And here's chapter 19 for ya. :) Once again, this is pretty much one big battle scene. I think I'll try to vary these kinda chapters sometime in the future, but for now I guess this will have to do. ;) Enjoy.

Hotshot45: Thanks. :P

D-I-WaRrIa: Thanks for the review. :) I'll reunite the Titans kinda soon since I'm a bit lazy when it comes to splitting them up. ;) And about that deleted review thing: don't worry about it. Actually I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out, but either way it doesn't matter. ;P The only kind of review that does tick me off is one like this:

"Hey GenericX! You are a ( insert long string of curse words here ) !"

So in other words: don't worry about it. ;)

Forlorn Melody: Thanks. I'm thinking about adding some more dramatic moments into this fic, but my other story is pretty much going to be based on arguments and mistrust. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.

Chapter 19: The Power of Water (heh, very corny title indeed)

The three Titans rushed to the staircase that they omitted before. Sure enough, the darkness that hung over the stairs now vanished, giving way to a landing not too far up. "I guess the bad guy is up there," Beastboy said as they climbed the stairs.

On the landing stood a lone door made of wood, making it seem insignificant. Cyborg pushed it open and the three proceeded in. However, instead of finding themselves in another room with torches and doors, the three Titans were jerked down through the floor by some unseen force upon entry.

"Yo what gives?" Cyborg asked, rather annoyed. The three Titans found themselves in a square room the size of a baseball field in each dimension. The walls were made of large indigo colored stone blocks. Water that was a foot deep filled the place and torches only hung from the corners of the room, casting eerie shadows which made for a creepy scene. Additionally, the musty smell of the stagnant water sickened the Titans to the point that they had to stop themselves from even looking at it. Other than that, there was nothing else worth noting about this room. Worse yet, there were no doors or any other means of getting out from this place.

Beastboy was starting to get paranoid, "Dudes what if we're stuck here forever?" Terra sighed and was obligated to slap him out of his hysterical state.

"Well, any ideas about what to next?" Terra asked rhetorically, not excepting anyone to know. Indeed they were stumped.

"Um, what if I just blast a wall and us three get out of this place?" Cyborg said in an obvious tone.

Terra agreed, "Worth a try." Cyborg powered up his sonic cannon and attempted to blast the adjacent wall, but his beam had no effect. Instead, a loud roar could be heard all over the room that put the Titans on their guard. Most likely the creature watching over the temple was about to show up, and none of the Titans were in the mood to fight it.

"This can't be good..." Beastboy trailed off was the water in the room started vibrating. As though it had a mind of its own, the water starting flocking to the center of the massive room where it grouped together. After a short moment, all of the water merged into what seemed to be a creature similar looking to Overload, with the exception of the electricity. The creature's body was made completely of water (no surprises there) along with a pair of turquoise eyes. Two bulky arms and legs formed from the body directly after the completion of the eyes, and the water monster poised itself for battle.

"You're not leaving this room alive," the creature said in a low voice, "The barrier shall remain in tact and I, Castform, will make sure that you fail in attempting to destroy it..."

"Um, how did you know that we were after the barrier?" Beastboy asked, looking rather surprised that the creature knew their target.

Castform replied, "Because I sensed you scum in my temple! And for that you'll pay with your lives!" Without another word, Castform fired a powerful stream of water at the group, causing the Titans to split up, forming a triangle around the creature. Castform seemed to expect this, so he shot three more streams at each of the Titans with one arm. The Titans easily dodged the intended attack, but Castform fired an additional three streams directly after with his other arm, which caught the Titans off guard.

"Muhaha!" Castform laughed as the Titans were sent flying into the walls from the impact of the streams, "This is going to be very easy indeed."

Cyborg growled with frustration, "Oh I don't think so." He quickly powered up his sonic cannon to maximum and let loose a beam more powerful than he ever managed. But much to Cyborg's shock, the beams simply was absorbed by Castform as though it didn't even exist. "How did you... do that?" the mechanical teen asked, lost for words.

