EPISODE FORTY-FOUR
Onboard the Titans’ camper, Kori was sleeping in her bunk, while the councillors slept on the remaining four, unoccupied bunks.
Vic had prepared a good feast for them earlier with the supplies onboard, and both he and Robin agreed to take shifts watching the steering to stay on course, following the airship.
Vic was growing really tired, and he yawned, but good for him Robin came up to take his shift.
“Catch up on your sleep, Vic. I can take from here.”
Vic felt relieved, but he had to point out, “Take a look at the course we’re traveling.”
Robin calculated the course, the direction and the given speed and time, and he began to feel a bit awkward “If we stay on this course that means in the morning we’ll be flying over…”
The two men felt really awkward.
“Maybe they’ll change course?” suggested Robin, but even he wasn’t holding his breath to that.
Soon, Vic had parked himself on the sofa and was fast asleep.
Robin kept looked through the windshield at the airship. He could see that it was all dark, with not a light in any of the portholes.
“The others must’ve gone to bed.” he figured.
He wondered if Raven and Terra were okay-- Raven especially, but more-so, how was everyone else fairing?
He still didn’t dare call either Raven or Terra on their coms, or even give a warning signal or he’d break cover. All he could do now was maintain watch of their course.
Onboard the ship, as the passengers all slept, some of them began to have dreams.
Terra had fallen asleep in the chair by Raven’s bed, and she had this nightmare of confronting Masquerade again, and rather than dueling him, it was personal, especially because he had taken her Change of Heart Card again.
“You want it? Come and get it!” he taunted.
She tried using her powers to collapse the ground so he fell over the step edge of the cliff, and while it seemed to work at first, as he plummeted he began to spring-leap off the falling boulders and make his way back up to the top!
Terra tried to make fissures open up the in ground, but he skillfully dodged and leapt over each one.
She tried bombarding him with a barrage of boulders, but he rolled, swerved, leapt over, and avoided them all as they were moving in slow motion.
Left with no options, Terra tried one trick she remembered that worked before, and made a boulder rise up, up, up, with him on it.
“You’re just making this too easy.” he laughed, and he leapt off the boulder at such a height, and opened out the sides of his overcoat like wings allowing him to glide through the air.
No matter what Terra would try, Masquerade used his exceptional and incredibly athletic skills to avoid her every time, even surfing on a boulder herself to try and catch him.
“Give me back my card!!” she shouted.
“…WHAT card?!” he thundered back, and right before her eyes, he shredded it to pieces!
Terra gasped hard and felt her own heart, as well as her body, literally breaking up, like cracking ice.
“Look at you!” taunted Masquerade “You’re rotting to the core like the disgrace that you are!! BEGONE!!”
He gave her a shove off her boulder and she began to plummet, down, down, down into endless darkness by the sounds of his nasty laugh echoing around her.
She suddenly snapped awake, and breathed a sigh of relief.
She could see Raven was still floating silently over her bed, and then she checked her deck. All the cards were still there including Change of Heart.
While she was relieved it was safe, looking it made her hurt inside after having a dream like that, and her past came back to haunt her again, just like the last time, and the time before, and even the many other times.
She looked down at the card so deeply; it glowed in the reflective moonlight through the porthole by her chair.
“I miss you...” she said to the card, or rather the next words to come out of her mouth, “Beast Boy…”
In his own suite, Masquerade lay on top of his bed, still fully dressed, and still even had his mask on, but he was finding it hard to sleep for the first time in ages.
He got up for a sip of water, but he felt most uncomfortable. He was reaching his breaking point-- having had all he could put up with The Titans and the Equestrians, and all their “friendship” their “morality” and all the other things he didn’t believe in!
He never forgot the day the tournament started and he ran into Terra, after catching her runaway Change of Heart card, and then finding out the entire team was competing away well.
He clenched his fists, seemingly cringing inside with emotional trauma. “Why did they have to come here? Why did they have to re-open old wounds?”
He was now more determined than ever to win the tournament.
“It’ll be over tomorrow.” he kept telling himself “Tomorrow the tournament ends and I can finally be rid of these pests and their nonsense once and for all!”
In the shared guest suite, most of the girls were sleeping soundly; a couple of them were snoring softly, but Twilight was wide awake as she softly climbed out of bed and headed for the door.
“Twilight…” Fluttershy called softly, nearly frightening her. “Where are you going?”
“Shh…” said Twilight “I’m just going to the washroom.”
