A few questions will be answered in this chapter, but not all of them though. If you think some crucial explanation is missing from the story, please tell me so I can put it in.
Disclaimer: I like, totally don't own the Teen Titans.
Chapter 9:
ASSIMILATION
"Huh?" said Beast Boy, confused at what the demon just said, "So X is both Trigon's son… and his older brother?! This is messed up!"
"No Beast Boy," Robin explained to him, "X isn't that demon. X is Trigon's son, but that demon is Trigon's older brother."
"Oh."
"Khaos?! I thought you were imprisoned!" Trigon shouted, it seemed that a little fear was in his voice.
"Wrong half-brother. Just as I was about to be banished into my prison world, I fused myself into my enemy, your son, until I could finally take over the Earth! But it seems you beat me to it, Trigon."
"You are right," Trigon said, finally recovering from shock, "I have conquered the world without a vast demonic army. And since it is mine now, I command you to leave this place!"
Khaos made a cross between a laugh and a roar.
"Wrong again brother. Now, I will destroy you!"
Then, Khaos thrust a huge, clawed hand and into Trigon's chest. Trigon let out a loud roar of pain, then he collapsed into the ground and started to dissolve into small particles that slowly hovered in the air and vanished into Khaos' chest.
The effect of Trigon's defeat was almost immediate. The sea of lava began to disappear, and the sky started to lose its blood red color.
The Titans were all speechless. Beast Boy was the first to blurt out.
"That was it?!" he yelled, "No big battle? No cool superpower feats? No blood and gore?!"
"Well, nobody said killing a demon would need all that, especially when you're an even more powerful one," Cyborg said, "But I guess it was pretty boring."
As Trigon's carcass dissolved further, they saw that on the place where the body fell, a figure in a violet cloak was lying on the ground.
"Raven!" Robin pointed out. He and the others ran over to her as fast as they could. When they arrived beside her, she was already starting to wake up from unconsciousness.
"Huh? What happened?" Raven said groggily.
"Don't you remember?" Beast Boy knelt down near her and helped her up, "You got all evil and stuff, then you became Trigon's portal again. But don't worry, he's been taken care of."
Raven's body felt exhausted, as if she had just ran a marathon, a really really long marathon.
"Trigon? Where is he?" Raven asked, struggling to keep standing.
"Trigon's gone…" Robin replied, "…thanks to X."
"X?" Raven gasped, "How did he…"
"We shall tell you later," Starfire told her, "For now, please save your breath."
Raven did, then looked around and saw a huge demon. She gasped, it was the demon X turned into before. But at that moment, she remembered why it seemed to look familiar to her, the demon was her father's half-brother, Khaos.
Trigon was the result of the mating of a female member of a cult and its powerful god. But actually, the god mated with five female members, each one bearing a powerful demonic offspring. Trigon was one of them, and Khaos was too.
"Oh no…" she uttered.
"Do not worry friend Raven, it is all over."
"No…" said Raven, "That's Khaos, my father's half-brother."
"We know, Rae," Cyborg reassured her, "And we've got it all under control."
"But you don't understand," Raven contradicted him, "If Trigon ruling the Earth is bad, then Khaos ruling it is even worse!"
"Hey, don't worry Raven," Beast Boy told her, "Khaos will change back to X any time now."
"I… I don't think so," said Raven, stuttering out of distress.
Khaos then spoke, "You are right, my niece. Now that I have disposed of your father and absorbed his essence, I am free to rule my newfound kingdom. I must thank you though Raven, had you showed such hospitality to your brother, I would not have been able to induce your rage. But your usefulness has expired."
The sky started to change color, but now instead of red, it was colored dark brown. The city was still in ruins, and this time the ruler was Khaos.
"Oh man… this is bad…" Cyborg announced.
"All in favor?" Beast Boy said.
The other Titans played along.
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Ayeeee!!" Starfire screamed as Khaos threw a ball of flame at them. They quickly evaded it, but the dust from the resulting explosion obscured their vision.
