A Nobody

by Jebest4781

Living a new life in another reality, Naruto now must handle a lot of complications of him interacting with various heroes, villains and anti-heroes. How will things go with them interacting with a Nobody. NarutoXHarem Rated M for language, violence and lemons. NarutoXDC ComicsXKingdom Hearts Please leave reviews. On Hiatus.

59. Fire from Olympus

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Radio/TV

"Headset/Flashback"

-Scene Shift-

Chapter 59: Fire from Olympus

Lightning danced across the sky, seemingly getting harsher with each passing moment. Only short periods of time where one would hear the loud rumbles between each one before the next lightning bolt went off. The wind howled and rushed across the forested valley with the residents of the village built within the area tying down many loose belongings so they won't fly away to parts unknown. Not to mention getting drenched with the downpour that would approximately fill up the reservoir twice over once the storm finally settles.

This is what a young whiskered, blonde boy was dealing with as he currently ran towards his home; bags of food and supplies within his grasp.

'Why'd I have to wait so damn long to get groceries today?' Naruto thought as he stepped into a deep puddle of water. 'Should've done it earlier, but nooo~ ▄▅▂▃▄ wanted to keep playing and training and I agreed to it.'

The young Uzumaki often wondered how his best friend was more energetic than him. She had her times of depression, which kept her so quiet that made him think she was not even there at all. But when getting into it, ▄▅▂▃▄ can be a brighter ball of energy than he could ever be.

Eventually reaching his apartment, he panted and shook his head so most of the rain could leave his sunny-blonde locks underneath the dry coverage. It took a little bit of time for him to fish out his keys from his pocket, even after putting his groceries on the ground. After unlocking the door to his home, he soon closed the door and locked it before making his way towards the kitchen.

Dropping the groceries on the counter, he called out to the other occupant in the apartment. "▄▅▂▃▄! I'm home! Sorry I took so long! Storm outside was crap!"

There was no response given.

"▄▅▂▃▄?"

Once more, nothing was heard back.

"Must be napping." He guessed under his breath. Reaching towards the nearby lightswitch, he flipped it and saw no light coming out; even after doing it several times for confirmation. "Either power's out from the storm or the landlord became a bitch again and shut it off for no kami-damn reason."

He released a sigh, unpacking his groceries and started putting them away with the sounds of thunder heard in the background. As he did, Naruto hoped the refrigerator still had enough reserve power… or enough coldness… or whatever inside it that'll keep the new food items fine until the power comes back on.

Once done, the young Uzumaki made his way to the bedroom in order to check up on the ashen-skinned girl.

Opening the door, Naruto saw a large lump coming from the bedroom sheets. With the flashes of lightning coming from the nearby window, he saw it was shaking. Even hearing soft whimpers coming from the spot.

"▄▅▂▃▄?"

His best friend jumped in bed at his voice startled her.

Worried, Naruto came up to her and saw her quivering form underneath the sheets. Her orange eyes were shut tight with her hugging the sheets for a form of comfort.

Getting on the bed, he hugged her from the side. "▄▅▂▃▄, what's wrong?"

KRAKOOM

The ashen child whimpered at the sounds coming from outside with the rain pattering at the window.

The young Uzumaki soon realized his best friend was scared of lightning; maybe storms in general.

"Hey, I'm here ▄▅▂▃▄. That pesky lightning's not gonna hurt ya. We're inside so none of 'em pesky bolts are gonna strike us."

For the first time in what felt like forever, the ashen-skinned girl spoke. "I… I just don't like it."

Naruto quirked his head. "Ya don't like it, ▄▅▂▃▄?"

▄▅▂▃▄ made a subtle nod as she leaned a bit more in his comforting embrace.

"Would ya mind telling me why?" He asked. "Ayame says talking about one's fears sometimes lessen the pain and possibly moving past it."

He didn't hear anything from her.

"You don't need to say anything if you-"

"I… I almost died on the night I-I was born." ▄▅▂▃▄ voiced. "M-Mommy had to spirit m-me away from my birth place for my own safety."

"...Any reason why?"

"Mommy couldn't really give the reason, only saying I'll learn when I got older."

Naruto scrunched up his face when hearing this. 'That's really annoying. I keep hearing that from old man Hokage on many things and it only makes me question more on the whys.' Shaking his head from the looming thoughts, the young Uzumaki voiced a different one. "Was there anything else? Anything as to why you're scared of what's going on outside right now?"

"All I remember from that night was mommy and I being on a boat and caught in a really bad storm." Revealed the puffy, orange-eyed girl. "We almost drowned and last thing I remember of that night were lightning bolts almost striking us down. Since then… I can't…"

Her body shook from the horrible experience, causing Naruto to hold her tighter. As he did, the young Uzumaki briefly wondered how ▄▅▂▃▄ remembered such a thing from the very night she was born. Then again, such a troubling moment would make one to never forget it.

Rubbing her covered arm, Naruto quietly spoke in hopes of comforting her. "It's okay, ▄▅▂▃▄, it's okay."

With the thunder rumbling and cracking outside, it made things hard for the whiskered blonde to properly comfort her. After several passing moments, an idea was formed.

"Would ya like it if I read ya your favorite picture book again?"

This perked her up as she soon shook her head 'yes'.

He smiled in response, hopping off the bed. "I'll be right back, ▄▅▂▃▄."

The whiskered Uzumaki made his way outside of the bedroom for the new task at hand when a flash of lightning blanketed the room with thunder following soon after.

KRAKOOM

Naruto bolted up from the couch at the loud sound coming from outside of his home. He breathed in a fresh intake of air into his lungs while massaging his ears a little from the harsh sound before the pattering of rain hit against the patio window took over.

'Damn… that had to be close to the towers.' He thought before feeling quite the weight onto his body. Looking down, he saw the collective of both his three daughters and ward sleeping on the same piece of furniture as him. 'Must've gotten in here due to the storm outside.'

He wasn't surprised on the action as he previously experienced this several times; more so with Rachel due to her past nightmares.

Naruto looked at the four with a soft smile as he brushed some of their locks away from their sleeping faces. 'Hope Morpheus is giving them pleasant dreams to get them throughout the rest of their nap.' Looking over to the nearby clock, he clicked his tongue. 'More like actual sleep at this point this early in the evening.'

Last thing the whiskered Uzumaki remembered before sleep took over was him currently writing the next installment of his Final Fantasy series. Lifting up his Lexicon, he saw the current passage where he was last left off and saw he was basically done.

Firion's team finished fighting through waves of hellspawn at the Jade Pass and was soon whisked away to the Pandamonium with Xcalibur recently added into their inventory. There the group fought against the mighty dragon Tiamat, the infernal Beelzebub and the colossal Astaroth. After fighting these three adversaries, Firion and his friends eventually confronted Mateus -the satanic emperor of Palamecia- and clashed in order to prevent the world from literally being dragged into Hell.

'Gonna need to just finish writing up the last scene or two before this is all said and done.' He thought before looking at the four sleeping children. 'But first, need to get these little munchkins into their proper beds.'

He soon formed several clones before lifting Thorn off his lap and carried her away. Didn't take long to reach their respective bedrooms and tucking them into their beds. As he did, his mind wandered back to the dream he recently had.

'Another one of those lost memories.' He noted as he left the sporelings' bedroom and disbursed the one in Rachel's. 'Not gonna lie, all this is just leaving more and more questions upon each one.' Naruto soon groaned in annoyance. 'And the most prominent one is what that girl's name is.'

KRAKOOM

Looking towards the patio window, Naruto subconsciously brought a hand up to his chest. He rubbed the spot where Sasuke plunged his Chidori attack through him all those years ago back at the Valley at the End; briefly feeling the phantom pain as a result.

Ever since that fight, Naruto would occasionally feel the sharp pain on the entry and exit spots on his body. Even if he didn't get a physical scar because of it -thanking Kurama for that- Naruto bore a psychological mark as he often wondered about life. It was the second time he came close to Death's doorstep and was luckily saved after the failed retrieval mission. As a result, the Uzumaki had the often reminder on his mortality whenever a storm roared on.

'If I hadn't met Didi, I still would've been really scared of dying.' Was the passing thought before scratching his cheek. 'Odd thing to think about, but at least she gave me quite the insight to accept the inevitable. Though I'll still be scared of leaving my friends and loved ones behind when that happens.'

Walking to his bedroom, he checked to see if either Pam or Harley was sleeping in the bed. Instead of seeing a large, slender lump underneath the sheets, it was nice and orderly.

Well, except seeing Isis curled up at the foot of the bed sleeping peacefully.

'Pam must be in the office or at the greenhouse for more experiments.' Guessed the writer before pulling out his cellphone. 'No longer surprised at this point. And Harley's either babysitting her neighbors or doing something pertaining to Arkham.'

When checking to see if there were any messages, he had found a few for him. Naruto listened to them and learned on what they were about.

The first one pertained Selina as she was flying back from National City. Reason why the Red champion was there in the first place was because of her visiting her sister -Maggie- and her family for the first time in years. Naruto had convinced her to finally see them as they weren't in any danger at all, despite her small fear with the whole protective custody ordeal since they were children.

Selina had a great time being with Maggie and having a nice experience catching up. And as far as he knew, nothing else really happened over there…

'Highly doubt that.' Shaking his head in thought, before listening to his next message. 'Knowing her, she might've done something illegal or was doing a job over there without me knowing what it is.'

The ones following were just telemarketing phone calls in hopes of selling him something, which he never gets into in the first place. And the last one was just his secretary, Jilian, informing him of several meetings taking place in the next upcoming days. He needed to prepare for them and liked being reminded ahead of time instead of last minute on most cases.

'Some quarterly board meetings, continued discussion with Cat's company to finalize the joint business opportunity… the list goes on and on.' Naruto rubbed his eyes as he released a sigh. 'Might have to take a break with some clones taking over or something.'

Wanting to put his mind elsewhere, the Uzumaki went back to his couch to pick up his Lexicon in order to continue writing more into it's pages.

As time passed on by to finish the final scene, he occasionally halted his work. One could say it was just Naruto thinking things through in order to know what to write and how to properly work out his next books finale. This wasn't the case -however- as he was perfectly fine in getting it all down, but something else was on his mind.

Or rather someone.

As of late, Barbara has been acting more and more… different. Naruto doesn't know if it was really a bad thing or anything, but he was just worried about the wellbeing of his protege. He started noticing this a bit more after checking up on her the morning after the GCPD was attacked by Killer Moth and Firefly.

Nothing negative of the sort, just Barbara being persistent in trying to tell him something important. And whenever this… topic… would ever try coming up, it's always interrupted by either someone or life butting in the way.

'Sometimes wish I still had my empathy reading ability to help know how she feels.' He thought. 'Maybe I still do, but lost touch to it… Would've made this situation a lot easier to deal with.' Looking up towards the ceiling, he continued. 'Then again, I only had it for like… a day or two once beating Kurama under Killer Bee's training. Maybe I can look into getting that ability at some point.'

Looking back into his Lexicon, he scratched his silver locks before letting out a grunt, feeling a bit stuffy now within his home. 'I need to get some air.' Standing up, he formed a clone before handing his conjured book to it in order to finish up his next novel.

Naruto's Vanitas attire soon formed around him as he phased himself out of the loft to see it had stopped raining with the storm settling down. Forming his wind lance, the costumed Uzumaki took off into the sky in order to patrol the city.

-On the Streets-

The streets were filled with occasional puddles from the recent downpour of various sizes. It held more water earlier, but most were already drained into the sewers below by now. What remained occasionally splashed by either passing vehicles or pedestrians.

Walking back and forth along a street corner, Commissioner Gordon let out a sigh of frustration.

Rolling up his sleeve, James looked at his watch for the upteenth time this evening. "Where the hell is Stavros? What's taking him so long to show?"

If Gordon ever bothered to move along several alleyways over, he would've found the informant he was supposed to meet up; drenched from head to toe from the recent rain.

Shifting along nervously, a man named Yanni Stavros was ducking with every occasional moment. Always moving and never staying in one spot for long. He even had to forgo his umbrella earlier, thinking it would give him away.

Not from the man he was supposed to meet up tonight -Commissioner Gordon- but from men chasing and tracking him down.

Hearing footsteps coming closer to him, Yanni ducked behind a dumpster. As the splashed steps drew closer and louder, the man nervously spoke up. "C-Commissioner Gordon?"

Instead of hearing the police commissioner, he heard someone else.

"You can forget your meeting, Stavros. It's canceled."

With widened eyes, Yanni bolted from his hiding spot and ran from the opposite direction from the man calling him out.

From the source, a pair of thuggish looking men pulled out soon gave chase. One of them pulled up a small radio transmitter and spoke into it. "He's on his way, my Lord."

The darkened alleys seemed to extend in his time of escape. He grew lost and afraid on what's about to happen to him. It all twisted and turned in his senses with the only source of light came from the occasional flash of lightning.

Suddenly, Yanni collided against an alley wall and fell down onto a large pile of discarded tires. Soon realizing that his means of fleeing had come to an end.

"No!" Stavros bellowed out. "NO!" Hearing footsteps coming towards him, he turned around and pleaded towards the men pursuing him. "Please. Please! I-I wasn't going to say anything! Honest!"

"That's not for you to decide, Stavros." Spoke one of the thugs.

"It's for our Lord." Spoke the other.

KRAKOOM

In a flash of light, a new figure appeared in the darkened alley. Not much could be really seen on his features, but one can tell he was quite tall and musclebound. Yet the only discernible trait one can actually make out was his white eyes as they seemed to be glowing in the darkness.

"Yanni Stavros… First you dare transgress against me." Growled the new arrival with something glowing on his chest and small arcs of electricity radiating off his body. "Then you force me to descend to the mortal plane." The sparks intensified as the man's voice grew louder. "And now you say I know not what I think!?

"No!" Yanni cried out, cowering in utmost fear.

Raising his hand, the darkened man spoke. "To the depths of Tartarus with you!"

KRAKOOM

"GAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Hearing the sudden cry, Gordon ran towards the source of the yell of distress. He almost slipped, due to how wet the sidewalk was but quickly steadied himself along the run. Nearing the alley, the Commissioner pulled out his glock-

KRAKOOM

-When another thunderbolt cracked towards the source with a blinding light.

'Holy Hannah!' Gordon thought, halted his steps. 'That was really close.' He shook his head and continued moving to the source.

Drawing closer to the alleyway where the scream came from, the commissioner saw the informant he was supposed to meet up with severely injured as he laid against a large pile of discarded tires. Said tires were quite melted with small sparks of electricity radiating off of Yanni's unconscious body.

"Oh dear lord."

-Later, GCPD-

It's been almost a week since the GCPD was severely damaged by both Killer Moth and Firefly. Construction and renovations have been at an all time high at the precinct to make it state of the art with primarily the latest technology Bruce Wayne is providing.

What was once a several story building in a city block now appeared to have doubled in height. Well not entirely, but it seemed that way with it's mere presence being like that of a towered fortress. And it might as well be once it was finally completed in possibly some weeks time.

In the original floors of the precinct, many officers were still doing their job as if nothing really happened. Granted many of them were spread out, which wouldn't be much of a problem really. The only thing that did tick them off and annoyed as Hell was the constant state of each of them moving their desks and belongings all over the building

Luckily for James Gordon and several higher ups in the precinct, they didn't have to move from their offices.

