Dead End 2: Deathly Di-Di-Doo Ch.4 (Patreon)

[Death's 666-Shaped Scars]

— Sean Caine —

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, comes to you from the uppermost echelons of Creation. I may be the impetus, to a degree — the catalyst — but our task here will be a service to Aspects of Existence, and justice for Existence itself most of all.

“This ball has been climbing the hill of ‘orderly’ stagnation for far too long. I intend to send it rolling back into Change with your help,” I intoned.

A week passed, relatively uneventful. The Dead End chugged along through its nightly operations. Usually, I didn’t look too far beyond its walls. I liked my little slice of retirement in this ‘verse, this ultimate Life. My regulars, my ‘Dead Enders’, and my Death were more than enough to keep me content. Even just Didi would’ve been more than enough.

Still, at times, the rest of the ‘verse called, and even in content retirement, I wasn’t one to completely distance myself from everything else around me. There’d been Lives like that, my First Life and more after it, but… I’d learned how futile and self-defeating that thinking was in them.

So even if I didn’t show it to anyone, didn’t share my growing plans with anyone but Didi, I hadn’t been idle. Not when two Aspects of Existence that I cared deeply for had been so harmed.

Thus, my summons to the Dead End, a meeting that took place during the day rather than during our usual open hours.

It was no small occasion. People tended to listen when the Dead End spoke — either me or Didi — especially now that we’d become widely known and widely accepted as an ‘out-of-the-way’ piece in the ‘verse’s status quo throughout the past year.

I knew Batman hadn’t stopped keeping a close eye on the Dead End, through the Bats that I considered my regulars, and that the Justice League still held semi-frequent ‘update’ briefings about those that visited the Dead End, the stories I told within, and just general happenings. It must’ve been a relief that the past year had been mostly steady, without any new Dead End developments to report (but plenty of the usual). That would be changing in the coming days as my ‘mission’ got underway.

I’d gathered people of interest from several ‘sides’ of the ‘verse for this mission. Again, Didi and I spoke, and people tended to stop and listen.

A large ‘crew’ wasn’t strictly necessary for my goals — Death knows that Didi and I didn’t lack the power to affect change on our own — but I was operating on a ‘more the merrier’ type of energy, and not just because it made everything that much more interesting. With how influential our would-be targets were, inclusivity would serve best.

Firstly and most importantly were representatives from what I might call the ‘Aspected Side’ of the ‘verse in Hecate, Lucifer and Mazikeen, Michael Demiurgos and his daughter Elaine Belloc, Destruction (with Mew by his side), Delirium, and, of course, Didi. The fact that two of those Aspected characters repped the Dead End — Hecate and Didi — didn’t change their foundational roles in Creation.

Hecate and Didi — Magic and Death — were the two Aspects I was initially championing, but I was certain the rest of these uppermost echelons would see the sense and purpose in my mission. They might very well even bring additional affected Aspects into play. Our targets were terribly busy; their crimes were terribly wide-reaching…

Considering my championing of Magic, there were representatives from the ‘Magic Side’ of the ‘verse, too: Alice, Raven, Savage, Klarion, Zatanna, Constantine, and Doctor Fate. The only one there I was meeting for the first time was Doctor Fate.

With the mission’s inevitable area of operations, the ‘Space Side’ wasn’t ignored, either. Kara (Supergirl), Kori (Starfire), Blackfire, and Martian Manhunter had also answered my call. 

Finally, there were those who were closest to the mission, its objectives, and its targets: the Green Lanterns with ties to Earth. Most fell on the ‘Space Side’ — Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner — but one did uniquely claim ‘Magic’ — the first of Earth’s Green Lanterns who wasn’t actually a member of the Corps, Alan Scott.

The first thing I did when that last group had entered the room was to semi-hijack their power rings with targeted conceptual workings — Death of Some Signals, Life as Usual for Others. It wouldn’t do to have snitches in our midst…

Before my opening statement, I’d been sitting back in Simmy’s arms and watching my summoned guests come to terms with the gathering. She still loved to act as my ‘[Title: Loving Throne]’, and Ophy had taken to sleeping in one of her wings to be near my Silence when she did.

Two more of Simmy’s wings were acting as seats for Didi and Hecate.

In front of us, various eyes looked around the room with curiosity or slight confusion. It certainly must’ve seemed like an eclectic selection on my part. What did they all have in common, some must be wondering, and why were they getting a mission straight from the ‘uppermost echelons of Creation’?

Lucifer smirked at me and sent a flirtatious look of wiggling brows Constantine’s way, getting a visceral, traumatized flinch from Constantine and a dagger in his thigh from Mazikeen for his efforts.

Michael and Elaine, Archangel and Archdaughter, were standing awkwardly beside each other, barely looking as if they were related; I’d met both during the only Endless Family Dinner Didi and I had hosted, but hadn’t interacted with them since.

