1st September 2012
16:11 GMT
I…
"Uuuugh."
What… Happened..?
"Are you you, or do I gotta shoot you again?"
'Do I got'-?
My face creases up. "Please don't use grammar like that around my children. I want them to-."
I feel pressure on my broken-. No, not broken? Arm, as Artemis pulls me up. I Am Sworn To Carry Your Burdens, Apparently.
"I'm sure it woulda been real clever, but you need to pretend to be the other guy when Sinthia gets back with the queen."
I regain my feet and focus my eyes… Yes, eyes working, body… Not in any sort of pain and I should be. I feel a momentary impulse to check my wounds and face, but suppress it. The other Grayven wouldn't-.
"Can you make a fake body, really fast?"
"Why are there arrows sticking out of my-?"
Clean The Carcass.
I frown as the arrows sticking painlessly in my body in various places vanish. "You know I hear that, right?"
"Focus, Grayven."
"You know that's not actually my name? I just faked it to steal stuff from the Forever People, and then this all happened."
"What?!" She blinks in astonishment, but recovers. "No. No, not-. Not urgent, but you're going to be explaining that later."
"Sure thing, Artemis." I smile at her. I'm really lucky to have her. "I'm happy to share anything with you."
Her face falls. "I think I might of shot you too hard."
"Have shot-."
"Body!"
Ah… Right. Ring, I need a reasonable facsimile.
By your command.
Light strobes out of my ring, building up a fake body on a section of the floor. It's not biological and it won't pass any sort of investigation and… It's taking longer to do this than it used to.
Wait, I-.
"What?"
"I remember arriving here. Ah, and activating the Orrery. And-. Artemis, what happened?"
"I'm-. Not.. sure. Either you merged together and I made sure that you won, or you got erased by the Omega Effect and I shot the other Grayven until he turned into you."
"Oh." That's… Bad.
"Do you still remember you? I mean, Earth Grayven?"
"I live in a mountain near Rifle, Colorado, and have adopted nine…"
I suddenly get a flash of Grayven's actual interactions with Mortalla. Of her talking to him after one of the walks he took with Father-. Darkseid-. I think she was actually trying to mother him, though… Yes, I feel his feelings. He didn't even notice.
"Nine children. And-. I think it's going to be easier for me to take control of Grayven's military… I don't think you're going to like this."
"If I surrender to you. 'You'."
"And probably if Lynne does as well. The Queen is going to be trickier, and then I've got to decide what we're actually going to do with the fleet."
"You're not just gunna kill them all?"
"We didn't kill all the Sheeda."
"We needed the Sheeda."
"I don't feel like slaughtering an entire people. Even if they kind of deserve it."
"Again."
"I don't feel like slaughtering an entire people, even if they kind of-"
She chuckles quietly.
"-deserve it. Mother Box, boom tube to Lynne."
Ping.
"I take your point, but these aren't the-"
BOOM!
"-citadelians or the psions. They're chancers in a violent universe. If wouldn't be right to exterminate them without at least giving them a chance to get onboard."
She regards me curiously for a moment. Then something occurs to her. "And the Justice League's here."
"And the Justice League's here. So, are you alright swearing allegiance?"
She shrugs. "I basically have anyway."
"Thank you. I-."
Sinthia and the two surviving Zamarons escort a blood-splattered Queen Clryssa out of an adjacent corridor and bring her before me. I pause for a moment, then focus on.. Grayven's memories of how he dealt with these people.
I turn slightly away, letting them bring the queen closer before I acknowledge-.
Lynne steps through the boom tube.
**Poppet, play along.**
**Daddy?**
**Probably. [Images of my fight and what Artemis said.] I'll need you to clue the queen in without the others picking up on it.**
**Yes, Daddy.**
Lynne walks towards me, stopping exactly the same distance away as Artemis is standing. I don't hear any telepathic traffic between them, but they both kneel at the same time. Now, if there was another New God here this would be a problem. This sort of pledge involved deliberately binding one soul as subject to the other. But since there's no one here who can pick up on it, I settle for stepping forward and touching each on the head.
"Rise, my servants."
"Lord Grayven." / "Lord Grayven." **I've told her.**
Then I turn to the queen. I don't see anything in her manner that suggests that she's in any way reassured, but she's a reasonable politician and can probably control her own features to a degree.
"Queen Clryssa. I have won. I can send the worlds of the Vega Systems crashing into one another at will and your throneworld lays under my guns. You will offer me your surrender, and then we will draft the peace treaty. Hopefully, no occupation will be necessary."
"And if I refuse?"
"If all of the suns of Vega were to go nova, you would have roughly a century to evacuate your entire empire before the radiation wave hit and this region was scoured of life. And then there are the casualties that the Crown Imperium would suffer as my fleet eliminated its military capacity. Surrender really is for the best."
