Author's note: Yes! Finally! Part two! In this part... The return of Rhea, Keb, and Slade! The entry of the infamous OC I've been promising since chapter one! More violence, character torture, and killing stuff! And... a happy ending! (I put my characters through a lot of crap, but there's always a happy ending!) I had planned on letting the story sit for at least a week, but it was calling to me.

AMOP: -ring ring- Yes, is this Tayk? Hi. This is AMOP with a special message... WRITE ME!

That aside, I just realized something. This is my first actually serious story... It's much longer than a one-shot and I take it very seriously... Unlike AMOT, which was just thrown together and forgotten about in turns, TT which would never have worked in the first place, AMOF which had is hand held the entire way through, and even BnJ which is almost entirely nonsensical... Wow. Yes, I'm done rambling now. Here's a long chapter to balance it all out.

A Matter of Pride: Chapter nineteen; Tower

The candle of life within her flickered into existence again. Terra was alive inside the stone body that had been made from flesh. Suddenly had the transfer been made from flesh to rock, and suddenly was the transformation to flesh again. Unused to the absence of unbreakable solidity, and taken by surprise at the sudden presence of life again, she collapsed. She lay still for minutes on end, breathing slowly, disoriented and unable to recall anything. Her name, her life, her friends, her death... nothing.

The girl groaned, finally, and pushed herself upright. She looked down at herself, but the plate metal armor, if such scant covering could be called armor, and the ragged bandages that bridges the gaps and covered flesh, were wholly unfamiliar to her. She frowned. Tugging at the edges of her mind was a nagging urgency, as if there was something she needed to do... Soon... But what could it be? She didn't even know who she was, or where, let alone how she had gotten there and what she had done to inspire such a guilty conscience!

Her eyes cast the rocky underground cave for some clue to solve these mysteries. They landed on two things: first, a bouquet of roses bundled in a white paper vase; second, a plaque on the platform from which she had fallen: "TERRA; A Teen Titan; A True Friend".

And it all came flooding back.

Terra clutched her head with the weight of the memories suddenly imparted on her. They flashed swiftly in her minds eye, each image lasting no more than a fraction of a second. And yet, with each came a flood of sensations. Emotions, sights, sound, even smells and tastes in some cases. Despite the morbid nature of many of the memories, Terra could not stop the dry smile from tugging at her lips. Glork.

How would she ever be able to face the Titans? Even if, at the very end, they had forgiven her... How could she tell them that she was alive?

---Temporary POV Change: Beast Boy's Point of View---

Beast Boy was having strange dreams. That he was dreaming was strange in itself. He hardly ever dreamed. These were especially troubling. He didn't know what they were about, exactly, but he knew who. It wasn't hard. There was only one person with blond hair, blue eyes, and a blue butterfly clip. There was only one person named Delani Miller.

The dream was not images so much as feelings. When he dreamed normally, he was a spectator and little more. Sounds, scents, they were muted while images were vibrant and lucid. This was the other way around. Beast Boy could hear perfectly, and he found himself empathetically feeling along with Delani, who would one day kill herself for his sake. His sight, on the other hand, was distorted. People and objects were little more than blurs of color.

He felt her happiness and the warmth of her brother's arms around her. He was older than she, much older, but that was inconsequential to their love for each other.

He felt overwhelming sadness, confusion. He recognized Delani leaning over two people, adults, clearly dead. She demanded, sobbing, that they stop sleeping and get up.

He felt searing pain and cried out as flying rocks slammed into Delani. Her older sister was struck, as well, and the wounds the brown-haired girl sustained were obviously lethal. She stared at Delani with such betrayal in her eyes that Beast Boy felt it, too, along with Delani's emotions. He watched as the sister slowly lifted a hand to her bleeding chest and then collapse. Horror and anguish were added to Delani's physical pain.

In his dream, Beast Boy watched Terra grow up. She traveled where she pleased, where she was needed, but retained a special fondness for two places: a town, small and nondescript, and the fair that they had visited together. She met the Titans. It was intriguing to see himself from her point of view. She ran away and Beast Boy witnessed the circumstances that had led to her being apprenticed to Slade. Beast Boy lived and died along with her in the final moments of her life.

Then his dream took a clearly fanciful turn. Beast Boy found himself beginning to awaken. He fought it, watching joyfully as Terra sprung to life again.

"Beast Boy," she sighed. The Titan was unable to resist the calls of the waking world. Terra's voice was fading, but he heard her finish the comment. "What am I supposed to do?"

Beast Boy sat up in bed. He found that his body ached dully with the remnants of Delani's pain. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked around. It was the middle of the night. Flopping back onto his bed, Beast Boy closed his eyes and focused hard on the last part of the dream, wishing for it to come true. He ran his fingers over the opposite palm, tracing the scars that existed on another's hands.

"Follow your heart, Delani," Beast Boy said. "That's what you're supposed to do."

He dropped into sleep again and did not dream.

---Terra's Point of View---

A faint whisper echoed through the empty cave. Or had she imagined it? There was no one here other than her. "Follow your heart, Delani... That's what you're supposed to do."

Heart... did she have a heart anymore? Terra put a hand to her chest, still clad in the suit that Slade had given her. Through the metal she felt a faint th-thump... th-thump... th-thump... that signaled the beating of her heart.

The Titans. She had to get to the Titans. She had to get to Beast Boy.

