Last of the Masked
For this last chapter, all I will tell you is an overview, the basic events. With Marth's death, my life fell apart. Lost and alone among a world that had no recollection of my existence. The moment I became a Masked, all record of me was erased, so I didn't really exist.
Dread filled my heart. I was the only Masked left alive and I knew the Gem was coming. But I knew I would never bring myself to kill her, she was the daughter of Arella. It was that very fact that gave me hope. Arella was the most kind-hearted person I know, her name means "Massager angle." With her as the mother, this Gem might not become evil and heartless like all the others. Which meant there was still a chance to stop Trigon and not kill the Gem. That was my only hope.
When I finally got back to the place where the old Masked headquarters used to stand, I found that most of the ruble had already been removed and all the bodies taken to the morgue. But since no one in the Masked had any real record of existence in any database, they would all be labeled John Doe.
While digging through the ruins I found few artifacts. One was the Third Ring of Azar; the other two had been destroyed. But I did find a door that took me to an underground room that linked to all the sewers in the city. Down there, I found huge cogs and gears working around the clock. The entire room was one big generator. The only apprentice outfit I found was my old one, the on with the metal "S" sewn into the upper left corner. This "S" would become my symbol, everyone who saw it would know exactly who it came from. I also found the blue prints for several types of machines including: the Masked robots, and these giant underground tunneling worms. All machines that Masked had designed, but never completed.
For the next 16 years I would devote my life to fulfilling what the rest of them couldn't. I would build all these mighty machines and restore the Masked order. I knew it could be done; Master Haku restored the Masked 1,200 years ago after he and Master Kamikage defeated Kyuubi. First I would need money and supplies. With no record, I could get no job, the only chose I had was to steal everything I needed. It started with petty thievery, just enough to live off of. But a rush came with each successful crime, a thrill. Losing everyone I cared for really started to turn me into the heartless monster everyone knows, but the thrill was the event that completed the transformation.
The trill I got from the crimes I committed drove me to steal again, to raise the stakes. Petty thievery wasn't enough; I needed the more advanced equipment to build. I started robbing computer labs and factories. Once while trying to steal metallic chromium I ran into other, even more notorious, villains, the Brotherhood of Evil.
Fighting the Brotherhood wasn't easy, although some fell like flies. General Immortus was defeated quickly, Madame Rouge was more difficult yet after a while she met her downfall, Monsieur Mallah was tricky but I had grown strong enough to beat down most types of large powerful animals and a gorilla was no different. After their defeat I confronted the Brain. He made me the offer to join the Brotherhood, I agreed on the condition that they help me to find an apprentice.
As member, I became the third best, better that Rouge of Immortus. While with the Brotherhood, I learned how to make the Chronoton Detonator, which could stop time permanently, and the Quantum Generator, which could tare a hole in space-time and create a black hole. With their help I made Nanoscopic probes that could invade a persons body and destroy them from the inside out, and the nural remotes that could allow me to control a persons every move. On my own I used my knowledge of bending time and stopping time to make a machine that would allow me to travel through time, the only problem was it took so much power to make even a short jump through time I could never use it.
The event that led me to leave the Brotherhood of Evil was when they were trying to perfect the Quantum Generator and the Doom Patrol crashed to party; Mento, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robot Man, and Beast Boy. I tried to warn the Brain that the minute Beast Boy learned how to master his larger animal morphs, he wouldn't be just some pawn to be taken out. My prediction came true when Beast Boy first morphed one of the few animals I had no chance of defeating, a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
After this event I left the Brotherhood of Evil to find an apprentice on my own. Several promising subjects included: Bushido, Terra, and Jericho. Bushido was already a proud ninja possessing many of the qualities needed to become a Masked apprentice. Terra had incredible earth moving powers, but the fact that she couldn't completely control them made her lest likely to become my apprentice. I had my eye on Jericho simply because of the fact that he was my son. Adopted by peaceful people in the far away mountains, I managed to collect a single hair strand and that proved that he, in fact was Arella's son and mine.
