Triumphant

by TheOrangeTurtle

Eric Mercer fought alongside the Justice League during the Thanagarian Invasion, and for that he was offered a place on the team. And since joining he's admittedly had fun, making new friends and beating back villains. But his past with a certain mage puts a damper on that, something Eric hopes to change in the future. But now? Now, Eric's going to reign Triumphant.

23. The Once and Future Thing Pt 2

Let's go, let's go, LET'S FRIKIN' GOOOOOOOO!

Excited to write this, and also depressed for how messed up things are gonna get, especially for some characters. But alas, it's Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, it gon' get dark, yo. Also, this'll be Darkseid's first appearance, that's always a big deal in a DC story.

And not just the big ol' Omega Man, but some Ben 10 characters will make their debuts as well. Well, two have already appeared. And not only that, but a big question will also be answered at the end, and the end of season one of Triumphant will have some big repercussions for the future.

But hey, Nightwing 81, amirite? I wonder if the reveal at the end is legit, or just some long con that'll prove to be fake later. We'll just have to wait and see. If you wanna read Nightwing 81 or any other comic just look up readcomiconline, it's the website I use.

And also, Planet Size X-Men!? HOLY SHIT! They said what was going to happen there was gonna be big, but that definitely wasn't what I was expecting, and man, Pepe Larraz's art is top tier as always.

Triumphant Fun Fact 7: Huntress was a possible love interest for Eric.

Well, that's all from me up here, on with the story!

---

The Once and Future Thing Part 2: Apokolips War

Eric

I let out a sigh as the magician kid keeps looking at me with wide eyes. But then, the sounds of more Parademons catches my attention. "We can't stay here for too long, more Parademons incoming."

"Wait!" Future Robin calls out. "We can't just leave, we're here on a mission!"

"What kind of mission?" Our Batman asks.

The Future Batman folds his arms. "There's someone we're looking for; he was last seen in this area."

"Two more of us are here as well," the Future Thanagarian adds.

"Who?" Wonder Woman asks.

The Future Magician and I both look in the sky southward and my goggles zoom in to show me that the flock of Parademons coming at us is twice as big as the one from earlier. "We don't have time to talk here. Come on, Tia shouldn't be too far from here," the Future Magician says.

"Lead the way," Green Lantern finally says after tearing his eyes away from the Future Thanagarian.

Future Batman nods and looks at the Future Magician. "Zatara, lead us to them."

I arch a brow behind my goggles. Zatara, huh? Then again, his parentage was never in question.

Zatara closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, after a moment, they open and he immediately runs down through an alley, and we all follow after him.

---

"A bar," Zatara sighs deeply before shaking his head in disappointment. "Of freaking course he'd be here."

"Who?" I ask.

"You'll see… Yo, Batman!" Zatara whisper-shouts.

"Yes?" Both Batmen ask.

Green Lantern pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. "This is already a migraine in the making. It's obvious you two aren't the same Batman, but do you know his identity?"

The Future Batman keeps his eye on ours for a bit before turning to Green Lantern and he nods. "I do. We all do."

"And your real name is…?" Green Lantern asks.

Before Future Batman could reply, we hear as two Parademons crash into the bar, and shortly after the people inside being to fight them. We all hurry in to see one Parademon in two places, its upper body imbedded in a wall and its lower pinned under some rocks. The second Parademon quickly gets its head burnt by a gout of flames.

"Well, they just ruined the mood now, didn't they?" A familiar English accented voice comments. "'Least the beer's still 'ere."

"Son of a bitch," I whisper.

Zatara leans over to me. "Look, I've been told of the history the two of you had, so please don't freak out when he sees you, okay?"

My frown deepens before I nod.

Zatara nods back before looking at Future Batman and giving him a nod.

The Future Batman then steps forward. "Constantine."

Constantine perks up from behind the bar and stops rummaging. "Well, well, well, the bird did become the Bat. If only daddy could see...you...now... Bloody hell, Gotham booze sure is something else, ain't it?"

He looks like the one I remember, but older, some white in his hair and bags under his tired eyes. Though he's still got that ever present five o' clock shadow.

"I see you've finally noticed us," Wonder Woman says, she then nods at Etrigan. "It is good to see you are here in this…hell hole, Etrigan."

Etrigan slowly lifts his head from the bar and raises his glass. "I thought you were dead," his eyes scan over all of us time-displaced Leaguers. "I thought all of you were dead,"he then focuses on me. "Especially you."

We all share confused glances before I step forward. "The hell does that mean? Actually, another question: why aren't you rhyming? Rhyming was your thing."

"Now's really not the time to question speech patterns, Triumph," Batman says before standing in front of me. "You said two more were coming?"

The Future Thanagarian nods. "They should be here any minute now."

Wonder Woman looks outside the hole in the wall and glares at a small group of Parademons that patrol the skies. "What happened? How did this happen?"

The Future Robin sighs and shakes his head. "It's a long story. Zatara, Warhawk, and I don't remember a time before this. Zatara's the oldest of us at sixteen, this all started fifteen years ago."

"But you do," Batman says, looking at his future counterpart.

Future Batman nods. "I do. We'll tell you more at our base."

"The Watchtower?" Wonder Woman asks.

Constantine laughs. "Where the hell have you been living these past fifteen years, luv? Under a rock? The Watchtower was the first thing Darkseid destroyed during his invasion."

"So, Darkseid did this," Green Lantern whispers.

"What, the Parademons weren't enough to tell you who's caused all this carnage?" Constantine asks before sitting down on a stool with a deep sigh. "Man, this beer really is something else."

Zatara grits his teeth before lashing out and tossing Constantine's beer bottle aside, the glass shatters against some debris. "You aren't drunk, you moron, they're actually here! Now get off your sorry ass and sober up!"

Everything falls silent as we wait for Constantine's reaction.

After a few moments, he sighs and gets up before fixing his jacket. He then grabs a cigarette, lights it, and takes a drag before replying, "you've got your mum's temper, that's for sure."

"Don't talk about her," Zatara growls, his fists begin to glow blue.

"Mind being a little louder, Zack? I don't think all the Parademons in Gotham heard you."

We all look to see two people enter the bar.

The first, the one who spoke, is a woman wearing a black cloak with some feathers along the shoulders and a hood that looks like a bird's head, the shadow from the hood obscures the top half of her face but we can see the pale lower half of her face.

The second person is a man wearing black shoes and jeans with a gray jacket. He has shaggy, shoulder-length black hair that's gray at the temples and a beard with some gray hairs throughout. His eyes have black sclera, and the irises of his eyes are green.

They both stop in shock once their eyes land on us and the man steps forward. "John?" He asks in a shaky voice, as if not believing we were there. "Diana? Eric? Bruce?"

Wonder Woman's eyes widen as she's the first to realize who he is. "Clark? Gods, what happened to you?"

Clark looks down at his fist before clenching it and holding it tight to his chest. "It's a long story."

While he was momentarily lost in his memories, my eyes drifted to the woman, who I could feel was looking only at me, and it didn't take a degree in rocket science to realize who she is.

"Hey, Rachel," I greet.

Future Rachel jumps a little before breaking eye contact. "E-Eric, hey."

I then look to Zatara, or Zack, if I remember correctly. "When you said your Tia shouldn't be too far from here, you meant her, didn't you?"

Zack slowly nods. "Y-yeah, I did."

This just further proves my theory that Zack's mine. But where's Esmeralda? Where's Zatanna? He got really angry when Constantine brought Zee up.

"So," Green Lantern says, folding his arms and speaking loud enough that he catches all of our attention. "Anyone mind telling the four of us what the hell's going on here?"

"Not here," Warhawk says. "It's too open, Parademons could come in at any moment."

"Or worse," Robin adds.

"What's worse than this?" I ask, motioning an arm out to the death and destruction that goes on for as far as the eye can see.

"Paradooms," Zack whispers.

Now, me and my fellow out of time Leaguers don't know what these "Paradooms" are, but I could swear the temperature dropped at least ten degrees and all of our newfound allies shivered.

"I'd ask what a Paradoom is, but I know we won't get an answer here," Wonder Woman says. "Where to next?"

"Nanda Parbat," Future Batman says. "It's one of our bases of operation."

"We're in Gotham, why not use the Batcave?" Green Lantern asks.

"We can't," Robin says.

"Why not?" I ask.

"We can't," Future Batman states, ending that topic of conversation.

"Okay…" I say slowly. I then point a thumb at Constantine, and by extension, Etrigan. "But what about these two? How do they play into your plans?"

"We were originally here for Constantine, but Etrigan's an added bonus," Rachel admits. "Come on, we've got another group of Parademons closing in, get close."

We all do and immediately after one of her raven apparitions extends out and envelops all of us.

"Nanda Parbat, here we come," she says before the raven implodes, teleporting us away from this post-Apokolips Gotham.

---

Nanda Parbat

We arrive in the snowy mountains of Nanda Parbat and Rachel immediately falls to a knee and holds a hand to her head, groaning in pain. From under her hand, I can see her red gem glowing strongly. Our Rachel doesn't have that yet.

Future Batman kneels down next to her and helps her up. "Are you okay?" He asks gently.

Rachel slowly nods. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. He's just getting louder is all. Every time I use a spell that demands a lot of mana he gets louder."

"Who does?" Diana asks.

"My father, Trigon," Rachel answers. "You haven't met him yet?"

We all shake our heads.

"Well, when you go back to your time, know he'll come around when I turn sixteen," Rachel tells us.

I nod before looking ahead at the gates of Nanda Parbat. Man, I haven't been here in years. Last I was here was when I was training. That was fun. Though last I remember, the League of Assassin's didn't operate out here.

"What's the League of Assassins doing here?" I ask, pointing at a ninja in a watchtower.

Bruce draws a few batarangs, Diana unclips her Lasso, and John's ring powers up.

Future Batman raises an arm and stops us before lowering his cowl.

I'd say he's a man in his late twenties to early thirties, a lot like Bruce. He has black hair and green eyes, as well as a lightly tanned skin tone. But what catches my attention the most is that he looks a lot like Bruce.

