Chapter 33

"In the 'Necronomicon' the presence of such a cult among human beings was suggested - a cult that sometimes gave aid to minds voyaging down the aeons from the days of the Great Race."

- "The Shadow Out of Time," H.P. Lovecraft

Pnakoutos

As the Batman continued further into the depths of the alien complex, he began to understand what Zatanna had meant when she said this place felt ancient. Not ancient as in the sense of something abandoned or simply old, like a ghost town. The unreflective black tunnel he was in appeared to be constructed of some sleek dark metal, yet completely free of dust, or other obvious signs of deterioration, and smooth to the touch when he laid his gloved hand on it. There were absolutely no signs of deterioration. As far as he could tell, the surface looked as if it could have been constructed (or grown, he wasn't quite sure, he had thought he sensed heat beneath his glove) yesterday. Bruce was becoming certain that this place, whatever it had been, had not just been abandoned by its mysterious builders. It had that feel of something eternal, timeless, so surpassing time itself that there was no way one could determine age.

No, Bruce thought, this place was merely sleeping, neither abandoned nor just temporarily unoccupied. That was the only way he could think of it, and now that that fool Waller had poked at it, it was beginning to wake up. He saw and heard the signs of it all around him. If the place was coming alive, what about its owners?

That was not good.

Once the doorway opened and Batman and a very reluctant Zatanna had precariously passed through the first chamber, with its mysterious cone-shaped pillars erupting at odd angles from the floor, they had progressed from one chamber to another; one virtually empty save for a single strange object which resembled a starfish-shaped chair, only one obviously not meant for any humans to sit in to another where odd geometric protuberances jutted from the walls and floor, their purpose whether for decoration or some other practical, alien use unknown He had approached the chair-thing, but Zatanna had pulled him away quickly, shaking her head in warning. It was clear she didn't want him to touch anything here. More of those strange markings, in what Zatanna had called the 'Aklo' but of course they made no sense to him, and his companion had been very silent on what they could mean, only shaking her head determinedly when he had asked, to his increasingly annoyed frustration.

Then, another series of corridors, vast and mostly empty like the rooms they had passed. They were unadorned, absent of anything that resembled signs, again only those random glyphs etched into the walls. Again Batman noticed how Zatanna avoided even looking at them, but his photographic mind recorded them for later reference - they could prove useful.

Then, emitting from some unseen source, they began hearing a low, tonal humming; it had been almost imperceptible at first, but it had gradually grown in volume, until it had become a steady and ubiquitous background thrum. The light was also changing, generated from some unknown source perhaps behind the smooth walls. Batman no longer had to use his night-vision to see, he could see quite easily now. But it was still impossible to determine even which direction they were heading, so intense was their sense of disorientation. There was no telling where the corridor they were in was going to lead them to. They could stretch on endlessly as far as he knew. The thought that they might be traveling these corridors endlessly, lost down here forever, was beginning to plant a seed of tension within him, which he clamped down on mentally.

And still there was no sign of the inhabitants but Batman felt...no, he knew, that they could turn a corner (although there were no corners, actually) and bump into them at any time. He was certain that they were still here, and likely very close.

Accidentally bumping into whoever had built this place was not what Batman really wanted to happen.

"I don't like this," he finally murmured aloud. They still were not able to communicate with the surface. "We're walking right into trouble."

"There's not going to be a trap," Zatanna said quietly. "There's no need for that, not with what's here."

"You seem awfully certain of that."

Batman abruptly stopped and stared intently at Zatanna. When she had spoken what she called the 'Aklo' words, her body had shook as if with a high fever but they had subsided; still she hardly looked the formidable magician, just very pale and weary. She needed to be on her game here of all places, Bruce thought. But something else had just occurred to him. He spoke sternly to her.

"I think it's time you told me everything that you people know, about what we're dealing with."

"This is hardly the time-"

"I believe it's precisely the time...since it seems like no one is going to disturb us for the present moment."

