001

— words of flame —

April 11, 2021

SOMEWHERE IN THE GALAXY, MAYBE BEYOND INFINITY MAYBE BEYOND MORTAL COMPREHENSION WAS THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING. With skies painted red and blue with stars sticking out like bright fire torches in the night. The land was made of bright, neon colours and fabulous lights, and all of it was powered by the Old Tree. It was their life blood, what Videl had planted to create everything. It was a place of purity and worship, honouring those now, before, or to come.

Ryn was kneeling in the green and blue moss, his armour scattered around him as he looked up at the flowing featherlike leaves, the purple light making everything glow purple. This was just a baby, an altar for their prayers, but still just as worshipped. The hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood, sensing something before anything even began. He turned his head to the open sky, stars and planets covering the sky, and in the centre, the bright burning sun. He almost looked away when he saw something flash.

The sun had sent out a large flare and a girl.

Her body was dropping from the sky and landing with a harsh thud in moments. Ryn was on his feet, his sword clutched tightly as he ran through the crowds of people trying to see who had fallen from the sun, and they her in the glowing purple fields, the petals like lavender. The mummers grew, but Ryn still could not see her, still trying to make his way through the crowds.

They whispered softly about the girl's curly hair, how her entire body glowed, some just daring each other to move forward, but no one would step onto the field. Ryn finally got the edge of the crowd, staring at the girl, and all the whispering made sense. Then one person spoke up the loudest, "Isn't that the Princess?"

People started to clamour now slowly, inching their way into the flowers, but Ryn quickly sheathed his sword and stopped out into the field, making his way to the girl in just a few steps. He knelt beside her, watching her eyes flutter open and closed, her iris burning red. Ryn grabbed her hand softly, "Hazel? Can you hear me?"

❁

THE WORLD WAS UNSTEADY, LIKE THE AXIS HAD SHIFTED AND WAS TRYING TO TIP HER OVER. Terran pushed herself onto her elbows, trying to shake the shadows of pain still lingering in her skull, her eyes heavy. She pushed herself up and settled on her knees, her head continuing to spin as she tried to focus on the bodies in front of her.

She crawled over to Cole and grabbed him by his arms, shaking him quickly. "Cole, get up," Terran pleaded. Cole's eyes twitched before he slowly opened them, squinting as he adjusted to the light around him. Terran let out a sigh of relief, "Hey, hey, you're all good. Just take it slow."

Terran shuffled away from Cole and kneeled by Rachel, tracing her fingertips along her cheekbone. "Rache, Rachel, get up," Terran said, keeping her voice soft as Rachel started to stir. Terran looked up at Cole, watching him try and wake Tim up, but still was wobbling on his knees.

"Terran?" Her head spun back to look at Rachel, smiling as the demon girl squeezed Terran's hand. Kory and Dick had woken up and now stood, keeping each other steady as they looked around. Terran carefully helped Rachel to her feet, and Cole did the same for Tim.

Dick looked all over the cave, pausing only momentarily to look at Conner, but his eyes continued to wander over the empty cave. Then he let out a heavy sigh, "They're gone. They're all gone," Dick said, his voice shallow.

"But we're still here," Kory mumbled, toying with her fingers.

Cole groaned and rubbed his temple, "Where were we? All that pain vanished, but it felt like I just had the worst nap of my life."

"It was a death realm," Terran explained. "Her powers sent us there."

"How are we still here?" Tim asked, leaning on Cole for support.

"Gar saved us somehow," Rachel explained. "I heard his voice in the darkness."

"Yeah, I think I heard him too," Dick said with a nod.

"I did too," Kory echoed.

"So where is he? And where the fuck is Hazel?" Tim asked, looking around the temple. "You heard Gar's voice, did you hear hers?" Rachel's eyes shot down to the ground and shook her head softly.

"She's alive," Terran said confidently before motioning to Cole. "Our lives are connected, if something happened we would know."

Kory stepped away from Dick and walked towards the deep pool of blood, the red liquid shimmering under the light that broke through the edges of the cave. "I should've killed him when I had the chance," Kory seethed, though her voice was still quiet.

"Don't do it to yourself," Dick said, stepping up to stand beside Kory. "We all made the decision to save him, together."

"Did we though?" Conner questioned, stepping up the stone steps to face Kory and Dick. "I thought you wanted to save him. I wanted to stop him."

"Yeah, well, if you had worked with us instead of rushing off without telling anyone, we might have actually succeeded," Terran scoffed, gesturing wildly with her hands as Conner blankly looked at her. "But no, you had to prove your ego to your pop's and we had to save your ass." Cole shrugged softly, nodding in agreement with his sister.

