Teen Titans
Fragile Dreams

A/N Hey! The chapters up 5 days early! How do you like them apples? I hope to post the next chapter up by next week wednesday... but thursday or friday seems more realistic... I'm booked this weekend.

Time for the Titans to finally confront the blonde shaman they had become so attached to... This will get messy. Anyway, I really appriciate all the reviews I'm getting. Keep it up guys!

In addition to a sequel to this story, an idea for aone shot prequel has popped into my mind. What do you guys think about that?

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

Fragile Dreams Chapter 19 - Aftershock, Part 1
"Hey guys! Miss me?"

Beast Boy stared on at the traitorous Titan in shock. "Terra?" What did she do to herself? Terra didn't give him very long to consider before she attacked viciously, hurling thousands of tiny rock shards at the Titans. The team took cover behind the remnants of the T car, and the rock storm thoroughly wrecked it.

His teammates rushed off to meet the traitorous shaman head on, but Beast Boy couldn't unfreeze himself from the spot. He couldn't fight her... this was Terra. How could he fight the woman he had fallen in love with? "Terra! Stop! We're your friends!"

Terra dodged a blast from Cyborg and ended up floating by Beast Boy. "I don't have any friends, remember?" She raised her hands, and death rained down on the scattering teens below.

Robin looked around. His team was getting absolutely thrashed. Cyborg and Starfire were engaged in a shooting match with Terra, but it was too little effect. Terra was simply too powerful to fight with the half-assed effort his team was mustering against her. He threw a series of grenades at the shaman, and she intercepted them several feet away from her, protecting her from any ensuing explosions. These grenades, however, did not explode, but burst into a dense cloud of smoke. Terra started coughing, and levitated her stone platform up over the smoke. She wouldn't be able to see anything.

"Team, fall back!" Robin yelled, regrouping with Raven in the center of the cloud. Beast Boy stood outside the cloud for a few more seconds, staring at Terra before he went to join them. "Raven, teleport us out." The empath nodded and her soul self surrounded them.

Robin punched a wall in frustration. "Why couldn't we just take her down, just like any other criminal?"

Beast Boy ashamedly looked at the ground. "Because she's not just any other criminal. She's Terra." He paused, and Robin could see tears in his eyes. "She was a Titan. She was our...friend."

"She was never our friend." Raven spat out, furious. "She was just a spy, sent to destroy us. She's evil."

Beast Boy rounded on her. "You don't know what you're talking about, Raven! I knew Terra better than anyone. She's confused... but she isn't evil."

Robin spoke up. "Beast Boy... she's working for Slade."

"When you were working for Slade, did we give up on you?"

For a long time, everything was silent as the two Titans stared each other down. Finally, Robin backed off. "Fine. She gets ONE last chance." Practically as soon as their standoff ended, the alarm sounded. Trouble at the prison.

"You sure these are the cells?"

"Correct, Apprentice. Free them."

Terra groaned loudly with the strain as she brought up stone pillars from under the three main holding cells, shattering them open and freeing Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Overload. Terra threw a Slade communicator onto each of them.

"Good work, Apprentice," Slade's voice came over her earpiece; "Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Overload are now under my command. Now, it's time to set a trap for our friends, the Titans. I'll let you choose who we hit first."

Terra smiled. "Raven."

"Very well. Just don't forget the plan. I can assist you through our interface, but make a mistake and she will obliterate you.

"I don't know what Slade's planning, but we have three different attacks at three different locations. We need to stop them."

"I'll take Overload. I can take him alone." Raven's calm voice spoke out.

"Me and BB will handle Plasmus."

"Fine. Starfire and I will take the leftovers. Titans, go!"

"Overload..."

The electrical monstrosity roared and charged her. The brought a steel container from the back of the room and smacked his core with it. "Think you can handle a total blackout?" Overloaded blasted energy at her, and she moved a black disk between him and her.

Plasmus's roar spun Cyborg and BB around just in time to dodge streams of acid being spat at them. "Great. Now he spits acid." Cyborg said with a grimace.

"Lets just get this over with..." Beast Boy said with a tight face as he turned towards the charging monster.

