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

10. You Live, You Die, You Do Some ButtKick

Author's Notes: I'm so sorry I'm late with the chapter! It was so long, but I hope that the wait was well worth it! Battle scenes are REALLY hard to write about, and I needed to make sure I got everything covered! Hope you guys enjoy this final battle with Trigon appropriately called…

CHAPTER 10: You Live, You Die, You Do Some Butt-Kicking In Between

"No!" wailed Raven shrilly before, out of complete and childish desperation, the small girl then craned her head forward and bit down hard on Brother Blood's hand that was pinning her down, her jaw tingling with numbness from the overexertion. There was a faint crack of bone, and howling madly, Brother Blood angrily and hurriedly jerked back his bleeding gargantuan hand, so overcome and surprised with the abruptness of agony that he dropped the silver dagger. Nursing his appendage, the gray-haired, evil fanatic saw that the child, though small, had teeth of iron; his forefinger was showing a white shard of bone through the pooling, cascading blood around the wound marked with teeth puncture holes. Brother Blood then actually saw red, his entire vision blanketed with the hue of homicidal and cruel brutality. He looked up to see the girl scampering away over the rubble and cracks littering the ground, her white cloak flying behind her. Like all scared children, the small incarnation of Raven fled blindly for her life…not that there would be much left of it once the ex-headmaster of H.I.V.E. got his hands on her.

"I'll break her!" hissed Brother Blood with predatory danger as he picked up the ceremonial dagger and pursued after his target, the heavy body of the Shaggy Man creating small tremors as his feet pounded hard on the ground, "I'll break that little whelp's neck when I get my hands on her!"

In his pursuit, Brother Blood completely disregarded Arella.

"My girl…my dau-…daughter…" the priestess labored weakly.

Arella felt her vision blur as she helplessly just laid there on her back on the smoky ground in a pool of her own blood, her chest now numb and ignoring her pleas to rise and fall for precious oxygen as her coughs were dying out of her throat. Her lungs were filling slowly but surely with fluid, and despite the stifling heat of the lava, the priestess still felt cold as the pool of red around her began to thicken and dry. She knew she would die, that she would perish and escape the mortal coil without even saving her daughter, protecting and cherishing her own child and flesh and blood. The marriage, the worry, the pleas, the betrayal for Raven's safety…it was all for naught, and now, nothing could help the Titan.

Arella was going to die, and Raven would be left all alone, no one left to defend her.

Arella was going to die, and she and her daughter would possibly never be reconciled again.

Such thoughts of vain futileness was enough to force Arella to weep quietly during the throes of her death, yet amongst her distorted and hazy eyesight, clouded with the lack of blood and tears, Arella could make out a figure…no, a giant approaching her slowly. Its feet were barely making a whisper on the rocky soil as it then stopped in front of her, its tail blowing softly in the ashy, boiling air from the lava all around them. At first, the Azarath priestess thought it was Brother Blood, coming back from finishing his deed upon her daughter until she could slowly discern that this was a different person, taller, more refined and in a straight, noble posture like a warrior, emanating an earthly yet strong aura not like the aforementioned religious tyrant's…

Grasping at straws and knowing that there was no one else, Arella managed to choke in a beseeching voice to the stranger, raspy and strangled to a mere whisper, "Please…please, whoever you are. Save…save my d-…dau-…daughter."

The looming figure in front of her twitched a bit, as if taken back by surprise before contemplating for a moment. It then knelt down next to the perishing woman and made a small mark on her forehead, its claws burrowing deep into the skin and drawing blood, before it rumbled in a deep voice, "I'll try…"

At the same time, Raven managed to dart inside a large, somewhat spacious crack in the wall and concrete of a wrecked building, and whimpering, she hurriedly ducked inside the crevice in the wall. It was a tight squeeze, but Raven managed to edge her way through to the very end, the rough sides scratching her chest and back. Once at the apex of the rift, Raven crouched down and huddled, drawing the cloak all around her, shivering with absolute terror and fear, her voice soft with sobs and sniveling. The blood was roaring in her ears, and even in the dark shadows of the cleft that covered her, she felt vulnerable, exposed.

Her breath caught in her throat as she heard a footstep, the gravel crackling underneath. Then Raven heard Brother Blood's voice call out teasingly and sickeningly in a sing-song manner, sending chills down her spine.

"Oh Raven…" he called out in a voice full of deadly playfulness, "Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

Raven's heart absolutely stopped as she could see Brother Blood's feet stop at the fault she was hiding in, and she held her breath, her hands over her mouth, trembling for a second, then two. To her absolute dread, Brother Blood's face then knelt down and peered into the crack, instantly spotting Raven. Brother Blood grinned sadistically, and the way that his teeth and smile spread horizontally across his face could have put the smile of the Joker to shame as the Shaggy Man's eyes simply glittered with joy, the whites showing all around. He simply looked horrifying, and Raven abandoned all resolve as she screamed. With a simple grunt, Brother Blood actually ripped the entire slab of concrete and stone and metal surrounding Raven like flimsy paper, fragments of rock and dust dropping down like rain. Now Raven was truly at risk with no where to hide as Brother Blood cornered the girl of the prophecy at last, one hand tightly clenched around the silver dagger he was carrying.

"Hide and seek is over, you brat," the religious tyrant hissed as he was about to kill Raven, "And I win!"

Raven screamed as she covered her head with her hands, helplessly awaiting the death blow.

But to Brother Blood's surprise, something huge and massive knocked him back solidly, actually causing some pain, and despite the religious tyrant's increased strength and invulnerability to his new body, he was amazed that something or someone could actually throw him off. Brother Blood gave out a cry of cheated, surprised rage as he flew back twenty feet before he crashed hard against the sharp rocks and gravel, his back and head cut and bleeding. Enraged and infuriated, the Shaggy Man looked up to see a familiar, tall figure pick up the petrified, wailing child. Raven's sobs then lessened as she heard a deep yet somewhat gentle and non-threatening voice hush her, whispering, "Shhhhh, shhhhhh, it's OK, kid. It's OK, you're safe now."

"YOU!" snarled Brother Blood upon recognizing the alleged savior.

"Who…who are you?" whimpered the girl as she looked up into a pair of deep, blue eyes and yellow fur as the figure held her firmly, cradling her in the crook of one, muscular arm. Leomon then looked down at her, contemplating, before he answered.

"I am a friend," Leomon said simply.

"Trigon!" roared Brother Blood in warning and vehemence, calling out to the demon who was busy observing the fights between the X-Men, the Misfits, the Titans, the Sentinels, the Heartless, and the Hellions, "Your daughter is escaping! The portal is being rescued by the lion! Demon Lord of Azarath and of countless worlds, help the Hellfire Club kill your daughter! Help us maintain the supremacy of Trigon the Terrible on this world! Help me kill off that brat of yours!"

Trigon was instantly not pleased as he actually turned his head in alarm, nearly jumping off his throne, as he fixed all four of his glowing red eyes upon Brother Blood and the retreating figure of the muscular lion. Only outrage, fury, shock, and fear were the emotions that were coursing through his bloodstreams. What frightened him the most was that though Trigon the Terrible was clearly omnipresent and omnipotent where not a single thing in this mortal coil called Earth could escape him, where no thought or human rationale could escape his knowledge and being (except the Hellions and Hellfire Club, though that would soon be privy for change soon). He could read and sense the minds of the heroes in the battle (though whatever remnants of Raven's power made his view of their souls and beings fuzzy and obscured rather than crystal-clear). Here, in both Azarath and Earth, he was unstoppable, indomitable, everywhere.

So imagine Trigon's surprise when he discovered to his surprise that he could not sense Leomon's presence at all, could not even discern his soul during the chaotic city of doom and destruction. And the fact that this wild-card had his formerly-incarcerated daughter made the demon all the more eager and furiously determined to make sure that the portal could never be a threat to him ever again.

"Insolent lion wretch!" Trigon roared before his two antlers atop his mane of white hair began to glow in a deep, vibrant red, invoking the powers given to him by the Organization and the Thirteenth Order, "By the command of Trigon the Terrible and the Thirteenth Order, arise Heartless! ARISE!"

And to Leomon's shock, the ground all around him started to quake and tremble before the ground actually split asunder, exposing huge, yawning breaches and fissures in the ground, filled with magma and molten rock. And Raven screamed shrilly again as she and the lion warrior saw beings of fire bearing the red and black symbol of the crossed out heart on their chests, exactly like the one Slade summoned back at Jump City Bay. Leomon cursed under his breath. These were fire Heartless. Trigon must have been given powers to summon the creatures of evil exactly as Slade had been able to.

Raven screamed again as the fire Heartless started to advance towards them, roaring and gurgling maliciously, as the lion lost his patience and snapped at the cowering child, "Damn it, kid, will you quit screaming? You're going to blow my ears out!"

Yet Raven didn't flinch from the shout as she buried her face into the soft fur of the digital warrior, too scared to look at the army about to incinerate them.

"Please, don't let me go! Don't let my father take me!" Raven cried, her eyes filled with tears as she cuddled to the warrior's chest for protection. Leomon managed to give her a brief but odd look out of the corner of his eye as he powered up his hand for a Fist of the Beast King attack on the fire demons.

"I won't, kid," he whispered soothingly, as soothingly as one could be while being surrounded by a battalion of fire demons summoned by a demon lord.

"GAIA…FIST OF THE BEAST KING!" Leomon bellowed courageously before he let loose his ki attack on a group of abominations that were advancing steadily towards him, obliterating them instantaneously and leaving a wide enough gap for him to dash off with the small incarnation of Raven in his arms.

The irony of the situation was not lost on him.

Meanwhile, at the battlefields, the kids heard the identifiable roar of the unique attack…

"That voice!" gasped Boom-Boom, recognizing it at once as she made another plasma time-bomb the size of a wrecking ball before she gave it to Cyborg to throw at a nearby Sentinel, striking it dead center it its chest, "I recognize that voice!"

So did the other heroes as they continued fighting for their lives.

"What…what is Trigon doing?" gasped Dragonfly as she and the others saw Trigon's head become engulfed by a halo of red light, as red and harsh as fresh blood. In the air with a good view of the city all around her, Bumblebee then looked down before she spotted what looked like…

"Oh my God!" she gasped as she relayed her findings to her communicator, "It's Brother Blood! And he's chasing Raven! And Trigon's helping Blood by summoning an army of fire Heartless!"

"Brother Blood?" gasped Menos in Spanish.

"And Raven? Is she safe! We gotta help her!" Cannonball yelled out before he and Mammoth tackled a Sentinel together, with Mammoth ripping off the robot's leg, and the X-Man laying the killer android with a single charge across the lifeless face.

"No we can't! Leomon has Raven!" Bumblebee emphasized, bringing a downcast feeling of doom in everyone else's hearts, already guessing the worst.

"Damn it! That overgrown, two-faced furball has Raven! I swear, when this is all over with, I'm gonna rip his head off, stuff it, and hang it as a trophy in the Titans' living room!" Cyborg growled before his sonic cannon managed to fire a round into a now recovered and conscious Beef, knocking the Hellion back before he could try to kill Beast Boy and Xi with a fallen Sentinel's robotic arm and hand as a club.

"We can't! We still have to take care of the Hellions, not to mention these dumb Sentinels and the Heartless students!" Quicksilver yelled as he managed to create another whirlwind to temporarily blind and hold the Sentinel immobile and prisoner before the Titan Speedy managed to fire a incapacitating acid arrow directly into one of its palm cannons with incredible accuracy, instantly melting the hole on contact and clogging the laser cannon.

"Don't worry, Pietro! We're just about finished with the Heartless! God help 'em all, but we managed to wipe them all out! Slade doesn't have any more of the H.I.V.E. students to control anymore!" Lance yelled back, his response encouraging, as he created a tremor that cracked the very ground into two, sending several Heartless tumbling into the pool of lava at the bottom of the crevice while Rogue took care of the last Heartless creatures by transforming their bodies into useless puddles of water, the entire field now a marshy swamp, slowly heated from the lava all around them.

"That's fine with me! Let's help the others finish off the Sentinels and stop Slade and the Hellions!" Iceman yelled, now filled with a renewed sense of hope, before he and Cyclops let loose on the still abundant number of towering, mutant-hunting androids that were trying to kill the rest of the heroes using a combination of missiles, laser blasts, and bullets, causing many of the teens to scatter. Even with the combined efforts of Multiple, Boom-Boom, Starfire, Bumblebee, Quicksilver, Magma, Speedy, Gambit and Mammoth were not enough to destroy all of the robots, and clearly, the behemoths had the edge of the battle as three-fourths of the original army were still fully functional despite taking the multiple beatings. Thus, more assistance would be needed.

