The Mask of No-Al
Part One
The wind was perfect. It fluttered over his nose gently, tickling the skin of his face as the warm gust danced through the leaves of the trees. Richard scrunched his nose a bit to fight off a sneeze; his eyes remained close, but when he felt fingers tapping his nose gently, he knew exactly who it was.
It was the woman who held his heart, it was the woman who made him happier than he had believed possible, it was the woman whose lap his head rested in. Richard felt her fingers ghost over his nose, around his cheek, dusting over the shell of his left ear before deciding to play over the wide width of his forehead. Richard sighed contently as Raven's fingers became lost in his long hair.
It was a breathtakingly beautiful day. Raven sat with her back against a giant oak tree, her long purple tress was braided with the twisted lock of hair falling over her shoulder. Richard could feel her humming, the beat matched perfectly with the dance of her fingers on his body. The warmth of their bodies spread and wrapped around Richard. He swore there was nothing that could make him leave that spot.
Something round and cool bumped against the arch of his bare foot. Richard scrunched his face and Raven giggled gently, turning her head in the direction it had come from. He didn't have to open his eyes to know there was a smile on her face. Richard felt the patter of feet through the ground even though they were very far away when they stopped to yell his name.
"Get the ball, Daddy!" Her little voice carried over the wind. Her bare feet had stopped feet away when the wind picked up and threatened to take her straw woven hat. As it was her jet black hair and bright yellow dress were waving in the gentle breeze. Richard loved the sound of Choris' voice.
"Daddy, the ball!" Another seven year old girl shouted. Richard felt Raven's fingertips dance along his forehead. Akane's purple hair was pulled up in chignons and decorated with butterfly clips, keeping everything but her bangs from flapping with her voice in the wind. The purple eyed little girl stood side by side with her sister, jumping up and down excitedly, waiting for Richard to respond.
Richard kept his eyes closed and took in every inch of the sounds around him. Raven tapped his nose gently with her index finger. "You better do what they say, they out number you." She giggled gently. Richard smiled and opened his eyes, looking up at his beautiful wife. On top of her head was a crooked laurel that the girls had made before running off to play with their ball. Her eyes were a bit tired, but very happy, her face held that expression that was hard to explain in any other words but content. But Richard knew in the depth of his soul that she felt much more than content. He sat up gently, careful with how his body met hers and gathered the blue rubber ball at his feet. He stood, his jeans and oxford shirt rustling against the wind and his skin as he moved the distance to his daughters.
He squatted down between the two girls and presented the ball in one hand. Akane had to take it using both her smaller hands. "Thank you, Daddy!" Both girls chirped.
"Your welcome, little loves. Be careful with your new clothes okay?"
"I won't get my new dress dirty, Daddy. I promise." The dark-tressed Choris promised.
"Daddy, when we leave the picnic, can we get ice cream?" Akane asked, blinking her huge amethyst eyes.
"Of course we can, sweetheart. We just need to let Mommy rest a while okay?"
Both girls nodded and turned back to playing with their ball. Richard watched his little girls, their laughter the sweetest sounds he knew. His bare feet dragged along the grass. From his right he could see his dancing angels, his Akane and his Choris, and from his left he could see his resting angel, his Raven, with her eyes closed.
She was always so tired, but so very happy, when she was pregnant.
Richard laid down, turning his head in her lap so the warmth of her full belly rested against his cheek. He felt her hand gently take his and move it on top of her tummy. His son was kicking again. Richard smiled, the movement of his muscles tickled Raven's maternity clad body. He felt her sigh and he sighed too, his fingers moving under hers to touch that part in her belly where their son's energy was strongest.
Hurry up and get here kid. Richard thought. The wind pushed against his body softly, carrying the sounds of Akane and Choris and Raven's breathing to his ears. Richard closed his eyes to rest gently with his wife. Come on, kid… there's so many beautiful things waiting for you…
Nightwing woke up suddenly, but his mind lacked any confusion on time and location. It was nearing nine in the morning and he was in the room that he shared with Raven in Titans' Tower.
