Hope

" The Thunderer fell from the sky. Weakened by his journey, he bled when they cut him. So, they slaved him. Sold him. Sent him to die fighting the Corrupt Kings monsters in the sands of death. But what do you know? He was a bigger monster than any of them. He pulled the rest of us monsters together and we fought. We survived. We won our freedom." Trench, sat around a campfire telling the story of how Markus came to Valdr and how he liberated the people from the King's slavery.

The children, and the hivelings cheered.

Markus watched as they all cheered in happiness, and a feeling of peace and joy filling his heart. But the time quickly arrived for Vulcan and his forces to move out once again.

" Vulcan, it's time to go." Cir-El told the man. " I can hear them coming."

Marlus nodded, the fleeting reality rushing back to him. Markus clapped his hands together, drawing the attention of the crowd.

" Alright everyone, it's time to go. Let's get moving!" Markus yelled out. " Cir-El what's going on?"

" The Imperial forces are bombing from the west. They're driving the spikes right towards us." Cir-El told the man.

" Of course, they are." Markus sighed. He then turned to Sid, who was kneeling with his queen. " Sideros... It's time to go." Markus spoke.

" Her bleeding is almost stopped. One more hour, twohands." Sideros told Markus.

Markus looked to Cir-El. " Do we have time?" He asked the woman.

Cir-El looked at Markus and shook her head no.

" This is the queen, two hands. The last queen. The spike tried infecting her, but we saved her. We can't move now." Sideros explained.

" Then we'll burn you where you stand." Cir-El told the bug. " No one stays behind. Because everyone the spikes catch become another monster trying to kill us. We can't allow that, or this whole planet will die."

" Didn't you hear me? She's the last Queen. Without her, my people are already dead." Sideros explained to the two.

Markus was trapped. He wanted to give Sid the time he needed to save his Queen, but at the same time, the longer they waited the closer the imperials and the spikes got to them.

" Hush, Children... No fighting each other. Not when you're so close-" Th queen tried easing the tense situation between Sideros and Cir-El.

But as the queen spoke-

" They're here!" Cir-El shouted. " Move!"

The Imperials arrived and started firing on Markus' group.

" Damn these Imperials, and these damn spikes." Markus exclaimed.

He and Cir-El got up and stood over the valley, looking out at the approaching army and spores.

" Soldiers of the empire! I am Cir-El of Daxam! When I was the emperor's shadow you served me well! Now listen to my words! We are not your enemy. The spikes are. Every second you let them live they-"

" We serve the emperor! And the emperor commands this!" The Imperial commander shouted. " Drive the spikes forward! And do not rest until every rebel's dead!"

Cir-El looked to Markus. " What's the plan?" She asked the man.

" Heh! I got an idea." Markus told the woman. He raised his arms over his head and slammed them down hard on the mountain path.

The mountain was part of a volcanic mass, and when Markus smashed the ground below him, the ground exploded, and a pool of molten Lava started spewing up from the ground.

" Are you crazy?" Cir-EL asked the man.

" Nah! I just figured the spikes don't swim in lava." Markus told the woman. He struck the ground again, and this time, it gave way to a long and vast lake of Lava.

Because the imperials herded them into the narrow valley, when the lava came forward, the spikes had nowhere to run.

Markus and Cir-El escaped to one of the carrier platforms, flying into the air as the lava began to swallow up the valley and the spikes.

" See, that worked, didn't it?" Markus asked the woman.

She rolled her eyes at the smug grin on the man's face. But she was impressed, nevertheless.

Markus and Cir-El climbed aboard the carrier, but before they could get a solid footing, one of the Imperial soldiers blasted the flying saucer out from under them, knocking them back off. Markus and Cir-El fell towards the lava, and while it probably wouldn't kill them, it wouldn't be the nicest of experiences.

" You were saying?" Cir-El asked the man.

" Don't worry, Grog's got us." Markus told the woman. He looked towards the lava and there swimming in it, was Grog the rock man. Being made of the element of the earth, Grog found no qualms with the lava.

" I got you!" Grog yelled. He hefted up a large chunk of rock and tossed it right underneath, Markus and Cir-El.

Markus and Cir-El landed on the rock, but Markus ended up missing and his right leg ended up knee deep in lava.

" Ah, fuck! That burns." Markus growled. He pulled his leg up from the lava and brushed the remaining dregs of it off to the side.

" Covered right?" Cir-El asked the man.

Markus looked at the smug look on the woman's face and sighed.

" Okay, not the best of ideas, but it still worked." Markus argued.

Markus climbed up to the top of the rock with Cir-El, they were stranded on the rock and now had to find a way to escape.

But as they floated along the river of lava, a monster from beneath the ground exploded to the surface. It was another one of the lava monsters, that Markus faced in the maul.

