HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAINBOW22! This is your birthday present, a lovely Klarion/OC fic... I only own my OC...
The mist curled around the trees, causing the bare, moonlit branches to shine like stars. It was mid August, already cold, and fallen leaves covered the ground as though trying to suffocate it. I don't know why this is my favourite place to be, to spend my time and think, but honestly, it's the best place to do it. The pale moonlight barely filters through to you, even when the moon is full, so you can creep silently along the unknown path. Only animals come this way, and even they regularly avoid the place.
My name is Rowan, I don't know anything else. I don't know how old I am, I don't know who I am. How I never seem to age, yet golden magic can filter out my finger tips. I can hear the sounds of the sea, the waves crashing on and on, smell the salt from the water, but I never seem to find it. I'm stuck in a never ending forest, and I can't get out. I'm stuck here, have been for many a year.
I pause in my thoughts, looking up from the highest branches of the tallest tree, looking up as the red ship passes over me again. I've seen that ship many times before, though sensed it more often then not. I've never paid much heed to it before, but tonight, I feel I should. I jump down from the tree, taking off at a sprint towards the ships destination, a large mountain. At first I think the ship will crash, but then a hatch slides open and the ship flies inside. I take to the air, feeling this is a better way to move fast, and I do, slipping into the mountain just as the door closes.
I see a group of strangely dressed people. A blond woman in black leotard, a red robot with blue cape, a green skinned girl, a blond girl in green, a boy in a red and yellow suit, a boy with gills and tattoos running up his arms, a tall boy with a red S on his shirt, and the youngest and shortest boy with a red shirt and black and yellow cape. I take a step forward, somehow knowing this is nothing like the forest I have known for years. I was right, by the fact I accidentally kicked a small metal contraption, sending it spinning out towards the strangely dressed people's feet. They snapped round to face me, but before I could do anything, I felt a man in a black cape and cowl touch the pressure point on the back of my neck. I saw blackness.
When my eyes opened, I was in a plain white walled room with cameras and something that looked like one-way glass. I sat up from the plain white slab meant to be a bed, that hang from one of the walls, and rubbed my forehead. I wasn't used to all the bright, unnatural light, and it hurt my head just behind the back if my eyes. I tried to tap into my powers to dim the light, but I felt something was blocking it. I lightly touched my neck, feeling a bulky black collar with glowing red lights that hurt even more than the white light surrounding the room. I growled, watching the collar glow red and break off, letting the full expanse of my magic flow through my veins. I sighed happily, walking over to the one-way glass I knew someone was standing behind.
I could see my reflection, or at least I thought it was me, considering I didn't know what I looked like. I lightly touched my cheek, staring at my muddy, unkempt, straight brown hair that brushed my shoulders, and fearful golden eyes, trapped in a 16 year old body. Was that really me? I didn't remember anything before the forest, all I knew was that my name was Rowan.
The door behind me slammed open, revealing the man with black cape and cowl standing there, a scowl upon his features.
"Who are you?" He growled, and I flinched.
"Rowan," I croaked, voice dry and cracked from misuse.
"Rowan what?" He asked again.
"I don't know," I shrugged, feeling it the natural thing to do.
"What do you know?" He asked, slightly gentler this time but still a growl.
"My name is Rowan. I do not physically age, I have magic in golden and red, I remember nothing apart from the forest I have stayed in for as long as I can remember," I informed him matter of factly. He sighed.
"Is that all? How long have you been in this forest?" He asked.
"This would have been my 9th winter there, and yes, that's all I remember," I frowned, struggling to push past the barriers of memory. The man nodded, and silently swept out the room, leaving me to my thoughts. Or so I thought. Next to enter, was the blond woman in the black leotard.
"Hi," she said warmly, a smile in her face, "I'm Black Canary."
"Rowan," I returned her smile. She had a motherly feel about her, like you could spill your darkest secrets, and she would be there for you anyway.
