Warrior of Two Fates: First Edge

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Disclaimer:

X-Men: Evolution, the Avengers, and all Marvel characters are property of Marvel Comics.

Superman, the Justice League, and all DC characters (now including all the races, characters, and technology of Image/Wildstorm Comics) are the property of DC Comics.

My latest batch of fics, kiddies; hope you all like them.

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I had originally planned to write the beginning of this in a similar fashion that Writer with No Name had, but then I remembered that I'm writing this to join HIS dual uni, and he's already done an awesome set-up job in that respect. So, a few nips and tucks here, and I hope it reads better now. Later!

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Chapter One: Remembering the Past...

Earth Date: September 20, 2009, just beyond the orbit of Saturn, in the Sol System...

To any other being, he was invisible. But, to those ancient and unseen beings of the cosmos, who oversaw and kept a close eye on how the universe and its entirety existed, he was clear as day: a single, sixty foot tall humanoid being, bald, with clear white eyes, and clad in a white toga tunic. Golden gloves covered his hands, with golden boots on his feet, a golden belt at his waist, and most amazing of all, he was simply hovering there in space, just beyond the multiple rings of the sixth planet of the young solar system.

He did not move at all, even as the solar winds whipped by him, and small, stray pockets of pulverized space debris passed him by. Then, as if a certain time had been reached, he spoke, unhindered by the vacuüm around him, nor the lack of air to conduct sound.

"Hear me, children of the universe, and those who dwell upon the blue-green world of this star system." The emotionless being spoke in a powerful, booming voice that seemed to exude both strength and calmness in the same strain. "I am Uatu the Watcher, he who has sworn an ancient oath with my brethren to only observe and record what transpires across the universe. I come before you to illustrate the tale of one of your fellows, he who now dwells upon your home world, but whom is descended from TWO races from beyond the stars."

The solemn being turned his vision toward the outer rings of the solar system, before continuing his oration to the vacuüm. "One of these races counts themselves among the elder predecessors of the cosmos, and the other continues to grow strong to this day. This person I speak of, who comes and stands with you all, fighting for freedom for all the sentients who wish it, carries the legacy of those two proud races as their rightful inheritor, to forever remember them, and to follow in their noble example."

Sweeping his arm out, a veritable montage of events began to play out in a strange holographic vision, even as he continued to speak to the silent regions of space around him.

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The universe... the beginning of creation...

The evolution of life brought about by the after-effects of the legendary Big Bang...

This titanic event was how it all began anew in existence: the far-reaching pockets of gases that quickly became life-sustaining stars, the emergence of immeasurable planets capable of sustaining life, and the rise of trillions, upon trillions, upon TRILLIONS of unique and amazing races across the expanse of the cosmos. Prominent among these races, who came to be called the 'First Ones,' were the benevolent, wise, and immortal Guardians of the ancient planet Oa.

Solemn beings of knowledge and order who sought neither conquest nor subjugation of others, the Guardians of Oa stepped forth into the universe and created the noble Green Lantern Corps to stand fast and safeguard peace in the cosmos. The Corps quickly got down to business, ensuring the stability of the universe by bestowing the myriad Corpsmen that they quickly 'drafted' into their ranks with the willpower-fueled green power rings that came to symbolize their devotion to the cause of peace and order.

By dividing the known regions of the universe into 'Sectors' that could be patrolled by their Corpsmen, the Guardians made sure to keep a sharp eye on the known races who would seek to enslave others, while coordinating all their efforts with the other peaceful races who shared their beliefs in freedom and peace, such as Kymellia, Thanagar, and Azerath. These efforts became more profound and necessary when the noble Kryptonian race, and their home world of Krypton, suddenly blew up, depriving the Guardians of one of their most trusted allies, and likely the most technologically advanced society that shared their beliefs in peaceful co-existence.

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Long before Krypton's death, though, other notable races of the cosmos - descended from its first entities and who later evolved into the Skrull, the Kree, the Chitauri, and the Shi'ar, - went down another historical path in the universe. They sought to solidify their claims upon all their portions of the universe, and many others, by boldly conquering world after world and many of the races younger than them, and using their enslaved backs to raise themselves up, reaping the benefits from the blood, sweat, and tears of their servants. Thankfully, with the aid of the Corps backing up the growing Galactic Confederacy, the free races and the Guardians kept those four warmongers at bay.

