Menagerie was the first one to act. "Dibs on the creepy goth girl." She announced with a predatory smile, launching a small horde of parasitic bugs with a graceful wave of her hand. They would make quick work of that girl… and she would enjoy watching her squirm and scream in agonizing pain.

However, unlike their host, the creatures she used in combat had a strong survival instinct. The moment they realized that what they face is not some superhero, but something far, far worse, they changed direction and run away. "What?" Menagerie managed to say, before suddenly dozens more of the creatures emerged from her body and tried to push her out of the room. If their host died, they would die as well, and whatever was in the room with them made their instincts flare up in alarm. "Stop it! Let go!"

Seeing Menagerie fighting her own parasitic creatures, Hat laughed. "Oh, that is precious! Please, do keep struggling like this, I find it really entertaining."

"Piss off, you stupid drunk!" Was the answer, and the magician shook his head, still smiling.

"Well, kid, congratulations, you proved to be really entertaining. And here I thought punishing Terra for slacking off would be the best part of your escape." The demonologist chuckled. "But whatever fear charm you used won't work against that." The drunk reached deep into his hat, and took out… something. It had writhing tentacles where its eyes should be and eyes where its tentacles should be. It had three heads, each blind and deaf, and seven arms, each bending in an unnatural way. "Get her!"

However, unlike Hat, his demon was quite aware of what it was fighting. It took less than a second to assess the situation, realize it was facing a progeny of a Demon Lord, and decide on a new course of action.

"Wha?" The demon, despite its powerful bindings trying to force it to listen, tried to crawl back into the hat. The pain of trying to resist its master was horrible, but it was nothing compared to eternity of torture at the hands of Trigon. "Get back here! Obey me!" The furious demonologist tried to order its minion, to no avail.

Angry, he grabbed the demon and tried to forcefully pull it out of the hat, but the result was quite unexpected. The scrawny magician was instead pulled in, only his legs sticking out in a comical fashion. His frustrated screams were muted as he was slowly pulled into his own pocket dimension, cursing all the way in.

And during it all, Raven stayed ominously silent. It wasn't by design; she tried her best to control her powers, and barely realized what was happening in the room right now. But as a result, she looked outright terrifying, silent, unmoving, defeating half of the Elite without moving a single finger.

Manchester Black looked at the two members of his team that were currently fighting their own powers, and sighed deeply. "I am surrounded by bloody wankers." He concluded, and turned towards the newcomer. "Sorry for that, kid. You look young, but you're still a superhero. Nothin' personal, ya know?"

And then he blasted her mind with all of his power.

Normally, it would end up in a great psychic duel. Raven's mind was like a fortress with its gates barred and guarded by her iron will. She was more then capable of resisting psychic attack, and, was she in full control of herself, it would result in a mental combat that would give Manchester a run for his money.

However, right now she was sleepy, half-unconscious, drugged, and unable to resist. Black was truly unlucky.

The moment their minds made contact, before the great psychic attack could fully materialize, a part of Raven's brain reacted to it. Shaking off its chains for a short moment, the demonic power jumped trough the newly-opened link to a mind stupid enough to touch it.

"Wh-wha?" Black managed to say, before the power run through his mind. He tried to fight it, but in his arrogance he created a direct connection between his mind and the darkness; the fortress of his mind had its gates opened, and demonic power walked through with a laughter echoing in his head.

"Aaaaarrrgh!" The helpless psychic fell on the ground, holding his head and screaming in agony as the demonic darkness feasted on his mind. It was the worst pain he had ever felt, worse suffering than anything he could imagine. It felt like his entire being was consumed and slowly freezing to death.

And then a part of the darkness split off and entered his bright, vulnerable soul.

The agony of Manchester Black reached levels impossible to imagine.

Coldcast looked at his teammate one by ones, but then his gaze inevitably returned to the writhing, shaking, and screaming figure of his leader. Now, many people had very low opinion of the team's muscle; even his own teammates considered him naïve and stupid at times. But he was, in fact, quite smart. He understood something that others failed to grasp; fighting Raven right now was a very, very bad choice.

