Chapter 3

Earth-X

Outside a warehouse, several armed guards were standing near the entrance. A scientist in a white lab coat walked out of the warehouse, holding a mug in his hand.

"Hey, doc, you really think you can make that thing work?" one of the guards asked.

"We need to make it work if we're ever gonna bring hope back to this darkened world," the scientist replied.

The scientist was about to take a sip of his drink when a reddish-orange beam of heat vision shot down seemingly out of nowhere and shattered the mug upon impact before hitting the scientist in the chest, killing him. Alarmed, the guards readied their guns, but before any of them could get a shot off, they were also killed by heat vision.

Hovering in the air was Overman. He descended to the ground as several more guards came rushing out of the warehouse. He fired more heat vision from his eyes, killing them as well.

A round of bullets came flying down behind Overman as they bounced off his cape. Overman turned around, noticed a shooter standing on top of a watchtower, and killed him with heat vision too.

With all the guards dead, Overman headed towards the entrance of the warehouse but stopped in his tracks upon hearing a familiar whooshing sound.

Behind Overman stood a speedster in a mostly silver suit with a red lightning bolt emblem on the chest and an archer clad in a dark green suit with a matching domino mask. The latter had his bow raised, an arrow with a tip made out of a green mineral nocked on it.

"You two are the best they could send?" Overman sneered. He turned around to face his two opponents. "I am the most powerful being on this planet. You should already know that." Granted, he was now technically the second most powerful being on the planet, since Ultraman had proven to be quite stronger and faster than both him and Overgirl, but it was a fact that Overman vehemently refused to accept. After all, there was the loophole in that Ultraman was not even of this Earth, which could still allow Overman to claim himself as the most powerful being on the planet.

"That doesn't mean you're invincible," the archer in dark green – Roy Harper of Earth-X – said, as he fired the green-tipped arrow.

Overman sped out of the way, effortlessly avoiding the arrow, and levitated thirty feet in the air. He fired heat vision at Wally and Roy, the former speeding out of the way while the latter flipped.

Wally raced around in circles building up his yellow electricity and flung a lightning bolt at Overman, who was completely unaffected. Overman flew at Wally, who sped out of the way. Wally aimed his arms up at Overman and spun them around at full speed creating a powerful vortex, while Overman expelled an incredibly powerful gust of wind from his lungs, quickly overpowering Wally's vortex as the speedster was thrown many feet back.

Roy fired another green-tipped arrow at Overman and the arrow hit him in the shoulder. With a groan of pain, Overman fell to the ground, creating several cracks in the concrete as he landed. Roy nocked another green-tipped arrow and stood over Overman, who was weakened due to the effects of the kryptonite.

"Nighty-night," Roy remarked, aiming his weapon right at Overman's chest.

Before he could fire the arrow, Roy suddenly let out a gasp of pain as a sword stabbed him through the chest from behind.

"NO!" Wally cried out in horror.

Standing behind the wounded Roy was Amazon Queen, who retracted her weapon from Roy's chest before the green-clad archer fell to the ground, dead.

Enraged, Wally rushed back to his feet, raced forward, and sped in circles around Amazon Queen. He flung a lightning bolt at Amazon Queen, staggering her back a little and dazing her for a few moments.

"You killed my best friend!" Wally shouted, angrily.

"You'll be joining him in death very soon," Amazon Queen stated, pointing her sword at him.

"Only if you catch me first," Wally remarked, before speeding out of the way as Amazon Queen leapt at him.

On the ground, Overman groaned in pain as he yanked the bloody kryptonite arrow out of his shoulder and tossed it several feet away. Looking over at where Wally was engaging Amazon Queen, Overman expelled ice from his lungs, freezing the ground where Wally was running and causing the speedster to slip and fall on his back. Overman flew over to the Wally, who was down, and expelled more ice, freezing Wally's right leg solid before Amazon Queen stamped on it, shattering Wally's leg into pieces from the knee down as the speedster cried out in agony.

Overman and Amazon Queen stood over Wally, who was clutching his knee stump where his leg had once been. Overman grabbed Wally by the neck and lifted him off the ground.

"There are more like us," Wally said hoarsely, as the life was being choked out of him. "And one day... they will free this world."

"They may try, but they will fail," Amazon Queen declared.

