AUTHOR'S NOTE: This doesn't take place in the same storyline as my "Forced Base" and "Fractured Heart" stories, so forget those when you're reading this. Also, about Sanza/Red X: When he's wearing the mask, he's Red X. When he's not, he's Sanza. Simple as that.
SECOND AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third part of a trilogy, which includes "The Life and Times of Red X", and "Maiden of Stone", both of which are in my profile. Read those before you read this. Also, this fic COMPLETELY IGNORES the events of the fifth season (with the exception of "Go"). For the purposes of this fic, "Things Change" NEVER HAPPENED.
O-O-O
The inside of the temple was lit only by a few candles lining the walls. As Slade entered, he could see a small silhouette in the darkness. Through the dim light, he could make out a set of eyes staring straight into his own... this wasn't the person he'd expected, but he was prepared to do battle with her anyway.
"You must be Slade," said Chu-hui, her voice filled with calm intensity.
Somehow, she could already visualize Slade's grim path up the mountain... his defeat and subsequent slayings of the three guardians... who were also Chu-hui's best friends. Her fists clenched as the smell of their blood wafted over to her nose... she held back her tears of grief, there would be time for them later.
"And you must be the woman who trained Robin so very well... he's improved so much since our first battles."
Slade knew his mission, he knew it well... but he wasn't above having a bit of fun first. He would talk with Chu-hui as long as it amused him... and he could see that his words were causing her more and more pain.
"I assume you have come to kill my latest pupil... but he is not here."
"He's still on this mountain, don't try to fool me."
"You won't get to him," Chu-hui stated, crouching into a fighting stance and preparing for any attack that Slade could possibly throw at her. Unlike when she was training Sanza, she wouldn't be holding back... not even a tiny bit. She'd be giving her all right from the start... she knew that the lives of her guests depended on it. "Unless you can go through me."
"That's exactly what I was planning to do," Slade calmly replied, tossing away a small bag of equipment he'd brought with him up the mountain. He wouldn't need any of it to beat Chu-hui... he didn't care how much of a master she was. "And after I deal with you, Sanza and Terra will be all mine."
"You will not deal with me."
With incredible, almost inhuman speed, Chu-hui somersaulted forward several times, spanning the length of the dojo in barely more than a second. She issued forth a series of kicks that impacted Slade's head and chest, throwing him back hard against the temple doors. After she came back down, she launched her fist straight into Slade's gut, then lifted her arm upward, undercutting him below the chin and launching him nearly a foot into the air.
As Slade was coming down from the blow, he kicked at the center of Chu-hui's face, only to have the master easily block it and punch Slade again as soon as his other foot hit the ground. The punch imparted enough force to bend the front doors of the temple as Slade was thrown against them, and easily caused him to lose his footing, falling into a slumped position against the doors and letting out a groan.
"You can leave now, or I will throw you off the mountain myself," said Chu-hui, just before Slade struck her in the face with a right hook, seemingly out of nowhere. The punch threw the master away from Slade long enough to allow him to stand back up, rolling his head to the left before returning it to its normal position.
"You may be quick, but I can assure you that it will take more than a few fancy moves to stop me," Slade said coldly, walking toward Chu-hui as if the first series of blows he'd took had never happened at all. The master stood up and wiped her lip, which was still stinging from the punch she'd sustained earlier. Then, she leapt back, allowing Slade to take another step closer before leaping into the air and aiming a flying kick at Slade's chest. Slade responded by surging forward with another powerful punch, and the two blows landed simultaneously, throwing both combatants back.
Chu-hui landed on her feet, while Slade stumbled backward and nearly lost his footing, leaving him open to another leaping kick to the chest. This time, Slade was unable to counter, and was sent reeling again, falling hard onto his back. Chu-hui tried to capitalize by throwing her fist down for a punch at her prone opponent, but Slade was able to roll out of the way just in time, sliding his leg outward and hitting Chu-hui in the back of the knee, bringing her to the floor. The two stood up at the same time, throwing several punches and kicks at each other that were either dodged or blocked. Finally, Chu-hui came in with a lightning-quick punch to the side of Slade's head, and he found himself knocked back again.
Slade was undeterred, and he lunged forward with another punch, only to watch as Chu-hui slid to the floor, ducking under the punch and between Slade's legs. She got to her feet and continued forward, running up the wall behind Slade as he turned around and watched in stunned disbelief.
"That's impossible..." Slade thought, watching as Chu-hui took four long strides up the wall, then walked upside down on the ceiling for two more steps before leaping off and swinging her body around. Slade turned once more, right into the path of a spinning kick that knocked him back into the wall that Chu-hui had just scaled. "Unnngh!!"
The master wasn't done yet. As Slade languished with his back to the wall, Chu-hui thrust her right palm forward, sending out a wave of concentrated energy that slammed into her opponent with more force than a speeding truck. Slade could feel the air being knocked out of his body as the wall behind him buckled, nearly giving way. The attack was strong enough to crush the chest cavity of a normal man, but Slade, protected by both his armor and his healing factor, was mostly unharmed... though he was clearly stunned, and he fell to one knee, trying to catch his breath.
"It would seem... that I've underestimated this woman..." thought Slade, looking up just in time to see Chu-hui kicking up at his throat. He reached out and grabbed her foot, stopping it just three inches from impact. "No more games..."
Taking Chu-hui's ankle with both hands, he swung the woman around, bringing her into the nearly wall. Before she slammed into it, she placed her left foot against the wall, kicking out of Slade's grasp and catapulting herself behind him. Thinking that he was about to turn and faced her, she threw her right fist forward, only to have Slade leap back over her head with equal dexterity, landing behind her and kicking at the small of Chu-hui's back. She leapt over Slade again, dodging the kick and putting herself behind him once more, then took two more steps back in anticipation of him trying to get behind her again.
Instead of doing this, Slade turned around, kicking right at Chu-hui's face. She grabbed for his foot, only to have him stop his kick at the last moment and lower his right leg to the ground. As soon as he'd done that, he kicked forward with his left foot, hitting Chu-hui right across the bridge of her nose and knocking her onto her back.
"Don't tell me," said Chu-hui, standing up to face Slade once more. "You were holding back before."
"Yes, I admit that it's difficult for me to believe that an old woman such as yourself could be so skilled at martial arts... but it is not a mistake I'll make again."
The two were now standing in the center of the dojo, having already severely dented the wall near the front doors of the temple during their fight. Slade had suffered the bulk of the blows, but seemed to be completely unharmed... while Chu-hui's face was slightly bruised, mostly near the left side of her lip. Neither of the two had broken a sweat... and though Slade didn't look it, he was beginning to get a bit uneasy.
"So, are you going to attack me again?" Chu-hui asked.
"I think you should go first..."
"Very well."
Chu-hui bent her knees outward, crouching down and appearing as if she was going to take a forward leap. As Slade prepared himself for another kick, he saw his opponent rocket straight up into the air, flipping her body around once and planting her feet right onto the ceiling before coming back down at an angle, both of her palms extended. She slammed into Slade's chest with prodigious force, tackling him instantly to the ground and positioning her knees on his chest. With all the wind knocked out of him again, Slade was unable to defend himself as blow after blow rained down on his face, a series of bruising punches that made him more disoriented than ever. He could feel the metal of his mask begin to distort under the pressure of each blow, and finally, a punch came down and made a tiny crack in the mask, right beside Slade's right eye. Before another punch could come in, he reached up and grabbed Chu-hui by the wrist.
"That will be quite enough," said Slade, looking into Chu-hui's eyes.
With surprising strength, the master twisted her captive arm, bending Slade's own right arm further and further back, until the pressure was entirely reversed and Slade found himself on the verge of having a dislocated shoulder. He twisted onto his stomach, but this didn't help, and only gave Chu-hui more and more leverage.
Gritting his teeth under the mask, Slade threw back his left arm, catching Chu-hui with a vicious elbow that forced her to release her grip on his right wrist. As she flew back and impacted the dojo floor, Slade stood up and rolled his right arm around, quickly dulling the pain in his joints. As Slade was recovering yet again, Chu-hui stood up, taking a few deep breaths and wiping the first few beads of sweat from her brow. It had taken a great deal of effort to keep Slade's powerful arm locked in a deathgrip, and consequentially, she'd been unable to keep herself from being knocked off of him.