Two years passed and the lives of the Titans flexed and shifted and eventually split apart. The death of Galfor returned the Tameranians home. Tempest followed his fiancée. He had hoped to marry on Earth, but cared more for Blackfire than the comfort of familiarity.
In the two years since Washu had been destroyed, things had changed. The Titans' West Tower was rather empty: just Cyborg, Jinx, Raven and Nightwing. Nightwing was beginning to understand the empty next syndrome. Celine made no contact with the Titans or the AGU for years. It was unclear if she had ever found Beast King. Bumble Bee couldn't be satisfied with just knowing that her best friend was out there, so she established a second tower, in Steel City and called her team Titans' East: Bumble Bee, Hotspot, Flash, Arsenal and Sakura Chloe. Originally that Titans' crew was designed to handle tracking Beast King and the Omicron, but over time they fell into the super hero routine that had come so naturally to them since they were teenagers.
When they were teenagers, impossible was nothing and anything they wanted to happen would because they were the good guys and they had the authority and the will to see that the world behaved in the way they saw fight. Nightwing turned to his side and saw Raven sleeping still on her side, her back facing the window, her peaceful face facing his body. His hand reached down mechanically, finding her stomach and was disappointed to find it flat. Nightwing kept his eyes closed and slowed his train of thought, because that was what controlled the rate of his grief.
His eyes opened with Raven's hand entwined in his. His eyes turned to hers slowly. She was still sleepy. He hadn't meant to wake her.
"A dream?" She asked.
Nightwing nodded.
"A nightmare then?"
Nightwing sighed and nodded again. "Only because it will never come true."
Nightwing climbed out of bed and went to stand by the huge glass window. The sun wasn't really making itself known. Clouds were cruising along the sky at a pace that they flowers and water below them wouldn't appreciate. It didn't seem like a day for growing, it didn't seem like this were changing.
"What was your dream?" Raven asked. She was the only person who could creep on him and the only person whom he wouldn't mind when she did it. She stood behind him and rested her cheek against his back, her arms wrapping around his strong middle. They were twenty three years old, Raven older by a few months. They were beautiful and powerful people, but Nightwing knew they were incomplete.
"I dreamt we were all together… all of us."
Nightwing felt his wife's muscles tense. Her head rubbed to and fro along the deep plane of the muscles in his back. He hated it when she cried, she always fought the tears so hard. It was impossible to forget the wounds in their hearts: the space in that sacred and scarred place reserved for the names of two girls; their girls, the daughters they had lost. There was no amount of time that would make a parent forget their child, no senility, to more recent pain, no promise of anything else… they knew they'd never forget and they knew that if they wanted to, they could move forward.
"Richard, we don't have to be Titans forever. We can… move forward."
Nightwing turned and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. His finger tips skirted over the exposed expanse of skin on her back. He knew she could feel his heartbeat under her cheek. He touched her stomach then touched her face, tilting her chin so she looked him in the eye. Before he said a word, she knew everything he wanted her to know.
"I'd really like… for us to be a family."
…
"Come on old man! I know you're faster than that!"
Arsenal's arrows flashed out: cutting through the wind and exploding on impact. His sparring partner danced between them, using his powers only when it was absolutely necessary.
"What's with the fire, Spedaris? You get a girl on your arm and you're a better fighter!" The Green Lantern joked, moving in to crash his fist into Arsenal's body. Arsenal blocked, his bow catching John's fist. He spun his weapon and pushed the Green Lantern's body off center. Arsenal capitalized and caught his mentor with a spin kick that knocked him to the floor.
The Green Lantern turned over onto his back and looked up at his challenger. "Alright, you win."
Both men laughed as Arsenal pulled the Green Lantern to his feet. John clapped Arsenal's back in a congratulatory manner, smiling as the younger redhead smiled back. "I'm glad you younger bunch are here in Steel City, I'm getting too old for this super hero thing."
