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

[Mr Zoat]

15th August
14:32 GMT

I stand well back from the edge of the balcony, construct cast pinning the parts of my right hand while a purple healing ray drone does its best to speed my recovery.

"You appear to be down a ring, Mister Grayven."

I look around as Hinon approaches. "Do you know anything about the repair of yellow power rings?"

"Certainly. But you would still be much better off taking it back to the original vendor. While I could certainly repair it there might be side effects as a result of me not knowing its original settings. It would be functional, but perhaps not quite in the way you have become accustomed to."

I nod. Though the basic functions would still be useful… I'm not prepared to dispense with Sinestro permanently just yet. "Alright. But Qward can wait."

She takes a few steps closer, craning her neck slightly to look out onto the plaza outside. A handful of Orange Lanterns floating in the area in front of the palace have attracted plenty of attention, but the real attraction won't be here for a minute or two. "A fairly good crowd. Is there a reason why you're not parading in triumph around the city? You did achieve your objective."

I raise my left hand slightly. "I also got myself rather badly injured. I think that I'll have an easier time going forward if Tamaranians generally see me as unbeatable."

She nods, her eyes passing over me briefly before returning to the crowd. "What did the Citadel have that could wound you so? An anti-capital ship weapon would have inflicted damage in a wider distribution."

"One man stealing the epic-strength telekinesis of another, and augmenting it with technology. That was not a fun fight."

She nods. "Dead?"

"Captured alive, his armour stripped-" Which is stored safely for later examination. "-and his power source sent to hospital." STAR Labs Metropolis actually, doctors specialising in telepathic Humans being nonexistent.

"Generous of you."

I hear the faintest hum in the air, and look up. A little speck… Yes, here they come. While we destroyed most of the Citadel's ships, I decided that taking the Emperor's personal landing craft from the drifting wreck of the Citadel's flagship was worthwhile. Nothing quite says 'we took what we wanted from a defeated foe' like acquiring the boss's ride.

"No. Not really."

The people on the plaza have spotted the dropship. I don't think that they recognise it for precisely what it is but in the recent past spacecraft coming towards Tamaran has meant a slave raid. A wave of unrest moves through the crowd, abated only slightly by the presence of my Lanterns. And that sort of thing is exactly what this is all about.

"A ship? How quaint. Did you want some memento of your conquest, or have you already started hoarding as your predecessor did?"

"Neither. This is about sending a message."

The dropship comes down next to the palace entrance, the crowd having been politely shepherded away from that area by the Lanterns. From this angle I can't see exactly what's happening, but I hear the noise of the dropship's main hatch opening.

And I see the battered form of the First as he flies from it and lands on the stone-covered ground face first.

"People of Tamaran! We are victorious!"

Komand'r makes a point of floating out after him, her ring in a pocket on her hip. And given what she's wearing there's precious little room for pockets. Combine her imperious attitude with the crackling plasma corona which surrounds her… I imagine she looks like the second coming of X'Hal. Which is rather the point.

Koriand'r comes out next as the First unsteadily tries to push himself up. Same idea; ring hidden and her Psion-given powers turned up all of the way. "What little is left of the Citadel Complex floats dead in space! Its fleets are utterly destroyed, never to threaten anyone ever again!"

"No!" The First manages to scrabble forwards a little way, before raising his head and spotting the mood of the crowd surrounding him. "No!"

Komand'r floats down and around, stopping just off the ground a little way in front of him. His battered body and burned and dirtied tunic provide an excellent contrast to her flawless figure. No, call it what it is: her divine figure.

Huh. Stage 3. Nice.

"This wretch is the First Citadelian. Son of X'Hal, Bane of Okaara and sire of all his accursed kind. Whenever the Citadel acted it was by his will. Blame for every act of cruelty and barbarity they have committed may rightfully be laid at his feet."

Koriand'r drifts forwards as well, Sword-.

"What is that sword?!"

"The Sword of the Fallen was created by a Demon with the remains of two immensely powerful Demons in order to strike down another immensely powerful demonic thingy called the First of the Fallen. It's my go-to weapon to use against entities who might prove immune to mundane attacks."

"Does it work?"

"So far it's been used to kill two Lords of Chaos, and since neither has returned to remonstrate with me I'd say yes."

"So, you gave the First a stay of execution rather than a reprieve?"

I smile. "We wanted Tamaran to see him die. On his knees. Weak."

"And helpless?"

"Best time for it." She raises her eyebrows. "If he'd surrendered then I'd have considered leaving him alive. But the societal benefits here are-"

There's a cheer from the crowd as Koriand'r slices through the First's neck and Komand'r holds his still-bleeding head aloft.

"-rather overwhelming."

"They get to see the most powerful being in the region killed by two of the potential heirs to their throne. Two heirs who pointedly aren't wearing their alien power rings and whose alien ally is keeping himself out of the picture. And who happen to be the spitting image of a local goddess."

"Just so."

She squints at me. "What is it that you're god of again?"

"Conquest." I shrug. "I could probably have strong armed my way into becoming ruler of Tamaran, but this way-."

"This way you get exactly what you want without seeming to force them into it. That's almost subtle."

And how often does a public decapitation get called that? "Their strength will be mine and mine, theirs. There's no need for conflict or ego clashes when we all want the same thing."

"Which is?"

"Firstly, safety. Secondly, to excel. To grow into the most perfect form of ourselves that we can. I see great potential here."

"And statuesque, naturist locals."

I raise my eyebrows. "I hadn't realised that Maltusians still had those sorts of drives. Though I suppose that the Zamarons demonstrated the possibility. And after three billion years-."

"It's not my drives I was worried about. The orange light can have some rather seriously adverse effects on its users. Still, you.. appear to have yourself under control. I think that I will be able to tolerate working with you." She makes a vague flicking gesture at me with her right hand.

Propriety unlocked.

My ring flickers for a moment, then stills.

"What.. was.. that..?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Respite

16th August
06:27 GMT

My eyelids open, pale blue filling my field of view. There's a heavy weight on my right side leaning against me and I think I've drooled slightly on the pillow. Where-? Ah, yes… Of course. I try moving my left arm around a bit, but it feels like Jade's already left. I'm a little surprised that I didn't wake up when she did. Waking up at six was something I've done for a while… Though I suppose that after enough time passes any habit can fall aside.

I reach up with my left arm, pulling the sheet and duvet away from my free side a little and gently trying to slide myself in that direction. My right arm is stuck under… I twist my head to the right in order to look at Kon's sleeping face. Alright, don't want to wake him up. He's had enough trouble adjusting to GMT without-.

"Uugh."

Mission failed. His left arm reflexively tightens around my right, pulling it to his chest as he half-consciously tries to squirm into a more comfortable position. His eyes half open… Quarter open really, a moment later.

