There was silence. It was an eerie thing, the way nothing moved or rustled. Nothing had moved within her stone prison for she knew not how long. The rock had encased her, slowly becoming her. Time was not a factor to Terra anymore. She couldn't tell if it was day or night, or if it had been days or years since it had happened.
Even as rock, her heart cried out for Beast Boy. How could she have done that to him-to any of them? They had trusted her. How could she have been so wrong? These thoughts, though, were her real punishment. Being trapped with only her thoughts for so long caused the real pain. Images flashed through her mind in a myriad of colors, her imagination running wild with what could be happening outside her encasement. She could not know, and that tortured her deep inside.
Sometimes, Terra seemed to feel Beast Boy, or another Titan outside of where her rock form stood. She longed to cry out to them, to tell them how sorry she was; to beg their forgiveness. She could not, no matter how hard she tried.
She could still feel within her rock, and had once felt Beast Boy's tear, a chrysalis of crystal, drop with a gentle plink onto her stone foot. At that moment, she wished with everything she had left for him to be with her. She wished to be in Beast Boy's arms again, and she wished that she had never met Slade, or betrayed the Titans. She sighed inwardly. Wishing did no good, she thought to herself. She had learned that long ago.
Once, when she was very little, she had been told that silence was a good thing. That if you were absolutely silent, you would be able to hear the spirits of the earth whispering in your ear. Here, the silence was so terrible that it pounded in her ears, eating away as much of the remaining spirit Terra had as it could.
She could no longer stand it. The silence was too great. Faster and faster it pounded, coming closer and closer like a train with no brake. Any second now she was going to lose it. The delicate connections within her stone self would break and…
She was floating. Nothing seemed real here. Puffs of mist encircled her, crying out to her, whispering their sad story. Nearby, a raven let loose its unmistakable call, causing an ache in Terra's heart. She would never see any of them again. Her hair would never have its blonde luster back, but would remain a dusty grey forever. Waves of indigo color would never again lap themselves against the dark black of her pupils; instead, her eyes would remain blank and glassy.
She let her mind wander, and it found Beast Boy. Had he truly forgiven her? After all she had done? His name rang through her mind, bouncing off of every corner.
If it was possible, tears would have been silently slipping through her eyes. It seemed as if nothing in the world would ever go right for her again. But then, there was light.
It had to be at least three quarters of a minute before Terra actually realized she wasn't stone anymore. She kept telling herself it wasn't true, that she could not possibly be seeing light after so long. Somewhere deep inside her heart though, she knew. That little piece of her guided her eyes, and slowly lifted their lids.
The world was blurry at first, her eyes going in and out of focus. It was as if light was new to her, her pupils kept dilating to different sizes. Finally, her eyes adjusted, and she saw around her the five faces of the Teen Titans, peering down at her. There was Robin, a rather confused look in his eyes, then Starfire, who looked worried, of course Raven, who was trying to avoid her eyes, Cyborg, who had a smug look on his face, and Beast Boy.
The look on his face was a mixture; it held worry, fear, love, and a tiny tinge of regret. Terra knew that the regret was her fault. If her body had permitted her, she would have leapt into his arms at that moment. But all she could do was blankly stare at the ceiling.
It took a while for the Titans to realize that Terra was actually awake, and no longer stone. She couldn't read the look on Robin or Raven's face, but Starfire leapt with joy and Terra heard Cyborg muttering something about how he knew by long periods of research and examples that this method would bring her back…and so on and so forth.
'So that's why he was looking smug,' Terra thought to herself happily. Slowly, as though she was putting off the moment, her eyes traveled to Beast Boy. Her heart jumped as his eyes met hers, and they shared a moment of true bonding. As soon as she could speak, she would tell them all exactly how sorry she was, and exactly how much she regretted what she had done in the past. She hoped and prayed that she would be forgiven, but until then, she was just going to enjoy being alive once more.