Some time after this, the Guardians and the Corps became aware of strange dimensional anomalies and spatial fluctuations in a galaxy at a fair distance from the rim of the known universe. Upon investigation by the Lanterns, though, an ancient and vast dimensional barrier was found there that actually led back to a part of the universe not far from the epicenter of the Big Bang. The Guardians concluded that only the massive, ancient beings known as the Celestials could have constructed the barrier, probably to keep something of great value to them safe from those unworthy or unable to protect it. Obviously closed off for millenia, but now open once more through unknown means, cloaked probes were sent by the Lantern Corps to survey the barrier, and to see what lay beyond its edge.

They were not disappointed. The data the probes revealed some time later to the Guardians was amazing to behold: the immense barrier had kept hidden a sizable ancient galaxy from prying eyes, crowned by a highly advanced planet called Khera, and inhabited by the long-lived Kherubim. Also known as Kherans, these powerful humanoids were varied in their near-immortal existence, with at least two or three separate genetic classes of beings with unique abilities and teachings sharing the world they lived on. Still, they all were very strong, staunch warriors who sought long-lasting peace and stability in their region of the cosmos, even as they carefully sought out uninhabited worlds to peacefully inhabit and spread their race across.

One of the most prominent genetic castes on Khera, the Kherubim High Lords of the Pantheon, governed their kind with nobility and a firm grasp of peace-keeping on their world, sharing their many duties with the combat-orientated Coda Sisterhood, an all-female sect of deadly warriors without peer. Even so, even their well-established world came into contact, and did battle with, another alien race from yet another world in their galaxy for several long centuries. This vicious race sought galactic domination over all others before them; they were soon known to the Kherans as the Daemonites.

The actions of the Daemonites attempting to get past the Kheran planetary defenses and invade Khera led a faction of the Kherubim Lords and their proven military forces to set out from Khera to track the Daemonites down, and to defeat them once and for all. Finding out that the Daemonites' own planet had been destroyed, forcing them to wander from world to world and act as they did to whom they met, gave the Kherans understanding of their formidable foes, but it also showed that the Daemonites had allowed fanaticism and conquest to dominate their people and begin their pursuit of dark conquests.

Along that path, as the Kherans slowly, but surely, drove the Daemonites away from any inhabited planet they came across again and again, they amazingly discovered the orbital path of an ancient comet that passed by Khera every fifty standard years. To their shock, at the same time, the Kherans ALSO discovered a well-hidden astral gate of unknown construction within the comet's trail. The astral gate, and the pocket realm within it, held a vast solar system, with planets and inhabitable space, and most prominently, the vast world of Aegena, upon which two warring factions fought for dominance upon its surface: one side was known as the rebel Protectorate warriors, and the other group was the noble class-led soldiers of the Directorate.

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The Directorate was led by the Aegenian Royal Family, most of whom were benevolent, but its ruler and his eldest son, along with many of the prevalent nobility, ruled with an iron fist and will over the planet. The Protectorate was composed of oppressed rebels and other Aegenians who sought to overthrow those corrupt rulers, and to avenge the deaths of innocents from an unprovoked raid on a school, intended to educate only those seeking occupations away from military life. Even though the Directorate had the greater number of soldiers, both sides shared a mutual combat advantage: their ancient discovery of a unique, symbiotic mineral in the deep caverns of their world.

When integrated into their bodies via a special, well-researched and proven process - later called 'Union' by its discoverers - the mineral imparted superhuman abilities to the Aegenians, among them being incredible strength, flight, and energy projection skills, used with an energy construct used to channel the vast amount of resulting energies from the joining of the symbiotic minerals and their living hosts. These unique living minerals, now a part of their lives since its discovery, came to be called the 'Justice Stones,' and their accompanying constructs 'Justice Staves.' Seeing all those abilities in action made the Kherans feel that they could share much with the Aegenians, once peace had been achieved. They only had to make sure that the Daemonites they had been chasing for some time did not enslave the Aegenians.

The Daemonites themselves possessed both shape-shifting abilities, and the devious power to possess other beings' bodies as their own, not to mention their own high levels of technology. So far, only a strong will or Kheran detection technology had been the best methods to defeat the possession of the host. Thankfully, the Justice Stones were the perfect foil to keep the Daemonites from doing severe damage to the Aegenians. The unique symbiotic relationship of the Justice Stones and their users made any attempt by the Daemonites to take Aegenian hosts totally unsuccessful, and despite the Directorate's desire for the Kherans not to aid them in any way, the Kherans were secretly able to land on Aegena in pursuit of the Daemonite aggressors with the help of the Protectorate forces.

