Chronicles of Azarath

by darkbustehrancher

WOOT! Finally off hiatus, with a new chapter to boot! AU Raven's homeworld and past has been dramatically altered

7. ADVENT

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Teen Titans. I do hope that this story is entertaining to those few that are reading it. Again, I will ask this, if I need to change something due to rating or whatnot, tell me and I will get to it as soon as possible. Moreover, to those that have read this story with the format issues, I thank you for putting up with it. To those of you that may be wondering, this particular chapter is on earth, I won't tell you exactly when though, you'll just have to read the story.

A special thanks to Azarathgirl, Estel-Elf-Lover, Macduff's Mistress, and JuniorBins. You people reviewed my story before I had to redo my author account! Another special thanks to TeMpET, Voices-in-my-head0304, Gabecooper30 and Grumbumble! You people reviewed my story on my new author account.

Chronicles of Azarath

Chapter Five

ADVENT

"There is no difference between gods and mortals.

Both rise, both fall."—Azarathian proverb

The world was dark; there was nothing but the expanse of nothingness that seemed to expand in every direction for as far as the eye could see. The darkness was nearly tangible and pressed in on the senses like a massive, unrelenting weight. The hazy form of a person could be seen, it was trying to move through the inky depths of whatever was confining him.

He found it hard to move even his fingers; the pressure of the darkness was overwhelming him and constricted him psychologically. He was just about to give up, to give in to the depths that threatened to consume him, when he remembered that he could not give into the blissful state of nothingness.

He fought the bindings that bound him to void that tried to call itself his world. It pressed in on him even more, as though the more he struggled, the harder the dark fought back to keep its victim confined. He began to swim forward, slowly, inch by inch, the darkness had made itself into a tangible force; the syrupy strands clung onto him and halted his movement. His lungs were burning as though they were on fire, still he kept going forward.

The void relented; it was parting a distance away from him. A small light had formed somewhere above him, like a light at the end of the tunnel. He swam faster toward the small light that was slowly becoming bigger. His body was demanding air that would not come; he was inhaling the thick, glutinous slime that was slowly becoming thicker but was not clinging onto him. His lungs were filling up to capacity, he did not heed his body's call for air and with an almighty spur that used what remained of his strength, Robin woke up in the medical ward of Titans Tower.

The saddened form of Starfire glided into the medical room to check on Robin for the fifth time that day. She had been worried sick about her leader ever since she had been told that he was in a coma and had a chance of never waking up from it. She walked over to his bed with her eyes closed, due to her many times there from constantly checking on Robin, she practically had it memorized. She picked up Robin's pale, clammy hand and held it close to her heart.

"Robin," she nearly whined, "please wake up…." Silent tears began to trickle from her closed eyes. One fell onto Robin's hand.

Robin felt his hand be picked up, he tried to make a sound but nothing came. He heard her plea to him and again forced himself to answer, a small sound came from his throat but it was not able to reach the ears of Starfire. He felt her tear fall onto his hand and with what seemed to be all of his strength; he squeezed her hand as best as he could.

Starfire felt Robin's hand squeeze hers but only just. She turned her tear streaked face toward him, opened her emerald green eyes and saw that Robin had awoken. Her heart swelled with joy and she exclaimed, "Robin, you are awake!"

Robin put on his best smile; that was all he could manage in his exhausted state. Cyborg came to check on Robin at this moment. He seen his leader was awake and a wave of relief flowed through the half human.

"It's good to see you awake man," Cyborg said to his friend and comrade, "Moya did his best to keep you alive, Slade really did a number on you."

Robin did his best to smile at his friend, but all that came was a small tug at the corners of his mouth. "Save your strength," Cyborg said to him, "just focus on getting better."

Robin did his best to nod, but managed to do nothing. His eyes said that he understood. Starfire gave one last look at her friend, turned to face Cyborg and she said quietly, "I will stay with him for a little longer." Cyborg smiled a little, nodded and left the medical ward.

Starfire looked at Robin; he had tubes going into his nose, an IV going into his arm, the steady drip of the clear liquid made silent noise as it fell. He did not have a shirt on, instead there were bandages; a slight red tint was visible through them. She saw that he was asleep again. She stood up, placed his hand back on his bed and whispered to him, "Sleep well, Robin." She walked out of the room, gave one last look at Robin and turned off the light as she walked out of the medical ward.

As Starfire floated out of the medical ward, her heart swelled with joy, her Robin had woken up! She paused for a moment and wondered where that thought had come from. "My Robin…." She repeated quietly to herself. She had a large smile plastered on her face as she walked down the hall to go toward the kitchen.

When she got there, she walked in on an intense argument about what lunch should be that day. Moya was demanding that he be able to make lunch, Cyborg was saying that he should make lunch and Beast Boy was trying to get his opinion about no meat involved. Both Moya and Cyborg promptly shot down his choice. Raven was nowhere to be seen.

The young spell caster was rarely seen outside of her room. She seldom aided the rest of the Titans on missions. Moya had taken her place each time by saying that she was not feeling well. This had gotten many odd looks from the active members of the Titans, but they did not press for further information. Moya had proved to be a great asset; he pushed his body to the limit on each encounter and usually pushed himself to the point of exhaustion, or beyond.

On this rare day of relative peace, Raven walked into the kitchen. She was humming a sad and happy tune to herself, which immediately silenced the argument. She went to the fridge, looked around for a moment, still keeping her sad and happy tune, and emerged a moment later with a box of leftovers from the night before. The Titans had ordered to a caterer because they were too tired to make dinner the night before. It turned out to be spaghetti made with a very thick mushroom sauce. She got a plate from the cabinet, poured the contents of her meal on it and went to the microwave to heat up her meal.

A rather confused Cyborg asked her, "Are you feeling better Rae?"

She looked at him, they noticed that she had a ghost of a smile on her lips, and answered him, "I am feeling better now."

In the odd silence that followed, the three arguers decided not to argue and make what they wanted themselves. Moya had decided to help Cyborg with lunch for the rest of them, which greatly displeased the green shape shifter. Moya was now in a quiet debate with the mechanical genius about what kind of meat and spices to use.

The strangely, happy form of Raven looked at the two quiet debaters with mild amusement. Starfire looked at the happy, young woman with interest. It had been a while since she had seen her friend this happy, in fact, she recalled, she had only been this way when Malchior had been teaching her. She looked at her on last time; she wanted to ask her something but did not want to at the same time. She sighed inwardly as she went to the fridge to make herself something to eat from her native planet.

When lunch had finally been made, it turned out that Cyborg and Moya had agreed on what they were going to do for lunch. Moya had ended up making the spices and Cyborg had selected the meat and cooked it the way he had wanted to. The Titans were actually surprised at how the meal tasted, it had the familiar taste of ribs, yet it held the unfamiliar taste that Moya had used to season the meat.

When the Titans finished their meal, Raven went to see how Robin was doing. No one had told her that he had awoken, they were too surprised that she was actually out of her room, and in a happy mood as well. When she walked into the medical ward, she turned on the light and seen that Robin was asleep. She sighed and thought to herself, 'I wonder if he will ever come out of his coma….' She turned off the light and lingered in the doorway for a few moments listening to the drone of the medical machines that had lined the room and had kept their leader alive, if you could call a 'coma' life. She sighed again, closed the door and went back to her room.

Beast Boy had finished his no-meat lunch and watched Raven walk off, still humming to herself. He went to his room, put on some swimming shorts and went out to the top of the tower for a relaxing swim. His mind was on the mysterious Titan known as Raven. Sure, he had hacked into her files on more than one occasion, but who could blame him? All he wanted to do was find out more information about his creepy friend. What he found was that most of her records were blacked out or stored on a paper file in a safe in Robin's room. Now that Moya was a Titan, he tried to hack into his files as well, with Cyborg's help of course.

