TerraRox: A succinct review. It's updated now.
Kayasuri-n: Who says there will be an explosion when she realizes creepy dad is creepy Slade? Anyway, I'm of course glad that you are enjoying the fic.
CalliopeMused: Thanks for the positive review. As usual, we have already spoken about it, so I won't delve into it again here.
Lambbaby: Yay for Superboy! Also I'm glad that you enjoy seeing Rose's thoughts and processes of wrestling with her newly crazed life and her odd father. Here's the next chapter, only a month and a week later.
Dr. Evil99: Thanks for the detailed review, as always, but we've spoken at length about this fic at various times. thus I will just get on with the next chapter now.
A/N: Ok, here's chapter five, nearly a month after the previous. Hope you enjoy it! It's a bit dialog heavy, and a little weird in places, but at least it's done. Enjoy!
Though Rose had agreed to talk, both girls sat in silence for a while, staring at the sandy floor of the cave. Despite Raven being the least irritating of all the Titans, Rose still didn't exactly know her, and definitely had no idea what to say to her right away. Rose ventured a look at the girl, and saw that she was looking down, with a thoughtful expression on her face. The room was quiet, save for a light whisper of wind from outside. Rose noticed that the small pool of light had dimmed slightly. It was getting towards evening.
Rose jumped a bit as Raven broke the silence. "I'm not sure what to say."
Smiling, Rose nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. You're a superhero, and I'm just... I don't know what I am."
Raven nodded as well, and then fell silent again. Rose, not wanting another impossible to break silence hanging over them, spoke up again. "So, I'm sorry about attacking you guys. I just wanted you all to leave me alone, and Beastboy wouldn't shut up."
"Yes, and that's something I need to talk about. Not Beastboy, but the other part. The Titans sent me as an emissary not only because I've spoken to you before, but also because they think of you as Terra, and she was extremely dangerous when she lost control. I am the most likely to survive combat with her. We weren't certain how you would react. Since this is supposed to be an honest talk, I wanted to tell you that." Raven's voice was calm and monotone, and she didn't look at Rose as she spoke.
Terra had been dangerous? If Terra was dangerous, and Rose had the same powers, was she dangerous as well? Rose smiled a little. Of course she was. She'd already caused at least two earthquakes, let alone a few tremors. But Rose didn't want to be considered a danger. Not only that, but it seemed like the Titans considered her unstable as well. "I'm not going to attack you, Raven. I didn't even mean to attack you before."
"Your powers. Speaking of them, you flew most of the way here. Are you feeling better about using them?" Raven still didn't look directly at Rose, but she did seem more interested.
Rose shook her head. "No. Well, yes, but no. I just had to do something to get away from the police. They were going to arrest me and put me in some prison somewhere. I can't go to prison."
Raven looked at her. "You don't deserve it. Terra might, but you don't. Not yet."
Rose shuddered. Something about the way Raven said Terra's name made her uncomfortable. "Um, as much as I apparently look like her, I don't know anything about Terra. I mean, who was she?"
Raven seemed taken aback by the question, and hesitated a moment. "Terra was... I think she was a lot like you. She had powers, but didn't know how to control them. The difference is that you are looking for help, and Terra... Terra just tried to do everything alone."
Raven sighed. "We met Terra very near here. She was running from a giant scorpion, and I had sensed the monster from the tower a few times. Since it seemed excited, we thought it might be putting someone in danger. We came to investigate. We got here only a few seconds before she killed it. She was very friendly, and seemed to know a lot about us before we met her. Starfire, Cyborg, and Beastboy convinced her to stay at the tower for a night. Robin and I reserved judgement. Something about her just seemed wrong."
Rose nodded, wanting to hear more of the story. Raven was speaking to her, but staring at the ground again, and her voice made it sound as if she was trying to watch what she said. Although it might not directly relate to her, Rose still wanted to hear more about the girl that the Titans seemed to want to believe had returned. If nothing else, it would keep her mind off of her own situation for a while.
