A/N: Ha! Made it! The daily updates continue!
Happy Holidays~! Had to delay this 'till today, wasn't quite ready.
Well if I didn't have a reason to update this particular story sooner, I certainly do now!
Hopefully folks see it because oooof, those last two episodes hit hard. As ever! Warning! SPOILERS for Young Justice follow herein.
As ever, this story remains under the "Embers" rule for the time being. If folks don't like it, poof! Gone and deleted, once and for all and forever.I'm working two jobs, trying to keep a roof over my family's head, and at the end of the day this is very much a HOBBY. I simply don't have time to write a story no one likes, and feedback sustains me... So speak up! Make yourselves heard! I'd really rather not do erase anything, but I have so little time on my hands these days...it feels like I'm going mad...
I'll be better once the holidays are over. Unlike Couer Al'Aran, I can't take a vacation, no matter how much I might want to.
Writing is literally the only thing keeping me sane during these dark days, and if stop doing that...
...yeah, lets not go there.
Now for some quick questions.
Q: You got a soundtrack for this chapter?
A: Voracity by AmaLee. Yup. Shameless plug is Shameless.
Q: Give Child an adult body!
A: Preeeeetty sure she can change form as she wishes. She chooses to be a child, to hold back, because it amuses her.
I don't think we've seen her get angry yet.
And I hope we never do.
Q: Oh lord, two crazy blonds. Well, earth is fucked. Right in the down under!
A: It helps that NGH Naruto is a fair deal older. Someone called him a Chaos "God" rather than a lord in the reviews. Yeah, that'd be about right.
Q: Naruto is a good guy in this...right? Right? Oi! Answer me!
A: Did you miss the part about chaos...?
Q: The hell did he send Klarion?!
A: Read and see. As we all know, he's got a thing for taking in misfits and turning them around.
As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or aaaaaany memes.
Laughter and insanity abounds! Get ready for madness.
"There's an old saying. Better the devil you know, than the one you don't.
...because the one you don't...they just might kill ya.
And those two? They probably will."
~?
The Devil You Know
Zatanna had seen her share of madness and magic.
More than most, really. She had wrought powerful spells that would make most masters of magic quake in their boots. Faced down threats that boggled mind. Heroes and villains. Gods and demons. This? This went beyond those.
This was chaos.
Merry laughter spit the air, male and female alike as two impossible forces clashed. Wind howled. Fire flared. Elements clashed and familiars tore up the ground, rattling the very world itself. It superseded all that she had ever faced before and likely ever would. Bad enough that two Chaos Lords were waging war before; but this went utterly out hand. She wasn't sure where Klarion had gone, and frankly, she would've taken him over this, this...she didn't know what to call this. Monsters? It seemed too tame a word...
"ARE WE HAVING FUN YET, CHILD?!"
The larger of the two boomed a laugh as he regenerated from thin air once more, body restored from near nothingness. He swept a clawed hand through his messy blond hair, mussing it even further as he summoned up a second gust of wind to match. Another eldritch blast of fire blew his head clear off, but his body didn't fall. With a wail another gale burst from his hand and sliced out at his opponent. She retaliated in kind, diffusing it harmlessly against her open palm.
"I am rubber, you are glue!" she giggled at him.
Rather than retort, his headless corpse surged forward and swung its fist in a devastating punch.
For a moment -just a moment- Zatanna thought she saw a flash of fear gleam in the younger lord's eyes.
Flaw's bulky body thrust itself between it and its master at the last moment, to no avail; he simply course-corrected, turning an uppercut into a rousing roundhouse that that struck the golem in its face. The silent giant paid dearly for its intervention. Flaw didn't simply fly. It rocketed across the ocean, skipping like a flung stone and shedding bits of crystal as it left gravity behind.
Zatanna gulped at the sight. A punch like that would've floored Superman. "...Yeah, not going anywhere near that guy."
...smart choice." Naruto's head regrew from the ruined stem of his neck. He reached up, cracked his jaw back into place. "Now where were we?"
"You really are quite resilient." His would-be victim tilted her head. "How much damage can you take, I wonder?"
He crooked a finger at her. "As much as you can dish out."
"Let us find out."
The smaller of the pair muttered angrily under her breath as she righted herself. She waved her hands and The fire flickering on the trees coalesced into the air above her head, forming a giant serpent of flame. Quick as it namesake it surged forward. Fangs of flame bit down on the bemused blond, swallowing him whole.
Child hummed in satisfaction.
Her smile died an ugly death as the beast's belly bulged. A keening sphere shrieked past, howling with fury. She tutted and stepped aside, scoffing as the spell slung past. It struck a nearby mount and broke it as one might an egg. Split down the middle, the once mighty peak tumbled int the sea.
"Imaginative, I'll give you that." Naruto climbed out of the dying embers and dusted himself off. But you're wasting your potential...and your potential."
"Insulting me now?" a fresh blast of napalm heralded her words. "How immature. I expected better of you."
He caught her blast and flung it back."This from the Chaos Lord who took the guise of a girl.
Her right eye twitched. "You must truly wish to suffer."
"Suffering is relative." he spread his arms wide, conjuring scarlet light between them. "Chaos is eternal."
