Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans

Thank you all for reviewing, hope you like this chapter.

( ) author's notes

- dreamscape

'' - telepathy

- mindscape

The Titan

Chapter 7

Written by Nate Sindel

Blood stood from the chair slowly, Sunfire watching his every move, eyes trained on the frail, old man. Something was amiss here, even he knew that appearances were deceiving, but there was something not right with the man's walk. Back at the HIVE, he had seen Brother Blood move, and it had not been at the shambling gate he now had.

"What's the matter, having trouble maintaining the barriers?" the Tamaranean asked as he crossed his arms. 'He must be expelling an immense amount of energy, even now.'

"I suppose that I don't need to," Blood said, standing a little straighter, using the table for support, "now that you're here. But, even so, I believe I'll introduce you to the new alpha team."

Sunfire watched as he started towards the other end of the chamber, quite a ways for the weakened Blood, but, eventually, he made it. His hand rested on a stone, which then sunk into the wall, which then opened to reveal three teenagers. Two he knew, one he had only seen.

"You know Bumblebee, don't you?" the old man smirk as he gestured to the young black girl. "As well as Jinx and Mammoth."

His smirk widened at the look on Sunfire's face, the pure contempt and confusion, the look of one lost in the situation. The only problem was that it was the dire concentration in the boy's mind which kept Blood from seeing his thoughts. He had caught Jinx and Mammoth shortly after their attempted escape.

"Yes, they still have use, I just hope my power didn't damage their minds too much."

Sunfire grumbled something too low to hear, his eyes closing, brow furrowing in rage. His fists clenched, the sound of flesh on flesh, and tends stretching filled the chamber. The forearm guard for his arm materialized from nothing. The muscles in his arms and chest tightened, veins began popping up all over his body.

"What was that?" Blood held hand to his ear.

"You'd better pray," golden eyes opened, and hand unclenched, "to whatever god you serve, that it didn't."

"Oooh, testy," he turned around and walked behind Jinx. "Well, I'm afraid I must be going, have fun."

The stone slid shut as he left, which left the four of them alone, and Sunfire was trying to piece together the final thought that Blood had, it was subliminal to what he had said, but he had picked it up. 'I guess the question is, why do you care?' was what he said, and Sunfire couldn't answer it.

"Jinx, Mammoth, go," the sharp, feminine voice cut through the air like the hexes which were streaking towards him.

It made no difference, a flick of his wrist and the hexes were sent away, crashing into the ceiling somewhere. There was something else, something very faint, but it seemed to be coming nearer. But it wasn't Raven, he couldn't pick her up at all, nor could he find Terra or Robin.

"Doesn't matter," he said, mostly to himself.

A raised hand deflected Mammoth's punch, then grabbed his wrist and flipped him into the table. The same hand was as much a blur as his body was as he grabbed Bumblebee's stingers and bent them into uselessness. The back of his hand then connected with the underside of her chin, thrusting her up and back against the wall/door. He then whirled around on Jinx, her red eyes glaring at him, and he stopped.

'If she doesn't matter, why do I care?' he thought as her hexes passed through him. 'Because...she does matter.'

His hand was one her head in an instant, forcing her back against the wall. In a similar motion, he moved from there to the table, where Mammoth was still falling, and grabbed his head as well. The process was swift, precise, and complete; he removed his hands and stood up, finally noticing just how slow everything had gotten.

Breathing in, then out, time began to catch up to him, and everything began moving at normal speed. Jinx and Mammoth hit the floor, as well as Bumblebee, chunks of the wall falling around her. She didn't stay on the floor long as a hand wrapped around her neck and forced her against the wall.

"Where are the Titans?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"How should I know?" she was able to grunt.

"Are you aware of what I can do to your mind?" he released her neck, exuding the most minute amount of his power to hold her to the floor. "I could easily reach in and tear it apart, just for fun, so I'm giving you this chance to give me a straight answer."

Bumblebee looked at him, then at the wall to the right; Sunfire followed her gaze, and noticed the lines of a door, cleverly hidden in the rocks. Allowing her up, he walked over to the wall, and reached for the panel to open the door.

"Ooooh, what happened?"

He turned and saw Jinx standing from where he had laid her on the floor, and Mammoth was beginning to stir as well. Leaving the wall, he moved over to her, helping her to her feet; remaining silent as she held her head. When she removed it, she looked around, taking in her surroundings.

"Welcome back," he said, not really noticing, nor caring, that Bumblebee had slipped out of the room.

"Sunfire?" she looked up at him, the small, relieved, smile on his face. "Where am I? What happened?"

"It's hard to explain," he removed the hand from her back and started for the wall again, hearing Mammoth groan his awakening. "Suffice it to say that you weren't yourself for a short time."

Pushing the panel, the wall opened, revealing a staircase behind it. He looked down passed the darkness, into the stone, and could see a large chamber. Brother Blood was obviously weakening, seeing as how his other senses were working again. It was either that or he had simply stopped, and the effect it had on him was wearing off.

