Author's Note: HALLO! I hope you all are having a wonderful December! Mine has been absolutely insane as of late, though it's slowly working itself out. Quick heads-up that the next chapter might be a tiny bit late as this coming week is a little busy for me so I won't have as much time to write, but we are still on schedule for the entirety of Brightest Silence being uploaded on December 31st!

Also, super (not) quick chapter explanation before we get started: there is a new character (non-OC) in this chapter who is known as Mother. Despite being a pretty powerful character in the canonical DC Universe, she is not mentioned very often, though some of you who have read Batman & Robin: Eternal will be aware of Mother. But for those of you who don't, her background is basically that she is one of the lesser-known but more powerful secret engines of the DC universe (there are a couple of underground background forces, the most prominent being the League of Assassins/Shadows and recently Leviathan), but of all of those, Mother has got to be the most widespread. Her story is told in the most detail in Batman & Robin: Eternal (a comic series, so Mother ain't canonically part of the DCEU, the fandom this fic is part of), but long story short she adopts any and every orphan she comes across, trains them to work and/or kill for her, and her children go out into the world to become either prominent members of society who make decisions in Mother's favor, or find and train more children for her. She's playing the long game and changing the world by changing the culture instead of the government like most secret engines go for. And Stormkrigeren is just the sort of child Mother would be interested in. I hope that sums it up pretty well for you guys, please enjoy and leave comments!

Year Ten.

Rule #9: Do not neglect or avoid your purpose

His father's discovery was supposed to have remained a secret for at least a little while longer, but he should have known that it was nigh on impossible to keep secrets from Mother.

It took less than three months from the day of the crash for word to reach her of what millionaire oil baron, Alexander Luthor, had found in the mountains - which was incredibly slow, considering how many children Mother had watching the man. But being the gracious and patient Mother that she was, she decided not to approach him quite yet and went back to tending her children until the time came to make her move.

Then Herr Luthor lost his life in a tragic car accident, and the junior Alexander Luthor rose to power. Still, Mother bided her time.

Until finally, the time came.

Alexander Jr., or 'Lex' as he preferred to be called, should have known this would happen. In fact, he had known - he had just failed to prepare for it, which was idiotic of him and deserved punishment. But Mother was merciful, and simply smiled at Lex's look of shock on his face when he marched into his father's study to find her sipping butterscotch bourbon on the sofa, ten years to the day of his father's discovery.

He stared at the petite older woman who had somehow broken into his home, the definition of refinement and maternalism with her black cashmere pantsuit, artfully graying hair, and gentle smile. Lex, on the other hand, had just come from work and looked a mess in his crumpled blazer and unruly russet hair, and still hadn't said a word since he'd burst into the room. Mother was about to tell him that it was rude to not greet his guest when he finally did manage to stammer out, "Mother. What are you doing here?"

True, he had never met her and had probably hardly heard of her, but Lex was genius enough to know when he was in the presence of one of the most influential people on the planet. Mother only nodded as if approving the question, and sipped quietly from her glass of bourbon, probably from the late Luthor's liquor cabinet.

"Good evening, Lex. Thank you for asking - I've been doing just fine," she answered simply with the barest hint of sarcasm in her silky voice as Mother set her glass aside, "As for your question, dear, I'm here to see how your Project is progressing. I've heard so much about her, and I thought it might be finally time that I set eyes on her myself."

"The Project," Lex repeated dumbly, still a little in shock to find Mother of all people requesting to see what he'd been working on - though to be honest, he should have expected it. "You mean Darcie?"

"What I mean is that little girl you're keeping locked up in a lab and teaching how to kill," Mother answered, rising to her feet, "She won't be of much use to you for anything if you don't let her outside sometimes - what do you even plan to do with a child that has never seen the sun?"

It was at that moment that Lex managed to overcome his surprise and stand up a little straighter, his resolve returning to him as he answered, "Darcie's a weapon, Mother. She can't be let outside until she's done training, or-"

"Or what?" Mother interrupted him, watching Lex fidget under her gentle gaze. And no matter how much he hated his own silence and cursed under his breath through gritted teeth, he could not come up with an answer to her simple question.

Mother was not surprised, but gentled her tone as she answered for him, "Lex, darling, if you can't control her, then she's not a weapon - she's a threat. And even if you could control little Darcie, what would you do with a weapon like her? What would you aim at?"