"One word: water," Castform replied, "Everyone takes if for granted, but if used properly, it can be the most devastating thing the cosmos has ever exhibited." Cyborg was overcome with anger at this point, so he fired a few more beams, but none of them got anywhere except into Castform himself.

Beastboy recovered from the hit and quickly morphed into a rhinoceros. He charged at breakneck speeds at one of Castform's legs. Instead of making contact and throwing his target off balance, the shape shifter passed right through the watery leg and ended up a few feet away. Castform swung one of his arms at Beastboy which connected with the changeling's chest, causing him to go flying into the roof.

Terra tried a new approach. After seeing both Cyborg's and Beastboy's attacks end up with negative results, the geomancer was determined not to fail. She summoned two large slabs of stone from the walls and commanded them to fly to opposite sides of Castform. Summoning a third piece of stone, she positioned it directly in front of Castform. "Hey ugly, eat this!" Terra yelled out, which partially distracted the water creature. She threw the smallest stone that she summoned last headway into Castform, which he blocked with one arm, just as Terra wanted it to happen. Seeing that her target was vulnerable for a split second, the geomancer brought the two slabs that were on opposite sides together with extreme force. Her plan was successful. Castform didn't have enough time to defend himself against the oncoming attack, and as a result the two bulks of stone crashed together, sandwiching his head. The impact caused Castform to wander around aimlessly, apparently in pain.

The remaining Titans took this to their advantage. Cyborg fired his cannon once more, this time aiming for Castform's head, which turned out to be his weak point. Upon contact of the beam, the water creature fell to the ground with force. The initial collision with the stone floor literally shattered Castform into four entities, each of them reforming into smaller Castforms thereafter.

"I see that you've found out where to strike," one of the Castforms said, "But I'm not the only one that you'll have to fight here so even if I fail, then my ally will take my place..." The Titans look puzzled, but now was not the time for questions.

Beastboy rebutted with an determined tone, "Doesn't matter who we have to fight; we'll defeat anything in our way."

Another Castform chuckled, "We'll just see, but I still have a task to accomplish!" Two of the Castforms merged into one slightly larger creature. This left two smaller Castforms and one larger version. Seeing that Cyborg was the biggest and strongest of the three Titans, the larger Castform went after him. The other two split up between Beastboy and Terra.

"If we could take down your main form, then I can easily whoop your ass," Cyborg said to the Castform he was facing. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon without any further talk at the head of the water creature. Sure enough, the beam connected with Castform's head, causing the creature to shriek in pain.

Castform didn't take long to recover, "Let's see if you can manage to attack me now!" The creature morphed itself into a new form. This time its true head was not visible as the creature's form consisted of two legs, two arms, and a round body with what appeared to be five heads protruding along the sides.

"Actually you've made it much easier for me," Cyborg smirked, taking a shot at one of the heads. However, his smile faded as the beam was absorbed by the head as if it was the actual body.

The disfigured Castform laughed, "Oh yeah, but four of these heads aren't real, so I doubt you'll have an easy time getting rid of me now." The water creature attacked by shooting jets of water out of each head, its body rotating at high speeds. This created a constant jet of water flying out in every direction. Having no way to doge it, Cyborg was hit several times into the chest.

'This is gonna be a lot harder than I thought...' Cyborg thought to himself. Now that there were five heads, the job of hitting the real head just became much harder. And since the creature moved around often, it would be impossible to tell which head was the real one and which was fake. In order to defeat this monster, Cyborg would have to rely on a whole lot of luck, or better yet, right judgment. This meant that as soon as he struck the right head, he would have to repeatedly hit it over and over again as not to lose sight of it. "Here goes nothing," the mechanical teen said, hopping to his feet.

"Back for more I see," Castform jeered, "Well then, bring it on!" The water creature rotated several times as to confuse his foe before doing anything. He then fired a powerful jet of water from one of the heads and both arms. The combined jets missed Cyborg by a mile, which bought the teen a few seconds to strike. Cyborg powered up his cannon and let loose a test shot at one of the heads. The targeted head just absorbed the beam, which pretty much invalidated that one as a candidate for the real head.

