Teen Titans New Divides – Universal War – Finale

Chapter Two: Artifacts

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Aiden gazed around at the sight of flickering ether lamps and a fireplace as big as Grandpa Wayne's. He gasped a the height of the dusted bookshelves that seemed to sweep around to embody the entire room that they'd popped their heads into. This was a replica from some Victorian spook – house, no mystery there.

"A house? More like a museum ta' me." Aiden squinted up at a few dazzling items that were out of his reach. An orb that resembled a crystal ball on a seated cushion. A crystal so dark that it could drag you into its depths with one glance.

Raku's shyness again overcame him. Even the boy's jinni - familiar was frightened of this shack of tomes, spell books, and cursed tablets from all across time and space.

"This old dollhouse, here?" John C chuckled and stepped over to the fireplace as he tried to keep a distance from the confused boys. "I won her in a bet with the "dreaming" gang. A classy bunch, yet we can do much better to put this cabin to use. I know you like to cast spells, just from the way you try to deny your own magic power." John read Raku's hidden expression as the boy froze up. "I…I believe I, can change…" He tried to reply without wavering this time. Aiden bit his lip. "Are you sure? This us, really deep. I thought dad said you two would teach him self defense –

"All in good time, Lad." John smiled wryly at the blonde. He really wanted Aiden to trust him, but could Raku? He was double edged, and a bit jagged at the edges. In that case…

"We'll be trying to unearth his potential; to cultivate his craft here, since the boy as' never completely decided on a special use for it."

"I just…I know what can happen if, lost control…" Raku hugged his arms to his chest. The fireplace lapped hungrily behind them. "Aiden…everyone trusts me to do the right thing…but I –

"You're not a human, so right to some isn't to you as it is to your adoptive family." Aiden heard those words and yet didn't understand where this magi's logic was coming from.

"My "brother" is not – not like us, and you're way off." Aiden came over to stop the brit from laying a finger on his kid bro's head.

"I am? Says, who? You are just borrowing magic, mate. He's a genuine demi – God by r –

"And I want to have another way to use my magic without…without…" As Raku's words trailed off behind them, the doors and walls had begun to shift within the magi's mystery house.

"Ah, right on cue, again. I think we have another way to sort this out." He ushered for the two to follow, and by some hex they could not look away or duck and hide.

"Why are we here?" Aiden waited for the question to be answered, just until they'd come to another tall door that seemed to have no way to SEE the top.

"Ahhh…. are you…. trying to scare us? I'm s –

"Then stay outside while Raku and I get to the bottom of his fears."

"Huh?" Aiden felt the red and brass wood his hit in the face as he dropped onto hi bottom. They'd left him! The door was slammed quickly shut as he banged to be let inside. Raku had been tricked! He was a monster! This Constantine guy was worse than ole' Uncle Wil!

"HEEEY!! LET ME IN!! DON'T…. RAKU!! OPEN THE DOOR! COME ON!!"

/

No answer.

The room held up its appearance as a smaller library that had no top, but one could see what lain strewn across the floor. A meditation mat with markings of a dragon. And books of old surrounding the circle.

Raku turned around to face the older blonde male. "Why am I here?? What are –

"You wanna know? I wasn't going to withhold what any fors' after our introduction…but you'll be here a while."

"Why?" Raku started to gasp as his breath felt too still in his lungs to push back out. He was panicking. He hadn't –

~ Are you hurting my charge too??? ~

"No! Lea –

Raku couldn't stop the jinni as it over took his body; normally to calm the boy and to overshadow him for a bit, it took charge and was not interested in Johnny's probing idealisms.

Constantine watched with interest as the scowling jinni was uninterested in how this player of kings, worked his lunatic "magic." He was still royal, and this was punishable by a defacing.

"Do you know who I am, warlock?" The jinni frowned up at John's ugly mug. The older magician shrugged. "Should you need to announce it to the whole world? Didn't you want a new name and all that?"

Raku's keeper blinked. "Well…I will have that too, but now you must let him go –

"How? WE can't leave until you figure out the toughest mystery of all…" The ether lamps gleamed above them as the room's book fell to the floor from their cases – instantly trying to bury the young mage where he stood in a frenzy.

"You have magic, but what kind? You can't be determined as MY pupil until you find what your first lesson will be; to determine your range and what craft you will most excel at. I've not told you; I know the myth your ancestors came from, and I even have a copy of your story donated from the merc's collection, the man who helped your counterpart "Roku" to exist in the first place.

"You…. you are indeed a cunning adversary, Constan –

"You'll address me as professor, here. I have every right to push those buttons so you'll finally come to terms with your present magical influence. The jinni is just a familiar, a single helper. You are safe to have him, but I'll even teach you how to stop his casting on YOU. You, just have to lend me your ear, please."

"Why should -a! – I??" Raku batted away a book as it flapped at him with the wings of a bat to imitate These were magical relics, that he was being stacked underneath! No!

"I can't…. lose……. what do I do??" Raku called out to John as he saw a blur…. He was losing….

~You try to gather your strength! ~ John lectured and called to the boy, who was looking rather out of sorts…

"I…. books…. paper…." He remembered a feeling of working with Lord Dreamwake, and Azag had shown him how to create something incredible from a single flicker….

He felt the ground and tried to find himself, to envision a destination that was not here, but in the pages of another story….

