Nightwing: Out of Time 4 – The Final Conflict

Chapter 4

By Christopher W. Blaine

e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com

DISCLAIMER: Nightwing™ and all of the characters and situations previously copyrighted by DC Comics Inc. remain the property of that entity and are used without permission for fan-related entertainment only. This original story, and all original concepts and creations contained herein, are ©2004 and the intellectual property of Christopher W. Blaine.

"You are a variant, hardly worthy of my attention. I have more important things to worry about," Parallax said, folding his arms across his chest. He gazed at the motley crew of heroes that stood below him. His knowledge of the universe allowed him to instantly place who they were.

The quaking man in the plant-motif costume was the Gardener, the son of Nightwing and Poison Ivy from a reality where the former partner of Batman let his libido control his actions as opposed to his intellect. Parallax made a mental note to ensure that such a thing would never happen in his recreated universe.

The Asian man in the dark costume was Darkwing, the product of the union between Katana and Nightwing. A skilled warrior and ardent student of the Art of War, he was a powerful force to be reckoned with if you were a thug on the street. Parallax was much more than a common thug, he was a god among ants.

The ring bearer was the most unique of them. She was the daughter of Nightwing and Jade, the daughter of the original Green Lantern. He tried to feel some kinship to the woman who now defiantly challenged him, but there was nothing there. He had already been through so much, had changed so greatly that his former life as Hal Jordan, and greatest of the Green Lanterns seemed nothing but a dream now.

As a Green Lantern she posed a very slight threat to his plan to recreate the universe, but only because she had crossed out of her own timeline and into his. Normally he did not concern himself with variants as the nature of Hypertime allowed for such crossings. By all accounts her time in this universe would be extremely brief.

Still, he had been tracing a time trail that just wasn't right and this was what he had homed in on. If he were going to wipe the slate clean, he had to make sure there were no potential problems. "I will offer you once more chance; surrender the ring and I will let you live."

Jade Lantern hovered between the heroes below and villain above. In her reality, Hal Jordan had died several years before in a battle with Sinestro, but an adventure she had undergone some months back had informed her of another Hal Jordan in another universe that had gone mad. That Hal Jordan, driven insane by his despair over the destruction of his beloved Coast City by Mongul, had gone to Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe. In a fierce battle he had murdered not only the Guardians, but had also destroyed the Corps. Then in a final act of betrayal, he entered the main power battery that supplied power to all Green Lanterns and absorbed the energy, becoming Parallax.

Parallax then tried to recreate the entire universe in his own image, trying to undo the wrongs of the past. In his efforts to do so, he had traveled through time to many eras to track down any and all Green Lanterns that might have interfered with his plans. She had always been glad that it had not occurred in her universe.

It was obvious who this man was. The green power he radiated could be cut wit a knife; it hung in the air like a foul stench. "Go spit, Jordan!"

Parallax frowned and rubbed his chin. "Why do you resist, little Lantern? I can give you a life that you previously only dreamed of. A universe where your Uncle Todd never went insane and you were forced to kill him."

Jade Lantern turned away and bit her lip to keep the tears from flowing. Her uncle, her mother's brother, had been a hero named Obsidian until his dark powers ate away at his moral compass. Right after she had taken on the mantle of Jade Lantern from her mother, her uncle had kidnapped her father, someone whom he saw as having defiled her mother. In the ensuing battle, she had to make a choice between letting her father die and killing her uncle.

Obviously Parallax knew what choice she had made. "You can't tempt me, you devil! You betrayed your oath!"

"Now may not be the time to make him mad," the Gardener said with a shaky voice.

"You would do well to listen to the fat little non-hero," Parallax said. Gardener straightened up and puffed his chest out but the former Green Lantern ignored him. "I will not ask again," he warned, holding his hand out, palm up.

"You do not belong in this time period, either," Darkwing pointed out. "You are as much an anomaly as we are. It does not serve the cause of justice for you to pass sentence upon us when our mission is so important."

"I really do not have tie to listen to any of you. I have a universe to recreate." Darkwing wanted to correct Parallax and inform him of his future failure, of how he would be defeated utterly. Persons who were able to travel through Hypertime often eventually came across the legend of Hal Jordan.

"A universe that will not last if we do not complete our mission," Darkwing said, stepping a little closer. Parallax, intrigued by the bravery of this hero, lowered himself to the rooftop, even as Jade Lantern eyed him with a smoldering rage. Parallax told him to continue his line of reasoning. "As I am led to believe, in order for your plan to work, you will have to have a completely unobstructed time stream to start out with."

"I'm still listening," was the only reply he received.

"We are here in this time period, in this time line, to rescue a variant that has been forced into this reality by a villain." He waited for any reaction, but Parallax looked completely and totally bored. "Her presence, added with certain events our comrades are pursuing in other time periods, have resulted in an absorption of time."

"I doubt it."

"It's true!" the Gardener blurted out.

