Scion

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Scion</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

Deceased

</format>

<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Zion, incorrectly known as Scion, is the avatar of the Warrior Entity.

Personality

Scion's way of thinking is largely alien, lacking any sort of creativity or ingenuity.<ref>The entity had done good deeds for years, at Kevin Norton’s suggestion, waiting and hoping for the reward, the realization.  When none had occurred, it had simply kept doing what it had been doing.  Seeking out alternatives wasn’t even in the realm of imagination, because imagination was something it lacked. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> In his creation, he was given a facsimile of a human mind to better understand the host species, and can therefore think and feel along the lines of a human being.<ref name=":1">In seeking to understand the host creatures, the entity had coded shards to emulate them.  It is those same shards that experience the entity’s first ever emotion.

Crushed.

The entity comes to experience a deep, profound sadness, for the very first time. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> This simulated mind, however, is distanced from Scion's core being, and is immature from a general lack of hardship and exposure to the real world.<ref>“You’re talking about him as if he were human,” Saint said.

“He is,” Tattletale said.  “It’s the only reason he’s doing this, and it’s the only way we have to truly make sense of him, and it’s his primary means of making sense of us.  Which is why he did it.  He’s got our general biological makeup.  He thinks, he feels, he dreams, he hurts, but it’s all buried so far under mounds and mounds and mounds of power and security, it doesn’t really supplant him.  It’s never been exposed to the real world, really, so the human side of him hasn’t matured or developed.” - Excerpt from Venom 29.3</ref> Thus, Scion's outward demeanor is almost completely flat and reactionless, like a blank slate.<ref name="Sad">“Time was, this golden man spent his time wandering, floating here and there, observing but never doing anything. In a daze. Naked as the day he was born. Everyone had different ideas on who he was. Some thought he might be an angel, others thought he was a fallen angel, and still more thought there were scientific explanations. Only thing they ever agreed on was that he looked sad.”

“He does.” Lisette was staring, but the golden man was only looking at Kevin.

“He doesn’t,” Kevin said. “Don’t buy it. He doesn’t look anything. That expression never changes. But whatever’s underneath, that’s what’s giving you that feeling. He looks sad because he is sad. Except you take out the ‘looks’ part of it.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.x</ref>

Internally, Scion feels a deep, profound sadness, which began after he learned of his counterpart's death.<ref name=":1" /><ref>She nodded a little herself, as if satisfied by my response.  “He’s fallen prey to the worst kind of whimsy, a destructive wroth.  He is heartbroken and hopeless, he has lost more than you or I could ever imagine, and he may well leave this stage so ruined that things cannot be salvaged, unless we’re fortunate enough to get a…” - Excerpt from Speck 30.2</ref> Without the Thinker Entity, he is unable to go through with the cycle, and so feels lost and without purpose.<ref>Lost. It had created itself for a purpose it could no longer fulfill. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> This feeling is conveyed through an "emotional aura," making humans around him share his sadness.<ref name="Sad" /> In a similar manner, he radiated disgust when looking at Eidolon, as he had gotten his powers from a Cauldron vial made from the remains of Scion's counterpart.<ref name="8.5e1">Scion paused, turning to look at Eidolon, his eyes moving past Bitch and me like we weren't even there. His eyes settled on the hero, the most powerful individual in the world staring at the man who was arguably the fifth.

His expression was so hard to read. I knew, now, what people had meant, when they said they thought his face was a mask, a facade. Though it was expressionless, though there was nothing I could point to to explain why I felt the way I did, somehow I sensed disgust from him. Like nobility looking at dog shit. - Extermination 8.5</ref>

For a time, Scion went through the motions of heroism after being told to do so by Kevin Norton, seeing it as a role to fulfill, but never finding any satisfaction in doing so. After being talked to by Jack Slash, he rejected that role and began experimenting with violence.<ref>The entity had done good deeds for years, at Kevin Norton’s suggestion, waiting and hoping for the reward, the realization.  When none had occurred, it had simply kept doing what it had been doing.  Seeking out alternatives wasn’t even in the realm of imagination, because imagination was something it lacked.

It had power, though, and if either the counterpart or the cycle had been intact, they could have filled in for that imagination.

