These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

126. Fear the Black Tempest part 7

126. Fear the Black Tempest part 7

A tiny flurry of bubbles rose to the surface. Chaotic but quiet.

Slowly, a green crocodile's head broke thewater. Two reptiles eyes blinked and looked around the dry pocket of air.

A dark cave lead towards a corridor where torchlight flickered.

The crocodile emerged from the water and beached itself. It morphed into a green dog, shook the water off, and then stood up as Beast Boy. He stood over the waters and waved to someone beneath the rippling surface.

A body rose from the waters, covered in a violet aura of protection. Fraust stood onto the dry rock. With a breath, she lowered the shielding of black magic. Natural cold mist descended from her face and the drops of water around her froze white and blue.

"If we're lucky, Senator Chasma's too busy being recorded by Atlantean CSPAN right now," Beast Boy winked with a smile. "We may yet have a chance to really get a bearing on this place. Er...n-not that you don't have a 'bearing' of your own by now..."

"It isn't that simple," Fraust murmured. "The followers will be here...."

Beast Boy made a face. "The followers??"

"Y-Yes...," Fraust hugged herself and trembled. "Slizzath's minions under Chasma's rule. The children of the Black Tempest...."

"Hey...," the Titan reached a hand up and placed it gently on the girl's shoulder. "Don't you worry, allright? You've got a hero with you now. If any of those goons so much as try to put their hands on you, I'll bite them with over a dozen species each! And believe me, I can do it!" he winked.

Fraust bit her lip nervously still. She uttered: "W-Would you mind if.....I-I walked behind you?"

"Not at all," he smiled. He turned around. "Just keep your voice low and stick behind me. When I signal to you, wait behind and let me patrol ahead. Simple as that. Okay?"

She nodded with a shuddering breath.

"We're only visiting this crib. We're not spending the night. Now let's make like the wind.....i-if you can even have wind inside a cave..."

Fraust smiled ever so slightly. She took a cold breath and crept along behind the changeling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At least two and a half minutes after the revelation of 'Prince Garth', Senator Chasma had settled through the cracks of shock and was well into the ocean of bitterness. He sat, leaning forward in his chair, his hands propped together beneath his tightly set jaw. The graying man glared down at the Poseidonissian balcony where Princess Tula was making her speech.

Both she and the doppelganger were....very much alive.

"Prince Garth was subjected to bludgeoning and laceration!" Tula spoke. "The latter of which was responsible for the gravest of his injuries; a slash across the throat that has damaged his vocal cords beyond known repair. Consequently, the bludgeoning stole from him his telepathic sensitivity. Those of you with rich Atlantean blood; you may try and communicate with him as you wish. But alas, the Prince cannot respond. Even the creatures of the sea treat him as a stranger now."

I stood tall and resolute as she spoke this beside me. I stared out at the Senate with the same resolve I imagined Garth would manage. My legs were beginning to feel numb, and I feared that at any moment and at any time I might collapse from nervousness or blood loss to my lower body.

"And still the conspirators were not finished with him!" Tula continued. "They wished to banish him from our lands—without proper authority from the Senate or King Orin himself. They acquired one of the most infernal instruments of our bygone days of darkness—an Expulsor Cannon—and launched him to die on dry land."

Gasps.

Shocked murmurs.

A complete uproar from the entire, spiraling Senate.

Sentator Chasma's teeth grit....

"It is by sheer strength and Idyllist stamina alone that the great prince has returned to us!" Tula spoke. "I put him in my care a day before revealing him before you now, for I still fear for his life. We have great reason to suspect a certain group as the conspirators, but we shall not name them before you. Not until the Senate comes to the conclusion that a terrible wrong has been done here...and even more wrong can be done in direct opposition to the Junction that we hold so precious." Tula's gaze was firm and her voice unrelenting. "I propose a commission to look into the gathering here at Atlantis! An examination of every group of delegates! I implore the Senate to consider advocating a search of all parties here—even Poseidonissian and Idyllist—so that we may find the root of this problem independent of my party's presumptions. This is for the best of the Junction, and I can only imagine that all groups involved and anticipating the new era of Atlantis would gladly agree to proceed along with this plan!"

Indeed—caught up in the enthusiasm and fervor for Garth's case—the Senate gradually stood up in one accord and cheered, supporting the move. For all parties in attendance felt no wrong in their heart or suspicion that their closest allies might be linked to Garth's experiences. All except Chasma, who eventually stood up and 'joined' the applause so as not to look conspicuous. The entire time he applauded, he was shooting daggers with his eyes and muttering under his breath.

In the meantime, my gaze lifted up to the top of the spiral, and I saw King Orin staring directly at me. His face was somewhere between speculation and concern. It was hard to tell that he was anything but brazened edge at all times.

Tula turned and spoke hushedly under the roar of the Senate to a royal subject. "Have my attendants move from the palace to the Sanctuary," she spoke. "They may be in danger if they stay in the Embassy today."

"Understood, your highness," the attendant bowed and ducked out of the balcony. As she left, in came an Atlantean guard.

"If your highness would be so kind," the guard spoke...then faced me. "King Orin would like to have a word with Prince Garth in private. In his throneroom."

Tula gave me a sideways glance as if to say: 'I warned you'. She turned and nodded at the guard. "You will have to get the Prince's permission. Not mine."

The guard looked at me.

I smiled slyly and walked past him. I motioned for him to 'follow'.

"Y-Yes sir!" he exclaimed and hurried to escort me along with four other guards outside the balcony.

I gave Tula a last glance from behind my shoulder.

She tried not to smile. She tried to keep her hard-edged façade in check.

I bowed my head slightly, spun around, and headed up the corridor along with the guards. I couldn't hear my own footsteps from the echoing noise of hundreds of passionate, raving Atlanteans.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the end of a winding corridor of rock, there was a circular chamber illuminated by torchlight.

A green lizard clung to the rock ceiling. It peered around the room. At the torches. The four beds of rock. The tunnels leading elsewhere.

Not a soul could be seen...

The lizard morphed into a bat, flew upside descended to the floor, and returned to elf form. Beast Boy stood up and motioned forward from the corridor behind him.

Fraust walked up, wringing her hands together.

"So far so good," Beast Boy smiled. "Try not being so nervous."

She merely gulped and stammered: "This is his room."

Beast Boy had a wyrd look. "Whose room?"

"Slizzath's," Fraust said.

Beast Boy jumped. He spun around, looking. "Y-You mean....Slizzath in the flesh?? He's already resurrected and un-re-antidead now??"

"N-Not Slizzath himself," Fraust breathed. She gestured as she tried to explain: "His essence....i-it is in an orb of sorts. I believe it is the gateway through which the evil sorcerer communicates from his imprisoned dimension. I kn-know because I've seen it from where I was...."

Her voice lingered.

"From where you were what?" Beast Boy quietly asked.

Fraust trembled. She stared at the four slabs of rock surrounding the center where the purple orb would normally be.

Beast Boy bit his lip. "We'll save it for a rainy day, allright?"

She nodded shakily. "O-Okay...."

"Now where do you think we might find more humans like you?"

Fraust pointed down a tunnel past one of the slabs.

"Okay...let's go. Nice and easy."

They crept along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Senator Chasma and a few of his flanking followers marched hurriedly through down a lush hallway in the Senate building. The leader had a look of anger that would kill his own mothers. The pacing of his feet was furious, and it took all of the political partners' stamina to keep up.

"Sir, we must slow down and think. Just because Garth has returned doesn't mean we can't still round up supporters for our Idyllist ambassadorial nomination."

"Chasma, aren't you listening?? You're overreacting!"

"Slow down and think! Princess Tula could very well have orchestrated the 'disappearance' and 'reappearance' of Garth as a propaganda device. Her story is the most melodramatic thing I've ever heard, and all of the liberal pro-Junction radicals are falling for it!"

"You...don't...know...anything...," Chasma sneered without looking at his comrades.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Chasma groaned. "I must be excused. I have matters to tend to."

"You always have matters to tend to! Ever since we gathered together for the Junction here in Atlantis you've been disappearing on 'errands' every other second! It's not making you look good, sir."

Chasma stopped in his tracks, spun around, and stared menacingly in the face of one of his compatriots.

"Do you see a mere man standing in front of you? I tell you what, I am more than an Atlantean fledgling. I am of an essence far greater and far stronger than this entire Senate combined and if you so much as anger me—"his eyes flickered violet hungrily "—I will make sure that the last thing you have to worry about is some outlandish commission!"

The man managed to frown. "Chasma, is that a threat?"

GRIP!!!

The other partners gasped as Chasma's hand suddenly seized the man's throat.

The Senator's voice was unearthly. Violet glowed faintly in his eyes as he snarled in a hissing voice: "It is an inevitability..."

Before anyone could gasp or shout--

"Ahem..."

".........," Chasma slowly turned around.

Tula smiled. She stood alone, elegant in the middle of the hallway facing the party.

Silence.

Chasma released his grip of the man, who wheezed.

"You boys run along home," Tula smiled. "I think Chasma's dying to talk to me."

The other members of the Senator's party looked at Tula, glanced fearfully at Chasma, then shuffled off.

The princess and the man were alone in the hallway.

Chasma's lungs heaved. He fumed as he looked at her and said: "I don't know how you survived...but your reverie won't be for long."

"And what do you know about reverie, Chasma?" Tula raised your eyebrows. "Strangling your closest allies. That's a little extreme. Even for you. Or is it?"

"Quiet..," Chasma hissed. He shook his head and ran a gnarled hand through his gray hair. "I have no time for this..."

"You have quite a nasty temper," Tula stepped fearlessly towards him. "You need to get it under control."

"Shut up...."

"Or maybe it's that you have no control," Tula grinned. She came closer. Closer. "Maybe you're no longer half the man you used to be. Maybe you're just a puppet. An element in some other soul that isn't your own. An essence of mind-numbing evil."

"I said....SILENCE!!!" Chasma bellowed.

"How can you expect to contradict that which you have become, Haetryd??"

"YAAAAH!!" Chasma's face became animalistic. His eyes became flickering embers of violet as he lunged carnivorously at her.

Tula stood still as a statue. When the Senator's ravaging fingers were a mere two inches from her throat, she uttered: "He's seeing King Orin as we speak..."

Chasma froze as if on a bungie cord. He panted, his fingers twitching threateningly close to the girl's larynx.

Tula blinked. She said: "In a matter of time, 'Garth' will have won Orin's entire confidence. And any harm you so much as hint about inflicting on me or any other innocent members of this Junction...you will have to pay for it dearly. And they will scour the seas and find your damned Black Tempest hive."

Chasma stumbled back, sweating coldly all over. He pointed a shaky hand. "Th-That boy is not Garth!!"

"And neither are you Chasma," Tula leaned her head aside and glared. "Of course, you were once him. But Slizzath made sure that faded away. You wanted the evil sorceror to give you power. Instead, he turned you into this. A flaming, demonic bigot. All you can think about is destruction and desecration and anihilation. You are no longer a being of reason...but an entity of hate. And in such a light, Slizzath bestowed a fraction of his seven essences upon you. You became Haetryd. A puppet of endless stupidity and beserk bloodlust. But instead of running into battle and shredding all opponents in sight, you stand behind a veil of cultish leadership. You torture human surface-dwellers and turn them into minions of Slizzath. Probably because you know that surface dwellers lack telepathic sensitivity...so that way nobody in Atlantis could hear their mental cries of anguish seeping out through the endless depths of the ocean. And you thought that you could get away with it. But it's okay...it's only natural for you to overlook things. Hatred should never run for politics."

