Author note: I've decided to revamp this story, which was originally posted with great reception many years ago. Although it still gets good reviews, my writing has matured immeasurably in eight years and there are many potential improvements to this story. It's been a lot of fun revisiting this work, and I hope it'll be a good read for fellow Titans fans!

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I. Crossroads

"Beastboy… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry… I never meant for any of this to happen…"

"Then why did you let it?"

"I don't know, okay? I don't know. Slade… he helped me… saved me from myself. He said I owed him but I—"

"So it was all a game? You were just pretending?"

"No! You said you'd be my friend no matter what… remember?"

He didn't know what to say as he took in her despairing face and sad eyes. Their usual glow had been replaced by tear that glistened even in the dim light of that run-down house of mirrors. A trail of salty moisture ran down her face—alongside her delicate nose, over her quivering lips, and finally onto her soft chin where individual drops escaped one by one, as if from a leaky faucet. In this single moment in time, all of the blonde girl's features quivered faintly as she attempted futilely to maintain her composure.

Beastboy wanted to spit in her face. She had some nerve to ask for his friendship right after selling the Titans out to Slade. And how dare she make it so hard for him to turn away now? And yet he couldn't shake those eyes, desperately searching his soul for any compassion that may have survived the betrayal.

"Come, apprentice."

The deep, smooth voice echoed throughout the room without a source, beckoning her into the darkness. Terra's eyes fixed on Beastboy's even more pleadingly, if that was possible. He was her only chance for redemption and escape from this nightmare that had spun to tragically out of her control.

With a blank, even stoic expression on his face Beastboy reached out his hand toward the girl's face and impassively touched a tear on her cheek bone, as if conducting an experiment to see if it was real. He wiped it away with a gloved finger, but his distant stare offered her no reprieve.

There was no time to weigh the sins against the circumstance. The Titans had taken her in as part of their family, and only scum could have thrown such generosity back in their faces by giving away all their weaknesses and exposing them in their sleep. At the same, who was safe from that masked man's manipulation? There was simply no way to reconcile the situation in mere seconds' time. It was now or never.

No matter what the case, Beastboy decided, he couldn't let Slade take her again. He was sickened by what she had done that night and he hated her even more for appointing him as judge and executioner. For, despite his anger, they both knew that he could never play the role of executioner.

Rising to the occasion, the green Titan stepped into the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by a circle of mirrors. His body grew larger and hairier, taking on the form of the angriest, most vicious gorilla that he could create.

Throwing his massive fists into the air and rumbling the ground under his weight, his deep gorilla voice let out a booming roar that was somehow distinctly intelligible:

"SLADE!"

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Author note: Reviews would be awesome!