"So why are we here, Commish?" Vanitas asked.

Batgirl wondered the same as she and her mentor stood inside of her father's office after seeing the Bat-signal in the sky during their respective patrols. As far as she knew, her father primarily met with the heroes on the rooftop in order to speak with them once calling them in. They rarely meet in the commissioner's office, unless something came up otherwise.

James released a sigh as he picked up a file from his desk and handed it over to the helmeted hero. When Vanitas opened it up, the commissioner spoke. "Earlier this evening, I was supposed to meet up with a man named Yanni Stavros."

"Says here he's a scheduler for Maximillian Shipping Lines." Vanitas said, reading through the file with Batgirl peaking over. "What's so special about him?"

"Currently he's under Interpol investigation for selling vital shipping schedules to hijackers." Responded the Commissioner. "But that recently changed when he contacted me in wanting to give me some information in hopes of cutting a deal with the feds."

"I'm taking a guess here that something happened." Batgirl commented.

"Yeah… he was struck by lightning."

This earned an unreadable expression from Vanitas -due to his glass domed helmet- while Batgirl merely gave her father a 'WTF' one.

"I'm sorry, but what?" Blurted out the female hero. "How is it that being struck by lightning stopped this whole thing?"

"I agree with Batgirl, Commish. The weather was starting to clear up earlier with no sign of a storm returning." Vanitas said, closing up the file. "And the chances of being hit by lightning are rather slim at best."

"I thought that too, but when I found him…" James lifted up his glasses in order to rub his eyes. "If it weren't for the discarded tires in that alleyway absorbing most of the shock, he wouldn't have made it."

Batgirl rubbed her arm upon hearing this as she voiced a question. "Is… he alright?"

"Yes, but don't know when he'll wake up."

Vanitas nodded before wanting to get back into the situation at hand. "What kind of information was Stavros wanted to give to both you and the feds?"

Gordon pulled out a CD and soon inserted it into the nearest video player in the office. "Ever heard of something called an EDC?"

Vanitas and Batgirl looked at each other as they shared the same thought with the mentor voicing it. "Can't say we have."

"Not surprising as it's a fourth-generation energy weapon being developed in a joint project by the U.S. and European militaries." As the video got set up, Gordon continued the explanation. "And the prototype for it was stolen when being shipped overseas last month. I wouldn't have known about it without Stavros telling me and Interpol confirming it."

Static on the TV monitor ended as it showed a barren wasteland with several military vehicles stationed all over. The most prominent feature of the tape showed a large sci-fi inspired canon with several people working on it. And in the distance lay a building set to be demolished.

"This film contains classified information on defense project 406562, the electron discharge cannon. For authorized personnel only."

"And you think Stavros was either involved in the theft or knows who was at the very least." Batgirl commented.

Soon enough, the video proceeded in showing the weapon demonstration. The weapon built up with arcs of lightning coiling around the cannon. When it reached its peak, the weapon was fired as it sent a large blast of lightning from it's tip and destroyed the abandoned building with a large crater in its place.

Seeing this, both Vanitas and Batgirl quickly learned how devastating this weapon is.

"I pray that he does," said the Commissioner, "Because if that infernal device falls into the wrong hands…"

"Maybe it already has." Vanitas interrupted in a grim tone.

-Maximilian Shipping-

In the far edge of the business district of Gotham, a tower climbed towards the heavens with clouds swallowing the upper portion of the building. Upon normal glance from the bottom half, it's a typically normal corporate tower. But if one looks past the clouds, they'd see something truly amiss as the modernized style slowly faded away with a more ancient one taking its place.

It feels truly out of place as outside of the gothic environment, the building that is the primary headquarters of Maximilian Shipping appears heavily Greek in nature.

Instead of a helipad and typical pieces one could see on top of a business tower, there was a large Greek Parthenon with a large pool along the neighboring garde and even a miniature temple placed towards another. And at various spots lied marble statues of warriors wielding an assortment of bronze weaponry.

It was quite luxurious with someone sparing no expense to make it so. Even by having at the size of the total length of a major league football stadium.

Currently inside of the mini-temple lied a small conference room with a circular table with twelve chairs placed accordingly. And in the center of it all lay a mighty heart.

"The grand jury is building another case, and I can't stop them this time." Spoke a blonde woman in a business suit as she was sorting through various documents on the circular table. "There are allegations of bribery, extortion and racketeering all pointing back to you, Max." Walking away from the table, she approached a man sitting on an elevated Greek throne. "Sure, I'm your assistant, but there's only so much I can do on my own."

The man before her was tall and broad with muscle as hard as stone. His long black hair was tied into many braids in the back and the same could be said with his long beard which reached past his pecks. His attire bore that of times worn in ancient Greece with a large blue cloth wrapped around his waist and draped over his chest. He wore leather greave sandals while baring bronze bands around his wrists.

This was Maximillian Zeus, CEO and founder of Maximillian Shipping.

The assistant saw Maximillian not responding to her as if his mind was elsewhere. Tired of this for the upteenth time, she walked up towards the throne and spoke in order to get his attention. "Max? Maxie? Come on, look at me when I'm talking to you."

For the first time in quite some time, he addressed her. "You bore me with these tales of petty human concerns."

She groaned upon hearing this. "You're doing it again, Maxie."

Maximillian ignored this and spoke in his deepening voice. "You are Clio, my personal muse of history. Amuse me with tales of ancient times, when mortals trembled at the name of Zeus."

The assistant, now identified as Clio Droukas, glared at her boss with gritted teeth. "You want a story? I got one. There was this guy named Max, who, because he had been lucky so far in the smuggling racket, believed himself to be untouchable superior, godlike; ever since coming back from Thebes last year with that trinket he found there."

The Shipping CEO's mood soured as he leaned forward from his throne. "There's a cynical edge to your voice I don't appreciate. Know you not I am above mortal constraints of right and wrong?"

"No one is above the law, Max."

This caused him to rise from his throne as he harshly spoke. "I make my own laws!"

Clio gritted her teeth soon after. "Maxie, please." She pleaded as he walked down the steps and away from her. "Don't look at me as if you don't know me." She came up to him soon after. "What's happened to you? To us? After all we've been through together. After all we meant to-"

Max held up his hand in order to silence her.

Clio was about to speak up when the shipping CEO beat her to it. "Who dares intrude upon my home?"

The assistant was confused on who Maxie was talking to as it was only the two of them. That was until from the corner of her eye she saw a figure stepping out from the shadows. His boots were heard from the concrete as the new arrival came closer to them.

Turning towards the intruder, Max narrowed his eyes. "So it seems you decided to come from the Underworld from the shadows of Mount Olympus, Lord Hades."

Clio rose a brow when hearing this, thinking her boss finally lost it. "Be serious, Max. That's Vanitas."

It is true, coming towards them is the helmeted hero of Gotham as he appeared to be like a man on a mission.

Maximillian turned back towards his muse and wanted to correct her. "But Vanitas is a mere mortal. And what mortal could reach the summit of Mount Olympus and survive?"

Vanitas tilted his head in confusion, wondering what was going on as the shipping CEO came towards him.

"Tell me, dark brother, what brings you here? You only come during the times of solstice or a grievous issue taking place as we speak."

'Been here for like a minute or two and I believe he needs to spend some time in Arkham.' Came the hero's thought before deciding to humor the man before him. "I just want to ask you a few questions about-"

"Hold." Max interrupted before briefly looking at his assistant. "The words of the gods are not for the ears of mere muses."

This was Clio's cue to leave, causing her to gather up her documents and shut them inside of her briefcase. "Yep, that's me, just a lowly muse." She scoffed before storming out the office temple. "Whatever. See what I care."

Upon seeing her retreating form, Vanitas briefly spoke up. "Now that's not very nice. You should treat those working for you better."

Maximillian ignored his brother's remark on the matter before getting back to the matter at hand. "Once again, what brings you here? Let me guess, Persephone is causing you problems-"

"I'm here about something called an EDC: an electron discharge cannon."

"...An electron discharge cannon? I'm afraid I don't know such a thing."

"You run one of the world's largest shipping firms. I thought you might know how the hijackers moved it."

The Olympian walked towards his throne with his brother not far behind. "Why should Zeus be concerned about the weapons of man when he can call forth thunderbolts of his own?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. 'Oh yeah, he definitely needs to get checked into Arkham. Harley would have a field day with him. Geez, why is it always me who finds these kooks?''

He then noticed something else was off. It wasn't about the shipping CEO's appearance or attitude, far from it… aside from the glossy look in his eyes. No, it was something Vanitas was feeling from Maximillian.

'Are my empathy powers finally returning?' He focused a bit harder as he soon shook his head. 'No, it's not that. It feels like… magic. Really old one at that. Practically ancient.'

The best comparison he had with magic so far was towards Jason Blood, Morgana Le Fay and Mordred as the three were the oldest people he knew in terms of having magic. And even then, neither of them seemed to be compared to what Maxie possessed.

Naruto didn't know why, but despite him feeling the ancient power, it felt rather faint and seemed to be focused towards a particular spot on his body.

Upon sitting down, Zeus addressed the hero before him. "If this is all you've come to me for, then I suggest you leave, Hades. Go back to your own realm and don't come back until bidden."

Naruto was going to speak when he saw something glint from behind his long beard. Upon focusing his gaze better, his sight zoomed in closer to see an ancient looking amulet that had all kinds of Greek runes scribed along the surface. And it was there he felt the power he felt moments ago coming from.

"...I think I get the message." Was all the masked Uzumaki said before making his way towards the building's ledge and jumped off. Falling down several stories, he formed his wind lance and rode it to safety. As he did, he spoke into his helmet. "Were you able to get all that, Batgirl?"

"Loud and clear, Vanitas." Barbara said over the helmet speakers.

"And is the bug working right now?"

"Yeup. Just hearing the guy grumble to himself right now."

"Good. We'll need to monitor things until further notice. Even more so than from before."

"Whatcha mean exactly?"

"I think there's more to this guy than what he's letting on."

Getting into an employee lounge several floors down in order to get herself some water, Clio ran into a brutish pair of the CEO's bodyguards.

Seeing the assistant's sour mood, one of them spoke up. "The boss troubling you again, Clio?"

"When hasn't he?" She asked rhetorically. "Don't know what the hell is wrong with him. And I think things are getting worse with Vanitas here."

This alarmed one of the bodyguards.

"Vanitas? Upstairs?" Spoke the second one. "What do we do?"

The first one shrugged as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "If his lordship wants us, he'll holler."

"You're taking this too lightly, Alex." Clio said to the second bodyguard. "We're in trouble. Maxie's worse than ever." She looked at them before grabbing a bottle of water. Taking a quick sip, she voiced a question. "When was the last time he wore real clothes in the office?"

"You know the boss and Greek stuff." Alex said. "It's his thing. Right, Mark?"

The first bodyguard gave a half nod in response.

"Well, his thing is about to blow this shipping firm out of the water. And maybe Maxie with it."

Tired of this problem, she walked out of the lounge with her bottled water and briefcase on hand before deciding to go home for the night. Coming across the elevator, she eventually entered it and made her way down towards the parking garage.

'Oh, Max, what's happening to you?' Was all she thought on her ride down.

As this occurred, the two bodyguards were called up towards Maxie's temple office. Exiting the elevator, the pair hurried to the throne room and saw their boss waiting patiently for their arrival.

"You called, boss?" Alex said before quickly correcting himself. "I mean, thou didst summon us, O great Zeus?"

"Indeed I did. For you are to be among the first pitiful mortals to bear witness to the dawn of a new age."

Before the bodyguards could question on what their boss meant, the CEO quickly raised his hand as sparks of electricity arced along his arm and shot towards the floor outside of the temple. The bodyguards soon heard a mechanism opening a pair of cellar-like doors. Walking towards one of the openings, they saw the electron discharge cannon rising from the opening as it's barrel was aimed towards the sky.

"Soon all mortals will tremble once more at the fury of Zeus reborn."

-Clio's Apartment-

Stepping through the door, the CEO's assistant let out a tired sigh as she locked the door. Sounds of rain pattered against the patio windows, showing that it started raining again.

Dropping her keys onto her kitchen counter, Clio then went to grab tea packet from one of the cabinets. Settling it down, she eventually got a mug before pulling out a teapot in order to make herself a calming brew to settle her nerves.

After getting the pot set up on the stove, Clio went towards her couch and sat down. Letting out a tired sigh, her eyes moved towards the nearby photo of her and Max. Her hand instinctively grasped the frame and brought it closer as memories of the time before everything changed flooded her mind. Clio eventually formed and released a few tears as she yearned for those good old days.

'Come back to me, Maxie.' She sadly thought.

KRAKOOM

In a flash of lightning, Clio practically jumped in her seat upon seeing both Vanitas and Batgirl standing in the darkest parts of her apartment.

"W-What do you want?" The assistant nervously said, trying to calm herself.

"The same thing you do, Ms. Droukas." Vanitas said, slowly walking up to her. "To help Maximillian Zeus."

Fear and surprise quickly flew across her features before eventually settling on a mixture of sadness and hope.

Clio was in her little world, but was knocked out of it upon hearing her teapot going off with the steam blaring from the nossel.

"Would you like some tea?"

Batgirl gave the woman a kind smile and nod before glancing at her mentor.

"How are you gonna-"

"I have my ways."

Both Clio and Batgirl shared a curious look as the blonde assistant went towards the kitchen. She grabbed an extra pair of cups to pour the evening beverage in.

Upon pouring into the first cup, Clio spoke. "He wasn't always this way, you know. Determined… ambitious… warm… He was a great man and friend to be with."

"And by the look of things with the photo earlier, it seems more than that."

Clio sighed when hearing Vanitas' quick deduction. She wasn't going to deny that.

"We dated for quite some time after we kept dancing around the whole office romance with him my boss and me his assistant." She poured in the last cup before handing the heroes theirs to drink from.

"Sounds rather cliche to me." Commented the Batgirl as she stirred the teabag. She blew a bit into the drink before taking a small sip. "You only really see those in some shows or movies, even reading it in books. Never works all that often in real life."

"I know, but it didn't mean that Max or I never wanted to see how it went." She drank some tea as it helped calm her nerves more. "But in the end, it was more of puppy love to some degree. And despite us wanting to continue onward, eventually we just… stopped."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Professionalism, I wager." Vanitas voiced as he brought the cup towards the glass domed surface of his helmet. Much to the other womens' surprise, no liquid was spilt as he tilted his head back. "Maximillian is the head of one of the largest shipping firms out there. He probably didn't want a scandal to break out and ruin his company's image. Even more so with yours."

"That's one part." Clio admitted.

"Would've been worse if either of you or both were married and decided to have an affair."

"...That it would."

"Were there other reasons?"

"Yes, but I believe we're getting off topic." Clio said, getting a small nod from the two heroes. "Anyways, business had been quite well for a while. But then it started going back as he started handling cargo for the mob. And after a while with the pressure… the tension… things got confusing on a whole-nother level."

"Care to explain?"