Iceman then used his power to ice the ground underneath one of the Sentinels that was lumbering directly towards Gambit and Mammoth, ready to crush the two of them despite the rubble and energy cards Mammoth and Remy were hurling at its face. Upon contact with the frictionless patch of terrain, the Sentinel wildly and valiantly fought to maintain its balance, its movements jerky and wild, but Cyclops then gave it a powerful optic blast, nudging the robot just right on the leg and causing the Sentinel to topple onto its back with a resounding crash. Kitty was nearby, watching the scene and waiting for the right moment from a small hill slightly above and right next to the robot.

"Now, Shadowcat!" Iceman yelled, and acting instinctively, the X-Girl took an acrobatic leap off the precipice and jumped, flying in the air with her ponytail fluttering madly behind her head before she dove and phased gently into the heart of the stunned Sentinel, dead center in its chest. With a dying hiss and crackle, the Sentinel died, each and every one of its electronic components and lights going black with inactivity.

Meanwhile, Mammoth was not alongside the other Titans, X-Men, Misfits, and Mammoth in fighting the Sentinels and for good reason. Hovering madly on his mechanical glider wings and rocket pack, the H.I.V.E. inventor hastened urgently, tearing through the skies over the seemingly infinite sea of lava, the red, thick and noxious liquid bubbling and popping madly. Activating the scanner attached to the sleeve of his costume, Gizmo tried to detect any huge anomalies in the ocean of magma, hoping he could find what he was looking for before it was too late, and despite Piotr's mutant powers, being dunked into a sea of molten rock was not a fun place to be for a long time. As if on cue, Gizmo's scanner then beeped madly as it located a huge unnatural form, too large and bulky and odd-shaped to be a rock of any sort, and with the knowledge of the emergency, Gizmo soared towards the location…

In the meantime, several of the Sentinels then wisely chose the option of using their rocket thrusters at the soles of their feet, and with such a vast distance between them and the mutants and Titans and H.I.V.E. students on the ground, the heroes realized that the robots made their fight a lot more arduous and difficult as most of their energy attacks were not strong enough to reach the Sentinels a quarter mile in the sky, yet the Sentinels obviously had no difficulty nor inconvenience as they all let loose upon the group below.

"You guys, watch out!" yelled Avalanche as he then terra-formed the earth underneath to form a wave of rock to fly overhead and quickly settle above the heads of his allies, shielding them from the heat discharges. Unfortunately, the earth umbrella was not enough to block all of the attacks the Sentinels rained down.

"Yeow!" Quicksilver cried as he dashed in between the metal spears and the laser blasts that exploded too close for comfort on the floor next to him, "These guys aren't fighting fair! We can't touch them when they're that high above us!"

"Dude, then no reason we should either! Xi, think you can handle Mr. Steroids by yourself with Bezerker?" Beast Boy called out.

"We'll be fine! Just do what you have to! They could use the assistance more than we could!" Xi called out as he took a flying leap and managed to deliver an axel-kick on the left side of Beef's face while Ray then dispensed a huge ball of electricity into the Hellion's gut. Beast Boy nodded before he transformed into a hummingbird and flew with haste towards the Sentinels high in the sky. With such a small organic life-form, the Sentinels' scanners and ultraviolet detectors didn't even register the Titan as a threat as the green changeling flew behind two of the robots before transforming into something much, much larger.

"Hasta la vista, ugly!" the boy mocked in a pseudo-Schwarzenegger impression and the two Sentinels' last image they could process was turning around only to see a massive green thirty-five ton brontosaurus dinosaur landing on them heavily, breaking them severely at once upon impact before they and the dinosaur on top of them crashed to the ground. The long-necked dinosaur grunted at the mess of burnt scalding metal and sparking electronics that were already on fire before Beast Boy transformed back into his human form, squealing in pain as he danced off the wreckage and painfully hopped all over the ground with his feet smoking heavily. Apparently, since he was standing on the pile of burning robot parts, it wasn't much of a surprise that the Titan's feet were burning just from standing upon them.

"Ow, ow, ow! Hot foot, hot foot, hot foot!" he hollered in pain as he hurriedly sat down and tried to snuff out the flames on his boots by swatting them with his gloved hand.

Gambit, Sunspot, and Mammoth then decided to team up against one of the Sentinels that Beast Boy had missed. Gambit grinned as the X-Man then spotted the giant head of a Sentinel that Bumblebee had destroyed earlier, and realizing its value as a potential projectile, the Cajun laid a hand on the smooth yet burnt surface of the metal, and instantly, the head began to shimmer as the potential energy converted into kinetic energy.

"It's all yours, mon ami!" Gambit cheered, and Mammoth grinned finally as he easily grabbed the Sentinel's head and began to swing it in a circular motion around and around, building up steam and speed, the hunk of glowing metal a red blur before Mammoth grunted and let loose at the other Sentinel in the sky.

"Hey, dumb-ass! Catch this!" yelled the H.I.V.E. student right before the charged head of the robot flew straight and true directly at the goliath. Thanks to its split-second A.I. circuitry, the active robot then aimed its laser cannons at the glowing head before firing.

Kaa-wwhhhooooooommmm!

Though the Sentinel was able to destroy the head on time, the force of the kinetic explosion was enough to stun the killer robot as the pressure from the blast pushed it roughly in the air, shaking it up a bit. And that moment was all Roberto needed.

"Good one, Mammoth!" Sunspot yelled as he flew with haste towards the recovering goliath and dove right into the robot's chest, cutting through the metal like a hot knife through butter, easily burrowing his way through the armor and hide of the machine. Tearing his way through like a mole, Sunspot then managed to see the main power cell that were fueling the android, glowing dangerously with electricity and a liquefied mixture of hydrogen and natural gas. Sunspot lost no time as he reached out and gripped the large, bulky object which was the size of a cross-town bus.

"Uuuurrrrraaaaaaahhhhh!" roared Roberto as he ripped the heart and robotic core out of the Sentinel's chest, and without even pausing from the effort, the radiating mutant teen then fought his way out of the monster's back. With a loud crashing noise, the Brazilian mutant managed to tear and pluck the battery out of the killer, electronic mutant hunter, and Sunspot watched with some satisfaction at the machine dying and plummeting to the lava below in a dead heap without its power source. Roberto then had another brilliant idea of inspiration hit him as he then threw the complex cell at another Sentinel, hurling it powerfully through the air, before he gave it a powerful shot of his sunspot beams. Since the container was filled with natural and hydrogen gas, a mixture that volatile would surely create a devastating explosion when in contact with an appropriate heat source. And to Roberto's satisfaction, it did.

KA-BOOOOOOMMM!

"And wave bye-bye to Mr. Giant-Killer-Robot!" cheered Sunspot as he watched the damaged Sentinel plunge, nose-diving towards another pool of lava before succumbing to a fate of melted metal.

At the same time, the Hellion Bevatron managed to then let loose a powerful electrical attack at Quinn, but Forge then leapt right in front of the eleven year-old Misfit and took the brunt of the attack head-on without even screaming. Bevatron smirked, thinking he succeeded in killing Forge. So imagine the Hellion's surprise when the electrical blasts bounced off the inventor and struck right back at the Hellfire teenager, nearly shocking him into unconsciousness.

"What the hell?" snarled the Hellion murderously as he glared at Forge who was smiling with a smug expression.

"Please, us X-Men are better tacticians than you think," Forge bragged with little humbleness, indicating the special, shiny, silver-looking suit he was donning, "Why do you think I was chosen to fight you? The special suit me and Cyborg built is electrically resistant, and it'll send all energy pulses you throw at me back, leaving me unhurt and unharmed. Totally far out when we came up with it, and it was hilariously groovy to see that look on your face when you got your attack reflected back!"

"In a minute, I'm gonna rip out your face, X-Geek!" snarled Bevatron but before he could move, Quinn then fired several capsules from her glovatrix and coated the Hellion teen with a layer of a familiar dust. To Bevatron's horror, his mutant power stopped functioning immediately; he wasn't even able to build up enough for a static charge.

"Depends on how well you can fight physically without your powers," Quinn smiled innocently enough, "We had enough silicone dust leftover from our last fight with Live Wire. And the only thing that can remove that stuff is water…"

"And that's my cue!" exclaimed a voice behind, and the Hellion whirled around to see a rather unwelcome sight.

"Hey, Bevatron! I still owe you one from the fight we had last time!" Aqualad called out, smirking and the Hellion could only scream right before the considerably-sized waterspout descended upon him. Since Rogue had managed to transform a lot of the Heartless army into water, a good portion of the rocky, barren field was like a swamp, full of puddles that were slightly steaming from the heat of the ground. And the marshy area was perfect as ammunition for the Atlantian to douse the Hellion with, especially since it is common knowledge that electricity and water do not mix well…

"Yaaarrrrgggghhhh!" screamed Bevatron as his body, already generating electrical energy in each fiber of his body, lost control the minute Aqualad immersed him into the waterspout, and the teenager had no choice but to bear the brunt of the power surge and losing control as his body exploded painfully, leaving him smoking and tingling, his nerves charred and frayed, when the water ceased its relentlessness.

"Damn you, you saltwater pretty-boy!" Bevatron cursed with malice.

That was the last thing Bevatron was able to say right before Aqualad furiously knocked him out with a hearty hook, decking him across the face.

Meanwhile, Nightcrawler and Silkie then decided to give a nearby, airborne Sentinel a little surprise as Kurt carefully held the mutant silkworm in his hands before teleporting towards the robot in the skies. Since the Sentinel was only a quarter of a mile high in the air, the blue-furred X-Man was able to reach it easily as he reappeared onto the back of the Sentinel's neck.

"Go for it, Silkie!" Kurt encouraged, nearly shouting as he released the mutated worm on the back of the Sentinel's exposed neck. Silkie gleefully made curdling noises before he set himself upon the metal and armor, chewing and eating madly with a flourishing relish. The Sentinel, sensing something was wrong, immediately tried to reach backwards and swat the two of its neck, but Nightcrawler wisely teleported in a puff of brimstone to the very apex of the robot's head while Silkie managed to burrow past the titanium in several seconds and eat his way into the inner mechanisms of the mutant-exterminator. Now Silkie had the ability to digest anything tangible with no repercussions to his own stomach, whether it be acid, wood, rock…or metal and complex electronic machinery. And Silkie was like the proverbial child locked inside a candy store. With a squeal, Silkie immediately started biting and devouring anything he could reach, the sophisticated engines and power cells inside the Sentinel's core vanishing at an astonishing rate.

Nightcrawler smiled with extreme satisfaction as the Sentinel started wildly and uncontrollably jerking madly in spasms, its eyes rotating madly like out-of-control Ferris wheels while little by little, the lights from its generators and energy weapons died, snuffing out as they went black and dead, giving off smoke and hissing. With a groan, the gigantic robot started to buckle as Silkie then emerge, chewing a hole out of the top of the Sentinel's head next to Kurt. The blue-furred X-Man grinned as he picked up Silkie carefully.

"Mein Gott! You have some appetite, herr Silkie!" Nightcrawler chortled as he and the Titan's pet worm teleported out of danger, leaving the lifeless Sentinel to collapse on the ground, its internal organs and heart thoroughly destroyed and ruined thanks to a single mutant silkworm.

At the same time, there was another group of four Sentinels, flying high in the red, ashy sky and raining down missiles and lasers upon the mutants, Titans, and H.I.V.E. students, and Speedy knew that this was a dire emergency as he took out a special arrow given to him thanks to the collective geniuses of Forge and Trinity. At the same time, the four Sentinels decided to try an amalgamated and cohesive raid as all four of them fired a salvo of explosive missiles, each one capable of destroying a skyscraper and reducing it to rubble in minutes. Yet Mas y Menos were no pushovers as they then used their super-speed to soar high into the sky, literally defying the laws of gravity, before they ran circles around the bombardment, going as fast as they could, their leg muscles screaming in fatigue from the effort.

"Let's just hope this works!" Menos gasped in his native tongue.