It then happened that the Gordanians came to my city, looking for an escaped Tamaranian princess/slave, Starfire. This princess was found by Batman's old sidekick, Robin, former Doom Patrol member, Beast Boy, half-human half-machine, Cyborg, and the Raven Gem, Raven. I instantly recognized Raven as the Gem; I saw Arella's face in her. But I couldn't bring myself to attack and kill her; I still cared too much for Arella.
It was Robin I took the most interest in. Well trained in kung fu, uses weapons with exceptional skill, and a good leader. He truly was the perfect apprentice. After they defeated the Gordanians, they banded together and set up a base on the island in the bay (the same island Jericho was conceived on) and called themselves the Teen Titans.
I knew I could not simply approach Robin; I would have to get his attention. So, I enlisted the help of two local criminals: Cinderblock and Plasmus. I used them in a simple three-phase plan. First, use Cinderblock to break Plasmus out of jail; second, use Plasmus to distract the Titans; and third, have Cinderblock attack Titans Tower with the laser weapon I gave him. The plan was never meant to succeed, it was only supposed to get the Titans attention, let them know that a new bad guy was here.
The next part of my plan required some slightly smarter minions, I needed the Hive. The top graduates of the Hive academy this year were Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. I told them that if they wanted to serve me they needed to destroy the Teen Titans, of coarse they failed. Their real purpose was to let the Titans know my name and that I was no easy match. I was a little surprised that it took so long for the Titans to defeat the Hive, but that was probably because Robin wasn't there all the time.
Next I actually needed to confront Robin personally. My perfect chance came when the Forces of Nature: Thunder and Lightning, appeared in the city. I disguised myself as the Old One to gain their trust and used my last Flame Spell to bring to life the Flame Monster one last time.
After that particular event, I went underground for a while. After a little break, I sent some of my newly built Masked robots to steal state-of-the-art computer chips. I only did this to keep Robin interested, the chips were worthless to me. What surprised me most was that Robin was so desperate to capture me he was willing to become a super thief named Red X and steal those chips to get to me. At first I was almost willing to drop my quest for robin and make Red X my apprentice, but it was Robin's impatience that gave him away. In the end, I saved Robin's life and I didn't get the chips. He might've learned a thing or two from that fight; he might've learned that we are similar.
It came time for me to take Robin as my apprentice, but he would not go willingly. I needed to trick him. I used my knowledge of Chronoton Detonator's to build a fake yet convincing one. I never told the Titans that a Chronoton Detonator was my major plan I let them put the pieces together. If you've noticed, I've never lied to the Titans. I've miss led and deceived, but not once have I ever lied.
I made sure that the reflection of "Pier 41" was on the Detonator so that they would know were to go and I was counting on the fact that most Tamaranians have allergies to metallic chromium so that they could track it. Starfire's allergies led the Titans to the sewers and Robin to me. He found that the Chronoton Detonator was a fake and that my real plan was to make him into my apprentice, to force him to do this I placed billions of the nanoscopic probes into the bodies of the other Titans and threatened that if Robin didn't serve me, I would destroy his friends.
Using this against him, Robin became my apprentice. But I underestimated the determination of his friends, especially Starfire. In fact I once had to force Robin to use deadly force by activating the probes. This helped him advance faster, but it also prompted him to fight back. In the end, the Titans showed up to free Robin, even though they knew the probes were inside them. Robin used the probes against me by infecting himself with even more that the other Titans had inside them. I had no choice but to de-active the probes. Without that leverage, the Titans didn't have to hold back, they attacked me with everything they had. Forcing me to activate the self-destruct of my base. Of coarse this was not the last time the Titans would see me.
My next plan came when the girl, Terra, happened to came to Jump City. When she showed up the Titans instantly took an interest in her, most noticeable was Beast Boy. My new plan was not to keep Raven from death anymore, but to eliminate the Teen Titans all together. I sent more of my Masked robots to attack a diamond mine, and the Titans came just as I knew they would. I confronted Terra away from the other Titans and used her insecurities against her, saying that the Titans would reject her once they found out about her uncontrollable powers. This plan worked.
