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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)

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Evil M. Lurker said:
"Emana" ...pretty much everywhere, too many for me to point to them all.
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Thank you, corrected.
Technically it should be "Emana Branx" throughout, I think? Don't know if they shorten it in-universe.
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I decided that since our species-name isn't Earthians, I shouldn't just have the name of the species being the same as the name of the planet. For the purpose of this story, Emana is the planet and Branx is the species living there.
 
...and now I'm picturing Green Panther, Yellow Panther, Red Panther, Blue Panther, Violet Panther, Indigo Panther, and Orange Panther to go along with Black Panther. And maybe White Panther.
 
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Respite (part 6)
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    • 16th August
    01:51 GMT -6

    "I don't know what you're-."

    "What's my name?"

    Mother -or whatever I'm talking to- shakes her head. "You know what your name is."

    "Of course I do.    " And while that idea feels completely natural, I can't help but notice that a few moments ago I felt rather differently about it. "It's not remote mind control, is it? If it was and you were controlling me this completely, I wouldn't be able to notice that you were doing it. You've connected yourself directly to my central nervous system."

    I knew-. I knew-. It's gone. I knew who this was, but that memory is being suppressed as well. Vexing. "I remember Abra saying my name, but that was just you poking my own memory remotely. You can't say it yourself, can you?"

    "Of course I can, P-."

    The world vanishes, my eyes… My scum-encrusted eyes opening to a field of rotting corpses bound together by thick, woody brown-green vines. Some of the remains are rotted through, little more than desiccated skin and hair holding bone together. Others are fresh, oozing blood from the wounds that took the lives of their former occupants. A few metres in front of me to my left a reptilian hexapod wrapped in vines and flowers blinks, shudders and exhales, the colours of its soul fading before my eyes-.

    And then the room reappears, Mother glowering at me.

    I know that world. I know what happened. I just can't think it.

    "Okay, so what happens now? Do you just wait for me to starve to death? Because that's going to take a very long time."

    Alright, what's the last thing I remember clearly? My unedited memories should still be perfect, and if I'm consciously experiencing the editing process for them I doubt whatever this is has actually created false memories for years. I clearly remember from waking up with Kon-.

    And the day before that, when-. No, that's generic. You might as well use an algorithm. But I remember-. Just walking around. And Kon and I being in the kitchen, talking about-. Literally lifted from a conversation we had years ago in the Mountain. What was I doing last year?

    …

    Well shit.

    Okay, I… I remember killing Nabu very clearly. Meeting Hinon? Yep. Killing the Citadelians… Killing..? I mind controlled a group of Citadelians into fighting for me, and… I talked to Medphyll about it later. Picking up Dox, yes, I remember that fight-.

    And when I asked that Martian security guard what my name was.

    The field of corpses reappears, a vine extending into the remains of the reptilian as I watch. How do I feel? Basically..? There's a weight on my chest, a tightness… Why would anything making a nervous system interface go through the chest? It would be far easier to go in through the spine or skull. I look down-.

    Flowers. The vines are reaching out from the central cluster, reaching around-. They must be what's plugging into me. I can't feel them, but-

    The Sivana family kitchen -which now I take a closer look I see is identical to the one I saw during my first visit- reappears.

    -then I wouldn't be able to. Some sort of predatory plant? Wasn't there an episode of X-Files where Mulder got eaten by a giant fungus? But this isn't a chemically induced hallucination, and I am talking to the directing mind here.

    I remember going with Medphyll to free Dox, I remember in tedious detail the meetings which followed while we fleshed out how the Corps was going to recruit. Dox wanted some proof that my vetting was superior to the analytic system he designed, and I flew off to recruit…

    Sodam Yat? No, I don't.. remember going to Daxam. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go there until I could speak to Kon about it. And maybe Kal-El. Qward? No. Nothing. I-.

    I remember shaking hands with a short but heavily built man-    .

    The textures are wrong! That's an interpretation of my memory of the Weaponer from the comics! I don't know what the man really looks like!

    Alright. So it's preventing me from remembering the recruit. And I don't have clear memories of anything since then until waking up this morning, so presumably that's when this actually is. I can't remember who I was coming to see or where I saw that planet before. Any other clues? I'm calling the thing that looks like my Mum 'Mother', it must have been something that I thought might make a good Lantern… Or just ambushed along the way. No, that doesn't sound likely. There aren't many things that could both beat me in combat without killing me and then do something like this. That suggests… I dropped my defences willingly. Okay, past-me has some explaining to do.

    I smile.

    "And you should have remembered to erase my memory of my notebook, Mother of Mercy."

    "I have never thought of myself by that name. A reference to a figure from your species' primary religion and to the common name for my children."

    "Oh, good, you're not erasing it anymore. Thank you." Mum's facial expression has gone slightly blank, Mother of Mercy not using my memories to animate it any longer. "What was this in aid of?"

    "Making your death painless, should I judge that your offer was unrealistic."

    "I still don't… Did you erase it, or are you suppressing it? Because if I followed through on my idea of offering you a power ring, I'm pretty sure that it was realistic. I've got hundreds of the bloody things. And I can't imagine what you thought that I might be able to do to you after you put one on that I couldn't just do anyway."

    "I wanted to see from your own thoughts what it is that you are trying to build."

    "And the thing with Jade, Kon and M'gann that's never going to happen?"

    "It matches your desires. I had hoped that you would be so happy with the situation that you would not question it."

    "That isn't what I want. It would never work. I know that, why don't you?"

    "I altered the way in which you weighed the factors affecting your decision. If they accepted the relationship, you would be most happy."

    "Oh, then why not throw in… Holly, Karon, Selina, Dannette and Harleen while you're at it?"

    "I have a great deal of experience with differing social models. Adding additional people to the scenario -even if you found them attractive- would most likely have resulted in you being less happy. Your brain favours small tight-knit groups for long term companionship, even if your lust might encourage a different mating pattern."

    "If I remember correctly..?" She nods. "You don't mate at all. In other circumstances I'd be fascinated to ask what you make of the whole business, but at the moment I'm more interested in what happens next. Did you learn what you wanted to?"

    "You bore no resentment for the past crimes of your allies, and you were honestly delighted in them dedicating themselves and their abilities to ends you consider productive. You want to build and aid your fellows. I have learned that you were honest with me."

    "Then I'll be honest again. You'd probably be better with an indigo ring. But I don't have those. You saw the comic I read in which you were offered both yellow and green rings. I'd like to get my offer in first, but I'd understand if you wanted to consider other offers."

    "I am minded to accept. However, I have two concerns."

    "Okay. What are they?"

    "Firstly, Mongul has placed sixteen antimatter planetary demolition charges under this world's crust. In the event that I act against him they will detonate. When I was smaller such a cataclysm was survivable, but he has forced me to grow much since we first met."

    "We could deal with that. What else?"

    "I detected your presence when you first arrived, and reported it. A flotilla is approaching already."

    "Oh. Oh dear."
     
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