Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N
First of all... I'm REALLY sorry for how late this is... I just got back internet today. My mom forgot to pay the cable bill... go figure.
SECONDLY: A WARNING - This episode is considerably more violent than any episode that came before. This is one of the reasons I moved up to an M rating, because this chapter probably deserves it (at least mildly, anyway).
Third, this is probably the most heavily edited episode I've done… while the basic structure of the episode remains the same, it's only the frame that remains intact: I've gutted the show's version of the episode and replaced it completely with my own variation. I hope you like it… this is MY idea of Terra/BB

NEXT CHAPTER UP NEXT WEDNESDAY... AND I MEAN IT THIS TIME!

Disclaimer - Think about it. If I owned Teen Titans, I wouldn't need to be rewriting the show, now would I?

Fragile Dreams Chapter 18 - Betrayal
Terra slid the door shut silently behind her. The clock on the wall said it was three in the morning as she left Beast Boy's room. Being with him made her so happy… she couldn't believe they had only been going out a month. She felt as though she had known him forever.

Quietly, Terra slinked through the darkened tower, back to her own room. Even the slight scraping of her shoes against the metal floor seemed deafeningly loud to her – lightning cracks in the dead silence of a tomb. When she finally reached the room her friends had so generously provided for her, she slipped inside and shut the door, leaning back against the door in relief. Terra finally released the breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

Terra sat on her bed and activated her computer. Almost immediately, the system prompted for her password. Terra ignored it, but instead hit and held the 'alt' key. After five seconds, a second prompt came up, and the shaman entered 'Ophelia' as the user. She shook her head: such a twisted sense of humor her arrogant teacher had. The screen went blank, and then another small window came up, asking her for the system function she wanted to access.

Terra typed rapidly. 'Judas Contract.'

The computer quickly beeped, and the screen went black while the command was processed. The fan inside the computer started spinning rapidly as it attempted to load the secured section of the programming.

Finally, a small window popped up. 'Judas Contract Online. Contact 7. Run Program? y/n.'

'y.'

A text window like an email processor popped up... The method was primitive, but almost undetectable by any system sweep. Resigning herself to what she was about to do, Terra began to type.

'Raven – Still no insight into origins or heritage: subject avoid the topic whenever asked, either leaving or changing the discussion. In terms of threat to a mission, Raven is the number one danger. Most likely weakness remains her emotions, specifically anger.'

Terra knew all about Raven's empathy and its incredible power, but also its weakness that forced the teen to meditate for hours every day. When Raven allowed emotions too much control over her, they could literally grab control of her powers and her body. Anger was most likely to do so, she knew. Whenever Raven got angry, her power increased exponentially, but she lost most of her ability to consciously think, plan, or strategize. With a proper plan, this could make her very easy to take down when angry.

'Most likely way to attack subject's weakness remains through Robin.'

Terra had become one of Raven's best friends in the last few weeks, as Terra, Raven, and Starfire would go places together, leaving the boys alone to have some time together. Terra noticed Raven had been avoiding Robin, and asked her about it one time at the mall. Raven had rather frantically looked over at Starfire, but saw only a knowing smile. Eventually, the two of them managed to beat the confession out of her that she cared for Robin a lot. She just couldn't risk hurting him with her lack of control. Terra hadn't told another Titans Raven's secret, and to her knowledge Starfire had kept silent as well. Terra pushed the memories away and continued typing.

'Robin – I have made no progress in discovering the target's identity or origins. Beyond his training with Batman, subject refuses to speak about his childhood, training, or personal life. Ranked as threats to a mission, subject ranks a close second. No new weaknesses have been discovered, but his hatred for Slade and his confusion over Raven are still ripe for exploitation'

'Cyborg – Success! Subject has confided in me his true name and origins. He was build by his father, a genius inventor (now deceased), after Victor Stone suffered fatal injuries during high school. Ranked as threats to a mission, subject ranks third. A new weakness has been discovered – besides his reliance on energy cells for power and his vulnerability to a computer attack, he seems to have some feelings for a former student of H.I.V.E. Academy, code named Jynx. The girl's real identity and whereabouts are unknown.'

