hey there, well thanks for taking your time to read this, its a good few years in the making... please enjoy the story, and strap yourself in... this will start dark, get darker, and will change the DC in scary ways, cos unlike the lame Final Crisis, here Evil really will win... well.... until *HE* returns... thats all your getting for now...

please take time to review and keep an eye out cos hopefully we will update once a week... i don't own the characters...

based in the DC after Final Crisis

Once on a tv show I saw, after this big battle, the hero, quite like myself, got his ass kicked from one end of the city to the next. When he woke up, he was surrounded by friends and family, and today I guess I'm just that lucky. As my eyes fluttered open and adjusted to the light coming from overhead I heard voices garbled just outside my field of vision, limited as it was.

I tried to raise my hand to silence the noise, but that just wasn't happening, maybe it was tied down, or maybe I was just too far out of it to be able to do that. Whatever the reason I would worry about it later. I closed my eyes, and blinked a few times, hoping eventually my eyes would focus and that I would be able to see something clearly. Hell I just wanted the room to stop spinning, that would of been good enough in my book, but sadly neither was happening. What the hell hit me? I couldn't even remember that, this was definitely not good.

I closed my eyes and just lay there for a while, conscious and knowing something was going on, but what the hell was going on. For the first time in a long time I was beginning to feel fear, and it was not good.

**

"Please do something!" Sobbed a woman. Her eyes were now as red as her hair as tears streamed down her face as she looked on, a few meters away from where a charred body lay.

"They will do everything they can for..."

Beep.... Beep... Beeeeeep... Beeeeeep.... Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.........

"I'm sorry Clark, there's nothing we can do. He's gone."

The redhead screamed and collapsed in her chair, doubled over in pain. This couldn't be happening. No, this wasn't fair, it just couldn't be happening. Not now.

"I'm sorry Barbara.. he's gone."

It didn't take super powered hearing to hear the young woman's heart breaking, but what could he do, except be there.

Turning, the Man of Steel, took the cape from his shoulders and looked at it, thought about what it stood for, and then laid it down on the table over the battered body and pulled it up till it covered his chest, his neck and his entire face, till only his boots were showing.

What could he do?

What could he do?

"Who is responsible for this?" Came another voice, controlled yet with an underlying hint of rage.

Clark turned to look in the direction to see it was the sole remaining member of the infamous "Bat Clan" Robin otherwise known as Timothy Drake, who in all honesty didn't look too much better than the body he had just covered with his cape.

"That doesn't matter just now Robin..." Clark began.

"THE HELL IT DOESN'T! WHO DID THIS!" Yelled back the young man.

**

It was one of these things, I was scared, but I wasn't really. Well, I was kinda confused.

I mean, I felt really sick.

Then I felt really cold.

Then I felt, well... I felt like... well, this is just different shall we say.

In front of me, and well, all around me, was sky, as in that bright blue thing, or dull grey thing if you're in Gotham or the Haven, and its warm. Not too hot, not too cold, just a nice heat.

The other weird thing is that I seem to be standing on something, but I can't see what it is, the clouds are obscuring the view of whatever it is I am standing on.

This is totally surreal, and coming from me, that's gotta be some kind of other worldly surreal.

**

"What shall we do with him?"

"I do not know. This is a rare event. A very rare event."

"How rare?"

"Well in all of my years this has never happened before, nor will it ever happen again."

"But how do you know?"

"I do not."

"Then how...?"

"I do not know."

**

As Wonder Woman sank to her knees, the news was just too much. She couldn't handle this. Not now.

Bruce's death was only to recent, and now Dick... not like this she mumbled to herself.

"Diana?" a voice came from outside, it was Donna, her sister. She looked up and tears began to stream down her face, there was no point in hiding it.

Donna sank to her knees and grabbed hold of the Amazon known to the world as Wonder Woman and began to cry tears into her blood stained hair. Diana could feel Donna's body shudder as she broke down in tears, but then her body was pulled sharply away.

She opened her eyes to see Donna lying against a wall stunned and a black gloved hand reach down and grab her dark costume and yank her to her feet and pull her close.

"Get out or your next." The voice said seething as he shoved Donna in the direction of the door which she never quite made as she stumbled to the ground.

Next as Diana tried to stand a black boot came crashing down above her chest and just below her neck, pinning her against the cot she had slid off, and the floor.

She didn't even try to resist. She looked at the young man and noticed how calm he became.

He removed the boot and leaned in close, and in the background he could hear the noise of someone running, he knew who it was and ignored it.

"You sicken me Amazon." He snarled.

The footsteps stopped as the person skidded to a halt beside Donna, and she looked into the near pitch black room.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked, in shock and awe at the scene. She moved to intercept Diana's attacker but was stopped by Donna who was also clueless to the situation.

"All your warrior code of honor, decedents of the Gods. Where was it when he stood before you?" He sneered. "Where was it when he defended the innocents and you let a damn ring drive you insane?

"If I was not honoring a legacy, his legacy, I'd kill you." He said bringing himself right against her cheek, his lips less than an inch away.

Diana looked into his darkened face which was only partially visible thanks to the light shinning in the door and the eerie light from the eyes on his domino mask.

"If I see anyone within fifty miles of Gotham, I'm coming for the League and those green fireflies. Spread the word, Gotham is officially off limits." He said in a voice no louder than a whisper.

Suddenly a flash of light filled the room and the three women were blinded. When their sight returned they were alone, the attacker gone.

The two women by the door looked on at Diana for a moment who just started to cry.

**

I stood there for a few more minutes, then I started walking, and as weird as it sounds, I was walking into the light, into the direction of the sun.

I walked for a few minutes, then a few hours, and thats when I noticed it. I wasn't wearing my Nightwing gear. No, it was dark blue trousers and a long dark blue top that fell down past my waist with silver boots finishing off the rather snappy ensemble.

There was a light gentle breeze that hadn't been there before, and a faint noise. I spun to face it and couldn't believe my eyes.

There was a woman standing not too far away from me, dressed in a similar fashion but in dark red instead of blue, and I knew her. It was then I truly believed for the first time ever that my journey was over.

It was then I actually thought I could rest.

Then she opened her arms to me, and ushered me closer.

I did what anyone would do, I walked into her arms, held her close, and I began to cry.

"I missed you so much.." she began in a voice that was so familiar but nearly forgotten. ".. but you made us so proud. You did things that we never believed possible, and you stood tall in the darkness when we thought it would consume you."

Her voice was filled with joy, with pride, but I knew something was burning in my mind.

"Are you real?" I asked, and then she answered with a smile.

"Yes, Richard Grayson, I am real."