Lex was again unable to answer, picking nervously at the hem of his blazer and looking like an utter fool in front of a woman he had met barely two minutes ago. It was infuriating and had she not been there, Lex likely would have punched something if only to make his rage real and not a trembling emotion bottled up inside his head - and Mother, of course, knew exactly the torment that he was going through. She had raised more than her fair share of little boys, and knew exactly what the poor lad in front of her was reaching for, what he was trying to achieve by the training of the girl. Lex, like all young boys, was looking for comfort - an escape from the abuse his own father had scarred him with, and the only way he knew how to do that was to annihilate everything and everyone that had hurt him. The only problem was, Lex himself didn't know that.

But Mother did - and like any good mother, she would do her best to help him.

"It's alright if you haven't made up your mind yet," Mother assured him gently, "Let's go see her, and then I will help you to decide."

Lex only nodded and led her towards the door.

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

Lex was not a fan of dark rooms or empty buildings - just walking into one set him on edge. Which was exactly why he made sure that all of his regularly-visited branches of LexCorp remained well lit and staffed with security guards twenty-four-seven.

Even past midnight in a scientific center on the edge of Metropolis, there were two or three people patrolling the area when Lex pulled into the Research Park's north lot, nodding and greeting him with a cordial 'Mr. Luthor' as he and his companion made their way to Research Laboratories Building #5.

Mother followed close beside him, observing her surroundings with keen interest as Lex led her through the main hallway past various laboratories all locked up for the night, before they finally reached a service elevator for delivering items to the building's upper floors. The pair stepped inside when the doors opened, Mother neatly folding her hands behind her back as Lex fumbled with a keycard from his pocket, then finally managed to tap it against the correct spot in a seemingly blank section of panel.

The doors closed in response, and instead of moving upwards as the buttons might have indicated, the small room dropped downwards instead. After a few long moments of descent, nearly silent except for the nervous tapping of Lex's shoe against the floor, they finally came to a halt. The elevator had hardly opened before the young man had forcefully stepped out into the low concrete hallway leading to the Watching Room, marching quickly to the steel door opposite and shoving it open without another thought while Mother followed at a sedate pace.

Doctor Schreyer, of course, was there - Lex should have expected that, Lisa was nearly always there keeping an eye on the Subject - and she jumped up out of her seat at the sound of the door slamming against the wall. Her sharp gaze recognized him immediately, and she might have told the young man off for being so loud so late at night, if not for two very important reasons:

A) the junior Alexander Luthor was not only her boss and paying her salary, but as Lisa was well familiar with, he also had a tendency to get very cross when someone pointed out his wrong-doings.

And B) a petite, silver-haired woman chose that moment to appear in the doorway behind Lex, the sight of her suddenly reminding Lisa of her place in the world.

So she did as was expected of a child greeting their Mother, and bowed her head. "Good evening, Mother."

"Hello, Lisa, darling," the woman smiled affectionately, stepping deeper into the Room, "My, it's been ages. How are you?"

"I am doing well," Lisa answered simply, earning another smile.

"And what about your work? I take it the Project is progressing under your care?"

Dr. Schreyer nodded, indicating the wide window to her right that looked down into the Project's main Room as she spoke, "She is growing fast, and learns quickly too. She has combat training with Mister Wilson at the moment, but if you like, I can introduce you to her in an hour when they are finished."

"That's quite all right, Lisa. I'm afraid I'm only here for a short while, but thank you for the offer," Mother assured her, following her child's gaze into the Room below and ignoring Lex's small snort of annoyance at the words.

Lex had watched the entire exchange between the two women with confusion at first, then interest, and finally anger at the fact that Mother preferred to question Schreyer about his Project. It was clear from the start that they knew each other - Lisa had greeted Mother by name, and clearly knew the woman far better than Lex did - and he made a mental note to interrogate Schreyer about it later.

Mother had either not noticed Lex's discomfort or chosen to ignore it, and even so, she was too occupied with staring out the Watching Room's wide observation window to address him.

There was a girl in the Room below, a young girl - dark-haired, strong, intelligent, and with more than a few visible scars on her - fighting an older man. Mother knew the man immediately, and though she had already been well aware that he had been hired to train the child, a frown still crossed her face at the sight of Deathstroke teaching a child to wield a sword.

Though she had to admit… the girl could wield it quite well.

She didn't even know what she was yet, and she was already deadly. Mother could only imagine what the girl could do if she was truly as powerful as everyone seemed to think - and teaching her to fight would only make her stronger.

