Disclaimer: See First Chapter

Chapter Four

In which a cat talks, someone is called stupid, and an old bond is re-formed.


Gotham City

July 29, 14:06 EDT

Ever since she was young Mel always had sort of a sixth sense. Not in the way that she could see dead people or could sense ghost (though considering some of the stuff she could do it wouldn't be too farfetched if she could), but in the way that she could 'feel' the life energy people gave off. Aether, in its simplest definition, is the essence of living things. So being able to manipulate it gave her the ability to sense people, animals, and even plants (the last one still weirded her out). The sense gave her this warm (if she knew the person) or cold (if the person was a stranger or had bad intentions) tingle through her spine. It was annoying when she was younger and couldn't control her powers well; it was uncomfortable for her to be around a large group of people who all made her 'sense' go off constantly. But after receiving training at the Chouwa temple, she was able to focus the ability to only go off in two situations: when she purposely focused it to sense people she couldn't see or hear and as a defense mechanism when her guard was down.

So naturally it meant that she could sense when one someone was actively following her. Like right now as she walked through the bustling streets of Gotham. Now normally she may not have noticed as fast as she did that someone was flowing her, especially in downtown Gotham. With all the beeping horns of cars and trucks, the loud cursing of taxi cab drivers as they get frustrated with the slow cross walkers, the crying children being pushed in rickety strollers by their exasperated mothers, the suit-and-tie business men and women chattering on their expensive smartphones talking about everything and nothing, and the rude, gangly teenagers that smack their gum obnoxiously while complaining about their parents, it was a wonder that she could focus enough to know that someone was flowing her. But there was and what Mel couldn't figure out was why?

Whoever was following didn't have any ill intentions as far as she could tell (which was good 'cause she didn't have the time nor patience to deal with some pervert). She also couldn't see who it was as she periodically looked behind her as she may her way through the crowded sidewalks, getting nasty glares from adults when she accidently bumped into them as she looked back.

So the only logical thing for her, a young teenage girl in Gotham, was to wait in a filthy alley and confront her follower.

'You know,' Mel started as she stood beside a slightly crumpled trash can that may or may not had a raccoon in it. 'if I didn't have powers…this would have been a really stupid idea.'

"So you finally decided to stop." A man's voice echoed through the alley. "I was getting dreadfully bored from following you around knowing you knew that I've been following you."

"Who's there!?" Melanie got into her fighting stance, tensing her muscles for a possible fight. "You made a bad decision if you thought I was just some simple little girl."

"I swear after all this time you're still the ignorant mortal that I've had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing." The unknown man voiced out, sounding exasperated.

"Just show yourself already!?" Her gold eyes rapidly moved as she scanned the alleyway for the man but not finding anyone in the area.

"Why don't you looked below, you daft girl?"

'What?' She thought as she unwittingly followed the stranger's advice and saw…a cat.

A black cat that looked too well-groomed for a street mongrel and had piercing red eyes. Oh and apparently it could talk.

"Wait-what-how-y-you're a cat." Mel spluttered as she tried to make sense of the situation. So far the only thoughts that came to her in an attempt to make sense of the situation were: 'I'm either hallucinating from the heat or my brain has given out on me.' Honestly either or was possible.

"Yes and you're an idiotic girl that still speaks like a toddler. Now that we got the obvious out the way, let's talk about why I'm here."

"You're a talking cat." She mumbled mostly to herself as she stared wide-eyed at the phenomenon.

"Oh for the love of…" The cat sighed in irritation at the dumbstruck girl. Deciding that she was going to snap out of it anytime soon, he decided to take action. Leaping up he flared out his claws and swiped at the girls arm, smirking as she leapt back and held her scratched arm.

"What the hell, you stupid cat!?" She glared out him fiercely and barred her teeth at him. "Why did you attack me?"

The cat, not at all intimidated by her glare, just rolled his eyes nonchalantly. "Oh please stop being overdramatic, that's was barely a love tap. Honestly if you're the Conduit of Aether, the world might as well give up all hope now.

"Who the hell asked your opini-?" Mel paused in her rant as her brain processed what the cat had said. "Wait, how do you know who I am?"

"More like, "How do I know what you are?" He corrected. "Now if you didn't interrupt me with your idiocy that seems to plague all humans, all of your questions would've been answered."

Mel opened her mouth to retort but snapped it shut as she realized he was right.

Seeing that her silence was her way of telling him to continue, he cleared his throat and began his spiel. "Well to start off, the reason I was following you was so I can uphold our contract."

"What contract? I pretty sure I would remember signing a contract with a talking cat." She leered down at him suspiciously.

He momentarily stopped his pacing around to throw an irritated glare at her for interrupting again. "You simple girl, I'm not talking about a pen and paper contract, I'm referring to a blood contract between the two of us. You see I'm a demon."

Her face contorted in confusion. A demon. He couldn't possibly be a demon; she didn't sense any evil intentions from him that are usually characteristic of demons. Sure the cat was haughty and a little bit too condescending, but it certainly didn't seem evil. She was going to voice her confusion but decided to keep silent as he shot a threating glare that basically said "Interrupt me again and this time I'll aim for the eyes."

