Titans: Elemental

Chapter 113: The End, Part 2

We see a monitor that shows the exterior of the Tower and reveal it as one of several in a control panel. The second screen shows the building from an overhead angle, while the third affords an overhead view of Raven meditating in the safety room.

Vic, "so far, everything seems pretty much normal."

He is standing with the others, including Sarah; they are in a small control room illuminated only by red emergency lights. Vic had called Sarah there, since he was worried about her safety in this situation.

Changeling, "yep. Just your normal last day on Earth."

Jack, "we don't know that."

Dick, "it's no-one's last day."

Starfire, "everything is going to be okay, yes?"

Bryan, "let's hope so."

Now we see them through the high window in the safety room-this observation booth is on its other side. Raven floats a bit above the floor.

Raven, 'they can't stop him. Nothing can stop him. But they're willing to risk everything for me. If anyone could stop Trigon, maybe they could.'

A shadow falls over her.

"You know better than to fill your head with fanciful ideas."

Raven, 'you aren't here. You can't be.'

"I am always with you. You are part of me, forever."

Raven, "get out!"

Behind her, the safety room walls are swiftly replaced by those of a cavern; she gazes around on the verge of panic.

"There is no stopping what is about to happen."

Now she floats in midair above a sea of flames in this underground space. Just below her is a small, hovering slab of rock, and we see others in the inferno and those two pairs of red eyes in the background.

"This is the reason I sired you. You were born so I could rule the Earth."

Raven stands and turns to face the wall, "what if I don't let you? What if I don't become the portal?"

"It is not your place to tell me what to do!"

The four eyes become a burning sphere that swiftly expands to fill half the cavern; they then reappear within its hideous light.

"I am the one with all the power! I am the one who decides your destiny! You do not have a choice!"

Raven backs up a bit and throws a wide black beam across the chamber. The eyes and spherical incinerator have disappeared, but now a towering silhouette has appeared among the flames. Her shot is stopped by a force field around the shape, whose words are spoken in that awful, grating voice. Trigon's body matches the shadow that fell over her in the safety room.

Trigon, "you will always be Daddy's little girl."

Raven, "I am nothing like you!"

Her eyes go red and double up to match his own-and, realizing that this anger is about to tip her over into his control, she cries out and claps both hands to her face. Her sudden retreat is met with the steady falls of his cloven-hoofed feet as he crosses the cavern. The air now shimmers from the extreme heat of the blazes on all sides.

Trigon, "you wanted to protect your friends, keep them from knowing. Even that foolish boy toy of yours."

Raven touches down amid the fires.

Trigon, "but you cannot deny the evil within you. You will bring destruction to everything and everyone."

He stops so that one of his clawed hands is seen. Now we see a head-on view of the pair; Raven in front with her head bowed, Trigon is behind her with all four eyes glowing.

Trigon, "like father, like daughter."

She lifts her head.

Raven, "no!"

Trigon, "you cannot hide from your destiny."

Just as quickly as this nightmare scene began, it ends in the safety room. The camera is positioned behind Raven, still in mediation but with head bowed, and we look back into the observation booth. All of the other Titans watch intently.

Starfire, "Trigon has contacted her! We must assist!"

Sarah, "yeah! She's in trouble!"

Dick, "she's safest if she stays in there."

Vic, "he's right."

An alarm is heard.

Rose, "crap, we've got company."

The warning is coming from the panel nearest to her, which displays the word "ALERT" and shows a radar screen on which many blips are closing in fast.

….

We see Slade's smoking steel boots as they step onto the shore of the Tower's island. We see the rest of him. He regards the structure silently and is greeted with the sight of a broad column of blinding white light that shoots skyward from the center of its roof. A look to this level shows Dick, Bryan, Rose, Kom', Jack, Changeling, Vic, and Starfire ready for a little action. Sarah was back with Percy and Silkie. She's been told to hide in the basement if things went south.

Without a word, they go over the edge one by one, Changeling becoming a falcon on the fly.

Dick, "Slade."

He is joined by the others in a twinkling as he pulls out his two short fighting staffs. Jack's eyes glowed blue as he works his staff and summons several fire balls. Bryan, Rose, Kom', Vic and Starfire ready their respective weapons, while Changeling resumes human form.

Dick, "we're ready for you!"

Slade, "give me the girl."

Jack, "no way! We aren't letting you take Raven!"

