Editing Scion (section)

==History==
===Background===
Scion is an extension of the [[Warrior Entity]], created as an avatar in order to interact with and better understand the host species, humans. After Scion's creation, he waited for a year to appear on [[Earth Bet]], as planned, before realizing that something had gone wrong. Stepping into Earth Bet, he saw his shards raining down alongside the [[damaged shards]] of his counterpart, [[the Thinker]]. He destroyed them on sight, and after expanding his perception across the world and other realities, he learned that the Thinker was dead, and realized that he could not complete the cycle. With his simulated human emotions, Scion experienced a deep, profound sadness for the very first time.<ref name="I26" /> 

In his haze of depression, Scion stayed floating above the Atlantic Ocean for an indeterminate amount of time. On May 20th, 1982, Scion noticed an ocean liner approaching him, marking the first sighting of Scion by humans. He saw one of the Thinker's shards taking root in one of the passengers, [[Andrew Hawke]], and noticed that he was dying of cancer. In order to ensure the shard's safe growth, Scion used his powers to kill the cancer cells, also curing Andrew's sister in the process. Then he turned away from the gathered crowd and flew away.<ref name="I1">[[Gestation 1.x]]</ref><ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>

Scion then spent a period of time wandering the world, observing but never doing anything. As he spent time on earth, numerous theories emerged regarding his origins and nature. One day, in York, England, Scion was approached by a man down on his luck named [[Kevin Norton]]. Kevin flew at Scion in a rage, demanding to know what he had to be sad about and telling him to go do something with his power, suggesting that it might help him feel less miserable. Scion considered his words, then decided that it was a role he could fulfill.<ref name="I26" /><ref name="18.x"> [[Interlude 18.x]]</ref>

Scion proceeded to follow Kevin's instructions: traveling from place to place at supersonic speed without pause, helping people, saving orphans in wars, and stopping fires and natural disasters.<ref name="I1" /><ref name="I26" /> After flying past [[Behemoth]] to talk to Kevin, Kevin told Scion to also fight the [[Endbringers]] and any other monsters like them.<ref name="18.x" /> Scion would also intervene in certain crisis events, raiding groups and paramilitary groups in Africa and the Middle East, and intervening in the Cold War, which had the potential to kill large numbers of people and prevent shards from finding hosts.<ref name="SB1">[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15198095/ Comment by Wildbow (archived on Spacebattles)]</ref> However, Scion never prioritized the importance of certain crises, meaning that he could be helping with something relatively unimportant while an Endbringer was attacking a city. The heroes had no way to contact Scion, meaning that they had to simply hope that Scion would notice when they were in a dire situation and intervene.<ref name="8.4e1">We were hoping for Scion.  The first cape, the golden skinned man.  The guy that could go toe to toe with an Endbringer and win, if things hadn't already gone too far south.  [...] The problem with waiting on Scion was that the guy wasn't exactly in touch with the rest of us.  There was speculation he had at least one human contact – someone that had given him clothing and a costume, at least – but he never bothered to stop long enough for anyone to pass on any requests, to tell him to go to X place when we gave him Y signal.  He rescued people twenty-four-seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year, handling crises only as they came to his attention, which meant that sometimes an Endbringer came and Scion was wholly occupied with saving sinking ships, stopping landslides and putting out housefires. - [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref>

By the middle of the 1990s, Scion was traveling from crisis to crisis, flying faster than the speed of sound.<ref name="I1" /> He would regularly return to Kevin and listen to him, who gave instructions on how to better save people and rambled to Scion about different things. He could be overly literal in interpreting Norton's suggestions, and didn't always follow them to the letter.<ref name="18.x" /> In 1999, he was given a white bodysuit by Kevin and was told to keep it clean.<ref name="I1" /><ref name="18.x" /> One day, Scion encountered a woman on a balcony as he was extinguishing widespread fires in Alexandrovsk, Russia. The woman asked what Scion was, to which he replied with his first words: "Zion." The word was remembered from a story Kevin had told him, appealing to Scion because it reminded him of the promised land of a completed cycle. However, after the word was caught on camera and circulated, "Zion" was misinterpreted as "Scion," and soon Scion was the name attributed to him by the public.<ref name="I1" /><ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>

