Teen Titans

Carved Glass

.:Chapter Seven:.

Descent

When I finally began to regain consciousness, I found that pain was searing through my body, hot and incessant. For a few moments, I struggled to even breathe past the agony raging through me. But slowly I began to gasp in little breaths, fighting to keep myself alive when every bit of me wanted to die. What had I to live for, anyways? Beast Boy knew the truth, undoubtedly. And I was trapped again. I could feel it, even though my eyes were tight shut against the pain. There was something cold and claustrophobic about this place, and I could feel chains binding me to a long surface by my arms, legs, and neck. Their weight was familiar and yet I wanted to cry to be feeling them again. Even the small taste of freedom had been enough to show me that I couldn't live long in captivity. I wouldn't. Maybe I should just give up? I thought. The question repeated itself more forcefully this time: What have I to live for?

"Welcome back, girl." My master's low, threatening voice barely frightened me anymore. I wondered why that was. Maybe by giving up on living, I wasn't afraid of a person constantly threatening me with death. I said nothing into the silence that followed—not that I expected he wanted me to, or thought I could. The pain was enough to keep me shut up inside for weeks. Not enough to kill me, but enough to make me wish he would. It had happened before, but never quite like this.

"You have been very naughty, haven't you?" Slade mused. "But soon I will punish that rebellious streak out of you, and you will see that there is no resisting your Master." I stared hard into my eyelids, willing them to open. They did, slowly. It hurt. I turned my head towards the sound of Slade's voice. I wasn't surprised to see him standing there, instead of the black droid designed to monitor the microchip in my side. He wasn't taking any chances, it seemed.

"You're… wrong…" I managed to say in a weak voice. Slade looked stunned, to say the least. And I'm sure he was; logically, I shouldn't have been able to speak for at least a week after a fit like that. The microchip that Slade had implanted in my arm was tied into my nerves, and would tear at them and render me paralyzed for any amounts of time Slade wanted. I'd never really fought against it before—it was too painful—but now it seemed that there was finally a reason to.

"What?" Slade asked, and I could hear a threat in the tone of his voice. But I didn't care anymore.

"I… did resist you… I can… resist. And… you… will be defeated… Just like you always… are…" I gasped. Slade slammed his hand down onto the chains that bound my neck. The pressure cut off my airflow, and I gasped and thrashed against the chains that bound me, trying to relieve the pressure.

Slade leaned in close and whispered into my ear. "I could kill you without a second thought, girl. Be careful how far you take this rebellion."

With that, he let go. I was able to breathe again, but I couldn't speak anymore. My eyelids closed, and I felt all of my strength seeping away from me. I heard Slade's footsteps as he crossed the room to where the door probably was.

"I'll come back soon," he said quietly. "And you'd better be on your best behavior when I do."

I sat in the darkness for some time after he left. Absurdly, I kept wishing that I had different powers. Not powers that would help me escape—I knew nothing could save me. But I wanted to be able to see… or speak with Beast Boy again. If I had a dying wish, that was it. Perhaps this is for the best, though… I thought sadly. I don't think I could bear to see the anger and hatred in his eyes if he knew the truth.

"Beast Boy…" I forced my voice to breathe out his name one last time. Tears welled in my eyes, and it was something of a relief to feel them coursing down my cheeks. Then I closed my eyes and surrendered to the darkness.

.:~/\*/\\~:.

"We have to help her!" Beast Boy nearly screamed as he raced into Titan's Tower. He kept yelling as he ran up the stairs to the main rec room, where Cyborg was cooking something and Robin was watching TV. They turned when Beast Boy burst into the room, looking half crazed with bits of rubble and blood in his hair and a look of absolute terror in his eyes.

"Beast Boy! What's the matter?" Robin asked, leaping over the couch without a second thought.

"It's Slade!" Beast Boy said, his voice breaking. "He's kidnapped her! And Terra! And there's this other guy… We have to save her!"

"Slow down, BB," Cyborg said, setting down his apron and large oven mitts. "Who has Slade kidnapped? Terra?"

"Well, not really Terra… I think she's sort of helping him again." Admitting this would have been harder for Beast Boy if he weren't so concerned about Leila. "But he kidnapped Leila! He said that she belongs to him, that she works for him, but she said she wouldn't help him, and he was torturing her, and—"

"Where did he take her, Beast Boy?" Robin asked, laying a hand on the panicking boy's shoulder. Beast Boy calmed a little, but his eyes were still full of anxiety.

"I don't know," he whispered. "Terra hit me on the head with a rock and I blacked out."

"I think I may know." Every head turned as Raven and Starfire emerged from the sliding doors a little above them. Raven, the one who had spoken, floated towards the group with her usual impassive expression. Starfire, however, looked concerned as she raced after her.

"Raven?" Robin looked at her with one eyebrow cocked, which made one side of his mask look bigger than the other.

Raven pulled up a map of the city and studied it closely. She finally zeroed in on a part of the city that was little more than a bin of drug dealers and other even less reputable establishments. "I heard something coming from this area. I'd be willing to bet it was your friend, Leila." Raven glanced at Beast Boy, and for the first time there was some concern in her eyes.

"What did you hear?" Beast Boy asked softly.

Raven hesitated. Then, with a soft sigh, she said, "Your name."

"I'll get the T-Car ready," Cyborg said. The Titans assembled as they always did, each knowing his or her own place in their formation. Beast Boy climbed into the T-Car beside Cyborg and buckled his seatbelt. He heard the thrum of Robin's motorcycle as their leader sped out of the garage. Cyborg followed close on Robin's trail, the T-Car moving smoothly as always.