"You were too old years ago, but you kept doing it." Arsenal replied. He took a set on the edge of the roof top, looking over the expanse of Steel City. In the distance was the Titans East tower. It had been his home for the last year and a half, since Bumble Bee decided that there was more to their lives than the dangers of Jump City: that not knowing where their friends were was a more treacherous ground than not knowing where their enemies were.
"You've done good Roy." John said firmly.
"Hmph." Arsenal responded.
"What was that about?"
"I'm sure I've done good, but I think I can do more… to get that last little bit of uncertainty out of me."
"She's waiting for you." John said.
"What?"
"Sakura. When you introduced me to her, I saw it all in her eyes. She is Bruce Wayne's daughter after all: her capacity for great things is limitless."
"I know that. Boy, do I know that."
"Then why worry?" John asked.
"Because there's plenty to worry about."
Arsenal's eyes widened at the new voice. His masked eyes turned behind his head and looked past John to see the massive figure blocking the sun. He could see John's eyes open wide, that someone had snuck up on him and who that someone was turned his blood cold.
…
Jinx hated biting her nails. It hurt so she didn't do it. But something was making her do it. She just couldn't put words to what that something was. Jinx was one of two people in Titans' Tower that ever really had anything to worry about. Of course, the history of Nightwing was still very much a mystery to her, but from her best assumptions, his past watch wasn't so unshakable or on the magnitude of what hers or Raven's were. Jinx felt anxious for the first time in a long time. She hadn't felt so tight in her stomach sense she had met Kid Flash with all his charms. But this was different, this didn't feel good… even though it should… something was hanging over her. She felt it in her blood, trying to pollute the thing that was lovely within her.
She was standing in the common room, looking out the window when Sakura arrived through the door.
"Hey, Jinx." The long haired fighter said as she came in.
"Hello, Sakura." Jinx replied, looking at her through the glass reflection, rather than turning to look at her. Sakura dropped her weapon by the counter and looked around the empty common room. Cyborg was in the city, having a meeting with Fixit about new modifications and meeting Fixit's partner, Go-To. Since Fixit had rediscovered his flair for life, Cyborg and gained a new one as well: which he shared rather enthusiastically with Jinx.
Jinx had adopted the surname Stone, though she and Cyborg were not married. It was hard to understand if Jinx accepted the sanctity and commitment of marriage, she wouldn't even attend Raven's. Jinx and Cyborg shared a bedroom, shared a bed and shared the responsibility of protecting Jump City, though really they were always looking for one thing: Brother Blood.
They were hopelessly looking for the wrong man.
"Jinx, are Raven and Nightwing about?" Sakura asked.
Jinx nodded, rubbing her thumb under her chin. Sakura shook her bangs with her right hand and did her best to shake that feeling she got when she didn't totally understand what was going on around her.
Leads had come up empty, Arsenal was training, and every minor squabble in Steel City could easily be handled by the three other members of Titans East. Sakura came to visit her brother after a long visit with her father. The half-Japanese fighter took a seat at the counter and waited a few seconds before Nightwing and Raven entered the room.
"Ohayo!" Sakura greeted.
"Good morning, Sakura. What brings you here?" Raven asked.
"Boredom. So, I decided to pay a visit."
"You're bored with being Steel City's darling?"
"Its no where near as rewarding as being Jump City's darling, that's for sure."
"I take it you didn't want to train with Green Lantern this time?"
"Iie. I let the boys have their play time. Arsenal always spars better after a workout with the Lantern." Sakura replied.
The four of them sat in silence for a few seconds. Sakura drummed her knee. Jinx was the one who turned from the window and looked at the three Titans in her presence; though her focus was on Raven and that concentrated look on her face. "What?" Jinx asked.
Raven frowned a bit, unsure of what she saw in Jinx's features that gave them both an unsettled feeling. "I suppose, you should be the first to know our news."
"News?"
Nightwing nodded. "We've been thinking and talking and we decided that it's about time we started thinking about---"
The end of Nightwing's sentence was swallowed by the opening of a communications line. Nightwing frowned and Jinx stepped backwards to get a good view of the screen.