" A Makaw Magkong!" Cir-EL exclaimed.

" A what? We just called it a Lava monster." Markus stated.

" You've fought them before?" Cir-El asked the man.

" Yeah, killed one in the maul. But this one's wild. It's just defending his territory is all." Markus explained. He seemed amused by the creature, despite its obvious hostile attitude.

" By killing us?" Cir-El asked. She seemed to share in the man's amusement, but not for the same reason.

Markus chuckled lightly. " Hah! Not likely." Markus told the woman. He wrapped his arm around the woman's waist.

" What-" Before Cir-El could finish her sentence, Markus leaped from the small rock platform right over the valley's walls.

Sid picked up Grog from the lava, and as Markus and Cir-El passed over, Sideros pointed them out to the man. " Look, at two hands Grog!" Sid exclaimed.

"HAH!" Grog laughed. " It'll be hard to top that on a second date." Grog joked.

" What's a date?" Sid asked the man.

Grog laughed and shook his head. " I'll tell ya another time. Come on, Sid. Let's catch up." Grog told the bug man.

He and Sid followed the rest of the refugees as they escaped from the army, leaving them to deal with the molten Lava pit.

..............

One hour later and after traveling several miles, the unfortunate finally happened.

" Three more spike ships have landed and released their spores north, east, and west." One of the refugees stated. He raised a small globe and images of the spikes in other locations appeared on the screen. " The imperials are driving them through the forests and villages. Building their strength as they make their way towards us."

" They will not stop until they kill everything." Virlal stated.

" I don't get it. Why don't they just bomb us?" Elara asked.

" Because bombs will not kill Vulcan the Thunderer." Dregg told the girl.

" This is stupid. The refugees are safe now. I'm gonna go stop this." Markus muttered.

" Vulcan, I know you're getting stronger, and I know you're angry. But even you can't take on the entire empire by yourself." Grog told the man.

" You don't get it Grog. So many people are dying, when I could stop it now. Even if the chances of me dying are great, would it not be worth it to end this mess? What kind of king sacrifices his own people? I-"

" NOOOOOO!!!" Sid's screaming suddenly drew the attention of those around him.

" You did all you could. But the spikes infection ran too deep. Run little king." The Bug Queen started to change. The spike that had attacked her before had run its infection deep into her body. And she could no longer fight it off.

" No, no, no, no!" Sid yelled.

" Our time is over!" The change took its course, and after one last message, the Queen attacked Sid.

" Move!" Markus yelled as he shoved Sid to the side.

" No! She's my queen!" Sid shouted.

" She's infected!" Markus told the bug.

" And you're not killing her." Sid exclaimed. He knocked Markus to the side and grabbed a fire blaster. He then took one last look at his queen.... And then he turned the weapon on her, lightning her ablaze and burning her body to ashes.

Markus and the others watched in silence as Sid cried over the loss of his queen. But even with the loss, they could not grieve long.

" Shadow, the time has come. We must go to our people; we must call upon the elders." Virlal told Cir-El.

" It is useless, Virlal. We are outcasts now, shamed. Anathema. They will not listen to us." Cir-El told the man.

" No. They will listen and they will help. Because of him." Virlal told the woman.

" Forget it. I don't need these elders." Markus told the man. " I don't need or want their help. I just want this to end, while we all still have something left to fight for."

" As touching as that is, even you cannot do this alone. You must come." Virlal told the man.

" I do not have to do anything. You don't know what I'm capable of." Markus told the man. " And you seem to have forgotten, Virlal, that wherever I go, the spikes will follow. You'd be leading them right to your own people. I can't keep having people die for me, Virlal. I can't."

" Vulcan, the spikes will reach my people regardless. You must come. Because the elders will only fight if they believe." Virlal stated.

" Believe what?" Elara asked the man.

" Their Blasphemous folly." Virlal spoke. " That he is the one the being they have been calling. That he is a healer, savior. A God. The Morningstar." Virlal exclaimed.

" Virlal!" Markus exclaimed. " I cannot and will not be the cause of more death, if you insist that I go, we must tend to these spikes first." Markus told the man.

" No! You must go!" Sid yelled. "Brothers, we delivering and destroying. We living new life, but we are already dying. So, we going. We lead the spikes away. Fighting for friends." Sid exclaimed. " Those puny brownies, killing us. Now we killing them back." Sid took up arms once more, rallying his people and together they prepared to lead the Spikes away themselves. A distraction, for the chance to end Mongul's reign.

" Sid, let the younglings stay behind." Grog told the bug.

" No! We going with brother Sid." The young ones spoke. " Fighting for hive."

Grog saw the desperation and the anger on the faces of Sid and the hive, and then he turned to Markus.