Raven continued. "She stayed the night without any problems, and joined us for combat practice the next day. She did well, but it was obvious to everyone that she wasn't used to real combat. She was sloppy with her powers, nearly falling several times, and panicking under pressure. As soon as combat practice was over, we were called into real combat. Slade had made a feint against a diamond mine, and the Titans arrived to combat him. During the fight, Terra lost control, and she nearly killed Beastboy. She ran away from us. After he recovered, Beastboy chased after her. I'm not sure what happened between them, but they both came back together. The problem came later that night. Robin extended an offer to Terra to join the Titans."
Raven's voice sounded irritated as she spoke of the invitation. Rose couldn't help but wonder why. Still, she didn't want to interrupt.
"She would have accepted, I think, but Robin told her that he knew she had trouble controlling her powers. Apparently it had been a secret between her and Beastboy. She yelled at him, and then ran away. I think she went to Slade shortly afterwards. I don't know how he found her, or how she found him."
Rose decided to interrupt. "Who is Slade?"
Raven's expression darkened. "He's a supervillain. I suppose 'supervillain' isn't exactly correct. He doesn't have any powers, but he's an expert martial artist. He comes close to besting Robin in single combat, even beating him on occasion. He's a psychopath. He has actively tried to kill the Titans on several occasions, and seems to have an obsession with controlling us by coercion or force. He is extremely dangerous."
"Controlling you? What do you mean?" Rose felt very uneasy at the mention of control. Somehow the thought of being controlled was disturbing and familiar, and she didn't want to think about it.
Raven closed her eyes as she spoke. "He controlled Robin by threatening the rest of us with death. Terra came to him willingly, but Beastboy claims that she was being controlled by the suit he gave her. He tried to control me with the help of my father, but failed."
"Who is your father?" Rose couldn't stifle her curiosity.
Raven's voice was cold and almost frightening. "I don't want to talk about him."
Rose decided to change the subject. "Ok, so tell me about what else happened with Terra."
Raven seemed as if the chatty mood had left her, and her description of events became much quicker. "Terra spent the next few months with Slade, though we didn't know it. Afterwards, she reappeared and joined the Titans over my fairly vocal dissent. She was a Titan for about six weeks, living with us, talking with us, and fighting alongside us. In reality she was a spy. Eventually she betrayed us to Slade, giving him access to the tower and... distracting Beastboy while we fought an army of Slade's robots."
Rose said nothing, but was getting irritated with the similarities between Slade the villain and Slade her father. The robotic schematics she had seen him going over a few days ago returned to her. She put it out of her mind, as Raven continued talking.
"We won, but only the battle. Slade had all the information that he needed to fight us. It was only a few weeks before Terra attacked us. One by one she hunted us down, and seemingly tried to kill us all. For some reason, she instead simply put us underground. We all met up in a cavern, and eventually formed a plan to return to the surface to fight her. In the meantime, the city was evacuated under the pretense of a predicted earthquake. The people that didn't evacuate willingly were chased away by Terra. She and Slade owned the city for a time."
Raven sighed, seemingly tired, and her description of events paled even more. "Anyway, we came back, beat her, and she retreated to Slade. Beastboy found his way to them while the rest of us were fighting an army of robots and a combined monster that Slade created. We arrived later, and she was holding a stone over his head, and he had his foot stuck. It looked like she might kill him, but instead she attacked Slade. They fought, and she eventually let her powers go, and beat him. She triggered a long-dormant volcano, however, and had to stay there and stop it while we ran. Using her powers like that somehow turned her into stone."
Rose sat quietly for a moment, and Raven did as well. The light from outside was failing, and the cave had filled with a dark gloom. Raven finally spoke again. "I thought she was gone. When Beastboy saw you the first time, he went and checked her tomb. The statue was gone."
Rose spoke quietly. "Do you think I'm her?"
Raven's voice grew cold again. "If I did, I wouldn't be talking to you."
