"Vic we have been sitting here for two days, are we going to do something or not?"
"The tracker says he's here," said the Question beckoning at the motel they were on stakeout. "And don't use my real name."
Helena punched her husband in the shoulder which caused him to wince in pain. "If you don't like it, I can always give Superman a call."
Question sighed defeated and resumed spying the motel with his binoculars. The condition his wife would allow him to try to meet with Mr. Stein under the table was she would accompany him. He was not sure if he made the right choice. Helena never did have the patience for a stakeout.
Helena groaned again. She was really bored. She was afraid her husband had gone off tangent like he usually did and was looking in the wrong place. She was about to say something when Vic muttered. Helena immediately turned to see a black car pull up. It looked like a limo for the secret service. A driver got out and went inside one of the rooms. Vic motioned to his wife to follow him and they quickly moved over to the car. Before Helena knew it, they were inside the limo in the passenger's seat.
"If that guy was in there why did you-"
"I wanted to be able to talk to him one on one. I do not think he would be as trusting if we just barged in."
"But barging in his limo?"
Vic snickered. "That is different. In his own car, he probably has multiple defenses. Not some random motel room. It will make him feel less scared."
"But won't he see us before he gets in?"
"The windows are tinted. Besides I looked him up, he is blind."
Before Helena could ask any more questions, the door was opened and an old man with dark shades helped himself in. Meanwhile the driver, not noticing the two passengers made his way up front and began to drive. The screen behind him was dark so he could not see the back seats.
Immediately the old man froze and then laughed as the car started.
"It is no good pretending to not be here. One of you is wearing a strong perfume."
Vic groaned inwardly. His wife should know better.
"We can come in peace," Vic said quickly, worried that Stein might activate some defense mechanism.
"Really? Breaking in my car seems very peaceful…"
"If we wanted to hurt you, we could have easily taken you right now," Helena shot back.
Vic put up a hand to tell his wife to calm down.
"What my partner is trying to say is we were hoping to get a few questions answered and we figured you would not be as willing to-"
"So what are you going to do? Torture me? How cliché," remarked Stein sarcastically.
"No. We are actually trying to help. We know about the sword."
For a second the blind man showed mild surprise but quickly masked it with dignified indifference.
"I do not know what-"
Helena had enough and pointed a crossbow at him, making sure he could feel it.
"Do not play games. We know the eye was stolen from you and you are trying to hide the last artifact.
Stein did not seem intimidated but was nonetheless still exasperated.
"Don't you understand what you are getting into? If you reunite them, those artifacts, it will be unleashed. You cannot control it! It is too wild and powerful. It will be the end of us all!"
"But we are trying to prevent that from happening," interrupted the Question realizing Stein was interpreting them as the thieves. "We are on your side."
"No one is on my side…"
"We are," shot back Helena.
Stein gave a disbelieving look in their direction.
"Really? Do you know what it is like to devote your life to keeping something secret, safe from everyone else? Do you know what it is like to know something so important and unbelievable that if you tell anyone they will not believe you but think you are just a conspiracy loon?"
"I do actually. I am the Question, perhaps you have heard of me," Vic introduced himself, deciding it was the appropriate time to.
Stein laughed, "Never did I think the Justice League would figure this out…"
"We are not working with the League right now."
That caused Stein to pause before he grinned again.
"Aw so you're doing off the record stuff again? Correct
me if I am wrong but last time you went off book, didn't Lex Luthor and the U.S. government kidnapped you? "
"Yes but this time I was more cautious. I brought a partner."
"Who still let you blindly walked in unprotected. If I wanted to, I could kill both of you with ease. This car is equipped with so many weapons that I just need to sing a tune and I can have you both gassed out and poisoned simultaneously."
"We met you here to get you to trust us. We have been watching your motel for two nights. We easily could have came to your room and asked but I decided it was better if we were on your home turf."
For a while the three passengers sat in solemn silence. Stein finally broke it.
"Very well. Let's say I believe you. How did you find me?"
