June 14th 2016 The Street of Gods 8:00 AM EDT

True to his word, Avery had breakfast waiting when we woke up. Some kind of purple oatmeal type stuff called grengin that I'd never heard of, but which kind of tasted like blueberries and cream despite having no sweetener added to it according to our host. It was good stuff, and I'd even managed a few hours of real sleep after perfecting my domain. My new godly form required less of the stuff from what I could tell, and I was feeling like I could take on the world...for about two minutes, until I remembered where we were actually going.

Eddie was the only one talking at breakfast, though not much, just enough to engage Sindella in conversation. For her part, my future mother-in-law seemed almost as scared of what was to come as I was, which only made me think better of her. The punk god of the straight razor was as relaxed and spaced out as ever, as well as somehow not being coated in splatters of blood from the absolute butchery of Parademons the night before. I let them all do their thing, figuring they would have to focus up soon enough and they should enjoy breakfast where they could, only to feel someone shake my shoulder.

I turned to regard the hand, following it back to see Wally, staring at me curiously. "Hey man, you doing alright?" Asked the redhead. " You seem out of it, not that I can blame you, and something about you is...different. Not bad different, mind you, just different. You get some new ability?" He raised an eyebrow in interest, and as he did I noted that I could kind of feel a different vibe from Wally too. I suspected it had to do with the fruit he ate and the method through which he acquired the speed force. Between the divine fruit and the divine lightning Artemis had dumped into him to start it, not to mention the trip to the Sphere of the Gods, I wasn't shocked that the guy had some divinity I could pick up.

"Something like that." Was the only response I gave to the question. Aside from the fact that explaining any of the changes to me would be difficult, I didn't know Dagon from Adam. Talking about the kinds of things I'd experienced where anyone could hear was dicey at best. At the very least we could have a bit of privacy, I gestured to Wally and we stepped away from the table to talk. I wouldn't mention my improvements though. Better to let the whole deal be a surprise for Neron, who it would hopefully help us stop. I silently cursed Darkseid. We could have had Gojo for backup in this fight, and my stepdad had proven himself shockingly powerful.

In the end though, it didn't matter. Kit was still missing, but the closer I came to the temple, the more sure I was that she would be there waiting. She might not be there willingly, but Neron wanted us around for some reason. He was just smart enough to make us come to him as opposed to hiring a bunch of bounty hunters like Darkseid. Wally gave me a searching look, clearly waiting for me to continue talking, but when I didn't he shrugged. "Whatever, man. I just wanted to check in. She wouldn't ask directly, but Arty has been really worried about you. She said things were bad with you and your cousin, and that you blamed yourself?"

His tone was concerned, but not overbearing, happy to listen without actually prying. I was positive he'd practiced it more than a few times. That thought brought a chuckle to my lips. "You could say that." I said at last. "Kit grew up with my dad as her guardian. Her father was the Holliday killer. My dad wasn't in my life for most of my childhood because he wanted to keep me out of the family business, but Kit grew up hearing him talk about me. Gave her something of a complex about me."

I thought back to our conversation that night in the clock tower. "I had just been hurt pretty bad by my ex. She turned on me in a bad way, and I was having trouble trusting anyone new. Artemis I'd known for years, Zee was...Zee, and Reggie and I had been through a lot, but Kit was a complete stranger to me. She told me how she was feeling and I pushed her away, shoved her off on Artemis and Zee expecting them to fix it." My voice was heavy with guilt as I told him the story, though not as much pain as might have been there before. I'd certainly repeated my failings to myself enough times to be used to hearing about it.

He winced. "I heard about your ex. That would have screwed with anyone. Artemis feels pretty guilty about what went down too. She feels like she should have been able to help her somehow. She saw a lot of herself in Kit, what with their dads and all. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was similar enough that not being able to do anything reminded her more than a bit of what happened with Jade."

"Which is also my fault." I said firmly. "I was weak and kind of a coward. Kit needed me, not Artemis. We were family, and I failed her. I wasn't even upset when she turned on us. I really should have seen it coming. The fact that she helped the League and that she trusted me enough to reach out for help is more I deserve. Enough Falcones have let her down, and I refuse to keep being one of the many." I blew out a breath. "Gods, just remembering myself back then makes me cringe. I was pretty much drowning, it's a miracle I even survived."

That got a sharp bark of laughter from Wally. At my questioning eyebrow he just grinned. "Sorry. It's just that chronologically that was a year ago for you. The crazy part is that I get it. In any other kind of life that would sound ridiculous, but when you live in a world like ours, a year is so damn long it can be hard to contemplate." He clapped me on the shoulder. "If it helps I like you better now. You were kind of smarmy when we first met. Not bad enough to make me hate you like Nightwing does, but still."

I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, aren't you supposed to be making me feel better. You fucking suck at pep talks. Should have let Zee do it. She's great at being peppy. Or Drea, she's great at motivation." My eyes glazed over as I let a stupid grin slip onto my face. "Maybe I can get them cheerleading uniforms. I bet they would totally wear them for me."

We both laughed at that, even if I hadn't been entirely joking. But it came to an end too soon. I decided to ask the question I'd been avoiding bringing up with him directly. Fair was fair."How about you. This has all been a mess, but how are you handling the Nightside? It isn't exactly a happy place for heroes to spend time. People suffer here, even if they try to keep it out of sight mostly. I know how much it was bothering you, but since the Arcadia Project you seem better. Come to terms with some thing?"

