Brothers Apart

Once upon a time, long before Superman had ever heard the name Darkseid, two whole worlds were at war.

One world was Apokolips, a fiery place of iron towers and grinding factories, ruled by Darkseid. The other was New Genesis, a shining world of gardens and golden light, ruled by a wise and gentle leader named Highfather Izaya. For generation after generation, armies from the two worlds clashed among the stars, and the war went on and on until both sides were tired. So very tired.

Neither Darkseid nor Izaya could win.

So one quiet day, far out among the stars, the two rulers agreed to meet. They stood between their two worlds — the fire of Apokolips glowing behind Darkseid, the soft light of New Genesis glowing behind Izaya — and they made a promise. A very big, very unusual promise. It was called the Great Pact.

Here is what the Great Pact said: each ruler would give up his own baby son, and that baby would be raised by the other side. Forever. It would be the deepest, truest proof that the war was really, truly over.

Now, you might think Darkseid agreed because his heart grew soft. But that is not what happened. Darkseid thought about it the way he thought about everything — coldly, carefully, like a puzzle to be solved. He decided that peace, right now, was worth more to Apokolips than one more burned battlefield. That was his reason. Strategy. Nothing more.

And so his own son — a baby named Orion — was placed gently into Highfather Izaya's arms.

A Boom Tube opened, swirling and orange, and little Orion was carried through it, away from Apokolips forever, off toward New Genesis, where he would grow up surrounded by light and kindness his father had never once shown to anyone.

Darkseid told himself it did not matter. He told himself Orion was simply a piece moved on a very large board, in a game that spanned galaxies.

But just as the Boom Tube closed, just for one small moment, something flickered behind Darkseid's glowing red eyes. Something complicated. Something that might have looked, to anyone watching closely enough, a little bit like sorrow.

Nobody was watching closely enough. Not even Desaad. And so the moment passed, and Darkseid never spoke of it again.

Now, a pact like this works both ways. In exchange for Orion, Highfather Izaya's own son — a baby named Scott Free — was sent the opposite direction, down to Apokolips, into the iron towers, to grow up hard, among Parademons and grim commanders who knew nothing of gentleness.

Darkseid looked at the boy and saw only a hostage. A lesson. Proof that New Genesis had paid its price too.

Years passed, quietly and then all at once.

On New Genesis, Orion grew tall and strong, training beside his friend Lightray, who was fast and full of light. Orion carried a fierce, restless fire inside him — the very same fire his father carried — but Orion chose, again and again, to spend that fire protecting the innocent instead of conquering them. He grew into a true son of New Genesis, even though he had been born on Apokolips.

And down on Apokolips, Scott Free was growing too. He studied every lock in every hallway. He memorized every chain, every trap, every trick the tyrant's world could build to keep someone in. He learned that whole terrible world from the inside, the way only someone raised there ever could.

And then, one day, Scott Free did something nobody on Apokolips believed was possible.

He escaped.

He simply walked free of the strongest prison ever built, slipping past every trap, every chain, every lock — and he became a hero known across the stars as Mister Miracle, the great escape artist, who later found love and courage with a brave warrior named Big Barda.

Tonight, far away among the stars, Darkseid still sits upon his throne on Apokolips, ruling his fiery world exactly as he always has. And if you could see him there, quiet and still, you might notice him watching two distant lights — one on New Genesis, one out among the stars — as both of his pact-children grow into everything he never wanted them to become.

The Great Pact kept two worlds from destroying each other. That much is true, and that much is good.

But it also raised two heroes — Orion and Scott Free, born into tyranny, who each chose the opposite path. And someday, Orion will stand before his own father and mean every word when he says no.

Two brothers, in a way. Two worlds. One long-ago promise that changed everything.

And now, wherever you are curled up tonight, you can rest easy knowing this: even in the coldest, stoniest heart in the universe, something good can still slip through — and grow, and grow, until it becomes a hero.

Sleep well, little one. The stars are watching over both of them tonight.