"In a minute, we'll either know or won't be able to care!" Mas added as a weak joke before, to their extreme gratitude, the whirlwinds the twin speedsters invoked was enough to generate a cyclone of powerful winds that encapsulated the rockets and weakened them from their trajectory enough for the two members of Titans East to veer away from the others.

"Thanks, you two! Now get clear and shield your eyes, everyone! This antimatter arrow will vaporize all of us if we're not careful! Everyone, get clear!"

"How much of this matter of anti are you using, Friend Speedy?" shouted Starfire as she hurled another starbolt at a Sentinel above before it could impale her with one of its metal shafts.

"Forge and Trinity gave me a quarter-gram for this baby!" the archer declared.

"Uh…just how much damage will a quarter-gram of antimatter do?" Aqualad asked upon overhearing this, his eye twitching ever so slightly.

"It'll vaporize anything within a half-mile radius!" Forge answered, overhearing the Atlantian, as he used a laser cannon he designed to fire several blasts upon a Heartless Cyclops and Rogue somehow missed during their battle while Xi then cleanly decapitated it with his katana.

"Half-mile? But…but the Sentinels are only a quarter-mile above us, Speedy!" Daria gasped as she looked at the logistics on her pink scanner.

"Which is why I have to aim past the Sentinels and shoot it so that the antimatter explodes high enough behind to take them out without hurting us! Everyone, cross your fingers and hope this works!" Speedy said, knowing the risks he was taking, sweat beading on his brow, before he aimed with the greatest care he could and let loose. In a display of archery that would have made the Green Arrow swell with pride, the shaft containing the capsule of antimatter flew, swift and sure, narrowly missing the large moving bodies as it flew past them and ascended higher and higher into the sky. A full half-minute had passed as Starfire, Multiple and Gambit tried to keep the Sentinels at bay, and for a moment, Speedy thought he failed until he saw a faint flash.

"Take cover!" he yelled on his communicator as everyone averted their gaze from the sky before the four Sentinels were engulfed in an overwhelming orb of light.

KAAAAA-WWWHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

The blast was so powerful, the air actually vibrated from the impact as anything within the explosion succumbed and vaporized into nothingness, the antimatter eliminating and neutralizing any matter instantly.

"Cool! It worked!" cheered Multiple, "The Sentinels are gone! Speedy, you took out four Sentinels in one hit! That is so cool!"

"It's all in a day of the life of Speedy, the Green Arrow's protégé!" bragged the Titan East member proudly.

"More like Green Arrow's charity case," snorted Aqualad with disdain and sarcasm, and Speedy's right temple throbbed a bit as he hissed out of the corner of his mouth surreptitiously.

"Just wait 'til there's no witnesses, Aqua-jerk…"

At the same time, Mas y Menos were rushing towards the Hellion Beef who was busy fighting with Xi, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler, the missiles still within their grasp. Mas then urgently screeched on his Titan communicator.

"Miss Shadowcat!" Mas yelled in his communicator as he and his brother kept guiding the missiles in the air, "Keep Beef still! Help us keep Mr. Beef standing still!"

Kitty, even though she couldn't really fluently understand Spanish, was able to decipher her name and Beef's and when she looked at what the twin speedsters were doing with the missiles, the pony-tailed X-Girl then knew in an instant what they were trying to achieve as she acted at once, merging into the terrain while Xi distracted Beef with a few ninja stars…

"Hey! What the hell?" roared Beef, but it was too late as Shadowcat firmly phased the Hellion into the ground, embedding Beef's feet and trapping his legs into the hardened earth with no chance of being able to pull himself free quickly. Shadowcat and Xi then managed to grab onto Nightcrawler, and the three of them teleported away at a far distance as Mas y Menos then approached.

"Special delivery, jackass!" Mas y Menos cheered in Spanish as Beef looked up to see the missiles converging downwards on his head.

"Oh shit!" gasped the Hellion, but Roulette was quicker as she let loose a white hexbolt.

"Like that's going to happen, you little, annoying, whiny, hyperactive Chihuahuas!" she snarled, and thanks to the good-luck energy, the missiles died, becoming duds and nonfunctional instantly, leaving Beef safe as they hit the ground heavily without even detonating. Beef sneered at the twin speedsters as he tried to yank his feet out of the rock trapping him.

"Hah! Looks like your little ploy failed, Titans! And I'm gonna enjoy ripping you little midgets to pieces when I get my hands on you!" Beef snarled but then Colossus, covered with a flimsy and thin layer of dried lava and still in his metal mode then rushed in and solidly knocked out the Hellion with a tremendous uppercut to the jaw, causing the strong man to topple backwards, unconscious.

"And I enjoyed seeing that the Hellfire Club will have to provide you a new set of teeth," spat Piotr. Jetstream screamed with cheated gall and outrage as he spied Colossus on the scene.

"How the hell did you come back?" Haroun scowled hatefully, "I dumped you in a pool of lava! No one can survive that! You're supposed to be dead! You're supposed to be dead!"

Colossus raised an eyebrow at the remark as he couldn't help but comment rather flippantly, "Yes, we do get that a lot, but unfortunately for you Hellions, it really never comes true for us X-Men anyway."

"And the Metal Man's armor was enough to hold him off for a while until I could find him with my handy scanner and pull him out with my handy grappling hook, ya' crack-whore!" sneered Gizmo.

Jetstream then had enough as he sped towards them, ready to pound them into the ground, but Bumblebee then intervened, diving directly above the Hellion where he could not see her.

"Oh no, you don't!" Bumblebee yelled as she then jammed both of her stingers set at the highest intensity she could ever dare to muster into Jetstream's back, the yellow energy coursing through his body…and his robotic parts. Jetstream choked as his body started to twitch madly and smolder, heavily damaged as he shakily crashed to the ground.

"I'm not down and out yet, X-Geeks!" hissed Jetstream as he erratically and unsteadily got up, but Toad then got into the confrontation, adding in his own strike.

"Yo, you are now, Jetstream!" snapped the frog-like mutant as he delivered a powerful kick into Jetstream's chest, sending him flying only to crash into a wall of stone and through it, leaving a gaping hole as Haroun then lost consciousness from the impact of the collision. Roulette was livid as she then let loose several black hex-bolts which whizzed by the heroes narrowly as they managed to barely dodge them.

"I'll deal with you annoying losers personally!" Jennifer barked, but Menos just grinned at the blond probability-manipulator, "You might be able to take out Beef and Jetstream, but I'm more than a match for all eight of you goody-goodies!"

But Menos then dropped the bombshell as he smiled, showing all of his teeth, without any fear.

"Oh, we already knew you'd save Beef," Menos smirked in his native tongue, "We just sent those missiles on Beef just to get your attention and keep you distracted for Rogue to move in…"

"Huh?" Jennifer asked dumbly, stunned as the foreign dialogue went over her head, but it was too late for Roulette to perform anything defensive as a familiar, ungloved hand with black nail polish grabbed her face from behind, and the female student of the Hellfire Club screamed before she lost consciousness, her life force and strength draining from her.

"If it wasn't for my good nature, I'd drain ya' till you're dry and dead, you bleach-blonde witch, after what you did to those H.I.V.E. students," Rogue spat at the unconscious form before she turned to Gizmo, "Thanks for getting Colossus outta there, Giz."

Gizmo snorted as he scoffed, "Might as well since Metal Meathead over here doesn't have the brains to get himself out of his own mess."

At the same time, Slade was summoning two streams of deadly demonic fire in his hands, the Mark of Scath burning brightly on the forehead of his mask, ready to kill Robin, Wavedancer, and X23 who were now all severely beaten and quite injured as Slade still managed to defeat them all rather sadistically and brutally. Since they were really of no use to him, Slade felt this was as good as a time as any to finish it.

"It is done," he intoned, ready to incinerate all three of the brawlers, but then gasped as a cold sensation washed over him, none like any other force Slade had ever endured. The cold aura gripped him, locking his hands and limbs in place, preventing the powers he was given by Trigon to come about and kill Robin, Althea, and Rina. Twitching and trying to struggle madly, Slade turned to see Jean, the red-haired protégé of Charles Xavier wearing a strange, metal cap over her head hovering in the air with a determined and calculating look of grim determination on her face along with the chubby, timid boy known as Whitelighter.

"Whitelighter, heal Robin and the others! I'll take care of Slade and hold him back! Hurry!"

Justin nodded before he dashed towards Robin and Althea and bathed the two of them with his sunlight radiating from his hands, erasing their lacerations and broken bones in seconds. Slade was now angry as he tried to fight against the telepathic hold on him.

"You really think you have the strength and power to fight me, Ms. Grey?" Slade hissed rancorously, "I find it quite hard to believe to see you do such a desperate act. Not even your beloved Professor could easily fight me, and he was certainly more impressive over a prissy, stuck-up spoiled brat such as yourself."

"You've dealt with a telepath before, Slade…" Jean said in a cold voice before she utilized her telepathy and telekinesis by bringing her hands to her temples, her mutant abilities amplified by more than ten-fold thanks to the helmet on her head, "But let's see how well you can adapt to a telepath with Cerebro's help!"

Slade gasped as the telepathic assault struck him, much more agonizing that Xavier's mental probes. Indeed, when they arrived in Jump City to help the Titans, the Professor always had a spare helmet linked directly to the portable cache of Cerebro's computer systems inside that could act as a substitute emulator. And thankfully, before they rushed to the battlefield with Trigon, Trinity and Forge managed to give the portable helmet of Cerebro a powerful boost, further than Jean had ever dared to do before but to save the Professor's life and life on Earth in general, Jean was more than willing.

"Yaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!" howled Slade as Jean attacked him in his psyche while suspending the assassin in the air with her telekinesis, tearing whatever she could reach to pieces rather violently and maliciously, not even giving Slade an inch to recover and try to exhibit his brainpower to fight her. Jean then telepathically commanded to Scarlet Witch, Jinx, and Rogue who were nearby.

Jinx, Wanda, Rogue, do it now! Hurry!

Raising her arms over her head, Scarlet Witch summoned so much energy in her hands, it actually left her a little dizzy before she flung it at Slade with all of her might. Jinx screamed with rage and the need for vengeance as she caused a colossal and immense pink ball of chaos-magic, wavering dangerously in her palms before she drew back her arm and pitched it like a baseball, her aim sound and true. Rogue then tried her hardest to utilize Roulette's abilities she stole from the Hellion, her eyes shut in concentration, before she summoned a black disc of bad-luck energy in between her hands the size of a manhole cover before the X-Girl then mentally and pushed the disc towards the incapacitated Slade with her of her superhuman strength.

"Take this, Slade!" Jinx, Scarlet Witch, and Rogue all screamed in unison.

Like a beautiful and stunning display of fireworks, the pink, blue, and black hex-bolts soared, swift and sure, revolving around each other in the air before they combined into a single, unified surge of white, hot, dangerous, crippling blast, now a nova of chaos force grown in size by three-fold. Behind his mask, Slade's eye widened in fear. Here, he was exposed, completely vulnerable, and the red-haired witch was still using all of her mental energy to prevent him from using his powers. One hex-blast, he may be able to withstand, but a three-pronged hexbolt attack was not as likely. And since he heard rumors that one of Wanda's hexes was strong enough to suppress the powers of Magneto and Darkseid from Apokolips, it may truly be likely this effect would be crippling, especially since Jinx and Roulette's attacks were just as powerful. Only one phrase managed to escape his lips before all three energy attacks from Jinx, Wanda, and Rogue hit him with full force.

"I can't lose now…"

KAAA-SSSHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

Whitelighter, who was finishing healing the crippling injuries Robin, X23, and Wavedancer had received, gasped out loud as he marveled with awe and shock, "Whoa! Look at Slade!"

Slade collapsed to the ground, the black, blue, and pink energies of the hexes flowing eagerly through his ravaged body, leaving him weak, drained…and powerless.

"No!" Slade gasped, disbelieving it, but finding that he could no longer invoke the demonic fire that Trigon had bequeathed to him, and to add further insult to injury, his body was sluggish, responsive, and the hexes had damaged his body so intensely that even his impressive brain was no longer as effective and cunning as it was before. Slade, in short, was greatly impaired, physically and power-wise. And the Boy Wonder saw their only chance as he sprang to action.

