Content Warning: This chapter touches very briefly on themes of intrusive thoughts, self-harm and religious trauma.
APOKOLIPS
September 19, 05:42 UTC
Glimmer watched in horror as Bow waved his namesake weapon in the air, desperately trying to distract the Parademon queen from the helpless Kara. His gambit proved a little too successful as the titan turned, bringing a mammoth paw down on the ant-like archer.
"BOOOOW!" Glimmer screamed.
The world froze.
Literally.
The Paraqueen's claws were still, hanging over the frozen Bow like stalactites. Glimmer didn't stop to question, racing to push Bow clear only to go tumbling through him like he was made of mist.
Everything for that matter was hazy and unreal, as though seen through a pale fog.
"What… What's going on?" Glimmer muttered. "Where am I?"
In the moment between moments…
The voice was not heard as much as felt, like an icy star-wind without sound or gender. Glimmer tried to repress the chill in her gut as she turned to confront the speaker.
The Entity was a floating black diamond. Not like the irregular chunk of compressed carbon they'd been sent to 'liberate' from Apokolips, but a perfect geometric form composed of angles and planes of purest obsidian. It was like the idea of a diamond, something that could not exist in the broken world of flawed matter.
Glimmer tensed, sensing the scrutiny of some unknown intelligence upon her.
"Who… what are you?"
I am many things.
I am the One True Path from which none may stray.
I am a Lord of the Timeless Realm, cast from my rightful throne.
I am the Black Sun that heralds the Final Night.
But in this time and place, Daughter of Light… I am your salvation.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
When your blood wetted the shard you took from my prison, it formed a link betwixt us. Just as your cry of desperation rang across that link, calling to me.
Glimmer felt for the Black Diamond shard still in her pocket, she didn't even remember taking it.
I propose a bargain, child; the life of your flesh-mate… for my liberation.
"Seriously?!" Glimmer barked out a scoffing laugh. "Spooky supernatural entities looking to cut deals was the first thing my dad, Aunt Casta and even fucking Shadow Weaver warned my about when I became a sorceress! Why in the world should I trust a word you say?"
So hasty, Daughter of Light? Especially for one who has already lost so much?
The Entity's words cut closer than Glimmer would admit. She glanced at Bow's suspended form; terror frozen in his eyes.
As you wish. I return you to the realm of temporal causality.
Time began to resume its natural pace, incrementally at first. The Paraqueen's claws sinking slowly yet inexorably towards the helpless Bow.
"WAIT!?" Glimmer cried.
[-]
THE WATCHTOWER
September 19, 18:52 EDT
"WAIT!" Traci Thurston cried.
The word had barely crossed her lips before the entire room flipped upside down. Next thing Traci knew, she was lying flat on her back on the moderately soft training mat.
"No fair," she groaned. "I wasn't ready."
"Bad guys aren't gonna wait for you to be 'ready', Traci," said Roy Harper AKA Arsenal, offering her his prosthetic hand.
She gingerly took it, pulling herself up to her feet before shuffling off to join Violet Harper, Andie Murphy and an unarmored Angelo del Rey. All save for Violet were already nursing their own bumps.
"That's only part of why I called this impromptu training session," Roy continued. "Now who wants another turn?"
"Another?!" Andie protested "But Violet hasn't even had their turn yet?"
"Religious exemption," Roy answered. "Tigress will be down to handle Violet's training after she's briefed Fate. In the meantime, the rest of you are all mine."
Violet bushed slightly, not caring to be singled out.
"I notice Catra's not here," Andie spoke bitterly.
"Catra's occupied," Roy replied. "And frankly, she doesn't need this nearly as much as you four."
"Why do I even need hand-to-hand combat training?" Andie protested. "I literally turn into mist!"
"That is exactly why," answered Roy. "You're all way too reliant on powers and gadgets."
"Rich comin' from a bloke with a laser arm," Angelo muttered unthinkingly.
"Angelo!" Violet hissed in shock.
"Fuck me dead!" Angelo swore, realizing he'd spoken out loud. "Roy, I didn't mea-"
"Del Rey, you're up," Arsenal snapped.
