Souls Entwined Chapter 25: Somewhere I Belong, a teen titans fanfic

Soul's Entwined

Soul's Entwined

Disclaimer: The Souls Entwined story is my own concept. All characters are owned by their respective creators.

Thanks so much for the reviews from anon(), Raziel-Tepes, duke2, inq101, Raven-Of-Alaska, Dragon260, and mastersam. A warm welcome as well to new readers inq101, Sharkteeth, Korraganitar the NightShadow, Dragon260, M87Epyon, Raistlinrains, and mastersam.  So many new fans!

And now, on with the story!

Somewhere I Belong

"No, really, you don't need to," Terra tried to refuse as she was dragged to the main hall.

"But I insist, friend Terra. We must have a celebration of you and Raziel's return!"

"No, really. You don't need to," Raven deadpans, inwardly hoping that the girl doesn't as she wasn't in the mood for grocery shopping again.

Suffice to say once Starfire got an idea in her head it was pretty hard to talk her out of it. There soon was the sound of pots and pans flying about as well as the happy humming of a Tamaranian folk song (Raven had said that it was best to slowly introduce it to the team by humming first and it appeared to be working). She, of course, missed the thumbs up sign her teammates gave Raven as she went about preparing the items loosely called food.

Seeing that disaster had been temporarily averted, Raven took a seat on her favorite spot by the window and began to meditate on the last few hours. She was tired, irritated, and hungry (not enough to eat Starfire's food, though) but she was strangely content. Raziel was back, having successfully convinced Terra to return with him.

'Raziel.'

Her concentration was broken as she recalled what she had done in the stadium. What the hell had gotten into her?

('Or rather what did you want in you?') a voice in her head jeered.

Fighting the flush that was coming to her cheeks, she tried to distract herself by continuing her meditations but given where she was and who was around her it was really a futile task. Not that it would stop her from trying, anyway. Thankfully, Beastboy and Cyborg had joined the Tamaranian in hopes of at least making something edible for the rest of them. While all this was happening, Terra laughed almost melodically, the sad and insecure girl who had come to the tower those weeks ago was no longer there. Instead, it seemed to be a girl who was completely comfortable with herself and if she were to haphazard a guess, fully in control of her powers.

She had never been that envious in a long time.

Apparently Terra noticed her staring as she turned to face her. "Hey, Rae! Come join the fun!"

"No, I'm not really one for food fights," she replies in her usual monotone, closing her eyes once more to tune out their antics. Unfortunately Terra had decided otherwise as she hooked her arm, intending to bring her into the fold. As soon as their arms made contact she was immediately hit by a sharp wave of pain that sent her reeling to the floor.

"Raven!" "Friend Raven!"

A multitude of concerned voices called out to her but she quickly steadied herself. "I'm fine. Just...had a dizzy spell," she lies through her teeth. To be honest, it had hurt like hell but she wasn't about to tell them that; at least not until she could find out the reason for it. It had felt like someone had stabbed her eyes with a hot poker, minus any actual burning, of course. She could sense the worry coming off Terra and had to force a smile to assuage the girl. Convinced that everything was fine, Terra resumed her viewing of the chaos called the Titans kitchen but another had taken her place beside the pale girl.

"Everything ok," Raziel asks.

Raven blinked in surprise at his presence; she hadn't even noticed him approach her much less even see him enter the room. Had he even been in the room? "I told you, I'm fine," she deadpans. To her irritation, he simply raised an eyebrow at her statement. The particular speed it went up and the angle his typical 'I know you better than that' response. "It's nothing," she insisted, her own typical response which meant 'drop it.'

Drop it he did, strangely enough. Normally he would have pestered her a bit more but for some odd reason he just gave a smile and went on his way, taking a spot beside the terrakinetic girl and watching the chaos unfold

(CRACK!)

Robin glanced at the window across the room. There was now a crack in the supposedly reinforced glass of the Tower. He would have to speak to Bruce about getting it replaced.

T-T-T

Much later, the table was officially declared a disaster area. Well, mainly the section where Terra sat, but a disaster area nonetheless. All around her were empty bowls and plates which had been ravished by the bottomless pit blonde. The areas in front of the other Titans were nearly untouched as they were all still staring at the pile before Terra.

(Burp!) Terra let out a loud belch as she rubbed her full belly, finally having finished off the rest of Starfire's cuisine. "Man, that was great! Your cooking is the best, Star!"

"Oh, glorious! I had thought the fungus would grow uneaten without your patronage!" the Tamaranian cheered, oblivious to the nauseated looks of her teammates behind her. "Friends, you have barely touched your own food. Is your meatball deluxe and tofu surprise not to your liking?" the girl asked.

"Err...we'll eat it later," Cyborg and Beastboy answer, the two actually surprised that they would turn down their own cooking. As much as they wanted to eat, simply watching Terra had caused them to lose much of their appetite.

(AHEM!) Robin coughed, more to stop his unsettled stomach than to actually call attention. "That's all fine and good but we're kinda curious what happened. You have been gone for a little over a week and just pop in all of a sudden," he adds, conveniently dropping the fact that without them they would probably still be in Atlas' trophies.

"Yeah, dude," Beastboy said with just a tad more curiosity than usual as he eyed the two suspiciously. "A week is an awfully long time alo..."

(WHACK!)

"Your clothes have changed," Raven stated, removing her hand from where she had smacked Beastboy.

"Yeah, we kinda needed them after..."

"After?"

Terra looked to Raziel who also seemed uneasy at the question. The pale teen let out a tired sigh before turning to the rest of the team. "I suppose we do owe an explanation."

Placing down the utensils she had been using, Terra move the plates out of the way as her tone grew serious. "Well...it's like this..." The Titans all seemed to lean closer as they hung on Terra's words as she suddenly had an ominous air around her. "See, when a needle and thread love each other..."

