Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 23, 16: 18 EDT, Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 24, 17: 22 EDT
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It's needlessly complicated
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Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 23, 16: 18 EDT
"He was a great man, they say. Kivar was an orphan found in a field, or by a river. There are many stories, and they are probably lies. Kivar had money, weapons, and magic that allowed him to spark a fire across our world. His armies claimed cities without a single life lost. Every time he won it was through some brilliant plan or trick. Kivar became a legend, his exploits flooding the day clubs of the children and the gaming houses of the royal court.
"My name was Ava, back then. I only have ever had flashes of that time, what it was like. The man who raised me, Nasedo, said that it was all there, but it would take time to unlock. We would all have to be together to gain our full powers, our full memories, to be born again in these bodies.
"I was a queen on Antar, a young queen for a dying regime. My husband was a great man, from what I know. He was kind but hard, very hard. There was always a distance in his eyes, a need to control."
"Stop," Ethan says. "You are an alien?"
"Queen Ava of Antar was murdered. My husband's sister fell in love with Kivar, though how that is possible I will never know. She let Kivar into the capital of Manes to talk with her brother, sue for peace, end the war before one side or the other went too far. Nasedo said there were too many reasons to count for Kivar's rebellion and why King Zan refused to listen. I remember Kivar standing with Zan. The two spoke for sixteen of Antar's days about politics and history, literature and law. Nasedo said I stayed up with them and drank the eiréné so I need not sleep.
"It was too late when the sixteen days were up. When Princess Vilandra let in Kivar she let in Kivar's men. They moved through Manes as shadows, thousands upon thousands, and on the sixteenth day they struck. They slaughtered a thousand slaves bound in their genes to protect the Kingdom, and then stormed the palace. Kivar and Zan turned from words to blows as the city fell apart around us. Queen Ava died as Kivar's men stormed throne room."
"You died?" Ethan asks, a note of hope in his voice.
"I died. The chief adviser, the general, Rath, lived hours more than Ava, Vilandra, and Zan. He gave our cells to my mother in-law, including his own. As Kivar's army began a civil war that is fought to this day the loyalists worked in secret to bring us back to life. They succeeded, in their eyes, and sent eight children hidden in pods to land in a New Mexican desert. The power of that ship took decades to produce Antarian Royals, my kind, without a world behind our creation. Furthermore they mixed us with human DNA so we could pass, hide on Earth, a place that was hoped to be too formidable to search. They were wrong of course. Kivar commanded the loyalty of hundreds of his followers to wear Skins of human biology so they could search for us."
"Do we have to worry about them?" Ethan asks, the hope drained out of him.
"Not them, no. They are all dead by now. They went after me in defective husks, all but powerless. All would have gone according to Rath's plan if one of the followers of the royal line was not corrupt. Kivar offered him something, I don't know what, and Nasedo accepted. He sabotaged the ship and killed two of the other protectors. The survivor deserted. Nasedo left the lesser batch in Roswell and dumped the superior versions in a New York sewer."
"I don't understand," Ethan mutters. "Batches?"
"They made four clones of each of us. The lesser two clones were flushed, the stronger two were sent to Earth. My batch are strong, but had aggressive growth of human cells. Our New York brothers and sisters were the hoped for model, but were given no guidance, no education, and turned feral. They killed their clone of Zan and I killed his murderers. One of them, my sister, might still be alive. She fled Roswell and New York after her family was annihilated."
"That is rather dark, don't you think?" Ethan asks.
"It was life. Nasedo picked me up when we hatched. Trained me, educated me for the deal. I would deliver a legitimate child of Zan and Ava to Kivar, to be appointed prince. Kivar would rule as regent, and I would be queen dowager. The other clone reincarnations would be executed to prevent rival claims to the throne. Kivar would eventually give a child to marry the heir, and all would be well. I would be home, in comfort, safe. I would have stopped a civil war that has raged for the better part of a century!"
"What went wrong?" Ethan sounds so tired.
"I did everything Nasedo said, no matter how hard, no matter how terrible. We went back to Roswell and reunited with my family. There were complications. People died and they would never have trusted me enough that I could explain what happened. They found out, and I went back to Antar alone with the heir. But it turns out that I was a little too human after all." You glare bitterly at the blinking hospital lights. "The human cells had invaded my reproductive system and Max's. None of our germline was Ava and Zan. It was all Tess and Max. He was born to be a king and all he cared about was-" You stop yourself.