Chasma sneered. His eyes flickered purple as he uttered: "Why are you so resolute, princess? Surely you know that anything that goes up against Slizzath's is doomed entirely. His power is something that stretches beyond the conceivable magnitude of Atlantean understanding. It is not the Junction that will usher in a new age for the seas. It is the all-encompassing power of the fallen sorcerer."

Tula smirked. "If Slizzath is so powerful...how come he became 'fallen' in the first place?"

Chasma's eyes narrowed. "I do not know how you survived the onslaught of the four essences, but the battle is not over. Fright and Mist. Frost and Acid. They shall be reborn, if necessary. And need you forget that Tempest and Plasma are seeded among your closest friends?"

"I know that quite well, Haetryd," Tula nodded. "And I'm proud....I'm proud because—tainted as they may be with the black curse—they know only good. They fight for a righteous cause." She smiled. "The peaceful reunification of our people...and perhaps even the entire world."

"The world is overrated," Chasma smiled. "Slizzath's power will reach to the far ends of the universe. Like a sea serpent that knows no boundaries, he'll swim on for eternity. And hatred may be his driving force...but mark my words, princess..." Chasma leaned forward. "When hatred's thirst is quenched...the hatred may die out for a time, but what a feast it would be....what a feast it would be indeed...."

"That's what I'm here for, Chasma," Tula replied. "To drown out your hatred......for good."

There was silence between them. Then Chasma twirled about on his heels and marched towards the exit of the Senate Building.

Standing alone, Tula took a deep breath. Her mind was in two....three places at once.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I don't remember exactly how long I waited outside the throneroom. It must have been somewhere in the ballpark of forty-five minutes. Then again, it could have been two hours.

Whatever......

I sat in a plush chair inside a towering room in the royal palace. Outside the yawning windows of the interior, I could spot the looming scrapers of the city of Atlantis. Fountains of water shot up and cascaded over the sides of countless structures. Beyond that, the wavering blue 'sky' of the Ocean beyond the dome.

Two guards stood beside the door to the throneroom.

I sat as still as possible. I felt like twiddling my thumbs. I subconsciously wished for a deck of cards to shuffle around in my hand nonchalantly.

But I tried to snap out of that.

I wasn't Noir. I was 'Garth'.

I bit my lip.

And right now, 'Garth' is about to enact the most crucial part of the mission yet.

The door opened and a messenger summoned: "King Orin will see you now, Prince Garth."

Working the king of Atlantis......heh......

I stood up and marched past the guards and through the huge doorway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Orin wasn't even sitting on his throne.

The King of Atlantis stood halfway down the length of the room. He stared at me as I entered. His arms were down to his side and his muscular shoulders set. It looked almost as if he put the effort of his entire physical frame into that stance...just for me.

I had it all planned out in my mind. I would march to a stop about fifteen feet from him and bow low to the ground. After all, he was the King of Atlantis.

But I noticed something as I walked in. While Orin's entire body was resolute, his eyes weren't. They moved lower than they should have been if they were looking at my face.

Of course, I was used to this. Having a scar on my neck called for that everyday of life. Even with the Titans—Beast Boy and Starfire still cast glances at the 'x' on my throat.

If I was 'Noir' then and there in the throneroom, I would reacted all the same. But I remember who I was portraying myself as. Surely King Orin would have noticed the scar on my throat like everyone else had in the Senate Room. And he wouldn't have asked me into his throneroom just to see the wound up close.

Unless.......

I focused my vision on his eyes.

There was a tiny twitching to them....then they rounded, losing ferocity.

Unless Garth was a close friend......

I didn't bow.

King Orin had no negative response to this. He merely waved to the servant behind me.

The man exited.

King Orin and I were alone.

A beat. Terrible, cold silence.

I thought that a young, Idyllist ambassador with impatient desires for a revolutionized Atlantis would want to break the mold.

So I took a deep breath.

King Orin seemed to shudder. I almost flinched as he quickly crossed the distance with stomping feet....

.....and hugged me fiercely.

"!!!!!" my eyes bugged over his shoulder from the pressure of his arms. I thought of Starfire...

"Ha ha ha ha!!" he majestically bellowed, parted the hug, and patted me strongly on the shoulder. "Garth, you little runt!! I thought you were a goner for sure!!"

I wheezed, but managed a friendly grin. I shrugged, as if the 'danger' I had gone through was of no consequence.

"Let me look at you...," he tilted my chin up with a finger and gazed at the scar. He took a deep breath. "What an atrocity. I thought all of the miscreants of Atlantis had been chased out from the last civil war. I see now that I have been negligent in my security. And look at the price that has been paid."

I saw in the strong leader's face a sense of sorrow and responsibility. It felt very fatherly...and at first I couldn't wonder why.

And for some reason I remembered that the King standing before me was once simply known to the surface-world as 'Aquaman'.

And I thought....

Aquaman......Aqualad......Aquaman......Aqualad......

I nearly gasped.

Oh my god......Garth was a sidekick, wasn't he??

I blinked.

He......he was a sidekick to Aquaman, now King Orin. He must be like a son to him.

I was thusly well psyched for the 'role' I was playing. I raised a hand and dared to pat the King's shoulder with a look of friendly assurance, to forgive him of whatever guilt he felt at my 'ill-fortune'.

He seemed relaxed at that, as the relief for my well-being washed over him. There was no ill-response to my casual, hand-contact.

We were old friends......

"I always thought that you were never meant for politics," Aquaman...er...King Orin said as he paced across the throne room.

I followed along close by and listened to him.

"But I am not one to judge. Being an ambassador for the Idyllists is in your blood," he said. "And besides! Look at me...the hypocrite!" He laughed merrily for a moment...something I sensed that he wouldn't do so jovially in the presence of anyone else but 'Garth'. "We put ourselves in the line of danger many times before, Garth. And we're both doing it now—in our own separate ways—on the eve of destiny."

He gestured as he said this. Something glinted in the light.

I glanced and nearly lost the contacts in my eyes at sight of his...harpoon. To put it simply, King Orin had no left hand. A jagged metal prosthetic served at its replacement.....a testament to Orin's...erm....badassness?

I quickly cleared my throat and looked back at his face as if nothing was awry.

After all, Garth wouldn't be surprised...would he?

I flexed my 'skin' covered metal fingers subconsciously.

"This City....it is so beautiful," Orin said. The two of us walked over and came to a stop on a balcony, overlooking the glory of Atlantis. "And yet, it is but a piece of the flourishing of life. All life." He turned and looked at me. "Ever since the birth of my son...I have come to an awakening of sorts, Garth. Your people were right all along..."

I blinked my specked eyes and looked at him curiously.

"The Idyllists...they couldn't live in Atlantis anymore millennia ago because my forefathers were a race of warriors," King Orin said, running a hand along the hard metal of his prosthetic. "And it is evident in myself as well. In the ways I have purged the kingdom of my treacherous brother's militants and challenged the oceanic supremacy of the surface world." His fists clenched. A fire surged in his eyes...but died out with a sigh. "But I realize I have only been cursing myself with the same bloodlust that has plagued my ancestors for generations. I do not want my son to live in a world where war is imminent between this world and the dry land above. And yet I have challenged all that would be so much as different from Atlantis on the grounds of militaristic intimidation. Well I have enough of it...as much as your forefathers had, Garth."

He looked at me firmly.

"This Junction...it is not a 'new age'. It is not a unique revolution for its time. It is a rebirth...a renaissance of intelligent, peaceful people with ideas so far ahead of their time that they were ostracized." He placed a hand on my shoulder. "If I had my way in the entire Senate, Garth...I would call it the 'Idyllist Retribution'. But that would not be true to the code of your people, would it? For peace is not something acquired through personal merit or power. Peace is something of the people...the entire people. And if there is to be a happy future for my son—for all of our sons and daughters—we must unite together without friction and without hatred. Your family line shall be an inspiration for all of us....finally...after four thousand years of separation."

I took a deep breath. This revelation was a passionate one, even for my ears. I didn't know if Aqualad was capable of crying, but if he was truly there now...I imagine he would have been balling his dark eyes out.

My look of earnest gratitude—howbeit subtler—was apparently enough for King Orin to buy.

"As terrible as your fallout has surely been--," Orin spoke, "—it is for the good. It has reopened my eyes to what I desire for Junction. And it has made me aware of a great evil seeded amongst us." He narrowed his eyes and spoke gently/firmly in some odd combination. "Garth...will you confide in me the identity of those who did this great harm to you?"

"..........," I looked at Orin. I thought about Chasma. I thought about the possible resurrection of Slizzath. So many dark and crazy things swam through my head, but throughout it all was the stern and resolute face of Tula. And I knew that in this foreign and dangerous place under the sea, it was best to trust her overall.

So—with a shaking of my head and a somber closing of my eyes—I quietly refused to inform Orin of the conspirators.

He took a deep breath. "I do not understand your restraint, Garth. But I shall respect it." He spun around and seemed to speak to the wall as he said: "I swear...as King of Atlantis...the fate of those ripped your throat asunder and tried to undermine the very spirit of unification will rue the day they ever did such." His body trembled ferociously. His beard shook like an angry entity. "This may be an age of peace...but it is not one of cowardice either. There has always been...and shall always be a banal evil to be reckoned with."

I took a deep breath.

I could certainly agree with the king on that...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy and Fraust crept down the black, stone corridor of the Black Tempest's cove.

Torches from the wall licked tongues of flame on either side of them.

Beast Boy lead the way, his green eyes peering into the winding corridor. His green ears lifted suddenly and he stopped. He held his hand up, motioning for Fraust to keep still.

".........."

".........."

Murmurs and footsteps echoed louder from the far side of the corridor.

"I hear voices...," Beast Boy whispered.

Fraust trembled. "It's th-them!"

"Shhh!" Beast Boy looked around. He found a dark crevice in the tunnel wall to the left. He shoved Fraust into shadowed hiding and dashed in himself.

They huddled together for a few seconds before the green Titan said: "Okay...I'm gonna go check it out. You stay here."

"B-But—"she uttered.

"Don't worry. They pass by this place all the time. I don't see why they're gonna look inside this crack in the wall. If anything bad happens...just zap them with your ice power and scream or something and I'll come along pouncing to kick butt. Got it?"

She nodded. "D-Don't let them hurt you...."

Beast Boy blinked at her. "Awwww....anyone tell you you're pretty when you're miserable?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind," he shook his head. He morphed into a mouse and uttered in a high voice: "Keep it real." He scurried off down the tunnel.

Fraust took a shuddering breath and hugged herself...alone....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The small green rodent hugged the lower corner of the tunnel. It scurried down some rocky stairs. The voices became louder.

A shuffling of feet...

Then...

Beast Boy turned into a chameleon and hugged a dark corner of the wall. It took some effort, but his green skin momentarily turned a dull brown.

Four hooded figures in black shuffled past him. They were either muttering under their breath or chanting something all at once. Beast Boy couldn't tell.

He didn't care...

Once they were gone, he turned into a snake and slithered into the next portion of the corridor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Faraway across the seas...

The four Idyllist submarines were continuing their massive exodus towards Atlantis.

And on board the largest ship—Praetor Ivan's vessel—a huge uproar was in progress.

People were dancing around. Others were sobbing with joy. Guards jubilantly cheered and clashed their harpoons and tridents together in noisy celebration.

Starfire, Robin, and Nova'm were walking towards the bridge when the flurry of noice and happiness flooded down the corridor they were in.

