In Purgatory's Shadow

Chapter 7: The Face of Gaia

"Titans, GO!" Robin ordered into his communicator, signalling all of his teammates to spring out for the assault. Cyborg broke out through the door to the basement, where he moments ago shut off the water as per planned. Starfire and Raven burst their way through opposing windows up near the roof. And Beast boy charged through the front door as a bison with Robin following behind.

They all took their positions and stood with sonic cannons, birderangs, and whatnot primed and ready. All prepared to unleash havoc upon the villainy girl standing calmly by her twin in the centre of the arena. It seemed as if Isis was completely expecting them.

"Terra!" Beast Boy yelled once he had returned to human form, "Get away from her! We're here to help!"

The sad little Golem Girl didn't respond as her almost empty face stared remorsefully at the ground. "Believe me, there is nothing that you can do to help her!" Isis answered on her sister's behalf.

"You'd be amazed at what we can do!" Robin retorted, "There is no way any of us are going to let you get away with this!"

"Get away with what? Do you even know what this is all about? Have you even stopped to think about what I can do for her? Believe me, there is nothing that is going to go on here that isn't of my sister's own free will, isn't that right Terra?"

Terra hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.

"Terra, please," Beast Boy begged, "You know this isn't right. It's not too late. I promise that we will do everything we can to help you!"

"You just don't understand," Terra finally forced out, a response that set Beast Boy back.

"Shh," Isis calmed her as she ran a hand through her sister's hair, which didn't appear as hair at all. More like yellow magma, which was cool to the touch, "I'll make everything all better now… are you ready?" Terra responded with another nod as she turned to mirror her twin

"Titans, stop her!" Robin ordered, sending all of the heroes to advance on the twins. But it was too little, too late. Isis cupped her hands onto Terra's cheeks as she summoned forth the blue light into her eyes and willed them to collapse into white dots again. Terra looked straight into her twin's eyes and the yellow light shining throughout her own eyes began to flicker wildly, rippling inwards into concentrated white dots.

"I promise you… you will feel pain," Isis assured before the white light in their eyes stretched out in beams to connect with each other. A concentrated beam that expanded wildly upon formation into an orb of white light that completely engulfed the two sisters.

The orb of light radiated with such raw power that it's shockwave alone threatened the Titans. Raven yelled, "Look out," as she formed a dome of dark matter around her comrades to protect them from the onslaught of destructive energy and debris that was sent flying by the force of the light as it ripped the old hockey arena apart, bit-by-bit, like an inverted black hole.

The orb levitated under it's own force up into the middle of the enclosure. The Titans were powerless to stop it let alone comprehend it as to step outside the safety of Raven's dome would be like stepping out into a hurricane. All they could do was look on in horror as they could actually hear the sound of the young girls screaming within this ball of chaos… this, Gaia, as one would assume.

Finally, the ball let out one last huge shockwave, which came very close to obliterating Raven's force field. As it let all of it's energy burst out, Raven could see a figure flail out from the core of the explosion right through the windows to the manager's office. And she also saw a similar figure fall towards them. Out of the womb of Gaia that had once existed between the sisters, rebirthed like an infant, the teenage girl collapsed to the floor, no longer made of stone, but flesh and blood. Quickly realizing the situation, Raven allowed her dome of dark matter to dissipate, rushing forward and wrapping Terra's fragile body up in her cloak. "Naked we come into this world, and naked we will depart." Raven muttered to herself as she tied the fabric around Terra's form, trying to preserve the girl's modesty.

Raven floated back with the girl in her arms, carrying her to the safety of their group. She seemed small and vulnerable, gone was the formidable presence she had posed as a golem. Her skin was pale and fragile, but none could deny that Terra had been preserved in all of her beauty, save for a blemish on her forehead. Wrapped up in Raven's cloak, she was a mixture of blonde and pink and bluish-purple. She was barely conscious, and shivered in the damp air of the hockey rink. Robin offered his cape as well to give her a little more protection from the cold. All five Titans remained silent as they looked at the beautiful and wretched girl whom Raven held, she had known so much pain in her life, would it finally be over now? Somehow, Robin doubted it. Raven knew better than to put faith in false hopes.

