90 Excidium

Somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean

May 2006

I awake to the sound of whispers in my mind confirming to me that I was not hearing things during my battle with Poseidon. The whispers are barely coherent and almost impossible to understand other than the tone and the name Gawain. Yet if I focus enough, I can just barely hear what they are saying, and to me they sound very much like prayers. Most seem to be asking for help in battle while others ask for guidance, intelligence or for blessings during their rule.

"Lord Gawain, please guide my sword in battle, and may I emerge victorious over my foes." "May Gawain himself guide my spear." "May the Lord of Warriors protect you." "May Gawain himself look upon your battle with favor." "Bless my Lordship to be prosperous." "Protect my family." "Smite my enemies." "May you bless my cause for vengeance." "Slay my enemies."

Despite the prayer's overwhelming nature, I am able to slowly regulate how much I hear, finally allowing me to hear nothing but the waves and Bahamut's breathing. Unfortunately, it seems that my troubles are not over, for as I sit here under the sea peacefully; I begin to feel a well of power build up from within me, presumably from the prayers.

"*Bahamut, how long has it been since I've fallen unconscious?*" I ask the resting sea serpent as I get up from the ocean floor, the well of power still growing within me.

"*Hmmm.*" hums Bahamut as he opens one of his previously closed eyes to inspect me. "*About five hours. How are you doing kid?*" he asks me as he flicks his tail back and forth, and the power within me continues to grow to an overwhelming degree and causes me some discomfort.

"*Five hours?*" I ask with a pained grunt as the energy starts to feel excruciatingly painful and images of pure destruction fill my mind.

"*Kid? Are you ok?*" asks Bahamut as he raises his head and fully pays attention to my situation. "*Kid, you're glowing!" exclaims Bahamut. Yet despite his loud voice, I barely hear him as the energy feels like the energy is tearing me apart from the inside as it continues to grow.

Without paying my familiar any mind, I launch myself upwards and quickly emerge from the sea. However, I have no intention of stopping and continue upwards despite the overbearing pain. As I continue to fly upwards more images of destruction fill my mind and the pain reaches unbearable levels. Despite it all however, I fight through the pain and images to continue my flight, eventually emerging into the vacuum of space and trusting that my survival runes tattooed on my body will be enough. Still, I do not stop and continue my flight as far away from earth as I can without bothering to take note of where I go as all that fills my mind is pain and destruction. Eventually I can longer hold the power in despite my efforts, however as I let my control slip I attempt to control the direction of this energy by guiding it towards my eyes.

What emerges is a black beam from each eye that leaves nothing in its wake. It destroys all, and not even dust or ash remains in its path. For what feels like hours, yet can only be seconds in reality, I remain there in space, floating as a beam of destruction whose origin I know nothing of destroys everything in its path before slowly dying out.

As the beam dies down, I can finally take note of my location and the victim of my attack. In the vacuum of space, surrounded by nothing but the occasional asteroid or other forms of space debris, I realise that I have destroyed Ganymede, Jupiter's biggest moon and a celestial body that would be considered a planet had it been orbiting the moon as opposed to Jupiter. Luckily, other than Ganymede and other forms of debris, nothing else seems to have been in its way.

With a shudder, I thank my iron will that I was able to have enough sense to not release the energy anywhere on Earth.

"What was that?" I whisper to myself as I feel the energy laying within me.

Taking hold of it, I attempt to channel it to my eyes once again. Expecting the process to be difficult and for the energy to be hard to control, I am surprised when two baleful red beams emerge from my eyes and disintegrate part of an asteroid as big as a car. Letting go of the energy, I inspect the asteroid to find two perfect holes that go from one end of the asteroid, through the middle, and out the other end. Inspecting the holes, I find that even while severely underpowered as opposed to the first time, the beam still left nothing from where it passed.

While inspecting the asteroid, a conversation I had with my mother, Bellona, comes to mind.

"You are the goddess of destruction, how come no one ever pays attention to that?" I remember asking one time in her temple.

"Because no one, not even I, appreciates destruction simply for the purpose of destruction." she had answered at the time.