Raven sighed, seemingly thinking better of her hostility. "I don't trust people easily, or at least I didn't back then. I trusted her, and she betrayed me. She betrayed all of us. I can't forgive her for that."
Rose nodded. "Thanks for talking. I wanted to know more about Terra."
Raven stood up. "It's getting late, and Robin is probably getting anxious waiting for my return. I will be back tomorrow. I would invite you to stay at the Tower, but I don't think you want to."
Rose shook her head. "No, I think I'll stay here. It's remote enough that the police can't find me."
Raven nodded, and disappeared into a black shape. Rose pulled her knees to her chest, and hugged her legs. Talking to Raven, really more listening to Raven, had kept her occupied, but now she was alone in this dark cave in the desert, with no one to talk to and no one to listen to her. Rose looked around in the dim light. There was also no bed. Rose bundled up Terra's old clothes, making a small pillow, and lay down in the sand, with her head on it. She stared up into the darkness of the ceiling.
She was dangerous, she was feared, she was wanted, and she was alone. Everything had gone wrong. Her life hadn't been perfect, but now it was completely ruined, and there was nothing she could think to do to fix it. Her friends all hated her, or at the very least were scared of her. Her father was gone, and she didn't even know where or how long he'd be. Her body wouldn't obey her anymore. The Teen Titans wanted her to join, but really they seemed to just want Terra back.
Rose sighed, and rolled onto her side, feeling the tears drop from her eyes. She felt stupid, laying in a cave in the desert, crying quietly to herself about her life being destroyed, but she had nothing else to do. She closed her eyes, and in a few minutes, fell asleep.
Rose was shaken awake early in the morning, and sat up, rubbing her eyes and wondering why her bed felt so hard. It only took a few seconds to remember that she wasn't in her room, however, and she opened her eyes to find Raven looking at her with a mixture of pity and irritation on her face. "It's eight in the morning. Get up."
"Ok. Geez, you aren't exactly nice, are you?" Rose stood, and stretched to try to get the stiffness out of her joints. Sleeping on the sand hadn't been comfortable.
Raven turned and left the room, while Rose hurried after her. The early morning over the desert was brightly lit, but almost cold. The girls stood at the end of the canyon, on the stone stairway leading up to Terra's cave. Rose shook her head, and guarded her eyes against the bright sun. "What do you want with me so early?"
Raven looked at her a moment, then pointed at the base of the canyon. "I want you to pull a stone from down there, and fly us about two hundred yards to the north."
The now familiar yellow glow surrounded her hands, as Rose snapped out of her groggy feeling, and focused her mind, pulling a plate of stone from under the sand at the bottom of the canyon. The plate moved upwards through the air, stopping and hovering in front of Rose and Raven. The girls both stepped onto the stone, and Rose focused once more, moving them through the air. She stopped a fair distance away from the canyon, in a wide expanse of empty, rocky desert. She looked around, seeing nothing of any interest at all. "Why do you want to be out here? There is nothing here."
Raven nodded, half smiling. "That's the point. When I was first learning to use my powers, I was terrified of breaking buildings or hurting people. I wanted you to feel free to do what you like with yours. My own training was more of a safety concern than yours needs to be."
Rose smiled, looking around again. "Ok, that make sense. I don't want to get in any more trouble anyway. Ok, so what first?"
"We will focus on aim and physical control first, and we'll deal with the emotional side later. Try to hit me." Raven floated up into the air, with her cape billowing behind her. Rose thought she looked a little dangerous flying like that, but figured she'd give it a shot anyway.
Rose focused, pulling a small pebble up from the ground, and firing it over at Raven. It was effortlessly blocked with a sheet of black power that appeared out of nowhere. Raven narrowed her eyes. "Try harder than that."
Grinning, Rose concentrated again, picking up a dozen or so small stones, and flinging them together at Raven. Again, Raven simply put up a sheet of power, blocking the stones easily. Rose frowned. Fine then, if she wasn't going to give Rose a break, then Rose would have to just do better.