"So… does that mean we won?" Beast Boy asked.

"I… think so. But what about Isis?" Cyborg added to the question.

"Perhaps the Isis was not as evil as we had assumed," Starfire tried to rationalize, "Maybe her methods were only… different. Friend Terra does seem to be back to her normal self. What do you think Robin?"

"I think that we should return to the base for now and get Terra to the infirmary. Or at least into some, ahem, actual clothes," Robin blushed slightly as a teenage boy would in such a situation, "Anyways, we can come back later to figure out exactly what happened."

They all motioned to head out the front doors but a giant sheet of ice, seemingly out of nowhere, struck down to block their escape. "I can't believe it!" a voice bellowed from the manager's office on the other side of the arena, "you were actually going to leave without at least checking up on me? Not even to thank me?"

They all turned around to see the source of the mockery. Isis herself stood in the broken window frame which she moments ago came crashing through, the window frame itself being grown over with frost upon her touch. Her eyes shone insanely with the blue light, which now glowed with such intensity it was like a blizzard dwelled just beyond her face. And, for the first time ever, the blue light silhouetted her hands, "Can't you just stay for a little bit? I want to try out my new toy!" she gave a hungry grin.

The Titans didn't have time to react as Isis leapt from her perch, encased herself in an icicle, which she summoned forth from the ice rink below, and drove herself right in the middle of the unprepared teenagers. The group divided off in five different directions to evade the lethal assault. Relentless, Isis exploded out from the icicle in an instant and sent the splintered shards out as a barrage of daggers in all possible directions, despite this, the Titans where able to deflect the attack with their various skills and powers.

"You were saying something about her not being evil?" Cyborg managed to rhetorically ask Starfire.

"Apparently I have been mistaken," Starfire answered briskly before she had to dodge and icy claw that threatened to crush her.

Isis laughed manically as she stood in one spot, waving her glowing hands around like she was orchestrating a chaotic play, "This is fantastic! I can't believe how spoiled Terra was! Ha ha ha, I could do this all night!"

She glanced over to see Cyborg yell out as he tried to unleash a sonic blast upon her. She brought a hand forth to cause three panels of ice from the floor to swing up and clamped onto him, crushing his mechanical body with methodical force. His metallic armour actually began to buckle and sparks flew under the progressive pressure. Beast Boy promptly swooped in as a falcon then transformed into a crocodile to gnaw away at the base of the frosty death vice. With his specialized animalistic force, he managed to break away one of the panels to the trap and Cyborg was allowed to free his right arm, which he used the attached sonic cannon to disentangle himself from the remaining pieces of what would surely have been his tomb.

Allowing Cyborg to collapse to the ground in pain for a moment, Isis quickly swatted Beast Boy harshly away towards the bleachers with a large fist composed of ice. The fist then backhanded Cyborg into the other direction before it was blown to pieces by a powerful green bolt of energy. Isis turned slightly to see Starfire flying bravely towards her with eyes glowing with an intense hatred. The alien girl cursed something in her native tongue as she let loose a rapid assault from her eye beams, an assault of which Isis effortlessly deflected by summoning a thick wall of ice to take the impact. The broken chunks from the ice wall were all too eager fly up and attack the Tameranian girl. Starfire dodged as much as she could but, overwhelmed, was struck in the shoulder and the forehead then fell to the ground to rub her bruises.

"You guy's are total pushovers!" Isis laughed as she tore a pair of 30-foot long blades from the rink floor and began to twirl them around with effortless glee. The arena would surely have become a giant blender if the force of Dark Matter did not take down her icy blades. Raven approached Isis with one hand up front, enveloped in dark mater, and her other arm occupied with the weight of the unconscious girl. Isis was about to promptly respond with a handful of icicles but she held back her volley when she realized that Terra would be caught in the fray.