All they had gotten was that he was from Azarath and that he knew Raven from his childhood. He bounced off the diving board and plunged into the cool depths of the pool. He swam under the water's surface for a moment and emerged from the bottom of the pool. He took a few deep breaths and resumed thinking about his friend and comrade. He had noticed that she had not been out of her room much ever since that encounter with her brother. Something from that encounter had changed her, what he did not know was what had caused her change in habits. On the rare occasions that she had been out of her room, she had been in various moods. This had not really surprised him much if not for the fact that generally each time she came out, she was either more depressed than usual or as happy Starfire. He watched a cloud pass over the sun and it cast a shadow on him as he swam. He floated on his back and continued to think about his friends from Azarath.

Once Cyborg had finished cleaning the mess that he had made, he went to his workshop. He was working on a new type of cannon. For once, he was copying someone else and he hated every moment of it. He gazed down at the metallic object that he had been modifying and smiled. It had taken him about two weeks to complete the task that he had given himself and it felt good that he had finally completed it. He took of his right hand and placed the cybernetic arm that he had made in its place.

He flexed his new hand and smiled, it was working properly so far. He made it transform into its cannon form, the end glowed a bright blue, and he smiled again. "Booya!" the ecstatic form of Cyborg shouted to himself, "If Cyborg can't build it, no one can!"

He went to his car and began to modify that as well. He lifted it by using his crane and went under it so that he could better work on hit. His mind was on his friend Raven. She had been acting stranger than normal during the past few weeks and the vague replies from their newest member, Moya, had been insubstantial. When he had pressed for more information, he got the same reply that she was not feeling good. He did not have enough information to form an adequate conclusion. He knew that Moya and Raven were working together to hide something, what he did not know was what. He continued to think about his friend as he worked on upgrading his car to the specifications that he had beset himself with.

Moya walked away from the lunch table and went to the training area of Titans Tower. He had set the drones that he was attacking on lethal rather than stun. He dodged a laser blast from one of the drones and fired a blast of indigo energy at it. The energy bolt reflected off his target, it seemed that Cyborg had equipped some of the drones with an energy field. He smiled; he needed to vent some frustration and these drones were the perfect things to do that on.

He charged his fists full of his indigo energy and charged full speed into the battle that he had set up. He blocked the laser fire that was heading for him with the energy on his hands. The bolts bounced harmlessly away, he pushed onward, the bots stood unrelenting and they formed tactics based on those of Moya. He changed what he was going to do, formed a massive wall of energy on the ground, and summoned tendrils of it skyward. The tendrils of indigo energy found their target and he quickly dismantled them in a few moments.

He turned his attention turned to that of Raven. He knew that she did not want to carry her brother's child, yet she was forced to due to their ties with life and death. He sighed and used his powers to put the drones back where they were, he did not put them back together; he did not know how Cyborg had managed to create them with the technology that Earth offered. He went to the lift and saw Cyborg go into his workshop, the spell caster decided to leave the half machine alone for the time being and go take a shower, he had gotten rather sweaty in the training area and he needed one.

Starfire had finished her meal and watched the other Titans walk off to do what they wanted on this day of relative peace. She went to check on Robin and seen Raven walk away from him. She waited for her friend to leave before she entered the medical ward. She turned on the light and seen that her Robin was still asleep. She floated next to him and softly said, "Sleep well, my Robin." She placed a small kiss on his forehead and floated out of the medical room. She floated to her room in a leisurely manner and went to a computer console.

She turned on the computer and the machine-like voice said, "No new messages." The young alien girl from Tamaran sighed, her guardian was usually busy, but he had never gone this long without sending her a message. She knew that something was amiss and she did not know what it was. She had already sent more than three messages telling him to contact her, and yet he had yet to respond to any of them.

She went on her bed and laid down on it. Unshed tears began to fill up in her emerald eyes; she knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong on her home planet. Just as she was about to curl herself into a ball and cry herself to sleep, she heard her computer console beep, signifying that she had received a message.

She wiped her eyes dry from the tears that had fallen on her face and went over to her to see what the message said. She turned it on and her mirror converted itself into a television screen of some sort. A gruff man appeared there, wounds covered him and his right arm was bandaged heavily; a red tint was visible through the white cloth. He looked in the transmitter and said gravely, "Princess Starfire, your people need you. We are at war with the Azarathians. They are formidable and they came without warning." He ducked low as a blast of purple energy zoomed above his head. "We need you here now, I don't know if we can—" His words were cut short by an explosion then silenced by static.

The young woman's eyes filled up with tears; she thought that her friend, Galfore, had been slain. She fell into a crumpled heap on her room's soft, plush carpet. In her fractured mind, the strong form of Robin wrapped his arms around her and comforted her. She curled herself into a ball and whispered to the empty room, "Thank you, Robin."

Robin woke up from his sleep in the medical ward. Surprisingly, he had regained some of his strength back. After a moments worth of effort, he managed to sit up. Immediately, he checked to see if his mask was still on, it was, and he gave a sigh of relief. He gritted his teeth in pain; he finally noticed that the pain relievers that were in his system were wearing off and that he would nearly kill someone for a cheeseburger.

He sighed, slower this time, and wondered where everyone was. He noticed a glass of water was on the nightstand that was next to his bed, next to the glass of water was a vase of flowers. He picked up the glass of water and drained it in a few gulps. He set the empty glass next to the flowers. He lay back down and thought about how much time had passed and went back to sleep.

(INTERMISSION!!! Okay readers, you are in for a long haul, so put on a pot of coffee and get some adult diapers. Or, go get a snack…. You got that snack? You do? Good, now back to the chapter!)

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Moya found himself the first one to be awake, or so he thought. He saw that Starfire was awake and eating some cereal, she was in a somber mood and unusually quiet. Having some empathetic abilities, he was able to feel a great sadness from within her.

He approached her and asked her in a quiet tone, "Are you alright? You seem more quiet than usual…."

She swallowed the last bit of food that was in her mouth and said slowly, "Your kind have invaded my planet." Hardened anger was in her voice.

He gazed in shock at what she said. "Akaröth must have rallied them for battle," Moya said as he plopped himself down on a chair across from where she sat. "We must go there at once," he declared to her.

She looked at him and asked, "What about Robin, who will take care of him when we are gone?"

"I will heal him," Moya said to her after a moment of silence.

She looked at him as though he had just said something foul. She glared at him as she stood up and asked in a growl as her eyes burned green with anger, "Why did you not heal him before?"

He looked at her and replied in a casual manner, "If I did, he would have never come out of the coma. His anatomy and mental functions are slightly different from those of an Azarathian. My healing magic will have some skewed effects on him. It was all I was able to do to keep him alive, let alone mentally stable."

She sat back down, slightly relieved that Robin could be healed and able to join them in their endeavor to retake her planet from the siege of Akaröth. Starfire put her bowl in the sink and walked off to go do something by herself.

Moya sat in silence, Starfire and Cyborg had told the rest of the Titans that Robin had awoken; Raven was not present for the engagement, thus he had told her when he had brought her dinner. As he thought in silence, the half-awake form of Beast Boy wandered into the kitchen, made himself a bowl of cereal and started eating as though he were a machine set on automatic.

When he put his bowl away, he finally noticed the silent form of Moya. He asked him in a mildly sleepy tone, "When did you get here?"

"I have been here since before you got here," Moya said to him in a neutral voice that did not reveal what he thought of Akaröth's invasion of Tamaran.

Beast Boy looked confused, "I didn't see you when I came here to make myself some breakfast…."

"You were too tired to notice my presence," the spell caster replied, "now if you excuse me, I must go." He got up out of his chair and walked out of the kitchen leaving a very confused Beast Boy behind.

"Uh…." Beast Boy muttered as he watched the retreating form of Moya walk away.

When Cyborg ordered everyone to go to his harsh training session, with Robin out of commission, he was in command, Starfire told him of her worries. He immediately cancelled all previous engagements, told Titans East what was going on and gave them explicit orders to be on their highest alert and make sure that Titans West had someone posted in the tower from their team.

