20th January 2013
13:06 GMT
Mister Harrolds is taking the opportunity to walk around the empty village, apparently not at all interested in the buildings, just enjoying the fact that it's not his cage.
"You know this is a trick, right?"
I'm wearing heavy armour, so the withering look I flash her way passes unnoticed.
"No, Jade, I'm actually fairly stupid.
"
"No, but you're a superhero. I want to make sure we're on the same page."
"The question is, what sort of trick is it.
"
"He was genuinely afraid. Either that or he's the greatest actor on Earth."
"I saw yellow and little else, but that doesn't mean much here.
"
"Wouldn't you see it if he felt
other emotions?"
"Maybe. But with this much yellow… The mind can adapt to it. It's not true avarice, or… Other things, but it looks a bit like it. He can function without avarice while still having a sort of motivation.
"
"The simplest trap is that the Qwardian who was experimenting on him is coming back."
"But he said there was just one. Weaponers aren't subtle people. If she had support, she'd have had them here.
"
"Maybe
he helped her?"
"Possible. I can see someone from an anti-Earth volunteering for experimentation if the result was that they got more power. And the Qwardians are happy to augment people; that's where a lot of our Earth's Jordan's early supervillains came from.
"
"So why didn't he just tell us?"
"We've both got equipment. If he can keep us here, he still gets augmented and he gets to offer us to the Qwardian.
"
"It's a risk if she's on her own."
"Or we kill her and he gets her stuff. Worst case scenario, we take him back to Earth Negative Sixteen and he's got a location to sell to anyone with faster than light travel there.
"
"Or he started helping her, but it got too much for him and she didn't want to stop the experiment."
"Plausible, but he'll feel vengeful enough to put us in the loop once he's recovered.
"
"Or he was lying, and this was all Sinestro."
"Or he got a new deputy, and it's them. We don't have any way to know for sure. What happens if we just ask him directly?
"
"He acts like he doesn't know what we're talking about."
"How about if we make it clear that we don't care, and we'll pay him for his help?
"
"Why would he trust us?"
"We let him out in an act of altruism. Even if he's not altruistic himself, he'll make assumptions about our likely behaviour based on that.
"
"How bad is his Earth?"
"No idea.
"
I try feeling it from here, but the yellow light is obscuring even that.
"Shouldn't be hard to find out.
"
"Lead with that. Offer to take him back right away. See what he says."
"Armour on or off?
"
"What's the chance of Sinestro blindsiding us?"
"There's no obvious reason for him to kill me, and he can't stop our backup coming here later and creating a clone for me to inhabit.
"
"How about
me?"
"They could create a clone for you, too.
"
If they're fast enough and you haven't begun your ascension.
"Does he have a reason to kill me?"
"I… Don't know. I don't know how much contact he has with Earth supervillains.
"
"I didn't meet him while I was a Shadow."
"No, I was thinking that he might kill you as a favour to the Light, or someone like that. There are all
sorts of useful things on Earth that he could trade a favour for.
"
"The League of Shadows doesn't exist anymore, and I'd be surprised if anyone else with anything to offer even knows my name. Besides, they're all either working for the Justice League or Mannheim. I'm just concerned that he'd think we knew what was going on and kill us just in case."
"Could happen.
" I walk towards the ex-lab rat.
"But I think it'll be okay. Mister Harrolds!
"
I switch back to my light armour as he
turns around, seeing my face for the first time. There's a moment of
focus as he takes in my features, but no recognition. I guess there isn't an alternate me on his Earth. Any longer, at least.
"Would you like to go home now? There isn't anything here except pack-hunting robot drones. We can drop you off anywhere on Earth. And if there's anyone you want us to contact, we can do that too.
"
"They're all dead, huh?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. The Weaponer who did it was quite thorough.
"
"And they all… Died
afraid."
"Most of them. The ones who died in the first attack might not have had time to feel afraid.
"
He shakes his head. "Imagine having
that kind of power…"
I shake my head.
"It's not about power. Honestly, the robots aren't that complicated, dropping rocks would work nearly as well as his orbital strikes did, and social manipulation… That's a matter of patience.
"
"If it's not power, what is it?"
"Intent. Will? The Weaponer decided that he needed a world to die in terror, so he made it so. I don't even think he cared much about these poor people one way or the other. There's a… Book, called Nineteen Eighty Four, where… The final torture they use to break prisoners is
customised to their particular psychology. They expose them to something they can't withstand and then let them out only if they betray everything and everyone they care about rather than endure it. Of course, at that point anyone they put in there is so broken down by regular torture that it's not much of a gamble.
"
I look around at the homes of people who chose to die in their tombs rather than try and go on.
"There's nothing here that I couldn't find on Earth, or on a hundred other humanoid-inhabited worlds. Our fears aren't all that different to one another really.
"
"I
fear… And they
fear…"
I nod.
"It really-.
"
"I understand.
"
His eyes
glow yellow, his pupils turning into yellow sigils.
"No.
" His body
glows with yellow light as he lifts off the ground.
"We understand."