"We meant your disappearance!" Robin growled, just barely fighting the urge to fall face first onto the floor.

"Oh, that. Well, if you'd have let me finish, I would have explained how I beat the crap out of blue boy over here."

"I seem to recall it much differently," Raziel countered, an amused smirk on his face which was returned by the blonde.

"Aaaanyway, I sort of, kinda, maybe caused a really really big sinkhole during our fight..."

"Which took us over a week to finally get out of," Raziel adds, eyes narrowing somewhat at Terra as she blushed in embarrassment.

"Hey! It's not my fault! You did all that hocus-pocus thing when you held me and I couldn't use my powers any more! You're lucky they came back when they did or we'd still be down there," she huffs in mock indignation.

That little tidbit about Raziel canceling out Terra's powers caught Raven's attention. She felt something inside her clench at the thought of Raziel being able to suppress someone else's powers. Before she could voice her feelings on the matter Beastboy had thought to say his.

"What?! You made Terra lose her powers? How could you?" the green changeling accused, pointing a finger at the culprit in question who simply pointed at himself with a 'What? Me?' expression. Before Beastboy could rant further he was once more smacked on the side of the head by Raven.

"She said her powers came back," the pale girl reproaches.

"Hey, what did Beastboy do to you, Raven? Are you all right Beastboy?" The girl rubs the spot where Raven had hit the teen, much to Beastboy's enjoyment.

"Buwaaaaah...Never been better," he manages to blurt, giving the blonde a 'nice guy' pose.

Satisfied that he was ok, Terra turns her attention back to the Titans who were now curious on the meaning behind her particular statement. "After we got trapped, I was too scared to use my powers again but Raz here forced me just 'face my fears and get it over with.'" Smirking at the boy, Raziel let out a huff of mock indignation to which Terra could only giggle at. "My control's never been better since."

"Control?" The looks of incredulity on the Titans' faces, however slight, apparently affected Terra as she frowned all so slightly. Rising to the challenge, she turned to Robin with a confident smirk.

"Care to test it out?"

T-T-T

Robin was slightly hesitant as he entered the configuration parameters into the newly built obstacle course's computer. After Terra's last (and at the time, only) run, they had rebuilt the course to be sturdier and just a tad more difficult. If just by a tad, one meant several leagues ahead, but then again this was the mind of someone trained by the Batman. "Are you sure about this, Terra?" he asks again. The highest setting of the previous course didn't even compare to the current 'low' setting so he was rightly justified in his concerns. Terra, however, was either oblivious to it or chose to ignore it entirely.

"Bring it on, bird boy!"

At that, Robin had to suppress the urge to through a one of his throwing darts at the girl as he absolutely hated that moniker. His hand hovered above the button to set the difficulty higher but he stopped himself from doing it. At least he would have had Raziel not suddenly stepped up beside him with a knowing look.

"Go for it. I think she'll surprise you."

Raven, who was off to the side with a neutral expression, suddenly felt the same sensation from earlier. Why was Raziel acting so familiar with the blonde? Granted they had no one but each other (supposedly) for the past week but a week wasn't enough for them to have gotten to know each other that well, right? Not to mention the fact that there was no way Terra could have gotten control of her powers in such a short time frame.

"All right, Terra. Go!"

Pushing the unfamiliar thoughts and sensations to the side, Raven focused her attention on Terra to see just what it was she was bragging about. She expected her to levitate a boulder like before but instead the girl started running through the course. When the traps started activating, that was when everyone's eyes grew wide in shock. The first attack consisted of steel columns that shot up out of the ground in a random pattern yet Terra simply moved to the side as if she knew where each one was coming from, her focus never wavering from the goal up ahead. She had to admit, the girl had improved her athletic skills from before but it still didn't prove a thing about her control over her powers.

As if sensing their questions, Terra twisted in place, her body shifting into a stance as she raised her arms in front of her. Her arms were bent at the elbows and her palms were facing the sky. To the untrained eye, it looked like she was carrying an invisible tray were it not for the odd position her feet were in. Robin, however, was not one of those people.

"Is that...?" (1)

Terra immediately went into what appeared to be a kata as she gave a palm thrust, her move was immediately followed by a wall of rock that shot up to block several explosive disks that had come from her side. Again, each of her movements and attacks were timed so precisely that it was uncanny. She then slipped into a dash, heading towards the familiar steel walls that she had once upon a time thrashed with her powers.

Everyone could tell that she wasn't running fast enough to get past the doors before they closed. Beastboy was nervously biting his fingernails all the while cheering Terra on. It seemed almost surreal as Terra reached the first gate just as the steel panel was coming down. Once more, she shifted into a stance, jabbing her heel into the ground which caused large stone pillars to shoot upwards, holding open the archway as she slipped through the space she had created. "Woohoo! Go, Terra!!"

As Terra neared the end of the course, she half-expected to find the familiar explosive discs from before but given that they were used earlier, she was prepared for something a bit more unique. To her surprise, that uniqueness came in the form of four robots that popped up from hidden panels in the ground (2). All four charged at her but the smirk never left her face as she raised her hands in front of her. As yellow energy coalesced in her hands, the ground began to rumble in apparent obedience to their mistress which caused the machines to slightly lose their footing. With one jerking motion of her arms, the circular chunks of earth where the robots were standing on shot up into the air which left her clear to pass the finish line. Without turning around, she gives a flick of her hair which was immediately followed by the crashing sound metal on rock as the four robots from earlier plummeted into the ground.

The Titans were wide-eyed at the amount of skill displayed before them. Except for Raven, however, who was alternating her focus between Raziel and Terra. Did the boy have something to do with her sudden skill? He seemed confident of her skills earlier. And why was the thought of it making it hard for her to breathe?

