15+ advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::-------------------------------------------::
(General P.O.V)
Powergirl's thoughts were in disarray as she flew through the dreary air of the Phantom Zone.
The rock islands passed by in a blur, her trajectory taking her nowhere in particular.
The inmates within this infinite prison, most of them powerful aliens from distant worlds, scurried away in fear upon spotting her.
Whether it was her intimidating and unfriendly aura, or the fact she possessed a strong enough will to fly within the atmosphere of the Phantom Zone without fear, they avoided her like the plague.
She paid them no mind, too deep into her thoughts.
Finally she touched down on a particularly small floating rock and sat on the edge, in a sour mood, hands wrapped around her knees.
She had lost everything and everyone. Her family on Krypton, her friends on earth...Kal.
That last one stung the most. She was supposed to be the one to protect him but she had failed. Spectacularly so.
Not only had she been late to get to him, he was already a man by the time she got to Earth. On top of that, she found out he was the World's greatest superhero.
Little Kal no longer needed her protection.
But then he'd died. They had all died. Her second home, torn apart by Darkseid and his armies.
Kal had saved her rather than let her suffer his fate. For the second time in her life, she had been useless, forced to be rescued like a damsel in distress.
Her shoulders shook as she broke down, the weight of her sorrow proving too much to bear.
She wiped away the tears falling down her cheeks angrily, detesting the vulnerability. She wasn't the same weak Kara from before.
She was powerful. And she had a target for her hatred and righteous vengeance, Darkseid. Her face twisted into a cruel expression as she imagined what she was going to do to him once she got out of-
Whooosh!
A wave of dust and air passed by her, pushing her short hair onto her face and ruffling the cape on her back.
Following the pressure wave, a hush fell across Limbo as a heavy presence was felt by every inhabitant within.
Shivers crawled up Powergirl's spine as her survival instincts screamed at her to run. To escape.
The space around her begun to tremble.
The unchanging atmosphere of the Phantom Zone underwent a massive shift. The sky, as gray and inert as the rest of the surroundings suddenly rumbled with streaks of lightning flashing across the heavens.
Powergirl got to her feet quickly, hands tightened into fists as she vigilantly watched her surroundings.
Was it an attack? No, there wasn't anyone else around her. Her senses were on high alert, she would have spotted them right away.
Light erupted miles away from her position.
Krakooooom!!
Following the light, thunder cracked, a massive pillar of lightning falling down from the sky, surprising her by its sheer size and power.
Powergirl squeezed her eyes shut as the vortex of energy overhead grew in intensity.
Then hundreds of more jagged streaks landed relatively close to where she had left the other two.
It was if the entire realm was furious at something and sought to completely obliterate it from existence.
The lightning shower went on for a few seconds, before everything calmed down.
"Could those two be responsible for that light show?"
Powergirl wondered to herself as her mind went to her savior, Davian and that distrustful magician.
She floated up, reorienting her body before shooting through the air back the way she had come. It didn't matter if they were, she only hoped they were okay.
Even without considering that she owed Davian, those two were also her only way out of this place.
(Elsewhere)
Raven and Grail had managed to get captured the second they were inside the Apokaliptian vessel.
Which was a part of the plan.
What wasn't a part of the plan, however, was them being separated.
Grail had been taken elsewhere while Raven was led to where she hoped the rest of her team was.
The Para-demons escorting her had restrained her hands with Compliance cuffs.(one of Granny Goodnesses favorite toys).
The high tech cuffs sent waves of agony through her body whenever she thought of doing something violent like attacking the Para-demons.
After many winding hallways, she found herself being pushed through a wide chamber.
And within it, her teammates were held inside glass incubators constructed along the walls, all of them passed out. Thankfully they didn't look injured.
Beastboy was in his human form on the far right, then Jaime Reyes(Blue Beetle), Robin, starfire and Nightwing in pajamas on the far left.
"Guys!"
Raven yelled in concern, trying to push past the Para-demons only for the creatures to growl, wrenching her back painfully.
