Chapter 61: Tests
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I watched the Justice League leave, waiting until they were out of sight until I turned around to look at my house with its busted ceiling on one side of the house. The second time that I have to renovate my house. At least the underground hadn't collapsed during Raven's fight. With a glance at Raven's frown, clenched jaw, and tense posture I could easily tell that the attack right now had shaken her up a bit.

The attack had taken me by surprise. I could get that they didn't appreciate me helping Raven, but to lure me out and then attack us? That crossed a line. There were several things that bothered me about this entire situation as well.

Why were they able to evade my ki senses? Since when did the Justice League have this kind of skill? I would have guessed that Batman had supplied them with equipment, but they clearly had worn nothing that would indicate a life force blocking device or any device, for that matter.

Maybe it was a spell from Zatara, but how did he know I could sense their life force, or was it just a precaution against my scouter just in case I used it? I shook my head. The specifics weren't that important. The fact was that they had something to evade my life force with, a spell, device, or whatever.

Another thing that was surprising was that Batman didn't even seem like he was on board with the idea of attacking me, either. I always had a feeling that he wanted to expose me or something. This would have been the perfect opportunity to do so, but instead, he invited me to talk.

Odd was their strength as well. I had noticed that they were stronger, a lot stronger. I mean, I had sensed their life force when they arrived a few hours ago, but even with that increase, they weren't on the level that they had shown just now. It begged the question: were they able to manipulate their life force or strength? And if they could, how? What exactly happened in the few hours they were away?

When I had prepared their welcome from their trip to their space mission, they clearly weren't as strong as they were now and in just a few hours their strength increased this massively? To be honest, it would be nice to know what happened, but I could let it slide and see it as a fortunate event. However, the way some of them looked at me made me question myself.

Their eyes, their gazes, they changed. Wonder Woman looked at me with oddly strong affection, while the others seemed to look at me with... I didn't know how to describe it, they just seemed to have a better attitude than before.

Well, that was with the exception of Shayera, who looked at me more distanced than before. It was like I was just a colleague to her. It was even worse in our standoff at the end. She looked at me with wariness and suspicion.

Speaking of our battle. Even the way they fought differed slightly from before. They were sharper, nimbler, more accurate, and more skilled. Their teamwork was fantastic, miles ahead of what it was before. I mean, we were getting better with the missions that involved all the members, but now they seemed more in sync as if they had undergone systematic training.

They put some serious effort into improving, not only their individual skills but also with each other. Even their minds seemed more robust. With a simple sweep, I could already gather they had trained their telepathic defenses as well, especially Martian Manhunter.

He improved tremendously, being able to suppress Raven to a large degree even though I had already trained her for a while now, not to mention her talent in the arts of telepathy. That she was able to contend against a now stronger Martian Manhunter, Zatara, and Hawkgirl showed how much she had improved. That she started to integrate her demonic side helped a lot as well.

The only ones I knew little about were Zatara and Aquaman. Aquaman rarely participated in league missions. He had a Kingdom to rule after all and Zatara was usually somewhere looking for the traces of Trigon's children or some artifact as well as doing his live shows and being a father, I guessed. So for him, I couldn't really tell if he had improved.

"Are you guys fine?" I asked, after sweeping all the debris to one side. Raven nodded slightly while Kara approached me.

"What was all this about? Is it just because Raven's father is Trigon??" Kara sounded angry and I could relate. I was keeping my temper in check. After all, I didn't want a complete fallout with the Justice League, while still making sure that I meant business when I fought them. Honestly, I had almost killed Wonder Woman with my initial ki beam.

Previously, I had used nowhere near this kind of strength, not to mention after my training to balance mind and body less ki was more effective than before. It was one of the reasons I released too much of it in the initial attack.

Honestly, I should have just decreased the multiplier, but I wasn't sure if they had anything up their sleeve and I wasn't willing to decrease my resilience given through my ki, which was why I resorted to pulling my punches.

Pulling my punches and decreasing the strength of my ki were two pairs of shoes, but I managed quite well in the end. I couldn't knock them out right away since I was afraid I would kill them if I used much more strength, but at least I made them suffer for their ambush.

