Chapter 91: Whom Gods Destroy
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and New Gods belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Some time earlier, Apokolips
It was finally time. After so many years he would finally have his revenge. At last! For 3,000 years as mortal measured time he had been living a half-life, a shadow existence. Having disappointed his master, he had been reduced to a forgotten one. One whose name must not be uttered, whose presence must never be acknowledged. Mighty Darkseid had made it quite clear what he had to do in order to regain his standing. Find the godling that had humiliated him, that had stopped the invasion of that unimportant backwater world, and kill it.
Only the godling in question had disappeared from the face of the universe, as if someone had wiped her from existence, and he was left in his shadow state. For 3,000 years he had prepared, thought of new combat strategies, imagined a hundred ways that he would defeat and kill her, but it had all been for naught.
Until fate had finally smiled upon him.
Surely it could not have been mere chance that he had overheard Barda describe the godling that had bested her on that remote world where a Motherbox had died. No, it was destiny! Finally, he would have his revenge.
Of course, there had been more problems to solve. As a forgotten one, a shadow, he had not been blessed with a new Motherbox to replace the one he had lost, so how would he reach the world where the godling had no doubt returned to? But once again Fate had smiled, and once again it was Barda who proved to the instrument of his salvation. For Barda left Apokolips to travel to the world of the godling. Not to seek revenge of her own, as he had initially believed, but rather to desert from Darkseid's service. He would have killed her immediately upon finding out, but refrained, for her journey served his purpose. So when Barda and the orphan from Granny Goodness' house travelled through the Boom Tube, he simply hitched along for the ride, hidden by the stealth harness he had liberated from the Omega Arsenal.
When the godling finally appeared to confront Barda and her companion, he had rejoiced. There she was, looking almost unchanged despite how much time had passed. Now he would have his revenge. Then, of course, the dogs of Highfather had arrived. Steppenwolf was well aware of the combat prowess of Orion, so he held back, his mind formulating new strategies to deal with this unforeseen complication.
One final time, though, fate smiled upon him. For Orion and his companion were called away again. The war to end all wars was starting. It tore at his heart, though, for he wanted to stand by his master's side. With the warriors of New Genesis gone, though, it seemed he would finally have his chance. One chance to even the scores, to make good on his failure, and show everyone that he, Steppenwolf, was worthy to stand by Darkseid's side as they finally claimed the universe.
Now he just needed to kill the godling, then he could return to his master's side and raze New Genesis to the ground. Three millennia of preparation and training would come to a head today. He was ready! He would succeed! There was no other option!
"Today I will kill you!" he told the surprised godling.
The Present, Metropolis
Clark was not entirely certain what it was that had caught his attention. He had long learned to filter out most of the background noise of the world, otherwise he would never be able to focus on anything. But his mom had taught him how to subconsciously keep an ear out, so to speak, for certain trigger words and noises. Words like "Fire" or "Help me", noises like explosions or sirens.
What he had just heard, though, was none of those. It was simply the voice of his mother, who shouted out a name. A name he had heard before, years ago. Steppenwolf. He needed a few precious seconds to remember where exactly he had heard the name before. Once he finally remembered, he quickly exploded into action.
More precious seconds were wasted extracting himself from his current course. Thankfully his professor was of the sort that the most important tool of any journalist was their gut feeling, so when Clark said that he was after a story, the professor merely smiled and told him to go for it.
Switching into his Superman uniform took less than a second and then he was airborne, streaking across the skyline of Metropolis to look for his mother. He needed merely another few seconds to spot her, as well as the hulking brute she was facing. That had to be Steppenwolf. How many silver-armored giants with horns and huge axes could there be, after all?
All of this took less than 45 seconds in total. But Clark was still too slow.
From her memory of the first fight she had had against Steppenwolf, Kara expected the alien warrior to either immediately attack with abandon, or arrogantly invite her to strike the first blow. He did neither, though. Instead, he dropped something from his hand, a small object that exploded the moment it hit the ground.