Raven's eyes glowed, angrily turning towards the creatures.
"Why you- aarrghhh!!!""
Her body was suddenly raked with torment as the Compliance Cuffs sought to punish her for her violence thoughts.
Raven jerked on the floor, groaning in pain as she was hoisted up roughly and carried into an empty incubator.
"Hold on, everyone," she silently said to herself, "I have a plan."
With that, she allowed herself to be lowered into the glass incubator.
Inside, her wrists and ankles were promptly bound by restraints.
The Para-demons back away. Now that all the Teen Titans were in place, they could initiate the next step.
*******
(Main Deck.)
Desaad was standing before a huge screen, when the Father Box interfaced with the Spaceship's systems let out a series of beeps.
"Perfect. The Teen Titans will make excellent Para-demon samples."
The New God smiled at the accomplishment. Everything was going according to plan.
Now to wait for 'her'.
********
(With Raven)
Ignoring the lingering pain flaring across her nerve endings, she closed her eyes and focused, delving deep into the new facet of her abilities, one that she had been taught recently by her new friend.
Though in actuality, Davian exuded more of a big brother type of energy.
She still didn't know what to think of the fact that he'd been close to her dead parallel version but so far, he hadn't treated her like a replacement to cope with her loss.
Infact he'd helped her grow stronger.
With his assistance, she had discovered some of the abilities that her parallel self had developed.
One of the most useful ones being, Astral Projection.
"The soul is immaterial and unbound. It has no distinct shape, color, size or smell. It can be anything. It's potential is limitless. Focus...find the tether and then snap it."
She could hear his words echo in the depths of her memories.
And with an exhale, she followed his instructions and unravelled the tether holding her soul imprisoned within it's mortal coil.
Her astral form separated from her physical body and passed through the glass of the incubator easily.
Her body slumped inside the glass capsule.
She spared a glance at it, before focusing on the plan. She levitated towards one of her teammates, unseen and unheard by the Para-demons standing guard within the chamber, minutes away from beginning the process of turning the Titans into Para-demons.
Not that that would happen, seeing as she was going to stop it.
Floating through the air, she stopped before an unconscious Jaime.
Then she reached out with her hands, phasing through the glass to place them on the sides of his head.
She closed her eyes, imagining strands of mental and soul feelers moving from her fingers and into Jaime's mind.
Her consciousness brushed against two consciousnesses. One of them Jaime's and the other, the Scarab.
(Threat Detected. Engaging defensive protocol.)
The latter reacted violently. The Scarab's base program was always set to stop any and all efforts at removing the connection it had with it's host.
And it had felt a touch on their link.
Blue energy crackled around the Scarab, and with a powerful burst of energy, it shattered the restraints that held Jaime Reyes captive.
The Reach Technology flowed around Jaime, enclosing him within his signature, blue and black armor.
The Para-demons in the chamber were taken aback, their attention momentarily diverted by the unexpected display of power.
Blue Beetle took a single second to take stock of his surroundings. His eyes sweeping around the room, past the Para-demons before landing on his bound teammates.
The eye lens of his armor narrowed.
"Scarab, engage all offensive measures. It's time to kick ass. Power mode."
"Confirmed."
The Scarab answered, deploying it's pincers, arm cannons, wrist missiles and shoulder guns.
Blue Beetle's size increased as well. Power Mode was a state that enhanced the Scarab's offensive capabilities.
He was ready. Even as the Para-demons closed in on him, he was prepared to rescue his teammates.
"Hold on guys, I'll be right with you."
(Main Deck)
Grail's face was impassive as they led her through the entrance and into the main deck of the Spaceship.
Desaad had his back to her, watching the huge screen before him that was displaying the ongoing battle between Apokaliptian forces and the Earthlings.
The Para-demon next to Darkseid's daughter shoved her forward roughly.
Grail reacted violently, jumping at it with a snarl, sinking her teeth through the flesh of it's neck and then tearing out a chunk and spitting it to the floor.