Moya walked into the medical ward and saw that the glass of water next to Robin's bed was empty. He walked up to the sleeping form of Robin as his right hand became enveloped in indigo energy; he let the energy envelop Robin and penetrate his body so that his bones were the only things visible. The massive amount of energy did not seem to hurt the patient since all he did was shift his position and mutter something under his breath that sounded oddly similar to Starfire's name. Moya focused on his energy and slowly mended Robin's bones back together and healed his punctured flesh back to optimum efficiency. He let the energy flow into Robin further to heal any damage that he may have incurred during his coma.

He relinquished his control over his energy and it vanished from sight in an instant. He gently shook his friend awake and brought him to the realm of the living. With a groan and a mutter, the once sleeping form of Robin awoke. He blinked rapidly a few times due to the slightly bright light that's that had been equipped in the medical ward and to clear his head of the sleep that he had been robbed of.

The Azarathian looked at his leader and like an angel without a sense of mercy; he told his friend what had happened. "Robin," he said to him quietly, "Starfire's home has been invaded by Akaröth. We leave in a few hours; Cyborg needs to ready the T-ship. Get ready quickly, I have repaired all the damage to your body, you are as strong as you were when you faced Slade."

Moya left him and went to tell Raven what had happened; when he left the kitchen to tell their mechanical friend what had transpired, Starfire had beat him to it. He had been told who Slade was by Cyborg while Robin was in his coma. As he walked down the hall to go to Raven's room, he met Beast Boy.

Moya stopped and said to him, "Get ready for a long ride, Akaröth has invaded Tamaran and we are going to provide aide. We may not be back for a while, so if you have any important long-term business you may have, see to it that it is taken care of. We leave in a few hours." He left Beast Boy to his own devices and left to go to his friend's room.

Beast Boy watched his friend go. The information he was just given had disturbed him greatly. The way Moya had told him made it seem as though they were not going to be coming back, and if they were, someone may not come back alive. By now, he had reached his messy room. He sighed, pulled out some paper, a pen and began to write something.

He paused, the pen was poised just above the piece of paper and he had yet to write a single word. In his young and relatively innocent mind, he thought, "I know I won't come back alive. I'm not that powerful, I can't throw energy bombs, fight like Robin or fire sonic blasts, but I can make people laugh. That's a power, right?' He squashed all his doubts and finally wrote his first two words: Dear Terra.

Raven was sitting upright in her bed. Her room was dark, the curtain were up to block out the sun as well. She was looking at her stomach; she could feel the fragile life that was growing inside her body. Her powers were now acting on her force of will rather than her emotions. The ceremony that Kami had conducted for her had altered her abilities so that they worked on her force of will rather than emotionally driven, though her anger drove them as well. This was the price that all Azarathians paid to access their magical potential.

The Erths had found a way around this dilemma a long time ago, though anger still dictated their powers, at least they could freely experience joy, happiness, compassion and other emotions without locking them away by meditation.

When she had finally accepted the fact that she was forced to carry her brother's child, she had vowed to give her child a better life than the one that she had experienced. She, for Raven hoped that her child was a girl, was not going to know what her life had been like while she grew up. Even though she may not have a father to look up to, she was going to do her best to provide for her child.

A bright, indigo hue illuminated her darkened room. She knew that it was Moya who had entered her domain and smiled at him. She watched him walk up to her bed and open the curtain with his magic. Warm, summer sunlight filtered in from her window and immediately warmed and brightened up her room.

Moya looked at him and said to her in a solemn tone, "Akaröth has invaded Tamaran. We are leaving in a few hours and we are going to need all the help we can get."

She nodded at his statement; she was surprised by this as well; nothing of importance was on Tamaran. They were a peace loving people, but when forced to fight, they could become a deadly force to be reckoned with. Azarathians had paid the price for the magic long ago, the desolate wasteland of a home had been more than enough, but they had been cursed with powers that fed off emotions as well. The Azarathians also had another curse on them as well, they could not leave their planet, for them to violate that seal, and nothing good could come of it.

"What could be there that Akaröth wants?" she asked her long time friend, confusion clearly evident on her face.

"I do not know," Moya replied, "it could be that he has found a Key there."

Raven was quiet; she knew that she was going to help her friends. She looked at Moya again and said to him, "Can you get out, I need to change…."

He nodded and made an indigo portal on her door. Just before he left, he said to her, "We may be gone for a while; I suggest that you bring extra clothes and such."

She nodded at his advice as he left and began to change into some casual clothing that went with her cape. She was wearing a nightgown since she had yet to change into something else. As she changed, she was wondering on how to tell the rest of the Titans that she was pregnant. She sighed at her dilemma and wondered if she should just keep her child a secret from the other Titans.

Cyborg was working on the T-Ship. He was making the necessary adjustments for deep space since the last time they had used it; it was reconfigured for underwater use. He was working quickly as he could; he wanted to help his alien friend as soon as he possibly could. He had converted the engines of the T-Ship so that they were capable of interstellar space travel. An alien diplomat that he had protected from the United States Air Force gave the hyperdrive engines that he had assimilated to the ship to him. It had been a simple misunderstanding and Cyborg settled it without incident and without much involvement of the media.

He gazed out at the fueling T-Ship and then at his watch, it was about twenty minutes until the launch was going to commence. He had rigged their alarm system in their Tower to warn the other Titans that the T-Ship was going to launch in twenty minutes. The fuel pump was on an automatic setting, so he left to go to his room and gathered what he needed; his recharger had been reconfigured to absorb Starfire's thermonuclear energy as well as continue to use solar energy and its small chemical energy that was stored in it.

When he returned, he saw that everyone was there with the things that were needed for him or her. "You feeling up to this?" he had asked Robin when he saw him in his uniform. He was carrying nearly every single one of his gadgets in a large case that he had constructed to hold his gizmos.

"I am," he replied to the half-mechanical warrior, "Moya healed me back to my old self." Before Cyborg left to put everyone else's stuff away into the bowels of the T-Ship, he asked him, "How long was I out?"

"Twenty-three days," was all Cyborg had said to him. It was perfectly clear that this was a touchy subject to the rest of the Titans as well, so he let the matter drop and helped Cyborg load up the ship.

Once everything was properly loaded on the T-Ship, Cyborg let Titans East know that they were leaving and gave them the encryption keys via encoded transmission. When the countdown reached zero, the T-Ship blasted off from the launch pad in Titans Tower. The Titans strained against the massive G-forces that accompanied take off.

Once free from the confines of Earth's gravity, the depleted, bulky liquid rocket fuel tanks separated from the T-Ship and Cyborg put the ship into the warped view of hyperspace; the stars formed starlines and the starlines formed the muddled view of hyperspace.

From inside her pod, Starfire asked Vyborg via radio link, "How long until we reach the planet of Tamaran?"

"About fourteen hours," Cyborg replied to her, "give or take a few."

Starfire nodded to herself. Beast Boy exclaimed, "FOURTEEN HOURS!? FOURTEEN HOURS!? I can't wait that long!"

"Dude," the mechanical genius said to the green shape shifter, "I told you to go to the bathroom before we left. There better not be any accidents in my spaceship or you're gonna pay!" The half-human said to him, he was seething in anger.

Moya looked at the commotion from inside his pod. In a mad scramble, Cyborg added the newly constructed pod to the T-Ship so that Moya could join them. He had not counted on needing the T-Ship so soon after Moya became part of their team. Moya watched the scene that Beast Boy and Cyborg were making with slight amusement. He turned toward Raven, she was silent. This was not uncommon for her, but he knew why she was silent and did not want to disturb her with idle chitchat.

'It feels good to be back on duty,' thought Robin. He was sitting in the front pod and had view screens that depicted what each Titan was currently doing. He guessed that Cyborg had added Moya to their team during his coma because he added a pod to the ship just for him. Raven was silent as usual, though in casual clothes rather than her leotard, and he noticed that Starfire was in a somber mood as well. He saw that Cyborg and Beast Boy were in an argument of some sort. He was able to see what they were doing, but did not intrude on what they said to each other.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Do not harm that girl!" The angry voice of Moya shouted above the pandemonium of explosions and screams of battle. Rage was clearly apparent in his voice.

"What if I do?" A cold, malicious voice asked. The faint whimpers of a girl could be heard.