Slade, "you don't really have a choice in the matter. I'm taking her."

Changeling, "oh, yeah? You and what army?

It takes only an instant for the unearthly forces to emerge from the ground. We see just how badly hemmed in and outnumbered our heroes truly are.

Changeling lets off a shrill, terrified scream as Vic leans in next to him.

Vic, "you just had to ask, didn't you?"

Rose leans in, "I'm wondering if he even has a brain in there."

Changeling, "hey!"

Slade closes his raised hand into a fist, "attack!"

All but Dick and Jack scatter before the troops' advance.

They leap straight up out of the crowd and angle themselves toward Slade, delivering one crushing blow after another with their staffs. The enemy leader is driven backward by this pounding, but somehow manages to stay on his feet and does not move. Jack throws Slade into the air with a gust of wind as Bryan runs over and shoots as many lasers as he can at Slade before he hits the ground.

Dick charges in for a final kick. This hit bends Slade at the knees, so that his arms and upper body are parallel to the ground, but steadily, impossibly, he straightens up and leans into Dick's face.

The field marshal's eye pops wide open an instant before he projects a huge blast of fire and scores a point-blank bullseye, hurling Dick far over the blazing warriors.

Bryan is next on the offensive, running at Slade with a yell as he starts punching him in the face over and again!

Bryan, "you no good, evil, brainwashing, manipulating, undead, son of a-"

Bryan is punched in the gut and sent flying back to the others.

Jack yells as he slams the end of his staff into the ground. Pillars of Earth wrap around Slade's arms and legs as several beams of ice and fire hit Slade from all ends! Jack races forward as the elements cease for a moment and starts punching Slade over and over! Slade manages to punch Jack back, and the two quickly begin fist fighting. Jack seems to have a lot better skill, even managing to drive Slade back for a moment, but then, Slade runs forward too fast for Jack to comprehend and punches him in the stomach, sending him flying back and the staff flying into Slade's grasp!

Jack groans as he slowly sits up to see Slade holding the staff in both hands.

Slade, "didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with such things?"

Slade lifts the staff up high, intending to break it!

Jack goes wide-eyed, before it turns into a fierce glare.

As Slade moves the staff to break it over his knee, the magical object is suddenly ripped from his grasp!

Slade, "what the-?!"

The staff sails into Jack's outstretched hand.

Jack looked down at the staff in shock! He…. Had called it to himself?!

Jack slowly glared at Slade again.

Jack, "I WON'T LET YOU WIN! I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HER FROM US! I WILL NOT LOSE HER!"

The Earth around Jack begins to move toward him. Water snakes around the enemy and towards Jack. Fire begins to form around his eyes.

Jack, "I AM ZIVEL! MASTER OF ELEMENTS! DOER OF GOOD! TITAN! AND I WILL NOT LET YOU WIN!"

The elements surround Jack, taking on a monstrous form similar to that of a Rancor from Star Wars.

The elemental beast roared as it shot a plume of fire from his mouth. It hit Slade head on, but he was only sent back several feet before he started staggering back towards Jack.

The elemental beast snarled as it started shooting lightning out of its eyes! Slade was electrocuted for a moment before being thrown high into the air by a gust of wind! The elemental beast jumps up and slams two large boulders into Slade before slamming him back down to the ground in a huge wave of water! As the elemental beast landed, it approached the crater it had slammed Slade into…. But even all that couldn't stop him! Slade emerged from the crater, roaring in rage as he lunged forward! He crashed through the chest of the beast, making it fall apart around Slade and Jack as the former punched the latter several times before kicking him hard enough to send him flying over Starfire and Kom' as they fought off Slade's forces.

As Dick tries to get up, one of those feral skulls leans in too close for comfort; Dick the gives a few swift blows. He gets back on his feet, with one staff in hand and several stricken enemies evaporating around him. A jet of fire drills him in the gut and is immediately followed by the one that cast it, whereupon several others charge in to lend a hand.

Now starbolts pepper the area, filling it with smoke that clears to show Kom' and Starfire. Their furious eyes burn so brightly that they almost appear white rather than green and purple; we see them standing in Dick's place at the center of the mob. As a few move to close the gap left by the previous melee, they both generate a basketball-sized sphere of energy between their hands and raise them high while backing up into the air. The balls grow to many times their original size and are then slammed to the ground. There follows a blinding explosion, which throws the foes in all directions and clears to leave only Starfire and Kom' in the area.