"Do you know who the man was?" I shook my head, taking a glance towards the one-way glass. I knew she was treating me like a child, but after being alone for all of my memory, I welcomed it.
"He's Batman. He's a hero, like me," she explained, and I nodded my head, vaguely knowing the definition of a hero.
"Do you know what that is?" She pointed to the crumbled pieces of the collar in the middle of the room.
"It blocked my powers," I hissed, angry. She nodded calmly, but obviously shocked at my change of moods.
"OK. Do you know how you got your powers?"
"No, I told the Batman all I knew," I shook my head, anger subsiding.
"I'll be back in a minute," she told me, walking out of the room, her heels clicking on the the clean white floor.
I sat back down on the bed, crossing my legs and closing my eyes. I started to meditate, my body surrounded in a golden glow as I hovered a foot above the bed.
"Rowan?" The Black Canary asked from the doorway, and I slowly lowered myself down. She stood with the Batman, and a man in a suit and top hat, holding a cane.
"This is Zatara, he's a magic user too," I nodded in the Zataras direction, and smiled slightly.
"We have a team, a team of heroes about your, physical, age. We were wondering, if you wanted to join? I would be your combat trainer, Zatara would help train your magic, and Batman would assign missions," the Canary sat down on the bed next to me.
I started to think. Pros, I would have a team, friends, who may become family. I would have someone to watch my back, someone to be there for me. I could be a hero, put my powers to good use. I could make memories. Cons, I would probably stay here, for evaluation, or go back to the forest, and the team mat not like me. For the first time ever, the pros outweighed the cons.
"I'll join," I nodded. The Zatara smiled at me, as did the Canary, but the Batman remained as stoic as ever. I followed them out the room, watching the white walls change to metal, walking along the small corridor into a large room with equally large windows, containing even more strangely dressed men and women. I glanced out the window, seeing a large sphere of green and blue rotating. Planet Earth. I ran over to the window, my breath misting the glass as I stared in wonder.
"Urr, Bats?" A man in a red and yellow suit asked, with the same lightening bolt on the chest I had seen in the younger boys yellow and red suit, "who's the girl?"
"That's Rowan, we found her in Mount Justice. She's joining the team," the Batman replied.
"She doesn't look like she can fight," the red and yellow man spoke again. I glared. Just because I had spindly arms and legs, and a petite frame, he assumed I couldn't hold my own! I started to become surrounded by a red glow, my anger radiating off me in waves.
"Ok, she'll do fine," the red and yellow man squeaked.
I smirked triumphantly, and my glow receded. I walked calmly through the strangers, feeling rather under dressed in my black, fraying dress and bare feet.
"Where are we going?" I asked, looking round at the large circular indents that seemed to hold lots of mechanics.
"These are zeta beams. They can take you all over the world in a matter of seconds. This is what we will be using to travel," the Batman explained, typing something into the keyboard by the beams.
"Follow me," The Zatara walked into the beams. RECOGNISED ZATARA 11, BATMAN 02.
"Go," Black Canary encouraged me. I gulped, and stepped into the glowing light that had engulfed the Batman and the Zatara. ROWAN B-08. The experience was nothing like magic, I could feel myself get ripped apart and put back together, and when I was reformed in a large cave, my legs collapsed underneath me.
"Woah there," Canary materialised behind me, stopping my head from painfully hitting the ground. The cave we had appeared in was spacious, so good with my claustrophobia, with a home like feel to it, only accomplished by lots of laughter in the space.
"So she's our new teammate? The girl who walked into the mountain?" The boy in yellow and red asked.
"Her name is Rowan. Be nice, she's Zataras protégé. And I've classed she can go on missions as of now," the Batman nodded. "Robin, meet me in the Batcave in 10," he swept back into the zeta beams.
"Hi," I said weakly, as the Zatara and the Black Canary left after the Batman.
"Zataras protégé huh? So magic?" The smallest boy asked, looking at
me through the white lenses of his domino mask.