"Whether or not, your plan would have ended with us here," Conner snapped back, "In a big, empty B-movie Batcave. And all the bad guys scattered into the wind. " Conner turned his eyes to Dick and flashed him a sarcastic grin. "Take a bow, boss man."

"Stop it!" Rachel yelled. At some point she had wandered from Terran's side and walked around the pool of blood to the flat stone where Jinx's body once was. She knelt down and picked up a small green stone, her fingers tracing the glassy texture. She stood and glanced over her shoulder at the others, her eyes narrowing at Conner for a brief moment. "Jinx died for us. Fighting with each other is not going to change anything."

"What are you doing?" Tim asked, spinning the staff nervously in his hands.

Rachel stared at the lights reflecting in the green stone and took a soft breath. "Releasing her spirit from this place of evil," Rache explained. She closed her eyes and lifted her hands, the stane crackinging and rippling into petal-like lights, dancing in shades of pink and gold. They floated high into the air and Rachel opened her eyes, watching the petals fizzle and fade out.

Cole looked at the lights fading out and his eyebrows creased in confusion. "That seems like a very sweet power for a half demon using dark magic," he mumbled, his eyes moving back to Rachel and her platinum white hair.

Rachel looked at her hands, her fingers tracing along her palms. "My powers are back, but they're different somehow," Rachel said honestly, turning to face the others properly.

Dick looked around the cave walls once more before taking a deep breath. "Let's get out of here, nodding at the others and motioning over to the exit.

"Hold on," Conner called out and they froze before they could make their way to the exit. Conner looked down at one of the symbols carved into the ground, something different from the others only he could see. "There's something down here." He knelt down carefully, his fingertips tracing the lines and cracks in the foundation. He reeled his arm back and punched through the floor with a heavy crack, a small dust cloud and tiny pebbles scattering across the floor. He reached under the rocks and carefully pulled out a small heavy industrial green box.

Conner blew the dust off the box and everyone watched him closely as he set it on a nearby table and flicked the lid open, revealing the LexCorp logo.

Dick and Cole were the first to step closer, watching Conner flick through the different pages of the old leather bound book. He paused and took a small letter from the pages, setting the envelope on the table as he glanced through the book. Terran had rushed to her brother's side, taking the envelope and reading the looped cursive writing of Conner's name.

Conner took the envelope from her and set the book on the table. "It's from Lex. He must have planted it here to help us."

"Yeah, that sounds like Lex," Dick spoke up, nodding softly and Terran couldn't tell if he was kidding or not, but the others had stepped closer, crowding around Conner as he looked at everything his dead father had left behind.

"Why would Lex leave something here, of all places?" Kory questioned, her eyes darting between Conner and Dick.

Conner ripped the letter open and took the perfectly folded letter from inside, opening it and reading aloud the light blue hand writing. "If you're reading this, my plan failed and May is as evil as I feared. You must stop her. This book contains information only known by me. Give it to Richard." Dick looked up at the mention of his name. "He claims to be a master detective, so let him detect."

"What else does it say?" Cole asked, trying to look closer.

"This rest is just for me," Conner said quickly, closing the paper and moving the letter from Cole's sight.

"He's lying," Rachel whispered, leaning closer to whisper to Terran but either spoke on it.

Conner looked at the leather book, turning it in his hand before holding it out to Dick. He spared a glance between him and the book before Dick took it from his hands. The moment the book passed from Conner to Dick, Conner stepped around him, stepping back as the others leaned in closer to see the pages better.

Dick held the book under a small gold light and flicked through it, scanning over the messy inky pages until he reached the centre marked by a red book mark. Dick opened the book properly and laid the book flat on the table, letting everyone see the roughly inked sketch of a girl with curled hair, the small flower sprouting through it twisting together to make a detailed crown, bones scattered through the headpiece.

Terran snatched the book from Dick and held it closer to her face, her eyes scanning over each rough line. It looked like Hazel, without a doubt, even having the right eye positioned slightly higher on the face. "Lex knew about this?" Terran muttered. Terran continued to flick through different pages, some exact replica sketches of the old story book from the asylum, even matching the gold tears running down the woman's face.

Cole stopped her as she landed on a double spread page on alien looking hieroglyphics, the letters sharp and slim in odd shapes. "Can you read that?" Cole asked, looking up at Terran.