"If you don't believe us, travel to the future, the far future," Jade Lantern said, daring the other Corpsman. "We'll wait, you arrogant son of a…"

Parallax faded away from view and the Gardener started asking of they had won. Darkwing had to remind him that a battle had not been fought. Fifteen seconds later, Parallax reappeared, a grim look on his face. "How is this possible?"

"Our father, the hero you know as Nightwing, was trying to stop a villain named Per Degaton when he was thrown from the time machine they were traveling on. As a result, he has been bursting through dimensional boundaries, pulling timelines together."

"Fool. I will find him and eliminate him from the timeline…"

"You bastard!" Jade Lantern said, creating a giant emerald fist with her ring. The fist struck Parallax and knocked him down onto the rooftop. "You'll have to kill me before you touch my father!"

The Gardener looked around for some plants to control, but there was nothing in the immediate area. Even some common lawn grass would be a weapon, but he was too far from anything green. Instead, he screamed and flung himself at the fallen form of Parallax. Before he could land a basic professional-wrestling take down on the hero-turned-villain, Parallax turned his head and faced his foe. His eyes flared bright green as Parallax called the power of the Oan main power battery to him.

Jade Lantern could feel the tug on her ring, but her anger and willpower were enough, for the moment, to prevent Jordan from getting control of it. She brought the fist up again and pounded Parallax hard enough to break the roof. In a puff of dust, Parallax fell into the building proper.

"Damn you and your anger, woman! We could have resolved this without fighting! If we could have shown our enemy that our causes were the same, we could have allied!" Darkwing did not wait for her response to his verbal barrage. Instead, he jumped into the hole after Parallax, realizing that the former Green Lantern was going to be very angry.

The Gardener grabbed a hold of Jade Lantern's arm. "Cops!" he called out and she heard the sirens of approaching police vehicles. "I don't get along with cops very well," he told her.

"How did you ever become a super-hero?"

"My mother is Poison Ivy! Give me a break!"

Jade Lantern considered their options and realized that the appearance of Parallax had really messed up their plans. If Jordan had pursued Per Degaton instead of her, then maybe he could have taken care of the problem for them. Then she reasoned that if Parallax had found Per Degaton, he would have killed him and the little child Andrea.

Jordan was insane with power and grief, a terrible duo to deal with. "I've got to help Darkwing," she said as she flew into the hole. The Gardener cursed and kicked at the rocks that were laid on the rooftop. He did not consider himself a true super-hero; he was just a guy who could control plants that sometimes helped people out.

He wasn't at all into the risking his life philosophy; he enjoyed breathing, eating meat and watching pretty girls on the internet. He didn't belong here. "Stupid idiots," he mumbled as he looked the hole. A sink and a toilet came flying out and went over the edge of the roof. He raced over to the edge and watched at they crashed on the street below. A car horn honked and someone screamed.

A blast of plaster dust and green light belched out of the hole and the Gardener cursed just the way his mother used to whenever one of his "uncles" woke up dead in the morning. Then, resigned that he needed Jade Lantern to get back home, he moved to the hole and slowly clambered down into it.

"Welcome home," Titan said as they entered the apartment of Dick Grayson. Nightwing half-expected to see one of his Hypertime duplicates.

"If we don't fix things, then yes, you will start seeing yourself, possibly thousands of yourself walking around everywhere." Lightning moved around the apartment, examining everything from the pictures to the books that were lying about. He seemed so much like her father that it was troubling her. "As soon as you came back into this time line, the others were sent back to their own. That won't last, especially the way the time lines are intermixing."

Nightwing removed his mask and told the two of them to sit down. When Lightning hesitated, he asked her what her problem was. "I can't figure out why you didn't love my mother."

Nightwing was at a loss for words and he could not come up with any explanation. He pretty much understood what was going on and how foolhardy it had been for him to hop onto Per Degaton's time machine. From the history lesson he had received, he knew that a Hypertime version of himself had ended up in the past and had made his way to the future. That duplicate had been Titan's father.

"I can't answer that," he said. "I don't love your mother and in fact, I've never been interested in her as anything more than a friend. " He sighed and sat down on his couch. At least it seemed familiar. "I knew she sort of had a crush on me at one time, but she had one on Wally, too."

"That helps," Lightning said.

"Exactly how did I end up with your mother?" Nightwing asked her. She replied she wasn't sure, but that it happened one night at the Titans Tower.

"This makes no sense…"

Titan disagreed and made a point of popping his neck before he continued. "It seems to me, from the history that Oracle explained to us that most of the adventures that have occurred in this timeline, ever since the original encounter between you and Per Degaton, seem to coincide with what I know about my father. It is almost as if all of this started with my timeline and yours being mixed together. My father did travel back to World War 2 and he was aided by Zatanna to get back to the future. My father also went to the future and Black Robin was murdered there.