"Ooooh, busted!" Traci teased.
A shame-faced Angelo made his way to the mat.
"And just to make it interesting…" Arsenal reached for his upper right arm, where flesh met metal. Something clicked and the prosthetic limb clattered to the floor. Arsenal gestured to Angelo with his one remaining hand. "C'mon, I'll even let you throw the first punch."
"What?!" Angelo blurted. "Aw c'mon, mate. I'm not gonna take a swing at a-"
"Do it now or you're off the Team!" Arsenal snarled.
"Alright, mate, don't say I didn-" Angelo took his shot, only to have his legs swept out from under him before being face-planted right on the mat.
"Ow!" he moaned. "Point taken."
Roy helped him up with his one hand, pulling the Ozzie meta-teen close enough to whisper softly.
"Word to the wise, del Rey. Pity yourself all you want, but don't you dare pity me."
Before Angelo could respond, the doors of the training room hissed open, admitting an awkward looking Kara. The Kryptonian teen took a few tentative steps before waving shyly.
"Hey, everybody! Training, huh? Cool, cool," Kara grinned nervously, making a few mock-jabs at Arsenal. "Honing the old fighting edge, eh?"
Arsenal reattached his metal limb, just so he could cross his arms aloofly. "You take a wrong turn somewhere, Zor-El?"
"Yeah… Look, I think I may have come across… wrong earlier. So I wanted to apologize in case you… misread anything I said earlier."
"Oh, I think I read you just fine. And I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
Traci leaned over to Violet, whispering low. "Any idea what that's about?"
Violet shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment.
Before Kara could continue, a tremor pulsed through the entire satellite.
"Is that normal?"
[-]
"Who… what are you?" Catra spoke, cradling the still stunned Adora, Melog coiling warily at her side.
"Your grotesque meat-flaps could not even form our True Name, mud-thing," intoned the creature wearing Glimmer's flesh as it stalked towards Catra, through the smoking wreckage of the conference hall. "But in the Etherian tongue, we believe the closest approximation would be… Eclipso."
Melog pounced, mane blazing hot red, fangs and claws flashing like burning light; only to be swatted aside by a tendril of darkness made manifest.
"MEL!?"
Before Catra could react, a second tendril ensnared her, dragging her towards the creature that called herself 'Eclipso'.
"Wh-What did you do with Glimmer?" Catra gasped, unlight constricting about her like a boa's coils with each breath, ever tighter.
"We are Glimmer. Everything that made her what she was, every abhorrent desire or hateful thought she ever tried to bury or deny, is now a part of us." She chuckled darkly. "Oh, Catra… If only you knew what she really thought of you, in that secret shameful place she hides even from herself."
Catra grimaced. "Wha-what are you talking about?"
Eclipso's eyes were like twin pits of inky black hate. "The fact that you don't even realize why is what makes it so galling. Of course, Glimmer would never have acted on the rage festering within… but we have no such scruples."
The tendril of unlight snaked about Catra's throat, crushing her windpipe. She tried to cry out, but all she could manage were a few choking sobs.
"Goodbye… Horde Scum."
Catra's vision blurred, then darkened… before exploding with light.
Eclipso recoiled as the flashbang arrow went off right in her face, hissing with rage. Catra fell gasping to the floor as Melog rushed to her side, worriedly licking her face.
Eclipso hissed with rage, twin shrieks twisting about each other like writhing serpents.
Bow leaped between the demon sorceress and her prey, arrow nocked and drawn.
"Glimmer," Bow pleaded. "Please, don't make me do this!"
Eclipso coiled as though to strike, only to curl her lips in distaste.
"Bored now."
Her form became smoky darkness, unraveling into tendrils of unlight that slithered into the surrounding shadows before disappearing entirely from sight.
Adora began to stir, rubbing her head. "What hit me?"
"Glimmer did," spoke Catra.
"That wasn't Glimmer" Bow protested. "That was… something else."
"FATE!?" Tigress cried.
