"Man, what a night…" Terra was on the verge of falling asleep against her alien mount. Attempting to maintain control of her geomancy and nearly falling to her death had mentally drained her.

Lance who had taken a decent beating was limping back towards the cave. Thankfully for Lance and Terra, the watch had yet to time Lance out of the alien beast form, allowing for a fast form of transportation. They were about a few yards away from the cave when Terra's mind was awakened by a loud beeping sound. Recognizing the noise, Terra quickly leapt off of Lance before he was enveloped in a red light.

"Yeah," Lance complied with Terra's statement, "What a night!" Lance felt as if he had been used for a piñata at someone's birthday party. He was sore and stiff.

"Those guys really did a number on you back there," Terra said anxiously as they began traveling to the cave by foot, "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm ok," Lance rubbed a sore spot at his rib cage, so far nothing was broken, "They got off worst, remember?"

"That's true," Terra chuckled halfheartedly.

The two had just approached the cave entrance when something popped up in Lance's mind. "So, what happened back there?"

"What happened?" asked Terra.

"The avalanche," explained Lance, "You were doing fine until that happened, did something go wrong?" Lance made a small frown, "Come to think about it, some similar stuff happened when we first met—" Two things stopped Lance from going further. The first was Terra's reaction; she turned away and quickened her pace to her side of the cavern. The second, the answer had struck Lance like a load of bricks. The earth manipulation that had occurred with Terra's emotional responses, the stone bridge that crumbled when Terra was still forming it, the fact that Terra had not tried moving the crystals Lance had used to seal a cave entrance, the avalanche…It was so clear to Lance now that he was surprised at how he had missed it.

Terra's shoulders tensed. "Just say it…"

"Terra, it's okay," Lance's voice was gentle, "You just have trouble controlling your powers it's no big deal—" Poor choice of words.

"NO BIG DEAL?" Terra whipped back towards Lance, yelling at full volume. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SERIOUS THIS IS!" Terra's eyes glowed yellow and the cavern began shaking.

"Terra!" Lance shouted in alarm as debris began falling from the cavern ceiling. Terra's eyes widened in dismay.

"NO!" Terra fell to her knees, placed her hands on the back of her head, and curled up. "Calm down, don't lose control, don't lose control…" Terra continued talking to herself until both the rumbling in the cave and the glow in Terra's eyes died down.

Lance tentatively stepped forward. "Terra…?" Lance was genuinely concerned; he could hear the sounds of strangled sobs.

"See?" Terra looked up at Lance, her eyes were filled with tears, "This is why I can't stay anywhere!" Her voice was trembling with emotion, "Everywhere I go I cause accidents like this! I-I try helping people, but I just, I just—" Terra was too full of frustration to finish her sentence. There was then an awkward silence.

Lance looked thoughtful. "I think I know what you mean…"

Terra's posture straightened somewhat. "You do?" She asked in surprise.

Lance nodded. "It was from before I met you. I was still being chased by those alien robots," Lance took a seat close to Terra, "I couldn't stay in one place for very long because they would catch up to me. And whenever they did catch up we'd fight and people got hurt…"

Terra's posture straightened even more. She had never really thought about Lance's experiences that way. Terra had assumed that Lance of all people wouldn't have to worry about harming others. He had control…

"And believe it or not," Lance was now wearing a small smile, "The watch has some of its own problems." He tapped on the watch with a single finger to emphasize his statement.

Terra sat up completely. Was she hearing things correctly? Lance had problems with his powers too? "What kind of problems?" Terra asked slowly.

"Well, sometimes when I transform, the watch times me out at the worst moment. And also, the watch might turn me into the wrong alien." The smile on Lance's face grew. He thought of a way to cheer his friend up. "Get this, when I do turn into the wrong alien," Lance's fingers spun across his watch's dial, "It's usually this one." Lance was quickly enveloped in a green light.

When the light died down, Terra couldn't believe her eyes. At her side was something that looked like a five inch-tall gray frog. "Ta-da!" Lance made a ridiculous pose as if he were standing in the spotlight of a stage.

Terra let out a small chuckle at the sight. "Thanks for that," She looked down at her feet. "But that still won't fix anything," Terra's hand fumbled with the butterfly clip in her hair.

"Would talking about it work?" Lance asked tentatively as he pulled up a small rock to sit on.

"I guess," sighed Terra as Lance looked up at her imploringly with his yellow bulbous eyes. "You probably want to know how it all started for me, huh?"

Lance nodded. If they were to find the root of the problem they might as well start with the source.

Terra took in a deep breath. What she was about to reveal were chapters of her life that she long since tried bury away. "Like you, I didn't always have powers. I got them later on…" Her hand clenched around her clip. "They were given to me."

Lance sat up a little straighter. "Given…?" Judging from the way Terra had said it, there was definitely something unpleasant behind the story.

Terra shut her eyes tight from the welling emotions. "I was a human lab rat!" She shouted. Lance's eyes bugged even more so out of their sockets at the revelation. "S-some scientists took me a-and turned me into this, j-just so they could use me!" Hot tears began streaming down her face. "And like I said before, all I've been able to do i-is cause disasters!" Terra's hand tensed when she felt the clip break in two. Her hand clenched over the pieces, gathering them into her palm. She placed an open palm before herself, staring miserably at the contents. Nothing was going right. "What am I going to do?" Terra said to herself miserably.

Lance let out a depressed sigh as he got up and made his way to Terra's open palm. "Well, you've definitely got your work cut out for you," admitted Lance as he plucked the pieces of the hair clip from the geomancer's hand. "But it might not be something impossible to get through," Lance's dexterous gray fingers started fiddling with the pieces. "When I first got stuck with the watch, I didn't think I could handle its power either. Every time I used it," Lance was struggling to bend one of the pieces. "It was like playing the lottery, I didn't know what to expect—" The piece of the hair clip snapped back and sent Lance flat on his back.

"So what'd you do?"

"Nothing at first. Those robots that used to chase me kept me pretty busy," Lance got back onto his small webbed feet and returned his attention to the hairclip pieces. "I just managed to teach myself a few tricks when I was trying to avoid getting vaporized by those wacky—" He dropped the pieces when the alien form's advanced mind granted him an epiphany. "That's it!" Lance slammed a gray fist into his palm. "What you need is a drive!" Both Lance and Terra had had power thrust upon them. Neither of them had asked for it or had control over it. However, only one of them had been in a situation where mastering a skill meant survival, a time when the power had to be used. In his enthusiasm, Lance returned his attention to the broken hair clip pieces. "You'll be able to face your problem head on, and with a little elbow grease," After a few snaps and clicks, Lance walked over to Terra with something in his hands. "You can make something work." He held out a fully repaired butterfly hair clip.

Terra blinked away a tear and smiled as Lance returned the hair clip. "You really think so?"

Lance placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his miniscule chest. "Starting tomorrow you'll be following the Lance Training Program!"

XXX

"This looks like a good spot."

It was noon and the sun was now high above a flat plain that was littered with jutting stones. Normally, Terra and Lance would have gotten up earlier, but last night's ordeal with the androids had called for well deserved rests. The two were standing at opposite ends of a dirt ring that was lined with stones. "All right," Lance fiddled with the watch's dial. "Let's get started!"