So, Future Batman is Damian Wayne. Makes sense, his suit's even the one he wears in some futures in the comics.

"We're back! Open the gates!" He calls out. Shortly after, the gates of Nanda Parbat open, and he looks back at us, though his eyes stay on Bruce. "Welcome to Nanda Parbat, one of the few safe places on Earth."

Bruce's eyes widen in surprise as he realizes exactly who the Future Batman is. "Damian?"

Damian nods with a hollow smile. "It's me, Father."

The Thanagarian then takes off his helmet to reveal a kid with short black hair and brown eyes. "The name's Warhawk, or Rex Stewart."

John steps back a little in surprise before gulping. "Your mother, she's…"

Rex's wings flex a little. "Pretty obvious, don't you think?"

"Speaking of obvious," Zack whispers. "The name's Zackary Mercer, or Zatara. It's obvious who my parents are," he says before playing with the goggles on his neck.

Robin looks between his friends before taking off his domino mask to reveal he's got blue eyes and a scar going down his left eye. "I don't think you guys know me, but the name's Terry McGinnis, I'm the current Robin."

"We've been out here long enough, come on," Damian says before walking into the city.

The four of us share a glance before following after them, but I make sure to move a little slower so that I'm walking next to Zack.

"So, those are my goggles you've got there," I whisper.

He stops playing with them and nods, his eyes stay low. "Y-yeah."

I think about asking him about what happened to the me of this timeline, but I decide against it, I'll get that question answered later, I know I will.

"You know, they're a lot more useful over your eyes then around your neck," I tell him. I then lower my mask and give him a little smirk.

I hear as he gulps before nodding. "I know. It's just that…they don't work anymore. They haven't worked in a long time."

"Can't you fix them? Or maybe Silver Bolt could?" I ask.

He flinches and falls silent, ending the conversation before speed walking to the front and walks with Rachel.

Okay, that's a sore subject.

As we walk through the city, I notice a number of people moving around with supplies, but they stop and stare once they notice our group, especially me, Diana, John, and Bruce. Most of them are ninjas and the like, but I notice a few heroes too, like Obsidian or Aztek. Good to see that they survived at least.

"They're looking at us as if we were ghosts," Diana whispers.

"Maybe because we are," Bruce whispers back.

"You just love being ominous, don't you?" I ask rhetorically.

Bruce just hums.

Eventually we enter a building and Damian leads us to a dining room, almost immediately some servants leave, probably to get some food ready.

When they leave, Damian pulls out a seat for Rachel before taking his at the head of the table, he then motions to the empty chairs. "Sit, it's obvious we have stories to tell each other."

Once we're all situated, Diana's the first to speak. "Okay, you said this is one of the few safe places on Earth, what did you mean?"

At that, everyone's face falls, and I even notice a few glares pointed in Clark's direction, who I've also noticed is sitting with the four of us, instead of the others of his timeline. Weird.

"The short answer? Darkseid attacked. The long answer? Superman makes a horrible general," Rex snarls.

John, Bruce, Diana, and I turn our attention to Clark, who looks smaller than I've ever seen him look.

"What does he mean, Clark?" Bruce asks.

Clark sighs before he tells the story…

---

16 Years Ago

Apokolips

It was safe to say that it all went to shit.

As soon as the Javelins entered Apokolips' orbit, anti-air cannons fired, destroying a number of them, and causing others to crash. Hourman, Wildcat, Juice, Longshadow, and Black Canary were killed before the fighting even started.

The fighting on Apokolips was worse, though.

At first it wasn't too bad, the Justice League had to push past the casualties, but they were able to run through the Parademons, those things never were to dangerous for the Leaguers.

Then half of S.T.R.I.P.E.'s armored body fell to the ground, with Stargirl's Cosmic Staff followed shortly after, blood covering the front half of it.

That's when the Paradooms came in.

They were large creatures that looked a lot like Doomsday, gray skin, long white hair, and burning red eyes. Though, they were a little smaller than him, and wore red Parademon armor and had wings.

The Paradooms were a fusion of Parademons and Doomsday, far more dangerous than the shock troopers, but not as dangerous as the they were still enough to turn the tide of battle.

Heroes left, right, and center were killed: Vixen, Elongated Man, Ice. Just to name a few.

Seeing how badly things were getting, Aquaman had called for a retreat. Then he was cut in half by Omega Beams.

Darkseid had joined the battle.

An already horrible situation had become catastrophically bad as the League lost any chance of victory.

Batman was nowhere to be seen, Superman was pinned down by Paradooms, and Wonder Woman had her left arm torn off. Hawkgirl lost her wings, Green Lantern was killed, Flash was swarmed, and Martian Manhunter fell into a firepit, never to be seen again.

Eventually, Cyborg was able to open a Boom Tube, and a number of Leaguers, Obsidian, Aztek, Captain Marvel (who had lost a leg), Green Arrow, and the Question among them, fled. But then Darkseid personally saw to Cyborg, and he was also never to be seen again.

The battle was over.

Darkseid won.

---

Nanda Parbat

Now

Diana, John, Bruce, and I all stare at Clark with wide eyes once he finishes telling the story.

"That's not all that happened. Tell them the rest," Damian orders.

Clark sighs. "Those of us that survived, Darkseid had…plans for us. I don't know what happened to Diana, Wally, or Shayera, but Darkseid made me watch as he put Bruce on the Mobius Chair. It nearly broke him."

"And you?" I ask. "You're his worst enemy, I know Darkseid kept you alive just to see your failure, but he wouldn't let you keep your powers. What's up with your eyes?"

With another sigh, Clark gets up and unzips the top part of his jacket, revealing what Darkseid did to him.

We see a glowing, green House of El mark on his chest, with the veins around there easily visible.

Clark zips his jacket back up. "Darkseid injected me with liquid kryptonite. It can't kill me, but I can't use my powers anymore."

"Does it hurt?" Constantine asks, speaking up for the first time in a while.

Clark's silence is answer enough.

"Good," Constantine nods.

Things fall silent again for a few moments as the four of us time-displaced Leaguers absorb the bombardment of information.

Shit, we weren't supposed to be here, we were supposed to be in Neo-Gotham decades from our current time. Terry was supposed to be Neo-Batman, not Robin, and Warhawk was supposed to be a lot older than this. But instead, we're in this hellhole. God, what the hell changed?

"What happened next?" John asks, breaking the silence. "Darkseid came here, obviously, but what happened exactly? There had to be some Justice League members on Earth."

Damian and Rachel share a glance before he sighs and tells the next part of the story.

---

Titans Tower

16 Years Ago

There were no Leaguers on Earth.

Superman had believed his plan was foolproof, that if he brough the entire might of the Justice League down on Apokolips, that would be enough, Earth would be untouched, and the universe would be a safer place.

It was another one of his many mistakes.

With the Justice League all off planet the only heroes left to defend Earth were the Teen Titans and solo heroes, but they weren't enough.

A Boom Tube had opened over Titans Tower, and an army of Paradooms swarmed down.

It was bad.

Starfire was in two places, her legs by one of the destroyed benches, her upper body by the fountain. Blue Beetle was tackled out of the sky and the last thing he saw was a Paradoom punching his face. Beast Boy had transformed into a tiger but was stabbed with a number of rebar, he slowly bled out. And Alloy was bent and twisted so many times his heart simply gave out.

Victorious, Nova, Raven, and Robin were on their last legs, getting pushed to the edge of a cliff with Paradooms slowly approaching them.

But then, Nightwing jumped on the back of a Paradoom and tried to choke it out, but the creature simply reached up and threw him to the ground before it stabbed him in the chest with one of its bone claws.

Robin ran to cut the Paradooms head off, but was pushed out of the way by Victorious, who was then swarmed by Paradooms. Her screams of pain horrified the two and Nova, but before they could do anything to help, she detonated, one last attempt to save her friends.

---

Nanda Parbat

Now

I…

What?

"No. No, no, no. Esmeralda's not dead. Sh-she can't be," I say, hoping this was some sick joke they played.

"Eric," Rachel says softly. "She died to protect us."

"NO!" I shout. "You're wrong. You-you have to be."

Damian sighs deeply and looks down at his hands. "I wish I was… The explosion sent me into the ocean, I woke up later on the shore of Jump City with Nova taking care of me. We didn't meet up with Rachel until a year later."

I feel Diana rest her hand over mine before she looks to Clark. "What about Jon? I noticed he wasn't mentioned in Damian's tale. Neither was Kara for that matter."

Clark chuckles humorlessly. "Jon doesn't want anything to do with me, and I don't blame him. Kara died a few years ago, she saved Oliver and the Question."

"Now, with our story out of the way think you can tell us how the hell you all are here?" Constantine asks, his gaze directed at Bruce.

Bruce nods. "We were in the Watchtower when an intruder was detected, a time traveler who wanted to steal one of my old belts. We followed him to the past before we arrived here. We need to find him and his belt and go back to our time."

Terry's eyes widen and he sits up. "Could you stop this from happening!?"

Everyone's attention turns to him. "What?" Damian asks.

"I mean, if you guys can go back in time then maybe you can stop this timeline from happening!" Terry clarifies excitedly. "I know it'll mean that the three of us," he motions to himself, Rex, and Zack. "Won't exist anymore, but it's a risk I'm willing to take!"

Rex and Zack share a glance before they both nod and look at us. "Same here," Zack agrees.

"We could," I reply quietly. "But time travel's weird. In our timeline we haven't even thought about attacking Apokolips, so if it's in our future then yeah, we'll prevent it, but it could already be too late."

"What do you mean, Da- Eric?" Zack asks.

"I mean, we need to know if our timelines were exactly the same up until Clark decided to get everyone killed," I answer. I feel a little satisfaction as he winces. "If our timelines have even one little difference way before then that means us going back in time won't stop this timeline from existing."

Rachel hums. "Then we'll need to compare notes."

"That we do," Bruce agrees.

The door behind me opens.