"It's true!! It's true!!" voices shouted.

"He is alive! Thank Neptune!!"

"Long live Atlantis!!"

Nova'm blinked. "Um......so did Elvis get cloned or something?"

"What is transpiring here???" Starfire exclaimed. "I am glad to witness such massive felicitation, but surely there must be a reason for it!"

"Let's get to the bridge!" Robin shouted. "Ivan should know..."

The two ran/floated up the corridor and past cheering crowds.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A guard escorted Robin and the two Tamaranians through the bridge of the main flagship. Even the ship operators and tactical crew were taking the time to cheer as a random radio frequencies from Atlantis fervently filtered through the air of the room. While everyone was moving around happily, Ivan—standing at the helm—seemed strangely still.

"Got any idea what's going on?" Robin asked.

Ivan glanced at Robin. "Yes....good news. Genuine good news," the Idyllist leader said. But still, his voice lingered.

Robin's eyebrow lifted above his mask. He glanced around.

"Haven't you heard, surface-dwellers?!" a random crewmember exclaimed. "He is alive!! He has returned!"

"Who has?" Starfire asked.

"Prince Garth!! Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley is alive and at the Senate!!"

"Hooray!!!!"

"Blessings be from Poseidon!!"

Nova'm bit his lip.

Robin and Praetor Ivan shared a knowing glance. They gently nodded their heads in understanding.

Starfire saw it..and breathed a sigh of relief. "Hehehe...," she clasped her hands together and smiled. "It is good news indeed..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood at the balcony to the throne room. My eyes were gazing at the distant waters beyond the dome. My mind was elsewhere.

King Orin kept speaking from where he stood beside me. "Garth...do you remember the time we faced Black Manta in the Thermal Rift?"

I concentrated on a convincing 'nod' of my head.

"We were chained to the rock where lava was about to stream down," he said. He twisted his metal harpoon-hand and spoke: "It was one of your first real adventures. I could tell that your little eyes were crying...heh...but you wanted to be a big kid. You wouldn't admit to it."

I blinked. This was all news to me. But I smiled and pretended to recollect...

"But after we got out of there—I don't remember if it was a telepathically contacted school of sharks or just pure luck—I realized that you were crying about something else. There was this girl you had met recently...and you were just getting to know her. To have died then would have been a cruel twist of fate for you, Garth. For once in your life, you almost had something to look forward to outside of your lonely wonderings."

I took a deep breath, looking off into the distance.

Orin faced me directly. "I never told you before, Garth....but I almost asked you to stop being 'Aqualad' then."

I glanced at the King.

His eyes narrowed. "And yet...even when I moved on and assumed my rightful seat on the throne, you kept going. You never stopped swimming the seas, trying to stop evil in all its forms. Trident, Black Manta, whoever. You've purposefully enslaved yourself to a rogue marshall's existence...even if it means being twice a loner from your separatist colony in the Hidden Valley."

I took a deep breath and looked off.

"If only you could still speak to me...," he said sorrowfully. "Why do you do it, Garth? You've never told me why you punish yourself so. You have every right and reason to settle in and rule your people as a true king. Instead, you let that Ivan fellow run business...as if you don't deserve the title of leadership yourself. And I can't help but think that you're secretly hiding something away from me. Something that—if I knew about—surely I would understand."

I realized then and there the true extent of Garth's burden. Not even Aquaman/King Orin knew about the curse of Slizzath on his family tree. If Orin realized about Tempest...would he be so trusting of his former sidekick?

I gathered that King Orin would accept me—er, Garth—in open arms no matter what. But it was not in my judgment or decision to reveal the deepest of Garth's truths.

We all need secrets. Lord knows......the Titans have happily accepted me into the Tower in spite of all my own...

I remained silent.

"...............," King Oring looked off.

A beat.

"About that girl, though....," King Orin drifted back on the topic. He smiled suggestively. "She grew up to be quite a princess, didn't she?"

I understood then that the girl Garth cried about in the Thermal Ravine was Tula. I smiled at that.

Orin took that as a response. "Tell me...is she quite so fierce and undaunting everywhere?? Ha ha ha ha!!"

I blushed at that, but eventually gave in with a nervous chuckle of my own.

Orin laughed more.

As I snickered, the truer half of me glanced off with specked eyes towards the liquid horizon and—with a sick feeling—I worried about the others of my 'team'...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a crimson part of the cavern—made red by the chemicals in the claustrophic chamber's torchlights—two robed figures stood beside a rugged, wooden table. They were muttering incantations and cleaning off mysteriously sharp equipments with rags. Dripping water in the corners of the place mixed with their voices and a scant few other sounds to create a sickly chorus that lingered low in sound frequency...creating an uneasy, paranoid feeling about the place.

The two robed figures were intensely oblivious to a green shew shuffling up, stopping under the table, and suddenly exploding upwards in the form of an emeral velociraptor.

"Skreeee!!!!" THWACK!! SLASH!!!

"Mmmmf!!!" the two robed figures fell down hard.

Silence.

The dinosaur morphed into a panting Beast Boy between the sprawled bodies. He gulped and shuffled over to the first door that he could find. He stood on his tip-toes and peered in through the barred windows in the wooden frame.

He could see nothing but shadows.

"......"

He stepped back. He flexed his arms...morphed into a gorilla...and smashed the door down with a heavy fist.

CRUNCH!!!

The door splintered and fell off its frame.

Beast Boy turned back into elf form. He looked to his left, found a torch, and picked it up off its rusted brace. He walked into the stone-carved cell. "Hello??" he called into the echoing chamber. He peered around as he waved the torch. "Is anyone in here??"

The torchlight caught the legs of someone lying against the wall.

Beast Boy smiled. "Hey there! I'm here to get you out—"

He raised the light.

His green eyes widened.

The body of a teenage girl lie against the wall. Her torso was singed knuckle-deep into the flesh. Her arms were severed clean off. Her scalp was missing. Worms crawled in the fresh meat of her wounds.

Beast Boy gasped and stumbled back. He dropped the torch, which fell in the center of the room and lit up the entire cell.

A pair of human legs hung on the wall from hooks. Three heads rested in the corner. Something that looked like the flesh off of a human wrist sat beside a red stain like a leather glove.

Beast Boy stumbled backwards, shaking. "H-Holy...."

He turned and looked at another door. He ran towards it, morphed into a ram, and plowed it open. He crouched in elf form and stared—swallowing a lump down his throat.

Four bodies were piled on top of each other. Their skin stabbed in multiple places. The same singe marks on them. The same rawness and worms...

Beast Boy stepped back into the main corridor, his fists clenching.

"T-Torture....," he muttered. He glanced at the blades that the unconscious, hooded figures were polishing. They were stained with surface-dweller red. "...cult ritual....whatever.......God in heaven, no wonder the ice chick's so screwed up..."

As if on cue, he heard murmuring sounds from another door. He gasped. He ran towards it—yanked it open in bear form—and peered in. "Anyone in here???" He asked. A blink. "Alive??"

Three...four...six figures trembled against the wall. All about the Titan's age, if not a little younger. They cowered at the sight of him.

"P-P-Please....," a girl sobbed. "No more...don't hurt us..."

"Don't worry," Beast Boy raised his hand. "I'm a good guy. How many of you guys are here anyways??"

A boy leaning on the wall hobbled over. He had one leg. "Who knows?? We stopped counting the screams the second night." His hollow eyes twitched and he swallowed nervously. "Y-You've gotta get us out of h-here..."

"Will do...," Beast Boy said. "Just sit tight! I gotta think up a plan!" He marched back out into the corridor. "Also gotta find out if there're any others ali—"

SSSSSSSssssss!!!!

A green stream of liquid surged at the changeling.

He barely had time to dodge.

Acid grazed his elbow. His skin burned.

"Aaaugh!!!" Beast Boy slumped against a wall, clutching his steaming wound. With clenched teeth, he looked up.

The children inside the cell shrieked and were quiet.

Acyd stood...in the flesh. She had a frown on that could kill a saint. Bruises marked her bodies in numerous places and she was leaning limply on a bad limp. Still, she had her dark magic of corrosive projection...and at least four hooded cult members were flanking her figure.

"You're....Y-You're alive...," Beast Boy murmured.

Acyd's eyes narrowed. "Unfortunately...." Her hands shot forward.

Beast Boy dove out of the way.

SSSSSSSSssss!!!!

The wooden table wilted into ashes.

Beast Boy rolled across the ground and kicked one of the metal blades her way.

Acyd hopped the sliding projectile, knelt, and shot two more streams.

SSSSSSSsss!!!

Beast Boy flipped out of the way.

The rock steamed from the juices.

The changeling landed in a fighting pose across the chamber and panted.

"You were a fool to come here...," Acyd sneered. She stood up menacingly again. "Especially when I'm pissed. And I don't act as an acid elemental use the 'p' word lightly."

"You shut your face!" Beast Boy cackled. He frowned. "I was wrong about you! You're nothing but bad eggs in the end, aren't you?? Nobody...no matter HOW brainwashed...could walk around freely in this torture chamber and not feel remorseful!!"

"You have a lot to learn about perspective...," Acyd sneered. "I was one of these mangled children once. I spent hours on the slab...being carved, jabbed, pierced, invaded in every orifice imaginable..." Her jaw was firm as she hissed her last words out. "And there comes a time when you realize that you were born only for suffering...and your suffering alone. And if serving Slizzath means having to outlive all these young pups being ripped apart around me...then so be it." She raised her hands at him again. "After all...the screaming tends to get boring..."

"You want to do this the hard way??" Beast Boy flexed his limbs and readied to morph. "You want to battle it out and see how much subjected to suffer you still are???"

"Hardly...," Acyd said. She then looked at someone behind Beast Boy. "Now would be a good time."

Beast Boy's eyes widened.

Before he could turn--

FLASH!!!!!!

His back was covered in frozen fury.

He cried out, but felt his lungs empty of all air from the frigid contact. He collapsed on the ground, his body numb. A chunk of frost enveloped his figure. He barely manage to turn his head and glance at the intruder in question.

Fraust walked up, her hands misting blue. A sad look in her face.

"Y-You....," Beast Boy's teeth clattered. "Amy......I thought you had changed...."

She took a deep breath. Her somber eyes glowed purple. "I'm sorry, Mr. Titan......but in the end...I work for Lord Slizzath..."

Acyd smirked.

The children inside the smashed cell sobbed.

Beast Boy winced as Fraust held her hands toward him one more time and--

FLASH!!!!!

All was white.

Then all was black.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Princess Tula stood in the royal atrium.

For once that day, there was dismay splashed across her face. She nervously wrung her hands and stared out a window onto Atlantis.

A loud creaking sound...

Tula turned and looked.

I walked out of the throneroom on a cloud of ease. I had finished my 'meeting' with King Orin, and nobody could have asked for a better reunion. As far as the ruler cared, I was Garth and always had been Garth.

However, I felt like a helpless Noir again as Tula walked straight towards me with a worried lok and uttered: "Something's wrong..."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Beast Boy and the ice girl...," Tula muttered, glancing aside. "They haven't come back yet."

I bit my lip. I glanced back at the throne room then at the young lady again.

Tula's eyes narrowed. "What could be keeping them? They'd better get back soon." She ran a nervous hand through her short, dark hair. "Chasma will be heading back there by now...and it doesn't help that I ticked him off the last time we met." She simpered. "Not much is worse than the epitome of hatred being angry."

I blinked my specked eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!!

