Part 43: The Assassin
Jericho was walking around town, alone; there was someone he needed to see. He turned a corner and heard a familiar ringing sound. It was unexpected at first, but he soon accepted it for what it was. Apparently, once you were a Zodiac Knight, you were always a Zodiac Knight.
Copycat appeared before him, fully clad in her Cat Armor and approaching him slowly and deliberately. He didn't react negatively; there was nothing for him to fear from her, after all. All he was experiencing was a feeling of anticipation.
Copycat's eyepieces and faceplate slid into her helmet revealing her face and cold storm blue eyes. Clutched in her gauntleted hand was a Zodiac Deck that Jericho knew too well. He extended his hand and she placed the deck in it. The Crystal of Cancer shone brightly in the darkness of the street which was illuminated by street lights.
"No matter what you can't just stop fighting, Joey," she said to him. Jericho's green eyes peered into hers. She said seriously, "I've heard of what happened. The Brotherhood of Evil is gone now and you've been made a Titan." He nodded. "Well, if that's the case, I wonder: Do you still want to continue as Scizzors? You can return that deck to me right now and lose the right to fight for that wish that you want so badly." Jericho looked uncertain. "Take your time and think about it." She turned and walked away. Jericho watched as she did. She then stopped and looked over her shoulder. She said, "Slade-sama doesn't say much but I know he misses you, and so do Rosey-chan, Cathy-chan and Grant. Even if the big ox won't admit it, the love is still there. Come visit when you have time." Jericho nodded. "Oh, and Joey?" Jericho looked up at her again. "I hate to have to tell you this, but since you're a Titan now that makes you my enemy. The next time we meet, you'd better be prepared to fight for your life." Jericho nodded in understanding. "Ja ne," Kat said, before vanishing.
Back in Titans Tower, after all the honorary Titans left to return to their respective countries/home/cities, the Titans were all fast asleep and dreaming pleasant dreams. However, one Titan was not having any sort of pleasant dreams. Instead, he was having a very vivid and frightening nightmare.
Ryuki Leonard Hasuma, also known as Zodiac Knight Draco, was tossing and turning in bed. Sweat was beginning to form on his face as he held an uneasy and fearful expression. His fingers dug into the mattress and he gritted his teeth. His head tossed from side to side. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he let out a scream of pure horror. The sweat caused his fiery red hair to cling to his forehead. He panted and gasped, breathing in deeply.
The door to his room slid open and someone ran in. "Baby!" It was Jinx, his girlfriend and she was dressed in a purple nightgown and wearing her hair down. Seeing the state of her boyfriend she sat down on the bed and he immediately clung to her. Her room was quite close to his, so she had been able to hear his scream. She attempted to soothe him by running her hands up and down his back. Brimstone, Draco's pet hellhound, padded over to his master and Jinx, resting his head on her lap. Draco looked down and petted the black skinned dog to assure him that he was alright… somewhat alright, at least.
"Are you okay?" Jinx asked, as Draco began to calm down.
"H-Hai," he answered, still shaking. "I just had a bad dream."
"It sounded like you had more of a nightmare to me," Jinx said. Brimstone whimpered worriedly. "Are you sure you're going to be okay? You want me to sleep with you?"
Draco gazed at her and shook his head. "No, you don't have to. It was just a bad dream. I'll be quite fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Hai."
"At least let me do this," she said before capturing his lips with a kiss. Draco's shining emerald green eyes slid close as she held him and he held her. The kiss was passionate and lasted for almost a minute before they both reluctantly pulled away for air. "Good night, Ryuki."
"Oyasumi, Jinxy-chan," he said. "Aishiteru."
"I love you too." She gave him one last kiss before leaving. Brimstone looked at his master with glowing yellow eyes as the Dragon Knight fell back on his bed. The dream, no, the nightmare he had experienced was quite vivid. Since he had gained the Power of Pisces, he had been having more and more of these strange dreams. Not only that, the dreams kept getting stranger and stranger and more horrifying. They had been especially frequent for the last few months. What did it all mean? He wanted to ask Shadowcobra for advice, but if he did then the Snake Knight would be worried about him and Draco knew how busy he was with his work. He wasn't going to bother Raven with this either. It was just something trivial. All he needed was a glass of cold milk and he'd be fine.
