legionmissions | TOTAL ECLIPSO THE HEART [modplot/log]

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TOTAL ECLIPSO THE HEART [modplot/log]

Apokolips was intimidating enough when it was bleak and dead but now it's even more of a living nightmare. As Eclipso, Catastrophists, and monsters menace the defense garrison, screams cut through the air the way they used to back when Apokolips' old ruler was alive.

Catastrophists toss themselves into the firepits in droves and smoke starts to rise from them. Somehow their sacrificial bloodshed seems to be doing something to the core of the planet. It groans and strains and the ground shakes as machinery under the surface starts to slowly get stoked back to life.

Some of the Catastrophists even rise into the air while wearing winged uniforms and clash with garrison members capable of flight - Apokolips' old parademon troops, reborn in a new form.

This world is a death engine, and if they don't manage to stop it it from restarting, Chronoblivion's forces will have an entire world to make war from.

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Zenyatta doesn't know Rico beyond the fact that they are on this mission together, but he saw Eclipso encase the man in dark energy. Something must be done. Not knowing a person never stopped him from aiding them.

"You be--" His words are forgotten at the sensation of Rico growing taller. But, that's not it at all. Zenyatta looks down at the ground beneath him, puzzled. It was as if gravity chose that moment to become stronger and caused Zenyatta to hover lower. The moment passes quickly. Zenyatta returns his normal hovering height. "You belong only to yourself, but this... this is not you. It is Eclipso."

"Can't always take a thing like that for granted. You're one to talk about belonging to yourself, droid."

Rico looks with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, even as he's seemingly puzzled that he doesn't stay down. "Who do you belong to, I wonder?" he muses, drumming his fingers on his daystick in a patient rhythm as he comes down from his outcropping of rock to circle Zenyatta like a buzzard, his heavy tread shattering the earth beneath him with every footstep.

"This is the most me I've ever felt since coming here," he says as he spreads his arms wide open. The gold on his chest gleams in the light, against the wink of a ruby set in an eagle's eye, reflecting the obsessive spark in his visor. "This is who I'm supposed to be. Don't try to tell me that this doesn't feel right."

Zenyatta straightens, allowing Rico to circle him. His orbs still, and Zenyatta allocates some of his resources to imbue his orbs with more energy. Rico is more physically imposing, but Zenyatta steels himself for a battle of words and ideals. If he could touch on something, some connection, some common ground, then perhaps he could give Rico an Orb of Harmony to help pull him into balance. Right now, it probably wouldn't help and could escalate the situation.

"I belong only to myself. My soul is mine, and no one 'owns' me." The fight for omnic rights grew in the aftermath of the Omnic Crisis. The Shambali believe that omnics have a soul. This is a topic dear to Zenyatta, and no one can convince him that he is not a living being and not property.

"Tell me, what makes you feel 'right' as you are now? What has changed?"

"How can you say that?" Rico asks as he tilts his head to the side curiously. "You were made for something, surely? Made for a purpose? You were constructed, bolt by bolt, into the creation of somebody else's vision. You didn't have any kind of say in it. And I'm sure it's stamped into every part of you, somewhere." He waves a dismissive daystick towards Zenyatta's chassis. "In your construction, your vestigial programming, your history, whatever form it takes. You're property. A resource. And you say you belong to yourself?"

Rico laughs out loud, with real amusement, even as there's a thunderous crack of anger that rings out at the end of that statement. He halts in his tracks, seeming to collect his composure before turning his attention towards Zenyatta again.

"I'm the highest authority in Mega City One," he replies, tilting his chin up. "When I'm told to jump, I don't have to say how high. Neither Goodman or the Council have any say in how I live. What I do. What I am. I write the rules."

Rico exhales, eyes closed, content.

"That's what feels right."

Ah, this argument. How many times has Zenyatta heard this? Zenyatta mirrors Rico's head tilt but otherwise remains still, composed. His tone of voice remains even. "When a human is born, do they have any say in it? Are they not the creation of others, based on DNA? Do they not have instincts? Do they not grow from them? Become more than them?"

He straightens once more and doesn't falter at the laughter or the flare up of anger he senses. This is familiar territory. All his life, Zenyatta has heard these arguments, spent long days and nights at the monastery meditating on them. More than the lessons Mondatta has taught him, Zenyatta knows this through every fiber of his being.

"True self is without form. It does not matter how I came to be but what I do now. The same applies to you."