"I hope the next words you were about to say were 'our approaching demise', otherwise you'd be completely mistaken."
"Slade!"
"Yes." It had been two years since they had last heard that voice, two years since any of them had thought about the cruel tone that could drip venom and create nightmares in all of their sleep.
"Can't you stay dead?"
"As it seems, the answer to that particular question is no. But then again, I never planned on dying."
"No one cares what you're planning!"
"Oh but you do, Nightwing. You do very much… because what I have planned is very much tied into you."
"We've heard a rant like that before Slade! Since we annihilated your last Syndicate, did you make another catch?" Sakura asked.
"Sakura? You're here? It seems I wasted an effort then… But to answer your question: another? No… I just transitioned to a higher authority."
The screen pulled back just slightly to reveal the length of a weapon. The Nightwing's eyes wrapped around the curve of the brown, wooden handle up until the handle met a sturdy, sharp blade. Sakura's eyes widened as well as another weapon, a duel edge swallow was lined up against that very familiar spear.
"That's…"
"The spoil of war for my mentor, the master I studied under for years… you know his name well, but I believe a visual demonstration is best." Slade dropped the weapons in his hands and lifted something infinitely more dangerous. The bronze mask was cut in a devil's grin with fierce horns and detailed jewel patterns that added cruelty to the masks demonic features. But for Sakura and Nightwing, there was no need to add more cruelty, that mask was the one thing that haunted them no matter how hard they ran.
Sakura screamed and dropped to her knees, covering her head with her hands. Nightwing stumbled backwards, falling to the floor, barely able to keep the bile in his throat. He shook his head furiously.
"It can't be!" He screamed.
"But it is." Slade replied. The view on screen panned to the side to review a man sitting in shadow, his massive body weaved into the lotus position. Slade turned and slide the mask to that man, who turned his head in profile, revealing a glistering gold eye before his mask slid in place.
"Yosh. Vordia Boska Inbroma Hendes Hadesi."
Jinx and Raven trembled together, those words were Azarathian: the cruelty of them entered their bodies. It swam through Jinx's blood and it found a nest in the pit of Raven's stomach.
"He has acquired a few new skills, but I do believe you still remember No-al." Slade said.
Sakura's body trembled, Nightwing's fingers twisted around the cloth on her arm; she could barely lift her tear soaked face to see the monster who had killed their parents.
"He lusts for the rest of your lineage's blood… He can't be satisfied to let the whelps of Asuka and Ueno live. He wants to devour them as well."
Nightwing gritted his teeth and stood up. His sister looked up at him, his fists shaking at his side. Every breath exploded through his body, pushing his chest out and in and out again, in an uncontrolled fury. Nightwing knew what this was… and he was no longer going to run from it.
Jinx was the most surprised to hear his words. "When do we do this?"
"That all depends," Slade said, turning his eye back to his mentor. "When do you want to die? That is what will happen. The fated four are slated for destruction within this cave of Ledona. So come Jinx and Raven and especially you, Nightwing and Sakura. Especially you."
The communication thread was cut. Jinx's finger turned off the monitor. She turned to the three Titans before her, her face unable to hide her absolute horror.
"Richard?" Raven said, taking a step to him.
Sakura got to her feet, whipping the last of her tears away. It had been so long, so many years, but with a simple glance, every little bit of security she felt was washed away, just like it had been fifteen years ago. She had been just a girl and her Dear Brother had been so young when a monster took away everything they knew… and the monster that was No-al was back.
Without a glance, Sakura and Nightwing turned to run and meet Slade's challenge head on.
"Richard!"
Raven could see that he was going to ignore her and morphed quickly to land directly in his path. He skid to a stop and she saw the fury and pain he was feeling in his mind.
"What is going on?" Raven asked.
"This is something I have to do, Raven."
"Stop! Do you even know where you're running to?" Jinx shouted.
"No-al. He's the monster that murdered our parents!" Sakura shouted back.
