These Black Eyes

by P0ST

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

128. Fear the Black Tempest part 9 final

128. Fear the Black Tempest part 9 Final

The tidal wave of inrushing Seawater loomed over us from the giant crack in the dome.

Hundreds of Atlanteans screamed and panickedly ran in maddening surges through the streets beneath Tula, Raven, Beast Boy and I.

Ocean dwellers they may have been...but no living biped—no matter how aquatic—could survive a cascading force of that size and intensity.

Beast Boy gasped and Tula's breath left her as the wall of water stretched fourteen stories above us.

The air shook with hundreds of screams and millions of gallons of rampaging water.

I bit my lip. I glanced aside at Raven.

The dark girl stood calm and still in spite of it all. Her eyes were thin and meditative. Her fingers started to emanate black energy as she prepared a viciously strong shield to wrap around her...us...anyone...

The water wall plunged.

A bulbous shadow encompassed our figures.

Tula clenched her fists.

Beast Boy instinctively turned into a cowering sea turtle.

I flinched....

FLASH!!!!!

Suddenly...the wall stopped.

It slowed to a stand-still in three startling seconds. The wall of water rested above us as if in slow motion...and then turned a brilliant, crystal-white from the inside out. Flakes of snow fell from the frozen summit and littered our figures.

I breathed with shock and relief. Wisps of visible air fluttered out my mouth...as they did out of Raven's and Beast Boy's and Tula's.

The changeling morphed into a cowering green elf and looked up.

In the meantime, my gaze fell down. With specked eyes I followed the cascading inner curve of the frozen wave down to the city floor. A good two stories were still submerged in icy waters rippling speedily towards the center of Atlantis. But the effect had been obvious. The disaster was cancelled at the last second. The Atlanteans found themselves treading water en masse at depths they could handle. The casualties seemed heavenly minimum...if at all existent. Where the glass had shattered, a worm of frozen water ate into the Atlantic currents outside and acted as a huge, supernatural cork of frost. Emergency Atlantean crews were rushing over with fine engineers and erecting force fields and other whimsical devices for stabilizing the water pressure...much like how the arching fountains of water throughout the City were magically stabilized.

"Interesting....," Raven droned.

"H-How....?" Beast Boy uttered.

"How do you think?" Tula pointed at a third story balcony two blocks down.

Beast Boy and I squinted our eyes.

Standing on the building side was the undeniable, blue form of Fraust. The ice mage had her hands pointed at the once raging mountain of liquid. With steam rising from her body, she lowered her arms...panted...and glanced over at us, demurely running a melancholy hand through her blonde hair.

Beast Boy smiled.

"She's cute," Raven uttered.

I looked at her strangely.

SMASH!!!!!

Fraust stumbled and half of us flinched as the figure of Chasma came sailing through a block of ice and landed on a building ledge. Ice and sleet dribbled behind him. His body tensed and a demonic chuckle shook through the man's upper frame. He shook the icicles off of him and stood up striaght with arms flexing. His eyes were pure violet. His cultish robe was tattered in and shredded many places...chiefly the sides of his torso.

"Wonderful day for a swim...heheheheh..."

Tula frowned....practically snarling. CHIIII-IIING!!! She had both harpoons unsheathed from her back.

I gasped.

"Tula!!" Beast Boy stretched a hand out. "Wait---!!"

She dove into the flooded street beneath us furiously.

SPLOOSH!!!

Raven and I rushed to the side and watched the princess' green streak rocket under the rippling currents like a mermaid. Tula cross two blocks in five seconds flash. A true Atlantean. Upon reaching the pool beneath Chasma's ledge, she shot herself out of the currents like a polaris missile.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Streaming with water droplets, Tula flew up, twirled her harpoons over her head, came down, and landed with both harpoons impacting the opposite side's of the possessed senator's neck.

CL-CLANG!!!!

Tula grunted with the effort...but soon stood there panting in shock.

".............," Chasma smiled at her. The harpoons had pierced through his epidermal layer...but it was as if a second set of skin beneath his outer flesh kept the bleeding weapons from slicing all the way through and lopping his abominable cranium off. "Such a typical little princess...," he hissed with glowing purple eyes. "Always trying to get ahead..."

"What have you become??" Tula growled.

"I didn't become anything, my dear....," the Senator drooped a surpentine tongue out of his mouth and licked a sudden front row of razor sharp, silver teeth. "I merely merged two things close to me. Lord Slizzath...," the tongue slipped back into his evil mouth and he smacked crusty lips. "....and hatred."

SWOOOOOSH!!!

He pounced on her. Two reptilian paws ripped demonically out of his ribcages and grabbed for the girl. "HRKKKK!!!!!"

Tula backflipped, dodged the pounce, and raised her two harpoons in defense.

Chasma's body lurched as he twirled to the side—swinging clawed appendages at her.

She deflected one blow barely—CL-CLANK!!—and swiftly ducked the last two. Tula then ran up the side of the wall, arched around, and vaulted off in time to dodge another swing. Her body plowed into the water, looped around submersibly, and launched her back up towards the platform on which Chasma was standing. In mid leap, she dragged her two harpoons through the air towards him.

Chasma spun and took the brunt of the cutting blades on his demonic, extra limbs. SCRAAAAAAAAPE!!! Sparks flew as metal ran along scales. As Tula flew over him, Chasma reached a natural hand up—gripped her shoulder—and strongly swung her like a caveman's club into the stone wall of the building.

SMASH!!!!

Tula winced.

Cracks formed in the rock and tiny pebbles of debris rained down on her and pitter-pattered into the currents below.

Chasma chuckled and tossed her wincing body away like a discarded lobster tail.

SPLASH!!!

Tula plunged into the waters and tried to regain her strength.

FLAAAAAASH!!!!!

Chasma flinched as a solid beam of icey blue sailed into his frame from across the street.

Fraust focused her energies towards the possessed senator. Her teeth clenched and her cold brown formed icey sweat with the effort.

Chasma merely laughed. "Not this time, you silly waste of flesh!!!" One of his reptilian arms 'batted' the beam away. With the other appendage, he ripped a section of stone wall out from the building beside him and tossed it mercilessly at her.

SWOOOOSH!!

Fraust gasped and dove in time to avoid the shattering impact.

SMASH!!!

The waterlogged street beneath us shook and warbled. Helpless, swimming Atlanteans gashed and stroked away to desperately avoid Chasma's destruction.

"Okay...we've seen enough," Raven uttered. She signaled to Beast Boy and I and pointed Chasma's way. "Titans! Engage him! Now!!"

"Amen to that, sister," Beast Boy frowned. He leapt into the water and morphed into a great white shark.

Raven floated across the street on a piercing cloud of black.

I summoned murk into my lower limbs, ran down the buildingside, and blurred across the surface of the water.

All three of us charged the possessed figure on three fronts at once.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" Haetryd sneered, his violet eyes fluctuating. "Fight if you must, surface-bastards! This is Atlantis! It's not your war....but it can be your funeral..."

"Don't talk to me about funerals......," Raven glared. Her eyes glowed a dangerous gray. She raised her graceful hands and summoned half of a nearby building front to tear off its siding and hurtle itself threateningly towards the man.

Beast Boy dove up out of the water in the form of a hissing, clawing lion.

I held my breath, vaulted up off the watery surface on a fountain of smoke, and sailed down at the man in a desperate high kick.

And Chasma merely laughed.

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

Aqualad rubbed his head tiredly. His brain still reeled from the telepathic blast of evil. He got up on wobbly knees and looked around the half-toppled Senate people.

King Orin had also stood up. At just about that time, a messenger rushed in and spoke desperately above the murmuring voices of vexed politicians. "Your Lordship! A terrible disaster is at hand! The western district has been breached! Water was reported seeping in from the Great Atlantic!"

Orin's eyes widened.

Other delegates and politicians exclaimed: "What?!?!"

"Great Poseidon...."

"The people!"

"What could have caused this??"

Orin raised his hand. He spoke above the panicked air. "Has any flooding been contained?"

"Aye, sir. But not by us."

"Huh? And what is that supposed to mean?"

"There is a great fight occurring at the edge of the City, sir. I think it would be safe for you to see with your own glorious eyes."

Murmurs.

Orin frowned. He turned about and stared at the ceiling. "Switch on the holo-projector!"

Almost everyone else looked up towards the ceiling.

Prince Garth included.

Fzzzt!!!! A floating orb glowed to life. It casted a holographic image of the Western District on two sides of a concrete slab hung by ornamental chains from the top of the spiral. Atlantean Security feeds zoomed in on the mutilated figure of Chasma...fighting off five flurrying heroes on a building over a flooded streeth sprinkled with snow.

The commotion rose even higher. Dubious faces sagged in disgust and shock.

King Orin's face was the most distraught of all.

In the meantime, Aqualad squinted his dark eyes. A cold breath left him as he recognized one of the five figures assaulting the hideous incarnation of Haetryd.

"Tula......"

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

"Nnnnghh!!!" Tula growled as she dove at Chasma from behind with both harpoons swingin. CHIIII-IIING!!!

Chasma blocked in reverse with one demon arm. He spun around and uppercutted the princess back with the other appendage.

WHAP!!!

She plunged back into the water...and Beast Boy wrestled Chasma from behind in the form of an octopus.

Chasma merely smiled, grabbed one of the changeling's green tentacles, and tossed the entire mollusk away into the flooded street.

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred up to him and rapidly kicked a shadowy foot constantly in his face. SW-SW-SW-SW-SWAP!!!!

Chasma merely backstepped, blocked, and grabbed my uplifted ankle.

"!!!!!!" I struggled to wriggle out of his stone grasp.

He smiled. "You're only half of what Prince Garth truly is....and that makes you double of nothing."

YANK!!!!

He slammed me into the wall by the foot.

FLASH!!!!

Raven dove in immediately with a pounding, bird-shaped forcefield 'flapping' into the villain, beak first.

Chasma was shoved back a few feet. But before he could be shoved off into the waters, he parted his fleshy and inhuman arms in a yelling explosion of fury.

FLASH!!!! Raven's force field shattered. She grunted and stumbled back.

GRIP!!!!

Chasma lifted her up by the cloak's hood. "There's only room for one demon in this sea," He sneered.

SWOOOOSH!!!

He tossed her effortlessly into the waters below.

CHIIING!!!

Chasma looked over.

Fraust had landed behind him and was producing a sword of ice.

Chasma's violet eyes narrowed and he smirked. "And just what do you hope to accomplish, traitor??"

Fraust shivered. "Nothing....which is more than I can say I would have accomplished working for you."

"Child...you were never 'working'," Chasma smiled. "You were born. And what a worthless thing that was to do..."

Fraust took a painful breath, blinked, and charged the possessed man with ice sword swinging. "Nnnnghhh!!!"

SWIIIIIIISH!!!

Chasma raised his unnatural arms at ready.

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

"Call in the Atlantean guard!!" Orin shouted as the senate room shook and quivered in fright and panic. His voice reissued a good deal of order...but could not resurrect it entirely. "The entire Northern Brigade!! Accost Senator Chasma at all costs!!"

The delegates in Chasma's party tried sneaking their way out...but were cut off by half a dozen angrily-glaring guards. The group of politicians simpered uneasily as they saw their fates before their eyes.

"This City was built by Poseidon the Great!" Orin growled. He shook his harpoon hand. "I will NOT let a snivelling cultist such as Slizzath's essence blacken this....civilization...." He glanced down a ways.

In the Idyllist booth.....Prince Garth was gone.

King Orin took a deep breath.

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

Robin spun around on the ledge.

Aqualad sprinted out towards him.

"Have you seen?!" Robin exclaimed with a single glove pointing.

"Yeah.....," was all Aqualad had to say. He dove off the building side, fell multiple stories, and plunged miracuously into an underground tunnel's entrance below. He began to furiously swim his way across the City...to the fray...

To Tula....

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. He glanced up and saw two familiar specks. He flipped open his communicator with a Star Trek sound.

"Star! Nova'm! Do you see—"

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

"—what I see??"

Starfire nodded and replied into the communicator, her gaze fixed westward. "Affirmative! The enemy has been engaged! The danger seems imminent far across the City and not at our present location!!"

"Meet up with the rest of us there! Don't wait for me to kick Chasma's ass!! I feel that he's stronger than all of us can imagine...so we can't waste any time in bringing him down!!"

"We shall approach the battle scene verily!" Starfire said. A beat. She glanced back at Nova'm. She blinked. She added into the communicator: "All of us heroes!"

Nova'm smiled.

"Hurry!!"

Starfire pocketed the communicator and flew out. She spoke to Nova'm without looking. "Follow me, Nova'm...and do whatever I instruct of you. We shall face this evil together."

"Righteous fury, eh Captain Kory?"

"Very...Very Righteous Fury...," Starfire's green eyes burned.

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

"Need a hand??" uttered Cyborg into a communicator from down below.