Terran hummed and leaned closer, her fingers tracing the rough writing. "Uh, it's old Veman so just give me a sec," Terran muttered, her eyes darting across the page. Her fingers stopped in the centre of the second page, tracing the slim lines. "Listen to me," Terran whispered, almost in the rhythm of a song. "Se hāros bartossi."

Kory looked at Terran, meeting the younger girl's shakey stare. "The song on the jukebox," She whispered.

Dick looked at Kory from the corner of his eye and sighed softly. "Do you know what anything else says?" Tim asked, stepping closer to her to see what Terran was doing.

Her fingers traced along the paper, reading the phrases aloud, stammering over the translation occasionally. "Hae mērot gierūli: In visions of flame. Se hāros bartossi. Listen to me. Prūmȳsa sōvīli. The— The spell that needs three. Gevī dāeri. Is made whole through. . . me." She stopped, her eyes narrowing at the words. "I can't really make out the rest." She flipped the page, her eyes wide open as she read the pages, the language even older and more complicated. "Yeah, I can't read shit."

"Well I definitely know someone who can," Dick said, taking the book from Terran.

"You have someone for everything," Cole mumbled under his breath.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tim urged. He nudged Cole's arm softly and stepped around him, jogging down the stone steps.

"Hey!" Rachel shouted, catching everyone's attention before they could make it to the elevator. She gestured around, "Where's Conner?"

❁

Dick led Terran and Cole through the halls of an old apartment building, holes and cracks scattered along the roof and walls, letting in small cracks of sunlight. The entire electrical system seemed to be out, the halls void of colour making already still air even colder. Kory stayed back in the RV with Tim and Rachel.

"Listen, Roberta is a little eccentric," Dick warned, looking back at the siblings. "But I trust her. She's an expert in extraterrestrial languages. Knows everything from Klingon to Tamaranean."

"You know Klingon's not a real language," Terran mentioned, looking up at the water damaged roof.

"Try telling her that," Dick whispered, shaking his head as they reached the end of the hall. Dick took a breath as he looked at the door, the number had been taken off but Terran could make out the faint outline of the number 13. Maybe 18. Dick knocked on the door quickly, the light taps echoing through the quiet halls.

They waited in silence for a moment when Cole spoke up, "If you could have a full conversation in Klingon wouldn't that make it a language?"

"Or a code," Terran said with a shrug.

Cole tapped his hands on his legs, "What's the difference between a code and a language?"

"I was gonna ask that," Terran said with a grin.

A pair of mechanical clicks made them freeze. The door swung open, revealing no one behind it, just a short hall with a wall at the end hiding whatever was inside the house. "Come in," Roberta called, her voice somewhat raspy, but still welcoming. Dick nodded the siblings on and they stepped inside first, Dick closing the door as he stepped through after them. "EMF hats by the door."

"We're actually good on the, uh, hats, Roberta," Dick called out, keeping his tone gentle.

Roberto scoffed in response, "Suit yourselves."

Cole picked up the matte black cap and twisted it in his hands. Dick looked down at him, shaking his head softly and Cole quickly returned the hat to its rightful place. Terran and Cole stayed close together as they followed Dick down the hall, the walls slowly gaining more wires the further they ventured.

"Hello?" Dick called out, peeking around the corner into an open room. Well it would have been open if it wasn't stacked full of papers, with cupboards and boxes pushed haphazardly around the centre table. A trio of monitors took up the table space, with Roberta sitting in a spinning chair.

Roberta spun in her chair and Terran got a good look at her; dark skin that had started to form wrinkles, dusty grey hair, all matched with a large blue necklace and bright red spotted shirt. At least she's confident, Terran thought to herself. "No devices on us, just like you asked," Dick said, patting over his pockets before displaying his hands.

Roberta stayed silent for a moment before standing in a quick motion, the rolling chair slipping back as she did. Roberta held her hands tightly behind her back as she started to make small steps towards Cole. "Hi—" Roberta suddenly lunged forward and sniffed a stripe up Cole's body, careful not to touch him. Cole shouted in surprise and flinched backwards, watching the woman with wide eyes.

"The myths say you smell of mint and sweet fruits," Roberta said, lifting her chin. "Yet you smell of tangerines and vanilla."

"It's my collonge, vanilla dusk and tangerine," Cole explained, his eyebrows turned in confusion.

Roberta's eye travelled to Terran, her eyes narrowing at the young girl. "Codes are forms of instructions," Roberta snapped, her Veman coming off as naturally as it could. Terran's eyes widened as she stared at Roberta. "Languages are not."

"That's really weird you could hear our conversation," Terran said with a tight smile. Her comment, more the fact that it was said in Veman, but Roberta smiled, her hands shooting into her pockets and she jumped once in joy. She fell back into her seat, her smile still present as she looked up at the siblings.

