Tales of the Titans: Godwar Part 3, Chapter 10: A New King

…

I don't own the Teen Titans, but you really should take a look at Nancy171112's Deviantart portrait of "Beast Girl." That's Gwen Markov—excuse me, Her Highness, the Princess Gwendolyn Markov.

….

To say that Gwen and Terry were shocked was an understatement. Destroy the planet? True, Slade had told Terry, once, long ago, that without a certain compound, he, Terry, could/would end up destroying the Earth, but that hadn't happened, and they'd put it down to another one of Slade's lies. Sometimes, late at night, Gwen wondered how the man had kept track.

But now here was somebody else, also evidently familiar with Terry's geo powers, saying the same thing. Could there be some truth to it?

"But now…" The Markovian king settled back down on his hospital bed. "Now, I must rest. Perhaps, if fortune smiles upon me a bit longer, I'll be able to speak with you a bit more on this matter. If not…if not, I have left you with all the information I have regarding your mother." He lay back and closed his eyes.

Through some sort of signal—or perhaps they'd been watching all along—the attendants magically reappeared, with the nurse escorting Gwen and Terry out to the waiting Chancellor Butusov. "Come, Your Highness. I've prepared accommodations for you."

He led them to a massive series of interconnected rooms, bedroom, main room, library, a huge bath with a full Jacuzzi. "They sure didn't skimp on anything, did they?" mused Gwen.

"This is actually pretty standard. You oughtta see my father's personal living quarters. They're bigger than the throne room."

She came over and sat down on the couch facing the faux fireplace, motioning for him to do so. "Terry, what do you suppose he meant by all that?"

Terry shrugged. "Probably exactly what he said: somebody's trying to reproduce the process whereby Bree and I got our powers. It makes sense, I mean, but I was always told it had something to do the royal genotype." Another shrug. "But it makes sense that somebody could duplicate the process." Frown. "But my mother…Gwen, if she's still alive…" His look turned pensive. "I had always, I guess, assumed she was dead. I mean, I never knew her, have no memories of her at all. The only childhood memories of any family I have are father and Bree. Oh, and Rory, but…the notion that she might be alive…"

She hooked an arm through his. "Well, if she is, we'll just find her. That's all." She yawned, glanced at her watch. "It's getting late. Maybe we should turn in? There'll be time to go over this tomorrow morning."

But at 2:31 AM, Chancellor Butusov, a robe hastily thrown over his own pajamas, signaled for entrance. "I'm sorry, lad. Your father…took a sudden turn for the worse. There was no time, even to come and get you." He straightened up and drew a deep breath, looking Terry in the eyes. "Your Majesty. Markovia has a new king."

….

Across hypertime: Omega paced in his room. It was not an Osiran custom, but he was trying it out, to see if it helped his concentration. It didn't.

He understood Raven's confusion. What she was proposing was big, bigger than anything the Titans had ever dealt with. It could easily put them on opposite ends of the sword, not only with other heroes, but also with members of their own team.

Their own family.

He had studied Earth history. It wouldn't be the first time ideological and theological differences had split the closest of kin. There were people in this nation known as America who simply couldn't stand the notion that someone might disagree with them on some matter. Indeed, the list was virtually endless, made all the more complicated by personalities, personal agendas and issues. Sometimes, he truly believed humans would go to war over an overdue library book.

But were we any better? He asked himself. Fighting, eternally fighting, over ever-dwindling resources? We could have been so much better! We could have used our science to create new resources, or seek them out…no, we were no better.

Instead we became what we are: legends. Legends of a vanished race, forever squabbling amongst ourselves. The he stopped, a look of sudden realization on his face.

If the information they had was accurate, perhaps the Osirans were not quite so vanished as he had thought they were. And while that would no doubt present more threat than opportunity, there was also no doubt that opportunity could exist there.

…..

"Okay," yawned Raven, "I'm up, and about as awake as I can be at this hour. What did you wish to say?" Omega had called her, requesting a late-night conference, just the two of them.

Raven tightened her robe around her, and sat upon her bed. The Osiran, in his usual mode, sat in his kneeling position on the floor. Short as she was, he nonetheless had to look up to her. "I asked for this meeting to discuss some things that came up today, and…to mention some things.

"I understand you have mixed feelings about revealing to the group as a whole any such agenda as you've mentioned. The Titans were formed to combat crime, and by doing so, to make the world a better place. But this…this is very different."

Another yawn. "Yes, it is. Only, I don't see any way around it."

He looked at her intently. "Raven. I've a question. I know that you have a personal relationship with the Entity, sufficient that he seems to regard you as his…well, his confidante, so to speak. Is this not so?"

"Yes…"

"What do you suppose he might do if you—you, personally, I mean—rejected his offer?"

"Oh, gods. Yes, I see what you're asking. In terms of sheer power, there is nothing to prevent him from just…well, basically from having his way with the entire human race, maybe even the entire universe. He did say he incorporates universes into himself, into his Unity, making them One with Himself. But what you're asking is, what sort of person is he? And, and I'm honestly not sure.

"So far, he's played fair with us—with me, at least…even to the point of being beneficial to me, even when I didn't recognize it as such. But…"

"Raven. This is important. Very important." Omega seemed to sit forward slightly, and became even more intense. "Do you suppose the Entity could be courting you?"

Silence. Then, "You mean, trying to seduce me. Figuratively speaking, of course…"

"Or not. Am I mistaken, or does one of your major Earth religions not have, as part of its origin, a virgin who is informed that she will bear the son of the only deity that religion recognizes as existing? And…I can find no scripture where her consent was actually requested. She was simply informed of the matter. Of course, to be so chosen was a singular honor, there is no doubt about that, and there are similar stories from antiquity, but…I suppose I am asking you what sort of person this Entity is. In your opinion."