Cyborg was the first to visually recover as he looked at the timer on the control screen. "Three minutes, seven seconds. Not as fast as your last run," the metallic Titan jeered.

"Wasn't going for speed," came the confident reply as she grinned at Cyborg. She was immediately rushed by Beastboy who looked simply flabbergasted yet far from speechless.

"Wow, Terra! That was amazing! When you went whoosh! And that cool martial arts move! And the..."

"Aww, thanks Beastboy," the terrakinetic gushes as she hugged the green changeling.

"Beastboy's right," Robin added, a smile of approval on his face as approached the blonde. "You have improved...a lot, I might add."

"Well, yeah. I mean, if I'm going to be a Teen Titan, I needed to good." Her statement brought a lot of stares and an awkward silence from those gathered around her. "What? You do still want me to be a Titan, right? That's why you sent Raz to bring me back?"

"Yeah...about that..." Raziel began uneasily as all eyes shifted to him. He turned to Raven for some assistance but all she did was huff and walk away.

"You all look like you decided on it already so whatever I say isn't going to matter," she intones emotionlessly. As she left, she could hear the whole team's enthusiasm at Terra's wish to join them. It really wasn't worth her effort to try to dissuade anyone; after all, she had agreed with Raziel to bring her in for Beastboy's sake but why did it feel like something was amiss? She resigned herself to meditating in her room alone as usual when she heard someone call out her name in the distance.

"Raven."

Pretending she didn't hear it, she continued on her way, not really wishing to confront the boy given his behavior earlier and the fact that she still hadn't gotten over what she had done a few hours ago.

"Raven!"

It wasn't the fact that he called out much stronger than earlier that made her stop. It wasn't even the fact that he had placed his hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

His voice was no longer muffled, indicating that he had lowered his scarf for them to talk. The few times that he had taken it off were when he didn't want them to talk as Titans, but as regular people. Of course, it didn't help that now it further reminded her of the k...k...thing she had done but she would honor is request. "What is it?" she asks, not willing to turn around but still lowering her cowl.

"You've been acting a bit strange and I was getting...concerned."

Raven silently berated herself; she hadn't known she was that obvious in her actions. She debated what exactly she was going to say but finally decided she needed to know what was going on between the two. "You...you knew Terra was going to ace the course, didn't you?" she asks.

"I suppose I did. Having no one else to talk to for that long kind of forces you to get to know each other," he answers with a hint of confusion in his voice. That was kind of a random question.

"I see. And I suppose you had a hand in getting her skills to where they were?" She was curious as to how the girl had gotten so good. Maybe whatever it was could help her with her own little problem.

"Well, it's like this..."

Before Raven could hear his story, the ground started shaking violently. It wasn't that strong or long enough to cause any damage but apparently it was strong enough to cause her to stumble backwards. When he caught her in his arms, she had to let out a loud gasp, once more reliving the same shooting pain that she experienced when Terra had touched her. This time, the pain was accompanied by a single bloody image. There was a figure laying in a pool of blood, apparently alive as it was doubled over in pain but she couldn't make out who it was.

"What happened? Are you all right?"

"I...I'm fine. I just tripped when that earthquake hit," she answers, hoping he couldn't sense her increased heart rate at the moment. Turning her head, she was shocked to see him looking off into the distance towards the rest of the team, a concerned look on his face as he replaced his scarf.

"Maybe we need to check on Terra,"

"R...right," she says in agreement, a sudden feeling of melancholy coming over her as she watched him run off towards the blond.

T-T-T

"I told you it wasn't me," Terra huffed in annoyance. Honestly, just cause a few earthquakes before and people think you're always to blame.

"You have to admit, the timing of them and your arrival is a bit suspicious," Raven stated.

"I was tunneling that day!" came the embarrassed retort.

"Tunneling?" Robin immediately brought up a map of the quakes and like before they lined up in a pattern. "This isn't natural," he stated.

(COUGH!)"Told ya!"(COUGH).

"Given the timing of the quakes and the location, the next point should be here," Robin states, pointing to a section of the map while ignoring the veiled retort from the blond. "Titans, go!" As he rushed to the door, he noticed that Terra hadn't moved from her spot and was simply watching them. "Aren't you coming?"

"Does this mean I'm in?" she asked excitedly.

"It means we need as much help as we can get."

Terra's eyes immediately lit up as she rushed after the team locking arms with Raziel as she dragged the boy like a rag doll. "Yeah! Time to kick some ass!"

Robin had to smile at the girl's enthusiasm as she ran past them. Turning to Raven, he was surprised to actually see her frowning. Not her usual 'leave me alone or I'll kill you' frown but one of actual anger. "Raven? Are you feeling ok?" Almost immediately the scowl left her face as she levitated off the floor.

"I'm fine. Let's go."

T-T-T

Raven hovered over the area, her eyes scanning the horizon for any signs of the thing causing the earthquakes. The only thing really causing a disturbance was the loud complaints of two of their members.

"Well? Where's this big bad thing that's causing the quakes?" Cyborg groused, itching to pound Slade's latest plot whatever it was.

"Yeah, Robin! Where..."

Raven noticed that Beastboy stopped mid-tirade, something he rarely did, and glance at Terra. "Terra?"

"Shhh…" the girl interrupts as she seemed to be in deep concentration over something. Kneeling down, she placed a hand on the ground and was eerily silent for several moments. The silence was broken when she suddenly pointed to a spot in front of her. "Twenty meters! Incoming!"

The Titans immediately cleared the area at Terra's warning. Almost immediately a giant mechanical drill burst forth from the ground. At first they thought it was simply a drilling machine but as segment after segment poured out they realized the thing was a lot bigger than they had anticipated. It easily dwarfed a twenty-storey building as it reared what was apparently its head, the drill retreating inside to reveal pincer-like jaws.

"That's a big worm," Raven commented dryly.

