Justice League 1. Rationale

Together the three of them breach the cordon at the entrance hall yet Superman charges off ahead alone. Perhaps that allowance is the first mistake, but soon both he and Wonder Woman are up against the backup sent to the entrance hall. The two are further split up when she tries to catch up with Superman on her own leaving him alone against the security commandos. He never imagined himself in a position like this again even when it had happen years ago with the GCPD, but there is a difference between riot police and government security personnel.

It took more than usual to subdue them, but their armor was on par with his so taking them out meant no holding back at all.

Superman with each passing second is another step closer to the office, which meant he had to get through this quickly. However he is still only human in contrast to either Superman or Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman radios that she is almost caught up to Superman, but Superman is not in the mood to wait. He lands the last blow then dashes down the corridor and rushes to at least catch up to Wonder Woman except another commando manages to tackle him. However Wonder Woman picks up Batman's newest attacker with ease then tosses the man.

She might possess a host of powers, but the real powerhouse is still Superman. Piles of bodies, broken windows, discharged rifles, blast marks from grenades, and yet the strongest smell is the stench of something burning above them.

"You smell that?" asks Batman.

The recoil realization is written on his face as well as hers.

* * *

The pair run to the Oval Office then stop dead at the entryway where the doors with their broken hinges lie on either side of the carpeting. The presidential wooden desk is burning, there is no sign of Luthor, and his briefcase is half melted to the wooden surface of the desk. The realization felt like a kick in the head except he also sees the metal box in the draw. There are a handful of ways to stop that, but all are lethal especially if Luthor's finger was anywhere near the button. He could only imagine Luthor made a last stand in words, in taunts, and then Superman used his heat vision.

"Hera," gasps Wonder Woman.

She had worked it out too, but she could not fathom why, even he had trouble letting it go except all his rationale compels to him speak rather than just standing there in silence after.

"Well, it had to be done," resigns Batman.

She goes to him by the window asks the rhetorical question and there it is a smile. He just killed someone and he is smiling though all Batman could do is turn around then walk out of the office. This is where it starts with two deaths, just like it did for Batman, but the consequences of these deaths feels more drastic…darker than their murders. Things would never be the same, but he already understood how reality is always in motion. His parents' murdered shook up Gotham, but not in the way one thought it would and as for him it led him to this costume as well as being Batman.

He could not simply return to Gotham and act like nothing happen because this is news. His parents' murder was news, but it fell out of the headlines eventually. It had become common knowledge, a reality, and everyone went on yet he did not, it had taken hold of his life. His identity had become many masks, many faces, but then he never killed anyone, no matter how much he thought of killing his parents' killer, he made clear too all that killing is not in him.

The impact of the Justice Lords reign spread across the nation and the people went along for now.

* * *

Months pass without incident until Robin vanishes on patrol and the search for him turns up little until the invitation from Joker. He would only take Batgirl and Nightwing with him went they finally decide to confront Joker except Diana had shown as they were leaving the Manor. He had forgotten they were going to have dinner tonight, the date was set days ago before Tim's disappearance, but in his experience plans are often subject to revision all too often.

"Don't call Kent," insists Batman.

"Why not?" asks Diana.

"We'll handle this, this is still my city," retorts Batman.

"It wouldn't take three of you together to handle Joker unless he is up to something big."

She was warm, but he could not risk telling her more with her implacable loyalty to Superman. It is a waste of time to argue with her because there is no time to waste with Joker especially with Tim's life in danger. The Batmobile and the Batcycle head out though he notices Diana tapping her earpiece comlink. She did not heed his warning and this could only end with Joker dead or worse.

* * *

Harley kept Batgirl busy and as for Nightwing he is off looking for Tim as Batman looks for Joker alone. Batman drops in from one direction to see Joker twirling a remote and Nightwing is up in the rafters.

"I know you and the old Boy Blunder are close by Batsy!"

Batman attempts to drop land and take the remote away from Joker, but Joker side steps at the last second. Batman felt his legs almost give out from landing on the concrete floor. It would have been less painful if he had hit Joker, but Joker occasionally displays exceptional timing. The two continue to dart around the interior of the warehouse and Nightwing still searches for Tim. He finds him surrounded by drums of explosives and quite afraid for his life, but who wouldn't be in a situation like this. The only problem now is that the drums have motion sensors so if he tries to get Tim without disarming the explosives, they would both die and worse if Joker slaps the detonator remote, they would be just as dead.

"I heard what Blue Boy did to Luthor, can't say I'm too surprised Luthor enjoys playing with heads almost much as I do, but see I don't have to worry about you killing me 'cause you don't do that and you don't use weapons either."

"I might make an exception this time, you have been a pain in the back side for years, and the number of people you have almost killed as well as have killed is starting to add up. I may not have heat vision, but I can still manage well enough with my hands for starters."

"Nope, you wouldn't, you make threats, but all you ever did in the past was beat me up if I got too rough for you. However this is the first time I have felt really tempted to see if I could drive you off the edge… just like Luthor did with Supes before he got burnt to a crisp."

"He didn't leave to see the results. Luthor's last mistake cost him his life."

"Risks of the trade Bats… you know that as well as I do."

"I have neither the patience nor the mood for your games tonight Joker!"

"Mood, you never complained about moods before, usually you talk little and then take me down. Getting sentimental are we Bats?"

Joker thumbs the trigger on the remote then it starts to glow red, but not from the blinking red button. The whole thing glows and then Joker drops it as it melts on the floor. Superman burst through the ceiling where the burn holes appear above Batman and Joker. The next thing heard is Joker screaming then falling to floor as a tiny smoke trails steam up from the clown's skull.

* * *

"You don't have to thank me, but I'm not stopping with him," comments Superman.

"I never interfere with Metropolis unless necessary and you should have stayed home. I have dealt with him more times then you have," snaps Batman.

"Why are you upset? He won't be able to do something like this again or harm anyone again. Plus Tim is alive," retorts Superman.

Batman catches the stares of Nightwing and Tim after both noticed what happen to Joker. Batman could not erase the horrified stares from his memories of that night.

Superman offers to take Joker back to Arkham, and Batman merely nods. Batgirl saw Superman carrying the unconscious and drooling Joker. She also saw the melted bomb activator remote and then worked out for herself what just happen since none of the others are breaking the silence. Batman knows why Superman had shown up, Wonder Woman told him something happened to involve the entire Batclan and the rest is fresh in mind.

* * *

Diana's reaction is expected, but the action she took, felt wrong to him knowing that Superman had been less lenient with all the Metropolis regulars since Luthor's _**demise**_. Nobody would use the word assassination, but killing a political official is just that. Strykers' Island had never been fuller, but that was the point. They started staying in rather than bothering to bust out because those who did get out, they had been brought back with injuries, and usually in the past Superman would avoid that if possible. He didn't care as long as they went back and the breakouts had come to a halt mere weeks after his roughness got through to them. Crime in Metropolis had come fallen almost entirely yet Gotham looks by far 'worse' than Metropolis.

Joker's abduction of Tim set off the change in Gotham because now Batman would have to be harder if he wanted to keep Superman off his city's streets and away from his Rogues except Joker's fate is inflicted upon the rest. None got away from it no matter how they would try or seek to go out with a bang. It wouldn't happen; they would no longer be who they were or what they did before. They would just be shells of men and women. He believed until lately he could help them to lead lives where the passions didn't lead to them continuing as criminals. His attempts to be benevolent yet vigilant were no longer enough, his policies would have to change because otherwise he'd risk looking better than Superman thus have others take advantage. Advantage to twist his ideals against him in ways that Joker had almost done if not for Superman showing up, but then he pulls back his cowl and views his face in the mirror.

He slams his fists against the mirror and several pieces fall to the ground leaving only a few with patches of his expression in the glass.

_It had to be done or did it? How much more can I justify what I am considering doing to keep Superman off my back and out of Gotham? I couldn't prevent their deaths... couldn't prevent Wally's murder or Luthor's assassination? Have I failed? What am I going to do now?_

He collapsed and stared at the broken mirror for hours until it hit him mentally and so it becomes that Batman must be more than just vigilant.

_All laws must bear out the same, no quarter given, and justice for all… no exceptions… that is the rationale.

* * *

_

Rationalization it always kept boiling down to that especially every time he sped pass Arkham. It was one thing to vaporize him on the spot, but one by one all the criminals that were once part of the revolving door of Arkham were little more than shells doing menial grounds keeping tasks. Gotham look like a completely different place, no trash, no litter, no crime, and most of the time people point blank avoid an intersection if they see his vehicle in the rearview mirror. It was the same for the others, nobody stood up to them, but if inspiring this kind of fear is what it took to maintain peace and security than that was it.

Nightwing arrived at the Batcave a few days after what happen to Joker then changed from the costume to plain clothes and put the costume in the transparent storage rack. He left in silence, he already knew there was nothing left to say, they had their argument in the early hours of the morning after Joker's lobotomy. Batman had worked alone before and having partners put them at risk though the others were likely to follow Dick's departure with their own.

Alfred descended into the Batcave a few days after Dick's announcement with another box in hand. The lid is off the box and inside is the Batgirl costume with a rather lengthy note. Alfred is looking quite somber; two of the closest individuals in both their lives are gone. Tim is gone by the end of the week leaving them again alone together like it was for so many years after the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Alfred retires both the Batgirl costume and the resized Robin suit worn by Tim until the Joker abduction that nearly claimed his life.

The endless string of lobotomies and crackdown tactics are the last straw for Alfred. He tenders resignation and heads back to England.

* * *

Diana still comes now and again. The sex is rough yet meaningless at least to Bruce. He eventually tells her to leave knowing that he would either end or she would before long.

He is disgusted with himself and so begins to design a new costume to reflect his new outlook. The colors are inverted except for the area near white lenses in the cowl and the Bat symbol look more animalistic rather than the old elegance.

* * *

Gotham becomes a very different city as the months pass and so he defaults to inventing as the GCPD maintain the crackdown policies except now incidents involve Gotham civilians, not criminals, but he had seen it first hand often. When he can will himself out of the Batcave, he drives without any sense of direction except to drive though he often passes Arkham, which is brighter yet quieter place now. Rationale he mutters to himself every time he passes it.

His latest invention is an inter-dimensional gate and with the video feed he discovers a world where Flash is still alive as is Luthor, but events had clearly happen differently. He had given warning to interfering with their reality, but the others outvoted him even though he had not given a direct objection. It didn't matter when all others had powers and he didn't, not such a thing was bothersome before, but now they had also rationalized how they behaved except for Shayera. She plays along like him, but the civilian unrest is spreading across the world.

* * *

He with the others built a device to incapacitate the others, which did work except when the other Shayera had fought against the current much to Shayera's surprise. The once vocal Thanagarian had seen an echo of her former self though Stewart took charge and blasts his wife's counterpart. Next they were taken to specially made cells to restrain them and he opts to stay behind to watch over them. His abrupt chat with both his other self who still wore his old costume struck a nerve while the one with the still living Flash had been blunt.

He had known his other self would not lead the breakout, but fear of having another die on his watch made him sprint down to Flash's cell. Flash had duped him except he saw it too late to dodge the speedster's fist. It was simple to breakout of a cell that he made, but he had to wait for the others to leave including his other self. He already knows where to find the other Batman because and their fight in the Batcave is a stalemate. The verbal spars are likewise leading nowhere except he had forgotten what it meant to be like the other Batman.

_"You grabbed power!"_

_"And with that power, we've made a world where no eight year old will ever lose his parents...because of some punk with a gun..."_

_"You win."_

It was one thing for this reality to become like this, but their reality is in their hands, not in the hands of the Justice Lords. After a side trip to Arkham, he sends them all back to their reality to take down the other Lords. He knows about their return things would change and for once in a long time change could be better except it would have to change without the costumes. The crossover had already changed him, but the League will have to learn the lesson he learned already, lines must be crossed at times to do the hard as well right decisions.

The other Batman is the last to enter the vortex, he and the other merely nod then the other Batman is gone. The vortex collapses and now he must face the consequences even if he must face them alone because it had to be done. The words were just as true today as they were two years ago.

The costume felt lighter than it had in a long time.

It is time to plan for a Gotham without Batman and a world without the Justice Lords.

* * *

A/N 1: I rewrote the original Rationale to incorporate what could contribute to why I think Justice Lord Batman is the only one at the manor or more precisely the Batcave as all the other costumes are shown to be locked away.

A/N 2: The new material includes everything prior to his encounter with the Justice League Batman and Flash. The in-between scenes are how I think the changes could have taken place such as the new Batsuit, the fact that the Arkhamites are lobotomized, and why the change in tactics have driven the others to leave Bruce.

A/N 3: Also the new depth is how his mind reacts to how he is going along yet hesitating to do all this. Superman in my mind isn't the only that had a mental snap in the Justice Lords reality.


	2. Warrior

Luthor's assassination is a turning point and the war that he had been plotting to cause did not transpire yet not all of Earth took his demise in stride especially not his cabinet, but Congressional hearings later prove that he had indeed been attempting to cause a war. It could have taken billions of lives worldwide if not for the Justice Lords' intervention. The presses and the media paint it as such, but there are still misgivings about the method, but the Lords including Wonder Woman had been expecting that fact. Diana had also seen things start to deteriorate between the six of them as J'onn becomes more of a Watchtower overseer than a proactive force on the planet like Superman or Green Lantern.

Batman hardly left Gotham anymore. He sticks close to home yet Superman's intervention against Batman's rogues cause an upset especially between Batman and the Batclan. Batman attributes it towards what Superman did to the Rogues, but Superman still leverages that now they can no longer harm anyone. Batman counters that declaration is beside the point and then Superman brings up the fact that a revolving door policy is useless especially after what happen with Luthor. The two had grown apart as Superman's tactics had become more aggressive, more direct while Batman pursues relentless vigilance, justice to all. They sound the same, but they are not as Superman does not go after civilian troublemakers, that sort of thing is more common to Batman.

* * *

Superman did tend to be more threatening in appearance with the costume change because there is no red in the design except in the S emblem. The body suit is solid black with white stripes on the sleeves and the legs. The cape is also white, which perhaps reflects his slant that all is black and white. The new look causes her to aspire to subtle changes in her own at first and the first thing to go is the bottom, which Flash humorously referred to once as being something called hot pants. She is unsure about what to with the top aside from keeping the breast plate yet halfway through she decides to go with a full body suit with short sleeves. She incorporates Superman's triple stripes into the look, but keeps the bracers. The tiara is put away with the rest of her old Wonder Woman look and she decides to show the new look to Batman first.

He tells her to stop coming around and she notices he is the only one still at the Manor these days. When he steps into the light after getting out of the Batmobile, she takes a step back noticing his costume is also different yet she had not seen it until tonight. Since from the shadows it looks the same as the old one yet she tilts her head back to see the old one along with the rest of his former partners' costumes in their transparent storage racks. She goes over to kiss him, at first he tries to push her away yet then he surrenders for some reason though it tastes different than it used to her. It didn't taste like she was kissing Bruce, it tasted like kissing a stranger, and she turns to leave though feels the Batglare on her.

She feels his gloved hand on her shoulder and she turns to punch him. She had no idea why she did that, but he dodges it. She swings again, he dodges again, and this continues until she slashes the cowl with her bare hands. The rip reveals a different Bruce like face beneath. It felt like looking at a dead man that had taken Bruce's place. She pins him and they do it on the stone cold floor of the cave. He repeatedly told her after each time that they did this that she should not return yet it did not deter at least not at first. The night finally comes when she realizes that the act is merely happening for her to get lost from these new looks of theirs, to give into the raw energy of ravaging each other, and to finish her new look she chops her flowing hair to a shorter trim.

She had to keep cutting it to maintain the shortness and eventually she thought about killing Batman because Batman had in his own way appear to kill Bruce leaving her with a man with his face. However she decides against for what good would it do to kill him for that grievance?

* * *

Diana pursues a rigorous training program and in doing so becomes increasingly angular, more masculine thus less feminine. It occurs to her that her new look looks blood red as well as the fact that she had taken to appealing to Ares instead of Hera as of late too. The time eventually comes that being near Batman has almost no effect on her and he shows no signs of having trouble either, but then if anything he can hide things well and she gotten that from him. They hid in plain sight with their feelings and thoughts while both saw how much closer John and Shayera had become since Flash's… since Wally's murder at the hands of Luthor.

She had gone along with Superman and J'onn to travel to the Batcave after Superman had gotten the summons to venture down there because of something Batman had found though what he could find down there in the cave to bring them together. The six of them barely could last in a room together for five minutes unless they spoke to each other as little as possible. Batman shows them what he refers to as an alternate reality and in particular one that is distinctly different theirs.

It is one where Flash and Luthor are still alive as well.

J'onn baits the seven of them into coming back with him and then the trap is sprung. Their reaction is instant as if they were reacting as one to this trap and she starts to wonder how she went from being like that Diana to what she is now at least until she looks to the other Lords as a visual reminder. Batman would stay behind to look after the League except their Hawkgirl had to be sent to Arkham because of her getting a point blank blast from Stewart's ring. He simply went over to the breach and shot her point blank. She had seen the look in Shayera's eyes when seeing her other self resist the trap's stun field emitters.

She is the last to enter the vortex after the six of them transport the League to their cells at a facility that is setup of specifically to hold the League. It did not surprise her that Batman had ways to restrain them and figures he had these ideas for a long time though never went through using them until today. He could have taken them all down if he had the means, but he did not, it struck her as odd yet she shakes it off. The hesitation on Batman's part did not seem at all like the Batman she had seen since they both changed their costumes.

* * *

The five of them had made a timely arrival with the city under attack by a rather brutish looking monster, but his durability and strength are no laughing matter at all. However they must all cover that they are somewhat out of practice after being token symbols to quell civil riots throughout their world in the past several months. Her recall is broken by a monorail train speeding towards a section that had been weakened by the fighting between the Lords and the monster. She flies straight up and then puts herself in front of the engine car in an effort to bring it to a halt before reaching the gap in the tracks.

It is barely in time on her part yet her gaze shifts back to the street level where only Superman is still on his feet and trading blows with the monster. The longer it drags out, the more damage it will inflict, and eventually in the middle of a rant, Superman lobotomizes the monster. Superman drops to the ground as the police surround them. The monster is no longer a threat and then the press including this reality's Lois Lane close in for an interview. The other four including her rejoin Superman as the questions continue including Lane's statement about him lobotomizing the attacker.

Some of the press approves, but clearly Lois Lane, no matter what reality she is in, still views such an act as morally reprehensible.

After the interview, the five head into space to check the League Watchtower, which is very expose and poorly armed in her view. It is easily rectified yet it does take time though they had plenty to upgrade the defenses here.

* * *

She took the time to check out the room kept by her counterpart and found it almost exactly how she used to keep her own. However events likely did play out differently here, there is at first seem no signs that this Diana had any attachment to this world's Bruce Wayne or Batman. However photographs, magazine articles, and news pictures are like a knock to gut as they are of the other Diana dancing with the other Bruce just like she had done during her first visit to Paris when she met Audrey. She had not seen Audrey in as almost as long as she had not gone back to Themyscira.

It appears this Diana also met and became friends with the Audrey in this reality. She plops down flipping through every bit of visuals she could find of this Diana and it made her feel sicker with each passing moment that this Diana had a life she could envy, but then she reminds herself that her life is her doing, there is no changing that. However she could not help, but wonder if she could have done things differently.

On the way out, she peeks in this Diana's fridge and finds she still drinks Iced Mochas. A temptation to drink had come over her and she did until she catches her reflection in a mirror that her other self kept. She chucks the Iced Mocha at the mirror, it cracks yet does not shatter, and she trembles before straightening herself out. She shuts the lights off and strains to maintain her composure.

Once back in the Monitor Hub J'onn alerts them to this reality's Luthor escaping from prison again. However once upon encountering what appears to be Luthor, he reverts back to the other J'onn and she like the others got a taste of a trap similar to the one used against the League by them. The pain is foreign to her except Shayera remembers how her other self resisted the charge then busts out except she is shot down albeit reluctantly by the other Stewart. The Stewart she knows goes after him in frenzy and so she turns her attention to the other Diana.

It is almost too easy to take down her counterpart despite that Diana using the lasso against her. She however did not see the punch coming, but she had learned a few things from her training that help her dull the ache in her jaw as she clenches it before smashing the other Diana into the concrete floor below. She is about to finish off her other self yet senses the other Batman trying to get the jump on her. She spins around catching him by his throat. It would be a simple matter of squeezing his windpipe yet instead she decides to hurl him across the room before ripping a chunk of concrete from the floor to use to bludgeon him to death.

She hears a whirling sound and notices that her counterpart had whipped the tiara at her. She felt it impact against her skull then fell from the shock rather than the impact. She did not expect such intensity or precision aiming for that matter. As she lies prone for the moment, she almost feels sorry for herself, for becoming this.

* * *

Superman is the first to fall to Luthor's weapon and one by one each of the remaining four are hit including her. As she falls she is caught by her counterpart. She is uncertain as to her demeanor as she really looks into the eyes of the other Diana for the first time. The ache from the tiara hit still lingers and causes her to remember what loves feels like... to be willing to die, to hurt, and to suffer for all of it.

_You wonder how I got to be willing to kill. You wonder what could make me want to kill Batman or rather kill Bruce. I could have put him out of your life forever; he would disappoint you as mine had with me. I could spare you the misery. I already saw what happens when he loses everyone that matters. Without compassion, without heart then he becomes a walking dead man, but no you'll have be to shown the hard way… you really are just like me except you are still in love with him._

_I almost feel sorry for you, but somehow I feel sorry for me too even when I believe I did right things after Kal killed Luthor.

* * *

_

She joins her fellow Lords when they are taken to separate holding cells not unlike what the Lords had done to the League, but unlike the League, the cells did not need to account for powers thanks to the device that shut off their powers.

"It appears as though the Gods are not without a sense of irony," comments Diana.

"You tricked us, held us against our will and now we return the 'favor'. You could have left our reality alone and this would have never been necessary. I don't even want to know how I could become like you," hisses Wonder Woman.

"Only time will tell, which one of us was right tonight, but some things are only found out the hard way in Man's World _**Princess**_," retorts Diana.

"If you are trying to goad me it won't work," snaps Wonder Woman.

"We did what we thought was necessary to save our reality and help yours."

"You call lobotomizing criminals helping? You call killing necessary? I wonder how Mother reacted when she saw you dressed like that."

"I haven't been back to Themyscira in two years besides I doubt I would be welcome with all that I have done since preventing a war that Luthor was Tartarus bent on causing."

"There are other ways to prevent a war that don't include killing."

"I wouldn't count idealism to save you when it happens to you."

"Apparently you made your decisions if your costume means anything."

"I used to dress just like you, but more than a costume change redid my life… and my heart."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do I really need to connect the dots for you?'

"You are talking about…"

"Obviously Princess…"

"You can't be serious."

"I am quite so."

"It doesn't mean the same will happen here."

"He isn't that different from mine except the two of you have it written all over you."

"Some don't see that, he is one of them."

"I suppose you could try to show him otherwise, but I wouldn't count on it working."

* * *

Diana settles into her cell and watches Wonder Woman walk away leaving her to consider their chat as well as how she and the League had gotten back in time to pull that trick off. She believes that her Batman had something to do with it, but not all of it. She had seen some amount of reaction in a few faces when they saw Flash alive though unconscious in his cell back in their reality before coming crossing over. The other Batman and Flash did something to change his mind, to break him from his reclusion, and had given him cause to send them back here.

The costume would have to go because it is not who or what she is anymore yet that is all she knows clearly aside from the idea that a certain dark knight had a change of heart because of this crossover.

_It appears I was wrong about you Batman… and about Bruce. _

There is far too much think about and for once she yearns for a dreamless sleep except it feels extremely unlikely to have that kind of sleep again for a long time if ever. As she lies de-powered in her cell, she remembers something she read once...

"_Sooner or later, everyone has to answer for what they have done in their lives, mortal or immortal."

* * *

_A/N 1: A take on how Wonder Woman's costume changed among other things.

A/N 2: The hair cropping 'ritual' is meant to be more of a metaphor for how she is denying her femininity as a way of distancing herself from her feelings for Bruce. Similar idea with the Iced Mocha being chucked at the mirror.

A/N 3: Her argument is meant to be a parallel to the one between Batman and Lorder Batman.


	3. Epiphany

He had fewer misgivings than the others after Luthor's assassination. Too often he felt that humanity is often falling short in governing their planet because frequently he and the others had to save them from themselves. He had forgotten for a time about that little girl he had found in the woods, but those searching for her, they were among the rare exceptions to his rather disjointed view of humanity. He had however had grown up and lost his civilization though kept one vow that none should ever share Mars' fate in regards to the Invaders. A human astronaut's curiosity almost led to him not being able to fulfill that vow and so he had journey alone to warn Earth, but they caught him.

He had to thereafter mentally gather heroes to team up to save Earth. However the one that impressed him the most in retrospect was Batman. He had no powers with exception his mental prowess and his peak physical conditioning. He did admire Superman and feel some camaraderie with the Kryptonian, but he never had his home world, he lost it without really knowing of it. J'onn on the other hand had a wife, a family, and more though the Invaders took all that away. He and the last of his race made their last stand yet as he already knows well is that is the only Martian left in the universe.

* * *

As for how his role would change in the wake of the Lords assuming stewardship of Earth, he would prefer anything other than having to go down there. He takes it upon himself to be the overseer to the Watchtower staffers. It is a monotonous task, but someone has to do it, it might as well be him because the others are often in their own distractions or symbolic gestures. He had also like others made changes to his look as his shoulders are broader plus he also now looks fully covered from top neck down. He also adopts the stripe pattern used by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.

Both Batman and Superman had done contrasting overhauls to the policing of their cities yet Superman is the only one of the two who still comes up to the Watchtower. Superman is always big picture plus Metropolis and Batman is 'content' with just Gotham, but he also rarely leaves the cave too. Likewise the other Lords took less activity aside from doing the token appearance act to either quell or reassure whoever appears to have doubts about the new order of looking after the world.

After two years, both his curiosity and his tendency to follow the other Lords' lead brought him to the Batcave where together in silence they initially watch the League in their ongoing fight with a Luthor in some kind of battle suit. The League still had their Flash and as already seen he Lords already saw, Luthor is still alive in that reality. An unspoken vote is put on the table and all appear to agree except Batman almost seems to warn them without warning them before a decision is made about luring the League here.

* * *

J'onn tells their League counterparts the false story, which they all appear to buy except the League Batman. J'onn almost had forgotten the way that he and the Batman he knew used to converse, a way still kept by their counterparts though he couldn't discern if his counterpart still did it. He could read that Batman still does it, but there are reasons for why Martians don't probe Martians. It would be even messier in their case aside from giving away from J'onn had really come to bring them to his reality.

"_Have you read his mind?"_ thinks Batman.

His Batman and this Batman would not be what they are without their predilection to be wary even of themselves from other realities. The five aside from his other self and the other Batman follow him back without hesitation yet the suspicious pair still follows likely to look after their too trusting comrades. After crossing back, he and the seven find themselves in a white box that had put up in front of the gateway and then he turns to them before speaking with a slight touch of regret as well as sadness in his voice.

"I'm sorry."

He watches them succumb except for their Hawkgirl, but the Lantern he knows takes charge after there is some amount of surprise meets hesitation in his wife, the Hawkgirl of this reality. He and the others come up behind Lantern after he blasts his wife's counterpart. The other Flash had somehow been able to stay conscious long enough to see his teammate, his friend take a point blank blast, but the other Hawkgirl would live provided she got immediate medical attention.

She would be taken to Arkham's infirmary wing and kept separate from the inmates. As for the others they were put into special cell made to inhibit the individual hero's powers or in the case of the other Batman monitor his movements and his vitals. The sensors kept tabs on all their vitals, but Batman worries about another teammate death. Flash as the six of them knew could still affect their feelings and psychologies from beyond the grave.

Batman stays behind as a warden for the League, but J'onn understood why before the decision was made. It would be the others' first cross over, but this time it is second yet it a coincidentally timed one with the appearance of the grayish behemoth attacking the city.

* * *

The Lords' ability to function like a team was clearly lost to them yet there are slight efforts to make it look like a concerted attack against the behemoth aka the walking wrecking ball. It was also almost impossible to read the behemoth and that led to a few surprises including the look of horror he imagines was on his own face when the behemoth ignites the gas with just fingertips.

The explosion from the igniting gas throws him clear down the street yet the others fight on until it is just Superman against the 'Wrecker'. As he struggles to get back to his feet, it is all a reminder that he like the others is out of practice, more so by having spent almost all of the last two years like an overseer aboard the Lords' reality's Watchtower. Superman takes a significant beating before lobotomizing the wrecking ball, to J'onn its standard policy albeit slightly dated since many of their reality's villains were imprisoned, lobotomized, or gone underground.

This reality's press corps is virtually the same as theirs right down to this reality's Lois Lane. Some like the changes the Lords had brought even though nobody bothers to correct them when they assume this is the League taking a step up. However a few including Lois Lane as he mentally read object to what Superman had done to the city's latest attacker. The act is crossing the line for her in particular. After the fight, the five including J'onn went to this reality's Watchtower and found it much like they found the League, too like how they used to be, but some part of J'onn starts to wonder if that is the point of what they have seen, heard, or felt already.

Both realities have their taste of alien invasions between the Apokolipitians who Superman had dealt with in the past and the Invaders that destroyed his civilization. As they bulk it up, it goes from floating eye sore to a well armed battle station with the necessary defense measures. The recurring invasions as well as the near war during Luthor's presidency had been the thing to push the Lords to fully arming their Watchtower as J'onn had already seen. The new weaponry here and back home is top of the line. Back home any time anyone would ask how long could they expect this situation to last and the party line remains it is only temporary.

Not everyone believes that, not even J'onn, but he still had his duties to attend to whether the people of Earth did or did not approval of their methods anymore. Concerns with liking or popularity went out the window early on during the months after they took direct authority in the wake of Luthor's assassination. The other heroes that the Lords had sought to draw into directly working with them found it workable at first yet as the stewardship went on; they left to return to being solo.

A roster expansion had backfired clearly, but the Lords never found themselves on the receiving end of a united front to remove them from their new authority. J'onn could read it from the staffers occasionally or he should bother watching the news, which is rare for him. Always the fear, the worry, and more, but if that is what it takes to keep this world safe instead of failing it, like he failed with Mars, then the rest didn't matter though occasionally he thought of his wife.

He wonders if she would approve of him now, but he had a feeling that she would not be that different from Lois Lane in terms of her belief that this is wrong. The new weapons system back home had been in place for fifteen months and things had been quiet with the exceptions of civil disobedience such as the protest as Smallville University just before they left to come here. It almost begins to read like the Lords would have to protect the people from themselves though plenty were bound to disagree with that including Green Arrow who he met briefly during the failed attempt to expand the roster.

Their former allies from the failed roster eventually went off the grid and left the world in the hands of those who neither them nor the Lords. J'onn could not discount the wisdom of that decision even though he did find it foolish on their part. Superman found their behavior including Supergirl's to be squeamish and so if they had misgivings they had no business working with the Lords. J'onn was not alone in thinking it was a mistake to cut themselves off from their former costumed allies, but in the end, it would be the six of them who were looking after things at least until the cross over. The more J'onn saw of this world, the more he is left to wonder if they had made the right decisions since Superman killed Luthor, but of course hindsight takes the form of the world turning beneath him.

* * *

They had no staffers on this Watchtower so J'onn had to operate many consoles on his own after the others just wander around almost aimlessly except for Superman who had taken to staring out the window yet with a different demeanor than his from earlier. He and the others rallied behind Superman after the assassination, but most suspect Flash's death also had something to do with what happen too. He had seen Batman and Superman argue about the latter's interference in Gotham. He had seen how Wonder Woman took up a different look just as the others, but hers felt more extreme as she kept her hair to a short trim as if trying to forget herself as well how she felt about Batman.

Lantern went for the bald look and Hawkgirl took to wearing a body suit like the others except hers like Wonder Woman is almost only one color, a dark shade of brown. As for the headdress, it looks more like a helmet than a headdress. He is certain Flash would find all this abhorrent as he recalls the look on the face of this reality's Flash after seeing his Hawkgirl knocked out by a man who looks like his best friend. None could purge the memory seeing Flash shot on national television or in the case of J'onn watching Flash bleed out on the White House front lawn.

Each has their own scar from the loss of Flash, but for each it holds as well as carries a different meaning. In J'onn, it is becoming one of regret and revulsion as of late as this trip had only made it worse. The six of them had grown so emotionally distant in two years and it took this trip to truly wake him up to the fact, but the others had seen it too yet like he they probably helpless to undo it or change it. He thinks back to a conversation that he overhead between Lantern and Hawkgirl where they talk about how much they both really do miss Flash, his jokes, and more.

J'onn is torn back from the recall to an alert transmission from the prison where this reality's Luthor is being kept. He apparently escaped again with a hostage, which could only make this situation worse in some way. He phases through the consoles down to Superman and the others suspicious draw closer to them. It is decided they will all go, but for once in months J'onn is afraid for a second time. The first had been during the fight with the behemoth and now this the second is the fear of what he'll do to this reality's Luthor. Hawkgirl had spoken her mind to everyone for the first time in months specifically in warning Superman against doing what they did back 'home'.

* * *

It felt certain that Superman heard her just like they all did, but he had no intention of following or listening because he been more like a leader than an equal since they over back home. He looks back briefly to all the consoles and it took him back memory wise to when he used to do all that by himself from time to time. Then they all went back planet side to handle Luthor's escape, but it turns out the League had gotten back and set a trap for them. Similar to the one J'onn knows he led them into after his first cross over. He halfway curses his own inability to see through the trick, but then biology and psychology preempt his frustration because Martians can't as well don't read other Martians.

He remembers a conversation between Lantern and Hawkgirl before all this happen where Lantern admits missing Flash on this particular day and Hawkgirl talks about him probably making some ridiculous joke or some other funny. Lantern knows when she's got his thoughts figured out. Much later he is operating the monitor stations, which is also something he had not done due to the immense staff on his Watchtower; he had to admit he misses the rounds with the technicians.

His introspection is cut off by an alert that Luthor has broken out of Strikers and taken a hostage so the five of them go down to intercept only to realize they were duped, he was tricked, but he had already done this kind of trick on the League.

* * *

He recovers first yet is unable to prevent Hawkgirl from getting the reluctant ring blast from her husband's counterpart yet his own catches her on the fall. J'onn saw clearly how far he gone from being like his counterpart and yet he chooses to fight the other J'onn after both transfigure into a species that both had known about yet none of the others would recognize it. The two entangled by the other continue like this until each Lord notes the League Superman is not among them and shortly to follow each gets a blast from the presumed power disruptor that this reality's Luthor had built for the purpose of probably testing it on the League. However the Lords' crossover had altered its purpose.

As J'onn painfully transfigures back first to his current look then to his natural look he is left to face only the sound of his own thoughts. He works out that Batman had a hand in their return, but it was not just him, no something else happen after they left that made Batman break again.

_This isn't our reality, what happens here was never ours to decide, and Batman, you were right at least on that count. Now we will face a world without powers and I will face a world with only my own thoughts to trouble me._

He joins the other four as they taken away from the scene of their latest fall. Their cells didn't require any special designs because without powers they could not engineer their one escape and besides if they did where would they go?

J'onn had not seen his natural face in a long for he had worn that new look for almost all of the last two years and then his memory trips back to just before his first crossover.

* * *

"_You are talking about __**helping**__ them… but would they accept it? Our kind of __**help**__."

* * *

_

It had become clearer to him that Batman had seen the possibilities of where this intervention of theirs would lead, but he let the Lords cross over anyway though he would stay behind as a warden because it would be 'fatal' to leave 'them' unguarded. In the eyes of most of the Lords, the League reality is a mess that needs fixing, but it was never their place to interfere because this is not their world. It may look like it, smell like it, sound like it, even the Oreos might taste the same, but that absolves nothing.

Luthor's device could easily been used to de-power the Lords and the League, but it was only used against the Lords. Undoubtedly they crossed a line to convince him to do that and Luthor had probably suspected the Lords' true nature while they masqueraded as the League. He agreed, but he probably got something out of the favor. Whatever happens after that is on the League and it made him feel no better about putting them in that position yet that this is lesson of these kinds of calls, one must live with the consequences of what one has done forever.

He had already lived with the consequences of Mars' devastation by the Invaders under the command of the Imperium and what happen after the Lords took power following Luthor's assassination. Now he would have to live and face consequences of interfering here. He didn't blame Batman for sending the League back, he did the right thing, and the Lords had lost their way long ago though it took this to make J'onn consider then acknowledge the truth of the idea.

* * *

A/N 1: J'onn's epiphany is meant to end his persisting indifference and the loss of his powers is meant to 'punish' him through humility.

A/N 2: Hindsight realization is that Batman had already given some insight into how the 'intervention' would turn out. Likewise the disintegration of teamwork is a thought I had based on how rapidly Doomsday was able to take them down, at least until Lorder Superman lobotomized him.


	4. No Exits

"_Just moments ago, President Luthor claims self-defense after shooting Flash, Central City hero, who as Luthor was sent here to kill him. He is also expecting a reprisal from Flash's failure to kill him, and here comes Superman now!"_

_**Superman descends and most stay out of his way, but not the anchor on the scene.**_

"_Superman do you have any comments on the shooting?"_

"_Just stay out of my way. Flash is no assassin and Luthor is twisting things to his advantage again. I can't believe the people elected him to this office of all places. You have no idea what his schemes could to this planet while he is in there!"_

_**Superman tears off the front gates and tosses them in opposite directions towards gun emplacements on the lawn. The guns can't hold up so they crack apart yet the internal security detachment are already on the move within the entrance hall.**_

_**Batman and Wonder Woman drop in to join Superman as he punches way through the front doors to the entrance hall.**_

_**The camera pans towards a blood pool on the front lawn and there lies the Flash bleeding to death.**_

The man watching from the apartment gasps though it is quickly caught off by the woman's screams though the screams choke under the flow of her tears.

"We have to hurry John," implores Shayera.

"I know, let's get going," replies John.

Together they take flight whilst John utilizes his ring to speed them across the country to D.C. The amount of blood loss decreases the odds of saving him as they have little idea how much he has lost or how long ago that he was shot by Luthor. Her mace crackles in reaction to her anger towards Luthor for shooting Flash, he might have made strange gestures, odd jokes, maybe even got her nerves from time to time, but he did not deserve this fate, he is like a brother to her, they are her family. The only exception among the team is John, she loves John, and she had come to admit that to herself in light of what they went through together in the past few months in relation to her years already spent on Earth.

Her tears brought a whole new meaning to the tears of an angel at least to John who had to focus on accelerating them yet it breaks his heart ever so slowly to listen to her cries while his other best friend lies dying in a pool of his own blood. They would just have to get there in time yet like Shayera he kept a fear that they were already too late. He pushes it back into the recesses of his mind and rockets them further.

* * *

Shayera had thoughts of how Despero had turned John's mentor Katma Tui and almost turned her if not for John finding a new meaning, a renewal of confidence to drive him in the use of the power ring. The meaning as she had come to slowly see it is her, his feelings for her, but for her it had been a step towards the events that would come soon after that brush with becoming a concubine of a religious fanatic. She had seen the insanity of a man who was driven to do what he did because he thought he was within his rights to do so, she had to wonder then would her people do the same, only time would tell.

[+]

The next critical experience that brought them truly closer was what happened in Vegas as bombs were all over the place. It was a long night into early morning search to locate then disarm the bombs. They had been arguing on and off earlier that day, which carried over into the mission. He kept telling her stop it, his demanding tone only made her more insistent, but she heard the noise a split second after he did though by that time he blasts her with the ring to clear her of the ground floor of the casino.

She remembers screaming his name aloud for the first time and then she bolts towards the smoldering debris to dig him out. Somehow he made it thanks to his ring yet his heart rate is slowing rapidly, he had taken too much of a hit despite the ring. The mace crackles to life after her repeated attempts at CPR fail and his entire body reacts to the jolt from the mace. He coughs, and then starts breathing again, and she sighs with relief. They spent the rest of the weekend at the Watchtower as John due to the explosion would need to be laid up for a few days yet with he appears to not mind it much with her around.

[+]

The reprieve after Vegas ends with the appearance of a Gordanian Battle Cruiser that conveniently decloaks directly over D.C. in the middle of an international summit being held there that evening. The seven of them are not enough to stand up against something with that kind of firepower though only she would not dare to say such things to them. The hull plating of Gordanian warships is particularly reactive to physical contact once in battle mode, which is why both Superman and J'onn are instantly sent hurdling towards the reflecting pool below. If not for Flash's quick thinking they would hit the ground a lot harder.

She, Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Batman race to join Flash. The others are still recovering from shock by the pool then from above a beam tears right through the battle cruiser, which sends it towards the nearby park. The security perimeter for the summit is why there was no one in the park that night, which put them at ease because it would not do to have people die in a situation like this one. The next thing she saw is an even larger vessel, which she already knows is Talak's command ship as well as the flagship for the Thanagarian Armada. Talak's expeditionary task-force is at the front lines of the war with the Gordanians, which bore uneasy implications if the Gordanians have somehow redrawn the battle lines to include Earth.

Something about the behavior among her old comrades as well as impressions she got from Talak made her suspicious of how they just happen to arrive immediately after the Gordanian warship. Batman likewise found it odd and taken a Gordanian corpse from the wreckage then through an autopsy discovers the battle cruiser crew had died weeks before ship made its appearance in low Earth orbit. It was a masterful ruse that could only be the handiwork of Kragger as deception and manipulation are his tools of warfare. They share this with the others and in turn share it with the World Assembly who shortly thereafter revokes their previous acceptance of the Thanagarians' help.

The 'Shield Generator' (aka Hyperspace Bypass) was nearly complete by the time the team made their ultimatum to Commander Hro Talak. He admits to the deception and then orders his ground forces to return to their ships. The Bypass is set to self-destruct and leaves a smoldering yet temporary crater in the Sahara Desert. Shayera stood by her principles at the cost of her commission, her home world, and the man she had loved before she had fallen in love with John. If not for John and the others then she would not have made it through siding with Earth over Thanagar.

Flash told her she had a no-win scenario with Earth and Thanagar, with John and Hro, but he always said when it comes down to it you made the right call. It would alleviate the sorrow though before long they heard through the intergalactic grapevine that Thanagar had fallen to the Gordanians. There were further rumors that Hro used his flagship in a kamikaze tactic against the Gordanian flagship before it could fire to destroy the remnants of the Thanagarian Fleet. Her race is now divided throughout the universe as some chose to remain to fight to the bitter end while others left with the intent of leaving centuries of warfare behind them.

Shayera heard that most though not all of the survivors consider her a traitor while a scarce few believe she made a stand for a reason for what good is victory in battle if it must be at the cost of billions of lives that have no stake in their war. No matter what news would come or did not come, she still felt pangs of guilt and responsibility for the near extinction of her species. J'onn in that respect becomes a great comfort as he would remind her of his status as quite possibly the last Martian in the universe because of his people's conflict with the Invaders, the same race that almost remade Earth. It took all seven of them together to foil that outcome and ultimately their personal lives would always intersect the professional lives. The cross-purpose of the two spheres is inevitable.

[+]

It is not long after the Thanagarian Deception that Lex Luthor enters as a candidate for president, which she knows Superman greatly disliked at the time. The worst of it is that his statements on planetary security garner much acclaim as he cites incidents still fresh in the minds of millions whether it happen in Metropolis or with the world at large. Superman, Hawkgirl, and J'onn J'onzz found them selves at the center of debate about how much could Earth really trust those who were not born on Earth. Further Superman's record is still under scrutiny because all the incidents involving Darkseid and particular when he fought against Earth on the side of Apokolips.

His talks of plans to step up planetary security, implement further funding to monitor as well as counterbalance the costumes whether they alien, human, or even metahuman. This agency's agenda definitely did not go over well with Batman either as Shayera could tell plainly, but then knowing Batman he probably is working contingency plans on them too. She and Batman had kept files on ways to disable and lock-up their teammates, but Shayera never would have had to use them unless things had gone differently with her people's short lived presence on Earth.

* * *

Luthor fed on the fears of the public in regards to their so-called heroes, but then the consequences of mistakes made by costumes as Batman put it to her are equal to their profession so that meant when any of them 'screw up' they pay for it dearly. However she did not know how dear the cost would be until Wally's disappearance and then when he turns up on the front lawn of the White House months after the election then she got undeniable proof of Batman's conviction about costume consequences.

As for what follows, she could hear the echo of the shotgun ejecting the shell and then her own screams. She begins to realize what drives Batman so much to prevent deaths on his watch, but then just knowing his past did not make up for having a taste of similar things in her own life. She sniffles as she holds Flash's hand and pulls back his mask. He was the youngest of all them and he did deserve to die like this. He had not done anything wrong despite Luthor's accusations.

"It is so beautiful today Hawkgirl. The smell of the grass, the stiff breeze, and this is the best garden I have ever seen save for the ones back in Central City. I have the feeling Batman already knows who I am though you chicks dig the secret identity thing," chuckles Flash weakly.

"Yes it is a lovely day and I thought I was only sort of redhead on the team. You always made me laugh even though I kept holding back on it most of the time. I grew up on a world where everyone was usually quite serious and that humor to us is just another shield, not something to lighten the mood."

"You should laugh more, you'll feel better believe me, heck I couldn't keep doing all this if I didn't laugh or tell jokes as much as I do, takes the tension or the edge off. I take being Flash seriously, but without humor I be too serious to enjoy life outside this red suit," continues Flash.

"You are right… are you… in pain?" asks Shayera softly.

"It hurts like you wouldn't believe. You get it out yet J'onn?"

J'onn had already taken out the bullet while Shayera sat with him. The bullet however already done its work so removing it only stems the possibility of infection yet he had already bled so much that he would die very soon. Shayera and J'onn exchange looks though she had long ago known how to read when a doctor would say with his eyes that the patient won't make it.

"I couldn't ask for a better friend then you, Flash."

"You can call me Wally, that's my secret identity, and yours sounds rather exotic."

"Yes it would to you, but such things are rather common back on Thanagar."

"All the same, I'll tell you something… we Earth men dig exotic women."

Shayera's blush is partially hidden by her headdress. John is on the other side of Wally whilst barely managing to smile at how accurate his friend could tell the kind of women that got his interest.

