Firestorm starts to remember her past when she was still a part of the living. She used to be known as Mary Thomas. She was adopted by an old happy couple when she was two years old. She grew up in a loving and caring home. When she was 15, she found out that the people she lived with were not her biological parents. She kept the pain she felt inside of her, having gratitude towards the people who raised her. They treated her well. They fed her and gave her a home, nice clothes, and a great education, but there was wonder and curiosity in her. She asked herself what her real parents looked like and why they left her.
When she turned 18, she decided to leave home and set out on a journey to find her true parents. Out of high school, she worked as a dishwasher and as a server at a diner. Though her foster parents still sent her money from time to time because they were worried.
She was always fascinated by cooking and would have loved to become a chef. She begged the owner of the diner to teach her how to cook some of the food they served, to which the owner obliged. Seeing as Mary had this bubbly and kind personality. There came a time that the owner was out sick and Mary herself had to do everything in the diner on her own, which she did tremendously.
She was not earning much, but she loved the way she lived. She enjoyed the company of their frequent customers, and the owner of the diner treated her like a daughter. Along the way, she met a man whom she adored and started to care for.
The man seemed to be nice and flirted with her every chance he got. Mary was your average girl with long blonde hair but her most attractive feature might be her cheerful demeanor. There wasn’t any day they saw her looking down. She always greeted customers with a smile.
They soon went to live together and had a child. They lived normally until Mary saw signs of what the man was truly like. The man worked as a factory technician that helped fix the broken machines in an iron factory across town. The man had late nights and early mornings but had the time to drink out with his peers whenever he could, leaving Mary to take care of their child. By this time, Mary had left the diner, not having the time to take care of their child while still working her shift.
There came a day when the man she was living with came home and was intoxicated with illegal drugs. The man threatened to kill them all because he was hallucinating that Mary was cheating on him with another man. The man opened the stove and pulled out his golden lighter, popped the lid, and placed his thumb on the spark wheel.
Mary pleaded, saying that she wasn’t cheating on him while holding their infant child. The man refused to believe her and placed his hand closer to the open burner.
Mary, having been threatened, placed the baby back in the crib and rushed towards her partner. She knocked him off his feet, but the man still managed to ignite the lighter. The blast from the explosion knocked both back, the man crashing out of the door of their small apartment while Mary, to the wall beside the crib of her baby.
The small apartment was burning while the baby cried out loud. Mary, half her body burnt, crawled towards the baby.
Mary carried her baby with her good arm, though, still in pain, and breathing heavily.
She stood up, the apartment burning all around her, trying to find a way out, but the flames were too strong as they kept burning her skin. She tried to protect her baby and held the baby closer to her, doing her best to shield the baby from the flames.
Mary lost hope in trying to escape. With the baby in her hand, she cried out in a loud voice, “I swear! For all eternity, I shall not rest until I find your soul and burn it with me to hell!”
As she and her child died, their souls left their bodies and were sent to purgatory. From there, her baby was sent to heaven, while she, being a vengeful spirit, was sent to the river Cocytus. In the river, time felt like an eternity. Mary, throughout her stay in the river, kept seeking revenge for the man that killed her and her child.
When Melinoë’s darker half took over her, she offered the spirits in the river that are strong enough to release themselves from the river’s current to kneel before her and pledge their allegiance. Once they do, she will give them power that can satisfy their desires.
Gaining strength from her pent-up rage, Mary struggled to fight the river’s wickedness for days before she came out and crawled towards Melinoë, kissing her feet. Melinoë asked, “What is it that you desire, my child?” to which Mary answered, “to hunt down and kill the man who murdered me and my baby.”
Melinoë granted this wish and turned her into a Greater Phantom. A phantom that can command lesser phantoms. “With your burning desire to seek out vengeance, rise, Firestorm of the eternal flame,” Melinoë said to Mary, as she was reborn from Melinoë’s power.
“Go seek out your fire, my child. Find where your hidden power can be found. You must find a relic of your ambitions, the relic of your past long gone. The path where you will find it is the path where you have left your mortality,” Melinoë instructed her.