Jinx walked forward and stood side by side with Raven, blocking Nightwing and his sister's path to the door. She shook her head in the negative. "He's more than that."
"The words he spoke… No-al… they were Azarathian… it was a proclamation of death to be served… and not just to you." Raven said.
"What?"
"Our lives have been tied together much longer than any of us could have ever guessed." Raven replied.
"That monster in your history… his is an actual monster. There was no mistaking that demon aura." Jinx stated.
"No-al is not a demon."
"That wasn't just No-al…" Jinx replied. "He must have gotten desperate for energy and fused with a human to breed his power."
"Who?"
"Doomgaze." Raven said.
"My father." Jinx added firmly.
….
Cyborg came back to find Titans' Tower in a dark mood. Jinx and Raven were staring holes into each other, Sakura was staring out the window, her arms crossed over her chest, her body tight with concentration or rage, and it seemed that if Nightwing let go of the table he was leaning against, he would shatter into a million tense pieces.
"What's going on?"
It was a long and complicated story, but the Titans heard every word of it. Once, there were two complicated creatures: a murderous man named No-al and a true monster, the second of the Great Demon Kings. No-al rampaged and plundered and murdered without remorse. Doomgaze brewed hatred and ward and death wherever his powers could reach. Doomgaze met a near-fatal wound in the Wars of Light and Dark and took to recover in a demon gate known as Ledona – where he bred power and sired two demon seeds: Astarte and Laseri. In that same war, Trigon had met capture and born unto himself Lethe and those three: Laseri, Astarte and Lethe were tied together through their purpose: to be an energy source and a means to continue wars interrupted. Jinx, nor Tetris, nor Raven had ever met their demon fathers: but they knew their energies, because it flowed through them like wildfire. For No-al, like consisted of the hunt and the chase, where he preyed upon the bold and the weak alike and met no match in mortal men. That included the band of nine, lead by Matsuhiro Ueno… with his impressive strength he had fell four of them and crippled another in the borrowed cave of Ledona, though not uninjured himself. On that day, he crept deeper into the cave of Ledona and found a source of evil that he could not resist.
Before this, No-al was just a man, who did terrible things and taught others to do terrible things also. One of those who he taught was Deathstroke the Terminator, the wicked nightmare that would not rest. Doomgaze had sent his number one aid, the demon Washu to seek Slade out, to find that Trigon had found him first.
Nightwing had went to the evidence room and retrieved a talisman and brought it to Jinx and asked her in no uncertain terms if she knew that mark. Indeed she did. It was similar to mark Washu had used until he realized he had no use for her life. Sakura recognized it as the mark of No-al.
The pool of their universe was so polluted with their ties to each other: Jinx to Nightwing to Sakura to Raven, it was hard for any of them to breath. Raven had felt his energy, the energy of Doomgaze and felt it deep in the bit of her stomach where once a sire from his energy had rested… the place that Doomgaze would try to use again if something was done.
She knew what Nightwing and Sakura would do… what she did not know was what Jinx would do.
"We're going to the cave of Ledona. Tell us where it is." Nightwing demanded.
Indeed, Ledona was one of the five gates in the ring of Azarath; he had remembered it from those desperate hours for when they searched for Raven's return.
"You cannot defeat him." Jinx said. "You're wasting your life to try."
"Don't you dare try to stop us! You received your vengeance and we will get ours!" Sakura yelled.
"What you want is a hopeless battle. Doomgaze isn't like Washu, he isn't even like Trigon. Even the combined power of Raven and I cannot stop him."
"We're after No-al."
"You cannot get one without the other. That is all there is to it."
Nightwing's fist slammed through a table and split in half. Cyborg's eyes widened, but Nightwing and Sakura continued to stare down at Jinx. "You're wrong. You also said once that we couldn't beat Washu and we did that."
Jinx rubbed her forehead, fatigue slowly taking over her weighted down figure.
"Jinx?" Raven asked.