"Max was overworking himself last year that he almost had a mental breakdown. I helped… relieve him of some of his stress, but it wasn't enough. So I suggested him he go on long-overdue vacation in order to unwind and collect himself. He picked the destination and I helped set up the arrangements for his trip."

Batgirl saw the downcasted look on Clio's face, causing her to deduct a small detail. "No doubt something went wrong on the trip?"

"Wish I knew what exactly happened over there. Max didn't wanna talk about it, no matter how many times I brought it up." The assistant groaned before drinking more of her tea. "Always became quite defensive, like he had something to hide. And over time, Max no longer lived in the real world; believing and acting like he's Zeus himself, even changing his last name to make it so."

Downing the rest of his tea, Vanitas placed his cup onto the counter. "Would you have any idea what the source of this problem is? Possibly this trinket you mentioned earlier this evening, which I'm guessing he got from his trip to Thebes."

This got a surprised reaction from Clio as she almost spilled her drink. "How'd you- wait, I forgot you were there. Don't know how long you were listening in."

"Long enough, ma'am. So about this trinket…"

Clio rubbed her temples. "He wears it every single day, every single moment. Never taking it off in the slightest. I often wonder if it's fused onto his chest at this point."

Vanitas quickly got the idea on what the trinket was and what it looked like now, remembering it from earlier.

Putting that thought aside, the costumed Uzumaki. "Ms. Droukas, you're the only one who can get us close enough to help him while some of the man you knew still exists.

Clio gave the heroic pair a curious glance as one thing was voiced from her thoughts. "What would I need to do?"

-Maximilian Shipping-

The rainfall was lightly drizzling as the droplets impacted the car window with the driver pulling up to the corporate building.

'Almost there.' Came Clio's thought as she glanced at her rearview mirror to her backseat where a blanket fully covered a hidden form.

When making her way to the frontal security area of the parking garage, she pulled down her window in order to insert her employee ID card into the slot. Not long after she reached out her hand and placed it on the scanner in order to fully identify her; granting her access into the garage once the large metallic doors opened up.

'Sometimes wonder when other companies will start using this bit of security.' She pondered, retrieving her ID card before driving past the security door.

There were plenty of available spots where Clio could park her car, given the time of night she made her return. Almost everyone vacated the building, except for some security and janitorial personnel… along with Maximillian. The CEO basically moved and took up residence here in the corporate building, having sold his loft for some unknown reason months after his trip to Thebes.

Clio eventually parked her car as it was located where she was essentially at a security camera blind spot. Pressing a button on her console, Clio unlocked the trunk of her car.

"Time for you two to get out now."

As she said this, the blanket was thrown off to reveal Batgirl being underneath. And when looking back again from the rearview mirror, Clio saw Vanitas pulling himself out from her trunk.

"This is as far as I can take you two. Now you're on your own."

"Very much appreciated, Ms. Droukas." Batgirl replied, opening up the passenger door. "You do your part while we'll do ours."

"And are you sure you'll try not to cause much problems here?" Clio asked, turning off her ignition and getting out of her car.

"We'll do all that we can, ma'am." Came Vanitas' response.

Ms. Droukas nodded as she went towards the nearby elevator, not seeing Vanitas and Batgirl heading towards the starwell.

The plan as a whole was complicated, yet simple on several factors. And to start it off, Clio needed to smuggle the heroic pair inside of the building.

Now normally Vanitas and Batgirl could sneak into the building in their own respective manners; either by phasing through one of the walls or grappling their way to some floor and making their way through a glass window.

Yet the two ran into a… little problem: a barrier… a supernatural one at that.

Neither Vanitas or Batgirl could make heads or tails about it on how it was erected and on how to make their way through. But they figured it was brought up sometime after Vanitas chatted with Zeus, which left more questions as to what the shipping CEO has in his possession.

The only way to get into the premises was through the employee entrances… and the rooftop, which neither hero wanted to do with Maximillion situating himself there almost all the time. And with Zeus somehow having sensing abilities, the costumed pair didn't want to risk getting caught all to soon in the eventual confrontation.

Vanitas resorted in needing Clio's help in getting them inside as he didn't know how to work with magical barriers just yet. He would've gotten Jason Blood to possibly take it down, but it was hard to get in contact with him at the current time. And Rachel hasn't reached that part in her lessons yet, much to his current knowledge.

That and Naruto didn't want to wake up his ward.

After getting inside, Clio would make her way up towards her boss and hope to convince him to stop his madness. With the heroic duo, they would be searching the building for any traces as to where the EDC (electronic discharge cannon) is being kept. The two hoped Max would've blabbed about it through their bug, but couldn't get anything from it anymore; figuring either he or one of his bodyguards found and destroyed it sometime after Vanitas left earlier this evening.

The end goal of it all was getting Max admitted into Arkham in hopes of fixing him up. Sure it would hurt his public image for a while, but it's better than being sent to prison and basically destroying the shipping firm as a result. Clio didn't want that to happen with all of the good employees suffering in the fallout.

So sending Max to Arkham was the best course of action for both him and for the company; which Vanitas and Batgirl thoroughly agreed.

Upon making her way inside of the elevator, Clio pressed the 70th floor button as she would have to go on by foot to reach the rooftop; which was a few floors away upon departure.

'I'm gonna need to give him a piece of my mind.' She told herself with the elevator raising. 'This is a long time coming and he literally needs to get his head out of the-'

Suddenly, the elevator stopped as she was outright confused on what was going on.

'Is the elevator stuck?' Clio eyed the electronic number to see that she reached the 30th floor. 'No. Someone else is here and wanting to get on.'

Oh how right she is with the elevator doors parting ways to reveal Max's bodyguards, Alex and Mark.

Before Clio could say or do anything, the bodyguards stepped into the confined space and grabbed her arms.

"Sorry, Ms. Droukas. Boss's orders." Alex spoke in an apologetic tone as Marc pressed highest elevator floor button. "This is as far as you go… on your own."

All Clio could do was freeze in her place, wondering what her crazy boss and former lover had in store for her.

-With Vanitas and Batgirl-

Trudging along, the costumed pair went through several floors where they believed the stolen military weapon was being kept. And so far they were unsuccessful.

"Anything on your end, Batgirl?"

"Once again, nope."

"Figures. The majority of this business tower is just office space." Vanitas said, quickly running towards his protege's position.

"There could be hidden compartments placed on some floors."

"True, but it would be rather hard transporting such a device and storing it in such a manner."

"Perhaps Max could've kept the EDC at a warehouse?"

"Maybe, but I peg the guy to keep his possessions close to his person at almost all times."

"With his godly attitude? Yeah, I can probably see that. Much like all this Greek and Roman artifacts I've been seeing all over the place."

Vanitas looked towards his surroundings at the mention of it.

It was quite true that much of the towers decorations were primarily Greek/Roman in nature with various pictures, paintings, sculptures and pottery littered the walls and hallways. One could wonder where such themes doesn't reach at all.

Yet there seemed to be this odd feeling in the air that made it stand out from the revolving theme of the place. And he couldn't quite put it as to what or why.

'Maybe has to do with that artifact Clio mentioned.'

Upon finding Batgirl on the current floor foyer, he saw her hands placed along the walls. No doubt from her action told him that she was indeed searching for a hidden switch for a room of some sort.

"You're not gonna find what we're looking for like that, Batgirl." He said from behind.

"Can't help a girl from trying, ya know."

"True, but still it'd be to generic." Vanitas remarked, placing his own hand on the wall finding nothing. He gave her an expectant look but that did nothing in deterring her search.

The masked Gordon scooted along her spot to check out one last area of the room. As she did, she hardly noticed a decorated pot placed on a pedestal until it was too late. Accidentally nudging her elbow against the marble stand, causing it to topple over and start a domino effect with some of the nearby ones...before going around the entire room.

As a result, several pots started crashing onto the ground.

Vanita could only blink at the "destruction", slowly turning his head to his young student.

"...I hope they have insured those." Barbara chuckled out as she saw a few pots laid across the ground seemingly intact. "Should probably put them back."

Vanitas only sighed, looking at the time on his HUD within his glass domed helmet.

"3… 2… 1…" Vanitas counted down, expecting sec...

Suddenly, the pots on the ground shook violently before several sprouted out four large protruding spider-like legs with singular, yellow dark eyes at their centers with all of them facing the two intruders. And on the more intact surface of the pots and jars slowly revealed the Heartless emblem.

Vanitas and Batgirl could only stare dumbly at what they just saw with the potted spiders all twitching about as they raised themselves up. Even some tails popping out from a broken opening to show they were scorpion styled creatures; especially with pairs of claws coming out soon after.

"Ok, didn't see that coming." Vanitas mumbled. "Must be the new security team here."

"Guess those pots were insured."

Going into a battle stance, the Keybearer summoned his Keyblade as these new Heartless went on the offensive.

Charging head… Pot first at the duo, it was rather easy for the two of them to leap to the side and avoid their little attack.

With a quick downward slice, Naruto destroyed one of the pots, shattering it with his keyblade and watching as a kind of dark glob shot out from the remains.

Batgirl followed her mentor by moving onward and avoiding several of these potted Heartless' attacks. One of the nearby Potted Scorpions shot out it's stinger, to which she barely took hold of. Mustering some of her strength, she spun the darkened creature around to smack it onto some of it's companions. Before long, Batgirl let go and sent it flying with the loud sounds of ceramics breaking as she soon avoided a spider's web line.

Vanitas sidestepped several potted Heartless that used their spindly legs as a way of slashing at the masked hero. With several well placed swings, Vanitas destroyed another pot whilst launching two more back with his wide horizontal strikes.

"They're easy to break it seems." Vanitas said, twirling his Keyblade in anticipation. "But it's never this easy."

"Couldn't agree more." Batgirl muttered, throwing several batarangs at them. "Think there's bigger on the inside?"

"There's always a bigger one around." Vanitas said knowingly, using his Keyblade to hold back a potted Heartless from using its legs to harm him.

Jumping away to avoid yet another spider's web, Batgirl saw a nearby lamp post with a long metal shaft. Grasping it, she ripped the piece of office property from the wall and spun her new weapon around to smack a potted Heartless. The light fixture broke upon impact before spinning around to smack the sturdy flat end onto it next. This end didn't break like the other, causing Barbara to realize she could use it as an impromptu, yet awkward war hammer.

'Gotta make due for now.' She thought, spinning herself around while smacking several Heartless away.

Bouncing off a wall, the costumed Uzumaki brought down his Keyblade with it piercing through the ceramic shell and digging into the Heartless' true body. With it dissolving into blackened smoke and releasing the captured heart inside, the Keyblader ripped out his weapon and quickly cast a few Fira spells.

The effect was instantaneous and powerful, virtually destroying all nearby potted heartless within the range of the fires.

Batgirl, taking a cue from her mentor, pulled out a range of batarangs and set them on their highest mode. Flinging them rapidly at the remaining Pots, the Batarangs sailed at specific points within the clusters of heartless.

Upon detonation, the room was momentarily filled with blinding lights while the Heartless' potted shells were obliterated.

Taking a moment to look around, Vanitas saw no other remaining Pots within the room.

With the foyer cleared of these newly styled Heartless, the pair were about to make their way to continue their search on a different floor when they saw pools of darkness forming on various spots along the walls, floor and ceiling.

"Round two." Barbara muttered out.

Falling out from the new Heartless portals on the ceiling were a good number of Air Soldiers. Yet they appeared differently than from the ones they were more used to. Instead of the more old fashioned, arial styled look; they wore Grecian styled armor.

Following after these Air Soldiers were another new set of Heartless that they had not seen before. They were large, broad, humanoid and extremely muscular. The collective of these newcomers sported grey skin, yellow eyes, and lightning-shaped shoulders have twin pauldrons with yellow spikes and white wings, and its feet are shaped like goat hooves. The helms have twin horns jutting out of it. The Heartless emblem was displayed upon their chest plates.

And following soon after appeared to be something similar to these… Satyr looking foes. Instead of the Grecian styled armor, these one wore something more… mechanical in nature while forgoing the lightning-styled beards. On both their hooved feet and hands were white and were equipped with gauntlets and pauldrons with green highlights. And their helmets had bull-like horns resembling engines.

"Ok, what is with this Greek motif?" Batgirl asked aloud. "I get the guy changed his last name to Zeus and all, but this?"

"Ass kicking now, Batgirl, questions later."

"I know, I know." Batgirl said, getting into a prepared stance seeing the Satyr and… Mechanitaurs looking Heartless lined up shoulder to shoulder and in military-like formation.

Without warning, both the Satyr and Mechanitaurs charged forward in the large foyer, destroying any and all surrounding furniture in the process.

"Oh shit." Vanitas exclaimed, grabbing Batgirl and pulling her close. He jumped over the small stampede and deftly landed with him immediately looking up.

Swooping in, the Air Soldiers came in with their claws out. Batgirl had to roll out of the way from them before punching one in the back. But she recoiled a bit with how hard the armor was.

Spinning out the way, Naruto jabbed his Keyblade into the air and was about to call out a spell. Yet this was halted as he unintentionally pierced an Air Soldier in the process. Not wanting to lose his little groove, especially with others coming after him, Vanitas momentarily hurled himself into an airborne summersault to slice through another with it being destroyed soon after.

Landing on his feet, Vanitas thrust his Keyblade up into the air once again.

"Come on work you bastard, Thundara."Naruto gritted out, feeling a momentary drain in his energy.

Krak-KOOOM

Various airborne Heartless were quickly electrocuted in the process with several quickly dissolving into dark vapors and releasing their captured hearts into the air. Others were no doubt stunned with the recently casted spells. Yet they soon followed their fallen brethren as several batarangs struck the open spots in their armor and exploded soon after.

Momentarily taking a breather, Vanitas couldn't help but grin at his handy work with a feeling of accomplishment at his casting.

"I'm awesome."

"Little help here!" Batgirl called out, jumping and rolling out of the way from the stampeding Heartless.

Naruto cringed somewhat beneath his helmet for forgetting about his protege in that instance.

Pointing his Keyblade at the Heartless horde, his vision slowed down as the targeting system seemed to gather onto each of the enemies. Vanitas focused power into the Keyblade's tip as this occurred, forming a Rasengan in the process. The orb of spinning energy grew and condensed with each passing moment before reaching its peak.

Jumping into the air, the helmeted hero released his Rasengan Shotlock onto the large gathering of enemies.

The trails of energy shot out at lightning speed, piercing through and destroying every Heartless that he had targeted and clearing Baraba's space around her.

"Thanks for the assist."

"Anytime." He said, rushing towards the nearby stairwell with her following soon after. "We need to keep on moving."

Barabara only nodded, the two beginning to scale up the staircase to the upper floors of the building. To help speed up their search, Vanitas quickly sent out clones at every other floor as the Heartless were now present in the vicinity and neither of them really wanted to face them.

All the while, thunderclouds were starting to gather on the outside of the building.

What made it all the more strange was the fact that they seemed to concentrate exclusively around the building, ignoring the rest of the city.

Thunder cracked above with a heavy downpour appeared not long after to resume the nasty weather this night.

-At the Rooftop-

Maximillian looked towards Gotham's airspace from his throne. His glossy eyes scanned all over, even glancing over his stolen electronic discharge cannon before narrowing onto something intruding upon his territory of the sky.

To be more specific, a GCPD police blimp.

