Disclaimer: I don't own… Ah, forget it!
------------------------------------------------
The Oil rig, a hundred and forty-three miles off-shore.
The sun was nowhere to bee seen as dark storm clouds completely carpeted the sky above. The sky was so dark that everything seemed too gray for anyone too see. In the distance, thunder cracks sound off and lightning bolts illuminate small cracks in the atmosphere every few moments.
A perfect scenery for what has transcended that day.
On the collapse portion of the Oil rig, the Titans, the siblings, and the infamous Dr. Volkov stood in their places, at a loss for words. And who wouldn't be considering what they were gawking at.
Floating a few feet in front and above of the entire company, was her, Maria. Her insect-like humanoid figure gently lowering itself down onto the solid platform of the rig. All the while not loosing the attention of her onlookers. Volkov had a grin on his face that nearly stretched to both his ears. The Titans had mixed expressions of terror and anxiety on their faces, expecting things to go very nasty from this point on. The two siblings however shared a sort of awe in their expressions.
Both Riya and Sakura stared at her, not knowing what to think anymore. All their struggles and conquest has finally bared fruit at last. But what have they produced exactly? They thought they knew all this time. But now, they were absolutely lost. And they knew it. They couldn't smile, frown, or show fear, they're just lost. The great figure of Maria before them was both familiar and strange to them at the same time. Though they can recognize her, they also had a strange sense unfamiliarity with her.
"Do you see her, you fools!" cried out Dr. Volkov.
All the teens took their sights away from Maria for a moment to see the Doctor. At that point as well, the giant figure that was Maria finally settled down on solid ground and simply stood there looking down curiously on her strange audience.
"She is alive!" cried out Dr. Volkov, "Witness that which I have brought upon this world! The ultimate power is mine!"
Maria simply stared at the curios scene, paying close attention to the old man as he spoke.
"Now that I have her power in my grasp, I will remake this world as it should be. A world where humankind once again will bow down to the natural process. Nothing can stop me now! Especially not you, Titans."
"You're insane!" retorted Robin while drawing a fan of birdarangs from his utility belt, "You really think you can actually hold all that power? You'll crush yourself in a blink!"
"And do you think you have what it takes to control this power, Mr. Robin of the Titans? You, who understand nothing of power, can never hold responsibility over this world!"
"You're just another power hungry madman, like all the rest we've aced in the past!" said Raven while readying herself for action, "Power mongers who care of nothing else but themselves!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Beast Boy while putting up his fist, "All you want is to be king of the world! I bet you couldn't care less for the rest of us!"
"You fools!" retorted Dr. Volkov, "I deserve this power! I brought her back and gave her form, why should I not be able to wield her power for that!"
"Because you are only willing to use such power for destruction!" answered Starfire while preparing starbolts in each hand, "We cannot allow such irresponsible use of power!"
"That's right, dawg!" said Cyborg while aiming his sonic cannon, "Freaky monster, or no freaky monster, you're goin' down!
"You are just a bunch of foolish children!" retorted Volkov, "You'll never be able to understand that this is my destiny! I was the only one who knew how to bring her back and therefore I am the only one destined to inherit her power. No other can even come close to what I have achieved this day! No-one can stop me now not even you. You are nothing but insects, you hear me? You are insignificant and not worth a single---!"
"Mother!"
Dr. Volkov's incoherent rant was interrupted by a sudden call. Volkov, the Titans, and even Riya, turn to the source of the call. It was Sakura, calling out to the hideous form of Maria. She was smiling like a ten-year-old kid on Christmas Eve.
"Mother!" Sakura continues to call, "It's me!"
Maria simply stayed stark still, looking down curiously at the girl who was calling out to her. The white mask that served as her face could not bare emotion.
"Don't you recognize me?" continued Sakura, "Please… we're family aren't we?"
Maria continues to simply stare.
"Mother…?"
There was an uncomfortably long moment of silence where nothing was said by anyone there. Volkov and the Titans look curiously while Sakura kept her smile, however Riya was getting uneasy. In truth, he too would make a call out to his mother as well just as his sister did but was beaten to the punch by her. She was their mother, he knew that. He's had dreams like this before, and he should be happy for it. He actually was happy to a degree, but something was telling him then that there was something horribly wrong in the picture. Every instinct inside of him was telling him to get away from there.