Cyborg walked around in the dust cloud. He couldn't see where he was going. He held out his hand in front of him, but couldn't even see it. He stopped and tried to call out to the others.
"Robin! Starfire! Beast Boy! Raven! Where are you guys?!"
But there was no answer. It actually looked as if the dust was getting thicker. But he couldn't tell if it really was getting thicker because something hard hit him in the back of the head.
Meanwhile, Starfire flew up into the air to escape the cloud of dust, huffing and coughing all the way. Once she cleared her lungs of the dust, she looked around to get her bearings. But then she noticed that the massive demon was no longer there. She flew around and looked below her, searching for her teammates, but couldn't see anything inside the expanding dust cloud. She flew closer to the edge of the cloud, trying to see through it better, but suddenly a giant, black clawed hand reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into the dusty haze.
Robin was nearby, but couldn't see what was happening to his teammates because of the visibility. He put on a mask to prevent breathing in the dust in the air. He too saw that the dust cloud was becoming a dust storm. He then remembered his training with the True Master. He closed his eyes and focused. He could feel the dust swirling in the air, rubbing against his skin, particularly at the back of his neck. But then he realized something was breathing down the back of his neck. He snapped open his eyes then somersaulted forward, barely missing the slash of Khaos' claws. He turned around then threw two explosive disks roughly where the head of the demon should have been, and was rewarded by a loud roar of pain. Robin smiled at his success, then ran in the opposite direction to escape from the shroud of the dust cloud. But a pillar of rock burst out from under the ground and wrapped around him. He was trapped, and then his mask fell. He coughed the dust he inhaled. If he didn't get out of the dust soon he would suffocate.
Meanwhile, Beast Boy was still helping Raven walk. They used her cloak to shield their lungs from the dust, but they knew they had to get out of there soon. Beast Boy tried to see where they were, but couldn't even see Raven, whom he was holding. So they walked in a random direction, thinking eventually the dust cloud would eventually settle. But they were wrong, the wind started to pick up, and in a short span of time, the cloud turned into a dust storm. Then a hand grabbed Beast Boy and pulled him away, leaving Raven lost in the storm. She fell to the ground, but she tried to focus, and with all her remaining energy, she tried to stop the dust storm.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
After a few seconds the dust settled, and she could see around her again. But what she saw was not good. All the other Titans were slumped on the ground, unconscious.
Raven got up. She was refueled with energy when she saw what became of her friends. She tried to wake up the one nearest to her, Cyborg.
"Cyborg, wake up!"
She nudged him, and he stirred. After making a quick diagnostics test on his body, Cyborg thanked Raven and they set out to wake up the other unconscious Titans. But before they could, Khaos, now shrunk down to the size he had when the Titans first battled him, flew down from above and landed just in front of Raven.
"Hello there Raven. I see my brother has taken care of you well."
Cyborg ran in between Raven and the demon, aimed at Khaos' head, then jumped. He punched at the demon's face, but Khaos moved sideways and evaded the attack. Cyborg then punched and kicked some more at the monstrous demon's body, but Khaos somehow evaded every single blow. Khaos seized Cyborg's foot then hurled him upwards. Khaos stretched out his hand toward the metal man, and electricity arced from his fingers toward Cyborg, frying him. He crashed to the ground, creating a shallow, smoking crater.
Raven stepped behind her slowly. Trigon was one thing, but Khaos was another. If she was right, he was the most powerful one among the demonic half-brothers. He had power over all matter and elements, while Trigon could only control fire.
"It's good to finally meet you, probably the last remnant of that half-brother of mine, Trigon."
Raven couldn't speak. She continued to walk backwards, away from her 'uncle', but he walked towards her at the same pace.
"Once I destroy you, nothing will stand in my way to conquer this world, and every other."