"He recovers so quickly from my attacks... it's difficult to believe that he's human... he is a monster..."
The master had not been given even a moment to grieve for her fallen friends, the guardians of the mountain... she'd blocked their memory completely out of her mind, wanting only to focus on the battle ahead. The best way for her to avenge them would be to defeat Slade in battle... but this was quickly becoming a daunting proposition, and the normally supremely confident Chu-hui was becoming a bit worried.
"I must end this now," said Chu-hui, turning back toward her opponent and looking up into his face.
"Starting to feel the pressure? It's only natural to be afraid... you have bitten off more than you can chew."
"I do not fear evil, and I do not fear you," Chu-hui replied, the strength returning to her voice. "And I will not allow your plans to succeed."
The two combatants rushed each other again, and Chu-hui went right to work, focusing up her chi into her palm so that she could strike at Slade with another energy attack. Slade could see it coming, and thrust out his own palm to block, absorbing most of the energy of the blow and allowing the rest of his body to escape with only a minor buffeting. He then kicked forward at Chu-hui, who blocked the blow with her forearm, then leapt into the air and threw three fast kicks at Slade's face. He moved his head back, narrowly avoiding all three kicks... but was unable to avoid the punch that Chu-hui threw into his gut as soon as she came down. The punch caused Slade to stumble back again, and enabled Chu-hui to launch another chi strike, this time with both hands.
The energy rushed toward Slade in a wave, but instead of raising his arms to block, he put his head down and charged straight through it, letting out a loud scream and throwing back his arms. The violent sonic wave caused by the force of the repelled attack stunned Chu-hui, deafening her for a moment and giving Slade the time he needed to headbutt her in the face. The headbutt, combined with the force of the energy attack, sent Chu-hui flying. She was knocked clear across to the back of the dojo, where she slammed into the wooden weapons rack, smashing it to pieces and sending multiple staves falling to the floor.
"Once I experienced the attack a few times, it wasn't hard to isolate the resonant frequency of your energy aura," stated Slade. The revelation that he could analyze energy auras simply by feeling a chi attack was a bit of a shock to Chu-hui... but she didn't show it. Instead, she calmly picked up one of the staves, holding it out in front of her body. "Ahhh... so, you want to fight that way, do you?"
Slade reached behind his back and produced a small metal stick... which quickly extended to the length of the bamboo staff that Chu-hui was holding in her hand. He then crouched down, holding the staff behind him in one hand and beckoning the master toward him with the other.
She complied without hesitation, rushing forward and planting the staff into the ground, then using it to vault into the air and bring the weapon down at Slade's head. He parried with the metal staff before sweeping it outward in a quick motion at his opponent's chest. Chu-hui swung her weapon at the same time, and the two staves collided, making a loud cracking noise as metal and bamboo smacked together.
"You're so predictable," said Chu-hui, her voice lined with muted rage.
"So are you..." Slade replied, just before launching a kick at the bridge of Chu-hui's nose, right where another kick of his had impacted earlier. The kick caught Chu-hui off guard, knocking her back and allowing Slade to bring the end of his staff right into her stomach. He then tossed his own staff away and grabbed Chu-hui's, trying to rip it from her hands but being unable to do so. He tugged as hard as he could, but despite sustaining several devastating blows, Chu-hui's grip was as strong as ever. "How...?"
"I don't think about the pain," said Chu-hui, smiling as a trickle of blood slowly made its way down her right nostril. Slade released his grip on her staff, but was unable to do anything else as she brought the staff up across his head and chest, knocking him away several feet and putting him back on the floor.
Slade lay on his side for a few moments... he could feel a lingering pain throughout most of his upper body, but he put all of that at the back of his mind as he looked up at Chu-hui. Her nose was bleeding... he'd struck quite a potent blow, and though it didn't diminish her ability to fight him, he knew that she was vulnerable. There were two bruises on her face, the one he'd caused near the beginning of the fight, and another, much more recent one, right below her left eye.
"You will fall soon enough..." He began to stood up again, pulling himself off of the floor as Chu-hui watched, holding her staff at her side. "Your confidence will be your downfall."
Chu-hui knew she'd taken a beating before she'd been able to knock Slade away... though she was clearly quicker and more skilled than he was, he seemed to be shrugging off most of her blows... and now she could feel exhaustion beginning to creep in. She knew she couldn't keep fighting at this level forever. But despite that, she knew that she had the stamina and the willpower to keep fighting more than long enough to put Slade down. It would be a long fight, but she was used to hard work... nothing that was worth accomplishing ever came easy.
As Slade began to back toward his discarded staff, Chu-hui leapt at him again, striking with several quick, sweeping blows. He blocked several of the blows against his forearm, feeling a sharp sting as the bamboo made contacted with his lightly-armored flesh. When Chu-hui tried to hit him under the throat with the broad side of the staff, Slade brought up his foot, pushing back against the weapon before shoving out his leg with all of his strength, knocking Chu-hui off balance. This gave him enough time to run back and grab his staff... then run back forward to strike down with a furious blow.
The two warriors screamed as their weapons collided once more, then began a brief war of attrition, in which both of them attempted to push their staff back toward the other. When that didn't work, they leapt away from one another and came forward again, swinging away and parrying each other's blows. They repeated this two more times, striking, leaping in another direction, then striking again, with neither of them able to exploit any weakness in the other.
"We are both equal in strength and speed," rasped Slade, looking into Chu-hui's eyes as he pushed his staff against her own with all of his might.
"That is a lie," Chu-hui replied, blocking Slade's increasingly furious efforts to make an attack on her. "But this is getting us nowhere..."
The two looked into each other's eyes for a single moment, both of them deciding simultaneously to abandon their weapons. They threw their staves aside and lunged at one another, grabbing each other's hands and pushing back and forth. Slade pushed first, forcing Chu-hui three steps back before she was able to gain a foothold. She gritted her teeth and pushed forward, and Slade was forced back two steps before he was able to maintain his position and stand his ground. The two remained locked in place, continuing to stare each other down, pushing back and forth but not budging even a single inch.
"You are... losing your strength..." Slade said, his own voice clearly displaying a great dear of exertion.
"Not as fast as you are losing yours..." Chu-hui replied, much more calmly, her voice straining a great deal less than Slade's was. She pushed forward again, forcing Slade back half a step before stopping in mid-stride and beginning to concentrate her energy again. "If I can land a strong blow now, I'll be able to weaken him for the rest of the fight... I must be careful, I must not strike until I have a clear opening..."
As Chu-hui focused more and more of her energy into her limbs and diverted it away from the center of her body, she allowed Slade to push her back again... her eyes remained locked on his, and her grip on his hands became even tighter.
He looked back at her, narrowing his eyes and awaiting her next attack... he anticipated it, and remained entirely focused on diverting the energy of her next strike.
"She's going to move quickly... which means my reaction will have to be just as quick."
He studied her eyes, her expression, everything about Chu-hui that indicated that she was preparing to attack. He was awaiting a tell... a single, solitary moment when her focus changed, when her attention became diverted, when the aura she was giving off shifted ever so slightly...
Finally, that moment came. Chu-hui's grip on Slade's hands loosened, and she immediately pushed a wave of concentrated chi energy outward from her body. Slade responded by thrusting out his right arm and launching a concussive energy blast that bent the air around the front of Chu-hui's attack, piercing through it and slamming into her chest, as well as diverting the rest of the energy from Chu-hui's wave around to the extremities of Slade's body.
The result was that both fighters were blasted back... Chu-hui was jettisoned straight back into the far wall, while Slade was able to somersault backward, counteracting the force of the momentum and landing on his feet. A moment later, Chu-hui impacted the wall, denting it and sliding downward, groaning in pain. She'd suffered her first significant blow of the fight... and it had been a doozy.