"I surrender."

Terra slowly woke up, confused at first. She was… floating? It took her a moment to recognize the effects of the painkillers. Weird. The Elite would never let her have anything that would lessen the pain when they punished her. Was she dying? Were other Titans back? What happened?

"Hi, Terra." Beast Boy said from a chair next to her bed. But it wasn't her Beast Boy.

"What… happened?" Terra asked, fear finally getting to her despite the drugs. She had failed, and Titans escaped. And now, she will have to face the punishment…

"Terra, breathe. Slowly. You're safe. We won't hurt you, and we won't allow anyone to hurt you." Beast Boy hesitated, but decided against hug or any other physical contact. He could see that the shaking girl in front of him was scarred and traumatized, and already on a verge of a panic attack. "Take a deep breath, Terra. Slowly. Breathe in… slower… good. Now hold it… out… in… out." He kept gently guiding her out of her panicked state.

Just like Starfire, her Starfire, always did for her.

It took a while, but finally Terra was capable of speech other then panicked wheezing. "What happened to the Elite?" She slowly asked, dreading the answer. Did the Elite escape? She doubted that the four Titans could defeat the superhero-hunting squad, but maybe they forced them to retreat?

"In their cells." Beast Boy answered. "Raven took care of them."

"Raven? Oh, the Titan who replaced me in your timeline, right?" Terra winced. Not the best way to say that, she concluded, but she still found it hard to focus. Words seemed to flow easily, but grasping their meaning was harder.

"She didn't replace you. She was one of the founding members; we tried to recruit you, as well, but… things got complicated." Beast Boy tried to avoid the harsh truth.

"I ran, didn't I?" Terra laughed mirthlessly, but stopped quickly when the pain rose to levels where even the painkillers didn't help. "How did you this?" She changed topic, not wanting to hear the painful details of her life in the alternate dimension. "I've never seen our Beast Boy do that."

"Sorry, can't tell. Trade secret, you know." He tried to hide his pain, but Terra knew his counterpart good enough to see through it. He was suffering; whatever he did back then definitely wasn't a painless transformation.

"I see." Terra decided to change the topic. She really didn't want to see Beast Boy sad; she's seen enough of it already. "So, what now?"

"Well, that actually depends on you."

She was taken back a little. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Terra, are you truly happy? Tell me, is this really a better world for you?" Beast Boy asked.

"Of course! I no longer need to hide, to be alone. I'm happy here." Terra answered, but her voice shook a little.

"But you're afraid. The Elite were openly talking about 'punishing' you, and knowing these psychopaths they would hurt you badly." Beast Boy pointed out. "And you freaked out when you woke up right now. What were you afraid of? How can Superman, Robin, and all the others accept that?"

"You don't understand, Beast Boy. I was a villain; it may have been an accident, but I killed many people with my powers before becoming a Titan." Terra took a deep, shaky breath. Painkillers did nothing to help her emotional pain. "It is my burden to bear. I should have been in prison, or dead. The Titans gave me a chance, but I am being watched to make usure I will not slip back into my old ways. And whatever punishment they see fit, it will never be enough to pay for all the evil I did."

"This is horrible." Beast Boy was visibly taken aback. "What about your Starfire? Doesn't she love you? How can she allow them to do that to you?"

"She understands the value of punishment and redemption better then most." Terra answered. "Starfire knows that sometimes, you need to be held accountable for your crimes. For her, it's less the matter of justice, and more of honor. But don't take it the wrong way. She supports me, loves me. Without her, I wouldn't be here."

"Where would you be?" Beast Boy asked, despite dreading the answer.

"Probably in some unnamed grave." She answered quietly.

"Terra, listen to yourself. You can't say that!" Beast Boy pleaded. "You hurt people but it doesn't mean you just deserve to be tortured and killed! You can change, be a different person!" The idea of her just dying, with nothing but a silent grave left, was just horrifying. She was already suffering; and no matter what she did, no one deserved to just be ruthlessly tortured executed. The idea that some alternate universe version of him agreed with that made him sick.

