Chapter 90: Divine Comedy
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and New Gods belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
"There came a time when the old gods died. The Brave died with the Cunning. The Noble perished, locked in battle with unleashed Evil. It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust. The final moment came with the fatal release of indescribable power, which tore the home of the old gods asunder, split it in great halves, and filled the universe with the blinding death flash of its destruction. And when the sounds of cosmic thunder finally faded, a great silence closed upon what had happened. A long, deep silence wrapped in massive darkness. It was this way for an age. Then, there was new light."
Kara looked at the massive figure gliding through the sky beside her and raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting tale," she remarked. "But what has that got to do with what is happening here?"
The huge man in the red armor and the silver helmet had introduced himself as Orion the Hunter, warrior of New Genesis. None of which meant anything to Kara, but the sight of the device he carried on his belt did. It was a Mother Box.
"It has quite a lot to do with our current situation, Kara-El of Krypton," Orion said. "For time is an eternal circle. Events repeat, over and over again. And from what I have seen, the circle might soon have a role for you to play."
Just a few hours earlier
Kara had travelled almost straight up from Smallville, right to the edge of space, before reorienting herself and diving back down towards the eastern coast of the United States and the city of Metropolis. The air sizzled around her as she flew as fast as she dared, using a ballistic trajectory to bridge the vast distance between the two cities in a matter of minutes. A sonic boom rattled windows in Metropolis as she arrived.
Scanning the city with her enhanced vision, she was searching for any signs of something unusual. Things like powerful alien warriors, vast armies of undead creatures, or annoying blue guys in floating chairs. Wow, that was kind of an eclectic mix of expectations, she realized. Well, it was not like she really knew much about the race she was currently looking for.
The only thing she did know was that her Fortress' computer systems had picked up a familiar energy signature. That of a Motherbox.
She saw some people below waving at her and she absentmindedly waved back, but all her senses were focused on finding the source of that energy signature. If she was right, and she was pretty sure that she was, someone had opened one of those boom tubes here in Metropolis. And that meant all sorts of trouble.
She took a second to send a message to the Watchtower, instructing the computers there to inform the other members of the League that she was investigating a potential alien incursion and might need support at a moment's notice, then focused back on the streets below. The bracelet she wore on her right arm looked like a wristwatch at first glance (Kona had taken to calling it the 'Super Wrist Watch'), but was actually the latest in Kryptonian high-tech and enabled her to scan the city for the energy signature the Fortress' computers had picked up.
There! A faint residue was detected in the alley below. Kara dove down and touched ground in one of Metropolis' less reputable districts. Years ago, this part of town had been called Suicide Slum, she knew. Things had improved steadily since then – in part due to generous donations from various charities where the profits of K-Solutions ended up – but it was still not exactly an upscale neighborhood.
Scanning the alley, her eyes focused on several small pieces of metal littering the ground. A human eye might not have found anything out of the ordinary, but her enhanced sight easily recognized an alloy that was certainly not Earth-made. She had never had the opportunity to examine any of the technology of Steppenwolf and Metron's people except for the Motherbox she had owned for a while, but the elemental composition certainly seemed similar to the casing of that wondrous device.
Further scanning the alley, she studied the pattern of littered trash on the ground, the slight scorch marks on the walls, and the scrapes where something hard and metallic had obviously hit the concrete pretty hard. She was no Batman, but she could still put some clues together. Someone had come through a boom tube here, she was certain. And by the looks of it, it had not exactly been a soft landing.
"Superwoman to Watchtower," she spoke into her com. "Put the entire League on alert. It seems we have visitors from Steppenwolf's people here on Earth."
Not for the first time the woman known only as Barda wondered whether she had gone completely mad at some point without noticing. It was really the only explanation that made sense for what she had done. After all, she had given up everything she had worked for. She had been leader of the Female Furies, the elite of Apokolips, favorite of Granny Goodness. She had stood in the presence of mighty Darkseid himself, had been allowed to listen to his words and to fulfil his direct commands. And now? Now she was on the run, having betrayed everything she had worked for. And for what?