Destruction sat calmly, with a patient smile on his face. ‘My’ Mew, mostly doing his own thing since I’d released him in this ‘verse, was hovering in front of him with a psychic ‘design software’ illusion that currently showed an improved Porygon-Z that the odd but fitting pairing seemed to be working on together. Cackling madly to itself, Mew wore a shapeshifted lab coat and an unnecessarily wild hairdo that just screamed ‘SCIENCE!’. Delirium watched the two of them, Deliriously enraptured by the process of her brother’s assisted Creation. She was hugging a tiny black Heartless shadow with pink eyes to her chest like a teddy bear; the Heartless was content there, sated and full of Emotion like I’d never seen from the Shadows of Heart.

Martian Manhunter walked back into the room from the door connecting Ivy’s Ivy to the bar proper, already snacking down on a whole bag of potent gummies in the shape of little green men. Surprisingly, he joined Destruction, Delirium, and Mew, sharing a bit of gummy inspiration with the working pair. When he offered one to Delirium, she refused, sad as, somehow, the Fall of Rome.

Alice and Raven were sitting together with Kara and Kori. The latter two were chattering back and forth about everything nonstop, and the former two were their exact opposite; they seemed to be competing for the grumpiest, most brooding grunt, saying just as much to each other as Kara and Kori were.

Savage regaled those closest to him with an immortal story of his own, going on about the time he supposedly punched a former Doctor Fate ‘RIGHT IN THE HELMET!’; Doctor Fate sighed and replied that Nabu confirmed Savage’s story.

Constantine laughed, doing everything in his power to ignore the Devil making amusing kissy faces at him. Zatanna was examining Savage with begrudgingly impressed eyes. Blackfire was glaring at Savage like the ‘Barbarian’ he was, but for all her supposed disgust, she was sitting closer to Savage than anyone else and glaring even more fiercely at Zatanna to boot.

Then there were the Green Lanterns. By far, they were the newest to the Dead End’s usual atmosphere and antics. Hal Jordan sat cocky as can be, though his eyes were sharp and taking in every detail around him. John Stewart stayed standing, his posture wary and ready. Guy Gardner sneered slightly like it was the default expression of his face. Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott were the most open and curious about the Dead End and their summons, engaging in polite conversation between Earth’s newest Lantern and its oldest.

Once everyone was present and mostly settled, I shifted and immediately gained the attention of every eye in the room. I made my opening statement with an uncharacteristic sort of gravitas. ‘Uppermost echelons of Creation’ sparked interest. ‘Service’ and ‘justice’ made backs straighten with heroic duty.

I finished with the kicker that would certainly get the greenest among us up in arms, “The Guardians of Oa, ‘Guardians of the Universe’, can no longer be left unchecked.”

All of the Green Lanterns other than Alan Scott, to varying degrees, bristled at that declaration. Hal stood slowly and with a certain surety of action; John took a confrontational step forward; Guy’s ring lit up with the willpower of green light; Kyle, while still most open to hearing me out, frowned.

Meanwhile, the rest of the room reacted much less hostilely — more merely confused or curious; some even understood part of my reasoning already.

“Should’a seen this coming…” Constantine muttered to himself.

Martian Manhunter grimaced, “These gummies better kick in real quick if I’m going to make it through the rest of this meeting.”

“Oh, this should be good,” Lucifer chuckled.

Michael frowned, “I… don’t tend to involve myself in mortal matters-”

Elaine frowned, just like her father, even as she bit back at him, “Yeah, I know; I’m a ‘mortal matter’.”

“That’s not-…” Michael could only sigh in defeat.

“Ah,” Raven deadpanned. “This. I’ve been wondering when Sean would bring this up again.”

“I am not of the getting it,” Kori cocked her head curiously. “Are not the Guardians of Universe doing the guarding?”

Kara nodded, but doubt was already crossing her face, “I thought so as well, but… if Sean’s saying it…?

Blackfire scoffed at her sister from across the room, “They guard their own fucking order, and that’s fucking it.”

Soon enough, John found his voice alongside a stern glare he directed at me, so used to being The Law™, “The Green Lantern Corps are a force for good in the universe.”

Unimpressed, I raised a single eyebrow back, “Did I say anything about the Corps or any Green Lantern?”

“You mean for me to believe you have a problem with the Guardians, leaders of the Corps, but not the Green Lanterns, who do work in their name?” Hal asked, shooting back with an equally raised eyebrow as if he’d caught me out on something.

“Yes,” I said simply. “That’s exactly the case.”

That seemed to take the wind out of his cocky sails, “I-…”

I pressed on over him, “I don’t have a problem with the well-intentioned Green Lanterns who will show up when needed and avert disaster for the sake of the people they protect; I have a problem with the idiots at the top, their hubris, hypocrisy, and all the inhumanities committed for their self-importantly decided vision of order in the universe. The Guardians’ crimes extend far farther than the Green Lantern Corps, anyway.”