===Canon Start===
Scion appeared at the [[Battle against Leviathan]], and was pivotal in driving the Endbringer away. He projected an aura of disgust upon seeing [[Eidolon]].<ref>[[Extermination 8.5]]</ref>

===Post-[[Battle against Echidna|Echidna]]===
After getting a chance to see Scion's fights against the Endbringers on the internet, Kevin Norton realized Scion was only fighting the Endbringers, not trying to kill them. When Scion met with Kevin once more along with [[Lisette]], Kevin tried to clarify one of his commands, telling Scion to actually try to kill the Endbringers in order to stop them permanently. Kevin then told Scion he was dying of hepatitis, and didn't have long to live. He shifted command of Scion from himself to Lisette. Without any sign of acknowledgement, Scion flew away.<ref name="18.x" /> 

During the [[Behemoth vs New Delhi|battle against Behemoth]] in New Delhi, Scion showed up when it seemed like the heroes were going to lose. Upon his arrival, he healed the damage that Behemoth's radiation did to the defending heroes, then proceeded to fight Behemoth with an intensity not ever seen before. After a very one-sided fight, Scion annihilated Behemoth with one final beam, killing the Endbringer.<ref name=":2">[[Interlude 24.x]]</ref>

After Behemoth's death, the other Endbringers began engaging in hit-and-run tactics, never staying long enough to allow Scion to kill them.<ref>[[Scarab 25.6]]</ref>
===Post-[[Timeskip]]===
During the final battle against [[Jack Slash]], Scion showed up. His presence disrupted [[Dinah]]'s power, causing problems for the heroes.<ref name="26a c1" /> Scion briefly noted that the shards in the area were very mature, but despaired at the pointlessness of it all due to the cycle having been disrupted. Before he could intervene in the battle, he was stopped from coming closer by [[Weaver]], who flew to intercept him in the air. She convinced him that the situation was delicate, and that he would do more harm than good. Weaver then tried to convince Scion to turn away and go somewhere far away, to no avail.<ref name="I26" />
	
Instead, Scion observed the fight between Jack Slash and [[Golem]] below, then the [[Harbinger clones]]. After multiple failed attempts by Weaver to move Scion away and obscure his vision, Scion turned his attention back to Jack Slash and Golem. It was then that he was trapped in a time loop by [[Gray Boy]]. Scion was unfazed by this development, continuing to watch the fighting. He saw the Harbinger clones being defeated and taken in by [[Number Man]] and [[Contessa]], then saw Jack Slash become looped by Gray Boy.<ref name="I26" />

While the heroes thought that they had won, Jack Slash talked under the containment foam that covered him, audible to Scion's omniscient senses. He criticized Scion for being a "blank slate," and asked why Scion performed good deeds instead of reverting to violence and predation, something inherent in the ancestors of humans and entities alike. While [[Tattletale]] caught onto what was going on, dispatching people to try and drown out Jack Slash's speech, it did nothing to prevent Scion from hearing. When Lisette, brought in from a Dragoncraft as a last ditch effort, told Scion to turn away, he did, breaking through Gray Boy's time bubble with ease. He ignored Lisette's further attempts to talk with him, flying away until he was above the Atlantic Ocean.<ref name="I26" />
	
Above the ocean, Scion introspected. He thought about how the acts of heroism he'd been performing for so many years had brought him no joy. He looked into possible futures, such as one where Jack Slash had died and hadn't talked to Scion, and saw that he himself had eventually came to the same conclusion regardless. Coming to a decision, Scion resolved to begin experimenting with another course of action. Aiming at Kevin Norton's birthplace, Scion fired a beam and annihilated the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="I26" />
===[[Gold Morning]]===

