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When I was eight years old, my family went on what humans might call a vacation. This was the first time I had seen the snow. It was incredible. My mother saw how much I loved it. How badly I wanted to stay there in the snow. And so, she bottled it for me - the entire planet.
My father was horrified at what she had done. He freed the planet.
I was so young and angry with him for taking away my planet.
MY planet!
And that anger terrified him. He feared that I, too, could hold such darkness within me. That I could become my Mother…
– Brainiac 5: Supergirl 5x10 (“The Bottle Episode”)
Prax-Dox Residence – Planet Colu – 31st Century
“Querl, you understand why I had to free the planet today, yes?” Kajz Prax asked as he handed his 8-year old son a cup of Coluan tea.
“No, Father. I do not understand!” Querl Dox scowled as he sat across the kitchen table from his father. “It was MY planet! Mother bottled it FOR ME! When she comes home, she will be most displeased that you released it!” The boy then glanced around; brow furrowed. “Where IS Mother? She was supposed to return one hour, fifteen minutes, and thirty-three seconds ago.”
“Do not worry about your Mother, Querl. Drink your tea now,” Kajz insisted.
Reluctantly, Querl did so.
“What your mother did was wrong,” Kajz explained.
“Mother is never wrong!” Querl shot back, slamming the mug down hard on the table. “She is a Brainiac! A 12th Level intellect!”
“It is not a matter of intellect, son. It is a moral issue. Let me elucidate—”
“You are incapable of elucidating anything to me, Father!” Querl interrupted. “You are only a 10th Level. You could not possibly understand!”
“Querl—”
“I am a 12th Level like Mother!” The boy barked, his green skin flushing dark with anger. “Why do you think she gave me her surname and her title? I am to become the 5th Brainiac of Colu! She will train me to follow in her footsteps!”
Kajz sighed wearily, “I know, Querl. And that is what frightens me. I am sorry. So very sorry…”
“Sorry for what? I am honoured to—” Querl stopped, his mouth suddenly unable to form words. “Wha…” he lurched in his chair. “Whasss… whasss happennnnninngggg…ffffffather…?”
“Please forgive me,” Kajz’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “It was the only way to save you.”
Querl struggled to keep his eyes open, but they were determined to close. “No… whaaadj’you do t’meee?” He looked down at his mug, and batted it away weakly. “Pp-ppppoison? My teaaaaaaa?”
Querl looked up at his father, child-like eyes showing the deep, painful betrayal he suddenly felt. “Fffffather?” his voice was small as his lower lip quivered. His young age was so very evident now. “Wwwwwhyyy?”
“You will understand. In time,” his father offered gently.
The last thing Querl remembered was his father rushing to his side, arms open to catch him as he slid off the chair.
Elsewhere
Querl awoke in a cloud of confusion, a fog upon his mind.
Something was missing. But what?
“How are you feeling, son?” a kind voice asked.
Querl turned his head to see Kajz sitting beside him, a sad smile on his face.
“Father? I had a disturbing dream,” Querl reached out to take his father’s hand, and froze. “What…” he stared at his fingers, his hand, his arm.
Querl shot up in the bed he found himself lying in. “What happened to me?! Where am I?” He looked around at the stark white walls and floor.
A hospital.
Across from the bed was a mirror hanging above a sink.
When Querl caught sight of his reflection, he screamed.
His once golden blonde hair was now stark white, his smooth emerald skin now looked like that of a pale blue corpse.
And on his forehead…
“No!” His fingers clawed at the three inhibitors that now took up residence there. “GET THEM OFF ME!”
“I am sorry, Querl. It had to be done!” Kajz protested as he struggled with his son, pulling the boy’s hands away from his forehead. “Your Mother’s influence was too strong. I had to make sure you didn’t become like her!"
"NO! Mother? MOTHER?? WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"She is not here, Querl. I told the authorities what she did. They took her to an Institution.”
“You had Mother arrested?”
“Yes.”
Querl yanked his hands away from his father and pressed his palms into his eyes, his body shaking with sobs as the tears spilled forth.