Wally leaned back against the wall, head thunking back into the rock in a way that made me wince slightly. "Somewhat." He said slowly. "I have even more respect for the League than I did, since they have to put up with this sort of thing all the time. Seeing so much suffering and knowing they can help, but that their very purpose inhibits it? That's rough. That UN charter makes things worse in a lot of ways. I realized that it was hypocritical to agonize over something even as I refused to change it. I either had to admit that it was the right path or throw out everything I'd been taught."

I snorted at that. "Shit or get off the pot huh? That's fair. I guess I can figure out what you chose. I can't really comment on how valid a choice that was, not my place, but I appreciate how hard it must have been to make it." I clapped him on the shoulder warmly. "I'm glad Artemis met you Wally. You're a good guy. I think things would have turned out much different if we hadn't had you around. She deserves someone who puts her first like you do after all the bullshit she's gone through with her dad and sister."

That got me a genuine smile, but it also ended the conversation. Neither of us were comfortable enough with the other to get into any really deep emotional stuff, and that had been damn close. With my piece said, I turned to the tried and true tactic of all men who accidentally get too personal when talking to a buddy, I changed the subject. "Anyway. I think its about time for us to head out. We still have to get to the temple and actually figure out what the point of all this has been. I mean, it's almost definitely a trap of some kind, but I'm still not sure WHY."

London was a long way from home. The people involved here weren't ones who would normally be in my social circle, I hadn't even heard of the Nightside until Kit got in touch. Neron might be interested in a half-devil, but somehow I didn't think that was the reason for this. I'd had the feeling that something more was going on here for a while. Someone was involved with all this that I wasn't seeing, someone who knew me somehow. My powers were a well kept secret, but they were basically the only thing that could interest someone at this level. None of the other things I'd done had been enough to catch this kind of attention.

From what I'd been told even stopping the invasion wasn't a huge deal to anyone but Darkseid. If it had been a real threat the Department of the Uncanny or the Droods would have stepped in. In the end though, the only way to find out was to actually show up and face the threat. I'd prepared plenty of layers of deception for this next part. My new divinity, my domain, the voodon't dolls. All designed to provide my people and I with security the enemy didn't see coming.

I would spring the trap like they were expecting, but these bastards wouldn't be catching the prey they thought was on the way. It didn't matter how good your bait was if you couldn't contain the target once it retrieved the lure. Wally and I headed back to the table to check in with everyone and get ready to leave. John and Eddie, our resident guides, were both well prepared to depart, and everyone except Suzie, who had gotten seconds, was done with breakfast. So we wasted no time in leaving once she was done.

As we headed back out into the Street of Gods I mentally prepared myself for the coming battle. I had no clue what to expect, how to prepare more than I had, or if my cousin was even still alive. The longer this went on the more sure I was that we weren't going to beat them there. I had to believe she was though. Neron had gone to so much trouble to arrange all this. Killing the hostages would be sloppy. There were too many ways to find out someone was dead and ruin the trap. No, Kit was alive, probably being held captive at the temple. It was time to go save my cousin and put this whole thing to rest. I was more than ready to end this little vacation and go home.

June 14th 2016 The Street of Gods 9:00 AM EDT

We stopped when we reached the dark stone temple we'd been heading to. Eddie said his goodbyes and hugged Sindella goodbye before leaving. While he was more than happy to help a friend out of a jam, the homeless god wasn't a big fan of intruding on the domains of others. Assaults weren't Eddie's thing from what the others said, he was more reactive than proactive, preferring to leave others in peace if they did the same to him. I didn't exactly push, I didn't know him too well, and the memory of his razor shredding those parademons, while striking, was deeply unsettling. His casual absent expression had never changed as he butchered them, seemingly in a world of his own while tearing through their ranks.

As we stopped outside the temple though, I felt a deep and unpleasant sense of deja vu from deep in my gut. Everyone turned to look at me in concern as I froze in place, staring at the squat stone building. Zee put a hand on my shoulder. "You ok baby? Whats wrong?" Her tone let me know that she could at least feel the discomfort and fear churning in my stomach through our bond, even if she had no clue what was causing it. Hell, even if I had no clue what was causing it.

Despite all of that, I stared up at the building with shaking hands and sweaty palms. It seemed so familiar to me, not the place itself, but the feeling I got from it. I'd felt this before, felt it in my bones, and whatever it was scared the shit out of me. It scared me more than Darkseid had by far. I really hoped this wasn't Neron, because if it was, then I had met him before, and he was more dangerous than the god of tyranny by far.

That seemed wrong though. I knew a bit about Neron. He was a devil. Not the same kind as me, but based on what I could find on him from my sources (hacking abilities were the gift that never stopped giving) he mostly dealt in subterfuge and obfuscation. He was strong, sure, but he was strong in ways that I should counter. With my new godhood and my domain I should be able to at least hold Neron off long enough for the others to retrieve Kit and her boyfriend. But this feeling I was getting now was different. It was like looking at the gallows as I was marched up the steps. Death that I couldn't avoid.

The strangest part was that I couldn't remember where I'd felt this before, but that in itself was a hint. There weren't too many things I didn't remember. Things from before I had my powers and a few experiences my mind hadn't really been equipped to deal with when I saw them. It certainly narrowed down the list. It took me a minute to put that all into words. "No. I sense something. Something bad. Something I don't think is Neron. Darkseid wasn't the only thing pulling strings here. It's weird though, I feel like I've come into contact with it before, but I don't recognize..."

My eyes snapped open as I finally placed the sensation of creeping evil. "The swamp!" Everyone jumped as I bellowed a random phrase in mid sentence and I winced a bit. "Sorry, I just figured out where I felt this before. During the ritual that made you guys elves, there was this sort of weird infectious darkness in Slaughter Swamp. It got burned away in the ritual using the belt and girdle and their holy energy, but before that happened the sensation was a lot like that temple. Kind of this slow crawl of spiritual decay. Not sure why it's scaring me so bad, that swamp never did anything to us."