* * *

The battle within the White House ends with a bright red glow from the Oval Office. Superman vaporized President Luthor and the world would change once again. Batman is the first to leave the area if only to throw himself back into his work in Gotham. Superman with Wonder Woman goes to deal with the press while J'onn retreats back to the Watchtower leaving her and John to take Wally's body back to Central City. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance eventually would come to light and as it turns out he had been psychologically conditioned to go after Luthor except he fought it every step of the way until he finally broke down from the exertion of fighting it.

It is numbing to consider that someone used Wally of all people in this fashion, but these details are kept between the six of them on purpose.

Central City would continue to honor him as they had always done by remembering all the good he had done for them instead of latching onto the events of his death.

The behind the scenes activities of Luthor's administration becomes proof positive that he was indeed masterminding the conflicts that would drive the world into a global warfare between the costumes and the governments, but he had only gotten so far. As for the agency he put to work on developing weapons to fight the costumes, they went to ground and all leads on them met dead ends for now. It is also however the first time she had come face to face with realizing that species makes little difference between those who are good and those who are evil.

She had to wonder how Batman found out so much about Luthor's shadowy associates when he hardly left Gotham anymore, but often there were rumors about allies of Batman who he did not officially acknowledge yet kept contact with all the same. She decides his discoveries may belong to his unacknowledged allies though all the same things were changing though not quite necessarily for the better.

First it was Superman's costume change, then Batman's, next it is Wonder Woman's, and before long J'onn is looking more withdrawn than ever with his new militaristic look. The costumes that she had daily seen for the past few years are no more and she too begins to wonder if a costume change is in order for her though if she did what kind of change would she be reflecting.

Like Diana she went with a shorter hairstyle that is hidden by her helmet, which replaces her more resplendent headdress. She shifts to a single color body suit that leaves only her shoulders bare for obvious reasons at to maybe her and John.

* * *

She goes incognito to attend Wally's funeral in Central City. She thought she was the only one of the six there though she did spot John who hid his glowing eyes behind dark opaque shades and then there was a rather slender looking man who looks at least by stature along comparable to J'onn. The facial features are unmistakable though he is trying to pass himself off as human and it does looking convincing to most people though those here are too drawn to the coffin.

She saw Linda Park standing with Wally's family. Linda looks as if she had been crying as much as Shayera had though Shayera hid her reddened eyes behind dark brown sunglasses. They are all grieving his death though not together, something else died that afternoon besides Wally. Afterward there is random chatter as to why his teammates had not made an appearance at his funeral though they had never known it they were there just not in their costumes.

Shayera did not know on her way towards the very end that Bruce had come alone to pay his respects without the others to pass judgment on him or for the media to take notice of a billionaire visiting the grave of a dead superhero. Shayera never spoke to him about whether he went, but the next time she went to the site, she found a fresh rose that was not there when they all left after the burial. In the wake of Wally's death, she and John had become closer than ever to the point of marrying while Bruce and Diana had gone their separate ways.

The six of them without realizing it had fallen into a fashion of similar looking costumes to the point that the costumes might be called team uniforms, which were only off-set by the wearer's pick of colors.

* * *

She did her best to maintain her friendship with Bruce while John kept after Diana though she like John saw the only way those two would ever get close to each other again would be to reconcile whatever broke them apart in the first place. Shayera had a sinking feeling that it had to do with what Superman had done to Batman's rogues and how Diana had put Superman in the know about Joker's abduction of one of Batman's costume partners.

Professionally the Justice Lords had become a symbol of authority and fear, but as the months go by there are signs that their hands-on approach is starting to work against them. The breakup of the Batclan is proof of that because even the sagely butler had left Wayne Manor after the lobotomies had become a given to the Rogues. She understood the older man's misgivings, but Batman and Bruce finally understood why 'family' is important. It took losing it to make the meaning clear to Bruce as well as Batman.

Her chess matches with Batman continue from week to week though one day she had come in to find him sweeping up pieces of a broken mirror though said nothing to him about it. The manor had fallen into a state of vacancy and most of the rooms went unused. It had become a house, not a home, and maybe it really did seem the part of a mausoleum if she got the meaning of that kind of place right. Their abrupt conversations during the chess matches turn philosophical quite often.

"I recall a conversation I had years ago with someone who like countless others can no longer stomach talking to me or being around me for that matter," says Batman.

"What was the conversation about?" asks Shayera.

"I was in doubt whether Batman was really doing any good at all. An ally of mine in the police force had been fatally injured during a bust and his life hung by a thread. The man who shot him realizing that my ally was not dead chose to attempt to make another attempt to seal my ally's fate."

Shayera listens as intently as ever.

"If not for the words of Robin… of Dick… my 'son' and partner… I would not have perhaps gotten there in time to stop the shooter from finishing what he had set out to do the night before."

"So you got him before your ally was killed, that's what matters."

"The point in all that was I got delayed stopping a scuffle between street criminals while my ally and his SWAT team tried to handle the shooter's cronies as well as the shooter without my backup."

"You can't be every where at once… we all make mistakes."

"Mine almost cost Gordon his life."

"Do all your mistakes drag back to that alley?"

Batman glares at her, she had struck a nerve, though perhaps he had to admit she was right in some way.

"I have to wonder if the measures we have taken have made us lose sight of what we do in the world. Crime is down, criminals are fewer, but now we are starting to turn on civilians. I only went to the extreme to keep Superman out of my city, but now there is almost nothing for me to keep going on for."

"What we do to maintain peace and security is the price of vigilance."

"You really believe that?"

"I have to believe something otherwise how else can I keep going out there?"

"I would think John would be expecting you back by now."

"Right, he wants to celebrate our anniversary with takeout from that place near his apartment."

"I would almost say I envy you and him, but then this is what I get for giving my all to this."

"If giving it up would get you and her back together… then maybe you should give it up."

"This is all I have left… but maybe you are right..."

* * *

The following year whether she had known it or not they would all be on the path to a place with no exits, but maybe that is the point. Batman's inter-dimensional gate had shown her another version of herself who is not as close to her John as she is to her and her dead friend is still alive to keep that her laughing no doubt. She had seen her husband blast that version of her without remorse and yet the other John could not immediately bring himself to blast her, she wonders where had the hesitation in her John gone?

However she had been around the others for so long that she forgotten what they all had been like before they were the Justice Lords. She fell hard not once, but twice that night, the second time was when the other Luthor's power disruptor took away her ability to use her mace. The impact with the concrete ground felt sharp though perhaps that is the meaning, they all had to fall hard to realize what they had become then maybe turn away from it before it could destroy the realization.

The other Shayera is not present for the fight because she is still under the effects of the sedation that she was left in at Arkham so she found a rather disheartening reminder of what was lost to her when getting up with the familiar red sleeve holding her hand. It is the other Flash yet in all the ways that count he could just as easily be the Wally she knew back from the dead. The same almost carefree smile, the same red hair probably, and if she could remember what it meant to laugh, she might have found a way to ease the tension thought it would never come.

"You look just like him," whispers Shayera.

"You are almost like her," murmurs Flash.

"I miss him almost every day," continues Shayera.

"I'd hate to see her torn up by mistakes," remarks Flash.

"We all make them then we have to live with them," comments Shayera.

"Guess you would know that one," says Flash coldly.

"You have every right to be outraged by us," responds Shayera sadly.

"I'd do anything to keep them from turning you guys."

"Just don't go…"

"Dying on them? I sure as heck don't plan on doing that!"

"Good for you little brother."

"What did you call me?"

"I think of the Wally I knew as a little brother… she is probably coming into the same view of you."

"So what does that make her to me? A big sister only y'know short?"

Shayera cracks up laughing before she starts crying between giggles. After the handover, she never saw the other Flash again though she never forgot his joke and she would hope nothing bad ever happens to him though she had the feeling that the others would make sure of that because of them. Both teams had seen what they are, what they were, and what had become of both versions of relatively the same person except for the decisions of the past few years.

* * *

At least they let her spend time with her John, but somehow they were bound to disagree about how the others had gotten back. The general consensus is that Batman had let them and that he to pay for it though on that they did not agree, which had shown to her that they were no longer a family, let alone a team, but again maybe that's the point of being stuck in a place with no exits. She decides to let her hair grow back and Diana reluctantly did the same since those who left to watch over them had put restrictions on them even in their depowered state.

She had finally fallen asleep with ease after the first few days and all that matters is she is with John. She thinks if she leaves this bed now, the world would turn upside down again, and she had enough of that to last a lifetime so she would stay here with him. It is world enough for her in his arms.

* * *

A/N 1: This is a rewrite of the original No Exits, which usually like most of my rewrites tends to read better and deeper to me. Of course when I put the original writes of the chapters from **_Just Like You_** to my more recent stories, it seems lacking to me.

A/N 2: Certain familiar events from the series main reality happen earlier in the Lords' reality at least in my take so that it might account for Shayera and John being closer in the Lords' reality whereas in the main reality they won't come together until after the events of Wild Cards.

A/N 3: Shayera is the only one besides Batman to express misgivings about their modus operandi though hers deals more with their reality instead of relating it to the other reality or more precisely their League counterparts.

A/N 4: The dialogue between Lorder Hawkgirl and League Flash is new. It is a fanfic type of foreshadowing to how Flash reacts towards what happens during the events of **Starcrossed**.


	5. Death in the Family

He knows his best friend is dead, but some part of him could never fully accept it. Shayera could read him so well, she could tell that he is thinking about Wally, and to pass the time they tell old stories about him. It made passing the time lighter until they both sought out a drink to lessen the strain that remembering that day brought to them. Wally's death hit upon each of the six differently and for John it is deeply personal as in many ways was always the personality opposite of John. When Rex Mason died, John was the youngest in the squad, but this time around Wally was the youngest of the seven. They had become six with Flash's demise, but they went on pledging to restore peace and security to the world after Luthor's assassination.

* * *

His first change after they had become the Justice Lords is reverting to Marine haircut though it starts to clash with the Lantern uniform so he decides it is also time to adopt a new look as the others were already doing it themselves. He kept the green and the black. However upon closer inspection one notices the parts that were green are now black while the parts that were black are now green. Before his uniform was more green than black, but it is the opposite. His efforts to remake law and order as he saw begins in his home city though they did not take kindly to it. He also found that those who used to look up to him were now afraid of him or felt immense disdain towards him.

Virgil Hawkins and Rich Foley hung up their costumes rather than join an attempt to expand the Lords' numbers. The expanded team did not last very long as the misgivings about methods and policies led to rapid departures by all within in less than a year. The ones that left early did not surprise John, but of course Virgil's rejection of him stung pretty badly. Virgil's interpretations of heroes and villains made him unlikely to ever agree with the way the Lords are doing things. The ones that stuck around eventually saw that through what they refer to as only temporary garbage is not fooling us anymore and before long the people will turn on you too. Green Arrow made that implication to John before he left and soon enough the people did start to protest on various grounds including the fact that there had been no elections since Luthor's death.

* * *

The people to him had shown a serious lapse in judgment when they put Luthor in charge of the government and he had grown up in a world where nuclear annihilation was a given. His vindication is that someone else has to be the authority in order to prevent someone else like Luthor from gaining power. In the hands of too many regulating peace and security would only lead to more deaths were liable to happen and one death is already one too many for John. He need only remind himself of the day Wally died from a gunshot wound inflicted by Luthor and an afternoon weeks later when they put Wally in the ground.

Shayera is his rock through the weeks, the months, and even as more than a year passed since that day never made doing his job easier yet he had to do it because no one else would and no one else is up to task except the Justice Lords. They had to make the hard decisions and popularity is damned, but still he could tell the looks from people were becoming increasingly discomforting at least to Shayera. Locals in his city duck him for reasons he never quite understood, but then he had long since lost that fear that he had become too alien in his time away from Earth. All the same, the change in people's attitudes after more than a year is gradually unsettling, but still they had to go do their jobs even if it meant being authoritarian to an extreme.

It is the team's responsibility and his duty to keep the world safe from itself at least in his mind.

* * *

John makes his regular visit to the park in Central City where they buried Flash. The headstone is in the shape of Flash's costume emblem, a lightning bolt no less, and beneath it are the words from one of Flash's favorite movies. He had to wonder if Wally really was their Jiminy, but then conscience pangs got in the way of the job or as Batman would put it 'the mission'.

"_Let your conscience be your guide"_

Leave it to Wally to be full of childlike wonder and one of the biggest movie collections John had ever seen in his life including films like Pinocchio and Old Yeller. John grits his teeth at the thought of Old Yeller, it is John's favorite film, but every time it got to the part where Yeller is put down, John could rarely sit still for it. It made him sick to his stomach, but then watching Wally die somehow made him loose the gut wrenching feeling that death or dying usually put him in. He stands there for the longest time and not noticing how the hour is getting late to the point that he starts hearing crickets of all things.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one still doing this."

"He was my best friend; of course he did annoy me, but always got a good laugh from him."

"Yes the ones we love or care about have that tendency, I miss him every day."

"I know we as group did not attend, but some of us were in disguise."

"I guess you weren't all ready to be public in your mourning maybe."

"Something like that I guess."

They stood together silently for awhile until he said he somewhere else. She hugs him and hopes maybe they could have a friendly get-together some other time. He reacts somewhat amicable to the suggestion and she admits she understands some why they have become somewhat more proactive with what happen with Luthor. She also however asks him to consider how long this will go on for and of course he says what all the others keep saying if the press or someone gets close enough to ask them. He flies off ring active and Central City is now just another place on the map for the time being.

* * *

Things had gone farther with Hawkgirl, with _Shayera_ than he expected but it felt right, it was time to make some happiness in his life again. His fight with Hro Talak was something he was eager to forget, but getting his arm busted in the fight was less than memorable. She had agreed to play with Talak since they were suspicious about the coincidences surrounding the 'Gordanian's failed attack' in D.C. She found out, but of course Kragger and Paran Dul were suspicious of her all along. She was caught transmitting the bypass schematics to a secured frequency tied into the Bat cave's computer.

She got lucky that John and Diana manage to break into Talak's command ship to rescue her. Superman had been on a rampage smashing Thanagarian fighters. Batman meanwhile rigs a binary fusion generator originally intended for the watchtower into a bomb to be dropped on the bypass once the shield is offline. The bomb effectively obliterates it and the Thanagarians depart to find somewhere to resume the war effort yet they would lose though Hawkgirl would join the ranks of alien immigrant patriots such as Superman and J'onn.

Back in the present, John dines with Shayera who has certainly found a way to look more than stunning in Earth attire. Their romance endures as they watch from the sidelines as the kindling that almost brought Batman and Wonder Woman together smolders into dust. There is not hatred exactly, but Batman is drifting further into seclusion and Wonder Woman further into frustration. All his infrequent meetings and encounters with the woman who he used to call a rookie with the tiara prove that she still cares for Batman, for Bruce, but she does not know what make of his feelings if he still has any. She is in a place where she cannot decide to move on or keep trying though of course she resolves to quit trying to get to him because he just does not seem to want anything to do with her in that way.

* * *

"You realize you are driving her away. I know the others left you for one reason or another, but she is still willing though she'll give up someday because damn you can be so stubborn when you think you have made up your mind."

"Give it a rest Stewart and do stop almost channeling Wally on this one."

"Why are you bringing West into this, it has nothing to do with him. This is about you."

"Keep telling yourself, we are professionals here, what you do with your personal life is your deal and as for mine stay out of it. If we can all still work together as a team that counts most."

"You really are insane, but of course, I can deal with that, though when put next to Superman these days, you actually look like the sane one for a change."

"Be glad Kent never hears that one though even at this distance I wouldn't be so sure."

"You know as well as I do that he hates being referred to as that now. Of course, they cannot stand him anymore than Alfred or the others could stand me before they left. I even got a few letters and calls from Lois demanding that I knock some sense into Superman. It is more the lack of Clark that bothers her because he is Superman all the time now."

"Well I'm sorry for disturbing you because we both have jobs to do tonight."

"Good night."

* * *

The relationships between that once been anchors to either Batman or Superman went away by the turn of year two. It did not surprise John, but then he spent more time focusing on Shayera though she will still talk about her infrequent encounters with Diana. Diana had chosen to redirect her attention to as far away Gotham as she could get and for the lack of a better she too had become a workaholic. As for Lois Lane, she spent most of her days stuck in the 'tower' where Superman put her to keep her safe, John understood concern for her safety because she is a civilian, but Shayera had her objections to confining anyone who had done nothing wrong.

Lois had not done anything wrong, but even an aesthetically attractive apartment that she could rarely leave without escort is like being chained to a boulder.

* * *

Superman accedes the handling of the Smallville U riot to him and Shayera. He could tell that Superman was only steps away from punching him when he spoke of Smallville as his hometown, but then he forgot in the moment that Superman quit Clark Kent about the same time as...

It gives him a serious discomfort every time something happens to trigger remembrance of that particular day.

Superman had a date with Lois.

Wonder Woman just leaves the Monitor Hub. J'onn had not set foot on Earth since after Wally's funeral, which spoke volumes about J'onn's loss of faith in humanity or maybe just himself. John could never tell exactly. John enshrouds himself and Shayera in a green bubble construct before descending to Earth. It looks so peaceful from up Earth, but look too closely and one would see the truth that beneath all they had done since taking the reins is starting to unravel with civil unrest like at Smallville University. They had become symbols, but symbols of what?

* * *

John sees all what they do as part of their job, their task to maintain order, but then the whole this is only temporary rhetoric is starting to wear thin for many across the world. It they were too simply step back then things would revert back to the way they were, if not worst, if they reining in then eventually the people would turn on them entirely. It is increasingly untenable position, but they had done the impossible before, so they would just have to do so again for the sake of the future of Earth. However he even had doubts about how far doing what is necessary extends from they had done already.

As he and Shayera fly towards Smallville U, Shayera initiates a comlink call to Batman.

"You're sure you don't want to help us out?" asks Shayera.

"_Too much to do,"_ answers Batman dryly.

"C'mon, for old time's sake," insists John.

"_I hate old times,"_ retorts Batman.

They almost never did anything as a team anymore. The team went from an are to a were though such a subtlety is not lost on John. As each operates wherever they gravitate towards yet only Wonder Woman is active across much of the planet and occasionally Superman. If to prove a point then Superman might take Wonder Woman with him to an intervention zone. It is another thing that they went from filing mission reports to submitting intervention logs and most of those went through J'onn who acts more like a handler than a teammate in the past year and a half. As soon as the pair are within sight of the riot police and the campus protesters, the whole situation dissolves as a majority of the protesters take off with almost supernatural quickness.

The riot police however detain the 'leader' by pinning him to the ground with almost 'excessive' force and they just stand there on the rooftop watching the scene unfold as if almost indifferent observers to a situation that would have once been only on them.

"I used to go bed every night afraid that the world was going to blow itself up, but not anymore."

Shayera doesn't look as if she totally believes him. She talks about the looks on everyone's faces, but John still insists they found a better way. Their comlinks chirp again as Batman is calling a team meeting at the Batcave though even they had to wonder why he would be doing this after he unequivocally banned Superman and Wonder Woman from entering Gotham since the Arkhamites' lobotomies.

* * *

They take off flying east to Gotham. J'onn comes down from the Watchtower while Wonder Woman comes from elsewhere. The four converge on Superman who is hovering over Wayne Manor waiting for them or rather expecting them. He clearly doesn't want to be here, but he had come anyway. The doors open once Batman knows they are there as all entry points to the Manor as John had found from Shayera were all voice coded to Batman's voice only though that wouldn't necessary stop everyone from going inside. However Shayera also told him that Batman put in countermeasures to deny the five of them easy passage unless he had those countermeasures offline, which he did for now.

Batman even had the Batcave lead lined, which is something that briefly took Superman by surprise as he had not set foot inside the manor in more than two years now. The grandfather clock opens up to reveal the winding stairwell down to the Batcave. They descend and John clenches his jaw to avoid chattering because the Batcave is a lot cooler than even Detroit could be this time of year. He catches Shayera rubbing her upper arms as if she too is cold, but there's no show of chill from the other three.

The five finally reach the interior of the Batcave and Batman taps a control to active the video feed.

The eight people in the feed look awfully familiar until it occurs that it might be an old video of them, but why would Batman call them down here for some dated footage. Batman explains that it is an alternate reality, that those seven are known as the Justice _League_, that their Luthor is still alive, and more striking at least to him as well as Shayera is that their Flash still lives too. An unofficial vote is made that they would conduct an intervention in the other reality to prevent their Luthor from doing more damage, but of course Batman's warning appears to go unheeded by all.

"Why tell us the obvious? That they would disapprove of our methods? I'm like we are them with the exception of Flash," says John.

"He thinks we are missing the point Stewart. He thinks we are too heavy handed for the mentality and the methodology they still follow," interjects Diana.

"Their reality is still the mess ours used to be," continues John.

"Perhaps only one of us should step through first, best not to shock them, we do need them to believe our genuine interest in helping them," suggests Shayera.

"I nominate J'onn," remarks Batman.

"I agree," says Superman.

"So the only question left is… what to tell them?" comments Diana.

"Not the truth obviously," quips Superman.

"So we are going to feed them a lie?" snorts Batman.

"Now we are back to this again… why bother showing us this if we are going to do nothing!" snaps Superman.

"It is a discover that this machine works, but it doesn't mean we use it," snarls Batman.

The two stand there staring at each like they had finally seen how opposite they had become from the way they were before the Six had become authority symbols. Batman however relents noticing everyone is posturing against him or at least John perceives his backing down to mean that much.

"Tell them whatever it takes to draw them over here, but expect the other Batman to be suspicious, need to be convincing," reminds Diana.

A box lined with electrical nodes is put into place around the portal then J'onn phases through it before stepping into the vortex.

John spots a knowing smile on Diana's face when proven right about her suspicions about the other Batman and the other J'onn is a hard sell too, but five out of seven still think they are coming here to avert a collapse of several realities. J'onn phases out of the box only moments after the crossover then a switch is thrown electrocuting the seven inside while the six appear to do all they can to ignore the howls and the screams of their counterparts. It is seen that the other Shayera is resisting the stun with her mace and is trying to break through the box's outer shell by smashing it with the mace. The outer shell shears clean off and she is about to step out of it ready probably to attack them for 'lying' to them.

John walks over and blasts her with his ring without much though he notices their Flash is still conscious. The other Wally had seen him strike the other Shayera with a ring energy construct blast. His dead best friend's counterpart had seen him intentionally hurt someone, but John tries to ignore by mentally reminding himself that just because that guy there looks like him, doesn't mean it is exactly him. Another part of him however goes on a rant saying it doesn't make a difference... you just hurt someone who looks exactly like your **_wife_**.

* * *

The other Shayera is put in Arkham's Medical Wing and the other six are put into specialized cells meant to inhibit their powers. The other John Stewart's ring is taken from him. The other Flash is put into locks that he cannot vibrate out of and his restraints also restrict his speed. The other Wonder Woman is held in place by her lasso and restraints made to redirect her physical strength against her. The other Superman is kept in a cell with red solar lamps. Lastly the other Batman is the one everyone expect to lead the escape except Batman had a cell made special for his counterpart, which would give away any attempt to escape because of motion sensors and mercury switches.

"I believe the five of you can handle the situation over there. Somebody has to stay here and keep an eye on them anyway. We wouldn't want history repeating itself, would we?" implies Batman.

"Go ahead be a warden to these guys, we'll finish faster without you," rebukes Superman.

* * *

John like the others would not learn until later that Batman had set himself up to be duped by the other Flash and probably the other Batman too. It didn't take a detective to work out how the League got back, but the other Shayera thanks to him was not in that fight though the other John Stewart had shown great reluctance to shoot his Shayera yet eventually he did so. The hesitation is something John had thought himself rid of long ago, but to see it in action again had given him pause yet when he did shoot Shayera, John had given into rage to avenge an offense against his love, against his Shayera.

The fight between League and Lords went on for a time until the other Luthor appears then blasts the five of them including John with a power disruptor apparently. John fell hard and soon found himself facing the other John who still had an active power ring.

"Why did you do this? Why did you shoot Hawkgirl?"

"You still call her that? You don't know her real name?"

"She's still very secretive, but she acts so strange around me."

"She has feelings for you, but clearly you two haven't reciprocated yet like mine and I did."

"You are saying me and Hawkgirl together?"

"Just because it happen with us, doesn't mean it'll happen with you two, but who knows if you share my taste in exotic women… then perhaps it is store for you."

"Your tactics certainly make me wonder why the Guardians let you keep the ring or stay a Lantern for that matter."

"I told them what happen. They agreed that we were in a precarious and untenable situation at the time yet since that meeting they and I have rarely spoken at all though I suspect perhaps they would seek me out, but all the same it still has not happen even to this day."

"How did the six of you get like this?"

"To me its old news, to you it probably is not, but the fact is a lot went wrong and we made hard calls to weather the bad times though there are some things you can never weather starting with what happen to Flash. Luthor took office and killed him then Superman killed Luthor."

"It sounds a bit drastic."

"He shot Flash with a bloody shotgun on the front lawn of the White House… that ain't drastic enough for you?"

"It is upsetting, but doesn't mean you abandon your Lantern Oath."

"When it has not happen to you, you are open to speculate, but when it happens to you, you'll get where I am coming from though some part of me prays you never have to find out what a death in the 'family' does to a team of superheroes who have a bond that's thicker than blood and water."

"I hope I never do either, but life and this profession ain't often that fair."

"True… don't wait too long to figure out if things could get serious with you and her though. I never regret what happen with us, so don't regret what does or does not happen with her, this job is too damn demanding… I didn't realize how much I needed her until the job almost got to me."

* * *

The other John Stewart left presumably to check on his Hawkgirl and as for John he looks to find his wife, his Shayera because now all he felt like he had left of his old life is her. He, she, and the others were taken to a secret facility to be kept hidden because obviously someone in the government wanted their visit kept secret. They also took the Lords' gadgets including John's ring and Shayera's mace.

He finds Shayera spread out on a mattress in a cell across from his.

They did not forbid contact between the Lords, but likewise they were not completely free to do as they might like, but then unlike Ajuris 4, this time he is guilty by association and by his own actions. He felt he did not deserve to be a Lantern anymore so if he ever made it back to his reality he would have to face the music as Virgil would put it and the music would be the judgment of the Guardians. Of course they might send Rayner back to Earth though he would likely have a hard time given that John's actions have pretty much made Lanterns **_persona non grata_** no doubt, but then almost anybody wearing a costume is likely to go underground.

He could only imagine what Batman or rather Bruce would do without them around, but then even Bruce had demons of his own to face from those who undoubtedly seek to punish him they were after all not above the law. It would be too easily to say he had lost his way because he went into with both eyes open and now he sees his own eyes for what they have become as the green is gone leaving only the traces of bloodshot in them. His rock again is Shayera, but then she too had come to depend on him.

He traces the outline of her face with his fingers as she lies beneath him with her wings spread against the mattress. The only thing he could think of doing right now was to get lost inside her and apparently she felt the same.

The cells were the only places they were given privacy aside from the bathrooms, which were utilitarian like the cells.

He could feel her almost clawing into his skin with her nails and he tries to focus more on red orange hair then on her green eyes. The first time he saw them he could not take his eyes off them, but now he didn't want to look as if he were avoiding them. He just did not want to gaze into them because then they would both remember abruptly what happen to them instead of staying here in this moment where they had given into their desire to embrace on every level while pushing reality away from them. It is an affirmation of life even when everything else felt dead to him.

* * *

A/N 1: This is the rewrite of the Lorder Green Lantern chapter. Like the previous rewrites it expands on the initial take though I make more mentions of characters affected by his modus operandi shift including Virgil Hawkins aka Static Shock.

A/N 2: Lords' attempt to expand the roster fails though this only foreshadows civilian unrest that follows such as the protest at Smallville U.

A/N 3: John clearly remains affected by Wally's death though even with that death he still has a light in his life from Shayera, but even he can't ignore her misgivings about what's happening to the six of them after all this time. Their relationship holds while the other couples drift apart.


	6. Her Voice

S/N: Rewrites are gems and so are fellow fanfic writers such as Belphegor.

* * *

All that is left of the man he used to be is in a lead box in her closet. She rarely takes it out especially not when he is in her apartment. It feels strange to mourn someone who is not physically dead, only perhaps spiritually gone from her life. She cooks and cleans like always, but she is never allowed to leave the apartment tower anymore. The SWAT that guards the tower usually provides the same rhetoric she heard from him all the time about why she is to remain there in his absence. It is for her own safety he says, it is in her best interest to not roam Metropolis without him around to mind her from the sky, and other similar excuses have been given for nearly two years now.

She can see the familiar Saturn shaped globe turning in the distance. It seems more than just too far away. It feels like she'll never be able to get back to it, because there is the only place where she ever felt like her voice did the most good in the world. The last article she wrote was about Luthor's assassination as she fearlessly called it and papers across the country all had responses to it. Some supported her views and others refuted it given what the country learned of Luthor's war plans. Either way she opened the door to the debate about the Justice Lords on-going interventions across the world.

Luthor was the only beginning of the end of what the world as it was and the beginning of a world where the word of the Justice Lords was the only law that matters for humanity is too 'inept' to govern itself. The opinion is not one many take with dignity, but many seem abide the notion out of fear of the Lords. She however is not afraid of them, she despises what they have become, but more so what he had become through what he had given up in becoming a full time Superman.

* * *

She didn't like the fact that Luthor won the election, many did not like, but everyone went along with it because he had done it legal and proper. It was not until Luthor had sent the world towards war that people began to question what they had been thinking they voted for him. It was an awakening for millions, but others they had been suspicious of him all along especially Superman as well as Clark Kent. Kent was quite vocal in his article against the election of Lex Luthor. The Planet and more so Perry White took a risk running it.

It was largely ignored out of turn. Those who did read either wrote letters demanding a retraction or simply went after Kent on the street. It was probably the first time she had seen Clark flick someone down the street with only his index finger. It also became the first of many acts by Clark she couldn't forget, let alone forgive or even understand.

It was then that she began to see less of Clark and more of Superman.

There were also those who support some of Kent's views about Luthor as president and they would be proven right with the war. However they became divided after Superman vaporized Luthor in the Oval Office because for them a costume doing that is crossing the line.

Dissension became increasingly more common throughout the world, but most protests were defused by active marital law coupled with a show of force from the Lords so the opposition became scaled back though it would not go away, Lois knew that from the start. Things on a whole were disintegrating from her perspective yet the Lords are indifferent because as far as they are concerned it is security over freedom. 'Excessive' freedom got Luthor elected and the only to prevent a relapse was to mind all politicians. Furthermore all crimes must be dealt with no matter how small.

Lois recalls her last conversation with Bruce only weeks after the assassination.

"_You want people to respect the big laws. You better enforce the little ones."_

"_True, but what happens when you start treating civilians as criminals?"_

"_If they break the law then they are by definition a criminal."_

"_It can't be that simple."_

"_It is not, but from now on nobody gets a break."_

"_You can't be serious. "_

"_I am Lois, now if you don't mind I have patrol shortly."_

She had known Bruce Wayne for several years and he never struck her as hardhearted though his responses were quite chilling though she had to wonder if his behavior was in response to Superman's aggressive handling of Strykers' escapees. The convict escape attempts fell to an all time and then to nil within months. The injuries they sustained by Superman's change of tactics did the 'trick' and not long after the lobotomies started being inflicted by way of Superman's heat vision. His first 'patients' were Batman's Rogues (aka the Arkhamites).

The very first as she learned was Joker.

She heard the circumstances surrounding the incident. All the same, she felt Superman's response to Joker's actions to be extreme. She also expected Batman's and Bruce's response to the outcome of that intervention to similarly fault Superman.

Nothing deterred him from lobotomizing the rest and then to her horror he inflicted the same on his own as well as trying to do it to some of the dead Flash's Rogues. Some manage to go to ground or skip town to escape what happen to the others.

* * *

The change in Metropolis began to remind her too much of the alternate reality she crossed over into several years back. The crossover was an accident, but to her it feels more like déjà vu nowadays. Superman's costume looks far too much like that alternate Superman's look except he kept the cape. The alternate Superman forged an alliance with the alternate Luthor, which led to the militarized style of law enforcement. In effect Superman was almost Luthor's errand boy to put it lightly, but then he went into working with his greatest enemy in order to 'protect' Metropolis. The alternate Superman claims her death as part of why he turned to Luthor in order to truly police Metropolis.

The alternate Superman goes into detail about the circumstances surrounding his Lois' death and how Intergang was responsible for it. It was from then on he saw that he a war on his hands and the only way to fight it was with resources, which meant going to Luthor and Luthor was more than willing to do it because it meant having Superman pliable. Pliable in that he would be more receptive to Luthor's agenda in regards to Metropolis. It was only later that Superman found out just how inhuman everyone was being treated especially those he used to see constantly while working as Clark Kent at the _Daily Planet_.

He would have a long road ahead of him if Metropolis chose to give him a second chance, but it meant first putting a stop to Luthor's authority. In some ways he is just as guilty as Luthor for what happen to Metropolis, but then those who had to confront Luthor along side Superman and Lois chose to direct their grievances onto the other half of the authority that hounded them in the past few years.

Luthor attempted to flee, but Superman chased him down except Luthor still had the Kryptonite taken from Jimmy. Superman dropped back whilst damaging Luthor's escape vehicle to the extent that Luthor can no longer maneuver it or eject it from before it smashed into the face of the stone statue with Luthor's face on it.

Superman and Lois return to the ruins of STAR Labs since it is more than time for her to return to her reality though before she leaves she gives him a parting kiss. He would have to learn how to be someone like he used to be and most assuredly bring back Clark. However he would also have to learn to be both sides of his personality without a Lois Lane. Lois had hope that he becomes what she knows he can be again even if it means leaving him without someone like her to be an anchor for him.

* * *

Repeat encounters with Darkseid did little to improve Superman's disposition and then there was Dan Turpin's death. Darkseid in a rather cruel exit gesture used something called Omega Beams to vaporize Turpin much to the recoil horror of everyone present with the exception of Orion and his backup from New Genesis. She saw him snap and begin pummeling the tank that he had been cuffed to by Darkseid as a way of showing the city what resisting him would bring them, but Turpin saw something else, it was only after that she began to understand see what the late hero saw in her hero.

He had seen a hero that was uncompromising in his ideals. He had seen someone who would take all manner of punishment for the sake of what he believes he must always be true to. It had also shown that Superman even in his battered state could still rally others to do the right thing as they saw it. It was Turpin's stand that inspired them and perhaps it even renewed Superman's determination to face the invading army as well as its malevolent leader.

The arrival of Orion with an army to match Darkseid's is only part of why Darkseid backed down for it was clear that the conqueror saw his chance bungled once more though like Lois already thought he did something worse than stormed the gates of Metropolis. He had killed one of their own, the very same who stood his ground and paid the ultimate price for it. A price too high especially for Superman and his outrage literally shook the city. He crushed the tank into metal shards until he could no longer summon the will to keep pounding it.

It wouldn't change the fact that Darkseid murdered Dan Turpin. It was the first she had seen him cut loose and snap visibly. It is a life taken for no other reason than to enrage Superman. It was violent and senseless end to one of the bravest men she knew among the Metropolis SCU. She could only imagine the heartbreak that both Turpin's wife and Maggie Sawyer went through that day or even in all the years after. Sawyer was stuck in the hospital after an earlier skirmish left her badly injured and most think of her as Dan's other partner in that she knows how to handle him on the job.

Life went on after Turpin's funeral, but for many that moment had left a permanent scar especially in the memory of Superman. The two were more than just allies because together they had foiled a prior association between Intergang and Apokolips. However it was Superman's resistance to Darkseid's moves against Earth through Metropolis that kept Darkseid and his lackeys coming back for more.

In truth, the calm that eventually came to Metropolis after that incursion was temporary though most didn't want to think of it that way.

* * *

Perry assigned Clark to cover the impending execution of Ernest Walker and somehow her Smallville had become convinced Walker was innocent despite having fenced a stolen necklace that belong to the woman he convicted for killing in cold blood. 'Smallville' had by some rare streak found something that Walker's public defender overlooked, which was that Walker was paying for a pizza takeout order at relatively the exact time that the woman was murdered that night. He had found the restaurant and floppy disks that kept back logs of orders made to the restaurant. A delivery boy's memory would be spotty, but an order log was impossible to falsify unless the real killer knew about the restaurant's logging backups.

It was shortly after that Clark left to speak to the governor about his discovery and get Walker a pardon, but Clark never made it. He was killed by a car bomb left in his car. The explosion destroyed the disk, but the lack of a body made Lois suspicious yet the fact that Clark didn't try to contact her steadily dimmed her hopes that he survived the blast. She went to search his apartment only to find several things missing including his computer and she found police model taps in his phones. She had known things about taps thanks to her father who in his earlier years was an MP.

She encountered Superman in the midst of her search. The conversation led to them talking about Clark and she found herself picking up a photo taken of the two them together. She recalls admitting she had great respect for him despite regularly teasing him, she heard voice cracking, and crying just a little, which she had never done while alone with Superman.

Only moments later they find another bomb and Superman quickly rushed Lois away from the apartment as the bomb explodes setting the apartment on fire. She saw someone she thought was Detective Bowman down below on the street watching Superman put the fire out. The coincidences were one too many. Bowman was the first on the scene at the woman's murder, was the one who arrested Walker for said homicide, and again first to arrive after Clark's car exploded days earlier.

Together she and Superman get Bowman to incriminate himself.

[+++]

Ernest Walker is pardoned and Bowman is sent to the gas chamber in his place. She caught the man responsible for Clark's 'death', as well as the woman whom Walker was framed for murdering, and Walker was now a free man as Clark would have wanted it. The story was satisfying, but the fun of it died along with losing her other half, losing Clark. Her mood gets a kicker when her phone rings and she hears Lana Lang's voice telling her that Clark is still alive.

She literally raced to the elevator then impatiently waited for it to reach the underground parking garage. She nearly was speeding on her way to Lana's address. She alternates between giggles and tears the whole way. She considered the idea that Clark's jest about him being Superman was actually true because how else could he have survived a car bomb, but instead she decided that it was better having him back then trying to validate or invalidate that line of thought.

She took time to redo her mascara before going upstairs to face whether that phone call was real or imaginary. It was real enough once she saw Clark lying in bed with a bandage around his head and wearing the ever familiar pair of eyeglasses. Her conversation with Clark and Lana is brief though in retrospect telling. She was indeed jealous of Lana in some way because he had gone to her to facilitate his return instead of her, but instead out loud she claims to be jealous of Clark's luck. She had the thought that Lana knew better to believe her response.

Life as she knew was back on track with Clark at the desk opposite hers, but that again would get an enormous upset once it became clear that Clark as well as Superman had gone M.I.A.

* * *

Darkseid had captured and brainwashed Superman. He was then put at the head of another Apokolipitian attempt to invade Earth. Everyone automatically assumes the worst possibility except Lois among others.

Hardcastle using Kryptonite given to him by Luthor tries to kill both Kryptonians at once. Superman does more than survive the blast though Supergirl is another story because she is younger and has never been exposed to Kryptonite before that afternoon. Lois with help from her father tracks down where Hardcastle is keeping them.

They keep him powerless using a trick similar to the one Luminus used to nullify his powers. Red solar lamps are quite effective yet Superman doesn't entirely need powers to save his own life. He roughs up Luthor pretty badly in the process though it is in part to Lois that he instead leaves the base after finding Supergirl. They go to STAR Labs for Hamilton's help, but he refuses to assist on the grounds that he would be guilty of treason. Superman lifts Hamilton up and threatens him before putting the old professor back down.

Hamilton goes to work under duress while Superman turns to leave by boom tube to have a 'talk' with Darkseid, but in the end Darkseid remains in control of Apokolips and Superman is now left a planet torn its views of him.

[+++]

Many like Hamilton became afraid, suspicious, and eager to find some way to develop a countermeasure against him, something more substantial than Kryptonite. Others however realize he made a glaring mistake, but he was broken from the grips of the brainwashing before it went too far. However for some his leading an invasion is already too much and so Luthor kept the event in mind as he would build a list of events to leverage for voters to see the merit of placing someone like him in charge of the government.

Luthor preyed upon the fears of millions and it worked almost too well, but it is too late by the time they realize that there is something more dangerous than costumed 'vigilantes'. There are dangers to the world who take the form of persons like Lex Luthor who are charismatic yet manipulative, convincing yet malevolent, and often possess ulterior motivations for doing the things that they do. Luthor's gamble towards Superman appears in retrospect to have backfired literally.

The proof of Luthor's intentions become known within months though the most vivid image is a remote box with a red button taken from the desk in the oval office. It as it turns out controls the launch sequences for dozens of warheads across the country. She considers that is what he used to taunt Superman with, but that again is where the backfire happen Superman decides instead to vaporize him as if to the end cycle between them.

* * *

She briefly catches the news of a protest at Smallville University, but she quickly flicks the television off before turning to finish preparations for lunch. Superman still maintained having 'dates' with her when he didn't go out of his way to conduct interventions and she knew for certain he would be here this afternoon especially once he heard about the protest in Smallville. His arrival moments later validate her prediction, but in the old days any incident would impede his arrival for a date. It made more human in a sense that people who had jobs anywhere in Metropolis could be late getting home, overdue for a restaurant meal or simply held up at work with some assignment.

However his selective tendencies with interventions made him more predictable and less surprising.

She made sure to hide the lead box like always if only to guard the last physical remnants of the way her life used to be when she still had Clark. Their arguments inevitably led to his modus operandi and indirectly hover around what she suspects happen to Clark. His behavior exudes this idea that Clark really is dead this time. Often she thought of smacking him and demanding that he bring Clark back into the world. Some part of her considers that he would refuse, that he would tell her that there's no need for Clark, but often in mental response she would tell him off saying Clark is more necessary than you know.

The lunch is meant to be cold, but of course he complains about that though the conversation degrades into her reminding him that this temporary nonsense has to stop as well as this suspension of individual rights. He goes after her by saying she is ignoring the bigger picture, that she's wrong on all counts, but their conversation gets an interruption thanks to a comlink call from Batman. The Bat demands his presence at the Batcave or at least she assumes that to be the case, she doesn't have super hearing after all.

"I'm not done with you yet!" hisses Lois.

"I know, believe me, I know!" snaps Superman.

Her attempt to follow him out of the apartment is cut off by the SWAT left to guard the entrance to it. They chime in with the temporary garbage too and so she turns around then slams the door.

She undresses and climbs into the bathtub after adding lavender body wash to the water. Her only physical retreat in the apartment is the tub or the shower, but usually she differs to the tub. She just feels soaking hoping in part it could drain her all negative energy flowing through, but appears as if the water can only make her smell fantastic though it only temporarily tips her disposition. She runs her fingers through her hair and continues to luxuriate in the bath water until she feels too cold to stay in, but as she climbs out she feels the tinge of a flashback of a time she got caught in a downpour.

* * *

_It is raining heavily though Lois being Lois decides they can make it._

_She and Clark were trying to get back to her car except she slips when gripping a railing though Clark somehow manages to catch her before the slip turns fatal. However his eyeglasses had fallen to the ground so he in some effort to fool her into thinking his eyesight was bad tries to find them by feeling around for them except she gets them first and puts them back onto his face. The lenses were all blurry looking, his hair was a mess, his suit soaked, and she felt she probably looks similar though on some level none of it matters all that much._

_She pulls herself towards him and kisses him deeply on the lips much to his surprise apparently. He felt remarkably warm to her despite both of them being soaked to the bone. She tells him this after the kiss, but his lenses fog up as she speaks so she takes them off to wipe them with the handkerchief in his coat pocket before replacing them. They take it slow the rest of the way to the car. Once inside she kicks off her heels and slowly drives back to her apartment where she invites to stay the night._

_He awkwardly obliges and so she goes to change while he takes off most of his outerwear though he likely is in something of a panic about what he keeps under the business suit only she finds no trace of the costume when their wet clothes are put into the clothes' dryer. It was only moments like that one that made her think that her gut instinct reaction of Clark and Superman being the same guy less than solid, but not all heroes are always in costume as if constantly waiting for disaster to strike._

_He stands there in an undershirt and boxers. She offers him one of her bathrobes, which looks cute in a silly on him to her. She remembers him holding her close and in less than an hour the chill from getting drenched by rain is gone. He left her skin feeling toasty just by holding her._

_His eyeglasses although dry were left off on purpose. She went about kissing him again. This went on until they made something of a dinner, which then led to her bedroom. She had no idea what had come over her, but maybe it had always been there though it took this long for the rest of her to step in with the idea that she is in love with Clark who also helps the world as Superman._

_After her first encounter with his adoptive parents she could see where his ideals and behavior patterns had come from. The whole near extinct chivalry act made her not like him too much at first being a career oriented woman and all, but in time, those same qualities set him apart from most other men she had known in her life. She went on to continually to call him Smallville and usually it at times made him respond to her quicker, which she inwardly took gratification from on some level._

_Her usage of makeup begins to drop ever so slightly because of him too as he often said that she didn't need wear so much because she looks lovely enough without it. This actively counts for all the times she had been unable to stop herself from crying in front of him as Superman and later as Clark._

_At some point after shifting around in bed for hours with all sorts of moves, Lois settles into keeping his arms around her under the covers. She felt warm, felt safe, and most importantly of all loved by him. He made her believe more in the potential for good in the world and more so believe that she is part of that good through her voice as a reporter.

* * *

_

She wonders in the present if she will ever have her voice back.

She holds a pair of Clark's eyeglasses, a pair she kept along with other items in a lead box such as photos of her together with Clark in the old days before he quit Clark for Superman. She had the memories of happier times to console her and make her cry at the same time.

Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months before it becomes clear the Justice Lords are gone. The only question now is where does she and the world as a whole go from here?

* * *

A/N 1: The core idea of this chapter is the same, but the plot itself changed in degrees. All events referenced all pertain to StAS episodes. Episodes such as **The Late Mr. Kent**, **Brave New Metropolis**, **Tools of the Trade**, **Apokolips Now!**, **Legacy **and to some degree **My Girl**.**  
**

A/N 2: "I am Clark... I need to be Clark. I'd go crazy if I had to be Superman all the time!" - Clark Kent/Superman, **The Late Mr. Kent**. Best outburst explanation of Clark to the duality of Clark Kent and Superman. Also glimpses of Lois' softer side and her feelings for Clark. As for **My Girl** it shows how Clark is caught in a way between two women. However at the end, he is seen walking off towards Lois while Lana goes to Paris alone.