==== The Beginning of the End ====
After destroying the United Kingdom, Scion fired a blast that devastated the eastern coastline of [[Canada]] and the [[United States]].<ref>[[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> Scion found satisfaction in destroying things, and soon embarked on a rampage through Earth Bet. He followed a very specific formula, specifically reversing the good deeds that he had started with during his first years as a hero.<ref name="DoctorMother">“(He's) Following a very distinct formula. He’s reversing what he did at the outset. Saving children, stopping fires. The man who initially gave him the orders is hospitalized, or we’d ask about the instructions he provided. It might give us an idea of what Scion is going to do and the patterns that might emerge in the course of this… experimentation.” [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> One attack was on Mali, targeting and killing only those that had reached puberty. This left an approximate four hundred and thirty thousand orphans, reversing his directive of saving children.<ref name="Africa">“The third attack was against Mali, followed by Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, and all down the coast of Africa.   In this attack, he selectively murdered specific individuals.”<br><br>[...]<br><br>“That blast we just saw,” the Doctor explained, “Was a calculated strike.  The city was left mostly intact, but Scion killed specific people, targeting anyone who had already hit puberty.”<br><br>“How?” Tattletale asked.<br><br>“His perceptions are finely tuned,” the Doctor said.  “He’s aware of his immediate vicinity, and in absolute control of how his power is expressed.  He left… what was the number?”<br><br>“An estimated four hundred and thirty thousand,” the Number Man said.<br><br>“Four hundred and thirty thousand orphans.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> In [[Russia]], Scion started fires where he had once stopped them, cutting off escape routes and creating large rings of fire that encroached inwards and cooked anyone within. He killed any heroes that tried to stop him.<ref name="Russia">“In Russia, his beam started fires.  He cut off every escape route, then began setting fires from the outside in.  It took him thirty-five minutes to start the fire, and he waited for fifteen minutes while the flames spread and everyone within was cooked.  Heroes that attempted to stop the attack were killed.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/extinction-27-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.2]]</ref> Soon after, [[Japan]] was hit, with an estimated 22 million dead, raising Scion's total kill count to around 500 million.<ref name="27.3e1">"Japan hit.  V. little left.  Most evacuated.  22m est. dead.  Total est. toll 500m." - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/extinction-27-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extinction 27.3]]</ref>

==== Parahuman Retaliation ====
Following Scion's initial attacks, a parahuman response was organized against him. The first clash against Scion was during the [[Oil Rig Battle]]. During the battle, Scion was hit by [[String Theory]]'s G-driver, which launched him out of the atmosphere. He returned unscathed, however, and attacked the gathered parahumans with a powerful golden glow that devastated almost all of the parahumans on the oil rig. Soon, Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine were the only ones that were truly fighting Scion. The three duked it out, with Scion chasing the other two across multiple earths. Then, Scion used his path to victory ability to utter four words to Eidolon, which led Eidolon to realize that he had created the Endbringers. This devastated Eidolon, causing him to give up and let Scion kill him. Glaistig Uaine retreated, and Scion won the battle. 

By the time Weaver recovered from the oil rig battle, Scion had killed about half of the population of Earth Bet, and had started traveling between different earths in order to hit major population centers.<ref name="28.1">I sighed a little.  “How bad is it?”<br />“We lost just about half of everyone,” Tattletale said.  “Maybe more, but communicating’s hard right now.  Don’t exactly have an infrastructure.”<br />“Everyone being-”<br />“The capes, the civilians.  Everyone.  Half of Bet’s onetime population is gone, just about.  Good news is he’s traveling between possible Earths, hitting major population centers, so the individual incidents aren’t doing so much damage on a relative level.  Bad news is he’s traveling between possible Earths.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/cockroaches-28-1/ Excerpt] from [[Cockroaches 28.1]]</ref> After attacking [[Earth Samech]], Scion traveled to the settlement on [[Earth Gimel]], destroying two of Dragon's ships and their occupants. He then engaged with the parahumans gathered at the settlement, slaughtering many of them. Then the [[Simurgh]] along with various other reinforcements came in. After a short-lived battle with the reinforcements, including [[Gavel]], Scion seized both [[King of Cups]] and [[Queen of Swords]], and forced King of Cups to watch as he slowly crushed Queen of Swords' head into the ground. King of Cups second triggered, and Scion patiently waited as the capes around him experienced trigger visions, trigger visions specifically meant to drive in how pointless fighting him was. Then, after being attacked by the newly empowered King of Cups, Scion killed the man with ease. Scion clashed some more with the reinforcements, including the Simurgh and [[Lung]], but after a second wave of reinforcements arrived, Scion disappeared to pursue other targets.<ref>[[Venom 29.2]]</ref> One of these subsequent targets was [[Earth Dalet]], where Scion's attacks steadily became more and more ugly and sadistic. 

