New Beginnings

[monstersociety]

Scrooge had the right idea, Sivana thought to himself.  Everyone who goes around with "Merry Christmas" on their lips should be boiled in their own pudding.

He hated this season.  It was a side-effect of being so miserable and evil that no one wanted anything personally to do with him.  But then again, he couldn't stand most people anyways.

Except

Comments

[taliahead]

She burned the relevant hardcopy days ago and arranged for the sudden deaths of a few select technicians key to the project. The trail connecting her to this was now only hearsay, and of that there was scant information. It paid to be thorough.

The green and blue illumination from the nearby displays flickered across her visage as she reviewed the final product. The irony of her place in all this was not lost upon her. The previous holder of the mantle had been executed by a powerful and carefully crafted cat’s-paw of hers. Doubtless the same pawn would execute her as quickly if he found that she had engineered the maniac’s successor. That was the beauty of it all however. She would be the last person he suspected, especially given this one’s history.

The crowning touch however was the insulation this would provide her. She had no issue with a fanatical following per se. In fact, the League was an ideal tool, but then the League was custom built to follow the Demon’s Head. Some cults required more, and this particular breed required certain trappings of religion that she was ill equipped to provide personally. This solution provided her the best of answers. She had access to the power it represented, the gratitude of a potent asset and plausible deniability. Really it was quite perfect.

"You do excellent work Doctor."

[monstersociety]

"You have the aptitude for flattery rivaling a black widow, Ms. Head. Among other aspects." Sivana smiles. "But you're right, I do excellent work. After all, that's why you're paying me beaucoups Euros for my services. I can imagine the sacrifce, given that you've apparently lost one of your primary sources of, shall we say, grant money?"

[taliahead]

Talia laughs. It is a rich sound yet is devoid of any kind of 'softness'.
"That would be true if I had been idle during my tenure Doctor."

She walks across the room as she idly eyes the instrumentation all about them.

"No, that particular foothold served its purpose and more. The conclusion of my arrangement with Luthor was simply a step along a greater path I have already charted. Your costs, while considerable, are hardly a burden I assure you."

Ignoring Sivana for a moment, she kneels next the subject strokes his hair. The gesture is unsettling and for a moment utterly inhuman. Talia's deep dark eyes glitter as she trails her finger across the ridge of his jaw.

Careful to inflect her tone precisely, she speaks softly into his ear.

"Come to me Lord Naga. Take my hand. Step into the Light.."

[dr_black_light]

The figure on the table has survived much - most recently the explosion of a satellite. The fact that Talia had planted a failsafe teleportation device on the worm inhabiting his brain pulled him from what would have been near certain death.

The last few weeks have been long. Making him a complete tabula rasa, removing all last vestiges of the memory of his old life. Replacing those memories with the dreams and schemes of conquest. Time spent in a Lazarus Pit to return him to peak physical health. And now Sivana's drug, to enhance his body to physical levels that the old Arthur Light could only dream of.

There are long roads to travel, memories to implant, training to undergo, before he will be ready to reclaim his rightful throne. But as he exists today, what the world believes is true.

Dr. Light is dead.

All hail the Deadliest Man Alive.

A weak voice emerges from the prone body, almost a ghostly echo...

"Yesssssss..."