World on Fire

For the next three weeks, Caden and Thea would go on dates every other day, be it a friendly archery competition, to a restaurant or even a gun range. While on the days he wasn't with her, he chose ot train with Damien Darhk, the self-proclaimed best of the best.

Darhk was thrilled, excited even. He had this odd itch in which he loved to kill, torture and even be cruel to others. This was something that Caden knew, and already expected. Throughout the training he had constantly tried to kill the Dragon, most of his attempts didn't even tickle him. The boy wasn't a regular dragon and the mortal tools and weapons he used against him were meaningless. Even the advanced weaponry he came across in his travels around the world, were typically useless.

He had yet to obtain the Khushu Idol, so he didn't have any magical prowess. Instead it was just his own skills which he used.

Caden was the fastest learner compared to those in the League. Between mimicking his opponent and coming into close calls, the two would go at it for hours. When they took breaks Caden played with Nora, Darhk's daughter, while he went off on his own.

For the time being Caden believed this to be rather relaxing, he no longer felt the pain he used to when he was still human. Yet he did feel rather frustrated with the fact that he couldn't suddenly learn things, like Chuck from supernatural.

Suddenly learning things with a system would be nice too, but he didn't seem to have one of those either. He sighed at the fact that it wasn't like one of those novels, but at the same time relieved.

If it had been one of those lazy novels, he would most definitely grow even more powerful, possibly even transcend to that of a Dragon God.

He knew that instinctively that the beings who were on a godly level were generally a threat to him. This meant anyone who was above that of an Alpha was dangerous, possibly life threatening. That protection ward would be useless against a foe that powerful, good thing he hadn't come across one just yet.

If he were to somehow find himself depowered however, by some sort of anti-magic, he knew he had to have a way to fight back. Or should he be returned to being human... He couldn't even think of the thought. The last thing he needed was for that to happen if any of his plans came to fruition.

The first thing he needed though was to make contingencies. His main goal was to stop the Undertaking, save Tommy and redeem or kill Malcolm Merlyn.

Caden knew of many ways to sway Malcolm, the threat of Ra's Al Ghul was a likely way to turn him around. He had a son, and he would learn that he also had a daughter to think of.

If he were to destroy the Glades, the League of Assassins would come raining down upon him for the bloodshed. He would be dragged before the Head of the Demon and the blood debit would be repaid with his own execution.

As it had been a little bit over three weeks since the death of the Pilgrim, death of the serial killer who killed Caden in a past life and the erasure of Thea's memories. He found himself standing in the bedroom of the assumed dead Oliver Queen.

Both he and Thea were staring at the closet as if something was going to pop out.

"You said you gave my brother a portal talisman or something?" Thea asked as she looked over at him with a brow raised. She was curious of what he had given her brother and why. Was her brother going to magically appear here? Or was someone else going to appear?

"Yup," Caden responded with a simple tone, which was borderline teasing in a way.

Thea just snapped her head to the side as she looked at him, sitting on the side of Oliver's bed now, with her arms crossed. "So where is he right now?"

Caden lulled his head side to side a bit, "He's currently in Hong Kong, likely fighting against a rogue operation lead by General Matthew Shrieve of the US Army." He said as he had a large amount of knowledge pertaining to the story of Oliver Queen and all of the other heroes present in the Arrowverse's introduced Earths.

He took a phone out of his blue jean pocket and looked over the display. It was a picture of the two of them on a ferris wheel at a carnival in the glades. Caden smirked a bit as this was his background.

Glancing up from the phone as he heard bodies tumbling through the closet, his eyes narrowed on Akio and his mother Tatsu.

Caden smelled blood. His eyes narrowed on Akio who was bleeding from the nose and going into shock. He immediately took a stride toward them as Tatsu was trying to assure her baby boy that everything was going to be okay.

