Rocky Territory
By Letselina
Chapter Four
Gold-Eyed Green
Anger pulsed through his veins. He refused to speak to either of the diabolical villians until he could understand what was going on. The green-skinned changeling made his way to the medical bed once more. Swallowing fear, he leaned against the bed, running his gloved hands across the sheet. He had covered the body of the unconscious blonde, but left her face open to the air. She seemed so surreal, ethereal... lifeless.
"Terra." He said her name softly, afraid to disturb the air around her. "If you can hear me..." he sighed. "Know that I'm here... I won't leave you again." There was no response. "You breathe... So your living... but you aren't alive..."
"She won't answer you," Gaia sneered. She had taken a seat near the exit when Slade had left. "She's a worthless bitch who'll rot in hell."
"Shut up!" Beastboy growled, clenching his teeth. "You know nothing about her... Who she is..."
"Remind me to ask her if she's alive long enough to tell me," Gaia stood, walking toward the changeling. "She's not here to live."
Beastboy brushed his fingers through Terra's golden hair. "Why did you bring me here? Why do you hate Terra so much?"
"Because the man in the mask does," Gaia said easily, crossing her arms over her chest. "Slade requested for me to bring you here."
"To pose as Terra?" Beastboy said, resting his hand against Terra's cheek, "She's not really alive... Why can't..." he trailed off, shaking his head. All he'd recieve in response of his questions would be lies and sarcastic remarks. All he could do was wait for the Titans to arrive. They'd help him save Terra.
Wouldn't they?
Gaia glanced at a clock, "Well, the Titans will be here soon."
Beastboy peered over his shoulder at Gaia, who neared him omniously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," Gaia said, her eyes flashing, "it's time for you to go to your new room." She jabbed a thumb behind her, where a barren prison cell was.
Beastboy swiftly shape-shifted into a hawk, flying over Gaia's head, and cawing angrily. He had a bad feeling about what was going to happen if the Titans came and they couldn't find him.
"You can run," Gaia snickered, "but the earth is out to get you." Her eyes flared bright gold as she threw out her arms at the green hawk. A burst of golden energy blasted from her palms, knocking the hawk to the ground.
Quickly recovering, the hawk became a fierce jaguar, growling menacingly. He leapt in the air with great speed, attempting to pounce the blonde.
Gaia, however, was a step ahead. Easily, she punched her fist out, another sharp blow contacting with Beastboy, sending him crashing into the wall. "Now, we can continue this, or you can go into your 'room' without more pain."
Shifting into a bear, the changeling roared ferociously, bounding toward Gaia for a second time. This time, he was able to ram into her, causing her to fall back slightly. Without hesitation, he changed into a raptor, charging at full speed at her.
Before he was able to contact his attack, an explosion of power blasted into him, throwing him once again into the wall. Gaia stood up, recovering easily. "This ends now," she said monotonously. Her eyes flared golden yellow, and the ground beneath Beastboy trembled. Two giant hands made of rock shot up through the floor, forcefully grabbing the changeling.
"Let me GO!" Beastboy yelled, changing between all sorts of creatures. No matter his size, the rocky hands never let go. After a few moments, he shifted back into human form, glaring at the blonde.
Smirking, Gaia beckoned him closer, and the hands obeyed, bringing the changeling to her level. "It's only a matter of time."
"Gaia." Slade entered the room, a frown apparent in his features. "The Titans are almost here. You need to greet them."
Pushing her hair behind her ears, Gaia walked closer to Beastboy, her face only inches from his. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to tell them you say hi," she said, gently cupping his cheek in her hand. Her eyes began to glow silver.
Beastboy narrowed his eyes angrily. "Don't touch me," he growled, spitting in her face.
Her concentration broken, Gaia backed away, wiping his saliva from her face. Anger overcame her face and she clenched her fists; the hands that held the changeling copied her. Beastboy let out a gasp of pain.
"Gaia!" Slade said sternly.
Releasing her fists, the blonde exhaled as if trying to relax herself. With a cruel smirk on her face, she clamped her hand over the changeling's mouth, not bothered by any more attempts of his to remove her hand. Her eyes flared silver now, and her figure was engulfed in the light.
Beastboy's eyes grew wide and he struggled to break free of her hold, but was unsuccessful. Finally she released his mouth, and the light began to die. When it had completely faded, Beastboy gasped in surprise. "No..." It was hard to tell who was the real Beastboy. It was almost as if he was looking in a mirror.
"You know what?" the doppleganger laughed, "I'll tell them myself." The fake Beastboy chuckled, his eyes glowing that same golden color as the two hands threw the real Beastboy into the cell, locking him in.