==== Attack on Cauldron ====
Eventually, Scion used precognition to follow a path that led to reuniting with [[Eden]]. This led him to the [[Cauldron Compound]], where he took his time rampaging through the individual levels to destroy the [[Case 53s]], which he saw as abhorrent.<ref>[[Venom 29.6]]</ref> Then he came across a room full of [[List of Cauldron Vials|Cauldron vials]], and sensed the signature of his partner's shards within them. He destroyed them all at once, shattering them all, then moved on into a huge, hangar-like room.<ref>[[Venom 29.7]]</ref> He arrived to find Eden's body, having not anticipated the possibility that what he would find was her braindead, gutted corpse.<ref>''He looked for futures where he'd find his counterpart'', I thought.  ''This was one of them… just not what he wanted or expected.  Probably not even something he thought was possible''. - [[Venom 29.8]]</ref><ref>"The biggest thing," I said, "Was that Scion was wrong.  He can see the path to victory, and from the vision we saw, we know that he can make mistakes.  He plotted for a future that would be sure to reunite him and his partner… and he got his wish.  It was just that his partner was brain-dead, gutted, useless." - [[Venom 29.9]]</ref> Shocked, bewildered, and saddened by the sight of his partner in such a state, Scion began destroying the body, uprooting the entirety of Eden's corpse and disintegrating it with his golden light.<ref name="29.8 eSadAura">I could almost sense a feeling radiating from Scion.<br><br>A hard emotion to name, if not a hard emotion to place.  I’d experienced it well enough.  Many had.<br><br>He was lashing out, destroying the remains, out of bewilderment, sadness, despair, anger, confusion.  All of it unfiltered.  The same emotion a child might experience with their first loss.  What a child would feel when they lost something irretrievable for the first time, when something was stolen from them and they hadn’t prepared themselves for the possibility on any level.<br><br>It was what one felt as a child if they lost their dog, their home, their innocence.<br><br>Their mother. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/05 Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.8]]</ref> Throughout the process, Scion lashed out in anger, destroying sections of the hangar containing the body. With the combined efforts of [[Sveta]], [[Number Man]], and [[Pretender]], the parahumans at the scene were able to collapse the entire hangar onto Scion and escape from his wrath.

==== Rise of Khepri ====
One of the penultimate conflicts took place on [[Earth He]], and was between Scion, [[Khonsu]], and [[Leviathan]], the latter of which was given mechanical upgrades by the Simurgh.<ref>Three settlements, and Earth He was under attack.  Western Europe and Northern Africa, minus the English speakers.  The Guild, the Suits, the Meisters, more teams I struggled to place in the chaos. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/venom-29-9/ Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.9]]</ref> Scion's final battle with humanity began when [[Rise of Khepri|Khepri rose to face him]]. Scion had been fighting the faltering resistance of parahumans and Dragon suits when Khepri came in, having consolidated an army of about three-thousand parahumans.<ref>[[Speck 30.4]]</ref> After taking control of Glaistig Uaine and the rest of the defending parahumans, increasing her force to five-thousand, Khepri engaged Scion, starting off by throwing [[Ash Beast]] at him. With Khepri's control and coordination, and Doormaker's portals, it became considerably more difficult for Scion to fight the defending army of parahumans.<ref name=":10" />

After being locked on an earth with the help of one of Teacher's devices, Scion was bombarded with bombs from every single earth, including nuclear bombs. He escaped from the dimension, but briefly lost track of Khepri's army before finding them again. Using his precognition, he dodged a devastating ranged attack coordinated by Number Man, retaliating with a blast that killed nearly thirty capes, including [[Lady Photon]] and [[Revel]]. Throughout the battle with Khepri, Scion became increasingly frustrated, screaming louder and attacking in broader, unfocused ways. His attacks were largely ineffectual, with capes being portaled away before he could reach them, and the fact that Khepri used different methods of attack every time meant he couldn't tune his defenses accurately, forcing him to be defensive. At the peak of his frustration, he activated his path to victory. First, he feinted, releasing a golden light which penetrated transparent forcefields and melted the flesh of the surrounding capes. He then unleashed the true attack, a powerful stilling clap that instantly stopped the bodily functions of every cape in his vicinity.<ref name=":10" />