"So there was another woman." Ethan observes wryly.
"Liz Parker," You hiss. "I was his wife and he cared more about a human girl he met in high school. After everything I did, all I gave him, he listened to her instead of me!"
"You were giving him over to be killed," Ethan points out.
"That was the deal. It was the only way any of us could go home. His son would have been king. If he had stayed with me on the ship we could have driven into his DNA and extracted a real prince, but he stayed on Earth and I went home." You get up and start to pace. "It was beautiful, Ethan. Everything knew what you wanted. The water was like jello, reacting to your every whim before you even had it. It was always the right temperature, the air was always perfect, you were never thirsty, and when you were hungry you could eat all you wanted and it always tasted good. The smells, the feel of everything, it was right. This disgusting little potter's field will never compare to that."
"But other places might, if you can become strong enough," Ethan laughs. "I think you are exactly the woman I should have taken in as my apprentice." Ethan closes his eyes and sits down. "Tomorrow I will tell you my plan."
Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 24, 17: 22 EDT
"Once Sector 2814 was the heart of vast empire, the greatest empire there ever was. Gods born from the Source and the Anti-Life Equation ruled with peers, some of them we still know to this day. The Lords of Order and Chaos and the Old Ones, or Old Gods, ruled three galaxies. They warred among themselves as we breathe, constantly. Their civilization was a quest for light, emotion, the shining answer. Love, compassion, hope, will, fear, avarice, and rage were stoked in populations stretching across more planets than hold life today. The cruelty and largess of Empire of Tears is beyond our comprehension." Ethan tells you a version of the old story, told in kindergartens and universities all across Earth.
"I know what happened next. The Guardians of the Universe came in, broke the demons, and saved the universe from an unceasing nightmare." You recite it only a bit bored.
"That is one way of looking at it. Currently we are spared a world devoted to a tree of impaled torture victims or the regular and ritualized cannibalism of our children. If the wonders of endless gods and monsters working for their own grandeur could have given us something worth our Tears is of course unknowable. However, one of their wonders is still known. Ethan opens a door into an occult greenhouse. Strange flowers of an amazing variety surround you. One of them you recognize from Antar, a long red pitcher plant "weeping" nectar.
"I rather like not being impaled on a giant tree," You say. "But what are you on about?"
"They held their empire together with portals. Fifty-two portals to a planet. Without the dread Empire to maintain it, the portal network has slowly withered away over thousands of years." Ethan explains happily.
"You can bring back the portals that crossed three galaxies?" You ask incredulously.
"No, but I know where the person who made the network is buried. His corpse is buried under the horrible town of Ravenswood, draining the color out of the place and calling all manner of evils to it. I want to wake him up and put him to work." Ethan spins around and grins at you.
"You want to bring an Old God back?" You recoil.
"Of course not, Pet! I want to bring a Lord of Order just back enough to repair a few portals before he loses power and goes back to dead. He wants to do it, and I want him to do it. He wants all places connected, and he will be happy to have one last go at life." You consider if he's crazy or not. Of course he is.
"This will give me a way back to Antar, a two way portal?" You smile at Ethan.
"Of course! It might benefit you more than anyone else on this planet." Ethan investigates one of the flowers.
"What do you get out of this?" You ask.
"The Wild West is dying, Tess. The Justice League and the Panopticon push from one side to end crime as we know it. Lawyers and supervillains push the other direction, taking control of every criminal they can and killing those they can't. The world has gotten too small for people to breathe. No one has the right to be naughty, to go into the back alleys and the bad part of town anymore. Soon the whole world will be roasting in a suit of armor. They broke the game first, so I am going to fight back to bring another age of fun to this bloody world."
You can live with this idea.
"How can I help?"
[X] "I have an auction for you to attend. One of the items I need for this little spell is being sold by a right brat. Amon Sur is in Metropolis, and he's selling his father's bones."
[X] "I have an assignment in Gotham. Our benefactor in Rosewood has given me the name of someone who wants the body of the TO Morrow robot. His offer is a robot of our own, which could speed things up."
[X] "I am going to need to leave for a mission of my own. In the meantime I would appreciate it if you could watch over Ravenswood in my absence.