Smiling, she looked at the man walking by her side. Scott Free. A name that Granny Goodness herself had given him. She had probably thought it a terribly clever pun, considering that the man in question had grown up in Granny's orphanage, where freedom was a completely unknown concept. The language of Apokolips did not even have a word for it and if it had, Barda was quite sure its utterance would have been forbidden. But still Scott had yearned for it. Had worked ceaselessly to attain it. And somehow, she still did not quite know how, he had dragged her into it. Had infected her with his need to be free of Apokolips.
Not to mention the feelings that had developed between them in the process. Feelings that were as new and amazing to her as this newfound freedom.
"This planet is called Earth," Scott told her, studying the surroundings. "Motherbox could not tell me much about it, except that it was one of very few worlds to ever successfully repulse an attack by Darkseid's forces."
Which was the reason Scott had selected this destination, of course. Barda had no doubt that, sooner or later, someone would follow them. Darkseid himself would probably not care, but Granny Goodness certainly would. She would consider it a personal affront and would no doubt send someone to retrieve them, probably the Furies. Scott and Barda had hoped that they would either refrain from coming to this planet or, if they did, that they would meet ample resistance here. Barda was not really happy about having to ask for shelter and protection from anyone, but she was realistic enough to know that even she could not face the entire might of the Female Furies all by herself if it came down to it.
"So, what's next?" Barda asked. "Do we contact this world's rulers and ask for asylum?"
"We should probably get a lay of the land first," Scott replied. "Just because this world opposed Darkseid in the past does not mean that they are automatically sympathetic to us."
"We don't exactly blend in," Barda said, looking at the people passing by on the larger street ahead of them. "We don't even speak the language."
"Motherbox will translate for us," Scott told her. "But you're right about our appearance."
Scott was still wearing the standard clothing of an inhabitant of Granny's orphanage, a skin-tight black bodysuit. He had started to grow his hair in defiance of regulations, but it was little more than a slight shadow on his head. Barda herself was wearing her Fury armor, which was bound to draw attention as well.
"We should find some different clothes," Barda said. "Does this world use some form of currency?"
"I fear that is just one of many questions we're going to need answers to," Scott replied.
"Feel free to ask me," a new voice told them, surprising them both. "I am willing to give you plenty of answers, if you are ready to answer my questions in turn."
Barda looked around... and up. Right there at the end of the alley, lazily floating in mid-air, was a figure she had seen once before. Her entire body tensed. The last time she had seen that woman, she had blasted her right through a building, only for the other to get back up and beat her to a pulp in turn.
"You!" she hissed, her hand automatically reaching for her Megarod.
"I thought you looked familiar," the flying woman in the red and blue suit said, looking more than ready for a fight.
"Friend of yours, Barda?" Scott asked, though he did not sound particularly hopeful.
For someone gifted with Kara's speed and enhanced senses, it was merely a matter of minutes to search the entire city for something unusual. Such as a very tall woman wearing alien-looking battle armor and a much smaller, skinny man in skin-tight black clothing. A man with a Motherbox clipped to his hip.
Swooping down, she quickly came to recognize the woman. She was the warrior who had led the incursion onto the Dominion planet where Kara and her family had initially been stranded during their sojourn in space. She had killed those Dominators in cold blood and had tried to do the same to Kara and her family.
She saw the woman's hand reaching towards the rod-like weapon she carried. Kara had felt the sting of that weapon once before and had no desire to repeat the process. Before anything could happen, though, the skinny man jumped between them, holding up his hands.
"Hey, uh... we come in peace! We don't want any trouble! Right, Barda?"
He looked at the woman, Barda, for a long moment, until she finally removed her hand from the rod. Kara relaxed, somewhat, and floated down to stand on the ground.
