#70: Deus Ex Machina” (Part 4 of 4)

Previously, in JUSTICE LEAGUE…

Declaring himself the GOD OF NOTHING, a hyper-powered up ARES has returned, and with him his wife, the Witch Queen CIRCE, their dread daughter DEVASTATION and a brain-washed HIPPOLYTUS, the long-thought-dead husband of WONDER WOMAN!

Announcing that Earth was undergoing a crisis of faith of his own design, ARES offered the Justice League a deal-- if one of their number fought his daughter to the death, with the whole of humanity’s spiritual future on the line, he’d abide by the winner of such a contest! But as he was the one who laid down the ancient celestial challenge, he got to choose humanity’s champion-- and his pick was none other than BATMAN!

With a man who swore never to take a life going up against a veritable god, what chance did BATMAN have at winning? Little to none, obviously, so WONDER WOMAN did the only thing she could think to save the world… she shot BATMAN through the heart in the name of ARES himself, therefore forfeiting the competition and ensuring humanity’s future!

Other threats loomed during the crisis, including the return of DOCTOR PSYCHO, who had been posing as HARRISON WELLS of S.T.A.R. Labs in an effort to brainwash and train strangely enhanced children for some unknown agenda, which led to the revelation to members of the team that HAWKMAN-- who, unbeknownst to himself had been working as an agent for PSYCHO-- was afflicted with an insidious form of cancer!

With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--

“For Ares!”

The arrow pierced Batman’s heart, and if he were any other man, it would have killed him instantly.

Except-- instead-- the world heightened as his senses expanded-- his newly punctured heart struggling to pump blood around his body-- but-- there was a hole in him-- liquid spilling out of his chest-- life draining--

Who had killed him? Light began to fade from the fringes of his vision, but there was his killer-- no-- it--

Wonder Woman lowered her bow, and wiped a tear from her eye, and…

…Batman died knowing who killed him.

And then a split second later, Ares howled in defiance. “No! You--”

The stadium erupted in a cacophony of light and activity, as every-- single-- god-- in-- existence-- in belief-- materialised wherever there was space. They overlapped and folded across each other. The size of them blotted out the sun, and their light illuminated the darkness, and their darkness overpowered and their immensity--

“Brother, it looks like your plan failed,” said Athena, smiling as the pantheon of Greek Gods that the God of Nothing had banished to the void began to march toward him. She was their leader after the death of Zeus, and her champion had just short-circuited the trap that kept the gods of the world from intervening.

“No! No!”

Big Barda smashed Ares around the back of the head with her Mega-Rod, the thunderous crack! of the impact punctuated by the weapon shattering down to the shaft. She lowered the weapon, even as it began to reform and regenerate in her hand. “You showed your hand too early, foolish god.”

“Away with you!” Ares swung around and blasted Barda with the crackling obsidian energy that he currently wielded, but Green Lantern stepped up and levelled his ring and his willpower at the attack, creating a schism in the air that sent the blast away from the team. As the power of the attack poured on, Majestic stepped forward and dispersed it with an almighty punch, splitting the etheric energy into shards that dissipated as they spread outwards.

“An agent acting on your behalf cheated your own champion out of her victory,” declared Athena.

“She’s yours,” shrieked Ares.

“Not by my reckoning, not by her own decree,” replied the God of Wisdom.

Wonder Woman had dropped the bow and was kneeling over the body of her beloved. Blood pooled around his body as she held him, while Devastation looked down in bemusement.

“She… she cheated… I had this battle won…” said Ares’ daughter.

“For Ares,” murmured Diana.

“No! I won’t be robbed of this!” cried Devastation. She swung her fists down toward Diana’s head, while the Queen of the Amazons looked down at the Dark Knight, but before she could land her attack-- an attack that surely would have crushed Wonder Woman’s skull due to the fact she offered no defence-- a zip-line whipped around the angry godling’s waist and a yank pulled her backwards into the dirt.

“Get the hell away from her,” said Nightwing, having emerged from one of the Justice League’s teleportation portals. He looked angry, beyond angry, the kind of angry that boils into something cold and hard. Bundled into the arms of someone he trusted was the body of his adopted father, the man who had raised him since the death of his own parents. He struggled to process this, but he knew that for all the ice in his stomach that refused to melt, he would never allow Wonder Woman to be blindsided by this villainess.

“Keep it cool, Boy Wonder. We’ve got this. We’ve got her.”

Beside Nightwing stood the heroine Troia-- Diana’s sister Donna Troy-- who wielded her own lasso, one that shimmered silver in the dying embers of sunlight that promised to set soon enough. She looked marginally peeved that she’d been beaten to the punch, but her focus was on the anguish experienced by the woman she loved. She took a step so she was in front of the former Robin and held her hand up to Devastation.

“You don’t have to fight, sister. Now is the time for words. For conversation,” said Donna Troy.

The Amazons had a lot of oaths. A lot of credos. Donna remembered her adoptive mother’s voice as she told her, “Keep faith. Trust to love. Fight with honour. But fight to win.”, but Hippolyta was long gone now, dead at the hands of the vicious minotaur that murdered her when Doom’s Doorway opened all those years ago*.


So she settled on another mantra, one that Diana herself took to heart. From one sister to another, Wonder Woman used to say to Wonder Girl, “Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it.”

“Words? Words are for the weak! For the dumb whores who--”

Donna shrugged then put up her fists. “Okay, I tried--!”

“Yeah? Yeah?! You want some of this? I’ll start with you then--” shrieked Devastation.

“How about you finish your dance with me?” asked Mister Miracle, as he appeared from nowhere and wrapped the tatters of his cape around her head, yanked her down, and then leapt back as a Boom Tube swallowed her whole. He pointed toward the beaches and barked at one of his teammates. “Majestic, thatta way-- keep an eye out but don’t engage!”

Majestros nodded and lifted off, heading to where he was directed.

Mister Miracle glanced toward Troia and performed a theatrical bow. “Sorry for stepping in, Ms. Troy. I just knew all the steps is all.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to forgive you this time,” said Donna. “I’m going to secure that slab of muscle up there”, she gestured toward where Wonder Woman had beaten the looming guardian of the God of Nothing’s entourage, “and then I’ll be right back. Keep them safe, will you?”

“Your wish is my command,” said Miracle.

Meanwhile, Circe lurched forward from her place beside her husband, up in the royal box at the head of the stadium, but she could do nothing to stop what happened-- Devastation was gone-- but to where?

The Amazons of Themyscira assembled around the edges of the stadium, but the centre of the space was consumed by the maelstrom of gods that wanted a piece of the so-called God of Nothing. The Greek Gods were at the head of this veritable army of earth-breaking wonders, and Ares was considering his tactical options.

But before anyone could say anything else, there was a cracking of lightning overhead-- those who looked up might have thought it was one of earth’s celestials, making themselves known, but if you looked closer you would have seen something completely alien, completely abstract-- with a voice that could split a soul in twain with a syllable if it so desired-- could shred a being into pieces with a glottal stop.

A CRIZIZ OF FAITH HAZ COME AND GONE. PARLAYED INTO A BATTLE TO THE DEATH. THE CHALLENGER HAZ FAILED. THE PEOPLEZ OF EARTH ARE DEZERVING OF THE FAITH THEY HAVE IN THEIR GODZ. THE TIME FOR CELEZTIAL JVDGEMENT HAZ PAZZED.

None mortal gathered in the stadium upon Themyscira recognised the voice, but the gods of the world did. The Celestial Pantheon, the judges of the judges, the watchmen of the heavens, had sent a voice down to make a ruling. He had long left names behind, but he had once been a god of space storms, of solar winds and cosmic energies.

GOD OF NOTHING. AZ YOVR NAME DICTATEZ, YOV KNOW NOTHING OF THE POWER YOV WIELD. EVERY BEGINNING HAZ AN END. NOTHING MVZT BECOME ZOMETHING. OR NOTHING MUZT REMAIN PAZZIVE TO GARNER THE POWER OF WORZHIP. YOVR CELEZTIAL EXIZTENCE IZ A TICKING CLOCK. YOV WILL BE AT OVR MERCY AGAIN, AND NOW WE KNOW THE ZTENCH OF YOV. WE HAVE YOVR MEAZVRE. WE WILL NOT BE ZO FORGIVING A ZECOND TIME.

Aggrieved but knowing, gods began to blink back to their places of power after the immense magisterial voice of the god from the Celestial Pantheon faded from their ears.

They didn’t know that their entire existence had just experienced a seismic shift, but that would be a story for another time, when the broadcast of the day’s events faded from the screens of every man, woman and child who watched from points across the globe…

Ares watched-- Where was their fear? Where was their terror? He held the power of creation in his hands, the power to twist the building blocks of reality into whatever his whims required. The Justice League didn’t blink. Athena just looked over at Wonder Woman and almost smiled, before she led the Greek pantheon back to their home.

“You’re leaving? You’re all leaving?” barked Ares.

“Humanity will have its way with you now. Won’t be long until your time runs its course, brother,” said Athena, fading from view.

“Stop!” cried Diana.

Athena snapped back into view, shocked by the voice of her champion. “You would--?”

“I struck the blow that ended humanity’s champion in the name of Ares, but I am your champion for all my days. But you must hear me now, great Pallas-- it was your taking of Ares’ mantle that opened him up to being able to become this… this God of Nothing… how could that be possible, if not because his godship of conflict was absent from his being*?”


Athena blinked, her ancient, timeless wisdom ticking over in her head. She had gifted, along with the rest of her pantheon, traits from herself to that clay shape that eventually breathed as Diana, and her wisdom was the one that sang loudest now.

Athena turned her attention to Ares. “If you remain here, on this globe of humanity, then I take that as a return of your responsibilities as our God of War, brother. Say the words and your mantle will be restored, but you will be subject to our judgement. I leave that choice to you-- perform your role as intended, side-by-side with your brothers and sisters, or take leave of this world, and be your… God of Nothing. But you would be it elsewhere.”

“You cannot tell me what to do! I am the God of Nothing! I control--”

“…Nothing,” said Big Barda, casually.

“What do you know of godhood? You claim to be one of the celestials, but you weren’t banished from this planet when the trial came crashing down! You’re not a real god!”

“I am a New God. And if I were to shed this mortal form and unleash my true self on this world, I would not only end your existence but that of every single creature that roams this beautiful marble. I am incarnate, just as my husband is, and that means while we fight with our lives on the line, we still have all the knowledge that comes with our connection to the Source.”

“I’ve never heard Barda say so much at one time,” said Green Lantern, supporting a dehydrated Aquawoman.

“I don’t think she’s ever had that much to say,” she replied.