"I will slay you," Moya said resolutely.

"I highly doubt that," he whispered in a deadly calm. A dead silence came over the two and the explosions in the background echoed silently.

The sound of rending flesh bit into he air and a clearly feminine scream hacked through the air and pierced the ears of all those that were present.

"Starfire!!" Robin shouted through the communication link, "STARFIRE!!" he shouted again. It was at this moment that the young alien girl realized that she had been the one screaming.

She stopped screaming and began to breathe deeply in an effort to calm herself down. "Are you alright?" Robin asked his friend.

She nodded into the view screen that depicted Robin. She turned her gaze toward the vast expanse of space. She knew that she had fallen asleep while they were traveling. A faint green and blue mass was approaching and getting larger by the moment. Her heart swelled, her home planet was near and she would finally be able to see her homeland again. She was finally home.

The ship rocked violently….

Alarms blared….

An explosion….

Cracking glass….

Free fall….

Darkness….

Life Support System Check…. 93 percent undamaged, 7 percent damaged. System Report: System functioning within limits, minor repairs needed.

Hydraulic System Check…. 80 percent undamaged, 20 percent damaged. System Report: System functioning within limits, moderate repairs needed.

Weapon/defense System Check…. SYSTEM OFFLINE, EXTREEM DAMAGE TAKEN! REPAIR IMMEDIATELY!

Power System Check…. PRIMARY POWER CORE DAMAGED! REPAIR IMMEDIATELY!

Auxiliary Power Core: ONLINE.

Approximate Power Remaining: 00:25:36

With a groan, Cyborg woke up. He was looking up into the canopy of trees of a strange rain forest. The leaves of the trees were a mixed hue of deep purple and bright green. What could be seen of the sky was a light pink-blue color. He looked at himself and saw that a piece of the T-Ship had pierced his chest armor and nearly tore it clean off. Some of his circuitry was visible and a blue crystal-like node was emitting sparks at random times through a crack that ran the length of it.

He removed the shard of metal from his chest and looked at his cannon arm; it was dented in many places and had a long sliver of glass sticking out from inside it. He sighed and removed the sliver of glass. As he looked around him, he saw the shattered remains of his pod; it had separated by itself. He walked up to it and immediately knew that it was beyond repair. He went inside the pod and dismantled the components so that he could repair himself with them. He rigged his auxiliary power cell to work on the power that remained in the pod.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

When Robin came to, he saw that the cockpit did not open on its failsafe function. He kicked it open, it flew and crashed on the floor where it shattered, any longer in the atmosphere, and he may not have been alive at all. Robin hopped out of the crashed ship and saw that Moya, Raven and Cyborg's pod was missing. The emergency failsafe systems had activated and they should be somewhere near their current location if the computers had calculated the trajectories properly.

Starfire hauled herself out of her cockpit and saw Robin looking around. Her right arm hurt tremendously; she looked at her injured arm and saw that it was clearly broken. She steadied herself as she walked and found it difficult to balance. She shook her head to clear the ringing out of her ears; she regained her balance as the ringing slowly stopped. "Robin!" she nearly cried with relief, "You are alright!"

"A few bumps and bruises, nothing to—" her saw her damaged arm and immediately cut his sentence short. "You're not okay," he said to her as he ran up to her, "let me help you." He pulled out something from his utility belt and made a makeshift sling for his alien friend.

"Thank you," she said to him as he finished.

"You're welcome," he replied to her as he went up to examine Beast Boy's pod. He found the green shape shifter upside down and out cold as well. He sighed and proceeded to wake up his friend.

Beast Boy groaned as Robin took him from the gentle embrace of sleep. "Where'd that bus come from?" he muttered to himself as he became more aware of himself and his surroundings as well.

"We were shot down," Robin corrected him as he helped him out of the damaged cockpit.

The green shape shifter muttered something incoherently and shakily got out of his pod with Robin's help. He shook his head and when he was awake enough, he asked his leader, "Where are the others?"

"I don't know," he said to him, "Radio transmissions are impossible with the amount of jamming on this planet."

"How do you know that?" Beast Boy asked again.

"Trust me," Robin said dismally, "I know."

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Moya blasted the unrelenting cockpit covering off. He had been trying to push it open for a few minutes and it had not budged. During the crash landing, he had made a shield around himself and the intense heat of reentry melded his damaged pod together into one mass of metal and electrical circuitry. He got out of the smoking wreckage and saw a pillar of black smoke not far away.

Moya quickly flew off to the source of the smoke and found a pod. He flew down to it and saw the smoking remains of what was once a state-of-the-art cockpit. Someone had put out the fire that had been there. He looked around for any sign of the pilot and found Raven's cape clasp. He looked around for any other sign of her and found none.

Moya went into a massive, tropical tree that was undamaged from the pod's crash landing and began to meditate. His mind was calling out to the Titans, though he sought out Raven most of all. He did not want her or her unborn child harmed. He concentrated further and looked for only her now. His floating body would have been an easy target, if it were not for the thick foliage of the tropical tree he was sitting in.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O

She hit her head hard against the control console. The flames were getting warmer as they found more things to burn. She could not concentrate on her spells due to her pounding head. The black smoke was getting thicker and chocking her as the lack of oxygen made her headache worse as each second passed. With her mind clouded and her vision fading quickly, she struggled to get out of the death trap that was her pod.

The red and yellow flames began to lick her body as a figure pulled the pod's smoke-darkened windshield off the smoking wreckage. He pulled out an object that hissed a white, steam-like substance and quelled the flames inside. Raven was unconscious from oxygen deprivation; blood was steadily trickling down the side of her face. Her pale skin was a bright red where the fire had touched her. The figure picked her up, did his best not to further injure her, and walked away with her in his arms. Without knowing it, her cape clasp fell onto the floor.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Cyborg finished the repairs to himself. Parts of him were different shades of grey since he had used metal from the irreparable pod as replacement parts and armor. He had also reconfigured the pod's power core to work as his primary power source. His plasma cannon was fixed since the necessary replacement parts were once part of the pod's laser weaponry; the hydraulic fluid that was once in the pod was now in Cyborg, this allowed his movement systems to function as normally as they could.

He looked into his transmission arm and turned it on. "YO!!" he called into it, "Titans! Anyone there?" the response that he got was warped static. He tried again and all he got was the same result.

He looked skyward, the thick trees blocked out his view of the sky. He walked forward and left the stripped pod behind him. He managed to salvage his recharger and carried it with him. All of his unnecessary systems were shut down in order to save energy; the jamming of radio waves was somehow scrambling his targeting systems as well; this did not bother him, he hardly ever used it.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Beast Boy, Robin and Starfire walked away from what remained of the T-Ship; the crash had damaged it beyond repair. They were not worried about not going home, they were worried about their friend. As they walked through the alien forest, they saw that a battle had taken place not long ago. The trees were still smoking where laser, magic or starbolts had hit them. In some places, the huge, alien trees still had glowing embers on them.

In the distance, a battle was raging on; it was the same battle that had passed through the trees that they had passed not more than a few moments ago. When they reached the battle, they saw that it was a bloody and grueling one indeed. What remained of the Tamaraneans, were fighting the massive front of Azarathians that had amassed in the forest. The thermonuclear forces of the launched starbolts were being deflected by the strange magics of their foes.

In close quarters combat, the Tamaraneans proved to be more than a challenge for their foes; the massive strength of them could easily rend flesh asunder. A massive man was fighting with a halberd; the strange blade eerily cut through the magical shields that his foes used to protect themselves with. The re-curved blade tore through delicate flesh like a hot knife through butter. It was clearly visible that this one man had protected them for so long. Their dwindling numbers were testament to his strength, for without this one man, what resistance that the Tamaraneans put up, would have been squashed long ago.

It seemed that the Azarathians had devised strange means of capture, it appeared as though they were not killing the Tamaraneans outright; rather, they seemed intent on capturing them for an unknown reason. This fact did not make them any less of an obstacle, the magics that they were using were far more potent than what the Titans had seen Raven use.