Rose smiled, her hands and eyes glowing yellow. She lifted the dirt she was standing on, pulling a chunk into the air, and flying backwards a few feet, feeling a little more comfortable with her powers. She quickly pulled a large boulder from the nearby ground, moving rather than throwing it at Raven. The impact with the sheet of power shook Rose herself, as she felt her powers press against Raven's. Raven seemed unaffected by the effort Rose was exerting, or the weight of the stone.
She was, however, affected by the pebble that levitated into the air behind her and pinged forward, hitting the gray skinned girl lightly on the back of the head.
Rose dropped the boulder, grinning in her small victory. Raven lowered her shield as well, rubbing the back of her head in mock soreness. "Interesting. Terra always took a more direct approach. Fine, you hit me. Now, defend yourself."
Raven's body was surrounded in a flame-like black power, as she lifted into the air again, her eyes glowing white. Rose backed away, lifting herself into the air again on another chunk of dirt. She noticed Raven lifting small stones from the ground as well, the stones turning dark with her telekinesis as she lifted them. Rose picked up a large boulder, then focused with her powers, pressing hard. The rock split, forming a roughly flat surface that she faced outwards, smiling.
Raven threw one of the stones at her. Rose moved the shield quickly, blocking it. Raven nodded curtly, and then threw two stones from opposite directions. Rose blocked one and ducked quickly, as the other sailed over her head. Raven half-smiled, then threw another three stones, from different directions and at different times. Rose ducked and covered her head with her hands, dropping the shield as the first two stones sailed over her. She felt the third stone smack her in the shoulder, but it didn't hurt her at all.
Rose stood, grinning at Raven, who had dropped the remaining stones. Raven lowered herself to the ground, and so did Rose, stepping off of the crumbling platform. Raven spoke, her voice dry and monotone. "You did well for your first time. You also didn't lose control."
Rose shook her head. "No, I guess it was kind of fun, and I didn't get too stressed out or anything. That's mostly when it happens."
Raven seemed to think for a moment. "Ok, let's see what your limits are. How much can you lift?"
Rose shrugged, and looked at the desert behind her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again. She concentrated, pulling as much earth as she felt she could. Her eyes glowed yellow, and she could barely see. It felt like she was straining a muscle as she used her powers to their fullest extent. She felt the ground tremble beneath her as the large chunk of earth rose from the sand. Rose couldn't hold it long, and dropped the dirt a moment later, feeling the earth shake from the impact.
Raven seemed almost impressed. "At least six tons. That's more than Terra could. Now, pick up that boulder over there."
Rose did so.
"What can you do with it?"
Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I can throw it, or I guess break it like a shield. I can ride on them."
Raven nodded. "Part of my training was to learn everything I can do with my powers. At first I could only move small objects, like cups and bowls. Experimenting with your powers can let you see things that you wouldn't see otherwise."
Rose lowered the stone, but kept her powers active. She decided she'd try to break the stone with a little more control. She squinted her eyes, and applied pressure to one small chip. It flaked off without much effort. She kept working, as Raven paced around the stone watching. Rose wasn't much of a sculptor, however, and stopped when she had a roughly humanoid shape carved out. She had intended it to be her dad, but it was very crude. Someone who hadn't known what she was aiming for might be able to tell it was supposed to be male, but that's about all.
Raven looked the statue over. "Unexpected, but interesting. Who is it supposed to be?"
"My father. He's out of town for a few days. I kind of miss him; I wanted him to be here while I have to deal with all this." Rose felt a bit angry now, that her father wasn't around when she needed him. Plus, thinking of him had reminded her of all the creepy coincidences relating to him. She didn't really want to think about that right now. She lifted a pebble and threw it at the statue. It bounced off the stone with no real effect.
Lifting herself into the air again, Raven looked down at the statue and Rose. "Ok, another part of being on a team is defending your teammates. Defend him."
