CXLII
Darkseid vs. Trigon
One thousand years…
One thousand worlds destroyed.
One trillion lives – their molecules disassembled by His will.
Their souls harnessed within His own.
Their emerald champions crushed underfoot.
One trillion candles of the Source He placed before His alter
Until He burned with its power - a Supernova of destruction.
He - who had began as a God – became even more than a God.
He who was Revenge. He who was Absolute. He who was Trigon.
And yet…
For all His power and all His might…
Four cruel stakes in a cross…
He could never move.
A crucified Goddess eternally bound.
His cry of horrifying anguish tore across the green-domed heavens of Maltus, echoing across abandoned skies. Weary in titanic defeat, Trigon the Terrible finally ceased his colossal struggle against the Guardian's stake that affixed his first-born daughter to their cross. He had pulled with force enough to dislodge an entire solar system… even pulling doomed Maltus from its orbit… and yet the cruel spike remained unmoved. Fatigued, Trigon collapsed upon the ground in front of the crucifix which held an invisible Goddess.
"Father, these stakes were Fated to remain by the power of Ananke. They are beyond any power in existence to remove."
Just as she had no true body, Abraxas also had no true voice. Her 'words' were nothing more than a foreign voice in his head, her unseen thoughts projected into his.
"I will free you, Abraxas!"
Trigon's angry roar covered the entire world as he renewed his efforts - employing the full power of the Omega Effect to displace the green stakes that enslaved his first-born daughter… power that could have even displaced a star… all to no effect.
"Raven will free me."
"Raven?!" Trigon was incredulous. "How will Raven free you, Abraxas? What power does she have that your Father does not?!"
"Raven will come for us and we shall be free. Do not grieve for me, Father - unless you grieve for what has been done in my name. The lives that have been taken…"
Trigon scoffed arrogantly.
"Abraxas you misguided, little fool… The Lanterns had to die. Did I not warn you of the Prophecy? I have seen it! Darkseid will corrupt the Green Lantern Corps and rule this Universe - I have seen the skies of the Prophecy of Stone and they are green!…
Even though your sister has infected you with these foolish notions, do not bother to engage in the morality of mortals, my naïve daughter. As a true-born Goddess, you are above such concerns."
"Life is preferable to Death, Father."
"And Death is preferable to Anti-Life. I offered a better choice. Do not allow the fools of Azarath to corrupt your thinking."
"Hatred has corrupted yours."
"Hatred?... Hatred does not corrupt me girl, I am Hatred. I was born of Hatred. And like your Father, you were born of Hatred as well…"
"I am the only child of Suli and Drax… and not the child of Trigon. This thing called Trigon that you have become is the darkest shade of my Father's hatred... but it is not my Father."
"Darkseid stole the God that sired you, first-born. Drax is no more, murdered in the Infinity Pit. Only Trigon was strong enough to live on."
"Darkseid killed my true Father. I curse his name."
Trigon stood up to his full God-height of two hundred feet. With sadness in his remaining three eyes, he stared directly at the emptiness hanging upon the cross, gently reaching out his large hand until it touched what should have been the face of Abraxas - as bewildered emotions shot through his forearm as he sought out the sensation of an unseen daughter.
Abraxas was incorporeal. She did not belong to the material realm, but she could still be felt as an emotional presence… a ghost of sensation and thoughts manifested in the psyche. In his own mind, Trigon pictured Abraxas as beautiful… a young Suli with touches of Raven as well. Abraxas would be dark-haired with golden skin, possessing the grace and sharp eyes of her sublime mother.
"Is that what I look like, Father?"
"…Yes."
"I am so beautiful… like mother!"
"You are…" A low, sad moan emanated from Trigon. "And I have failed you, my daughter. My promise was that I would free you from this slavery!"
"You have freed Me… by siring Raven. It is my sister who shall free us. You must give Raven the inheritance you intended when the six Gods of Maltus are named."
"But how, Abraxas?…"
A deep, familiar voice behind them reignited the fires of hatred within Trigon once more. This was a private conversation between Father and Daughter no longer…
The war had returned to Maltus.
Darkseid had returned to Maltus.
Darkseid's mocking laughter erupted as Trigon spun around to face the object of one thousand years of bitter abhorrence… his brother.
"How like you brother… to be undone by a woman! Even your own daughter has reduced you to wretched failure."
"It was not a woman's hand who caved in my skull within the Infinity Pits, Darkseid… Or had you forgotten?"
"Oh I have not, Brother. But it was for the love of a woman for which such brutality was born… Women have always been your downfall, Drax."
