Teen Titans; Sun and Moon Rhapsody – Illuminate My Earth –
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Chapter 7: Shrine Maidens and Fox Fires and Temple Gods – Oh My!
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Ami returned to her family as they went through a vortex Ann was able to bend by her energies still remaining. With Raven's help the group sullen eyed left Anya or Ava to her fate for now. Ami didn't look away; this was the person she had to face, to prove to herself that she could in fact…maybe, be a hero.
She was, right? Her mom and brother, her father and Anna even…. why did she feel so out of the loop when she was in the center ring?
The trip to the temple grounds made Ami choke, Haru clutching Kaede as a sad Koko came out with floppy ears, a dog's tail behind her and flat to the ground.
~ The temple…. I could not…~
~ Haru, go to her. ~ The sniffling kitsune nodded and helped the wolf clan spirit healer to try and regain her composure . ~What attacked the goddess's shrine? Can you tell us? ~ Kaede looked at the shattered stone work and how the crack had narrowed too close to this sacred space for its own good.
~The shift, it was…very bad…. Kawai…. ~ Howled the wolf as it then whimpered, trying to turn its head to the steps that led to the main shrine gate. ~ There…. go, there is…something you must find…~
"Koko!" Ami rushed to the wolf's side as it reverted to its animal form. ~ Go, Ami – chan! You must save the relic! The mirror was not the only line of defense the goddess intended to borrow from her world to protect…. your world…. ~
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Ami and her family scaled the steps. They saw beaten and vanishing spirits that were no longer protected by this temple's sacred power of the sun. She tried not to cry, though the tears came as a steady rainfall. The steps were tough to scale; Ami's last instinct was to crawl, as the miasma surrounding this one place was…not…. real!
The magic she did have was that of her training as her third eye pushed away the evils like a beacon of light from afar. She panted; her family lost in the miasma of magic as it prevented them from joining –
She gasped. A character WAS in the temple, and he was after the goddess's protective gear!
He was made of the scent of wafting death and dark clouds. He was not faceless, in fact he was a rather well kempt being as Anna trailed behind, her staff up as her first reaction was to worry. Ami was face to face with not only the one on their list of possible masterminds, it was.
Hades.
Tangible, but barely.
Dick gripped Ami's shoulders as Kori floated up.
~I do not wish for ye to crowd this sacred space. ~ Hades raised a palm and the miasma dragged the others down, Anna and her siblings were left, Aiden puffing out his lightening in a flash to have the god of the underworld fall.
Gods fell, yet not without enough meaning behind their enemy's hits.
The doors shut as Ami stayed bolted to the floor, seeing that…. where was the real one?
~The youth is a trouble I cannot have to live. ~
Ami gasped and stayed behind her older siblings. "Why are you trying to destroy the earth and the spirit worlds??" Aiden came out to demand a straight answer. "You took Slade; my sister's teacher, where is he??"
~He broke our deal, so I could not allow him to walk freely. ~
"He got me out of there…we just need to put you back in –
"Anna!!"
The spikey red head didn't listen as her fire whipped at the walls, the offerings and the prayers of many as Ami's heart shattered at each and every crippling loss. Of heart, of their dreams.
"STOP!"
The two didn't. Ami wasn't a powerful vassal, Ava had stolen or taken her magic. She was only able to play the exorcist, not the exorcised. "Why are you here?? You need to go, I'm warn –
~ Warn a GOD?? ~ The darkness encroached around the three. They couldn't win, they truly could not…
~ TOME OF TRANSITIONS - OF DEATH AND REBIRTH; MAYST THOU BE REBORN AS GODS OF OUR TRUE CALLING….AS THE INFINITE ONES, UNITED!! ~
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Aiden covered his head as a vortex popped up from the ceiling, the gods of old not tested by the creature that came from it. A god of owls; the face was of one until the projection was bent to show a dark brown haired and tan boy of the sands capital.
"Raku!"
The teen nodded in his attire as half of an Infinite being or keeper of sacred records.
~ Hades has no right to stop time; he hath not earned such, I have come to see to his deliverance –
~ I do this of my own vows TO man, immortal – child. ~ The god of old turned the room to night as Raku put a hand to his manifesto tome. ~ Heart of hearts…. darkness drawn….let there be light!! ~
The god of old however could counter alchemy quite well. He used his wild magical presence to stir a great dust to blind the reader.
~ Wha…. Ang... ~
~ A god you must be, for only gods fall to the sands of time and rest, dear Archivist. ~
"Get away from him…. you are hurting a lot of my family…." Ami took in aa gulp of air, the room stale and not as she had remembered years before. The girl's palms lit up with golden amber, a sunnier warmth than Aiden or Anna's regal star bolts or flames.