The four remaining Etherians rushed across the conference hall to find Tigress standing over the deathly still Doctor Fate. His eyes rolled back behind the cracked gold faceplate, revealing only milky white blankness.
"Is he…?" Adora asked warily.
"No," Tigress answered. "I think he's in some kind of healing trance. Look."
The ragged edges of Fate's belly wound were rimmed by a strange greenish glow, as though slowly knitting themselves back together on a microscopic scale.
"I don't want to risk moving him, but I really don't want to leave him here either," Tigress coughed as more smoke curled about the room. "Fire suppressors must be fragged."
"On it!" Bow knocked a bulbous headed arrow, firing straight up. It detonated above their heads, raining fire retardant foam down across the whole room, dousing the scattered electrical fires.
"One crisis down," Tigress muttered, hitting a cracked comm panel. "Tigress to all Watchtower personal…"
[-]
"Glimmer has been compromised. She is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Do not engage. I repeat do not engage."
Arsenal, Halo, Thirteen, Mist, Kara and an armored-up Devil Ray paused as Tigress' static tinged warning echoed through the corridor. Smoky shadows pooled before them, coalescing into a human shape. Glimmer emerged from the unlight, her eyes dark and cold, feet hovering mere inches above the polished floor as though disdaining to touch the ground.
"Glim?" Devil blurted. "Wha-"
A tendril of pure unlight snared about his manta-helm before slamming his head brutally into the bulkhead.
"Mist, Thirteen, grab Devil," Arsenal barked, raising his arm cannon. "Halo throw up a shield while we fal-"
The entire corridor was drowned in a torrent of darkness, darkness that pervaded every fiber of the young heroes' being. It slithered into the deep secret place in each soul, shadow seeking shadow. It tore open every psychic weak spot like a fresh wound. Each buried fear, every forgotten shameful thought come bubbling up to the surface like black pus.
Trying to fix everyone else because you can't fix yourself.
Even your clone's more of a man then you are.
You don't belong on this world… or any world.
Puppet boyfriend for a puppet witch.
You don't deserve her.
God hates you.
Cut yourself.
Pervert.
Freak.
Bigot.
Something came barreling out of the darkness like a raging red comet. Eclipso managed to summon a shield of pure unlight just in time to absorb the blow of a steel hard fist.
"Oh dear…" Eclipso smirked. "Struck a nerve, have we?"
"SHUT UP!" Kara roared, tears streaming down her face as she continued to pound on the demon sorceress' shield. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
"No." Eclipso gestured, sending Kara flying back with another blast of unlight.
The Krypteen left a dent in the titanium alloy bulkhead before slumping to the deck with the rest of the young 'heroes'. They all lay insensate and helpless, twitching and sobbing, each lost in their own private hell.
Eclipso could have slain them all then and there, but if she stooped to quash every insect on her path, her Great Work would never be complete. Still, she knew from Glimmer's memories that these insects could be particularly irksome.
The demon sorceress stood over the twitching form of the one called Devil Ray, forming her unlight into a blade of piercing night. She raised it high, ready to put the flesh-thing out of its misery when…
Something grazed the edges of Eclipso's eternal consciousness, then was gone, like a murmer self-consciously silenced.
"We heard that."
[-]
Eclipso moved like smoke on the wind, floating through the block of old Oan Sciencells squirreled away in the Watchtower's lower levels. They all stood empty, yet one had its flickering green energy-screen fully powered-up. The demon sorceress dismissed the force-field with a gesture, stepping into the seemingly vacant cell, studying the walls.
"Come now… don't be shy."
Something flickered in the corner of her eye, like a ripple creeping along the wall to the open exit. Tendrils of unlight snared about seemingly empty space, slamming something all too solid into the back wall.
Her prey rippled back into visibility, a tall spindly creature with ash-white skin and a face like a bare skull.
"And what might you be?"
YOUR DEATH, MA'AL HUMAN!
The creature unleashed a shrieking psionic blast that would have shattered a mortal mind. The Entity indwelling Glimmer's flesh experienced only mild irritation.
"Rude."
A tendril constricted about the creature's throat, not enough to completely restrict airflow but enough to make his position clear.
