Cambrian
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Endless Legacy Ch. 35 (DC Comics)
🕑 Added 2024-04-25 14:18:07 +0000 UTCA/N: I can't believe some of you thought I was going to hurt Spot last chapter.
Honestly...
...
Warning: TEMPORARY Character Death!
-x-X-x-
“Fuck me…”
Blackfire raises an eyebrow at that, prompting Lucien to sigh and slump his shoulders.
“We have to go and help.”
The exiled alien princess doesn’t say a word to that. But in a way, the fact that she’s completely silent speaks volumes in and of itself. No ‘why would I go help those twerps’, no ‘I hate my sister, I hope she dies’. Not even a ‘they kicked us out and told us not to interfere, they’re on their own’. Just… silent agreement.
In fact, Blackfire doesn’t break her silence until Lucien reaches down and scoops up Spot from the floor.
“Mrow.”
“You’re bringing the cat?”
She sounds baffled and a little perturbed, but Lucien just scoffs.
“Snow Leopard. And yeah, I’m bringing him. Look at that shit out there. This apartment building might not even still exist by the time we’re done. He’s safest with me.”
Lucien wished he could be as confident about that as he was managing to project in his tone. But the truth was, he had no desire to abandon Spot to almost certain death. Those demons coming out of the sky weren’t going to be kind to anyone or anything, that much Lucien was absolutely sure of. And sure, bringing Spot to the center of this madness probably wasn’t a good idea, but it was the least bad of a bunch of bad ideas, he figured.
Blackfire just grunts and shrugs, following his lead as Lucien pushes out onto his apartment’s terrace. Almost immediately, the movement down below causes some of the red-skinned monsters flying overhead to screech and wing down towards them. But Lucien and Blackfire aren’t the easy targets that the demons probably expect. Rising up into the air off the terrace under their own power, the two of them shoot forward.
“Mroooow!”
Lucien has Spot tucked under one arm, and protecting the Snow Leopard Cub takes precedent over going on the offensive, so he stays on the defensive while Blackfire races upwards, striking down enemies with blazing purple hands, throwing energy bolts this way and that. Lucien, meanwhile, just blocks attacks and slams his free hand curled into a fist through the chest of anything that gets close enough.
God does he wish he hadn’t gotten attached to the Titans. If only he’d kept his emotional distance from them, he wouldn’t feel compelled to save them now. Sure, the Justice League would probably step in, but if the invasion was world-wide they were going to be stepping in all over the planet… and they might figure out that this was the epicenter much too late.
That meant it fell to Lucien and Blackfire to do something, as much as it irritated him to no end to have gotten to this point. Fortunately, between the two of them they’re able to get through the first wave of enemies with relative quickness. Unfortunately, the second, third, and fourth waves are already coming down from the multitude of portals in the sky overhead.
“We can’t afford to be bogged down here! Come on!”
Blackfire nods sharply and moves to follow him… only, as they both try to race towards the massive pillar of darkness in the distance, the demons seem loath to let them go. They harass and harry them every step of the way, and there’s even a few close calls where their attacks almost reach the far less durable, far more vulnerable Spot.
Until suddenly…
“Enough! Keep going! I will hold them off!”
There’s a denial on Lucien’s lips immediately, but as he looks around, the words never come. Nor does Blackfire wait for a response. Blazing with purple flames, the Tamaranean snarls as she lunges into the largest mass of demons, drawing them to her like moths to a flame and roaring her challenge for everything in the sky to hear.
Lucien doesn’t have a choice at that point. It’s either stick to Blackfire’s side and get fucking nowhere… or make her sacrifice mean something. Cursing under his breath, Lucien puts on the gas, speeding up to the point that Spot is whimpering pitifully in his arms from the fast speeds. But it gets them away from the largest concentration of winged monsters at least, and finally they’re closing in on the massive black pillar.
Hesitating near the thing’s perimeter, Lucien quietly comes down from the air and lands on the ground, noticing that this area seems to have been a warehouse district before it was completely destroyed by whatever the pillar represents.
Setting Spot down on shaky paws, Lucien looks his Snow Leopard Cub in the eye.
“Find a safe spot nearby and hide, alright?”
This area was already destroyed. More than that, there were barely any demons around here. Instead, they were spreading out from this place, going in every other direction except towards the big fuck off pillar. It might not have been the safest place imaginable, but it was the best Lucien could come up with.
Spot’s enhanced intelligence shines in the Snow Leopard’s eyes as he gives a quiet ‘mrow’ before putting one of his growing paws on Lucien’s chest for a moment. Then, he sneakily slinks off, moving through the debris and destruction carefully and stealthily.
