3 The Origins Part 1

(Warning! Language will be used every now and then, so please read at your own discretion. I hope you enjoy!)

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"Are you sure we're in the right spot Ryan?!" One guy asked his fellow traveler, yelling over the harsh wind that was blowing sand everywhere. Luckily, he and Ryan wore bandannas over their mouths and goggles over their eyes for protection.

"Yes, I'm sure," Ryan replied as he looked at his phone which showed a picture of a landmark. "According to our buyer, we're in the right place!" The place he was talking about happened to be in the middle of the Egyptian Desert. It was dark and it was windy; but they had a job to do and they weren't gonna leave empty-handed. "Don't just stand there and have a useless fight with the wind, come and help me find the entrance Ray!"

"What entrance?!" Ray gestured around him. "We're in the middle of the desert Ryan! There is nothing here! Our buyer is crazy and shit, we need to get out of here while we still can!"

Ryan rolled his eyes at his partner's cowardice before catching something out of the corner of his eye on the ground. Thanks to the wind, it had blown some sand off it and Ryan could see the markings on the ground. Bending down to examine it a bit more, he started wiping some sand out the way only to discover more markings. "Hey Ray, look!" He'd call out to his partner who would bend down beside him and start helping him move the sand out the way. Eventually, they got all the sand away and a giant circle with carvings heading towards the middle were revealed."Now what?" Ray asked looking at the hole in the middle of the giant circle.

Ryan looked at the hole, thinking that it looked oddly familiar... That's when he had it! Quickly grabbing his satchel off of his shoulders, Ryan looked inside before pulling out a key with a circular top. Bending down again, Ryan placed the key inside the slot, it slid in perfectly and a click sound followed afterwards, the sounds of gears turning and the ground under them would begin to shift, steps forming in front of them, leading down underground.

"Well would you look at that, he's not crazy after all," Ray would say in disbelief as he stood behind Ryan, looking into the darkness that stood at the bottom of the steps. "You got the flashlights right?"

Ryan nodded, feeling the former's disbelief, before opening up his bag again and taking out two flashlights, and then handing one to Ray. "Now let's find this thing and get the hell out of here, okay?" Ryan slowly started heading down the steps, his flashlight turning on once it got dark enough to the point where he couldn't see.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Ray replied, following his brother closely down the steps before meeting him at the bottom. Ryan was shining his light on the walls, paintings telling stories of Egyptian history and in one of the pictures, it showed of multiple people with their arms raised, seeming to praise one being who stood higher than them with something purple and black around his neck. The amulet was shaped like a Capital A, just without the line crossing the middle and there was a black colored circle below it. "These people loved their jewelry," Ray joked which earned an eye roll from his brother before he started looking around. And there it was, standing on a pedestal was a rusty urn with the same symbol as the amulet.

"Wow...so this must be it," Ryan would whisper, as he takes a few steps towards it.

"Don't act so excited, it's an urn Ryan, not money. Well technically for us it means money but you know what I mean. It's an urn, there is nothing fascinating about it." Ray said as he shined his flashlight towards the urn they had ventured out into the desert to find. "Just grab it so we can go."

"It's not that simple, you know that. This place could be rigged with traps. Once the urn is removed, it'll trigger all the traps that are set in here. We have to be cautious about this." Ryan carefully made his way towards the pedestal, being careful where he stepped, making it safely, his brother following him.

Ryan would then slowly take out an object from his bag, seemingly weighing the same as the urn in front of them. He nodded at his brother, giving him the signal to carefully but quickly take the urn off so he could replace it. His brother did just so, quickly taking it off and Ryan putting his object on top. The brothers went silent for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen, some trap to go off but when none did, they both laughed, relieved that nothing had happened.But we know how these things work right? And if you're thinking what I'm thinking, well then you know what's about to happen next.