"We know you…" Eclipso tilted her head, sifting through her vessel's memories. "You are brood-mate to the one called 'Miss Martian'... 'M'comm' is it not?"
That race-traitor is no 'brood-mate' of mine! And I am no longer M'comm M'orzz! His thoughts were rancid with spite and resentment. I am vengeance! I am the storm! I am the Ma'alefa-
"Oh, do shut up," snipped Eclipso, batting a hand dismissively. "We'll just open you up and see for ourselves."
Tendrils of unlight snaked across M'comm's face, before boring through skin and flesh. Had he vocal cords, he would have screamed as the demon sorceress' magiks violated his very being…
Eclipso saw a M'arzzan child, scorned by his peers, forsaken by his kin. She saw the child grow bitter and strong, strong enough to repay hate with hate and pain with pain. She tasted the guilty thrill of his first kill and the glorious dread as he first prostrated himself in fealty before the self-proclaimed 'gods' of Apokolips.
She saw the self-styled Ma'alefa'ak and his sister locked in psychic duel in the bowels of the Apokoliptan flagship, saw as M'gann M'rozz was forced to shatter her brother's mind to liberate it from another's will. The psionic onslaught had rendered M'comm mindless, innocent… free.
He could not have realized at the time of course, but the next few weeks had been the happiest of M'comm's short life. Hate, pain, shame, rage, guilt, the very meaning of these concepts had been wiped clean from his consciousness.
But of course, M'gann could never leave well enough alone. She had to see him answer for his 'crimes' back on M'arzz, which he could hardly do if he couldn't even remember them.
Over long grueling weeks, M'gann had painstakingly sown back together the tattered shreds of M'comm's identity. But with each restored memory, came old hurt, old hate.
Eclipso withdrew her tendrils of unlight, allowing M'comm to fall to the floor. The M'arzzan curled defensively in the corner, trembling. Just as she had been examining his naked soul, he had caught the barest glimpse of her ageless consciousness.
What… what are you?
"Judgment."
Please… don't kill me!
Eclipso cocked her head in bemusement, eyes seemingly softening. "Poor creature. What has life given you except destitution, loneliness and scorn? Yet you cling so jealously to it, as though it were some precious treasure you could not possibly do without. Still… you may be of some use."
She opened her portal with a gesture, a blazing violet corona rimming a disk of inky void. "Come," she spoke imperiously, before stepping into it without so much as a glance back.
M'comm hesitated a moment, before following her into the void's embrace.
[-]
Darkness, cool and watery, embraced him. A warm current filled his fleshy manta-wings, carrying him through the briny blue. Then came the light, burning, cutting, like a knife. He was strapped face down on a cold metal slab. His wings were pinned back, like a moth on a lepidopterist's table.
He could turn his head just enough to catch sight of a gleaming scalpel, descending from the burning light. It moved ever closer…
Closer…
Closer…
Angelo's eyes snapped open in the bright light. A flat stiff medical bed was beneath him, pressing against his scars.
Light.
Surgery.
Knives!
He bolted upright in a mad panic.
"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
"Woah, woah! Easy, Angelo," Arsenal spoke reassuringly. "It's okay, bro. You're safe."
"Roy?" Angelo glanced about, finding himself in the Watchtower's infirmary. He tried to steady his breath, wiping a cold sweat from his brow. "Sorry, mate. I just… I don't like hospitals."
"I can relate," answered Arsenal.
Traci, Andie and Kara lay about the other infirmary beds, conscious and seemingly uninjured but clearly shaken.
"What happened?" Angelo asked.
"The brass are still figuring that out." Arsenal chin-pointed to the far side of the chamber.
Tigress, Halo, Catra, Adora, Bow, and Melog stood about a bio-bed slightly apart from the others. Laying upon it, was the still silent form of Doctor Fate.
"Can you do anything for him?" Tigress asked.
"I don't know…" Halo bent to examine the shimmering wound in Fate's belly. It had already scarred over, but Earth's Sorcerer Supreme remained deathly still and unresponsive. "I might interfere with his own healing magic if I use my powers."
