In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 8: Calm before the Blizzard

The infirmary was eerily quiet as the frail girl lay sleeping soundly on one of the beds. The lights were dimmed and a machine next to her beeped steadily in tune with her heart. Only two things dared to make a noise in that room. The beeping heart monitor, and the very faint, almost infant like, shallow breathing of the blonde girl whom has not opened her eyes in almost three days.

If one weren't looking closely enough, one would assume that she was completely alone in this dark room. But another girl, who's attire almost completely hid her within the abundant shadows, sat cross-legged in a nearby chair. She had not been charged with the task of looking over the sleeping girl, this was something that she chose to do without even notifying the others. She had come in there with a purpose, but a purpose she had questioned if there was any real point in fulfilling.

Hesitantly, she rose from her position and walked across the room to stand over the sleeping teenager, "You're one messed up girl… that much we have in common," she said with a strange sense of amusement gracing her voice.

She looked at the girl, receiving no acknowledgment save for the stable breathing, "Yeah, I'm trying to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Terra while she's in a coma," She mocked herself, "Lot of good that'll do, Raven."

She looked again at her inattentive audience, "Okay, look. By all accounts I should be really mad at you right now. But it's no good yelling at you when you probably can't hear me. Actually, Cyborg thinks that you're staying asleep just to avoid me," she tried to laugh at her own comment but it faded into a sigh.

Growing weary of standing around, she took up a seat on the bed right beside Terra. The sleeping girl bounced once from the impact, letting out a quiet little moan.

"That's right, I should be mad at you… but I'm not… I can't be. Otherwise I'd be nothing more than a hypocrite," She fidgeted on the bed of a bid before continuing, "Look, I can't say that I forgive you for what you did, or for any of the things you have done, and I can't even promise that I'll even pretend to get along with you. You betrayed this team yet again and instead of trusting us, you gave a powerful weapon to our enemy. But I guess you were only thinking about one thing at the time, weren't you? Well, congratulations, you got what you wanted, you're flesh and bone again. You've been relieved of the curse that has made your life so miserable. You must feel so happy right now. Well guess what kid, it's far from over. You will stand up to this, you will reconcile with your mistakes, because if you dare to just run away from this and leave us to deal with your psychopath of a sister, I swear I will hunt you down and-"

"What are you doing in here?" Beast Boy asked as he opened the door.

Raven quickly stood up and pulled her hood over her head, "Nothing!" She said sharply.

Beast boy studied her expression as he stepped into the room, "You weren't going to do anything to Terra, were you?"

"Please, give me some credit. If I were going to do anything to her I'd want her awake to…" she caught Beast Boy glaring at her, "Sorry. You don't have to worry. I don't want to do anything to her; it's Isis that we should be after. Speaking of which, how goes the hunt for the little Ice princess?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"What can I say? It's like she disappeared off the face of the Earth."

"Do you think that she skipped town?" Raven shrugged, "I mean, she got what she wanted."

"Yeah, right. Like she'd just pack up and leave after the beating that she gave us. Just try asking Robin that same question. He hasn't left that computer screen since we got back. Seriously, I'm missing all my favourite shows!"

"So he thinks that she'll try attacking us again?"

"Worse, he thinks that she'd try attacking the tower. That's why the security's been so tight since that day." Beast boy then looked sympathetically down at Terra, "It's strange isn't it, she looks just like the day we met her. You know, this may sound corny, but the other day I was in here, just… talking to her. Sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"Not that weird," Raven commented, "Well I'll leave you two alone now."

"Raven?" Beast boy called before she could step outside the door, "If… when Terra wakes up, and she's back to her old self again… what do you think will be the first thing you say to her?"

Raven actually had to think about that for a moment, "Hopefully not anything too condescending," she answered in a very deadpan manner before leaving her friend and the… traitor alone.

She traversed through the halls and entered the main room to find Cyborg sitting at a monitor clicking intensely away at a keyboard while Robin spent his time looking between a large map of the city displayed on the big screen and a tablet computer he held in his hand. In fact, Raven arrived just in time to witness Robin loose his patience.

"Arge!" he yelled as he threw the device to the floor and tossed his arms up in the air.

"Yo, man! You wanna be more careful with my tech!" Cyborg yelled, almost as equally stressed. Raven, the only other person in the room stood frozen in time and watched as these two have finally had enough.

