#lydea mallor

[spandexinspace]

Exitus acta probat - Part II

Lydea and Lyrl continue their quest.

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Lyrl moved through the crowded service station like a snake over hot sands, weaving in-between and around people so fast Lydea could barely keep her eyes on him. The small station, an asymmetric jumble of old and new extensions that jutted out from what was probably once a perfectly ordinary asteroid, was located far away from what most people would call civilisation, hanging on to the edge of civilised space by its fingertips. She’d never been here before, but she’d been to many like it. As much as those stations claimed to be fuel stations and rest stops for weary travellers, most seem to host an underbelly so seedy that even Lobo might turn his nose up at it. Or reduce it to rubble, as he tended to do.

She tried to keep an eye on the faces of the crowd, to search for any sign of recognition or familiarity. Though she’d left her uniform jacket in the shuttle, which she was still not sure Lyrl actually had permission to borrow or drive, and he wasn’t wearing a uniform in the first place, assuming that no one would recognise them was a dangerous game. L.E.G.I.O.N. had many enemies, especially in a place like this. The crowd seemed unfazed by their presence though.

Eventually Lydea caught up to Lyrl in front of a wide doorway, helpfully marked by an old sign where flaky, light-blue paint spelled out the word “diner”. Thin tendrils of smoke snaked their way out of the doorway while heavy, bone-rattling music spilled out from the room beyond.

“This is the place we’re looking for?” she asked, pressing her back against the wall to avoid being swept up by the tide of the crowd.

“Should be. Last I heard at least.”

Lydea craned her neck to peer into the room just to find her gaze obscured by a dirty, beaded curtain that hung heavy across the entire opening. “I would have preferred a more concrete plan,” she said.

“It’s plenty concrete,” Lyrl replied. During their journey to the station he’d braided back his long hair on both sides and tied it together in the back, leaving his face fully exposed. Though it had become a lot more angular with age there was still a certain roundness to it, signs of youth he’d be hard-pressed to hide. And looking at him like this there was no denying he was his mother’s child. “Unless you have a better idea.”

“Fine.” She didn’t.

With one outstretched arm Lyrl parted the curtain and led them into the room. If Rann had been humid this was like diving into a pool, the air so heavy she strained to breathe it in. It was a relatively small room, dominated by a metallic bar and filled to the brim with a motley collection of tables and chairs, all bathed in dull, red light. The air reeked of sweat, yeast and smoke. Lydea wrinkled her nose and raised a hand to her face, as if it’d do anything to cover up the offending odour. Still, she followed Lyrl as he weaved between the various pieces of furniture to cross the room, passing a couple of scantily clad quadrupeds and a table of rowdy Sklarians without a second glance, his braid bouncing up and down against his back as he went. He stopped in front of a small opening in the wall, and a broad, four-armed man who was doing his best to block it.

“Greetings,” Lyrl said, lowering his voice an octave or two. It was ill-convincing. “We are here to speak to Thantar Ars.”

“He isn’t taking visitors.”

“Oh, he’s retracted his bounty?” The bodyguard—she assumed that’s what he was—stared at them, his solid white eyes unblinking.

“I’ve seen plenty of bounty hunters in my days. You two ain’t it,” he eventually said. “Get out of here!” He jerked his head towards the entrance.

“I think you’ll see that we are. Lydea?” Lyrl gestured to her. Of course. With a soft sigh she lifted her own hand and let the darkness envelop it. She glanced at Lyrl. He gave the guard a meaningful look. Then she lifted the hand, and let the darkness envelop his face. A chair scraped against the floor behind them.

“As you can—or perhaps more appropriately—can’t, see, my colleague and I are more than qualified to hunt those who need to be hunted,” Lyrl continued, reminding her a little too much of a shady ship dealer. “Your employer may be quite displeased to find out that you’ve delayed our arrival more than necessary.” A new gesture, and Lydea let the darkness drop from the man’s face. He stumbled aside, the suspicious look in his eyes almost enough to cover the edge of fear. She doubted he’d last long here. Unlike her, he didn’t seem cut out to be anyone’s attack dog.

He didn’t move to stop them when they ducked into the dark, narrow corridor.