"Even if that day comes, you won't be here to see it," Overman said, firmly. Looking at the American flag symbol on the torso of Wally's suit under the red lightning bolt emblem, he added, "That flag died a long time ago."

"Well, it still means something," Wally said defiantly, knowing he didn't have much longer to live.

"Not anymore," Overman said.

His eyes lit up and the beam of heat vision tore through the center of Wally's forehead, burning a hole clean through the speedster's head. Smirking with satisfaction, Overman dropped Wally's limp form on the ground.

"Well done," Amazon Queen said. "Very soon, there will be no more rebels left to stand against us."

"Especially now that we have additional allies on our side," Overman added.

He and Amazon Queen entered the warehouse. They stopped in front of a platform containing a pillar of red energy between the bottom and top of it.

"With this, our reign will last for eternity," Overman declared.

Earth-21

(Metropolis, Clark and Lois' apartment)

Clark was massaging Lois' feet with each hand as the two were sitting on the couch in their living room.

"This feels great, Smallville," Lois said, with a loving smile.

Clark smiled back at her. "Have I ever told you how gorgeous your feet are?"

Lois gave him a teasing look. "The Man of Steel doesn't have a foot fetish, does he?"

"Only for your feet, Ms. Lane," Clark replied, as he ran his fingers along Lois' soft soles before tickling them causing her to burst into laughter. "I had no idea the brave and strong Lois Lane was ticklish."

"I'm not ticklish," Lois denied, despite her laughter. "Trust me, honey, I can go like this on all day."

"Are you sure about that?" Clark asked, smirking as he tickled her soles slightly faster causing Lois' laughter to increase.

After several seconds, Clark stopped tickling his wife's feet and went back to massaging them.

"I'm gonna get you back for that, Smallville, and it's gonna happen when you least expect it," Lois said, with a playful smirk.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you," Clark said.

"Of course not or I wouldn't be me," Lois said. "So, did anything exciting happen today?"

"Actually, you could say that," Clark answered. "Courtney is alive again."

"What?" Lois asked, incredulously. "Courtney is alive? As in 'Stargirl' Courtney?"

"That's the one," Clark nodded. "She was brought back to life by someone named Mar Novu."

"Who is that?" Lois asked.

"With the exception of Kara, none of us from this Earth actually met this Mar Novu guy, but from what we heard earlier, his act of resurrecting Courtney, as well as someone from the other Earth, appears to be part of a plan to prepare for a Multiverse-ending crisis he believes is coming," Clark explained.

"You know, if you or anybody else told me something like this a decade or so ago, I'd laughed it off as a joke," Lois said. "But my gut instincts and years of having experienced my share of the supernatural tell me this isn't something to shrug off with skepticism."

"We don't know when this crisis is supposed to happen, but until we find out more about it, we keep living our lives as usual," Clark said.

"You and the rest of the JL of A are more than capable of overcoming any dire disaster than comes your way, and I have all the faith in the world that this crisis that you said will threaten the Multiverse will be no different," Lois said, optimistically.

"It helps that we have allies not just on this Earth, but a couple of others as well," Clark said.

"Okay, Smallville, you can stop now, my feet are as good as gold," Lois said, and Clark stopped massaging her feet. "So Conner must be super-thrilled to have his girlfriend back in his arms again. I wonder if that means he's gonna move back here, or will Courtney move to that other Earth to be with him?"

"I'm sure they'll figure it out," Clark said. "Speaking of which, our friends from the other Earth are gonna have a party in a few days celebrating Courtney's and Dinah's counterpart's return to life. I figured you wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity of joining in on the festivities."

Lois perked up. "A party? Count me in. I'm definitely down for a little fiesta, not to mention it's been quite a while since either of us had any real fun due to being swamped with work."

(Smallville)

Conner and Courtney were sitting on top of the Windmill in Chandler's Field conversing, eating popcorn, and drinking root beer floats. They were dressed in regular clothes. Behind them was the full moon clearly visible in the night sky.

"You had a vision of me?" Courtney asked, as Conner had told her about some of the adventures he had since living on Earth-1.

"It felt so real," Conner recalled. "This is probably gonna be silly to ask, but you don't by any chance remember anything about that, do you?"

"Actually, I don't recall anything that might've happened while I was dead," Courtney said. "Only dying in S.T.A.R. Labs with you by my side, and then coming to in The Monitor's lair or whatever that place was."