"Finally, we've been waiting forever for some bloody foo-" Constantine cuts himself off.

I notice everyone else fall silent as they look at the person behind me and then me. So, I slowly turn around to see who's there.

"Oh."

---

Zatanna

Where the hell is that boy?

He promised that as long as I'd let him go out that he would always come to see me first every time he came back from the outside world. And would you look at that, he's back, but didn't see me first! Oh, I'm gonna tear Zack a new one.

As I march through Nanda Parbat, I notice some people whispering to each other and pointing down towards Damian's place. I'd ask what that was about, but I have more pressing matters.

I turn a corner and bump into Todd, who just appears out of a shadow. He quickly catches me and stands me up. "Oh, Zatanna! Just the woman I was looking for!"

I arch a brow in confusion before dusting myself off. "Why?"

"It's news, big news. About Zack," Todd says.

My heart leaps into my throat and I grab Todd by the collar of his cape. "What!? What happened!? Where is he!? Is my baby okay!?"

Todd slowly reaches over and unlatches my hands from his cape before nodding. "I should've seen that one coming… Look, Zee, he's fine, Zack's in the dining hall of Damian's pla- WAIT!"

As soon as he told me where my son is, I immediately run over to Damian's home, ignoring Todd's calls.

I jump over some railing and run through the front door before coming to a stop at the blade against my neck. "What's got you in a hurry?"

"Not now, Shiva, I have to see Zack," I snarl.

The sword lowers and the owner of it steps out of the shadows.

She's a woman in her fifties with short black hair and brown eyes. She has tight black pants with a red-orange top that's connected to a skirt that goes down between her legs and has a window that shows off her cleavage. Clipped to her belt is the sword that was just against my neck and some knives as well.

Shiva nods in understanding, so I walk by. She then calls out, "wait, Zatanna! There's something you need to know!"

"It can wait!" I shout back.

"No it can't!" Shiva shouts.

"Yes it can!" I reply before running over to the dining room.

If I listen carefully, I can hear that there's a lot of people in there, and I can also see a few shadows within the room thanks to the paper-like material of these doors, one in particular is standing right in front of the door.

I quickly reach out and slide the door open.

"Finally, we've been waiting forever for some bloody foo-" Constantine says before he cuts himself off, his eyes widen considerably.

My eyes immediately land on Zack, who's looking at me with wide eyes before I notice all the people in the room.

There's Damian, Rachel, Rex, Terry, Zack, Etrigan, Constantine, and Clark. Ew to those last two.

But it's the next four people that surprise me the most.

Diana, John, Bruce.

And Eric.

Slowly, he turns around, and I see the same face I fell in love with all those years ago, untouched by time.

His eyes also widen as he notices me.

"Oh."

Slowly, I reach out and cup his cheek, fully expecting him to be some apparition or mannequin of some kind. But no, I fell his skin, his muscle, something I haven't felt in a long time.

"E-Eric?" I whisper with tears in my eyes.

I feel his hand rest over mine and he nods. "Yeah. Well, kind of," he says. God, I haven't heard his voice in forever too.

I then get a better look at him and notice a few things about him after what he said. For one, his eyes are…harder, and his suit has no purple whatsoever, just black, white, and orange.

His Ultimatrix is different too, it's a white, black, and orange wristwatch instead of a black and orange gauntlet.

"You're not my Eric," I state.

He nods. "We come from years ago, we were chasing after a time traveler and we're hoping that if we find him, we can go back and possibly stop this timeline from existing."

"But if our timelines diverged before the time you need to return to then nothing can be done for us," I say. I smirk at his impressed look. "My Eric taught me that."

"And this is where I come in!"

There's a flash of light before a man appears in a corner of the room.

He looks to be in his fifties, with dark brown hair that's white at the temples and gray eyes. He wears black dress shoes and black slacks with a brown vest over a white dress shirt and black tie, a white lab coat over it all.

Damian and the others all get up and ready to attack the man, but the other Eric raises an arm and stops them. "Hold it. This guy's good, trust me."

"How do you know that?" John asks, his body still surrounded by his green light.

"Because, I am Professor Paradox, a time travelling adventurer who is here to help," the man introduces himself with a posh British accent.

"Where're you from, mate?" Constantine asks.

Paradox shrugs with a small smile. "Who knows?" He suddenly pulls out a paper bag. "Gumballs, anyone?"

We all just stare at each other confused before Eric shrugs and takes one. "Eh, what the hell," he pops in his mouth, hums, before replying, "so, Professor, can you take us back, or is there some time law that prevents that?"

Paradox sighs and puts the bag away. "Time law. You see, the man these four are hunting down is named David Clinton, and due to his actions, I must see that he is stopped, but I cannot help with your plans against Darkseid."

"Great," Zack whispers. "Can you at least tell us if our time travel plan will work? If they go back will this timeline go away?"

Paradox shakes his head with a sigh. "Sadly, it will not."

"When?" Bruce asks.

Paradox turns his gaze to Eric. "When you got the Omnitrix."

"The Omni-what?" I ask.

"The Omnitrix, my watch," he says, showing it to us. "What, did this Eric not have it?"

I shake my head. "No, Eric's watch was called the Ultimatrix. And it was more of a gauntlet if anything."

"Well… Shit," Eric sighs.

"What's that mean?" Rex asks, his eyes darting between Eric, his dad, and Professor Paradox.

"We can't do anything about this timeline," Eric answers. He then raises his watch. "This is the Omnitrix, and I've had it ever since I was ten, I've never had the Ultimatrix."

The mood drops as the news settles in. But honestly, I shouldn't be depressed, I've lost damn near everything, all I have left is my son, sister, and sister-in-law's cat. Life isn't fair, and if it seems like an easy win, it isn't.

"Doesn't mean we should give up, though," Damian says. "We'll still help you get back to your time. Besides, a big opportunity's coming up for us, and I can't help but feel like they'll coincide."

"I can't help but feel like you're right," Bruce agrees.

The door behind us then opens and Eric and I step aside to let the servants serve the food. I look and see there aren't enough seats at the table now that I'm here, so I get four plates prepared and have them float around my head. "Eric, Zack, come on."

Eric's head perks up. "Huh? Where're we going?"

"To mine and Zack's quarters, we can eat there," I say, already heading there with Zack following. He avoids eye contact with the other Eric as he walks by me.

Before Eric can go, Bruce grabs him by the arm and whispers in his ear. The two nod and Bruce lets go before Eric stands next to me. "Lead the way."

"Come on," I nod down the hallway.

I can't help the smile on my face. It's been forever since the two of us ate together, and it'll give Zack a chance to get to know him, even if he isn't our exact Eric.

---

Eric

After a few minutes, the three of us enter a small room, I see a living area and two doors, one for a bedroom and the other is a bathroom.

"I'll get ready," Zack says quietly before entering the bedroom.

Once the door slides shut, I look at Future Zatanna.

I'm not sure how old she is, probably in her mid to late thirties, though due to the stress of living here she looks a little older than that. Her normally vibrant eyes are dimmed a little, and her hair's cut short to shoulder length, with some strands of gray here and there.

"Zatanna," I whisper. "What happened to him?"

She looks at the food on the table before sighing deeply.

---

Apokolips

16 Years Ago

Zatanna came to a stop after running for who knew how long and looked up to see Eric in the air, firing blasts of magic at Paradoom after Paradoom.

But it wasn't enough. Eventually, they swarmed him, and began to tear into him with their teeth and claws.

Eric screamed in pain as they slowly lowered to ground level, with more Paradooms swarming in. But he then managed to notice Zatanna and reached an arm out. She tried to help, but found she couldn't, for some reason she couldn't speak, she couldn't move forward.

She mentally screamed as her body turned around and ran away. 'If I can leave him to die then why do I have to hear his screams?' She thought to herself bitterly.

When she got a fair distance away, she opened a portal, she then looked back to see Eric smile at her gently before he whispered something.

The Ultimatrix then self-destructed, killing Eric and the Paradooms. The shockwave sent her flying through the portal.

---

Nanda Parbat

"What kind of wife does that?" Zatanna cries, tears running down her face. "My husband was being torn apart and eaten alive by those things and I ran away! God, he should be the one here, not me!"

I slowly walk over and pull her into a hug, I then rub soothing circles on her back as her tears run down my chest. "Hey, I don't blame you, and I bet he wouldn't either. From the sound of things maybe he put a spell on you? I know you'd do anything in your power to save him, but the fact that you literally couldn't means something was up."

Zatanna just continues to cry into my chest. "But why? Do you have any idea what the night's like for me? I couldn't be with Zack for months after 'cause all I saw was you dying! Every night the nightmares are the same—you getting killed by those damned Paradooms. But of course, they got worse, everything just gets worse. Some nights it's Zack getting eaten, others it's the both of you. I'm tired, Eric. I'm so…tired."

I frown deeply and hold her tighter. This isn't the Zatanna I'm used to. The Zatanna I'm used to always has energy, she's always emotional about something and faces everything with determined eyes and a defiant smile.

But this… This is something I don't know how to handle.

As I hold her, I notice movement out of the corner of my eye, and I look to see Zack slowly coming out of the bedroom, with Nova next to him. Holy shit.

Nova's in his big cat form, though he's lethargic, moving slowly. I also notice that the right side of his body, from his chest down to his hind right leg is bronze. "Nova…" I whisper in shock.

Zatanna stops crying and dries off her face before looking at the familiar cat and puts a plate down in front of him. He momentarily ignores it and walks up to me once his head bumps against my legs he looks up at me with curious eyes.

I slowly kneel down and pet him, I feel a little smirk on my face as he purrs, but then the smirk drops when I realize how weak it is.

"He was always tied to Esmeralda, when she…died he was slowly losing his mana, his will to live," Zatanna explains. "But because Zack's her only blood left with access to magic, Nova managed to imprint on him, but he's still slowly dying. We're not sure how long he has."

My hands move along his furred side before I fell the cold metal that's about half of his body. "What's this about?"

