Chapter 18: Betrayal

You know, with the amount of successful break-ins all across Jump City, you would think high tech labs would be smart enough to install better security. Naturally, they were not that smart, exemplified here by a squad of Sladebots effortlessly breaking into a lab on the outskirts of Jump City.

The guards who were meant to guard the place stood no chance, and the Sladebots effortlessly got what they were after and calmly strolled out of the compound. However, it was as they exited the place that they ran into trouble in the form of a birdarang tearing off half the face on one of the bots before returning to its owner.

"Tell Slade the Titans have a message for him." Robin stated as he and his team made ready for battle. It was Terra who made the first move.

"Eat dirt!" she said as she sent several boulders crashing into the Sladebots' ranks, crushing several of them into scrap piles.

"Titans, go!" and there came the classical battle call before the Titans charged into the fray. Terra gave Robin a lift on one of her rocks, wildly swerving through the barrage of energy blasts coming his way, before he leaped off the rock and came down feet first on a Sladebot. Starfire took her chance to swoop in with a starbolt barrage against the bots.

While this was going on, Argent called forth two crimson fists and lifted a massive boulder into the air.

"Terra, think fast!" she called out before throwing the ammunition to the geomancer, who was more than happy to use it like a sledgehammer to crush a squad of Sladebots.

"Thanks a ton." She said gratefully to Argent.

"Actually, I think it was closer to two tons." She countered before bringing up a shield to protect herself. It did not do much good as it was blasted apart and sent her flying away, quickly joined by Terra who got her rock blasted apart. The moment Terra landed on the ground, she was surrounded by Sladebots.

And in came Beast Boy to the rescue! Morphed as a gorilla, he pulverized the bots with a few swings of his arms, but they would not give up as one of them jumped on his back. That Sladebot ended up being used as a club against his own comrades before being thrown aside like a ragdoll. With the threat gone, he scooped up Terra in his arms bridal style as he morphed back to human form.

"You saved me." Terra said gratefully. Beast Boy's eyes instantly turned to hearts as he gave a goofy grin.

"Yeah, that was cool." He responded (Seriously, that's the best pick-up line he could come up with?). Terra meanwhile was looking a little awkward now, if a bit amused as well.

"Uhhh, Beast Boy? You can put me down now." She said. Beast Boy could not have possibly been able to put her down faster than he did, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

"Right! Uhhh… I was just… uhhh…" his stammering excuse was promptly halted when a Sladebot came flying past the pair like an errant missile, at which point Beast Boy rushed back into the fight. Terra, for some reason, lingered behind. Meanwhile, the fighting dragged on as the Titans destroyed one Sladebot after another.

Finally, the last bot was crushed underneath Cyborg's boot.

"Booyah!" he bursts out in victory. Robin however was still cautious.

"Did we get them all?" he asked as he surveyed the battlefield. No sooner had he said this when a blue cloaked figure stepped out of the building. Her attention was solely fixated upon a data pad she was carrying in her hands, thereby not noticing the carnage she had stepped into.

"Okay, boys! I got that blueprint Slade wanted, now we can pack it all up and…" it was in midsentence that Raven actually looked up from the data pad and noticed the state of her little excursion force, along with the six Titans facing her.

"Well, this became rather awkward." She mumbled mostly to herself. Robin suddenly took a step forward, a rather deep scowl in place on his face, but Raven made the first move by throwing the data pad high into the air. It had the desired result, as every set of eyes were temporarily locked on the object before they realized it was a distraction.

During that short time, Raven had drawn one of her Desert Eagles and aimed straight at Robin. She was about to pull the trigger, but a small rock came sailing in from nowhere and knocked it right out of her hand, courtesy of Terra. Within seconds, the Titans had Raven surrounded with their attacks powered up and ready to use.

"Now, now. No need to get violent here." Raven said as she raised her hands into the air. "I surrender."

At first, the whole team stared dumbfounded at her, obviously not expecting such an easy victory. Robin was the first to snap out of it as he strode right up to her and handcuffed her.

"We're taking you to Titans Tower. I have some questions for you." he growled out before marching away with her.

But unknown to the Teen Titans, the whole battle had been recorded and was being displayed on several screens. All being coldly observed by none other than Slade.

"Excellent, you've done well. Very well. All your hard work is about to pay off. With our deadliest agent in place for best effect, we strike tonight. And by sunrise tomorrow, the Titans will be annihilated." He spoke, addressing a second person, standing concealed in shadows.

At Titans Tower, five out of six members were gathered in the living room, enjoying some well-earned pizza and each other's company. They were in the midst of congratulating their newest member on the success of their last mission.

"Thanks, guys. Really, for everything. But you shouldn't… I'm just doing my job, you know. No big deal." She tried to explain, being a bit embarrassed by the attention given to her, but Beast Boy would have none of that.

