For Truth, Justice And The Last Cup Of BA's Coffee

by RogueFanKC

Set in Red Witch's Misfitverse! The Misfits and XMen team up with the Teen Titans and Titans East as the Hellfire Club plots to end the world, but can Raven truly survive the horror of her heritage before it is too late? Complete

8. Loss

CHAPTER 8: Loss

"This used to be H.I.V.E. Academy?" Mas y Menos murmured in Spanish, truly shocked to their core. X23 then reacted as briskly as she could, her training and ability to calculate the best course of action in any emergency, as hammered into her by Hydra and encouraged by Wolverine for survival tactics.

"We need to fan out. Search any survivors," Rina said in a strong voice before she turned to Jean, "Do you sense anything with your telepathy, Jean? I can detect numerous scents, both human and non-human, but I cannot tell whether or not that they are from any survivors or from the dead cadavers."

The red-haired telekinetic was already closing her eyes in concentration, her fingers to her temples, before her eyes flew open as she sensed much anxiety, fear, and emotions of wailing grief from multiple consciousnesses not too far away with her mind.

"Wait, I do! There are people still alive here! There are some people who managed to survive the destruction caused by Scath!" Jean exclaimed, drawing a few looks of surprise and hope in some, especially since it gave them a little comfort to know that they were not completely alone during the end of the world. But before the X-Men, the Misfits, the Teen Titans, and Titans East along with Silkie and Lockheed could move, a voice rang out threateningly.

"OK, whoever you are, back off! Leave us alone!" cried a familiar girl's voice with a twinge of apprehensive weariness, and the teenagers turned around to see an odd sight.

"Jinx? Gizmo?" Bumblebee and Cyborg chorused in unison, surprised and upon closer scrutiny, slightly bothered. There stood the two aforementioned H.I.V.E. students, the witch, Jinx, and the dwarf-boy inventor, Gizmo, both of them haggard and certainly a lot worse for wear. Their uniforms and clothing were torn and ragged, showing the numerous lacerations and bruises on their bodies where the sagging fabric failed to conceal. Jinx had a huge smear of dried blood on her left side of her face while Gizmo was sporting a swollen lip and dirt marks on his countenance. It was clear that the two teenagers had been through a difficult and grueling struggle, and the fear and caginess in their eyes along with the signs of battle shock was taxing their strength. Still, despite that, both Jinx and Gizmo seemed ready to attack and, if necessary, die fighting.

Yet then Jinx lowered her hands, the pink hex energy crackling around her fingers before disappearing from view as she gasped in amazement upon recognition of the teenagers and adolescents in front of her.

"Cyborg? The Titans and the X-Men?" she wheezed with a mixture of confusion and relief.

Pietro shot Jinx an annoyed look as he added rather waspishly, "And the Misfits, in case you've forgotten…"

"Trust us, everyone who meets you idiots would rather forget you," Rogue hissed to the albino out of the corner of her mouth with gritted teeth, but no one paid the snipe much attention as Jinx then rushed towards the heroes, her expression beseeching while Gizmo stayed back, sullen and disapproving (though he did retract the mechanical weapons connected to his body). It was clear Gizmo wasn't pleased to see his nemesis again.

"How did you guys survive the end of the world?" Jinx exclaimed, her questions frantic and rushed as a million thoughts went through her jumbled head, "Did you come to help us? Did you know? Oh God, please tell me that more help is coming! We can't hold on much longer!"

"Whoa, whoa, Jinx, calm down…" Robin soothed the girl, placing a firm hand on her quaking shoulder, "We just got here, though we really have no idea why other than Raven helped us out, and we have no idea what's going on and what happened here. Are you all right? What exactly caused H.I.V.E. to end up like this?"

Jinx let out a sob as she held a hand to her chest weakly and explained with choking misery and heartache, "The academy was destroyed because the Heartless attacked us! The Heartless attacked and killed a lot of the students and teachers, and there's only a small portion of us left! Please, you have to help us! There's not a lot of time to explain! A lot of kids and adults are severely injured, and we've exhausted whatever supplies we were able to salvage through the rubble of the school! A lot of students are dying! Please, can you help us? We don't know what else to do, and the whole world's dead! We haven't been able to do anything else except trying to survive!"

"Remy don't like this," whispered Gambit to Scott and Piotr, "She could be leading us into a trap, and let's not forget that those H.I.V.E. kids are working with the hellions and Slade, so how can we know that we can trust the word of this femme? After one close call with Scath and the Heartless, Remy not so sure if we can trust her."

But Jean quietly interrupted the conversation by telepathically contacting to Scott through her mental link, No, she's not lying, Scott. Something's wrong, and I can feel the urgency and dire need of it in her mind. I think something truly awful happened and she does need our help…

"Jinx, lead the way then. We'll do whatever we can," Scott said in a strong voice, and Gizmo and Jinx, throwing caution to the winds and not caring that they were in the presence of their enemies and opponents, led the group of teenagers over the small mounds of crushed cement and destroyed steel, with Rogue and Jean using their respective super-strength and telekinesis to bring along the unconscious Leomon (thanks to Lance's request to keep him nearby). Soon, however, it became apparent that Jinx was not fib. As they crossed the last hill of debris and wreckage, a truly horrifying and revolting spectacle met their eyes.

"Mein Gott!" Kurt gasped weakly.

"How awful!" Kitty whimpered as she placed a hand over her mouth to prevent the bile from rising up her throat.

Indeed, it rightfully appalling. All of them were witnessing a cleared field full of injured and dead people, the smoky air filled with the sounds of wailing, groaning, and the dying. The injured H.I.V.E. students and faculty were lying on their backs on makeshift cots made from dirty sheets, gathered piles of sand, and even the rags and clothing of the dead that were gracefully covered with more bloodstained sheets, obstructing their disemboweled corpses and hacked, gory forms. Still, not all the deceased could be hidden from sight, and all of the heroes were greatly saddened and sickened to see the bloody and grisly remains of the people of the H.I.V.E. Academy. The lucky students, who had somehow managed to escape the brunt of the attacks and were relatively well-off enough, were tending to the wounded and afflicted as best as they could, hobbling or scurrying around with warm makeshift blankets, bandaging each other, and finding whatever remnants of food and water they could scour from the ruins of their home and institute. The Headmistress was sitting rather dejectedly and torpidly on a jutting crop of rock and brick as a makeshift stool, strands of hair raveling out of her gray bun, her eyes glazed with shock and sorrow, her clothes torn and covered with bloodstains. It was apparent that the pressure of the situation had gotten to her and crumbled what there was of her normally steel resolve and proper demeanor. She simply looked…lost. At first, Scott, Althea and Robin wondered why there were no other teachers around helping the students tend to the injured, but then they realized, as they passed by the numerous bodies and carcasses that all the faculty and instructors were either dead or horrifically mutilated. In fact, a significantly large percentage of the stiffs were grown-ups. From what could be reasonably deduced, the H.I.V.E. mentors and coaches, both men and women alike, must have opted to sacrifice themselves to save their protégées and pupils, choosing to have themselves die rather than the kids.

Not that being alive and surviving was a much better option.

Upon spotting the Teen Titans and Titans East, everyone mostly stopped and stared with confusion and suspicion at the heroes and mutants, not that they could really do anything. They were in no condition to complain, and to be honest, the sight of infamous heroes and noble warriors was a bit heartening. Althea then turned to Dragonfly and Whitelighter.

"Can you two help them out? Tend to the wounded as best as you can. We'll assist you if necessary, but we can't wait to aid the students out until we're finished briefing and figuring out what the heck happened here. I got a bad feeling this has something to do with Scath and the Heartless, something deeper than we're being let on…" Althea ordered gently. Yet Wavedancer was interrupted by a grieving cry from Mammoth in the sidelines.

"Please, anyone, any of you, help me! Help Selinda! Please, she's hurt real bad!" Mammoth hollered, his voice now jaded and reduced to begging. Pietro, Justin, Jean, Lina, Rina and Rogue immediately rushed over to the call while the other Titans and mutants turned to the shout for help. There in the distance, kneeling on the rough ground, was the ape-like Mammoth, his eyes pained and filled with tears that were dripping off his scarred and bleeding face, his goatee hardened with dried blood, truly shattered and defeated. And to the audience's collective horror, in Mammoth's arms was a skinny, slender girl, her entire body covered with blood as crimson as her red-hair, sobbing pitifully and grimacing with excruciating agony. But it was what was growing out of the center of the girl's stomach that drew the most revulsion. There, in the middle of her torn and eviscerated belly was a black, deformed Heartless creature, its yellow eyes wildly glancing around in all directions, making curdling cooing noises with no mouth as several slim and fragile-looking tentacles were weakly flailing out, protruding out of Shimmer's midsection. And to further cement the fact that it was a Heartless, Jean and Rina could see the emblem of the red-and-black crossed out heart in the center of the gelatinous living blob.

"Oh my God! A Heartless! And it's inside her!" Lina gasped. Justin looked like he was going to throw up again, but Pietro snapped angrily before Justin could even begin to feel sick.

"Now is not the time, chubby-cheeks!" Quicksilver snapped. Meanwhile, Selinda was begging for relief.

"Baran, it hurts…" she sobbed weakly while trying to move and somehow shift her body position so that she could somehow lessen the pain of a Heartless trying to tear its way out of her stomach. Mammoth turned to the six heroes in front of him helplessly.

