Cognitive Dissonance

Chapter Two: Questionable Analogy

It was early, but not too early. The sun was up and everything; she could feel it streaming through her window. Opening one eye just a sliver to see the harsh light, she rolled over and snuggled back under the covers. Sleep was nice.

Wait, no, not nice…bad, so bad. Crud, crud, she was going to be in so much trouble, Slade was going to…

Eyes snapped open and darted around her room in panic. Star painted ceiling and big green bed…oh. Terra leaned back slowly against the pillow, melting back down into the sheets, listening to her heartbeat return to normal. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept beyond sunrise, and it filled her with the sick suspicion that she was doing something wrong.

But waking up here was nice. It really was. When she covered her head with the comforter, even the guilt got fuzzy and far away. And later, she was unable to remember when she had closed her eyes…

"Yo!"

"Nyyyuh?" said Terra intelligently.

A disembodied voice from beyond her closed door. "Hey, sleeping beauty, I'm here to collect you for training. Robin wants to see you in the gym." That would be Cyborg, sounding considerably less enraged than he had last night with the waffles. Beast Boy had explained to her in a quiet moment that Cyborg wasn't really angry…they did that sort of thing to each other all the time because they were best friends. Apparently, Terra had a lot to learn about friends.

She peeled the comforter off, a bit reluctantly, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Oh! Oh, sure, I'll be right there—just a minute!" Throw on some clothes, some shoes, find something to tie back that blasted hair.

One step too many sent her shin colliding with the side table: the cactus balancing on top wobbled precariously as she wondered whether avoiding a big mess was worth possibly pricking her fingers. Terra released her breath a few seconds later when the plant stopped looking like it was about to spill all over the floor, or whatever.

"Uhh…Terra? You okay in there?" Cyborg's voice filtered through the doorway.

Rip, went the brush as she dragged it through her hair. Ouch. "Yeah, sure, everything's fine, I'll be right out!"

"That's what you said before…" said Cyborg, but he didn't get to finish because Terra slid open her door and waved up at him. Way up. How did he get that tall?

Then she dipped down to adjust her socks and noticed that one was white and one was gray.

Cyborg noticed, too. "Are you sure you're up for this? We'd totally understand—I told Robin that you might need to rest for a day or two, and …"

"No!" Terra jumped up immediately, leaving her socks where they were. "I mean, yes! I mean…I'm totally ready. I used to train loads with…" Whoops. "Well, it'll be no sweat anyway."

"Right," said Cyborg. "Though in reference to that last part, about the sweat, I'm afraid that you're about to eat your words."

Terra was pretty quiet for the rest of the walk down to the gym. When they were nearing what Terra assumed was the place, she could hear two familiar people talking outside and at least one of them sounded angry.

"Just tell me what's on the torture menu for her, okay?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary; just some basic stuff to assess how much conditioning she needs." He was losing patience but trying to stay calm, focused—probably mentally reciting the digits of pi or something.

"Now why are you going to make her do that?"

"Take a wild guess."

"News flash, dude: we want her to like us." That would be Beast Boy. His words made that almost-nervous feeling return in full force.

"I want her to stay alive. I don't care if she likes us."

"Well, I care! And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It's obvious. Her problems with her powers are directly correlated with her lack of control over her body. If we can't get her up to speed, who knows what…"

Cyborg rounded the corner with Terra right behind him, and all at once she had faces to go with the voices. Robin was fidgeting with his watch and standing up too straight outside of a large door that looked vaguely familiar from yesterday evening's tour. He noticed them, and his face relaxed a little, though it was really hard to tell when you couldn't see his eyes. Not for the first time, Terra fought down a deep-seated urge to pull that mask off and see what color they were.

"Morning, y'all," said Cyborg cheerfully.

"To some of us it's morning," said Robin. If he had any clue that Terra had heard his previous conversation, he didn't seem to care. "Alright, Terra, I think it's very important…"

"I know!" Terra heard herself say, mouth running away from her brain—again. "I really think it would be great for me to train with you guys. So, where do we start?"

Robin smiled (or, more accurately, his mouth sort of turned up a little on one side). "Well, first of all, you're not training with us. I'm just going to see what you can do and give you some basic stuff to work on."