The ground below them began to shake, Ray almost losing his balance and dropping the urn but luckily he quickly caught his balance and the urn remained in one piece. "We need to leave now!" Ray would say as he started towards the steps, dust and small chunks of rock falling from the ceiling. "Shit!" Ryan cursed as he put his bag over his shoulder and started running after his brother, they both making it out of the tomb. The tomb immediately collapsed as they barely made it out, both of them breathing heavily. "Whatever is in this urn..." Ray huffed out. "Better be worth it."

"Remember who you're talking about. This guy who asked for this is a powerful man, I'm sure he has a good reason for sending us down there..."

In Gotham City

It was a normal night in Gotham, or well as normal as it can get there. Crime was still a popular thing, villains on the loose and people losing their money, loved ones and even their lives. But as depressing as that sounds, we're not here to talk about them. No, in a corner of Gotham stood a glorious mansion where a powerful person lived and also the home of Ryan and Ray's buyer.

As the brothers approached the gate entrance in their car, the gates opened without them needing to notify anyone that they were there. It was creepy there, especially at night but it was gonna be an in and out situation. Make the exchange, get their money and get the hell out.

After going inside, the brothers were led by their buyer's servant and would bring them upstairs to a room that appeared to be a study. The room was barely lit, the only light was coming from the fireplace where a shadowy figure stood, their back facing the brothers. "Did you get it?" The man would say, looking straight up from the fire, his arms behind his back.

"Yeah we got it. But we almost lost our fucking lives out there too y'know, so maybe we should charge you more for that," Ray said rudely as he took a step forward. Leave it to Ray to speak his mind. But the only thing he earned was an elbow to the side from his brother.

"I deeply apologize for my brother's rudeness, but yes, we do have what you were looking for. It was challenging at first but we got it done." Ryan spoke calmly despite being secretly scared and cautious of his buyer.

The figure slowly turned around, before finally coming into view with the brothers. The front of his face was a skull mask, the top of the skulls were spiky, the mask stopping at his nose and his eyes...It was glowing red, all red. The rest of his face was covered in what looked like flesh. There were stitches where his mouth is supposed to be. He wore a flesh like jacket, the front of his rib cage showed on top as well. Small bone spikes were surrounded around his wrist and he wore black pants and shoes to finish it. In summary, he was a very strange but frightening guy and just looking at him struck fear into the brothers in front of him.

Walking over to the desk, the figure picked up a case ,the brothers had to assume it was their money and he stepped towards them. He stared at them for a moment, the silence in the room was scarier than anything the brothers could imagine. "The urn." The man finally said, nodding towards the urn Ray carried.

"We'll exchange at the same time," Ryan says nervously, nodding at his brother.

"Very well." The man extended one arm to give Ryan the suitcase as the other brother handed him the urn. Once both parties finally got what they wanted, the man turned around.

"Yes...finally I have it!" He turned his head slightly towards the brothers letting out a chuckle. "Thank you. You may leave now."

"Gladly," Ryan said without a second thought as he turned to leave. "No." His idiotic brother would say.

"I'm sorry?" The man turned around to face them again. "You got exactly what you asked for is correct? You got your money, and I got my artifact."

"You sent us to the middle of the desert in Egypt, to search for some urn that was inside some secret tomb or some shit. I wanna know just what the hell is so special about it!"

"I'm sorry, he's still new to all of this," Ryan would say, chuckling nervously as he tried to grab his brother and leave before something bad happened.

The man's stitches went up as if he was grinning. "Why tell you when I can show you." The man gestured for the men to back up before he set the urn in the center of the room, backing up in front of the brothers.

"What's in there?" Ray asked nodding towards the urn.

"Souls," The man simply replied before slowly moving his hand across the air horizontally, a green ritual circle slowly beginning to show and glow across the floor, a triangle was formed in the middle of the ritual circle, the urn standing in the center of it. The eyes of the skull mask would turn from a glowing red, to a menacing green color. The man slowly raised both his arms, as he did, the urn would also begin to glow and shake as well, a seal on the urn would slowly start to disappear. The man would start to chant words, the glow of the ritual circle growing. Unknown winds would start to fill the room, blowing books off their shelves, objects would start flying around the room as well, while the man continued with his odd ritual.