The Kherans quickly aided the Protectorate in full force, driving the Daemonites away from Aegena, and right into the waiting arms of the Kheran battle group waiting in space. The invaders were utterly routed and completely defeated in short order after that. With their mission done, the Kherans asked once more if the Aegenians wished to engage in peace and trade talks, but the Royal Family promptly declined, and the Protectorate did not have enough clout after all the fighting to agree to such terms. So, the Kherans left and returned home. Unknown to the Royal Family, though, before the Kherans left, a very small number of Aegenians, from both the Protectorate and the Directorate factions, wished to travel with the highly advanced Kherans to their home world and learn from them, as well as to finally escape from the civil war between the two factions spreading across their world.

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The Kherans welcomed the Aegenian party aboard, and returned to Khera some time later with their new allies in tow. The Aegenians were given a sizable island to inhabit on Khera, and with their own growing level of technological understanding, came to thrive with their new Kheran neighbors for many years... up until ANOTHER civil war broke out, but this time on Khera, among the very caste-classes of the Kherans. The Aegenians had already seen this before, and did the only sensible thing they could do to escape the rising conflict: they gathered up all their members and returned to Aegena with all available speed.

All but a few of the Aegenians succeeded in returning to their own ships and departing from Kheran space, the others bravely sacrificing their lives to safeguard their escape back to the hidden world of their birth. One of them in particular, however, had a far more important role to carry out...

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Earth Date: September 17,1985

"Their flank is fully exposed! Press forward!" The forceful warrior's cry that came from the throat of Thyrhan Entehros - born on the planet Aegena, a loyal Protectorate combat reservist and competent scientist, highly regarded in his accomplishments and knowledge of the Justice Stone, Staff, and all its properties, - echoed out to the group of black-garbed Spartan Guards accompanying him as he flew with them in their battle formation toward the now-cleared aerial dry docks of the Kheran Navy.

Quickly fighting through scrambling dock worker-androids and a smattering of laser turrets, Thyrhan and his twenty soldier-plus combat platoon continued to move on and carry out their escape plan. Having gained impressive understanding in the various applications of Kheran technology while living among the Kheran people, Thyrhan had chosen to stay behind when the caste civil war had begun on Khera, while the rest of his people's contingent chose to return to Aegena to escape the in-fighting of the Kherans. But, it was not because he wanted to fight for one caste or the other on his new home. Thyrhan had chosen to stay behind as his brethren escaped from Khera,... for love.

In his travels among the Kherans to better grasp their various cultures, insights on life and the universe that their near-immortaliy had granted them, and their values, Thyrhan had secretly fallen madly in love with a spirited Kheran woman of the empathic Adrastea class, and she with him in turn, despite him not being a natural-born Kheran, or even of the warrior class. The potent empathic link that had formed between them after a few wondrous meetings confirmed to them both, that they wanted no one else but each other. And so, they kept their love a secret, even though they both knew that it would not be easy to stay in the shadows forever.

Her subsequent refusal to follow in the established mating rituals of Khera - to procreate with a selected Kheran male once becoming of age, and help sustain an already-low birth rate among their long-lived people, - coupled with her refusal to surrender her high standing as a competent Majestrix in the making for the Coda Sisterhood of warriors, did not help. If she gave birth to a child through the normal birthing rituals, it would compel her to become a priestess, but that would only further strain her standing in Kheran society, seeing as she had been born in the criminally inclined Adrastea class. With her fully trained as a master warrior of the Coda, ready to take the place of the current Majestrix if need be... those facts made her choice for the future very simple.

She would leave her beloved Khera and her former life behind, all for the brave, intelligent, and selfless Protectorate warrior with the emerald-green shining stone embedded in his chest, because HE was her future now. Because she still maintained friendly links to her former life among the high society of Adrastea-caste criminals on Khera - knowing full well that the forbidden love affair between her and Thyrhan would not be allowed to continue - Lady Elysiana of Khera exhausted all the contacts she still had to gather up her most precious possessions, and store them in the hull of a cargo ship she soon used to escape to the island that once was home to the Aegenians before their exodus.