"Probably, but there is something else going on." I answered Kara, who was hugging Raven's shoulder to comfort her even though Raven denied the need for it.

Raven sighed and was about to say something, "No." "No." Kara and I said at the same time, already guessing that she would suggest something stupid like letting herself be captured by the Justice League. "Let me handle this." I said, with no room for discussion.

"They might not be who they say they are." I continued. Theories about the changes in them were running through my mind, but the most probable was that they were from another earth like the Justice Lords or whatever. Though they seemed to know me, which begged the question if I also existed in other universes.

A transmigrator in multiple universes at the same time? Maybe a ROB just multiplied my soul and memories and spread mes across the DC multiverse? That would be a disturbing thought, but from the weirdness of my situation, not impossible. Another theory might be that they are from another timeline?

That seemed more plausible and would explain them knowing me without the assumption that there was a ROB who multiplied my soul and spread it around. The device they had come through then had to be a time machine!

With that thought in mind, I was tempted to send a clone to my scientists and ask them, but I was sure that the Justice League might be closely monitoring me right now.

"You think they are clones?" Kara asked with a frown on her face as a response to my suspicion that they might not be my Justice League and, to be fair, clones were another possibility since the DC loved to use them to create formidable enemies. I just hoped that wasn't the case, since that would mean a clone of me running around was a real possibility...

"Perhaps, but I think they might be from another timeline. I am not sure, but I will figure it out."After saying that I called a construction team to let them repair my house while we went into Raven's room.

Her room was protected with some magical barriers, so it could receive more damage than other areas of the house. Of course, if the entire house had collapsed, then the room wouldn't be able to hold on either, but since most of the damage was to one side of the house, it wasn't too bad.

"Can you teleport us into the training hall?" I asked Raven. She just nodded as a response and teleported us down.

I looked around and found that nothing had been damaged. With the material I used to create the walls, I would have been frustrated if it were damaged. I was about to sit down, but found Raven to be too quiet.

"Are you alright?" I asked again as I supportively placed my hand on her shoulder. She nodded at me and gave me a wry smile.

"Don't even think about it." I said, which caused her to give me a quizzical frown. "I know you are either deciding to try to 'solve' it on your own or putting yourself down by saying that you are putting us in danger or whatever."

She was stunned for a moment before she laughed fondly. "S-hahaha-sorry. I didn't want to make you worry. Truly, I am fine." She waved off my concern.

I shook my head with a sigh, "Kara, take care she doesn't do anything stupid." She saluted and gave me a "Yes, sir!" before looking at Raven with a 'stern' expression.

Raven rolled her eyes, though she couldn't hide the touched smile on her face before sitting down as she summoned a cushion underneath her and a book into her hands. Kara sat beside her, only to have Raven summon her a book as well.

I let the two relax and sat down cross-legged a bit further away. My mind reaching out to Dr. Wakati. If I couldn't send out a clone, it would be best to reach out telepathically. Even though it would reveal some abilities of 'Hakai' to Dr. Wakati, it wasn't too bad. To be honest, prior to this, I hadn't really thought about using telepathy to contact the people of Westmob, since it had been too far away before I became proficient with telepathy.

I urged him to look at the data I had previously sent over, giving it the top priority. Dr. Wakati complained at first since he made some progress with the time-slowing device and I was interrupting him, but he adhered to my order after hearing that it was potentially the data of a functioning time machine.

As a renowned scientist and expert regarding quantum temporal theory, something like this would easily attract his attention.

If my conjunction was correct, then this information was several years ahead of what we had and would accelerate or even complete the theoretical portion of my own time machine. I just needed to get the materials to construct it and I could finally go back and confirm whether I could return to my past universe to get my revenge and check up on my parents to find out what had happened to them after I died...

After that was done, I just had to wait for the next day while organizing the construction team to repair my house. Of course, I remembered to write a check for the Justice League, as if I paid for that damage. I went to Raven to ask her to teleport me into her room again, when I remembered something else.

"Do you know why the androids were only activated at the very end? They were supposed to activate once someone entered my property."

