Fallen Angel Chapter 6: The Coming Storm

Originally Written By: Jazzpha


"So, here's how I see it happening."

Dmitri was sitting in the main room of the tower, discussing his plan for a 'training session' with the rest of the team. After all, Robin had asked him to make sure to help them be ready for the challenges that were coming and Dmitri was more than happy to take him up on that offer.

"Two rounds. First, it's the five of you," here he gestured at the main team, "versus me. Then, about five minutes after that, it's Team Two's turn." His arm swept over the three Knights, Jinx, Blackfire and Terra. "Five on one, then six on one. Easy as that. Any questions?"

As much as Draco knew that this training was going to be crucial to their survival if the situation was as grim as Dmitri had said, he was still anxious for his friend's well-being. To him, to fight both teams with only five minutes of a break in between was borderline suicidal. Or it would have been, if they were playing for keeps rather than just training.

"Dmitri-san," he said, the concern evident in his tone, "are you sure that this is such a good idea? I'm afraid to think that you would be willing to fight our team exhausted and at anything less than full strength. Why put yourself through something that grueling?" The angel merely looked at his friend and smiled.

"Draco," his tone was calm, but not insincere, "don't forget, this is also for my benefit as well as yours. I have almost no actual experience with all of this power and knowledge that was dumped on me and I, too, must grow as a fighter if I hope to survive this struggle. The best way for me to do that would be to get as close to an actual simulation of the kinds of battles I would face as I can.

"Understand, these people won't always wait for their opponents to be well-rested. To them, honor is a flimsy thing that can be stretched to fit what they desire at any given moment. If you're exhausted they will beat you down even more. If your back is turned they will break your spine without hesitation. Give them any opening, and they will exploit it without mercy. We're talking about the some of the most primal and savage fighters ever, my friend. And if I don't push myself as hard as I'm pushing all of you, none of this will make a difference."

Everyone solemnly nodded their assent, and Dmitri rose from his seat, turning towards the door.

"I'm going to brush up on my skills for about ten minutes; I'll see you all in the training room then."

All of the Titans rose and went their separate ways, the gravity of the situation finally starting to bear down on them as they realized just what it was they had gotten themselves into.


Two figures walked slowly and methodically down a street in Jump City. One of them was a short, stocky man with red hair and brown eyes who looked to be in his thirties, while the other was a wizened old Japanese man who walked with a cane in his right hand. There was nothing apparently out of the ordinary when it came to these two figures, that one could see, anyway, but the truth was that they were none other than Enoch and Koroga respectively, the two beings who had been sent down to eliminate Dmitri and anyone else who stood in the way of their objective. Enoch looked over to his left and spoke to the 'elderly' demon fox.

"So, Koroga, what does all of this mean to you?"

The old man snorted derisively. "If you are trying to determine whether or not my heart is in this enterprise by my response, Enoch, you are out of luck. I will do as I have been ordered to do, with no more enthusiasm than is needed."

Enoch laughed shortly, silently acknowledged that he had been caught, and tried a different tack.

"Do you think the prophecy involving the Scion is true, Ancient One?"

Koroga paused, thinking for a moment before he answered.

"If it is true or not does not matter at this point, Enoch. Given what the Council has done and what they have sent us to do, they have already crossed their Rubicon, and there is no turning back now. If we do not kill the Scion, or whatever he may be, he will kill us all and that is all there is to it. The 'prophecy' is irrelevant. One thing I will say, though, is that I fear for the future of the Council. They seem to be underestimating the resilience of this 'Dmitri'. Something tells me he won't roll over and take this lying down, which is how the Council seems to predict he will react."

"Regardless of whether or not he fights us, Koroga, he will die and there is no mistaking that. If I do not defeat him there is no doubt that you are more than powerful enough to do so," Enoch said, "so I do not see defeat anywhere in the near future of the glorious Council."

"Whatever you say, Seraph," Koroga responded, disdain evident in his voice. "But you must also remember that there are various factions within the Empyrean who would love nothing more than to see the Tzarion Council fall into ruin. As soon as they have their hands full with fighting the Scion, these clans will sweep in and harass the Council until it is destroyed. Once that had been accomplished, the power vacuum will be wide open for the filling. Believe me, I've been alive a lot longer than you ever will be, Seraph. Every empire that rises eventually falls, and nothing will stop that cycle."