Her arrival there allowed her to join up with Thyrhan in secret, transferring all her cargo containers onto his trusted Protectorate medium-class combat dropship, the 'Dragtyl,' and allowed her to escape from capture with her beloved without incident. Having few possible options left to them from that point - no other space-faring vessels would take them off-world, - Elysiana gave Thyrhan the bold idea to sneak into the Kheran Naval Yard and attempt to commandeer a recently completed Kheran space cruiser to use in their escape. Taking that vessel would also allow them to safely transport away the remaining number of very well-hidden containers on the former Aegenian refuge that held moderate stores of the mineral that composed the heart of the Justice Stone.

Thanks in part to the civil uprising, many of the normal guards assigned to the docks now had their hands full in dealing with riots and brutal clashes, leaving their two-pronged approach to the docks almost unopposed. Now, here Thyrhan was, in the thick of battle once more, leading a supplied number of skin-tight Nanoflauge stealth-suit equipped Spartan Guards from Elysiana's trusted allies to take control of the docked military cruiser she had been told of through her old business contacts.

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Only a light android dock crew was watching over that particular cruiser in dry-dock when they made their move... much too tempting of a prize for two lovers seeking to escape from an oncoming conflict, especially when they learned what the ship's true class and complement were on the way to the docks. Barrel-rolling tightly in mid-air to dodge away from some automated laser turrets firing at him, Thyrhan swung his emerald green-hued Justice Staff across his chest, cutting loose with an intense energy wave from his linked weapon that smashed into the left flank of the charging androids.

The powerful strike sent them all sprawling, allowing Thyrhan an opening to blast the remaining turrets into scrap one by one. The Spartan Guards with him quickly followed his lead, pushing further toward the military battle-cruiser's unattended main entry doors, their Nanoflauge suits allowing them to stay invisible to any other deterrents that might have tried to stop them. Thyrhan's frontal assault also prevented Elysiana's group from being detected as she snuck aboard the massive vessel with her six-man fire-team through the unguarded cargo bay. Even as his eyes took in the massive lines of the sleek battle cruiser docked before him, its entire bulk having been 'grown' to its completed form in record time, the Justice Stone-wielding warrior shook his head.

'A medium-class cruiser, my foot.' Thyrhan groused as he examined the massive vessel, far larger than many of the regular Kheran naval vessels that he had seen before in his many travels near the capital cities of the planet. Touching down as the Spartan Guards finished off the remaining androids, Thyrhan tapped his left vambrace's recessed beacon, summoning his waiting dropship to decloak and fly over to join them as they boarded the cruiser. The remaining regular dock androids were subdued without incident, and then reprogrammed to obey the commands of both the Spartan Guards and Thyrhan as they wasted no more time and finally commandeered the vessel. Preparations were quickly made on all sides to leave before anyone else could stop them.

Moments after all the ship's outer access ports were locked down tight, Thyrhan and his platoon rejoined Elysiana and her assigned team outside the ship's main data core. With the main sectors of the ship now fully secured, Elysiana informed her husband and his battle squad of an even greater prize than what she had thought they would find. In their insertion into the ship, she and her infiltration fire-team had discovered that the Kheran battle-cruiser they were swiping from her brethren was the latest model in the line of advanced deep space, heavy-grade super battle-cruisers of the Kheran fleet: fully armed, fully stocked, and ready to repel any and all invaders who tried to come and attack Khera.

Its sheer size - nearly four hundred kilometers in length, - had convinced Thyrhan of that fact when he had seen it, but discovering that a full complement of military resources had been already stocked aboard all levels of the cruiser made his mouth water in response to Elysiana's words. She then told him that the battle cruiser's main data hub had been recently redesigned to recognize only TWO command authority figures, as long as the first one to get access to the system was a Kheran of noble blood, with the proper song-based access codes. In that respect, Elysiana was certain that she would fit the bill, and immediately accessed the cruiser's verification systems, her melodious tones filling the data core room as she sang out the orders to the ship's systems.

Within seconds, the cruiser's primary control systems confirmed and acknowledged her as the vessel's permanent ship-master from now on, Elysiana's voice providing the necessary access codes in her harmony moments later. Elysiana quickly ordered the ship's data core to accept Thyrhan as the ship's executive officer, and once that was done, she brought up the ship's cargo manifests on the screens before them. To their shock and awe, the couple's previous findings were proven true: the battle-cruiser had indeed been fully stocked to the gills, and then some. An entire military DIVISION of Spartan Guards had been brought on board as the ship's crew! Ten thousand of the highly advanced and battle-tested Kheran androids were now theirs to command.