"How could he have overpowered my energy attack...?" Chu-hui stood up slowly, hunched over and rubbing the small of her back, which had suffered the brunt of the impact from the wall. As she stood, Slade could see that her normally calm demeanor had faded... she looked bewildered, and for a moment, looked as if she'd forgotten where she was entirely. She looked over at Slade, who was standing about fifteen feet away, his arms across his chest. "A lucky strike..."
"There was nothing lucky about it," Slade stated. "I found an opening, and I exploited it."
Slade still looked completely unharmed, though Chu-hui was sure that there would be some bruises behind the costume... she was completely unaware of Slade's healing factor, and could not believe that after expending so much energy, he was standing before her as if he'd just walked through the door.
Still, Chu-hui was undaunted. As durable as Slade was, she was still faster, and she still had experience on her side. Slade was expending too much power far too quickly... soon, he would have a devastating drop-off... and he would be completely at the master's mercy.
"You must be tired by now... let's see how you respond to this!" Chu-hui shouted, leaping back and planting both of her feet into the wall, then jettisoning herself forward across the room. Surprised by his opponent's speed, Slade was still able to lift up his right arm, preparing to slam it into Chu-hui's face as she flew across the room. She continued to fly forward, and instead of colliding with Slade's arm, she grabbed it with both hands and held onto it like a monkey, using it to swing herself around and kick Slade in the face. She swung herself around two more times, each rotation faster than the one before it, before finally flipping herself off of Slade and landing in front of him as he shook off the kicks.
"This ends now!" thought Slade. As Chu-hui tried to ram her fist into his gut, he threw his own fist forward, striking her across the face and knocking her away. He then attempted to kick Chu-hui, but she blocked the kick against the side of her right leg, then attempted a kick of her own with her left, which Slade blocked with a second kick. Once again, it was a stalemate, and the master and the mastermind both leapt back, each of them looking for the opportunity to make another strike.
They rushed forward at each other again, launching into a flurry of punches right at the other's face. As Slade punched at Chu-hui's forehead, she raised her arm to block and push Slade's fist aside, then turned her fist forward and struck at Slade's throat. Her punch was stopped by Slade's hand, clasping tightly around hers before going for a headbutt that Chu-hui avoided by swinging her head just to the side, then bringing up her right arm again and backhanding Slade in the middle of his face, knocking him back. This gave Chu-hui a few seconds to breathe, and she did just that, taking in several quick, shallow breaths, hunched over slightly as she did so. Slade was breathing a bit slower, and he quickly took note of his opponent's fatigue, realizing that with every blow she struck, she lost a bit more of her energy... already she'd slowed down to Slade's pace, and now, Slade noticed that his blows were coming in just a bit faster than hers.
"You're playing right into my hand... keep coming, keep fighting... we'll see just how long you can keep this up."
Chu-hui looked back up at Slade, who had bent over slightly to put himself closer to her level... was he taunting her, or was he just getting close enough so he could hear her speak? It didn't matter... she wasn't the least bit interested in having a conversation with Slade. He had to pay for killing her friends... for defiling her sacred mountain temple with his evil intentions.
Even if it took every ounce of strength in the True Master's body, she would never let Slade win... she would destroy him even if it killed her.
"What are you waiting for...?" asked Chu-hui.
"For you to catch your breath," Slade replied, before charging forward with a brutal kick that hit Chu-hui in the side of the head, sending her flying back across the room. She flipped over once, landing on her feet in a position not unlike the stance taken by a runner before the start of a race. She continued looking straight forward and slightly up, rubbing the side of her now-bruised face.
"Are you sure you weren't just waiting until you caught your own?"
Chu-hui ran toward Slade at top speed, leaping up at him with a flying kick that hit him right in the chest. The kick sent Slade back into the temple doors again, and he bounced off of them with a loud shout before falling onto his face on the floor, groaning in pain.
"You didn't even try to dodge that attack," said Chu-hui, waiting for Slade to stand before coming at him again. She jumped into the air and spun around, aiming another kick at Slade, this time at his face. He reached up and blocked the kick with one hand before roughly shoving Chu-hui away, watching as she stumbled back for a moment before regaining her footing and taking yet another martial arts stance. "What is he doing now?"
Slade knew that in Chu-hui's haste to bring an end to the fight, she would start acting out in desperation, using flashy attacks that expended a great deal of her remaining energy. All he would have to do to win the fight would be to weather the storm of her attacks, taking as little damage as possible while still retaining enough energy to fight Sanza, and possibly Terra, should she happen to show up.
"I must calm myself..." thought Chu-hui, taking a step back and refocusing her energy. She began to concentrate, blocking out all of the negative emotion, all of the anger, the grief, and even the fear out of her mind. "If I am to wear him down, I must not use up energy on knockout blows... I must be slow and steady, like the flow of a mighty river... I must not worry about what could happen if I lose, because I will not lose. I will win."
"Are you praying for strength?" Slade taunted, trying to intimidate Chu-hui and bring her negative emotions to the surface. "It won't help you now... you will be defeated, and you will die."
Chu-hui stood her ground, her eyes narrowing and her wrinkled face showing a stern, resolute expression. She stepped forward toward Slade and swept out her arm, aiming a chop at his chest that he blocked against his wrist. She chopped at him again, this time aiming for his waist... Slade dodged to the side and moved back, lifting up his elbow and bringing it down between Chu-hui's shoulders... but she turned and rolled out of the way just in time, bringing her knee up into Slade's gut and forcing him to back off again.
Regaining her speed and her stamina, Chu-hui stepped forward and battered Slade with two strong punches, once in the chest and once in the face. Again, Slade stumbled back, and the master continued her assault, leaping back into the doors and kicking off of them, flipping around and bringing her feet into Slade's chest. After knocking Slade back, she landed on the ground and stepped forward... only to have to take another deep breath as she did. She could feel a great pain in her limbs, but quickly waved it off by shaking her head.
"I'm still losing energy..." thought Chu-hui, looking up and seeing Slade rushing straight toward her. She crossed her arms in front of her body in the shape of an X as Slade brought down his fist... she blocked his blow, but was knocked back several feet towards the door... and her arms throbbed where Slade's fist had impacted. "I have to concentrate!"
The calmness was once again gone from Chu-hui's face, and Slade could see that she was continuing to lose her strength, despite all the steps she took to focus it.
"I guess that no matter how hard you train, sometimes you're just too old to keep fighting..." Slade walked toward Chu-hui again, his voice completely calm, even beginning to display a hint of victorious arrogance. The master stood her ground, thrusting out her palms and looking right into Slade's eyes.
"With age comes experience..." Chu-hui replied, "and besides, I have a feeling you're not too much of a spring chicken yourself."
Slade smirked beneath his mask, somewhat amused by the fact that the old master could tell, even with his face completely concealed, that he wasn't nearly as young as he used to be... though he was still younger than her by almost a generation.
"You can have all the experience in the world, but if you lack the strength, you will not win."
By now, Slade was standing right in front of Chu-hui, in clear striking distance... and she was more than ready. She thrust out her palms, blasting Slade with a concentrated wave of chi energy... but he stood his ground, even as he was knocked back a few inches... he put his arms up to deflect the blow, and soon, Chu-hui could no longer sustain the assault. She dropped her arms, preparing to defend herself against Slade's next attack... which came in the form of a devastating punch that struck her right in the forehead.
The blow came in too fast for even the master to defend herself, and she was immediately thrown back against the doors with such force that they were nearly thrown open. Slade's steel-lined knuckles struck a bruising blow, and split Chu-hui's skin in two places... blood began trickling down from her forehead, not a rapid flow, but definitely a noticeable one, and the master was staggering as she got to her feet.
"That... came out of nowhere..." thought Chu-hui, squinting as blood from her cut forehead began entering her eyes. Seeing red, Slade punched at her again... but this time, Chu-hui was able to block, grabbing Slade's fist and holding it back from reaching her face. "One punch... is more than enough..."
As Chu-hui's grip tightened around Slade's fist, he smiled... then pulled back his arm as hard as he could, forcing a stunned Chu-hui slightly forward, and giving Slade the opening he needed to bring his elbow down into the back of her head. Chu-hui let out a gasp and fell to the ground, clearly in a daze... her vision was starting to cloud.