The hex artist blinked slowly and swallowed hard. "If you truly wish to die… I'll tell you, but I'll also tell you that there isn't a man of this world who can pose a threat to Doomgaze, especially now that he has some of his strength back. It was this world's fortune that it has taken nearly a quarter century to get this strong, even with the human soul he's bound to. When the cave of Ledona opens again in two months, I can only imagine the terrors he will born onto this world."
"He won't, not if we destroy him first."
"He won't crush anything until he gets what he wants… and that's why I cannot go to this fight." Jinx replied.
"You're still of use to him?" Raven asked. Raven watched Jinx's body become heavy with fatigue and caught her with the hex artist fainted.
…
Jinx woke up with only Raven standing over her. She was in the medic room, sweat peeling down her face, her cat eyes shaking with fever.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Raven asked.
Jinx knew she was referring to one thing. "I didn't know what it was until today." She replied. The wet cloth on her forehead cooled her burning skin.
"How far along?"
"Maybe a month. There are two of them, Raven. Two boys, I think."
"It's too early to know." Raven said, watching Jinx move a slender hand to her belly. "It could be that you'll experience good luck for the first time if it is two boys."
Jinx sighed and closed her eyes. "It isn't that I don't believe that it isn't possible… but it may take my powers and I can't… I can't risk…"
"Don't explain yourself to me Jinx. I understand, if they would have known, they wouldn't have fought you."
"But they'll still fight."
Raven nodded. "And so will I."
"You're still bound, even if not by a Transient. Doomgaze is patient, he was the most calculating of all the demon kings… he didn't have the power to rival Trigon, but he had the mentality. He wouldn't mind waiting another sixteen years for a child."
"He won't lay a hand on yours Jinx and I won't allow him the opportunity to hurt mine again."
"Do you think this is something akin to sisterhood?" Jinx asked, her moon pale skin nearly the same shade as Raven's when her fingertips fell onto Raven's hand.
"You'd know more about being a sister than me." Raven pulled her hand away and stood up. "I'm going to send Cyborg in and then Nightwing, Sakura and I are going to Ledona."
Jinx nodded. Raven left the room, ushered Cyborg into the room, then went to find her husband and Sakura. She stepped into the common room and found them as she left them, crossed armed and angry and itching to satisfy a burn in their memories.
"Let's go." Raven said simply.
They had made it all of three steps to the door when Sakura's communicator rang. It was Bumble Bee.
"What is it?"
"Sakura, you'd better come back to the tower."
"I don't have time for this---"
"It's Arsenal, he's dying."
…
Raven got them there in time to find that Bumble Bee had over exaggerated. Arsenal wasn't dying, the Green Lantern was, but if the agile archer didn't let someone give him medical assistance, the wounds he had suffered might be the death of him. He was bleeding from his chest, back, neck and forehead when Sakura rushed into the medic room. He was standing with his body tense as he leaned on the medic guard for the bed where a wounded John Stewart laid helpless.
Raven set about and healed the most pressing of the Green Lantern's wounds, while Arsenal gritted his teeth. Sakura tried to talk to him, wanted to heal him, but had neither the words nor the powers to do either. She got him to sit down and let Raven work her energy of him when the mystic was finally able to stabilize the Justice Leaguer. He was still in a coma; his internal injuries would take time to heal, he'd have to do that on his own. Arsenal had seen one too many people he cared about locked in a coma by the plotting of Deathstroke the Terminator.
"Roy, talk to me. What happened? Who did this to you?" Sakura asked.
"Slade. He's back and he was delivering a message… to you." Arsenal replied.
Sakura knuckles cracked in a rapid succession, her eyebrows trembled as she set her jaw, squeezing her eyes tightly closed. "I got the message loud and clear." Sakura replied.
"I don't know what this is about, why Slade is still after you and us, but he is going to pay for what he did to John."
…
So it was four of them: Nightwing, Sakura, Raven and Arsenal, who found the cave of Ledona, unearthed in a desert far from the rest of the world. The portal door was deep in the cave, but they never made it that far. Only a few meters into the pit, to a place that Nightwing could remember, fluttered behind his eyelids, a place where he had seen the body of his good friend Fujimi, a wasted wreck to be burned in a funeral fire.