"How does that work exactly? Can you just destroy anything physically or is there some other that you destroy?" I had asked while playing with a celestial bronze dagger.

Instead of answering, however, she had simply encased her hand in a menacing dark red aura and disintegrated my dagger to nothing, not even leaving ashes or dust.

"Your children don't seem to get that power." I had told her.

"Because I make sure that they do not, even with you I did my best to make sure that you would not receive it. I did not know if it worked or not, but so far it seems that the former is true." she had answered. "No child should have to worry about the responsibility of controlling such power." she had told me at the time, and to this day I agree with her. This power is not something a child should ever be concerned with controlling.

Shaking my head of the memory, I return to inspecting the asteroid.

"Mother, despite your best efforts, you failed. Since that energy is nothing but destruction, I shall name it excidium." I whisper to myself when I am sure that the effect of the energy is the same as hers. "Hopefully none of my future siblings will unlock this power as children. That does make me wonder however, how stressful was Clark's childhood when he had to constantly hide and control his powers as they emerged?" I mutter to myself as I turn away from the asteroid and fly back towards Earth.

Arriving on Earth relatively quickly, I plunge back into the Atlantic and swim towards Bahamut.

"*You're back, and you didn't blow up the planet. Good job kid.*" he says as he notices my approach. "*Though that power build up was something else. I've never felt something like that before in my life.*" he says with an impressed tone. "*I might have to try it out for myself.*"

"*Excuse me?*" I ask him with a raised eyebrow. "*Last I checked, the familiar bond does not allow for abilities to be shared.*" I tell him as I cross my arms.

"*Oh yeah?*" he retorts stubbornly. "*Then explain THIS to me.*" he says as he proceeds to spit a fireball hot enough to boil our area of the sea before dying out. Then he proceeds to earthbend the ocean floor into a statue of himself before waterbending the water away from us to create a pocket of air at the bottom of the sea. "*Well? Explain this to me then.*" he questions as his head gestures towards the statue of himself.

"*Interesting.*" I say as I inspect the bond. "*It seems that the bond is changing along with me. Eventually it may change you too.*" I inform him while inspecting the new changes in the parabatai bond.

I had noticed the change as soon as I had awoken, but had more pressing matters to attend. From what I can tell, Morgan has ascended significantly in power. So much so that I would not be surprised if she can single-handed deal with Zeus himself. I will have to think of something special to congratulate her.

"*I will be going now. Call me if you need anything.*" I tell Bahamut as I turn to swim to the nearest shore while he returns to sleep.

Emerging from the sea in the damaged Gotham Harbor due to the invasion, I activate the runes that make me unnoticeable to all but those that I want to notice me before deciding to take a stroll through the city instead of returning home immediately. While Gotham may be riddled with crime, there is no doubt in my mind that it is a beautiful city, especially at night. Like New York city, Gotham is constantly alive regardless of the time of day or season. It has a bustling nightlife that can contend with New York.

As I walk through the city with no regard for where my feet take me, I stumble upon an interesting scene. A young boy, no older than five, squatting by a black car, that I am sure does not belong to him, and removing the tires. Judging by the car's make and model, I can infer that it belongs to the henchman of one of Gotham's many crime bosses. The boy himself is nothing special to look at other than his red hair and malnourished state, no doubt from living in poverty. Despite his malnourished state however, he stands at the average height for his age, which is around three feet five inches. He wears run down sneakers, black shorts, and a dirty red shirt.

"You could get in a lot of trouble for doing that." I say, startling him into turning around.

"Mind your own business." he tells me with a frown as he attempts to hide his fear from me.

"Where are your parents, child?" I ask him with a well-concealed frown that judging based on his expression, he did not notice. "I simply wish to talk to them." I tell him.

"None of your business." he answers as he tightens his grip on the lug wrench.

Before I can answer him however footsteps approach us and a voice interrupts me.

"OI, get away from my car before I blow your fucking brains out!" screams the voice as he cocks his gun.

This time the boy does not attempt to hide his fear and slowly backs away from the car with wide eyes as he drops the lug wrench and puts his arms up while the thug walks past me towards the boy. His reaction causes me to frown as I wonder who would actually threaten a child. With a click of my tongue that denotes my disapproval to all present, I telekinetically disarm the man before destroying his weapon with a small blast from excidium. Then, before he can react, I telepathically knock him out.