"This is ridiculous! For three days, THREE DAYS, we've combed the city, checked every database from here to Gotham looking for this psychopath. And we have absolutely nothing to show for it!"

"So maybe you could see this as a good thing, man. It looks like Isis split, she's out of our hair."

"You and I both know that it's never that easy. I let her into this house, I let her join this team, I let her betray us, I-"

"It's happening again," Cyborg interrupted, "It's just like last time and you think it's your fault that it happened. You're always like this, man. You think that everything that goes wrong is your fault."

Robin walked right up and slammed his fist down on the desk that Cyborg was working on, staring him right in the eyes, "I never make the same mistake twice."

Cyborg returned the stare for a moment before he spoke, "There is one thing that's different this time. We all trusted Terra."

"And that's why I should never have let this happen," Robin growled as he lifted himself off the desk and walked towards the door, not even exchanging greetings was he and Raven crossed paths.

"He seems more stressed out than usual," Raven observed, "Isn't this just like any other villain? Sure he's been like this with Slade, but he never went on a three day streak."

"When was the last time a villain joined our team, betrayed us, kidnapped one of our own, gain a new super power-up, kicked our collective butts, then disappeared all within a week?" Cyborg recounted without straying from his work at hand.

"I see your point."

"And what's worse is that Robin thinks that the Tower has a giant bull's-eye on it. Being surrounded by water, it'll be easy pickings for someone like Isis. For all we know, she could be waiting for us to let our guards down."

"I guess he was right, this is ridiculous." Raven admitted, "So what are you doing?"

"System checks. Having the security system wired for sound for three days straight takes a real toll on the hardware. I'm just making sure that…" he stopped mid sentence and narrowed his eyes at the screen, "what the hell? Damn!"

"What? What happened?" Raven asked, understanding the urgency in Cyborg's voice.

"Someone's trying to hack our communication frequency!" He informed as he typed at an increasingly rapid pace trying to counteract this hacker.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I have to jam our own frequency to keep this isolated! Go round up the team like only you can, Rae!"

"Got'cha!" and with that Raven summoned up her Dark Matter to envelope her and disappeared into the floor.

Moments later she reappeared, flipping back her cloak to allow the Titans to emerge from the darkness. "What's the situation, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"Got a hacker trying to break into our communications!" Cyborg informed.

"I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting her to attack the Tower like this," Robin said with a slight smirk.

"You are certain that it is her?" Starfire queried.

"It had better be, I'm sick of waiting for her. Cyborg, open up communications."

"Say what? Man, if I let this thing in it could seriously mess up our whole system!"

"Open the communications, but keep it on a stand-alone network and lay down an encryption on all other systems."

"You're the boss," Cyborg huffed as he followed his orders.

The map of the city displayed on the big screen flickered twice then fell into static, soon to be replaced with a slightly garbled video feed of the villainy girl in question. Though she was mostly in shadows and wore a long coat, there was no effort to hide her identity.

"Titans," Isis greeted with a devilish smile.

"Isis," Robin returned with a glare.

"Hmm, is Terra not there with you?"

"She's not your concern right now, you'll just have to deal with me!"

"Oh, right to the point. I like that," She smiled, "Very well then. You can't trace this transmission in time to do anything about it, so don't bother. And don't bother calling for help. If you involve anyone else, I'll just go after them too."

"What do you want, Isis?"

"For you to surrender and come off this nonsense," She laughed at the masked teen, "I can clearly kill you all at any time. Why prolong the inevitable? You're all going to die. You can at least go out with the knowledge that you didn't die while huddled in a corner."

"That's not going to happen. Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're friends of my sister. Anyone that makes her happy can't be allowed to exist."

"What are your issues with Terra, anyway? You two are family. You don't have to do this."

"Spare me the morality play, Robin. Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

"Your beef was with the Gaia, right? Well you've got that now. Other than that, you and Terra are identical twins in every way. The raw material is the same. There's no reason why you can't be every bit as good as Terra can be."

"It's too late to appeal to my better side, Robin. You messed that up when you decided to start studying me behind my back; when you started to compare me to her. I do what I want, got it? If you haven't noticed, I've evolved a lot since we first met. I've got a new lease on life."