"Probably a sonic cannon!" Robin's voice replied. "Try and get over there any way you can!!"

"Uhhh...," Cyborg looked around at the street full of panicked, stampeding Atlanteans. "Ten-Four, Robin...but I'm not promising pizza delivery speed."

"Whatever! Just move!"

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

Robin holstered his communicator, leaned on the edge of the building ledge, and whipped out the first of many grapply hooks from inside his toolbelt.

"Somehow I knew I was gonna lose the feeling in my arms by the night's end...," He muttered. Dauntless, the Boy Wonder fired a grappling hook, swung out at a distance of three blocks, shot out another with his other hand, and swung forth again...only to repeat the process acrobatically across the entire Western Half of the City towards the flooded streets and wall of ice.

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

Cyborg ran through the crowd awkwardly, bumping into people and struggling to make headway.

"Yo...pardon me....excuse me...HEY! Watch it!! Lemme through, people...come on...lemme through....hero with a cannon....hero with a cannon here...!!!"

The crowd surged through and around him, unrelenting. The water level in the street started to rise to the knee level...and for Cyborg's knee, that meant a wet stride for just about everyone.

"Nnngh....this will take forever," he groaned.

He looked over to the side of the street and caught sight of a guard directing crowd control from the back of a waterbike.

"When in Rome.....," the android Titan murmured.

Cyborg cut through the crowd and stood in front of the trident-bearing officer.

"Excuse me?? But can you give me a lift?"

".............," the guard stared at him.

"There's some crazy stuff going on in the West Side of Town, in case you haven't noticed—"Cyborg pointed over the screaming heads of the crowd. "—I gotta get to my friends there and battle off the evil dude that's wrecking your place!! Can I have a ride?"

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

Cyborg sighed, rolled his human eye, and uttered: "Yeah...enough of this shit."

SMACK!!!!

He clotheslined the guard into a puddle of the ground, hopped on the water bike, and throttled westward down the street. The guard shouted angrily for him to hault.

"I'll buy you a bag of seashells later, I promise!!!" Cyborg shouted, and he was off.

VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

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

"RRRRRAAAAR!!!!" a green velociraptor leapt upon Chasma.

The possessed senator held Fraust in a strangling grasp with one paw and used the other rippling appendage to slap the pouncing changeling away. WHACK!!!

Tula dove out of the water, vaulted over Beast Boy's flailing body, spun, and dove at Chasma with both harpoons swinging. SWIIIIIIISH!!!!

They deflected off of Chasma's free limb. CL-CLANK!!!

He growled and lashed a whip-like tongue at the princess.

Tula side-cartwheeled with a grunt, rolled forward, and jumped up with an upward slash.

Chasma held Fraust up by the neck while dodging one swing and then suddenly stretching his mouth hideously wide with barred teeth that caught the second harpoon.

CLANK!!!

Tula's lip dropped.

Chasma's monstrous lips curved. He yanked his head back.

Tula lost grip of the sword, toppling forward.

Chasma lowered his jaw to human standards, simultaneously 'spitting' the harpoon back at Tula.

The princess stumbled back and akwardly deflected her returning weapon with a raised harpoon.

CLANK!!!

The spat-out sword spun the air.

I blurred in from the submerged street just in time to snatch it and end my lightning-quick charge out of nowhere with a heavy SLASH!!!!

RIIIIIP!!!

A red slice in Chasma's chest appeared, parting his robe and dripping crimson.

"Nnnnghhh!!!!" he shuddered, hissed, and angrily tossed Fraust's cold body into me.

I gasped, dropped the harpoon, and held both arms to cradle-Fraust's impacting body. WHUMP!!!

Chasma's sinister arms gripped another chunk of the buildingside and flung it at us.

Fraust's breath left her. She forged a shield of thick ice in front of us at the last second--

CRACK!!!!

Shards of snow exploded everywhere from the impact. Fraust and I tumbled to the platform ground with a grunt.

Tula cartwheeled over us, snatched her other harpoon, and dove at Chasma with both weapons again.

CLANK!!! He deflected with one arm and swung—hissing—with the other.

Tula slid under the blow, jumped up the other side, bounced off a wall, and perched herself on Chasma's shoulders. She locked her legs around his neck and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed down at his torso repeatedly.

CL-CLANK!!! CLANK!! SCRAAAAPE!!! CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Chasma's strong as steel skin hid bloodily under her blows.

"Heheheheheh," he shuddered. "I am deeply in love with your hatred right now, princess." He reached a clawed demon appendage up, snatcher her by the neck, and held her—dangling—in front of him. "Feed me....," he hissed.

Tula saw something reflect in his violet eyes. She acrobatically lifted her legs up...

SWOOOOOSH-WHAM!!!! A green rhinoceros flew into the man's chest, courtesy of black-glowing telekinesis.

"OOF!!!" Chasma dropped Tula as he flew back across the ledge.

Raven floated above and let go of her hold on the changeling.

THWOMP!!! Beast Boy scruffed his heavy hooves into the stone floor and charged—snarling—into Chasma, horn first.

SLAM!!!! The horn didn't pierce through, but a miniature crater was formed by Chasma's body against the building side.

The changeling pushed mercilessly, shoving Chasma harder into the solid foundation.

Chasma roared—his huge mouth gaping with demon teeth all of the sudden again. He pumped what looked like extra mass into the area between the skin and the bone of his demon arms and gripped the changeling's rhinoceros body. With a growl, the huge green animal was tossed to the side.

No sooner...a black-encased crossbeam floated over and slammed itself into Chasma's skull repeatedly.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! THWAP!!!

Chasma's cranium spun with the merciless impacts.

Raven floated above, controlling the huge metal pole from afar with her flickering wrists of telekinesis. Her glowing eyes flared as she flung the beam hard this time, plowing deep into the former Senator's stomach.

WHAM!!!!!

Chasma wheezed...but seemed to feed off some sort of demonic respiration to summon back his breath. "Enjoy the moment...," he sneered. "...your time for being the ragdoll will come!!" He growled loudly, gripped the metal beam, and shattered it into two shrapnel-littering halves with his claws.

Raven winced, floating back.

"RAAUGH!!" Chasma flung one half of the beam at her.

The floating sorceress winced.

FLASH!!!!!

A green bolt flew down from the sky and melted the steel before it could hit Raven.

The dark girl glanced up.

Chasma twitched.

SWOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew down. Emerald fury glowed in her eyes as she unleashed a flurry of starbolts.

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

TH-TH-THWAP!!!! Green explosions littered the ground and wall around Chasma like giant firecrackers. The blasts eventually caught his legs from under and lifted him up violently.

"Now, Nova'm!!" Starfire shouted towards the diving figure by her side. "Coordinate your assault with mine as I have instructed you!!"

"Okay!!" Nova'm gasped and dove with a rapid flurry of starbolts while Starfire let loose the stronger blasts and optic beams.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!

FLAAAASH!! FLAAAASH!!!!

The alien explosions sent Chasma's body chaotically tumbling into midair above the submerged street.

POW!!! CL-CLANK!!

A grappling hook shot over head, and suddenly Robin swung in and bitterly slammed his legs into the airborne former-senator's body.

SLAM!!!!!

Chasma flew through a huge panel of glass against the face of a towering building.

SMASH!!!!!

Robin came at the end of his swing, flipped, and landed in a perch on the glass-encrusted window sill.

Tula stood up, re-sheathing her harpoons. "Robin, I presume...," she uttered.

The Boy Wonder whipped out his rod. "Pleased to meet you, your highness...." CRKKK!! "....later." He growled and ran in a full sprint at the toppled body of Chasma. A flying jumpkick of a steel-capped boot and--

SMACK!!!

Chasma tumbled, rolled, and toppled out of a window on the other side. He slid bloodily across a ledge and dizzily stood up.

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Robin let out a warcry and sailed in with a golf-club swing of his staff up Chasma's skull.

THWACK!!!!

Blood flew.

The possessed man's body tumbled back. His huge, reptilian arms shrunk partially into his sides.

Robin spun and struck hard down Chasma's face. "RAAUGH!!" SMACK!!

Chasma's body teetered on the edge of the buildingside.

Robin twirled his staff, shifted his weight, and jabbed it violently into the man's shredded chest--

CLAMP!!!!

The Boy Wonder jerked.

Chasma's claws were around the rod, holding it still like a sideways pedestal. He looked up...his eyes twinkling violet...and he smilingly sneered: "Don't fight a god..."

TWHOOOSH!!! Chasma shoved against Robin.

The Boy Wonder stumbled back.

SWOOOOSH!!! Two demon arms came down.

Robin backflipped.

SMASH!!!!

A crater exploded beneath the Boy Wonder as his toppling feet planted against the building side and tensed.

Robin held his breath and 'flew' over Chasma's head. He twirled his staff while upside down—deflecting the clawed blows. CL-CLANK!!! He landed with his back to Chasma's back and shoved his staff down in reverse...lifting it up harshly between the former senator's legs.

THWUMP!!!

"Snkkkkt!!!" Chasma's entire body jolted.

Robin panted through clenched teeth...not looking at his foe. "Don't piss off a Titan...."

He shouted with the effort it took to pull at the staff with all of his force and fling the man's body over his shoulders like a catapult.

TWHOOOOSH!!! Chasma sailed into the submerged street beyond.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Robin deflated on the buildingtop. He leaned precariously on his staff and stared down at the marinating body...panting.

The body wasn't floating for long. Magically, a whirlpool formed around Chasma's body. The water in the street parted...and the man sat—sputtering—on his knees. He looked up...and grinned.

SPLOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! A waterspout formed around the graceful body of Aqualad. He touched down onto dry land like a floating crucifix and marched menacingly towards the possessed villain. Garth's eyes danced with identical violet as he frowned at the old man and kept the water around them at bay with his dark magic alone.

"My dear prince....," Chasma chuckled. His body twitched. Fangs showed momentarily and shrank back..as did his demon arms into his meaty ribcages. "I've been waiting for you."

Garth's eyes narrowed. "With baited breath??"

"Something like that...," Chasma stood up completely and cracked his gnarled knuckles. "...you are the last one. The last child. Obstinate from the beginning. But such is pointless. You shall join me...you shall make the Black Tempest complete."

"I've got one last thing to do first..." Garth sneered.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"This...," Garth raised his hands. The waterspout behind him warbled. It cascaded downwards, splashed outwards, and exploded upwards...enveloping both him and Chasma. The bodies of the two Atlanteans were carried upwards in a giant, reverse esophagus of pure water. The Tempest in Garth contorted the cold water into a giant tentacle arching high above the spires of Atlantis. It merged with the arch of a self-contained blob of water and drew in greater strength. Garth swam up the length of the flailing tentacle of water and slammed his fist hard into Chasma's chest.

WHAM!!!

SPLASH!!!

Chasma flew a dozen feet through the naked air.

Garth dove after him. In mid-air, the prince flicked his wrist.

A tentacle rose magically upwards like a flowerstalk from the pools below and 'ate' Chasma's flying body.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Garth plunged right after him in a well-coordinated dive. He swiftly swam down into Chasma's body, repeatedly punching him in an underwater swim of violent proportions, batting the former senator's body straight down the giant, liquid snake. WHAM!! POW!! SMACK!! THWUMP!!! WHACK!!

When the two bodies reached the street below, Garth bolted himself up in a mountain of water and stretched his arms out to either side of him. Two gigantic hands of water reached out and 'clutched' the building fronts on opposite sides of the street. Garth's eyes glowed a bright violet. He strained visibly...arteries pulsing in his temples. He let out a bubbling yell into the column of water surrounding him...and managed to rip the structures off of their foundation so that they tumbled heavily onto the sprawled, floating body of Chasma.

SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water splashed out in huge lakes of rippling outercurrents.

Garth slowly lowered himself on a hill of liquid and treaded in a pool above the collapsed debris.

He panted with his lungs above the liquid surface. And yet...the burning in his eyes—the violet madness was still there. He winced inwardly.

RUMMMMMBLE!!!

The debris below the waves shook.

Bubbles started to form.

A demonic boiling...then...

FLASH!!!

Purple light.

Surging waters.

A body---

SPLOOOSH!!!!

Chasma exploded upwards from the currents. In a violet aura, he backflipped and perched on a building's windowsill above the prince. Happily bleeding, Chasma laughed a demonic laugh that seemed to freeze the thin surface of the waters.

The prince shook as he looked up at him.

"Yes........," Chasma grinned a crimson crescent moon. ".....yes....this is what we've been waiting for..." His violet optics flickered. "...this hatred...this seed that has been growing inside of you all your life, Chasma..."

Garth panted...treading water...exhausted and clouded....

"It's not the Junction of Atlantis that we've been waiting for...," Chasma vibrated and chuckled. "It's been the union of our battered souls....my blood...and your spirit. Both equally thick in water..."