Now that I'd noticed it, I was absolutely sure that I was right though. This sensation was exactly like the dark energy in the swamp. Guess the Nightside had some of that old fashioned Gotham evil brewing after all. Weirdly, that almost made me feel better. Almost. I'd been out of my depth since I got here, but I could handle Gotham problems. Having identified the problem I could force myself to calm down, rationalize it away. But no matter how much I forced myself to breathe and move past it, I couldn't shake the gnawing dread in my gut. This was a bad place. Bad things were here.

Zee gave my shoulder a squeeze. "Breathe, love. You don't have to justify yourself to us. If you have a bad feeling then we'll be careful. We're here now, but we don't need to rush. A little stakeout, some info gathering. Can't hurt to learn more about the enemy before we head in there right? Maybe we can identify whats bothering you. We can at least try to find out what god lives in there, right?"

She turned to Taylor imploringly, and the big detective nodded seriously. "Definitely. This place isn't anywhere I recognize. It looks old, but I've never seen or heard of it. This place has to have been built around when St. Jude's was, and St. Jude's is the oldest church around. The Street of Gods isn't exactly known for its stability and safety. Even the gods here get bounced out pretty regularly. Maybe not like yearly or anything, but any deity still around after a few centuries has to be a serious customer."

He was right, the church was worn in a way that implied extreme age, despite being relatively well kept otherwise. He turned to John. "What do you think, Junior? You know the Street better than I do. Can you think of anything at all you might have heard about a place like this? Doesn't need to be overt. Even rumors could be useful if we can get more than one or two of them. If not we can check in with the neighbors, see if they've heard anything."

John shook his head, assuring us that he had no idea who the temple belonged to, and rather than just attack without the information, we decided to ask around before going in. Now that I was here, this felt less like an urgent destination and more like a waiting trap. I could sense thew time limit for the lie that it was, a sharp reminder that other people weren't the only ones who could lie to me, and that my ability didn't work nearly as well on self deception. I hadn't picked up on that until I figured it out for myself, and while it was nice to have confirmation, that wasn't as useful as it could be given the conditions.

We split up into groups, Drea, Zee and I heading to one temple with Sindella while John, Taylor, and Tommy headed for another. Suzie went with Jim, Artemis, and Wally and I was confident enough in the distribution of power that I didn't worry too much about ambushes or anything. What followed was a long and slow process of gathering information from any local sources.

We couldn't just stroll up and demand to talk to gods, not without making our presence far too obvious. While several of us were full or partial deities, announcing that would be as good as sending up a warning flare to the beings in the mysterious temple about our presence. New gods weren't so common that tongues wouldn't wag when they appeared, especially so many of them at once.

So we talked to priests, and supplicants, and any number of passersby, and I got to use a part of my skillset I hadn't really ever put to work before. Ninjas weren't just assassins, they were spies and sneaks, I had some small bit of information gathering skill from that first ninja package, and I'd never really needed to use it. This particular environment was a bit more free range than most, and I was able to flit about, speaking to the locals and wheedling away little bits of news here and there.

Putting them all together into a cohesive whole was much easier with my enhanced mind, especially with John, Tommy, and Taylor to share the information with. Flamboyant and over-the-top as the three of them could be, they WERE detectives and they had instincts for this kind of thing. After several rounds of info gathering and meeting back up, we managed to put together an incredibly sparse amount of information about what exactly was in temple, and how long it had been here.

Or, as the case may be, hadn't been here. The thing hadn't actually been seen in anyone's lifetime. The aura around the temple made it clear it was still occupied, and sometimes brash idiots tried to move in on the territory and were never heard from again, but no one had ever seen the being the temple belonged to personally. Some people thought it was like the lamentation, a hideous monstrosity that couldn't show its face for fear of terrorizing others. Some though it was so beautiful it would destroy the minds of watchers.

Most thought it was asleep or something, as torpor wasn't an unknown among older gods, whose timescale was so long a few centuries seemed like a quick nap. There was no name for the being, no sign or designation other than a crude symbol scratched on the stone near the entrance, one so vague and worn down it was barely recognizable anyway, so it hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.

We did learn a few things that were useful from all this though. Firstly that Neron hadn't been here long. He was subtle about coming and going, but not, like, magic subtle, just not announcing his presence with big fiery wings. The locals had seen a man entering and exiting lately. Secondly, Kit and her boyfriend WERE here. They had gone in three days ago, and hadn't come out since. I cursed internally that we'd gotten so close to beating them here, but there was no point in second guessing.

It would have been easy to accidentally get hurt or worse rushing things. Plus if we had shown up on the street before I called mom, Gojo might not have shown up to stop Darkseid, which would have been...bad. We'd made it, and we'd at least tried to learn more. Granted, we hadn't identified any secret passages that led to the heart of the temple or rumors of the dark god's horrifying weakness, but since this wasn't a video game that was to be expected, we'd confirmed they were here at least, so going in there wasn't a waste of time.

Armoring up and summoning Tartarus, I turned to the others. "Alright, seems like its about time to bite the bullet." I paused, armoring down and reaching into my jacket to check on my gun, which was thankfully loaded. I refilled it before bed, and the bullets had been in the clip long enough to have attuned to the thing at least partially. It wouldn't be as effective as against Darkseid, but I'd take what I could get. "Sorry, as I was saying, we're ready to head in. Zee, Sindella, Jim, we could use the toughest shield you can manage, I want to go in there as prepared as possible."