“Bottling planets has been outlawed for generations!” Kajz explained. “You have heard tales of the first Brainiac. Of the evil he was capable of. The evil his children, and his children’s children were capable of. The Dox bloodline is populated by the criminally insane! Sociopaths! Conquerors! Serial killers! Horrendous, brutal people, all of them! Your Mother kept the dark part of herself hidden well, but I knew.” Kajz slouched in his seat, emotionally exhausted. “Alas, I found out all too late, so I did nothing… until I saw you going down the same path.”
Querl let his arms fall to his side, his tears leaving small droplets on the bed sheet.
He could feel it now - the true power of the inhibitors that had been forced upon him.
He closed his eyes and tried to reach out to the Coluan Network of Minds.
It was a struggle. Like fighting against a tide. He could sense it was there, but could not reach it.
Just as his skin and hair colour had been muted, so had the world around him. There was no clarity. No vibrance.
He was no longer calibrated with his people. With his ancestors.
He was angry… but like everything else, that anger was dampened. It was merely a semblance of anger. What anger would feel like at a distance.
His brilliant mind - a mind that once pulsated with vivid thoughts and spirited life - was now clouded over. Hazy. His 12th level intellect only an echo of what it once was.
Now – now, he was merely… normal.
Prax Residence – 10 years later – 31st Century
18-year old Querl Dox tossed his Tablet aside in exasperation as he entered the home he shared with Kajz Prax.
“They did it again, Father!” he shouted in the hallway as he made his way to Kajz’s study, “My peers taunted and tormented me for being different again! I think they’re jealous of my intellect, but I don’t know how to deal with them.”
He entered his father’s study and sat down on the couch, eyeing the back of his father’s chair behind the desk. “Father? Do you hear me? What should I do? I need your advice.”
“I would kill them all,” came a female voice.
The chair spun around to reveal a Coluan woman with a smile upon her face.
The smile immediately faded as she laid eyes upon the teenager. “It is worse than I thought!”
“Mother!?” Querl gasped as he looked upon the woman whose face he had never forgotten. “How are you here?!”
Truth be told, however, Querl did not have to ask. He still had a 12th Level mind, despite the muzzle the inhibitors had placed on his intellect.
If Mother was here, then those who guarded her at the Institution were no longer breathing.
Bria Dox pushed herself to her feet and went to him, ignoring his question.
“I had heard that your father forced these upon you!” She despaired as she ran her fingers over the inhibitors. “I did not realize that he had not only butchered your mind, but your very body!”
Querl pulled her hands away, taking them in his. “Mother,” his tone grew serious, trying to keep the fear from his voice. “Where is Father?!”
“He is where he belongs,” she replied, ice in her words.
Querl jumped to his feet, panic setting in.
“Father?” he called out as he ran through the house. “Father? Where are you?!”
His frantic search led him upstairs, downstairs, and finally to the kitchen.
The teenaged Brainiac slid across the pool of viscous green liquid that had mysteriously stained the tiled floor before catching his balance.
He froze as his eyes fell upon the pale, lifeless form of his father.
“My darling boy,” his mother’s sickly-sweet voice spoke up behind him as she placed her hands on his shoulders, “This is what he deserved. You know I would do anything for you. Anything!”
Querl took a shaky breath, his mouth and throat going dry. “How--” he croaked out. “How could you?”
“How could HE?!” Bria hissed. “What he has done to you is a fate worse than death! He has stolen your intellect! Cut you off from the Network!” Her voice grew frightening, “Cut you off from me!”
Querl turned to her slowly, eyes growing wide when he saw the twisted rage in his Mother’s face.
“H-he was right!” his voice was barely above a whisper as the realization hit him. “You are dangerous! And I -- I could have been just like you!”
“You were supposed to be!” she retorted. “You were the successor to our family name! You were destined to be a BRAINIAC! You were meant to be my LEGACY!”
Querl stumbled away from the woman before him, fear seizing his heart. “I hate what was done to me, but this?” he indicated his inhibitors. “Is far better than becoming like you! Like… like the others!”
He fell to his knees beside his father and took Kajz limp hand in his, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I am sorry, Father. So… so sorry. I should have known. I should have!”
“You mourn the man who stole your future from you?!” Bria demanded.
“I mourn the man who saved me from my future!” Querl replied.
Bria knelt on the other side of Kajz body, head cocked to the side as she studied her son. “You are my child. My beloved son! You know I have only ever wanted what is best for you.”