Great, yet another thing she wasn't good enough for. "Sounds fun!"

"Yeah, I think it is," said Robin, pressing a button on the wall that made the gym door swoosh open.

"Psst. He liiiies," hissed Beast Boy, making an insulting face when Robin wasn't looking.

Terra giggled and shook her head, waving at him as she took a step through the door. "I'm going to get big, buff and all that. See you guys later!"

"Nice knowing you," said Beast Boy melodramatically as he played an imaginary violin. The door closed behind Terra just in time for her to see Cyborg knock him on the back of the head.

Robin seemed a lot more at home and at least six degrees more comfortable once they were inside…though Terra couldn't exactly share the sentiment. The gym was huge, of course, and full of things that she couldn't name and didn't think she could use very well…and some things that she didn't even want to know how to use. Suddenly, Beast Boy's warning started to seem like less of a joke..

Robin wasted no time in turning on a set of speakers, sending some very loud and very grating music reverberating throughout the room. Some guy who sounded angry was supposedly singing, though Terra would defend to the death the belief that he was actually yelling. It was probably one of the worst things she'd ever heard. But she decided that she'd keep that opinion to herself.

"Alright," said Robin, looking exactly as confident as Terra didn't feel. "We're going to warm up first. Just come this way, over here, and I'll show you some stretches. Umm, don't touch those."

Terra's hand stopped halfway toward a rack of dumbbells, and she blushed.

Well. This wasn't so bad. She discovered that she was actually pretty good at the stretching game, and even Robin was impressed that she could get both her feet all the way behind her head. Gym, schmim, she could do this.

"So, what next?" she asked from the blue mat.

"Umm…Raven?"

"Okay, what kind of exercise is called…oh, hi," said Terra, catching herself as she turned around to see what Robin was looking at. Raven was perched casually on the edge of a bench. Wait, no, she wasn't sitting on it…she was levitating. With nothing under her or anything, just floating off the ground like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. Terra had seen her do that before, but it never failed to freak her out, especially when she appeared out of nowhere.

Raven didn't answer either of them, staring back carelessly.

"Not that we aren't happy to see you, but what made you decide to come up here? I thought you hated working out." He seemed to think of something suddenly. "And more importantly, how'd you get here without me noticing you?...I notice everything." Robin's forehead was wrinkled as he chewed on his lower lip and it almost seemed like he was pouting.

"You were busy with her," said Raven. "Must have been distracted, I guess. And I'm just coming down here to watch, unless that's against the law."

Yeah, just coming down here to act all creepy and float around like some kind of demon so you'll distract me and then you can laugh at how I screw up.

"I am not touching that one," said Robin, holding out his hands in a gesture of innocence. "Nice to have you with us, Raven. Terra, ready to try out the treadmill?"

"Oh god, not thatthing again," said Raven.

Robin looked annoyed. "That was one time, and you know it." He pointed his finger at her.

"Yeah, because I stopped you all the other times." Raven stared him down, completely unabashed by the Pointy Finger of Doom.

If there was one thing that Terra hated, it was when people talked over her head. "Umm, sure, the treadmill sounds fun. I think I can do that." There were three of them on the far side of the room, covered with complicated buttons. From over in the corner, they certainly didn't seem very intimidating, though Terra had never used one before. But hey, you just run as fast as you can for a while: how hard could it be?

Robin ended up having to push the buttons because as soon as Terra tried to find the "ON" switch, she ended up having the machine ask her what her body fat percentage was, or something ridiculous like that. "You always want to start off with walking. It's really not hard—those buttons control how fast you go, and if you want to stop, you press that one right there." He pointed and Terra nodded slowly.

"Got it," she said.

"Are you ready?"

Terra glanced over at Raven for a microsecond. "Never been more ready in my life. I like a challenge."

The belt started to move, much too slowly, so Terra kicked the speed up. After a few seconds, she got bored and tried to push it up again but Robin shook his head. "You don't want to start running too quickly; you'll give yourself a cramp, and that won't be pleasant."