From then on, she went on a rampage trying to find her true power. All the while being in pursuit of bringing the man who killed them eternal suffering. She scoured the dream realm, trying to find the place she was killed, and creating a nightmare path along with it. In her search, she found a particular place drawing her in, a place where she felt her power the strongest.
The city library was mostly new, it had only been 10 years since it was established. Before, it was a suburb for the poor. Firestorm entered the library and inched her way towards the back. There, she saw a great ember floating above a burnt crib. She approached it and devoured it with her large mouth, transforming her image from an alien-like shapeshifter to the burning bride image.
From then on, she transformed the library in the dream realm into her domain, making it a habitat for phantoms to roam and mature. From there, she collected the lesser phantoms around the library and turned them into cackling baby-like dolls she uses for her amusement.
One day, a child surprisingly wanders into her domain which is unusual to see as she mostly terrorizes teenagers or the elderly once they fall asleep inside the library. The child reminded her of the one she had lost, she imagined that if her baby had lived, the baby might have looked something like this child. She took an interest in taking the child for herself and was slowly forcing it to lose hope. Firestorm wanted to trap the child’s soul as she knew that a child’s will and bravery are easily broken.
She kept toying with the child until she had broken and beaten it down to the point that the child couldn’t fight anymore. With a large eerie smile, Firestorm lifted the child by the neck, put it closer to her and said, “mine,”
but suddenly, Firestorm felt a strong energy inside the library, and this was Skylar.
The Final Judgement is an ability embedded within the Scythe of Eons apart from a reaper's ability. This grants the reaper the talent of true sight, which gives the reaper a chance to give a final verdict if the phantom can be granted access to a peaceful travel to the Underworld and provide them passage to the river Styx or be returned to the limbo that is the river Cocytus.
Skylar, empowered by the scythe, slowly comes to, realizing that she had seen the memories of Mary, now known as Firestorm.
“Mary?” Skylar uttered.
“Get out of my head! How dare you rummage through my memories!” Firestorm replied while trying to loosen Skylar’s grip.
“Mary, listen, I want to help you,” Skylar pleaded.
Firestorm, without hesitation, gets herself free from Skylar’s grasp and tries to fight back. She throws fireballs at Skylar which hits her on the shoulder. Soon as Skylar felt pain, she was immediately taken over by the scythe once again, protecting her in the process.
Skylar, having been taken over by the scythe, lunges towards Firestorm at great speed. Firestorm could not react in time and was struck by the scythe, cutting her in half.
“Return to the river from where you came! Your final judgment has been made!” Skylar with a deep voice said out loud.
“There is no helping the damned, reaper!” Firestorm says as her body slowly disintegrates, fading into a white glowing light.
Firestorm disappeared and was sent back to the river, leaving behind the small ember where she had drawn her true power. Skylar, still overtaken by the scythe, grabs the fire and absorbs its power, fusing it with her own as she faints.
Skylar feels a tug on her hands and slowly awakens to a child beside her. The child had a big head with big brown eyes. His hair was curly and he wore a shirt a bit too big for him that has a T-rex design in the middle.
“Thank you for saving me,” the child said to her.
“You’re the kid?” She replied, surprised to see the child.
“Are you a superhero?” the child asks.
“No, I’m-- How did you know it was me?” Skylar said in reply.
“Well, your hair, your face. You were pretty before you became red and angry,” he replied.
“So, where are your parents?” She asks him with a smile.
“They aren’t here. My babysitter is on a date by those bookshelves over there and started doing icky stuff like kissing,” the child replied with a disgusted expression.
“Well, why don’t you stay with me for a while until they finish? Wanna watch some TV shows online on my phone?” She said as she pulled out her phone and earbuds.
Skylar realized that whenever she’s in the dream realm, she looks the same as when she’s in the real world which poses a problem. Seeing that this child approached her and noticed who she was, without even hesitating, this made her feel uncomfortable and, in a sense, she realized that she would be in grave danger. Unlike her reaper counterpart, in the real world, she is just a defenseless civilian.
She knew that there would be a lot to talk about once she is called back to the realm of sand and trains with Sandman.
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