New Gods #17

Orion rages over his foolishness. Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes calms Orion, then convinces him to return to New Mexico. Orion takes to the air to depart, but, along with Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes, is struck down by a hidden laser. Meanwhile, Darkseid, Titan, and Desaad tend to the captive Brigadier General Maxwell Torch. Using Desaad's mind probe, Darkseid plumbs the depths of Torch's mind, in search of a piece of the Anti-Life Equation. Torch proves more resistant than expected, lapsing into unconsciousness from the strain. Orion and Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes are placed into Desaad's Memory Machine. On New Genesis, Izaya leads Lucifar to a funeral procession, so that the boy may see how the New Gods deal with death. Forager's Mother Box alerts him to the peril Orion and Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes are undergoing. Escaping from the underground scientific facility known only as "The Project", Forager tracks the distress signal. Under the relentless beam of the Memory Machine, Orion is forced to relieve the most painful memory from his past. Violently torn from his mother, Tigra, Orion was forcibly taken away from Apokolips. Orion would live out his days under the care of Izaya, the High-Father of the New Gods, as part of a peace treaty, that ended the war between New Genesis and Apokolips.

Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes also suffers from her past. A child who only longed for acceptance and friendship from her peers, she was, instead forced to fight them to the death, as part of her training in Granny Goodness' Orphanage. After the pact between New Genesis and Apokolips was broken, Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes was in the vanguard of Apokolips' forces warring on New Genesis. Struck down by the lance of one of New Genesis' finest warriors, she, like Orion was offered a new life, and a new way of living, upon New Genesis. As Torch recovers, Desaad turns his attention away from the torments of the New Gods, to begin anew, the probe on Torch. Having recovered one-sixth of the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid stands ready to demonstrate the power it has already given him. Forager follows the trail to the Happy Land Amusement Park. After putting down one Parademon, he locates Desaad's old laboratory, then destroys the Memory Machine. Forager tends to Orion and Jezebelle Of The Fiery Eyes. Suddenly, all of their Mother Boxes begin screaming. On New Genesis, the funeral ceremony has come to a dead stop. The Source Wall stands charred. Izaya can longer feel his connection to the Source. Darkseid has struck.