Sakura was gleeful as ever. She continued to look up at her so called 'mother' with a childish smile. All that work has finally paid off. The mother she saw in her dreams has finally manifested herself in real life. Still, she also felt uneasiness somewhere inside her. But she chose to hide that little bit of insecurity deep inside her in favor of the glee she was showing at that moment.
Maria simply stared at her offering no response at all.
The silence continued for quite some time until something happened that no-one could have expected. The empty eyeholes on Maria's face began to glow a bit brighter. She raised her arm and held her palm out towards Sakura's position. Sakura's simile began to fade. Riya was getting more anxious now.
Suddenly, bluish stands of energy began to gather in Maria's palm. The energy formed into a small blue sphere of light which steadily began to grow larger as more energy was gathered. Sakura's smile completely disappeared and her glee was gradually replaced by fear. An expression she shared with her brother at that moment who was looking onward. Riya was now sure that something was definitely wrong and he did the one thing that he knew was right.
"Sakura!" He called out as he rushed forward.
The sphere of energy in Maria's hand reached its peak size and shot out like a cannon towards Sakura. Sakura couldn't do anything at that moment to stand still in shock. Fortunately enough, Riya had reached her by then, grabbed her still body, and pulled her out of the way and preventing her from being incinerated. The energy sphere struck the ground inches from the siblings. Riya and Sakura blown away a distance by the massive explosion that rocked the entire rig.
The Titans fought to keep their balance. Dr. Volkov fell forward on his face. Riya and Sakura landed on a lower level platform of the rig on what appears to be a helipad.
"Argh!" "Uugh!"
The shockwave subsided after a moment or two. Everyone got their bearings once again and quickly recovered They all looked up at Maria who seemed relaxed among other things.
"What in the name of…!" cried out Dr. Volkov, "I did not tell you to attack! Why did you--!
"WHO ARE YOU?"
An eerie voice emanated from the still standing figure of Maria. A voice that sounded beautiful and horrible at the same time. Like the voice of the best singer taken and dipped in a pool of boiling liquid mercury, to be abstract. It sent chills down the spines of those who heard it.
"Wha…what do you…what are you saying?"
"WHO ARE YOU TO THINK YOU RULE ME?"
"Wh—what, I…I am your creator."
"CREATOR, YOU SAY?"
"I am the one who made you who you are now! I gave you your powers so you must follow as I say! Do you understand me! You'll do only as I say and when I say it!"
"YOU ARE MASTER OF NOTHING. YOU WHO ARE WEAK AND POWERLESS."
"…!"
"I AM TRUE POWER, ULTIMATE IN ALL. WHY SHALL I SUBMIT TO ANYONE LESS THEN MY FORM?"
"But…I am your master!"
"YOU ARE A CORPSE."
And with that, Maria floats upward some twenty feet off the ground, her inset wings glowing, and raises both arms above her head. Where her palms were, she gathered energy into a concentrated sphere as before. Dr. Volkov's eyes grew wide with a lot of fear which paralyzed him on the spot. Behind him the Titans, who were simply watching everything unfold before them, decided to take evasive action.
"Titans, move!" ordered Robin.
The Titans ran/flew in different directions to avoid being directly behind Volkov. At that same moment, Maria unleashed her energy sphere towards Dr. Volkov's direction. The doctor wanted to scream but even before he could let out a breath, the energy sphere reached him. He was completely vaporized in less than a second. A huge explosion followed afterwards.
The explosion subsided. Maria stared down at the site of where the late Dr. Volkov once stood. There was nothing left of the Doctor.
"TO END IS AN INNEVITABILITY IN ALL THINGS," she said, "ONLY POWER IS FOREVER AND SO ONLY POWER CAN TRULY RULE THIS WORLD. ALL THAT WHICH IS DESTINED TO END SHALL END IN MY WRATH."
"No way, lady!"
Maria turned to see the source of the sudden voice. She saw that it was Robin standing ready with his bo staff extended.