“God of Nothing… we have one of you on Exodus, home of the New Gods,” said Mister Miracle. “We call her the Luminous Sleeper, because that’s all-- she-- can-- do--!”

Ares looked around from one Justice Leaguer to the next. They were getting their confidence up. They were building to something. “I will tear you to molecules…”

“If you coulda, you woulda,” said Mister Miracle, shaking his finger dismissively at the God of Nothing. He began to muse on the nature of his fellow New God, smiling under his mask as he went. “Luminous Sleeper, Goddess of Nothing. If she were to wake, to act, she would use her reservoir of power up, because to be the God of Nothing, you must do nothing. Sure, we could ask ‘What do you believe in?’, and the answer we receive would be ‘nothing’, and that would empower you, but you go against your nature by utilising the power of prayer that you’ve received.”

While Mister Miracle pontificated mockingly in Ares’ direction, Nightwing was by the deceased Batman’s side. He was building himself toward touching his adopted father’s face, but he had seen many a corpse in his time as a vigilante, and this-- there was--

Dick Grayson brushed his fingers against Bruce Wayne’s face, and then looked at Diana. “What did you do to him?”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” hissed Circe. “Return my daughter to me now, and I won’t transform you into the snake your actions declare you to be. Husband, do as you threaten-- take their lives from them.”

Ares stayed perfectly still.

“Oh, I get it! And he gets it too, clearly,” said Aquawoman, opening her arms up at him. “Come on then, God of Nothing! Kill me! Strike me down!”

“Huh?” said Green Lantern.

“He just realised that the power of prayer is finite. Like filling up a gas tank,” said Mister Miracle.

Big Barda laughed mockingly. “All this pageantry. All he’s done. It’s using up his powers. Unless he starts doing what his godhood is all about-- unless he starts being the God of Laziness, he’ll fade away. To be God of Nothing is to do nothing.”

“And the funny thing about this whole thing,” said Mister Miracle, “is that if you’d only shown some patience, you would have won. You could have sat back, and waited the crisis of faith out, because you took belief from humanity. You stole their faith. The damage you’ve done is incalculable, but it can still be repaired. Instead, you wanted the victory immediately. You wanted the collective consciousness of humanity to act as a battery for your power straight away, rather than wait for all their hope to simply run out. All your talk, all your bravado… my wife is right, you’ve got nothing left. Which is funny enough… but if you’d started thinking like a God of Nothing and not the God of War, you could have had them praying to you willingly… praying to the so-called God of Nothing. But no, you had to get one over on everyone, and that’s why you will never beat us, Ares. You’ll never win. So, what now?”

There was a long silence.

Big Barda, flanked by her own pantheon, the pantheon of the Justice League, smile, and patted her Mega-Rod in her open palm.

“Well?”

“Kill them, my love! Ares! Ares! Kill them!” seethed Circe. “Why aren’t you killing them?!|”

Without a response, the God of Nothing fled in a flash of the mysterious celestial energy he wielded.

The Witch Queen was taken aback, and followed after him in a puff of green and purple smoke, leaving the Justice League to look at each other and breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“Phew. Love talking a guy down,” said Mister Miracle.

“His power is like a battery…” said Green Lantern. “…I kinda get it now.”

“What have you done to him?!”

The team turned their attention back to a horrified Nightwing, as Wonder Woman stood up to try and placate him. She was covered in Batman’s blood, and his corpse lay still between them.

“Nightwing… please… I can explain…” started Diana.

“He’s-- his body-- it’s-- what have you done?!”

“I killed Batman-- I killed the man I love-- to save all of humanity. And now-- now, look--”

She knelt over the Dark Knight’s body and gripped the arrow shaft tightly. She then turrrrned the arrow slowly, and a loud clicking emanated from the Caped Crusader’s corpse, as if a key was being turned in a lock. The vigilante’s body shuddered in space, and then Diana lifted what appeared to be a trapdoor-- a trapdoor made up of the front part of his body-- and the Justice League watched as their friend was suddenly two-dimensional and something so much more--

There was a hole in the world where his corpse had been, a hole that was a door, and from the threshold of the door, leading down, a stairwell into complete and utter darkness…

“-- And now we bring him back,” said Wonder Woman, defiantly.

S.T.A.R. LABS’ UPSTATE NEW YORK FACILITY:

“Six months. I’ve been locked up like a prisoner in my own super-science laboratory for six months,” said Harrison Wells.

His staff had located a wheelchair for him and they were currently running through the logs S.T.A.R. had kept in the time that Doctor Psycho had been posing as the organisation’s founder. He needed a shower, a hot meal and a shave, but he definitely needed to shower first. That didn’t stop him, of course, from trying to figure out what damage had been done in his absence.

“How are we looking, Doctor Wells?” asked the Guardian.

While Firestorm amused the facility’s child contingent with an array of elemental fireworks in the training centre visible outside their current position, Aquaman and Hawkman were recovering from their ordeal in different parts of the base.

The King of the Seven Seas was finishing up a quick dip in a hydrating tank set up by the staff, and the former Hawk Knight was being examined to check the progress of the cancer that ravaged his body. Without exposure to Nth metal for the better part of the day, it would have inevitably advanced, and Wells ordered that they run a full raft of tests to see how badly. Cyborg was standing behind Wells, scanning the information as it came up on the wheelchair-bound scientist’s monitor.

They’d relocated into a signal dead zone, where the only available terminal was plugged into the S.T.A.R. database. No rogue signals could get in, and no information could get out unless express permission was given. This was as safe a space as they were going to get, and Wells wasn’t going to waste an opportunity to find out what Doctor Psycho had gotten up to while wearing his face!
“White projects are still running without impediment. They’re our most dangerous, the ones we base in the lower levels on this facility. It’s like Edgar actually ran this place like me while I was locked in that broom closet. Huh. And I can’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I’m going to have to bring in some forensic investigators to run through everything… wait… what’s this?”

“What the hell is that?” said Cyborg, leaning forward as a list of locations began to fill up the screen.

“Some sort of… black sites… all over America… remote locations like Sand Hills Nebraska, Southern Wyoming, but also… hell, there’s one in Chicago… but we don’t have any black sites… that’s--”

“Chicago? Are those coordinates correct? Because I recognise that location,” said the Guardian.

“What is it?” asked Wells.

“When Firestorm and I were escorting Vandal Savage back to custody from your New York facilities, Batman and Wonder Woman led a strike against a science facility in Chicago*; one of Wonder Woman’s Amazonian allies was there, she’d been vivisected. Zenobia. Her name was Zenobia.”


Cyborg plugged himself into the computer and linked with S.T.A.R.’s data centres. He synced the data up with his own internal relays, and started verbalising the information. “Psycho set up a location for experimentation on a metahuman subject for… an unnamed third party. There’s a lot of encrypted information here, doctor. Do you recognise any of the algorithms?”

Wells looked at the monitor where Cyborg had fed the information, and hitched his glasses up his nose. “That’s not our cyber-security. That’s something else entirely.”

“I can work on breaking down the encryption, but it’s dense. I’d need a key of some kind… do I have your permission to take this off-site?”

“Of course, and let me know if there’s anything my people can do to help you figure this out. I feel like we’ve… we’ve been infected by some kind of parasite. Edgar had his way with my life’s work and I don’t know to what ends… but apparently it involves vivisecting a superhero…”

“Doctor Wells, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I thought you’d want to see this,” said one of the scientists working for S.TA.R. as she entered the signal dead zone they were situated in. “We’ve received reports of this pirate signal hijacking all viewing screens across all our other sites too… we don’t know the source, but apparently it’s happening across the globe.”

“I’m locking down our database connection then opening the signal dead zone up to all comers,” said Wells. “Have all comms teams on signal analysis and--”

“That’s Themyscira,” said Aquaman, trailing water as he entered the room accompanied by Hawkman.

“And that’s--”

The assembled team watched an arrow puncture Batman’s chest. Gods manifested over and over again then they spoke in voices too large for this world. Big Barda cracked Ares around the head and then Mister Miracle convinced the so-called God of Nothing into running away without putting up much of a fight.

“Oh, my God,” whispered the Guardian.

“Door!” barked Hawkman. “Seven Hells-- Door!”


Accompanied by Cyborg, Firestorm and the Guardian, Aquaman and Hawkman materialised inside the Themysciran stadium, just as Wonder Woman said the most insane thing most of the assembled people had heard.

“You’re going to bring him back?” repeated Green Lantern.

“Yes,” said Wonder Woman.

“But how?” pressed Aquawoman. She noticed Aquaman’s arrival and his hand found hers, and the duo clung to each other in the presence of the others as the Queen of Themyscira explained her plan.

“I shot him with an arrow formed from the Bow of Charon, an artefact we became aware of months ago*. Legend has it that if you are killed with an arrow from the bow, your soul is marked in perpetuity. You can be tracked from life into death.”


“Legend? You shot Batman because of a legend?” said Nightwing.

“Yes,” said Diana.

And Dick knew that, of course-- of course she’d do something if it were a legend. Because she was one. A figure of myth. As iconic as they came. She was the daughter of the Amazons. A tribe of immortal warriors from the time of the ancient Greeks. Of course a legend would spur her forward. To her, a legend was history, and history is to be learned from, not disregarded. So:

“Then why are we standing around talking?” asked the former Boy Wonder. “Let’s go get him.”

“I’m going with you,” said Mister Miracle.

Big Barda rolled her eyes. “Of course he is.”

“What about you, Barda?” asked Diana.

“Ares is still out there. I intend to finish what we started here. You go after Batman. I’ll track down a god.”

“And we’ll come with you, Diana,” said Mera, her hand still wrapped tight around her husband’s.

“Where did you send Devastation?” Green Lantern asked Mister Miracle.

“She’s currently swimming back toward the island,” said Majestic, returning from where he’d been monitoring the situation. He cast a glance back toward the beach, his Zoom Vision focused past their current position toward the crashing waves. “I’ve watched her wrestle a megalodon into submission.”

“I like those damn sharks,” said Troia. “Let’s make sure she doesn’t do anyone else a damage.”


It didn’t make sense. It didn’t jibe with the experiences he had when he travelled the world, studying ancient martial arts, secret meditative techniques… but here he stood, in the most beautiful fields that stretched on for forever, face to face with someone he thought he’d never have the chance to meet. He had been pulled up effortlessly by her, and her likeness to the woman closest to him was staggering. But that wasn’t the question on his mind. No, the thing that really sent his mind racing was the other one, the one that had led him here…

“I’m dead?” repeated Bruce Wayne.

