Bloodlines
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, but I do own Element and all other characters that I create.
Everyone was silent as they looked upon the scene below of the kneeling Element and the unconscious Blazer. Element's breathing was deep as he sucked in air to his lungs. The eyes of everyone watching were not all on the same person. Some of them were focused on Element, amazed at how he defeated Blazer, some were on Blazer himself, shocked at his loss to Element, and some were focused on the Titans, awaiting the battle that would eventually take place.
With a low groan Element started to get up from the position he was in. He changed the sword he was holding, Sonic Boom, back into the original form of the decaforce sword, Eisenmeteor, and used it to help him get back up. Turning around, Element raised his hand over Blazer's limp body, making stone handcuffs appear over his wrists and ankles to hold him. Once this was done, Element tightened his hand into a fist, making the stone around the wrists squeeze and break another part of Blazer's weapons. With a staggering walk, Element turned back and started heading towards the direction that the other Titans were in, dragging Blazer with his powers on the way. When he got to the wall, Element started to levitate upwards towards his companions, Blazer still in tow.
Element settled down at the top, to see the rest of the Titans running towards him. Raven got to him first, a small look of worry on her face. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, mostly." Element stated. "I've had better days, wait..." He tilted his head to the left and right, making two loud cracks. "Okay, that's a little better, though it won't help me that much now that I have to fight Blood."
"No way," Raven shook her head. "You aren't going to go face Blood alone, not after a fight like that." A small hint of anger was in her voice, barely noticeable.
A look of concern crossed Element's face, he put his hand on her shoulder and he began to speak to her, trying to lessen her anger. "There's no way that I'm going to let you go fight Blood with me, there's too much risk in the fact that you might get hurt."
"So what, I get hurt when I'm in a battle all the time, there isn't much of a difference here."
"Actually, there is." His kind voice grew firm, but still maintained it's softness. "Blazer was one of the toughest opponents I've faced, and I'm guessing Blood's stronger than him, and I don't want to think of what will happen to you if you face a man with that much power."
"Well then what will happen to you," the anger in her voice was a little bigger. "If he's so powerful, how do you think that you'll be able to beat him alone, without serious injuries."
Something sank into Element's brain as he suddenly realized that the anger in Raven's voice wasn't because of being left out, but because of the worry she felt for him. The hand on Raven's shoulder tightened a little. "I don't know, but what I do know is that I can't risk you getting seriously injured. Besides, the other Titans will need you when you face all of the other students." He flicked his head back to indicate all of the people watching them.
"What," this time the anger in her voice was more genuine. "Are you saying that we have to fight these guys, alone, without your help?"
"There's a chance that when we're fighting, Blood will get away, and this is the best chance for me to get him. And hey, if Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo were the best the school offered, these guys should be cake." The corner of his mouth twitched up in what was trying to become a smile.
Raven slowly turned her head away, a small amount of sadness and worry on her face. The hand on her shoulder slowly moved up her neck and shaped around her chin, gently turning her head back to face Element. Element's head bent down as his hand slightly lifted Raven's head up in a kiss full of all the emotions that those two felt at the moment, worry, sadness, reassurance, and love. The two separated and Element ran his hand gently through Raven's hair.
Element's hand reached down again and gently wrapped itself around Raven's own. His thumb started to stroke the ring that Element had given to Raven, and in hushed words Element repeated what he had said months ago. "I will come back to you, I promise."
After that Element turned around and started to head for the other side of the room. A stone pathway appeared over the stadium below, allowing Element to easily walk across without having to take the long way. His steps echoed across the whole room.
Before he got o the other end of the room, though, a line of students stepped in front of the other side of the room, blocking the way out. Element didn't seem to react in any way from this except for an interested look on his face. When he spoke, though, his voice was dead even. "Where's Blood?" Silence, the only reaction that his question got was some of the students crossing their arms. Element cocked his head. "No? Too bad." He raised the sword that he still held in his hands, the Rave Master light-force style still on, except for the hair, which had disappeared and turned back to Element's own. "Blade combination, Mel Force and Explosion." His voice was still soft and even. The sword in his hand changed, the blade turned into the of regular style of Explosion, while the hilt turned into that of Mel Force, slightly feather-like and reaching down to cover both sides of his fist. "Obliterating Wind."