Castform whirled back to attack position and sent another stream of water at Cyborg. This time the stream made contact with one of Cyborg's legs, causing him to temporarily lose balance. The water creature shot several jets at the stumbling Titan, but they were blocked by Cyborg's cannon. In the meantime, Cyborg took another shot at a hopefully different head, but that shot was also absorbed. Castform now swung his arms wildly, one of them managing to smack Cyborg in the head. The impact was insignificant as Cyborg just brushed the pain off without a problem, his determination to fend off this menace helping him out.

The mechanical teen tried another shot at one of the five heads, and this time the creature recoiled in pain as the beam wasn't absorbed and instead hit the proper head. "Booyah!" Cyborg exclaimed, seeing his foe scream in pain. But Cyborg put his celebration on pause as he knew that time was of the essence. While the creature was still groaning in pain, Cyborg fired multiple shots that easily collided into the real head, throwing Castform into further pain. Eventually the damage was enough for the water elemental, and Castform burst into tiny drops of water that scattered all over the place, never to become a creature ever again. "Well that was challenging..." Cyborg admitted with a smile on his face.

While Cyborg was just starting out with his share of Castform, Beastboy was preparing to fight his assigned one. Unlike the one Cyborg was dealing with, this entity was much smaller which put it on an equal level of combat with the changeling. Beastboy began his attack by morphing in a kangaroo and attempting to kick the creature in his chest. But just like before, Beastboy simply flew right through Castform without leaving a scratch.

"You never learn from your mistakes, do you?" Castform sneered, amused to see Beastboy fail once again. The water creature instead created a ball of swirling water and chucked it at the changeling, who at the time was not expecting an attack. The waterball hit Beastboy square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Castform then swung his arms repeatedly at the downed changeling, throwing him around in various directions. After one particularly bad swing by Castform, Beastboy nimbly managed to scramble to his feet before he could be thrown down again. To avoid getting hit again, the changeling morphed into a hummingbird and flew to the other side of Castform where he morphed into an elephant, slamming one of his feet hard down on Castform's body. The water creature cried in agony and tried to regain its composure after his body was crushed.

Castform replied with much hate in his voice after recovering from the attack, "So it looks like you have a slight advantage over me, but no matter. I'll still beat you down with experience."

Beastboy returned to his human form, "What experience? This is like the first time anyone has every fought you!"

"See that's where you're wrong," Castform replied, "Many have already tried to break the barrier maintained by this temple, but all have failed and never come out to see the sunlight again, or rather whatever light is left in this dead world. And guess who was responsible for the deaths of those people? Me." The water creature laughed maniacally after finishing his short speech, taking in a few minutes to grasp the horrified expression on the changeling's face.

"Well, I'll personally make sure that their deaths will be avenged," Beastboy said through gritted teeth. He unleashed all the anger that had built up as a result of Castform revealing the lives that many people lost trying to get past him. The changeling morphed into an octopus and jumped into the air, rotating his body in such a fashion that all the tentacles smacked into Castform's head, erasing the smile that he had a few seconds ago. The repeated hits from Beastboy left the water creature temporarily stunned for some time, which the shape shifter used to his advantage. Now that Castform was dazed and not really paying attention to what was going on, Beastboy once again morphed into an elephant and stomped on Castform's body several times until the watery creature gave one more shriek and reduced itself to harmless water.

"And stay dead," Beastboy said, watching that last of Castform disintegrate into water.

Meanwhile, Terra was dueling the final clone of Castform. "Try as you might little girl, but eventually you will succumb to my power!" The water creature said with energy, attempting to daunt his foe.

Terra replied viciously, "Actually I think it's gonna be the other way around." She summoned a boulder from the wall and chucked it at Castform, who swept it away with a single arm. Using his free hand, Castform fabricated a bundle of waterballs which he then threw at Terra. The geomancer managed to avoid a couple of them, but eventually she lost concentration and got pelted with the remaining projectiles.

