The industrial district was quiet at 2 AM. Cay'an stood on a rooftop, overlooking it, perfectly still. Her human disguise was flawless.
She'd been stalking, getting closer to J'onn every day. Closer to killing him. Then she felt a presence behind her. She spun around and entered a combat stance.
Sophist was now standing behind her with his hands in his pockets and his suit still as pristine as ever. His expression was calm.
"You've been busy. I appreciate the initiative; it saves me a lot of time from all that planning and so forth," he said pleasantly.
Cay'an didn't respond with words; that was a waste of time. Instead, she went invisible.
Her skin had simply stopped reflecting light, so to human eyes she simply vanished. She could still see Sophist clear as day, and she moved towards him fast.
She crossed the distance in seconds, her fist driving towards his head. He teleported.
"Thermal sensors. You're welcome to stay invisible, but it won't help you," he said casually, tapping the side of his glasses.
Cay'an dropped her invisibility and lunged again, this time phasing midway through a ventilation unit.
He wasn't on the other side; he had teleported again to the rooftop edge.
"Where did you get your manners? This isn't how you're supposed to treat your guests," he said.
Two beams of heat vision came out of her eyes, leaving molten lines on the rooftop as they raced towards him. He teleported again, appearing behind her, and fired.
She let the bullets pass through her before spinning with a backhanded fist, still missing him.
"You've been practising; it's a real shame it's all so murder-focused. You should try getting a different hobby to help you with your anger issues," he said.
Cay'an grew to fifteen feet tall in seconds, crashing her large-sized fist downwards. The rooftop exploded, concrete and rebar erupting outward from where Sophist was standing.
"Since your telepathy didn't work, you're acting like a child, throwing everything you have at me with little thought. You can do better than that surely?" Sophist noted.
Cay'an shrunk back to normal size, her eyes filled with fury. The pattern continued. She would attack, and he would teleport.
"This is getting tedious," she said.
"Agreed. But you are getting better. You're starting to figure out the pattern," Sophist replied, tilting his head.
She glared with her eyes with heat vision but not fully. She waited for him to teleport. She predicted where he would go, and now her hand closed around his throat.
"Oh good. You figured it out much faster than I thought you would; maybe this will be worth my time after all," he stated.
Cay'an lifted him off the ground with one hand, applying pressure but not enough to kill. Sophist's hand moved towards his belt, pressing a button.
Three drones hovered around her in a triangle formation, their weapons charging. She didn't release her grip and instead used her telekinesis.
"Interesting design, but wasted on you," she said.
Sophist's hand triggered something. EMP grenades burst, affecting her mental abilities.
He teleported from her grip. Cay'an flew at him, covering the distance in a blur, and her fist landed against a translucent blue. The barrier cracked, barely holding.
"That's not supposed to happen," Sophist said.
Cay'an phased through the barrier and tried to grab him again. Sophist teleported away desperately, appearing twenty feet up in the air and dropping a flash grenade.
A bright light followed, but Cay'an changed her body to become immune before flying up to meet him. She caught his leg and swung him downwards. Before he reached the rooftop, he teleported.
Cay'an landed beside him with a smash, and Sophist appeared across the rooftop. She was getting tired of this.
"This isn't going to work against someone who knows what they're doing," Sophist called out.
Heat vision swept across the rooftop again, Sophist teleporting above the beams.
She flew upwards trying to grab him; Sophist appeared below her seconds later.
"Lucky for me, you don't qualify. All you do is talk and run," she said.
"You're not fighting me; you're fighting someone else," Sophist said.
"Shut up!" screamed Cay'an.
"Let me guess... jealous of another Martian?" Sophist said.
Cay'an snapped. She wanted to see Sophist broken and dead. She rushed forward and grabbed him by the neck while using telekinesis to pin his arms to his sides. Using the same power, she lifted him upwards.
"There it is. Emotionally unstable – that's your weakness," Sophist said, a small grin on his face.
Cay'an slammed him through a brick wall, then another and another.
They crashed through an abandoned warehouse. She used every ability she had and threw it at Sophist. He teleported between each attempt, throwing poses. Taunting her.
"All you do is talk!" she said.
"All you do is yell," he replied. Sophist stopped in front of her and looked at her with no fear. "You're wasting yourself," he said.
"Shut up!"
"You're chasing ghosts, hunting someone who doesn't even know you exist and building your life around him. For revenge for a world already dead," he continued.
"I said..."
"I can give you something real. A purpose beyond revenge. A way to use your pain instead of letting it control you," Sophist said.
Cay'an stared at him. This human managed to survive everything she threw at him. Now he was offering something when he should be begging for his life or simply running away.
"You're strong. More powerful than most on this planet, and you have been waiting patiently for your revenge. But you've pointed that hatred at the wrong person," he said.
Their eyes held each other.
"J'onn is a traitor!"
"He's a survivor, just like you, but the only difference is he's building something with his second chance while you're trying to destroy yours," he replied.
Her hand trembled slightly. Doubt started to swirl through her mind.
"Join me. Work with me and I can bring you to new heights. Make you matter beyond just revenge," Sophist said.
For a moment she hesitated, and Sophist saw it. She was considering it. Then Maelfic's words echoed through her mind. She couldn't get over how J'onn laughed, choosing Earth over Mars. How he abandoned them. All the doubt burnt away.
"I don't need a purpose. I just need him dead," she said, charging towards Sophist.
Sophist teleported out of the warehouse but was still in Cay'an's view. She chased him. He bowed, his hat in his hand, and then he was gone.
A drone hovered behind her, a holographic screen projecting from it. Sophist's face appeared.
"Try not to die too soon. I still need you for my future plans, so try not to get hasty. Happy hunting," he said, and then the screen disappeared.
Cay'an used her telekinesis to crush the drone into a metal clump that collapsed to the floor.
She held in her anger. After all, she had work to do.