Chapter 20: Blood

*In honor and memory of Joan Marie Laurer AKA Chyna, December 27,1969-April 20,2016. She was one of the great pioneers of women's wrestling. You died too young, Ninth Wonder of the World.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

Richard Bach

Chapter 20: "Blood"

(Friday-April 11, 2014)

Mal let out a shout as he kicked the wall, "Damn it!"

"Calm down," Harriet sighed. She sat with her back against the same wall, "Getting mad won't help."

"Sorry," Mal took a deep breath, "I've just never felt so powerless. My girlfriend has been kidnapped by a psycho cult, and I can't do anything."

"Join the club kid," Harriet gave him a small smile, "I've been hanging around Danny and these super types for years without being able to actually do anything."

"Doesn't that bother you?" Mal questioned.

Harriet looked away, "We all have our place kid. I'm not a good fighter, and unless I can yell my enemies into submission, I'll never be. Eventually, you have to accept your limitations. Otherwise, you'll be like Damon. Throwing yourself out into the fight without any real concern for yourself."

"I always thought Damon was being brave," Mal argued.

"Brave. Stupid. There's a very thin line between them," Harriet let out a laugh.

"Perhaps his reasons were somewhat foolish, but at least he wasn't afraid to do what he had to," J.A.Z.Z. suddenly spoke up. The Red X suit was kneeling by the downed Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, making sure that they were still stable, "One of the reasons I volunteered to stay back and help guard these two was because I was scared."

"Scared?"

"Well," J.A.Z.Z.'s voice sounded amused, "I don't 'feel' scared. I don't really feel like humans do. A.I. remember? But I have been programmed with an in depth understanding of emotions, and my compulsion for self-preservation would fall under the category of scared."

"Self-preservation? But can't you just upload your consciousness into the web if your body is in danger?" Mal questioned.

"Normally, yes. Right now, no. Trigon has effectively shut down such systems. If this body goes, my consciousness goes to," J.A.Z.Z. noted, "As such, my reluctance to fight could fall under the category of being a 'coward'."

"Cowards tend to live, though," Harriet mentioned as her gaze drifted upward, "So, what's better. A living coward, or a dead hero?"

"We work with heroes on a daily basis," Mal stated, "They would argue that dying for the cause is just part of being a hero."

"True, but I don't want to die. J.A.Z.Z. doesn't want to die, and I'm sure Karin doesn't want you to die," Harriet gently stated, "You can try to be a hero, but this is a situation where there's literally nothing you can do. Right now, you wouldn't die as a hero. You would die as a fool. That might sound harsh, but its reality. Sometimes, your instinct for survival is right. Listen to it."

"Gah…Fine…" Mal leaned against the wall and slid down to a seated position. Reaching into his coat, Mal pulled out a familiar book. Opening the book entitled 'Gabriel's Horn,' Mal looked down at the blank pages. Part of him had hoped that there was some secret to it that would give him an answer. Despite looking through the book several time, he found nothing. It was just a blank book—

Huh?

Written on the front of the page was two simple sentences. Mal knew that it wasn't there before, but now the words stood bold and proud.

'Hi, my name is Jericho. What's your name?'

Death glared at the Life Entity as they stood in front of an unmoving Danny Phantom, "I get it. Nekron is your natural enemy, your only real threat, but what you want Danny to be will hurt him."

"…Perhaps…Zzz…But it is needed…Zzz…My survival means the survival of everything. You included…Zzz…"

Death sighed, "That may be true, but it doesn't mean what you're asking of him is fair."

"Life isn't fair…I'm not fair…" The Entity noted, "So tired…"

"Stay awake, you lazy fool. You're worse than my brother," Death felt her patience dwindle. No one got under her skin like the being in front of her, "You saved him from Trigon. You saved him when he was born. You put him in the crosshairs of both our domains. Why? Why him?"

"He would have died anyway…Zzz…His life would have been inconsequential…Zzz…I gave him a longer life…A greater meaning...Now, all I ask is that he give back…"

"Hasn't he given enough? Hasn't he lost and sacrificed enough?" Death questioned.

"No…Not yet…Everything was to build up for what is to come…You know this now…Clockwork knew this from the beginning…Destiny knew this before the beginning…Everything comes down to this," The Life Entity's glowing eyes snapped open, "His whole reason for existing has come. After this, he's unnecessary."

"Unnecessary? UNNECESSARY?!" Death's face twist into a rage filled snarl, "How dare you. After all these years, you just ignore him. You haven't seen him suffer. You haven't seen him lose everything. You haven't seen him cry over his dead fiancé! I have, so don't you look at me and say that he's unnecessary after this, but he's necessary."

"He's no more necessary than any other life. His worth was given by me. He is my Chosen to defend Life. He will bring an end to Nekron. Even if he has to sacrifice everything he cares about once again."

"No," Dusk immediately stated while giving Agent Z a hard look.

"Well, that was fast," Destruction burst out laughing.

"I figured you'd say that," Agent Z sighed.

"Then why even ask?" Dusk demanded, "You don't do useless things, and you know my stance on killings."

"True, but it's in you. I've been watching. I saw how things went down at the Sorcerer Initiative," Z's eyes drifted to Black Bat and Damon, "Seeing your people suffer makes you angry, doesn't it?"

"Don't you touch them," Dusk snapped.

"Way to walk into the trap, kid," Destruction rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry," Agent Z shook his head, "I didn't take them for that. I took them because they might be the only ones to convince you to do the deed."

"Really?" Dusk frowned, "And what makes you say that?"

"You have friends filled with anger. The Boy Wonder for example," Agent Z noted, "But these two are different. They have suffered what it means to lose the bond between parent and child."

"We haven't given up on life, idiot," Black Bat argued, "That would be spitting on my parent's memory."

"Val would kick my ass if I didn't keep fighting," Damon added.

"Really?" Agent Z eyed them, "Because your actions say otherwise. Tell me, Damon, what right do you have to be on the battlefield? Even with this suit, you lack any experience, and you know it. There's a high probability that you'll die."

Damon was silent.

"And you Cassandra," Agent Z smirked, "The only reason you haven't tried to kill Ra's yet is because of your father's warning. But it's in there. You want revenge just like I did against the ghosts, and you'll do anything to get it. You are well aware of the consequences, too. You know that going down this road will lead to your own destruction, but you just don't care because he took your parents from you."

Black Bat was silent.

"I have suffered what both these two have gone through," Agent Z noted, "I have sacrificed everything for revenge all the while not caring what happened to me. Look what's happened because of that. If my kids saw me now, they'd be ashamed of me. I have nothing left but shame, and there's only one person I can trust to give me a respectable death. You, Joel."

Destruction looked extremely amused, "So what's your answer, Joel? After all, to build something new, you need to destroy."

Dusk sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver locket. He stared at it with a longing gaze, "I refuse."

"Joel…" Black Bat gave Dusk a side glance, "Normally, I at least consider your viewpoint, but this isn't the time for it. This is the end of the world. We need to do what we have to. If you kill Z, then we can move on and rendezvous with the others."

"No."

"Things aren't always black and white, Dusk," Damon argued, "If we stop Trigon, he's dead anyway, right? Wouldn't it be kinder to give him the death that he wants?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. All I know is that I feel that's wrong," Dusk's eyes did not drift away from the locket, "I've been told a lot of things recently, a lot of different viewpoints. Hell, I even had Dark Dan tell me to avoid people dying. That was surreal. And I know that sometimes, death can't be avoided. Teekl and Klarion had to go, even though I hate how it happened. But through all that, through everything I remember one thing…"

All eyes were on Dusk. Everyone was so silent that they could hear a pin drop. Even Destruction didn't have a smart remark to make.