That was where they stopped, that was where they met Slade and No-al.
"Welcome, my dear old friends. It has been far too long." Slade said.
An arrow crashed through the air with Slade as its direct target. He repelled it with a flip of his hand. The bolt snapped in two and fell to the ground. Arsenal sneered.
"I take it you're not pleased with my means of message delivery? It's not like it matters now, in truth, I didn't even expect you to live long enough give the surprise away." Slade leapt down from his perch and landed in the shadow that had taken Nightwing and Sakura's attention immediately.
No-al's body was massive, but Raven had a hard time accepting that the massiveness of Doomgaze's evil could be concentrated to such a size. The pit of her stomach, the part of her that remembered most about her past, quivered and it was not from fear: it was from relatedness… some tiny part of the energy that had been forced into Raven's body by the hand of Doomgaze's machinations still remained in her. It made her sick, she could only imagine what Jinx would have felt when the source of her blood was present.
The mask of No-al glimmered even though there was such darkness pouring from the body behind it. He made the vision of a nightmare, more so than Slade ever could and that particular magnitude was frightening.
"Are you ready to die?" No-al asked.
Sakura bit back the vomit in her throat, hearing that voice again, remembering the horrible laughter that vile tongue had spit out after it took the life her friend Seiko and again when he launched her parents to their deaths; it struck her like a million pins in a million directions.
"It's your turn!" Nightwing shouted.
"Oho? You must be the youngest one, the one I never had a chance at. You look just like Ueno, I wonder if the face you make in death will be the same."
Sakura and Nightwing shot forward. Sakura came in from the right, Nightwing from the left, fists balled to beat the middle of No-al. Raven gasped in shock when the blows landed… not to No-al, but by him. Sakura's eyes opened wide, noise unable to escape her open mouth, but blood did. No-al elbow curled into her cut with no forgiveness, beating in the vulnerable points in her middle. Nightwing grunted hoarsely behind his teeth as his blow too was halted by a crippling elbow on No'al's left side.
The siblings sank off his body for a few seconds before a blast of demonic energy repelled them both, knocking them into opposite cave walls. Nightwing's uniform tore open along the side where his body dragged against a pillar splintered by his body. Sakura's body was lost amongst the rubble the hole her body made in the cave wall.
Arsenal pulled an arrow and targeted the terrible beast Sakura and Nightwing were facing. A fire ball careened toward him, his masked eyes widened before a black shield rose around him. His eyes flickered to Raven, while the mystic kept her eyes forward. Slade shook a single finger. "You'll have your turn to face your destruction, dear boy. Wait your turn."
Nightwing pulled himself up, feeling the deep gash against his hip burn with the exposure to air. "Arsenal, don't interfere. This is our fight."
"But!"
"Yamero!" Sakura pulled herself from her rock prison, pushing stones out of her way as she crawled to her feet. "Do what he said and stay back." She commanded.
Nightwing ran in and attempted a sweep kick as Sakura ran in ready to hammer away with bruising elbows and fists. No-al moved swiftly, jumped quickly and coming down sharply, his massive boots crashing into Nightwing's chest, pinning him to the ground as Sakura's shin was seized and used as a handle. No-al wrenched her from the ground and used her body to club Nightwing twice before slamming her into the ground on left. Both siblings groaned before finding their fury and upkicking to their feet in perfect sync.
When their feet struck the ground, so did No-al's. The thundering boot caused an earthquake, shaking Nightwing and Sakura's legs from beneath them, their feet sailing over their heads. Their exposed ankles were perfect grips for No-al. He grabbed them in painful holds before spinning in a furious half turn and throwing the siblings into a cave wall. In flight the siblings turned their bodies, pivoting to brace themselves rather than slam into the walls. Their crouches defined gravity, their boots and hands finding friction in the stone wall that puckered a bit with their impact and their launch.
Their battle cries echoed through the cave as they ricocheted off the cave walls, back at No-al. They dove in teeth gritted, fist drawn.
