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Earth-55, Stag Labs: Techno-virus Research Division | January 6, 2010, 3:17 AM
The lab was silent, sterile, and cold under the harsh white lights. Raj checked his watch—reality's final hour was ticking away.
"Are you sure about this?" Kiran whispered beside him, her smoky blue form rippling with anxiety. The white light pulsing through her body quickened, matching her tension. "I mean, we're literally about to rewrite reality, so... maybe a little certainty would be nice?"
Raj nodded once, rainbow light dancing beneath his skin. "As sure as anyone can be when trying to rewrite reality." His voice carried the same calm confidence he'd shown at the War Hall. "Some things need to be broken to be fixed."
He closed his eyes, accessing his inner library. Among the countless stars of his mental collection, he found the powers he needed for this moment:
Chrono-Slipstep - allowing him to phase between seconds, moving through the lab undetected.
Neural Lull - a gentle sedative effect that put the scientists and guards into a peaceful sleep rather than harming them.
Equation Insight - the most crucial ability now, as rainbow glyphs spiraled in his eyes, letting him read the virus not as mere code but as anti-belief made manifest.
"My god," Raj whispered, his fingers hovering over the pulsing black mass on the lab's central terminal. "This isn't just a disease. It's a conviction... that life has no meaning."
Kiran stepped closer, her smoky blue form casting eerie shadows across the lab equipment. "That tracks," she said, her tone carrying the weight of someone who had survived too many apocalypses. "You don't fight nihilism with more science. You can't fight emptiness with logic."
"No," Raj agreed, his eyes never leaving the pulsing darkness. "You fight it with something worth living for."
Lizzie Prince stood by the door, fingers nervously tracing her bracelets—the ones she'd crafted to mirror her mother's. Unlike Diana's unbreakable gifts from the gods, hers were patched together from hope and desperation. Just like her existence.
"The security protocols will reset soon " she warned, one hand resting on the three Lassos of Fate at her side. Her voice carried the same stubborn determination she'd shown in the War Hall. "Whatever cosmic trick you're planning, do it fast. Before I lose my nerve."
Raj placed his hands above the terminal, not quite touching it. His eyes glowed with rainbow light as he projected Living Glyphs of the Life Equation into the viral core. The virus appeared as a tangled sphere of obsidian threads and shifting anti-text, pulsing with terrible purpose.
"Come on," he muttered, focusing harder.
The moment the glyphs made contact, they flickered violently—rainbow light turning black and silent where it touched the virus.
"No!" Raj growled, pushing more energy into the connection. Sweat beaded on his forehead as the virus began consuming his offering. "It won't take it. The Equation keeps collapsing."
Kiran placed her hand on his shoulder, sharing her energy. Golden ripples flowed from her touch into his form. "Why isn't it working? I thought you were supposed to be the multiversal handyman here."
"It's like it knows what it's not," Raj said through gritted teeth. "It's rejecting existence itself." His voice grew strained, reminiscent of his focused intensity in the temporal corridor. "It's not just refusing it—it's consuming it."
He nearly burned out a slot trying to stabilize the reaction. The virus began unraveling into time-distortions, black tendrils reaching toward them.
Raj pulled back, gasping. "If I push harder, it'll backlash across the entire timeline. I need... I need a vessel."
Lizzie stepped forward, determination hardening her features. The same regal posture she'd shown when she'd voted to erase herself was evident now. "Use me. If someone needs to be sacrificed—"
"No," Raj cut her off firmly. "That's not how we win this. That's not why you're here."
His eyes fell on the small dimensional pocket he'd created earlier. With a gesture, he pulled out the sealed black cocoon—the husk left behind by Erebos after Death had contained it.
Kiran's eyes widened. "That's what you saved it for." She shook her head with a half-smile. "Look at you, chess master with your hidden moves."
"Sometimes you need darkness to fight darkness," Raj confirmed, his expression serious but tinged with the same quiet assurance he'd shown when anchoring Kiran to his timeline.