As the ship entered them both as its commanders, the command A.I. also informed them that over one thousand of these Spartan Guards on board were quite special among their kind. The battle structures of those selected Guards had been secretly spliced and augmented with the unique DNA of the mighty Shapers caste of Khera, their shape-shifting skills literally turning the androids into even more powerful living weapons against any and all enemies they encountered. Within minutes, Thyrhan had decided to call the newest allies of their battle group the 'Falchion Praetors,' and wisely appointed one hundred of them as Elysiana's personal bodyguards. With that decided, Thyrhan docked his waiting dropship in the ship's hanger bay, made sure that all their acquired resources and supplies were stored and locked down, and then, the couple began their escape aboard their new transport.

Within the hour, the massive ship had arrived above the island that had once housed the Aegenian refugees. With precise sweeps of its tractor beams and active teleporters, every last remnant of Aegenian technology, data reserves, donated Kheran technology and weapons had been pulled aboard the ship and put into storage on board in short order. As the massive Kheran cruiser began its ascent out of the planet's atmosphere, Thyrhan quickly made sure to double-check the Aegenian storage units they had picked up, thanking the stars that the remaining and very well disguised units that contained the symbiotic living mineral were all intact. With that done, Thyrhan then encoded the locking mechanisms and protective measures on the units with his personal encryption key - which he had given to no one on Khera, and were keyed to his Justice Stone, - making the units utterly useless without him.

With the legacy of his home-world safely secured in the ship's cargo bays, Thyrhan rejoined his love on the bridge, and watched with her in his arms as the skies of her home planet changed to that of the stars above it. As they left Khera, Elysiana chose to name the vast battleship that now ferried them, the 'Silver Providence' (in the Kheran language, of course), and together with their new forces, the two lovers and their new ship broke free from Khera's familiar gravity-well for the foreseeable future. Using Thyrhan's impressive aptitude in dimensional physics to safeguard their voyage from harm, they plotted a safe, but untraceable course away from their former home. In addition, Elysiana's procured information about the vast dimensional barrier around their solar system - leading to yet another vast part of the universe, - came into play.

Several military-grade data cores full of priceless historical information, containing the knowledge and technological feats of Khera, were also on board the Providence,... and contained an undeniable reason to pass beyond the barrier, once Elysiana had decoded them on their trip to the dimensional barrier. In the years before the civil war on Kheran, many deep space recon missions had been completed, while also dispatching well-hidden caches of Kheran technology along those paths that could only be found and activated by Kherans of noble birth. Realizing that the data cores' revealed information meant that those resource caches had been dispatched from Khera through a hidden path crafted into the barrier, and directly to a VERY large cache of Kheran technology, Thyrhan and Elysiana smiled at each other as they arrived at the same conclusion.

At the right time, the massive Kheran battle-cruiser performed a hyperspace jump to the dimensional barrier, and began scanning for the stable spatial aperture through its expanse. Within a short period, they had found, and passed through, the hidden aperture in the dimensional barrier, placing them all millions of light-years' travel away from both Aegena and Khera, but only a short decade away from their destination... the Milky Way Galaxy.

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Two short days after their emergence from behind the dimensional barrier, the 'Providence' was met by a six-man team of alien beings, their forms shrouded in glowing green light. Thankfully, both their powers and the cruiser's translation programs were able to interact, and keep things civil between them. The five green and black-clad aliens introduced themselves as members of the Green Lantern Corps, the peace-keepers established by the ancient Guardians of Oa.

Thyrhan and Elysiana identified themselves as members of the Aegenian and Kheran races, and that they had just passed through the dimensional barrier behind them in pursuit of a life away from ongoing civil war. Any aid that the Green Lanterns could give them in making their travel through this vast new region of space would be greatly appreciated. Within the hour, a stealth corvette arrived on scene, ferrying one of the Guardians and six MORE Green Lanterns to meet with Thyrhan and Elysiana. The Guardian welcomed the new arrivals to this side of the universe, and gladly sat down and shared his knowledge of current events with the two lovers.

They, in turn, also told the noble Guardian why they were here, and what they sought to do. The Guardian nodded in turn, although his thoughts were well hidden; he had a very specific reason in mind about why Thyrhan and Elysiana had been able to find their way through that vast dimensional barrier, when entry into it by any other group from this side would have taken a fully powered PLATOON of Green Lanterns to carry out. The cloaked probes had only passed through the barrier because they were machines, and had no life-signs. Their ship had been allowed to pass through the barrier... by something far greater than they realized. Returning to the moment, the generous Guardian passed on a data core of information about this side of the universe, its races, cultures, and languages, which guaranteed that the massive battle-cruiser would be ready for anything that came their way in time.