Senator Chasma shot out of the tunnel of water. His mat of gray hair dribbled liquid streams down his frowning face as he marched through the corridor.

A darkly clad servant walked alongside the irate man.

"Sir..our acolytes have returned from their search. The assault on the Tower has been pushed back. Miist is nowhere to be seen. Prince Garth and the Titans are no longer present there."

"I can only imagine...," Chasma grunted.

"The attack on the Hidden Valley went as planned, but Fryte has perished. As we speak, Praetor Ivan and four transport vessels full of Idyllist diplomats are headed towards Atlantis. The other team of Titans may very well be with them."

"Let them come...," Ivan hissed. "The Black Tempest shall deal with them."

"B-But how, sir?? With the alleged return of Prince Garth, mustn't we work to summon new bodies for the two lost essences?"

"This is no job for the spirit of Slizzath anymore," Chasma grunted as he stormed along. "This calls for our Lord's brute force. A direct blow to the infidels opposing us."

"But sir, how are you going to—"

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!

Chasma spun, his hand going directly to the underling's neck. The man's eyes flickered violet as he snarled into the servant's face: "If you want to keep your life....any semblance of your 'life'...you will swim home, now."

He dropped the messenger to the floor, spun around, and stomped away.

The young man rubbed his neck, shivered, and ran the opposite way towards the tunnel waters.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy stirred.

Tired green eyes fluttered open.

He flexed his arms and realized they were chained to a wall.

An awkwardly sloped, rock wall.

The changling gritted his teeth and sneezed. The cold sheen on his skin was slowly fading away, and yet he felt chills.

When his gaze fell upon the room before him, he realized why.

Well over fifty black-robed figures gathered in a circle around the center of the room. The circular room with the four rock slabs. All of the figures chanted in malignant unison. The cavernous room vibrated with their deep, resonating voices.

Beast Boy coughed and flexed his arms again. He knew that—with just one thought—he could morph into a gorilla or an iguanadon or some other creature of considerable mass and break out of his restraints in an instant. But he restrained...especially since two deadly mages stood by his side.

"..........," Acyd glared menacingly up at him. She had her arms folded, but a twitch of her fingers caused her digits to steam and warned the changling that any wrong move would summon a corrosive splash sailed at his figure.

Beast Boy tiredly glanced to his other side.

Fraust stood, her arms held together in front of her. She felt the gaze of Beast Boy and shifted nervously.

"Why??" he asked. "What are you gaining?"

She bit her lip and tried to avoid his gaze.

"Amy...," Beast Boy murmured. "I saw the cells. I have an idea what you've gone through. Don't....do....this........You'll only get more of the same."

"Quiet," Acyd grunted.

Beast Boy sighed. He gazed tiredly at the cultish proceedings.

Senator Chasma walked through the chanting crowd. His usual senator outfit was replacd with a robe of shimmering gray and black contrast. He had a hood hanging down behind his neck like loose flesh. He approached the center of the slabs where a gothic pedestal rested. The man's eyes flashed purple with hatred as he raised his hands and summoned:

"Descend...oh voice of our Lord!"

The dark figures chanted.

Beat Boy's gaze lingered upwards.

A circle in the rocky ceiling slid open. A purple orb of fluctuating light hovered down and rested on the pedestal. A violet glow shimmered through the place.

Beast Boy shivered...as if something indescribably wretched and cold was squirming through his porous green skin.

Senator Chasma spoke to Beast Boy without turning around. "Funny that your foolishness is so great that you've found yourself stuck here, Mr. Titan," he said. "I must give you thank for returning one of our children back to us. But I've come to realize that children will only take the Evil Father's plans so far. It is time for the Black Tempest itself to become realized."

Chasma turned and faced the orb on the pedestal. "Our Lord...we come to you now to ask for your awesome presence. You promised to consume the world...now consume us as only you can..."

The orb fluctuated. A hideous voice rang out:

"My children.....my children are bleeding........."

Acyd shifted uncontrollably.

Fraust said nothing.

"Your enemies, oh lord," Chasma said. "They are merciless. They have shredded your children apart. Fryte and Miist have fallen. We desire to avenge them. We want to bring your plan to fruition. For the new age of the seas...the new age of the universe..."

"Haetryd......you are fearful......I will not extend myself into the oceans for your petty feelings..."

Chasma winced.

The orb pulsed.

"I will send the Black Tempest out to crush this onslaught and this onslaught alone......"

Chasma took a deep breath. "And so it is your will...," he waved his arms. "Consume your followers! The carriers of your force!"

"Consume. Consume the seas!!" chanted the robed figures.

The orb started to glow brighter and brighter.

Beast Boy's eyes thinned.

Fraust and Acyd stood still and unflinching.

Chasma held his hands out, basking in the evil aura of Slizzath. The violet hatred in his eyes flickered. His teeth clinched and in a flash he was grinning at the immensity of abomination growing before him.

FLASH!!!!

Tendrils of purple lashed out from the orb. It ran through five figures at once like a piercing ribbon.

"!!!!!" the black-clad figures jerked in place.

FLASH!!!!

Another purple tentacle. Twelve more figures spasmed and shook.

FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!!

Soon, the entire room full of cult members were being pierced with the purple hue. An invisible wind kicked up in the cave, causing hair and cloth and skin to warble about like a rippling pond of onyx.

One by one, the figures cringed. They bent over or arched back as tortured screams and sickening sounds of crackling sinew issued from each and every one of them. Soon, dark shapes started to emerge from their robed figures. Jointed shadows like batwings or spider webs. The agonized shrieks of fifty to sixty Atlanteans morphed into nightmarish howls and banshee wails. Cloth was shredded and fell away. Humanoid faces contorted to having huge jaws full of dagger-like teeth. Eyes turned white and bulbous. Hands burned into fins. Skin melted away to scales.

Beast Boy watched—panting—as half-a-hundred demons scampered around the orb, howled, and plunged as one giant train of murderous bodies into the water outside the tunnel.

"Who shall they consume first, my lord?!?!?!" Chasma shouted above the mayhem.

The orb pulsed purple. The voice hissed.

"Plasma.........Plassssmaaa.........eat his heart and every breathing soul around him. Turn life into death..."

With a few lasting howls and shrieks, the demons were gone. Chasma stood in the center of the cleared room. He laughed his head off maniacally.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!!!!!!" Garth gasped.

Raven and Cyborg, standing on the rock that Aqualad was plunging into the depths of the sea, looked at the Atlantean in concern.

"Dude...you okay??" Cyborg asked.

"It's Slizzath...," Garth murmured.

"What?? He's being resurrected already??"

"It's not him," Garth spoke. "Safe to say...it's half of him. The Black Tempest incarnate..."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

Garth took a deep breath. He refocused his glowing hands and spoke with purple-flashing eyes. "We have to hurry."

With the powers of Tempest, Garth accelerated the plunging rock into the depths of the sea.

Cyborg and Raven helplessly went along for the ride.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rest easy, Haetryd......," the voice hissed at Chasma. "Your pathetic hold over the Senate will be realized. But it means little to me. My power shall be greatest in all the universe. The next age shall be defined by myself and myself alone..."

Chasma slowly lowered his arms, panting. "My Lord...," he grinned drunkenly. "Nothing matters to me now....save for that princess bitch's head on a plate..." He let out a wheezing chuckle.

Beast Boy frowned.

FLAAAASH!!!!!

Beast Boy gasped.

A stream of blue energy shot out and encased Chasma's lower body. The torso of Haetryd flinched and groaned as a chunk of ice traveled up his body and surrounded his frame into frozen solidity.

"What?!?! Acyd!! Compensate, my child!!!"

Acyd spun, her eyes wide in shock.

SWIIIIISH-CHTINK!!!

Beast Boy gasped as frozen daggers flew across the air and severed the chains hold him. He landed numbly on the ground. Fraust stepped over and stood protectively over him, facing Acyd.

"Fraust.....," Acyd murmured. "You...betray us??"

Fraust took a deep breath. She managed to pierce her melancholy exterior and produce a bitter frown. "I am merely helping the one person in my life who ever stepped up to preserve me....," she held two misting hands of blue out at the green-haired girl. "And now that Slizzath's minions have left this domain...I can finally work on saving my brothers and sisters. My true brothers and sisters."

Beast Boy managed a shivering grin. "You're not a natural blonde afterall, are you?"

Fraust timidly added: "Vera...you are free to join me....free to join me in freedom, if you want."

But Acyd frowned angrily. "The name's not Vera anymore," she hissed. Her fingers started steaming. "It's Acyd. And I think it's about time you melted for good, snow witch!!!"

"Eliminate her!! Destroy my bastard child!!!"

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Acyd ran towards Fraust.

Fraust shoved Beast Boy out of the way, charged up a huge pulse of blue, and launched it at the charging agent of corrosion.

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Praetor!! Praetor, come look!!"

Robin and Ivan looked over. The Idyllist later stomped over and leaned over the crewmember's console on the bridge.

"What is it??"

"I don't know, sir. But there're dozens of them. And they're closing in on us fast!"

"How soon till we get to Atlantis?"

"About a half-hour."

"Close...but not close enough," Ivan groaned. "Any idea what those objects are?"

"Too small to be submarines, sir."

"An Atlantean infantry division?"

"They're not in any standard formation I've been trained to recognize..."

Ivan marched up to the front of the bridge. "Then what in Neptune's name are they?" he thought aloud.

Starfire floated in with Nova'm. "What is the commotion about? Is there something amiss?"

"I have no clue," Robin shrugged. "But I've got a bad feeling about it."

"Sir! They're closing in! Visual sighting imminent!"

Ivan and a dozen other crewmen turned and stared out the front window panels of the bridge.

Robin craned his neck to look.

Rising over a bed of coral like a flock of underwater bats came over fifty shrieking, muscle-rippling entities of demonic hate. They glowed a communal aura of unsettling purple. Their shrieks warbled through the water as they soared straight at the submarine fleet.

"Poseidon....," Ivan murmured. "Sea Wraiths...."

"Sea Wraiths?!?!" Robin exclaimed.

"Spawn of ancient Leviathans. Hatred and Death rolled into one, carnivorous being...and now we have a whole school of them charging us."

"What in the Hell are Sea Wraiths?!" Robin barked.

"Not something to be happy about," Ivan said.

"............," Robin drew a blank.

The dark-eyed Idyllist glanced down at him. "Doesn't your surface-culture believe in vampires?"

Robin gasped. He looked out the window.

Starfire and Nova'm hugged each other.

The crewmembers were numb, their eyes wide.

The shrieking creatures closed in.

"Battlestations," Ivan muttered.

Silence.

He spun around and shouted: "Battlestations!!!"

The bridge went into a flurry of activity. People intercoming the decks of the ship. Other people radioing the other submarines. Weapons charging and harpoons and tridents glowing...

The Black Tempest rushed in on them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WRIEEEEEEE!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

What was once a group of sane, cultish Atlanteans had morphed into water demons of obsidian ferocity. They spiraled about in a thick black haze and descended maddeningly upon the four submarines.

The underwater bikers watched in horror. In honorable fashion, they gathered around in an attack formation around the forward left side of the submersibles and charged up their tridents and harpoons with bright energy.

The demons flocked towards them. Huge, yawning mouths of glistening fangs howled open. Claws at the ends of razor-sharp fins opened wide and flexed.

Black flesh met Idyllist metal.

"RRRRAUGH!!!!" the bikers shouted and zapped, stabbed, and swung their tridents with all they could muster.