The lab's lights flickered as Raj placed the cocoon on the central platform. The virus's tendrils seemed drawn to it, reaching out like curious fingers.
Raj accessed more abilities from his mental library:
Soul-Smithing – crafting Souls and meanings.
Stellar Alchemy – fusing metaphysical energies.
Equation Insight once more, visualizing the conceptual gap where meaning could be planted.
"I need your help," he said, looking at both women. "This needs to be born from more than just power—it needs life, emotion, choice." His voice softened, carrying the same intimacy he'd shared with Kiran on the rooftop. "Something worth remembering."
Kiran stepped forward without hesitation, placing her hand over the husk. Golden light flowed from her fingertips, pulsing with pure will to live.
"If this thing's going to fight for life," she said softly, her voice carrying the same determined hope she'd shown throughout their journey, "let it remember the warmth of skin. The sound of laughter." Her voice cracked slightly. "Let it know why the universe couldn't bring itself to delete us." She echoed Raj's poetic words from the rooftop, her golden aura flaring brighter.
Lizzie hesitated, then joined them, uncoiling one of her lassos and draping it over the cocoon. "Truth," she said simply, channeling her mother's unwavering certainty. "If it's going to fight Anti-Life, it needs to know what's worth protecting." Her eyes flashed with Diana's fierce protectiveness. "It needs to know we chose this."
Raj nodded gratefully, then closed his eyes, channeling everything he had into the transformation. Rainbow light erupted from his hands, merging with Kiran's golden glow and the anti-crisis energy from Lizzie's lasso.
The cocoon trembled, then cracked. Light poured from the fissures—not the expected darkness, but a brilliant White-gold radiance that filled the room.
When the light subsided, the cocoon had burst open, revealing a formless being of pulsing light—a sentient presence that hovered before them. It didn't speak, but everyone in the room felt it—a sensation like life itself made tangible.
"What is it?" Lizzie asked, staring in wonder.
Raj smiled; exhaustion evident in his face. "Not a god. Not a weapon. An Entity.... the White Lantern Entity. It'll be called Sajeevan" The same quiet confidence he'd shown when facing Erebos returned to his voice. "A reminder that even broken things can be beautiful."
The entity drifted toward the viral core, circling it curiously. Where they touched, the blackness receded, replaced by a quiet harmony.
"It's working," Kiran breathed.
As the entity engaged with the virus, something unexpected happened. The energy wave it generated crashed over Kiran. Her blue smoky form fractured—then began to reshape.
"Kiran!" Raj rushed to her side as she fell to her knees, the tether between them pulsing with frantic energy.
Golden light poured from the fractures in her smoky form, wrapping around her like a cocoon. She gasped—a sound caught between pain and revelation—as her body began to solidify.
The transformation was beautiful and agonizing to witness. The smoke that had contained her essence for so long peeled away in layers, revealing glimpses of what lay beneath: fingers with delicate knuckles, the curve of a shoulder, the arch of a neck.
Kiran's eyes—now warm brown instead of luminous blue—widened in shock as she looked down at herself. Her hands trembled as she pressed them against her chest, feeling the steady rhythm beneath.
"I can feel it," she whispered, voice breaking with the same vulnerability she'd shown on the rooftop. "My heartbeat. It's so loud."
She ran her fingers over her face in wonder, tracing the contours she'd almost forgotten—the slight bump on the bridge of her nose from breaking it as a child, the three freckles below her right eye that her mother used to call her "guiding stars."
The final remnants of smoke dissolved, leaving her kneeling on the lab floor in light-forged fabric—soft white and gold that seemed woven from the same energy that now coursed through her.
"I can feel everything," she said, tears streaming down her face. "The cold floor. The air. My skin." She looked up at Raj, her expression a mixture of disbelief and overwhelming joy. "Do you know how long it's been since I felt anything real? Since I was more than just... sentient soke and energy?"