Fluttershy nodded and lay back down again going back to sleep.
Twilight sighed in relief and walked down the hall, passing by the washroom, turning the corner and stopping in front of Karle’s suite, and she had a key-card and walked inside.
Her stomach gave a sickening growl due to her nerves going crazy. “One more day…” she said softly to herself “Just one more day, and it’ll all be over, and I can finally let go of things.”
She clenched her fists tightly and walked out of sight, followed by a soft glow of light that faced out quickly, and then she seemingly walked back towards the door and went back to the guest suite to rejoin her friends.
When the door shut, a shadow, cast by the moonlight, was seen on the wall, belonging to Karle who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
She walked towards the porthole and looked out into the night, but all she could think about were the events that would occur tomorrow.
“You’re mine, Masquerade!” she growled softly “No more hiding! I’m going to make you suffer for what you did to me once and for all, and no one, not even those crazy girls are going to stop me now!”
Sunset was tossing and turning in her sleep!
She dreamt the Prince Brothers had all her friends, including the Titans, binding them against the walls of a building in the Malefic World!
“Sunset…!”
“Help us!!”
“Get us down from here!”
Sunset was horrified and called up to the nasty brothers, “You let my friends go!”
The Brothers only laughed at her.
“You’re in no position to make demands.” hissed Rubeus.
“In fact, if it wasn’t for you and your friends and all the duel energy we harnessed, none of this would be happening now, would it!” added Loki.
Then, combining their powers together, the brothers zapped all their hostages!
Sunset covered her eyes from the blindness, and when she opened them again she saw that all her friends had been turned into cards!
“No!!” cried Sunset.
The brothers snickered, and Rubeus pulled out one final blank card, “And now it’s your turn!”
Sunset began to run for her life, but it was hopeless for her to outrun The Brother’s oncoming magical waves.
“No…!!” she screamed as all went white around her…
…And she bolted upright in bed.
She caught her breath and sighed in relief, but then she curled up with her knees to her chest and felt worried again.
She thought “There’s got to be some way to stop those creeps from unleashing the Malefic World. Who knows how many innocent beings they’ll hurt if they succeed?”
She still didn’t know how. She knew The Brothers were harnessing power from duels as the players exhausted themselves pouring so much energy into the game-- thoughts, strategizing, strength, endurance, and stress!
Whatever or whichever way it was, she couldn’t even try to investigate, what with the probability of The Brothers watching her every force and holding her to their blackmail!
Suddenly, she had a small theory, and an idea.
“If The Brothers are harnessing duel energy, they must be keeping it somewhere close by; maybe even on this ship-- it’s big enough.
Maybe I can’t do any investigating, but the others could.”
There was only one way she could think of to let her friends know without seeming too suspicious.
She reached over for her jacket, and pulled out a pencil and pen she kept in one of her pockets. She then slipped under the covers, using light from her cell-phone, and began to write down a letter which she would pass to her friends the next morning.
“Phones can be bugged, and lips can be read; but the same things can’t be said for letters.”
The next morning, Terra softly awoke and saw Raven sitting upright in bed.
“Raven…! You’re awake! You’re finally awake!”
Raven raised her hand, “Yeah, yeah! Can you tone it down a bit I still have a bit of a headache.”
Terra tried to control herself, but Raven felt touched that her friend stood by her all night.
Raven’s features suddenly faded into upset when she saw on the stand next to her bed; her deck was there but the sight of her broken duel disk…!
She then remembered to last night when Masquerade delivered the finishing blow…!
“SO LONG RAE-RAE…!!”
WHAM!! Raven went sailing across the field and into the wall!
Raven clasped her deck hard, hissing softly, “…Masquerade!” Now she had an even bigger bone to pick with him than possibly anyone else onboard.
Terra took the time to tell her what Masquerade had said the other night; as he denounced the Titans, the girls, and all forms of friendship and morality.
Raven was flabbergasted “How can someone carry a huge grudge for that long? How can the whole world still be against us all?”
Terra felt the same way, the two Titans felt worse than ever for having lost and being out of the tournament. Rainbow and Sunset were their only hopes now.
Before Terra could tell Raven about what Sunset had told her. There was a wake-up call over the intercom: “Attention duelists and passengers: Good Morning! Breakfast is served in the dining hall, and in the meantime we are now currently flying at four-thousand feet above Jump City California.”
