Episode Terra: Chapter 4: Metamorphic

Chapter 4 of Terra's adventure

Six Months into Team BEAT’s First Year

The Streets of Patch

 

 

            Terra stared off into the horizon off the shore of Patch.  The weather was fine, moderately acceptable for this time of year.  Bovia had suggested they take the time to go into town and relax since the midterms were coming up fast and she wanted to give everybody a chance to catch their breath before getting consumed by studying for said midterms.  Ember and Arri wanted to show their teammates their old stomping grounds and today seemed like as good a day as any.  Bovia was excited to learn more about Patch given she was curious how different this island was compared to where she grew up.  And Terra was mostly just glad to be visiting somewhere a bit more peaceful and not as bustling.  Having spent most of her life in either the chaos of a bandit camp, the grime of Mistral and now the energy and buzz of Vale and Beacon, Patch was a haven where there was still energy, but not overwhelming energy.  As the four of them made their way through the local marketplace and window shopped most of the vendors, Terra could sense something interesting about the people who lived here.  They didn’t have the same hardships that she was used to and they were as used to the peace she was denied most of her life as a child, but they didn’t take it for granted, nor did they let the world pass them by.  As they walked past a vendor that sold potatoes, she could see in the product and the hands of the farmer who was offering them for sale; the peace was welcome, but they still desired to work with the world and find ways to grow with it.  The farmer offered Terra a potato that seemed to have spent much time in the earth, and the graciously accepted, smiling a bit as she held it in her hand.

            “I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody be that happy to get a vegetable” Arri said with a chuckle as she stood next to Terra.  Terra sighed and put the potato in her bag.

            “Given the fact that plants are your whole gimmick, I’m surprised you’re not the one fawning over all the veggies here.”

            “My moms say I actually used to do that when they took me to the market when I was younger, but I guess I’ve kind of gotten used to the sensation of plants surrounding me.”

            “You can sense all of that?  Must be tough.”  Arri’s smile faded a bit and she grabbed her arm in a bit of nervousness.

            “Sometimes it is.  Mostly I’m just afraid of what I might do to somebody if I lose control.”  Terra laughed at this causing Arri to tilt her head in confusion.

            “I’ve met people with no Semblances who are scarier than you.  You can make plants grow and apparently commune with them.  And yet you’re more scared of yourself than you are of me, the literal criminal hiding in plain sight.”  Arri chuckled a little bit at Terra’s remarks, causing her to regain her smile and composure.

            “I suppose you’re right.”  With that, the two of them rejoined Ember and Bovia and continued about their day.  As they continued to walk the streets, Ember and Arri saw one of their old teachers from Signal and ran over to say hi.  Bovia and Terra just laughed watching the two of them run off.

            “Outside of my mentor back home,” Bovia said with a smile, “I don’t think I’d be that excited to see one of my old teachers in public.”

            “Must be nice” Terra said with a smile.  “Most of the people I recognize are people I’ve probably wronged in the past.”

            “Well, you’ve been doing all right with the three of us so far” Bovia said with a smile.

            “Give it a few days” Terra said with a smirk.  “That might change.”

            “You say that every other week” Bovia said playfully punching Terra in the shoulder.  “Just because you won’t open up about your past with us doesn’t mean you haven’t changed for the better.  Even though you know you can trust us right?” Bovia smiled leaving Terra still a bit surprised.  Bovia walked over to join the Grover cousins while Terra just stood there.  Was she allowed to feel this safe around people?  But then she noticed something.  A person.  She looked back and could tell.  She couldn’t directly see her, but there was somebody tailing her.  She scowled in that direction, and then walked over to rejoin her teammates who were saying their goodbyes to the Grover’s old teacher.

            “That was fun!”  Arri said with a smile.  “What’s next on the docket?”

            “What’s left?”  Ember said with a smile.  “We saw everything we can, and the Festival of Souls isn’t until the spring.”

            “Well,” Bovia said with a smile, “we’ve still got some time and we don’t have an early class tomorrow, so I was thinking maybe we could just head back to the dorm and watch a few movies?”

            “Sounds like fun to me!” Arri said with a smile.

            “I’m in!” Ember echoed.

            “I’ve actually got something to take care of back in town tonight” Terra said with a stern look.  “Hopefully it won’t take too long, I’ll try to be back before midnight.”  With that, Terra split off and made her way to the docks to board the ferry back to mainland Vale.

            “You need a ride?” Ember asked yelling at Terra.  “My folks’ place isn’t far from here, and the family hovercar is probably faster!”