Draco, you could not be more wrong.
"Not good," were Libra's words as he watched the time portal/window. There he saw the future and it was not well at all, either. Standing with Libra were his friends, Fuji and Clockwork as well as the Observants (who were not his friends. They annoyed the First Knight to an extreme degree and he didn't like them in the slightest. To Libra, they were just a pair of lazy eyes who watched and did nothing).
"Do you see?" one of the Observants said, "By damaging the time stream and making sure that Danny Phantom never became evil, it simply adapted. A new evil has arisen to take his place."
"I can see that!" Libra snapped, "Get to the point!" they annoyed him far too much, and he was getting more and more impatient.
"To preserve the future, you must destroy the one who will become the Orphenoch King," the other Observant said. "That is the only way to save the world!"
"You were both wrong before," said Clockwork, "What makes you think your words will be any more believable now?
The Observants remained silent before simply vanishing. Clockwork sighed and looked towards Libra.
"Let me handle things," Libra said. "He is my responsibility, after all."
The Knight vanished with a sigh.
That night, a foreign portal formed in an alley. It was swirling vortex, and there was a vaguely humanoid figure walking out of it from within its depths. The figure was obviously male in appearance, dressed in a full black jumpsuit with a matching set of gloves, boots and various other adornments. He wore a silver breast plate, a helmet with a black visor, a leather belt, bracers, and shin guards. In a holster attached to his belt was a wicked yet familiar looking gun and on his back was a powerful looking sword. His target was around here somewhere, so all he had to do was wait for it to come to him. The creature, or whatever it was, grinned wickedly. This should be fun, it thought.
The following day the Titans decided to take a walk in town. The core team had been away for quite a long time, over 5 months, fighting the Brotherhood of Evil. With the majority of their enemies frozen in the now abandoned Brotherhood of Evil Headquarters, however, the Titans could now relax and have a day off without worrying about anything.
The core team, made up of Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven were accompanied by their fellow teammates, who had dubbed themselves the 'Z-Titans' during the core team's absence. The members of the Z-Titans were Draco, Jinx, Pluto, Blackfire, Terra, Shadowcobra, Mortuary and Renia.
"A lot has changed, hasn't it?" Robin asked as he walked around, holding Starfire's hand. The place they had gone to rent their movies in the past so often was gone; apparently it was now under construction. So was Raven's favorite bookstore, much to her dismay. "Maybe we've been gone too long."
"The more things change, Robin, the more they stay the same," Shadowcobra quoted sagely. His time as leader of the Z-Titans had not made him forget of who was really in charge. He respected Robin as both a leader and a friend.
"Where am I going to buy my books?" Raven asked.
"I don't remember a bookstore," Beast Boy spoke up.
"That's because you never bought a book," Raven retorted.
"I've bought books!"
"Comic books don't count."
Beast Boy, unable to respond, sulked with his ears drooping. Terra rubbed his head to console him.
"Well, I'm in the mood for pizza," Cyborg said, "What do y'all say?"
Pluto didn't know how to break this to him gently. He said slowly and sadly, "Sorry, Cy, but the pizza place is gone."
The core Titans gaped at him.
Pluto continued, "The spot got bought over by some other chain restaurant. Sorry I had to ruin your day like that, Cy."
"But what will we do for our pizza?" Starfire whined.
"Did I forget to mention there's a new pizza place just around the corner?" Blackfire said, trying to lighten the mood. Starfire smiled and hugged her sister.
"Oh, thank you, sister!" Starfire said gleefully. Blackfire rolled her eyes and loosened the grip her little sister had on her.
"Maybe we should try something different," Renia said. "I mean, pizza does get old after a while."
"I have to agree with Renia on that," Mortuary said, "My dad always told me that too much of a good thing was never a good thing."
"Too true," Terra nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, the calm was interrupted by a loud explosion. It was coming from the construction site. When the smoke cleared there stood a ten feet tall white humanoid creature with a white mask that had black facial markings and soulless red eyes. The people around them panicked and screamed.