"I guess the you that I saw while using the Spear wasn't really you at all then," Conner said. "I wanted so badly to stay in that moment with you forever or bring you back, but I knew that doing either would mean I would be selfishly playing God."

"Well, lucky for you, Kon, it turned out you didn't need to bring me back," Courtney pointed out, touching Conner's cheek with an affectionate smile. "Everything worked out on its own."

"Yeah, thankfully," Conner said, with a smile. "I still can't help but feel like this is a dream."

"Tell me if this convinces you it isn't," Courtney asked, grabbing Conner's head and pulling him into a kiss, which he immediately returned.

At that moment, Conner felt like he was on cloud nine, knowing that this time he genuinely was kissing his girlfriend and wasn't experiencing any kind of vision or alternate reality. However, his blissful moment was cut short as Courtney abruptly pulled away.

"What is it, Court?" Conner asked, frowning.

"Just a thought that occurred to me," she replied. "For you, it's been four years since the day I was killed."

"Yeah," Conner nodded, wondering what Courtney was getting at.

"A lot of stuff must've happened in all that time," Courtney pointed out.

"Yeah, a lot did happen," Conner said. "Between helping Clark stop Doomsday for good, me moving to Earth-1 after the Dominator invasion and joining the Legends for several months, and then joining Barry's team as well as staying on Supergirl's Earth for a time to help stop a rogue Kryptonian, among some other things all up until your resurrection."

"You clearly had lots of exciting adventures and grew up quite a bit, I get that, but what about your, uh, your heart?" Courtney wondered. "I mean, given that I was literally dead, I wouldn't blame you if you'd eventually moved on and..."

"Oh, I see what you're talking about," Conner said. "You're wondering if I'm with someone else."

"Are you?" Courtney asked, gulping nervously in anticipation of Conner's answer.

Conner shook his head. "Not really. Well, me and Caitlin did hang out and have coffee a few times, but other than that, nothing."

"How do you feel about Caitlin?" Courtney asked.

"Caitlin, she's a really good friend," Conner answered. "We bonded a bit, confided in each other, exchanged stories... don't get me wrong, I'd be lying if I told you the possibility of becoming more than friends with her didn't cross my mind at times, but..."

"Do you have feelings for her?" Courtney asked.

"Um, I care for her but..." Conner cupped Courtney's face in his hands, gazing directly into her gorgeous blue eyes. "You're the one I really want to be with." He then stroked her blonde curls. "I love you, Courtney Whitmore. I love you more than anything."

"I love you too, Kon-El, or Conner Kent," Courtney replied, as the two giggled at each other.

They then leaned towards each other and engaged in a passionate kiss.

After their kiss ended twenty seconds later, Conner asked, "Will you move with me to Earth-1?" As Courtney was quiet for a few moments, Conner then said, "You don't have to answer that right away. I'll understand if you need some time to think it over."

"Yes," Courtney nodded.

"Okay then, take as much time as you need," Conner nodded.

"No, I mean, yes, I'll move to Earth-1 with you," Courtney clarified, with a smile.

Conner grinned, happy that she accepted his offer. "Not that I'm not glad you said 'yes', but make sure your decision is based on what you want to do and not just on my behalf."

"My answer is based on the fact that I'd like nothing more than to be by your side," Courtney said. "Besides, I'm technically dead as far as everyone here is concerned, so I see no reason not to start a new life in a universe where my boyfriend now lives."

"Good point," Conner said.

"I do have a question," Courtney said. "Is there a Courtney Whitmore on the other Earth? If so, then I may need to change my name."

"No need," Conner assured her. "There is... was a Courtney Whitmore on Earth-1, but she... she lives in the distant past. So I'm sure you could get away with using your own name. But if necessary, we can always tell people you're a descendant of your counterpart."

He stared at Courtney, lost in the beauty of her angelic features. A part of him was still not fully convinced he wasn't experiencing a prolonged dream that he would inevitably wake up from and learn that the love of his life was still six feet under. At any rate, he was tempted to pop the big question he'd intended to ask her four years ago, but decided it was best to give her some time to readjust to being alive again and get used to the fact that her life would be different now.

Earth-38

(National City, Kara Danvers' apartment)

Barry took a pan of macaroni and cheese out of the oven and set it on the table next to a bowl of salad. After taking off the pair of mittens, he made two plates of food and poured two glasses of cranberry juice.