"Don't....lecture....me....," Garth hissed.

But Chasma went on, reeling drunkenly from where he perched. "Hatred...it's what guided you from the beginning, isn't it Garth?"

"Quiet...."

There was a distant splashing sound. A block away, Tula leapt majestically up from the water and perched on a building top. She looked around desperately for Garth. When she found him, a breath escaped her throat. She crept down the building tops and rested on a ledge overlooking the conversing two above the currents.

"The taint...the touch of the great Lord's power...it was in you from the very beginning," Chasma hissed. He grinned bloodily. "Your family knew it...your mother knew it...."

"Shut up...," Garth seethed in the waters. The bubbles around him literally began to boil.

"...she wanted to kill you....your own mother...," Chasma uttered. "...she abandoned you to be shark food instead....Ivan—your mother's brother—found you...he spared your pathetic life. But from early childhood...you knew....you knew that you were a waste. You couldn't live with yourself...and so you took to the seas. A loner...a pathetic waif who calls himself a hero..."

Garth clenched his teeth and clutched his hands tightly over his ears. His whole face tensed. He seemed at the breaking point.....panting...

Tula observed. A look of pain and sorrow ricocheted through her expressions.

Chasma's purple eyes narrowed. "Don't you see, prince? You have every right to be hateful...hateful of your own kind. All these years you spent on your own...it was all denial. Denial of the darkness inside of you...and of the plain and simple fact that you and your dark essence belongs to me. Together....together we will make SUCH an age for Atlantis.......you can shed blood....heheheh...you can kill your own mother twentyfold among the helpless who will bow before you..."

Garth shivered. He muttered at first—low and cold. "I...am not...a murderer....." He shook. "I...am not...a waste..." He looked up and his violet eyes were gone. The usual cold specks on black optics remained. Sad and lonely. The true prince. "As hard as it may be to believe...as impossible as it is with my curse...I have found love and meaning in this world...and she's taught me that even the most pathetic life has warmth to it..." His fists clenched. "I am not the monster that your lord Slizzath made my forefathers to be...I am a prince of righteousness by my own choice...my life's own design......"

Tula's lips parted. She felt a soreness in her throat.

Chasma merely laughed. "Yes...you are the prince...and I...Haetryd...am the king." He stood up straight on the platform and stretched his humanoid limbs out dramatically. "If you won't bow down to me now...I will have to consume you and force you on my knees through acid and fire....." Flickering violet. "This entire pathetic City along with it!!!"

Chasma's head twisted back. His mouth yawned open...open...open. Daggerlike teeth squirmed out, but they didn't stop there. His eyelids rolled past his glowing violet and his skin started to slide off and around his mouth. The two demon arms squeezed out of his ribcages again, but they kept going...and going...and going. The demon arms had greater and greater girth to them. It was like meat was being pumped into the bulbous balloons of his extra appendages. Arteries and veins showed at the stretching point. Chasma let out a scream that turned into a bloody curdle that shook the waters and rattled the building frames all around him. Slowly, the man exploded until his outer shell of flesh was either non existent or stretched beyond recognition. A mass of twitching and quivering flesh inflated upwards and outwards. The demon arms became giant, sinewy front paws. Two thick legs stretched out like concrete pillars. A spiked tail lashed into existence, plated with bone and brown leather. Blood and sticky fluid congealed and splattered everywhere as the 'head' was the last to snap out into the open...and it was a giant, angular thing of bone and tendons that resembled a giant, half-decayed rat's skull. Barred teeth lined a long snout. The eyes were evil slits of burning purple. From the forehead, a dozen thrashing tentacles with knifed ends squirmed out at lengths of four-to-six meters each. Finally standing the length and girth of two humpback whales...the reptilian thing—specked with coarse black hair—reared its demon head and let loose a shriek, its forked, man-sized tongue lashing wetly into the air.

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Tula gasped, her eyes quivering. "Slizzath's second incarnate form...the Leviathan..."

Garth bobbed in the water under the thing's shadow...paralyzed.

The Leviathan stood ankle-deep in the flooded street, occupying the entire block. Its bony snout leered over the prince. A deep-throated snarl echoed from the entity. Purple steam flew from its nostrils, and then it let out one lasting shriek—"VRAAAK!!!"—before snapping its jaws down and over the Tempestuous prince's body.

SNAP!!!

"No!!!" Tula shrieked, drawing her harpoons. CHIIIIING!!! She watched in horror.

The Leviathan whipped its head around, reared back, then dove forward with a howl.

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!"

The demon monster spat Garth out. The prince flew down the lengths of ten buildings before slamming into a structure and collapsing painfully down onto a ledge. His clothes steamed from the scalding hot saliva of the creature's mouth. Wincing, the Atlantean youth tried to get up.

There was an intense pounding sound, combined with violent splashes and sprays of floodwaters.

Aqualad looked up.

The Leviathan was charging straight down the line of buildings. Wet craters exploded in the street beneath its impregnable limbs. It shrieked, reared its head, and made to ram the prince with a forehead full of quivering tentacles.

Garth held his breath and dove into the flooded street at the last second.

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The upper three stories of the building shattered in a cloud of debris and dust. The Leviathan pulled itself out of the crumbling mess, turned, and shrieked at Garth's submerged figure.

Garth gritted his teeth and swam desperately down the street like a torpedo.

CRUNCH!!!! Leviathan smashed through a building front, leapt, and landed in the middle of the street. WHAM!!! "VRAAAAAAK!!!" The lumbering beast chased after Garth, gradually picking up seed. POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND!!

Garth felt the turbulent shaking of concrete and water behind him. He quickened his swimming, darting left and right in an attempt to shake the beast. The waters parted at his heels as the Leviathan's razor-sharp jaw dipped into the water and swept after the prince.

There was an intersection in the Atlantean street. A tall, eight-story building loomed straight ahead.

Garth charged dark magic into his lower limbs. The water's kinetic energy increased around his body in a spark and gave him an extra boost. SPLOOOSH!!! Garth sailed up and out of the water. His body flew up four stories, kicked against the wall of the building at the intersection, and flipped the prince backwards.

SMASH!!!!!!

Leviathan plunged sharply into the building, his snout smashing well over halfway through the shaking structure's circumference.

Garth twirled about and landed on the creature's leathery back. He panted and sprinted down the spine to leap off the back.

At the last second, the careening beast's tail whipped up and struck Garth from underneath.

WHAP!!!

"Augh!!" the prince flew sideways into a buildingside. SMACK!!! Bricks crashed loose from his impact and littered the submerged street below along with his limp body. SPLASH!!!! Garth came back up, sputtering. He clutched his side and treaded water awkwardly.

"VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........," the Leviathan growled. It clutched a huge piece of the crumbling scraper, lumbered about, and tossed it mightily at Garth.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Garth pulsed a wave of magic through his body in a violet flash. He cascaded the water upwards, softened the descent of the flying structure, and gave him ample time to swim out of the way.

CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dust and shattered bricks flooded the water. Garth barely had enough energy left to keep himself at the surface.

The Leviathan shrieked again, grabbed another chunk of collapsed building face, and tossed it at Garth.

The prince flinched.

Suddenly, a dark figure plunged into him and the water from above.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

Raven treaded in the water with her arms around Garth's waist. She charged up a black sphere around the two so that when the second wall of debris met them, they shattered invulnerably through it.

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!" the creature screamed in frustration.

Garth gasped as the two teenagers bobbed at the surface. "Raven!! Leave me be!!" he exclaimed. "It's my demon...so it's my responsibility, remember!!"

With her eyes glowing, a wet Raven merely replied: "Turns out I'm a hypocrite."

"........."

"Rae!! At your six!!"

Garth and Raven turned to look.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!! Cyborg rode in on the water bike, skimming the surface of the submerged street. He skidded the bike to a stop with a spray of water and switched his arm into the sonic cannon. Kl-Klak-Ka-Klik-Klik!!!! "Duck and cover!!!"

Raven clamped her hands over Garth's ears from behind and suddenly dove the two of them down with black telekinesis.

Cyborg squinted his human eye and aimed at the creature.

"VRAAAAAA-AAAAAK!!!" its rat-skull shrieked.

"You are soooooooooo gonna die," Cyborg charged and--

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sonic cannon exploded at full force. The water spread down the street like butter. The energy thundered past a safely squatting Raven and Garth in a protective shield. The blast found itself mercilessly sailing into the Leviathon's chest, shoving it back into three crashing buildings at once.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyborg lowered his weapon.

Garth winced.

"We have to get you somewhere safe," Raven lowered the shield, moved her hands to his shoulders, and hovered him through a shattered storefront.

The water ran back from where it had parted as Cyborg looked over and smiled. "You do know I was saving your neck and not his, right Rae?"

No reply.

He shrugged and turned to climb up a building front away from the rising tide. "Just kidding..."

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

Raven set Garth down in the center of an Atlantean temple of sorts.

Garth caught his breath and smoothed his wet hair away from his forehead. "Thanks, Raven. The...um...the sonic blast didn't hurt your ears any, did it?"

Raven blinked. "What??"

At the other side of the temple, Tula jumped up into view. "Thanks, Raven. I'll take it from here."

The dark girl looked her way. "What??"

Garth slowly stood up, his lips parted.

"........," Tula swallowed and sheathed her harpoons slowly. She smoothed some of the water droplets off her immaculate skin and waved....

Garth blinked. He subconsciously reached his hands out.

A beat.

Tula sprinted over and all but dove into him with a fierce hug.

Garth encircled his arms around her, digging his fingers into her dark hair as she pressed her head into the crook of his neck. She muttered something deep and unintelligible, then leaned back. The two Atlantean youngsters gazed at each other's faces as if to see if they were real...then quickly they leaned in for a passionate kiss, stroking each other's temples and then hugging again, heartbeat to heartbeat.

"By Neptune....," Tula murmured, her moist eyes shut. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Garth took a shuddering breath as he gazed in melancholy fashion over the girl's shoulder. "It's all crashing down, Tula. I don't know what to do. I have no clue what to do..."

She gulped and said: "I'm glad..."

Garth looked at her. "You're....glad?"

"Because I know what you would do if your thoughts were together," she spoke. Her face was firm, but her eyes were threatening to break. She summoned her fiery spirit and said: "You'd punish yourself, Garth. You'd run off into the darkest depths of the ocean and make Leviathan follow you to complete the holocaust of your life in some ghastly tragic fashion. And I won't allow that. Not anymore...."

"Tula, I—"

"You are too precious to hurt yourself anymore, Garth!!" she shouted. "All these years I anguished over the secret pain that vexed your heart. You could have simply told me and I would have understood!! I knew about the Tempestuous black magic inside of you! And I didn't care, did I??" She cradled his face with her hands and spoke in a shaky voice: "You know it's true, Garth. You told Chasma yourself. There are people in this world who love you. Not everyone is your mother...not everyone is so selfish and wrong to have thrown you away as garbage!!"

Garth bit his lip. He clenched his dark eyes. "You don't understand, Tula. You just don't know. Everything I am...everything that I'm bringing into being...it's so hideous..."

"It's not you that's hideous, Garth!!" Tula said. "I'll tell you what's hideous!! A life lived short because you let unnecessary guilt and haunting demons rule your days for you!!" She pointed out the shattered walls of the building. "Out there as we speak is the embodiment of all of your fears and self-loathing. But it is not just yours, Garth! It's all of ours! It's the spirit of Atlantean hesitancy to embrace a peace that was ours from the beginning of the oceans!! There comes a time when all of life must wake up and realize that as much as the catalysts of death rule our fate, they do not rule ourselves!! Wake up, Garth! Wake up and realize that you are strong...you are precious...and I love you! Neptune so help me, I love you more than you could ever hate yourself!"

Garth shuddered. He merely hugged her and murmured: "I just want it all to stop....this damn curse...the deaths...my people...Ivan...Tram......"

Tula stroked his back and let out a painful sigh.

Raven watched on stoically. Her communicator vibrated. She opened it up.

"Raven!! Where are you??"

She blinked.

"What??"

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

Robin was perched on a buildingtop, frowning, shouting into the communicator. "Raven! We need to rendezvous and unite our powers if we want to defeat this creep!!"

"What??"

Robin sighed, gave up, and holstered the communicator.

Beast Boy dropped down onto the rooftop as a falcon. He returned to elf form and walked towards the Boy Wonder. "So...um...who hired Toho Productions to film here?"

"The creature can't be dead already," Robin said.

"Where is it, exactly?"

Robin pointed across the block. "Just beneath that row of crashed buildings."

"This is a job for well-trained professionals!" Beast Boy said firmly. A beat. He glanced at the leader. "You go look first."

Robin glared.

"Oooh! Here come the others!"

Starfire and Nova'm flew down from above.

At the same time, I blurred down from a rooftop and Fraust jumped through a nearby window and joined us.