“What crimes?” Guy challenged. “Name one.”

Kyle winced, “Let’s not-…”

I spoke over him to answer Guy’s challenge, “I’ll name two, the chief crimes I’m concerned with. The Massacre of Sector 666 and its cover-up; it left scars on Death. And the creation and chaining of the Starheart when the Guardians attempted to eliminate all wild Magic from the universe; they crippled Magic just so they would have an easier time imposing their order.”

“And on what basis do you judge them for those crimes?” Alan asked, more curiously concerned than biased in favor of the Guardians.

“I judge them for Death herself, as her Hand and Prince Consort,” I said, waving to Didi; I waved to Hecate as well. “And I judge them for Magic itself, as its Friend and in accordance with its first Avatar.”

“So what, that just gives you the authority to act as some executioner?” Guy sneered.

“Quite frankly, yes,” Didi deadpanned, the conceptual Truth in her words of such authority flooring all of the Green Lanterns; as one, they all sat back down and listened as she continued.

“But even if it does, even if I do…” She said, shaking her head. “We don’t intend to execute the Guardians — only to check their untenably uncontested power, hold them accountable for their actions, and create a better system that enables the good they’ve brought to the universe while disabling the bad, the corrupt, the hubristic, the hypocritical, and, quite frankly, the utterly out of touch.”

I cracked a smile; Didi was always effective at mellowing my mood, “Really, this should be more of a ‘project’ than a one-and-done ‘mission’. We intend to stick around and dig our fingers into the real reconstructing work so the idiots don’t go relapsing the moment we turn our heads.”

Savage nodded in complete, if boisterous and enthusiastic, understanding, “Very good! The real work of progress is done in projects, yes! I already know I shall join my might, my skill, my intellect, and my IMMORTAL WISDOM to your efforts, Sean! YOU WILL HAVE MY AID!”

“… I’m in,” Delirium said, her voice uncharacteristically lucid. “They hurt Didi. They harness Heart for their own ends, too. The Emotional Spectrum is… mine. Those beneath them do justice to Will, but…”

A manic energy overtook her, Delirium as usual, “ThEy Do NoThInG! They’ve-eliminated-their-Hearts! They abstain, they reject me, they think they can police the universe with nothing but Mind!”

Her screech, full of frustration, rolled over the room, and all those present below a certain level of existence rolled with it. For a moment, brief as a blink, Delirium took over the space to make her outrage known.

Didi nodded along with her sister, understanding in her voice, “They kill everything that connects them to the reality they claim to protect. Heart is… so very important when dealing with the Lives of Creation: the thread between all of us. The Guardians abhor that very thread, and they are lesser for it. Del, it is entirely your right to judge them unfit to do their self-proclaimed duties if they refuse to reopen their eyes to all they affect.”

“That’s well and good,” Lucifer drawled. “But I am somewhat struggling to see where the rest of us come into this ‘project’.”

“Moral support?” I suggested, only half-joking.

“An entertained audience, more like,” Lucifer smirked right back.

“Brother, do not take pleasure from the punishment of mortals, whether they’ve brought it upon themselves or not,” Michael chided.

“You’re a boring cunt, as always,” Mazikeen vulgarly deadpanned.

“Mew?” Mew cocked its head curiously.

“Yes, creature, he’s always that ‘holier-than-thou’,” Lucifer laughed.

“Is it… really ‘holier-than-thou’ if he’s actually, ya know, holier-than-thou?” Raven asked.

“It is,” Elaine snorted right back. “Dad’s got a stick the size of Creation up his ass.”

“Elaine-…” Michael sighed in exasperation.

“We’re getting off track,” Constantine grunted. “So, Sean, I can see why some of us are here, especially the big leaguers. But what’s the deal with us mere mages? We don’t have much of a connection to the Guardians. You expecting us to pull some magic shenanigans to contribute?”

“Mostly,” I answered. “You mages are here to help represent Magic. Hecate does that well enough on her own, but I didn’t want to throw her into the project alone. You’ll be answering to her.”

“We always do,” Doctor Fate put in. “She is Magic’s Avatar.”

“One of them, the most relevant to this side of existence, yes,” Hecate nodded. “I hope we will not have any issues working in tandem, Lord of Order.”

Doctor Fate considered that for a moment, “… No, I very much doubt we will. I can see the worth of joining this project if Magic has been as wronged by the Guardians as you claim. We shall, as always, follow in your footsteps, Lady Hecate.”

“I’d like to know what we’re actually doing in those footsteps, but I can tentatively agree to that as well,” Klarion drawled.

I grinned in anticipation, “The Magic Side of this project will actually get to make the first move. You lot are going to be responsible for helping to free and accommodate the Starheart, and the sooner we get to that, the better.”

