Gotham Knights Chapter 7

Rage is a familiar feeling to me.

I murdered my teacher as a child.

The man daring to reprimand me for my errors, the rage was unleashed.

I realised then that while the rage made me stronger it did so at the cost of my sanity.

I devoted myself to controlling the rage, for it to serve my purpose and for a time I succeeded.

Then my father's wife, Hera, meddled.

I lost control of that raging beast within me and madness ensued.

The price paid by my wife and children.

I murdered them.

Legend tells that I became a slave to Eurystheus, a man that loathed me, to atone for my sins

The legend lies, there was no atonement for my sins.

It was unforgivable, I was unforgiveable.

I subjugated myself to him to strengthen my will and mind.

To forge chains stronger than before, to never allow the rage and madness to overcome me again.

I preformed impossible labours not out of penance, but to forge my will and determination.

Twelve impossible labours, that bestowed mystical status on me.

The mad raging beast within me, controlled by chains stronger than gods.

Alas Hera was not done with me, her jealousy and hatred endless.

Tricking my new wife into poisoning me.

My mind and body ravaged by poison, the beast threatening to break free once more.

I burned myself, my immolation to my father, Zeus, awaiting his judgment on me.

To purge my mind and body of the rage and poison, or to let me perish.

Legend tells of the gods approving of my great deeds preparing a seat for me in Olympus after my death.

The legend lies for Hera once more meddled.

I was send to the Throne of Heroes to be used as a pawn by the greater grail, a servant to mortals.

To be classed a Berserker, a servant chained by madness and rage, send out to destroy.

Yet even in madness and rage I formed a bond with my young mortal master.

To be her protector, to fight for her so that she may attain her wish, not just be a mad raging destroyer.

Then fate meddled.

To have our bond shatter as I was enslaved by the corrupted grail and send to destroy her.

To be bested by an imitation of my own blade, my only solace that I was stopped and she still lives.

So I ask you little girl, are you prepared for the path that is ahead of you.

To stand in a pyre of your own making, losing all those you love to your weakness.

Knowing that you may fail even with all your will and determination.

Still stand as madness and rage consumes you, fighting for your beliefs, not just a mad raging destroyer.

What is your answer little girl ?

Z-Z

Jenn woke up with the memories of a demigod, her eyes staring directly onto Herakles. The question asked by him still vibrating in her head. This dark behemoth in front of her, staring at her. He was frightening beyond belief, his memories not helping lessen her fear at all. Comparing him to Bruce, was to draw comparison between a man and a boy.

No matter how the Hulk raged, it has always had an element of a child's tantrum. Hulk has a childishness and vulnerability that is easy to see, once you see pass the green bulk and the lashing out. This grim, dark giant has none of that softness, madness and rage having scoured it off years ago with loss upon loss, betrayal upon betrayal.

As she gets up she realises she holds his weapon, this axe-sword. She wants to pass it to him then realizes he has his own.

"An imitation, but a good one, good enough to allow me to speak to you from the Throne of Heroes." This behemoth rumbles in a deep bass voice, as he sees her look from her weapon to his own.

She swallows, his memories still fresh in her mind. "What happened ? I thought I was only suppose to get your memories, not meet you?"

"The unforeseen as is normal in any battle" Herakles replies. "The imitation was absorbed by your crest, which enable our meeting across different worlds and while an imitation it is still MY weapon. You can use it, but only I can allow you to truly wield it no matter how much your crest is trying to make it otherwise."

That's when she begins noticing an itchy feeling all over her body, annoying at the moment, but ramping up to uncomfortable. "It wasn't by choice, this wasn't suppose to happen." I tell him as sincerely as possible.

"Alas it did, and you have not answered my question little girl." He says looking down at me, "Do not think to lie to me for as you glimpsed my life, so I have yours."

"Fate handed you power beyond measure, at no cost to your health or sanity" he continues, "You gloried in it and played hero, yet your insecurities remained still there growing as time passes. Only at the end when seeing your friends die did you unleash your true power, and it consumed you." He goes on relentlessly, without mercy.

I stared at him, trying to block it, the memories of what I had done. I had embraced this new life I was offered so readily, with no real desire to return to my old life not because of what was done to me, but of what I did to others. As I saw my mentor Peter die, for people that still call him a menace, the legacy Jameson left him. I had lost it and let my rage loose, unchecked and when finally stopped I had killed friends and foes.

"It was a mistake ! I wasn't suppose to get this power !" I shout at him with guilt laying heavily on me. " I was a normal girl from California, going to be a lawyer. Any less boring would have been becoming an accountant." I wipe the tears from my eyes.