Robin looked at me. "................" He looked at Fraust. "......................."

Starfire and Nova'm likewise stared.

Fraust bit her lip and hid behind Beast Boy.

"............," Robin glanced up. "Someone you know?"

"Thankfully," Beast Boy smiled. He gestured: "Amy, meet Titans. Titans, meet Amy."

Fraust demurely waved. "H-Hello, Titans..."

"Greetings, fair Amy," Starfire smiled pleasantly. "Do you possess superpowers?"

"Like frozen Hell she does!" Beast Boy cackled. "You can thank her for stopping the floodwaters!!"

"So that was her??" Nova'm beamed. "Cool!" He winced. "Um...no pun intended."

Robin squinted his eyemask. "That purple glint in your eyes........did you know Fryte?"

Fraust gazed sorrowfully towards the floor.

"Uh....," Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Enough said, dude."

Starfire looked sympathetic.

CLAMP!!!

"EEK!!" Starfire jumped.

A Titanium palm clung desperately to the ledge. "Nnnnghhh--!!" Cyborg tried climbing up onto the roof. "A little help here!"

Robin and I rushed over, gripped the android's arms, and helped hoist him up and onto the ledge with a little bit of strain.

"Whew!!" Cyborg wiped his brow and stood up on wobbly knees. "Don't mind me. I tend to only like flash floods of the dry kind."

"What took you so long in getting here??" Robin exclaimed.

"Well excuse me!" Cyborg motioned behind him. "But crowds and walls of water count as 'impediments' in my book. I kinda sorta had to borrow one of those jet-ski looking things."

Beast Boy giggled. "Fancy you on a cycle. You must be rather desperate without the T-Car, dude."

The android Titan shrugged. "I have enough trouble as it is trying to hail a taxi cab in Metropolis, much less in this underwater powder town." She glanced over....blinked. "So...who do we have here? Meg Ryan's baby sister?"

"Say hello to Amy," Beast Boy motioned. "Everyone's friendly neighborhood snow sorceress."

"Well, as long as she's friendly," Cyborg shrugged. "Where's Rae and the two aqua-kids?"

"Taking a breather, thanks to you," Robin said. "Your sonic blast really took that monster out."

"Didn't it, though?" Cyborg proudly smirked. "Speaking of taking out..." He looked at me and reached into the pack he was carrying. "Hey there, Noir. I got a present for you." He pulled out Myrkblade in its sheathe and tossed it at me.

I grabbed it.................and smiled wide.

I looked over at Fraust.

She blinked.

I nodded.

I swung the scabbard around my shoulder and in a blink of an eye—CHIIIIIIING!!! I held the wooden blade in front of me. I concentrated. It danced with black vapors. I sighed.

Oh Hell yeah......

Beast Boy had the chills. "Okaaaaaay...so what next?"

"The creature has not departed?" Starfire asked.

Finally....a shaking.

A rumbling.

Ripples of water in the streets below...

"VRAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!"

Raven flew in from the surroundings. She glided down and droned: "It has gained strength again. From what I gather, it seeks to consume Aqualad at all costs. Prince Garth is the last surviving member of his cursed family alive. As far as Slizzath is concerned, he contains the last untapped remnant of his essence, Tempest."

Robin palmed his glove. "That means the creature will only get stronger if Aqualad dies. We have to finish it off before it so much as has a chance to touch our friend!"

The creature stood up, shook dust and debris off its rat's skull head, and shrieked.

Nova'm gulped. "And....um...h-how're we supposed to do that??"

"I'm a little juiced out on my cannon here," Cyborg raised his hand. "Besides...that thing's once bitten...so I think it's twice pissed."

Robin turned to Fraust. "You....Do you know any weakness to Slizzath's power?"

Fraust bit her lip. "I....I-I believe it is more Ch-Chasma than Slizzath right now..."

"Meaning.....?" Beast Boy asked.

"Chasma was th-the essence of hatred," the girl spoke. "Hatred only l-lasts as long as it takes f-for its own anger to be quenched."

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone flinched as the beast madly tore through another ring of buildings in its search for Garth.

"Doesn't sound easy," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"What's to calm the angry beast down when the beast doesn't have a head left to be angry with???" Robin remarked.

"Slaying time!!" Cyborg raised his fist.

"Then we must exterminate the abomination?" Starfire remarked.

"I-I'm afraid that might not work...," Fraust trembled.

"At least it'll buy us some time," Robin said. "Something tells me it'll be up to Princess Tula and Prince Garth to save their own people's fate. All we can do now is protect Atlantis the best way we can! Together!"

"Indeed!" Starfire cheered.

I smirked.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook, fired, and swung. "Titans!! Go!!"

Starfire and Nova'm soared off.

Beast Boy turned into a green pterodactyl and lifted Cyborg towards the Leviathan.

Fraust and I leapt off the building side.

Raven floated alone. "What??"

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

"He's hatred, Garth."

"I know, Tula."

"He won't stop until his passion is met."

"He won't stop until I'm dead."

"But if we work together—with the Titans—we may be able to bring him down!" she exclaimed. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It took only a day to sink this City into the seas, and yet our ancestors survived! I seriously doubt this Black Tempest conspiracy is enough to ruin our days forever!!"

"Even if we are to defeat the Leviathan containing Chasma...," Garth hung his head. "I will still have the essence of Tempest inside of me. I shall forever be tainted, Tula. And as long as I'm alive or have offspring...the threat of Slizzath's return shall always be there."

"Still, you mustn't give up hope," Tula said. She looked him straight in the face. "Please, Garth. For me..."

The prince took a deep breath. He ran a hand through her bangs and tried on a weak smile. "Let's go slay us an overgrown Senator..."

She smiled.

They hugged desperately for a few seconds. Then—hand in hand—they bolted out of the building and dove into the water-strewn streets below.

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

POUND!! POUND!! POUND!! POUND!! POUND!!

The Leviathan thundered down the street, angrily swinging its snout left and right into any building it could find.

SMASH!! SMASH!!!

Debris flew like hot rain. The water level in the streets got gradually lower in the monster's path as it headed out of the Western District. At the same time, this meant that it would soon be stomping over the bodies of the innocent people who had fled from the hull breach and flooding.

But that wasn't about to happen.....

FLASH!!!!!!!

A huge green orb slammed down onto the monster's skull.

"VRAAAK!!"

The creature shrieked. It growled and lifted its sharp snout up and around.

Starfire hovered in mid air, her hands glowing. "Greetings, Mr. Monster...if you would be so kind as to stop demolishing this underwater city, then we might travail upon fixing the situation!"

"VRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."

The Leviathan swung around—tale lashing—and stomped towards the girl.

Starfire drew back.

"VRAAAAK!!"

The monster leapt up and snapped at her.

SNAP!!!

Starfire expertly darted backwards in mid-air, her starbolts at ready. She looked up.

Unbeknown to the creature, a green pterodactyl loomed directly overhead with a titanium Titan.

"Anchors away!!" Cyborg shouted.

Beast Boy let go.

Cyborg plummeted down. He swung his heavy fist straight down upon impact. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" WHAM!!!!!

The creature lurched painfully, its bony snout rising.

Beast Boy hovered over, morphed into a green triceratops, and dive-bombed onto the monster's uplifted nose.

SLAM!!!!!!!!

Rather than let its neck snap, the creature plummeted straight down with its belly to the wet street.

SPLASH!!!!!!!

The tentacles on its forehead warbled and lashed out at Beast Boy--

FLASH!!!!!!!

Small starbolts beat them back as Nova'm flew overhead, providing coverfire.

The creature's huge tail lashed up to bat Nova'm out of the air and sweep Cyborg off his back.

Raven flew in and—with great strain—concentrated a black field of telekinesis around the monster's tail, pinning it to the wet ground.

Fraust stepped up in waist-deep water. She raised her hands and managed to utter: "Stand cl-clear!!!"

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!

A blue wave of ice shot out from her hands and the water ahead of her. Frost and snow flew up in a flurry as the white sheet spread towards the huge, writhing body of the pinned-down beast. Cyborg and Beast Boy stayed on its backside as long as they needed...but eventually leapt off as the sheet of ice covered the creature's length like a huge sculpture of crystal.

Robin landed from a swing on a nearby rooftop and peered down.

I blurred over and stood besides him, looking.

Fraust finished her job and lowered her arms, panting...trembling.

Starfire, Nova'm, and Raven hovered above the hill of ice.

Beast Boy and Cyborg stood before it...mist wafting out of their throats.

"So...is it microwave dinner yet?" Beast Boy asked.

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!

With one, body-sized twist...the creature broke free of the ice. White shards flew every which way like ivory shrapnel.

Nova'm gasped and hugged Starfire while Raven shielded all three of them.

Beast Boy and Cyborg ducked and dashed for cover.

Robin and I fell to the rooftop and covered our heads.

Fraust winced.

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!" the Leviathan angrily shrieked. It stomped forwards, chasing Beast Boy and Cyborg.

Fraust dove out of the way before she could be trampled on. The creature thundered by, splashing her coldly. She shivered and hugged herself. In a depressed murmur she uttered: "No matter what...I'm made to be harmful..."

In the meantime, Beast Boy wailed his head off while running at full speed. He desperately converted into an apatosaurus when the water level got too unbearable. With his added weight, he stomped with similar ferocity to the Leviathan chasing him.

"Hey!! Yellow-belly!! What about me?!?!" Cyborg shouted.

The changeling's tail dragged in the water.

With a grunt, Cyborg leapt and grabbed onto the appendage. He was tossed up and onto the green dinosaur's back, which he road bumpily. As soon as he got his awkward seating, he turned back and aimed a medium laser cannon.

ZAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

The Leviathan swung its head around and deflected the blasts from the laser fire, as it also deflected the incoming starbolts and telekinetic charges from the three fliers trailing him from above.

In the meantime, Robin and I were running along the rooftops of the City parallel to the chase taking place in the street.

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade and looked for a good moment to pounce upon the scene. I couldn't find any yet...

But Robin could. "I think this creep his hungry for something...," he whipped out a bolo and strapped it to an easily accessible part on the outside of his utility belt. That done, he held a grappling hook launcher in one hand and a fan of explosive discs in the other. He took a plunged out into the open air.

"!!!" I watched in mid sprint.

SWOOOSH!! Robin descended. He fired the grappling hook in mid air. POW!! CL-CLANK!! He swung straight across the path of the incoming Leviathan. Just as it shrieked its mouth open, Robin tossed all three explosive discs into its mouth.

The beast swallowed them.

Robin swung into the building fronts on the other side.

The Leviathan skidded to a stop and tongued around its own mouth for the foreign objects.

Robin met the structures first with his feet, kicked off with a grunt, twirled around, swung back, and reached his free hand to the bolo.

The Leviathan prepared to spit the timed explosives out.

Robin spun the bolo over his swinging head and tossed it at the monster's head with a grunt.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The bolos contacted the creature's snout and wrapped securely around it...shutting the Leviathan's mouth before it could spit out the bombs.

"VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

There was a sickening, muffled TH-THUMP!! as the discs detonated inside of the creature's throat. Blood splurted out hideously from the sides of the monster's neck...enough to make it moan in demonic pain. It slumped down to the street again. The body was paralyzed, but its tentacles and tail thrashed violently upwards towards the dangling Boy Wonder.

Robin winced.

SWOOOOSH!! Starfire flew in and snatched Robin up just in time. The appendages smashed into the buildingsides behind him.

I skidded to a stop—saw the creature's stationary position—and took advantage of it. I perched on a leg, pulsed murk through my legs, and vaulted off the buildingside in a diving flip. I sailed down and charged murk through my whole body. Smoke boiled up into my head. The Aqualad contacts popped out during descent and my naturally-solid black eyes reemerged with dancing vapors of black. I landed nimbly on the creature's nose and stabbed down hard with the charged blade.

THUNK!!!!!!!!!

"VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!" the mute creature writhed and groaned.

I stabbed down again and again and again into the monster's hide. I shed demon blood. Ripped iron hide.

Just as a sickening purple splotch of blood dribbled down every angle of the creature's snout, it shook its head and furiously snapped its jaws open...shattering the bolo's cord.

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!"

Its neck reared up. I tumbled once and slid—legs first—toward the forehead.

I gasped.

A forest of curling tentacles rose up, flashed razor sharp ends, and all lunged at me simultaneously.

I gritted my teeth and blurringly twirled Myrkblade in front of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!!!!

I shoved back the multiple, stabbing tentacles and backflipped safely away from their lunges...however not safely away from the subtle moves of the creature's head.

"VRAAAK!!"

The Leviathan's neck snapped back.

I was vaulted towards the spine. I deflected a few tentacles upside down, twirled about, and landed with my feet on the hide. I slid down the spine all the way to the tail and leapt off as the creature limped up and shook its bloody head.

WHAM!!!