"Kon, I'm going to need that arm back."

He's actually pulled it far enough under him that I can feel M'gann on the far side. Flipping biofeedback circadian rhythm controls. I try pulling again. If he doesn't let go I'm going to have to either wake him up fully or put a glowing orange zero friction coating over my arm, and I don't really want to do either.

"Kon, you've got my arm there."

"Ugh?" He blinks blearily at me. I may have a built-in full wakeup in the form of my ring-derived control of my physiology, but the rest of my family have to make do with more mundane processes. "Uh?" His eyes clear a little and his grip weakens. "Oh, yeah, sorry. What time is it?"

I pull my right arm out from underneath him, rolling slightly to face him as I do so. "Half six."

"Upf." He turns his head away to face his pillow. "You, ah… You need me for anything?"

"No, I'm-." Oh, he's probably still too tired to remember. "Mother's visiting today. You shouldn't-."

His eyes come fully open, his arms coming up to allow him to raise his torso from the bed. "You-" He glances at M'gann's sleeping form. "Sure you don't want one of us to come with you?"

I reach over to him and pat him on the back with my right hand, gently pushing him back down. "I think it will take her a while to adapt to how Earth Sixteen is. Probably best not to crowd her right at the start."

"Okay." His eyelids dip again, and I lean forwards and kiss him on the lips before pulling away completely and getting off the bed.

Mother's visit today is going to be… Interesting. I walk towards the bedroom entrance, passing through the privacy screen and into the hallway. Somewhat essential when the earliest riser in the house doesn't have augmented vision, the screen blocks both sound and light which is why I'm not surprised that synthetic sunlight is streaming through the hall skylight.

Ring, clothes.

Compliance.

A set of clothing that is half suit and half Star Trek civilian wear appears around me. I frown for a moment but… Yeah, I guess that's appropriate. I walk-. I pause after a step and pull at the material until it settles in a slightly more comfortable way. Maybe make it a little looser? Okay. I walk through the dining room and into the kitchen. Now, what do I-?

There's a note on the work surface, and I pick it up as I head towards the fridge. I flick it open as I reach for the fridge door handle.

'Back 0630. Jade. XXX. P.S. Coffee and eggs.'

Ah, not this morning. But coffee and eggs I can do. I pull the fridge door open and lift out the egg holder at the same time as using the ring to pick up the kettle and float it over to the left kitchen sink. While the ring flips the kettle lid open and turns the tap on I put the eggs down on the work surface and take the orange juice carton and butter out of the fridge before closing the door. Next, I open the cupboard and take out the cafetière and the jar of beans. I use my ring to turn off the tap and float the now adequately filled kettle back over to its base station and turn it on. Frying pan and Pyrex bowl are down here, and I add them to the growing pile of utensils.

Heh. Power rings never stop being awesome.

Power ring generated blades neatly slice open the shells of four eggs and I add them to the bowl. Another set cut an ounce of butter from the block and drop it into the frying pan, which I place on the hob manually before turning it on. Using the ring for everything would just take all of the fun out of it. I add a sprinkle of salt and a few grinder-rotations of black pepper to the bowl and then use a construct whisk to thoroughly blend it.

How much bread is there left? Ah, good. Jade generally prefers her scrambled eggs on their own but I prefer the difference in texture that comes from eating them with toast. I lift the lid off the bread bin and use the ring to cut two medium thickness slices from the loaf. I then float them over to the grill before putting the lid back down. The butter has melted, so I pour the whisked eggs into the frying pan and pull a wooden spoon out of a drawer to keep beating them. The kettle makes a quiet clicking noise as the water reaches boiling point and I use that as my cue to create a grinder construct and tip coffee beans into it. Blades whir and butter crackles as the smell of breakfast fills the kitchen.

I hear our house's front door open as the eggs start to solidify and I'm tipping ground beans into the cafetière as Jade walks in wearing her exercise clothing. Oh, I love seeing her abdominal muscles covered in sweat, her slightly laboured breathing causing them to tense and relax slightly.

"Is my coffee ready yet?"

"Do you want me to brew it properly, or do you want to drink it like a savage?"

She wipes her forehead with her towel as she walks across the kitchen. "Which one's quicker?"

"Savage it is."

I pour the just off-boil water into the cafetière and use a construct spoon to give it a stir. "I'd suggest giving it a-" She drapes her towel across the back of a kitchen chair and approaches me with a smile. I turn the half toasted bread and have the ring take control of the egg mixing, turning away just in time for Jade to reach me.

"How was your run?"

"Quiet. I think I'm the only early-riser on this whole space station."

"People like to keep their own time zones. I only mandated GMT for the clocks because that's the space standard."

"I'm not complaining." She approaches to within touching distance, studying my face. "Looking forward to seeing your Mother today?"

"Um. Yes… No, that sounds wrong." I use the ring to put the lid on the cafetière and take a mug off the rack for her. "It's just, it's been so many years that I'd adapted to the idea of never seeing my fam-. You know, my parents, again. So the fact that I'm going to today just feels slightly strange rather than being exciting."

Another filament slices another ounce of butter from the pat and deposits it in the Pyrex bowl while I reach behind me and turn off the hob.

"I suppose that makes sense." She looks around the cooking area. "Mm. Coffee and eggs. Where's the third thing?"

Hm.

I smile as I bend down, her arms going around the back of my neck as we press against each other.

Life is good.

16th August 2016
06:33 GMT

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
11:34 GMT -5

Doctor Williams shakes his head at me. "I'm sorry Mister Grayven, but there really isn't much we can do for him."

I nod sadly, noting the uncomfortable look he's giving my injuries. Back on Earth my mana siphon went back to working at full power and my skin is just about water tight again. I had the ring clean off most of the dried blood. I still look like shit, mind, I just won't have people reaching for the zombie-repellent any longer.

"How bad? I mean, is it just the telepathy or is there wider brain damage?"

Inside STAR Labs' Metropolis site's medical laboratory the leading physician nods, and the purple ray drone fires at Mister Blake's head again. Blake's implants were a similar technology to what the Psions used on the Tamaranian version of Multiple Man, but far cruder in application. Maybe because they didn't know as much about Human brains as they did about Tamaranian ones, maybe because the First just intended to use him as a power source for the telekinetic enhancement systems in his armour rather than as a soldier in his own right.

"I…" He glances back at the observation window before returning his attention to me. "Mister Blake left Earth in nineteen sixty seven. I studied his old medical records -those that survived- years ago, but they just don't have the information we need. Based on… Our initial MRI scans, he should retain some telekinetic ability. But the rest of the damage is great enough that I don't know if he'll even remember that he has telekinesis."