"Please…help her. I did everything I could, but I don't know what else to do. I don't know anything about health stuff, and if I tried something, it might hurt her even worse!" The H.I.V.E. strong-man beseeched pleadingly. Yet Dragonfly shook her head.

"I…I'm not sure if we can," she confessed, "I don't have the necessary tools I need to surgically remove it, not to mention I'm not sure exactly how to deal with a Heartless…"

"And it's a Heartless, so I can't use my telepathy to force it to leave her body!" Jean confessed powerlessly, shaking her head.

"Let me try," Justin said, whimpering, but unwilling to just stand by and watch, "Maybe I can heal her with my powers…"

Unfortunately, as Whitelighter laid his glowing hands upon Selinda's stomach, the beastly abomination inside her gave out a gurgled howl before the insignia of the Heartless began to glow. With a roar of energy, Justin yelped as crackling streams of hot aura, like lightning, singed his hands and fingers before he could even get close, and gasping, Justin pulled back, breathing heavily to calm his surprised heart. The rest of the group was stunned, and the Misfit then realized that he couldn't even touch Shimmer.

"What the - ?" gasped Justin, "It…it threw me back! It won't let me heal her! I can't heal your friend!"

"WHAT?" Mammoth shouted in horror. Quicksilver then turned to a shocked Dragonfly.

"Lina, what about you?" he exclaimed wildly, desperate at grasping the proverbial straws, "Your healing silk and all that medical training that Lifeline taught you! Can't you patch it up or something? Or can't that silk of yours plug up the hole in her stomach and stop the bleeding! Can't any of those help Selinda out and stop that Heartless for a while?"

But it was Leomon who spoke then, surprising everyone all around as they turned to look at the lion swordsman who was shakily propping himself up from his sprawled position into a hunched squat with one paw. Apparently, the lion had managed to just regain consciousness, though he was severely weakened from the intensity of Trigon's eyes beams.

"You won't be able to help your friend. She has partially bonded with a Heartless, a creature of darkness and evil, and like any parasite, it will feed off her until they both die. There is no saving her," he said in a rather detached tone of voice.

"No…" Mammoth whispered, shaking. Rina was still stubbornly persistent.

"What if I tried just killing the Heartless directly?" X23 asked, showing her claws at the lion, "That way, it won't feed off Selinda and she'll be spared from the parasitic relationship. Or I could try extracting the Heartless out of her with force…"

Leomon cut through the reasoning coldly, "No, the Heartless is not like most natural parasites and creatures, kid. It is a creature born of forces that are not of any world. And the Heartless is now leeching off directly from the girl's soul and heart, and killing the Heartless will kill her as well. And it's not something you can remove, either with force or magic for it has been attempted before. The girl's heart is now under the clutches of the creature that feeds off her. Because the transformation is half-complete, the girl will die from the process of the Heartless living inside her and from the depletion of her body, and when she dies, the Heartless shall die with her. You can't save the girl. Both she and the Heartless will perish because they can't coexist like this."

"Oh God…" Mammoth sobbed pitifully, now weeping anew as he hugged Shimmer closer to his chest, wishing that he was the one who was dying. Beast Boy noticed this is the distance.

"Dude, what's up with Mammoth? Why's he so uptight over that girl? She's his girlfriend or something?" Jinx did her best to wither the green-skinned changeling with a look.

"Selinda is Mammoth's sister," she hissed coldly. Beast Boy's (and a few other Titans' as well) eyes went wide before he felt ashamed. Certainly, it was one thing to view Mammoth as a bully and villain from H.I.V.E. who deserved whatever butt-kicking the Titans could dish out at them whenever he and the other classmates emerged to wreck havoc. It was an entirely different thing to see Mammoth as a person who has family and loved ones. Beast Boy scratched his head awkwardly.

"Sorry, that didn't come out right…" Beast Boy muttered, incredibly embarrassed.

"What happened?" Bobby asked dumbly in the meantime to Gizmo as most of the X-Men and Misfits followed Lina and Justin to help out however they could.

"What does it look like what happened?" Gizmo snapped, "We told you, the Heartless attacked our school! They completely destroyed it! We were screwed over big time!"

"Lo siento…" Mas murmured, saying the Spanish equivalent of "I'm sorry", but if anything, that statement of merciful understanding just made the H.I.V.E. adolescent livid.

"Like you whimpering, brown-nosed goody-goodies even care!" Gizmo snarled hatefully, "Admit it! You're enjoying this! We're your enemies, the baddies, and you're the heroes, the noble icons of society! You don't care about us, about the fact that H.I.V.E.'s been wiped out! You're just as phony as those Hellions! Just admit it and get it over with! Inside, you're celebrating at the fact that we've fallen flat on our faces and can't get up!"

Gizmo was glaring at the group of teenage heroes, trying his best not to cry, but everyone could see the hot tears dribbling out, and Starfire looked pained as she then strode over delicately and knelt down so that she was eye level with Gizmo. The H.I.V.E. student then was slightly taken aback to see that the Titan's own green eyes were brimming with tears as well, as if she truly felt for the fellow villains.

"No, it is not as you say…Friend Gizmo," Starfire whispered gently, and the members of the Teen Titans and Titans East lit their eyes up in surprise. The Tamaranean never referred to anyone as a friend unless she had some sort of compassion for them, and despite the bleakness of this situation, it was hard to picture having anything of the sort for a rival and/or enemy. Starfire continued her sincerity.

"No, it is not as you say. We do not take glad or happiness at the misfortune and death of others, even of our enemies. And even if you are our enemies and are against us, we still do not wish this sort of tragedy on yourself and your classing friends. You are kids and living beings first, and opponents second…and no living being deserves to be hurt and betrayed like this. I am truly sorry that you and H.I.V.E. have suffered through this destruction that is full of pain and death. We do not wish anything of that sort on anyone, including you. No one deserves that."

"Oh spare me the sappiness, you naïve twit!" Gizmo croaked hoarsely as he rubbed his eyes with his dirty sleeve of his uniform, "Even if you are sorry, it's only because we got killed and taken by surprise! We don't need your pity! Cause pity's not going to fix this, to bring our friends back!"

"But why did the Heartless come here? Why did they attack you? I mean, you H.I.V.E. guys are buddies with Slade and the Hellions, so the Heartless would also be on your side too…wouldn't they?" Speedy asked, still lost. Something didn't make sense about this. But then the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. then gave out a bitter laugh of pain, close to a sob, as she overheard this.

"Slade and the Hellions were never on our side to begin with. The Hellfire Club and the Heartless had no intention of protecting us, of sparing us during the Armageddon that I was warned about, of this we're now certain…"

The gray-haired educationalist and scholarly bureaucrat turned to the silent audience now staring at her expectantly. It was sort of like playing an odd, twisted form of the waiting game; if the adolescents were silent enough, they knew that their questions would be answered without need of any prodding. Even Gizmo and Jinx were silent, for they too wanted to know what the Headmistress meant.

The Hivemistress looked all around her, her haunted and mercurial gaze resting on Jinx, Mammoth, Selinda, Gizmo, the Titans, the Titans East, the X-Men and the Misfits before she then forced herself to voice everything.

"The Heartless attacked us from orders of the Hellfire Club and the Hellions themselves. Once the Hellfire Club felt it was ready to begin their plans with the Titan Raven, they managed to activate the biochemical catalysts they injected into my H.I.V.E. students during this past week or so. They did this so that they could form the army and forces Slade needed to subdue and kill the rest of you and G.I. Joe while Scath was brought into this world, so that there would be no one left to oppress and hinder them once the Armageddon arose. Thanks to the double-crossing of Lex Luthor, my precocious students were turned into monsters, and to ensure that they were up to the task of fighting against the X-Men, Misfits, and Titans, Luthor apparently thought they could have a practice run by using the fellow classmates and teachers who didn't transform as living targets. That was why we were so badly defeated; we had no idea what was happening until own students began to slaughter us and wipe out H.I.V.E. academy, obeying the Hellfire Club like mindless drones. And they didn't regret their decision to dispose of us and finish us off. Though we fought back, we were overwhelmed, and since they were pleased with the outcome, the Hellions decided to no longer waste any time with the H.I.V.E. test subjects and had Slade summon the students to join him as their own personal army to kill all of you in Jump City."

"Lex Luthor?" Robin gasped, blinking. Luthor? In the Hellfire Club? One of Superman and Batman's worst enemies…

Tabitha was confused as she asked without thought, "Wait a minute! Slade's army? But…he didn't have any students with him except the Hellions, so…so the H.I.V.E. students weren't even there! The H.I.V.E kids weren't with him! In fact, the only other things we saw with Slade and the Hellions were the…"

Boom-Boom then trailed off, her face and mouth freezing with dread and shock when she just made the connection. So did her friends as they then all turned to Selinda who was slowly dying with the Heartless growing out of her stomach.

It was then that each member of the Teen Titans, Titans East, the X-Men and the Misfits felt absolutely sick to their stomachs, their souls as cold as ice when they heard that, when it clicked into place.

"Oh my God…" Amara gasped. Justin looked like he was ready to throw up again, and Jamie, Mas y Menos looked like they wanted to join him.

"Then…that means...that means all those Heartless, the ones we fought and killed at Jump City…" Xi said, quivering, before the thought became so revolting, he trailed off, unable to finish. But the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. did it for the lizard-Misfit.

The Headmistress sobbed, choking, "Those Heartless you just killed and fought…used to be children of H.I.V.E. Academy that had been mutated by the experimentation from the Hellfire Club."