"This is insane," Lydea hissed once they were out of the guard's earshot.

"Not if you don't do anything rash."

“We can’t go around threatening people.”

He turned to look at her, amusement in his eyes. “Oh, because that’s not what you do for dad every day of the week? Or is it alright since you’re doing it under someone else’s banner?” There he was. The child she recognised far too well and once again could do little to stop.

They finally reached a door – a hinged door, thick and made of the kind of wood you’d have to send for and wait for weeks to arrive out here. It swung open before Lyrl could touch it. The room inside was cramped, dominated by heavy drapery and four tall, broad men. If not for their exquisite, jewellery laden clothes she'd taken their rough, scared faces for those of common space pirates. Well, she still took them for space pirates, though clearly not the common kind.

"This seems unsafe," she hissed.

"It is," he whispered in return. Heavy dread crept into her chest. She steeled herself, making sure to keep as close to the door as she could without making it obvious.

The men looked up from the table they’d all been sitting at, which was covered in small statuettes and some kind of game board adorned with small circles of various colours.

“What’s this? Who let a child inside here?” one of them said, his voice low and gruff, his Interlac accented in that way it only is if you’ve spent too much time away from a home. In front of her Lyrl stiffened.

“Good evening. We are here to discuss the bounty on J’lmeer Andn.”

The man blinked. Then laughed, a dry and hollow laugh. The other men exchanged puzzled glances, but did not join in. “Kid, you’re what, twelve? I’ve never seen you in here before and you clearly don’t know nass about any bounties.”

Lyrl straightened himself, as if to stretch out his back into another few centimetres of height. “I assure you that my associate and I are more than qualified to perf-”

“Leave it. I don’t care if you’re the deputy leader of the Sinestro Corps himself, I’m not doing no business with a child. Go run back to your parents while you still can.”

“Lydea, show him,” Lyrl hissed. So she did, and the man laughed his brittle laugh again.

“Pretty light show you’ve got there, I’ve got one just like it at home. I’m not telling you again though, bust or we’ll bust you.”

“Maybe I wasn’t clear enough, we have very important information about Andn. You’ve been looking for him for many cycles, surely you want to catch him? Now you can, for a small price.”

"You don't get it, do you?" The man rose to his feet, towering tall over Lyrl. "No. Deal."

"Lydea, cover me." Before she'd even had time to react he was on the man, hands at his throat. But more importantly, the other men had risen to their feet. She cursed under her breath and threw the first one against the far wall, the shadows flowing around him in thin tendrils, mixing with the smoke. She caught the second one by the shoulder, sending him stumbling backwards.

The third's knife barely missed her shoulder. She twirled around to meet him head one, using the momentum to slam her elbow into his nose. A crack. She turned back in time to duck beneath the other’s fist. The shadows covered his face, sending him tumbling aside.

The third man lunged at her again, barely giving her enough time to side-step him, almost losing her balance in the process. With a tendril of shadow she wretched his knife out of his hand and buried it deep in the back of his comrade, then wrapped them around him, pressing his arms against his sides and his knees to the ground. With a swift kick to the head she let him tumble the rest of the way to the floor on his own.

She stalked over to where she’d thrown the first man, but he remained still on the floor in a crumpled heap of rough limbs and torn down tapestry. The two of them weren’t done for, but they were out, at least for now.

As she turned her attention back to Lyrl she saw that he’d brought the fourth man down to the floor too, his arms pinned beneath him at unnatural angles and a faintly glowing plasma knife pressed against his neck. His nose was bleeding dark purple and he gave off a sick wheeze with every breath.

“As I was saying. We need information. You have information. But since you refused to trade for it you’ll have to give it away freely,” Lyrl said, his face twisted into something feral, sharp teeth bared and eyes wide. He too was breathing heavier, though she didn’t know whether it was from battle or something more primal.

“What the nass,” the man coughed out, gurgling deep in his throat.

“You’ll tell us the coordinates of Zerox, and we’ll let you live. How’s that for a deal?”

“Sprocking nass. I ain’t telling you and we’ll,” a wet cough. “We’ll have your head for this.”

