With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

14th January 2013
08:45 GMT

"Ah, this is going to be so great!"

"Ye-ah." Lotta can be a real downer sometimes. "I've never seen the core of Reach space before. I bet they've got forms of mind control there we've never even seen."

Uh…

"Yeah, probably." She doesn't look happy. "Come on. A few years ago, did you think we'd be doing something like this?"

"Not against a Reach core world. Probably against one of the worlds who signed up with N.E.M.O.."

"Because Grayven would have attacked them?"

Lotta frowns thoughtfully.

"Hm. No. If he bothered fighting the Reach at all, he'd have kept attacking the same places. He's clearly not worried about being caught."

"Or wasn't. I think that system bottle trap they had was for him rather than the Illustres."

She nods. "Makes sense. He's only got one place to go to get more junior gods, and the Illustres has thousands of systems he can go to if he wants to attack the Reach."

"What do you mean, 'if'?"

"You didn't hear? Apokolips attacked his homeworld. I heard he was going to ask for help before Controller Hinon told him about the Reach offensive."

"'Heard' from a reliable source, or is this just a rumour?"

"I got talking to some Lanterns who were at the Central Power Battery when Hinon took his call."

"Yeah, but they might not have gotten the whole thing."

"He's asked for help before."

"When the Source picked a fight with him. I've seen Apokoliptian invasions before. They're not that bad."

"For wiping out colonies too stupid to know not to settle in the Apokoliptian Waste, sure, that's just a couple of ships. The Illustres comes from a crazy death world. They're going to make more of an effort."

"I guess that makes sense. But if it was Khund that was getting attacked, I'd still be here."

"Yeah, but that's Khund."

Hey! "What, you don't like Khund?"

"Phil, no one likes Khund. You're literally on the other side of the galaxy from Khund. The only reason we're fighting the Reach rather than Khund is that whenever the Khundian Empire expands, it has a civil war."

"The Empress is always a total babe!"

I mean, it is kind of a drawback to needing to kill a man to take his wife. The Emperor gets his pick, and then everyone wants his pick. One time I tried explaining it to Tarant, he asked why we didn't just put the women in charge of administration. I said because we need rulers who can fight, and he did this whole… Lecture about the advantages of a permanent administrative civil service that I tuned out. But I think what he was saying is that someone who isn't going to get kicked out every five minutes needs to be around to organise things. Which is why the Khundian Empire is tiny, and why the Reach have been doing basically the same thing and winning for thousands of years.

Wonder if any of the Reach men I've killed were married?

Lotta shakes her head as we take our seats in the briefing chamber. Don’t know if the Lanterns are going to turn up. They're basically there for if everything goes wrong, and if that happens they don't need much of a briefing to 'fight real hard'. Some like turning up anyway, the ones who used to be Darkstars or were in the military before they joined up. It doesn't really-.

One of the other doors open and the Lanterns walk in. Zartok's a good fighter. Grood's good at hitting things. Not much tactical awareness. Drusa… Not so great. Not all Lanterns are great fighters and that doesn't mean that they're bad at being Lanterns, but we haven't worked with her so we can't really use her. And the other guy… Must be new. I poke my arm computer.

Who is he?

Oh, one of Grayven's junior gods. Armour looks hoopy, but it isn't a great idea to have a new guy on the rearguard for a mission like this. If the goop hits the fan, we'll need someone who won't get confused.

Zartok takes a seat at the front, because of course he does. Drusa sits at the back, same as me. I try making eye contact, see if I can get some idea what she's thinking, but other than taking note of my position she doesn't reciprocate. New Guy sits next to Zartok, probably following the Lantern who's teaching him. Grood doesn't sit down, just sort of lurks at the side of the room. Other Darkstars file in around them, but no one wants to be too close to the near-animal who eats people.

Doesn't make sense to me. I've eaten people, and they don't react that way to near-animals who don't eat people. I'd get up and sit next to him myself if it wasn't for the fact that I've already sat down and that'd make it obvious that I was making a point.