Jinx sighed and said, "So much for 'trouble-free vacation'."
"Titans! Go!" Robin commanded, and the Titans went on the attack. High above them, on a nearby building, was the strange figure that had emerged from the portal the previous night. His face was hidden under his helmet but, you could strangely tell that, just by looking at him, his eyes were trained upon the red haired Knight of Combustion. The watcher's eyes narrowed as he drew the sword from his back. It was 4 feet long, with a jagged edge. To complete the rather morbid theme, it had a skull as a pommel and cross-bones for the hand guard. The blade itself was glowing an almost toxic green color.
The Titans found out that this 'Thing' was able to morph its body into whatever substance it touched, be it rock, water, or fire. Right now it was made of ice, because Draco had thought it'd be a good idea to freeze it. It didn't work.
The creature swung its ice cold fists at Starfire and Blackfire, sending them flying back. Raven, with her chant of, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" sent steel beams flying at it. It grabbed a beam and morphed into steel just as a stone fist came hurtling towards it, courtesy of Terra. The fist connected, and because of that the creature's form shifted into rock. Robin, seeing his opening for an attack, charged and unleashed his exploding discs. They connected with the Thing, who attempted to fight back but suddenly found that it couldn't move. Shadow had immobilized it by taking control of its shadow.
Cyborg, with a yell of, "Booyah!" fired a sonic energy beam which smashed brutally into its head. Beast Boy followed this up with a charge, and assuming the form of a bison and stampeding towards the Thing, causing it a lot of damage on impact.
Renia, because of her alchemical background, decided to have some fun with her opponent. When she got close enough to the Thing, she used her alchemic powers to turn it into a simple jagged rock without any other features, save for its face. The Thing's eyes glowed as it attempted to take on another form, but a pink hex from Jinx put a damper on its plans.
The Titans, ready to finish it off, were quite surprised when a green blast of energy flew at the creature and destroyed it, resulting in a powerful explosion of green energy. They turned to Mortuary, who was standing nearby and looking puzzled. He merely shrugged and said, "It wasn't me."
Shadow's eyes narrowed and he turned to where the blast had come from. Standing not too far away was the strange black clad and armored figure. His aura signature, the one Shadow had sensed, was so familiar. It felt like…His eyes widened. It couldn't be.
The figure was holding his sword in his left hand and his gun in his right. His eyes went over to Draco as he said, growling hatefully, "You're mine!" He rushed forward, swinging his blade. Before the blow could connect, though, the warrior was intercepted by a wall of shadow energy.
"Who are you?" Shadow demanded. The stranger simply responded coolly, "Don't get in my way." A blast of green energy from his gun shattered the wall and he continued on his way towards Draco, who could only stand motionless, stunned by the events that were unfolding in front of him.
"TIME TO DIE!" the stranger shouted as he swung his blade downwards again. But, yet again, it was blocked by a pair of drills attached to a gauntlet. The warrior glared down at the one who had been stupid enough to interrupt him. It was Mortuary, in his Zodiac Knight armor. He had activated his Gazelle Stabber Strike Vent just in time to save Draco. The stranger was stunned, and the Aries Knight took advantage of his pause, kicking him away. Satisfied that this new danger was out of the way, at least for the moment, Mortuary turned to Draco.
"What are you trying to accomplish by killing Draco?" Mort asked, before he walked towards the stranger.
The stranger fought against the Titans, furiously shouting all the while, "You don't know what you're doing!" He tried to 'reason' with them, but only got an electric bolt from Pluto as a response. He leapt over a boulder hurled by Terra, and then slashed down on the starbolts and blackbolts being fired by the Tamaranian sisters. Cyborg, who was being carried by Beast Boy in his pteranadon form, aimed and fired his cannon at the stranger, who rolled away to dodge the attack. He was then forced into a deadlock with Robin who narrowed his eyes at him. His sword was being pushed back by Robin's staff as he pushed back as well.
"Who sent you?" Robin demanded. "And why are you trying to kill Draco?"