“Yadda yadda. Ceaseless blathering. Do you even know who I am? I am Brainiac 3, grandson of the great Brainiac.” The man tried to laugh, but his laughter turned into a high-pitched whine as Lyrl pressed down on the plasma knife. “This isn’t a play. Tell us, and you’ll live. Refrain, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

“And how do you plan on g-getting to Zerox, if you kill me? Gonna guess your way there?” Even from across the room she could see Lyrl’s face turn a darker shade of green and the way his jaw shifted.

One of the men on the floor began to stir and Lydea decided that that was plenty enough. She closed her eyes, and opened them to total darkness. She could feel the shape of it, the way it slicked across every piece of expensive furniture and ill-gotten goods. The dead man, the ones yet to die.

“There are worse things than death,” she said, keeping her voice low and steady. “Are you ready for those too?” Her voice echoed in the darkness, at once so close and so much larger than the congested, smokey room.

There was silence. Dark, eternal silence. The kind she’d once thought would swallow her whole, if she’d let it. Life was rarely that simple.

The man on the floor shook beneath the shadows. Perhaps they brought him back too, or maybe they just allowed him to think. But eventually he caved, words pouring over his lips like rocks down a withering cliff face. Coordinates, directions, even a warning or two.

“Happy?” she asked Lyrl once the man’s words had run dry.

“It’s workable.” She rescinded the darkness. Lyrl was standing over the man now, knife still in hand and eyebrows knit together in an annoyed frown. The man in turn laid still, a long, narrow burn along his neck, shifting in shades of purple and black. There was something haunted in his gaze. “This would have been so much easier if you’d just cooperated.”

No one paid them much attention in the so-called diner. Even the four-armed guard seemed too preoccupied with a hushed conversation with one of the quadrupeds to pay any attention to them. It made Lydea uncomfortable.

It wasn’t until they rejoined the never-stilling crowd outside that Lyrl spoke. “That was an impressive display.”

“It was reckless. Dox better not find out about this.”

“Or what, he’ll give you latrine duty for the rest of the month?” Lyrl said, grinning as he adjusted the sleeves of his coat. One of them was stained purple.

“You have no idea what he’d do!”

“Yes, I do. Sprocking nothing. He’s a dim-wit who only occasionally stumbles upon a good idea. If he finds out at all it’ll be easy to avoid him.”

Lyrl looked at her. No, past her. “We should hurry,” he hissed, grin suddenly gone. Then he took off down the hall, weaving through the crowd just like he’d done before. She struggled to follow him, nearly crashing into every other person, drawing angry stares and stuttering out the occasional apology. But she could hear commotion behind them that had little to do with that. She willed her legs to move faster and continued to push forward through the horde, listening as best she could for the yells and heavy footfalls behind her.

Her heart pounded wildly in her chest by the time she reached the bay doors and slammed her hand against the door toggle. Pressing her back against the wall she waited breathlessly for the mechanism to engage, expecting to see someone round the corner at any second. Then she ran outside, trying to keep low in case someone was waiting for her. As if that’d help. She could see Lyrl, crouched just beyond the ramp of their tiny recon ship, gripping a standard issue blaster in one hand. His gaze was fixed somewhere far behind her. The bay felt endless.

She stumbled up the ramp and into the ship, barely had time to find her bearings before the ramp was closing and Lyrl had dashed over to the controls.

“Get seated, we need to go, now!” She scrambled to her feet and used the wall for support to guide herself forward until she could fall into the navigator seat with a hard ‘thud’. The loose buckle pressed into her thigh. A moment later the engines roared to life and made the entire ship vibrate.

They took off with a hard jump that threw Lydea back in her seat and made her gasp for air, the sudden g-forces pressing down on her. The ship gained altitude quickly and soared away from the service station at speeds that were probably far beyond advisable.

“What was that?” she asked, once they were far enough away that she dared speak.

“Sprock knows.” He shrugged without letting go of the controls. “Probably not someone particularly concerned about our destination though, because if that had been the case they would have stopped us.”

“What is this Zerox you speak of? Why do we need to go there?”

“In some dialects it’s called Sorcerers' World. They should be able to fix you.”

[sprockyeahlegion]

Phased

[evilhorse]

How dare you condemn my daughter?