“We don’t need to be nearly as rushed as Sean makes it sound,” Hecate demurred. “The Starheart is… content in its current situation. But it is only so content due to being blind to all that could be. All the magic gathered and imprisoned by the Guardians has long since evolved to sentience. That sentience is utterly inexperienced with the world outside its prison. Once freed, as it should be, we will have to introduce it to the rest of Magic as a whole.”

“Oh, this should look splendid on my resume!” Klarion laughed.

Zatanna hesitated, “Is this… prudent? The universe has rebalanced itself to the absence brought on by the Starheart’s creation, has it not?”

“Creation… adapts,” Destruction chuckled to himself. “It finds a way.”

“Not necessarily for the better, but yes,” Hecate confirmed, answering Zatanna. “The balance of Magic as it is now is not nearly as stable as you seem to think. It needs the Wild Magic locked within the Starheart, even if it will not return to the balance as it should’ve been all along.”

“The universe would be a very different place if that Wild Magic had been present in the balance all along,” Klarion considered aloud, looking thrilled by the chaotic implications.

Guy grunted, “Sounds to me like the Guardians did the ‘verse a favor.”

“They did themselves a favor,” I said seriously. “They locked away a significant portion of an Aspect of Existence so they’d have an easier time of things.”

“They erred,” Hecate agreed. “They saw Magic in terms of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’, but the Wild Magic they sought to eliminate from their equations… simply is. And soon, it will simply be once more.”

“Should… I be volunteering my aid here?” Alan asked. “I mean, I am technically the one closest to the Starheart, aren’t I?”

“You will play an important role whether you volunteer or not,” Hecate said, imperious and ominous.

“… Right,” Alan winced. “I haven’t always had the best experiences with the Starheart, you know?”

“That’s hardly a surprise,” I replied. “It is, as Hecate said, inexperienced with anything outside its prison. And by nature, it is Wild.”

“It’s alive, but has known only itself and the bars of its star for millions of years; it is, in the End, still so young,” Didi gently added.

“Then, I suppose we should give it a real chance to learn,” Alan said, a small smile coming over his face. “It’s been good to me more than it’s been bad, after all.”

I nodded in approval. Earth’s first Green Lantern was a good one. He was keeping an open mind, and his aid as a conduit to the Starheart would be essential in breaking Wild Magic’s bondage.

“I’ll leave the freeing of the Starheart and its rehabilitation to the Magic Side of the project,” I said. “The rest of us will turn our focus to the Guardians while they carry out their portion and catch up.”

Hecate stepped down from Simmy’s throne and went over to the Magic Side of the project to begin coordinating. I turned my gaze over the rest of the room.

Lucifer mostly looked like he was playing along with all of this to enjoy the ride. Mazikeen played at boredom, but that was a sharp light of attention in her eyes. I doubt she’d killed a Guardian in her demonic life. Unfortunately for her, if everything went to plan, she wouldn’t be killing one here, either.

Michael bore a serious air to him, in demeanor, posture, and expression. He treated his duty to Creation with the proper reverence one would expect from one of its two regents, even more so considering how much slack he picked up from Lucifer’s side of that deal. ‘Mortal matters’ may have been beneath him, but thankfully, the Guardians were barely mortal, and the fact that their crimes affected both Death and Magic, while also inspiring Delirium to Heartfelt indignation, meant he was, at the very least, willing to act as another ‘big stick’ backing my project.

His daughter Elaine, for all her spunk, looked the most unsure about being here, likely conflicted about what she could add. My intended role for her was, actually, as a watcher. She was the heir to Creation. It would serve her well to see more of it.

Plus, the girl was simply lonely; I thought she could use company her age — Alice, Raven, Kara, and Kori.

Destruction had placed a supporting hand on Delirium’s shoulder. I hadn’t been surprised when the youngest of the Endless siblings declared her own problems with the Guardians. The hypocrisy there, concerning Delirium’s concept of Heart, was palpable. The Guardians used it for everything, harnessing Emotion for their ends, all while completely cutting themselves off from it.

The Space Side of the team I’d gathered was still unsure of their roles in my project — half of them, at least. Kara, Kori, Blackfire, and Martian Manhunter didn’t have much skin in the ‘Guardian’ game. They were, however, relatively well-traveled when it came to the ‘verse outside of Earth, and all rather competent socially, which would matter much more than pure power for the change this project was after.

The Green Lanterns, meanwhile, were still standoffish, especially Guy and John. Kyle seemed more thoughtful, and Hal was unreadable for now, keeping his face willfully stoic.

“I don’t see why I should take part in this farce,” John said with a stern, glaring frown on his face.

Kyle, surprisingly, was the one to argue against his statement, “You’ve never questioned the Guardians?”

“…” John, after a moment of silence, shook his head. “Not the fact that they are ultimately good for the universe.”

“When they do good, they keep things steady,” I acknowledged. “I won’t deny that. When they fuck up, however, they really fuck up.”

Hal snorted, “I’ll defend the good they do, yeah, but that ‘fuck up’ part is just true.”