"I remember the jasmine vines outside my window," she murmured. "I thought I'd never smell them again."
She pressed her palms flat against the floor, letting out a half-laugh, half-sob as she did so. "I'd forgotten what solid feels like."
Raj knelt beside her, his own eyes shining with emotion. He reached out hesitantly, then paused, his hand hovering inches from her face.
"May I?" he asked softly, echoing the tender respect he'd shown her on the rooftop.
At her nod, he gently brushed his fingers against her cheek, wiping away a tear. The touch—the first real human contact she'd experienced in years—made her whole-body shudder.
"You're really here," he murmured, voice filled with wonder. His hand cupped her cheek, thumb tracing the constellation of freckles she'd just rediscovered. "All of you. Not just bits of code surviving a reboot."
Kiran leaned into his touch, eyes closing briefly to savor the sensation. When she opened them again, she noticed golden light dancing beneath her skin—not containing her as before, but radiating from within her.
She held out her hand, palm up, and concentrated. A small sphere of golden light formed above her palm, pulsing with gentle warmth. With a thought, she sent it floating toward a wilted plant in the corner of the lab. As it touched the dying leaves, they straightened, green color seeping back into them until the plant stood vibrant and alive.
"It seems I kept some souvenirs," she said with a tremulous smile, the same brightness returning to her that she'd shown when sharing chai (Tea) with Raj.
She rose to her feet, testing the weight of a body that was once again solid and real. Her movements sent cascades of golden light rippling around her, and where they touched the sterile lab equipment, small blooms of wildflowers sprouted—impossibly, beautifully alive.
Raj watched her with undisguised awe. "You're... you. Hair, freckles, everything." His voice grew soft, intimate. "I knew you'd be beautiful, but..."
Kiran blushed—actually blushed, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks and marveling at the sensation. "I told you I was cute," she quipped, the playfulness from their rooftop conversation returning naturally to her voice.
She stepped closer to him, her newly restored senses overwhelmed by his presence—the subtle scent of ozone that clung to him, the rainbow light that danced beneath his skin, the warmth radiating from him.
Their moment was interrupted by a warning pulse from the newly-formed entity. The virus was fighting back.
"We need to finish this," Lizzie said, though her eyes were soft watching the exchange between Raj and Kiran. "The timeline's still at risk." Despite her words, there was a gentleness in her tone that hadn't been there in the War Hall—as if witnessing their connection had softened something within her.
As the entity began its final push against the virus, reality around them shuddered. The lab walls flickered, time itself seeming to hesitate.
And then, Lizzie looked down at her hands. They were becoming transparent.
"No," she whispered, watching as pieces of her phased out of existence.
Kiran and Raj turned to her in alarm.
"What's happening?" Kiran asked, reaching for her—but her hand passed through Lizzie's arm.
Lizzie's words caught as she tried to speak, then she laughed bitterly. "Guess that's the price of saving a broken world. There's no room left for a mistake like me." The same raw vulnerability she'd revealed when discussing her origins in the War Hall now colored her voice.
"You're not a mistake," Raj said fiercely, moving toward her with the same conviction he'd shown when facing Erebos. "You mattered. I won't let you vanish."
Tears slid down Lizzie's fading cheeks. "I knew this might happen. I knew when I volunteered." Her voice steadied, finding Diana's strength. "In this new timeline, Diana never made me from clay. If we fix things..."
"There has to be another way," Kiran insisted, her newly solid form seeming more substantial than Lizzie's fading one.
Raj's expression turned determined. He accessed more powers:
Chrono-Photographic Insight – tracing every cell, every moment, every word Lizzie ever was.
Soul-Impression Glyphing – inscribing her essence into something permanent that could survive the timeline shift.
"Your mother's artifacts," he said suddenly. "The tiara, the bracers, the lasso—they exist across timelines. They're constant."
Understanding dawned in Lizzie's eyes. "You want to bind me to them."