Robin jumped straight up as Cinderblock charged him, and Starfire flew from the blind spot behind him. She slammed into Cinderblock full tilt, and he stumbled back. Robin hit him with several bombs, and then charged to join Star in the fight.
"Now, Slade. Jam all communications."
"You are finished, Overload. Now, what was your mission. Why are you h-"

Raven cut off with a choke as a blast of water hit her from behind, still flowing from the pipes she had broken. Sometime in the last several seconds, mud had flooded into the water, and now it sludged into an ugly brown color.

The sound of a footstep turned Raven's head, but she already knew who it was going to be. "Hellooooo," Terra's voice came condescendingly back at her, "Does the term 'decoy' mean anything to you?"

Raven rose to her feet, snarling. "Terra."

"Raven."

Raven's eyes started to glow. "Traitor."

Terra's eyes matched hers. "Witch." The two flew at each other. Terra brought a rock up at her from beneath the surface, and she threw energy downward. The rock shattered beneath her. A growl from Terra, and another stone flew straight towards Raven from the front.

'Too bold, Terra,' Raven thought. She took advantage of Terra's overconfidence, using her empathy to slice it down the middle, splitting it in two. Raven shot a blast of dark energy through the gap made between the widening rocks. The blast hit Terra dead center, and she was blown backwards under the muddy water.

The momentary pause in the action gave Raven a chance to evaluate her circumstances. They weren't good: Slade was obviously behind the planning of this. Terra had every possible advantage. Raven's communicator was out, her emotions were unstable, Terra knew everything about her powers, she was still badly injured from her fight with Slade's army, and she was all but swimming in Terra's element.

She was not going to win this fight.

Without warning, Terra leapt up from under the water at Raven, coated with mud, and tackling her. Terra's hands found her throat as she slipped below the surface. Raven continued her backwards momentum, rolling backward as she brought her legs up under the traitor. Raven kicked out, assisted by her empathy, and Terra went flying. Raven rose to her feet, and readied for the fight of her life.

Robin rolled right as a car went whizzing through were he had been standing. Cinderblock was making this extremely difficult. The muddy construction site wasn't making this any easier. The giant golem grabbed another steel girder, and hurled it at Robin. He shot his grappling hook upwards, and pulled himself into a high, fast loop. At the apex, he released the hold and went flying towards Cinderblock, foot first.

As Cinderblock stumbled backwards from the blow, a series of green explosions rippled across the off balance villain, knocking him to the ground. A pile of steel collapsed down on him... but he still started to get back up.

"He is... unquestionably persistent."

Robin shook his head in frustration, looking around the desolate construction yard. "But why? There's nothing here to capture! Nothing to steal!"

Raven slowly pushed herself up from the mud that coated her. Ten minutes of pitched battle later, she was getting exhausted. The advantage of Terra having so much of her element at hand was becoming very clear... the shaman wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"Come on, Rae," Terra taunted as she cleaned the mud from her armor with her powers. "Is that the best that the last Titan can muster?"

"The last... liar." Raven didn't believe her. She would have felt Robin's death.

"Ok, you caught me. Second to last," the traitor said with a sinister smile. "I saved Robin for last, just so I can hurt him more by showing him your tattered cloak... right before I finish him."

"SHUT UP!" Raven yelled, anger getting the best of her. Her soul self projected to create a massive wave of the muddied water that rolled over Terra. The shaman moved it out of her way as it passed, emerging clean.

"Oh, I'm sorry... that's right, you can't get angry." Terra mockingly turned her back on the muddied empath. She held up her hand, and some mud gathered to form a replica of Raven. "Your emotions are dangerous."

Raven was seething with rage under the surface, at Terra's betrayal, at herself, at her father, destiny, and most specifically at Slade, but trying desperately not to show it. "Anger is pointless. I am in control."