"I only became a hero cause that was what everyone expected of me. Especially Bruce, cause he couldn't control it at first, but I could so I had to use it for good !" I look up to him defiantly, "and I got good at it ! I admit it, it fed my ego giving me confidence like I never had before and that made me get stuck physically as She-Hulk as I never wanted it to stop."

I straighten myself and stare back into his unblinking eyes, as they pierce my very soul," I started with less than noble reasons, but don't you dare call it me playing hero. I placed myself between people and the meanest, toughest, scariest, most evil things in existence, for no more reason than it was the right thing to do."

Shouting defiantly at him," I earned it !, the hard way in blood, sweat and tears." Tears start rolling down my cheeks again as I speak to him, "I lost control just like you did, but now that I have this power again its not going to stop me from doing the right thing again. I will make myself stronger, I will learn to control it !." We continue our stand off staring at each other, and I can feel him testing my resolve. I guess this is another soulscape cause I can feel his will beating against mine, like waves against a rock and like that rock I stand firm.

As that feeling in my body moves up from uncomfortable to painful, the clash of wills is stopped by him, "You're magical crest is truly unique, still persisting in assimilating the imitation Axe-sword." He says with amusement in his voice, he suddenly sits cross legged across from me, his Axe-sword resting on his lap, " I have searched your memories and tested your resolve, and find you walk the path of a hero little girl, though I would not have wished to give my weapon to you."

He sighs, then looks to me "The crest however makes my wish irrelevant as if I do not bestow it to you either it will succeed or you will die. You can already feel it can you not ? It is losing." Again as he barely finishes his words the pain turns into agony.

Through clenched teeth I ask him, "So you are going to let me die ?" and he studies me as I sit their waiting on his judgement, cause that choice is out of my hands. It has been ever since I placed my hand on that damned sword, finally he makes a decision.

He reaches across to me and places his huge hand on my chest and I feel the pain ease and then vanish as if it never existed. Removing his hand he speaks, while I compose myself with this sudden shift from agony filled dying to perfectly fine. "It is done." He states, sounding oddly apologetic. "I did not desire to have my weapon become both a boon and a curse to you Jennifer Walters nay Jade Tsui ."

"Just Jade" I say, then asking "What boon and what curse ?"

"You will have my Noble Phantasms, a great boon to you, but to use it will push you to the edge of your mind and body's capabilities. The usage of it will be as if a mentor is imparting skills to you as you wield it." He sighs " Alas that I am that mentor for I have wielded that weapon with rage and madness, and to have that upon your own rage will make it a titanic effort to use it without being consumed by it."

I do not like this bit of information, not one little bit. "I don't have to use it then, if its that dangerous." I tell him as he looks to me. "You walk the path of a hero Jade, fate will leave you no choice." He says with his deep voice, like a judge delivering a death sentence.

Herakles, son of Zeus, thrice damned by either gods or fate looked at me with sorrow and sympathy. "Don't count me out just yet big guy" I respond flippantly to his words, but understanding all to seriously that I will have a Olympus Mons to climb, highest mountain on Mars, three times higher than Everest on Earth.

Z-Z

I have no idea how long I have been here with the demigod and I have so many questions to ask, but it seems my time with him has run out. "You will leave soon, gather your thoughts and control the beast as you emerge in your body." He stands up, looking down to meet my eyes as I slowly begin to fade away from where ever here is. "I have more questions ! " I shout to him as even my voice is fading. "The archer will answer them for you, and tell him next time I will not be so kind." He replies to me, at the last saying with a soft smile on such a hard face "Tell him I did it for Illya."

Then I am back the power coursing through my veins again, and I do what he told me to and gathered my thoughts, except they were his thoughts. I had a lifetime's worth of training methods in my head on what worked, and what didn't, to draw on to control this raging torrent within me.

Breath in … breath out … breathe in…

Feel the Od (weird name) coursing through me and move it away from going Hulk.

Breath out … breathe in … breath out

Trying to send the Od outside of my body and failing, where can I send the extra energy, it needs to go somewhere ! Then I see it like a beacon in my chest, my boon and curse, and I force it to the axe-sword that greedily takes it in, using it to complete and sustain the place it had created for itself in my soul.

Breath in … breath out …. Breath in

After that wrestling match with my Od, I open my eyes surrounded by five children, holding my hands and each others. My mother in a chair next to my bed, slumped over, obviously exhausted. " So anyone want to tell me how long I was out?" I ask, as each of them open their eyes as well. I get a big smile from Petro, a wink from Tasha and a satisfied look from Stephen, all of them easy to identify from our inner soul adventure: Spider-Man, Black Widow and the old man, who had uncannily resembled Captain America. Guess there was a Avengers reborn clause I neglected to read in the contract.