"My name is Scott Free," the skinny man introduced himself, "and that is Barda. We have escaped from Apokolips and are seeking refuge on your planet."
Kara frowned. "Okay, a couple of questions first. What apocalypse did you escape from?"
"No, not apocalypse," Scott corrected her, giving her a bashful grin. "Apo-Ko-Lips! It's... well, it's hard to describe. Think of the worst place in the entire universe and then you might just have the tiniest idea of what Apokolips is like on a good day."
Kara mused this over. "Sounds... fun. Is this the place that Steppenwolf came from? And Metron?"
Scott nodded. "I have heard of Steppenwolf, yes. He was one of Darkseid's generals. The name Metron is unknown to me, though."
Upon the utterance of the name Darkseid, Kara saw that Barda began to tense and almost dropped to her knees, her eyes lowered. She caught herself in mid-motion, though, and straightened back up.
"I remember that name," Kara said, now speaking to Barda. "The first time we met, you tried to kill me in his name, did you not? You did kill quite a few other people."
Barda met her stare for a moment, but then looked down. "I am not proud of the things I have done. I was raised to do Darkseid's bidding. On Apokolips, you serve Darkseid, or you die. There is no alternative. For the longest part of my life, I... I was proud to do his bidding. But... Scott made me see that... that maybe there are some alternatives after all."
For a moment the two people shared a glance that spoke volumes about the affection they had for each other. Kara was still suspicious, but she was quickly becoming convinced that this was not, in fact, a hostile incursion, but rather just what it seemed to be: two desperate people looking for safety.
"Why did you come to Earth of all places?" Kara asked after a moment.
"There are only very few places in the universe that have successfully repulsed the forces of Apokolips," Barda told her. "It was also in this galaxy that we recorded the destruction of a Motherbox, something that was previously thought to be impossible. That was the reason for my presence on that planet we met on, actually."
"We figured that there was a decent chance that we would not be followed here," Scott added. "And we are hoping that you will grant us asylum on your planet."
Kara thought on this. The two of them sounded genuine, but could she really allow them to stay if their very presence might draw the attention of this Darkseid character to Earth? She still vividly remembered the invasion of Steppenwolf and his Parademons. She certainly did not want to subject Earth to something like this again, especially after the recent Dominator invasion. Then again, this was her best chance to find out more about these people, which was information they would eventually need. After all, J'Onn had experienced a temporal vision of another invasion of Parademons, so it might just be a matter of time.
"We should talk," Kara finally said. "But not here. Let me take you to the Hall of Justice and then..."
Her words were cut off, however, by a tremendous boom. A light exploded in the alley and Kara saw another portal opening directly in front of them. A second later, two shapes emerged from the mouth of the boom tube.
"In the name of Highfather," a deep, powerful voice rang through the alley, "we come to save this world from the taint of Apokolips!"
Two new arrivals now stood in the alley, the light behind them fading quickly. One was a huge, powerfully built brute of a man, wearing red battle armor and a silver helmet. He wore some kind of silver harness and Kara could practically feel the power crackling along his limbs. He felt like an energy cannon, half a second before it fired.
The other was taller, but slim, dressed in white and gold and glowing as if he was carrying a light inside his chest. Kara could feel it tingling across her skin, almost as if he was a sun in human form.
"We are Lightray and Orion of New Genesis," the tall, white-and-gold guy said.
The other guy, apparently called Orion, immediately zeroed in on Barda.
"A Female Fury," he growled, his voice full of rage. "You will not sully this innocent world with your master's darkness!"
Barda said nothing, but she fell into a fighting stance and was reaching for that rod weapon on her hip once again.
"Okay, everybody cool down for a moment," Kara said, quickly flying to put herself between the two parties. "If we can just talk..."
"Careful, Orion," the tall one, Lightray, said, "she attacks!"
He raised his hand and light exploded through the alley.