He realised he was naked, having materialised in this plain without any of the accoutrements that made him the Dark Knight. He looked at his arms, and upon close inspection found that every scar his flesh had once carried was erased. His knuckles were impeccable, even though he knew he had broken them dozens, if not hundreds of times, across the years. He wondered what that meant, but his realisation that he was nude was quickly met by black and grey threads spreading from his feet upwards. A second later, he was clad in his costume, the timeless energies of this place doing what they could to make him feel at home.

“How else could you be here?” asked the woman who helped him stand-- though calling her ‘the woman’ didn’t do her justice. This wasn’t just any woman, but the mother of the person he loved, who once shared a name with her when the siren song of battle called out. “You’ve already realised that this place is beyond what you knew before-- your subconscious manifestation of your uniform, for one. This place gives you all that you can imagine. It’s the underworld. Where the rules of the living do not apply.”

Hippolyta, former Queen of the Amazons, mother of Diana, the Wonder Woman who fought alongside the Justice Society of America all those decades ago; Hippolyta, who died at the hands of the Minotaur when Doom’s Doorway opened so many years in the heart of Themyscira…

“Now, you spoke her name when you awoke-- Tell me-- What do you know of my daughter?” she asked.

“I’m… we’re… ” he started, the words eluding him even as they danced around his head. What were they? Teammates, sure, but more than that now. Intimate, no, that’s just… or… boyfriend? Dating? He felt as if he was a child being scolded for stealing the last cookie from the jar. He’d never felt like this before, but then again, when the love of your life’s mother was a figure of myth… how else were you to feel?

“Oh, you’re her boyfriend?” Hippolyta paused, raised her hand from his shoulder and took a step back, before she abruptly began to laugh, slipping almost into hysterics, before straightening up, wiping a tear from her eye and placing a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’ve not spoken to anyone from the present day for so long, I just… that took me by surprise.”

“Boyfriend,” repeated Bruce. Yep. Maybe that made the most amount of sense.

“There’ll be time for me to pry into my daughter’s private life soon enough, but right now we need to get moving. If I sensed your arrival from where I was hidden, then he will have as well. The fields are vast, but that doesn’t mean the wrong kind of animal can’t sneak in if he isn’t wily enough.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Bruce.

She extended a hand and a sword manifested, gleaming hypnotically. “The thing that killed me. We’re linked now. Linked in death, like we had been in life. Even beyond the veil of life and death… I’m being stalked by the Minotaur of Tartarus!”


The armies of Themyscira, every woman who lived upon the island paradise, raised their weapons in acknowledgement of their queen. Diana looked at her sisters, all ready to defend this place until the end of time, and then began to speak, even as the threshold that had once been the Dark Knight’s corpse crackled in space. “Guard the stairwell. This is a crack in the foundation, a backdoor into the underworld. Who knows what might try and escape while it exists. We vowed to keep Doom’s Doorway sealed. We vowed to do whatever we can within our power to stave off war. This is our mission! This is our time!”

“For Themyscira! For Athena!” came the response from the thousands who gathered in the stadium’s grounds and across the plains surrounding the immense construct that jutted out of the mountains that bordered this side of the city.

Wordlessly, General Phillipus, Diana’s second-in-command and one of her most trusted advisors, embraced her. She wasn’t just a queen to the general, she was something so much more than that. Diana was her best friend’s daughter, the only child born of Themyscira, raised by an island full of women who loved her more than anything. “We’ll hold the line until you return, my queen.”

Returning the embrace, Diana nodded and then looked down the infinite staircase that led to where her beloved now resided. “Hope begins in the dark.”

“Your sisters look like they could use some heavy artillery, just in case. I’ll stay here, be a tank if necessary,” said Cyborg.

“Hmm. A tank that thinks. War plus,” mused the Guardian. “I’ll see if we can get any information from that hunk of muscle Troia’s lugging,” he said, gesturing to where Diana’s younger sister hefted Hippolytus.

“Just… be careful,” said Diana, looking forlornly at her husband’s unconscious form.

Meanwhile, Mister Miracle looked down and exhaled slowly, a low whistle leaving his lips. “S’deep.”

“Scared?” asked Diana, turning her attention to the task at hand.

“As if,” replied the New God.

“Let’s get on with this,” said Nightwing. He lit a torch and handed it to Aquaman, and then passed another to Wonder Woman. “You know where we’re going?”

“Down,” Diana replied. She held out her hands and gently tugged at the invisible, mystical line that connected her and Bruce Wayne. There was a long way to go, but this would get them where they needed to go.

Then they entered the underworld.


Moments after her husband’s arrival, Circe materialised in the secret city that Ares had constructed beneath the skin of the world. It was an arcane place; jutting, sharp constructs stabbed at the walls, some puncturing the cavernous rocks that surrounded it, while others scraped and bent against them.

Ares stormed forward toward his private chambers, but Circe didn’t pay attention to the unspoken need for privacy, and followed soon after.

“Why are we running, husband? You wield the power of creation itself, the nothingness before the light, you could have wiped them off the face of the earth with a wave of your hand-- why do they yet live?”

“Because they are right!” boomed Ares, sending Circe staggering. “I can feel it! I can feel my new power ebbing! I can hear the prayers for nothing, but every step I take, every action I perform, it drains me! I am being mocked by my new godhood! War was so easy, war was a constant, and I loved it. I thrived on it! But to be war and its lord was one thing… to be nothing and its master is… it’s…”

There was a boom, and the entire city shook…

…Big Barda had arrived.


Devastation awoke with a start. She was bound by strands of silver, and couldn’t break free no matter how hard she tried. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, and she saw one of her former victims standing before her, looking unimpressed.

“Hello again, Wonder Girl,” said Devastation.

“I think we both know that’s not my name,” said Troia, shaking her head. “But like I care what you call me.”

“I can think of a few other names I’d like to call you.”

“Quiet!” demanded Donna, and much to Devastation’s surprise, her voice faltered in response.

“You’re probably wondering why you’re doing what I tell you. That binding keeping you locked down? That’s the Lasso of Persuasion, woven from the leftover threads that make up my sister’s own Lasso of Truth… just as long and just as unbreakable. What did she say when she gave it to me? ‘Whosoever is bound by its indestructible weave will be compelled to do what the owner asks’. So, that’s me, and you’re you. Tell us everything.”

Green Lantern, standing behind Troia, watched as Devastation’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. “Should she be doing that?”

“She’s… resisting… the lasso. Makes sense with what I’ve learned first-hand from her already*,” said Troia.


Beads of sweat rolled down Donna’s face as she gripped her end of the lasso tightly. She didn’t tell Green Lantern, and especially Devastation, the other part of the Lasso of Persuasion’s function: ‘Whosoever is bound by its indestructible weave will be compelled to do what the owner asks… if the will of the owner is stronger than the will of the compelled’.

“But I’m not going to be ignored today. I’m not going to be dismissed. You-- will-- tell-- me-- everything--!”


Hippolytus hung in the torture chamber of the God of War, aspects of himself stripped and hanging just out of reach of his broken and twisted frame. Where was his bravery? Across the room, suspended in liquid. Where was his courage? Sat on the floor in a pile, next to his cunning. His perception of time was wrapped from one post in the annex next door to another all the way back to the time of Circe’s parents, the dread Titans Hyperion and Perseis. All that hung on the butcher’s hook was meat and mind, barely comprehending, but what was comprehended was pain for thousands upon thousands of years.

“Mommy, who’s he?” asked Deva, barely six, curious as anything and full of amazement and excitement at the idea of being let inside her father’s private study.

“Well, that’s a brilliant question, my beautiful baby girl,” answered Circe, holding her daughter’s hand.

Hippolytus’ eyes didn’t move. He barely blinked these days. He existed in pain. That’s all it was, now. What had life been like before this? Who knew… what was his name… what was his… what…

“This is an enemy of ours. He thought he could save his beloved cousin-wife from my plans by sacrificing himself, but instead your father saved both our lives. We punished him by removing his self from his being, and then we made you on top of what was left of his body. He made a wonderfully uncomfortable bed.”

Deva sucked her thumb absent-mindedly. “What are you going to do with him?”

“It’s a good question, my little monster.”

At the sound of her father’s voice, Deva beamed. She rushed over to Ares and threw her arms around his legs, and he pulled her up into the air, resting her on his broad shoulders.

“Beloved, you shouldn’t, exert yourself…” said Circe, concerned.

“It’s time,” said Ares.

If you looked at him, you might think he was barely there. For all his displays of fatherly affection toward Deva, the overt strength he displayed, he was actually fading, becoming transparent when you didn’t look at him. He knew why, and that’s why they’d chosen now to act.

“Are you sure? The spell…” started Circe.

“Wife, of all those who might engineer the magicks required to strip me down to build me back up… it would be the Witch Queen herself. I didn’t marry a peon. I married the greatest sorceress that’s ever lived.”

Deva didn’t understand what her parents were saying, but their love was infectious. She clung to her father as he put her back down, and he had to usher her over to Circe before he continued.

“What’s wrong with daddy?”

“Your father’s evil sister has stripped him of his godhood*, and that means he’s no longer sustained by conflict across the realms of humanity. He’s used all his powers up to prepare for what comes next… for what’s next for you, my beauty.”


“What…. what’s that?”

“You’re about to become a wonder, Deva. Are you ready, husband?”

“I’ve already started. When you’re done, I’ll be delivered to the Celestial Pantheon.”

“You’re going?” said Deva.

“But I’ll be back. I’ll leave one kind of person and return another. But I’ll still be your father. And I’ll still love you more than the sun and the stars.”

Circe watched her daughter look up at her father, and began to cast the spell. She stripped aspects of Hippolytus from the piles she’d left them in and sewed them to Ares’ own disappearing being. His virtue. His innate goodness. Everything that made Hippolytus a good king, a trusted man, a hero, she spliced together a patchwork to obscure Ares own self, and when she was finished, Ares became Nobody, and Nobody was cast into the void of space, to be plucked by the Celestial Pantheon. Her voice would be a whisper in his ear, leading him to the endgame, where he would return empowered… and ready to conquer all of humanity, God of Gods, with power unimaginable…

“When will father return?”

A side effect of the spell, a splashback of power-- anything left of Ares, God of War, was delivered into the body of Deva, and the final artificial age-up sent her to the tail end of her teens. She was beautiful and deadly, her child’s clothes torn and shredded, unable to accommodate her new frame. Her long purple hair was down her back, every bit her mother’s daughter. She was Devastation now. She was war’s own Wonder Woman.

Circe covered her daughter’s shoulders with an emerald cloak and smiled. “Your father will come back to us soon enough, and when he does, we’ll destroy everything that Diana of Themyscira loves. But first… why don’t we twist her husband to our own ends?”

Devastation looked over at Hippolytus and smiled. “Where do we start?”