Raven and Terra’s stomachs each gave a churn. They looked at each other in shock, and then dashed out of Raven’s room to the dining hall where they view was much wider.
The airship soared through a thick cloudy sky. Though it was mid-morning, it looked dark enough to be night still.
The Titans’ camper, still camouflaged and undetected, was right behind them.
The Titans could see, and Kori looked on the verge of tears. Robin held her, but he felt just as down hearted, and so did Vic.
“Would you look at that?” cried Shining Armor. The ladies were at a loss for words.
Down below, the city was just as miserable, just as decrepit as the Titans had said it was!
Everywhere they looked, the buildings were crumpling and hopelessly damaged. Just looking at them was enough to make them fall over.
The streets were cracked up and littered with busted cars, debris, and wreckage, and loads of smoke billowing in the air from burning wreckage or bonfires the people made.
As for the people themselves, even from way up, everyone could see they looked in a bad way-- impoverished, dishevelled, wearing rags or tattered remains of their old suits and business wear.
Thankfully there were no children in the whole of the city because of silly law that disallowed anyone 14 and under from coming near.
The people who remained were that of the greedy capitalists responsible for destroying the city, and those who actually sided with them.
The Equestrians, and even Masquerade all looked down from the dining hall port-views
Masquerade clenched his fists and silently thought, “I never thought I’d come back to this miserable dump ever again! Things sure seem to have gotten worse over the years.”
“Oh, my…!” cried Fluttershy.
“Ohh…!” added Sunset.
Terra nodded “It’s worse than you think. We have hardly any electricity, or power at all, and it’s hard to grow food around here, and any water we have for drinking is in limited supplies.”
Pinkie quivered miserably, “That’s… that’s just…!” she couldn’t find any words to describe how horrible she felt.
“And nobody in the world is willing to help you?” said Fluttershy “They won’t give you supplied, or food! That’s so sad! It’s too cruel!”
“…I guess you all see by now.” hissed Masquerade “That city is a lost cause. It’s pointless to try and fix it up now.”
The others gave him an angry glare.
“Well, no one asked you!” snapped Rainbow “Just because you’ve given up doesn’t mean we have! We can still fix the city and get it going right again.”
Masquerade folded his arms. “Is that so? Take a good look at that mess down there. Do you really think you can fix it up, and even if you did, do you really think it would last as long?”
Twilight did some calculations, “Um… I hate to tell you all this, but he’s got a point.”
She showed them all her calculations, and even if they Titans’ managed to secure the million-dollar prize and increase it with their plans, there was still the matter of building supplies, special equipment and machinery, crews to hire…!
It would cost fortunes Upon Fortunes, UPON FORTUNES!! It was even too much for her calculator to compute.
Raven and Terra were cringing miserably. Deep down they had always felt that was a possibility.
“Can’t Vic just rig up some kinds of machinery and stuff?” suggested Pinkie
Sunset shook her head, “He would’ve tried, wouldn’t he?” she asked to the Titans.
Raven and Terra nodded and revealed that after the city fell to bits years ago, there were just not enough things for even Vic to make.
“He barely managed to make what he could.” said Raven. “He installed a few solar panels and a water conversion unit to supply the city with a little power, but even that was hardly enough to make even one block work well, but it helped us grow food underground, but it’s hardly to keep us all going.”
Applejack took one look at the crumpling buildings below, and just looking at them told her that fixing them up at the point would do no good. “They’re just too banged up. Even on the farm we see things like this all the time. When the old barn was falling in after winter, we knew all the fixing up wouldn’t save it. It had to be knocked down and built up again.”
The same situation she was implying to the buildings-- too damaged to be repaired and better off destroyed and then rebuilt, which would cost yet even more vast fortunes and all the rest of it.
“I think you’re all forgetting the most important detail.” hissed Masquerade “Who would be willing to help even if you could pay for it? Even if by some miracle you could fix the city up, do you honestly people will want to come back?”
“How can you say such a thing?!” growled Celestia.
“Just telling you the facts.” said Masquerade “This is why I don’t bother to help. Even if I donated now, it wouldn’t be nearly enough, and even so, as I have told you repeatedly… nobody out there wants to help the place.
If people find out that you plan to buy supplies for Jump City, they just might refuse you, not wanting the place to be fixed up. Got it?!”
The girls all looked ready to blow like volcanos, but Raven and Terra bravely stood forth, as if they were ready to pummel him-- which of course would still be foolish and ineffective.