"Don't worry, Beast Boy: we'll definitely save her." Cyborg said, trying to reassure his friend. Beast Boy nodded, though he didn't look very reassured. He couldn't help but think that they could be too late. That even if they found Slade's lair, he might have killed Leila already. Shadow had said something like that, hadn't he? "The bond has already broken through. And now it will tear you apart."

"Beast Boy." Cyborg's voice brought Beast Boy's head back to the present.

"What?" Beast Boy asked sharply.

"Leila needs you right now. And she needs you to be on your game, not stuck in your head." Beast Boy opened his mouth, as if to protest. Then he closed it and nodded once, sharply. He would be anything Leila needed him to be.

He just hoped that would be enough to save her.

./~/|\\~\\.

"What's going to happen to her?" Terra asked as she sat on one of the long tables in Slade's underground layer. One leg was tucked under her and the other swung back and forth rhythmically as she watched Shadow pace back and forth. He seemed rather peeved by something, but she had no idea what and she knew her teacher well enough not to ask.

"He'll probably let her live this time," Shadow said in a low voice. "I can't be so sure he'll be merciful the next time she turns on him, though."

Terra was quiet for a moment. Then she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes and cocked her head, staring at Shadow curiously. "So she's done this sort of thing before?"

"More times than I care to remember," Shadow sighed, finally stopping his pacing. "She's always been infuriatingly stubborn. She never considers what others go through to make sure she's safe. Every time an opportunity knocks, she uses it to attempt to get herself killed again!"

"That must be frustrating," Terra said.

"You have no idea!" Shadow almost shouted. Terra continued to just stare at him, bouncing her leg to some internal beat, her thoughts working like clocks, each gear causing another to move.

"You care for her," she said finally. Shadow froze, staring ahead with his back to Terra. She could see the muscles stiffening in his shoulders and his fingers curling up into fists.

"What makes you say that?" Shadow asked in a low voice.

"Because despite what you make yourself appear to be, I can see that you're not a bad person. Not like this Master of yours," Terra said frankly. "And if I had known he'd be such a jerk I probably wouldn't have helped you, regardless of how desperately you needed it." Shadow rounded on her.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

"You couldn't have brought her in alone because you hate for her to be in his control," Terra said. "I can see right through you. You don't dare to stand up to this Slade guy, and yet you hate following him."

Shadow stood facing Terra for a few moments, looking absolutely stunned. Terra guessed that in some ways he hadn't even examined himself closely enough to notice some of the things she'd pointed out. But at the same time she knew he understood. With his eyes turned inwards, he couldn't help but notice what she was talking about. Finally he lowered his gaze and she could see the fight leaving him entirely.

"She's…" He took a deep breath.

"She's my sister."

|\/|

Slade slammed his fist down on the table. Surrounded by images of the park and how Leila had stood up to Shadow—and to him indirectly—he could see that his plans were once again falling apart. Why was it that every time he took on an apprentice they turned on him? He supposed he should have expected this after the whole Terra mishap. He'd have rather left it alone, but the girl's powers were… interesting, to say the least. He could use them, if only she'd cooperate.

But maybe she only needed the proper incentive. He'd erased most of her memories, hoping that having no life apart from one of imprisonment would make her less likely to turn against it. She'd always been stubborn, though. But perhaps that was the key to her obedience. Just as she'd stubbornly hold onto her silly notions of freedom, she would certainly fight to defend, just as her brother had done ever since he'd found the two of them. Slade looked at his gloved hand and remembered that night. There were few evil deeds that made him feel so excited, so powerful, and so… evil. He was a sociopath who barely felt remorse for even the worst act of villainy he'd performed. But that had been different, and he'd felt that from the start. Curling his fingers into a fist, Slade stared forward at the screens that now were showing a very different scene. He crossed the room and began pressing a series of buttons. The black droid he'd designed to monitor the girl plugged it at his command and began downloading all the information he fed into it. Then he led the droid through the dark catacombs of his lair. The room he'd locked the girl in was small and bare, with monitoring stations and a simple table where the girl was strapped in. She had apparently fainted again, which was just fine with him. It would be easier to insert the memories back into her head when she was asleep. Slade stared down at the girl's face. It was a little less pale than usual, but that was to be expected after living outdoors for the first time in years. Her dark hair fell around her face in silken strands. If Slade had any appreciation for beauty, he might have thought her pretty in her own way. But he didn't see anything particularly beautiful when he looked at the girl. All he saw was a tool, a weapon to be used for his own gain.

Slade leaned down and whispered into the girl's ear as the droid approached and slipped a needle into the girl's spine, just at the base of the neck. "I think it's time I show you some incentive for being obedient."

The memories began flooding the girl's mind. Slade could see it by the way veins began showing in her wrists and temples. Her shoulders moved ever so slightly, but she was still too weak to thrash the way she would have if she had been less worn down. Her brows furrowed, and her lips turned down. Slade smiled maliciously as he began crossing the room again.

"You'll wish you had never disobeyed to begin with," he chuckled. "Now that the truth is streaming through your mind, you'll know what you are. And you'll know why you can never escape me."


Author's Note: Thanks for reading the newest chapter. I'm pretty surprised at how quickly I wrote this o,o I just started writing this morning and chugged away until I finished. And I guess it IS shorter than most of my chapters, but I sort of felt there was a necessary order to how things went in this chapter. Anywho, I hope you all like it :D Please review/comment/fave if you please! ^v^ I love hearing what you all think of how the story is progressing. Thanks!

-LR