Still, it could experiment.

It gathered its power, then aimed at the nearest, largest population center.  Kevin Norton’s birthplace.

The golden light speared forth, and the island shattered, folding, parts of it rising from the ocean.  Crumpled like paper in a fist. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> Subsequently, both Scion's entity mind and human mind developed further as he went through with the events of Gold Morning. He derived a faint sort of satisfaction out of wiping out humanity, which appealed back to the past memories of his entity self,<ref>The simulated human mind within the entity felt a glimmer of something at that.  Pleasure?  Relief?  Satisfaction?

Something deeper inside, something primal, tied to memories back in the beginning, before the beginning, responded in a very similar fashion.

[...]

An interesting experience.  After so much focus on the species as a whole, the evolution and development of the shards, on the cycle…

In this, it almost felt like it was evolving as an individual, moment to moment.

The entity opened fire once again, and this time it struck out at the coastline on the opposite side of the ocean. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> and as Gold Morning went on he began taking pleasure in torturing his victims.<ref>No longer interested in Foil, Scion turned to the nearest cape, lunging.

Cuff threw her circular blade.  Without even looking, Scion batted it aside, striking an unaffected part towards the middle.  His attention was on a cape, and he swiped a glowing hand through the cape’s abdomen.

What didn’t burn spilled forth.  His screams were joined by that of a friend, another cape who screamed in horror over what had happened to him.  Scion very deliberately walked past this other cape to attack someone else.

Picking us off, choosing targets.

Maximizing pain and suffering over raw destruction.

Experimenting. - Excerpt from Venom 29.1</ref> Additionally, Scion began expressing his emotions through his body for the very first time, conveying annoyance through his face,<ref name=":7">The camera afforded a glimpse of Scion’s face, tinted an orange-red by the forcefield between Scion and the camera. His eyebrows were drawn together, lips just a little tighter together. Lines standing out in his throat. - Excerpt from Venom 29.9</ref> and later screaming to show his anger and pain.<ref name=":8">When I looked, I saw him screaming.

Even for someone who had only ever spoken twice, it was an eerie, unsettling sound.  Raw, like he was being actively tortured, a sound of pain and anger distilled, given volume by his power.

He wasn’t being tortured, though.  He was winning, tearing into the crowd with more ferocity than before, that same crowd where the others, people I cared about, were- - Excerpt from Speck 30.3</ref><ref name=":9">He was tearing into Alexandria.  Literally.  But she doggedly held on, delivering one crushing blow for every pound of flesh Scion ripped from her midsection.  He was roaring as he did it, teeth bared, face contorted. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5</ref> When fighting against Eidolon, Scion even projected emotions of smugness, superiority, confidence, and amusement.<ref>Scion shifted direction at the last second.

He’s adapting, learning.

Smug, superior.  The feelings mingled with the faint sense of disgust that Scion seemed to radiate.  Confident.  Amused. - Excerpt from Interlude 27.x</ref>

Scion's deepest desire is to reunite with the Thinker or another entity in order to complete the cycle. This desire is the driving force behind many of Scion's rare displays of emotion. The sight of a third entity during Gold Morning was enough to make him hopeful, before he spiraled into a mad rage once he realized it was fake.<ref>Speck 30.5</ref> Subsequently, being haunted with more simulacrums of his dead partner and other entities caused Scion to regress into a primal sort of panic. Finally, the extinguishing of his one last hope to reunite with the Thinker caused him to lose his will to live, leading to his death.<ref>Speck 30.6</ref>

Relationships

The Thinker

The Thinker can be considered the most important thing to Scion, as along with himself, the Thinker is vital to completing the cycle. In essence, they gave Scion a sense of purpose. When the Thinker died, Scion was devastated, falling into what can be considered a deep depression.<ref name=":1" />

Kevin Norton

Kevin was one of the only humans Scion listened to, though Scion never followed his commands down to the word. After being told to stop drifting aimlessly and begin helping the world at large, Scion began engaging in large-scale heroic activities. Scion saw this as a task that he could pursue, a role he could fulfill. Scion would return to Kevin every once in a while, and Kevin would either clarify certain imperatives he gave Scion or simply engage in one-sided conversation with him. Scion took his name, Zion, from one of Kevin's conversations.<ref>Kevin didn’t take his eyes off the golden man.  “He scares me.  He chose me to listen to, of all people.  I’m the most powerful person in the world, just because of that.  Because I can tell the strongest, most capable man in the world what to do.”

