Our cover by Phil Jimenez shows the brainwashed Donna Troy pinning down and trying to strangle Wonder Girl with her own lasso. It's actually a rather frightening image. If Cassie hadn't managed to get her left hand around the lasso on her neck, she probably would be dead. This cover also draws attention to Cassie's star-shaped belly ring, which was also present last issue, but I totally missed it. Cassie hasn't had this ring in any issues of Teen Titans yet, and I actually think it's a ridiculously stupid accessary to her superhero uniform. Setting aside the impracticality of charging into battle wearing a belly shirt, putting such a large piece of jewelry on her belly button is sure to get caught on something — strength of Zeus or not.
Our story begins with several of the titan gods celebrating Donna Troy being freed from her cage, even though they had warned Coeus not to interfere. Hyperion is especially excited, exclaiming that Troia will now destroy her former companions and lead the titan gods into their new existence beyond this universe. And sure enough, the second Donna is free, she immediately attacks Athyns. Kid Flash panics and turns to Cyborg, just as he has been doing all day. Cyborg tries to tell Bart to get behind him, but he's hit hard by Donna, as well.
Donna quickly knocks down Jade before taking on Starfire. Nightwing notes that she's going for their strongest members first, and Raven says they need to reach her mind, but she hesitates for some reason. (I will never understand the powers and limitations of Raven.) Cassie recognizes Donna's moves as a lethal Amazon attack pattern, and she begs Raven to stop her before she kills Starfire. Several native aliens begin to grab Bart's attention and Raven tells him to follow the aliens, saying she senses they have the secret to ending Donna's madness.
One of the titan gods, Mnemosyne, begins to have doubts about killing these heroes, who actually have helped them in the past. But she's shot down by Crius. Nightwing tells Cassie that with Athyns and Cyborg down, she's the only one strong enough to stop Donna, but Cassie's still reluctant to fight her. Arsenal fires seven arrows at Donna, but she catches them all and throws six of them back at Roy. The seventh arrow was actually Shift in disguise, and he immediately wraps himself around Donna's arm. Cassie blocks five of the arrows from hitting Roy, but one of them does land in his shoulder.
Shift blinds Donna with a blast of phosphorus, which gives Jade enough time to create some metal bands around Donna. At Cyborg's urging, Cassie wraps her lasso around Donna, but she immediately breaks free of both the lasso and Jade's construct. Cassie charges in for a direct attack, saying the Donna she knows would never act this way. But Troia insists that the Donna Cassie knew was merely a figment of her imagination.
Meanwhile, Bart is led to an underground cavern and shown something very shocking. Raven and Athyns have followed Bart down there (instead of trying to get into Donna's head), and Bart says they need to hurry back and tell the others. Cassie's fight with Donna becomes even more intense, and Cassie again tries to show her old friend the photo of them with Wonder Woman. But it has no effect. Bart, Athyns and Raven return to the battle, and Nightwing orders Raven to enter Donna's head, which she finally — finally! — does.
Raven forces Donna to see the truth of all the suffering she has caused by waging this war on Minosyss, while Bart and Athyns fill in the rest on what they saw. Nightwing has everyone create a tunnel to the underground cavern, and after Raven becomes ... exhausted? ... after entering Donna's mind, Cassie shoves Donna down the tunnel. Everyone follows them to the cavern, which contains a lot of ominous machinery. With her senses restored to her, Donna recognizes the machinery as a sun-eater factory. And to her horror, she remembers the truth — the titan gods aren't trying to destroy the sun-eater factory, but seek to use it.
Now that Donna is back to normal, everybody can lick their wounds, tend to the struggling Minosyssans and prepare to battle the titan gods and their army. As Donna checks on Cassie, we learn something that has not been mentioned in Teen Titans yet — Cassie is the daughter of Zeus. But we don't have time to dwell on what that means, as Cyborg has detected thousands of shocktroopers heading straight toward them. As our heroes set up defenses for the Minosyssans, Donna is impressed by how Kid Flash has connected so well with the younger Minosyssans, and Wonder Girl's resolve to stop the carnage around her.
As the battle edges even closer, Nightwing naturally falls into the leadership role. Kid Flash tells him these people are scared, and he asks if Donna is ready. But first, Donna and Athyns must attend to the funeral of their "sister" Sparta, who had also been brainwashed by the titan gods and was killed at the beginning of this war. Donna vows to avenge Sparta's death and bring the titan gods to justice. Right on cue, the titan gods themselves descend to Minosyss, leading their army of thousands. To the dismay of Coeus, his beloved Troia has flown up to meet them in battle.
The story is starting to come together. We have a clear villain with a clear purpose, so I can focus on that. I'm still really hazy on the nature of these titan gods and exactly how they brought Donna back to life, but that's not really important now. I saw what a sun-eater can do back in Final Night, and I'm excited for an upcoming battle to keep this machine out of the hands of insane, devious deities. The path to get to this point, however, was a bit of a chore. As fun as the fight against Donna was, it felt stretched out, especially considering how Raven might have been able to end it before it even began. Right? I mean, why didn't she just enter Donna's mind right from the start, before Donna was even freed from her cage? I don't know. Raven is even more mysterious to me than Donna Troy is, so I'm pretty helpless here.
But I do know Bart Allen. And I found it interesting that he has bonded with these aliens. As I said last time, Bart really doesn't have any friends with him on this adventure, leading him to want to spend more time with these people. And even though all our heroes are moved by the plight of the Minosyssans, Bart seems to be the hardest hit. He and Cassie have the least amount of experience dealing with actual war, but Cassie is completely wrapped up with the business of Donna, leaving Bart alone to wonder how these supposedly benevolent beings could be responsible for such a tragedy.
Next time, we'll conclude this four-part special.
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