"If you think that we are gonna simply stand by while you wreck everything in this world," said Robin, "think again!"
As Robin finishes, the rest of the team gathered behind him and took ready fighting poses. Taking their usual positions, the threateningly stare up at Maria' great figure floating above them.
"YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT ME."
"We've heard that before," said Cyborg, "and it usually never turns out that way."
"Titan's go!" commanded Robin.
Immediately, the team dispersed into multiple directions. Maria couldn't keep track of all of them as they scrambled so she couldn't attack right away leaving her wide open. This opportunity was not missed.
Starfire flew up to Maria's eye level with hands fully charged with raw tamaranian energy. Starfire's eyes glowed a bright green as she began pelting Maria with a shower of starbolts. Almost all of the starbolts made a direct hit causing Maria to convulse in a number of ways.
At the end of Starfire's barrage, Maria recovered surprisingly fast. Maria came to counter Starfire's attack by charging an energy sphere on one hand and throwing it in Starfire's direction. Starfire gasped and quickly flew out of the way as the energy sphere came at her like a missile. She managed to clear it and the energy sphere eventually fell into the ocean.
Maria prepared another energy sphere on her other hand. Starfire noticed and began to fly upwards. Maria let loose the energy sphere again in Starfire's direction. At the rate it was going the sphere would intercept Starfire should she continue to fly up. So she quickly changed direction and dived back down avoiding the energy sphere. But as she dived, Maria caught her off-guard and grabbed her body with a giant hand.
Starfire Struggled as soon as she realized she was bound by giant fingers. Maria was staring into Starfire's figure emotionlessly through her empty eyeholes. Starfire was getting nervous, but as luck would have it she had a comrade's aide just in time.
A beam of blue sonic energy hit Maria on the arm that held Starfire. The shock of the blast caused Maria to convulse in pain as well as to loosen her grim on Starfire. Starfire slipped off Maria's grasp and made a clean getaway. Below, Cyborg was still aiming his sonic cannon. Maria immediately paid him attention. Cyborg immediately let loose another sonic blast directly into Maria's face. The impact caused Maria to tilt her head back and scream in apparent pain. She was again defenseless.
Beast Boy took that opportunity for himself quickly enough. He had transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and charged Maria's low hovering figure. With his massive jaw, the green T-rex clamed onto the Maria's leg and yanked her down with a great amount of force. Maria fell flat on her back kicking up a huge dust cloud.
Beast Boy stomped around looking for the fallen form of Maria. Instead, he got a sphere of energy shoot directly at his face. The impact caused Beast Boy to spontaneously return to his elfin form and fly back a couple dozen feet into the air. He flailed his arms to try and reorient himself.
"Whoa—whoa—whoa!"
Fortunately for him, Raven showed up and caught the flailing animorph with a black sphere of telekinetic energy in midair. Beast boy clutched his nose, which was smoking comically.
"Dude, why can't people just quite hitting me on the nose!" he complained out loud.
Maria recovered and stood back up on her feet amidst the ruble. She immediately gathered energy in one hand to form into a sphere. She through it at Raven and Beast Boy's direction. Beast Boy gasped as Raven took her free hand and formed a black energy shield to block the attack. The sphere of energy made impact but did not break Raven's defense.
Maria saw this and gave it another try this time throwing three spheres in rapid succession. Raven did her best to hold her ground. The three projectiles hit Raven's shield dead center, much to Raven's discomfort. The impacts were severe enough to make Raven loose the shield entirely, leaving her defenseless. Maria took this opportunity to let out one last energy sphere towards the sorceress.
Thinking fast, Beast Boy, now free of Ravens magic, transformed into a Pterodactyl, grabbed Raven by her shoulders and fly away just in time to avoid the sphere of energy.
Maria's sight followed the fleeing animorph and started to prepare another shot. She couldn't continue since an exploding birdarang found its target at her hand. The birdarang's explosion cancelled out Maria's attack. Below her, Robin held out more birdarangs and immediately threw them at Maria. Maria instinctively covered her face with one arm to block the incoming projectiles. The birdarangs exploded, shooting up some dust.