Lucien watches him go for a moment, pleasantly surprised on how quickly Spot seems to blend in with his surroundings. But then, that stealth was half the reason he’d chosen a Snow Leopard in the first place. He just hadn’t expected the cub to wind up meaning so much to him.
Moving just as quietly, Lucien slips closer to the pillar… and after circling around to its other side, he finally finds all of them. The Titans. And Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. Except it’s not just them versus him, unfortunately.
“Friend Raven! Please, you must break free! Come back to us!”
On the ground, holding a bloodied and battered Robin, Starfire pleads up at a floating Raven. Flying high in the air above them, the half-demon’s eyes are glowing bright red… and Lucien has to do a double take as he realizes there are four of them on her face, two sets of two. He’s only seen that once before. Trigon.
“Foolish mortals. My daughter serves her purpose, as she was always meant to. She heralds the coming of my armies, who will pave the way for me to arrive upon your world in my true form, so that I might bring your dimension to its knees like so many before it.”
Trigon’s voice comes out of Raven’s lips and Lucien winces. Must be hell on the poor half-demon’s throat. But then to be fair, he’s not sure any part of the possession is good for Raven. Having a Demon Lord using your body like a cheap suit wouldn’t be good for anyone, even someone ‘made for it’ like Trigon was implying.
Down on the ground, the remaining Titans are all gathering up. Robin is forcing himself to his feet with Starfire’s help, Beast Boy and Terra are coming in from the sides to stand with their friends. Lucien is pleased to see that Terra was serious about turning traitor. Just unfortunate that for whatever reason, their attempt at ambushing Slade hadn’t worked out.
In the face of their defiance, Trigon looks to Slade and then waves one of Raven’s hands dismissively.
“Kill them all.”
“As you command.”
It’s only then that Lucien realizes Deathstroke is flying. The man had been standing on nothing with his hands clasped behind his back, looking more like he was standing on an invisible platform rather than floating like Trigon. But now a red symbol of power blazes to life on Slade Wilson’s mask and he lunges forward, heading towards the Titans like a rocket.
Eyes widening, Lucien lunges forward as well, trying desperately to intercept him… but Slade is faster. Lucien arrives just in time for the dust to clear and the sight of Deathstroke’s hand thrust though Robin’s chest to greet him. The villain holds the hero’s heart in his grasp behind Robin’s back, even as the others process the scene in horror. Then, he pulls back through Robin’s excavated chest cavity.
“I don’t need a protégé, now that immortality is within my grasp.”
Slade’s voice heralds the slump of Robin’s body as he hits the ground.
“NO!”
Starfire’s scream of pain and rage sees her lunging forward to attack Slade, to fight and kill him. Lucien is forced to make a choice in that moment. If he tries to heal Robin (if he can even heal someone who’s probably already dead) then Starfire will likely die. But if he tries to help Starfire, then the chance of healing Robin vanishes completely.
In the end, he chooses Starfire. Lunging forward, he throws an energy blast at Slade’s side, distracting him from delivering what might have been another killing blow to Starfire. Then he’s at Star’s side, fighting with her against Deathstroke. The mercenary is unamused and silent as he fights them both, proving to be far stronger than either of them alone. Even with all of his recent gains, Lucien feels like he’s a child facing down an adult.
The worst part is when he manages to tear open a section of Deathstroke’s armor, revealing the flesh underneath. Lucien is so far past the point of trying to hide his true powers that it’s not even funny… but it doesn’t matter because the moment he makes skin contact with the mercenary, he finds he can’t do anything to him.
Deathstroke is already dead. He’s a literal walking corpse. More than that, he’s filled with Trigon’s power and that resists every attempt Lucien makes at dismantling him, of scattering the very cells of his body into dust once he realizes he can’t just shut off the signals to his brain.
A fresh scream of horror pulls Lucien’s attention away just in time to see blood seeping out of glowing black blocks as Trigon contemptuously waves his daughter’s hand at them. Judging by the look of pure, unbridled anguish on Terra’s face, that was Beast Boy. And now he’s dead.
Taking advantage of their moment of distraction, Slade backhands Starfire hard enough to send her flying into the nearby pillar, where she slumps down at the bottom unmoving. And then he’s got his hand around Lucien’s neck and is lifting him up off the ground.
“Hold. This one… I recognize this one.”
Before Slade can kill him, Trigon stops the mercenary in his tracks. Floating closer, the Demon Lord tilts his daughter’s head to the side, staring into Lucien’s eyes.
“Intruder. Thief. You were whisked away before, but something tells me that won’t happen a second time. I shall enjoy this.”
Lucien’s eyes widen as he feels a pressure on his mind. A single word slams into him with the force of a thousand bullets.
