oneredneckgoddess: Wait no longer. It's a talent that doesn't always avail me, being able to cut into perfect cliff hangers like that.

WWLAOS: I couldn't resist it. I did mean Akati. And the floating fortress is a boat, and a fairly small hole, will sink a fairly large boat. They were going to bring an explosive on board, and punch a large hole in the hull. You're right, I should expand that. I'll also fix those sentences.

In any case, Akati is three things. Very patient, and can wait for them to tire out. Inexhaustable, so can still fight even after they've dropped from exhaustion. Virtually invincible, so they can't really do any appreciable damage.

This is the next to last chapter. Enjoy.

Pain is, at it's basic level, an abstract. Unfortunately, it's not experienced at that level. At the level where we experience it, it hurts like hell, because... Well it's pain, what more explanation is required? I seemed to ache from wing tip to wing tip, and from the top of my head, to the soles of my feet. Opening my eyes wasn't a fun prospect because, as far as I could tell, my eyelids hurt. I did so anyway, wanting to see what was infront of me. It turned to be a hand, but it wasn't one I recognized. A silver ring wrapped it's third finger, and it was slightly calloused, but soft at the same time. I reached up and took it, slowly, as the pain was still enormous, even if it was receeding to a dull ache. As soon as I took the pro offered hand, I felt much better, and the pain drained away. Reasoning that there was an arm connected to that hand, I scanned up the back of it finding first a wrist, then to no surprise, an arm. Farther up, the arm was infact attached to a shoulder, which was part of a full size person. I instantly recognized him from a photo in Fate's tower.

"Adam?" I exclaimed. The brown haired man smiled slightly, and looked across at the twins, who were beaming.

"She's a really bright one, isn't she?" He chuckled, and I almost flushed, then started to get indignant, and realized I was laughing as well. "Yes, that's me." He answered my question, helping me to my feet.

"I thought you were dead? So that means it worked?" He stared a moment at me. "The spell?"

"Oh, yes." He nodded calmly, releasing my hand. "I would hope so, otherwise Zatanna had no idea what she's talking about."

"So, did we win?" I asked. He smiled.

"It's not quite that easy. See, even if you fought with everything you had then, you couldn't defeat Akati. He's simply too powerful. You have to stop Akati from ever being. That's why the spell brought you here and now." He pointed behind him and I saw a long black rod floating in the air, though there was no visible means of support. That meant magic. "You still have to keep your opponent from reaching the weapon. No, I don't know who it is, before you ask. And I cannot interfere, because I am here as an entirely neutral observer. You must do it on your own." He stepped back, and looked at us all. "Good luck."

I coughed lightly, and the twins turned to me, nodding and smiling slightly, then we arranged around the rod. The mental commands started instantly. :Join me.: Came a soft voice in the back of my head. The other's must have heard it as well, because they replied.

"No." Came an almost simultaneous response.

:I will give you power beyond all imagining.: It cooed to me, enticingly.

"No."

:I can restore those you loved to you.: That was truly tempting, but...

"No." It was then that our opponent entered the scene. I felt her long before she was in sight, but the others seemed to sense her as well, or they saw I was preparing for a fight, and took the cue. Either way, we were very surprised when Galatea appeared before us.

"What are you doing here?" She snapped, pulling herself up and glaring at us.

"Simple." I answered, not leaving my defensive stance. "We're here to stop you, and kill you. And not by necessity, in that order." I charged, and knew I was already being backed up. Galatea groaned as the energy mace hit her, but she didn't falter as I expected. Instead she grabbed the shaft of the mace, and threw me. I'm not sure how I was able to hit anything when there wasn't anything there, but I landed, some thirty feet away, and I could feel something in my wing give. The pain was tremendous, and I knew I was out of the fighting. J'nol crashed into Galatea, and they went tumbling to the floor. She came out on the bottom, and flipped him into the air. She rolled and lunged up, just in time for Alfred to crash a blow across her jaw, that sent her reeling. She hit the ground again, and lunged up, in time for another impact to the face. She dropped, and fired a heat blast low at him.

He flipped into the air, and landed on his hands, but she was already sweeping her leg around in anticipation, and knocked his hands from under him. Galatea gathered her feet under her and lunged up, then down, looking for a killing blow, but the Twins caught her by surprise. A dozen blades of air, created with magical edges, sliced along her arms and torso, sending her sprawling. That was Rebecca's signature move. The massive fist of air that caught her as she started to fall was Ace's. Galatea was thrown into the air, and the twins joined together and slammed her down. She hit hard, and looked up, heatvision firing, and catching both of them in the leg, sending them to the ground. Two arrows arced in, and light blared as they exploded, shockwaves sending Galatea rolling, as Annia zipped in to help me up, and clear of the fight. J'nol was back in the fight now, shifting into the form of a huge snake. Galatea was having difficulty hitting J'nol in that form, but she finally caught him, sending him falling away. She saw that the way was almost clear and lunged for the lance. I started to draw back and throw, but Alfred was already there.

