Glancing over to see the Justice League still listening to Cassie and Donna explaining Diana's absence and Hippolyta's presence, Lucien sighs. He could try to tell Hippolyta to stay out here, but if she tried to argue with him, it would almost certainly draw their attention.
In the end, it's just easier to let her come in as well.
"Come on then."
The former Queen of the Amazons follows silently. As he palms the door to the cell and it automatically opens for him, Lucien hears the start of someone calling out upon noticing what he's doing, but he's already moving through. Sounds like Green Lantern if he had to put a name to the voice, and that guy isn't worth Lucien's time at this point.
The door hisses shut behind him and Hippolyta before anyone can really do anything, especially since Blackfire, Claire, and Tea should all be keeping them at bay anyways. Glancing over to see them arguing through the observation window, Lucien just shakes his head in bemusement before moving over to Grail.
"What are you doing… Master?"
Whipping around, Lucien points a finger at her.
"Nope. Definitely not. Do NOT call me that."
He was already uncomfortable enough with her presence as is. He did not need her making it any worse.
"… Apologies. How should I address you?"
She was calling him 'Lucien Luthor' before, he remembered. But honestly, with how obstinate she was about this whole 'life debt' bullshit, he doesn't want to give her permission to use his first name at this point. After all, for as guilty as he's feeling about stealing her from her home, Lucien has to remind himself that he'd tried to say no… this wasn't his fault, not really.
"You can call me 'Sir' or 'Mister Luthor'. Understood?"
The former Queen nods.
"Yes sir. What were you doing, sir?"
As she re-asks her original question, Lucien just huffs and turns back to Grail.
"Waking her up, what else? I'm the one who knocked her out so only my touch can wake her at this point."
Well, that wasn't entirely true. It was possible she'd wake up on her own eventually from the induced coma. But it wouldn't be any time soon without a little helping hand from yours truly.
"I see."
Lucien raises an eyebrow at that response, prompting Hippolyta to flush and correct herself.
"I see, sir."
That wasn't even why he raised an eyebrow! He raised an eyebrow because her stupidly vague response didn't give him any inclination of why she'd asked what he was doing in the first place! Swallowing down the urge to growl, Lucien turns back to Grail, choosing to steadfastly ignore the former Amazon Queen in the cell with him in favor of Darkseid's Daughter.
After eyeing the restrained woman for a moment, Lucien frowns and decides to err on the side of caution. While he reaches out for her arm with one hand, he holds his other hand out in front of her blindfolded face, within mere centimeters of her eyes.
With a single touch, he wakes Grail up, watching as she tenses up and then snarls and then… sure enough, the blindfold over her eyes gives up the ghost almost immediately. To be fair, it was only rated to block a certain level of Kryptonian Heat Vision. The highest levels of that shit got patently ridiculous. Omega Beams, meanwhile, tore right through the blindfold as soon as Grail was fully conscious, only to immediately slam into Lucien's hand.
At the same time, Grail begins to strain against her restraints, which in turn start to strain against her. The metal creaks and it becomes obvious that she might be able to break free given time and space to do so. Neither of which he's inclined to give her.
With lightning speed, Lucien covers Grail's eyes with his hand completely, while his other hand grabs her by the neck and pins her in place. At the same time, he snarls out a single command.
"Cease."
Grail immediately freezes up, her body going still. At the same time, the snarl on her lips vanishes, replaced by a coy grin.
"Lucien Luthor. Already manhandling me so readily."
Grunting, Lucien just shakes his head. This woman only understands the languages of strength and violence. But then to be fair, she IS Darkseid's Daughter.
"Remember that you surrendered yourself to MY custody, Grail."
Relaxing back into her restraints fully, Grail chuckles.
"Yes. I remember. Such care you show your prisoners, Lucien Luthor. Very… mm, hands on."
Gritting his teeth, Lucien snarls.
"If you try to use your Omega Beams on me or anyone else again, you will be knocked unconscious and the next time you wake up, it will be without eyes."