"Yes, I am the Zataras protégé. But I have to ask, who are all of you?" I rubbed my arm nervously.
"You seriously don't know who we are?" The yellow and red boy gasped.
"I know nothing except my name, that I have magic, that I do not physically age, and the forest I have spent the last 9 winters in," I smiled slightly, hoping to relieve some of the tension.
"That would explain the mud," the girl in green muttered, but I pretended not to hear. Better not start a fight my first few minutes here.
"I am Aqualad, you may call me Kaldur," the boy with gills and tattoos nodded towards me, and I smiled at him.
"I'm Kid Flash, or Wally," the yellow and red boy smiled, in what he obviously thought was a suave manner.
"Robin," the youngest boy grinned widely.
"Artemis," the girl in green said matter of factly.
"Superboy, or Connor," the muscled boy with the S symbol on his shirt grunted, except he was now shirtless.
"Hi! I'm M'Gann, or Megan, or Miss Martian! I'm so glad to have another earth sister," the green girl flew over to me. "Do you have anything to wear?"
"I can magic something up," I assured her, smiling.
"Cool! So I'll give you the tour, show you your room and you can shower there," the M'Gann started pulling me off, talking about the cave being hollowed out by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League. She explained the League, and the purpose of the team, what a shower was and what Earth was like today. Finally, we arrived at what was supposedly my room, and the M'Gann left me to shower. I stepped in and out quickly, using something that the M'Gann had called shampoo, and soap.
I dried myself off, and changed myself into a pair of denim shorts and a white t-shirt. I kept my feet bare, not yet used to wearing shoes or socks. I padded silently down the hallway towards the main room, and saw everyone but Robin lazing around.
"Hi," I walked in, and they glanced up to greet me just as the red robot with the blue cape I had seen before entered the mountain.
"Rowan, meet Red Tornado, Tornado, meet Rowan," Kaldur introduced us, as calm as ever. I smiled at the robot, but then an impatient Wally ran in.
"I'm bored!" He exclaimed, before spotting Red Tornado, "hey RT, any missions for us?"
"Mission destinations are the Batmans responsibility," the robot droned.
"Yeah but Bats is with the Robin doing the Dynamic Duo thing in the Gotham. Surely you're heading somewhere? Mission? Hot date?" He asked suggestingly. The robot sighed, if that was even possible.
"This is an old friend of mine, Kent Nelson. He is 106 years old," the Tornado brought up a hologram of an elderly man in a suit with a cane.
"Guy doesn't look a day over 90," the Wally whispered to the Artemis.
"And he has been missing, for 23 days," not good, "Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society, a precursor to your mentors Justice League."
The Kaldur said something along the lines of Kent being Earths sorcerer supreme, and being Dr Fate. Somehow, that name rang bells of memory in my mind. I remembered myself, probably only 6, staring into the helmeted eyes of a man. But just as quickly as it came, the memory went. I shook it off, and continued listening.
"Kent may simply be on one of his, walkabouts, but he is caretaker to the Helmet of Fate," that also rang bells, but nothing came up in my head, "the source of the doctors mystic might, and it is unwise to leave much power unguarded."
"He's like the Great Sorcerer Priests and Priestess' of Mars, I would be honoured to help find him," the M'Gann put a hand to her heart as she stepped forward.
"Me too!" The Wallys hand shot straight up into the air, saying how he adored magic. I scoffed. I could see his soul belonged to the world of science, but I knew he was doing this to get closer to the M'Gann. Couldn't he see his aura fitted perfectly with the Artemis'? Like ying and yang? No, I supposed he couldn't.
"Take this," the Tornado held up a key, "it is the key to the Tower of Fate."
I heard the Wally start flirting with the M'Gann again. I felt sympathy for the Martian, even though it was obvious she liked the Connor.