"Change. Do you know how many supervillains change, given a chance?" She asked in return, her strength fading away slowly. She could feel her wounds and painkillers slowly overtaking her. "How many people, normal people, do change? Most of them keep doing what they were doing before, no matter what. Voting for evil politicians, not caring about hurting others, the planet, everyone else.
Most people will never change, Beast Boy. And if you risk giving them a chance, they will keep hurting you, and everyone else. You will see it one day."

Beast Boy returned from the medical wing in somber mood. The rest of the Titans waited for him in the Tower's main room, and it was both a familiar and an alien sight.

A similar collection of games and movies was strewn around. Game console was set up, ready to play, while the Tower's main computer was on standby, monitoring the situation in Jump City. Robin was paying the most attention to it, clearly torn between admiring the vastly better monitoring capabilities of it and being disgusted by it. It was connected to every device in Jump, capable of easily detecting any crime. Cameras were its eyes, and it was listening through every phone, every microphone, every laptop. Occasionally, it would notice something suspicious and keep it in it's vast database, slowly compiling evidence. Then, one day, they would be arrested.

And every crime was noticed, even the smallest one. In fact, most of the population in Jump had a large file dedicated to each and every one of them. If someone committed a crime but there was no hard evidence of it despite the all-seeing eyes everywhere, charging them for software piracy was easy, even if no one else cared or reported it.

A way to arrest anyone if they so much as lifted a finger in a way the Titans didn't like.

Cyborg was checking his internal systems, making sure the electrical shocks he suffered previously didn't damage anything important. His mood was as grim as everyone else's, and he occasionally looked at the kitchen with annoyance. The fact that this alternate Cyborg loved to cook as much as he did seemed to be a personal affront to him; another way to remind him that he wasn't as different as he would like to be.

Starfire was seemingly lost in thought. She was holding two ice packs on her head, trying to deal with the painful headache left after Manchester's psychic attack. She also seemed disturbed by something, occasionally looking around as if noticing something unusual, but then she was back to her silent contemplation. It was unusual to see her like this, and it only added to unnerving atmosphere of the room.

Raven was the only person who seemed indifferent to the whole situation, at least on the surface. She was meditating in silence, slowly levitating above the ground. The fact that she was now able to meditate with them in the same room showed how far they got as a team, from five individuals to an actual team; even Robin and Raven were more open nowadays than they had ever been before.

Deep inside her mind, she was battling her own inner conflict. She was deeply unsettled by the brutal way the Elite got taken down, even though she didn't do any of this on purpose. Her demonic powers were satiated for now, and she found it the most worrying. It felt like she was missing something, a part of the puzzle, that had her demonic side calm and even satisfied, but she had no idea what it could be.

"So, what now?" Cyborg asked as they gathered together.

"We need to stop the villain Titans." Robin answered. "Beast Boy, how is she?"

"She's not going to betray them, Robin." The green superhero answered, his voice filled with sadness. "They… did things to her. They made her believe that she deserves what she got, and won't change her mind."

"Then we need to act without her help. We need to teleport back to our own universe, find the evil Titans, and defeat them." Robin summed it up. "I have already made certain plans, but we should keep in mind that whatever we do, it is likely they have predicted it and have countermeasures prepared."

Everyone appreciated the silent agreement that Batman's contingency would not be used. It was very likely that the local Titans had no idea they even existed – based on the fact that Terra had no clue what Beast Boy's transformation meant – but these countermeasures were not only highly unethical, but also something Robin swore never to use.
He was not going to become another Batman.

"And then what? Do we arrest them and leave them here?" Cyborg asked, with doubt evident in his voice. "I don't think locals have anyone left who can keep watch over them. And it's not like with us going bad, villains suddenly turned good. If anything, we also have a problem that taking them down will only lead to local supervillains rising up again… at least those who are still left."