After Terra left the Titans, I found her in a cave sobbing and offered her the chance to become my apprentice and control her powers. In return, she would only need to destroy the Teen Titans. After a moment of hesitation, she accepted my offer. I used my water controlling skills (even though I no longer had that power) to teach Terra how to control earth, and in the end her powers became second nature to her. Once her training was complete I sent her to infiltrate the Teen Titans inner circle.
To make the Titans trust her, I used the three giant worms to attack the city and later titans Tower. It took all of Terra's strength plus help from Raven, but she became one of the Titans.
My next orders were to strike and take out the Titans. However, she had grown to like them. Particularly Beast Boy. Instead of attacking directly, she sent me the information for deactivating the security system of Titans Tower. I sent 200, armed, Masked robots to invade the Tower and attack the Titans. With two less team members, the Titans were at a huge disadvantage. I dealt with Beast Boy myself. I found Terra and Beast Boy at the old abandon amusement park on the Farris wheel. As I fought Beast Boy he switched from animal to animal but most of his morphs I was able to defeat. With Terra's help they escaped into the House of Mirrors where Beast Boy learned the truth about Terra. Disgusted by her, Beast Boy told her, "You don't have any friends."
Terra made history as the first female Masked ever. She had one final mission to complete before she would be advanced to the level of Warrior. He last mission was to destroy the Teen Titans. Dawning a new battle suit encrypted with the neural interface, she went into battle and proved to be formidable to the Titans, even when 5-on-1. But still not enough. I sent her to the prison and had her break out Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload. She equipped each of them with a neural remote and they were each sent to attack three separate targets across the city. For the Titans to defeat them, they would have to split up. Once they were split up, I sent Terra to attack each of them one at a time until all the Titans were defeated.
Or so I thought.
The Teen Titans returned in full force, no longer holding back, to take Terra out. Relentless, the Titans almost destroyed Terra by the time she returned to the underground base. They were preoccupied with fighting a Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload hybrid and an army of Masked robots. Terra returned to me in failure. I punished her for her weakness and she claimed that I had no right to. But I pointed out that she had nowhere else to go to. I used the neural interface in her suit to control her. Beast Boy found his way into the base and fought against Terra. But Terra broke free from my control, caused a volcanic eruption, and threw me into the lava. She was the one who killed me, but she killed herself when she stopped the eruption. Her body was turned into a statue.
I don't know much about the time I was dead, except that the fail-safe device in one of my masks was activated. The mask was coated with a layer of a chemical agent that is absorbed by the dust that falls on it, when the dust is disturbed and kicked up into the air it is inhaled into the body and absorbed into the blood stream. Once it makes its way to the brain, it causes extremely realistic hallucinations that the person can see, hear, and feel to the point that they believe it is real even if no one else can see it. The only problem with this technology is that the hallucinations only work in the dark, if a bright light is turned on the hologram will disappear. The other problem is that the program to begin the hallucinations can't trigger itself; a signal has to be sent. I don't know who sent the signal to activate my mask.
Not long after I died I found myself as little more than a skeleton in the presence of the very demon I've been trying to stop, Trigon. He summoned me from the dead to be his new massager, and as payment he promised to give me back my real flesh and blood. I had apparently shown that I could be a more powerful servant that Marth, plus I was the only of the Scath or Masked alive at the same time as the Gem. I was given a temporary body to fight with which could always re-heal, the power to control fire just like Marth, and a list of things to do and times to do them. I knew that Trigon would more that likely not uphold his promise so before I was sent to deliver my first massage to Raven; I went to where I had hid the third Ring of Azar.
My first mission was to place the inscriptions all over Raven's body. When I first started the mission I heard the Titans walk in and Cyborg ask which of these pathetic bad guys (Gizmo, Mad Mod, or Killer Moth) it could be. Then they saw me and were frozen in their tracks; after all I was supposed to be dead. I used my new powers and realized why Marth loved them so much. After a fight that showed the Titans how out matched they were, Raven somehow used her powers to stop time all together. But because of Trigon, she couldn't stop me. I showed her a vision of the future she was destined to create, and the markings were placed across her body.