“And you ran?”

“It took me a while to realize what I’d set in motion.  I started hearing about him.  Word on the street, newspapers, radio.  The golden man saves a small island from disaster.  The golden man interrupts a burgeoning war.  But it wasn’t until that damned clip began playing on the news that I realized what I’d gotten into.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He’d visit regular, right?  Stop by, like he was checking if I had anything else to say.  Maybe I’d tell him to be more gentle with people when saving them from a car crash, or after that horned bastard came climbing out of the ground and the golden man flew right past it to visit me, I told him he needed to help next time, to fight that monster and anything like it.  But sometimes I didn’t have anything to say, and it’s not like he obeys my every instruction down to the last detail, so sometimes he’d hang out here at half past four in the goddamn morning, and I couldn’t get rid of him, so I’d just talk.”

“Talk?”

“About whatever.  A book I’d gotten my hands on.  Current events.  The generosity of strangers.  Or I’d fix him up some clothes so he looked decent and talk about the clothes.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18.x</ref>

Appearance

Scion appears to be a flawless, golden man with long hair, a trimmed beard,<ref name=":3">Scion dropped from the sky. Golden skinned, golden beard trimmed close, or perhaps it never grew beyond that length. His hair was longer than mine. His bodysuit and cape were a plain white, stained with faded marks of old, dirt and blood, a strange juxtaposition to how perfect and unblemished he looked, otherwise. There was no impact as he landed, no great splash or rumble of the earth. Leviathan didn’t even seem to notice the hero’s arrival. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5</ref> and no body hair.<ref>He was naked, his arms to his sides, his long hair blowing in the wind as he stood in the sky, nearly a hundred feet above the gently cresting waves. His skin and hair can only be described as a burnished gold. With neither body hair nor clothes to cover him, it is said, he seemed almost artificial. - Excerpt from Interlude 1.x</ref> His eyes and hair are the same featureless gold as the rest of his body, and he glows with a golden light that causes things such as water, blood, and dirt to dispel from his body, hair, and clothes.<ref name=":4">Kevin studied the man.  Ageless, the golden man hadn’t changed in the slightest.  His hair was the same length, as was his short beard.  Every part of him was a burnished gold, even his eyes.  He didn’t breathe, didn’t blink as he stared.

The water ran off the golden man’s body, but he wasn’t getting wet.  His hair barely moved as the rain struck it, his costume absorbed the moisture, but dried just as fast.  The water simply wicked off his skin and hair, leaving him untouched.

It was this same effect that kept the costume clean, a simple white bodysuit extending to biceps and toes.  It had been soiled countless times, by everything under the sun, but the golden radiance the man gave off pushed away the particles, slowly and surely cleaning it just as it was doing with the water.  The suit might as well have been a part of him, now. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.x</ref> This golden light leaves a brief trail in the air when he moves.<ref name=":6">The golden man hovered in place for long, silent seconds, and then took off, faster than the eye could see.  Only a golden trail of light was left in his wake, quickly fading. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.x</ref> Scion is completely expressionless; where most think Scion looks sad, the truth is that his expression never changes from a blank one. Instead, his emotional aura exudes sadness, leading many to interpret his expression as a sad one.<ref name="Sad" />

Scion's appearance is specially crafted to fit within human values, shaped to resemble certain deity figures within the most widespread religions. His form deliberately doesn't fit within any one race, and the golden tint and texture of his skin and hair are meant to appeal to the human worship of gold.<ref>They worship him.  Of course they do.  His form was crafted to fit the values of this reality.  They hold faith, and the entity chose a shape that fit the most celebrated figures of the most popular faiths.  Race divides this species, so the entity deliberately chose a form that didn’t fit any one race, with skin and hair given the color and texture of another thing they celebrated and worshipped – a mineral.