"For the love of a woman, Darkseid?... Or for the love of power? You lost your grip upon Suli much easier than any power you've ever held. Had you truly loved her, she would not have dragged me so eagerly to your own bed, dear Brother."
"You may take your petty victories from the past, loutish oaf… The present brings naught but the realization of your abject failure. The slow war Trigon has waged with the Lanterns for one thousand years has now ended. On this very day, blackest night has fallen upon the last remnants of that emerald reign… which means your revenge is complete, dear Abraxas. Both you –and the Universe itself - require hateful Trigon no longer. The incompetent fool is finished."
"NOOOO!"
Burning with the divine power of the Source and his own primal ferocity, Trigon crossed the distance between them at the speed of light, instantly slamming strong, crimson fists into the stone head of a surprised God - the two Titans tumbling to the ground, dislodging the tectonic plate where they impacted. Instinctively, Darkseid's deadly Omega Beams shot from his eyes slamming against his fierce assailant…
…To no avail.
"We are both of the Omega Effect, Brother…"
Trigon's crashing fist slammed into Darkseid's skull from above as the Tyrant's blue helmet suddenly shattered, broken pieces crumbling and falling to the dust. As an enraged Trigon held Darkseid's throat to the ground, the next blow produced a sonic boom across Maltus, leaving tiny fissures along Darkseid's rocky skull.
Vainly, Darkseid attempted to remove Trigon's firm grip from his throat, but the God of Revenge could not be moved. With Omega Energy spilling from his illuminated eyes, prone Darkseid was unable to remove his enraged brother from atop Him – or to prevent the savage fist of Trigon from striking him again. Another fierce, crimson blow to his grey skull momentarily dislodged Darkseid's blurry thoughts.
With each thudding crack of Darkseid's cranium against the planet's surface, magic became alive in the atmosphere around them. With every blow, lightning shot across the sky as new earthquakes tore open the surface of Maltus. Darkseid was driven deeper into the earth itself while Trigon and his avenging fist followed. The wrath of the God of Revenge was tearing the very planet apart as they feel hundreds of feet into a fissure.
The six Gods imprisoned upon the crosses on Maltus knew the God who had betrayed them... And avenging Trigon could serve no greater cause for these betrayed deities than to destroy treacherous Darkseid. Each of them now understood that had Abraxas but named Darkseid as the target of her revenge one thousand years before (and not the Green Lantern Corps), Darkseid would have perished shortly thereafter.
Trigon was the rebirth of Nemesis.
The retribution of the Gods upon anything that dared to challenge their superiority.
As the pains of anguish spilled from Darkseid's swollen mouth, Trigon's laughter joined it in a maniacal chorus. This was right. This was his shining moment. Darkseid had dared too much against the Universe - allowing Trigon his final retribution upon the power-mad fool.
Finally… the God of Revenge would be allowed to act upon his own will! The burning desire that had kept him alive through eons of floating through coldest space now became expressed through mighty blows. Darkseid had been sorely mistaken… Trigon was not done… not while the God of Tyranny still lived and breathed.
As Drax had been bludgeoned unmercifully in the Pit so many years before, justice for that crime would now be properly dispensed. For all his plots and schemes upon bleak Apokolips, Darkseid was no match for the Destroyer of One Thousand Worlds, the God of Revenge… Nemesis itself.
But before Oblivion came to the grey God, fifty-thousand beams of streaking grey energy struck Trigon upon his back, suddenly illuminating one half of the planet's surface like sunrise… But it could not penetrate the darkness held in the heart of Trigon. The crimson God wrapped his other hand around the Tyrant's throat – to snap it once and for all. There would be no mercy shown this day…
Within the shattered chasm they had created, one-hundred-thousand new beams suddenly pierced Trigon's back until he wailed in agony - God-flesh burning from his glowing hide as though he had been thrust against the sun itself… but still the God of Revenge would not let go.
He would not let go.
From the sky, one-hundred-thousand more of the Manhunters' cruel beams struck Trigon… this time pulling him from his victim. All together, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand combined beams of power strained to pull Trigon from Darkseid, to pull his murderous clutches from the Tyrant's mangled, stony neck.
As a struggling Trigon was slowly pulled to the side of their master (the power levels of all Manhunters dipping dangerously low) a beaten Darkseid brought the thing into existence he had long desired. The technology that Metron had developed to subdue to mighty Yuga Khan would subdue his first-born son.