" I know how this ends. I'm made of stone. I'll be here long after all of you are dead and buried. So, i should just stop caring.... But I look into the eyes of those hivelings and I fear we've already failed. They only know hate." Grog told the man.

" I know." Markus replied. " I know."

" Vulcan. Bring them back hope." Grog begged.

" I'll do my best." Markus replied.

After seeing Sid off, Markus took his group and followed Virlal further into the wastelands.

The refugees walked for hours through the dry desert wasteland, so long, that the sun was now setting into the distance.

" Everyone down. Under the tarps." Virlal shouted out.

" Why?" Elara asked the man.

" A sandstorm is coming." Virlal told the people.

Markus and the others quickly got to work setting up the tarps, so that they could hide from the sandstorms.

..............

" On the first day came the fire. On the second day, wind." One of the refugees muttered.

The people had managed to get the tarps up in time, to take shelter from the sandstorms. Now they were just waiting.

" What's that?" Elara asked.

" He speaks of the prophet's walk." Virlal told the woman. " Do not blaspheme, grandfather."

" Tell me you don't see the signs, priest." The old man told Virlal.

" Of course, the signs. And you're tempted to believe. After all, we've come here to convince the elders that the Morning star walks among us in the flesh." Virlal spoke.

Markus cringed slightly at the concept of being the Morning star they spoke of. For all his power, he did not believe himself to be some God, or some divine being of prophecy. He was told from the beginning by his own aunt, that he had been blessed by the gods. But never before had he felt it.

" But you must know this is blasphemy. The prophet speaks of the Morning star.... And the Worldbreaker.... Only in parables. When he speaks of the trials each of us face." Virlal explained.

Virlal began to explain his past as a saka priest and while he explained all the trials he faced; Markus slipped out of the tarp.

Sensing his worry, Cir-El followed after him. For all the people there, they were the only two who had no need to be concerned about the storm.

Cir-El approached Markus in the dusty wind.

Markus looked back at the woman, and he wondered himself, why she followed after.

" What is it?" Markus asked the woman.

" That's what I wanted to ask you. Why did you leave?" Cir-El asked the man.

" Oh, you're worried about me? That's nice." Markus joked. He smiled and laughed, but Cir-El saw through it.

" You can stop pretending. No one else can hear us." She told the man.

Markus' smile slowly faded away and a look of sadness dawned on his face.

" I hate this." Markus told the woman.

" What?" Cir-El asked. " You hate what?"

" All of this, Cir-El. People are dying right now. Because of me." Markus spoke. He hung his head and stood there quietly for a few moments, before he spoke again. " Do you know, I actually don't like killing?" Markus asked the woman. " I hate it so much. I don't like taking lives, I don't like fighting. I hate it all so much. The feeling of bones breaking under my fist, the sound of flesh tearing. Watching the light vanish from someone's eyes. It sickens me so much." Markus let out a dry laugh, and rubbed his nose, the slight sound of a sniffle escaped. He then turned back to Cir-El and laughed again. " You know, I actually love music and dancing. Yeah, my aunt would play for me when I was younger. She would use many different instruments, but the Lyre.... The Lyre was my favorite. The soothing sounds of the strings being plucked, the soft music in the air. I always wanted to dance, but aunty told me not too. So, I'd imagine it in my mind."

This was something completely new to Cir-El.

Ever since she first met the man, she always envisioned him as this hardened, grizzled, warrior. A man who fought strongly for what he believed in. A man who cared more for the people than the King did himself. And he is. He is all the things she imagined and more. He was confident, strong, kind, caring, he was a remarkable leader, and even though she would never admit it, he made her laugh with his corny jokes and cheesy attitude. His charisma was uncanny. All the makings of a truly great man. But what she didn't expect was for him to have such a soft side. It was different than what she was used to.

" I don't want this. I never wanted this life. I just wanted to be free. To see the blue skies, the white clouds. To feel the wind on my face. To dance freely, without a care in the world. And now it seems that dream is nothing but a distant note. And that the world is now riding on my shoulders." Markus spoke.

" Vulcan." Cir-El muttered. Each word was spoken with a lifetime of pain. Cir-El hurt. Her heart hurt. And as much as she might have wished for the moment to remain, to get just a slight glimpse into the man she'd been fighting against for some time, the rumbling of the ground, took her attention away from him entirely. " Vulcan! Something's coming!" Cir-El yelled.

Markus' head snapped up and he started looking around. Multiple giant tentacled monsters exploded from the ground, and with them were three people. All of whom resembled Virlal.

Markus wasn't sure, whether they were friends or not. But he would not be caught off guard.

He quickly formed a bolt of lightning in his hands.

" Wait! The devil corkers did not come to fight you. They came to find you." One of the shadow people spoke.