"Well it's a big deal to us. Good friends don't come along every day, you know." He said while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Besides, you helped us catch Raven. Do you have any idea how long we've been trying to do that?"

While they were conversing, Cyborg approached a panel built into the wall. Pressing his hand against a scanner caused all lights to go out in the Tower.

"Alright, y'all. Titans Tower is locked up and Cyborg's shutting down." he said tiredly as he dragged himself out of the living room, most likely heading towards his room.

"Has anyone seen Robin?" Starfire suddenly asked. Beast Boy in turn gave her a flat look.

"With Raven in our custody and Slade still on the loose, where do you think?" he questioned rhetorically.

And as you no doubt had already guessed, Robin was currently in the interrogation room along with Raven. She had been stripped of all her weapons, ammunition and gadgets along with her cloak, and her arms were locked tightly to the table in front of her. Yet despite all this, she did not look the least bit worried, she even had the audacity to smile at Robin while squirming teasingly in her chair.

"Ohhh, now this just got interesting. I didn't know you were into the kinky stuff, bird boy." she purred seductively. But Robin remained unfazed as he towered over her.

"Cut the crap, Raven. I wanna know where Slade is hiding." He growled out threateningly. Raven merely leaned forward while pouting at him.

"Why? Would you rather spend time with him than with little old me?" she asked before a wicked gleam entered her eyes. "If you'd just remove these manacles, I'm sure you'd find me to be quite pleasurable company."

As Robin struggled with all his might not to show how flustered Raven was making him, he wished more than anything that he could just gag her and be done with it. Alas, he needed information out of her, and that meant she needed to be able to talk.

"You know where Slade is hiding, where all his bases are. And I want to know where he is." Robin pressed on as he slammed his fists into the table, trying to appear intimidating. Raven just had an air of nonchalance around her concerning this.

"And why should I tell you?" she asked.

"Payback." He offered, receiving an inquisitive look from Raven. "He won't come and save you, he'll leave you to rot in prison. You can get your revenge for that by telling me where he is." He had expected that deal to work. He had not expected for Raven to burst out laughing.

"You're cute, bird boy, but you're not that bright." She said humorously once she had calmed down. "Do you really think I'm that petty? To double-cross my employer just because I got caught?"

Robin said nothing, so Raven pressed on. "Seriously bird boy, I'm a mercenary. Half the struggle in my business is to maintain the trust of my clients, and that trust will go straight down the drain if I were to betray Slade."

By now, Robin had just had enough of this as he came right up in Raven's face with a furious expression engraved on his face. "Just tell me what I want to know!" the sheer amount of frustration behind that one sentence was unimaginable, yet still Raven remained calm. She even leaned closer to his ear.

"If you're so eager, why don't you… 'Persuade' me to divulge the information? I'm sure with the right 'incentive', my tongue might loosen up." She whispered huskily. While Robin had done an extraordinary job of keeping his emotions in check so far, he finally cracked here as his face turned beat red from all those dirty images Raven planted in his head. 'Damn girl!'

Upon seeing his reaction, Raven let a satisfied smirk adorn her face. 'Raven – 1, Robin – 0.'

Face redder than a tomato, Robin swiftly turned around and began storming out of the interrogation room. Though before he left, he had one last thing to say.

"Make yourself comfortable here, you'll most likely be staying here for a very long time." And with those parting words, he left and locked the door. Had he stayed a little longer, he would have seen how Raven's teasing smirk turned into a vicious grin.

"Not as long as you would think, bird boy." she said knowingly as she leaned back in her set. Everything was set up, all she needed to do was wait for the party to get started.

While most of the Titans had gone to sleep, Terra was still awake. Seated on her couch with her laptop in front of her, Terra took a deep breath in preparation for what she was about to do. Typing a few things, she sent a message to someone over the internet when a loud knock on her door nearly sent her flying out of her skin.

Hurriedly closing the laptop, she approached her closed door with something akin to dread swelling up within her. But when she opened the door, all she found was a smiling Beast Boy.

"Hi." He greeted while holding something behind his back. Terra gave him a confused look.

"Hi?" she greeted back uncertainly, obviously trying to figure out what he wanted at this late hour. An awkward grin spread across his face as he struggled to say what he wanted to say. The effects that girls could have on boys are sometimes astounding.

A silent moment erupted as Terra waited anxiously for what Beast Boy wanted, and Beast Boy just standing there like a grinning idiot. Eventually growing tired of waiting, Terra glanced down both hallways in confusion before addressing Beast Boy.

"Okay. Well, nice talking to you." she said as she turned around and headed back inside her room. Realizing that the girl he was seeking to impress was leaving, Beast Boy finally came back to his senses and brought out what he had been hiding behind his back. And what was it, you may wonder?

Not sure, but it looked like a pile of paper crudely taped together.

"I kinda… made you something." He said shyly while holding out his offering. Intrigued, Terra peeked out of her room.