Rose stood between the statue and Raven, watching as Raven lifted stones with her powers. She began with a single stone, like last time. Rose tried something new this time, using her power to bat the stone away. Raven fired three stones next, and Rose focused, feeling the stones flying through the air, and knocked them all away as well. Raven dropped the remaining stones, and Rose readied herself, as Raven's hands glowed black.
A black bolt of power shot from Raven's outstretched hand, and Rose pulled her arm up, using her powers to lift a stone spike in front of her. The bolt crashed against it uselessly. Raven lifted the stones again, and threw them in quick succession. Rose caught them as they flew towards the statue, leaving them hovering in the air. As Raven ran out of stones, she threw them all back at once. Raven calmly put up a black shield, and the stone bounced off of it, one of them bouncing far enough back to whack the statue in the head. Rose grinned. "Ok fine, you win."
Raven lowered herself to the ground, and then walked over to Rose. "You haven't lost control."
Nodding, her grin gone as she remembered her problems, Rose sighed. "Yeah, it mostly happens when I get too stressed or angry."
Raven frowned, but when she spoke, her voice was almost sympathetic. "I understand. You may have to control your emotions, as I do. I don't know what Slade did to help Terra control her powers. She wasn't very open with details."
Rose half-smiled. "Still, you might be able to help me. I can't do anything until my powers are under control again. I'm just dangerous to even have around if I could just freak and out destroy the city with an earthquake."
"Or a volcano." Raven's voice had a hint of old anger in it.
Raven pulled her legs up into a lotus position, looking strange as she hovered in the air. Rose concentrated, and made a pedestal of stone next to Raven. She climbed up onto it, and sat in a lotus position also. "Like this?"
Raven nodded, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. "Close your eyes. Find your center. Focus your energies."
Rose wasn't really certain what "find your center" or "focus your energies" was really supposed to mean, but she took a deep breath and let it out, and tried to clear her mind. She heard Raven muttering a mantra, her tone making it sound like she used it all the time. Rose decided to try it as well, timing her speech to match Raven's. "Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos... Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos..."
The meditation continued for some time. As it went, Rose felt a change come over her. Whether or not it was simply the meditation, the mantra, or some trick of Raven's powers, she felt her emotions calm inside her, and she soon felt almost nothing about anything. It would probably help control outbursts, but Rose really wasn't sure that she liked the idea of feeling like this all the time.
Raven finally stopped chanting and stepped to the ground again. Rose hopped down from the pedestal. Raven looked at her. "How do you feel?"
Rose thought, trying to listen to herself and see how she felt. "I... don't feel. That doesn't make sense, but I feel... kind of dead inside. I can't feel anything."
Raven sighed heavily. "Yes, that's how I have to be in order to keep full control of my powers. I hope it's not the same for you, but it might work for a while."
Rose shuddered. She didn't want to have to be like this.
Suddenly, a short musical tone rang out from Raven's cloak. Rose jumped at the electronic noise in the empty desert. Raven brushed her cloak aside, producing a smallish sort of radio seemingly from nowhere. She pressed a switch, and looked closely at the screen on it. Her tone changed from near-sympathy to heavy irritation. "Great. Waynetech Toxic Waste Processing Plant is under attack."
"What? Who cares? It's just a toxic waste plant. What are the people going to steal?"
Raven shook her head. "Not people. Not really even a person. The only person who would attack a toxic waste facility is a monstrous villain named Plasmus. What bothers me is that Cinderblock and Plasmus are rarely both active so often. Someone else may be involved. I have to go. I might be a while. Keep out of the sun, and try to conserve your energy. I'll be back when I can."
Rose watched as Raven disappeared in a teleportation bubble. Rose suddenly found herself alone again, in the middle of the desert, in the late morning. The sun, originally cold and distant, was growing quite hot, and Rose didn't have any water around. Rose wished there was a way to shield herself from the sun, and then lightly hit herself on the head. She wasn't used to having powers. Of course, she wasn't sure it was a good idea, but she may as well get used to them while she was out here.