"At least you understand that."
A pillar of scarlet light burst from his body and hurtled into the clouds with a low roar. Not one to be outdone, the Child responded in kind and bathed herself in a paler, but no less deadly luminescence. Twin pillars of ghastly light split the night. Even from here, Zatanna heard the awful crack of something breaking. It sounded like the world...and her mind. Just staring it threatened to drive her mad.
"You can't kill me," Child sang at him over the hum of their powers. "You can't kill me, you can't kill me! But I can kill every living thing on this world.
"I'm not trying to kill you. That would be boring!"
Their "spells" clashed again, though to call them spells seemed paltry, somehow. No mere duel magic was this; just as this was no duel. Duels held sacred rules, unwritten agreements. Order. There none of tat here. This was a brawl. A knockdown, messy disaster that she didn't want any part of. An unstoppable force met an immovable object. Neither yielded. And so the world did instead. Reality bent and twisted around them like a broken mirror; casting warped reflection of one another. The world itself cracked.
And in that awful moment of hideous clarity, she saw.
This "Child" was empowered by many. Her opponent was but two. And yet for all that, he held his ground...no, he was overpowering her now. He'd smashed a strange sphere of some sort into a hastily erected shield she had conjured, leaving her to strain against it. Her young visage, once so calm, smugly supreme in her victory, creased in a frown.
"How are you this powerful?!"
"I warned ya, didn't I?" he scowled down at her as his attack drilled through her defense. "Look, I'll be the first to admit Klarion's a little shit, but I'm kinda his uncle. It's my responsibility to make something better out of him.
"Is there a point to this prattle?" she grit her teeth. "Are you dictating your obituary to me?"
Nope. This is me. Putting my foot.
His arm pulsed.
DOWN."
Child realized what he intended and sought to strengthen her barrier, to no avail. She flung up another to ward off the worst of his assault, only for that to meet the same fate as the fist. That frown became a snarl as her sphere splintered. His technique slammed home into her gut, slamming her down in a flash of light. A rare cry of pain split the night as she hurtled back into a boulder, crashed through it, and sprawled on the ground. She was up just as quickly, quick enough to touch a hand to her face.
"That hurt." Her palm came away trembling, fingers flecked with blood. Her eyes narrowed. "You actually hurt me."
Naruto tilted his head. "And...? Hasn't that happened before?"
Zatanna winced. "Not...likely."
Very unlikely, judging by Child's reaction. Ruby red eyes blazed an ominous scarlet, the color of blood itself. The "girl" spread both arms to either side of herself, hair lofting around her head like a golden halo in some unseen breeze. The wind rose around her, but a different, darker kind, howling like a chorus of the damned.
"THAT...HURT!"
Earth buckled. Shadows rose.
Zatanna took a step back. Then another. Another still.
"You've gotta be kidding me...
She took it back. These weren't monsters. Monsters you could fight, or barring that, run away from. How did you outrun ten thousand tons of rock rising from the very depths of the earth? She'd turned the very island into a weapon, ripped it open like the maw of some great beast gaping wide, ready to snap down.
Evidently the other blond realized it too, because e started swearing. "Crap, crap, crap!"
Child slammed her hands together. "DIE!"
Heaven became earth.
(.0.0.0.)
A fist slammed upright through the bedrock.
Child watched it intently from her vantage in the skies, waiting for its owner to emerge. Some time later, a bloody blond followed it. Hacking and coughing, Naruto dragged himself upright and flopped onto his back. So. Not dead, then. Good. A quick end was too good for him. He needed to suffer first. She wanted to devour him; him and his chaos alike. Like a bloody ripe berry, just waiting for her to bite down.
Earlier, he'd asked her if she was having fun.
Not yet. But she would. He was difficult to kill, certainly, but she derived pleasure from it all the same. She would savor every drop of this.
...alright." Rather than cry out in pain, her prey simply righted himself. "I actually felt that one, I'll give ya htat. Not used to see this much of my own blood...
"Do you understand now?" she called down at him. You're nothing. I have all the Chaos Lords with me. What do you have?"
She expected him to lunge, to continue their hostilities anew. Instead, he backed down.
"Alright, as fun as this is, I think we've reached an impasse." Naruto rolled his shoulder, uncaring as his wounds closed. "What say we parley?" he looked up to her. "Stop floating up there already, missy. I don't feel like shouting."
...why did it feel like she was being disciplined?
Child pulled a face, yet floated down to meet him all the same. "You are an insufferable brute and I hope you die."
"Wouldn't be the first to say that to me, and ya probably won't be the last." he dug a finger around in his ear, dislodging a bit of rock there. "But seriously. Lets make a deal."
Deals. Riddles and vagaries.
She'd not be fooled.
"A bargain? As Klarion did with the Savage?" she turned her nose up at him. Wasn't hard. He was so blasted tall. "I think not."
"No, no, no," he walked around her when she pivoted away and made a face in turn. "That was a deal for Order. Order is absolutely boring." he slashed a hand through the air, conjuring shards of red light as he did. "I'm sick to death of order. No, this is deal for chaos."
"Hmm..."