He waved his arm, indicating the vast empty corridor that stretched before and behind them, into the darkness beyond. "I need to know what I'm dealing with before we confront whatever created all this, and you're going to tell me, now."

Zatanna said nothing, just indicated her unhappiness with the pursing of her lips. Batman wondered at the reason for her obstinancy. He continued.

"Waller spoke of aliens she called 'The Great Race.' The same beings mentioned in the journals which your father owned, the writer MacKenzie also called them that. The same aliens the Tcho-Tcho supposedly worship and venerate so much that they engage in some kind of ritual to contact them, don't they? You said that your people avoided the Tcho-Tcho, but somehow I highly doubt a race of very powerful magicians would be frightened of primitive bands of hill tribesman, no matter what they could do. You magicians are more than a match for them, I think. From what I've read of the homo magii, they're not exactly as white as the driven snow: they themselves aren't exactly averse to evil shenanigans, are they? You haven't told me the whole story, have you?"

The young woman glared at him, then stammered a reply, "Bruce, there's nothing that I haven't already told you that I-"

"Don't play the fool with me, Zatanna!"

He didn't raise his voice, but Zatanna heard the menace very clear in his voice, as if he'd used a megaphone to broadcast his demands. His eyes were glittering behind his cowl. She thought uneasily that she was still unable to use her reverse-speech because of this damned place.

"You've been obfuscating since the beginning," he accused her. "Why is that?"

"That's not true! I've helped you every step of the way, even when you were being too much of a pointy-headed ass to pay attention! Besides, there are some things you don't need to know," Zatanna protested. "We magicians are guardians of knowledge, we don't just give it out carelessly to anyone. Would you leave your Batcave open for anyone to just wander into?"

"I don't give a damn about the homo magii and whatever secrets your people keep! Your people know what is down here, don't they? You knew how to use those…words to open the doorway, and Waller knew it too, or she guessed. I don't like being the only one kept in the dark, and I'm getting rather tired of it."

Just as he did when he had compelled her to to open the doorway, he loomed menacingly over her, his fists clenched. "You will tell, me, Zatanna. Otherwise, we're never getting out of here alive. I think you know that too."

If she hadn't been too unnerved, and exhausted with pain, she would have put his arrogant ass down the way he richly deserved, backwards speech or not. He was too dense to realize that the best thing for him was to stay ignorant, in this case.

"Even if you did know, there's nothing you can do," Zatanna said wearily.

Batman was stunned by the note of defeat in her voice. That didn't sound like her. He gripped her arm, ignoring her wince. "Let me decide what it is I can do."

For a moment it seemed she would still not talk, and Batman was debating what action he would take next, when she finally spoke.

"In some grimoires, they - the aliens - were known as the Yith. The homo magii called them the Great Race of Yith. I don't know why. I don't know if Yith is the place they came from, or if they were from other place or dimension. What I do know is that, throughout our people's history, it was considered a high mark of a black magician to have knowledge of the Yith."

"Why was that?"

"Because they could...grant knowledge, of a sort. They would...show them things. That's all I know, really."

Batman was stunned. "You mean, that they could contact these aliens? That they're still around?"

Zatanna shrugged. "The story goes that if a magician had the proper knowledge, or help, they could summon one, somehow, and they would be granted visions. They would see things in those visions."

"What kinds of things?"

Zatanna shook her head. "I don't know. It was rumored that the Yith could grant visions of the past, or the future, or provide some other kind of knowledge. But there was always a risk. They - the homo magii - would be possessed by the Yith. There was some kind of exchange. The Yith would take over the body of the magician and the magician would go...somewhere else. I don't know. Supposedly they would be trapped for a time in the city of the Yith. After awhile, the exchange would end but...many more magicians that were possessed more often than not simply died, or went mad, catatonic."

Bruce pressed her relentlessly. "What else?"

"Bruce, I don't know! This was all part of the Forbidden Knowledge, a branch of occult lore that dealt with the Outer Darkness."