            “I’m good” Terra yelled back.  With that, she got onto the ferry and started the slow ride back to the mainland.  As the ship continued to rock back and forth, she stood on the railing looking out over the city as the fog rolled in.  Terra sighed and tapped her finger on the railing.

            “If you’re going to follow me around incessantly Nebula, at the very least you could say hello.”  As she said this, a part of the fog behind Terra that had coalesced on the ship began to reshape and Nebula was standing there behind her.

            “Seems normal life hasn’t slowed you down one bit” Nebula said with a smirk.

            “You’d be surprised what training sessions with the pampered kids does for your awareness skills.  Besides, these days you’re probably more inclined to shot first and ask questions never seeing as Lil’ Miss probably has a bounty on my head.  I’m honestly surprised you haven’t already tried to put a bullet in the back of my head.”

            “Lil’ Miss got arrested after your little stunt.”

            “Oh no, how terrible I feel so bad” Terra replied in a dramatic sarcastic voice.  “The spider queen got caught in someone else’s web.  Is that why you decided to flee Mistral and join up with Neopolitan’s group?”

            “You’ve kept yourself informed of things while in school.”

            “Like I said, I’m surprised you haven’t tried to put a bullet in the back of my head.”

            “What makes you think I haven’t?”

            “I did say tried.”

            “This banter is going nowhere.  If you knew I was here the whole time, why haven’t you done anything?”

            “Because those stupid pampered teammates of mine would probably try to ‘help me’ or something stupid like that.  I’d rather they not get dragged into my past if I can avoid it.”

            “So you decided to confront me here on this boat full of people?”

            “Oh goodness no!  I decided to give you and your new pals a head start.”

            “On what?”

            “Preparing for my arrival to kill you and anybody else who tries to get in my way.”  Nebula paused for a moment as Terra said this.

            “I’m sorry, I think part of my ear was still a cloud, you honestly think you can take me and all of the Neopolitan gang down by yourself?  You don’t even know where we’re headquartered!”

            “Why do you think all of your informants stopped giving you info after the first few weeks?”
            “You bribed them?”

            “Some of them.  The rest just like me better than you.  They’ve already skipped town because they knew what was good for them.  That just leave you and whoever else is stupid enough to still be at that warehouse in a few hours.”

            “And why are you telling me this?”

            “Because clearly the fact that your informants were no longer giving you information about what I was doing didn’t stop you, and since you’ve now insisted on following me and my new teammates, I figured why not just tell you that I’m coming to stop your operation because I don’t want you to bother anybody else because of our history.  Also just telling you outright is way more fun.”

            “You’ve got a death wish.”

            “In other news the sky is blue.”  Nebula wanted to try and retort that line as well, but she decided to simply fade back into the fog and float away, heading towards the mainland.

            “All right” Terra said cracking her knuckles as the ferry came into port, “let’s see how the Vale syndicates compare to the Mistral ones.”  As she got off the ferry, a figure behind her appeared as if phasing through the wall.

 

 

 

The Warehouse District

Downtown Vale

Late Evening

 

 

 

            Terra walked towards the warehouse that Neopolitan and her gang were hiding out and saw Nebula standing near one of the large bay doors to a warehouse.

            “You sure you don’t want to back out?” Nebula said with a growl.

            “I was actually planning on giving you a chance to back out.  I don’t have beef with the Neopolitan gang, but I assumed that so long as you blamed me for Lil’ Miss going to prison, any olive branch I extended to you would be met with a flamethrower.”

            “Well you were right about that part” Nebula said as the warehouse doors opened and a stolen Atlesian Paladin with a flamethrower attached stepped out and began spewing flames at Terra.  Terra quickly caused a rock to pop up from the ground and block the incoming flames.  She got her gauntlets ready and kept an eye out to make sure Nebula didn’t try to sneak around her and attack.  As she waited out the flamethrower, the flames eventually died down.

            “Want to reconsider?” Nebula said in a mocking tone.