"What can I do to improve his chances?"

Doctor Williams shrugs. "I don't really think there's anything else you can do. There just isn't enough information on traumatic brain injuries in telepaths. Between your healing ray and STAR Labs… Unless you know some kind of mad scientist bioengineer-."

"Zhet sounds like my cue." Cranius -dressed as Professor Otto von Schadel- steps out of the hush tube and walks past us to stare through the observation window. "Heff you been able to contact his next of kin? Mine own work, it is generally best if I heff signed consent, you understand?"

"I.. don't believe that we've been introduced, Doctor..?"

Cranius -or rather Otto- turns around, a grin on his face that no mere baseline Human other than Mister Napier could come close to matching. "Yes, I em one of zhose! Mister Grayven has been most helpful to me in making contacts amongst my fellow medical professionals! And with the American military, which pleases Janus more zhan it pleases me, but it is still gratifying." Otto steps over to Doctor Williams, beaming all the while. Of course, he doesn't breathe through his mouth… "I am Doctor von Schadel."

"Do you have a great deal of experience in working with telepaths?"

"Young man, I am a telepath. I heff studied myself and my telepathic brezhren extensively, and my knowledge of exotic Human -and Humanish- physiology is unequalled!"

"Then I'm sure that Mister Blake would be glad to have you here, Doctor." Doctor Williams doesn't sound entirely certain, but he's prepared to give us the benefit of the doubt. "If you'll.. come this way, I'll introduce you to Doctor Fransson. She's leading the team…"

Cranius glances back at me once as Doctor Williams leads him into the preparation room. General Lane has expressed cautious interest in Uncorporation's latest product: the oolitic kidney. If the trials prove successful, Cranius gets his wider acceptance, Janus Senior gets a defence contract and the American Military never has to worry about Gulf War Syndrome or Kane Madness ever again. Heck, once the soldiers get Unmanned up they can even use Argonate with zero risk of hideous mutations.

Probably.

Alright, my work here is done. Mister Blake is getting the best care available. Time to get back. I raise my left hand -my right is in a medical gauntlet of Miss Shimmer's design- and look at the surviving power ring. I really didn't want to go to Qward just yet. But what else am I going to do? Where else am I going to get the same snide, needling observations about my failures that Sinestro gives me? Hunt down Sinestro 16? I don't think so.

Ring, hush tube to Emana.

By your command.

…

It's just not the same.

I rise lightly off the ground and float through the tube into near-Emana space, the universe around me glowing orange from the light cast by a hundred and seventy three Lanterns.

16th August
16:37 GMT

Twenty eight deaths in exchange for the death of every Citadelian the First sent against us and virtually their entire fleet. There are lightly defended outposts still to crush, but they can wait a day or two. A pretty good rate of exchange, really.

Koriand'r and Komand'r transition to my side a moment later, both looking at me expectantly. I make eye contact with each, then turn my attention to the planet below us. I raise my eyebrows. "They said anything?"

Komand'r's jaw tenses. "Nothing of consequence."

Emana is well defended as planets go, but ultimately it is an inhabited world and not a fortress space station. The Branx have fleets, but they're mostly owned by privateer guilds. They have weapon stations and anti-bombardment shield generators, enough that even the Citadel wouldn't have been too keen on picking a fight with them. But nothing that would stop Lanterns and nothing that would slow down Lanterns with hush tube access.

Of course, the other way they avoided a fight with the Citadel was by backing them, building their ships and equipment and trading with them. Which is rather why I'm here.

"Shipping activity?"

She looks around, generating targeting reticles all around us to mark their location. "They're avoiding us. I imagine that having an entire Lantern Corps appear in close proximity has encouraged them to be somewhat cautious."

"Think they know about the Citadel yet?"

"Oh yes. They've been talking about little else."

"How fares Adam Blake?"

I look at Koriand'r in concern as her environmental shield flickers out, but she doesn't seem troubled by her sudden vacuum exposure and it returns a moment later.

"He's alive, his brain isn't dead and he's being attended by the most skilled physicians I could find." She nods, apparently satisfied. "You can visit once he wakes up if you like. But for now…" I float past them and hold out my left hand. "Grayven of Apokolips to the government of Emana. I strongly advise answering promptly."

A moment or two passes, then a Branx face appears. I recognise the woman. I think her title is.. 'high coordinator' or something like that. She's more of a Speaker than a President, but their government is structured in such a way that there isn't really anyone above her. "Grayven. What do you want from us?"

"Oh, don't just jump right to the end like that. There needs to be build up!" I smile. "You know that we've destroyed the Citadel and killed the First, yes?"

"I did not know about the First, but yes. We know that the Citadel is gone."

"And you'll note.. that the people with me are exclusively Tamaranian. And don't have anything good to say about the Citadel's allies. We're heading to Karna next, then probably on to the Wombworld. But you made the Citadel's ships. Now, I don't blame you for siding with the strong to protect your own people. In your position I might well have done the same thing. But there's a new ascendant power in Vega and they don't like you very much."

"We are willing to negotiate compensation."

I shake my head. "No. No negotiating. You accept, or your species dies today. Am I clear?"

She considers, her eyes briefly moving to look at someone out of shot before returning to me. "You are clear."

"I negotiated them down to this. You may have peace, and security. If you accept our terms not a single Branx need die. And once you have paid there will be no further retribution of any kind. However, they are otherwise extremely harsh. Firstly, the Branx will undergo one hundred and seven years of planetary isolation. Your people will make best speed for Emana, land, and they will not leave until that span of time has elapsed. Secondly, every piece of orbital infrastructure, every ship and every off-world holding is hereby confiscated."

She shivers. "That will bring about economic ruination. Our government has no power to order such a thing."

"I don't see how that's my problem. If anyone resists, we'll kill them and take it by force. I find either possibility equally appealing. Now, I'm going to give you an hour. At the end of that period I better be seeing some practical action on your part. Grayven out."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
16:49 GMT

I smile politely as the door opens. "Regent Alonzo, a pleasure-."

The white haired and white skinned man in loose-fitting red clothing stares at me sitting in his office chair for about half a second. "Guaaaards!"

"There really isn't-."

He steps back into the hallway, allowing a squad of five royal guards to advance into the room, plasma guns at the ready. Four wear red armour with green knot-pattern decoration and the apparent squad leader wears dull pink with purple knot work. She remains standing in the centre while the other four spread out and crouch, weapons trained on me.

"Get out of the Regent's chair, kneel down and put your hands behind your head."

I make a shrugging gesture with both hands. "What's in it for me?"

"We don't shoot you quite as much."

"With those?" I roll my eyes, then attach filaments to each gun and drop them into subspace. "And I should point out-."