Then he motions around them. The fire pits cast everything in a red-orange glow. Shadows are long and dark. There are cries of pain and terror filling the air. Eclipso converts more Legionnaires over to her side. "You are forgetting Eclipso. This is not Mega City One, and I do not believe that she will let you rule over her. She will turn this world into a weapon if she is not stopped. She has claimed you as one of her champions to support her. Is that what you want?"

The thing is, Rico isn't necessarily talking about Zenyatta. Not really. This exchange is bringing out his more reflective nature, his quieter thoughts, but the faults and cracks in them have been magnified by Eclipso's magic. What he would never say normally comes spilling out, now that he has the power to allow it without repercussion.

"WRONG!" Rico shouts, and he cuts a sharp gesture through the air. "There's a difference between being born, and being made. Some are constructed for a purpose. Genetically engineered from the ground up. Every part of my flesh was once somebody else's flesh. My blood is his blood."

Like the kings of old, the Father of Justice born again. He starts circling Zenyatta again, but this time his stance is decidedly more predatory.

"And that purpose will always be there, whether you like it or not. Whether you choke on it or not. There's a difference. A human isn't drilled on applied violence until his hands are numb. A human doesn't drill a bullet through a skull and gets a pat on the head for it. Be violent, brutal, merciless. Reduced to what you do instead of what you are. I am what I am. I am what they molded me into. And I refuse to apologize for that."

Rico's breath is coming more erratic, his movements more jerky. He's clearly starting to lose his patience, and his control.

"And I think you're forgetting who asks the questions here," he murmurs. "Who gives the orders. Not you, not Eclipso. And even so, is it so bad to exchange one master for another?" He's joking, of course. He'd never. "This may not be Mega City One, but the universe could end and I'd die laughing. You tell me what's worth saving here. And you'd better have a damn good answer for me, or we'll see if I can't find that soul of yours in that tin can body."

The two Legionnaires share more than Zenyatta first realized. Zenyatta had no idea Rico was cloned from another, but to him, it changes little. Rico is still his own person. It gives him context, however. The anger directed towards Zenyatta is actually directed at himself.

Should Zenyatta be concerned for his safety as Rico circles like a hawk ready to swoop on its prey? Absolutely. Is he? No. He's calm. Steady. Still like a placid lake. He'll be the harmony to balance out Rico's discord. Zenyatta will not let himself be intimidated and fall into fear. That can come to him later during reflection and meditation. He files it away now.

"You are worth saving," Zenyatta says simply as a common fact like 1+1=2 or water is wet. If Rico desires the truth and no more questions, then he'll give it to him.

Zenyatta extends a hand toward Rico, and a warm golden Orb of Harmony forms. If allowed, Zenyatta will try to attach his Orb of Harmony to Rico. It will hover to and over his shoulder to provide him an emotional, mental link with Zenyatta; Zenyatta will bring to the forefront positive and calming thoughts in hopes of guiding Rico in that direction.

But if a fight is what Rico wants, then the Orb of Harmony will not connect. It will dissipate into nothing, and Zenyatta will prepare for a battle.

I am worth saving?

If only he knew how wrong he was, Rico thinks. He's saying it as if it's a fact, but Rico knows how empty a thing like that is. Anything can sound true with enough conviction in your voice. And if this was his answer...

The droid needs to be taught a lesson in kindness. Whatever that orb radiates, whatever that gesture means: Rico will reach out and ruin it. That's why he even allows it to come as close as it does. And if it's an attack, it's a poor one. Rico is confident in his ability to remain impervious to it, and doesn't otherwise react when Zenyatta sends the orb over.

The orb's light flickers and dims when it gets within a hand's span of him, and that's when he looks at it sharply like he's reconsidering allowing it in his presence. And for a second it almost looks like it might dissipate before it even touches him, but Rico stays where he is. He has nothing to fear anymore.

And miraculously, it stays.

There's a brief flicker of surprise when the Orb of Harmony connects and stays. He couldn't tell if his words had reached any part of him. He doesn't linger on that surprise, however. The milliseconds of it have their resources redirected towards his task.

Zenyatta focuses on encouraging the positive aspects of Rico's being, things that could shake off Eclipso's influence. He doesn't have to know what those are. Rico is the one who needs to realize his own strengths. Zenyatta is a guide with warmth, tranquility, and empathy. The blue lights on Zenyatta's forehead turn golden.

"Free your mind."

Rico may find the knots in his mind loosening. Thoughts might become clearer, and Eclipso's darkness could begin to recede.

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TOTAL ECLIPSO THE HEART [modplot/log]

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