"But if the Council falls, so does your clan, Kitsune. Be mindful of that."

Koroga simply nodded sadly and kept going, the cane he didn't need thudding on the ground with each step he took.


Robin's punch missed, and Dmitri simply used his momentum to shove him into the wall of the training room with a crunch before he turned his attention to Starfire, who was now understandably upset. But her anger was working to her disadvantage, and she was fighting erratically. Dmitri simply dodged all of her starbolts while flying rapidly up towards her, eventually knocking her out with a vicious knee to the solar plexus, although he did cradle her fall with a net of energy under her as she descended. Two down, three to go.

Beast Boy made an elementary mistake, immediately turning into the biggest, fiercest animal he could imagine. Against a large target, this wouldn't have been a problem, but compared to a T-Rex Dmitri was small, incredibly fast, flew and had much better reflexes. By the time Beast Boy realized how huge his disadvantage was it was already far too late to do anything about it. Within about five seconds the changeling had been hit everywhere he knew he could be, plus a few more places he didn't even know he had nerve endings. Beast Boy fell into a pain-induced state of unconsciousness as Dmitri ceased his relentless assault, and just like that Raven and Cyborg were the only ones left standing.

Cyborg was taken out with a well placed and lightning-fast blast of energy to his battery pack, shutting him down and sending him to the mat before he could even get his first volley off. Raven was furious that she was the last one standing, and she let loose with a huge barrage of black energy, hoping to overwhelm Dmitri, while he just stood still and smirked, seemingly waiting for the attack to slam into him.


Shadow had known what Dmitri was doing from the very beginning, and as soon as Raven launched her offensive the Snake Knight hung his head. It was obvious that the angel was trying to prove that, even if you had all of the power in the world, without control, speed and skill it would mean nothing when up against an opponent who had those three things. Sure enough, Dmitri raised his hand at the last possible moment and revealed the ace up his sleeve.

"Fermas." With this simple incantation, the dark energy halted in its tracks, frozen by the sheer force of Dmitri's spell. Shadow already knew what was coming next, and he had to hold himself back to avoid interfering. He would have his chance to avenge his loved one soon enough.

"Revocatis." As Dmitri voiced this second incantation in a powerful tone, all of the energy that had been sent out was reflected at the one who had sent it out, namely Raven. Overloaded by the amount of energy that slammed into her all at the same time, the dark empath fell to the ground with a groan, although she refused to fully acknowledge defeat by slipping into unconsciousness. Shadow knew that this phase of the exercise was over, and so he rushed out to heal his teammates. Dmitri didn't stop him; he was too busy resting up for round 2, which he knew was going to be a much harder fight for various reasons. First and foremost were the three Zodiac Knights, of course, but the rest of the team was also composed of people who were more ruthless than the main Titans. After the predetermined five minutes had passed, Dmitri stood up from his lotus position, stretched out his wings, looked at the Z-Titans team, and shouted:

"Next!" The team rushed out into the arena and the battle was on.


Javier finished his drink just as the door of the bar slammed open and a tall man with a trench-coat on, black hair and a chiseled face. If he hadn't been wearing his jacket two black wings would be clearly visible sprouting from his back: This man was in fact none other than Antonio, Lord of the Death Knights.

Antonio sat down next to Javier, while the youth pretended not to notice his presence. After a few moments in silence, Javier gave up and spoke.

"What the fuck do you want, Antonio?"

"I think you know the answer to that question, Javi. My offer is still on the table, but if you wait too much longer I don't know if it will stay there."

"And like I told you before," the youth spat back, "your offer isn't good enough. Quit screwing around and come up with a better deal or I might just call up Lance and tell him I'm ready to enlist."

"As you wish," Antonio said, getting up slowly and letting his next remark hang in the air, "but you won't be able to wait forever. Each day you delay makes you weaker and weaker, and sooner or later you are going to have to make a choice, one way or the other. For your sake, make the right one, Javier."

With that, the Lord of the Death Knights left the bar and walked back out onto the street, while Javi ordered two more drinks and downed them in 10 seconds. Why wouldn't the Crusaders and Death Knights just leave him in peace?