"How about some food?" I ask the boy as he stares at me with an awestruck expression.

"That was so cool!" exclaims the boy as he regains his senses. "You have heat vision like Superman!" he says as he approaches, all fear gone from his mind.

"It is different. Regardless, that is not important right now. Do you want to eat?" I ask him again.

"Sure. You owe me for messing up my operation anyway. If it wasn't for you, I would've finished before the punk came." he tells me as he delivers a well-placed kick to the thug's stomach.

"Of course." I casually agree with him. "What do you say to some burgers?" I ask him.

"Sure." he answers with a shrug as he attempts to once again hide his emotions, this time gratitude. No doubt living on the streets has taught him that showing any form of emotion makes you more susceptible to being taken advantage.

"What's your name? I cannot call you child forever." I tell him as we walk out of the alley and towards a nearby Big Belly Burger that Bruce and I frequent.

"Jason. Jason Todd." he answers as he follows next to me.

"And where are your parents Jason?" I ask him.

"Dead." he answers simply while attempting to hide the grief from his voice.

"I can relate." I tell him with a sad smile.

"Really?" he asks me incredulously.

"Yes, really. Just because I am rich does not mean I do not understand hardships." I tell him.

"Well, I mean… you always look happy on TV. So I just thought that you didn't know." he answers sheepishly with a shrug.

"I do know what it feels like to lose one's parent." I answer him as a feeling of nostalgia falls on me at the thought of my very first jump.

"It doesn't feel good." he tells me as he grips his chest and begins to sniff.

"Cmon. There is nothing wrong with crying." I say as I pick him up and set him to sit on my shoulders.

With a final sniff, Jason cries silently while hiding his face in my hair. Leaving him to cry in peace, I walk us to the Big Belly Burger and wait for him to finish crying before entering. Once inside, we place our orders and pay before taking our seat in a booth while waiting for the food.

"Alright, no more depressing topics." I tell him with a smile that he returns hastily. "Who is your favorite superhero?" I ask.

"Wonder Woman." he answers without hesitating.

"Why Wonder Woman? Why not Batman or Robin?" I ask.

"Because Wonder Woman is nicer." he answers matter-of-factly. "Besides, I could probably take Robin on." he adds behind a false wall of confidence.

"Sure." I answer with a teasing smile.

"I could!" he answers petulantly, to which I simply nod. "So what superhero are you?" he asks me with a question.

"He likes to use a spear or a trident." I answer him with a smirk.

"You're one of the Faceless Four?!" he exclaims in a whisper.

The Faceless Four, a name that the media came up with years ago for our superhero persona's since we have never interacted with anyone as far as they know. Due to the runes that we use, other than the Justice League no one remembers any specific details about us other than the weapons we use and how we fight. They remember that we interfere in the major crises just as the Imperium Invasion, but other than that we rarely go out in public as heroes.

"So why do you keep that a secret?" he asks as our food arrives.

"Because superheroing is not our main occupation." I answer him as I bite into my burger.

"So what do you do? And how are you so rich?" he asks before biting into his.

"My wife is the one who is rich. I'm just a freeloader." I tell him with a laugh after swallowing.

Instead of answering, Jason simply gives me a deadpan stare as he continues to eat his food.

Before I can answer his stare however, Azula's teleports next to our table.

"There you are." she says as she takes in the scene and sets up a bounded field around us to make sure we go unnoticed. "Morgan, Scáthach and I had quite the eventful afternoon." she informs me before relaying the situation to me through our communication rune while a confused Jason watches on.

"I see." I say calmly as I finish my meal while lightning flashes and thunder booms overhead despite the previously clear skies. "Take Jason with you when you return to the castle. I have some business to attend to. Also tell Bruce that he has been slacking in his patrols lately." I inform her while getting up before turning to face Jason. "Azula will take you back to the castle. Wait for me there. I have some things to take care of." I tell him while ruffling his hair before teleporting away.

My first destination is Infinity Island. I have been far too lenient to Ra's, and it ends now.