He raised the sword horizontally in front of him, palm resting on the back of the blade. "Exploding Vortex." A huge tunnel of wind blasted out from the sword, enveloping all of the students opposing him, making them immobile. After a few seconds of this, an explosion erupted, covering everything that was inside the tunnel of wind, including the students. Once the smoke had cleared, the students were found lying on the ground unconscious like Blazer before them.
Element tipped his head up to the crowd of students lining the chairs in the stands. His voice was still as even as before, but this time louder so that everyone could hear him. "Anyone else want to not tell me where Blood is?"
At this there was silence like before. Element started to raise the sword once again, but stopped as he saw a few shaky hands lift up into the air to point at where the other gate was. "In his study." A shaky voice was heard from the crowd. At this most of the other students turned to a shaking individual with his hand up and started to pound on him. Element, though, ignored this and headed out of the stadium, finally getting his chance to shut down Blood once and for all.
There was a lonely silence as Element walked through the hallways towards where he hoped was Brother Blood's study. He still felt bad for not helping the Titans and leaving Raven behind, but it was his only choice. I never meant for all of this to get so serious for me, I don't even know how it happened. I bet this is what happened to Robin with Slade, but hopefully I won't go over the edge or anything, and that I can take Blood down tonight. As he continued to walk through the halls the sword at his side continued to swing back and forth. It, like his light-force jacket, still stayed with him to be used for the coming fight. But during the fight or after the hair feature must have vanished, since it was back to it's old self once again. So, subconscious-part-of-me-that-is-really-annoying, what do you have to say right now? There was a silence in his head. Why do you only come up when I don't ask you to? I know you hear me! Ah, screw this.
Suddenly Element stopped and doubled back, thinking he had just saw something in the room he passed. He looked and saw what looked like a huge barren room at first with only a table in the middle, but once you stopped looking at the middle you could see that in the back was a huge computer, almost like the ones that the Titans had in their tower. On another side of the room was a bookcase, it was above average size, not huge, but just a little bigger than normal.
"It's so good of you to come, Element, may I inquire of your visit?"
The hairs on the back of Element'sneck stood up for a second, a little surprised at the voice coming from the shadows, but went back down as Element realized it was Blood. Element stepped into the room and turned his head to stare at the shadows, at which Blood stepped out of to make himself visible. "You know damn well why I'm here, Blood, and you should know that I won't be stopped by anything you can do." His voice was just as dead even as back in the stadium, but unlike the students Blood didn't take any notice to it.
"Are you sure, because there's a lot of things I can do to... change your mind." His eyes started to glow red as he stared straight at Element, who stared back at him with an equally straight face. Element's eyes started to slightly glow red as Blood's hypnotic effect started to work. Blood let out a low chuckle. "Good, I guess you were wrong then. Now, let's have you turn around and... go destroy your pathetic friends."
Element's foot started to spin around, but was sent solidly back onto the floor while his other foot struggled to move. Element's body turned back, shaking, while his hands reached up on either side of his face to clutch his head.
Blood snarled in rage and held up his hand, squeezing his fingers together in a form of concentrated power. "Do what I say, boy."
Element's hands clutched at his head even tighter, he grit his teeth as he tried to hold back the mental assault. With shaking breath, he was able to barely get out a word. "No." His body bent over in pain as Blood's hand squeezed tighter, words started appearing in his head.
Do it, destroy your friends, destroy the Titans, do it, become my slave and do everything I say.
"No," he groaned from another assault and was sent on his knee. But even through the pain, he still managed to speak. "No." He got himself back on two feet, still clutched over. "No." He stood straight up, his teeth were still bared and his hands still clutched his head. "No." Blood gave one more assault, but was blown back as Element threw his hands back and screamed to the heavens. "NOOOOO!" He stood there, panting, as he stared back at the shocked Blood, the red glow gone from his eyes.
"How..."
"Did I do that?" Element finished. "Yeah, it's a puzzler, but I guess that's what happens when your father is a demon." He raised his sword from where it had clattered to the ground and pointed it at Blood. "Now, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Wait a minute, why the hell am I asking this? It's obvious what he's going to choose, I guess that I just can't go without the dramatics.