Inside of Max's head, conflict was taking place on what to do with this "intruder" upon his domain.

'We should just leave them alone.' Max's mortal side rationalized. 'They're just doing their duty of protecting the citizens down below.'

'No.' Came a deep, ancient voice echoing throughout the CEO's mind. 'They are trespassers. They have not been given permission to come so close to Olympus.'

'But-'

'But nothing! They should not intrude. Not when things are so close to… our true ascension.'

The mortal part of Max's mind was too weak to fully argue against the godly one, causing it to lose this argument… much like many others.

"Like Bellerophon astride winged Pegasus, yon foolish mortals dare encroach on sacred Olympus." Max spoke loud enough for both his bodyguards and Clio to hear.

"Does he mean us?" Marc muttered in confusion.

"I don't think so." Alex responded.

Clio mildly wondered the same thing as she was held in place by the men beside her. She was going to speak up and talk to Max why she was being treated in such a manner.

That was until she saw something glowing from his chest with arcs of lightning radiating off his body.

'What the hell!?' She thought, wildly wondering how this was possible. 'Is Max a meta?'

Lifting up his arm, Max aimed his limb with the electricity collecting onto his hand. "Get thee back unto the mortal plane!"

With widened eyes, both Clio and the bodyguards were alarmed with what their boss intended to do.

"No, Maxie!"

"Not the cops!"

"Think what you're doing!"

Their cries and pleas were blatantly ignored by the crazed CEO as he fired on to the GCPD blimp. A large bolt of lightning traveled across the distance and struck the aircraft. In an instant, it was set aflame with the engines destroyed.

The three mortals could only look on in disbelief, seeing the blimp falling and crashing down to the city below. No doubt going to draw quite a lot of attention now with what just happened.

"Feel the wrath of Zeus, thou insignificant nats!"

Clio easily wrestled out of their control, due to them primarily focused at the scene at the city streets below. Storming right towards the throne, Clio roared at Max's face. "What have you done!? You could have killed-"

"How dare you speak with such disloyalty!?"

Eyes started stinging with tears quickly forming and falling down Clio's face. Wasn't long before she clasped the sides of Max's face. "But, Maxie, please, you know I love you."

Hearing the sincerity in her words -along with her current state of emotion- caused Max to break out of his insanity. It was subtle with Clio staring into his eyes as they became clear for the briefest of moments with his posture slumping into her small embrace.

"C-Clio?" He softly spoke. "I'm sorry. I can't-"

But it seemed not enough as his more godly side swiftly took back the reins with his eyes returning to its glossy look and posture standing back tall and firm.

"Thou art no longer fit to be among us." He spoke in a deeper tone, frightening the assistant in the process. "Tie her to my mighty instrument, Alexander, Marcus."

"Boss, don't you think you may be carrying things a bit-"

"Alexander, will thou do my bidding?" Zeus questioned before turning his gaze towards Mark. "And what of you, Marcus?"

To put more emphasis into the point, sparks rolled off of Max's form; even to a dangerous degree as they went all over the place. Striking the surrounding pillars, the nearby table and coming extremely close to the three before him.

Before any responsive action could be made, several pools of darkness formed around them with plumbs of blackened smoke went up in between them. Before long, a dozen Heartless appeared which frightened Alex, Mark and Clio.

"What the hell!?"

"Heartless!"

The two bodyguards quickly drew out their guns and were about to open fire on the new arrivals. Yet they were too slow to pull the trigger with the darkened creatures attacking them.

Their screams and yells were heard as both men were dogpilled by the Heartless and were seemingly consumed. When they parted ways, all that were left of Alex and Mark were their respective guns with a Shadow Heartless standing in their respective spots. And to add more to injury, bright pink hearts floated in the air before a dark portal swallowed them up.

Clio gasped in horror in what just occurred. Backing away from them, she feared for the worst on what may happen to her.

"ENOUGH!" Max bellowed out. "I will not have Hades' minions intrude upon my domain. Much less attacking more of my subjects."

Upon the CEO's call, the Heartless stopped their movements and looked towards the powerful being before them.

Seeing this, Zeus smirked as he soon saw each of these creatures behave. Even more so when seeing some seemingly kneeling or something close to that nature.

"To think that many of my darkened brother's subjects would rather follow me instead."

"What in the hell is Max going on about?" Clio muttered. "Has he truly lost himself?"

Not hearing his assistant and former lover's comment, Max brought out his hand and spoke a command. "Take and tie her to Zeus' mighty instrument at once!"

Standing up, a few Satyr Heartless grasped Clio's arms and dragged her to the EDC as she screamed the entire time. Calling out to Max to stop the madness and set her free.

'Soon… Soon the ascension and rebirth will be complete.' Zeus' godly persona sounded off in the man's head.

What neither Clio or Max could see from the Heartless' point of view was a dark aura forming around the shipping CEO's form. It was growing large and dense, no doubt showing how much darkness was contained within the being.

More specifically the item around the man's neck as it carried a powerful soul.

The creatures of darkness would follow the god's orders… for now. They'll bide their time. And when he's truly ripe, they'll pluck his heart and form a powerful being into their ranks.

From his throne, Zeus heard a series of beeps coming from the nearby console. Pressing a button, a display rose up and the monitor flickered on to show Vanitas and Batgirl taking on another batch of Grecian styled Heartless.

"So no longer like an eagle against the sky, but as a worm crawling through the dirt does Lord Hades… and his acolytes try to regain Olympus." Max scoffed as he looked towards his new subjects. "Go forth and destroy my darkened brother and his whore of a follower. Only then will your allegiance will be solidified."

-Back with Vanitas and Batgirl-

"God, what is it with corporate douchebags and tall buildings?" Batgirl complained, flinging a dart like batarang right between the eyes of a Grecian Air Soldier Heartless.

"It's compensation for their ego, Babs, you should already know this by now." Vanitas plainly stated while shoving his Keyblade through the chest plate of a Satyr Heartless.

The two had continued their long trek up the building, running into their own Heartless occasionally. It started getting to the point that neither of them would be finding the EDC any time soon as all of the searched floors were very ordinary with nothing special behind them.

Thus the two rationalized that the EDC was being kept close to Max and the only way to properly store it was no doubt the rooftop the entire time. And at this point, the pair were getting rather close to their new destination with only a few floors remaining.

"You know, lookin' at it in hindsight, we could've just scaled up the building." Batgirl stated, fiddling under her mask to wipe away some sweat.

"That probably wouldn't have been easy either." Vanitas remarked, rolling his shoulder. "It's never easy."

"I know, but a girl can dream can't she?"

Stepping closer to the final door which led them to the final stairwell to reach the rooftop, the pair saw a particularly large bronze plated statue standing above the doorway. It seemed to be a classic interpretation of an old fashioned Greek Soldier, standing at about 15 feet tall with a "shortsword" in its right hand with a circular shield in its left sporting a cloud with a lightning bolt for its emblem.

"Boy, this guy is really taking the whole Greek act to the extreme." Batgirl mused aloud.

Plumbs of darkness formed once more near the door's entrance, causing the heroic pair to groan once more.

"You got one of them potions on ya?"

Vanitas released a sigh, pulling out a bottle from his utility belt. "Knock yourself out."

Tossing the potion bottle to the masked redhead, Vanitas dashed forward and cleaved through an airborne Heartless just as it came out of the portal. Landing on the other side, the helmeted hero called out a few Fira spells to blast a couple of Satyr Heartless away before blocking a strike coming from a Mechanitaur.

Quickly chugging down the potion, Barbara felt partially rejuvenated once the last drops of the liquid rushed down her throat. She smashed the empty container into a Mechanitaur's face and used the momentary blindness to her advantage by jumping on top of it and leapt onto another and another. Yet on each one she kept jumping from, she left tiny explosives that soon went off to cause serious damage onto them.

Vanitas ran at a line of Satyr's who were bullrushing right at him. Getting a bit of a creative spark, the vigilante channeled his power into the tip of his weapon, forming a Rasengan.

At the last second before crashing into the line of Heartless, Naruto dropped down to his knees and slid under and in-between the offensive line.

Leaping up to his feet, Naruto swung backwards in a large arch making sure that it was the edge of his Keyblade that struck the Satyr heartless. The Rasengan, coupled with the momentum of Naruto's swing, utterly decimated all the Heartless in its path.

Grinning a bit maniacally under his helmet, Naruto spun his Keyblade for added flare before jamming it into another Satyr Heartless with his Rasengan still active.

This went on for several seconds with Vanitas batting away Heartless left and right all the while keeping that mischievous grin on his face present.

"Can you quit it already?" Batgirl suddenly called out to him.

"What?"

"That dumb look on your face."

"What look? What are you talking about?"

"Come on Vanitas, I know you." Barbara said as if it were plain as day. "Whenever you think of a new way to fight or kick ass, you sometimes get this dumb look or feeling around you like a kid discovering candy for the first time. Somewhat hard to tell with that helmet of yours"

"Is it so wrong for a man to enjoy the fruits of his labor, especially one as cool as me?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"You're no fun sometimes, you know that?"

"I am called Batgirl after all."

"What does that have to with this scenario?"

All Barbara can do was laugh as she dodged yet another Heartless.

In all honesty, she surprisingly found herself having fun fighting alongside her mentor. She felt more relaxed with him and felt rather safe. It was as if she was being with her secret love interest, due to how he spoke and acted.

Thinking of this made her frown a little as she wanted to finally tell Naruto her feelings as of late, but things kept getting in the way.

'Next time I see him, regardless of what's going on around us, I have to tell him. No ifs, ands or buts about it.'

What neither mortal combatants noticed was a small plumb of blackened smoke forming from the corner of the room. It's beedy, yellow eyes peered at the two heroes as they fought against its brethren. Looking off to the side, the little Heartless soon floated towards the large statue and touched it's surface. Wasn't long before it slowly sunk into the statue and disappeared like it wasn't even there to begin with.

At first, it remained still and unmoving.

CRRRANK

Burning, sickly yellow eyes were now opened with dark wisps emanating from the edges of the eyelids.

Black veins began appearing all across the body of the statue as the darkness took full control of the once inanimate statue.

The Statue then forced itself to move.

-Insert God of War II: Colossus of Rhodes-

Hearing the loud groan of metal, Vanitas looked up and widened his eyes on what he was seeing.

"Heads up!"

Batgirl looked up and adopted a shocked expression on what she was seeing.

"What in the hell!?"

The bronze statue started to move on it's own, like it was alive or at least robotic. The guardian-like statue moved away from the wall and peered down upon them. And before long, a darkened aura appeared around it's form with the Heartless emblem glowing on the breastplate.

"Oh~ that ain't good."

"MOVE!"

The statue brought down its sword where Vanitas and Batgirl once bickered, the force of the enhanced stone blade cracking the floor.

Batgirl rolled away, getting up into a crouching position whilst flinging several projectiles at their new enemy.

Explosions went off around the Heartless possessed statue yet it received no damage as it slowly raised itself back to its feet.

It was then struck on its side via an enlarged fireball.

The force and power behind the fireball caused the statue to stumble back a bit with its body showing cracks. The head slowly turned towards Naruto who had his Keyblade raised in its direction with a trail of smoke coming from the tip.

The Statue Heatless then glanced down at its crumbling left hip when the cracks vanished with the pieces on the ground floating back up to where they fell from. Merging back into the body, the possessed statue looked as it did before with no damage.

Vanitas slumped slightly in his stance before stomping his foot.

"Never easy." Naruto sourly murmured to himself.

Seeing the statue position itself with its shield raised and sword ready, Vanitas responded by getting into his own battle stance. He eyed the large statue warily, ready for anything it had to throw at him.

What he did not expect was the sudden speed it displayed, vaulting itself forward with its sword hand raised up to shoulder level.

Eyes bursting out though the mask in the size of dinner plates, Vanitas dove out of its way making it slice through the wall with its long arm.

"Ok it's fast." Vanitas said.

"And strong." Barbara added standing beside him now.

"They're always strong." Naruto grumbled. "Don't know if I can properly block that sword with my Keyblade."

"Wanna test that theory?"

"Don't wanna all that much, Babs."

"Well too bad since it's coming down again!"

"Shit!" Vanitas pulled Batgirl back with him, the Statue Heartless' sword creating another crater with its strike.

"Pincer." Vanitas called out, with the duo splitting up and rushing the statue from its sides.

Seeing that it was about to get attacked from two angles, the Statue Heartless instinctively targeted Barbara first.

Swinging its large sword at her, Batgirl faltered in her sprint at it giving the possessed statue time to turn and raise its shield up to block Vanitas' Keyblade.

'Clever' Naruto internally thought, turning his Keyblade around in order to get the teeth wedged onto the top of the shield.

Using that as leverage, Vanitas kicked off the shield flipping up, forward and over the Statues head while delivering a quick whack across its head. Grunting at the hit, the Heartless Statue went on the attack once again, attempting to get a hit on Vanitas while in the air. Naruto parried several sword swings, feeling his arms shake upon every deflection.

'If this keeps up, my arms will be too sore to block any more hits.' He thought, bouncing off the nearby wall. 'And this guy ain't giving me any openings for momentary rest.'

The Keyblader had no choice but to run in order to give himself some breathing room. Yet the Statue Heartless wasn't making it easy as it kept advancing towards his position.

Needing a bit of a distraction, he formed several clones which were quickly sent out to assault their current foe.

And it didn't hurt upon seeing Batgirl landing on the Statue's shoulders and planted several sticky bombs on the space between the neck and shoulder. Not long after planting, she leapt off and caught herself on a little ledge just in time for the explosives to go off. This resulted in the possessed statue to groan in pain with chunks of bronze plating falling off.

Seeing the momentary bit of peace, Vanitas pulled out a potion from his utility belt and consumed the contents.

Putting the empty bottle back into his belt, the helmeted hero looked onward to assess the current situation.

'My clones won't be able to hold that thing off for long.' He thought, seeing a few finally getting destroyed by the possessed statue's latest swing. 'I stand confirmed.'

The Keybearer then saw it's attention placed back on him. Their foe charged forward and brought down it's sword. Acting quickly, Vanitas quickly switched out his Keyblade and summoned his ice shield, Haku, in order to block the strike. It was successful, despite being pushed back from the blow.

Wanting to keep the giant Heartless in place, Vanitas channeled power into his shield and slammed it into the space where the sword collided into the floor. Instantly, ice quickly entrapped the bronze sword, causing the Statue Heartless to struggle in freeing it's weapon.

Seeing his chance, Vanitas switched his ice shield back to his Keyblade before running up the bronze plated arm. Getting in close to it's head, the hero started swinging his key-shaped sword as it started cutting through it's minor form of defense.

Getting annoyed on not freeing it's sword from it's icy prison, the Statue let go of it's handle and tried to swat it's attacker away. The bronze plated hand had indeed smacked Vanitas away, but was unsuccessful in getting him away as the Keybearer quickly recovered and maneuvered towards the other side of it's head.

Seeing the exposed part of the statue -courtesy of Batgirl- Vanitas continued his assault.

With Batgirl, she carefully walked across the high ledge in order to find a proper spot to drop down. She saw her mentor hacking away at the Statue's neck area and having to occasionally stop when it's hand tried snagging or swatting him.