Grinning with bloodied lips, she exerted strength in her hands and shattered the cuffs restraining her wrists.
The other Para-demon pointed it's weapon at her, only for twin scarlet beams to escape her eyes and zig zag around the room, coming close to landing on Desaad before they curved around the New God and turned the Para-demon to ashes.
"So, Darkseid's daughter."
Desaad said from his position, seemingly un-bothered by how close he'd come to dying.
"As far as first impressions go...that was terrible."
He added, turning around to face her.
Grail cracked her knuckles, advancing forward as she replied,
"Oh and it's about to get even worse."
(Davian's P.O.V)
I opened my eyes.
Huh?
"Chase, why is your face uncomfortably close to me?"
I asked my Zanpakuto spirit.
The purple furred feline blinked.
"Did you feel the change?"
He asked. Then before I could answer, he smoothly backed away while regarding me.
"Mmmh, strange."
He seemed to decide, giving me an Once-over.
"What are you-whoa..."
I was rendered speechless as I got a full view of my inner world.
It was different now. Very very different.
For starters and maybe most notably, a massive sun hang above us, providing light onto the lonely and desolate landscape I had gotten used to.
I got to my feet unsteadily, somehow I felt light. Too light, as if I could drift away into...
I could breath.
"Chase, is that actual wind?"
I asked my Zanpakuto spirit, perching on his usual spot, a branch belonging to the dried tree that we had first met at.
But- the dried branch had a leaf now.
Just one.
But it was green. And there was no green in my inner world.
I started to look around. Among the dried grass on the ground, a few green shoots could be seen, penetrating through the blackened soil.
Vines crawled up the gravestones. Their green stalks glowing with...
I took a knee before one gravestone, touching it's surface and the vines coiling around it.
"Is this energy... life-force?"
I turned and asked Chase, who had closely been watching my expression as I had studied the changes in my inner world.
"Yes. So you see it then?"
He questioned, uncharacteristically irritated.
I blinked and he popped up above the gravestone, his claws scratching the stone and leaving long lines that seemed to be healed up instantly.
"That thing up there. The sun."
He began.
"It just appeared out of nowhere the second you were done with the Sin's trials. And it's been producing loads of vitality."
My lips parted in surprise as I caught onto what he was trying to say.
"Vitality that is being absorbed by the graveyard."
I said in realization, looking around.
"Exactly!"
Chase added loudly.
"I don't understand it! The physical and spiritual are separate! That is an immutable fact!"
He fleeted around, popping up on another Gravestone to my right.
"It's almost as if your body is actively trying to reinforce your soul by sending lifeforce through your Spirit channels into your saketsu!"
He exclaimed with wonder.
"Wait, that would mean, Chase are you telling me I can give life to the dead?"
The words left my lips in a jumbled mess.
Yet no matter how preposterous it sounded, it felt...true. A truth I knew instinctively.
He blinked at me, stunned.
"I wouldn't go that far but- you understand what this means..."
I looked down at my body, only now noticing that I could feel it. My physical self. I had substance in a world without substance.
This had to be due to the challenges I'd just undergone.
The sins abilities, the trials. If there ever existed a bridge between the spiritual and the physical, then it would be them.
The Cardinal sins. Demons that used physical wants and needs to corrupt the core, the soul.
And by winning their trials and absorbing their essence, I had achieved something amazing.
A fusion of Spirit Energy and Physical Energy. The very thing I'd been looking for.
"No, I not only understand, Chase."
I told my Zanpakuto spirit, my inner world pulsing at the beat of my heart.
"I can feel it. I've bridged the difference Chase."
I ascended to the sky, light pouring out of me and into the atmosphere of my inner world, permeating the soil and giving life to death.
A sea of green begun to erupt around me as life was seeded across my dimension, pushing on death, not out of spite but out of necessity. The first step towards balance.
The first step towards healing.
"Whatever power I now possess, I am no longer just Death."
I declared,
"I am Life as well."