"No…" murmured Mas, his face white and ashen.

"Dios Mio!" cried his brother Menos right before he fell to his knees, starting to weep.

"No, it cannot be possible! They were just children! They were merely children, students of innocence that did not deserve to be used in such a manner! How could they? How could the Hellfire Club do such barbaric things on children?" Starfire cried, nearly hysterical. This was undoubtedly one of the most disgusting things she could ever comprehend.

"Wait a minute! Experimentation? How…why did you let them do that to you guys?" Forge asked, frowning and astonished that the H.I.V.E students would just up and let the Hellfire Club do that to them willingly. Mammoth answered miserably with cheated despair.

"We didn't know what the Hellfire Club was doing for us," the ape-like mutate answered, his voice hoarse, sniffing, "All we knew was that when the Hellions shown up at our school and appeared to be a lot more skilled and powerful than any of the H.I.V.E. students, even the top of the classes, and the Hellions said that the medical supplements the Hellfire Club would give us would help us grow stronger, enhance our powers and abilities to more than ten-fold like it did for them cause the Hellfire Club wanted to make sure that H.I.V.E. graduates would become worthy to join them when the time came. And we fell for it, hook, line, and sinker! We were so stupid! We thought the Hellions were looking out for us when they tried to 'improve' us to the Hellfire Club's and Slade's standards, and instead, they were just blowing smoke from their butts!"

"They tricked you," breathed Kitty in outrage, "They like tricked you so that they could just like use you guys as throwaway Heartless! They made you promises that you could become totally renowned and like famous villains of great power if you did what they said! They made it sound like they were totally concerned with your benefit and progress as future members of the Hellions and the Hellfire Club when all they were doing was like changing you into monsters!"

"Wait, then why aren't you guys transformed? And for that matter, how come you and the rest of the survivors managed to survive the explosion Scath created and turned the world into a fireball as well as turning everyone else to stone?" Piotr asked.

"Not all of us subjected ourselves to the check-ups and the medical practices, Metal-Mouth," Gizmo growled at Piotr, "We didn't trust 'em, those Hellion snot-bags, and so we ignored what they asked us to do and refused to join in the masses. Yet when we tried to tell the teachers and our classmates our suspicions, those boot-lickers just laughed and ignored us, saying that they didn't want to pay attention to the H.I.V.E. rejects, the disgraced students who were beaten by the dumb Titans over and over again! Not even Private HIVE and See-More listened to us!"

"No…" gasped Bumblebee, her hands unconsciously grasping her elbows tightly, but Mammoth clarified it for the shocked Karen in a haggard voice.

"See-More was one of the students who turned into a Heartless, and when Private HIVE, who was still human, tried to protect the other students, he…well…See-More killed him under the Hellions' orders. We just buried Private HIVE along with the others in the pile of dead bodies over there."

"And now that they're Heartless, they're pretty much stronger and unstoppable," Jinx wept, "Even with our combined efforts, we could barely keep them at bay because whatever the Hellions did to our friends, it made them stronger and more violent, almost like bloodthirsty animals!"

"My God," Scott murmured, "The Hellions…no, they couldn't be a part of this! I mean, yes, they're snobs and elitist, pompous, spoiled kids with views of superiority over mutants…but this? This is too barbaric even for them!"

Gizmo whirled on Cyclops angrily, snarling, "Shows what you know, you one-eyed, butt-sniffer! When the Heartless killed some of our classmates and destroyed our school, the Hellions were laughing! Yeah, you heard right, you goody-goodies! They were standing in the background and laughing at the sight of seeing our classmates turn into those Heartless test-tube freaks and killing everyone by Emma Frost's orders!"

"Emma Frost? As in the White Queen of the Hellfire Club? She's involved in this too?" Pietro echoed in shock.

"It does kinda makes sense, though," Forge said, "If the Hellions have such a huge role in coercing H.I.V.E., it's only natural that she would be supervising the whole thing on the Hellfire Club's behalf…"

"And it would explain why Scath's power didn't affect H.I.V.E academy, yo!" Toad piped up in shock, "Because the Hellfire Club needed the H.I.V.E. students intact and alive for to create their army of Heartless. They were tryin' to protect their modified and personal soldiers, their investments, yo! That's why you guys haven't been turned to stone like the rest of the world!"

"Scath?" Mammoth echoed, befuddled.

"Turned to stone? What are you guys talking about?" Jin asked torpidly, blinking.

"You mean you don't know what's going on?" Tabitha asked incredulously, and Jinx shook her head, which prompted several of the Titans, the X-Men, and the Misfits to break it to them gently about Raven and her father. Only the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. seem unaffected by the news; it was evident that she knew already about Scath and Raven's link to the Armageddon.

"And Gizmo's got a point, Scott," Roberto then spoke as he turned to the leader and commander of the teenage X-Men, "Remember the weapon the Hellfire Club first developed when we found out the Brotherhood was living with G.I. Joe? That pulsar cannon that would increase sunspot radiation and kill off hundreds of thousands of humans as well as increase the mutation rates of the planet? Gizmo has a point, Scott. The Hellfire Club really would stoop to something like this, especially since they they've done a lot of other equally rotten stuff before." (See Author's Notes)

"And let's not forget that the Hellfire Club was suspected to be the ones that helped Kanto establish his ties in H.A.T.E. on Earth as well as providing Darkseid that M'Kraan crystal that had the Phoenix Force. Remember what Green Lantern told us?" Althea added as she just remembered the briefing the member of the Justice League gave them a week or two ago at the Institute.

"And when the Hellions tried to capture Howie, the sea serpent at that relaxation camp when we first ran into those Hellions. They were willing to kill Bazooka who was with me, all because they said he was a useless 'flat-liner' and that the death of one human wasn't going to be a huge loss. Scott, we can't deny it. The Hellions are able of doing something this nasty," Jamie then solemnly and dejectedly pointed out. Meanwhile, the heroes had just finished explaining the situation to the H.I.V.E. students who were eavesdropping, and Jinx was staring at the Headmistress with a mixture of nausea, wrath, and blame. (See Author's Notes)

"You…you lied to us," Jinx uttered in a shaking voice, her entire body twitching, "You hid this from us, covered it up and just stood by and let the Hellfire Club do all those tests and experiments on our friends and let Raven's father doom our entire world, all because you wanted to find the easy way out at our expense!"

The Headmistress then exploded, the stress of seeing her charges and her students whom she had so much hope and pride for dead in moments finally getting to her, as she coldly, sternly, and condescendingly screeched at Jinx, "Don't turn your nose up at me and say that I didn't even care when I made the deals with the Hellfire Club to save this academy, you ungrateful wretch! I did not know the students would be reduced into Heartless! I did not know that the Hellfire Club would betray us and throw us away after using us in this sadistic manner! You do not know anything, on how I didn't want to do this, on how I didn't want to force the H.I.V.E. legacy to be subjected under the will of Frost and Luthor! You don't know anything! I tried to search for any possible alternative, a lone other option that could save H.I.V.E. from bankruptcy and debt and ensure that there would always be a future for villains and felons in this world always! I had no choice! I had to agree to sign H.I.V.E. Academy to the Hellfire Club because it was the only way I could make sure that you students would have a home and a future!"

"Some future, you tight-lipped, boot-licking shrew!" Gizmo shouted. But Aqualad, Robin, and Bumblebee turned to the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. Academy with a mixture of shock and surprised pity. This was a new one.

"Bankruptcy?" Robin echoed incredulously.

"So the suspicions from the Justice League were true? H.I.V.E. got funds from the stolen investments of H.A.T.E. via the Hellfire Club during the fiasco with Darkseid and the Phoenix Force?" Aqualad gasped, his violet eyes wide with disbelief, "But…but why did you accept them? I…we don't understand why you were corned into this position and why you felt that the Hellfire Club could offer you a way out. I mean, even you must have heard how ruthless the Hellfire Club can be and how they're only interested in themselves! They have supposedly dealt with Magneto and Apokolips for crying out loud! So why did you make the proverbial deal with the devil?"

The Headmistress then explained, ignoring the hateful glare of hurt Jinx was shooting at her, as she said, "Because H.I.V.E. was in danger of losing its status and importance as a breeding ground and training facility of future villains for the world, as a haven for gifted children who could very well rule the world with its legacy and influence. We used to receive funds from countless organizations and firms from around the world, powerful individuals who were interested in teaching their children to emerge as prevailing syndicates of crime or who were attracted to the thought of having formidable foot soldiers for their own personal army. We were given generous grants from such influential corporations such as Wolfram and Hart, Hydra, GRSO, the Church of Humanity, and yes, even Cobra, the terrorist organization that G.I. Joe has fought and defeated so many times before in the past. Yet, H.I.V.E then fell on hard times. Not only were the Teen Titans and Titans East able to emerge and stop us time and time again, but we also failed in our missions and exhibitions of our worth against other groups such as the Gargoyles of New York, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and even mere humans called the Ghostbusters. With so many catastrophes and routs from them, it was logical that the money would cease to come in, and that no group wanted to gamble their wealth and holdings on the protection provided by a school of failures. And since we were a school of villains and wrongdoing, we cannot ask the government for help like other private educational centers."

"Dude, so that's why we've seen you H.I.V.E. students steal so much and commit grand larceny every time we attempted to stop you!" Beast Boy exclaimed in surprise, "It wasn't because you wanted to, but because you had to, to help fund your school!"

