Endless Legacy (DC Comics)

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story.

The truth hurts.

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The silence is deafening as Galatea waits for the Professor to deny it. He has to deny it. Else… she's not sure what she'll do. And yet, as the seconds go by, each moment that passes is all the more damning. Until finally, she can't stay quiet any longer.

"… Professor?"

Professor Hamilton's eyes snap from the small glowing green capsule in Lucien's outstretched palm over to Galatea, as if he's just remembering her presence. He blanches and that… that's confirmation enough. Galatea's face falls and her hands curl into fists at her sides as he starts to make excuses.

"Tea, you have to understand… it wasn't completely my decision. Cadmus had protocols that had to be followed or else-!"

Protocols. He was just following protocols when he put a… a bomb inside of her. The rest of Professor Hamilton's excuses fall on deaf ears… or more accurately, the blood suddenly rushing in her ears completely drowns out his words. All she can do is stare at him in flagrant disbelief and growing anger.

He… he was everything to her. She'd trusted him. She'd relied on him. The Professor wasn't just another scientist wanting to poke and prod at her. He actually cared about her. Or so Galatea had thought. All this time though, he'd had his finger on the trigger hadn't he? If she'd stepped too far out of line. If she'd acted contrary to his desires. He could have ended her at any point.

"… shut up."

It takes her a second to realize she's even said it. The first time, it comes out quietly and doesn't sound anything like her. The Professor doesn't even hear her, though she can tell that Lucien Luthor and his bodyguard both do. So does Match, the other experiment growing more and more cognizant of her surroundings as time goes on.

But Professor Hamilton keeps talking. He keeps flapping his lips and smacking his gums like anything he says can ever possibly make this up to her. Like everything out of his mouth wasn't just another pack of lies that she would never believe in a million years.

He needed to stop talking. He needed to be quiet. He needed to…

"Shut! UP!"

Galatea moves without thinking and suddenly she's right in front of the Professor… her fist buried in his chest, already starting to soak with red as his eyes widen from the lethal blow. Professor Emil Hamilton looks at her and tries to speak, but he can't as blood trickles out of his mouth. No words come, even as Galatea pulls her fist free and watches him fall to the ground at her feet.

She wishes she could say she does so dispassionately without feeling anything, but that would be a lie. She's feeling a lot of things right now. Anger. Sorrow. Grief. Even… regret. It creeps up on her, startling her through the haze of her fiery rage. The longer she stares at the Professor's body, the more she regrets what she's just done.

Perhaps that's why she doesn't move when Lucien steps past her and kneels down. Perhaps that's why she stays absolutely still as his hand touches Professor Hamilton's wrist… and the damage she's just done reverses right before her eyes. It's only been a few seconds since he died when the Professor takes in a sharp inhale of air, his eyes snapping back open as he, quite literally, rises from the dead.

His hand immediately goes to his chest as he sits up, feeling no damage there and staring down at himself in bewildered fascination. Eventually, his eyes start to move towards her, still standing over him, before he just as quickly averts his gaze. Instead, he looks to Lucien, speaking quietly.

"… thank you."

But Lucien just shakes his head.

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for her."

Galatea blinks owlishly when he looks directly at her for those last few words. The Professor's blood still dripping off of her left hand, she raises her right to point at herself.

"Me?"

Rising to his feet and leaving Hamilton on the ground to recover from his literal brush with death, Lucien nods.

"Could tell you were going to regret it later. He might have lied to you, but let's be honest… every good memory you have in this life is because of him, isn't it?"

Galatea's mouth opens and closes for a few moments at that. She wants to deny it… but the more she thinks about it, he's right. It's incredibly hard to unravel the complex knot of emotions she now feels for the Professor. On the one hand, he'd lied to her, committing a betrayal most foul. On the other hand, he… he really was the best thing in her extremely limited life. Good lord, how depressing was that?

"I don't have the same problem."

Heads whip around, but nobody can react in time. Project Match has risen from the floor and has leveled a deadly glare in Emil Hamilton's direction. In this case, 'deadly glare' is quite literal… as her eyes glow red before shooting out a pair of powerful beams that burn a hole through the Professor's chest and incinerate his heart right on the spot.

There's a brief pause as the man, already returned to life once, teeters in his seated position for a moment before falling back… dead again. This time however, Lucien doesn't move to resurrect him. Instead he looks at Galatea as if to ask her what she wants from him.

… He's right, she realizes. Killing the Professor in a fit of rage would have stayed with her far past this moment. A shadow over her that wouldn't have gone away for a long time if ever. And yet, now that it was Match who had done the deed… Galatea felt as though a weight had been lifted off her chest.

The man might have been the only good thing in her life, but Galatea wasn't an idiot. She was smart enough to realize now that all of that… was a manipulation. He'd only been making sure she stayed on his side, turning her into his and Cadmus' perfect weapon.

She won't beg for his life. She won't ask Lucien to heal him again. Instead, pointedly avoiding looking at his body, Galatea clenches her jaw and asks the most relevant question of all.

"What now?"

Lucien smiles… and holds out an empty hand.

"Now we remove their failsafe for you, if you trust me enough to do so."

That… brings Galatea up short for a moment. Her first instinct is to just reach out and take his hand. Which seems patently ridiculous, right? He and his bodyguard were intruders. And they were stronger than her to, much to Galatea's chagrin. She shouldn't trust either of them. She didn't know the first thing about their true motivations.