We walked over the hanger where I had first walked in, seeing a large red pepple hovering above the ground. I looked at it curiously, and the
M'Gann must have noticed because she giggled, and raised one arm out to the pepple. It shifted, becoming the red ship I knew flew over the forest often. I smiled, and walked inside the hatch with the others. I didn't really pay attention to the conversation, preferring to look down upon the forest in which I had spent so many winters. In front of me, I looked up to hear the Wally say he was considering becoming a wizard before he became Kid Flash.
"I could teach you magic of you would wish," I offered, and he turned round to face me.
"Show us some of your magic?" He asked. I held out a hand, palm upwards, creating a foot tall replica of Wally, freckles and all.
"We've reached Tornados coordinates," the M'Gann interrupted my magic, and I squished the magic Wally. "But-"
"Nothings there," the Connor cut her off. I narrowed my eyes. I could sense something there, something extremely powerful. We landed, and the Wally sped off to look at the area.
A large ginger tabby cat with red globes for eyes watched us from a crate, tail flicking back and forth. I stared at it for a while, before it disappeared into the gloom.
"Nothing," a gust of wind signaled the Wallys return, "this isn't simple camouflage."
"So, what do you think? Adaptive micro-opto electrical combined with faze shifting?" The Artemis asked.
"Absolutely!" The Wally exclaimed, as the M'Gann walked up behind him, "not, clearly, mystic powers are at work here," he shot a nervous glance towards the M'Gann. I felt a surge of power from behind me, not unlike my own, and spun round, searching the gloom. Eventually, when I could see anything, I turned back to the team, just in time to see the Kaldur insert the key into thin air.
A large, stone tower appeared in front of us, that seemed never ending as it stretched into the clouds. We walked inside, and the door slammed shut behind us.
"Urr, where'd the door go?" The Connor asked.
"Greetings, you have entered with a key yet the Tower recognizes only one of you," a hologram of the Kent Nelson appeared, "please state your purpose and intent."
"We are true believers, here to find, Dr Fate," the Wally walked forward, and I sighed. A brief flash of disappointment passed across the holograms face, before it disappeared. The floor shook and crumbled underneath everyone's feet, except mine, and they fell.
I looked down the rock tunnel as falling shards of the floor hit the lava, and as my friends grabbed onto something go hold themselves up.
"Rowan," the hologram spoke, "it has been too long."
"What do you mean?" I asked, tempted to take a step forward but remembering the lava beneath me.
"You do not remember?" The hologram asked me.
"Remember what?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up.
"All in due time," the hologram smiled slightly, before disappearing. I shook my head, encasing myself in a golden glow as I floated down to join the team.
"These are my teammates, the Red Tornado sent us to see if the Kent Nelson and the helmet were safe," I said calmly, and a metal plate slid over the lava. The team collapsed onto it, groaning and moaning.
"The tower recognised you. How?" The Connor sat up, looking directly at me.
"I vaguely remember this place. From sometime far back, and it remembers me. We go this way," I spun round from where I was touching a wall, and heading towards the trapdoor in the middle of the floor.
"Wait! The backdraft from the lava will roast us alive!" The Wally shouted, reaching out to stop me.
"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" The Artemis asked smugly, as a few flakes of snow came from below us.
"It's snow," the M'Gann giggled, as we all jumped through, the world
twisting to 90° to the right.
"Woah," the Wally muttered, as I started walking through the snow.
"Ever hear of string theory, we're in a pocket dimension," the Wally explained.
"You're right, Wally," I said, turning to face the flabbergasted team.
"I am?"
"But it's not due to string theory. Magic," I wiggled my fingers at him, creating gold sparks that flew at him. The speedster scoffed. I scanned the landscape in front of me, the occasional snow flake blinding my vision.
"What's that?" The M'Gann pointed towards a floating staff, with the base encrusted in ice.
"Maybe it's Nelsons magic wand," the Wally rolled his eyes. I smirked, knowing how right he was.
"I got it!" The Wally and the Artemis exclaimed, grabbing the staff as I gasped.
"Idiots!" I cried, staring in shock as the staff began to glow with the same energy I have.