The aged woman nodded wearily as she then said, "And when the Hellfire Club offered to help save my school and the students' well-being under the condition that they train them and oversee their education and development, I was wary if not loathing to do so, but I had no choice. The Hellfire Club is a powerful association with world-wide ties to the most influential businesses and influential people in the world, and it would open new doors of opportunity to the students and give them a secure future, a secure path. We would not be able to survive much longer if I refused…so I signed control of H.I.V.E. Academy and let both Luthor and Frost direct the conservatory as they saw fit. We had nothing to lose…or so I had thought."

The defeated matriarch then broke and started to weep softly, covering her face with her wrinkled and grimy hands, reminded of the mindless deaths of her cherished apprentices.

"Either way, we still didn't survive!" screamed Jinx with hurt, grief, and fury at her superior, "I wouldn't have cared if we were in trouble financially! I wouldn't have cared if we would have been disgraced and lost everything! I wouldn't have even cared about how we wouldn't become top-notch villains anymore! It doesn't mean anything to us anymore! I would give up everything, the money, the might, the supremacy …just to have everyone back, to have Selinda all right, to not have seen my classmates and school died and cut down by the Hellfire Club! Everyone's dead now! And all because you wanted to improve our standing as a school of mercenaries and criminals!"

At this, Jinx broke into a fresh round of sobbing, hysterical and inconsolable.

"Wait, but then why didn't the Hellions also get transformed into Heartless?" Jamie piped up, frowning at the hole in the turn of events, "I mean, I just recalled what Mammoth just said! If the Hellions were undergoing the same medical procedures and experiments that genetically altered the H.I.V.E. students into transforming into those Heartless creatures, then why didn't they get transformed too?"

Lina then murmured with rare anger, "Placebos…they must have used placebos to make it look like they were going through the same experimentations the H.I.V.E. students were going through, to make it seem under the illusion that the students wouldn't be in any danger if they followed the Hellions' suggestions."

"I get it!" Amara exclaimed, "The Hellions led the H.I.V.E. students on! The kids and the teachers would have gotten suspicious and wouldn't trust the Hellions if they encouraged them to take supplements and medical enhancements that they themselves wouldn't take a part in! So they made the kids and students believe that they were being a part of the experimentation and put up some sort of front that they were stronger and much better off because of it! And since they weren't in any danger, the Hellions wouldn't get hurt while the students would follow them like sheep and take the brunt of the Heartless trials for them!"

Sam then realized out loud, "And like all impressionable kids, they would naturally want ta' be stronger and successful if they wanted to bring pride to the school and succeed as future villains! If all it took were some enhancements and seeing how H.I.V.E. was able ta' endure it with no side effects, then of course the majority of the kids would follow them!"

"So they tricked them," Bobby murmured in disgust, "They tricked the students into doing the experiments disguised as medical check-ups so that they could have plenty of test subjects for the Hellfire Club. And they wouldn't care how the experiments would cost them their lives."

"Like how Cobra did with us when they posed as substitute teachers at Bayville High!" snarled Fred, crackling his knuckles. That look of cheated rage and violation was mirrored in Lance and Pietro too; apparently, it was still a sore subject, and the event of H.I.V.E. being fooled in the exact same premise was a grim reminder of that unpleasant memory. (See Author's Notes)

"And it would also explain why only some of the kids turned into Heartless," Daria exclaimed, "Like all experiments, they needed a control group to make sure that the genetic modifications they were doing would actually produce the Heartless mutations! So some of the kids must have been given useless catalysts while the others were given the significant ones to transform them into Slade's mindless soldiers! And I have to admit, these catalysts must be a real kick! Not even the genetic experimentations Kanto did on those followers of H.A.T.E. produced something this powerful!"

"Those monsters!" snarled Toad, shaking with rage and his knuckles turning white around a piece of stone he was holding in his hands so tightly, the rock instantly crumbled into sand, "Those Hellions are damn well gonna pay for this, yo! Leading on children! Just standing by and letting them get killed off! Experimentation? God help them if I ever get my hands on 'em!"

"And I thought that the Hellfire Club would truly help us and spare us when the end of the world came," sobbed the Headmistress, "But I had no idea that it would involve this, that it would result in the deaths of the children I wanted to protect and bring up…"

"You got exactly what you deserved," growled a booming voice in the background, and everyone turned with shock and outrage and insulted indignation to see Leomon, still trying to recover from the beating Trigon gave him, sitting heavily on the floor, Indian-style, all the meanwhile giving the Hivemistress and the students of her academy a poisonous glare of anger, of abhorrence. The stern, elderly woman looked as if she was just slapped in the face, but Leomon gave no indication of retracting or softening his words as he repeated it more lucidly.

"You sold the souls of everyone to a group that made deals with the Organization and the Thirteenth Order all to raise the status, importance and power of your so-called school. You dealt with the powers of darkness and trifled with the forces of great evil, and yet you expected to not pay the price for it? You get no sympathy from me; you and the rest of your kids only received what was coming."

The X-Men, the Misfits, the Titans, and a lot of the H.I.V.E. students were shocked and infuriated with insult, to say the least.

"Hey! That's like not fair!" Kitty shouted, her hands on her hips.

"How can you be so cruel?" snapped Bumblebee instantly as well as several others, ignoring the din, "They're just kids, Leomon! And didn't you hear what Jinx and the other said? They had no idea what was going on! They're victims in this as well! You can't blame the students of H.I.V.E. for something the Hellfire Club plotted behind their backs! The students didn't even know about the Heartless or the Hellfire Club's involvement with them!"

"God, how much of a jerk could you possibly be?" Piotr snapped at the lion, "Makes me wonder why you were even brought here with us!"

"You're as heartless as a…well, as a Heartless!" Beast Boy shot back. Though it was a weak and corny metaphor, it was slightly (though humorously as well) insulting, and Leomon rumbled deeply at Beast Boy which was enough to make Garfield squeal in fright and dash off only to cower slightly behind the hulking Cyborg who was gritting his teeth in rage at the digital warrior's coldness.

Meanwhile, Rogue and Jean were trying to comfort Mammoth and ease his woe and sorrow when Selinda then unexpectedly and weakly held Rogue's hand. The X-Girl was astonished and amazed as the small and languishing girl then coughed weakly.

"You're…you're the X-Man called 'Rogue', aren't you? I…I remember seeing your picture and reading about you in your file H.I.V.E. has on the X-Men…"

Rogue wasn't sure how to respond to that, but she carefully brushed the matted hair out of Selinda's hair carefully and with compassion as she said softly, "Yeah, I am. Try not to move so much, OK, sugah? You'll be able to feel less pain if you don't exert yourself more than ya' need to…"

Selinda had a dribble of blood escape out of the corner of her mouth as she shook her head and squeezed Rogue's hand even tighter as she then said, convinced, "You and the Misfits and the Titans are going to try to stop Slade and the Hellions, aren't you?"

Rogue nodded, though the X-Men didn't really discuss it. Still, Shimmer had to be pretty sharp if she could deduce that so easily.

"Then…I want to help, help you and the others stop Slade and fix up this entire mess. Please, will you do me a favor? Please, Rogue?"

"But…Selinda, why are ya' askin' me? Can't you ask Wavedancer or Jean to help out? They're more powerful than I am…" Rogue tried to dissuade Selinda, but Shimmer shook her head, convinced and unwavering.

"No…Rogue, I think it can only be you. And…And I want to help you X-Men out…to help protect my brother…"

"Selinda, shut up…please…" Mammoth croaked hoarsely, stroking Shimmer's red curls gently, helplessly. But Shimmer was steadfast as she held Rogue's hand even more tightly.

"Promise me…" Selinda coughed weakly, rivers running out of her eyes. Rogue, white in the face, nodded dumbly.

Meanwhile, Robin, Kitty, Xi, Piotr, and Forge were conversing with each other as Robin was trying to use his Titans communicator to try to reach anyone through various frequencies and wavelengths. Unfortunately, no such luck; no matter what Robin tried to hack and prod, he only received static.

"Robin, is there anyone else who might have been able to get away from the Armageddon unscathed like H.I.V.E. Academy did?" Piotr asked, hanging on to some last shred of hope, "Surely someone must have managed to escape Scath's order and curse?"

Robin shook his head dejectedly as he explained, "I tried already. I used the communicator to see if I could make contact with anyone we know. I tried Atlantis, Dr. Fate's home, Metropolis, Gotham City, any major government communications unit in every developed country in the planet, the G.I. Joe Pit, the communicators of the Justice League themselves…nothing. We're the only ones who survived when Scath came into our world…"

"Wait, what about people who know magic? You know, like Dr. Strange and those Etrigan and Zatanna guys you mentioned before? Couldn't they like have seen this coming or at least totally prepare for it and have some sort of magical weapons and such to help like fight Scath?" Kitty asked, thinking that there might be a solution in that overlooked path, but Forge then shook his head.

"That can't be possible either, Kitty. The portal machines me and Trinity built to talk to Dr. Strange were destroyed when that Megazord robot we built exploded. And the only other person who could contact Dr. Strange and Benny was Amanda's mother, but something tells me she was also turned to stone since we can't get any readings from Bayville. I think we're really on our own for this one."

"Great, just great," griped Xi bad-naturedly and sarcastically.

Indeed, similar feelings of gloom and outrage were echoing throughout the entire wreckage of H.I.V.E. academy. Wavedancer herself felt nothing but ill-thoughts and anger at how thoughtlessly the Hellions sacrificed innocent children, but she knew also that they needed to focus on the task at hand of stopping Trigon and saving Raven, and by doing so, saving their parents and the world. Althea then noticed Trinity looking at the numerous carcasses with blank expressions.