            “I’ve been to day spas with more heat than what that things is packing” Terra said with a scoff.  Nebula growled and yelled.  Terra got in a defensive stance in preparation for what she believed Nebula would do next. Her prediction proved right as in a moment’s notice, a cloudious fist came crashing through the wall Terra had erected.  One of the most disadvantageous elements of Terra’s Semblance was the fact that she could change her fog density from light to heavy, resulting in her being able to punch through almost anything, especially Terra’s Gauntlets.  Terra took a deep breath and took up a battle stance, and started trading what blows she could with Nebula.  It was difficult, because Nebula’s Semblance worked both offensively and defensively.  While Terra had to commit effort to deflect a crushing punch from Nebula, even if she found an opening with her gauntlets, Nebula would just turn that part of her body gaseous to roll with the attack and counter.  Terra knew this would be a war of attrition as the only way to start really doing some actual damage would be to hope Nebula used up her reserves of Aura for offense and defense faster than she did.  As the battle continued, Terra noticed that several grunts were surrounding the two of them.  More than likely to deal with her if she managed to win.  Terra tried to keep them on their toes by moving inside of the warehouse.  As Nebula went in for another attack, Terra made the ground crack in a way where when Nebula punched the ground, it splintered into a few pieces, but also the piece she was punching acted as a lever that launched Terra into the warehouse.  As she flew inside, she punched through the Paladin that was just standing there to make sure that was one less thing to deal with.  As she landed in the middle of the warehouse, several more grunts were already inside weapons at the ready.  They took aim and started firing at Terra who had to quickly create a rock barrier.  This wasn’t great because she knew this could drain her further and Nebula would more than likely try to take advantage.

            “Cease fire!” Nebula yelled as she entered the warehouse.  The gunfire stopped and Terra dropped her barrier as Nebula got closer.

            “Since when did you give folks a fighting chance?” Terra said wiping some of the sweat off her brow.

            “I just want to make sure that the only reason you die is because of me” Nebula said cracking her knuckles.  The two of them continued to battle back and forth, but Terra could tell Nebula was starting to run out of strength.  They traded punches back and forth, Terra’s now starting to land rather than just passing through clouds.  With one final big punch, Terra sent Nebula flying back against the far wall.  As soon as she did this however, Terra noticed that one of the grunts fired a rocket at her.  She quickly tried to create a defensive wall, but it wasn’t set enough and it caused her to go flying back against the wall opposite of Nebula.  Before Terra could get back up, the grunt soldiers were firing several rounds in her direction, forcing her to put up another rock wall for defense.  But her Aura was almost gone, so this wall was already starting to crumble apart.

            “Well that could’ve gone better” Terra said with a sigh.

            “So is this a private party or can anyone join in?”  Terra jumped as Ember’s head was sticking through the wall next to her.  Before she could respond, Ember was firing several rounds back towards the grunts.  After that, the wall behind Terra was torn open by Arri’s vines and Bovia sent a wave of water crashing through the compound.  They then both quickly grabbed Terra and pulled her out of there.  As they retreated, Terra saw Nebula slowly get back up, still glaring at her.

 

 

 

 

            After a few blocks of running, Team BEAT finally stopped to catch their breath.

            “All right,” Arri said between heaves of air, “who’s not dead?”

            “What did you do that for?” Terra asked with a growl in amidst her own heaving.  “I didn’t….want you involved.”

            “Is that why you ran off to fight a giant criminal organization out of the blue random?” Bovia asked with a scowl on her face.

            “My past….is my own…..”

            “That didn’t answer….her question” Ember said in response as she finally got her breathing under control.  “You just basically decided that out of the blue random you were going to Leeroy Jenkins the Neopolitan gang!  We had to convince Ozpin and the police to hold off arresting you for messing up their sting operation because of your antics!”

            “I didn’t want you to get hurt because of my idiocy.” Terra said holding her arm.  Bovia and Arri walked over and placed their hands on Terra’s shoulders.

            “We aren’t afraid to get hurt if it means helping you” Arri said with a smile.

            “What else are friends for?” Boiva said with a smile as well.

            “I barely know you” Terra said averting her eyes.

            “Know us well enough you didn’t want us hurt it seems” Ember said placing her hand on Terra’s head.

            “I’m sure it’s tough,” Arri said giving Terra a small hug, “trying to understand your past and everything you went through.  But I would like to try.”

            “We all would” Bovia said with a smile.  Terra sighed and ran her hands through her hair.

            “All right, but let’s get back to the dorm first.”

 

 

 

 

 

            “I don’t remember my parents faces.  They were out of my life well before I could form any kind of lasting memories.  I bounced around from place to place.  Nomad groups, bandit camps, performing arts groups, the whole gambit.  But each one just treated me as if I was cargo.  A weapon.  Or maybe just expendable.  My last bandit camp was truly awful.  They treated me like an animal.  Just something that amused them.  And one night, one of the soldiers thought it would be fun to try and do something terrible to me.  I had seen enough terrible things happen to other women and girls to know what he was planning without him having to actually do it.  So I didn’t stand for it.  On that starry night, I killed him.  I survived.  I then set out on my own.  To carve out a small cave in the world somewhere where I could be alone.  But I couldn’t eat rocks forever. So,  I took small jobs here and there.  My skills attracted the attention of some not-so-nice people.  That’s how I met Nebula.  She was a lot like me.  She was brought up in the underbelly of the world just like I was.  Except unlike me, Lil’ Miss took her under her wing personally.  Maybe Nebula saw her as a mother figure, and was angry that she was taken away.  But I never felt like I could fit into that world.  Any time I saw a path that could lead to a different world than the one I knew, my mind would go back to that starry night.  To that man with a disgusting look on his face thinking he had all the power over me.