"A few years ago, a Paradoom tore off half of Nova's body," Zack answers. "If he were a normal cat, he would've died instantly, but he wasn't. Didn't matter though, he would've died in a few hours if Bronze Bolt didn't sacrifice his life to become Nova's cybernetics."

"So, I made Bronze Bolt here. In my timeline he's called Silver Bolt," I tell them. "Come on, let's eat before the food gets cold."

---

A few minutes after eating, Zack had left, saying he was going to go train with Rex and Terry for a bit and Nova went along with him, leaving me and Zatanna alone.

The two of us are now sat on a couch, with the Future Zatanna holding me close to her. "I know you aren't my Eric, but I need this, please," was her explanation, and I let her.

"So," I begin. "It's already too late for us to stop this all from happening, but while we're here I've gotta ask, what were the differences in our lives?"

She lifts her head from my shoulder and looks deep into my eyes. "Well, we'll just have to compare notes then, won't we?"

I nod. "Okay, well, I got the Omnitrix at age ten."

"My Eric got the Ultimatrix at age ten," she says.

"I lived in Arizona until I was sixteen, an incident at my old high school forced us to move to Seattle," I continue, grimacing a little at the memory.

"Same thing, except he moved to Oregon," Zatanna says.

"Then at seventeen I met you and your dad after one of your shows," I continue.

Zatanna's eyes narrow. "There's a big change. Here we met at thirteen, your dad got the special ticket. We hit it off from there and we've been friends ever since. We started dating at sixteen and that was that. You- I mean he, was my first and only boyfriend."

"Well, for me we did get that ticket, but your mom went missing before the show and we didn't meet until four years later. We dated for two years, broke up, then got back together almost a year ago," I say. "So, how do you know Constantine? Or Nick Necro? If you know him, that is."

Zatanna rolls her eyes in annoyance. "Oh, I know Necro all right, he was one of my enemies, annoying asshole that one was. Constantly tried to kill you so he could have me. God, if I ever dated that guy, I'd eat a grenade."

"Huh," I say, looking ahead blankly.

Zatanna looks up at me in horror. "Oh, god, don't tell me your Zee dated Nick Necro!"

"W-well to be fair she was at a low point, and he was like a shark. Eventually she found out who he really was and broke things off with him," I reply.

Zatanna groans in defeat. "If I could, I'd kick your Zatanna's ass for being so stupid."

I chuckle a little before sighing. "I'd pay to see that. But how do you know Constantine?"

She scowls. "He trained under my Dad a few years into my relationship with my Eric, and one time when he was drunk tried to force himself on me. You came into the room at just the right time and the both of us kicked his ass. I'd see him occasionally here and there, but he'd always run for the hills when Daddy was around… I miss him. Mom too."

Wow, as if I couldn't hate Constantine anymore, he goes and does that. Then again, not the Constantine from my timeline, but still.

While she's lost in her thoughts of her father, I decide now's as good a time as any to ask these important questions. "What's Zack like?"

She slowly smiles and begins to play around with some of my fingers. "He's a lot like you. Or at least, my you. Gah, that was confusing."

"I got it," I assure her.

"Right," she nods. "He's quiet, and he likes to tinker with stuff. I guess after I told him it was one of your favorite pass-times he started to play around with machines and crap. Even though it flies over my head I would've loved to have seen the two of you work on stuff together."

His goggles are damaged… Yeah, I'll do that if we get the time. I need to do this, for the two of them.

The door slides open and Zack sticks his head inside. "Hey, Damian's calling us to the dining room, says the plan's in motion."

Zatanna and I get up and head over to the door. Zack steps back to let us out and the two of us stare at each other for a moment. I then smirk and throw an arm over his shoulder, he stiffens a little, but then accepts it.

"Lead the way, Zack," I say.

"O-okay," he nods meekly.

As we walk towards the dining hall, I notice Zatanna looking at the two of us with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.

I know it's not much considering the lives they lived, but I'll do what I can to give them as much happiness as possible.

---

"Whoa, this is weird," Lois says on a screen once I enter the room.

Like everyone else here, she looks older than the one we know, and she has a shock of white amongst her black hair.

"Yeah, I know," I shrug.

"Well, let's get started, shall we?" Lois asks. Half of the screen then shows a building, with a red dot near the top. "Our source on the inside's told us that Darkseid's going to be on the move soon, he plans to hit Oa."

"What?" John exclaims in shock. "He's really that bold?"

"He is," Rex says. "And he'll do it. The Green Lanterns are as good as dead."

"You don't know that!" John snarls. "For all we know the Green Lanterns will kick Darkseid's sorry ass off the planet and take him down!"

Rex steps back and stares at his father in shock, which John notices and he stands down. "Sorry, I'm just- I can't see the Green Lanterns lose again, not after Amazo."

"Apology accepted, John, but your son's right," when Lois said this, I notice as John winces a little. "Darkseid's already wiped out the other Lantern Corps, hell the Blues and Sinestro Corps worked together but were eventually all killed. Even Sinestro."

"Okay, back on topic—Darkseid's gonna be off Apokolips, what about the Paradooms? How are we so sure we won't just run into them and get slaughtered?" I ask.

"The Paradooms are too dangerous to keep awake for too long, eventually they start to attack anything in sight, Parademons, each other, even Darkseid. So, they're kept on ice until they're needed," Lois tells us.

Bruce hums before turning to Damian. "How long does it take for Paradooms to go feral?"

"We've estimated about two hours," Damian answers.

Bruce nods before turning to me. "Eric, could any of your forms make two hours pass for them?"

I shrug. "As always, if it's time related it's all betting on Chronos. I've never really practiced altering time around something."

Hell, now that I think about it, I don't actually know a lot about Chronos. I mean, every time I get a new form, I know everything they can do, but I never practice with that stuff. I spent so much time training Eric, I never thought about training my alien forms.

That's changing after today.

"But I'll see what I can do," I assure them. I then turn to Paradox. "But I guess you can't help."

As expected, (though it still sucks), Paradox shakes his head. "Unless it directly involved David Clinton I cannot interfere."

Zack sighs deeply, a lot like I do. "Of course. When you've got crazy power, you've gotta deal with crazy rules. So, what's up with Darkseid leaving for Oa? There's obviously an after plan."

Lois nods. "There is. According to the schematics I was given, there is a Boom Tube generator at the top of the LexCorp tower, if you can fight your way through and use the portal you can go to Apokolips, destroy his armies, and end this long-drawn-out war."

"LexCorp? Even Lex is still alive in this time?" Diana asks. When the others nod, she scowls. "Typical…"

Suddenly, Diana fades away, as if she were never here.

"Diana!" Bruce shouts in worry.

"What the hell just happened!?" John demands from Paradox.

"She never left the island," I whisper in shock.

"Or she was never born," Paradox adds ominously. "This is why I am here. David Clinton's time machine has severely derailed this timeline and your own. If we don't get you all to your proper place in time, both timelines will be gone."

"…Well, that's so not schway," Terry says after a moment of silence.

"What are we waiting for? Let's hit LexCorp!" John says, palming his fist.

"Not just yet, there's something I have to-"

"Hey, Lane! You're on in five!" A voice shouts from off the screen.

"Lo? What was that?" Clark asks.

Lois sighs. "Just come to Stryker's Island, it could help with the plan," the call then ends, and I notice as Clark covers a watch with his sleeve.

"You transmitted off of that?" I ask.

He nods. "Had to use a projector, but yeah."

I notice that Bruce is still looking at where Diana was before John gives me a nod and whispers to our Dark Knight.

While they talk, I look to our future friends. "So, what's next?"

Damian gets up and puts on his cowl. "It's obvious, we go to Stryker's Island."

---

Stryker's Island

We all stop just in front of the entrance to the prison. Me, Batman, Green Lantern, Zatanna, Zatara, Raven, Damian, Robin, Warhawk, Shiva, Clark, Etrigan, and Constantine watch as the gates are raised, and a bridge is lowered.

Once the bridge settles, a man marches over to us. He wears black pants and a white shirt with a blue trench coat over it all. On some black bandoliers he has boomerangs of varying kinds and a hat over his brown hair and sideburns.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't the Destroyer of the World and his merry band of friends," Captain Boomerang greets with his arms out. "Come on, your lady's inside."

"How many people actually like you?" John asks as we walk across the bridge.

Clark looks down sadly. "Just Lois."

"Still think she should've left your sorry ass," I hear Zatanna mumble. I look at her incredulously and she just shrugs in response. "He took everything from me, I have the right."

"She does," Clark says. "They all do…"

The rest of the trip is silent as we walk over to what I'd guess was the cafeteria where we hear cheering. Once we enter the room, we see two women in the ring, fighting, Lois vs Harley Quinn.

Harley wears blue capris with one red and one black legging, as well as a sleeveless top that's opposite her leggings and arm sleeves opposite them. Her face has white makeup, and she wears her old jester's hat with a domino mask that doesn't cover her eyes.

"She went back to the jester look?" I ask with an arched brow. I then wince as she gets in a good uppercut on Lois. "Ooh! Watch her fists, Lois! Harley's extremely flexible!"

Zatanna looks at me with narrowed eyes. "And how would you know that?"

I point a thumb at Batman. "His files."

Zatanna looks at him and he nods in response before she focuses on the fight. Lois ducks under Harley's right hook and punches the jester straight in the kidney. "Nice punch, Lo!" Zatanna cheers.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice as Constantine and Boomerang give each other the side eye.

"Aussie," Constantine mutters.

"Brit," Boomerang mutters back.

"Convict."

"Posh prissy."

The two then get in each other's face. "Wanker!"

I return my focus to the fight just in time to see Harley pull out some electric brass knuckles from her pockets. She then goes for a punch, but Lois manages to grab her arm and twist it, hitting Harley in the back with her own weapon.

The jester shouts through gritted teeth as the electricity arcs through her before stumbling forward. "Hey, I think I see my…Dad…" she mutters before falling flat on her face.

Boomerang sighs before hopping into the ring and holding Lois' arm up for victory. "Well, looks like Lois Lane here just won the match! You know what that means! The Suicide Squad lives up to its name!"

