Justine: Difference between revisions

|main alias        = Justine il-Isis

|first            = Alien Bodies (novel)

'''Cousin Justine''', formerly named '''Justine McManus''' ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Movers (audio story)|Movers]]'') and later called '''Justine il-[[Isis]]''', ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Judgment of Sutekh (audio story)|The Judgment of Sutekh]]'') was a member of [[Faction Paradox]] who gained prominence during the [[Sontaran]] invasion of the [[Eleven-Day Empire]] by inheriting the [[shadow-weapon|shadow]] of [[Grandfather Paradox]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Shadow Play (audio story)|The Shadow Play]]'') She later became an [[ambassador]] to the [[Osirian Court]] and briefly sat on the [[War Council]] of the [[Great Houses]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Words from Nine Divinities (audio story)|Words from Nine Divinities]]'')

Much knowledge of Justine's early life is derived from the writings of Godfather [[Morlock]] and flashback hallucinations she had while imprisoned on the [[Shada|prison planet]] of the [[Great Houses]].

According to these sources, she was born Justine McManus. In [[1899]], when she was sixteen years old, she first encountered the Faction in the form of [[Godfather]]s Morlock and [[Sabbath (Movers)|Sabbath]]. The Godfathers were conducting Sabbath's initiation rite, in which Sabbath was to hunt down and kill his ancestors, alternating genders in reverse chronological order. Justine and her cousin, [[Emma James]], caught Morlock's eye, and he bet Sabbath that if Sabbath failed in his hunt, Morlock would be allowed to induct one of the girls into the Faction. As Morlock was well aware, Sabbath's quarry — Emma's Aunt [[Fiora Venn]] — was already pregnant with Sabbath's grandfather (whom Sabbath had already killed) and was therefore off-limits. Sabbath was forced to settle for killing his great-grandmother's closest available relative: Emma. Although Emma had been Morlock's first choice of initiate, he recognised a determination in Justine that made him just as happy to accept her, and she agreed to join Faction Paradox ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Movers (audio story)|Movers]]'', ''[[A Labyrinth of Histories (audio story)|A Labyrinth of Histories]]'') and renounce her [[human]]ity. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'')

Fifty-two years after the War started, a troop of [[Sontaran]]s (secretly working for the [[Great Houses]]) invaded the [[Eleven-Day Empire]]. They planted a [[fusion bomb]] and (unbeknownst to the Faction) stole the Faction's [[biodata]] samples. Justine stopped the bomb by dropping her [[shadow-weapon]] and (at Godfather Morlock's behest) using her shadow to pick it up. When it detonated, it destroyed her shadow, but left no physical damage. Because of her lack of shadow, Morlock could graft on a replacement: specifically, the shadow of [[Grandfather Paradox]], still attached to the blood on the knife with which he famously performed the [[Act of Severance]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Eleven Day Empire (audio story)|The Eleven Day Empire]]'')

[[Lolita]] and representatives of [[House Tracolix]] signed a treaty with the Faction which purported to again recognise Paradox as a House, but included a clause on the extradition of Faction members who had broken Homeworld law. Using an obscure, archaic Faction rule, which stated that the bearer of another person's shadow was that person, Lolita was able to identify Justine as the Grandfather, declare the Faction to be in breach of the treaty, and have the Sontarans enforce martial law. Lolita used the stolen biodata to commune with the Empire's spirits, then consumed the Empire into her interior dimensions. Morlock bundled Cousin Justine and Cousin [[Christine Summerfield|Eliza]] into a [[TARDIS|timeship]]. He told them to go to [[the Homeworld]], saying that Paradox was now officially a House, and that the laws Lolita used didn't apply outside of Faction territory. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Shadow Play (audio story)|The Shadow Play]]'')

However, instead of going to the Homeworld, Justine piloted the timeship to [[1762]], hoping that they would be accepted as [[diplomat]]s because of the [[Gregorian Compact]]. She and Eliza initially took sanctuary with the [[Order of Saint Francis]] in [[Medmenham]], but after the Order was attacked by [[the Service]], she decided that as a foreign dignitary it would be proper to introduce herself to the Royal Court. His Majesty the King [[George III]] gave her the dubious honour of a duel with one of his [[Peking Homunculus|Peking Homunculi]], which she handily defeated using the Grandfather's shadow. Once she had returned to Medmenham, the [[Earl of Sandwich]] introduced her to the ''real'' head of the Order: [[Compassion]], in the body of [[Mary Culver]]. Compassion explained that Lolita was trying to conquer 1762 by way of Britain, and Justine and Compassion formed a tenuous alliance to stop her. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Sabbath Dei (audio story)|Sabbath Dei]]'')

The Great Houses finally caught up with Justine in [[St James's Square]]. The Serviceman [[Sabbath]], acting as their agent, transformed it into a courtroom cut off from Earth to put her on trial for the Grandfather's crimes. Aware that she had no chance of winning her case, Justine made only a token effort to defend herself, instead summoning Lolita as a witness and questioning her about her intentions on Earth. Justine-as-Grandfather-Paradox was found guilty and sent off to the Houses' [[Shada|prison planet]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[In the Year of the Cat (audio story)|In the Year of the Cat]]'')

Frozen in the Houses' prison, Justine dreamt of her childhood. She remembered when she first encountered the Faction, and seeing a beautiful face in the sky — except that the latter was happening in her present, as Cousin [[Shuncucker]] looked in on her in her casket. It was enough to trigger some self-awareness, and she used the Grandfather's shadow to obtain the type of weapon which would let her out of the casket's time frame.