'What could he be doing down there?' he wondered to himself, trying, and failing, to see further. '/Raven, if you can hear me, say something./'

Raven, at the moment, was back to back with Robin, striking down Slade's robots left and right. They just kept coming, as if there was no end, large and small, black and white, some firing lasers, others - the larger ones - attempted to beat them with the massive pincers they had for hands.

"Any ideas?" she asked, setting up barrier after barrier, only to have them knocked down.

"We need to try and get to the hole Terra fell through," he replied, swinging his bo staff to take out three more bots.

Upon reaching this level, the ground beneath them had been fine, but Terra fell through again. It was strange, though, it did make sense, if all this was to get her alone. It was obvious that that was what this was all about, attempting to get Terra as his apprentice.

"Well, then what are we doing standing here?" she whipped her hand towards the hole, and all of the droids between them and it were blasted back.

Robin leapt up and into the hole, while Raven flew down. The tunnel they were in was not straight down, as the first one was, this was slanted, carrying them further from their starting point. As she fell/slid, Raven heard a slight buzzing in her head, like very quiet static.

'What is he trying to say?' Raven thought, figuring it to be Sunfire.

Unfortunately, she didn't have time to think much on it, because they had entered a massive chamber, large enough to probably fit a few stadiums inside. There was a platform at the center, on which stood Slade, and Terra was nowhere to be seen. Taking a look around, she saw that there was a steel door behind them, and a few pods off to the side, all of which were occupied.

"Robin, look!" she pointed to the pods, each of which held a Titan; Beast Boy, Cyborg and Starfire were all inside, eyes closed and apparently asleep.

"Ah, so you've finally arrived," Slade quipped from his position.

"Slade!" Robin hissed, running forward to attack, skidding to a halt when his nemesis held up a remote.

"Now, now, Robin," he waved it a little, "there's no need to rush."

"Where's Terra?"

"She's right here," he stepped off the platform and pressed a button, the top of it sliding open. A harness-type structure was raised from beneath it, with Terra in it.

Her arms were pulled behind her, held together by a singe manacle, her legs were spread slightly, shackled to the base of the harness, and her head was held straight up, an almost claw-like fixture holding it from behind. Her eyes were closed, making it obvious she was unconscious. The whole scene looked like something out of a bondage porn movie, but there was nothing erotic about this.

"With this chair, I can tap directly into her power, without her even having to think," Slade chuckled.

With that he pressed another button on the remote, and Terra threw herself against her bonds, writhing in pain as the floor around the platform began to split and crack. With a great upheaval, the ground beneath Robin and Raven was forced up towards the ceiling, they were able to jump away, but then had to contend with boulders and rocks of varying sizes being thrown at them.

"We've got to get the claw off her head!" Robin yelled as he deflected a rock with his staff, and threw several exploding disks at a large boulder.

"Right," the empathic goth replied, grabbing one of the boulders with her power and flinging at several more.

Sunfire had found what he was looking for, Brother Blood, who was looking much better now. He attributed it to the fact that he could see, and hear, and "feel" exceptionally well, that Blood had stopped his psychic jamming. His fists clenched, and his eyes began to glow a golden color.

With him were Jinx and Mammoth, who were looking to be out of breath from keeping up with his rate of travel. Both were slightly confused at why he would follow Blood instead of going down the stairs to his friends. Jinx didn't really mind much, the more she was with him was enough; aside from the whole realization that he was not Nate Sindel, she still had a crush on him.

"So, you broke my control over them, I commend you on your skill," Blood drew back a little, a red aura present around his body. "But that isn't going to save you."

"Who said I needed saving?" Sunfire asked rhetorically. "I am Tal Sunfire, and I can not, will not allow you to get away."

As he spoke, two massive wings erupted from the scars on his back, folding around his shoulders slightly. Thrusting his hand out before him, he launched a golden starbolt, then he was simply gone. Appearing behind Blood, who nimbly sidestepped the bolt coming at him, and avoided the one launched from behind as well. The two starbolts connected and cancelled out.

'He's faster than I thought,' he thought as he dodged a strike from Blood, who had gotten beside him.

Their hands were soon a blur of motion as they continued the fight, both upping the ante every few seconds. Then, just as it seemed he was getting the upper hand, Blood jumped back, grabbed his robe, and threw it off, revealing his clothes beneath (you all know what he looks like, right? Good).

"Since we seem to be revealing at the moment," he sneered as red lightning began dancing from the spheres in his hands.

He began using the lightning as a whip, slashing at Sunfire again and again, always being deflected by the single forearm guard that the alien still had. Soon it was too much, and the guard cracked and broke; no matter, the Phoenix Blade was drawn. One of the whips struck that sword, and flames rushed back up its length, setting Blood aflame.