"It was something he didn't like to talk about…"

"Maybe we are in your timeline," Lightning suggested. "It would certainly make sense."

Titan shrugged. "There are a lot of things that do and don't make sense."

Nightwing moved around the apartment and then said he was going to go shower and change into a fresh costume. "Lightning, keep an eye out for any of my duplicates," he ordered. As a speedster she had the ability to pick up faint fluctuations in the time stream that others would normally miss.

After he had left the room, Lighting sighed heavily and plopped into a chair. "My mother never mentioned anything about my dad and Wonder Woman being an item."

"My mother and father had a very passionate love for each other," Titan replied with a large smile. He continued to look around the apartment. "My father gave up his apartment soon after they started dating. I've never seen this before. He was a pig."

"You have no idea…"

"He's not your father."

She closed her eyes and rubbed her face with her hands. She was tired, she knew, and she really needed to get some sleep. The Speed Force was limitless, but her endurance wasn't. "I know, but he's not your either."

There was a scream from the bedroom. It wasn't a howl of fear but more of a rancorous bellow of shock and disbelief. Lightning was in the room before the sound had finished striking the walls. Titan was not far behind.

Nightwing was there, standing in his costume bottoms, shaking as he held a piece of paper in front of him. Lighting asked what was wrong and the hero tried to mouth the words eh needed to speak, but his voice was gone.

"Calm down," Titans said as his massive body absorbed the doorway. "What is it?"

Lightning took several steps towards him and reached out for the paper that was being crushed in his quaking hand. She pulled it away, seeing a look of disbelief in his eyes and realizing he was in great emotional pain, tried to offer some sort of comforting words. He sat back, shaking his head and she opened the paper up. Titan came up behind her and he read it. He gave a quick "No!" and she realized that he was becoming upset as well.

The paper was a clipping from a newspaper that told of the death and burial of Donna Troy, one of Dick Grayson's best friends and the woman who would have been Titan's aunt.

The somber moment was interrupted by a baritone voice that commanded respect. "What is going on here?" the Batman said as he stepped into the doorway.

Lighting turned. "Grandpa?"

Titan, shocked by the sight of his father's father so youthful gasped. "Grandfather!"

Batman's eyes narrowed. He looked at Nightwing and stepped between the other heroes to stand in front of his son, or at least the man who looked like his son. "Nightwing, what is it?"

Nightwing looked up. "Donna…"

"Has been dead for several months. This isn't anything new." He studied the other man and saw that he was filthy and unkempt. "You haven't showered for days, have you?"

"You wouldn't believe it," Lightning said.

"I didn't ask you," Batman replied. Lighting, who had never taken much gruff from her grandfather, stepped forward but Titan held her back. Batman returned his attention to his son. "Dick?" he asked. He reasoned that if Nightwing was sitting in half a costume in his apartment in front of the other two, then they no doubt knew who he was as well.

"Bruce…she's dead…Donna is dead…"

"Yes."

"How?"

"We don't have time for that right now; you're due at JSA headquarters…you're late in fact…"

"For what?"

"Jessie's pregnancy test results; Dr. Mid-Nite called you earlier," Batman said just before there was a thump behind him. He turned to see the large man waving his hand in front of the woman's face. She had obviously fainted. Batman looked at him and Titan gave him a weak smile. "Let me guess, Young Hercules."

Titan shook his head. "No, but I doubt you're going to be pleased with the truth."

Oracle stepped out of the rip in time and stood in the warehouse that housed the time machine. There was no noise so she assumed that she was alone and she moved around the boxes as quietly as she could to verify that fact. Satisfied that she had been correct, she moved to a chair placed in corner and sat down. Traveling through time was tough on her, especially when time streams were mingling with each other. The currents of time mixed and created small whirlpools.

It hadn't been so long since she first discovered her powers and she was still getting used to them. The Sentinels of Magic were helping her along, telling her that she would one day be more powerful than she could possibly imagine. She found that hard to believe, especially when she was too busy fighting acne and homework. Plus trying to hide her powers from her father and mother. They would have freaked royally if they had known what she could do.

The simplest explanation of why she could do what she did was that every once in awhile, there are born humans that are something extraordinary. Certainly her father had been ordinary and her mother had been, well she thought, handicapped for lack of a better term, until Martian science had corrected her broken spinal cord.

Blowing out, she stood up and smoothed out her costume, wishing she were in a T-shirt and shorts instead. She made her way to the time machine, sensing it from a few meters away. She didn't need to touch it to realize that it was not what it was supposed to be. It wasn't just damaged; it was also from another reality.

That explained so much! A duplicate Per Degaton had somehow damaged his time machine and started tearing through time. Add to that a stubborn hero falling between dimensions and you had all of the makings for disaster. Her choices were now very limited. She considered them for a few moments and then heard a door open in the far end of the building.

Quickly she jumped behind some stacked tires as a man with red hair, carrying a bag, came into view. She gasped as she recognized Per Degaton.