Raven looked up from her book. I noticed she was still on the same page she had opened the book on. She shook her head, "I am not sure, but if I had to guess... It was probably the spell that the magician had cast. It shielded them from any detection, magic or otherwise. I would have noticed them if that hadn't been the case."

"An all-purpose spell, then?" She nodded in agreement. Even Morgaine's protective barriers that ought to hide her from any detection as well hadn't hidden her from my senses completely. Why could Zatara's spell do it then? Was he that much better or... was it because she didn't know I could sense her life force?

If my theory of another timeline was correct, then Zatara might have known I was able to sense their life force and used that knowledge to modify his spells to cover that... This conclusion made me realize that I might have helped the others as well. Was that the reason why they had suddenly improved...? It was probable.

This meant that they knew more about me than I had previously shown them. Question was, how much did they know about me?

...

The hangar's gate opened, and I flew inside. Superman, who was sent to receive me, tensed a little when he saw my pale golden hair. It should clarify that I meant business. I wouldn't get blindsided again. I glanced at him and walked past him with a confident stride. Superman didn't say anything as we walked toward the meeting room.

The two of us entered the meeting room with the other members already sitting in their seats. Even Zatara and Aquaman, the two that were rarely seen in the Watchtower, had shown up as well.

Aquaman glanced at me with a raised eyebrow at the new appearance. He gave me a nod while holding his trident planted next to him with the prongs aiming upwards. I sat next to him while observing the others. Aquaman hadn't gone with them on that time shenanigan, so he shouldn't have changed from the last time. At least he should be in my corner if things went awry. I thought, not knowing that he was here to keep me reassured.

The presence of Constantine sitting with a relaxed posture on his chair was alarming, but I kept shut for now. I was sure he had his reasons to be here.

The other members of the league probably knew they had a lot of explaining to do and it was best for them to come clean, otherwise I wouldn't continue helping them. It wouldn't be a substantial loss since I was getting tired of the duties, but...

Batman explained what had happened during their trip to outer space. The space mission seemed to be quite standard. It only became interesting when they returned. When they were protected from the changes in time by Green Lantern's light and displaced in time. How they joined the resistance against Vandal Savage's empire before they went back in time and corrected the timeline. At least, that was what they thought they had accomplished.

"Are you sure that you belong to this universe, to this timeline? Maybe you just made a trip to another earth that is just similar to yours?" I called out, raising my doubts about their identity and they ought to see why I was suspicious. After returning, the first thing for them to do was ambush me at my home.

But it seemed like they had thought about this possibility as well. "Batman, Aquaman, and I had made multiple scans using human, Atlantean, and Kryptonian tech that show that we belong to this universe." Superman answered. They sure accomplished a lot in just a day, but then again, Superman and Aquaman could forsake sleep for a single night. Not to mention Batman.

"What kind of tests?" I pressed, after all, if the others were still out there, I had to at least try to bring them back. This version of familiar faces didn't make a good first impression, though my suspicion eased a bit after knowing that Aquaman was involved. He could be said to be the only party that I could trust to be neutral with that data.

"Tests were performed to compare bioelectricity, Vibrational Frequency, and with the data of the time waves, we confirmed that our origin lies here, whether it was universe or timeline. With the help of Zatara and Constantine, we further confirmed this in a more metaphysical sense." Batman answered calmly as he showed several statistics on a hologram in the middle of the table.

Time turned into a crawl and I read through the data thoroughly and let my clone back home record everything. Of course, I hadn't left Raven alone after their attack. Although Batman said that they wouldn't attack her while we were here, who knew if he was telling the truth? Batman wasn't unfamiliar with deception.

"So what now? We should just accept that you are not how we remembered you to be?" I said as I looked at Shayera who was staring at me before glancing at the others, noting that Wonder Woman was boring her gaze into me.

"What are you complaining about, mate?" Constantine interjected, "As far as I am concerned, I really like this new Batman-" I glared at the man, which shut him up. He really had little say here. It was Aquaman and me who had to work with this new Justice League going forward.