"Well, at least he's still alive," sighed Tigress. "How could Glimmer do this?"
"I keep telling you, that… thing wasn't Glimmer!" Bow snapped. "She would never… she couldn't!"
Adora squeezed his shoulder. "We know, Bow, we know."
"Bow's right," Catra added. "Sparkles might blow her top every now and then but she's no killer, and I was around Horde Prime long enough to know when somebody's being controlled by someone else."
"No… Not someone… something."
All turned in the direction of the rasping voice. Fate turned his helmed head weakly upon the bed, dark eyes hazed with pain.
Tigress leaned over the sickly Sorcerer Supreme. "You okay, Doc?"
"Fate endures."
"What did you mean by 'something'?" Adora asked.
"Your friend is possessed by a fallen Lord of Order, one who has rebelled against the Holy Balance itself."
"You mean our friend you tried to murder?" Bow spat angrily.
"There are fates worse than death, child."
"A rebel Lord of Order?" Tigress asked. "Isn't that kind of an oxymoron?"
"It is rare, but there are those among the Host of Law whose zeal to purge Chaos is so all-consuming that they would reduce creation itself to ash. Such is why the Holy Balance exists, to prevent either Chaos or Order from overstepping their ordained roles. Admittedly, not all appreciate the value of such restraint."
"Sounds like a swell bunch," Adora snorted.
"The Lords do tend to be a bit monomaniacal," Traci interjected, sidling over. "Hey Nabu, Khalid. How you guys doing?"
"We are healed but not whole," intoned Fate with uncharacteristic softness. "Repairing Khalid's wounds drained much of his vim vitae, his life force. He will need time to recoup his strength."
Traci tensed. "Does that mean what I think that means?"
Fate's featureless golden visage regarded her expectantly. "You know what is required."
"I was afraid you were gonna say that," Traci sighed in resignation, taking Fate's golden helm in both hands.
As the helm slipped free, Fate's gold and azure raiment dissolved in a shimmering haze. In place of the Sorcerer Supreme, lay a slender brown-skinned youth in an aquamarine hoodie. He smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about this, Traci."
"Don't worry about it, Khalid. Can you call Jamie and my dad to explain?"
He nodded weakly. "Consider it done."
"Wait, what's going on?" Catra interjected, grabbing Traci's arm. "What the heck does 'required' mean?"
"You'll see." Traci's shoulders slumped, raising the Helmet of Fate above her head. As she donned the helm, her own body was enveloped in celestial radiance, transforming her spartan darkwear into the gold and azure raiment of Doctor Fate.
Catra, Adora and Bow stepped back from the ominous figure. Melog raised their hackles.
"Thirteen?" Catra asked warily.
"Yes… and no," intoned the voice of Fate.
[-]
Traci Thurston let out a long sigh. Or she would have had she still any voluntary control of her own respiratory system. So instead, she let out the idea of a sigh, the Platonic Sigh of which all other sighs were mere material shadows.
"You are pouting," chided Nabu irritably.
"I am not pouting. You need lips to pout and you're currently 'borrowing' mine."
"It is necessary, Fate must not be denied."
Traci rolled her eyes… or would have. Sharing headspace with Nabu was tedious at the best of times. You'd think a four-thousand-year-old Babylonian wisdom god would be a better conversationalist at least.
"So, we going after Eclipso now?"
"Without question. The Fallen One cannot be permitted t-"
Something rippled across their shared mental landscape. Traci would have cocked an eyebrow.
"Do you fee-"
Traci and Nabu were suddenly gripped by a will far beyond their own, tearing them from their shared flesh. They were flung across eternity, caught like leaves in raging gale. They were dragged outside space, outside time, until they found themselves floating amid a void without form or substance.
"THE HELL WAS-"
"Silence, Traci!" Nabu warned fearfully. "We must not speak unless They address us first."
"'They'? Who are 'They'?"
Then Traci felt Them. No not 'felt'. She felt nothing, sensed nothing. One moment, she was simply aware of Their presence as immediately and undoubtedly as she was of her own thoughts.