[why-i-love-comics]

Legion Recruits info page

written by Mark Waid art by Barry Kitson & Lovern Kindzierski

[resurrectionsadamwarlock]

My other podcasts- L.E.G.I.O.N.P.O.D.Cast

L.E.G.I.O.N.P.O.D.Cast Episode 73 – R.E.C.R.U.I.T. Quest

We’re looking at L.E.G.I.O.N. #52. We check in with the team and put some new stories in motion. The Recruits start a quest and it’s Father’s Day for one of the members.

Stalk the shadows HERE!

[transguygardner]

kyle rayner gets manipulated by a baby - R.E.B.E.L.S. #1

[travisellisor]

the cover to L.E.G.I.O.N. #32 by Kevin Maguire and Karl Kesel

[sebeth]

Servants Of Darkness

[thecomicsnexus]

THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #289-294 JULY - DECEMBER 1982 BY PAUL LEVITZ, KEITH GIFFEN, LARRY MAHLTSTEDT, BRUCE D. PATTERSON, CARMINE INFANTINO, CARL GAFFORD, HOWARD BENDER AND RODIN RODRIGUEZ

SYNOPSIS (FROM WIKIPEDIA AND DC DATABASE)

The Legion searches for its five members who are lost on an icy asteroid. Brainiac 5 and Element Lad attempt to cure Matter-Eater Lad's insanity, but fall victim to a renegade psychiatrist. 

Legion of Super-Heroes co-founder Cosmic Boy leads a group of Legionnaires to investigate attacks on the Museum of the Mystic Arts and the Tower of London, both located on Earth. Included in the squad is 20th-century member Superboy (the legendary Superman as a teenager) and the latest addition to the team—Jacques Foccart, the new Invisible Kid. At each site they are attacked by beings of great power, both of whom are shrouded in darkness and mention that they are servants of their "Master" who controls the "Great Darkness". Through the use of a teleportation warp, the beings escape with two stolen items: a mystical wand from the museum and the sword Excalibur from the Tower of London. When a third Servant attempts to steal the Orb of Orthanax from the Institute of Parapsychological Phenomena of Talok VIII, she is captured. However, a fourth Servant appears via another teleportation warp and absconds with the Orb. At his unknown base of operations, the Master absorbs the power contained within each of the stolen artifacts. The captured Servant is taken back to Legion headquarters. When she is brought in close proximity to Invisible Kid's younger sister Danielle Foccart, who has been possessed by the rogue artificial intelligence Computo, Danielle's brain activity spikes. In effect, the Servant causes the unconscious Computo to have a nightmare.

Through genetic testing, Mon-El and Dream Girl determine that the captured Servant is an inanimate "reverse-DNA" clone of Lydea Mallor, Shadow Lass' ancestor and a 20th-century heroine of Talok VIII. Meanwhile, on the planet Avalon, the fourth Servant frees the immensely powerful Mordru, the mightiest wizard in the universe and arguably the Legion's most powerful enemy. Just as Mordru is about to destroy the Servant, the Master appears and quickly defeats him. Shortly thereafter on the prison planet Takron-Galtos, the Legionnaires discover that the Time Trapper — another powerful Legion foe — has been drained of his cosmic time-manipulation abilities by the Master as well.

Dream Girl's precognitive abilities allow her to foresee the Servants attacking her sister, the sorceress known as the White Witch, on their homeworld Naltor. She and a squad of Legionnaires travel there and prevent one of the Servants from kidnapping the White Witch. During the attack, Invisible Kid seizes the opportunity to journey into one of the beings' teleportation warps and take the battle directly to the Master. He confronts the Master, who is amused by the notion that the young hero is presumptuous enough to confront him. The Master blasts him with energy beams from his eyes, and warps him back to Naltor. Having seen the Master's real face, Invisible Kid is frightened on such a fundamental level that a large stripe of his jet black hair turns white permanently.

