In this Whole Episode Flashback, we see how Nerissa fell from grace, and how Drago was born from her alliance of convenience with Shendu.
- Accidental Murder: Nerissa's killing of Cassidy was ultimately this, as she was hit by a Quintessence lightning bolt while trying to stop Nerissa from killing one of the hunters responsible for Drago's apparent death.
- Adaptation Expansion: Canon only touched on the circumstances of Nerissa's Start of Darkness, but it is gone into detail here.
- Asshole Victim: While killing Herbert Fitzgerald may have been a bit too far, but as Nerissa points out, he did kill his wife for power, and murdered the guards at the museum he stole the Tome from.
- Cliffhanger: The chapter ends with Shendu reuniting with Nerissa, Drago, and Miranda, the group preparing to start rampaging across Meridian.
- Continuity Nod: Nerissa encounters Shendu in the mine he's been sealed inside of for the last two centuries, as seen in "Showdown in the Old West". His side of the flashback ends with Valmont's father finding him and cutting a deal for his help in setting up the Dark Hand.
- Fantastic Racism: Kadma was disgusted with Drago from his birth, calling him "it" and actually suggesting killing him to prevent him growing up to become evil.
- Flirting Under Fire: Yan Lin and Uncle (or Jin, as he was still called back then) are shown flirting with each other in the middle of the fight with Herbert.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: It's revealed that Nerissa came up with the idea of basically doing this to ‘'everyone'' across the universe, preventing them from thinking negative thoughts and thus eliminating evil altogether.
- Mama Bear: Despite his demonic nature and the circumstances of his birth, Nerissa's maternal instincts for Drago immediately kicked in upon his birth.
- Mystical Pregnancy: Shendu has Nerissa chip off a piece of his statue form and bring it to life with her Quintessence, then ingest it. This causes their life forces to merge, resulting in her giving birth to Drago in a matter of hours.
- Never Found the Body: As a child, Drago was last seen falling into a pit, with his body never being recovered, and not even Shendu able to sense where he ended up, causing him to be presumed dead. As such, Nerissa was utterly shocked when he showed up years later to free her from Mount Thanos.
- Shout-Out: Herbert Fitzgerald, the villain that Nerissa's team is fighting at the start of the chapter, seeks to conquer the world by summoning the army of Anubis.
- Start of Darkness: This chapter explores how Nerissa, through magic addiction and frustration with the never-ending fight against evil, slowly fell into a Knight Templar mindset.
- Tom the Dark Lord: None of Nerissa's team were impressed to be fighting an Evil Sorcerer named Herbert Fitzgerald.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Except for the final two scenes, which pick up from last chapter’s cliffhanger, the entire chapter takes place decades ago, during the previous generation of Guardians' final days as a team.