Alicia flew thorough the sky like a bullet, homing in on the nearest angelic signal she could find. She was hoping that she would be closer to Dmitri than Enoch and Koroga were, but as soon as she saw a stocky man walking next to an elderly Japanese guy she knew she had screwed up. Silently cursing her mistake, Alicia realized that she could actually turn this to her benefit: sooner or later Koroga and Enoch were going to run into Dmitri at the Tower, and they probably knew exactly where they were going. If she could tail them the right way to avoid getting caught, she could find Dmitri and have the element of surprise on her side if she ever needed to help out. Satisfied with this win-win situation and not bothering to dwell on what would actually happen when Enoch and Koroga showed up to face Dmitri down, the angel silently tailed the pair of hunters. She was hoping they wouldn't notice they were being followed, or that they just wouldn't care.


This time, Dmitri was actually enjoying himself. This team was actually working together flawlessly, rather than attacking as individual pieces. As soon as he had swerved out of the way of frozen hex balls courtesy of Jinx and Zodiac Knight Draco attacking together, starbolts blazing with electricity would come at him from the other direction, along with Zodiac Knight Pluto and Blackfire in person. Add the invisible rocks Terra and Zodiac Knight Shadowcobra were working together to make, and Dmitri was getting almost no chance to counterattack. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all. Suddenly however, by freak chance, the various attacks actually gave Dmitri an opening.

Jumping nimbly along the frozen hex orbs, careful not to break them and unleash the hex within them, Dmitri gained a substantial amount of time to compose himself and height above his foes to go with it. Far from stopping at that, though, Dmitri used the magical aura around the cloaked boulders to guide his jumps even higher as he went from boulder to boulder, dodging the electric bolts as he went. As he reached the peak point of his journey upwards Dmitri unfurled his wings and wrapped them around himself like a drill-point, spinning around before rocketing towards the ground and smashing into it with a monstrous impact, knocking out Jinx, Blackfire and Terra in one fell swoop.

"HEY!" Pluto shouted, "He totally ripped off my move! You can't DO that!"

Dmitri merely smirked in response to the Dog Knight's indignation.

"Why don't you go cry about it some more, Takada?"

"Oh. I'll give you something to cry about, bud!" Pluto slid a card into his sword. "Add Vent: Summoning Cerberus!"

A large, three-headed dog materialized out of seemingly-thin air, and Dmitri did a double take.

"Uhh…" he stood wavering for a second or two before continuing, "nice doggy?"

Unfortunately for the fallen angel, Cerberus was having nothing to do with a truce and leapt angrily at his master's foe, intent on doing some damage. Dmitri sidestepped the raving beast in a hurry but was blindsided by Genosnaker, Shadowcobra's monster. The venomous serpent spat a wad of acid at Dmitri which he barely dodged before the snake struck fast. Dmitri was lucky enough to evade THAT.

Coming to the realization that he had better things do be doing than being a chew-toy for a gigantic cobra, Dmitri spun around as fast as he possibly could, forcing the snake off of him and sending it whipping into the three-headed hellhound, effectively knocking out two birds with one stone. This only got rid of the pawns, though, and not their masters. Speaking of the devils, Pluto and Shadow were soon double-teaming the angel, both of them using their swords and putting a huge amount of pressure on Dmitri, who had to defend himself from two separate adversaries while also keeping his eye on the third, Draco, who had yet to make a move. When Dmitri saw that Draco had decided to deploy his Dragon Combustion Kick Final Vent, however, he smirked and knocked Shadow into the path of the attack, protecting himself while at the same time eliminating Shadow as a threat, who had been caught unprepared and had taken a relatively large amount of damage as a result from the flaming flying kick. Shadowcobra armor disappeared from the force of the strike itself.

Dmitri was beginning to tire quite rapidly, though, and his sword slashes became sluggish and predictable as a result. Growing more and more frustrated as Pluto landed more and more blows and Draco made up for his earlier mistake by nearly burning the feathers off of his wings, Dmitri gave in and let Caesar, his darker half, take the reins. Feeling his strength flow back into his veins following his transformation, Dmitri wasted no time in going back on the offensive.

Knowing that Pluto was immortal, the only way to defeat him here would be to thoroughly incapacitate him. Dmitri was running totally on instinct at this point, making him a truly unpredictable and dangerous foe. Pluto's problem was that he was still fighting Dmitri going by the basic rules of engagement, which didn't apply when facing a totally loose cannon.