“…You brainwashed Hippolytus. Made him your… your pawn…” said Donna, Devastation’s memories splashing across her own.

“He was weak. Weak enough to twist into whatever shape we wanted,” hissed Devastation.

“You’re a monster,” said Green Lantern. “Everyone thought you were brainwashed as well, but you like this, don’t you? Nature versus nurture, whatever the outcome: You’re evil.”

“I am the daughter of Ares, God of Nothing, and Circe, Queen of the Witches! I am a god! I am destined to conquer your world and sit on a throne made of your bones! And I won’t be held captive by the likes of you any longer!”

Instead of straining against the indestructible threads of Troia’s Lasso of Persuasion, Devastation threw herself forward, ploughing into Green Lantern before he could think to throw up a construct. He exhaled all the air in his lungs as her knee collided with his gut, and then with a twist of her long legs, the demigod managed to flip him over and kick him into Troia.

Her grip on the lasso faltered, but the villain was still held fast, but that didn’t matter. Devastation was flying now, as fast as she could, and she’d worry about getting herself out of the bindings later, once she was clear of Paradise Island.

Without a word, Green Lantern appeared in front of her, ring raised, so she arced left. She made it down another corridor, but then he was in front of her again, looking unamused, so she made another turn, away from him. It was a few more turns before she realised what he had done--

--and it was Zenobia’s catastrophic throw of a fist against her jaw that sent the message home. As the world spun black, she realised she’d been funnelled, forced down a series of corridors in the mostly empty panopticon built into the mountainous edge of Themyscira, until the former Wonder Woman could get her licks in, even though she herself was propped up by Hawkman himself.

As she faded into unconsciousness, she heard Zenobia gruffly say, “I owe you more than that, but it’ll do for now…”

“Good work, Zenobia. The Birds would be proud,” said Hawkman, as Devastation finally passed out.


“He… it killed me back on Paradise Island, but it arrived here soon after. I had assumed it would have ended up in Tartarus for his actions, but by some cosmic twist of fate, my own rest was interrupted by its ceaseless stalking…”

Bruce stopped in his tracks and looked down at his chest. Where the arrow had plunged into his chest up above, he could see a light throbbing.

He felt as if someone was tugging at some invisible hook embedded above his sternum—it didn’t hurt, but the sensation was uncomfortable, to say the least. He tried to push it to the back of his mind, and followed Hippolyta through fields and forests until they reached another clearing.

It was burning bright out, the sun-- or some immense imagined light source-- shone down, and he felt out of place in this wondrous place dressed as he was.

“And you felt my arrival,” said Batman.

“I thought I felt the presence of my daughter,” corrected Hippolyta. They reached a large wooden door, and she looked around suspiciously. “Through here.”

She pushed the door open and Bruce was taken aback by her strength. He had witnessed Diana’s gods-given power in action, but he’d never had the opportunity to fight side-by-side with her mother. Seeing her here, so focused and poised, was astonishing to him.

The door opened up into another part of the underworld; the tunnels they entered were cavernous and twisting, and there was a length of string tied to a stake by the door that led into the dark.

“You’ve kept busy,” he noted.

“One does not want to become lost in the land of the dead, Batman,” replied Hippolyta.

Behind them there was a sound uncanny, loud and bellowing. Some kind of roar, but the vocals were guttural and thrashing-- an echo upon an echo, and then a stampede of what sounded like hooves.

“He’s near,” said Hippolyta. “Come.”

The duo delved into the darkness together, and Batman began to pray.

“The gods cannot hear you down here, Batman,” she said.

Batman dismissed her. “That may be true, but I’m willing to bet my life that there’s one already down here…”


Cyborg surveyed the scene, patiently scanning the immediate area in case of incursions. The warriors of Themyscira eyed him with suspicion, and he realised that the majority, if not all of them, had never seen a creature like him before. He probably looked like a golem of sorts, a being of cybernetics rather than flesh, and he wouldn’t lie and say the thought didn’t unnerve him.

{Looking good, Victor,} came Angie Spica’s voice across the nanotelepathic link. She was the team’s tech support back on Laputa, and it surprised Cyborg to hear her voice at this moment in time.

{Ange? What’s going on?}

{I wanted to give you all a heads up-- whatever Ares did to task all television signals to your location, it’s still ongoing. Everyone across the world is watching you and the Amazons stand around. Probably the highest-rated television event of all time.}

{Weird. You saw Batman--?}

{…Yeah. But if Wonder Woman says she can bring him back, she can bring him back, y’know? I’m little miss tech wiz, but I defer to Diana in all things. She’s got this. And so do you-- wait-- do you--?}

{Do I got this? Rude-- oh--} Cyborg’s sensors began to scream as red and black claws began to emerge from the tear in reality. {--Lemme call you right back, Angie.}


Barda barrelled toward Ares’ citadel and threw her arms up at the last moment, only to bring her Mega-Rod crashing down on the building’s immense walls. She thrashed down once, then again, then again, each time making her way through the catacombic construct, until suddenly she stood in front of Ares and Circe.

“Thought I smelt you in here,” said Barda.

Circe opened her mouth and made a noise like dancing sparks, and with the flick of her wrist, bands of immense power leapt around Barda’s limbs. In response, Firestorm rushed past Barda as she flexed against the constricting binds and transmuted the air around the Witch Queen’s head into a substance that stung her tongue before causing her to keel over backwards.

Firestorm cleared her throat, “C20 H28 N2 O5, aka Remifentanil,” said Firestorm, brushing her hands off. “Thanks for that, Professor.”

Ares clapped his hands together and knocked the duo off balance, anger building in his face.

“How--! Dare--!”

He was about to forgo any concerns he had about using his powers and blast the duo, but a punch to his face staggered him backwards. A deluge of blows, one after the other, sometimes two at a time, sent him reeling, and he couldn’t get a word out. He spat globules of blood as his attacker backed off for a split second.

“What… did I say to you… when we last met…? Maybe… you prayed… to me… once?*”

“I pray to no-one but myself,” declared Majestic, before he cracked his bloodied knuckles and continued his savage assault.


How long ago did the team of heroes descend the staircase towards the underworld? They’d certainly travelled miles, but they couldn’t see the starlight that had hung above Themyscira when they looked up, and they most certainly couldn’t see the end of the grand staircase that they’d been walking for what could have been days.

“So, if anyone questions us…?” started Aquaman.

He rolled the silver coin one of the Amazons had given him before their descent across his knuckles, before palming it into his other hand, a trick his father had taught him while they passed time on the lighthouse of Amnesty Bay. Each of the heroes had been given one for safe passage, but Diana also mentioned that they might need to pay a toll… and she had a small bag of silver coins at her side just in case the way keeper’s costs had gone up.

“Let me do the talking,” replied Wonder Woman.

“Confidence-inspiring,” said Nightwing.

Diana’s face told a sad story. “Dick--” she started

“By the Source…” whispered Mister Miracle.

“What is it?” asked Aquawoman.

“I can hear him. I can hear Batman. He’s praying to me. He… he remembered…*” said Scott.


“You can hear him? Does that mean--?”

“Your arrow led us this far, my ears can take us the rest,” said Miracle. “C’mon.” He looked down the staircase and then shrugged, before throwing himself off the edge and into the darkness below. His voice rang out after him, a playful shout of, “Geronimo--!”

Nightwing and Wonder Woman followed without a word, but Aquaman and Aquawoman took a moment to embrace before they too took a dive into the abyss. What awaited them down below?


“What’s wrong with him?” asked the Guardian, looking down at where Hippolytus had been bound to a bed.

“His mind is fractured,” replied Naelia, one of Paradise Island’s healers. “There is only so much the Purple Healing Ray can do. We must await his awakening, whenever that might be.”

Lyssandra, the chief of staff of the facility, looked forlornly at the comatose form of their once-proud king. “He went through so much to unite two tribes of sisters who had been separated by the tides of time itself. No one deserves this.”

“There are scars all over his body… crude work… but the ray will heal them soon enough. It’s the mental scars I fear may hold the most reason to be concerned,” continued Naelia.

“I know that men are only allowed in Maniae in the gravest of situations, and I appreciate you acquiescing to my request to be here, but perhaps there might be something some of our medical professionals can do out in the world? S.T.A.R. Labs could--”

Lyssandra held up her hand. “Whatever has occurred here will be solved by Themyscira, Guardian. Have no doubt about that.”

The Guardian nodded and continued to look down at Hippolytus. The lion-maned ruler twitched in his slumber, and his arms flexed as if he felt the restraints in his sleep. Green Lantern and Troia were below, in the catacombs that they’d emptied to interview Devastation, while Barda led a strikeforce to bring in Ares and Circe. Wonder Woman and the others hadn’t responded since they entered the Bat-door that the Dark Knight had become after the arrow had struck… and he was stood guard over the body of someone who gave the Queen of the Amazons pause for thought.

He gripped his shield, and prayed in his own way. Then came an explosion, and a shrill cry, and a question--

“What’s that noise?” he asked, as an immense rattle drove down from the top of the citadel all the way to the bottom, where they currently resided.

“The battle cry of the Amazons,” said Naelia. She gripped the sword at her hilt, but continued her duties, checking on the chart the brilliant machinery of the Themysciran medical profession printed out.

“Something’s happening back at the stadium?” asked the Guardian. {Cyborg, give me a sitrep!}

Behind him, Hippolytus abruptly sat up in his bed, and yanked his wrists free from the restraints.


“Where are we exactly?” asked Batman.

“The nature of the underworld is a fluid one,” replied Hippolyta. “The same arcane magicks that allow us to shape our own reality, to give you your uniform and me my armour, also impact the environment. The longer the minotaur stalked the fields, the more these… backdoors… appeared. My end was Elysium, while his… his was the labyrinth. Bringing the two together have meant our final resting places have become intertwined. A labyrinth within a labyrinth.”

Batman noted the thread that Hippolyta followed into the dark. “And where will this lead us?”

“Away. That’s all we can do now. Run. To face him would-- wait--” She held up her hand, but before she--

“TOO SLOW!”

The Minotaur crashed through one of the walls and careened into Hippolyta, sending her flying back. If it still had two horns, she might have been impaled, but she was caught by the stub of its absent edge and that miscalculation on its part was enough to keep her alive for now.

“I HAVE YOU NOW, QUEEN OF BITCHES!”

Batman threw a line that caught around the steer’s neck and he yanked back with his all strength. The Minotaur reeled, and turned its attention toward the Dark Knight.

“AND WHO MIGHT YOU BE?”

“Someone who doesn’t appreciate you interrupting our conversation,” replied Batman.

“FUNNY.”