Pure, inky blackness spread around them, removing all light from the vicinity. Kara was disoriented for a second, but then shifted her vision into the infrared spectrum. There was Steppenwolf, still standing right in front of her, but the rest of the world was simply gone. Clicking her tongue, the echoes told Kara that the blackness had formed some kind of dome around them, roughly ten meters across.
"How do you like my new toy, godling?" Steppenwolf asked, his voice echoing off the walls around them as well. "It's called a Darkfield, one of Deesad's more insidious toys. It will ensure that none of your allies will interfere in our battle. And as a nice side effect, it also cuts off all light from the outside."
He chuckled, even as he started walking towards her. "I remember your propensity for sunlight, godling. How powerful are you without it?"
Kara cursed under her breath. She had assumed that she would be facing the same warrior she had defeated (with some assistance from others) four years ago. But those had been four years on her own personal timeline. Assuming Steppenwolf did not have some time travel experience of his own under his belt, it had been 3,000 years for him. Of course, he would have changed after so many years. And if he had really been obsessing about her all this time, she was sure he had spent a good amount of it trying to come up with creative ways of killing her.
Steppenwolf moved, much faster than his bulk suggested, but still quite slowly for someone with her enhanced speed. She moved out of the way and decided to test the integrity of the dome around them first. Following the sounds echoing off the barrier, she stopped right next to it and drove her elbow into it with all her strength.
It was a mistake, she realized a second later. There was nothing solid there to hit, but the moment her elbow touched the barrier field, she felt a surge of weakness going through her.
"Oh, did I not mention this?" Steppenwolf asked, chuckling. "The Darkfield will absorb all energy directed against it. Do you feel weakened, by any chance?"
Kara cursed again, moving as far away from Steppenwolf as the dome allowed. She briefly considered hitting it with her heat vision, but if the field absorbed that, too, she would be in even more trouble. She was still very much fully energized, thanks in part to that extreme boost she had gotten from Lightray earlier, but without a single ray of sunlight in here and no way to break out without weakening herself, that would not last.
Which meant she needed to finish this battle quickly.
Utilizing her vision powers, she thoroughly scanned Steppenwolf, even as he moved towards her once again. Okay, he seemed to have no problem navigating in total darkness. Either his senses were enhanced as well, or he had some equipment to help him. The silver battle armor he wore was opaque to her X-Ray vision, but she noticed that he had quite a few pockets adorning the outside of it, most of them with some form of device inside of them. More weapons, she presumed.
"Your brilliance has blinded me, godling," Steppenwolf growled. "Now I shall drown your light in darkness forever!"
"We can still call this off, Steppenwolf," she said, even as she calculated the best angles to incinerate his pockets with as few bursts of heat vision as possible. "I only fought against you because you threatened my world. If you leave peacefully, I have no quarrel with you."
"Oh, but I have quarrel with you, godling! And I will lay waste to this world you love so much after I am done with you!"
Okay, she had given him a choice. Time to become active.
Clark was still two seconds away from the battle ground when some kind of black energy field enclosed his mom and the huge alien that was accosting her. He tried to look inside it with his vision powers but saw only blackness. Landing next to it, he drew back his fist to shatter it.
"Don't!" someone yelled, causing him to hesitate.
A small, skinny man in black ran towards him, followed by a huge woman in battle armor. Clark tensed, recognizing the woman. She had tried to kill them when they had been lost in space. The woman seemed to recognize him as well, for she immediately stopped and raised her hands.
"I have no hostile intentions," she spoke loudly. "I have left the services of Darkseid and mean neither you nor your world any harm."
She still carried that weapon he remembered on her belt but made no move to reach for it. Okay, maybe she was not a threat at the moment.
"What do you mean, don't?" he asked the skinny man. "My mother is in there with a maniac trying to kill her."
The skinny man knelt down beside the black barrier and removed something from his belt. A Motherbox, Clark realized. It did not look quite the same as the one his mom had carried for a while, but the tic-tic-tic sound was hard to forget.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken," the skinny man said, "this is a Darkfield. It will absorb any energy directed against it, including kinetic energy. If you hit it, it will only grow stronger."
"Oh really? And why should I believe anything you say?" Clark asked him, crossing his arms. "Who are you?"