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Five years after their incredible escape from Khera and its civil war, and the meeting with the Lanterns and their Guardian commander, the 'Silver Providence' and their contingent had their first encounter with another race hell-bent on bending the universe's children to their will through conquest,... namely, the reptilian inhabitants of the planet Gordania. The Gordanians were just beginning to embrace their desire to conquer their region of the galaxy, as well as snatch up any and all new technology they could find along the way. That desire for new tech quickly brought the Gordanians into fierce battle against the lone Kheran battle-cruiser as it passed into Gordanian space, after the shortest path between two jump-points.

The seasoned battle forces of the massive Kheran vessel - and the mighty weapons the ship and its contingent had with them, - quickly turned the Gordanians away again and again with combat tactics that put their own to shame. Before any of the retreating Gordanian vessels could track the Kheran battleship once the battles were over - and attack it again with greater numbers than it had first fought them with, - the Kheran battle-cruiser used its advanced and untraceable cloaking systems to vanish from sight, and continued on its chosen path without any interference from the cursing enemies they had just soundly defeated. Saving its hyperspace engines for when they had finally left the system, it still would not be the only time that the Kheran vessel was encountered.

The 'Providence' happened upon one last, fierce border dispute in-system, between the Gordanians (again!) and one of their neighbors, the winged people of the planet Thanagar, on the other side of their shared borders. That battle was where the present Thanagarian soldiers and their light frigates caught first sight of the Spartan Guards and the Falchion Praetors, and saw Kheran battle technology in action as it routed the Gordanians as easily as it had when the ship had first encountered the reptilian scavengers...

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Earth Date: April 10th, 1990, on the galactic border between Gordania and Thanagar...

It seemed like only a few hours had passed since the flotilla of Thanagarian light cruisers had finished their patrol sweep on their border with the despised Gordanians, rather than the three standard galactic weeks since their tour of duty had begun to keep a close eye on their hated enemies. Thankfully, only the occasional border skirmish with the Gordanians had occurred during that time, involving only small but intense conflicts that the Thanagarians had been able to survive, but with no fatalities on either side, and only light injuries of their own to date.

Plus, having the timely arrival of a totally unknown, MASSIVE, but friendly battle-cruiser to the region via hyperspace jump had been a virtual godsend. Right before any Gordanian ships could even attempt to breach the border again, the unknown battle-cruiser had greeted the Thanagarian ships in the intergalactic trade language, and had helped them out immensely in the ensuing clash by warning the Gordanians to leave, OR ELSE. The Gordanians didn't heed the warning, and paid for it. Now, with the battle over and the Gordanians completely routed, their region of space was silent once more.

From the expansive command bridge of the impressive non-aligned military vessel - identified to the grateful Thanagarians after the battle as the 'Silver Providence,' - a silent crew composed of loyal Spartan Guards worked on their consoles, watched over by the single, red and grey-garbed figure seated at the captain's chair above them, reviewing a data sheet on his armrest. Two glowing white eyes could be seen behind the being's dark visor, but its owner was only thinking one thing as he gazed at the Thanagarian vessels holding flanking positions to their starboard side, calming stroking his well-trimmed goatee.

Where in the stars is that comprehensive data packet they promised us?' Thyrhan Entehros thought to himself as he checked the console next to him for the time. 'They better not be trying to wring any other intel from their ongoing sensor sweeps of the Providence. Ozar`e will burn all their data cores to electron dust if they try anything underhanded.' Thyrhan noted the time, then finished his thought. 'They've got one more hour; they better not be late, or we'll tan their hides.'

Turning to one of the nearest Spartan Guards, Thyrhan asked him to send another request for the data packet to the Thanagarians, and to call over to his wife's meditation room to see how she was doing after her latest data retrieval from all the accumulated information that had been stored aboard the ship. Thyrhan wanted to be done with this region of space and on their way as soon as possible. The less they were involved in any further battles, the better.

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The scene abruptly changed back to just the Watcher himself, as he waved his hand again, showing the image of a distant, unmarked planet, far from both Thanagar and Gordania, right before Uatu slowly spoke to the space around him.