"Anger is pointless," Terra mocked her in a high pitch voice, distorting the fake Raven face she made out of mud to make it appear to be talking. "I am in control... puh-leez, you can't even 'control' yourself into isolation. Despite everything you still reach out to Robin? He's never going to be with you... you're too dangerous. You're jus-"

Something inside Raven just snapped with Terra's words, and the last block of self control she had gave way before her anger. Raven decided that the only feeling she needed right now was tearing Terra's slim form apart, piece by piece. She cut off Terra with a roar as she rushed her. "TRAITOR!" she screamed, her voice a haunting series of echoes one after another. Her eyes split into four narrow, crimson slits. "I TRUSTED YOU! THEY TRUSTED YOU! AND YOU KILLED THEM ALL!"

Terra desperately dodged blasts of energy and flying objects as Raven attacked her without pause. Raven's powers had gotten exponentially stronger with her anger... the only thing keeping Terra alive so far was that there was no method to the mad fury of blows. They were completely random. 'Slade... anytime now...'

Terra felt energy surge through her suit as its bio-link activated, adding Slade's power to her own. She extended her powers and wrapped the earth against Raven with all her strength. The empath strained against her pull, but it was an uncoordinated effort. With Slade's strength behind her, Terra couldn't lose.

Terra stared condescendingly down at Raven as she slowly sank beneath the mud. "Who has the control now?" Terra watched as the empath gasped her last breath and her face was dragged under. The earth beneath her opened itself to Terra's will, and Raven was swallowed up.

Raven was gone. She had done it.

Terra felt a brief pulling of guilt, but they were quickly overwhelmed at the ecstasy of her accomplishment. The most powerful of the Titans, taken down by her hand. Nothing could stop her now.

Nothing.

Oxygen. It makes up roughly forty percent of the Earth's atmosphere, and it's critical to life as we know it. Once, oxygen was a poison to life... now it's most common poison was not getting any. Raven was quickly discovering this.

She couldn't breath! All around her, there was nothing but stone and pure darkness. All humans have several innate fears... one is of tight spaces, and the other was off the dark. Raven could feel the stone crushing down on her, giving her no space. 'No air...'

'Robin.' Her emotions finally started to talk. Raven suddenly pictured herself in Nevermore, looking out onto nine cloaked replicas of herself. Anger was silent, still reveling in its blood thirst. Gold, however, was willing as ever to give its opinion. 'Robin isn't dead... yet. If you die, so will he.' As Raven looked at her, she noticed for the first time that she looked even more different than her other emotions than she had thought. Originally, she believed that the emotion looked like a more innocent version of herself. The differences were more profound than that, however. Her eyes did not share Raven's lavender hue, but were instead a piercing green. Her hair was also far darker, more of a navy blue black than Raven's vivid purple locks. 'He's not dead yet...'

Robin wasn't dead yet.

Raven's eyes glowed, pulsing in the darkness. "I WILL NOT DIE LIKE THIS!" Raven wrapped her soul self around her like a cloak, and dissolved into the darkness.

"Well, he's done." Robin said, turning the felled cinderblock over with a shove from a kick, braced against the wall. "Now we can worry about Ter-" Robin suddenly got pushed out of the way. As he stumbled to the ground, something heavy 'whooshed over him. He looked up to see Terra floating off with Cinderblock, and Starfire... she was gone. "STARFIRE!" He turned. "Terra..."he growled. He ran off towards his bike.
Raven phased back into reality at the construction yard. Terra had already been here... Cinderblock was gone. With a growing sense of panic, she realized that so was Robin. Frantically, she searched around in a careful silence. Her empathy detected pain coming from over the side of the cliff, and she looked over to see Starfire floating in the water, unconscious.

Or dead.

Raven levitated Star up the cliff and over to her. Her hands started glowing blue as touched Starfire, and she started to glow as well. "C'mon, Star... snap out of it. Wake up..."

Beast Boy was desperately holding onto the ledge for dear life as Terra slowly walked up to him. She mockingly stared down at him, a coldly sinister expression of apathy covering her face. "I hope you didn't expect a goodbye kiss."

He looked up at her, eyes filled with sadness. "Terra... you can't..."

"Watch me." Slowly, deliberately, Terra moved her hands together and the crag slammed shut, sealing her former love to his fate. This one hurt less than Raven had. It was easy for her to convince herself that she hated him... he had abandoned her, after all.

Raven materialized from the shadows of the earth with Starfire, grabbing onto to the falling Cyborg as Star flew at the shapeshifer. "I got you, Cy."
"Good work, Terra." the sinister voice spoke into her ear.

