A Matter of Pride: Chapter fifteen; Wanted

"What was he after? There's nothing to capture! Nothing to steal!"

Robin and Starfire had managed to knock Cinderblock unconscious, rendering him unable to return to Slade. Terra drifted slowly closer, unnoticed, and listened in on their conversation.

"Perhaps he was... Robin!"

Terra struck, hurtling a boulder toward Robin while walking calmly toward Cinderblock. Starfire noticed the boulder and, without time enough to do anything else, she shoved him out of the weapon's path and took the blow herself. It knocked her over the edge of the cliff, into hungry waters below.

"Starfire!" Robin yelled. Standing on Cinderblock's chest as he floated away, Terra laughed. She would get Robin later. Right now, Slade would want his lackey back and the remaining two Titans would be more fun. She couldn't wait to see the look on Beast Boy's face when she sent him to his demise!

---

Plasmus, unlike his fellows, had yet to fall. His presence was a perfect distraction. Terra stood a few meters behind him, waiting. She got bored of watching Beast Boy and Cyborg being beaten by Plasmus.

"Move aside, idiot," Terra scoffed. Plasmus stopped fighting and moved obediently aside.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were stunned, for now at least, by the sight of her. She guessed that they hadn't expected her to show up here. Their surprise gave her a few moments to examine them. Cyborg had his canon out and aimed in her general direction. His expression was slowly turning more angry than surprised.

"Terra," Beast Boy murmured, taking a step toward her.

Terra sneered and flicked her wrist. A chasm opened up just behind Cyborg. He struggled to keep from falling into it. Terra lifted her head, eyes glowing slightly, though she did nothing with her powers. Cyborg tumbled backward, into the abyss, yelling as he went. Terra savored the way it faded slowly to silence. Beast Boy looked back at him, and then ran toward her. "Terra, stop, we're your friends!"

"Saying it again doesn't make it true," Terra snarled. The earth rolled beneath him, rising up in a wave that trapped his feet only to release them in time to hurtle him after Cyborg. The small green boy scrambled at the rocks. His fingers found a hand hold and he clutched it as much as he was able. Terra strode calmly over to the edge and peered down at him. "I hope you're not expecting a goodbye kiss."

"Terra, you can't," Beast Boy pleaded.

"Watch me." The chasm began to close again. She relished seeing the terror in his eyes.

Just before it shut him off completely from the world, Terra heard him try one more time. "Terra, please!"

Terra could not stop the single tear that trickled out of her eye. "Four down, one to go," Terra said aloud, furiously wiping the droplet from her cheek.

"Excellent, my apprentice. Take a break before going after Robin. I've got something you will enjoy seeing."

"Yes, master."

---

Slade's surprise was a video of the last moments of the Titans: Raven's terrified eyes, her gasp as she was pulled under. Starfire's shriek as the boulder sent her hurtling, helpless, toward the jagged rocks jutting from the ocean. Cyborg's yell as he plunged into nothing. Beast Boy's last final pleas, his eyes desperate.

Terra smiled.

"If you don't mind, master, I'd like to finish my mission."

"Yes, go," Slade said dismissively. Terra turned. She was almost gone when Slade called after her, "Make sure his end his amusing."

"Yes, master."

She exited the hideout and set off to find Robin, but he had found her. The roar of his motorcycle made her look up. Robin leapt off with freakish daring, using his feet to push to bike aside in midair. He tackled her while the shock of his sudden appearance was still wearing off and, in no time, she found one of his arms wrapped firmly around her neck. His weight was a sufficient weapon to keep her still.

"Don't move," he warned, drawing a bird-a-rang and pressing its tip to the soft flesh under her chin.

"What's the matter?" she ground out, making no attempt to escape the weapon even when the sharp points dug deeper, threatening. "Feeling lonely since I killed the rest of your friends?"

"They're your friends too!"

Terra laughed. He had been talking to Beast Boy, apparently! "I neither have nor need friends!" she snarled, struggling to throw him off.

"What did we do?" he asked angrily. "What did we ever do to make you hate us?"

Nothing! They had done nothing. She didn't hate them, she wanted to give up now and hope Robin just killed her. It was the least she deserved.

Terra's eyes glowed yellow. She pushed these weak thoughts away, angry at herself for having been drawn out of the cold-hearted killer's mindset that she was so familiar with now. Instead of voicing an apology or a plea, Terra went with the most cliche line she could think of: "You were born!"

With a violent flash, the rocks under them shot up. They struck Terra none too gently, sending a jolt of blunt pain up her arm and through her shoulder. She deserved it, she knew. The impact also forced Robin away. He landed lightly on his feet. She landed on her feet, as well, though not so lightly.

"I promised Beast Boy I'd give you one last chance! And this is it." Reaching for some weapon on his belt, Robin leapt at her with a yell.

Sometimes, Terra couldn't shake the feeling that Robin saw the world as a bad action movie in which he was the star.

Robin was a lot better at hand-to-hand combat than she was. He grabbed her arm on her first attempted punch and swung her around into the nearby chain-link fence. Before Terra could react, he had grabbed her other arm and his boot in her back was pressing her into the fence.

"Look at yourself, Terra! Is this what you want to be?"

There was a window behind the fence. It was dark out, so the window could have been a mirror for how reflective it was. Terra could see herself in it. She didn't want to look at herself. Despite the many that she had killed without so much as a flinch, she knew that her anger would break if she looked long. All she had to do was extricate herself from his blasted fence and...

There. Suddenly, the situation was reversed and it was Robin with his face pressed into the chain links. "I'm just never going to be good enough for you, am I?" Holding Robin immobile by his wrists, Terra used Slade's assistance to sling him over her head and an impressive fifteen feet away. Robin struggled to sit up. He tried to stand, but collapsed to a kneel again.

"It doesn't have to be this way! I was Slade's apprentice - I got out. So can you!"

"Robin, Robin, Robin," she cooed. "What makes you think I want out? What makes you think that I didn't volunteer myself in the first place? I wanted to be Slade's apprentice. I wanted to spy against you and your little friends. I wanted to have control over my powers. I wanted to kill. I wanted to be a villain. I wanted to destroy the Titans! I'm not some sad little girl waiting to be rescued! I'm not Delani Miller!" Her speech had grown angrier and angrier with each new sentence she voiced. At the third, small boulders had begun throwing themselves at Robin. For the most part, he dodged. Occasionally one would strike, but they were glancing blows of little or no consequence.

Terra lifted her chin and walked toward Robin. The closer she came, the more controlled and deadly became her weapons. One managed to pin him down by the cape and, as he struggled, Robin was pelted with smaller stones. They were not going fast enough to kill, oh no, but they could cause pain.

Finally, Terra came to a stop looming over Robin. His masked eyes were wide with fear and grew wider when a boulder lazily floated over to hover above his head.

"I wanted," Terra finished quietly, "to do this."

The boulder dropped.

In her ear piece, Slade laughed.