A/N 3: **Tools of the Trade/Apokolips Now!/Legacy **- the Darkseid Trilogy reveals that Superman is vulnerable to more than just Kryptonite. He is also dealt the first death on his watch (Dan Turpin). Then there's the brainwashing by Granny Goodness and being sent to lead an invasion of Earth by Darkseid. The consequences of Legacy are far reaching as it ties into the Cadmus Arc.

A/N 4: **Brave New Metropolis** like **A Better World** offers a look into a reality where Superman changed tactics and costume except there it has in part due to the death of his Lois Lane. BNM Superman ultimately ends up indirectly causing the death of BNM Luthor unlike Lorder Superman vaporizing President Luthor intentionally.

A/N 5: The biggest changes were adding a lead box full of keepsakes and the flashback scene where Lois remembers the night they became much closer than they were before yet in retrospect it shows how they have drifted apart at least to her.

A/N 6: The lack of a Clark Kent in the Lords reality is speculative though one can make that guess from the shouting as he walks out the door to follow up on Lorder Batman's summon. I interpret her behavior to be evidence that she knows and it ticks her off a lot. He's not the guy you fell in love with anymore, he acts okay with who he has become, but she isn't... she wants... needs Clark back.


	7. So Long Clark Kent

"So long Clark Kent," whispers Superman.

It is to that line that he never turns back into Kent ever again. It would be an emotional bender for his adopted parents, but to protect them, he would have to stay dead this time. He had become convinced that being Superman had just become a full time job. He could no longer see the point of being Clark because as it had gotten closer to the day he killed Luthor, it felt so fake to him. He had seen how giving up being Clark hit Lois just as hard as it hit his adopted parents. He did not bother answering Lana's attempts to phone him once she heard about the story that Clark was gone.

She even decides to pay a visit to Metropolis, she went the Planet, but of course there was virtually no trace that he ever worked there. Lois was gone too as he had put her under security protection for her own 'safety' he claims as cause when explaining it to Kent's former boss Perry White. He even goes so far as to refer to Clark as a separate person once he stops turning back into him. A head stone is placed where his ship landed on Earth after its lengthy journey from the destruction of Krypton to the field where they found the baby Kal-El all those years ago. The final blow is the costume change, which got Martha Kent in a state since more than once she had to repair the fabric damage to the extra pairs when he still wore the other costume.

In a way one might say she actually made his costume though nothing can be said for certain on that count. The last bit of symbolism is finding multiple pairs of fake eyeglasses that he used to wear as Clark after a certain point before leaving to go to Metropolis for the first time. The darker costumes set the tone for the protracted interim and so he repeatedly cautions against resuming the system as it was because it just is not the right time. A civil rights protest at Smallville U. is not enough to convince him to break with having dinner with Lois.

He like the others watches the Justice League battle their Luthor though he like the others also sees their Flash is still alive too. A trap is set for the League after deceiving them with a tale of collapsing universes. He leaves the League in Batman's charge figuring Batman won't be stupid enough to allow them to escape, but of course one significant variable is Flash. It had been one thing to not foresee Darkseid murdering Dan Turpin right in front of him, but to let it happen again with Flash had been the tipping point. The push came from knowing Luthor was right about the cyclic pattern to their battles, it was a make or break moment, and he made it by breaking the cycle.

The fight with that near invincible powerhouse had shown that he was out of practice, but that's what happens when you wrong out of situational bad guys. He had done many things in the last two years, but it started that sunny day when he fought his way to that office. Some of others were having second thoughts about taking their brand of help to this reality. Hawkgirl would speak of them not being ready for what he did back home, Lantern insists they all go, but like he had plenty of patience.

They were duped with their own trap, but Hawkgirl broke her way out before being struck down by the other Lantern. The two Martians began to trade punches in a symmetrical fashion. The Lanterns fight using ring constructs and of course Diana is giving the other Diana a lesson in sparring. However it is Flash, not the other Superman that begins pummeling him with rocks no less. As he charges at him, he forgot how quick Flash was in cramped quarters and inwardly curses as he goes flying through the ceiling then crashes through the skylight in the warden's office.

Flash makes an expected joke, but he cuts off the rest of the punch line by throwing a fallen bookcase at him. Flash backs up towards the wall and in his rambling tries to dissuade what he believes Superman is about to do to him. His reasoning is sound from his point of view, he had done a lot of things that seem beyond him at the time, but use the same trick one too many times and its acceptable even if it is to someone that looks exactly like a dead friend.

Superman appears with the other Luthor carrying some kind of weapon. He flies to take down both of them, but then Luthor opens fire on him. It felt like kryptonite's side effects, his powers were fading away, his limbs refuse to respond, his flight ends as he falls back to the floor, and as the other Batman takes him away he can only shout in frustration. The other him insists what he had done is better than the alternative, but this is only the beginning of his problems knowing how the government would react if their Luthor ever got into the fold.

As he watches the news conference following the presidential pardon, he felt like he was right and so it really is on their heads now. The other him would never last as an idealist, the other Batman could not just keep patching Gotham, and the rest of the League would learn the worse way just how bad things could get if they did not just take down their enemies. This Earth was doomed in his mind, but if he ever made back home, if his powers ever came back, his Batman would be at the top of the list.

"I have given some thought to politics…"

He only mutters told you so at the screen before noticing who was in the press crowd on the scene. It was Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but it did not surprise him that she was there, it only bugged him that Kent was there. Many had told him giving up being Clark was a bad decision, but he always disagreed, he could not waste time being a reporter anymore. Most insisted it more to do with having a life without the costume too. In a way, he had really committed a double kill that year, first Luthor, then Kent, but that's not his opinion just something he picked up from the way some would try to persuade him of that notion.

Kent's usefulness ended in his mind not long after Luthor became president, but he could see how much it hurt others that he really elected to have Clark stay dead. It made sense coming back after Walker, because Walker was innocent, but Luthor would always be guilty in his mind. It was time to sleep as he had nothing else to do with his time for now. His world would fall apart without him, but his world is not there anymore, it would be a different world without a Superman.

Clark was dead, Superman was gone, and he was only Kal-El tonight.

A/N: The first line is a twist on that line from Superman Returns where Lex says "So Long Superman". I also made some references to events to StAS episodes such as Apokolips Now and The Late Mr. Kent.


	8. Last Request

He recalls the first time he met Superman before the race to determine the Fastest Man Alive. It was also the first time they fought Weather Wizard after he used their energy to manipulate the weather in a pointless attempt to blackmail the government. He also recalls how they went outside the law to break out heroes who were arrested for interfering in government affairs all over the planet. It was the first time in awhile where he had no more funny just to be funny remarks, the humor got dark, and as for Superman without Clark Kent, he could end up a super jerk.

He remembers how he picked up the torn off wing to Batman's plane. There was also of course the time Batman had to face that lunatic John Dee aka Doctor Destiny alone. He felt bad about that because the rest of them were stuck in their worst nightmares and his was he never could slow down again. Bats kept risking his neck despite being the only one without powers, but of course his real powers were his mind and his compassion, without them he might as well be a walking dead man.

The iced mochas became Wondy's favorites thanks to him, and she had that kind of innocence he struggles to hold onto because letting all the bad stuff get to him would keep him from being the counseling hero to his somewhat misguided rogues. If she ever stops being that true to her beliefs kind of a woman, she would not be Wondy anymore; she would just be the warrior instead.

As for J'onn, he did make such jokes about their friendly Martian, but it was only humor, which had been hard for him to grasp since he was without company for centuries on Mars. However once he found J'onn's taste for Oreos, he always made sure that there were Oreos in the Watchtower. There was also the time where J'onn brought a little girl back to those looking for her in that woodlands back before Luthor had gotten wrapped up in politics. The experience with AMAZO and girl had turned him around from his despair; the deceptive little moments were all took sometimes to turn it all around.

Hawkgirl of course he did flirt with her and Wondy from time to time, but he meant in a somewhat platonic way noticing her interest in GL. They both had secrets, but at least they were starting to come around to the idea they really did care about each other beyond being teammates. He had hopes for them to be happy together.

As for GL, for John Stewart, the man was so darn formal, it made him laugh, and of course for the longest time, GL, would be so stern too. The time he finally made him laugh was one of the best afternoons of his life, but of course it took meeting a walking and talking security officer from Gorilla City to do it. If GL ever lost his sense of duty, sense of doing the right thing, not the easy thing, then he would not be a lantern anymore, Flash hoped deep down they wouldn't change if too much went wrong especially with him dying right now.

"Flash!" cries Hawkgirl.

"Wally!" shouts GL.

"I am… sorry… only ask you try to…" gasps Wally.

"He is gone…" murmurs J'onn.

A/N: What Wally's last thoughts might have been before he died.


	9. Reunion

Gotham had come to look so pristine that it felt mind boggling to almost mistake it for Metropolis at least from the air. He had left for good instead he went off the grid in Bludhaven and sure enough somehow Barbara found him despite how well he hid from her. She tells him she gave it up too, but of course her father had finally retired too leaving Detective Montoya to ascend as Acting Commissioner until someone more permanent steps in otherwise it will all be on Renee. Bullock's history kept him bound to a desk when not going out on patrol or raids occasionally.

"What happen with Tim?"

"He is still there for now, but Alfred is barely able to keep behaving like it is the usual."

"Nobody could think it is usual anymore, not with all the Rogues brain panned."

"Joker had almost gotten Tim that night, but Batman got in his way. However Harley used that ribbon gun on him. He was still working to cut himself free as Superman broke through the roof and instantly burned two holes into the clown's forehead."

"I heard the two of them had it out after the fact, but doing that would seem pointless. I just couldn't believe Bruce would let him do it to all of them. I mean he did have that sliver of kryptonite in his belt, but of course you could not stop the Man of Steel indefinitely."

"Each time one, two, heck even once they teamed up trying to kill Batman."

"Each if they could still speak would have an almost got him story."

"It didn't matter exactly in what order it went down, but it happen."

"The last time I saw him, he wouldn't even pull down the cowl."

"One can only wonder he looks like under the mask now."

"Probably like hell if there is even a pinch of feeling left in him."

"I don't think it's the lack of feeling in him, rather he is feeling too much to work out."

"We could have stayed, but what kind of difference would it have made?"

"We would just be risking ourselves against Superman, I mean if he is willing to burn holes in people we used to call villains, what would he do if he thought we should get the same?"

"I guess we might never know… but I miss being with you Dick. I mean I know we had a falling out after we both learned about the other's night life, but that does not mean I stopped loving you."

"I know Babs because I still care for you too, just to be back at the party years ago with you in that long flowing blue dress."

"You remember that number do ya?"

"Yes I do, maybe it still fits you."

"Guess we'll have to find out some time, but for now come here."

He wraps his arms around her as they share a tender moment under the moonlight.

A/N: Some may know something went on between Bruce and Barbara given that one scene from Mystery of Batwoman and in dialogue from a conversation between an older Barbara and Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond. As this is the Lords reality again I bend it to be slightly different by degrees. Also while neither of them was in JL or JLU, this does take place in Bludhaven which appears in the episode Grudge Match. It is also a what if possible moment for them to get back together maybe.


	10. World Without

A world without the Justice Lords seems like the thing to do as Bruce Wayne finally locks away his costume with the others. He was tired, so very tired, his eyes were bloodshot from all the nights he had not slept, and of course it was the anniversary of Flash's death and Luthor's demise. He could invent a time machine, go back and undo this, but somehow he felt he didn't deserve to fix things because would he have learned in the process. It might erase this timeline and replaced with one more like the Justice League reality, but then again it might also make things worse. It was time to retire, go back to do something more in line with what could be done just with his money, but of course that was when she arrived, someone he really did not want to see today of all days.

"You can't hide forever in there Wayne!"

He didn't answer the door, not immediately anyway, and when he does open it, she is in tears. As much as she and the absent Superman fought, he couldn't be this cold to her, so he lets her inside before closing the front door. He pours her some tea, he felt surprised he could remember how to do that, but after barely cooking his own meals for the longest time, having company for the day might not be so bad after all.

"What happen to him… to the others?"

"Another reality like ours, but not quite, they haven't been down this road though they still have problems of their own. Your less than likable Kryptonian led the charge after luring them here and I was their warden, for all the 'good' that did, their Flash made a fool of me making me think he died from heart failure in his detainment area."

"You mean cell?"

"Right, well they weren't bad cells; they were designed to compensate for certain abilities. Then there was the other me, he pushed my buttons, but on some level I let him because I was so damn tired of just stringing along because I felt powerless to stop him."

"You have a kryptonite sliver."

"I couldn't just keep using it on him and not expect him to want to kill me. I thought I could convince him to stop despite all the rationalizations I made over the past two years or so. I don't know exactly what the League did to them once they got back to their reality. I can only guess that they were beaten, maybe even de-powered if the League had Luthor's power disruptor."

"How would that affect them or him?"

"To him it would be like kryptonite without the killing him death bit. As for others like him, it would also be like that except its powers specific, so what your ability, it doesn't work anymore, maybe not ever again."

"This is certainly news…"

"A World Without The Justice Lords… but all in all, it is your call Lois."

"I miss that most of all though I'm not sure I'm not alone on that… what happen to?"

"They left one at a time, Alfred was the last, need only see Arkham to know why."

"I'm sorry Bruce."

"No, it is not you that owes anyone apologies, and as for me, I am damned already."

"No one will ever need to know who any of you really are…"

"I think many will disagree with that so I am planning to give myself up eventually."

"You don't have to do that…"

"One of us has to own up to this thing."

"Then I guess you will have to do that if you believe you must."

"That'll be them now so long Lois."

She watches him being led away by the police into a patrol car, the entire mansion is being sold, as for the contents of the Batcave, he had already permanently found a place to store it away should someone ever find some need for it. Of course if the time ever came, most of it would be out of date, but it did not matter, he thought it important to preserve the memory of what it had been before the Lords took global control. Lois did not hate Bruce at that moment, in the end; he still thought he had to the right thing, even though it did not strike her as really smart especially when not all of Batman's enemies were lobotomized Arkham inmates.

She did however have stories to write again just as criminals might again become bold enough to take it to the streets, but not just yet, of course her articles in the following weeks finally made them act again. Dick goes into law, Barbara enters the police academy, and Tim enters a tech school with some help from them. Alfred settles into a countryside life in a rural area of England. The world moves on without the Justice Lords, but of course criminality persists anyway so just maybe without super villains, it would not be so bad, but of course everyone begins to realize that's a hollow hope.

Thorne after going underground for the past few years reorganizes Gotham's underworld and so the cops now led by Commissioner Renee Montoya have to deal with old familiar foes, but many including Gotham City's Mayor Hamilton Hill is content to be rid of the past madness. Bruce Wayne remains a fugitive in custody until his trial; he is put away in the super prison that replaces Stonegate called Graystone. All of Stonegate's old inmates join him there and of course he spends nearly all his time in his cell though when he goes out some dare to fight him and others still retain their memories of Batman.

He occasionally does have to fight them off and occasionally the guards will put him away in solitary. He hardly minds the silence, it is actually comforting as he remembers those years he spent wandering the world before he had come back to Gotham to become Batman. His generally good behavior eventually awards him with a parole opportunity, and they are willing to grant it so long as he no longer engages in any police or crime related work. He agrees so they let him out and in the car there to pick him up is recently promoted Detective Barbara Gordon.

"Welcome home Bruce."

"How is our daring D.A. Richard Grayson?"

"Court cases keep him busy though I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"What about Tim?"

"He's still busy with tech schools."

"Glad to see you all managed to find other ways to contribute out of costume."

"What will you do now?"

"For the first time in my life, I'm actually glad to not know."

"Plenty of things to check out and I'm sure with all your experience you could find something."

"For now I just want to be back with my family."

"Then let's head back to the loft hmm."

They drive over to the cemetery where the Waynes are buried and he bids them farewell for now because Gotham is in good hands that are not his, but he is sure they do not mind as he paid his time though the conditions of parole forbid certain kinds of work. Wayne Enterprises were entrusted to Lucius Fox after the trial and he is content to leave it with Fox because Lucius is a good man, someone his parents would believe a man of character in business. They leave Gotham behind for Bludhaven, which looks like it is a good state too, but Barbara confesses looks are still deceiving as Thorne has expanded his underworld to Bludhaven.

"I'm sure you, Dick, the police, the law can handle it though of course Thorne probably still has some competitors, but like I already agreed no more late nights on the streets. I guess you all read Lois' articles about the Lords."

"Yes we saw, I can't say I was that surprised, but in the end you did what you thought was right, that's what matters to me, to Dick, to Tim, even Alfred. He has been enjoying the rural English life since he left Gotham."

"Good for him, if I ever see him again though I'm not sure if that would be for the best. I would say I am sorry to him too."

"He had eventually come to forgive what happen because Dick reminded him of all the times when you were quite despairing about your purpose, I guess even the most faithful among us need someone to remind them of that too."

They enter the loft and oddly for a moment she could swear he still casts a slightly Bat shaped shadow. She shakes her head then follows him recalling the night where he told her his secret about being Batman and Dick being Robin. It was a life altering night, but so was that nightmare courtesy of Scarecrow's toxins. However this was another life, another time, and she was happily engaged to Dick Grayson, her daring D.A. man.

"I took the liberty of a preparing supper since I had no idea when you would…"

"I thought you said he was still in England…"

"My surprise, this is a world without you know what…"

"Sneaky Miss Gordon… or should I say future Mrs. Grayson?" quips Alfred.

"You and Dick patched things up hmm?" chuckles Bruce.

"Yes we did Bruce; it took a long time though."

Another figure emerges from the shadows and the way her hair fell over one eye immediately gives her away. It is Talia Al-Ghul, which means Ra's Al-Ghul maybe active again after going dark following his attempt to sap some of Superman's vitality. The four all glare at her and she only manages a slight smile from recognition.

"Why are you here? I already had my troubles, now leave at once."

"Father would be disappointed Beloved."

"Would not be the first or the last, I am sure of that."

"His plans for 'utopia' are not at an end."

"Someone else will have to stop him."

"None know him as you do."

"That's the point besides I gave my word to quit this business."

"If you say so… though… how long can you deny what you are?"

She slips away before they can stop her and so trying to put the whole thing out of mind, they have dinner together for the first time in years. If he ever had to break his word, he would only do it for them and only if they were going to consent to it otherwise he would most certainly not violate his purported parole. However he had also not forgotten where he left all the gear after sealing the Batcave.

_It better never become necessary to go there, to do that, but somehow I am afraid it will…_

_

* * *

_A/N: Minor edits made, sets up the rest of the story. Bruce does jail time in accordance with the verdict regarding his part in the Justice Lords interim takeover.


	11. Not In Kansas Anymore

The official report from Lois Lane seals the deal even in Metropolis, especially there, but Kara had not gone back there given the disposition generally held for super powered beings, not that she could blame them. However the nightmares were not dissipating either, she saw herself killing people, something she normally attributes to her depowered cousin who has not been seen since he led the charge into an alternate reality according to what Lois told Lana. The story told almost everything, but she kept the alternate reality part of it out. She wrote they are out of action due to a power disruptor. The fact that someone could manufacture such a device got someone's interest, which made all the more deadly for super powered beings and metahumans to roam the streets.

She kept patching up the holes in the ceiling, but it kept happening, until she finally leaves them alone. After that she had to deal with leaks when it rained, but that she could tolerate, it was the nightmares she had grown to hate, on some she almost wishes Clark never, amend that, Superman never found her on Argo. She missed her real family that perished there, how she wished she could have save them instead of dealing with the prospect of someone with her powers and Superman's disposition. Finally one night, the one from her nightmares bursts through the ceiling and grabs her by the neck, eyes glowing red.

"You really think you can hide from me?"

"You really think you can kill me?"

She punches the nightmarish version of herself clear across the room before flying off then the nightmare her gives chase. In the skies are jet troopers with Kryptonite powered beam weapons though she keeps dodging the shots, but they were intent on getting rid of her too. She melts the guns with her heat vision before the nightmare her drives her into the pavement. They battle it out as more jet troopers arrive at the scene. She cannot hold much longer having her attention divided that is until a ragtag team comes to her taking out the jet troopers, which leaves an opening with the nightmare her distracted for a moment.

She quickly pummels her attacker into submission before debating the worst thing she could think of, killing this doppelganger, but of course it would bring that much closer to the insane rationale that her cousin gave into three going on four years ago. She thought about it, but left the doppelganger alone then leaves with the others. This team is from those she met during the temporary roster build up like Green Arrow, Black Canary, Huntress, Question, and Stargirl. There are others, but strictly they operate as independent agents affiliated to different cells.

Batman apparently left these instructions just before he turned himself over, he said the world would have to almost entirely deal with a world without costumed heroes. He did however set forth plans for another team except it would be more like a sleeper network called the Outsiders. They only went active if someone was really at risk such as Kara on this occasion. They flee Metropolis for the moon base using experimental transporters. A combination of magic and science protect it for the time being.

Some wonder with Batman stepping out perhaps permanently that they should still bother with it, but Arrow recalls well a conversation he had once with Batman about who guards the guardians as well as something the late Flash told him too. People need us, we help them, but at times like these it is a difficult philosophy to uphold, still they to try without getting too much attention drawn to themselves. Arrow and Canary still report indirectly to the former Batgirl and former Nightwing though those two are now part of the official face of Bludhaven. As for the man that was Batman, he spends his days teaching languages among other studies to students aspiring to travel the world. It felt suitable because he grown accustom to a somewhat mundane lifestyle aside from that recent one off visit from Talia Al-Ghul.


	12. Legacies

"Who could have foreseen a motley team of costumes in Metropolis after the confirmed disappearance of the Lords, the imprisonment of Bruce Wayne, the shutdown of the Bat Clan, and so on?" says Waller.

"Nobody did, but of course Hamilton's pet project cut loose on a confirmed inactive Supergirl."

"You mind not talking about me when I'm sitting next to you?" quips another voice.

"I know you are there, I'm just stating a fact, she was not suppose to act against anyone without orders."

"She was having nightmares, she was…"

"No excuses Hamilton, sure Superman proved to be your ego's biggest fail, but you cloned yourself a doppelganger of the next to closest thing to him," retorts the first man.

"You are lucky my sense of patriotism overrides the urge to let loose on you Eiling."

"Try me and see how far you get even if little Miss Galatea is right behind me."

"How could he have known that?" huffs Galatea.

"Nobody sneaks up on me little lady, now get out, eyes off!"

"Need I remind you again Professor that just because you and Luthor did share a dislike of Superman for different reasons, does not mean you can off anyone for that reason alone."

"Without Superman, the Lords went poof…"

"It took more than that and we all know at least part of it, so somebody has to crack Lane."

"Why not Wayne, he would know more…"

"He has all the training necessary to resist any attempts to probe him."

"He was in prison for quite a swing just by giving himself up."

"What about the manor or the Batcave."

"The property was sold; the Bat cave's contents disappeared shortly after that."

"All we have are unconfirmed reports of costumed individuals encountered by the armored police division outside Arkham shortly before the Lords went off the radar permanently."

"However we recently obtained the visual recorders from Superman's robot doubles."

"This may surprise you all at first…"

Another Superman except in Superman's old costume, the same goes for Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Martian. The real jolt however is the appearance is of another Flash, which meant only one thing at least to Hamilton as he recalls the time Lois Lane crossed over into an alternate reality with that Phantom Zone based crossover device. He relates that experience to the others; some are familiar with his papers on Kryptonian technology insofar as what Hamilton had dealt with it.

"This mean we are still going after Miss Lane?" queries Hamilton.

"Not at this time Professor, but she wrote the article, so Wayne knew more than he let on at his trial, concealing evidence is still a crime right?" questions Eiling.

"I think we need to pay Wayne a visit especially with that incident in Metropolis."

Waller decides to phone Wayne independently using her private line. The butler answers the home line says Wayne is out at the university busy with linguistics classes. She calls for a car to drive her there, Wayne had answers she 'needs' about the missing Lords and about the activities of this infrequent new group, she felt certain he had ties to it. As she knocks on his door at the university, he had somehow been expecting her after the heads up from Alfred about a strange call a short while earlier.

"Hello Waller."

"How did you know who I am?"

"I may not be out there anymore, but it does not mean I am not well informed about some things."

"True enough, now as to the Lords and this new team that aided one Kara Kent aka Kara In-Ze, cousin of the missing Superman…"

"I heard that something happen in Metropolis."

"You more than heard because someone sent this band of costumes to her aid."

"Before I gave myself I simply told the remaining costumes as you call them to keep an open mind, to be on their guard, to do what they could without getting on the wrong side of the government."

"Right, well they got lucky with Kara handling her attacker and them handling the attacker's back up."

"You mean the clone of Supergirl."

"The only one who could have found that would be…"

"Yes him, I trust him enough to keep the rest in line, but they are a fairly human bunch, just well trained with tools and sharp minds, no powers, just wits, bodies, and wills."

"I only come to warn you that is, I do not wholly disapprove of independent agents, just too much in one deck is not a good thing for anyone. If we were flawless and faultless, maybe it would be doable, but we are not…"

"I know, so thanks for the visit, but I have classes to prepare for… the future of the world is in their hands, besides being that necessitates a direction to an end."

"Even when you get a visit from Talia Al-Ghul?" queries Waller.

"How many people know that by now?"

"Not many, I was just curious what she meant."

"She thinks I cannot truly give up Batman, in a way I have only given being out there every night, I donated virtually my entire fortune to the police of Gotham and Bludhaven. I continue within my means on a teaching salary, which satisfies me fine."

"I'll leave you to your work Wayne."

As Waller leaves, Bruce waits for enough time for her to be out of hearing range to start dialing Dick. He alerts him and Barbara to Waller's visit just as a notice. After the call, there is another knock at the door, and in walks a rather fancifully dressed Talia. His eyebrow twitches as she sits on his desk crossing her legs. He tries to ignore her, but of course she is visually insistent. She smiles at him almost knowingly.

"The government is on your case again Beloved."

"It was a routine questioning."

"You really think they do not suspect your financial or at least personal ties to the Outsiders."

"Why are you or even Ra's still holding an interest in me?'

"It is just me, my father realizes that Superman was the one to finally snap you of your compassion deference."

"I let it go as long as it did because I thought there was no other way once Luthor was dead. However the more that happen, the more thresholds we tripped through the less I could tolerate it, tolerate myself in particular…"

"This Justice League gave you that opportunity…"

"I wouldn't have intended such a fate for the others, but they were so willing to follow him. I stayed behind to 'watch' the captured League. My worries about another team death gave their Flash all the opening he needed to knock sense into me."

"I would have thought the other you had something more to do with that."

"It was like me against me except I had done things he still held back from doing or not condoned the things I 'let' happen… you just don't let Superman brain fry villains."

"There was also of course the difference between the Wonder Women."

"You best leave now Talia."

"This has only begun… so this is not the last you see of me…"

She unexpectedly pins him on the floor and in the heat of the moment, he just is tired of denying himself for once. The muffled sounds from within the office are not heard as it is the end of the campus day. It took time to build a reputation that was far from the falseness of the playboy facade he kept for years while as Batman. When he awakens later that evening, he is half naked in his office and Talia is gone except she left a note.

_You know that you still love me Beloved and you'll always be with me._

He had begun to suspect something is up with this being a second and more physical visit from Talia. Ra's had insistently wanted him to take over the organization, but he had refused not believing in the more intense aim for clean slate tactics that Ra's had thought better. The near genocide of humanity would not teach anything in Bruce's mind except mistakes to be forgotten in order to start clean as possible. A foundation from mass murder is not a good one, but of course the two forever disagree there.

However there is always more than one kind of legacies for each of us.

* * *

A/N: Cadmus still comes about in this reality or at least how I think they might exist. The same cast more or less makes up the department heads too. There's also something of a hinting with Talia coming back again for those who might be familiar with the Bruce-Talia romance from the comics. This serial one shots version of the Outsiders also get a mention as for who Bruce means by him, well one can guess quickly enough who given how Bruce knows who Waller is. This encounter diverges from how League Batman meets Waller of course.


	13. Homecoming

"It is strange that the Guardians did not appoint a replacement for 2814."

"It was Stewart's turf, but considering what went down a couple years ago."

"I know the organization he was working with went rogue for the lack of a better word."

"After that nobody saw anything of them except for that one guy."

"He took the heat because the rest went MIA into an alternate reality."

"How do you know that Katma?" queries Rayner.

"The same way you know why no new Lantern is operating there."

"Earth is temporarily declared off limits per new directives."

"Stewart violated the Lanterns Corps mandate, but nobody took the ring or the battery away."

"We would be arguing semantics and imperatives if we were to try to decipher what happen."

"The events were shot straight towards endgame until Superman killed Luthor."

"So who do you think they are going to send if they send anyone to test the waters?"

"Probably you, I am an alien, Earth isn't that alien friendly right now."

It turns out Katma was right about at least one thing, they were sending him to ascertain what the power dynamics were now with the Justice Lords no longer operating and learn what the remaining costumed heroes were up to since they cut off contact following Stewart's disappearance. He removes the mask once he finishes the transit from Oa to Earth, he had not been home in a long time, John probably felt like this after coming back years ago, at least Kyle thought this was possible. He pulls dark gloves over his hands after using the ring to give him a facsimile disguise to how he used to dress in Earth attire, but of course his return does not go unnoticed as someone had seen him land, more than just one witness. The watchers were extremely careful not to give themselves away so Kyle leaves the area with instructions to seek out any former roster members to the briefly expanded Justice Lords or to any costume hero that might still be around.

"Hello Kyle," says a voice.

"You…" he answers quickly.

The pair is swept away by a teleport beam and reappear in the lunar base.

"Your arrival did not go unnoticed Rayner."

"I didn't think there would be nobody watching."

"The Watchtower is basically decommissioned, but the governments are utilizing for their own reasons. The Lords disappeared except Batman, he turned himself over, did time, got a parole, works as a linguistics professor at Gotham State."

"What is really going on Oliver?"

"Basically those of us costumes left are indirectly part of a new sleeper network called Outsiders. Only in the most necessary situations do we team up, as for the rest of the time, we do whatever we usually do on our own."

"Who is in charge?"

"Not any one person, leadership is relative, myself, Dinah, Vic, and Helena were among the first recruits. Kara is one of us too, there are others, but they are all over the place. We operate with seldom chatter."

"Really different dynamic than the Lords."

"It was Batman's plan before he gave himself up."

"Why would he take prison time, that doesn't sound like the Bats I heard about."

"You spend enough time being apathetic and rationalizing, you reach a point where it bursts though that's just my guess, I don't pretend to understand him."

"How are relations with the government?"

"We get along so long as there's no head butting on the issues."

Kyle presses his fingers against his forehead as Oliver rapid taps the younger man's shoulder. The world had changed a lot while he had been away training, but of course Earth still needs a Lantern, well maybe it does so he settles down with a simple drink he notices the colors of the orb called Earth. He would have to report to Katma or one of the others before long, but for now, he was home though it is not the one he remembers naturally. All the icons he used to look up to were gone, but they had crossed the lines or thresholds too often if he was to read what he heard correctly. He pulls off the gloves and reverts to his costume appearance.

"Now there's something I never thought I would see again."

"What would that be?"

"A Green Lantern in the lineup."

"I'm not sure if the Guardians would want me to stay permanently, for the moment it seems I'm cast as an observer."

"If you say so, well I have to eat now; you know accelerated metabolism and all."

"Who are you anyway?"

"I just gave you a big hint, but just to settle the question, I am a female Flash."

"How is that possible?"

"Wally was my cousin, my name is Inara Lethe, my mother was Iris Allen, and dad was Barry Allen, another Flash before Wally."

"Nice meeting you Inara."

"Likewise, hate to run and eat, but y' know how it works…"

This Inara had gotten his attention, but maybe it had something do with how attractive she looks when she is being coy or maybe it was just her toying with him. He would just have to wait and see if she was serious like that towards him or if he was just imagining it.

"Wait how did you get the last name Lethe?"

"It is part of the secret identity… people pretty much know about the Allens and Wests so I had to take something different I guess… well like I just said… need food."

She sped away again leaving him there with a smirk that turns into a smile. It could be interesting for a change. Question walks up behind him and gives him something of a look before resuming his walk towards the commissary. It might not be the world he remembers anymore, but this world could be its own challenge if the Guardians were set on reassigning him to Earth.

* * *

A/N: Just to throw another thread into the mix, Kyle Rayner is sent back to Earth where he meets among others one Inara Lethe, the next Flash. Inara is more or less a new character though listed as an offspring of Barry and Iris Allen as well as cousin to Wally, I technically made her up. Since there are no exact dynamics set for the Lords reality, it is free range to bring in new characters. I figured if you are going to bring back a Lantern into the fold why not a Flash too, and a female one to boot.


	14. Generations

The 'family' gathers to celebrate the birth of the daughter of Barbara and Richard Grayson. She is named Cassandra, but this is not the last surprise of the night as Bruce receives a video phone call from Talia, and of course as the camera pans back he notices why she seems to be so glowing. All he can think inwardly is how did I let this happen, but whatever case was, he might now be a real father, not just a guardian or adoptive father. The conversation is brief as she claims that her father is being ever watchful of her when he is around, but of course the Lazarus Pits no longer work for him. He will start showing his age very quickly unless he finds a new host because as she relates the story, it seems Ra's Al-Ghul is body jumping now.

Each body however cannot withstand the psychological and physiological age of Ra's so he has to swap every couple of months. However this is one body he opts for if there was not a risk of the body dying like all the others so until the process is perfected he would not risk it. He understands what body she means; it means Ra's is looking to inhabit the body of his handpicked successor or worse the offspring of him and Talia.

"You really shouldn't stay given the risks to the child inside you."

"You mean our child Beloved."

"Biologically the kid is mine and yours, but not ours."

"You wound me my love."

"No more than you to me by staying at his side despite all he has done."

There is a pause before he speaks again.

"You would be welcome to stay with me if you ever feel it necessary to leave him for good."

"It is something to consider, but with his frame of mind, leaving now when I'm pregnant would push him to act faster."

"You rather wait until the kid is out and him taking the boy or the girl from you?"

"No, I'm just not willing to risk it yet."

"How many more bizarre and deadly plots will it take to convince you?"

"Forgive me, but I believe I am… what is it called to feel sick in the morning?"

"Morning sickness is the phrase I believe."

The message ends as Talia heads towards a bathroom and Bruce turns around to see Dick standing there with a raised eyebrow. Bruce tries to shrug it off, but his 'older son' knows him too well that gesture to work anymore. He tells him that Talia is pregnant, he is not sure of the paternity, but Talia claims he is the father. Dick knowing that Talia had been in town a few months ago asks if they did it, and Bruce admits he did, sure it was not the smartest thing with her being the daughter of a perennial enemy, but these things happen in real life, well maybe.

"You realize what Ra's would do with a child of you and his daughter?"

"Yes I have some disenchanting notions in mind."

"Of course, it probably hit you when you saw the bump."

"Something like that, I told her she should get out of there as soon as possible."

"Good idea, but knowing her, she is probably stubborn, she was never one to consciously 'betray' or 'deceive' her father."

"No she is not, but I have some fears about whatever Ra's is planning."

"I mean between him using the pits to cleanse the surface and before that with Crane's toxins, how does he never run out of ideas?"

"He is a dedicated and determined individual like me except unlike me he is willing to do anything, I just gave unspoken consent to what happen to the Rogues."

"Speaking of them, I dropped by Arkham, they all seem about the same as ever, brains functioning, but that spark, the thing that made them what they were as criminals, it is still just as gone."

"Has Vic found out anything else about Cadmus?"

"Other than them being a secretive organization that does not officially exist, there are multiple projects and fronts in use for deterrents, possibly weapons against costumes, alien, meta, or otherwise."

"There is also no visible unification beyond street crime, it would almost seem by us not in costumes, there are no costumed villains, but that's a bold presumption for me."

"So how does it feel to be a father?"

"Now I'll have someone else to worry about, even when I'm sleeping."

"I know the feeling from when you were younger and the same goes for Tim."

Helena and Dinah enter looking for Dick because Barbara wants him in there with her and the baby. It had been a long night, but a rewarding one with the arrival of one Cassandra Grayson. He recalls some of his earliest conversations with Ra's especially ones about personality traits that he fervently believed that criminals will not share; in fact they probably would exploit it. There would always be things that Ra's was right about, but there would also be plenty to be wrong about too. He follows Helena and Dinah back to where the happy parents are dotting on their baby girl. Alfred's hand rests on his shoulder then he notes his old former butler wiping tears away.

"It is a happy moment for them."

"Yes it is indeed."

"I'm sorry about all the things that broke up this family."

"I know you are, but while all is never forgotten, some things can still be forgiven."

"It is the only way to move on, the only way to enjoy a moment like this."

"Rightly so…"

* * *

A/N: Naming their daughter Cassandra was slightly intentional because Cassandra Cain was one of the other Batgirls. As for Talia being pregnant, this is where the Lords reality might see its own version of Damien. It is again an alternate reality.


	15. Waiting Arms

Segment Note: Longer than usual, was written on a prompt, not sure how I was going to do this, but reviewer prompt gave me a direction so I went with it. So they are back, that's all I say for now, plus its get a bit more intimate with this one than others I have written before.

* * *

It had been almost three going on four years since that day. The last day she saw silver and black outline, last time she heard that masking voice, last of many things about her home reality until word had come that she is being sent back. There is a great deal of reluctance to release her or any of the others, but only one of them had shown any real danger to be let loose, she knew why they were really afraid of letting him out. The side effects of the power disruptor seem permanent, the only question was where would she go once back. Four including her are sent through a duplicate of the interdimensional gate.

The only trick was setting it for the right reality though of course figuring that was tricky even if someone heard the words Justice Lords, because who knew for sure their reality was the only one with that team name. As they watched it become clearer this particular reality must be theirs as it has no costumed team in any form to speak of. The man operating the controls was this reality's Batman of course she knew the look he briefly given her as he might been saying no hard feelings about trying to kill me or the other League members. Her hair had grown back and more, she almost did look like her old self. The coordinates are set so they step through hoping that this is the right one, which for the first time in years proved to be right because he sent them to their reality's abandoned Batcave. However the opening or entryway had long been sealed over so they had to find another way out. The cove if she remembered right would be a way out.

She leads them into the water and soon enough they come out the other side. It would always be his city to her and she wonders what went on with him after they were depowered then kept under watch for years in a high security complex in the League reality. In captivity, J'onn had come to terms with being 'stuck' in his native appearance and of course they occasionally heard news of what went on with the League especially during the incident where Luthor had become fused with Brainiac. They always watched seemingly captivated by the news. One reporter speaks of an incident involving duplicants of the Founders engaging the heroes before being knocked out, the world had barely skated away from total destruction, from Armageddon thanks to a certain speedster, but of course one news bit that struck a chord with John and Shayera was the Thanagarian Occupation. It happen a lot earlier to their reality, Shayera's allegiances were sorely tested of course, but she had not been drawn too close to her people's side. A bold thing especially for a female soldier though Diana understood how loyalties get tested as she had lost her place on Paradise Island thanks to that business with Faust and her bringing men to help her.

Kal however was the one they were resisting letting out given his malevolent intentions towards Batman, towards Bruce, he kept trying to convince her and the others that if they ever got out as well as got back, he would be among the first to die for betraying the cause as well as the team. In reality, they had not been a true team in her mind since the killing of Luthor and the murder of Flash. The fact that a Flash had been instrumental in saving the League's Earth had an impact on most of them except Kal, he couldn't believe nor did he find any rationality in the League sparring Luthor again. She knew that he would have killed Luthor without hesitation, he kept feeding his dark feelings, in one reality the two iconic figures were at most opposites with a common interest to do what they could to look after a world that held mixed views of them and in the other, in hers, they had become almost enemies until now he made the last leap to desire to kill Bruce. If Kal ever convinced this reality let him go back, he would get Bruce, powers or not, and for the first in a long while, she did not wish to do away with him herself. She had remembered why she felt so drawn to him in the first place, she only fears that he might have moved on in her absence.

"You are thinking about him aren't you?" says J'onn.

"I thought you weren't telepathic anymore," she answers.

"I'm not, but it doesn't take one to know by standing here at the shore nearest to his old house that you would be of mind for him."

"True enough, though it looks like no one has lived there in years, did he give it up or something else happen, or is he dead?"

"We'll just have to find out, and by that I mean you and John. Shayera and I have no way to disguise ourselves except maybe her covering up her wings."

"He is right, he and I will return to the cave to await your return."

The other Batman had given them some currency figuring cash doesn't change much between realities at least he hopes so and the two go shopping. They looked different enough to avoid hopefully any kind of recognition. She dresses way down for her level of physical beauty, but of course a few years without her powers, had made her age a little from the nights without much sleep and the dreams about him, somewhere she killed Bruce and others where she failed to stop Kal from doing it. Dreams weren't really dreams, just almost like nightmares. They both don inexpensive shades, John buys a casual suit, she buys a dress for the first time in years as well as high heel boots, John gives her a somewhat curious stare, but she shrugs it off saying something like anyone is going to connect that right now. It looks similar to the red dress she had worn to the club after she first met Audrey. She sighs almost curious how she could still recall the days before she went with that warrior look. John also buys a light overcoat and some different pieces of clothing that he figures is Shayera's size as well as hoping she does not throw the stuff back at him if she hates it.

She was very cranky at times as of late, Diana could suspect why, but John was a little blind in that department for a man who was that much in love with the closest thing he has to a wife. Diana smirks with a slight amount of envy because she knew though Shayera kept hesitating to admit since they had little to feel anything positive about since going to that other reality as Shayera would call it.

"You notice anything different about Shayera?"

"Meaning what exactly?"

"You know what I mean."

"I don't believe I do."

"You two have been awful close especially since the trip."

"Of course we kind of settled on being married already."

"I don't mean just that."

"You don't mean?"

"Open your eyes Stewart."

"Judas.."

"No need to swear..."

"Time to pay and go before we attract the wrong kind of attention."

They work their way back to the promontory outside the abandoned Wayne Manor. It appears according to J'onn that Bruce sold off the property if the lining in the Bat cave's doorway is any indication. Someone else temporarily resided there before selling it again, something about the reputation of the previous owner, and since nobody else has been upstairs. Together the four of them bring down the grandfather clock, J'onn ends up spending the rest of night, maybe even the rest of the week trying to fix, and Diana works her way from room to room as she tries to remember the few nights she spent here. As she finds what was Bruce's old bedroom, she pulls back the cover tarp, and then lies down on the bed. She longs for him, simply put, she had lost her hatred for him, she wants for those nights where it was just them, not him risking life and limb or her taking supernatural blows and battling foes.

"I heard someone had been spotted near my old house," says a voice.

"Bruce.." she whispers.

"I see you and others came back at last."

"Yes except for Kal."

"I can imagine why they might resist letting him out."

"He is Tartarus bent on killing you."

"Right, but I don't live here anymore, I'm not in costume anymore, I'm a niner to fiver for once."

"I had begun to wonder what had happen to you after we left."

"Most of the costumes got locked away not long after the League left."

"So what happen with them... I know they came back to their reality to stop us."

"You are asking did I let them out..."

"It had crossed all our minds... Kal thought you did it on purpose."

"Their Flash faked a heart attack, which made me go down there in a panic."

"Clever...but you running to check a prisoner...well it is Wally of course."

"I wasn't prepared to let another Flash die on my watch, I don't like having people die on my watch."

"It happens..."

"Yes but I believe I can stop it more often than not."

"Yes you do that... so what happen to the others, your 'family', the other heroes?"

"They reorganized per my instructions into the Outsiders. As for 'family', we are on better terms now. I was made a godfather not long ago. Dick and Barbara had a daughter Cassandra. Talia also came back into my life."

"Ra's daughter? why did she come to you?"

"Her father has plans, naturally that's expected, he is eager to test whether or not I can stay out of costume, not go after him the way we went after Luthor. Talia is also pregnant, she claims I'm the father."

"WHAT?"

The silence is stifling until he steps into the light.

"I doubt it, but we did have... once."

"Why?"

"Like people keep telling me, I'm just human, mistakes, flaws, and all that other jazz."

"She could be lying."

"She could, but there's no way to be sure without a paternity test."

"She probably wouldn't submit to that."

"You are probably right, but they are expecting me for dinner in Bludhaven."

"I want to go with you."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea right now."

"Its been almost four years now!"

"I know, but I have to give them some kind of warning or heads up on this."

"Okay, but I miss you terribly so."

"That so?"

"Yes... stay with me tonight."

"I'll be back after dinner."

"Don't keep me waiting for long."

"You know I won't."

In usual Bat-esque disappearing act, he is gone just as she flops back to his bed, and that is when Shayera appears in the doorway with a bemused look, she barely heard the last part of that conversation as she had been looking for Diana.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Bruce..."

"I hardly heard anyone else just now except you..."

"You remember his tendency to come and go like a shadow right."

"Right... now what's this suggestion you made to John?"

"I think you are..."

"You can't be serious, they hardly let us be together in that place, we had to sneak around to do it."

"Well one of those more recent times apparently I think got you pregnant."

She giggles before starting to a cry little and then lies down next to Diana. The Amazonian tries to comfort the Thanagarian because all they had were intermittent moments in that high security complex. They were allotted some time to be together either as a full group or in pairs, but usually never for long. After awhile, Shayera goes off looking for John, to let him know how much she misses him too. As for Diana, she finds that someone had turned the utilities in the manor back on, a note was left in the master bathroom for her.

_**I bought back the house with savings from my new 'day' job. Enjoy the bathroom Princess.**_

He had virtually stopped referring to her intimate nicknames long ago, but something had obviously changed for both of them since then. Later that evening as she is still reveling in the bath, he appears in the doorway a second time, her physique had held up well in his eyes, and she grins a little noticing his gaze at her body. He hands her a robe and they stay there awhile as the room is still full of steam. There is a sound like the noise common to someone or something rubbing against glass, particularly the long mirror next to the shower stall, which is a couple feet from the master bath. She wants him to have his way with her, she just longs to be with him like this again after this long a wait, she pulls out his belt, as he kisses her like he had not done in years, and after a time she finally gets him out of his clothes then she enjoys the sound of her hips rubbing against the long mirror.

She leads him back towards the tub before pushing into the bubbly water though he pulls her down with him.

"I don't think I'll ever dry out."

"Not if we stay in this tub you won't."

"No jokes please."

