A/N: (Peeks out from under covers) Is that it? Is it over? I'M ALIVE! (Comes out of the bed) Well, to be stupidly honest, no, it's not over, I still have about a week or two to go. But one of the mega mondo waves is over my head, and it's back to business! (rubs hands together).
Jurodan: Nice to see you again. Or, read you, um, anyway, thanks, it was my first action scene, so feedback is gratefully received. Yeah, Cyborg is that protective sorta dude. Glad to hear it.
Insanity 101: Ahh, back to fanfiction. I was starting to suffer from withdrawal pains. Hehehe, thanks, it's amazing what subject verb agreement exercises and some daydreaming can cook up! Hmm, Slade? I don't know whether to give you the full explanation, or wait for you to find out what really happens. Well, I'm overdue on some brainstorming, so I'll save it for now. Aw, c'mon, what are you gonna do, shoot my corpse? (Flash-forward: Jambey's funeral. Jambey hops out of the coffin, screaming "Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me! I was just kidding!". End of flash-forward) Hmm, not a pretty picture. Thanks, it's almost over, I'm in the final stretch. Let's see how I do here.
teen titan girl: Thanks! I guess it aint too bad, sorry you had to wait so long!
Okey dokey, this is a very important chapter so shut up and read! (thanks for the influence, Dusty):
The Titans filed in one by one into the main room. Nobody said a word. Through the windows of the Tower, storm clouds could be seen threatening to cover the chock-a-block moon, and thunder rumbled from without. Even the weather seemed to be reprimanding the team for their semi-failure.
Beast Boy bounced over to the refrigerator while Raven sat down at the table.
"Dude! There's nothing to eat!" exclaimed Beast Boy, bending over the fridge. "I'm going to starve of hunger!"
Robin raised his eyebrows at the not-so-eloquent phrase. "I guess we'll have to order something," he stated manner-of-factly. "I vote for Chinese food."
"No way, man, we had Chinese last week! Let's order pizza," boomed Cyborg.
"Whatever, let's just order something!" whined Beast Boy.
Robin and Cyborg began to argue loudly over what they should order. B.B. kept wailing that he was starving, while Starfire tried vainly to break up the fight, resorting at times to quizzical Tamaranian expressions that only seemed to add fuel to the fire.
Terra stood near the door. Her blond locks covered her sapphire eyes. Her head hung low. She still felt awful about the battle, but was appreciative that no one had commented on it.
Striving to remain unnoticed, Terra made her way, eyes downcast, toward the table and sat down. Looking up, she realized too late that she had just sat down opposite Raven.
But even more unsettling than this was the fact that Raven was staring at her. Terra stared back. Faced with that empty stare, she was at a loss of what to do. She found herself unconsciously wishing she was still back fighting Cinderblock.
Terra vaguely remembered B.B. telling her once how much he disliked when Raven did that.
"It's like she can see right through you; like she's thinking everything about you, and nothing of you at the same time," he had stated, before being whacked in the back of his head with a stankball sent by Cyborg.
Now, as Terra looked at Raven, she felt a twinge of anger.
What does she know? She doesn't know anything about me! thought the earth-shifter. Terra crossed her arms similarly to Raven, throwing a defiant glare at the pit of darkness.
Raven didn't move, just kept x-raying her with those amethyst orbs.
Terra's anger grew with each passing second.
I'll bet she's thinking about the fight, Terra thought venomously. She's probably just waiting for a chance to make some sarcastic comment about it. She squirmed as those unrelenting purple spheres bored into her like drills.
Terra was boiling now, angry patches of red flooding her cheeks. God, how she hated that emotionless face!
Wait a sec, was that a smirk that streaked across Raven's face? If it was, it was gone now.
Something inside Terra snapped. That does it!
"Say it!" Terra spat, arms still crossed.
For a split second, Raven's face held an emotion Terra failed to recognize, but the sorceress returned to her stoic state and quickly muttered, "What?"
"Just say it!" Terra snarled, slamming her gloved hands on the yellow table.
Raven's expression grew colder. "I don't know what your talking about."
"Don't play stupid. I know what you're thinking, so you might as well come out with it!"Terra growled.
Raven slowly uncrossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the earth-shifter. "And what, pray, led you to the delusion that you know what goes on in my head?"
"I told you to cut it out!" shouted Terra, jumping to her feet. "Fine, I messed up. In the battle. I-MESSED-UP. There, I said it. Are you happy now?"
Raven didn't respond, merely stared up at the nearly shaking girl. Unbeknownst to them both, the argument going on in the background was gradually dieing down.
Terra decided that she had had enough. She wanted to get under Raven's skin, and she had plenty of resources to do so. Being Slade's apprentice was good for more than just learning combat techniques and power control.
Smirking, Terra said, "At least I'm not afraid of the dark."
Raven's smirk quickly slipped off her face. "No, you're afraid of being stuck in a rock again. Or do you always cry in your sleep?"
Terra's face turned pale. Her expression hardened. "Don't even go there. Or you'll get hurt."
"Ooh, I'm shaking. What are you gonna do to me, cover me in mud again?" sneered Raven. Something in the pit of stomach told her that what she was doing was wrong, but she felt something else, something darker, override her instincts and enjoy baiting the girl.
Terra sneered right back. "Oh, yeah, my mistake. I can only cause avalanches. It's not like I can trigger world annihilation."
Raven's eyes widened, then narrowed again. She stood up. "Now it looks like you're the one who's going to get hurt."
The team nervously looked from one girl to the other, all thoughts of alimentation gone, wanting to intervene, but fearing the lash of either.
Terra decided that it was time to tighten the screw. "Yeah, along with everyone else."
Raven scowled darkly, eyes flashing dangerously. "You don't know me. I have control over my emotions and my powers, unlike some people."