"We have some questions," Terran said, switching her tongue back to English. "We have a book that needs translating."

Dick passed the old leather bound book to Roberta who opened it quickly, flipping to the page of Veman they had marked in need of translation. Roberta held the book closer to her face, squinting as her eyes scanned every detail written into the page. Terran began to chew on her nails again, her patience wearing thin. Then Roberta nodded to herself, "The prophecy."

Dick crossed his arms over his chest, "You know about that?"

Roberta looked up at Dick, her eyebrows turned in annoyance. "The end of the world? Yeah. I know about it."

"That's awesome 'cause we think the Blood Moon ritual had happened," Cole added with a grin, giving Roberto a nervous thumbs up.

Roberta stared at him, "So there is a fulsome Son of Trigon manifested in the Well of Blood here on our earth?"

Cole spared a glance at Terran and Dick before shrugging softly, "We didn't say it was a happy book."

"And he has the Horn?"

Dick's eyebrows furrowed at that, "What horn?"

Roberta quickly shuffled through the pages before showing it to the others; a large sketch of some sort of bone horn with scrawled writing all around the edges. "The one Trigon lost in his battle with the Gods." Roberta tapped on the next page, scratchy rendition of demons and dark creatures huddled around a sketch of the horn, this time in a bright blood red. "It's protected by his followers. Only one with Trigonic blood can use it."

"Use it for what?" Terran questioned, her teeth digging into the skin of her finger.

Roberta flipped to the next page, reading over the next few phrases. "To usher forth and welcome Trigon, here in our earthly realm for the start of his dominion over humanity," Roberta paused and looked up at the others. "Basically, he's going to eat the world."

Dick took a breath, nervously tugging at the roots of his hair. "And how do we stop him?"

"You don't," Roberta snapped. "The promised one does. A being created from the flare from the sun, brought upon this life to heal the world. Jemiros. Sunarr."

"Sunarr?" Terran repeated, remembering the name from the tapes.

Cole took a nervous breath, "Hazel."

"What can you tell us about this prophecy?" Dick questioned, his tone growing more demanding.

"The red light, when used to its full power, can end this. But. . ." Roberta trailed off, her fingers ghosting over the pages.

Cole ran his hands down his face, hewing on the skin of his lips so hard they split open, "Why is it never easy?"

Roberta read over the words once more. "The light that the promised will use, your friend Hazel, must use, will kill her."

"What?" Terran snatched the book from Roberta's hands, making her flinch. Terran hands gripped the book tightly, her eyes scanning the words as if it made any sense to her. It all made her head spin.

Roberta was quick to jump on her feet again to translate the words to Terran. "From my voice: The lights have spoken. With blood magic, With words of flame, With clear eyes, The price shall be paid, the light shall claim what is theirs and end you as you came." Roberta paused and looked up at Dick. "Came meaning born."

"Hazel's half mortal," Cole mumbled.

Terran lowered the book away from her face. Her eyes ghosted over Cole's face before she looked up at Dick, his face stone Cole but his eyes jumped around nervously. "If you leave the book with me, I will translate the rest," Roberta offered, taking the book from Terran. 

❁

Terran, Cole and Dick had made their way back to the RV pretty quickly after that, explaining it all to the others, Rachel's grip on Terran's hand tightening with each word. Kory however had covered her mouth in shock, her eyes widening as she listened. "I just can't believe Hazel is the Jemiros," Kory repeated, again.

"Who's the Jemiros?" Tim asked, stumbling over the word slightly. "Like what does that make Hazel?"

"She's like the saviour, the God of all Gods," Kory recited, her hands moving wildly. "I mean— My mother used to pray to her when harvests looked bad, or if someone was in peril and needed a miracle." Terran's eyes widened as she stared at her.

"Listen, I would love to talk about how my sister is Jesus," Cole spoke up, his hand toying with the rings on his fingers. "But we have to find the horn. I would like to see her again before the end of the world."

Rachel nodded in agreement. "If anyone with Trigonic blood can get the Horn, then I'm just as qualified as Sebastion," Rachel thought aloud, Cole nodding in agreement as Tim rustled through a notebook. Rachel turned to Dick and Kory, shrugging softly. "We just need to get there first, right?"

"Theoretically, yes," Dick confirmed. "But we need to know where the horn is in order to do that."

Terran slumped in her seat, "Which we don't."

