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A Dish Best Served Cold-Chapter Twenty... E N D G A M E, part 1




"Oh God, Zero no.... please don't be...don't be...."

Jinx sobbed softly while Cyborg and Starfire were trying to console her... she was unaware that Sub-Zero was alive and well; she thought he had plunged to his death earlier.

"Shhh... Jinx, it's going to be all right... Zero, he... we don't know, he may have survived that fall!" Cy tried to reassure her, but in his heart he felt it wasn't true... he didn't know Zero had survived, either.

"Y-yes... Cyborg is r-right, please do not c-cry..." Star sniffled. She was struggling to contain tears herself.

The sobbing witch looked up from Cyborg's arm, and moaned softly. Tears were still running down her cheeks, and her entire slender body was shaking uncontrollably.

In her mind, an agonizingly painful thought process was going on. Sub-Zero was... gone. The boy that had saved her life, given her a new chance, been the first one to defend her in times of trouble, to keep her company when she was alone, to shine a light onto her path when things were dark... he was gone forever...

Jinx couldn't comprehend it; it all seemed like some awful nightmare that she prayed desperately she was about to wake up from... she was going to wake up any minute, still on Sub-Zero's ship lying next to him, alive and perfectly okay. Even so, she knew she was lying to herself. In her broken heart, she felt a sort of hollowness, filled with only grief and loneliness.

In her mind's eye, she involuntarily pictured Sub-Zero, broken and motionless, laying at the bottom of a dark ravine... the already strained and exhausted young enchantress was overcome by this one, last torment.

Unable to take anymore, she released an anguished scream that made everyone cringe, and then she passed out in a dead faint.

Cyborg gently picked her up and held her, sighing softly. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know... I just can't believe it... Zero's...." Beast Boy shuddered and couldn't finish.

"We have to keep moving. We have to find Slade and Brother Blood... it's what Sub-Zero would've wanted..." Robin said softly and resignedly. He walked over to Star, who had gone into a full-blown crying fit, and hugged her, trying to soothe her pain.

Raven was silent. All her life, she had been taught to control her emotions at all times, never to become too angry, or too sad, or too afraid... but as hard as she tried, she couldn't help a lone, solitary tear sliding down from her left eye... thankfully, her hood hid it...

Everyone looked sadly at Jinx, knowing she was the hardest hit by the loss of the knight; she was mumbling sadly in her sleep.

"Noooo... Zero... come back. Please... don't..."

Back with Zero...

"I gotta find the others..." the knight mumbled.

With a deep breath, he reached into the pocket pouch on his belt, and pulled out the Talisman of the Ice Dragon. He had been keeping it with him at all times these last few days... he looked at it reverently for a moment, and put it back. For some reason, looking at the trinket was... confidence installing.

As he made his way up the stone steps, he held tightly to his new shield, Snevakt. White straps from the back of the icy shield kept it firmly attached to his left forearm, and it was in a good position for blocking attacks at a moments notice. Snevakt's surface was luminous and reflective; Sub-Zero could see his own reflection perfectly in it.

In his right hand was Eviglasere. It's elegant but deadly ice blade reflected from torchlight on the walls, making it shine reflectively.

What had amazed Sub-Zero so much was the way these two weapons had seemed to be made for each other. With these, he felt as though he could take on anything.

"Just hang on guys... I'm coming." He muttered under his breath.

Finally, after much climbing, he reached a huge metal door. There was no telling how old it was... it was heavily rusted in it's frame; countless years of dripping ice had rusted it heavily. He reached for the handle instinctively... only to find a problem...

"What? Locked?" Zero demanded. "Oh, now that's just terrific!"

Sure enough, the door wouldn't budge.

Zero groaned and leaned hopelessly against the door... before remembering something that might help.

He reached into his belt again and pulled out another thing he had retrieved from his ship: a handful of lock picks.

At the time, he had just grabbed them on a whim, he hadn't actually expected to need them. Looking back, he was glad he had.

Zero focused and carefully inserted the metal tool into the ancient, rusty key lock.

