Terra hit the ground with an echoing metallic thump. Dirt covered her face and the front of her uniform. She groaned.

"Again, apprentice," Slade spat at the young blonde, his one good eye narrowing, watching her closely from his large black chair. His fists clenched.

Terra stood up and panted heavily, dusting herself off. "We've done this same thing ten times!" she complained wearily. "Could we try something-"

Slade stood up. "No, Terra," he hissed. "You are still vulnerable." With a roar, he jumped up and ran over to Terra, heavily padded feet barely touching the ground.

The shocked teen brought up a mass of solid rock to protect herself, and she closed her eyes tightly, praying it would hold. She was too late.

Slade's powerful foot crashed through the rock, almost as if in slow motion to the blonde, and contacted with Terra's already red face, forcing her back to the ground, yet again. Slade landed inches away from Terra's head, and flipped once in the air, landing on his feet.

They stood in the training room of Slade's headquarters, the edges of the room filled with TV screens, cameras, and training eqipment. The ground was coated with dirt, which, to Terra's disgust, happened to cling to every open cut, every hole in your uniform, every nonstained strip of clothing.

"You are still weak. You are not moving on until you master this move," he said calmly, as Terra puffed and tried to keep in the pain. He turned away and crossed his arms behind his back. Slade had barely broken a sweat.

It had been a mere two weeks since the big incident. Slade had not been pleased, no, more than not pleased, he was outraged when he found out Terra had chosen to go with Beast Boy on a date instead of fight at Titans Tower.

Terra's eyes watered as her black longsleeved shirt ripped, her yellow pants stained red with blood from Slade.

"Ignorant, Terra." Slade said, crossing his arms. "Not according to plan."

Terra panted. "Please, Slade, I won't do it again." she coughed until her ribs hurt.

Slade narrowed his eye and turned his back on the girl, sighing.

"Change your clothes and dispose of those articles, apprentice," he said, as Terra obediently struggled to stand up. "Oh, and call me Master from now on."

Terra sat up and pulled at the white strips on her legs. They were hanging off her skinny legs, and were stained red from past training sessions. Every day she lost one strip and her thigh was more and more exposed.

"Could I at least take a break..." Terra panted, standing up on shaking legs and trying to support her feeble weight.

Slade said nothing, but the dark mask nodded. "Make it quick, apprentice," he said, as Terra sighed heavily and ran out of the training room, and into her own in a blink of an eye. Slade smirked inside his mask.

The door to her room was stuck, and Terra forced her way inside, her arms and muscles feeling as though they would tear. Turning on the light switch, the single bulb flicked in, engulfing her tiny broom closet room with light.

Flopping on her bed, Terra let out all of her tears onto her pillow without hesitation. The bed squeaked and almost seemed as thought it were going to collapse. Terra's legs almost hung off the bed, it was a mere child's training bed.

She hated Slade, with all of her heart. She hated being treated like this, and going to bed at night bleeding into the dark covers. She hated training every day brutally and holding in her tears; Slade hated to see her cry and would only give her a reason to cry harder.

But most of all, she hated betraying the Titans.

Starfire, with her bone crushing hugs and different yet hilarious way of talking.

Robin, tough and mysterious boy wonder, Terra's former training coach when she was in the Titans.

Cyborg, her favorite video game playing and meat speedeating partner.

Raven, helping Terra focus her thoughts and feelings and keeping a deflated head.

Beast Boy...Terra began to sob, muffling the sound by shoving her face deep into her stone hard pillow.

In the beginning, it was fun. Slade made it feel as though she NEEDED to betray them. He took her mind and twisted it. But after two weeks of this, brutally training for five hours a day, being Slade's personal slave, and being the maid of HQ...

Terra couldn't control herself, with every shake or sob, the bed creaked loudly, and the room seemed to shake. She flipped over on her back and stared at the gray ceiling that looked as though it were going to fall at any time.

She remembered something Raven had told her, long ago. Trying to stop crying as much as she could, Terra sat up and grabbed a piece of paper off the tiny desk next to her bed, an eraserless pencil, and a notebook from her beside table and began to write.

Hello.

My name is Terra.

