White cracks splintered across the center of Sweetie's staff construct when the dragon's fist nearly shattered it in one mighty blow, a blow that was strong enough to hurl Sweetie back, despite blocking the attack. She placed a hoof on the ground to stop her backwards slide, narrowing her eyes while she reconstructed her staff once again and took up another fighting stance.
"Hope? That is your master plan to defeat me and get your Spike back?" Brainiac asked with what almost seemed like a smile. "You have no hope...of defeating me or getting Spike back. I can feel myself getting stronger just by simply being close to your ring, though...it is not as strong as it was."
"That's because Saint Walker taught me a trick during the month I was on the home world, about how to lessen the amount of blue energy that Green Lanterns can absorb," Sweetie clarified as she lunged forward and jabbed the staff three times at Brainiac, who dodged each hit before retaliating with a massive roundhouse kick that Sweetie intercepted with her staff. This time the blow was strong enough to shatter her construct and she was sent sprawling because of the impact.
"Then you must be a poor student, because that plan of yours is not working," Brainiac said while the dragon lunged at Sweetie, claws extended to tear her throat out. She slammed her hooves together, right before the dragon grabbed hold of her, and a moment later Brainiac watched as his claws passed right through her, leaving the mare unscathed as the machine was forced to skid to a halt.
"Yeah, that technique requires utter control and mastery over oneself to properly use, but you've always known that I can be a bit of a hothead, dontcha Spike?" Sweetie asked calmly, getting a strange look from Brainiac.
"Why are you speaking to the deceased?" Brainiac questioned her while he lunged forward again, slashing with his claws at Sweetie's new construct that she made to defend herself. Yet, while attacking at the new construct, Brainiac could not fathom why she would pick the same item that offered little protection. He punched through the construct only for Sweetie to craft a blue diamond to deflect his next blow...and why did he suddenly feel like he wanted that gem?
"What are you planning? Are you trying to resurrect his memories and desires in hopes that he can break from of my control?" Brainiac asked with a frown, banishing all of the desire of the host without another thought. "It is a cheap trick, and one that will not work against me. You would be better off focusing on defeating me to save your own life instead of trying to save his."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll get out of this alive. And we'll get Spike back," Sweetie chirped with a smug smile that for some reason annoyed Brainiac, who narrowed his eyes as she constructed another staff. "Unless Spike's just going to laze around like he always does, and forces his marefriend to do everything for him, like always."
"He is gone. Stop testing my patience trying to reach him," Brainiac said with irritation in his voice, getting a whistle from Sweetie Belle.
"Wow, the emotionless machine is getting annoyed? Could it be that there's a flaw in your programming? Or maybe the emotions of a certain dragon are starting to infect you?" Sweetie asked with a smile as Brainiac's face slowly returned to its blank slate.
"It was a momentary flaw. It will not happen again," Brainiac said calmly before pointing both his arms at Sweetie and firing blasts of green energy at her. Sweetie spun her staff to deflect the blasts while flipping and rolling around Brainiac, occasionally kicking up sand as she did so to blind him. "Because when I finally finish you off, all of this body's ties to life will be severed. And do not think that something as trivial as sand can blind me," Brainiac stated before whipping one of his arms around and firing a blast into the sand, that struck Sweetie dead in the chest. She went tumbling back into the sand, but quickly rolled back up to her hooves and fired a blast of her own light right back in Brainiac's face, causing him to stagger slightly as well.
"Your blasts do nothing to me. They are as trivial as this infernal sand that you keep kicking up at me," Brainiac stated as he flew forward and grabbed at Sweetie, catching her off guard as he clamped his claws and lifted her up by her throat. "Finally, you cease your prattling."
"You know what's funny, is that Spike hates sand too," Sweetie pointed out with a smile, a smile that got her slammed back-first into the dunes by one annoyed machine.
"Enough. This fight is over." Brainiac curled his fingers in tightly as he brought his fist back and aimed it right between Sweetie's eyes, yet instead of sensing fear in her, all Brainiac could focus on was the cocky smile that was plastered to her face. "What could you possibly be smiling about? You are beaten."
"And so are you," Sweetie stated calmly as she shrugged. "You can't beat the Guardians. With the aid of the Sinestro Corps and the Blue Lanterns, even your army won't be enough to overpower them. You might as well just give up now and surrender." Her words caused Brainiac to narrow his eyes at her as he slammed his fist into the side of her head, but the smile never faltered as she spat out a bit of blood.
