Robin and Beast Boy hurried Terra to the bathroom. Beast Boy's hand gripped around hers as they walked her down the quiet hallways of Titan's Tower. Echoes of their footsteps trailed behind. They shut the door once all three of them were inside and Robin began to dig through drawers to find a hand-held mirror. His hasty movements and rough behavior with the contents of the drawers caused Terra to feel like she was under an attack, not being helped by two friends. Robin tossed cotton balls, Starfire's make-up brushes and Q-tips on the floor while looking for a mirror.
"It'll be better if you take your entire arm out of the sleeve," Robin said while searching. "Otherwise you might not be able to see everything."
"But I . . ." Terra was too choked up to finish her sentence. She meant to tell them, but I don't have anything under it.
"If it hurts, I'll help you." Beast Boy put his hand on her shoulder but waited for her confirmation before he did anything further.
Maybe he was just a little too eager about this, or maybe he was just eager to help her. Either way, Terra detected it, but didn't care anymore. She was about to say go ahead, but Robin found his mirror and stood up with it. When he saw Terra's shoulder was still concealed, he helped move the process along without questions.
Beast Boy kept his hand on Terra but had to move it for just a moment as Robin pulled her arm out of her sleeve. Terra caught her shirt before it fell down with her bare arm and held the fabric to her chest. Robin held the mirror up, facing her shoulder. "Now," he said, "you can see it in the bathroom mirror."
Terra didn't look right away. She wasn't sure if she even wanted to. After just a few seconds, curiosity got her and her eyes drifted into the mirror in front of her. First, she just saw herself. Then, she focused on the reflection from the mirror Robin was holding to her shoulder.
A small orange circle had attached itself to her body. Inside the circle was a black "S." Around the edges of the device were sharp appendages that dug deep into her skin. Where they were breaking the surface her skin was red, a little swollen, but not bleeding. There was a light on the bottom of the object that was red.
Terra's first instinct was to stop breathing and start screaming instead, but no sound came from her throat. Her eyes were dry and showed no signs of watering. Her back stiffened and moved up and down with her controlled breaths. She opened her mouth without a word and didn't blink. Her gaze was super-glued to the reflection of her shoulder.
"It doesn't hurt right now, does it?" asked Robin. Terra shook her head slowly in a daze. "That's because the light's red. A few minutes ago when you said the pain was bad, the light was green."
Terra seemed incapable of asking questions, so Beast Boy tried to ask some for her. "How did it get on her? She wasn't even near Slade and none of the Titans did it."
"I don't know," Robin grumbled. He hated admitting that he didn't have a clue about what was going on. "But I'll find out. I know just the person who can tell me." His eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, the light on the device blinked green. Terra sprang back to life and started gasping, as if she was having trouble breathing. Two seconds later it seemed as if her legs gave out and she tumbled to the floor.
Beast Boy caught her with ease since he had been besides her and Robin kneeled down to their level. "Terra?" Robin asked, to see if she was able to respond.
"Robin," Terra said back, between breaths. Her strength seemed to have returned, but her body shivered as if she were cold. She sat up on her knees. "I-I want to go back to bed," she said. Her face was blank but her eyes showed a hint of determination to overcome her problem by herself.
Beast Boy and Robin didn't say anything in response to her. Beast Boy's face was alert and he watched Terra in confusion. Of all things, she wanted to go back to bed?
"Wait," said Terra. "Just get it off. I don't care if you have to cut me or whatever, just get it off." Her hand moved back to her shoulder and she tugged on the device. She closed her eyes and let go a few seconds later-it hurt too much, even for her. Even if she was able to take the pain, though, she knew it was connected to her in such a way that it would seem almost impossible to detach it. "It . . . won't . . . come off, will it?" She looked to Robin for an answer.
Robin sighed and was quiet. He didn't want to tell her he couldn't get it off without taking a chunk out of her shoulder. Actually, he thought, that would be in the best case scenario. He had a feeling what this device was for, but he wasn't about to tell Terra. "I'm going to find Slade," he said. "When I do, I'll make him explain himself and I'll make him get that thing off you, okay?"
"It's worse than you thought, isn't it?" Terra frowned and turned away from both of them, but she was talking to Robin in specific. "You thought he was just going to cause trouble, like steal something." Her eyes were finally feeling heavy and restless. She blinked slowly.
"Terra, I didn't know what he was going to do." Robin felt frustration bubble up inside him, like his body was a carbonated drink that got thrown down a flight of stairs. "I just knew something was going to happen. I don't even know what's going on right now, but I'm going to find out. When I do, Slade will be finished before he has a chance to start."
Terra checked out Beast Boy's expression (confused and a little scared) before she looked back to Robin. "Too late for that," she said. Her voice was just above a whisper and she rubbed her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure he's already got a good start on things."
Robin stood up. "I'm going now," he announced. Terra and Beast Boy weren't surprised, but gave him a look of slight disapproval. He stared at both of them for a few long moments and then turned to leave the bathroom. "I'll be back." The sound of his hasty footsteps disappeared after just a minute.
"You still wanna go back to bed?" Beast Boy asked. He swallowed hard and glanced away from Terra's shoulder. Looking at it was just too unsettling. "I'll help you back."
Terra stood up in one smooth, swift motion. "Thanks," she said. "But I think I'll be okay." She stopped in the doorframe of the bathroom and waited for Beast Boy with her hand on the wall. "You can keep me company," she mumbled without eye contact. "Y'know, if you want." She remembered about her shirt and slipped her arm back into it.
Beast Boy agreed and Terra took him back to her bedroom.
Even though her body felt like a sandbag and her eyes wanted to close, Terra meandered towards the wall of windows in her room and sat down on the floor in front of it. Beast Boy followed her, unsure of why she chose to go there, but he asked no questions.
"The city's pretty at night," she said. "I used to watch it from a few miles away, but it's better up close." A slow breath escaped her mouth and she curled up against the windows.
Beast Boy had a feeling she wasn't going to move, so he got up and brought a blanket over. He put half of it over Terra, half of it on him. "Are you scared," he asked, "of that thing?" His eyes moved to her shoulder.
Terra pulled the blanket into her arms and made a tiny makeshift pillow for her head. "No," she said.
Beast Boy fell asleep with his head on Terra's legs within the hour, but Terra stayed up for the rest of the early morning watching the city come to life. As the sun rose higher into the sky and filled the darkness up with magenta-orange, more cars came into the streets and more apartment buildings had their lights on. The rain stopped at around six, but Robin still wasn't back.