"I suppose you're wondering, with all of your speed and your skill, how I possibly could've beaten you...?"
Slade now stood next to the fallen Chu-hui, who was starting to make her way up from the ground. She pushed up her arms, putting herself on all fours as stars continued to dance in front of her eyes.
"It was a simple question of stamina... as strong as you are, your body just wasn't able to hold out against mine... perhaps against a normal man my age, you would have won... but I'm hardly a normal man."
Just as Chu-hui was beginning to pull herself to her feet, Slade struck her in the head again with a powerful kick that put her flat on her back, barely conscious. Now breathing extremely quickly, the master looked up through narrowed, hazy eyes, cursing herself for not being able to focus enough energy to defeat Slade.
Now Sanza and Terra were entirely at his mercy... but she still held out hope that her training would be enough... that it would give Sanza the strength he needed to defeat what she knew would be a severely weakened foe.
"Government experimentation made me a super-soldier... living up here in the mountains, I don't think you quite understand what that means, so let me spell it out for you. I have the strength of ten men... a hundred men... and my body heals its injuries much, much faster than a normal person would be able to recover. Back when I was a mercenary... the greatest assassin on Earth, they didn't call me Slade... I was known as Deathstroke, the Terminator..."
Slade bent down and picked Chu-hui up from the floor, lifting her so that she could look him right in the eye. She didn't look even the least bit afraid... she did everything she could, and she knew that even though Slade didn't look it, he was depleted by their fight... exhausted... weakened...
"Sanza... will... stop... you..." Chu-hui stammered, before reaching forward to wrap her hands around Slade's neck. Before she could, Slade punched her in the face again... and instantly, Chu-hui's eyes closed. She slumped over in Slade's grasp, her head hanging back limply as her arms dropped to her sides.
"I don't think so."
Slade unceremoniously dropped Chu-hui's lifeless body to the floor, then turned toward the front of the temple, staring across the room at the damaged doors. He began walking toward them, knowing that somewhere outside, Sanza was walking around, not suspecting a thing.
"If your teacher could not stop me, you have absolutely no chance, Sanza."
O-O-O
Far away from the temple, on the other side of the mountain's summit, Sanza was calmly praying in a small shrine... his legs folded beneath him, his eyes closed, he was focusing completely on the trials that lay ahead.
Once he returned home, he would have to do battle with Slade... he didn't even begin to suspect that at that very moment, Slade was back at the mountain temple, having just defeated Sanza's master Chu-hui.
"Lord... please give me the strength I need to protect the people I love... my mom... my sister... my friends... and... and Terra... I've trained so hard, I know I'm not the best fighter in the world... that's why I need Your help."
He only had about a half-hour left before he would be returning home... he just hoped that Terra was awake, since she was the one that was going to have to bring him back to Jump City.
"I tried to tell her that Robin could come pick us up in the T-Jet, but she insisted on bringing me back on her own... I guess if she got here on a rock, she can bring us back on one... I just hope she doesn't fall asleep, we'd fall into the ocean!"
Sanza quickly tried to remember what Chu-hui had said... she'd told him to block out all the worries from his mind, concentrate only on the battle ahead... he only had thirty more minutes, he couldn't waste them on worrying about whether or not he'd fall into the ocean.
"I trust Terra... she's not gonna fall asleep... we'll make it back home, safe and sound... then we'll beat Slade... and then we'll have the rest of our lives to spend together."
A smile formed on Sanza's face, and he cleared his mind again before resuming his prayers.
O-O-O
Terra's dreams had been both vivid and loud... a cacophony of images and sounds that kept her tossing and turning in her sleep... she'd decided to spend the night in Sanza's room, where she would wait for him to come back from his meditation to wake her up. Unfortunately, what little sleep she had was made almost intolerable by her indecipherable dreams, until finally, she awoke with a start, sitting up on the padded mat where she had been slumbering.
"What in the world is going on out there...?" she said to herself, rolling out of bed and putting her socks and shoes back on before sliding away the panel to the room and looking out into the dojo.
What she saw when she looked out brought an incredible shock. Chu-hui was lying in the middle of the floor... she wasn't moving, and she didn't appear to be breathing either. As she ran out to check on the fallen woman, she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye... she turned in its direction and saw Slade standing next to the temple doors, about to exit through them.
Their eyes locked at the same time... Terra's mouth was wide in fear and shock, while Slade was completely calm. He hadn't expected Terra to come out right after his fight with Chu-hui... apparently, his former apprentice was a very sound sleeper.
"You..." gasped Terra, her entire body beginning to tremble. "Why... why are you-"
"I'm here to kill Sanza," Slade replied, "but it seems that there's no shortage of fools rising up to defend him."
When Slade gestured toward the fallen Chu-hui, Terra's attention was briefly diverted. She ran over to the master and knelt down beside her, placing two fingers on her neck to check for her pulse.
"You shouldn't be worried about her," said Slade, beginning to walk over to Terra. "I still haven't forgotten about our little fight back at the volcano."
Clenching her teeth in rage, Terra rose to her feet, her eyes and hands beginning to glow. Before Slade could take another step, Terra thrust out her arms, causing a spike of rock to burst up through the floor of the temple, right beneath Slade's feet. The seismic force sent him flying out through the front doors, and he landed on his back outside, letting out a gasp as his already battered body slammed into the rocky ground.
"You tried to ruin my life... I'm not ever going to let you ruin Sanza's!" Terra followed Slade out of the temple, coming down the steps leading up to the doorway and raising up another chunk of rock from the ground, throwing it down at Slade. Slade rolled out of the way, avoiding the rock and stopping in a crouched position some fifteen feet away from his former apprentice. "I... I hate you!"
Slade calmly stood up, wiping the dust and pebbles from his body before making his way back over to Terra. The geomancer threw up several slabs of rock in Slade's path, which he either punched through or walked around as he continued to walk toward his increasingly frightened blonde opponent. Soon, Terra found herself backing up, until she was standing in front of the doorway to the temple, with Slade still slowly approaching her.
"You ruined your own life... by throwing away the gift I gave you!" Slade punched forward, hitting Terra in her cheek and knocking her aside. She rolled on the ground for a few seconds before standing up and launching two small, fist-shaped stones at Slade, hitting him in the chest and knocking him back.
"He's right... I did ruin my life... the moment I betrayed my friends..." Slade's return brought all of Terra's old insecurities back to the surface, and she found herself beginning to tremble, even as Slade struggled to get up from the ground. "No... no, I've been forgiven for that! Sanza forgave me! He loves me! I have to protect him!"
As Slade started to stand, two large stone fists emerged from the ground and held him down, keeping his arms locked in place. They began to press against him, pushing him down and exerting a painful, almost strangling force. Terra gritted her teeth and pressed her hands downward, causing the stone hands to do the same, crushing Slade even tighter and causing him to let out a loud, painful cry.
"This is how I felt every time you hit me!" shouted Terra, hate clearly visible in her narrowed blue eyes. The stone hands crushed even tighter into Slade, forcing the last of the air out of him and causing him to begin choking. "This is how I felt every time you threatened me! This-"
With an even louder cry, Slade broke free of the hands holding him to the ground, sending small pieces of rock flying in all directions. He began walking toward Terra again, causing her to gasp and back off, away from the temple and toward the mountain path.
"You can fight all you want, Terra, resist all you want... but you know your powers are useless against me."
"That's not true!" Terra screamed, levitating a small rock from the ground and flinging it in Slade's direction. Almost effortlessly, he reached up and caught it, crushing it in his hands and instantly forming a large diamond, which he hurled back in Terra's direction. Stunned, she was barely able to dodge the projectile, and by the time she looked back over at Slade, he was charging toward her as quickly as he could. He rammed into her with his shoulder, knocking her to the ground with such force that her ankle twisted beneath her. "Aaaaaaaaaaah!"
Terra fell on her side, holding her injured leg and moaning in pain. Slade brought up his leg to stomp on her, but at the last moment, the geomancer was able to create a small earthquake beneath Slade's feet, knocking him off balance and giving Terra the time she needed to stand up and put some distance between Slade and herself.