Terra smiled. "Thanks. It was fun."

"That was only four, however."

"I know. One more to g-"

Terra was thrown backwards as a series of detonations rippled across the ground just in front of her. Suddenly, she was hit from behind with a staff and landed hard on the earth. "Your plan ends here, Terra," a familiar voice called out.

Terra forced herself up and saw Robin looking at her, jaw tight. "What's the matter, Robin? Feeling lonely after I slaughtered your friends?" Terra pulled out a torn blue cloak and slipped it on over her cybernetic armor.

Robin couldn't believe it. 'No...' Not Raven. It couldn't be. Terra couldn't have possibly... "Murderer!" Robin charged her, dodging the rock spikes she threw. His flying tackle hit her hard, pushing her against the fence. They came up locked in melee. Terra parried and countered his unarmed strikes with surprising skill, but Robin was enraged. He made a feint to the left, and then shoulder slammed her back to the fence. Before she could act, Robin had the sharp blade of one of his birdarangs pressed against his throat.

"I promised Beast Boy I'd give you one chance. This is it." Robin pressed the blade against her sharply, drawing a narrow slit of red across her throat. "This is your last chance. Stop now, you don't have to do this!"

"I'm just never going to be good enough for you, will I!" Terra screamed as her hands glowed fiercely. The ground under Robin's feet jumped up, and he lost his balance. Terra twisted her head to the side as Robin reflexively tightened his grip for balance, and the blade glanced off her armor. A rock hit his hand, and the birdarang went flying. Robin regained his balance and pushed her back against the fence.

Robin looked down at the pinned girl. "Terra, you don't have to do this. I was Slade's apprentice once... I got out: so can you."

"I don't want out!"

"I can save you!"

"I DON'T NEED SAVING!" Terra's eyes exploded with elemental power, shining like the sun. A hunk of rock smashed into Robin from behind, sprawling him across the dirt. Terra stalked after him, hurling stone after stone. "I wanted to serve Slade! I wanted to destroy your pitiful friends! I wanted to crush your pathetic empath under my foot!"

By now, Robin was laying still on the floor, panting with the effort of his evasions. His uniform was ripped and torn from near misses with sharp stones, and Terra knew he was finished. She tossed the tattered blue cloak on to his face, and he pulled it to him. He might have cried, but she couldn't see. Terra lifted a huge bolder over his head. "And know, I want to never see you again."

"Welcome to your eternity with Raven." She brought the stone downwards with crushing force, burying her former leader in an avalance of crushed earth.

Raven found Robin's location just in time. Even as she threw a shield around him, the mountain of Earth crashed down. Her empathy pulled him out, and he was suddenly with the other Titans underground. To Raven's intense surprise, Robin immediate encircled her in a desperate hug, uncaring of the eyes of the other Titans on him or the potential consequences of his actions. "I though I'd lost you..."

Despite her embarrassment and her worry about her emotions, Raven couldn't help but smile and return the hug. "Don't worry. We're all O.K."

Robin released her and stepped away, as if he had just realized what he was doing. "Now we have to stop Terra." Robin hit his fist against his palm.

"No more mercy. No more second chances." Cyborg said, voice grim.

"Terra must be stopped." Starfire agreed.

Beast Boy's eyes were the hard stone Terra so enjoyed calling upon. "She will be. She will be."

She had done it. A world without Titans... she had never truly believed it possible, but victory was hers and the Titans were no more. She had destroyed them. "Now apprentice, on to the real mission. Bludhaven is mine!"

Terra smiled as thousands of Slade's bots formed up behind her. "So be it, master."

End Chapter 19
A/NI prayyou liked that... especially you, Water81. Hope I did it justice. Some comic fans among us might have just figured out who the gold emotion is. IF YOU DID, PLEASE KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

NEXT EPISODE NEXT WEEK WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY!

Next Time on Teen Titans - Fragile Dreams:

Can the Titans save the city and stop Terra's rampage?
And will the process save Terra... or destroy her.
The conclusion of the Terra arc

Next Episode: Aftershock, Part 2