In the midst of the crisis, the Legion holds its long-delayed election, choosing Dream Girl as its new leader. She leads a squad of Legionnaires to the Sorcerers' World, where they repel an attack by the Master and several of his Servants. Mon-El confronts the Master directly and immediately recognizes him, but is easily defeated. The Master then reads his mind, learning that Mon-El recognized him because of all that the Legionnaire witnessed during his many centuries in the Phantom Zone. Additionally, the Master learns of Mon-El's homeworld, Daxam. The sorcerers cast a spell intended to defend them against the Master, and they surprisingly conjure a humanoid baby. Meanwhile, on Earth, the three Legion founders (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad) determine that two of the Servants are reverse-DNA clones of Superman and one of the Guardians of the Universe. Shocked that the Master is able to clone and harness the power of two of the mightiest beings in history, the founders send out a general alarm, calling all active and reserve Legionnaires to duty.

The Legionnaires manage to locate what turns out to be the Master's homeworld. Engaging the Servants in battle, Wildfire destroys the Guardian clone, while Element Lad exposes the Superman clone to gold kryptonite, allowing Timber Wolf to destroy him. Afterward, Brainiac 5 recognizes the Master’s homeworld, and is able to deduce his true identity. Meanwhile, the Master has travelled to Daxam. Having added the powers of Mordru, the Time Trapper and others to his own abilities, he transposes Daxam with his own homeworld. Consequently, Daxam's three billion natives each gain powers equal to those of Superman or Mon-El, and all of them fall under the thrall of the Master, who is determined to conquer the entire universe. At the villain's command, the Daxamites use their powers to physically reshape the planet until it has been sculpted in the image of the Master himself: the ancient New Gods tyrant, Darkseid.

Brainiac 5 is the only Legionnaire (other than Mon-El) with any knowledge of Darkseid or his homeworld, Apokolips. Once he briefs Dream Girl, she sends out a second general alarm to all of the Legion's super-powered allies, including Supergirl (who resides in the 20th century) and the Legion of Substitute Heroes. Throughout United Planets territory, the Kryptonian intelligence agent Dev-Em, the Heroes of Lallor, the Wanderers, the Substitute Heroes and the Legionnaires all struggle to hold back the onslaught of attacking Daxamites. On Takron-Galtos, a de-powered Chameleon Boy fends off an attack from a Daxamite child by using judo to toss him into a cell with Validus, the mysterious childlike creature who is the most powerful member of the Fatal Five.

As the humanoid child inexplicably ages at an accelerated rate, the White Witch casts a spell transporting the people on Daxam to Apokolips and vice versa. She is forcibly aided by a powerful unknown entity. When Darkseid tries to seize the child, the entity completes the aging process and reveals itself to be Darkseid's ancient enemy Izaya, Highfather of the New Gods from the planet New Genesis. Highfather transforms the last remaining Servant into a perfect clone of Darkseid’s son Orion, who is destined to someday destroy his father. Before fading into nothingness, Highfather summons Superboy and Supergirl to the battlefield above Apokolips, with his power allowing the Kryptonian cousins to maintain their abilities under a red sun. Darkseid destroys the Orion clone and sends Superboy back to the 20th century. He then becomes so preoccupied with battling Supergirl and the other Legionnaires that he loses mental control of the Daxamites, who begin to make their way toward the planet. Realizing that he cannot defeat three billion Daxamites, Darkseid concedes defeat and vanishes, taking Apokolips with him. As he departs, he declares that he has left the Legionnaires with the "curse of darkness" which will destroy them from within, promising "that which is purest of you shall be the first to go." In the aftermath of the crisis, the White Witch is inducted into the Legion, while Light Lass decides to quit.

REVIEW

This is perhaps the most famous Legion story, which doesn’t really speak well of the rest.

Perhaps at the time, having Darkseid in the future was unthinkable, but these days, we know he was involved in this saga, and even if you didn’t, the moment you pick up the trade, Darkseid is in the cover. That makes the “mystery” totally decompressed. We are hinted at the big reveal (that happens in the second to last issue) and in the meantime, we have the same fight over and over with Darkseid minions. Just in case you needed more clues, one of the minions is very recognizable as Orion.

I think they also cheated a little bit, making Boom tubes look different. For what I have read about the way Levitz used to write. His fight scenes were vaguely plotted, he was only interested in the soap opera plots. To be honest, I learned to skip most fight scenes in comics from 1941 to 1985. They just fill issues.

