Salem

August 19th , 20:22 EDT

"We've reached Red Tornado's coordinates," Megan said, "But…"

"Nothing's there," Kaldur said, looking out the window. "Gojo?"

"You're wrong," I said, eyes wide. I removed my glasses, letting my Six Eyes gaze at what I was certain was some kind of energy that rhymed very well with cursed energy. Magic, by any other name. It was dispersed all over, but it was concentrated on one spot of grass near the streets. "There's a bunch of magic here." I ignored Wally's snort.

And… in a cat.

The orange tabby cat—with red eyes of all things—was by a street corner, watching us land our camouflaged Bio-Ship, and its energy was… cursed for sure. Not cursed energy, but definitely just cursed. It looked wrong, and just downright chaotic. It sent a shudder through my spine. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Except maybe… hmm.

It reminded me—only very slightly—of the energy that was used to bring me here. The League already promised there was nothing on their side that could have conceivably brought me to this world, especially not in such a random location, with no greater plan in mind.

Too many unknowns. I needed answers.

"Does Doctor Fate or Kent Nelson have a cat?" I asked.

The team were already up on their feet, ready to alight, but I was still staring through the wall of the Bio-Ship—opaque on the inside but for my Six Eyes allowing me to see out of it.

"What did you see?" Aqualad asked.

The cat ran away and crawled into a building and—disappeared.

"Something magical," I said. "Be right back."

I warped in front of the derelict building with wooden boards covering the door's entrance and kicked them in, stepping in view of a—

Cursed Spirit. Far down on the stage of this abandoned theatre. The first I had seen. A being of chaotic energy. The same energy as the cat, but a million times more concentrated, more deadly. Special Grade, my brain threw out automatically, for all it even meant in this world. How did I miss them until now when I could see them without any obstructions?

This thing was bad news, for sure.

The two humans besides were irrelevant compared to the creature. When I noticed that the two humans were Kent Nelson and some guy I had never seen did I finally stop to consider the situation beyond the abomination in my presence.

I reached for Kent Nelson to spit him through space and let him appear in the Bio-Ship when the Cursed Spirit in the shape of a pale and lanky boy with hair bent into the shape of devil horns, reached out to block me.

"Infinity!" he squealed, "I recognize you! Big fan, you do some great work! And would you look at that," his face took on a more demonic cast, "You're not from around here, are ya?"

This thing meant business. Moreover, this thing… would destroy the Titans before they knew it. Easily. I couldn't let them fight him.

"My buddies really wanna kill you," he laughed, "But I don't think going that far makes any sense at all! No, I'm much more interested in learning what your deal is. And measuring just how much you'll shake things up if I let you run around doing whatever you want. So, honored one… wanna show me how it's done?" his voice became cacophonous, not loud, but certainly not pleasant to listen to. His teeth sharpened and he reached his hand towards me.

I gave a confident grin.

"I'd rather bail out that old geezer you got strapped in the chair and be on my way," I said. "He's gonna be my magic teacher."

"Ridiculous," the white-shirted man with the magic wand—really just some kind of high-tech device according to what my Six Eyes Reversal was telling me—growled. He waved his wand at me, projecting sound. I immediately cut myself off from sound. Neither the impact nor the sound itself reached me.

"My turn," I said with a grin, shoving my arm forward, "Cursed Technique Lapse," he threw another attack as I incanted, not that it mattered, "Maximum Energy Output: Blue!"

He immediately flew into a ball of hypermassive cursed energy. I let it stay up for fifty milliseconds, after which he had broken half the bones in his body and ruptured several nonvital organs from the whiplash of the sudden pull alone. He would live, of course, but that had knocked him out of the fight emphatically.

Sorry Batman, but I really couldn't afford to hold back right now—not with this monster right in front of me. This violence, compared to what I did to Sportsmaster, really was necessary. I had to end things instantly, and even activating that technique had taken more time than I had been comfortable leaving for the creature.

"Ooh, my turn!" the boy laughed as he grasped for me. He was pretty far away, so he didn't exactly catch me. Wasn't sure what that was about. "What, don't know what I did?" he asked, "Need a hand, maybe?" he raised his hand, and it was holding a cut-off hand.

The pain registered a split second later. I looked down at my right hand and saw nothing but a bleeding stump. I immediately focused on healing it.

Reverse Cursed Technique!

As I regenerated the limb, I looked at this demon with wide eyes, "You're fast for a little kid." No, not fast. This transcended speed.

This magic was… magic. Powerful magic. Magic I couldn't even see.

"And you're just full of surprises!" he laughed. "And you've got friends coming! Nice! This will be fun!"

"Get away!" Kent Nelson cried, "While you still can!"