Each soldier stands, reaching for their belt and pulling out… Extendible staves. "Yes, because if I can do that to your guns then I can't possibly do the exact same thing to your sticks."

The leader crouches slightly. "Get the Regent to safety!"

"If I could get through Euphorix's energy shield, I can probably manage to walk to the end of the corridor. Or deposit a bomb here and leave without being detected." That seems to get through to the squad leader. At least a little. A well trained soldier isn't going to let a silly thing like good sense affect their response to a recognised crisis. "But fine." I laboriously rise to my feet, the tension the soldiers are feeling increasing as they get a look at my full size. "Let's get the Regent to safety." Hush tube, if you please.

By your command.

I step forward, appearing just in front of the two guards assigned to evacuate Regent Alonzo. The Regent's eyes widen in horror as he frantically arrests his forward movement while the guards bring up their guns.

"Regent Alonzo, do you have a-"

The guards open fire, moderately powerful plasma bolts being effortlessly absorbed by a combination of my armour and environmental shield.

"-moment to talk? I ask because-." The guard on the left gets the bright idea of shooting me in the face, the bolt burning a superficial streak across my left cheek. I dart forward and grip her gun's barrel with my right hand and crush it. "Could you not?"

The guard tugs at her gun, getting back the grip and hydrogen flask and not much else as the scrap remains in my fist. Hm, good safeties. In a lot of places a gun damaged like that would promptly leak or go critical. The Branx version does that, though it also hits quite a bit harder. Of course, the Euphorix version is a better size for Tamaranians…

Regent Alonzo glances back toward his office as the staff-carrying guards emerge, then looks at me and takes a guess on his chances of escaping. Concluding that it's a pointless endeavour, he pulls himself up. "What do you want?"

"I wish to hire about ten.. thousand technical specialists of various types, mostly working in starship construction and maintenance. Also, several hundred senior non-commissioned officers or whatever you call them for use in a training program, and a smaller number of officers for a similar purpose. Is that something you can organise?"

"W-? You.. broke into my office for something you could have organised through the defence ministry?"

"No, I did that because I wanted to demonstrate that your shield could be bypassed. Also-."

He frowns furiously. "How!?"

"Something, something, hyper-inflated gravitons, six dimensional space… Look, I just use the thing, alright?"

"And where did you get it? Are there.. more?"

"Lots more, but as long as you don't go out of your way to antagonise New Genesis or Apokolips I don't think that you have to worry about an invasion." I shrug my shoulders. "Of course, anything that can be discovered by one civilisation…"

He exhales with frustration as the rest of his detail approach at a jog. "Superordinate Skokiaan, this is a breach situation, highest security. Make sure your squad is aware, then erase all records from internal monitoring. I will be meeting with…" He glances at me and raises his left eyebrow.

"Grayven."

"With Mister Grayven in my office. Authorised list only."

"Yes, Regent." She turns to her squad- "Squad, with me." -and then marches away, her soldiers following behind her in good order.

"I'd appreciate if it you didn't go wandering about." Regent Alonzo leads the way back towards his office and I happily follow him. "Our people believe that the shield is a flawless defence. The knowledge that someone could casually walk in here…"

And since virtually all of your authority stems from the fact that you designed it, that would undermine you a little more than everyone else. Still, I see no benefit in mass panic. At the moment. "That shouldn't be a problem in the short term."

"Mm." He enters his office and walks around to the far side of his desk, looking at the seat I reformatted for my own posterior. After spending a moment weighing up how daft he'd look sitting in it he opts to remain standing. "I assume from your request that you're building an army."

"A stellar navy. I really think that for an advanced civilisation it makes most sense to have the fleet as the core component."

"And who is the lucky civilisation?"

"Tamaran."

He frowns, blinking at the thought. "Have you bought the place from the Gordanian clan that owned it?"

"More 'killed them all', really."

"And come to terms with the Citadel Empire?"

"No, killed them too."

He starts. "You what?"

"Killed them, defeated the First Citadelian in single combat, dropped the still-crewed ships onto a planet and blew up Citadel Complex." I shrug. "I'm building a Lantern Corps, but I think that having a conventional fleet as well would be sensible. And I believe that you cashiered yours."

"We didn't cashier them. There simply wasn't any way to support a fleet in space with the shield in full operation. Some of the personnel became part of our planet-based defence force and the rest were honourably discharged. Though… If you're planning offensive operations… I don't imagine that employing them -even in the numbers you want- will present much difficulty."

"Glad to hear it. Though… With the Citadel gone, most of the reason for maintaining the shield in full time operation has gone as well."

"And how would I explain how I discovered that the Citadel had been destroyed?"

"You could try honesty."

"Once the thousands of people you want to employ report back, I will. But I see absolutely no need to rush matters."

"And I'm sure that the fact that once the Queen returns you'll lose your office doesn't factor in to your considerations."

"Hah!" He smiles smugly. "No, not really. Queen Kalista has barely spent a moment on Euphorix since completing her primary education. She'd be completely dependent on me… If she bothers coming back at all. Now, why don't we talk about what you can offer us in exchange for our technical assistance..?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
06:50 GMT

While I technically have the day off, I think that I should probably at least do a basic check on the station's facilities. It's mildly gratifying to my ego that even after so much direct exposure I still draw a crowd when I go out in public, but it does get a bit distracting when I'm trying to work. Fortunately, with the hour still being early -at least for most of the residents- my only encounter as I walk through the gardens is a quick mutual wave with one of Jade's fellow joggers. The gardens are something I'm particularly pleased with; people don't function well in purely artificial environments and plants grow perfectly well on space stations. And heck, we wanted to build a synthetic arcane structure anyway, might as well make best use out of it.

As a result, rather than cabins coming off a corridor Star Trek style, everyone living here has a habitation unit in the middle of well-tended grasslands. Patches of succulents with purple flowers provide colour, though not in a direct line between places people are likely to want to walk. A small effort on Euanthe's part keeps the grass growing strong in those places, but I'd rather not trouble her…

I hesitate, crouching down in front of a flowerbed. Actually, I… I don't remember what these are called. The flowers come in clusters of six, the petals arranged in a five-layered spiral pattern with long purple stamens extending out from the centre. There's what I assume to be the seedpod just behind each flower, and each cluster then connects to a thick, fleshy vine. They're quite pretty, but I'm really not-.

No, no, they're just one of Abra's synthetic plants. Silly thing to worry about.

I stand and turn away, heading towards the nearest portal gateway. Magic-based teleportation is so much mechanically simpler than anything technological, particularly given that we already had full control of the station's arcane framework. The transportation effect can just piggyback on the existing connections, unlike the networks on Earth which still have to bind individual gates together.

"Root Bed."