"Lex," she said softly after a long moment of consideration, drawing his attention.

His head came up immediately, shoving aside any malcontent he was feeling as he looked her way, "Yes, Mother?"

"Do you realize what it is that you have in that Room?"

"An alien," he answered, because it was the truth. Project Stormkrigeren was an extraterrestrial, not of this Earth - nothing more, nothing less. But Mother shook her head.

"No, Lex - what you have is the answer to our very existence," she said softly, turning to face him, "I assume that you are aware of the metahuman thesis?"

Lex nodded, and opened his mouth to assure the woman that he was well aware of the theory and had even done some research into it himself when her implication clicked in his mind.

It wasn't a theory.

It was the truth.

And Alexander Luthor Junior had possibly one of the most powerful metahumans on Earth in his possession. By her existence, he had proven the theory to be correct.

"This is no longer a question of 'How alone are we in the universe' - the answer to that is standing only a few feet away. The real question is 'How much is that little girl going to change the world?'" Mother explained, her sharp gaze tracking said girl as she made her way across the bright Room in a flurry of blades, "Her existence alone is proof that the world is changing, but the fact that she is here is also the key to bringing such change to a halt."

"You mean the evolution of metahumans?" Lex asked, and Mother nodded.

"I know I probably sound like some old coot when I say this, but they really are an unnatural deviation from humanity's path. These 'metahumans' are growing like weeds, and one day there will be more of them than there are of us. They will drag the human race into chaos until the normalcy and predictability that protect us become a thing of the past - until all who remain are the strongest of the strong."

Here she paused, taking a deep breath as if to calm her nerves before Mother continued in a low voice.

"And despite how much we deny it, Lex, we both know that won't be us," she said in a whisper, looking down at the girl in the Room below. "It will be her."

Lex followed Mother's gaze, and felt something like jealousy at her words. A moment later it became burning hatred. Mother had barely seen the girl for all of five minutes, yet she had already seen the hardest truth about Stormkrigeren: it was all about her. The Project was a taker and she came with a cost - she cost money, she cost time, she took up everyone's attention, and she stole Lex's status and power in everyone's minds. He was the one people were supposed to fear, to respect - and yet everyone who knew about the Project considered her of far greater importance than him.

He might have had Mister Wilson shoot her for that if it weren't for the second hardest truth about Stormkrigeren: the few people that knew she existed may be afraid of her, but the only person she herself was afraid of was Lex.

That was the thing about fear: it was almost the same as respect, only better.

Darcie, poor little Dee-Dee, was afraid of him. She hid it well, but Lex still saw the look in her eyes whenever he walked into the Room and noted the wariness with which she spoke to him. But from that fear stemmed respect, and it was through respect that she would follow any order given to her without a moment's hesitation.

Lex had to admit, Mister Wilson had trained her well.

Darcie would follow orders. Darcie would do as Lex told her, and she would do it quickly and well. Darcie would fulfill her purpose, she would protect him and whatever else Lex ordered her to, and she would even annihilate the metahuman threat if only he asked it of her.

"Fight fire with fire," he said softly in reply to Mother's declaration, "She… she can do it. She can kill every last one of them - can't she?"

Mother only nodded.

"She can burn these 'metahumans' where they stand, Lex. You know where your weapon must aim."

Yes.

Yes, Lex knew exactly where to aim.

"At the abominations who live among us," he answered in a whisper, "Their fire will light the way."

And when all was said and done, and the threat was gone, only Stormkrigeren would be left. Little, obedient Stormkrigeren, who would do her very best to hold still when Lex told her to and who wouldn't flinch when he gave her her reward.

A bullet to the skull - the last of the metahumans would be gone.

And Lex would finally be the strongest of the strong.

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

She heard her name.

That was normal - her name was said a lot, especially when someone was talking about her. But what was different this time was that there was a new voice saying it.

It caught her off guard. New things were rare and usually brought big changes with them, and a new voice meant a new person which meant the biggest change of all.

The Project didn't like change.

She didn't exactly know why - she didn't exactly know why about a lot of things - but she was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that change was, as Mister Wilson once put it, 'a tear in the delicate fabric of safe routine'. Which was exactly why he changed her schedule so much in order to keep her on her toes. But those were just little changes and Stormkrigeren could deal with those - they were nothing like big changes which left far too much room for mistakes on her part, and mistakes were unacceptable.

A new voice, and thus a new person, was a big change.