I have betrayed my friends and agreed to serve a heartless master.

I lost the only place I ever thought was home, and four of my best friends in the world.

I go to bed bruised, bleeding, and crying and have to slowly cry myself to sleep.

I am videotaped and followed every minute and second of the day in this place Master calls 'home.'

I am abused every day and forced to do hard labor unfit for a teenager.

I go to sleep fearing what will become of me tomorrow.

I go to sleep wondering if I'll survive to see the dark sky night tomorrow.

I want out.

Terra let out a loud sigh and fell back on her bed. There was a knock on her door. Grudgingly, Terra stashed the paper underneath her mattress and opened the door, dusting off her shoulders and wiping her eyes to erase all signs of crying.

As Terra opened the huge door forcefully, a large gloved hand grabbed her by the front of her uniform as soon as it opened. "Training wasn't over, Terra." Slade growled, bringing his face close to Terra's. He threw her against the frame of the door roughly, and held her there.

Terra groaned and closed her eyes in pain. Slade's hand was incredibly heavy, and her hands hung at her sides like limp noodles. There was a small whir and a loud creak. Opening her eyes cautiously, Terra saw the automatic door begin to shut, getting closer and closer to her pinned figure.

Terra panicked and summoned a fist of earth to knock the door off its hinges. She didn't care that a huge chunk of the floor disappeared as her bed was flipped over. The fist made a large dent in the door, but did nothing to stop it.

Terra's brain began to scream inside. Adrenaline pumped through Terra's body. Looking over her shoulder, Slade was gone, and she was pinned by the strips of white of her uniform. She closed her eyes and prayed as her head began to throb uncontrollably.

Terra tried again, this time focusing on small pebbles. All the small clods of dirt from training sessions scattered around her room were picked up with a yellow aura around them and flew over to the door. Terra wasn't surprised by the amount of them. Her muscles strained as she controlled the rocks.

Terra made them fly into the cracks of the door, at the bottom, where the machinery was and clog up the wheels. The entire room was full of menacing crackling, metal against metal scraping, the whir of machinery, and the small metallic clangs of pebbles that missed the bottom of the door.

There was a loud earsplitting creak as Terra shut her eyes and prayed that it worked. The door stopped moving, inches from Terra's stomach. Terra sighed in relief, opening her eyes, and ripped herself off of the door frame, just as the door toppled over where she had been pinned seconds ago.

Terra leaned against the walls and began to cry. She had few seconds to, as Slade's hand picked her up by the back of her uniform and lifted her into the air, yet again. It wasn't a new sensation, being picked up and lifted as though you were a bale of hay.

"You're lucky, Terra. But again." he threw her to the ground with a roar, sending her right through the feeble flooring and down a level to the training room where she landed with a thump in the dirt that clung immediately to her uniform.

Slade jumped down the hole, and seemed to fly for a few seconds, before landing inches away from Terra's trembling foot. Terra felt her foot vibrate and she felt numb and was overwhelmed with pain. But she kept in her tears.

"What is this?" Slade said, growling more than speaking, holding up a sheet of paper. Terra opened an eye and saw the "journal" entry she had done moments before in Slade's colossal fist, being crumbled slowly.

Slade kicked Terra in the face, sending her flying across half of the room and into a heap. Terra groaned and fought even harder to keep the tears from flowing. She felt her old scratches wake up suddenly and overflow with blood. Dirt clung and stung in the wounds.

"Look at me, apprentice," growled Slade, walking menacingly towards her. It was the first time disobeying him, as Terra tried to crawl away slowly, but failed, as she felt the familiar warmth and hugeness of Slade's hand pick her up by the back of her uniform.

"N-n-no..." Terra mumbled, as she felt herself being lifted into the air. Wounds on her arms and legs flew down and made a small puddle in the dirt that grew increasingly bigger. Terra felt the familiar wist of air that she knew to be Slade about to throw her the length of the room.

Terra sighed and thought of Beast Boy. She thought of their date, she thought of their first meeting, she thought of just- him. As she felt herself be thrown in the air and the weightless feeling of flight, she knew it would probably be the last time she ever thought of him.