"You three better not be getting any ideas from this," Althea shot at the Triplets sternly, and Daria, Quinn, and Brittany returned three cold, consecutive glares back at their older sibling.

Daria snapped, "Oh please, give us some credit, Sis! We're not exactly like Emma and Luthor, you know! Even we don't do experimentation this disgusting on people! This is enough to make even us sick!"

Quinn then added, "Oh, but don't worry. If we live through this, we don't intend to let the Hellions and the Hellfire Club get away with screwing over the H.I.V.E. students like this. Emma and her friends are going to get some very unpleasant surprises heading their way once we're free and clear of Trigon and help Raven."

The looks of vengeance on Daria, Quinn, and Brittany's faces were actually so daunting and scary that Althea, despite raising her sisters since they were in diapers, raised an eyebrow, slightly disturbed. The Delgado Triplets were rarely so serious and determined, especially since no one ever made it out of their hit list unscathed.

"Just don't hurt them. If we ever catch the Hellions and the Hellfire cronies, we need them alive and mentally stable for information about this entire Heartless thing and what we can do to stop whatever the hell they're planning," Wavedancer pointed out.

Brittany smiled a little too eagerly, "Oh we won't…at least, not permanently."

Sam and Roberto, who were nearby, also noticed Tabitha surveying the destruction and the massacre, her body as still as a statue.

"Tabby?" Sam asked. Boom-Boom then looked at Roberto and Sam and they could see her eyes were blazing, absolutely furious, her hand clenched tightly into a fist. Tabitha managed to keep herself level-headed by breathing heavily through her nose before she answered at last.

"I never liked those Hellion snobs before…" she growled, "But so help me, after this crap they pulled on H.I.V.E., they just hit a new low. And I intend on making them pay big time for that."

"Trust me, the feeling's mutual, Tabby," Ray agreed, his face dark, "There's no way in hell we're going to just let them go by for this! And if we die fighting Scath and those Heartless of Slade's, at least I'll take one or two of the Hellions with me!"

"X-Men don't kill, Ray…" Roberto said, placating, but Ray then whirled on his teammate, throwing a hand out to the numerous bodies of children and Mammoth and Selinda.

"Oh, open your eyes, Roberto!" Ray shouted, losing it, "Look at what the White Queen and Luthor and the Hellions did to them, did to the students and faculty of H.I.V.E! They helped plan the murder of children! Kids no older than Multiple and Mas and Menos! And for what? To help glorify the Hellfire Club and give themselves more power and unlimited might? To sell their souls to Scath! The Hellions are now officially no better than Magneto cause this is something he'd do, there's no question about it! Uh…no offense, Pietro and Wanda."

Wanda shook her head fervently as she said seriously, "No, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly with you on this, Ray. What the Hellions and the Hellfire Club did makes them as much of monsters as my father, and like Magneto, the Hellions need to pay for what they did here. This is something that we can't overlook, that we can't ignore and say it's simply a consequence of every day life. We can't simply say that shit happens and move on. It would be an insult to the H.I.V.E. students if we did that, to the classmates and friends that they lost to the Heartless…all because the Hellfire Club and their associates used them for their own gains."

Soon, after Justin and Lina managed to heal as much of the H.I.V.E. students and each other as best as they could, everyone, bar Jean and Rogue (who were still with Mammoth), and even Jinx and Gizmo regrouped to discuss their options during this crisis. Lance lingered a bit away from the group so he could stand next to Leomon who was still trying to convalesce from his wounds (Leomon had refused point-blank to allow Dragonfly or Whitelighter to tend to him), and Kitty and Beast Boy were both a bit bothered at how close Avalanche was making himself vulnerable to the lion swordsman.

"So what do we do now?" Menos asked in Spanish.

"I guess we have no choice but to fight," Scott said. Cyborg gave the X-Man a baleful look as he pointed out the harsh and hellish landscape of fire and dead rock with a wave of his hand.

"Fight? Fight for what? Look around, all around us, everywhere in the world…there's nothing left. There's no point," the robot said flatly.

"There's always a point. For hope…and for Raven," Robin said stoutly, "As long as we're still here, we still have a chance and that's why we're going to keep fighting."

"Ach, Robin's right, you guys!" Kurt said with determination, "We can't give up, not when our parents and the Professor are like this, turned to stone and with the H.I.V.E. kids being forced to live the rest of their lives as Heartless minions for Slade. We have to fight! It'll be a lot better than just waiting around her and having them come to us to finish us off when we're weak from thirst and hunger!"

"But we don't know how to stop Slade and the Hellions, especially now that Scath is here," Fred said wearily, "Unless we can banish Scath back into that dimension from where he came from, we might as well be coming up to the bull pen waving a big red flag."

Yet Leomon then said forcefully, "No, there is someone who has the power to banish him. Raven, the Titan and daughter to that monster king. If she was the portal that brought him into our world, she can also have the power to force him back. If you want to save your world and stop those Heartless from causing the Earth to disappear, you need to find that kid."

The X-Men, the Titans, and the Misfits turned their attention to the lion who was crossing his arms over his chest and sulking darkly, as if he hated being in their presence. There was a general silence as they all took this in while evaluating their suspicions about the mysterious humanoid warrior.

"Leomon…that reminds me…" Toad asked at last, "How is it you know so much about these Heartless, yo?"

"Because the Heartless have destroyed my world as well, eons ago," Leomon confessed softly, and Lance could spot the quick moment of grief etched on the warrior's face, before Leomon, after a long pause, added, "I'm the last of my kind…so I've been fighting against them ever since."

The X-Men, the Titans, and the Misfits didn't know how to feel about this, but it certainly made them less guarded around Leomon a bit due to the pity. Lance then laid a tentative hand on Leomon's clenched paw that was resting on the lion's squatting knee.

"I'm sorry about that…" the Misfit said sympathetically. Leomon just gave Lance an annoyed glare.

"It's not going to bring back what I have lost, so don't even bother with the useless words of encouragement!" the digital swordsman snapped harshly. Fred then glared rather angrily at the towering lion. He had enough of this, and the Blob could see that if they needed to get anywhere with the Heartless and Trigon, some words needed to be said, and quite frankly, Fred had no problem speaking his mind in this situation.

Blob retorted, "Hey, Lance's trying to be nice, so there's no need to act like he doesn't know anything about losing people you care about! Just because you're the only being here who knows how big of a threat the Heartless are doesn't mean you have to shoulder the entire burden of fighting them on yourself, especially when all of us want ta' help and have as much right to fight this war as you do! This façade of how you don't need our involvement and how we're not on the same side is pretty dumb, Leomon, considering that it's not fooling anyone! Even I can understand that none of us can fight alone without asking for help from time to time, and if your pride wasn't so overblown, you'd realize that sooner! Asking for assistance and admitting your weaknesses doesn't mean you're any less of a warrior, Leomon!"

Leomon looked up sharply at the fat mutant, and it was apparent from the look on his face that the lion being was torn between ripping into Fred for his boldness and being stunned from that particular shaft hitting home.

"Leave it to 'Psychotic Psychiatrist Blob' to get through to a psychotic and arrogantly macho lion with a sword," Amara muttered, rolling her eyes at the thought. Scott then turned to Leomon.

"As much as it shocks me to say it, the Blob has a point, Leomon," the leader of the X-Men pointed out in a forced voice, "We could use your help in telling us what you know about Scath and this new threat you refer to as the Heartless. We share a common enemy, so you have as much to gain as we do if we can defeat Scath. Keep in mind, we're not being stupid enough to ask you for your help again, but we are asking for information, anything to help us stop Scath and save Raven - "

"First of all, you little bespectacled prick, I have no intention on saving Raven unlike the rest of your delusional group," the lion snarled, baring his fangs, "And secondly, quit referring to Trigon by the name 'Scath'. Refer to him by his real name, 'Trigon'!"

"Trigon?" Aqualad echoed.

"The demon's name is Trigon, not Scath," Leomon said a bit harshly and impatiently as he glared at Aqualad, "'Scath' was the name the Order of Azar used as a pseudonym to hide and obscure his influence and evil from the world. It is like how you mutants in the X-Men and the Misfits use code names to disguise your real birth names when you go out into battle. Raven's father's real name is Trigon, so at least get it right, kid."

"Trigon?" gasped Wanda and Kurt, both now looking thoroughly rattled as Wanda clasped both hands to her mouth and Kurt's eyes went as wide as saucers, causing a few heads to turn in their direction.

"Yo, Fuzzy, what's wrong? You've heard of Trigon or Scath or whatever he's called?" Todd asked, not sure if he was going to like the answer. Kurt then answered, shakily.

"I heard that name before from some of the Fathers in my Catholic Church!" Kurt exclaimed, "Though it really couldn't have been proven and it was mostly based on speculation from some eyewitnesses of prisoners who listened to the apostle John while he was rotting in jail and writing Revelations, it was claimed that one of the beasts in the Book of Revelation was based on a demon by the name of 'Trigon', and though it was never officially written in the Bible and the fellow inmates were dismissed as raving lunatics, some of the Red Sea Scrolls actually also supported this claim by making one reference to a demon of great evil who was punished severely by the will of the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. In fact, it was written that Jesus Christ was the one who banished and exorcised the demon out of our realm by the Holy Spirit!"

