Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams
A/N I'm sorry, this one is shorter than usual. The chapters will gradually return to normal length within 3 chapters, I gurantee it.
Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I?
Fragile Dreams Chapter 14 – A Momentary Lapse of Control
"What do you want!"
"You, Terra." Slade answered smoothly. "I'm just here for you."
Terra rose to her feet, clenching her fists as she stared him down. "Back off! I'm with the Titans!" Slade's only response was to pull out a compressed staff from his back, twirling in front of him to extend it to full length. He adopted a ready position, beckoning her on with the hand not gripping the staff. She shaman snarled, rocks detaching themselves from the walls and spun towards him.
The master criminal wasn't fazed at all. He smoothly spun his staff in circular patterns, shattering each projectile into tiny rubble that bounced harmlessly off his armor. "You'll have to do far better than that, Terra," Slade mocked her as he resumed his ready position. "We need to talk..."
She roared and launches another volley at him, allowing him to roll to the side. Terra spun in a tight circle, stretching out her hand and sending a pointed rock... flying right past Slade. He didn't even try to dodge: he just turned and amusedly watched it fly harmlessly by. "And I see we have so much to talk about."
Terra's goggles shattered from the power gathering behind her eyes as her hands glowed. "Mind if I talk with my hands?!" The young Titan-hopeful tore a large block of stone free from the ground faster than a blink of the eyes, and sent it spinning towards her attacker. Slade was more than prepared. He dug his staff into the ground and vaulted himself up and over the projectile, landing safely in its wake with a broken staff. His smooth movements and impassive demeanor still hadn't been disrupted, even for a second.
"Impressive..." he said, cocking his head to the side, "unless of course, you were aiming for me." Terra backed up, realizing for the first time just how badly she was outclassed. Slade came to his feet and charged. Terra threw piles of stone at her attacker, but he dodged most of the attacks. Those rocks he couldn't dodge, he smoothly shattered with bone shattering blows from hand and foot, inexorably working his way towards the blonde teen.
The desperate girl brought a shield of the earth up between then, but Slade punched through the barrier without difficulty, fracturing the stone and clipping Terra in the shoulder. The blonde was blown against the wall, and stayed down. "You don't belong with the Titans, Terra."
"Shut up!" Terra spat as she forced herself to her feet. "You don't know anything about me!"
"On the contrary, Terra," he said, opening a fist to show a small hair comb that Terra recognized well, "I know everything about you." He walked towards Terra, and she cringed away from him. "I know why you're always running away. I know why you live by yourself. Avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes... Everywhere you go, you try to do good... and everywhere you fail.
Slade started to stroke Terra's hair, and she didn't recoil from him. He smiled beneath the mask. You lack control, Terra. And when you lose control, you are more dangerous than anything I've ever seen." He said as he clipped the comb into her hair, and turned away.
"But it doesn't have to be that way."
Terra turned to look at him, a small look of surprise covering her face as she looked at the back of the mastermind's mask. "I can help you, Terra," he said, never looking back.
"You... can?" Terra couldn't believe what she was hearing, and all thought of the Titans temporarily left her as she selfishly indulged the thought of finally controlling her powers.
"Yes, Terra. But it will take more than obstacle courses and simulations," Slade said as he turned back to her, grabbing a stone from the ground. "You need a teacher... a Mentor. Right now, you are... rough around the edges, like this stone." Slade was grinding the rock in his hand as he spoke, crushing it with inhuman strength. Finally, he opened his hand to reveal the diamond that had been hidden inside the stone. "Come with me, and I can teach you to shine."
Terra turned away from him and his soothing words. "Liar..." she said, letting her voice drift off. "My friends told me you're-"
Slade interrupted, changing the subject. "You don't really think they're your friends, do you?"
Terra spoke with her head tilted down, her voice full of melancholy. "They took me in... gave me a home-"
"And when they discover what you are they'll cast you out."
"Beast Boy-"
"Can't keep his mouth shut forever," Slade finished for her. "He'll tell them."
Terra fists began to glow as she clenched them. "He promised..."
"You can't rely on him forever, Ter-"
Terra spun on him, waving her hand and creating a swirling hurricane of stone to separate them. She was being manipulated... she was positive of that. "Go Away! Just... Go away and Leave Me ALONE!" A storm of conflicting emotions swirled around the girl faster than even her rock shield. Hate, anger, distrust, jealously, loneliness, fear, pain, hope, friendship, and something that just might be a real feeling for Beast Boy twisted her perceptions. She wanted to cry. This was all the fault of her damn powers...
Her powers!
Terra gasped, falling to her knees in the eye of the self-created storm. She couldn't see, but she was positive her eyes were glowing an angry gold. "Don't loose control, don't loose control, don't loose control..."
"Now Terra," Slade's voice came mockingly from outside her rock storm. "How can you lose something you've never had?" The young shaman cried out, and she started to float off the ground. She could feel her hair whipping about her face as her powers overloaded, and she closed her eyes. Slade's voice faded into the distance as he spoke. "I'll find you, Terra."