No-al caught them both by their necks, halting their motions and absorbing their momentum into his massive arms. Nightwing kicked his feet as he was lifted off the ground. Sakura's fingers pulled at the massive hand wrapped around her neck but couldn't get them to release her, but until he wanted to. He swung and threw her away like a rag doll. Her body sailed through the air until it slammed into the black guard around Raven and Arsenal. She struck the sphere of energy, turning back to look at them for a second, letting them see her bleeding lip before grabbing her hiraikotsu and looking back to her enemy.
No-al tossed Nightwing only a few feet into the air before hammering him from underneath. His fists smashed into Nightwing's middle before he rose a massive leg that hooked under Nightwing's ribcage and pulled, the hold threw Nightwing back to the ground where his body crashed and didn't get up. No-al stared down at Nightwing's crush body before the whorl of the hiraikotsu took his attention. He turned, his masked features incapable of displaying the amusement he felt. With one hand he caught the spinning weapon and threw it back. Sakura ducked under the massive boomerang, hearing the crash of its rebound against Raven's barrier. When she rose from her crouch, she realized that her evade had led her into a trap.
The coiling whip spooled around her body and pulled her forward, wrapping around her, pinning her arms to her side. No-al flexed his wrist and the whip broke, igniting an explosive charge that traveled up the cord until it found its fuel. Sakura's eyes opened wide as her eyes followed the fuse to the donator, she had seen that move once before, and it had killed Fujimi. The coil exploded and Sakura's screen echoed through the cave as the smoke from the explosion took her from sight.
The smoke cleared to find No-al standing over both of his victims. He picked up Nightwing by the material on his chest. He was slack in his grip. He landed exactly as he was thrown, his body fell lifelessly, striking his sister's body, who was completely out of commission.
"Pathetic." Two weapons materialized in his hands: the swallow of Asuka and the spear of Ueno. No-al stared down at his victim and was not sure if he heard the gasp Raven unleashed, but he did see the stunning energy she hurled at him.
He wasn't impressed. The energy dissipated before him, falling into he air as if nothing. He let the careening arrows strike him to show them that they meant nothing to him. "This is the alliance that defeated Washu? You weaklings!" No-al threw down the weapons on either side of unconscious pair. "This is who you aligned yourself with, whelp of Trigon? This is who you believe can defeat me? Fool!"
"Come back when you are ready to fight." No-al kicked Nightwing's boot. Raven gritted her teeth and watched Doomgaze turn his back to the fallen Nightwing and Sakura. His gold plated face turned to Raven and bored at her as if she were the only one who mattered. "Two months from now… The portal of Ledona will open for the first time in 25 years. Trigon will be born again whether with your combined blood or not. I will make sure of it. I hope my pathetic daughter didn't fill your head with ideas that the Great Demon Kings could actually be defeated with a fight. Your struggles amuse us… but that is all. I'll satisfy No-al with the death of these two and satisfy myself with the eternal servitude of the last of Trigon's brood."
No-al and Slade simply disappeared. Raven and Arsenal ran to the bruised siblings and found their wounds were worse than they feared. Raven waved her cloak over the four of them and warped them to the cave entrance. Raven's power seeped through Nightwing and roused the beaten fighter. Sakura's eyes shifted open, Arsenal's body supported hers so she could sit up. The pain throbbed through their bodies, but didn't take away their attention when a shadow fell over them.
He stepped forward with careful steps, silent with the light blocking his profile. He walked forward, his sword still at his side. He moved forward until he could crouch in front of the four of them, he held out a blue globe filled with pure water. "Here, drink."
Sakura squinted and tried to block the sunlight to see his face. She knew the voice. She took the water and drunk it and passed it to her brother, who followed her lead and felt purified of all his aches and pains.
"To accomplish what you desire…" He said simply. "You will require the assistance of the Devine Master."
"Bushido?" Sakura finally asked.
Bushido nodded. "Come with me, I will show you the way."
The End of Part One.