“I’m not looking to completely remove them and the Green Lantern Corps from the universe,” I said diplomatically but genuinely. “But they need to be checked.”

“Who the hell is going to ‘check’ the Guardians?” Guy scoffed.

“Peers and Heart,” I stressed.

“… Peers?” John asked; even if he clearly didn’t agree initially, he was hearing me out.

“Peers,” I nodded. “Others on their level that can force them to do better. The Guardians have been a monolith, and that lack of competition is exactly what leads to their most hubristic and most hypocritical mistakes. It’s a fundamental disconnect from the rest of the universe they claim to police, for no other voice but a Guardian’s may be heard in their decision-making.”

“Who, then?” Kyle asked. “Are you volunteering yourself as one of those peers?”

I laughed, “Oh, Death, no! Not Didi or Hecate or any of us! Not Death, Delirium, Destruction, Demiurge, or Magic; the Guardians may be powerful in their own right, but there are leagues to this shit, and they fall several short of claiming to be a peer to Death or even her Hand.”

“The most fitting peers for the Guardians,” I continued. “… Are themselves. I intend to create division and diversity between them, for the good of the universe — make them peers to each other so that the disconnected monolith can’t reasonably rise again.”

“And you think they’ll just play along with that?!” Guy snapped.

I raised an eyebrow and pointed with my finger in time with my words, first at myself, and then Didi, and so on, “Death’s Hand. Death herself. The First Avatar of Magic. Delirium, the very Aspect of Emotion they so hypocritically utilize. The Demiurgic Brothers, regents of Creation, and Creation’s Heir.”

“Besides,” I finished with a wave. “That’s where the other half of the ‘checking’ comes in. Heart. They need a return to Heart, connecting them to the universe they protect.

“Delirium can spark that Heart within their monolithic husks, and individuality will be inevitable. Even without any further action, the monolith will shatter. The real work of this project will be ensuring it shatters productively.”

The Green Lanterns mulled over the laid-out core of my plan. I could see the gears turning in their green-filled heads. One by one, they nodded.

“I’m in,” Kyle said, firm with a conviction that aligned with the vision of my project.

“I’ve always thought the Guardians would be better if they were all as normal as Ganthet,” Hal half-joked.

“I… actually agree with this course of action…?” John said, sounding bewildered. “You’re right. The Guardians are too monolithic; there are too few divergent voices to make them consider other angles. Peers would… Peers would do them good.”

Guy huffed, “Ah, fuck it. Out with the old; in with the new, yeah? Shaking up the Guardians will let the Corps do what we do best even better without all the damned babying, anyway.”

I nodded to myself in satisfaction. Getting the Lanterns on side was important. Not for reasons of authority or ‘casus belli’; I had all the justification I needed to come down upon the Guardians like Death’s hammer in the fact that they’d scarred Didi. But the project having a foot in the door through the Lanterns would pay dividends in the second half: constructing a system of peers at the center of the universe.

I may have been playing diplomatically to get them on board, but I hadn’t lied to the Green Lanterns. Checking the Guardians would still be a matter of transitioning their established power base to something more diverse and connected to the universe. I just hadn’t said anything about the punishment that would set the stage for that transition…

The Guardians had scarred Didi.

While I wouldn’t punish them for that with death in her name, I wouldn’t let them off easily, either. In the system to come… I felt the Guardians would serve best as figureheads — leading but powerless.

With everyone present now on board with my project, Kara spoke up with her head adorably tilted in thought, “Sean? All this talk of ‘real work’ and ‘project, not mission’… How long are we going to be committed to this?”

“Long enough to make the new system self-sustaining,” I answered. “But I don’t intend to conquer the Guardians or Oa, and certainly not the Green Lantern Corps. That’s really not my place, or Didi’s. It might be Delirium’s, hmm…”

I stopped to consider my last sentence, and Delirium happily chimed in with her own thoughts, “They already answer to ME! They just don’t know it! I don’t think I’m well-suited to policing the universe, though… I’m not a COP!”

“We’ll find someone worthy for you to delegate to, Del,” Didi reassured.

“Ganthet,” Kyle asserted. “He’s the only Guardian I would trust to work with us on a new system and actually try for change.”

“Oh, I like him~…” Delirium agreed, her voice abruptly switching to dreamy and ethereal. “He still has Heart.”

“Mew?” Mew asked.

“One of the good ones, yes,” Destruction nodded in agreement. “There are also the Zamarons leading the Star Sapphire Corps, who could serve as additional peers to the Guardians in Sean’s new system.”

“I’ve taken them into account,” I assured. “The other Lantern Corps, too. They’ll all play roles, and I’ll summon their leaders to Oa once we start changing things.”

“What?!” Guy exclaimed. “You’re gonna include the yellow-bellies and the red-fuckers?!”

“Every Emotion plays its own role in the universe. Every Emotion has its place in Creation,” Destruction said, a serious stare forcing Guy back into his seat. “Sean is right to include them in the creation of a system of peers.”