"Come on, Terra... you don't have to be afraid of him anymore...! You beat him once, you can do it again!" But no matter how much Terra tried to reassure herself, her powers brought her little comfort... of all the people in the world, Slade was the one she feared most... he trained her, and he could destroy her as well... with every slap, every punch, every kick he'd dealt to her during her intense training, that fear was constantly drilled into her head... and even now, she could barely bring up her hands to strike a blow. "You stood up to him, remember?"
"I can see it, Terra... that fear is still there." Slade did not come toward Terra, even as she began backing off down the mountain path... he taunted her from a distance, he wanted to conjure up all of her old ghosts, her nightmares... wanted to destroy her from within. "You can't defeat me, even though Sanza's life depends on it. You've always been a coward."
Slade's words struck a nerve within Terra, who instantly remembered exactly what she was fighting for. Slade hadn't come here to kill her... he'd come to kill Sanza.
"I have to protect him...!"
Terra ran forward at Slade, clenching her fists as she cleared the gap between the two of them. She pulled back her arm and struck at his face with a punch, a slow, careless strike that he easily countered. He grabbed Terra's arm and twisted it hard behind her back, forcing out a pain-filled scream.
"Now you're just being reckless," Slade said quietly, wrenching back Terra's arm even more.
In agonizing pain, Terra did the only thing she could think of doing... she lifted up her leg, kicking Slade in the groin as hard as she could. The blow connected, and Slade let out a gasp, releasing his grip on Terra and allowing her to hit him with a slab of rock, throwing him onto his back.
"I don't care if it's fighting dirty, I'll do what I can to get rid of you..."
"Good..." said Slade, rising up from the ground and hobbling a bit as he walked back toward Terra. "That's the kind of thinking I'd expect from a former apprentice..."
Still favoring her arm, Terra began having a flashback... back when she was training under Slade, he'd used that exact tone to congratulate her... now he was using it in response to one of her attacks... was she still thinking like one of Slade's evil apprentices?
"No!!!" thought Terra, putting both of her hands over her ears and shaking her head rapidly. "No, I did what I had to do! Sanza would've done the same thing...!!"
Upon seeing Terra in the midst of another meltdown, Slade charged forward at her again, hitting her with a powerful kick that spun her through the air twice before she hit the ground several feet away with a sickening thud.
"Remember, Terra... you wanted to destroy the Titans... you wanted to help me conquer the city..."
Slade had made his cut, and now he was just driving the knife in deeper... and Terra, lying on the ground in considerable pain, could start to feel a small stream of blood come down from her forehead, dripping off the tip of her nose and forming a small puddle on the ground below. The sight of her own blood, combined with the constant reminders of her horrific past, stirred up enough fear and despair in Terra to bring her to the verge of tears.
"I... I wanted to help him... I did terrible things... I had no regrets..."
Terra turned around and looked up to see Slade coming toward her again, walking calmly, going in for the kill...
"I can't let this happen!!"
Terra clenched her fists, and the ground began to shake beneath herself and Slade, as two large, stone slabs burst up from the ground on either side of him. Terra then brought her hands together, causing both slabs to rush inward.
Letting out a yell, Slade thrust out his arms, blocking both slabs against his hands and stopping them in place.
"You... can't... stop me...! I... made you... what you are!"
"NO YOU DIDN'T!" A bright yellow glow surrounded Terra's entire body as she began to stand, pushing the two large slabs even closer together, forcing Slade's arms inward. He could feel an intense strain on his muscles as he strained with everything he had to keep the slabs of rock from crushing him between their massive weight. He pushed outward against them, causing large cracks to appear in their facades... Terra tried to bring her hands closer together, but Slade was too strong, and the ground beneath Terra's feet began to lower, cracking and forming a small, shallow crater. She screamed and tried to focus all of her energy into the slabs, but with one final push, Slade knocked them both away, causing them to fall to the ground and shatter into pieces. Now drenched in sweat, Terra fell to her knees, bowing her head as tears began flowing down the sides of her face. "I... I can't beat him..."
"Was that... all?" Slade began walking toward Terra again, his breathing labored as his weakened arms fell to his sides. Stopping Terra's attack had clearly drained him, but it had drained a lot more from her... it seemed as if the geomancer had made her last strike. "It wasn't even worth training you."
Terra rose to her feet again, raising up several small rocks and throwing them at Slade. He was knocked back slightly, but then he continued toward Terra, not even raising his arms as she began to glow again. When she raised up another rock, one much bigger than the others, Slade reared back his head and smashed his face right through it.
"How did he...?!" Terra's arms dropped to her sides again, and her legs started to tremble beneath her. Slade grabbed Terra by the neck and threw her back toward the temple, but this time, she was able to stop herself, levitating two rocks up quickly and grabbing onto them, using them to float herself gently to the ground.
By now, Terra barely had the energy to stand... her forehead was still bleeding, though slower than before, and her entire body ached from having been tossed to the ground so many times. Slade, meanwhile, seemed to be completely in control, and he slowly came back toward her, almost beckoning Terra to try and attack him.
"Come on, Terra... you can beat him... you shouldn't even be letting him touch you!" Once again, Terra lifted up her arms, creating a wall of stone pillars around her that completely blocked her off from Slade. She stood in the center of the pillars and put her hands on her hips, allowing herself a brief smile. "Now let's see him try to attack me..."
As soon as the wall was up, Slade charged forward, ramming into one of the pillars at full speed. He smashed right into it, breaking it down and backing Terra up to the far wall... but this is exactly what she wanted. She lifted herself up on a cylindrical platform and tossed all of the pillars at Slade, flinging them at his body like giant stone two-by-fours. Slade was successful in dodging a few of them, but soon, they began battering his body, ramming into him at more than thirty miles an hour, and pummeling him with a series of blows that brought him to one knee. As soon as all the pillars had stopped flying, Terra lowered herself to the ground, clenching her fists and looking into Slade's eyes.
"I'm not afraid of you..." said Terra, her body glowing as the ground beneath Slade began to crack. She forced up the rock beneath him, forming several large spikes underneath his body... but he was too fast for Terra, leaping up into the air and aiming a kick down right at her face. Terra tried to form another rock structure, but the kick struck first, striking Terra between the eyes and knocking her back. She slammed into the ground again, bouncing up once before landing on her back ten feet away from Slade, fading in and out of consciousness.
"You will be," Slade replied, "but I think you already are... you're trying to hide it from me, but I knew from the moment I met you that you let your fear control you... you let it drive you to betray the people you love."
As Slade walked toward her, Terra stood up, feeling a sharp pain from her twisted ankle, an injury which had become even more aggravated by the fall she'd taken. She raised up her arms and tried to form a slab of rock to knock Slade away, but ended up levitating only a few small stones, and Slade easily punched through them.
"I would... never betray them again..."
"You betrayed them once, you can always do it again... I bet you'd even betray Sanza if you were afraid enough."
Terra's eyes widened, and she gasped... before her face quickly took on an expression of furious rage. She clenched her fists and levitated a cube of rock from the ground that was nearly five feet in length on all sides... with one blow from her fist, the cube shattered into thirty-six small, spiked stone projectiles which she threw at Slade with as much force as she could muster. The spikes moved to impale Slade, but at the last moment, he leapt up over them, somersaulting through the air and landing right in front of Terra. Still angry, she took a step back and raised her hands to strike Slade again, only to have his hand clench tightly around her left wrist. With her right hand free, Terra threw a punch at Slade's head... a punch that he dodged to the side at the same time that he released Terra's arm, causing her to stumble forward.
In less than a second, Slade's foot struck Terra in the side... a brutal kick that instantly brought Terra from a state of intense anger to a state of absolute fear. She could feel something shattering inside of her... one of her ribs, instantly fracturing under the force of the blow. With a piercing scream, Terra fell to her knees, clutching her broken rib and trembling violently. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, but another scream came anyway, followed by streams of tears making their way down her cheeks. She let out a third scream, but it was silent... the pain was so intense that Terra was unable to catch her breath, and she felt as if she was going to throw up, but nothing came.
