(AN: This is just a prologue, it also takes place after the movie when Manhatten 'vaporizes' Rorschach, not the comics. Enjoy!)
Summary: Unable to get himself to kill him, Doctor Manhattan kept Rorschach in a suspended state. A hundred years later, the good doctor revives him. What will the masked vigilante do?
Prologue: The Awakening
"DO IT!"
Darkness.
Searing headache explodes in my head. It stops, followed by pang of vertigo.
Am I dying?
Not sure.
Wooziness recedes, to be replaced by throbbing headache.
Open my eyes, not sure if I could, I've seen Manhattan's victims before, or their remains for that matter.
Red landscape stretches out into every direction I point my eyes at.
Am I dead?
Probably.
This wasn't Heaven. That I knew for certain.
"Hell?" I ask the red emptiness.
"Mars, actually," drawls a calm voice "you're on Mars, Rorschach"
Manhattan.
The blue being that was once a man stood behind me. Behind him, a large structure of some sort.
I look down. Small roach scuttles on my boot. Look around more. Find more signs of life. Small pack of flies, couple more bugs.
"Impossible! Lifeless planet!" At least that much I knew.
He continues staring at me with calm blue eyes, waiting for the penny to drop. It does.
"You can't keep playing god, Manhattan," I shout.
Could have sworn Manhattan made a slight shrug.
"Why am I not…?" I ask eventually.
"Dead?"
Don't reply.
"I…I could not…" said the doctor "I've taken the lives of many men. Put out the spark of many a life. But yours I was unable to extinguish"
"The great Jon Manhattan unable to put the outlaw, Rorschach, down for good?"I question cynically "losing your touch, doc?" Last word whispered with contempt.
"Nothing to do with lack of ability or power," replied Jon, calm as ever "rather with the fact that your intentions were noble. You wanted the public to stay out of the dark. For some reason or another, I can't kill you for that"
"Never compromise," I hiss "not even in the face of Armageddon! You'll not scare me into upholding Veidt's Utopia. Either I live to tell the tale, or I die. Now, since you're unable to do latter. Put me back on Earth!"
Deep blue eyes stare back at me impassively.
"I can't"
"Why?" I growl, stepping closer towards him.
"Because Earth is different, now," said the blue doctor "it has changed a lot"
"By Veidt's destruction!"
"No, Rorschach, it has been almost a hundred years since Adrian's plans were carried out"
His voice was calm and normal. Like he was telling me results of a football game.
"What?" I question, fully aware of Manhattan's powers "what did you do to me, Osterman?"
His face twitched as he heard his old name. His human name.
"I've placed your mind and body in a suspended state," explains Manhattan quietly. He might as well have been explaining one of his scientific theories "and transported you here. To your mind, it would appear that no time has passed. Your body is the same as it was that night in the Arctic"
An inferno of rage boils inside me. Hands lash out and tighten around Manhattan's neck.
Rueful smile decorates his passive features. In spite of knowing my efforts were having no effect, I tighten my hold on his neck.
"What gives you the right?" I shout at him "Might as well have killed me!"
No reply.
"Why now?!" I ask "Why not let me rot?"
I let go. I take off my face and look at it for long time.
"Still, take me back," I say, remembering the life I led "hundred years or not, human race doesn't change. Someone must upheld the justice many of them have neglected"
(AN: So, I hope you like this. Reviews would be appreciated. Till next time)