"It was 16 years ago. During the time of the viltrum-thanagar war
The thanagarians had sent out every single one of their elites. They could not afford to hold back against us. The war was galactic in nature. Many times the lanterns interveneed to try and sort out some kind of peace treaty, but neither side wanted it.
The empire was hell bent on acquiring Nth metal, to study it's properties, to use it in battle. If we had succeed,it would have been monumental for us. But it was not that easy.
While their elites did come out, they would run the moment they spotted danger to keep the metal out of their hands. This happened for years and years.
I thought myself... smarter than the other viltrumites. I decided to use trickery and deceit. When I met Ra'as, I did everything to get close to him.
He was naive. Hopelessly so. And dense as hell. He believed we had formed some kind of "camaraderie" after fighting for so long. He quickly dubbed himself my friend and swore to bring me over to the "good" side. I spent many sleepless nights on deciding whether or not to kill him.
I made all kinds of excuses for myself, like getting him to lower his guard or some other shit. I never truly believed any of that deep down, but I did it anyway.
I was initially just going to kill him the moment he let me get close and take the metal from him. But after a little while he... grew on me.
We spent years with each other. I lied to the empire, saying that I was stranded on some remote planet because of a green lantern and was making my way back.
I eventually... fell in love with him, and had you. He later died in the war, and it left me... confused. The war ended, but i still could not let go of him
To the end, he never suspected me of tricking him, and truly believed in me. "
She concluded the story with a sigh and looked at the ceiling to hide her expression from me, but I could tell it was an expression of regret and longing even without looking.
She was my mother, after all.
"The empire, upon discovering of your existence, bought my story of wanting to "secure a new asset ""
"And they just left me? " I asked with suspicion.
"Of course not. They genetically modified you in my womb to make you a better hybrid. They gave you better supplements than other children. Fed you different foods than them. Tell me, have you never noticed the difference between you and other children? "
Indeed I had. Even before I awakened my powers, I was abnormally strong compared to other children. And my far superior senses were an obvious sign. I had suspected for a little while that I might be a half blood.
Seeing the look on my face, my mother was able to guess that I did, in fact, notice.
"Of all the hybrids that the empire experimented with, you were their greatest success. Most of the others were weaker than normal viltrumites, didn't inherit any meaningful advantage from their non viltrumite half and were just normal viltrumites, or simply failed to awaken any powers at all.
Some even died at birth. But you alone gave the empire exactly what they wanted. An enhanced viltrumite with amazing growth potential and no down sides. "
As she spoke, mothers expression only grew more bitter. To see her son's fate fixed to a far more lonely and bloody path than any other average, pure blooded viltrumite did not seem appealing to her.
I stood there for a second, processing all this information, before frowning.
Seeing my mother, usually stoic, strong and invulnerable, looking so regretful and depressed looked unnatural.
I had never been one to comfort people. It didn't help that this fucked up society I was living in literally trained me to be an emotionally stunted war machine. So I hesitated, my hands opening and closing and a look of conflict on my face.
But I was able to steel myself, approaching my mother and putting my hand over hers as gently as possible. She looked at me, trying my best to search my head for words to help her, and gently smiled.
"Do not worry, Jaxon. I have long made peace with-"
Just then.
*BOOM*
A viltrumite came crashing straight through our wall, spinning uncontrollably. I immediately got a, putting on a fighting stance but my mother beat me to it.
She spun around with a spinning back fist, her face going from gentle to wrathful within a second.
"WE WERE HAVING A MOMENT YOU FUCK! "
The poor saps head burst open like a fruit. I shuddered for a second, before flinching and looking up. I immediately flew through the roof.
My mother followed me with a disgruntled look, but the annoyance on her face vanished instantly as she beholded the sight before her.
It was chaos.
All over the city, viltrumites were falling out of the sky like birds with broken wings.
With my enhanced senses, I could see and hear them collapsing and coughing blood. Their skin turned pale and sickly, and their breath grew ragged and weak.
It was clear what this was.
"A plague? On viltrum?! " My mother said, shocked at the scene.
It was unbelievable. Viltrumites were to be immune to damn near every substance in the universe. We had rarely encountered a poison or illness that effected us in any way. And the few that did, we either developed a resistance to or erased entirely.
So... What the hell was going on before me.
This wasn't just some disease. This had to be some sort of bio-weapon Or artificial creation, that much was obvious.
As I strained my hearing and smell to understand what exactly this sickness was doing, I came across an even more shocking and terrifying revelation.
This plague was... unmaking us?
Literally, that was what was going on. I could hear the tissue and fibre inside the surrounding viltrumites bodies separating and detaching from each other. They were being torn apart from the inside out. They puked out blood, bile and internal organs every few seconds.
I floated back in horror, fear gripping my very bones.
'Could... Could that happen to me? Am I also going to die like that? '
I quickly told my mother what I had learned, and the grim look on her face deepened even more.
She flew towards the main hall, gesturing for me to follow.
"Come, we must be quick. "
I took one last look back at the scene behind me, sweat rolling down my forehead, but I snapped myself out of it. I flew after my mother, an ominous feeling gripping my heart.