Terra had never met Jynx, but she knew of the girl by reputation. She was supposed to be a fantastically dangerous criminal who had led an assault that almost obliterated the Titans. How Cyborg came to think of the witch as anything more than an enemy was unknown, as he refused to ever speak on the matter. The blonde teen had only discovered his feelings by observations of what subjects he was avoiding, then putting pieces together.

'Starfire – There is little left to discover about the alien Koriand'r. Subject is so trusting; learning any information from her is as simple as asking. Ranked as threats to a mission, Starfire ranks fourth. Her weakness of trust and naiveté remains clear and easy to use.'

Finally, Terra came to Beast Boy and paused. Her boyfriend… the beautiful blonde was tormented inside by her conflicting thoughts and feelings. Terra made her decision and resumed typing.

'Beast Boy –' Real name Garfield Logan 'Subject has yet to confide any information on his identity or origins.' The Titans is simply carefree,' handsome,'simpleminded,' funny and lovably, 'and not very skilled in the use of his abilities. It appears that subject can morph into anything he has' seen 'touched. Subject is of virtually no threat. No real weakness has been discovered' except for his feelings for me.

'Security Grid Deactivation Code: Anubis. Key to Cyborg's activation frequency 58eds47k3.'

'End Transmission.'

Terra pressed the send button, and the screen went black as the computer responded to the command. As she watched, a brief response popped up in a tiny window, and disappeared almost the second Terra finished reading it. 'Good work, Apprentice. Attack is tomorrow, 12:00 AM.'

Terra's heart sank. 'So that's it…' she thought, 'I'm done…' Terra didn't want this time with the Titans to end. It might only be a forgery, but it was the only time Terra truly felt as though she was loved in her life. Slowly, Terra lay back on her bed and drifted off to sleep, thoughts of Beast Boy running through her mind.

The next day, the blonde shaman was a wreck. She was constantly nervous that one of the Titans would learn of her betrayal. Trust, she was learning, was more addictive than heroin, cocaine, or even something as insipid as love. The more of it Terra got, the move she craved to keep it. Staying at the Titans Tower, she was an addict receiving her daily fix from her trusting friends who valued her both as a team member and a real person.

Now, Terra was going into withdrawal. She was about to be completely removed from her drug of choice by damming it at the source. She had betrayed the Teen Titans, her team, her friends, and now she had to face to consequences of it: Losing everyone's trust… including that of the person she valued the most.

Beast Boy lay in his bed that night, unable to sleep. Terra had been acting really strangely today... she hadn't seemed herself. Several hours ago, she had pleaded sick and chose not to go out for pizza with everyone else, and had just locked herself in her room.

He hadn't even been able to really speak to his girlfriend since they had fallen asleep in each other's arms last night. As always, he had woken up to find her gone. It hurt him terribly, but he understood that she desired to hide how much they shared with one another, even if he didn't understand the reason for her insecurity. He truly loved the slim, beautiful Titan, and she loved him. He would do anything for her.

Suddenly, something knocked on his window. Beast Boy got up and pulled back the drapes, revealing Terra floating on a stone platform just outside. She smiled at him, and beckoned. He glanced at the clock - 10:39. BB opened the window and looked out at her. "Terra?"

"Hey hon. Wanna go somewhere?"

Beast Boy was confused. This seemed surreal... like it wasn't happening to him. The strangeness of the situation was enough to give him pause, even as a supernatural hero. "Huh?"

Terra again gestured for him to step out of the window and come to her. Her face seemed full of some unrecognizable emotion... she seemed desperate to get him to come with her. "You know... a real date." She smiled at him. "With our duties as Titans, we haven't really had a chance to get away and do something together. Nothing's going to happen tonight... lets go out and enjoy ourselves."

BB cocked his head at his girl friend. "You know Robin won't be happy if he finds out..."

Terra's blue eyes met his fearlessly. "Don't you trust me?"

Garfield Logan smiled at her. "More than anything, Terra." He stepped onto the platform and they were gone.

"Hungry?"

"Always."