"And what are you going to do with it?" Robin persisted. "Waste it in a blaze of hatred? Misuse your power so you can feel better about yourself? There's a better way to deal with things than this."

Isis's appearance darkened, something inside of her eyes gleamed with an intensity Robin actually feared, but he wouldn't allow her to see it, "I'll teach you what I'm really capable of, and soon! And when you're writhing in agony, begging for me to stop, remember which sister has the true power in our family. I'll be seeing you, much sooner than you'd like, I promise," Her image abruptly flashed of the screen in a distortion of static.

"That transmission Isis sent us was just foreplay," Robin muttered, cocking his head to the side. He hated situations that he couldn't control, and the Titans were regrettably being boxed in further with each passing moment.

"You think she's going to mess with us again?" Beast Boy asked.

"She asked us to surrender," Robin said curtly, "I was right all along. She's planning an all out assault against the Tower."

"She would not," Starfire shook her head, "I cannot believe that she would press us so far as to attack our home."

"I know it's hard to accept, but the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes. We need to mobilize."

"What's your plan?" Cyborg asked.

"Isis intends to strike us here, so we make tracks."

"That's your big plan?" Beast Boy raised his voice, "Run away!"

"Hardly. I'm just trying to outsmart her. She knows the territory here too well. If we're going to face her, we need to be the ones to pick the place, not her."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Raven cocked an eyebrow, "If she's keeping tabs on us that closely, she'll know the instant we leave if we go by ground or by air."

"Which leaves the water," Cyborg nodded, "It might work."

"It would also make us sitting ducks if she figured it out. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be surrounded by water if Isis finds out what we're doing. That battle would be over before it even begins."

"Agreed," Robin nodded, "But it might also be our best option." He turned to Cyborg, "How's Terra, can we move her?"

"She's stable enough to take with us. Most of the physical trauma wasn't that serious. It's the scars we can't see that worry me."

"We have to take Terra with us!" Beast Boy insisted, "There's no way we're leaving her behind."

"Don't worry, we won't," Robin responded.

"Perhaps we should call on our friends," Starfire laid a hand on Robin's shoulder, "We should not be too proud to ask for help."

"The Titans East?" Robin brought a gloved hand to his chin, considering it.

"Strength in numbers," Raven admitted.

"Is this fight worth dragging others into?" Robin pondered.

"Don't I get a say in any of this? She's my sister," A somewhat wobbly Terra joined the group. She seemed groggy and dishevelled, but her skin showed considerably more colour than it had when she had been brought back to the Tower.

"Terra!" Beast Boy shouted, rushing to her side.

"I'll be all right," She patted him gently on the shoulder, her lips curling slightly at the corner of her mouth, "Hey… I felt that!" She gripped him a little harder, flexing her fingers, "I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to, well, feel!"

"Okay, so maybe she's doing better than I thought," Cyborg said sheepishly, "Great, she knows Isis better than anybody."

"That's what worries me," Raven muttered under her breath, clearly unhappy at Terra's interruption.

"That's right, I do," Terra nodded, disengaging herself from Beast Boy, who was in full fawning mode, "She wants to make me pay for the stuff that happened between us when we were kids. Hurting you guys is just her way of trying to hurt me."

"But she must have some kind of weakness," Robin insisted.

"She has the Gaia," Terra pouted, "What's worse, she knows how to control it."

"Everyone has a weakness," Robin informed, "and it doesn't take a genius to figure out your sister's Achilles' Heel," he looked around at his comrades for someone to come up with the answer on their own, "Well, come on, I thought it was obvious. If she's nowhere near water or ice she's powerless. Even with the Gaia."

"Robin's right," Cyborg agreed, "I mean, when we were fighting you, Terra, it was different. We couldn't keep you away from your element because it is everywhere."

"Ah, so that is why you named your planet after it," Starfire realized.

"Pretty much," Robin responded, "But what I'm thinking is that we take the battle to an area where we are in complete control. Somewhere that she doesn't have an abundance of water to play with."

"I'd hate to burst your bubble," Beast Boy interrupted, "but I fought her in that cavern with nothing more than two water bottles for ammo and not only did she kick my butt, but I also got turned into a fifth grade science experiment!"

"You fought her alone," Cyborg reminded, "It'll be different this time, I swear."