"I can't let go!" They exclaimed in unison again, as they floated up into the sky and disappeared. The M'Gann, the Kaldur and the Connor shared a look, as I sighed, and started walking.
"There's a portal a couple of minutes walk this way, let's go," I groaned.
"I don't understand Wally. It's almost like he needs to believe the impossible can't happen," the M'Gann sighed.
"Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend. Acknowledging the existence of magic would be to relinquish the last vestige of that control," the Kaldur explained.
"His aura belongs to the world of science. He would have trouble believing even if he wished to," I nodded in agreement with the Kaldur.
"Is that the portal?" The Connor pointed towards the doorway on top of a large hill.
"Yes," I pressed my lips into a thin line, and kept walking.
The Connor and the Kaldur fell down painfully, as the M'Gann and I floated down gracefully.
"Oops, I forgot about the direction change again," I bit my lip, struggling not to laugh.
"Friends of yours? Wait, Rowan?" Came a man's voice from beside us. I spun round to face the Wally, the Artemis and the Kent Nelson.
"Mr Nelson," I nodded, before ducking a steam of electricity.
"Who are they?" I asked, pointing to a boy about my age with a ginger cat in his arms, and a man with a crackling wand.
"Klarion the Witch Boy is the one with devil horned hair, and Abra Kadabra is the wand wielder," the Wally explained.
"Rowan?" The Klarion screeched at me.
"How does everyone know who I am?" I complained.
"You still don't remember? I guess I made that spell slightly too strong," the witch boy shrugged.
"What do you mean?" I screamed at him, blasting him back with red energy.
"You've gotten better at your magic too," he nodded, and I growled.
I saw the Wally and the Kent disappear through a glowing, golden bell, and the Klarion noticed them too. We both flew as fast as possible towards it, and barely got through before the portal closed.
We appeared at the top of the tower, along with a floating Helmet of Fate. Klarion shot a beam of red energy at the Kent Nelson, causing him to fall back. I threw my hands to the sky, using the power that is forever hiding in the clouds into my palms, shooting golden energy at the Witch Boy. He dodged, shooting boots of red at the golden shield containing the Wally, the Helmet of Fate and the corpse of the Mr Nelson.
"I want that Helmet and I want it now!" Klarion screamed.
"Rowan! What do I have to do?" The Wally shouted at me, as I continued fighting the Lord of Chaos.
"The Helmet, Wally, put it on!" I shouted, getting thrown across the roof. I groaned, sitting up as red claws scraped at the golden force field. Wally muttered something to himself, looking down at The Mr Nelson, and picked up the Helmet.
"Hey dumb kid, you put that on you may never get it off!" Klarion warned, ripping the shield in two, just as Wally put the Helmet on. The Dr Fate floated into the air, sending gold magic at Klarion.
"Give it up Nabu, order went out of style in the 20th century," Klarion shot incessant bolts of red at the Nabus protective ankh.
"This battle is pointless," the Nabu spoke, his voice a weird mixture of the Wallys and his own, "you sought to take the helmet before it gained a host. But you are too late."
"Shut it you old fart," the Klarion screamed, and I chuckled from my place in the corner.
"Brat," the Nabu hissed, sending gold at Klarion. I burst out laughing, but stopped when the Nabu and the Klarion turned to me.
"Rowan?" The Nabu asked, shocked.
"Seriously, someone explain how everyone knows me?" I sighed.
"Daughter," Nabu said again, and I looked up shocked. The Klarion smirked, and both the Nabu and the Witch Boy blasted magic at me. I made no move to avoid it.
When I came to, I remembered everything. Klarion was gone, and Nabu stood silently in the middle of the roof.
"Nabu," I quietly crawled up to the Lord of Order, "let him go. Please," I inclined my head, "father."
I looked up again, as Wally took the helmet off.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Rowan," he sighed.
"So what do you remember?" Batman growled at me. We were back in the briefing room, being debriefed after the mission. The entire team, Zatara, Canary, Tornado and Batman, that is.