They nodded and started working on spell construction, putting together a layered barrier that I suspected they'd been working on during their spare time, because it came together pretty damn quickly for something off the cuff. When that was done, we ascended the steps of the squat, dark stone building. It was time to find out what the hell this was all about, who was pulling the strings and why. Maybe they had some grudge, maybe they just wanted my power, who knew. As we climbed the steps we passed the worn symbol carved into the stone at the front, and I looked at it curiously. It was hardly my first time seeing something like that, but it didn't ring a bell in this context. After all, how many ancient dark gods used a bat as their symbol of power?

June 14th 2016 The Street of Gods 4:00 PM EDT

I expected stepping through the door of the temple to be some big change, like the library had been, some kind of shift in the world, but really, I just stepped into a dank stone building. Granted, the place was lit with creepy dull green torches, but aside from that and the weird jumping shadows it was exactly what it looked like from the outside...except the huge pit of boiling liquid darkness in the middle of the room. That was definitely unexpected, as were the two forms dangling over it by long iron chains.

Kit looked different than the last time I'd seen her. The red skin and horns were there, but she'd grown into them. The stone in her forehead had vanished, presumably completely integrated into her after so many years. She looked older too, taller and with more muscle. The guy hanging next to her must have been her boyfriend, his skin was a darker red, closer to crimson, and his hair was white. They were both unconscious, but breathing as they hung there. Breathing, but not in great shape. I could see cuts and bruises all over both of them, and their clothes were shredded. They'd been beaten pretty severely.

I felt frost begin to gather around me and my eyes blazed up green as my ghostly nature began to seethe. I'd gotten this effect before, but it wasn't nearly this extreme, apparently becoming a god had given more than just my combat strength a bump. I'd been testing that in the Outer Body state when I trained my domain and I was quite a bit more powerful, but I hadn't realized the rest of my powers got the tune up too. That was something I'd have to look into training up...after I unleashed it on the smug fucker sitting on the dark stone throne in the back of the room.

Neron looked...like an arrogant asshole. He was big, like, seven feet tall at least, though it was hard to tell with him sitting. Sculpted symmetrical features that looked too polished to be real, and long platinum blonde hair. His eyes were white, like all the way through, but despite the lack of pupil or iris they still seemed to project an impression of malice and mockery, especially paired with the grin pulling back pale lips from razor sharp sharklike teeth. His chest and shoulders were broad to the point of near freakishness, as were his arms, but managed to remain just a hair shy of grotesque, somehow pulling together into an imposing package that screamed angelic handsomeness.

I hated him. Literally on sight. I could feel my eyes burning with their otherworldy green glow in a way I'd never been able to actually detect before, and the blood in my veins was like a riot of freezing sleet, roiling and crashing around inside me to the beat of my heart, like war drums driving a winter storm. I reached down, through my armor, drew my gun, and emptied the entire thing right into that smug fuckers head. The grouping was tight, my ninja accuracy and my enhanced senses working together to make the shots dead center in his skull.

His head jerked back with the impact as the shots rang out, and I kept pulling the trigger until it clicked empty. He sat there, head lolled back and still as a corpse, and I rolled my eyes. "Belle already did the whole 'surprise I'm alive thing' don't be derivative. I know you aren't dead, and I'm not even close to done with your ass. So sit the fuck up and tell me why I'm here, before I come over there and find a way to kill you for real." My voice was cold and harsh, without an ounce of forgiveness in it, and I felt my friends shift slightly around me. They'd never heard me like that.

I'd never heard me like that either. I was pissed. Not just a little angry either, like actual cold rage like I'd never felt before. I felt like the angel of death, like an instrument of vengeance that needed to destroy everything around me. If I was anyone else I might not have understood it, or I might have been able to tell myself it was natural. But I wasn't. I felt the lie in that thought. My becoming a god had supercharged a great many things about me. This was what happened when the sin of wrath met ghostly obsession, and it wasn't getting any dimmer.

I felt strong though, stronger than I'd ever been. It was easy to see now why I'd been so focused on finding Kit. Because the stronger I got, the stronger my ghost half became. Ghosts were creatures of drive and stubborn implacability. Will that transcended even death, and I'd been aimed wholeheartedly at finding Kit. My will could be appeased, could be subverted or distracted, but it couldn't be denied. Now that I was here though, I had a new will, a new purpose. I wanted to fucking HURT Neron. I wanted it bad.

Not just because he'd injured my cousin, shed blood of my blood, though that was there. But because he'd made this my fault. He wanted me, he hurt Kit to get to me, and if I'd come earlier she would be fine. He'd made me complicit in this. My ghost half wanted blood, and my devil half howled in answer. I was a god now, but I was still a ghost-devil, still equal parts each. I was just a god too, as little sense as that made, and that only made the drive for retribution I felt even stronger, even more terrible.

Neron gave an annoyed huff and leaned forward, white eyes locking with my green ones. "Boo." He grinned at me, all sharp teeth and malice. "No? Not even a chuckle? Pity. Oh well, to business then. You're a bit late, so I might have gotten bored and played with your cousin a bit. Nothing too strenuous mind you, she's still alive...for now. Still, she was fairly boring. She barely even screamed. Just whimpered for a most of it. When I was working on her at least. She screamed plenty when it was the boy's turn."

I was pretty much shaking with rage at this point, but I forced myself to calm down. This was an obvious show, and I needed to know what for. I could crack open Neron's chest and claw out his still beating heart after I figured out the reason for all this. I forced myself to calm, suppressing the whirling storm of ice and hate in my veins enough for my voice to come out merely coldly furious. "Yes, you're evil, you kick puppies and drink orange juice after brushing your teeth, we fucking get it. Maybe you can stop jerking me around and tell me what the fuck you want. I'm not going to attack you for whatever reason you're trying to bait me into, so just fucking spit it out."