"I am Scott Free," he simply said, still studying the field with his Motherbox. "And I'm the guy who managed to escape from Granny Goodness' orphanage, made it past the Atomic Dog patrols, evaded the Parademons, and safely traversed the Fire Pits to find a way off Apokolips. And I'm going to crack this field, too!"
Clark narrowed his eyes, not sure who to trust. The sound of a teleportation beam made him turn around and he saw Batman, Wonder Woman, and J'Onn arrive in a shimmer of light.
"What's the situation, Superman?" Batman asked, walking up to him. "Superwoman had us on high alert due to the presence of aliens, but then we lost contact with her."
"She is in there," Clark said, pointing towards the black dome. "Together with Steppenwolf, the guy she defeated in ancient Greece 3,000 years ago. And those two," he pointed at Scott Free and the armored woman, "say they are not bad guys, but I only have their word for it."
Diana quickly approached the black dome, her eyes narrowed in anger. Right, Clark remembered. Her mother had fought against Steppenwolf, too. Would have been killed by him if not for the intervention of his mom. J'Onn, meanwhile, looked intently at Scott Free and the armored woman.
"J'Onn?" Batman asked.
"They speak the truth," J'Onn finally said. "They were talking to Superwoman about asylum here on Earth when Steppenwolf arrived. The one called Scott Free is attempting to bring down the field."
The armored woman gave him a stern glance. "I do not appreciate people digging through my mind uninvited!"
Clark stepped in front of her, quite angry himself. "The last time I met you, you tried to kill us all! So you should be happy that we are not taking the sensible approach and locking you both up. Now, make yourself useful! What can you tell us about this Steppenwolf guy!"
For a moment the woman seemed poised to strike at him, but then relaxed. "I have never fought at his side, personally. He used to be one of Darkseid's top generals, but then he fell out of favor after failing to conquer this world. He was named forgotten and no one was allowed to speak to him or acknowledge his presence."
Batman nodded, having listened. "And he blames Kara for that, I take it?"
"It would seem so," the woman replied. "And he took steps to ensure that no one would be able to interfere in their fight."
"Can you bring this field down?" Diana asked Scott Free.
"Working on it," he muttered. "No barrier or door has stopped me yet. Not for long, anyway."
Clark clenched his fists in frustration. Here they stood, just a few meters away from where his mom was no doubt fighting for her life right now, and all they could do was wait.
"Just once I would like to encounter a problem that could simply be solved by repeatedly punching it," he muttered.
Kara figured out that Steppenwolf's armor came with its own kind of force field when her first beam of heat vision was deflected and hit the Darkfield instead, making it still more powerful. Not wanting to wait around for another taunt, she utilized her superior speed to get in close and hit the self-proclaimed god with all of her strength. She felt her fist hit the force field surrounding him. It held, but the kinetic energy was still transferred, and Steppenwolf stumbled back. He did not stumble into the Darkfield, sadly.
"A worthy blow, godling," Steppenwolf growled. "You are every bit as strong as I remember."
He swung his axe, which Kara remembered had managed to cut her once before. She still carried the tiny scar above her eye where the axe had drawn her blood. She was not anxious to repeat the experience. Evading the blow, she was surprised when the blade hit the ground and the darkness inside the dome was briefly lifted when fire spread from the impact.
It distracted her long enough for Steppenwolf to get a blow of his own in. The impact was powerful and drove the air from her lungs. She was thrown back but kept enough presence of mind to use her flying power to prevent another impact with the Darkfield.
Taking a second to regain her breath, Kara tried to measure her opponent's strength. She was not sure, but it almost felt like Steppenwolf had gotten stronger compared to the last time she had faced him. Maybe his armor was enhancing his strength somehow?
"You are all about the weapons and gadgets these days, are you not?" she asked, deciding to get some taunting of her own in. "Which tells me you do not believe you can beat me without them."
"A true warrior takes whatever he needs to win his battles," Steppenwolf replied, stalking closer to her once again. "The best warriors manage to overcome foes more powerful than themselves through preparation, skill, and patience."