"Not your body," Raj explained, working quickly as more of Lizzie faded. "But your essence. Your memory. Your choice." The same gentle assurance he'd shown when anchoring Kiran returned. "Your story."
He created an intricate series of glyphs, rainbow light weaving around the three Lassos of Fate, inscribing Lizzie's soul-impression into their very fabric.
"When the timeline resets, Diana will have these. And within them..."
"A daughter she never knew she had," Lizzie finished, her voice barely audible now, but with the same determination she'd shown in the War Hall.
She was nearly transparent, only the faintest outline of her form visible. But her eyes were clear, determined through her tears.
"Tell Diana..." she paused, finding the words. "Tell her I made my own choice. Just like she taught me."
Kiran nodded, a lump in his throat. "We'll find the page your story got written out of... and I'll write you back in. I promise." The commitment in her voice was absolute.
With those words, Lizzie smiled—and vanished completely.
The three Lassos of Fate fell to the floor with a soft thud, now carrying within them the soul-impression of the daughter of Wonder Woman—waiting to be remembered.
The entity pulsed one final time, releasing a wave of harmonic existence that wiped the virus clean from this point in time. The black tendrils dissolved, replaced by flowing streams of rainbow-gold energy that restored proper connections to the timestream.
"It's done," Kiran whispered, watching the transformation with wide eyes.
"When the time is right," Raj whispered, storing the Lassos, "her mother will know. The truth always finds a way to speak."
The entity, its purpose fulfilled, began to fade—not with Lizzie's violent erasure, but with a peaceful dissolution, returning to the natural order.
Raj collapsed, his rainbow aura sputtering like a candle at the end of a vigil. The slots in his mental library dimmed, power temporarily exhausted.
Kiran caught him before he hit the floor, her newly restored physical form solid and strong. Her gold-trimmed aura enveloped them both protectively.
"You're burning out," she said, concern etched across her features. The same care she'd shown on the rooftop evident in her touch.
Raj looked up at her, managing a tired smile. "That's okay. You're bright enough for both of us right now."
She helped him sit up, both of them leaning against the lab console.
"What happens now?" she asked quietly. "To the timeline? To us?" There was a hint of fear in her question, reminiscent of her vulnerability when discussing her existence as a pre-reboot anomaly.
Raj took her hand, watching as their auras—rainbow and gold—mingled together. "The virus never reached critical mass. History will rewrite itself around that change. The Anti-Life will fade, and Death will regain her rightful domain."
"Will I... will I still exist?" Kiran asked, the fear evident in her voice. Her fingers tightened around his. "Or will I be rewritten too?"
Raj squeezed her hand. "I anchored you to me, remember? As long as I'm stable in the timeline, you will be too." The same absolute certainty he'd shown in the temporal corridor colored his words. "Some connections transcend rewrites."
His eyes drifted to the Lassos on the floor—Lizzie's final legacy. "And someday, when Diana is ready, she'll know her daughter's spirit lives on in what she cherishes most."
Outside the lab windows, the sky was changing—darkness giving way to dawn as reality resetted itself around their intervention.
Kiran rested her head on Raj's shoulder, watching the sunrise with human eyes for the first time in years. "Do you think it was worth it? Everything we lost?"
Raj picked up the lassos, carefully storing them in his dimensional pocket—a promise to be kept. His rainbow aura flickered weakly, but still persisted.
"Light remembers," he said softly, the same poetic quality returning to his voice that had moved Kiran on the rooftop. "Even when darkness tries to make it forget."
Outside the lab windows, the sterile fluorescence gave way to gold-streaked skies. The kind of dawn you could feel on your skin, not just see.
As the new day broke over a world remade, two souls anchored to each other watched the sunrise—different than they were before, but unbroken. Survivors of a reality that would never quite forget them.
In the dimensional pocket, the Lassos pulsed once. Then again. Like a heartbeat, waiting to resume.
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[A/N: WORD COUNT – 3000]
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