There's a pause at that as Grail and Hippolyta both process his threat. Then, Grail lets out a bark of laughter.
"How deliciously dark of you! To have you rip my eyes out of my skull… are you sure I couldn't be conscious for it instead?"
Lucien smiles grimly, even as Hippolyta sucks in a sharp breath at the request.
"You misunderstand me, Grail. I wouldn't be ripping anything out of your skull. I would disconnect your optic nerves and then reshape the bone of your skull so that it was like you were never born with the capacity for sight in the first place. I imagine somewhere in the process, your eyeballs would just… pop out. Because you would no longer have eye sockets."
Grotesque? Undoubtedly. But does Grail understand anything else? And indeed, this threat finally makes her go quiet. Though eventually she adopts just as wicked of a grin as before, her words are a lot more… subdued.
"I will behave, Lucien Luthor."
Well, if she doesn't and Hippolyta gets murdered again, Lucien will just have to deal with that as it comes. The alternative is either carrying on with this conversation while continuing to keep his palm against her eyes the entire time or making good on his threat right here and now. One of them, he just can't be bothered. The other… well, they would see.
Pulling his hand back away from Grail's face, Lucien maintains the hold on her neck as they meet one another's eyes for a moment. Grail's smile grows… until her gaze flickers past them and she sees Hippolyta, at which point she sneers.
"What is that weakling doing here?"
Hippolyta takes a step forward, snarling back.
"I go where Lord Luthor goes. I owe him a life debt thanks to your actions."
Grail's brow furrows in confusion even as Lucien resists the urge to facepalm. 'Lord Luthor' was NOT one of the ways he'd told Hippolyta to address him. But at the same time, if he called her out on it, he'd be exercising the authority he had over her that he didn't even want. So… he stays quiet.
"Huh? How does that work exactly?"
Hippolyta's lips thin out and she falls stubbornly silent. Lucien considers keeping it a secret as well… but eh, he doubted Grail would actually care that much.
"I resurrected the Amazons you killed back on Themyscira."
Grail blinks rapidly, taking that in for a moment. But as he expected, she doesn't get angry at him for reversing the damage or anything like that. Instead, her grin only grows wider.
"Oho… you continue to be full of surprises, don't you? And in response, the Queen of the Amazons was forced to bend the knee to you, is that it? How utterly delicious. What can I say… except you're welcome?"
Lucien grits his teeth, giving Hippolyta room to step forward with a snarl.
"You claimed your mother to be Myrina of the Amazons. How is that possible? She's been dead for many years."
See, this was why Lucien had hesitated to bring Hippolyta into the cell with him. The woman might have abdicated her throne and sworn a life debt to him, but she's been Queen for who knows how many thousands of years and those instincts to take charge and find out what was going on were clearly going to be all but impossible to shake.
Grail though, is more than willing to 'help her out' on that front.
"I don't answer to you, slave. Know your place."
She spits on the floor at Hippolyta's feet for good measure, causing the former Amazon Queen to freeze up both at the disrespect and at the realization of what she had been doing.
Huffing, Lucien finally lets go of Grail's neck… after all, he could tell from the skin contact that she was enjoying being held by the throat a bit too much for his tastes. Taking a step back, he crosses his arms over his chest and finally lets himself growl a little bit.
"Answer the question, Grail."
This draws a truly mighty pout from the Daughter of Darkseid, who looks like she actually feels a little betrayed that he would side with Hippolyta over her. Which is… certainly something.
"Tch… fine. Yes, my mother is Myrina. An Amazon Assassin that this one used to great effect over the centuries. Didn't you, weakling?"
Lucien waits for Hippolyta to respond, only to realize she's looking to him now. Oh for fuck's sake, was she seriously waiting for orders because Grail reminded her of her 'place' or something?!
"You don't need permission from me to speak, woman. Just interrogate her. And Grail, know that you must answer Hippolyta's questions as if they were my own."
Narrowing her eyes into slits, Grail grits her teeth.
"Or?"
