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Parallels	By : sirensoundwave Category: DC Verse Cartoons > Young Justice Views: 3184 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Plot and anything you don't recognize, mine. Everything else (Young Justice or any characters licensed by DC) belongs to their respective creators/writers/artists. Just know I make no profit off of this and shut up about it...m'kay?

Chapter List
- 21
- 22
- 23
Kudos to all my readers, new and returning.
This chapter mostly going to explore reactions to the new situation. There's mixed feelings and trust issues abound. I had to pick and choose who was going to lean to what direction and it was kinda difficult. The reason should be apparent as you read. We see more of what the Mages are like as people as they attempt to explain themselves and their actions. Three Days Grace gives us our soundtrack, One X. Let’s go.
Chapter 22
One X
Do you think about
Everything you've been through?
You never thought you'd be so depressed
Are you wondering
Is it life or death?
Do you think that there's no one like you?
[Chorus:]
We are...
We are...
We are...
We are the ones, we get knocked down
We get back up, and stand above the crowd
We are one
We are the ones, we get knocked down
We get back up, and stand above the crowd
We are one
The life I think about
Is so much better than this
I never thought I'd be stuck in this mess
I'm sick of wondering
Is it life or death?
I need to figure out who's behind me
[Chorus]
The life I think about
Is so much better than this
I never thought I'd be stuck in this mess
I'm sick of wondering
Is it life or death?
[Chorus]
Right now, the adult Leaguers and four of the Chaos Mages were on the Watchtower. The Team and the Knights that acted in servant capacity were at the Cave on Earth.
In the span of one day, the world had turned on it's head. Enemies turned out to be allies. Allies turned out to be more than they appeared. And one trusted hero turned our to be a douche with a superiority complex. That last one was no secret, just no one realized how corrupt it made him.
The fact that Klarion or rather Castor had defended them was mind blowing. The same crazy kid that murdered Kent Nelson for the Helmet of Fate. That was part of the highest level of the Light and nearly killed them all on several occasions. Now they were suppose to believe he was actually some godlike being who's technically not on anybody's side.
From there they were told to accept that lovable Wally was his brother! Twin brother even! He, as Red Tornado bluntly put it, replaced a child dead before birth in order to infiltrate the League. When Flash started to defend him, Wally stopped him.
“He’s pretty much right Uncle B. That’s exactly what happened. If this whole mess with Shiva, Kali and Vishnu never kicked off, once you retired, I would have become the next Flash.” The red head shrugged, still in his adult form as Pollux.
“It makes you sound like you had plans to kill us all or something.” Flash grumbled. Despite his defense, this still was unnerving, even to Barry. As much as he trusted his ‘nephew’ this form, Wally fast forwarded about 10 years, was a stark reminder of his deception. And yes, it did hurt. But he’d be damned if he was going to let the others see it.
“It’s okay, really. I’m not offended. You all have every right to feel betrayed and suspicious; we lied to your faces for more than 15 years. All I can say is unlike Dr. Fate, our purpose was to strengthen the heroes of this world, not cripple and control.”
“I for one am not at all comfortable with this.” Hal Jordan frowned. “How can we trust any of you if you’ve hidden something this big from us. So far all we really know about any of you is you’re not what we thought. I understand the whole balance thing but how do we know that’s even true?”
“Do you have wax in your ears or did I miss some brain damage when I healed you? Pollux just said we don’t really know what to tell you on that front. Castor almost died trying to protect you losers and I for one don’t get why.” Gabriel snarled, mimicking the Lantern’s tone with the last sentence. The foreign dark mage may seem callous to most but he was just less of a bleeding heart than his sister. In his opinion any way. “If it were up to me, you’d all be shit out of luck. Now the enemy knows you’re a weakness to the Zodiac Knights as all of them are somewhat attached to and not willing to sacrifice you.”
“You’re not exactly giving yourselves a ringing endorsement.” Superman sighed. “While those of us who where in the cave are more in the know at the moment, it is still a little alarming to realize our lives have been manipulated almost from the start. Regardless of the reasons.”
“I believe them.” Wonder Woman said. This earned her everyone’s attention. “There are stories thought to be fables of beings who allowed their identities to be obscured by the legends of many lands so that they may watch over all that has been and all that ever will be. There are those of you who believe that your God has a plan for the world that is not meant for man or woman to fully understand, how is this different? Besides what reason would they have for coming to our aide when they could have so easily destroyed us?”
“I don’t know, maybe because that one delights in causing death and chaos? That he’s proven himself less than rational?” Jordan pointed to Castor. He wasn’t exactly pleased at her reference to monotheism either. Even if he wasn’t a church on Sunday kind of guy, it rubbed him the wrong way.
