Right, now here's the second-last chapter for the story. Before you read this story, I first would like to state that NOBODY IS GOING TO DIE IN THIS CHAPTER. While reading, you might think this, but no, no Teen Titan will die. I like each of them too much to even consider kicking one out of the series. The type of death that will be in this chapter is only a temporary death. It might not actually a death at all, depending on your POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

Chapter 10:

DETERIORATION

"GO!!" Robin ordered. He then took out a smoke bomb from his utility belt and threw it down on the ground in front of him. The resulting smoke was enough to completely conceal all five of them.

Khaos made a strange gesture with his hand then used his powers to diffuse the smoke into the air. Just as the smoke cleared however, a raging green bull rammed into him and sent him crashing into a nearby wrecked five-story building. Cyborg fired all his rockets. The missiles homed in on Khaos, resulting in a huge explosion that completely demolished the building and made it fall on the demon.

After a few short seconds, Khaos got up and shook off the rubble. He roared, then barraged the Titans with fireballs. They evaded all of the attacks, but then Khaos changed tactics. He fired two steady streams of flame from his palms like flamethrowers, blasting away at the Titans.

Through all the evading, Starfire finally found herself close enough to Khaos, who was preoccupied with attacking the other Titans. She lunged at the demon, then landed punch after punch into his upper torso and head.

But after a while, Khaos anticipated Starfire's attack and grabbed her arm. He spun her around his head like a ragdoll then released her, sending her sliding down the road. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon at Khaos as he was looking the other way, and landed a few hits. But Khaos used his powers to create a vacuum just in front of the cannon, and since sound needs a medium to travel in, the cannon didn't fire.

As the demon did this though, Robin threw two freeze disks at Khaos' feet, pinning them to the ground. He then did a flying kick and hit the demon's side. Robin then began to hit Khaos with combos from his dual bo-staffs. After several hits, Robin kick-flipped from Khaos' torso, at the same time thrusting his bo-staffs into Khaos' chest. But Khaos slashed at him with his claws, and Robin tried to block the attack with his bo-staffs. His weapons were sliced into pieces bu Khaos' claws, rendering them useless. Robin threw away his destroyed staffs and pounded Khaos with every martial arts move he could think of, but was stopped when the demon got hold of his torso and slammed him into a nearby brick building. The entire structure collapsed, but Raven protected Robin with a shield.

Then Beast Boy, in the form of a raptor, pounced all over Khaos and sliced through his skin with the raptor's claws. Black blood oozed out of the cuts. Khaos roared, then curled his hand into a fist and punched at the dinosaur, but Beast Boy changed into a snake and easily dodged the demon's attacks. He slithered his way to the demon's back, turned into a huge crocodile and bit Khaos' wing with his powerful jaws. Khaos reached for the reptile on his back and once he grabbed Beast Boy, flung him into the empty bay.

Starfire was high in the air at that time and dove downwards at Khaos. She fired laser beams from her eyes and threw volleys of starbolts, while on the ground Cyborg was charging at the demon. Khaos pointed a finger at Starfire, and an arc of electricity fired from the finger, but Starfire strafed left in the air, dodging the attack. When Starfire and Cyborg were only a few feet away from Khaos, he disappeared into air and they both missed him. But Raven knew that trick, and made a bubble of black energy right where Khaos used to be.

Something laughed as she did so, "Foolish Raven, did you think I would fall for the same trick tiwice?"

Khaos reappeared behind her and was just about to smack her down, but Cyborg rammed him and the demon crashed onto the ground.

The Titans were about to attack again, but Khaos got up and became hard as diamond again, becoming impervious to the Titans' attacks. Robin then got an idea and threw several freeze disks at their enemy, completely encasing him in ice.

"Cyborg!" Robin shouted, "Fire at him with your cannon!"

Cyborg did, and then the diamond Khaos shattered together with the ice around him.

"Woohoo!" Cyborg cheered,"Boo-ya!"

However when he said this, the shattered crystals reformed into Khaos, his body now made up of water. He then surged his way toward the Titans. Raven transformed herself into astral form. Raven's soul self, shaped in a raven, flew toward the water Khaos and entered the demon's liquid body. From inside the demon, Raven made Khaos explode outwards, sending water scattering all over the ground. She then phased under the ground and returned to the other Titans.