"VRAAAAK!!!" the creature hissed in frustration as debris in black clouds of telekinesis flew into its body.

Raven floated directly overhead. She looked like an orchestra conductor as she waved her wrists about and directed multiple projectiles into the vile beast's body.

The Leviathan angrily reared its head. It lifted its upper arms and clung to a buildingside. CRUNCH!!! In such fashion, the creature stretched up and snapped its jaws at Raven.

The dark girl was too busy lowering her telekinetic fields to get out of the way. She gasped.

"Raven!!" Nova'm flew in a green streak and shoved the two of them out of the way.

SNAP!!!!!!! The jaws closed over naked air.

The two tumbled across a ledge across the street, with Nova'm collapsing on top of the sorceress.

The young boy blushed. He jumped up. "Eheheheh...ahem....," furiously red, he extended a hand to her. "Need help getting up?"

She glared past him. With a flick of her wrist, she shoved him telekinetically to the ground. FLASH!!

"Whoah!!" he tumbled.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!! The Leviathan's tail slammed into the building where the Tamaranian prince was.

Nova'm gulped. He looked across the floor at Raven and simpered. "H-Has anyone told you that y-you're a goddess?"

"Grow up," she droned. She floated up and slammed a black field of telekinesis into Leviathan's body as she ascended.

FLASH!!

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!" the creature stumbled back.

WHAM!!!!!!! A dinosaur's head rammed harshly into the uplifted creature.

The Leviathan toppled over completely. SPLASH!!!!!!!

Beast Boy—now a Tyrannosaurus—growled and stomped through the watery street towards the tumbling monster. Cyborg still rode the changling's back, firing with his cannon.

ZAAP!!! ZAP!!

"Go for his jugular, Yoshi!! HA!!"

The dinosaur charged.

The Leviathan's twitching leg smacked the tyrannosaur harshly across the cheek.

WHAM!!!

Beast Boy stumbled back while Cyborg reeled.

"C-Close enough...."

WHAM!!!

The Leviathan righted up and howled at the smaller opponent. "VRAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAK!!!"

The changeling bravely roared back and charged in.

STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!

Both creatures grappled and wrestled with each other in the wet, debris-littered street. The green one shoved forward. The demon countered with its weight and brought a sharp-clawed paw up.

ZAAAAP!!!

The hand was knocked back by a blue beam. "VRAAAK!!"

Cyborg sat, saddled, aiming his cannon and smiling. "Hands off!"

The Leviathan growled and charged mightily.

WHAM!!!!!!!

The Tyrannosaur jolted. Its feet's claws scraped madly through the street beneath the water before it was slammed into the wall. CRUNCH!!!

The dinosaur strained.

The Leviathan's teeth readied to sink into the changling's neck.

"Time to up a size, B.B.!!" Cyborg grunted.

The tyrannosaur roared as a fan sprouted out of its back and its snout stretched twice as long. Consequently, Beast Boy's mass increased as he morphed into a spinosaurus and charged thunderously into the demon monster's body. Cyborg clung to the dinosaur's neck as it rammed mercilessly into the beast and knocked it into a huge building.

SMASH!!!!!!!

Debris littered down. Water splashed up the sides.

The demon lashed about. It shoved against the dinosaur.

Beast Boy slid back, growling.

The Leviathan's snout lowered slowly and strained to snap over both the changeling and the android Titan.

"Come on, man!!" Cyborg groaned at Beast Boy. "Don't you have anything bigger??"

The snout opened wide...and something inside glowed a hot purple.

The spinosaur's eyes widened. Beast Boy swiftly turned into a shrieking cat that clung to Cyborg's chest. "Meowrrrr!!" Consequently, both Titans plunged to the water below.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!!"

The purple glow in the demon's throat reached a high point and--

FLASSSSSSSSSSSH!!!!!!!!!

A beam of Slizzath's enemy shot out from the Leviathan's mouth in a warbling, violet tendril. The energy beam exploded through four solid blocks of buildings.

SMAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!

Robin gritted his teeth. He hung from Starfire's grasp as she circled them around the blasting monster.

"Now it's getting dangerous...," Robin muttered. He looked up. "Let's go for the attack, Star!!"

"Affirmative!!"

She dove down, holding Robin by one hand.

With a glove free, Robin reached into his utility belt, whipped out three explosive birdarangs, and flung them simultaneously as the two Titans glided by the creature's hide.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!!

All three embedded into the demon's skin and flashed.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

BOOOOM!!!!

A fountain of fire and blood opened a gaping wound in the monster's side as Starfire safely flew the two Titans away.

"VRAAAA-aaaaaaaaa-AAAAAAAAAK!!!!"

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!! I blurred down the street—my murking feet dancing over the water—and dove straight for the wound with a stab of my smoking blade.

CHUNK!!!!

The creature shrieked and lashed at me with its tail.

I teleported to its back and stabbed down again.

A shriek.

Two tentacles.

I teleported back to its side and stabbed a third time.

Finally, its foot found me.

WHAM!!!

I flew across the street and over the water-treading Fraust's head as she swam up.

"Nnnnnghhhh!!!" she charged two blue-glowing hands and produced a dozen chards of skin-ripping ice. She launched them all into the deep, gaping wound of the creature's side.

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

"VRAAAAA-AAAAAAAAK!!!!" the Leviathan groaned, twitched...and seemed to tire.

Starfire and Robin touched down on a ledge. They watched, jaws dropped.

Cyborg and Beast Boy treaded water in the middle of the street, panting.

Nova'm and Raven floated overhead.

I swam over by Fraust's side.

Before our eyes, a purple glow curtained over the creature's hide. Magically, the Leviathan's wound sealed itself up. Similarly, the cuts and blood from its head and snout disappeared. The demon was made whole again—and the way in which it hissed seemed to suggest a humored victory at that.

Nova'm gulped. "No way...."

"Way," Raven spat.

"It ain't dying!!" Beast Boy cackled. "What gives??"

"It is a demon...," Fraust trembled. "Death is merely an illusion to it."

I looked at her.

"I...I-I've only fed it with more hatred...," Fraust sniffed in a sudden mood swing and swam off desperately. "I-I'm sorry!! I knew it!! I can't defeat him!! Not when I'm practically a demon myself!!"

I gasped and silently reached a hand out to her.

She swam away.

"Amy!!!" Beast Boy gasped.

I bit my lip.

"VRAAAAK!!!!"

The creature shrieked.

I re-gripped Myrkblade, narrowed my black eyes, and faced the lumbering beast alongside my Titan companions...

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

SPLOOSH!!!

SPLOOSH!!!!!

Tula and Garth leapt simultaneously out of the water and perched on a building ledge above the submerged street.

"I don't get it...where is he???" Garth exclaimed.

Tula tapped his shoulder and pointed down a few blocks.

Both watched.

With a stream of purple energy, two buildings were blown down.

"Home is where the hellfire is," Tula mused.

Garth winced. "He's going to tear the entire City down. We gotta get there...NOW!"

"But how??"

Garth looked around.

A beat.

He looked up.

He caught sight of one of the magical arches of water stretching over the City. The huge snake of liquid shook with the vibrations running through the ground and shaking its two molecular anchorpieces two dozen blocks apart.

Conveniently, the far side of the water 'rainbow' was in the center of the heated battle.

"There's our ticket!!" Garth grabbed Tula's hand and hoisted her up. "Come on!!"

The two nimbly climbed up the buildingfront and onto the rooftop where the anchorpiece was. The two of them dove horizontally into the giant column of water.

SPLISH!!!

SPLOOSH!!!

They swam 'up' the water arch, their feet kicking furiously. The Tempest in Garth summoned heavy currents that pushed the two of them up through the structure. When they reached the crest near the domed ceiling of Atlantis, Tula bubbily unsheathed a harpoon from her back. CHIIING!!! She tossed it up to Garth and unsheathed the last one for herself.

The two then plunged like wet roller coasters down the floating tunnel of liquid. Tula stayed in the center, while Garth swam up.

SPLASH!!

He dove up out of the top of the watery worm, flipped, and landed with his feet contacting the liquid body. Through violet-glowing magic, he solidified the water contacting his feet. In such a manner he slid down the rest of the plunging arch's length like gym socks to a steep banister. Water splashed around him, parting the way between himself and Tula as they soared down at the steaming battle of criss-crossing Titans and a thrasing demon.

-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLASH!!!!!!

Tula leapt low.

SWOOOSH!!!

Garth leapt high.

They let out a singular, passionate warcry as they both landed on opposite shoulderblades of the Leviathan and stabbed their harpoons straight down deep.

CHUNK!!!

THUNK!!!

"VRAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!" the monster twitched and squirmed beneath them.

In perfect synchronization, the two aquachildren wrenched their blades like bloody levers towards the outersides of the monster. There was a sickening crunch of ligaments and bone underneath the scaley skin. The Leviathan lost all feelings in its upper arms and it collapsed with a red splash into the half-submerged street beneath it.

Tula and Garth yanked their blades out. They spun and leapt over the swaying tentacles, slid down the snout, and plunged into the water beyond the skeletal nose. They swam back up to the surface, tread water, and slashed their harpoons harshly into the creature's jaw.

SLASH!!!

SLIIIINK!!!

The monster groaned...unable to move.

Garth held one hand out. He gritted his teeth. A violet aura fell down from his eyes to his chin to his torso to his waste to his toes. The water began to boil and surge.

SPLOOOOOOOSH!!!!

His Tempest power caused a geyser of water to erupt beneath the beast. Its lumbering head tilted up. Its vulnerable neck and underbelly were exposed.

"Now!!!" Garth shouted.

Tula swam forward with her harpoon. She dove down, built up Atlantean speed, and dove directly upwards at a height of about fifteen feet—the entire time during which she held her blade out and slashed a huge, bloody gash along the creature's jugular.

SLIIIIIIIIINK!!!!

Blood oozed out in a dramatic fountain.

Tula flipped backwards and landed with a splash besides Garth's panting body...and yet as far away as they were the blood still sprayed out towards them.

The Leviathan groaned, twitched, and rolled over coldly in the pool.

Tula wheezed. "Think the bastard will miss his trachea?"

"Lord knows I don't use mine much," Garth said.

"That won't do it!!" cried a voice from above.

The two Atlanteans glanced up.

Robin stood beside Starfire and Nova'm on a rooftop overhead. "It's going to restore its health!! Just attacking him does nothing!!"

Tula bit her lip.

A hissing sound.

Both treading Atlanteans looked in front of them again.

The monster was turning over. The red ravine ripped into his neck and belly were morphing into a healthy whole before their eyes like liquid metal. Cluttering sounds announced the rejoining of severed tendons and ligaments in the beast's arms as it stood up in the water on all fours.

Garth's teeth grit. "Demons...I hate demons...."

"Look out!!" Beast Boy shouted from another rooftop.

"VRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!"

Garth and Tula braced themselves.

The growling beast opened it's mouth. The purple aura shimmered from its throat.

Beast Boy gasped. "Okay...REALLY look out!! I mean really-REALLY look out!!!"

"Down!!" Garth dove into a shrieking Tula.

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!

The steady stream of purple fury shot over them. The first layer of water was boiled instantly. The rest churned and shot back from the force of the demon focused beam. Tula and Garth tumbled like loose leaves on a hurricane-blown pond. They scattered down the street and smashed through the front windows of a building being pounded by demon energy and tidal waves.

CRASH!!!!

Tula and Garth stumbled onto a water-streaming stairwell at the end of some cavernous library. Groaning, they stood up. Tula shook her head dizzily. Garth placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You allright?"

"Kinda missing those Psuedonissian thermal currents back home...but otherwise yeah..."

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Tula and Garth blinked at each other.

They glanced out the window and gasped.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!!

Garth grabbed Tula's shoulders and tossed the two of them into the library. "Move!!"

SMASH!!!!!!

The Laviathan came charging into the library, snout first. It burst through the building, shrieking. The nearby wall shattered to bits.

Garth and Tula dashed across the library.

Bookcases and archive displays toppled over at their feet.

The two Atlanteans dove through a huge, ornamental window.

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

SHATTER!!!!!

The two plunged into a pool in a small courtyard surrounded by building faces. The water level had risen there from what amount of the Ocean had swept in through the cracks. They found themselves cornered by the walls...a dead end.

Tula sputtered as she treaded up at the surface. "Tell me this is where you think up of some grand plan to save our butts from impending doom..."

Garth looked up.

"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!"

STOMP!!!!!

The Leviathan leered at the cornered two.

He gulped. "Ask me another time..."

Tula bit her lip.

"VRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr....." the demonic beast growled. Its violet eyes glowed and a surpentine tongue danced across its fangs before it plunge downward at them in a jaw-wide lunge---

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAP!!! ZAP!!!!!!!!

Dozens upon dozens of energy beams shot down and pelted the demonic creature from all sides.

The beast roared, stumbled back, and cringed from all the heated shots.

