Chapter 6

Terra was a bundle of nerves. 'How could everything go so wrong so fast?' she thought as she dodged, sidestepped and somersaulted to avoid a barrage of attacks. Her assailant was none other than Slade himself, and the pair found themselves duking it out in an isolated corner of a mine on the northwest of Jump City. Terra had originally arrived on the scene with the Titans to take out Slade's robots who were attempting to pilfer the mine's diamonds, and at first, the Titans had a handle on things. Even Terra was feeling triumphant as she took down robot after robot on her own. Then…it happened. The intensity of the situation brought the geomancer to her limit, and after struggling to maintain control of her powers, Terra inadvertently caused large sections of the mine's ceiling to suddenly cave-in. While this mishap succeeded in burying and destroying what was left of Slade's robots, it also allowed Slade to escape, not to mention burying Beast Boy alive, who to her dismay, was in his human form when he realized too little too late that he was in serious trouble. Mortified at what she had done and not being able to look the Titans in the eye, Terra ran deeper into the mine in hopes of escaping undetected. However, she soon spotted Slade dashing down an adjacent tunnel, and instead, redirected her attention and drive into pursuing Slade...

'I may have loused things up before, but this time, I won't mess up. I may have lost my chance to be a Titan, but if I catch Slade, at least maybe they'll forgive me. At least this time, I can be a real hero…'

Unfortunately for Terra, Slade had somehow predicted that she would be reckless enough to attempt to take him on her own, and with a carefully placed explosive, he triggered another cave-in that trapped the two together and blocked anyone else from intervening. Now the petite blonde was literally fighting for her life, and she barely managed to roll out of the way to avoid another swing of Slade's staff. 'Oh god!' she thought as she huddled closed to the ground, her hands covering her head as she awaited the crushing blow from above when suddenly, her powers spiked, and a large chunk of rock launched its way at Slade, causing him to stagger backwards. Both surprised and relieved by the turn of events, Terra peeked over her makeshift shield to find Slade once again steadily approaching her. She climbed to her feet and summoned her powers to heave the boulder at Slade, but ever the resourceful one, Slade had instantly planted his staff into the ground and with the leverage, smoothly swung over the boulder. While he had succeeded in clearing the boulder, it did manage to break his staff and he turned to face his opponent.

"Impressive…unless, of course, you were aiming for me."

Slade casually dropped the piece of the staff he was holding and began advancing slowly toward Terra. Once again and in a panic, Terra scuttled away backwards and began to launch several mid-sized boulders at Slade, but several efficient punches and kicks by him rendered the projectiles useless and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

"Back off!" she threatened as she leapt to her feet. "I'm with the Titans! They'll be coming to…"

"You don't belong with the Titans."

"You don't know anything about me!"

As this, Slade went into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a butterfly hairclip and Terra's eyes widened in alarm. "On the contrary, Terra," said Slade coolly. "I know everything about you. I've been watching you for some time. I know why you're always running away. I know your secret, little girl."

"No!" screamed Terra defiantly as she tried to bum-rush Slade, but he managed to quickly subdue her with a firm grip on her wrist. Slamming her back up against a nearby wall, Slade stared down at Terra, his lone eye boring into her startled face. "Earthquakes," he pressed on. "Avalanches. Mudslides. Everywhere you go, you try to do good..."

He then released his grip as Terra inwardly shrunk into herself, and he leaned in close to her. "…And everywhere you fail, so everyone turns against you."

Terra felt sick to her stomach. 'How does he know all of this?' she thought miserably, turning her face away so that not only she wouldn't have to look at him, but to push away the depressing thoughts and bad memories of her past. But it was a vain effort on her part, and one dark memory in particular came surging forward in her mind. It was about two years ago in a small New England town called Pleasantview. The town had been experiencing several consecutive days with very heavy rain, which of course was a problem since it made the wooded areas surrounding the town more prone to mud and rockslides. The dangerous situation reached its zenith when a huge rockslide unexpectedly came crashing down on a residential section of the town, and Terra jumped into the fray in hopes that she could buy the residents some time to get to safety. Unfortunately for both Terra and many of the townsfolk that day, it was all too much happening all at one time. The elements were working against them all, and Terra just couldn't handle the strain of the task at hand and accidentally caused an even bigger avalanche, resulting in the death of over 200 people, including Scott, a friend of hers and two members of his family, and racked up millions upon millions of dollars in property damage. To make matters worse, the surviving members of Scott's family, (who coincidentally were also the ones who had taken Terra in during her stay in town), turned against her, and they instigated a town uprising to lynch her, forcing Terra to defend herself and in turn, take even more lives in order to be able to escape with her own life…

"You lack control, Terra."