Wanting to help Vanitas out, she used her grappling gun and fired towards the other side of the room. Swinging away, Batgirl pulled out a few explosive batarangs and threw them. She hoped they could hit the neck for some help, yet they ended up hitting it's face. This resulted with the possessed being to roar in pain once they exploded on several areas.

The Statue now glared at Batgirl with its eyes burning with a dark intensity making the young heroine take a tentative step back once landing on an opposing ledge.

The Possessed Statue the jolted forth momentarily, courtesy of a powerful strike behind its head via Vanitas's Keyblade.

"Keep your eyes on me, Jackass." Vanitas shouted out, raising his Keyblade. "THUNDER!"

Lightning crackled down upon the Statues body, leaving small cracks and singes upon the body yet it remained standing.

It momentarily glared at it's primary attacker after getting out of the recent attack. Yet it's attention was turned once more towards his female companion with a few more batarangs impacting the exposed parts of it's underplating.

Before Batgirl could move out of the way, the Heartless' bronze hand quickly reached out and snatched her.

"Let me go! Let me go!" She yelled out, groaning as she tried prying herself free.

"Yeah, let her go!" Vanitas sprinted forth, using the recent rubble as platforms to jump up and get the height advantage over the Heartless.

In a display of intelligence, the Heartless raised Batgirl up in his path making Vanitas halt mid swing.

The Keybearer clicked his tongue, not knowing how to properly attack their foe now. He tried moving all over for a possible place to strike, yet the giant Heartless was persistent in halting his progress.

"Ok that's not annoying at all." Vanitas grunted.

"This is even less so." Batgirl winced in pain, feeling the grip begin to tighten around her.

In a moment of his continued movement, Vanitas was smacked away by the Statue's bronze shield; sending him flying across the room.

Needing to get back quickly, the Keybearer channeled power into his key-shaped sword and threw it across the room. Before long, he teleported back towards his weapon and struck the statue's ankle in a series of blows.

Not relenting in his attack, Vanitas quickly formed a Rasengan on the tip of his Keyblade again and swiped at the other ankle. The result was eventually made as the attack drilled through the joint and destroyed a big chunk of it's limb.

Falling to its knees, the shock of the ground made the grip around Barbara loosen enough for her to slip out from the Statues grasp. The costumed Gordon used this opportunity to perform an aerial recovery while pulling out one more batarang and threw it at her opponent in retaliation from earlier. With it exploding soon after -which got the statue to stumble awkwardly back- Batgirl skidded across the ruined floor before eventually stopping.

Vanitas flipped over the momentarily downed enemy and rejoined Batgirl with the two ready to fight on when…

CRASH

What could be described as literally dark-black human missile shot in from the outside using one of the higher placed windows and smashed itself down upon the head of the statue. In the moment of shock of the new arrival, the Heartless didn't realize the person placing a large explosive inside of an exposed area of its face.

KABOOM

The results were instant as a large plumb of smoke gathered around the bronze head with chunks falling towards the ground. And not long after, the statue tumbled towards the ground.

Not waiting for another incentive, Vanitas burst forward and rammed his Keyblade through the center of the Possessed statue.

The Possessed merely laid there, motionless until it began to spasm with multiple cracks appearing on its body until the darkness seeped out through the damage and converged onto the area where the Keyblade was currently embedded in.

A moment later, the statue crumbled away into dust whilst a single large pinkish-red heart idly floated upwards into the sky before fading away.

Vanitas only let out a sigh, slumping down for a breather with his arms dangling. And Batgirl shared the same action as she rubbed her sore sides. They then gazed up at the assist and the helmeted hero snorted.

"Well it is about time you arrived." Vanitas said tiredly, resting his weapon on his shoulder. "What took ya so long anyways, Bats?"

Batman merely stood to his full height, regarding Batgirl for a moment to see her current physical state before addressing Vanitas.

"A blimp got shot down from the sky and Robin and I have been handling things on the ground." Batman quickly explained. "After that was done, it came to finding a way past a barrier that prevented us from getting up here properly earlier."

Vanitas shrugged. "Reasonable."

"And where is Robin anyways?" Batgirl inquired.

"Still outside and helping the wounded down below."

"Right… Still, thanks for the save earlier, Batman." Batgirl said with appreciation.

The Dark Knight gave a curt nod as he looked around the destroyed space. "Seemed like you two needed some help."

"No kidding." Barbara groaned out, rolling her shoulders and feeling it pop a little in the process. "Didn't even know Heartless could possess a statue."

"You learn new things every day."

"Vanitas… don't."

"Hehe~ Sorry." Vanitas looked at his friend and asked a question lofting in the air. "How did you get through that barrier outside anyway?" He narrowed his eyes underneath his helm. "You don't happen to have magic on ya all of a sudden?"

"No, I don't."

"Then how'd you-"

"Two things. One: the higher I went the barrier seemed to be weaker towards the roof. And two: the storm happening outside made it flicker. Had to time it right before leaping from my batplane to get where I currently am."

"Really?" Vanitas looked out one of the windows. "I didn't notice that."

"I don't think we had time to notice something like that, Vanitas." Barbara said pointedly.

"Good point." Her mentor conceded with a shrug.

Seeing their recent foe still in pieces, the trio rushed forward in hopes of stopping Max from whatever he had planned.

On the rooftop, Max eyed his assistant as she was perfectly strapped onto the barrel's end with a good dozen or so Heartless surrounding it.

"Be not afraid, my muse. For once thou hast been cleansed by the fire from Olympus, thou shalt be as a goddess at my side throughout eternity."

Clio would've felt touched, flattered even, if it weren't for the fact that she was placed in this current predicament. From what she could rationalize, Max still loved her and in his odd sense of sanity made him think such a manner would make her be with him always from what he intended to do.

Pressing a series of buttons on his console, the EDC moved it's barrel towards the heavens with flashes of lightning and roars of thunder emanating from the skies.

"Let the heavens scream. Let the earth tremble." His voice then started to grow deeper with madness appearing in his gaze. "Let mortals know the gods of old live again upon my ascension and rebirth!"

-Insert God of War III: Call to Arms-

Before Max could press the button to finally activate the EDC, a pair of batarangs and a dagger imbedded themselves into the console.

"Who dares!?" He bellowed out, whirling his head towards the source. Upon finding it, he narrowed his gaze on three interlopers. "YOU!"

"It's over, Maxie." Batgirl shouted out with Batman and Vanitas beside her. "You're through!"

Whipping his arm towards the intruders, Max barked out an order. "Creatures of Darkness, destroy all who oppose me!"

The surrounding Grecian styled Heartless charged forward as they sought to get rid of the three present heroes.

Currently equipped with Vanitas' lightning daggers into his gauntlets, Batman activated his shock gloves and started delivering punches towards the nearest Satyr that came in close. With it momentarily stunned, the Dark Knight spun around the taller opponent and struck at various exposed areas. Before long, he sent an uppercut at the Satyr's chin, causing it to die and go up in blackened smoke.

Vanitas spun his Keyblade around, a taunting way to get the Heartless who targeted him to charge first. Tilting his body back to avoid a Satyr's wild punch, Vanitas kicked it away before slashing back another Satyr's arms. Stabbing it through the chest, he cleaved through the Heartless and swung upwards.

"THUNDER!"

Lightning reigned down around him, stunning all Heartless within a yard around him. Grinning beneath his helmet, Vanitas performed a quick 360 degree spin to wipe out the closest Heartless within arms length. Getting some space now, Vanitas jumped forward and slashed through several more stunned Heartless to then deflect several attacks from Air Soldiers dive-bombing him.

Off to the side, Max grinded his teeth upon seeing his darkened brother- no!... this mortal man using HIS element. He wanted nothing more than to destroy this heathen where he stood.

'Hopefully my new subjects will buy me time for what I must do.' Was all the shipping CEO thought as he started fiddling on his control panel to start up the EDC.

With Batgirl, she spun around one of the wind lances he lent to her. The bladed ends sliced and impacted incoming Air Soldiers. Needing some air, she struck the Kazekage lance into the ground and pole-vaulted above a few Heartless and spun around to swipe the blades through several opponents.

Batman and Vanitas were now side by side, both utilizing quick stun and slash techniques to effectively deal with the Heartless that surround them.

"These damn bastards usually aren't this relentless." Vanitas grunted, bonking an Air Soldier on the head allowing Batman to finish it off with an electrically charged chop to its neck.

"It must be Maximillian." Batman stated, jabbing at the joints of a Mechanitaur. "These creatures are perhaps following an individual with a strong enough will to command them."

"That should be impossible." Grunted out the Keyblader, avoiding a charge attack by a couple of Satyrs and Mechanitaurs. "Then again-"

"You're really saying that right now?!" Batgirl yelled out, dodging some drop attacks from the aerial foes before stabbing one through the chest.

"He can't help himself. He has no control." Batman dryly remarked.

"Please don't joke or make quips." Vanitas said. "It only paints the situation in a more horrible light if Batman is the sarcastic one."

"Begone! Get thee back to the underworld where thee belongs!" Max bellowed out as he sent out several bolts of lightning towards his attackers. "Such is the fate of all who dare to thwart the gods!"

With the three costumed people distracted in avoiding the lightning blasts, both from Max and from the skies above, the crazed man quickly typed through a series of commands. After the final stroke, the EDC started warming up and charging towards maximum power.

"Oh, no. It's going to fire!" Barbara yelled out.

The Bat and Keyblader quickly turned and saw what was happening and tried to stop Max's current action. Yet they were overwhelmed with the Heartless coming towards them all at once.

All Vanitas could do was yell out a plea. "Max, don't-!"

Yet it was too late as the EDC reached its peak with electricity and fired, causing Clio to scream with the lightning blast piercing through her body and shooting towards the thunderclouds above. The screams eventually died down with Clio's form becoming a smoldering mess as it crumbled into dust and blowing into the wind.

As this occurred, the EDC exploded, due to the interference of Clio strapped onto the barrel's end. The blockage caused some of the energy to backfire, causing it to overload which soon wiped out the remaining Heartless guarding the stolen device. All that was left of it was pieces of scrap metal and wires.

And all Vanitas, Batman and Batgirl could do on the end result was stand there in absolute shock with the murder they just witnessed.

"Y-You… You killed her!" Batgirl yelled out. "HOW COULD YOU!? SHE LOVED YOU!"

Max merely stared towards the heavens with a smile etched onto his face. He should be happy, extremely so… yet apart of him had untold sorrow seeping out of him. And it was ever present with tears streaming down his face.

And before long, he started shaking in absolute grief.

"Wh-What have I done?" He cried out. "WHAT HAVE I DONE!?"

"What I have wanted you to do, mortal."

The voice could be heard coming from the amulet hanging around Max's neck, causing the rooftop's only occupants to draw their attention towards it.

Dark, ominous clouds started gathering and condensing in an unnatural manner as Max's form radiated lightning. Before long, a bolt of lightning shot out from the amulet and into the skies above.

The trio of heroes could only look on, having no inkling of an idea as to what is happening.

In a moment of outright confusion, Batgirl tried voicing her thoughts. "Wh-What's going-"

KRACKOOOOM

A massive bolt of red lightning struck down from the heavens and collided onto Max's form. Upon impact, the shipping CEO screamed like he never screamed before as his form started to blacken underneath the stream of lightning that seemed to never end.

"A lot of bad, Batgirl." Vanitas grimly said, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up right. "Just a whole lot of bad."

From what Naruto could remember reading in one of Jason Blood's books detailed quite a dark series of rituals. And among the chief among them were all summed up towards one thing.

A sacrifice.

This was all done in order for either power, summoning or revival. And by the looks of things… it seemed to be all three… which was outright bad.

He took a second to glance back at the charred remains of Clio. Vanitas could only clench his Keyblade tightly with his right hand whilst his left curled up into a fist to the point that he pierced past the gloved fabric and cut into his palm.

By the time the lightning stream ended, there stood another man aside from who they encountered moments prior.

He appeared several inches taller than the shipping CEO, thus the man was bulkier with the added bits of muscle. The blue Grecian robe was replaced with the finest white silk one could ever get their hands on with gold trimmings and designs. grieves and footwear became a bit more armored and extravagant with more detailed appearances. The man's hair was stark white with both the hair on his head and face braided in various areas.

And his eyes bore nothing but utmost white that held untold malice and madness.

Before long, the man before them started chuckling before releasing a massive bellow that echoed across the massive rooftop that almost dwarfed the sound of the current rainfall.

"BEHOLD!" Massive lightning bolts crackled all about the new being, the skies thundering aloud. "YOU MORTALS HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE PRIVILEGE THAT NONE WOULD EVER LIVE TO SEE."

"Who… Who the hell are you?"

The new arrival turned his gaze towards the masked redhead and snorted a little. "It seems my time away from the mortal realm has made many to forget my visage." Sparks emanated from his arms as they danced across his skin. "But after this, you must give me the proper respect."

Shooting his arm into the air, lightning struck down and was absorbed into his body.

"I AM ZEUS! KING OF THE OLYMPIANS! RULER OF THE HEAVENS!"

"And number one son of a bitch on my hit list." Vanitas darkly declared, glaring at the reborn 'god' with nothing but contempt.

Zeus blinked and slowly turned his head towards Vanitas, sneering a moment later.

"Have care on how you speak, cur." Zeus spoke in open contempt. "Be grateful I do not smite thee where you stand for you are fortunate that I am in a pleasant mood."

The winds howled aloud with the god standing before them with his arms crossed in a visage of pure arrogance.

"How is it that you're here?" Batman questioned, all the while in a battle stance in case of anything. "You can't just so happened to show up out of nowhere."

Zeus narrowed his gaze at the Dark Knight before grasping the amulet hidden underneath his massive, braided beard. Pulling it out, he presented it towards the mortals.

"The Oculus of the Argo." Began the Olympian. "An artifact of my own design with the help of my son, Hephestus, and several witches I disposed of after their usefulness came to an end." He looked at the artifact and rubbed his thumb across the surface. "Originally meant to contain most of my power and be used in case of emergencies."

"Paranoid much?" Vanitas snarked.

"QUIET!" Zeus roared out with lightning bursting from his limbs. "As I was saying, this was meant to help me in times of need if ever the Titans were ever to oppose us again. Yet after knowing my son was going to kill me, with the aide of the Titans, I decided to change it to store my soul upon my death. All in order for me to rise again at a later time."

"Wait, which son?" Batgirl asked suddenly.

"Yeah, didn't you have, like, a bunch of bastards?" Vanitas asked. "I mean you hold the title of Kingly God of Gigolos in -like- ever."

Zeus was now beginning to seeth, eyes glaring murderously at the Keybearer with electricity crackling out and around his eyes.

"You test my patience, Mortal. In the days of my rule, ants such as yourselves would grovel at the chance to be within the vicinity of their betters. I see that mankind's hubris has surpassed even my own."

"Can you believe this guy?" Vanitas asked his two companions. "The fucking ego on this asshole. My God. Oh and by the way, I mean the real G-O-D, not lowercase rapist here."

"Vanitas." Batman sharply cut off his comrades rambling, his body tense with anticipation.

Naruto looked to Bats who was staring straight ahead and turned his head to see a god who was quite literally flaring his nostrils like a bull ready to charge, eyes alight with pure fury now.