Scion was baited into another earth that was closed off by [[Alexandria]] using Teacher's device. He was subjected to another barrage of explosives, and had to rip Alexandria into pieces before escaping the closed off world. Furious, Scion came at Khepri, destroying two continents on two different worlds on his way toward her. Khepri avoided him using [[Sifara]], using him to transport her army en masse across dimensions. Khepri consolidated her tinkers, using their combined intellect to create a house-sized weapon that was meant to target Scion's main body. The dimension that housed this body, however, was tightly sealed off, and the machine was unable to attack it. Scion, using his path to victory once more, started a collision course straight for Khepri, bowling through the capes that Khepri set in his way and easily destroying a razor blade trap that was charged by [[Foil]]'s power. Scion reached Khepri, and rather than killing her outright, began choking her with his bare hands, wanting her to show fear. The Undersiders tried to defend her, and Scion noticed, bringing Khepri over to where the Undersiders were to kill them in front of her. As Scion prepared to kill [[Rachel]], Khepri unleashed a desperate attack from every cape she had available, unexpectedly hitting him due to the omission of Foil, who Scion had set up contingencies against. Leveraging the distraction, Khepri drove Scion out of the building the Undersiders were in.<ref name=":10" />

Attempting to keep Scion distracted, Khepri continued to throw her forces at Scion. She then constructed another weapon with her tinkers, using it, [[Sundancer]]'s sun, and [[Chevalier]]'s cannonblade to attack Scion. This attack gave the [[Endbringers]] an opening, with the Simurgh, Leviathan, [[Bohu]], and [[Tohu]] coming in to engage with Scion. Then, as Khepri prepared another attack, a simulacrum of a third entity began forming, formed out of [[Bastard]]'s body through the power of [[Panacea]], [[Lab Rat]]'s formula, and the coordination of [[Tattletale]]. Scion fought through the Endbringers to get to the apparent entity, shocked and bewildered by this new appearance. As he reached out to touch it, he realized it was fake, causing him to let out a scream of maddened sorrow. He lashed out, destroying the shelf of land underneath [[The City#New Brockton|New Brockton]], the destruction of which was only prevented by intervention from [[Ziggurat]]'s power. Scion went on to deal massive damage to other worlds, no longer holding back.<ref name=":10" /> On Earth Gimel, he fought the Endbringers with a renewed viciousness, tearing into Leviathan. With one last sphere of golden light, he killed Leviathan by hitting his core. He then destroyed a fake version of the Simurgh and moved on to Earth Bet, New York, where the final battle began.<ref name=":11">[[Speck 30.6]]</ref>

==== Scion's Death ====
After Doormaker's shard ran out of power, Khepri reconsolidated a small part of her army, including [[Scrub]] and [[Labyrinth]], who served as her new method of creating portals. Taking the cue from seeing the simulated entity and Scion's reaction to it, Khepri began a psychological assault on Scion, using projection capes and the [[Changer]]s that were under her control along with Labyrinth's power to imitate the body of Eden. The city slowly turned into a garden of body parts, with the changers altering themselves into avatars of Eden and other similar entities. Scion reacted violently to these imitations, trying to destroy them on sight. The other capes that weren't under Khepri's control caught on to this, and nearly every cape that could contribute to the effort began doing so.<ref name=":11" />

Soon, Scion was being haunted by reminders of his dead partner at every corner, with the imitations that represented third entities seeming to bother him even more. He began spending more time trying to destroy the landscape around him more than the parahumans fighting against him. With his mind still immature and his grief over his partner still raw, Scion's rage steadily turned into a sort of panic, forced to confront the source of his sorrow. Then, after the Simurgh joined in on the effort, shaping clouds of dust to create imitations that loomed over Scion, he finally snapped, releasing a omnidirectional scouring light that passed through portals and annihilated all matter that it touched.<ref name=":11" />

When the light had faded, Scion was still curled in on himself. More attempts to torment him with imitations formed by [[Genesis]]'s projection and Khepri's bugs were only met with minimal retaliation. Then, [[Oliver]] was brought in, whose power was the same one that allowed Eden to create her avatar. To Scion, Oliver registered the same as his dead partner. Scion allowed himself to feel true hope, just for a moment. When that hope died, Scion gave up. As he was impaled by two bolts affected by Foil's power, he offered no resistance. Using Scion as a portal to his main body, Khepri aimed the collaborative tinker weapon into him, firing until Scion's body was completely destroyed. Scion was dead.<ref name=":11" />