“Ha. Ha.”

The Minotaur bowed and charged horn-first toward Batman, but the Dark Knight had faced off with enough headstrong opponents in the past to know what to do. At the last moment before catastrophic impact, he threw himself out of the way of the charging creature so it crashed into the wall behind him--

It howled in rage, but while it was dazed Batman leapt upon its back and drove his fists into either side of its head, loosening the little bones and tearing the thin membranes in its ears. It flung its ham-hock hands backwards, trying to clutch at the Caped Crusader, but he was already gone, though he was sure to leave a leaving present counting down on the Minotaur’s neck--

The device triggered, sending the Minotaur’s head down into the ground with an immense force but with no explosive signature. The creature whined, dazed, while Batman rushed to Hippolyta’s side.

“Are you all right?”

“You can only die once down here… but I’d prefer not to be in separate pieces…” She looked past the Dark Knight and toward the Minotaur, where it lazily tried to pull itself up. “What… in Athena’s name… was that?”

“Kinetic driver. You said I could manifest whatever I imagined,” said Batman.

“But… the intricacies of such a thing…”

Batman helped her up, but shrugged at her incredulity. “I designed it myself. I know it’s schematics inside and out.”

“Any other wonderful machines you can remember?” asked Hippolyta, drawing her sword and facing down the creature.

Batman smiled and an immense suit began to form around his body. The circuits overlaid his muscles, the shaped armoured pieces would respond to his slightest movement or thought. He was lifted up as the suit of armour fully formed, with all the weapons he’d ever dreamed of adding to it.

The Minotaur turned angry yet groggy, but it’s aggression faded when its eyes met with the suit of armour Batman had reconstructed from memory. “THAT… CANNOT BE…”

“Shall we?” asked Batman.


Ares gibbered. He’d been thrashed so completely, but Majestic hadn’t let up his assault once, and not only was every blow catastrophic, but as each one landed, the secret citadel they stood within shook mercilessly.

Big Barda was taken aback by the onslaught, but Firestorm tried not to pay any attention, preferring to monitor Circe’s condition and make sure the sorceress didn’t wake up.

“I didn’t expect him to be so… angry,” said Barda.

“I’m trying not to listen,” said Firestorm.

“It really is quite brutal,” came Martin Stein’s voice from inside Firestorm, the two sharing a body and the mouth with which to speak. “Could you perhaps ask him to stop?”

“As a God of ‘Nothing’, Ares could have ended all of existence if he hadn’t wasted his time on his games. He’d used all his energies up with his machinations. The trial by combat, projecting himself across the globe… he’s spent. And the only way we can combat him is--”

“ENOUGH!” Ares swatted Majestic backwards--

“…Running his battery dry,” finished Barda.

--But the blow wasn’t strong enough to do any damage. The Kheran floated in mid-air, ready to resume the one-sided battle, but Ares erected a crackling energy field to separate him from his attackers. “I… I have had… enough…” He was barely able to stand, his armour buckled and fractured in numerous places. His helmet had long been demolished, and his face was a patchwork of contusions and heinous damage. “…Enough…”

“Only if you relinquish your power,” said Majestic.

“And give up… the potential… to unpick the universe at the seams? I think not. But as it… as it stands… this battle cannot continue… so I must… I must take my leave…” Ares clasped his hands together and the black energy that buzzed and sparked between his palms began to grow. “…Pray… pray… we never meet again.”

“Do you not remember what happened last time we fought?” spat Majestic.

“I beat you bloody,” said Ares, wiping the grime and blood from his own mouth almost subconsciously.

“You broke my nose. I had to break it multiple times myself to put it back in place. That hurt,” said Majestic. He trudged forward, and Ares threw his hand up to blast the Kheran back, but the energy washed over the warlord, burning at his costume but doing little to no damage to his skin. “You were a God of War then. You were something powerful. Conflict never ends. And you feed on conflict. Imagine, if you were the God of War now, every blow I landed, every angry thought I have toward you… would have fuelled you. Every punch a prayer. Do you remember what that was like?”

Circe murmured to herself, stirring from her unconsciousness. Firestorm didn’t notice, more concerned with the attack Ares was trying to murder Majestic with…

“And now you’re weak. You’re barely the god I remember. Hells, I feared you. I feared for my very life, battling you. And I haven’t been that scared for… eons. I’m certainly not that scared now.”

“I’ll instil fear in you again. I swear it,” said Ares, sweat mixing with blood as he strained against the stalking form of Majestros as he approached.

“Not like this,” said Majestic, almost laughing. “God of Nothing! Don’t make me… ha… don’t make me.. aha… don’t make me laugh!” He proceeded to break down into hysterics, laughing even as he stumbled forward, toward Ares. “You’re nothing now!”

Ares threw his hands up, and the power he’d been expending suddenly cut off. “Nothing? So you want the God of War? You want to die? Then so be it!”

Circe looked up, realising what Majestic had just done. “Husband--! No--!”

Ares didn’t hear her. “I accept my position in the universe! I am the God of War! I am--!”

A lightning bolt struck Ares in the chest and he froze in place. Circe grabbed her face in shock, and Firestorm realised she’d awoken. With a quick blast of another burst of anaesthetic gas, the Witch Queen was knocked out once more, though the Nuclear Hero knew she’d have to better monitor her moving forward!

Athena, accompanied by her brothers Apollo and Hermes, walked past the Justice Leaguers and considered the frozen form of Ares.

Apollo seemed to absorb the ambient light around him to become visible, his silhouette a burning aura of blinding solar energy. You could make out eyes, and a sneering expression, but not much else.

Hermes, on the other hand, was tall and lanky; in his hand a caduceus staff, two snaked wrapped around a pair of wings affixed to the top. His winged hat was at his side, under his arm, while his feet were covered by winged sandals.

Wearing armour and holding a quiver of lightning bolts-- the explosive weapons and badge of office that their father Zeus once held-- Athena looked Ares up and down and frowned. “He never listens. Accept the mantle of God of War and be subject to our judgement. And so he did. Idiot.”

“You just have to know how to push buttons,” mused Majestic, breathing heavily. His skin blistered and his body ached, but he couldn’t have let Ares seen that.

“Nicely done,” said Barda. “But Lady Athena, queen of your pantheon, what will happen next?”

“Judgement,” said Apollo, brusquely.

Hermes whisked Circe from Firestorm’s custody, and Apollo picked up Ares’ frozen body and hauled him over his shoulder.

“You have done good work here, Justice League,” said Athena. “My champion is right to put her faith in you.”

“You honour us,” said Barda.

“Whoa,” whispered Firestorm.

The Greek godly entourage turned to leave, but Majestic couldn’t help himself. He reached out and shouted, “Athena-- may I… could I… can I ask you a question?”

She turned back and looked at him with curious eyes, and then nodded. “You may ask, and if it is within my power and truth, I will answer.”

“I am Majestros of Khera, and I have come to accept that I am the last of the Kherubim. But there are… were… gods in our history. I remember a shrine to Hecate in my mother’s chambers. I just wonder… does Hecate still live? Or with the passing of my people, and my imprisonment, has the lack of worship in her name rendered her to celestial dust?”

Athena considered the question, and looked toward Hermes, who nodded. She was about to answer, when--

“Wait--!” said Big Barda.

“What?” spat Majestic, taken aback by Barda’s interruption. He was so close to an answer, but the New God was getting in the way of that!

“Speak quickly, New God. We have places to be, and order to impose,” said Apollo.

“Diana, your champion, needs help. We’ve lost someone in the underworld. Can you help her? We need to reclaim the soul of our fellow Justice Leaguer.”

“This is true,” said Athena. “He was shot by an arrow loosed from the Bow of Charon. A link is made between the warrior who wields it and the subject whose body is pierced by the arrowhead… I can ask the Grey Lady, I can ask Persephone to intervene, perhaps help… that said, who knows if she would. Yes, I can grant this boon. But only one. Answer to your question, Majestros, or--”

“Help them,” whispered Majestic.

“Speak up in the presence of your betters, youngling,” said Apollo.

“Please help those lost in the underworld,” said Majestic, his voice loud and clear. “Like I said, I have come to accept my position. I just--”

Athena held up her hand “I go now to speak to Persephone. God speed, Justice League. Hermes?”

The messenger of the gods cracked his staff on the ground and a portal opened that Apollo and Athena stepped through. Before he joined them, Hermes whisked himself to Majestic’s side, and put his lips to his ear. “Athena says, we know of all gods, both hidden and those who are not, as that is our celestial nature. We know our own. But I can say, with some confidence, that your Hecate has yet to be worshipped. That is all we can see and say on the matter.”

“Yet… to be worshipped?” murmured Majestic. “But--!”

It was too late. Athena and her entourage vanished and had taken both Ares and Circe into custody. The secret citadel beneath the Earth began to shake, and Big Barda triggered a Boom Tube to open nearby.

She beckoned him toward them. “Come on, Majestros! We need to go!”

“Yet to be worshipped?” repeated Majestic, but before he could linger, he shot toward the Boom Tube, and the Justice Leaguers returned to Themyscira.


“Question!” barked Aquaman, the wind rushing past the group as they plummeted down into the abyss, the stairwell they’d climbed long vanished, leaving them in nothing but darkness, the light of their selves, their souls, the only illumination granted to them now that their torches had long extinguished.

“Go ahead!” replied Mister Miracle. His cape had returned to him since they’d journeyed into the underworld-- in fact, any damage to their costumes had been repaired, as if they weren’t allowed to charge into the unknown without their proper accoutrement-- but it had receded into a clip behind his neck, to prevent any wind resistance as they fell.

“Why are we still falling?” shouted Aquaman.

“Because the stairwell is infinite,” said Mister Miracle, his sleeve pulled up to the shoulder, his deft fingers fiddling with the Mother Box strapped there.

“And what are you doing?” asked Nightwing. He looked less stressed about the entire situation than the others, and he didn’t have any safety net like the power of flight or Aero-Discs to brace him if need be.

Wonder Woman’s fingers repeatedly tested the line that connected her and Batman, and she knew that it was shortening. Better to bypass the gates and gatekeepers of Persephone’s realm. Better to take the direct route.

Miracle looked across the vast gulf and gave Nightwing a thumbs up. “I’m fine-tuning the Boom Tube generator Mother Box is connected to so we can get where we need to go.”

“You couldn’t do that before you-- we-- jumped?” asked Mera.

Mister Miracle spun onto his back and then grinned, his smile visible under the surface of his mask. “Okay, I’m ready! Get ready for anything-- Batman stopped praying, and I’m not sure why he would after all this--”


{Demons, Guardian! God damn demons!}

Cyborg’s body shifted configuration instantaneously to match the invading army that had surged up through the portal created from the Dark Knight’s body. They’d emerged with no sound, but now they were shrieking, and the army of Themyscira was matching them with their wary cry.

