his fist, almost cracking it by how tightly he held on.
"Stop! Just give me the hairclip!" I yelled, my emotions mixing with adrenaline as I ran at him, my hands glowing yellow in the air while I tired to use the rocks behind him. He knew what was coming, dodged it, and kicked me in the stomach. I fell to my knees, feeling like I was about to throw up.
"My, my, you really have lost your powers," Slade taunted, still unaffected by anything I tried. Angrily, I pounded my fists on the ground, causing the whole mine to shake. Slade actually looked scared for a second. That didn't last long though. He was never scared for too long.
"What's wrong, Slade? Afraid of a little earthquake?" I was actually taunting him for once. Go me. His narrow slits of eyes seemed to almost disappear in his newfound rage. He ran at me quickly, knocking me over onto my back with a square shot to my left should with the bo-staff.He had pinned me to the ground, the bo-staff having a sharp edge that went and pinned my shirt to the ground. Slade stood at the top of the staff, staring at me angrily.
"You still have a chance to become my apprentice," Slade said icily, almost regretfully.
"Never," was my only response, the only one I knew.
"If you become my apprentice, you can have your clip back. I can give you your life back," Slade said every word gently but you could practically catch the disgust and desperation in his tone.
"No! I'm destined to die. I don't care for life anymore. Mine's messed up enough already," a nervous chuckle escaped from me. What was I thinking? Sure, my life is a mess. But I still care to live to make it back to the day I actually died.
"Your fate is sealed then. But I have all the cards," Slade still held my clip in his hands. That wasn't good at all.
"Just give me the clip," I cried, all the while my hands starting to glow yellow. Finally, I snapped, both my hands against the ground, causing the earth to shake again. But this time it was for longer, the rocks around me starting to slide down. I could get out of this fine, just dig my way to the surface, but Slade couldn't.
He took off running as the giant boulders fell from above him. Within seconds he was out of the tunnels and I was on my way to the surface. The last thing I remembered before passing out (What? That was traumatic.) was the titans running towards me.
"You okay?" Robin asked. I sat up slowly, looking around the hospital wing of Titans Tower to see just the Boy Wonder and Starfire.
"Uh, yeah. I was just tired," I replied, lying back down.
"Did you see Slade?" Robin asked eagerly while keeping his voice the same cool sound it always had.
"Robin," Starfire said, her voice edgy, almost on the verge of tears. She was always worrying for him and he never seemed to care. Still, the Boy Wonder had to have some emotion somewhere.
"I was fighting him until the rockslide caused the cave to collapse out," I answered casually.
"Did he want anything? Did he say anything about where he was going to strike next?" Robin was leaning forward a bit now, seeming interested in what information I held.
"I shall go get our friends," Starfire said, standing up and almost storming out.
"He said nothing. And might I suggest that you talk to Starfire. She's worried," the Boy Wonder almost fell off his chair. I had caught him off guard. Apparently the Tameranian was a weak spot for him.
"Star's worr…" Robin started, but the rest of the titans burst in. None of them seemed too concerned at all, Beast Boy eyeing me coldly after the way I yelled at him in the mines. Raven never trusted me the first time around so I didn't expect now to be any different. Starfire was still sulking over Robin and Robin had regained his composure. As for Cyborg, he just seemed concerned for other things. Probably his car.
"We were gonna wait till later to give this to you, but…" Cyborg began.
"I guess fighting off Slade on your own makes you a titan. Congratulations," the goth said monotonously. Beast boy practically threw the communicator at me. Guess he's still mad.
"Thanks," I smiled, a genuine one too. No need to fake any joy when everyone else isn't too happy.
"I know you have trouble controlling your powers and…" Robin began, but I cut him off.
"You told him," I glared venomously at Beast Boy. Inside I was almost laughing. I knew Robin just figured it out but I felt like getting my emotions out, particularly anger. "You told him!"
"No! Terra! I …" Beast Boy defended himself.
"Beast Boy has nothing to do with it. I just figured it out," Robin commented. "We'll help you control it."
"Great. Another project," Raven chided sarcastically.
"I'm sorry to bother you with this," I practically whispered, "I'll train extra hard. I promise." That wasn't a lie though. The more I trained ,the more likely I wouldn't run into problems with my fellow titans.
"I would be glad to assist you friend Terra," Starfire cried gleefully. At least I could consider one person on the team my friend. Star welcomed everyone openly and her friendship would last whether she'd have to drag you to the "mall of shopping" or out surfing to keep it.
"We'll all be willing to help," Robin offered, actually managing a smile. That was a surprise alright. Mr. Boy Wonder never smiled, except to Star.
"Anything for a teammate," Cyborg added, giving me a pat on the back. Maybe I was liked. Funny, I had wanted to be accepted by them so badly at first, but now they were my friends anyway. I guess I shouldn't have tried so hard. But hey, that's the point of second chances.