"Let Remy guess…this demon's name wouldn't happen to be 'Trigon', would it?" Gambit asked warily.

"Exactly," Kurt affirmed, nodding.

"And his cruelty and demonic power is legendary in magical history as well," Wanda murmured, her pale face now sharply contrasted against her red and black hair, "When I was studying with Agatha Harkness when I was staying at the Brotherhood House, she showed me some ancient texts she had on her while she was my tutor and mentor. One of those texts mentioned how Trigon was a demon lord of the Ancients since time began, since this world and reality was formed. Though it was dismissed as a story blown up and exaggerated over time, Trigon was a demon born of the evil energy in the fabric of reality of space and time, meaning that he's the embodiment and source of a lot of the vice that's found in this dimension. Granted, Trigon's not the only source, but he's pretty bad nonetheless. He's been told to conquer whole worlds and dimensions as quickly as in the blink of an eye, and no person of this earth was ever able to stop him except Azar himself. Trigon could even give that Phoenix Force that we tangled with at Apokolips a run for its money!"

Robin turned to Leomon, his face contorted with dark suspicion. There was something the lion being wasn't telling them, of this, the Titans leader was certain…

"How is it that you know so much about this? And now that I think about it, you still haven't explained why you're so hostile and defensive about Raven, especially since she's never done anything to you," Robin growled. Scott and several of the others who were nearby also narrowed their eyes at the sullen Leomon in mistrust.

Scott said crossly, "Robin has a point, Leomon. Could it be the only reason you know so much about Raven and Trigon in the first place because you want to try to rule the world with her powers like Brother Blood and Blackheart and the Hellfire Club are doing?"

Leomon looked like he was going to belligerently keep his mouth shut, but then Lance prodded him gently, "Leomon, we know we don't have the right to ask you to share with us, but…we know you're not evil and you don't want this world to be doomed like your world. And if you won't help us for Raven, then can you at least help us for every innocent person who'll die if Trigon rules over the Earth? Please, we need to know why you're after Raven so badly because we're worried about her and because we need her to help send Trigon back for good."

"Gee, what's the matter, Alvers?" sneered Remy, "Moved on to a new love interest after getting dumped by Kitty?"

"Gambit, shut up!" snarled Wanda, Fred, Beast Boy, Tabitha, Kurt, Jamie…and surprisingly enough (to Piotr's slight annoyance), Kitty.

Leomon looked at Lance for the longest of moments, hard and conflicted, before he then turned to Robin and growled with resentment, "Raven…she was one of the reasons why I am even in your world in the first place. I had to learn everything about her so I could prepare myself for the mission that was given to me to prevent the Armageddon from even occurring, not that I was able to succeed."

"What?" Bumblebee gasped, her body going rigid. Leomon ignored the looks of shock on the teens' collective faces as he then threw caution to the winds and revealed his secret.

Leomon said huskily, "Raven was my assignment. The reason I came to fight the Heartless, the reason I am even in your world in the first place…was because I was sent to kill Raven."

The response was instantaneous as most of the gathered group were prepared to leap and attack Leomon, immediately having their blood turn cold upon this assertion. As much as they suspected before, it was nowhere near the rage and guardedness and caution they felt now for the tawny-furred lion humanoid. It was like standing in the presence of a serial killer who just confessed to murdering your family. Lance looked a little taken aback.

"Happy now, Alvers?" Scott shouted at Avalanche accusingly, "I told you he couldn't be trusted! Leomon's our enemy! And yet you still had to bring him here with us!"

"Relax, kids," Leomon rumbled a bit bitterly, "She's not dead, or have you forgotten that Trigon is already here in your world? Had I succeeded in killing her, the portal would have never been opened and your world would have been spared."

"But you'll kill Raven once she's free and clear and when she manages to send her father out of Earth, aren't you?" Amara growled, her hands lit with tow fireballs ready to do some major damage, "In other words, we'll make your job easier so that she does the work of fighting Trigon, and you'll step in and finish her off as soon as our guard is down!"

Leomon just silently gave a cold glare at the X-Girl, which was enough to convince the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Titans that Amara was right in her guessing.

"So why didn't you kill her?" Gizmo said, earning a few outraged looks from the Teen Titans, his voice now going falsetto from his hysterics, "Why didn't you kill Raven then? It would have saved us a lot of trouble, and H.I.V.E. Academy wouldn't be reduced to this if she weren't alive anymore! If you just killed that moody, sewer-dwelling witch-freak in the first place, this world wouldn't have doomed, and we wouldn't all be screwed over!"

Before Cyborg, Robin, or Aqualad could reach over and pound the H.I.V.E. inventor for being so thoughtless and inconsiderate, someone then beat them to it and drew back a hand to slap Gizmo hard across the face, stopping his screaming tirade.

Smack!

Gizmo turned his head back to Jinx in front of him. Jinx's hand was still drawn out in front of her from slapping Gizmo's cheek, her entire body quaking underneath her torn and dusty clothes, her eyes troubled and shining. Gizmo couldn't have been more shocked; one of his closest friends just slapped him for saying something that most if not all of the H.I.V.E. student body probably agreed on.

"What did you do THAT, for?" screeched Gizmo, "I was telling what should have been said! Oh come on, stop looking at me like that when you know everyone else here is probably thinking of the same thing! None of this would have ever happened if that bitch Raven never existed in the first place! If she died, then the Earth wouldn't be doomed! There's nothing wrong with it! The death of one useless fuzz-chewer to save everyone else who's important is a small price!"

Jinx then looked at Gizmo with glazed eyes, her body drooping as if it was hollow and devoid of any soul.

"The Hellions and the Hellfire Club probably said the same thing when they sacrificed us to the experiments and the Heartless then, Gizmo," she said in an empty and emotionless voice, but with a twinge of sorrow. The boy's eyes widened a little before the truth from the comparison came crashing down on him from the sky, reminding him that there was very little difference between H.I.V.E.'s betrayals and Raven's birthright. Gizmo then felt guilty as he resentfully kept his mouth shut. Lance however was not fazed from this confession; to Leomon (and of this, Lance could understand), this was neither right nor wrong, but necessary. It still didn't change the fact that Leomon really did not mean any harm to befall on the X-Men or the Misfits and that he wanted to fight for the protection of Earth.

"Leomon, it's still not right," Lance said persistently, trying hard to convince the lion warrior of his error, "It's not Raven's fault that she was to be Trigon's portal. Raven's a victim in this too, as much as anyone if not more so. She had no choice, and you know as well as we do this wasn't something she wanted. She tried to fight against it."

"I'm still not greatly convinced, Avalanche," Leomon muttered rudely. At the same time, Althea was thinking to herself on why Leomon waited so long to attack Raven when he certainly had numerous times and chance to strike before Raven fled Jump City. If he truly wanted to kill Raven, then Leomon would have done it without care and as hastily as possible like any assassin or ninja. So why the wait until now? The only reason he could have possibly hesitated for so long would only be if…

"You couldn't kill her," Althea said softly. It was more of a statement than a question, as if Althea knew it to be the truth and that there was no need for Leomon's confirmation. Leomon narrowed his eyes and flattened his ears against his head as he bared his teeth at the Misfit leader for being so audacious at the hidden barb that he lost his resolve and nerve on the mission (though he could secretly admit that a part of his soul rang true for that one).

"Don't fool yourself into thinking that I am weak at heart, Wavedancer!" Leomon roared, already starting to lose his temper, "I was sent her to kill Raven, and by the Great Beast, if her death is what it takes to make sure that this world doesn't die under Trigon's presence or by the Heartless, then I'll gladly do it once I have the chance!"

"Like, sent by who? WHO ordered you go and totally kill Raven?" Kitty demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously, indicating that she wasn't in the mood for any more withholdings of information. Leomon returned the glare back with extra coolness.

"That is none of your business," he growled

"Sorry! Wrong answer, fur-face!" Speedy growled as he, Scarlet Witch, Cyclops, Starfire, Colossus and Gambit all powered up, aiming their attacks at the seated lion in front of them. Speedy pointed his steel shaft directly between Leomon's eyes before he made his request again.

"Last chance, Leomon…tell us who the hell ordered you to assassinate Raven or Mr. Pointy Arrow finds a new home in that thick head of yours!"

Leomon regarded him coolly as he remarked, "I faced the Heartless and countless forms of the darkness and evil that could swallow up worlds and planets whole and cause stars an suns to die out with barely a whisper. You honestly think I'd be intimidated by a couple of meddling, nosy teenagers such as yourselves?"

"So why weren't you able to kill Raven? What stopped you? She kicked your butt or something when you tried before?" Roberto shot back rather snidely. Leomon gave Roberto a look that would have instantly killed him on the spot for the underlying insult against his skills as a swordsman and a warrior, but he bit his tongue as he then explained what happened when he tried to kill Raven in Azarath and how Raven fled there once her secret had been discovered. The other listened with interest until they heard about the ritual of marriage with Brother Blood and Raven.

"Brother Blood?" roared Cyborg in fury, "He's in on this too?"

"Yes, and from what I can tell when I tried to kill Raven in Azarath, he's a member of the Hellfire Club as well as Slade is," Leomon explained.

"WHAT?" chorused the Titans and Jinx and Gizmo and the Hivemistress. It seemed like today was the day for unpleasant surprises and briefings. Fred then gasped as it came to him.

