Chapter 37: One True Heir: Part 2
Authors Note: Thank you all once again for all of your reviews and feedback, also kudos for all of you who got that Kingdom Hearts reference. That was one of my favorite moments! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this next chapter. This is going to be the final arc of this story and maybe a prequel if Young Justice ever gets started up again on Netflix.
Disclaimer: I do not own Justice League or Batman.
Shadow leaped forward with her sword held high as she brought it down on Isaac. The dark sorcerer raised his magic sword and blocked the oncoming blade. She narrowed her eyes at the glowing orb on the end of his sword before a surge of dark magic blasted the warrior across the old ruins of the abandoned city.
Shadow crashed into a nearby wall while Conduit, rushed in using Flash's speed. Isaac watched the orange lightening whip around him before feeling a few punches to the side of his face and his stomach he raised his blade and stabbed it into the ground.
Conduit rushed towards Isaac once again, hoping to land another punch, only to be cut off by a large flame that shot straight up from the ground. Conduit managed to dodge it by mere inches, but he was unable to dodge the kick to the side of his temple. Isaac's face broke out in a smug grin before being wiped off by Gauntlet and Grymm.
The two fired fire balls and other projectiles at Isaac, but he had summoned a magical barrier deflecting their attacks. Shadow moved in while he wasn't looking and brought her sword down across his back.
Shadow brought her sword up for a killing strike to his heart, but Isaac raised his cane and deflected her strike. Isaac looked back to the two who were starting to overpower him. Realizing he needed more power he used the power of his orb to summon all of the fallen souls to his body.
Isaac felt a strong surge course through his very soul as his barrier started to deflect the oncoming projectiles. Gauntlet charged up a strong energy to his right fist and leaped up in the air he threw his fist out and sent a large fiery fist straight for the barrier. Isaac instantly dropped the barrier and used his enhanced strength to teleport out of the way of the attack, leaving Shadow to suffer the damage.
Caught off guard, Shadow quickly used her powers to protect herself, but she was not fast enough and was struck down by the large projectile. Gauntlet was shocked at what he had just done and had left himself wide open to a cut across his back.
He looked behind himself to see Isaac grinning before extending his hand and blasting the demigod in the back with his own dark magic fire.
Nemera caught Gauntlet with her own magic and gently set him down on the ground before engaging Isaac. Her body illuminated in a purple aura as she raised her arms and summoned a large purple sphere in the palms of her hands.
She threw the ball at Isaac and watched as everything that came within vicinity of it turned to dust. Isaac raised his staff and channeled his magic through it and absorbed the sphere into his cane.
"Such a silly attack, can't you do anything else?" He asked her. She narrowed her eyes at him and raised her hands again.
Isaac waited to see what petty magic she would summon this time when he was suddenly attacked from behind. He quickly raised his sword and blocked an oncoming attack from Heretic.
"What the bloody hell?" He asked as they both locked blades. It was then he could see it in Heretic's eyes. They were glowing purple. She was actually controlling someone as strong willed at Shadow or Damian himself. This was certainly unexpected, he thought.
Heretic pushed Isaac back and swiped his sword down, sending a magic blade in his direction. Isaac raised another barrier, but he was soon struck from behind by oncoming gunfire. His shoulder suffered four bullet wounds before being struck across his chest by Heretic's blade.
Isaac fell to the ground bleeding, but from the corner of his eye he could see, Ruvic with his smg, smoking from the barrel. When Isaac and Ruvic locked eyes, Isaac could feel something inside of the young sorcerer. That something came from Trigon himself.
Isaac grinned and held his out his left hand using his magic to manipulate the dark essence inside of Ruvic. Ruvic felt a strong surge of pain rip out of his back as he turned to see his wendigo standing behind him. His eyes were drawn up to its skeleton head where a red 'S' appeared in between his eye sockets.
"What the hell?" He asked before nearly having his head severed by his creature's bladed claws. Ruvic quickly summoned both his hawk and his wolf-dog and used them to attack his own creature.
Nemera saw this and sent her newly possessed minion, Heretic, to assist her friend. The Wendigo had fought off both of Ruvic's creatures before fighting off Heretic. The copycat brought his sword down across the monsters back. The creature roared in pain before turning its head and swiping its claw at the warrior.
While Nemera used Heretic to fight off the monster, Heretic himself was starting to regain control of his body. Nemera struggled to control Heretic, while deflecting its attacks Heretic finally broke free from the young girl's control, but the monster had dealt a powerful blow to the man chest.