This is intentional. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref>

Initially upon his arrival, Scion was naked. After their first meeting, Kevin Norton later began outfitting Scion with clothing, first with a sheet worn over one shoulder and pinned at either side of the waist, then with more conventional clothes.<ref name=":5">“The golden man would reappear several more times in the coming months and years. At some point, he donned clothing. At first, a sheet worn over one shoulder and pinned at either side of the waist, then more conventional clothes. In 1999, he donned the white bodysuit he still wears today. For more than a decade, we have wondered, where did our golden man get these things? Who was he in contact with? - Excerpt from Interlude 1.x</ref> By 1999, Scion was dressed in a white bodysuit extending to his biceps and toes.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> He didn't have shoes or gloves,<ref>No shoes, no gloves. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> but his costume did include a plain white cape.<ref name=":3" /> His clothing was often stained with blood and dirt, but would slowly but surely clean itself over time, causing the stains to fade as dirt and particles were pushed out of the fabric.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

During Gold Morning, Scion's appearance became less and less flawless. As he killed and destroyed, smoke and blood stained his costume and found its way into the crevices of his body, with Scion's cleaning light being unable to render his body as pristine as it should have.<ref>His hands hung at his sides.  The golden light that radiated from him cleaned his clothes and hair, but there was enough blood on his costume that the light wasn’t rendering it as pristine as it should.  His eye sockets were dark, with the way his forehead blocked the sun’s light.  That same sunlight made the edges of his hair and body glow with the light that wasn’t completely blocked.

[...]

It wasn’t just his costume, I could see. All the lines of his body, his hands, lines that made it so he didn’t look wholly artificial, they were filled with the detritus of smoke and blood and other grit, and the golden light had only washed the surface clean. The deepest cracks held the remainder. It made fine lines look more like crags. - Excerpt from Venom 29.1</ref> His expression also changed for the first time, expressing annoyance at one point<ref name=":7" /> and later contorting in a scream to show his anger and pain.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" />

Abilities and Powers

After sacrificing the majority of his shards to seek out hosts, Scion retains only his most essential shards.<ref>The entity has cast off all but the most essential parts of itself, distributing the shards throughout this reality. More shards will shower on other realities in time, likely around the point the first have started fragmenting in greater numbers. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> Even so, Scion has a vast array of powers, and is considered the most powerful individual in the world.<ref name="8.5e1" /> He is capable of easily killing even the Endbringers if he puts his mind to it, and is practically invulnerable to all forms of attack.<ref name=":2" />

Stilling

Scion's primary ability is the power to negate any kind of wavelength using manifestations of golden light. This effect is extremely versatile, and can be used to cancel heat and sound, disintegrate molecular bonds, slow or stop motion, and negate the effects of virtually any parahuman ability.<ref name=":0" /> At its deadliest, Scion's stilling can simply stop all bodily functions in a human, killing them instantly.<ref>One strike of palm against palm, and the shockwave swept past us as if in slow motion, moving past every portal in the area that was still open.  It passed through flesh, and it stilled.

It was the same effect he’d used to quiet Leviathan’s waves, the same effect that had frozen floodwaters in their tracks and the same ability that had given him so much presence.

Objects in motion stopped.  Portals winked out, warm things plummeted in temperature, cell and neural activity was interrupted.  Blood stopped in people’s veins.

Every cape that had been touched by this stillness dropped to the ground, lifeless. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5</ref> Scion's light can be fired as beams, orbs, or area bursts, and can be used as a force field or transmitted by touch. Essentially, he can shape his light into any form he wishes.<ref name=":0">Scion equipped himself to be able to fight pretty much any threat. His big weapon is a very versatile 'stilling' ability, which lets him cancel out wavelengths, which can be applied in a variety of ways, defensive or offensive - it lets him counteract, manipulate, and cancel virtually any parahuman or human generated effect. He can cancel out heat, eliminate sound, break Grey Boy's ability, disintegrate molecular bonds, etc. He can do so with beams, thrown orbs/bullets, a light he emanates, and a personal forcefield, among a variety of other mechanisms. - Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref> All of Scion's stilling effects are completely silent, including his movements and his attacks.<ref>Scion turned away from Eidolon to focus on the enemy once more. He blasted the Endbringer again. Floated up and moved past Bitch and me faster than I could see, to strike the Endbringer a fraction of a second after the blast of light struck, stopping there in midair to blast Leviathan a second time as the Endbringer was still flying through the air at the punch’s impact. Everything about Scion and his actions was utterly silent. His movements or attacks didn’t even stir the air. Only the effects, Leviathan striking the water, the breaking of ice, generated any movement, shudders or sounds. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5</ref>