The old man fell to the ground, shaking off the burns, and looked up...at the foot that came crashing into his face. It lifted him off the ground, and threw him through the air, into the wall, where a hand with a mangled forearm connected with his abdomen.

'/SUNFIRE!/' Terra's voice screamed in his head.

He dropped Blood to the ground and turned to the door, moving as swiftly as possible to get to her; grabbing Jinx and Mammoth on his way.

Things were not fairing well for Robin and Raven, the closer they got to Terra, the harder it was. Boulders the size of cars were broken into smaller pieces, that would whirl around either one of them, then slam together like a crusher. Raven could repel them, but Robin had to use a much more physical method.

"Terra, you have to resist!" Robin yelled through the din of crashing stones, and breaking ground. "It's your power, not his, you have to break free!"

"I'm trying!" she screamed, still engulfed in the pain of the chair.

As she writhed on the chair, Slade stood behind her, in the calm center of the whirlwind. He was oblivious to what was happening just then, beneath him. This location was chosen because it was right at the junction of the three faults that ran through Jump City, thus to maximize Terra's power. But it was the faults that were working against him now.

From the cracks in the floor, magma began to boil up, sprouting from the release in pressure. Raven saw this and teleported back to the relative safety of the doors, grabbing the pods off to the side and bringing them with her.

"Robin, her power's triggered a volcano, get out of there!" she yelled.

"Not YET!" he leapt through the final wall of stones, feeling one of them strike his arm, snapping it, and delivered a devastating kick to Slade's face, forcing him back into the wall of swirling rocks.

"Terra, stop!" Slade turned off the remote, but the stones didn't stop. "What are you doing?"

"This!" she commanded a rock to grab Robin and brought him to the safety of the doors. "You can't control me anymore!"

The claw on her head began to crack, until it snapped into several pieces, which fell to the floor. With that gone, Slade's eye widened, this wasn't supposed to be happening. His plan had been perfect, with Brother Blood's help he had constructed the chair to completely immobilize Terra's body and mind, allowing for total control of her power.

'/SUNFIRE!/' she screamed with her mind, hoping he would get there in time.

The rocks fell to the ground, or the lava, in some parts, as her attention shifted from them, to stopping the volcano. Slade, taking the opening given him, leapt from the platform, and made his way over the lava to the edge, as far from Terra as possible. As Terra began her final scream, Raven erected a shield to protect them, but could feel a familiar presence approaching.

As the final flash of Terra's power burst from her, the steel doors behind the Titans were blown from their hinges. Sunfire entered, depositing his passengers as he did so, and looked on as his student sacrificed herself.

When the light was gone, nothing was left except for a Terra turned to stone, still in the chair, still shackled, her hair flying wildly around her head, eyes open, looking directly at Sunfire. Time seemed to stop he stepped forward, through Raven's shield, floating over the petrified magma field, and landed in front of her. Lifting his hands to her face, he positioned them for Unity, placing his forehead against hers.

He could see nothing.

Terra was completely gone, her life essence drained from her body, possibly returned to the Earth it was born from.

But that didn't stop Sunfire from looking beyond her, at Slade, who was attempting to escape. Moving instantaneously, he was in front of him now, knocking him away from the doors, over the ledge onto the frozen lava.

"You did this," he growled, kicking Slade in the ribs, sending him flying against a boulder. "You attempted to use a power you didn't understand," another kick, "pushed her to levels she wasn't ready for," a jab to the gut, "and then you pushed her further," a backhand to the face, "using her emotional instability as a motivator," he grabbed Slade's head, driving him into the ground, "and then you lost control."

He threw Slade against the wall, causing a very deep imprint, then grabbed him by the front of his suit.

"What you have done is unforgivable," he raised his hand to the man's face, palm up, fingers extended.

"And what will you do about it?" Slade asked as a small trickle of blood escaped from under his mask, he was asking for death.

"I will give you...your life," he dropped the unmoving villain to the ground, who began to writhe on the floor, clutching at his mask, and howling in pain.

Sunfire began to walk away, as the Titans - and former HIVE members - arrived. Raven was the first to speak.

"What did you do?"

"I have kept my promise not to kill him, but from now on his body will feel as if consumed by fire, the pain a constant reminder of those he has hurt," he turned away from them and began walking again; Jinx and Mammoth said their good byes to the Titans and went after him.

Raven looked about to say something else, but held back at the cold feeling she got from him. Slade's little scheme had affected him more than any of them; Terra was his student, possibly the closest thing he had to a little sister, or, possibly, a daughter. But one thing was for sure, Beast Boy wasn't going to be much happier when he was released from his stasis chamber.

TBC

There, finally, a little Christmas present for all of you who had waited so long. I'll be taking another little break to work on my other neglected stories. With new music comes new ideas, and I just got the Shinedown CD, thusly I was able to break through my writer's block. So, hey, just remember to send those reviews, we're hoping for a few more than last time.