Heretic fell back onto the ground with a large claw mark across his chest. He struggled to get up from the ground, but he was in too much pain to move. The monster, still under Isaac's control, moved towards Heretic.
It stood before him ready to kill him when it suddenly started to break free from the sorcerer's control. It looked at Heretic's sword and back at Heretic and to his surprise the monster raised its bladed finger and pointed at the sword and at his chest.
"You want me to kill you?" He grunted. The wendigo nodded and pointed at his heart rapidly. Heretic quickly raised his blade and impaled the monster through its chest. It let out a loud shriek as his sword glowed, absorbing the soul within. The monster slumped down onto the ground and Heretic could feel the soul radiating through his body and his wound healed closed.
Heretic wasted no time and he quickly got up from the ground and ran out of the battle ground. Isaac watched in confusion as passed out from exhaustion from summoning too much. Isaac let his guard down for too long as Jake leaped in and cut him down with his new sword.
Isaac suffered a cut across his chest, normally this kind of wound would heal, but this time it just started to burn as if his blood cells started bursting into flames one by one. He fell to his knees and looked up at the sword.
The double edge sword that led down to the golden hilt that was in the shape of a bat. Isaac looked back up at Jake.
"What the hell is that thing?" He snapped. Jake looked at his sword as he raised the tip to Isaac's throat.
"It is something that is linked to my power." He smiled. "This was blessed by Raven's magic making it the only thing that can stop something like you. My father wanted me to kill you, I guess."
"Hmm," Isaac mused as he pulled out his silver pocket watched. He looked down at the small trinket and smiled. "You actually lasted five minutes, now I am a little behind schedule, but nothing that I can't make up with a little hard work."
"You're not getting out of here alive!" Jake shouted before bringing his sword down on his enemy's head.
Isaac raised his cane and deflected the blade before turning towards, Omega.
"Time to get going, my friend." He shouted. Omega nodded as a portal opened behind him.
Isaac opened his own portal and quickly ran through it as Shadow and Purple Archer went after him. Right when they had almost reached the portal it had disappeared leaving the warriors and the remaining assassins in the abandoned city.
"Dammit!" Shadow shouted before sheathing her sword. "Grymm, is there any way we can track them down?"
"Not likely." The sorceress grunted as she was currently being carried by Conduit. "Lilith and Isaac would most likely have created multiple portals on the other side of the current one. It is how she has eluded me for so long."
"Well, at least we saved, Jake." Arctic grunted as Solar helped him to stand up. Night Strike walked in with Wolf, now in his human form.
"What about them?" Wolf asked as he pointed at Talia and Nyssa. Talia wasted no time in approaching her granddaughter.
"Shauna, please." Talia begged. "Nyssa only wants the league for revenge against our father."
"And she only wants it because Batman can no longer stop her." Nyssa countered. "If you give it to her there is no telling what she will do, she may be even working for, Ra's."
"And if she gets the league-"
"Shut up!" Shadow shouted. Everyone went quite in an instant. Shadow said nothing more and removed the silver ring from her finger and held it up for everyone to see. An amber flicker sparked from her eyes and through the ring. Talia and Nyssa along with Damian and Archer could only watch as the ring turned to dust.
"The league has been disbanded for nearly fourteen years now, and it will stay that way." She said in a demanding tone. "I do not want to see any more bloodshed in Gotham and I will not tolerate any more fighting and If either one of you comes after me or my family I will kill you. No negotiations, no mercy and no second chances. You will die by my blade the second you harm one of my own. As of now the Wayne's and Gotham are done with you."
"Shauna…" Talia pleaded.
"Goodbye."
Shadow wrapped her arm around her brother's shoulder and led him out of old Gotham.
The rest of her team followed and they didn't look back.
(!)
Ally sat down next to her son at the dinner table as he ate his chicken parmesan, his favorite. She watched him eat and examined him making sure he is still the same boy she knew and loved.
"I'm fine there is no one inside of me, so please stop staring." He said before eating a fork full of noodles.
"Sorry, it's just I never thought your father was an actual part of you." She smiled. "Did he say anything, is he saying anything now?"
"Mom," Jake sighed. "I don't know I don't feel any different from yesterday and I don't hear anyone except you and me."
Ally looked hurt and started to reach for her cigarettes. She pulled out one of them and before she could put it between her lips, Jake had grabbed it and crushed it into a small paper ball.
"He agrees with me though, you should quit." He mumbled.
Ally smiled and she was about to say something when Shauna rushed in.
"You guys need to see this." Shauna exclaimed before rushing out of the main dining hall. Jake and Ally followed her into the war room where everyone had gathered around Ruvic's paintings.