Hades narrowed his dark eyes and stepped back; a portal was bound to pop up.
Had the boy wizard's wizarding master allowed that.
~ Péste kai proskyníste ton eaftó sas brostá stis dynámeis pou ypárchoun. Étsi diatázei o magikós kátochos! ~
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The echo of a spell had Raven try to undo the doors, yet the casting was iron clad. She gripped her fingers back while Kori had no luck –
"The cracks!!" Kaede warned her allies in another form, her old one away until she could recover her energy enough to save her charge inside those bolted down doors.
"We can't get in! What do we do, Dick?"
"We have to find a way…. Raven! What –
"Back up!" Shoji forced Dick out of the way as John C was tossed down the steps, Raku going off to chase him before his enemy spoke a hoarse reply aloud. ~ The skies were once to dusk; did your father not prepare you for the day of the end to end all?? ~
Raku's face went white as Aiden ran to him, his body sinking back while Raku almost didn't find his grip on reality and started to sweat in terror of that revelation.
The day that his alter "Roku" had tried to recreate and had sacrificed his own son to know. It was the only thing he'd forgotten until Hades brought him back to what he was that his power shrunk, the manifesto tome in danger as John again countered in the god's new age language to temper its foul temperament.
"You won' be getting this plane, holy wanker! Your or the gods, I'm still here to make you wish you hadn't…."
He began to cast as Raku's body remained cold and empty as he healed from within.
"Why is he…he's never done this before –
"Mechanism to keep his tome safe, his heart." John grunted and went with Dick, Kori, Raven and Shoji as Verra to push back the threat at Amaterasu's doorstep.
While Ami made it to Raku's side, Aiden saw her eyes change as well.
"This, is because we can't stop him…"
"Ami, no…. not you too. Stop it!" Aiden gripped her shoulders, radiance running down his frame as she screamed and pointed to the crack –
In the stairs, as Hades vanished within in vortex. Another stage, recovered…
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Anna dove, Raven chanted to stop the break as Starfire went to find Ami with her foxes.
"We have to find Ayane…. this place…"
Shoji looked back on the temple, the last of the few that the sun goddess had protected….
IT was going to dust as Ami finally had to shield her eyes and weep for her second home.
"We'll find a way to reverse it. Trust me."
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Ami wouldn't go to anyone, similar to how the fire – twins Anna and Aiden had been so moody in the beginning of their journey. It wasn't teen drama, she mulled over the image of John fighting Hades, of the temple and the spirits there fleeing for dear life…
"The gods of our world –
"Can't stop it. Whatever this is…" Shoji stood and paced as Dick, Kori and Raven all stayed in the dog's lab down underground. "The League and Young Justice, the Titans are all ok but not…everyone is going to get through this –
"And who's to blame?? Slade was in on it!" Aiden screamed at Ann as she ducked her head and went for the door.
"No." Aiden wrenched her arm back as she sneered at him, making herself feel like a caged animal. She'd no longer had a teacher, he'd…he'd really tried to make it work.
"Slade talked to Hades you said even after he left dad alone; he was after this, all of us and….how could you just…are you trying to protect a criminal??"
"He protected me from my own powers trying to roast me alive!" Anna shot at her brother, eyes going amber rather quickly. "I owed him more than that, he didn't want me to suffer even if you think he'd turn and -
"Which is why you must listen to us when we tell you, An'anndar." Kori floated up to her second eldest. "Slade will make you believe that he cannot tell the lies, yet he is most cunning. He will not allow you to see the truth in his actions."
"Because he does what he has to for survival. For himself." Dick told the rest, willing to throw them all a bone. "It's about time a told you….Back in the fiasco where the Child was in the original prophecy of Roku's curse, I was still his target. Slade was making another deal with the same being back then that had taken his body, unwillingly. Now, he was just trying to get it back by giving the dragon me, or otherwise, he wanted a worthy adversary that wouldn't be missed….I was, injected with the super serum that made him the way he is all to pay me back for saving him from an unidentified poison on a mission with your Grandpa Wayne. The Court of owls…He was there and, he made a promise to save me if I was at death's door."
"You….you said no, tell me you –
Dick shook his head. "I didn't give him an answer, he did it to even the odds then nursed me back to health for a few months." Anna chewed her lip, her own dad was…-]\\[
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"Dick. Slade was at fault for changing you." Raven frowned. "We can count him as a part of the problem, just like with Trigon and Roku."
"The dragon that Raku was, before." Aiden swallowed thickly. "He's not coming back, is that –
"Raku is healing his mind, the thing Hades said was supposed to terrify him…" Raven looked to the boy in the medical bay gurney. "And, it did."
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