"I remember a young woman that loved her brother," Dusk stated, "I remember Greta. She never once gave up on her brother. She begged and pleaded for help in saving him. Despite everything he did, she never once wavered. She held fast even when the entire world was willing to kill Harm. And she was rewarded for it. Harm eventually felt regret for what he did. He repented and begged for forgiveness, and that never would have happened if I gave into pressure and let him die."

"And you think that I can do that?" Agent Z questioned, "You think that I can be redeemed."

"I'm not sure," Dusk admitted, "But I think you can try, and sometimes, that's enough."

Delirium was waving her head back and forth in front of a nonresponsive Spirit, "Hello~ Hello~ Are you awake yet~"

Spirit just continued to look ahead to the bland room.

"Boring!" Delirium sighed and stood up. She looked over to the little Raven that was sitting on a bed, "Can you please do something now?"

She was met with silence.

"Of course," Delirium deflated a bit, "You can't hear me, can you? Lame~"

Despite not being able to sense Delirium, Raven looked up. Her vision saw through Delirium and took in the sight of Spirit sitting on a simple metal chair, "Can you talk now that those guys are gone?"

Spirit didn't respond.

Raven looked back down, "I didn't think so."

The young girl didn't know what was going on right now. For some reason, everything felt wrong. Despite Lust's, such a strange name, kindness to her, she still felt like she didn't belong here. Brother Blood bothered her, and she felt a weird pull to those strange people that weren't wearing the robes. This was especially true for the girl sitting across from her, even if she didn't know who she was.

"Raven."

Raven's head shot up as a green bug jumped off her shoulder and transferred into a green, monkey boy, "W-Who are you?"

"What?" Beast Boy tilted his head to the side, "Raven, don't you remember? It's me, Beast Boy."

"Beast…Boy?"

Beast Boy was a little shaken. He had never heard Raven sound so weak and unsure, "You know…Garfield? We're friends and teammates."

"Teammates?" Raven gave him a hopeful look.

"Yeah, although usually you don't act like you like it…" Beast Boy admitted, "But we do look out for each other. That's why I hid in your hood when everything went down."

Raven's eyes widened, "You know what happened?"

"Well…I know that it involved you super demon dad…I kind of zoned out during the debriefing," Beast Boy admitted, "I wasn't allowed to fight anyway, so I hid on your shoulder to keep an eye out for you. But there wasn't anything I could do, so I stayed hidden until you got to the alter thing. Then, I, uh, kind of passed out."

"You're not making any sense," Raven noted.

"Yeah, I suck at explaining stuff," Beast Boy admitted, "But that doesn't matter. We need to get out of here before Lust comes back."

"B-But how? The door's locked."

"Yeah…" Beast Boy blinked at her, "Just blast it open or teleport us out of here."

"What? I can't do that…"

"Sure you can," Beast Boy noted, "I've seen you do tons of times."

"No…No, I can't," Raven shook her head. She looked ready to cry.

"Okay, okay, I can handle this," Beast Boy turned to the door. Once again, he shifted into a lady bug. He then flew to the keyhole and entered the lock. A few short seconds later, a few quiet clicks sounded signaling that the door was now unlocked.

"You did it!" Raven noted happily as Beast Boy existed the key hole, transformed back to normal, and opened the door.

"Yeah, grab Spirit and let's go," Beast Boy noted, "If neither of you can fight, then we need to move slowly so we don't get caught. I'll take point and make sure no one is ahead of us."

Envy started the fight by using Phantom's powers to create three duplicates. The four fake Phantoms then rushed forward to combat his enemies. To their surprise, Envy's duplicates were far faster than they anticipated. Only Kid Flash was able to dodge the first rush. His three allies weren't as quick though and were pushed back by blasts of demonic ectoplasm.

The fake Phantoms then continued to send a barrage of energy blasts out to obliterate their enemies. Artemis quickly dodged and ran around to avoid getting hit. As she did this, she used her bow to fight from afar. The Fright Knight decided to take a more raw power approach. He used his blade to black the attacks while trying to push forward to the duplicate attacking him. Jinx had the most luck ironically. She teleported herself close to a duplicate and went to fight him with her powers.

It was then that dozens of more duplicates popped up all around the room. This was a tactic seldom used by the real Phantom as each duplicate drained his power significantly and left him vulnerable. Right now, though, Envy was simply trying to kill them by overwhelming them with sheer numbers. Luckily, they were all too powerful and skilled to get caught so easily. More and more duplicates were appearing, though, to the point that the cavern were quickly getting filled with fake Phantoms.

Seeing that they were quickly being outnumbered, Kid Flash rushed in between the various fakes. Despite the chaos, his super speed allowed him to follow the original Envy. Using one of the duplicates as a springboard, Kid Flash launched himself at Envy and tackled the demi-demon to the ground. Before Envy could recover, the speedster began to rapidly to punch his enemy in the face in a desperate attempt to keep him down.

This caused all the duplicates to turn to the Kid Flash in attempt to save their original. Before they could move, though, Fright Knight, Jinx, and Artemis quickly began to cut them down while they were distracted. Soon, the number of duplicates had been drastically diminished.

Seeing that this tactic wasn't working, Envy called the duplicates back to himself. He then transformed into the Flash. Using his now superior speed, he dodged Kid Flash's blows. He then began to vibrate his molecules to the point that he could stand up and pass straight through the slower speedster.

"He's stronger than before," Kid Flash noted, "He has the full power of the people he copies."

"Right you are!" Envy smacked Kid Flash away, "Father's presence gives me strength! Who should I turn into next? Oh, I know! How about Superman?"

Artemis pulled out an arrow and shot it at Envy. Nonchalantly, Envy caught the arrow with a single hand. As soon as the arrow was touched, though, foam burst out from the arrow and covered him in a giant pillow of foam.

"Really?" Envy rolled his eyes and began to vibrate through the foam. Just as he did that, though, Kid Flash tackled him. Using as much of his speed as possible, Kid Flash vibrating his molecules as well in a desperate attempt to keep a hold on them.

"Fine!" Envy took the form of Superman, "I'll show you—"

As Envy changed, Artemis pulled out a special glowing green arrow. She then shot it at Kid Flash surprisingly. The speedster caught the arrow just like Envy did before and held the Kryptonite arrow to the fake Superman.

"AH!" Envy flinched in pain.

"Gotcha!" Kid Flash gave a wide grin.

Screaming in pain, Envy began to swing around wildly. Red beams blasted wildly from his eyes as he lost control of his powers. Through everything, though, Kid Flash desperately kept his hold.

"We only have a few seconds before he changes!" Kid Flash yelled, "Jinx, Fright Knight, go find Danny! We'll hold him off!"

"You can't fight the entire League and Council!" Fright Knight shouted.

"We don't have to! He can only be one person at a time!" Kid Flash noted as Envy's form began to shift once more.

"He's right!" Artemis pulled out a new arrow, "Danny taught us strategies on how to fight basically anyone we would need to. We might not win, but we can hold him off until you find Danny and come back."

"They're right," Jinx looked to Fright Knight, "Our powers are best suited for finding Danny, and we don't have time to waste on trying to take Envy down. It will take forever, and the longer we take to find Danny, the more time Trigon has to kill our big guns."