"Give up? I am Brainiac, the collector of knowledge. I do not give up, because I cannot be beaten," he stated calmly for her, but all Sweetie's smile did was widen in response. "Even if you amass such a force against me, I will be victorious. I am unstoppable." Yet the moment Brainiac said this, flashes of blue off to his side caught his attention and he turned his gaze to find that images were floating around him, sapphire images of him conquering all of the Lantern Corps before finally capturing Earth, with all of the heroes that had given him so much trouble dead at his feet.
"Really? That sounds awful hopeful of you, doesn't it?" Sweetie Belle prodded with a large smile as Brainiac continued to look at the images in confusion before glaring down at the belle.
"What did you do to me? Why do I...hope?" he demanded, but Sweetie just shrugged as she looked at something off in the distance.
"I did nothing to you. All my ring did was sense the hope in your heart and made images of it for you to see," she said nonchalantly, but a coy smile crossed her face as she gazed into some of the images and saw very familiar ones mixed in with Brainiac's. "I guess that's just the way you feel."
"NO! I am Brainiac, a being of reason and logic! I do not...feel," he snarled at her while he started to blast at the images, telling Sweetie all she needed to know.
"Well, you'll feel this! NOW!" Brainiac, who was far too distracted and destroying the false images of hope, did not register what the mare had yelled until the first blast of green struck him in the back and hurled him off of Sweetie, where he staggered to his feet before a second blast of violet knocked him down again. Brainiac roared as he turned around only to take a green fist to the jaw that sent him sprawling once again.
"You've been in the dark void of space for too long Brainiac," John began as he and two other Lanterns floated behind him, each of them pointing their rings at the mechanical dragon while he pushed himself back up. "Time you got a little light!"
All three Lanterns unleashed their powers upon him as he said this, bathing Brainiac under the unrelenting power of love, will and fear. The machine tried to fight against the power, tried to find a logical solution to the problem at hand, but slowly he began to worry that he could not win, not with this body.
"And there it is: Your fear," the spider Lantern laughed menacingly, gaining him Brainiac's full attention.
"I am Brainiac! I do not feel fear or any other emotion!" Brainiac roared back, but his resistance only increased the laughter from the spider.
"Yes you do. Inhabiting that body and fighting so many Lanterns has infused you with the knowledge of what emotions feel like...and activating your fear," Se'rokal said as he pushed harder than the other Lanterns, bathing Brainiac in golden light. "That is your fear, machine. The fear that you will develop those emotions, the fear, hatred and joy. That you become the very emotions that you seek to destroy!"
"NO! You shall fall!" Brainiac roared as he lunged forward and grabbed both Sweetie and John out of the air, slamming the both of them into the sand as he prepared to crush their throats. "Prepare to die!"
"No, Brainiac, Spike is still in there," Sweetie said with confidence.
"Come on kid, if you're truly the Lantern that I think you are, then fight back! You didn't give into fear, so don't give into him!" John roared. For a moment they felt the metal claws tighten around their throats, but then the light in Brainiac's eyes changed for a brief moment and the claws released their grasp, leaving Brainiac open to another blast of yellow from behind that drove him to the ground.
"No. I cannot...emotions...cannot..." Brainiac let out one last roar before the eyes on the mechanical dragon went dark and the machine fell to the side. John held up his hand to cease the attack before he and the other Lanterns floated over to the motionless machine, where they were joined by Sweetie a moment later.
"Did it work?" she asked as she held the machine in her arms and looked into the black eyes for any sign.
"I believe we drove Brainiac out, but I am not certain if there was anyone to take his place," Se'rokal said with cynicism, but Nattily placed a hand on Sweetie's shoulder.
"He will be back Sweetie. Believe in the power of love."
The moment she said this, the light in the mechanical dragon began to shine again, causing the Yellow and Green Lantern to point their rings at the machine just in case, while Sweetie and Nattily moved in closer. A pair of green eyes shone where Brainiac's emotionless eyes had been, eyes that looked around with some confusion before finally resting on the belle holding him.
"Sweetie?" the dragon asked in a voice that Sweetie knew all too well, causing tears to waterfall from her eyes while the realization began to sink in. "What happened? Where did we..." His voice trailed off and he closed his eyes once again as Sweetie held the dragon close.
"Just rest for now, Spike. You're back. That's all that matters," she whispered while holding him close.
|)O(|
With a groan that was more mechanical than living, Spike opened his eyes once again to find himself staring up at the ceiling of his room on the Interceptor. The only difference was that his eyes were literally scanning everything that was in their sight, including the relieved eyes of a mare who smiled down at him from beside his bed.