"When the need arises from the innocent,...

when aid is fervently pleaded for by the children of Terra,...

a warrior born of noble blood will appear, who follows the honorable path of a true warrior against evil,...

he will stand firm against hate and destruction,...

and he will aid an alliance of light, formed to return order to the universe...

as the spirit of freedom bands them all as one."

Uatu nodded to himself as he paused, his glowing eyes seeming to pierce the heavens in search of something, and then spoke again to the endless expanse before him.

"Prophecies are ignored at one's peril, and with this new intuition from the heart of the cosmos itself,much is to come from this warrior, who now calls Earth his home, and humanity... his brethren."

The shifting scene before Uatu once more changed, again showing the massive Kheran combat vessel as it finally got underway, leaving the border and the flotilla of Thanagarian vessels as it headed off, seeking the path laid out to its crew by the will of fate.

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Not long after the forced involvement of the 'Providence' in that border skirmish, many of the more war-hardened and entrenched races - again, the Skrull, the Kree, the Shi'ar, and the Chitari, - encountered the Gordanian survivors of the lopsided battles that had been fought against the lone alien vessel and its crew. Knowing full well just how valuable that mighty ship and its owners could be to their cause, the leaders of each alien race quickly ordered their most skilled commanders to seek out and discover its secrets.

The later discovery of the cryptic, prophetic words that had been spoken some time later, uttered by an unconfirmed oracle who claimed no allegiance to any god or race - and then transmitted to each of their own factions by their intelligence agents, - confirmed that this unknown group was no idle threat; the potent warrior it spoke of had to be among those who crewed that ship. Whomever commanded and crewed that mighty vessel, when provoked into battle, were not a force to be taken lightly in any case.

Additionally, if they ever really wanted to, the massive ship and its proven warriors could be a deciding factor in any battle. The mysterious warriors of that vessel alone were described by Gordanian survivors as being able to fight as hard and as fiercely as Green Lanterns and Kryptonian Special Forces, and then some. They would most assuredly be a powerful faction to watch for in the galaxy, but none of the other prominent races in the galaxies even suspected... that such great power would eventually follow the lead of one young, noble, and selfless warrior who walked the path of light without flinching.

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Earth Date: March 10th, 1995, undisclosed military installation on the planet Thanagar...

"So, why were WE assigned to review those secret recordings from that lone unidentified warrior? The one who was interviewed on that patrol cruiser, several years back? Again?" One Thanagarian soldier said to his compatriot as they headed to the Main Archive division of their facility. The second winged soldier shrugged to his ally as they reached the access panel linked to the blast doors, and the high-level security field guarding the vital and highly protected Archives.

"They probably wanted to double-check the intel from it again; lucky us, huh?" The second officer responded to his cohort. "They also likely want to try and decide exactly where that guy was from, not to mention if they could find out anything more about the type of technology he had with him, and that giant fleet-whupping battle-cruiser he crewed."

"Figures; make us work over-time." The first officer groused back.

After keying in their personal access codes, and having both of their voices and retinal prints verified, the two soldiers watched as the vault doors slid open, right after the security field dissipated, only for them both to close and reactivate again once the two soldiers were inside the vault. As the internal scanning node made sure once more that the two soldiers were in fact, who they were supposed to be, the vault's security program also made sure that no other or hidden recording devices were on their person.

Once the security program was sure that there were no risks for compromising its data, it finally opened the main internal vault doors for the two Thanagarians. As the two soldiers continued into the deep vault, they finally reached one of the active data terminals, seated themselves, and keyed in their access codes again to begin the work assigned to them. The screen before them lit up with a progress bar running a debug mode, and then, it chirped at them with a monotonous voice.

'State inquiry.'

"Bring up all recorded data files and relevant intel gathered from the interview with the non-Thanagarian warrior identified as 'Rhoss', done five standard years ago from today." The first soldier stated to the computer before him.

'Processing... done. Displaying results.' The computer responded as it began its task.

In seconds, the requested data appeared on the screen, and the two Thanagarian soldiers painstakingly began to review all the available audio recordings, visual records, and even the hidden military scanners that had attempted to scan and decipher anything about the uniform and locked-down armor-suit that this 'Rhoss' had been wearing when he had come aboard, and during the interview / 'interrogation' conducted by one of the top Admirals of the Thanagarian military.

Although the main data records from the visual and audio receivers were perfectly clear, the disguised scanners had been unable to discern absolutely anything about the individual's personal weapons and unique specifications in any area. The only thing that the sensors had been certain about in their evaluations of 'Rhoss' was a variance in his personal bio-metrics: his body had put out a low-level energy field around his body, and its exact location or origin could not be pinned down.