"You did?" she asked in surprise as she accepted it.

"Yeah. Went a little crazy with the glue gun." To emphasize that point, a glue gun had somehow been glued to his hand. While he was furiously shaking is hand to get rid of the infernal device, Terra took the chance to unwrap her gift. What she found was a beautiful heart-shaped box, with the inside of the lid being a mirror.

Who knew that Beast Boy had such artistic talents?

"Beast Boy, it's… I don't know what to say." She exclaimed in wonder. Never before had she been given such a wonderful gift.

"You can say yes." He offered, to which a confused look entered her face that caused Beast Boy to elaborate.

"'Cause I'm about to ask you out on a date." A healthy tint of red on his cheeks accompanied his statement, followed swiftly by a look of uncertainty from Terra.

"Oh, wow." Was all she could muster up in such short notice. Beast Boy seemed to interpret it as a "yes" as he went on.

"Sooo… wanna do something tomorrow night?" he asked hopefully. A fearful look suddenly entered Terra's eyes at the offer.

"Tomorrow? I… I'm sorry, Beast Boy. I can't." she regretfully answered, unwillingly crushing his hopes.

"But…" he tried to plead, but Terra was already retreating back into her room.

"I just can't!" and just like that, the door to her room was slammed close, leaving Beast Boy alone in the corridor with crushed hopes and a broken heart.

"Ummm… okay. Maybe some other time?" he called out with the tiniest hopes, no answer came. That left him with nothing else to do but drag himself back to his room in utter defeat.

"What's taking so damn long?" Raven asked herself from the interrogation room she was still sitting trapped in, fingers drumming against the table she was bolted to. Wasn't the operation supposed to have started already? Had there been some last minute changes in it that she was not aware of?

Either way, Slade had better not hung her to dry, or there would be the devil to pay once she got out. Worst part, she did not even know what time it was, seeing as there was not a freaking clock to keep her company in the room.

Finally, she could just about hear someone moving outside the door. Seconds later, the manacles came off and Raven was free. With a satisfied smirk, Raven rubbed her wrists as she made her way towards the door. The second it was beginning to open, Raven entered her complaining/bitchy mode.

"About damn time you got your skinny ass moving. I've been waiting for ages now. And what were you doing? Grabbing a late night snack along the way? I swear, if you'd waited one more hour, I would have..." it was around that point that Raven actually noticed she was alone. There was no one else present.

"Huh? Where did she go?" Raven asked out loud. Had there been after all some alteration in the plan? Well, she had not received any new instructions on the matter, so she supposed she was meant to carry out her part like planned.

So she swiftly strolled over to another table, where all her equipment lay neatly stacked. A truly feral grin split her face as she began gearing up. "Let's get this party started."

In his room, Beast Boy was currently beating himself up over his failed attempt at asking Terra out. While raging through all the different ways he could have approached the matter, he kept asking himself what had gone wrong.

"Anything would have been better than giving her a stupid glue covered box and acting like a total goomer!" he raged on against his own reflection before he collapsed to the floor on all four. "Now she'll never go out with me."

His little melodramatic raving was promptly halted when a distinctively female voice cleared her throat. Puzzlement forced Beast Boy to look up, shock and embarrassment combined to make him squeal like a girl upon seeing Terra floating just outside her window.

"Uhmmm… How long have you been standing there?" he asked in embarrassment, silently dreading what the answer might be.

"Wanna go out?" she asked instead of answering his question. Beast Boy looked absolutely ecstatic about the offer.

"Huh? Yeah!" he burst out eagerly before trying to answer more calmly. "I mean, that's cool." He approached his open window with curiosity in his eyes. "But why didn't you just knock on my door?"

A valid question, one that Terra was not all that eager about answering.

"Do you trust me?" she asked instead while holding out a hand for him to grab. Any doubts Beast Boy had instantly vaporized.

"More than anyone I've ever met" he answered before accepting the offered hand.

But as they left Titans Tower to go on their little date, a light was turned on in one of the rooms. Namely, Cyborg's room. Not long after, the half teen machine stumbled out of his room, stomach growling like a pack of hungry wolves.

"Aw man, I knew I shouldn't have given up that last slice of pizza." He grumbled to himself as he stumbled through the pitch black tower until he reached his destination; the refrigerator. Wasting no time, he began digging through it in search of something eatable.

"Oh well, nothing a foot long ham and beef jerky sandwich won't…" But as he reemerged from the refrigerator with the food in hand, he was met with a pair of hauntingly familiar combat boots in his line of sight.

He let his eyes slowly travel up a pair of shapely pale legs, past a slim waist with a gun belt around it, over twin ammunition belts forming an x over a curvaceous upper body covered by a black leotard, and finally coming to a stop on Raven's hooded, and deviously smiling, face.