Robin knew that standing by idly was not going to help anyone. He shouted, "Titans, GO!" and charged into the fray. He threw his Birdarangs with extreme precision and they scored a direct hit, his target was promptly cut down by a salvo of starbolts. In the aftermath of the explosion, a bloody pulp remained and it hit the ground with an ignored thud.

Beast Boy obeyed Robin's orders without question. He charged in as a creature that Earth had not seen in more than sixty-five million years, a tyrannosaurus rex. He roared as he charged and bit down on an Azarath, it was pummeled into his massive, outstretched mouth by a barrage of starbolts. He bit down as hard as he could, his razor sharp teeth sliced the creature that was there into shredded strips, he ignored the fact that he had just ate a sentient creature due to the fact that he was needed to fight and had to do his best to stay alive for Terra….

Starfire flew out to help her people. Her eyes were blazing a bright green as she charged up her energy and formed potent spheres of nuclear energy around her hand. She unleashed it at someone that was about to inflict a finishing blow to one of her people. The massive volley sent her into a green t-rex's mouth where she heard her scream as Beast Boy tore her asunder and spit out the red remains of what was once a sentient creature.

The massive man negated a blast of magical energy that was headed straight for Starfire, his halberd proved to be an extremely anti-magical weapon, the blade glowed silver as it negated the blast. He looked at her in disbelief. He wrapped his massive arms around her and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Starfire," he said to her, "I thought that you would never come home…."

"GALFORE!" she exclaimed as she returned his hug, "I thought that you had perished!"

"It takes more than a few bumps and bruises to take me down," he replied to her as he moved them to avoid more spells.

They saw an Azarathian fight back against his own kind. the indigo energy was stronger than the red of his foe. The target of the spell was blasted backward and into a tree. After what seemed like a few minutes, which was, actually a few hours, what remained of the Azarathians that had been sent to retrieve the Tamaraneans left to go lick their wounds. The alliance traveled further into the forest and made a temporary camp, twilight was fast approaching and they were exhausted from the arduous task of defending a planet during an invasion.

O-O-O-O-O-O

Cyborg wandered the jungle alone. He had been wondering for ages and he wondered if he was going in circles. He had yet come across any sign of the other Titans and this made him wonder if he had been knocked way off course by the explosion that had split apart the T-Ship. As he walked, he noticed that the trees that were around him had the markings of battle on them

The forces that had been inflicted on the trees were both magical and thermo-nuclear alike; he knew that they had been made by both starbolts and spells due to his training sessions with Starfire and Raven. As he walked onward, he noticed that the jungle was becoming more and more devastated by battle. He came across a patch of jungle whose trees had been torn down by battle; a path was clearly visible and marked where the main part of the battle had been fought.

He looked around some more and found tracks leading into a less damaged part of the jungle. Having nothing else to do, he followed them and soon came across the dim light of a campfire. He approached the light with caution; he had long placed his recharger on his back so that he did not have to carry it, and had his cannon set to kill. He was weary of any attack and wanted to be as prepared as he could possibly be.

He leaped out and pointed his plasma cannon at the nearest living target. The being that he had pointed it at let out a loud feminine squeak as she tried to get out of the way from the glow as fast as she possibly could. In the dim light, various colored orbs of light lit up the area. He had been pointing his cannon directly at Starfire.

"Thank god you're alive!" Cyborg exclaimed as he lowered his cannon when he seen that it was Starfire that he was about to attack. The other Tamaraneans lowered their nuclear charge and the jungle became its dark self; the only light that was in the area was that of the fire.

He looked around and saw that Robin was next to Moya. He was healing an unconscious Raven. She was levitating a few feet off the ground and appeared to be in a trance-like state rather than unconscious. He turned toward Starfire and saw that she was conversing with someone vaguely familiar in her native language. He saw his green friend curled up by the fire as though he were a dog.

The half-human sat down next to robin, put his recharger on the floor and asked him, "How is she?" He gestured toward Raven.

"Moya says she'll be alright," Robin replied, "But I think he's hiding something. He's been healing her for the last half hour."

Cyborg nodded at his words and then told him about her strange behavior during his coma and of Moya's attempts to cover the what-ever-it-was up. "I know it has something to do with her brother," Robin said to his mechanical friend, "I'm not sure what it is though."

At this point, their friend from Azarath decided to wake up. She was slowly lowered to the ground as she became more awake, and made a groan as she held her aching head. "What happened?" she asked no one in particular.

The Titans that were awake gave her the answers that she sought. She sat up and looked about. She saw that everyone was present and accounted for and that the life inside her was still alive and unharmed. She made a sigh of relief, got up and asked one of the female Tamaraneans if she could wear something that was not burnt to cinders on places via telepathy. The young alien was quite surprised then nodded a moment later and led her to an enclosed space so that she could change in privacy. Even though she did not like the attire that she was wearing, it was better than nothing, she thought. She was wearing a semi-long, blue skirt and a sleeveless top that was blue as well.

She came back and leaned against Moya, strangely, she cuddled into him. The others took this as purely platonic. It was known that Raven and Moya had known each other when they were younger and they assumed that she missed having a friend from her childhood around even though she did not show friendship openly with the other Titans, they thought that he was the one exception.

"Come on guys," Robin said as he gave a loud yawn, "We'll need rest for the morning. It's time for bed."

This was greeted with a unanimous decision by the Titans that were awake, and some of the Tamaraneans. They curled up around the fire and fell asleep quickly, the battle during the day had greatly drained them, in the case of Cyborg, sleep was programmed into him and could not be shut down unless he deactivated the program that ran his sleep cycle.

The dreams of one of the Titans were troubling. The vision of a grand throne room loomed at the edge of the red rug that led to it. The king that was there should not have been in the holy place, for that was what it was, a sacred castle. It was made of white marble and had pillars made of polished gold that supported the ceiling; these pillars had designs etched into the metal itself. The king that was sitting on his throne had one skeletal, angel-like wing and he was sipping a fine, red wine from a clear goblet that was in his right hand. The strange thing about this one-winged angel was that he emitted an aura of pure evil, the demons that he had as his guards were afraid of him as well. It seemed that this 'angel' had evicted the previous owner out of his castle by force because remains of a human-shaped figure was on a cross and that cross was on the wall, the polished floor was covered in thick, dry blood.

When the gruff man known as Galfore awoke the Titans, they thanked him for letting them sleep in. the sounds of a ship were coming near. When it landed, a platoon of Azarathians came out and attacked the half-awake members of the resistance. The flood of spells that whizzed by their heads woke them up in an instant. The Titans attacked the threat without having to be told what to do by Robin; they were taking the battle personally.

Beast Boy changed into an alien creature; it looked like a massive dragon and had spikes running down his back. His long tail ended in a ball of extremely sharp spikes. He lashed out at his foes without mercy; his spiked tail could only be stopped by powerful defensive spells. His massive, leathery wings propelled him in his pursuit of his foes, his claws raked against the defensive walls that his foes put up.

Starfire's starbolts were stronger than normal due to the massive rage that she unleashed. The thermonuclear forces that her body generated wracked those that had failed to dodge or block her attacks. She fired a blast of energy from her eyes as a follow up attack and sent her target flying. He recovered and sent a salvo of purple-colored darkbolts at her. She formed a massive, super-charged starbolt and blasted him with it. Her starbolt absorbed the darkbolt and hit him squarely.

Moya blasted his enemies with their own brand of magic. His hands were covered in his indigo energy; he unleashed a stream of it onto an unsuspecting foe. She was caught off guard and was blasted into unconsciousness. He was blasted in the back during his small victory smile. The red energy tore into his back and burned it. The spell that was used on him was especially potent.

Robin brandished his Bo staff. He had an easy time of deflecting the blasts of magic that were cast at him. He had an extremely difficult time in attacking because the salvo of spells never let up. He threw one of his flash disks, it went off when it hit a darkbolt; he followed up with three ice disks. The disks struck home and the Azarathian was encased in ice, she fell to the jungle floor and stayed immobile.