At some point, he had turned on the treadmill next to Terra's and entered something into the controls that looked complicated. Pretty soon, he was running, even though he had told Terra not to. From her position over the bench, Raven rolled her eyes.

When Terra was given permission to run, she pushed the speed arrows a few times until she was forced to break into a light jog. It was easy at first because she was used to running away from things she met in the desert, but it stopped being fun pretty quickly. She was out of breath and sweating before very long, wishing that Raven wasn't watching her fail miserably.

"Hey…Rob…in?" Deep breaths, don't fall, please don't fall. Her shoes pounded against the belt, laces starting to come loose. "How…much…longer? Robin?"

It took a few more tries to knock him out of his own little world, or whatever, because Robin's gaze was firmly fixed straight ahead of him, and if he was looking at anything, it definitely wasn't the gray wall of the gym. He looked a bit tired himself. "Go for three more minutes. We need to build up your endurance."

It was like a death sentence. Those three minutes were the longest that Terra had ever experienced, and she would have screamed in triumph when she finally slowed the speed down…if her lungs hadn't been too starved for air to even think about speaking, let alone screaming. Robin continued to run, muttering something that sounded like a dismissal.

"Sooo…I'm…done?"

Robin nodded stiffly, not turning his head this time. "With that, yeah. I want you to stretch some more so you…don't get cramps," he said, words punctuated by uneven breathing.

Terra shrugged and headed over to the mat. Pooh on cramps;this was the part she liked.

After many lame attempts to remember the myriad combinations of movements that Robin had shown her before, Terra gave up and shuffled across the room, hoping to get permission to leave. The gym was alright and all, but Raven's disconcerting presence was most definitely unwelcome and she wanted to see what Beast Boy was up to.

Robin was running pretty fast. No, wait, really fast. And getting faster. Eight…eight and a half…nine miles an hour…nine and a quarter… He reached for his water bottle, missed and gave up that idea.

"Hey, Robin, can I leave now?" No response.

"Robin?"

The treadmill made angry noises as Robin swayed a little, face still focused on some unseen object right in front of him. Terra couldn't see his eyes, of course, so maybe it was just her imagination, but he looked…worried, about something.

Or maybe he just looked sick. Wait, scratch that: he was going to be sick.

She had formed her mouth around a command for him to stop right now when a pale index finger slammed down on the speed control and didn't let go. Not Robin's finger, either.

Hand on her hip, face set in a glare, Raven gave him a look for which no words were needed. "Time's up."

Robin coughed and stumbled, practiced reflexes keeping him from falling. "That…was…" He had to cough a few more times before he could finish. "…uncalled for."

"Was it really, now?" said Raven. "Get off that thing, Richard. Now."

Stepping down in one composed motion, he grabbed for his water bottle and took a long, haughty gulp. "I was finished, anyway. Yeah, Terra, you're done for the day."

"Go to sleep, Robin." And for once, there was no sarcasm in her voice.

"Sleep is a waste of time…I need to look over the main computer; there's been some odd bugs in it lately."

Raven followed him over to the door, though she didn't try to go with him down the hallway. "At least take a shower. You reek."

Terra looked from Raven to the offending treadmill to the space in the doorway where Robin had been only seconds before. She considered trying to process the last few seconds, but settled on asking the only question that was really in her head. "Okay, wait, rewind: why's he supposed to sleep at ten thirty in the morning?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "You're pretty stupid, aren't you? He hasn't slept in two days. Trust me, I know."

"What is his problem?"

"Should be obvious." She shrugged, cape swishing. "He's pretty hard to deal with sometimes."

"I know what you mean," Terra said conversationally, leaning against the wall and trailing her shoe along the tiles. "I'm always afraid that he's going to, like, explode at me for not having my underwear alphabetized. And no offense, but this music…oh, I've just gotta turn it off, it's horrible." Terra reached for the speakers by the door and finally managed to achieve silence. Sweet, blissful silence.

Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Right. Well, I'm sure you listen to Britney Spears so what do you know, but death to Linkin Park and Simple Plan. Robin's a nice guy with horrible taste in music."

"Hey, what's wrong with…" Wait, did Raven and I just agree on something? Did I just talk to Raven like a human being?

I need to lie down.