"You can't attack because you don't want to hurt your sister, right?" Raven pointed out, hoping to catch Isis on a moral weakness.

"You know, I would call you a coward for using a sleeping girl as a shield, but really, I just thought that I would try something new."

Isis glared at Raven, letting the blue light in her eyes intensify. Raven saw no immediate affect so she decided to press an attack before something did happen, "Azarath Metrion Zin- (cough) Azarath Metri- (cough, cough) Az (cough, cough, gasp, cough, gasp)" She clasped her hand to her collar as the air entering her lungs came in so dry, and so blistering cold that it stung the back of her throat and chilled her to the core.

She lowered herself to the ground beside Robin out of shortness of breath. "Are you alright?" Robin asked as she shouldered some of Terra's weight for her.

"None of us are," Raven pointed out in a forced voice, "We're getting beaten around here and she's having the time of her life."

"Agreed, we're no match for her with all of this ice at her fingertips! Get everyone out of here, I'll keep her distracted!"

"But what about y-"

"Just do it!" He ordered as he rushed off.

Raven fulfilled her task by rounding up all of her battered and bruised comrades in dark matter and filing them out of the building through the windows near the roof as the front door was still blocked by ice. "Where do you think you're going?" Isis barked, "I'm not finished playing with you!"

"Playtime's over!" came Robin's battle cry as he dove at Isis in her distracted moment with his staff in hand. Barely surprised, Isis met his assault by raising a wall of ice between them. Robin struck his staff firmly in the wall and vaulted over it. Isis watched him arch over the wall onto her opposing side. She prepared for hand-to-hand combat by forming two long icy blades onto her hands. Robin swung his staff downwards as he descended which Isis parried with her frosty blades. Robin rebounded and struck again, and again, forcing her into her own ice wall. No words were exchanged as Isis heard an alarming beeping sound right behind her. She quickly discovered that the sly martial artist planted a small bomb onto the wall before he vaulted over. Disgusted at this trickery, she swung the wall around to stand between them again, allowing Robin to see his own bomb at close ranged.

Not having much time to think as the beeping had peaked in its rhythm, Robin planted his foot into the wall and rebounded back as quickly as he could. To his shock, the wall followed after him, he back flipped to try and gain some distance before the bomb fulfilled its purpose. Running out of space to move and time to react, Robin covered his face and braced for impact.

The immediate explosion shook the surroundings and sent up a thick cloud of smoke that obscured Isis's vision. Hacking the smoke out of her lungs and waving the cloud from her face, she waited until things cleared to observe the damage. To her surprise, she inadvertently blasted the front doors wide open, and neither whole nor piece of Robin or any of the Titans lay in the debris.

Instead of cursing or getting upset, Isis simply grinned as she knew that they had retreated back to their precious tower to lick their wounds and await in fear of her next assault. She let out an exalted breath and blinked once to allow the light to fade from her eyes. "Alight, playtime is over… for now," She then fixed the collar on her jacket and trotted down the steps onto the sidewalk, leaving the frail remains of her short-lived base behind. She had more entertaining things on her agenda at the moment. Such as getting in contact with a man of eccentric nature whom she heard promising things about named Professor Chang.

Author's Notes:
I told you I'd make up for the lack of action scenes in the last chapter. And as such I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Even though at some points I was wondering if I was overusing the word 'ice'. Is it just me, or am I making Isis eviler with every chapter? Kind of makes you wonder what her motive truly is. I assure you, it's not just for the sake of being evil (I've always hated villains like that, and the Brotherhood of Evil is a prime example). I must say that I really like how the transfer of the Gaia scene went. I pondered for a while on how it would play out as well as the appearance of the Gaia as it swapped bodies. Finally settling on an unstoppable force akin to an inverted black hole. Well, that's it for now. Until next time.