Cyborg's plasma cannon was more powerful than his sonic cannon. The blast that it made was at least twice as big as his sonic resonator. He dodged a blast from somewhere above him and sent his plasma blast back at the caster. He flew backward and then was hit again by a missile that he launched from within his shoulder compartment. The Azarathian flew backward in a blast of hot gasses and steam that was coming from burns on his skin.

Raven's spells were powerful indeed. Her incantations blasted through the offensive spells of her people with ease. She was unable to penetrate their defensive spells. She shouted her chant and let forth a blast of black energy at her foe. He was blasted into the ground, black electricity cackled over his unconscious body as left over energy found ways to harm him further.

Galfore's halberd was doing a fine job of protecting his people. The enchanted blade broke through the most powerful spells and bit into flesh as he wielded it like a true master. He impaled his foe and threw the limp body down to the ground. The Azarathian was unable to move as his blood poured out of the hole in his stomach. He turned to face another enemy and found that they had all been taken care of.

Beast Boy transformed back into his human form and asked, "Is that all of them?"

"What were you expecting," Cyborg asked him, "a full regiment?"

A figure walked toward them through the smoke of battle. His exceptionally long and thin blade was on his shoulder. It was nearly twice as tall as its wielder. He stood at a massive height of six foot five inches tall. He was wearing black leather that was slightly form-fitting and a black, satin cape. A red design was on the hem of his flowing cape. He gripped his sword with black gloved hands and it clanked silently against the studs in his studded leather armor. His long, flowing platinum hair whipped about in the wind. He gazed at the ones that had defeated his platoon of men.

"Akaröth," Moya said as he lowered himself to the ground, "how nice to see you again.

"You as well, Erth," Akaröth said to Moya, "now if you don't mind, I'd like to have that Key you have."

"You will not have the Sigil of Azarath," Moya said to him.

"No matter," he said calmly, "I will have it in my possession before the day is spent." He gazed at the halberd that Galfore wielded and said in a low whisper, "The Lance of Longinus…."

Beast Boy looked at the man, for some reason he looked oddly familiar as though he had seen him before. He shook the feeling off as Akaröth neared them. His piercing orange eyes were disconcerting as he gazed at them.

"I will ask again," Akaröth said quietly, "give me the Key or I will be forced to destroy you."

"I will not give the Key to you," Moya said defiantly to him.

"So be it Erth, you have chosen your fate," Akaröth said as he aimed his massive sword at Moya.

He charged the blade glinted in the light of the sun. He made a swipe of his sword and missed his target by mere inches. Moya leaped backward, formed spheres of energy around his hands and threw them at the self-proclaimed king. He easily blocked the blasts and launched a blast of eight, white colored spheres of light that had trailing tails of white-blue light. Moya formed a defensive shield and the spheres of light broke through his shield. Moya flew backward, energy cackling over him as he struggled to recover from the blast of holy energy.

Raven flew off to meet the challenge that had presented itself. She chanted her mantra and sent a massive stream of energy at him. He raised his hand and a green energy field surrounded him. Her blast of energy was deflected harmlessly away. He leaped up ward; his speed enhanced by his strange brand of magic, and brought his sword down upon her. She formed a black portal around herself and evaded his attack. Using his small bit of surprise against him, she blasted him at point blank range with a blast of dark magic.

Akaröth was blasted backward; his momentary lapse of concentration had cost him. He was hot going to let that happen again. He steadied himself in the air and a massive bolt of lightning rained from the sky and struck her. She fell to the ground; the force of the lightning bolt sent her into the ground. Leftover electricity crackled over her still form.

Robin watched the two Titans fall. He shouted, "TITANS, GO!!" They did not need to be told twice. Beast Boy charged in as a leopard, Cyborg charged while he blasted away with his cannon; Starfire flew at the Azarathian king, determination in her bright green eyes. Robin charged after his friends, for once they had reacted faster than he had anticipated; he threw a bomb Birdarang and used his Bo staff to give him a flying leap.

Akaröth outstretched his hand and Beast Boy ran into a transparent, blue shield. He used his sword to block Robin's bomb disk, it exploded in a blast of flame; the intense fire did little to hurt him but the starbolts that were unleashed upon him added to the heat. He leaped backward, outstretched another hand and pointed a finger at Starfire. An image of a clock appeared in front of her and the hands moved backward. She was moving at half speed and appeared as though she was in a different time-stream. He leapt over the plasma blasts that Cyborg unleashed and countered with a spell. The ground below the mechanized warrior erupted in golden flames; the warrior flew upward due to the force of the blast. When he landed some feet away, smoke and steam was coming off him.

Robin landed next to him. His Bo staff lashed out and met the fierce resistance of Akaröth's sword. This sword was not a Key; it was just a finely crafted piece of metal. The sparks that flew off the sharp, slivers of metal landed on the ground in silence. Robin withdrew a Birdarang while he was fighting with the King; he was taking a risk and used a suicide tactic. He took his bomb Birdarang and detonated it on his Bo staff. The explosion sent both of them flying backward.

Robin's tactic paid off, the blast sent the dazed form of Sephiroth into the clawed clutches of Beast Boy. He raked the back of Akaröth with his powerful claws. They did not penetrate his black clothes for some strange reason and he threw Beast Boy in the air where he landed next to Cyborg. Cyborg got up, his systems had rebooted and he charged again at the thing that was his foe.

Moya groaned as he awakened, the blast of holy energy had taken a toll on him but he was not ready to quit just yet. He got up and flew over to Akaröth as he formed spheres of energy around his hands. He unleashed the energy in the form of a massive salvo. Akaröth blocked the attacks with his sword. While he was occupied, Robin came up from behind and threw a bomb Birdarang. The Birdarang's aim was true and it hit the Azarathian king squarely on the back. He turned around and with one fluid motion, he hit Robin in the side with his sword, Robin's cape protected him from the blade's sharpness and he flew backwards where the slowed form of Starfire did her best to catch her friend.

Raven got up from where she had been impounded in the ground. The lightning that chorused through her body left her numb. She saw her friend fly backwards from the blow of Akaröth's sword and she caught him with her magic. She enveloped Starfire as well and reversed the slowing spell on her. They two young women blasted Akaröth at once and unwittingly created a three-way combination attack. The two beams hit him when Cyborg fired his cannon at him as well. Sephiroth was forced backward by the blast, and was met with a charge from Beast Boy; he had taken the form of a rhino.

Akaröth got up from where he had fallen; a malicious smile was on his face. "There are few beings that can hurt me like that," he said to them, "You should feel honored." He charged at Robin, their metal weapons flashed and sparked as they danced together. Cyborg joined in, his mechanical strength made up for his lack of precision.

The two teens quickly leaped away and Akaröth was met with a multicolored blast that came from Moya, Raven and Starfire. He outstretched a hand and the massive stream of energy was deflected off a transparent, green shield. They stopped their blast of energy and Beast Boy charged again. Akaröth sent a blast of energy at the ground below Beast Boy and it rolled backward as though an earthquake had struck there. The green shape shifter transformed into a sparrow to evade the rolling ground.

Galfore looked on helplessly. He did not show his wounds to the Titans because he thought that it would have interfered with their concentration on the threat at hand. He was resting at the base of a tree and looked at his wound; it was bleeding freely and there was no way to stop it. He looked at his lance; Akaröth had called it the 'Lance of Longinus,' he did not know who Longinus was, but whoever he was, he had to have been quite powerful to create a weapon that negated magic. He leaned up against the tropical tree and let the blood flow out of side freely, even he knew that he was doomed to die….

Robin threw an ice Birdarang at Akaröth; he used his blue, transparent shield again and blocked the attack only to have Cyborg blast it with his plasma cannon. It seemed that his blue shield blocked physical attacks and his green shield blocked energy attacks. He was using this information against his foe to distract him from the Titans that relied on energy blasts.