Raven spoke severely to him. “We’re not giving up, and nothing you say or do will make us!”
Terra agreed, “You may have given up hope, and lot of other people may have given up on us, but we’ll find away. We helped the people to survive until now, and we’ll help them get back on their feet. That’s why we are the Supreme Council of Jump City.”
The Equestrians stood by their sides, showing their support and willingness to help.
Masquerade only snuffed and turned to look down again, and something caught his eye. “…Then what’s that down there?”
The ladies looked out through the view, and what they saw turned their bloods cold.
Even from so high up, they could see carvings in the walls of the buildings denouncing the Titans-- signs containing slanderous slurs, and people even making makeshift dummies of the Titans out of bits of debris, only then to club, smash and topple them over.
There was even an extra-large banner hung up on a crumpling building, with large in the fabric-- as there was no paint or liquids to us-- spelling out a message:
“NEVER COME BACK, LOSERS!!”
The Titans on the camper couldn’t believe this.
Vic was able to hone in on sounds below, as the city was not shielded like the airship was.
People were bad-mouthing the Titans.
“Did you hear the news over the radio?”
“The Titans are out, all of them! They lost the tournament!”
“I knew we couldn’t trust them!”
“They promised us they’d come back and help us! Now they’ll never get that money!”
“They’re not Super Heroes, they’re Super Zeros!”
More and more slanders were shared, and each one seemed to pierce through the titans’ very hearts.
“Are they actually giving up on us?” Robin asked in horror.
“No… No, they wouldn’t! They can’t!” cried Kori “After everything we’ve done to try and help them, they’re just kicking us out?!”
“I don’t think they’re kidding!” said Vic “Look at Titans Tower…!”
Their old home, which had already been in a sorry sight ever since they left for the tournament-- they could see people floating out to it on makeshift rafts or other things that floated, and were looting the place of whatever scraps and material they could find!
The councillors were livid beyond words.
“That’s it!” snapped Shining Armor “You try to help the people, and they give the heave-ho?!”
“Outrageous!” thundered Luna.
Cadance could hardly believe her eyes and her ears. “I never thought human beings could be so cold and cruel!”
Nonetheless, The Titans were simply crushed…
…As were Raven and Terra.
Both of them were trembling miserably, a tear rolled down Terra’s cheek.
“No… this can’t be happening.” she peeped ever so softly.
Raven was stiff and frozen where she was in total devastation. “Why?” was all she could say in a tone so soft you could barely hear her.
The Equestrians were just heartbroken and incredibly hurt for their friends, especially Sunset.
“I can’t believe this is happening to The Titans.” she thought “They kept their city alive, they tried to help their people, and this is the thanks they get-- a cold rebuff and exile?!”
Masquerade said nothing, and he walked off thinking, “Now they know how it feels to have what they’ve known and love taken away from them.
Like I told them:
They can’t repair the city…
They cannot relocate…
And even if they could, they will never be forgiven for the mistakes they have made.”
Just as he was about to leave the hall, he stopped right before Karle as she turned the corner.
The two cold figures glared at one another, like cowboys ready to draw.
Karle passed by him, muttering, “…You’re going down!”
He took her threat lightly, as usual, and headed down the hall to his own room to eat out of his refrigerator in quiet.
Soon everyone sat down to breakfast, but many of them didn’t feel much like eating, especially Raven or Terra-- too upset and too crushed to even lift their forks.
Celestia urged at least Rainbow and Sunset to eat, “You girls are going to need your strengths today.”
“She’s right!” Pinkie said with her mouth full “And as for the rest of us, no sense in being sad on an empty stomach.”
Applejack sighed, but admitted “…She’s got a point.” and she took a few bites herself.
Twilight didn’t eat anything, claiming she had already eaten in her room after waking up early, and the girls bought it, again.
Karle then rudely called over to them, “Uh, I’m trying to eat here. Can you be gloomy elsewhere?”
Rarity sternly stood and marched straight over to her and balked, “How can you be so insensitive?!! Our friends have just been exiled form their home, and you have no concern whatsoever?!”
“…Nope.”
The entire gang was infuriated now, especially Raven and Terra.
“So, you got kicked out of your town-- Get over it! That’s what you always say, huh? That’s what you’re all for… “Letting go of the past” and “Changes?”
Raven raised her glowing hand, “Don’t make me come over there!” she threatened.