"But where can we go where there is not an abundance of water or ice, your planet is so… blue," Starfire noted.

"The canyon," Terra spoke up, "the one North of the city where we all first met. Will that work?"

"Perfect!" Robin agreed, "Let's make it happen."

"Just like that?" Cyborg protested, "We're just going to take a little field trip and hope that Isis follows us?"

"We'll leave in two hours. Everyone take that time to prepare," Robin ordered, ignoring Cyborg's pessimism.

"Two hours? Are you nuts?" Beast Boy sided with Cyborg.

"You're right," Robin rubbed his chin, "Make that one hour."

As Robin left to prepare, Terra took a deep sigh and turned around to leave as well, but not before coming face-to-face with Raven. They both looked at each other, not really knowing how to respond. Finally Raven said "Welcome back," with a sort of forced politeness before she slipped into some nearby shadows.

Terra blinked once before she let on a warm smile, "I promise, I won't run away," she said under her breath.

Within the time constraint Terra had just finished getting dressed in her old room when she heard a knock on the door. She turned around and walked up to answer it. Not quite to her surprise, Beast Boy stood on the other side. "Hi Beast Boy," She smiled, "What are you doing here? Robin said that we had to prepare for battle."

"I am… wanted to have some time to talk to you before we left."

"Really?"

"Well, yeah. We haven't had a moment alone since you came back. This whole week has been insane."

"That it has," She agreed before looking at her watch, "Sure, we've got time, come on in."

They both trekked into the room and took a seat on the bed. Both of them sat silently as the precious minutes ticked by, either it was for a lack of words, or maybe they only wanted to enjoy each other's presence was anyone's guess.

"I thought for a little while there, I was going to lose you again," Beast Boy finally admitted, "Don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Terra blinked, "You're scaring me, BB. You're not your usual self," she smiled.

"Sometimes, it's hard to be, when I feel like you're in trouble and I can't do anything about it."

"You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yeah. That's what worries me," They sat in silence for a moment, and then a huge grin appeared on Terra's face, "What?" Beast Boy asked, feeling self-conscious the more Terra smiled at him.

"Are you trying to tell me what I think you're trying to tell me?" She asked in a coy voice.

"I dunno. What do you think I'm trying to tell you?"

Terra growled, giving him a push. "If you're trying to tell me what I think you're trying to tell me, then I'm telling you that I think I'm okay with that."

"Okay with what?"

"With what you're trying to tell me!" Terra laughed, pressing her left palm against her forehead.

"Oh… yeah, well… I'm just trying to tell you that-"

"I know."

"Okay then," Beast Boy now returned her smile, "We should have these talks more often… How much time do we have left?"

"Um… 8 minutes."

"Doesn't seem like a lot, does it?" Beast boy asked with a hint of anxiety.

Terra shifted herself closer to him, gave him a sweet kiss on the check (which caused his ears to perk up), and rested her head on his shoulder, "It never does."

She could have told him so many things, like how sorry she was, how much she missed him, what it was like being trapped in a stone body for a whole year. She could have told him how scared she was, because she had just spent the greater portion of the last hour practicing her now degenerated powers on a pile of rocks sitting on her desk. She could have told him about how a task once simple to her, like making the rocks dance in the air, now demanded her full concentration. She wanted to tell him these things, but she couldn't dare to waste the last (she glanced at her watch) seven minutes they had of complete serenity.

Unknown to the Titans, the very embodiment to their demise stood high above their precious tower on a floating platform of ice, the wild winds of late autumn whipped her long coat around feverishly. She casually checked her watch, satisfied that her hacking abilities (one of two things she picked up from Prof. Chang) enabled her to leave an open signal in her wake to easily listen in on the feeble plans of her enemies, "Seven minutes and counting," She grinned.

Author's notes:
Ah yes, the drama ensues as another chapter with no action scenes graces our presence. Well, that's all right. After all, the last chapter was all action. And as you can guess by the title of this chapter, we're in for a hell of a fight. I felt it necessary for this instalment to look into how most of the character felt about this situation. Raven in particular. Yet at the same time, I didn't want her to reveal all that was on her mind, not yet anyways. And it was about time to have a nice scene like that with Beast Boy and Terra. And Isis, oh her beautiful malice… she will indeed have a few tricks up her sleeve, you can count on that. Well, until my next update, see ya