Neron grinned wider. "Oh I like you. See, I told him it wouldn't be that easy. He was sure you would go ballistic when you saw her. I told him that months away in another plane would be enough to change you, but he's never been one for adaptability. He's a scary old bastard, don't get me wrong, but he's slow to change and expects the same of others. I'm more...mercurial. Very well then, since we can't do this his way, we'll do it mine. I've been tasked with retrieving you, my employer wants you delivered to him directly, preferably in a vulnerable state."

I blinked. That had been...easy. "Ok. That seemed like it was a bit more up front than your reputation would suggest. I know lies, and you didn't tell one just now. That was all true, or you believe it was." Either that or he was such a good liar I couldn't read him, but I didn't think so. I recognized lies for what they were. I knew them in my bones. He'd been telling the truth and I had no clue why.

"Lies?" He asked jovially. "Why would I need to lie? I set the trap here with failure as a potential outcome. I don't need to lie to you. You don't have any recourse here. You don't see it yet, but you WILL do as I require. Even if you don't want to, the fact remains that you'll be going through that portal, and when you do, you're going to be in a vulnerable state. Whether that's from uncertainty at your fate or from worry about your little friends...well that's more open to interpretation, now isn't it?"

I glanced back, confirming the others were behind the shield, ready to react if he tried to attack us. I wasn't liking this scenario, not a bit. Something was happening here that I didn't understand. Since he was being so up front though, I figured I might as well ask. "What exactly is that portal? Where does it go? And who is HE. You keep mentioning your employer, but I don't know who the hell he's supposed to be. Maybe you could fill me in on whats happening, since you're such a chatty cathy."

Massive shoulders shrugged carelessly. "I suppose I can do that." He said, his voice carefree. "The portal leads to a dark mirror, a broken, twisted version of this world. It isn't anything special on its own, just one of many, but it exists within a plane that belongs to the one I serve." I caught a twinge at that, a flash of prideful fury at that term. Serve. Neron wasn't lying, he did serve, but he didn't do it well, and he didn't do it happily. Whatever he was working for scared him deeply, but for all his faults Neron wasn't a coward. He wanted out.

I tried to think of how I could use that, but I had to keep him talking to do it. "Why me? Like sure, my powers are interesting, my armor is cool and I'm part ghost, but I'm nothing special in the grand scheme of things, nothing better than any of the powerful people here. Your boss could find a thousand people like me if he wanted to, why go to all this trouble when he's never even met me?" That last bit was bait. However he reacted would tell me something, and if he lied I would hear the truth beneath it.

That seemed to set him off into gales of laughter. "Stupid boy. A thousand like you? There isn't anyone like you. We know you're more than just some armor or a ghostly form. He's been waiting for you for a long, long time. Delirium wanted to hide you, to keep you from him, but too bad for her you came here on your own, delivering yourself into his jaws. He lurks beyond the portal, boy, patient and hungry. But he isn't heartless. He's willing to make a deal with you, to spare those you love. In exchange for your cooperation. A...gesture of goodwill, for the working relationship you're soon to have."

None of that sounded good to me, or like anything I would trust. He wasn't lying, but he didn't have to be. Spare was a pretty broad term, plus the boss wasn't talking, Neron was. Just because Neron believed it didn't make it so. "I don't make deals with faceless entities I've never met or heard of. I'll need a name for your boss if you want me to go any further in this negotiation." As I said that, I created an illusion, using my domain to make a copy of me who was invisible and intangible as my ghost form often was, slowly easing it around to the side of the portal.

Neron didn't notice, which wasn't surprising, an illusory invisible intangible image was basically nothing. It had no presence, gave no signs to detect. Neron was a bit busy gloating anyway. I saw his eyes burn with a pale, sickly light as he basked in inflicting the fear he felt on someone else. "Who? Oh that's simple boy. He is the eater of worlds, the destroyer and the unmaker, the Dragon who waits in the darkness. You stand in the temple of the overlord of the dark multiverse. You have been chosen by the Bat God. Barbatos."

June 14th 2016 The Street of Gods 5:00 PM EDT

I think Neron expected that revelation to be a lot more devastating than it was. I mean, he said it like it was some huge reveal, but I had absolutely no clue who that was. Granted, the weird shift in the ambient temperature and the creepy feeling of being watched that cropped up after certainly gave it more punch than it might otherwise have, but still. I was honestly a little embarrassed for him. I cleared my throat, just wanting to end this edgy theatrical show. "Ah. Yes...him. How could I have been so blind. Now it all makes sense."

Admittedly, there might have been a bit more sarcasm in my voice than might have crept in if I didn't dislike the guy so much, and I saw his face flicker with a nearly imperceptible twitch of annoyance. That was a personal victory in my opinion. Seriously. Fuck that guy. I smoothed into his previous smarmy grin almost instantly though, and he let out a (noticeably forced) chuckle. "I see you lack even a basic understanding of the multiverse as a whole." He said scornfully. "How...pathetic."

I didn't have to fake the incredulous look at I stared at him like he was an idiot. "I'm a seventeen year old who went to a public school in Gotham for most of my life, dude. Why the fuck would I know anything about the multiverse? Do you not know what information is accessible to most people? Like, I thought you were supposed to be some genius schemer. Or are you just out of touch? Like, are you the demon equivalent of those old people who don't know how computers work? Have to call your grand-demons to ask them how normal people think when you're scheming?"