"You see a long time ago, give or take a thousand years; one of your past lives defeated me in battle." He paused momentarily to scrounge his face up in disgust. Even to this day it still horrified him that a mortal was able to take him down, even if said mortal had powers similar to those holier-than-thou gods that can never mind their own damn business. Shaking his head to clear the frustrating thoughts, he continued. "He was a bleeding heart of a fellow so instead of banishing me to the fiery pits of hell for eternity, which quite frankly I would've have preferred, he decided to bind me to himself, or more accurately, to the being that is the Conduit of Aether. I was contracted to serve him until he died, but of course since the Conduit of Aether never really dies and is instead reincarnated, I'm basically stuck serving a foolish mortal forever." He ended with a huff that kind of looked cute on his cat face.

For a moment Melanie just stared at the cat, contemplating what to say. Then it dawned on her.

"So…why are you a cat?"

The black cat actually had the decency to look embarrassed at the inquiry. "Uh, well…your past life that defeated me, Darrius, had a cat when he was a young lad that he loved dearly and since I was to take a form that would most please him; I bear a striking resemblance to his dead cat."

Melanie bended down to his height and blinked owlishly at him for a few seconds before breaking into a smirk. "Aw, how cute. You took the form of something he loved because you cared."

"I did not!" He hissed at her teasing face. "I did because I had to; it was part of our contract. Now do you have any other valid questions, stupid girl!?"

She stood back and looked up in the sky contemplating her next question.

"Why are you just contacting me now? I mean, I've been around for quite a while."

"Well there are reasons: First, I was in the UK for quite some time before you were born. So it took me some time to get to the States in this form." He explained casually while licking his paw. "Second, do you think I actually would want to be around you while you were some snot nosed brat that could barely form a coherent sentence? Hell, I'm around you now and you still sound illiterate."

Deciding to ignore his insult, Mel asked one more question. "Okay last question, what's your name?"

"It's Ignis."

"Oh." Mel commented with a bland face.

The cat smirked realizing her lack of reaction. "Oh were you expecting some fantastical demon name that strikes fear in the hearts of men everywhere."

Looking off to the side embarrassed she was being that obvious. "Oh, uh well…"

"I swear you humans are so simple it's almost funny…almost." The talking cat stopped licking his paws to look directly at the teen. "Now that we got all the pleasantries out of the way, let us officially start my everlasting servitude to you." He paused to think for a moment. "Until you die of course."

Ignoring his morbid end comment, Mel once again bent down to his level and her eyes glowed as she peered into his soul. Though she didn't often use the 'Soul manipulation' part of her powers (she wasn't particularly good at it yet), she still could read other people's souls if she concentrated enough. She needed to know if this cat was telling the truth; if he really was a demon contracted to the Conduit for life. Though the way Ignis explained everything made the situation plausible (and thinking back, a talking cat probably isn't the weirdest thing she would see), there was a small part of her who couldn't trust someone that easily.

She looked into his soul for a moment and was able to confirm that he, in fact, had a soul of a demon. You see most (mortal) souls give off this look and feel of a glowing light of ball that rests in the center of the person but has thin, nerve-like extensions that flow through the rest of the body. Ignis's soul, however, was this blackish-red ball that actually resembled fire more than a ball of ethereal light. But as she looked longer she saw something peculiar: a piece of her soul seemed to be fitted in the middle of his. In fact that piece was also connected to this thin bond that attach all the way to her soul.

"Finally decided to look into my soul have you." Ignis sported a haughty look at the now wide-eyed girl. "Such a foolish girl you should have did that in the beginning of this conversation."

Snapping out of her stupor, Mel fired a glare at the self-entitled cat. "Must you always find some way to insult me at every opportunity?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ignis stubbornly denied. "So what exactly do you do?"

Brown eyebrows shot up at the inquiry. "What do you mean?"

"Well what are you involved in." He explained more clearly. "Every Conduit I've been with has been involved in one thing or another. One time I was with one who was in a clan of assassins and then overthrew said clan to turn it into a clan of bleeding hearts that promotes peace. Another time I was with one that was part of a circus troupe. He was knife thrower who, ironically, died from someone stabbing him. And don't even get me started on the one that was a pirate"

"Oh well…" As Mel hesitated to answer Ignis question, he couldn't help but hope maybe this time he'll have a break. It seemed that the Conduit of Aether was doomed to have an exciting life full of danger, explosions, secrets, and occasionally running from a crazed cult. Now that it was the modern age, it was possible that this Conduit may be a boring teenager that just spent most her time learning to control her powers so she could hide them and talking about boys. Maybe he won't be dragged across the world and back on some crazed adventure.

Maybe this time everything will work in his favor and he can spend some years with his irritating master in peace.

"Have you ever heard of the Justice League?"

Shit.


Happy Harbor

August 1, 16:21 EDT

'Recognized Celestial: B-06'

The computer voiced out as Mel stepped out of the Zeta-Tube and entered the cave with Ignis clutched in her arms. Said cat looked put out that she was holding him like he was some pathetic rag doll.

