Author's note: I admit, I am feeling a little bit disheartened by the lack of reviews... Not a one for the last five chapters. Any input is appreciated, even if it's to tell me that my story stinks and I should take it down. It's unnerving to not know how my story is being received.

Also, if you've noticed, my authors' notes get progressively more formal as the chapters do. It's hard for me to switch between mannerisms. Whatever I read or write becomes the way I speak. Okay, I've talked enough. Onto the chapter.

A Matter of Pride: Chapter sixteen; Growl

Robin's emblem skidded across the floor and stopped at Slade's feet. The master criminal knelt to pick it up. He examined it silently for a full minute. Terra waited, unmoving, unthinking, unfeeling, hardly breathing until the moment when judgment would be passed. Finally, Slade looked up at her. Terra took a tiny breath. He looked angry. When he spoke, he also sounded angry as well. But his words belied his manner.

"You have done very well. I couldn't have done it without you."

A small pride flared in her chest that he was complimenting her, but it subsided just as quickly. No matter the situation, she would not allow herself to feel. That wasn't a problem. The small voice that had always rebelled had been gone as long as the Titans had. What she felt inside could be compared to being submerged in ice water. She was numb. She felt nothing. She needed to feel nothing. That was how it should have been since the beginning.

"Now that the Titans are gone," Slade continued, "now that you belong only to me... The city belongs to us. Shall we claim our spoils?" Terra lifted her gaze from his feet to his face. Her eyes sparkled malevolently. A feral smile curled over her lips.

"I can't wait."

---

Slade's robots stormed the streets. People were confused, watching them. They also watched Terra, hovering over them with an expressionless visage, her eyes and hands glowing brilliantly and her flat mount keeping perfect pace with the robots. The streets rumbled, swallowing those that didn't run. Most, seeing their friends disappear into the hungry stones, got the picture and ran. Screams bounced off the buildings. The robots did not stop for anything, did not deviate from their course. Not an inch. When the road turned, they kept moving forward, plowing down skyscrapers that barred the way.

Buildings fell. People fled. If they did not fall, they were pummeled with weapons, Slade's high-powered guns and laser-shooters as well as Terra's more primitive rocks, until they were nothing more than rubble. If they did not flee, they died. It was as simple as that.

The screams of the citizens were music in Terra's ears. She reveled in their terror. But the best part of this conquest was not the screams. Not the sudden power they were forcing themselves into. Not even the ease with which they accomplished everything.

The best part was that there were no Titans to stop them. The Titans were gone. The cats were away, leaving the mice to take over the city.

And she did.

Jump City fell in a single day, a single hour. No one offered any resistance. And now, all that was left was to expand their reach. The old saying, though stupid and overused, was true. Today, the city. Tomorrow, the world.

But 'Tomorrow' would not come until Terra had complete mastery over her powers. Soon, she would not be permitted to wear the bracelet that restrained her powers. That had been decided long before. She would rule the deserted city until she ruled her powers. And then they would dominate the globe.

---

A week after the city's fall, Slade stopped monitoring her as constantly as he had. She was required to wear the ear piece, still, but he would not constantly listen. What was there to listen to? She carried, instead, an audio recorder into which she would record the events of each day.

Her rounds were dull. There was never anything to report. Slade knew this, but she carried the thing anyway. It was suggested that she record her thoughts on the new power she held so that, in years to come, she would remember the triumph of defeating the Titans.

"My name is Terra," she said once. Even Terra could hear the change in her voice. Though its pitch and timbre had not changed, her voice was cold, empty, devoid of emotion or inflection. "I have done horrible things. I have sworn to serve a dark master. I obeyed his every command and committed many crimes in his name."

Squadrons of robots marched below her. Terra drifted along with them. From the corner of her eye, she saw a somewhat familiar sight. The pizza place that the Titans so favored was directly to her right. She stood not ten feet from the place where, so many times, she had laughed and eaten with the Titans. It was devoid of the happiness and life that it had always seemed to hold.

"I have betrayed and attacked everyone that used to be my friend," Terra continued. In her mind's eye, she saw the rift that had swallowed Beast Boy and Cyborg. Now, however, it vanquished them all. One by one, they plummeted into its depths: Raven. Starfire. Robin. Cyborg. Beast Boy. Their expressions were matching visages of terror and confusion. The rift then closed, barring any escape they might have had. Terra smiled and continued, "One by one, I have destroyed the Teen Titans."

She now passed a bank. This same one, only a few months ago, had been robbed by the idiotic Mumbo Jumbo. One well placed boulder had taken care of him and the stolen bills had rained down while the Titans cheered for her. She had stopped Mumbo. There was no one to stop her.

The narration continued. "With no one to stop me, I have brought an entire city to its knees." Again, the terrified expressions of the Titans as they fell to their dooms flashed through her mind. Beast Boy's face lingered, hurt, horrified, pleading that she stop the madness.

Near the bank rested a park, gray and gloomy. She remembered walking through this park with Beast Boy, laughing at his jokes and conversing easily and naturally. Now, there were no jokes. What words were shared between her master and herself were short, clipped, orders or reports with the intention of extricating oneself from the presence of the other as soon as was possible.

Below her, the robots marched on. Their footsteps were an unceasing and monotonous anthem that rang through the city in perfect unison. Terra finished her soliloquy. "My name is Terra. I have done horrible things. And I have absolutely no regrets."

Terra completed her rounds and recorded the results. Nothing had moved. Nothing was alive. Just the way it was supposed to be.

A front was moving in. Though it was noon, the ground was covered in mist. The droplets of water floated everywhere, obscuring vision past a range of a few feet. Terra thought nothing of it.

"I really did it," she murmured to herself, floating down to hover beside her robots. "They're really gone."

Tendrils of black energy wrapped around one of the nearest robots. It collapsed, instantly incapacitated. An electric blue beam sprang from behind her, destroying both the robot that stood in its path and the rock she stood on. Terra skidded over the ground, grunting lightly with each new impact.

Slade spoke. He had apparently been watching, but had said nothing. "Apprentice, report! What's going on?"

Terra climbed to her feet. "I don't - " she started. The mist cleared briefly, just enough to reveal five familiar silhouettes. She took a step back. "No! I ... I destroyed you!" she shouted at the shadows. Then the mist closed in again. Terra was helpless.

"Attack! Now!" Slade snapped.

Terra did so, but her weapon sliced harmlessly through mist and empty air. Terra's eyes darted to and fro, anxiously trying to pinpoint locations. Light footsteps echoed around her. Shadows darted through the protective covering of fog. Every one of her attacks were met with nothing more than the thud of stone on stone.

Running. Behind her. Coming fast. Terra didn't have time to dodge, or even turn, as a heavy fist that could only be Cyborg's sent her catapulting forward, tumbling head over heels. The instant she landed, a green flash caught her from the side and carried her swiftly along its course. The starbolt was none too gentle. When it dissipated, Terra continued backwards, skidding on her back. She sat up, rubbing her head, but froze when the easily recognized form of the cloaked Raven approached.

She had been caught off her guard. There was no way she could win. Terra had to get away. A column of stone rose to help. Another starbolt made it crumble and she fell. Terra managed to flip in the air, this time, and landed in a crouch.

Snarls filled the air. Not Robin's snapped insults, but the steady, wordless, ongoing growl of an enraged beast. A huge and unmistakably predatory shape was moving slowly and steadily closer.

And suddenly, Terra knew exactly how the Titans had felt.