"Meh. I've seen bigger," Terra responded, grinning madly as yellow energy coalesced into her hands. Raising her arms in a scooping motion, she raised several car-sized chunks of concrete into the air, shifting her body into a horse-stance before releasing a punch, the action of which launched the stone projectiles at the machine. Unfortunately, stone rarely proved to be of much effect against metal as they clanged harmlessly on the outer shell. "That didn't sound right," she said with a frown.

"Titans! Move!"

The familiar battle cry having been left out, the Titans immediately scattered as a red beam cut a swath of destruction along the city block. Raven kept a watchful eye on her teammates as they moved to surround the thing, ready to protect them if needed. Beastboy had morphed into a triceratops so he was fine. Cyborg had picked up a car (she would have to remind him about property damage) while Raziel was running up a wall...

"What?!" She had to blurt out her surprise as she hadn't seen him do such a thing before. Quickly banishing her shock, she was able to notice that he was actually using his momentum to give him the illusion of walking on walls, leaping from wall to streetlight to another wall which propelled him higher and higher until he had leapt higher than the worm was tall.

"Terra!"

As if they had been working together for ages, Terra turned her head to the side, a giant stone mallet bursting out of the ground beside her. A wave of her arm later, the construct shot towards Raziel who deftly caught the weapon in one hand. His other hand gripping the base, he swung the oversized hammer onto the thing's head, causing it to slam into the street below.

"Another masterpiece ruined," Terra sighed in mock resignation as her creation shattered upon impact.

"Maybe if you made them stronger, they wouldn't break so often," Raziel retorted with a smirk as he landed beside the geomancer.

Raven frowned at the scene but couldn't tear her eyes away from it; both Terra and Raziel were acting strangely. It bothered her to no end like...she still couldn't place what it was that she was feeling; just that it bugged her.

Returning her attention to the battle, she saw Beastboy head butt (and rebound rather painfully off) the fallen machine. It recognized the threat as the port where laser had fired from began to glow brightly. Swooping down, she prepared to levitate the boy off but was suddenly bowled over by Terra. The blonde girl looked shocked for a brief moment but quickly turned her attention back to Beastboy as she summoned a pillar of rock, moving the changeling out of harms way as the red beam once more razed the ground. Almost immediately after that she felt a wave of anger emanate from Terra followed by a burst of energy.

"No one does that to Beastboy!"

The blonde then stomped her foot into the ground, her powers tearing a chunk of concrete out of the street that was larger than the mechanical worm's head. There were no illusions as to what Terra was going to do with it. Normally she would have just let the girl do it but all of a sudden she sensed something inside the machine they were fighting; something not of this world. As the girl swung her arms to propel the boulder forward, Raven wrapped her powers around it and pulled.

Terra swung her arms, her powers propelling the giant boulder forward. No one attacked Beastboy like that and got away with it! However, before she could even complete the motion she felt something hold the rock in its place.

"Stop, Terra. We don't know what will happen if we destroy it recklessly!" Raven berated the girl.

"I know what I'm doing, so let go!" Terra countered, her body now shifting out of whatever martial arts stance she was using as she 'pulled' even harder.

Raven's eyes widened slightly as she felt the boulder nudge in Terra's direction. She hadn't expected the girl to be this powerful. Still, she had to keep her from launching the rock until she could find out exactly what it was she sensed inside the thing. Hoping to get Terra to back down, she glared at the girl but couldn't tell what was going on behind her eyes; not while she wore those damnable goggles. When she felt the boulder get yanked even more, she had her 'answer.' Pulling even harder, she had to smirk to herself as she felt the boulder shift in her direction but her victory was short lived as Raziel suddenly appeared beside her, grabbing her hand and breaking her concentration.

Terra, now lacking any form of resistance, stumbled backwards as her rock propelled itself into low earth orbit. Gazing up in worry, she idly wondered if that was a bad thing.

-At an undisclosed JSDF base-

"Commander! We have confirmation of a low earth orbit projectile leaving our airspace!"

"Where is it coming from? Tokyo? Okinawa?"

"No sir! Nerima!"

"Oh, ignore it then," the commander answered in an offhand manner.

His subordinate, having been recently transferred, was puzzled at the non-standard reaction to the potential threat. "But sir..." The man paused as a second LEO object apparently hit the first, the two now disappearing off his screen like they were never there.

"See, my boy, when Nerima is involved, we learn to let sleeping dogs lie.

-And now back to our regularly scheduled program-

Seeing Terra watch her weapon fly off with a worried expression, Raziel sighed in relief as the power struggle had been interrupted. He really didn't need that happening at this point. Turning his attention back to Raven, whatever he was going to ask the girl seized in his throat as he saw the look of betrayal in her eyes. "Raven, I..."

"It's getting away!"

Raven immediately tore her and away from his and walked off before he could get another word in, heading towards the hole where Robin had said the machine had escaped to. He let out a tired sigh, one that didn't go unnoticed by one observant blonde as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't forget why we came back," she says.

As Slade's voice came over Robin's communicator, Raziel's eyes narrowed behind his mask as he let out a low growl. "Don't worry. I haven't," he answered before following his teammates down the tunnel.

T-T-T

Raven walked slightly in front of Raziel, not because she had meant to but because the boy just hovered behind her like he wanted to talk to her or something. Not that she would talk to him after what he did. Why was he protecting Terra anyway? Subtly glancing to her rear, she saw the blonde talking to Beastboy in hushed whispers. Barely here a day and already she had everyone wrapped around her little finger, flaunting her newly controlled powers and all, taking Raziel for herself…

(Fu fu fu. So she finally admits it to herself?) a voice in her head sneered.

'Th...that's not what I meant,' she countered hotly, although the conviction in her voice left much to be desired.

(Right. And you just happened to kiss him when he came back last night.)