I don't know where it came from. It wasn't supposed to exist any more. He should not have had it. He did so anyway. Red Kryptonite glowed in his left hand, and green in his right. Galatea fell back, and dropped to the floor. Alfred started to advance at the same instant I shouted a warning. She hit him hard, knocking the green kryptonite out of his hand. She had been faking. The two different forms of the kryptonite were counter acting each other. With the green farther away, the red took command and sent her to her knees for real this time. She groaned in pain.

"Finish... her." Alfred called, gasping after the hit she had delivered. I started to act, but Annia was there first. The knife in her hand sliced Galatea's throat open to the bone, and the blonde woman dropped the ground, without so much as a sound. The kryptonite's winked out, as Alfred put them away.

:This is not over.: I heard the long rod call again, now knowing what the voice was, and saw it vanish. Adam approached us again, clapping softly.

"Congratulations. You did it. I knew you would." He smiled at us all, and set himself to work. I started to jerk away as he laid his hands on my wing, but as much pain as there was, it started to fade away as he let his hands slide across it.

"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" I asked suddenly. He nodded solemnly. "Why didn't you stop it?" I snapped.

"I tried, and I failed. They were too much alike. Kara, and Galatea, and Ellie. I was killed at one point, and I made a final attack. It was supposed to kill Galatea, and Ellie, and leave Kara alone, but the magic couldn't tell them apart, and let them live." Adam explained. "By the time I realized what was wrong, I couldn't do anything about it without difficulties. You were the alternate choice. I knew if I failed, you would take up the fight. I knew that four hundred thousand years ago." He smiled slightly, and patted my now fully healed wing. "What I didn't know until five years or so ago, was if you could win. When I met your parents, I knew you would succeed, if I did not."

"Something isn't right." Alfred shook his head. "We were told that one of us would die, and never see the past, and that one of us wouldn't exist. We're all here, it can't be finished, can it?"

"There's the hat trick my friend." Adam smiled, laying his hands on Ace's leg. "Robert was the one mentioned in all three of those tiny little foot notes. It's why I named 'my children, and the successors to the legacy of the Justice League'. I didn't mention you guys by name. Robert was a successor to the legacy, because as much as the Bat and others might not like it, Booster was a member of the League. As for not existing, see, Booster was killed on the tower, before he found out Tracy was pregnant again. She had already had a daughter, and Robert was born after the attack. The trick to why he won't exist, is because he was named after Tracy's father. Booster was always partial to the name Joesph." There was a grin on his face.

"What about Galatea and Ellie?" Ace asked, as he stood, and Adam moved to Rebecca. "And Akati."

"Galatea is now dead in both timelines. Akati was Galatea, but now that she's dead, when you return, Akati will fall over dead. See, in exchange for power, Galatea gave up the power to give life. She became a man. Akati was virtually invincible. Immune to kryptonite of all colors, and without the peculiar weakness to magic that plagues kryptonians. Zatanna was his only weakness, because she could see who and what he really was. He couldn't kill her, because then he would loose the ties to his past as Galatea, but he couldn't let her go, because she would incite a revolution." He answered. "As for Ellie. In your timeline, she is dead, but in mine, she will live to old age. Whether she does it for good, or for ill, I don't know. It's her choice. All I have forseen is that she will die of old age."

"You keep referring to our timeline." Annia commented. "What are you talking about?"

"The defeat of the lance corrected our timeline, but you accomplished too much to be simply written off into history. You are in the Archives, so your world is considered a valid timeline. The correction is going to split you off into your own future. You share our past, but your future is your own to decide." He answered her question.

"What about Inza? Is there anything that could have been done?" Rebecca asked.

"She's not dead." He addressed her concern. "She did that to her tower, to make you go. She knew that you would turn and run when the going got tough if you thought you could run back to her to safety. It was all one big illusion."

Adam looked off to oneside, and I followed his gaze. I could see an energy wall approaching. "Looks like we're almost out of time. About a minute left. There's just one thing left to tell you all. Ace. Rebecca. I am proud of you. All of you. You acted as you had to, even if you didn't think that you could do so in the beginning. You upheld the legacy, and promise of the Justice League with honor that few other's could have managed. Though they aren't here, your parents will know this story, and everything that happened here. And though they haven't said it just yet, I know for a fact, that they are proud of you as well. I'm almost out of time, so I have one last thing for you. In deep lunar orbit, there is a second Watchtower. It was built after the destruction of the first tower in the Thangarian invasion. It's the older model, just right for seven people, but it shouldn't sit there like it lies, collecting dust."

"How do we reach it?" I asked him as the wall approached.

"Use your power. You are a child of the Green Lantern of earth. Rise to the challenge, and your power will protect you." He called as the wave approached. "Fare you well, Justice League." The wave swept across my vision, and everything went white.