But... her powers were gone! What would she do once she was there (and how could she get there? The only way across was by boat or flying)? If they turned out to be hostile, still, she would be unable to fight or flee. If they asked her to join them, she would be useless, a liability.

Terra was so wrapped up in pondering this problem that she did not notice as the rocks glowed yellow of their own accord, the exact same shade as the glow of her hands and eyes so often had. The yellow grow grew stronger and stronger as more of it gathered on the rock faces. Every surface was covered. Then, tendrils of the energy seeped from their host and into the air, swirling slowly like a dust cloud contained in a place with no wind. This cloud grew larger and larger, brighter and brighter, until Terra could not fail to notice it.

"Is this my powers?" she murmured, staring. The glowing cloud approached her slowly until she was engulfed in it, covered in it. Her skin tingled as warmth crept into her. After a long while, the tingling grew less and the cloud was gone. Terra could feel her powers inside of her, calmer than she could ever remember them being. She knew, somehow, that once loosed they had carried out her dying wish. The last vestiges of the volcano that had once lay in wait under Jump City were gone. The volcano would never errupt.

At least she had done something right.

Terra frowned. She had thought for sure that the escapade would have killed her, and she had been prepared and even eager for that. It had been the reason she told Beast Boy her name. The reason she had tried to reconcile with the Titans and stand up to Slade. She wasn't strong enough to do any of that. It had been the knowledge that she was going to die, and that she didn't want anyone dragged down because of her worthlessness, that had prompted her to do all that.

And now that she was alive, she had to fix another mess.

Terra worked her way up the passage that led to Jump City, creeping cautiously through the open and ducking behind stalagmites whenever she had the chance. She couldn't explain the feeling she had, the feeling that she had to hide.

Terra emerged into the open air of Jump City. It was dark, chilly, exposed. Terra glanced back into the cave. It would be so easy to go back in, hide, never come out and ignore the whole mess... But she was determined to not run from this. Terra pointed at the rocks and summoned a few pebbles. She tucked two into each glove and a few into her socks. Carefully, Terra fed power into the pebbles. They unsteadily lifted her and carried her through the empty streets.

Everything was eerily quiet. The moon was full and cast a pale, pallid light over the city, bathing everything in silver. The few late night wanderers stared at her, their faces and hair pale and eyes shining in the moonlight. Terra hunched her shoulders and bowed her head. She felt like a fugitive, like a freak, like the traitor she was. Everyone seemed to be judging her.

Cool air played around her face, brushing her hair away from it and making Terra shiver. The wind over the ocean was colder and Terra was glad to land on Titans' Island. She sheltered in the lee of the Tower and rubbed her arms.

The Tower loomed over her like a stark reminder of her faults. "The alarms will go off," she murmured to herself. "I can't get in... they've probably programmed them to go off when I try to get in..."

Still, she hard to try, didn't she? Terra toyed nervously with the end of one of the bandages as she approached the front door. She placed her palm on the sensor. It beeped faintly. A mechanical voice welcomed her and the door slid open with a hiss. Terra stepped inside.

She waited. Silence. Her ears rang with it. There were no alarms. None! "Well..." Terra breathed, "that was easy..." She tread carefully over the threshold, hardly daring to breathe, but still nothing happened. Heart pounding with nervousness, she gingerly picked up a pad of paper and a pen from the counter by the refrigerator. Nothing happened, still, so Terra forced herself to relax. She leaned against the counter and bit her lip.

Meet me on the roof at 10 PM, she wrote. I'll be there every night. Terra signed her initials, "DM", then changed her mind and scribbled them out. She drew a rock. Then she tore off the sheet of paper, replaced the pencil and pad, and folded her note carefully.

Terra's breath was short and ragged with nervousness. Her steps were feather-light, but they seemed to echo loudly in the hallway as she picked her way down it. She glanced nervously at each door she passed, reading the name inscribed on each. Robin. Starfire. Cyborg. Raven. Beast Boy. She stopped and then sidled toward this last door, carefully. Terra placed her hand on the sensor here, too, and entered when it hissed open.

Beast Boy slept peacefully on his bed. The green Titan was muttering occasionally. His room was a disaster area, everything flung haphazardly around. Terra couldn't help herself. She placed the note on top of one pile and then approached Beast Boy's sleeping form. Terra cautiously stretched out a hand and ran her fingers lightly over his cheek, almost unaware of her actions, as if she was in a trance. This trance was broken when Beast Boy's face tensed. His expression turned troubled and his mutterings became more distinct. He was going to wake up! Terra, suddenly afraid, cast wildly around for a place to hide. She tucked herself behind a pile of clothing just as Beast Boy yawned widely.

He sat up. Terra listened to him shift and sigh. "Just a dream," he said, his words a bumbled mess. "Nighty night..." There was a dull thump as Beast Boy flopped back onto the mattress. Terra did not move, hardly taking a breath, until Beast Boy gave a huge snore. She could feel her heart thumping and the adrenaline rushing in her ears. She wasn't supposed to be here. She had to get out of here.

Leaving the note, Terra fled the room. She forced power into the pebbles in her socks and gloves, lifting herself off the floor so as to flee swiftly but stay quiet. The doors rushed past on either side until something caught her eye and made her stop. The something was just another door, without inscriptions. Terra floated closer until she could read the clean spaces where letters used to be. Terra. Her room. Unable to resist, she pressed her hand to the sensor and entered.