"NOW!" yelled Robin and at once, without any misgiving or hesitation, X23, Wavedancer, and Robin set themselves upon Slade with as much ferocity and savageness they could muster. Slade, now thoroughly hurt by the tri-hexbolt attack, was severely weakened and could only barely manage to block some of their martial attacks, his brain lethargic and languid. Which meant the Titan, the Misfit, and the X-Man were able to give Slade the beating he had been asking for so long without having the assassin provide an impenetrable defense…

""Hiya! Hut! Take that! Yaaah! Hup! And this! Hee-yah! And two more!"

The only noises that escaped that battlefield were the grunts and battle cries along with the surprised yelps of pain from Slade as Rina, Althea, and Robin kept pummeling him with powerful kicks and punches. Robin, in the center of the trio, let Slade have it with two swift punches and a palm-strike to the assassin's sternum in the center of the rib cage before adding, with his fingers extended, to the sensitive pressure point in Slade's gut. Slade tried to not double over in pain before he deftly caught Robin's hand before it could reach the pressure point on his collarbone, intending to break the masked teen's arm with a deft twist. However, before Slade had a chance to, Wavedancer rushed in on Robin's left with a swift haymaker, catching Slade full in the face and with enough force to crack his mask. Stunned, Slade released

his hold on Robin's arm as Wavedancer then screamed with battle fury before she forcefully delivered her boot into Slade's stomach, adding more pain to the agony Slade got from Robin's punches. Slade became murderous as he tried to kick Wavedancer's head with enough strength to break her neck, but the female ninja simply blocked and caught Slade's foot before it could touch her before bringing her elbow down hard on Slade's tibia bone. There was a soft but satisfying crack, and Slade roared with pain which enabled Rina to perform her assault while Robin pushed Slade away from Althea a bit with a powerful shove with a shoulder-tackle. X23's arms and legs flew so fast, they were mere blurs. Using the foot with the adamantium claw, Rina delivered a hitch-kick towards Slade's jaw, but the assassin blocked it, anticipating the move. Undaunted, Rina smoothly moved into a sweep-kick, handstand-kick combination and though Slade blocked both of the attacks, the second time caught him painfully in the forearm, a little off from what he intended and throwing Slade off, his biggest mistake. Seeing this, the female clone of Logan took a flying forward leap with her claws out.

Slash!

Slade, though he did not scream, gave out a strangled cry as he gingerly held his bleeding side where X23 drove her claws through, hissing with vengeance as he snarled, "You little…"

But that was enough for Robin and Althea to jump in and deliver a torrential onslaught of rabbit punches, swift and powerful enough to form holes concrete into Slade's stomach as X23 then grabbed Slade's arms and pinned them behind his back, leaving Slade no chance to black the strikes as his organs and ribcage was brutally ruined before X23, Robin, and Wavedancer then launched Slade into the air with a respective judo throw, an axe-kick, and a twirling, airborne uppercut before, in beautiful and coordinated unanimity, all three of the teens then drew back their fists and punched the same spot in Slade's chest right before he dropped back to the ground.

POW!

Slade cried out in pain as he was sent flying, crashing into the ground, now being the one who was severely beaten and broken, close to actual death. He glared with absolute hate and anger at Robin, Althea, and Rina.

"Ready for some more, or do you need to go call on your master's help like the pathetic servant you are?" X23 growled, showing her claws. Slade's eye then gleamed cunningly enough, as if he anticipated this setback.

"Just for the record…I am nobody's servant," and with that, Slade dashed off, leaving behind Trigon and the battle.

"He's running away! He's just saving his own skin!" growled Robin, about to follow the masked man, but Althea solidly grabbed Robin by the shoulder as she pointed to the battlefield where Trigon and the Sentinels were.

She snapped heatedly, hoping Robin could see reason, "We can't bother with him now! Trigon is our main target, and we need to concentrate on stopping him and saving Raven first! Forget about Slade! We need to take care of this threat first! Robin, before you argue, you need to realize that saving Raven's life is more important than getting your vengeance on Slade!"

Robin exhaled noisily before admitting, "Fine! Let's go!"

During this altercation, Ray was finding himself at the mercy of a lone Sentinel as it was about to kill him with a laser blast, and Bezerker found that his solo electrical blasts weren't that effective alone against the mutant android. Yet before the heat beams of radiation could strike him, Ray felt his heart drop as a figure swooped down from the air and snatched him out of the way, carrying him out of danger as the Sentinel missed them. Bezerker turned up to see the gentle face of the orange-skinned Starfire.

"You…you saved me…" Ray whispered dumbly, still half-dazed at how close he was to getting killed. Starfire gave the X-Man an amused look, as if she thought Ray was joking at how he didn't expect such an act.

"Of course, I have saved you, Friend Bezerker," Starfire said blithely but with sincerity, "Would you not do the same for me?"

Ray blushed a very deep and shameful shade of vermilion; he knew, with his anti-alien biases, what the answer to that would be. Starfire, however, took his silence as whole-hearted agreement as she enthusiastically flew herself and the X-Man out of the path of the attacks, avoiding them skillfully.

At the same moment, another Sentinel was trying to squash Aqualad to the ground, one heavy metal hand pressing down on the Atlantian's body and slowly crushing Aqualad as the machine applied more force on the figure it pinned down. Despite his incredible defense from diving into deep and incredibly pressurized oceans and murky realms, Aqualad screamed in pain as he knew it wouldn't be much longer before he would be nothing more than a bloody smear on the ground. And with no water source nearby, he was helpless. Yet Wavedancer then jumped in.

"Leave him alone!" the Misfit leader screamed before she flung an acid bomb and a smoke pellet she kept hidden in a secret compartment of her uniform belt, and upon the explosion of smoke of burning chemicals eating away at the metal and glass, the Sentinel released its hold on the Titan as it brought its hands to its face, distracted. Althea managed to help Aqualad limp out as Boom-Boom, Cannonball, and Colossus then took out the blind Sentinel.

"Why…why did you…?" Aqualad stammered. Wavedancer threw the Atlantian a glare of pure hate before she turned her gaze away, veiling her anger and deflating a bit as she helped the member of Titans East sit down on a crop of rock.

"Just because I hate your guts doesn't mean I want you dead, Aqualad" she muttered hotly, resentfully.

Garth looked a bit mulish as he dusted the dirt and grime off his bruised and battered torso area of his uniform, and he shot back with aggrieved cordialness, "I suppose that some kind of karma-philosophy mumbo-jumbo you picked off from your hackneyed ninja-training?"

Althea then shot him a concentrated look that would have easily gouged right through him as she steely growled, "No…it's something my father encouraged me to feel when I dealt with you or anyone from Atlantis."

Aqualad tried not to wince; he knew the real reason why Wavedancer sent that barb out at him, especially since it would be the one to make him feel the guiltiest…

"ENOUGH!" roared Trigon upon seeing the Hellions, Slade, and the Sentinels fail as he rose from his makeshift throne, "This charade and foolish delay of the end of your world has gone long enough! This fight, just as your meaningless lives, is pointless! X-Men, Misfits, Titans, your world has ended!"

Without fail, the teens gathered together as Trigon then lumbered towards them, his eyes glowing with power. Robin, Wavedancer, Bumblebee and Cyclops looked at each other, instantly arriving at the same conclusion as the four leaders then turned to the others, their faces grim but defiant.

"This is it, then…" Robin said stoutly.

"Our last stand, one final attack…" Wavedancer said with unbending steel.

"It's either him or us and countless other worlds…" Bumblebee said, her antennae perking up straight with courage.

"All or nothing…" Cyclops growled, his memories at the Professor and the adults being turned to stone invoking his emotions linked to his optic energy.

"You guys ready?" the four leaders roared, and upon hearing that, there was honestly no fear, no hesitation, their resolve strengthened by the battle with the Sentinels, the Hellions, and the Heartless only giving them the adrenaline and strength they needed to stand firm, to stand together as one, regardless of being a Titan, a mutant, or a student of H.I.V.E.

"LET'S DO IT!" bellowed the H.I.V.E trio, the Misfits, the X-Men, the Teen Titans, and the Titans East before they all charged, running or flying, towards Trigon.

"Foolish vermin! Your existence ends now!" the demon roared, but not a single teen faltered as they all let loose. Lance struck first as he placed his hands on the earth below, his eyes turning white. Like magic, the very ground underneath Trigon actually rent into two, causing hot fissures giving off searing bouts of steam and nearly causing Trigon to stumble, sidetracking the monster enough to prevent him from shooting them. Jamie managed to multiply into another army of clones before he and his doppelgangers aimed their glovatrixes and fired.

"Semtex missiles, away!" they yelled as one voice, and Trigon jerked his head back in annoyance as the projectiles managed to climb upwards towards his head and shoulders before littering the demon with numerous explosions that would have been enough to take out the Great Wall of China instantly. Beast Boy flew upwards towards Trigon as a hawk, screeching a shrill cry that rang in the air before it reached Trigon's right ear. Transforming into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the green changeling then fell towards the distracted demon's head before chomping hard on the ear. Trigon howled as Beast Boy ripped it to shreds before changing again into a hummingbird and flying out of danger as Trigon tried to blast the Teen Titan with his eyes.

"Whoa! Those eye-blasts of Trigon's are powerful! They can kill all of us in one go!" gasped Justin.

"Maybe ya' can orb his attack right back at him!" Rogue exclaimed next to the Misfit, but Whitelighter looked absolutely terrified at the thought.

"I can't!" he cried, nearly whimpering, "I've never tried orbing an energy attack that big, and I'm still not in full control of my mutant powers, Rogue! I've already tried helping Sunspot, and it backfired when we fought against Tarot! The only way I'd be able to actually orb something that huge is by pure luck!"

Rogue then craftily smiled as she then summoned a white hex-bolt in her left hand before tossing it at the Misfit, feeling hopeful as the good luck energy enveloped Justin's body.

"Luck, huh? Try it now, Whitelighter!"

"Die, vermin!" Trigon howled as he fired his wrath from all four of his eyes, ready to kill them all where the heroes stood, and shrieking his typical panic attack, Justin flung out his hands wildly and desperately yelled his command to summon the beams of cremating light.

"Energy attack!" he called out, and to his surprise and prideful amazement, the four red rays vanished with a gentle noise as the white auras engulfed it before causing it to reappear in front of Justin as a gigantic orb of crimson energy and shot back at Trigon with full intensity.

SSSHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

Trigon howled in rage as the blast Whitelighter deflected back struck the demon in the hand, leaving it chaffed and bleeding.

"Whoa…" gasped Whitelighter. Rogue was grinning from ear to ear like an intoxicated maniac.

"Cool, never seen ya' do that before!" the X-Girl exclaimed, a bit high on the slight victory.

Speedy then let loose a steel arrow from his bow, waiting for the right moment before he let the shaft fly, and the abomination howled so loudly that the entire continent shook from the force of the shout as the arrow firmly sank into Trigon's upper right eye, blinding it instantly and being too small for Trigon to pluck it out manually.

"Bulls-eye," grinned Speedy.

Mammoth then went to Robin and Forge as they gave him one of their most powerful weapons from their personal arsenals.

"Here, take these!" Robin ordered as he and Forge both handed Mammoth a single explosive, with Forge's being a small but powerful cold-fusion bomb and the Boy Wonder's being a yellow-and-black capsule of several grams of nitroglycerin. Mammoth nodded before he raised his head and called out to Roberto who was flying above.

"Sunspot, I need a lift!" Mammoth yelled. Sunspot obliged as he swooped down and firmly grasped Mammoth's gargantuan hand before the both of them flew towards the sky at Trigon's head, covered by the demon's blind spot. The H.I.V.E. ape-like mutate released his hold as he heavily landed on Trigon's shoulder and scrambled up towards the demon's head, carrying his cargo protectively

"Here you go! Do your thing while I keep Trigon busy!" Roberto yelled as he then dive-bombed and hurled several pulses of sunspot radiation upon Trigon's head, instantly setting his white mane on fire. The demon bayed with anger as he tried to grab the X-teen, but Gizmo then swooped down with his mechanical glider before he released a volley of armor-piercing bullets from his machine gun turrets into Trigon's back along with several missiles. Trigon was now even more incensed as he felt the blood run down his back from the holes Gizmo had set in, and these two distractions were enough as Mammoth then flung the two bombs given to him by Robin and Forge into the gaping hole of Trigon's left ear.

"This is for my sister, you bastard!" Mammoth yelled as Sunspot and Gizmo carried him to safety right before the bombs detonated.

