Summary: Dick challenges the fierce Amazon Troia for the Helm of Nabu. Enter Dr. Fate…
Love, Fate, and the Multiverse
By Syl Francis
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Flashpoint: Dr. Fate vs Troia
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Dick glared at the teenage girl—a deadly Amazon warrior—hovering before him. She was close to his age, almost fourteen, certainly not much older. He had been running and dodging the flying hordes of Amazons for the past few weeks as they swarmed the countryside, annihilating all that stood in their way. This was the first time he had come this close to one. He had known they were beautiful, but until this very moment, he hadn't realized just how stunning a figure they cut.
She landed gracefully, keeping a good ten feet of distance between them. Her dinted battle armor, scarred from numerous encounters against the Atlantean forces, glinted in the rays of the late afternoon sun—silver shoulder guards, red breastplate with a silver inlaid eagle, blue midthigh-length skirt, and silver knee-high leg guards. She also had a golden lasso hanging from her narrow waist. Wrist-to-elbow Amazon bracelets glinted in the sunlight, completing the dangerous picture.
Okay, so this isn't exactly a play date, Dick thought.
Despite himself—knowing who she was and what her kind had already done—Dick was dumbstruck by her ethereal beauty. Even though she looked barely out of pigtails, her sapphire eyes, blazing in anger, held him enthralled. Her raven hair seemed to have a life of its own as it floated in undulating waves behind her in the soft evening breeze. He couldn't help wondering how anything so lovely on the outside could be so cold and cruel on the inside…capable of such wanton savagery.
Having witnessed the deaths of everyone he loved at the hands of this race of murderous female warriors, Dick could attest to their barbarity. After only a few months, the Themyscira-Atlantis War had already wreaked havoc on the civilian population and cities throughout the world. Paris lay in ruins all around him, a result of a three-day battle between the Amazons and the Atlantean army. All that remained of the Arc de Triomphe was a smoking pile of rubble. The Louvre had been ransacked, and then razed to the ground; while, the Eiffel Tower lay on its side, its twisted skeletal remains, melted almost beyond all recognition.
Dick's own mother and father had been killed less than four weeks ago, when the Amazons launched an unprovoked attack on Haly's Circus. He'd been forced to watch as his parents plummeted to their deaths after the trapeze ropes were sheared by the golden-skinned alien's green starbolts.
If it weren't for Boston Brand holding him back, Dick might have jumped after them in a vain attempt to save them…or perhaps, to go with them. He still wasn't sure what his intentions had been. At the time, the survivors of the attack had barely escaped with their lives. Sadly, Boston was also gone now—killed a few days while protecting Dick during an ambush. Almost the entire circus troupe had also been lost: Pop Haly, the Donner Twins, Maggie the Tattooed Lady, and the Great Marko.
He had known them all his life; they were more like family than mere colleagues. All, that is, except Kent Nelson who had joined them the previous year outside of Cairo as a fortuneteller. Unlike most members of his profession, Nelson had no obvious shtick. He used no crystal ball, didn't burn incense, disdained Tarot cards, and turned up his nose at the Zodiac. He generally sat outside his tent, reading quietly as he waited for a customer to wander by.
Dick had watched him work on only one occasion. The incident had left the young acrobat wondering if Nelson was in fact the real deal. Curious about the enigmatic "Dr. Fate," as Nelson called himself, Dick had sneaked into the fortuneteller's tent by crawling under one of the flaps. The boy had hid under the lone table, which stood in the center of the tent. The table had two chairs and was covered by a tablecloth that hung all the way to the floor on each side. Dick hoped he'd be able to observe everything that happened while remaining unseen.
Just as Dick was beginning to be afraid that he'd die of boredom before anything happened, Nelson invited a customer—a middle-aged woman who was dressed in a manner intended to make her look younger—into his tent. Dick didn't think that she'd been very successful.
After the woman and Nelson sat down, Nelson began asking her a series of questions. To Dick they sounded somewhat random, not at all the way Madame Giselle had run it. Once the question and answer session was over, Nelson stood and walked behind a partition at the back of the tent that Dick hadn't noticed previously. As soon as Nelson stepped behind the partition, a bright golden glow emitted from there. After another minute passed, the strange light died out and Nelson reappeared.
As he stepped back out, the impatiently waiting woman eagerly asked him what he'd found out. "Will I meet a handsome stranger and live happily ever after? What about money? Will I win the lottery? Will all my wishes come true?" As she fired off these questions, she spoke coquettishly, batting her eyelashes and giggling in a high girlish manner.
Nelson stared at her pityingly and began to speak in a low, dispassionate voice. "Dr. Fate knows all, sees all. You are fated to live out your empty existence alone. As you entered this plane—alone and unwanted by a mother who gave you away—you will leave it. There will be no husband, no children, no one to love you while you live; no one to mourn your final passing; no one to remember you after you are gone. Dr. Fate has spoken."
Before Nelson was done with his reading, the woman was sobbing in hysterics, pleading at him to stop. However, he continued relentlessly, coldly until he came to the end. At that point, Nelson suddenly grabbed his head as if in pain and fell over in a faint. The woman ran out, sobbing brokenheartedly.