"There are still some superheroes who decided to resign instead of helping the Lords. They are forbidden from doing superhero work nowadays, but if they have to they can step up to it." Robin answered, as always already having a plan. "Most of the supervillains are also gone, so even with their limited numbers they should be able to deal with occasional one still remaining."

"A world with so few heroes and villains… I wonder how it will turn out, compared to us." Beast Boy wondered for a moment. "What if local Brainiac or Darkseid attack them, though? They will be defenseless."

"The Green Lanterns are still around. They can provide protection once Earth is free of the Justice Lords." Robin continued. He had the same doubts while preparing his plan, and considered them carefully before proposing this plan. "It's not perfect, but we can't fix everything. We can only do so much for this universe."

"Alright, but how do we deal with evil us?" Cyborg asked. "I don't think we can just barge in and blast them."

"No. We're going to prepare and ambush." Robin smiled smugly. "I think it's time for them to get a taste of their own medicine. And the Elite will help us with it."

"I can't believe these idiots let them escape!" Robin – the alternate one – was fuming. His team just started to deal with the local crime in a more permanent way, and now they had to come back to their own universe because apparently Terra and the Elite were not enough to keep prisoners secure.

He should have expected that. Next time, he would make sure they physically cannot escape ever again. There were ways to achieve that.

"What's the plan?" Cyborg asked, his weapon charged and ready.

"They probably have no idea of our surveillance capabilities. Their own is dangerously lacking, after all." Robin was less then impressed with it. The local Titans were truly naive, thinking that 'respecting privacy' is going to achieve anything. Bad guys ignore it, government ignores it, and b not monitoring everyone and everything Robin would only voluntarily limit himself while everyone else had an abundance of information. "We will easily find them, and make sure they won't escape this time."

"Terra really screwed this one up." Beast Boy brought up.

"She will be punished for it. Starfire, I'll leave it up to you. Make sure it was just incompetence, and not actual treason." The team leader ordered as they crossed the portal.

Only to emerge in a white, featureless room. One they knew very well.

"Shit."

Terra listened closely, pretending to still be asleep. Her former prisoners left her unguarded and barely secured, thinking she was too wounded to move and run away or fight.

Well, they were mostly right. However, she was still strong enough to open the window, summon a rock, get on it and fly away. She just had to wait until they lure her team into an ambush. It was an obvious thing for her, after all they took them down the very same way. But she hoped there would be at least some commotion, and she would have a chance to escape.

There! A muffled explosion. Star probably blew a hole in the containment cell. Terra hesitated, but once again decided against joining the fight. She wouldn't do much good in her current state, and she could always bust her friends out of prison if she wanted to.
If she wanted to? Terra hesitated as she opened the window. The rock she summoned to her, slowly rising, shook and almost fell as she lost focus. Why the hesitation? They were bringing paradise here! They were… weren't they?

She shook he head and jumped out, landing on still unsteady rock in a light rain. Question later, she chided herself. For now, it was time to move. It wouldn't take long before Titans subdue their enemies and realize she was gone, and before that happens she needs to be far away.

Her strength left her before she managed to get far enough. By the time she was out of sight and had managed to safely land, she was sweating and shaking from both cold and exhaustion. The air was too cold for just a patient gown, and she had a suspicion she might have a slight fever. She was still in pain, exhausted, and the painkillers didn't help with the latter while barely dulling the former. She could not run away anymore. Fitting, she bitterly thought. She always knew that this is how it would end one day; alone, too exhausted to escape, with hunters on her trail.

It was Starfire who found her. On one way, it was a blessing, on the other, it made it all even more painful, seeing the face she loved hunting her now. Even knowing it wasn't her Star.

"Terra." The Tamaranian said, slowly landing in front of her. She was clearly conflicted, and it was obvious to someone like Terra. The similarities were painfully obvious. "Please surrender."