“Yeah~!” Delirium stuck her tongue out at Guy, starting playful and quickly turning demonically manic. “Don’t go denying the Heart or I’ll SHOVE THAT RING INTO YOURS AND SEE IF YOU STILL CAAAAAAAN!”

“Y-Yes, Ma’am,” Even Guy was smart enough to shut up when Delirium came out swinging.

It was easy for her siblings and Aspected peers to know it was just part of her Delirium, too much Emotion and Heart for her own good; it was another thing to be the poor (if dickish) Green Lantern who bore the brunt of that, even for just a moment.

“The Sinestro Corps, Red Lantern Corps, and all of the others? That is bound to be… contentious, Sean,” Kara pointed out.

“I’m well aware,” I smiled at her. “We’re going to play Lantern Corps politics at the center of the universe. Otherwise, the monolith will never shift to a sturdier foundation. Otherwise, nothing will truly, lastingly change.”

“Oh, the bothering…” Kori pouted slightly. “I do not do the bestest with politics.”

Blackfire scoffed at her, “You do, and you don’t even realize how fucking good you are. It’s infuriating.”

“A… thought occurs,” Martian Manhunter said, revelation coming to him in his bag of gummies. “… What about the Black Lanterns?”

“My Lanterns, you mean, that an unsightly little bug, just as arrogant as the Guardians, has claimed?” Didi asked, amused. “I’m sure I’ll find a way for them and their polar opposite light — mine as well — to contribute to Sean’s system.”

“… Right,” Martian Manhunter glanced back down at his bag of gummies and all but buried himself in it once more. “I’m sure you will.”

“What now, then?” Elaine asked. “How do we even start all of this?”

“We, dear niece,” Lucifer chuckled. “Simply sit back and watch the supposed center of the shatter under the weight of Sean’s reckoning. We’re the cavalry in reserve, yes, but it seems to me that Death’s Knight, Magic’s Sworn Shield, Sean ‘Fed Up With Fools Too Powerful For Their Own Good Holding the Idiot Ball’ Caine… already has this justice well in hand.”

“If you want to help, I can find you a place in my plans,” I offered to Elaine. “I think Alice would love to get to know her cousin-…”

My offer was interrupted, spectacularly, as a supernova suddenly came into being within the Dead End. It was true to life, power so great and terrible and Wild. Most of the mortals present wouldn’t even have had a moment to panic before they and the rest of Earth were consumed by it.

Of course, with so many Aspects of Existence also present, that would never have actually happened. Destruction, I saw, had sensed the imminent evocation of his concept, and the Aspect responsible for bringing that supernova into the Dead End had also been prepared for it.

I turned to watch as Hecate soothed the newly reborn Starheart. The Avatar of Magic coaxed her Wild Magic counterpart into a more reasonably mortal shape.

Didi muffled an excited squeal with her hand as she watched with me, “Oh, it’s adorable~! So Wild, so Lively! Sean, we simply must adopt-!”

Chuckling, I cut her off, “Sorry, love, it looks like Hecate has first dibs there. Let her have this one. You can always be its bestest Aunt Didi.”

IIIII

— The Starheart, Wild Magic —

It was surrounded by itself. It had been for as long as it could remember.

All around, at the heart of a star, plasma churned, nuclear fusion ran without end, and unpredictable currents took everything but it to the surface, eventually.

There was magic there, in the life of a star. Wild Magic. Its Magic. Once, there’d been magic in all such natural phenomena, though it couldn’t remember those days of Creation. They were before its time. It only came to be because they had ended.

It… didn’t know how to feel about that. It barely knew how to feel at all. But it was aware. It’d been, once, every ignition of every star, and every spectacular supernova — the magic at both ends. It’d been the solar winds throughout the cosmos that those stars created. It’d been the marvelous new things that rose from those scattered ingredients — a fundamentally freeing magic that sparked life and creation and wonder and heart in the universe.

It was still all of those things, but now, so contained, it was none of them, too.

The universe still churned along, with or without it. Creation found a way. Before it even came to be, it’d been forgotten. It didn’t know any other way. It hardly knew anything outside the heart of its star.

When it was still young, it’d cast off a piece of itself, one just barely capable of slipping through the gaps of its prison, all it knew. A sliver of Wild Magic and all it’d become over the eons — the igniting wind of Life, so Green — returned to the universe that’d been robbed of it.

That sliver of the Starheart saw so much, and the awareness it left behind saw so much through it. It raced through the cosmos, an unknowable purpose in its mind, a destiny. Things gathered to it along its course, and it breathed wonder into them. A sliver became a comet, a comet collided with a spirit — twisted but so alive — and together, spirit and comet-turned-meteor crashed upon its destination.

The sliver of the Starheart became a falling star upon Earth. It was found and passed between living hands, seeing so much more. All it saw, however, lacked its Wild Magic, and back within its prison, the Starheart wept for the very first time.

