Chapter 8

Diana quickly showered and dressed before staring at the marks around her throat in the bathroom mirror. They were ugly and red and some were starting to bruise in the shape of Slade's fingertips. She stroked them slowly with her own fingertips, tilting her head to look at them in the light. Diana surveyed herself with level eyes. Blond hair severely restrained in a bun, black tank top, black shorts, no makeup. She'd never been one to dwell too much on appearances, and every scar or bruise she'd gotten from training had always been a quiet point of pride. Back in her ballet days she'd been stuck with the label of "prissy ballerina" by the people outside her class even though she had been anything but. People in her Krav Maga section had been surprised when she'd taken hits and had matched them blow for blow. After she'd gotten good at it no one was surprised anymore. She lightly touched the red marks on her neck again. Slade could have killed her, could have snapped her neck while he was on top of her, but he didn't.

"Hey, are you in there?"

She heard a teenaged hand slapping the metal door of her bathroom and Diana gritted her teeth, flicking the switch that unlocked it. Inside of her room stood a beaming Terra, complete with a whole new outfit and communicator strapped to her waist. She looked well-fed and healthy, her khaki shorts and black shirt emblazoned with a "T", and Diana couldn't decide if it stood for "Terra" or "Titans". She hoped it was the former.

"I swear to God, if that thing's on you're a dead man," Diana said, pointing emphatically at the communicator, causing Terra to back up and protectively clutch the device.

"No, it's off! Slade took care of it before I came in here."

"Good," Diana replied, taking a seat at her desk, "Because if it's on inside of this compound the Titans have an instant record of where you've been. They could find all of us down here."

"I know. Slade took the battery out of it. It's fine."

Terra flopped onto Diana's light blue bedspread and leaned back against the pillows.

"Just make sure that it stays out. How long do you have, anyway? Before they expect you back?"

"Well," Terra said, biting her lip and fiddling with the hem of her black shirt, "Star and I are supposed to go shopping at two, so I guess about…what time is it, ten? Anyway, we're supposed to go to the mall so I have three and a half hours. I don't know if I have that much stuff for you though."

"Okay," Diana replied warily, distrusting the enthusiastic tone in her younger sibling's voice, "Well, I need to get all the information I can off of your flash drive and communicator. I also need to debrief you. Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah, Robin explained it to me. We pretty much have to do it after every mission. I've only been on three but it's pretty boring. You just sit around and basically say everything that happened to you and all of the stuff you know about whatever's going on. Speaking of missions, Beast Boy has this hilarious thing that he does"—

"Terra," Diana said sharply, "I need you to focus."

The other girl fell silent and looked at her with wide, dark blue eyes.

"You sound like Slade."

"Good," she responded, ignoring the flush that came to her cheeks, "Now. First of all, I need you to give me your communicator so that I can take it apart later."

"Why? They'll kill me if I lose it," Terra groaned, placing her hand over the yellow and black device.

"No they won't, they'll just issue you another one. Say you lost it out in the desert or pretend to lose it when you're fighting in the city."

"Fine," Terra sighed, handing it over.

Diana took the communicator and placed it on her desk, fighting with the back for a moment before she popped open the battery port. Slade had obviously already taken the battery from Terra to make sure that one stupid mistake didn't advertise their location. Structurally, the communicator was ever so slightly different from the one she'd managed to get her hands on before—Cyborg had obviously been making modifications to its design. She pushed the communicator aside for the moment and turned back to Terra, who was reclined in the bed and staring listlessly up at the white ceiling.

"Flash drive?"

"Here ya go."

Terra fished around in her tactical shorts and tossed Diana a tiny black flash drive. Reached in the top drawer of her desk, Diana drew out a slender tablet computer and plugged the drive in. It instantly recognized the device and started downloading files, which were quickly added to Slade's computer system. A frown creased her brow.

"This is all the information you were able to get, Terra?"

"Yeah. I got onto the wifi and got that password, and I was only hooked up to the living room computer for like two seconds before Cyborg and Beast Boy came in. I had to unplug it really fast. I know that Cyborg has a computer in his room and so does Robin. There's also one in the basement, but BB says that's just for records and boring stuff."

"You know Slade wants it all, right?"

"I know," Terra replied, "I'll get it eventually. Hey, can I get lunch? I'm starving."

"Sure. Go find Wintergreen."

Terra hopped off of the bed and walked quickly out the door. The silence left Diana alone with her thoughts as she straightened up the pillows that Terra had knocked to the floor and smoothed the bedspread. She was starting to become very, very uneasy with the entire situation. Terra seemed entirely too fond of the Titans and Diana didn't know how to sever that bond. If Terra saw them as her friends it could present an enormous, unforeseen obstacle to Slade. With a heavy sigh, Diana called up his earpiece on her tablet and talked into it.

"Slade. I've met with Terra. I pulled the information she brought off of the flash drive and have taken her communicator. She's gone to eat lunch before I debrief her. I…I need to talk to you."

For a moment she heard nothing and Diana bit her lip. Perhaps she was being too conversational with her boss. Perhaps he was irritated with her; she should have sounded more professional—

"Are you in your bedroom?"

"Yes. I'm going to get properly dressed and then I can meet you at your location"—

"Stay. I'll come to you."

"A-alright," Diana replied, and no sooner had she put down the computer tablet than Slade walked in the door.

She turned around in the desk chair and he wordlessly sat down on the edge of her bed. It seemed strange, now that she was healed, that he should be there. Diana awkwardly placed her hands in her lap.

"What did you need to discuss?"

"It's Terra. She's seemed to develop something akin to Stockholm Sydrome, being with those Titans. We need to do something about it."

Diana heard her own voice, more firm than she'd intended to make it, and it surprised her. Why did she care so much? Two months ago Terra had been nothing to her, and now…this? She smoothed a hesitant hand over her bun and watched Slade's face. It was as inscrutable as his mask, his cold grey eye solemnly flickering over her as he folded his arms across his chest.

"I agree."

Diana let out the breath she had been holding.

"I have a plan," he said calmly, and the blood rushing in her veins slowed to a lethargic crawl, his voice smooth and even and self-assured, "I've ordered a specialized suit from Doctor Light. It will augment Terra's abilities while providing me with some degree of control. I need you to set up the interface."

She heard him as if through molasses and bit her lip as Slade's hand went up to toy with the neckline of his black shirt. Diana swallowed hard. She processed everything slowly, from afar, and Slade's keen stare watched her and moved over her face. At any other time Diana would have protested such a radical, controlling approach, would have listened to the side of herself that said something was wrong. But now, she didn't.

"I'll take a look at it," Diana mumbled, staring down at her folded hands.

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has had the time and patience to keep reading this! Just so you know, I am going to graduate school this fall, which means no more fanfiction writing for me, unfortunately. So every single of one of my stories that I'm going to finish will be run to completion by the end of this August—no more annoying wait times for you guys! Thanks again for reading, and as always reviews/critiques are always welcomed and appreciated.