"Guard Vent: Hell Shield!"

This was a last ditch measure of defense and both of the fighters knew it. Dmitri simply smashed right through it and chopped Pluto hard on the back of the neck, watching emotionlessly as his adversary crumpled, unconscious but otherwise unharmed. Pluto's armor vanished as did Shadowcobra's. The fallen angel could feel the massive drain that the transformation was exerting on him, so in an effort to avoid defeating himself through fatigue Dmitri powered down back into his normal form and turned to face Draco, who was uncertain with how to proceed against this seemingly new opponent.

"Hurry up and attack, Aibou!" Yaminekoryu voiced in his head. "He's switched back out of his alternate form, and he's tired as hell! Strike hard and fast, and finish this!"

Not one to second guess the advice of someone with massive amounts of experience Draco charged, determined to finish this brawl once and for all.

"Strike Vent: Wild Tiger Claws!"

Once the gauntlets had finished materializing Draco waded into close quarters and began slugging for all he was worth, seeking desperately to land a finishing blow. Dmitri was in equally dire straits, and he could feel his muscles burning. Unfortunately for him, being the Angel of Death didn't allow him to access the healing powers normally associated with his kind. As such, it wasn't like he could rejuvenate himself in the blink of an eye, and this disadvantage was all too apparent as Dmitri felt like a light poke was all it would take to topple him in this state.

Draco was striking viciously, giving in fully to the rage of battle, and he finally saw his opening. As he was just about to land the crippling blow, however, he hesitated. As much as he craved victory, he just couldn't bring himself to tap into his more brutal side and allow any part of Yaminekoryu's influence to surface.

Dmitri saw his opponent's hesitation and did not pass up on his golden opportunity, slamming his fist and then his knee into Draco's stomach in quick succession, dropping him to the ground. After he had caught his breath, Dmitri only asked a very simple question, rather than taunting his opponent.

"Why did you hold back, Draco?"

Draco wheezed and stood back up, still clutching his abdomen and struggling to catch his breath. His armor disappeared as well.

"I couldn't do it, Dmitri-san. I just couldn't let my demon take over, or I wouldn't have been able to control myself and I might have done something horrible."

Dmitri sighed heavily, exhaustion bearing down on him heavily, before he replied.

"But what did I tell you earlier, my friend? If you hold back against these foes, they won't thank you for it and let you on your way, they will exploit your moment of weakness and rip your heart out. You simply cannot let them have any sort of opening, or you risk losing your life. Do you understand that?"

Draco nodded reluctantly, not liking at all where this line of thought was taking them. If they needed to be so ruthless in order to stay alive, what separated them from the villains they were fighting? The Titans regrouped and rested with heavy hearts, the situation they had wound up in looming over them like a dark cloud of fear and tension.


Ekelo snapped out of his meditation, his head suddenly throbbing with pain. He could sense a demonic presence nearby, but it was a massive one, far larger than Raven's or even Trigon's had been. Trying to track it through his raging migraine of a headache was proving difficult, but with much effort Ekelo was able to determine that the demon was indeed heading along a determined path, one that seemed to lead right to… Titan's Tower.

Given that a demon capable of generating this power could very well destroy the world if they so chose, the fact that the demon was heading for the Tower was nothing but bad news. Determined to try and warn the Titans before something catastrophic happened, Ekelo sped towards the Tower as fast as he possibly could, hoping that he could reach his allies before whatever hellish presence was advancing reached them.


Unfortunately, the demon in question as well as his compatriot had already arrived at the Tower, about a minute before Ekelo was going to arrive.

The Titans had just finished resting and healing up from their grueling training session when suddenly a huge boom sounded outside of the Tower. The team, Dmitri included, rushed out to where the sound had originated. Enoch and the human form Koroga had assumed stood at the lip of a sizeable crater that had been blown into the Titan's front lawn. Since the Titans seemed to be shocked into utter silence, Enoch took it upon himself to fire the first shot.

"You! Dmitri, son of Azrael! We have been ordered by the high and mighty Tzarion Council to apprehend and charge you for crimes of high treason, open rebellion and consorting with known demons," here his gaze fell upon Raven and Shadow, his contempt not veiled in the slightest, "as well as the charge of attempting to persuade other angels, in this case the Aquila known as Alicia, to join your cause! Surrender now and come peacefully, and we can guarantee you that none of your friends here will be harmed. Resist, and we will deal with them all using extreme prejudice, especially those two demons I can smell from all the way over here."

