The Debrief

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(Aden's P.O.V)

Calling the mood tense would be an understatement. Still, I wasn't here to cause problems.

'Relax Yaotl. No one would be stupid enough to attack us."

I told my loyal god of war. Yaotl had this blazing fire inside him that threatened to erupt and consume all whenever he thought I was in danger.

It was frustrating at times but also heartwarming. It told me that even if anything bad happened, I could count on him to protect the kids.

"Star!"

Two voices sounded out at the same time. Robin and Miss Martian stared at each as a flush worked it's way up Robin's cheeks.

"Someone's happy to see you."

I told Starfire as she started walking forward to meet with the flying Miss Martian.

"Why? are you jealous?"

She cheekily asked, making me snort.

"You wish."

A giggle burst out of her.

"You're a bad liar Aden."

I shook my head and turned to Yaotl.

"Women right?"

"Yes she is one, my Lord. However I fail to understand the relevance of such a thing."

Yaotl answered confusedly, referring to my statement. I purposefully understood it wrong though.

I nodded and patted him.

"Me too Yaotl, me too."

"Bloody hell Lad, you're still hanging around with all sorts of crazies huh? Good choice on the lass though, Maze would have chewed you up and spat out the remains."

The British accent flowing through the sarcastic voice was indication enough that there was a fellow asshole in the room.

"Constantine...I was trying to pretend I wasn't pretending I didn't see you."

The demonologist pushed off the wall and came towards me. I spared a look at the League and noticed most of their attention was on Kori. You know it always had me at a dilemma whether to be happy that they accepted her so quickly or be jealous that they did when my introduction to the League had started of somewhat rocky.

But looking at Kori's happy expression, I realized why they all fawned over her. She belonged not because she had no other choice unlike me but because she actually wanted to belong. At that I couldn't help but smile.

"Love."

Constantine commented while looking at the direction my eyes were pointed.

"What?"

I asked turning to him.

"Love. It changes us. Brings out the best in us as well as the worst when we hit a speed bump. Guard your heart lad."

I rolled my eyes.

"What is this? Your stint as Uncle Phil?"

Constantine paused in a frown.

"That a reference from a movie?"

"Tv show."

I corrected, knowing there was a Fresh Prince show native to this world but with a different character playing Will Smith. That being the reason why I hadn't watched it.

"American television? The worst thing invented right after politics."

I shook my head.

"Yaotl meet John Constantine, demonologist exorcist, asshole extraordinaire. I saved him some months ago..."

"And now you won't stop lording it over me."

He dragged out a cigarette from his packet and held it out to me.

A flame appeared on the end and he took a slow drag.

"Why not light it up with magic?"

I curiously wondered. To answer, John chanted something and I felt Yaotl tense in preparation as John held a card and we watched while it was consumed by a sudden flame.

"Magical flame is...in a word, eager. I have amazing control but it would most likely burn half of the cig before I could take a single puff, mate. Nice to meet you Yaotl." He nodded to my newest spirit.

"And...I know your secret. You are a god."

He concluded with another puff, blowing the smoke away from our faces with an almost excited glint in his eyes.

If he expected me to be surprised I didn't show it. I raised my eyebrows.

"Good for you John. Now what do you want?"

He breathed out.

"I don't know yet. Maybe I want to repay the favor you did for me by keeping your secret. I'm thinking taking it to the grave sounds doable?"

Oh so that's what he was after. Constantine knew better than most the power of having someone owe you a favor. I smiled.

"Master Aden, let me deal with this one."

I held Yaotl back as he connected the dots and understood what Constantine meant. Old boy was trying to subtly blackmail me.

"No." I shook my head and addressed Constantine once more, this time with a small smile on my face.

"You will have to try better than that John."

I sensed a brief hesitation in him. Wondering what other card he had to play, I used my telepathy to infiltrate his mind. Fuck. My face didn't change but what I found out immediately put me on edge. Constantine suspected I was the White Shadow.

Constantine rubbed his jaw while his eyes studied me with a keen and intelligent glint. Then he chuckled.