"Starfire!" Robin called out with an outstretched hand.
Starfire heard and came swooping down, with her own arm out stretched. She grabbed Robin's arm and carried him up with her. They both zoomed towards Maria's figure at full speed. Maria let down her blocking arm so that she could see again. She saw the two teens heading directly for her.
"Star, now!" exclaimed Robin.
Starfire knew what the plan was. In the middle of their daring flight, Starfire tossed the boy wonder towards Maria's prone figure. Robin instantly oriented himself so that he came at Maria's face feet first. The impact was hard as Robin's metal laced boot met Maria's masked face. Her head was jolted back and she yelped in pain.
Starfire followed up by flying head-on and striking the disoriented Maria in the chest with a powered-up fist. The impact made Maria convulse in more pain. Down below, Cyborg gave the last strike by with his sonic cannon, letting off an extra powerful blast of concentrated sonic energy.
The final attack from Cyborg caused Maria to fall on her back once again. She kicked up a major dust cloud in the process. In the wake of that triple attack strategy, the Titans gathered once again.
"Boo-ya!" exclaimed Cyborg.
"Did that do it?" asked Beast Boy.
A long moment of silence follows as the dust settles again. All five Titans stare eagerly at the site. Then, a rumbling on the platform.
"Somehow, I do not believe so…" said Starfire.
Suddenly, Maria's figure pops back up in a flash. Her empty eyeholes glowed even brighter, as did her spread insect wings. The Titans grew more nervous.
"FEEBLE MORTALS," said Maria, "YOU CAN NEVER MATCH ABSOLUTE POWER."
Maria raised her hands once again and prepared a huge sphere of energy. She releases it in the Titan's direction. The Titan's eyes grew wide. Naturally they didn't stick around too long.
"Scramble!" exclaimed Robin.
The whole team split in opposite directions to evade the massive sphere of energy as in made impact on the platform and exploded in a brilliant flash of light.
------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, on the helipad.
Riya was on his knees comforting Sakura on the floor lying down as she slowly recovered from the attack that was made towards them earlier. Sakura was in more or less a state of shock after what happened. She was still unconscious for the most part. Riya did
"Sakura?"
She didn't respond.
"…Sakura?"
Again she was unresponsive. Riya knew she was physically fine. She was breathing and had a pulse but both were relatively shallow.
"…Sakura!"
Instantly, the girls eyes shot open and she sprang up to a sitting position, panting hard. Riya immediately held on to her to stabilize her.
"Sis, are you okay?" inquired Riya.
She slowed her panting to a heavy breathing. She clamped her eyes shut and brought a hand to her head to try a comfort a migraine.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" asked Riya again.
"I…I'm fine…" Sakura weakly answered.
Riya breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing on this day has gone as planned and everything seemed to only go downhill. He was thankful of that one bit of good news he's heard today. But now he was just as lost as ever, having no idea what to do next.
"Mother…" said Sakura, drawing Riya's attention.
"Huh?"
"How could she…? Why did she do…why?"
"…sis…"
"Why did she do that? Couldn't she recognize us? Aren't we her---?
"Sis, I don't think it's that simply anymore."
Sakura met Riya's gaze. She recognized the sense of confusion on his face which she shared with him. Her brother has done a great job to keep this cool of his for a while. Sakura could only wish she had his same coolness, she needed more than him.
Sakura then saw past Riya and looked behind him. What she saw filled her face with fright. Her eyes grew wide and her pupils shrank into dots. Riya noticed and looked behind his back to see. Maria's giant figure hovered over them, staring, observing. Unlike his sister, Riya's face filled up with apprehension at the sight of her.
"YOU CALL ME MOTHER…" said Maria, "WHY?"
"Why did you attack us?" inquired Riya, "We're your children!"
"CHILDREN…?"
Riya got up from his position as Sakura remained seated on the floor. He looked at their mother in her empty eyes.
"You are our cause for existence. We were made using your blood. Our strength, our skill, everything we are comes from you. Your blood is our blood. How could you hurt us like that? Don't you care who we are?"