Orion, called the Hunter, was a veteran of many battles. Many regarded him as aggression personified, a raging beast of a warrior with little in the way of restraint, but that was far from the truth. While it was true that Orion was a warrior born and carried great rage within himself, far more than the average citizen of New Genesis would ever experience, he never allowed it to dictate his actions. He knew that the most important skill of a warrior was to know when NOT to resort to force. So when the strange flying woman positioned herself between him and his quarry, he immediately recognized that she was not attacking, but rather trying to mediate. A misguided attempt, possibly, but not a hostile action.
Lightray, his companion, was not a skilled warrior, though. He was powerful, yes, and Orion enjoyed his company for his positive outlook and sunny disposition (though he would never say so out loud), but his friend was skittish when it came to actual battle situations. He obviously misinterpreted the approach of the flying female and before Orion could restrain him, he lashed out.
Light exploded through the alley as Lightray unleashed the power that was his namesake. The might of a star was directed towards the unsuspecting woman and Orion fully expected her to be – at the very least – seriously injured, if not vaporized outright.
He did not expect her to remain standing. He certainly did not expect her eyes to start glowing red, even as her feet lost contact with the ground. Debris littering the floor around her began to float as well, as the anti-gravity field she somehow projected grew more powerful by the second. Her skin began to glow, and Orion could practically feel the power rolling off of her.
"Lightray, stop!" he ordered. "She is absorbing your energy!"
"I cannot," Lightray responded, sounding panicked. Orion could see that his friend was trying to pull his hand back, but he seemed caught. Clearly the woman had some kind of ability to...
With a scream the woman threw her head back and unleashed powerful red beams from her eyes that rocketed into the sky, practically cleaving the firmament in two. The heat made Orion flinch back and from the corner of his eye he saw that the connection with Lightray had finally broken, his brother-in-arms stumbling away, clearly drained.
The spectacle lasted only a few seconds, but the power unleashed by the woman was certainly impressive. When she finally stopped, she touched the ground again and slumped, looking exhausted and exhilarated all at the same time.
"Wow," she muttered. "That was... amazing!"
Lightray was back on his feet and stared at the woman in wonder. "You... you are like me," he marveled. "A child of starlight!"
The woman looked wearily at him. "What are you talking about?"
"She is like us, Orion," Lightray turned around, looking at his friend. "Can you not feel the touch of the Source upon her?"
Orion had certainly felt something. The image of glowing red eyes shooting destructive beams came with all sorts of negative associations for him, but that was something for another day.
"Please excuse the actions of my comrade," Orion said, looking to salvage the situation. "He is unused to battle situations and certainly did not intend to assault one of this world's gods."
"I am not…," she began to protest, but then paused. "Wait a minute, where are...?"
She turned around, drawing Orion's attention back to the surroundings, too. The abandoned surroundings. The three of them were alone. The two invaders from Apokolips were gone.
"That's just great," the woman muttered, clearly frustrated.
Orion sighed. They were certainly not making a good first impression on this world.
Kara was not sure what to make of the two newcomers. They were certainly trigger-happy, at least the golden one. If someone else had been hit by that energy blast, it could have easily proven fatal. As it was, she was reminded of her brief encounter with Apollo, god of the sun, only being hit by Lightray's blast had been even more intense. She was still trembling slightly from the extreme power boost she had gotten from him, brief as it had been.
Orion, on the other hand, seemed more level-headed, but also far more dangerous, best she could tell. So once introductions were over with and done, they told her why they were here. An abdriged version, she was sure.
"So, let me see if I got this straight," she said, even as the three of them were lazily gliding across the buildings of Metropolis. "You are from a place called New Genesis, those other two are from a place called Apokolips. You call yourselves … New Gods … and have been at war for ages, but there is currently a peace treaty in place. So... why are you two following those other two?"
"The peace treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips prevents a full-scale conflict between our two worlds. It does not, however, prevent Darkseid from spreading his aggression to other worlds. Nor does it restrain us from attempting to protect those other worlds from him."
