LogFAQs > #967325792

So Roz'etta would follow Lashina's trail, leading her to a destroyed temple, another piece of destruction brought about by Lashina, and in the hunt for a piece of magic in an altar, the symbol of Superman was drawn, and flashed into the sky.

That symbol would be what was needed to call upon the goddess. Lashina leapt, seemingly from the very sky, and appeared before us. She spoke of betrayal, and more than that, of a terrible infection that had corrupted her. An infection that broke her, something she is incapable of dealing with. That infection..is hope. So Lashina sang a song for us, a song that showed us what happened to her. Her sabotaged ship ran out of fuel over a ruined planet, a planet full of the symbol of Superman, a symbol that meant hope. Something she didn't understand, something she couldn't understand, and so she was forced to witness it until she understood. Until she could comprehend something that doesn't exist in Darkseid's world. Hope.

Lashina was prepared to follow Darkseid, to lead his forces, but then something happened. Darkseid noticed this hope in Lashina's head, and so he gave her a gift. Superman. Our understanding of the situation was completely wrong. Lashina was not meant to break Superman, to rid him of hope. It was the other way around, Superman was to marry Lashina to keep her under Darkseid's foot. Lashina intends to take her revenge, to fight Superman, and has demanded the one who betrayed her be by her side when she does. That one is, in her mind, Data 7. Her ship ran out of fuel on the way to Apokolips because she went to Venus on a favor for Data 7, she was stuck over Krypton because of him, her suffering is because of him. So now he will die fighting Superman with her. Worst of all, thanks to the hope poisoning her, she believes she might actually be able to win.

So Lashina ran. She ran through the forces of Darkseid, through man and machine, and fell to Skartaris. And Lashina cried. Lashina cried because she was weak. Her impossible levels of confidence were built on two words. Darkseid is. There is nothing after the is. It means everything around you is Darkseid. Hope turned that into Darkseid might be. And if Darkseid might be, the end result of that is Darkseid might not be. And for someone who has only known Darkseid, that is strange, impossible. So Lashina begged Roz'etta to help her, help her become Lashina again. Lashina knows where she needs to go to become Lashina. She must go to the ruined planet that cursed her in the first place, Krypton. Roz'etta accepted, because at the end of the day Roz'etta believes in the goddess, for Roz'etta has always clung to the slightest bit of hope when it comes to Lashina, and now there was hope in Lashina's heart as well.

Of course, having hope doesn't make you kind, or nice, or peaceful. Lashina is still very much Lashina. If you wrong her, she'll be ready to rip off your head. She did so to one who tried to betray Roz'etta. She uses people, she used Jennifer Morgan to get through a portal to the stars, because at the end of the day what matters is getting to Krypton, to heal. Everything else can be sacrificed. Everything else is simply in the way.

Except, of course, for one person. Lashina has always been utterly shameless in terms of what she wants from Roz'etta, but now Lashina's are filled with more passion, with, dare I say it, love, something else foreign to those in Darkseid's thrall. And now that Lashina has hope, perhaps that hope is wanting to believe that Roz'etta can embrace the monster that is in her blood, encouraging Roz'etta to become a bit of what she wasn't before.

Nobody is more uncomfortable to talk to than Lashina, simply because of how utterly foreign and alien she is, but I reached out one time, and it grew into something far, far beyond what it started as. Roz'etta has always had enough hope for the both of them, all the hope Lashina lacked, and Lashina had all the confidence and strength Roz'etta didn't. But now Lashina has hope dragging her down, and Roz'etta has the strength to hold Lashina up, just a bit. Time will tell where their balance will be made, but their efforts have pulled Lashina from Darkseid's influence. Darkseid is became Darkseid might be became Darkseid isn't.

The question facing the two now is in a world where Darkseid isn't, what is Lashina? All I know for sure is she's Roz'etta's. After that, well, there's a lot to get through. But now that she knows Darkseid isn't, maybe we can truly get started on answering that one. Roz'etta has always seen Lashina as someone with so much potential, and quite a bit of innocence, if only they could get past those words. Darkseid is is no more. Now it's time to see if Roz'etta's hope was a shining light, or a blinding one.

Hint for #2: This character has an intimidating stare.