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!!! ZAAA-AAAAP!!

Tula and Garth looked up, eyes wide.

A solid circle of lined-up Atlantean soldiers were positioned atop the buildings. They aimed charged tridents and fired continous shots of bright energy down at the beast. At the same time—the commanding general leapt down from above. He tossed off the top half of his robe and stood muscular and forboding with his left arm's harpoon glistening in the light.

Garth stammered. "Y-Your lordship..."

"Garth...cut the formalities," Orin grumbled. He bore the slightest of grins. "Now you know this beast more than I do...tell me how we can slay it."

"I....I'm not sure how...," Garth said. "Tula says Chasma was Haetryd...the essence of Slizzath's hate..."

"If that hatred can be quenched, then the transformation may end!" Tula spoke.

"Well...let's see what three great souls can come up with, shall we?" Orin flexed his muscles.

"But sir....is it wise to aid me??" Garth remarked, glancing back and forth between the former Aquaman and the energy-pelted beast. "Does the Senate know that you're—"

"I am still the King of Atlantis and because of that, I can take executive action," Orin winked. "Besides...the soonest you see the intruding Prince Garth, you'll let me know...right, Aqualad?"

A beat.

Garth smiled.

Orin smiled.

Tula twirled her harpoon at ready. "Well then...that's a good an excuse as ever to kick ass."

"We need more princesses like you," Orin said.

"Yes," she nodded. "I know."

Garth smiled and readied his blade.

SW-SW-SWISH!!!

All three Atlanteans faced the monster. King Orin in the middle. Tula at his right. Garth at his left.

The soldiers relented their trident blasts to recharge.

The pelted and steaming Leviathan groaned and tried to reengage its senses.

"For the Junction!!!" Orin shouted. He ran forward throught he knee-deep water and raised his serrated prosthetic. "AAAAAAAAUGH!!!"

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Tula ran in.

"RGHHHH!!" Garth sprinted.

All three sharp-swinging warriors rushed in and hacked, slashed, and ripped at the lower limbs and snout of the monster. Blood flew in tiny fountains. Flesh and bone fragments littered the area. The monster shrieked and stumbled backwards through the crater it had formed in the broad side of the library. King Orin advanced the demon incarnation of Haetryd head on while Tula and Garth took the sides. Dozens of wounds appeared from the blurred strikes as if from invisible, acid rain. As soon as the guards recharged their weapons, a solid wall of burning energy soared in and burned at the creature's flesh...pushing it even further into the street beyond.

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

As the second volley of attacks ended, Orin, Garth, and Tula had the creature backing out into the flooded streets.

SP-SP-SPLOOOSH!!!!

The three warriors dove into the water and swam all around the creature like possessed electrons to an undeserving nucleus. They dove in, struck with their blades, and bounced off repeatedly in merciless fashion.

More Atlantean soldiers lined the buildingsides and let loose energy blasts worthy of toppling down the front line of an army. Soon, the flesh of the Leviathan started to burn away. Whole chunks of skin would be burned by the trident blasts then severed off expertly in ragged folds by either Tula's harpoon, Garth's blade, or Orin's appendage.

Garth circled around the beast and extended a free hand. His eyes glowed violet and a torrent of water surged underneath the living carcass' girth.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

With tremendous effort on the part of Tempest, Garth shoved the lumbering beast high into the air above some of the buildingtops.

It was then and there that the Titans caught up and joined the trident fire.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! Starfire and Nova'm launched an endless barrage of starbolts.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!! Cyborg supplied his sonic cannon.

SWOOOOSH-SMASH!!!! Beast Boy in gorilla form tossed huge boulders.

FLASH!!!!! Raven sent slicing slivers of black telekinesis flying.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK-BOOOM!!!! Robin's explosive birdarangs did the trick.

Clank! I threw a skipping stone....or something....

The Leviathan's mutilated body danced in mid-air from the multiple blasts.

Orin and Tula watched on.

From where Garth tread, the prince raised his arms and—with a shout—enveloped the creature in a worm of water and slammed him back down into the street.

WHAM!!!

SPLASH!!!!!!!!

Water fountained everywhere.

Orin held his fleshly hand up.

The soldiers held their fire.

The Titans withdrew.

All eyes were on the bulbous spot of red cloudiness in the center of the battle arena. Building debris circled the bloody site like a giant seat turtle's nest in the urban sand.

Silence....

Garth panted...panted...panted....

"VRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr..."

Garth's heart fell.

The body slowly started to get up.

Tula gulped.

Orin's teeth grit.

Leviathan reared his mutilated head. Slowly, the flesh started to crawl back into existence across the creature's body.

Starfire gasped.

"No....," Nova'm murmured.

Robin punched his gloved palm.

I clenched my fists...

The skin returned to all surfaces of the monster's skin. The Leviathan only seemed....more powerful from absorbing our combined attacks. Its huge eyes pulsed purple.

"Uh oh....," Beast Boy murmured.

The creature turned about, faced King Orin directly...and opened its snout.

Purple aura filled the air.

"Look out!! It's gonna pull the same damn stunt again!!" Cyborg shouted.

Garth gasped. He dove at his king. "Orin!! Down!!!"

"OOF!!!" The two former teammates tumbled into the water.

FLAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!

A burning stream of purple flew over them. It plowed into buildings, sending scores of screaming Atlantean bodies flying.

BOOOOOM!!!!

Four buildings in a row loudly toppled over.

The Titans and I winced and tried to keep balance as a whole quarter of Atlantis shook.

Orin and Garth drifted together in the water...but not for long. A huge, red tongue darted into the street's pool like a giant tentacle and wrapped tightly around Garth's body. The boy gasped with a flurry of bubbles underwater and was dragged up into the air.

Orin reached a hand out for him. "No!!!"

SPLOOOSH!! "YAAAUGH!!!" Garths truggled in the lashing tongue of the yawning beast.

Tula bobbed at the surface. She shrieked: "Garth!!!"

The prince struggled in the creature's grasp. He gritted his teeth and prepared to stab down into the tongue muscle with his harpoon...when the tongue jerked and thusly tossed the item out of the boy's grasp.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!! The harpoon stuck into a shallow piece of street.

"Titans!! Free him!!" Robin shouted, flinging a handful of birdarangs as he said so.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The birdarangs flew at the tongue...but the Leviathan turned its upper body around at the last second and deflected the projectiles.

Cyborg, Starfire, and Nova'm pelted the creature mercilesly from the back.

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FL-FLASH!!

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

FLASH!!! FLAAAASH!! FLASH!!

The Leviathan ignored the blows and merely dragged the helpless Garth towards a dark, shattered corner of fallen buildings.

Raven flew overhead with flying debris of black momentum while I blurred over the water with Myrkblade ready.

SMASH!!! CRUNCH!!! Raven's flying structures slammed into the creature's back.

The Leviathan merely grunted and slapped its tail back at us.

WHAP!!! Raven was hit hard. She flew overhead and plummeted into a nearby fountain across the line of buildings.

I teleported past the twitching tail, streaked up the creature's backside, ran along its spine, and prepared to perform a leaping lunge of Myrkblade through its fountain of forehead tentacles when the beast's entire neck reared and batted me backwards like a ragdoll into the tiny waves.

SPLOOOSH!!!

"Garth!!" Tula shrieked.

The tongue curled more and more around his helpless body.

"Stand back!!" he shouted. "Nnghhh—Slizzath's wrath shall burn severely! Do not get caught in it!!"

"By Poseidon...," Orin clenched his teeth. He charged across the shallow water with his harpoon arm swinging. "This is not your fate, Garth!!! RAAAUGH!!"

SWOOOOOSH-CLANG!!!!

The harpoon shed sparks from across the creature's hide. Half of the Leviathan lifted up. Its tongue uncurled.

Garth fell to the debris-littered street.

SPLASH—WHUMP!!! "Ooof!!"

Orin shouted and prepared to plow his prosthetic again into the creature's body.

THWAP!!!!! A sweep of the tail smacked hard into the king of Atlantis.

Oirn slammed into a building front. CRACK!!! His harpoon shattered apart.

SWOOOSH!! Robin swung in by a grappling hook while Robin dropped down and charged at full force.

"RAAAAAAUGH!!" Cyborg swung a titanium fist into the skull piece of the monster.

WHAM!!!!

The Leviathan lurched.

Robin flung two electrical discs.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLAMP!!! ZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!

Sparks flew crazily from the monster's hide. The smell of burnt, demon skin filled the air.

Cyborg readied another fist while Robin swung a staff.

WHAM!!!! SWACK!!!!

The sparks died down. The smoking skin twitched...then flew at them in the shape of a serrated paw.

THWACK!!!

Robin and Cyborg flew back.

I streaked past them and pounced on the creature with Myrkblade raised.

SLASH!!!!!!

I cut a deep gash...a gash that I knew would only regenerate in time.

Where is this going???

The paw swiped at me.

I jumped the attack, spun around, and slashed at its neck.

The tentacles from the forehead surged at me.

FLASH!!!

A black shield blocked them all. Raven floated overhead while I unleashed my murking punishment.

The Leviathan shook its body, hissed, and broke through the shield with a swing of its head.

The exploding obsidian energy sent a shockwave into the dark girl's head. She groaned and plummeted towards the street.

I gasped, sheathed my sword, and ran over to catch her--

WHAM!!!!

A huge tail smacked the two of us mercilessly into a mound of debris.

The Leviathan shifted about.

Garth lay on the ground besides his embedded harpoon, breathless.....

SLAM!!!!

The creature's clawed paw fell down over him.

"AUGH!!" Garth exhaled, his face contorted in pain as he was pinned to the wet street.

"VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr......"

The monster lowered its razor sharp jaws closer and closer to the Idyllist prince's helpless form. Soldiers ran up to nearby buildingsides and fired useless birrages of trident energy blasts into the monster's body. Starfire and Nova'm floated overhead, launching all manners of starbolts to no use. Beast Boy kept ramming senselessly into the monster's side as an African elephant. King Orin was barely able to stand, his left arm ending at a shattered stub. All other Titans were either too exhausted or too beat to move again.

All of this Tula observed from a building ledge above where she was perched. She held her harpoon in a shaking hand and looked back and forth from the brave but ineffective heroes to the all-consuming monstrosity. Her eyes narrowed and her lips parted as she breathed lightly with the incoming view of something that—seemingly—only the Psuedonissian princess could see....

The Leviathan was a hideous abomination. And yet...in the corners of its bloody scales and bony features...she could see Chasma's essence. She could see his face. His arrogant gait in the hallways. The indignant glare and the all-knowing sneer. The angry way he looked at her in the Senate and Embassy...

Tula shivered...not so much as a result of the horrid contemplation ricocheting through her, but rather the simple righteousness that her decision would bring. To Garth, to Atlantis, and perhaps even to herself...

Tula closed her mouth tightly. She took a deep breath and chased the shuddering moistness in her eyes away. She pounced off the buildingside and ran across the watery surface to the absolute center of the battle.

The Leviathan's jaws were mere inches from closing around prince Garth's head.

He took a deep breath and lowered his black eyes.

His limbs went limp.

And...

Tula dove in. She growled and swung her harpoon against the monster's teeth.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

Sparks flew.

"VRAAAAAK!!!"

Tula twirled her weapon behind her in a ready position and pointed her other hand out. She panted. "Hey!! Chasma!!"

The creature shuddered. Its purple eyes fluttered, as if refocusing.

Tula grit her teeth. "Remember me?? The princess bitch!!!"

The purple eyes narrowed.

SPLOOSH!!

The serrated paw lifted up and off of Garth's wheezing body.

Garth twitched and murmured: "T-Tula...."

The monster stared at Tula. Purple steam rose from its nostrils and lips.

Tula gripped hard to her harpoon.

Orin watched over wearily from where he barely stood.

The Leviathan's paw lifted up, flexed, and slashed down with a huge front claw.

Tula stopped breathing. She closed her eyes.

Garth's life turned in slow motion.

Tula's fingers unclenched...deliberately dropping the harpoon to the street.

CL-CLANG!!

"TULA!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

CHUNK!!!!

The princess' body jolted. Her arms stretched outward like a half-deflated crucifix. Her eyes shot open. Her lips quivered.

The Leviathan sneered, its front claw imbedded clean through the Princess' center.

I looked up from where I limped with Raven in my grasp. My jaw dropped. Raven looked up and gasped.

Starfire and Nova'm drifted through the air numbly, their green eyes wide.

Cyborg and Robin looked over from where they stood up and froze.

Beast Boy deflated into elf form and seemed to dangle on strings.

King Orin was speechless.

All in a matter of two seconds, Garth's vision was on everyone and everything at once. But the very center of his twitching vision....the very center of his vibrating universe was on her....

And the claw emerging on the backside of her....

Tula gurgled once, a thick stream of blood spurting out from her lips. She shut her mouth and slid off of the sharp claw.