There's a cheer throughout the crowd before Lois walks over and stands in front of us, in particular me, Green Lantern, and Batman.

"I didn't believe it when I saw you guys through the call, but here you are, in the flesh," she then hugs me. "I know she wasn't yours, but sorry about Esmeralda."

I hug her back and fight the tears in my eyes. "Thank you. All right, what's your plan?"

---

Now we're all in a backroom, our group with what's left of the Suicide Squad.

There's obviously Harley and Captain Boomerang, but Cheetah, Black Manta, King Shark, Bane, and my freaking uncle are here. And he's still looking at me.

I've also noticed that Constantine's staying as far away as possible from King Shark. Weird.

"So, you're really from another timeline?" My uncle asks.

Alexander's an old guy at this point, well into his sixties. His hair's mainly white, with some hints of red here and there, his beard's the same. He's got the same blue eyes as me and is still fit somehow. Though I do notice that he's wearing red and black power armor.

I nod silently and just stare ahead.

"And you can't stop all of this from happening why?" Cheetah asks.

She looks different from the Cheetah I know. Instead of the animal in the shape of a human woman she's more or less a human woman covered in a light coat of cheetah fur with red hair, two ears sticking out of the top of her head. She's also wearing tight black pants that stop halfway down her calves and a black sports bra.

"Because our timelines diverged way before the time we need to go back to," I say. "For time travel to work perfectly we need to return to the moment we disappeared, but if we go back, we won't change your history. We won't stop this war."

Black Manta scoffs. "This isn't a war; this is a slow death."

He wears mainly black armor, with a manta ray-like helmet that has a red visor throughout the front and two red tubes going from the back of his head to a pack on his back.

"Normally I wouldn't risk my people to help ya, but since Lois here won the fight I gotta," Harley says, sitting on a box and kicking her legs back and forth. "What's the plan?"

Lois gives me a nod and I step forward to create a hologram of the LexCorp building.

"As you can see up top there's a Boom Tube generator available for use, and thanks to my source we have the password for it," Lois begins. The hologram then shifts to a simulated view of Apokolips. "Darkseid will leave Apokolips to attack Oa in a few hours, so, as soon as he leaves, we get in while the door's closing."

"What about the Parademons?" Captain Boomerang asks, tossing one of his signature weapons up and down in a hand.

"With a group like this Parademons aren't a problem," Bane says. "But the Paradooms…"

Bane's a large Hispanic man wearing gray camo pants, black combat boots, and a black and gray sleeveless shirt. His right wrist is covered by a black gauntlet that has two green tubes going from it into the back of his black, white, and red mask.

"The Paradooms can't be out for too long, otherwise they go feral and attack everything in sight, so while Darkseid will have a few with him on Oa, the majority will be in hibernation on Apokolips," Lois says.

Damian then steps forward, and two circles diverge on the hologram, one orange and the other purple. "Purple team will head for the Paradoom facility, your primary mission will be to kill as many as you can, but if we don't have enough time, they'll release the Paradooms."

"I'm sorry, did you say, "release the Paradooms"!?" Boomerang shouts in surprise. "Oh, yeah, while we're at it let's bring bloody Trigon to play, really ensure our deaths!"

"We believe that Triumph can use Chronos to make the Paradooms feel as though they were out longer than they should be, aggravating them faster," Lois explains.

"And what's stopping us from getting killed?" Alexander asks.

"I'll teleport us away immediately after," Zatara says.

Boomerang laughs. "You'll save us? How old are you, twelve!?" He then continues to laugh.

"Hey!" I get up and stand behind Zatara, resting a hand on his shoulder. "If he says he can do it, he will. Besides, he has a much higher chance of surviving then some dude who throws boomerangs."

"Orange team will head for Darkseid's throne room," Lois says, stopping any future arguments. "From there they'll have access to Darkseid's personal Father Box, which will give them absolute control over all of the Apokolips Father Boxes. Then, they can tear what's left of Apokolips apart, leaving Darkseid alone."

"Wait, "what's left of Apokolips"? What's that mean?" Green Lantern asks.

Lois and Clark look at Zatanna, so the rest of us follow suit.

Zatanna looks at all of us before her eyes land on me. She then sighs deeply. "When my Triumph…died, he had the Ultimatrix self-destruct, and in doing so, he destroyed a huge chunk of Apokolips. The only reason Darkseid hasn't wiped us out completely is because he's too busy trying to repair his planet."

"It's been reported that planets all over the universe are being attacked by these harvesters that are protected by Paradooms. They absorb the magma from the planets then return to Apokolips, all to repair that celestial eyesore," Raven tells us. "We're not sure when, but we know Earth will get hit at some point."

While she spoke, I noticed that Raven looked a little ill, paler than usual. She notices me studying her and shakes her head slightly. Guess it's just Trigon.

Wait a goddamn minute.

Oh. OH. This plan could work.

"Okay, if that's all the planning we've got then I have one question for you guys. What the hell's the "Suicide Squad"?" Green Lantern asks.

"Oh, we're Amanda Waller's personal group of expendable weapons!" Harley answers cheerfully. "We're all criminals that had bombs implanted into our heads that would be detonated if we went off course!"

Green Lantern and I share a glance before focusing back on Harley. "Ah."

"But Waller's dead now! Cancer! Ain't that a bitch?" Harley then laughs.

I lean over to Zatanna and Zatara. "You know, the Harley in my time hasn't been like this in a few years. She's a lot saner now and left the Joker a while ago."

"Really? Well, this Harley never left the Joker," Zatanna whispers back. "Depressing, really."

"So, who's in what team?" Alexander asks.

"You, Green Arrow, Triumph, Nova, Zatara, Shiva, and Robin will be on purple team," Lois says.

"No way, absolutely not," Zatanna says, getting up and standing in front of Zatara. "I can hardly handle it when Zatara's out here on Earth, but he is not going to Apokolips, least of all to where the Paradooms are!"

"Zee, he literally volunteered a few minutes ago when he said he could teleport them out," Lois tries to reason.

Boomerang smirks. "I say let the little tyke go, he can really prove himself then."

Zatanna glares at him and prepares a spell, but Zatara's hand on her arm stops her. "Mom, please don't. I said I'd get everyone out, so I will. Besides, I won't be alone, I'll have… I have Dad with me."

Zatanna's glare softens, and she looks to me and I give her a nod. "I promise I'll keep him safe, Zatanna."

Her eyes dart between the two of us before she sighs in defeat. "Fine."

Damian nods before looking over the group. "Orange team will consist of myself and Father, Green Lantern, Warhawk, Constantine, Etrigan, Raven, Zatanna, and Clark."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Boomerang says. "What about us? The old mercenary bastard's the only one going to Apokolips? If he was all you needed, then what's the point of this?"

"Had no idea you were so excited to die, Boomer," Alexander chuckles. "Please, take my place. Would love to see how you deal with the Paradooms in their home."

"I called for the Suicide Squad because I need someone to protect the portal here," Lois explains. "When we're done, Triumph will be our only way of communicating from that distance, and the forces of Apokolips will no doubt come at us to try and take it back."

"I'm fine with guard duty," Black Manta says as he folds his arms.

"King Shark is a shark," King Shark says, speaking up for the first time.

He's a large humanoid man, with a great white shark head instead of a normal one. His scales are a light blue with some scars crisscrossing them, and his underbelly is a light gray. He also has red eyes and wears a sleeveless black tactical vest and black military pants with boots.

I also notice that Constantine sinks in on himself once he speaks up. "The hell's up with that?" I whisper.

"Oh, King Shark is Constantine's ex," Zatara whispers back.

Zatanna and I look at him in shock before whipping our heads over to Constantine then King Shark and back. My eyes then widen as we look at each other. "My god…" We both whisper in shock.

"All right, let's go!" Lois orders.

With the little jovial attitude gone, we all break, but while everyone else leaves the room, Zatara, Zatanna, Nova, and I stay. I notice that Uncle Alex struggles between leaving or talking to me, but I just give him a nod and he walks away. We'll talk later.

Zatanna just looks between me and Zack before cupping our cheeks with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. "Look at this. I've dreamed for moments like this for years, and, in a way, I finally got it. The love of my life and my pride and joy, together again."

I reach over and pull Zack close to me. "I know I'm not him, but I'm here if you need me. For all three of you," I add, looking down at Nova for that last bit.

Zatanna smiles again and pulls us close, resting our heads on either of her shoulders. She then kisses both of our cheeks before sighing and holding us tightly. "I love you."

"We love you too, Mom," Zack replies, one of his arms hugs her tight and the other hugs me.

"I love you too," I whisper.

Zatanna then pulls back and studies both of our faces for a moment longer before nodding. "Okay, you three protect each other, when we rendezvous the four of us will be together again, got it?"

Zack and Nova nod before he looks down at his hands. "I should get warmed up, see you in a bit, Er- Dad."

"Yeah, see you in a bit, Zack," I reply. Once he and Nova leaves Zatanna and I are the only two left in the room. "I'll protect them both, I promise you."

"I know you will," Zatanna whispers, resting a hand on my chest, the other grabs my hand. I can see as she fights with herself over something before she looks into my eyes. "Can I kiss you? I know it's weird to ask, I mean you're Eric Mercer and I'm Zatanna Mercer, by default I shouldn't even have to ask. But you aren't my Eric, and I'm not your Zatanna. Never mind, this got weird."

It did. But I promised that I'd do whatever it took to make her and Zack happy, and she's right, me kissing Zatanna normally wouldn't be weird, but she's not the Zee I know, sure she's the same physically but she's a different person considering the lives they both led.

But would it be wrong? According to some points of view, yes, but no in others. Then again, it's all dependent on what my Zatanna says after, so screw it.

Slowly, I kiss her.

She lets out a little noise of surprise before melting into it. I feel as tears run down her cheeks while she holds me closer to her. After a few moments we separate.

"Thank you," she whispers.