‌Actually, Enoch," Koroga broke in, a sly smile on his face, "before you start throwing around labels, you should know that that child is not a demon, but is in fact the one true Vampangel himself. I suggest you show him the respect he deserves."

"You aren't helping, old man," Enoch shot back venomously. Turning back to Dmitri, he continued his scripted speech.

"How do you plead, heretic? Be advised," he concluded with an edge to his voice, "I don't think you'd want to end up like your mother, fighting until the bitter end before we finally had to just cut her head clean off of her shoulders to silence her pathetic whining." There was a vicious smirk in Enoch's tone and on his face as he finished, plunging a knife into Dmitri's heart and twisting it before he wrenched it back out again.

Dmitri knew he was being baited, that this bastard was trying to draw the Fallen Angel into making the first blow and giving him a legitimate reason to kill Dmitri in cold blood. Only problem was, it was working. He felt rage rise up like a terrible swell from the bottom of his soul, threatening to swallow him whole. Dmitri wanted nothing more than to feel his hands around this wretch's throat, crushing the life out of him, and that scared him. He didn't necessarily want to become a cold-blooded killer, and as much as he told himself it was just a vendetta and nothing more, he had truly enjoyed the rush he had gotten from the battles he had fought against the Titans. The rush of adrenaline, the blood pounding in his veins, it felt good. Like it was what he was born for.

Before he even knew what he was doing his pupils had gone white and become slits, his wings spreading out and turning a darker shade of red, almost blackish, like blood robbed of its oxygen. Dmitri raised his hand and leveled a tremendous bolt of energy right through Enoch's chest, leaving a gaping hole of an exit wound. All of the Titans were shocked at this outburst, while Koroga just looked amused by the whole thing. Enoch gazed down at his wound.

"Huh…" he said, "interesting display of strength, heathen. You clearly are your father's son."

The angel clenched his fists and focused, and to everyone's surprise but Dmitri and Koroga's, the tissue and organs began to grow back quickly, until after only a few moments there was no evidence that Dmitri's attack had even happened, and Enoch didn't look tired in the slightest from having expended that much energy.

"It seems we'll have to do this the hard way, then," Enoch concluded, cracking his knuckles and settling into a fighting stance while the Titans got over their shock and did the same, everyone tense and waiting for the first move, "although I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to draining the blood from your veins, Dmitri. I'm sure your father's waiting for you somewhere out there in the void, don't you want to join him?"

That was all he could take. Rushing forward and pushed to the heights of battle frenzy by his rage, Dmitri lunged out and struck at Enoch with his sword once, twice, three times, all lightning fast blows. His opponent dodged all of these though, and drove Dmitri flying backwards with a punch to the chin that would have taken the head clean off of a normal human. The Fallen Angel hit the ground and groaned, knocked for a loop by the punch he had received and clearly not getting up any time soon. The Titans knew they needed to do something; as soon as these guys finished off Dmitri they were going to gun for Shadow and Raven, which the Titans just couldn't allow.

Shadow leapt out to his friend's defense before anyone else had a chance to react, furious that Dmitri had been goaded so cruelly into striking the first blow. Soon enough he had ascended into his vampangel form, the white angel and black demon wings sprouting from his back. His cobra staff flew faster than anyone had ever seen it strike, and Enoch was clearly having trouble keeping up. In a matter of moments Ichijyo had landed five spine-cracking blows in quick succession, with such force that even Koroga cringed slightly. Enoch only had one defense left, so he unleashed his ace-in-the-hole. As Shadow raised his weapon high to deliver the final blow, he saw himself looking down at a face he hadn't seen in the flesh in years, and he stopped cold.

It was Misha's face, the face of his dead, lost love.

As much as Shadow knew it was a trick, as much as he willed his hands silently to move, to brain this foul beast who chose to desecrate Misha's memory in such a way, his heart had stopped and he couldn't bring himself to land to finishing blow against the image of his lost love. Koroga bowed his head in sadness, ashamed that Enoch had sunk to such lows to achieve his victory. The Titans were too stunned to move, and they merely stared dumbly, waiting to see what would happen.