He wiggled it around and pushed it in and out a few times, muttering as he did so.

"Come on... come on, ya stupid little so and so..." he grumbled, the absurd difficulty of the lock pissing him off.

Finally, there was a loud, resounding 'click' that echoed around the walls. He had done it.

"Sweet... chalk another one up for Sub-Zero." He chuckled as the door swung slowly open with a loud, shrill creak.

Zero took a deep breath and made his way into the next dark passageway...

Back with the Titans

Jinx had regained consciousness pretty soon after they had set off again. She had stopped crying, but to everyone else, she seemed to be in even worse shape than before.

Her only defense against the maddening sadness and loneliness was to try and block out everything completely... she just walked along behind the Titans with an expressionless face, saying absolutely nothing the whole time.

After a few minutes of walking, Beast Boy froze in his tracks. Cyborg looked back at him.

"Huh? Beast Boy, what's up?" the bot asked.

"Shhhhh!"

Beast Boy's animalistic, super sharp hearing was picking something up... it was like someone... singing?

"Friend Beast Boy, what is troubling you?" Star asked looking afraid.

"I... I think I hear something..." he explained.

After a tense moment... it began to slowly grow louder... and the rest of the Titans could hear it, too. Soon, they could make out words...

It was a bizarre, warbling voice chanting in a twisted singsong voice...

"We're gonna get you, we're gonna get you, we're gonna get you..." the disembodied voice sang mockingly...

As the heroes looked frantically around for the source, they saw nothing...

The voice began to warp and change... first it changed into a little girl's voice, then that of a grown man... then a person with a thick accent of some sort... and then an opera singer, the whole time singing:

"We're gonna get you, We're gonna get you, We're gonna get you.... Not another peep, time to go to sleep..."

"Dude! What's going on? Who's doing this?" Beast Boy demanded, really freaking out.

"Please... make it stop..." whimpered Starfire, cupping her ears and trying to drown out the awful voices...

Robin squinted into the darkness again, looking for a sign of anyone... but there was no one there...

"This is ridiculous!" Cy burst out angrily. "Whoever or Whatever the Hell's doin' this, come out and fight like a man!"


Abruptly, the cacophony of soft, distorted voices died down into an ominous silence.

And then...

All Hell broke loose.

"Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee!"



With an unearthly, demented burst of cackling, a swarm of black, horned ghosts began materializing out of the ceiling and swooped down upon the Titans.

"What the-?" was all Robin had time to say before one of the spirits swiped him to the ground with a clawed, skeletal hand. "Arrrrgh!"

Starfire immediately attempted to protect Robin, flinging green starbolts at the dark spirits. They were blown up by the blast... but just materialized right back again, cackling madly.

Jinx and Raven started slinging spells like crazy, but to no avail. Raven's dark energy bolts worked no better than Star's energy blasts, and Jinx's hexes had no effect on the specters whatsoever.

Cyborg was faring little better. His cannon blew them away in a poof of smoky haze, but the smoke just formed right back together into a spirit, good as new.

"Grrr... isn't there any way to kill you suckas?" Cyborg snarled under his breath. He was blasting the Hell out of them but they just kept coming. Then, a real shock: the thing actually answered him.

"Foolish mortal! You cannot kill what is already dead!" the spirit moaned angrily.

Another one of the ghosts was having an aerial battle with a large, green bat. The bat screeched and attempted to sink it's razor sharp fangs into the spirit... but just ended up going right through it like it wasn't even there. The ghost hissed angrily and formed a ball of shadowy matter in it's skeletal hands... it hurled it at the green bat, knocking the flying creature out of the air. It hit the ground hard and morphed back into a short, green shape shifter.

"Oh man.... Watch out guys! Those shadow ball thingies pack a punch..." Beast Boy groaned, sitting up with difficulty.

Jinx shrieked shrilly in pain and fear as one of the things grabbed her by the hair and carried her up into the air. She slapped at it with both arms, kicking and screaming while tears of terror spilled down her face.

