Mid-Town Park - Arclight City ...

Leona Lawrence stumbled through the blazing portal, falling upon the grass with little grace. The robes she had worn in the sub-dimension of Crystonia, tattered and singed, fell about her as she tried to gather her wits and bearings. As soon as she saw the familiar landmarks around her, tears welled in her eyes, but she couldn't celebrate her return to Earth. Not yet.

Pushing her bruised and battered body from the ground, she turned to face the portal as it began to throb, emitting strange, flaming energies that threatened to reach out and carry her back to the world where she and Principle had spent the last year of their lives. Leaning back, away from the gathering winds, her hand rose to her mouth as she whispered prayers, begged for the portal to remain open a little longer.

"Please. Oh, please." Discarded newspapers, leaves and other objects tumbled past, devoured by the portal as it began to diminish. "Just one more time. Beat the odds one more time!"

The portal had almost gone, the storm force winds growing stronger the smaller it became, until she feared it would disappear, leaving Principle and the most precious thing in the universe still on the other side. It would take another year for the energies that had opened the portal to grow again, but she couldn't see anyone surviving that hellscape any longer. He had to make it back. They had to make it through.

With one, final pulse, the portal began to collapse in on itself and Leona began to wail in despair. He hadn't made it. For all his strength, all his powers, all his determination in the face of threats greater than anyone should ever have to face, Principle had failed. As the winds began to fade, Leona fell to her knees, clutching the thin robes to her chest, heaving sobs escaping her mouth.

A flash! A blur! And in the very last second before the portal collapsed, someone else stood before her and Leona's tears turned from loss to joy. Principle had prevailed! He stood there, hovering above the ground, his cape gathered in front of him and Leona knew he had not only survived, he had not returned alone. In the end, Principle had done what he always did. He had beaten the odds. He looked down to her, a face filled with joy, and unfurled the white and gold cape.

"I found him." With care, Principle offered the greatest prize toward her. "I found our son."

"Oh, Tony!" She collected her baby from his strong hands, holding the boy to her chest, her other hand reaching out for the man she loved so very much. "I thought you would be too late. Your powers. They ..."

"I managed to break the shackle in time. I'm weak, weaker than I've been in a long time, but I found him. Our beautiful boy." Powerful fingers stroked their child's hair with pride. "I couldn't save Victor, though. He may be my greatest enemy, but he doesn't deserve what they'll do to him."

"He made his bed." Leona couldn't even scowl. Victor had started all this with his insane plan for revenge. Instead, she and Principle, Tony, had created new life. "Oh, my god! My mom and dad! They'll think I'm dead! I have to ... I've got to ..."

"It's fine. I'm tracking local tv stations. We've only been gone ... three days. Three days! And ..." Principle's head whipped around. Leona knew that look. "I have to go. Something bad is happening in Faraday City. I ... I ..."

He frowned, his eyes turning back to her and their child. For perhaps the first time in his entire life, Principle hesitated. She could sense the urgency. From the tensing of his muscles, his posture, the look upon his face, she knew their new arrival had changed things. Principle's priorities had changed and wavered, but she wasn't about to let that happen. She, nor their child, would not be the reason for the world's greatest hero to shirk his responsibilities.

"Go. We'll be here when you're done. Do it for me, and for Ben." Their child's hand curled around her finger. "No matter what happens in the future, he will always know his father never turned his back on those in need. Not ever. Go!"

Another, slight, hesitation and he was gone. One second he hovered in the air, the next the backdraft of his flight tugged at her. Whatever it was that had caught his attention must have been of utmost importance. Which left her and Ben to figure out how to get to their West-Side apartment. And how to get in. She no longer even had a cell phone, lost right at the beginning of her year-long nightmare.

She began to walk, barefoot on the grass, and smiled at the bag-lady that had witnessed everything. She didn't have a dollar to her name to give the woman. And now she realised she was starving. The euphoria of coming home hadn't lasted, but at least she had her son.

-+-

Uptown - Faraday City ...

Betty cowered behind the car as people streamed past, screams rending the air from all directions. Sean Smith had gone mad. No, not Sean Smith. He still shouted and wailed up toward the figure that now caused all this chaos. But how could she separate him from the monster that now terrorised the city? They were the same person, weren't they? She had seen it with her own, burgeoning and untested, abilities.

Sean Smith. Psycona. Phaross. That weird alien lizard thing. The same being, but different aspects. Then, how could her neighbour stand in the centre of the devastated street as one of the other parts of him cast blazing balls of fire about him? Betty couldn't explain it. She could only imagine some super-villain had caused this split. He knew. If she could read his mind, as she seemed able to do with ease with everyone else around her, perhaps she could see how this had happened?

