Teen Titans; Galactic Eros Arc – Chapter 19: License to Kill – Abandonment Issues
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A twitch. Raku couldn't handle the power, yet Ignito- no…Manifesto, believed them invincible.
Aiden shouted for the cackling Gemini twin and the scowling Djinn boy to quit it, but it was a power struggle. Gemini – man wanted the power to bring back his brother, while Raku wanted to be able to gain the power to ...
Aiden's eyes narrowed. "Manifesto…. let my brother go! Raku doesn't –
~ You forget…~
Aiden saw the sphere as it began to spin and spin and twirl into a sickly pattern that had birds whirring round his head.
He had on idea about the radioactivity of this act, yet there was not much he could do. The machine had swiped a good deal of his light and fire. Even if he could call out, Raku was surrounded by a strange miasma. That book...Was -
~ We are to fight! This is the end of your reign, book – barer! ~ Gemini twin lifted the sphere up higher, and into the night they dove.
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Anna gritted her fists. No. There was a way. Like Aiden, she had a fire to spell out to that dangerous pair. She shot back at Wilson. "I'm going. My Phoenix fire can take that combustion – bomb. I have to get Aiden and Raku to quit this."
"You're going into a land mine field, Anna."
"Yes, but I too could also go in. Anna is part of my genes." Starfire proclaimed. "We can both –
"No. Anna, if you think…" Dick sighed. "I don't want you to be doing this without a way back. You are being reckless. Slade, I agree. But if we have a shot."
"Fine." Slade turned to Shiva who was being watched by Cy and one Blue Beetle. "Sacrifice your child to them, then. I'm sure she has an idea of what's in store."
"Thanks for the encouragement, Dee."
The man flinched. She was…no better than her father. Shit. He was sympathetic now??
Anna transformed her gear and got out her staff. "Time to burst his bubble. Dad! Find out if the Drenthaxians know; I don't want Mir's people to worry about the fact that their queen tried to fry them."
Mir sniffed, turning her head to the side as the battle of the sphere went on as planned. All while Slade looked at the stars to see…
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Aiden saw the djinn's eyes and he grew anxious. They looked, hollow. Black with red in the centers…. the opposite of his amber. More blood moon, and the light glowing blue and gold of the Gemini's complimented this...
Was he really…. being controlled??
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Back on planet Earth, the clean-up crew had found more dead figments of the imagination, and Palmer had been working on aa cure for those infected by the spores from Mir's creation. As for Maxima?
She'd been secretly radioing in on –
"Going somewhere, Maxine?"
Superman and his team of back up heroes all surrounded her flight into the next galactic quadrant.
"I…How did you know I'd lied?"
"Cause of the "blowing up" of the Planet Drenthax, or did you want a list? "Changeling sniffed and indignantly crossed his arms over his chest. "We stopped your fleet. Lagoon – boy told us they weren't so tough."
"Spill!" Conner Kent stomped over to the lackey of Mir's. "Why did you stay and let her get away with terrorizing earth? This doesn't –
"She'd be dead anyway." Maxima tossed her head to the side and smirked up at Clark. "I wasn't going to get caught up in all the family drama. And besides! If you can't fix the human race to do our bidding, who will?"
"You…. you set off the!? –
"Mir was fighting you when it happened." She looked at her dangerously manicured nails as the traitor from beyond the stars told her tale…
"When you caught us red handed in the president's seat, I did the man a big favor. No one listens to most diplomats, so I took them all on. And even…YOU might have to get a checkup. Did you say it was in Metropolis? The water supply? Who's to say my cronies weren't in Lagoon – kid's territory to spread some of that lovely green, elsewhere?"
"OH..." M'Gann ran to alert the rest.
"PANDEMIC ALERT! CODE DELTA – WE HAVE A SITUATION…. THE WATERS ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY…MAY BE INFESTED WITH TOXIC ALIEN SPORES – I REPEAT!"
"You'll tell us how to eradicate the threat…." Batman wasn't too happy, but Clark was who they had to help with negotiations in Metropolis while Bruce was defending Gotham from the same exact flora – based threat. Weed killer would not cut it. Not on Wayne's massive budget. These plants were creeping further into indestructible territory.
Clark let Conner do the forced tactic work, as Maxima was taken by the scruff and pinned to the side of her still warmed ship. "Talk! How do we stop these things –
"You are not your Daddy…. NN! Fine! The only thing that can kill…. plants……is a…weed whack –
"NO. TELL US…Or –
"Conner." Clark pulled back his son's wrist. "That's too much. Maxima; you have a choice." He spoke. "You can either give us the solution right here and now, or your punishment for all of this will be more than just having you imprisoned for the attempted murder of an entire country and nation."
"Though, you forgot about Japan, London…" She sneered back, head hit into the ship again until her bruises matched her eyes. " Ung…. Still…. too soon –
"Then make it sooner." Conner seethed, not liking the long wait. His dad was a horrible negotiator…Hands down, he'd rather never become the next Superman anytime too soon…
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She wasn't talking, and someone else wasn't listening.