"I was being serious."

"Sorry my love."

"All forgiven, even if we never forget what happen in the past."

She kisses him deeply as their bodies connect beneath the bubbly and soapy bath water. It is steamy in here for a different cause now.

The lights are lowered with a remote he had used in this master bathroom for years.

_In the darkness she is all I see_

_Come and rest your bones with me_

_I'm driving slow on Sunday morning_

_And I never want to leave_

Somehow as she takes the remote away from him she triggers the stereo system he kept in here too and a song she never heard before plays. The lyrics were so simply yet so intimate. She hums them a little as she lies against his chest in the tub and he strokes her long flowing hair, how he had missed that before. He felt like they could come out of the cloud that had hung over them for so long, the only questions were more about who might be going after them now, if someone is still after those sporadic missions that the Outsiders undertook from time to time.

However for now, he had her back in his arms, that was enough for him tonight. The song switches over to one he had started to associate with her after he heard stories about a dark haired woman spotted near his recently bought back ancestral manor.

_Lift me on my honor_

_Take me over this spell_

_Get this weight off my shoulder_

_I've carried it well_

Her deep blue clear eyes stare into his light blue eyes.

_Lose these shackles of pressure_

_Shake me out of these chains_

_Lead me not into temptation_

_Hold my hand harder_

She bites her lower lip as she wants them to become like one.

_Ease my mind_

_Roll down the smokescreen_

_And open the sky_

She audibly moans as she roughly kisses him.

_Let me fly then I need a release_

_From these troubles of mine_

_Fix my feet when they're snowing_

_And well, you know it hurts sometimes_

_You know it's gonna bleed sometimes_

She sighs pushing him on his back against the tub wall.

_Dig me out of this thorn tree_

_Help me bury my shame_

_Keep my eyes from the fire_

_They can't handle the flame_

It felt better than he remembered to kiss her. The closeness, the heat, of course he felt guilty on some level for giving into Talia, she had sprung on him, but it did not mean much to him. He went into meaningless flings for years, of course it was different with some women, but somehow he begins to believe Diana is not the first or the last, just the only one. It is one of those moments where a man realizes once you meet, you kiss, you love just one like he did and does with Diana, there can never be another quite the same ever.

Another song starts and in that moment they both seem to tear just a little.

_I do believe in its not over tonight..._

As it continues, she smiles at him and he smiles back

_Just give me one more change to make it right..._

She kisses him as they just get closer again after that intense physical embrace.

_I won't go home without you..._

"You ever think you are going to have to explain yourself to your mother?"

"Someday yes, but for right now, I just want to stay here with you."

"One step at a time, yes, that is your call."

"It is and so is..."

She pins him again once they are out of the tub on the way towards the bed. What it made so quick for her to eventually settle into her tough girl facade was mostly her feelings towards what was happening with Bruce as he kept putting all kinds of distance between them. She was ready to fight him for it this time, and of course she won because he wants her to do so for a change. The near of the end world used to be a regular for them, but for now, maybe it could just be them together like this. She looks so enchanting with the way her hair falls over her wet skin, and of course she is enjoying the way he is exploring a body he had almost forgotten in recent years.

_Her hair pressed against her face _

_Her eyes were red with anger_

_Enraged by things unsaid_

They didn't mind the next song so much because they had already been down that road because it also rounds out with a more sympathetic gesture of the loved ones mending the hurt.

_I cannot carry the weight of a heavy world_

_So much to love, so much to learn_

She eventually falls asleep in his arms and it almost feels like coming home to him... a slice of happiness.

* * *

A/N 1: I have four of them returned depowered, there is of course hesitation to let Superman or rather Kal to return given his known plans for Batman/Bruce among others. As for certain, italicized lines, song lyrics again, mostly Maroon 5 songs and a bit from Sweet Talk, a song from The Killers.

A/N 2: As Diana has not been seen for several segments, she is obviously somewhat different from that ice queen that I interpreted her as being from the segment Warrior. At the end of that one, I had left something a suggestive thought that she was capable of turning away from the lifestyle or behavior she took up following her costume and personality shift. If to put in a Greek context, its like Athens and Sparta.

A/N 3: a de-powered J'onn is 'stuck' in his actual appearance without being able to shapeshift. Likewise, I hinted or almost confirmed that Shayera is pregnant. How's that for another curve, I thought it was a good twist aside from the predictable potential with what happen between Bruce and Talia. As for the developments with Talia, the exact circumstances that 'got' her getting pregnant are suspect.


	16. Mere Mortals

Segment Note: Continuation of Waiting Arms, somewhat song oriented again. Diana gets unexpected visitors and decides to face her people as well as her gods. Someone else will tag along because he won't let her face it along as he faced much of his trial alone. Allusions made to much of Greek mythology and history due to certain character references.

* * *

_I can only give you everything, I've got_

_I can't be as sorry, as you think I should_

_But I still love you more than anyone else could_

As she stands outside in only one of his dress shirts, she is literally glowing as the wind makes her hair flow with the breeze. She was home though of course she would still have to deal with her mother, that is if her mother would want to hear what happen exactly, so a trip to the island would obviously be in order some day soon. He sneaks up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kisses her neck. She sighs and shifts her hips against his body so he gives her another kiss on the neck except to the other side. She turns around to kiss him full on the lips before they sit down on the balcony outside his bedroom. There is an audible sonic boom just as something flies by over head before landing on the lawn. Someone unexpected arrives, it is her mother accompanied by Alexa and Artemis, old friends would be an inadequate term to describe the two younger women accompanying her mother. Artemis had flown the Invisible Jet plane to this cove. She hurries to fully dress as does Bruce if only to look decent with not one, but four Amazons on his balcony.

"There was talk you had come back, of course we were heard Man's World news chattering about the disappearance of the Lords. We knew he went on trial for crimes against Man's World, but you were stranded in another reality with those that followed that misguided alien. You being depowered seems appropriate though something tells me you have had a lot to think on since you have been gone daughter."

"Yes mother I have much to think on, I went along with so much of that willingly thinking he was right, that we always had to stomp out things that could turn into what Luthor had almost done to the world, but somehow that was never our job, no we were suppose to help people, not dominate them with what we thought was right."

"It almost broke my heart when I saw you without the original look you had when you first came to represent us and fight for what we believed in this world."

"I am sorry mother."

"If you two have forgiven each other, then perhaps there is more to man than what I always feared was not a quality kept from long ago generations in age of heroes like Odysseus and his ever vigilant wife Penelope. There are many shining misinterpreted examples of man and woman as equals at the walls of society where their problems nearly did destroy them."

"I was planning to come home, to put myself before the Gods, to atone..."

"She will have to travel with us to the island for a time, I trust you understand?"

"Yes I understand, I will miss her, but her journey to redemption, to forgiveness, to atonement is not at an end yet."

"You remind me of a man I knew a long time ago, the man who saved Aresia."

"I remember you told me of him after what happen with her years ago."

"He risked and died to save her from drowning, somehow I think you have done something similar except for Diana."

"I love her, that's reason enough for me."

"Your compassion is your real power Bruce Wayne."

"You honor me too well majesty."

"We must be going, she'll be back soon. unless you wish to wait somewhere closer."

"You would allow a man after exiling me for bringing them to stop Faust?"

"Some traditions ought to be more flexible, how else can we forgive, besides I think Hera would understand, she was in love once too."

The five board the Invisible Jet to go to Thermyscira.

Bruce leaves a note for the others. As J'onn reads it, even he gets a little emotional for once in a long time.

_**The road starts somewhere, begin anew we must, love really can save you. Gone to the Island.**_

As the skies blur around them, day turns to night again by the time they reach the island.

Somewhere in between the invisible raindrops beneath a full moon glowing through the vapor clouds, look skyward, something connects in the moment, end of line.

The island is flourishing insofar as it could be without much contact with the outside world since Diana's disappearance. There would be some to resent her for initially betraying the Amazons beliefs, but many had come to this opinion that her mother had to contend with as she kept trying to hold the society together even as her daughter fought more for the things that were not things that Amazons believe true. As they enter the amphitheater, there is something of an uproar, some negative, many positive, and the rest are silent. Bruce already saw this kind of reaction firsthand for himself at his trial.

_Your parents would be disappointed in you, the city is ashamed of you, you are a vigilante that belongs with those brain fried kooks you fought with in Arkham._

He took it all with a vaguely tranquil demeanor yet the crowd here also did not take kindly to him being there as some believe him to be part of what 'corrupted' her, maybe they were right in some small way, but they had not seen him action with the deceptively small things that never made news or media broadcast. He feels afraid for her, but knows she has to face them, face the lights, face the dark, face whatever they have to say to her.

"Sisters, I have failed you all, I went to Man's World to save it from destruction, whether it was from the outside or the inside, only to fail to realize that I too was fallible. Man has his effect on me, but we cannot blame them entirely for what happens in their world. It is easy to be a pillar of beliefs, here or there, but it is how you hold when you experience what it means to be a literal Atlas, to be a Nero when a city burns, to be an Orpheus when a loved one dies yet if you look back its over, to be Gorgo while your beloved Leonidas stands in the ranks at the pass, to be an Odysseus trying your hardest to get home... worrying you have lost your way and don't deserve to be welcomed back... to stand before what used to be your entire world and see it turn its back on you..."

The crowd is silenced, some are on the verge of crying, others that were initially giving her a hard time just flop, and she even looks a little disheartened having said those things. She begins to walk among them, there are hugs, there are tears, and there are a scattered handful of those who can't face her either for shame or belief that she is too easily forgiven. However she has made the leap, stood before, and of course, they were not the only ones listening so as she enters the Temple of Athena, there are many goddesses that she had often prayed to waiting for her. Bruce waits by the shore line staring out into the distance though he worries what the goddesses will decide until someone comes up besides him, it is Aurora, goddess of the dawn. She caught him humming a song, a silly irony for her to be the dawn and him speaking of light.

_Light up, light up_

_As if you have a choice_

_Even if you cannot hear my voice_

_I'll be right beside, you dear_

"You need not worry brave soul. Her love for you is as bright as the dawn that comes when you want the rest of your life to flow having the most treasured element within your life forever. It is as you had once said long ago, not enough to believe, but important to have faith rewarded, besides, there are more than a few that are indebted to your service of humanity especially Themis, considering how well learned you are ... you know who I refer to."

"Yes I do, after meeting Diana, I realized that perhaps a lot of what I have read might be true somewhere, somehow, and to meet a goddess is certainly proof."

"I once had a lover, I asked for him to be immortal, I only forgot that he should never age, my silly error, but even as he grew old I love him forever."

"Mortality is its own design, I maybe mortal, but it is time for me to live the life I keep avoiding despite how much of a half life I already had without her love."

As the goddesses announce their decision, she knows the worse might still happen, but to be mere mortal does not scare her so long as she has Bruce.

"You will regain your powers, you will become impervious too most injuries, but your immortality is the price of forgiveness though we suspect you have found merit in being mortal because of that servant of Themis."

"Yes my goddesses, I accept your judgment."

"Then live well Diana, you may have strayed, you may have done many things, but there is something we of Olympus forget by denying we too have more in common with mortals except the living forever part."

They have told her some further things, which she accepts as she would done the same anyway whether she was on the island or not. She cries a little after knowing that she could stay with him, have a life as long as they were both together. As she catches up with Bruce at the beach, he is wading in the shore line, quite wet, but she does not mind as she kisses him under a light rain that puts a mist over the full moon over their heads.

"I love you Bruce."

"Love you too Princess."

She kisses him again biting his lip and he aggressively pulls her into the next wave with him. She cracks up laughing as her clothes get drenched as much as his were already getting just awhile ago. It really could be like a paradise, if only for intermittent eternies in each other's embrace. They would return to Gotham, but not tonight. Tonight she is truly on her way to being an Amazon again fully and she had the love of her life unable to let her go on the damp sands of Thermyscira's endless coast line. It did not matter to him whatever conditions she had to agree to because he had more than a few of his own to live with every day. It is enough to lie under these stars with her.

_If I just lay here _

_Would you just lie with me_

_And just forget the world?_

_Forget what we were told_

_Before we get too old_

_Show me a garden _

_That's bursting with life_

Stars fill the night sky as she pulls closer to him as the waves splash close to their feet.

Hippolyta is grateful for the goddesses' decision and believes both of them have more than earned this. She only worries more for them as the Fates were less than clear as of late about what is happening with the strands, but she recalls an old phrase, fortune favors the bold, perhaps it favor the brave too. There is no shortage of that in them nor is there any doubt of their love because even Aphrodite weeps tonight.

She recalls all her old friends that gave up their immortality for their men, for their hearts, she had almost done it once herself, but that was long ago when she was as young and as in love as her daughter looks and feels now. Such an energy, an essence is meant to be kept, fought for, because there is little else that is as precious or priceless. The two while from different lives, different worlds, something had gotten into the other, and they couldn't bear to let the other just walk away forever.

_Happy lost in your hair_

The scene drifts back to Bruce and Diana cozy on the sand such a beautiful from here, they would not let it end.

* * *

A/N 1: Thermyscira, so its back to the island, well I said she would have to face up to this too, and of course they are forgiving with something of a price. However, mortality is its own gift, renders meaning deeply into things like love, maybe I am a little sappy, romantic, and poetic, but sometimes they also say confession or testifying is a spiritual thing to be done when the need is great.

A/N 2: If you have seen Little Piggy, you'll get the Themis reference, though Aurora is a little something from the poetry of Tennyson, but she also belongs to the supernatural realm of the Greek and Roman pantheons.

A/N 3: Other fics I have read have mentioned feminine heroics of the past, I took it a little further mixing the roles up to both men and women.


	17. Enemy Mine

Four of the missing former Lords had come back, but how or why is the question in mind for both Cadmus and Ra's as it complicates the situation at least to him. However Ra's once learning who is not among them sees an opportunity to potentially bring that missing one in on his especially with the inventions of Vandal Savage. Of course Vandal knows he is bargaining with an enemy of the former Batman, but a deal is a deal, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, he laughs at it because he had known Nietzsche, the man behind that kind of philosophy. The Lords had sabotaged his World War Two era plan, but they got lucky that time, he did not believe the reports and put too much stock in the technology that he was given by his future self. Likewise now if Ra's manages to recruit the Kryptonian to his side, he gains an unexpected asset as the alien even without his powers is on equal footing with his mortal ex-comrades. If all went well it would be an apocalypse to remember, he inwardly laughs at the dark humor as he works on a new inter-dimensional gate while Ra's commands Talia to operate the scanners to track down the quantum signature that would identify the ally they are looking for. The idea was novel, but Superman had been used against allies before albeit under Darkseid's machinations except this time, he had have cause to be malevolent as he probably sees the former Batman as the architect of his current miseries, such denial made him dangerous to align with so if they had to they would kill just as readily.

"I give you the reality you were looking for," murmurs Talia.

"Excellent, now bring it up on the screen, and Savage establish the portal directly into his cell if you can," says Ra's.

"As you command, but this will be tricky," responds Savage.

Ra's crosses over to meet the enemy of his enemy.

"What do you want?" grumbles Kal-El.

"I offer you a chance to kill Bruce Wayne, your Bruce Wayne and others," answers Ra's

"I'm listening..."

"I'm the Ra's Al-Ghul you know."

"I never liked you either."

"Remember the offer, you don't have to like me, you don't have to do anything, but do you want to age and die in this place?"

"No, but how are you going to get me out?"

The portal activates behind him.

"Stole his machine eh?"

"I had one built with some help."

Ra's and Kal cross back over to the waiting Talia and Vandal.

"What is he doing here?" growls Kal.

"He is the one that gave me the doorway to bring you back as well as the means to track you down."

"I guess I owe him too, so what happen while I was gone?"

"The world is relatively as it was before you took your so-called stewardship."

"Great, but I'm powerless now, no amount of sunlight will fix that."

"I'm working on a device called Eris, its purpose is to reverse the effects of the Achilles."

"Now you are talking, suggest you get it working quick as you can."

"I always do my best, so I have work to do my compatriots."

As Ra's goes off to trade bodies again and Vandal goes off to inventing, this leaves Kal alone with Talia.

"I remember you the daughter of Ra's."

"I remember you too, Super..."

"Don't call me, I'm not that anymore, I'm only Kal-El or Kal."

"As you wish, Kal-El."

"So have you seen Bruce?"

"Yes I have, I suppose you are aware the other former Lords are also back in this reality, probably with him now."

"They were too forgiving for what he led us into."

"He did seem to feel mixed about what might have been the fate of the other Lords including you."

"Not enough to stop the League from getting out, heck, I think he let them out."

"He told me their Flash faked a heart attack and that got him to go into that one's cell to check on him."

"He was afraid he killed Flash, killed Wally, well last time it was Luthor, this time it almost was Luthor again though yes I am almost did try to kill the pipsqueak for using his speed against me. I have done a lot of things I thought I would never do, but some times you have to cross lines to stop the cycle."

"My father always says the same things and of course Bruce disagrees."

"He would because he is too weak to do those things without remorse or regret."

"He remains father's chief candidate to replace him or for father to take over his body."

"If he did that, I'd probably kill him because even if it is not, it looks like him."

"His other eventual candidate is my unborn offspring. He is looking out for his own immortality because his original body could no longer hold out. The man you met is just one of many bodies he has jumped into in his pursuit to stay alive."

"The man is afraid of one thing, afraid of death, I however lost that fear when I burnt Luthor to a crisp."

"It became a pattern, a precedent to burn holes into their heads."

"Yes... so who is the father?"

"I'm afraid you would kill me if I told you."

"Bruce... of course, you are in love with him, but that I can accept because he wants nothing to do with kids not anymore."

"I think you are wrong, but that's my judgment."

"It is... well good luck with fantasies that Bruce might actually return to that kind of person who stood by and let me burn holes in their heads. That kind of Bruce, of Batman hardly deserves the name, but that's just me."

As he walks away, she realizes that this thing is getting out of hand, the once benevolent alien is now little above someone with a vendetta against his adoptive race specifically towards her beloved. Of course even if Bruce dies, her unborn child is his legacy albeit not one he would wanted, but still him, just not the him he believes to the true extension of him. She realizes as she watches her beloved in the company of the Amazonian, that she lost his heart to her, but with Diana being power sapped like Kal-El, she could still die, however she realizes that she would die to protect Bruce from anything even Kal-El. If Diana dies then Bruce would surely go after her killer with a vengeance. He wouldn't let harm come to her, not with the way they seem together. The video feed betrays much about their rekindling relationship. She is jealous of the Amazonian that much she understood aside from other things. She feels a pair of hands on her, it is Kal-El, he roughly pins her, and the rest is a blur. It was different from the tenderness of Bruce, at least he knew enough about women to know that rough is not always the way, but she realizes that Kal-El doesn't exactly care who gets hurt anymore, so long as he comes out on top.

"Lois was always better at this intimate thing though i never got this close to her."

"She actually wrote an article not long after your disappearance, A World Without, it sold like mad."

"Figures, she always knew how to sell anything, and of course Bruce probably gave her the exclusive."

"You two turn out to be the worst of enemies here, but if I understood the stories about your others, they were quite different."

"If by different you mean stupid, weak, ineffective than yes, if you mean otherwise well I'm prepared to teach you the difference."

"Unhand my daughter Kryptonian."

"As you wish it."

The eager for a rampage Kal leaves them to their rituals as he decides to have a long chat with Savage about the past few years of his absence. He learns that Lords are officially kaput, that some new organization called The Outsiders is acting in their place, but in what some call a more benign way. However benign is useless to him, but there a difference what can be done with a close fist and an open shake. He learns that the old Watchtower is now under government control and the Outsiders have a lunar outpost, which makes him laugh too. You can't just on your hands he argues with Savage, but Savage counters saying waiting is part of the trip too It would eventually be time to put Eris to the test yet until then he will will awhile longer. He would have to have his powers, but make sure none of his former allies get near the device As he knows in mind, Bruce Wayne aka Batman, will be the first dead of a new era.

No one would challenge his rule again, this is where he takes control in his mind.

Meanwhile Ra's gives the order to jump the next body then directs the plan to advance again.

* * *

A/N: Ra's and Vandal are both relatively immortal so one wonders what might motivate an alliance yet just the same a depowered Kal-El is back in the Lords reality in the service of Ra's Al-Ghul so until his powers are back, he'll follow whoever brings him closer to killing Bruce, or at least try to do it. I figured Vandal had shown quite a level of technical expertise so probably he could duplicate a facsimile of the the portal used by Lord Batman in A Better World. This assumption is based on the alternate future version of Vandal that Superman meet in Hereafter Pt. 2.


	18. Overtures

"What's the status on the Eris?"

"It is having setbacks but I had a rather perverse inspiration."

"What would that be?"

"I'm testing using Kryptonite as a power source."

"Of course with him depowered it should not effect until his powers come back."

"In theory, but ti could also make him impervious to Kryptonite."

"Then what would his vulnerability be otherwise?"

" Anti-kryptonite."

"Why that?"

"It is like anti-matter, see ordinary Kryptonite in the right exposure levels would kill the League Superman, so just reverse it."

"Only we shall know this understood?"

"Crystal, well let's see what this modification does..."

***

Kal steps into the chamber as Vandal fires up the kryptonite powered Eris. At first he seems dizzy yet as Vandal compensates it seems as if his powers start to come back as he manages to leave burn marks at eye level on the far wall. He leaves Kal in the chamber for the rest of the evening. More field tests reveal his strength returning, seems that kryptonite power source did the trick, and once Vandal tells him what he did, the Kryptonian laughs almost sadistically at the fact that he is no longer vulnerable to Kryptonite. It had been his Achilles' heel forever at least in terms of superhuman abilities, but the other part always had things to do with what he saw as misguided idealism about being the hero that hid behind the disguise of Clark Kent. Kent became a useless extension of him as he grew increasingly ticked off by Luthor's ability to push the world into a global conflict between the governments and costumed heroes that opposed arms races among other things.

His heat vision instead turns into freeze vision where as exhaling cold becomes breathing fire. He designs an outfit to resemble the soldier outfit given to him by Darkseid during that little charade. As his flight starts to come back he decides its time for a real field test starting with the former Watchtower now being used as part of the new International Space Station. His first act is to smash into the lower section and makes a rather interesting discovery, a binary fusion gun, a new feature that was never there during the Lords control of the outpost, so either Wayne did it or the governments did it, either way both would pay through the nose for this piece of junk. As Cadmus guards try to stop him, they are only frozen on the spot then he blows fire at them, which melts the ice rapidly to the point they all get frostbite then heat burns. He decides to overload the generators, make it look 'accidental', and so as he flees, the evacuation alert starts blaring. He watches the pods descend to the planet below though of course he gives a few a kick to send them off course, but of course this is only the beginning, he feels a little sluggish so returns to Ra's retreat in the mountains to get more Eris dosing. He was not back to top notch, but it felt good to rampage again instead of just bouncing around his cell breaking stuff every day.

After awhile they quit replacing his furniture so he just sleeps on the busted mattress, which he does not mind much after sleeping on all sorts of ground over the years. Talia's pregnancy enters the final trimester recently, which means whatever plans Ra's has for the child are fast approaching, so he wonders would Bruce risk his neck for a child that might not be his. However just the same, would she risk fleeing to protect her baby, some part of him hopes she would, just so he could tail her all the way to Bruce, then kill them all. He wonders how he got to be so killer ready, but then he remembers how he had been before all this. He never saw himself as evil, but he did a ton of not nice stuff to everyone who crosses his path

***

Meanwhile security specialists directed by Eiling examine recovered footage from the space station's camera system. Someone with Superman like abilities just brought down the former Watchtower that also been doubling as the new International Space Station. Hamilton asks someone to go digging into old news footage from around eight to ten years ago. Eiling sees where the eccentric professor is going with the idea and as they align the two images side by side, it looks a lot like Superman in Apokolips styled battle armor. The abilities don't match exactly, but they seem remarkably similar. The helmet conceals the attacker's identity, but this pushes Cadmus onto to full alert. The damaged escape pods would not be had for several days given how off course some of them went. This mysterious enemy poses a problem, but they had someone to match with Galatea back in action, at least they hope so. Waller however had several other projects that show promise as they were building their own army of metas to counter whatever threat this new attacker poses to Earth.

***

"Little over the top up there, you almost drained yourself to boot."

"Just get me back to full and make sure it stays there Savage."

"As you command."

He soaks up the kryptonite enhanced blasts and his immunity to it multiplies as does his power. It would not be much longer, but Kal grows stronger, Ra's sees an opportunity to steal that body for himself if that's what it comes down to if he cannot get the detective or his grandchild to take over his place. Project Final Overture is in motion at last as Cadmus arms up, he leaks word of this to various agencies throughout the world to ensure they do the same if they wish to get involved on that scale and he also passes the word through a randoms series of accounts to the Outsiders. Luthor's plan was viable, but instead of turning the governments against the heroes, he would do something more subtle. He would simply turn everyone on everyone then trigger his plan in final overture, but not yet, first they all had to start going after each other, to keep them off balance that would have to happen before long.

_"So how much longer can you hold Detective?"_ he whispers to himself.

Talia had been watching at a distance through the glass, she could lip read, she knew he spoke of her beloved, and soon she would have to make the final choice or else it really just might be the end of everything, what kind of world is that to bring a child into, on one hand its father's plan while on the other its bringing a child into a world brought about by mass murder. Her beloved abhorred killing even though he had been present on multiple occasions where people got killed, but still his opposition to many things like killing made him well know for his relentless determination as Batman. However it is still a world without a Justice inspired organization, just a giant backyard for independent agents. The baby kicks earlier than expected, but of course, the pregnancy was slightly accelerated thanks to her father's medical staff. She believes the child to be sired by her beloved, but of course he was disbelieving of it. She did however have to check for herself too so she runs a DNA test later. The child is hers and his, but there are signs that it was not a natural conception, it was not from that office sex moment several months ago. The dates almost matched, but somehow someone had artificially triggered this pregnancy.

She was suddenly very upset, it was theirs, but not by procreation. She would still carry to term, she loves this life inside her even if no one else would.

***

"What of Talia Al-Ghul's pregnancy?"

"She's expecting in less than three months."

"You think she knows who did it?"

"Maybe, sure the genetics match, but someone implanted it in her."

"The question is who."

"I would say Dad, but how could he get access to Wayne's genetics."

"Well someone did it, and if she finds out, she's going to flip out."

"Maybe she already has... well its a guess."

Waller rubs her forehead before looking up at Hamilton and Flagg again. Hamilton did this work to actualize his frustration with Superman breaking that saintly image he held of the alien for a few years whereas Flagg distrusts anyone in a costume. It made interesting combination in the bunkers. Warnings start circulating that other organizations know about a few of Cadmus deep cover projects, which forces her to relocate a lot of assets before getting the red phone call from the President. There is concern about what Cadmus is up to so she goes out on a limb to assuage her political superior. Someone cracked or someone leaked, either way, they had to get better at decentralizing and encrypting to stay ahead of whoever is keeping tabs on them.

* * *

A/N 1: Kal's powers are coming back except they are of course inverted and his new costume is similar to his Apokolips armor from the StAS episode Legacy. The powers are similar to Bizarro in one of the comics and as for his personality he is getting to be more like Ultraman from the Crime Syndicate who had issues with Owlman and Superwoman, of course in this story its Kal with issues towards Bruce and Diana.

A/N 2: Ra's plan is finally set in motion, Talia will have to a pick side given what she knows of the plan, and as for Savage, his trump card is Kal's new physical weakness.

A/N 3: Cadmus has also been busy, but Kal's destruction of their reconfigured Watchtower, the one that used to be his space base tips the scales. As for the Outsiders, they have some knowledge too, but of course nothing is what it seems at least at first glance.


	19. Tipping Point

Segment Note: The plan moves forward, so it begins at last, but in the way one expects perhaps.

* * *

_If I know, if we know then Cadmus knows too, but of course if the four including Bruce are back then so must be the one who once called himself Superman _thinks Vic._ However he is definitely aligned with someone that poses the greater, truer threat than Cadmus. Cadmus represents the part of the pockets of cities that are afraid of us, but so few of us now are super powered or metahuman now. Superman or Kal, he'll be after Bruce in particular, but I suspect the other detective will be preparing for this once he learns of it. Of course he is not back from that island yet so I'll have to get someone else to alert the three hiding out at the manor before someone else spills what is going on to the GCPD, but it might be too late for that too. It is time to pay Montoya a visit._

Sage teleports down to the garage where he locks away his Pontiac GTO quite frequently so he zips off into Gotham however as he nears the central police station, something is definitely amiss, he figures out why just before SWAT surround his car. Someone either gave him away or they were expecting him.

"Vic Sage, you are under arrest for breaking into government facilities and stealing classified information from said archives," shouts Commissioner Montoya.

"You'll have to catch me first Commissioner," he replies before reversing into a K turn.

As he speeds off, a whole company of squad cars are in pursuit and so the chase spills over onto the highway than to the back road that leads towards what used to be the Bat cave. Montoya knew about the country road that bends and flows with the land that leads towards the hidden entrance to the infamous Bat cave. It also confirms suspicions that Wayne was the key financier or at least out of costume supporter to the Outsiders. As the Pontiac leaps through air, it passes through the waterfall, some cars including Montoya's follow, she orders the armored division and the SWAT to storm the manor. If Wayne was here, he was going up the river for this too, parole or not, it was still an associating violation. She elects to be technical, which is permitted to some extent, she felt Gordon had always been too forgiving or lenient, but she has been in charge during a relatively quiet crime underworld era compared to the one that dragged down Gotham when Batman first came onto the scene many years ago.

As the Pontiac slides to a stop, he spots one J'onn J'onzz, another former Justice Lord, purportedly still over in that other reality or time line that diverged from theirs long ago where one Luthor became more the super criminal and here became a political sociopath. He steps out just as the squad cars catch up including Montoya's.

"You have to get the others out now, you are endanger, not just Cadmus, other problem, everyone is after..."

J'onn starts to run at those words, afraid for the first in awhile, however upstairs the cops are already breaking down the doors and several windows. It was a question to ponder fear just before the knockout gas got him, had the whole world gone mad without them around or they were just really afraid of ending up with something worse than the Justice Lords had been all those years before. He hopes that Shayera and John got away though of course the couple had hidden themselves upstairs so once the cops left nothing more than a guard detail in the manor, they stealthily made their way down though it is getting harder to Shayera with her belly really starting to show at this point in the midst of what John tells her is called the second trimester. The trickiest part once downstairs is getting to the cave because it would not do them any good to be caught going out the front or the back. The cove had become the only option like before. As they pass through the room where the entrance is, there are SWAT ready for them, but something else happen just before they make their move.

An all to familiar whooshing sound, John chuckles a little and Shayera restrains a giggle.

"Somebody order a side of SWAT?" jokes Inara Lethe.

"Who are you, I know whose costume that looks like but who?" asks John.

"Introductions will have to wait Stewart," answers Kyle.

"Rayner?"

"Four to teleport now," chirps Inara.

"Where are we going?" quips Shayera.

They vanish leaving only the unconscious SWAT unit in the room. Word passes along that someone had gotten to the SWAT unit guarding the interior entrance to the cave. Meanwhile Question is locked away in Graystone, the same prison that been the place where they locked away Wayne. As he put into his cell with his first meal he knows plenty of these men ended up in here because of him, Wayne, or Helena.

"One of many errors made today was mine, but yours too, you see I'm not in here with them, they are in here with me."

On a psychological level he could be considered right, but of course without any of his gear, he had no way to orchestrate his own escape, so either bid his time to do it himself or possibly expect someone else to do it for him. Either way they are running out of time with multiple plots moving forward, liable to collide, probable to destroy everything, he is certain the other him in that other reality, other time line dealt with something not unlike this.

***

"You will lead the Ultimen army against the Lunar Watchtower, do you understand Galatea?"

"Yes Generals, they are a threat, most of all she is a threat, and that power mad cousin of hers who destroyed the station too."

"Now get to work!"

Cadmus had built up its own fleet of ships based on the original Javelin design, but with one serious difference, cloaking devices. It would protect them from being detected by the Lunar Watchtower in theory and as for the rest of the world, nobody knew of the designs for the moment. The loss of the station was a setback, but losing the binary gun had upset some elements of Cadmus' supporters in D.C. Waller did not relish where this was all leading, it felt like a setup, a trap, but in the end the authorization for this kind of mission was not solely up to her. The Administration via the Defense Department hands off operational protocols, basically disable that lunar facility and capture as many of the Outsiders as possible otherwise they would tolerate some casualties.

"Goodbye Daddy," says Galatea.

"Good luck," murmurs Hamilton.

Only now did it occur to him that he had done some pretty down questionable things when reacting to disappointment in his image of Superman, so instead he decides that Kryptonian is now a literal counterpart to Lucifer, but of course if that new enemy is still him then his behavior had a slight measure of justification still though Kara had not done anything except try to knock some sense into him that day all those years ago. He felt strange, just a little about cloning her, but the government or more precisely what had become Cadmus sought any advantage it could get over Superman and after over the Lords. The Outsiders while not the Lords, were still a threat as many believe teams of costumed heroics is still bad even they are mostly human. The toleration lasted as long as they had none of the Lords or anyone associated with the former Lords with them, but that almost quickly began to change starting with Galatea's first encounter with Kara in Metropolis. The return of the four of the five absent Lords had also pushed some departments to press for action against the Outsiders though the heaviest incentive was the destruction of the new ISS.

Its destruction had put everyone on alert, cleaner teams were already going after the wreckage, but it got problematic when certain states got interested to go looking for themselves. The damage to debris is extensive enough, but some would be smart enough to see that the binary fusion generator is the newest piece of equipment, well this depends on how well it survived reentry, from whatever pieces were left after that new enemy's rampage. Either way this is all about to come to a close, only questions circulate who will be left standing when they get to that point.

***

"Inbound stealth signatures, they almost register like that old Javelin design," quips Steel.

"Confirming, yes its that design for certain," continues The Atom.

"Just perfect, who is on them?" questions Green Arrow.

"Blast, something is jamming the sensors now, plus we are on emergency power now, someone or something just took out the power."

"That would be me..." says Captain Atom.

"You? Why?" responds Black Canary

"This team has become a threat to global security, I have my orders."

"Orders to what, to arrest us, to kill us?" retorts Huntress.

"Surrender peacefully and nobody gets hurt."

"Something tells me that, whoever is leading that force has anything but that in mind especially with me here," continues Kara.

"You can't mean that..."

"Yes she is leading them, the link is not totally broken, she has issues with me if you didn't know Captain."

"This isn't good then."

"No this is very bad plus you left us in a jam taking out the primary power."

Steel and the Atom head off the power station with the Captain in tow so he can undo what he had done.

"Outsiders to combat status," orders Arrow.

"Standby to handle intruders,' shouts Canary.

"You think it'll be enough to rally everyone?" whispers Oliver.

"We still have to try anyway," answers Dinah.

"What's with all the whispering?" jests Kara.

"Old habits y'know."

"Super hearing too."

Intruder alerts go off like mad, the attack has begun, but to ensure power stays down as low as it can get Galatea goes for the power station and its multiple cores Kara attempts to contact Steel for an update as she fights her way through a line of Ultimen clones. He doesn't answr, she picks up speed, almost sonic booming through a whole flank of the attackers. She finds Steel or rather him with half of his armor torn off and as for The Atom, he is out cold while back to his human size. Her double is taking on an injured Captain Atom, if his suit goes even in here, it could be deadly, maybe even destructive. The Ultimen are her command are taking down the Outsiders despite how effective seemingly ordinary humans in costumes were holding against them. The Lunar Watchtower would certainly be theirs before long making it all the more urgent that Kara stop Galatea if that's even possible. She slams her clone into the floor just before she tries to kill the Captain. His suit is badly fractured, there's no getting up for him, but the Atom is back on his feet gong to resume his efforts to bring the power systems back as the two duke it out not far from him. Steel props himself up using what's left of his heavy hammer.

It would take at least a little while longer to get it going, but Captain Atom's ability to manipulate all kinds of radiation could speed it up though they would be risking the captain as well their livelihoods. Steel tries to contact anyone in the operations section, but nobody answers, all he hears is static and sounds of battle. It was not going well, but would going up there change anything, it bothers him to hesitate again. He tells Palmer to keep at it, he had to help up top, the man obliges as Steel in less than ideal shape takes off.

"Your Outsiders are losing, you are all loose cannons to be put down."

"Says you!"

"Says me, says Cadmus, says the governments of the world though most are still too afraid or stupid to admit it!"

"Sure and I'm just the bumpkin girl from Kansas!"

She slams her clone again before getting thrown towards the solar power relays. The designers of these particular generators found a way to employ a method similar to that of the next generation space facilities, paneling that would continuous channel some form of solar energy while alternately devising a way to tap into the lunar terrain, which had been one of those novel though expensive research grants courtesy of the Wayne foundation. Somehow Kara wishes that her cousin had come to his senses after being beaten in that alternate reality, but no, he probably now had a new grudge, a new plan, it would be bad if he got his powers back of course she must pay attention to now. Galatea however deciphers her enemy's plan to trick her because too much solar power could be lethal even to a Kryptonian.

"Nice try bumpkin!"

Kara howls in pain as Galatea instead turns the severed relays on Kara instead. Kara falls to the ground leaving Galatea to take out Palmer, but something else hits. An energy blast from a certain Green Lantern. Rayner and Lethe are on the offensive as John and Shayera fight some of the Ultimen being drawn to the cores to help their 'leader'. Galatea turns towards Rayner then body slams him before finding herself tossed by Lethe, the toss is fast and energized enough to propel what she calls the wannabe into space. This leaves a body size rip in the ceiling so Rayner hurries to seal the gap. Fate finally getting out from under an entire company of clones uses some magic to speed the refill just as Kara comes around to find Steel reattaching the cables she had just pulled out. The ceiling ruptures again in a different spot as Galatea literally lands on her taking her deeper into the Lunar Watchtower. The only ones left standing down there are the Ultimen that had beaten the rest of the Outsiders except the ones in the power cores chamber.

She couldn't take it anymore but Rayner, Lethe, and Shayera come in for another attack run though Shayera gets a bad singe to her wings from Galatea's heat vision. She goes down, Kara struggles towards the woman, it looks bad, but it can be healed if they get her medical help fast. John rushes her to one of the Cadmus Javelins then flies it towards the surface hoping he can J'onn in time because he is the closest thing that Lords had to a doctor at one time except Fate instead directs him to the Tower where Inza waits for their arrival. The Lunar Watchtower seems a lost cause at this stage, but where else did they have left to go especially with Cadmus being able to find this place. Kara and Galatea keep battling, their uniforms or what passes for such is in shreds before long. They are near equals at power level, making it simpler to wound each other, but Kara is weakening just a little.

"Face it you lost!"

"Says the clone!"

She punches Kara clear across the room, but both Rayner and Lethe catch the almost adult Supergirl in their arms.

Her earpiece chirps with the Generals requesting an update, she says its almost done, they are glad to hear it, how many prisoners they ask, many, but a few died during the fight she says, acceptable so long as you bring enough for us to prosecute. It is going down now as they stop transmitting for now. It is time, but just then power kicks back online so Kara uses the confusion on Galatea's face to kick her towards the teleport pad. The Cadmus Javelins are departing en mass with the captured Outsiders in the middle of all this. There is no way to stop them, so it would have to wait to get the others back, but in the mean time, Kara's kick had been forceful enough to stun Galatea. Lethe beams the evil 'brat' away and whoever is left uses the pad set to auto-teleport before the Lunar Watchtower itself powers down permanently. They reappear at another of Wayne's secretly financed Outsiders facilities hidden in Central City. Some could suspect why he chose here for such a thing, but some also felt it was not good given the late Wally West's personal attachment to keeping this city safe from any kind of harm.

* * *

A/N 1: Shares some plot elements with the TNBA episode Over The Edge, with JLU episodes Panic In the Sky and a bit of Wake The Dead if only for the involvement of Fate and Inza.

A/N 2: Cadmus strikes of course, it is similar the plot point in Panic In the Sky only with Galatea leading the attack.

A/N 3: Vic and J'onn are both captured albeit separately so what does it mean, we'll find out soon.


	20. Interludes

Segment Note: Follows Tipping Point, somewhere along the way the tales have gotten from one shots to something else. The board shifts again after Cadmus' first big move. Many are at a crossroads, which direction to go, what to believe, and more.

* * *

"I must return to the Tower, Shayera's injuries require my attention even with all Inza can do, it is new to us to have treat that kind of burn."

"Let me go with you."

"It is not your fault Kara."

"Still, I have to do something."

"You gave John the opening to get her to Inza, I'll be sure she understands that much."

"Thanks Fate."

"Be well, take care, I don't know who is going to tell Wayne about this one."

Those that were captured included Oliver, Dinah, Helena, Zatanna, and Steel to name a few. The rest of the cells on Earth are alerted through scrambler, but fortunately only a third of their numbers are now in Cadmus' custody. Those that got away include Kyle, Inara, Kara, Fate, Palmer, and a recovering Captain Atom who went with Fate back to the Tower. Kara felt the need to speak to someone other than those here with her so she scramble calls an old days acquaintance.

"Things always get worse before they get better," says Barbara.

"You heard about what happen at the manor?" asks Kara.

"I heard they arrested Question, I'm under suspicion as is Dick, Tim, and they are probably going after Bruce whenever he is back from the island."

"You mean he went with her?"

"Yes, those two they are something supernatural as a force together. Sure I loved him in my own way, but she loves and endures more of him than I ever knew. I am happier and quite pleased with Dick, with my daughter."

"You know the rest of your 'family' is not above suspicion especially now they have Question and J'onn."

"I know quite well, but for now, we wait, it is the way Bruce would do it."

"Right, when can we expect his return?"

"Soon I hope, but he takes this matter with Diana very seriously, about as serious I have seen him take such things."

"I almost nobody would forgive any of them. I don't know how you did."

"We'll never really forget, but we must forgive, it is all too short to stay resentful, bitter, and angry among other things. It is not something he willingly embraced, he just thought it was the right thing until what went on with Arkham's regulars."

***

"The Illuminati... yes them... a magic bullet used once... killed you know who with it."

"Quit the meaningless conspiracies mumbo jumbo!"

"Not conspiracies, conspiracy singular."

"Whatever, send him back to Graystone, he ain't talking, bring in the Martian."

As Vic is led away, J'onn in shackles is led in only someone has come for him from the government. Montoya agrees to hand him over except she demands that they remand Sage to her jurisdiction, so far there are no objections to that development. As J'onn rides in the government armored escort car, the agent passes him a package of Oreos.

"Heard you liked those."

"And you would be?"

"Agent Faraday."

"I suppose I would as humans say owe you one."

"Consider us even for now because, I have something that might interest you and the others."

"What would that be?"

"A way to restore your abilities, the ones that disruptor negated."

"I don't think I deserve the powers back yet even though some of them were biological in origin."

"You sure about that?"

"If the expression on my face is not clear enough then what else?"

"I understand you all still very responsible if that is the word."

"I know the police believe that the former Batman violated his word by associating with so many of his former costumed allies, but he is not a man to sit by and do nothing when the world is at stake, when lives are endangered, he lost his parents, almost lost his 'family' simply because he felt unable to stop it."

"I understand that, but many elements are still very much afraid of even most trivial costume 'heroics' but me, I am only worried about another Justice Lords scenario though of course someone else is probably playing us against each other with that paranoia."

"You mean this Ra's Al-Ghul."

"There is him, but there are some new players including Vandal Savage and this dark armored individual that some suspect to be your ex-comrade Kal-El."

"He was kept when we were let out."

"Somebody either got a very similar being on their side or it is him meaning someone sprung him."

"What this individual do?"

"I trust you recall your former Watchtower."

"Yes..."

"Someone took it out of orbit by destroying its power generators, the fact that we had a binary fusion gun installed in it recently is about to tick the world off at us or at least most nations that are afraid of us."

"Yes, as John Stewart used to tell me, space based weapons always destabilize planetary politics, but of course your species has done quite enough in that area without that gun. Not I am denoucing your species, its just so often I found so little hope for your survival as I am the last Martian, but occasionally things happen like with that little girl many years ago."

"I read through a lot of the old case files on your bigger sorties, but I kept digging looking for things like that though I only found them by going deeper into the easily forgotten head lines or reports from random places that thought it significant enough to bring up often. I commend you all for things like that, but of course when things went wrong, really wrong, difficult calls had to be made, something like it is now."

"Yes this planet is at risk again because old problems with new twists are rising up."

"Cadmus launched an attack on the Lunar Watchtower or at least that's what I heard, it happen almost simultaneously with your capture at the manor."

"However it was the GCPD that caught me not Cadmus."

"Yes, they only got you and Sage, but Stewart and Hol are unaccounted for as are several Outsiders that were at the lunar base."

"Where would we look for them then?"

"I'm not sure."

***

"We got only a third of their total roster here, some that were present during the attack escaped, and of course Galatea got beamed away before the RTB order."

"Where do we have to look because the teleport records were scrambled than deleted after the beam out."

"There must be other bunkers elsewhere, either on the moon or on Earth somewhere."

"What about the GCPD detainees?"

"They still have Vic Sage, but somebody got to J'onn before we could."

"Who?"

"Faraday."

"What is he up to?"

"His agency also knows about the power disruptor, don't they?"

"Of course, but what if they have a counter measure?"

"That's a disturbing possibility."

***

"It has begun, Cadmus made the first move as expected, the Lunar Watchtower is shut down, however the planet side cells and those who escaped the lunar base are out of harm's way for now. As for Bruce, the Invisible Jet has yet to leave the island, but as we all know I have no way of sending anyone in. Those deities of the old worlds are more real than those preposterous stories about them."

"Father, why make them destroy each other?"

"It is the only way to start the world over."

"There must be another way to preserve what is left of the environment."

"Almost nobody has tried to live in harmony with the land in centuries, the last ones that did were decimated slowly by imperialistic tendencies of the current clime's nation states. The decadence has reached way beyond its peak as I once told your beloved Wayne, but still he says there are good people, not beyond saving is all this."