"No problem," I say with a small smile. "Now come on, we've got a world to save."

---

Apokolips

It was a pain to get here.

We met up with Green Arrow—who now has a cybernetic right arm—and stormed LexCorp. There were some troops we had to deal with, and while Green Lantern, Batman, and I tried not to kill them, our future allies were a lot less merciful. Hell, Future Zatanna turned some dude's blood into lava. She's deadly. Granted we couldn't blame them, this timeline's far deadlier than ours.

We fought our way up the tower and eventually reached the top floor, but just before we did Cheetah was killed by an explosive trap. Once the smoke cleared, Lex Luthor was waiting for us behind his desk, a large scar going up the side of his face.

The fighting stopped, and we realized that he was the source on the inside. Of course, there were some trust issues, but after getting access to his armory (filled with kryptonite weapons that can also kill Paradooms easily) we begrudgingly agreed and were teleported away to Apokolips.

Now, purple team's nearing the Paradoom facility. Hell, if I look around the corner, I'll see pods filled with the damned things.

"Okay, so, I see a few Parademons there on guard," I tell the others after looking around the corner. "They shouldn't be too bad, but I see one standing in front of a console. If I had to guess, he'd be the one that releases the hounds when ordered to."

"Or when the time calls for it," Green Arrow whispers. "I can take him out."

"I know you can. But it's the others we gotta worry about, anyone of them could sound an alarm and it'd be game over for us," I whisper. "Any ideas?"

"I could cover the area in a silence spell," Zatara says.

"Ooh, I love that spell," Robin whispers excitedly.

"What's a silence spell do?" Shiva asks.

"I'll make the entire room completely silent, so that even if the alarm goes off, there won't be any sound. And as long as they don't see anything, the Parademons won't even know we're here. Though it's a double-edged sword, so, if a Parademon sneaks up on us, we won't hear them," Zatara explains.

"I've already got a plan," I announce. "Zatara, you do that, Parademons are so dumb they probably won't even notice it. Ollie, is this the best vantage point?"

He looks around before nodding. "There'll be some corners I won't be able to see, but this is where I'd be best."

"Good, that means you're overwatch. Keep an eye on our sixes and make sure none of the Parademons even get close to the console. Robin, Shiva, you're the stealth team, kill any straggling Parademons out on the fringes and make sure the corners Green Arrow can't cover are covered," I order.

Uncle Alexander rests a hand on my shoulder and quickly looks around the corner. "And us?"

"You, Zatara, and Luna will fight the Parademons here in this room, they won't be too much for you. I'll be on the console and see what I can do to kill some Paradooms, or even make them feral," I whisper. I then take a deep breath before looking at my team. "This is it guys, you ready?"

Shiva looks over her sword, Green Arrow tests his bowstring, Robin gets some birdarangs ready, Luna's claws unsheathe, and his fangs get barred, Alexander checks his weapons and Zatara's eyes glow blue.

"Ready," he tells me. "Ecnelis!"

A blue bubble of energy expands outwards, and after getting enveloped in it all sound is gone. We look and see as the Parademons all pause what they're doing out of curiosity before they return to work.

Robin and Shiva share a nod before they dart off into the shadows, two Parademons already dead. Green Arrow then shoots the Parademon at the console through the head and another Parademon notices. He shouts for the others, but no sound comes out, and he's then killed by a bullet from Alexander.

The four of us jump down to the main area and Luna, Zatara, and Alexander kill any Parademons in the way, a few get killed with arrows, as I approach the console.

Okay, all I gotta do is press some buttons without accidentally waking the Paradooms up. Thankfully, I've got a form for that. I transform into Grey Matter and get started.

The silence is actually oddly calming considering the possible outcomes of this situation. I quickly peek my head out and cheer silently as I watch Zatara turn two Parademons into fertilizer. I'm already so proud of him.

I hop back in and resume my work.

Hm, that's interesting, the floor below this one is a giant Boom Tube generator. When the Paradooms are needed, the portal is activated, and their pods are dropped through it. Kind of like the ODST from Halo.

Oh? What's this? A present? For me? Oh, they shouldn't have!

I smirk as I mess around with some wires. Well, now I have full access to the Boom Tube facilities of this building. Now, where to send the Paradooms? The core of Apokolips? No, they could possibly survive that and come at us, then we'd have to deal with flaming Paradooms. The center of a faraway sun? Nah, even if they wouldn't be a problem now, chances are they'd become one in the future for these guys, and I can't live with that.

I know exactly where to send them.

The supermassive blackhole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy!

Man, sometimes my genius scares even me.

I hop out of the console and climb out before transforming back to normal, I then look around and my eyes widen in surprise as I see that the fighting's done, but Alexander's leaning against the wall, bleeding heavily, and Nova's…well… God, things are so brutal here.

Zatara lowers the silence spell, and I can hear his sniffles as he holds Uncle Alexander by the shoulders. "Don't die, Uncle! Please! I-I lost Nova; I can't lose you too!"

Alexander chuckles before coughing up some blood and groaning. "I was getting too old anyway, kid. Besides, I'd rather go out like this then die peacefully in bed. You've got a good head on your shoulders, Zackary, you're the best of all of us."

I slowly walk over and kneel on his other side, Alexander then rests a hand on the side of my face and takes a deep, painful breath. "We never did get to have that talk," I mutter.

"No, we didn't," he nods. "But talk to your Alexander, if he's anything like me, deep down he'd love to just spend a day and talk to you, Esmeralda, Ashley, and…Daniel…" His head lolls to the side and he stares ahead blankly, his final breath having left him.

I quietly get up and then crouch down by Nova's body and rest my hand on the fur of his chest. "Say hi to her for me, yeah?" I whisper. I then look up at Shiva standing next to me. "How'd they die?"

Shiva looks at Alexander's body. "A Parademon moved too fast for Green Arrow and stabbed him. He killed it back though," she then looks at Nova and I could swear I saw a hint of pride in her eyes. "There were some Parademons behind your son, he never noticed them, but Nova protected him, your son then killed them."

"It's my fault," I hear Zack mutter. "I-I should've been more aware, should've known Green Arrow couldn't cover all of our backs. He wouldn't have died if I'd just paid attention."

I walk over and stand him up before wiping some dust and blood off of his shoulders. "Hey, it wasn't your fault or Ollie's. Oliver's just one man and we couldn't hear a damn thing. Nova knew what he was doing, and he'd do it again if he knew it'd save you. Now I know this'll seem callous, but we have to go, we can't cry for them now, but we will later."

Zack dries his tears away before nodding. "O-okay."

Robin walks up to me. "Did you find out how to use the-"

*BOOM*

We all flinch violently and cover our ears as the Boom Tube below us activates. A few pods from both sides then drop before the portal closes, now about three fourths of the Paradooms are still here.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Green Arrow shouts in confusion.

I hush everyone and for the next few minutes we all stay vigilant as our hearing slowly returns. I then walk over to the console and see the log. Shit.

"Problem: harvesters were dropped on Earth, and the Paradooms here were sent off to protect them. This high-stakes mission just got higher," I announce.

"But our teams on Earth were prepared for this," Robin says, trying to deny what's most likely to happen.

"Terry, when was the last time…"

---

Zack

"Terry, when was the last time…" Was the last thing Dad said before he disappeared.

No, no, no, no. I just lost Uncle Alexander and Nova, I can't lose him. Not again. Not aga-

"Whoa, that was weird."

We all look to see someone else standing where Dad was.

He's around my age, if I were to guess, wearing a black shirt and blue jeans with a green jacket that has two white stripes on the upper right sleeve and a vertical white stripe with a black circle with the number 10 in it. He has brunet hair and green eyes, and I can see a green Omnitrix on his left wrist.

Green Arrow aims an arrow at the guy. "Who the hell are you? Where the hell's Triumph?"

The guy raises his hands in surrender. "Whoa, dude, calm down! The name's Ben Tennyson, I'm an Omnitrix wielder from a different dimension! I guess because the timeline's all screwed up I've temporarily replaced Eric."

"Then where's my Dad?" I demand, ready to attack this Ben if he makes even one wrong move.

"My universe," he answers. "Probably just appeared in the middle of mine, Gwen, and Kevin's fight against the Forever Knights. Look, I'm all caught up on your plan, so let me activate the Boom Tube and send these guys into a supermassive blackhole."

We all share a confused glance but eventually everyone's gaze lands on me, so I nod. "Fine. But if you do anything out of line, Green Arrow here will put an arrow through your head, got it?"

Ben nods with a gulp. "Got it," he then turns around and fiddles with the controls. After a while, a muffled Boom Tube opens, and the rest of the pods are dropped. "There! Paradooms dealt with…"

Then Dad's back.

He shakes his head to regain his bearings before leaning on the console for support. "God, that was not fun at all. Gwen was so…demanding," he shakes his head again. "Come on, orange team's waiting for us no doubt, let's go!"

Green Arrow and Shiva share a glance before shrugging and following after him.

Robin leans towards me and whispers, "time travel's a much bigger headache then I thought it'd be, you know?"

I nod in agreement. "Oh, yeah."

"Zack! Terry! Come on!" Dad shouts.

"Coming!" The both of us reply before running after them.

---

Darkseid's Throne Room

Zatanna

Now we know what happened to those Darkseid didn't kill during the League's first attack.

Diana, Shayera, Mera, J'onn, and Kory were transformed into cyborg Furies, Darkseid's personal troop of deadly soldiers.

It was a tough battle, and Green Lantern and Warhawk had an extremely tough time fighting against Shayera, but it was the fight between Etrigan and Diana that turned the tide.

After Diana killed the demon, Constantine managed to get ahold of her Lasso and used it to break her programming. Once she was freed, she took her Lasso back and stayed behind, fully intent on giving us the time we need to end this.

After entering we ran through the lower floors of Darkseid's Palace, and eventually found Wally. He was extremely thin and forced to run on a treadmill, Darkseid was using him to keep Apokolips alive while he scoured the universe for ways to repair his planet.

After freeing him, we eventually found David Clinton.

