The last leg of the journey begins at Venom Swamp, and there the League meets an old enemy who suffers at the hands of Venominaga. There are interesting moral dilemmas as the heroes prepare for the final jump through the Different Dimensions to Oa.

Chapter Nine: Snake Deity's Command

The first thing that hit him was the utter isolation.

Even in space, there was that music of the heavens, the songs of the spheres as gravity made its inexorable pull across galaxies in some clockwork design by some higher power.

Here, there was silence. Complete and absolute and hungry. Darkness so deep that light would be swallowed whole, flashes of the unknown within folds of shadow. An eternal crepuscule suspended between space and places and there were hands reaching out for him, hands clammy and cold and faces of man and woman and they're all mouthing and bleeding and they're trying to drag him into the black-

"Kal!"

They want him, they want him to suffer as they did, in everlasting black and greys and suspension whites and silence-

"Kal, use that Kryptonian strength I know you have and get free!"

They laugh at him, that no one can ever understand save those who were trapped in hell called the Phantom Zone. Fear and pain? Mere trifles. Try and block out the endless shadows and receive only mocking laughter in ruthless return. Light is never so treasured as by those who have been blinded. Try it. Try choking on the darkness until all you breathe is the night. Try wandering the endless pathways of your mind until days melt into years and into centuries more, and still all you can do is keep searching and pray for the darkness to vanish, try it, come-

"We're here!"

And they landed in wet sopping blackness, cold but shocking and good, he realises. It means I'm not there. It means I'm alive. It means... it means...

"Now you know the true feelings of those trapped there," Yubel murmured, floating above all of them, smiling in that cold, calculating yet understanding way of hers like the Snow Queen before some hapless fool once more. "Can you not sympathise with them?"

Kal El swallowed. "That... was the Phantom Zone...?"

"Aye," Yubel murmured in reply as her feet touched the murky waters only just barely. "Judai?"

"I hate the bayou," Judai muttered as he struggled onto shore, shaking his head very much like a wet dog.

"I don't like it either," Johan struggled out, shrugging off his jacket quickly. "Reminds me of Professor Cobra."

"Him and the snake," Judai agreed.

Flash and Lantern struggled up as well, sopping wet, and even Batman seemed to be shivering. The shadows of the swamp flickered in the gloom, as if there were beings hiding in the shadows waiting...

Yubel hummed something under her breath as she finally stood on land, monotonous yet pleasant-sounding. The leaves rustled and something rattled as a figure rose. It wore green robes under a sweeping purple cloak, and bore a golden crown the shape of the top half of a cobra's head to cover its face. Snakes of a greenish hue hissed from all around it's body, and Batman swore that he could see a forked tongue dart out occasionally.

"Lord Vennominon," Yubel smirked. "So the King of Poisonous Snakes himself welcomes us."

"My Lady awaits," the sibilant voice hissed. "Come, dragon-queen, and we shall see for the better. The world of Light leaves its dead here, and it is the first time any from the dead can contact the living."

"Really?" Yubel looked interested. "Judai."

"Come, herald, warrior, runner, soldier of the Lantern, last son, dark knight," the figure bowed its head lightly. "My Lady awaits."

"So the grudging souls of the Reptiles linger here, under the care of their goddess," Zera observed quietly, far quieter than normal. "Grudging souls..."

They came to a clearing where the vines stretched in every direction, forming a canopy overhead. Snakes of size and description varied were present, basking in gloomy light, hanging from the vines, swimming in the central pond. From the murky waters of the pond... there was water so dark, so black that it resembled a mass of undulating snakes from the surface.

"Wait here, my mistress will attend to you." the king hissed. Everyone reacted as he drew a short leaf-blade knife, but made no further motion as he walked to the central pool.

"As an offering to the Snake Deity, I am the beginning of Her rise, and will be there to witness Her end." the King recited with an air of ritual. "As a snake bites its tail, the Ouroboros eternal comes full circle, where the beginning is the end."

Batman started as the blade sank into its own neck and the body keeled forward to be swallowed by the pool of black, yet stood his ground as a mass of writhing greenish snakes rose slowly, the mud flaking off the snakes to reveal eyes covered by a solid mask, a small mouth, gold jewellery, composed of a thick choker and belt and bracelets and torc glittering with green. Beside the richly dressed Medusa was the king, on his knees and bowing.

"My Lady, the Poisonous Snake Goddess, Venominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes," he announced.

"Dearesssst, prepare for my movement," that sibilant command issued forth from her mouth, the edges which were dotted with tiny fangs curved inwards. "Herald... I remember..."

"Venominaga," Judai frowned. "We weren't expecting a summons."

"Normally, I am more than capable of handling my... playthingssss," the snake-woman hissed in some displeasure. "But this one, he is rebellious and belligerent. Part of an old promisssse... and despite what you think of snakes, we must keep our promises. I have reason to believe this one had tried to escape me."

Batman swallowed as the dark waters undulated around the goddess before she rose, and came onto land, sliding her snake body with the ease of great practice across the mud towards the east.