(CRACK)

"Careful, everyone. Apparently this tunnel isn't stable," Robin calls out as a cracking sound reverberated throughout the tunnel.

Raven immediately reigned in her emotions and silently berated herself for her lack of control. She was only welcoming him back. That kiss didn't mean anything. Besides, she couldn't afford to let herself feel those kind of things (especially not when they were nearly half a kilometer below sea level). Thankfully the voice had decided to keep silent as it valued its survival over taunting her for now. Looking back to Raziel, she saw the boy was waving at her which caused her to give a huff of irritation. Now he seemed to pay attention to her. And what was he saying about a...

(SMACK)

"...dead end."

Rubbing her sore cheek (and pride), Raven ignored the shocked stares of her teammates and focused her attention on the cavern wall that she had walked into. "Yup. It's a dead end," she confirms, nodding her head as if it was something of profound importance.

"..." The rest of team didn't want to comment on what they saw, putting it down to a hallucination from being that far underground. Yeah...that was it...oxygen deprivation and all.

Terra, for one, was being advised by Beastboy to keep quiet. When Raven was like this, it was best to let sleeping dragons lie. Following the advice given to her, she looked around the cavern with a frown as she had come to the same conclusion; they couldn't have just vanished.

"Hold on. I'm picking up something underground. Waaay underground," Cyborg reported. Pushing a few of the buttons on his arm, his eyes widened at what his sensors were telling him. "There's a lot of electronic chatter going on down there. And I mean a lot. There's also..."

"A heartbeat," Terra added, her hand on the ground as she appeared to be in deep concentration. Her head shot up almost immediately as she turned to the Titans. "Everyone move to the center!"

Raven was surprised when Raziel rushed at her all of a sudden, carrying her bridal style and leaping into the air. "Wh...what the hell are you...?" The words caught in her throat as the tunneling machine suddenly burst forth from the wall where she had been standing. The rest of the team had huddled in the middle of the cavern as a second...no, a third machine appeared. The things circled around them like predators corralling their prey. Everyone braced themselves for an attack when the three worm-like machines suddenly turned and tunneled off in a random direction.

"Hey! Superheroes here! You know? To fight?" Beastboy yelled which caused Terra to giggle.

"Maybe you scared them off?" the blonde grinned, much to Beastboy's ego.

"Ugh...Flirting later," Raven intoned dryly. Terra seemed to glare at her from behind her dark goggles but suddenly grinned at her like the cat that ate the canary.

"Says the newly wed couple."

At that one comment, Raven felt herself undergo a full-body blush as she realized she was still being carried by Raziel. It didn't help that she had reflexively put her arms around his neck when he suddenly leapt into the air earlier. Glaring at him (or rather failing to do so given her jumbled state of emotions), she idly noticed that even though his face was half-hidden by his scarf there was a trace of pink on his pale skin. Did that mean...

"We're going to have to split up. One drill was bad enough but three can do serious damage wherever Slade sends them," Robin interrupted, much to Raven's relief as she didn't want to complete that train of thought. "Raven, Terra, you're with me. We're going to have to tunnel down to Slade's base and stop him from there. Cyborg, take the rest of the team with you. You'll need every bit of firepower to stop those drills or at the very least slow them down until we can stop whatever's controlling them."

"Got it, Rob. Titans, let's go! That means you've got to let go of Raven, Raz."

Nearly dropping her in apparent embarrassment, Raziel set her down before rushing off after the rest of the team, leaving her with Terra and Robin, the former of which smirking at her. "Not a word," she growled, summoning her powers and releasing them in a beam that tore through the solid bedrock.

"All I'm saying is that you should be more honest with yourself," the blonde replied, golden energy leaving her hands as they commanded the ground in front of her to part.

Not really eager to discuss her personal life with the newcomer, Raven poured more power into her blast as she increased her pace. To her chagrin, Terra simply kept up with her. "What happened to all your fancy martial arts moves? Was that just for show?" she deadpans, hoping to steer away the conversation.

"That's for when I need absolute precision. This is just plain brute force so I don't really need it for that. And you're sneaky for trying to switch topics." When Raven wouldn't respond to that, she gave a tired sigh and continued to bore her way through the bedrock.

The next few minutes were filled with an awkward silence. Robin apparently sensed the tension between the two girls and did NOT want to get caught in between them, only speaking up when he needed to give minor course corrections towards their target. Raven really didn't care as it gave her the silence she desired. At least it was silent till Terra opened her mouth again.

"So...there's really nothing going on between you and Raz?" Terra asks nonchalantly.

"N...what business of it of yours, anyway?" she counters, not liking the direction this was going.

"Oh, no real reason," came the sing-song answer.

Frowning at the response, Raven unconsciously pushed a lot more power into her attack, blasting through the last few meters of rock with a loud bang. Surprised briefly by the sudden rush of air, she hops through the opening and had to reign in her shock at what she saw; the place was huge! How could something like this have been constructed without anyone finding out? In the center of the cavern was a huge holographic display depicting what appeared to be Titans tower. Before she could get a closer look a familiar voice reverberated off the walls.

"Ah, Robin and the Titans. How nice of you to finally join me."

"Slade." Robin barely held his fury in check upon seeing his adversary right before him. The man's arms were behind his back like he either wasn't going to fight or that he thought it wasn't necessary to use them at all. Either way, he knew the man was sneering behind that mask.

"As the saying goes, 'Welcome to my Parlor,'" Slade intoned tauntingly. With those words, the three mechanical worms burst through the walls above him, defying gravity with rocket propulsion not seen earlier. They joined into one giant ring, circling the roof of the cavern as red beams of energy tore into the rocky roof.

'What the hell? I thought Cyborg was handling it,' Robin thought angrily. His eyes never leaving Slade, he pulls out his communicator and flips it open. "Cyborg! What's..."