How the hell had he reached me? Did I even stand a chance against him? What the hell was going on? How did I defend against these attacks? My Six Eyes saw nothing. Nothing!

Should I…?

Should I run away?

"I'll let you go if you want," the boy said with a grin, "But then, don't you ever repeat that you're the strongest. Got it?"

"Heh," I grinned, eyes wide, "You're not from this world either, are you?"

"He's Klarion, the Witch Boy!" Kent explained, "A Lord of Chaos. You cannot beat him, boy! No matter how strong you think you are, this is a living embodiment of the concept of chaos! Run, boy, run!"

I regrew my hand and vowed to keep a closer eye on him. I focused intently for all I was worth until barely, just barely—I saw. Threads of magic appearing and disappearing in chaotic patterns, seemingly connected to everything, yet affecting nothing just yet.

He used those threads to reach me. They managed to bite through Infinity as well. Very well, then. I'd just have to evade them when they came.

And to get the pressure of his attacks off my shoulders, I needed to do something as well.

"Red," I fired off the attack at Klarion. He jumped away. The stage behind him exploded, blowing the bound-up form of Kent Nelson away, too. I grabbed him with Blue, putting him down gently before refocusing on Klarion, throwing out another Red, blowing a hole into the neighboring building, exposing empty apartment units.

I spatially transported away from Klarion's threads of magic, appearing close to him to deliver the punch of my life.

Black lightning blazed in the wake of my strike as I hit Klarion on his back with everything I could muster at once for daring to take my hand the way that he did.

Finally a worthy challenge!

He shot into the floor, digging himself down until he hit dirt. I threw a Red at him, bulldozing him further down. And down. And down.

Klarion's mangled corpse dissipated into dust as the little that remained of him twitched.

"Wow, wouldn't want to be him!"

I whirled around and saw him—Klarion, standing on air, looking at me in surprise and wonder.

I had destroyed his body. Even throwing a Purple at him would have been redundant, given the ravages I had put him through.

I looked down again at the pit, and the last of Klarion disintegrated, and the new one was no worse for wear at all.

The threads of magic hadn't indicated that he could do this. How did he…? Did he always have this clone in reserve while his original body had veiled itself from detection? How many powers did he have?

Finally, the Titans had arrived, entering through the door to the theater.

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No time.

Time to bring out Purple.

"Ooh, guests! This is fun! Let's play a game everyone!" Klarion reached for me. I dodged away. He followed my movement with trivial ease and—broke through Infinity like it wasn't even there, grabbing me.

No. Grabbing into me. His hand phase shifted through my chest, and he pulled.

All my Cursed Energy.

I fell from the air, landing roughly on a chair, gasping for breath as I watched the demon bend over backwards laughing. "Not so strong now, are you?" Klarion chuckled, holding up an orb that looked like a black hole. It even had an accretion disk. Was that… Limitless?

I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel my cursed energy. My Six Eyes were weakening. The world reducing in all the manifold colors of reality, my field of view narrowing into almost nothing—human eyes.

I felt blind. How could anyone see like this? With this cone-shaped field of view?

"What did you do?!" Megan screamed as she lifted every loose piece of debris in the devastated theater, hurling it at Klarion to no effect. All the debris stopped dead without penetrating his—Infinity.

I felt like throwing up.

"So," Klarion said, "Here's how this goes down. I want the Helmet of Fate. Give that to me and I'll give dear Gojo his powers back."

How the hell did he know my name?

"Alternatively," Klarion continued, "You can all die, and Gojo will stand alone as the honored one. And then you can keep the Helmet of Fate. What do you say."

"Try something else," Wally growled.

"Not talking to you," Klarion said, looking down at me, "Tell me, Infinity. What do you say?"

"Third option," I hissed, getting up on my feet shakily, "Don't piss me off, or I'll make you regret it."

"With what power, exactly?" Klarion laughed. "Face it, you're a muggle. A normie! With a weak-sauce body to boot!" Klarion landed on the broken stage, and it reassembled by itself, "This power is amazing. But that's all that's amazing about you, boy. You got lucky and won the lottery. But your luck ends here. You want a third option? Fine. Here it is: fight me. You don't even have to win. Put up an interesting fight and I won't kill your friends. I'll probably kill you, but," he shrugged, "Gotta make compromises! You won't even have to hand me the Helmet of Fate!"

"What the hell are you?" I growled. I clenched my fists. This… this couldn't be happening.

Not again.

And not even on a mission!

Dammit! This couldn't be real! Why was it happening again?

"Screw this," Superboy growled and jumped at Klarion.

"Blue," Klarion chuckled, catching Superboy's form in the orbit of a powerful Blue, slingshotting him right back to the Team with added force. He had my powers. "Don't make me bust out Red, or… Purple." He grinned.