Kara's mind was going a mile a minute. Best to assume that Steppenwolf had spent the 3,000 years (from his perspective) since their first fight figuring out ways to counter all her powers. At least all those he had actually seen her display. She quickly called up the memory of that fight back in ancient Greece. He had seen her strength, her speed, and her heat vision, too. Well, that just meant she would have to be a bit more creative this time around.
She already knew that the Darkfield reflected sound as well, it was how she could tell where it was in the darkness. So she decided to take a page from Black Canary's book. Opening her mouth, Kara screamed as loud as she could while covering her own ears in the process.
Steppenwolf groaned in obvious pain as the extremely loud sound hit him like a battering ram, one coming from every side, too, as the sounds ricocheted off the enclosed space. Kara, too, was buffeted by her own scream, but shielding her ears protected her from the worst of it. Utilizing her foe's discomfort, she moved in close once again and took another deep breath.
Kara's lungs were every bit as powerful as the rest of her, capable of taking in extreme amounts of air and compressing it to the point of thousands of pounds per square centimeter. When she then breathed out again, the air rapidly expanded and absorbed all the heat around it, effectively freezing whatever it came in contact with. Which, in this case, was Steppenwolf's armor.
Steppenwolf swung at her, having recovered from her sonic attack much quicker than anticipated, but that was fine with her. Instead of evading, she blocked his punch with her own arm. The shudder running up her body was painful, but it served its purpose. The vibrations of the impact caused Steppenwolf's frozen armor to crack in several places.
"Looks like your equipment is failing," she growled, twisting around at super speed, and driving her elbow into his chest. Once again, the force field held and the impact jarred her bones, but the vibrations caused still more damage to his armor.
He swung his axe again and Kara ducked, though she lost a few strands of hair in the process. Okay, the axe was every bit as sharp as it had ever been. She hit it with another burst of freeze breath (Kona had come up with the name, though she actually called it 'Super Freeze Breath'), hoping that it would suffer the same fate as Steppenwolf's armor.
"You are indeed a worthy foe," Steppenwolf growled, sounding less smug and more angry now. "This fight was well worth the wait, godling!"
"Are you attempting to overload it?" Batman asked, studying the Darkfield.
"Eventually," Scott Free replied, "though if we simply pump energy into it without being smart about it, we will need more than a Fire Pit's worth to do it. And it would probably cause an explosion that would level this entire city. I assume you do not want to do that."
"What is your strategy then?"
"The Darkfield's matrix is configured to absorb all energy and distribute it evenly across its surface area. It's all in the harmonics of the field itself. If we can disrupt those harmonics, the energy will not distribute, but rather remain focused in that one single spot. That's where the idea of overloading it comes in again, because when the energy cannot be distributed, it will tear the shield matrix apart and the Darkfield will drop… in theory."
"In theory?" Batman asked.
"Well, it could also cause all the energy to be redirected inwards, resulting in an implosion that could tear a hole into the fabric of space-time, but that's really unlikely."
"Hurry up," Clark told him. "Mom might well have beaten him already, but maybe not. We need to get her out of there!"
The impact of Kara's fist against Steppenwolf's chest was strong enough to rattle both opponents, but it caused the frozen armor of his chest plate to crack apart entirely. With a sizzle of electricity, the energy field around Steppenwolf faded. Before Kara could capitalize, though, the alien warrior managed to land a hit of his own that rattled her brain and made her see stars. Instinctively she moved away at super speed, causing another huge haymaker to hit nothing but air.
Figuring that she had seen enough close combat for one day, Kara unleashed her heat vision once again. Without the energy field around them, the beams did not deflect, but rather burned a fiery scar across Steppenwolf's flesh. He screamed in pain, but instead of going down or moving back, he ran towards her once more.
Kara sidestepped his charge, twirling around and kicking him in the back. He stumbled forward and brushed the Darkfield. He grunted with the impact, but quickly moved away from it once again. Kara used the opportunity and kicked against the flat of his axe. The frozen weapon shattered into a dozen pieces.
"You have lost this battle, Steppenwolf," she said, letting up for a second to gather her breath. She had landed a lot more hits than she had taken, but she was feeling those few hits very much. Given the utter lack of solar energy, she was not recovering as quickly as she should. "Surrender and drop this field!"