"Sorry if I startled you, but I was feeling a bit cooped up in your guest room and felt the need to stretch my legs and maybe grab a midnight snack." She explained humorously with both hands on her hip. "And I decided to invite a few friends over for a little slumber party."

That last part was punctuated by a horde of Sladebots suddenly surrounding Cyborg. While Cyborg looked at them with horror on his face, Raven was still smiling broadly at him.

"You don't mind, do you?" she asked sweetly.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the events unfolding back at Titans Tower (Well, at least in the case of one of them), Beast Boy and Terra had left Jump City altogether.

"When you asked me out, I didn't realize you meant out of town." He joked.

"Looks cool, doesn't it?" Terra merely inquired in response, to which Beast Boy happily nodded. "Guess sometimes you have to leave a place to really appreciate it." The two of them stood together in comfortable silence for a few moments after that.

"You hungry?" Terra suddenly asked.

"Always." Beast Boy answered. Together, they went on a trip that took them even further from Jump City, to a Petrol station/road diner. While Terra seemed to be completely at home, Beast Boy looked a little shocked by the atmosphere. He seemed to for a moment consider just bolting, but seeing as his date had already made herself comfortable at the desk, he walked in.

Seeing as Terra was already looking over the menu, Beast Boy decided to do the same. Sadly, all the options were meat-based in some manner. Not a vegetarian's best friend. Peering over his menu, he found both Terra and the waitress waiting for his order.

"Uhmmm… don't suppose you guys have a veggie burger?" he asked hopefully. The waitress said nothing, but the flat look she was giving him probably spoke more than mere words ever could. With negotiations grounded to a halt, Terra took matters into her own hands.

"We'll just get the usual, Pam." She said to the waitress while placing their menus away.

"Sooo, I'm guessing you've been here before." Beast Boy said, most likely to get some manner of small talk going. Terra smiled broadly as she answered.

"I've been everywhere before. I was quite the traveler before I became a Titan, remember?"

"Okay, what's the coolest place you've ever been?" Beast Boy asked innocently. That innocent question, however, knocked the smile right off of Terra's face and replaced it with a look of depression.

"Don't know, probably Titans Tower." She answered while staring at her distorted image reflected on a spoon she was holding. Before Beast Boy could even suspect a change, Terra had reverted back to her happy self again.

"But there's plenty of cool stuff out here. Who knows, if you're really nice to me, maybe I'll give you the tour." She offered playfully as their food arrived. A simple pie with some whipped cream on top.

"Dig in." Terra ordered as she offered a spoon to Beast Boy. He was more than happy to comply. Though as he placed his first taste of the pie into his mouth, his whole body went rigid and his face morphed into the expression of someone who has tasted either the greatest or foulest thing in existence.

"This… is the greatest pie… in the history of pie." He muttered with a monotone voice that would have even rivaled canon Raven's, leaving the distinctive feeling that he might not have agreed fully with the words he uttered. Terra at least seemed not to mind, or maybe just not noticed.

"There's a place about two hundred miles outside of Gotham that makes a mean cherry. But for apple, this is the best there…" the rest of her sentence died in her throat as she had turned her eyes towards the mirror on the other side of the desk, where the reflection of Slade himself was glaring ominously at her.

Spinning around in terror, all she found were the three men playing pool and two other guys sitting with their backs turned to her. But even as he had seemingly vanished into thin air, Terra could still somehow feel his lone eye drilling into her back no matter where she turned. With fear and desperation fuelling her actions, Terra hastily put a few coins on the desk.

"Let's get out of here. Night's still young." She said hurriedly as she jumped off her seat and strode towards the exit. Beast Boy, however, seemed not so eager on leaving just yet.

"But… pie!" he whined like a little child. Guess he did like that pie after all. His words went unheard as Terra grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him out of the diner. What neither seemed to notice was that Beast Boy's communicator accidentally fell out of his pocket and was left behind on the floor as they left.

"Beast Boy, come in!" Robin's frantic voice suddenly spoke from the communicator.

The reason for the frantic tone in his voice was that back at Titans Tower, they were getting close to being overrun by a swarm of Sladebots. Currently, Robin was taking cover behind a slab of concrete from a relentless barrage of energy blasts.

"Beast Boy, where are you? Answer me!" he called frantically, but received no response. He had to cut his emergency call short as the Sladebots closed in on his position, forcing him to fall back lest he be overrun. The floor ahead of him had collapsed, and he did not hesitate to leap down to the next level, right in the midst of another squad of Sladebots that he promptly decimated.

But his victory was short-lived as more came flooding down the corridor, firing wildly. Robin leaped into the cover of a blown-up door, where Starfire and Cyborg were holding their ground.

"He's not responding!" he told his two teammates as energy blasts continuously pelted their position. They were quickly joined by Argent, coming down a different corridor.

"And Terra's not in her room." She added. Robin raised a suspicious eyebrow at that. Two Titans have gone missing just before a massive attack on the tower. Whatever the reason, it could just not be a mere coincidence.