Though I wasn't foolish enough to not include some security, the arcane networks of the station monitor… Well, not monitor-monitor, but they're in constant touch with the souls of all residents. Again, using that as the basis of the security system just seemed like an obvious and logical step. As such, despite this being the most important place on the station there isn't any sort of fortification at the far end. Just a platform around the edge of the room in which the Root of Yggdrasil grows. Part magic and part biotechnology, it binds our little space station to the magics of Earth and allows an isolated space station floating in the void to function as a proper living world rather than a lump of unliving metal. Well, technically, if this place was inhabited for few thousand generations we would get a similar effect but I've never been keen on waiting like that.

It also means that anyone who dies here gets to go to their preferred afterlife. The prospect of permanent purgatory had been making people more than a little uncomfortable about this.

The Root itself is a tall green tower spotted with purple blisters, and it sprouts from the soil below and spreads its vines out across the ceiling. Each vine plugs into a runic tile which serves as the physical aspect of the ongoing connection. I give the whole setup a quick scan, but there doesn't seem to have been any unintentional change-.

"Paul." Abra shimmers into visibility to my right, following my gaze as I consider the Root. "I thought you were taking today off?"

"Just wanted to give the place the once over before I left."

He smiles, patting me on the left shoulder with his right hand. "Paul, I designed this system. It's working fine. And the moment anything goes wrong about thirty people who could actually do something about it will charge through the portals. If you're so eager to put off seeing your Mother, why don't you go and look over Ted's shoulder instead?"

I… Suppose that he's right. I nod, bowing my head slightly afterwards. "That was my next stop. I'll… Leave you to it." I frown. "Wait, how did you know I was here?"

His face freezes for a fraction of a second, then he smiles the relaxed smile I've become familiar with. "Only one man on this station doesn't trigger arrival wards when he uses the gates. I think all the department heads have a spell set to alert them when you appear."

"'Look busy, the boss is coming?'"

"I wouldn't put it quite like that. We've all got as much invested in this place as you have. But you brought us all together, and none of us want to disappoint you." He glances away for a moment and clears his throat. "Or send you on a cross-galaxy rampage, assimilating everything in your path."

"That would never happen, Abra."

"Excuse me if I choose not to take any risks. But! Since you're so concerned…" He walks towards the edge of the platform, glances back to make sure that I'm watching, then draws his wand from thin air. He holds it out like the baton of an orchestra conductor, then with a sweeping motion conjures up an illusion of the station's arcane networks. "The sun still shines, the plants still grow, the links between every part of the station and their anchor points in the Earth-sphere remain strong." The arcane energy flows related to each shimmer as he announces them. "Spare energy bleed through is well under maximum tolerances and network stability is… On track."

"On track?"

"I had hoped that it would go a little faster, but it seems that Sephtian was right. It scales in a linear fashion and not quadratically. At least we are not behind."

"No reported problems?"

"Euanthe tells me that it still doesn't feel quite right…" He shrugs. "Part of the Green's nature is the habit of unrestrained growth. At this point we need to keep it too controlled for it to feel natural to her. The sooner that wildlife areas can be completed the happier it will make her."

I nod. "I'll mention it to Ted. You need anything else yourself?"

"An oracle, if you can find one willing to work here. I'd like to update my arcane analytics programs before the next stage, and someone with an ability for parsing the future from ambiguous inputs would be an interesting case study."

"I'll ask, but I can't promise anything. You know how most Amazons feel about space."

"At least they're prepared to leave their island now."

I smile as I walk back towards the portal. "Yes, we are. Fabrication."

I step out of the portal on the far side and look out across the workshop floor. My ring keeps the noise down, but unlike the Root Bed the Fabrication section keeps going twenty four hours a day. At the moment we're using every bit of orichalcum we produce here ourselves, but once the station is complete we'll be in a perfect position to export it or use it for ship building. A lot of the machinery here was blessed by Hephaestus when it was first assembled, but sadly I wasn't able to persuade him to move here full time. His followers on Earth and his duties to them simply take up too much time for it to be practical for him.

"…through here is where daddy works." I look around as Ted follows me through the portal in his dressing gown, young Damon held firmly in both arms. "And where daddy's going to be late this morning because daddy needs some sleep if he's going to get any work done."

"Morning Ted."

"Hey Paul." He walks past me and tilts his son so that the boy can look out across the foundry. "See all the fancy machines? I always find them all working like that kinda hypnotic and I'm kinda hoping you do too because your mother isn't letting me back in the house until you're asleep."

Damon extends a small hand in the direction of a machine extruding an orichalcum girder. "Gah?"

"Is everyone having an early morning today?"

Ted sighs, then turns towards me. "I wasn't planning to, but Damon had other ideas."

"Lose the coin flip with Io?"

"Not after she caught me using a weighted coin that one time. I get mornings, she gets evenings."

I give Damon a smile. He responds by hugging his father closer and putting his right hand in his mouth. "They're supposed to settle down after a couple of months."

"Looking forward to it. Ever think about having one yourself?"

"Given my personal circumstances-"

He nods. "Right."

"-it could be a bit complicated."

Ted looks around the room and then back to me. "You wouldn't be putting off-?"

"No, clearly that's not an option." I turn away from the workshop and head back towards the portal. "See you tomorrow."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
01:14 GMT -6

I step out of the portal and into the Sivanas' Venusian facility. Even after all of the good work they did during the Sheeda Invasion I haven't been able to get the 'bad' Sivanas a pardon. I have, however, managed to negotiate a truce. One which now I think about it puts me in mind of Doctor McNinja's 'if he calls safe then he gets a pardon' arrangement. As long as they don't interact with any officialdom and don't take the piss on their periodic visits to Earth they don't get bothered.

And with all of the Sheeda technology they've got to reverse engineer I doubt they find it unduly restrictive.

"Hey Orange."

Thaddeus Junior doesn't bother looking up from his work station. He also doesn't bother waving, both his hands deep in one of the Sheeda's undead cyborg horses. Instead, one of the robots behind him starts displaying a picture of his face on its view screen and waves on his behalf. The horse-thing turns its head towards me and whinnies in a pitiful electronic voice, then there's a snap from where Thaddeus is working and its vocal system ceases functioning.

"That's better. I wanted to work on the eye blasters, but the stupid thing just wouldn't shut up."

"You all ready to go?"

"Since you're a superhero I decided to make the portal as simple as possible." The robot turns aside and points to an exit. "There's two buttons. The first one's labelled 'on', and that turns it on. The second one's labelled 'off'. See if you can work out what that one's for by yourself."

"Irene Quimby still not called you back?"

"Don't even start with me, Orange."

"As.. someone who's been reasonably successful in my romantic relationships-."

"If the next part isn't 'I'll let you create a virtual copy of my brain to use as a social interactions app', don't bother."