Obsidian wings blocked the first barrage of energy discharge. One or two demons shrieked in a fountain of black bubbles. The rest converged on the ocean-soldiers like Hell's pirahnas.

The Idyllists were helpless. Screams warbled through the soup of seawater and black fins. Three demons latched onto each biker and gnawed, clawed, and bit into a pulsing center. A cloud of red formed—through which the surging school of death broke through and rocketed towards the first and largest of the submersibles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Praetor Ivan, the Titans, and the crewmembers watched in horror. A murk of black and red fountained towards them from the outside and--

CLANK!!!!!! A half-chewed Atlantean body slammed against the glass.

A few crewmembers screamed.

Nova'm let out a cry and hid behind Starfire.

The Tamaranian girl watched with round eyes.

Robin stepped forward to the window...

RIIIIP!!!

The shredded body exploded through the center. A demon pierced through the flesh and bit into the glass.

CRACK!!!!

Robin jumped back.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

Its silvery mouth of fangs rattled into the window, forming the tiniest of cracks. And startlingly quickly that crack became less tiny and less tinier.

"Are the weapons online?!?!" Ivan grumbled.

"They are now, sir!! The guns are armed and ready!!"

"Fire at will!!"

A flashing light pulsed on every computer console. A siren blared.

Ivan took a deep breath.

Robin's fists clenched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At a dozen spots on opposite sides of the main ship's hull, manhole-sized gun turrets extended outward, rotated, aimed at the attacking cloud of demons, and took fire.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Energy and ballistic blasts streamed through the deep seawater, spewed bubbles in a spiral, rounded out, and struck hard into the obsidian flesh of a handful of demons.

TH-THUNK!!!! THUNK!!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!!" the bleeding creatures shrieked. They retreated outward from the hull of the main ship, regrouped, spiraled together in the water, and advanced back in a huge, snake-like attack. Their bodies swarmed to create a Hellworm lined with claws and gaping mouths of metallic teeth. In such a manner, they spun around the ship like an electron cloud to its nucleus and miraculously dodged most of the ensuing cannonfire.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BL-BLAM!!!!

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" the spiraling school of demons squirmed to miss the shots. The rope-like entity warbled towards the ship while in rotation and 'bit' into passing turrets.

CRACK!!!

Water seeped into the gun chambers, crushed the bodies of the Idyllist gunners inside, and imploded in a flurry of bubbles and blood before so much as a scream could be uttered into the air vacuum.

SMASH!!! POW!!!! CRASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Everyone on the bridge wobbled as the ship shook.

Ivan uttered through clenched teeth: "Status report!!"

"Nine out of twenty-four gun turrets destroyed!! Three more abandoned. We can't fight off something this close-ranged!!"

"Why aren't the other ships giving support fire??"

"Commander Jeanne's reporting in and saying that it's impossible to shoot the creatures and not miss the flagship!"

"Captain Gaston says that they're under close attack as well."

"Praetor, they're all over us!!"

Ivan spun about to another crewmember. "Any of the bikers left?"

"None, sir......they're all gone."

"............," Ivan took that in.

BLAM!!!

Another turret blew.

The entire ship lurched.

Robin panted, supporting himself up with a computer console. He looked up...his eyemask brightening. "We can help!!"

Ivan spun to look at him.

"The T-Sub. There are four remaining components to it in tact!" Robin exclaimed. "Each of them can be manned independently and used as combat submersibles!"

"How're the maneuverability and firepower?" Ivan asked.

"Enough to shake off a pursuing sailfish or heat-seeking torpedo!" Robin exclaimed. "As for firepower...approximately thirty microtorpedos for each, including sonic blasters for minimal damage."

"They won't hold off a demonic hoarde such as this!!!!" Ivan gestured.

The ship shook again.

Robin gritted his teeth, trying to stay balanced. "No, sir. But they might distract them long enough for the main subs to get to Atlantis! There's still time!!"

".......," Ivan stared. The sounds of shrieking demons and exploding turrets shook through the water and echoed chillingly through the bridge. The dark-eyed Idyllist took a deep breath and said: "Very well. Let's go."

Starfire floated over. "Robin, I am going with you."

The Boy Wonder smirked. "Thought you'd never ask. Come on!" he ran down a corridor leading towards the hangar bay.

"I'm going too," Ivan said.

Robin stopped. He glanced back. "Sir??"

"I'm going to protect my people at all costs," the man said. "Besides, you said you have four submersibles available, and it would be a travesty to not use all of them." He glanced around. "I need one last volunteer to pilot the miniature attack sub!"

Nova'm raised a nervous hand. "I-I will..."

Starfire floated over. "No, Nova'm. You will not."

"But Kory—"

She knelt down and immediately hugged him—to his surprise.

"Do you wish to be a hero still, Nova'm??" she murmured into his ear.

He shakingly nodded.

"Then live long to become a great one!" she stroked his back. "I shall return. I promise you that. Venvuraat memor'm niul de X'Hal...." She stood up and flew quickly down the corridor while Robin ran alongside her.

"Sir!" a guard rose to the occasion and saluted Ivan. "I'll go with you."

"You a good pilot?"

"I'm a proud one."

"Good enough. Go!!"

The four dashed towards the hangar by as the submarine shook.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!—SMACK!!!

"Nnnghh!!" Fraust winced as she was slammed up against the rock wall. Gloves of ice were steaming as flakes of acid melted away at them.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Acyd flew in with a hand strewn with green juices.

Fraust clenched her teeth. Mist poured out and her eyes glowed violet as she charged up a beam of blue and shot it at the charging mage.

FLASH!!!!!

Acyd's arms flung forward. SLOSH!!!! Two acid streams flew just as the ice beam struck her in the chest and plowed her back. "Mmmmf!!!

SSSSSSSSSSsssssss!!!!

The acid struck on either side of Fraust's blonde head, burning through the rock.

The girl gasped, dove, and rolled out of the way just as Acyd regained her foot and shot a huge stream of juice at her figure.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSssss!!!! In a straight line, the acid burned through the rock and cut a slab of rock in half like butter.

Beast Boy—who was hiding behind the slab—shrieked and dove out of the way as more globs of green death scattered his way. He morphed into a lemur and purched on a wall far away in the circular corridor.

The orb projecting Slizzath's spirit warbled dark and violet in the center. "Punish her, Acyd!! Punish your sister of abomination!!!!"

Acyd hissed as she paced across the mist-trailing Fraust. "You've been poisoned. You've been poisoned the infidels who oppose our Lord!!!"

"Because you can burn things alive does not make you the expert on poison, Acyd," Fraust spat back. Her face was full of disappointment. "You and I are the same...for we are veterans of pain."

"We are not the same...we once were...but not anymore...," Acyd retorted.

"Are we so different?" Fraust murmured. She took a shuddering breath and tried to frown again. It didn't work. "What more do we both desire besides death itself??"

"Shut up....SHUT UP AND DIE!!!" Acyd's eyes glowed purple. She screamed and ran a burning path towards Fraust. Her fists coated with acid, which she swung at the ice girl.

Fraust ducked.

SWOOOSH-SSSSSSSS!!! Acyd's fist swung through the metal brace of a tourch and melted it in half.

She shrieked and swung again.

Fraust jumped back.

Acyd's fist grazed another rock slab, carving a smooth canal through it.

Fraust held her hands back, charged blue, and brought them back....holding two icey clubs. She took a breath and spun at Acyd, spinning both bludgeons.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Acyd stepped back, ducked the first two rounds of swings, then jet a burning hand up to melt one apart in an explosion of steam.

FWOOOSH!!!

"Nnngh!!!" Fraust stumbled back into a wall.

Acyd lunged at her.

Fraust rolled away.

TH-THUNK!!!

Both of Acyd's hands melted into the wall.

Fraust spun and swung her last club into the back of Acyd's neck.

Acyd's head spun to the left and her shoulders turned. At the last second, she opened her mouth and bit onto the stick of ice. Green ooze poured out from between her teeth and coated the cold bludgeon.

SSSSSSsssss!!!

Fraust gasped and jumped back, shaking her hand instinctively.

The ice club in Acyd's mouth disappeared. She spat out the last globs of acid, tilted her head back, swallowed, and opened her lips to exhale a blue wisp of steam. She wiped her chin off with her shoulder, yanked her steaming hands out of the burnt wall, and marched menacingly towards the ice mage.

"You cling to warmth too much..."

Fraust took a deep breath and frowned. "Do not dictate to me."

"Hypocrite...," Acyd sneered. She formed two globs of acid and charged the girl with a scream. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Fraust readied a shield of ice and drew back as handfuls of corrosion were launched at her like softballs.

"Show no mercy...my child...," Slizzath's orb fluctuated. Its violet light reflected off the frozen statue that was Senator Chasma....Haetryd. "Consume the traitor and digest her treachery. Make right the defiling of my perfect will!!"

Beast Boy watched hopelessly at the dangerous fight at hand.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The four submarines sped desperately towards Atlantis. They blurred over reefs and coral formations and rock crags on the ocean floor. All the while, the black Sea Wraiths spiraled and spun around the vessels. Shrieking. Clawing. Gnawing at the hull of the main ship repeatedly.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

ScrAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaAAPE!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ship shook.

Robin stumbled against a wall, grunting.

SWOOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew easily past him and snatched his arm.

"Yaack!!" Robin was along for the ride as the Tamaranian easily flew the two of them down the hallway splashing with red alarm lights, sirens, and the frightened screams of huddled passengers.

The two Titans plowed their way through the doors to the hangar in desperation. They found the T-Sub remnants bobbing in the pool of water. The bay doors beneath it and the water were dented slightly from the outside. Demonic shrieks and hull-banging sounds echoed eerily through the chamber.

"Starfire!" Robin called out as the girl dropped him. He ran immediately down the metal deck and jumped onto the T-Sub's hull. "You and I will get the lateral cockpits! The rear and center ones will go to Praetor and the other pilot!"

"Understood!"

Ivan and the last pilot ran in last—having to manage the scurrying by their feet through the hallways.

"Are they good to go??" Ivan asked.

The ship shook.

Robin struggled to get his cockpit open from the outside. "Almost! We have to get in first! Then separate!"

The fourth pilot jumped down, followed by Ivan. "What type of controls does she have?"

"There's an automatic algorithm that incorporates a joystick and lateral thrusters—"

"You've got to be kidding me," Ivan grunted as he took one of the cockpits not being occupied by the two Titans. "Is there any watercraft you surface dwellers make that ISN'T complicated!!"

The ship shook again. More demon shrieks.

Robin gritted his teeth. "Try really hard to define 'complicated' right now...I dare you..."

"Gentlemen!" Starfire exclaimed. "We must make haste!!"

"I'm in!" the fourth pilot took the rear cockpit and exclaimed.

Ivan took the center.

Robin and Starfire were in the side ones.

The glass cockpit containers sealed them in.

"Taking control of the T-Sub!" Robin radioed in to the others as he strapped into the seat. "Diving into the pool...now!"

With a flush of water, the T-Sub submerged into the pool above the docking bay.

"I'll give the orders to the bridge to open the hatch!" Ivan spoke. "Let's separate first!"

"Affirmative," Starfire fitted a headset to her red head and flipped a flurry of controls. "Initiating separation sequence."

"I've programmed it to disregard the front cockpit," Robin said. He grimaced. "Since it's missing..."

"Let's get on with it already!" the fourth pilot exclaimed.

Starfire spoke: "Separation in three.....two.....one...."

CH-CHLUNK!!!! Whuurrrr-CL-CLACK!!