"Do not weep, little girl! Soon, you will be dead as we are... and you will be with your precious little knight again! Would you not like that?" the ghostly monster growled cruelly, taking sadistic pleasure in tormenting the poor sufferer.

The evil entity threw her forcefully to the ground from high up, and then swooped down to finish her with an inhuman roar of unholy rage. The thing outstretched it's long, spiky claws; Jinx just cowered helplessly on the ground because she knew there was nothing she could do... it was over...

'CLANG'


The loud resounding sound resembled, not claws ripping flesh, but rather... a metallic bang, as if the ghost's claws had suddenly collided with something... hard and sturdy.

When the pain never came, Jinx looked up and saw something that nearly made her break into tears on the spot.

"...No... it can't be... Z-Zero?" Jinx moaned softly, her eyes wide and tearing up with joy.

Indeed, Sub-Zero was back! He had just emerged from a passage on the wall and had rushed to block the spectre's claws with his new shield.

"NO! IMPOSSIBLE! YOU'RE DEAD!" The phantom beast roared angrily.

"Not as dead as you're about to be, you puff of secondhand smoke..." Sub-Zero retorted in a deadpan voice.

The ghosts all around the chamber screeched angrily and flew above them, going in circles like buzzards.

Sub-Zero dashed up to Cyborg.

"Zero! You're back! But how--?" he began, but Zero cut him off.

"Never mind that... Cy, haven't you got a build in spotlight?" he asked urgently.

"Huh? Yeah, you're right... I'd forgotten about that thing... we could have been using that to see in here!" he said, smacking himself for his stupidity.

"Forget about that! I need you to turn it on and turn it up as bright as it'll go!"

Cyborg didn't really understand how this would help the situation, but he did as Zero said. He brought the large spotlight out of his mechanized shoulder, and turned it to full blast, sending a ray of bright light forward.

Grinning, Sub-Zero stuck his shield in front of the beam of light... it reflected off it's surface like a mirror! The beam ricocheted upwards at an angle and grew in length, width, and intensity...

"NOOOOOOOOO!! THE LIGHT!" The evil spirits groaned in agony.

As the bright, pure light hit them, they began to change. No longer did they seem hazy and not solid... they looked solid, with definite shapes.

"ARRRRRRRRGGGGHHH! KILL THEM! KILL THEM!"

The now-solid spirits began to swoop down upon Zero. But he smiled grimly and outstretched a hand that began to shimmer with a pulsing blue glow... and he said one thing.

"You filthy corpses keep the blue blazes away from my woman..."

They ghosts had no time to swerve to the side as Sub-Zero materialized a howling snowstorm from his hands and fired it at them at high velocity. Their now-physical bodies were frozen solid and they fell to the ground, shattering into pieces...

In the stunned silence following Sub-Zero's victory, he walked calmly over to Jinx and kneeled down.

"Now... are you all right, darling?" he asked in concern, his crimson eyes looking deeply at her.

She was stunned. But still, she reflexively threw her arms around his neck and started sobbing happily as the other Titans began crowding around Zero as well.

"Oh God, oh Zero, you're... y-you're.... You're alive! I thought I'd lost you! I.... I..." Jinx sobbed, tears pouring from her like water from a sink. He hugged her soothingly and rubbed her slender back, whispering softly into her ear.

"Shhhhh... please quit crying. Why've you always gotta be crying anyway?" He joked. "You know I hate that..."

"Holy.... Sub-Zero, you're okay!" Robin yelled in relief. "How did you get out of that ravine?"

"And how did you survive that fall?" Beast Boy added.

"Yeah.... And how'd you know how to stop those things?" Cy demanded.

He looked up and started to answer, but was suddenly pounced upon by a wild Tamaranean.

"FRIEND SUB-ZERO! YOU ARE ALIVE! YOU ARE ALL RIGHT!!" Star screamed happily, inadvertently grabbing him up in one of her 'death hugs.'

"URP! Not for long if I can't breathe Star..."

She let go and then gave him another hug, this time more gently.