"What the hell!?" Ray would shout as he tried to cover his face from the bright glow and strong wind. "What are you doing-"

Ray was interrupted by loud whispers coming from the urn, it violently shook as it stood in the middle of the ritual circle. The top of the urn would then fly open, souls of all colors flying out, the whispers getting louder as they appeared. Some circled Ray and Ryan, frightening the men."Go, you have your orders." The man seemed to say to the souls as they would all disappear out the room.

Ray quickly took out a gun he had been hiding under his shirt. He quickly aimed it at the mysterious man in front of him. "Hey! If you don't stop what you're doing right now and let us out, I'll shoot!"

The man continued to stand there, only raising his hand and pushing it towards Ray, forcing the man to a wall, the gun slipping out his hand and falling to the ground. Tiny ritual-like portals opened, bones slowly coming out and wrapping around him to keep him from trying to escape. He did the same to Ryan as well, before turning around and walking up to Ray. "J-just who the hell are you anyway?" Ray asked nervously, sweat starting to roll down his forehead.

"Necro." The man simply replied before raising both his hands as he drained the life from both the men in front of him, their screams were loud but sadly there was no one around to hear them.

One Week Later

"So Jace, do you think you're ready to talk about what happened that night? Express your thoughts and feelings?" A woman with a very calm tone sat in a chair, a folder sat in her lap as she stared at Jace.

Jace was sitting across from this woman, his eyes looking outside at the city of Gotham, it was better than looking at a therapist that thought something was wrong with you. He had no intention of coming back here to do another session, and yet thanks to multiple people who believed he needed someone to talk to about that night, it might be something that was good for him. Just thinking about it made him upset, his hands clenching the arms of his chair.

Jace's therapist, Dr. Roberts, noticed this sudden movement and could tell that something was still bothering him. I mean, his parents had died only a few months ago, so the wound was still pretty new. But from the information she had read in her folder about Jace, it was that he had closed himself off from his family members after the funeral. He wouldn't talk to anyone about the topic and would either change it or ignore them all together. It was hard for him, she understood that. He was a sixteen year old boy and he was hurting.

Dr. Roberts would then check her watch, she only had ten more minutes left with Jace. Their sessions were an hour long and each time, Jace would say little to nothing, even if the topic wasn't about his parents. Dr. Roberts sat her binder down on the table next to her before scooting up in her seat, clasping her hands together and resting them on her legs as she continued to look at the boy in front of her. "You're hurting, and I get that, but how long do you plan to go on like this? How long will you continue to ignore those closest to you? Those who want to help you? Your Aunt?"

Jace remained silent as he continued looking out the window, not wanting to be bothered by anything the woman had to say. He hated how people thought there was something wrong with him, that he needed help. Yeah, his parents died, and people may think talking about these feelings will help but it's not going to bring them back and getting closure would mean forgetting about them and there was no way he could ever do that.

So there they sat, the rest of the nine minutes was just silent in the room. Roberts glanced down at her watch again before sighing, their session was over and like the previous ones, they hadn't made any progress. Jace quickly got up from his seat, making his way towards the door as he hoped to get out the room quickly as possible.

"Listen Jace." Roberts started, halting him in his tracks. "You know you can't avoid this forever, right? One way or another, you'll have to come to terms with this. It's not healthy to keep these feelings bottled up inside. If you won't talk to me, at least talk to someone."

Jace looked down at the ground for a moment, as he was taking in what the therapist had said before opening the door and exiting the room.

After leaving the building, he made his way outside where his aunt was waiting for him in her car. "Hey kid! How'd it go this time?"