They were spread out across the floor and they were all pieced together like a puzzle. Bruce and Batman stood next to Shauna and they looked around at the black portraits with red outlines.
"What is all of this?" Ally asked.
"These are Ruvic's." Narika stated.
"I'll tell them." Ruvic reassured his sister. "After that incident with Johnny and Thomas's home world and my encounter with Isaac and Omega the soul orb we had in our possession broke and somehow those souls got inside of me. That is why my Wendigo acted up."
"But what are these paintings?" Bruce asked.
"Visions," Ruvic explained. "Or by looking at them now, they may be blueprints."
"And these souls showed you this?" Shauna asked.
"Yes I mean they or it kept whispering in my ear and it was driving me mad." Ruvic explained. "So I just started painting and painting until the voices stopped."
"But you don't know what they mean?" Batman asked.
"I don't know they just wouldn't stop until I was finished." He looked back down at the paintings. The canvases were all black, but the orange and red paint were used to make images of a ritual of some sort.
The figures represented people, but they each had a different symbol on their chests. Each symbol represented a sin. All of the sins lust, pride, gluttony, wrath, envy, sloth and greed were all around the main figure with jagged horns on its head with the mark of scath on its chest.
"It's a ritual." Jake confirmed. "It is used to summon Trigon."
"Trigon was destroyed though." Ally said in frustration. "Your father sacrificed his life to make sure of that."
"Maybe Isaac believes he can resurrect him." Grymm stated. "Lilith wouldn't be with Isaac if there was no guarantee that her God could not be summoned."
"But Isaac said he wouldn't make the same mistakes as his father and grandfather." Shauna said. "He even said that he was the 'one true heir of Trigon'."
"Well then he wants Trigon's power." Nemera spoke up.
"He wants to be Trigon." Jake exclaimed. He looked down at the painting and all of the pieces were starting to come together. "That's what this ritual is he wants to sacrifice beings that succumbed to the deadliest sins and use that dark energy to turn himself into the new Trigon."
"Well where the hell is he going to find those kinds of people?" Cecil asked. Jake shook his head.
"I don't know, but this asshole isn't going to stop until he becomes the next dark god." He explained.
"Then we better be ready for when that moment happens." Bruce said. "Now, what is our next move?"
"There is no move, for now we just learn all we can from dad's journals and hope we can learn something new." Shauna stated before he cellphone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and her eyes widened when she saw the text. "So, you guys have fun with that while I try and talk my fiancé out of maroon colored table clothes."
"What?" Johnny exclaimed.
"I know right, we're having the wedding at the end of summer it should be a light color not dark." She scoffed before stepping out of the room.
"No, I mean, ugh forget it." He sighed as he ran a hand through his messy hair.
"It's alright," Dany said. "With the war of the assassins over and our enemy finally out in the open we can finally start to prepare for what's to come."
"Speaking off assassins, what the hell happened to, Heretic?" Cecil asked.
"And what happened with your Wendigo?" Narika asked her brother.
"I don't know, but after it was stabbed I felt that dark energy disappear from my body." Ruvic explained. "Something tells me whatever it was it has its own agenda. I mean, did you see how desperate it was when it saw Heretic and his sword?"
"Hmm, and it wanted to go with Heretic, why?" His sister asked. Ruvic could only his head. From the corner of his eye he saw something familiar. It was a simple picture frame that held a picture of Jayden Wayne holding his newborn son.
"Who is that?" He asked. Jake stood up and smiled.
"That's my dad, why?" He asked as he picked up the frame.
"When the voice spoke to me, sometimes, very briefly, I could see this man's face. The only difference is his hair was white not black."
"White hair…oh shit!" Jake exclaimed.
(!)
Heretic stood in an old Argus bunker as instructed and approached a nearby pod. He looked at it for a moment before punching in a code and releasing the safety shield. The machine let out a loud his before opening and revealing a body contained inside.
Heretic raised his sword up against the glass and he watched in anticipation as the soul hovered out of the blade and into the body. Once the soul had disappeared entirely the body instantly sparked a conscious and his eyes opened.
Heretic quickly opened the pod and the fluids started pouring out along with the body. Heretic reached into the pod and caught him in his arms. He held him in his harms and smiled when he started coughing. He was alive.
"What is your name?" Heretic asked. He already knew his name, but he wanted to be sure. Coming back from the dead twice takes its toll after all. "Say your name." The man in his arms looked up at Heretic with his mismatched blue and green eyes.
"A-Al…Al-Athar…"