Part 22 (1/2)
Good riddance, Jimmy thought.
”You know,” Mary said, somewhat sheepishly, ”I hope you don't think I'm deserting you too, but I desperately need to know what happened after I left Paradise Island.” She lifted off the roof and floated upward into the sky. ”Plus, I really want to check in with my family.”
It dawned on Jimmy that n.o.body had seen Captain Marvel or Captain Marvel Jr. since that big fight with Black Adam several months ago. He wondered what had become of them. ”Yeah, of course,” he called out to Mary. ”Don't sweat it.”
”Thanks, Jimmy!” Mary said. ”Catch up with you later!”
She zipped away, quickly disappearing from sight. Funny, he mused, I thought Paradise Island was the other direction.
In any event, he hoped she found what she was looking for.
FAWCETT CITY.
Mary Batson, she scolded herself. You are such a liar.
The rent on the small apartment had been paid forward for at least a year. Billy's doing, no doubt. Mary pulled on a clean sweater as she headed to the fridge and helped herself to a can of soda. A hot bubble bath had helped put the stench of Apokolips behind her. A pop alb.u.m played softly on her stereo.
Paradise Island. Yeah, right. The way she figured it, Hippolyta surely had everything under control on Themyscira now that Granny Goodness was dead meat. She didn't need Mary's help to straighten out a bunch of confused, powerless Amazon wannabes. But I couldn't exactly tell Jimmy and the rest that I just needed a break from everyone else's problems.
A twinge of guilt p.r.i.c.ked her conscience. Is this some leftover Eclipso or something? she fretted. Am I being selfish?
”Nah,” she a.s.sured herself. As far as she was concerned, she had paid her dues, and atoned for her dip into the dark side, by freeing the G.o.ds, helping to liberate Paradise Island, and getting Holly and Harley back to Earth alive. Let the Justice League deal with Darkseid from now on. ”I just need a little 'me time' to relax and recharge my batteries.”
”Is that what you call it?” an impossibly deep voice said in amus.e.m.e.nt.
Mary recognized the voice at once. The can of soda slipped from her fingertips, falling unnoticed onto the kitchen floor, as she turned in shock toward the open doorway behind her. Beyond the threshold, a startling sight greeted her eyes.
Darkseid was sitting in her living room, reclining comfortably in the comfy faux-leather easy chair she had picked up at Goodwill a few years back. The TV remote was sitting on the coffee table in front of him, as though he had just settled in to watch something on cable. The sheer incongruity of the image left her flabbergasted.
”h.e.l.lo, Mary,” he said calmly. ”You didn't think I had forgotten about you, did you?”
Overcoming her shock, she reacted quickly. ”Shazam!”
Thunder boomed and a mystic lightning bolt smashed through the window. Arms akimbo, Mary Marvel faced her unwelcome visitor defiantly. Smoke rose from the scorched carpet at her feet.
”In my home? How dare you?”
Her dramatic transformation did not rattle him one bit. ”Darkseid dares all.”
”What are you doing here?” she demanded.
”A simple matter, really.” He leaned forward. ”In your final battle with Eclipso, you left a little something behind.”
He held out his hand, and Mary braced herself for an attack, but then she spied the tiny black sphere, no larger than a pearl, gripped between his thick fingers. A pulsating dark radiance emanated from the sphere, which appeared to be composed entirely of roiling black energy. The presence of the sphere made Mary's skin tingle. She felt drawn to it.
”W-what's that?” she gulped. Her clenched fists dropped limply to her sides.
”I believe you know very well what this is,” Darkseid said. ”It's your power.”
”No . . . I have my power.” Tearing her gaze away from the glowing pearl, she turned her back on Darkseid. She crossed her arms over her chest. A quaver in her voice undermined the determination she tried so hard to project. ”The G.o.ds gave it back to me!”
”They gave you a degree of power,” he conceded, ”but not what you possessed when last we met. You are diminished . The G.o.ds no longer fully trust you. They have lost their faith in you.” He chuckled mercilessly. ”You know I'm right. You can feel it, can't you?”