Or what was left of him.

I'll spare the details and just say this, he looked like Prometheus after the eagle ate his liver, but he didn't regenerate.

Two Parademons then entered the room, one holding a belt of some kind in its hands. Bruce immediately sprung into action and took the belt, after looking it over he confirmed that it was the time belt.

Shortly after, a group of Parademons swarmed on us, but Clark (Who's in a power suit from Lex, by the way) destroyed them with a missile and led us over to the throne room. Ahead of us we could see Darkseid's throne, but on the wall to the left was Victor, his body fused with the red wall, his chest and head connected while his arms and legs were stretched out and disassembled.

That's where we're at now.

"Oh my god, Victor!?" I whisper in shock.

He opens his eyes drowsily before they land on us. "Zatanna?" He then blinks in confusion. "W-wait, John? Bruce!?"

"Time travel," is all Bruce says.

"Wh-what happened to you, man?" Wally asks as Constantine gently sets him down next to Victor.

"Darkseid fused me to his fortress, now I have access to all his tech, but I'm being blocked by firewall after firewall," Victor answers before looking at Wally worriedly. "What happened to you?"

Wally shrugs weakly. "Darkseid had me running for fifteen years straight. Don't recommend that, by the way."

Victor sighs before looking at us with a wide eye. "While it's good to see you guys alive you have to leave! Now!"

"Why?" Damian asks.

"I'm why."

From the shadows, a floating black chair with blue circuit lines floats into view and sat in it is our Bruce.

He wears a black suit with a red bat that has some circuit lines that go up and over his shoulders, the lenses of his cowl are red, and he doesn't have a cape. And from what skin we can see his skin's a little darker.

Mobius Bruce looks over our group before his gaze lands on Clark. "Lord Darkseid knew you'd plan a futile strike eventually, and that this time you wouldn't be stupid enough to bring all of your forces to Apokolips, so, just a minute ago I sent the harvesters to Earth, as well as a contingent of Paradooms to protect them. I've also sent a few to LexCorp, I know Lex is the mole."

Shit. The last time the Paradooms were on Earth was during the first attack against Earth, they won't survive another attack. And they're attacking LexCorp? There goes our ride home. Dammit. DAMMIT!

Mobius Bruce then studies John and Past Bruce. "Hm. I knew the belt brought by David Clinton was a time machine, but we never got it to work. I theorized that someone from his time would arrive eventually, but I never expected you, John. Or myself."

"Surprised?" Past Bruce snarls.

Mobius Bruce is silent for a while. "Slightly. But it matters not," he presses some buttons on his chair and a Boom Tube opens. "Lord Darkseid has arrived."

From the portal comes Darkseid himself.

He's a large being, nine-feet-tall I'd say with gray rock-like skin and burning red eyes. He wears blue boots and gloves, as well as a mainly blue, sleeveless armored top connected to a skirt that goes between his legs with golden trim. He wears black pants and has a golden omega on his chest, a red gem in the center of it.

Once the Boom Tube closes, Darkseid just floats back and sits in his throne. "Send the Paradooms, Batman, I wish to watch as they tear these heroes apart."

"As you say, Lord Darkseid," Mobius Bruce drones before pressing more buttons.

We all get ready for a last stand, but after a few moments nothing happens.

"Where are the Paradooms, Batman?" Darkseid asks impatiently.

Mobius Bruce's eyes flicker before he raises his head, shock on his face. "They're gone, my Lord."

Darkseid's eyes narrow and glow intensely. ""Gone"?"

"Their pods are not within the facility," his eyes flicker again. "They were teleported into a… Supermassive blackhole. The one in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It would take decades, possibly centuries to find even one. If it were still alive."

Darkseid sighs deeply. "Very well then, I shall-"

Suddenly, the window to the roof of the throne room shatters, and purple team drops in and immediately runs behind us.

"RUN!" Zatara shouts.

"Wha-?" Warhawk then looks up and his eyes widen considerably. "Holy shit!"

I follow his gaze and my eyes widen too. "Teg su tuo fo ereh!" Orange team, purple team, and the wall where Wally and Vic are at are teleported away just as Atlas' fist slams into Darkseid's palace, destroying the building in one go.

We're teleported away back to the bridge where we fought the Furies just in time to see them free Kory from the programming. Her eyes widen as she sees all of us. "G-guys? What are you doing here," her eyes then widen as she notices Atlas. "And is that, Eric?"

"Oh, so it wasn't me hallucinating. Okay," Wally mutters.

We all look to get a good view of the To'kustar himself.

Atlas is Eric's biggest form, coming in at hundreds of feet tall. His skin's mainly white, from his shins down, his elbows down, his shoulders, chest, center of his abdomen, and head are black. His elbows have large spikes coming from them and he has two fin-like black appendages on each shoulder as well as a fin protruding out of the top of his head, red along the edges while black on the sides. The Ulti- I mean Omnitrix crest is on the center of his chest.

"YOU GUYS OKAY?" He asks, his voice booming throughout the planet.

I just shakily nod and give him a thumbs up, which he notices.

"You told me Atlas was big, Mom, but I never expected him to be this big," Zatara whispers in awe.

"Yeah, I know," I smile. I then look around and notice that Alexander and Nova aren't here. Great, more family lost.

Triumph continues to wail on Darkseid and Mobius Batman, but after a few punches some omega beams dart up and hit him dead center on his head fin, and I wince as his body stiffens before he falls over.

"Shit, that's gonna keep him out of the fight for a while," I mutter.

We look as two dots fly over from the rubble and then near us, eventually letting us see Mobius Batman and Darkseid, the two of them covered in some debris and dust.

Darkseid notices the Furies standing with us and snarls. "Pathetic. I should have killed you all when I had the chance. It matters not, none of you will live to see tomorrow."

"Constantine! Now!" Raven shouts just as Darkseid and Mobius Batman prepare to attack.

Suddenly, a black knife surrounded by white with a skull with red eyes on the end of the hilt appears in the air. It then flies over and dislodges Raven's chakra from her forehead and stabs the diamond.

Black smoke then seeped out and took the semi-form of Trigon, four yellow eyes and horns appeared on the cloud.

Everyone stopped to stare at it before it suddenly flew over and into Clark through his mouth and nose.

"Oh, shit," Constantine whispers in fear.

After struggling for a few moments, the Lex power suit explodes, and a Trigon possessed Clark steps out. He's wearing black shorts with a black cape and his skin's a light red. Clark also now has four yellow eyes and deer-like horns growing out of his head and his family crest is on fire while connected to the cape.

Trigon-Superman studies all of us for a moment before he's suddenly punched away by Darkseid.

"Take whatever form you like, Kryptonian, I will still defeat you!" Darkseid taunts.

Trigon-Superman flies back and tackles Darkseid into the bridge before lifting the New God up by the front of his armor and punches him high into the sky before following him.

While the two (three?) Had their fight, Mobius Batman took the chance to attack us, hoping off of his chair and going after the two good Batmen while the chair went for us.

And to top it all off, Parademons began to swarm towards us.

"Ah crap! We're surrounded!" Warhawk shouts before narrowly blocking a laser bolt from the chair.

"Deal with the chair, us Furies can handle the Parademons," Shayera says. Her and Warhawk hold each other's gazes for a while before nodding and flying in opposite directions.

So, the three Batmen have their fight, with Robin and Shiva joining in while everyone else fights the Mobius Chair.

Seeing that they've all got it covered, I hold Zatara back from the fight. "Come on, Zee, let's go check on Eric."

He looks back at the fighting before nodding.

The two of us then fly over to Eric, dodging Parademons and killing others as we near. In the distance I can see a few of them swarming Atlas, which means he's still conscious, just stunned. Now, we just need to get them away. But how…?

"Mom, I have a plan," Zatara suddenly says.

"Were you reading my mind?" I ask with an arched brow.

He shakes his head. "No, you just had your planning face on, I'm told I have the same one."

"That you do, Zee," I praise with a smile. "Okay, what do you have?"

He takes off his goggles and presses a button on the side of them, little lights then turn on. "While we were heading to the Paradoom facility Dad and I tinkered with these goggles, made them into something Parademons can't ignore. Just tell me when to throw them."

I look down at the goggles sadly. With what was left of Bronze Bolt gone, these are one of the few things I have left made by Eric. But then I look at Zack and smile a little. But those things don't matter compared to Zack, our son.

I look back at the Parademons and count to five in my head before giving him a nod. Zatara presses one more button and tosses the goggles away. After a few seconds, a loud disco song begins to play, with lights going all over the place. Parademons all over stop what they're doing before darting off to it. And once a large number of them swarm it, Zatara pulls an old Nokia phone from his pocket (where the hell did he get that?) and presses a button, shortly after the goggles explode, killing all of the Parademons.

"Ha, ha! Boom baby!" Zatara cheers.

I look at the destruction with wide eyes before giving him a proud smile. "Boom, baby. You two did good. Now come on, let's save his ass!"

The two of us land on Atlas' chest and I cup my hands over my mouth. "Ekaw pu, saltA!"

He groans before slowly getting up, catching us in one of his massive hands. "I'M UP, I'M UP. DID YOU USE THE DISCO BOMB?"

Zatara nods with a big smile. "Uh-huh! And it was a huge! Killed, like, half the Parademons!"

"GOOD," he says with a smile before gently putting us down. He then slaps the Omnitrix dial and transforms into Icarus, he then twists it and slaps it again, becoming Ultimate Icarus.

In this form he's still got the blonde hair and blue-orange, red-orange eyes Icarus has, but now his skin's a light blue, with red markings throughout. He wears black boots with an orange trim and black pants, as well as a sleeveless black top with golden armbands. But one of the biggest differences is his wings.

Now, they're metallic, and he has six instead of two. The two, big, main ones and two half-sized ones atop them, and another two below them.

He then wraps an arm around each of our waists before flying off to join the others.

We come back just in time to see Clark (now wearing his Superman suit somehow) leaning against Mobius Bruce, (who's now good, I guess). Everyone's looking up as Trigon and Darkseid absolutely wail on each other.