"Bloody hell. You got me, lad. Fine, I still owe you."

He turned and started walking towards the Zeta Tube.

I didn't need to turn to understand that our whole exchange had been noted by Batman and half the room.

"Recognized, John Constantine A07"

The Watchtower AI announced his departure. Before he disappeared, he opened his mouth and addressed the room.

"Remember who the real problem is. The Lords of Chaos."

And then he dissipated into motes of light.

"John Constantine everybody."

I clapped, facing everyone.

"Before anything else," I bowed my head, turning serious.

"I apologize for the Chaos Rifts. Something happened in my realm and the only way to save it was to expel all the chaos energy inside. Unfortunately, I had not foreseen that my actions would lead to such disastrous outcomes. I ask for your forgiveness on behalf of everyone affected and I will bear the responsibility for my actions by helping the families of the ones who died to the best of my ability."

My words were met with stunned silence that stretched out for more than 10 seconds.

"It is not in our place to accept your apology Aden. But, all of us here recognize that you are sorry and as long as you assure us that nothing like this will ever happen again then...we can work together and do our best to make the world safer for everyone."

Wonder Woman spoke up, seemingly for everyone. Of course, true cooperation was off the table. Sone of the leaguers would rather die before they accepted my help.

"Thank you, Wonder Wo..."

"I refuse to allow it!"

Venom dripped out of Hal's voice as he vehemently countered, his body was tense with a green glow suffusing his eyes. 'willful idiot.' Aden thought.

"If you are sincere about taking responsibility then accept to be tried for your actions and if the verdict is jail term, then you will serve it."

The tension that had disappeared returned.

"Watch your mouth, Human."

Yaotl furiously strode forward, his golden armor glowing with Torquoise flames. I held him back with a thought.

'Stop.'

(General P.O.V)

They were all ready for a fight as Aden's eyes swept across the room.

"Trial?" The lord of the Elemental Dimension wondered out loud, his gaze finally landing on Hal. The green lantern stared at him stubbornly. Hal wasn't one to get cowed. There was a reason he was hailed as the greatest Green Lantern.

But all Aden saw was an unyielding man who did not think things through. A man who refused to be wrong or compromise when needed. That's why Stewart was his favourite. Stewart reasoned and always looked at the pros and cons.

"Fine. If you want me to stand trial, then I shall."

Aden stated, greatly surprising everyone.

"But not now." He added a clause, making Hal snort. Uncaring of what he thought, Aden continued, his aura breaking out unconsciously.

"In a month. If you still want me to stand trial then so be it. Put me infront of a fair panel and judge my actions. If I am found guilty then I will gladly accept the verdict, Lantern."

Hal looked around at the rest of the Justice League members seated before the table and failed to see the support he was seeking. He couldn't really push the matter anymore so he grit his teeth and settled down.

Aden's eyes found Kori's and winked. Faced with her anger at what she most likely thought was his careless actions, he hoped that she would see past that and understand he couldn't show weakness here.

"Stop worrying about me, Star. At this point this is a game between the League and I. A tug of war."

It didn't appease her worry but she understood. Inwardly, Kori asked herself if it came down to choosing between Aden and the League, which side would she pick? Looking into Aden's chocolate brown eyes, with her heart fluttering inside her chest, the answer didn't surprise her.

Aden walked forward and waved a hand, his familiar gaudy looking throne appeared at the end of the long table, utterly overshadowing the rest of the seats. Now it looked as if the League was subservient to him. The glass of water infront of Hal shattered from how hard he was gripping it.

Aden's smirk almost sent him over the edge.

"Now that the pleasantries are over, let us begin the debrief."

Batman stood up and touched a key in his holographic wrist computer. The space between the two prongs of the u shaped table were occupied by a huge holographic map of the planet.

"17 locations. Each location with an active chaos rift. 6 of those locations designated as priority A. We know what caused them." Batman's eyes flickered over to Aden who gave no reaction at the subtle jab. He'd already apologized so Batman trying to guilt trip him wouldn't work.