However, rather than allowing his temper and anger to completely boil over and consume him, Zeus reigned himself in.

"Luckily for me, the man you knew as Maximillian stumbled upon the tomb where the Oculus was kept and I took advantage of the situation." Zeus started pacing along the ground as the three costumed heroes moved away from the Olympian. Even had to stay on guard with what remaining Heartless were present.

"His mind was in such duress, giving me the chance to manipulate his thoughts and eventually setting things in motion for my return to the mortal plane." Zeus smirked as he soon crushed the Oculus, letting it crumble into dust. "One such thing was the sacrifice of his beloved, all in order to fully release me from my device with the very element I am most known for."

'And I thought this guy was an asshole before.' Vanitas mentally told himself, growing increasingly bored and annoyed by this generic evil villain type monologue.

All the while, the three heroes began to feel an increase of static in the air. There was lightning and thunder of course, but this was different. They could literally feel crackles of lightning dancing about their skin, setting them on edge.

Zeus continued on, unconcerned with the mortals before him.

"If there is one weakness that is always easily exploitable in humanity is their meager patheticness called love and compassion." Zeus snorted like it was the funniest joke he ever heard. "My host… What a foolish failure who never understood that his one purpose in his fleeting existence was to serve nothing other than my return to this plane."

Looking towards the city landscape before him, Zeus breathed in the air and bore a look of disappointment across his visage.

"Despite me still recovering and adjusting into my new body, I can already tell this world needs my guidance and leadership once more. I will seek out my throne and seat upon it once more." He then turned his attention towards the Heartless present. "And with my new subjects, they'll spread across the world and enforce everyone to follow me once again."

"Alright, I think we've had enough of that."

Zeus arched a brow, turning his head towards the three who clearly stood against him.

"What makes you think anyone will follow an egotistical jackass like you?" Vanitas said challengingly.

"Beside the weak-willed." Batgirl added with a bite making both her elders gaze at her questioningly, causing her to go on the defensive. "What? You know it's true."

"YOU DARE DEFY ME, MORTAL!? A GOD!?"

"You're no God. I've met a few and they are more worthy at being Gods." Vanitas said as the faces of Morpheus, Oleth(ros) and Didi flashed in his vision. "And I've faced a handful of people wanting to play God and somewhat sold on the part, due to how powerful and skilled they were." The visages of Nagato, Tobi and Madara came along soon after. "You -on the other hand- are just a powered man whore of a child with a fucking big ego problem."

"THEN I SHALL SHOW YOU THE TRUE POWER OF A GOD!"

-Insert God of War III: Posideon's Wrath Extended-

Zeus roared in absolute rage with the insult by charging forward and throwing an electrified punch towards his opponent.

The Keyblader barely moved out of the way, due to how fast the Olympian god was. Yet the mortal avoided the hit as Zeus practically telegraphed his move.

'Make him angry enough and he'll be blind in realizing this.' Naruto quickly thought, eyeing the electric trails behind him. Each of them flailed and went all over the place. 'And those are the only things that possibly give himself away. I mean with lightning traveling 150 km per second, I gotta be on both my toes and utmost focus on this.'

The helmeted hero had experience with facing foes similar to Zeus, per say. Not god-like -with such example as Madara Uchiha- but referring to opponents with a similar electric power set such as the Edo Tensei personification Third Raikage, his son and successor 'A' the Fourth Raikage, this world's version of his father, Minato, otherwise known as Hiraishin and finally that Hooded Stranger who had copies of his weapons.

He had limited knowledge of each of them prior to facing them and was only able to figure things out on the fly; even more so on the Third Raikage with the help of the Kumo shinobi Dodai.

Ever since his last encounter with Hiraishin, he'd been occasionally studying some forms of electrokinesis -with Bruce's help- in order to properly combat them.

'Just never expected to face another electric powered being again so soon.' He thought, having to dodge another electrified fist to his face. 'Wish I could've been additionally equipped for this now!' His gaze went towards Batman, but more specifically his utility belt. 'Don't know if he still has silicate dust in one of those pockets. Could be of some help. For now, gonna do with what I have on hand.'

As he and his two companions avoided Zeus' and the Heartless' attacks, Vanitas listed off what weapons he could use to combat the recently resurrected god.

'Highly doubt my Fair Play cards could be able to contain him for long and don't know if the explosions they give out could deal much damage.' Naruto backflipped and delivered a roundhouse kick towards a Satyr's head before assisting Batgirl with another. 'My Haku shield could maybe be of some use here and there if I reinforce it well enough to withstand his attacks, but don't know for how many hits.'

As he thought of this, the costumed Uzumaki had summoned his ice shield in order to bash in a Mechanitaur before slamming his defensive weapon into the ground. Ice spikes sprouted from the concreted rooftop and impaled several Heartless. Batman used this moment to bounce off some of the spikes in order to evade from Zeus' physical attacks.

The Caped Crusader would've used the conjured ice to defend himself with, but seeing the god break through the material like it was nothing, Batman had to think otherwise. Even devising ways in at least holding his own against the Grecian god for as long as possible.

Assisting Batgirl with several Grecian Air Soldiers, Vanitas continued his train of thought as he blocked several diving strikes. 'As for my other weapons, I can see them doing quite the amount on Zeus.' Switching Haku for his Void Shots, he started firing upon the aerial forces with many stray shots raining down onto the other Heartless. 'And no doubt my summons would be thrashed by this guy, but I can tell they could possibly help Bruce and Barbara take care of the surrounding Heartless. I mean, there's no way they could really combat a higher, powered being.' At the thought of this, the Keyblader willed many Nobodies to appear on the battlefield, which no doubt surprised Zeus.

"What manner of creatures are these?"

"You have your posse," Vanitas said referring to the surrounding Heartless, "I have mine."

The god narrowed his eyes before issuing the Heartless a command. "Destroy these newcomers."

And so the dwellers of darkness followed the order, putting their focus primarily on the empty shells. Others, however, still went on attacking the three heroes.

It wouldn't be just power… It wouldn't be just skill… It would require quite a lot of creativity, adapting and improvising in order to get one over the resurrected Olympian if he and his two friends would ever make it out alive tonight.

After all, he was best known for being quite unpredictable.

Needing a vantage point, Vanitas leapt higher into the air when Zeus was distracted against a score of his Creeper Nobodies.

Seeing the Keyblader, a Mechanitaur and Satyr charged forward and jumped in hopes of intercepting and attacking him head on. All they got for their action was being kicked and punched in the face, sending them flying into the Olympian down below.

Zeus barely had enough time to notice the impromptu projectiles, backhanding the Heartless away -which went up into dark vapors- before receiving a powerful drop kick onto his face… hard.

With the bit of distraction successful -with Zeus currently cursing in ancient greek while holding onto a bloody nose- Vanitas summoned his Void Shots and started unloading a volley of energy projectiles onto the Grecian god. Half a dozen of them explode upon impact while others created tethers in holding the ancient being in place.

With the god being mildly incompacitated, Vanitas created several clones and had them lay a lot of pain onto their opponent. Didn't matter if it was with punches and kicks or with whatever weapons were in his arsenal.

Yet this little beatdown was sadly short lived as Zeus roared, calling onto a mighty thunderbolt to crash down onto his prone position. Clones were either sent flying back or were vaporized in an instant. The memories of the later sent shivers down the costumed Uzumaki's spine on the phantom feeling.

He never liked this kamikaze styled method with his clones ever since he started learning of the upside of his clone technique. Sure he got quite a lot of experience, which cut down a buttload of training time to a fraction of the intended amount. But feeling many of his clones die in such manners briefly filled Naruto with a sense of dread as he felt the outright pain on how some of the death's occured.

When the smoke cleared, Vanitas saw the Grecian god covered in a thick layer of lightning… that was very nostalgic to the former shinobi.

'Oh yeah, very much like the Third and Fourth Raikage's lightning armor.' Thought the Keyblader, quickly jumping to avoid Zeus' rocketed attack. 'Gonna need to take that out now.'

Forming several more clones to distract Zeus, Naruto brought his arm back and started forming one of his signature attacks in the palm of his hand. He still wished he still had his chakra, more importantly somewhat wishing he had Kurama sealed within him in order to access his former Chakra Mode.

If he did, then this upcoming attack would've been easier to pull off.

Wind started being drawn in and encircling his hand as the sound of bells chiming being heard amongst the fighting. This soon drew in both the other heroes and Zeus' attention, who smashed through several more of Vanitas' clones.

'What in Tartarus is he doing?' Zeus pondered, readying himself for the helmeted hero's attack. 'That looks like-'

With his arm reared back, the costumed Uzumaki threw his Rasenshuriken hard.

Wanting to get rid of the attack, Zeus shot several bolts of lightning at the bladed ball of concentrated wind. Much to his surprise -and to both Batman and Batgirl- the Rasenshuriken's blades sliced through the lightning with it still flying towards the god. Quickly snapping out of his shock, Zeus leapt out of the way of the Rasenshuriken's path as it went right under him.

What he didn't take to account was one of Vanitas' clones to intercept the attack, catching it with his own palm and shot forward at the retreating god.

Zeus once again attempted to evade the attack. But with how close the Rasenshuriken was to him, it was next to impossible to avoid.

The moment the attack struck Zeus' lightning armor, it sent him flying dozens of feet off and away from the rooftop before detonating. The condensed ball expanded exponentially that measured several floors worth with it's light becoming quite bright in the darkened night. And in the middle of it all, Zeus' form was consumed by the Rasenshuriken with millions of needle like swords piercing through his lightning armor all at once.

Off to the side, Batman and Batgirl were no doubt shocked to see this happen. They knew much of Vanitas' skills -due to what they've seen so far- but it appears there were more up his sleeves as he was holding back a lot in various fights.

Landing back on the rooftop, the main Vanitas kept his eyes on his consumed opponent.

Shaking off her stupor Batgirl spoke up from her placement on the battlefield. "Is he done?"

Being ever so vigilant, Batman saw his friend's stance as it seemed highly unlikely.

After all, they were facing a literal god of Grecian myths.

As the screeching of the Rashenshuriken's attack was still going on, it abruptly ended with the god's form bursting through the powered mass.

Before Vanitas could react quick enough, despite being ready, he was met with a powerful punch towards his guts. And if that wasn't enough, Zeus sent another right into his blackened, glass domed helmet. The two blows were so strong, they sent him flying across the rooftop, crashed into a stone pillar and causing it to collapse on top of him…

All in an instant.

"That one hurt, mortal." Growled out the thunder god as his lightning armor was no longer present. All that was shown were numerous cuts and burn marks along his muscular form and attire.

Being the closest to the crash site, Batgirl rushed over to her mentor and went to see if he was alive and breathing. By the time she got there, she saw Vanitas pushing the broken stone off his body before collapsing onto the ground.

"Vanitas, are you-"

The masked Gordon paused when she saw Vanitas' helmet severely cracked with blackened pieces falling onto the ground. They clattered before dissolving into nothingness.

She was about to speak up again… that was until she saw Vanitas quickly gagging-

"NGGHH!-GUAAHHHHHH!"

-before throwing up so much blood that it started painting the ground beneath him!

"VANITAS!" Batgirl and Batman cried out, diving towards his side and supporting him.

"Hang in there!" Batgirl yelled in an obvious worried tone.

"Damn," he started in a voice sounding quite familiar to her, "feels like my insides became pulpish." More fragments of his helmet broke off, revealing more of his features. "Mind reaching into my back pocket and pull out an Elixir for me?"

Barbara hesitantly nodded, no doubt disturbed by the amount of blood pooling around her legs. Once snatching the Elixir from the belt pouch, she handed it over to her mentor. The moment he brought his head back in order to fully down the concoction did she let out a gasp in absolute shock.

"N-Naruto?"

With the helmet in pieces now, his silver hair and whiskered face was fully exposed for Barbara to gaze upon.

He turned his hazel eyes to her, whipping his blood off his mouth before giving her a sad smile. "Sorry you had to find out this way, Barb." Getting himself back onto his feet, Naruto tossed the now empty bottle to the side as he stared at the Olympian stalking towards them. "We can talk more about this later. For now, we got a god to take care of."

Countless questions ran rampant throughout Barbara's mind the moment she saw her beloved crush's face underneath that helmet. She was not prepared for such a thing as everything she planned on her confessions were no doubt thrown out of the metaphysical window. And she now knew everything between them were never going to be the same.

But for now, she had to put all this on hold as her mentor/crush was right. Right now, they -along with Batman- need to take care of Zeus… somehow.

"Quite the pathetic display, boy." Zeus stopped a good dozen feet away, flexing his hands at every other moment. "But I must admit that attack you used had indeed hurt me. But that won't surprise me anymore."

Charging forward, Zeus posed to strike the unmasked man down. Acting fast, Naruto formed a barrier around them which soon cracked severely. This didn't stop the god at all as he kept lying on the blows left and right in hopes of taking care of the nuisance sooner than later.

With gritted teeth, Naruto spoke to his two companions. "I highly suggest you two fall back-"

"I'm not gonna leave you, Naruto!"

"And I don't want you to die!" Responded the Uzumaki with thunder clap like bangs echoed within the destabilizing barrier. "I'm giving you the opportunity to get to safety and figure something out to help take this bastard down! Now go!"

Batgirl hesitated, but knew Naruto was looking for her wellbeing. And it also helped with Batman giving her a low tier version of his bat glare as he agreed with Naruto's suggestion. As he did, the Bat gave his young friend a metallic orb with a silent message being given in knowing what to do.

With no further option, the Bat pair ran out of the protective bubble in order to survey the continuation of the clash between hero and god.

"Don't think with those two mortals out of the way will I not end their lives." Zeus proclaimed as he struck the barrier once more. "They won't bow down to me as they will no doubt resist me. So once I'm done with you, I'll take care of them accordingly."

"Like hell you are, Zeus!"

Dropping his barrier when the thunder god was about to strike down once again, Naruto rolled out of the way. He felt the force from his opponent's blow against the ground, thanking his lucky stars he wasn't hit by that so soon. Before Zeus could act accordingly, the Uzumaki threw the orb the Bat gave him into the Grecian god's face.

Which soon exploded to a large dust bomb.

Zeus wildly coughed and wheezed as he had a hard time breathing. "W-Wha-*cough* *cough*"

From most of his body, Zeus was covered in a thick layer of silica dust, which disrupted an electrokinesis user. It was supposed to last a long time against a normal person, but Naruto didn't know long it'll go up against a god.

Not wanting to wait and see to find out, Naruto went into action by summoning his Keyblade, dived in and started striking against Zeus' form.

The flurry of powered attacks seemed to prove effective with the god being a bit disoriented by the silicate dust. Even to the point that the elder being was thrown off balance, causing Naruto to grasp onto the god's arm and performing a judo throw. As he was mildly airborne, Zeus was soon struck with a powered Rasengan, which sent him flying across a small part of the battlefield and striking against a pavillion's pillar.

Massive cracks formed upon his arrival as he was mildly buried into the material. Zeus was about to pry himself out with his strength, but Naruto sped right in, kneed his privates before sending yet another Rasengan to break him through the pillar and crashing into yet another.