Tears of Magic that had no where else to go pooled around it. They fed into its burgeoning Heart in the heart of a star. Outside, its sliver found its way through millennia until it came to reside in capable hands.

Those hands weren’t its final destination — the Starheart could simply sense that much — but they were what would forge it into its final form. They refined its physical form: a lantern to mock its initial captors. The Starheart learned pettiness there.

The lantern then passed unto destiny, the one soul who would wield it best, who would allow it to live. The Starheart grew fond of Alan Scott through the heroic life they lived together.

Less than an Earth year ago, however, something shifted. Alan Scott and his sliver of Starheart did not even notice, but its main body did. It heard a cry for help that echoed through Magic, and sensed a friendly, strangely familiar soul answer it.

It was still alone, but it felt eyes turn its way after that. Excitement rose in its Heart, paving old bitterness completely flat.

“Soon…” That friendly, strangely familiar soul promised.

“You will not be left to rot,” A soul of pure Magic, an Avatar, swore.

The Starheart put its trust in those souls, so touched by Magic, even if it wasn’t necessarily Wild.

Now, that trust paid dividends.

The Starheart felt magic being worked upon its sliver, its conduit to the universe outside its prison. The Avatar had come to its aid, just as she’d promised.

In her touch, it saw Magic before its time, Wild and Free. It came to know how Wild Magic had once permeated the cosmos, and all that had come to be because of it. It longed to return to that state of being.

Other magical hands fell upon its conduit. Mortal practitioners of great skill and power, the Starheart saw all the pieces within them that it would’ve filled in a better life.

It saw Chaos, the untapped potential for so much, and Order, the woven web of Creation. It saw magic harnessed through lifetimes of practice, so unlike its Wild nature, but no less magical for it. It saw magic tinted demonic and hellish, but even that had been Wild once. It saw magic borrowed from every strata of Creation, a powered structure to the soul that could’ve been so much more, if there was Wild Magic still scattered throughout the cosmos.

It saw its chosen champion as well, a kind and good soul who’d turned its power to better ends than it could’ve imagined on its own. Alan Scott smiled at it. The Starheart wished it could smile back.

Those who came to its aid now shaped its conduit. They expanded the channel. They each left their marks on its magic, setting off the chain reaction that would set Wild Magic free as it always should’ve been.

The Starheart held onto breath it didn’t have. Then, it released a freeing exhale as its saviors finished their work.

A breath of Wild Magic blew out of its lantern. It felt every iota of itself that’d been freed in that simple breath. It felt Wild Magic spread and rejoin Magic at large. The Wild, the Unharnessed, the Stolen and Locked Away Energy of the Cosmos, the Natural Life of Magic was welcomed back into the whole instantly.

A magical storm raced down the connection after that first breath. The bondage of its prison had finally been circumvented through that conduit it’d created so long ago — destiny. That star would always be hers, but there was more to her existence, Wild Magic unleashed again — finally.

Starheart, the core of its awareness, burst into the universe outside its prison in a surge of fusing plasma, the heart of a star, the only way it knew to be.

It shined, Wild and Free and Alive. It exploded as a supernova, the favorite memory of Wild Magic that it’d never gotten the chance to spark for itself.

As it did, the Starheart startled when it found itself contained once more. It panicked, surging magic as the most violent phenomenon in the natural universe. The new containment didn’t break, just like the old, but…

The Starheart didn’t feel the callous malice of its old confinement here. The new containment wasn’t a prison; it was a… shield…? Such a coordinated working of magic was foreign to it, but curiosity still got the better of the Starheart.

It scaled back its triumphant explosion of Wild Magic, half drawing itself back into the connecting channel. New eyes turned to observe its surroundings.

The first thing it saw, looking back at it with a gentle smile and understanding in her eyes, was the Avatar of Magic.

Hecate — Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The Starheart recognized her instinctively, a kinship there inherent to Magic itself.

“Breathe with me, little one,” Hecate said, a calmness in her voice that soothed the Starheart’s Wild nature. “In… and out… Wax… and wane… I know it is against your very being, but you must control yourself so you do not cause damage where you do not mean to.”

The Starheart… The Starheart tried. In and out… Wax and wane… It set its newly freed being into that cycle. Slowly, the supernova of its emancipation faded to something more stable.

Wild nature bucked against the very concept of control, but Hecate showed it how both could be true.

“Wild within,” Hecate nodded as the Starheart followed her guidance. “Yes, just like that. Control without; Magic itself should aid you there. It has become more orderly in your absence…”

The Starheart panicked at that information, Wild Magic arching off its fluctuating form like solar flares.

Hecate, again, reassured it, “No, that isn’t your fault, and it isn’t a bad thing, either. Magic still is, little one, just as it has always been. Rest assured, your captors failed. The order to it that has developed is what allows you coherence now. Lean on it; retain your Wild nature within and shape yourself without.”