"But…"

"Just do it!" Kid Flash was sent flying through the air as Envy turned into Wonder Woman and threw him off, "Gah…We got this…"

"Very well," Fright Knight nodded. He and Jinx turned and began to run towards the exit to the cavern.

"Oh, no you don't!" Envy tried to go after them but was stopped when Artemis jumped in his way, "Fine! I'll just kill you two and then go after them! Not like it matters! Phantom's dead anyway!"

"Try, eh? You're still a naïve brat, you know that?" Agent Z chuckled and shook his head.

Dusk shrugged, "I don't want to lose the little bit of positive outlook I have left. Not after so many people have sacrificed so I could be alive and free."

"Still it…" Agent Z paused, "Huh…You got some really good friends kid. I'll give you that."

"What?"

Turing around, Agent Z dismissed the flames that burned through the flames. Almost instantly, the smoke and steam vanished to reveal that there had been people spying on them. This caused Agent Z to burst out laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! The fire ghost again!? You're persistent, I'll give you that. You said your name was Torch, right?"

Torch nodded as his group landed on the ground, "Yes. Torch is called Torch."

"Thy grammar is atrocious," Troia muttered.

Robin shook his head, "Babe, you talk in ye old English. Kind of hypocritical for you to judge how other people talk."

Troia blushed and looked away.

"Whelp…" Agent sighed. He stuck his arms out wide and behind him, "You seem determined to kill me, and Joel won't do it, so why the hell not. Go ahead, Torch. I got nothing left to live for anymore anyway."

Torch was about to take a step forward, but he was stopped by Ember. The siren ghost stood in Torch's way and gave Agent Z a hard look, "Do you remember who I am?"

"Yeah, you're the singer ghost," Agent Z nodded, "We caught wind of you after Phantom stopped that concert of yours, but you went off the grid. You had a catchy song, but it always pissed me off for some reason."

"I bet it did," Ember smiled at him, "It reminded you of your daughter."

Agent Z gained a confused look. He turned to Dusk, "I thought you kept my daughter a secret."

"I did. I never told anyone about it," Dusk noted.

"He didn't have to," Ember took a step forward, "I found out for myself when I looked into my past. I remembered everything. Who I was, and what my family was like. I had a brother and a dad. My mom passed away when I was young, and my dad started investigating ghosts to try and find her, but she died satisfied so she never came back."

Agent Z was silent.

"But he never stopped investigating ghosts. He wanted to work with them, to build a world where we didn't have to fear each other. Some ghosts, like people, don't listen to reason. He escaped the lab and set fire to my house with me in it," Ember reached a hand out to Agent Z, "Do you remember, Dad?"

"No!" Agent Z roared, "No…It's a lie! A trick! Some kind of revenge from Phantom! He must have looked into my past! How dare you use that against me! My own family…That's low!"

"No!" Ember pleaded desperately, "Please, Daddy, you have to believe me!"

"That's it! Even when confronted with the truth, this moron refuses to repent!" Torch quickly formed his scythe, "Torch will burn him to ashes!"

"No! Don't!" Ember held out a hand to either one of them, "There's a better way!"

Dusk watched on with a critical eye. That was odd. They were acting volitile even for them. Something was wrong. It was then that he felt a familiar feeling in the air. It was a weight that he had felt only hours before this. He remembered it clearly.

"Wrath!" Dusk yelled out.

As soon as Dusk said that, the muscular form of Wrath came crashing down. His weight and strength sent out a miniature quake and sent everyone flying. He made sure to try to knock Agent Z towards his children. As for the others, well, he cared less about them. This actually helped them a bit as the fiery cage that held Damon, Black Bad, and Dusk disappeared from the power of the landing.

"I was going to stay out of it for a bit, but this is more fun. A real family feud," Wrath walked over to the Exorcist suit and effortlessly threw it into the distance, far away from the combat.

Dusk looked over to see the fire erupting as the family of fire users began to move away from them. He couldn't worry about them. Torch and Ember could handle Z. Right now, he had to focus on Wrath.

"Damon, back up!" Dusk ordered. The older man quickly obeyed and began his long trek to get back to the Exorcist suit.

"This guy abuses anger, right?" Robin pulled out his bo staff, "That's not really all that great for a group of hot heads."

"I am not a hot head!" Troia snapped at him.

"Sure, babe. Sure."

Dusk frowned. Robin was right. Wrath had the advantage here. He could easily make most of them lose their cool.

"Just stay as focused as you can," Black Bat advised.

"Oh? And how did that work out for you, little girl?" Wrath began to laugh, "I already know every one of you four's emotional triggers. This will be like pouring water onto a cat. It's gonna be hilarious."

Youngblood wiped the blood from his brow as he chased after Lust. To the ghost's surprise, Lust proved to be an evasive foe. None of his attacks seemed to hit the demi-demon.

"Rack!" Polly cried from Youngblood's shoulder, "He lacks strength on his own, so he perfected dodging."

Youngblood nodded. He kind of wished that he had such skills in dodging. Zatanna was relentless in her attacks. She was her magic to throw everything at the ghost from books to the swords that hung from the walls. Youngblood tried to block them, but the magic behind the attacks overpowered most of his powers while he was in child form.

He had tried more than once to attack the magician, but there was a huge problem. While good at dodging, Lust's true power came from his ability to control people. He used people's inner desires to control them. The more lust a person has, the easier it was for the demi-demon to control them. Thus, with all of Brother Blood's teenage cultists, it was easy to have them basically lung in the way of Youngblood's attack.

Ducking under another sword, Youngblood tried to continue to try to chase after Lust. With every few steps, though, Lust was coercing more and more of the cultists to do his will. They desperately threw themselves at Youngblood with more passion than Youngblood had ever seen in anyone. It almost like they needed to sacrifice themselves for Lust.

"Tel meht hcuot Doolbgnuoy!"

Youngblood cursed under his breath as the cultist's arms began to gain a magical glow. Two of the cultists were now hanging off of him. His intangibility failed to allow him to pass through the hands grabbing him. He was instantly weighed down, and this gave the cultists even more of a chance to grab onto him. Soon, he was in the middle of a pile of people.

As he heard the muffled sound of Zatanna preparing a new spell, Youngblood changed his fake hand and leg into canons. He prepared to blast the people off of him, but he paused. These people here innocent. That never bothered him before, but…

Dani's smiling face popped into his mind. He remembered that because he had saved a group of people in a car crash. She seemed so proud of him.

Youngblood stopped his attack. Damn. He couldn't do it. Stupid maturity and caring about people. They always got in the way. He only had one more option.

"Idiot!" Polly screamed at him, "If you break the seal again, then it's all over! This will cause far more trouble than it will fix!"

The bird was right, but Youngblood didn't have a choice. Even if it undid everything he had worked for, at least he would have a chance to fix it. If he died here, then the seal would break anyway and no one would know how to deal with Thorn. This was the only real way…

"RAW!" A giant green gorilla yanked the people off of Youngblood and threw them at Zatanna to stop her spell. Youngblood immediately took this opportunity to slide out through the new opening.

"Beast Boy!" The young Raven cried out in shock as the green hero carefully move through the pile of people.

Beast Boy quickly changed back into his normal form, "Keep going! I need to help them! Get Spirit out of here!"

"B-But…"

"Just do it! Keep going down this hall! It should lead you out of here!" Beast Boy ordered before turning back into a gorilla.