KAAA-BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

"Yeesh, big, red, and horny's gonna need a mumbo-sized Band-Aid for that one!" Cannonball winced, chuckling as now Trigon's left ear had been blasted off, leaving a ragged, oozing hole of blood and torn flesh.

Meanwhile, on the ground…

"Colossus, here!" Boom-Boom yelled as she made three large plasma bombs, each of them the size of a wrecking bal, and in quick succession, Colossus hefted them easily with his super-strength before he flung them at Trigon's legs, scoring direct hits for each one and nearly causing Trigon's knees to buckle, threatening to collapse under the strain of the weight. Starfire then flew in from above, peppering Trigon with numerous starbolts that hailed down from the sky and pelted him relentlessly. Trigon yowled like a ferocious beast as he then managed to grab Starfire with one claw, and the Tamaranean screamed as the demon began to squeeze her with all of his might.

"I shall crush you!" Trigon hollered in vehemence.

"Leave her alone, Trigon!" snarled Bezerker as he then summoned every fiber of his body to charge the air around the red-skinned demon with all the electrical power he could generate, his head threatening to reel and spin. Like a powerful cloud, the electricity charged the particles of air all around the giant, and Trigon then felt the odd sensation of his hair standing on its ends before the entire surrounding atmosphere lit on fire with an impressive and excruciating combustive effect.

KAAA-BOOOOMMM!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Trigon squalled, arching his head back in agony as he released Starfire from his clutches, allowing the alien to free herself and smile appreciatively at Bezerker for the assistance.

"Friend Bezerker, thank you!" Starfire cried out.

"Just returning the favor, Starfire!" Ray called out as Cannonball managed to dash through and pick up his teammate before Trigon could step on him.

"Whoa! How'd you do that, Ray?" Sam asked as he hovered above Bezerker's head.

"Beast explained it to me in science class! It's the ionized air! I used my electricity to charge the air particles all around Trigon as much as I could before the air molecules got so unstable that it gives off heat! In other words, I made the air explode!"

"Looks like it was enough to hurt Trigon when you caught him in the middle of it!" marveled Cannonball, impressed, as Trigon managed to shakily prop himself from his kneeling position, his entire lower body now badly burnt and charred, giving off small wafts of vile-smelling smoke.

"Everyone, team up your attacks! We need to take him down, together!" Cyclops roared over his communicators upon seeing that their individual attacks weren't doing much good, and instantly agreeing, the teenagers acted at once…

"Ready for another 'Sonic Boom' co-op, Robin?" Cyborg grinned wickedly at the Boy Wonder. The dark-haired protégée of Batman returned a smirk just as determined. Remy then joined in with the two Teen Titans.

"Remy no think that Sonic Boom's gonna cut it on Monsieur Trigon!" Gambit pointed out at the thousand-foot behemoth, "Mind if this Cajun give a little spice to that duo-team up of yours, mon ami?"

"The more, the merrier!" Robin declared as all three of them let loose, with Robin throwing his explosive Birdarangs, Gambit releasing a whole deck of charged playing cards, and Cyborg shooting off a powerful blast of sonic energy from his arm cannon. Like magic, the Birdarangs exploded, causing Cyborg's sonic attack to spread out in a widespread attack of compressed air and the sonic wave formed from the combination. And to their collective surprise, Gambit's kinetic-energy cards merged with the sonic energy, causing the entire force to glow in a soft tone of pink luster as it rushed towards Trigon, now twice as powerful as any Sonic Boom Robin and Cyborg had ever been able to achieve before.

KAAA-WWHHHOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

"Whoa! That one hurt him!" Robin smiled as the entire torso of the red-horned demon was now charred and actually smoking thick, vile plumes of burnt flesh and popped, oozing blisters.

"Merde," marveled Gambit in French as Cyborg patted the X-Man on the back, laughing despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Gambit, my brotha! We're gonna name that one the 'Cajun Sonic Boom'!"

At the same time, Starfire, Jinx, Bezerker, and the Blob were planning their unified assault. Jinx reached over and cast a simple hex onto Blob's body, and Fred felt the most pleasant sensation tingle his skin as his entire bulk was glowing in pink energy.

"Here, this should protect you and increase your invulnerability when you hit Trigon!" Jinx declared, and Ray then got a brilliant stroke of inspiration as he also touched Fred's hand with a glowing hard, cracking with streams and streams of electricity. Like the H.I.V.E. student's hex, the electricity surged and spread throughout Blob's entire body until Blob, to his surprise, was covered completely with streams and streams of hot, crackling white energy, like a coat. Fred whistled, impressed.

"Hey, cool!" Fred marveled.

"Might as well give you a little oomph for effect," Bezerker grinned, and Starfire quickly grabbed the Blob by both of his hands as she flew into the air, carrying him with her superhuman strength and careful to not trigger the energy covering the Misfit as she carried him as far as she could dare, the air so thin, it was difficult for Fred to breathe. Yet even at the high altitude, Trigon could be easily spotted on the battle below.

"Are you ready, Friend Blob?" Starfire asked strongly as she began to swing her cargo around, building up speed.

"Launch me, Starfire!" Blob crowed.

Starfire grunted before she threw Blob with all of her strength at a steep angle, her aim directly at Trigon's head. Blob then curled his body into a fetal position and tucked in his head with his hand covering his neck the minute he felt himself plummet. Thanks to the laws of gravity and Blob's immense weight, the Misfit tore through the sky, whistling in the air as the speed and acceleration of freefall grew so strong, it was enough to make Blob's brain and internal organs dance with dizziness. The electricity and pink hex energy surrounding him actually began to grow stronger and stronger as Fred gained enough force to be similar to a meteorite falling from outer space and crashing into Earth. Which was probably how Trigon felt when the Blob in ball form collided at the very upside of his gigantic head…

WHAM!

The delivery was swift…and extremely painful. Trigon's head was actually swimming with dizzying pain as his vision blurred and the thousand-foot demon fell to his knees, pitching forward and his hair smoking from the electricity and hex-energy that surrounded Blob when the Misfit collided right into Raven's father.

"Damn you!" Trigon bellowed.

Unfortunately for the demon, when Trigon had pitched forward, he was propping himself up on the ground by using one of his hands, and that was exactly the chance Kitty had been waiting for. Shadowcat then managed to rise from the rock underneath before she actually phased Trigon's entire claw and arm deep into the ground, causing the demon to holler in astonishment as his arm passed through and deep into the earth before his face landed hard against the floor. Shadowcat actually giggled as she relinquished her powers on the ground and allowed the dirt to become tangible again. Predictably, Trigon was left with his hand trapped and caught, pinned among the rock and unable to wrench himself free simply because the X-Girl phased his hand into the Earth's crust.

"Like, hope you enjoy being stuck for a while! Like, now you guys!" yelled Shadowcat and instantly, Kurt, Lina, Todd, Althea, and Xi complied.

Wavedancer, Toad and Xi were teaming up their efforts to attack Trigon's head and face while the demon was still unable to attack them from his imprisoned position on the ground. Xi, being carried by his teammate Dragonfly, kept hurling small yet deadly darts with sharp needle-like tips made of plastic explosives and laced with curare poison, exactly like the weapons the Joe ninjas Storm Shadow, Jinx, and Snake Eyes used on the mutates Kanto summoned from H.A.T.E. And unfortunately for Trigon, Xi has hundreds of the lethal projectiles in a small pack he kept lashed around his waist.

Paf! Poof! Bang! Bang! Paf! Pow! Pap!

Trigon bellowed with malaise and misery as his entire face and neck area were riddled with small, miniature holes from the poisonous darts, still smoking from the explosions. Wavedancer, knowing that she couldn't use her hydrokinesis for this battle, then leapt at Trigon with her knife in her hand before driving it fully into Trigon's lower left eye, making a sickening squelch as the blade of metal sank into Trigon's eyeball, deep and excruciatingly tender. But that was nowhere near as painful when Toad and Nightcrawler, as a rare instance of a duo team, charged.

"Here's slime in your eye, yo!" laughed Toad as he then let loose a glob a acidic, green mucus from his tongue, and Trigon howled loudly enough to wake the dead as the caustic muck ate painfully at his upper right eyeball. As Toad fell past the demon's face, Cannonball managed to snatch him in mid-air and carried the frog-like Misfit to safety which was exactly the perfect time for Nightcrawler to execute his attack. With a hurl of his arms, Kurt flung several large and bulky water balloons in the air before they exploded into Trigon's face, dousing his entire wounded visage with an appropriate film of water.

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…" Nightcrawler prayed, and then grinned as Trigon the Terrible was screaming himself hoarse, his face now actually starting to melt a bit as the water ate away at his flesh like acid.

"AAAAAAAAAA! What sort of witchcraft is this, you insignificant half-breed?" shouted Trigon. Kurt smiled even wider.

"It's not witchcraft. It's holy water! Handy, isn't it?" the X-Men wisecracked before he disappeared in a puff of smoke as Trigon then managed to rip his arm out of the ground with all the strength he could. Trigon, having enough, then had his antlers begin to glow again as he started to summon more fire minions to overwhelm, incinerate and kill the teenage heroes, but Lina knew what the demon was attempting to do again from the telltale crimson halo surrounding his head. Taking off as fast as she could, Dragonfly inwardly prayed her wings were enough to do the job as she whizzed by Trigon's right horn.

Needless to say, the Misfit's wings were adequately sufficient.

Shhhhhaaaacccccckkkk!

"UUURRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Trigon roared with murderous rage as his other antler, now cleanly cut, fell off his head, thoroughly decapitated by Dragonfly's wings. Hopping mad, Trigon tried to reach out and grab Dragonfly before she could fly away, but then X23 moved in as she was teleported to the top of Trigon's head via Nightcrawler, intervening smoothly to allow time for the Misfit to escape out of danger…

"Oh no you don't!" Rina yelled as she drew out her claws with a final shikt and hacked at the other antler with all of her might. Like its predecessor, the remaining horn fell, separated from the demon's body, and Trigon shrieked in a tone that could not possibly belong to any human voice as Rina and Kurt teleported off the demon before he could kill them. Jean then flew in, still wearing the Cerebro helmet, tried to attack Trigon in his mind, but she found it was barely enough to cause him some slight discomfort.

Trigon, sensing the endeavor, sneered at Jean despite himself, drawling, "Do you actually think a single telepath can actually bring the might of Trigon the Terrible to his knees, you insignificant whelp?"

"Then how about four telepaths, Trigon?" snarled Jean as Daria, Quinn, and Brittany flew up alongside her, and joining hands in a very rare display of unity, Trinity and Jean Grey then combined all of their mental strength to take the thousand-foot tall behemoth down. If Trigon thought it was irritating to have Jean Grey try to mentally assault him, it was nowhere as painful when the Delgado Triplets chipped in…

"Bad Trigon! Bad Trigon! Bad, bad, bad Trigon!" Daria, Quinn, and Brittany yelled as huge bolts and shafts of white, psychic lightning as large as sewage drainage pipes coursed through the demon's body and mind, shattering it over and over again. Thanks to Raven's power flowing through all four of them and providing excellent mental shields, Trigon really could not stop the four girls by unleashing mental imprints of his own. And in addition to the psychic lightning, Jean and the Triplets added barrage after barrage of telepathic forces, the actual pressure of the psychic manipulations squeezing his brain and causing Trigon's head to hurt so much, he actually thought it was going to split apart. And it was extremely satisfying to see that they were actually and harshly hurting him, that Trigon was suffering for what he did to the H.I.V.E. students and the adults.

"Curse you, you sniveling, weak brats!" Trigon snarled as he tried to blast them, but the telepathy and lightning managed to barely keep him at bay.

"How does it feel to finally know how to fear, just like how much you tormented Raven when you bullied her, you asshole?" growled Jean under the Cerebro helmet as she and Trinity gave Trigon a final mental blast, nearly sending him reeling, before she reached out to her mental link to Cyclops, and yelled out the signal as the four girls dashed into the sky.

Now, Scott! Now, Starfire!

As one, the alien and the mutant let loose twin attacks from their eyes, a swirling column of red and green striking Trigon in the throat right underneath his chin and leaving a deep, bloody puncture of where the combined optic blasts had partially gouged through. Seeing that it wasn't enough, Wanda led the next attack…

"Now!" yelled Scarlet Witch before she, Jinx, and Rogue all performed a simultaneous three-way hex attack exactly as they had performed on Slade before. The three hex-bolts surged before combining into a single ball of energy before striking the exact area where Cyclops and Starfire fired upon.

