Terra still lay unconscious in her bed at the hospital. It had been about 16 hours since the incident at the school and sun was shinning through the window across the recovery room. She was in a deep sleep and found herself having a terrible dream that seemed all too real...
"It's your life Terra. Your choice. It's never too late to change."
Terra was looking down at Beastboy. She wore the armor she had seen in her previous dreams. The armor the reflection of herself had been wearing.
Her hand was glowing yellow and appeared to be controlling a rock the size of a person with a pointed edge staring Beastboy in the face, hovering just above him. She had tears in her eyes. She wanted nothing to do with what was happening.
All around her were faint voices she didn't recognize. Coming from people she couldn't quite see. They just seemed like figures of people. Like shadows. She couldn't quite understand them. But she could tell they were encouraging her to not go through with what she was doing.
"I'm sorry Beastboy," Terra said, "For everything." She said the words involuntarily. Like they had already been said before.
She felt a surge of rage flow through her. Her eyes glowed yellow and with a loud war cry she turned and sent the rock hovering over Beastboy flying across the room at a different figure she also couldn't recognize. All she knew was this particular figure was the cause for all of this and she had to defeat it.
Her vision flashed and when she regained her sight she found herself face to face with the shadow she was fighting. It held her up by the collar of her armor with just one hand. Even face to face she couldn't recognize the it. All she could tell was it was the shape of a man. He was taller than her. Stronger than her. And he was evil.
She felt another rush of rage burn through her. Again her eyes glowed yellow and her aura turned yellow with them.
"You can't control me anymore!" Again her words were involuntary. They just came out like they were already planned.
With a second war cry she created an explosion of rocks in every direction sending the figure flying off the cliff she just realized she was standing on.
Her vision flashed again and this time she found herself face to face with Beastboy as the cave around them rumbled and moaned, filling with lava from an under ground volcano. For some reason Beastboy was the only one that wasn't a dark figure like a shadow. She could see him clearly and he had a look of desperate concern in his eyes.
"I have to stay," the words flowed out of her again.
"Terra no," Beastboy respond timidly, "you cant."
"I'm the only one who can stop it," Terra respond. Somehow she knew exactly what this meant. She wasn't going to survive this.
Another flash.
She reached forward and pulled Beastboy in hugging him tightly as tears started to fall from her eyes, "you were the best friend I ever had."
Her vision flashed one last time and now she was surrounded by lava flowing in every direction. She felt a surge of emotion different from the rage she felt earlier. With her eyes closed and tears running down her face, her aura turned bright yellow. She let out a deafening final war cry and unleashed a massive amount of power with a flash of yellow light filled the room.
Then... silence. It was pitch black. But Terra finally felt at peace.
Suddenly a blinding flash of white light filled the darkness and Terra fell to her knees. The armor she wore had turned to stone and cracked and crumbled off of her as she fell. The bits and pieces went everywhere and she heard a few of them hit something metallic in front of her.
Tink tink tink.
She was breathing heavily. She looked around the darkness. The cave had barely any visability from daylight that snuck its way in through cracks from above. The room looked exactly how she left it except the lava that had been surrounding her was now solid rock.
She tried to stand but stumbled and fell forward down a single step in front of her and she hit the ground with a thud. As she fell she kicked pieces of her crumbled armor forward that stuck the metallic object once more.
Tink tink tink.
She was weak and groggy. But she looked up from where she laid, trying to locate where that metallic sound was coming from. Through her blurred vision she saw a rectangular object in front of her. She sat up towards it to try to get a better look.
It was a metal plaque on the side of the step she had just fallen off of. She tried with all her strength to focus on it. Her vision finally started to clear and she could see words engraved on the metal plate.
"Terra?" She read out loud to herself confused, "A... Teen Titan... A True Friend."
She was so confused. She had no idea where she was or how she got there. Only these few words on a metal plate to go on.
She looked down at herself to see she was completely naked. A shiver coursed through her as she wrapped her arms around herself. She began to realize she was freezing in the dark cold of the cave.
She winced in pain as she tried to stand. She stumbled once again but caught herself on a wall of the cave to keep her balance. Terra looked up to see this wall was part of a tunnel. The only tunnel in the cave. Seeing as how this was her only option she began to walk through the darkness.
After walking for what felt like ages she saw a light at the end of this nightmare of a cave. Hope shot through her as she made her way towards the light.
When she finally reached the end of the cave she was blinded by sun light. She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light and began to worry. As her eyes adjusted to the light and began to focus, she found herself even more lost than she was before. Nothing looked familiar. The only thing she could see was the glare of sun light off the buildings of a city miles away. Feeling discouraged seeing how far it was, she still knew it was her best bet and started walking in the direction of the glared city.
The cold she felt had vanished. Now she was burning. It was a hot summer day and she was already weak and struggling to walk on her own. The sun beating down on her bare skin was only draining her even more.
After walking for hours, she looked ahead and saw two figures in the distance walking towards her. She couldn't tell if they were real or if she was just imagining them. But they started to rush towards her as if concerned and she started to worry. They were real. She could only hope they were friendly.
She stopped walking and struggled to stand as they finally appeared in front of her. It was a man and a woman both in very fit condition, dressed for a days hike. They both wore backpacks that had water bottles tucked into the side pockets.
"Oh my goodness!" Lindsey shouted in shock, "sweety, where are your clothes?!"
"Clothes?" Terra asked as if just waking from a dream.
"Carver grab the picnic blanket so we can cover her up," she said to her husband, "and grab your water too. Poor thing looks like she's about to faint!"
Just as Lindsey said that Terra collapsed into her arms. She could barely stand as it is.
"Carver!" Lindsey yelled desperate for her husband's help as she could barley hold the stranger up.
Carver wrapped Terra in the blanket and sat her down. Terra looked up at them weakly with her eyes half open. He pulled out his water, held it to her mouth, and let the water trickle over her lips.
As if new life had been breathed into Terra her hand shot from the blanket and grabbed the bottle. She finished the entire thing in an instant. She gasped for air as she pulled the empty container from her lips and looked around with a little more strength.
"Where am... What happ..." She had so many questions but still barely any strength to ask them.
"It's ok," Carver said, "we've got you. You're gonna be alright."
Terra felt safe hearing those words. With that, she let go and her eyes shut as she fell in their arms.
Darkness again. It was quiet. Calm. Almost peaceful... Until a voice rang out from the emptiness.
"Terra! You have to wake up!"
Terra's eyes slightly opened to see the figure of a man standing over her with the sun light behind him.
"Beastboy?" She asked weakly.
The figure leaned over her with excitment and joy, "no, no, no. Sweety, it's me," her adopted father said in a soothing voice, "it's Carver."
He moved towards the end of her bed where his wife lay asleep in one of the chairs the Titans had been sitting in the night before and roused her awake.
"Honey!" He exclaimed, "She's awake!"
Lindsey, still half asleep, bolted out of her chair to Terra's side.
"Oh my baby!" She shouted with joy, "I'm so glad you're ok!" She had tears rolling down her cheeks.
Terra turned her head slightly towards her and looked at her adopted mother through blurry eyes.
"Huh?" She said still weak. She was so confused and her entire body started to ache.
"There was an accident at the school yesterday," Carver explained, "you're in the hospital."
Terra slowly started to realize where she was and what had happened. Bits and pieces of the incident at school started to flash through her mind. She let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes.
It was all a dream. She thought to herself.
But even in her current condition she knew they were more than just dreams.
They were memories.