That got another twitch, which I enjoyed immensely. I had to keep his focus while the illusion got in position. I had a plan to spring Kit and her boyfriend, but it was mostly just 'SURPRISE!' which admittedly usually worked pretty well for me. Still, it was on feasible if I could keep this asshat distracted enough not to notice when I made the actual swap, because while it would be undetectable over here, a person would be appearing in the spot the illusion was occupying, and he would notice that if he looked.

It was also easier to focus on taunting him than on the seething, riotous cloud of rage churning through my veins. I'd managed to get that shit under control temporarily, but it was far from gone. I was pretty sure it would make my attacks even more powerful than they would normally be, but since at the moment he had hostages, that wasn't really useful. Neron was clearly just as capable of forcing himself to calm down as I was, because he retained his mocking grin. "I suppose there are always those who make excuses for ignorance."

That would have been a lot more convincing if I couldn't hear that second voice underlying his comment screaming obscenities and listing the horrible things he wanted to do to me. Needing to stall longer, I decided to adopt the same tactic I used on DeSaad, with a twist. "So, Barbatos you said?" I asked with a sly malice. "Does he make you wear a collar? I bet you always get the finest kibble, since you're clearly such an obedient little bitch."

The muscles tightened in his arms, but suddenly, he relaxed, his formerly tense grin melting into a malicious smile. "Oh, you're stalling aren't you? I admit, you have a gift for being irritating, I almost didn't notice it. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish here boy? Think you're going to get rescued? Maybe you're preparing some kind of magic you think will save you? No, that doesn't seem to be the case." He looked around in amusement. "Where oh where is your backup plan? I don't see anything around. Or are you just trying to buy yourself an extra few minutes."

At first, I was upset he'd caught on. And then I realized that since he couldn't perceive the illusion, it didn't actually matter. This asshole was paying attention to me and nothing else, this was literally exactly what I wanted. So, I just kept talking. "Oh sure, I'm thinking about what I did to your mom last night. Trying get hard so I can smash you with my huge dick. I figure since it worked so well on her you're probably genetically predisposed to be helpless against it." I paused, feigning confusion. "Actually I guess I had that grandpa comment backwards, you know, since she spent all night calling me daddy."

That speech would normally have been pointless, I wasn't sure Neron even had a mom, but it was such a stereotypically teen insult that it looped right back around to being functional in this situation. While he was still trying to decide how to react, I struck. Triggering my domain, I moved myself into reality in place of my suddenly visible illusion, allowing it to seamlessly take my place. He was so focused on me he didn't even spot the dark metal clad form as I spread my wings and blurred across the room toward Kit and her boyfriend, Tartarus lashing out to tear through the chains holding them as I scooped them up.

I created an illusion of them on the shoulders of the doppelganger where I had first been standing and swapped us with it, grimacing slightly at the strain of using that power on other people. Luckily (for me at least) there were both beaten to within an inch of their lives and unconscious so there wasn't exactly any resistance from them to becoming illusions and then resuming their reality even as the darkness of the churning portal shot up like some kind of liquid tentacle beast to swallow the completely incorporeal and not at all real illusions we'd left behind in our wake.

Neron, still sort of confused by the verbal assault, snapped out of it and tried to react, utterly failing to do so in anything resembling a decent amount of time. When his white eyes settled on me, sitting there with my cousin and Eddie each over one shoulder, he actually growled in annoyance. "That...was inconvenient." He snapped his fingers and the stone in the chamber began to move. The dark material flowed and changed, melting together until the door we came in through was completely gone.

Well, that was one way to prevent escape. I could use my shadows to leave, but it would take time to set up a portal to take us all, and I doubted I'd have it. A corridor wouldn't work for the obvious reason that it would drive my friends insane, and besides...that portal looked far too much like the darkness of the corridors for my comfort. I wasn't sure using one so close to it was a good idea. I suspected some interference might occur, and I somehow doubted I wanted to be traversing the darkness between worlds in an unstable corridor.

Still, the hostages were gone, which meant this was just a straight fight now. I was confident I could do ok in a straight fight. I passed Kit and Eddie to the others. John and Taylor stepping up to take them, and turned to my friends, ignoring Neron. "I think we might have to actually fight this out. Are you guys sure you're ready? I'm sure I can stall this asshole for a while if not."

I didn't bother keeping my voice down. Fuck this guy, if he didn't like my shit talking then he could let us out so he didn't have to hear it. Zee smiled at me, always the first to tell me she had my bacl. "Of course we are baby. We can do this. All of us." She glanced at Kit, and her normally smiling face became cold and remote. "He crossed a line. No one hurts one of us." It went without saying that Kit WAS one of us, unless she decided not to be. Whatever happened in the past was meaningless. Kit was family, and had fought by our side, not to mention she was hurt.

Neron's mocking laugh cut us off. "I'm sorry, did you think that little trick would be effective? That this had turned into some kind of face off? How absurd. Barbatos wants you boy, and he will have you. I didn't seal the exits just to prevent your escape. I did it to hold you in place." I turned to face him and he gestured grandly to the pool of writhing darkness. "It's fine if you would rather not cooperate however. If you don't wish to go into the portal. I'll just make the portal come to you. To ALL of you."

With a sweep of his hand, the liquid darkness leapt from the pool, surging from a small pond to a massive tidal wave as it rolled across the floor of the chamber. It didn't move fast, rolling implacably, and far slower than normal water ever would. My eyes went wide in panic. That darkness...it could damage my friends, harm their souls, but it wasn't like I could stop it either, the thing that made it controlled the darkness far more thoroughly than I did. I couldn't take that control away.