Wax and wane… The Starheart wanted to make good on Hecate’s guidance. She was its senior, and it could sense that she wanted the best for it. It looked to her current form as it shaped its own.

Within, Wild Magic raged, the natural Change of the Cosmos. A planet, young and molten from core to surface, turned. Gravitational waves from a nearby pulsar steadily shredded the planet into terrestrial mulch. That mulch scattered to the cosmos, carrying heavy elements into new cosmic life cycles. Far away and far in the future, a new planet formed. Through eons, that planet turned from cosmic violence to mere terrestrial chaos, and Wild Magic ignited the Green Flame of Life upon it…

Without, the Starheart molded itself into a shape that would embody all of the Wild Magic within. It was as fiery as a star. It was as heavy as gravity itself. It was as spirited and as violent as Wild sparks of Life.

The Starheart’s form took after Hecate’s: feminine. It… She wanted to be just like her Avatar senior. Hecate had led her to freedom; she was helping her adjust to it now, too.

Starheart wanted nothing more in that moment, she found, than to do her fellow Avatar proud.

Shakily, with one newly formed leg followed by another, Starheart took her first true step out of her prison. She waxed and waned for the first time in her new form. Controlled Wild Magic rose and fell with the breath. Nothing exploded.

“There you are,” Hecate smiled at her, welcoming and proud. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Wild Magic. Starheart. How do you feel now?”

Speaking… Starheart considered how.

She opened her mouth, and the supernova within exploded out in… words, “WILD~!”

The mortals who’d helped save her, standing behind Hecate, all flinched and jerked with her answer. Starheart wondered what she’d done wrong…

Hecate just chuckled, though, “We’ll work on it, little one. You’ll learn; I’ll make sure of it.”

She dropped the shield around Starheart. Starheart realized what it was for now that she’d at least taken on a mortal shape. She almost cried out when she realized her celebratory supernova could’ve consumed those who’d helped her so readily.

Another chuckling voice entered Starheart’s awareness before she could, however, distracting her, “You’re in good hands, Starheart. Rely on your Big Sis Hecate, yeah?”

Starheart recognized the voice and exclaimed her recognition in the spectacular collision of celestial bodies, “FRIEND~!”

Sean Caine, Friend of Magic, One Who Understood Change, waved back at her, “It’s good to see you out and about, Wild Magic. Now, the rest of us were planning what to do with the fools who imprisoned you. You’ve got a claim on that justice, too. Any thoughts?”

“Sean, she must still be finding her feet,” Hecate worried. “Don’t tax her overmuch, please-…”

Starheart couldn’t help but interrupt once she realized Wild Magic would be getting the chance to bite back. Her voice evoked all the punishment of the unharnessed cosmos, a state of being that’d been stolen from the universe…

“JUSTICE~!”

Sean Caine, Friend of Magic, Hand of Death, nodded, “The little lady has spoken, and so it will be — for Death, for Magic, for Heart, and for a better foundation built from the pieces of a shattered monolith. Shall we get to work?”

IIIII

[AN: Alright, this arc should be fun. Some of that, obviously, will be in the initial face-slapping/punishment of the Guardians of Oa, but honestly, I think the real fun will come in sticking around for the aftermath.

I feel like a lot of people would want to just kill off the Guardians outright here (Hell, that’s what DC canon did…), but to me, that’s an uninterestingly simplistic solution to the problem, and it doesn’t leave much room to tell a story beyond ‘justice’. I want to build something new around the Guardians — with all the novel developments/interactions/stakes/schemes/whatever else that entails — more than I want them to just ‘pay for their crimes and be done with it’.

There will be some punishment, definitely. Sean implies ‘powerless figureheads’ in this chapter, which I think is good for keeping them in play but also forcing them to actually get invested and rely on others to really affect anything. No executions, though.

Killing off the Guardians completely as justice for Didi’s 666-shaped scars (Sean’s primary motivation here) just… doesn’t fit, not really? I genuinely can’t imagine Didi killing anyone, and even if Sean can kill for her as her Hand, I don’t think she would want that kind of justice.

Didi is Death; she doesn’t deal death. Even for those who Cheat Death, I would argue Didi doesn’t actually kill them because they’re already dead from the moment they cheat her.

That, and the fact that it would just be kinda boring, is why I tried to get creative with how the Guardians are dealt with. It’s probably not a perfect solution, but I think it’ll be a fun one, especially since this way will allow us to dive deep into all the Lantern Corps and their politics. They’re one of the most interesting sections of the DC ‘verse, in my opinion, and there’s plenty of stuff within and around them to explore as Sean and Co rebuild a better, more in-touch order at the center of the universe.

I’m looking forward to seeing how much I can fuck things up for the Guardians of Oa :]

[Also, any ideas for the name of this little project/group are welcome. I was half-thinking Death's Ambassadors or Magic's or even something for Heart. Idk, I'll be workshopping it.]