"Oh, I am sorry friend Zero! I am so overjoyed to see you alive and well again!" she sniffed, her emerald eyes almost tearing up.

"Aww, not don't YOU start, too!" he begged, not wanting two crying girls around.

She sniffed again and rubbed her eyes. "I am sorry."

Sub-Zero turned his attention back to the sniffling sorceress in his arms.
"Jinx... seriously, are you all right?" he asked.

She looked up, no longer crying, but beaming in happiness. "Zero... you came back to me..." she purred softly.

"Heh... you bet I did. What, you thought a little fall could do me in? I thought you guys knew me better than that!" he chuckled. "I'm pretty... resilient."

She looked at his shield.

"Zero... where did you get that shield?" she whispered curiously.

"Yeah I was wondering about that, too!" Cy added eagerly.

Sub-Zero smiled broadly.

"Well, It's name is Snevakt... and you could say it's just a delayed father-son present..." he said mysteriously. The Titans didn't trouble him for any more information.

Sub-Zero and Jinx looked deeply into each other's eyes...

"Guys... I just want to apologize in advance for what I'm about to do... and you might want to avert your eyes." He warned.

"Uh... what?" Robin said, confused.

Without answering, Zero seized Jinx's face in his hands, leaned down and gave her a full-blown, passionate kiss on the lips, but Jinx wasn't complaining. She ran her pale, gray hands over his armored chest and purred softly in contentment... and the kiss ended about a minute and a half later.

They looked up to see Robin looking stunned, Cy and B.B. grinning dumbly and drooling, Starfire covering her face while giggling and blushing, and Raven with her back to them and her hood pulled down.

Zero grinned lopsidedly and asked: "Now... pardon my French, but... who feels up for kicking some serious, super villain Ass?"

Back with our hapless Villains...

Slade and Brother Blood sat in the same chamber as before on a pair of makeshift thrones, built out of bones, ice, and rocks by their undead servants.

"Very good. The demonic spirits will have killed those meddlesome Titans once and for all by now." Slade said calmly.

"Yes... and with our new army, we shall control not only this pathetic little island, but Jump City as well!" cackled Brother Blood.

"No... the world." Corrected Slade with a malice filled hiss.

Both bad guys began laughing evilly. A moment later, a skeleton shuffled clumsily in holding a tray with a pair of golden goblets filled with rum.

"It's about time!" Bellowed Blood, grabbing a goblet. Slade took the other.

Just as they were about to take a swig of it, a birdirang flew out of nowhere and took out both goblets, splashing the baddies with wine, and taking down the skeleton waiter on the way back.

The stupefied villains looked at the entrance to the chamber... only to see the LAST seven people they wanted to see:

Robin standing there holding a birdarang, Starfire hovering in midair with eyes and hands glowing green, Cyborg charging up his sonic cannon, Beast Boy crouched next to Cy with a grin, Raven floating in midair with her cloak swirling around her, Sub-Zero in a fencing stance with Eviglasere and Snevakt ready for battle, and last but not least Jinx with glowing pink eyes and an impish smile.

"No! You're supposed to be dead!" Blood cried furiously.

"Well, what can we say? We're persistent." Cy retorted.

Slade remained calm and looked at them with an expression of mild interest.

"True... but not for long. I must admit, this game of cat and mouse has been entertaining. But every game has to end, sometime." Slade said in a businesslike tone. "It's time to die, Titans."

"No, Slade. You're not getting away THIS time!" Robin yelled.

The battle was on.

Immediately, skeletons with weaponry and large, mutant zombies burst forth from the chamber upon Slade and Blood's whim.

"Zero, Raven, Jinx, Star, and Beast Boy... you take the undead. Cyborg, you take Brother Blood." Robin doled out orders quickly and precisely.

"So, what about Slade?" Zero asked curiously?

A look of grim determination spread over The Boy Wonder's masked visage.

"Leave Slade to me."

The Titans broke apart and started whupping up on the baddies.

Jinx was ready to get back at those undead boneheads for almost killing Zero.