Superman spoke up at this point. "The Justice League you remember doesn't exist anymore and there is nothing we can do about it, but this is hard for all of us. We come back to a life that is unfamiliar to us and some of us lost a lot and we need some time to adjust, but we will pull through together."

Wonder Woman didn't seem to stand Superman's speech as she leaned forward to speak. "Can we go through with the reason for this meeting?" She asked as she stared at me. Her body language was tense and impatient. I saw her hands drifting to her lasso.

My eyebrows raised at the mention of the reason for this meeting. Obviously, it had to do with them attacking my home. "Let me guess, you want to confirm that I am not controlled by Raven?" They had made it clear in our battle that they thought Raven was mind-controlling Kara and me.

They looked at me and I gave them a deliberate nod, allowing them to go forward with their plan. Batman nodded before looking at Zatara and Constantine, who immediately stood up and walked beside me. Aquaman distanced himself a bit after standing up with his trident in hand. I stayed seated before glancing at the two standing on both of my sides with their hands raised, pointing at me.

"I want to make something clear..." I started as I let my gaze roam over the ones present before settling on Constantine and then Zatara. "If I notice you are trying to trap me, I am going to kill you."

I allowed them to run their test as an offer of trust, giving them the opportunity to ease their minds and show them we were still on the same side. If they betrayed me, then there was no need to speak with them anymore. The evidence of their identity wouldn't matter if their actions didn't align with what they are claiming. It would just be another way to deceive me.

After saying my piece, the room was dead silent. The silence was only broken after the two magicians started chanting. Runes appeared around me and I could feel the probe brushing against my mind, but unlike telepathic attacks, it phased through my defenses and washed over my mind.

It felt similar to Morgaine's attack, letting me know how wholly unprepared I was for magic attacks that could bypass my defenses. Of course, these probes were pure magic and couldn't really affect my mind if I didn't let them. As soon as I would notice any changes to my mind, I could subvert its effect by drowning it with my psychic energy. It would be like putting out the fire of a magical lighter with a truck full of psychic water.

Something that could bypass psychic energy could only be pure magic. The only thing they should be able to do was detect if magic runes or binds were present in my mind.

It was the reason Morgaine had combined magic and telepathy to form a counterattack. If she had used pure magic, then her attack wouldn't be as effective. She might have entered my mind more easily, but with the amount of magical energy she possessed, there was hardly much she could do.

Raven had explained that magic was a topic that couldn't be fully understood, but her books generally explained how to borrow energy from the surroundings, from other dimensions, or some artifact to perform their abilities with the highest efficiency.

It was also why she usually used her telekinetic abilities in tandem with her magic to attack. The fewer things she had to change in reality to perform something, the less magic she needed. If her surroundings were on fire, it would be easier to use that fire than will fire into existence and then use that to attack.

Naturally, pure magic attacks might be more potent if the same amount of energy was being used. Magical fires were unequal in destructive strength to fires that were controlled by magic if the energy levels stood against each other one to one.

Of course, there are spells, runes, and artifacts that were so intricate that they could ignore these limitations and change reality how they saw fit with minimal magic energy. At least that was what I was able to understand from Raven's explanations, but I was sure I was missing a few things.

But as I saw it, if Constantine and Zatara wanted to manipulate my mind with magic, then they needed to be skilled enough to conjure a force that could overwhelm me without the help of psychic energy. To be entirely honest, I wouldn't put that skill out of their reach. Still, I was ready to rouse the entirety of my strength as a counterattack...

After a while, their runes and spells vanished into thin air and they couldn't help but confirm that there were no traces of magic manipulation present in my mind.

They backed away as they shook their head at the others. "Alright, my job here is done. Always a pleasure. Don't forget, you owe me." Constantine announced with a smirk and Batman responded with a grunt before the magician teleported away.

Wonder Woman then approached me and before she could say something, I stretched out my hand. "Don't ask questions you shouldn't." Already knowing that it would come to this. Her open mouth shut again before she wrapped the lasso around me.

"Did the child of Trigon force you to help her?" She asked with her hand clenching the lasso.

"No, I helped her of my own volition. I wanted to extend a helping hand, so I did. She never tried to force me, either." I answered easily, even when the feeling that the lasso of truth imposed on me was odd. Diana's jaw clenched when she heard my answer.