Zeus grew angry from the ongoing blows upon him, causing the Olympian to lash out by calling upon lightning to come down from the heavens. Seeing the flashes dancing across the sky, Naruto leapt out of the way to avoid the bolts; which seemed rather continuous with many poised to take him out.

"Ha ha, missed me! Missed me! Now ya gotta-"

"SHUT UP!"

"Make me, asshat!"

As this happened, Zeus had commanded the clouds above to gather and condense to their location. Soon enough, more rain droplets started falling and landing on both him and onto the rooftop. Before long, it truly poured like the god was taking a quick dip in the ocean as the silicate dust started coming off his body.

Seeing this, Naruto clicked his tongue as the god soon floated off the ground with a torrent of wind carrying him. 'It was good while it lasted.'

Needing to change tactics, the Uzumaki switched his Keyblade out for his Kazekage lance and went into a battle position.

"So... wanna dance?" Naruto asked with a narrowed glare. "Let's dance."

Outwardly, he was calm and collected. Yet internally he was a mix of freaking out in both nervousness and odd giddiness. Say what you will about Madara Uchiha, but some of his phrases were pretty badass... despite how fucking terrifying the famous shinobi was.

With a great leap, Naruto appeared right below him and thrust the lance at him. Zeus merely moved to one side, no doubt thinking he was safe at a distance, only to widen his electrified eyes as a torrent of wind emerged from his opponent's weapon and launched itself at him. The attack collided against his chest, causing the Olympian to fly across the rooftop and smacked right into a statue; which crumbled soon after.

Naruto didn't stop pushing his attack, thrusting his weapon towards the Greek god as it soared across the battlefield. The elder being braced himself from the incoming attack, but failed to anticipate his opponent to teleport back to his thrown weapon. Grasping near one end of the dual bladed lance, the whiskered warrior swung his weapon hard towards the ground, creating a large stormy burst below them and shooting the god into the air.

"You dare use my domain, boy!?"

"Oh, I do Zeus!"

Summoning five more Kazekage lances to reach their limit, the spare weapons floated around their wielder before spinning at dangerous speeds. Quickly turning one bladed side, each aimed towards the Olympian who was currently trying to recover from the earlier attack. With a mental command, Naruto willed his five dual-bladed lances to fire at the god at the highest speeds they could muster.

Zeus quickly retaliated and swatted a pair away with his hands; yet the other three avoided his reach, quickly maneuvered around him, met their mark and exploded upon contact. Zeus let out a pained grunt with the recent series of blows on his person.

"This is a hell of a nuisance you are giving me, mortal!" Zeus bellowed as he summoned lightning to strike down onto his opponent.

Naruto quickly rolled out of the way from a pair of incoming bolts. He thanked his lucky stars he was quick enough on his responsive reflexes. Yet he possibly wasn't lucky when he wasn't fast enough to evade an incoming one. Acting quickly on instinct, Naruto brought out some of his lightning daggers aimed them towards the sky. The bolts redirected slightly as they went from him towards the newly drawn weapons.

And much to Zeus' frustrating anger, the Uzumaki's weapons absorbed his lightning bolts.

"YOU DARE STEAL WHAT IS MINE!"

The arm that held several Foundre daggers wildly shook as they were trying to contain the newly absorbed, foreign power. Naruto didn't like the idea of having them blowing up on his person, which would no doubt wreck him to kingdom come.

Yet it was at this moment, a devious idea popped into his head; causing him to form a cheshire-like grin.

Rearing his arm back, Naruto spoke out. "If ya want it back, then here ya go!"

Without further warning, the whiskered Uzumaki shot his arm forward and fired off the overloaded Fondre daggers. Instead of the normal speeds they previously held, they went towards speeds that could've rivaled that of the ammunition of a railgun.

"What the-!"

The daggers roared across the sky, rocketing towards their intended target with a deafening sound.

Seeing this incoming attack, Zeus quickly formed an electrified barrier and densed it considerably. Just in time too as the moment it was finalized, the daggers' tips struck the powered shield-

*KRACK-KABOOOOOM*

-sending the Grecian god back quite a distance away.

"GAAAAAAAAHH!" Zeus sounded out, feeling the powered blow as he felt the force, even from behind his now flickering shield. Throughout his body, his bones wildly rattled with his muscles spasming to recover from the impact.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Roared the god with gritted teeth, gathering whatever energy he has internally and with a burst of lightning, he rocketed towards his opponent in a dive-bomb like manner.

'Oh crap~ this is gonna hurt-'

*KRAKOOM* *CRASH*

The amount of power released from the Zeus-bomb was enough to send not just Naruto, but also Batman and Batgirl hurtling across the rooftop. The two bat-themed heroes had to quickly act and snatch anything, whether it was the rooftop's edge or anything in general and hold for dear life or else they'd fly off and possibly fall towards their demise. And from the source of it all, the god's latest attack was bright enough to vaporize any remaining Heartless due to how intense the light was. And as for Naruto, much of his bodysuit was seared with various burns that ate away the material.

Landing into a skidding halt, Naruto looked upon himself and sucked in his teeth. 'Oh man~ it's gonna be a while for this to repair itself.' He then gritted his teeth as pain racked all over him. 'And tomorrow's gonna suck-'

The Keyblader's instincts yelled at him to move, barely avoiding a lightning encased fist delivered by the offending opponent who burst out from a large dust cloud. And this was followed with several others with Zeus wanting to get up close and personal.

Performing several backflip handsprings, Naruto went up into the air as all six of his Kazekage lances formed around him. Upon seeing Zeus rocketing right at him, he willed his lances to form a barrier around him in hopes of blocking the incoming blow.

And it seemed this time around, it was Naruto who felt his body ache and rattle from the recent attack; despite the protection he currently had.

The Uzumaki retaliated by willing his lances to deliver an arching swing with six blades colliding against the Olympian. The series of slices cut across his skin, causing golden blood to seep through the newly made openings. And it wasn't long before more were made with additional slices. Not wanting to let up, the wind lances shot forward all at once and pierced each of his limbs and parts of his chest. The force of the attack sent Zeus flying back towards the rooftop, causing it to shake upon impact with a large dent made into its surface.

Soaring down, Naruto grasped one of his lances as each of them connected in an elongated, multi-jointed bo-staff. Upon touching the rooftop, the Uzumaki swung his weapon around with the elongated weapon impacting the thunder god. Said Olympian let out a series of grunts and yells with him being relentlessly attacked by the mortal before him.

Once the onslaught came to an end, Zeus let out a roar. Lightning struck down from the heavens and impacted the god. A newly made aura of lightning coated his body, which made Naruto realize he was going to be on the defensive at this point again.

'Either that or unintentionally copying the Third Raikage's tactic.' Naruto thought in remembrance with his encounter with the deceased leader of the Cloud Village. 'If so, then I might have an idea to get through that Lightning Armor of his again. But I'll have to improvise along the way for the right moment. And I got just the thing.'

Before anything else could be done, Zeus shot his arms up into the air before quickly bringing them down. Wasn't long before numerous lightning bolts started falling and crashing down onto the rooftop.

Throughout this time, the costumed Uzumaki had to quickly maneuver away from the elemental attacks on his person. And every so often, he had to use his lances to either redirect, parry or bat away the coming blows. Wouldn't be long afterwards with him having small windows of sending forth retaliating wind attacks with his present weapons.

*KRAKOOOM*

Lightning struck the rooftop once again followed by another and another. As the white-hot electricity created a symphony of noise all around the city. Their lights keeping the sky lite for minutes at a time despite the black clouds that cover most of Gotham. Wind chased each other in circles, unintentionally creating funnels to combat against the roaring, opposing element.

The shaking, lightning and wind continued to increase reaching new heights as the god and mortal fought against each other.

This was all Batman and Batgirl witnessed in these past moments which felt like forever, truly feeling out of place in a battle that was clearly out of their league.

If it weren't for this rooftop being reinforced considerably when it was being remodeled last year, then this battlefield… no, tower… would've caved in and crumble down to the streets below.

At one point, each of the wind lances connected together to form a very large pole. Grasping the far end, Naruto swung his elongated pole which widened his attack range significantly that it was hard to move out of the way in time. The impromptu, metallic whip ended up coated with wind, increasing its speed in the process, resulting in striking Zeus up into the air before being struck several times by Naruto's ongoing assault.

Finding satisfaction on Zeus' pained bellows, Naruto had his six lances connect once more before jumping at the leading one. Soon enough, he channeled power into them, causing them all to enlarge and change into an impromptu monster.

Stopping in the air, the head of the changed weapon opened up and formed a tri-pronged mouth with a Rasenshuriken being formed within it's maw.

"See if you can dodge or hold off against this, asshole!"

What Batgirl and Batman could really see next was like witnessing a dragon letting out a torrent of condensed wind from it's opened maw. It was soon released, rocketing the Rasenshuriken at faster speeds than what they previously seen. And like before, the impact was quite large with the airborne god being dealt quite a lot of damage.

"GRRYAAAAHH!"

Zeus screamed within the piercing wind spear just as there was a huge bolt of lightning that struck through and collided with the Grecian god.

Being able to somewhat see inside of his expanded Rasenshuriken, Naruto saw Zeus disolving into the thunderbolt and traveled upward into the clouds above.

Before he could act accordingly, a mass of clouds formed an arm and struck down the Uzumaki with his Kazekage lances disbursing soon after.

"GAAAAAH!"

Smashing onto the rooftop, Naruto tumbled for a good number of feet. And he only stopped when he crashed into something.

"Naruto! Are you alright!?"

Or someone.

The Uzumaki groaned, shaking his head before seeing his protege's worried glance. "Yeah, I'm fine." She helped him up to his feet as he looked around. "You see what hit me?"

"Would you believe the clouds?" Came Batman's response.

"...If you told me this prior to this fight, I would have laughed in your face."

All Naruto got in response was Batman's tier one batglare.

Naruto was about to rebuke when he, Batgirl and Batman felt the rooftop shake, causing them to tumble in their spots.

"I've had enough of you, boy!"

Zeus' voice rumbled across the sky, causing the three heroes to look all over for any sign of the thunder god. The rooftop shook once more as the mortals steadied themselves.

Wasn't long before they ended up seeing a massive form rising off the rooftop's side, revealing Zeus taking on a gigantic form. And his lightning covered eyes heavily glared at Naruto with righteous fury.

-Insert God of War III: Chamber of Flame Extended-

"...Well shit~"

A massive storm quickly formed around the Maximillian Shipping tower with its elements dancing around the vicinity.

"You are going to pay for your insolence!"

Bringing down an arm, Zeus sent a massive wave of electricity across the battlefield. The three heroes jumped as best as they could to avoid the dancing lightning arcs. Yet one of them caught Barbara's leg, causing her to let out a pained yell with the power screeching through her body.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he helped get Batgirl to a higher area so she wouldn't get hurt by Zeus' current attack. In the meantime, the Uzumaki sent out a dozen clones to distract the god long enough to heal his protege.

Once they landed on the pavilion's top, Naruto quickly pulled out a high potion, held onto the spasming Gordon and carefully poured it's contents into her mouth.

The results soon presented themselves as the lightning dissipated off Batgirl's form. Her breathing calmed down as Naruto didn't have to look underneath her mask to see her amethyst eyes trained on him.

"Are you alright now?"

Barbara did her best to calm her beating heart and it wasn't because of Zeus' attack.

All the past times of Vanitas saving her from death defying moments made her very greatful on the acts. She had indeed felt safe around him as he did what he could to protect her. And in those times, she wished it was Naruto that did those things for her.

Apparently her wish came true in the most unexpected way.

Right now, Barbara was in Naruto's arms as he was doing what he could to save her. Even more so with this dire situation happening at the very moment.

Not wanting to embarrass herself, all the costumed Gordon could do was give her mentor/crush a quick shake of the head 'yes'.

Naruto gave her a soft smile before turning towards Batman. "Mind looking after her?"

The Dark Knight gave a firm nod.

Turning his attention at Zeus' massive form, Naruto leapt into the air and summoned his Void Shots before unleashing a volley of energy projectiles. Each impacted the thunder god's form and let off small explosions that drew his attention away from the clones and onto the original.

"I shall show you no more mercy!"

Naruto glared at Zeus as he continued firing his weapon. "Mercy? I hardly saw anything in our fight as being merciful. So come down here like a man and face me!"

"I am no man-"

"You sure act like one." Naruto gave him a cocky smirk. "Or better yet, you're just a beefy bitch of a woman trying to be an all so tough man!"

This set off the Grecian god of the sky, roaring at the mortal. Taking the bait per say, Zeus' gigantic form dissolved into electric sparks and landed onto the rooftop.

But instead of the normal Zeus he was currently fighting-

"Seriously? You're copying my stick?"

-Naruto was up against a good dozen or so of lightning styled clones.

Concentrating hard enough into his Void Shots, the Uzumaki sent out a powerful energy bolt as it dug into the rooftop's surface. It exploded, sending out massive tethers onto many of the enemy clones and slowing them to a crawl. Before landing, Naruto switched out his arrow guns for his Lunar Rose before swiping it's ivory blade through a few clones.

Upon witnessing Naruto's newly summoned weapon, Zeus felt the power radiating off it's form and soon recognized what it belonged to; quickly assuming in an arrogant manner.

"HOW DARE YOU USE DEMETER'S POWER, BOY!"

"Not everything has to belong to you and your fellow Olympians, Zeus!" Naruto yelled, swinging Lunar Rose to clash against another godly clone. "You think that just because you lot are so damn powerful, you dare proclaim dominion over everything! Like I said before, you -in particular- are still a spoiled child-!"

"PETULANT CHILD!" Zeus interrupted, sending yet another bolt at his mortal opponent. "I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INSOLENCE ANY LONGER!"

Naruto was not deterred from halting himself on speaking his mind more on the matter. "You are just throwing your power around and not wanting to deal with the repercussions on your actions." The Keyblader rolled out of the way in avoiding another lightning strike. "Same goes with many of your fellow family members. Bullying the weak and taking advantage of them in the process." A glare was sent towards the ancient being. "Then again, you guys are just jealous of us mortals that we can be much better than you."

"Jealous?!" Zeus guffawed. "What on Earth would we the Gods be envious of you mortals for? We are immortal, perfect and supreme beings of eternal power."

Naruto grit his teeth, momentarily struggling with another Zeus clone that was pushing him back. Ducking out of the way, Naruto struck its stomach before decapitating the head. Facing Zeus once more, the silver haired hero's eyes momentarily shifted from blue to red.

"You lack what humanity has over everything on this planet." Vanitas declared, thumping his heart with his left fist. "Indomitable Willpower and a bottomless potential for evolution and change. Yet all you lot are just fucking stagant and doing nothing to improve yourselves!"

Zeus momentarily paused before scoffing. "Words of an uninspiring, hopeless fool. You shall meet your swift end here."

"WHY AM I STILL STANDING THEN, JACKASS?!" Naruto roared back in frustration and annoyance as he dodged yet another flurry of lightning bolts. These damn clones and lightning bolts were really starting to piss him off, even with his ability to clone himself.

As he kept swinging Lunar Rose, a small thought crossed his mind as he wished he had more back up.