She sighs recognizing this topic has grown dull, she knows his answers like she knows some of Bruce's combat scars, but of course the child is in danger here. He had been right that she would endanger the child, but Kal proves to be the biggest issue to her escape route with his powers nearly back at full strength after spending days in that tank. She would have to leave while he was still in there and while her father makes another jump. Savage surprisingly and secretly confesses more of Kal's new weakness to her. He claims that he is only empowering the alien so that they would still be able to kill if it comes to that. He takes the risk of getting her and on the way to Kasnia, which is several days journey from here even under the best weather circumstances. She would also have to travel in disguise as well as alone, he still has contacts in Kasnia, they would look after her he tells her, so she prepares to leave at last. This was it, she had to prevent the overture of an apocalypse that her father has in mind otherwise what kind of world would she be bringing this growing life inside of her in too when finally born.

Ra's discovers too late that she is gone, but disperse agents to track her down, except she knows from the best how to become invisible when necessary.

***

Elsewhere, Bruce and Diana hear of recent world events so they know they have to go back now, because the world still needs heroes, still needs them. It is the unwritten part of what they do yet in remembering that they think of Wally for a moment.

_People need us, we help, whether they want it or not, whether we are suppose to or not, it is what we are, remember this even if one of us dies doing what we do._

"Diana," says Persephone."

"What my goddess?" she answers.

"I want you two to follow me somewhere."

"Where?"

"You might call it the afterlife, you'll be fine, there's just someone who wants to see you both for a moment."

There is a ripple then they disappear from the shoreline only to reappear walking in green meadows with blue skies, and for miles there are only the spirits who have gone onto their conception of an afterlife yet as they near one particular ethereal doorway, it opens to reveal a city, not Gotham or Metropolis, but _his _city. She leaves them to see their old friend.

"Are we really here?"

"I think we are or at least how he imagines it."

A rather curious looking redhead spots them in the distance.

"Bats? Wondy!"

"Flash! Wally?"

He runs towards them and happily flops in their arms.

"How is this possible?"

"Persephone, the wife of the King of the spiritual Underworld brought us here, to how you imagine your afterlife."

"I must have a heck of imagination, but it is like I only saw you not long ago."

"Time is not linear here I take it."

"Nope, it was fun reliving all those other times, when I was there it felt like I should be there, but then I would visit other places and times in my life."

"The world changed a lot when you died."

"I remember dying, kind of, I remember begging you all not to do something."

"We did something, paid for it dearly, we are not out of the woods yet, but we are getting there."

"I always believed in the things that made you all the 'family' and the friends I respected, cared about, loved like brothers and sisters albeit older ones."

"Of course Wally."

"Still drink Iced Mochas?"

"You remembered?"

"Hey I might be dead, but I have a good memory, maybe not as eidetic as Bats."

"Same old West."

"You betcha, so where are the others?"

"They are elsewhere doing things, the usual, we did not even know of this place."

The scene shifts to Wally's apartment and he catches something on his television, it runs through everything that happened since his death. He breaks down through all emotions experiencing what happen to them and murmurs I shouldn't have died, could have stopped this. Diana tries to comfort him as Bruce is unable to find the words once more to console, the humorous yet dedicated speedster. He shares with them how he felt watching what happen after his death, of course experiencing all their emotions was heart wrenching, but he also saw why they got back together, it help heal his being. Of course the whole experience seems sudden, but somehow he deserved to know even if he is no longer physically among them.

"World still needs heroes, remember what I used to say, and you'll all do well. I'm proud to have been a part of that, you see as long as you remember me for what I am never totally gone y'know. The spirit of the journey is what its all about, things get worse before the better, before the dawn."

"You almost sound like Aurora at the end."

"She is right there with that point."

"Remember what we are... you, each other, all of it, it looks bad, but as long as you're together, that's all that matters most."

Persephone comes again and Wally makes some comment about her attractiveness.

"Goddesses, I tell ya, you got one right there next to you, actually make that two."

"I see why some would be so fond of him, he has a certain charm."

As they disappear, Wally drifts back to his afterlife patterns knowing the world is in their hands, he believes in them.

***

"That was different, he looked so content, so happy, of course it hurt to see him broken up by what happen after his death."

"Yes, but I believe what's happen recently has given him back his belief in all that we do, all that we are."

"I believe so too my love... and I believe in..."

She kisses him deeply before whispering love for you. It would almost seem cliche, but it did not matter, it was them happy together. It was time to go home, to the world in peril. Whatever happens they face it as one faces an uncertain future that not even the Fates could divine for certainty right now.

* * *

A/N 1: this one was not about anyone particular batch, kind of mixed it up, all the pieces shift again. The result is still ahead in the distance and for a real bender, the Fates for once have nothing to say except, future uncertain. However, I had a strange thought of bringing in Persephone to take them on a visit to the afterlife/underworld. Sure they meet a certain someone, but I think its still a nice touch.

A/N 2: I got the idea of bringing in Faraday to get J'onn out from the version of them from Justice League: The New Frontier where they played chess together. As for what goes on with Vic, its a little reminiscent of Rorschach in The Watchmen albeit less physical for starters.

A/N 3: Fate, Inza, and the Tower is coming into the story especially as they must look after a somewhat injured and pregnant Shayera. As for Talia, well she has quit her father's mad scheme, particularly for her child regardless of how the child was concieved.

A/N 4: RTB is military jargon for Return To Base, seems obvious enough.


	21. Tapestries

S/N: It is more complicated than chess, but that's the closest yet also farthest analogy I have got for this ongoing chain of events.

* * *

"How did we get caught so easily?" grumbles Helena

"Easy, heck they had an army of hundreds," retorts Oliver

"This is not the time to rehash history, we need to escape as soon as possible," says Dinah.

"She is right, we need to focus on escape," continues Steel.

"We are probably in some high security detention area, they wouldn't go to all this trouble if we could escape easily."

"That would be correct," says a fourth voice outside their cell.

The figure steps into the light, Hardcastle may not be a physically imposing individual, but he has been able to remain in his position to shape the directives of Cadmus especially since the Lords went MIA before Wayne's trial. They had files on everyone who was a costumed hero, so there were no secret identities at stake here.

"You are being held here because the Outsiders are a violation of the judgments made a few years back regarding costumed heroics."

"You would want Wayne for that, we are merely helping when we can, but otherwise not interfering on a grand scale."

"Keep telling yourself that Bertinelli."

"Why attack one of our facilities?"

"Sage broke into one of our computer networks."

"We were clueless about who we might be dealing with when rumors started circulating about government plans to counter the costumes."

"That's not justification."

"What is justification then?"

"We are aiming to prevent another costumed dictatorship."

"We are not going that far again."

"You say that now, but what happens if one of you dies again."

"We deal with it and move on."

"Sure, well get comfortable because you are going to be here awhile, probably forever."

The frustration is not just being stuck here, but being stuck here while the world is in danger from something worse than what Waller and her superiors fear deep down.

"That settles that... we are out of here now."

Helena takes a full zap from the energy running through the barred doorway. As she flies backwards, she is barely caught by Oliver and Steel.

"Great, even electrified the bars," grumbles Helena.

Meanwhile at Graystone, Vic Sage is stuck on a food line with a few of Gotham's criminals he put there, but of course when they try to attack him he steps on the aglets of their worn out shoes.

"I always said those things had a more sinister purpose, though this works just as well."

He eats in silence. Nobody bothers him just yet for now.

***

Elsewhere in Bludhaven, Barbara notices armored vehicles tailing her home. She rings the house, Alfred answers, she tells him to stay with Cassandra until she gets there, he obliges, but of course Dick is also on his way home being tailed too. They both head inside together after parking their separate cars.

"Something is definitely wrong here."

"Yeah, cops tailing us, we are operating within the law nowadays, somebody apparently disagrees."

As they head upstairs, they find Alfred with Cassandra, but of course he directs their attention to the news broadcast about a captured band of vigilantes. Their faces are shown with the masks instead of without, which is not that relieving. The reporter begins talking about the suspected ringleaders, which probably include former members of the Bat clan. Someone is knocking at the door, Barbara answers it after telling Alfred to hide in the secret elevator with Cassandra, if anything went really wrong, the baby had to be protected at all costs. Alfred understood just as he had when having to look after Bruce in the manor on his own all those years ago.

"This is unfortunate, but due to you known association with the purportedly reformed Bruce Wayne, you are being taken in for questioning."

"Its more than that isn't?"

"I'm not allowed to say anything more."

"Sure."

Someone or many open fire against the windows. Dick pushes Barbara below the couch as the windows shatter and sure enough these new comers keep shooting injuring several cops in the process. The weaponry belongs to a different era of Wayne Enterprises before Bruce had come back to take the family business out of the hands of men like Warren Powers who sought to use the company as an arms manufacturer, which Bruce put a stop to before long and replaced him with Lucius Fox, someone that was in passing acquainted with his deceased parents. Someone was trying to frame Wayne Enterprises and by extension put the blame of these deaths on Lucius or Bruce, maybe even both. The gunmen surround them after the cops are dead.

"You best surrender if you want that kid of yours to live as well as the old man!"

Dick for the first time in years felt the urge to literally fight to the point of making sure he had a hospital stay in his future.

"How dare you!"

Dick gets up and grabs the leader by the upper part of his Kevlar vest then tosses him across the room before stringing Barbara along to the elevator where Alfred is still hiding with Cassandra. He immediately executes the command to take them down to the panic room. The attackers attempt to follow, but they will have to get through multiple security defenses as well as lockouts.

"Wherever you are Bruce, we need you, we need..."

"I know what you are trying to say Master Richard..."

"You don't have to say that term anymore, we are family after all..."

"Yes I know, old habits, like you using that thug's weakness against him..."

Barbara whispers into her husband's ear.

_"Never been so turned on by you in awhile, you were great standing up to that idiot."_

_"Thanks Babs, she's our daughter after all."_

_"Yes she is..."_

The little Cassandra makes all sorts of baby noises as Alfred hands her back to her mother. They lock themselves into the panic room which has enough provisions for a month without need to acquire more for awhile. It was time to try again to contact Bruce or at least someone in the Outsiders that had not been taken into custody by Cadmus or some other government agency. Kara was the quickest to answer and reports little change as no other cells report government encounters, but they are all staying off the streets.

"We are off the streets but hiding in a panic room to avoid dealing with whoever killed the police that came to get us for questioning in order to find Bruce or something viable to link him to the the network he setup but then left to run itself."

"Well stay there for now, I don't think we can risk teleporting anyone without a transponder that the machine will recognize."

***

_"This just in, D.A. Grayson and his wife are reportedly involved with the Outsiders, they resisted attempts to bring them in for questioning, multiple officers were wounded or killed prior to their getaway. Bludhaven P.D. is authorized to use any methods necessary to bring them likewise they are working in tandem with the GCPD in the pursuit to capture Bruce Wayne, apparently his rehab behavior was a scam in the words of Detective Bullock. Commissioner Montoya had no comments."_

The news only got more depressing for anyone who knew that a lot of was a lie and as for the rest, there are short lived protests where demands are made to try all the costumes then lock them away or something. Dick after spending years trying to be the kind of lawyer that people would hold high respect for is now looking into a glass case that houses his spare costume as well as Barbara's. It could become necessary to be Nightwing again, but he like so many others had sworn the costumes time had come and gone already. However he also wonders if turning themselves over might persuade some to back down from this mass suggestion to arrest and lock them up. He wonders once again how Bruce had managed to put on that cowl for the first all those years ago.

"I used to tell him, that some times you have to be the outcast, the outsider to make the difficult calls, the right choices, of course people won't always like or love you for it, but it comes with the territory."

"You are right more often than not Alfred."

"On the days where I am right, I wouldn't want to say I am."

"I know."

"So what now?"

Barbara enters saying Cassandra is finally asleep. It is decided they are going after Question at Graystone since they have no idea where to look for the others, but there is worry about who to look after little Cass. Alfred volunteers as usual yet it is that moment another message indicator blinks on at the corner of the screen. It is Bruce calling from Diana's jet plane.

"It appears things have really gotten worse in a very short amount of time."

"That's putting it lightly, the Outsiders are on the run, we are locked in a panic room, and of course Cadmus took action first. Someone else is at work here especially with those mercenaries that stormed in through the windows using weapons that used to be made by Wayne Enterprises."

"I suspect there's more, but that can wait, meet me up top in costume. It is time for Batman to make a return, a time for us to do things despite the risks."

Barbara pulls up her boots, but it is the main part of the suit still fitting after one pregnancy yet of course it might be several before she is not so slim anymore though on some level Dick would probably never mind a little more physicality. It feels a little tight at the hips, but then again it might just be Dick touching her hips with those dark gloves of the Nightwing look.

"Remember the mask Boy Wonder."

"Remember the cape Bat Lady."

They both snicker at each other before kissing on the way up in the elevator. Both fire off grappling shots to the Invisible Jet Plane as flies by over head so as they coast away in the air, the copters give some chase before they work their way towards the hull of the plane. He pulls both of them inside once up in the clouds and the attitude change forces the pursuers to break off for now. The building had been less than surrounded as they left, but they were hopeful that Alfred would hold out fine with their darling little girl.

"How's my god daughter?"

"In the best arms aside from ours."

"He never ceases to amaze me."

"He does that... so where are we going?"

"Find Question, find Vic, probably Graystone."

"That's what we thought before hearing from you."

The new cape and cowl were a dark shade of mixture of blue and black, not quite like any of his old costumes, but nonetheless a little dashing. Some times there are things that each has to bend or break what they have done to do what must they do now. This is one of those times to all of them. As they arrive at Graystone, they see there is a mass breakout in progress, though who could have set this one off. Of course it seems like some Ra's would do after all he had done something similar with Arkham years ago during his attempt to use Crane's modified version of his fear toxin by spreading it to the whole city so that he could destroy Gotham as field test to destroy city populations world wide.

As Bruce in a decidedly different looking Batman costume descends into the frenzy, so does Diana in her new Wonder Woman look, an outfit that resembles neither of her previous looks yet still Amazonian, and Nightwing goes after them leaving Batgirl to circle around to land on the roof. It was literal madness as for the first time, it felt like a rush to do this sort of thing again, but they had an objective, to get to Vic before someone got to him, maybe even killed him. However as they continue inward, knocking more and more unconscious they find Vic taking back the last part of his outfit, the fedora, and his latest information source just sits there trembling.

"So you know who set this off?" asks Bruce with the Batman voice.

"Of course I do, Crane did it," answers Question.

"How I lost track of him a long time ago."

"Ra's is using any allies he can get for this one."

"Apparently."

"The toxin was ventilated in and a fearless prison population is bad for anyone."

"Right, well they are being subdued, but we are not done yet."

"I have someone to find, have to find Helena and the others."

"Graystone first Vic, then we'll get the others."

"Just be quick about it, I doubt Ra's or Cadmus is wasting time anymore."

As it reaches further into the night, they finally get the rest back into cells and reengage the locks. The guards almost insist putting Sage back in his cell, but a recently arrived Montoya tells them to back off even with Bullock within ear shot as well as seeing almost the whole Bat clan there.

"He is violating..."

"Shove it Bullock, if they had not been here we would have dozens if not hundreds of inmates rampaging into Gotham!"

"This ain't over... they are gonna demand your badge, your resignation for this."

"Keeping the city safe one night at a time is my priority, if you wanna resign go ahead, I don't need you anymore not with that attitude."

The five return to the Invisible Jet plane to search for the others, but of course, there is one place to consider almost immediately, the supposedly abandoned Cadmus facility in the Arizona desert, the same place that was rumored to have housed several unconfirmed pieces of technology from the Invaders short lived incursion as well as Thanagarian vessels recovered from their brief time on Earth. However Diana insists first on going to see how Shayera is doing so he will go with her once Fate arrives to take them to the Tower.

"Go ahead to Arizona, but stay out of sight," instructs Bruce.

"Understood, but we have no way making Vic stick to that," remarks Nightwing.

"I may be worrying about Helena, but I know when to play it close to the vest," retorts Vic.

"Sorry man, its just I would be going out of mind in your position."

"Of course you would with a wife and a daughter, but for me, its different, my life would be very different without her."

"Yes, experiencing that kind of energy, that kind of feeling, you don't want it to end, you would do anything to keep it safe."

"Right, the threads converge, the tapestry unfurls, and there it is... one equation of several that we do not understand, only live, only feel."

Bruce and Diana follow Fate through the portal awhile later, and the pieces all shift a little more. The things we do for the ones we love are among the acts that we cannot verbalize, only act and react, to link to what is worth holding onto and saving in this world.

* * *

A/N 1: Another somewhat Watchmen inspired bit with the prison breakout. The fact I had Crane's toxins trigger it well that's pretty typical of him though it bears a slight similarity to the Arkham breakout in Batman Begins. As for making the possible Cadmus detention facility in Arizona, well it felt too typical making it New Mexico or Nevada, so just for another alternate reality twist I give you Arizona.

A/N 2: The costumes are back, a somewhat different look naturally yet it is still them. As for the Outsiders in captivity, its been seemingly impossible to effect a breakout from within.

A/N 3: Some of what Alfred does or says is a meshing of Efrem Zimbalist's Alfred and Michael Caine's live action portrayal of Alfred. As for Montoya, she isn't opposed to the Bat Clan, she had after all worked with them in the past before the Lords, seen the merit that Gordon saw, but of course understood that Batman had crossed thresholds while with the Justice Lords. Her behavior follows the ongoing theme not forgotten, but maybe forgiven. As for Bullock, he is still not really keen about Batman even though Batman saved his life in the past.


	22. Patterns & Senses

He rarely heard her curse, let alone in her own language, which he barely understood. Inza had been at the burns on her wings for hours, but getting almost torched by Kryptonian heat vision was enough to scare anyone. A portal appears behind John and he sees an unexpected sight behind Fate. Bruce and Diana back in costumes that look resemble yet depart from any previous appearance. He wonders what went on at the Island, but that would have to wait if they ever chose to divulge it. They got lucky that Shayera's fall did not hurt the baby, which took away some of the pain as she had worried about falling straight down onto her abdomen. Diana grips her friend's hand as Fate begins his attempt to regenerate the burnt portions of her wings. Batman stands shoulder to shoulder with John who is standing close to her as well with his hand in her other hand. A strange glow encompasses them all for several moments before subsiding to reveal the wings were healed and she gradually sits up before flapping them a little glad to not feel pain from it.

"So what news?" she asks noticing the change in Diana's look.

"The Gods have been forgiving too."

"That's news but what about this business with Cadmus and Ra's?"

"Vic and J'onn were taken as you know, but Vic managed an escape after Crane's toxin turned the inmates into fearless people."

"Now that's a little scary."

"Yes, but we handled it with some help from my old partners."

"They went back into costume, well no more a risk than you took."

"We are all at risk whether we have a costume or not."

"What about the Outsiders?"

"Many were captured, probably being held in cells in Arizona, as for the others they are holed up in Central City."

"You put an Outsiders safehouse in Wally's town?"

"It was not on purpose, it was stragetic in one sense of the word, but as for the rest, it was just to provide direct routes between places."

Persephone appears a second time and Diana reacts as she did before except this time, the goddess has come for John and Shayera. Bruce tells them to go with her and John wonders why, all they say to him is you'll see on the other side. They too encounter the spirit of Wally West who like before is overjoyed to see them, Shayera nuzzles against him, he feels solid, but anything can be whatever one believes it in this place. Wally feels Shayera's belly and laughs at John, calling him Dad, which makes Shayera giggle a little.

_"Now that's what I always wanted to see again among other stuff, you two happy together, laughing, making a family, imagine that Stewart the family man and Shayera the mother with wings."_

The visit seems as long as it was before, but in the real world no time passes at all so when they come back, everyone is where they were before. Shayera is still wiping her eyes as she follows Diana and Inza to the latter's garden. As for Bruce, he takes the time to slip out of the costume for a bit, and Stewart converses with Fate, with Nelson.

"Have you deciphered who Ra's new allies are?"

"I believe the former Superman is one of them, as is Vandal Savage, there are others, but he has been very specific about who goes off when."

"A precision tool, not a blunt intstrument, naturally."

"What news of J'onn?"

"Near as I can find with magic is that he is no longer in Gotham."

"Coulda told you that one right off the bat."

"Someone did contact a Karen Fenton in Central City in the past several hours."

"You mean Kara..."

"Yes, that is one of her aliases since having gone into hiding, the message came from someone called Faraday."

"Government agent, not affilitated with Cadmus, but has enemies in that bunch."

"She's gone ahead to meet him."

"What? who has she got for backup?"

"Vigilante and Palmer."

"That's doable."

"Glad you agree."

***

"Why are you helping us Faraday?"

"Let's just say I don't share Cadmus' definition of patriotism, I make my own."

"I'll take that, so where is he?"

"You are looking at him."

"What?"

"It's an image inducer, makes me look like the good agent."

"Why the charade."

"He told me its a test run for this thing."

The real Faraday walks over with an image inducer that makes him look like J'onn's old human disguise.

"Almost like looking in a mirror eh?"

"Yes something like that."

Kara interrupts again asking about the countermeasure to Achilles.

"It is something we thought about using if the Lords ever showed signs of well what's happening now."

"Who is we?"

"The agency name is unimportant, we simply don't share the directives of Cadmus, the world governments never acknowledge us publicly, but believe we are the best countermeasure to Cadmus. Cadmus represents at best aggressive tendencies towards the belief that costumed heroes, superpowered or not are dangerous to global security."

"What do you represent then?"

"A world that understands that it cannot do everything on its own, a world where we recognize the symbolism of what people like you did and can do on a daily basis, of course many blame supervillains on superheroes, but we aren't so perfect either, we hold you to higher standards than ourselves so your failures make us look better, less evil."

"I can respect that and thank you for bringing him back to us."

"Consider my offer..."

"I'll run it by the others, but until then I'm content to be as I am."

"Oreos for your time."

"Thank you."

A team armed with kryptonite enhanced lasers appears overhead with jetpacks on their backs.

"Damn I was sure nobody saw me."

"This is me, three to transport now!"

Kara, J'onn, and Faraday vanish as they try to close in on them. Hardcastle would not react well thinks the team leader, but at least they had gotten close enough to shoot a tracker onto Faraday. The signal leads them to an abandoned factory in the outskirts of Central City except what is waitng for them is a ready team of Outsiders operatives. Faraday had been suspicious of why they were reluctant to fire even though he saw exactly the kind of weaponry they had on them. Vigilante opens fire on the jet packs sending a few crashing into the building though relatively unharmed save for some minor cuts. They tie the lot of them up before evacuating this safehouse then scrambling all its systems to prevent anyone from finding anything useful.

"What else can you tell us Faraday?"

"My associates in Kasnia have heard of a pregnant woman being snuck between safehouses there."

"You think its her?"

"Its our best guess though they conceal her face well probably out of fear of him figuring out where she is."

"What made her decide to leave after all this time?"

"Something did, but who helped her out, she couldn't have gotten that far on her own."

"We think her helper was Savage, he is the most likely candidate we can think of for the moment."

"Perhaps its time to pay Queen Audrey a visit, you know her title is merely ceremonial now as the country verges on civil war."

"Vandal almost became a dictator there if not for what we did in the months before..."

"Yes, well hopefully she won't react too badly to us."

Bruce and Diana travel across the skies away to Kasnia as Fate goes in their place to Arizona where an increasingly agitated Vic Sage demands to know why they are not there and why he is working with Fate now.

"Talia isn't it?"

"Yes its her."

"He is placing her above the Outsiders."

"No he is not, but remember Ra's having a Kryptonian on his team proves a problem especially as security footage that Faraday told us about shows him with different powers now, which may mean Kryptonite might do nothing to him."

"You are gambling Talia knows the new one if there is a new one."

"Its a risk, but we are all risking our necks. I'm sorry if your threads and numbers are not lining up like your mind says it should, but a lot of things are going wrong with our world, get used to it."

"I'm sorry Nelson, you are right, now let's get going."

The other detective, the patterns seer actually made an apology for being his usual direct self or at least for letting his grievances override the task at hand, either way or anyway there is still hope. There are things that aren't things that people must hold onto, believe in, otherwise what kind of a world is worth saving anymore, not to resign to absolutes, but Fate learns to trust in magic, as Question relies on the convergence of patterns, as Batman endures through emotions like compassion. What drove Ra's or Kal, nobody could say perhaps except for them yet even then there are two worlds that can emerge from this scenario, one from stopping Ra's and the other from failing to stop him.

The difference is as close as the next second and as far as the most distant star, but Fate always knew there is far more than what his senses tell him to be so.

* * *

A/N 1: Faraday is back, part of another supersecret organization that wants to help the Outsiders, also knows about Talia's whereabouts, of course that means a trip to Kasnia.

A/N 2: Fate and Question, they obviously have different views of the world, of the universe, the argument between them is like seeing that perspectives can occasionally align to where things like mathematics and sorcery find commonality.

A/N 3: Still debating whether or not to have J'onn get his abilities back if Faraday's claim about a countermeasure to Achilles is genuine.


	23. Countdown

S/N: The showdown that's been expected well see for yourself...

* * *

Kasnia is a different place these days with the tensions between factions reaching a breaking point. Talia remains in hiding with the less than reputable associates of Savage, but Savage also had contacts within Faraday's organization. They were the ones to alert the Outsiders to her relative location. The accelerated pregnancy only meant she would come to term ahead of what is scientifically and biologically accepted to be the term. Savage never once made direct contact to her; he always had his middlemen do it just to avoid anyone knowing he aided her escape. She wonders why he would risk anything even as an immortal, but he did have a bargaining chip with her and with Kal-El, he knew more about her pregnancy than he let on and of course he engineered the new weakness for the Kryptonian.

He had told her father anti-kryptonite, but in reality, he tells her it is blue kryptonite because it would in the right dose overload his new powers thus making him vulnerable again, and if too high it would kill him out right. She suspects that it might come down to killing him because he had gone for the lack of a better word, insane or at least so far from the way he was before he killed Luthor that he would kill anyone though most of all he would kill Bruce Wayne. She could not allow that so all the more important to warn him, warn anyone close to him plus the political instabilities in Kasnia made it the 'ideal' hiding place.

She does however suspect her father would be paying very close attention to Bruce's movements if he is still tracking him as actively as possible though there are blind spots that technology cannot breach at all like Themyscira or Fate's Tower. There is a knock at the door, her 'bodyguards' escort to her to the underground route to the next safe house, this kind of thing had become regular, they only swore not to move her as she slept, but it would soon reach the point where they would have to break that call.

Elsewhere at the former royal household, the Invisible Jet has been parked there for some time now, but thanks to some advance planning and a little help, they are able to conceal it from watchful eyes in the sky. Audrey while distraught in recent years by many things including what happen with the Justice Lords, she saw something different about Diana now, probably a certain someone.

_A certain tall, dark, and probably very handsome man under that cowl over there, how I almost envy you my friend, but back to the matter of that other woman._

"So what have you learned as of late?"

"We have limited resources, the military is split into many factions, civilians are in their own groups too, and so I have no real influence here anymore, I scrape out a quiet existence except if someone attacks this place though that too is rare."

"I guess we will have to do it the old fashion way."

"Just be careful out there, sure Wonder Woman is with you, but you are still mortal."

"I'm difficult to kill, and I have her with me."

"I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"It seems so written all over her face when she came in that first night you were both here."

"More than you know, but we have a job here."

"Then getting going before the trial goes cold or something."

He had been sent to find her, he wonders why he was entrusted with this mission, but of course the architect does not want the pieces shifting on their own, he must be the manipulator always. He would find her, she would resist, he might have to kill her to keep her quiet about the plan, and whatever she knows, the search continues. In the distance, he hears the familiar sound of a grappler; they must be looking for her too, not one, but maybe two or three within in a single attack. Kasnia's instabilities would cover it well so he continues walking along, the disguise had been working so far, but he had to take the time to learn the Kasnian language, which took awhile even when being able to speed read anything.

Half a world away, the infiltration team led by Fate and Sage works their way down into the interior. He could hear strange sounds the further down he went, he finally realizes that it is actually voices crying out. He starts to move faster yet as he does he draws unwanted attention from Cadmus soldiers. He curses himself for being seen in his worry that it might be someone being tortured, that someone being Helena. As the soldiers try to gang up on him, he tosses them one at a time, he was tired of being on the receiving end of this kind of fear and paranoia, but somehow it always came with the work, the job, or whatever one calls it.

As he bursts through the door ways at the end of the hall, there lies Oliver, Dinah, and Steel passed out from the hours of interrogation, he leaves them to be found by Fate. He had to find her, find Helena. The screams get louder, she is in pain, he body slams the guards outside the interrogation room, the interrogator was Flagg, the puppet would get his strings cut on the way to a gutter, but he almost hardly believes he just thought that..

_Remember no compromise, get Helena._

He tackles Flagg who tosses him like a salad, but he gets up again hefting a blunt instrument that apparently been used to visually insist talking or chance breaking, but it would be the latter for Flagg with a ticked off Vic Sage. Flagg try to convey the notion that Sage is next, but the prospect ends as he falls unconscious to the floor after taking a head blow from a pipe. He unhooks the wires, cuts the straps, then lifts her off the titled table, and as she stirs, she smiles weakly.

"Time to go," he mumbles.

"Sure we won't miss the show?" she murmurs.

"Never miss a show, but I think you'll like the climax."

"Always love a good light show."

As they prepare to flee, more of Hardcastle's handpicked elite try to cut them off. Now would be a good time for…

Supergirl pummels the soldiers to cover their escape and with a mix of luck and skill they somehow escape the Arizona facility. Hardcastle is naturally again enraged and of course now the administrative/executive board demand to see him regarding the recent Cadmus 'failures' on his watch. He realizes it is a demotion or an outright discharge in his future, so instead he takes a third option, the one that of course is no better the others, but he had it with this affair and taking the heat for others' failures, not his. He would not live long enough to regret the decision anyway.

Hardcastle's staged demise is used as further provocation to go after the remaining Outsiders plus recapture the ones that escaped custody with Supergirl's help among others.

Somewhere in the Arizona desert, Fate opens a portal to the Tower and orders everyone to go through until he, Vic, and Helena are the last. Supergirl had carried Oliver and Dinah through just seconds ago. Steel had been helped through by Rayner and Lethe whereas J'onn remained at the Tower with the recovering Shayera as well as John Stewart who is there to meet the returning infiltration team.

"I take it we got everyone back."

"Right, only problem is that Cadmus is liable to up the ante and soon."

"More Ultimen?" quips Kara.

"Perhaps, but something else was going on in that facility besides the torture."

The attention turns to the situation in Kasnia where rolling city block fighting is drawing closer to the heart of the capital where Bruce and Diana are staying during the search for Talia.

"Wait who is that?"

Fate says something not understandable to anyone except Shayera. The broadcast suddenly grows sharper and closer to reveal the one person none of the present former Justice Lords ever wanted to see again. If he was there then Ra's already had suspicions about where to find his errant daughter.

"We have to warn them, help them."

"They requested to do this alone together, too many costumes converging on a single location, especially one affected as much as existing tensions as by other things will not help us."

Shayera grumbles, John fumes, and J'onn begins to reconsider Faraday's offer. He had been the most resistant to being allowed to have his abilities restored even as Fate had already been considering ways to allow Shayera to use Thanagarian technology again. It had never been fully explained to anyone except that her mace had ways to affect many things especially magic.

"At least warn them then."

"I'll pass a message to Faraday, and he can relay to Audrey somehow."

Meanwhile in Kasnia, Bruce and Diana in disguise gain access to the less than attractive hotel where Savage's associates were hiding out with Talia. Bruce converses regularly in Kasnian before learning of a woman named Aria Komarova, probably a fake name to cover her movements. As they head towards her room, another figure is advancing from the other direction. Bruce smirks before pulling Diana into an empty room with him and indicates that Ra's already sent someone after her, that someone being the one person they did not need to run into right now.

"He's closer than we are… well one of us might have to divert his attention."

"If he knows we are both here, he'll go after you."

"No need to whisper, I could hear you way before you saw me."

Kal slams Bruce through the floor just as Diana tries to get between them so instead she dives after them. She tries grabbing him by the neck in an effort to pull him away from strangling Bruce. He pushes her full force into the wall then spins to make a micro twister to whirl her away from him. Bruce uses the opening to kick him square in the chest, which does stun Kal a little before the Kryptonian blows fire at him. He tosses off his ignited overcoat to reveal his concealed Bat suit underneath then pulls the cowl over his face.

"Same old Bruce, I won't miss either look, time for you to join your parents."

"What about your parents either here or on the destroyed Krypton?" retorts the Batman voice.

"Leave them out of this, they aren't mine anymore!" roars Kal.

"I don't believe that… you use the name Kal… you dishonor both worlds!"

"Quit messing with me."

He runs straight at Bruce at breakneck speed, but Batman fires off a grappler into the opening in the ceiling to barely sidestep the rush. Diana in turn uses his latest annoyance to double punch him from behind.

"You'll pay for that you treacherous…"

"You dare to call me that, I followed you out of some misguided loyalty to what seem like the right thing that is at least until we tried to duplicating it on another world."

"Their world is a mess, we had order, we had them following what we thought was best."

"The oldest mistake in the book is too much power is wrong, the Gods learned that the hard way in every corner of the world. Humanity like them still has much to learn, and you have forgotten a great deal including what you were when you first became the guardian of Metropolis."

"You dare to lecture me, you who gave up the Amazonian teachings to embrace the harsher tactics more common to warriors than to the pretentious nature of heroics!"

"You would kill us all because you believe we betrayed you, in your eyes, in some way we did, but we betrayed ourselves too by following, by doing what we did."

"Believe what you will, but you'll still die."

He starts landing blows left and right, but still she is only sore from the stress she is putting on her own, his blows are far less damaging. The thought occurs to him; somehow she is almost back to her level before we were depowered by that other Luthor. Somehow restored to her, but not all the way, but still she would die, then he would die after hearing her cry out his name for the last time.

"You are wasting your time, Ra's plan will succeed, and the world will change forever."

"Try as you may, but I'm not going to let that happen."

"It has already begun, the countdown is already started, and the only one that can stop it is not going to."

Upstairs Bruce faces Talia for the first time in several months and of course she could go into labor any day now. He orders her bodyguards to get her back to the palace, tell them that the princess sent them, which meant Diana, something Audrey would understand easily. As he hears her cries, he races back to the floor below.

"I knew you would come for her."

He is holding her by her hair, he breathes on it, it burns, she screams, Bruce races straight at him only for Kal to freeze his legs, and then advance forward to smash them. Diana ignores the fact that she lost a considerable amount of hair, it would grow back somehow, but for now she had to stop him. Kal relishing his seemingly despicable gestures fails to note Diana's boot connecting with his jaw as he hears a swooshing sound behind him. He is thrown clear through the wall then she picks him up using the lasso and proceeds to spin toss him clear across the city. They had to hurry if they were going to defrost his legs without breaking them.

The only problem now was the water mains in this section of the city are broken. She takes flight and keeps shouting at him to stay awake, it is getting cold he mumbles. She flies faster or tries to do so now. The palace is not far now, and fortunately she sees the perimeter detail leading Talia towards the palace inner gate. As she descends Talia runs towards them, very much worried about Bruce as well. The two women rush him inside and encounter Audrey who appears quite stunned until noticing Bruce's legs.

She leads them towards the nearest bathroom then attempts to crank up the heat as they settle him into the water. The temperature is raised gradually to avoid doing unnecessary damage to his body. He is not out of it yet, but he is still alive, Diana sighs, like she thought before _hair grows back, legs are another story_. She strips down and settles into the steamy bath water with her lover, who is still somewhat out of it from the frosting, and she won't leave him not until he wakes, until he says something, maybe not even then either.

"You took a very big, maybe unnecessary risk for me tonight," she whispers.

"Couldn't… let him… hurt you… his powers are back too!" he mumbles

"I have powers too," she says with a twinge of sadness in her voice.

"Still… have to…"

"Be still… we are alive… that's what matters."

He could not and would not disagree between the fading chill and the warmness of her body next to his. As for Talia, she finally understood why Bruce chose Diana because Bruce would die for her, because Bruce loves her. Talia knew Bruce loved her once, but that was another time, after all man or woman, some people have to learn some time when to walk away because some things will just never work out. She relays what Savage told her to Faraday's contacts and they relay it to him. It just might be the first advantage they have had in this showdown, but of course between the fearless toxin being released in prisons worldwide, things just went up another notch.

As for the child, her love now belongs to the child now. The countdown continues even as she begins going into labor prematurely compelling Audrey to rush her to the medical level.

* * *

A/N 1: Kasnia, for those familiar with the DCAU, you know the place, especially for the second encounter with Vandal Savage. Also for some of those rather cute and charming Bruce and Diana moments inside the palace as well as earlier in Paris. Especially where he reveals he knows how to speak Kasnian, love that scene.

A/N 2: The three battle at last... the result kind of speaks for itself... I basically keep pushing Kal further into the realm of being somewhat sadistic and deep denial... essentially its making him as unlike what Superman was or what Clark was... of course they remind him of that, which makes him even angrier... the fight represents what each knew could happen...

A/N 3: Shayera and J'onn might get their abilities back... there's of course hesitation on their part still. The Arizona facility has its share of twistedness and of course I did reverse Vic and Helena from the situation that happens in the JLU episodes Question Authority and Flashpoint. He is now the one that breaks her out and in his own way is very aggravated by what happen there. As for Hardcastle, he gets a fate similar to his League reality counterpart leaving Eiling to step up.


	24. Harbinger

Kal awakens beneath the rubble of several collapsed buildings, of course he is furious, thrown halfway across a city by her, he almost had been able to fulfill a murder he had been plotting on for years, but the two together again prove to be difficult, more than he originally thought possible. As for Talia, they had her now, and that was that, he would just have to recover the child, she would die, he would blame her death on Bruce or something. If she did die, it was someone's fault, but he knew Ra's wouldn't take well to a snafu in his plan. He takes off and begins the search anew for where Bruce might have told her to go once getting away from the decrepit hotel.

He also grew tired of reminders about who he used to be, the fact was he was content to forget it except when reminders made memory flashes of that person he was before. The memory of people like Dan Turpin, Jimmy Olsen, Ernest Walker, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, but most deep cutting of all his adopted Earth parents as well as holographic images of his biological Kryptonian parents. He had to keep shoving it to the back of his mind because somehow all their voices seem to shout in his nightmares that he was a fraud, that he was doing a lot of things that weren't really him, that the whole thing is a mistake. At least until the memory of Luthor's taunts, Darkseid killing Turpin, Flash's murder, all the bad things that happen because he kept restraining himself from using his powers to the full, and of course that's where he would he remember burning Luthor, bashing Darkseid's skull in…

… Then there was that other Flash who tried to dissuade him from killing again.

The next thing after that was losing his original powers and the incarceration in that sham of a reality, sure he had thought of dealing down his other self and that pathetic Justice League, but their ability to stop him had been brought on by one person. A certain Justice Lord Batman better known as Bruce Wayne is the real problem to him. The logic in his desire to kill his former friends, former comrades is that everyone dies eventually, but he will be the last one standing when that day comes, this is his purpose now, to be the one standing at the end. Everyone else would probably view him as insane or psychotic, but it made sense only to him, only if you thought that your entire world is gone so the only way to erase the echoes is to erase who is making the echoes.

He tries hard to forget, but there are the reminders everywhere and in everyone, it must end. His mind was stuck in a loop, if there is such a thing to be stuck in, but of course somewhere in his nightmares, the ones he forgets, he has murdered everyone that ever meant anything to him including Clark Kent and Superman. It was the only way he would mumble in his sleep when that happens, but then he would wake up unable to remember because his mind would lock that away just so he could keep on going while still blaming others. He did not call it blaming, but the fact that he would say such things at random intervals made it predictable.

***

Elsewhere in Metropolis, Lois Lane meets Lana Lang for dinner, the two for better or worse became friends, looked after the Kents when they could find the time, but Jonathan was getting worse especially after news of what happen with Kara and rumors about someone like Superman wrecking things worldwide. His heart couldn't take it for much longer and Martha when not worrying about her husband would be occasionally crying over her only son, the one she had seen as a gift when she had been unable to have children.

Meanwhile in Smallville, the Kents are recalling when they first found him as a baby, because today it is about the same time of year that he had come from the sky to them.

The time he squeezed Jonathan's index finger, her husband jokes he has quite a grip, they were speculating that he was a space baby, but she did not care, he owned her from the first image of him beneath that strange blanket with a funny logo on it, the symbol of the his family from the world that had blown up. The world and the parents that had sent their only surviving son to this world, to her, which it all the harder not to sob for hours at a time when she had no more housework to do for the day. It would be late at night when a weary and achy Jonathan would attempt to console his beloved wife even though he misses the boy, the man that used to be Clark as much as she did as he recalls what happen years earlier with that one case. He couldn't remember the poor fella's name, but the man was terribly grateful after wards and the real killer got the gas for it.

The same man, the real killer, had phoned them about Clark's 'demise', but of course they knew otherwise as he was with them when the call came, Martha played it like shock even as she looked into her perplexed son's eyes. After the call they were debating what to do next, naturally he felt responsible to the innocent man slated to be executed, but without evidence what did they have so he went back to the city not long after he resolves to finish what he started with Walker.

_"Well, this is a fine mess."_

_"It's not like he's really dead, Martha, he just can't be Clark anymore."_

_"But I am Clark. I need to be Clark. I'd go crazy if I had to be Superman all the time!!"_

Jonathan in his memory of that conversation, he sees or believes just a little that he had been right about going crazy as Superman, the power went to his head or something like that.

'Superman' and Lois were able to fake out the real guy not long after he, after Bowman blew up Clark's apartment in an attempt to cover up the rest of what Clark might have found and her too as Lois tells Lana about the bomb from her point of view. As for how to bring back Clark after clearing Walker, Lana finally tells Lois about how Clark came to her, and they arrange to make it seem like he had a concussion, been in and out of consciousness for days. Lois remembers reacting both happy and furious though more towards furious thinking the farm boy was just endlessly lucky. Both women knew that when he gave up Clark, part of Superman would suffer for it, but so would anyone that knew him, loved him. As time went on, Lois tells Lana, he became like a walking frame of absolute power.

At first she tried to be understanding, but he became increasingly paranoid about things as he worries or rather fears what the governments are up to, but of course everyone was playing it safe after seeing that Superman was willing to kill someone. Lana confesses to crushing on Clark for his powers when they were younger and she also admits flirting almost excessively when she dated Lex many years ago. At the time, he was so protective, so warm, so many things that were instantly foreign to him once the Lords assumed control as she calls their stewardship. Lois recounts the last time she saw Bruce before his trial, he had told her from the start that somebody had to own up to this and it might as well be him.

Lana could respect Wayne for that even though he had not done much to stop the lobotomies, but of course by then Superman had almost no hesitation, no inhibitions, just a compulsion to assure a world where they never have to fear a war to end all wars among other things. After the Lords were gone, the world gradually moved on though of course this business with the Outsiders made everyone jumpy, but both of them knew these allegations against Bruce's 'family' were excessive, they would not harm anyone let alone kill, that was an early Bat principle no kills.

***

The trouble in Bludhaven finally seem to be subsiding after several days though of course someone else had to get Alfred and the baby out so Kara had brought them to the Kents.

It was an awkward time for the older generation, but the Kents were open to having them there. Martha dotted quite a bit on little Cassandra and Jonathan was glad for the company of the butler and cook Alfred. Eventually Dick and Barbara came over to the farm after several days, but of course the troubles were not over yet as there had been little news from Kasnia, but of course most were not talking about global affairs not around here. Somewhere in the world, there had to be a quiet refuge from things of that troublesome sort.

***

Even so in Kasnia, another mother is dotting on another baby, a boy named Darius. Bruce and Diana watch from the other side of the one way glass. Talia had been lucky to have at least the standard available medical care in a country where a civil war has finally broken out. As for what to do about Kal, Talia reveals his new weakness is blue kryptonite, the kind once believed only to work on Bizarro due to his 'genetic imperfections' and disposition to be well the opposite of what Superman was all those years before in Metropolis.

"Do we believe her and how do we get our hands on that stuff?"

"I doubt Savage would lie twice and the solution to that is trying to reverse engineer actual Kryptonite or find some somewhere…"

"How are we going to do that then?"

"Not sure yet…"

"We are on the clock though you know that already."

She kisses Bruce and whispers that she wonders about children of her own. Bruce gulps yet wonders what their kids might look like and if they actually be able to have any. She kisses him again except on the neck and he responds in kind yet something was going to happen or strike again.

***

As early morning comes with the dawn at the farm, Martha gently sways little Cassandra in her arms. Jonathan sleeps in the rocking chair though briefly awakens to see his wife with the little girl, he smiles a little before admitting he was very tired inwardly so drifts off again. Alfred checks the phone messages, one is from Miss Lane and the other is from Miss Kara, both indicate that the Kents should expect more visitors today. He kindly goes to make some tea for his friends and after decides to tell her about another woman named Martha and her husband as well their little boy yet in a way that is only the beginning of that story though she takes small joys in their legacy.

"I think if the four you ever met, you would get on very well, I doubt that living in a Manor or a Farm would change much, but of course I had to be the one to often remind him of what he had done, still does even when I had begun to lose faith those years before, but like that little girl's father reminded me not so long ago this life is too short, we must forgive because its the only way to move, to remember what matters and who needs us.

"Sounds like a somewhat wise young man."

"I think we rub off on those close to us whether we embrace it or reject it that's something else, yet like I said, it is for little bundles of joy that we must continue, the world might still be afraid of them, but this business was never a popularity contest even when it was nice to have appreciation and all the other nuances."

"Right, he enjoyed being liked, and of course loved, we loved him, still love him, one would ask how do you love what he has become, and of course I haven't an answer. You look at that room, those pictures, or even what I can still remember of the day we found his ship decades ago, then try asking me that question again. I'm sorry, I just get worked up when I hear people talk about him or questions to me on how could I have been 'blind' to what he had become."

"You weren't... nobody expected that, but a lot went wrong very fast, we all went through something... what matters is us together like this and especially for her."

"I can see why her parents, why Bruce count on you so much, you really are more than a butler, and he more than a nut I used to think he was when Clark first met Lois."

Cass sleeps almost quietly in Martha's arms. She begins humming a little something that she used to hum to Clark as a toddler. After awhile she talks about the Kryptonians that sent him to Earth, it is a touching story there as well. This is where the stories of two somewhat different little boys intersect, one in an alleyway shattered by two bullets and the other in a space ship leaving a world doomed to destruction. He only imagine what it might been like for Jor-El and Lara, but of course it was their last hope, their only son. It would have been the hardest act they would have to make in the time remaining, more so for Lara he would expect after she was as much his mother as Martha.