"Surrender was never an option, godling," he growled. "Darkseid would never forgive another failure. I win today or I die!"
"Maybe it's time to look for a new boss?" she proposed, even as she prepared for another attack. "Barda apparently got fed up with it, too, and she tendered her resignation!"
Steppenwolf roared and rushed towards her. "Never shall I betray great Darkseid!"
"I think I've got it," Scott Free said finally. "I've disrupted the harmonics. We can now try and overload the Darkfield by focusing a lot of power at one single spot and..."
Clark didn't wait for him to finish, but immediately activated his heat vision. Twin crimson beams struck the field in the spot Free had indicated, causing the skinny man to stumble back in surprise. Clark didn't care, he just kept pouring every erg of power he had into the spot.
The armored woman, Barda, took her weapon from her belt and focused a bright yellow beam into the same spot Clark was attacking. A moment later two more beams joined, as both Batman and Wonder Woman had equipped themselves with energy weapons beamed down from the Watch Tower.
"It's working," Free said after a moment, holding his Motherbox in front of him. "Keep it up!"
Kara was certainly feeling the effects of dueling a very powerful opponent in total darkness, but it seemed the battle was all but over. Steppenwolf's armor was mostly destroyed, his weapons shattered, and the alien warrior was currently on his knees, struggling to get back up. Kara herself was favoring her side, where one of Steppenwolf's punches that she had not managed to dodge had, at the very least, bruised one of her ribs. Overall, though, she figured she was in better shape than he was.
"This does not have to end in death, Steppenwolf," she told him once again. "I have no desire to kill you!"
"Too bad," he growled, getting back to his feet. "For I have no such limitations!"
Getting fed up, she blasted him with another burst of heat vision and then closed in for what she hoped would be a knock-out punch. She was not moving as fast as she had at the beginning of the fight, though, and that left Steppenwolf a moment to reach for one final weapon he carried at the small of his back.
Kara hit Steppenwolf with enough force to send him to the ground, but at the same moment she felt something metallic attach itself to her skin. Before she had the chance to do anything, though, her entire body seemed to go up in flames and she fell to her knees, screaming.
"I salute you, godling," Steppenwolf said, getting back up again with some effort. "You forced me to use my weapon of last resort!"
Kara barely heard him, as every single nerve ending in her body was screaming at her in agony. Her limbs trembled, refusing to support her weight, and she crumbled to the ground in a boneless heap. Conscious thought abandoned her, nothing existed except pain.
"It's called the Agony Matrix," Steppenwolf said, though she had no hope of understanding his words. "One of Deesad's most recent inventions. Mighty Darkseid saw fit to allow him to use me as his test subject, so I know exactly what you are experiencing right now."
He knelt down beside her, pulling her head up by her hair. Kara's eyes could not focus on him, the agony was simply too great. She could not stop screaming.
"Every single nerve in your body is stimulated to the maximum. Pain without limit, pain without end. The pain will not kill you, though very soon you will wish it would."
He rose back to his feet, looking around.
"It seems you have destroyed all of the weapons I brought with me, so your end will not be a swift one, godling. It seems I will simply have to beat you to death then."
Kara did not comprehend his words, nor did she notice the glowing red spot in the Darkfield surrounding them. Steppenwolf did, though.
"No, not yet!" he screamed in protest. "I am not done!"
"Any second now," Free said, moving a few steps back. "Brace for it!"
Clark did not let up, only thinking of getting to his mother. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the pitch-black energy dome came apart, energy crackling around them all and taking nearly everyone off their feet. Clark was one of the few to remain standing, so he had a perfect view of what had been hidden inside the dome.
He saw his mother prone on the ground, screaming in pain, and the horned alien, Steppenwolf, standing over her. Even though he had shut off his heat vision, he saw nothing but red.
The world around him slowed down to a crawl and Clark was suddenly standing in front of the alien. Without conscious effort his fists began to rain blow after blow down on his surprised foe. Some part of Clark registered that Steppenwolf already looked quite bruised and beaten, no doubt the work of his mom, but he did not care. All he cared about was that this thing had hurt his mother and it had to pay.