The tanned, white haired boy is looking at me surprised, while his friend the blond gives a slight smile in approval to me. While I had obtained the memories from Herakles's early life on how to control my rage, with a bit of magecraft knowledge about Od and Prana, the rest was incoherent. I had few glimpses of memories with any clarity, there was Illya a white-haired small doll-like girl, his master. Shirou Emiya both a master and a servant confusingly, the brother of Illya. Then lastly Artoria the shining noble servant, who later becomes the dark corrupted Artoria. These are part of those ever increasing amount of question that I need to get answers to from "the archer".

They look even more exhausted than my mother, whatever they did to help me took a great deal out of them. I notice a vibration on my skin just suddenly disappear and instantly the nurses notice them. Quickly they are scolded for still being up and awake, then hustled off to their beds for observation. I hear the nurses complain to each other of no one having noticed them standing near me the entire time. A nurse comes over and I can see her relief that I have waked, she then takes my blood pressure and a blood sample, and moves on.

I turn to my mother from the bed and say softly "Ma Ma?", but she is not moving. I shake her gently and still she is not waking up, did they do something to my mother !

Breath out … breathe in … breath out

I shake her a bit more roughly, and she starts coming around. She opens her eyes and sees me. "Jade !" she cries and throws her arms around me. As crazy as this day has been it is good to be in her arms again, just a little girl being hugged by her mother.

Lets leave the earth shattering revelations for tomorrow, it will come soon enough.

Z-Z

Meanwhile back at Gotham Academy chapel:

It was a moonless night, perfect for Gotham's dark knight to blend into the shadows. Standing in them he surveys the damage done to the ruined chapel. This time next week it will all be restored to pristine order, like it never happened. Compliments of a generous donation from Wayne Enterprise, which includes an efficient construction crew.

Looking at it all together it does resemble an explosion of some kind, but investigating the storm shelter puts that theory to bed. Also he had been in enough situations with his more enhanced colleagues to be able to identify a super powered brawl. The question is who exactly brawled in a Gotham Academy chapel near the end of the student's orientation for the day and why ?

He is hoping his expected visitor will cast some light on the matter, then he feels him arrive with a bit of displaced air. One moment he is alone the next Zatara the Great Magician is next to him.

"Hello Batman" he greets the dark crusader.

"Zatara, thank you for agreeing to meet me." Batman replies, while still studying the rubble.

"I admit to certain amount of curiosity, it is not often you seek me out for detective work." Zatara says with an amused smile, "what exactly is it that you are asking of me?"

Surveying the damage, Batman points to impact points "The report issued on what happened here says explosions, but no explosive residue was found." Walking further along he touches each impact point "The report also mentions an hallucination of some kind of green giant, coming out of the floor."

"Green?" Zatara questions, while thoughtfully contemplating possible answers, as those infernally inclined tends to go red not green.

Batman hunkers down to the hole in the floor, then points to the various craters in the storm shelter. "Whatever happened its clear to see it started downstairs, the door lock crushed and doors almost ripped from its hinges."

"I have already had Jason Blood look and he assures me he detected no infernal power," Batman continues, "and scientific analysis has no explanation, other than an extremely destructive fight."

"So you thought perhaps magic holds the solution'" Zatara finishes his explanation.

"Well then my friend let me see, what I can do," he then stands tall uttering an incantation, and with a flourish of his hands completes it, with magical energy echo off the chapels remains.

Then he stands still in deep thought with a puzzled look on his face, turning to Batman he offer some confusing information.

"All this was done by a physical fight, the green giant against another of equal strength." Zatara lays out his results.

"But?" Batman asks, as there is always one.

"There is a magical energy of some sort, both appear to have it. I have never felt this type of magical energy, this giant and his opponent both seem to either radiate it or uses it" he looks apologetically at Batman, "I cannot tell you more as it is actually interfering with my magic."

"Any deaths or injuries among the students?" Zatara asks concerned, thinking of all the young lives near these magical bulldozers.

"Only one injury, with the remainder treated for shaken nerves," Batman replies, "I observed the injured girl briefly, she had woken up and shows a few bruises. It confirms the report from students on removing her from the rubble, after the giant had left. No one mentioned a fight against anything or anyone by the giant." He says while frowning , he did not like unexplained destructive mysteries so close to children, especially as Dick comes here for his schooling.

"Could a student or students be responsible for all of this ?" He asks, but the magician is already shaking his head. "While strange the amount of magical energy used was incredible, I cannot see children having the power or the skill to use that much power as a group let alone a single child"

"Someone destroyed the camera's and their recordings for the last month of the entire Academy, to cover up what happened here today." Batman says looking to Zatara. "I have never seen anything like it, the cameras and their recordings are sludge, unrecoverable." He asks Zatara the question "Magic?"

"That would be my conclusion." Zatara replies.

Taking a last look at the chapel Batman disappears into the shadows his last words to Zatara still lingering in the air " I will find out what happened"