"You can't do this!" Beastboy yelled. "My friends will know it's not me!"
"We'll see," the fake left, exiting the room.
Beastboy yelled out angrily, pounding his fists against the wall.
"Come now, Beastboy," Slade's crisp voice reminded the changeling he was still there. "Surely you can't be that angry."
"You!" Beastboy faced the masked man, clenching his fists and teeth.
"Still upset that your little girlfriend couldn't kill me, aren't you?" Slade taunted.
"Who is she?" Beastboy demanded. "What kind of monster is Gaia?"
Slade laughed, the cruel sort of laugh Beastboy remembered when he had approached Terra before her death. "You can't possibly understand. Gaia is more than just a monster. She is my creation. A perfect mix of Terra's appearance and powers, with Robin's skills and mind. The perfect apprentice."
"What's with you and apprentices anyway? No one wants to be like you!" Beastboy said.
He laughed again, whole-heartedly, but his heart was too black to make him sound humored. The crisp, cruel laugh echoed in the room. "Which is why I forced them into apprenticeship."
The changeling gripped the steel bars tightly, growling angrily. "Then why do you need me? I won't be your apprentice! Nothing you can do will make me!"
"To awaken Terra, of course."
Beastboy's eyes fell on the unconscious body of the said blonde. Her chest still lifted and sank, and she hadn't moved an inch, even during his battle with Gaia. "Terra's dead."
Slade shook his head, "Not yet."
"We have to be careful," Robin warned, "Slade could have traps for us anywhere." He spoke into a mouth-piece while driving his R-Cycle.
"No splitting up this time," Cyborg said, driving the T-Car. "We don't know what he's up to."
"Our mission is only to find Beastboy," Starfire said worriedly, flying high in the air.
Raven spoke darkly, flying as well, "And Terra?"
"No," Robin said, "We don't have time to find out what happened. We just have to get Beastboy out of there."
The four remaining Titans landed and parked outside a large warehouse. "So this is Slade's newest hideout?" Starfire questioned.
"I... guess so," Cyborg said, nervously readying himself.
"We don't know that Slade is alive," Raven said, "It might just be the work of Terra."
"She was hardly alive," Cyborg sighed, "I don't understand how she could be behind all of this."
"Let's just go," Robin said, leading the four inside the warehouse.
Darkness filled the room as they shut the door behind them. Starfire held up a hand, illuminating the room with a starbolt's green light. "There is nothing here," she said quietly.
"There's a door over there," the meta-human pointed his finger across the room, "There doesn't seem to be any security in here at all... I have a reading of four bodies not too far ahead. One of them is coming this way."
"Four?" Raven said quizzically. "There should only be three. Terra, Slade, and Beastboy."
"We'll have to find out when we get there," Robin said crisply, "Let's keep going."
The quartet ventured on through the door into a room with a large window that lit it up brightly.
"Beastboy!" they chorused, seeing the green changling slumped in a corner. It was a mad rush as they sprinted to their friend.
Looking up, the changling grinned, "Hey guys, what took you?"
"Come on," Raven stuck out her hand to help him up, "We gotta get out of here before Slade or Terra come."
"We are ever so elated to see you, Beastboy," Starfire smiled warmly.
Beastboy took Raven's hand and stood up, brushing himself off. "Yeah?" a cruel, almost maniacal smirk crept across his face. "Don't be too happy to see me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.
"This!" Beastboy cried, changing into a large gorrila. He slammed his giant green fists into Cyborg, sending him flying across the room.
"Beastboy!" Starfire gasped loudly, backing off slightly. She hovered in the air, watching with horror-filled emerald eyes.
Cyborg was smashed into the wall, but gravity seemed to fail as he stayed positioned there for a moment. His eyes widened as something began to creep over his legs and arms. A thick, black goo slowly encased his body. "Whoa!" he cried out. The thick liquid covered his neck, but instead of continuing to his face, it began to stretch out, creating a bubble-like case around him that closed completely.
"Cyborg!" Robin yelled. The case slowly became transparent, and showed a bewildered Cyborg trapped against the wall. It reminded him of a bubble that stuck on a wall, just enough to fit Cyborg in.
"Yo! What's this for BB!" he yelled.
Beastboy, who had become a human during the distraction, laughed cruelly. Ignoring his friends question, he changed into a raptor, charging at Starfire.
The alien squeaked in surprise, powering up starbolts as she flew backwards in evasion. "Please, friend! I do not wish to harm you!" she kept her hands aimed at the changeling. Before she could react, the raptor-Beastboy pounced upon her. Her starbolts let loose in the wrong direction, hitting the wall, either side of Cyborg.