"Somebody wanna explain how two hundred armed robots got past my security? And how Raven got out of her room?" Cyborg questioned furiously while he and Starfire returned fire from behind their cover.

"Does anyone even know where Raven went?" Robin asked in worry. If that gun swinging maniac was running loose inside Titans Tower, it could only end in disaster.

"Nah man, I lost track of her after our run-in back at the living room. She could be anywhere by now." Cyborg answered. Robin cursed out loud with the foulest words he could come up. These bots were just small fry, a distraction. Raven was the real priority here.

Cyborg suddenly stepped back from the corner, allowing Starfire and Argent to keep the Sladebots at bay, while he opened up a panel and tried accessing the mainframe. The moment he tried, however, he was violently rejected by huge voltages of electricity.

"Can't even access the computer, we're locked out!" he shouted over the noise of battle. Starfire meanwhile was forced to take cover again as the enemy fire intensified.

"They are too numerous to fight! What shall we do?" she called out in desperation as the horde of Sladebots closed in on their position.

"Fight anyway." Robin answered with conviction, sounding like he truly believed they could fight and win. "Titans, go!" and just like that, he charged out from his cover, taking the bots head-on. His teammates were not far behind in what might be considered a suicide run.

Robin smashed boot first into one Sladebot while a thrown birdarang knocked out a second. A third tried taking him in close quarters, but he was absolutely demolished by Robin. Cyborg charged right through their ranks like an out of control train, smashing aside any bot that got in his way like they were not even there.

Starfire's starbolts obliterated dozens of bots as she fired wildly, some trying to take her in close quarters only to be crushed like they were made of porcelain. Bolts of crimson energy from Argent skewered any and all bots that came near her, while massive fists pounded any that survived into the ground.

Several more Sladebots rushed in to take their fallen comrades' places against Argent, but they probably should have chosen a different route to use other than the one they just came out of. Why? Well… I will just let Argent do the explanation.

"That's my room!" she screeched in outrage before a wave of crimson energy disintegrated the first onrushing bots. But those behind still pushed on, something they would have known not to had they been living beings.

"Nobody goes into my room! Do you hear me? NOBODY!" to punctuate this statement, she unleashed her power on the floor and caused it to collapse, taking both dozens of Sladebots and Cyborg with it. As he regained his senses from the sudden fall, a Sladebot smashed him right in the face with a bench with enough force to send him flying into the wall.

While it tried to attack again with a powerful punch, Cyborg just ducked under it and gave the bot a good pounding. Two more jumped on his back, and were promptly neutralized, but two more piled up on Cyborg, forcing him down. But if they thought Cyborg was down for the count, they were sadly mistaken.

"Don't know how you guys got in, but I know how you're getting out." He growled out before, with a roar of fury, he punched a hole straight through one of the bots and sent the other flying straight through a wall, conveniently into the same hallway Starfire was fighting in.

She attacked the bots with ferocious blows that sent pieces of metal and circuitry flying in all directions before obliterating more with point blank starbolts. But there were too many of them, and the closed in from all sides to pile up on her. Bad call, as she sent them all flying away in pieces with a powerful burst of her energy.

As they were fighting, we find Raven in the midst of planting a bomb inside the tower while tapping her foot in rhythm with a song in her head.

"Fire in the hole. I gotta blow you up inside baby. Fire in the hole. I'm gonna make you my blazing lady. Fire in the hole." She sung to herself while working, having a squad of Sladebots guarding her.

She never got a chance to finish her work before an exploding disc destroyed the control panel and knocked her back into the wall. Standing back up again, she stretched her battered spine while letting out an annoyed groan.

"Seriously, bird boy, you don't need to take things that personally. It was just some friendly teasing." She grumbled out as she turned her eyes towards the perpetrator, who for his part merely brought out his Bo staff and charged. Raven did not even bother to move as the Sladebots charged him.

He knocked out the first two, the leaped up and came down with an axe kick against a third, he landed a spinning kick on a fourth, he smashed his staff straight through a fifth, he took the head right off a sixth with a blow to the head and finished off the last one with an uppercut.

Raven observed the whole scene impassively up until Robin demolished the last bot. at which point she shrug her shoulders and drew her broadsword.

"Well you know what they say. You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." She noted right before she attacked with a thrust aimed at his stomach. He sidestepped the attack and rolled under a sudden slash before coming back up with a sideways blow with his staff.

Dodging the attack, Raven retaliated with a flurry of sword strikes that forced Robin back, step by step. He tried striking back, but there was a never-ending stream of hacks, slashes, stabs and thrusts coming his way. Raven was relentless in her attack. A sudden spinning slash left an opening for Robin to attack, realizing too late that it was a trap.