"I remember everything. My father is Nabu, or Dr Fate, and my mother was a potent Lord of Chaos. I grew up in the Witch World, Limbo Town, with Klarion. His parents adopted me, but when he killed his parents I still stayed with him. Murder is looked upon differently there. He took me to this earth plane, showed me around, but when I saw the chaos he caused... I ran.
"I met my father, when he was Kent. He trained my powers, went against the wildness Klarion had installed into me. Kent became like a father to me, his wife, Inza, my mother. But, Klarion found me. I had to leave. I teleported to the forest nine winters ago, but did it badly. I got hit by a spell that Klarion sent through after me. That's what made my memory go," I sighed, crossing my arms across my chest as I sighed.
"So if Nabu is your father, and your mother is chaos, what are you?" Zatara asked me.
"You cannot have order without chaos, and you cannot have chaos without order. I'm reality," I smiled slightly at them.
"Ok. We will take this information to the rest of the League. You may go," Batman nodded to us, and we filed into the common area, flopping lazily onto the green furniture.
"Well, what do you guys want to do?" Wally asked.
"Well, we have a Lady of Reality here. We could always design her costume, and name?" Megan asked, hovering slightly off the sofa.
"Yeah, so what we're you thinking, Rowan?" They seemed to have accepted me, but the warm glow inside was unexpected.
"I was thinking, that maybe I should go by Reality," I said calmly.
"That'd work," M'Gann smiled, "actually, I really like it."
"And outfits..." Robin pulled a notepad and pencil out of his utility belt, and handed it to the girl. She sketched for a couple of seconds, labelling areas for colours.
It was styled in Dr Fates outfit, a slightly more intricate version of his helmet for the mask.
It had golden ankle boots, blue skort, a blue tank top, Dr Fates belt, and a short, cropped, cape.
"Looks good, I'll get it to Batman," Robin nodded, before disappearing through the zeta beams.
"So now what?" Artemis asked, lounging on the sofa.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know this one!" A high pitched, slightly whining voice spoke, and through a red portal, emerged Klarion.
"What do you want, Klar?" I stood up, watching as, with a flick of his hand, he closed the glowing mass of red.
"Taking you home," Klarion snarled, grabbing me by the arm, and pulling me through another portal. And all before I, nor the team, could react.
I looked around myself at Klarions shadow dimension.
"Send me back," I growled at him, my hands in fists by my sides.
"No," he giggled, as Teekl meowed from her perch on his shoulder.
"What do you want, Klar?" I sighed, knowing my magic was not enough to escape the bland landscape.
Where the white land and grey sky met, a cloud swirled, blocking all view. Black rocks stuck out in random patterns of chaos, and the non-existent birds stayed silent.
"I want you to come back with me, to Limbo Town," he walled towards me, and I realised with shock, he was being serious.
"Why?" I asked, bemused.
"You don't remember everything about me, do you?" He sighed, turning partially away from me.
"Your parents took me in," I shrugged, "when you killed them you let me stay but when you took me to Earth and I saw the chaos you caused I ran. You cast an amnesia spell."
"Figures you'd remember the bad things," he muttered, before spinning back to face me and placing two, glowing red fingers on my forehead.
I felt a sensation, it was like fig lifting from my memories. Flashes of Klarion, my father, Klarions parents, everything came together. Everything that I had only guessed at finally created links.
"We, we.." I trailed off.
"We dated, yes. And I didn't cast the memory spell, your father did," Klarion nodded, staring at me to gauge my reaction.
I leapt forward, and kissed him. His lips felt so familiar, yet not so. I pulled away.
"I'm sorry, Klar. I made my choice, and now I stick with it," I shook my head.
"If I can't have you," he frowned, "no one can."
And I found myself smothered by a red, blinding light. And I forgot.
Hahahahahaha! Cliffy! Leaving you on a coordinated for an entire year until the next birthday story for Rainbow22! And once again, happy birthday Rainie!