Beyonder

It took three years of echoing cries for his family to realize something was amiss with their baby boy. Every night he screamed his sleep plagued by unspoken visions nightmares that he could never truly articulate or even understand.

Tired and unbelieving that anything was truly wrong with their child his family took him to see a sleep specialist. A week of testing and a few restless nights in the hospital produced spotty results. They knew he was sleeping but his mind was constantly dreaming always working.

The solution to his problem was medication. Something to make his sleeps dark and dreamless. While it might have dulled his sense of imagination it certainly solved his problem, beyond that he was a normal child.

A son of Algerian immigrants turned into an ungrateful teen. Without a career path or plan he signed up with the Army after graduating from high school. What else was he to do? It wasn’t even a month into his service when the sky turned green and aliens cloaked in power armor descended from the heavens.

The war brought out the worst and the best in people. He saw it first hand, metahumans with powers banded together. Leaving the weak and the mundane to fight for survival . Of course there were heroes the skies were filled with them and the media adored them. But not everyone born with power uses them responsibly.

The dreams returned to him during the war. Every night he would see the countless deaths of those around him. Warnings of what was to come. He thought them nightmares brought out by his own cowardice. It wasn’t until he found himself reliving his nightmares that he realized what he really had. His gift came at a price as the war declined he dreamed of the death of his family. Hundreds of miles away from home there was nothing he could do but await confirmation of his dreams.

Although it couldn’t save his family, his foresight had saved countless lives during the war. Some of those he saved became his companions after the war. He traveled the world with in a small circle of former soldiers. They hunted and scoured searching in themselves for a solution to the crimes they witnessed. A way to make the world better, a way to make metahumans accountable.

The Empyrean Mandate was formed an attempt to make the world a better place. But good intentions did not last long. The groups core all agreed that the world could be saved. But the super criminals of the rogue isles did not deserve salvation. They were chaos incarnate and needed to be put to the stake.

Malak and his brothers in arms descended on the isles and began a crusade against all things inhuman. They fought together and they fought bravely, they saved as many as they could. Malak fought demi gods, demon kings, mutants that had the capacity to become walking bombs.

Every victory tore something from him. A loved one or a limb, it took only six months for Malak’s wounds to catch up to him. His body failing he would resort to cybernetics to keep himself alive. He became the very thing he fought against, but this gave him no qualms. He had no intentions of living in the paradise he would create.

His companions were not as resilient. While Malak endured they wavered, they died and they flat out walked away. By the end it was him alone awaiting his enemies to finally catch him.

The nightmares saved him from his fate, he learned of a way to survive to slink away from the light and into the shadow. He dove into the darkness without a second thought.

Even in darkness he was hunted. Three figures found him masked strangers enshrouded in black and white armor. They bore the scales of law, and the sword of justice. Malak assumed they were his executioners. But instead they offered him a deal.

They wanted mostly what he did. They wanted justice for the weak accountability for those with too much power. They wanted a leader for their cause one that could unite their men and bring in flesh blood. They offered him cybernetics decades ahead of their time tools and weapons all to build him into the ideal wielder of their sword. He would became their Prophet the wielder of the Blade of Nemesis.

He recruited for their fold and built an army. They would be his blade to wield. They would fight this worlds heroes and save the people from worshiping false idols. They fought as a family as a unit committed to their acts because they believed their future was within their grasp

The nightmares came again. He saw the truth one final time. It saved him from death but it could not save Judex from it’s own duplicity. The three who found him were not part of a cause. There was no higher purpose. It was three metahumans that wanted a team to throw at Paragon. To crush those that challenged them.

He fell upon his blade for his men, this would not be another Mandate; he would not lose those he cared for over a cause. Those loyal to him scattered. He was captured by the heroes of Paragon and branded the leader of Judex. His enemies retreated into the shadows cackling, for they had lost nothing.

He was locked away to await trial to await death. The irony of his fate was not lost on him, and given the choice of laughter or despair he took amusement in his ultimate fate. He sat in a cell awaiting the end.It never came. The companions he saved returned for him. They broke him free of his bindings and with them he absconded to the isles. Their goals their own. He was no longer the zealot, no longer the crusader. He discarded ideology and settled on one goal.

He saves of the energy of open hostility for the battlefield. Formerly a man of god his faith was already shaky when he took up arms, now with a world full of catgirls, demigods, demons, flesh eating mutants, and flesh eating mutant demon demigod catgirls he doesn't really put much stock in belief.

He’s seen every fight he’s had every argument, he’s argued ideology until his face turns blue. He doesn't bother arguing anymore, he might offered a good spirited jab. A self depreciating attempt at humor. But beyond dry wit he’d rather allow the chips to lie where they are.

Malak has the unique ability to dream the future. Every night when he sleeps he see’s countless ways that he could die, those nightmares have shaped him his entire life. While he doesn’t remember all of those nightmares perfectly, he can subconsciously recall what he needs to do in the moment to moment of a fight.

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