Robin awoke with a start, the loud bang echoing in his ears. 'That sounded like an explosion...' Robin glanced at the clock as he snapped his belt on over his sleeping cloths. His mask was still on, at least... he rarely removed it anymore. The Tower's alarm started blaring as he ran through the hallway, and several figures rushed him from the darkness.

Robin had no time to think: he just reacted.The martial artistflipped up in the air, clear over the first attacking figure. As he spun by in the air, he extended his staff and pushed against the wall, throwing himself into a horizontal rotation as he completed his flip. As he vertically righted himself behind his assailant, he continued his spinning rotation, rotating on the ball of his right foot the instant he landed and smashed the back of the figures head with a kick, adding to his forward momentum and sending him toppling forward. Robin didn't stop his spin after the kick, bringing his foot back down to maintain his balance as he came about, slashing out with his staff at eye level.

Robin had correctly anticipated that the second attacker would try to attack his back, and the blow connected heavily against his face with all the centripetal momentum behind it. Robin could hear something shattering under the blow, and dearly hoped it wasn't lethal. He didn't have time to worry about either the cracking or the heavy blow, though, because in his peripheral vision he saw the first figure rising, bringing something in its hand to bear against him.

Robin shot his legs apart, falling into a combat crouch and throwing a birdarang just as a red beam shot over his head. The thrown weapon smashed into the attacker's chest, and Robin could see electricity from circuits sparkle in the dark. Robin gasped: Everything suddenly came rushing back to him, and everything was clear... the heavy impacts, the red laser gun, the loud crack, and now the electricity. As the current shot up the attackers' body, its face started to be illuminated, but Robin already knew what he was going to see: A robot with a white face.

A Slade bot. And it was inside Titan Tower. In the distance, Robin could hear more laser blasts and the sonic boom he associated with Cyborg's cannon.

And it had brought friends.

"When you said you wanted us to get away some place, I didn't think you meant this far away."

Terra had taken him to the outskirts of Gotham City, to a diner she knew about. She walked into the bar and past the pool tables and tables to sit up at the "bar." "Yeah... I used to eat here all the time. I've been all over the place, but I usually came back here eventually." Beast Boy had to admit: it was a pretty well kept up place for an old diner. The smoke and noise from the pool tables was actually quite minimal, and the mirror behind the bar made it easy to see the entire restaurant from anywhere.

Garfield followed her and sat down on the stool next to her, picking up a menu. "So... what's to eat?" He flipped through it, but grew more and more frantic as he went. 'Meat meat meat meatmeat meatmeat meatmeatmeatmeatme...'

"Two orders of theapple pie, please." Terra ordered for both of them. The host behind the bar rushed off to complete their orders.

"So, Terra," Gar started, "What made you decide to do this tonight?"

Terra appeared startled at his question, but he chalked it up to surprise at the sudden speech breaking the silence. "I don't know... I was just thinking about you and realized we had never really been able to do anything, so I figured we ought to go out."

Garfield wasn't convinced. It seemed like something was... off with Terra today and he figured that whatever it was had led to this. "Are you sure that nothing was wrong today?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… why d…" the attendant interrupted her by arriving with two slices of pie, and set them before the couple. "Oh, thank you."

Gar was slightly upset at how easy his question had been dodged, but didn't let it worry him; After all, this was Terra. If it were important, she would tell him. He turned back to his food and took a bite of the pie she had ordered, and then froze in shock as soon as it touched his taste buds. "This… is the greatest pie… in the history… of pies…"

Terra laughed, looking at her boyfriend as he hungrily ate his pie. "Yeah, I knew you'd like that," she said absentmindedly as she ate herself, her eyes never leaving Garfield. Slowly, she turned to face forward, looking down at her plate as she ate. "There's this place outside of Steel City that makes the greatestcherry pie I've ever tasted, but for apple this place is…"

Terra broke off with a quiet gasp, and BB looked up at her as she quickly spun around in her seat, facing the rest of the room and scanning it. "Something wrong?"

"Thought I saw someone." Terra slapped some money down on the counter. "Finish your pie and c'mon… I know someplace else you have to see."

"Wouldsomeone like to explain to me how two hundred armed robots got pastmy security system?"