They both started to slowly circle around the table in the middle of the room, waiting for someone to make the first. Both of their faces were completely still and calm, betraying the calculating mind of each other as they sized up the other person. Their feet were in step, landing at the same time so as not to somehow make a mistake, creating a steady chant of noise throughout the big room.
Suddenly Blood quickly threw his hand up in a tossing motion, making the chair in the middle of the room fly towards Element. Element jumped forwards toward Blood and sliced the chair in half on his way. The sword changed shape while in run and Element swept it up to strike at Blood, shouting. "Explosion!" The explosion rocked the area where Blood was, obscuring the place so that you couldn't see anyone. After a while the smoke cleared to reveal Element crouched down with the sword held high, a shocked look on his face as he saw Blood standing in front of him. His hand was held up in front of him, red circles emanated from it in a kind of shield, as his deep laugh echoed throughout the room. At the sight of this, there was only one word that could describe all the things that Element was feeling at that point. "Shit."
Blood made another tossing motion with his arm, this time sending Element flying backwards through the room to slam into the wall. Element pushed up from the ground with some help from his sword, slightly panting from the "blow." "Okay... so that's how you want to play, huh?" He stood fully erect, sword held out in front of him. Blood held his hand up to match the level at which Element's sword was at, he began to jerk it back until Element shouted once more. "Silfarion!" He had disappeared in a blur of speed, suddenly appearing behind Blood, who was clutching at the wounds in his chest. Element bent down to whisper close in Blood's ear. "Hurts, doesn't it. Guess you can't throw what you can't catch." He disappeared again, and another cut appeared on Blood. This time Element didn't reappear again, but every second a new cut appeared on Blood, and there was a slight wind throughout the room moving in a circular direction.
After a few seconds of this Blood growled in anger and threw his arms out to the sides of him. A force went throughout the whole moving, revealing Element and stopping him in his tracks. Again Blood threw his hands in a tossing motion, but this time it went straight up. Element was tossed straight up into the ceiling, then sent slamming into the ground. A groan escaped his lips. "Note to self, don't toy with a guy that can use telekinesis." Again he was sent flying, this time sideways, into the wall.
With a groan, Element got up again. "Okay, that's it. Sonic Boom!" The sword in his hand changed to the combination of Explosion and Silfarion. Element drew the sword back behind him so that he would be able to sweep it up in front of him. With a shout Element started forward. "Exploding Run!" He disappeared a huge explosion rent itself through the air in the straight path that Element had just run, straight across the room and through Blood. Element appeared on the other side of the room, slightly panting, with the sword held above him in the completed slash. He turned around, a slight grin on his face, to look at the cleared smoke where Blood was.
He was just standing there, not a scratch on him from the last attack, and a sneer was plastered on his face. Over his head, what could slightly be made out by the smoke, was what looked like a translucent dome, obviously made from Blood's telekinetic powers to form a shield against the attack. Element spat out a curse. "God dammit!" Blood swung his arm as if telling a child to come over there, which sent Element flying all the way back to the other side of the room which he came from.
Element got up once more, a small shake in his legs from the beating he was getting. Inside the little dome of protection, Blood shaped his hands into a claw formation and put them side by side, focusing his power on something. Thinking this his chance, Element rushed forward with his sword held high. "Rune Save!" He slashed the sword down when he got to the dome, tearing a hole in it in which he could step through. He drew the sword back again. "Eisenmeteor!" He slashed it sideways, trying to cut Blood's midsection, tryingbeing the operative word.
Blood sent his hands forward, right at Element's stomach, releasing a force of concentrated telekinesis. The blast sent Element flying once more across the room, this time actually sending him through the wall and out into the hallway. While Element was struggling to get up, Blood stalked forward towards him, the dome followed each of his steps, the hole in it repaired. As Element was able to get up on all fours, he silently spat out a few words, unheard by Blood as he stepped right in front of Element. Blood lifted his hand like he would lift a glass of fine wine, making Element float up in front of him, helpless. "What was that, I didn't seem to hear, maybe it was you begging for your life, is that what it was? Just like how your mother begged for hers when she died."