“Ooh, I’m so scared.” taunted Karle, “You know I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Masquerade is right about you; you’re nothing but a couple of frauds, unworthy of being called “Super Heroes!” That goes for the other “Titans” as well.”
Everyone was getting angry with her mocking the Titans, and Raven was so mad she almost felt like going over there and sending Karle out of the ship to plummet to her doom, but that would only confirm the things Karle said. So she calmed down.
Karle, having had her fills on food, and content of putting the Titans down like that, got up, blew a taunting kiss, and headed off to prepare for later.
Pinkie was so enraged that she bent her utensils her hands.
Applejack’s hand was trembling with anger as she held her drink drizzling it down the sides.
As for sunset and Rainbow, they were not about to let Karle get away with it!
“She’s going down in The Finals.” said Rainbow.
Sunset nodded in agreement.
Celestia couldn’t help but wonder, “How could Karle know the things Masquerade said last night when she wasn’t even with us?”
Suddenly, she began to feel a bit woozy, and clutched her head.
“Are you alright?” asked Sunset.
Celestia shook herself awake, “I’m okay. I just woke up this morning feeling a little tipsy. I don’t know why; I slept like a log last night.”
“Maybe you should go and sleep a little more?” suggested Fluttershy.
“No, no… I’m fine now.”
Suddenly, Sunset remembered and showed Rainbow her little note she had written in the night, “Pass it on.” she whispered.
Rainbow examined the note, and softly passed it down, and the chain continued.
The note explained how Sunset believed it was possible that all the dueling energy was being harnessed by the brothers, and the source was somewhere on the ship, but this would require investigating during the dueling that day so the brothers would be distracted.
The note also read that some of the girls could split up, investigate the ship, and if they found this power source, they could put it out of action.
The group exchanged looks between each other.
“It’s our only chance.” said Applejack.
“But what if the Prince Brothers get wise to us?” whimpered Rarity “They still hold our friends’ soul cards.”
“We’ll have to sneak up on them too.” suggested Terra “We can surprise them and take the cards back, so at least they’ll be out of danger.
…I can do that.”
Pinkie practically leapt out of her seat, “Yippie! We’ve got a plan! We’ve got a--” she stopped when Applejack grabbed her and covered her mouth. “Will you keep it down!” she scolded, implying that the Prince Brothers would get wise to their attempts.
Pinkie nodded nervously, and promised to keep her mouth shut about it.
Sunset could only hope this plan of hers would work! If it failed, then they would all be in graver danger.
Back on the camper, Vic pounded the sofa angrily growling in frustration. “I can’t accept this! I can’t believe they’d kick us out! I built them gadgets and things to help keep them going!!”
Robin and Kori felt just as upset.
“We should go down there and investigate it!” Kori suggested “…Try and reason with them all, make them realize that they’re wrong.”
Robin agreed, but he knew they couldn’t let the airship go.
“Kori... you fly down there, and keep in touch with you communicator. We’ll keep watch over the ship.”
Kori agreed.
“I’ll go with you.” offered Cadance.
“What?” cried Shining Armor “Honey, you can’t.”
“Why can’t I? She could use some support, and I have to see this all for myself.”
She approached Kori “I may be just a school principal, but I’ve had my share of wild experiences and dangerous individuals, but at the same time I’ve learned a lot, and maybe I can help you convince the people not to be so cruel.
…Let me help you.”
Seeing the determination in her eyes, and the fact she could use the help, Kori agreed. “Thank you, Cadance.”
Cadance smiled, and while Shining Armor tried to protest for fear of his wife’s safety, Luna assured him “You should put more faith in her, just as you do your friends and your sister, for they are fighting powerful foes to save our other friends, and stop a great disaster from occurring.”
He couldn’t’ disagree, but he turned Cadance to face him, “Please, just be very careful down there. So much has happened already, and I don’t want anything happening to you too.”
She gave him a huge smooch for his concerns.
Kori then turned to Robin, and they shared a soft kiss for luck too, which made Vic start to tear up. “…This is just so beautiful, baby.”
They waited until the airship flew a little on ahead, and Vic steered the camper lower, below the clouds so as not to be seen. Though the camper was still camouflaged, Kori would be seen as she exited, keeping Cadance strapped to her… in a large harness, almost like a baby buggy.
“This is embarrassing!” Cadance groaned, but she was ready, and Kori leapt down from the airlock.
“Good luck, girls.” said Robin “I hope everything works out well.”