Cyborg and Starfire were covering the hallway from the door at its end, the only cover available; as it seemed like every mech in Slade's army was trying to force their way through. Starfire popped out briefly, spraying starbolts randomly down the hall before pressing her back against the wall beside the door and answering. "I do not know, friend. I only know that there are too many to oppose…"

Robin was leaning against the wall beside Cyborg, feeling helpless. In melee, he could help his team fight the bots. In a shooting gallery like this, all his bombs and gizmos were next to useless, and he would be slaughtered if he stepped out there. "We need help from the rest of our team. Once we get BB and Terra out here…"

As if Robin's voice was a signal, the floor near them went black and Raven phased up from below. She turned to Robin, her voice unusually tense. "I can't find either Beast Boy or Terra. Neither is in their rooms, and neither responds to their communicators."

"What's the plan, Robin?" Cyborg asked as he fired a few sonic blasts down the hallway before taking cover again, barely getting out ahead of the first red streaks of energy.

"Raven, when I give the word, I want you to throw up a small shield of energy up in front of the door for three seconds, then drop it. Block off all sight and stop those guns… got it?"

"Got it," the empath replied, her voice grim with determination as her eyes and hands lit up.

Robin extended his staff and gripped several exploding birdarangs between the fingers of his right hand. "Do it Raven. Titans, GO!"

"An amusement park! Man, you know how to party, Terra!" Garfield was having the time of his life. He got to spend time with his beautiful girlfriend, all by themselves... and as an added benefit, Terra was taking him on roller coasters!

"Yeah," Terra replied distractedly, staring off into the night sky. "Before I met you, I used to wander all over the place... but I'd always return here. I guess you could say it's the closest thing I've had to a home..."

"Except Titan Tower, you mean," Gar corrected.

"Yeah..." Terra mumbled. She suddenly stopped looking off at the sky and turned to her date. "Come on, Gar. Let's go on some rides."

Raven threw up a shielding black disk right in front of her just as a volley of red energy blasts impacted against it. The force of the energy still blew her backwards, and she slammed into the wall hard, her head whipping back and smashing hard against the plaster, and then she slipped down to the floor. She coughed, and a spray of red coasted the floor in front of her.

Raven rolled rapidly to the side as one of the bot's feet tried to crush her head. Her eyes pulsed red briefly as she gathered vicious points of dark energy on her fingertips. "Get away from me!" she growled, flinging hundreds of tiny black darts at her assailant. Detonations rippled throughout its mangled circuitry, and it went down. Raven glanced over, and saw Starfire surrounded by seven or eight bots as they slowly closed in on her. Rubbing her neck, the demoness gritted her teeth against the pain and ran towards her friend. 'If we're going to die tonight, we sure as hell aren't going to make it easy for Slade.'

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

'They're probably all dead by now... what have I done...'

Terra sat in a cart on the Farris wheel with Garfield holding her in his arms, rocking her back and forth. Guilt was consuming her, although she tried to convince herself that there was nothing she could do. 'At least I managed to save him...' she thought to herself. Terra fully intended to run away, escape this life of horror she'd built herself, and never look back. Garfield... would understand. 'He has to!' she convinced herself, 'I had no choice!'

"Gar?" the blond shaman asked, turning her face to meet her lover's eyes, just centimeters away.

"Yes, Terra?"

"Do you really love me?"

He looked a little stunned at the question, like the answer was obvious. "Of course I do Terra..."

"No, I mean, do you really love me... because if you did, I could tell you anything, and you would still love me... no matter what I did... right?"

He was extremely confused now, and looking distinctly worried. "Terra... what's wrong?"

"Yes... What is the matter, Terra?"

The smooth, sinister, hauntingly familiar voice came from the corner of the shared cart on the wheel. Terra started at the voice, and both she and Gar spun towards the shadows. Slade sat on the bench opposite the young lovers, half cloaked in the darkness. How he managed to get there without either of them noticing was beyond her. "Hello, kid. Remember me?" With a stunningly fast motion, too quick for the eye to track, Slade grabbed Gar by the cuff of his uniform and threw him out the door, knocking it from its hinges by the process.

