The problem with Motherbox's Boom Tubes was that a single Motherbox was capable of creating only one per day, and after that, they needed to recharge; that was why Darkseid needed two of them on himself - for emergencies.
While healing (and resurrecting) the two Phaelosian sisters, he had just spent Boom Tube charges on two out of the four motherboxes they had on their hands. Creation of the new ones was underway, but it was an extremely energy-taxing endeavor.
So after dropping the siblings at the med bay, Darkseid visited his personal chambers, where Suli and Dreamer were in the middle of some scientific experiment.
He took the other two motherboxes that they had and teleported together with Furies back to Warworld, targeting a landing at the rebel base.
Time was of importance, and they couldn't allow themselves to wait. The Mongul needed to die now, before he could react and gather his army. Striking an enemy at their home turf required haste.
The only problem was that they didn't know where Mongul was. Fortunately, they had the two elites that they had captured. Hopefully, the rebels didn't end up killing them.
The Boom Tube appeared in a room that stank of rust, blood, machine oil, and human waste. The rebel hideout was never meant to be comfortable or pretty, but there should have been a limit to how bad a single room could smell. And this room had easily broken those limits.
The ceiling was low; the walls glistened with condensation from the heat. The only light in the room came from a dim lamp directly above the priestess, unstably swinging all around the place and casting uneven shadows across the metal floors and walls.
Solstice, one of the Mongul's elite that had been captured, was sitting at the center of the room, her wrists bound with chains.
She wore no armor, only thin rugged robes were covering her modesty. Her priestess's headdress, once radiant with energy, was now laying in a broken heap of metal on the ground.
Still, even stripped of her garments and equipment, she sat with the posture of someone who believed herself superior. Her chin was high, her golden eyes narrowed, and she radiated the surroundings with a quiet, venomous pride.
Kryl-Ux hovered near the doorway with his fellow rebels.
"Ah, I was waiting for your return", the rebel leader said with a hint of admiration and fear in his voice. "We took an initiative to prepare for interrogation".
Darkseid acknowledged his words with a nod and shifted his attention to the woman bound with chains to the ceiling.
"Tell me where Mongul is".
The priestess' face remained still, and she stayed silent. If it was from fear of Mongul or from loyalty, Darkseid had no idea. But he cared little about what her motivations were; he needed his answers.
He came closer to her, reaching for the weapon behind his back.
She faltered a little, a small twitch of her body betraying her fear. Even that small motion had rattled the chains.
Her two yellow eyes darted to the handle of the polearm on the back of her enemy. She had seen what it could do, what he had done to Harvest and to Ridge. She had also seen what that shield in hands of one of the Furies did to Leash and Warblade. Yet she did not dare to speak; it was better for her to die fast. Her death was irrelevant to her master's schemes.
Barda shifted her weight in the dark, stepping forward. Her voice was as low as always.
"She will not speak, master. Let me…"
But he stopped her with his eyes, shaking his head. Barda had immediately stepped back into the shadows of the room.
"Death is an easy exit, it's for cowards," he said. "What I want to know is if you have the strength to live."
He started walking around the bound woman. The swinging lamp periodically illuminated his giant figure, but for the most part, he remained a looming presence circling in the darkness, just barely outside the reach of the light.
"Do you have the courage to look your death in the eyes?" He leaned out of the blackness so close to her face that the air that escaped with his words brushed her forehead like a lick of fire.
"Look at me."
Her body shivered as she shut her eyes as tight as she could, her breath stilled. Darkseid smiled menacingly. He pressed closer; now his face was directly in front of hers, his eyes were centimeters away from hers.
"Serve me, worm", he whispered. "Worship me as your god, and I will grant you the death you deserve".
He flared his magic up, pressuring her very soul with his. He was a being of higher existence, something that she could never achieve… Without help.
The silence stretched for several long minutes. Darkseid had remained unmoving, looking directly at her without blinking, his eyes never leaving her face. The rebels all had left the room in fear; only Kryl-Ux had remained present, his knees trembling, but straight.
Solstice continued silently quivering, overtaken with horror. Her chains clanged constantly from her involuntary movements. All three Furies clutched their weapons harder but stayed put in their positions.
Finally, after being influenced by his dark magic for ten minutes straight, Solstice spoke as if in a trance.
"There is… a place." Her voice was shaking just as much as her body; each word was shifting in pitch. "The Necropolis. Underneath the Crucible."
Solstice's eyes glimmered with purple light; a crimson omega symbol had burned in their sclera. A mark indicating that her mind was now overtaken by Darkseid.
Darkseid let go of the magic hold he had on the woman and straightened, his eyes closed for the first time in almost fifteen minutes. He wiped off two streams of blood that were rushing from his eyes.
Solstice stopped glowing, the omega symbols vanishing from the sclera layers of her eyes. She let out a tired and pained breath together with a spasmic shriek.
"What would happen with me?" She managed to push those words out of herself, licking her dry lips.
Solstice sagged in her chains; even the very act of speaking had exhausted her. After the purple glow in her eyes died to a faint ember, it seemed like the light of the life itself had been torn away from her, snuffing the energy inside of her to nothing.
Darkseid pointed up, and suddenly a tapestry of magical runes became visible on the skin of the Warzoon priestess.
Warzoons were of little interest to him, but Darkseid, this little woman, and her light-based powers were fascinating. Coupled with Lash, who had been captured recently, a woman who, according to his meta knowledge, would become one of the Furies in the future, maybe it was time to set up a second unit of his elite warriors.
But before that could happen, these captured enemies needed some education, as they needed to be converted properly into his soldiers. Unfortunately, now, with the absence of Granny Goodness, there was no one to "re-educate" captured enemies.
That was why Darkseid had picked up dark magic during his earlier years. He was prepared to do it all on his own. As her gleamed from other worlds, the Anti-Life Equation wasn't the only thing that could control minds; it was the ultimate manifestation of that. It was the Infinite Tsukiyomi from that ninja world, but on a universal scale.
What he was using on this woman, however, was magic that he had developed by looking at Sauron, a necromancer and a dark demigod of another universe. Sauron was capable of many feats, including mind control, albeit limited. It was where Darkseid had gotten his inspiration.
Admittedly, the mind control that he now possessed worked only on people of weak character, like the priestess who lay before him.
Darkseid lowered his face once again. He cupped Solstice's chin with his hand, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
"Your life will depend on your future service".
Her eyes flickered with a hint of hope behind the wall of fear and agony that had overtaken them. It seemed like this woman would be malleable to his future influence.
"Now tell me, what else do you know?"
"The gem. A yellow shard in Monguls chest, I don't know what it does, but it is powerful," She rasped out desperately. Her fate was now in the hands of her captors.
"You knew of this?" Darkseid asked, turning his head to Kryl-Ux standing in the doorway.
Kryl shook his head furiously.
"No, nothing like that. Rebellion has been going on for centuries, maybe thousands of years, but we never heard about Necropolis or the gem."
Apokoliptian ruler fell into thought as he heard that. If there was not even a rumor about said Necropolis, then… His lips curved upwards. It must be very important to Mongul and their family if they prioritized masking their presence so thoroughly.
"Come!" He said to his people standing behind him. "We are attacking Necropolis tonight".