"Roberta was able to translate this older text. It appears relevant, obviously, but at the same time, it makes no sense," Kory said, spinning the book around so Rachel could see the picture Roberta sent to them.

Rachel grabbed the tablet, pulling it closer to read it better. "Sun star explodes. Blood portal. Horn of Power sounds," Rachel read allowed.

"Nice three-step process," Tim mumbled, his hands busy working writing lines in a notebook.

"It's old Veman so their Grammar wasn't anything special," Terran excused, smiling with tight lips.

"Do a cross reference, see if anything pops up," Dick ordered, nodding at Cole.

Tim paused, holding his hand up as he re read his writing. "What if it's not about the words?" Tim asked, looking at the others.

"Like Gematria?" Cole questioned and Tim nodded quickly.

Terran eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What's Gematria?" she asked, looking between both boys.

"It's basically like semantic numerology," Tim started and Terran's eyebrows raised in response. "In most ancient languages, each letter has a numeric value."

"Like scrabble," Rachel offered.

"N—No. But sure, basically," Tim stammered. "Gematria is all over Biblical interpretation. That's how we ended up with 666 being the mark of the beast from revelations, even though technically, it's about Emperor Nero, but still. . ." Tim trailed off as his response died off, but he gave a small shrug.

"So this might be an alphanumeric cipher," Dick agreed with a small nod.

Tim shrugged softly, "Maybe."

"But how do we know the values?" Rachel asked, glancing down at the picture.

"Standard code-breaking," Cole piped up. "Start with the word you know in Veman, like sun."

"Naros," Terran said, rolling the R.

Tim quickly scribbled it down, mumbling as he did, "Across most ancient languages, the numeric value of that is 100, so if that's true for Veman—"

"Enter the known values and make the computer look for a patteres," Dick interrupted, taking the tablet and swiping it to display on the large screens. Dick typed sun into the search bar and the computer beeped in response. Everyone stepped closer as the screen loaded, their hearts beating nervously. The screen loaded, showing both translations of the word with a dozen numbers in the centre.

Rachel's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the screen. "Okay, so, we have a bunch of numbers instead of letters," Rachel said, glancing between Terran and the screen. "The numbers could mean anything."

Terran sighed softly as her eyes danced over the letters. "Unless. . . it's both numbers and letters," Terran offered and Dick glanced over his shoulder at her.

He turned back to the screen and nodded softly, "So if blood portal means temple. . ." Dick tapped a few buttons, loading a new command for the computer. It beeped as it displayed the location of the temple. "Then. . ." Dick started to type again and Tim cheered under his breath. "This line here. . ."

"Holy shit," Tim cursed, as a new location appeared on screen.

"Lex just gave us the location of the Horn," Dick said, a smile growing.

❁

Cole drove the RV out toward an empty field, the lonely highway seemingly running along forever with no turns, bends or bridges. Just the road and wide green fields. Cole, Dick and Kory were the first to jump out of the RV, Tim only steps behind as Rachel and Terran answered the video call from Roberta. "We are literally in the middle of nowhere," Rachel complained, gesturing outside to the wide fields. "You told Dick and Terran only one with Trigonic blood can use the horn. Shouldn't I be able to feel it or something?"

"Not necessarily," Roberta said quickly. "The Horn has been dormant for years. Hidden and protected. It could be your power that brings it back to life. I'll keep digging for any other mentions that might help— Oh, hang on." Roberta curried out of her chair, knocking a dozen things over as she raced around.

Rachel sighed, her eyes closing in annoyance. "Hanging," Terran called after her, but she had continued reading over the tablet. Rachel spun back to her, moving closer so she could rest her hands against Terran's legs. She glanced up at her and smiled. "Sorry I'm trying to translate what I can."

"Any luck?" Rachel asked, peering closer to Terran, trying to read the tablet.

Terran shrugged softly. "I just don't understand what words of flame means." Terran tapped her fingers and against the side of the tablet.

Rachel reached for the tablet, taking it from Terran and scanning the notes Roberta left. "Udrȳssi," Rchel repeated before her eyebrows furrowed. She leant closer to Terran and flipped the tablet so she could see what she was pointing to. "What's the difference between Udrossi and Udrȳssi?"

Terran zoomed in closer on the picture, her nails tapping against the screen as she did. "Well, Udrȳssi means flame Udrossi is light. They have similar meanings so they have similar spelling," Terran explained.

"Okay, so, if it's old Veman and you don't have someone to properly translate it, could this really mean words of light?" Rachel questioned.

Terran looked at Rachel and her eyes widened. "Like the woman we saw in Kory's vision. Her arms."

— legacies  —