There are a couple of good things about this saga and I think those are the main reasons this story is so well remembered. One is Giffen and Mahltstedt style (Giffen would change his style later on). It actually fits the Kirby theme, but in the early issues, I can feel a George Perez vibe.

The other good thing is how these stories are starting to be less annoying. I don’t really want to talk shit about Levitz writing skills, because I know this was a tough job, and despite making mysteries last more than six months, he manages to have some kind individual story in each issue. Things like Lightning Lad being depressed and Chameleon Boy acting like a jerk lasted too long.

Another reason for the importance of this, is the surprise appearance of Darkseid. This was later parodied by Giffen itself in his Ambush Bug mini-series, where Darkseid would be revealed as the big bad in each issue. I can imagine that at the time, having the Legion fighting Darkseid was a big deal.

The reason I don’t think this is a great story is because it is very anti-climatic. Darkseid decides that he has been defeated and leaves. It doesn’t feel earned. And I know he leaves a curse on them, to be explored in the future, but that is a different arc.

All this aside, it actually brought some hope. Now that they know they can do great epic stories, perhaps they will continue doing so and I will find my greatest Legion story.

To do: Less repetition, simpler exposition, don’t plant mysteries to much ahead of the reveals.

I give this saga a score of 7

[spandexinspace]

Exitus acta probat

Lydea Mallor has a chance encounter with an old acquaintance.

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 Lydea never much liked Rann. It was crowded and bright, and the suffocating humidity of its dense cities and lush fields made her uniform cling to her damp skin and left her hair limp and twisted. At least until she in a fit of frustration shaved it down to a close crop. She missed the memories of dark, brilliant nights and the never-ending dunes. Nights on Rann were dull, tainted by polluting light and heavy, grey clouds.

Yet every now and then she’d still ventured outside on a balcony to stare up at the shrouded skies. As if they would suddenly open up and reveal a sight she imagined would be more familiar.

It was one of those nights she ran into him again, the child who had caused her so much grief. He was sitting on a ledge of a balcony towards the top of the hive that was L.E.G.I.ON. headquarters, his legs dangling over the edge and his elbows perched on the lower rung of the railing. She hadn’t seen him since that day his father took him away, when he was still a toddler with a newly broken iron grip on her mind. Or, she’d seen him on the holos, of course, but he looked very different in person. Small, almost unassuming. Nothing like the spectre of a person that still occasionally haunted the far reaches of her mind.

He’d returned a number of months ago to great fanfare, his father once again praising him beyond reason, then disappeared without a word after the Starro incident. Maybe she'd avoided him then, but wasn’t it understandable if she had.

She steeled herself against what might come and cleared her throat. “I thought you left.”

“I did.” He glanced back at her, long, sandy hair obscuring most of his face. His voice was bright, still that of a child more than a man.

“Yet you’re here.”

“I needed a place of respite, and my foolish father is easily manipulated into allowing me to come and go as I please. Or at least too preoccupied with that Tamaranian woman to care.”

“Queen Komand’r? You don’t approve of their involvement?” Not the subject she would have thought to bring up, but its mundanity brought ease to her tight shoulders.

“I couldn’t care less about my father’s ‘involvements’. In fact, I’d rather know nothing about them. As should you.” He pushed his hair out of his face then, now truly looking at her with his bright, intense eyes. Perhaps she should have known those eyes, but with a wash of relief she realised they were as foreign to her as any stranger’s. “What are you doing here anyway?” he continued. “It’s late.”

“I like to watch the sky, sometimes.”

“Not much to watch here,” he said, gesturing to the especially thick cloud cover. “Unless you like cloud formations, I guess.”

“No, there isn’t.” Emboldened by his calm demeanour she finally dared leave the doorway she’d been frozen in since spotting him, crossing the narrow balcony to lean against the railing next to him. How pathetic of her, a champion of Talok, to fear one such as him. Yet, she knew what he was capable of.

A thick silence fell over them then, both staring out over the city below and the sky above, pierced by towers that didn’t seem nearly as tall from up here as they did from the ground.

