[TO BE REWRITTEN] LEGENDS NEVER DIE {Trollhunters/Young Justice}

68 M'GANN 68

| EARLIER
| TOBY'S HOUSE, ARCADIA OAKS

"HI! YOU MUST be Arnold!" M'gann chirped, waving from the doorway.

Arnold smiled sweetly at her, slowly lumbering over. He hummed his acknowledgment, nodding. "You are?" He managed in rough English.

She smiled. "I'm Megan."

Zatanna and Artemis appeared behind M'gann in the doorway, a curious Wally behind them. "Oh, hey-- Arnold, right? I'm Zatanna."

"Artemis." She grunted.

"Hello."

All five sat in silence for a moment before Arnold smiled and lumbered back to the TV in the corner, paused by a pile of VHS tapes and then moved for a bowl of tortilla chips. After that, he went back to his round of GoGo Sushi!

M'gann ushered them out of the room. //Well? What's the verdict?// She asks Zatanna.

Zatanna pauses, frowning. //It isn't magic, not directly. Actually, I think it's an aura shift.//

//A what.// Artemis deadpans.

//An aura shift is typically something you see when someone or something with magic and a mind is kept under compulsions for a period of time, those layered, and strong, compulsions making them act so out of line with their nature that all of the restricted magic bursts out, freeing them and placing an aura based on their nature around them,// Zatanna explains. //I get a slightly weaker version of it because of how much time I spend around magic, not to mention I use it. Based on the radius it covers, how strong it is, his size, muscle mass, I'd say that he was kept under compulsions and was probably even put through some brainwashing for most, if not all of his life. His magic managed to break all of it, but on top of it reflecting his true nature, it also seems defensive. Yet, despite the fact he doesn't seem to know about the au-- oh. Oh no.// Zatanna paled until she looked like snow.

//Zee? What? What is it?// Artemis demands.

//Based on his size and muscle mass, he was most likely raised as a child soldier, further backed up by the scars on his arms.// Wally supplies. //What? I'm not an idiot.//

//Didn't say anything, Baywatch.//

//Thank you, Wally. Couldn't have put it better.// Zatanna then says, nodding at Wally before she says to everyone, //If Arnold really was a child soldier with this sort of temperament, he would've been beaten ruthlessly, put under so many enchantments not even Nabu could undo them with a week and would've been put through so much brainwashing that I can't even imagine a rough estimate. It's hard to get someone to something they would normally do under a compulsion, to make someone act completely out of character, you'd have to have them since they were only a few months old.//

//Okay, sad story, what was the 'oh no' for?// Artemis demands impatiently.

//...All that magic... it's next to impossible to get rid of...// Zatanna says quietly, //For Arnold to be so in control of an aura that should probably envelop the entire planet and half of Mars... h... he'd have to be tapping into them regularly...//

Everyone stopped. //...What does that mean?//

//It means Arnold has potentially turned himself into a weapon of mass destruction.//