"It makes sense then!" Blob spoke, "Remember when the Titans told us about how Brother Blood was reported to just simply have disappeared without a trace from maximum security in Steel City? This might explain it then! The Hellfire Club would certainly be a group that could spring a megalomaniac like Brother Blood and be cunning enough to cover their tracks! They sprung Brother Blood so that he could commit the ceremony with Raven in Azarath!"

"Well then, we'll just make sure he gets a very painful annulment…" growled Red Witch as hex energy began to glow in her hands.

"Wait, but that doesn't explain how Slade came back, especially since he supposedly died after that fight with Terra," Lance pointed out, but Leomon's face softened a bit before he turned to Lance.

Leomon explained, "Because when Trigon sired Slade into his services, he brought Slade back from the dead as a living dead. Slade is rather a phantasm, a spirit that was created specifically to carry out Trigon's wishes and deeds, but bound to Trigon under the promise that the demon lord will resurrect him back to flesh and blood if he carries out his tasks and helps acquire Raven into his clutches."

"Great, so now we have to fight Slade who's in some kind of zombie mode!" griped Speedy.

Cyborg then turned to Jinx as he told her sternly, "It's gonna get ugly, Jinx, so it'll be best if you and the rest of the H.I.V.E. students stayed here and try to just rest and stay low. If we don't survive this fight, then at least you and the rest of the school won't die along with us…"

Jinx nodded before she then spoke something she had been struggling with in her heart for quite some time.

"And Cyborg…" sniffed Jinx. The Teen Titan turned to Jinx, a bit puzzled.

"Yeah?"

"For what it's worth…I'm sorry me and the other H.I.V.E. guys gave you a hard time. I…I really wish we weren't meant to get off on the wrong foot with each other, especially since you and the Titans cared more for us that the Hellfire Club and the Hellions ever did…which is kinda pathetic in itself."

Cyborg's eyes went soft with touched sorrow before he answered back gently, "And for what it's worth…the same can be said from the Titans too. We're sorry too, for everything. And me especially, Jinx. I just remembered how hurt you were when you discovered I was really Stone and how I led you on while I was undercover. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings like that…so I'm especially sorry for being rotten to you."

Jinx nodded, but she was a bit surprised to feel a little uplifted from that simple apology.

"So then we do this…for Raven!" Robin said with fervent passion as he pumped his fist in the air.

"For Raven…" the Titans and Titans East vowed.

"For our parents…" the Misfits vowed.

"For the world…" the X-Men vowed, and upon hearing these words, streams of a familiar black energy began to gather and swirl around the Titans, the Misfits, and the X-Men and Silkie and Lockheed before it promptly vanished. The heroes then looked at each other with wide eyes before they all arrived at the truth simultaneously, looking at their hands with wonder.

"OK, that felt weird…" Menos commented. Rina then grinned at last as she held up a hand and showed everyone the ball of telekinetic shadows resting in her palm.

"I think this is also due to Raven when she protected us from Trigon's power," X23 said excitedly, "So even though we haven't been able to stop Trigon from coming, at least Raven left us a way to fight him! She must have bequeathed us a bit of her powers before she disappeared as the portal!"

"And it grows stronger as we stand as one," Starfire agreed.

Starfire then explained how when the Puppet King attacked the Titans before and how she and Raven switched their souls into each other's bodies, and by doing so, the Tamaranean was taught that Raven's powers were based on emotion (thus justifying why Raven needed to always keep her feelings in check through constant meditation).

Starfire spoke, "…so I have used Raven's powers once before. They are controlled by emotions, so the more we feel, the more energy is released."

"Huh?" Toad blinked, lost already.

Cyborg then summed it up, "In other words, get angry, Toad."

"Oh…I gotcha," Toad nodded.

Pietro snorted in self-amusement as he cocked his head at his twin sister, saying rather mockingly, "Gee, that won't be a problem. My psychotic sister over here has enough anger and dysfunctional PMS to finish off the entire solar system when it comes down to it."

"He never learns to keep his mouth shut, does he?" Aqualad groaned as Wanda managed to hex Pietro into standing still while she then tackled him and started pounding her screaming brother. Kitty gave Garth a sardonic look.

"And you like just realized this now?" she quipped.

"And there's some good news!" Quinn reported as she held up her pink scanner, "Even though the Titans Tower is still damaged like everything else, we were able to detect that a lot of our stuff is still safe, including our battle uniforms and some of the equipment we brought along for such a firefight!"

"That is groovy news!" Forge exhaled a bit, "With our uniforms and some weapons still intact, we might then be able to seriously fight Trigon and Slade and the Hellions!"

"And let's not forget our glovatrixes!" Sam added, "After all, Razor would have wanted us to pack whatever heat we can, 'specially since he spent so long training us how to build and use 'em!"

"And we got Raven on our side, even though she's not here with us physically…" Beast Boy said with growing optimism, realizing that this could be a massive trump card if played right.

"…but she's with us in spirit, and that's what's gonna count when we give Trigon some payback and send him back to his smelly dimension once and for all! We're gonna hit him where it hurts!" finished Brittany stoutly.

Suddenly, an anguished howl broke the reverie of bleakness upon the crowd as they all turned back to the source of the sound. The mutants, the Titans, the Hivemistress, Jinx, and Gizmo then could see Jean and Rogue both leaving Mammoth alone as they quietly edged towards the rest of the group. Though they could not see Shimmer and Mammoth's back was turned to them, all of the crowd could witness Mammoth's shoulders quaking with wracking sobs, his entire hulking form rocking something limp in his arms back and forth, as he screamed long and hard with a mixture of loss, sorrow, and rage.

Jinx turned with numb dread at a white-faced Rogue and Jean Grey.

"Se-…Selinda?" Jinx asked, her lower lip trembling, her voice cracking. Jean looked at the pink-haired witch hollowly for several seconds before she realized she couldn't say it, and she shook her head, tears running down her face.

"I…I'm so…I'm so sorry, Jinx," Jean wept softly.

That sentence was self-explanatory.

"Poor kid," murmured Remy, mourning under his breath for both Mammoth and Shimmer.

Rogue just looked darkly at the floor, her face full of self-loathing and remorse as she put on her glove back on her exposed hand. The Titans' faces all fell, pained, while the Misfits and X-Men gave grim expressions, silent. Silkie gave strange gurgling noises of sorrow while the dragon, Lockheed, rubbed his head against the worm's as an act of comfort. Kurt was whispering a prayer of the Catholic Anointing while Daria, Quinn, and Brittany sniffed, wiping their faces with their hands and sleeves. Lina held her hands to her mouth in disgust and tragic compassion. Gizmo just frowned as he stared lifelessly at the rubble and rocks at his feet, his eyes blank and emotionless, refusing to break. Yet it was Jinx who broke down as she covered her face and sobbed without restraint.

Unwilling to just stand by, Starfire did the only thing she could think of, regardless of Jinx being the Titans' enemy.

The red-haired extraterrestrial reached out and gently hugged Jinx, careful not to crush her with her strength, and continued to hold her as a token of condolence as the witch continued sobbing for Selinda who was the last student to finally perish from the brutal treachery and disregard of the Hellfire Club.

---

"So this is the dawn of the new age, huh? I hafta say, it's definitely not as glamorous as I thought," the Hellion Beef commented with boredom as he and the Hellions just watched Trigon resting contently on a throne of dead, gray, cold rock, the seat located directly in the epicenter of Jump City, among the crushed remains of the local inhabitants turned to stone. Indeed, the makeshift chair was made from the hollowed out remains of a skyscraper, and after adjusting it to his proportions, Trigon settled down quite comfortably, a grin of sadistic pleasure dancing across his features as he breathed in the ashy, thick air with triumphant satisfaction. And as a further testament to his authority and conquest over the planet, decorating the very skyscrapers next to him, side by side the armrests of Trigon's throne, were the frozen statues of the frozen adults of the X-Men and the Misfit handlers. All of them: Shipwreck, Storm, Razor, Beast, Roadblock, Low Light, Cover Girl, Professor Xavier, Blind Master, Wolverine, and Spirit were displayed for all to see, a sign of how these select few out of the many heroes of this world failed to prevent the Armageddon and stop him.

Trigon was the one who now ruled all, the embodiment of all evil in this world and beyond, and as such, all would submit to him and call him their lord and master. And what bothered Arella as she stood next to Brother Blood with a mixture of revulsion and regret was the crystal-clear ball of shimmering energy that was trapping a young form of Raven, now no longer a teenager but rather a mere child no older than eight or nine years old. Yes, Raven, due to Brother Blood's marriage, was truly spared when she became the portal to Earth, and now, the child was cowering with fear, trying to gather her white cloak around her body as a shield while Trigon sneered, playing with the sphere in his hands and gazing upon his child of evil.

"I told you she would be spared. The Hellfire Club has kept its promises," Brother Blood said rather smugly as he and Slade watched the scene with a mixture of amusement and satisfaction. Arella shot them a cold glare, but she kept her silence. As long as Raven was still alive and safe…

Suddenly, a hailstorm of sunspot energy, green starbolts, homing missiles, and bomb arrows rained down from the sky as Sunspot, Starfire, Cyborg and Speedy (carried respectively by Beast Boy transformed as a pterodactyl and Rogue) struck from the air. On the ground, a massive combination of electricity, hex energy, optic energy and biokinetic playing cards flew at Trigon's body from the ground. The Hellions and Slade glanced to see Cyclops, Scarlet Witch, Gambit, and Bezerker finishing their assault as the rest of the four groups converged and united at once. Robin stood at the very center of the congregation, his fists called and his expression dark with ferocious anger.