"It's a shame," Castform said, looking menacingly at the downed Titan, "I seriously expected better from you considering how you beat my first form." This far from discouraged Terra, but instead amplified her determination to remove this vile creature from the planet. While Castform was busy mocking her, Terra summoned a boulder from behind her target, sending it flying with tremendous force. Now it was Castform who received the powerful blow to his left leg, which practically lamed the creature for a moment.

"Likewise," Terra said, pleased with her efforts, "I expected you to be more aware." Castform howled in agony as jolts of searing pain overwhelmed his body, though how this was possible Terra didn't know. Now that the opposition was temporarily disabled, Terra summoned more boulders which she hovered directly over Castform. Taking a quick breath to gain energy, Terra brought the dozen boulders down with all the force she could muster. Castform watched helplessly as the giant rocks came crashing down on him, but not before he could split into two more smaller clones. Terra was rather annoyed that her attack didn't finish him off, but then again Castform had to sacrifice strength for life in the sense that these two clones were severely weaker than their previous form. The two Castforms, which were now half the original size, charged at Terra with arms extended, hoping to land a few good punches. Their attempts were all for naught, however, as Terra summoned another boulder which she used as a platform to levitate herself to safer grounds.

'This is taking way too long,' Terra thought, tired of having to deal with this obvious nuisance. The two clones resorted to launching streams of water at the geomancer, but Terra used a few summoned slabs of stone to block the attack. She countered by summoning a particularly large rock from above the clones, which she brought down with equal force as before. This seemed to finish off the clones as they found themselves crushed by the stone, unable to replicate any further. A puddle of water leaked out from under the fallen stone, signaling the death of Castform all together .

"Well I guess that's it," Cyborg said after the Titans regrouped, "But what was that nonsense he said about fighting one of his allies or something?"

Beastboy shrugged it off, "Probably lying just to scare us."

Just as the changeling finished his sentence, the familiar voice of Castform echoed in the room. "Oh I wasn't lying Titans, your troubles are just beginning," the voice continued, "Even though I fell, there will be much harder guardians that will surely kill you all."

"Dude, we beat you, so we can beat anything else," Beastboy said boldly.

The voice laughed slightly, "That's because you had an advantage over me. I sense that your other friends also had an advantage over the Abyssal Shadow, and this all came down to luck."

Terra rolled her eyes, "Luck or no luck, the fact remains that we still killed you. So even if we aren't lucky again, it won't matter cause we will destroy all the barriers."

"Oh really?" the voice of Castform questioned, "Well think what you want, but I advise you to just surrender. You may claim the Water Barrier, but trust me: my master will avenge my death in due time." The voice laughed powerfully and faded away into the background.

The Titans were rather unmoved by Castform's words. "That guy seriously has some mental issues to work out," Cyborg said, disregarding Castform's apparent warning.

"Yeah I know," Beastboy replied, "But now how do we get to the barrier from here?" His question was answered by a tremor that overtook the room. In the wall most opposite to the Titans, a lone crack formed which eventually gave way to a metal door on the other side. The Titans saw their goal in sight, so they advanced to the door and proceeded in.

The group of three found themselves in a small room, only about a few yards in each dimension, with what appeared to be the barrier in front of them. Moss covered most of the walls here along with another foot of water on the ground. The barrier itself was a large blue beam that channeled through a hole in the floor to another gap in the ceiling. Embedded in the blue beam was a large diamond shaded turquoise that hovered about half way from the floor to the roof. The Titans goggled at the sight for some time before snapping back to reality.

"Ok, now what?" Beastboy said, unsure of how to deactivate the barrier.

Cyborg thought for a moment, "I'll try to blast the beam with my sonic cannon, maybe that will do something." Having nothing to lose, the mechanical teen shot a single round from his cannon at the barrier, but it had no effect whatsoever. "Ok, scratch that," Cyborg said in defeat.

"Well maybe that diamond thing has something to do with it?" Beastboy proposed, noting that the turquoise structure looked peculiar.