"Not even a friendly welcome?" The young geomancer smiled through tears, her hands shaking. She was surrounded by the yellow glow of her power, but it was obvious she would not be able to fight back; even burrowing and escaping that way was too much for her right now. "I was hoping for something, you know. Something." Terra repeated, blinking away rain and tears. It was raining more and more now; she was soaked through. Not that it would matter soon.

"Please surrender. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I must." Starfire answered, but she couldn't find enough fury in herself to power up her starbolts. This was all wrong. Terra couldn't even fight back, and she was shaking and crying. Afraid.

"I know you, Star… Starfire." Terra swallowed heavily. "At least, I think I know you enough to understand you. You don't want to fight me, do you? If you wanted to, you could've just knock me out in a moment."

"I don't. But I can't let you go." Starfire hesitated. "I will fight you, if I must."

"I… they will kill me, Starfire." Terra quietly said, her voice barely above a whisper. She was scared, terrified even. "There is a death penalty here, you know? I will be executed, alongside all other Titans. I will have to see Star killed, or she will have to see me die right in front of her before they execute her, as well."

"…If that is how the law works here." Starfire answered after a long moment. "Robin always says that we are not here to dictate the law, we only arrest villains. It's not up to us what happens to them later."

"A very convenient excuse. And do you believe it?" Terra asked in return. Silence and the rain were the only answer. "We both know you don't. Are you really going to just leave me here, on their mercy? I know you can't offer me any kind of asylum, and you won't let me go just so I could rescue my Star later. And you know I will. It's either arrest me here and now, or…"

"Please don't say things like that." Starfire said, lowering her hands. All her strength left her as she watched the young, scared geomancer.

"I brought only pain and suffering to everyone else in my entire life." The young Titan said through tears. "So why aren't you arresting me right now, and bringing me to justice? I deserve it, don't I?"

"No, I…" Starfire hesitated. Looking at Terra, scared and traumatized, a little girl not unlike how she once was, cursed with powers she could barely control. Starfire just couldn't arrest her now, knowing that all it would do was just prolonging her suffering by the few weeks, months, or maybe years before she was executed anyway. It was a coward's way out, and she wasn't a coward. She couldn't just leave Terra to more suffering and pain like this.
She didn't deserve it.

Seeing the princess hesitate, Terra smiled slightly, despite her fear. This Starfire was so similar to her beloved. "I see. Then, Starfire, I have a request for you. You know what it is, don't you? I… I don't have the strength to do it myself."

The Tamaranian princess didn't answer for a long time.

"Please." Terra whispered.

"Starfire, you're coming back! Did you find her?" Cyborg asked. He finished securing all prisoners – making sure none of them could escape like they did – and was now coordinating the search, which is how he saw her communicator, and her, slowly moving towards the Tower.

"Yes." Starfire answered laconically, her voice strangely muffled.

"Alright, I have a cell already prepared…"

"It won't be needed." Starfire whispered back, her voice heavy with sorrow and barely audible over the rain. She gazed down at the lifeless form cradled in her arms.

At last, Terra had found her peace.

Starfire's clothes were soaked with tears.

Sometimes, there are no good solutions, and the entire "A Better World" episode is a painful reminder of that. Not everything can be defeated with superpowers, and some questions are as hard for our heroes as they are for normal people.
Poor Terra.

I expect some people to disagree with my idea of what Starfire would do in this situation, but keep in mind why this happened. She's not from Earth, and the culture of Tamaran is definitely vastly different then ours; and even on our planet, many argue in favor of mercy-killing in certain situations. And Terra knew very well what to say to make Starfire do what she wants her to.

Starfire was well aware that this world is much more brutal then then one she ended up in. She had no reason to doubt Terra's words. And leaving her to suffer through a long, pointless trial, only to die either way seemed just cruel and pointless from her point of view; it accomplishes nothing. She doesn't have Batman's obsession with not killing anyone, and while she's not heartless this seemed like the best option in a situation with no good outcomes.
And at least this way, she could provide some comfort and mercy to the poor girl in her final moments.

Next chapter will be a small epilogue, concluding the entire Better World arc, and then we move on.