Raku poured out words, yet his dopple just ignored every plea. All of his thoughts, to the sands of some distant memory.
He saw the red eyed being fighting in space and Aiden, was trying so hard to break the force field…
But the Gemini twin laughed as he was pummeled. Mean. Raku wasn't….
~ Don't hurt them!! Stop! W –
~But that is you – the real you….and we are the same, are we not? ~
~No…. I…I can't be like that… ~ Gulped the sobbing youth. Head in his hands, he wanted to crack. A cosmic egg of disaster. That's what his "wish" had brought unto this plane of existence.
~No…. I…Aiden trusted –
~But why should we care?? We are gods of old! Daemon! WE hold no such status; we only live to thrive…. if he cannot have us…then why should we listen to that angry little –
~Don't talk about Aiden like that! ~
Raku's head whirled round. His body as broken as a toy that had been left in the attic. Was this his…no!
~ I want to talk to him! Let me have my body –
~ NO. ~
Raku gasped as a long eared, wild haired and miasma drawn figure of his own height as a child, had come from the darkness to greet the frightened preteen.
~ That is because…. you already are here!! WE are making sure to claim precedence! You will cower in that form, yet I will take back our rights for us! HE will be our pet, not the other way…. HE will be our golden dawn!! ~
~you……. you can't be Ignito –
~ Quite... I was not. And you are not who you claim to be…Your, Ignito did not banish the god, for he IS THAT GOD. ~
Raku's eyes grew deathly afraid. With his eyes wider than Ami's could ever claim to be of her cotton – candy - land self.
~I won't let you do this...! ~
That protesting. Ignito snorted below the façade he now kept. The faintest whiff of a conquest; it stimulated Ignito, no. MANIFESTO to do better.
Raku was both beings, and he was not.
For as the scholar in the boy "Ignito" – Jinn took hold of this child's fleeting hope, his amber sights grew dimmer, and dimmer…. all until…. he saw nothing at all. Manifesto had been his fighter, his warrior and his darkness…he had believed that anyway.
~ We are going to defeat them; have ourselves a way out and away from there dagger – eyes, my child…It is my job to grant your wish…to its finality. ~
Raku shut his eyes and faded back into himself, soothed by the lull of imaginary waves and his body leaving his consciousness to wallow in pity- inside his own mind as the rest fell apart around him…
~ Aiden…. I'm sorry…. ~
Raku curled into a ball and drifted off into the ceaseless black of his false heart and spirit.
Ignito would stop them. His creation, his ally…or…his demon…. the very last part of himself that he had to seal away…yet couldn't.
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Ami gasped and held her temples. "I…Have to find Mom." She suddenly spoke, as if a trance put over her by some evil spell caster. Kaede and Haru helped the girl to stand, yet the two foxes would not let her move away. "You are to stay guarded. This was an order from Lord Inari and the sun goddess's –
"I have to stop them! Something is going to happen and…. I can't leave them alone…" Ami's eyes teared up as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Empath…. they did say I feel too much…" she nervously sniffed to her companions.
"It means to sense the presence, not just to feel the emotions of another, Ami – Chan." Kaede replied, while Haru's ears perked up to listen to the hustle and bustle outside the temple. "We have to stay put. We are safe here from the creatures of outer space."
"You mean space – plants." Chuckled Haru, who was younger in nature still since she'd returned as early as the gods might have allowed.
Kaede rolled her eyes with a snort. "Whatever." She lifted Ami to get her to the main platform where there was a barrier in place. "We need to stay together. Haru –nee, whatever you do, keep your promise and don't try to die again."
"Aye aye!" The younger fox saluted the older. Kaede had once been like Haru before her passing, now? Kaede was acting as if she'd matured a great deal due to this lesson in patience.
~It's only a matter of time, before we both leave Ami and this world behind… ~ Kaede braced herself as a banging at the temple door made her hairs stand erect.
"Get ready…." She growled. "We have company…!"
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The ones to breach the gates of the temple were not here like the alien plant children. They were clad in white and silver, and to one end a being came to step forth.
Red. She wore such colors that Ami recognized her face beside Kazuya's. She was wearing a strange shinto mask that looked almost imhumane. A warped face, as she pulled down the mask and her shawl to show her true shining eyes.
They were black and yetv held great power over her followers who bowed low to the ground. Kaede and Haru, with Koko did the same.
"That's!" Haru gasped as the fox guards aided the goodess's charges. Kazuya as Inari only kept his face away, not speaking to his comrades in the goddess's presence.
Ami gulped and let her eyes be steady.
"Amaterasu??" She gasped, hoping to be right.
~I am here, to stop a war with the gods of the old. ~
Her voice was tender, yet real to Ami and her fox allies. She did not smile, for war was about to begin on earth. The people needed a saviour, yet it wasn't here. It wasn't anyone she had witnessed.
That, would be for the great void to decide.
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