Immediately she found herself confronted by Shuncucker, who also claimed to be the last scion of Faction Paradox and bearer of Grandfather Paradox's shadow. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Movers (audio story)|Movers]]'') Each insisting that they were the last true saviour of the Faction, the two Cousins were initially at odds, but they soon reached an accord when it became obvious that they had a common enemy in [[Demetra Kine]], a [[posthuman]] from [[Siloportem]], who had a feud with the Faction and had herself imprisoned so she could kill Shuncucker when the prison immediately failed. Working together, Justine and Shuncucker killed Kine and her agents. Justine discovered that Compassion had orchestrated the entire breakout over the past six months just to rescue her. Compassion sent Justine her timeship, and Justine returned to Earth in [[1763]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[A Labyrinth of Histories (audio story)|A Labyrinth of Histories]]'')

 

Eliza was already investigating the Ape, and together, the two Cousins attacked [[Merytra Ellainya]]'s Mal'akh army just as she performing a ritual to activate a [[sarcophagus]] that Justine recognised as the lodestone to a [[time corridor|time tunnel]]. After ruining Merytra's sacrifice, Justine demanded the information from Marne, who led her to the ruins of [[Pompeii|Civita]]. There, they found the Faction shrine destroyed, with its [[remembrance tank]]s smashed and grown into the monstrous [[Tree of Filth]]; [[Sutekh]] had won it in a treaty with the Houses, and he chose to destroy Faction Paradox's heritage. Maddened, Justine allowed Merytra to open the corridor and jumped through into the [[Ship of a Billion Years]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Coming to Dust (audio story)|Coming to Dust]]'')

 

 

After helping oversee Eliza's transformation into [[Horus]], Justine was brought to [[the Homeworld]], where the War King tried to give her House Paradox's old seat on the [[War Council]]. He said that House Paradox had adopted her and given her biological advantages, so she was a member of the [[Great Houses]] just as much as those on the Homeworld. However, Lolita argued violently against this idea, claiming to be directly targeted and challenging the War King's judgment. After Justine fled the Homeworld to return to the Court, Lolita killed the King and became [[War Queen]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Words from Nine Divinities (audio story)|Words from Nine Divinities]]'')

 

 

Immediately after the tribunal, Justine told a future version of [[Geb]] to check south of the pyramid for Sutekh's body. She and Finton then took her timeship to the Homeworld, where Horus had just defeated [[Lolita]] with over seven hundred fellow warriors. Horus shut down his biodata to make himself mortal, and Justine had a short conversation with Eliza before mortally wounding her with the Grandfather's shadow. She gave Horus her timeship to go to [[Egypt]], then took Horus' barge to go with Finton to just after the war's end. There, they watched Geb burying Sutekh in a [[pyramid]]; they also saw Corwyn Marne and an earlier version of Lolita watching the funeral.

 

Then Justine and Finton left to the Ship of a Billion Years. There, they met [[Nephthys]], who was transporting Horus' body and told Justine to be afraid. In the throne room of the Ship, Justine and Finton met an earlier version of Sutekh, who believed he had won the battle by killing Horus. He could control Justine's body but not her mind, so he launched a full [[psychic]] attack on her. However, Finton began to recite his poetry, inspired by the dreams sent by Horus, and this broke down Justine's bio-screen just as Sutekh created a direct channel between their minds. She lashed out with her shadow-weapon, penetrated Sutekh's natural defenses through the channel, and severed his neural connections. She deposited his crippled body on [[Mars]] for Geb to find, then dropped Finton off in [[Italy]] with clear instructions to say that Justine was returning to the Osirian Court. Justine left Horus' barge under the Mediterranean for him to use to travel to the Homeworld, and departed in the timeship Horus had sent Nephthys to leave on Earth. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Judgment of Sutekh (audio story)|The Judgment of Sutekh]]'')

Justine was white, with red hair, green eyes, pale skin, and far less harsh of a face than you'd expect from someone who went around wearing a skull mask. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Alien Bodies (novel)|Alien Bodies]]'') When she was imprisoned on the [[Shada|prison planet]] of the Great Houses, she was given the customary [[convict tattoo]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Labyrinth of Histories (audio story)|A Labyrinth of Histories]]'')