All of a sudden time, which seemed to have frozen, sped back up. Unfortunately, Shadow didn't speed up with it. Enoch drove his own sword straight through Shadow's heart, re-assuming his own form and smirking with satisfaction as Ichijyo could only fall to his knees, vomit a brief stream of blood, and collapse. A pool of blood began to form under him. His wings fell limp.

Enoch rose, spat on his enemy's body, and awaited his foe's response with a deadly calm. Raven sprinted over to Shadow's form and collapsed, sobbing, not even paying attention to anything else going on around her but Ichijyo's crumpled body and her own crippling grief. Enoch was about to end Raven's existence in a way similar to Shadow's own death, but a roar of the purest hatred and rage distracted the angel from taking yet another life.

Draco had watched Shadow with a numb shock, utter disbelief that something like that had actually happened. That shock, however, was thawed by rage and a suffocating sense of guilt. He had let down yet another friend by his inaction. First Tazuka, now Shadow. As Enoch held his sword aloft over Raven, intent on repeating his crime, something inside the Dragon Knight snapped and he rushed out to face the bastard head-on like a raging bull. No more of his friends would die under his watch, he told himself, not if he had anything to say about it.

But this wasn't the only change that had occurred in Draco. His eyes had blazed a radiant white before changing to a red tone. His uniform had been replaced by classic samurai armor made of midnight-black carbon steel with bone veins running through it and two gruesome fangs embossed onto the center of the armor. The shoulder plates of the armor each had a huge spike curving out of the top of it, long enough to impale a body on if the wearer of the armor wished it. His legs were clad in greaves that were a reverse of his chest armor, bone with veins of carbon steel running through them. It was his actual physical appearance, though, that had undergone the most drastic of changes.

He wasn't exactly human at this point. He was now a being known only as an Orphenoch, an ultra-rare class of mutant. His feet were now lion's paws with hooked, black claws as long as a grown man's fingers. His hands had changed to become lion's paws, with claws of a similarly frightening magnitude. His face, though, was truly terrifying. It was a humanoid face, but with the features of a lion as well; he had a mane that flowed down past his shoulders and pure blood-red orbs for eyes without any discernible irises or pupils. His canines were longer than a normal human's or vampire's, suitable for rending the flesh off of unfortunate prey in huge chunks. To complete the image of fearsome war machine, two ram horns grew from Draco's forehead, curving slightly at the top and pointy enough to gorge someone on. The Ifrit Orphenoch had arisen from its slumber, and it was royally pissed off.

In no time at all the creature was upon Enoch, snarling with rage and slashing brutally with its claws, aiming to kill. The wretched angel never had a chance in hell. Chunks of flesh and streams of blood arced up from the spastic and dying body, which jerked sporadically as the nerves in the brain shut down from pain overload. The Ifrit Orphenoch had gotten to the point where it was tearing up its victim's neck into a pulpy mess before it was finally sated, roaring out in triumph as the body of its foe disintegrated into ash.

Everyone was absolutely stunned, to put it lightly.

"What…" began Pluto

"In the HELL…" continued Blackfire

"WAS THAT?!" finished Cyborg.

"DUDE!!" Beast Boy shouted, "He freaking ATE THE GUY'S THROAT!!!"

Jinx could only stare dumbly at the grizzly scene before her eyes. "Ryuki…?" she whispered out pathetically, looking like she was about to faint.

A few moments later the stunned silence was broken by Draco's de-transformation. The Dragon-Knight looked at his blood-soaked hands in shock, terrified that he could have done such a thing, or that he could have enjoyed it so much. Unable to hold his gut in check the Knight vomited, adding to the stench of rot and decay. Draco hobbled over towards the Titans slightly before collapsing to his knees, overwhelmed and sickened to his core at what he had done. Jinx rushed over to his side in an instant, and amidst all of the recent shocks Robin had no idea what problem to attend to first. Fortunately for him, Koroga had decided to take action and save the Titans some trouble.

"Move!" he shouted at Raven, who only looked up at his dumbly. Koroga sighed and shoved her out of the way telekinetically before kneeling over Ichijyo, inspecting his wound.