My mind flickered back to earlier. I couldn't take the control, but I could disrupt it. "All of you, grab a hold of each other!" I yelled, snagging Zee's hand as I did. Everyone snatched up any limbs they could, and I barely had time to confirm that we were all together before the surging darkness hit. Digging deep down I reached through Tartarus, into the dark that it connected me to, finding the part of me that could open those dark corridors. I'd never done much with that darkness besides opening the corridor and making Morana, but it was there, and it had grown along with the rest of me.

Making a corridor was effortless, like flipping a light switch, and I could do it all day, but this...substance trying to drag us down was like a mountain pressing down on me, impeding my motion, making the act of flipping a finger feel impossible. With a bellow that tore from my chest like it would rip its way free I heaved and threw that connection into the full weight of the darkness around us. Not to hold it back, or to stop the advance, but just to...tilt it. Push it off center, allowing me to flip that switch as it rushed past.

The portal jerked in the void in a way I really couldn't have described with a thousand years and a million notebooks to write in, but I felt it change slightly as we were ripped away. We were being carried somewhere far different than either I or Barbatos had intended, somewhere not exactly IN that dark multiverse he'd been trying to pull me into. It didn't really matter to me where we were going, I had other things to worry about. I'd spread my domain across the others and was straining with all I could to protect them from the creeping dark, to shield them from the madness.

Finally, it was over, and I felt a crash as we slammed into hard ground. I lay there for a minute, letting my domain dissipate once I felt that we were at least not currently under attack, and groaned as I climbed to my feet. The stone around me was unlike anything I had seen before. I glanced up to see a massive castle in the distance, towering over both us and this twisted wasteland. I felt Tartarus hum inside my soul, and through the same connection it used to tell me its name, it whispered another. I spoke aloud without meaning to, and my voice echoed off the dense rocks surrounding us. "Ok, what the fuck is a 'Hollow Bastion'?"

June 14th 2016 Hollow Bastion 6:00 PM EDT

The first thing I noticed about this place was the obvious. Past the cracked purple stone was what looked like a set of ancient ruins. The castle I could see a ways off was connected to them, but cut off from the ruins themselves...like, a wall of waterfalls. I didn't know where the water was going, but it was pouring into a basin that never seemed to fill. Deciding it was worth risking, I took a deep breath, and slowly peeked open my aura sight. As I did, I braced for what I might see, for what kind of higher dimensional madness might be waiting behind my third eye.

As the world changed though, it became clear that I was applying expectations that didn't fit my situation. My aura sight felt much more natural now that I was a god, more like a part of me. I felt like I could have controlled it, throttled it back like I'd done with my power before, but I didn't need to. My mind was more than it had been, I was more. I could handle seeing something like Taylor's gift again without the accompanying mind break.

What I saw here wasn't mind breaking, and wouldn't have been even before my change. It was sad. This world was dead. Not in the way of a corpse, decomposing and rejoining the circle of existence though. This world was unnaturally dead, stagnant, unliving in a way that nothing that I'd seen could even approach. Something had ruined this place, made it wrong, and I knew if I swam up those endless waterfalls there would be nothing on the other side but the empty ocean where the castle lay, at least until I fell off the edge of this sickened chunk of broken rock.

I stepped forward slowly, onto the ruins platform connected to the stone, and I noted numbly that there were several other chunks of purple stone forming small floating islands alongside the platform. I could see that the ruins didn't actually reach all the way to the castle, but the islands could be used to bridge the gap. Shaking off the daze of looking at a dead world, and turned back to check on the others. My heart was pounding in fear as I imagined everything that could have gone wrong. I'd been distracted for a minute, but I needed to know they were alright before I did anything else.

I trained my aura sight on the others. Aside from Taylor mid gift, none of them would have been a problem to look at before my change. Even Tommy wasn't really jarring to see so much as hard to pin down visually. His aura was kind of uncertain and chaotic, which fit him, but it wasn't as...BIG as Taylor's when he was actively using his gift. Then again, Tommy wasn't using HIS gift either, so it was hard to say how accurate that assessment was.

Still, the others weren't damaged or scarred in any way I could detect, which was a win after all of us fell through...that. I could still feel Morana, Zee, and Drea too, all of the bonds connecting me to my family solid and steady as a rock, so I knew their current unconscious state didn't have any implications I couldn't see with my third eye. I walked over to the others, my metal feet clanking along the stone, and knelt down to shake Drea awake. She was the closest to me, and the most likely to know what the hell was going on here. I was pretty confused, so hopefully she could fill me in on some of the context with her New Genesis knowledge, otherwise I didn't have a clue what to do.

I couldn't take the corridors home, not with the others. Protecting them had been all I could manage when I was just swept along for the ride, doing it while actively moving us through the dark would be all but impossible, not to mention I had no clue where the fuck we were or how far the trip would be. I somehow doubted it would be the usual quick pop through liquid shadow. We weren't IN the darkness though, that much I could tell. This place was connected to the dark, but it wasn't quite there. Some kind of island of reality in the endless abyss Barbatos had been aiming to drag us into.

Drea groaned as she was shaken awake, wincing as her head lifted from the hard ground. "Gods, what hit me?"" She seemed groggy for a second before shooting upright, eyes wide with terror. "Morgan!" She spotted me and let out a ragged sigh of relief before looking around again. "Zatanna, is she?"" Her voice was stricken with terror, and I winced because she must have had her bell rung pretty good to have forgotten about the bond.