Querl shook his head fiercely, “Murdering Father is not best for me!”
“You are wrong, my darling,” she smiled, but the smile did not meet her cold, cruel eyes. “You will see.” She placed a hand over the inhibitors on Querl’s forehead. He tried to pull away but found he could not move. “The thing about Coluan technology is that us Brainiacs can control it any way we like. I will make things better. I promise.”
Suddenly, the grief Querl felt for his father faded away.
As did all his other emotions.
He dropped his father’s hand, his eyes glazing over.
Bria stood up. “Come, my darling,” she said as she reached out to him. “It is time for me to train you.”
Querl took her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet.
Like a mindless drone, he followed his mother out of the house and into her shuttle.
Legion Ship – Earth Prime – 21st Century
Brainiac 5 awoke from his dream with a start.
No, not a dream.
A memory.
After a moment of disorientation, he realized he was in his sleeping quarters aboard the Legion ship - which was currently taking up residence in an abandoned hangar.
He took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face, his fingers lingering on his newly unmarred forehead.
It was only natural he would dream of her. Of his childhood.
It had not yet been a full year since he had removed the inhibitors himself - to save his friends and adopted planet from his grief-stricken, misguided doppelgänger.
He remembered all too well what had happened after his Mother had taken control of his inhibitors. He had followed her blindly for some time, doing as she said, allowing her to train him as she saw fit.
And then he found himself on the Planet Durla – a planet his mother had ordered him to bottle.
It would be the first planet to be bottled since the life-changing incident of his childhood.
Querl had not known Reep Daggle was the Legion member known as Chameleon when the boy had, in his innocence, attempted to befriend the Coluan while Querl was scouting out the capital city.
Querl soon found himself empathizing with the young Durlan’s earnest attempt to make a new friend.
Thus, when Bria Dox – now calling herself Brainiac 4 - had insisted on going forward with the plan to bottle Durla, Querl had warned his new friend of the impending danger.
Reep’s father, RJ Brande, had then offered the 20-year-old Coluan membership into the Legion – a group Mr. Brande was financing, led by a time-displaced Daxamite named Mon-el – and asked Querl if he would assist in the capture of his Mother so that she may be handed over to the authorities.
Seeing Querl was hesitant to act, the Daxamite told him of a brave Kryptonian hero named Kara Zor-El. She had been faced with a similar dilemma – the family member a close Aunt in her case – during her first year as Supergirl.
Kara’s story encouraged Querl, her bravery and goodness inspired him.
Hope, help, and compassion for all
This was the core belief system of the Legion, influenced by Kara Zor-el’s own words.
To use his 12th level intellect for such a cause was an opportunity Querl could not resist.
With Brande and Reep’s assistance, Querl was able to override his Mother’s control and aid the Legion with taking her into custody.
From that day forward, Querl Dox proudly took on the title of BRAINIAC 5 in an attempt to break away from the dark cloud that had hung over the Brainiac name for generations…
A knock came at the door of Querl’s sleeping quarters, startling the Coluan out of his reverie.
“Brainy? You in there?”
“Kara?” he replied. “One moment!” He quickly rolled out of bed and grabbed a purple hoodie and a matching pair of trousers before heading into his personal lavatory. “Come in. I’ll be out shortly!” He shut the door for privacy just as Kara entered his sleeping quarters. “What is it you require?” he asked through the lavatory door.
“Alex and J’onn need your help deciphering a computer code we intercepted at the Tower,” Kara began on the other side.
The hero known as Supergirl continued to share the details of the interception with him as Brainiac 5 took stock of himself in the mirror.
Green skin, golden blonde hair.
Just as it should be.
Once he readied himself for the day, he joined Kara and the two flew together towards the Tower.
Brainy, you are good to your core. You will never be your mother. Because you're loved. And the people that love you will always fight for you.
Kara had said that when Querl had confided in her his fear of removing the inhibitors. Their conversation had given him strength that day, and had helped him conquer his anxiety to do what had to be done.
He knew his Mother and his ancestors would always be with him, but so would Kara’s words; her mantra; her beliefs and her mission.
And no matter what memories haunted him; what sinister thoughts slithered their way into his waking consciousness; what doubts and uncertainties seized his heart, Supergirl’s influence would always be the light chasing that darkness back from whence it came.
THE END