As planned, Raven leaped out of his range before a powerful slash cut his staff in half. With his main weapon gone, Robin nearly ended up skewered on Raven's sword as she attacked again. He ducked under another swing while bringing out his own sword and parried the next strike.

A quick duel ensued as they circled each other, trading blows back and forth, before their blades got locked in a contest of strength.

"How did you get loose?" Robin demanded furiously, prompting a taunting smirk to appear on Raven's face.

"Why? Sad you couldn't keep me tied down for just a bit longer?" she asked teasingly as she lashed out with a sudden kick that knocked Robin back and gave her enough room to strike with a flurry of blows. He barely managed to weather the attack until he leaped back to put some distance between them.

"We had places our hardest security measures in that room, there's no way you could have broken out that easily." He countered before he charged again with an overhead strike that Raven blocked. She knocked his blade aside and thrust towards his chest, forcing him back, and followed up with a decapitation strike that he barely blocked in time.

"Let's just say that I've got friends in just the right places." She answered cryptically as she danced clear of a counterstrike from Robin. Robin's features hardened significantly as he contemplated her words. 'She couldn't possibly mean…'

While the Titans were fighting for their lives, we find Beast Boy and Terra together in an amusement park, currently closed. Not that it seemed to stop the two super powered teenagers as they enjoyed one ride after another. As it was, they were seated together in the Ferris wheel. A little shy silence reigned between them as they just enjoyed being together.

"Sooo, what made you change your mind?" Beast Boy suddenly asked, gaining a confused look from Terra.

"Excuse me?"

"About going out with me." He clarified before a teasing look entered his eyes. "It was the ears, wasn't it? Ladies looove the pointy ears." A light giggle slipped out of Terra in response.

"Actually, it was because… of all the things I could have done tonight, I realized all I really wanted to do was spend time with you." she admitted with a small smile on her lips.

"Lucky for me you didn't have other plans." Beast Boy joked lightly, not realizing how monumentally wrong he was on that account. Terra could not meet his eyes at that point, as she guiltily turned her eyes away from him.

"Beast Boy. If you knew something bad about me, would you still be my friend?" she tentatively asked, fearing the answer. Beast Boy however seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Terra was on the point of breaking down.

"Of course." He answered without hesitation, not thinking through his answer fully. Terra still looked very depressed.

"I mean if you were really my friend, I could tell you anything. And no matter how horrible it was, you'd still like me, right?" By now, Beast Boy was becoming confused, and a bit worried about these questions Terra was asking him.

"Yes. I promise, Terra, no matter what." He assured her as he suddenly began leaning closer towards her. Already knowing what was coming, Terra leaned forward as well, their lips closing in for a kiss. Sadly, they never got farther than that.

"Hello, Terra." The voice that haunted every Titan's dream spoke up right next to the pair. "Remember me?" as they both spun around in shock, neither could believe what they were seeing. There, sitting calmly in the shadows, was none other than Slade. With confident steps, he moved towards Terra, tossing Beast Boy aside like a ragdoll.

"I have plans for you, Terra. Did you think you and your little boyfriend could just run away?" he questioned as he loomed menacingly above her, Terra just shrinking back in terror.

"Let her go!" Beast Boy snarled out as he charged at Slade from behind. Both of the combatants ended up flying out of the cart and onto the roof of another one, with Beast Boy on top and trying to pin Slade down.

"Terra, run!" he shouted to her without even turning around. He may have been the least intelligent one among the Teen Titans, but even he knew the sheer idiocy of letting Slade out of your sights for even a second.

"Stay where you are, child." Slade calmly countered, looking completely untroubled by the fact that a Titan had him pinned down.

"What do you want with her?" Beast Boy asked in anger. And despite the fact that he was wearing a mask, Beast Boy could almost see the smug grin that spread across his face.

"You mean she didn't tell you? I thought you two were friends." there was no mistaking that tone for anything less than a mocking one. But Beast Boy was never even given a chance to retort as Slade, without the slightest effort, threw Beast Boy off of him and completely off the Ferris wheel as well.

But he was not down for the count just yet, as he swooped down on Slade as a hawk before morphing into a tiger. They circled each other before Beast Boy leaped at Slade, putting all his strength into knocking him over. It ended up being Beast Boy who was knocked over and sent flying off the wheel again.

Calmly approaching the edge of the cart he was standing on, Slade looked down on the cart Terra was still in, and the one Beast Boy had conveniently landed on. He leaped down and knocked Beast Boy off again, but he climbed back on as a gorilla. The two ended up jumping back and forth across the Ferris wheel, until Slade caught Beast Boy in a chokehold.

"You think you know her. You know nothing. She never even liked you." Slade continued to taunt Beast Boy, something that set him off. In a fit of rage, he threw Slade over his shoulder straight into the cart before throwing him away like a baseball. It was at that point that Terra came floating up on a rock, looking quite distraught.