SPLOOOSH!!!

She lay in the shallow water, turning it heavily red.

And then..

Eyes were on the Leviathan...which had suddenly become a stone-still Leviathan.

The creature seemed to pause. It didn't breathe. It didn't twitch. It didn't even move a single forehead tentacle. It stood like a giant, breathless granite sculpture...until finally something changed. The purple light in its eyes faded. The beast seemed to shudder and then—with melting agony—it shrank. The tentacles receded. The scales sank into blubbery flesh. The claws disappeared and the teeth vanished. The mass of flesh then performed the disgusint act of un-ballooning into something humanoid and recognizable.

Chasma........Haetryd with its anger quenched...

Garth hobbled up to his feet. CLANK!! He yanked his harpoon out of the ground. SPLOOSH!! He scooped up Tula's weapon.

The monster was now a large man becoming increasingly smaller.

Garth hyperventilated. His jaw was clenched. He gripped the hilts to the harpoons tightly.

Everyone watched as the monster disappeared. Soon, a naked gray body stood on trembling knees before the Idyllist prince. Shivering, Chasma looked fearfully up. The violet disappeared from his eyes...and he was alone. Without Slizzath, without dark magic...

Garth sneered.

Without protection.........

"N-No....," Chasma murmured.

Garth twirled both harpoons over his shoulders.

Chasma flinched. "Nooooo--!!!"

"AAAAUGH!!" Garth screamed and swung both harpoons together.

CHUNK!!! CLANG!!!

Both blades collided with sparks after cleaving equally through either side of the Senator's neck. The bloody cranium spun half a turn on the harpoons before both they and the body slumped lifelessly to the shallow pool of water below.

".................." Garth heaved. CL-CLANG!! He dropped the harpoons. He spun around. He dropped to his knees over Tula. Panting....

The princess was barely alive. Twitching. Sputtering...

Garth's dark eyes narrowed. He leaned down. He bit his lip. He raised a shaky hand and parted her soiled bangs. "Why......Wh-Why.....??"

She shook, gurgled, and managed a quivering smile as her eyes rounded. "F-For the same r-reason......," she coughed, sputtered. Spoke: "Peace....J-Junction...." Her eyes thinned and her lips curved a little more. "....a s-second chance....for you..."

"No...," he shuddered.

"...always so selfless, Garth....I-I've envied it..."

"No...no no no no no," Garth cradled her head to his and shook. His shoulders quivered and his face scrunched up as tears practically exploded outward. "I'm not worth it....I'm not worth it, Tula..."

"Could h-have fooled m-m-me...," she uttered. A smile. A shake. "Crrrkkkk....nnghh....I....I-I..." she raised her hand.

Garth strongly gripped it. He stared as strongly as he could into her eyes, while all the time shaking from his own sorrow and hyperventilating.

Orin, Titans, and soldiers formed a ring around the scene.

Tula quivered. She managed to say: ".....I-I can...feel it...," she shook. "....the hatred is gone...the evil aura is fading....the oceans are calm again...." She looked the prince's way. She sputtered. She wheezed: "You m-may have his essence, Garth....b-but you have the power to silence it...a-and be productive..."

"Not without you," he sobbed and held her hand tighter. "Not without you, Tula!!"

"Shhhhhhhhh," she raised a weak, bloody hand up to his cheek and smiled angelically. "There're plenty of fish in the sea, Garth. There're plenty of.....f-fish in the sea......"

Garth was speechless.

Tula's eyes oozed aside. She gazed beyond the dome of the City. Her lids widened a bit. "I....I-I feel...." Her lips widened. A beat. She sighed.

Her hand fell limp.

"................," Garth looked at her. Through her. He started to shake. He clenched his eyes shut and hugged Tula's body closely to him. He rocked. He sniffed. His torso shook and caused the tears and blood to trickle down both of their bodies.

Starfire had a hand covered over her mouth. Uncontrollably, her Tamaranian eyes shed. Nova'm was no less affected. He trembled and hugged the older alien's side.

I took a deep breath. I slowly sheathed Myrkblade and looked away. I felt the same damn chill from my metal left hand.

Raven was silent. Deadpan. She glanced over at Beast Boy and Cyborg. The two shifted nervously where they stood, trying not to look at the scene.

Robin drifted over and stood resolutely besides Starfire and Nova'm. Subconsciously, he allowed himself into their embrace. Starfire sniffed.

King Orin's head was hung. At the sound of Garth's voice, he looked up.

"She was always the true peace keeper...."

Garth gently lowered Tula's body to the shallow floor of water. He crossed her arms over her chest.

"I....I was only a pawn," Garth said in a stoic way. With his teary face and melted expression, he resembled a rock that had fallen from the sky right after a terrible hurricane. He sniffled once or twice as he ran a hand over her face and shut her eyes. "But the Poseidonissian Princess......it was not her destiny to be involved with the demonic powers at play. It was all a matter of choice. Of bravery. Of initiative."

He stood up straight over her, his arms hanging by his side. He gazed at her silent figure.

"The fate of our Ocean....the fate of the entire world...it will not be won by legislation or ambassadorial acts of 'good will'...," he looked up at every Atlantean in the surrounding area. "It will be won by sacrifice. Sacrifices like Tula's." He took a deep breath. He continued: "Our ancient forefathers were right. The only way to have a stable society is through strife. Through bloodshed. Through pain. Conflict may be what banalizes us...but it's also what makes us mature. A life without pain...and Idyll life..." he glanced aside at Chasma's headless corpse "...is something of dreams. For four thousand years, my people tried to avoid the fact that—there are demons in this world that must be dealt with. And many of those demons are in ourselves." He gripped his own heart. He sighed. He shuddered. He said: "The Junction is not so much a Revolution of peace...as it is a Retribution of souls." He looked up at Orin and everyone else. "For peace after all these years is something earned. Because even though conflict and pain is necessary, we may finally have done away with those who center such in their very lives."

A beat.

He turned around and clenched his fists. "But I am living proof that...no matter what toil...no matter what strife...no matter what s-sacrifice...," he shook, hesitated, then sighed: "...that evil lives on. And it lives on in me. Whether I like it or not. Only.....only now I am truly alone. Far more alone than I ever pretended to be..."

He slowly limped away by himself.

The guards were silent.

King Orin gripped his stub of an arm, glanced at Tula's body, and sighed defeatedly.

I took a deep breath. I turned myself and immersed myself in the obscurity of the wrecked, urban landscape.

In the meantime, a depressed Beast Boy sighed. His eyes wondered up. They then narrowed at the sight of something.

A purple-glowing figure was swimming quickly across the underwater landscape.

"..........," Beast Boy stared. Suddenly he gasped. He glanced around, then ran down a waterlogged street for the nearest entrance to the Atlantean docking bays...

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

A green swordfish skirted desperately out into the open currents. It morphed into a dolphin and spun around, emitting sound waves in every which direction.

It picked up the body of a figure over a hill of coral.

The green dolphin looked over.

A blonde girl was swimming towards something beyond the rise in the sea floor.

The dolphin turned into a shark and swam desperately towards the site.

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

The dome of Atlantis was now a distant thing.

The green shark rounded the hill and glanced around.

In the shadows of a huge mountain ridge there sat a mysterious, metal structure. The structure had a huge 'snout' of sorts aimed upwards. The bulk of the object was a chamber of sorts, loaded with a capsule accessible through a door with a water-separating forcefield.

The green animal's white eye widened.

It had to have been an Expulsor......

And swimming besides the door to the machine was none other than Fraust, protected by her magical glow of violet alone.

The shark 'jumped' in the water. It desperately morphed into a squid and skirted towards the girl.

Fraust glanced over sadly. She winced and held a blue-glowing hand out.

FLASH!!!!!

A thin shield of ice appeared, blocking the changling's way.

The squid turned into a crab, sea turtle, basking shark, seal, and various other marine life as it tried desperately to bash through the shield.

Tula shuddered. She spoke through the violet glow of magic. Her voice came wavering awkwardly through the currents so that Beast Boy could barely understand her saying:

"I-I'm sorry, Titan. But...But I know who and what I am...," she hugged herself and drifted some. "Even when I'm using my power for good...I feel him. I feel his claws sinking into me. Maybe Vera can tame her powers...but I can't. I must punish myself. I must save you and everyone else alive from the torture of trying to save me..."

The green changling shuddered. Its white eyes were pleading.

"Good bye....may you never suffer from demons like myself ever again...," Fraust sniffed. She entered the pod inside the chamber and the door shut behind her.

Beast Boy desperately turned into a whale, spun, and slammed his tail into the ice wall.

CRASH!!!!

WHURRRRRRRR!!! The machine pointed northward.

Beast Boy swam over. He morphed into elf form and held his breath as he drifted to the porthole looking in on the chamber and pounded on the glass in desperation.

Inside, Fraust was sobbing. She momentarily recovered in time to finger a switch and...

BLAM!!!!

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

With bubbles violently streaming, the cannon shot the tiny pod with the blonde snow mage in it far, far away.

The green elf shuddered. It hung its head...twice saddened by that day. Before he lost his breath, he turned into a barricuda and slowly drifted back towards Atlantis...

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

"Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley. Please rise."

The Senate Room was hushed as the Idyllist prince in question stood from his balcony. The young man was tall and resolute. His dark eyes firm...yet softly awaiting the words from the Senate Speaker.

"The entire body of Atlantis applauds you for your efforts in preventing the onslaught of Slizzath's Black Tempest," the elderly man spoke from the high pontium. King Orin sat beside him, cold and silent. "And we are regretful of the loss you have suffered with your people. The lives of Praetor Ivan and many soldiers of the Hidden Valley shall forever be mourned. Before we proceed with the deliberation, do you have anything you wish to say to the delegates of the Seas?"

Slowly, Garth nodded. "Only this. I have transferred all of my governing power to the hands of the Idyllist circle of council. They shall provide you with the necessary delegates to represent our faction. This decision is not something done hastily in lieu of recent events. Rather, it was prepared for...well in advance. My people have always anticipated the implications of my royal family..." His voice lingered off, try as he might to be strong.

A slight murmur rippled through the crowd, then silence as the speaker went on:

"Very well. Prince Garth, it is a heavy heart that we present this decision to the Senate. Your service to the Oceans has been impeccable. Your faith in Poseidon and pursuit of justice everywhere has saved our people on multiple of occasions from the likes of Black Manta, Trident, and now the Black Tempest. But while you are a hero, it is also understood that you and everyone in the family line of King Thar possess the curse of the evil sorcerer Slizzath. While this is greatly unfortunate, it is still a risk to every soul you may come in contact with—or so we have deemed after two solid days of intense scrutiny. Our only solution is to grant you life...but at the same time, Prince Garth, you are forever banished from the principalities of Atlantis."

Commotion. Gasps. Mutterings.

Garth took a deep breath and hung his head.

Orin shifted uncomfortably, visibly ruffled.

"As you may understand—from the implications of Junction—'Atlantis' now constitutes a great deal of the inhabitable Ocean. We shall do everything in our power to show you our respect by providing safe quadrants of residence if you so des—"

"I understand," Garth said gently, but solidly. He looked up and took a deep breath. "I understand completely."

Silence.

The speaker nodded. He didn't have to go on.

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

Garth walked alone down a corridor of the Capitol building after the Senate hearing.

He watched his feet.

"........."

"Garth!"

The boy froze.

A beat.

He turned around.

Orin stood before him.

Silence.

"I just want you to know...," the King of Atlantis began. "I fought with all of the power granted me to—"

Garth held a hand up. "Orin....I know......I kn-know...." He gently lowered his arm and smiled weakly. "To make the Senate choose otherwise would go against what Atlantis stands for today. A democracy instead of the crater from someone's iron fist."

Silence.

Orin uncontrollably lurched forward and hugged Garth hard.

Garth hugged him back.

The King took a deep breath and cradled the boy's head to his chest like he would his own son. "You will be sorely missed, boy. And I promise you that—no matter what evil may threaten us—your honor shall be preserved. For there is no force in this world too great that I won't strive to give you the uttermost respect, admiration, and faith that you deserve..."

Garth shuddered. He bit his lip and spoke: "I know...and th-thanks, Orin." He parted the hug. He looked up. "But I must learn to have faith in myself before I find out if I deserve it or not..."

Orin nodded.

Garth held his fist out. "Poseidon be Praised...."

Orin smiled. He collided his fist with Garth's. "Poseidon be Praised..."

Their fists spread into open palms that gripped each other tightly. A warrior shake.

Garth took a proud breath. "I always knew that you'd become a man before long...."

At that, Garth's sad eyes darkly fell to the wayside. "My life as a man died yesterday, Orin..." He slowly sauntered off. "...it died in her sweet heart...."

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

"What do you think they're gonna do to him??" Nova'm asked.

