Chapter 8.

Hey everyone. Back with another chapter. This chapter serves as a break between the previous chapter and the next one. It also serves as a teaser for future story arcs.

Before we continue, I would like to honour Stan "The Man" Lee, who died one year ago. May he rest in peace in a universe where aliens are real, blind lawyers can become superheroes, anything is possible and adventure can be found around every door. Excelsior!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favirouted this fic so far.

I don't own Avengers, Arrow or any characters or elements related to those fandom's. I only own Jason Stark and any other OC's and worlds you see in this story.

On with the show.

supercode: Thanks for your review. To answer your question: Mainly because they only have a few options. That and Jason has his own version of "Parker Luck".

PrincessMagic: Thank you for your feedback. You'll see soon.

Jason's POV.

When Ra's Al Ghul said the word test, I instantly knew it was going to be bad.

Don't ask me how I knew… I just did.

"When is this test exactly?" I asked Ra's.

"Tomorrow morning. Nyssa will show you where your sleeping quarters are" Ra's said with an evil glint in his eyes before walking off.

Oh boy!

"Come," said Nyssa, grabbing my hand and guiding me along.

We walked down endless passageways until I saw something that looked like an old fashioned Earth library.

"Is that a library?" I asked Nyssa.

"Indeed it is. Do you wish to enter it?" she asked me.

"Yes. Just show me where my room is first so I can find it" I said to her.

She nodded and led me to my chamber which was near by.

"Jason," she whispered, "Don't go wandering around. This place is more dangerous than it seems. My room is down the passage to the left. If you need anything, knock twice and I will help you."

"Thanks, I guess…" I said.

"Before you go, why does Ra's want me to be a Horseman?" I asked her.

"He believes you have potential. He also said for another reason but he never explained" Nyssa explained.

With that, she walked away, leaving me to my own devices.

Immediately, I walked back to the library.

I was hoping that I would find something to help me make sense of what was going on in my life.

Walking in, I began to look around.

It was dusty and was filled with all sorts of books, scrolls and maps.

"The way my life is going, I wouldn't be surprised if I've just walked onto the set of Game of Thrones," I said to myself in amusement.

Not knowing where to start, I just grabbed a stack of books and scrolls from a nearby shelf and sat down at a table.

Of course in line with the Game of Thrones theme that was so prevalent here, there naturally wasn't any electricity, so I had to make do with a candle.

I began reading one of the scrolls in front of me.

It was entirely in Arabic but somehow I saw it in English.

Unbelievably, I had struck gold with my first attempt.

It was about that Soul Stone Ra's mentioned.

As I began to read the scroll, I felt a chill run down my spine.

It read:

"The Soul Stone is one of the seven Infinity Stones, relics whose existence predates the Multiverse itself. At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then the Universe exploded into existence and sent seven elemental crystals called Infinity Stones hurtling across the Virgin Universe. Each Stone controls an essential aspect of existence. Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, Soul and Ego. The Soul Stone and the Ego Stone are the most dangerous of the Stones. The Soul Stone has the ability to resurrect the dead, while the Ego Stone contains the spirit of the ancient and evil being Nemesis. Very little else is known about these Stones. Most people in the Universe don't even know about the Ego Stone. The Soul Stone was previously in the possession of the Cosmic Entities before they passed it on to the Living Tribunal who in turn gave it to Red Skull. He then was given permission to give it to Ra's Al Ghul and instructed him to keep it safe."

Red Skull? Wasn't he the guy who Steve fought back in World War II? What the hell is going on?

And who in their right mind would trust Ra's with something so powerful?

I put down the scroll feeling tense.

I now had a bit more information than when I sat down, but I still had a lot to find out.

I unrolled the second scroll, but this time, there was nothing in it that mattered to me.

I continued going through the stack in front of me, but although I was learning some interesting things, nothing seemed to be relevant to me and my situation.

I was getting tired now.

"Maybe I should call it a night and get to bed," I thought to myself.

After all, tomorrow was going to be a big day for me and I needed to be sharp if I was going to pass Ra's test.

Just then, my eye caught a passage in one of the books talking about the two silver glowing blades I saw earlier.

It read:

"The twin swords of Blood and Death have existed for thousands of years. They were crafted by the ancient devil prince Mundus who had the intention of slaying his ancient foe Spartus. The blades were lost for centuries until Ra's Al Ghul recovered them and brought them to Nanda Parbat for safekeeping. The blades increase the speed of anyone who wields them. They also carry the ability to drain the life force from an opponent, if the wielder concentrates."

I began to wonder why Ra's had them and what his intention with them was.

Actually, a better question; why were all these powerful relics collected under one roof.

Most of the other scrolls and books were pretty boring with little to no information that I needed.

I decided that I was ready for bed, when suddenly, as I was packing everything away, a book fell at my feet.

Not one to pass up a hint, I started paging through it.

I saw that it had information about the League of Assassins but for the most part it was pretty boring.

I was about to put it away, when my eye caught sight of a drawing.

The drawing nearly made me choke.

It was a drawing of Novu.

"What the fuck…" I trailed off.

I read in the book that he confronted the first Ra's Al Ghul and gave him knowledge about the future that no one knew about.

Novu told the first Ra's that it was vital that he kept the balance otherwise the "god", (whoever the hell that was), would destroy the Multiverse.

This guy then founded the League of Assassins.

By the time I fished reading about Novu, I was suffering from a serious bout of information overload.

And I decided I didn't want to know about anything else for now.

I packed everything and walked back to my room.

I plopped on my bed exhausted and thought "Boy I hope tomorrow is going to be a little less crazy then today but I doubt it"

I lay there wondering, if I was going to be able to fall asleep after everything I had just learnt but I drifted off.

It didn't even feel like I had slept for ten minutes, before Nyssa was knocking on my door, waking me up.

The day of the test was just starting…

And Chapter 8 is done. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

I apologize for this being a short chapter. Next chapter will be longer.

So this explains several things.

As you can see, Red Skull was given permission from the Living Tribunal to pass the Soul Stone onto Ra's.

And a seventh Infinity Stone, the Ego Stone exists. It is coloured white and will be vital to the story.

And Mundus and Spartus are characters from the video game series 'Devil May Cry'. Neither characters will appear in this story but will appear in the sequel to this story.

Next chapter will begin the test.

Until next time, review, follow, faviroute, stay tuned and tell me what you thought of this chapter.

Arrowverse Fan 217 Out.