DC: Vessel

It didn't take long for me to piece together who Waller had given the serum to.

'How could she be so stupid—to give it to someone not even in their twenties?'

Fiddling with what I hoped would stop the young man for a brief moment—since Waller would no doubt send him after the serum's creator—I moved over to the computer, praying the files I'd collected had finished transferring into my system.

"I'll be a sitting duck here, but there's no choice. Waller went after Keene, so she'll be after everything related to the project."

My legs ached from the distance I had to run to reach this lab, yet I pushed through, moving from the computer to the chemical bench to complete the finishing touches on what I hoped would bring the young man to his senses.

'It doesn't make sense. The footage I managed to get showed Dean as cowardly and unassertive. Even with the changes made by my serum, it shouldn't have affected his mental state so negatively. If anything, it should've made his sense of self worse.'

I doubted Waller had anything strong enough to chemically condition him into a controlled state. And I doubted she'd allow someone to use magic on him. That left very few possibilities for what could have turned the young man so cold.

'He's far from the Superman I wanted someone to become.'

Refocusing on the concoction, I saw it was ready. I carefully loaded it into the weapon's barrel. I didn't know how strong Dean had become, but I hoped that once his armor was gone, the chemicals would seep into his system.

'Only one way to find out.'

A beep from the radar at the back of the lab signaled something fast approaching. The ground shook beneath me before I had time to brace, and the ceiling above was torn open. The black-armored figure of Dean Mercer landed with a heavy thud.

"It's... a pleasure, Mister Mercer..."

Despite the nerves racing through me, I kept my voice slow and calm as I looked into the blank black eyes peering through his melted visor.

"I have to know before you kill me, Dean... do you feel like a hero?"

My hand drifted to my pocket, fingers brushing against the hidden switch for the weapon. I saw the twitch in Dean's gloved fingers before he took a step—right into the machine's line of fire.

"Forgive me, young man, but this is for your own good."

I watched as Dean tilted his head—curious, maybe confused—just as I pressed the button. The weapon roared to life with an eerie green glow before the barrel extended and fired a beam that blasted Dean backward through the wall.

'Thought he wouldn't stay still.'

I sprinted to the computer and began setting up the monitors, which flickered to life and started displaying the footage I'd gathered. My hope—however fragile—was that the young man would see the truth. That, despite whatever Waller had done to him, some part of his mind would wake up. Even just a flicker of self-awareness could be enough.

'I, a once respected scientist, am now placing my life in the hands of hope and luck.'

Shaking my head, I finished the final preparations just as Dean stepped out from the hole in the wall. His helmet was gone, along with the top half of his suit, exposing a body far more muscular than his self before the serum.

'Compound T had done its work well—perhaps too well.'

But I had no time to dwell on that. His eyes locked onto mine. A red glow flared—

I ducked just as the heat beam erupted.

"Dean Mercer!" I began aloud, keeping my voice steady. "born to two parents who passed away, taken in by a friend of theirs after living in an orphanage—"

My words faltered. Dean hadn't attacked. Instead, he stood motionless, staring at the paused videos on the monitors.

Seizing the moment, I lunged forward and slammed the "Play" button.

The first video began to play. Waller, sitting at a long table, speaking to a roomful of officials.

*"—It works in our favor that Subject M wants to be a hero. We manufacture the moments where America takes notice of 'Titan,' a hero unbound to any group or ideology."

"And how exactly do you manufacture these moments, Amanda Waller? Hire people to stage car accidents? Have cats stuck in trees for him to save?" a warped voice asked.

"Yes, Senator. From causing slight delays in traffic lights so Titan can stop a truck from hitting a child, to tampering with gas lines so he can save people trapped in an apart—"*

KZZT

Dean's eyes flashed red. The monitor exploded in a burst of sparks and glass.

But he didn't stop watching. His head turned toward the next screen—one showing footage of him.

*"P-Please, Titan! Spare me!"

No reply. Just a blinding red flash from the camera. When the light faded, only a scorched body remained.*

KZZT

Another destroyed monitor.

*"Titan, your target for elimination is a family of metahumans who escaped from a lab—"*

KZZT

Another one down.

"-Target for eliminat—"

KR-ZZ

I held my breath. With each video, Dean shifted unsteadily. He wobbled. His eyes flickered red, weaker each time, as he obliterated the monitors one by one.

Finally, the last screen lit up.

*"Mister Titan?! Why are you here? I mean—I'm not complaining, I'm a big fan! I think your suit is—"

KZZT*

KR-ZT

The red beam sputtered. Dean's head dropped. Slowly, he raised his gloved hands and stared at them.

I stood up and spoke gently.

"Dean... I know you're confused. And scared. But please—listen to me. I'll explain everything. From what Compound T really is... to how you can free yourself from Waller's control."

My eyes drifted to the small red surveillance light in the corner.

'I hope—'

I blinked.

A shadow fell over me.

Dean stood before me, massive and silent. I looked up into the void of his black eyes. His sclera—the only white left made the darkness inside them even more jarring.

'It's like staring into a pitch-black room.'

"D-Dean, I—"

KR—

The red hue returned. I backed away, feeling the rising heat on my skin—

Then a hand landed on my shoulder.

"No."

It was quiet, almost calm—but his voice sounded deeper than I expected.

ZZT

·——·

The taste of something acidic and sour made my face recoil and my eyes snap open.

'I'm not in my room.'

I was lying on a cold concrete floor with something heavy on my bare chest. Looking down, bile rose in my throat.

'D-dead.'

I accidentally pushed the very much dead body away from me with too much force, sending it flying onto a nearby table. Then I turned over and vomited everything I had stored in my stomach.

Bleegh

Haak

Coughing out the foul taste, I lifted my head and took in the wrecked room around me.

'Looks like one of the labs at my old job... just weirder.'

My head began pounding as a monitor slid out from the floor in front of me, automatically playing a video of the same room I was in.

'That's... that dead guy.'

Dry heaving again, I tried to look away, but my eyes were glued to the screen showing the stranger moving frantically through the room before the camera shook—and then... oh God.

The speakers crackled to life, and I heard the details. What I had just done, and what I had done before.

Haak

Bleegh

My stomach twisted in knots as the final image appeared. Me, beaming down the older man before collapsing, with him falling on top of me.

I gripped my hair, feeling my head throb as screams and memories crashed through my mind like a storm.

I could feel the blood soaking through the gaps in my suit—

feel the flesh and bones cave under a strength I didn't limit.

"S-Stop!"

My throat was dry and coarse as I screamed, ignoring the building heat rising through my chest and neck. I slammed my head into the cold concrete below me.

The pleas to stop would always be ignored—assignment after assignment, culling another person, all in the name of some 'greater good.'

My body shivered as a coldness crept over me. My head hit the ground again and again.

My fingers dug into the concrete, every muscle tensed tight as my breath came in ragged bursts through clenched teeth.

Then something—something foreign to both my memories and the memories... of the other—erupted inside me.

And I screamed.

"WALLER!!"

It started as a desperate, confused, furious word.

But then it warped, twisting with the fire burning in my chest.

I screamed up at the ceiling as I stood and flexed every muscle.

"RAHHHHHHHHHH—!"

The floor cracked beneath me. The ceiling shattered. I shot upward with one destination burning in my mind.

Belle Reve.