"I think Georgia studied social science-?"

"Soft. Subject." The horse makes a pawing motion, then its right fore hoof falls off. "I have my pride."

"Have you considered-?"

"I can just turn the portal off permanently, you know? And I'm pretty sure I can make Earth Prime even harder to get to than it already is."

"Okay, okay. Is Georgia about?"

"Still on Colu and Dad's with the portal. Go on, get going. I don't want to have to spend all day on this horse because you distracted me."

"Alright. Oh, ah, Thaddeus?"

He actually looks up, clearly frustrated. "What?"

"Thank you for doing this. I don't think that anyone else could have done this, and if someone could then they clearly weren't bothering. I wasn't expecting anything like this and I'm really happy that you did it."

"Oh. Ah." He ducks back into his horse carcass. "No problem. I guess."

I nod to his back, then walk out of the room. Assuming that he hasn't moved it or something-.

"You're not my type!" I blink. W-? "Not that there's anything wrong with that! Just being clear!"

"Okay! Didn't think I was!"

"Okay then!"

I hear a damp thud, the ring showing me Thaddeus bang his forehead against his pickled horse flesh-covered work bench. I briefly consider making a comment about straight guys not being worth more points, but he has done me a massive favour and I don't think he'd appreciate the humour. Maybe I should.. try talking to Irene? Thaddeus Junior doesn't have a lot of friends… And I know her already through the mad scientist sponsorship program, so it wouldn't be coming completely out of nowhere.

I walk out of the room and turn left, heading towards heavy machine workshop four. Though the Sivana work areas in their Venus habitat can be reconfigured to however they want it, their patriarch doesn't hold with reordering the whole building without good reason. Large projects requiring large amounts of heavy equipment and huge power supplies go in rooms specifically designed for providing those things. And for containing the results if things don't go according to plan.

I walk up to the heavily fortified door and wave at the sensor. "Orange Lantern here. Any chance I could come in?"

A small television screen unfolds itself on an armature, Thaddeus Senior's face appearing a moment later. He does me the courtesy of actually appearing to look at me. "You finally got here. Come on in, we'll get the portal fired up."

Pistons and bolts which I'm almost certain are there purely for theatrical purposes hiss and turn, though I note a couple of force fields disengaging as well. "I'm glad that you think Mother is worth so much effort to protect."

"I've stopped taking things like this for granted where you are concerned."

The four-part door clanks back into its housing, allowing me entry to the heavy machine workshop. Most of the heavier machinery was cleared out once work on the portal was mostly completed, though there's still more than enough to perform maintenance or make emergency corrections. The portal generator itself looks like a stargate designed by Nikola Tesla, glowing rods and whirring thingummies humming with a purpose. Getting access to Earth Prime is so hard that Hinon only managed it by accident, so I'm not surprised that doing it intentionally took Sivana A-game. Creating a physical portal turned out to be even harder, but… Here we are.

And yes, there's the two-button control with both buttons labelled.

Thaddeus Senior looks up from a computer console bank to my left. "Well? Turn it on, then."

"Do those buttons actually do anything?"

"Certainly." He notices what I'm looking at. "Oh, this? This is just so that I can monitor the process."

"And fix it if anything goes wrong."

"Oh, there's no chance at that. If anything goes wrong it will happen far too quickly for anyone to intervene. But, any information I can gather before the horrendous reality-breaking overload will allow the next portal to be far more reliable."

"Um. That wouldn't destroy-?"

"Oh no, Earth Prime wouldn't be affected at all." He frowns. "Probably. Part of the reason why this is so hard is its unusual characteristics, and assuming that our model for this is correct, the blowback will be almost entirely here rather than there."

"Ah…"

"We're prepared for it. Sivana family honor is at stake."

"Alright then. Thank you for filling me with such confidence in your son's work."

"You're welcome."

The sad thing is that they really are the best at this. I stride forwards and press the 'on' button.

And the portal fizzes into life.

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
01:19 GMT -6

Mother steps through the portal. And I don't move, I don't… Say anything. I'm just-

"Hm." Thaddeus nods happily to himself. "That worked well."

-stunned, really. Mother looks… More or less as I remember her. My most intense memories were formed when I was younger than I was when I left so when I've thought about her during my time here that's the face I imagined. In reality she's in her sixties and it's a testament to favourable genetics that there's still more black hair on her head than white. She also has it cut shorter than she did when I was smaller. She also looks.. smaller..? Could be age, or it could be the fact that I've put on a lot of muscle during my time here.

She's staring at me, her mouth slightly open in surprise. We sent pictures through before, but I suppose that seeing me in the flesh has rather more impact.

Thaddeus frowns. "I'm not an expert on interpersonal relations, but shouldn't one of you be doing something?"

I rise off the ground to float up to her, an action which gets a surprised blink. Oh… Right, comic book universe technology versus early twenty first century Earth Prime technology. "Yeah, I can… Fly."

"Yes. I know you can."

I hover myself over to her and just stare at her for a moment. It's.. so strange, two parts of my world I'd assumed would never come together doing so. Then I land and hug her, mindful that I'm quite a bit stronger than I was last time I did this. I crouch slightly, lay my chin on her right shoulder as she wraps her arms around me in return. For a fraction of a second my happiness is disrupted by a worry about what happens when someone with no soul gets exposed to an orange power ring… But that's just understandable paranoia. That problem got fixed years ago.

Of course it did.

I pull away slightly, turning aside so that Mother can see Thaddeus. "Mother, this is Doctor Thaddeus Sivana. He was running the portal."

"I'm still running the portal. At least a part of the connection to Earth Prime was brute-forced. I'm not going to shut this down while you're still here, ma'am."

"There's also a good chance that he's an undiagnosed asperger, so please excuse any difficulty he has in his interpersonal skills."

"Is he… Ah..."

"He's a Captain Marvel villain, though he's found more productive avenues for his genius since then."

"You know I don't remember those things like you do."

"I don't think either he or Captain Marvel would have been in anything you would have seen. Unless you saw one of the older animations when you were younger."

Thaddeus frowns. "Now, just a moment. How old do you think I am?"

"Fawcett Comics started publishing Captain Marvel in… Some time in the forties? And you looked more or less as you do now, comic book exaggeration notwithstanding."

"And they named themselves after the city they were writing about? Strange choice."

"So… What have you been up to?"

I lead the way down the steps from the portal generator. "Lots of things, really. Ah, I met a lot of superheroes."

"Have you met Spiderman?"

I can't help but smile. "No, Mother, he's a Marvel character. Like Iron Man and Thor?" She nods in an uncertain manner, probably vaguely remembering me making similar comments before but not fully remembering their contents. "DC's the one who publish Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman."

