DC Legends of Tomorrow: The Glitch: Glitching Through Time

Ch 37: It's Time to Die Pt 2

"Perdegaton? No." Clarity shook her head. "No, you can't be."

"No?" The man repeated. Now it was his turn to be confused. What did she mean no?

"Historical records don't lie. Gid's never wrong." Clarity clenched her teeth. Her arm lowering. She didn't have the strength to hold it up anymore. Her arm as heavy as the words about to fall from her lips. "The Degaton's died."

"That's what the world believes yes." Perdegaton nodded his head. "The man in the coat was right. The lengths that my father went to to keep me safe knew no bounds. Another boy who shared considerable resemblance to me was sacrificed so that I may live. My father gave his life so the lie would be as convincing as it could be. He was far braver than I ever imagined. You were right about that too." Perdegaton looked at Clarity in earnest and for a moment he looked all too much like the little boy who had been on the jumpship. "Hell, you were right about everything."

"Alright, lets just pretend for a moment that I do believe you are actually who you say you are. If I'm not your prisoner then what am I? Why bring me here, Perry? Why go through all this trouble?" Clarity asked. "That woman didn't seem to think I was worth it." Clarity left out the fact that she herself believed that to be true as well. Clarity hadn't been expecting to come out of that robot fight alive.

"Enough people have died because of me. Because of the mistakes of my youth. I was foolish to ever listen to a mind like Savage. I see that now. I allowed myself to be herded along like a mindless sheep. My people, the whole world, are suffering because of me. That must be amended."

"That still doesn't explain what I'm doing here." Clarity told him scratching lightly around the power dampener. Her skin getting a horrid itch there, an itch that she knew would turn into an excruciating burn the longer it stayed on her wrist.

"Vandal has to be stopped." Perdegaton clenched his fists. "And as much as I wish I was I'm not enough. I'm just one man. I can't do it alone. If Vandal is to be overthrown then I need you, and your team to stand any chance against him."

"So, you can rule over the people here yourself afterwards?" Clarity asked carefully.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing." Perdegaton looked at her in earnest. "But, I don't want to be the kind of man he is when I rule. I swear it. If the people wish it I'll hold an election once everything has settled and stabilized. They can elect whomever they wish after that. I know what you must think of me after the way I behaved during my capture all those years ago, but i've become better, wiser and it's-it's because of you."

"Prove it," Clarity challenged gesturing to the dampener. Perdegaton gave her a perplexed look in reply.

"If you want me to trust you then take this off me." Clarity explained further, repeating her earlier request when Perdegaton made no attempt to do as she asked. She resisted the urge to claw at the damn thing. The itch really was horrible.

Perdegaton's eye brows furrowed, his left arm scratching behind his ear. "I cannot, you melted the locking mechanism when we put it on you and even if it was in tact I Uh," Perdegaton looked down at his feet like a child who got caught stealing from the cookie jar, "actually don't have a key. We found it when we were scavenging about a year ago, guess the poor sod who was wearing it didn't have a key either, the woman who was just in here took it right off the corpse, but you don't need me to take it off. You can just make it blow up like all the other tech you've destroyed."

Clarity's face lost all color the woman's already pale skin going white as a sheet, her heart rate increasing as she looked at the small banged up device. The implications of what Perdegaton had told her settling in. Sure, she knew that it was stuck on her, but she'd thought that he could get it off. The dampener upon her wrist was faulty, broken, irreparably damaged which could be why her powers weren't totally negated, but with the lock melted and no key to speak of... "Are you telling me you put this on me and you can't get if off!?"