KAAA-SSHHHHAAAAACCCCKKKKKK!

Now Trigon had a hole gouged cleanly through his entire throat as he choked and coughed, sputtering and vomiting a little blood as it dripped from the cleft through his larynx. Bumblebee then flew towards the demon, intent of blinding his final eye. Being no fool, Trigon reached out to grab her, but Lockheed, carrying an angry Silkie, then managed to drop his friend onto Trigon's nose right before Silkie gave the demon's nostril a mighty chomp.

"Yeeeeooooooooowwwww!" shrieked Trigon.

"Thanks, Silkie and Lockheed!" yelled Bumblebee gratefully before she flew directly into Trigon's last and remaining eye, her stingers set at their highest and most crippling setting. Before Trigon could recover from the pain of Lockheed's attack, he then became entirely preoccupied by a new pain when Bumblebee jammed both of the stingers into the soft, fleshy part of the demon's retina, releasing a furious backlash of harsh energy. There was a moderate explosion before Bumblebee felt the goop and warm ooze of demon eye-matter splatter against her body and past her as Trigon was now officially blind in that eye. Trigon howled as he brought two of his hands close to his face and tried to swat the Titans East leader, but Bumblebee managed to shrink herself to a small size, avoiding the large appendages easily before she snatched Silkie and hightailed it away along with Lockheed from Trigon's face. This was about when Mas, Menos, Magma and Quicksilver teamed up as one to act…

"Hope you like lava, Trigon, cause you're going to be encased into it!" Magma yelled as she summoned several large spouts of the molten, red rock from all around before having it surge towards the giant, and Quicksilver, Mas, and Menos were having the time of their lives as they ran circles around the demon, the winds created from their super-speeds drawing the lava inwards the tornado and dousing Trigon over and over again with the searing liquid, fully covering it as it swirled and built-up on his body slowly. And Iceman was also aiming his powers at the cyclone the three speedsters were creating so that he could cool the lava down and cause it to harden into rock to trap the demon. Unfortunately, Bobby could see it wouldn't be enough as Trigon flailed and madly struggled against the forces pushing all around him as he was trapped in the eye of the hurricane.

"Can't you transform all that lava yourself, Rogue?" Garth asked the X-Girl hurriedly next to him while they were observing this, but Rogue shook her head, at a loss.

"I can't!" Rogue shot back, stuck, "Selinda's powers will only affect things that are within three feet of her in order to change the matter! And with those whirlwinds around Trigon thanks to my idiot half-brother, I can't get close enough to help Iceman trap him and harden the lava!"

"Wait! But you can transform the lava around us, can't you?" Aqualad then gasped as a brilliant idea struck him as he and Rogue turned around, observing their surroundings. Indeed, as the Atlantian pointed out, they were surrounded by a sea of molten rock, spewing smoke and bubbling thickly with red sluggishness. Rogue still looked a little confused until Aqualad pointed it out.

"I can control water, like Wavedancer, remember?" Aqualad explained hurriedly, "So if I had a large supply of water, I can help cool the lava Magma is summoning to trap Trigon!"

Rogue then got it before she jumped into action, turning the molten rock instantly to clear water, enough to fill a small lake.

"Aqualad, here! I managed to transform a good hunk of the lava into water! Hurry, before the stuff evaporates! Use it help out Iceman!" Rogue called out.

"Iceman, here!" Aqualad yelled as he called forth the water in the form of a giant waterspout and sent into the tornado and lava. In no time at all, the lava hardened into a tight prison of rock, the column actually pinning Trigon's arms to his sides and forcing him to remain still and he struggled and writhed vainly in his position. Scarlet Witch and Cannonball saw their chance as they both remembered a very powerful and special move…

"You ready, Cannonball?" yelled Wanda.

"I'm game for some serious demon butt-kicking! Do it now, Scarlet Witch!" bellowed Sam, and the female goth then surrounded the country-boy X-Man with protective hex energy as Cannonball flew out with his fists outstretched and in front of him as he soared towards the incapacitated Trigon, aiming dead center in the demon's chest. The air was simply screaming, whistling loudly as Cannonball tore through the sky, actually creating a vacuum with his powers, as he rushed towards the thousand-foot demon at incredible speeds, the forces of propulsion and gravity tugging rather painfully at his body with the blood roaring in his ears with anticipation and nervousness. Yet Sam knew he had to do this, exactly like how they had done it before to Darkseid at the final battle at Apokolips. It may be the one thing that could truly stop Trigon.

Scarlet Witch then instantly yelled in her communicator, relaying her message to everyone who could hear her, "Everyone who can, shoot and aim your attacks at Cannonball! Combine all our energy and let's take down Trigon together!"

Without fail or the least bit of confusion, the Teen Titans, the Titans East, the X-Men, the Misfits, and even the H.I.V.E. students all united their attacks as one, unstoppable strike of teamwork, using Cannonball's gravitational bullet-shield as a conductor towards Trigon.

Gizmo produced a strange laser-cannon from the center of his mechanical vest before releasing a powerful surge of green, radioactive nuclear energy, and in conjunction, Forge simultaneously fired with his laser pistol. Jinx let loose twin blasts of pink hexes from her hands, flinging them one after the other while Cyborg then aimed his right arm, set in its cannon-mode at the highest caliber before releasing a devastating surge of blue, sonic energy. Lockheed roared with appreciative excitement as he flew high into the air and released a stream of dragon-fire, and Sunspot and Bezerker both teamed up their attacks, creating a wide and dangerous column of black-and-yellow sun-radiation with an encircling and encapsulating layer of white, crackling electricity swarming all around it, cutting through the air and strong enough to cut through a Sentinel in half. Gambit simply grinned as he let loose a flurry of glowing, bio-kinetically charged cards with a grand sweep of his arm.

"Delta Psychic Wave, girls!" Daria cried out as she, Quinn, and Brittany joined hands a final time before powering up a furious, wide-ranged discharge of white, psychic lightning towards Cannonball's direction, and Rogue then added her own blast of a black hex-disc she summoned with Roulette's stolen abilities. Aqualad and Wavedancer, in a rare front of teamwork, summoned the last of the water available in the field before creating a single waterspout to rise high into the sky before rushing forward, churning and frothing madly. And Iceman was only happy to oblige to strengthen its shock and intensity as he aimed both of his hands and released a frigid ice-beam colder than the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Starfire and Cyclops then combined both their eye-blasts, a swirl of red and green energy cutting through the air, while Magma then added in a continuous stream of fire she was able to summon from the nearby pools of lava.

And as an added bonus, all the rest of the heroes who were not mentioned and who could not possibly add in their own long-ranged energy attacks had the inspiration hit them at once simultaneously before they all joined hands and said a familiar spell.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" they all chanted, and like clockwork, a stream of black, telekinetic aura flowed from all of their bodies before uniting into a powerful, roaring column of shadows.

Like magic, each and every one of the contributions surged and swirled into a infinite yet stunningly beautiful display of energy and power as it encircled and enveloped Cannonball's shield as he rocketed in the sky, guiding all of the attacks mixed together from various sources as it clung to his body. All of them being brought directly to Trigon himself. The red-horned demon's eyes widened as he could sense what was coming.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Trigon thundered right before Sam and the energy surrounding him struck…

KKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

"I don't believe this!" gasped Raven as she witnessed the scene as she and Leomon fled Brother Blood and the minions of the fire demons chasing after them, "They're…they're hurting him!"

"Look at your friends, kid," Leomon said as he and Raven witnessed the Titans, the Titans East, the X-Men, and the Misfits giving it all they got, actually managing to provide a very difficult time for the demon lord as Trigon managed to rise from his sprawled position of being blasted back, "Look, they know about the prophecy, and yet they're not afraid to fight, they're not afraid to continue to defend and face your father, even if he is more powerful than they are by a long shot."

"ENOUGH!" Trigon declared before he summoned two of his hands and let loose a furious discharge of red energy that sent all the heroes flying, screaming in surprise and pain as not a single one of them had been able to avoid the flare, sending them all flying before they crashed to the ground, stunned and groaning.

"No!" wailed the child, and Brother Blood sneered as he and the fire Heartless finally managed to corner and surround the two targets at last, leaving them nowhere to run.

"It's over!" Blood sneered. Trapped, no way out, the entire Earth dead, the planet's only heroes about to be killed by Trigon the Terrible…

Leomon then realized what he had to do…and the thought of it was enough to strike the fear of any benevolent God in his heart. The lion then held the petrified Raven tighter to his chest as he then whispered to himself the closest thing to a remorseful prayer he could ever bring himself to utter.

"Your Majesty…forgive me for what I have to do."

Leomon then turned to Raven as his paw reached for something behind his back.

"Kid?" he whispered softly as the Heartless edged closer and closer…

"Yes?" Raven asked with wide, innocent, and tear-filled eyes.

"Your mother loves you too, kid. Don't blame her for trying to protect you," Leomon murmured in the softest voice he could ever make with his deep tone. Raven nodded. Robin looked up from his sprawled position, his face grimy and his body aching from the explosion of Trigon's palm blast before he then realized what Leomon was about to attempt.

"NO!" Robin screamed as his hand went to a Birdarang in his utility belt, but it was too late.

With a quick movement of his paw, Leomon unsheathed his sword from his back and plunged it into the tiny body of Raven, dead center into her heart and chest.

Robin's world collapsed all around him as he witnessed Leomon stabbing his friend.

"What the hell?" gasped Brother Blood, truly taken aback.

The dark-haired child's eyes went wide as she made a faint gurgle, her tiny arms and hands vainly trying to pull the bronze blade that stabbed her in the heart rather painfully, her throat clogged with pain. Then, after a few anguished moments, the child closed her eyes in a peaceful expression on her face…and went limp.

Robin heard screaming until he realized that it was his own, his throat now painfully hoarse and dry, at the dead and bleeding form of the child that had once been the beloved member of the Teen Titans called Raven. The others, however, were too busy to discover the atrocity Leomon committed; the Titans, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the H.I.V.E. students were weakly trying to recover from Trigon's attack, shaky, dazed…and greatly discouraged. They had come together and banded their attacks as one, and yet it still wasn't enough to stop Trigon the Terrible as he then raised his two remaining arms high in the sky and summoned a grand fireball of demonic power and wicked intensity.

This would be it.

"It is finished, you troublesome pests!" howled Trigon as he was about to blast them all into ashes.

"Selinda…I'll see you soon," whispered Mammoth, his eyes dripping with tears as his shaggy head sunk, weary and already resigned to accept his fate.

Heavily bruised and cut, Jinx was still adamant as she managed to cry, "No, Mammoth! We'll lose if we give up!"

Nightcrawler then murmured the last prayer he thought he would ever make as Shadowcat desperately hugged Lockheed close to her, "Mein Gott! Saints and heaven preserve us, as of now!"

Suddenly, to everyone's astonishment and amazement, a white blast of light struck Trigon forcefully from behind, radiating powerfully and searing into the demon lord's flesh and soul, ravaging him into new depths of pain and sensations he never dreamed could be possible before. Trigon howled in agony as he relinquished his hold on the energy ball, the crimson energy vanishing in thin air and sparing the teenagers at the demon's mercy. Kurt instantly turned upwards at the sky gratefully.

"Danke!" he groveled rather shamelessly, "You sent an angel to save us!"

Toad then gasped as his eyes went wide and his jaw dropped before he pointed to something he spotted in the sky over Trigon's shoulder, uttering dumbly, "Uh…Fuzzy? Hate to break this to you, but she ain't no angel, yo!"

It was then that the astonished and stupefied heroes and teens could clearly see what saved them as Trigon whirled around to face his attacker. It was an astral form of Raven, an apparition, a soul-self, a translucent and transparent spirit made of the most beautiful halos of light. It was no longer the Raven in the form of the child that Leomon cradled in his arms. This form of Raven was older, almost exactly like the Teen Titans the others knew and loved for so long, except her cloak was pure white and her hair was slightly longer, draping unevenly around her shoulders, making her more feminine and a bit beautiful as well. And next to Raven, grasping her hand, was a similarly formed soul-self of Arella, the lone priestess of Azarath and Raven's mother, the one who sired a child with Trigon. Trigon was outraged at seeing his former mate and his daughter, and so was Brother Blood, but the religious human was also overcome with confusion and a bit of fear.