"Beast Boy, come on!" she called out desperately while holding out a hand for him to grab. He momentarily hesitated, and that was all the time Slade needed to recover. But instead of directly attacking them, he just stood atop another cart, silently challenging them to come and get him. Beast Boy was all too eager to take the bait and attacked.

They began wrestling back and forth across the wheel yet again. And Slade soon had the upper hand as he slammed Beast Boy down while rearing his fist back for a powerful blow to the head.

"Terra!" Beast Boy called out, desperately seeking aid against his opponent. In response, she caused the ground beneath the wheel to erupt and topple it over.

"Beast Boy, fly!" she shouted, to which Beast Boy quickly morphed into a small bird and flew away. Slade meanwhile looked at the unfolding scene in alarm, or maybe even a bit of fear.

"Terra, no!" he shouted after her, to which she looked sorrowful at what she was doing. As the Ferris wheel went down in dust and debris, both Terra and Beast Boy fled the scene in all haste. They ran inside the house of mirrors in order to hide, a dark shape following them inside without them even realizing it.

They came to a halt inside a circular room were all sections of the wall had a mirror in them. Beast Boy, realizing they needed help for this, reached inside his belt to retrieve his communicator. It was only now, to his great dismay, that he discovered that he no longer carried it.

"I've lost my communicator!" he burst out in alarm before turning to Terra. "Give me yours!"

But she held up her hands in a resigning gesture. "I don't have it. I left it back at the tower." Needless to say, Beast Boy did not appreciate those news.

"Then we gotta get back to the tower and..."

"Beast Boy, I'm not going back. I can't." she interrupted him dejectedly while lowering her head in defeat. Beast Boy was stunned by her words.

"What? Why can't you?" he asked in concern. But it was not Terra who answered the question, it was someone far worse.

"Because she's not your friend." Slade's chilling voice announced as his reflection appeared on the mirror right behind the miserable looking Terra. "She's my apprentice."

If Beast Boy had been stunned before, it was nothing compared to the sheer amount of disbelief that washed over him. But only now did he notice that Slade's reflection was on every mirror. Not only that, but Terra had also suddenly disappeared.

"Terra? Terra?" he called out frightfully, but no answer came. At least, not from her.

"The girl you knew was merely an illusion. A fantasy. In reality, she's been working for me." Slade revealed with that calm and icy voice that haunted every little child's dreams. His words had the predicted effect. Beast Boy's disbelief turned to denial, denial turned to anger and anger turned to violence.

"That's a lie!" Beast Boy shouted as he furiously punched the first mirror he could reach, and continued to punch every other mirror in a blind rage.

"I found her, I trained her to control her impressive powers. And then I sent her to destroy your little team, from the inside out." Slade continued through Beast Boy's rampancy with the same air of calmness. Finally, it seemed like Beast Boy had run out of steam to continue his senseless destruction.

"No! Terra would never…"

"The final piece of the plan began this very day, when Raven staged that robbery and allowed herself to be captured by you, in order to get inside Titans Tower without raising suspicions." Slade interrupted as he explained his plan. "Terra's orders were to join up with Raven on the assault against you Titans, but I guess she took pity on you. Perhaps she wanted to keep you as a pet."

It was taking all of Beast Boy's willpower to restrain himself here. He continuously denied everything Slade said in his head. He could not accept that any of it could be real. It just was not possible!

"However, despite this minor error in judgment, she was kind enough to release Raven from her cell and deactivate the security at Titans Tower. Your friends are being annihilated as we speak."

That was the last straw for Beast Boy. He would take no more of this madman's filthy lies.

"Liar!" he shouted in rage, ready to tear that bastard apart with his own bare hands. But something stopped him.

"Beast Boy, it's the truth." Those were the heartbreaking words of Terra herself, standing in front of her real master, Slade. Even though the evidence was standing right in front of him, Beast Boy still could not fully accept it.

"Terra, why?" he asked in dismay, feeling like his heart was about to burst any second now.

"Because you could never give her what she needs." Slade stated coldly, arms folded across his chest as he stared down at Beast Boy. Terra could not even gather the courage to look her friend, the one she had just betrayed, in the eye.

In an instant, all his restraints were thrown out the window and he charged Slade as a tiger. Slade just caught him and threw him aside. Beast Boy bared his teeth in a feral growl while crouching low. Slade's answer was to bring out an energy blaster and fired right in Beast Boy's face, knocking him out of his animal form.

He powered up a second blast, ready to end this little nuisance once and for all. But while Terra may have betrayed her friends, she most certainly did not want to see Beast Boy die.

"No! I won't let you hurt my friend!" she stated with conviction as her hands became surrounded by her yellow hue. Slade just gave her a sidelong glance.

"Dear child, you don't have any friends." he countered, right before he felt a sudden shadow grow over him. That shadow turned out to be Beast Boy morphed as a bear. The two began fighting again, with Beast Boy gaining the upper hand.