They have no time to celebrate, however, as a couple of those tapering arms punch up through the ground to snare them.

Rose is slicing through as many of these demonic creatures as she can as she backs up to Bryan, who is peppering the monsters with holes as Jack jumps in and begins freezing and smashing them with ease! Jack sent a huge tidal wave to crash into a large number of the fiery monsters!

Changeling is on the move, turning into the huge creature he became when he changed his hero name while descending from a huge jump. Savage swipes of his massive clawed hands rip two of the fire demons apart, after which he races forward.

A blazing lash snakes forward, and we then see Changeling knocked high and away to smash through the Tower's living room window. We look down quickly to the front door, toward which another phalanx charges only to be stopped by an overhead blast from Vic's cannon. This slices across the ground and is followed by a terrific explosion from the line it traced out; as the glare and smoke dissipate, he leaps down into view, boiling mad.

Vic, "no one's getting in here!"

The circuit panel on his left forearm slides open and a black button marked with a lightning bolt pops out. It has barely reached its full extension before the other fist slams down on it. In response, two cables pop out from hidden ports on one side of Tower's base and anchor themselves to freshly exposed connections on his back. The same thing happens with two more cables on the other side of the building, after which a large circular panel at the center of his spine pops out to reveal itself as a huge battery; his power cell.

One shoulder pops open to reveal a set of gun muzzles, then we see the rest of him. Chest panel and the other shoulder reconfigure themselves in the same way, the eye implant becomes a targeting scope, and something emerges from the spot where his left shoulder and neck meet. It is a bazooka-like weapon roughly the size of the main gun on an Abrams tank, and it locks into place, pointing straight ahead.

First the left arm, then the right, undergoes a dramatic rearrangement as well, turning into a cannon from whose muzzle a long support rod extends straight ahead. Semicircular rings pop out to frame the cylinder of space immediately ahead of the weapon, which flares up like the ignition/pilot light of a flamethrower. We see the Tower's top floor and look down as all the lights wink out, the power diverted to this truly fearsome new defense system; sparks crackle between the two raised arm blasters and the ground shakes.

We see Vic's perspective of Slade standing amid a group of his minions, with a few readouts and a picture of the target around the edges of his view. The sights zero in on him, "LOCKED" flashes below them, and we look back to the walking military stockpile. Both arms fire at once, releasing a double blast that sweeps the entire island, blowing away all the shock troops and whiting out the area for a moment. We look at Slade; his eye widens in surprise.

We see a patch of smoke, which clears to show Vic's hand coming down to support his weight. The refit has reversed itself, and a power gauge on the forearm panel shows his reserves to be nearly drained. A weak groan from him is followed by a look of the area; the other defenders have gathered in front of the Tower, whose lights are back on. Changeling has resumed human form, and Vic looks ready to faint. Another look at the combat zone shows the smoke from his cataclysmic assault slowly clearing; the fire creatures have been dispersed, but Slade is still on his feet and smoking profusely.

We see that his head has been knocked askew; he straightens it up, popping the vertebrae back into place, and each Titan can only stare in mind-knotting disbelief.

Rose, "how the heck is he still standing?!"

The burning apparitions emerge from the ground, having dived for cover beneath it.

….

We see within the Tower. We move swiftly along a passage, down a flight of stairs, into the entrance hall toward the door, and then we see Raven sprawled on the floor of the safety room. She is unconscious, but her face shows her very much aware and displaying all four red eyes.

…..

She and Trigon are in the smoking cavern where they faced off earlier.

Trigon, "your friends cannot stop the inevitable."

Raven pulls back and stares into the total darkness, within which his eyes open.

Trigon, "they are doomed."

Trigon slides a hand beneath her feet and scoops her up.

Trigon, "do you really want their last day to end like this? How can you bear to watch them suffer? Especially…. Your beloved?"

Raven drops her head, "don't hurt them."

Trigon, "I am not the one hurting them. You are. You know what must be done."

Raven lifts her head, "but, Father…. I don't want to."

Trigon lowers Raven, "you cannot hide from your destiny."

The hand curls into a fist.

…..

We see a fire demon, which recedes to expose a host of reinforcements and Vic on the warpath outside the Tower. He punches his attacker away and throws another for distance as Changeling, now a T-rex, dives into the crowd. The next one blindsides the big man with a flying tackle; others close in on the besieged dinosaur, but a salvo of starbolts marks the arrival of two very angry Tamaraneans. They follow these up with eye blasts that slice through the ranks and past Dick, Jack, Rose and Slade, who are facing off at a short distance from this free-for-all.