"Now would you betray him? Would you betray Sanza to make the pain go away?"
Terra was too weak to say it, but the answer would've been no... even if she were feeling pain a million times worse, she would never forsake Sanza... but now, it was too late. Her weakness had brought harm to him worse than any betrayal... she was in no shape to continue fighting now.
Slade brought his fist down on the back of Terra's head, and all went black.
"Two down... all that remains is for me to eliminate Sanza."
As Slade looked down at the fallen, unconscious body of Terra, several thoughts crossed his mind. He could easily kill her here and be done with it... but he knew she hadn't suffered enough, not nearly enough for what she'd put him through. The agony of being burned alive, the suffering he'd endured in the underworld, and the struggle to regain his life... all had been because of Terra, and if he killed her now, her suffering would be exactly the same as his. A few seconds of intense pain, followed by death...
...she had to suffer much, much worse.
Without a word, Slade grabbed Terra by the ankles and dragged her back into the True Master's temple. He placed her unconscious form next to the bag of equipment he'd brought up to the mountain, then knelt down beside the bag and opened it up.
"I'm going to make you watch him die..."
O-O-O
Terra opened her eyes and saw only darkness... the candles lining the dojo had all gone out, but when her hazy vision returned to normal, she could see the moonlight streaming in from outside, and remembered exactly where she was.
"Sanza..."
She was lying on the straw floor of the dojo, and could feel a dull pain in every part of her body... especially in the right side of her midsection, where something just didn't feel right... something was disconnected from something else, and whenever she tried to move, it felt like something was stabbing her in the ribs.
There was also a dull pain in her arms, and when Terra tried to move them, she realized why. Metallic bands had been placed around her arms, binding them at the wrists... and at the elbows as well, which caused her chest to bend out slightly and put even more pressure on her aching ribs. When she looked down at her legs, she could see her ankles bound in similar fashion.
"Mmmm... I can't... move my lips...!"
A piece of duct tape had been placed over Terra's mouth, silencing her and forcing her to breathe through her nose... which was no small task, considering that it was slightly stuffed up from when she'd been crying earlier. She was lying on her side, and the second she began to struggle against her bonds, she felt an agonizing pain.
"MMMmmmmm!"
"...you're awake."
Terra expelled several quick breaths through her nose as the stabbing pain in her side began to fade... her bound elbows bent out her entire midsection, putting her broken rib under a horrendous amount of strain. Now that she was fully awake and aware, the pain was constant... she let out another scream, much quieter than the last, looking up in terror as Slade slowly walked toward her.
"While we wait for Sanza, I'm going to show you some of the pain I experienced after you killed me."
Slade lifted Terra up by her shirt collar, holding her up in the air and bringing back his fist. As she watched on in painful horror, Slade struck her with a devastating punch, splitting open her forehead and forcing her to let out another loud, muffled scream.
He then dropped Terra to the ground, making sure she landed right on her injured ribs. She screamed again, nearly passing out before rolling onto her back and letting out another agonized cry.
"Sanza...! Someone... anyone... help me!!!"
Terra had never been in this much pain... her side felt as if it was about to rip apart, and the rest of her body wasn't feeling too terribly good either. She closed her eyes as a stream of blood from her forehead began dripping onto them, not wanting to experience any more agony than she already was. As Slade slowly walked toward her, Terra couldn't help but open her eyes again, just to see what he was about to do... he brought his foot back and was about to strike Terra right in her injured rib, a blow that Terra knew would cripple her for life... if she survived this ordeal in the first place.
A wooden staff hit Slade in the back of the head... it was such a forceful blow that the staff broke in two, and Slade instantly fell to his knees. As Terra rolled out of the way, she looked up to see her savior.
It was Chu-hui.
"You will not hurt her any more!" Chu-hui stood strong, holding half of a bamboo staff in her hands... she was clearly exhausted from her earlier battle, but despite all that, she wasn't about to allow Slade to lay another finger on Terra. Angrily, Slade stood up, turning away from his captive and looking down into the master's eyes.
"I see that there's still some life left in you... it appears that I'm just going to have to stomp it out."
Slade began to walk toward Chu-hui, who tossed away her staff and slammed her fist into Slade's gut as hard as she could. The blow stunned him for a moment, but he continued walking forward, raising his right arm to block another punch from Chu-hui. He smacked her arm away, then brought up his foot and kicked her in the face, knocking her onto her back.
While this was going on, Terra watched in both fear and astonishment... she turned herself around so that she could lie on the opposite side of her broken rib and observe the fight at the same time... and though it caused her intense pain to do so, she continued to struggle against the bands holding her arms, knowing that she might still be Chu-hui and Sanza's only hope.
"I see you've fought the girl..." said Chu-hui, who could sense that Slade's blows were coming in a bit slower than they'd been when he'd fought her. "And she put up a very good fight."
"She was nothing."
Slade threw his fist forward at Chu-hui as the master stood up, but his punch sailed right above her head as she bent her body back to avoid the blow. She reached up and grabbed Slade by the wrist, trying to throw him over her body and into the wall... but because of the injuries she'd suffered, she was unable to do so, and Slade was able to easily kick her away. Terra immediately let out a scream, fearing the worst as Chu-hui's body slammed into the wall next to the doorway. She continued to struggle, wincing and shutting her eyes as tightly as she could as more pain shot out from her broken rib.
"I'll show you just how nothing I am..." As Terra struggled courageously, Chu-hui was being pummeled by punch after punch from Slade, her body battered repeatedly against the wall as she tried to fight back.
"A futile effort," Slade said calmly, even as one of Chu-hui's kicks landed a glancing blow against his side. "You should've continued to play dead."
"I wasn't playing..." thought Chu-hui, who looked past Slade just long enough to see Terra's predicament... as badly injured as the girl was, she was still struggling with all of her might to get free, even though the fight was putting an incredible strain on her body. "I just wish I could've awakened before you had to get involved, Terra... I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you from this..."
Another of Chu-hui's kicks came Slade's way, but he responded by grabbing her ankle and flinging her back. Exhausted and injured, Chu-hui was unable to right herself... she hit the floor hard and rolled several times, coming to a stop just a foot away from Terra, who stopped her struggles and let out a scream as the master climbed to her feet again.
"Please... you can't fight him, just get out of here... you're going to die...!"
Terra's protests were muffled by the tape sealing her lips, but Chu-hui had a pretty good idea of what the blonde was trying to tell her. She looked at Terra and tried to give her as encouraging of a smile as she could, wanting to calm the frightened girl's nerves... wanting to let her know that it would be all right.
"Don't worry... I can beat Slade... I'll get us both out of this, just-"
Slade's fist slammed into the side of Chu-hui's head, immediately bringing an end to her conversation with Terra. The master fell to her knees, a dazed expression on her face... Terra let out another scream, but this only seemed to encourage Slade, who got behind Chu-hui and picked her up from the ground, his arm wrapping tightly around her neck.
"This is your fault, Terra... what happens to her is your fault, and what happens to Sanza will be your fault as well."
Slade's arm tightened around Chu-hui's neck, constricting her airway and cracking the bones around her throat... Terra was stunned into silence, her eyes widening as she slowly shook her head.
"Don't... don't... please... please, Slade, NO!"
A sickening crunch could be heard as Chu-hui's neck finally cracked from the pressure that Slade's arm was exerting. Her eyes closed, and her head drooped... the True Master was dead.
Horrified, Terra let out a scream of anguish, watching helplessly as Slade casually dropped Chu-hui's lifeless body to the floor. She let out a muffled sob, but the tears wouldn't come... they'd already been cried out, most of them for herself.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust... you'll be joining her shortly, but not before your boyfriend..."
Every conceivable negative emotion was now welling up within Terra. Fear, despair, grief, anger, hatred... it was this last one, the pure hatred she felt for Slade, that caused her to pull herself up as much as she could, up to her knees, her eyes looking up into his face the entire time.
"I hate you..." She spoke slowly, making sure that Slade could understand every word, even through the tape. Hidden by his mask, Slade's lips curved into a smile... he understood Terra completely, and he was about to let her know that the feeling was mutual.