 

 

 

            “And then I met you guys” Terra said with a sigh.  “And for the first time in my life, I felt like I had something that I might actually want to protect.

            “The queen of stone has a heart after all” Ember said with a friendly chuckle.

            “I can understand why you didn’t want to tell us originally” Bovia said with a soft smile.  “That is a lot to process even by yourself.”

            “I wanted to stop Nebula from bothering me because I was afraid if she kept tailing me, she might try to hurt you guys, and I didn’t want that to happen.” Terra said looking out the window at the lit up skyline of the city off in the distance.  “Direct confrontation was always how we settled things like this back then, but I guess I got too ambitious.  Or maybe I underestimated how much Neo’s gang would try to interfere.”

            “Or how much Nebula just wanted to outright kill you” Arri said with a sigh.  “I just wonder what’s going to happen now.”

            “Most of that depends on how the sting operation goes” Ember said scratching her head.  “Or at least what they could salvage from it.”

            “I just hope my point got across” Teraa said with a sigh.  “But knowing my luck, now somebody else will be gunning after me.  And then by extension the rest of you.”

            “Well, we know to be ready this time” Bovia said with a smile.  “One of the things my master taught me back on Menagerie, is that people are stronger together.  We shouldn’t shoulder everything on our own.  And when someone needs it, we can give them a second chance.”

            “I don’t deserve that level of kindness” Terra said lowering her head.

            “There are people who have done far worse than you who have received that same kindness” Bovia said giving Terra a hug.  “Some folks several times over.”  Arri and Ember both nodded their heads and gave Terra a hug as well.  Terra started crying a bit at the gesture, feeling emotions and safety she never really had experienced before in her life.

 

 

 

 

One Year Later

The Vytal Festival

 

 

 

            Terra got suited up in her combat gear, preparing for the doubles round.

            “Are you sure you’re okay with giving Bovia and I this slot?” Terra asked looking back at Arri and Ember.  “You’re the Grover cousins, I think the gamblers were banking on the two of you participating in the next round.”

            “All the more reason to have it be you two!” Arri said with a chuckle.  “Besides, we’re famous enough.  For once, you two should enjoy the limelight!”

            “I just hope that the people who still haven’t forgiven me don’t see this” Terra said with a sigh as she stepped up to the platform that would raise her to the battle arena.  Bovia smiled and joined her on the platform, patting her on the shoulder.

            “Then show them how much better you’ve gotten since they last saw you.”  With that, the platform rose up into the battle arena, and the crowd roared.  Fans of Vale and Terra’s classmates started chanting the name of Team BEAT and specifically Bovia and Terra’s names.  Terra looked around, and then back at Bovia who was a bit nervous now that the lights were actually shining down on her.  Terra laughed a little bit, and decided to ham it up for the cameras a bit, try to make Bovia feel a bit more at ease.  It seemed to work as the two of them took their places on the battle platform, and the countdown began.

 

 

            The stars shone bright in the sky.  The sands had shifted.  The blood was gone.  The man had vanished.  And in his stead, the sun began to rise.  Terra walked towards the light, and as she reached the summit of the sand dune, waiting for her was her friends.

 

 

 

 

Stone

Is Resolute

But Let It Mix

With the Changing Waters

And Growing Earth

And it Will Change

And Become Something

Even More.

 

 

Episode: Terra

End.

 

 

 

 

Authors Notes:

 

 

            LAND ALIVE my hiatus went on longer than I planned.  And a part of me feels like this story suffered for it.  I’ll probably go back through and re-work parts of it once I finish the full book now that I at least have my ideas written down and a general outline of what I want the ideas to be.  Terra is a character I don’t have super big plans for beyond just being there as a side character, but I didn’t want to neglect her outright and just skip to the characters I wanted to focus on or already had a lot of focus.  I’ll be interested to see how I approach future characters now that I’m trying to get back into a proper swing of things with regular writing.  I plan on doing a few quick two chapter anthology on Team BEAT these next few weeks, and then it’s on the Team GASH.  And some of those stories might introduce similar challenges for me like Terra did, but I think that if I just stop doing nothing and start doing something, I’ll shake off the cobwebs and get back into a proper writing rhythm and hopefully create more stories folks will enjoy.

Author's Note

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