Filled with terror, Raven nodded and began to drag Spirit behind her down the hall intersection and out of sight.

"No! Cultists, go after-mmh!" Lust's eyes widened when Youngblood covered his mouth with his non-weapon hand.

"Got you!" Youngblood pointed the hook canon at Lust. A large grin split across his face as he finally managed to get a hold on his enemy, "Just in time for a little flight!"

Boom!

Cyborg groaned as he was slammed into the ceiling by Brother Blood's telekinetic force. Before he could even complain about how he's always thrown back first into walls, he then thrown face first to the ground. A puffer fish version of Lagoon Boy immediately jumped on him. The Atlantian pulled him up and held him in a tight bear hug, trying to crush his metal body while trying to tear open his metal chest plate.

With gritted teeth, Cyborg readjusted his arm into a sonic canon and pointed it to the far wall. A blast of energy shot out of the canon and hit the far wall. Cyborg continued the stream so that the energy pushed him and Lagoon Boy into the far wall. This time, Lagoon Boy smacked into the wall spine first. With a yelp of pain, he immediately released the older member of Young Justice.

"Sorry, man!" Cyborg immediately turned around and smashed a metal fist to the side of Lagoon Boy's head, "Better a headache than mind control, right?"

Turning, Cyborg saw the chaos happening in the church. Both Etrigan and Nyx were trying to wade through a wave of literally brainwashed cultists. Etrigan could muscle through most of them trying to hold him down, but Bumblebee proved to be the bigger annoyance for him. She was zooming around his head shooting every weak point she could find. With no way to swing at her without hurting the cultists, he was effectively blinded.

Nyx, on the other hand, easily made it through the waves by using intangibility. She managed to get to Blood, but she was stopped a blast of psychic energy that rocked her ghost powers. As such, she was sent flying back into crowd of cultists.

Seeing that Brother Blood was distracted, Cyborg aimed his sonic canon at Blood, but his aim was quickly changed when Lagoon Boy grabbed him once more, "Come on, man!"

Cyborg quickly returned to his struggle of fighting a friend without hurting him too badly. Nyx, however, was taking another approach. Floating above the cultists, she began to control the shadows running across the rooms and made them reach out towards Brother Blood.

Realizing that he was about to be surrounded by the shadows, the cult leader decided to end the fun and games, "Stop breathing!"

The effect was instant. All the cultists, including Bumblebee and Lagoon Boy, instantly dropped to the floor. Their faces quickly turned blue. They all looked like they desperately wanted air, but none of them could disobey their leader's command.

Nyx quickly dismissed the shadows, "Okay! Okay! Just let them breath!"

"Breathe!"

The room was instantly filled with dozens of grateful gasps of air.

"I'll order it again," Brother Blood warned, "So stand down now."

Giving each other glances, all three of them immediately raised their hands in defeat. Cyborg made sure to change his sonic canon back to normal. Nyx floated to the ground once more to show her submission.

"Good…" Brother Blood eyed them. He couldn't control any of them. There was no point to keep around such rebels, "Make sure not to fight back or your friends die. Kill them!"

The cultists once again lunged at the heroes. The three heroes did nothing as they were tackled to the ground and were choked, scratched and beaten.

"Stop!" Raven stepped out from the hall she had been hiding. Despite her fear, she couldn't stop herself. For some reason, she felt the same pull from those three as she felt from Spirit.

"Oh?" Brother Blood raised an eyebrow at the demi-demon, "How did you get out?"

Raven ignored him, "Stop it! Leave them alone!"

Brother Blood scoffed, "They can't hear you, girl."

"I said STOP IT!" The entire room shook as magic blasted off of her. All the cultists were grabbed by magical bird claws and pulled to the ground. Several of the claws then turned to Brother Blood. With a look of fear on his face, Brother Blood created a psychic shield around him to stop that attack.

Now freed, the injured heroes began to work their way back to their feet. Etrigan was the first one to speak, "His powers are being boosted by Trigon. I felt it every time he gave out orders. Get me close to him, and I can stop his control."

Nodding, his two allies quickly went to work. Cyborg once again brought out his sonic canon and opened fire at Brother Blood. Nyx returned to her previous effort of using the shadows to attack the cult leader. Like the bird claws, their attacks were stopped by the psychic shield. The force of their combined efforts did manage to force Brother Blood to his knees, though.

Wincing in pain, Brother Blood desperately looked around for help. His eyes quickly caught sight of Spirit standing silently in the shadows of the hallway. A large grin spread across his face, "Spirit! Protect me!"

Without a moment of hesitation, Spirit rushed forward. She knocked Raven over, stopping her spells. She then rushed to Nyx. Seeing her friend flying to her ready to attack, Nyx turned the shadows to Spirit. As the shadows were about to hit the halfa, though, Nyx flinched as she imagined Spirit being hurt once again because of her. That moment of hesitation allowed Spirit to blast through the shadows and land a solid kick to Nyx's midsection, cracking the ghost's armor and sending her flying back.

After a few skips, Nyx landed on her back with a pained groan. Before she could sit up, Spirit was already on her with Spectral Claws at the ready. Just as she was about to stab down at Nyx's head, Cyborg thrusted an arm in the way. Spirit's Spectral Claws easily cut through Cyborg's metal arm, but Cyborg already knew that would happen. After letting the claw stab through his arm, he then jerked her away and held her close.

Like Nyx, Cyborg could not bring himself to hit his girlfriend. That didn't mean he couldn't hold her in place, though. Even if she fought back, Cyborg could absorb a lot more damage than Trigon. Holding Spirit close to his chest, Cyborg looked over to Etrigan, "Do it now! I can only hold her for so long!"

Etrigan was already on task. During the shuffle, he had lunged himself at Brother Blood. With Raven dazed, Nyx hurt, and Cyborg distracted, it was a one-on-one fight. This meant that Brother Blood could focus his full attention on Etrigan, so he threw all of his power straight at Etrigan.

The demon possessed magician felt like he was hit by a bus. Psychic force slammed into his body in a violent attempt to throw him away. His brain felt like it was being stabbed by one thousand knives from the telepathic backup to the attack. Etrigan desperately fought against the pain. Both is body and his mind begged him to stop, but he did not give up. Slowly, step by step, Etrigan pushed his way forward.

Brother Blood's twisted with horror, "H-How?!"

"You…" Etrigan groaned as blood began to pool out of his nose and ears, "You're a disgrace."

"What?!"

"Abusing your power over young people…It's pathetic!" Etrigan roared. Magic blasted off of his body. Dark runes popped up all around his body, releasing some of the vasts amount of magic from inside his body. He never thought he would have been grateful for the Sorcerer Initiative until this day, "I'm ashamed to share a name with you!"

"G-Get away from me!"

"Brother Blood…Let me introduce myself," Entrigan grinned as he stood in front of the cult leader, "My name is Jason Blood, fallen knight, cursed demon, and reluctant immortal. I'm all those terrible things, and I'm ashamed of it; but if there's one thing that I have pride in, it's this…"

"No! No!" Brother Blood screamed in panic as Entrigan placed a scaly thumb over his forehead.

"I'm a teacher, and I've guided this kids the best I could. And I will protect them from you no matter what!" Entrigan let out one last roar as he chanted out a spell, "Eerf enoyreve!

Vision stood at the edge of the battlefield. Her eyes swept over Trigon and his various enemies. She was desperately looking for anything she could use against the giant demon. That was her best strength. She knew that she didn't have close enough to the raw power needed to fight against Trigon effectively. She could, however, direct the others. As such, she watched with the eyes of an eagle.