Virlal and the people in the tarps, overheard the sound of lightning and quickly came out to fight. But when Virlal saw who had come, he quickly ordered the people to stand down.

The elders.

The elders closed in on Markus and Cir-El. They wanted to meet who it was they sought.

" You are Cir-El. Correct?" The first elder spoke.

" Yes, first elder." Cir-El replied.

" You serve the emperor." The woman told Cir-El.

" No, first elder. No longer." She replied.

" Then you have broken the shadow treaty? You bring doom upon your people." The first elder spoke. Her tone was heavy, and her voice carried with it a certain authority.

" The emperor released the spikes. He brings doom upon us all." Cir-El told the woman.

" You must go. You must mend this rift. The oath which cannot be broken." The woman demanded.

" She's not going anywhere she doesn't want to go." Markus told the woman. Whatever history they had, he cared nothing for. She was one of his people and that meant something.

The elders looked upon Markus. His tone was nothing they appreciated. But his appearance, his face. That was something else.

" Can you not see, elder?" Virlal asked the people.

" First Elder... he looks like." One of the other elders spoke.

" I know." The first elder replied.

Suddenly Markus, Cir-El, Virlal, and the elders disappeared. They were teleported directly back to the Shadow elder's home.

" What is this?" Markus asked.

" The ancient vessel that brought the shadow people to this world, from our world. We are lost, far from home, but this planet nurtured us. And so, we strive to serve her." The woman explained. " We have only traces of the old power left in our blood. Sometimes, not enough. So, we fired up the ancient engines. We created the great portal that brought the Death's head, the lanterns. It brought Orion from New Genesis. and it brought you. It caught the bolt of lightning that you fell from the sky from."

" Why?" Markus asked the woman.

" Because Virlal called us Blasphemers." The elder replied.

" You are." Virlal stated.

" But we believe the old stories." The elder muttered. " The Morning star will come. To all the people of this planet. To save us. And unite us."

" The prophet tells us the Morning star lies within each of us. But you chose to look outward, scouring the universe for a savior of flesh and bone. So, now you have found him. And you must obey when he calls." Cir-El told the elder.

" Not so fast, child. Your friend may look the part, but he hasn't passed the test." The elder explained.

" Test? I don't think so." Markus replied.

" Why? Are you frightened?" The elder asked. " Prepare yourself for the ritual of provocations." The first elder tapped her staff on the floor and Markus was suddenly shot in the back by a blast, beginning the ritual. The moments from his time on Valdr began playing out in front of him. Specifically, those that challenged him.

" You call them friends. But they challenged you, they fought you. And they will again. Because you are an outcast. A monster." The elder spoke.

" Yeah? Ain't we all?" Markus asked the woman.

" Look deeper, Thunderer." The elder spoke.

The world around Markus changed, and his was once again back on Themyscira. Or at least he thought he was.

Three figures rose high above his head. Hippolyta, Atalanta, and Zeus himself.

" A mistake." Hippolyta spoke.

" Abomination." Antiope exclaimed loudly.

" Failure. Disgrace. A God who loves music more than fighting? Your very existence is a mockery to my name." Zues muttered.

Markus was berated constantly by the figure heads above him. The ritual was designed to test, markus' heart. But Markus didn't know where his heart was himself. He covered his face in shame. Hiding himself. And that ended the test.

" How can one unite the world when you don't even know who you are? What you are. You are not the Morning star." The elder told the man.

" It doesn't matter!" Cir-El shouted. " With your help, he can stop the spikes. He can save millions of people who-"

" You must go." The first elder spoke.

" But-" Markus stopped Cir-El from arguing, by placing his hand on her shoulder.

" It's fine, Cir-El." Markus told the woman. He walked over to the ship, buried so deep into the ground, and pulled it straight out of the ground. " I have what I came for." Markus exclaimed.

Markus held the ship over his head, with ease. He was not leaving this place without having gained something. If the shadow people would not give their support, then he'd simply take the next best thing. A ship to carry them to battle.

" Come, Cir-El, Virlal. We have a war to finish." Markus told the two.

They boarded the ship, powering it on. And then they took to the skies, to battle the Empire's forces.

Once they were outside, Markus and Cir-El stood on the top of the ship. and together, they started blasting the King's ships out of the sky.

" You know we could be riding on the inside. Right?" Cir-EL asked the man.

" Yeah. But this is more fun." Markus exclaimed. He continuously fired a volley of lightning bolts at the dreadnaughts. Knocking them out of the sky until not a single one remained.

Once all the ships had been blasted away, Markus and the others rode towards their people.

" Grog you asked me to bring back hope? Well, here it is." Markus exclaimed.

The time of the final battle was approaching fast. And Markus was ready to meet it head on.

" One last stop to make. Before the final battle. Let's go!" Markus yelled.

" YEAAAAAAAH!"