“Oh boy.” Castor grabbed Sylphine’s hand when he saw his love’s fingers twitch near her sash. She seemed to relax but continued to glare at the senior Green Lantern (in enlistment with the Corp, not age). He understood she was angry; he almost died and Jordan was being ungrateful as hell. However, one swipe of a pissed off Sylphine’s tessen would end the man ring or no. Shiva and Kali had only been fucking with them; something the League didn't seem to get just yet. “I did do a good job of convincing them that I am Chaos personified. If it makes you feel any better, the Zodiac Knights are pretty much helpless in our other forms. Sure we have powers but they are a fraction of what we truly are capable of. We’d made a pact to do so in order to monitor things close up with out the possibility of affecting the world by accident."
"Cas went out on a limb for you. Do you really think their goal was to kill you? Duh, they could have blown up the Watchtower and been done with it. Their plot was to lure one of the Gemini here and isolate him. Unless they're touching they can't transform. It just happens they used those already here to kill time while they waited." Sylphine explained, a sharp edge in her voice. "And making sure you all met is hardly pulling your strings. If Auntie Gaia really wanted that she could have caused you all to get together when you first began crime fighting.”
“So that’s not what she did with the children? What you all did? And while we’re on that subject, you were with the Light and allowed them to do as they pleased. Nearly 500 children with extraterrestrial, magical or metahuman ties have gone missing in the last 5 years because of them! Did you even try to stop them?” The sound of wings flexing was a clear indication of their owner’s unrest. Hawkwoman was...upset to say the least. These creatures invaded the Watchtower then had the gaul to only heal the damage the wrought half way! Her husband was whole again yes but he lay unconcious next to Blue Beetle and the shell that was once their youngest member in the med bay. She wasn’t too keen on the idea of Sagittarius being practically alone with Young Justice either.
Nothing they said made any sense to her. They were supposedly supremely powerful and so far had adhered to the popular notion of Gods; reckless beings that forced mortals to do their dirty work or toyed with them for their own amusement. They had manipulated their lives effortlessly for years but couldn’t revived a child or even fully heal the injured among them? She should have predicted the response she’d get would not be to her liking. Or anyone else’s for that matter.
“No.” Castor said as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. “And that 500 is only the ones you know of. The actual number is much larger.”
Silence settled over all present. Even those who had shown some sign of comprehension before were vacillating between confusion, anger and betrayal.
At times like this, why were dark mages so...grrr! Sylphine buried her face in her palms silently raging at the situation. Tactless, that’s the word. Her brother was terrible at gauging how others might perceive his actions. Or he just didn’t care, she wasn’t too sure but strongly suspected the later. It seemed her match* was just as hopeless. Yes Cas, tell them you all just stood by why thousands of people suffered. The already angry and confused superheroes were sure to understand that it didn’t make you evil at all. Right.
For affinity sake...
Pollux let out a long sigh and Gabriel looked completely oblivious to the mounting tension. In fact, the silvertop had wandered over to the observation window and was looking out at space. He gave no indication that he was even paying attention to the discussion at all.
“You’ve known...this whole time?” Flash drew in a breath, trying to keep himself together.
“Well, yeah.” The red head looked away. “You don’t understand. Until recently we didn’t know that their ‘silent partner’ was Vishnu.”
“Just how does that justify anything?!” Jordan exploded.
“Don’t yell at him mortal! Don’t try to make him feel worse than he does already. I’ve have no problem restoring your injuries.” Gabriel’s eye burned a deep violet. “Shut the fuck up and listen!”
“We’ve been listening and all you’ve done is tell us a great many things that we don’t understand.” Aquaman snorted. “Now we learn that you knowingly let untold masses fall prey to the ones you swore to defend them from.”
“He did not! Wally West pledged to uphold the law and protect the innocent. Klarion the Witchboy existed to cause havoc in the world. Pollux and Castor pledged to protect all of reality.” Sylphine snapped. “It’s not that you don’t understand, I’m starting to think you either don’t wanna or can’t! You’ve got no idea what it’s like to see the depths of depravity but not be able to do anything about it! We cannot directly get involved in anything unless the very universe is at stake. They bent the rules to nearly breaking to give you all a fighting chance!”
“The mere fact that either of their counterparts existed at all is proof that something has been going very wrong for a long time. You’re all pissed. Boo-fucking-hoo. You try figuring out why your world is coming apart at the seams all the while praying to affinity you don’t change events too much by just existing. Show of hands who knows what happens when the scale tips too far for too long to either light or dark? Know that little button inside the back panel of a cell phone you can only reach with a bent paperclip? Same deal idiots, it’s called Cosmic Reset. One spontaneous big bang all over again. Who thinks they’ll survive that?” Oh. Well, Gabriel was listening. He still faced away from the group, watching their reactions in the reflective surface. “Saving a few brats at the risk of unraveling all of creation? No way. This is your world, you share the responsibility of protecting it too.”