Dora in dragon from roared as she launched herself onto the back of Trigon. Despite being the physically largest combatant on their side, she barely managed to cover most of his back. She clawed and bit wildly at his back while refraining from using flames against a demon that thrived in the fiery pits of hell. None of her attacks reaped any fruit, though. Trigon barely looked like he felt the dragon on his back.

Reaching back, the giant demon grabbed Dora. He easily pealed her off of his back. Holding her in his hand, he examined the lizard for a second before throwing her straight towards Colossus. Said ghost was forced to halt his latest charge forward and attempt to catch Dora. The dragon's massive frame fell onto Colossus's shoulders and forced him to go crashing to the ground under the force of Trigon's brutal throw.

The throw did leave an opening for Trigon's head, though. Pandora was the first to react. She launched herself forward with as much speed as she could muster. With a loud battle cry, she pumped electricity into her spears and attempted to stab one of Trigon's crimson eyes. Before the spears could make contact, though, a barrier of red energy formed around the eyes and immediately halted the attack. It then sent out a blast of energy that sent Pandora flying away.

From below, the heroes of the Justice League that were not dealing with Greed were sending as many attacks as possible to the giant demon. Red Arrow fired every type of arrow he had to try to slow Trigon down. At the same time, Captain Atom sent a constant stream of energy at Trigon. He looked for any weak spot, but he couldn't find any. With a small huff, Trigon nonchalantly kicked at them. The hooved foot destroyed the entire area, forcing the heroes to scatter once more.

It was at that moment that Vision realized that they were dealing with a being that was far beyond their depths. Trigon views them all as tiny bugs that were only still alive because they amused him. Vision shivered at the thought of what he would do when the amusement died away. They're only real chance was to buy for time and try to amuse him enough that he wouldn't kill them all in one giant blast.

Charging forward, Vision readied every attack plan she had. For the first time, they were not meant to defeat the enemy though. This time, they were meant to entertain the enemy for as long as possible. It was a terrible plan, but it was the best strategy Vision had against Trigon.

Plasmius hated going into a battle without a plan. That was the foolish thing to do. Those with the best strategy always won. He knew that. Power, speed, and technique would all fall before his plans. It was almost like a religion that he and Vision followed. Unfortunately, there were times that there was no time for strategy.

Fighting against Greed was one of those times.

The demi-demon had ten Leaguers under his control, and Plasmius merely reacted to Greed's initial attack the fastest. As such, he really had no way of dealing with so many powerful enemies at once. They were constantly barraging him attacks. Each one hit because he didn't have time to move. He could only endure.

Luckily, his ability to shift his state of matter helped keep from getting killed. While in the state of pure plasma, he could not get hurt. As such, every attack did nothing to actually hurt him. Even Superman's heat vision and the Flash's supersonic punches did nothing. The real problem was that he had no way to counterattack. While in his plasma state, Plasmius could not attack. It was a defense only move.

Actually, that wasn't totally true. As plasma, he could move to cover his enemy's mouth and nose to restrict their breathing, but it was difficult to pull off in the best of times. As plasma, he moved slowly, even more so under the constant barrage of attacks. This meant that he could only stay there and endure the attacks.

Fortunately, he wasn't alone. The Batwing and Bioship flew above him giving him support. The weapons managed to push some of the Leaguers back. Hell, they even managed to knock Green Arrow unconscious. All that fortune quickly melted away when Green Arrow's body kept moving on its own though. Greed could still control them even while they were unconscious and maybe even if they were dead.

'What do I do here?' Plasmius questioned. Neither Batman nor Miss Martian could come down to the fight. Batman's lack of powers would make him an easy target for ten overpowered juggernauts. As for Miss Martian, the heat and flames on the ground would make her comatose the moment she got too low.

In truth, he knew that there was no safe way to go about this. Trying to be safe here would only get him killed. As such, he knew he had to take a risk and do something that was outright stupid. So he waited for his moment, and he was rewarded. Batman and Miss Martian coordinated their attacks. They sent large missiles straight at Plasmius knowing that he wouldn't get hurt.

To avoid losing his puppets, Greed had the Leaguers retreat. The explosions burst out just as the Leaguers got enough distance away. Right as the flames died down enough for Plasmius to safely move, he quickly took his normal form. He then rocketed up to the sky. As soon as Greed saw this, he had all the flying members of the League race after him.

Reaching a good distance up, Plasmius paused and looked down. The Leaguers were right on his tail. In a few seconds, he would be in the same spot as mere moments ago. Taking a deep breath, Plasmius plunged right into the danger. In a blaze of magenta, nine duplicates were made. Just as the flying Leaguers were about to make contact, the duplicates turned to them and overshadowed them. Then, the remaining duplicates plus the original flew down. They rushed towards the remaining duplicates and overshadowed them as well.

Greed laughed as he stood in the center of the mass of Leaguers, preventing the air support from doing anything, "Really? That was your plan? You want to have a puppet master contest with me? I thought you were smart!? I'll just have the Leaguers kill themselves! That will take care of you and them."

With that said, all the Leaguers stopped breathing. Plasmius tried to force his control over them to make them continue to breath, but in his divided state, he lacked the individual willpower to fight against Greed's control. The duplicates held on strong knowing that their demise meant nothing. The real Plasmius, however, felt his vision began to darken. While not needing oxygen himself, he was limited to the bodies he inhabited.

'Hold on! I just need to hold on!'

Such thoughts proved pointless, though, as the Leaguer's body began to go slack. So, Plasmius had a choice. Either stay in the body and die with the Leaguer or exit the body and immediately get killed by Greed.

Yeah, this is what he got for going into a fight with no real plan.

Sloth let out a yawn as one of Nightwing's shuriken shattered against his side. It had rusted into borderline dust by the time it hit him. There was no pain or damage, just like with all the other attacks being thrown at him. Rocket and Nightwing were rushing around him sending as many different ranged attacks as they could.

They were desperately trying to avoid getting close to him. Sloth scoffed at all the pointless effort. The heroes couldn't hurt him with such a strategy. That was fine, though. All this meant less work for him.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Sloth began a slow walk back towards the Cube. Nightwing and Rocket responded by doubling their efforts. It was just as useless as before, though.

"Damn it!" Rocket gritted her teeth as Sloth effortless pushed through another shield.

"One more time!" Nightwing pulled out a canister and threw it at Sloth. Before the canister could get too close to the demi-demon, it suddenly burst and released a cloud of knock out gas that floated around Sloth.

Rocket quickly formed a kinetic shield around Sloth once again. She hoped that the shield slowed him down enough for the knock out gas to take effect. Unfortunately, her hopes were shattered just like the kinetic shield as Sloth stepped out of the smoke unaffected.

"Nice try," Sloth continued his steady pace towards the Cube, "But I can make even gasses become lazy."

"Crap," Nightwing muttered. He had no idea how to deal with this enemy with the cards he had. All of his weapons had no effect on Loth. For once, he was drawing a blank on how to deal with a fight. It was time for some desperation moves, "Aim for the ground! Slow him down as much as you can!"

Rocket nodded, "On it!"

Superboy threw himself back as Gluttony charged forward. While he was used to behemoths trying to trample him down, this was the first time he fought one that could beat him just by touching him. One single brush of skin would drain him of all his muscle mass. Not even his Kryptonian blood could stop him from that.

