Kaldur'ahm

## Kaldur'ahm Inaego

Aquaman

Jackson Hyde

### Background

Sha’lain’a Inaego was a native of Atlantean city-state Shayeris. She was part of a scouting troupe sent to the surface world to search for the missing Atlantean queen Atlanna. On this excursion, she first encountered David Hyde. They began a torrid love affair. When the Queen was found, Sha’lain’a was forced to return to her kingdom.

Years later, she reconnected with Hyde, unaware he had joined his father's organization NEMO. He manipulated his relationship with Sha’lain’a, convincing her to sneak him into the kingdom, where he coordinated an attack that led to King Orvax’s death. Disgraced, embarrassed, and with child, Sha’lain’a fled to the surface.

She holed up in an Albuquerque apartment, assumed the name of Lucia Hyde, and gave birth in her bathtub to a healthy, beautiful baby boy, whom she named Kaldur’ahm.

### Early Life

Lucia attempted to keep Kaldur’s true heritage a secret from him, giving him the surface name of Jackson, but he always felt like an outcast. He firstly felt outcast for the mysterious tattoos on his arms since his birth. While in classrooms, he felt he was going crazy when he swore he could hear the fish speaking to him. He yearned to go to the sea, but Lucia always kept him away, for fear that Atlantean soldiers would emerge and bring her back to the watery depths.

Eventually, Lucia grew to accept she couldn’t hide Jackson’s heritage from him forever, and they moved to Amnesty Bay. Lucia began working and fell in love with one of her coworkers, Calvin Durham. Jackson began to develop eyes for a local fisherman’s son named Kenny.

One weekend, Lucia took Kaldur beneath the waves of the sea for the first time. He found that the runic tattoos he bore allowed him to manipulate the water around him. He finally felt as if he was realizing who he truly was. While resting on a coral reef beneath the waves, he came out to his mother as gay.

They returned to the surface, him finally feeling connected to his roots. Days later, Calvin proposed to Lucia, and the two were wed. The ceremony was interrupted by a battle between the Scavenger and Aquaman and Aquawoman. After the fight, Arthur and Mera eventually deduced Lucia’s true identity and offered her a full pardon to return to life under the sea, as well as offering genetic modifications to Cal to allow him to stay with the family. They agreed, and the Hyde family moved to Shayeris.

### Aqualad

Kaldur watched in awe as Aquaman and his two proteges became iconic figures and began bridging the gap between surface and sea. He grew to want to be involved with them. He convinced his mother to allow him to enroll in the Conservatory of Sorcery, where he was trained by the very same who trained Garth and Tula.

In 2007, the mysterious masked Ocean Master teamed up with Black Manta and led an attack on Atlantis, with one specific strike force targeting the Conservatory of Sorcery, on a day when Garth was a guest teacher. Kaldur showed true mastery of his power and saved Garth’s life from several of the masked soldiers, and joined both he and Aquaman himself in the fight against Ocean Master.

While the assailant escaped, Aquaman still recognized Kaldur’s brave actions, and on a recommendation from Garth, who was looking to step away from surface-world heroics, Kaldur became the second Aqualad.

Kaldur joined the Titans in 2008 and grew very close with the other new recruits of that year. Living in Jump City with the Titans was the breath of fresh-air (no pun intended) he needed to fully come into his own skin. He journeyed back often to continue his studies at the Conservatory of Sorcery, and continued working as a partner with Aquaman.

Like most of the superhero community, his world was up-ended when the Joker brutally murdered Jason Todd in 2014. Everything went into a shutdown. Kaldur returned to Atlantis and began living with his parents again, and began dating Wyynde, a student in his class at the Conservatory.

During his time at home, his mother told him that his true father was Black Manta. In a rage, Kaldur left the home. He went to Jump City and walked around the streets at night by himself. Wyynde eventually found Kaldur and held him as he sobbed.

The two graduated a few weeks later, and Kaldur became a trainer at the Conservatory. He also became a reserve member of the Atlantean Guard and Poseidonis’ Minister of Justice. During the shutdown year, he and Wyynde became engaged.

During their time off, Atlantis was subjected to two horrific attacks. One was an attack on an ancient tomb that unleashed a number of gargantuan violent creatures on the oceans, resulting in Tula’s death. The second was conducted by Ocean Master on the day of Tula’s funeral mass, a successful assassination plot against Queen Atlanna and Prince Orm. Enraged by grief, a plan was forming in Kaldur’s head.

### Devil Ray

In conversation with other members of the Titans and Justice League, he began to notice strings connecting several super-villain organizations, like NEMO and HIVE. He, Dick Grayson, Wally West, and Artemis Crock deduced that a supervillain cabal called the Light was controlling most super-criminal operations they’d encountered.

Together, they launched a plan to infiltrate the Light. Once the Titans were active again, Kaldur staged a betrayal of the Titans and joined his biological father and joined NEMO. Kaldur kept this operation a secret from everyone, save for his three teammates who planned it with him. In NEMO, he took the Ops Moniker of Devil Ray.

It escalated to include faking Artemis’ death as well, and having Kaldur lead a new version of the Fearsome Five known as Onslaught. Kaldur’s strike team helped carry out an attack on San Diego after it was struck with the Watchtower’s ion cannon, which eventually resulted in Kaldur taking Lagoon Boy hostage.

That night, the Light held a summit, in which Kaldur partnered with the Titans to bring them down, resulting in the arrest of nearly half of their operatives. With Kaldur’s true allegiances revealed, the reactions were varied.

Kaldur returned to Atlantis and was shunned by most of the community. Garth flat out refused to acknowledge Kaldur’s presence. He continued work as Minister of Justice but was met with immense scrutiny, and eventually, Arthur asked him to step down, and reassigned him to work in Sub Diego, which was being annexed by Atlantis. He and Wyynde decided to take a break due to Wyynde’s mistrust of Kaldur.

Kaldur agreed and began workin in the city-state, where he helped train Lorena Marquez to be the new Aquagirl. He retired the moniker of Aqualad, and simply went by Kaldur during his time in the city, where he later defended it from the Reach’s Invasion forces.

### Aquaman

Controversially, Orin decided to step away from the throne after the birth of his daughter and death of his mother, as he gained the throne and assumed his duties as King. He asked Kaldur to take over the role of Aquaman. Kaldur accepted and moved back to Poseidonis, and took Arthur’s position on the Justice League.

Now, Kaldur is working to repair his relationship and his public image, as well as proving a name for himself as Aquaman, and dealing with the fallout of his actions within the Light.