If one were to believe in something more than just what is, that somehow to be entrusted with the most precious and priceless part of someone else's life.

_"Why do you give a damn Alfred, its not your family!"_

_"I give a damn because a man and a woman once made me responsible for what most precious to them in the entire world."_

Alfred remembers such moments when thinking of their emotional exchanges so of course when he heard that Bruce and Diana had finally gotten together from the Graysons, he could finally say to some that his duty, that his service to the late Waynes had finally been done, but now his service to the future Waynes and Graysons had begun as well.

As for Martha, she recalls the night they told Clark about how they found him. He was naturally in upheaval after saving that girl and her parents from a fiery death in an RV explosion. Lana was likewise worried about him so eventually he did come to some terms with his alien origins and she remembers how he told her about his birth parents from he saw in the memory module than later when studying what he could from the orb he saved from Brainiac's vessel. She saw him as the benevolent true legacy of that world and the machine was a perversion of it as it had been responsible for intergalactic miseries. She also remembers how she kept all the articles that even remotely sounded like something he had done.

Her husband also once said something to Clark when they had this talk about his powers and how they increasing over time.

_"I never really understood why we of all people found you after your vessel came to Earth, how it landed so close to our farmhouse, but there is not a day now that I can imagine life without you, you may not be our son by blood, but you are our son in our hearts and in our memories. I also believe that you are here for a purpose, one that none of us understands yet either, but believe me you'll find out someday...and someday someone will love you in the way that we can't...and someday maybe you'll have kids of your own... but for now enjoy what you are and your time among us... this is what we are... family... in a way I almost feel like Jor-El and Lara entrusted you to us."_

_"Thanks Pa, it feels good to hear you say that, I think Ma is crying now, you okay Ma?"_

_"I'm fine dear, your dad is just very good at that sort of thing, how do you think he got me to say yes?"_

_"Persuasive honesty goes a long way, but remember too that your abilities are part of you too, just not parts to be abused is all."_

Clark at the time and for many years later understood this well, but of course, after what happen with Darkseid, Martha recalls being really inconsolable even after Clark came home after Turpin's funeral. The cop might have not totally taken to Superman at first, but they had grown closer in a very short time before he was murdered in the defense of Earth. The video footage of the aftermath of Darkseid's departure had been seen almost worldwide in days, but it hit hardest of all in Metropolis and in a little farmhouse in Smallville. It snapped him to let Turpin die, but of course he seem to get through it yet the next blow came when he was under Darkseid's brainwashing to conquer the world. He almost got killed that time too and each time something went really wrong... it took more of him away... until all that was left was that super powered being in a dark costume. The evils of the world had gotten to him, and he broke because he had made a decision not to continue as he had before. The decision or call made by someone at that stage is consequential, but even then, it happen, and it was then she knew the boy she raised might just as well have died not long after.

She found ways to go on but of course hearing anyone talk about him except those closest to her, made her withdraw often from the things that made her happy and active until the day came when others like Kara or Lana would make her leave the farm because she had to live, not wither away over the son that is not with them anymore. She took their advice, but of course she still mourns as do the others that knew him longest. She knew it probably did bother some of the former Lords, but they were always very well concealed with emotions until she met Alfred, heard his side of the story. They put on stoic faces and rationalized it to the breaking point.

Eventually it crashes down and then it is time to embrace the realities of it in order to get through the all of the feelings including the pain.

***

Back in Metropolis, Lois went with Lana to a fashion show after dinner last night. Lois had accumulated vacation time so the women decided to take a train ride to Smallville where Alfred picks them up in the Kents' pickup truck. As much as much as Smallville would be a reminder, they still saw that it was important to stand up for what means most, who counts most, especially for that sleeping little girl in what used to be a baby room and could be again as Dick and Babs are in there with Martha as Jonathan had fallen asleep a second time in the rocking chair.

***

Elsewhere Kal hovers above the capital of Kasnia still searching for Talia and the baby, but so far nothing, so he resumes knowing they _could not hide_ forever.

* * *

A/N 1: This time I really thought of getting inside Kal's mind and of course its not pretty in there, but it becomes clear that he has gotten worse ever so slowly in the years between the two separate sets of powers. His particular realization about what he is going to do is well of course disturbing to say the least.

A/N 2: I figured Lois and Lana could be friends despite having a slight rivalry over the separate facets fo the same man. I began this segment with him and somehow it turned into a story about all the people he was thinking about, at least the ones that are still alive and how they have tried to cope for years with what he has become.

A/N 3: The Kents, my how I have neglected them for awhile, so of course I 'ran' and 'ran' until I found them again. Getting older, health not so good, but of course Alfred with some help from Kara arrives with little Cassandra. Another child for them to be caught up with especially Martha. Alfred and Martha bond over tea and tales of their 'children'. I lifted that tense moment between Bruce and Alfred from that flashback in Batman Begins except Alfred's response refers to both parents, not just Thomas Wayne.

A/N 4: References to StAS episodes Last Son of Krypton and The Late Mr. Kent especially dialogue that Jonathan 'Pa' Kent is remembering even though he seems to have forgotten the falsely accused man's name. Likewise Martha is sympathetic to the stories about a young Bruce Wayne over what happen in Crime Alley, it certainly changes her view a little of that 'nut in Gotham City.'


	25. Shadowplay

The Outsiders gather at Fate's Tower to await Batman and Wonder Woman who are trying to return with Talia plus one more. They brought her newborn son with them, but they did not travel back the conventional way due to some help from Audrey to sneak them across the border in a vehicle that been retrofitted from a simple sound proofed van to one that had protection against anyone trying to see inside. Batman drove all night towards the European Federation checkpoint, but before then each of them adds a few cosmetic surprises to their appearance to pass for Kasnians on a diplomatic mission for the figurehead Queen Audrey. The Federation had been reluctant to involve itself in the Kasnian Civil War, but deep down Diana felt a compulsion to help Audrey even though the whole world is at stake.

The accelerated pregnancy brought the baby to term ahead of the biological clock schedule, but he was as healthy as one could expect for a baby that is less than a week old. She had given him an uncommon name for this era, but that is her call in the end. Faraday's associates met them in Vienna before putting them on a train to Paris. Diana looks rather ravishing in this particular dress that was given as part of their travel cover. It is a strapless dark purple dress that has a pattern of sparkles just below her shoulders and again above her waist close to her chest. Her appearance certainly garners some attention, but a slightly different hairstyle also deflects some level of recognition. She enters the compartment cabin she is sharing with Bruce, which has a connecting door to Talia's. They were all traveling under assumed names and Faraday for all his unexpected preparation, made her and Bruce… a married couple.

She recalls the conductor making a joke about their name, which only Bruce vaguely caught yet Diana cannot seem to fathom. He travels as arts connoisseur Thomas Crown and her background is an antiquities specialist named Callista Turan who kept her maiden name after marrying Mr. Crown. As for Talia, she is Ishtar Halcyon traveling with her infant son Nekhen, a variation of Nekheny, which translates roughly into the word falcon. Bruce is partially grateful that Faraday had not given them all mythological inspired identities because that would be too obvious especially if Ra's or his followers are scanning manifests for them.

However the way Diana positions herself behind him as he watches the European landscape flow by yet knowing she is near negates his heavy thinking because she is as always too hard to ignore in a dress that flows and hugs her body so well. He recalls that night in Paris when he stealthily sneaks into her room before she got back from spending the night out with Audrey. She so delicately took off her heels before noticing him watching her or at least it look that way from where he sat watching then she stood up in full. She could look so desirable, so enchanting no matter what she wore, but it had little to do with how physically attractive she is to him. His mind pulls back to now as he sees the present dress reflect in the window again.

"So Mr. Crown, any chance of a dance in Paris?" she asks seductively.

"I think that's doable should we find the time and the place," he answers with a slight grin.

It may be a tiny cabin, but the bed will do fine, which likewise fortunate for them is the fact the new era of train cars has sound proof options. Otherwise they could be risking waking a very tired and maybe a little cranky 'Ishtar' as well as a sleeping little 'Nekhen.' This is the first time any of them could feel small comforts after that long drive from the Kasnian border to Vienna. Bruce and Diana had alternated with driving as Talia was kept busy with Darius the whole way at least when he was awake or awaken by the bumpy patches. At the least the train ride seems smoother by far and the way Diana's hips seem to sway indicate she still is recalling how much she enjoys a dress that gets a reaction out of Bruce.

The blinds are shut closed before she advances on him a second time after intentionally making her hips connect with a certain spot below his belt. She could hear him make a low sounding exhale against her neck when she did that and then slides both hands behind her towards his backside. He runs his fingers along her dress getting the feel for her body in the dark of the cabin. She did not want to wonder about whether she could have kids with him or not, but some part of her wants it just the same, she hopes he does too. On some level, his experience with kids is limited to anyone else's kids or his former wards. Her dress is on the floor along with his shirt only minutes after these inner thoughts about having kids.

She locks her lips with his after roughly pulling out his belt and he kisses her back with a little more force than usual. She pulls him by his tie on top of her in the somewhat crammed cabin car bed. The tie goes off next as she tries not to rip the shirt considering that these things are not to cheap to make, but she manages though a very few buttons do get torn anyway. The burn and freeze experience in Kasnia had of course not been forgotten yet the danger compels a stronger urge to be this close. She was afraid that she would not get him to safety in time, he had looked like the freeze could kill him, but somehow the speed she put into her flying did the trick.

She works her way back on top and for yet another time he actually seems to enjoy her taking control. As her body moves in tandem with his, he pays no mind to anything except her, except the way she is looking at him while she is panting, if this is not living in the moment, he did not want to know more about the world he already knew was outside that door or through that window. She reacts more as his body exudes signs of enjoying her display of physical affection. She plants a long kiss on his lips after feeling like she had enough breath to hold it yet bites his lip towards the end because he had just hit her hips at the same time.

"You always been able to multitask like this?" she asks with a giggle.

"Years of mental and physical discipline have more advantages than even I really knew at first," he answers in his voice, not Mr. Wayne or Batman, just Bruce.

"Works for me," she responds.

She gets rougher yet not too rough, not wanting to push him too much, but of course he manages to keep surprising her even in bed. The ride to Paris had been almost over by the time they woke for a quick breakfast as Faraday's Paris connection picks them up to be taken to a hotel before getting the next part of the route to a quick freight run across the Channel towards Ireland. Talia while still envious of Diana, tries to put the almost hand holding love birds out of mind as Darius tugs at her shirt. Someone sees the group getting cabs from the train station to a hotel in the city. It is a member of Ra's organization, the Society of Assassins, who alerts Ra's servant Ubu to his discovery, and in turn Ra's dispatches Ubu to Paris, but will Ubu get there in time even with a fast plane with enough fuel supposedly to make it to France.

Ra's contemplates alerting Kal to this, but once hearing that Talia had been seen is no longer with child, rather she is carrying a child, makes him decide against it, the child could be hurt with Kal in his current frame of mind. It was like seeing a permanent deranged post-Lazarus pit frenzy in that new agent of his. However Kal has already left Kasnia once breaking into the former royal residence and killing many of Audrey's supporters in the search for his targets. His departure follows finding out from a bloodied Audrey that they were gone, he left her there badly hurt, but still alive as a warning except unknown to him as well as Ra's, Vandal had been in the area so he gets Audrey away from the fighting that is occurring perilously close to the residence.

He would not participate in such wanton violence, he may have sought to become a global ruler once, but he sought order, sought a world that fit his image of a future where all the past sins and evils would finally be accepted, forgiven, and moved away with forever. However, such a world seems impossible with everyone speeding towards endgame, but still meeting and dealing with this thing that used to be a worthy foe turn amoral associate did not feel right to him. He could only strangely hope for once in his immortal life that Batman and Wonder Woman got Talia to safety if there is still such a realm available.

"What are you doing Vandal?" asks Audrey weakly.

"Saving you my dear," he murmurs to her.

"Why?"

"You didn't deserve this, just because you gave refuge to a conscious objector and the enemies of Kal."

"I owed Diana, besides I was surprised to hear that you helped Talia get away."

"I was never as evil as people thought I was, but of course I was never as good as I thought either. You live long enough the world stops surprising you quite often, but of course between the Lords and meeting you, something eventually changed my mind."

She smiles slumping in his arms, she was tired, she was hurt, but she felt safe with him. Perhaps Vandal had learned something after all despite having ordered her father's murder in order to try to usurp control of Kasnia to begin another attempt to rule the world. She admits later to reluctantly revealing to Kal where Diana and Batman went with Talia. She told Kal that they were long out of Kasnia, which upset him yet by then he already gone through dozens of her residence personnel to get to her. Their deaths would not go unanswered or unpunished in her mind, but she refuses to let their passing turn her into a fury. The ice glow in Kal's eyes had done its work both with the dead and with her knowing how far some went when mad about any number of things.

***

Word got around campus about what happen in Bludhaven and of course he had to dodge campus security when he heard them looking for him. He knew that Dick and Babs would not kill anyone, Bruce never did, I mean sure he did allow those brain fries, but it was just not in him to kill even when it was someone like Luthor or Joker. Both times Supes beat Bruce to the punch or in this case to the burn. He hops on to his jury rigged motorcycle and rides off taking a series of short cuts through the sewers to the outskirts of the city before trying to contact both the Outsiders and his 'family.' Nobody was answering so he kept driving taking back roads and staying off the main roads, he knew not to go to Bludhaven or Gotham, so where to then, but just then his ear piece chirps, it is Kara.

_"Where the heck are you Tim?"_

"On the back roads looking for where I could someone after all the news I have heard."

_"Head for Smallville or Central City if you have enough gas in the tank,"_ she continues.

"I don't think I have enough to make either, so maybe a little whoosh would help."

_"Hold on, I'll meet you outside Central City."_

After hours on the road, the cycle starts making that puttering or coughing sound like its out of fuel. As he tries to pull off, he spots government cars coming from the direction of Central City, he thinks _of all the times, it had to be now_.

However, this time is not Cadmus apparently, as a blond haired man steps out and pulls him into the car. They wait until there is whooshing sound over head then he opens the door again so Kara dashes over and makes a relieved sigh.

"Glad you found him instead of someone else Mr. Faraday."

"You know this guy?"

"Yes, he has been helping us since the Cadmus attack on the moon base."

"A lunar outpost, what did Bruce sponsor with all that money he used to have?"

"More than any of us know for sure, but right now we need to get you to Smallville and as for you Kara, you are welcome to ride since flying might get you too easily seen with the sky watchers."

"I'll be along later, just get him to the 'family' and I think J'onn wants to see you."

"He must have decided about that countermeasure to a certain device."

"What device?"

"Something effective when it comes to powers."

"Right, well let's get moving already, we do not have all day I'm sure."

The government cars speed away towards Smallville as Kara speed runs back to Central where Inza meets her after sharing that the others already went ahead to the Tower. Inza however has to generate an energy bubble as Galatea has taken this opening to deal with Kara. The clone attacks and attacks before Kara tells Inza to open a rift, so the sorceress does then pulls Kara through as Galatea tries to follow only to smack into a barrier that does not appear to be there yet it is just the same.

***

They chance a dance in Paris though of course it is a little more private as she goes without heels this time in a silky black number and something new with her, stockings, which he had not seen many women wear in a long time. He wonders why he would think of the rareness of it yet in some way maybe that is the point, rare like her or those eyes of hers. As they dance, it felt like that old Paris magic taking over again. There is a noise through the walls; something is happening in Talia's room, but by the time they get there, she had already subdued the latest unexpected visitor Ubu. They would have to move sooner if he is here.

As they drove out to the freighter, she rests her head on his shoulder and places a hand on his thigh then kisses him so of course he responds kissing her with his hands rubbing her legs. It is not as if they could not keep their hands off each other, maybe it was that yet this is where they have rarely been… a space full of everything that is not common to their pasts or battling foes. She still smells good from the shower, the smell of lavender, and the lipstick which she used tasted good to her, maybe to him too.

* * *

A/N 1: Faraday's organization, which I have yet to decide a name for has people everywhere, the notion of people everywhere comes in a stranger twist from a concept in the recent Bond movies except his organization is far different from that particular bunch. As for European Federation, well its like the EU except its not. Tim is back after a few mentions in previous segments. Sure Faraday's appearances seem too predictable, but it was that or risk him getting picked up by Cadmus which is just well predictable its own way.

A/N 2: Faraday's covers for Bruce, Diana, Talia, and little Darius are of course film or mythological inspired. Thomas Crown from the Thomas Crowne Affair, I'm talking the remake with Pierce Bronsan. As for Callista Turan, Callista is Greek for beauty and Turan is one Etruscan equivalent of love. Turan is also considered a counterpart to Venus and Aphrodite.

A/N 3: As for Ishtar, it translates roughly to mother, a kind of duh with her being a mom now and as for Darius as Nehken, a name that as I wrote means falcon or dark. It works for dark hair which he will likely have with dark hair parentage. For anyone who has seen BtAS, you'll remember Ubu as Ra's bodyguard/servant.

A/N 4: This time Inza goes out of the Tower instead of Fate, Galatea makes a one off appearance and again fails to get to Kara. I thought having her smack into an invisible barrier was a little funny.


	26. Meridian

S/N: More twists ahead, plus some familiar yet not the same characters appear....

* * *

It is decided that Galatea is not enough to face down the 'threat' of the Outsiders so a new generation of Ultimen are brought out of stasis plus another project of Waller's from the Arizona facility. The first among them possesses pyrokinetic abilities and the second, a female is known for ferrokinesis. The one to the first male's left is a taller guy who claims he as stronger as a Kryptonian, some serious ego boost, and the third man on the team is highly flexible to say the least. The most mysterious of them is a dark haired girl while is the youngest is also thought perhaps the most powerful of the five.

As a team they are called the Templar Initiative or just Templar for short. It is time to put them to the test is the call by Cadmus' administrative branch. Waller's opinion that they are upping the ante too quickly is ignored, so where could they be planning to send this bigger army. As she uses what carefully kept favors she has garnered in recent years, she goes digging into the really classified files and discovers the one thing she did not want to believe this organization would to stop the costumes plus obliterate the former Superman in the process. The destruction of a quiet little corner in America's heartland, a town called Smallville.

She knows she must warn someone though she also had to quickly erase her access points following a quick download of the plan. As she prepares to leave Eiling joins her on the elevator heading up to the surface. The general seems suspicious of her though of course she realizes someone might have been keeping tabs on her of all people too.

"I kindly suggest you hand over that disc Waller."

"What disc would you referring to as I'm carrying quite a few?"

"You know what I mean Amanda now hand it over before Cadmus Security beats you for it."

"You were spying on me."

"We spy on everyone, heck why do you think Hardcastle is a dead man now."

"I would never go along with a plan to destroy a town just to stop the costumes."

"You can't make omelets without breaking eggs, acceptable losses."

"How many people does it take before it becomes wrong?"

"I'm sorry you feel that way, now turn over the disc!"

She slugs the older man then fakes out on the nearest guards that the general tried to assault her and it is true up to the point that she hit him. As she finally gets out of range, she realizes that only Eiling seem to know what she was up to and now it would be her neck on the line just to warn the people of Smallville. Once in her car, she jolts a little noticing who is sitting next to her, it was him of all people.

"King Faraday at your service, Mrs. Waller," says the voice.

"I know who you are Faraday, just as I know you have been helping the Outsiders, but we have another problem, now I'm driving out of here, we can't discuss this here."

"I know, sneaking in here, about as much fun as I have had tonight."

As they drive, he pulls out a palm computer and inserts the disc Waller hands him. The plan is disturbingly well thought out given that they could blame it on the Kryptonians.

"You have got to be joking with this."

"No joke, some elements in Cadmus and the government are not satisfied with the handling of the Outsiders situation. They think that all these missions by them are leading up to another takeover and given various situations like the ongoing Kasnian Civil War, they believe we must take action by killing them all when they congregate in Smallville. A fairly good number of them are there already. The only remaining missing ones are the ones probably staying with Dr. Fate and a certain romantic duo sneaking Ra's daughter back to America with her newborn."

"I can only hope that the Outsiders don't totally lose it at this revelation."

"They know the government is afraid obviously, but returning to costume for many of them is a bad idea."

"What else would you have them do when people go hunting for them out of costume?"

"I don't know, but the fact remains that all the Lords are back."

"Stewart can't use his ring, Hol can't tap Thanagarian technology, J'onn is stuck in Martian form, but of course you are on about Wayne, Diana, and the former Superman."

"The fact is they are ignoring or just avoiding the signs that the Society is up to something worse than usual."

"They also seem to forget the old saying keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. At the same time there is also believing nothing that you see and only half of what you hear."

"So how are we going to warn them then?"

"Next turn off."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see."

A strange vortex appears in front of the car as she makes the turn off and then both are gone.

***

Faraday's organization had made the freighter look pretty badly banged up by still sea worthy in appearance only. Before arriving in Paris, Bruce had passed word about the new weakness so the organization made certain that there is a science lab aboard the freighter. Once aboard Bruce spent a great deal of time in it whereas Diana takes the opportunity to shower after resisting leaving the bed since he went down to the lab. She felt better than usual while showering especially with her hair recovering from the singe damage. However the messy way that she had gotten into bed with Bruce after departure was enough to floor him literally as she had pinned on the deck after locking the stateroom door.

He had been very slow to take off any of her clothes so the last thing she had on were the stockings she thought of trying out, something Audrey had suggested to her before they left Kasnia. He kept surprising her with how inventive he could be with finding ways to excite her before they did it. She thought about trying to wear them or something similar again some time to see how he would react to that look on her. After getting dressed she decides to pay Talia a visit to see how she and the baby are doing at this point.

"Hello Talia… how is your son?"

"He is sleeping again, my quick tussle with Ubu woke him, but fortunate for me, I trained myself more than my father knows against attackers. I shared your panic and fear from the night you and Bruce came for me."

"It was a deadly fight to say the least, Kal froze his legs and burnt my hair a little."

"He did to proposition me once after father brought him back to our reality."

"Ra's broke him out, but how?"

"Vandal Savage built an approximate duplicate device to the one father believes Bruce used to connect to that other reality."

"How do so many know of this other reality we went to?"

"You recall that Bruce had to dupe the military police into letting him take the League back into custody before they went back to fight you. In Arkham, they fought Kal's robotic doubles, those robots had built in cameras obviously for sight, but he had recovered a few though connections I didn't even know of."

"So the cameras had footage of the League fighting the robots and once it had become clear that the Lords were not around aside from Bruce going on trial for his activities as Batman. He suspected that the League had gone back yet something happened to ensure that you might never return."

"They were very hesitant for years to allow us to come back here. Their Luthor fired a power disruptor at me and the others, but his first target was Kal. The goddesses elected to forgive me after my return to Themyscira."

"What about the others?"

"They are all hesitant to have powers or abilities back especially J'onn. "

"I would suspect all of five including you and Bruce are trying to live up to whatever you feel guilty about while Kal is definitely."

"No, it is a sad thing, but I fear that we may have to disable his powers again."

"Even as a mortal he would still try to kill you, kill Bruce, or both."

"We'll lock him away, but we won't kill, the last time we killed the world turned into something that the governments are so afraid that they won't stop until they 'stop' us."

"You can try your way, but if what he almost did you and Bruce is any indication, he won't go down easy."

"If we can get blue Kryptonite, we'll be able to handle him."

"I hope you are right for all our…"

The freighter tips sending them sprawling to the floor and then Talia rushes to catch the awakening Darius who is now crying. Alarms are going off like mad, something damaged the ship, and it is taking on water fast. Faraday's associates hurry the three of them to an escape craft yet Diana tries to force her way back to find Bruce. He emerges in torn clothing with several samples of what could be blue Kryptonite made altering green Kryptonite. She pulls him along towards the launch bay. At that moment, Kal smashes through the bulkhead after flying through the hull at Bruce and speeding away from Diana.

He still had at least a sliver of blue Kryptonite. Kal fumbles dropping Bruce just before crash tumbling down the corridor into the engine room, and as Bruce realizes how close he is to the engines, he starts to run. He can hear her calling out to him and he shouts back in response yet he smells something burning, Kal set off the fuel lines, the ship will blow in mere minutes.

"Diana get out of here, it is going to blow up!"

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"You are going to have to, I'm too far inside!"

"No, not like this!" she yells.

Diana races through the ship trying to get to him, but as she rounds the corridor that puts less than a sprint away from Bruce, the ship implodes, which throws her skyward into the ceiling. A powder smoke trail follows her limp body as it hits the water. As she floats, someone puts her onto the escape launch boat, it is Talia. Faraday's associates are at the controls.

There is no sign of Bruce, it is too much, she had made a promise to keep him alive, he could not die, they still had too much to do, too much to live for, the tears were flowing and the sobs too loud to ignore even for Faraday's men. Talia wraps a blanket around the weeping Diana and then Kal reappears from beneath the waves, he yanks a piece of something jabbed into him. It is not ship debris, it is…

As Diana sees the wound bleeding, she knows Bruce must have stabbed him with it before the ship exploded or something to like that. He flies towards her but along the way lets off two streams of ice at Faraday's people. They are dead before they can even whimper. Both women pull out the blue Kryptonite then as he nears, he starts feeling weak again, and curses that it must be anti-Kryptonite. How did he know unless he overheard once he got his super-hearing back except he was wrong, but only they knew that. He dives into the water causing the boat to rise on a tidal wave he causes just to get away from the radiation from the rock.

She thinks _this is not over by a long shot and if Bruce is really gone, you are next Kal, not because I'm vengeful or angry, only because you'll kill us all unless we stop you soon_.

The freighter wreckage has been sinking for awhile now yet a patrol of Atlantean crafts take interest. They would check to be sure no one is in it and there are no weapons aboard that could be lethal to the underwater world. Word is sent back to the underwater capital because of a certain discovery about who was traveling on the sunken vessel, so that is when Aquaman knows he must go to verify this. The surface is plunging into anarchy and chaos so who is involved and the risks to his domain must be known.

Elsewhere the tossed escape boat drifts into something, but not solid. Diana knows what happen as the island had always been hidden especially in times of great trouble in the outside world. She no longer calls it Man's world, because it is not only men that have some stake and part in what is happening there. She hears a voice from the other side of the tipped over hull and it is very familiar.

"Who is in there? Are any of you hurt?" says a female voice.

"No injuries, just wave tossed is all," she answers.

As the boat is set right, Diana climbs out onto the longboat to see someone she had not seen in a long while either, her 'little' sister, who went by the name Donna Troy. Her appearance is significantly similar to Diana except there are discernible differences especially now with Diana having aged the years she was gone and still aging now.

"I was sorry to have missed your return several months ago. I heard many were very forgiving especially after that speech you gave about the mortal heroes of long ago generations. I was also told you are no longer immortal as a part of the Goddesses' forgiveness."

"Yes I agreed to it because there is more important things in life that being immortal. True immortality is in knowing, pursuing, and occasionally having what you want in life."

"I heard a certain man also came with you, is here with you now?"

"We were separated when the ship exploded after Kal attacked us again."

"Should we search for _him_?"

"I don't think he could survive that kind of an explosion, but you can look, I will be looking too though right now I'm tired, I need to be alone, please look after Talia and her baby."

"It has been many years since we had a baby on this island."

Talia is resistant to the Sisters at first, but she realizes she needs the help anyway. As for who to console Diana that is uncertain so the task falls to Hippolyta once she hears of what happen only miles from one of the portal barriers to the Island. As Hippolyta nears the grove where Diana is, a hand clasps her shoulder, it is Persephone.

"I think someone else needs to do this."

"Who would else other than me her mother?" asks Hippolyta.

"I think she means me your majesty," speaks a male voice.

"You brought him up from the afterlife?"

"He is a better candidate for the moment."

"I granted him a temporary pass to this plane so that he may spend these trying hours with her."

"What of Bruce Wayne?"

"Only time will tell… but his task does not end with her."

"What do you mean?"

"This is all I can tell you for now."

He walks over to her and as she sees first only his legs she wonders if it is Bruce somehow here with her even though the ship blew up. As she looks up further she sees that is Wally. He is carrying Iced Mochas. He hands one to her, she is surprised how solid and real it feels while also knowing she had not gone to the afterlife again.

"Hello Wondy, I mean, Diana."

"It is okay you can call me whatever you want, we are friends remember."

"Right, well I thought you could use the company, I know it hurts like hell right or should I say Tartarus."

In between the tears, she cracks up laughing for a few minutes before wiping her eyes. He hands her a handkerchief next. She rests her head on his shoulder and he gives her a long hug.

"So how are you here?"

"I got a free pass to be here for awhile. I mean you would be surprised how many perks you get when you are a hero in that place."

"I know you are afraid to say when you have gone onto the land of the dead."

"Right-o, well I'm going to tell you something that you already know. Bats is too stubborn to die, y'hear me. Now enjoy the mocha and soon as you are done, you'll start feeling better Wondy."

What could she say, the redhead Wally West was usually right about a lot of things including the rush from the mocha. She smiles and hugs him back, they sat like this for awhile as Hippolyta knows her daughter is in good company. However there is no way one can tell a woman in love not to worry about the other, it is part of the bond.

* * *

A/N 1: Templar Initiative, Lords reality counterpart to the League reality's one time Royal Flush Gang except they never met in Vegas like the League met Royal Flush Gang. If you'll remember I had Vegas incidentally happen earlier in this reality, now if you thought they fought the Gang equivalent then. Nope, so why were they in Vegas, I haven't exactly worked that out yet besides the fact that they were there.

A/N 2: I actually really planned this one out from scribbles I was writing this afternoon. Cadmus, where art thou? That is the question. Anyway Waller makes a pretty heavy discovery in this segment, a very nasty one at that. Faraday is on the case as usual and the purplish vortex, Fate of course.

A/N 3: Not only does Faraday's organization have people everywhere, but they have got top notch resources too well if you want keep up with Cadmus, you need the tools at least. Blue Kryptonite makes a nice dagger for starters and silly old Kal mistakes it for anti-Kryptonite because he like Ra's still believes that is the weakness. In anger or some other emotion, he ignites the ship's fuel lines. Ship goes boom tossing Diana, Talia pulls her out the water, and the two fend off Kal with Blue Kryptonite that Bruce gave her before Kal aka Mr. Battering Ram shows up.

A/N 4: Now Wally's gone 'topside' for a bit instead of someone coming to him. Heroes can probably get passes to the living for a bit, think of as I don't thinking or believing in angels or spirits. I got this particular idea from an episode of Stargate SG-1 where Daniel as ascended being visits Jack during an emotionally/physically trying experience while being held prisoner by the System Lord Ba'al. As for Bruce, he's too stubborn to die right, anyway Atlanteans are on the scene, sure enough Aquaman has some idea of what's happening with surface dwellers.


	27. Anarchy & Chaos

S/N: Too stubborn to die indeed... the pieces shift again...

* * *

_It is dark, the lights are flickering, there is the sound of rushing water, the hull groans, of course that overcharged idiot blew up the engines, and now I'm stuck in a sinking ship._

As he gets up, he notices that most of the crew that is still on board is probably cut off from his position. The only questions are how far down is the ship and can he risk breaching the hull without killing himself in the process. The air ripples next to him and someone really unexpected appears before him. He certainly had a look of concern yet almost a look of conviction.

"What brings you here, I didn't think they let you leave the afterlife."

"Let's just say, you can get favor passes, at least I can, dead hero perks, y'know."

"I see well, any advice, I intend to be alive and back with Diana as soon as possible."

"She was all in tears and so I had to go to her even though her mother thought she would be a better choice except Persephone being Persephone disagreed."

"Maybe complimenting a goddess actually works Wally."

"Maybe, just the same, keep being stubborn and you'll get back to her. Besides I get the feeling someone is looking for you even if they don't know it yet."

"What do you…"

Wally disappears before he can even ask the question, but then there's another poof.

"Meaning someone could be looking around this debris field okay. If I say anymore I might risk revoke, Fates and all that jazz."

"Okay, well thanks for dropping by."

"You being sarcastic now?"

"No I am not, just a little aggravated being stuck here like this, but I'm getting out somehow."

"Same old Bats."

He disappears again leaving Bruce to his work. He checks the bulkheads so far no leaks this far inside at least the watertight compartments are holding back something for the time being, but the sheer weight of the vessel is dragging it down. There are audible groans from the ship's frame reacting to the outside water pressure. At least Wally's brief appearance if was not his imagination indicates Diana is still out there, probably on the island with Talia and her son. He continues searching for a way to leave the ship, but if the loudness of the noise is any indication the rest of ship is flooding as the watertight sections can only hold back so much ocean water.

"I WILL NOT DIE HERE!" he shouts to no one in particular.

The hull bursts directly in front of him and he is unable to escape the flow. He swims against the current then grabs onto the opening of the rupture. It cuts his hands, but there is no way around it or so it seems. As he struggles upward, he starts to get dizzy, too long without breathing, but if he tries to open his mouth, it is over though so would be the same if he kept holding because he pass out hence mouth open. He looks on in disbelief as an Atlantean warship appears above him and a cable shoots out to pull him inside.

_Talk about timing, any longer, and I would be a dead man. In all these years since I first took up the mantle, I realize I almost did have an unconscious death wish, I used to say to Dick, I could go down anytime, anywhere, and be killed by anyone except now I was not willing to let that happen now._

"You really are still the most foolish man I ever met," says a voice.

"Glad to see you too Aquaman," he answers.

"I heard an ironically named freighter had sunk many a league from my kingdom."

"You heard right."

"I heard the Lords disbanded or disappeared, but of course we minimal contact with the surface dwellers after the Lords took control of the surface. I'm going to guess that's changed since I have been reading reports of explosives being placed all over this region. Outposts elsewhere report the same."

"How far spread is your network?'

"My secret Batman, you know as well as I do how important it is to hide your assets."

"Right, well who has been placing them?"

"I don't know exactly, but they are not official or military based on their hull designs."

"Any visual records?" he asks.

"Come with me, we have one on long range viewing now."

On the bridge of Aquaman's current flagship, the king of the seas shows him what is happening at least from what visual sensors can see, which is that someone aboard that particular submarine is releasing some sort of inactive explosive into the underwater fault line below its current position. This part of that plan, it must be thinks Bruce, but of course, he has to find Diana and get back to the others.

"You care to explain surface dwellers are leaving explosives within my domain?"

"It is likely part of Ra's Al-Ghul latest gamble to reset the clocks to zero."

"What?!?" grumbles Aquaman.

"Yes, he always believed as long as I have known him that the world has reached the peak of decadence. He continues the ongoing practice of triggering the fall of civilizations for centuries when a specific one hits the roof than bring down the house if you will on it."

"I thought all of your Rogues were out of commission."

"Not all, just the ones unfortunate enough to get the former Superman's attention."

"He became more aggressive, more take charge, but of course many thought he went too far."

"They would be right too…" says a third voice.

Lord Orm's, Aquaman's brother, enters the command center with news from scouts that similar devices have been throughout the kingdom and outposts across the world's oceans report the same. He is not just sinking the surface, but killing all life in order to reseed it according to his design or so it appears for the moment. Unbeknownst to most is that Orm made one of his loyal generals take the fall for the attempt to kill Aquaman years ago, but said general did not know until it was too late when Orm pushed said general to his death in the Arctic.

"Of you and Mr. Wayne here won't be around to see the results as the world will become a water world begun by the vision of Ra's Al-Ghul."

"You are working for him?!?" retorts Aquaman.

"You were always the fool king, you believe the land dwellers will ever peacefully coexist not just with themselves or the land, but us too, no, it will not happen, so we must end this cycle."

"Who gave you that right?" continues Aquaman.

"I did, and as for you two, you are about to join the dead in that wreck there, and then I will vaporize it with you two inside. I'll tell your beloved wife that you died defending the ship as it will be destroyed too giving me cause to ascend to the throne and join Ra's crusade to purify the world."

Aquaman lunges at Orm striking his brother with his hook hand, cutting across the usurper's face before head signaling Wayne to get off the bridge to the nearest launch bay.

"All hands, mutiny in progress stop the surface dweller from fleeing!"

"Do not listen to the traitor, he lies, he plans to blow up the ship!"

A fight breaks out between Atlanteans loyal to both brothers of course Orm had handpicked a huge part of this ship's crew. They fight and Aquaman's men are losing ground as the king is protected en route to the launch bay. They board a smaller craft that launches with a wave of fighters into the water then head for the city with whatever warships are loyal still to the one true king of Atlantis. As for those loyal to Orm, they give chase so there is a rolling underwater battle.

***

"You must see the urgency of the situation Fate."

"I do but I'm still working on a way to circumvent Achilles' effect on her ability to use Thanagarian technology."

"We have a countermeasure that we are prepared to test if anyone wishes to volunteer."

"No way is it going to be Shayera, she's pregnant… you don't know what that will do to her."

"The danger any less with Fate or Inza doing something similar?" queries Faraday.

"I'll do it."

Everyone stares at J'onn for a moment before he follows Faraday into a portal set to beam the two of them to one of his organization's outposts. As J'onn steps into the chamber, he can only hope still that this is the right decision. Faraday tries to look confident, but of course he worries for J'onn's safety. He signals the scientists to begin the procedure and so Valkyrie comes online then the energy encompasses J'onn. His eyes glow at the familiar sensation of telepathy, but it is still limited as are the other abilities though he will not test any in full until after this is over. It feels more familiar with each passing second, but it is not over by a long shot.

Meanwhile back at the Tower, a plan is drawn up to build an underground shield generator that will encompass a large portion of Smallville except to be safe they would have to put exactly at the center of the blast point, the Kents' farmland. Kara is barely able to hold herself up after hearing this bit of news about Cadmus' next 'offensive'; she would not allow this to go unchallenged, but it is then that some of the others give her some sign that they notice it. They see recognition that this is too close to home for her literally. They will have to hurry not knowing how long until Cadmus intends to begin this attack.

Fate goes back to working with Shayera and some of the Thanagarian technology taken from the Arizona facility. John remains with them at all times given his concerns about what Fate intends to do to restore her ability to use her race's technology.

He starts chanting in Thanagarian again as she hefts an nth metal mace for the first time in years and he raises his hands towards her face as he continues to chant. She begins to glow yet she is not in pain as John had been expecting. The glow grows brighter and wider until it encompasses both of them. He tries to stay close, but the light is too bright for him to keep his eyes open. Inza grips his shoulder and tries reassuring him that his wife is in good hands with her husband so he manages to smile just a little.

"Need not worry about the child; he has taken that into account as well."

"How did you know that?"

"She is showing some by now and some just intuitively know these things especially if you are a woman Mr. Stewart."

"Call me John."

"Then I would ask the same in that you call me Inza instead of looking pass me whenever I'm in the room, sure I might look like a housekeeper, but I'm just as magic capable as Nelson."

"You mean Dr. Fate."

"Whatever you prefer, I still call him by his actual name or anyone of my affectionate names for him."

"Don't we all do that with ones we love in that way?"

"Indeed."

After several hours, Fate exhales and asks Inza for some water, she chants a bit then a full glass appears in her hand, which she hands him to after he removes his helmet. Shayera sits down and grips the mace. It charges to everyone's surprise including her. John grins just a little before she looks at him knowing that he is probably amazed and jealous, amazed at her resilience without that ability and jealous because well he is the only without something. However he was a good soldier long before the Guardians gave him the ring.

"I think it is time to get working on that shield generator, Tim should be in place by now with the others. "

Inza summons a portal so Shayera, John, Kara, and Waller all go through then emerge inside the barn on the Kents' farmland. Kara exhales taking in the sights and the smells, just like I remember it she whispers to herself. She longs to fly, but now it is not the time she knows before she can even consider just doing it. Waller is reluctantly let into the farm house as some have already been told she is with Cadmus, but they relent a little when hearing that she is the one that went to warn them at risk to her own life as well her own family.

Tim starts on the computer systems yet as he enters code, someone else's voice is in his head.

"You could have told us you had that power back J'onn!"

"Who are you talking to, J'onn is not here."

"Of course not, he is telepathic again silly."

At that moment Faraday and J'onn in disguise emerge from a pickup truck that is parking at the front of the farmhouse. Inara is already zipping about as is Kyle hard at work with welding the metal supports into place. He alternates with Kara as she occasionally feels weary doing the heavy lifting underground. The parts are brought in via portal because otherwise they risk Cadmus usurping sat uplinks to see what is going on down here at the blast epicenter. There is a news report of ships at sea being attacked including a freighter that recently left the Ireland coastline.

"Damn that's not good," grumbles Faraday.

"How so?" asks Alfred.

"Bruce, Diana, Talia, and that kid were put on a freighter fixed up by my organization."

"Why did they not simply return in the Invisible Jet?"

"With Kal around, they would run the risk of him just forcing it to crash."

"So instead of crash, it is now sinking."

"We have no way of knowing if they were aboard or not when it went down."

The construction resumes despite this blip by the loss of the freighter.

***

In Atlantis, Bruce and Aquaman enter the main royal chambers where the Queen sits on the throne demanding to know what is going on now. He tells that Orm is up to something with an alliance to the faction responsible for these bombs seen all over the world's oceans. She is clearly disbelieving yet as the city rocks from attacks by Orm's loyalists they know there is trouble.

"How far is the nearest portal barrier to Themyscira from here?" queries Bruce.

"What are you thinking?" remarks Aquaman.

"Amazonians might help here."

"Why bother they went all isolationist after the Lords' stewardship."

"I was there only a couple of months ago when they restored much of Diana's abilities."

"I think that's the first time I heard you use her name… you two aren't?"

"Now is not the time…"

"Right…"

He climbs into one of the Atlantean courier size craft and puts as much speed as possible into getting from here to the barrier, he could only hope it is not too late to stop this battle for Atlantis as well as reassure her that he is still alive, that she did not fail her oath to him. How pained she sounded when I told her to go on without me, she does that, so like her, a heart that would gladly step between me and death he thinks as he applies more speed. I will not die, I will survive, stay alive for you my love, and unknowingly he had starts humming a song.

"Who knew the Bat could sing?" chuckles Wally.

"I was wondering where you got to," comments Bruce.

"Well I'm on a time limit with this thing and besides I keep checking in on Diana."

"How is she?"

"She is still pretty upset and it blows not being able tell her that her dashing knight is coming."

"Why can't you?"

"On the one hand it spoils the surprise and on the other, well dead men tell no tales."

"What does that mean?"

"Well Wondy will be more than just happy to see you I guess and as for tales well I'm technically not allowed to say anything more than what I'm saying y'know."

He keeps humming even after Wally vanishes again then he starts singing the song.

_Seek to destroy cause they're scared of you_

_That's why they try to make a fool of you_

_They're so jealous of my pretty star_

_Cause you've got soul inside your shattered heart_

Like Odysseus slipping into Ithaca, Bruce knows that more than a few enemies have been made in Themyscira too. As he swims his way to the shore, he spots someone that looks like Diana, but looks younger, must be Donna if he remembers the name right. As he advances towards her in soaked clothing, she pulls out a sword on him. She sighs in relief afraid it was something else or someone else.

"Where is she?" he asks.

"She is praying at the Temple of Themis for you."

"Why was the barrier not recognizing the ship I came in?"

"Hippolyta is cautious given the surge of violence in the rest of world. The place you call Kasnia is not the only place where people have begun fighting. Your native land is up in arms too."

"It is on that note I need to find her and get back as soon as I can."

"What of the other woman and her child?"

"I think they are safer here."

"It is yet to be decided if she is allowed to remain given her parentage."

"She does not share his views of the world, not entirely."

"How do you know her?"

"We were close a long time ago."

"Your heart belongs to Diana now, I trust you do well by it because if you don't I'll have to do more than hurt you."

"I know, I would have the whole of the Island ready to send me to Tartarus."

"We best be careful though because those who used to share Aresia's views of men are not keen to see you back here because you have been seen trust me on that."

It is at that note that a fully armored brigade of Amazons surrounds them.

"I see what you…"

The leader slugs him in the face then another two grab Donna before tying her up.

"He will be the first of Man to die."

"True Amazons will resist this, we are not war seekers, we are warriors, but battle is not sought, only fought when necessary."

"Knock her out."

"Yes Mistress Medea."

As the war ready Amazons take Bruce away, one remains to knock out Donna. As for Medea, she is actually Circe in disguise. Furthermore she only had Ares to thank for bargaining for her release even when both he and Hades knew her history with this particular island. Her revenge on Hippolyta begins by getting to Queen of Amazons by getting to the queen's daughter or more specifically to the daughter's heart through him. She casts a spell to transform him into a mythological creature, one that would surely be unappealing to Diana, but it would gradually take effect so by the time she realizes what is happening, it might be too late. Circe laughs a little; it felt fun to mess with the Amazons again so long as she did not violate the hands off Hippolyta catch.

* * *

A/N 1: Aquaman is more than just aware of Ra's plans thanks to Orm blabbering about his part in it. As for Bruce, he is going to Amazons for backup, not that he can't handle this alone, but there is always strength in numbers. As for this chapter's title well what happens kind of explains it a little.

A/N 2: J'onn and Shayera are back in business. As for John Stewart, well we'll see won't we. Word of the freighter's destruction is known to the Outsiders in Smallville. Not of its passengers though.

A/N 3: Aresia's legacy is in action, which 'Medea' or should I say Circe gleefully exploits. Ah, poor Bruce, you go from one mess to another, well, its part of the mission if you will. Now one would wonder why is it taking so long to get back, my explanation the simpler or more straight forward part was just popping into Kasnia to get Talia, but getting back is trickier because well the plan is on with the countdown getting ever closer to Ra's Final Overture.


	28. Eye of the Beholder

S/N: Magic always has a price remember...

* * *

She feels dizzy for a moment then stumbles before someone grips her shoulder.

"_What is going on?" _asks Diana.

"_Welcome to Amphitheater Miss Prince."_

"_Where am I?" _she asks.

"_I just told you, your act is tonight, best get ready."_

She looks puzzled as to what is going on now yet as she enters her dressing some of it starts to make sense. She opens the wardrobe to reveal a dark blue-black dress, a pair of stockings laid out, the shoes look exquisite, but something seems strange still as she wonders how she got to the doorway to this place. As she dresses up, this is all feels strangely familiar except it is not so as she walks pass several posters each of her or someone she seems to know yet for all the strangeness there is still a level of familiarity especially with the name of this place. It is a full house tonight, she did and did not know what the expression means at all. As she passes the waitresses shuffling about the tables, they all look familiar yet again.

