Okay, people. Here's the final chapter in "Gold Justice." If it doesn't please you, rest assured it pleases me even less.

The Gold Corps: Gold Justice, Chapter 14: Gold

Dick gave up on the doorbell, and finally just knocked on the door. He had the override codes for all the doors, but he could just see himself interrupting the two during a steamy moment. That would be hard to work past. But his alarm was mounting…

…..

Ragnar woke, with Megan's arm around him, her cheek nestled against his head. She was groaning softly, in her sleep, stirring, ever so slightly, as though in the grip of some dream. "Megan?" He gently, carefully extracted himself from within her embrace, and looked up at her face. "Megan?" Jostled her slightly.

She came awake at once. "No! I mean…" Then she paused as she realized what was going on. "You seemed like you were having a nightmare," he said, looking at her with concern. "Are you alright?"

Blushing, she remembered the parting words of the "recording" of Ragnar's mother in his head: the two of you are sleeping together. In the most literal sense of the word, that was true. And they had engaged in a form of intimacy…she found herself blushing further. "I, yes, Ragnar. I'm fine, I just….I guess I fell asleep, too."

"You seemed like you were having a-*" His comment was interrupted by Nightwing's knocking on the door interrupted him, and he went to answer it. "You two okay in there? I've been calling you…"

"Uh, yes, we, we're okay, Dick. Just, uh, give us a moment, will you?"

"Sure."

But now Megan knew she had to do, to say, something. Ragnar was looking at her with the perplexed look of someone who has part of the pieces of a puzzle, but is unsure how they go together. "Ragnar, I…look, we need to talk."

"Do we? You have the look about you of someone in possession of valuable information…" He eyed her, an expression of cautious expectation on his face. "Megan. Is there something you need to tell me?"

"I can probably show you better than I can tell you, and it would take too long to tell it, anyway. But, if you will, just open up your mind to me?" She was acutely conscious about what Ragnar's mother had said, about the psionic backlash effect built into his mind.

"Of course." He opened his mind to her, trusting her implicitly, and she touched her fingertips to his forehead. His eyes went wide as the "dream sequence" played out in his head. "My…mother?" More information crossload. Then, a look came in his eyes she'd seen before: Comprehension. He'd connected something, made a leap of logic…solved a puzzle. "Of course. It's…really rather simple." Excitedly, he grasped her by the shoulders, completing forgetting the delicate moment of a few minutes ago. "Megan, that's it! I know how to defeat the monster!"

…..

But then, in the next second, he turned from her, clutching his head, as though with a sudden headache. "No, no. That…wouldn't work. No. I couldn't…"

"What? Ragnar, what is it?"

"It…no, it wouldn't be…I couldn't…."

She could recognize the signs by now. He had something, or knew something, that he was deliberately not sharing. "Ragnar, you tell me what this is that you've thought of right now! I thought you were the one who was so gung-ho to stop the thing!"

"'Gung-ho'? What is-*"

"Don't change the subject! If we're ever to be anything more than just casual acquaintances, you have got to learn to start trusting me! Now, what is it?"

He wouldn't meet her gaze. "It…would involve putting you in danger. I am not…not willing to do that."

Nightwing appeared again at the still-open doorway. "Look, normally I'm all for the quality time thing, but we just got an urgent message from GL. Meeting in the conference room in five. Be there."

…..

The gods and Kilowog's team had pursued the monster into a gas giant's moon belt. The radiation given off by the gas giant began to affect the Green Lanterns' rings, causing "ghost" images to appear. We don't do things just right, thought Kilowog, We'll be the ghosts. "Hey, Hal," he spoke into his ring, "Just wanted ta let ya know you may have a very unwelcome visitor pokin' around in the neighborhood of Jupiter…"

….

Watchtower: J'onn J'onzz had assembled the entire team, core members as well as auxiliary. Omega level alert: Doomsday sighted on Jupiter. It was no longer of academic issue as to where the monster was; like all monsters, who seemingly thumbed their noses (those that had noses) at the laws of probability, it was here.