In his hand, Darkseid manifested the same long, emerald spike that held six Gods on crosses above them. The Omega Effect could create as easily as it could destroy. This was the final nail of his empire…
As Trigon was pushed against the bedrock walls of the crack his wrath had wrought by a quarter million energy beams, a swollen-eyed Darkseid plunged the cruel stake through the heart of Revenge as Trigon gasped. The emerald spike engaged – the strand of Ananke connecting Trigon to the stony wall directly piercing his dark heart.
Through a broken jaw, stumbling Darkseid chuckled and spit out blood…
"Asth I thaid, Brohher… Undon by h'a whomann."
Darkseid fell backwards, further away from the clutching grasp of Trigon. With Darkseid's eyes swelling shut, the battered God teleported himself back to the planet's surface –aware of the God of Revenge's screamed curses below him. Scream all he like, the power of the Source that Trigon had harvested for a thousand years would soon belong to Darkseid.
The spikes not only held Gods in place, they also transferred their power to the one million batteries embedded in all Manhunters who recognized only one supreme will.
The will of Darkseid.
Harnessing the Omega Effect, Darkseid now used it upon himself - to repair his badly beaten face and throat. He had underestimated Trigon severely – and yet, the removal of the Guardians upon Oa should have undermined his brother's reason to exist. Perhaps he did not fully understand the nature of Trigon's reality. It no longer mattered though, Darkseid had achieved his immediate objective…
Trigon had become the seventh God imprisoned upon Maltus.
And his power now belonged to the Manhunters.
To Darkseid.
Now healed, a refreshed Darkseid reached out his consciousness to examine the effect his battle with Trigon had upon the Manhunters. Their power levels had been diminished significantly, down to only six percent. Even the Central Power Battery on Oa had been depleted from ninety-eight to just seventeen percent.
Darkseid had learned many things this day. He had learned that Revenge was a force to be reckoned with.
However, with Trigon finally defeated, Darkseid was able to switch his Manhunters back to Maltus as their primary power source, thereby allowing Oa to recharge. The energy from Oa had been indispensable - as the green energy of the Gods of Maltus would be as ineffective against Trigon as it had been against him.
Darkseid had long known that securing Oa and its Sciencells would be the key to defeating Trigon. He had thought that it would be a twofold triumph over his brother though – first giving him a new energy source capable of subduing the dangerous Trigon and secondly removing Abraxas's reason for revenge. The Guardians were as good as gone. At least he had been correct on the first assumption. It was probable that he had now been included in his niece's plans for revenge. Truly, that should not have come as a surprise…
Deep in thought, the triumphant God of Tyranny slowly strode towards the fourth crucifix… towards a figure of beautiful, feminine glass. As he approached, various scenes of his own past reflected within his own daughter, Zareah. Transfixed, he gravely stood before her.
"It has been a long time, second-born. Such images you have to show. It is a pity I could not take you back to my throne upon Apokolips…"
Silent Zareah became illuminated with the brightness of day as singing birds danced above the smiles of a thousand faces… until Darkseid continued.
"… I'm sure we could polish you as a looking glass for me to gaze upon my infinite empire. You could finally achieve your true purpose in life, my dear… as a pretty viewing screen."
Zareah became pitch black as cruel Darkseid's mocking laughter filled the ears of all the Gods upon Maltus…
...Ceasing only when the sudden clap of a Boom Tube sounded behind him.
Author's Note:
Just a reminder that Trigon was never free to act upon his own will. He is an omnipotent tool of revenge used by the Gods... otherwise he could have pounded Darkseid into the dirt a long time ago. As the reborn manifestation of Nemesis, he was fate-bound to another God's instruction for revenge against those that had wronged them. In this case, it was tragic, naïve Abraxas who instructed him to punish the 'mortal' Guardians and their Green Lanterns for her imprisonment on Maltus.
However, divine retribution works in mysterious ways… Trigon never wanted to kill the Guardians quickly. Instead, he wanted to take his time and harvest as much power as possible by killing as many worlds as possible. He wanted to eventually create a whole new Universe with that power to circumvent the Prophecy of Stone. While creating a whole new Universe would have certainly destroyed the Guardians (and everyone else) the role of Nemesis was not truly being fulfilled.
So, even though ambitious Trigon never really destroyed the Guardians, evil Darkseid did. And the primary reason that Darkseid brought them down was that he needed a way to defeat Trigon. Thus - in an ironic and roundabout way - Trigon did bring about the Guardians' downfall for their Hubris against maligned Abraxas.
And in case you're wondering… In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the Goddess of Revenge - the unstoppable force of divine retribution. She would punish anything guilty of Hubris (extreme pride or arrogance). For example, mortals who boastfully declared themselves greater than even the Gods usually met with tragic, ironic ends at her hands…
Next Chapter – Darkseid vs. Izaya!