"Is that mac and cheese? It smells yummy," Kara gushed, as she entered the kitchen. Her hair was still a little wet as she just got out of the shower.

"It was my favorite dish when I was a kid," Barry said. "I thought we'd have it for dinner tonight."

They went to sit down on the couch in the living room and started eating dinner.

"Have you decided whether or not you're gonna move here permanently?" Kara asked.

"Well, I already told Singh, who now knows I'm The Flash by the way, that I wasn't coming back to work at CCPD before tendering my resignation, so yes, I will be moving here for good, but after we have the party for Laurel and Courtney on Friday."

"That's great, Barry," Kara gushed. "Now we can really be together. The Flash and Supergirl, National City's own power couple."

"I like the sound of that," Barry grinned. "Given how far Wally has come since getting his speed, Central City of Earth-1 will continue to have a competent speedster to protect it."

"Wally did learn from the best," Kara said.

"Not all the credit goes to me," Barry pointed out. "I mean, Wally did make a lot of progress on his own when I was in the Speed Force and then on this Earth helping you fight Reign. I'd say he's ready to take my place as The Flash of Earth-1, this time officially."

"Every Earth could definitely use a Flash," Kara said.

"Or a Super," Barry added.

"Yep," Kara agreed. "How did your boss find out you're The Flash? You didn't tell him, did you?"

"I didn't say anything to him," Barry said. "He pretty much figured it out on his own."

"To be fair, not only The Flash disappeared when you went into the Speed Force, so did Barry Allen," Kara pointed out. "And a year later, The Flash shows up again and Barry Allen isn't far behind. So I guess Captain Singh is bound to put two and two together."

"That's the exact explanation he gave when I asked how he knew who I was," Barry said. "Honestly, I don't really mind Singh knowing my secret since he's always been fair and reasonable, but he did catch me by surprise."

"Sometimes I wonder if Ms. Grant actually knows I'm Supergirl, but not saying anything," Kara said.

"You could always fly to her and ask if you really want to find out," Barry said.

"I could, but it's not really that necessary," Kara said. "If Ms. Grant does know my secret and never once confronted me about it, I have respect for her. On the other hand, maybe she doesn't know at all."

They continued eating their dinner and cuddled up afterwards as they spent the remainder of the evening watching the Back to the Future trilogy to temporarily keep their minds off of reality, even if the movies did remind Barry of his real-life time travel experiences.

Earth-1

(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)

Cisco pushed a cart with a several stacks of orange discs on top of it as he led Oliver, Laurel-One, and Laurel-Two in the training room where Hunter Zolomon had taught Barry how to throw lightning almost three years ago.

Over the last two days, Laurel-One bonded well with Laurel-Two as they had compared life stories, although Laurel-Two had already known much about Laurel-One's life from Oliver and Sara. Laurel-One had felt a great deal of sympathy upon learning about the rough and unhappy life her doppelganger endured and felt sadness for the untimely deaths of her father's, her sister's, and Oliver's Earth-2 counterparts. Granted, certain points in Laurel-One's life, especially those five years while Oliver was gone, hadn't been a picnic either, but it was nothing compared to what Laurel-Two had gone through. Not that she condoned Laurel-Two's actions, but in a way, Laurel-One understood why the other woman had descended into villainy for a while and felt lucky that those unfortunate events hadn't happened to her. After all, the thought that she could've lost her father at the age of thirteen was much more horrifying than the possibility of someone killing her again.

Laurel-One had then learned that her doppelganger and Oliver were dating. She wasn't too surprised, given that the two had already dated each other's doppelgangers and the fact that it was Oliver who had helped bring Laurel-Two back from darkness. She was genuinely happy for them and didn't want to get in the way of their relationship, although there was still the issue that one of the Laurels would need to create a new identity – that of Laurel Lance's long-lost twin sister – and/or move away from Star City permanently. If it came down to it, Laurel-One wouldn't mind being the one to change her name and possibly move away, since Laurel-Two had already spent the past year and a half living her life and wasn't exactly doing a terrible job at it. Laurel-One really wanted her doppelganger to live a contented life, after all the latter went through in the past.

"Thank you for letting us use this room, Cisco," Oliver said.

"Anytime," Cisco said. "If you guys need me, I'll be either in my workshop or the cortex."