"...and after splitting the league and junior team's into groups and sending them to investigate, we also found out how to unravel them..."

Batman continued, occasionally verifying the events from each group as he gave the rundown of all the operations and before long he arrived to the heart of the matter.

"This was captured in Japan."

The clip playing, showed Klarion and a young schoolgirl sitting on top of a huge crystal monster, floating above a chaos rift. The girl spread her hands out and did something to the vortex. Aden leaned forward and frowned.

His expression stayed neutral as the vortex started roiling around in even more force. Child and Klarion left just as Constantine and Deadman who was invisible arrived on scene. They were having trouble with the monster with 6 heads that emerged. That changed when a being appeared before them in great speed and proceeded to kill the hydra.

Batman's eyes were on Aden as the sky split apart into Aden's familiar boom tube light and silver lightning rained down. Aden's mouth opened in shock as even Yaotl himself tensed.

"Master Aden, who is that?!"

He whispered in surprise.

"He seems to have access to some of your abilities."

Aden's jaw worked like crazy, he tightened his fingers into fists while gripping the frame of the throne.

"I have no idea Yaotl, but one thing I can say for sure is if the Light is responsible for this, then I won't just destroy them, I will completely wipe their legacy from the face of the earth."

Aden tried to sell it. Apart from him, the only ones who knew that The White Shadow was Aden were Yaotl and Starfire. The latter had had Aden reinforce her memory with layers upon layers of mental walls and the former was a god. Nkt even J'onn could break through his mental walls.

"He is not faking it. They are truly surprised by The White Shadow's presence."

J'onn informed the League members. Aden sensed the telepathic fluctuations and frowned, of course he'd felt J'onn ran a casual scan of his mind and pretended he hadn't noticed it.

"The White Shadow is a matter for another day. The only thing we know about him is that he has a partner and a is also a contractor with ties to a lot of groups. The Team and I will handle him."

Aqualad informed everyone.

"Right after we solve the Trident problem." Kid Flash grumbled, face planting onto the table.

"I swear, between the weekend training sessions with Sensei, the White Shadow and normal villains...this has been the worst month of my superhero career."

"Preach."

Robin nodded.

"Focus. The Trident is the League's problem." Batman curtly admonished. Aden's eyebrows rose up. Not wanting to disrupt Batman's debrief, he turned to M'gann and mentally linked with her mind.

"Hey beautiful, mind telling me what's up with this whole Trident thing?"

"Aden? Wow, your mind skills have grown so powerful!"

"Thanks. I've been practicing a lot."

Once the beautiful Martian got over her shock, she explained everything to him. A soft smile graced Aden's face. He'd done well not to feed the Trident to Equity like he had planned. Now he could take advantage of this and accelerate some of his plans.

"... they're Lords of Chaos. Beings on par with Doctor Fate who wield mystical energy aligned to destruction and carnage. They must be stopped before completing whatever their plan is."

Zatara gravely finished.

Aden sighed audibly, causing all attention to be on him.

"Unfortunately for my self satisfaction and fortunately for Klarion, I won't be able to help stomp his ass to the ground like before. I wish I could I could fight this battle as I am the one with the biggest grudge but there are other matters that require my attention."

"The Chaos Vortexes, they didn't just form on earth, did they?"

Robin intuited, making Aden look at him in surprise.

"Yes. That's...very perceptive, boy Wonder."

He complimented.

"You've all seen the chaos unleashed by the ones on earth, so I'm going to be unavailable for some time as I hunt down the rest of the vortexes and destroy them."

That was only partly true. The White Shadow would be handling that while his main body would be entering seclusion to finally advance into a god in two of his elements. Aden had put it off for too long. Plus, he was very very eager to unlock Water. To him, despite fire being his favorite element, water was more useful.

"The League will handle the Lords of Chaos."

Wonder Woman assured.

"Zatara is it possible to pin point their location using mystic means? So far they have managed to avoid any technological surveillance..."

Aden tuned out Batman as he thought of his next move.

He looked at Kori and saw the worry well hidden underneath layers of confidence. She saw him looking and gave him a smile of reassurance.