Akaröth was blasted backwards by the plasma blast; smoke was coming off his black cloak. He charged at Cyborg only to be rammed by Beast Boy that had taken the form of a triceratops. He flew to the side and sent a blast of eight, white orbs of energy that had blue-white tails of trailing energy. Beast Boy did not dodge in time and was struck by the holy energy. He flew backwards; white, holy energy was cackling over his limp form. Starfire, Moya, and Raven blasted Sephiroth with their energy, the black, indigo and green swirling beam managed to hit him squarely, Robin had distracted him long enough for him not to use his green shield.

Akaröth took the blast of energy, outstretched his hand and pointed it at the three energy users. A blast of negative energy appeared from nowhere in front of them. Whatever was viewed in the blast was a photographic negative color. The three cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Akaröth had a twisted smile on his face as he saw the three energy users twitch on the ground. He did a back flip as Robin came charging at him. He used his sword to attack the Boy Wonder and cut Robin's Bo staff in half. He extended the two halves and fought with two weapons.

Akaröth outstretched his hand and Robin was attacked from the ground by ferocious, golden flames. He landed on the ground some feet away and did not move. Cyborg blasted Akaröth with his plasma cannon and a blast of missiles. Akaröth used both of his shields and during the explosion Cyborg had leapt into the air and used the sonic cannon that was located in his shoe to blast the Azarathian king and deliver a crushing stomp-kick. His foe came out of his stomp-kick seemingly unharmed; he used his sword to deliver a lightning bolt to the mechanized warrior. Cyborg flew back, electricity coming off him and leaving a trail of sparks as he flew threw the air.

The three energy users shakily got up, the blast of energy that the Azarathian King had used on them made it feel like their insides were ripped out of them then shoved back inside in the wrong order. They split up and charged back into the fray of battle. Starfire pelted the false king with her starbolts; he blocked the green blasts of thermonuclear energy with a green shield as his sword was enveloped in Raven's black energy. Moya blasted him with his indigo energy so that his hold on his sword was relinquished; Raven flung his sword away and into a tropical tree.

With his sword gone, he was less of a threat though he still had his magic to fall back upon. He was formulating the best plan of attack when a blast of energy erupted from the ground below him. He emerged unharmed, it seemed that Robin had placed a small mine before he had struck him during his last confrontation, the blast from the mine had cost him precious seconds. Starfire, Moya and Raven sent a stream of energy at the slightly less lethal King. He blocked the energy attacks using three green shields.

Beast Boy shakily got up, pain was dully echoing through his body, and transformed into a cheetah as he charged toward Akaröth at breakneck speed. The false king did not have time to react him and was attacked by the clawing form of a green cheetah. He promptly transformed into an ape and repeatedly slammed his massive fists into the chest of his foe.

Akaröth was momentarily stunned from the ruthless form of the green shape shifter. He regained his footing and flung the beast of burden off him; Beast Boy landed on his feet by transforming into a jaguar. "AZARATH METRION SZYNTHOS!!" Raven and Moya shouted in unison. The black-indigo beam of energy hit the transparent green shield that Sephiroth had made just in time. The swirling beam of energy did not harmlessly reflect off the shield, it pushed him backward. He abandoned his shield and leapt up into the air at the same time. He outstretched his hand and Moya and Raven were enveloped in a sphere of darkly multicolored energy. It flashed a bright white and the two spell casters fell to the floor and did not move.

Cyborg got up with a groan; his systems were not built to handle the strain of a massive overload over a repeated massive overload. He shot a stream of his energy toward his foe and let loose his last three missiles as he charged toward the false king. Robin joined in; his Bo staff was drawn into a standard offensive position. They saw an orange blur rush past them. Starfire had wrenched Akaröth's sword out of the tropical tree and had flown as fast as she could toward him. He put up his blue shield and the sheer ferocity of her malevolence allowed her to break through it.

He was impaled with his own sword….

Cyborg's missiles found their target….

Deafening roar of explosives and hot gasses….

When the smoke cleared, Starfire had been flung away and had landed near the two spell casters. The unconscious form of the Azarathian King was laying limply in the opposite direction of the young alien girl. His sword was still inside him and blood was slowly coming out of him. Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg went up to their injured friends and helped them regain consciousness.

"You guys okay?" Beast Boy asked the two spell casters.

"We were just sent into Limbo, do you think we're alright?" Raven asked rhetorically.

"I was just asking," the green shape shifter replied.

"That was awesome what you just did," Robin said to Starfire.

"Yeah, no one can survive having a sword impaled in them, even me!" Cyborg said to her, adding to Robin's praise.

The young alien girl blushed deeply and smiled broadly at her leader's praise of her. "Thank you Robin," she said to him.

A sunbeam formed on the lifeless remains of the Azarathian King. The divine light of the Immortal Planes were merciful to the False King, or so it seemed. The lifeless body stood up; his strange, malevolent bright orange eyes were replaced with emotionless white orbs of vengeance. He removed his own sword from where it was impaled in his chest in one fluid motion, his wound closed up as soon as the sword was removed from his body; the blood that was on his sword dripped silently onto the floor.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

His back pulsed as though something were trying to burst out of it. In a sound of rending flesh, one bloody, skeletal, angel-like wing emerged from the back of Akaröth. The wing was glossy and tendrils of flesh clung onto the holy-white wing. He moved his arm to the wing and pulled the flesh that had clung onto the wing. The flesh and skin that he had pulled off, he let fall to the floor. His strange armor was torn in half. He turned his gaze toward the Titans and charged with his magnificent sword, the blood that still managed to cling to his sword flew off in small drips of red spray.

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

The Titans looked in awe, shock and horror as their slain enemy was brought back to life seemingly by divine intervention. They remained paralyzed with fear as he removed his sword and transformed into a false, one-winged angel. They barely leapt out of the way, as he charged at them. They attacked him with their various means and he evaded or blocked every shot fired at him with his massive, bloodstained sword.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

He leaped into the air; his one wing let him fly as though he had two. He brought his sword down upon Moya and made a long, jagged slash on his arm. Moya retaliated by using one of his Erth abilities. The stream of silver colored energy hit his false king squarely but did little damage to the false angel. Raven enveloped him in her dark energy and slammed him through a tree and into another before he broke her control over his body. He was upon her in mere moments and blasted her at point blank range with eight spheres of light. She flew backwards and into the startled arms of Starfire.

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

The demonic, one winged angel turned his wrath toward Robin. He flew down to meet his prey and it retaliated with rapid blows of his Bo staff. Sparks burst forth from the metal as the two fought against each other. They anticipated the other's moves and at the same time, they employed their 'secret' attack on the other. Robin took out one of his few ice Birdarangs and threw it at the false king just as Akaröth sent a lightning bolt at the Boy Wonder.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The Boy Wonder and the false king flew in opposite directions. Robin's right hand was encased in ice and Akaröth was blasted with his own massive lightning bolt. Akaröth quickly recovered and he flew off to destroy the mechanical wizard. As Cyborg did his best to block the vicious and quick attacks, he did something that the other Titans had never seen him do before. He took the blade with his shoulder, his armor held, and he blasted Sephiroth at full power with his plasma cannon. The blue stream of energy hit the false angel squarely and he flew off his body to the surprised form of Beast Boy.

The kingdom of this world is become
The Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,
And of His Christ.

Beast Boy looked at Cyborg hold his own against the menace known as Akaröth then blast him his way. He transformed into his dragon form, how he first transformed into it was beyond him, and swung his spiked tail at his enemy as hard as he could. Akaröth blocked the powerful attack with his blue shield and blasted him with his strange magics. He felt liquid fire flow through his veins as strange symbols appeared on him. He immediately reverted to his human form and Akaröth finished his attack with a massive lightning bolt. He flew backwards, electricity flowing over his numb body and crashed in to a tree.

And He shall reign forever and ever.
And He shall reign forever and ever.
And He shall reign forever and ever.
And He shall reign forever and ever.

Raven and Starfire watched in horror as the false angel de-transformed Beast Boy and then blast him away with a lightning bolt. They charged their energies together and formed a black and green swirling beam of pure fury. They unleashed it upon the sadistic form of Akaröth with all their might. He blocked their massive blast with his green shield, the force of the swirling beam forced him backward; remnant energy from the blast chorused around him.