Four distinct submersibles came out of the separating T-Sub. The rear vessel with the fourth pilot extended its 'tail' further outward with extra thrusters. Ivan's middle capsule protruded propellers on either side. The lateral subs of Starfire and Robin pivoted about so that the main thrusters of the T-Sub became the main thruster of the tinier crafts...while two additional, support thrusters appeared on the new sides making the two craft appear like Star Wars B-Wings.

"Okay....ready!" Robin exclaimed.

"Prepared!" Starfire said.

"All clear!" spoke number four.

Ivan took a deep breath. He radioed in the bridge. "This is Ivan! Open the bay doors!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Aye, sir!" a crewmember at comms nodded. He quietly signaled another Idyllist at a computer console.

Hands traveled in a flurry across the instruments.

Nova'm watched them, then turned his head out the window that he was pressed against.

His fingers curled anxiously against the glass.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CH-CHTUNNNNNGGG!!!

The huge bay doors opened to the yawning depths of ocean beneath the speeding vessel. Coral peaks and black streaks of evil flew past underneath.

Some of the four pilots gulped.

Robin signaled to the others through their cockpits window.

In all one accord, the four T-Sub components rocketed downward in a rush of bubbles.

FWOOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nova'm watched as four metal bodies shot out from under the nose of the ship and drifted off towards the spiraling, black madness of the demons...arching back for another return.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin held one hand to his controls and set his weapons with another glove.

He spoke into a headset. "Allright! Everyone stay together! Switch on the—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—automation formation compensators located to the left of your joysticks!"

The fourth pilot nodded and pulled the switches in question.

Starfire's voice: "Are we to—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—engage en masse with our combined firepower?" she readied her tactical and targeting systems as the four roared along through the water. "The enemy is quite numerous and fearsome!"

"Fire with the sonic blasters from a distance. Everyone prepare to fire with a moderate salvo upon my command!"

"Affirmative!" the Tamaranian nodded.

"This is Ivan to the—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—main flagship!" Ivan spoke firmly into his headset as he maintained current speed. The black bodies of the sea wraiths spun about and surged towards them. "Maintain course and heading! We're gonna try and shake these creeps just long enough for you to reach Atlantis! There, the city defenses should take out whatever wretched spawn is left!"

"Affirmative, Praetor. Poseidon be with you!!"

"For the Hidden Valley!!" the fourth pilot's voice shouted.

Ivan smiled and locked his sonic cannons into position.

-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyemask squinted.

Through the cockpit window he saw the the body of black demons squirm straight towards them.

"Allright...ready sonic blasters.....and......fire!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The four seacraft sped through the water in a 'cross' formation. Bubbles boiled behind them and in scattered spurts ahead of them as they shot streaming beams of focused sonic energy ahead of them.

ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!! ZAAAAP!!

The energy streams sailed into the surging mass of death. Explosions bubbled out from the bulbous swarm. Shrieks of demonic pain followed mists of black murking out into the waters. The Black Tempest angrily charged on.

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!! ZAAAAA-ZAAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire kept jamming the triggers repeatedly.

Her cockpit and figure flashed brightly with each discharged shot.

"It is useless!!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth. "They are not relenting!!"

"Keep firing, Starfire!! This isn't the—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—beginning of the punishment yet!" Robin sneered.

He jammed the trigger with his left glove while he prepared the salvo with his other hand.

"Get your salvos ready!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ivan frowned and readied the micro-torpedos. He kept firing into the black school of demonic flesh bubbling towards them.

"Hold.........hold......," Robin's voice uttered.

The demons came closer......closer......

"Hold...............Hold........."

The creatureds clawed at the open water.

Their fangs became visible.

Ivan began to sweat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hold......Hold........."

The fourth pilot panted.

The creatures started to reflect off the glass of his cockpit.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

"Now would be a good time, Mr. Titan!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NOW!!" Robin shouted and hit his torpedo switch.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire grunted and jammed her fist across the button.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

All four submersibles opened side panels. Clusters of explosive torpedoes drifted out into the streaming water in clumps.

On cue, every individual torpedo in a clump let loose plasma jets.

Each cluster fanned out wide and deadly...exploding into the bulbous wall of shrieking demons.

POW!!! P-POW!!!

BLAM!!!!

"WRIEEEE-EEEEEE!!!"

Ten demons fell in an instant in fountains of exploding obsidian.

P-P-POW!!! POW!!!!!

Bodies toppled away, but the line of demons was still solid. It streamed at the four subs mercilessly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyemask widened.

He gasped.

"Starfire!! Evasion Pattern Delta!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ivan!! Follow me!!"

"I'm with the Tamaranian!!"

"Starfire, now!!"

Starfire held her breath and yanked hard to the left with the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!

Bubbling paths crisscrossed.

Robin and Ivan's vessels jerked right.

Starfire's and number four's ships streamed to the left.

The ships parted from formation and the line of demons streamed down the middle.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

SLOOOOOOOOOSSSSHH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" the fourth pilot grunted as he swerved long and hard.

A solid wall of shrieking demons surged past his vision through the glass cockpit.

The entire seat of his craft shook and vibrated in the bubbling torrent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin gritted his teeth and evened his vessel out.

"Starfire! Everyone!!" he barked into his headset. "Decelerate...now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOSH!!!

The four vessels arched around.

Starfire's and Robin's craft returned to formation....following the 'tail' end of the surging body of demon wraiths. Ivan's and number four's craft compensated alongside the Titans' craft.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ivan eyed the inviting sight of the unguarded rear of the demon onslaught surging towards the four huge ships.

"Please tell me we're going to shoot now..."

"You'll get your chance, Praetor."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Starfire!" Robin spoke as he flipped at controls like mad while simultaneously piloting the craft to chase the worm of the Black Tempest. "Get your sonic cannons ready. The rest of you, unleash fifty-percent of your remaining torpedo solvos!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Starfire and I will provide cover and keep the demons in the blast zone with our sonic blasts!"

"Got it," the fourth pilot smirked, readying the missiles.

"Ready......NOW!!"

The pilot jammed onto the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWIIIIIIISH!!!

The missiles streamed from Ivan's and the fourth pilot's crafts towards the back end of the swimming wraiths.

Demons shrieked and tried to swim out of the way.

That's where Robin and Starfire took over, blasting the abominations back into the surging crowd they had made.

And verily the torpedoes made contact.

P-POW!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!! POW!!!!!

"WRIEEEEE-EEEEE!!!!"

The demons flew out in a huge 'flower' of spreading motions. Their huge mass—what was left of them—fanned out and came on the return attack...flying in four separate tendrils towards the different vessels with streaming murk of demon blood.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

The fourth pilot blinked.

"You think they're mad?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I think we've done the best that we can together!" Robin exclaimed.

He flipped a new set of controls.

"Everyone!! Split up!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We're better off with these creeps broken apart instead of facing all of them head on!!"

Starfire nodded and gripped the controls. "Agreed! Keep safe, everyone!!"

"More importantly...," Ivan spoke.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...get them as far away from the four ships as you can!!" the Idyllist leader exclaimed. His dark eyes narrowed. "I'd rather them distracted than dead at this moment!"

"Aye sir!"

"Robin! You take the lead!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Move out!!" the Boy Wonder shouted and yanked at his controls.

The ocean floor pivoted before him like an altitude reader.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles trailing, the four vessels parted ways.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!" the demons parted into four 'snakes' of pulsing mass. They swam at the tails of the four crafts, snapping their jaws and clawing their fingers at the metal hulls.

Robin's and Ivan's craft streamed towards the ocean floor.

Starfire's and the fourth pilot's rocketed upwards.

Behind them, the scarred flagship and its three flanking runners chugged through the seas on course to Atlantis.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile...

WHUMP!!!

Fraust and Acyd grappled.

Before Acyd could burn Fraust's skin through, the girl encased her arms in sleeves of ice and slipped free. She then fisted a hard chunk of ice around her right knuckle and punched the corossive mage back.

SMACK!!!

Acyd stumbled.

Fraust formed a scabbard of ice in her left hand, twirled it, and charged Acyd with it lunging forward. "Nnnnghh!!"

SWOOOSH!!

Fraust held her palms outward with a coat of acid.

SSSSSSSSSSssssss!!! The entire length of the ice sword disentegrated into Acyd's hands.

Acyd then sprang her arms back, twirled, and launched them forward towards Fraust's feet.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

The ice girl leapt acrobatically from the glob, backflipped, and produced a spike of ice in time to embed her backwards into the rock wall of the cavern. Hanging by one hand, Fraust gritted her teeth and zapped a blue beam trailing at Acyd's feet.

FLAAAAASH!!!

Acyd held her breath and jogged past the ice beam. She rolled across a miniature lake of ice and ended propped on her knees. She flung two coats of acid upwards.

SSSSSSsss!! CHTINK!!

Fraust's ice spike snapped apart with a puff of steam and she landed awkwardly on her knees.

Both half-bowing girls stared across at each other, panting.

"Do not delay, Acyd...," Slizzath's spirit hissed through the pulsing orb. "Strike her down! I want to hear her scream for her betrayal—"

Swoooosh-CLANK!! A softball sized rock flew across the cavern and ricocheted off of the orb.

"RrrrRRRAUGH!!" Slizzath's voice angrily warbled. The orb pulsated and cast a violet 'searchlight' across the room.

Beast Boy stood—perched on a slab of rock. He juggled another rock in one hand like a good ballplayer and frowned. "Okay...I am getting SICK and TIRED of that. Why don't you shut your cakehole, you stupid nerf ball?!?! Nnngh!!" He flung another rock.

Swoooooosh-CLANK!!!

The orb shook again and hissed in anger. "Infidel......prepare to be consumed!!"

FLASH!!! A tendril of heated, purple energy shot out towards Beast Boy.

The green elf's ears fell. "Eeep.....gotta quit stand-up after this."

CR-CR-CRASH!!!!

The torches between Slizzath's orb and Beast Boy cascaded like dominoes.

The changeling turned into a bullfrog and leapt out of the way.

SMASH!!!

The purple tendril struck the rock slab like a supernatural whip. Rocks and debris flew.

The orb spun around.

The purple tendril streaked across the room, lashing at the leaping green frog, kangaroo, marmoset, and squirrel. Beast Boy barely ducked and dodged the sweeping energy from the angry sorcerer spirit. Soon, a second purple tendril warbled out...joining the fray as torch holders, rock slabs, and segments of cave rock were shattered in the imprisoned villain's attempt to snuff out the Titan's life.

In the meantime, Fraust and Acyd were getting to their feet slowly.

They faced each other from a distance...their strength gradually returning.

"I wish I could make you understand...," Fraust spoke. For the first time since her 'freedom', she looked on the verge of tears again. "I wish I could save you. At the same time, I do not wish to hurt you...but after what we've been through, I do not know any alternative besides hurt..."

"You can do me the favor by losing your heartbeat," Acyd snarled. Her fingers started steaming as acyd boiled up in her arteries.

Fraust held her breath. She clasped to hands together in front of her and glowed a bright blew aura.

Acyd charged green juices.

Fraust charged blue snow.

Acyd charged.

Fraust charged.

Two flickering eyes of purple twitched across from one another.

A gasp and a shudder....

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" Acyd pushed her two arms out and launched a sewer-sized spew of acid.

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Fraust's fingers curled and a sphere of ice bloomed in front of her.

SLOSSSSSSH!!!!!!

The acid stream struck the ice and froze on contact.

Simultaneously the sphere of ice exploded into mist.