The four spar briefly before Rose puts a flying kick into Slade's solar plexus; the latter staggers for a moment and then finds his footing. A second kick is interrupted when both armored hands wrap around Rose's ankle and slams her face first into Dick and the ground.

Elsewhere, the warriors have gotten the best of the other Titans; Changeling is back in human form. Slade does likewise with Rose and Dick, knocking them across the way so that they can be seized easily.

Jack engulfs his hand in spiked ice and punches Slade in the stomach, actually managing to draw blood before he is grabbed and thrown over to the others.

They and the others struggle vainly against the creatures' inflexible grip as the commander moves in.

Slade, "do you really want to spend your last day on Earth fighting?"

Dick, "this is not my last day!"

Slade ignites one hand.

Raven, "STOP!"

The hand flames out and all the captives are set carefully on the ground. They look around; we see their perspective of the rows of suddenly, motionless attackers, with the Tower behind them. A way is quickly cleared to expose Raven behind the group.

Vic, "Raven?"

Jack, "no, no, no…. What is she doing?!"

Raven floats forward; she lands before Slade. Her eyes open; the usual number and color.

Raven, "I will go with you."

Dick inserts himself between the two.

Dick, "we won't let them take you!"

Jack joins Dick.

Jack, "please! There has to be another way!"

Starfire, "you need to get back in the safety room!"

Kom', "please!"

Raven, "I can't hide from my destiny any longer."

She closes her eyes.

Changeling, "no!"

Bryan, "you don't have to do this!"

The girl at the center of it all suddenly whirls to face them and raises one crackling hand, dragging the other Titans screaming off their feet and pushing them slowly away. One by one, they are lowered unconscious to the ground.

Raven, "goodbye. Be safe."

She walks back to Slade.

Raven, "let's go…."

The flaming warriors part to allow them passage away from the fallen Titans….

….

We see the mysteriously eclipsed sun in the night sky. We look down to a patch of wall on a building in Jump City. Trigon's mark is inscribed in red above its door, marking this as the library the Titans investigated.

We see the wide circular shaft deep below it, going down it slowly so that the spiral staircase snaking down the wall seems to rotate.

We then see Raven and Slade walking along a passage with a high-temperature escort.

Slade, "the chamber has been prepared for you. Everything is ready for Trigon's ascent."

Raven, "you're a fool. Whatever he promised, he won't deliver."

Slade, "dear child, you don't know what you're talking about."

Raven, "you think I don't know my own father?"

Slade, "you are merely the portal; an insignificant pawn in Trigon's game."

Raven, "then I guess we have that in common. And once he gets what he wants, you'll be insignificant, too."

This brings Slade up short.

Slade warms up his hands, "shut your mouth!"

He is yanked back by a fiery arm around his neck and caught up, all four limbs.

Slade, "get off me! Do as I command!"

He is lowered to the floor but still held fast, and Raven steps up so that only the side of her cloak is visible. One creature pulls his head up to look her in the face.

Raven, "come to think of it, Slade…. You're already insignificant. Even your own army won't listen to you."

She opens four red eyes. Slade struggles to get out of said army's grip, but to no avail.

Raven, "leave him."

As she proceeds along the passage, the guards follow her order; Slade is left to stare at the departing group with disbelief and a bit of rage.

….

We see the Tower, the blocked sun hanging low in the sky, then look to the knocked-out Titans in the dirt near it. They come to.

Dick, "Raven…."

Kom', "ugh, they're all gone…."

Vic groans, cracking his neck, "she really packs a wallop."

Bryan, "remind me never to make fun of her ever again."

Changeling, "dude, we were only trying to help her."

Rose, "but it might not have been enough."

Starfire, "I fear it is too late to assist her."

Dick, "it's never too late."

We see Vic's forearm panel, which shows a scrolling map of Jump City and a group of dots on the move.

Vic, "she's making her way back to the old library."

Jack grabs his staff firmly and says, "let's go save her from that one eyed freak of nature…."

Dick nods, "let's go."

"Not without me!"

The group turns to see Sarah emerging from the tower…. Wearing Vic's armor and wielding his sword?

