"Sister, are you okay?"
Brion, the ever-unfortunate pawn in this unfolding chaos, cradled his sister with trembling hands. Her severed limbs had just been painstakingly reattached, and he pressed gently along her arms and legs as if expecting them to fall off again at any moment. His eyes darted around warily, the shock of recent events still fresh.
"Ah... I... I'm fine," she murmured.
This was Tara, Brion's sister. She was better known by her alias, Terra, a third-tier hero unfamiliar to Shin, who had never crossed paths with her before.
Terra was not a seasoned warrior. Although she had been part of Wonder Woman's Nemesis team, her actual contributions were minimal. The most notable act she performed was raising the island nation of Britain above the waves, saving it from being swallowed by the machines her own brother had unleashed.
As for the darker chapters of the Amazons' campaign, the burning of villages, the looting, the establishment of concentration camps in Britain, Terra had played no part in them. She was, in truth, entirely unaware they had even occurred. For that reason, Shin had seen fit to restore her without hesitation.
Terra was fortunate. Many others from the Amazons, Atlantis, and among ordinary humans had not been so lucky.
Consider, for instance, two particular figures, Orm's brother and Diana's aunt, Penthesilea. If the war could be said to have an origin point, it would rest squarely on their shoulders.
Whenever the Amazons or the Atlanteans showed even the faintest inclination toward peace talks, these two would be working in the shadows to sabotage them. They would bomb their own supply lines, sink their own warships, and then blame the opposing faction.
From a logical perspective, this strategy was insulting to anyone's intelligence and yet, bafflingly, it worked every time.
Shin could only marvel at how Wonder Woman and Aquaman, with all their legendary prowess, could be so consistently deceived. It made him wonder if all the training that had turned their bodies into weapons had somehow diminished their capacity for critical thought.
Whenever hope for peace glimmered, a fresh disaster would occur, sometimes a terrorist strike, sometimes an assassination, and always at the very moment when both leaders were actively engaged in negotiations.
If violence was inevitable, Shin thought, why not simply eliminate Wonder Woman and Aquaman during the talks themselves? Blowing up the rear lines was not only counterintuitive but reckless in the extreme, since it risked provoking the enemy while also jeopardizing one's own safety.
Any reasonable observer faced with such a pattern would conclude that a third party or a traitor within the leadership must be at work. And yet, the pattern repeated again and again, always at the most pivotal moments.
Perhaps the root of the problem lay in the small, insular nature of Atlantis and the Amazon nation. Their supernatural advantages had not, it seemed, translated into political wisdom. Instead, they had produced rulers prone to catastrophic misjudgment.
As Shin interrogated the two culprits, Diana and Arthur were both stunned. Neither had suspected that their own kin had been orchestrating betrayals behind their backs.
The Lasso of Truth proved invaluable; its power made lying impossible. After extracting their confessions, Shin incinerated them with precise beams of heat vision, leaving nothing behind but drifting motes of ash.
With the conspirators dealt with, Shin turned his attention to Wonder Woman and Aquaman themselves. By rights, they should have been his first targets for questioning. But as soon as he began addressing the earlier suspects, their erratic heartbeats had betrayed their guilt, prompting him to reverse his order of operations.
"Diana, tell me, were you aware of the Amazon concentration camps and the human experiments?"
Wonder Woman was little more than a mangled figure now, her limbs gone and her spirit hollowed out. She met his gaze with lifeless eyes, but the Lasso compelled her to answer.
"No. I know nothing at all. I know nothing about these things."
"Then you're an idiot," Shin said coldly. He did not sugarcoat it. "Will you start another war?"
"No. That was a mistake. We've all been driven mad... War only brings more hatred, and I've gained nothing but pain." She shook her head slowly. The war had cost her Paradise Island, her mother, and now, knowing it had all been the product of others' ambition, she found no reason to take up arms again.
Shin gave a slight nod before turning to Arthur.
"And you... Using superweapons to destroy the world? Even without your brother's meddling, you hardly strike me as a good man. Tell me, will you start another war?"
Arthur clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to speak, but the Lasso stripped away his defiance.
"I must destroy all enemies that threaten Atlantis! And that woman, she killed Mera! Cut off her head, and I will avenge her!"
"Very good. As expected," Shin sighed. "I understand your perspective... but for the sake of world peace, please die."
A searing beam of red light lanced from his eyes, reducing the King of Atlantis to nothingness.
Diana's mother had fallen victim to her aunt's scheming, a matter unrelated to Aquaman, so it was natural that she might repent. But Diana herself had executed Mera, Arthur's wife. From that angle, Shin found Arthur's rage predictable. A man crazed by grief and love would go to any lengths.
Yet understanding was not the same as condoning. Arthur's mind had been shattered by loss, and Shin knew words would never change him. Physical elimination was the only viable solution.
Besides, Arthur had unleashed the oceans upon Western Europe, drowning untold thousands. By the standards of any war tribunal, his fate was sealed the moment he was captured.
With the two primary war criminals gone, Shin turned to the next name on his list, an Earth-born man known only as Doctor Thirteen.
The nuclear warheads Shin had dismantled in orbit had been the Doctor's handiwork.
Doctor Thirteen's story was one of misfortune turned malignant. He had been enjoying hot pot and a night of karaoke when Atlantis launched an earthquake strike, sending tsunamis across Western Europe. His daughter, a magician, had managed to teleport him to safety, but his wife and other children were swept away. Only that daughter survived with him.
The loss unhinged him. In desperation, he traded his soul for the power of black magic, then allied himself with a terrestrial organization bent on vengeance. His plan? to rain nuclear fire from satellites onto the world.
"Tell me," Shin asked evenly, "are you still planning to drop nuclear bombs from satellites?"
The Doctor inhaled slowly. Bound in the Lasso's golden coils, he had no choice but to speak the truth.
"I want revenge. I will never forgive those who started this war and destroyed my family."
"Another lunatic," Shin muttered with a weary sigh. He was preparing to end the man when a voice rang out behind him.
"Wait! Don't kill my father!"
Shin turned, his expression unreadable. A young girl in tattered clothing staggered toward him, clearly exhausted. She must have teleported here only moments ago, otherwise, Shin would have sensed her earlier.
Her eyes burned with desperation, but whether that would be enough to change the Doctor's fate remained uncertain.
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