Rose concentrated, and raised a large cube of dirt from the ground. She moved her hands towards it, and began making a rough doorway, only vaguely rectangular, by moving dirt away from the cube and dropping it on the ground nearby. She felt more and more confident as she went, pulling more dirt away at at time. Eventually, she had hollowed out a rough mud hut. She walked inside, looking around. It was ugly and crude, but it kept her out of the sun, and the walls were still cool from being underground.
Rose sat in the middle of her small house and pulled her legs into a lotus position. She began to meditate as Raven had taught her, feeling that there was little else to do. She meditated for a short time, doing exactly as Raven had taught her, but felt as if there was no real effect. Her emotions were already suppressed, and she didn't notice anything happening. She opened her eyes, and looked out the doorway.
The midday sun was bright and almost glaring on the pale sand. The large piles of excavated dirt from her hut was still sitting outside, baking in the heat. Rose didn't stand, instead staying in the lotus position, and lifted a small clod of soil from the pile. She pulled it through the air and the doorway, letting it hover in front of her. No matter how strange the emotionlessness from Raven's meditation felt, Rose couldn't help but admit that it did make her powers feel... sharper somehow.
Rose concentrated on the dirt, trying to see what she could do with it. As she focused, she suddenly became aware that she could almost feel the dirt, as if it was part of her. Rose closed her eyes, as she continued to hold the ball of soil in the air, and tried to feel the rest of the stone and sand around her. Slowly, she found that the sand underneath her responded to her powers. She could feel each grain of sand, though only in a distant sense, as if feeling her hair. It was part of her, but had no feeling of it's own. As Rose continued to expand her powers, she found that she could feel the walls of her hut, more solid now after drying in the sun for a time. The soil in the walls felt different than the loose sand.
Rose opened her eyes, and the sensation faded quickly, though it wasn't quite gone. The ball of dirt was still hovering in front of her. She'd almost forgotten about it. Rose half smiled, feeling fairly confident in her abilities all the sudden. She lowered the ball to the floor, and then pressed it, shaping it into a rough replica of her little hut. With the leftover soil, she made a little doll of herself, still extremely rough of course. She smiled. She couldn't remember ever having a dollhouse, but the idea still made her smile.
Rose spent the next few hours practicing with her powers, pulling more and more soil from outside, and making silly houses and dolls with it. She made her apartment building, not at all to scale with the hut or the doll, her old school, Shawna, Ashley, Titans' Tower, the Titans, and even Cinderblock. Of course, the only thing that anyone would even recognize was Titans' Tower, since all of her dolls barely even looked human.
"What is this?"
Rose jumped at the sound of the girl's voice. She'd been using her powers to make her little Rose doll walk around the little village she'd created. She suddenly felt very embarrassed by her little game. "Um... practice?"
Raven sat down in the sand next to Rose, and gently picked up one of the dolls. It was the one that Rose had intended to be Shawna, but it looked basically the same as all the others. Raven looked at it with feigned interest, then set it back down. "Well, at least it's practice."
Rose nodded. "So, how did the fight go?"
"We won, of course, but it was long and irritating. I've already showered and changed clothes. I don't think you would have wanted to talk to me after getting Plasmus all over me."
Rose shrugged. "So... what now?"
Raven stood up, and walked to the door. Rose followed her as they stepped out into the afternoon sun. Raven spoke, and she sounded almost hesitant. "I'm going back to the tower. I've been told to... invite you along."
Rose wasn't quite sure that she liked the implication that Raven had been told to do it against her will. She also didn't really like the idea of having to face all the Titans again. They were so weird. "Um... I don't know. Beast Boy and the others are so..."
Raven nodded. "I understand. I'll go back alone. Your apartment is clear of police; you may be able to sneak back in."
Rose watched Raven raise her arms, and start to teleport, and suddenly realized that she didn't want to be alone out in the desert again. "Wait! Wait, I'll come with you."
Raven lowered her arms, and looked at Rose for a moment in silence. "Are you sure?"
Rose smiled weakly. "Yeah, I just don't want to be all alone out here again."