"What about her joining the Teen Titans? Are you aware of her goals?" She pressed.

"Raven wants to make a difference and help people and felt that she could do that with the Teen Titans in Jump City better than in Portland." I simply said, as I understood her motivations. It would have been easier if Raven answered, but there was just no way I would let her come here.

"I see... What did Trigon's ch- Raven. What magic did Raven use when you were sitting on the couch before we ... attacked?"

"She massaged me." I responded without pause, and I could see the astonishment on the other member's face. After training, we made it a habit to massage each other to relax and heal. Did they think she was using her magic while I let it happen? My gaze turned to Zatara. "Seriously, is this about a fucking misunderstanding?! Couldn't you discern the nature of the spell, you pathetic magician?!"

The others seemed oddly surprised at my outburst. What? Wasn't I as crass as they remembered me?

Wonder Woman didn't answer the question but was trembling slightly as she looked at me. Somehow she looked distraught as if hope was leaving her body.

"Do you have any memories of us being in a relationship?"

The question startled me a bit... Realization filled me. I had already guessed something like this. Her actions had already betrayed her emotions. It would explain why she appeared to be the most upset of them. "No." There was no other answer I could give to her.

She nodded despondently before unwrapping me and going back to her seat, looking at me with a complicated, saddened look. The look in her eyes showed how hurt she was and for anyone else, it wouldn't be odd to see her burst into tears, but I knew she wasn't that kind of woman.

I ignored her and addressed the others. "I have been patient and I hope there won't be any doubts after you had run your tests... Understandably, it must be difficult to arrive to a new life, but it's not an excuse for your actions. You poorly handled this situation. Not only were you impulsive, but you attacked me because of some bias you have. She might be a half-demon, but she is my friend and under my protection. If you attack her again..." I didn't continue and left the threat open-ended.

It wouldn't do well for anyone if I flared my temper at them. I couldn't be bothered to be that petty, and my mind surely wasn't on them right now. I just wanted to get this over with and try my best to lie low.

There was a time machine waiting for me and something else I didn't want to think about yet. I stood up and walked outside, glancing at Shayera as I left. There was nothing left to say to them. At least, not for now.

...

After Shallot left, the room had grown quiet again before Aquaman spoke up. "For what's worth, welcome back." Superman smiled wryly at that. Although they had come back victorious, it wasn't without sacrifice.

He looked at Diana, who was deep in her thoughts. The lovey-dovey couple of the Justice League broken up like this wasn't something anyone had expected. At least, not like this.

"Thank you." Batman said monotonously, though Superman could tell that he was affected by this as well. After all, Bruce and Nathan had been close friends. Nathan had even convinced him to try a serious relationship with Selina, showing how much weight Bruce put on Nathan's words. Now only one party remembered what they had been through, what they had talked about in the past.

"There is something else I have to discuss with the others about Shallot's battle with Darkseid." Bruce continued shocking Superman with that name. The others were surprised as well.

"I see. You do have a lot of history to catch up." Aquaman said before heading outside. He was a busy king, after all, and wasn't willing to listen to information that he already knew. The others looked at Batman and waited for him to explain.

"Shallot had fought Apokolips with the help of Supergirl and presumably with the help of Raven..."

Batman explained to the rest of the Justice League about Shallot killing Darkseid and destroying Apokolips, playing Shallot's explanation inside the hidden files. This information was sensitive, which was why no one could directly find it anymore.

They could access it with their authority in the system, but since it was hidden, the others didn't know about it even though they had read through previous mission reports.

Batman finished telling them what information they had on this case before reminding them again to make sure that nothing important had changed. The rest of the league exited after he finished. Superman saw Bruce had hesitated to tell them something in the end, but opted to not do so.

He approached him, "Bruce is there something else..?"

Bruce looked at him for a moment before turning around to leave. "I will let you know when I know more." Superman couldn't help but sigh and shake his head. Hopefully, Bruce didn't drift back into wanting to do everything on his own again.

With that thought in mind, he left for Kansas. A long talk with his parents and cousin was long overdue.

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