"Come..." the snakes all hissed in a chorus of entreaties as everyone tentatively followed.

More vines snaked about, across the ways the dark goddess led, and everything remained eerily silent.

"Hey, I wonder what's that-" Flash tripped, grabbing onto a nearby stone for support. "Oh, thanks- eh?"

Red-gloved fingers crumbled the moss, brushing away the dust and damp to reveal features frozen in agony encased in stone.

Batman looked around. The clearing was now littered with such creatures, of bird and beast and man and in-between and many others, stuck into some parody of life by their stone holds, seemingly alive yet not. Vines grew around them, trees wrapped them, and slowly, slowly, there was evidence of statuary being broken and worn by time and damp and plant life as unforgiving vines dug their creepers deeper into the cracks.

It was a garden... and a prison.

"My newest toy," the serpentine deity hissed, her long, long tail wrapping around the statue as she waited for their reactions.

In life, Darkseid had been grey-skinned, bearing features that could have been carved from the very rock itself. In death, his features bore no difference, save that his gleaming red eyes, where once bore arrogance and complete belief in the superiority of self over the civilisation was replaced by some bone-deep weariness and suffering. As like the rest, parts of him were mottled with moss, and vines wrapped around him securely and tightly and drove their roots deep within and probably caused him pain.

"So you have brought the illusion of the son of Krypton this time," the statue, or rather half-statue, growled. "What shall you make me do this time? Learn my place? Stand at attention? Or just endure roots being driven into legs which I can feel although being turned into stone? You won't break me, Naga, you won't."

"Darkseid," Superman choked.

The former dictator remained silent. "...Kryptonian. Green Lantern. The Batman, I remember. The immature hero in red." His eyes gleamed as they reached Judai. "Herald. I have been waiting for you."

"Have you?" Judai politely replied.

"The darkness whispers of its agents, as does the light in the shadows," Darkseid scoffed. "As the only one who may defy Venominaga, as the one who stands a chance of getting me out of here, I knew that if I sent my troops to notify those precious to you, you would come. And you did, as the darkness said you would."

"In my Crepuscule?" the serpent goddess hissed, bristling with anger. "Herald..."

"So you sent them to attack Johan," Judai clarified. "So that I would come... and get you out of here?"

"If I am locked in darkness, Apokolips has no king," Darkseid gave a humourless chuckle. "The balance favours New Genesis day by day. As one who watches it, you have to free me."

"Perhaps you misunderstand me," Judai answered, his voice now cold as a winter storm. "I don't have to free you. I don't have to do anything. The old ruler of New Genesis will die soon, and he will repent as will you, and both will have new rulers,so the balance corrects itself. You, on the other hand... you owe a dear friend of mine, and her dear friend as well."

"So, after about... what, a few years of this torture, you end up in the Black Garden strangled by roses day by day." Yubel lightly ticked off. "If we're lucky, we might give you to the Ice Queen, who has some trick about breaking minds. Or maybe we throw you to the Recurring Nightmare for a bit before we go to the Sorciere de Fleur or the Time Wizard where you'll relive your worst times."

"The Shadow Realm is nothing if not creative with its punishments," Zera nodded in agreement. "The punishment for trying to escape without due license is... what was it?"

"Caius issued the sentence as an additional century thrown in," Yubel considered. "Darkseid... see now. I promised you that I will drag you into the darkness I sprang from and bring you pain from everything in my power to. And now I have."

Blue lips brushed the greying brow as the Rose Fiend chuckled darkly. "Judai... Johan... we should leave now."

Batman was still staring at the spectacle that was the fearsome dictator god of Apokolips. "This..."

"Is the afterlife," Zera softly answered.

"That..." Lantern looked a bit green. "That looks sick. And we're just going to leave him there to continue?"

"Dude," Flash mimed throwing up. "I won't ever look at a statue the same way ever again."

"Shouldn't we save him?" Superman asked as they followed the snake goddess's lead. "Even if he did try to kill us or turn Earth into another Apokolips... that's the best thing to do, right?"

"His mind is too broken to do anything," Zera shook his head. "Venominaga would have made sure of that first, to remove the first few crutches of sanity any sentient being has, to force complete reliance of the jailer on those jailed."

"When we came, he was already expecting to be tortured," Batman recalled. "That... would mean that the ambition of escaping no longer exists in his mind. Or that he is biding his time to escape."

"There is no escaping the Shadow Realm," Yubel retorted, a tad sharply as gold threads of power spun around her. "He is bound by its obligations and rules and is its lawful prey. If he escapes, we have pursuit teams to track those."

"It feels completely inhuman to leave him there," Batman finally said after a long period of silence.

"That it may seem," Judai nodded, no longer smiling. "But that is the rule of this world. If he reincarnates, perhaps he would have learnt."

"It's... just cruel."

"This is being merciful," Yubel interjected. "Being cruel is when we slit his throat here so that he forever remains one of us in the darkness."

There was no way to argue back, nor was there a way or a will to snatch Darkseid back anyway, hence Batman chose the only option left as Venominaga led them to the last point to Oa.

He jumped, and he never looked back.

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