"Trigon!" snarled Robin, his throat going hoarse from bellowing, "Stand up and fight!"

"Give us back Raven and our parents, you overblown yahoo!" Rogue shouted with dangerous anger.

"As I have said earlier, Marie, they have come as a final attempt to prove their bravado, just as I have predicted…" Slade commented rather self-righteously to the Hellion Tarot.

"Have they gone truly insane?" Bevatron gasped, "There's no way they think they can win!"

"Insignificant insects! Begone!" Trigon snarled as he let loose another blast of red energy from all four of his eyes, and at this, the Teen Titans, Titans East, the X-Men and the Misfits joined hands, with Silkie resting on Starfire's shoulder and Lockheed perched on Kitty's shoulder right before the blast struck them with the same force of a nuclear bomb…

Kaaa-BBOOOOOMMMM!

"And like all fools, they died thinking that they could truly delay the inevitable…" Brother Blood began, bragging as he became a bit giddy at the supposed deaths of the mutants and the Titans before he trailed off with horrified gall at the sight as the Hellions' collective jaws dropped in shock.

"No way…" Jetstream murmured.

There, floating in the air, joining hands and forming a straight line, were the Teen Titans, the Misfits, the Titans East, and the X-Men, all of them with hard expressions of determination on their faces as they stood with locked legs and their backs straight, each and every one of the teenagers glowing with shimmering airs of silver and white.

"Now this certainly is a surprise…" Slade commented flatly, truly taken aback.

Trigon's head snapped up, alarmed, as he then sensed something familiar about those auras…

"That power…!" he snarled with rage, realizing the source of the heroes' ultimate weapon.

It was then that the X-Men, the Misfits, the Teen Titans, and the Titans East all bellowed out the one sentence Trigon least wanted to hear, their voices rising in crescendo with each syllable, the words brimming with their power, their courage, and their hope.

"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

Instantly, all the black energy coursing and channeling through each and every mutant of the X-Men, the Misfits, every Titan, and even Silkie and Lockheed swelled many times over before it streamed from all their bodies and right in front of the linear congregation, coagulating into a large, crackling hot ball of dark aura. Slade could feel it, the tense friction of unseen yet dangerous sensations of something building, something huge approaching. And he was not disappointed. With a cracking roar, the ball of shadow-force transformed into a writhing serpent, its eyes glowing red with power, its fanged mouth gaping open in a furious hiss, and with a upwelling flood of telekinetic force, the stream of energy was sent hurtling through the air, streaking and whipping madly in the sky in mere split-seconds, before the coiled serpent struck Trigon dead-center in his chest with full force.

SSSSHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

"YYYYAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Trigon bellowed with real, agonizing pain before the attack subsided, the teenagers now ceasing their attack with growing dread. It wasn't enough! Trigon then glared murderously at the heroes.

"You may think it wise to attack me while I gather my strength, but as you fools can see, not even a farewell blessing from my daughter can save you! BE GONE, PESTS!"

And with a huge furious discharge of energy, Trigon sent another blast directly at them, and though the powers of Raven's soul was flowing freely through them all and protected them with a telekinetic shield, it was not enough as they all were sent plummeting to the ground below before crashing heavily. Luckily, as the dust cleared, they were not hurt in the slightest.

"Ow…" groaned Shadowcat as she picked herself from the rubble and hard ground, "That was like sooooo not a soft landing!"

Gambit turned to Cyclops as he took out his metal bo, "Uh…Cyclops? Remy thinks we're gonna have to do this the hard way. Apparently, we weren't angry enough…"

"At least with so much lava and molten rock all around us, it'll give us an edge on this battle. If Slade thought that it was painful when Terra dumped him inside the volcano, he's going to find out how much more painful it'll be when I do it to him," Magma piped up as she transformed into her fiery-form, the flames engulfing her body and figure and causing the surrounding lava around them to quiver slightly in anticipation from her sensitive mutant powers. Cyclops and Gambit gave a slight nod; it was a benefit in their favor.

Slade then spoke to Trigon, "Master, give me what has been lost. Return me back to life and I shall rid of the Titans and their mutant allies for you if it pleases you!"

Trigon nodded as he pointed a finger at Slade, growling, "Strike in my name then, my faithful servant! What has been lost shall now be found! I bring you back to flesh and blood! Arise!"

"Well, guess Slade's no longer a zombie," Wavedancer quipped as Slade began to glow bright red before the light subsided, though the damned mark was still burning brightly on his head.

"Well, that should make it all the better then," snarled X23 as she drew out her adamantium claws with a cold shikt, "Then that means we can have the pleasure of killing him again! And making sure the creep stays dead for good!"

"Better warriors have tried and failed, X23," Slade then grinned sadistically behind his mask as he pressed a button on a foreign remote he took out of his pocket, and the X-Men then heard some very unwelcome and familiar sounds of booster rockets as ten to fifteen hulking metallic giants descended heavily from the air…

"A gift from the Hellfire Club, my dear X-Men and Misfits," Slade uttered with vicious and aggressive malevolence, "We have been dying to try our latest toys on your sorry groups…"

"Mon dieu!" gasped Gambit, his body growing cold, "Sentinels! That homme managed to bring out Sentinels!"

"Sentinels? As in those mutant-hunting robots created by Trask? The same prototypes that exposed the existence of mutants to the world several years ago?" Bumblebee asked in disbelief.

"Oh boy, when Slade wants to kill us, he really goes all out!" Iceman gasped, shivering.

"It's what I do best, Iceman…farewell," Slade chuckled at the private joke as the leading Sentinel was about to fire its destructive laser cannons and missiles.

"Aw, crap, this couldn't possibly get any worse!" Quicksilver moaned.

"PIETRO, SHUT UP!" bellowed most of the X-Men, Misfits, and even a few Titans in unison, unwilling to let Murphy's Law take into effect. But to everyone's surprise, a combination of machine-gun bullets and pink hex energy came from behind the Titans and mutants before striking the Sentinel with full force, causing it to stop dead in its tracks.

"That attack!" gasped Dragonfly before she and the other turned around to see…Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth standing there with frightened yet bold expressions. It was only those three students from H.I.V.E. academy…

"I thought we told you to stay with the other H.I.V.E. students back at the Academy!" Aqualad snapped, but Gizmo was adamant.

"You're welcome by the way, you urine-sucking sea-cow!" Gizmo sneered at the Atlantian, but Jinx then stepped forward with a grim yet determined expression on her face.

"Hey, you can't argue you could use all the help you could get, especially since those Sentinels are probably programmed to kill both Titans and mutants," she pointed out.

"Didn't anyone else from H.I.V.E. want to come?" Mas asked in Spanish, but Jinx was able to guess what the Hispanic speedster was trying to ask, and she shook her head.

"No one else wanted to help out, to risk their lives over a fight they think is suicidal anyway," she said in a strained voice, "They figured at least dying slowly and in peace is a lot better than getting ripped apart again by Trigon and the Heartless. It's just us…your typical H.I.V.E. rejects. It's not much…and Robin told Leomon to not show up since you guys would attack him and treat him like an enemy if he dared to show his face in battle. He's back at the ruins of H.I.V.E. with the other students. Like I said, it's not much…"

"But it's something, Jinx. No person's worthless," Cyborg said with a bit of warm encouragement, and the pink-haired witch managed to shakily smile with gratefulness at the Titan robot for the sincere comment. Robin logically then knew there was no dissuading the trio, and rationally, the more firepower they had to their side, the better.

"Just so you three know what you're getting into…you might die from fighting Trigon and the Heartless. Are you ready for that?" Robin asked. Mammoth looked at him hollowly.

"After today…I don't have anything else to lose," the large ape-like mutate hissed with revenge, devoid of any feeling. The Titans, the Misfits, and the X-Men nodded strongly. Silkie and Lockheed gave battle roars as they got pumped up and ready for the incoming action.

Turning to the enemy, Robin and Bumblebee then steely commanded to the members of the Teen Titans, Titans East, Silkie and Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth, "Titans and H.I.V.E…GO!"

Cyclops then roared at the X-Men and the New Mutants and Lockheed, "X-Men…MOVE OUT!"

Wavedancer gave everyone in her family a look of courageous encouragement as she pumped her fist into the air as she yelled, "Misfits…YO JOE!"

"YO JOE!" chorused the Misfits as a true team and family, throwing their fists in the air and bellowing their battle cry at the top of their lungs.

As one, unstoppable, relentless, determined force…the horde of teenagers charged directly towards Trigon, Slade, Brother Blood, the Sentinels, the Heartless and the Hellions in the deciding battle for the fate of Earth.

Author's Notes: To find out what Fred and Roberto and Jamie were referring to, go read Red Witch's fanfics: "Parallel Lives", "The Misfit Chronicles", and "Of Psychos and Sea Serpents" which by the way are an excellent readings and works of art! And prepare yourselves everyone for next Friday (assuming I have time to write it) for the obligatory main fight scene! Can they win? Will Raven be safe? Can the world and the planet be spared even though the Titans, the Misfits, and the X-Men are against the Hellions, Slade, Brother Blood, the Sentinels, and the Heartless? Don't miss the next chapter, "It Ain't Over Till The Fat Demon Sings!" but until then, read and review and take time to offer constructive criticism. And yes, I'm sorry for all Selinda fans, but it has to happen this way for in the comics, Selinda died as well and I needed something to help prod the H.I.V.E. trio to help out not to mention give this chapter some well-needed drama. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and hope to see you next Friday!