She lifted her blade in a messy deflect, grunting softly when her teacher's weapon struck against steel with a heavy blow. She should have expected that, and she might have been able to fend it off with another blow of her own if she had been paying attention, but most of her focus was on the low voices coming from the Watching Room and not on her Teacher.

The Project fended off another swipe towards her calf, absently dodging out of the way, but making no move to go on the offense. She strained her ears to catch more of the conversation going on in the Watching Room while continuing to put the barest amount of effort into sparring, but she could not hear much more than the occasional muttered word or her name mentioned again once or twice, and again very loudly.

"Stormkrigeren!" Mister Wilson roared, pulling her focus back to her clearly displeased Teacher - he rarely called her much more than Storm unless he was upset or circumstances called for it.

She blinked up at him, dimly noticing that they had stopped sparring at some point, both of them panting hard and loosely holding their blades as he scowled at her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled, "You do not drop your guard in the middle of a goddamn spar - are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"There is someone new in the Watching Room," she explained quickly, resisting the urge to step back from the loud voice. Luckily, Mister Wilson did not shout at her again, and instead his gaze flickered up towards the wide panel of two-way mirrors above their heads, glaring at the glass as if that would make it reveal whoever was on the other side. He snorted under his breath, not doubting his student and whatever had alerted her to the newcomer - he knew better by now, and over the years teaching Stormkrigeren, he had seen her do more than a few unusual feats that would have been by no means impossible for anyone normal - but Mister Wilson also knew better than to stop a sparring session just for curiosity's sake. He would ask Luthor who the visitor was when the lesson was over.

"Don't let it happen again," he said finally, dropping back into a fighter's stance and indicating for her to do the same so that they could resume training. Stormkrigeren only nodded, and readied her blade to start again when she paused.

"Mister Wilson?"

"What?" he sighed, clearly getting annoyed as he raised his katana in preparation for the first movement. Stormkrigeren ignored the low growl in his voice, having grown used to it a long time ago.

"What's a metahuman?"

Mister Wilson paused at that, and glanced in his student's direction. She had half-expected him to glare at her and yell something about distraction being fatal, but instead he just looked… surprised, maybe even a little bit nervous.

The look was gone in an instant, and her Teacher shook his head as he resumed his usual rough demeanor.

"Never mind that," he barked, "Focus. Blades up!"

Stormkrigeren obeyed, and went back to sparring.

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

"So it's decided then?" Lex asked, almost reluctantly as he held the car door open for her. Mother nodded in reply as she adjusted her light jacket.

"Of course, Lex - it will all be taken care of," she assured him in a comforting tone, "I will send someone to fetch Darcie in a few years, and I will ensure that her training is completed - likely David will teach her, bless his heart."

Lex frowned at that, watching as the older woman seated herself in the backseat of the car he had called for her. "That shouldn't be necessary - Mister Wilson agreed to train her for another ten years as long as I continue to pay him. Won't that be long enough?"

"Lex, dear, as much as I admire your ability to keep the Deathstroke in your employ and the man's ability as a contractor in his area of expertise, Mister Wilson can teach that girl only so much," Mother answered with a shake of her head, "All she will ever learn from him is how to kill - not how to blend in. And unless you want Darcie to be discovered on her very first day outside of those Rooms, she needs to learn how to make herself seem as human as you and me. Fortunately, blending in is exactly what I teach."

Lex's face fell at the words, and he quickly covered it up with a bright smile, just as his father had taught him. That was the way of the world - do not let them see how you truly feel or think, or they will tear you apart. Mother, unfortunately, had very good eyesight.

"Oh, poor lad," she crooned softly, seeing the disappointment in his face, "I know you've grown attached to your Darcie, but you must remember what she is and that you are doing what is best for her. You still have another ten years with her in your care, so enjoy them while you can. When the time comes, I will send for her and before you know it, Darcie will be all grown up and become what she was always meant to be."

"And what's that?" Lex snapped in a sullen tone, still reluctant to let this strange (albeit powerful) woman have any sort of control over his Project. But Mother simply ignored his discomfort and answered the question with a soft chuckle.

"Why, Lex, haven't you guessed? She is a force of nature - wild and unpredictable, but if you can get a bridle on her, she can take this world by storm and free us from the abominations."

Mother smiled at the thought, patting Lex's hand in a comforting gesture. "Just think of it, Lex - it won't be long now before both you and little Darcie will be free."