"Sean! Sean! You have to find cover! Sean!" It was no use. Over the din of the panicking, terrified crowds, Sean couldn't hear a thing. She tried a different tactic. "Psycona!"

That made him spin around, away from the mad laughter of one of his alter-egos. She had never seen Sean Smith look like that and, in that moment, she could see it. The hero beneath the mousy looking man. The determination. The strength. How could she have ever missed it? His eyes fell upon her and she knew her attempt had worked, sending out a psychic call directly into his mind. Betty had no idea how she had done it, but that didn't matter right now. She had caught his attention.

The street beneath Sean's feet split with a crack, sending him tumbling to the side, but he soon recovered, swaying as he tried to reach Betty. Above, Phaross, the villain that no-one knew was actually a part of Psycona, continued to attack the city. Betty didn't know why, maybe Sean would tell her, maybe not, but she hadn't seen devastation on this scale in years. To think that Psycona had so much power inside him but had never unleashed it had her mind racing. Not to mention what had triggered all of this.

"Betty, you have to get out of here!" Sean fell against the bodywork of the car she hid behind. "I don't think Psycona is coming. You were right. He's no hero."

"You know damned well I know who you are, Sean! Don't act dumb. Not here and not now. Not with me!" She grabbed a hold of him, clinging to the small man as the entire building across the street began to shake, rubble falling to the street. "Did you see what happened to Wade?"

"I ... he ..." Sean looked away, uncertain where to look. Not at Betty and not at his other self. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I think he's dead."

"Alright. Alright." She mumbled to herself, trying to reconcile so many different feelings, finally choosing to rely on those she knew better than any other. Her journalistic instincts. "What happened to you? How did this ... split personality begin? How does it even work? Why aren't you in your Psycona outfit fighting yourself? Is that even possible?"

"I don't know. I don't know! I've heard of it happening before, on my ..." He paused, searching her features before taking a deep breath. "On my home planet. Usually precipitated by some kind of mental trauma. It's a way for our psychic consciousnesses to heal themselves, but this ...? I just wanted a little recognition. I wanted people to see what I do for them."

"Then do it! Show them!" Betty pointed above the towering pillars of smoke and flame toward Phaross high above. "You do whatever presto-changeo you do, and you go fight yourself. I dunno ... reabsorb him? We'll get you help. Therapy. Just do something right now before more people are killed!"

Indeed, the street had become littered with bodies. From people caught in Phaross' initial attack, to those that had leapt from burning buildings, to others trampled in the mass panic, the mad rush to escape the rogue aspect of the city's hero. She didn't know how many were dead, or how many were only injured. She didn't want to start counting, not yet.

"You don't understand. I can't 'reabsorb' him because I can't do anything." His head jerked in reflex as a massive explosion rocked the street. He fell with his back against the car. "I can't do anything because I'm not really here."

Betty didn't know what to say to that. Maybe he was even more insane than she thought. If he wasn't there, then how could she even talk to him? See him? She reached out and pinched the skin on his neck, causing Sean to yelp. How did that even work? A superhero that had tanked punches from some of the strongest villains around, yelping in pain at a little pinch?

"You're going to have to make a better explanation than that!" Whatever Phaross had just destroyed, debris clattered and peppered the car's bodywork around them. "And fast!

"At first, I created Phaross. I can create three-dimensional images with my mind that have substance and presence. It's all psychic projection." He gave a large sigh as he noted that Betty didn't quite get it. "It doesn't matter how. What matters is that that ... up there, is my body. My real body. He's taken over completely. This? This body before you? It's nothing but a psychic projection. I've become the subsumed personality. Phaross rules now."

That didn't sound at all good. Not least because Betty now realised she talked with something that wasn't even real. And if this man before her, this projection of her neighbour, was only the creation of Phaross, did that mean that Phaross knew everything that Sean did? That he had heard everything Sean had? If so, that could only mean that she had revealed her own psychic abilities not only to Sean, but to Phaross.

A cold shiver ran down Betty's spine as the realisation struck. Madame Misstery had given her the ring specifically to hide her abilities from Psycona and, by association, Phaross, and she had revealed herself anyway. Misstery had said that Betty was the only one that could bring Psycona back to the light. She couldn't do that if Phaross killed her.

"Aaaand she finally realises." Both Betty and Sean stumbled as something pulled the car away from them, into the air. Phaross. "You know, I have you to thank for reaching this potential, but I think you're more of a liability than anything else now. Time to die pretty, pretty Betty. Oh, and ..."

Phaross didn't finish his sentence as something flashed past, faster than the human eye could see. Something white and gold. It smashed into Phaross, sending them both flying through the air, crashing through a building behind them and through the other side. The crack of air returning to fill the void of their passing almost split Betty's skull.

Principle had arrived!