"The blade was blessed to eradicate demon-kind… half of him has been nigh-obliterated by this stroke, but I might yet be able to save him…"

The Kitsune Lord channeled all of the energy he could into saving the Vampangel's life; he had been done in by a trick, a low and cowardly one at that, and Koroga knew that Ichijyo had a great role to play in the upcoming chaos. Soon enough the Vampangel surged, coughed and sputtered as life rushed back into him, his wings regaining strength and no longer hanging limply at the Knight's side. Shadow got up and dusted himself off before looking at the old man curiously, wondering why the hell he had saved him if he was supposed to be with Enoch. Dmitri, who had gotten up at this point and was supremely confused by all that had happened while he had been semi-unconscious, asked the Snake Knight's question for him.

"Who are you, sir, and why did you just save Ichijyo's life?"

"As to why I saved him, all that you need to know, child, is that I did not think it fit for someone of such stature as the Vampangel to die so underhandedly and ignominiously. And as for whom I am, my name is simply Koroga, and whatever titles it carries with it nowadays."

Dmitri prayed to all the gods above and below that he hadn't heard right. He turned to Terra.

"He didn't just say Koroga, did he?"

"I think he did… why?"

"Because," Dmitri responded, "that mean's we're all royally screwed. That guy," here he pointed at the being in question, "is a Kyuubi-No-Kitsune, a Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Lord. Do you have any idea what that means?"

No one reacted in any special way save Pluto, whose jaw dropped straight to the floor.

"A Kitsune? Are you joking? Those things aren't even supposed to exist!"

"Well, to some people aliens don't exist, nor do angels or demons or any of that sort of thing," Dmitri responded, his tone surprisingly cool, "so I guess you could say, Takada, that believability is all relative. Right now, we have bigger issues to worry about. Rather than be concerned with whether or not the being right in front of you actually exists, you should be thinking about a way to stop it from killing us!"

Pluto recoiled slightly, but saw the wisdom in Dmitri's words, especially after the old man transformed into a 100-foot-tall, nine-tailed demon-fox who looked more than ready to crack skulls. The Titans all rallied together, bracing themselves for the fight of their lives. They were quite surprised, then, when the Kitsune chose to start speaking rather than kill them all at once.

"Before we begin, I would just like to say that I bear none of you ill will or rancor in any way. I fight only for the preservation of my clan, and nothing more. I just hope you all will understand that this is nothing personal, and is strictly business." His voice was the storms and the winds, the raging flames and the thunder and lightning, for he was their lord and master. All of the Titans were awed by this godly presence and even Ekelo, who had shown up just as Koroga had transformed, was speechless.

Dmitri stepped forward.

"With all due respect, my Lord," he said, almost getting down on one knee out of compulsion but controlling himself, "if you have no rancor towards us, as you have said, and have demonstrated good intentions by healing our friend Shadow, why is it that you insist upon destroying us nonetheless?"

An expression of sorrow crossed the god's face as he spoke, his tone low and sad.

"There was a time," he began, "when I swore allegiance to the Empyrean, after I had been defeated and imprisoned three times by its armies. I had a sense of honor, and I knew when I was beaten. But I did not swear my loyalty to the men and women who had brought me down, I pledged fealty to the ideals that the Empyrean embodied at that time. My clan followed where I led, and we were peaceful for a time.

"But it came to pass over a few millennia that those who were in power became corrupted by it, as all base creatures eventually do. The Tzarion Council rose to the top of the pack, and they began to exert their influence in force. Eventually, they caught my tribe unawares and, because almost all of my clan is far younger than I, they were imprisoned with ancient spells and held under lock and key, leverage so that I would not disobey and orders given to me by those mongrels on the Council."

Everyone felt a certain degree of pity for the Fox God; it was impossible not to. He didn't want to be in this situation any more than the Titans did, but extenuating circumstances had forced him into it against his will. He only fought to protect his clan, to do what he thought was right.

The Kitsune's expression changed abruptly as his silver eyes fell upon Draco, who tensed up immediately and would have wet himself if he could have. But Draco knew he had nothing to fear as the demon-fox began to… laugh?

"Yaminekoryu-kun," Koroga said, sounding surprised, "is that you in there?"

Yaminekoryu's voice issued from Draco's mouth.

"H…Hai, Koroga-sama. It's been a while."

Yaminekoryu sounded almost… timid, and everyone was surprised. He was a powerful demon who was almost always calm, this was certainly a change.