Kara snorted, not impressed. "So instead of fighting each other directly, you are instead taking your conflicts onto other worlds, making others suffer, is that it?"
"It is certainly not a perfect solution, my lady," Lightray said, clearly still a bit embarrassed about having attacked her. "Yet the last time our worlds fought each other directly, the universe itself trembled and all of creation nearly fell victim to the fighting madness. This cold war, as you might call it, is a vast improvement over what came before. For the universe will not stand when gods make all-out war."
Kara could not help but scoff at the repeated use of the term.
"You seem to have a problem with us referring to ourselves as gods, my lady," Lightray said. "Why is that so?"
"I have met so-called gods before," she simply said. "I have even been called one several times. It's nonsense! None of us are gods! We are all just people!"
Orion looked at her with that penetrating gaze of his.
"What do you think a god is, Kara-El? If you are imagining an omnipotent, all-knowing presence that created the universe and everything in it, well, I have yet to meet such a being in all my travels. But if we are talking about very powerful, long-lived beings whose abilities elevate them far above the mortals, who are worshipped and loved or feared by those they protect or abuse, then yes, I have met such beings. I am such a being. And I believe you are, too. Or you might be, someday, for Lightray was right, I too can feel the touch of the Source upon you."
"I am not a god," Kara simply said, refusing the debate the matter further.
Orion gestured downwards, where people were waving at her. "And do they think so as well?"
"Do we not have more pressing things to do?" she asked, her eyes briefly glowing red.
"A matter for another time then," Orion replied, nodding. "You are right that we must now find the two invaders from Apokolips before they do untold damage to your world."
"I told you, I do not believe they are invaders," Kara said, even as she was once again scanning the city for the two people in question. She could not really blame them for fleeing when faced with trigger-happy so-called gods like Orion and Lightray.
"We shall determine their intentions then," Orion merely said. "Though if they told you the truth and have actually left the service of Darkseid, they would surely be the first. At least the only ones who lived to tell the tale."
"This Darkseid does not sound like someone I am anxious to meet."
Orion turned even grimmer than usual. "He is evil incarnate, the most vile creature in all of existence. And one day he and I shall meet in the Fire Pits of Apokolips for one final battle."
Kara glanced at him. "You sound very certain that this will happen."
"It has been foretold," he simply said. "It is my destiny!"
The look on his face, a total lack of impression, somehow struck a chord within Kara. She knew all about being burdened with destiny. One thousand years from now there would be a huge statue of her, standing in front of a museum celebrating deeds she had yet to perform, honoring her as the greatest hero of all time. A day did not go by where she did not think about it, was scared of messing it up, and possibly even more scared of becoming that great hero, that savior.
Knowing from personal experience that there were no words to really describe the feelings that came with such knowledge, she decided to drop the matter.
"There they are," she said a few minutes later, spotting the two exiles from Apokolips in the street below.
"I still think we are making a mistake, Barda," Scott said, even as he ran after the woman he loved.
"The mistake would have been to remain there," she said over her shoulder. "You have never been in combat, Scott! You have never faced the warriors of New Genesis in battle! Believe me, there are very few who lived to tell the tale of Orion the Hunter! Kalibak himself was forced to run for his life when he faced him on Eukaris! We need to be far away from him!"
"But surely if we tell him…," Scott began anew.
"The Dog of War does not listen to words," she interrupted him. "He only listens to the screams of those who die horribly under his hand!"
"Interesting," a voice growled above them. "We of New Genesis say the same about the Female Furies!"
Barda skidded to a stop, her Megarod in hand, and seemed poised to strike the first blow against the armored warrior floating above them. Before a blow could be struck, though, the woman in red and blue from before was there as well, hovering between them.
"Enough with the posturing!" she yelled, her voice causing the walls to vibrate. "You are all guests on my world and you will behave yourselves or else!"