Scion's offensive blasts range greatly in power, from pencil-thin cutting beams<ref>A pencil-thin beam lanced out from his fingertips. A sweep of his hand, waist-level, and it cut through the crowd. Cut through thighs, knees, calves, feet. - Excerpt from Venom 29.2</ref> to continent-destroying blasts.<ref>He came out swinging, obliterating two continents on two different worlds before he found us. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5</ref> These blasts have practically infinite range<ref>It gathered its power, then aimed at the nearest, largest population center. Kevin Norton’s birthplace.

The golden light speared forth, and the island shattered, folding, parts of it rising from the ocean. Crumpled like paper in a fist.

The entity did not eliminate the smoke or the waves that followed. It simply let the aftermath occur.

The simulated human mind within the entity felt a glimmer of something at that. Pleasure? Relief? Satisfaction?

Something deeper inside, something primal, tied to memories back in the beginning, before the beginning, responded in a very similar fashion.

The entity extended its perceptions outward, felt the reaction, the outcry. It turned words around in its head, as if it were broadcasting to itself.

[...]

The entity opened fire once again, and this time it struck out at the coastline on the opposite side of the ocean. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> and perfect accuracy.<ref>Eidolon froze the water around Leviathan’s four claws, giving Scion the opportunity to land another blast. Leviathan turned, raised a spraying wall of water to cover his retreat. Scion sent out one blast of his golden light to strike the wave, following up with a second blast before the first even made contact with the water.

Seeing the second blast coming, Leviathan leaped to one side. No use – the blast of light curved in the air to head unerringly for him, struck him down. Edges of the Endbringer’s wounds glowed golden yellow, drifted away into the air like flecks of burning paper caught in the updraft of hot air. A fist imprint near the base of Leviathan’s throat glowed with edges of the same light, the wound continuing to spread and burn as I watched. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5</ref> The detrimental effects of Scion's light lingers, continuing to eat away at any damaged targets.<ref>Right hand gone. Blood, fragments of golden light eating away at stump, making the bleeding worse. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> This lingering effect can kill a man all on its own.<ref>He caught his target around the throat.

Didn’t squeeze.

But the golden light began to eat into the target’s body and costume.  Scion let the man drop.

Not a scream.  Only twitching, frantic thrashing as the golden light continued to consume. - Excerpt from Venom 29.1</ref> Scion can also use his power defensively, using it to create physical barriers or cancel out the effects of offensive powers.<ref name=":0" /> His stilling can also close portals and even stop the Simurgh's song.<ref>Scion held back on shooting again, instead charging himself with power. When he released it, it manifested as a slow radiance, a sphere of light that expanded from him in slow motion. The tear in reality dissipated, and everything the light touched stopped. Shifting clouds went still, objects that were flying through the air ceased moving and simply fell, and the ambient noises of destruction, fire and fighting was replaced by an all-too brief silence. Even the Simurgh’s song, Krouse realized, had momentarily stopped. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3</ref> Finally, Scion's light can have healing abilities, such as when Scion cures a man of cancer<ref name="I1" /> or when he uses his light to heal the capes around him upon his arrival in the battle against Behemoth.<ref>Scion lowered himself to nearly ground level.  His golden hair moved in the wind as he gazed over the battlefield.  His white bodysuit was smudged here or there on the sleeves, but otherwise seemed so pristine that it seemed to glow in the gloom.

No, part of that glow was real.  The faint light touched Chevalier, and he could feel his breathing ease. It was reaching out to everyone present.

A consolation prize? A bit of healing? Maybe a helping hand against the radiation, for the others?

He managed a soft laugh. The glow was making the pain easier to handle. He could almost breathe, now.