Ah, looks like Colos is in charge of the mission again. Good. Since we took back Jenuwyne and started resettling people he's really gotten his head back in the game. And he's taking a seat-. Heh, he's spotted Zartok, and he needs to convey to Zartok that we're not working for him but doesn't want to look petty about it.

"Sit down, Ferrin."

Director Jeddigar walks in from behind him, and Colos immediately sits down in the closest chair. Solves that problem, I guess.

And the director's doing the briefing. I mean, sure, this is important, but he doesn't need to be here to deliver a briefing. He's got his hands full worrying about internal security and anti-infiltration work on a few thousand worlds these days. Or at least he should, because if we put all this work into pushing the Reach back and he drops the ball because he decided to micromanage rather than macromanage like he's supposed to, I might decide to marry his wife.

Jeddigar waves at the hologram projector, which then generates a large map of Reach space. Nothing everyone here hasn't seen a thousand times, though the thin sandy yellow line indicating reclaimed space is new enough that it raises a few smiles.

"We knew from our encounter during our first wave of attacks against the Reach as part of N.E.M.O. that the Apokoliptian Grayven was waging his own war against them. And now his actions have given us the opportunity to gather more information on their internal organisation."

A world gets highlighted… Oh, that's a… Little further into Reach space than I thought we'd be going. Not one of their proper core worlds, but only a little way away from that.

"We know that this world was recently ravaged, either by Grayven's fleet or the Citizenry-."

"How?"

Yeah, Zartok doesn't like being reminded that he's not the boss here.

"As has been a frequent problem, we don't have any direct intelligence on the Reach interior. However, we were recently able to acquire unusually detailed indirect information, both from the ship the Illustres captured and from the Qwardians. The Reach had been trying to buy anti-Lantern weapons from them for some time, and we've been able to subvert some of the Qwardians' information-gathering efforts."

Qwardians… Probably more advanced than the Reach. I knew they'd got some stuff… Wasn't just for our Lanterns, I guess.

"Is it reliable?"

"The Illustres managed to perform an identity theft on the ship's captain. We know everything he saw. The ship's sensor logs substantially agree, as do the Qwardian data intercepts."

Looks like Zartok's okay with that.

"In theory, the mission is simple. While the true core of the Reach will have systems to trap your ship, the worlds which you'll be surveying won't. If you get in, look around and leave without drawing attention, you shouldn't have a problem. And if you do, that's why you have Lanterns with you."

 

14th January 2013
07:12 GMT -7

Portal activation detected, Lantern Grayven.

Thank you, Sinestro.

I lower the milk bottle and take a moment to check on the children. It's Saturday, and the children are mostly sorted as far as breakfast goes. I think they're giving me unrealistic expectations regarding the likely behaviour of any children Luna and I have; they're really well behaved. No bickering, no randomly throwing their food across the room, no complaints when the elder take charge of the younger. It's a little sad, but at the same time, a bit of a relief? I'm not sure how I'd cope with this many children if they behaved like normal children. Normal parents can just have one at the start and then wait until they're past the constant attention phase before having another.

"Children, Luna's arrived. I'm just going to pop over to the portal room and escort her back."

Because while she can move around in human-form, she's made it very clear that it's far from her favourite thing. She's fine with the hands, not so much with the bipedalism. Which could be a little awkward, as I had a family sledging day planned and sliding across the frozen Denver countryside isn't something for people not comfortable on their legs.

Mother Box, hush tube.

Ping.

The portal opens silently next to me and I step through, smiling broadly.

"Luna, dear heartttt…"

That's not Luna.

Someone I strongly suspect to be Celestia smiles at me, standing exactly one pace from the portal and quite deliberately not moving another step.

"I'm sorry, but Luna is occupied with affairs of state today."