Nelson came to almost immediately. As he sat up, he called out. "Dick, you can come out now." Shocked, Dick emerged from his hiding place, wondering how much trouble he was in. As if reading his mind, Nelson reassured him. "Don't worry, Dick…I'm not upset and you're not in trouble. I've been expecting you. I have something to show you, something important."
That something turned out to be the Helm of Nabu. Nelson had informed him that he had seen a darkness coming soon. And while he was unable to see his own future, in the visions he had been privy to, he had not seen himself in any of them. He had then tasked Dick to keep the mystical helmet safe, away from both Themyscira and Atlantis. Nelson had also warned him not to put the helm on because it was too dangerous.
So now, Dick was the only one left. Standing there, defiant against a slip of a girl who could easily slice him in half as look at him, Dick felt something deep and primal take hold inside him. If fate had decreed that today was his last day on this world, then so be it. He was a Flying Grayson, raised from birth to laugh at death.
I defy you, stars! Do your worst!
"I order you to turn over the Helm of Nabu to me, impudent boy," Troia said imperiously. Brandishing her sword threateningly, she pointed it at his heart. As she did, the finely hewn sword flashed in the fading sunlight. "Or face the consequences!"
Troia glowered darkly at the mere human boy, who dared to stand up to her—a princess of the Royal House of Themyscira. She and her personal attendant Koriand'r of Tamaran had been after this man-child for the better part of four weeks.
"You want this, witch?" Dick taunted, hefting the golden object in question. "Why don't you try to take it?" With those words, the mere boy placed the mystic helm on his head.
Troia could only stand by and fume impotently as the boy was suddenly and dramatically transformed into the powerful mage, Dr. Fate.
The Lord of Order rose into the air, the golden helm of Nabu winking in the quickly receding sunlight. The mage's Cloak of Destiny billowed in the gentle breeze, while a soft glow from the center of his chest announced the powerful presence of the Amulet of Anubis.
"Amazon, you are but one insignificant manifestation of a soul," Dr. Fate intoned, "which was divided an infinite number of times by the Dark Angel, a servant of Chaos. You were cast out upon the multiverse to live countless lives—all destined to suffer great physical and emotional pain."
"How dare you speak to me in such a way? I am Her Royal Highness, Princess Troia of the Royal House of Themyscira. My mother was Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons—murdered by the villainous Orin of Atlantis. This underling, whose body you now inhabit, has kept the Helm of Nabu from the Amazons, its rightful owners. We claim it as spoils of war!"
"No one claims a Lord of Order to do their bidding. The Helm of Nabu goes where he himself commands! This universe was created by the Dark Angel to force you to destroy all those whom you cherish and hold dear. This body whom I inhabit is one such."
"That youngling?" Troia spat. "I am an Amazon. I do not cavort with males. They are traitorous, base individuals. They use women for their pleasure and then discard them as a child discards a toy she has outgrown…Or worse, they treat women as chattel and expect them to wait on them hand and foot and bear their brats." Fisting both hands around the sword handle, the Amazon princess glared menacingly at the powerful mage. "I'd rather die a thousand deaths than let any man lay his filthy hands on me!"
"I see thousands of worlds where you have achieved your twisted wish…Worlds where those you should have loved and protected were killed by your own hand. But I also see one in which you and Richard Grayson are meant to be of one soul and one mind."
As Dr. Fate spoke stoically, almost dispassionately, the Amulet of Anubis began to glow brighter, projecting a mystical ankh of power. "Your many lives have been one endless torment after another. And with your suffering, your soul drags an entire reality to suffer along with you. You and countless, nameless innocent souls were cast into this…this realm of Tartarus, if you will…because of the misplaced hatred the Dark Angel has for you."
"I don't know what you're talking about! Who is this 'Dark Angel'?" Troia demanded. "If she is an enemy, then I shall smite her as I do all those who dare stand against Themyscira!"
"To break this cycle of endless death and suffering," Dr. Fate continued, ignoring the interruption, "you must live the life you were meant to before the Dark Angel cast her curse upon you." As he spoke, the occult forces Dr. Fate commanded began swirling around him; the wind picked up speed until it became a mighty whirlwind, lifting and tossing about everything in its path.
The young Amazon was forced to seek shelter from the sudden maelstrom she found herself in. What sort of black arts is this? She wondered in awe. As she looked on, the initial burnished glow from the amulet on Dr. Fate's chest began to grow brighter and to expand outwardly until a golden, shimmering bubble enveloped him. The power that radiated from the mage himself was frightening in its immensity. Troia had to hold her hands over her eyes to shield them from its dazzling brilliance. As she hid behind a protective wall, she suddenly recalled the myth of the cowering Semele who was forced to prostrate herself before Zeus when he appeared to her in all his bright, shining glory.
That story didn't end well, she suddenly remembered.
"Behold the forces of Order!" Dr. Fate cried out, holding his arms straight out to either side of him as his power continued to build. After what seemed an eternity, but could have been mere seconds, he brought his hands together in a thunderous boom that reverberated across the multiverse.
"Fate will intervene!"
The universe winked out.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
End of Part 4
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Acknowledgements: Some dialogue and story ideas borrowed from the following: The New Teen Titans #38; Tales of the Teen Titans #50; Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1-3; The Return of Donna Troy #1-4; Blackest Night: Batman #1-3; Justice League of America #41; Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1-3; The New 52: Batman and Robin #10
Copyright: February 2013