Lyrl didn’t seem a lot like the child she’d once known, though perhaps that was to be expected when one actually got to age naturally. She’d felt bad for him back then, as she watched the helpless way his mutant mind grappled with the realities of his young body; A mirror image of her own struggle only a short while earlier. It had been strange, even jarring, to watch him go from outshining the likes of Garryn Bek at every turn to being reduced to a crying toddler in a matter of minutes. Though she did not recall ever acting as temperamental as him she could only imagine how others had viewed her own behaviour.

“Do you remember me from, well, before your dad took you away?” she eventually asked. He once again turned to look at her.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because… I don’t know. I cared for you, sometimes, and then you named yourself after my mother and it made me so happy.” She bit her lip. “I just don’t get how you could do that to everyone.”

“If it’s an explanation you want I unfortunately can’t provide you with one. It seems like my memories of that time period are rather... insufficient.”

“You remember nothing? You just did all that for nothing?” Irritation flared in her chest, her hands clenching around the bars of the railing until her knuckles turned white.

“No, I’m sure I had a reason then. I just can’t recall them now.” He shifted, squinting up at her. “I would apologise for my actions towards you, but it seems erroneous to apologise for something I do not remember clearly enough to feel remorse over. Unless all you desire are empty words.”

“… I suppose I don’t.” She sighed, letting go of the railing. “Damn you, Dox,” she murmured, as she'd done so many times before.

He shrugged. “Blame my parents, they’re the ones who couldn’t parent for nass.”

“Believe me, I blame your dad for many things.”

“As you should.” He snorted, though there was little humour in his voice. “So, I’ve told you why I’m here, care to reciprocate? As far as I’ve been able to ascertain you’re a veritable god to your people. Surely that’s far more engaging than running dad’s youth club?”

“R.E.C.R.U.I.T.S isn’t… It’s not that. They’re good people.” She fell silent, staring off into the foggy distance. “I wanted to go home, but after what the Tyrants did to me, I’m not sure I can. I’m almost 40, physically, I should have already found a mate and sired an heir to carry on the legacy of the champions. But I haven’t, and I’m not sure I’m even ready to do it.”

Lyrl studied her, swinging his legs against the ledge, each swing marked by the dull thud of his boots against the metal siding of the building. She shouldn’t have told him. He’s his father’s son, he’d use it against her. She wrapped her arms around herself, a small comfort as she waited for him to turn her words against her.

“So, we’ll de-age you,” he finally said, as matter-of-factly as if they’d still been discussing the sky above.

“I’d rather die than go through that again.” Even though it had been many years since then she still remembered the searing pain, the way her entire body pulsated and convulsed beneath the Tyrants’ instruments, aching for days afterwards. She knew herself to be strong, but not that strong.

“The ageing in general, or the Tyrants’ version of it?”

“Whichever one hurts like theirs did.”

“Luckily for you, I know of another option.” He smiled the saw-toothed smile of a Carnian card-dealer.

“What kind of option?”

“You’ll see. If you accept my proposal.” Despite herself, despite everything she knew about him, she couldn’t help but contemplate his offer. She’d promised her people protection so long ago and had tried to uphold that the best she could, but L.E.G.I.O.N. wouldn’t last forever. It’d already fallen once. She needed to do better by them, secure her legacy and their future.

Her father had told her stories about her mother, how she’d stood brave and strong as the alliance came, and had let them take her to spare her people. He’d told her that that’s what champions do, what she would one day have to do. She’d survived the pain of ageing once, so why wouldn’t she survive it again? Why would she not live through that for her people, when her mother endured so much for their sake.

So be it if she fell into the claws of yet another green-skinned maniac.

“I’ll do it.”

“Great!” He shot up from the ground, rising to his full, unimpressive height in one fluid motion. “We’ll depart immediately, let's get to the shuttle bay.”

[sprockyeahlegion]

Servants of Darkness - Keith Giffen

[evilhorse]

Your hands are awash in the blood of the innocents!

[evilhorse]

Any objections to my incinerating your great shadow god?

[evilhorse]

Arise and be judged!

[evilhorse]

L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘93 #54

[evilhorse]

People of Talok! The danger of the Shadow Cave has passed!