{We need back-up!} Cyborg’s 360 degree sensory perception meant he swivelled when a creature raised its claws to disembowel one warrior and then twisted right back around to punch another in the face so hard its head exploded in a red, gory mess.

{Guardian, do you read?}


Batman grappled heavily with the Minotaur, holding the monster back as Hippolyta sprinted across the tunnel, over the Dark Knight’s now heavily armoured back, and then straight for the bullheaded creature’s neck with her sword raised.

The Minotaur exhaled, allowed Batman to push him back a step, and Hippolyta missed the mark, but on her landing, she rolled forward and swiped at the creature’s Achilles tendon, causing it to yelp in pain. It lifted its foot and slammed it down on the sword used to wound it, and the blade shattered, but Hippolyta let go of the hilt at the last second and was already moving away from any repercussive attack.

Concussive blasts from the front of the armour Batman wore sent the Minotaur reeling, but it grunted and readied to press forward. At that moment, with its eyes red and blood frenzy spreading across its brain, another explosion sounded behind it, and from the tunnel that formed at the epicentre emerged the Justice League!

“Mother?” whispered Wonder Woman, immediately taken aback by the sight of her mother fighting side-by-side with the man she loved.

Mister Miracle triggered another Boom Tube under the Minotaur’s feet and it fell into the tunnel that formed immediately. Before it could react, the tunnel snapped shut, and that was that.

“…That was anticlimactic,” said Hippolyta.

“Mother!” repeated Diana. She rushed over to Hippolyta and flung her arms around her, and she returned the gesture.

“It’s good to see you too, Diana,” replied Hippolyta.

“You built another Haystacks?” said Nightwing, looking at the suit of armour surrounding Batman.

“Needs must,” he replied. The suit dissolved as Batman took a step forward and he embraced his ward. “You came for me.”

“Needs must,” countered Nightwing, breaking the hug and steeling himself. “Do you know what happened?”

“Lateral thinking. Killing me solved the crisis. I assume she used the Bow of Charon?” said Batman.

“She… yeah, I mean, she killed you. Yeah.”

Bruce put his hand on Dick’s shoulder. “And yet here I stand.”

“And yet here we all stand, Batman. We’re all in the realm of the dead,” said Aquaman, “and we need to get out of here. We need to bring you back.”

Wonder Woman looked over to Batman and she looked sorrowful. “My love…”

“I know. There’s nothing that needs to be said. I understand,” he replied.

Meanwhile, Mister Miracle tapped his shoulder. “One Boom Tube to the top of the stairs, coming right--”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Minotaur smashed through the wall behind him and crashed into the wall in front of him, careening away and taking Mister Miracle with him. The New God refused to go easily-- instead he threw his hands out at the last moment and grabbed at the hole his body had created, and with an immense effort shouted. “Go! Get out of here! I’ll escaaaaaaaa--”

“Scott!”

Aquawoman reached out toward him, but it was too late, and he was pulled out of sight. The team rushed to where the Minotaur had stampeded away with Scott Free and saw nothing but darkness in the new opening that had been created by their exit-- the walls of the tunnel began to crumble to reveal the infinite staircase they’d started travelling down to reach here-- and there was no sign of the doorway back to Themyscira.

“What do we do now?” asked Nightwing.

“Climb,” said Batman, leading the way.


The impact made where Harper was thrown against the wall was enough to fracture the ancient stones of the tower. He grunted, well aware that his arms had nearly buckled in their sockets where he’d been able to lift his shield at the last moment before Hippolytus threw his punch. His back screamed but he couldn’t stand down now.

{Guardian, do you read?} came Cyborg’s voice across the nanotelepathic link.

“You’re among… friends… son…” said Harper, focusing his attention on his opponent, unable to focus on responding to his teammate.

“My blood is older than your entire bloodline, and I have lived an age on top of that. I am not your son!”

Hippolytus moved fast, the kind of speed Harper had only witnessed when Wonder Woman herself had let herself loose. What did he know about this guy? A being of myth, just like Diana, but he wasn’t blessed by the gods before his disappearance? What had Ares and Circe done to him?

The madman threw another punch and the shield between the blow and Harper’s body was shoved backwards into the Guardian’s face. Blood leaked from Harper’s nose, but he knew that it wasn’t meant to merely cause damage-- that punch was meant to kill.

Naelia was unconscious and bleeding from the ear, while the two soldiers who’d guarded the door had come in only to be scattered by a frenzy of attacks by Hippolytus. Harper had seen them hesitate against their better judgement when they’d entered the room-- all they knew of the man who attacked them was that he had once been good-- and that hesitation had nearly cost them their lives.

Hippolytus kicked forward, and Harper was thrown through the door to the room, into the corridor outside. He skidded to a stop and managed to stay on his feet, looking up only to see Hippolytus charging toward him. Instead of putting his shield between them, he dodged to the side and grabbed Hippolytus by the neck and back, hoping to use his opponent’s momentum against him, but he was surprised when the lion of Themyscira pulled himself back, his strength so immense that he simply came to a standstill instead of being thrown in any direction.

“You’re… strong…” said the Guardian.

“Thank Ares,” spat Hippolytus, throwing Harper’s hands off him and then shoulder barging him into the nearest wall, causing the hero’s golden helmeted head to clunk heavily against the stone.

The Guardian slumped down, his arms not responding. Concussion? Probably. He tried willing movement back into his limbs but his head was scrambled, and it would take-- Not this-- A super strong punch to the face sent his skull whiplashing back-- and then another blow-- and another--

Hippolytus’ blood-covered fist was grabbed from behind and he turned with a snarl. Barda bought her Mega-Rod down against his skull and knocked him out with a blow that was thrown with all her might.

Harper looked up at her with swollen eyes and smiled. “Aren’t you… a sight… for…”

“The others are at the threshold, but when you didn’t respond to Cyborg’s message, I came here first,” said Barda, helping him up.

“And… Ares?”

“Depowered and in the custody of his pantheon,” she said.

The Guardian unclipped his helmet with clumsy, shaking hands and looked at the massive dents covering it. “Good work… soldier… not like… things could escalate… any…” Then he passed out.


The stairs swarmed with demons. Creatures of myth. Evil spirits made physical by their presence upon the stairwell… or perhaps the Justice League could touch them-- fight them-- because they themselves had become immaterial. A metaphysical question for another time, one that Wonder Woman herself may know the answer to, if asked.

“Huff… huff… huff…” Aquaman was doubled over, trying to catch his breath, while Aquawoman drew moisture from the air-- she was almost surprised by the amount of liquid available-- and fought back against the legions. But soon enough, they cleared a space, and it gave them time to speak.

“What’s wrong, Arthur?” she asked.

“I might have been tortured a little bit a few hours ago. Thought I’d rehydrated enough to be useful… but I’m not as strong as I should be under such circumstances,” he replied.

“Batman and I will lead the way,” said Hippolyta. “Whatever you do, if we fall behind, do not look back at us. If you do, we will be struck down to the depths of the stairwell, unable to aid you… or in his case, return to the land of the living.”

“The legend of Orpheus and Eurydice?” offered Nightwing.

Hippolyta smiled. She knew of this man, just as she knew of the Dark Knight, from stories told by her daughters. Donna admired the former Boy Wonder, and his actions so far, fighting side-by-side with the others, affirmed why she’d hold such a view. “‘Legend’? How very cute. The history, young hero. The history,” she said.

“What’s an Orpheus and Eurydice? Who, even?” asked Mera, checking on her husband.

“Two lovers separated by the gulf of the underworld. Orpheus managed to secure Eurydice’s return to the land of the living, but only if he kept his faith and didn’t look back at her on the way out. Unfortunately for them both, Orpheus lost his faith and turned to check if she was was still there… she was, but because he looked, she was whisked back to her place in the underworld.”

“…Okay, so we move forward, we don’t give you guys a chance to be looked back on, and you can both come back?” said Nightwing.

Hippolyta shook her head. “I cannot return. I have lived a long life, and it is not my fate.”

“Mother, this may be the work of the fates, bringing you back to us… we just… you can come back.”

“Diana, I did not have a chance to say my goodbyes to you, but this is what this opportunity is. I was struck down before I could tell you one last time how much I love you, and how proud you’ve made me. The fact that you’ve come this far for someone you love tells me that I raised a woman into a loving, powerful figure, and if you demonstrate such love for your sisters as you do this man, then I know Paradise Island is in good hands. It is your time, not mine.”

“We’ve got incoming,” said Nightwing, raising his escrima sticks. From behind came another wave of monsters.

“Diana, my daughter, know that I am proud, but most of all, and most importantly, that I love you, forever and always,” said Hippolyta. “Now raise your hands and lets fight back against the horde!”

“QUEEN! OF! BITCHES!”

Behind them, charging up the stairs with blood and spittle frothing at his mouth, was the Minotaur. Scraps of Mister Miracle’s cape hung tattered on his singular horn. He seemed to be larger, fuelled by his anger, billowing with size with every hoofed footfall.

Batman grimaced. “Damn! Why aren’t we any closer to the--?”

Diana looked up with wonderment. “Grey Lady!”

Persephone, the Grey Lady of the Underworld and God of the Dead, had appeared, larger than the staircase itself, her form barely able to be comprehended by those assembled on the steps. She reached her hand up far out of sight to the Justice League and then another below them. With little effort, she drew her hands together, shortening the stairwell and bringing the portal back to the land of the living within arm’s reach to them. She looked down at Diana, smiled, and then vanished.

“Thank you,” whispered Wonder Woman.


“He’s coming back! He’s coming back!” shrieked the demons, battling against the Amazons assembled against them.

“You’ll all die! Dead at his horn! Dead at his hand! At his hoof!”

Cyborg sliced a wave of the gibbering creatures in half thanks to a concentrated burst of white noise from his arm cannon, and then watched as the throngs that emerged from the portal began to thin. Whatever forces had gathered were beginning to wane, unless even more were lying in wait down in the dark?

{Who are they talking about?} asked Firestorm, transmuting the ground beneath the demons into liquid and then into titanium, locking them in place for the Amazons to slice and dice to their hearts content.

Cyborg had been fighting for what felt like hours, but if he paused to think, to process, his internal clock would have given the exact length of time that they’d been fighting back against the waves of demons. He wasn’t tired, he was just… aware, dimly, somewhere, that time had passed and he wasn’t done yet. He focused on the question Firestorm asked, and responded after blasting another demon’s head off. {Donna once told me that one of the last times that all hell broke loose on the island it was because a Minotaur lay siege to Themyscira at the behest of Ares-- he murdered Hippolyta and was stabbed with his own horn by Wonder Woman-- could be that?}

{So if he comes back… that’s bad?} said Firestorm.