Her eyes glowed red and Scott nearly froze in fear. On Apokolips, glowing red eyes meant someone was about to die.
"Of course, my lady," the second New Genesis warrior said, floating behind her.
Despite his fear, Scott moved forward, carefully putting a hand on Barda's shoulder. It felt like putting his hand on solid steel, so tense were her muscles, but after a moment she relaxed... slightly.
"We have no wish to fight," Scott said. "As I said before, we merely wish to live our lives free of Apokolips and Darkseid!"
Orion touched down and stared at them. Scott could practically feel the power and menace rolling of the most feared of New Genesis' warriors.
"I have never heard of anyone from Apokolips defying the will of Darkseid! What proof do you have of your intentions?"
Scott was trying to think of something, but Barda was quicker. She stepped past him, standing face to face with Orion. The space between them seemed to fizzle with tension, but then the warrior woman dropped to one knee and held her Megarod out before her.
"I defy the will of Darkseid," she said, even though the words seemed to cause her almost physical pain. Scott knew how long it had taken her to overcome the behavior patterns that had been beaten into her since earliest childhood. "I renounce my allegiance to Apokolips! I only wish to live my remaining days as a free woman. As the Old Gods are my witness, I will never fight in Darkseid's name ever again!"
Orion looked at her for a long moment and Scott was wondering what he could possibly do if the warrior decided to strike at Barda, but eventually he relaxed.
"No Female Fury would ever utter these words, not even as part of a deception! I believe you, warrior!"
Barda rose to her feet, attaching her Megarod to her hip once again. She met Orion's stare and gave him a short, sharp nod. The two stepped apart, Barda once again back at his side.
"So, I guess we are all friends now?" the flying woman asked.
"I know Big Barda of the Female Furies," Orion said. "I believe her word can be trusted. But who are you?"
Now his stare was on Scott and he forced himself not to look away. Orion was scary, sure, but Scott had grown up under the tutelage of Granny Goodness. Compared to her, Orion was by far the lesser evil.
"My name is Scott Free! And to anticipate your next question, I have never sworn allegiance to Darkseid or Apokolips, nor do I ever intend to! I grew up in Granny Goodness' orphanage, but I know I am not of Apokolips! Granny told me as much, though she never revealed what world I was born on."
A puzzled expression appeared on Orion's face.
"Not born of Apokolips?" he repeated, sharing a look with the one called Lightray.
"You don't think...," Lightray began, but trailed off again.
"Think what?" Scott asked. "Do you know something about me? Where I come from?"
Orion did not say anything, but he took the Motherbox off his belt and held it out before him. The living device came awake with the usual Tic-Tic-Tic sound and Scott felt its gaze upon himself.
"What are you doing?" Barda asked, looking ready to jump to his aid.
"It would help if you shared with the rest of us, Orion," the flying woman said, looking a bit peeved at being excluded from the conversation. Given that they were on her planet, Scott could certainly understand that.
"I am asking Motherbox to confirm my suspicion," Orion merely said. "For if this man is who I expect him to be, then we are facing a much more serious situation than we thought."
Despite brimming with impatience, Scott stood still and allowed the Motherbox to scan him. The procedure felt like it took hours, though it was probably just a few seconds. Finally, the Motherbox stopped glowing and Orion's face grew even more troubled than before.
"It is he," he merely said to his companion, who looked aghast.
"Truly?" Lightray asked. "We must tell Highfather immediately!"
"Tell Highfather what?" Scott asked, his patience at an end. "Do you know who I am? Do you know what my name was before Granny Goodness named me Scott Free?"
"I think the man wants some answers, Orion," the flying woman said. "And so would I!"
Orion nodded, looking weary.
"You say Scott Free is the name Granny Goodness gave you," he said, lowering the Mother Box. "It is actually quite close to the name you were born with. The name given to you by your mother, Vayla, and your father, Izaya."