He closed his eyes, and he felt a tear roll down from the corner of his eye. He suspected he wouldn’t have been able to tear up without the healing. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x</ref>

When Scion uses his stilling, it disturbs electronics.<ref name="24.ye1">When Scion uses his power it disturbs electronics. Its why when he flies you can't track him unless its with your eyes. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.y</ref>

Flight

Scion can fly at immense speeds as an application of his aura of golden light.<ref name="24.ye1" /> At his fastest, he was able to fly to the other side of the world in less than a minute.<ref name="27.4">Extinction 27.4</ref> When flying, he leaves a brief golden trail in the air.<ref name=":6" />

Senses

Scion can sense everything around him, even when his senses are being deliberately obfuscated.<ref>Her subjects formed a thick cloud, blocking the entity’s vision. No matter. It could still perceive the world. - Excerpt from Interlude 26</ref> He appears to have control over the range of his senses, and can see into other universes if he chooses.<ref name="I26">Interlude 26</ref> He can also use the senses of parahumans, since they carry his shards.<ref>He viewed the scene, as he viewed all of the scenes, through the senses of the fragments that had gone ahead, of fragments that had arrived after he had. They were embedded in hosts, which meant he viewed things through the eyes of the host, and through the abilities the hosts expressed. - Excerpt from Venom 29.2</ref>

Super Strength

Scion has superhuman strength, sufficient to lift Behemoth several hundred feet into the air.<ref name="24.x">Interlude 24.x</ref>

Regeneration

Scion's body is only an extension of a vastly larger being, and so cannot sustain any meaningful damage. Any damaged tissue is replaced within a fraction of a second with a practically unlimited supply of undamaged tissue from the main body. This happens so fast, it is almost impossible to tell that he was ever injured.<ref>Eidolon used his matter creation power.  As with the Faerie Queen's monster of steel, this was derived from a single point, an expanding creation of matter.  In this case, however, it was an explosion.  Carbon unfolded from a single point.  Eidolon chose Scion's right ear canal as the center point.

The carbon expanded as a sphere, and there was a glimmer of Scion's reaction as the orb expanded until it was a hundred feet across.  A distortion, golden flesh stretching.

Blood?

The sphere dropped towards the ocean like a comically large cannonball, and Scion advanced.  Intact, unhurt. - Interlude 27.x</ref><ref>"Because we aren't hurting him," I spoke my thoughts aloud.  We haven't touched him.

"We're hurting him," she said.  "Kind of like how people hurt Gavel.  He's… he's got a defense, not making him invincible, but making him a living portal.  So you hurt him, and faster than you can do anything, he just swaps out the damaged material for material from… this bottomless well." - Venom 29.2</ref> This is an intentional design of Scion's body, one meant to demoralize his opponents.<ref>Yet Scion appeared untouched.  He was cleaner, even.  Scoured of the blood and dirt.  Pristine.

“A bottomless well,” I said.

“Bottomless enough to matter,” Tattletale said.  “We take out pounds of flesh, but it’s really only removing a drop from the bucket at a time.  Then the ‘water’ flows out, high pressure, filling the gaps.”

“And morale plunges,” I said, staring out at the capes who were hanging back, staring at the scene rather than participating.

“Psychological,” Tattletale said.  “Just like Endbringers.  He crafted that body for a reason.” - Excerpt from Venom 29.2</ref>

Power Cancellation

Scion is immune to certain types of powers. His actions cannot be predicted with precognition<ref name="26a c1">“Blue.  I’m-  My power’s getting fuzzier.”

Scion.

He looked up at the sky.  Weaver with her swarm was there, forming a great wall across the sky, as if to draw attention to herself.  Scion was approaching, a ray of golden light streaking across the overcast sky above.

Scion shut down precog abilities. - Excerpt from Interlude 26a</ref><ref>"The first way, you've got to be basically immune to powers. Scion is. He's immune to precognition, throws everything out the window when he shows up. I saw it when he fought the Simurgh. She couldn't automatically dodge his stuff, because she either couldn't read his mind or she couldn't see the attacks before they happened. So he hit her, a bunch of times. I saw it." - Migration 17.8</ref> or clairvoyance,<ref>The awareness continued to extend.  A whole planet.  Not perfect, but the civilized world, largely below the equator, had a different attitude, prizing self-sufficiency.  The rest of the world was war-torn.