"What's going on now?" Triumph asks as he lands and puts us down.

"The defense team on Earth is dead, as is everyone else," Raven answers. "They took down the harvesters, but there's no way home for us."

We all look down in defeat at the news before I turn to Triumph. "But you guys can go home at least, right?"

Past Bruce looks down at the time belt and winces as it sparks a little. "It could take some time before the repairs are complete."

"I can get you home," Victor says. "It took a little time since I'm not connected, but I can wirelessly utilize Darkseid's Father Box and get you all out of here. After that I can teleport Apokolips, Darkseid, and Trigon away to anywhere I want. Maybe a supermassive blackhole?"

"Damn right, Vic," Triumph whispers.

"But what about you?" Wally asks.

Victor shakes his head. "Look at me, I'm stuck to a freaking wall. I can't go, but please, go, let me save the day."

Past Bruce, John, and Eric all share a silent look before nodding. "Do it," John says. "And Victor? Thank you."

Victor smirks. "Hey, anything to help the timeline."

*BOOM*

His smirk then drops. "All right, kids, get on the bus, it won't be here for long!"

We all run through it, before I'm the last one on Apokolips. I turn around and give Victor one last smile while tears fall from my eyes. "Thank you, Victor."

He smiles back. "You're my friend, Zatanna, I'd do anything for you. Now go!"

With one last nod, I run through the Boom Tube.

---

Earth, Titans Tower

Eric

We're all sat down at the beach of the island. We're all that's left.

The teams that tried to destroy the harvesters all gave up their lives. The Question, Superboy, Swamp Thing, Black Orchid, Steel, Batgirl, and others died to save the Earth. But it didn't even matter.

"The harvesters absorbed 43% of Earth's magma, weather's out of control in some places, entire countries have sunk into sinkholes. This is it, there's nothing we can do but wait for the end," Future Bruce tells us.

I growl in annoyance before throwing the time belt as far away into the horizon as possible. "SHIT!"

"The time belt doesn't work?" Future Diana asks.

I shake my head and stomp on a rock, breaking it into tiny pebbles. "Whatever they did to it they damaged it beyond repair. And because it's a time travelling device Chronos' powers don't work on it. SHIT!"

"And that's where I come in," Paradox says from out of nowhere.

"Oh, look who's here. Thanks for all the help," I mutter sarcastically.

I will give it to him, Paradox actually looks regretful. "I'm aware of how my assistance would have been greatly appreciated but as you know, I'm not allowed-"

"-to act unless it involved David Clinton directly. We know," Zack and I finish at the same time.

"But you can get them back to their time?" Clark asks, speaking for the first time in nearly two hours. As angry as I am with this Clark, he just lost his son and wife, no man should go through that.

"Yes, I can, but I also bring news," Paradox then frowns grimly. "Due to the taint in the timestream this timeline will be erased. It will be as if none of you ever existed."

All of their eyes widen, and they share glances with each other, I also notice Zatanna hold Zack close to her and Shayera does the same with Rex, something John also notices.

But then, Terry perks up with a smile. "But that's good, right? Better we're all erased then getting killed with the Earth while everything dies."

"Terry's right," Zack agrees. "Besides, Rex, Terry, and I are the only ones who'd stop existing entirely, everyone here's still alive in your time, right?"

I nod silently.

Rex gets up and stands tall. "Then that's a win in our book."

"But it's not," John replies. "Even if everyone else forgets about you three we won't. I-I can't forget about you even if I tried, Rex."

Rex's eyes widen before he looks down and sits with his mom again.

John turns to Paradox. "How long until this timeline's gone?"

Paradox pulls out his stopwatch and looks at it before putting it away. "One minute, fourteen seconds."

John then walks over to Shayera and Rex and sits across from them, the three then have a quiet conversation.

Following his lead, everyone breaks off into little groups, Shiva and Oliver talk, Wally sits with Kory, who looks wrong without Dick or Mari at her side, the Batmen all talk, with Terry joining in. I go over and stand with Zatanna and Zack.

"Well, this is it," I say after releasing a breath. "In the few hours I've gotten to know you Zack, you've made me proud, and I don't doubt your dad's proud of you too. I love you, Zack."

He chokes up a little before crying and hugging me tightly. I just smile a little and hug him back. With my other hand I cup Zatanna's cheek and kiss her on the forehead before pulling her in.

"I love you, Zatanna," I whisper.

"I love you too, Eric," she whispers back.

The three of us hug each other for who knows how long. But eventually, time was up.

"It's time," Paradox says.

Looking over the horizon we could see a bright white light, and it was getting closer.

I-I feel like I've seen that before, and not in a TV show or comic, but actually seen it myself.

What the hell?

Zatanna and Zack then pull out of the hug before side-hugging each other. "You should go, Er, I don't want to take you from your Zatanna."

I nod before heading over to Paradox, meeting up with John and Bruce as well. We look over the others and give one last wave before we're teleported away.

The Apokolips War timeline now gone.

---

Watchtower

Present Day

With a smile, Diana snakes her arm around Bruce's shoulders and leans her face close to his. "Don't let that stop you. Keep digging."

Instead of hearing the alarm like last time, Bruce, John, and I just share a glance with each other, something Diana notices. "Are you three okay?"

"Hey, Diana? Do you remember doing anything today? With us, I mean?" I ask.

She arches a brow in confusion. "No? I just got here and the three of us haven't gone on a mission of any kind. Are you okay, Eric?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm great," I get up and pass my tray over to John. "I've gotta go home, I just remembered I had to talk to Zatanna about something important. See you guys later."

I don't wait for their responses, I just head straight over to the teleports and get sent home, once there, I text Zee that we need to talk.

---

Seattle

One Hour Later

There's a knock on the door, and I quickly get up and open it to see Zatanna—my Zatanna—on the other side. "You said you wanted to talk. I know there wasn't a voice behind the text, but you made it sound urgent."

"It kind of was," I reply. "Come in, it'd take a while to explain everything."

Zatanna nods before stepping inside and letting me close the door. "Okay. Well, there's something I need to talk to you about too. But you go first."

I take a deep breath before holding her hands and leading her to the couch where the two of us sit down and face each other. "All right, but I'll tell you now, it's a wild one."

I take another deep breath and tell her all about our time travel adventures today, the future in particular.

---

Zatanna

Once Eric stops talking, I just blink and stare at him blankly for what feels like five minutes, maybe even longer.

That's… That's a lot to take in.

An attempted strike against Darkseid goes badly and most of the League's killed, and those left are struggling to survive on an all but dead Earth sixteen years later? Seriously, if anyone else told me about this I wouldn't believe them, but I know Eric, and his left finger and thumb were still the entire time, which means he isn't lying.

"Zatanna?" He asks in concern.

I open my mouth to reply but close it before looking up at him. "That's one hell of a mission."

He nods. "Yeah, it was, but that wasn't why I called you here."

"Why?" I ask.

He breaks eye contact and looks at our intertwined hands and plays around with them. "In that timeline, you were still alive, but I was dead, but that wasn't all. We had a son. Zack."

Ah.

I mean, I'd fully expect to see the report of this mission sometime in the future, something this big has to be in the archives. And while he was telling me about it, I was confused about why, but now I know.

We had a son there.

His name was Zack.

"Wh-what was he like?" I whisper.

Eric chuckles lightly. "I asked that same question. The other Zatanna said he was like the me there, quiet and reserved, and loved to tinker with stuff. We made my goggles into a disco bomb that killed a ton of Parademons. It was fun."

I hum quietly before looking down at our hands. Well, this could change some things.

"What did you wanna talk about?" Eric asks.

I purse my lips and look up into his eyes again. "I wanna move in with you. Permanently."

His eyes widen in surprise. "Whoa, Zee, this isn't about Zack, is it?"

"No," kind of. "I just- I love you, Eric, more than I've loved anyone before, and I know that we're never gonna let go of each other ever again, so, let's move in together. Now."

"But, what about your mom? I mean, you just got her back after a decade away from each other," Eric tries to reason. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to move in with you eventually, but I can wait, your mom comes first."

"My Mom lives in Shadowcrest, and I can go there anytime I want, meaning I can see her every day," I then sheepishly look away. "Besides, I wasn't entirely telling the truth earlier."

"What do you mean?" He asks with a head tilt.

Okay, Zatanna, this is it, you finally reveal to your extremely loving and caring boyfriend why you've been avoiding him for the past week. You just gotta open your mouth and tell him what's going on, that a little person's growing inside of you. Come on, girl, you've faced demons, Lords of Chaos, and super powerful androids, this should be as easy as one of your spells.

I take a deep breath, hold his hands, and look deeply into his eyes.

"I'm pregnant."

---

And we're ending it there.

God, this chapter was CHONKY. Thing is, there were so many scenes I wanted to add as well, but couldn't, because if I did the chapter would just be even bigger, and you've got places to be, and I've got other stories to write, so, that's how we got to over 16,000 words (not including the line breaks, which add to the word count). But here we are, the biggest chapter so far, man, what a ride.

But hey, Paradox finally made his full appearance, Ben had the cameo I was excited to write, and Terry was still here, but as Robin instead of Batman! And we got to meet another version of Zackary Mercer, but this one was actually a real person, unlike the Black Mercy dream one. Yay for alternate Zacks.

But now, season one of Triumphant has come to a close, and with that, I will take a break. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone for, but I'll use the time to pre-write some of my other unposted stories and write the chapters for season two. It was fun though, and honestly, I was really surprised to realize how quickly the story's one year anniversary was coming up by the time I finished this (05/05/2021), so this chapter will be posted way after, but still, it was nice.

But quick little update for season two onwards. I've decided that future chapters will be written in past tense, so it'll say "Zatanna said" instead of "Zatanna says". I'm writing other future fics in past tense and find them so much easier to write when compared to present tense, just thought you should know.

Well, that's all from me. If you have any questions or want to leave a constructive review you know where to leave 'em! Remember to stay awesome and see you next time you beautiful people!