Raven felt a cold knot form in her stomach. Now she applied her keen intellect to the question Omega was asking. "He's…well. Headstrong. Proud, a bit haughty. A bit of a smart-aleck. He doesn't regard humanity as insects, but he does believe we don't know what's good for us." A rueful smile. "Of course, in that regards, he may have a point. But you're asking me, unless I'm totally misreading this whole matter, if he'd 'go postal' on the entire world if we rejected him and his offer."

Omega continued. "I am no expert on the subject, but I seem to recall, from reading one of the major holy books in use in this nation, that, at least in the first part of it, their God was prone to permitting or even causing terrible things to happen to His people when they strayed from his precepts. I know it's not as simple as all that, but…"

"I see what you're saying. What would happen if we displeased him? And, Omega, I…I honestly have no idea."

There was a pause. Then he spoke up again, from the floor. "The information we gathered from Dr. Devil's extra dimensional fortress indicates that Osirans are now present in the vibrational universe once dominated by Apokolips. Perhaps…perhaps we could see if relations could be established with them. They may prove helpful, since, if this is true, they did survive the destruction of our old universe, anyway."

Raven sucked in her breath. "I, I don't know, Omega. From what you've told me, Osira wasn't a very nice place to live. Do we need to complicate matters like that? Might we not be attracting the attention of one of the most dangerous of all interstellar races? I mean, I trust you, and Athena, but the Lords…"

"I understand, Raven, and agree. Precautions would need to be taken. But if my own experience"—and here, she noticed a slight grimace on his part; his own experience had very nearly been lethal, for him—"if my own experience is any guide, the Lords will be busy conquering the universe they have found themselves in. When they are done there, they might turn their attention to this one…but even so, Earth is only one of many inhabited worlds. There would be no particular reason for them to single Earth out. It's not like we're the center of a major star power."

"But what could they possibly do for us that you, Athena, and the Kindred cannot do?"

"Much." His tone was grim. "You do not realize it, Raven, but we—Athena, the Kindred, and myself—are only able to make use of certain principles, utilizing 'home grown' technology, as it were. Even what you have seen, all that you have seen, is in fact a poor substitute for what a full-fledged Osiran industrial society could do. Everything we've managed to accomplish, technologically, would be equivalent to an abacus. An abacus versus a probability-based quantum supercomputer."

Now Raven grimaced. "It's that bad?"

"War appears to be fertile ground for technological breakthroughs. And if we are anything at all, we are experts on war."

"You think your people might actually be able to, to avert this…catastrophe? The end of the universe?"

"Avert?" He shrugged. "Unknown. Escape from? Well, if they're still around, they evidently did precisely that. And besides. There is the simple fact that they are there. It might not be a bad idea to develop some sort of peaceful relations with them. If that's possible, I mean."

"Do you think it is?"

"I know for a fact it's impossible if we don't try. My people are conquerors by nature; they certainly will not extend the proverbial olive branch to us."

"Very well." Raven yawned again. It was late, and she was exhausted. "See what you can do. Come up with some way of contacting them that wouldn't endanger the Earth, and I'll go over it with you. If we can be satisfied as to Earth's safety…then I see no harm in at least opening contact with them."

"As you wish, Raven." He rose and turned for the door.

…..

"I never thought I'd see the day," remarked Athena, leaning against the doorjamb in the doorway to Omega's below-ground laboratory, her clipped British accent wafting through the air, "when you'd block me in Link, and force me to communicate with you by means of sonic vibrations in the atmosphere." He said nothing. "Or will you not even communicate with me that way?"

"Athena," he sighed, "There is, as the human expression goes, a 'lot on my plate,' and, yes, some of it I have been asked to keep secret. Even from you. And you know how nearly impossible that is in Link."

She paused, looking at him first one way, then the other. "I never thought we would have secrets from each other."

"I have no personal secrets from you. You know that. But we both know what it is like to be under orders, to be required to undertake certain covert missions. This is, really, no different. Hopefully, in the near future, I'll be able to explain everything to you. Perhaps then you'll see."

She moved closer, narrowing her eyes at him. "You're going to try to find them, aren't you?"

"?"

"The Lords. You're going to try to find the Lords. We know they're in Apokolips's old universe, and you're going there. For some unknown reason. But I can only assume that it must be due to some unimaginable danger here, that you would even consider setting foot on Lord-held territory."

Sigh. "You are an excellent logician. And I have known interrogators without such an insight of another's thought processes."

"I made," she said softly, head bowed, "an excellent interrogator. In another life." She saw his shocked look. They both knew what it meant for a warrior to "interrogate" someone. "You do not need to look that way. You are familiar with the Lord Natal's…perversions. We both know I did not escape them, and in more ways than one. As you say, we both know what it is like to be under orders." In the brief pause that followed, "So. When do we leave?"

"What? No. You do not need to go."

Again, she crossed her arms and, but now looked him in the eye. "Yes, I do. And you know why. If I do not face this now, there will be no facing it, ever." She paused for a full tenth of a second. "Do you want that for me?"

He could feel himself melt, inside. "No, I…do not." Then, "Very well. I will speak to Raven."

…..

Across hypertime: the Royal study. Chancellor Butusov led them to the small—comparatively speaking—room behind the throne room. He gestured; on the far wall was a portrait, and both Gwen and Terry gasped. "The Lady Genevieve," he said, with evident sadness.

Not only was the woman depicted almost angelically lovely, with round spectacles riding atop her straight black hair, but, in quite a departure from the standard "royal portrait" they'd both been expecting, she was attired in…a spotless white knee-length lab coat.

Terry looked at his wife. "Some things are starting to make sense."

To be continued...