Lydia joined the same political organizations as Diana, knowing that whatever her rival tried, however risky or dangerous, had the unpleasant inevitability of succeeding, usually at the cost of someone else's life.  Lydia did not believe herself strong enough to challenge Diana's authority . . . yet.

When they were both posted to the Los Angeles mothership, Lydia could see their destinies following the same route and intertwining at last.  After the initial assault on Earth was undermined by the resistance, Lydia found her position growing stronger with each of Diana's failures.  But she also realized that she had become a tangible threat to Diana, and their frequent clashes over authority informed Lydia that her days were numbered around the deadly Diana.

Arranging an obvious-looking escape in which it appeared that she was fleeing to the Homeworld, Diana destroyed the shuttle believed to be transporting Lydia, while the blonde officer actually did escape by other means.

Returning to the homeworld, she reported Diana's power plays to the Leader, who had her return to Los Angeles under his personal orders accompanied by an interim commander, Ch'rls (who adopted the human equivalent of Charles).

Diana was shocked to see Lydia alive, and even more unhappy to learn her authority had been restricted while Lydia's had been expanded.

Lydia fell in love with Charles and became jealous when he hatched a scheme to remove Diana permanently by marrying her, which by law would force her to return to the Homeworld and raise a family, thus removing Diana from the military chain of command forever.  Lydia realized that however hateful she found the prospect, Diana would have to submit because Charles came from a family which had the power to choose its mates without the intended being legally able to protest it.  Still, Lydia became insanely jealous at the thought of Diana and Charles' wedding night, and obtained poison to slip into Diana's nuptial draught.  But through a quirk of fate, the bride and groom exchanged drinking vessels and Charles drank the poison instead.

Diana immediately suspected Lydia and had her arrested, whereupon Lydia became hysterical over having killed Charles.  Diana was preparing to rid herself of her rival once and for all when Phillip arrived and demanded that legal procedures be followed.  This entailed having Lydia and her accuser fight in hand-to-hand combat.  Lydia was actually gaining the advantage over Diana when Phillip called a halt - he would not allow them to murder one another.  Realizing that this was not to be the end of it, Diana and Lydia conspired to shift the blame for the poisoning to a third party, who was found guilty and ejected into space in the sarcophagus containing the remains of Charles.

Now Lydia and Diana had a mutual adversary in Phillip, who also ranked above them in command.  Diana plotted with Lydia again, this time to have Phillip assassinated, but of course the brunette rigged evidence so that it would be blamed entirely on Lydia.  When Phillip survived the attempt, he refused to buy the indicators that pointed to the blonde.

Diana tried to get at Lydia again when she secretly had Lydia's younger brother transferred to her mothership.  As the youngest line officer, he was to be sacrificed in a bizarre ceremony that was a holdover from ancient times.  Phillip finally took it upon himself to prevent the sacrifice, thus putting an end to the savage practice.

When Diana is arrested for the plot to assassinate the Leader, Lydia feels that she has at last won out over her implacable foe.
 

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