"Did we beat him?" Beast Boy said, observing the water that showered all over the place when Khaos exploded. But then, all the water started to gather at the position where Khaos exploded, forming a blob of water. The blob began to take the shape of the original Khaos, then he completely turned back into his normal demon form.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven uttered, now revitalized. Several chunks of rubble from the building behind the Titans were surrounded with a black aura, and launched themselves at Khaos. To defend himself, Khaos used his powers to form a wall of rock that burst from the ground to shield himself from Raven's projectiles.

"Raven, keep that up while we think of something," Robin ordered, "Guys, any ideas?"

Beast Boy was about to suggest something, but Cyborg interrupted him, "Not you."

"Cyborg?" Robin asked.

Cyborg thought for a while, but couldn't think of anything.

"Sorry, I've got nothing."

"Star?"

Starfire shook her head slowly.

"How about you Raven?"

"I'm kind of busy right now."

'Dammit,' Robin thought, 'No ideas all day. How can we defeat a demon?'

They didn't notice that Khaos was no longer hiding behind his protective wall of rock, and again vanished.

"Uh guys… where's that Khaos dude we were fighting?"

That was when Khaos reappeared right in front of the Titans, then zapped all of them with bolts of lightning. After several painful seconds, they all fell to the ground, fried. Then some invisible force levitated them off the ground and levitated them in front of Khaos.

"You have become nuisances to me long enough," Khaos growled at the Titans, "Now I will destroy you all, and become ruler of the universe! And I will start with you." He pointed at Raven.

Raven was still trying to escape the from the grip of Khaos' powers, and Khaos pulled his arm backwards, ready to thrust his claws into Raven. Raven shut her eyes closed. Already she could feel the demon's claws puncturing her skin.

Khaos thrust his arm. It all seemed to be in slow motion. Raven felt the slight breeze caused by the thrusting arm. But just as the claws were about to connect, Khaos stopped. Raven opened her eyes. The demon staggered backwards a few steps, his hand over his chest. Raven watched as Khaos struggled to stay standing, falling over now and then. Khaos lost his control over his powers and the Teen Titans were set free. They all observed as Khaos fell onto all fours, his black bat-like wings covering his whole body, except his head. The demon then stood up and roared painfully into the sky. A red marking appeared on his chest. The Mark of Scath.

Beast Boy panted, "Is that…"

"Uh oh," Cyborg muttered.

Khaos unexpectedly faced the Titans, the rune on his chest glowing red brightly. Then it glowed white, as a body all covered in black demon blood flew out of the demon's body and just in front of the Titans. They all realized who it was.

"X!" Raven called out. But X was unconscious, and didn't even know what was happening.

The symbol on Khaos' chest glowed red again, this time even more brightly than before. Khaos' roars continued while the glowing mark grew brighter and brighter. Then a red beam of light suddenly shot out of Khaos' chest, and the mark disappeared. The beam of light looped several times in the air at lightning speed, then impacted into the ground in front of the Titans Tower. A huge red figure faded into view while Khaos began to fade away. Soon the Titans realized the red figure was Trigon, released from Khaos. And now Khaos was disappearing from the Universe.

"No…" Khaos growled. He was lying on the ground on his front. He looked around him frantically, as if he was looking for something important. Finally, he saw X and reached out his hand for him. He started to dissolve into small white particles that slowly floated in the air. The particles hovered towards X and collected into a bright white spot above him. After all the particles settled into the spot, the white orb disappeared into X's body.

A sneer formed on Trigon's hideous face as he saw this.

"Heh, coward."

"I guess that takes care of Khaos," Cyborg stated, "But how about Trigon?"

"I'll deal with him," Raven said. She then floated off the ground and flew right in front of Trigon's face.

"You're going back to where you came from."

"We shall see," Trigon barked, "about that!"

Trigon fired his eye blasts at his daughter. Raven evaded the deadly beams, while she blocked those she couldn't dodge with her powers. Eventually finding herself behind Trigon's head, she fired a ray o black energy at Trigon. The ray hit the demon squarely in the back of the neck, Trigon stumble forward from the sheer force.

"Miserable girl," Trigon thundered, "Once again you have tried to save the world, but to no avail!"