15+ advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::-------------------------------------------::
(General P.O.V)
Powergirl's thoughts were in disarray as she flew through the dreary air of the Phantom Zone.
The rock islands passed by in a blur, her trajectory taking her nowhere in particular.
The inmates within this infinite prison, most of them powerful aliens from distant worlds, scurried away in fear upon spotting her.
Whether it was her intimidating and unfriendly aura, or the fact she possessed a strong enough will to fly within the atmosphere of the Phantom Zone without fear, they avoided her like the plague.
She paid them no mind, too deep into her thoughts.
Finally she touched down on a particularly small floating rock and sat on the edge, in a sour mood, hands wrapped around her knees.
She had lost everything and everyone. Her family on Krypton, her friends on earth...Kal.
That last one stung the most. She was supposed to be the one to protect him but she had failed. Spectacularly so.
Not only had she been late to get to him, he was already a man by the time she got to Earth. On top of that, she found out he was the World's greatest superhero.
Little Kal no longer needed her protection.
But then he'd died. They had all died. Her second home, torn apart by Darkseid and his armies.
Kal had saved her rather than let her suffer his fate. For the second time in her life, she had been useless, forced to be rescued like a damsel in distress.
Her shoulders shook as she broke down, the weight of her sorrow proving too much to bear.
She wiped away the tears falling down her cheeks angrily, detesting the vulnerability. She wasn't the same weak Kara from before.
She was powerful. And she had a target for her hatred and righteous vengeance, Darkseid. Her face twisted into a cruel expression as she imagined what she was going to do to him once she got out of-
Whooosh!
A wave of dust and air passed by her, pushing her short hair onto her face and ruffling the cape on her back.
Following the pressure wave, a hush fell across Limbo as a heavy presence was felt by every inhabitant within.
Shivers crawled up Powergirl's spine as her survival instincts screamed at her to run. To escape.
The space around her begun to tremble.
The unchanging atmosphere of the Phantom Zone underwent a massive shift. The sky, as gray and inert as the rest of the surroundings suddenly rumbled with streaks of lightning flashing across the heavens.
Powergirl got to her feet quickly, hands tightened into fists as she vigilantly watched her surroundings.
Was it an attack? No, there wasn't anyone else around her. Her senses were on high alert, she would have spotted them right away.
Light erupted miles away from her position.
Krakooooom!!
Following the light, thunder cracked, a massive pillar of lightning falling down from the sky, surprising her by its sheer size and power.
Powergirl squeezed her eyes shut as the vortex of energy overhead grew in intensity.
Then hundreds of more jagged streaks landed relatively close to where she had left the other two.
It was if the entire realm was furious at something and sought to completely obliterate it from existence.
The lightning shower went on for a few seconds, before everything calmed down.
"Could those two be responsible for that light show?"
Powergirl wondered to herself as her mind went to her savior, Davian and that distrustful magician.
She floated up, reorienting her body before shooting through the air back the way she had come. It didn't matter if they were, she only hoped they were okay.
Even without considering that she owed Davian, those two were also her only way out of this place.
(Elsewhere)
Raven and Grail had managed to get captured the second they were inside the Apokaliptian vessel.
Which was a part of the plan.
What wasn't a part of the plan, however, was them being separated.
Grail had been taken elsewhere while Raven was led to where she hoped the rest of her team was.
The Para-demons escorting her had restrained her hands with Compliance cuffs.(one of Granny Goodnesses favorite toys).
The high tech cuffs sent waves of agony through her body whenever she thought of doing something violent like attacking the Para-demons.
After many winding hallways, she found herself being pushed through a wide chamber.
And within it, her teammates were held inside glass incubators constructed along the walls, all of them passed out. Thankfully they didn't look injured.
Beastboy was in his human form on the far right, then Jaime Reyes(Blue Beetle), Robin, starfire and Nightwing in pajamas on the far left.
"Guys!"
Raven yelled in concern, trying to push past the Para-demons only for the creatures to growl, wrenching her back painfully.