"The League was trying to track you. Luckily I was able to pick up the short wave signal Batman put on your cane when you met him. Do not worry. The League as far as they are concerned, they are still looking for you in South America."
Stein upon the news felt around his cane until he found the tiny device. Showing signs of displeasure he crushed it while muttering, "Thought this felt slightly heavier."
He then turned his attention back to his guests. "I thought Batman quit the Justice League."
"He's temporarily rejoined. The League and Batman have as much interest as you do in these thieveries as well. They do not want this impending doom you speak of to happen either."
Stein snorted in laughter, "They are fools then! When you get a big group like them involved, it ends in disaster. These artifacts were better kept hidden. My brother thought it would be a good idea to put the eye on display because a museum would be safer. People do not understand secrecy is the best security."
Question nodded in agreement, forgetting Stein could not see him. Helena continued to eye the old man suspiciously. She did not like him.
"Well that's why we are here off the record. I understand you would feel that way. Why not expand the circle a little?"
"Why should I do that?"
"Because you are dying," Question stated calmly. Helena shot a look at him. How did he know? But then again he always had a way of knowing too much.
"And if I am guessing correctly, since all your family is dead, you are the only one who knows the location now. Am I right?"
The group faced another silence as the limo maneuvered out of traffic and onto a freeway.
"Why not expand the circle a little? That way you ensure your secret is not lost and they find it," the Question prodded.
"Whose they?" asked Helena. She was still confused.
"Wicked, wicked men. Part of a cult that has been around for centuries," explained Stein.
Sensing they did not understand he sighed.
"I guess I should start at the beginning," he said while rubbing his cane "A long time ago, an ancient dragon roamed this land…"
"Dragons exist?" Helena asked skeptically.
Stein shot an angry look at her direction.
"This is just not any fairy tale dragon. It is a demon, a monster. It is the inspiration for all religions. It is the Jörmungandr for the Norse, the red dragon in the Book of Revelation, the Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs. The list goes on. This beast has one single purpose. Destroy life on earth and bring out the end of the universe."
"Where did it come from?" the Question asked curiously.
"No one knows for sure. It emerged from the earth one day. The Olympians, Norsemen, and all other deities and worshipers of all faiths had to unite to imprison this monster in the earth's core. Many deities and humans lost their lives over this. The theory was that the one God, the Almighty, the Presence, allowed this thing to exist to cleanse the earth when he deemed it to be too wicked. If the dragon was left to its own devices, it would not only purge the entire earth but swallow up the cosmos as well."
Helena was having a hard time believing this. The idea of gods was already contradicting her Catholic upbringing. But the idea of God creating an evil being to punish humanity seemed contradictory.
"How did they imprison it?" the Question asked determined to find out more.
"Certain priests and mages of the united faiths sacrificed their lives to endow four objects with untold power. Together they released enough magic to open the holes in the world for the dragon to be sucked in."
"Holes?"
"The dragon does not exist on an entirely singular plane. It transcends dimensions. Like the legend of the Norsemen say, it is wrapped around the world. It currently is unable to enter the earth plane. You could say it is trapped in another dimension."
Not satisfied but deciding it was better for Stein to continue, Helena remained silent.
"The artifacts however could not be destroyed. Those who fought in the battle knew they must be kept distant because if the objects were united again it would undo the spell the ancients placed on it. The Greek shield of Sparta was hidden among the Greek islands, the eye taken from Egypt across the ocean by a phoenix. The sword, said to belong to Thor, the Norse god of Thunder himself, was taken up to the frigid north to remain buried in the cold. Lastly the chalice, which was blessed by a Jewish prophet, was passed down by-"
"The line of Jesse?" asked the Question poignantly.
Stein nodded.
"Yes the chalice was passed down King David's line. Eventually Joseph, the carpenter gave it to his adopted son, Jesus-"
"The son of God?"
Stein shrugged his shoulders unsure.
"I do not know what you believe but I believe He was. The bottom line is, regardless if Jesus was really the son of God, he entrusted the chalice to his apostles after the Last Supper."