With a sinister look in his eye, Slade turned back to a cowered Terra, curling up stunned in a corner. "Now Terra... did you really think you could just take your little boyfriend and run?" he mocked, amusedly. "Just escape, and everything would be just fine?"

"Get away from her!" Garfield flipped up through the door and became a tiger, pouncing towards the criminal mastermind. Slade rolled sideways in the tight space, ending up back in line to the door. Gar was suddenly a cobra, lashing out at Slade's extended leg. Slade was too quick for even a striking snake, and he grabbed the edge of the roof through the door and used the leverage to flip himself upward, out of the tight cart. As Terra watched, Gar followed.

Garfield Logan was terrified to be fighting Slade alone, but was so enraged he barely noticed. As he leapt up onto the roof, he was already returning to tiger form and pouncing as the masked form. Slade back flipped onto the next cart up, and the shape shifter followed him. The combatants circled for a moment, and the masked criminal slowly extended his quarterstaff. Then Gar struck. This time, Slade caught the strike on his staff and held him up, supporting his vast weight with ease. Slade threw him backwards, back onto the cart where Terra was now watching.

'You are not getting rid of me that easily,' he thought, looking at his love below him. 'No matter what he has planned, I am not going to let you have her.' Garfield transformed to his giant ape form, and charged Slade.

Slade jumped onto the scaffolding supporting the Farris wheel, and Gar chased after him, entering a cat and mouse game of climbing as they scaled the frame. When his quarry finally pulled himself up onto the "roof" of the scaffolding, he followed. Slade quickly sidestepped out of the way and slipped around behind him. In a fantastic display of strength, Slade put the gorilla in a headlock and forced him to the ground.

Garfield was stunned, and for the first time since the fight started he began to feel real fear. 'Not even Star can do that... Cyborg would struggle to pin a gorilla!' He was realizing just how badly he was outclassed.

"You think you know Terra?" Slade whispered in his ear, "You know nothing about her. She never even liked you!" Gar's eyes narrowed, and he launched himself upwards, throwing Slade off of him. He was suddenly a hawk, diving towards Slade with all his might. As he got close, he transformed into a lion, jaws open as he sped towards Slade. Slade stepped forward, grabbed him by the mane, and slammed him to the ground. Gar was expecting this. By the time he hit the ground, he had already completed his next shift. As a crocodile, Gar spun around, tail lashing Slade and sweeping him off his feet.

Unfortunately, Slade wasn't caught completely off guard. As he fell, Slade first kicked Garfield's side with incredible strength, and he was sent flying over the edge of the platform.

Terra caught her lover as he fell, floating on a platform next to the fight. "Come on!" she yelled at him, "We need to get out of here!" Shooting one last glance at Slade's imposing figure, Terra fled with her lover.

"Robin, DUCK!"

Robin heard Raven's warning just in time, and reacted instantly. He threw himself flat to the ground just as a robot charged over him with a makeshift lance, kicking Robin as it passed. The Titan leader rolled with the kick, using its momentum to help him rise to his feet. Robin reached down to his belt for a birdarang to throw at the passing bot, but it was just so much wasted habit: He was long since out of his projectiles. The bot started to turn about for another pass.

A blast lance of energy pierced the turning bot through its core, causing it to detonate instantly. Robin turned and saw the blue cloaked empath with her hands extended towards the defunct bot, down on her knees. Blood from numerous cuts covered her face, and her cape hung in tatters and seemed more purple than blue. Robin ran over to the injured teen, helping her to her feet. As he held her hands, blood appeared on them and he realized it must be his own. His pain was incredible, but he just tuned it out.

Their eyes met, and they asked and answered questions that didn't need to be spoken. They'd both live. Unfortunately, new metal footsteps let thepair of Titans know they had been found.Another pack of bots, at least 8, entered through a hole in the wall. The almost-couple went to ready positions, back to back. Robin fervently wished he still had his staff, but they both were long since broken. Slowly, the bots fanned out, encircling the two Titans, and they slowly closed in. Robin clenched his fists, and prepared to die.

"Raven..."

"Yes?" the empath tersely answered.