Even though I was serving Trigon, I was still trying to stop him as best I could. When my mission came to reveal the prophecy, I deliberately made the Titans go to the old library so they could find everything about Trigon and the Scath. All the ghosts that attacked them happened to be the spirits of all the Scath I killed that day along time ago. They did find out that the Gem was Trigon's ticket to Earth, however if they had linked the Gem to a person and not to a rock they might've done better. They did find similarities between Raven and the Scath. My hopes were cut short when Trigon ordered me to destroy the Titans and get them out of his way. I was lucky, Raven showed up before I could destroy them. I escaped, but I had to leave Raven to explain the situation to the other Titans.
The day of the End of the World came all to soon. Raven hoped to give her friends the perfect last day, but the moment the sun was eclipsed they saw the truth. As Trigon's massager I had to go and get Raven to make her perform her destiny. The Titans had put up quite a fight to protect their friend; Starfire used her powers to the limit, Robin broke out some of his new weapons, Beast Boy managed to morph one of his most powerful creatures the Were-Beast, and Cyborg used his most powerful cannon weapons possible while draining the Tower of most of its power. Still, they couldn't kill me, I was already dead. Despite their best efforts Raven willingly came with me to the old library, but now I was expendable. With my only real purpose as Trigon's massager complete, he didn't need me anymore. When I went to get my reward, true to nature he didn't give them up. Quietly I slipped on the Ring of Azar before lashing out at the demon. He easily took back all the power he had given me and almost destroyed me; I was barely able to hold on to any form with the Ring of Azar. I escaped and found the Titans in the main meeting room at the bottom of the library. Raven had sealed the other away behind a barrier while she preformed the prophecy and became the portal for Trigon to come through.
Trigon emerged from the portal and used his power to destroy the world. The Ring of Azar protected me from his evil, but the Titans were saved by Raven's power. When they awoke in this new scorched world, they found that they had some of Raven's power. They attacked Trigon but even with Raven's power at their command, they could not destroy him. And they had no means of defense against him. As they were about to give up, I emerged to offer them a chance at saving Raven and defeating Trigon. If Raven was really the daughter of Arella and really as good as I hoped, then we might have a chance. I could take one of the Titans with me into Trigon's world while the others kept Trigon occupied. Robin volunteered to go with me and, as a sign of good hope; I gave Starfire the Ring of Azar. I took Robin down with me to the world's abyss, but it seemed Trigon was waiting for us; he sent his fire soldiers to attack us. Robin and I worked with perfect teamwork to defeat these monsters, only confirming my first impression that Robin would make an excellent apprentice, but in the fight my mask came off and Robin saw the truth. I was long since dead. I told him how this came to pass and he knew he was here to save me as much as to save Raven. We came to a fork in the road and I sent Robin off to save his friend while I went to retrieve what was rightfully mine.
I trekked for hours down the path, finally coming to the Door of Lost Souls. If I could open the door it would grant me one wish. The door was guarded by one of Trigon's minions welding a large fire axe. In my current condition I wasn't fit to defeat a monster this powerful, but I managed to open the door and my wish for life was granted, I got my flesh and blood back. The guard was killed by the opening of the door. I took his fire axe and journeyed back up the path. Once I got back to the upper world I found Robin had made it back and the Titans were engaging Trigon, but now that the Ring of Azar was pushed beyond its limits, the ring was broken. The Titans were grasped in Trigon's fist about to be destroyed when I used the fire axe to slash off one of Trigon's horns. With my life returned to me I could easily fight without the threat off Trigon crushing me. Young Raven saw that Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and I were actually hurting Trigon. But we still weren't enough to defeat him. Until Raven finally realized that she had the power to destroy the demon. Taking back the power she gave to the Titans, she returned to her normal age and with one final spell destroyed Trigon for good and purified the Earth.
With the Earth purified and Trigon gone for good, I escaped into the heart of the city. The Titans would obviously keep looking for me, but they would never find me. I had fulfilled the purpose I had set out to do, just like Raven, and now I had my whole newly returned life ahead of me. The only problem was I didn't know what to do with it. I had been fighting Trigon for so long that once he was gone I had no path left to follow. I still hope to find a way to go, but now it is the Teen Titan's story. I would like to tell you that this is the end of my journey, but I still have more to do. This is the end of this book, but my connection with the Titans is far from over.
The End