He did notice that Diana was beside him, looking every bit as enraged as he was, and her fists joined his in beating on the overwhelmed alien. Steppenwolf never even had a chance to fight back and he soon toppled over, bloodied and bruised, and did not get back up again.
Clark raised his fist for yet another blow, possibly a final one, but Diana stopped him.
"He is beaten, Clark," she told him. "Let's take care of your mother now!"
The red receded from his vision and he finally nodded, lowering his fist. Turning around, he saw Batman, J'Onn, and Free kneeling next to his mother. Free had removed something metallic from her neck and she was no longer screaming, though her entire body was still shaking with spasms.
"How is she?" he asked, quickly moving to her side.
"I have heard of this device," Free told him. "The Agony Matrix. Weaponized pain. Hopefully we got it off in time before she suffered permanent nerve damage."
"Mom? Mom, can you hear me?"
It seemed to take forever, but she finally opened her eyes and focused on him, her hand shakily rising into the air until she could lay her palm against his cheek.
"Clark," she whispered, her voice unsteady. "What...? Steppenwolf, where...?"
"We took care of him, mom," he assured her. "You just rest and regain your strength, okay?"
She nodded and he helped her get into a sitting position. Everyone's heads whipped around, though, as they heard someone chuckle.
"Fools," Steppenwolf said, coughing up blood even as he spoke. "You should have killed me!"
Clark quickly rose to his feet, clenching his fists.
"The day is still young," he growled.
"Do it then, god-spawn!" Steppenwolf focused on him, struggling to rise to his knees. "Nothing else will stop me! I will not rest until you are dead, all of you! I will grind your world into dust, even if takes me another 3,000 years. I will not rest until I regain the favor of DARKSEID!"
He shouted the name and it echoed all around them. A shiver went over Clark's skin, the temperature seemed to drop rapidly. He could see his breath become visible in front of him.
"Oh no," Barda whispered under her breath. "No, no, no!"
"What's going on?" Batman asked, looking around.
Without warning a Boom Tube opened up in front of them. Even as the bright light blinded them, though, a wave of darkness seemed to pour out of it, like an arctic chill made manifest as shadows, driving them all back. Laughter echoed out of the tube, the sound cutting like blades.
Steppenwolf was on his knees, looking at the tube with wide eyes.
"Master…," he muttered.
A shape appeared in the mouth of the tube, barely more than a silhouette, almost completely obscured by the shadows. It was huge, massive, and merely looking at it caused Clark almost physical pain. The only visible feature were the eyes, which burned with an unearthly fire, like tiny windows into hell itself.
"Steppenwolf, my disgraced servant," a voice boomed, the earth shaking with every word. "I see you have failed once again!"
"Master, please," Steppenwolf begged. "Have mercy! Just one more chance and I will..."
He never got to finish the sentence. Crimson beams exploded forth from the dark figure's eyes, beams that actually changed direction in mid-flight, and struck the alien warrior's giant frame a heartbeat later. Steppenwolf had time to scream, a single, short sound of ultimate agony, before his entire body burned up and turned to ash. Everyone watched, stunned, as the mighty warrior turned to dust and was swept away by the chilling wind.
"You had your chance, my general," Darkseid boomed, causing everyone to look back at him once again. The crimson red eyes swiveled to look at Scott Free and Barda.
"And you, my Fury?" Darkseid asked. "Have you truly betrayed me?"
Clark could see that Barda needed every single bit of her strength and will power to prevent herself from falling to her knees. She remained standing, though, gripping her weapon tightly.
"I will not come back," she ground out between clenched teeth. "You will have to kill me, too!"
Darkseid chuckled. "A waste of energy, my dear, nothing more. You have served me well, after all! As have you, Scott Free!"
Free was on his feet, defiant, but Clark could see the tension in his body. "I will never serve you!"
"Oh, but you already have! You have escaped, just as I foresaw all these many centuries ago. You have served your purpose, whelp! I have no further need of you! Feel free to live out your remaining days on this primitive backwater!"