"EMOTION IS IRELIVANT TO ME. AS IS THE EMOTION OF THOSE BELOW ME. WHY SHOULD I FEEL SENTIMENT TOWRDS YOU?"
"No. No! this isn't right. You are our mother! You gave us our lives! Everything we have done was for you to rise again. We are supposed to be a family! You supposed to be our guiding light, the one who would give us our purpose!"
"YOUR ONLY PORPUSE, AS THOSE WHO POSSES LIFE,…"
Maria raised her hand to gather energy. In her hand formed a large sphere of energy. She raised her hand in a ready throwing position.
"…IS TO END."
Riya and Sakura got very nervous at that point and started to back away. But they were trapped with nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. They knew they were as good as dead at that point and they were horrified at the prospect of knowing who would do the killing.
But just as Maria was about to release the massive sphere of energy.
"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos!"
Maria looked to her side. Raven was telekinetically lifting a five hundred gallon water tank which she hurled towards Maria like a missile. Maria couldn't react in time as the impact caused to loose here aim and she accidentally hurled the energy sphere away from the two siblings.
Maria grabbed the water tank and hurled it away into sea. Maria ignored the siblings all-together and concentrated on Raven. Raven was lifting an assortment of heavy pieces of ruble and throwing them in Maria's direction. Maria simply batted them away with her arms. Raven eventually stopped her barrage and simply hovered there.
Maria prepared to attack her but out of nowhere, Starfire launched a huge starbolt at Maria. Maria convulsed in pain from the impact of the starbolt. This again left her vulnerable. Above her, a green albatross positioned himself directly above her figure. The green albatross spontaneously transformed into a stegosaurus in midair and came down on Maria, spinning like a yoyo. The green stegosaurus hit Maria on the shoulder with its horned tail.
The impact of which caused Maria to fall back down onto the platform. She crashed feet first and went down on her knees for support. Meanwhile, the green stegosaurus transformed back into an albatross, glided down onto the platform, and landed in the elfin form of Beast Boy. Raven and Starfire formed up behind the animorph. Beast Boy looked back and gave a thumbs-up to the girls and they smile in return.
A rumbling occurred and the three looked back at the scene of Maria's crash. Maria rose once again to a stand. She starched a hand and started to gather energy. The three Titans took caution by preparing to evade.
A whirling sound was heard from the air. A small blue disk flew through the air and hit Maria's energized arm. Maria looked at the arm having noticed she lost feeling in it. She saw that her hand was completely frozen in ice. She looked back down to see Robin standing in a follow through position. She raised her other hand to gather energy.
Robin beat her to the punch by taking another freeze disk from his belt and throwing it quickly at her other hand. The disk flew too fast for Maria to have it miss her. Upon impact, the disk completely encased Maria's hand in solid ice.
Maria looked at her hand then back at Robin. Robin had already prepared a fan of freeze disks and hurled them straight into Maria's body. Every single disk met its target all over Maria's torso area. In the end, Maria's entire body was completely frozen disabling her from moving.
Below Robin looked up satisfyingly at his work. Cyborg ran up next to Robin then and there.
"Cyborg." Called out Robin.
Cyborg looked at the boy wonder.
"I think it's time to finish this," said Robin, pulling out a black and gold disk from his utility belt and holding it out for Cyborg to see, "You got the sonic?"
Cyborg looked, then he grinned. He held out his arm and transformed it into his sonic cannon.
"As long as you got the boom," Cyborg responded.
Both Titans nodded to each other in affirmation. Robin began the charge and Cyborg closely followed. Ahead, Maria was still struggling to break free from the ice. Then came the Time for Robin and Cyborg's Sonic Boom attack. Robin threw the disk towards Maria's frozen figure. Cyborg quickly followed up with an extra powerful sonic blast aimed at the disk. The blue beam came into contact with the disk and the disk shot like a missile towards Maria. The combined power of the explosive disk and the sonic beam created a brilliant explosion which completely engulfed Maria's figure.
Te explosion subsided and left a whole lot of smoke. No one could see anything for quite some time. But the Titans didn't seem to feel the need to see anything anyway. They are pretty convinced they had succeeded. They have all gathered together once again.