He backhanded Terra hard across the face, bringing her back down onto her side and forcing out another scream. Then, he lifted her back up again, pulling her up by her hair until she was standing next to him, gripping her chin in his hand and forcing her to look back up into his eye.
"I know you do."
Before Slade could strike her again, he could see someone step into the doorway of the temple. He turned to face them, turning Terra around as well.
"Put... her... DOWN!"
It was Sanza, his arms in front of his body, his hands clenched into fists, glaring over at Slade with a look of pure contempt. Slade immediately pulled Terra in front of him, still keeping the tight grip he had on her jaw.
"Look at her, Sanza... she threw everything she had at me and didn't stand a chance. What makes you think you can even land a single blow on me?"
Sanza already knew the answer to that question... he loved Terra with all of his heart, and he would fight to protect her, he would give everything he had to make sure she was safe. He didn't care if he had his suit, he didn't care if Slade was bigger, stronger, faster... all he cared about was protecting Terra.
"I said 'put her down'," Sanza repeated, emphasizing each word and taking a step toward Slade. Once he was inside the temple, he could see Chu-hui's lifeless body on the floor... he knew she was dead from the moment he saw her, and a terrible grief gripped at his heart... but soon, that grief was overwhelmed by his anger, and unable to control it any more, he ran at Slade as fast as he could, determined to rip him limb from limb. Slade threw Terra roughly to the floor, then prepared for Sanza's first attack, which took the form of a high, spinning kick. Slade blocked the kick against his right hand, catching Sanza's foot and throwing him back. Sanza remained standing, and once he'd stopped himself about two steps later, he immediately got himself into a fighting stance and prepared to strike at Slade again.
"Your master and Terra were just as determined to beat me as you are right now, and both of them fell."
"Shut the fuck up."
Sanza was in absolutely no mood to have a discussion with Slade, running at him again and throwing a brutal punch right to the center of Slade's chest. The punch came in much quicker than Slade had expected, and he was knocked back, unable to raise his arms in defense before another punch, this time at his right shoulder, struck with even more force and caused Slade's body to spin slightly to the side. This was where Sanza aimed for next, his foot heading right at Slade's waist.
As Sanza's kick moved forward, Slade reversed his momentum and swung his body back, moving his right side away from Sanza's kick while bringing his left fist straight at the boy's mouth. The punch struck a direct hit, and Sanza was tossed backward, hitting the floor and letting out a scream. A single droplet of blood hung in the air for a moment before hitting the floor, and more blood was coming down the right side of Sanza's mouth, staining his chin and the top of his white karate gi. Terra let out a horrified scream, scooting over to Sanza and trying to shield his body with hers.
"Terra, no..." Sanza quickly rolled out of the way, safely away from Terra as he stood up and raised his fists to continue the fight. "You've done enough... you've weakened him... now let me do the rest..."
Sanza's anger had subsided a bit, replaced entirely by regret... he'd heard none of the fighting, either inside of the temple or outside of it, and had come back merely to wake Terra up for their journey home.
But now, instead of heading for home, Sanza was in the fight of his life... and Terra's life as well. He stood his ground as Slade came toward him, blocking both punches that Slade threw before lunging forward and driving an elbow hard into the villain's gut. Again surprised by the strength that Sanza was showing, Slade stumbled back, his eyes widening as he walked Sanza run toward him and continue the assault, battering Slade's face and chest with a series of powerful, well-aimed punches. Slade was forced back even further, and found himself having to block the next few blows that came in.
Faced with a much more formidable opponent than he'd anticipated, the exhaustion from the previous two fights was finally setting in for Slade, who had to catch his breath while at the same time blocking nearly a dozen of Sanza's best punches... and was barely able to stave off the last few. He finally earned himself a brief respite after bringing up his foot and kicking Sanza in the chest, knocking the boy away and giving himself time to breathe.
"He's reeling..." thought Sanza, wiping some of the blood away from his mouth and watching as Slade hunched over. A surge of confidence began welling up within Sanza, and he charged forward, leaping into the air and bringing his leg down on Slade's neck. Slade reached up and grabbed Sanza by the ankle, flinging him hard into the wall and instantly bringing the boy down from his mid-battle high. "Aaayyyyugh!"
Terra screamed again, both out of fear and frustration... she grimaced as another stabbing pain shot up from her ribs, but continued pulling at the bands around her arms, even as she felt them beginning to cut into her tender skin. A few feet away, Sanza was beginning to stand, even as Slade threw a powerful punch right at his head. He slid his body to the side and kicked Slade in the chest to push him away, then charged forward and launched himself into a diving tackle. Slade brought his knee up into Sanza's gut, immediately stopping his lunge and bringing him to his knees... where a single backhand was all it took to throw the boy back into the wall.
"Is that it? Two weeks of training, and that's all you have to show for it... a few new kicks and a bit more speed. You truly are a fool."
Slade wrapped his hand tightly around Sanza's neck, cutting off his oxygen while at the same time pinning him up against the wall. Sanza struggled fiercely, but this only caused Slade's grip to get tighter and tighter... and soon, the boy started to gasp and choke.
"Had you become my apprentice, had you trained under me, you would have power unimaginable... you would have enough skills to defeat Robin, even without that suit of yours... and with it, you would have been completely invincible."
Sanza narrowed his eyes... then began looking back and forth between Slade and Terra... it broke his heart to see his beautiful angel, battered, bleeding, and broken on the ground. One look at Terra reminded him why, no matter how much Slade threatened him, no matter how much harm he threatened to cause, he would never, ever serve him. He returned his gaze back to Slade, clenched his teeth and looked the villain right in the eye.
"There's just... one problem..." gasped Sanza, managing to get just enough air to be able to speak. "I hate your guts."
He brought his head forward, striking Slade between the eyes with a vicious headbutt. It hurt Sanza, but hurt Slade just as much, even with the mask... and he was sent tumbling back, his grip loosening from Sanza's neck. Sanza charged forward, planting his elbow right into Slade's gut... then, while he was doubling over, Sanza struck Slade with a punch to the face, causing the crack that Chu-hui had formed in his mask to get much larger. The crack now ran all the way down from just above Slade's right eye to just beside his lip... and for the first time, Slade was beginning to show fear.
Sanza looked down at Terra, the angry expression on his face immediately softening as he walked over to her... he had to get her out of here, he couldn't let her spend another minute with Slade, not after all the harm she'd already sustained.
"Terra... can you stand...?" He knelt down beside Terra and reached forward to remove the tape from her lips... but out of the corner of his eye, he could see Slade diving toward him. Sanza immediately threw himself backward so that Slade wouldn't plow him over... instead, the criminal mastermind landed just behind him, punching down at the floor. "LEAVE TERRA OUT OF THIS!"
"She was the one who attacked me," said Slade, before turning around and sending another sweeping kick right at Sanza's head. Sanza reached up and caught Slade's foot in his hands, but was unable to block the second kick, which hit him in the face and sent him flying over Terra. He landed on his back in the middle of the dojo, watching as Slade stepped over Terra and came toward him. Sanza quickly stood up, blocking Slade's first punch, only to be again sent reeling by a devastating second blow that threw his body up and into the air again.
Sanza landed in the middle of the meditation room, flat on his back on the padded mat that once served as his bed... now offering him only a brief respite from a fight that was as brutal as anything he'd ever been in. He stood up and exited the meditation room, charging toward Slade and launching himself into the air, aiming a dropkick at his opponent's head. Slade dodged the kick by simply stepping back, allowing Sanza to hit the floor.
"Come on, Sanza... this is what you trained for..." Still forced to be a silent, helpless spectator, Terra continued to watch as Sanza struggled to gain an advantage over Slade. As exhausted as the archvillain was, he was continuing to give Sanza all he could handle... and then some. "Please... please don't die..."