Despite his appearance, the calm mannerisms presented to them by 'Rhoss' made the Admiral believe that this calm warrior from the alien vessel near them was actually far more clever than he looked. Beyond aiding the Thanagarians in their fight against the Gordanians, the only other fact the Admiral was privy to was that 'Rhoss', his crew, and his ship had only stopped in their system for a brief rest before resuming their current voyage, and to come into range of a large cluster of asteroids to mine and gather raw materials and resources for later use.

After 'Rhoss' had completed his 'interview' with the Admiral, he thanked the Thanagarian military officers for speaking with them, and had gone to briefly enjoy the company of the ship's crew in celebrating their victory over the Gordanian raiders. After some time had passed, the calm warrior boarded his combat dropship, his four silent 'Spartan Guards' following his lead, and let the humming sound of the powerful combat vessel fill the hangar as it powered up, then silently departed from the frigate hangar bay to return to the waiting battle-cruiser it had come from. Minutes later, the mighty vessel turned away, powering its main engines, and headed away from the border on its original path.

Pausing in their reviews, the two soldiers finally leaned back in their chairs, catching a breather while removing their helmets and rubbing their eyes, and remarking on their progress to one another.

"Nothing; not a cursed thing more than we already knew." The second soldier groused.

"Yep, no clues whatsoever on my end, either." The first soldier said to his comrade. "Only that a reappearance of that ship, and that crew, in this side of the galaxy, would be very telling."

A star map lit up on their terminals at the first soldier's response, scrolling across systems far and wide, until finally coming to rest on one spiral galaxy in particular, far from their own home-system, while slim indicators pointed to one solar system in particular.

"Long range patrol scans that were generously supplied to us from the Lantern Corps not too long ago, say that a race of upright bipeds that are up and coming in the galaxy live here." The first Thanagarian spoke, staring at the star map. "If the last recorded heading received from our long-range outposts two days after that dust-up were spot-on, then that system was most likely in the direct path of where that battle cruiser was headed."

"Also says here, that the bipeds now call their region of space, the 'Milky Way Galaxy,' and in this 'Sol' system, they all live on the third planet from their yellow star." The second soldier followed up.

"What do they call their world?" The first soldier queried.

"Rather plain, if you ask me,... Earth." The second Thanagarian replied.

Presently, the audio-visual comm system came alive nearby the two tired soldiers, indicating that they were receiving a call from their immediate superiors. They quickly answered the call, standing up and saluting their commander as the call came in.

"Attention!" The two soldiers said as one.

"At ease, soldiers." The growling tone of a General replied to their answer. "What news on the data review from the recordings of that warrior, 'Rhoss,' and his unknown faction?"

"Our apologies, General, but the hidden encrypted viewers were simply unable to discern or quantify anything about him." The first soldier carefully answered his commander. "It was as if the person himself simply refused to allow any part of his frame, or his weapons - if he had any on him at the time - to be scanned in any way."

"Disappointing, men, but not unexpected." The General replied to his men. "This gives even more credit to the rumors that the weapons we saw on that ship are indeed powerful on their own; in their hands, they are capable of ending almost any conflict they come across. Those silent ones who traveled with him, then, are likely worthy of being named among the greatest warriors in the cosmos."

"What are our orders now, sir?" The second solider queried.

"Resume your normal duties, men, and mention none of this to any of your comrades. Your division superiors have already been informed not to ask why we asked you two to work on this." The General commented, looking at a screen next to himself. "Otherwise, make sure to inform all your comrades to remain on the look-out for any ongoing changes in our 'interactions' with the Gordanians. These last few encounters have all our military listening posts on high alert."

"Understandable, sir." The first soldier answered.

"They've been even more restless than usual over the past few years, sir, and I know that Central Command is in no mood to be caught with our wings folded up if they try anything." The second soldier agreed with his comrade.

"Exactly, men. That is all. Command, out." The General finished as the comm channel went silent.

"Understood, sir. On our way, over and out." The first soldier said to himself as he nodded to his comrade.

"Acknowledged, my friend." The second one agreed as they powered down the console, and headed out of the archives.

End Chapter One

XXXXXX

A path chosen, by warriors from two different worlds...

A child's birth to come, growing up to wield his powers against darkness...

A search ending, with a new world found to call... HOME...

Comments welcome, and I'll see you all in Chapter Two!