Robin was nervous, but figured it wouldn't matter for more than five minutes anyway. Besides, she deserved to know. "I think it's important for you to know that I l..."

The bot immediately in front of him, in line with the hole in the wall, detonated in a brilliant green flash. Starfire! As the bots started to shift to react to this new threat, Robin and Raven attacked. Robin hit the bot immediately to his left as it turned, gripping it by the head and turning it sharply. The circuitry tore, and it deactivated. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raven rip the floor up under a bot, taking its balance and ability to dodge before smiting it with a dark blast of cackling energy. Two more bots blew in brilliant fireballs as starbolts hit them as they tried to find their new assailant. Suddenly, the odds were three on three, and the tides had turned badly.

The three bots leapt towards Raven, and she threw a shield in front of them. They rolled in circles, going around the shield to attack. Robin met one with a series of vicious blows as it passed by him, and Raven hit a second with a scything blade of darkness... but the third was now behind the shield and out of Star's line of sight. "Raven!" Robin screamed, but he could only watch in horror as it flew towards the woman he loved, blade in hand.

At the last possible instant, a blue blast came through a wall, impacted against it from the side, throwing it through the opposite wall. Cyborg walked through the hole his cannon had made, pushing through the wall itself in an odd display of apathy. Robin finally got a look at Cyborg and Star, and they weren't in much better shape than he and Raven. Star was covered with bruises and cuts, and Cyborg's circuitry had visible currents cackling through broken connections. He glanced down at his wrist pad. "That's it," he said with an unusually sober voice, "Tower's clear."

Terra ran through the funhouse, trying to support Gar on her shoulder as they moved. Garfield stumbled along, but his side still glowed with pain from the kick. Terra ducked down into a supply closet, letting her love onto the ground. "I'm sorry, Garfield." she said, her eyes tearing up. "I'll keep him away from you."

"Terra... don't go..." he groaned weakly, but she was gone.

Minutes pass in silence. It was so quiet, the beating of his heart was deafeningly loud. It reverberated in his head, echoing in the dead silence. "Terra..." he whispered to himself. 'I have to help her...'

Garfield rose to his feet, noting that his side didn't hurt as much anymore. He ran out into the funhouse. Mirrors... nothing but mirrors. Garfield wandered until he saw Terra, facing away from him, hands glowing. "Terra!" he called out, and the figure turned towards him, blue eyes widening as he ran towards him. "Terra! I'm so glad you're..." His hand touched the silvery surface of a mirror. "Terra! Where are you? We need to get back to the tower…"

Terra's voice called out to him, though he couldn't tell from where. "Garfield… I can't go back."

"Why not?" he responded frantically, spinning in circles as he looked for the real Terra in this maze of mirrors.

"Because she's not your friend."

Garfield turned around quickly, and saw about 12 reflections of Slade staring back at him. He still couldn't see Terra anywhere, although another reflection of her did appear.

Slade continued his monologue. "The girl you thought you knew was just an illusion… a hopeful fantasy. In reality, she works for me."

"LIAR!" He spun around, sending his fist smashing into an image of Slade and shattering it into thousands of glass shards. As Slade continued his self-important tirade, Gar continued to smash mirrors.

"I found her. I trained her. And I sent her back to you to become a Titan. To destroy the Titans." He laughed wickedly, sinisterly. "By now, you're probably the last Titan. Your friends should already be dead."

"Impossible!" All the mirrors but one were smashed now, leaving just a single image of Slade still glaring at him as his litany of bragging went on.

"Oh yes, I'm afraid it's so. Tonight, Terra's orders were to strike. I guess she took pity on you… perhaps she wanted a pet." Slade laughed again before continuing. "Despite this error in judgment, however… she was still kind enough to deactivate the Tower's security system. Your friends were just attacked by a legion of my finest servants. They are quite dead."

"NEVER!"

"Gar… it's the truth." Terra's ashamed voice spoke out over the Titan's heavy breathing. He finally turned to the voice and found Slade and Terra standing side to side behind a broken mirror. She couldn't stand to even look at him… instead she looked at the floor.

Beast Boy was stunned, and practically felt his heart shatter instantly into a million pieces. "Terra… why?"