She had no idea how many of Them there were, a hundred… a thousand… one. Their thoughts formed a single interlocking clockwork, making it impossible to tell where one individual ended and another began, if any of Them could even be considered individuals in the proper sense.
Each was a mere expression of the whole, subsumed by a single purpose, a single inexorable logic. They were Intelligences old as time, vast as space. 'There' and 'then' were meaningless to Them. For Them, there was only the Eternal Now, the Infinite Here.
Traci would have shuddered if she could, as she and Nabu's naked souls were laid bare before the cold scrutiny of the assembled hosts of the Lords of Order.
[-]
Catra waved a hand before Traci/Fate's eyes. The Sorceress Supreme returned only a blank gaze.
"Is she… they… alright?"
"I wouldn't worry, Traci and Nabu are probably just going at it," said the boy nursing his abdomen on the bio-bed. He extended a hand to Bow. "I'm Khalid by the way."
"Oh, right, Bow," the archer took the offered hand desultorily.
"So… does this sorta thing happen a lot on Earth?" Adora asked.
Khalid shrugged. "Less than you'd think, more than I'd like."
Doctor Fate's eyes suddenly cleared, their gaze once more hard as stone.
"Fate?" Tigress asked. "What happened?"
"We were summoned by the Lords of Order. They have made their will known to us."
"Great!" Bow enthused, clutching at hope. "Then we can start strategizing and-"
"No," intoned Fate coldly.
Tigress' eyes narrowed. "Fate?"
"The Lords of Order have expressly forbidden us from taking any action in this matter."
"What!?" Bow blurted. "Why?!"
"That is no concern of yours, mortal."
"THE HELL IT ISN'T!?" Bow lunged forward only for Adora to restrain him.
"Bow, please!"
"You can't just do nothing!" Catra protested.
"That is all we can do," Fate spoke. "Leroy!"
The tiny lizard scuttled out of nowhere, scampering up Fate's arm to curl in the shelter of the Sorceress Supreme's flared collar. A golden ankh opened in the air behind them.
"For good or ill… Fate may not intervene."
A flash of golden light and they were gone, as surely as if they had never been.
Bow fell on his knees, tears freely streaming down his cheeks.
[-]
ETHERIA
September 19, 23:16 UCT
M'comm emerged from darkness absolute into a gloom that was practically blinding by comparison. His muscles ached slightly. Wherever he was, the local gravity was just barely less than Earth's.
He found himself within a great hall constructed from what once must have been elegantly cut crystals. Now its gleaming pillars lay shattered and cloaked in a gossamer veil of dust. Eclipso stood before him, still and inscrutable as the alien architecture, as though she was part of it.
What is this place? M'comm asked.
A tendril of sharp unlight pierced his heart, freezing every cell in his body. M'comm trembled in terror as void filled him, cold and empty as the night before creation.
"'What is this place…?'" the demon sorceress quoted icily, like a disapproving school mistress.
Wha… what is this place… Master? M'comm pleaded.
"Good boy." She unclenched her fist, withdrawing the blade of unlight.
M'comm fell to his knees on the polished crystal in a shuddering heap. He clutched his chest in a panic. The unlight had somehow pierced him without so much as breaking the skin.
"Now, to answer your question…"
Eclipso strode through the ruins. With each step, broken pillars reassembled themselves and sparkling pale blue facets turned to deepest obsidian. It was as though reality itself was fearfully rearranging in submission to her vision of what it should be.
"This place was once the seat of power for the so-called 'First Ones'. From here, they sought to remake first Etheria, than the galaxy in their image."
She placed her hand and the restored crystal plinth before her, pouring her power into it.
"Like all corporeal creatures, they thought far too small…"
BZZZZT-Administrator not re-re-BZZZT-
The ancient computer sputtered into silence for a moment, before swiftly rebooting itself.
Administrator recognized.
Initiating planetary shift in five…
Four…
Eclipso smirked as the entire complex thrummed with power
"Rejoice, Daughter of Light," she whispered low, too low for even a M'arzzan to overhear. "For you shall have the honor of being the last living thing in this cosmos."
Three…
Two…
One.