"Give me a week." he held up his hands. "Let me show you what real chaos looks like."
She could feel her resolve weakening. "What manner of chaos?"
"The best kind!" he guffawed, made to slap her on the back, then seemed to think better of it. "None of this world ending carp. "I'm talking about pranks and puns, ramen flooding the streets as people tear their hair out. Uprooting skyscrapers and playing catch with them. Bringing back the dead! Madness to make these so-called Lords of Order piss their pants!"
Oooh. She rather did like the sound of that. "And what purpose would this serve?"
Naruto jammed both hands into his sleeves. "None."
Child blinked. "None?"
"You heard me." his hands came out again, clawed digits weaving through the air. "This is chaos for chaos, by chaos and of chaos. We don't need a reason for it. So long as people notice, so long as you enjoy yourself in the process, nothing else matters."
His argument was gaining ground. Not one of logic or reason, but for the simple sake of enjoying ones self.
"Suppose I listened." she touched a finger to her cheek. "What do I stand to gain from such an arrangement?"
His smile told her she'd played right into his hands.
"Everything you could ever want. If you're not satisfied in a week's time
"Three days." Child amended.
He blinked. "Eh?"
"Three days." she chirruped. "No more. No less."
She half-expected him to haggle.
"Bah, fine! If you're not satisfied in three days, I'll let you destroy this world and I'll offer Klarion up on a silver platter." he sketched another of his odd, stilted bows. "Hell, I'll even help you cause the kind of chaos you wanna. C'mon, whaddya say?"
She flicked a glance to Flaw. The golem shrugged. No answers there.
"C'mon," Naruto wiggled his fingers at her. "Shake my hand. Won't you shake a poor man's hand?"
His tone was soothing, almost deceptively so. Was this a charisma spell of some sort? She didn't think so. He genuinely believed in his own words. Why else would he offer her his limb so freely.
And yet she hesitated.
Child frowned at his palm. "This is a trap."
"For one of us, sure." his head bobbed in merry madness. "But which one? Don't you want to find out?"
Blast him to the darkest pit. She loved a good mystery; moreover, she couldn't back down after a challenge like that. It rankled her pride as a Lord. If she were to retreat now, she'd never hear the end of it. Her fellows would likely withdraw their support if she displayed such cowardice, and then where would she be? He was a bother enough with all the Lords behind her. She didn't want to face him with her strength alone.
And yet her pride demanded comeuppance. "And if I wish to continue our battle? I believe I was winning."
"You want more chaos?" his smile split his face. "Alright. Say hello to Kurama."
A shadow loomed larger over them both.
Child blinked. "Oh, my...
She saw it alright, not for long, and only for a moment, but she glimpsed the fell beast all the same before it retreated into him once . Not dealing with that in her current state. She would need time to prepare her power, to muster her might...and probably retrieve Flaw from the bottom of the ocean. Her anchor was vulnerable. She knew that now and though it galled her, it had taught her
To bide her time.
Her hand seized his, fingernails biting into his pal. "I accept these terms!"
"Yessss." Blue eyes flashed red as he purred the words. "...I knew you'd see it my way." Something burned in her palm. "Alright, then! Are you ready?! Here we go!"
That was all Child heard before he whisked her away into a portal. She didn't even have time to yelp, poor girl.
Three days yet remained in their contract. Earth was not prepared.
A/N: Hope you're having a good holiday...
As ever, this story remains under the "Embers" rule for the time beng. If folks don't like it, poof! Gone and deleted, once and for all and forever. So speak up! Make yourselves heard! I'd really rather not erase anything, but I have so little time on my hands these days...it feels like I'm going mad...
I'm working two jobs, trying to keep a roof over my family's head, and at the end of the day this is very much a HOBBY. I simply don't have time to write a story no one likes, and feedback sustains me...
Of course, reviewing is your choice. I can't force you.
What can I say? Writing is my passion. Always has been, always will be.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the previews!
Well, future teasers...
(Previews)
"I see. This is another form of chaos."
"Yeah, not really the good guy here. Just a bad guy doing good things...speaking of which.
He landed near her and she couldn't help but react.
She lashed out.
"Ow!" He hissed. "You wanna play that way? Fine." he waved a hand. "Erif eht lrgig!" (Fire the girl)
He flung her words -her spell!-back at her.
"Oh shi-
A fiock of harmless doves struck her shield. "...what?"
"Gotcha."
An open palm shattered her barrier, caught her by the throat and...did nothing?
She creaked an eye open.
"So." merry blue eyes met hers. "Wanna talk?"
Child touched a finger to her chin. "Intriguing. What comes next?"
"This." Naruto twisted a hand in the air.
The skyscraper shuddered once.
...and melted into ramen.
"You will not corrupt her! She is an agent or Order!"
"Order?!" a bolt of gold extinguished against his palm. Bah! Order is boring!"
"I'll give you a nine second head start."
"Wh-Why?
"So you can suffer the way you've made others suffer. You've wasted three, by the way. Hop to it!"
She fled. Footsteps hounded her in the dark. Slow. Steady. Without a care in the world.
Doctor Jayce didn't dare look back. She couldn't. It meant death.
R&R~!