He left the training room, leaving Oliver and the Laurels alone.

"You ready, Laurel?" Oliver asked.

"I was born ready, Ollie," Laurel-One answered.

"Yesterday, you learned how to control the intensity of your Cry while hitting a target," Oliver said. "Today, we'll see how well you do against moving targets."

"Let's do this," Laurel-One said.

She and Laurel-Two stood thirty feet opposite of Oliver, who was standing behind the cart of orange discs.

"Watch and learn, birdie," Laurel-Two said.

As Oliver flung ten discs in the air in quick succession, Laurel-Two unleashed her Canary Cry, effortlessly shattering them all.

"Now you try," she said to her Earth-1 counterpart, who stepped forward.

Oliver flung two discs in the air. Laurel-One unleashed her scream, shattering them easily.

"Good start," Oliver said. "Now let's see how well you do with five."

He threw five discs in quick succession and Laurel-One shattered them all.

"Good, now ten," Oliver said, as he flung ten discs in quick succession and Laurel once again shattered them all.

Oliver threw another ten discs and Laurel shattered them all yet again.

"This is too easy," Laurel-One grinned.

"I have to admit, you're getting it a lot quicker than I did," Laurel-Two said.

"In all fairness, I did have quite a bit of experience when I was using the sonic device," Laurel-One said. "But having an actual meta-human Cry is a different feeling and a lot more convenient."

"Laurel, I'm gonna throw thirty this time," Oliver said.

"Bring it on," Laurel-One said.

As Oliver threw thirty discs in quick succession, Laurel-One shattered the majority but ended up missing two of them.

"Okay, that wasn't perfect," Laurel-One said.

"You're still doing good," Laurel-Two told her.

Oliver then threw twenty discs and Laurel-One shattered all of them. Sixty-three discs left, Oliver threw them all in quick succession as Laurel shattered every single one of them with her Cry.

"You did great, Laurel," Oliver said, as he walked up to the two Laurels and handed them both escrima sticks. "Now it's sparring time, you and Dinah." He called Laurel-Two 'Dinah' because they had agreed to refer to her as such while they called Laurel-One 'Laurel'.

"Sparring? I don't need any more combat training," Laurel-One said. "You guys know..."

"There's always room for improvement," Oliver stated.

"Good point," Laurel-One said. "Before we get started, I need a quick water break."

She walked away and fetched a bottle of water from the table.

After a five-minute break, the Laurels engaged in their sparring session. Laurel-One lost the first two rounds against Laurel-Two before managing to win the third round. As the two women engaged in more rounds, Laurel-One managed to win a few more, but Laurel-Two ended up winning seven of the eleven rounds.

"At least you did better than yesterday," Laurel-Two said.

"Yeah," Laurel-One nodded.

"Tomorrow, you two go again," Oliver instructed, before he and the Laurels started heading off.

Earth-X

Overman stepped up onto the platform and stood in the center of it. Dark Arrow, Dark Arsenal, Deathstroke, and a number of soldiers in black combat uniforms stood around the platform. Behind Overman, a red flag with the Nazi symbol on it was rolled down.

"Hail victory!" Overman said in his deep, distorted voice, holding his arm out in a salute as all the soldiers did the same.

"Hail Fuhrer!" Dark Arrow, Dark Arsenal, Deathstroke, and the soldiers said, before they and Overman lowered their arms.

Overman stepped off the platform and approached the scientist, who wasn't wearing a mask.

"The rebels' technology is impressive," the scientist said. "It's a good thing you stopped them when you did."

"Can you make it work?" Overman demanded. It wasn't a question, but an order.

"Yes," the scientist answered, nervously. "But I need time to test it, to ensure they haven't set a trap."

Suddenly, there were some whooshing sounds as Ultraman and Overgirl appeared hovering twenty feet in the air, with Amazon Queen standing next to them. Ultraman was now wearing one of those black masks with red lenses and his suit contained a Nazi symbol on each arm to help him blend in with his new allies.

"You have one day," Overgirl ordered.

"You heard her," Overman said to the scientist.

"I'd get started if I were you," Ultraman added. "If you fail to make this work, you won't like the consequences."

The scientist paled as Ultraman, Overman, Overgirl, Amazon Queen, Dark Arrow, Dark Arsenal, and Deathstroke headed off.