A mirror on the opposite wall offered Mary a glimpse of her reflection. The dark gray thunderbolt on her chest, no longer s.h.i.+ning brightly golden as before, seemed to confirm the G.o.ds' altered opinion of her, that she was now tainted in their eyes. Who's to say they won't withdraw their power from me again? she worried. Like they did with Holly and Harley?
She could feel the power of the black pearl tugging at her. Her heart pounded at the thought of claiming that power once more. Her face flushed with both shame and excitement.
”No! I don't care!” She glared back at Darkseid over her shoulder, while carefully averting her gaze from the alluring poison in his hand. ”That little ball of evil is . . . well, it's evil! And that's not me!”
”So you say, Mary.” He rose from the chair. The floorboards creaked beneath his heavy tread as he came up behind her, still holding out the miniature sphere. ”But let me ask: When you held this power, did you feel evil?”
Not exactly, she thought. Maybe a little reckless sometimes, but was that really so bad? She couldn't resist sneaking a peek at the pearl, then discovered that she couldn't look away. Slowly, almost against her will, she turned around to face Darkseid. The tempting sphere hovered above his outstretched palm, only a few inches away from her face. All she had to was reach out and take it....
”Remember, Mary,” Darkseid urged her. ”Remember how you really felt.”
A tear leaked down Mary's cheek. She couldn't deny the yearning deep within her. ”I felt . . . strong,” she admitted hoa.r.s.ely, her voice barely more than a whisper. ”I felt stronger and more confident than I ever had before.”
Or since.
Darkseid smiled in approval. ”You see, evil is a mere abstraction. A matter of perception.” He stepped forward, bringing the tantalizing sphere even closer. ”Do you hear it, Mary? How it sings to you? Calls to you? Take it. Be complete. Be strong once more.”
Mary's hand reached tentatively for his gift, even as she wrestled painfully with her conscience. She remembered how the G.o.ds had cruelly ”tested” her before, how the Monitor had effortlessly transported her across the cosmos without even asking her permission. Would he have been able to do that if she had still possessed the power Darkseid now offered her? Even with her original powers restored, it seemed that she remained at the mercy of powerful ent.i.ties who treated her like a p.a.w.n in their cosmic games. A sob tore itself from her throat as she faced the awful truth.
I'm still just as helpless as before....
Her fingers hesitated above the s.h.i.+mmering sphere. Her heart ached for the strength and confidence it promised her. She had never wanted anything so much in her life, not even all those enticing magical talismans back at Zatanna's mansion weeks ago. I'm so sorry, she thought. I can't help myself....
Swallowing hard, she stretched her fingers toward the pearl, only to have Darkseid withdraw it slightly. She experienced a moment of panic as he closed his fingers around the sphere, hiding it from her sight. No, she thought frantically. Don't take it away!
”All I require is one tiny favor,” he insisted.
Mary didn't care anymore. I resisted Eclipso in the end, she rationalized. I can turn the tables on Darkseid too, when the time is right.
But first she had to have her power back.
”All right,” she consented. ”Whatever you say.”
He opened his hand and Mary eagerly seized her prize.
Yes!
Thunder boomed once more. Lightning flashed.
Black clouds gathered over the city.
PARADISE ISLAND.
Hippolyta, adorned in all her queenly raiment, watched from atop a rocky outcropping in the harbor as her new subjects labored to remove the last remnants of Granny Goodness's harsh regime from Themyscira's sacred sh.o.r.es. Teams of eager young women, singing merrily as they worked, tore down the false G.o.ddess's ugly barracks, watchtowers, and barbed wire fences while their sisters helped restore the island's marble temples and palaces. Waves lapped gently against the slick stone pedestal beneath her sandals. Seabirds circled overhead beneath Apollo's heavenly chariot. The fresh air held an invigorating salty tang.
The work goes well, she thought. After driving the pretender from her realm, she had been pleased to discover that the homeless young women left behind were more confused than corrupted. Although they were not true Amazons, they had readily embraced the ideals and values of the Sisterhood once Hippolyta had shown them the truth. Even Granny's favored ones, her newly christened ”Female Furies,” had seen the light after the pretender's true nature was exposed. Indeed, there had proved to be much dissatisfaction with Granny's brutal discipline hiding within the hearts of her misguided followers. None mourned her departure.