Crushed by the knowledge that she had done this, Terra fled in blind panic, coming to a stop only when she could no longer hear the noise of battle. Fear, sorrow, anger, remorse. They all blended together in her, crushing her under their immense weight.

Finally, not being able to take anymore, Terra crumbled to the floor in a sobering mess.

"Beast Boy, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen." she mumbled mostly to herself, as if her own words would be enough to forgive her atrocity.

"Then why did you let it?" Beast Boy suddenly questioned as he stepped in front of her. She forced herself back up on her feet as she desperately tried to explain her actions.

"I don't know, okay. I don't know. Slade… he helped me, saved me from myself. He said I owed him, but…"

"So it was all a game?" Beast Boy harshly interrupted her. "You were just pretending?" that accusation stung far worse than any physical blow could ever hope to even come close to.

"No. you said that you'd be my friend, no matter what, remember?" Terra reminded him tearfully. Beast Boy just gave her a look of disgust before turning his back to her.

"Slade was right, you don't have any friends." he snarled out at her in utter contempt. That truly shattered Terra's heart, and she felt like collapsing to the floor again. But she steeled herself and let her grieve be overcome with rage instead.

"Apprentice, come. We've had a change of plans." Slade called to her. And with nowhere else to go, she followed him into the darkness, leaving behind an equally heartbroken Beast Boy.

Thanks to a massive explosion, Raven was hurled into the Titans' living room. She twirled around in the air and landed gracefully on her feet again, just as Robin came rushing in after her. They both lunged at each other and began trading sword strikes yet again, with Raven slipping past his defenses a few times and leaving shallow cuts all across his body.

"Gotta admit, you put up a hell of a lot more resistance than I anticipated." She commented as she dodged a swing and countered with her own that forced Robin back further.

"We never give up." He stated as he blocked a strike from Raven, only to get a fist to the face as she suddenly stepped closer to him. He reeled back from the blow and Raven knocked his sword aside before driving her pommel into his guts, causing him to double over.

"Well, either way, it ends now." She pointed out as she aimed a thrust at him. He had enough sense to dive clear, but was not fast enough and got impaled right through the shoulder and pushed against the wall. A pained gasp slipped out before he clamped his mouth shut, not planning on giving her the satisfaction of hearing him scream in pain.

But he was not going down that easily as he struck out with his legs and knocked Raven back, making her lose her grip on the broadsword. Steeling himself for the inevitable pain, he yanked the blade out of his shoulder before throwing it aside. Raven had taken the time to get back up again, but the sound of approaching footsteps made her hesitate.

All the bots were probably scrap piles by now, and she had lost the initiative. Not to mention that Terra, the powerhouse of the whole plan, had just disappeared! As much as she hated to admit it, this battle was over. It was time to retreat.

"Okay, bird boy, I gotta go now. It's been fun, though. Let's do this again some other time." She cheerfully commented before she popped a smoke grenade, seconds before the remaining Titans came storming in. taking advantage of the cover, Raven snatched her sword up and threw herself through the window to free-fall towards the ground.

Right before making painful contact with the ground, she spun around and fired her grapple gun, stopping her descent in the nick of time. As she sprinted away, she cast one glance back at the tower before vanishing into the night.

It was one hour later that Raven dragged her tired and worn down frame inside Slade's hideout. Just as she guessed, he was standing in front of his myriad of screens.

"Report." He commanded without even turning to look at her.

"Mission was a failure. The Titans crushed all your little toys and left me fighting them all by myself. Had to hightail it outta there." She reported tiredly, wishing he could just collapse on her soft and comfortable bed.

"No matter. We'll deal with them some other time." Slade simply said before he completely ignored Raven. She took that as his way of saying "you're dismissed" and shuffled her way towards her room. Along the way, however, she ran into the one person she had been wondering about the whole evening and immediately perked up.

"Terra! I was worried you'd gone lost! But nice work with the security systems! Gimme five!" she enthusiastically greeted her while raising her hand in expectation of a high five. Terra seemed not to even notice her as she just trudged right passed Raven with a broken look on her face.

"… Or just walk right past me as if I'm not even here." She murmured to herself in confusion. Casting a look over her shoulder, Raven felt concern swell up in her as she watched Terra walk on like a condemned criminal about to face execution. Just what had happened?

Important note: Many have been asking me what Terra's fate in Aftershock pt II would be, if she would live or turn to stone like in canon. I had originally planned to stick to canon in that regard, but with so many asking if she would make it, I started imagining a scenario where she is saved. And now I can't decide which one to go for! Her being saved or her turning to stone!

So therefore, I'm leaving it up to you readers. I've put up a poll on my profile, and I want you to vote on whether Terra will live on or not! Her fate, now lies in your hands.

P.S. Can you guess which song Raven was singing when she was arming the bomb in Titans Tower?