"I... understand." Raven looked around at the desert. "Ok. We'll fly there though. It will help you control yourself, and I can catch you if you fall."
Rose focused, quickly lifting a nearby boulder into the air. Pressing hard, she split it into two pieces, and took the larger one, stepping up onto the flat surface she created. Raven simply lifted herself into the air. Rose felt strange flying over the desert, and quite nervous flying over the water, but having Raven there kept her a bit more calm. It wasn't a terribly long flight before Rose found herself stepping off of the stone and onto the roof of Titans' Tower. Rose tossed the boulder a few hundred yards away, watching it splash into the water with a loud noise. She felt a little embarrassed as Raven looked at her strangely for throwing a huge rock into the water.
"Come on, the others are downstairs." Raven's manner was fairly curt, and Rose felt as if she might be just a bit nervous.
Rose followed Raven into the roof access door, and down a flight of stairs, ending up in a long hallway. Rose looked around as she walked with Raven, seeing the Titans' names on the doors they passed. She didn't see hers; they must have been on the other side of the T from her room. Finally, Raven stopped a bit short of a closed door at the end of the hallway. Raven's voice was quiet, and sympathetic. "Ready?"
Rose smiled. "Yeah, and thanks for being nice to me like you have. I needed someone to talk to, and you helped a lot more than you might think."
Raven seemed a bit surprised by the sudden thanks, and even a bit flustered. "I- I just- You're welcome."
Raven pressed a switch on the wall, and the door opened. Beastboy looked up, and then grinned widely. "Terra! You're back again!"
Her voice full of irritation, Raven spoke quickly. "She's not Terra, she's Rose. Please remember that."
Robin got up from the couch, the videogame he'd been playing with Cyborg paused. "Hi Rose. You accepted the invitation?"
Rose nodded, feeling fairly ill at ease with all the weird people in the room. "Yes, but mostly because I just need a place to sleep. I don't want to sleep in the desert again."
Starfire flew across the room, gently hugging Rose in her excitement. "We are all most pleased that you have accepted. Please, have you eaten yet?"
Rose shook her head. "Uh, no, I actually haven't had any food at all today."
Beastboy took Rose's hand and pulled her towards the table. "Well, Starfire made dinner early tonight, so you can eat with us, ok?"
Rose sat down at the table, in the seat that Beastboy had guided her to. She noticed that there were only four other seats.
Raven frowned. "So I guess I'll be eating in my room then?"
Beastboy blanched. "I didn't mean- Raven, come on, she's Ter-"
Cyborg cut Beastboy off. "Rose, don't worry. They argue like that all the time. Prepare yourself, Star's cooking is a little hard to get used to."
Starfire didn't look bothered by the comment, as she laid out plates at the five places for the table, The food had a strange look, like gelatin, but with odd, segmented tubes inside it. It wasn't appetizing at all, and even after not eating all day, Rose didn't really find herself wanting to eat it. She took the nearby fork, and tasted a small bit of it. It had a vaguely fishy taste, with a hint of vanilla as well. It wasn't altogether unpleasant, but it was a long way from good.
No one else really seemed to be enjoying it either, though everyone was trying to eat, apparently to please Starfire. Raven was leaning against the counter in the kitchen area, holding her plate and stirring the gelatinous goop around with her fork. Robin was the first to speak.
"So, how did your training with Raven go? Do you have an idea of how to control your powers?" Robin's voice was confident, but it was also pretty obvious that he was just trying to make conversation with a person he didn't know very well.
"It went ok. I mean, I just sort of threw rocks around. It got interrupted by Plasmus anyway."
Cyborg laughed. "Yeah, that blob of goo gave us some trouble today. He was just eating toxic waste though, no real motive other than just being Plasmus."
Beastboy grinned. "I bet you could have beaten him easy! You could make a big bowl out of rock or something, and keep him in there."
Starfire spoke next. Rose couldn't help but smile at the cheery alien girl. "Are you enjoying the glorg? It is a new recipe that I have found."