King of Kings

Akaröth gazed at the aftermath that the massive beam of energy had unleashed. There were few who could conjure up such a blast. He leaped up and blocked green starbolts with his sword while he evaded black magic cast by Raven. He deflected twin eye beams of energy and sent them toward Raven. She failed to dodge and was struck by her comrade's thermonuclear energy. He used his foe's gasp against her by delivering a vicious spinning kick the sent her downward. He turned toward the recovered spell caster and unleashed eight spheres of holy-white light upon her. She phased through the attack and chanted as she blasted five black needles at him.

Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And Lord of Lords
Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

He took her spell as he unleashed a full frontal assault on her. The five needles of energy exploded as he struck her with his sword. She cried out in pain as his sword drew blood; he was striking for pain rather than death. He grabbed her by the neck and flung her to the ground where she crashed into the recovering form of Starfire. He turned to gaze out at the carnage he had delivered to the Titans and found himself on the receiving end of a silvered colored blast of energy. He recovered and flew toward Moya at breakneck speed as he held his sword in a one-hit-kill position. He struck and Moya managed to dodge the vicious attack.

King of Kings

He turned to face the evading form of his enemy and unleashed a massive sphere of fire that flew toward him. Moya failed to dodge the massive fireball and was forced into a tree before it exploded in a blazing blast of fire. He was brought to the attention of Robin; a Birdarang had narrowly missed his left ear. He charged towards the Boy Wonder and brought his sword upon the cowering form Robin only to be blasted away by a blue plasma blast.

Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And Lord of Lords
Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

He emerged from the plasma blast unharmed and flew toward Cyborg, only to be attacked from behind by Robin. While the false angel fought against Robin and Cyborg, Moya climbed out of his burnt tree and saw the convulsing form of Beast Boy. It seemed that the spell Akaröth had used against him had poisoned and blinded him as well as rendered him unable to transform into his beasts. He concentrated on healing his injured friend and a small whit glow covered him from head to toe. Before Beast Boy could reply a thank you, the damaged form of Cyborg flew over them.

King of Kings

Raven and Starfire finally regained consciousness, they helped one another up; Raven was bleeding from the many wounds inflicted by Sephiroth. She was breathing deeply; the loss of blood was taking its toll on her. Starfire was walking with one arm hanging limply, her other one was helping the bleeding form of Raven walk. They saw Moya heal Beast Boy, he ran over to them and began to heal Raven. He healed Starfire's shoulder as Robin flew over their heads. When he landed, a small trail of blood was coming from a wound to his head. He shakily got up only to have Akaröth strike him down again.

Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
And Lord of Lords
Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The three less-damaged energy wielders sent a tri-colored blast at the false angel. Akaröth blocked the tri-colored beam with not his shield but with his sword. He flew forward to meet the new threat, his sword still blocking the energy blasts that were being fired at him. He kicked Moya in the side with a monstrous spinning kick and with his excess momentum; he sent Starfire flying with a kick to her chest. He turned his sword on Raven; she phased through his attack and sent a salvo of darkbolts at him. He evaded her onslaught of dark magic and an immense ball of flame erupted in front of her that did not seem to hurt the Azarathian King.

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Raven was flung backwards due to the sheer heat of the explosion. She fell onto the jungle floor and tried to haul her scorched frame up and off the ground and failed to do so. She resigned herself to the gentle embrace that the moist, jungle floor offered her and fell into unconsciousness. Beast Boy saw his friend and comrade get hit at point-blank range with a powerful fire spell. He charged at the false king as a cheetah then leaped upon him as a tiger. With feral anger coursing through his veins, he did not notice the wounds that were inflicted on him. He continued to rake the grappling form of Akaröth until he was flung off by a blast of holy energy in the form of eight blue-white spheres light.

And He shall reign forever and ever.
And He shall reign forever and ever.

Cyborg saw one of his best friends get blasted at direct range from a spell that had done Raven in. He charged as fast as he could towards Akaröth and unleashed a fully charged plasma blast at him. Akaröth sliced the blast in half and the deflected halves passed harmlessly away from him. He stood up from where Beast Boy had pinned him, the red drip of blood echoed silently as it fell to the moist floor and flew off toward Cyborg and in one sudden, fluid motion, he sliced Cyborg's plasma arm off.

King of Kings

Cyborg growled in pain as his arm was cleanly sliced off. As the False Angel reveled in the plight of his enemy, Starfire flew forward and attacked him at point-blank range. Her anger far exceeded her pain. Her supercharged starbolts were fueled by her righteous anger for the man that stood in her way. She unleashed them in a furry of rage, hatred and pain. The thermonuclear energy erupted in explosions as the False Angel blocked them.

Forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

He emerged from her onslaught seemingly unharmed; his strange armor was smoking and was covered in scratches. In her small state of shock, he clasped his hand upon her neck and tightened his grip on her with a sadistic smile plastered on his face. He continued to crush her neck in his massive grip; the Titans were afraid that if they did something rash, they would lose their young alien friend for good. They waited and bid their time, all the while Starfire was struggling against the hand that cut off her air supply.

And He shall reign forever and ever, Forever and ever.

"Do not harm that woman!" Moya said in a deathly calm voice to Akaröth; his anger was barely contained.

King of Kings

"And what if I do, little Erth?" he replied in a cold malicious voice as he tightened hi already strong hold on the young Tamaranean girl.

And Lord of Lords.

King of Kings

And Lord of Lords.

"I will slay you," Moya said resolutely as he formed spheres of indigo energy around his hands.

And He shall reign forever and ever.

"I highly doubt that, little Erth," the False Angel whispered in a deadly calm. A dead silence came over the group of combatants as the stare-off continued. The faint whimpers of Starfire could be heard.

King of Kings
And Lord of Lords.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

With a sadistic grin plastered on his face, he dropped his sword and plunged his free hand into the heart of Starfire. Despite the ruthless grip on her neck, she emitted an ear-piercing scream. The hand that went inside her body seemed to reach into her soul. She arched her back as pain chorused through her body, small specks of blood formed where his arm went into her. He pulled his arm out from inside her, strangely, there was no wound, and in his clenched hand was a red, fist-sized gem that was dripping blood.

Hallelujah!

He threw the limp form of Starfire to the ground. She stayed there and did not move. He gazed at the gem almost lovingly and lost himself to his prize. The red gem emitted an aura of pure power and vileness at the same time. Starfire's blood dripped onto the floor silently. The red splatters slowly trailed off her back and made a small rivulet down to her stomach.

Moya's eyes glowed a vicious, unholy white color. The energy that was chorusing through to his right hand was a malevolent red. He gritted his teeth as his energy sparked and danced around him. "AZARATH METRION SZYNTHOS!!" He shouted as the launched the massive energy he had contained at Sephiroth. The malevolent energy turned into a hand that enveloped his target and exploded in a fantastic blaze of heat and light.

The Azarathian King emerged from the massive energy attack relatively unharmed. He looked at Moya and said to him, "Little Erth, I do not fear your power." He clutched the red gem and walked to the spaceship that he had used to land on the god-forsaken world of Tamaran.

Moya ran up to the motionless form of Starfire, the other Titans had gathered around him. "Go help Raven!" he shouted to them as he concentrated on healing his alien friend. She glowed faintly and she slowly regained consciousness. He turned to the prone Form of Raven; Robin had brought her to him. He concentrated on healing her; she glowed faintly for a moment then awoke with a groan.

"What did Akaröth take from Starfire?" Robin asked the Azarathian healer.

"I will tell you what I know of it after we clean up here…." Moya replied and looked around at the damage they had caused during their intense fight.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

Okay, people that was chapter five. I sure hope that you guys liked it. As for the asterisk at the beginning of the song that I had inserted in this chapter, I got it from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It appears there when Asuka is fighting that Angel that is in space and Rei comes and saves her with the Lance of Longinus. If you want the song, e-mail me, my e-mail is in my profile.

Well, I am not sure when I will be able to post the next installment in this story, but I will do my best to have it done soon!

Sincerely,

Darkbusterrancher

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