Terra screamed.
In the main room, the Titans were finishing off the last of the Slade bots when the entire cavern started to shake. "Guys!" Cyborg yelled at Robin and Raven from across the room, "We gotta get out of here! Slade's bringing the whole mine down!"
"I don't think this is Slade, Robin," Raven said softly to him, and the two shared knowing glances. Without any warning, a huge rock fell from over Raven's head.
"Raven!" he yelled as he charged, tackling her out of the way as the boulder smashed the stone behind them into splinters. Robin and Raven tumbled to a stop on top on one another, their faces just centimeters away... Robin wiped that thought from his mind. This was NOT the time for his stupid hormones to act up. "We have to get out of here!" he shouted to the other Titans as he rose, pulling Raven to her feet as well. 'Beast Boy, whatever your doing, do it fast...'
Was Raven blushing?
Beast Boy popped his gopher head up and saw Terra spinning inside her self-created cocoon of stone. He went under again, and popped his head back up from inside the storm.
He unmorphed. "Terra!" he yelled, meeting her glowing eyes as they wept. The wind threatened to lift the changeling from the ground, but he welcomed the help in reaching the object of his affection. He grabbed one of her outstretched hands as he whipped by, keeping himself inside the deadly whirlwind. Despite her pain and danger, Terra made no effort to grab his other hand "Terra, grab my hand!" he pleaded, holding it out to the beautiful, suffering teen. The two teens locked eyes, and time seemed to stop as Terra's slowly stopped glowing, her blue globes softening as she stared into Beast Boy's. Slowly, the wind slowed, and the young couple floated slowly to the ground. They held each other in their arms for an eternity.
"It's ok now, Terra. It's ok..."
"Well guys, it's been fun, but I guess I'll be going now..." Terra cut herself off as she opened the door and found Cyborg barring the way. She turned back to the rest of the Titans. "Ok... what's going on..."
Robin stood forward. "We want you to stay."
"Yeah!" BB echoed, and she smiled at his voice. "We want you to stick around."
She turned back to Robin as he spoke. "Of course, you'll need more training if you want to join the team. We know you're not completely in control of your powers, and-"
As Robin spoke, Terra's face started to fall. By the end, she couldn't take anymore and cut him off, looking at BB with teary eyes. "You told them?" she forced out in disbelief through the betrayal. She turned, pushed past Cyborg, and ran off through the door. She heard Beast Boy yelling for her, but she just wasn't listening anymore.
'He betrayed me...'
Beast Boy stood, looking out to see on the edge of the island. Terra was gone, and he was just beginning to come to term with that. She had run, leaving him behind.
Because she thought that HE had betrayed her.
Robin walked up beside him, and together they looked out to see. Finally, BB spoke. "She's not coming back."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was some kind of a secret," Robin tried to sooth him, "I just sorta figured it out." The two Titans didn't speak anymore, they just continued to stare off into the night.
Raven called Robin on his communicator. "Robin?"
"Yes, Rae?"
"We have a problem in town. We're going to need you and Beast Boy up here, now."
"Be right up," he said, closing the communicator. "Come on, BB. The Titans have a job to do."
Through the wasteland outside of town, Terra ran without looking back. Her lungs burned, but she didn't want to stop to breath, and nor did she use her abilities to use the Earth to transport herself. If she stopped exerting herself, she'd have to think. Terra no longer wanted to think.
'Beast Boy... how could you?'
Slade watched the girl run away from Bloodhaven. "Run as far as you like, apprentice," he said to himself as he watched the screen, "Because every step brings you closer to me." Slade frowned when his wrist pad blinked. 'Trouble in the city... and I'm not the cause?' He changed the frequency of his screen to find the disturbance. Four figures were robbing a computer research facility.
The thieves were a pink haired girl with pointy hair, a giant with orange hair, and a bald midget with spider legs. Slade recognized them. 'The kid's from H.I.V.E. Academy seem to be up to something. What is Brother Blood doing?' Slade did not, however, recognize the new member of the team. She had orange hair, spiked up, and wore dark, gothic clothing.
Resolutely, he put it out of his mind. It didn't matter to him, and if it kept the Titans busy for the next few weeks, it would serve his purposes well. Slade went back to watching the retreating shaman.
End Chapter 14
Next time on Teen Titans: Fragile Dreams -
The Titans meet a new villain... who doesn't appear in the T.V. Show.
I give you a completely original episode.
I'm scared shitless of writing this one.
Next Episode: All that Shimmers.
A/N Yeah, that was short. Sorry about that. I'll make it up to you with a longer update next time… and this episode is pretty much unique. This episode's quiz: Who is the fourth villain with the H.I.V.E. kids? I think I sorta spelled it out in the summary, but whatever. This one's a gimmi, I guess.
Sorry for the delay between now and the next chapter... it should be up on THURSDAY, May 5th. AP testing SUCKS!