I turned around in panic to the team who were all getting ready for a fight, "Don't fight him! You'll lose!"

"So it's your power that is strongest, not really you," Klarion said, "Which is… yeah. Kind of obvious. Wow, this energy is just so," he grimaced, "It's the worst, really. I hate it. Anyway, Gojo, you gotta decide now before I kill all of your friends."

Kid Flash ran towards him, Megan threw more debris, Artemis, who hadn't brought her bow or arrow, threw chunks of debris, and Aqualad ran in to fight with his fists.

They were all stopped, one way or the other. Kid Flash got smacked back, flying into the seats. Aqualad received a palm slam that threw him into the seats as well. Superboy made a second attempt at Klarion that failed just as easily as the first one. And Megan and Artemis' rocks couldn't get past his Infinity.

Then he crossed his fingers. "Domain Expansion."

Dead.

We were all dead.

A domain of an infinite starscape splattered in white blotches of what looked like paint filled up our worlds, and I prepared for the influx of endless information, like the manuscripts of the last Limitless and Six Eyes user had left for his successor.

That technique never came. I looked around to see if the others had felt it. No. They were looking around curiously, still able to move.

"Don't make me use the Innate Technique," Klarion threatened in a sing-song voice.

"Stop it! Everyone stop! Right now!" I shouted. "Because if you don't!" I clenched my eyes shut and opened them, screaming at the top of my lungs, "You'll all die!"

The team looked at me in shock and fear.

But they listened.

Bonelessly, I walked up to Klarion.

"No!" Megan ran after me, but Klarion held up his hands, freezing everyone in place with Blue. Then he grinned at me.

"Taking me up on the offer, are you?" Klarion asked, "Remember, strongest. You have to make it good. Fight like you really think you'll win. Fight like you always have. I can tell if you don't."

"What's your goal in this anyway?" I asked him. "Lord of Chaos, all-powerful being, but you have rules, don't you? Otherwise, you'd have taken over by now."

"I act within my remit," he grinned, "And your death very much is so. Only problem is, I don't really wanna kill you. Because whether you knew it or not, you're one of my biggest agents! That's what I meant when I said I really like you."

"But you have to kill me," I frowned, "Because then you'd get in trouble if I ran around spreading chaos in your name."

"I wouldn't say I have to kill you either," he said, "Chaos loves spreading. It's not my job to keep balance anyway. I'd love to tilt the scales on my side as much as possible."

"Then why don't you give me back my powers and let us go?" I asked.

His grin spread widely, to the point that that was all that half his face was. A rictus grin of reptilian proportions. And beady, insectile eyes too small for his face. "Because you're not chaotic enough. You're not good enough. You're… broken. I thought you'd make for a good toy, honestly, but you can't even do that much. And honestly?" he shook his head, "I don't want to play with you anymore…"

"Then let us go!" I shouted. Damned bastard, who did he think he was?

Klarion narrowed his eyes at me. "Are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo?" Klarion asked, "Or are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest?"

"What?" I asked.

"Dude, I don't know," Klarion shrugged. "It just felt right to ask. But it's a fun question, chaotic question," he grinned. "Let me answer it for you—you think who you are is what made you strong, but really, it's all nurture with you. Your entire self has been shaped by that power, transformed by it, until there's nothing left but that. But now that I removed it," His grin somehow widened even further. "Tell me, how do you feel?"

"In all honesty?" I asked, trying my best to maintain confidence in the face of this all-encompassing loss. Honestly, what did I feel? Hollow. Weak. Like nothing I ever did would work out no matter how hard I tried.

But would it stop me from trying?

I looked over my shoulder to see the team pressed on their knees. Artemis and Megan's faces were tearful, Kid Flash and Superboy looked furious, and Aqualad looked pained.

I couldn't hear a peep out of them, though. A sound barrier.

They could probably hear what I was saying. I turned back to Klarion and raised my fists, grinning.

Sure, I might be powerless, but I still had one power left—being me. Satoru Gojo.

"If I'm going out, then it won't be on my damn knees," I chuckled, "I'll show you—"

Klarion shoved his hand through my chest. He didn't phase shift. He shoved his flat hand through my chest, sliding his thin hand between my ribs and grasping at my heart, preventing it from beating.

With merciless and unyielding strength, he wrenched my heart out. He raised it to show the people behind me, and tossed it towards them. I couldn't believe it.

Rather than despair, I instead just… cracked a grin.

So much for the strongest. But hell, at least I wouldn't live long enough to be embarrassed. I could only imagine how my observers would be cringing at this unceremonious end to my story.

Death and more death.

Nobody lived forever. But at least I could say that I was right.

What a rotten and regretful end this was.

I should have… told Megan… I…