"Your little ghost pals got frozen by Zero..." she taunted. "But you deadheads won't be so lucky!"

She did a ballerina-style spin and launched a spiral of ribbon-shaped, neon-pink hex energy up into the air. It came down with a 'zap' and caused the ground beneath a group of skeletons to cave into a rubble pit and swirl around like a blender, grinding the skeletons up.


Jinx back flipped out of the way of a pair of charging skeletons, both with axes, and they just ended up chopping each other's skulls off. They looked around dumbly for a moment before Jinx spun her leg around in the air in a dance-like move and shattered them both into bones and dust.

"What's the matter? Lost your head over little ol' me?" she giggled devilishly.

The hexer did a few cartwheels into a nearby zombie knocking it to the ground, and then blasted it with a hex bolt, splattering it apart. A few more of the stupid blighters came shuffling near, and she tossed a slew of hexes their way.

They were hit dead on by the pink magic, and for a moment nothing happened. Then, they just kind of fell apart, first the arms, then the head, then the legs, and so on as they came nearer, leaving a trail of body parts behind. They were in pieces before they got to her.

"Oh, Now really... there no reason to go to pieces on me like that..." Jinx pouted mockingly.

She just laughed, shrugged, and took off again to hex some more undead.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy had morphed into a massive snake and was constricting the crap out of a few hapless zombies. The green snake hissed and squeezed harder and harder, until finally the zombies just popped like squeezed balloons, sending blood and various other bodily fluids spewing everywhere.

With another loud his, the huge snake changed into a green hyena and 'laughed' to itself before dashing off and tackling a skeleton to the ground. The skeleton attempted to stab the hyena in the mouth with it's spear, but the beastie grabbed the shaft of the spear in it's powerful jaws and bit it in half. The skeleton gave an 'oh, crap' look, just in time to mauled...

Elsewhere, Sub-Zero was fencing a ten-foot tall, six armed skeleton. It wore thick, iron armor over it's bony body. It brandished a menacing variety of weaponry. It's lower left arm held a ball-and-chain mace, it's lower right held a long spear, it's middle left arm held a broadsword, it's middle right a battle axe, and both upper arms holding crossbows. It's belt held a pair of razor sharp daggers and a quiver of arrows was on it's back.

"Geeze, fella... you think you got enough gear, there?" Zero taunted.

The hulking undead just roared with unnatural fury and fired off a round of arrows. Zero dodged them easily and attacked with his sword. While reloading it's crossbows, it swung at him with the sword and spear at the same time. Zero quickly and effectively blocked the spear with his shield and locked swords with the undead beast.

"Grrr... you may have numbers... but I got the skill, baby." Zero laughed.

With that, he pulled a fast one: he whipped his leg up and kicked the sword out of the things hands, freeing up Zero's sword. He sliced off two of the things arms and left it lacking a sword and a spear.

"Come on, rotten meat-face... come get some!" Sub-Zero said cockily.

The thing hissed in anger and fired more arrows. Zero deflected them with his shield and pulled yet ANOTHER trick. With a grunt, he tossed his shield like a discus... it whipped through the air and knocked both crossbows out of the giant skeleton's hands...

"Heh... I like to call that my 'frozen Frisbee' technique." The knight joked as Snevakt came sailing back to his arm, where he caught it in the strap and held it up.

The massive corpse, fed up with getting it's butt kicked, swung it's ball and chain and bashed Sub-Zero hard on the shield. He blocked it, but the sheer force sent him sliding back.

"Whoa... that thing's got to go..." he muttered.

The next time it swung the mace, Zero held his sword straight out in front of him and the mace got caught on it's blade, enabling Zero to yank it out of it' s hand.

Left with only an axe, the cadaver shrieked in anger and swung the one remaining weapon... only to have it's entire axe-arm lopped off, courtesy of Eviglasere. With another quick chop, the thing's head was sent flying into the air. As the body slid slowly to the ground, Zero froze the head in midair... it fell down and shattered upon the body.

