| Mirror World Infinity Island - October 3
Another reason Joseph hadn't dismantled the Light outright—aside from wanting them to tear down their own network gradually so as to not arouse suspicion—was that he wanted them burning through their resources searching for Pandora's Box. The Outsider had claimed the artifact could reshape reality and bestow new gifts upon humanity. Savage had been skeptical but intrigued. Even if the claim was false, chaos would follow… and humanity always adapted through chaos.
The box had once imprisoned the Seven Deadly Sins. Pandora, a mortal woman, discovered it and opened it out of curiosity, releasing the Sins into the world. Black Adam eventually defeated them, but Pandora kept the box, seeking for centuries a pure soul capable of returning the Sins to their prison.
Anyone who touched the box was possessed, driven into a violent trance.
Savage had met Pandora long ago—two immortals burdened by eternity. He had once even invited her to an early incarnation of the Light, but she refused. She'd even let him touch the box once; he died in the trance, resurrecting soon after. That only deepened his curiosity about how the Outsider intended to use it to "grant humanity new gifts."
Now the Light hunted her, but Pandora proved far more elusive than Savage had ever been. She evaded both technology and magic. Even with Nova scouring global CCTV networks using Savage's memories as reference, Joseph couldn't find a single image of her.
There was also the fact that he was wary of the man known as Zoom who possessed the Speed, Strength, and Sage Forces.
So the Light lived—for now. Joseph had a more personal task first. A responsibility born from what he'd seen in Shiva's memories.
He stepped into the throne room, invisible through mirror tech, and slipped back into the real world.
Silence shifted as Ra's appeared seated on his throne.
Using the Speed Force, Joseph injected mind-control nanotech into Ra's' neck, then dragged him into the Dream State for Nova to read his memories.
Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's Head, had been born six or seven centuries ago in the Arabian desert. A hero to some in earlier eras, he eventually founded the League of Shadows, a criminal and terrorist organization meant to purge the world of evil through violent means—making him Batman's sworn enemy. "Ra's al Ghul" had originally been a title, not a name, but it eventually became his entire identity. Even his daughter Talia knew him as nothing else.
After learning Batman's identity, Ra's viewed Bruce Wayne as a worthy heir and ideal mate for Talia. Even after Bruce rejected both, Ra's continued to hope.
Too bad Bruce and Selina had something going on—and Joseph wasn't about to let Ra's interfere.
Between 2006 and 2007, Savage formed the modern Light after a conversation with Ra's about countering the Justice League's preservation of the "calcified status quo." Ra's became the first recruit, and the League of Shadows acted as the Light's primary enforcers.
Ra's was a fierce, imposing leader revered by his followers. His Shadows obeyed without hesitation; he could order them to sleep on command. He gave them only the information needed for each mission. So any order—no matter how absurd—that dismantled the organization would go unchallenged by all but Talia, now head of the dissolved Leviathan.
After Nova implanted the dismantling protocols into Ra's via the mind-control nanotech, Joseph removed him from the Dream State. Ra's remembered nothing.
Still invisible, Joseph phased through walls until he reached a scarred seven-year-old girl locked in combat with an older operative. They appeared frozen—Joseph was simply moving too fast.
This was Cassandra Wu-San, daughter of Lady Shiva, Sandra Wu-San, whom he'd killed earlier.
Deathstroke also had a son, Joey—Joseph W. Wilson—who lived safely with his mother, his father long out of their lives. Nothing needed to be done there.
Savage, however, had asked Joseph to look after his daughters.
One was Olympia Savage, a seventy-five-year-old woman devoted to recording her father's legacy, but whose mind was fading with age. Joseph would place her in a good nursing home.
The other was another Cassandra, eight years old. Savage had taken her from her mother at four, raising her in the belief that she was destined for greatness. She worshiped him as humanity's savior. Joseph would return her to her mother.
But this Cassandra—Shiva's daughter—had no one. She was being brutalized into the perfect assassin. Joseph wouldn't leave her here.
He sent a psychic pulse that knocked her unconscious, re-solidified, picked her up, opened a boom tube, and left.
**
| New York City - October 4
Maxwell Lord IV had been groomed for ruthlessness long before joining the Light.
Born to wealthy businessman Albert Lord and Maxine Lord, he developed early psionic abilities—subtle persuasion that nudged people against their instincts. The power caused severe nosebleeds, but his mother praised it as a gift.
As a teenager, Max's father killed himself after discovering his weight-loss pills were causing cancer. At the funeral, Maxine called Albert weak—that she would've covered everything up instead of admitting fault. She made her son swear never to let the unworthy hold power.
Max listened.
He became a billionaire through charm, manipulation, and calculated brutality—while harboring a deep contempt for metahumans. To him, they were an existential threat.
That was why he joined the Light. Someone had to eliminate the danger—whether through Pandora's Box rewriting reality or harsher, simpler means.
Now he sat in an online meeting with Queen Bee, the Outsider, Black Manta, Ultra-Humanite, and Ra's al Ghul.
Savage joined moments later.
"Savage, why was this meeting called on such short notice?" Queen Bee demanded.
"There's been a change of plans," Savage said. "With the Light exposed, I've reflected. The world is made of 'different shades of gray,' and I've decided to end the Light as of today. You may continue using the name if you wish, but I'm stepping down. Do not look for me. You won't find me. That is all."
He left the call.
The remaining members stared, stunned, before erupting in noise.
"Can he just leave like that?" Black Manta asked.
"What? He promised I'd be queen of Greater Bialya!" Queen Bee screeched.
The Outsider laughed—manic, delighted. He always reminded Max of the Joker.
"So what's our plan now?" Ultra-Humanite asked once the shouting died down.
Ra's said nothing, silent and unreadable. Max wondered if he planned to leave too.
"We all joined to pursue our own goals," Queen Bee insisted. "Why stop just because the leader's gone?" She was desperate—without the Light, she had no support network, not with the world suspicious of her after their exposure.
"Agreed. Let's continue searching for Pandora's Box," the Outsider said.
"I've been thinking," Max added, "we start a side operation using technology from LexCorp's nanite research. A hidden viral agent—one that converts ordinary people into cyborgs when activated. We seed it into global vaccine supplies. The chaos around the Light is the perfect cover."
The room went still.
"They'll be controlled via satellite," Max continued calmly. "A last-resort army if we're cornered."
"So you're repeating Lex's old plan?" Ultra-Humanite asked.
"Perfecting it," Max corrected. "I'm thinking of calling them… Omni-Mind and Community. Though we might need to break out the Brain."
Ultra-Humanite then stiffened. Maybe it was due to the mention of his rival genius, afraid for his position in the Light being taken.
Then Max felt a sharp prick at the back of his neck, and his psionic senses flared—warning him of something. It made no sense; there shouldn't be insects this high up a skyscraper, and his powers had never reacted like this before. But just as the thought formed, a quiet compulsion washed over him, urging him not to question it.
"I'm not opposed," Black Manta admitted, "but who approves the plan? Who's our new leader?"
"Why must we have one?" Ra's finally spoke.
"Right," the Outsider said with a grin. "We can just be a secret society of super-villains."