"Robin! Whatever you guys are doing down there, you'd better hurry! These things are attacking Titans Tower!"

His eyes widening, he takes a closer look at the holographic display and the floating ring above and had to grit his teeth. "Cyborg, they're trying to sink the Tower! There's more of them down here drilling upwards. We'll try to stop the set on our end," Robin answers, cutting off the signal as he pocketed the device. "Raven! Terra! Take down those worms! Slade is mine." With that, Robin dashes towards the orchestrator of the quakes with a fierce determination, leaving the two girls to figure out the device.

Said pair hesitated briefly before trusting Robin to be all right. Turning their attention to the ring above, each of summoned their powers and fired them at the mechanical construct. Unfortunately, Raven dark bolts of energy were too small to have any significant effect on the thing's metallic hide. Terra was in a similar state as the rocks she could pull out of the walls weren't large enough to cause more than a scratch; she couldn't pull out anything bigger for fear of causing a cave in.

Ignoring Terra's grumbling about bad construction, Raven runs to the center of the structure. If anything, the painfully obvious control panel in the center was probably what was running the whole operation. Raven moved to try to deactivate the device but stopped mid-stride as she sensed Terra's powers flare. Whirling around, she caught the rock that Terra was about to throw and glared at the girl. "What do you think you're doing?" the girl admonished.

"Hello? Smash the control, save the Tower ring any bells?"

"No. For all we know smashing this might just make things worse!"

Terra hesitated for a moment but acquiesced as she lowered the rock. "Fine. We'll do it your way," she sighed.

"Don't do me any favors," Raven deadpanned back. Focusing her attention to the control panel, she tries to hack into the system but frowned as it was simply beyond what she knew; Robin was the better technophile between the two of them but with him occupying Slade she really didn't have any choice. Slamming her fist on the keyboard, she once more tries to find any deactivation sequence but found herself being knocked to the ground by Terra. Before she could berate the girl, a giant stalactite came crashing down onto the control center, crushing it completely in a spectacular shower of rubble and sparks. As if Murphy's law had decided to have a field day, the beams that were drilling upwards suddenly increased in force, causing the whole cavern to shake in protest.

"Guess that means my plan probably would have been a bad idea," Terra says out loud.

Raven opened her mouth to retort but before she could a loud rumbling reverberated throughout the area. Immediately turning her gaze to the ceiling, she saw the entire roof begin to collapse. "Robin!" she shouts out. Scanning the area, she found the boy wonder swinging down from the ruins of an elevator shaft; he was safe. Mortifying as it was, she then grabs Terra's hand to pull her to her feet. "We have to go. The whole place is collapsing." She was barely able to take two steps when Terra tore her arm away.

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

Once more, Raven saw Terra's powers coalesce into her hands, bright yellow energies flowing through them as she raised her hands skyward. "What are you...!?" The sudden shockwave emanating from the blonde knocked her back as a beam of energy shot towards the falling tower. As the moving object met the 'unstoppable' force, the entire area seemed to shake in protest as Terra tried to stop several hundred tons of rock and steel from crashing down on them. For a while, it did, as the collapse was stopped in its tracks. Unfortunately for them it appeared that it wasn't enough as the Tower's foundations slowly started its descent once more. Sensing the unyielding determination in Terra, Raven had to huff in irritation as she summoned her own dark powers and joined the fray.

"Raven...you...?" Terra was able to spare a few words of surprise at the pale girl's actions.

"If we're going to save our home, I hope you have something else in mind other than holding it up till the end of time," she answered simply as she poured her power into lifting the building. "Even if we manage to get the tower back up, it's not going to stay there on its own," Raven adds between huffs, her stamina draining fast with the amount of effort she was expending. Even with the two of them pushing as hard as they could, it wasn't enough to save their home.

"Hehehe...I kinda didn't think that far ahead," Terra manages to chuckle, beads of sweat forming on her brow as the same fatigue was making itself known on her body. A light bulb seemed to go off in her head as she looked down at her feet. "Hey, Raven? Think you can hold this for a minute?"

"What do you...GAH!!" Raven felt her whole body seize as Terra suddenly cut off her support, the whole weight now falling solely on her shoulders. Gritting her teeth, she turned an angry glare at the blonde who now had her hands stretched out with her palms facing the floor. Before she could ask what she was doing, she suddenly felt another set of rumbling from beneath her feet. Looking down between the floor's steel grating, her eyes widened as she saw a faint glow coming from deep below.

"Sorry. Slade made this thing much deeper than I expected," Terra answered as if to answer the unspoken question. She then raised one hand skyward, releasing a bright beam of energy to support the pale goth in saving the Tower. The other hand she kept facing downwards.

It was then that Raven realized what the terrakinetic was planning to do. "Listen, it's not worth it. Your life isn't worth..." Raven's voice was cut off as falling debris landed all around them, the ground that the Tower was standing on breaking apart as gravity and physics sought to exert their influence on it. She had to move out of the way as a large chunk of rock pierced the spot where she had been standing, a grim reminder of the dangers of staying longer in their futile effort. "Terra, we have to..." her voice caught in her throat as she saw a gash across Terra's brow, blood flowing freely from the wound where she had been struck by other debris. Her goggles lay to her side having apparently been knocked off by the same blow that had caused the wound. 'She didn't move...' she realized as she stared in shock at the girl.

As more rocks continued to fall around them, Raven reached for the blonde but suddenly found herself being grabbed by a large stone hand. With her arms trapped to her sides, she could only watch helplessly as she was pulled towards the surface. She could see Terra mouth words that she couldn't hear over the din of the destruction taking place. "TERRA!!"

T-T-T

"Our home..." Starfire cried softly as she buried her face in her hands. Even from across the shore, she could feel the rumbling of the ground as the Tower sank beneath the waves. The rumblings got stronger, signaling the full destruction of what was once Titans Tower which caused the girl to collapse to her knees.