The moment she looked up at him as her shadow cast over her and her child's body, her eyes widened. "Ryūjin...!?" She called him a Dragon God in Japanese, mythological creatures which were often referred to as Deities of the Water or a representation of a Shinto God.

By the time he was kneeling beside them, he had whiskers of a Dragon, his antlers were completely visible sticking out from behind his ears, and his skin was visible cracked. The whites of his eyes were black, and his eyes were glowing harshly.

Caden closed his eyes as he placed his hand over the boy's mouth.

"Where's my brother?" Thea asked as she looked in on the boy's condition. He was practically dead, barely breathing. He only had a few more seconds to live.

Tatsu looked up at the girl, she knew exactly who she was as Oliver had talked of her. "He's with Maseo in Hong Kong." She responded with very little hesitation, but she wasn't completely there. Her focus was entirely on her little boy as he had already stopped breathing.

Caden's hand began to glow a bluish-green, his eyes appeared to be on fire as aura flames burst out from under his lids.

Akio's body twitched and then jerked. He was having full on spasms as the virus was being pulled out of him and absorbed into the dragon. He was taking every bit of illness from the boy, the inoculation didn't save him from the Alpha-Omega virus, but he will.

After several minutes, Akio was breathing again and his heartbeat was steady. He hadn't died, so there was no cosmic life debt to repay.

Akio burst to life as he sat up in his mother's arms. He looked around for his father, who had told him everything would be fine, but he found himself in a completely different place. "Mom," he said in Japanese, "Where are we?"

Caden as he was omnilingual, being able to speak every language no matter how complex due to his Dragon Lord lineage, "You're in Oliver's room... In the United States."

Akio turned and looked at where the serpentine voice had come from and paused, staring at the half human half dragon looking creature kneeling beside him. All he could do was stare before looking over at Thea, tilting his head to the side slightly with an awkward teasing smile across his lips.

"You must be Thea!"

Caden shook his head seeing the childishness of Akio as he rushed off to talk to Thea and explore the bedroom, completely dismissing the fact that he had almost died only moments ago; just because he felt better.

Tatsu enveloped the Dragon into a hug, grabbing his head and holding it as she did so. She was thanking him over and over again in Japanese, praising him. It felt empowering, in a ego driven sense. Caden however could only smile as she thanked him, only for him to separate himself after a little bit as the closeness to the woman was making him feel uncomfortable.

With Akio alive and well, Maseo wasn't going to join the League of Assassins, as the boy's death was the main reason for him to go off and join them.

He handed Tatsu his cellphone, winking slightly at Tatsu who nodded and went into Oliver's room to make a phone call.

Luckily at this time, no one else was home except for a handful of the usual bodyguards that were kept on site. Rich people without their security was something that was unheard of, as this city could be very well lethal to those who didn't have it.

Caden sat down on the floor of Oliver's room as he watched Thea and Akio talking about Oliver, their adventures and what happened for the several months he spent with him.

"I guess you're spending your vacation here early this year," Caden suddenly spat out which caused Akio to jump and look at the other boy, with a very readable face.

"How, how did you know about that? I didn't even get to that part!" Akio laughed a bit, thinking that he was an oracle or something along those lines. He then blinked a few times as he saw the boy had a regular human face now. His head slowly tilted to the side, "You're white and a Ryūjin?"

Caden shrugged at this as he looked towards the bathroom. Tatsu was on the phone, talking to both Maseo and Oliver in Japanese. It seemed the mission on the other side of the pacific ocean was doing well, and they were happy to hear that Akio would live.

"One for the Republic!" He spoke in a deep tone, mocking that of a mandalorian accent from Star Wars Battlefront Two from two thousand five.

Akio laughed at the nonsense that Caden started to spout randomly, quoting video game characters new and old. Though he was mainly quoting Star Wars, Star Trek, Andromeda, Farscape and even Harry Potter characters. It was relatively amusing and nerdgasmic as he was able to use his shapeshifting abilities to augment his own voice.