She nods again. "Do you.. know Superman?"

"We're not.. super-close, but yes, I know him." After he actually admitted he was wrong about how he'd been handling Nabu, I decided to let the whole thing go. Since then, I've had plenty of time to build a better relationship with the man. "I'm quite a lot closer to Superboy-"

"So to speak."

"-than I am to him."

"Do you think I'd recognise any of them?"

…

Yes, what comic characters might my sixty year old Mother recognise.

Um…

"Richard Grayson?"

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You know Robin?"

"He hasn't been Robin since he started going to college two years ago. Unlike in the comics, people actually get older here."

"Right." She looks around the room. "Where are we?"

Thaddeus walks out from behind his computer array. And I've just noticed the force field projector build into the ground surrounding it. "My home, laboratory and workshop. Your son helped build it, actually."

"Rebuild it. The original version got destroyed during the Sheeda invasion, and I.. rather felt that I owed him."

"Where in the world is it?"

"Venus." / "Venus."

"And who are the Sheeda?"

Thaddeus grins, and ignores my subtle head shake. "You mean, 'who were the Sheeda'."

"That's the other thing about a real comic book universe. Details that get.. skipped over. All the background characters who get killed but whom we don't really care about because they haven't had any screen time? They're actual people." She nods. "I know you said that you'd disown me if I ever joined the army-."

"I also told you that I don't remember saying that."

"At the higher end of the scale, being a superhero isn't just about knocking out lunatics in silly costumes and foiling their robbery attempts. I've killed… People. Vile criminals, aliens who weren't doing anything wrong according to their own morals, some people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and got mind controlled…"

"How?"

I hold out my left hand. "This is called a power ring. It can.. do a lot of things. Make.. just about anything. I'm not just a.. superhero, I'm a… Top tier one. I could beat Superman in a fight. Not that we've ever actually fought.. seriously."

Mother nods. "I see. I'm.. sure you did your best…"

"I'd.. like to show you around a bit."

"And I want you to tell me what you've been doing for the last six years."

"That's going to take a while. Um, Doctor, would you mind if I used your kitchen?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
17:51 GMT

I float out of the hush tube into near-Emana space, the outline agreement on a datapad under my arm. Regent Alonzo isn't exactly an autocrat, and he needed time to find out precisely what -or rather who- he could offer me. Similarly, since I'm not planning on kicking King Myand'r out of office I'm technically only negotiating on his behalf and unless I want to give the impression that I'm planning to kick him out I will need him to okay this. Regent Alonzo was mostly interested in technical data and intelligence, but the fact that he asked me to include something about expanding our alliance later suggests to me that he at least understands that their shield will be going down in the not too distant future.

There's a flash of orange as Koriand'r transitions into close proximity. Since I didn't want my Lanterns spending the hour losing their focus, I ordered them to monitor specific areas of Emana to see what they were doing, with the sisters monitoring the capital city. I nod as she approaches. "What news?"

"They started to abandon their orbital shipyards a few minutes ago. Ships have been despatched to their mining colonies in this system to bring their citizens back to the planet. It appears that they will comply." I nod. "Would you actually have done it?"

"What, exterminated them?" She nods, clearly uncomfortable. "No. I would have carried out a limited strike against various facilities on their planet, inviting them to reconsider after each attack. And I would have taken as much of the orbital infrastructure by storm as possible, killing whatever workers were present. But I would have stopped well short of wiping the species out." She nods again, somewhat mollified. "Princess, I appreciate that the Branx were less directly involved in what happened to Tamaran than the Citadelians and the Gordanians and less involved in what happened to you than the Psions, but they are a part of the same alliance. The ships that destroyed the Tamaranian navy were designed and built here. A substantial chunk of the naval force that has maintained Citadel control-."

Her face hardens. "You do not need to remind me of those facts."

I nod sombrely. "I apologise. Perhaps if you told me precisely what your concerns were?"

"Citadel Complex was a military installation. All of the people there were warriors." Ignoring the allied tradespeople who ran most of the businesses in the entertainment district, certainly. "I would not hesitate to kill Branx warriors and I would certainly kill adults working in military industries, but I would not agree to simply bombard a planet until it was utterly destroyed."

I nod again. "Did I tell you that I had access to a Psion crèche when I was on the Wombworld?"

She shakes her head, her hair floating gloriously in the vacuum. "You mentioned that you were studying their civilisation, but you did not mention exactly where you went."

"There are peaceful Branx traders, just as there are peaceful Gordanian clans. The Citadelians are… Were, universally brutes, intentionally created as such. I wasn't sure about the Psions. I was on the verge of deciding that it didn't matter, but Mother Box-." She frowns slightly. "My AI. She pointed out that I could be killing good people, or at least people who were no worse than average. So I set out to check."

"What did you discover?"

"It might be possible to rehabilitate them. Maybe. But we can certainly kill all of the adults without being morally troubled by it; their educational indoctrination is very good." I sigh. "But they have children who can probably be taught to not be evil. And I'm… Going to make an attempt, if doing so is reasonably practical."

Koriand'r smiles at me. It's faint and I get the impression that she's somewhat surprised to be directing it at me, but it's there. And I… I feel a little… Good, to be receiving it. Heh. What a remarkable woman: to still feel sympathy for such a people after what she went through.

Attention: message incoming from planetary government.

"Excuse me." I raise my right hand. "Answer."

The same woman's face appears. "Grayven. We are preparing to acquiesce to the majority of your demands."

I nod. "And that's nearly good enough."

"We would like permission to keep the core of our satellite communications network-."

"I'm sure you would. No. You can use ground-based relays of some kind or high altitude in-atmosphere platform."

"I-." She appears to chew the cud for a moment, a gesture the ring helpfully tells me means that she's struggling to find the words with which to express herself. "What.. about.. defence? If we are limited to ground-based assets we will be extremely vulnerable."

That's.. a reasonable point. I want people to know that when I say 'surrender to my terms and there will be no further punishment' that that is what will happen. If a group of marauders fly through here in a few weeks time… "Very well. I will give you the designs for Euphorix's planetary shield, and guarantee your defence in the period it takes you to construct it."

"You do not have a fleet either. That is the reason why you are steal-. Confiscating our property."

"True, but I have a Lantern Corps. The people who make it up don't like you very much but they hate pirates and raiders even more."

"We also.. need to negotiate time. Some of our guilds are.. somewhat reluctant to-."

"Point us at the most reluctant ones. We'll soon get them moving." I glance at Koriand'r. "I'll give your people one year before we kill in response to a breach of your isolation in order for you to persuade people who haven't returned yet. However, deliberate dawdling may result in impoliteness."

"Then, on behalf of Emana, I.. acquiesce to your demands."