"Boo-yah!" exclaimed Cyborg, "Now that's what I call an explosion."
"Dudes, you totally barbequed her butt!" said Beast Boy.
"Yes, congratulations dear friends," said Starfire, applauding, "you have done well!"
"So are we done here or what?" asked Raven.
"Kinda," said Robin, "We need to stay a bit longer to secure the scene. Also, I guess we have to take in those two. And gather as much evidence of what happened here. After that we can just leave everything else to the coast guards here and as soon as we---"
CRASH!
The Titans looked behind them at the source of the noise. On the spot were Maria has fallen, ruble to fall out of the dust cloud. Inside the dust cloud, something was moving. The Titans went wide eyed. To the side, Riya and Sakura have gotten up and walked so that they could see the scene as well.
"FOOLISH MORTALS," said something from within the cloud, "YOU CAN NOT DESTROY…WHAT IS ABSOLUTE POWER."
The cloud of dust and smoke subsided, Maria's figure emerged. It was a terrifying sight. Her outer shell was cracked in several places and she was bleeding out some kind of white glowing fluid. Her mask of a face was severely cracked and barely holding itself together. Her wings were severely bent out of shape. Yet she stood tall, and did not show any sign of pain.
The Titans stared nervously. Riya and Sakura shared the same expression. They all continue to stare as Maria began to float upwards once again.
"YOU SHALL SEE IT IS MEANINGLESS TO FIGHT."
She crossed her arms to seemingly hug herself. She began to shiver and pulsate in unimaginable ways. The cracks in her shell radiated a bright white glow. The sky above her seemed to grow darker that it should. Below, all seven teens watch haplessly.
Suddenly she shot her arms sideways in a gut wrenching scream. The Titans, along with the siblings, clasped their ears and tucked their heads down. Maria continued to scream until her entire figure glowed a brilliant white. Then she simply exploded in a blinding flash of white.
For a brief moment in time the entire atmosphere around the Oil rig. Everything was blinded. It lasted only a few moments however. Soon everything returned to their proper light. The seven teens released their hands from their ears and slowly got back up again. They looked around to find nothing. Then suddenly, a giant white mask fell from the sky and shattered on the ground.
They looked at the mask as it fell and shattered then they looked up. They found something horrible. The Titans stared with wide eyes and gaping mouths. Similarly the siblings had an expression of fright written all over their faces.
They were all seeing a new Maria.
Her body now had a glassy silver color, pulsating with a brilliant white aura. Her wings resembled that of moth wings, large and also a glowing silver color. Her head, full of long silver wires of hair, bared a featureless face with nothing to it but two large composite insect-like eyes that were a dark blue color on the left and a dark green color on the right. The most noticeable feature of this new body was bright golden colored crystalline growth on her chest just below the neck line.
The seven teens below her were at a loss of words. They simply continue to stare in a mix of awe and fear.
"I AM POWER. I AM ABSOLUTE. MY REIGN OF DESTRUCTION SHALL CONSUME ALL!"
With that she raised her hand. Around her body formed four perfect spheres of white energy. The spheres orbited around her until she dropped her arm towards the platform bellow her. The spheres stopped their orbit and came soaring down.
Thinking fast, Raven immediately made a shield around her team like before. Riya pulled down Sakura low to the floor and covered her with his body for protection.
All four spheres made an impact on separate locations but none of the teens were hit, surprisingly. In fact none even came close. The four spheres penetrated into the inner structure of the Oil rig that was still intact and blew up from within. On the surface, the explosions made it hard for anyone to keep their footing as the attack started a deadly chain reaction.
Somewhere inside, the power generators were now blowing up causing massive internal damage. The entire structure started to collapse on itself and it took the Titans, Riya and Sakura with it. Eventually it happened.
The supporting structures failed and the entire rig fell into the sea. A huge piece of ruble, broken from the main structure, made huge splashes in the water. Each splash made a huge fountain of white water. The biggest piece of the structure created such a huge splash, it caused a five hundred foot tower of water to rise and fall. Eventually everything started to sink into the ocean.
------------------------------------------------
After the chaos.