And yet… with a low exhale, Galatea nods and gives Lucien her hand. She winces as she immediately feels something shift inside of her. It doesn't hurt, surprisingly enough. It just… feels strange as she watches a small shape travel along her arm all the way down to her palm, where it exits her body like… like her flesh is rippling liquid instead of solid.

Lucien is a lot more than just strong and capable of resurrecting the dead, Galatea realizes. To be able to stabilize an unstable clone like Match, his control over biology would need to be… comprehensive.

As he holds up the capsule for all of them to see, Galatea lets out a deep sigh… and decides she doesn't care. So what if he's incredibly dangerous? So is she. So is Match. Danger… comes with the territory.

"What happens next?"

This time the question doesn't come from Galatea, but from Match. The other clone looks… well, she looks pretty fantastic wearing just the Professor's lab coat if she's being honest. But then to be fair, she's apparently a clone of Superman and Wonder Woman.

Galatea has been briefed on who those people are and shown what they look like. To say they aren't some of the most aesthetically pleasing individuals she's ever laid her eyes on would be a lie. Match seems to have gotten the best of both worlds there, though she leans closer to Wonder Woman in true looks. Slightly younger maybe, but there's no denying the resemblance.

"That's up to the two of you. I'll be honest, I didn't come here to save you… either of you. I came to shut down an illegal laboratory hidden on lands belonging to my company. Finding you here and being able to help you… that was serendipity, plain and simple."

Galatea furrows her brow. Was he really not going to hold his actions over their heads? He'd done so much for them in an incredibly short amount of time. If not for him, then she would still be under the mistaken impression that the Professor cared about her as anything more than a tool. If not for him, Match would still be floating in that tube, waiting for a cure that might never come… or forgotten entirely and left to rot down here in this seemingly abandoned section of the lab.

The other woman unknowingly agrees with Galatea's thoughts as she scoffs and crosses her arms over her substantial, barely covered chest.

"Don't be ridiculous. I owe you a debt that can never be repaid. I know exactly what my future held and it was nothing good. That bastard told me before I went under that they would do everything in their power to cure me, but he misjudged how quickly the sedatives would take effect. My eyes closed… but my mind was still functioning."

Galatea stiffens as Match's eyes flicker over to her before she continues.

"… Meaning that I heard every word he spoke about my instability and my unsuitable nature as a long term agent. How I would never be what they wanted… and how they were shuttering Project Match in favor of Project Galatea. After months of testing, of poking and prodding. After growing up so fast I would go to bed at night with my bones aching from my teeth all the way down to my toes. They were going to just throw me away, to replace me with a newer model. A more compliant model."

That… Galatea tries not to tense up too much at the backhanded comments. She isn't going to start anything over some words, but if Match blames her for what happened then it might come to blows. While she certainly pities the other woman, she's not about to become anyone's punching bag, certainly not for things she had no knowledge of and no purposeful hand in.

"That wasn't Galatea's fault though, of course. I'm sure you know that."

As the tension in the air ratchets up, Lucien steps in with a carefully cultivated tone. For a brief moment, Match scowls… but then she relaxes and slowly nods.

"… Yeah. I know."

The Superman-Wonder Woman clone shoots Galatea a look all the same, and it's obvious there's still no love lost between them. They might have been 'born' in the same laboratory, down here in the dark where their very existence could be hidden from the world at large, but their common cause was limited in the extreme.

In the end, the thing they most had in common was…

"Match is right though. We both owe you a debt. The Professor might have played things smarter with me than he did with her, but that doesn't change what you've done for me. For both of us."

Lucien looks between them both for a long moment before sighing.

"You can come work for me, if you want. I'll have contracts written up. Public identities crafted. We'll get you both up on your feet with housing and proper clothes. If you feel like you owe me something, then you can work as my bodyguards for a while, just like Blackfire here."

Pausing, the well-dressed businessman sighs again before continuing.

"However, I'll warn you that neither of you will be able to be very public in such roles. So long as you work for me, you'll need to hide your true identities to the best of your abilities. As well, I want to make it clear that if you want to leave at any time you are allowed. No strings attached. This perceived debt is solely on your end as far as I'm concerned."

Galatea finds herself exchanging a look with Match for a moment before they both turn back to Lucien and nod.

"Sounds good to me."

"I'm game."

From the side, Blackfire snorts derisively.

"Can't help picking up strays wherever you go, can you?"

Galatea and Match both bristle at the description, even if it might be a little accurate. Lucien, meanwhile, just chuckles and shakes his head, prompting Blackfire to continue.

"What about the rest of the facility? Cadmus thinks it's been destroyed for the time being. We could use that."

That prompts Lucien to pause and then slowly start to smile. Galatea blinks at that smile, blushing a little as she feels a strange flutter in her belly over it. She's not sure what to make of the sensation truth be told.

"Oh we will use that. Mark my words, we'll very much use that, my dear."

Galatea licks her lips… and then chances another glance in Match's direction. The other clone doesn't look at her at all though, instead her eyes are fixed on Lucien… and there's a hunger in them that has Galatea narrowing her own eyes in consternation. What was this feeling welling up in her chest? It was obvious that Match had… interest in their new boss. Galatea didn't have a prior claim either.

And yet… she can't help but be a little jealous all the same. Possessive, even. She'd laid eyes on him first, technically. If Match thought she could snake her way into his good graces first, then she had another thing coming to her!

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The Vote:

[X] Galatea rushes to make the first move before Match can beat her to the punch - 68%

[ ] Galatea decides to hold off for a bit and get the lay of the land so to speak - 32%

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