Mt. Justice: Nightwing assembled the entire team, in spite of the lateness of the hour. The possibility of Doomsday this close to Earth was…not to be taken lightly. And, Dick thought privately, whatever devil or minor demon was in charge of matters like these would probably make sure that, before it was all over and done with, Doomsday would put in an appearance on Earth. It had happened too often in the past for him to doubt it now. The only question was, what could they do about it? What preparations could they make? "Alright, people. This is the score: out around Jupiter, the GL Corps and some characters calling themselves New Gods—yeah, I know, never heard of 'em either—are doing their damndest—maybe literally , in the case of the gods—to pound the stuffing out of Doomsday. They might even get lucky and succeed. But we all know that's not the way to bet. Wally, I gonna need you for scout duty. Here's your patrol perimeter; under no circumstances, and I do mean no circumstances, are you to try anything against the monster directly. I don't care if you see forty-seven nuns in danger, I need that information more than we need a dead hero. Aqualad, I need you on standby. Superboy, you, M'gann, Ragnar, you're with m—wait. Where's Ragnar?"

At that moment, the only Gold Lantern in the universe was just exiting the outer atmosphere, his ring filling him in on location data. It wasn't hard to find; even with the interference from Jupiter itself, the energies being released were visible from Earth.

He didn't like what he had to do one bit, but he was determined that he should do it. He saw no other course of action. Not if others were to live.

He was under no illusions regarding his ring versus those of the Green Lanterns, but he had found that he used his ring's power slightly differently: whereas they created solid light objects which they wielded as weapons, he tended to utilize the energies of his ring directly. Maybe it was due to a different mindset.

Also, if his plan went as he both hoped and feared it would, this wouldn't be about power rings at all.

The battle had already consumed two of Jupiter's smaller moons, their fragments an expanding cloud of debris that obscured both the monster and monster hunters. Kilowog ordered his strike team back; they didn't need to be caught unawares, as Lightray had been. Unlike the gods, they could be altogether too easily killed.

Highfather scanned for any sign of the beast, using his mother box like an Earthly Geiger counter. But what it told him caused even his battle-wise eyes to widen. "Green Lantern! You might wish to contact your superiors, these so-called Guardians, immediately! They are preparing to quarantine this entire star system!"

….

Oa: {{But have we no other choice? What we do here, now, this day, will mean certain death for everyone there, including our own corps members!}}

Paalko's mental "voice" had never sounded more solemn. {{We cannot risk this creature getting loose again. You have already seen the destruction the thing has caused. We have it trapped, stymied in Sol's star system, but only for the moment. We must act while we can. We may not have another such opportunity.}}

In the shocked silence that followed, Ganthet "spoke": {{Are we sure this subquantum containment field will hold it? It seems to make a practice of overcoming all obstacles.}}

{{Nothing is certain. But we must weigh the needs of the galaxy, indeed, even the entire universe, against the needs of the comparatively few. Once in place, the force-field can then be disconnected from this reality, set adrift in hypertime itself. Even this monster could not come back from the Void beyond all things. But we must act quickly, while our strike team and these so-called "New Gods" have the thing stopped. For now.}}

Still Ganthet dithered. {{We must be sure. Once in place, this containment field will be permanent and cannot be breached, either by us or by means of the warp tubes these gods utilize. They would all be trapped, and there would be no undoing that decision. It behooves us to be certain.}} Pause. Then, {{But I regret to say I have no other viable courses of action to suggest.}}

…..

Ragnar reached the edge of the expanding dust cloud that had once been one of Jupiter's minor moons. He used his ring, not to search for the monster, but to search for the place it would most likely be…

Onboard her bioship, an extremely irritated Miss Martian was just crossing the asteroid belt. Of course. The one place in all creation where this absolute fool of a boy would be heading. She didn't even have to know what his course was. She already knew where he'd end up.