“We can’t do anything about what people in this world are doing to others unless it is affecting the balance. I had no idea Vishnu was using those kids for whatever, I only recently found out the Llght wasn’t dealing with someone from this reality even though I was at the top. I’m pretty sure Bee didn’t think she’d loose her head or Lex didn’t know his brain was about to get new ventilation either. The others are who knows where.
You think it’s cruel but the ability to choose drives life and sometimes, life’s a bitch. By your logic, we should have stopped the every conflict in history anywhere and we totally could have. But where would that leave you all? The Kryptonians would have had no need to send you here because your planet would be in one piece. Your parents would be alive and well but much of Wayne Enterprises wouldn’t exist, many of it’s innovations wouldn’t either. Your inspiration for the becoming the Flash, Jay, would have had no desire to honor a father that fought and died in WWI because it didn’t happen. You’d still be the same spoiled brat that never grew up and found out it’s not always about fun. The king of Atlantis when you were born would have declared you a miracle not a curse, raising you as his own. There’d be no tension on Mars between the two races. Your history would be a complete joke; the myths of ancient Greece would be terribly boring and you’d probably be hair braiding with your ladies in waiting right now. Parallax would never have existed and neither would the Lantern Corp because there’d be nothing to defend against. So you certainly wouldn’t have been recriuted either. Without that vengeful sorcerer, your souls wouldn’t be hopscotching across time space forever. The woman who raised you to be the man you are wouldn’t have existed because her ancestors would never have been forced from Africa in to slavery.” Pollux pointed to each of the A--Listers, citing the events and traits that made them who they were today. “That’s assuming there’d be a world as you all knew it now at all.”
Some were angry that he knew anything so personal. It was clearly an invasion of privacy! There was no telling what else he knew about them but...
/Where would that leave all of you?/
A couple of those alternatives seemed wonderful. Happy families, no weight of the would on their shoulders. A world without war or strife seemed like a dream. It’s what they were working for now wasn’t it? How bad could it be if they weren’t needed? A world without heroes or villains. A Utopian existence. Still, something about that notion nagged at them and weighed heavier than they would like to admit. It’d be a good thing, so why did it inspire such foreboding?
“Because it should. Yes, we can hear your thoughts when you think them that loudly. I said it to a fruitloop obsessed with controlling another world and I’ll say it to this world’s greatest defenders too. Free will makes the world go 'round. It's why utopias never rise and empires always fall.” Sylphine wrapped her arms around herself and leaned into Castor. “We never took away your ability to decide for yourselves. It’s not easy watching people screw themselves and others over but no one person or group regardless of intentions has the right to impose their will on everyone else. ”
“And you all aren’t?” Jordan remained distrusting but didn’t seem quite as sure of his reasons. The uncertainty carried in his voice.
“Hmm. He asked the same thing.” She smiled fondly, thinking of the deranged shell one of her cousins had been trapped in. That she helped create but ultimately helped save to restore order to Uncle Ebedi’s crumbling reality in the end. So, she’d give the Lantern the same answer. “Mr. Jordan, whatever gave you the notion that we are merely persons?”
*I am bum...bum...bum...a line break!*
Everything hurt so much. His head was ringing like a million bells had gone off inside it. His body felt like it was weighted down underwater but he wasn’t wet. A soft bed with nice silky sheets met his back. His eyes slowly opened and he came face to face with a pretty lady with brown hair, chocolaty skin and bright blue eyes.
/Where am I?.. Who..?/
“Oh little brother! You’re awake!” She exclaimed surging forward to hug him. Over her shoulder, he saw another lady exactly like her but with red instead of blue eyes. Her face was streaked with tears but still smiling. Holding her shoulder was a very large man with deep blue skin. And four arms. He too was smiling.
Something in his mind tried to tell him he should be afraid. That these people were strangers, bad people who would harm him. Especially that man, they all just felt...wrong. But it was silenced by an intense wave of warmth that washed over every fiber of his being. A sense of belonging and family love. They all cared deeply for him. Where he had been before was dark painful and covered in red. Here was bright...safe.
“How do you feel?” The man walked forward and knelt by the bed. The two mirror images sat on either side of the bed, each taking a hand and squeezing it lightly with looks of concern etched on their faces.
“I don’t know...who are you? Who am I?” He tilted his head in confusion, long inky locks spilling on to the sheets. He looked down as they partially covered his tiny hands.
“These are your elder sisters, Shiva held you when you awoke. Kali came over with me. And I am your father, Vishnu. Welcome to the world, my dear son, Krishna.” One large blue hand rested on his head gently. Another held out a long, bright rainbow colored flute. “Happy birthday my child.”
“Thank you, father.” Pale hands reached for it. The instant the instrument made contact with his skin, Krishna felt...complete.
*I am bum...bum...bum...a line break!*
One guess who that really is; turns out Pollux was wrong, Vishnu appears to be very good at math. The servants and Young Justice’s conversations will be in the next chapter. See ya later, Sirensoundwave out!
*match what Chaos Mages call their lovers; basically husband/wife
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Parallels