Element's eyes widened in surprise and took a swipe with his sword, which even though it missed Blood cut through his shield and shocked him out of the mental hold he had on Element. Element jumped forward once e was inside and slashed at Blood, hitting this time with a cut from shoulder to hip. With a snarl Element quickly spoke. "For your information what I was doing was combining Eisenmeteor and Rune Save to create Rune Meteor." As he said this Blood looked down at the new blade, which had the same shape as Rune Save but was the size of Eisenmeteor, which was a good size. Element thrust the sword forward at Blood's open chest. "Explosion!" The sword quickly changed and hit Blood, finally getting him with an explosion. Blood was sent flying across the room like Element so many times before him, but his hand jerked backward while he was flying, making Element fly in the same direction as. They both hit the wall, Element head first, and landed hard on the ground.
While holding his head Element got to his feet with a big groan, all of the wounds he had accumulated had started to take a toll on him. With his teeth gritted in pain he started to talk. "How do you know about my mother?"
Blood's low laugh started up again as he sat up, but it was cut off by a groan of pain. "Personally, I don't know anything about her, but my friend does." A small grin flashed across his face.
Element leaned against the wall to help support him, this time his teeth gritted in annoyance. "And your friend would happen to be...?"
Blood had finally got to his feet, shakily, and also leaned against the wall, but not as much as Element. "I see no reason not to tell you, you'll be dead in a few minutes anyhow." After a low chuckle he continued. "I'm surprised you hadn't guessed who sent me, have you?" Seeing the puzzled look on Element's face, Blood spoke further. "The little bird that told me about you was Slade, of course. He's paid me to take you out, and as you can now understand, that's why I sent Blazer after you, and why now I'm going to kill you myself now that Blazer failed at his chance, twice." This last part was whispered in anger.
Element raised his sword and spat out. "Let's see you try." The sword leaned forward and hit the ground as Element shakily tried to keep it at level, weak from the beating he had taken.
Blood threw back his head and belted out a laugh. "Hah! You're not even strong enough to continue the fight, I don't see you beating me."
"You're right," Element muttered loud enough for Blood to hear him. "I'm not strong enough..." A smug look covered Blood's face. "So I guess I should finish this now. Element raised his arm so that the sword was hanging horizontally out to his side, and continued. "Ultimate blade combination! Eisenmeteor, Explosion, Silfarion, Rune Save, Blue Crimson, Mel Force, combine yourselves into the ultimate sword." A flash of light emitted from the sword, blazing like Element's light-force style. Through the din you could hear Element shouting out. "OMEGA BLADE!" The light faded, and Blood uncovered his eyes to look at what new thing apposed him.
Element was standing there, both arms up by his sides with the new sword in his hands, it had the quality of every sword Element had in his power. The handle was the same shape as Mel Force's, going over each fist, but it was jointed, so that the two side parts of it that protected the hands went straight down from the top part instead of diagonally. The blade of it was in the shape of Silfarion, except for the fact that the back of the blade (the side that isn't sharp) had the same grooves as Rune Save. The size of the whole sword was the same size as Eisenmeteor, and that was pretty big. What was more, he didn't just have one sword, he had two, one in each hand, identical down to the last detail. Element's bowed head lifted up to stare at Blood, his voice was soft and cold as he spoke. "Let's finish this."
Blood drew his hand back. "As you wish, boy." He swung his hand to throw Element to find he had disappeared. The dome around Blood grew as he held his hands out, trying to do what he did before to stop Element when he was this fast. An explosion hit the side of the dome, literally tearing it into pieces, and Element jumped forward to swing with his other blade, causing Blood to get hit with a second explosion. He was sent back into the wall, making a small dent in it from the impact of him and the explosion. As he looked up he started to stutter in disbelief. "H-how... d-did y-you...?"
"As you should've been aware, my swords carry every power of every one of my swords, that includes Rune Save's power, which can also be used in the explosions I create." Element disappeared again to dodge another one of Blood's attacks, reappearing in the middle of the room. "Now, to finish this fight." Element started to spin around with the swords held up, his speed increased faster and faster until you could barely see him, Silfarion's power. A heavy wind, more like a vortex, picked up around Element and headed up all the way to the ceiling, creating a tornado. Suddenly a huge explosion appeared, curving around in the tornado, covering it up, all though technically it was actually a series of explosions, but at the speed they were being generated it just seemed like one. Element's fierce voice emanated from the vortex. "Explosion Tornado." The explosion covered the whole tornado, turning it into one giant, swirling explosion.
