Disclaimer: J'onn J'onnz and all related characters belong to DC Comics. No intentional copyright infringement is intended through their use. Other characters you don't recognize are purely mine. Please ask before using them. Thanks.

The title of this series is taken from Soledad's Lord of the Rings stories. Hope you don't mind, Soledad.

Descending Into Darkness Book One

One: J'onn J'onnz

The sky above was a rich cloud of red that swirled and writhed under the high winds that blew both high up and low upon the ground. The deep red was shaded in some places by shadows that made the clouds seemed ominous and darkened the area even more.

The heavy smell of water was everywhere so that even though the air moved, the moisture lingered and filled the land.

"J'onn, it's going to rain. Come in," S'loal called to her younger son.

"But mother, the rain feels good." J'onn raised his face to the sky and felt even more keenly the wind that broke against him, bringing the freshness that spoke of rain.

"If you do not come in and you get sick, you shall not go to the Festival of Fight tomorrow. You'll miss out on a lot."

J'onn grudgingly got up from his place on the dry sand, taking his holographic inducer with him. The faint light that came from it ended about a feet from the device in a small image of blue sky and brown lands instead of the red and brownish-red that was the planet of their home.

"Mother, look at them." J'onn directed his mother's attention to the beings that walked that brown land. They walked on two feet, and their whole body was veiled in which brown hair that spared only their faces, hands and feet. "They look so unlike us."

S'loal smiled and carried her son up, walking into the house with him. All about them, others were rushing into their homes to escape from the rain that was starting to fall.

[Hello, Tree'fk], J'onn heard S'loal say to their neighbor some distance away, who had rushed out to carry in his son as well.

[Hello, S'loal. I didn't see you.] Tree'fk ducked his head out of the door to give S'loal a wave, in which his son also waved to J'onn.

S'loal stopped at the door to their house and flicked a switch. At the clothes rack in the garden, the air all about shimmered a little before stabilizing.

"Mother, why don't you dry our clothes in the radiator? It's faster."

"Because it wastes energy more than the force field does, and though we have enough energy to last us for a long time, we should still try to conserve."

There was silence for a moment as J'onn took in that information as he did with others. Then he directed her focus back to the hologram.

S'loal gazed at the hairy beings in that hologram that was strong and did not flicker as the technology of other races did. That image had been taken by J'onn's father-brother when the latter had gone to that land for another routine check on that race they had named 'Man.'

"They are doing well," she commented to her son.

Alarial walked in, and heard his wife's words. "Who are?"

"Man." She nodded to the hologram J'onn held out to show his father. "Zak returned with that yesterday for our little son." She chuckled. "Bilquarion is too old for this."

"Well enough after what our people once did to them," Alarial murmured. "They seem a hardy race."

"They are."

Alarial looked at S'loal and smiled, then turned to J'onn. "Khale will be coming soon."

J'onn groaned, turning the holographic inducer off. "Why must he come? I wish to play."

"You must learn how to use your mind-speech correctly, J'onn," Alarial explained patiently. "It will do you no good to let others read your thoughts. They will be driven insane."

"That's what you always say." J'onn frowned. "But I cannot hear myself talking."

"You cannot, but others can. And we have to block out your thoughts so that they cease causing us madness with the speed you go from one thought to another!" Alarial teased.

J'onn managed a small smile as he nodded and walked to his room to keep his inducer, and to prepare for Khale's arrival.

He heard Khale's voice in his mind announcing his arrival in five tilaels, and his eleven-year-old mind noted how his tutor's voice sounded more spacious. It was a confined open-mind talk, J'onn knew, having learnt this knowledge after the last time he tried to escape from his tuition.

He sighed. Now his parents knew that Khale was reaching, and there was no means for him to escape from his lessons.