"Sweetie?" he asked her as he sat up, feeling far more different than he remembered. He looked over to see that both Sweetie and John were in the room, but that only Sweetie was sitting next to him. John was leaning against the wall by the door and seemed to have concern written on his face, but the moment Spike sat up Sweetie let out a small giggle before wrapping her hooves around him in a hug...a hug that he didn't feel.
"What's going on? Why can't I...feel...you..." Sweetie released the hug with sorrow on her face while Spike looked down at his arms, arms that looked far more mechanical than they used to be. Horror began to claw at his heart as he looked up at John, who shook his head with a sigh. "John, what happened to me? The last thing I remember was fighting Brainiac and then...why am I like this?"
"After...after you gave your life to allow me and Sweetie to escape from Brainiac, he did the same thing to you that he did to all the other Lanterns that he captured...he turned you into one of his machines," John explained to Spike, who had a look of shock on his face. Sweetie gently laid her head on his shoulder as he processed the information, looking down at his metal claws.
"But then...how..."
"Sweetie thought up the plan to get you back. She made a guess that if a machine without emotion like Brainiac was exposed to too much emotion, it would override him and force him out of your body, so the four of us teamed up to take him on," John explained as Spike started to flex his claws. "She also figured that you were still fighting inside of Brainiac and that you would help to break free, which it seems you did. Yet, while we did manage to get Brainiac out, we...don't know how to reverse what he did to you. How to turn you back into a regular dragon."
"So, I'm...stuck like this then. A machine."
"Spike...I'm so sorry," Sweetie whispered before Spike turned his head and gently nuzzled her. Then, he stood up with narrowed eyes as he started to figure out how to move properly.
"This...can wait. I need to know what happened while Brainiac was controlling me and if there's any way I can help," Spike said with the will of a Lantern while he looked around. Sweetie and John spent a quick couple of minutes recapping what had happened, with Spike's face growing longer and longer as he listened." Alright, at least now I know what we're up against. Give me a minute to...figure out how I work. And where's my ring?" Sweetie and John shared a quick look that Spike didn't miss, and he let out a sigh as he sat down on the bed again. "The ring's gone, isn't it?"
"You were technically dead. The rings are programmed to find a new host when the previous Lantern dies," John explained, expecting Spike to be heartbroken or distraught at the loss. But instead, the dragon gritted his teeth and looked up at John with fire in his eyes.
"Well, if I remember correctly the machine Lanterns that we fought were made of similar stuff that Brainiac was made of, right?" Spike began, getting a slow nod out of John. Spike then grabbed hold of the metal dresser by his bed and crushed it between his claws in one swift motion. "Well then, how about I repay Brainiac for giving me such strength by beating him with his own power?"
"Spike, I'm not sure about this," John said with hesitation. "I mean, Brainiac's attack on Oa will be in less than two days and with you stuck in that body..."
"I'm still a part of this team even if I've lost my friendship ring. And I can still fight," Spike said with no fear or hesitation--only the desire to fight. "Besides, I'm not helpless without my ring. I'm still a fire-breathing dragon with claws and fangs, only now I have a super tough body that Brainiac built. I can fight."
"I don't know..." John muttered.
"Please, John. I'm not going to lie down when Brainiac threatens all of the Corps just because I'm a little different," Spike snarled. "I'm not afraid."
"No...you're not," John muttered before letting out a sigh, waving his hand at Spike and Sweetie. "Fine. Despite me thinking that it's a bad idea, you are a Lantern whether you wear the ring or not. And, you had the will to break free of Brainiac, something not many others have done. We're going to be heading back to Oa to plan with the Guardians what we're going to do, so...talk with them about it," John said as he turned to leave the room, but stopping at the door. "And Spike?"
"Yeah John?"
"I'm glad that you're back." John then left the room to allow Spike to get familiar with his body, knowing that he would need Sweetie there to help him. He ignored the other Lanterns, who were arguing with each other as he headed to the cockpit, leaning against the back of the chair while he stared off into space.
"Guess the rumors about the Star-Sapphires being able to return the dead to life weren't false after all," John muttered to himself with a smirk as he figured out another reason Spike had come back. " But they're still incredible, the both of them."
'What do you mean?' his ring asked for further clarification.
"I mean that, Sweetie figured out how to break Spike free despite me thinking that he was gone. And, how Spike's will was strong enough for him to actually break free from Brainiac's iron grip," John muttered with a thin smile as he looked off into the void. "They're the future of the Corps, the both of them...if there is a future left after this battle. No...I will make sure they have a future. That is my duty to them."