"Starfire...look..."

"I cannot bear to watch..."

"No, I mean look!" Cyborg reiterated, yanking the Tamaranian to her feet.

Starfire opened her eyes and saw the Tower slowly rising out of the hole in the sea like a grand resurrection. As it returned to its original position, a powerful shockwave was felt for miles around as it locked back into place. She immediately jumped for joy, picking up Cyborg as she flew him to their island, all the while crying tears of joy throughout the whole flight. Landing on the ground, she was rewarded by the sight of Robin gazing at the Tower. "Robin! Our home is safe! We are victorious and..." she paused as Robin was unresponsive to her comments. "Robin? Where are friend Raven and friend Terra?"

"They...they're not..." Robin couldn't bring himself to finish his statement as he leaned on a large rock.

Starfire looked ready to tear up once more as she covered her mouth in denial. "No...That is not..."

"Terra!"

Everyone's eyes turned towards the voice as the rock Robin had been leaning on burst open, revealing a tired Raven who nearly collapsed to her knees had Raziel not suddenly appeared by her side.

"Raven! You are...!"

"Cyborg! Terra's still down there!" Raven manages to say between gasps.

"How could you leave her, Raven? She may not have been a team member but..." Beastboy was immediately silenced by the goth girl's glare as well as Raziel's, the combination of which was enough to nearly make him wet his pants.

"I didn't leave by choice, or didn't you notice the rock I was stuck in?" she asks sarcastically. Turning her attention back to Cyborg, she froze she saw him shake his head.

"The ground beneath the Tower's completely solid. It's like the hole was never there..."

Everyone grew silent at the analysis; Terra had somehow forced the ground beneath Titans Tower to stabilize, undoing all of the damage Slade's machines had inflicted. They knew that they put their lives on the line every time they put on the mask and cape but never had it seemed more real than today. The somber moment, however, was ruined with a snort from Raziel.

"That was a bit overkill for her," he comments derisively.

The Titans couldn't believe what Raziel was saying, Beastboy more so as he clenched his fists in anger. "You...you...Terra's gone and you have the balls to...!" Beastboy paused as a decayed looking hand burst out of the ground and grabbed his ankle. As such, he did the standard thing for just such an occasion.

"AAAAIEEEEEEEEEEE!! ZOMBIES!!"

Breaking out of the zombie arm's grip, he leapt behind Raziel who was staring at the green changeling with a smirk. Walking up to the hand, which was currently patting the area for something, he grabs it and pulls, revealing a dirty yet very much alive blonde. The 'decayed' portion of her arm crumbled away, revealing itself to be a clay-like material that was covering her.

"(COUGH) About time you pulled me up! Bedrock is haaaard," Terra grumbles as she spit out a few pebbles from her mouth.

"TERRA!"

Terra immediately found herself embraced by Beastboy and Starfire (although she still thought Starfire's hugs should be classified as deadly weapons) as she hugged them back in return.

"We thought you were gone and..."

"Hello? I'm Terra! The Earth is my home. I'm not going to let something as small as a cave-in stop me! MUA HA HA HA!"

Megalomaniac laughter (even an exaggerated one) never sounded so sweet to their ears. With everyone accounted for, they started their trek back to the Tower, plans of repairing whatever was damaged already on their minds. Terra excused herself to shake off the remaining dirt on her clothes and said she would catch up. The Titans seemed to nod and hurriedly headed off, leaving her alone as she dusted herself.

"Man, I think I have dirt where no girl should ever have dirt..." she moaned in disgust as she shook the grime off her clothes. She paused as she sensed a presence behind her. "I know you're there, Raven. Is there something you wanted to ask?" A few moments of silence passed before she got a response out of the goth girl.

"Why did you do what you did?"

Without turning to face her interrogator, Terra gave a sad smile as she looked towards the sun rising over the horizon. "I know what it's like not to have a real home, Raven. I couldn't let you guys experience the same thing."

"Don't give me that bull," she deadpans in response. "You could have killed yourself doing something that stupid. You said you came back to become a Titan but you don't know the first thing about being one. I don't care how much 'in control' you think you are. Titans...watch out for each other. And keep each other from doing stupid things like that."

"Titans...watch out for each other? Do you mean..."

"I still don't think you know what you're getting into but...I'm willing to give you a chance anyway," the pale girl interrupted, cutting off Terra before she could finish her question. Glancing at her communicator briefly, she raised an eyebrow before turning back to face Terra. "Come on. Let's get back to the Tower first."

Before Terra could respond, she suddenly found herself wrapped in Raven's soul self, the sensation of which apparently threw her off as she collapsed upon materializing on the floor. "Hey! What's the big idea..."

"Surprise!"

Turning around, Terra saw the entire Titans team in front of her but still had to raise her eyebrow in curiosity. "Ok...I'm surprised...Raven's teleport thingy threw me off but..."

"They're talking about the room," Raven deadpans, rolling her eyes as the light bulb slowly went off in the blonde's head.

"You...you guys..." Terra choked, appearing to cry as she hugged the green changeling. Although that particular image vanished as her expression immediately changed. "Although all those candles seem a bit much...It's kinda creepy."

"Blame BB. He wanted your room ready right away but we still haven't gotten the Tower's power systems back online," Cyborg answers.

"Hehehe..."

"We have something else for you, Terra," Robin says, handing the girl a new communicator to which the new member could only stare at in surprise.

"Glorious! I shall now prepare a traditional Tamaranian breakfast for our old new friend!"

"Uh, Star..." "Maybe we should help..." "We should make Tofu..."

The males immediately chased after the girl, self-preservation instincts kicking as soon as Starfire mentioned cooking. Raven sighed for the umpteenth time that day as she followed after them. Before she passed through the door she paused and turned to face Terra.

"Welcome home," she intones quietly.