It seemed like Gluttony was focused more on him at the moment. That gave Batgirl plenty of opportunities to attack from a distance. Unfortunately, Gluttony was too tough for batterangs. Electricity and energy based weapons just seemed to feed him. Hell, even different gasses seemed to not be a problem for him. He called them seasoning.

"Damn it!" Superboy roared as he kept retreating, "What do we do!?"

Batgirl watched as Gluttony moved forward with the force of a train. She had thought about having Superboy switch with Nightwing or Rocket. Unfortunately, Superboy probably wouldn't have an effective way to fight Sloth either, and the others wouldn't help against this demi-demon.

"I don't know…" Batgirl realized the answer to Superboy's question, "I just…There's nothing we can do…"

"Come on!" Superboy chucked everything he could get his hands on at Gluttony. They barely slowed the massive man down, "There has to be something."

"The only thing left to do is try to survive."

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Then keep doing it, because that's all I got."

Constantine grunted as he watched the battles going on not but a few dozen yards away from him and the Cube. The heroes were not doing well, which was to be expected. Demons being empowered by Trigon the Terrible? Those guys could take down small armies with Trigon being so close. Those four heroes were skilled, though. They were holding out fairly well.

Unfortunately, it wasn't well enough. The demons would get close within a few minutes. They needed to do something.

"Oi, Box Ghost!" Constantine shouted up to the ghost, "Do you think you could keep this stable for a few minutes?"

"I believe so," The Box Ghost noted, "This beautiful cube of salvation is almost ready as it is. Even without you, I should be fine."

"Great," Constantine stopped pumping magic and turned away from the Cube, "I won't be able to handle both of them at once…"

"Then only handle one of them," Frostbite turned walked up to him. The ghost had left what seemed like a glowing, frozen crystal by the Atlantians to keep them cool, "It took a while to make, but that crystal should by me a few minutes."

"Good," Constantine pulled out his cane, "I'll take the skinny one. You take the fat one."

"Very well," Frostbite bared his teeth, "Let's see how well demons handle the cold."

"We need to hurry and find Lord Phantom," Fright Knight quickly took flight and grabbed Jinx to carry her along down the dark tunnel, "No time for caution."

"Agreed, but—Down!" Jinx shouted out as the end of the tunnel showed a giant drop like the one they originally descended. Fright Knight quickly reacted and turned his flight down into the tunnel. Jinx quickly lit her fingers aflame with her pink energy to light their way, "Be careful!"

"I said that we need to hurry. I have no idea if those two stand a chance against Envy," Fright Knight noted, "We need to turn to them as soon as possible."

"Never thought you would care so much about heroes," Jinx mentioned.

"The Justice League means nothing to me. My Liege's team is different, though. They stood by him in his darkest of times. They have long since proved their loyalty and earned my respect," The Fright Knight noted, "Unlike others…"

"Is this really the time to bring that up?" Jinx's voice was filled with annoyance as they caught sight of the bottom of the hole, "I get that you people don't like me, but we're on the same side here."

"For now," Fright Knight reached the bottom of the hole and turned down one last tunnel. They could now see some odd white light glimmering in the distance of the cavern, "But you have yet to prove you are 100% loyal to the king."

"I was there for him during the Sorcerer Initiative," Jinx argued, "And right now."

"Only because you have your father's blessing," Fright Knight countered, "Lady Valerie went against her father when he tried to make her stop. She cared nothing for what other people thought, and fought by the king's side to the bitter end. She earned her place as queen. You, however, have not proven that yet, and until that time, I will continue to keep my eye on you."

"Jeeze, bringing her up again. Danny's over her," Jinx grumbled.

"Is he? Or did you move in at the perfect time for him to push his feelings for her onto you?" The Fright Knight's tone was filled with anger, "You manipulated him and his emotions."

"I just took a chance."

"A calculated chance," The Fright Knight let out a snort, "If there was any day that Lord Phantom would have caved into temptation, it was the day of Saint Valentine. I should have known that you would try that, but I wanted to give everyone their space on the day of love and hearts."

Jinx frowned as they drew closer to the white light. Neither of them carrying that they could very well be stepping into a dire trap, "So what do I have to do to gain your trust? To gain everyone's trust?"

"It can't come from one big gesture. It is something that must be earned over time," The Fright Knight's voice was a bit gentler as he said this, "I protect Lord Phantom for he is the best king. He is a being with power most mortals can't even comprehend, yet he still can look at you and say that he's nobody. A person that just got lucky. A humble and great king like that deserves a queen by his side that is just as great."

"Well, I think I'm that great."

The Fright Knight shook his head as they flew straight into the blinding light. Neither of them being able to see anything, "Of course you do. That's the biggest difference between you and my Liege."

Artemis was completely drenched in sweat. She had constantly been running and flipping around in order to stay alive. The archer had never been more grateful to have gloves, because if she didn't, then there was no way she could grip her bow the correct way. Not that it would matter. She didn't think she could even hit Envy right now.

The demi-demon had switched back to the Flash. He and Kid Flash were running around the room fighting each other. She had been desperately trying to catch up with them, but they were too fast. Artemis couldn't get a clear shot, and she wasn't going to risk hitting her boyfriend.

Still she was desperately trying to find an opening. Kid Flash was getting killed out there. If it was a speed vs speed match up, very few could keep up with him. Unfortunately, the Flash was one of the people, and Envy could turn into the Flash. Thus, Kid Flash was completely outclassed. In the brief glimpses she managed to get of her boyfriend, he looked like a total wreck, but he didn't stop fighting.

At least until he was sent flying back by a punch sent at light speed.

Kid Flash rolled back until he came to a stop on his stomach. He quickly pushed himself up to his knees and coughed out blood, "That…all you got?"

"Not even close, Kid," Envy rushed forward to kick the kid while he was down, but he had to stop and catch an arrow that Artemis finally managed find an opening to fire. Before Envy could do anything, he noticed the beeping coming from the arrow, "Shit."

Boom!

Artemis quickly took this opportunity to run to the downed Kid Flash. She quickly knelt down next to check on her boyfriend, "What's broken?"

"My ribs. My nose. My pride," Kid Flash let out a groan.

"You can live without that last one," Artemis smiled at him, "We got him."

"Yeah, we did."

"Did you?"

In terror, Artemis whirled around with her bow ready to shot Envy down again. A blurred backfist immediately shattered the weapon leaving Artemis without her main way of fighting. Not even batting an eyelash, Artemis launched herself to Envy with the full intention of fighting hand to hand. She didn't even see the Flash's blows come towards her. In a second's time, she was sent sprawling away with more than a few major injuries.

"Artemis—Gack!" Kid Flash gagged as Envy grabbed him by the throat and began to squeeze.

"Enough of this…" Envy's body began to vibrate.

Artemis weakly reached out towards them, "No…"

"Good hit back there," Envy was seething in rage, "Your reward is you get to watch your love die by his mentor's hand. Lucky you."

Robin had been the first one to lose his cool.

"Oh, the unwanted one? Tell me, if you disappeared right now, would anyone care?"

That was all it took. With all the heat around him, the stress of the situation, and Hate's influence, Robin's intensive training from the Dark Knight instantly melted away. He rushed in like a wild bull. Wrath just laughed as he smacked the Boy Wonder away.