The one with the slightly orange and red hair is Sharon if she remembers right. As for the blond that is Darla, the three very different looking brunettes are Holland, Zahra, and Daisy. There is another familiar woman except she is the bartender, her name is Tasha. The way the hair fell over one Tasha's eyes got her attention more than the others, she had seen it before, but where except she is about go on stage. She starts to sing while slowly shifting her hips as she runs her fingertips along the microphone pole.

Something about that man watching from the darkened booth up high away from her is curious yet as she catches his eyes' they are just white without any color. She keeps singing and he still stares at her. It is on one hand charming to be stared at like one is caught up in the sound of her voice yet in the other it bothersome to find some level of concern by wondering about his physical appearance. The song is mesmerizing most of the audience yet no way to tell his reaction without seeing much of his appearance. She twirls in step as if remembering something else, somewhere else.

_Life bound by mistakes and regrets_

_Except you, without you so cold_

_Feel stupid for the mistakes, forgive me please_

_Will you do this, my love please do so_

_It is not the same without you_

_To fight for, to live for, to love always_

_Gods know I never thought it possible_

_Yet there you were again and again_

_You like shadows and eyes with depth_

_Every encounter, every collision_

_Self-discovery in your arms_

_Never listen to claims that you have no spirit..._

_Your past was a mystery to me_

_You hid your troubles well_

_Things so unclear without you_

_To be seen so down and naked_

_And be given that look that you knew_

_Only asking that you stay with me_

_What is there for me to do alone?_

_Living forever doesn't work._

_Where to go from here?_

_Nowhere else to want when with you_

_Why was it you?_

_Doesn't seem to matter when I kiss you_

_It's been said all men are the same_

_I'd have to object with all that you do_

_You are an exception on the way down_

_Hard not to sway against you_

_You know I want you_

_Written all over me  
_

_I can see your interest_

_So whatcha gonna do now?_

_Until you nothing stops me_

_Everything else starts anew_

_Makes me want to dress this way_

_Just to catch your attention_

_Notice me noticing you_

_Even if we never met_

_I would still miss you_

_So love me while there's time_

_Cos I know you do with those eyes_

She sways some more showing a bit more between the slits in her dress, not that she is showing off, just some times when having a good time, it feels better to ignore the crowd just a little. After she finishes there is uproar, she smiles, licks her lips a bit, and asks for some water so Daisy brings her some before knowingly directing to the dark mysterious stranger at the back of the room.

As she sits down next to him, she begins to realize that his appearance compels him to stay out of the light, as he looks hair then most, his physicality is also imposing in the sense that he looks like he could handle at least eight fighters at once. He tries to speak except she kisses him instead for reasons unknown to her yet after she does, he seems to take off, she sits looking confused, and so Daisy sits next to her later.

"He doesn't know what he is running from."

"I wish I could be certain of that one."

"Then find him somehow, he must have an address."

"You are right Daisy."

"Go to him okay."

She runs out to her car, not bothering to change her clothes after trying to find out more about him from the doorman, but all she could learn was he lived in Gotham, which is a long drive from here. As she is about to leave, the others try to block her from leaving, except not the waitresses she recognizes, they fend off the others, and so she makes it for her car even as her 'boss' tries to intercept her.

She flips on the radio as she drives and the song is again familiar, not sure how except it goes…

…_Hard to believe it_

_It's not over tonight_

_Just give me one more chance to make it right_

_I may not make it through the night_

_I won't go home without you_

_The taste of her breath, I'll never get over_

_And the noises that she made kept me awake_

_The weight of the things that remains unspoken_

_Built up so much, it crushed us every day_

_Every night you cry yourself to sleep_

_Thinking, why does this happen to me?_

_Why does every moment have to be so hard?_

_Hard to believe it_

_It's not over tonight_

_Just give me one more chance to make it right_

_I may not make it through the night_

_I won't go home without you_

_It's not over tonight_

_Just give me one more chance to make it right_

_I may not make it through the night_

_I won't go home without you_

_Of all the things I've felt I've never really showed_

_Perhaps the worst is that I ever let you go_

_I should not ever let you go_

_It's not over tonight_

_Just give me one more chance to make it right_

_I may not make it through the night_

_I won't go home without you_

_It's not over tonight_

_Just give me one more chance to make it right_

_I may not make it through the night_

_I won't go home without you_

_And I won't go home without you…_

She knows the song from somewhere, she heard it somewhere before, except something is blocking her from remembering where or how or who even played it for her. She keeps driving right until the car runs out of fuel and after that she walks in heels even as it starts to rain. She wants, she needs to find this stranger even as he left her at the nightclub, and even so her makeup runs a little with slight tears and raindrops. Her hair goes damp after walking so long in the rain and so her dress is pretty soaked by the time she makes to these strange gates at the front of what she believes is his property.

She works way pass the gate after somehow finding a way to handle the lock yet even as she is on the property she wonders why he might not be calling the police, but of course he seems some withdrawn and privacy oriented so maybe he does not do that to people. Somehow she remembers another song that the same someone played for her once some time ago.

_  
…Her hair was pressed against her face, _

_her eyes were red with anger  
Enraged by things unsaid and empty beds and bad behavior  
Something's gotta change  
It must be rearranged, oh_

_I'm sorry, I did not mean to hurt my little girl  
It's beyond me, I cannot carry the weight of the heavy world  
So goodnight, goodnight, goodnight, goodnight  
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight, goodnight  
Goodnight, hope that things work out all right, yeah  
Whoa_

_The room was silent as we all tried so hard to remember  
The way it feels to be alive  
The day that he first met her  
Something's gotta change  
Things cannot stay the same_

_You make me think of someone wonderful, but I can't place her_

_I wake up every morning wishing one more time to face her  
Something's gotta change  
It must be rearranged, oh_

_I'm sorry, I did not mean to hurt my little girl  
It's beyond me, I cannot carry the weight of a heavy world  
So goodnight, goodnight, goodnight, goodnight  
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight, goodnight  
Goodnight, hope that things work out all right_

_So much to love  
So much to learn_

She gently bangs at first on the front door, but as the rain is louder than that now, she starts really banging until her hands hurt and she stomps foot forgetting how badly heel tips can react to wet ground and slip landing on her hips while also hitting her head. Someone opens the door, it is him, and he carries her inside, and sets to treating her head injury. She notices his hands, they may not look human, but some part of her does not care as they feel go gentle and cautious to her.

He brings blankets after stoking the fire, she is reluctant to undress with him near, but he is apparently not shy or entirely proper about it. She faces away pulling down the dress, she hears sounds suggestive that he is enjoying her figure, so she looks back noting some familiar about the way he is looking at her now just as it was familiar when he would follow her on stage with his eyes. She tries to kiss him again even though she is wearing a lot less now and he does not run away this time. He instead returns her kiss with equal intensity yet as they continue to kiss, something else occurs to her, that neither of them is really here instead this is an illusion made by something supernatural.

However right now she just wants him for reasons she can't and won't explain to herself. She pins him against the furry rug beneath them near the warm fireplace. He grins ever so much at her panting and she kisses him deeply to respond to the way that he is caressing her back with his somewhat rough fingers. She rolls over on her back as he takes the lead and she sighs rather loudly as he smiles with a touch of smirking at this sound. The way her hair falls against her face as she moves into this position almost seems to be exciting him so he starts kissing her neck and shoulder. She never remembers this happening before, but the more aggressive he gets, the more she almost scratches him for how good it feels to her.

As she does scratch him, he groans just a little, for he is used to the kind of physical pain that hurts, but not the nearly pleasurable pain. She bites his lip before tussling with him on the rug and he finishes undressing her before making her gasp really loud for his physical roughness. She really does scratch him more, which only drives him on before she notices that his face had contorted to something almost like the mythical fanged creatures in human form. She pushes him away noticing bites on her when she thought he was just being coy.

"What are you?"

"Don't you recognize me?"

"No, you seem familiar, but the rest doesn't add up."

"When you love someone it is not math."

"Why didn't you tell me before that you were?"

"I wasn't born this way, it happened after my parents' death."

"How exactly?" she asks.

"I was bitten by a bat or I thought it was one and eventually I developed these preternatural powers. It is hard to restrain from feeding to the point of almost killing. I have struggled with not killing, not giving into the darkness for years now. I keep going to your club."

"Why my club?" she asks with stronger curiosity.

"I enjoy your singing."

She runs her finger through her hair and he weakly smiles after wiping off his mouth. She kisses him again and somehow knows he won't harm her, not intentionally if she retains belief in his resistance to do her harm. He treads carefully knowing that he must not harm her because he is in love with her. She can hear him humming something, which is enough to distract her urge to kiss him more. The song is familiar even with just a hum.

_Beneath the branches in any season  
Mindful of things all too usual  
Stuck between awake and asleep  
Backwards than forwards in step  
Something to stay for  
Here I lie, could join or depart  
When should I if ever just go  
_

_Only skyward she flies_

_No need of wings_

_Loveliness is its own magic_

_Even she could feel that_

_Eternity or now, still the same_

_All this life by strands and threads_

_Time to the end is near and far_

_So cut loose into someone else_

_Moonlight descends soon_

_Hold close as nightmares surround  
Take my hand for the save_

_Even on the fall safer in you_

_So it seems a fantasy_

_You taste too real to ignore_

_Hearts take risk just to love  
Meet me halfway my darling_

As she blinks, she is running towards someone with a sword in hand, but the figure is not deflecting her just standing there fearless and worried at the same time. She blinks again realizing she is aiming a sword at him of all people before she trembles just a little dropping it and running to him. The Amazons were fighting all around them as 'Medea' fights Donna, who connects to her memory as one of the waitresses, Daisy. There is a poof besides them as Zatanna appears with Dinah and Helena.

"I see you finally got her to come around," says Bruce.

"It was not all me Bruce," answers Zatanna.

"I mean looking like that for awhile I had doubts, but something was going on."

"Put it this way coming up with a reality simulator spell is not easy."

"I know, but what else was there left to try."

"She could have easily killed you in that form, but I made sure the spell linked the two of you."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"I saw you there in that place and put it this way, you being you of course even though I had no idea it was you exactly."

"You know who is responsible for his short lived transformation right?"

"Circe!"

Diana quite upset yet ready to fight tackles 'Medea' before she reverts only to express frustration that her trick failed to do its work. Themis takes the opportunity to bind Circe since the nature of the bargain she made with Hades has come to light in the sense that she technically did violate the rule regarding Hippolyta by interfering in Amazonian power dynamics by impersonating an Amazon to lead a coup d'état. The two vanish as Circe tries to debate the technicality as for the others that followed Circe, they are locked away under guard for the time being.

"Forgive me my love," says Diana.

"Both of us were affected by her magic, no need to feel bad," answers Bruce.

"Just say it please."

"No need to plead, just come here."

He kisses her deeply to remind her of that first night that they were back together and she bites his lip to remind him of how much she misses him even after being back together this long.

"I worried when I was thrown from the freighter."

"I was surprised to have survived the sinking, but I owe Aquaman for that one."

"He got to you in time?"

"He heard of the sinking, but he has in his own coup to handle."

"His brother I take it."

"Yes Orm is leading an uprising in order to have their people come in on Ra's side."

"Then we must hurry."

"I'm coming with you," calls out Donna.

"The quickest way is if I can is teleport us using magic," continues Zatanna.

"I'm going to loan you this," remarks Hippolyta.

"You can't mean?" asks Diana.

"Yes, this is the Staff of Penthesilea, my sister and the queen before me who would have died to save her lover Achilles, but in turn to do so she had to become mortal during the Trojan War. She died under the assumed identity of Briseis, which made her a cousin of the valiant Hector."

"I'm sure we'll put it to good use."

"I know you will, I will send others if I can spare them from the recovery here."

"I think we can manage, but if you can that would be appreciated."

The five heroines and the one hero disappear to the sound of multiple whooshes.

"Gods be with you my daughters and those bold mortal fighters especially Batman."

* * *

A/N 1: Circe cast on a spell on Bruce turned him into something supernatural but it makes him no less attractive or loved by a certain Amazonian. So Zatanna with a little help from the Goddesses temporarily traps both of them in a pocket reality in order to give her time to work out what happens, but the trick won't hold forever so she'll have to work it out sooner rather than later. As for the songs, two of them are Maroon 5 songs and the other two I kind of made up based on poems I wrote.

A/N 2: So I pulled something of a quick thread by only having Circe around for at least two segments so far, but like with Atlantis, this situation at Themyscira is just a piece of larger puzzle falling together as a diversion to what Ra's is up to. As for the nightclub Amphitheater, it is a reverse version of what happens with them in Little Miss Piggy.

A/N 3: Staff of Penthesilea, it is kind of made up as a supernatural tool of a weapon, good for long range teleportation, especially if you need to get to say Atlantis. As for Penthesilea, she did exist in mythology as a sister to Hippolyta, so I reinsert her into this reality in a similar role except she was one of those women who left the island at one point to see Man's World, while there, she got caught up in the Trojan War, met and fell in love with Achilles. In order to stay there with him according to Athena she had to give up immortality, she did, but of course this did not save him.

A/N 4: The mythology of Penthesilea paints her as a queen of the Amazons, who fought Achilles, and lost in battle to him though not before her abilities and beauty distracted him. However we can suppose that the real her in this storyline was still a Queen but fell in love with a mortal then gave up immortality for him. However even with their deaths, their love survives, and this is only a 'historic note', not a 'prophecy.'


	29. Nearing Zero

_"Time to spread the word," _says the first in a Cadmus disguise.

_"And the word is end of line, nearing zero," _says the second in another Cadmus tech outfit.

They join another team at supposedly secret beaming point so the others they fake out in order to steal more transponders from them. The actual technicians have no idea what is going on, but this is happening in dozens of locations across the world. Cadmus is about to experience mass infiltration in its newly 'acquired' moon base, which has under gone retrofits to use a new binary fusion weapon except it instead will use another process to convert the binary fusion energy mass into solid matter so instead of appearing to fire a space based weapon, there will appear to be asteroids of varying sizes falling towards Earth. However the size will be minimal within the determined size necessary to do maximum destruction with lowest damage threshold. However the infiltrators plan is quite different except they will not begin to act until the reprogramming of the gun is done after the first shots are off streaking towards Smallville. The manufactured security cards and other false pieces necessary to fake out the scanners are working so far as the first few teams begin entering the base. Stage one is nearing completion with the detective off balance and out of the country, which is satisfying to Ra's even though his daughter and grandchild are still missing in the field as is Kal, but he feels they are affordable wild cards for now. As for Ubu he reports that Talia got the upper hand, but almost does not surprise him as a mother in any species is more dangerous than a father in some respects.

Orm reports that siege at Atlantis is still at a deadlock as the King's loyalists are resisting at every turn, but Ra's assures Orm that he need only hold his ground because when this is over, Aquaman's reluctant friendliness with the surface dwellers will make him look like a fool as the oceans rise up throwing the oceanic ecosystems out of whack for a time. The answer will be the surface dwellers upset the balance worldwide, what further proof necessary that the king is not fit to lead anymore and some other noise about how right Orm is to take control. The renegade Atlantean had proven useful, but he knows that the detective will resist to the end and beyond as would the Amazonian. Even if the plan succeeds, if any of the Outsiders or former Lords aside from Kal survive, his island based new beginning will be in jeopardy. Cadmus whether it knew or not was playing right into his hands, which is how it become simpler to infiltrate them slowly over time as he had done before with Gotham years ago now long after Bruce Wayne had become Batman. One man had made a difference that time, but would it on this scale as well, I guess we will find out he thinks to himself.

Meanwhile planet side, the Ultimen army is on standby as are the Templars whereas Galatea is being given a suit outfitted with holo-nodes, ones that the camera recorders will superimpose Supergirl's look on in the editing room. At the predetermined time, the broadcast will follow the shot that obliterates Smallville, providing staged evidence of an alien led assault against Earth. Eiling likewise gets compliance to prepare a military cordon in several major cities as a precautionary move against an Outsiders' surgical retaliation, but of course he believes they won't make the first move thus making it simpler to frame them. The end to costumes starts here as he beams up to the former Lunar Watchtower and heads for the command sector as they filming the fake strike order. Eggs for omelets he thinks to himself not noticing how many Society operatives are among him as he passes through the various corridors. However someone not loyal to Cadmus or the Society sneaks away to a backup teleporter then beams down to the planet.

A pickup speeds through Kansas along a stretch passing close to the Kents' farm. Kara perks up hearing the noise so in disguise she zips out to intercept the vehicle at the bump in the road that had not been fixed for months now. They could organize attacks on a global scale, but they would not scratch out for a broken road, stranger things have happen yet this is just dumb she thinks as she braces against the truck. The driver tries to flee only to collide with Kyle's ring construct and Inara speed ties the driver up. The driver falls backwards into the hands of Kyle and Inara as they drag him back into the barn.

"You care to share why you were breaking the speed limit?"

"I tell you nothing!"

"Cadmus' plan will not succeed."

"I'm not from Cadmus and this world is done... the new one follows on the wake of the old one's passing!"

The driver twitches up before foaming at the mouth.

"Damn Bruce warned me about that trick," grumbles Dick.

"Nobody checked him for a fake tooth?" quips Barbara.

"They can't always think of everything, Batman was the only one to deal with the Society on a first name basis," continues Tim.

"Where is Master Bruce anyway, I mean I doubt he would have allowed himself to die by drowning," comments Alfred.

"He is a little busy down under, and I mean way down under," says a voice.

Everyone turns to stare at the almost solid apparition of the late Wally West. John runs over to his dead best friend and somehow it feels solid hugging him. Shayera hearing the voice likewise heads for him too. J'onn can hardly believe it either.

"You feel solid."

"Part of the illusion, afterlife perk, temporary pass to the land of the living, can't stay long or say much."

"What did you mean down under?"

"Trouble in Aquaman's backyard..."

He vanishes again, but at least someone was getting less touchy about him saying anything. The Fates kept nagging Persephone about letting him out, but as usual she would glare at them saying something to the effect well you can't really see the future that well anymore so either fiddle with the strands or stop bothering me.

***

Meanwhile the teleport jump from Themyscira to Atlantis is complete except it only brings them to the exact surface spot that is exactly the nearest above water position to the underwater city so they plummet several feet before splashing into the waves. Diana, Donna, and Bruce take it with some dignity as for Dinah she still remembers that time she and Ollie got a splash when following Vic who was helping Helena with tracking Mandragora. The only relief that time was Vic getting Helena to not kill the jerk despite the fact that he did kill Helena's parents. The incident almost cost Helena her position in the Outsiders, but the cell leaders agreed that Mandragora's recapture was enough for them to not take action against Helena because the numbers were too few in those days. As for Helena she remembers seeing Dinah soaked and Ollie ogling Dinah as she kept trying to dry off her jacket then her boots. The archer had a one track mind after that escapade to get Dinah out of those wet clothes or at least she did suspect that and probably his pretty bird did not mind that prospect. However she was more preoccupied with that awkward admission Vic made to her after that night and it was the reason she would always go up a notch if anyone starts ragging about his methods towards what missions he would undertake or recommend others take despite the vote weight of her, of Lance, or of Queen.

As for Zatanna, she quickly generates a magic bubble around them then tells everyone to start swimming downward as Bruce and Diana hold her hands. It would take time even with the staff augmenting her connection to magic. The staff apparently has versatile functions as if adapting to the situation on its own, but only if the user is in danger or if the staff judges the situation to demand that particular act.

_A sentient magical object well if it had been around from around the Trojan War that makes it at least three thousand years old, maybe older, nobody even owns a spell book that old... at least not any magic wielding personalities I know except for maybe Fate. _

She redirects her concentration to the bubble and occasionally they have to shift the path as loyalist and enemy craft are in a frenzy out there. As they finally near a permeable membrane, everyone kicks their way towards it, and they are now inside allowing Zatanna to take something a breather after concentrating for over twenty minutes trying to hold the water out even when channeling the power of the staff.

"You alright Zatanna?" asks Bruce.

"I'm fine, just need to rest, you go ahead."

"Everyone pair up, work your way to throne or royal chambers."

Elsewhere in Metropolis, Vic and Oliver are undercover in civilian garbs keep an eye on the military police presence gathering in the airport, and the other cell observers report similar incidents worldwide, but so far all they did is redistribute heavily armed units throughout the various nations. They were waiting for something, waiting for the clocks to hit zero, but something else is at work obviously Ra's Al-Ghul is moving to the next phase if he has not already. He could give the master manipulator only a singular plus as part of that engimatic cabal he had always suspected had been manipulating the world for centuries, but of course they rarely did step up except for instances like Rome, Constantinople, Kiev, Paris, and more in the past. Gotham almost joined that list if not for Batman, but now Batman seem to be missing, which does not bode well. As he looks to Oliver, but of course Queen had never seen Vic's face, few people did outside a select few including Helena otherwise he values his faceless mask, it is makes many fear, worry, and lose it for starters

Back at Atlantis, Dinah and Helena tackle or brawl their way through Orm's followers while Donna sticks close to Zatanna, which leaves Bruce and Diana to storm the throne or royal chambers where Orm has taken down Aquaman for the moment. The king held as long as he could, but Orm's men overpowered his loyalists in this room at least. Diana flies straight towards the ones closest to the Queen and her toddler then head butts them into each other. They crumple and groan at the same time while Bruce leaps at Orm who is preparing to give his fallen brother the death blow. As he grips the traitorous Orm by the neck, Aquaman stirs then kicks his brother in the one spot that any man would prefers not to have kicked with such force or hit with such a strike. The edge in one to one fighting is knowing the physical weak points of your opponent. Orm winces and falls to his knees leaving Bruce to club him in the head.

"I see you brought help, but this battle is far from over even with him out cold."

"I know though for now, I suggest you announce his defeat in combat with you."

"Right, maybe that will knock some sense into those fools went to his side, but he never had any concept of fair play. I suspected he was the one that tried to kill me in the past as well as my family."

"Why let him stay if only to cause more trouble?" queries Donna.

"I had to let him believe I had no ill will towards him, but of course his acts on my recently destroyed flagship gave him away."

"I trust your people can handle this alone now."

"It seems I owe you again Batman, let us see one day if you are still as good at chess as I once believed."

"Just get your city back and then we'll talk your Highness."

"Need not be so formal, we are allies after all."

"Right well I have more pressing business with certain problematic people above the waves."

"Then get going... take one of the couriers after I make the announcement."

As Aquaman appears on the battlefield before the still fighting soldiers on either side, they halt and so the courier that Bruce is flying towards the surface is already on its way to Gotham yet his other recurring nemesis Kal is already inbound for Metropolis once hearing about a military buildup in America. All part of the plan he thinks as he pushes through the skies at supersonic speeds. The one that fled the Cadmus controlled Lunar Watchtower is calling Faraday, but is unable to finish the call thanks to a Society agent that had been following him since the beam down. However before dying he did manage to mumble something about tower takeover.. Faraday's brows perk up at those words. He tells Waller and she agrees they will have to go to the Hill or the President directly so Fate opens a portal for them to drive through, which will put them within driving distance of the White House except once emerging from said parking garage there is a whole row of tanks, hummers, APCs, and choppers there to meet them. Faraday grumbles inwardly knowing they should have found another way and then a voice comes in over a radio message being relayed from the Lunar Watchtower.

**"I'd recommend surrender Amanda, I have already sent the Templars to your location in case the Cadmus soldiers are not enough to show you I mean business."**

"You are a fool Eiling, you are playing into the Society's hands damn it!"

**"You are wrong, the Outsiders are duping you, Ra's Al-Ghul died years ago."**

"He is alive, Talia confirms this, Faraday's organization knows this..."

**"They are traitors to die too so stand down or I'll have you killed along with your family for your treachery."**

"You are as insane as the rest of them."

**"The only way to stay sane in a mad world is to lose your mind some times."**

"Wrong as I have heard, never compromise even in the face of total destruction."

**"Prepare to fire on Smallville and the Templars will deal with them, Eiling out."**

Faraday reverses the car and spins around trying to outrun their attackers yet it almost seems useless now. An anti-vehicle round tosses the car and giving Waller a bit of a bump on the head except Faraday is not Faraday, the Martian made the trip in his place. She almost wish she was told beforehand, but it might spoil the surprise that Faraday had set up. J'onn goes skyward carrying her, but of course she is not heavy to him, not like things used to be heavy to him before he got a substantial amount of his powers. Someone is shouting about see they do have powers again, the depowered story is a hoax, but of course they are afraid of the heroes, for the first lime she had begun to see why the costumes were afraid of seemingly ordinary yet well armed people.

"When they need you, they need you, when they don't, they are liable to hunt you."

"That would be accurate given their current behavior."

A portal appears ahead of them as a chopper fires off a missile at them so he zips through except the missile gets in before it closes so it follows them back to Smallville where Kara has to hold it in place until Inza can open another one back to its entry point as Fate is exhausted from making so many portals today to bring in supplies for additional nodes throughout the area aside from the main one not too far below the barn. The missile goes back through into the second portal and smashes into the chopper just before the pilots can see it. As they bail out they pull the cords and the flaming wreckage rains down, but of course this is quickly hidden lest things advance ahead of schedule.

As for the Templars, the vanishing of Waller and J'onn end up sending them back to Metropolis to wait for new directives except at one of them is having second thoughts. She had seen much of the Justice Lords old news reels and had come to the conclusion that they were stuck in untenable scenario that no matter how they fought it or dodged it the result would be so similar that it almost makes her believe the universe is self-correcting or is it... she wonders before resuming her stare out the window.

Ra's and Ubu teleport to Lunar Watchtower than go into hiding, security is too lax around here, but it made the task smoother once they finish firing at the former Superman's hometown. As for the detective, there is still no world from Atlantis so what was really going on down below, on one hand he didn't care and on the other it was about victory. His victory to bring about a world without all the trouble that has brought this world, but how do you know where to look or what to do when its found. At the same time, there is enough about this life to make the world worth saving in Bruce's mind before reappearing in Gotham with the other five. However someone unexpected is leading an army of Ultimen here that being the assassin turn government mercenary Deadshot.

"Hello Batman should I say Bruce Wayne?"

"You forget all the defeats I gave you in the past."

"Lost count, but you are going down as are these lovely ladies though I may keep one for my..."

Donna slams him into the pavement and he weakly flaps a dark piece of cloth.

"You are going to have try harder than that... ."

"Ultimen attack pattern omega now!" he shouts before getting

Donna and Diana take the first wave. Dinah does the occasional subsonic call at them while Helena just goes martial arts master on them Zatanna starts turning them into pets or inanimate objects while Bruce pulls out of a spare costume from a backpack that Zatanna had brought with her courtesy of Alfred packing it. As he finishes pulling down the cowl then Deadshot comes to engage him as absolution for that past defeat at his own game of target practice. Their fight staggers towards the stairs of the monorail and so continues for awhile until Batman slashes Deadshot's wrist mounted gun in half with his gauntlet. Ra's and Cadmus kept pulling out all the stops to slow him down and he was growing tired of it, but he had to keep going to make it to the other side, to a world where this could hopefully never happen again though for now it was about staying alive and ahead of the curve.

In the distance there are aftershocks as the binary fusion created asteroids descend and smash into the terrain surround Smallville and as for the Kents' farmland it was up to the team at the generators to judge the activation time now, too soon that they would risk tipping their hand, too late, they would be ashes. Tim aims the cameras skyward and keeps them there. It is getting closer, closer to zero hour, and even he had to admit he was afraid of what was coming next.

"Throw the switches now," orders a tired Shayera.

"You heard the lady, throw 'em," barks John.

"Not so loud, I'm right next to you," whispers Kyle

"He is right, relax Stewart," jests Inara.

_"I told people before they always react like an old married couple," _chuckles Wally.

"Wally, oh you little," laughs Shayera.

"West, you are going to wish you didn't," says John with a slight laugh.

"Shields online, the asteroids are disintegrating on impact, but the rest are still coming through though into the shield barriers, they are hitting the landscape."

"Did we beam everyone in time?"

"One problem though, someone read the beams and the shield activations, the Ultimen are on the move worldwide according to Sage."

"Darn it!"

_"Remember, stick together,"_ whispers Wally before he disappears again.

"When he was still alive he was never so enigmatic."

"Probably a catch on letting him see us up here."

"Probably...."

However the second time the binary fusion gun fires, its not firing asteroid fakes anymore... zero hour passes into simply reset to zero.

* * *

A/N 1: The idea with the Society infiltrating the Cadmus takeover operation of the Lunar Watchtower is loosely based on JLU episode Task Force X where a Cadmus assembled team is sent to steal the Annihilator after it was stored away there after its appearance in Kasnia courtesy of Ares. However in this case the Society operatives are still impersonating Cadmus technicians and so forth, but waiting for the time to takeover after the first shot.

A/N 2: As for the dialogue between the pair of Society operatives at the start that's based of Ra's Al-Ghul's dialogue before using the monorail in Batman Begins to move the microwave emitter through Gotham to trigger the toxin in the water mains.

A/N 3: Waller's fore warning gave them time to prepare in secret aside from the one off encounter with Eiling's troops in D.C. when she tries to meet with the President to alert him to what Eiling is up to, but she and J'onn previously disguised as Faraday are forced to retreat.

A/N 4: The situation at Atlantis like Themyscira is a relative deadlock but in both cases the attacked side is holding ground. The five including Bruce and Diana then move on to Gotham where they are met by a detachment of Ultimen led by Deadshot. Deadshot out of costume was part of Task Force X, but here is he is put in charge of directing the new generation of Ultimen in this region.


	30. In Media Res

S/N: Ever closer, and of course it begins with song lyrics from a song familiar to anyone who has seen Casino Royale.

* * *

_If you come inside, things will not be the same_

_When you return to the night_

_If you think you've won_

_You never saw me change_

_The game that we have been playing_

_I've seen diamonds cut through harder men_

_Than you yourself_

_but if you must pretend_

_You may meet your end _

The blinding lights subside for a time until the gun recharges before it is ready to fire again and of course Eiling's bogus broadcast of 'Supergirl' in the Cadmus occupied Lunar Watchtower is shown to the President so he authorizes the use of the Ultimen even though Eiling already put them into the field on standby. However what Eiling does not know is that the gun has fallen out of his hands at least not yet. As he prepares to beam up, Galatea beams down, Ra's and Ubu join the Society operatives after they have have silently killed the Cadmus personnel on station, but the last one they get to is the one operating the transporter that swap beams Galatea and Eiling. As Eiling reappears on the platform, he is knocked out before he can even say a word about the dead soldier slumped over the controls. He told his subordinates to dispatch the Ultimen world wide before he left in the claim that he would lead a team to 'stop' the Outsiders from using the gun except they were 'too late' as the President is told after. It is too appease the other nations against the threat of binary gun attacks except the Outsiders did not fire it nor as Eiling just found out does Cadmus control it anymore.

"Welcome to nearing zero General," says a voice.

"Who are you?" he growls.

"I go by many names though of course if you heard of Batman, you best know me as Ra's Al-Ghul."

"Ra's Al-Ghul died years ago."

"Think what you will, but I have lived a long time, as different men, though I usually answer to Ra's."

"You are an impostor."

"You should have listened to Waller or anyone else that warned you about me, but I knew you would not, your obsession with 'protecting through power' against the 'costumed' menace as in essence made you one of my most predictable assets without having to manipulate your mind, your contempt, your distrust, even your hatred has served my cause and my plan."

"What are you talking about?"

"I let you take pot shots at Smallville because that way I can frame you in the eyes of the Outsiders just as you framed them using Galatea to impersonate Supergirl on camera, but do enough editing and people will find you lied though of course there will probably be nobody left to condemn you when the plan is complete."

"The Outsiders won't believe I would go that far."

"Wouldn't they? Your Ultimen army is storming purported locations for Outsiders' cells hiding places. Perhaps you understand now why people kept warning you off and telling you not to do certain things, but of course your fears will be your undoing. Dispose of him or rather perhaps I'll shall use this opportunity to see if this new method really works."

Eiling looks on in horror for the remaining few seconds of these wasted years in pursuit of destroying the secret costumes movement. He does not scream or shout, just crumples after Ra's releases his aged corpse. The new measure is instead of jumping bodies, is to drain the life force of whoever the method is used on, but Ra's is very particular abut who to drain even in this look. He takes the life force only because it seems necessary except he is not content to just live off life energy scraps. He wants back a full vitality not dependent on body snatching and energy draining though it would have to do for the time being. The artifacts that made such things possible were of course well protected because without them he would be dead already though of course only he knows this, which makes him all the more jumpy at times about anyone going near them. The operative sent by Faraday's organization to the Lunar Watchtower is dead, which is another pinch of news as of late. Reports from the surface indicate fighting breaking out in multiple major cities between Ultimen and Outsiders. However there is a dead zone for fighting in Gotham no less, of course Detective he thinks, but you are too late all the same.

Elsewhere in Gotham, Bruce as Batman continues the fight against the Ultimen even after taking down Deadshot by knocking the man out, but this particular generation of Ultimen function more as a collective than as pawns to be driven on by a single individual. This a skip avoidance of what happen with Galatea at the moon base and as the fighting advances through the city it somehow leads him back to that place. He had not been back here in years so to be this close to that spot he remembers for the first time in a long while what happen there. His father trying to assuage the mugger, the stranger does not believe him, the gun barrel rotates before he fires, father tries to protect mother, mother cries out between the bangs, both fall so slowly in his memory, and so he their son, so little Bruce is alone with them as they die with him still halfway stuck in what just happen, what is still happening, and what appears over yet not over.

_If you take a life, do you know what you'll give_

He looks back almost towards his mother's chest...

_Odds are, you won't like what it is_

Father's body falls to pavement yet she is next...

_When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me_

Her gasp of a scream cut short as she slides down...

_By the merciless eyes I've deceived_

Their killer is gone before he can react...

_I've seen angels fall from blinding heights_

As they lie at his feet, blood is not the only thing to flow...

_But you yourself are nothing so divine_

His father grips his hand, tells him need not fear...

_Just next in line_

As mother's pearls slip from the string, all he can do is cry...

_Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you_

Down through the years it'll be a promise then a costume...

_The odds will betray you_

The city will be as dangerous as ever, but he'll go into the night.

Diana comes up behind him, noticing something streaming down from under the mask, not blood, but tears, something so rare for him. She does not bother to ask once she sees in the distance can see the worn out signage for the Monarch. This is near the spot where they perhaps unknowingly died for the son that would become Batman, but of course she remembers reading through archives of the papers from that date and known like others had known for the longest time about the orphaned Bruce Wayne except until she met Batman nothing had quite added up about that playboy masquerade. He was reluctant to say anything aside from the fact that his parents were dead for the longest time, so she had to go digging on her own, that was when she found the next day papers from about that night, the night that would be in mind for the promise of a kind made by an older Bruce to become Batman. One wonders how can anyone remain so determined, so angry, so many other emotions that would make him hold onto the cowl for all these years, but that is the thing about Batman, about Bruce, the compassionate driven man that often risks body, mind, and dare say it soul to do and go places where not even supernatural often dare to tread if they could not send a mortal in their stead. However no one did ask him to do this, he took it up himself years after those dotting parents of his were struck down.

She remembers the first time she met Alfred.

_However one image she surfaces in her mind as she recalls from pictures that one photographer took yet never put in the papers, she only saw them because Alfred showed them to her, they were mailed to the manor with a note saying, these belong to you, not me, not the city, not the world. The envelope was addressed to Bruce, but he would not open it so Alfred did so, at times he regrets doing so yet at others he finds some solace in them. It forces him to remember just as much as the portrait of them over that fireplace.  
_

_Alfred had shown them to her the first time she had been to the Manor after her whirl-twirl adventure in Paris and Kasnia back before the 'family' broke up over what happen with the Lords. She had gone to the butler after learning of where Bruce lived from an independent search. The butler at the time did not look surprised to see her, but told her to come in anyway. The photographs were taken of a heartbroken little Bruce Wayne being shielded from the press by a Sergeant James Gordon and a Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Gordon as she learns is now Police Commissioner of Gotham City and as for Leslie she runs a mission in Crime Alley. Gordon and Thompkins were eager to get him away from the media frenzy because he was now perhaps the last Wayne. Alfred also recounts how he had been brought down to the mission by Gordon to get Bruce who had finally managed to fall asleep after babbling for hours about I should have done something, should have saved them, I will not fail again, I cannot let anyone die, and Leslie stayed with him until he fell asleep in her arms. They were very gentle about moving him into the car and so Leslie stayed at the Manor as often as she could manage because Alfred could not simply handle it on his own. He swears to be eternally indebted to her as well as the Waynes, he had come to redefine his purpose in that house as the one that had to look after Bruce even after he had taken to becoming Batman. _

_After Alfred finishes the tale, even he was crying a little and she hugs the older man_

The memory flashback ends with her seeing Batman looking back towards her and then he spins around launching himself at an Ultimen attempting to sneak up on them, but of course silly people forget there is no sneaking up on Batman no matter long he has been out of cowl until recently. He held to remain faithful to the city because while many of its inhabitants form the criminality, many also consist of the police or law that try to hold the line, but even they knew long ago that Batman serves a purpose that remains forever unclear. Some say he puts fear into criminals which is true, some say he is an inspiration for many to reclaim their city from decades of apathy and indifference, but others don't forget his Rogues or many of their fates in Arkham. It will be something to live with forever, but so it goes as Batman and Wonder Woman battle through the Ultimen on the way out of the area that encompasses Crime Alley.

The deepest question many ask even Bruce himself is how do to keep doing this, to what end, for when is the purpose done, but of course the answer almost seems rhetorical, the task is never done, it is ongoing, so where does this compulsion to keep going get driven in from. It had become more than just him, more than his original motives, more than the words of any promise, or some would tell him this is not all you are, whether anyone admits it or not, you change things in ways you can't foresee. Dick and others would often say things like that as he would linger and doubt when people like Jim Gordon were injured in the line of duty.

They catch up with the other ladies on the way towards the central police station where the cops are holed up against an attack by the Ultimen as for why they are attacking there is confusing, but something is skewered about their directives or maybe they were told to do this. As they near, someone fires off a shot towards Batman, which Diana flies in front of except when it appears to ricochet off her bracer, it hits her into her body instead. She unused to being shot so she drops to the ground in shock and Batman rushes to catch her on the fall.

"What the hell are you people shooting at each other for?" he roars.

Both sides at the sound of his shout halt then look towards an injured Wonder Woman in Batman's arms. Donna runs over towards them and so Bruce must do the usual to stop the bleeding by first prying the bullet out. She groans in pain, he shifts two fingers into part of her body where the bullet went in, she gasps for air, it barely missed her lungs as well as her heart when it ricocheted, and Zatanna rushes over with the staff. It starts glowing before Zatanna can even think of a spell to heal Diana, but of course Bruce had pulled the bullet out, his gloved finger tips covered for the first time with her blood instead of it had been that night years ago in the sewer chasing a street criminal who had been doused with Crane's fear toxin. The bleeding stops thanks to the staff, but her internal injuries are a little more tenuous despite the bullet missing vital areas. Montoya orders an ambulance out here on the double and so she must be rushed to Gotham General quickly. Donna goes with Bruce and Diana in the ambulance as the other women just stand there watching the Ultimen who for the first time in their mindless assault of Gotham suddenly have no idea what to do between Deadshot being knocked out and Batman's aggravated questioning of their orders.

Montoya starts questioning everyone in the station with a weapon that matches the bullet that injured Wonder Woman. However her search stops at Bullock as his carelessly left in the weapon out and it was recently reloaded. She had given orders that nobody fire unless fired upon and he broke the order by firing simply because he saw Batman perhaps.

"You mind explaining why your gun shows signs of being fired recently and having the cartridge changed?"

"IAB gave the word for Wayne to be arrested or to be shot if he resisted, sure its late, but better late than never."

"I doubt that because I just spoke to IAB, your sheet still keeps quite a few barking for your dismissal, I kept you because you were stable enough to stay with Gordon in charge despite your repeated attempts to 'nail' Batman aside from the two, and I count two times that the 'Bat' stuck his neck out for you. First with Croc and then with that landlord of yours that resorted to trying to kill you because you were revolting to him."

"You were suppose to arrest him if he ever went back into costume, terms of the parole remember."

"I'll say it again, we owed him for containing the Graystone breakout."

"Wouldn't been necessary if he had not gone back to costume forcing Crane to go off and do that."

"Firstly, Crane already doused them using the ventilators before Batman even so much as showed his signature cowl, and secondly Vic Sage confirms this with help from our CSU people. Now the badge, the gun, and empty your desk now!"

"You'll see I was right before this is over and so will the rest of Gotham, why else would those armed metahumans be attacking?"

"It is certainly a perplexing question..."

"... one that does have an explanation... Cadmus claims costumes are not on the side of angels, maybe we are not, but neither are we playing games with peoples' minds in the guise of defenders against alien led menace," continues Question.

"You're part of the problem Sage..."

Montoya repeats her order, but Bullock pulls the gun on Question except it blows up in his hand due to one of Arrow's jammer arrows that destroys weapons without harming the users. He grumbles gripping his sore hand and Montoya takes the badge then orders two uniforms to escort Bullock off the premises. The contents of his office will be sent to his current address, and so Montoya turns her attention to Vic and Oliver.

"I take it things are getting seriously out of control if we have Ultimen storming cities among other places."

"Cadmus is utilizing our former Lunar Watchtower, which they took from us in an attack awhile back."

"I had come to try talk to you before I was arrested and tossed in Graystone."

"It was not my intention to have you put away in there."

"I know, but a higher authority is pushing everyone's buttons."

"This new conflict was orchestrated by Ra's Al-Ghul who this time is really close to succeeding at turning us on each other while also utilizing a new binary fusion weapon to trigger his bombs scattered across the globe."

"The weapon originally was installed at the Cadmus occupied Lunar Watchtower, now its fallen out of their hands into the Society of Assassins' grip."

"How do you explain this thing in the news about the 'Outsiders' firing a binary gun at Smallville?"

"Its a trick."

He inserts a copy of the same recording then activates an algorithm to clear out all distortions and false add ons to reveal a very different woman appearing to give the order. Oliver points out that this is the same woman that attacked Kara in Metropolis months ago, and the woman is the Cadmus clone of Kara.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"We have to go global with this soon and we have to regain control if not destroy that weapon."

"Leave the first part to me, I know Summer Gleason."

"Queen stay with her, I'm needed back in Metropolis."

Before Oliver can object, Vic teleports out, and soon enough there is news of multiple man made disasters occurring world wide that the media is falsely attributing to the Outsiders using stolen government weaponry to fire at Earth.

***

Someone that looks like Eiling beams down to D.C. to inform the real Eiling's superiors that they are still embattled trying to retake the control room. He turns about straining to hold shape and then returns to the beam out spot except the transponder slips through him. He curses before getting shot at with a cold gun as he is caught by field agents of Faraday's organization.

"It seems he will even work with people like you Clayface," says Agent Harper.

After the unofficial costumed heroics ban, Roy Harper was approached by Faraday's organization and given an opportunity to serve out of costume, he took it even though he was later approached by the Outsiders, by his former 'partner' Green Arrow or rather Oliver Queen. Queen took the decline well because Harper indirectly explains I'm contributing in a different way now. At times he did miss the old days, but right now this job was just as good if not better in some ways. A frozen Clayface is carted off while he phones Faraday about the recent discovery that someone had been standing in for Eiling at the recent Cadmus meet up in D.C. Faraday asks that Harper bring the device to him at a predesignated location.

"I'm on my way already, see you there."

"Be careful of Cadmus just the same."

***

At Gotham General, they had taken her in for some surgery to check on the wound even the hole was healed, there was still some internal bleeding to be dealt with and he stays at her bedside even Waller turns up with Faraday.

"I take you know Ra's has control of the moonbase."

"Vic told me while I was waiting in here, comlink call of course."

"How is she?" asks Waller.

"She'll pull through, she is tougher than she looks even if she is mortal now."

"Mortal now? I thought someone said her powers were back."

"Goddesses gave them back with the condition that she remains mortal."

"Heck of a catch."

"She does not mind... I don't need tell you why anyway."

"No you don't but now we have to get to Ra's before these global binary fusion created disasters spread any further than the damage spreading across the other side of the planet."

"You still have those Javelins?"

"Yes..."

"Assemble them and get all the Outsiders onboard, if you want to drag anyone else in I suggest you hurry because he will start firing and triggering once he figures out to speed the recharge process."

"What about Talia and her baby?"

"Hidden somewhere he can't go."

Waller and Faraday leave him alone with Diana who starts stir with some moans and a little bit of a groan.

"Sleep well?"

"Not exactly, but this is better than any sleep or dream, kiss me."

"Can't say I disagree with that..."

He kisses her as she sits up and she kisses back biting his lip just a little.

"So what are you planning now?"

"Everyone is on active duty now, we are all going up, have to stop him."

"And we will my love."

She is still a little soar as she slips back into her armor, but acquiesces to letting him help her with some things. She remembers her mother's story about Penthesilea, but she did not die like her, she would not die, she would protect him though they would both survive, they had to for each other, otherwise why else save the world, saving the world is nice, but there is a point where just saving comes up a little short at times. A cascade series of beamings brings them ever closer to the yet unused Antarctic base. The numbers were already gathering from all over the world, but it would be some time before the Javelins would be ready for launch.

"How many more surprises do you have left?"

"Now, now, that's spoiling it, sorry I'm just being silly today or something."

"No, no, never silly, just prepared, in ways nobody ever expected."

"This one cost me the most plus having to use technology to hide it beneath artifically created tundra was tricky."

"I guess you must have gone bankrupt."

"Oliver was a great help financially in maintaining these places."

"Naturally, so care to show me around or shall we skip the tour for something else?"

"Something else sounds good to me..."

Diana had a mischievous look on her face, one he had not seen too often, and the first time had been when he had seen her in that red dress yet this look was far more showing than that one was at least to him. They would make the time for this experience despite how cold it felt even with heaters maintaining a certain level of heat.

_Soul Sister won't you take a ride in his car_

_Late to call_

_When you wanted to be all_

_Baby, baby, don't be so shy_

_Rock children hold your heads up high_

_In the night while I try_

_And tell the ballad of Valentine_

_You got it bad, but you know it's true_

She notices a distinctively different Bat inspired craft, that's neither a Batmobile or a Batwing.

_With your new suit, and your black tie_

_Hold on, you're just a gambling man, all proper like_

_I broke to the right and I caught your eye_

"Time to shed the costumes again my love."