Slade chuckled and rested a hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "Because you could never give her what she needs." With a roar of fury, Beast Boy charged him, slipping into a Bengal Tiger as he ran. Slade caught the pounce with his bare hands, slamming him back to the ground behind him. In the same motion, he drew the laser pistol off of his belt and fired. The Titan unmorphed and lay motionless on the ground, stunned.

Slade aimed the gun at his head and chuckled before he heard Terra begin gathering her powers behind him. "No! I won't let you hurt my friend…"

"My dear child, you don't have any friends." Slade turned back to the fallen Beast Boy just in time to see a full-grown Grizzly Bear slashing at him. He took the slash to the face, tearing part of his mask away. While her lover and her master fought for their lives, Terra turned and ran away, as fast as she could.

Without warning, Terra saw her own reflection appear in front of her. She gasped and turned away, but all around her, there were nothing but reflections. It was as though Terra was looking into her own soul… and finding herself sorely lacking. She fell to her knees and cried. "Gar… I'm so sorry… I never wanted any of this to happen."

"Then why did you let it!" a familiar, accusing voice called out from behind her. Terra slowly turned to see her lover standing there, eyes narrow as he looked upon the fallen Titan.

"I don't know!" she cried out as she rose to her feet. "Slade… helped me. Said I owed him. Told me I had to…"

"So it was all a game?" Beast Boy said, eyes hard as they bored into her. "You were just pretending!" His voice grew steadily louder and louder as he want up, but remained coldly in control.

"No…" she protested feebly. "You promised that you'd always love me, no matter what… remember?"

Beast Boy turned away from the traitor in disgust. "Slade was right, Terra. You don't have any friends." He walked out without a backwards glance.

Raven couldn't meditate. Physical pain was certainly a factor for her inability to completely concentrate: Her entire body was still covered with cuts and bruises. She had cleaned the blood from her wounds, but the pain was difficult to suppress, even for someone with her powers. Her body was cloaked in the vague blue glow of her healing powers, but she knew they would still take time to heal.

More important to Raven's inability to meditate was her emotional state. Terra had betrayed her. She had trusted Terra... trusted her. Raven thought about every her friend knew about her and the other Titans... everything she had told her. Terra knew almost as much about her as Robin, and now Slade knew it all. Slade knew it all... about everyone.

Terra had given Slade more than the tower's security codes and the cameras they had removed... she had given Slade them... every strength, every weakness.

Raven had another reason for not being able to meditate. Her empathy was catching all of the emotion just rolling off of the other Titans, whether she wanted to see their thoughts or not. Everyone shared a similar feeling of loss as her... but Beast Boy's was far deeper. Terra must have gotten far closer to him than Raven had thought, and she cursed the traitor for it. Beast Boy was shattered, waves of hurt and loneliness and betrayal came off of him, crashing into the sensitive demoness like the surf breaking on the rocks.

Raven shuddered and again tried to focus her thoughts and sink into the blissful oblivion of meditation. "Poor Beast Boy..."

Beast Boy lay curled up on the bed he had shared with Terra only the night before, weeping quietly. "Did she ever actually love me?" he thought, unable to suppress the damning thought.

"Why, Terra?"

"You've had doubts in the past. But all that's behind you now, isn't it?"

There was no hesitation. "Yes."

"Will you honor me?"

"Yes."

"Will you serve only me?"

"Yes."

"Do you swear to fight by my side forever?"

"Yes."

"And will you destroy the Teen Titans?"

There was only a slight hesitation, then a cruel smile broke out on the shaman's face. "I thought you'd never ask."

End Chapter 18
A/N Well, that answers that question, doesn't it. Poor Beast Boy... I suppose I should also mention it... I don't own Ophelia, this brilliant old british guy named Bill Shakespeare or something like that does. VIVA HAMLET!

Next Time on Teen Titans - Fragile Dreams:

Water81 is just going to LOVE this.
Terra makes a move on the Titans
Can the Titans defeat someone who was so close a friend?
What effect will Terra's betrayal have on the ripening relationship between Robin and Raven?

Next Episode: Aftershock, Part 1