Rose smiled. "It's good. It's sort of like fish and ice cream. I couldn't have it every day, but it's pretty good I guess."
"So are you going to take your- Uh, Terra's old room? It's kinda the only one we have open." Beastboy was trying pretty hard not to talk too much, which Rose appreciated. At least this dinner of sorts was less intimidating than all the Titans crowding around and talking at once, like last time.
"I guess I could take her room. I don't mind it anyway. I guess I'm sort of starting to think that I might be her anyway." Rose looked down at her food.
Robin nodded. "Anything is possible. I'm going to try to let you figure it out on your own though; I won't press you into testing or anything until you want to know."
Rose smiled. "Thanks, I was afraid you guys were going to get really weird about it. I mean, I guess I understand and all, but still... I'm not the same girl you remember."
"Still, it is wonderful to have a guest with us. It is rare that we are so lucky." Starfire quickly flew around the table, picking up the plates of half-eaten glorg. No one looked full, but Rose supposed that it was common when Starfire cooked.
Cyborg stretched widely, and with a lot of exaggeration. "Man, glorg always makes me tired. I'm headin' to bed."
Robin nodded. "Good idea. Everyone go and get some rest. We have combat practice tomorrow morning. Rose, you can skip the practice if you want, but it might be a good idea to see how well you can use your powers under pressure."
Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I might try it. I just hope I don't make your tower sink into the bay or something."
Raven looked irritated, but the other Titans seemed to brush it off. Beastboy grinned. "Well ok. Everyone's going to bed. See you tomorrow, Ter- uh, Rose."
Rose waved to the Titans as they left through the various doors, leaving a pot full of glorg on the counter and six dirty plates in the sink. Raven was still in the room, and walked over to the sink, pulling out a random plate and cleaning it mindlessly. She spoke quietly. "They were quieter this time."
"Yeah, and Beastboy was less obnoxious. They still all think I'm Terra, though." Rose walked over and took the clean plate from Raven, drying it with a nearby dishtowel.
Raven continued washing the plates in silence, and Rose kept drying them as she finished. After all the plates were done, Raven looked at the pot of glorg, and decided against cleaning it right away. She turned towards Rose, who had just finished drying the last plate. "Want me to show you to your room?"
Rose smiled. "Um, sure. I've been there before, but I don't really know this tower very well."
Rose followed Raven out of a side door in the operations room, and down a long hallway. She passed Raven's room and Beastboy's room before coming to the one labeled with Terra's name. Raven spoke, and she seemed a little tense. "Here it is. Are you going to practice tomorrow?"
Rose shrugged. "Maybe. If I'm a metahuman, I kind of have to be a superhero or supervillain, right? I mean, I can't just live a normal life."
Raven stayed silent a moment. "I guess not. I will see you tomorrow."
Rose pressed the switch to open the door, and waved bye to Raven, who left wordlessly. Rose switched shut the door on the other side, and then looked around Terra's room. The room had a calming effect, with the mural of a peaceful desert mountain landscape, and the stars on the walls and ceiling. The huge window looking out towards the city was nice as a view, but made her feel a little exposed. She pulled the curtain across it, and walked over to the bed, sitting down.
So here she was. Terra's room. If she was trying to dissuade the Titans from thinking of her as Terra, she was doing a pretty bad job of it. Rose sighed, picking up the heart-shaped box from the bedside table and opening it. She looked at her reflection, her own saddened face looking back at her. She closed the box. Mirrors always made her feel weird for some reason.
She lay back on the bed, on top of the covers. She didn't want to undress to sleep, since she had no pajamas to sleep in, and she didn't know how readily the other Titans would open her door to wake her up. She looked up at the stars above the bed, and smiled. She slowly closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
A/N: Ok! Another chapter done, and it's only been... a long time. Too long, of course. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I hope the few of you that read this will stick around for the next chapter. The next chapter has more Slade, which is more interesting to me anyway. Right, so review if you wanna, and I'll write the next chapter when I am able.