Had Raven stayed a few more moments, she would have heard the communicator's casing creak in protest under Terra's grip.

-To be continued-

Whew...finally finished the chapter. I was supposed to finish it before July but with work swamping me I didn't really have much time to do except sleep . I hate work deadlines...hate all the overtime I had to put in...sigh...really cuts into my writing time badly...Ah well, them's the breaks, I suppose. At the very least I'm not too far beyond my deadline...right?

(1) Brownie points for people who can recognize the style :p I couldn't resist giving it to Terra.

(2) Think of the androids used for training in the JLU animated series.

Omake:

"Wasn't going for speed," came the confident reply as she grinned at Cyborg. She was immediately rushed by Beastboy who looked simply flabbergasted yet far from speechless.

"Wow, Terra! That was amazing! Your flames of youth burned so brightly!" he cried, tears of joy running down his face as he embraced the girl. "You make the green beast of Jump City proud!"

"Beastboy!"

"Terra!"

"Beastboy!"

"Terra!"

Raven felt the sudden urge to kill the pair as a giant wave crashed behind them, the fine mist of water causing a rainbow in the setting sun which only served to give her a bad case of nausea. She found Raziel looking at her strangely which she could only glare to in response.

"Don't even try it."

Omake2:

At Terra's comment, Raven idly noticed that even though Raziel's face was half-hidden by his scarf there was a trace of pink on his pale skin. Did that mean...

"Got it, Rob. Titans, let's go! That means you've got to let go of Raven, Raz."

Seeing that Cyborg's team had headed on after the drills, Robin turned to face his own team. "All right, the path is 30-degrees down and..." If he was in a western flick, there would have been tumbleweeds, well, tumbling in the wind as Robin found himself all alone. "Uh...Raven? Terra?" When no response came, he dropped to the floor in depression, idly tracing his finger in the ground as a dark cloud seemed to hover over him. "Nobody listens to me anymore..."

"That's not true. Hyuk hyuk hyuk! I'll listen to you!"

The cloud almost immediately lifted off his head as he turned to face his team. They still loved him! They came back! And...when did Raven ever 'hyuk' before?"

Robin froze as he came face to face with the creature from the abyss. Those evil eyes, those huge teeth and unearthly skin that made lesser men die of fright. He wasn't afraid. He wouldn't run away. He wouldn't run away.

"I love you! You love me!"

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

T-T-T

"Hey Raven, did you hear something?" Terra asks as she continued to blast her way through solid rock.

"Hmm...It sounded like someone's masculinity briefly cried out in terror and was immediately silenced."

"Ah. Just making sure."

Yep, just another day in Jump City.

Omake3:

"Umm...this isn't the way to the kitchen." Terra asks shyly, ignoring the rumblings in her tummy as she and Raven walked down the halls of the tower.

"You're right. It isn't," she answers vaguely.

"Oh yes, friend Terra. We are most certainly not headed there yet!"

"Wha! Starfire? When did...? How...?" Terra couldn't believe how the Tamaranian had been able to sneak up on her. She shouldn't have been able to do that.

"I simply wished to join you for your surprise," came yet another enigmatic reply.

"Surprise? What are you talking about? And why are we stopping here?"

Smirking, Raven pushed a button which opened the door of the room they had stopped at. "This is your room now," she answered.

"Oh wow...does this mean..." Terra was speechless as she entered her room. 'Her room.' Two words that never sounded so sweet.

"Yes, friend Terra! You are now a Teen Titan!" Starfire cheered, grabbing both Terra and Raven in a group hug. "We are now sisters in battle!"

"That's...great..." Terra manages to wheeze. Her joy was short-lived as the door to the room suddenly shut along with the drapes on the windows. "Hey! What's going on?"

Raven tried to open the doors but they failed to budge. "The doors have been hacked. We're locked in."

"Then we shall simply have to..." Before Starfire could complete her sentence, three flying 'X's slapped over her mouth, body, and legs. Unable to maintain her balance, she collapsed on the floor with a muffled 'eep.'

Raven and Terra moved to help the fallen girl but suddenly found themselves bound with black bands of energy. They tried to use their powers to break free but to their shock they found them neutralized.

"Ah ah ah, we can't have any of that now, can we?" a taunting voice called out from the shadows.

Turning to face the intruder, what they saw shocked them. Standing tall and proud was Raziel, no longer wearing his Titans costume, having instead exchanged it for a black leather outfit (A/N: think Alucard when he was first awakened by Integra). His face was upturned in an evil grin as he eyed the three girls before him.

"Raziel! What the hell do you think..." Raven shivered as Raziel suddenly appeared before her, running a gloved hand along her nape.

"Hell...yes...because of you three, I have seen hell!" 'And heaven, when I think about it,' he thought silently to himself. "I do believe you left something of yours the last time you were here."

Seeing the hand cuffs, cat o' nine tails, and other paraphernalia that suddenly appeared out of the shadows, the three girls' eyes widened as one by one they realized what he was talking about and gave a collective shudder.

"Releasing Control Art Restriction Systems three...two...one, approval of Situation A recognized. Commencing the Cromwell invocation. Ability restrictions lifted for limited use until the enemy has been rendered silent."

No one heard them scream (not that they minded, really).

T-T-T

"So...anyone know why Raz said we need to soundproof Terra's room?"

Beastboy looked up briefly from his mountain of Agedashi Tofu and shrugged. Raziel gave him a week's supply of the stuff so he didn't really care what it was for. "Mmmm...Tofuuuuu…"

T-T-T

Jinx shot out of bed with a start, her nightgown plastered to her body as she was drenched in sweat. Why the hell did she keep getting feelings like she was missing out on something? This time it had caused her to wake up in the middle of the night. If ever she found out who was causing it, she would flay the person alive.

"..."

After she took a shower...a really cold shower.