{Well it ain’t great!} replied Cyborg.


“The way out is cleared, go, now, while there’s time,” said Hippolyta, facing down the hordes of demons from where she stood, a step up from Diana.

“What about you?” asked Wonder Woman.

“I’ll hold him back. I’ll keep him from following. I’ll do what needs to be done.”

“I can’t leave you again, I can’t,” said Diana.

“Oh, you never left me, and I never left you,” said Hippolyta, touching her chest above her heart and then mirroring the gesture over Diana’s breastplate. “Go, now. Live, love. I’ll always be where you need me to be, whenever that may be.”

“I love you,” whispered Wonder Woman.

“And I love you too. With all my heart. But you knew that,” said Hippolyta. And then she dove down, into battle for the final time, in the land of the dead.

Batman stood at the threshold, just beneath the world, and beckoned the team forward. They emerged back in Themyscira, but Diana held back, watching her mother work.

“Diana! It’s time to go!”

“My mother…”

“She knows what she’s doing, Diana,” he reached out his hands, “come on!”

Reluctantly, she did as she was told, took his hand, and allowed him to help her out of the cut in the world made from his corpse. She didn’t look back, but her hand held his tight, and they exchanged roles, this time her helping him emerge, but at the last split second there was a tightness where there had once been slack, and she was tugged back down into the hole. She turned to look down, confused, but a pair of hands covered her eyes, preventing her from looking down into the underworld.

“Don’t! Don’t look!” said Nightwing, his own eyes shut tight.

“What’s happening? What happened?” asked Diana.

The two of them stumbled back, and when they fell to the floor Wonder Woman realised she was no longer holding Batman’s hand, and he had not emerged from what was now a closing hole into the underworld. Wind sucked downwards, the corpses of all the demons and monsters that had emerged were being dragged down into the pit, back where they had emerged from, and there was no Batman, just a yawning, closing mouth, and then--

The Minotaur roared as it emerged from the gash in space, and the armies of Themyscira were all equally taken aback, but that doubt didn’t last for longer than a second, their spears aimed toward its chest-- but it didn’t have a chest-- it was just a one-horned head, and holding it was--

Hippolyta emerged from the underworld, bloodied and battered, supported by Batman and Mister Miracle. She was alive, and so was he, and of course Scott Free had escaped whatever death trap he’d been marooned in under the world.

Batman’s corpse finally blinked out of existence, and Wonder Woman rushed to embrace the living version of him, kissing him deeply as the two lovers clung to each other like they’d been separated by the gulf of life and death-- just as they had.

Barda launched Scott up in the air, shaking her head at his dramatic return, while Hippolyta cast the head of the Minotaur aside and looked down at where she’d climbed out from the land of the dead. The soil was blackened, but there was no sign of the wound that had finally healed.

“H-Hippolyta?” whispered General Phillipus, astounded by the sight of her best friend and once-queen back in the land of the living.

“I was dead, but I realised I didn’t want to stay dead. Not when there’s so much life still left to live,” said Hippolyta, hugging Phillipus tightly.

“How’d you make it out of there, Scott?” asked Aquaman, curious.

“You want to know how I escaped?” said Miracle, lowered to the ground by Barda to answer the question.

“Yeah, I mean… yeah,” said Aquaman.

Mister Miracle just winked, and then kissed his wife.


During the celebrations that took Themyscira over, Lyssandra met Diana in the foyer of Maniae. The tall building was based on the beaches of Paradise Island, a winding building that endeavoured but failed to reach the sun, with foundations that dug into the depths of the earth. Just because it was a day and night of celebration, didn't mean the chief doctor of the Themysciran mental institution could take it off.

Last time Diana had been here, it was to check on the recovery of her sister Arsinoe*, who had once been twisted by the machinations of Apokolips into becoming the sinister Silver Swan**, and the realisation that life had prevented her from being there for her broken friend, the woman who had once been the leader of her royal guard, saddened Wonder Woman.


“He’s so angry, Diana. I’ve never seen such anger,” said Lyssandra.

“Ares and Circe’s machinations?” posed Diana.

“That, I think, and more… his perception of time… it was stretched to breaking point… to him… from what I’ve been able to glean… he’s been tortured for millennia. They took him apart and put him back together again wrong. Can you imagine? Thousands of years being butchered by Ares and Circe.”

“…Horrifying…”

“Come, I’ll walk you to his room. To keep the other patients safe, we’ve had to clear the lowest levels. An armed guard is on duty and your friend, too. The golden one.”

A few minutes later, they’d arrived. The Guardian standing next to the door of the warded chambers that Hippolytus resided within. He was bruised and battered, but already recovering thanks to his all-American healing gifts that had kept him young since World War II.

On either side of the door were armed warriors, their spears crackling with energy in case they needed to battle back against the evil that currently prowled inside the cell.

“I’m sorry he lashed out at you, James,” said Wonder Woman, as she approached the room. “Lyssandra has updated me on his condition…”

“Not your actions to apologise for, your majesty,” replied the Guardian. Dried blood caked the side of his neck, and the tell-tale remnants of a gash at his hairline told a story that Diana didn’t need to be hear. “Your sisters tell me that the room is warded against violence, that he cannot hurt you inside, but just… be careful. You and I both know there’s more to conflict than physical acts.”

“Unfortunately, yes, I am well aware…” said Diana, trailing off.

Harper picked up on her discomfort and quickly changed the subject. “I’m headed back to Laputa. There’s… there’s something to be addressed. But before you go in… I heard your mother has returned to the land of living. I’m… I’m genuinely very happy for you, Diana. God speed.”

Wonder Woman placed a hand on the side of the Guardian’s face and smiled, then she turned toward the door that separated her from the man she’d once married in the hopes of uniting two tribes of Amazons. The act was a successful one, the two groups of women having now fully integrated together, but with his return, who knew what seismic shift it might mean for the sisters she’d welcomed into her home?

One of the guards opened the door, and Wonder Woman entered.

“Husband…” started Diana.

“Wife,” replied Hippolytus with a snarl.

She’d never heard such malice from him before, but considering what Circe had done to him, splicing aspects of the God of War into his being to make him a weapon of the enemy, she shouldn’t have been surprised.

“The… the mystics of the island are working on removing the taint left behind by Ares and Circe… they’ve exorcised a large amount of the celestial scar tissue they inflicted upon you…”

“And when they’re done, you, and all our sisters, will know that my hatred for you does not come from some spell inflicted upon me, but from your own spiteful actions toward me,” replied Hippolytus.

Diana was taken aback. “Hippolytus, you can’t possibly--”

“I sacrificed myself to save our sisters. I threw myself willingly into the event horizon of Hades’ Tear all those years back*, and I thought my act would mean the end of Circe’s threat to those we loved. But I was betrayed. I know, not by you, but your actions following were as much a stab in the heart as the ones performed by that bitch and her daughter.”


“I don’t understand…”

“You knew Circe was alive! She journeyed out into the world to twist it to her own ends! She came to you for sanctuary!* Did you not take one moment to think that her survival might mean my own? Did you not even ask the question?”


“I…”

“Or is it that knight of yours that kept you from searching? Did you think… oh, I can almost hear it in your voice, wife… did you think that if we were to be united… if you found me… that your heart would be torn between two lovers? That your newly kindled affection for that broken little man would be stamped out by our connection? You’re selfish, Diana. Always have been. Always will be. And the damage you leave in your wake… Well, look at me? I am that damage.”

Diana didn’t say anything for a few moments and she considered the daggered words spat from her husband’s lips. Finally, she cleared her throat, and said, “You’re right, in your own way. Not that I didn’t search for you for the reasons you lay out. That’s preposterous. But I didn’t dare hope… and that’s not me. That’s not what I stand for. I should have seen Circe, and I should have hoped for your survival. I should have searched for you. And for the fact I didn’t, I must apologise. With all my heart. You have been let down by me, and deserved better.”

“Words. Just words,” he murmured. “Leave now. I can’t hurt you but if I had a choice… I would do that and more. Oh, and wife? Consider our marriage annulled.”


The Guardian sat before the assemblage of Justice Leaguers. They were gathered to address an issue that had long festered under the surface, and if they didn’t address it now, they never would. “Batman is off active duty. Wonder Woman too. There are no rules to this… no bylaws… but I think it’s time you came clean with us, Katar.”

Hawkman’s hands sat in his lap as he shot a glance toward Aquaman. “It’s my business.”

The King of the Seas levelled his gaze at the Hawk Knight, and then turned to Cyborg. “Victor, I spoke out of turn when we were in S.T.A.R. Labs*. You were correct in your--”


“I’m sick,” said Hawkman, tersely.

Cyborg could detect the biometric change in the half-Thanagarian when he spoke. Heart rate increased. Blood pressure spiked. Stress. He was telling the truth though. That much he knew.

“I asked Aquaman to not tell anyone*, but that’s not fair to him. He lied for me when we were in S.T.A.R. I shouldn’t have put him in that position. We don’t know each other that well. It’s an imposition.”


“What is it?” asked Barda.

Hawkman shrugged and smiled. “A pervasive form of cancer. I’ve been working with S.T.A.R. to mitigate its effects, to find a cure, but so far, no luck.”

“Why didn’t you come to us?” asked the Guardian.

Majestic leaned forward to watch Hawkman’s response. He’d known for months but said nothing. It wasn’t his place, and he’d been sworn to silence*.


“Because there’s enough trouble in the world without me adding my own to yours. I’m… I’m a proud man. I fear you may think I’m arrogant, but… but I’m stupid and I’m prideful. If one moment spent on saving me means we don’t save someone else, then… then what good am I to this team?”

“Well… I think we can all agree that you’re an idiot,” said the Guardian.

“Excuse me?” said Hawkman.

“I’ve not been a member of this team for as long as you, but I’ve been in this line of work longer than most. Hell, I fought side-by-side with your father back in World War II. Back when I was just a kid. And you have to know… that is the most god damn foolish thing I’ve ever heard. You’re part of this team. Part of this family. If there was anything we could do, we’d do it. You’d do the same for me, and we’d all do the same for you.”

“Then I have to resign. I won’t be an albatross around this team’s neck,” said Hawkman.

“Albatross? No one’s asking you to be a damn albatross,” said the Guardian.

“Just… be a hawk,” said Firestorm.