"Nobody sent me!" he shouted, kicking Robin away before continuing. "I'm only trying to save the world!" He fired a green necro-blast at Draco, but his latest attack on the Dragon Knight was intercepted by a hex-wave from Jinx. Jinx, eyes glowing and pissed off beyond reason at the guy who dared to threaten her boyfriend charged and threw a flurry of punches. Renia did the same and the stranger could only desperately try to block them, rapidly tiring. Suddenly, shadow chains erupted from the ground and bound the warrior's arms and legs. His weapons were wrenched out of his hands by Starfire and Blackfire, rendering the once-fearsome enemy helpless. The stranger, now properly restrained, still struggled despite his situation. Robin was going to have his answers and went to remove his helmet. Before he could, though, Draco shouted out, "CHOTTO MATTE!" The Titans stopped cold to see Draco running towards them. The Dragon Knight soon stood in front of the chained stranger. He then cautiously removed his helmet, and when he had finished all the Titans gasped before turning to look at Mortuary.
"No…way…"
Meanwhile, another portal formed in the same alley that the stranger had come from. Another being touched down on the ground. His form was hidden in the shadows, and all that could be seen of him were his sinister, glowing red eyes.
The stranger, who was still bound in shadow chains, bore a remarkable resemblance to Mortuary, without the face paint of course, or at least what Mortuary would look like in about 10 years or so. He looked more rugged, sporting a goatee with his black hair pulled back into a ponytail. They were red streaks in his hair. His right eye had been replaced with a cybernetic one, which moved around fluidly and glared at each of them, but especially at Draco. The warrior struggled against his chains but Shadow held firm. The Titans were going to get some answers from this guy.
"Who…who are you?" Mortuary asked this man, though he suspected that he knew already.
"Kid, I'm you, from the future," the stranger answered. "15 years to be exact."
Shadow said, "He's telling the truth. Plus, your aura signatures match perfectly, Mortuary."
"Why were you after Draco?" Robin asked. The Future Mortuary stared at Robin briefly, before his eyes narrowed and focused directly on Draco like lasers.
"I was sent from the future," Future Mortuary said, "to undo the horrors that have ravaged my Earth. The future has been overrun and conquered by Orphenochs. Mankind has been all but driven to extinction." As he finished, the warrior raised his voice and spat hatefully at Draco. "AND IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Na-Nani?" Draco questioned.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jinx inquired, hands glowing pink. How dare he say what he did about her boyfriend?
The others turned to Shadow, who could only shake his head. "He's not lying about that either," the Snake Knight said, puzzled and worried. What did all of this mean?
The Titans turned their attention towards Draco, who had a look of shock and horror on his face. He actually paled a bit at the revelation. "My… my fault?"
"What do you mean by that?" Mortuary said.
"Kid, you should've pulled the trigger that night," Future Mortuary said. "It would've been a whole lot easier for you and everyone else if you had just gotten the job done."
"But Draco isn't-" Mort began, only to be interrupted.
"But he will! One day he will become the most powerful force of evil the world had ever seen. The future I came from is like a living hell for humans as Orphenochs hunt us down like dogs! I came back here to make sure that never happens and that means to kill this son of a bitch right here!"
"But friend Draco would never-" Starfire began but was interrupted by Draco.
"Starfire, I think he's right," Draco said, mirroring what Shadow had said about Future Mortuary's honesty. "These past few months, every night, I've been having nightmares. They are all about me, in my Orphenoch form, and I'm killing people. I thought they were just dreams but maybe they could've been…" he paused and drew in his breath, "visions of the future."
"But-" Jinx began but Draco cut in.
"I have the Power of Pisces, Jinxy-chan. That gives me the power to see the future. If what he says is true, then I am destined to destroy humanity! It is all my fault!"
There was painfully tense silence; a mosquito could be clearly heard buzzing nearby.
Future Mortuary glared hatefully at Draco again, but his expression softened as he saw the boy he had called a friend before he had tragically turned. The warrior was about to say something before the ground exploded with blue energy, flinging all of the Titans back.