"Impossible!" Brother Blood cried, "Arella is back! But she's dead! That bitch is dead as we speak! No power in the universe can bring back the dead, none except - !"

But then Brother Blood's voice died in his throat as he managed to glance at the nearby corpse of Raven's mother, now cold and pale amid a dried puddle of blood and then spotted a small yet telltale mark on the dead woman's forehead. It was a strange and modified symbol of a heart with a keyhole inside it, and Brother Blood then turned to Leomon who was still protectively carrying the dead child in his arms like a precious cargo of gold, his face stony yet fiercely displaying danger to anyone who would dare try to snatch the body away from him.

It then came to him. Arella and Raven were still alive in soul form because of Leomon. The lion used whatever damned powers he had to bring Arella and Raven back to challenge Trigon. And that made Brother Blood all the more disbelieving and furious. How could the lion warrior even have such powers over the Light, such magical abilities that surpasses his and the Hellfire Club's? Unless…

Brother Blood's eyes widened as he then surveyed the Digimon with a mixture of fear, horror…and awe.

"No, it can't be! You can't be!" roared Brother Blood, his voice rising in pitch and lividly beside himself. But before he could say anything more, the spirit of Raven then turned to the evil member of the Hellfire Club below before the apparition of the gem on her forehead began to glow dangerously.

"You killed my mother, you bastard," Raven hissed in a ghostly, ethereal voice, and before Blood could do anything to defend himself, the Teen Titan then sent a huge telepathic assault of devastating magnitude, so powerful it could have caused Trigon and Blackheart themselves to beg for mercy, the forces of Azarath flowing through her, using her as a conduit to channel the positive energy of good, light, and Azar's legacy through her. Without a sound, Brother Blood felt his mind succumb to the force of Raven's anger and power which very well dwarfed the power he stole from her at the marriage ceremony. Brother Blood brought his hands to his temples and screamed, trying vainly to forcibly push the looming presence out, but the darkness would not cease and it spread, silent, deadly, and with cold finality as the religious tyrant of black magic felt his senses die, one by one, his vision cloud over, and losing all feeling in his body as he plunged into a vortex of swirling, never-ending darkness.

"No! This can't be happening! Damn you, you little witch!" Blood roared as his consciousness was sucked into the infinite abyss, never to return and doomed for an eternity of quiet, unbearable silence and nothingness. With a final blast, Raven broke Brother Blood's mind and left him shattered, his psyche now irreparably damaged and leaving the Shaggy Man now twitching on the floor, brain dead and jabbering incoherently like an idiot.

The Shaggy Man that was once Brother Blood was now defeated, alive in flesh but broken in mind and soul.

"Consider that an official annulment, Blood. By the legacy of Azar, I revoke all the blessings you have gained from the holy matrimony to my daughter," Arella intoned solemnly before she and a satisfied Raven turned back to an outraged Trigon who was now absolutely furious that he could not kill the phantasms outright.

"You!" he snarled, "What hope can a mere child have of defeating her all-powerful father?"

That one sentence was the last audacious mistake Trigon would ever make on the planet of Earth again. Raven gave a grimace of absolute hate and loathing, almost enraged by the fact that the demon dared claim himself as her father. With a cry of anger and years and years of pent-up frustration and hurt, the soul-self ghost of Raven let loose a huge blast of white light, which struck the leviathan fully in the chest, and Trigon the Terrible grunted in pain, now truly taken aback at how easily Raven could hurt him without barely any effort.

"WHAT?" he snarled in surprised shock, but Raven cut him down, each sentence punctured with cold, deadly ice-pricks, her face displaying protective love and fury for her friends and the world. The phantasm of Arella just watched on with a hard, unreadable frown of stern stoniness.

Trigon had made Raven's life a living hell for the very last time.

"You may have created me…" Raven said coldly as she blasted the red behemoth.

Trigon roared as the shaft of bright light struck him in the chest again, in the exact place the previous blast had hit him before.

"…but you were never my father!" Raven finished in a scream as she flung out an arm, wild and swift with fury and trauma. The red demon nearly went flying as he stumbled back, crashing into a pile of abandoned buildings and rubble before shooting the spirit above him with a glare of pure hate...and trepidation.

"What's she doing?" gasped Sam, but Tabitha was already grinning along with several of the other heroes as they realized the truth.

"She's fighting back!" Boom-Boom cheered, "Raven's finally giving her deadbeat Father from Hell the beating he's been asking for! She's fighting back!"

"Yeah, go Raven! Kick his butt!" Beast Boy yelled, his hope rising upon seeing his friend and pumping a fist in the air.

"Waste the scuzz-chewer, witch-girl!" called out Gizmo. During this, the thousand-foot giant was now starting to worry, especially since his daughter was not showing any intention of mercy and no longer appeared to be the least intimidated by him. She was no longer the small child he could easily scare and terrorize into submission, and now desperate, Trigon let loose a powerful blast of his demonic aura at Arella and Raven.

"Wretch! Insignificant brat! How dare you challenge me?" Trigon thundered to the ashy, red skies above, but the beam of the attack just harmlessly passed by Raven and her mother, the two of them still holding hands as they merely raised an eyebrow at the attempt to incinerate them.

Raven then continued to blast Trigon with short yet excruciating pulses of white light, the aura and forces of Azarath blessing her and guiding her for the exorcism of the planet from this blight.

"Fathers are kind!" Raven yelled, contradicting the demon as she blasted him in the face.

Trigon now hollered as his face was little more that an unidentifiable, soggy pulp of exposed flesh and charred skin, dripping vast amounts of blood.

"Fathers protect you!" Raven snarled as she threw another surge of blinding light.

Now Trigon lost his two remaining and fully-functional hands, his arms now waving nothing more that bloody, grotesque stumps, displaying dangling threads of flesh and dripping veins.

"Fathers raise you!" Raven screamed with ire as she then used her telepathy.

Trigon arched his back and wailed to the heaven as a massive bolt of psychic lightning blitzed him, piercing through his brain and backbone as if one had shot an arrow of flame and red-hot metal through his spinal column.

"I was protected by the monks of Azarath!" Raven snapped, the memories of her smiling on her mother's lap as a babe and the gray-eyed yet gentle and pacifistic Azar teaching her meditation techniques with much patience and love.

Trigon faltered as he was pushed back as a wave of force swept over him like a tidal wave.

"I was raised by my friends!" Raven hollered, her wrath to defend the Titans fueled by the memories of the laughter, the closeness, the intimacy of the fellow teammates from both the Teen Titans and Titans East, the day they tried to throw her a birthday party.

Trigon yelped as unseen fire started to engulf his skin, invisible and yet exposing the monster to such unbearable heat that his thick hide was starting to pop and bubble with numerous sores and blisters, steaming madly.

"And even the outcasts and heroes of this world were nice to me, showed me that they cared for me, treated me with kindness and loyalty and gave me friendship, more than you ever did for me!" Raven bellowed, the jewel on her head now glowing stronger than ever, as she recalled Rogue and Wanda, empathizing with her and helping understand that she was never alone, and despite the difference between the mutants and humans, Raven was really no horrendous than they were.

Trigon groaned as the next blast brought him to his knees, weakly beaten and enervated.

"They are my friends. They are my family. This is my home," hissed Raven to a dangerous whisper, her hair and cloak billowing around her, a sign of the power that was slowly but surely building and increasing by the second all around her.

Trigon, now being subjected to crackling streams of white electricity as it coursed and traveled all across his body, then knew what true fear and horror felt like as Raven spoke the last of her tirade.

"And you are not welcome here!" she bellowed. Arella then telepathically managed to speak to all of the teenagers who were witnessing this miracle with astonished, bug-eyed wonderment.

Quickly, X-Men, Misfits, Titans, everyone…help my daughter! Help banish Trigon once and for all!

"Then let's send Trigon packing!" Pietro cheered as the Teen Titans, Titans East, the X-Men, the H.I.V.E. students and the Misfits joined hands once again, forming a circle as the familiar feeling of energy emerged in their souls and minds…

"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!" they all shouted along with Raven and Arella, their voices swelling in power and might and growing hope as another telltale stream of dark force, supplied from each remnant of power Raven left behind in each teenage hero, materialized from the group in the center of the circle before flying out and engulfing the demon lord fully, encircling him and trapping him in an unbreakable telekinetic hold before the light engulfed him and the world, dwarfing everything.

"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Trigon screamed before the light erased him from reality.

In a flash…there were a few moments of silence, so peaceful and tranquil that at first, everyone wondered if they were dead. Yet then the teens then found themselves upon an alley street of…a newly restored Jump City, the people now animated and alive and restored back to flesh as the cars and buses and buildings nearby bustled with activity. The sun shone brightly against the blue sky while the oceans nearby gave off cool breezes of fresh air, pleasant and oddly enough, intoxicating.

"Oh my God!" Kitty gasped, looking all around, wondering if her eyes were fooling her. But there was no denying it. Jump City, and indeed, the entire world and Earth had been saved and brought back to its beautiful and former self.

"It…it's back! The city is back! The world's back!" Bobby exclaimed.

"It's…it's never looked more beautiful before!" Jinx sighed, crying with relief. But then Robin accusing tone of hate and anger shook them all out of their disbelief before they could celebrate at their victory.

"How could you?" Robin choked, his teeth bared and his mouth formed into a snarl. The Teen Titans, the Titans East, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the H.I.V.E. trio turned to see that they were not alone on the sidewalk of the abandoned alleyway. Leomon was with them. And in his paws was a small and bloody bundle of…

"No," gasped Rina, quivering at the sight of the dead child incarnation of Raven, her expression being one of peace as she remained limp in Leomon's paws. Wanda and Rogue then started to cry, actually hugging each other as they mourned for their friend.

"Senorita Raven…" whimpered Mas y Menos. Starfire looked at Leomon with absolute hate, her face streaked with angry tears, and one could tell that she was very close to ripping Leomon's head off if she could.

"Leomon…why?" Lance asked in a shaking voice, his arms limp at his sides. Colossus, Cyclops, Gambit, and Jean, though they didn't say anything, threw Avalanche a unified look that clearly said with blame, "We told you so".

"You…killed her!" snarled Beast Boy, "You killed Raven!"

Bumblebee was starting to weep, her head in her hands and Jinx held her elbows tightly, the shock of seeing the young incarnation of the Titan dead reminding her of her grief of Selinda's death, and she felt her heart go out to the Titans. Gizmo and Mammoth were staring at the lion with a mixture of disbelief and shock. Leomon just looked at them all wearily as he then spoke gruffly.

"It was the only way to help the kid gain the power to banish Trigon and save the world," he said at last. Cyborg then completely lost it as he aimed his sonic cannon at Leomon's heart, his hand shaking with rage.

"Give us one good reason why we shouldn't kill you right now, you furry bastard!" Cyborg bellowed in wrathful grief. The lion humanoid then turned his deep blue eyes to the teenagers in front of him.

"She's not dead," Leomon rumbled lowly.

"Gee, ya' could have fooled us!" shot Sam with venom, obviously not believing the lion, but then the swordsman surprised them all as he then voiced a spell.

Leomon then intoned in his deep voice, "By the blessings of the Gaia Kingdom and in the name of the Elementa Trinity, resurrect the one of Darkness and bring her within to the power of Light."

To everyone's amazement, the small form of Raven was immersed in light, levitating up in the air softly like the caress of a gentle patron, before the blood disappeared and the girl's body grew bigger, maturing and forming feminine curves and appearing older by the second before the halos of radiance softly disappeared, leaving a new teenage Raven in flesh and blood, exactly like the apparition that defeated Trigon along with Arella before, after a few breathless moments…

The teenage Raven opened her eyes, clearing her vision a bit to see her friends staring at her. Opening her mouth, the resurrected Titan then managed to speak her first words of the new day.

"I…I feel…different," murmured Raven as she looked at her hands and her white clock that gracefully billowed around her and caressed her body. The Titans gasped as they and the heroes rushed over to her.

"You're…you're alive, yo!" breathed Toad in awe.

"Raven…that was…" Starfire gasped.

"…unbelievable." Speedy finished for the alien girl.

"Welcome back," sniffed Rogue and Wanda as they hugged Raven tightly.

Beast Boy was still shocked.

"Okay, you're freaking me out here! The white robe and smile are weird enough, but hugs? Are you still…you?" he asked hesitantly to Raven. Raven gave him an unreadable expression.