"Just how it always goes Jackie." Jace said simply as he got inside the passenger seat, closing the door awfully hard before putting his seat belt on. Jackie closed her eyes and sighed before starting the car and taking off.

The ride back home was a silent one, neither one of them speaking. Jackie wanted to say something but she knew that it would just in with Jace moving further and further away from her and she wanted the opposite. Jace remained quiet because he knew if he said something, Jackie would slide the subject in somehow and he really didn't want to talk about it.

After getting home, Jace hurried inside and rushed upstairs, closing the door behind him and sliding down, leaning his head against the door. He closed his eyes and as if for the first time, breathed.

"Jace, run!!" The sound of his Mother screaming would echo in his head, following a loud explosion, which caused Jace to squeeze his eyes harder, fighting back the tears that threaten to come.

A knock at the door snapped him out of his depressing thoughts, he quickly wiping away the tears that had crept past him. Quickly standing up, he opened the door, his aunt standing in the door way, examining him to see if anything was wrong. Something everyone seemed to be doing these days.

"Um, I made us dinner downstairs. You hungry?"

"No thanks. I have to get up early for school tomorrow anyways, I think it's best if I just go to bed," Jace would say, a fake smile appearing on his face as he tried to assure his aunt that he was fine. Jackie could sense that something was up but it was getting late so she decided not to pry.

"Okay then," She said turning around so Jace couldn't see the look of sadness that was starting to appear on her face as she headed towards the kitchen to fix herself something in hopes of getting her mind off of the sad memories.

Jace closed the door again, heading over to his bed which he fell on, back first. With his arms and legs sprawled out on his bed, Jace looked up at the ceiling fan, watching as it spun around and around, slowly letting his body drift off to sleep.

"I don't get it, it's the first day back to school and we're already getting served food I'm pretty sure was made three months ago," Jace's friend Wesley said with disgust as he looked at whatever was on his plate. They were at school, or more particularly, in the cafeteria. It was the first day back to school, sadly meaning that summer was over and the hell could continue. Jace wasn't that all to excited to wake up early again just to come here and endure the mental torture from his teachers and fellow students.

Just then, Jace's other friend Cindy came over and sat down across from him next to Wesley. She put her arm on the table and then rested her head on top of it. "Hey guys." Though she wasn't looking at them when she said it, her eyes were already closing.

Jace raised a brow up at her "It's the first day of school and you're already tired? I thought out of any of us, this would be your time to show everyone this new you. You talked about it all summer." He wasn't exaggerating either. Cindy was so bent on reinventing herself before school starting back up.

"Mr. Morris was teaching Greek Mythology for history and-" She was cut off by a yawn that escaped her mouth before she continued. "I decided to catch a few z's since I'm basically an expert when it comes to Greek Mythology but when I woke up, I was even more tired than before."

"I'm pretty sure reading all of the Percy Jackson books don't make you an expert on Greek Mythology," Wesley stated, snickering.

Cindy opened her eyes and glared tiredly at Wesley. "If I wasn't so tired, I'd smack you so hard." Wesley just stuck his tongue out at her like a child, which he seemed to be most of the time. But yep, this was Jace's group. The only friends he had and wanted, and he enjoyed their presence in such a depressing time after the accident with his parents happened. He was grateful for them, despite not showing it a lot, he did love his friends.

After lunch, the rest of the school day was pretty uneventful and Jace was finally glad to be done with it and return home where he'd have to fight the suicidal thoughts while figuring out math problems. Though it was troublesome, it was a good distraction from..well you know.

After getting home from the school bus, he was greeted by his aunt who was sitting on the living room couch watching something on tv while doing some laundry. "Hey kid, how was school?"