Cyborg agreed, "Yeah I guess so. Hey Terra, try smacking that thing with a rock or something." Terra obliged, summoning a decent sized boulder which she immediately threw with some force at the diamond. Just like in the Jungle Temple, the diamond structure burst into thousands of minuscule pieces that littered the room. The blue beam that once flowed peacefully started to break up and eventually halted. A small column of stone rose from the hole in the ground, bearing a small sapphire which Beastboy went up and grabbed without a second thought.

"Alright, now what is this for?" Beastboy asked, staring at the blue gem in his hand.

"Dunno," Cyborg replied, unsure of the gem's purpose, "But I say that we should just save it for later. Who knows, it might come in useful one way or another." The changeling did so and handed the gem over to Terra who placed it in one of her pockets.

A light started to fill the room not long after Beastboy took the gem. "Um, what's happening?" Terra asked, noticing something shining around the group. The Titans found themselves surrounded by a blue aura, which shortly teleported them outside to the entrance of the temple.

"Woah, now that was weird," Cyborg said, disliking the effects of being teleported, "But at least we got that damn barrier over with."

"Yeah, but where are we now?" Terra pointed out, seeing that they were in a new location.

Beastboy looked around to get an image of this place. The Titans where standing on the shore of a huge lake that was only half filled with water which was slightly green in color. The lake itself was massive; it's radius spanning about the size of ten soccer fields. In the center was a rocky island that also had an old stone bridge connecting it to the mainland. On that island stood an opening to a cave about six feet in height and seven feet wide, which Beastboy presumed to be the entrance to the Water Temple. Handfuls of dead trees were in the area, surrounded by a large forest not far away that seemed to go around the perimeter of the lake. Additionally, a lone dirt path led the way out of the lake area and over the fields of the World of Darkness.

"I'm guessing this is the lake that Karthor mentioned before we set off," Beastboy said, trying to recall what the elderly man said before the group of teenagers departed for the Jungle Temple, "And I bet this path leads straight to Emporia."

Cyborg and Terra thought it over and agreed that it was best just to follow the path and see where it would take them to. "At least we'll have some good news that the Water Barrier is broken when we get back," the mechanical teen said as the trio followed the path.

"Yeah but I hope the others are fine," Terra said, praying that Robin and the others managed to destroy the Jungle Barrier.

Beastboy reassured her, "Don't worry, I bet they did already. Besides, I think that we're going to right way." The changeling pointed to a castle and civilization wedged between two mountainous sides not far away.

"Yup, that's obvious Emporia," Cyborg said cheerfully, happy that he'll be finally getting some decent rest.

Beastboy was rather overjoyed as well. "Told ya not to worry," he said to Terra, who in turn simply kissed him on the cheek. The two teens linked their hands, happy just to be in each other's presence, and followed the path that led to their temporary home.

Cyborg half chuckled at the sight, "Hey lovebirds! Try not to make me barf!" Beastboy and Terra weren't amused with the mechanical teen's uncalled for outburst. They ended up chasing Cyborg at full speed all the way to Emporia, threatening to cut off his power supply once they returned.

(Emporia Castle)

"What is the Titans' progress as of now?" King Smilax asked one of his most important mages. Both were standing standing on the balcony that overlooked the town below them. The sun was just setting, and a group of three people could be seen heading down a dirt pathway that led to the city's main gates.

"Castform has sent word that the Water Barrier is destroyed, my King," the mage said.

King Smilax was pleased with the report, "Excellent, excellent. It is only a matter of time now until we can execute our plan."

"Indeed, and those fools don't even suspect a thing," the mage replied in agreement, bowing and leaving King Smilax on his command.

"Just a few more to go, and your job will be done, Titans," King Smilax said before retiring for the day.

Hope you enjoyed it. :) Please drop a review if you have the time. ;) Well anyways now that school is almost over, I can write more chapters for my fics faster than before. Just one more day left, then I can kick back and watch all 6 episodes of Star Wars to celebrate. :)

See ya next chapter.