Vic, "Sarah? What-"

Sarah, "I raided your room a bit. Now don't get the wrong idea, I'm not becoming a full time hero. I enjoy my work as a teacher. But our friend is in trouble. So I thought I should make my ancestors proud and help you guys for a mission just this once."

Vic smiled at his girlfriend. Even if it was temporary, her help was greatly appreciated.

The group then set off.

As they did, Bryan asked, "wait, where are Silkie and Percy?"

Sarah, "I left them in Terra's cavern…."

….

Percy and Silkie were actually playing cards in front of Terra's memorial….

….

We see Trigon's cavern, that is, the one in which Slade has addressed the demon. Flames lick up from the lava river in front of the manservant.

Slade, "the portal approaches. The hour is near. It's time for my payment."

The four eyes gaze down at him and widen.

"Payment? For what? The gem returns of her own free will. You did not deliver her. I did."

Slade, "we had a deal. I held up my part of the bargain."

He gets no response but a bit of derisive laughter. We see Slade's eye, now good and sore at having been royally had, he backs up and hurls a mighty fireball up at the wall toward Trigon's eyes. It bursts harmlessly against the rock face, as do the others that follow it.

"I granted you these powers, and I can take them away!"

Hands of fire reach down toward the belligerent lackey and levitate him clear of his perch. Now his entire body is wreathed in flames and pulled in a sudden sheet, and the brand he has worn on his forehead disappears. The eye behind the mask pops wider than ever before as he lets off one long yell of pure agony. Finally, he disappears into the sheet of flame, which snaps like a giant rubber band.

We now see the round skylight. The eclipsed sun is partly visible as Raven moves into the chamber; she is gazing upward with quiet stoicism at its growing shadow. After a moment, she brings her right hand out from underneath her cloak and glances at something in the palm, revealed as the penny Changeling gave her in the safety room. Her fingers close around it.

Raven, "it is time."

She is at the base of the stone hand pillar, and Slade's fiery minions are ranged all around it.

Raven, "the prophecy shall be fulfilled."

The black sun slowly recedes. She steps solemnly ahead but stops short when a fracas breaks out in the ranks. The shots that ring out give away the other Titans' presence; here they come, Changeling flying as a falcon, but are stopped cold when the creatures form a tidal wave of flame and pin them down.

Dick, "Raven!"

Jack, "get away from her! Raven!"

Raven spins on her heel and clears the chamber with the sweep of one hand. Changeling is back in human form, and he and the others cross the floor toward her.

Raven, "it has already begun", her hood is up; she lowers it, "and there's no stopping what is meant to be."

Dick, "you're willing to give up on everything, all because of some prophecy you heard as a child?"

Raven has closed her eyes and lowered her face in resignation.

Dick, "what if it's wrong?"

Raven, "Dick…. Jack…. I know what I know."

Before Dick can speak, Jack says, "I don't accept that. You can take control. You can make it not happen. You have a choice."

Raven, "I've known my whole life that this day was going to come. I tried to control the dark side of me. I tried to do good things, to fight evil, and hoped that would somehow make up for the horrible thing I'm destined to do."

Dick, "but no one knows their destiny. There are things you can't possibly know."

Raven, "there are some things I didn't know, like how I would make such wonderful friends. All I wanted was to make your last day perfect. Instead, you spent it worrying about me."

Dick and Jack step forward; they grasp her hands and lift them.

Dick, "that's what friends do."

Jack, "Raven…. Please…. I wanna-"

She lets go and backs up.

Raven, "and as my friends, you have to let me go."

Raven conjures up a barricade between herself and them; it stretches across a wide arc of the chamber to seal them out completely. We see her side, through which the observers are visible only as white-outlined black forms. Jack charges up and pounds on the shield without effect.

We look to the other side. Now Raven is the one in black and white; she gives them a last look, then turns back to the pillar and puts her hood up.

Her side again. The stones in her path quiver slightly at her approach and rise from the floor as columns to form a staircase leading up to the hand sculpture.

The Titans' side; Dick tries to kick his way through her barricade, Starfire tries an eye blast, as does Kom'. Rose slashes at the barricade, Bryan shoots at it, and Vic slams both bionic fists into it, not even a crack.

Jack, "Raven! Please!"

Raven's side; the columns keep rising from the floor, just in time to keep her from tumbling over the edge of these steps.