"You were sealed?" Koroga thought this most amusing, apparently. "I'd rather talk to you face-to-face, old-friend, so let's loosen this seal for a moment, shall we?"

Koroga spoke low and powerfully, chanting in an ancient tongue. After a few moments Draco started glowing a bright red, and after that a flash occurred that blinded the onlookers. When the red flash dissipated, everyone could only stare in shock. Yaminekoryu stood on the grass, in the flesh. The demon looked around in shock, blinking and trying to get used to the sunlight that he hadn't seen in so long.

"I… I'm free?" Yaminekoryu was stunned.

"Not quite," Koroga responded, "the seal has just been loosened enough to give you physical form, for now. I'd like to chat with you for a while, old friend, before I am forced to battle your master and his friends. I haven't had a civilized conversation with anyone in quite some time."

"Arigato, Koroga-sama," Yaminekoryu smiled, revealing his fangs. He stretched a bit to get used to having his body again and breathed in a bit of fresh air. "Sugoi…it's so nice to be able to move, to feel the breeze again after so long!" His tail wagged a bit, and he turned to look at the Titans. "Sumimasen, aibou, I would like to take Koroga-sama up on his oh-so-generous offer. Think you take care of yourself for a bit without me?"

As the two very, very old friends went to have a private chat with each other, the Titans discussed what had happened. Was Koroga hostile or not?

Cyborg scratched the organic part of his head, "Um…What just happen? I thought he was supposed to kill us or something?"

Dmitri shook his head slightly and replied. "Koroga never meant to harm us. He was just forced into a position he never wanted to be in."

Draco chimed in with his opinion on the weirdness as well, "Kami, that felt weird. I've always had Yaminekoryu inside me and having him out of my head makes me feel…I can't really describe it."

Jinx, on the other hand, was just happy that one of her long-standing questions had just been answered "So, THAT'S what he looks like," she said with satisfaction. Jinx had always heard Draco talking to Yaminekoryu, and he had told her about the demon inside of him, but the witch had never actually seen him until now. To see an Oni (ogre) / Bakeneko (cat demon) hybrid was rare indeed, and the witch was fascinated by the chance to observe such a being.

Raven studied Yaminekoryu's features intently, with an eye trained for looking at magical beings and demons. He looked very human, but that was only if you discounted his claws, his tail, his cat ears and his rather large horns. He didn't seem particularly evil or hostile at the moment, but there was still a distinct yet weak aura of evil around him. Raven's eyes narrowed. Maybe the faintness of the aura was because he had been sealed inside Draco for so long, but she resolved to keep an eye on him nonetheless. How he was able to hide from her senses when he was sealed within Draco still puzzled her, though.

Shadow just narrowed his eyes. The reality, and peril, of the situation hadn't left his mind for a moment. Although he owed Koroga for saving his life, and as such he felt bound by honor to spare his also if it came to that during battle, he could sense the powerful aura out of the Kyuubi No Kitsune and it was frightening. It was as strong as Trigon's aura, possibly even stronger. Shadow only hoped that the Kitsune would not fight at full strength, or they did not have a prayer in hell.

"Although Koroga is to be our enemy, he does not seem hostile at all. He appears friendly yet conflicted," Starfire said.

"I wouldn't go THAT far, sis," Blackfire said. "He wants to fight us and kill us so whatever the reason, even if it is to save his people, we have to defend ourselves." Starfire nodded sadly, knowing she was right but not liking the fact that she would have to fight such a noble creature one bit.

"We could strike now, while he's busy," Pluto said, analyzing Koroga with his visor, "But his power levels are god-like, with good reason. It won't do much."

"And it would also be craven and underhanded," Dmitri retorted. "The Kitsune saved Shadow's life and is giving us a chance to prepare ourselves rather than killing us outright. We will repay his actions in kind, with an honorable battle."

Beast Boy decided to add something, for better or worse: "Hey guys, I got a question."

"What is it, beast Boy?" Robin snapped back, slightly irritated although it was mostly nerves talking.

"What does 'rancor' mean, anyway?"

Everyone present sighed wearily. Pluto explained what the word meant while everyone else braced themselves one last time for the enormous fight ahead of them.


Kamen Rider Chrome: This was all he wrote, unfortunately, before I lost contact with him :(