"Watch it!" the half-human, half-robot shouted.
"You'll love this trick," Beastboy said as he turned into his human form. His eyes flared golden, causing Starfire to gasp loudly. The ground beneath them trembled violently, causing the other two Titans to fall to their knees. A snake of earth crushed through the floor, slamming into Starfire's body. Two hands of ground emerged from the snake, grabbing Starfire and slamming her against another wall. "Have fun, princess," he laughed, turning quickly before either of the two remaining Titans attacked.
The same black goo began to swallow Starfire's body, and she let out quiet, panicked cries as it formed a bubble around her.
"Who's next?" Beastboy laughed. "How about you, Bird-boy?"
"You just..." Robin's mouth hung open as he stared dumbfoundly at Beastboy.
"How did you use her powers?" Raven growled.
"Come on Raven," Beastboy grinned, "Don't believe in magic?"
"What's your problem Beastboy? What's going on?" Robin demanded calmly. He had his bo-staff out, ready for anything the changeling could do.
"My problem?" he laughed, "You have no idea how easy this is. I don't need to tell you what my problem is."
"Why are you fighting us?" Raven questioned.
Beastboy grinned, "Because of Terra."
"Terra?" Robin's battle position loosened slightly, "What about her? Where is she?"
"You'll see soon," he chuckled.
"I knew she was behind this all," Raven hissed between clenched teeth.
"You like blaming her, don't you Ravie?" Beastboy narrowed his eyes. "But not everyone's perfect, like you, are they Ravie?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" the empath glared, rising above the ground.
Another cruel laugh emitted from the changeling, "I'll tell you on your birthday, dear Ravie." Without warning, he became a bear, lunging at Robin.
"Beastboy!" Robin yelped in surprise as he got slammed into the wall just behind him. He cursed under his breath as the goo began to overtake his body, and struggled against it.
In human form once more, Beastboy looked slyly at Raven. "You didn't think I'd know, did you Ravie?"
The empath was silent, only watching the changeling with glowing white eyes.
"You don't think it will just come and the world will be fine and dandy, do you?"
"Shut up," she muttered.
"Oh, be real Ravie," Beastboy snapped, "No one will like you after it."
The three trapped Titans looked on with puzzlement, glancing at each other for an answer.
"Shut up!" Raven yelled, her power blasting into Beastboy.
Beastboy's eyes flared golden again and the ground vibrated. Two powerful fists shot up from the ground, slamming into Raven. The empath fell from the air, but the two hands caught her. "This can be easy, or this can be hard, Ravie," Beastboy said, walking up to her. One of the hands crumbled to dust, and the other held her tightly by her right ankle, dangling her in the air.
"Why are you doing this?" she hissed.
"You already asked that," Beastboy said. He leaned closer to her, whispering in her ear, "Why are you going to destroy the world?"
"Shut up!" she screamed loudly, her body sending out a powerful blast of black magic. It smashed into Beastboy, sending him crashing to the floor. The earthly-hand that had held her crumbled, and dropped her to the floor.
The three captive Titans gasped, looking at Beastboy - or at least, who had been Beastboy. As the magic had hit him, his appearance had been blown away. Instead of the green-skinned boy they had come to rescue, there was a blonde they had recognized from the cave the day before.
Gaia's body was crumpled on the floor. Her eyes opened and shut as tried to shake away the feeling of the empath's dark magic. She groaned, slowly sitting up. Muttering imprecations under her breath, she looked at the now unconscious Raven who was covered in dust and dirt. Putting a hand to her head, she glared at the other three Titans who stared at her with bewilderment. A cruel smirk fell onto her features as she stood up, brushing dirt from her body. "I have a new home for you," said Gaia. She pressed her hand against the wall that Starfire and Robin were trapped upon, and the bubble-cases were swallowed by the wall, taking the two Titans with them. She did the same to the wall Cyborg was on, and recieved the same result.
"Come now, Ravie," Gaia smiled, her eyes glowing yellow as another earth hand pressed her against the wall. She touched the wall where the unconscious Titan slowly became captive by the black goo, "I won't tell your secrets."
A/N: This was an ever-so fun chapter to write. Remember that this takes place before "Birthmark". The bit about Raven's birthday and destroying the world will be explained in later chapters (at least, how Gaia knows about it). So, does anyone really hate Gaia yet? Tee-hee. I thought so. Sorry for taking so long to update. I got my temps and will be driving during some of my writing times, but I will have this weekend open to write this and my Final Fantasy story. Review on your way out! - Letselina