"Sure you do. Wouldn't want Daddy to cause trouble, would you?"
Raven's hands curled into fists. "I'm warning you…"
Terra was beyond all reason now. Any inhibitions she might have had had disappeared now. She felt a strange and primal hunger coursing through her veins, like molten lava. It was exhilarating, yet it frightened her. All she thought about was causing Raven as much psychological and emotional pain as possible.
"Man, you're mom probably had a rough time, what with what your dad did to her and everything."
Raven froze at the mention of her mother. She felt her limbs go numb with disbelief.
"Maybe it would have been better for everyone if she hadn't had you. Then world peace wouldn't be threatened."
Robin stepped forward, ready to stop the torrent of abuse, but Terra plowed on.
"I bet you think about her a lot, don't you? Yeah, that's what you do in your dark, creepy room all day, cry your eyes out like a baby for your mommy."
Raven was shaking violently now.
"Why, mommy?" imitated Terra viciously in a child-like voice. "Why do I hurt everybody? All you do is cry. But wait, I bet you can't even do that! You'd probably blow up half the city or some…"
A cry that bore no resemblance to anything uttered from human lips wrenched it's way out of Raven's throat as she lunged toward Terra. She collided into the earth-shifter and they crashed to the floor.
Raven wrapped one hand around Terra's thin neck, and she slammed her other fist into every part of the traitor within her reach. An odd whistling echoed in her ears, and a buzzing filled her head. Her throat burned from the effort to sustain the roar still issuing from her throat.
Raven perceived only distantly two strong, green gloved arms wrapping around her own and binding them tight behind her. They dragged her away from the battered Terra, and as she noticed this, she struggled more fiercely than she ever had before in her life. Only one thought echoed through her mind: kill Terra.
Surprisingly, Terra sprang to her feet as best she could and charged at Raven, only to be impeded in a similar manner by the changeling. Raven was vaguely aware of Robin yelling something, and saw Beast Boy speak urgently in Terra's ear, but both girls were oblivious to their teammate's cries.
Cyborg stepped between the two, bellowing something incoherent, and rapidly ushered B.B. and Terra from the room, with difficulty. Though Terra's nose appeared to be broken, and her lip was cut and bleeding, the earth-shifter was still putting up a tremendous fight.
The floor seemed to tremble slightly. Terra's screams of "I'll get you! I swear I'll get you!" were muffled only slightly as the changeling and the robotic teen forced her out of the room.
Meanwhile, even though the traitor was gone, Raven was still fighting tooth-to-nail to be free from Robin's clutches. She desperately clawed at Robin's arms and face, struggling fiercely. Random objects exploded in the background, surrounded with an aura of black energy. In her frenzy, however, it didn't occur to her to use her powers to make the Boy Wonder let her go.
"Argh, grr…Raven…c-calm down…stop!" Robin cried, to no avail.
Starfire wrung her hands helplessly as she watched her friend bend her head forward in an effort to liberate herself. "Please, Raven, you must calm down, for your own sake!"
Her teammate's cries fell on deaf ears as Raven dropped to her knees, still fighting against her leader's grasp. Her energy was waning fast, now that the adrenaline had worn off and the object of her anger was out of her sight. She kneeled, gasping from effort, Robin's arms supporting her more than holding her back.
Starfire hesitantly stepped forward.
"Arghh!" With a yell, Raven tried once again to surge forward. Robin, caught off guard, used more force than necessary to bring her back, and slammed her onto the floor. He pinned her arms to the ground, while Starfire grabbed her ankles and held down like iron menacles.
But even then Raven fought. With a silent gasp, Robin noticed tears glistening in Raven's thick, dark lashes, as she scrunched her eyes up in an effort to escape. He felt as though an iron hand had clenched around his heart. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. Poe knew it, and so did Robin.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Raven stopped struggling. Her breath came out in quick gasps, which quickly turned into soft sobs. She refused to open her eyes. Robin gently released his grip on her arms, as her tense muscles gradually relaxed. He looked at Starfire, who met him with an equally mystified gaze: What could they possibly say?
Raven solved that for them. She sat up, stifling her sobs, and roughly brushed the tears from her eyes. She attempted to stand, but failed miserably. Robin helped her up, but she swayed, overwhelmed with the effort of attempting to stay standing, and he held her up. Worry furrowed the Boy Wonder's brow as he put his arm around the dark teen's slender shoulders, supporting her on her shaking legs.
Starfire clasped her hands together as she looked intently and worriedly at Raven.
"Friend, please…are you undamaged?"
Raven opened her eyes slightly, but determinedly looked at the floor. It was evident she acknowledged her inability to walk alone, humiliating as it was, but nontheless she refused to be treated like a victim. Yet again.
"Robin…take me to my room."
It was with pain in her eyes that Starfire watched Robin nod curtly and head steadily toward the door. The alien was abruptly aware of the fact that she was now alone in the main room. She shivered slightly and jumped as another peal of thunder boomed outside.
Rekmas, Starfire thought gloomily to herself. It was happening again. The Titan's were falling apart.
A/N: Ta da! Well, not exactly Shakespeare, but I loved working on this chapter, it felt good to be writing again. I realize that last time I said that you could give me up for dead after June 1, but things from May shifted to June so now things won't be officially over until July. (sighs) I hate my life. Hehehe, just kidding, anyway I hope y'all like this chapter, please, please, PLEASE review! I'd yell at you to review, but I've lost my voice for a while, so you would probably laugh at me instead (that means you Dusty). Anyway, don't flame me, I'm not a Terra hater or basher or any of that crud. It was just essential that she act like an official jerk to get on with the story. Well, that's about it, gotta run,
Jambey