"It was alright I guess," Jace replied before heading up towards his room. "Oh wait!" Jackie called before he could quickly disappear off to his room. She grabbed a small brown package box and handed it to Jace. "This came in the mail for you today, what'd you order anyway?" Jace wasn't sure what the package was himself but he didn't want to stay down here and dive into a conversation with his aunt because he knew what it'll lead to. They start off talking about something small and then she'd start turning towards how he was dealing with his parents death, he just needed some time and space and people asking question and bring up the subject wasn't helping him move on.

"Umm it's just some manly things. Wes wanted me to try out this new shaving butter..." Jace wasn't sure what exactly was coming out of his mouth but he never really needed to make up an excuse like this before, especially since he didn't know what was really in the box and why it was sent with his name on. Jackie just sat there, taking the information in and secretly regretting trying to get involved. "Umm nice? Here." She handed him the box and watched him take off up the stairs and the sound of the door closing to his room. She couldn't help but blink, confused by the whole conversation. "He's a growing boy Jackie, that's his business," She said to herself as she went back to her laundry.

After closing the door and locking it, Jace quickly took off his backpack letting it fall to the ground as he sat down on his bed and began to open the box. The first thing he saw was a small folded piece of paper, he unfolded it."For the one destined to do great things," He read aloud, a bit confused by what the writing meant. Tossing the note aside, he opened another small box and inside was a shiny crystal like amulet. It was in the shape of an capital A but without the line and had a black dot in the middle which Jace found odd among other things. Taking it out of the box, Jace put it around his neck and immediately the amulet would begin to glow, Jace almost falling back from the shock. It got brighter and brighter to the point where he squeezed his eyes shut. It'd then die down, it returning to normal and Jace's eyes slowly opening, his eyes meeting another man's.

"Fascinating, so you're the one it chose hm?" The man asked, he having a british accent and wearing some sort of tunic. "I didn't think it'd come to the point where I'd have to put my hopes in a child but oh well." He sighed as he began looking around the room, not really paying attention to the very shocked and confused look on Jace's face as the boy continued staring at him. "I've clearly been put away for a long time, you humans have upgraded your mechanisms since the last time I've been around a civilization." The man furrowed a brow when he walked over to a Naruto poster. "Why does this boy have whiskers?" He turned over to Jace as if finally acknowledging his presence.

"What the hell?!" Jace finally blurted out, confused by every single thing. "Who the hell are you and how did you get into my house?"

"Oh you're a smart lad, I'm sure you've already put the pieces together but since I'm an amazing and generous person, I'll help you out. My name is Klaus, and I'm basically going to be your guide and mentor. That little amulet you're wearing around your neck is basically my life force, I'm tethered to it so wherever it goes, I'm not too far!"

"Mentor? For what?" Out of all the questions Jace wanted to ask, those seemed to be the only two to come out of his mouth.

"Why magic of course!" Klaus replied as he made weird magic hand signs. "The amulet grants it's user the ability to use magic. With it, you can do wondrous things really." He grinned as he took a seat at Jace's desk and crossed his legs, Jace really wishing he didn't. Jackie came up the stairs and knocked on the door before coming in, looking around the room before looking at Jace. "Everything alright? I heard yelling."

"No yeah, everything's fine. I just stubbed my toe," He answered, secretly confused on how his aunt couldn't see the fully grown man sitting in his bedroom. "Alright then, well dinner's gonna be ready soon so be ready." With that Jackie closed the door and headed down the hall. Jace got up and went over to the door, putting his ear against it as he heard her descend down the steps. Turning back to Klaus he asked another question. "Okay one, how come my aunt didn't see you? Two, magic? Magic isn't real and if it were, why would you be teaching someone like me how to use it? Why would I need to learn magic."

"I'm like a genie without the part of being seen or granting wishes. Being tethered to the amulet means that I'm not exactly in your world, but stuck in between. A ghost if you will, so only the current user of the amulet can see or hear me, that being you. Magic is real, and the only reason I'm mentoring you is because you're destiny awaits."

"That being...?"

"Why to save the world of course!" Klaus happily exclaimed.