She'd run out on Nightwing's desperate calls, both angry and, yes, terrified as she'd never been before. She knew Ragnar well enough to know where he was headed.

Kilowog had dropped back from the battle, and was on "comm." mode, talking to the Guardians. "Yessirs, but we really think between us, we have a chance. This guy, calls himself 'Highfather,'z, got this, like, incredibly powerful scepter. It stopped the thing once before, on its lowest setting. Now he's gonna give it whatever it takes. Full power.

"Yeah, I can't say the solar system will ever be the same again, but…what? No, we really do a fighting chance here. Give us just a few minutes. The thing's using this dust cloud it's created, and it—hey, what was that?" The Martian bioship silently whooshed past him, heading for the very same dust cloud. Is there anybody not here? Mebbe I should take a head count…

But once here, Megan didn't really have an exact fix on Ragnar's position. Her bioship's hyperdar scans, however, picked up in a massively powerful form headed her way…

"There!" Izaya pointed with his scepter, as the grey horror emerged from the cloud and charged the girl, just then exiting her ship. She'd already shifted her personal form to survive in space, at least for a moment.

The monster came at her. "Oh, shuttup!" She yelled at the thing, "I'm not even here for you, and you've already pissed me off!" She landed a powerful two-handed blow on the creature's misshapen skull. She kept her distance, scanning for Ragnar. He should be here, somewhere.

The monster was caught momentarily off-guard by her haymaker, but it recovered in the space of microseconds, and, using its newly-developed electromagnetic traction field, again came at her, even as the Green Lanterns and the gods raced towards them. It could kill her, then deal with them at its leisure. This one would be easy, and was closer…

Miss Martian knew that, physically, she was completely out of her league. And she still didn't know where Ragnar had gotten off to. When she found him, he would get such a earful…

The monster struck her an unexpected blow, and only her own changeable metabolism saved her from being torn in two. She quickly ghosted out from the creature's reach, and attacked it with her mind…

The monster's mind was a nova of rage and hate, with very little actual thought, at least, as most beings recognize it. It only knew that it must survive, and that survival meant that every other living creature in the entire universe must die.

She reeled, as the creature adapted to her mental attack, fighting back with new adaptations of its own. The oncoming gods and Lanterns were closing the distance between them as fast as they could, but even so, they were still too far away for any effective attack that would not include her as a casualty…

Miss Martian screamed in agony as the creature's newly developed telepathy tore into her own mind. She pressed her hands to the side of her head, knowing it would do no good, even as a part of her warned her: it is coming. Get away. But even with that, she still wanted to find her total idiot of a boyfriend and get him as far away from this mess as was possible…

And Ragnar appeared out of nowhere, interposing himself between them, lasering the monster precisely in the eyes, catching it off guard, the beams of golden light focused and refocused through the lenses of the monster's own eyes, burning into the interior of the monster's eyeballs, and sending it tumbling away, its hands reflexively covering its face. But only for a moment. The thing immediately turned to this new attacker, even as its eyes healed, and, as it always had before, struck back with everything at its disposal. Including its new telepathic power….

…And the psionic backlash effect Ragnar's parents had implanted within him struck, cleaving through the monster's mind like a war axe, obliterating both thought and emotion. In the space of a nanosecond, the monster's mind was erased, made into a tabula rasa, a clean slate. Even the strands of its own highly-adaptable genetic code, that had carried the memory of its various incarnations down through the centuries, altered slightly, unkinking just a bit, here and there. Doomsday had existed for so long, fueled by rage…but now, that emotion was gone, even as was all its limited cognitive ability.

Without its rage, the monster...was no more. It simply floated there, a mindless husk, without even enough mind to ask itself why.

Megan came to with Ragnar and the others, Green Lanterns and gods alike, clustered around her. "Megan! Are you alright?"