Quick check with the Mountain's magic monitoring systems… Yep, both her general power and signature match Celestia, and her clothing roughly matches the design of the New God barding I made for her, allowing for the changes the mirror has wrought. And she feels right; there's an established relationship and familiarity there.

"Yes, I… Thought that she would be. That's why this was a… Surprise. So… Was there something that you wanted..?"

"Yes." She bows her head a little and then frowns slightly. Yes, feels odd with a differently proportioned head and neck, doesn't it? "I thought that I should try to spend some time with the stallion my sister intends to marry. And I also wanted to see the world where Sunset has been living."

"That's… Fine. Ah, but why come through the mirror? I know from personal experience that it's a bit tricky to handle the new shape. Especially if you're planning on using magic."

"Because Sunset did the same. For a pony whose special talent relates to magic, losing her horn must have been extremely stressful."

"I think we distracted her with local magic before she could really notice. Ah… I… Take it that she doesn't know that you're here?"

"No. Given how… Tense, my relationship with Sunset is, I decided that-"

"Sinestro, call Sunset."

"Certainly, Lantern Grayven."

"-I wouldn't-. What are you doing?"

"Hey, Grayven. What is it?"

"Where are you?"

"Did you seriously call me to ask that?"

"Yes, Sunset, I care about you, and I get worried when I don't know where you are."

"W-? Now I just feel childish for complaining."

"Yes, that's intended, and it's a sign of your growing maturity that you recognised that without throwing a hissy fit. Well done."

"Ah… Thanks?"

"If I knew where you are, I'd boom tube right over there and pat you on the head."

"Not sure I wanna tell you where I am, now."

"Does it involve Z-?"

"Would you stop with that? Ghia'ta still doesn't believe me. Look, I'm in Venturia. Is that everything?"

"No, Celestia's paying us a visit." Celestia looks quite put out. "Just thought I'd warn you."

"Oh. Does she want to see me?"

"I think she's doing a home inspection. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't just run into her with no warning."

"Okay. Ah. Well. Thank you. I'm… I'm hanging up now."

She hangs up. Celestia still looks put out.

"Grayven, I asked you not to do that."

"Yes, I know. But I considered the thing that torpedoed your relationship with Sunset in the first place: concealing from her information that she wanted. Then I considered if she'd want to know that you were here, realised that the answer was 'yes', and told her."

"I didn't intend to hide the fact that I-."

"Ah-djah-" I point my right forefinger at her. "-djah-djah! That sort of 'from a certain point of view' stuff does not work when you're trying to repair an emotional relationship."

"Then what would you have suggested that I do?"

"Ask me in advance. And… Tell Sunset that you were going to be here, and then let it be her decision whether she approaches you or stays away."

She nods slowly. And awkwardly.

"It doesn't make any difference to your attempt to find out what suddenly having her shape changed was like, but it shows that you're interested in her life and that you respect her boundaries."

"I will remember that in future. Do you think that she would be prepared to stop taking Twilight to cult survivor lectures if I did?"

"Heh-hah-hah-hah-hah!" Celestia doesn't appear to appreciate the joke. "She's actually doing that? I thought she was joking!"

"I think that Sunset originally planned to take her to one. But Twilight wrote in a letter to me that she found it a 'highly informative window on the perils of applying the Magic of Friendship to other species without considering the differences in the way that species thinks'."

"So Sunset's been stuck taking her to them because she won't admit that she only took her to the first one as an insult to Twilight's relationship to you. That's so Sunset. Though I do admire her commitment."

"To dishonesty."

"At this point I think it's its own punishment. Or maybe it's like taking her out to a horror film?"

"I don't think that either Sunset or Twilight find other people suffering entertaining."

"It's cult survivor lectures. The ones giving them are the ones who made lives for themselves after they left. So there's suffering and an uplifting ending. Though maybe we could suggest alternative lectures?"

"I think that would be best. For now, I would-."

She takes a step forward, instinctively moves her arms to the 'walk' position, and falls on her face.