Blood thrust out his hand, willing with all his might to grab on to Element and slam him through every wall in the building. Nothing happened. "Must be that damn sword of his." In a desperation, Blood focused his energy into another one of those blasts, hoping it would go through the vortex and nail Element. It sailed through the air towards the spot in the vortex that Element was, but when it hit the blast was scattered, destroyed like a piece of paper. Blood was in a panic, his breaths were quick, his body slightly shaking, there was sweat on his forehead. He ran for it, trying to get around the thing to the other side of the room towards the door.
Sensing Blood's running, Element tipped the vortex to it's side, literally blasting it in a huge burst of speed towards the panicked Blood. It was over in a second as the vortex hit Blood, who was almost immediately knocked out by the attack. The vortex started to slow down, the explosions stopped, and it disappeared like a gust of wind. Element stood crouching on the ground with his head bowed. His eyes were shut, and the swords were crossed over his chest and rested on his shoulders. Both the swords and the jacket of the light-force style started to fade, pieces of them drifting up into the air and disappearing like fire. Once it was all gone Element stood up to stare at the unconscious Blood, his last attack had caused more cuts all over his midsection, there was a lot of bruising, and a small trickle of blood flowed from his lips.
Robin dropped the guy that he had just beaten and looked around at the other Titans. Cyborg was leaning against a wall, repairing various parts of himself that got damaged during the fight. Beast Boy was sitting on the ground, his breathing was deep and labored, there were bruises and small cuts on various parts of his body. Starfire was also leaning against a wall as Raven was slowly moving her hands over Starfire's body, a soft dark glow emanating from it as she healed her. Robin himself was breathing deeply from the fight, he had sores all over him, his hand was clutched at a knot in his side. Of course this was nothing compared to the bodies of everyone else in H.I.V.E. littered around the room.
Beast Boy started to get up as Raven finished with Starfire and headed for him. "Damn, that was tough, I can't believe Element made us go through all that without him!"
"Actually, I think he was right in doing this." Cyborg muttered from his place near the wall. His head craned up from his work as he continued from what he was saying. "He was right, at least about Blood, would you want to face him when you feel like this? I don't think anyone can do that."
"He's right." Robin spoke up from his position. "Besides, this took a long time, I think Blood would've been able to get away by now."
"Speaking of Element," Cyborg spoke up again. "I think we should go find him, he might need our help." With that everyone started to move towards the doors in which Element had left earlier, only to stop as they swung open. With a groan, the Titans got into battle position to face their new enemy, only to see that it was Element walking out of the door.
He was bruised all over his body, his face was beaten, and it looked an obvious effort for him to keep moving. His right hand was drawn a little back from him as he dragged Blood across the floor by the scruff of his neck. Once he had gotten a few meters away from the Titans, Element tossed Blood forward with a grunt to land a few feet in front of the Titans. A smile lit up on every Titan's face as they gazed upon their triumphant friend, who grinned back, only to fall forward and collapse right next to Blood.
Okay, I'm done with that, finally. It kind of pisses me off I could only work on this during the week, since my weekend was pretty full with homework. But I stuck with it, and here it is. Now, there are some things I want to address, first, Blood's powers. I would like to apologize if I did wrong, I heard from a friend that Blood had a kind of telekinetic powers, so I thought that this would work, sorry if it didn't. Also, I've been confronted with the issue in a review on my last chapter that it would be better if Element used his elemental powers, and I totally agree. Sorry I didn't use them in this fight, but I've been planning this one for a long time and I just really didn't want to change it, don't worry, I'll use them in my epic fight in the next book. That's what I call them, epic fights, they're the really big, important battles, you can't argue with the name, because come on, they're good. Sorry if I sound snobby. Okay, I also want to apologize for not showing the Titans/H.I.V.E. students fight, but come on, that would be extremely difficult for almost anyone to write that. I think that's it, but if there's something I forget I'll right in in my next chapter, which will sadly be the last of this story. Oh, wait, I just remembered it, some of you might be mad that this fight wasn't as good as the one with Blazer, and I apologize for that, and just so you know, I didn't intend to try and make this one better, just really good. That's all I have. Read and Review!