The dark shape's right arm snapped up suddenly, a huge hand opening, and the Motherbox was wrenched out of Free's hand, sailing into Darkseid's grasp before anyone could even think of stopping it.
"You will have no further need of that, of course," Darkseid said and threw the Motherbox over his shoulder in a casual gesture, making it disappear into the Boom Tube.
"You may rejoice, mortals," he then said, addressing the other people present. "Your primitive world has been graced with the presence of mighty Darkseid and you shall all live to tell the tale, for far more important matters require my attention."
He began to turn away, even as everyone remained frozen as if in shock. The entire world seemed to hold its breath, hoping that this dark thing would simply leave without further ado. Then, though, he stopped, looking back at them.
His eyes fell on Clark's mom.
"You are the one, are you not?" Darkseid asked, his eyes glowing. "You are the one who humbled Steppenwolf, who repulsed my armies. I can see it in your mind. This world was to be mine, and you defied me!"
She struggled to her feet, clearly still weak as a kitten, but unwilling to let it show.
"Clearly Steppenwolf was incompetent," Darkseid continued, "but still. Very few beings in this universe have ever managed to deprive me of one of my generals. Impressive! Not something I can simply let stand, of course!"
The dark figure's eyes began to glow and before he even knew what he was doing, Clark moved.
Kara felt Darkseid's gaze upon her and knew that she was going to die. Her body was still shivering from the pain, she could barely stand. She tried to call up her heat vision, but her nerves were shot. It simply did not work. It was over. This dark thing would kill her and there was nothing she could do. She could only hope he would be satisfied with her death and leave her world and her family alone.
Red beams exploded out of his eyes and Kara briefly wondered if that was how she looked when she used her heat vision against others. Time seemed to stretch into infinity as the beams travelled toward her, zigzagging through the air in impossible ways, death taking its sweet time.
Someone screamed. Someone else yelled. People started moving all around her, but it was too late. There was nothing anyone could do. No one was fast enough.
Almost no one.
Suddenly her son was standing in front of her, looking at her with so much love in his eyes. His mouth opened, he started to say something, but then he threw his head back as something hit him in the back. Something that caused him to cry out in pain.
"No," Kara whispered, trying to move.
Clark looked at her, their eyes met. His lips tried to form a word but failed. Then his skin started to blacken, his body glowed as if there was a fire burning inside him.
"No," Kara repeated, louder, screaming.
Clark, her son, her child, crumbled into ashes right in front of her. There was nothing left of him. Nothing but dust that was being swept away by the wind.
"Interesting," Darkseid simply said, chuckling.
A guttural scream from Diana briefly caught Kara's attention, but she was unable to avert her eyes from the ashes that had been her son a moment earlier. She did not notice that Diana had drawn her sword and was rushing toward the dark figure. Did not see how the thing that had killed her son simply took a step back and vanished, the Boom Tube closing before Diana could get there. She did not recognize the hands touching her, did not recognize the voices that uttered meaningless words.
She fell to her knees, her fingers brushing across the ash-covered concrete. He was gone. Clark was gone. Her son was dead!
Kara threw back her head and screamed, a wail of agony so loud it blew out windows in a three-block radius. And as if in response to her pain, the skies began to darken, thunder rumbled, and bolts of lightning flashed.
A giant hand made of light drew burning letters of fire into the sky, which read THE WAR BEGINS.
Kara did not notice. Because nothing mattered anymore. Nothing. Her son was dead!
End Chapter 91
Author's Note: Sorry to post such a rather depressing chapter to close out the year, but derailing the story to put in a cheery Christmas chapter would not have worked. Blame my muse for being fickle right now, I had originally planned to already be much further along at this time.
The Agony Matrix Steppenwolf uses against Kara hails from the final episode of Justice League Unlimited, "Destroyer", where Darkseid uses it against Superman. The Darkfield Steppenwolf deploys is my own invention, but I figure it would be something Deesad would come up with to fight against someone like Lightray. Darkseid being able to read someone's mind is canon, though I am not sure he has actually used that ability since the 80s.
Up Next: Funeral for a Son