Fraust stumbled back—gasping—as frozen green daggers embedded in the wall in a star-spangled mess around her silhouette.

Acyd charged, growling, with a hand reaching out.

Fraust readied herself with a hand of her own.

The two girls met.

CLAMP!!!

CLAMP!!!

The two girls froze, gasping in pain.

Acyd's eyes bulged.

Fraust's eyes teared.

Beast Boy came to a panting stop behind a safe boulder. He glanced over at the fight. His eyes widened.

Even the purple tendrils lessened in their sweeping destruction from the orb.

"..........."

"..........."

Acyd hand her hand over Fraust's heart.

Fraust likewise had her hand securely over Acyd's chest.

Acyd's fingers burned slowly into Fraust's skin.

Fraust's ice digits stabbed into Acyd's flesh deeper and deeper.

The two girls heaved as they gradually wounded and scarred each other. The pain was excrutiatingly mutual. The purple in their possessed eyes faded to green and blue. Wounded and round.

Fraust managed a shakey voice through the wall of pain as she stared at her companion. "V-Vera......this is us.....this pain..."

Acyd shuddered. He lips quivered. Blood rain in thin rivers down her chest.

"This is all we've known...and this is all we will know...," Fraust grunted. Steam puffed up from her acid burns. She bit her lip then strained to utter: "As long as we keep hurting......e-each other....and others...."

Acyd trembled.

Fraust shook. "Give it up....." a crystal tear formed down her cheek. "As I.....h-have given it up....."

"I....I c-can't..." Acyd began to sob.

"Neither can I...," Fraust shuddered. "N-Neither can I....."

".........."

Silence.

Acyd bit her lip. Steaming tears rolled down her cheeks. For the first time, she was burning herself. "NnnnnNNGHH-AAAUGH!!!" she released her hands and clutched her face. She fell to her knees, sobbing madly.

Fraust clutched her and fell to her knees. They hugged each other...wounded chests touching...sobs mingling.

The orb pulsed quizzically.

Fraust hiccuped. She trembled into Fraust embrace. Her teeth clenched as she sobbingly hissed: "I hate you....I hate you.....I hate you!!" Her eyes flared. She spun around in Fraust's hold, shot a hand out towards the orb of Slizzath, and screamed: "I...HATE...YOU!!!!!!!!!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

The orb fluctuated with a warbling shockwave of purple and violet intensity that must have been a dead sorcerer's equivalengt of a gasp. "No!!"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssss!!!!!

The acid coated the figure in a torrent of corrosive fury. Steam rose from the purple entity. A demonic hiss of pain and frustration filled the room.

Incidentally, at precisely that moment...the 'head' of the Senator Chasma's ice encasement melted away. As soon as his eyes fluttered open, he saw the acid bath enveloping Slizzath's embodiment and screamed. "No!!! My Lord!!"

Beast Boy shouted from where he cowered. "Find a new religion, bucko!!"

"NOOOOOOO!!!!" Slizzath shrieked.

Acyd stopped screaming...and consequently, she stopped spewing acid out of her hand. In one last exhale of a sob, she fell limply in Fraust's cold embrace.

The ice girl panted, looking towards the center of the room.

Beast Boy peaked behind the rock slab he stood behind.

The smoke and steam cleared...and standing on the pedestal was a dull, purple stone. The pedestal behind it melted, cracked, and crumbled. The dull stone plummeted to the floor.

CL-CLUNK!!!

The rock had to have been smaller than a basketball, and yet its impact with the cave floor was enough to cause an earthquake. Tremors swept through the cavern. The ceiling shook and chunks of rock started to fall.

"You fools!!!" Senator Chasma shouted and tried in vain to shake loose of his ice entrapment. "You defilers of all that is powerful!!! Nnngnnghh!!! The insolence! How dare you?!?! HOW DARE YOU?!?!"

Fraust trembled and tried standing up with the limp Acyd in her arms.

"Even he had to learn...what pain is..."

Senator Chasma howled in anger.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Robin's craft streaked down towards the ocean floor.

Bubbles trailed on the descent towards coral formations.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" a flock of stroking demons spiraled towards him.

Robin jerked the craft back and forth to evade a cluster of them. He duckd down and skimmed the surface of the coral. As his craft came upon a peak in the reef, he charged the cannon blasters and fired a volley.

ZAP!!!! Z-Z-ZAP!! ZAP!!!!

The coral exploded upwards.

Robin jerked at the controls and spun the craft through the cloud.

Immediately as he pierced through, he pulled back and twirled the craft around.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The demons streaked into the coral debris-cloud beneath him.

Robin rounded out, descended, came on their rear, and fired a burst of torpedoes.

SWOOOOOSH-POW!!!!!!

The demons shrieked as they flew apart, limb from limb. A cloud of black murk rose bloodily upwards as Robin sailed off in his craft.

A split second later, Starfire's craft skirted down.

Trying to lose the demons on her tail, she meandered around towering spires of coral. She brushed past one—grazing the left thruster of her craft—and fired a cannon blast at another tower. Z-ZAP!!! The top half of the tower snapped off and plowed heavily through the swarm of demons on her tail.

Starfire pulled up and rocketed towards the surface just as the fourth pilot streaked by, firing sonic blasters at the remnants on the Tamaranian's vessel's tail.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Black Tempest wraiths exploded with shrieks. The rest stopped chasing Starfire and instead pounced onto the fourth pilot's vessel.

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Atlantean gasped and flinched as demons started clinging onto his lateral propellers.

"WRIEEEE!!!" CRA-AACK!! They started biting into the hull and the cockpit window from multiple sides.

"Th-They're on me!!!" the fourth pilot grunted and tried jerking the controls. "I can't shake them!!!"

"Hold on!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin spoke into his headset while gripping his controls.

"I'm coming around!!"

He steered hard to the left.

"Nnnnghhh!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles trailed as Robin plunged downward—spinning—towards the fourth pilot's rear.

The Boy Wonder's craft stopped spinning, angled itself just right, and fired sonic blasts at the ship's sides.

Z-ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

"WRIEEEE!!"

"WRIEE—" FLASH!!!

The demons were shot off of the fourth pilot's fins.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You're clear!!"

The pilot jammed a button to his right. "Get out from back there!! Missile launch!"

"Gotcha!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

A cluster of missiles released from the fourth pilot's ship, drifted backwards, and exploded like depth charges into the mass of wraiths tailing the submersible.

POW!!!!!!!

The demons shrieked and exploded in a flurry of murk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Good one!" Robin shouted.

He looked straight ahead through the cockpit.

"Whoah!!"

His eyemask bugged and he jerked hard at the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin's craft spun out of the way barely in time to avoid Ivan's ship streaking through.

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles and demons trailed the Praetor's vessel. A greater amount of demons than bubbles, however.

A black trail streaked after Ivan as he darted towards the ocean's floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I do not understand!" Starfire exclaimed as she looked out a side porthole of her submersible. "I am nearly clear of all demonic pursuers and yet—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"---so many of them are chasing Praetor Ivan's vessel! And with a passion!!"

Ivan took a deep breath. His eyes flickered purple as a realization washed over him.

"That's because it's me they want..."

"Praetor??"

"I'm the essence of plasma!! Slizzath sent his Black Tempest after me! Of course!!"

He grunted and dove the ship hard towards the center of the earth.

"Ivan!!" Robin shouted. "What are you doing??"

"Keeping my people safe....," the Praetor said through clenched teeth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHOOOOOOM!!!!!

Ivan's ship surged down towards a deep ravine cutting into the ocean floor.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" the demons shrieked and surged after him in a huge mass encompassing at least ninety percent of the remaining attack force.

Ivan plummetted his craft lower and lower into the black depths yawning before him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Praetor!! Praetor!!" the fourth pilot's voice shouted. "You're going too deep!! A Terran vessel isn't made for that type of depth!!"

"I'm not Terran.....," Ivan shouted as his entire ship shook. Cracks started to form in the cockpit's glass window as he throttled the pressure-beaten capsule towards the ravine. "I'm Ivan of the Hidden Valley!! Imbued with a tainted power of darkness!! I'm neither human nor Atlantean!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The crew on the bridge of the flagship listened numbly as the crackling intercom shouted out their Praetor's voice.

"For years I have attempted to serve my people while denying the very evil that resides within me!! I have carried this burden of guilt for so long that I have forgotten the true burden that I must be responsible for!! The lives of my people!! The future of the seas and the serenity of the dry lands!!"

Nova'm took a shuddering breath and wrung his hands.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"These accursed demons are after me...," Ivan slurred.

As if on cue, demons caught up with the cracking ship and started clinging madly to its hull on all sides.

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Ivan eyed them remorsefully as he spoke: "Everything that has happened is because of me! Myself and Garth!! The children of an unlucky household!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin took a deep breath as he listened.

He cruised through the waters above, shaking off a few lasting wraiths.

"But my people must not be imprisoned by a past that does not belong to them!! The Junction is their future!! Atlantis is part of their future!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"No more hiding! No more nomadic loneliness!! Find Prince Garth! Achieve reunification!! I beg of you!!"

Starfire bit her lip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!!!!

A bulkhead popped above Ivan's head.

The lights of the ship flickered.

Water started spraying in.

Ivan took a deep breath.

"...fear nothing but the taint of black blood..."

He ripped his headset off.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

The demons' voices became increasingly more audible as fissures in the glass cockpit multiplied.

Ivan grinned as his eyes flickered purple and his hands charged up a pulse of hot-orange plasma.

"You don't know what Hades is....imps....."

He gritted his teeth and flexed his muscles until his entire body fluctuated red-hot.

"RrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRAUGH!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin watched outside the edge of his cockpit as the Ivan's ship plunged deep into the ravine, covered like a cluster of grapes with writhing, black demons.

Between the cracks formed by the converging wraiths' limbs, a hot-orange glow emanated. Then a sphere of bright energy. Then...

FLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!

Robin shaded his eyemask as the submersible exploded brilliantly. The demons dissolved in liquid fire. Those still bloodily lingering were crushed by the shockwave of Ivan's plasma explosion causing the ravine to collapse around the massacre...sealing the evil away permanently.

"Praetor Ivan!!!!" the fourth pilot's voice screamed.

Robin took a deep breath.

"Gone..."

CLAMP!!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!"

"Augh!!" Robin shook as his entire ship jolted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire gasped. "Robin!!!!"

From her cockpit, she could see the last handful of demons converging on his ship, clawing into the hull on all sides.

"Robin, wait for me!!!"

Starfire jerked her controls and dove in.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in the cavern, everything was collapsing.

Chasma kept screaming his head off from his icy restraints. "You fools!!! Worthless, dishonorable fools!!! You will not survive the ensuing Wrath!!!"

"We have got to escape!" Fraust exclaimed.

"Nuh uh!!" Beast Boy shook his head and pointed down the shaking corridor. "What about the kids?!?! The prisoners?! We gotta go back for them!!"

"But how???" Fraust trembled. "This place shall surely crush us all if we wait any longer!!"

Already, crags of rock were collapsing across the escape route.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

"Nnngh...," Acyd murmured, stirring in Fraust's grasp.

"V-Vera...."

"I can....tunnel us....all out...," Acyd struggled to say, flexing her fingers.

"Are you sure you are strong enough too?"

"Would you not be?"

Fraust smiled ever so slightly.

Beast Boy gasped. "I've got an idea!! Come on, let's go!!"

He rushed over and helped Fraust drag Acyd across the trembling interior.

"How can we get all the prisoners out at once?!?!"