Submit.
He resists, of course. But it just comes back tenfold a moment later.
SUBMIT.
Trigon is trying to turn him into a slave. He’s trying to make Lucien his puppet, to use the demon blood inside of him to force him to submit. Lucien can fight it, but it’s not easy. He… he doesn’t see another option. He does the one thing he can do, the one thing he hasn’t even considered since the first time.
Lucien Luthor reaches inward… and ends his own life.
-x-X-x-
Death is waiting for him, of course. Though not like the first time. He doesn’t come to with her riding his cock and promising him an eternity at her side. Instead, he wakes up on his feet, with her seated behind a desk and smiling at him.
“You made the right call, Lucien.”
She always seems to know what he needs to hear. Still, Lucien scoffs all the same.
“You told me I’m not infinite or endless like you. I have a finite amount of lives, one that I just wasted.”
Death sighs and shakes her head.
“It was still the right call. Better to lose a life than to lose your free will. Trigon would have turned you into a puppet… and he was right, I couldn’t interfere like I did before. Not without consequences. You took the only way you had out. And now you have a chance to go back and do it again.”
Right. There was that. It was the reason he was willing to pull the trigger on himself in the first place. Because he knew it wouldn’t be permanent. Unlike whatever Trigon might have done to him, which definitely would have been permanent. And yet…
Falling into a chair in front of Death’s desk, Lucien puts his head in his hands.
“… What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fight something like that? I couldn’t even defeat Deathstroke, let alone Trigon. And… I lost most of my allies so damn quickly. First Blackfire, then Robin, then Beast Boy… not even sure if Starfire survived that blow… fuck me.”
“Normally I would be happy to take you up on that offer, Lucien. But alas, this doesn’t really seem like the time or place. Perhaps under less stressful circumstances. As for what you’re supposed to do… that’s up to you, isn’t it?”
Lucien grimaces, wanting to bellyache about how unhelpful Death’s advice is. On the other hand… he knows exactly what she means. It is up to him. He has all the choices in the world now, really.
“… How far can I go back?”
“As far as you want.”
Shit, that was a lot of options. Lucien immediately discards most of them though. He’s built something real this time around, since his first death and resurrection. He’s not going to just wipe all his hard work. At the same time though…
“Did I make this happen? Did something I do accelerate this or something?”
Death is quiet for a moment before tilting her head to the side.
“… I cannot tell you everything, Lucien. What I can tell you is that the events you just lived through always happen in some form. Maybe not quite in this way, maybe not this early or this late, but Trigon always comes for Earth, and his daughter is a direct conduit for him. Raven will always be his herald.”
But that doesn’t mean he always succeeds or that Raven has to die or anything. Lucien is confident that Trigon was defeated and sent packing the first time around, in the life where Lucien had never even met the Titans. Something had happened in this timeline, something HE had done had caused Trigon to escalate severely. And things had gone bad.
Now he needed to figure out how to make them better. Though… one last question.
“No matter how far I go back, no matter what I change… our interactions will remain untouched, right? You’ll remember the same as I do?”
Death gives him a fond, gentle smile at that… and a reassuring nod, much to Lucien’s relief.
“Yes, Lucien. No matter what happens, I will remember every single time we interacted. You can no more erase my memory of you then you can erase your own memories.”
That was… comforting, Lucien supposed. And with that, he knew when he had to go back to.
-x-X-x-
A/N: So admittedly this was always kind of the plan for this fic. To have time looping moments where Lucien got in over his head and died, forcing the use of his resurrection ability. Just kind of let it fall to the wayside for a while there, lol.
I know I'm taking a big swing here, so let me know what you guys think of this. If I get enough of a negative reaction for instance, maybe it just never happens again xD
Comments
IEU097
I like that the voters' action can have negative consequences. Still, don't like the temporary death warning. Should've made the readers sweat a little.
Colin Peden
I like the rewind aspect, but I would caution that the rewind only let us change one thing, then we go back to the scene that caused the rewind. In this way we don't change anything else, so no one feels their choice was made pointless, and we keep consistency for the story. At least that is how I believe it could work.
Readm
I honestly like this rewind Aspect
Cambrian
Its more finite in that his human brain can only handle so much. Dying too many times would eventually result in ego death as his personality and mind degraded more and more. Humans aren't meant to live forever, and all those experiences would eventually grow to be too much for him. Of course, I'm sure you're smart enough to see the obvious loophole there...
Kaijucifer
I don't buy that Lucien has finite lives. I believe he has infinite, it's just a matter of whether he chooses to resurrect or not. Him being the opposite of death, hence being the Yin to her Yang. He is Life incarnate. Including all of its changes to make way for the future.
