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

13th February 2013
17:53 GMT -5

Once, when my sister was having trouble parking her car with me in the front passenger's seat, I offered to get out in case my presence was creating a distraction. I was later informed that that was the incorrect thing to do, because by doing that I was drawing attention to her problem. So I'm not going to ask what sort of problem Dreamer's having, because that might make it harder for her. I have moved to parade rest, but I don't think that means anything to the New Gods.

The berrith is switching between staring at her and staring at the rest of us. None of the New Gods are saying anything about her… 'Difficulty' either, so there's nothing to tell him that anything is wrong. We do need him here as a reference for his brother, so-.

"Is something wrong?"

B'dg's question is perfectly innocent, but Dreamer's New God companions glare at him anyway.

"I can't do it."

Dreamer looks completely miserable at her failure, her head tilted forwards so that her hair covers her face, her posture stooped and her hands held limply at her sides.

"I can't-."

She sighs, quietly.

"Alright, and the attempts of your fellow New Gods to fix the problem hasn't worked." I shove past Moonrider as he and the other Forever People instinctively gather around their cluster mate, making myself the closest person to her. Then I firmly lay my right hand on her left shoulder, prompting her to look up at me. "So explain to me what the problem is and I'll try and help you fix it."

"E-ever since I came back from Apokolips, I can't-." She looks away, trying to get her thoughts in order. "They forced me to activate my power, to see the dreams of billions of people on a world that only knows the Anti-Life. I-it was…"

I nod. "I've got some idea. So, what? You assumed that the Source's gift wouldn't ever show you anything unpleasant?"

"No. I just-. I thought that I would always be able to endure what it showed me."

"You're still alive-. It's not working because you don't want it to work. You feel unworthy."

She nods hesitantly.

"And that undermines your whole self-concept because that's tied up with your power-. No, your connection to the Source."

I look around at the other Forever People.

"I take it that it's the same for the rest of you?"

Moonrider nods solemnly, Vykin hesitantly. Serifan just looks away, hands reaching for absent pistols. Lightray doesn't look pleased, but it doesn't look like he intends to step in to stop me.

I could probably use the orange light to force fix their problem, but… I remember a film about attempts by psychologists in the 1910s to fix speech impediments created by World War One PTSD. One was a nice bloke who tried to talk to his patients about their experiences and managed to horrify himself to the point where he got a stammer too. The other was a bit of a bastard who electrocuted his patients' vocal cords until they started working again. I like to think that even without Superman's nudging that I wouldn't go for option two unless it was time critical, and I'm certainly not going to do it here.

"Alright, I should probably… How old are you all?"

Vykin looks at Dreamer for a moment before answering. "Between thirteen and sixteen. New Gods live indefinitely, but our early years are much like yours."

"Yes, you sort of stop aging at thirty. Look, I realise that it's a shock, but you must realise that if Highfather couldn't end the war in centuries it was completely unrealistic to expect you to be able to endure the Anti-Life on Apokolips. There's a horror in what you saw that you just don't have the life experience to comprehend. That's not a sign that the Source has turned its back on you or anything like that, it's just life."

Dreamer looks at me in horror.

"That's just… Life?"

"Honestly, yes. The problem with the Anti-Life isn't that it's objectively untrue, it's that it's one side of an argument. A… Frankly unhealthy perspective. Your… When you summoned Infinity Man. You do remember how that felt, don’t you?"

"Yes."

The rest of the Forever People nod as well.

"Why would that be less 'true' than the negation of… Everything, but the Anti-Life. I've seen worlds where the locals vivisected slaves, another where they ate people and rejoiced in their fear and pain, and another where they made weapons with which to worship a being who wants to consume creation. Such places exist. And so do… Places like Oa and Maltus where people try and fix them. Or like Tamaran where the indefatigable locals just bounced back from being enslaved and brutalised and are expanding back into space. Life isn't just the nice bits, it includes the frankly disgusting bits."

I sigh.

"And I'm afraid to say that heroism isn't just flying to somewhere which at worst has a small problem, summoning a god-robot and then flying away. It's about seeing things that sicken you and keeping going because anything else is just going to result in things getting even worse. It's seeing the worst… The worst things in the universe and thanking the Source that you've got the opportunity to set them right. And accepting that sometimes you're not going to have what it takes to stop it, and that the best thing you can do is fall back and try to come up with a plan that could work."

"What do you want to achieve? What is your vision for the universe?"

"I don't want the Anti-Life to touch anyone ever again."

"Good. Good. And would you return to captivity on Apokolips if that was what it took to achieve that end?"

She shivers.

"So, okay, what do you need to do in order to become the person who would?"

"I don't know."

"If you did, would you want to do it?"

She breathes in sharply, her eyes not focusing on me. And then out sharply. And then in. And then out.

"Yes."

"A month and a half ago, my homeworld got Anti-Lifed. We're here to find a way to undo that. Anti-Life can be undone."

I move my hand from her shoulder and take hold of her left hand, lifting it to my forehead.

"Take a look at what I believe. If it helps."

She nods. "Show me your hope."

Images flicker around us. Alan forming constructs, binding the Justified and tearing off their helmets. Transmission hubs explode, people cheering with relief as their minds are free once again. A beam of white light striking Mannheim, and something dark and sinister being forced from his body. A people, bloodied but unbowed, working to repair all that was lost.

"It's not going to be quick and it's not going to be easy, but we're going to make it happen. So, do you think you're up for taking a look for the Indigo Lantern?"

She studies the images a moment longer, before nodding.

"Yes." "Show me what we need."

 

13th February 2013
17:59 GMT -5

"Even amongst your kind, cannibalism isn't common."