"Titans! Trouble!" Raven cried as the communicators rang. Usually she wasn't the one to give orders but the goth probably had a feeling something was wrong.
"Move out!" Robin yelled, taking on his role as leader. He played his job better than most could have if they had to deal with all Robin had gone through. Slade had told me at one point all about Robin's past and his history training with Batman.
Though the training with Slade had been rigorous and painful, he had left me with more information than I should have known. The psychopath had never shown any good human emotion, just anger, hate, and patience. Patience was practically his only good human trait. Heck, he wasn't human at all. He should never even bee considered human because he was anything but that. He was truly a monster.
The team, including me, arrived at the scene of the crime, finding nothing. What had happened at this point? I shouldn't know. This was right after I had run away. What was going on?
The familiar tremors of an earthquake ran beneath me, my body adjusting to it naturally while the others were caught slightly off guard. My head tilted to the side while realizing that hadn't just been me. Casually, I looked around, the titans all looking at me accusingly.
"Wasn't me, I swear," I replied quickly to their looks, Robin already with his communicator out and trying to find the cause. Raven and Beast Boy were still glaring at me long after everyone else had stopped. They had a right to, I hadn't won either of their trust yet.
"Earthquakes… All over the city," Robin cried, finally looking up from his communicator. This sounded so familiar… had this happened the first time? When…uh oh. This was the worms! But that wasn't until after I ran away!
If my memory served me right, Slade had been behind that too. So he was scheduling his plots to be ahead of when they had originally! He was trying to move my time of death forward! But that voice had said I had until I had died originally, unless the clip broke. I had to get it back from Slade!
"Something's gotta be making it!" Beast Boy muttered, still looking at me, throwing off more venom than a poisonous tree frog. Why didn't he just turn into on, at least an animal of some sort to hiss at me as. Gosh, I only yelled at him. Was he really that upset? Genuinely?
From out of the ground came the giant robotic worm with his bo-staff. Starfire followed from above, shooting star bolts at it and keeping a close eye on Robin. Beast Boy charged at it as a bull, Cyborg getting in a few good shots with his cannon from the street. Raven, muttering 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos' ran towards it, a black aura encircling a car off the street and hurling it at the giant monster. Using my own powers, I pulled from the Earth a giant slab of pavement. I'd almost got it to hit the worm when I felt it resisting.
Turning, I found Raven encasing it in her own aura, trying to pull it back into the ground. Didn't' she see I had this under control? I could take care of this on my own?
That's when I remembered how we had beat this in the first place. It was how I had gained Raven's trust. I had let her take charge and she managed to save the day better than I could have ever done. Which is exactly what I ended up doing. I pulled back on my hold over the rock, letting Raven take full control and set it back on the ground. AT the same point, the worm dove into the ground, heading back to his master.
"Raven! Terra! What was that all about?" Robin asked angrily as the worm disappeared from view with Cyborg and Starfire chasing it.
"Tug-of-war much?" Beast Boy commented, both Raven and I glaring at him. Robin and the changeling dashed off too, leaving me with the amethyst-eyed goth girl.
"What was that about? You should not have even fought! What is it with you?" Raven spoke angrily.
"I'm part of this team and I'm going to help fight. I let you take over, but from now on just trust me," I was yelling now, full out frustrated instead of everything else.
"I don't trust you," Raven countered, dashing off to catch up. I followed, deciding to let history run its course here. Except for one minor detail… I would get my hairclip back from Slade, no matter what the cost.
By the time Raven and I arrived where everyone else was, the worms had come and gone (yes, plural now. There were three tunnels.) Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy chasing after them. Robin stood waiting for the two of us where all the worms had vanished.
"There's a heartbeat and a pulse coming practically below us," Robin said coolly, though everyone knew what he walking about. Did he ever think of anything but Slade? "We must stop Slade from… whatever he's planning."
"You want me to work with her?" Raven growled, giving me the evil eye. Why didn't she like me? This time around, I wasn't after Beast Boy. So she didn't have to worry about me stealing him from her again.
"The two of you are the best at moving Earth and there's no other way to get down there. Just please… go slowly. We can't risk a rockslide," Robin stated, but the goth and I had already started speeding our way down to Slade's location. The Boy Wonder would not be please but that's a risk I'd have to take.
"Why are you trying so hard to change how things are? Robin's never going to stop obsessing over Slade until he's dead, Starfire will always worry, and Beast Boy liked you a lot until last night. He told me all about our little incident in the mines," Raven explained angrily, concentrating more on her powers than anything else.
"Why don't you try to make things the way they should be. Robin just needs to see that Star likes him and you've got to realize that I don't like Beast Boy the way you're thinking. I'm trying to clear up what's been right under all of your noses," Wow. Long speech from me again, using half as less concentration as Raven was. That could never result in anything good.