The back-and-forth cuts continue. Starfire tries to pummel the wall into submission, then uses her eye blast again before Vic brings his cannon into play and Dick assaults it with every martial-arts move he knows as Jack fires every single element at it, managing only a single tiny crack. Sarah grabs her sword and slashes at the barricade. Raven has nearly made it up to the gigantic hand. Changeling becomes a T-rex for the third time and thunders toward the shield, only to bash into it and stop dead. Raven steps onto the palm and sits cross-legged in midair.

Raven, "the gem was born of evil's fire. The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim", she raises her head, eyes blazing white, "he comes to sire. The end of all things mortal."

Recall that this is the prophecy spoken by the ancient spirits during the Titans' investigation. The red inscriptions appear all over her body, and one set of fingers is curled into a set of bullhorns.

Back to the Titans' side.

Dick bangs on the shield, "no!"

Jack cries, "RAVEN! NOOOO!"

Above the hand, Raven breaks her pose and lets off a long yell as all the runes fly off her skin to form three spinning circles, above her head, around her waist, below her feet, and her hood flips down.

The Titans' side.

Starfire, "Raven!"

Kom', "nonono!"

Sobbing, Starfire turns away and ends up cradled in Dick's arms. Changeling has resumed human form. Sarah gasps. Bryan holds Rose as she cries from her one eye. Jack is crying the hardest, yelling as he keeps fruitlessly bashing his ice covered fists against the barricade. High overhead, Raven floats in her motionless spread-eagle, the ancient characters still whirling around her. A brilliant blue-white light gathers at her midsection and begins to grow. Raven, feeling the dark energy surge in her midsection, groans with discomfort and fear as she closes her eyes as tight as they will go and gritting her teeth. Raven finally succumbs to her fate as she lets out a primal scream as the flare spreads upward, enveloping her head. The last we see of her is the clenched right fist, which opens to drop her penny.

We see the falling coin, turning slowly to show first heads and then tails as it clinks onto the base of the pillar.

The incredible spectacle continues above the rock palm, giving the impression of a ball being tossed into the air by a gigantic petrified child. After some moments, the upper and lower circles of runes slide to the middle and the whole thing shrinks down to a single point; this promptly explodes into a swirling disc of unholy radiation with flames at its rim. This expands to fill the area, after which we look back to the Titans' side. All shield their eyes from the unbearable glare; back to the column, where the pyrotechnics continue to spread across the ceiling of the chamber and finally bear down, shattering the pillar into a mass of fragments.

The demolition work wraps up as the shield Raven erected finally collapses. Now that disk of awful light spreads out across the floor, streaks of red and orange flame swirling like the devil's own peppermint candy, and the whole lot starts to go red and black. The Titans can only watch, frozen with fear, as the lines of flame that lash across just in front of them, and at the blinding white heart of the maelstrom, a black silhouette begins to emerge. The antlers and four red eyes instantly mark it as Trigon even before any other features can be seen, and within moments, Raven's father has stood up in full view. He looks hugely muscled, red skin with black stripes, loincloth, flowing white hair, steel wristbands. He sports the antlers seen on his silhouette. The brooch at his throat is no longer there. Instead of a jeweled belt, he wears a broad steel piece over the lower chest that matches his wristbands.

Trigon, "the Earth is mine!"

The Titans brace for anything and everything as his gargantuan shadow falls over them….

….

To be Continued….

….

Reviews:

raven 2012: the plan is for Jack, Nightwing, Bryan and Rose go to rescue Raven while the others all face their evil selves. But I'm very glad you enjoyed this first part.

Canadude2029: yeah, I've been so excited to get to this arc! The Titans are gonna have their work cut out for them. And as for your guess…. :)

Bailey Radcliff: I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter so much. And as for your guess…. 8). And I'm glad your nephew had a good birthday.

pokemonking0924: yeah. I felt so bad for Raven during this arc. She's a good friend. And your guess on what Jack wants to ask Raven is most likely correct…. Glad you like this chapter.

GreenD109: indeed. And yeah, I went all out with the fight scenes in this chapter.

3bodyjaa: thanks.

….

Next weekend, Part 3 and 4….

And just to clarify: no, Sarah isn't joining the team. She's only helping them to stop Trigon. After that, she's gonna go back to being a normal teacher.

And just a heads up, please vote on my current Ben 10 poll if you haven't already. 26 people have voted. Hoping to get at least 30. Vote for 7 options when you do.

Once this poll is wrapped up, expect a poll for an upcoming Borderlands story….