"More 'black magic?'" There was scorn in his voice.

Zatanna looked at him sharply. "As black as possible. I told you before, it's forbidden-"

"Right. 'Forbidden' but you people did it anyway. How did you 'black magicians' contact the Yith? Did they use magick or some kind of technology?"

"Magick is all a technology...of a sort. I don't know how they did it. The Tcho-Tcho were a race of people that devoted themselves to this, that was why they were shunned by everyone."

"Your father taught you all this?"

She looked away. "Only enough to be wary of it, and know that messing with this isn't good."

Bruce sensed that she was still holding something back from him. "Why haven't you me all this before? Why all the secrecy? The League isn't a gaggle of teenagers getting their kicks from a Ouija board, we need to know whatever will help us effectively fight."

Zatanna looked at him again, furious. "You know too much already! You saw it for yourself, on Themyscira. That's more than you-"

A sudden tremor reverberated through the ground, and Zatanna instinctively grabbed onto Bruce to keep her balance.

Bruce wondered. "An earthquake?"

The hum had grown louder, and seemed more diffuse, as if coming from many places, also the light was getting brighter. Even the smell of the air down here had changed, more charged and electric. Nothing seemed to be damaged, but the effect was of something big turning on. They looked at each other in concern.

"Bruce," Zatanna said urgently. "We can't stay here! Can't you feel it? This place is coming alive!"

As if to accentuate her words, the ground under their feet shook again.

"What can we do? We don't know how to get out of here, and you're not much help," Bruce replied, ignoring her bristle. "We have to keep going and find out where the center is, find out what else is down here."

He started at her. "This is where the 'possessed' went, isn't it? Pnakoutos is the city of the Yith, their outpost on Earth."

Zatanna nodded reluctantly. "I think so too. You're right Bruce, I've been holding back but not to keep you in the dark. I've known ever since before you went to Themyscira that Waller and her cronies were trying to acquire magickal technology and knowledge. Word gets around in the homo magii community. I don't know why. I think it's because she wants some way to destroy Superman, and she doesn't have the capability right now to do it. A.R.G.U.S. has dedicated people trying to find a way to use magick."

Batman nodded. "Waller knows Superman's vulnerable to magick. So, that's her new strategy. I suppose if I were her, I'd do the same thing."

She shook her head forcefully. "She can't be allowed to do this! You've seen what it can do! That...thing we saw on Paradise Island. She doesn't really know what she's doing."

Batman grunted. "Anymore than the Manhattan Project scientists really knew about the capacities of the atomic bomb. What else are these Yith capable of?"

"I don't know, Bruce, I really don't. But, like the Tcho-Tcho, they've always been associated with the forces of the Outer Darkness. This is much more than summoning up some imps and demons with pitchforks," Zatanna looked at him with genuine fear in her eyes. "Waller is risking the entire destruction of the Earth."

This time, Batman believed she was telling him the truth.

Another rumble, and another increase in the noise and the smell. "Let's get going!" He ordered.

They passed through the corridor, not knowing what they would find even a few feet ahead. Nothing challenged them, no alarms sounded, as would be expected of intruders in a base, human or alien. Only the sense of weirdness growing; Batman felt it threatening his sense of rational thinking, and realized he was recalling all his mental training not to get into a panic. Zatanna he could tell was feeling the same, although he sensed that her own training was helping her. Somehow, there had to be an end to this, he thought. They would emerge somewhere.

And they did.

They effortlessly slipped from one corridor, and felt themselves drop down a ramp; Bruce spreading his cape and holding onto Zatanna so that they would not go tumbling head over heels.

Then the sight that greeted them now stunned both the Dark Knight and the Mistress of Magic into silence.

"What is this place?" Batman whispered.