* * *

A/N 1: Space based weapons, bad idea, wrong hands, how to define, of course its the worst with Ra's. Clayface, ah, well he wasn't in Arkham plus he's kind of a shape shifter too obviously. If you couldn't guess, Eiling is toast too, Ra's is stealing life energy directly now.

A/N 2: Roy Harper, formerly Speedy, another character I remember from JLU episode Patriot Act, who had to face the mutated Eiling when his ex-partner Green Arrow called in for backup. Its not plot typical, but I thought maybe Faraday's group recruited some former costumes too, its plausible I think.

A/N 3: Bruce Wayne still surprises. The whole revision of the Crime Alley scene came out of nowhere as I was writing it, I merged a lot of versions I know about of that bit of Batman lore. Also referenced some BtAS episodes such as I Am The Night, Bullet for Bullock, and Vendetta.

A/N 4: Gordon's part in this version of the Crime Alley flashback is similar to his part in Batman Begins as he tries to look after, to comfort a devastated young Bruce and as for Leslie, in BtAS she was a medical school friend of Dr. Thomas Wayne, and she is also one of few to know that Bruce is Batman. The idea while wholly original started with how she might have worked out that Bruce and Batman are the same man, a man she is falling in love, and at the time she can't reconcile why she has such similar feelings for apparently different men, until she figures it out and of course those photos shed some light on what drives Batman or at least part of what drives him in her mind.


	31. Ragnarok Ascension

S/N: Ragnarok - The Ending or the Beginning?

* * *

**Kent Farm - Smallville**

"Did it hold?" asks Dick..

"Yes it did, new problem though, word is going around that Ra's has seized the binary gun," answers Barbara.

"Damn, what we are going to do?" quips Tim.

"Bruce being Bruce or actually Batman already has a plan in motion," says Faraday.

"He was always two steps ahead of everyone except for maybe Ra's in this situation," remarks Waller.

"What's the plan?"

"We mass produced a Javelin line after the Lords abandoned using it, it is how we got to the Lunar Watchtower."

"So what are they going to be used for?"

"The Outsiders are going to use them to retake the Watchtower from the Society."

"What about the Ultimen?"

"I still have to get to the president before the other members of Cadmus elect to use them to attack the Outsiders as they move towards the rendezvous."

"Our timing is very bad, isn't it?" murmurs Tim.

"No Mr. Drake it is not, just we don't get very lucky or just make narrow escapes."

Faraday answers his communicator again, someone is reporting from the European branch of the organization.

* * *

**Location Unknown**

As he reads through the headlines and then sees the news while hovering on high, Kal learns that Smallville and other locations are under siege, no doubt something to do with Bruce or Diana or those idiots that follow them he thinks to himself. It was time to put an end to this charade finally of course he knew something else had happen to Bruce once he saw the ongoing battle at Atlantis at distance while observing it underwater. As he flies away from the area, he goes super sonic, which is naturally uncommon unless it is a plane, but of course, he reads as an unknown bogey so when a report surfaces on an unidentified sonic radar blip, something connects somewhere.

* * *

**en route to Kent Farm**

Meanwhile Agent Harper is heading for Smallville at Faraday's request though along the way he passes a familiar sight from his past, road way signs directing to highway that would lead to another road which would lead to Gotham, where his friend Dick had grown up as well as another sign that would point towards the iinterstate that passes roads leading to Metropolis where Kyle had worked for the _**Daily Planet**_.

Nobody saw much of Donna for years now, but he tried to forget about her, the job was his life right now. However hearing about his old friends from Faraday made it that much harder to not think about the old days. He cranks up the radio and keeps going passing the signs knowing he just might see them all again anyway whether he thought so or not.

* * *

**Gotham City**

Donna, Dinah, and Zatanna all collapse onto a bench before prying off their shoes.

"How does Diana do it in those high heeled boots?" quips Zatanna.

"They fit and she is well Wonder Woman," answers Dinah.

"We are conditioned for years to endure things worse than physical discomfort."

"Discomfort, you say that after kicking and fighting an army that size with little backup except for some of the best fighters in Gotham."

"You got that right Dinah," cracks Helena.

"Where is Vic?" questions Renee."

"He and the cell currently in Metropolis are mopping up the Ultimen there, but the rest of the Ultimen are being diverted elsewhere he says."

"Where to?"

"Wherever Batman is planning to launch the retake operation from."

"We never get breaks do we?"

"Never, never, but that's half the fun some of the time."

"So where are we off to now?"

"They might need back up in Smallville because there is an Ultimen force heading there to 'arrest' Kara."

"Right... well the staff could cut travel time in half if can move that many of us."

Zatanna after putting her heels back on stands in the middle holding the staff firmly. Helena steps in next, then Donna with her battle boots back on, after her is Dinah, and Renee wishes them luck before returning to the command post setup in this sector of Gotham. All she can think for a moment is heck of a time for an armageddon game. However she retains faith in the Outsiders and in her old friend Vic.

* * *

**Kent Farm**

"He is getting closer..." says Kara.

"You can't be serious..." continues Inara.

"I rarely kid and its him, you recognize the noise anywhere if you have super-hearing or just know what to listen for."

Kara flies up before anyone can stop her, so Inara follows, as does Kyle, then J'onn, Fate tells Inza to mind the Kents and the others in the house. However John is very reluctant to allow a very pregnant Shayera to fight considering what happen the last time she fought someone with Kryptonian powers as well as the fact that she is still carrying a child.

"Child or no, he endangers us all, so either let me, come with me, or stay with the others in the house."

"It is frustrating to be without a ring or at least something to fight back with."

"It would be too simple for Kal to kill you or the others because he is on a killing spree well sort of."

It is a tense moment between them, but then she continues speaking again.

"John, there are things we have to do, even if I am a very pregnant Thangarian hefting a Nth metal mace."

"You made your point, just be careful."

"When am I not?"

"I'm holding you to that."

* * *

The boom ends as Kal descends on the farm surrounded by the energy field generated by the Thanagarian shield network hidden underground. An opening is made for Kara to lead a team out to face her deranged cousin as she thinks of him, at least when she stomach thinking of him at any rate.

"I should have left you in that pod!" he says to her.

"Somehow I would almost agreed with that at one point, but you may not care about these people... however I do so you'll have to get through us."

"You aren't a match for me, together or alone."

"We'll see about that..."

"Sure, we will..."

Kara flies straight at him except he zips around her elbowing her in the back, which makes her cry out in pain before hitting the road and then he shoots up before trying to land on her except Inara zips through to get Kara as Kyle intercepts him on the way down though he bashes his way through Kyle's wall construct. He flies towards Kyle then headlocks him, which gives Shayera the opening to hit him with the mace hoping that he might still be vulnerable to magic except he grips the mace the instant she is within striking range. She concentrates on charging it and it does releasing a bolt straight at him. It sends him and Kyle flying away from the shield dome. As Kyle recovers he dodges a temporarily stunned Kal who then uses the opportunity to spin toss Rayner. Fate starts blasting away at Kal next though it is just as effective as usual before the former hero instead pummels Fate's helmet causing him to drop so Kara goes in for the catch then passes him off to Inara just as Kal's clenched fist connects with her stomach.

"You'll die if you stay here," he says to her.

"Better than letting you kill your family first!"

"They aren't my family anymore, this whole life here was a lie!"

"Clark Kent was never a lie!"

"Clark Kent is dead!"

"Of course he is, you killed him."

He throws her down the road, it smashes the whole way down, and then Shayera and Inza step up with Fate and Kyle out of the scene for now. Shayera goes by air and Inza by ground using what little undergrowth she can to affect his mobility. He rips through all her attempts to bind him with overgrown nearby cornstalks. Shayera keeps smashing him with the mace, but he is relentless in a bad way. He throws Inza who is barely cut by a still winded Fate and as for Shayera, she lands hard on her side, and John runs out to her with nothing, but his limbs for weapons. There is a strange glow next to him at that moment as four women appear though battle worn, they are ready to defend, but of course the carnage so far is somewhat disheartening until Donna resolves to lead the new charge that is until three other women emerge from the farmhouse.

The three walk towards Kal who is still pumped for fighting yet as he notices who nears his arms drop for the moment, they would pay for sending these three to deal with him. They would, but for one of these three, this is the hardest thing she has ever had to do in her life.

_"What happen to my little boy? to my the boy who always made me smile? to my son who always excelled at any challenge to his mind? to the man that made me proud to say my son the reporter? to the man that was Superman? you tell me, what did you do to him?" _

His expression lessens in intensity.

_"What happen to the guy that had a crush on me from the first time we met in kindergarten? To the guy who ripped his way into a RV to save a family? To the guy who warned me about dating powerful men? to the man who I still love even though he was in love with someone else?"_

His head tilts downward just a little.

_"What happen to the city desk guy I tried to lose on his first day? What about the one who kept saving me when I didn't think I needed saving? What of the one who won awards that I used to pride myself on winning until he started surprising me left and right with how he could write? What of the heart under the costume, the one that made me fall in love with two different guises who turned out to be the same man?"_

He exhales then looks up with a glare that seem to answer yet not answer their demanding questions. His arms rise, his hands open, and then he slaps them together making a super clap that ripples through the air. Lois flies backwards as does Lana yet Martha at the epicenter of it is thrown much further and the air streams with tears as she goes as she is flung she gasps 'you'll always be my little boy.' As he shoots skyward, something inside breaks knowing that he just flew away from another reconciliation attempt. They are not part of my life anymore he mentally insists, but of course the denial wears thin, he feels unforgivable even when they would forgive him, the problem is he can't forgive himself or at least part of him suspects that to be true. The other part that had been driving him to this point won't let up, so convinced that ending everything is the solution. It would end starting with Bruce, so he had to find him, only one would walk away, that was the way with two combatants, the only way.

* * *

Meanwhile Lois is caught by Inza, Lana is in the arms of Fate, and Martha had somehow been caught by a limping Shayera.

"Oh dear, are you alright?" mumbles Martha.

"I'm okay, the baby is fine, just a rough landing is all."

"You best be careful, you'll worry that husband of yours half to death, then after that the kid will do the same, all these kinds of things come with the territory of motherhood, you'll learn it on your own way."

"I'm sorry about Clark."

"Nothing to be sorry about, I'm just an old woman now, I made the offer, it is up to him now, but at least I faced him, at least they faced him. It would probably killed Jonathan to try to come out here. It hurts him too."

"Awful lot of that going around."

"Awful lot of little wonders too like that little Cass and the bundle in your belly."

"Yeah, so we have had quite a day, I think a meal is in order."

"Mmhmm can't disagree with that."

The two mothers just walk a little slower back to the farmhouse as the others are flopping down from all the excitement.

Barbara goes out to Kara while Dick finds himself face to face with Donna.

* * *

"I was surprised to see you again."

"As am I, but its been a lifetime since then."

"Right well that was a long time ago, the Titans were disbanded, and I went on to become..."

"I did not expect you to stay the Boy Wonder forever."

"No I became Nightwing."

"What happen to the others?"

"I lost track of Roy after he and Oliver went separate ways, he even declined joining the Outsiders of course it was Oliver that approached him."

"What of the rest then?"

"Like I said lost track."

"Well we are going to need everyone and I mean everyone if we are to stop this Ra's Al-Ghul."

However it was time to take in a meal.

"No sense going out to save the world on an empty stomach," insists Jonathan Kent.

This actually makes Martha smile as she follows him into the kitchen with Alfred.

* * *

After the early dinner a car stops outside the barrier shield that Kyle incidentally hit after being flung by Kal.

"Now this is too coincidental that you and Donna are here... plus Kyle," says a voice.

"Roy Harper... it has been a long time as I was saying to..."

"Yes, it has, but I have to report to King now."

"What?"

"I work with Agent King Faraday now, I'm not a costume anymore."

She gives him a look, which he politely dismisses before going to King.

"He's different alright."

"Costumes became _persona non grata _in the last few years especially with the Justice Lords."

"We had closed our borders, a lot of the civilizations that coexisted in secrecy with the the rest of this world just waited for signs that things were improving, but it seems in a matter of a few years especially these recent months that people have gone insane."

"Not all of us Donna."

"I know, its just I thought we all did some kind of good before, but now its like they would kill us all."

Barbara is busy with Cassandra, but she calls out to Dick. He heads into the baby room where she is nursing Cass with a bottle, she would be able to walk, talk, and the real challenge kicks in, being parents to a child in a world changed by what her parents used to do for a living though is that much different than those without costumes. If one seriously thought about it everyone was in a costume of a kind at some point in their lives, but most when thinking of costumes think Halloween, comic books, crime fighters, heroes, heroines, vigilantes, criminals, and villains who don't usually see themselves as villains. Donna can hear Barbara making strange sounds so she follows the noise until she knocks at the baby rooom door.

"Come in, company would be nice."

"So who this delightful little one?"

"Our daughter Cassandra."

"Well you have been busy Grayson."

"You look like Diana, well almost, but you must be..."

"Donna Troy, used to go by silly heroine names too."

"I was or still am sort of Batgirl."

"Why upgrade to Batwoman?"

"Someone else beat me too, sort of."

"Right, those three women who each had separate beefs with Penguin, Thorne, and Duquense."

"One worked for Bruce, one was a cop that sort of seemed as if she was somewhat attracted to Batman, and the third was Duquesne's daughter who Bruce had a brief romance with, much to my annoyance at the time, I got over it, decided to move, ended up following Dick to Bludhaven. I am a cop, guess it runs in the family now and Dick is a District Attorney, provided we don't get civic skewers for going back to costumes when this is over."

"May I hold her?"

"Sure, you know how to do it?"

"I think I can manage."

A beautiful child, something worth saving this world for, it would be almost tragic to have her grow in a world where her parents among others are hunted for trying to uphold what they believe and protect what matters most to them.

* * *

Waller learns that the Ultimen as well as the Templars are being sent to intercept what is believed to be the Outsiders attempt to flee 'justice' for their attacks worldwide, and so she contacts Faraday who is acting as liaison in Smallville.

* * *

"So now we are getting hammered for something that Cadmus and the Society did?"

"To them we are the villain or the virus, take your pick."

"I say neither, we have to get to Batman's location and fast."

"This staff is sure getting a workout to say the least."

Dick and Barbara suit up to join the others gathering around the staff in the yard. Zatanna transports the first group of J'onn, Shayera, John, and Tim then teleports back to get Dinah, Helena, Barbara, and Inara. Dick is left standing there with Roy, Faraday, and Waller.

"So why are you two together in the same organization?"

"It was an opportunity to contribute without the costume just like you become D.A. in Bludhaven or that wife of yours as a cop."

"You realize Donna was asking me if I knew what happen to the others?"

"She was curious," adds Kyle.

"I heard that," remarks Donna.

"So you miss being with the Titans," questions Roy.

"It was a different time, a different world, when it was still fun to look to fights instead of almost pacing here waiting for the moment to come where we will be fighting for our very livelihood."

"End of the world kind of stuff does that."

Donna, Dick, Faraday, and Waller move into the effect radius of the staff teleport.

The Kents, Alfred, and Cassandra would stay behind of course.

"You sure you aren't coming Roy?"

"I gave this up years ago."

"What if I ordered you Agent Harper?"

"I would almost do it for that..."

Zatanna teleports them before Donna can ask what he would do it for, but of course, the answer would have to wait if he ever chose to share it.

"Well I'll be gong next, guess you can go back to doing whatever you were doing, thanks for the ride too."

"Sure thing Rayner."

"Man between you and me, I think you should come with us."

Zatanna reappears again then wraps her arm around both of them before Roy can pull away.

* * *

**Sanctuary Base, Antarctica**

They materialize inside the Antarctic base where the Javelins are nearly ready to take them up.

As Roy looks down below, he spots Dick in his Nightwing getup talking to Victor, Gar, and of course the white cloak sorceress herself Raven.

"How overjoyed am I to see you Roy!"

His brows arch as he finds himself getting a hug from Koriand'r.

"How are the former Titans here?"

"We were recruited by the one called Black Canary."

"Dinah Lance, you were brought in by her?"

"Yes, that's her name too, I always thought it confusing when some heroes used such names, but of course I am also called Starfire."

"You know Dick is married."

"Yes I met his wife, they were romantically involved for years, sure I had feelings for him, but we were both young then too."

"It was pretty serious, but I guess a lot happen then to all of us."

"I'm happy now so please don't talk about this."

"I'm sorry."

"We have a mission, a big one, so if you are going along then you are coming, if not, you can wait it out."

Starfire hovers down to join the other former Titans and Roy is left there feeling pretty dumb about talking about what qualifies as ancient history in relationship dynamics.

"Don't sweat it, she's just a little off balance after not seeing this many of us together in years, the same off balance thing is leaving a lot of us fumbling, but we'll pull together somehow."

"Right, well, I got rid of the costume awhile ago."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that."

"Faraday what are you on about?"

"Let's just say Wayne isn't the only one who prepares in advance."

Roy gives him a fish hook look before following his organization mentor.

As for Kyle, he finds himself facing Donna or rather accidentally looking at Donna's chest first.

"Hello Kyle," she says softly.

"Hey Donna," he answers.

"It's been a long time."

"Almost five or six of your years."

"Stewart was the Lantern in this sector for awhile when I went to Oa for advance training."

"Looks like your Earth's Lantern now."

"Looks like it."

"Strange way to see you all again, but at least now I know what happen to the others aside from Roy stepping out."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that if Faraday's hinting before was some sort of a flip to get Roy back in costume."

"We'll see won't we...I miss being on a team some times, but Themyscira proves to be enough of a challenge too."

* * *

The Javelins are loading up with costumed passengers.

Batman is piloting a vehicle that looks like a cross between the Batmobile and the Batwing, which he calls the Bat-cruiser and his co-pilot is Diana no less. The space flight capable Bat-cruiser is likewise only built for two, no shock with that one either.

Kyle and Donna float down to join the former Titans who are boarding one of the Javelins. As the launch doors start opening, the first wave of Javelins depart and race skywards however on the way up, someone intercepts Batman and Wonder Woman, its Kal so is he dragging the vehicle in another direction. This is not good as some are starting to think until Batman makes the call to shift leadership of the mission to Vic and Oliver who have only recently been able to settle Metropolis from the Ultimen incursion there as it was lead there by Volcana. Vic took her out using flame suppressors, which annoyed her to no end until she is taken away by Metropolis' SCU.

Vic, Helena, Oliver, Dinah, Inara, Kyle, and Donna board another Javelin that will take Batman's spot in the formation.

***

It seems strange that he had not just torn them from the cockpit or worse blown the vehicle up with the two of them inside of it. He instead literally drags the Bat-cruiser clear away from Antarctica. Galatea spots the flame of the heating up hull as he is moving at near sonic speeds. She leads the Ultimen and the Templar to the Antarctic base except most of the Javelins are away she directs them to pursue except as she is about to suggest something to the Templar, Waller appears carrying a kryptonite rifle.

"Directive override, new targets Ultimen and Galatea."

"That won't work, they don't answer to you anymore."

"Maybe, but we will see won't we?"

Each of the five engages the ranks of the Ultimen thus blocking their efforts to follow the Javelins.

"You are finished Waller!"

Shayera joins the fight against the Ultimen as does J'onn, John, and once again back in costume Tim Drake.

"Welcome to your last stand cause the heroes are back!"

As cheesy as it sounds, Tim needs a laugh now and again.

The dark haired girl from the Templar Initiative glares at Galatea who feels like the room is transfiguring around her after being stunned by the kryptonite blast.

* * *

**Lunar Tower, the Moon**

"Prepare the next series of the targets, we have given them enough time for their goodbyes," comments Ra's.

"Yes Master, prepare to fire."

"Inbound craft Master."

"What?"

"Cadmus data archives indicate they are advanced Javelins as do the Outsiders database."

"Never mind that change targets, destroy those Javelins!"

"Firing, they are dodging, we will have to wait to fire again."

"All personnel standby to repel intruders!" shouts Ubu.

_"It seems I underestimated you again Detective, but this is not over yet."_

* * *

A/N 1: Ragnarok from Norse mythology involves an epic battle, gods dying, natural disasters, and the sinking of the world (recent events in the story are quite mythological in proportion), but the heroes still have more challenges to overcome, first on Earth and later in space.

A/N 2: Kal's self-destructive streak is given pause by the verbal intervention made by Martha 'Ma' Kent, Lois Lane, and Lana Lang. He leaves them alive, but turns his attention towards Batman and Wonder Woman again. Implied that Kal has a death wish.

A/N 3: Nostalgia for the old days settles in, but even so former Lords and former Titans are in this together and nobody can afford to stay on the side lines, not even Roy Harper.

A/N 4: Templars switch sides with the exception of the dark haired girl who has her own motivations for allying herself with the Outsiders.


	32. Infinite Ring

**Fortress of Solitude, the Arctic**

The Bat-cruiser smashes through into the icy surface above what was once the Fortress of Solitude after its passengers blacked out from sonic speeds used by Kal to bring them here from the Antarctic yet in his absence the place has become a dead zone. Nothing is alive there anymore since he left it to its own devices not long after the Lords took charge following his killing Luthor. Diana awakens first dragging Bruce along after the crash. It is not just physically cold here, but emotionally too, she remembered visiting here years ago when invited by Kal, but of course that was before Wally's death. Bruce had also been there then too, which made it all the sadder as the three of them no longer had that bond they kept as the triumvirate icons of heroes throughout the world.

_The Trinity is broken though is it beyond mending?_

They once inspired people, the same who come to fear and distrust them, of course some of it was deserved, but somehow a singular fail is enough to shatter a history of success. It is the hypocrisy that belongs to any age, but especially this one as there is a notion that fallen heroes never truly regain the people's trust. There were certain things that would always be so such as distrust though not from all or kept by all.

_However what people does this refer to now?_

The populace, the politicians, the paranoids, and so labels fail too. There is absence of unity in actions, beliefs, decisions, motives, in all that characterizes the human race, but this does not mean they are meant for destruction, that there is an inevitability of an ending. As he leans on her shoulder, they are further inside in what was the Hall of Weapons, but obviously in disrepair and disuse that the arsenal of weapons no longer functions. He sits down and reluctantly considers using the blue kryptonite node on Kal.

"I can't kill him. As much as he might deserve it or should get it, I can't, and killing is not in me."

"Then let me do it…"

"No, no more deaths dealt out by any of us."

"You'll just let him beat on us again. You fought back the last few times or found ways around it."

"I will not compromise, I might bend, but I refuse to break, you know well why not."

"Yes I do, but I will not let him harm you."

"I know."

* * *

Kal smashes through several walls of ice to reach their location.

"You first Bruce, and then Diana!" he shouts at them.

"Why me I ask again?" quips Bruce.

"You know well why you first!"

"Right blame me for the League Superman duping you and Luthor de-powering you!"

"It is more than that; you betrayed the promise, the cause, and us your ex-teammates."

"No, I did not, I did what I thought was right then and still even now."

"Either you are going to kill me with whatever you got or I'll kill you for doing nothing."

"You want it to end, end it yourself, because we have more important things to do now."

Kal races at them yet stumbles as Bruce pulls out the sliver of blue Kryptonite.

"It is not anti-Kryptonite is it?" he asks weakly.

"No it is not."

"So kill me already! I dare you!"

"No, you want everyone to suffer like you do, you see I used to think pain was the only thing that kept me alive when I almost died countless nights in years past, but something else kept me alive, something you have forgotten."

"What's that?"

"What being human means."

"I am not human!"

"Being human is not relative to a species, it is a condition of being, of feeling…"

"Just finish this already!"

"You do have a death wish, don't you?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means you want someone to kill you because you feel unforgivable."

He charges at Bruce even though his strength his slipping and so he noticeably starts to bleed then stop attacking again. Bruce turns to follow Diana out of the room as Kal sits there alone in the coldness of the monument, of the library, of the testament to a species that may no longer grace the universe with their legacy. As their legacy is far from what he used to be yet less than what he could be just the same. Bruce gets the Bat cruiser ready as Diana takes a parting look at the decayed Fortress then follows Bruce into the cruiser. It was time to go, to end this deadly waltz with Ra's Al-Ghul's Final Overture. As for Kal, he will follow to the end too so he gives chase, but not to end them anymore, just simply to end this looping psychology in his mind.

* * *

**Sanctuary Base, Antarctica**

The dark haired Templar then turns away after mentally knocking out Galatea and with a twirl of icy winds she is gone, just as Waller had been expecting though the girl had more than earned that right. As for the others they are up to their necks with Ultimen, but they hold just the same. She turns her attention to the exhaust trails leading skyward, they were all off to the battle ground, and she could safely say for once she had done the right thing, not the supposedly smart thing.

* * *

**Lunar Tower, the Moon**

The Outsiders begin the assault and of course the Society resists with all their numbers on hand. They start beaming in more to compensate, but the Outsiders in full force are an army to be reckoned with when truly determined except Ra's wonders why Bruce has yet to make an appearance though even he knows that some fights are more stealth and guile than anything else. The other thoughts are about Talia and his grandchild, but that would have to wait, he could not afford personal distractions. At present the lead front is being taken up by the Question and the Huntress as Black Canary, Green Arrow, Nightwing, and Batgirl cover them.

A strange surprise is seeing so many costumes here because for the longest time he had trouble discerning their full number, but now here, he sees they were far greater than even he knew at the present. Surprises abound with someone like Bruce Wayne in the mix and so he recalls their first battle many years ago when Ra's tried to drive the city's populace insane using a more lethal version of Crane's fear toxins. The first of many plots Bruce Wayne would foil, but of course Bruce had proven to be the latest in the long of individuals who kept getting in his way except this would be the last time, it would be so as he felt certain despite this so-called Outsiders army.

Ra's remembers back to the night he first had to deal with Bruce as Batman and before that too.

* * *

_Gotham City at its peak is the magnet to all those aspiring to begin a better life in America, but of course most of the tall tales are false. The roads are not made of gold, the streets are not welcoming, the buildings are sponges of untold suffering and miseries, and this is only just the beginning of it. However this is not the side of Gotham everyone sees or believes unchangeable, but the principal function of the Society is to bring about a systematic collapse to start over because that is the way in accordance with the Society. However there are some who do not share this view. It was clear that Bruce Wayne would be liable to disagree, but he had taken in many steps further than just words at the end of his time studying under Ra's except at that point Bruce had known him as Drakon Renault._

_Wayne had undergone the training to become a member of the Society. However on the day of his final test, he would not be the judge, the jury, and the executioner. He had been released from his aimless wanderings that gotten him thrown in prison for a theft that did not succeed even with him as active part of the plot. He had seen Wayne's crude fighting style as an amalgam of every teacher besides Ra's himself could teach such a driven and tormented young man. The boy was troubled, the youth was eager, but the man still carried the fear of both within him. He would teach him to face that fear and learn to accept the unacceptable that somehow he was not as responsible for his parents' demise as he had believed all those years. _

_At every turn, every test, if Bruce did not succeed from the outset, he would the second time, the pattern of resilience seem to defy every effort to deter or trick him, but of course he knows this about Bruce, anticipates yet nothing ever quite prepares for Bruce's work around. It would be that methodology that had given Wayne the opening to 'spare' a murderer to a trial, but of course he as Drakon would remind Wayne of how his parents' killer had been able to lick the system. He however insists that the man regardless of his crimes is to be held accountable by the people, not by some sole arbiter. It is that instant that everything went truly wrong as he incorrectly interpreted Bruce to be a willing protégé. This is the last error on his part, but by no means the last mistake as he would repeatedly insist to Bruce to take over the Society in the event that he passes away._

_However this is where the declining effectiveness of the Pits begins as well, he had simply been using them for far too long and now he would have to figure out how to deal with it. It is the coming years that he begins engineering a method to transfer his consciousness to other bodies while pursuing a smoother method that would enable to hijack Bruce's body if that becomes necessary to use Wayne and his fortune to sustain the Society. The method proves to be tricky as replicating the process too many times eventually shows that is growing increasingly unstable to keep shifting neural patterns as they could degrade over had to find a way to remain in one body again otherwise the Society would end with his death leaving the task of restoring the balance undone forever. _

[+++]

_He would confront Bruce for the first time as he recalls in the newest body at Wayne Manor following a party held to honor his late parents, but of course, he feigns illness to get them to leave as he must see the old family doctor before deciding what to do next. The crowd is vaguely sympathetic yet both men know it is all an act meant on Bruce's part to delay the guests' deaths._

"_Quite a show you have given them, make them believe in this well meaning yet ever so slightly inept Mr. Bruce Wayne."_

"_What are you doing here? I saw you to safety after the destruction of the Ra's Al-Ghul's house of operations."_

"_You mean the destruction of my operations, you see, I am Ra's Al-Ghul, but I have gone by many names including the one I used when I first found you in that prison."_

"_I have been using other faces in the past too, so I no longer wear my real original face anymore."_

"_Facial surgery was not begun even its crudest form until after the First Continent War."_

"_I had kept my original appearance up until a matter of months after you went back home."_

"_So what did this new look is come from what exactly?"_

"_No one body seems to last forever even if you believe yourself immortal."_

"_This means the Pits are ceasing to regenerate you."_

"_Right on target, but things are best not left undone so I must be going to finish."_

"_You know I can't let you finish whatever the plan you have in motion."_

"_That is only so if you believe I'm the one endangering the world not everyone else."_

"_This city, this world still has people that can make it worth saving, resetting, restarting is not the way."_

"_You still have such young ways of looking at things despite how much has happen to you, but I did warn you about such things and that enemies would not share it though at one point I could hardly imagine you as an enemy yet if that is to be, so then it is."_

"_You make it sound like destiny or fate for us to be on opposite sides."_

"_Hardly, but goodbye Wayne, it could have been different."_

_Something strikes Bruce Wayne in the head, but of course his butler was nowhere to be seen at the time of the intrusion yet it is that older man to save Wayne from the flames so he would be able to go after Ra's to save the city. The train speeds along triggering the toxin as it went and the people did start turning on each other like as one expects under the effects of fear toxins. Batman descends onto the train roof and fights his way through the men guarding Ra's and the device on the train. In ones, twos, and sometimes even three sections quite responding to status update calls until it is only Ra's and two others with him._

[+++]_  
_

"_You and you keep an eye out for him."_

_Both are thrown into the next car before Batman cuts it off from this engine section car that also houses the device triggering the toxins._

"_You fail to grasp, fail to realize that nothing stops the plan."_

"_Keep telling yourself that when this thing skids to a stop or lets loose from the track."_

_The engine section goes with the tracks after the pillar supports were shot out. As it plunges to street level, Ra's just stands there expecting the crash and the explosion even as Batman had been reluctant to grapple away. This would not be the end, just another setback for Ra's Al-Ghul, but if the test of the toxins was a 'success' then the Society would have gone global with it, but it was not so in the intervening years he would track Wayne's 'crusade' to save Gotham. _

_It seem to go surprisingly well at least until an identified himself as the Joker began operating in Gotham and for the first time Wayne would learn the price of underestimating someone. The whole mess left him or rather Batman hounded for a long while simply because he refused to allow Joker to ruin the reputation of the recently split in former Gotham D.A. Harvey Dent._

_Dent as anyone well knows by now became Two-Face, another addition to Batman's growing list of enemies and super villains. The realization that occurs to Ra's is that Gotham's more infamous criminals were people that Wayne knew or Batman incidentally had dealt with before whatever brought them into the criminal fraternity. Bruce and Batman kept trying to help them believing that they did not intend to remain criminals, but most proved to be consistent in that being a criminal was the way many of them were stuck being for whatever cause or reason._

_However one thing surely in common between him and them is the psychology that formulates their behavior and personality because like him nearly none of them possess powers to give them any kind of supernatural edge. This is the only difference between myself and your other Rogues detective, but maybe you would disagree, I'm sure you would he thinks after leaving Gotham that night though he would back. Each time the detective would find a way to stop him or even somehow find a way for Talia to throw 'a wrench' into the latest plot.

* * *

_

**Habitat Levels, Lunar Tower, the Moon**

The overflow and the bombs are taking their toll on the surface below, but for now the damage is self-contained. Inara zipping about the room is knocking over Society operatives left and right before stopping for a breather and sample Cadmus commissary food.

"Not bad, but our food was always better," sighs Inara

She zips off again.

* * *

Kyle, Roy, Donna, and Gar go on the attack once inside while Kory, Raven, and Victor help flank the way to the control room. As for Dick and Barbara they cover Steel, the Atom, and Captain Atom on the way to the power cores, but of course there is fierce resistance.

Another two blips appear on the tracking sensors, one definitely belongs to Batman's new ship, but the other is unknown at least until visual confirmation shows its Kal. Ra's is curious why the Kryptonian has not culminated his desire to kill his former friends, but of course his mind was already in bad shape to begin with so Bruce was likely to use that as an advantage. He orders the gunners to fire at the next targets and they do even as the battle continues around them up here.

Elsewhere in the base Vic elbows and fists multiple Society operatives while Helena just rapidly deals blows without much consideration as to what she is hitting though from their groans it might almost seem obvious that she was rougher than usual on the anatomy. Oliver is going rapid fire with the new crossbow yet at that moment he is almost struck by a trio coming after him except they tied up by a double arrow fired by Roy.

"Ex-sidekick?" jests Oliver.

"Ex-partner!" jokes Roy.

They both however are about to owe Dinah as she gets the drop on two guys about to jump them from above.

"Where did you find her?" says Roy.

"Put it this way, she can fight and well I love her."

"You better believe it Ollie!"

"I do Pretty Bird."

"You call her Pretty Bird? Right Black Canary," continues Roy.

"You would be Speedy I presume?" says Dinah.

"Correct well time to go."

The three of them meet back up with the recently ambushed Victor and Gar who had been trying to keep up with Kory and Raven who went ahead to clear the path to the control room from this direction. The other pathways are being mopped up by Vic, Helena, Vigilante, Dick, and Barbara. Everyone keeps pressing ahead, but there are enough Society operatives to slow their advance. The fighting is widespread as some are just holding the lines while others are shifting them yet there is a rallying point once the Outsiders start seeing Batman and Wonder Woman punch their way through.

* * *

**Sanctuary Base, Antarctica**

The body count is high, but the Templars have held the ground. The Ultimen might have had numbers on their side, but it takes more than that to win a battle, super powers or not. As for Shayera, she slumps into John's arms and so he with J'onn's help gets her to the medical infirmary just to check her over. The fighting was intense for all of them, but she had several near misses with those attacking her. She is alright though J'onn advises that she stays in bed for the time being so John stays with her there.

Kara reports in over the comlink from Smallville after hearing from those left to keep tabs on Metropolis and Gotham. The disasters are being held against for the moment and fortunately with a little help from Summer Gleason there's been a retraction made against previous accusations against the Outsiders. It is a small relief, but right now there is still the bigger picture with that binary gun.

* * *

**Lunar Tower, the Moon**

Ubu is taken down by Batman who had already gotten through Ubu's handpicked guard detail for his master. As he nears Ra's, the current body appears to be wasting away like the others, but then he tries grab Batman, to drain him for his life force yet Batman deflects his paltry attempts so Ra's elbows the detective hard. He tumbles backwards before Ra's goes to one of the control operators and drains him.

It is not a pleasant sight to say the least and then he brings up the next firing pattern before executing the firing command. The plan was to disable the fusion power systems to stop the gun except it was taking longer than Batman thought it should so he tries to contact Steel. There is no answer so of course staying up here means risking Ra's draining him so he heads back the other way and while in motion orders a shift from the control room to the power cores. It is too deadly to engage Ra's in hand to hand with what he just saw him do to that his follower.

Meanwhile Kal tosses both Outsider and Society without much care to what he was doing, but knowing what was up here drove him to come here. He stood above the chamber leading to the binary fusion cores and below several knocked down Outsiders are being dragged away by unhurt Outsiders. The Society operators are down, but members of the Bat clan get them out of there. He can hear them debating how to shut it down yet he grips the power conduit that relays the charge to the gun so as it about to unload into the gun so instead of it going there, it goes into him before the cores themselves appear to shut down. He heads for the control room where Ra's cannot seem to work out why the gun did not fire this time until he sees Kal.

"Who stopped the energy flow?" demands Ra's.

"I did," he answers.

"Where did it go?"

"It is in me."

Ra's grabs Kal and then Kal grabs him before almost going sonic to drag the old man back to the blast area.

"What are you doing?"

"I am ending."

"You really are insane."

"Perhaps, but saving by destroying is not the way."

"You dare…"

Ra's head gets hit by a random chunk of metal.

"Watch where you are flying!" he shouts again.

"Not like it is going to matter now."

"What does that?"

He is holding Ra's above the binary fusion cores now.

"You really do have a death wish don't you?"

"Yes I do… but you are too dangerous to leave alive."

"We had a deal, I brought you back to settle your personal vendetta."

"I was wrong, I have been wrong before, and I don't think I'll ever be right again."

Batman enters to see Kal holding Ra's by the collar.

"What are you doing?" asks Bruce in the Batman voice.

"Stopping him forever," answers Kal.

"You'll just be repeating what started us down this road."

"I'm at the end of mine, there is nowhere else, no one else to fail, my time is over, but I'm taking him with me."

"I'm afraid his death is not up to you."

The Blue Kryptonite does its work once embedded in Kal's side and as he drops Kara who had been beamed up in the past couple minutes reluctantly catches her deranged cousin and as for Ra's he is hanging onto the cross beams of the platform that houses the binary fusion cores. Ra's gasps before he laughs in an almost maniacal tone at Batman, at Bruce before he responds at all.

"You still won't let anyone kill, one day plenty are not going to be that lenient, one day someone will succeed at killing you because you let this world continue when I could just restart it from the beginning."

"Nobody is going to kill you, you either manage to pull yourself out of this one or plunge to your death from there. I'm not helping you. I'm just letting you work your way out or not."

His strength is fading, his age is showing, and it is then that he slips.

"You'll regret this latest insult Detective."

"Maybe, but I'm tired of you and your ending the world plans…"

"There is one thing however that you are forgetting…"

"You didn't…."

"Oh, but I did…."

Kal slams Kara into the bulkhead then starts gripping his skull. The last of host of Ra's dies, but his sense of manipulation was enough to finish driving Kal in the direction that former Superman had already been heading toward before getting back to this reality. He rushes at Bruce and grabs him by the neck. Diana upon hearing a scuffle not far ahead in the cores spots Kal dangling Bruce over the edge.

"Hera NO!" yells Diana.

"Don't worry Diana because you'll be with him in the afterlife soon!"

"They used to say I was insane, well you're worse than the Joker."

"Sure and you belong in a straitjacket, Detective."

"Hold the phone you never called me that before."

"I was able to suppress the other parts of his personality after too many sessions in that tank."

"You invaded his mind?"

"He was already quite full of negative emotions for all the former Lords, but especially you, I just used it the same way I used Cadmus."

"People as tools, as ways to ensure your everlasting designs that always fail!"

In every opening to the chamber stands a pack of Outsiders or their allies up here.

"I really suggest those of you are not willing to deal with me in this state to leave."

No one moves…

"These cores are going to overload if someone does not fire off the energy buildup."

"You realize you share his weaknesses in that body."

"Right well that's what you think."

Kal's head jerks before Kal tries to speak again after throwing Bruce towards Diana

Inside his skull howls Ra's voice, _**you dare not do that!**_

He only answers _**I certainly do dare**_.

"Everyone clear out now!"

The blast envelopes the chamber in a blinding light and then the binary gun falls silent as the discharge within the cores themselves knocks everything down to emergency power.

* * *

Bruce and Diana enter the ruined power cores to see Kal's body lying there unmoving, but the expression on his face more benign and saddened rather malevolent and tormented then there is a gasp as he raggedly exhales just a little.

"Tell them I'm sorry…"

"You can tell them yourself…"

"Somehow dying doesn't seem so bad now…"

"You aren't going to die…"

"I think you are wrong…"

"Why?"

"If you had not already noticed, Ra's had the last laugh after all."

"This base is about blow itself up courtesy of the Society rigging the backup power generators to destroy this place."

"All teams back to the Javelins immediately."

Some might find this particular twist unbelievable, but often the most unbelievable things transpire at the most darkest of times, and so two drag one away from the wreckage that one is content to die in so that from here the Trinity might be reborn.

"Somebody help me carry him."

"There is no time, you can't save everyone Bruce."

"Just shut up already, I'm tired of your fatalistic spews."

As the three of them move towards one of the last remaining Javelins, the weakened Kal is passed off to Kara and Donna. It was only later that they learned that the tank's radiation had a side component that reacts badly to binary fusion discharges, but it took time to work its way through his body. The world wouldn't forget what almost happen that day, the day that would be in retrospect called the **Near Apocalypse of 09**.

* * *

**Kent Farm, Smallville, Kansas**

As for Kal, he will probably spend the rest of his life trying to get reacquainted with just being Clark if that was still possible. The physiological damage from the radiation only meant that he would no longer be able to use his powers to perceived maximum levels. However this gradually ceases to bother him, he felt terrible about his behavior, once he had begun to accept that no matter how powerful he was, he still made mistakes, people died, and he could not prevent it. It would take a long time to come to terms with what happen in the past several years, but even when the Outsiders reformed into the Watchers not long after Near 09, he was content to stay on the side lines.

The buck had been passed off to those who had proven they could shoulder the weight because he knew it was time to step aside. His Earth parents were not likely to be around much longer so even there he is met with the fact that people die, but at least he could be with them again. Most of his loved ones were eager to forgive, which surprised a lot of people, but they didn't matter much. Of course the government in some areas wanted to execute him though what good is it to kill a man that already was intent on dying for his own behavior.

Even the best of us falls down some times, commits unthinkable acts, and so the world has to live with the consequences, is that any different than any other time, maybe held higher because one saw him and others like him as the best of Earth's heroes until a stumble or a fail. Waller ultimately decides in agreement with the former Outsiders to recast Kal as having died in that final battle fighting Ra's Al-Ghul. From a certain perspective many could see the point of it because he wasn't anyone he was before except for maybe being Clark again and for most that was fine.

All was not forgotten, but perhaps they had to shove forgiveness into him regardless of whether he wants or deserves it.

The world hobbles along for a time after this yet the important things were almost best left unsaid whether you went to being a farmer with a woman who went onto a become a novelist like Lois Lane or you were a teacher who was on his way home to propose to his great love.

"Somehow I actually love living on a farm now, but maybe it is my love for you my handsome farmer," whispers Lois.

Martha comes out to join her on the porch with Lana and Kara. Lana answers the phone and passes it over to Lois, its Lois' doctor here in Smallville. She had moved here on a permanent basis after telling Perry she would prefer to become a novelist now, she had enough of newspapers for awhile.

"What?!?" gasps Lois.

"What is it honey?" asks Martha.

"I am…"

"You're kidding!"

All three of them hug her after she finishes the call and he looks over in their direction with a slight smile.

* * *

**Wayne Manor, Gotham City**

Diana inhales the air above the cove as a certain someone sits down beside her.

"There's something I have been meaning to ask you for awhile, but I think now's the time."

"What is that?"

The little blue black box is all the indication she needs before he can even open it as she snatches it out of his hand and opens it herself. She pins him on the rocks after putting it on and whispers to him that her answer is yes though of course she is too busy kissing him for him to respond after her answer.

* * *

**London, England**

Roy tenders his resignation from the organization because he says he is unsure what he wants to do now after having been up there with all his former comrades in the fight to save world from a literal endgame. Donna unexpectedly meets him on the way back to his tenement and she looks too lovely to ignore so he wonders how she became so attractive to him.

**Metropolis**

As for Kyle he is taking over as Earth's Lantern in accordance with the Guardians' decision while John is busy with Shayera in her last month of pregnancy with help from Virgil among others. In the two months since the averted endgame, the world had been a different place mostly due to a great many reporters of the Outsiders, now the Watchers in the efforts to stop it. However as one can expect not everyone is accepting this as usual, but for the moment public opinion is against the shadowy and scattered opposition.

**Bludhaven**

Cassandra is celebrating her first day of walking on a beautiful afternoon swinging from the arms of her parents who were able to return to their jobs with the thanks of Bludhaven, Gotham, and more. As for Tim, he is spending the day with them and unofficially he has been made Cassandra's uncle. Alfred is enjoying the afternoon with some tea after noticing Bruce approach Diana with a palm sized box in his hand.

* * *

In many other places, the people behind the costumes are on the move, but not for missions right now. Kory, Victor, Gar, and Raven are making a day trip to Tokyo for the first time in years. Helena and Vic go on a road trip alone. Oliver and Dinah go traveling alone together as well. It was not a goodbye, not a departure, but it was a time to travel, to do new things, be in the company of those that matter instead of being brought together by things like the end of the world.

* * *

Lastly a dark haired girl carrying a raggedy doll in her arms settles down into a swing and begins rocking it with her mind. She misses them every day, sometimes she feels guilty about their deaths, sometimes she regrets what she's done since then, and other times she is glad to be away from all that now. It is a time to just be whatever felt natural to the moment and all look to where the land meets the sky that could be called the infinite ring because it spans the world.

* * *

A/N 1: Begins at the abandoned Fortress of Solitude between what used to be the big three or triumvirate. Of course Bruce won't give Kal what he wants nor will they allow him to get in their way because Ra's must be stopped.

A/N 2: Ra's comes very close to succeeding, but he fails even when screwing around with Kal's head during the time in the tank when Vandal had been trying to restore his powers. Most of his behavior is own splintered mind, but Ra's just stirred it further. He also leaves a surprise behind in Kal, a measure to make Kal finish the deal, but some part of Kal's mind is able to resist.

A/N 3: I debated Kal and Ra's killing each other... in the end, I wrote Ra's dying and Kal dying technically as Clark returns. As for him staying alive as a farmer (nod to **For The Man Who Has Everything** fantasy life). The Kents, Kara, Lois, and Lana are just heart hungry to have Clark back.

A/N 4: The Outsiders reform into the Watchers following the Near 09 in this story, but some before actively taking part in the new group decide to travel, I mean go see the world you were out to save not so long ago. Again not everyone is forgiving and of course no one is forgetting either. Most of the former Titans go to Tokyo, nod to the Trouble in Tokyo. Vic and Helena go on a road trip in his Pontiac. As for Oliver and Dinah, they just use the time to get lost traveling too.

A/N 5: Bruce proposes to Diana in a way similar to how he proposed to Andrea. As for John and Shayera, the kid is coming soon. As for Kyle, he's on permanent assignment on Earth. As for Roy, Donna pays him a visit in London. This chapter plot-wise is similar to **Divided We Fall**.


End file.