Scott stared at him.
"You... you know my parents? You know who I am?"
Orion nodded. "Yes, I do. When the war between Apokolips and New Genesis threatened to tear the universe asunder, Highfather and Darkseid arranged a peace treaty. As part of the terms of the treaty, they each sent their firstborn son into the care of the other. This is how I came to live on New Genesis, Scott Free. And how you came to be on Apokolips. You are Scot, the firstborn son of Highfather Izaya of New Genesis."
Kara was doing her best to follow along the conversation despite clearly lacking a lot of background information here. Clearly this Highfather guy was an important man on New Genesis, possibly the planet's ruler, which meant that the confused-looking young man called Scott Free was also quite important. Certainly more important than he himself had thought.
"That's impossible," he muttered, clearly dumbstruck. "I am just Scott Free. A nobody! Just one more orphan for Granny to abuse!"
Orion shook his head, clearly empathizing with the other man's state of mind. Small wonder, Kara thought. She was not sure whether Scott Free had caught it, but from the way Orion had told his story, it was quite evident that he himself was the other firstborn son that had been exchanged. Which meant that Orion was the son of Darkseid, a man that Orion himself had described as evil incarnate.
A sarcastic voice inside her head wondered whether so-called gods were obligated to have totally messed up families. She did remember all the stories Diana had told her about the Greek gods, after all.
"You are certainly not a nobody," Orion told Free. "It would actually be easier if you were."
"What do you mean?" Kara asked. "Should your people not be happy that the son of their... ruler?" She briefly looked at Lightray, who nodded. "The son of their ruler is free?"
"If it were just that, yes," Lightray said. "But I fear..."
He trailed off, even as the sky above them began to glow brighter. Confused, Kara looked up, her eyes widening.
"Rao be merciful," she found herself muttering without conscious thought.
Where moments ago there had been nothing but empty sky above Metropolis, there was now a giant hand. It seemed human in appearance but made entirely of light. And even as Kara stared, the hand moved and traced a finger across the firmament, leaving letters of flame behind in its wake.
ORION! LIGHTRAY! TO NEW GENESIS! TO WAR!
For the better part of a minute the words just hung there in the sky, even as the hand that had written them faded away like smoke. Then the flames died and the words vanished as well. If Kara had not seen it with her own eyes, she would have written it off as a mere hallucination.
"What was that?" she finally asked, looking at Orion and Lightray.
"We have received the word," Orion said, looking grim. "It is Battle!"
"I don't understand," Scott Free said, looking back and forth between the two warriors of New Genesis. "What is happening?"
"What had to happen," Orion told him, an odd mixture of sadness and excitement visible on his face. "What Darkseid no doubt intended to happen when he allowed you to escape from Apokolips."
"Allowed?" Scott yelled, now clearly agitated. "ALLOWED? Do you have any idea what I went through? What we went through? No one allowed us to do anything! I escaped by myself! It took me years and it was only with Barda's help that I finally managed it."
Orion nodded. "Yes, and Darkseid was clearly waiting for this very moment. With your escape, the peace treaty between New Genesis and Apokolips is now broken. War begins anew and this time I fear it will not stop until either Darkseid perishes or we do."
He turned to look at Kara. "I regret that our visit here is cut short, Kara-El. There was much I would have liked to speak with you about. But with the war about to begin anew, I must return. It is my destiny to face Darkseid in battle."
To face his own father, Kara added silently. She could hardly imagine how that would feel, no matter how deeply he might hate Darkseid.
For a moment Kara considered offering her help to Orion and his people, but common sense prevailed. This was a war between superbeings that possessed abilities and technology far beyond what even Krypton had ever achieved. Individually most of them seemed to be as powerful as she was, and she had no idea how many of them there were. There was little she and her family would be able to achieve, and they would leave Earth defenseless. Never mind that she still knew far too little about this conflict to make an informed decision.