"And it was passed down at the Vatican until eventually some realized it was better to keep it a secret," The Question said finishing the explanation.
Stein nodded.
"Wait, the chalice is the Holy Grail?" asked Helena disbelieving.
Stein nodded again. "However during the Middle Ages there was a renewed interest of finding the Grail from idiot groups like the Templar. The few in the Vatican who were aware of the Holy Grail and its true nature decided to hide it in plain sight. They pretended it was just an ordinary chalice of some saint during the Middle Ages. It worked well, until when the nun from Gotham asked to borrow the chalice a few months ago. The nun was a friend of the pope and she wanted the relic to be used for All Soul's Day because the saint they alleged the chalice belonged to was the patron saint of the nun's parish. Those in the Vatican who were aware of its real nature had no choice but to send it to her lest it arise suspicions. Unfortunately those wicked men were behind it, manipulating the nun."
"Why did the Vatican just report it is missing but acted like there was no record?"
"Like I said she was a friend of the pope, it was off the record transactions."
"And how do you know all of this?" Helena asked suspiciously. She did not like how her husband was getting all chummy with this creepy old man.
Stein sighed, "I may be German on my father's side, but my mother side is Swiss. My uncle was in the Swiss Guard as was his father. During World War II, when Mussolini forced the Vatican to give the Eye of Montezuma to Hitler, he replaced it with a fake one. Deciding secrecy was the best, he gave it to my mother for our family to keep. However my brother was an idiot and decided that a museum would be safer when we came to America."
"How many in the Vatican are actually aware of these true purposes?"
"Only a few elite members of the Swiss Guard and a handful of cardinals know about it. My uncle was one of those people."
For a while there was silence. Neither men willing to say anything at first but choosing to pause to reflect. It unnerved Helena a little.
"What about the other two objects?" The Question pushed on.
"The shield was passed around in the 1800s until it was missing. I honestly do not know how they found it. But they eventually found a way to smuggle it into Gotham. I heard there was a professor in Gotham murdered after he received a Greek artifact. It was probably the shield."
The Question nodded, again forgetting Stein was blind.
"Whose 'They'?" asked Helena.
"They are a small cult that has for centuries attempted to find and reunite the artifacts to unleash the dragon. They hope to be able to restore order to this world. They take orders from a man they called the Master. A man who has been around longer than you can ever im-"
"Vandal Savage?" the Question cut through, ignoring Stein's elaborate descriptions.
This time, Stein's look of surprise remained.
"How did you…"
"Savage briefly took over Hitler's reign in the past. If I recall the Justice League had to go back in time to stop him. I got interested in this link and was researching. It appears it was actually Savage that got Hitler interested in the occult. Plus the shield was last own by someone who went by an alias Savage was using at the time."
Helena tried to wrap her brain around what she just heard. The Justice League going back to WWII? That seemed confusing and unlikely.
Stein laughed, "Well I guess you are one of the world's greatest detectives after all. Savage was part of the group that united to imprison the dragon. However he intended to control it and use his power to supplant himself as world dictator. The others however caught wind of it and imprisoned the dragon before Savage could control it and scatter the objects across the world."
"So Savage founded this cult to try to reunite the artifacts in hopes of releasing the dragon?"
"Yes Savage has been behind this conspiracy this whole time. Of course he is the leader. However, unlike the members of the cult, he is not motivated by religious needs. Instead he is motivated by his lust for power. He just uses them when he sees an opportunity to."
"Then why act now? Why had he not tried earlier?"
Stein shook his head. "Savage has tried other methods for domination. He is after all, allegedly immortal. With that kind of time on your hands, would you not try other methods for world domination as well? Savage kept in contact with the cult once a century or too. Now however he has made them more active. I think they realize I am dying soon and feel I will be at my most vulnerable and too weak to stop them."
Helena sighed; this seemed more unbelievable by the minute. But then she realized her husband had overlooked something.
"You never did answer his other question. Where is the sword?"