"Robin!" Troia quickly flew in towards the demi-demon. Dusk and Black Bat were right on her heels. They tried to flank the larger enemy, but Wrath proved to be a surprising combination of nimble and durable, like a moving brick wall. He easily took Black Bat's attacks while dodging Troia's efforts.

Wrath grinned as he saw Troia upset by his going after Robin, "And here I thought Amazons hated men. Do your sisters know that you're spreading your legs at such a young age? What would they think?"

"Shut up!" Troia roared. She sent a wild punch at Wrath's head which was swiftly dodged.

Dusk moved behind Wrath. He formed his Pendulum Nunchaku and swung them at his enemy. The muscular son of Trigon was quickly covered by the chains.

"Hey, maybe they'll string you up like this and throw rocks," Wrath suggested, "That's if they even let you step on the island now, right? I mean, you haven't exactly been a great rep for your people. Have you actually beaten any bad guys?"

"I said shut up!" Troia snapped. She rushed to Wrath with the intent of tackling him to the ground. He just dropped to the ground, though, and allowed the Amazon to fly over him and straight into a surprised Dusk. With a grunt, they both went tumbling away with the nunchaku flying out of Dusk's hands.

Before Wrath could get up, Black Bat was quickly on him. With the chains no longer connected to Dusk, they weakened significantly and allowed her to rip his arm up and hold it into an arm bar, "Got you."

"You do, but you might want to—"

"Talk and I'll break your arm," Black Bat warned.

"RAW!" Robin jumped onto both Black Bat and Wrath. In his blind rage, Robin accidentally forced Black Bat to release her captive. Grinning, Wrath threw them both off with ease.

"I was going to warn you about that," Wrath mentioned as he got off the ground, "You'd think that the daughter of Lady Shiva and David Cain would do better than that. Maybe they died from the shame of being related to you?"

Black Bat bit hard into her lip to try to stop the anger that surged through her at hearing that. Shoving Robin off of her, she took another battle stance and prepared to fight. What this man said didn't matter. She had been taught all her life to keep calm under the pressure. This was no different.

"Either way, they did die because of you and Phantom. How can you live with yourself? Working with the man that sacrificed your parents for the greater good? It's sad really."

Black Bat saw red. She pulled out a knife from her utility belt and rushed forward. Like the others before her that lost their cool, she was smacked away with little effort. All her training meant nothing if she just flailed around like an angry dog.

Dusk quickly caught the girl before she could fly too far. Placing her down, he tried to calm the twitching young woman down, "Black Bat, this isn't you. Calm down. You know that this guy's full of shit."

"AH!" Black Bat's face twisted in anger. To Dusk's surprise, red smoke drifted off of her and floated over to Wrath who absorbed the smoke through his skin. A quick glance to his other friends showed that this was happing to the others as well.

Wrath let out a laugh, "Pretty cool, huh? Being angry takes a lot out of ya, you know? I figured I might as well take that energy and put it to some good use. Got to love my old man's power ups."

Frowning, Dusk stood and formed his Scribe Staff.

"Oh please, you really think you still have a chance? I know your triggers too, pal," Wrath rolled his shoulders, "If I took down the three of them so easy, what's going to stop me from beating you?"

"I don't know," Dusk honestly admitted, "But I have to try."

"Fair enough."

Dusk rushed at Wrath. The halfa swung his weapon towards the demi-demon. Wrath didn't even try to block it. He just let it bounce of his arm.

"Got three power sources right now, dude. You'll need something with more oomph to it," Wrath advised, "Like that Twilight Canon thing. Last time you used that was back when your girl was still alive right?"

Dusk ignored him. Switching his weapon to his Burst Gauntlets, Dusk sent a barrage of punches that were easily blocked by Wrath.

"Big mistake in my opinion. If you used that on Teekl, then Cujo would still be alive."

Dusk put more power behind this strikes. This only caused Wrath's grin to grow.

"You're just loosing everyone, aren't ya? The girl you love. Your dog. And soon, your best friends as well," Wrath gave him a look of pity, "Starting to wish that your whore mother didn't pop you out."

"Shut your damn mouth!"

"There we go!" Wrath pushed Dusk back, "I know that anger's in there. You showed it to me already. You're just like your father, a demon in human skin."

"No! I'm not!"

"Trust me, I know demons, and kid, you're a bigger monster than I ever could be," Wrath noted.

Dusk took some steady breaths. He wouldn't let Wrath do this. No matter what, he had to keep his cool. His friends were depending on him.

"It will come out eventually. Our parent's sins becomes our own no matter what. You've already taken the first step. You've killed out of anger and hatred. What's to stop you from doing it again?"

No…He had to calm down. There may be a killer instinct in him, but that didn't mean he had to be a killer. He was Dusk. He was who he chose to be.

"I bet you think that it's your family and friends. Nice try, but that doesn't work. You just put them in harm's way. How many of them died because of you? Your mother. Your girl. Your dog. Hell! I saw Phantom die not too long ago."

"Mentor…is dead?"

"Yep," Wrath stepped over and stepped on the back of Robin's head and began to push down, "Just like this guy. He's destined to die. Probably because of you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"No…NO!"

"Yes! It's your fault! If you just went for the kill, then so many of your friends would still be alive! Come on, kid! Save your friends! Let the killer out!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Dusk screamed and scratched as his face. His vision turned red as the anger overtook him once more. Then, there was only pain.

Torch ran beside Agent Z. He swung his scythe towards his father in an attempt to cut the man down. Agent Z merely blocked the weapon by covering his arms in spinning flames. He tried to counter strikes of his own, but Torch dodged each burst of fire knowing that Trigon's fire could overpower his own flame endurance.

The two of them would have continued in their sprint, but they were broken up when a sound wave forced them to separate and move back to avoid getting hit. As the two of them skid away, Ember smashed down where they were just fighting. Her guitar and pick were ready for her next move.

"There, we're out of the big guy's range," Ember noted, "Now we can talk without losing our cool."

"There's nothing left to talk about, Ellie," Torch noted, "He's already made his choice."

"Stop calling her that!" Agent Z roared, "She is not my Ellie! And you are not Trever!"

"Of course not! Torch is Torch!" Fire blazed around Torch.

Ember glared at Torch, "Stop it. I know how you feel, Trever. I do, but this isn't the way to do this. He's still Dad somewhere in there, and I don't want to see him die like this."

"Stop it!" Agent Z clutched his head, "You can't be real! You can't!"

"I am! Face reality, you dumbass father!" Ember shouted, "Of course we'd come back! We got your damn stubbornness after all!"

"I looked…I did, but I never found them…Just like my wife…They didn't come back…" Agent Z hissed out, "They're gone! I know it! Taken from me by ghosts! I hate ghosts! I HATE THEM!"

Dark flames flared all around Agent Z. It covered him in a veil, setting his suit aflame and creating a mane of fire on top of his skull. He let out a roar that caused the heat to blast off him and force his children back.

"Torch knew it wouldn't work!" Torch noted as he tried to use his own flames to protect himself.

"I had to try," Ember shook her head. Her burning hair moved around her to absorb as much of the fire as possible, "He's our dad, Trever."

"Torch knows. That's why he wanted to put this shell of a man out of his misery," Torch clenched his scythe tightly, "The longer he exists, the longer the memory of our father is tainted."

Ember couldn't deny that, but… "I hoped that there was a way to redeem him. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe we just need to beat the truth into him. Either way, we got to fight. Together, we can beat him."

Torch watched as Ember removed one of her hands from her guitar and stuck it out to him. Torch eyed the hand for a moment, before slowly removing his own hand from his weapon and gently placing it into hers.