"What the heck was that?" Pluto exclaimed. The other Titans picked themselves up and saw who had caused the explosion. Future Mortuary's eyes widened with horror.
"Actually, all that was my fault," the new player said with an evil sneer before his red eyes made contact with Draco's, "and eventually, it will be yours." He had blood red and spiky hair that was fashioned to look like a lion's mane with various lightning bolt shaped bangs. He also had whisker-like scar markings on his cheeks and demonic red eyes. He had sharp fangs and sharp pointed ears. His clothing was comprised of a black jumpsuit with a blood red symbol that looked like a demonic dragon and shoulder-guards with spikes on each one. His armguards and shin guards were also spiked. Around his waist were two diagonally worn belts, which also had spikes adorning them. By looking at him closely, Draco knew who this was…
This was himself, but from the future. A future gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Future Draco took a look at the Titans. He sighed and said almost carelessly, "Ah, the Titans. You know, if I had even just an ounce of my humanity left, this might be quite a touching reunion," his tone changed sharply as he added menacingly, "but my humanity, unfortunately for you, is something I abandoned a very long time ago." He formed an orb of blue energy in his hand and attempted to blast the Titans with it, only to have a green necro energy blast square into his back. His red eyes narrowed as he turned to look at who had dared to attack him. It was Future Mortuary. "Ah, Anubis. Long time, no see, my old friend," Future Draco chuckled.
"Save it, Ryuga," Anubis said as he picked up his sword, "your days are numbered."
"Let me guess; you came back to the past to destroy my naïve and weaker past self in an attempt to erase me, thus undoing the future we live in and creating a new and better one. Clever, Anubis, but too bad for you I caught wind of it and decided to come and stop you myself. I like my existence and I don't want anyone like you to mess with what already has and what eventually will happen." He rushed towards Anubis and swung his fist. His attack connected and sent Anubis flying back, the airborne warrior ultimately crashing into a bus. Ryuga slowly approached him to land the killing blow, but was stopped as a car engulfed by black energy smashed down upon him and exploded. Apparently, Ryuga had forgotten about the Titans. The warped version of Draco from the future threw the flaming remains of the automobile off him and turned slowly to glare evilly at the Titans. His form then morphed into the familiar Ifrit Orphenoch but with a much darker, nearly black, color scheme. His mane of white hair and fur were snow white. His red eyes glowed hatefully at the Titans as he let out a roar. The spikes on his shoulders and forearms began to glow with evil blue energy. A tail swished behind him and on the tip of it was a black spike.
"TITANS! GO!" Robin commanded, and they all went on the attack. Well, almost all of them. Draco was rooted to his spot, horrified beyond belief. Was this his future?
Shadowcobra and Pluto, like Mortuary, had transformed into their Zodiac Knight forms. Pluto's wings took him into the air, while Shadow gripped his cobra staff before drawing a card. He slid the card in. "Sword Vent!" he commanded, catching his jagged spiral saber. Shadow swung the sword down upon Ryuga, but the villain sent a flurry of furious punches into Shadow's face and chest before kicking him away. Raven, horrified, sent several cars at the raging Ryuga, but he slammed them away without breaking a sweat. And the spikes on his forearms sliced a few to pieces. They exploded.
Ryuga blocked the starbolts and blackbolts that bombarded him before he leapt up and slammed his fists down on the Tamaranian princesses, followed up by kicking them both away. A sonic cannon beam smashed into his back in a futile effort to stop the Orphenoch's rampage, and Ryuga was immediately upon Cyborg. "In the future, Cyborg, you'd be considered obsolete!" Ryuga laughed as he grabbed Cyborg's arms and ripped them clean off from his sockets. Cyborg screamed in pain and Ryuga was ready to rip off his head, but before he could finish the execution a green T-Rex charged, roared, and snapped its mighty jaws at the Orphenoch. Ryuga held the gaping mouth open, and was prepared to break Beast Boy's jaw clean in two when several bricks pummeled him. Terra's golden energy engulfed anything and everything that came from the earth and hurled it towards the Orphenoch. Ryuga grinned sadistically as he effortlessly dodged the projectiles, finishing off his maneuver by smashing his fist into her stomach. Terra doubled over and Ryuga pulled her up by her long blonde hair, glaringly at her hatefully.