Khaos pointed a finger at the ground beside him, then a chunk of rock floated up and out of the ground. He then pointed the finger at Raven, and the rock went flying towards her.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven said, afterwards the rock was engulfed in black energy and it was sent back toward the attacker. It hit him squarely in the head.
"You foolish girl," the demon said as he spat out black demon blood, "There's nothing you can do to stop me now."
This Raven also knew. There was no way she could beat Khaos. He was too powerful. She barely defeated her father before. There was no other choice. Khaos now ruled the Earth.
Raven sank down onto her kness, then onto all fours, tears falling from her eyes.
'Everything I did to stop my father…' she thought, '…and then it wasn't him who should've been stopped, it was my uncle. And now the Earth stands even less of a chance than it did with Trigon… all because of me.'
"Grieve all you want, my niece, for soon your time will come, as will it for all your friends."
The unconscious teens floated into the air and toward Raven. Once they beside her, they all dropped to the ground. The Teen Titans were now just in front of the one who defeated them one by one. The four Titans, almost all at once, regained consciousness.
"What… what happened?" Robin groaned, "Raven?"
Robin saw Raven sobbing beside him, and saw why. They all lost to Khaos. He was too powerful for any of them to take on.
The three other Titans also woke up, and tried to comfort Raven. Starfire then also began to cry, but for Robin, it wasn't over.
"Titans, this isn't the end," Robin told them, trying to convince them to give one last fight, "We've been through times when everything seemed to be hopeless, and we couldn't see any way to make everything right."
The Boy Wonder's speech got the attention of his fellow Titans, and Khaos' too.
"Now is just like one of those times. It will take everything we have to get through this, but it will be well worth it in the end."
The Teen Titans all stood up and formed up with Robin in the middle, like teenage Power Rangers.
"And…"
"Uh Rob, I think we get what you're saying," Beast Boy interrupted him, "Could you just skip to the good part?"
"Right," he answered. They all took their battle stances. Beast Boy, at the right of their formation, was on his hands and feet, ready to transform into an animal at any time and lunge at Khaos. Raven was on the other side, floating in the air with her hood up and her eyes glowing white. Her hands were surrounded with black energy. Cyborg was beside her, his arm already a sonic cannon and rocket pods were open all over his body. Starfire was beside Beast Boy, in the air with her eyes and hands glowing green. Her teeth were clenched in an unStarfire-like manner. And in the middle was Robin. He took out two of his bo-staffs and twirled them around with his hands.
"Amusing," Khaos commented on their performance. He didn't feel much threatened though.
"Teen Titans…" Robin said, then made a dramatic pause for several seconds.
"GO!!"
I hope a few questions were cleared by this chapter. Trigon and Khaos were very cooperative in telling the story behind this story... though not completely. I really wanted Khaos to be a super-powerful being. Even Trigon seemed to be afraid of him. And about how he was imprisoned even if he did have so much power... well I don't know yet. In another fic maybe.
If you were thinking that Trigon was destroyed, even after Starfire said he couldn't be in the previous chapter, well... Trigon isn't really dead. He was just absorbed by Khaos. I'm also not sure how the hell that can happen, but even if Trigon was absorbed, he can still be released. That's if he can figure out how.
And Raven of Alaska, technically Trigon, Khaos and all of their brothers are 'The Beast'. The Beast is supposed to rule the world, and Trigon and Khaos did that. The three sixes is the number of The Beast, and there is actually a story of why that number was on X. But as I said, it'll be in another fic. If I explained everything in this fanfic it'll be more than twice as long... and I don't want that for my first fanfic.
Yes, the name of the demon is Khaos. In Greek mythology (or is it Roman), Khaos is the universe before it became the universe we know now. At first I was going to name Khaos with a name similar to Trigon's, like Monogon or Digon or Tetragon or Pentagon. But that would be corny. So now you know why the title's Khaos X.You're probably thinking the title sucks. But that's fine, at least it's spelled correctly... oh wait, it's not.