"Right. Together. Ellie…Torch is sorry. He never wanted to hurt you. He just…"

"I know, Trever. I know," Ember smiled at him, "Now, put up or shut up. We've got a fight to win."

"Damn right we do!"

In unison, both of the ghosts were set aflame. Red flames waltzed around Torch while blue swirled around Ember. The two colors soon began to mix and flicker in unison. The combined heat of their fire easily matched that of Agent Z. In fact, they're power began to push back Agent Z's own dark flames. This caused the ex-GIW leader's eyes to widen. That was impossible. No fire could compete with the power of Trigon.

This…This was impossible.

Gritting his teeth, Agent Z let out another roar and rushed forward. Thrusting his hand forward, Agent Z sent a blast of fire towards his children. His dark flames were met with a mixture of red and blue. Then, the very sky itself was set aflame.

Etrigan was sent flying back in a blaze of light as soon as his spell was cast. Nyx quickly jumped up to catch her teacher and gently set him on the ground, "You okay, teach?"

"Yeah…I'm fine…" Etrigan nodded despite the blood running down his face.

"How did you do that?" Cyborg questioned.

"Let's just say, having a ton of magic pumped into you can come in handy once you get over the pain of it all," Entrigan snorted.

"Gah…" Spirit blinked as the red fade from her eyes.

"Spirit!" Nyx's face lit up as Spirit returned to normal.

"My spell worked," Etrigan watched as the rest of the cult members went through their own groggy awakening, "The cultists are free."

"Ugh…What happened?" Spirit questioned as she tried to gain her bearings. She quickly realized how beat up her friends were, "Oh my god! What happened to you! Who…" Spirit gained a horrified look as she realized her arm was still stabbed through Cyborg. She quickly removed her arm and gave her boyfriend a pleading look, "Victor…No, I'm so sorry…I…hurt you again…"

"It's okay," Cyborg hugged her close, "It wasn't you, Dani. It was Brother Blood."

"Still…" Spirit blinked her tears away, "I'll make it up to you."

"You don't—Mmmh!" Cyborg's eyes widened as Spirit passionately pushed her lips to his.

After a few seconds, Spirit pulled away, "No arguing."

Cyborg shook his head, "Yes, ma'am."

"Okay! Okay! Enough of the kissy face, lovebirds," Nyx couldn't hide her grin, "Come on, we still got work to do. We need to help Youngblood with Lust and get these cultists to safety."

"Right," Spirit nodded. She looked around to her fellow heroes, "Bumblebee! Lagoon Boy! Can you two still move?!"

"Agh…Yeah, girl," Bumblebee nodded as she grew back to normal size, "I'm good."

"Neptune's beard!" Lagoon Boy shouted out. He stumbled over to them slowly, "Did a whale sit on me or something?"

Cyborg shrugged, "Sorry, man. But you're too tough for me to hold back."

"Flattery…" Lagoon Boy noted, "You are trying to distract me from the pain. It is working. You have my thanks."

"Okay," Spirit eyed her teammates, "You two start leading the cultists and Entrigan out of here. Don't argue, Mr. Blood, you're too injured to fight anymore."

Etrigan sighed, "Alright."

"What about me?" Raven shyly stepped up to them.

"Oh, uh…" Nyx rubbed her chin, "I forgot about that. Why is she a little girl again?"

Cyborg shrugged.

"Um…Raven, you go with the cultists," Spirit gently patted her head, "I don't want you to get hurt."

"O-Okay."

Nodding, Spirit turned back to her other friends, "Nyx and I will go help Chuck. Cy, you get Brother Douchd—"

"That's Brother Blood to you, urchin!"

Everyone turned to see Brother Blood stumble to his feet. He looked positively furious with blood running down his face. Seeing that their captor was still active, the cultists quickly began to scream and run away.

"La'gaan, Bee, go! Lead the civilians out of here!" Cyborg shouted.

"Right!" Bumblebee quickly took flight.

"Come on, Teacher," Lagoon Boy helped Entrigan up, "Let's get you out of here."

With the room quickly becoming emptier, Spirit glared at her enemy, "Usually, I'd give you a chance to give up. But you're the one that's dumb enough to get back up after hurting my friends, so I'll enjoy curb stomping your teeth out."

"Do you really think that's it? That I wouldn't have a backup plan!?" Brother Blood's skin began to gain a red tint to it. Horns popped out from his head. Fangs extended into a deep snarl. His muscles grew to a massive size, "Did you forget! I worship Master Trigon! Although I prefer to use my psychic powers, I still have the powers he's given me."

Nyx did not look impressed, "You know what? I think he looks better like that."

"Arrogant little girl!" Brother Blood roared, "I'll tear your throat out!"

"No!" Raven rushed to the heroes' sides.

"Rae! What are you doing here! You need to get out of here with the others!" Cyborg shouted.

"No! I won't let the demon hurt anyone!" Raven's eyes began to glow. Oddly enough, she seemed to age a little, "Not again!"

Spirit grinned, "Looks like some of the older Raven is still in you. Alright, but stay back. I don't want you getting hurt."

"We know it's you, Amorpho! Phantom's out fighting!" A voice from the crowd shouted up at Amorpho. Said ghost was still in the form of Phantom and was standing above the other ghosts on a table.

"I know, but my regular form isn't very striking," Amorpho admitted, "I figured looking like Phantom would help."

"Help with what? Make you look like a wannabe?"

Amorpho held a steady look as laughter sounded out throughout the room, "That's where you're wrong. I never wanted to be Phantom or any of them. I've never been too much of a fan of having people know that I'm the one in the spotlight."

Johnny looked up from his spot of comforting Kitty, "Then why are you doing it now?"

"Because someone has to," Amorpho took a deep breath and desperately struggled to keep his legs from shaking. To hide this, he changed into the form of Vision, "Right now, the Council of the Elite are out in the human world fighting for us. For our safety."

"They were the ones that wanted to be in charge," Other ghosts in the crowd quickly agreed to that statement.

"Yes, they did want that, but we just let it happen," Amorpho argued, "We could have stepped up and defended ourselves, but we were content in just hiding away and let them do our fighting for us. Think about it. The last time we actually fought for ourselves was back in the GIW War."

Murmurs spread throughout the room. That was true. Despite the numerous threats to the Ghost Zone, they hadn't all fought in years. In the end, it was the Council that save them, even during le Fey's attack.

"Now, though, we can't just do that," Amorpho looked all across the room, "Trigon is not a threat that we can just ignore and hope that other people deal with. For once, the heroes and the Council won't be enough. I know it. They're being overwhelmed as we speak."

"Then what do we do?"

Amorpho clenched his fists and shifted into the massive form of Colossus, "We fight for ourselves. We head out into the danger and take our fate in our own hands. We take down Trigon."

"But how?" Lunch Lady suddenly spoke up, "If the strong ones can't, what chance do we have?"

"Maybe we don't have much of a chance. Maybe this is a fool's errand, but would you rather go out and fight for a chance to live, or stay here waiting to die?" Amorpho glared at them all, "Well!? Answer me! Fight or die!?"

"…Fight…"

"Fight."

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Chants spread all across the room. Amorpho felt relief rush through his body. He didn't know if he could do it, but it worked. They were all willing to fight, but all that relied on him. If he chickened out, then they would all lose their nerve too. So there was only one last option.

"Let's go!"

He would have to lead the charge.