"Glad to hear it. Now get back to work." I dismiss the image then call Komand'r, her face appearing over the ring a moment later. "You hear that?"

"Yes. It was delicious to hear her so humbled."

"Take thirty Lanterns and start moving evacuated orbital structures to Tamaran." Hang on, they've only been using rings for a few days. "Probably best if you use boom tubes to get it to Tamaran and use rings for manoeuvring only. And make sure that there is a constant guard: the planet is our prisoner so it falls to us to look after it. And that goes for our people too. I don't want any of ours taking a sneaky shot once my back is turned."

She shrugs. "As you wish."

One hundred and forty two remaining. Give Komand'r a minute to make her picks…

"How is Ph'yzzon faring?"

Ah yes, the Psions tried to get creative with that one. "It turns out that the Psions didn't rediscover how their forebears created X'Hal. But they were trying to. With you and your sister they were simply trying to copy her more obvious abilities. With him they were trying to copy her higher order abilities instead."

"Were they successful?"

"They managed to do something, but… No, it appears not. If they'd kept trying… Perhaps, eventually." And I doubt that Mother Box will be anything like as enthusiastic about the idea of looking into it as Father Box would have been. "Sphere believes that he'll recover his senses eventually, but at the moment we're keeping him unconscious. Until we're sure that he's coherent." She nods, and I raise the ring again. "Grayven to everyone Komand'r hasn't given alternate orders to. We're heading to Rashashoon to rendezvous with the Karnan/Crown Imperium fleet, then we'll be pressing on to Karna to destroy the Gordanian war fleet. Once that is achieved, we will assist ground operations as requested."

I was surprised to learn that the Karnans had ships, but it turns out that a few were ordered to run when the Gordanian putsch happened and the Crown Imperium has been playing host to them since. Virtually all of the surviving vessels will be joining us, and the Crown Fleet were happy to join in if they got to see the largest source of pirates in the region finally cleaned out.

"Plot courses and warp on three."

 

[Mr Zoat]

16th August
01:47 GMT -6

"How are..?" I sigh. "I suppose that Bubbles and Magic are dead."

Mother puts down her coffee mug. "They were quite elderly Cats."

I nod sadly. It doesn't surprise me, but given how long we'd had them… Since.. Teekl I haven't even thought about getting a pet. And Wolf-.

What was I..?

"So, do you feel up to looking around? I-. Do you remember that I had a comic called Transmetropolitan? I don't remember if I ever showed it to you."

Mother shakes her head. "What was it about?"

"It was set in an American megalopolis, and it was about government corruption and people's responses to it. Technology changes but people stay the same." I shake my head. "The reason I mention it is that one of the things they did is, take people who'd been cryogenically preserved, reanimate them and then send them out into the world. And.. most of them, when they saw how weird it was, sort of… Couldn't cope and went into a mild fugue. Permanently, in most cases."

"What's it like, then?"

"Most places still aren't that different. Maybe what Earth Prime will be like in thirty to forty years. And then there are things that are totally out there. Most big cities have portals-. Remember Stargate?" Mother nods. "Not exactly like that, but if you step through one you turn up at another. I've basically killed off long haul air travel, global warming is a memory-."

"That's amazing!"

I shrug. "With the technology here, it's more amazing that no one did it before me. At the moment I'm focusing on restarting Human space travel, which… For some reason was still using rockets like NASA Prime."

Mother looks thoughtful for a moment. "Thaddeus called our Earth Earth Prime. What does that mean?"

"For the sake of convenience, different parallel universes get assigned labels so that we know what we're talking about. Ours is Prime, this is Sixteen, and… I've encountered one or two others."

I don't know if telling Mother about the other versions of me is a good idea. Clearly none of them have made contact with Mother yet. I've wondered, sometimes, if whatever it was that dragged us from Earth Prime copied us and sent us everywhere, so we're not just different versions of the same person but different people who used to be the same person. Earth Prime is unique in its characteristics, Blue-me's Bleed portal had the exact same characteristics as mine… It makes sense…

"Was there anything visible when I left? Like, a.. weird glowing hole in space or something?"

Mother shakes her head. "I don't know. By the time Cells4Life phoned me it'd been a couple of days. When I went to your house it didn't look like anything was out of order, and the police didn't find anything."

"It probably wouldn't have been possible to detect anything with Earth Prime technology." Though they must be going… Crazy… Now…

Um.

Um? What was I..?

Ah.

"So how's everyone in..? Um, on.. Earth Prime?"

"Fine. Peter and Karen's cottage is mostly finished now-."

"Have they sorted out the drive yet?"

"No, it's still brick and mud. But the… You know the room where we put our coats?" I nod. "That's got a settee and a fireplace now. Your Dad's still swimming regularly."

"Anything radically new?"

"None of the rest of us have been pulled into a parallel universe and become superheroes, no."

"And how's everyone taking the news?"

"Shocked. When the radio first started playing messages I thought it was.. some sort of… A trick. There wasn't any sign you'd actually died, you hadn't left any sort of note or done anything…"

"Anything that suggested that I was planning to go off somewhere and kill myself." I shrug. "Good news: I didn't." I frown. "So… No one apart from you and Dad know?"

"What were we supposed to tell them? Now there's an actual thing there to point to we can.. tell people. We should probably let the police know first." Mother… Mother? Mother exhales, her hands playing with her mug. "You've probably got more experience with that sort of thing that I have. What do you think we should do about it?"

I huff. "No idea. Technically, it would be the job of the Foreign Office to establish relations… If they wanted to. But we can't make the portal bigger than it is now. Trade's pretty much impossible, as most of the really useful technology we've got wouldn't work on Earth Prime. And we'd probably get sued by DC."

"I don't think it works like that."

"Probably not."

Mother finishes off the last of her coffee as I think about how I want to do this. No, let's see what she wants to ask.

"So… Are you the only Orange Lantern?"

Ah. "The only one on Earth, yes." Am I? Yes, of course I am. But why? There's no logical reason for me not to have recruited additional local help. We're not short of avaricious Humans, I'd be around-. Oh! No, of course! How could I forget Lex taking a ring from me? "No, sorry, I-."

How could I forget Lex taking a ring from me?

Damn, that's… That's not even subtle. But what else..?

I look Mother in the eyes. Heh. Once you know to look…

"I'm sorry, I didn't mention it before. But you're looking very well, Mother."

"Thank you?"

"I'd say that you haven't aged since I last saw you. At all. And I've never referred to you as Mother before today, except sarcastically. A dozen times in this conversation alone I've experienced moments of confusion resulting from what felt a lot like telepathically induced doublethink, because they trained us to spot that as well. And I'm sure there are things I'm missing, or was made to forget or not notice."

"Who are you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

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."