Raven's eyes glowed, angrily turning towards the creatures.
"Why you- aarrghhh!!!""
Her body was suddenly raked with torment as the Compliance Cuffs sought to punish her for her violence thoughts.
Raven jerked on the floor, groaning in pain as she was hoisted up roughly and carried into an empty incubator.
"Hold on, everyone," she silently said to herself, "I have a plan."
With that, she allowed herself to be lowered into the glass incubator.
Inside, her wrists and ankles were promptly bound by restraints.
The Para-demons back away. Now that all the Teen Titans were in place, they could initiate the next step.
*******
(Main Deck.)
Desaad was standing before a huge screen, when the Father Box interfaced with the Spaceship's systems let out a series of beeps.
"Perfect. The Teen Titans will make excellent Para-demon samples."
The New God smiled at the accomplishment. Everything was going according to plan.
Now to wait for 'her'.
********
(With Raven)
Ignoring the lingering pain flaring across her nerve endings, she closed her eyes and focused, delving deep into the new facet of her abilities, one that she had been taught recently by her new friend.
Though in actuality, Davian exuded more of a big brother type of energy.
She still didn't know what to think of the fact that he'd been close to her dead parallel version but so far, he hadn't treated her like a replacement to cope with her loss.
Infact he'd helped her grow stronger.
With his assistance, she had discovered some of the abilities that her parallel self had developed.
One of the most useful ones being, Astral Projection.
"The soul is immaterial and unbound. It has no distinct shape, color, size or smell. It can be anything. It's potential is limitless. Focus...find the tether and then snap it."
She could hear his words echo in the depths of her memories.
And with an exhale, she followed his instructions and unravelled the tether holding her soul imprisoned within it's mortal coil.
Her astral form separated from her physical body and passed through the glass of the incubator easily.
Her body slumped inside the glass capsule.
She spared a glance at it, before focusing on the plan. She levitated towards one of her teammates, unseen and unheard by the Para-demons standing guard within the chamber, minutes away from beginning the process of turning the Titans into Para-demons.
Not that that would happen, seeing as she was going to stop it.
Floating through the air, she stopped before an unconscious Jaime.
Then she reached out with her hands, phasing through the glass to place them on the sides of his head.
She closed her eyes, imagining strands of mental and soul feelers moving from her fingers and into Jaime's mind.
Her consciousness brushed against two consciousnesses. One of them Jaime's and the other, the Scarab.
(Threat Detected. Engaging defensive protocol.)
The latter reacted violently. The Scarab's base program was always set to stop any and all efforts at removing the connection it had with it's host.
And it had felt a touch on their link.
Blue energy crackled around the Scarab, and with a powerful burst of energy, it shattered the restraints that held Jaime Reyes captive.
The Reach Technology flowed around Jaime, enclosing him within his signature, blue and black armor.
The Para-demons in the chamber were taken aback, their attention momentarily diverted by the unexpected display of power.
Blue Beetle took a single second to take stock of his surroundings. His eyes sweeping around the room, past the Para-demons before landing on his bound teammates.
The eye lens of his armor narrowed.
"Scarab, engage all offensive measures. It's time to kick ass. Power mode."
"Confirmed."
The Scarab answered, deploying it's pincers, arm cannons, wrist missiles and shoulder guns.
Blue Beetle's size increased as well. Power Mode was a state that enhanced the Scarab's offensive capabilities.
He was ready. Even as the Para-demons closed in on him, he was prepared to rescue his teammates.
"Hold on guys, I'll be right with you."
(Main Deck)
Grail's face was impassive as they led her through the entrance and into the main deck of the Spaceship.
Desaad had his back to her, watching the huge screen before him that was displaying the ongoing battle between Apokaliptian forces and the Earthlings.
The Para-demon next to Darkseid's daughter shoved her forward roughly.
Grail reacted violently, jumping at it with a snarl, sinking her teeth through the flesh of it's neck and then tearing out a chunk and spitting it to the floor.