"You know, Terra, you should've figured this would happen. Makes you rethink the whole 'returning from the dead' thing, huh?" Terra struggled to get out of his grip and failed, but then a pink hex exploded on Ryuga's side forcing him to let the geomancer go. Turning his attention towards his most recent assailant, the Orphenoch's eyes widened. Jinx was glaring at him, with hate and anger burning in her eyes. He looked almost ashamed at his actions, but buried those feelings deep into the back of his mind.
Then Ryuga heard "FINAL VENT!" and looked up to see Pluto priming his Final Vent, the Dog Knight's cape wrapped around him to form a drill before he spun down upon Ryuga. Ryuga held the spinning drill back, throwing Pluto straight into Blackfire. Robin came down on him with his staff but Ryuga grabbed it, kicked Robin away and snapped the staff in half with one hand. He threw the shards of the weapon away and made his way to the Titans, killing intent and murderous rage visible in his stride as well as in the form of dark blue energy that was radiating off his body. Raven chanted "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" and fired a beam of dark energy, but it was deflected back at her when Ryuga slammed a fist laced with blue energy into Raven's attack head-on.
Draco, seeing his friends in dire need of his help, shook his head and got serious. He drew out his deck and shouted out "EMPOWERMENT OF THE ZODIAC DRAGON! HENSHIN!" his armor encased over his body as he rushed into battle.
Mortuary had created several duplicates to overwhelm Ryuga but the Orphenoch simply destroyed them one after the other like so many flies before heading over to the original, who was firing at him with his Death Buster and necroplasmic energy. Ryuga, not wanting Anubis to exist, decided to take a page from the assassin's book and destroy Mortuary, thus erasing Anubis from his future entirely. The Orphenoch came close but was then smashed in the side as a red, black and silver armored figure tackled him to the ground. Ryuga looked up from his prone position to see Draco, whose red eyepieces glowed with rage. Ryuga merely chuckled before reassuming his human form and grinned, exposing his fangs.
"Ah, my past," Ryuga said as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, "seeing you now, I can't believe I was ever so naïve and idealistic. It makes me ashamed to think that I was ever you."
"You're not me!" Draco protested, which only caused Ryuga to laugh harder.
"The proof is staring right at you, face to face!" Ryuga said. "No matter what you say or do it all comes down to me. Stop lying to yourself. You will turn into me and there's nothing you can do about it except to just accept it." Draco roared and threw a fist, only for Ryuga to grab it. "It even makes me feel ashamed that I was ever this weak. THIS is a punch!" Ryuga concentrated, ready to smash his fist into his past, before a green energy blast exploded upon contact with his body. Ryuga, body smoking green, turned to see both Mortuary and Anubis with their hands glowing green. He chided himself, "I was so enwrapped with enlightening my past self that I forgot about you. Well, I'm not going to make the same mistake again."
"Let him go!" Mortuary demanded. Despite everything he had heard Draco was still his friend. Anubis shook his head.
"Mortuary, you have to kill Draco now," Anubis said. Mortuary glared at him.
"If you're who I have to look forward to, I'm not too thrilled about it!"
"You'll learn that sacrifices need to be made for the greater good." Anubis shook his head regretfully.
Ryuga interrupted them, mocking sarcastically, "I hate to interrupt your bonding, but this is the part where I kill you." Before the Orphenoch could carry out his threat, though, he felt a cold sensation on his arm. He looked to Draco, who he was still holding his fist, and saw him freezing his whole arm. Draco then shattered the appendage, causing Ryuga to scream in pain and horror at his shattered limb. Draco flicked his wrist.
"You need to cool off!" Draco taunted. Renia, seeing this, decided to get in on the action and with a stomp of her foot she sent a surge of energy at the distracted Ryuga, which covered him in crystal. The Titans got up, relieved that it was finally over. Anubis, however, knew better than to think it would be that easy.