"Well then... Zero: 1.... Undead: dead.... Game. Set. Match." He chuckled and ran off to continue the fight.

While all this was going on, Raven was zapping a combination of Zombies and Skeletons with her black magic, frying them. She also picked up large chunks of ice and stone and hurled them at her foes.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she chanted, picking up the large thrones that Slade and Brother Blood had been sitting in and sending them hurtling towards a skeleton with a pair of swords. It was shattered into dust...

"Stupid skeletons..." she muttered darkly under her breath.

Meanwhile, Brother Blood was dodging a supersonic beam from Cyborg's cannon.

"You mechanical whippersnapper! Show your elders some respect!" Blood roared, whipping off his fancy robes to reveal his red and black armor. He let fly with a flying samurai kick that knocked Cyborg back.

"Uhgh... you're gonna pay for that, geezer..." Cy groaned getting up and blasting away with his cannon.

Blood dodged several more shots, but finally slipped up and was hit, sent flying backwards with a hoarse yell.

Meanwhile, Slade and Robin were ferociously duking it out.

"Hiyah!" Robin hollered as he tried a karate chop to the head. But Slade blocked it and did a judo throw, tossing Robin over his back. Robin ended up face down on the ground.

"Robin, Robin, Robin..." Slade said making a 'tsk' sound. "You really shouldn't have come. You came all this way and fought so hard... just to die."

But Slade hadn't noticed that, behind Robin's back, he had been getting something out of his utility belt. Not a birdarang... not an explosive disc... not a grappling hook... it was something he'd been saving for a special occasion.

A hand grenade.

"No Slade... I wouldn't have missed this for the world." Robin countered and whipped the grenade out... in a matter of seconds, he had pulled the pin and hurled the tiny, but potent explosive straight at Slade's masked face.

Bam!




The seemingly invulnerable bad guy was blown back all the way across to where Cyborg had just finished laying a bionic smackdown on Bro. Blood.

The two villains looked at each other.

"Well... you know what they say... 'he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.'" Blood Began.

"Correct. I believe a hasty retreat is in order. We'll leave a little surprise for them, though." finished Slade.

Bro. Blood smiled evilly and chanted another spell he had found on the scroll: "Draconus ex Excessum, Agito Protinus!" (A/N: 'Dragon of Death, come forth!')

Out of nowhere, Slade pulls a small lever on a nearby wall... and a passage opens up near the back wall, which the baddies quickly escaped to.

"AFTER THEM!" Robin, Cyborg, and Sub-Zero yelled simultaneously. But it was too little too late... the passage had already slammed shut, and the lever that triggered it was stuck in place; the passage couldn't be reopened.

The Titans stood there, victorious.

"All right! We came, we saw, we kicked their-" B.Boy began

"Slade got away...." Robin growled under his breath. "Again."

Starfire floated up to him and looked at him with pleading green eyes. "Robin, I... I know you are enraged by Slade's escape, but... " she paused hesitantly. "Can you not be happy we have won? Friend Zero's Island is saved."

Robin looked at her intently. "You're right." He said finally. "I won't worry about it."

"There's one thing I don't understand..." Raven said slowly. "What was that spell of Blood's for?"

As if on cue, the entire chamber went pitch black and the ground shook. Then, the candles floating around the chamber flickered back to life and the shaking stopped. Then, it happened.

Every bone... every chunk of rotted flesh... every fragment of the undead that lay in the room from the earlier battle... started to move.

They floated up into the air... and grouped together as one, and started taking on a shape of their own... the shape of a dragon.

Finally, the heroes could only stare in horror as the massive, skeletal beast reared it's huge, ugly head back and roared mightily. When it did so, it's mouth spewed, not fire, but freezing mist.

The mist formed a wall of impenetrable ice between Sub-Zero and the rest of the Titans with the dragon on Zero's side.

Sub-Zero stared in confusion as the wall began expanding and eventually formed kind of an icy arena around him and the death dragon.

He looked back to see the others frantically trying to break through the ice and help him... but to no avail.

Sub-Zero was on his own.