The illusion of Doctor Ub'x leans around the knife floating just in front of his face, the berrith who reflexively threw it growling at him in response.

"But I can see the blood of at least five other berrith on that blade."

"I have no alpha."

"You recognise that's not right, don't you? That's not how normal members of your species think."

"If I have no alpha, I must be the alpha. The ones I killed didn't understand that. You don't understand that."

Ub'x smiles faintly. "The way you're staring at my neck is a bit of a clue. You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I can't smell you, and all h'lvenites look the same."

The berrith lunges, snatching his knife out of Ub'x's construct-grip and snapping his jaws shut just short of Ub'x's face.

Ub'x doesn't react.

"I am Doctor Ub'x, and-."

"The mad doctor. I've heard of you." The berrith actually looks a little… Pleased? Excited? "Get me off this planet and I'll kill anyone you want."

Ub'x raises his eyebrows. "You want to work for me?"

"You aren't my alpha. But I'm not a feral beast. I can trade."

"It's not that you're not a beast; it's that you're constitutionally incapable of accepting anyone in a position of authority over you. It's your brain, lad. To put it simply, you're missing something almost all berrith have. And most of those that don't have it don't live as long as you have."

"What?"

"I wasn't accusing you of being prideful. You literally can't experience what other berrith experience when they acknowledge someone as their alpha. The part of the brain that does it? You don't have it."

"That's why they…" The berrith backs off a little as he takes that information on board. "Then I will have to dominate. It is the only way that I will survive."

"No." Ub'x reaching into his coat and pulls out an indigo ring. "There is another way."

The image freezes, and I glance sideways to notice that Dreamer has perked up a little. She's… Sweating, though, and trembling as if she's undertaking strenuous physical activity. Though that could be purely psychosomatic.

"I remember that day." Huyen stares mournfully at the illusion. "He was polite to people. Usually, it was all he could do to avoid biting them."

"Did you see his power ring?"

"No." Huyen shakes his head. "He didn't tell me that he had one. I didn't ask why he was behaving differently because." He tilts his neck and I see the gaps in his fur where the skin underneath is scarred. "When we fought he never stopped until he won. I just thought that he… Mpf."

So Ub'x recruited him because he couldn't function in berrith society? Because he thought that the indigo light could substitute for the pack instinct he didn’t have? He'd killed and eaten people, but for a berrith or a Lantern that isn't that big a deal. Berrith accept fighting for dominance, and there was a clear biological reason why he wasn't fitting in with the rest.

Wait, did they fight h'lvenites because they're small, and so they categorise them as terminally omega?

Vykin looks relieved. "Dreamer, can you use this to locate him?"

"I can feel other places where he has been, if we are close. But…"
Show Me The Path.
The image twitches and warps, shifting into… A rocky landscape, the sky clear and dark and-. Ub'x is talking to someone-.

The image fade and Dreamer staggers into Moonrider's waiting arms.

Ring, stellar mapping. Where were those stars?

Working. Multiple possible locations found.

Showing that landscape?

Not all worlds have full geophysics scans on file. Rocks are not an uncommon geological feature.

Alright, alright. Pick the closest.

Location available.

"I might have it. My ring's calculated places where those stars can be seen in those patterns. If we go to one of the possibles, could you eliminate it as a possibility?"

Dreamer is propping herself up on Moonrider, but she makes eye contact with me as she nods. "If you can take us to that place, yes."

"Alright then. Huyen, thank you for your assistance. It seems like your brother would have been a good fit for the Indigo Lantern Corps and it's a shame that he wasn't ever able to realise his potential."

"I suppose it is. I'd have liked to know him better when he didn't start fights."

"I don't know berrith customs, but if you like I can get a recording of what happened on Ranx before he died."

"No. I don't want to. He's dead and the alphas who had him killed are dead." He hesitates. "But I want to talk to that h'lvenite. If you find him, tell him."

I nod. "We will."

The New Gods have already started filing out of the room. B'dg looks uncertain about… Something, then flies after them.

Hm.

I stride out of the building, the New Gods clustering around Dreamer.

"Right you lot. Since bluntness seemed to work for Dreamer, would the rest of you like to talk about your problems before we move on?"

Serifan's right hand twitches towards his empty holster. "Get my guns back and I'll let them do my talking for me."

"By the time I was first exposed to the Anti-Life I was already so resistant to it that I barely felt it, just a discordant buzz of nonsense. However, achieving that state did require me to fully integrate all of my most disgusting and monstrous repressed desires into my consciousness. I believe that's a close equivalent. My current clarity-."

Bear looks bewildered. "It doesn't affect you? When you-. Hear it-."

"It's just words. Those parts of the Anti-Life I've been exposed to before are so contrary to my nature that they don't find any purchase. I find myself thinking a thing and I immediately reject it."

"What did it say?"

"Ah… The Key said 'purpose equals failure'. It tried to make me think that anything I attempted would eventually undo itself. But, I mean, if you think about it, that's true for everything. The universe has a finite lifespan. Eventually, everything ends. But that doesn't mean that anything you do or try to do doesn't mean anything. That it doesn't matter for everyone who experiences it. As an Orange Lantern I prioritise realising my desires, and most of those are for relatively short term things. You don't… Not eat a meal because at some point you'll be hungry again, do you? It's daft."

He glances at the others, and then looks… Nervous?

"That wasn't what it said to me. Us."

"No, you were actually on Apokolips. What did it say?"

"I-. I can't say it. Not until I'm sure it won't come out."

"Okay. How about we head back to the h'lvenite school, and you can… Indirectly describe it to me."