The crystal covering Ryuga began to crack, much to Renia's surprise. "What the hell?" she gasped out before it literally exploded, sending shards flying everywhere. Ryuga's arm grew back and he grabbed Draco by the neck. Morphing back to his Orphenoch from, he then rushed at Anubis, grabbing him by the throat as well. Ryuga finished this part of his attack by calling forth a pair of sail-like wings made of blue energy before taking off into the air, leaving the Titans behind.
The core team was heavily injured, and Raven worked to heal them as fast as she could. Cyborg was missing both his arms, and on top of that his sockets were sparking.
Shadowcobra picked himself up, his armor cracking in places, and gazed high into the sky. Pluto was recovering, too. Terra and Blackfire had some bruises left behind from when Ryuga had struck them. Mortuary and Renia were fortunately relatively unharmed, at least physically. Renia was busy mending Cyborg using Alchemy.
"Baby!" Jinx screamed in terror, as she could only watch helplessly while Ryuga took Draco and Anubis away.
Up high in the air, Ryuga mocked Anubis, "You should've killed me all those years ago, Craig. It would've saved you all the trouble." Anubis and Draco both struggled against Ryuga's grip and the Orphenoch's grin widened. "You know, out of respect for our past I should let you live," he then added mercilessly, "But that's not how I work. Goodbye, Craig." He was about to snap Anubis's neck when Draco used his sand morphing powers to get out of Ryuga's grip before reforming himself and kicking out at the hand that held Anubis. Ryuga, enraged, fired a blue blast of energy that smashed into Anubis. The warrior fell. Draco was going to go after him, but was cruelly held back by Ryuga. Anubis, unable to fly, crashed into a condemned building and the force of the impact caused it to collapse upon him. Draco looked absolutely horrified under his helmet. Ryuga just smirked as Draco looked at him with immense hatred.
"Don't worry, you'll get over it," Ryuga said nonchalantly as he landed upon the remains of the building. "I did." He let Draco go and the angered Dragon Knight attacked him. Ryuga blocked them with ease and laughed. "Yes, get angry! The more rage you feel the more you'll be like me!" Draco stopped his attack, glaring at his enemy. Ryuga knew his past self was furious, even though the helmet Draco wore concealed his face.
"HOW COULD YOU?" Draco demanded, crying, as he clenched his hands into tight fists. "HE WAS YOUR FRIEND!"
Ryuga sighed and crossed his arms. "He was my friend, past tense. You'll learn soon enough that you're better off without them. I did."
"That's because you were going to kill them!" Draco growled at his future self. How he became this… this…this MONSTER he'd never know. He fired a fireball at Ryuga, but the monster merely snuffed it out in midair.
"Now that you know about me, my existence is in danger," Ryuga said before he clawed the air and a swirling portal formed. He grabbed Draco by the throat and continued. "And I can't let myself be erased and let all that I've worked for come to waste." Draco struggled against his grip before Ryuga took away his deck, causing Draco to revert to human form as his armor shattered away. He then tore off Draco's braid, causing Draco to scream. Ryuga simply responded with disgust, "I never really liked that hairstyle anyway." He then threw Draco into the portal. The portal then closed, drowning out Draco's scream, and Ryuga said, "I'll bring you back once I've completed a few errands and tied up some loose ends." Ryuga then sensed the rest of the Titans coming and grinned. With a snap of his fingers he morphed himself to look just like his younger past self. He now looked exactly like Ryuki Leonard Hasuma, the boy he once was.
Ryuki woke up and coughed up some…sand? His eyes slowly opened and he focused. He was surrounded by sand.
"Where am I?" he asked himself. Instead, he should be asking 'when was he?'
To Be Continued…
A/N: I was inspired by the Danny Phantom two-part episode called the Ultimate Enemy. So, please don't flame me for unoriginality. This was just something that's been playing at the back of my mind for a few months now and decided to do. So, please read and review and tell me what you think, okay?
BTW, thanks Zombi138 for Anubis' description.
And I made Ryuga's Orphenoch form like Draco's but with a few subtle differences like color. Jazzpha, I'll use your version of Draco's Orphenoch form soon, don't worry and thanks for editing this chap for me. A shout out to you, my friend.