"Now remember Ignis try not to be too insulting when we meet with Aqualad." She started to lecture as they walked towards the main area of the cave. "I'm trying to convince him that you'd be a valuable asset to the team and have no intention of harming anyone on the team."

"I don't see why you need to ask permission from a lowly fish-person. You're the Conduit of Aether, your teammates should be privileged to be allowed to breathe in the same vicinity as you and to a greater extent, me."

"Anyway," Shaking off his prideful comment. "just be sure that-." She was interrupted by a female voice that floated in.

"Oh hi Melanie, I didn't know you were…" Miss Martian trailed off as she spotted Ignis lounging in Mel's arms. "Oh what a cute cat! I didn't know you have a pet. What's his name?" Miss Martian flew close to Mel to get a better view of the 'cute' cat.

"Leave my presence, you green monstrosity." Ignis turned up his head at the green alien.

M'gann's eyes widen comically as she backed away from the pair. "Did he just…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say anymore.

"I have to say, my friend, when you contacted me about a talking cat there was a small part of me that was skeptical." Both Miss Martian and Celestial turned around to see Aqualad walking towards them with a polite, but cautious smile. "Though there have been…more interesting cases that I have encounter in my past experiences."

"It's okay I was pretty sure my brain broke when I first heard him talk." Celestial smiled back at him, pretending that she wasn't holding back a struggling Ignis. "So, you got the gist of the situation when I contacted you a couple of days ago, right."

He nodded in confirmation. "Yes but I have to say I am weary to let the team be around a demon, for valid reasons." Even though he did trust Celestial to never harm the team, it was hard to wrap his mind around trusting a demon. Demons didn't really have the best reputation to say the least.

"I understand your apprehension but I checked his story and he really is my… "servant" for a lack of a better word." She explained. "Due to his soul being bound to mine he can never betray me or anyone I'm affiliated with."

"Checked out?" Kaldur asked wanting more information.

"Oh I contacted the temple I was living at for a few years and apparently Master Yamamoto said they did tell me about my…furry follower." She grinned in embarrassment while clutching Ignis tighter to her chest to prevent him from lunging at her for the "furry follower" comment. "When I was at the compound, I had the habit of…drifting off during my weekly Conduit history lessons. So when I was lectured about the history of Ignis and the Conduit, I was most likely thinking about whether or not Master Yamamoto was dying the gray out of his temples."

Sighing at his teammate's bad habit, Aqualad continued their conversation. "Well the monks at the Chouwa temple are known to be great historians when it comes to these matters, so if they say Ignis is your valued companion than I will trust your decision."

"Thank you Kaldur." She gave him a slight bow. "I promise Ignis will be a valuable member of the team. Though I can't promise he'll stop being insulting anytime soon"

"Oh I've been meaning to ask you…how exactly will Ignis be able to provide support to the team. He is in form of a common domestic cat." Kaldur inquired.

Ignis let out an unamused chuckle as he fixed his leer at Kaldur. "And here I thought you'd be smarter than the ignorant girl. To answer your stupid question, this form I am currently in is my sedentary form. When it's needed I have a bestial form that is powerful to fight off the adversaries your team might face. And no, I will not give you a demonstration as I am not a circus animal. You will see it when it is needed. " Taking advantage of Melanie's momentary distraction, he leapt out of her arms and started walking away. "Now if you excuse me, I require nourishment." He stopped in front of M'gann (who Melanie honestly had forgot was there) and gave her a commanding stare. "You, green alien girl. Lead me to the kitchen."

"Uh actually my name is M'gann."

"I don't believe I asked you such irrelevant information. Now like I was sayi-!" The demon cat let out a surprise hiss as Mel scooped him up away from M'gann.

"Will you stop being a haughty brat and stop insulting my teammates?" She reprimanded the hissing cat before settling a worried gaze at M'gann. "Sorry about him it's nothing personal; he's horrible to everyone."

Aqualad looked on with slight amusement as the two girls walked away with the disgruntled cat who was releasing a stream of insults to the girls who were, for the most part, ignoring him and talking about how the golden-eye girl met the haughty cat.

'I'm still unsure about this partnership but…' Aqualad mused as he looked at the grumpy cat that was struggling to get out of Melanie's arms. 'But I feel this is a start of a strong bond.'

"Ow!" He heard a yell in the distance. "You damn cat your lucky I'm above animal abuse!"

"That's what you get for not unhanding me you ignorant layabout!"

'Of course only time will tell if I'm right.'


So it's been awhile since I've updated. I really don't have a valid excuse other than college and 300 level classes. But since I am on break I will try to update this story more frequently than I've been doing. I actually have the next chapter halfway done and the next next chapter outlined (Yay!). Anyway although this chapter shorter than most chapters I will write for this story it is important since there is a new character introduced and will have a valid role in this story (I never put an OC character in a story unless they serve a purpose to the plot overall).

Well like I will always say review, fav, and follow. They give me encouragement to put out chapters faster since they tell me people are interested in this story.