Slade's voice brought Terra's thoughts back to the present, and she winced as Slade's hand came in close to her hair and gasped when he gingerly placed her butterfly clip back into her hair. "And when you lose control, you are more dangerous than anything I've ever seen."

There was something in Slade's voice that intrigued Terra and she found the courage to meet Slade's gaze. However not long afterwards, he turned his back to her.

"But it doesn't have to be this way. I can help you, child."

"…You can?" she asked in disbelief. In response to this, Slade bent over and picked up a small fragment of one of the rocks Terra have thrown at him while in battle.

"Right now you are...rough around the edges," he illustrated. "You need more than obstacle courses to overcome your problem." Slade then began to apply pressure on the stone and it started to crumble.

"You need a teacher, a mentor. Come with me, Terra, and I can teach you to shine."

Slade opened his fist to reveal a diamond in his palm, and Terra stared at the precious gem in wonder. 'Only one other person had offered to help me control my powers,' she thought. 'And it turns out that she was just as clueless about my powers as I was. I doubt Slade is highly trained in geology or that he knows anything about metahumans, but he does seem to know a thing or two about training and gaining power and control, and I want power and control…'

She then looked up into his eye and drew back some. 'However, it doesn't take a blind man to see that this guy is also trouble…big trouble…and that's all I need right now is more trouble…'

"But...my friends told me you're..." she voiced aloud.

"You don't really believe they're your friends, do you, Terra?"

"They took me in," she said softly, the doubt now both clearly evident and afresh in her mind. "Gave me a home."

"And when they find out what's wrong with you, they'll reject you, like everyone else."

"Beast Boy…"

"…can't keep his mouth shut forever. He'll tell them."

The memory of what happened back in Pleasantview came surging back once more, and Terra angrily balled up her now glowing fists, her growing anger causing the tunnel to begin to shake.

"He promised."

"He lied," retorted Slade casually, provoking Terra and causing her already weakened grip on her composure to completely crumble. Torrents of gravel, stone and dirt went flying every which way, and her impish face was replaced with a fierce scowl.

"Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone!"

Terra's eyes, which also now glowed, shot open the moment she realized she was triggering another earthquake, and she dropped to her knees. "Don't lose control...don't lose control!" she chanted to herself, her hands over her head in an attempt to shield herself from the maelstrom of earth. "Now, Terra..." chided Slade, who even in the middle of such a precarious situation still managed to keep his head leveled and his voice as casual as ever. "...How can you lose something you never had?"

Terra screamed as the chaos of her powers going berserk went into full swing. The hazardous debris now circled her body and Terra began to levitate towards the center of the swirling vortex. "No one else understands you, Terra," continued Slade from a safe distance afar. "No one else can help you. I'll be waiting."

With that, Slade slinked off into the shadows, just like the many times he had done so in the past, but in her distressed state, Terra paid him no heed and remained in her huddled position. The sound of the fierce wind whipping around her was almost deafening now, but in her head, Terra could hear the angry voices and tormented screams of her past as clear as a bell.

"Terra! Terra!"

'Wha…?'

Terra felt the touch of someone's hand gripping her shoulder for dear life and snapped out of her stupor to see that it was Beast Boy. Seeing that he was struggling to hold on, she outstretched her hand and the two clamped onto one another.

"It's okay, Terra. I'm here. I'm here."

So many feelings came tumbling forth: relief, misery, hopelessness, and Terra couldn't hold back any longer. The tears poured forth and she collapsed into Beast Boy's arms. The whirlwind surrounding the two began to dissipate and they slowly descended to the ground, Beast Boy still lovingly cradling her in his arms.

"You won't…" she started to plead, but the look on his face conveyed that he already knew what distressed her so much.

"I'm not gonna tell anybody," consoled Beast Boy, who now cradled her head. "I promise."