Of course. Always pushing. Well…
"Or you will have proven to me that you no longer have need of a mouth or tongue or jaw to wag. And I will relieve you of them."
Left unsaid is that he would do so in the same way he'd threatened to remove her eyes. Morphing her biology to fit the intended shape. Humming, Grail finally nods.
"Understood. You are truly a premium male specimen, Lucien Luthor. I've never felt more threatened or intimidated in my life."
… Why did she make that sound like such a good thing?!
"How did Myrina survive? How did she even conceive you in the first place?"
Shrugging as best she can in her restraints, Grail just smirks.
"How does anyone conceive a babe? She had me with my father, of course. He is male after all, and any male, even the Dark God himself, can be seduced."
Grail sounded almost like a proud mother while discussing her own mother's exploits. Chuckling, she continues on.
"She kept her pregnancy secret from you because she knew you wouldn't understand. In the end, this proved quite prescient because even the two Amazons that she allowed to know about me failed her on the day of my birth, forcing her to kill them both and flee Themyscira to keep me safe."
Hippolyta stiffens at that.
"Menalippe… Penelope. They died with your mother… now you claim your mother was the one who murdered them and then faked her own death to… abscond with you?"
Grail nods easily.
"Yes. Though is it really murder when they forced her hand? She was merely defending herself. And me of course."
The Daughter of Darkseid clearly doesn't actually care about defending her mother's actions judging by her tone. She's just trying to rile Hippolyta up. For a moment, it almost looks like it's working… but then the former Queen pauses, takes a deep breath, and visibly recenters herself.
"… Why? For what purpose did Myrina go behind my back to conceive you?"
Grail shifts for a moment before shrugging again.
"Simple… because you had all forgotten your purpose. My mother killed for you, she shed blood for you, and in return you abandoned the sacred mission of the Amazons."
Oh? Lucien watches as Hippolyta stiffens up, her lips pressing into a thin line.
"That… what could that possibly have to do with Darkseid? What could our so-called sacred mission have to do with creating something like you?"
Grail sneers in response.
"The Dark God comes. Always and forever, he comes. Though he may lurk for a time, his goals are known to all who pay attention. Conquest. Tyranny. Slavery. He will not stop until all of creation lives solely to serve him. And what have you done to prepare? What have you had our people do to make ready for his eventual arrival?"
Squaring her shoulders, Hippolyta scowls.
"The Amazons are as prepared as ever! We are warriors and we train day and night to-!"
"IT'S NOT ENOUGH!"
Spittle flies as Grail cuts Hippolyta off, the former Queen taken aback by the sudden vitriol.
"YOU ARE NOT ENOUGH! Warriors? Don't make me laugh! I cut through your finest like they were nothing but chaff and I would have killed you too if this one hadn't saved your miserable, weak life! My father is ten times as strong as me! If he wished it, the whole of Themyscira would cease to exist before you could so much as blink. The only reason he would spare you was so he could enslave you all instead!"
Hippolyta stands there quiet in the face of Grail's rage.
"The Amazons were meant to be more than simple warriors hiding away on your island because you were afraid of the rest of the world! My mother told me! She told me your sacred purpose! Would you deny it? Would you try to claim that you have not turned your back on your original mission?! The entire reason for your creation in the first place?!"
At this point, Lucien has to admit… he's more than a little confused. What exactly is Grail talking about? And why does Hippolyta seem so… disquieted by the bound woman's demands.
"… We cannot be conquerors. And that is what it would take at this point. To push our own ideals upon the people of Earth, we would have to control the planet. We would fail. Instead, we maintain active diplomatic relations with-!"
"Bah! 'Active diplomatic relations'! Don't make me laugh! You don't have to conquer anyone to carry out the mission! Here, I'll show you!"
Whipping her head back to him, Grail thrusts out her chin.
"Lucien Luthor! Take me as your woman! Use me as your male lusts demand and let us make powerful children capable of destroying my father and ending his threat at long last! In turn, I swear to serve you faithfully for the rest of my days!"
Uh… what?