At the end of this statement, beams from all four eyes of Trigon blasted Raven. Her body stiffened from Trigon's attack, then she crashed down to the ground. She knew she was dying.

For the second time in only minutes, she had another near-death experience. The whole world again seemed to be in slow motion. She looked at her friends, who were shouting her name, but she couldn't hear any of it. She could only hear a deafening silence. She looked up into the sky, and saw a bright white light in the distance. A face started to fade into view, her mother.

Raven called out to her, but her mother still had the same sad expression on her face. Her face faded out again. Raven felt as if she were weightless, just hanging in the air when she was actually lying on the ground. Finally, all she could see was white.

The Titans couldn't believe their eyes. Raven was dead. Trigon killed her. Nothing could stop him now. Raven lay unmoving on the ground, lifeless.

Starfire stared in shock, but couldn't look at Raven any longer. She collapsed onto Robin and hugged him, sobbing on his shoulders. Robin just hugged her back. It couldn't be. Raven couldn't… die just like that.

Beast Boy also felt as if he was going to cry. Raven… the first one who liked one of his jokes. He always tried so hard to make her smile… and never succeeded, but he knew one day she would. And the last thing she said to him was to shut up…

Cyborg felt his legs getting numb, and fell down onto his knees. Raven was… dead? She was like a sister to him. Most of the time he was the one who saved Beast Boy from Raven's wrath.

Trigon didn't say anything at her death. He was happy. Really, he was. And yet, why did he feel as if this was a mistake.

Soon, he realized why. Raven's body floated into the air, bright white light emanating from her eye sockets. She rose several meters off the ground, then her body faced Trigon. Voices seemed to be chanting, and whitish shadows began to appear out of nowhere and cover Raven in a tight bodysuit of white energy. The shadows appeared slowly at first, but then started to rapidly emerge. Eventually her whole body was covered in white. Only her silhouette could be made out.

"What's happening to Raven?" Cyborg said, watching te phenomenon occuring in front of him.

"Azarathian fools!" Trigon roared in anger, "You know you cannot destroy me! Azar! You will not succeed!"

But then a beam of white energy projected itself from Raven's body and hit Trigon. With one last roar, Trigon was blasted out of existence. Immediately, everything went back to normal – the sky, the bay, the buildings, and the people.

"Trigon has been… destroyed?" asked Starfire as she removed herself from Robin.

"I… think so," Robin replied, still unsure.

Gradually Raven regained coloration, and gently floated back down to the ground. Because of her gray skin the Titans couldn't figure out ìf she was alive or dead. But she seemed to be the latter. All this changed when Raven coughed.

"Raven!" Robin called out, and all of the Titans ran out to meet her. Beast Boy even changed into a cheetah to get to her faster.

"Raven, you're, a…LIVE!" Beast Boy exclaimed, his phrasing apparently affected by Raven's revival.

Raven slowly got up. It seemed as if nothing even happened. She didn't feel much tired, and she couldn't feel pain anywhere in her body.

"Are you alright? How're you feeling?" Cyborg asked. He scanned Raven for injuries.

"I feel… fine," Raven answered. She recalled what had happened. She fought Trigon, then he blasted her with his eye beams. She fell to the ground, then she saw her… mother, Arella. It must've been Azarath. The souls of Azarath used her to destroy Trigon.

"Friend Raven, I am overflowing with joy that you have not passed into the second life!"

"Yeah, for a minute there I thought you were…" Beast Boy paused, then hugged Raven, "I knew you were alive!" His hug took Raven by surprise, and was almost as tight as when Starfire hugged. She was actually wondering why Starfire wasn't hugging her right now. She then realized it was because the three other Titans were absolutely beaming at her and Beast Boy. She rolled her eyes.

"Not this again. Quit it."

It was really hard for me to think of a way for Trigon to be defeated second time. I didn't want Raven to become giant again, since that was probably a one-time deal like Cyborg's 'magically' regenerating body. So, I went to the comic book for inspiration. I didn't actually read the comic book. I just read that the souls of Azarath, with the help of Azar, whom Lilith sort of summoned, possessed Raven's dead body to channel some kind of white energy to destroy Trigon. I'm not sure what really happened in the comic book.

The next chapter will just be about what X will do after this, and it will also explain why Cyborg's DNA test went wrong.