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

17th November 2017
06:27 GMT

"Your majesty, I fear that you've rather got the wrong impression of why I'm here."

Queen Hippolyta sits opposite me on a wood and wrought iron gazebo, a small table with tea and buns between us. Behind her, her horse grazes peacefully on the long grass. This particular stretch of coastline is popular with hikers during summer, but during the winter only a few brave souls would come out this far from habitation. Hippolyta could easily manage the hike, but she doesn't have any idea which direction to head in. And I don't know how good her English is, so she might struggle to convey her concerns.

Tea appropriately steeped, I delicately place a tea strainer upon one cup with my left hand and lift the teapot with my right.

"Milk? Sugar?"

"You will gain no succour from me."

"But will you accept succour from me?" She doesn't really react. "Neat it is, then." I pour the tea, drowned leaves steadily piling up on the upper surface of the strainer. "Now, I understand that you had only simple materials to work with, but I have to say…" I glance at Father's Box. "Your defence didn't really slow me down. Did you ever consider passing the responsibility on to a nation with weapons a little more… Modern? If I'd been greeted by a fission bomb or three I might well have died."

She continues staring at me as I set the teapot down and gently push the tea across the table to her.

"But… Leaving that aside. The reason that I'm here-."

"You seek to restore the Mother Box and transform the Earth in the image of your own homeworld."

I widen my eyes in disbelief. "Wherever did you get that idea?"

Hippolyta's eyes pointedly shift to the component of Father's Box which I took from Themyscira.

"Oh, I took that because if Uncle Steppenwolf knew where it was, everyone else in the Apokoliptian Elite certainly did as well." I put the strainer over my cup and start pouring. "And they're not all idiots." I mean seriously? Why the heck did Steppenwolf plan on bringing those weird mindless cyberzombie things rather than actual parademons? "This way I can keep an eye on it. Because as I think I just demonstrated, your preparations were not adequate, and I don't want Vundabar or Desaad getting hold of it. Anyway." I put the teapot down and use my right hand to detach Mother Box from my armour and put her on the table. "I have a Mother Box."

"Ping!"

"And I certainly don’t want to turn Earth into a new Apokolips; the one we've got is bad enough. Having two would be twice as bad."

I pick up my cup and take a small sip. No idea if this is any good or not. Bloody cost enough.

"I'm afraid that I bought the cakes rather than baking them myself, but after I found out that Steppenwolf was coming here I didn't-" I smile apologetically. "-have all that much time to prepare."

"Why would I believe you?"

"I don't put raisins in mine. I mean, I don't.. hate raisins, but I don't like them in cakes. I think it's the texture change between the cake and the dried fruit? So if you don't eat them I'm going to have to spend ten minutes.. picking them out... And have you seen the size of my fingers?"

"Why should I believe you about your goals?"

"Ah." Another sip of tea. "My name is Grayven. I'm arrogant, violent, smug… Gosh am I smug. I mean, look at this place." I'm grinning as I gesture to our surroundings. "My ultimate goal is to turn the universe into a unified political entity with myself as its sovereign, and that definitely includes Earth. But. Darkseid. Ruler of Apokolips. His goal is to mind control the universe so that not a single thought or action can occur but in accordance with his design. Obviously, those two goal states cannot coexist. Thus, at a very early age, I realised that I would have to rebel. So, first chance I got, I left Apokolips and set out on my own. Unified a few gordanian clans under my banner, improved their economy and military to the point where I could expand further, and… Found out that my Great Uncle was planning another stab at wrecking Earth."

"And where is he now?"

"Dead, with gaping wounds through his spine, lungs, heart and brain." I smile warmly. "You're welcome. And that might be an end to it. But I doubt it." I take another sip of tea. "You might.. 'big up' your role in the last showdown between Apokolips and New Genesis, but I assure you, Earth was so.. peripheral, to the main conflict that as far as we're concerned it barely warrants mentioning. There's no obvious reason for anyone to bother coming here. Which means that if someone did, there must be something of value here."

"And you want to uncover it and claim it for yourself."

"I'm not averse to that. I'm not averse to conquering the Earth. But I don’t need to." I smile. "Right now, anyway. What I need is to prevent Darkseid realising his ambitions. Anything else…" I shrug. "I can be patient. I'm not getting any older. And while I think I could eventually sell you on the benefits of my rulership, I'm currently more focused on the short term."

She nods cautiously. "Why have you brought me here?"

"Seriously." I gesture to her cup with my right hand. "No pomegranate seeds. It's just tea."

She picks up her cup with hands clearly more used to a kylix rather than a deep-bowled cup, and… Pretends to take a sip. Fine.

"I need to prevent Darkseid getting what he wants. I don't really care how that happens. If I have to do it, fine, but it's also advantageous to me if he doesn't find out how far I'm prepared to go to actively oppose him. So… I don't really care who opposes him, just so long as the opposition wins."

"And what is to be my role in your design?"

"I need a witness. A hostile one. And -if it comes to it- I might need you to give Diana a prod. She's one of the few people around who can fight on my level and she went to ground in a museum for a century. That needs to stop."

"A witness to what?"

"I could bring in my fleet, but that's a… Brutish solution. And my fleet is far smaller than that of Darkseid. What we need are… Specialists. Now, ideally, these specialists would be associated with Earth's government, and capable of acting as the point of the spear during your conflict with whoever Darkseid sends. But, to my disappointment, no such group exists." I take another sip. "So what I've decided to do is to collect powerful individuals who would never act in such a fashion, and try and threaten the Earth into either compliance or open resistance. That way, win or lose, I get more or less what I want." I lean forward. "I want you to see who I recruit. I want you to hear their stories, how they… Got to the point they did, where they would side with an alien warlord rather than the people of the Earth. And you should pay attention, because I strongly suspect that you will need to brief Diana on them later."

Her eyes move away from my face for a moment as she considers what I've said.

"Why.. should I believe any of what you have told me?"

"I suppose, by comparing my actions to my stated objectives. But does it really matter? If you go along with what I want then in a few days you will be released with useful intelligence on what I'm planning and who I'm working with. If not…"

BOOM!

"There you go." I pointedly turn my head to look at the boom tube. "Back to Themyscira. You can even take the cakes. In fact, please take them; I wasn't joking about the 'picking out the raisins' thing."

"And the Mother Box?" I frown, and reattach her to my armour. Hippolyta takes a moment to readjust. "The one you took from us."

"Not until you can do a better job of protecting it. But be optimistic! One of my recruits might kill me, then there'll be no one stopping you just picking it up and heading home!"

"Very well, then. Where do you wish to take me first?"

I drain my cup and set it back on its saucer.

"Kazakhstan."