"Banishment, most likely," Raven droned. "It's the only logical thing for the Senate to do. He may be a hero, but he still has a dangerous essence within himself. When I was younger, there was a time when I had to leave Azar. I had no choice but to leap upon it."

We sat in a lounge near the bottom floor of the Senate Building.

Starfire and Robin leaned against a wall. Nova'm sat on the armrest of a couch beside them. Raven was nestled gracefully in a reading chair. Cyborg leaned against the back of Raven's chair and gazed off, apparently in thought. Beast Boy sat beside a window and gazed out on the cityscape of Atlantis where repairs were already being made to the Western District.

I stood against a nearby wall, blindly sharpening Myrkblade. My ears tuned in to everyone else. My black eyes were hidden under the usual shades, which Cyborg had provided for me from his pack after the bloody battle.

"It would be most cruel for Aqualad's own people to do that to him," Starfire remarked. She sadly clasped her hands together. "And yet, terribly understandable."

"What I don't get is why Tula had to die to begin with!" Cyborg remarked.

Raven turned and looked at him. "Chasma was the living embodiment of Slizzath's hatred. When Slizzath extended the limits of his powers out of his trans-dimensional imprisonment and into Chasma's body, the result was a monstrosity similar to Slizzath's spirit incarnate...but with an inherent flaw. Once the being's hatred was exhausted, its purpose was complete. Slizzath receded and Chasma was subjected to Garth's finishing blow."

"But still...why'd Tula—"

"It could have been anyone that Chasma held a grudge against," Raven spoke. "For all we know, if Orin had died...the spell may have ended too. But if the Leviathan had killed Garth, it would have inherited a great power that Slizzath had long-needed."

"So Tula threw herself in the way so that Chasma inside of Leviathan would kill her..."

"And end the spell."

"I wonder....," Starfire's mind drifted as she thought aloud, "...if any of us were to have sacrificed ourself in Tula's place, would the same result have been acquired."

I glancd up at that.

"Possibly," Raven said. "But I don't think Chasma knew us as much as he did Tula."

"Then again...," Robin muttered, "...who here would have been strong enough to have done what Tula did?"

Silence.

I sighed. I continued sharpening Myrkblade.

"She's gone..."

We all looked Beast Boy's way.

"Who?" Cyborg asked.

"Amy....," the green one stared out the window. "Fraust...the snow girl."

"Oh....her."

Beast Boy looked over. "She found one of Chasma's cannons...perhaps the very same one that launched Garth towards the dry land and started this whole fiasco."

"Could she survive such a chaotic flight???" Starfire exclaimed.

"Depends...," Robin scratched his dark head. "Where was the thing aimed, B.B.?"

"Due north."

Robin glanced at Cyborg.

The android Titan shrugged. "Hard to tell. Wish I knew where we were exactly. But I think we're still in the Northern Hemisphere though. So 'north' of Atlantis could be...," he rubbed the human half of his head "...Gulf of Mexico? Mediterranean? Maybe even the polar ice cap."

"Who was she anyways?" Nova'm asked.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg read me. He said: "A...human girl from Chasma's prison?"

"I told y'all about it already," Beast Boy said. "There are these places around the world---er—the seas. They have humans who have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. The Atlanteans took care of them...but Chasma got his hands on a few of them---"

"And turned them into the essences of Slizzath...," Robin nodded. "Less easily to telepathically detect in underwater communities." He glanced at Starfire. "Fryte had no gills, remember?"

"Indeed...."

Silence.

"At least....at least there's a future for all of Amy's kind," Beast Boy hugged himself. He glanced up. "Am I right?? Acyd...Vera and all the other kids and families in these places...they may see dry land now. And with Junction..."

"It sounds like a promising time for Terra Firma's different factions," Starfire remarked.

"Yeah...but...," Cyborg shrugged. "Why doesn't it feel like a victory?"

"Why do you think?" Raven said.

Silence.

I looked towards Robin.

Not that it was in response to my gaze or anything, but right then and there the Titan leader spoke as I expected him to: "I agree with Raven about banishment. I don't think Garth can easily 'go back home'."

Starfire smiled as best as she could during a time such as this. "And you are—perhaps—thinking that he could acquire something liken unto our home?"

Robin nodded. "Think of it. He's done so much for us...we've put in our part for him...we have quite the grounds for trust."

"Do we, Robin?" Cyborg remarked. He gestured. "You're the decision maker on inductions. Remember?"

Nova'm listened intently.

Robin folded his arms. He looked my way.

I looked back at him.

Silence.

"And you were the decision maker on the acceptance, right Noir?"

I nodded.

A beat.

"I honestly don't know if he'd accept...but I'll give him the invitation," Robin spoke. "It looks like the Tempest power is forever a part of him. That could be invaluable in our City. You yourself said once—Cyborg—that we needed a way to master the waterways."

"Yeah...but one little thing," Cyborg held a finger up. "The dude's got a cool way of bending water and stuff...but don't forget that's attached to the soul of an old, old sorcerer of evil!"

"Meaning?"

"That's a real threat to the team! What if Slizzath made himself manifest in our midst or something? How'd we be prepared for that?"

Silence.

Everyone was staring at Cyborg. A beat. Everyone was then staring at Raven.

Cyborg looked around—glanced down at the dark girl—and winced. "Oh....right...."

Raven frowned. "Right."

I bit my lip.

"Let's have a vote," Robin said.

Beast Boy's hand rocketed up in an instant. "A million yays right here, dude."

Starfire's hand then went up.

Then mine.

Raven's.

A pause....then Cyborg's.

Robin had his glove raised the whole time.

Nova'm simpered and raised his hand as well, nervous...

Starfire giggled.

The other Titans smiled at that.

Nova'm blushed. "A-Anything I can do to help you guys..."

Starfire ruffled his red hair. "And what a help you are indeed..."

"Hehehehe."

The door creaked open.

We all looked over.

Beast Boy stood up.

Garth stood before us.

His dark eyes were weak. It was frighteningly depressing. He glanced away...as if to avoid everyone's visible eyes.

So—expertly—the masked Titan among us walked forward.

"......," Robin leaned his head to the side. "Still a teenager?"

A beat.

Garth sighed through his nostrils, smiled, and uttered: "Y-Yeah..."

Robin smirked. He held his gloved hand out. "Welcome to the Club, Prince Garth."

The Idyllist shook it.

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

A blindingly bright, white landscape.

Wind gently blurred whisps of white mist over huge icy sheets.

Resting on the edge of a broad glacier was a black, metal object at the end of a deep ravine carved into the snow. An impact site.

A young, blonde figure lay beside the yawning door of the collapsed pod. The cold winds bathed her figure and fluttered her strands of golden hair. And yet...her skin didn't turn blue. No sign of frost or hypothermia infecting her body could be detected.

Silence.

Crunching sounds in the snow.

A thin shadow stretched over her.

A beat.

A figure knelt down beside her. A pale-white hand gently shook her shoulder.

Silence.

The hand shook her again.

"Nnnngh...," she stirred. Her blue eyes opened. She gasped and shot up straight.

She saw a stretch of icy water specked with blinding glaciers reaching towards the horizon.

The girl bit her lip.

"Are you cold...?" a voice gently asked from behind her. Gentle but emotionless.

"H-Huh??"

"Are you cold, girl?" the voice stoically asked again.

"I'm....I'm.......," she blinked. She held her hand up. She looked at her fingers. She slowly shook her head. I'm n-not.......I'm not c-cold....."

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

Silence.

"Here...."

Something was placed in her hand. A pair of wide-rimmed, black shades.

"What are these for?"

"There's still lots of daylight left," the figure said simply behind her. "Those will protect you from ultraviolet radiation blinding you. There's almost nothing to reflect light here but pure, white snow."

She breathed. "Yes.......Y-Yes....that would make sense. Thank you..." A beat. She looked up. "But....how did you get—"

Fraust's voice ended in mid sentence. Her blue eyes narrowed.

The man looked to be in his late thirties. Perhaps older. His skin was immaculately pale and without a hair. She knew this because he had an awful lot of skin to show for a human in such cold weather. He wore a gray tunic and gray shorts, but just like her...he seemed unaffected by the cold. Rather...he seemed perfectly comfortable.

Fraust couldn't help but gaze at his smooth, bald cranium.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"I......," a beat. "......no....I suppose there's not."

"Do you feel injured?"

"N-No, I'm fine."

He gazed at the pod. He gazed at her again. "If you wish...I have a shelter. I even have food. It's difficult to survive in this environment alone. Even if it is cold...."

Slowly, the bald stranger stood up and walked away...scaling the lengths of the ice cap.

Fraust jumped up to her feet. "W-Wait!"

The man paused. He turned around.

She hugged the shades to her chest, trembling. She swallowed and said: "Do I......scare you?"

The man slowly shook his head. "You do not. Do I scare you?"

"N-No..."

His cold eyes narrowed. "What's your name?"

"I am Fr---," the girl lingered. A beat. She smiled. "Amy. My name is Amy Smith..."

A beat.

The man bore something vaguely resembling smile. Whatever the case, there was something bizarrely trusting that she perceived in him as he said: "You can call me Victor if you like."

He walked on alone through the snow.

Amy...feeling warm and secure for the first time she could remember...eventually followed him.

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

Garth treaded in the water. His eyes were thin.

Over an oceanic trench and besides a ravine, the richly decorated coffin of Princess Tula was being lowered with wreaths of sea orchids into the murky depths. Delegates from all over the seas were present. Their tears mingled with the sea water and created a queer cloudiness that drifted over the melancholy scene.

Garth lowered his eyes...and then his head.

A beat.

H turned around and faced the rock where his seven companions resided within a pocket of air supplied subconsciously by his power.

Raven, Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Nova'm, and I watched on.

Garth sighed a flurry of bubbles. He gave Atlantis—and Tula—one last glance before swiftly swimming over and joining us on the rock.

"I used to live my life constantly punishing myself."

A few words were exchanged.

Garth nodded.

He extended his hands and—eyes glowing—lifted the rock up and drifted it far away from the sea floor.

"I knew what my mother had done to me as a baby. I knew what curse my family bore."

Somewhere in a large, cavernous sanctuary...recovering children from the prison joined other human youngsters, running and playing happily around greenhouses and artificial parks.

Acyd sat on a bench, talking to an Atlantean nurse.

She thought about something and looked off towards the distance. She ran a hand through her green hair and smiled hopefully...

"So I chose a life of loneliness as some sort of recompense for the waste I was and the danger I could be."

King Orin stood on the balcony of his palace with his wife.

The ruler's mind seemed elsewhere. But when his wife lovingly leaned against him with an embrace, he smiled and kissed her forehead.

Holding her close.

Sighing....

"Aquaman granted me a life of hope and idealism. Tula showed me what true love meant, and in the end it was her that truly freed me."

The air-contained rock holding the eight of us floated towards the surface of the ocean.

Beast Boy said something and a good few of us laughed.

Including the pilot....for the moment.

"But as much as I tried, I couldn't esape my fate. Slizzath's evil lashed out and took away those most precious to me."

On the North side of the Titans' Tower...where soil actually flourished...a memorial had been constructed. Eight graves were dug and commemorated to the memory of the deceased Renzukka.

Garth knelt and placed a wreath of flowers over the stone inscribed with Tram's name.

He sighed and hung his head.

Robin placed a hand on his shoulder while the rest of us somberly looked on.

"I have learned from the past indeed...then why am I here? Why am I joining the Titans?"

Upstairs in the Main Room, most of us were assembled.

Beast Boy was making waffles...the traditional meal for a new member.

Robin said something with a smirk, and we all laughed.

Cyborg the loudest.

I snickered breathily and looked over at Aqualad in the guest-of-honor chair.

He seemed legitimately amused. A warmth covered over him...but I saw the coldness in the corners of his dark eyes. He couldn't be there for long. And I expected such.

After just one helping, he politely excused himself and headed towards the elevator.

"I figure that...as long as I think of it as their needing me, then it will be all right. Besides...these people are heroes. And—as much as I may deny it—I am one too."

Gently, Garth drifted through the waters of the Bay besides the bluffs of the Tower's island. He rested on his back, gently kicking himelf along.

The Sun was setting and it cast rippling waters of gold and amber across the Atlantean and his closed eyes.

Slowly...the boy submerged himself into the depths.

From there...nobody could see his eyes glowing purple.

"There will be no more denying who and what I truly am. Aqualad was a helpless quest for a new identity. But I only have one identity. And it's as dark as it is virtuous."

Slowly, schools of fish, plankton, and jellyfish moved in the same current as the drifting Atlantean.

In perfect synchronization from everywhere.

Like an underwater parade.

The boy's dark eyes opened...bright violet. Strong and piercing.

"I am Tempest. It's all that's left of me. It's all I have to give the Titans. And Poseidon help us all......Tempest will become a person worthy of pride...... free of guilt......and free of fear......"