"Let me take care of that!" Beast Boy winked.

They stumbled down the torchlit corridor, rocks falling behind them.

Chasma grunted, flexing his muscles. Gradually, he shattered the ice around him and pulled one limb out at a time.

"M-My lord!!!"

He stumbled towards the dull rock.

"My lord!!!!"

He limped towards him.

A wall of rocks fell over head.

"Yaaaaugh!!!"

RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Augh!!!" Robin struggled inside his cockpit. Sparks shot out from his consoles as the demons on the outside bit into the hull from numerous spots.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

CL-CLANK!! CLAMP!!!

"WRIEEEE-EEEEEEE!!!!"

"Nnnghh!!" Robin tried to fire his cannon blasters, but the trigger had shorted out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Starfire fired at the creatures.

She shot a few off of Robin's ship.

Suddenly, four of them flew off his hull and converged on Starship's cockpit.

CL-CLANK!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!"

"EEK!!" Starfire squirmed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire's ship slowed down and toppled in the middle of the water.

Hers and Robin's craft were barely twenty meters apart...covered by Black Tempest demons...and being eaten from the outside in.

Robin's craft started cracking and breaking to the point that implosion was imminent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire knew this.

She watched with horrified eyes between the converving jaws and limbs of the demons across her cockpit glass.

Suddenly, the Tamaranian girl's eyes glowed green. With a fit of strength, she charged a starbolt in one arm and gripped the headset in another. She shouted into the communicator.

"Robin!! Robin!! This is most desperate!! Hit your eject button!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin struggled.

The ship short-circuited all around him.

Sparks flew.

His voice shaked: "B-But Star—"

"HIT YOUR EJECT BUTTON NOW!!!"

He took a deep breath, unbuckled, shut his mouth, then--

CLAMP!!!

His fist flew over a red button.

The cockpit window opened.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

Water surged in.

LUNGE!!!

Robin's ragdoll body exploded through the cockpit window and past the veil of demons into frozen water.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire yanked off her headset and launched the starbolt straight into the glass of her cockpit.

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!—CRACK!!!!!!

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

In a bolt of green, she surged out into the depths of the ocean.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dull silence.

Robin's body drifted forward.

Starfire's body drifted forward.

They met in the center...between two submerged vessels torn apart and covered with wasp-like demons.

Starfire held her arms out and grabbed ahold of Robin. She held him tight and encased the two of them in a green aura in a desperate move to protect the two.

Robin's entire body shook helplessly as he tried to contain his air and keep his mouth shut.

Starfire stared nose-to-nose at him. Her eyes wide.

Slowly...Robin's eyemask began to thin.

Starfire's lips parted. Bubbles rose from her mouth in an inaudible gasp.

Robin's arms slowly became limp....

....

SPLOOOSH!!!!

The Boy Wonder and the Tamaranian suddenly tumbled onto dry rock.

Robin gasped and sputtered desperately in the fresh air.

Starfire sat up, blinking. "Caclaata de X'Hal!! Where are we—"

Two firm hands grasped their shoulders.

Starfire looked up.

Raven's eyes glowed. "Hang on...."

Starfire's gasped. She looked past the submerged platform...past Cyborg...and saw Aqualad standing with his arms stretched about.

Garth's eyes flickered purple as the rock came to a stop from its emergency plunge. He gritted his teeth and snarled as his wrists flinched.

"Nnnnnnnnnghhhh-----!!!!!!"

Two heavy torrents of water boiled behind the two demon-covered craft and shoved them murderously together.

"RRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" the Tempest in Aqualad screamed.

The ships collided, the plasma conduits ignited, the demons never saw it coming...

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!

An intense fireball exploded in the middle of the ocean, imploded, and faded in murky black blood....

Aqualad's eyes returned to dark specks as he panted.

And all was silence.

Cyborg took a deep breath and crossed himself religiously. "She was a good ship..."

FWOOOOSH!!

The fourth pilot's craft drifted by.

The android smiled. "Hey! One piece of her survived!"

Raven glared at him. "Typical....," she knelt down beside Starfire and Robin. "Are you two all right?"

".....," Starfire looked at Robin and stirred his shoulder. "R-Robin? Are you undamaged?"

The Boy Wonder sputtered...winced...and managed a weak smile as he looked up at her. "Starfire....why do you--," he coughed, "—insist on reminding me over and over again why I brought you on this mission."

She smiled bitterly and tackled him with a squeezing hug.

Robin didn't protest.

Starfire stroked the small of his back and let forth a shuddering sigh into his chest.

Raven stood up and pulled her hood over her head. She glanced at Aqualad.

The Idyllist prince was staring down at the collapsed ravine.

Silent.

"..............."

"No....," Raven shook her head. "He didn't survive."

Garth slowly nodded. "I know." He looked stoically back at the dark girl. "And neither should I."

"......."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula rushed ahead towards an underground 'shore' just outside of the sanctuary.

"Hurry up!!" she hoisted the hem of her princessy skirt and motioned towards me and a handful of servants. "If Beast Boy's radio transmission is accurate...they should be here at any moment!!"

I huffed and puffed as I tried to catch up.

We all came to a stop at the edge of the waterline in the yawning cave. We ached from the dash there.

I wiped my disguised brow...my mind lingering on a green elf that I sorely missed...

"Why would they have been gone for so long...?" Tula asked nobody but herself. She wrung her hands in a level of anxiety I had never seen in the young lady before. "Surely he sounded rather pleasant over the communique—"

SPLOOOSH!!

Two figures leapt up through the water's surface.

The servants jumped back, startled.

My lips parted.

It was Fraust and.......another girl.

Tula's eyes narrowed. "Acyd??"

The green-haired one leaned on Fraust's arm weakly. She managed a weak smile as the violet aura around the two magically faded away.

"Vera....," she corrected. "Vera Stone..."

I glanced at Tula...then back at them.

The princess cleared her throat. "Amy....wh-where's Beast Boy?"

Fraust stuttered: "W-With the others...."

"The others?"

The two girls turned to face the waters.

Tula and I glanced up.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

The head of a huge, green whale beached onto the surface.

The Atlanteans behind us gasped in shock.

Tula blinked.

The white eye of the whale winked at us....and the huge mammal opened its mouth.

Sitting, standing, and squatting on its tongue were two dozen, safely-dry human children. Though many of them had quite visibly undergone varying levels of physical brutality...there was no denying the look of joy in their faces at gracing dry land....and friendly people.

Tula smiled wide and clasped her hands together.

"Praise Poseidon...."

I grinned and shook my head in amazement.

The servants rushed forward and guided the children safely out onto the cave's surface.

When they were all gone, the wave miracuously shrunk into a green elf that shook the seawater off him and danced towards me with his arms held up high. "Ha ha ha ha!! Free Willy my ass!!!"

I chuckled breathily.

"Noir!!! You're alive too! That means I can tackle you!! Rrrrrrnghhh--!!!" he ran and plowed into me.

I nimbly countered his weight and wrestled him into the ground, trying to give him a dutch rub.

"Hehehehehe!! Dude!! Cut it out!!!"

Acyd had a look of confusion.

Fraust hugged herself and her lips curved somewhat.

Tula shook her head.

An extra servant ran up.

"Your highness....a secret message from the Idyllist fleet!"

"What???"

"Prince Garth and the other Titans!!" the man exclaimed with wide eyes. "They've arrived in Atlantis!!"

"Dude!!" Beast Boy spoke from my wrestling arms. "The family's all together!!"

Tula planted her hands on her hips and grinned. "Well then...who needs a plan B now??"

"Hehehehe!!"

"To the Sanctuary!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep in a dark, collapsed cave...

With whatever pocket of air was left...Senator Chasma dragged himself across the cold surface of crumbled rock. His legs were numb from the ice...which was probably a good thing because it kept him from feeling the crushed bone in his ankles.

He shuffled over to the center of the collapse room and—with trembling hands—cradled a dull stone before his face.

"My L-Lord....," he practically wept. "My Lord....please.....arouse yourself.....speak to me...."

Slowly...dimly...the dull rock emanated a purple glow.

"Ssss.........sssacred power.......fffffading............cannot......keep hold....of thissssssss dimensssion......much longer....."

"I'll do anything for you, my Lord...," Chasma murmured. "Take anything I have to give...my soul my strength....my........m-my body...."

"Ssssss......your......y-your body..........."

Chasma panted.

The dullness faded to a stronger glow of evil violet.

"......Haetryd.........if all that'sssssss leffft to conssssssume is you.........then that ssssshall be my final claim to dessssstiny........"

"Th-Then it is true??" happy tears ran down the man's shattered face as he lovingly caressed the stone. "I am the final and most trusting child of the Black Tempest??"

"Mosssssst trussssssting.....yess.......but not the final..........not the final, Haetryd............we sssssshall both deal with the final child...........we ssssshall consssssume him together......then Atlantissss will be oursssss......"

Chasma weapt happily. "Let it be so, My Lord. Your Will. The Prince's death. The death to the age of the serene seas!!"

"Haetryd........y-you are the leviathan.........SSSSSSSlizzath incarnate in Haetryd.........Haetryd incarnate in SSSSSSlizzath....."

The rock glowed and started burning Chasma's skin to ashes.

"MY FOOTHOLD INTO THIS PITIFUL WORLD!!!!!"

Chasma howled in pain, and yet he couldn't keep his blind...graying eyes off the burning orb. "AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

The light exploded and filled the shadowed edges of the collapsed cavern.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later....

On the outskirts of Alantis...

Two high Atlantean guards rushed towards the peak of a coral ridge with harpoons drawn.

Telepathically, they communicated with each other.

"We're coming out here for just one sighting??"

"It is an unauthorized entry on Atlantean territory. Orin's commander wants us to investigate!"

They stared out across the murky abyss.

One pointed with his harpoon.

"There!!"

A lone, Atlantean figure slowly walked across the expansive surface.

The two guards swam towards him.

They stopped in front of him, brandishing their harpoon.

"You there!! Stop!!"

The stranger's body came to a hault. His head was pointed down to the seaweed.

His arms hung by his side.

One of the guards' turned his head to the side.

"S-Senator Chasma???"

Silence.

He drifted forward and again asked telepathically: "Senator Chasma...what are you doing out here??"

Slowly, the old man's eyes opened. His eyes glowed violet. He smiled....with serrated teeth.

With an unearthly howl, Senator Chasma lifted his arms. The flesh over his ribcage opened up and two impossibly massive, reptilian arms emerged mucousy and encrusted with serrated scales. CHIIIIIIIING!!!!! One hooked its was forward and stabbed the first guard through the chest.

THUNK!!!!!

The Atlatean's body jerked up. Blood poured out of his chest in red bubbles.

Chasma hissed and grabbed the guard's legs with his other 'claw'.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!

He pulled both halves of the man apart, dangling the entrails between.

The other guard screamed out loud. He raised his harpoon.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Chasma leaped upon him and held the man to his chest.

The Atlantean twitched. His eyes were wide as sauces as he gazed up into Chasma's glowing eyes. "Wh-What are you?!?!?!"

Chasma grinned. His mouth stretched opened four times its size with a ring of twelve-inch long teeth that extended and bit over the guard's head. Chasma chewed off the man's face, tossed the body away and swallowed.

When he opened his mouth, red bubbles rose through his lips and nostrils towards the high water above. "I am hungry....," he hissed in Slizzath's voice.

SCHLUNK!!!!

The reptilian arms slid back into him through his ribs as he stomped a demonic path towards the domed city of Atlantis...