Sanza grimaced and groaned as he rose to his feet again, only to be immediately knocked down by the side of Slade's powerful forearm, which rammed into Sanza's face and brought him back down to the ground, his head slamming hard into the straw floor. Slade attempted to stomp down on Sanza's chest, but he rolled out of the way and got back up again, stepping back toward the panel in front of the temple's kitchen. As he backed up, he stepped over the body of Chu-hui... whose bloodied, lifeless face was a grim reminder of exactly what Slade was capable of... and what Sanza was fighting for.
"I'm fighting to protect Terra... and to avenge my master!" He continued to back up, then crouched down as Slade charged toward him, putting one foot in front of the other and concentrating all of the energy he still had. "I remember what you taught me, master... block everything from my mind... focus on the battle... block everything else out..."
With Terra's pained, muffled cries pounding in Sanza's ears, that was difficult to do... but once he was finally able to focus, he could see Slade's fist coming at him, seemingly in slow motion. He raised up his arm and blocked the blow, then thrust his foot forward into Slade's chest. The more Sanza concentrated, the slower everything seemed to become... and blocking and countering Slade's blows became almost effortless.
"He's moving so quickly...!" Slade threw punch after punch at Sanza, but each of them met with resistance, either the side of Sanza's arm, or one of his knees reaching up to push Slade's first away.
Terra watched with increasing excitement as Sanza staved off Slade's attack, and even returned with a few blows of his own... with each strike that Sanza made, the villain seemed to be getting more and more exhausted... and finally, Sanza landed a blow that knocked Slade away, forcing him almost to the center of the dojo.
"I'm going to make you regret the day you even looked at Terra..." said Sanza coldly, walking across the floor of the room toward an increasingly uneasy Slade. Suddenly, he broke out into a run, leaping into the air and launching his body upward into a powerful, spinning kick that was aimed right at the crack of Slade's mask.
"If he can split that thing open, Slade's head will be completely defenseless!" thought Terra, raising all the way up to her knees as Sanza's kick swept forward.
Suddenly, Slade's hand reach up and grabbed Sanza by the ankle, stopping him in mid-kick. He stared fiercely into the boy's eyes, almost laughing at his foolishness for being so arrogant. Before Sanza could try and attack again, Slade twirled him around, releasing him at the apex of his swing and hurling Sanza all the way back into the wall. He smashed through the panel that blocked off the kitchen, continuing back until he hit a wooden cabinet. He let out a loud cry as he slammed back-first into the hard bamboo, slumping against it and trying desperately to pick himself up as Slade followed him into the room.
"I thought... I thought I had him beat...!" Sanza pressed himself up against the cabinet, watching as Slade entered and reached down into a small, wooden box that was lying on the floor. When he saw that Slade had pulled out a knife, his eyes widened.
"Well now... this is a fortunate occurrence." Slade threw the knife at Sanza's head, laughing to himself even as Sanza ducked under it and it embedded itself into the wall. "Careful now..."
Sanza was barely able to bring himself back up before he found himself being slammed up against a wall, one of his arms wrenched behind his back by Slade, who twisted it until he could hear the shoulder begin to pop out of place. Outside of the kitchen, Terra could only listen on as Sanza's loud scream filled the entire room... causing her to bow her head and let out a scream of her own. She squirmed over to the kitchen, watching as Slade punched Sanza repeatedly before throwing him back up against another wall, forcing another loud scream out of the boy's mouth.
"Why can't I beat him? Two weeks of training... the toughest two weeks of my whole life... I thought I was good enough!" With his right arm dislocated and nearly unusable, Sanza was forced to use his left arm to press against the wall and support himself as he stood up. As he did, he could see Slade pulling the knife he'd thrown earlier out of the wall. "This isn't good..."
Slade came toward Sanza with the knife, stabbing down at him only to be kicked in the chest and knocked back. This gave Sanza just enough time to reach down and grab a knife of his own, which he held up in order to block Slade's next strike. He pushed his knife against Slade's, but with only one arm, wasn't even close to having enough strength to push it back all the way. He managed to slide over, but wasn't quite fast enough to avoid being cut, and the knife sliced across his chest, making a wide, painful gash. Sanza let out a scream, dropping the knife he was holding and looking down, watching as an ugly red stain appeared on his white top.
Outside the kitchen, Terra was horrified to see Sanza sustain such a brutal wound. She looked away, shaking some of the tears from her eyes, only to be replaced by more tears that came down her face rapidly, mixing in with the blood that was streaming down from her forehead.
"Terra...!" Sanza clenched his teeth, and as Slade came toward him with the knife again, he rolled to the side even faster than before, causing the knife to miss him entirely and embed itself deep into the wall. Slade struggled to pull it out, and Sanza capitalized, kicking Slade hard in the side and knocking him back out of the kitchen. As Slade stepped back, Sanza battered him repeatedly with blows to his face and chest, forcing him even further back into the dojo and filling Sanza with confidence once more. "I won't let you down!"
Slade came to a stop about six feet away from Sanza... he stood his ground and looked his opponent over... as confident as Sanza was, one look told Slade that the boy was about to be on his last legs. He was incredibly exhausted, almost to the point of collapse... his blood-stained clothes were a testament to the wound he'd sustained, a wound that was draining energy from him with every second... and his body was bruised and battered, even moreso than Terra's.
But if Sanza was about to fall over, he either didn't know it, or didn't care. He calmly faced down Slade, clenching his fists and preparing to come at him again.
"I'll never stop fighting, Slade... I'll protect Terra with everything I have..."
"You're starting to sound like a broken record... I'm going to break you in half right in front of your precious Terra," Slade spat, going into a fighting stance as Sanza rushed toward him. Sanza struck first with a spinning kick, but Slade blocked it easily, then blocked two punches that Sanza threw at his chest before throwing a punch of his own, one that hit Sanza in the forehead and knocked him to the floor.
Sanza got up and punched at Slade several more times, but each of his blows found nothing but air, as Slade effortlessly maneuvered his body out of the way of Sanza's blows. He then kneed Sanza in the gut, before sweeping his leg across the boy's ankles, bringing him immediately down to the ground. Another knee connected with Sanza's nose, breaking it instantly. Screaming in agony, Sanza found himself thrown onto his back, his mouth rapidly filling with blood as Terra looked on with a stunned and sickened expression.
It was at that moment, as he lay on his back, with Terra's muffled screams ringing in his ears, that Sanza began to come to a horrific realization... he was going to lose, and there was nothing he could do. Despite all of his training, he was still just an ordinary person... and he didn't have a chance against someone like Slade. He never had a chance.
"No... no, Sanza..." Terra began to sob as she watched Sanza lay on the ground, blood flowing freely from the sides of his mouth... she then watched as Slade then launched a brutal kick into Sanza's side, one that knocked him all the way over toward Terra.
Spitting out blood, Sanza managed to crawl his way up to his knees... and Terra rose up to look at him, bringing up her head and looking right into his eyes, so close that the tips of their noses almost touched.
"Terra..." whispered Sanza, wiping the last of the blood from his face so that Terra wouldn't have to see him in such a terrible state... "I... I..."
By now, Slade had walked over to Sanza and was standing beside him, looking down on him with contempt.
"You didn't even put up a fight..." said Slade. Sanza ignored him, continuing to look into Terra's eyes as he tried to convey everything he was feeling... his sadness, his regret... and most of all, his love.
"I love you, Terra..." said Sanza, before starting to rise again, putting himself between Slade and his beloved, raising his fists to make one final stand. "And I'll never... let anyone... HURT YOU!!!"
Sanza threw a punch at Slade's head, but Slade reached up and grabbed his fist before it even got close to striking him. He then slammed his elbow into the side of Sanza's head, bringing him to his knees again and causing his eyes to lock with Terra's for a second time.
"I couldn't beat him... I couldn't... protect you... I'm so sorry..." And for the first time, tears began falling from Sanza's eyes as well. He bowed his head, too ashamed to look at Terra... the girl he couldn't protect, even when he fought with all of his might.
He just wasn't strong enough.
"You're going to suffer just like her," said Slade, kneeling down beside Sanza and bringing his elbow above the defeated boy's head. "But you're the lucky one... you're going to die first."
Slade brought his elbow down hard on Sanza's head... he heard a muffled scream of 'NO!' from Terra... then everything went black.