It was in one of the war-torn regions that it first appeared.  A streak of golden light.

Destruction.  Tearing through a region, then a whole continent.

His presence blinded, dark.  Blurring the images.

Can’t see.  Can’t-

Moving on. - Excerpt from Interlude 28</ref> his powers cannot be copied, and powers cannot directly interfere with his mind in any way. In addition, his multiple senses make him very difficult to blind or mislead for any period of time.<ref>Scion emerged, but he didn’t emerge into a world any of my forces occupied.

He- he lost the scent trail, I thought.

It didn’t take him long to find it again. He went straight through into the world where I’d stationed Glaistig Uaine. - Speck 30.5</ref> With stilling, Scion can "tune" his defenses to negate specific powers. He was able to permanently destroy some of Glaistig Uaine's faeries.<ref>Some came back, used powers in different variations. The ones Scion destroyed, though, they didn’t recur. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

Precognition

Scion can look forward in time to observe countless possible futures.<ref>The shards retained memories, motivated, pushed.

The entity looked to the future, looked to possible worlds, and it saw the ways this could have unfolded. It burned a year off of the entity’s life, but he had thousands to spare anyways.

There was a scene where the entity stood over the broadcaster’s corpse and ruminated on what had driven the male to such extremes. The shard wasn’t a particularly aggressive one.

A scene where the man died, and years passed, the entity slowly coming to the same conclusions as it observed the rest of the species. - [ Excerpt] from Interlude 26</ref> He can learn what actions he must take to achieve a specific future or goal, similar to Contessa. Unlike Contessa, he can use this power in any situation, but it drains from his lifespan, so he uses it sparingly.<ref name="SB2" /><ref name="29.2">Venom 29.2</ref>

Dimensional Travel

Scion can freely move through alternate universes,<ref name="27.4" /> doing it as easily as a human might walk.<ref name="I27">Thunder clapped.

Scion was gone.

No. Not gone. He had slipped into another Earth, avoiding the affected area as easily as someone might avoid a thrown stone by stepping to the right. - Excerpt from Interlude 27.x </ref> Barriers preventing travel between universes can be broken down by Scion in seconds.<ref>Scion emerged from the other world, having broken down the barrier we’d set. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5</ref> If necessary, he can attack objects in multiple universes simultaneously,<ref>Scion blasted the cliff faces, but his golden light only affected the cliff on this earth. The moment he stopped, more emerged.
He stopped to strike again, this time obliterating the cliff faces on this Earth and the one in the other reality. - Excerpt from 27.x (Interlude, Eidolon)</ref> even devastating countless versions of Earth in one blast.<ref>He’d joined the Fallen because all that selflessness and communication had amounted to nothing but whole universes of ruin- great golden beams that had cut through the lens, through the Earth Bet he knew and into the seemingly infinite Earths that were included in that package, that were used for predictions and simulations, for templates and data. It was too vast to comprehend, so people didn’t bother comprehending. Nothing meaningful had changed since that point. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y II</ref>

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, shouting that he didn't deserve his power before demanding to know what he had to be sad about. He then told Scion that he didn't deserve to be sad and told 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, and took flight.<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 monsters like them.<ref name="18.x" /> He would also intervene in certain 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">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-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 ultimatums, 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. Finally, Kevin shifted command of Scion from himself to Lisette. Without any sign of acknowledgement, Scion flew away.<ref name="18.x" />

During the 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 didn't care much about this development, and continued to watch the fighting. He saw the Harbinger clones being defeated and taken in by the Number Man and Contessa, then saw Jack Slash become looped by Gray Boy.<ref name="I26" />

While the heroes thought that they had won, the loopepd 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 that is inherent in the ancestors of humans and entities alike. While Tattletale caught onto what was going on and dispatched soldiers to try and drown out Jack Slash's speech, it did nothing to prevent Scion from hearing. When Lisette, brought in 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 Scion had eventually came to the same conclusion regardless. Coming to a decision, Scion resolved himself to begin experimenting with another course of action. Aiming at Kevin Norton's birthplace, Scion fired a beam and annihilated the entirety of the United Kingdom.<ref name="I26" />

Gold Morning

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, reversing the good deeds that he had started with during his first years as a hero such as saving children and stopping fires.<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.” Excerpt from Extinction 27.2</ref> His third attack was on Mali, targeting and killing only those that had reached puberty. This left an approximate four hundred and thirty thousand orphans.<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.”