"Hey, it's going to be alright. Trust me."

Aden felt like laughing, she was comforting him when she was the one who needed the comforting.

Aden stood up and cleared his throat, interrupting Batman from his long-winded explanation on tactics to employ when dealing with Klarion and Child. If this was how the League planned out their missions, then Aden was glad he had left. There was so much to pay logistics to pay attention to.

"Sorry Bats, but I can't put this off any longer."

Aden's arrogant smirk was replaced by a soft smile as he stared at Starfire. He breathed in and released a heavy exhale.

"It took Kori forever to convince me to trust in your inherent goodness. To give you a chance and maybe open a new chapter in our relationship that does not include clashing heads with Hal or Green Arrow. Will we ever be friends? Probably never but does that mean we treat each other like enemies, no. I know you people are good and so... I'll try. I'll try to trust you."

The Leaguers all looked around in bewilderment.

"Aahh what's going on?"

The Flash asked, referring to Aden's strange behavior.

Then a suffocating pressure fell upon everyone present. The whole section of the Watchtower shook. Wonder Woman stood up and released her own splendorous aura, marginally mitigating the effect of Aden's presence from completely suppressing everyone present.

"However, if any of you use them to try and control me or hurt them or let them be hurt by the dozens of villains you allow to walk away, I will come after everything you stand for. I'll destroy the League so completely, nothing but ashes will remain."

Just before the weakest heroes passed out, the pressure suddenly abated before disappearing.

The threat rang true, especially with the symbol of power pulsing through his clothes.

"Now, who's ready to meet my family?"

No one spoke up. They found their hearts hammering inside their chests like African drums.

Aden shrugged.

"I'll take that as a yes."

A boom tube appeared close to Aden and with a whoosh of color, four nimble figures flew right through.

"Greenie"

"Mom!"

"Stars!"

"Mom!"

A comically large net created from air appeared and pulled back the kids before they could fly towards Kori, who was placed in a way that she was the first thing the kids had seen after using the boom tube.

"Hold on kids. I know you're excited but what do I always tell you?"

He asked the four of them, lightly immobilized in the air with huge arm constructs.

"Oh oh oh I know I know!!"

Breeze spoke up.

"To preach and spread the glory of GRANGO to uneducated plebes. Ha ha!"

She spread her tiny hands and declared confidently.

"What's a GRANGO?"

Hawkman leaned over and asked Canary, who was still trying to reconcile her mind with everything going on.

"I have no idea but given her enthusiasm, we might soon find out."

"It's a fruit."

Starfire told them as she flew towards Aden and the four kids who had called Starfire mom.

"Dude...did they just call Starfire mom?"

"Yes."

Robin said whole clenching his jaw.

"Aaaww so adorable! Star, wait for me."

Miss Martian flew after the Tamaranean.

"Yes to the GRANGO thing Breeze but there's something else."

Aden shook his head.

"You told us to be mindful of our surroundings."

Sai answered, making Aden nod and then motion to their front with his chin.

"And are you mindful?"

Realization finally diwmed on them. They were standing before an entire room of strangers.

The kids all yelped and hid behind Aden, making the Avatar laugh while Yaltl smiled. Starfire touched down and they piled her with hugs.

"You want me to show you my room?"

"Yes!"

Kai said in excitement.

"What about Dad? Is he coming with us?"

Sai asked, cocking his head to the side. Match looked up at Aden and motioned for him to lift him up. He lifted both boys up and hugged them.

"I'll follow you after I'm done speaking with your babysitters, okay? Sai somehow got the joke as he giggled.

"Oh and Breeze stop trying to steal Batman's battarang."

He added as a gentle wind ruffled Batman's cape.

Breeze popped up on Star's head and hid a face with a cheeky smile.

"Sorry dad."

M'gann and Star matched out with the kids, leaving Aden alone with the League whose intense emotions were going haywire.

"Explain. Now."

Funnily enough, the one who demanded that wasn't Batman but Superboy. Faced with the misplaced anger, Aden only had one thing to say.

"Okay."