"Well...I like the new look...but don't get used to the smile."

It was at this when the Titan's face dropped, showing her usual stony self along with her trademark deadpanned tone of voice.

"Because you're still not funny and still just as irritating as ever."

"Huh?" Beast Boy gasped, confused, before it came to him, and he happily squealed with joy as he rushed over and hugged his friend.

"Raven!" he cheered.

"Quit it," she sighed, exasperated at the gushiness, though she could admit she didn't mind as the rest of the Titans, the Titans East, the Misfits, the X-Men, and even Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo offered their expressions of happiness and joy at the fact that Trigon was gone and she had been spared.

"All right, y'all! Four-Eyes is history, his ghoulies are gone, and we just saved the whole dang universe!" Cyborg cheered as Trinity danced in a circle with Bumblebee, Lockheed, Piotr, Kitty, Tabitha, Mas y Menos, and Jamie.

"But…what I don't understand is…how?" Raven murmured before she and the rest of the crowd turned to a quiet Leomon in the background. Leomon looked a bit embarrassed at the attention as he muttered bitterly.

"I took the evil out of you, when I stabbed you. In other words, your body and soul has been purified, kid. You still have the same powers and the same weaknesses of not letting your emotions and feelings get the better of you, but you now have a new body, a cleansed golden one, if you want to call it that. One that's free from Trigon's legacy…"

"So why did you help Raven? Why did you decide to resurrect her back to life and give her a whole new body when you told us that you didn't care one way or another as long as the Armageddon had been prevented?" Colossus asked in a hard tone, still suspicious that the lion swordsman had ulterior motives behind his so-called act of goodwill. Leomon just stonily looked at Raven, the Titans, the X-Men, and the Misfits with a frown before he gave Lance the briefest (with some resentment) glance out of the corner of his eye before he addressed Raven directly.

"As much as I am loathed to admit it, they were right when I was told that you were as much as a victim in this as everyone else, kid."

This raised a few eyebrows, and Lance got a little uncomfortable with everyone else in the crowd glancing and/or staring at him.

"Wow, so everything like turned out all right in the end then," Shadowcat sighed, but Leomon's eyes fell a bit, and Lance and Althea were surprised to see a touch of…fear?

"No, not everything turned out all right, Shadowcat," Leomon said huskily, as if having difficulty swallowing, "I broke...one of the sacred rules I was supposed to uphold, one of the few rules that are taboo and cannot be ignored under any circumstances. I have altered the timeline of life and death for one individual, the very person I was assigned to terminate to save the world and stop Trigon. As a result, there's going to be consequences."

"Leomon?" Jean asked, confused. Now the Misfits, the X-Men, the Teen Titans, the Titans East, Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo could all see that the lion swordsman was slightly quivering underneath his fur, his face clouded with sullen regret. Leomon composed himself before he turned to the teenagers.

"I will be punished for what I did with Raven, for bringing her back to life. There is no mistake about that."

"But you did the right thing…" Xi put in, yet Leomon's mouth went thin with sullen dread.

"He will still not be pleased," the lion said mysteriously, and everyone then felt a little unnerved. If Leomon was afraid of the very person who ordered him to kill Raven, then that meant this being must be very influential and powerful.

"He…he won't kill you, will he?" Beast Boy gasped before blabbering like a typical, hyperactive idiot, "If you need to, we can hide you, give you a new identity, make sure the Justice League has you under - !"

"No," Leomon rumbled vehemently, "He's a good being, one with one of the most purest and strongest hearts I have ever witnessed. He won't punish me with cruelty and violence, kid. It's just…I failed him."

"Failed him?" echoed Dragonfly incredulously.

"But you still helped us fight Trigon!" protested Blob, "We stopped the Armageddon! Earth is safe! Trigon's gone!"

"But as a result of not killing Raven when I was supposed to, the possibility that the Gathering of Twilight will be on Earth grows even stronger," Leomon said wearily.

"The Gathering of Twilight? That sounds familiar…" Bobby frowned.

Pietro rolled his eyes as he exclaimed, "Duh, Ice-Cube! It's what Slade told to Raven when he chased her and told her about the prophecy! Remember, the one where Xavier showed us the memories Rogue absorbed from Raven?"

They did indeed.

"'For darkness is the heart's true essence'…" Sunspot said aloud, remembering the herald of doom from Raven's memory that Rogue absorbed.

"'The fate of the Earth rests on the Gathering of Twilight'…" finished Brittany, frowning uncharacteristically. Indeed, Trinity couldn't make heads or tails out of that statement.

"Leomon…that reminds us, who ordered you to assassinate Raven?" Speedy asked with a hint of suspicious anger, interested. Leomon just glared at Speedy before he ignored the question and turned his attention to Raven, his glare stern, dark, and moody…but Raven knew that Leomon didn't mean anything threatening from the look.

"I put my neck out for you, kid," Leomon growled, "You better damn well appreciate it…"

Raven nodded before she whispered, "I do…thank you, Leomon."

Leomon gave a growl before he turned and started to walk away.

"So that's it?" Amara asked crossly, demanding, as she placed her hands on her hips, "No apology? No request for Raven's forgiveness? No humble speech telling us that we were right and that you were wrong?"

"Don't push it, kid," Leomon growled dangerously as he continued to walk away, "Just because I helped you X-Men and Misfits and the Titans doesn't mean that I agree with your sentiments. You've got a lot to learn about respecting others' viewpoints, Magma, so keep your pretty mouth shut and accept the fact that the entire world isn't perfect and that not every being believes in the same thing you do."

Amara turned beet-red before she muttered under her breath, "Whatever, you furry, hairball-coughing butt-wipe…"

"I heard that, Amara," Leomon commented rather sternly (really, he had the ears of a bat) without turning around, "And for your information, I have never coughed up a hairball in my entire existence."

"Geez, what a prick," muttered Boom-Boom, incredibly put off and thinking that the lion warrior needed a complete attitude adjustment.

"I still don't trust him," Cyclops muttered darkly.

Lance, deciding he didn't give a damn about how it would look to the others, rushed after the lion warrior, not knowing of the looks of surprise and confusion on the crowd's faces.

"What is he doing?" Remy gaped with slight disgust as Avalanche caught up to the mysterious swordsman.

"Leomon?"

"What, Avalanche?" Leomon muttered, annoyed as he shot Lance a calm yet tired frown over his shoulder.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you this when you saved Spirit and me back from that fire Heartless. Thanks, for saving us. For saving all of us, even if we're not on the same side. Just because…just because a lot of the X-Geeks and the Titans disagree with your opinions doesn't mean that some of us don't understand that you did what you had to do in your position," Lance said in a strong voice, looking at Leomon squarely in the eye, not even faltering in his gaze for a moment. Leomon scrutinized the Misfit geokinetic in front of him before…Leomon finally smiled (to Lance's surprise).

"Out of all the brats and idiots I had to deal with during this…you're the one I can probably tolerate the most."

Lance chuckled a bit before his face grew solemn again.

"It isn't over, is it? This whole Heartless thing and the Hellfire Club…things are gonna get worse, aren't they?" Lance asked, having a good inkling of what the answer would be. Leomon, however, just ignored the question and leaving the ambiguous unsaid as a response before he uttered the most heartfelt sentence he could bring himself to make.

"Take care…fellow lion-heart."

And with that, Leomon pounced and leapt up to the rooftop of the nearby skyscraper before he dashed and nimbly jumped amongst the buildings before he disappeared from view entirely. Lance, a bit taken aback but touched, made his way back to the X-Men, Titans, and Misfits. They all looked at him, questioning. Pietro, not surprisingly, then had to open his big mouth as he teased Lance.

"Wow, first Kitty, now Leomon. You really have a sick attraction for cats, don't you, Lancey-boy?" the Misfit sniped mercilessly.

"Shut up, Pietro!" snapped Starfire, Wanda, and Rogue as all three of them gave the albino Misfit a swat upside the head that pitched him forward, face-first, towards the sidewalk.

"What did Leomon say, Lance?" Justin piped up at Lance, curious. Lance gave a meaningful yet unreadable look, and Kitty was a bit surprised to see how peaceful his expression was, as if it was the accepting calm before the storm.

"Basically, this isn't over yet. We're still going to be in for a rough ride, Whitelighter," Lance sighed.

Beast Boy said a bit worriedly yet thoughtfully, "Dude, I get the feeling we're gonna be seeing Leomon again real soon."

Lance cast his sight upon the top of the buildings where the haunted yet dangerous lion warrior disappeared to before he murmured, "I wouldn't be at all surprised, Gar."

"Kids!" yelled a familiar voice, and everyone turned to see a joyous sight.

"Dad!" cried Lance gratefully, his face displaying extreme relief and joy along with the rest of the Misfits and X-Men as they saw Spirit, Cover Girl, Blind Master, Shipwreck, Roadblock, Low Light, Razor, Ororo, Wolverine, Beast, and Professor Xavier running hurriedly towards their students and children. They, like the rest of the world, had been freed from their doomed fate of stone and rock, and all of them were now liberated from Trigon's clutches into living beings of flesh and blood. And the teenagers couldn't be any happier. Even the Teen Titans and Titans East were laughing and crying along with the mutants; even though the Joes and the adults weren't their parents, they respected and cared for the grown-ups enough to certainly be overjoyed.

"We're so glad you guys are back!" sniffed Lina as she hugged Cover Girl while Jean knelt down and gave the Professor and her mentor a bone-crushing one, "We were so worried that we wouldn't be able to free you when we all fought against Trigon!"

"Trigon? Who's Trigon?" echoed Blind Master incredulously, lapsing on the real moniker behind "Scath".

"It's a long and groovy story," Forge moaned, still wincing at the thought but knowing that the arduous times were over and behind them, "Let's just leave it that we fought the big, bad demon in a far-out fight for the world and ended up making sure that everything turned out all right."

Low Light then noticed Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth standing quietly and trying to be discreet and separate among the rest of the heroes, and the G.I. Joe sniper narrowed his eyes in suspicion and defensive hostility as he uttered darkly, "Hey, I recognize two of you! You're all from the H.I.V.E. Academy, the same place that sided with Slade and the Hellions!"

The rest of the adults, upon hearing that statement, scrutinized the three teenage nemeses of the Teen Titans with a bit of wariness, but Althea, Raven and Robin stood their ground and dissuaded the adults.

"It's all right," Althea said strongly, "They're on our side…"

"And they've been through enough…the Hellfire Club betrayed their school…" Raven added sadly, and this caused a bit of some surprise (and sympathy). Gizmo just glared back belligerently, showing he wasn't the least bit intimidated by the presence of the adults. Jinx gave a meek wave. Mammoth just looked worn, defeated, and lost as he maintained a blank yet weary expression.

The adults then could discern that all their students and kids were wearing their battle uniforms, that they were covered with grime, muck, and some of them even with blood as they bore heavy bruises and a few torn places in their clothing, their haunted yet triumphant expressions as well as Raven's new look of a white cloak and longer hair, appearing wiser, older, and even a bit beautiful.

"Something tells me we missed out on a significant turn of events with you kids," Hank commented, though one could tell he was worried. Jake and Wolverine both raised an eyebrow, inwardly proud that the students managed to handle themselves without them. Meanwhile, the other kids groaned as the Titans, X-Men, and Misfits all rolled their eyes at the blue-furred Beast.

"You don't know the half of it," Jamie moaned good-naturedly and stifling the urge to guffaw.

Author's Notes: Check back next Friday for the final chapter of this saga, "This Just Keeps Getting More Complicated, Doesn't It?" What do I mean by this? You'll find out as the mystery about Leomon and the Gathering of Twilight deepens when we see the evil forces are building up. Trust me! This isn't the end but a beginning as I reveal the next crossover in the next chapter! You won't want to miss it! And yes, in the comics, Raven got a purified body when she was reincarnated in the comics, so I'm taking a leaf from that page! And to all those who are wondering, yes, you WILL see Leomon again real soon! As I mentioned, he has a VERY important role in the series and all will be made clear in the end! And speaking of lions, I thought you fans might like to see this screenshot I found recently (check out the top scan):

www (dot) kh2 (dot) co (dot) uk

Yep, it's official! "Kingdom Hearts 2" will have a Lion King world! Isn't Sora cute as a lion cub?

Until then, read, enjoy, and review! And once again, I'm sorry about the lateness of this chapter!