I reached out gently to cup her chin, and turned her head slowly to stare in the direction of our girlfriend. "Peace, love. She's fine. Only resting. How is your head?" I pulled her up towards me. "Here, sit up a bit, tell me if anything hurts. Zee isn't damaged or anything, we can check on her in a second. Everyone is alright so just focus on yourself." I understood the panic, I'd felt it myself when I first looked around, but Drea hadn't had the benefit of my armor to protect her. Besides, her condition could give us some idea how the others would feel when they woke up.

She took a few deep, calming breaths, closing her eyes as she centered herself, when she opened them they were tranquil and serene. My Beautiful Dreamer. She was our rock whenever it matter, always the most reasonable and even tempered of us. I smiled at her softly and leaned down to give her a quick kiss, making sure to let all of my relief and joy that she was ok bleed through into the gesture. She put her arms around me and squeezed, and we just sat there like that for a minute.

Once we got past that, we stood up, and looked off into the distance toward the castle. "Ok, so, Tartarus says this place is called Hollow Bastion. Before you ask, no, I can't respond or ask questions, it didn't really speak so much as Name the place. Whatever the case, I don't think we're EXACTLY in the darkness that...the B-guy controls. At least not directly. I suspect this place is in it. But it's like an island in that dark ocean. Which is...good I guess. So, have you heard anything about ANY of this?"

I made a point of NOT saying Barbatos's name. It seemed like a poor decision based on what had happened when Neron said it before. Drea, sadly, just shook her head. "No. This is...this is beyond me. The Forever People were explorers, but we might as well have been a bunch of local kids touring the neighborhood compared to this. We spent all of our time in the Sphere, where this is definitely NOT. Still, we should get the others and head up to that castle. I don't know what's there, but I'm not comfortable exposed like this."

Looking around uneasily, I nodded. She wasn't wrong. I knew it was unlikely there were natural predators here, but I wasn't so sure about unnatural ones. At least the castle had walls, even if I was pretty sure we'd have to kill SOMETHING in there. It was fine though. once we got settled I still had a card to play. My bond with Rana was still solid, and she could move in darkness too. She should be able to follow it to me and figure out where we were and how the hell to get back. Past that...I'd need to figure out a way to insulate my people for the trip back, hopefully I could find an email for that.

So Drea and I split up, myself heading to wake up Zee while Drea roused Sindella, before moving on to the others. Jim was already waking when she got to him, but I left her to handle all that while I knelt next to Zee, shaking my sorceress awake. "G'way Morgan." She mumbled cutely. "S'lpn." I felt my heart warm at her peaceful sleeping face, but sadly, all good dreams must end.

I shook her again, and she groaned. I leaned down. "Time to wake up, love. It isn't safe to sleep here." Her eyes snapped open at that, and she shot up, every bit as panicked as Drea as her eyes focused first on me, then on our goddess, then on her mother, and finally Artemis. My heart filled with flames yet again at the order she checked on us. Still, despite her obvious relief, she was clearly not happy not to recognize this place.

Pulling her to her feet, I let her turn and look around. She was much more shaken than she would normally have been at seeing some kind of magic castle. The events on the street of gods had shaken her if she was this upset rather than being giddy about the possibility of new magic.

Still, even with the worry, she wouldn't be my Zee without at least a touch of fascination. "Ok, what the hell is that?" She said, a bit of reverence in her voice. "Because...I can FEEL the magic coming off it from here. It might as well have been built out of mana stone." She paused. "Actually what is any of this? Where even are we? Is this still on earth? Are we back in the Sphere of the Gods again? Somewhere in the Nightside?" She didn't sound too worried about any of those options, which led me to believe she was starting to get far too used to our crazy lives.

I just shrugged. "I have no idea what that is. As for where...well I can tell you where we aren't. None of the places you mentioned. We also aren't in the dark world or wherever the B-guy who shall not be named wanted us. Not exactly." I explained what I'd noticed through my aura sight when I'd scanned the place while they were still out.

"You know." She said with a wide grin. "You always take me to the nicest places. Other girls our age have boyfriends that grope them at the movies or take them to boring dinners at french restaurants. I get magic castles outside the proper universe. You spoil me." The grin was a bit strained, but it was easy to feel through the bond that she was choosing to focus on the excitement rather than the fear of the unknown, and I was unspeakably proud of that fact.

Running my eyes down her body I gave her a wink. "I could grope you IN the magic castle if you'd prefer, and we can get the best of both worlds." I sent a pulse of reassurance down the bond, letting her know without words that I understood what she was going through and that I was happy to play along and treat this like one big adventure, since we were going to have to look around before we decided on our next move anyway.

There was a loud throat clearing noise, and I turned to see a distinctly uncomfortable looking Taylor, and a far too amused Sindella having collected themselves and looking right at us. Sindella waved, Taylor having been the source of the noise. If they were expecting embarrassment, they weren't getting it from me, I cheerfully waved back, and Sindella giggled as Taylor pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose.

Since everyone was awake, I quickly explained the situation as I knew it, figuring it would be faster to move on from the weird parental vibes from Zee's sort of uncle. Once I finished, I pointed up at the castle in the distance. "So, long story short of it, we're stuck in a dead world I've never heard of and getting us home is going to be impossible for me short term. My vote is heading up to the spooky castle to take shelter and possibly raid it for cool magic shit. All in favor?" It was a testament to the quality of people I surround myself with that no one hesitated for a second before raising their hands.

I'm having a blast with this arc already, KH is my favorite series of games, I'd like to note for everyone that this arc is not going to be exclusively KH though, this is the dark multiverse and we're going to be seeing lots of that. That's showing up in the advance chapters already for anyone who wants to see. As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent so feel free to check it out. Hope you all enjoy.