Terra shook once, then turned away from him, blushing with embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "I just — "

"Worry no longer, child," Slade said, placing a hand under her chin and bringing it up to meet his eye. "From now on, I will be your master."

"Thank you," she breathed, embracing him a second time.

Slade continued to rub her back until she stopped shaking, then he gently pushed her away from him. "Follow," he commanded. Slade began to walk away from Terra, and she willingly followed him as they walked deeper into the complex which was now Terra's home. "Now that you are my apprentice," Slade began, "you will learn all of my strength, all of my techniques, and all of my" — here Slade's eye flicked over to Terra's face to see her expression. — "control."

Terra's eyes lit up at the last word. She nodded vigorously and looked up at him with a grin on her face. "When can we start?"

It was amazing how quickly Slade had gotten her to trust him. Though she was barely a teenager, as well as a female, it was laughable how easy this had been. Slade smiled; he'd played his hand perfectly. "Immediately," he said. "You have much to learn."

"Okay!"

Slade's ears caught Terra's grunt of exertion, while out of the corner of his eye, he saw a boulder hurling toward him. Slade blinked in mild surprise. Apparently, she'd taken his words quite literally. That was no matter to him; he never lost. Fluidly dodging underneath the deadly boulder, Slade pulled out his bowstaff and scraped it against the ground, projection a mass of dirt and dust into Terra's face and catching her off guard. She coughed as the dust blocked her vision, and he quickly used his staff to trip her.

"Come now, Terra," Slade said from above her. "Is this the best you can produce?"

Slade noticed that Terra seemed a bit excited now. She grinned once, then her eyes flashed that familiar golden color again.

"Not even close," Terra said.

Slade looked upward as a stalactite broke from the ceiling and fell toward him. Using his staff to gain leverage, Slade dodged sideways. Terra, however, managed to stop the rock before it hit the ground and rotate the point to face him. She threw the stalactite toward him, and right before contact was made, Slade threw his bowstaff at the rock, slicing it in half while simultaneously protecting himself from injury as the two halves of rock passed on either side of him. He heard Terra's grunting from across the room, and looked satisfactorily over at Terra, who had been pinned to the wall by his own staff. "Good, but not perfect," Slade said.

Terra struggled against the bowstaff for a few moments before breaking the rock wall she was pinned against, effectively freeing herself. She threw the shards at Slade, but Slade dodged them with agile grace. However, simply to see how Terra would react, Slade allowed the last stone to strike him. It threw him to the ground, and he lay there, unmoving.

Terra wasn't giving it her all. Not even close. When the rock had struck him, Slade had expected pain, even minutely. But the stone had felt less like an attack and more like an annoyance. A mosquito bite. Was she really that afraid of what she could do?

"Oh, no!" Slade heard Terra shout. "Stupid, stupid! Slade, Slade, are you okay? Slade!"

Slade waited for Terra to get right up next to him before he grabbed her leg and threw her into an opposing wall. He stood up with a sigh of displeasure. "Never trust your enemy, Terra."

Terra fell to her knees, then looked up at Slade. "But . . . " She bit her lip. "You're not my enemy."