Groggily, painfully, she put a hand to her head. They must have artificially generated an area of breathable air here, because she found herself gasping. "Am I-* Ragnar? What, what happened?"

"I'm sorry, Megan, but I couldn't tell you. You had to go up against the creature just long enough for it to develop some telepathic power, then I attacked it. When it tried to attack my mind, the psychic backlash my parents instilled in me took over, effectively wiping the monster's mind. I couldn't tell you, lest the thing sense that when it attacked you. I…." A look of pure pain seemed permanently etched across his face. "I…am sorry. Please…please forgive me!"

Her head was still pounding, but some things were beginning to make sense. And the thing making the most sense right then was the sense of outrage. "You…you manipulated me! You knew I'd follow you out here, knew I'd….! You counted on that! You used me, Ragnar!" She looked at him , an expression of pure rage transforming her face into an ugly mask. "And, and to think I-*" And then she did something she'd never done before, in her entire life: she palm-slapped him, with all her Martian strength. Caught off-guard, he tumbled end over end, crashing into Kilowog. The only thing that had kept his head on his shoulders was his ring's natural shielding. "I never wanna see you again! You hear me? Never! Friends trust each other, Ragnar!" And she summoned her bioship, which had been keeping station out beyond the reach of the confrontation. Got in it, and jetted off for Earth.

Kilowog noticed Ragnar's expression. "She…doesn't mean that, kid. She's just…upset. Sometimes…sometimes we say things, y'know, when we're…upset that…I mean…"

"I thank you, Lantern Kilowog, but I'm afraid she does."

Highfather and the gods conferred. The personal business between the golden garbed ring user and the Martian girl was none of their concern. Kilowog was communicating with the Guardians, and shortly a hologram of Ganthet appeared in their midst. "Well done, Lanterns." He nodded towards the gods. "We will now take the monster's body into custody, for safekeeping, in one of our sciencecells. There, perhaps we can study it, now that the matter of its lethality has been…addressed."

"No," Izaya growled. "We will take the monster's mindless body with us. We are, after all, better equipped to hold and study it than you are."

"One might note that your record for keeping it secure could tolerate substantial improvement."

"Whoa, hold it." Kilowog got between Highfather and Ganthet. "B'fore we start another Galaxy War Three, how about this: why don't you each take a half?"

"A half?" Mused Ganthet. Izaya mirrored his puzzlement momentarily, but then caught on. "But…the creature would surely regenerate…"

"Meaning you'd have two Doomsdays, yeah, I know. But, if needed, y' could put those two ta fightin' it out, mebbe on some isolated planet, until, until heat death o' the universe or somethin'. You could then quarantine the whole planet if ya had to. Plus, in the meantime, you'd each have somethin' ta study."

"Hm." Highfather rubbed his chin. That…was a surprisingly logical chain of thought, for a mortal. Tactically, it made a certain amount of sense. "Well, I suppose…"

"If you…" And Ganthet nodded, indicating the assembled gods, "can guarantee the safe keeping of your half…"

Highfather inclined his head, not at Ganthet, but at Orion, who was already building up another head of steam, ready for another conflict. And more conflict wouldn't solve anything, not now. "We are agreeable to this, if you are."

"Highfather!"

"Be silent, my son. There is a time for war, and there is a time for peace. This is a such a time, inasmuch as our goals coincide with the Guardians. There is no need to fight over this matter; that would be counterproductive."

"Very well." Ganthet turned to Kilowog. "We'll need an interspacial shear plane to divide the monster's body…" And they all turned to Doomsday….

…But Doomsday was no longer there. Nor was there any trace of Ragnar Rok, the Gold Lantern.

Earth, Mt. Justice: Miss Martian landed her bioship, and practically boiled out of the cockpit, still seething. Of all the nerve! How dare he!