Hawkman looked over to her, and his brow furrowed. She looked genuinely concerned for him, and she’d only known him for a matter of months. “Firestorm…”

“You… you say you’d weigh us down. Or whatever, I dunno, I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know how you really feel. But do you remember what you did when we first met? When the oceans lost cohesion*? Maybe you don’t… maybe it was just a… a Wednesday to you. But for me, it was… you convinced me that I could make a difference. That I could save the world. I’ve been Firestorm for five minutes. I lost my boyfriend to whatever sickness meant he couldn’t be a hero anymore. And now you’re saying… you’re, what, a lost cause? If we give up on you, do I give up on him? Don’t… don’t be stupid. Yeah, like Guardian says, don’t be so damn stupid.”


“I’ll ask Angie to coordinate with S.T.A.R. on your medical case history,” said the Guardian. “You’ve reached out so far, we’ll reach out further. This isn’t the end, Katar. This isn’t us giving up on you. You’ve saved the world so many times, saved us so many times… so now it’s time for us to return the favour. I’m just sorry it took this long for us to find out. I hate wasting time when there’s a life on the line.”

Hawkman felt something swell in his chest and he cleared his throat, before excusing himself from the meeting. “I’ll… be in the aviary. I’m expecting Hawkgirl. I’ll… update her. I… uh… I… thank you. Thank you all.”


“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…”

The prayer did nothing to comfort her. The rain hammered down, drenching her already sodden clothing, but it did nothing to slacken her grip on the guard rail of the bridge. She held onto it, swaying in the freezing temperature, trying to figure out-- trying to count-- reasons to stay alive.

Waves crashed in the river below. How comforting it would be to join them. How easy. No more pain. No more suffering. She wouldn’t even drown… her neck would just snap on impact, and her body would be smashed to pieces on the breaks.

There was simply something missing. Like she’d been worn down and hollowed out. It had never been this bad before, but with the crisis of faith she’d experienced… that the whole world had experienced… the size of it… the scope…

How long had Amy Danielewski been on the staff at the Themysciran Embassy?

And what was her life before that? Back when her parents had died? Alcohol, drugs… the crippling depression… the self-doubt… the anxiety… kept in check by counselling and medication… a support structure developed with Diana herself, along with the others at the embassy, the women’s centres…

“I can’t keep doing this…” she said, clutching at the rail.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Amy remembered Diana saying ten years ago, on this very same bridge, “will you allow me help you find your footing?”

And what had come with that? Counselling, a twelve-step program, and then a job offer. Come work for me, and help those in need when they need it the most. Help those who cannot help themselves.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…”

She’d not taken a sip, she’d not taken a drink, but it was all too much. She’d tried--

“Amy! Amy I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

She looked up and Diana was there, the rain hammering down on her, floating in the air like an angel.

“…Diana?”

Wonder Woman held her hands out to the young woman and shook her head mournfully. “I’m so sorry, Amy. I should have listened. You came to me, and I didn’t see how much pain you were in. I’m such an idiot*. But if you’ll let me, I can bear some of the weight that’s pushing you down? Will you let me try?”


“Diana… it’s… it’s so hard…”

Dazed and exhausted, Amy reached out to Wonder Woman, but her knees gave way and she slipped-- she headed toward the waves, her fate sealed-- only for Diana to catch her, and float above the waters, holding her friend closely.

“It’s okay. We’ll get you through this. You’re stronger than you think.”


Bruce emerged from the medical scanner installed in the base of the Cave. Trails of chemical spray drifted off his body but dispersed harmlessly, and he padded toward the monitors that contained the readings the device had taken. He pulled on some pyjama bottoms and jogged on the spot for a few moments, feeling how loose his muscles felt after a long day’s dying and returning.

“Huh.”

He’d felt strange since emerging from the underworld, and when he first peeled off his costume, he began to figure out why. Every stab wound, every bullet hole, every injury he’d ever experienced… the physical damage was gone. There was no scar tissue on his body. On a whim he checked his throat, and sure enough, found that his tonsils had regrown. It didn’t take being the world’s greatest detective to put two and two together…

Alfred was standing nearby, rubbing his chin and considering the data before Bruce even had a chance to analyse the readings. “Sir, I must say, much as I hate to admit it…when you were revived through whatever mystic means at Lady Diana’s disposal, your body seems to be fully healed.”

“I thought as much,” he replied.

“All the years of scarring… they’ve gone. In theory, you’re the fastest and strongest Batman since… well, ever.”

“I just hope you can forgive me for it,” said Wonder Woman, emerging from a portal into the cave, trailing water with every step.

“Ah, well, if you will excuse me, I have work to do in the armoury,” said Alfred, extraditing himself from the scene.

Bruce waited for his manservant to leave and then turned to Diana. “You saved the world when I couldn’t. You saved me when all was lost. There’s nothing to be forgiven.”

“Nightwing seems to think otherwise…” said Diana.

“That’s for him to discuss with me, if he feels it necessary. Then again… the whole world saw you shoot me in the chest…”

“…And the whole world saw us kiss,” said Diana.

“That poses a problem.”

“Bruce, if you’re going to give me the speech about how anyone connected to you is vulnerable or becomes a target for your enemies… might I remind you--”

Bruce cut her off. “Nope, I tend not to argue with women I love who can also beat me up. No, the problem is… with that out there, it means there’s no future for Bruce Wayne and Diana. Only Batman and Wonder Woman.”

“Oh,” whispered Diana, realising what he was saying.

“If we were to… go out, as ourselves, in public… if we were to be seen… people would figure out my secret. They’d know that beneath the mask, Batman is Bruce Wayne.”

“I see.”

“So all we have now is… well, subterfuge. That is… even if you want to continue. With Hippolytus back, I assumed--”

Diana covered the ground between them impossibly fast and put her hands around his. “He’s not the man I love. You are. And I will accept whatever form our relationship has to take. But… I love you. And I don’t--”

Bruce interrupted her with a kiss, and she returned it immediately. Moments later, their lips parted, and he said, “I love you too.”


“We employed you to perform a task, Doctor Psycho. And it appears that your work has come apart at the seams.”

“It… it couldn’t be helped… the Justice League… they weren’t ever supposed to discover the work. It’s… it’s fine that they did, of course. They haven’t learned anything. Everything’s still in place…”

“Well, we do have the genetic material harvested from the Amazon. But the rest of the black sites are compromised now, are they not? All the research done in metagene compatibility and the gen-factor harvesting will have to be moved to a separate cell. Helix is ready to come into play.”

“Helix? I mean, if you think that’s best. And, yes, the black sites have to… have to be cleared and sterilised before the League arrive. That’s all an unfortunate, yes. But all the data we’ve gathered… the children are programmed. They’ll be returned to their parents, but the infection… your infection… it’s in play. It’ll spread. And then whole swathes of the population will fall in line as well. Cattle, isn’t that what you wanted? Cattle and livestock?”

“That’s exactly what we wanted, Doctor. You’re still the man for the job. Helix could use you.”

“Whatever you need to humiliate and destroy the superheroes, I’m at your beck and call.”

“And what of Hawkman? You worked alongside him for so long… will he cause any problems?”

“Not if I cause him some problems first…”

“Fantastic. The United States government thanks you for your hard work, Doctor. You’ll be rewarded handsomely in the new world order.”


“…Did you forget about it? I wonder what else I’ve made you forget…”

Katar Hol sat in Laputa’s aviary, contemplating his future. They knew now. The Justice League knew about his sickness. The Nth metal stopped its spread, but he’d been without its exposure for the better part of the day, and he had to assume that the cancer had increased its foothold in his body. He’d told Majestic not to look at him. He didn’t want a diagnosis to come from Zoom Vision. He wanted to speak to Harrison Wells again, once the S.T.A.R. Labs founder was himself healthy.

They’d established the timeline, easily enough. Harrison had worked with him initially, but between M’ale’fak’s skulduggery and the Xebel attacks on the surface world, he’d been kidnapped. They still didn’t know entirely why, but it had to do with the strangely superpowered children. More study was needed. More tests.

“Katar?”

He turned at the soft voice of his beloved, Kendra. He smiled as she approached, and returned the gesture when she flung her arms around him.

“I heard what happened… they know now, right? So, they can help?”

Katar felt strange. He looked at Kendra, but realised something that shook him to his core. He knew she was the love of his life. He knew her birthday. How they met. But he couldn’t remember her last name. It eluded him. It was like he was trying to search for something in the dark, with no light to guide his way.

The voice of Doctor Psycho echoed in his head. “…I wonder what else I’ve made you forget…”


“John? ‘Ey, you listenin’, John lad?”

He looked up, and Brad Smithers would be a liar if he didn’t think his mate looked spooked. They’d been drinking here since the nineties, back when it was legal to smoke indoors and not give a damn about secondary smoke inhalation or lung cancer.

That was then, and this was now. Now being, the place was one of those chain monstrosities, something’Spoons or whatever’Ards, but back in the day it was the Moira and Gav’s King Richard III; they ran it like it was their second home, and for all intents and purposes it was. They got churned out by increased costs and the softly softly of London gentrification.

But then again, why name a pub after a monarch who was mostly famous nowadays for being a hunchback who had his corpse stolen from York by Leicester after they found it under a carpark?

“What’s up?” Brad asked.

“I’m just wrapping my head around what we just saw. Every god. Every… every higher being. The world just saw they were real. Every last one of them.”

“Yeah, and what, John? You think it’s gonna change anything?”

John Constantine sipped his bitter and grimaced. “Bollocks, I think it just might.”

TIME PASSES:

Hippolyta has returned to the land of the living. Stop.

Queen Diana of Themyscira has stepped down as monarch of Paradise Island. Stop.

A referendum is to be held to discuss the future of rule on Paradise Island. Stop.

The cameras didn’t stop rolling with Ares’ retreat. Stop.

The world saw Batman and Wonder Woman kiss. Stop.

An enhanced actor in the world did not like what he saw. Stop.

Change is coming. Stop.

Change is not always good. Stop.

NEXT TIME: For the first time since 2015, BATMAN reunites with SUPERMAN, as the WORLD’S FINEST team come together to investigate the strange new reality of the Dark Knight’s existence! Meanwhile, AQUAMAN and WONDER WOMAN attend a charity gala only to meet a slew of guests from the past, present and future of the DC2niverse! While that’s all going on, the long simmering mystery of THE FLASH rears its head as a secret from the 1960s superhero community is revealed with deadly consequences! All this and more in the first JUSTICE LEAGUE ANNUAL since 2009! See you in January 2018, True Believers!


And then NEXT ISSUE: Who is PATHFINDER? The Justice League have been led by the nose from mystery to mystery and it’s about time they found out who their mysterious benefactor really is! This next four-parter leads into a special anniversary event that begins in #75, so be sure to keep up as the adventure continues!

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