~Sand…. ripple…. ~

John hopped out of the way as the boy started to cast. The books shuddered violently as they began to morph and evaporate all in a giant torrent right above –

"Look out!" The crash alerted Aiden that he was still in charge. He rammed the door with his fire, watching at the man who…...was covered head to toe a ruddy sand. He fell into a small pile as Raku spat a bit from his mouth, his hair and outfit were completed dusted of the stuff. John looked around; raising his hands to the books as they soon reverted to their proper shapes and were placed back on their shelves by his magic.

"What…. what happened??" Aiden gawked at the disaster and how he couldn't stop looking at John's smiling face.

/

"So, he was in a "magical" simulation chamber?? What is you –

"I want to do what I was employed to do, lad." Raku watched the two spit flames at each other as he looked to the room. There was no damage, it was only a spell?

"Why...did everything do this?" The teen asked his allies. "I…I don't –

"This is too much; we should just leave –

"No!" Raku shook his head, desperate to stay. "I want to know! What is my power? I…I don't know anymore..."

"Roku's was absolute fire and simply a daemon's vendetta branded across his skin." John started, earning a glare from Aiden in response.

"What is my power, then? Will I be here forever?? I…I can't! There is a war that must end, because of my…"

"This goes way back." John turned to the tomes and pulled one up by magic. "You didn't do what they're attempting. Man created these relics as a way to portray human emotions and actions. You were just caught up in their bigger plans to destroy one another for power –

"You talk like you saw what they did to him!" Aiden snapped. "Raku was neglected and abused just because of who he came from. I think they are like humans and can be brought to justice."

Constantine let his eyes to roll to the side.

~ Typical, normal – kid…~

"Didn't say he wouldn't become a soldier, he's just a bit rusty's, all." The magi scratched his beard and looked over the djinn demi – child with a hard stare. "What?" Aiden jumped in-between the two. "What can you do for him that none of his own kind –

"They can't, bloke…because he's not one of them. Well, not all of him."

"I'm…. what am I? A story – teller is just a sorcerer. But, what does that mean?" Raku had forgotten or he didn't know. John saw a prickle at the kid's eyes and decided to take a short break. "Let's get lunch and tea ready, if you want to stay Kosher. Up to you, lads." John waved them to follow, and the teens did not hesitate to catch up.

/

There was a feeling Dick had, but Ami wondered miles off if she wasn't just predicting the fall of earth again. Shoji looked at her from over the side of the kitchen island.

"Something up?"

"No…" she shook her head and faked a grin quickly. "I'm just glad you let Jackie stay the night. When's Yumi coming back, do you know?"

/

As for the foxes, there was more work to be done. They drifted forever through the underground to reach the one in danger of losing a fight that could not be won. Tsukiyume watched overhead as the trials continued for poor Tsani and Bao Shi Lan. They were captured after Athena had decided to strike the Ethereal plane by force. Alue had joined her and the fall was evident even before Tsani could be swept away to the Spirit realm of the east for protection.

Bao Shi's clan had turned bloody against one another. Brother against brother. She was of both units; sun and moon, wind and wood, but to this she turned her head away and was without the abilities of hers to escape. The god Agni stood by. Another liberated Universal being that Athena had prided on bringing to her new world of the conquered. He had a spear in one hand and was looking over Dreamwake's impressive recordings of their world. Dreamwake was a changed one or a fallen god that had become a lowly thing; devout and out of the spotlight. An Egyptian relic, he no longer worked beside the council. He had instead gone missing after Athena's proclamation.

Arcs ago, Agni was a revered master of fire. Now, he felt as if his position was as his brothers' and sisters.' Only side – kicked to the curb; unceremoniously of their kind….

~HAS THE GREAT MOTHER BOWED TO THEE?? ~

He spoke aloud in a regal manner. ~ Will the goddess 'A' think to return all to as it once was? Are you for or against our new world, goddesses? ~

Bao Shi's eyes led him to believe her to be a snake. Getting mad wasn't very Zen in her position, yet Tsani was a light of hope in the dark. She had to be protected from these corrupted beings of absolute power.

~A butterfly dines until the sun has hit its peak, yet a hornet can only remain underground. ~

~What? ~ Agni snorted, ~Are you casting a curse, little eternal? ~

~ If a priest sings a tune, will his voice reach the mountain before –

~ENOUGH of you tricks!! ~

A backlash of magic hit the fae goddess. She'd only tried to get the fire of his to weaken, so be it.

~ NOW ! ~

Tsukiyume had her cue. She drove ice to shatter the walls, and to topple what was left of the court orderlies' domain.

~ Release the deity of awakenings!! ~ She thrust her energies of a somber moon's bow with ease. Agni used a fire shield while awaiting the guards that –

He gawked. Beside Yumi in her true form was a former ally.

Hsari and one; Lady Shanti. (Noted! You will not know who they are without reading A new Beginning arcs and Wattpad story Veil of time series. Ah, so that here is a throwback. Lord Hsarr was a panther faced prince (cursed with it, such as Guin Saga style) and shanti was his love interest from the spirit world ancient India in Raku's time – or out of it. He escaped with Lilu to the later past in order to find a way to face himself and because she'd expected him to follow when the dune capital fell. All in the story, don't forget! Under Pageturner09.)

/

Shanti dressed in her attire of her home country. Piercings in a more tantric style of choice and her eyes saw nothing, though she sensed every aspect of this world. She was on the moon's magic, or her relic the cobra spirit as her ancestors' gift to her, was by her every day. She did not hate what Raku had done, for she knew his entire history.

Hsari was cursed to follow Lilu's pupil to the ends of the earth, and so he'd been set free with Shifter Imp and Veronica long before the new Chosen had been born.