Dr. Rogere's office, Manhattan

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

The rioters have been pushed back from this building. The office, and the altar, are safe. Past the guards come Nightstar, Starfire, and Nightwing. Their faces are resolute as they pass through the reception area and enter Dr. Rogere's office.

Nightstar looks around the room before she approaches the altar, studying it carefully. "Calling Croutex," she jokes quietly. "Time for you to stop making such a mess of everything." She stretches out on the couch, her feet to the altar. "Dr. Fate?" she says aloud. "Could you help Nightwing and Starfire fall asleep, please?"

Comments

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"To meet an enemy in my sleep...." Starfire shakes her head dubiously. "A strange path to victory."

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

"It'll work," Nightstar says confidently. "Like you said, Selya. Titans together."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Starfire nods. "Together."

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

In the Dreaming, Starfire looks around, noting the green field that stretches beneath their feet, and the white stone walls that rise around them. "I know this place," she says. "The tournament grounds of Tamarus."

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

"Home turf." Nightstar smiles at Kory. "And what better place to issue challenge?" She launches into the sky, arms spread wide as she concentrates.

Croutex. Chaos god. Thief. Would-be Endless. Destroyer and despoiler. I know you dream. You dream of taking Destruction's place. Dream now of here.

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

Fate stands behind the warriors, scanning the air for signs of Croutex. Or possibly of Daniel. Probably a little of both. Even he's not sure.

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

The sky overhead rips open, and darkness rolls forth, tumbling into the arena in a niagra of cold and heat as Croutex comes. The shifting, seething mass that is Croutex threatens to fill the stadium.

Little herald. Little champion. Would you defy a god and more than god?

Agent of Nabu ... your son will be my meat and drink.

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

Fate bristles with anger, and the Dreaming ripples with him.

"This ends, Croutex," he says, simply, although a seething rage seems to be burning from within him. "Your gambit is failing. You will fall."

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

No. You will die.

A pseudopod lashes out at Fate.

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

Croutex stretches, his form shifting until he becomes a chain, a wall, an army of himself.

You face no ordinary foe. You face your death.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that, he mutters, watching, ever alert.

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

Part of Croutex's smoky substance breaks off, tumbling in midair, shaping into the figures of a man and a woman, flying through the air, falling through the air.

And Croutex laughs.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

"Then I shall take you down with me, ryni'axr dog!" Starfire doesn't even pause in her assault.

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

"Mom--Dad--"

Nightstar reaches out to her parents, wanting the contact for what she has to do. Nightwing standing on the ground. Starfire with her in the air. Titans. All three of them. Family. Despite the differences, family.

And now ... now they must become something else.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

The relentless barrages pauses and Starfire swoops down to take her daughter's hand. "I am with you, pe'tyunel."

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He takes Mar'i's hand, holding it tightly, and takes a moment to flash her a grin.

Let's show this thing who's boss.

[jla-villains.livejournal.com]

Croutex pauses, and if a chaotic mass can be said to look surprised, he looks surprised.

What is this?

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

"This is the part where you lose," Mar'i explains.

[starfire-kory.livejournal.com]

Starfire takes flight once more, now a vision described in Tamaranian stories - to human eyes a cross between a dragon and a bird. Wings stretch as a protective shield, and her emerald eyes shine with a ferocity reserved for the deadliest of enemies: those who would harm the blood of her kin.

[bigbang-theory.livejournal.com]

Suddenly, there is what could only be considered a dramatic perspective shift - the sort of shift that happens when you realize that the arena you are in and the surrounding land is actually just contained within a much larger hand.

Despite this scale difference, the voice is calm, matter-of-fact.

You've been quite a nuisance, you realize.

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

Nightstar looks up. "You?"

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

Nightstar looks up as Croutex vanishes into Destruction's hand. "I didn't think I'd see you again. I didn't think you took this seriously."

[bigbang-theory.livejournal.com]

A colossal shrug, and then it's a normal sized one as he stands in front of them.

I don't take it as seriously as you do, obviously. Realistically he never could have been more than a minor irritant to me. But that he allowed himself to become such - bothersome.

I'll have to make a point to check in on the old digs every so often. Maybe once a millennia or so.

[doctorfatejsa.livejournal.com]

"There is still one thing left to do," says Fate. "Reality must be repaired."

[mari-grayson.livejournal.com]

Mar'i raises her head, her weariness growing with each passing moment. "I don't--what do you need me to do?"