Ignoring Nightwing's concerned questions, and ignoring everybody else, she stormed into her room. Megan Morse, as she was known on Earth, had never really realized that she had such a temper. But she made up for lost time, kicking and breaking almost everything kickable and breakable before stopping for breath.

A certain Gold Lantern was going to get such a talking to, when he showed back up! She'd never been this angry. With anyone. Over anything.

Out past the orbit of Pluto: Ragnar Rok, the only Gold Lantern in the universe, looked back at the star system he was just leaving. His eyes were somewhat better than standard human eyes, and he could ever so faintly see, or imagined he could see, the tiny bluish-white pinpoint of light, the third one out from the sun.

He couldn't blame her. He had manipulated her. And the bad part was, if he had to do it all over again, he'd probably do the same thing.

Dying in battle was nothing compared to giving up one's life, the life one had hoped for. Death was not to be feared, for it was the end. It was the living that was hard.

So he couldn't hold it against her, that she hated him now. He wasn't too fond of himself. Sighing there, in the airlessness of space, he remembered the good times, the times when he'd held her, when she'd held him…the time they'd kissed. He projected that moment with his ring, held that image, that sensation in his head for just a moment….

….and then turned away, letting the image fade. No, there was nothing for him back there. He had lost everything when he lost her. There was nothing left for him on Earth. Even memories of the past were painful.

He glanced back at the form he was towing, the hulking gray biped. In a sense of the word, the thing, even though mindless, was still the closest thing he had in all creation to a relative. And it's my responsibility.

He looked outward, beyond the galactic spiral. The great galaxy in the constellation humans called Andromeda was the faintest smudge. It would take him a long time to get there, even at his top speed, which he didn't even know. But get there he would. Perhaps he would make new friends there. Perhaps Sarah was there.

He sped off through the inky blackness of space, towing his genetic brother behind him.

Earth, Mt. Justice: Megan sat in her room, still steaming. Of all the nerve! Typical boy: don't tell the girl anything, you can't trust girls, everybody knew they were all stupid and emotional, anyway. Yes, that was the way boys thought. When he got back, they were definitely gonna have to have it out.

Yes, when he got back, they were definitely going to have to have a serious discussion about certain trust issues. If there was EVER to be anything, anything at all, between them…

11:30 PM: She still couldn't sleep, being too worked up. Ragnar hadn't come back yet—probably out with his buddies, out there, doing who knows what, having a good laugh at the way he'd fooled her. Except…she couldn't see him as ever laughing at her. No matter what the reason. In fact, come to think of it, she couldn't even see him as laughing, period, about anything.

Well. When he got back…a definite heart-to-heart. That was settled.

1:30 AM: What could he be doing out there so long? They both had school tomorrow—well, today, she corrected, glancing at her clock, and she knew they both needed their rest. She smiled a rueful smile as she remembered hitting him. She'd thrown punches before, but this was the first time she'd ever actually slapped anyone. But he deserved it. Yes, he certainly deserved it. She'd been so furious that she'd even used her Martian strength…okay, so that was uncalled for, maybe. Good thing that ring of his kept his head from flying off his shoulders. She guessed on some level she had to have been aware of that, had counted on it.

So where was he?

2:45 AM: She wished he'd get back from wherever he was so they could get this thrashed out. She wasn't seething anymore, and maybe, just maybe she'd…said a couple of things she maybe shouldn't have, or could've put some things she did say in a different way. But that didn't excuse him! Oh, no!

3:51 AM: Maybe she should call the GL's, see what was keeping him so long. But then she thought better of it. No, best not to let him see any hint of weakness in her…

5:16 AM….

Gold is a chemical element, atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a soft, malleable metal often used in jewelry and most frequently found as a unit of exchange in those worlds within the Reach of Man. Gold is an element, a metal that does not tarnish nor rust. It does not oxidize or corrode. Unless tampered with, it remains in its native environment, unchanged, unchangeable, immutable, and alone. Always alone.

The End