Grinning with bloodied lips, she exerted strength in her hands and shattered the cuffs restraining her wrists.
The other Para-demon pointed it's weapon at her, only for twin scarlet beams to escape her eyes and zig zag around the room, coming close to landing on Desaad before they curved around the New God and turned the Para-demon to ashes.
"So, Darkseid's daughter."
Desaad said from his position, seemingly un-bothered by how close he'd come to dying.
"As far as first impressions go...that was terrible."
He added, turning around to face her.
Grail cracked her knuckles, advancing forward as she replied,
"Oh and it's about to get even worse."
(Davian's P.O.V)
I opened my eyes.
Huh?
"Chase, why is your face uncomfortably close to me?"
I asked my Zanpakuto spirit.
The purple furred feline blinked.
"Did you feel the change?"
He asked. Then before I could answer, he smoothly backed away while regarding me.
"Mmmh, strange."
He seemed to decide, giving me an Once-over.
"What are you-whoa..."
I was rendered speechless as I got a full view of my inner world.
It was different now. Very very different.
For starters and maybe most notably, a massive sun hang above us, providing light onto the lonely and desolate landscape I had gotten used to.
I got to my feet unsteadily, somehow I felt light. Too light, as if I could drift away into...
I could breath.
"Chase, is that actual wind?"
I asked my Zanpakuto spirit, perching on his usual spot, a branch belonging to the dried tree that we had first met at.
But- the dried branch had a leaf now.
Just one.
But it was green. And there was no green in my inner world.
I started to look around. Among the dried grass on the ground, a few green shoots could be seen, penetrating through the blackened soil.
Vines crawled up the gravestones. Their green stalks glowing with...
I took a knee before one gravestone, touching it's surface and the vines coiling around it.
"Is this energy... life-force?"
I turned and asked Chase, who had closely been watching my expression as I had studied the changes in my inner world.
"Yes. So you see it then?"
He questioned, uncharacteristically irritated.
I blinked and he popped up above the gravestone, his claws scratching the stone and leaving long lines that seemed to be healed up instantly.
"That thing up there. The sun."
He began.
"It just appeared out of nowhere the second you were done with the Sin's trials. And it's been producing loads of vitality."
My lips parted in surprise as I caught onto what he was trying to say.
"Vitality that is being absorbed by the graveyard."
I said in realization, looking around.
"Exactly!"
Chase added loudly.
"I don't understand it! The physical and spiritual are separate! That is an immutable fact!"
He fleeted around, popping up on another Gravestone to my right.
"It's almost as if your body is actively trying to reinforce your soul by sending lifeforce through your Spirit channels into your saketsu!"
He exclaimed with wonder.
"Wait, that would mean, Chase are you telling me I can give life to the dead?"
The words left my lips in a jumbled mess.
Yet no matter how preposterous it sounded, it felt...true. A truth I knew instinctively.
He blinked at me, stunned.
"I wouldn't go that far but- you understand what this means..."
I looked down at my body, only now noticing that I could feel it. My physical self. I had substance in a world without substance.
This had to be due to the challenges I'd just undergone.
The sins abilities, the trials. If there ever existed a bridge between the spiritual and the physical, then it would be them.
The Cardinal sins. Demons that used physical wants and needs to corrupt the core, the soul.
And by winning their trials and absorbing their essence, I had achieved something amazing.
A fusion of Spirit Energy and Physical Energy. The very thing I'd been looking for.
"No, I not only understand, Chase."
I told my Zanpakuto spirit, my inner world pulsing at the beat of my heart.
"I can feel it. I've bridged the difference Chase."
I ascended to the sky, light pouring out of me and into the atmosphere of my inner world, permeating the soil and giving life to death.
A sea of green begun to erupt around me as life was seeded across my dimension, pushing on death, not out of spite but out of necessity. The first step towards balance.
The first step towards healing.
"Whatever power I now possess, I am no longer just Death."
I declared,
"I am Life as well."