Bruce wouldn't have thought that himself; he himself would have though of a columbarium, a place with rows upon rows of blocks containing ashes of the dead. Each block, stacked Escher-style, with those strange glyphs on each one, stretching up into the unseen ceiling and down rows, in three-dimensonal layers, of some whitish-gray metal. That's all there was, only here, there seemed to be signs of damage, a struggle. Part of the floor were torn and ripped, shards of metal looking dangerously sharp after the passage of so many years. The light here was brighter than anywhere they had been so far, and it gave them ample view of the vast curved chamber.

"This must be part of their base, obviously," Zatanna said, awed despite herself. "Look, at how structured those blocks are! There's not a millimeter that's off."

"Looks like some kind of an archive," Bruce muttered to himself. He ran his armor-gauntleted hand over the alien metal, feeling the markings etched into their surface just as he had done before at the doorway. Something about them fascinated him, and he wanted to try to delve into their secrets. It was almost as if this chamber was speaking to him, asking him to explore the secrets of this room. Bruce was suddenly certain that this was an archive, a library of some sort. l It was very real and tangible, almost like a voice in his mind.

He shook his cowled head. He had to be on his guard here. This place was almost beautiful, in its sense of alien proportion and purpose. He couldn't let it seduce him. Zatanna seemed to sense his unease, and reached out and squeezed his hand. It brought him back to himself, a little.

"I've seen alien worlds before," Batman said. "I've been to Apokalips before…but this place…it's like-"

"Don't think too hard about it," Zatanna warned. "In fact, don't think of what you think this place is at all.

"This is a...a repository of some sort, isn't it?" Bruce whispered. "You said the Yith possessed the minds of magicians, but why would they do that? What would they get in exchange? What did they want...?" He thought he knew, or guessed.

"Bruce," Zatanna urged. "Don't think of that, please."

Then, for the first time, noise. Shouting. Human voices, shouting. It startled both of them out of their reverie, not only for its suddenness, after the silence, but because they recognized the voices.

"Wonder Woman!" Zatanna gasped.

"Over there!" Batman shouted. He pointed through a far archway, another piece of strange architecture that almost hurt his eyes to look at. Without thinking both of them ran towards the far opening.

As soon as they had passed the boundary, Batman saw his old friend, and relief was mixed in with shock and horror.

They were in a room that was impossibly even larger than the 'archive' chamber they had been in. This one more resembled of a scientific laboratory, although nothing here resembled anything like scientific instruments familiar to Bruce. If the 'archive' room had been strange, this one was a hundred time more so. His eyes were inevitably drawn to what dominated the space, which was three massive cylinders, like cryogenic chambers, in the center of the room, at least twenty feet high. They seemed to be composed of some smoky glass, so while not completely translucent, he could see the dark shapes of something within.

One of them was cracked, and broken, and in pieces.

He heard Zatanna's voice, although he didn't hear what she said, and then saw Wonder Woman was standing in front of them, sword in her hand; she was staring upwards. Batman and Zatanna followed her gaze together saw what she was looking at.

It was perhaps 10 to 15 feet high or more, greenish-gray in color. The bottom half was rugose, cone-shaped, fringed with something that moved and jiggled and glistened in the eldritch light. the upper half of the trunk sprouting numerous appendages that waved or seemed to float in the air, at each end something like claws or shapeless protuberances which may have served as digits, or not. The head, if it could be called such, sprouted from somewhere near the chest, three protruding black globes staring down at he humans. Bruce almost thought he could see their reflection in those emotionless, alien eyes.

It held a man in one of its massive claws. Bruce and Zatanna recognized David Kent, hanging limply, his arms and legs dangling. His empty eyes stared at them, through them, his jaw hanging open suggesting unhingement. But he spoke, regardless of that.

"Now, you are here," it said.

To be continued...

[A/N: The ultimate showdown and the conclusion is approaching. Will Superman and the Flash be able to join their friends in time? What does the Yith truly want? Will Waller get what she wants? Who will live and who will die...that will be revealed soon! As always, thanks for reading and please review!]