Maria simply hovered in place. She was staring down at where the old Oil rig was once standing. Virtually nothing was left of the structure. In the water pieces of debris floated on the surface creating a mess among the waves. Maria searched for signs of life but found none to speak of.
Seemingly satisfied, she stares into the distance, to the east. A hundred and forty-three miles away. She could feel something. She knew what it was. She knew it all to well, her destiny to destroy what are those that posses life. And there were plenty of those beyond the distance. She could feel their presence from that range. It was a sweet nectar that was enticing to her.
She knew what she had to do, what she wanted to do.
Her wing glowed a bright white. From a standstill, she began to fly away into the distance picking up speed as she went, leaving the ruined Oil rig behind in her wake.
------------------------------------------------
A few moments pass, back at the ruins of the Oil rig.
SPLASH!
Robin's head breaks the surface of the water. He immediately is gasping for deep breaths. Soon thereafter, the rest of the Titans broke the surface, gasping for air.
"Okay, what happened!" inquired a relatively shocked Beast Boy.
"She became a lot more powerful," said Raven, "I don't even know how that's possible."
"Where has she gone to?" inquired Starfire.
Robin was the one to look around to the east. He could barely make out a glowing white figure heading off into the distance.
"Dammit!" Robin exclaimed.
"Yo! What is it, dawg?" inquired Cyborg.
"Maria. She's headed for the coast."
Starfire gasped. "Oh no, the city, the people!"
"I know! Cyborg, summon the T-sub."
"On it, dawg." Cyborg pressed a button on the small pad located in his arm's built in computer. Moments later. The T-sub broke the surface. Luckily for the Titans, the T-sub was not damage at all during the crash of the rig and was still in top shape. It hovered low over the water for the Titans to board. Once onboard they all take their respective cockpits bubbles and strap themselves in.
"Okay everything seems fine," said Robin over the radio, "all systems are in the green, let's get ready to---"
"Robin, hold on!" interrupted Starfire's voice, "What about our fallen foes, Arsenic and Lithium?"
Robin was silent for a moment.
"…Raven?" called out Robin over the radio.
"…I'm sorry, Robin, Starfire," came Raven's voice, "I don't sense them anymore…"
"Then… we can only assume the worst."
"…"
the ship was silence for a moment.
"But we can't linger on that right now," said Robin, " we have a city to save."
He pushed on the throttle sending the ship forward. And they were on their way. On their way to their precious city to have what would probably be one of their biggest battles of their entire career.
------------------------------------------------
Back at the ruins.
SPLASH!
Riya and Sakura broke the surface of the water simultaneously, both gasping for air. They looked at each other to inspect whether the other had been injured. They both seemed fine. Riya looked around some more. He spotted the powerboat they used this morning in the distance. It had amazingly stayed intact throughout the chaos He pointed to it to direct Sakura's line of sight.
Together, they both swam for the powerboat. They reached it and climbed onboard. They sat down in their seats, breathing heavily. They were practically worn out and were only catching their breaths. Riya stared off into the distance and spotted two light sources that were getting further away.
He thought about it for a moment. He started the engine of the boat. Sakura noticed this and looked at Riya curiously.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"The Titans are heading back towards the coast, probably going after her. I wanna follow them."
"Why?"
"I…don't know anymore…"
"…"
They were both silent fore a few short moments. Riya then held the steering wheel and stepped on the throttle hard. The boat zoomed towards the east. As he drove, Riya checked his instruments. They still had half a tank full of gas. Just enough to reach the mainland with.
Neither one of them knew why they were heading towards the mainland and after her. They didn't know much of anything anymore. Everything they had worked for, struggled for has been utterly shattered in front of their faces. Now they were as lost as they have ever been.
But they will not give up just yet. They still want their purpose. And they know that one way or another, it will come from her.
------------------------------------------------
Author's note: The end is near, at least for this fic. Here is my second to the last entry. Of coarse I only say that because the next update will be the conclusion of the story. I may add something of an epilogue afterwards or along with the final chapter. I expect the next update to take a while because I want to make it really big. Wait for it!
As usual. Please READ & REVIEW!