Stein chuckled, "It has been lost and hopefully will never be-"
"That is a lie. You have delivery trucks going on random routes. To me that means you are hiding something," the Question rebutted coldly. An advantage of having his mask it allowed him not to show facial surprise. Not that it mattered at the moment though, because Stein was blind.
Stein smiled defeated, "What can I say? Things are better kept secret when they are not in the open. But yes I did find the sword. It was hidden in a church in northern Norway but I found it. It took me half my life but I finally found it. I knew it was only a matter of time before the eye would get stolen as well as the chalice. I was not sure where the shield was so I rationalized the safest bet would be to find the sword to at least keep one artifact safe."
"Why did you not just ask the eye back from the museum?"
"I did. It was stalled by bureaucratic efforts from the Gotham local government and the museum itself. Finally after the first attempted theft, it sped up the process because the museum realized the insurance on it was a fortune if it got stolen. Unfortunately, the police let it get stolen before I was able to come and claim it."
Helena still was not getting the answer she wanted, "You still have not answered our question. Where is the sword?"
Stein sighed defeated. He pulled out his cane and Vic was worried for a second he was going to defend himself but instead Stein used it to push a button under him, an amazing feat considering he was blind. A trap door sprang open between them and Helena had to hold onto the seat to avoid falling in it. Upon further inspection, she realized it was not that deep but shallow. In fact sitting in the middle of the bottom was an old dusty sword.
"You had this here the entire time?" Vic asked shocked that he did not even think it was right under their noses.
Stein grinned proudly. "Fooled you too, didn't I? I figured the best way to hide the sword after the eye's theft was make it look like I was hiding something when in reality it was hidden in plain sight."
Stein then with great difficulty due to his age knelt down and was able to grab the sword by the hilt which was amazing considering he was blind.
He then presented the sword to Vic and Helena.
"Take it."
"What?"
"You heard me take it."
"But you-"
"Yes, but remember I also expressed the importance of secrecy. This meeting is off the record from the League so they will not be aware."
"But I think they-"
"You came here knowing it was better to keep the circle small. You must hide this. Do not tell me. I will be dying soon and Savage and his cult will find me eventually. They will try to get me to tell them where it is. As long as I do not know where it is, it will be safe."
The couple was startled. They were told that if this fell into the wrong hands it would mean the end of the universe but now this man was giving it to them like a Christmas gift.
"I thought you did not trust us…"
"I do not, but I think you have proven yourself as not motivated by power and greed and worthy to protect it. Which is why you both understand you must keep this safe. Otherwise it will be the doom for us all."
"The League has some powerful mages though. Surely they can use the same spell to imprison it…"
"The people who imprisoned the foul beast last time barely succeeded. Besides they used old magic which has been lost and forgotten. No one knows it anymore. If this beast is released there will be no stopping it this time."
The Question hesitated but decided it was better to do what the old German said and hide the sword again. He took it from his hand.
"I will have my driver stop…"
"No need," said the Question as he activated his commlink.
"Mister Terrific this is Question."
"You fool! I said to not let anyone else know about this!"
"Do not worry about it; he is just transporting us to our house. He knows nothing."
Holt replied by the radio, "This is Mister Terrific. I have found your location. Do you want to come up to the-"
"No Holt. To my apartment. Helena is with me as well. She has her old commlink."
"You got it then."
"Oh and Holt, I would appreciate if you kept this off the books."
There was a hesitation on the other line but Holt relented.
"You got it. Be ready to go in 20 seconds."
Vic and Helena held hands as they got ready to feel their molecules pulled apart and reassembled again. Vic took one last look at the feeble old man sitting across from him.
"Good luck," he whispered softly before the two disappeared from his limo.
Stein sighed as he was all alone again. One thing was for certain his time was coming soon. The doctor said he only had a month left a few weeks ago. The doctor did warn against traveling as well. But he refused. His whole life was dedicated to keep the world safe from this ancient evil. But now his task had been passed on, for the first time in his life, Stein felt relieved. Like a whole burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
Stein sighed as he felt his body grow weary. He closed his eyes as he got ready to take his final rest, his purpose complete. His heart had stopped long before his driver had reached the intended destination.