"Best of luck, Orion," she told him, squeezing his hand. "I hope we will meet again one day."
"I hope so as well," he said. "Protect your world, godling, and we shall do our best to ensure that there is a universe left for it to exist in."
"I am not a goddess," she protested once again.
"As you say, my lady," he merely replied, the tiniest bit of a smirk on his lips. She could not quite help answering with a smile of her own.
He turned to look at Barda and Free. "You can join us on New Genesis or remain here on Earth. The choice is yours, but it must be made now."
The two escapees from Apokolips held a silent debate for a long moment, then came to a decision.
"We wish you the best of luck as well, Orion," Free said. "But while I would one day like to meet the man who you tell me is my father, neither of us have any desire to become embroiled in a war after just having gained our freedom."
The bitterness in his voice was nearly tangible. Kara could certainly understand. Being told that your own father had given you away as a baby, had consigned you to a place that sounded like near-literal Hell, could not be easy for anyone, no matter that it might have been for the sake of peace or the universe.
"I understand," Orion merely said. Kara was certain that he did.
"I hope you will allow us to stay on your world, my lady," Scott Free addressed her.
"It's not really my world in that sense," she replied, "but I am sure something can be arranged."
"If the fates are with us and we survive," Orion said, rising into the sky, "we shall all meet again."
A moment later a boom tube opened up before the two warriors and they disappeared. Kara and the two escapees stared after them for a moment.
"It's hard to fathom," Barda said to no one in particular. "It seems I have spent my entire life training for the day when we would invade New Genesis in Darkseid's name. Now it is happening, and I am here, watching from the sidelines."
"Do you regret coming with me?" Scott Free asked her.
"Not a single moment," she replied, looking at him with tenderness in her eyes.
Kara stepped away a bit, giving the two of them some privacy, while her own thoughts were racing. She had learned more about the strange race that had built the Motherboxes, these self-styled New Gods, in the last hour than in all the years before, but she still did not really know much. And now they were apparently going to war, somewhere far away in the cosmos, and she could but hope that Orion and Lightray had exaggerated the scope of the conflict.
"Off they go to the war," a voice suddenly growled behind her. "And I may not follow!"
Kara spun around, staring at the huge shape that had suddenly appeared behind her. She gasped in surprise as she recognized the newcomer.
"Steppenwolf?"
The towering warlord whom she had fought and bested in ancient Greece 3,000 years ago (or four years ago, depending on one's perspective) was standing before her, looking every bit as powerful as the last time. Gleaming silver battle armor adorned his mighty form, and he carried a huge battle axe similar to the one that had almost taken her head off back then.
"Mighty Darkseid has called all his followers to his side," Steppenwolf growled, "to aid him in finally extinguishing the light of New Genesis. Glorious war, the greatest conflict in history! Yet I am still exiled. My name may not be uttered. He has never forgiven me my failure."
Kara took a step back, her entire body tensed in anticipation of a fight as the hulking brute approached.
"So, your boss is cross with you, I get it. How is this my problem?"
Steppenwolf laughed. "You are the problem, godling! You are my failure! You drove me from this insignificant world in shame. Today I will make good my failure! Today I will show Darkseid that I am worthy to stand by his side in the final battle!"
He lifted his huge battle axe and stalked towards her.
"Today I will kill you!"
End Chapter 90
Author's Note: The opening paragraph of this chapter is taken almost word for word from New Gods (1971) #1, written and drawn by the incomparable Jack "the King" Kirby. It still gives me goosebumps to this day, especially once you consider that Kirby was basically killing off the Norse Gods that he himself had co-created at Marvel Comics in those first few panels (there is even a guy with a hammer and a winged helmet).
Kara first encountered Big Barda in chapter 74 and helped protect ancient Earth from Steppenwolf back in chapter 29. The Martian Manhunter experienced a vision of a Parademon incursion on Mars during the events of chapter 50.
Up next: Whom Gods Destroy.