[...]

“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.”

“How?” Tattletale asked.

“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?”

“An estimated four hundred and thirty thousand,” the Number Man said.

“Four hundred and thirty thousand orphans.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.2</ref> In Russia, Scion started fires, 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.” - 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." - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref>

Following Scion's initial attacks, a parahuman response was organized against him. The first clash against Scion was during the Oil Rig Battle, which included parahumans like Weaver, the Triumvirate, Glaistig Uaine, and many other heroes and villains, including various villains from the Birdcage. 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 began to duke it out, with Scion chasing the two across multiple earths. Then, Scion used his path to victory ability to utter four words to Eidolon, letting him know that Eidolon had created the Endbringers. This devastated Eidolon, making him give up and let himself be killed by Scion. Glaistig Uaine retreated, and Scion had 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?”
“We lost just about half of everyone,” Tattletale said. “Maybe more, but communicating’s hard right now. Don’t exactly have an infrastructure.”
“Everyone being-”
“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.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.1</ref> Then, at some point, Scion used precognition to follow a path that led to reuniting with Eden. This led him to the Cauldron Compound, where he arrived to find Eden's body, having not anticipated the possibility that what he would find was her 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, Scion began destroying the body,

He was eventually killed through the combined efforts of thousands of parahumans under the command of Khepri, after being distracted by Oliver of the Travelers and then fatally shot by a combination of rods imbued with Flechette's power and a Tinker-tech weapon operated by Defiant.

Quotes

• "You needed worthy opponents."

Trivia

• The idea of Scion having a true name (Zion) was hinted at by Wildbow in a reply in the comments of Interlude 1.x.<ref name="I1 c1">Pinkhair:
  Something’s been bothering me for a while. Why did they assume that his answer was ‘Scion,’ a non-Russian word. If he understood the question, why would he be assumed to correctly answer in another language?
  
  Heck, maybe he was claiming to be Psionic(Psion). Or a Dan Brown style fictional descendant of Christ(Sion). With hesitation and pauses, it might have been one or multiple words…
  
  Perhaps a better question is, IS that what the world assumes, or is that not the prevailing theory throughout the world? I can imagine the Russians having a different view.
  
  Probably shouldn’t be thinking about this near 7 am on a work day.
  
  wildbow:
  It’s a prevailing theory, helped by the fact that English is a language that reaches across the globe.
  
  Still, it’s funny you mention that… 😉 - Comment on Interlude 1.x</ref>
• Scion's role in the story was largely unchanged from how his character was originally conceived.<ref>Yes. Before the vast majority of the characters you know were even conceptualized, Scion was to be the bad guy. - Wildbow on reddit</ref>

Fanart Gallery

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  Illustration by Diana Nguyen
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  Scion by Chianina on DeviantArt
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  Scion by Wolfragnorok on DeviantArt
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  Illustration by Liujuin
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  Illustration by Drunkfu
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  Illustration by TygettLannister
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  Illustration by TygettLannister
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  S-Class Threats by BenswFrenefits

References

<references/>

Site Navigation

Entities and Shards
Entities	Abaddon • Eden {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Scion {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Shards	Anguished Heart • Fragile One • Grasping Self

S-Class Threats
Endbringers	Behemoth {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Leviathan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Simurgh • Khonsu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Tohu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Bohu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Titans	The Kronos Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Eve {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Fortuna {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Nemean Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Arachne {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Oberon {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ashen Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Skadi {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ophion Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Strange Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Auger {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titaness Amenonuhoko {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Flowing Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Drillbit {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Liminal Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Pouffe {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Valkyrie {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Morgana {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Yakshini {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ashoka {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ghast {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Groups	The Slaughterhouse Nine {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Three Blasphemies • The Machine Army
Parahumans	Ash Beast {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Echidna {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Khepri {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Nilbog • Pastor {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Scion {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Sleeper • The Tower {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}