"Stop fighting and keep going! You're almost there!" Robin yelled, finally catching up with us. The tunnel finally cleared into a small narrow hallway. Robin took the lead now, running headstrong into the unknown areas of his underground building. Stupid mistake on his behalf. He'd get to Slade and loose his mind again. Did he ever learn?
"Ah, Robin, you have returned. With others too? My, my, have you not figured it out yet?" Slade taunted, pointing to the ceiling where one giant worm was in a circle shooting laser beams at the ground above it.
"Terra, Raven, take down the worms. I'll get Slade," Robin instructed, charging at the villain. Raven and I ran towards the control panel, trying to figure things out.
"Why don't we just crush it?" I asked, picking up a giant boulder in my yellow aura. Raven glared at me, pulling it back.
"No! We don't know what t could do!" Raven cried.
"What would it take for you to trust me?"
"For you to trust me!" Ah, so that line did show up the second time around. I backed off again, Raven setting down the rock and typing furiously into the pane.
"Titans! We've got trouble!" My communicator yelled. I opened it up to see Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven at what appeared to be Titans Tower. Only, there was another set of rings around that. The worm rings. "Titans Tower's going to be underwater in a minute if we don't do something!"
"Me and Raven will work on the situation down here and just try to stop the worm up there," I instructed. What? Someone had to fill in for Robin and they did call my communicator, probably because the Boy Wonder wasn't answering his.
Rocks started falling from the ceiling, one landing right on the control panel. That just caused the ring to spin faster. Guess my theory didn't work, but I knew that going in. Robin and Slade were still at it, I could hear them, but I didn't know where. As for Raven, she was up in the air, trying to stop the worms. Cutting away the ground below me so I could stand on a small rock platform, I joined her, using rocks from the ceiling to try to injure the monster. A giant rumbling sound split the silence, the island under Titans Tower slowly sinking into the ground. Instantly, I threw my powers into sending it back up, Raven doing the same. With the two of us at it, it slowly began rising back up until it was solid again.
"Nice job," Raven muttered, a calmer aspect to her voice than the harsh tone she had been using before.
"Titans, let's go!" Robin cried, appearing crazed and out of breath. "Slade escaped." Now that's a surprise. The mad man ran off again… with my clip. Not that it mattered too much. Slade didn't want me dead yet, the keyword being yet.
Back in Titan's Tower, the titans instantly split up, Robin and Starfire going to the training room to "talk", Beast Boy ignoring me, Cyborg checking security features in his room. Raven was reading a mystery novel on the couch. As for me, I was on the other edge of the couch, writing in my journal. Don't even ask about the journal, it meant nothing to me but a place to get my thoughts out. That was all I needed right now when all I could hear was Slade's voice inside my head, taunting me.
"Nice job today," Raven murmured from the other end of the couch, not bothering to look up from her book. A compliment from the co-leader of the I-Hate-Terra club (co-leading with Beast Boy). Wow. This was a monumental day. Mark it down somewhere.
"Thanks. You were awesome too," I spoke nervously, not knowing her reaction. The goth finally looked up, a smile almost on her lips.
"Thank you," Raven said calmly.
"So are we friends?"
"I guess. Just don't go off telling all our secrets to some criminal," I winced at this. Did she know about my revival? Did she know about the first time around?
"I won't," I laughed, taking my journal with me out of the room, walking into the hallway to see that the door of the work-out room was mid open, exposing Robin and Starfire's conversation to the rest of the hallway.
"Robin, you cannot go and try to defeat Slade all on your own. You cannot obsess over that madman," Starfire said sadly.
"Star, I have to stop him. He almost destroyed our home. He could have hurt you," Robin answered. Okay, I know. Eavesdropping is bad but come on! They were on the verge of finally becoming a couple! It's worth it, really! I'd leave once I knew my job was done.
"Terra… she said you were worried about me," Robin said softly, a new tone in his voice. "Is it true?"
"I have always been worried about you, friend Robin," Star whispered.
"Am I that bad really? But that's only because… well, I didn't want you hurt," Robin confessed. Yup, I was good, so I turn around, about to disappear. But no, Beast boy's there.
"WHy are you avoiding me?" I questioned before he even spoke. HE looked sort of stunned. That could never be good.
A/N: DONE! At least with the chapter. Ugh, that took forever to type. Sorry if Raven's out of character but she is in that episode too so I'm just keeping her that way. Anyway, I do hope you like and please review. No flames, please. I'll have two one-shots up soon too, Robin/Star fluff. One's called Do No Harm and it's pretty dark, and then there's Goodnight… quite cutesy. Just letting you know. Next chapter of this will be up Saturday. (When Stranded's on!)