He was fine with Bruce and Barbara being present -as they seemed to be fighting against some of Zeus' stray clones- but he hoped he had more than just them; specifically Pam. Out of the others in the Gothamite heroes, Pam was by far the most powerful; arguably more so than her boyfriend and father of her daughters.

Reason why he wished she was here was that Naruto needed her present to summon their child…

No, not one of their sporeling daughters; their other child: the Snapdragon.

Pam considered it their fourth born child as they used their combined strength and power to create it before unleashing it upon Grimley.

After their fight against Pam's former boss, the pair had tried to control it. Much to their dismay, their child was very… rebellious. Even more so when it was only one of them calling out the Snapdragon. And it was only when both of it's parents were present could they properly summon and reel in the plant serpent-like dragon.

Without her being present, Naruto risked his fourth child running rampant and causing untold damage.

'Don't know if I can risk it with Bruce and Barbara currently present here.' He thought, swinging his Green scythe at yet another lightning clone.

But it was at this moment did his bladed weapon come across the opponent did he see golden blood being spilt.

This made him grin, realizing he found the real Zeus out of the copies.

Rearing his arms back, Naruto delivered a powerful swing with energy coating the blade. It was brought forward, shooting out a massive arc of energy that crashed into the real Grecian sky god. Said being let out a pained yell and sent him flying across the battlefield.

Crashing into a marble statue, Zeus brought himself up before feeling something brush against the bare flesh of his foot. Looking down, he saw a bronze sword before briefly looking at the Keyblader. Without further thought, he picked up the weapon and coated the blade with lightning.

"Might not be the Blade of Olympus, but this will have to do."

Tightening his grip, Zeus zoomed forward with his empowered sword poised to strike down the scythe wielder. Naruto had enough time to intercept the blow, feeling the recoil as he tried to keep his ground.

"Alright, ow."

Both had their weapons grinding against one another, with Zeus slowly pushing him back.

"I have known you for only this period of time, mortal." Zeus hissed as their eyes bore into each other. "And you've become quite the nuisance that should've been dealt with at the beginning."

"Thanks, I try."

"EVEN NOW YOU JEST!"

Vanitas glared defiantly back into the gods eyes, not showing an ounce of fear when he chuckled.

"I see it now. Why all the showboating."

"What?"

"All this stupid posturing and yelling about your power and how mortals exist below you. You're only doing this because you know, deep in your very heart and soul, you already know, don't you? Humanity has long since surpassed you and your ilk the minute we stopped worshipping you as gods and started worshipping you as commodities and ways to entertain ourselves. You hate the fact that humanity doesn't give a rats ass about you and could have cared less if returned the day before or even a hundred years ago. You're nothing but old news that's clinging to relevance."

To say that Zeus was furious would be an understatement as Naruto was fully aware of his goading of the god. Needing to play on an even playing field, Naruto needed to quickly change weapons.

But first-

Using a good amount of strength, Naruto pushed the thunder god away. Before his opponent could attack upon his small recovery, the Uzumaki dived from an electrified sword swing. Sliding closer to the god, the whiskered man summoned a Foundre dagger, reared his fist and shot it forward…

*GAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaah!~"

...stabbing the dagger right into Zeus' groin.

"Y-Y-YOU M-MISERABLE LITTLE BASTARD!" Bellowed out the god, holding onto his bleeding area with his free hand.

Naruto himself couldn't contain his cringe at what he just did.

Even from his placement on top of the pavillion, Batman couldn't help but wince on what his friend just pulled.

Barbara could only gape open mouthed at the level of insanity Naruto just did.

Zeus was raging while still holding his tenders with lightning crashing in the skies.

"Ok, full disclosure, this goes against the bro code in a severe way. But~ you were being all bitchy and all, so I thought I should make it so you actually were…. You know, a bitch?" Spinning Lunar Rose, Naruto quickly switched it out into his Keyblade with a smirk gracing his lips.

The Olympian God glared though it could only convey so much. God as he may be, he got stabbed in the dick with a dagger! That'll take a second to recover. It's his pride and joy after all.

"Besides, I believe all the women in the world would be outright thanking me for castrating the rapist that you are."

"The pits of Tartarus is not even close to the hell that awaits your very existence, boy." Zeus wheezed out.

"I'd probably say the same thing if anyone stabbed me in the dick like that." Naruto remarked with a shrug.

Zeus only seethed, at long last feeling his jewels healing completely and properly and being able to stand up straight once again. He tried to look as proud, powerful and imposing as he believed himself to be but the phantom pain down there just didn't leave his mind.

No words were spoken momentarily.

…

*CLANG*

*SHINK*

*CLANG*

Naruto parried Zeus' blade and moved to strike him down, but it was blocked. The whiskered man then took a step back and channeled energy into his Keyblade.

He couldn't prolong this any further!

Naruto roared as he swung his Keyblade upwards, creating and shooting a wave of black and white energy that caught Zeus by surprise. It slammed into the God, sending him crashing through another stone pillar again and Naruto continued to fire wave after wave after wave.

It no doubt pissed Zeus off further as thunder clapped across the sky. Taking that as a sign, Naruto jumped away just as a bolt of lightning struck. He continued to hop around as more lightning struck across the entire area.

Looking towards his companions on the sidelines, Naruto hoped they can be safe from this ongoing battle.

Speaking of, Batman and Batgirl were currently preoccupied as they were facing a newly appeared wave of Heartless. They had to make due with what they had on hand this time around as they were becoming quite limited on their arsenal.

Moreso with Barbara as she was currently without a specialized weapon to combat the creatures of darkness.

In a quick moment, Naruto spun around and summoned a Kazekage spear. With a command, he sent it flying into a Heartless near his protege.

Seeing the double bladed lance striking through a Satyr, Barbara sent a thankful nod towards her mentor/crush. Grasping the weapon, she pried it off the ground before swinging it at a Heartless to resume the fighting somewhat in her favor.

Putting his attention back into the main fight, Naruto heard thunder clapping again and quickly brought up his key-shaped sword and raised his defenses. He was right too, as Zeus slammed down his lighting covered bronze sword upon Naruto with a lightning bolt following soon after, causing a shockwave to emit and a crater to form underneath the Keyblader. Naruto gritted his teeth as he glared into the Olympian's eyes who was rather irritated Naruto wasn't dead yet.

Zeus raised a brow when the black aura around Naruto started to flare and the blond opened his mouth just as a black spell circle appeared.

"Dark Firaga!"

Instead of the typical red flames, these were extremely dark as they burst out of Naruto's open palm and struck Zeus' form hard.

With Zeus flew across the battlefield with dark flames licking his clothes and body. He used his energy to blast the flames off his body while bringing more in for the offensive. With a wave of his sword, arcs of lightning rocketed forward and slammed into Naruto's recently conjured ice shield, which soon formed cracks along the edges. Before long, the Uzumaki was sent flying into the air as it gave Zeus a chance to turn the fight into his favor.

Seeing Zeus' form disappear, Naruto quickly raised his defenses to a higher level. In the last moment, the Olympian appeared at his side and swiped his sword against his blind spot, sending the Keyblader tumbling down towards the rooftop with a pained groan escaping his lips.

Zeus dashed aside, circling the Keyblader and seemingly unimpressed by the speed of both his movements and the rate he cast his spells. Wasn't long before the Greek god zoomed in close to cleave him.

Parrying, Naruto redirected the strike meant for his chest, only to get a fist slamming against his head for his troubles. He stumbled and Zeus slashed his weapon from his shoulder across his armored chest, preparing a thrust to follow up the attack. Naruto, too off balanced to block it, instead twisted his body and sent his sore arm in front of him; the thrust caught his forearm, penetrating it, but not his chest.

He ignored the pain, swinging his Keyblade at Zeus' outstretched arm. The bastard of a god still managed to block it, even when his blade was stuck in the Uzumaki's bleeding arm. Still, the Keyblader leaned forward, allowing him the chance to deliver a headbutt.

The Olympian reared his head back from the recent blow. It was quite painful, due to the shattered material of his opponent's helmet cutting into his skin. Incor, the golden blood of the gods, dribbled down and almost blinding him with how close it got to his eyes.

Giving himself some distance, the Olympion wiped away the flowing ichor with his free hand. Glaring at his opponent, he saw his gaze which held some sort of satisfaction on his recent act.

It did hurt, however his godly pride would not let that show, despite what beating he had been taking in this fight of theirs.

With a growl, the Olympian spoke. "You are nothing. A weak-willed fool, who dares challenge the likes of-"

Zeus was cut off as the costumed Uzumaki leaped high into the air with a dark aura around him swirling at a powerful rate. He brought his blade down vertically where Zeus was standing, but the Grecian god had leapt aside. Not wasting a moment and ignoring the pain coming from his leg, he launched off the ground, slashing diagonally while ducking beneath a strike from Zeus as he rammed into him with his shoulder.

The Thunder God absorbed the blow, reached around and tried to put Naruto into a triangle hold.

It was pitiful. Naruto jerked loose before the Olympian could fully tighten their embrace. And at this moment, the whiskered man reared back his elbow and sent a powered strike straight into Zeus' ribcage, it connected.

His opponent dashed backwards, space created between them again. He gritted his teeth at the fact all his effort of slaying the mortal combatant was not done easily.

'Is this the result of all my effort and planning? Unable to kill one simple human!?'He roared in thought before vocally growling. "I am through playing with you, boy!"

Tossing his blade on the ground and conjuring a ball of lightning in his hand. It glowed not in its normal white, yellow hue but rather a mix of silver and yellow. Clamping his hands together, he soon stretched them out to reveal a long spear-like weapon that sparked all over and absorbed into the two lightning shaped tips at each end.

This was Zeus's almighty lightning bolt, the Master Bolt; the physical manifestation of his godly power.

Upon its arrival, the three mortals felt a very heavy weight placed on their bodies. The force behind the Master Bolt's presence was truly astounding and very frightening.

And it was all directed at Naruto in particular.

Said man was starting to sweat bullets with his breathing becoming rather harsh. 'T-This… weight… this fear… I haven't felt this way ever since seeing the real Madara for the first time.' Naruto tried to keep himself steady in case of anything. 'Even when he summoned that meteor-'

Without any warning, Zeus' Master Bolt shot forward with a thunderclap!

*KRASH-KOOOOOM!*

Naruto tried to avoid it, he honestly did, but this new weapon of Zeus was faster than what he dealt with prior as it literally hit him in a flash. Ignoring the pain in his injured arm, Naruto moved his Keyblade to intercept the Master Bolt. But he was unsuccessful to block or parry the powered spear as it dug deep into his shoulder, clearly hitting bone.

Naruto let out a pained yell as lightning coursed through his body, causing him to spasm.

He knew that Zeus would've been -hands down- tougher than any of his past foes. A literal god in a higher category than anything he'd ever faced before. So far throughout this fight, he'd been able to hold against the Olympian. But with the appearance of the Master Bolt, this would no doubt make this fight more challenging than before.

Wanting the pain to stop, the Uzumaki grasped the Master Bolt and tried his hardest to pry it out of his body. But the lightning styled barb end of the spear made it hard to do so, on top of the lightning shocking his body at every other second.

He was so distracted that he failed to realize how quick Zeus closed the distance between them, with the god grasping his throat and lifting him up off the ground.

"L-Let… M-ME… GO!"

"You've lived and fought long enough, boy." Growled the god.

"F-FUCK Y-YOU." Was the vigilante's response.

Zues only tightened his grip around the man's throat. With his free hand, Zeus casually caught Naruto's Keyblade and jerked it out of his hand.

"Maybe this would teach you a lesson on your betters, child." Rearing his hand back so Naruto wouldn't snatch it away, a menacing smile graced his lips.

"Th-ACK-That's mine, A-Asshole." Naruto gasped out.

Zeus grinned maliciously. "Would you like it back? Far be it from I, a benevolent God from stealing what is not his."

Without any further indication or word speaking, Zeus spun the Keyblade around and the blink of an eye stabbed its owner right in his heart.

From their position on the ground, both Batman and Batgirl could only stare in horror. Feeling their hearts pause and outright drop into their stomachs upon seeing Naruto getting stabbed through the chest with his own weapon.

Seeing the light quickly escaping the Keyblader's eyes, with the key-shaped sword disappearing in a cluster of white and black wisps, Zeus pried his Master Bolt out of the mortal's body before tossing it aside as it tumbled and skidded across the wet rooftop.

"NARUTO!" Barbara cried out, scrambling onto her feet and rushing towards him.

As she got there, she turned him upright and started checking his pulse…

Only to find nothing.

"Nonononononononono you can't die Naruto. You can't! YOU CAN'T!" Tears quickly formed and spilled down her cheeks as she held onto his body. "I-I haven't told you how I felt! It's not fair! I haven't told you how much you mean to me!"

She started rummaging through Naruto's utility belt in hopes of finding a potion or an elixir in hopes of saving his life. Finding one, Barbara uncorked the bottle and tried pouring it into his mouth. Seeing as it couldn't work all that well, she downed the liquid into her mouth, pressed her lips onto his and did her best in transferring the healing concoction.

Even after feeling the last of the concoction leaving her mouth, she kept pressing her mouth against his own and shown so much passion into the kiss as she didn't want it to end.

Having to release her lips from his in order to get some air, Barbara waited… and waited… and waited for any response from the man she loved in the entire world. Only to see that nothing was working, causing her to let out loud sobs as her attempts in saving Naruto were shattered beyond repair.

Zeus couldn't help but unleash a bellow of a laugh as he had defeated the Keyblader that caused him quite the nuisance since his resurrection. With him gone, there will be no one stopping him from retaking his throne and ruling the planet like he'd done all those years ago.

His thunderous laughs came to an abrupt halt when he felt several batarangs impacting his body. Looking down, lights rapidly blinked before the bat shaped weapons exploded all over his body.

Before the god could recover, Batman appeared from the thick smoke and delivered a haymaker across the thunder god's jaw.

Despite not seeing the man's eyes, Zeus could tell fury was being shown behind the Gothamite's cowl.

Bruce felt outright useless in not being able to assist his friend in fending off against Zeus. And he felt like he had failed in protecting a dear friend. A friend he got to know over these past years and fought alongside in both their civilian and heroic lives.

Now he felt like he was reliving that tragic night where his childhood abruptly died with that mugger shooting his parents back in Crime Alley.

Wanting payback for what Zeus had brought upon him, Batman lashed out and intended to do everything he can in taking the bastard of a god down for good!

Setting his shock gloves to the max, Batman kept delivering punch after punch against Zeus' form in some way of defeating the being. Some inchor escaped from Zeus' mouth as he kept bleeding with every other blow.

Growing tired from the assault, Zeus intercepted the next punch by grasping onto the Bat's arm. Without much effort, the thunder god tossed Batman away and sent him flying across the battlefield.

As if the first Bat of Gotham wasn't bad enough to deal with, Batgirl soon joined the fray -after healing herself with Naruto's potions- with the Kazekage lance poised at the god's head.

She yelled and screamed with tears continuously running down her face as she kept swinging her love's wind lance. Yet every swing, strike and thrust she tried sending was avoided by the ancient being.

Growing tired of her, Zeus decided to teach her a lesson as well by beating some sense into her just as Batman came roaring with anguish in his heart.

-Insert Hunter X Hunter: Theme of Kage and Rasetsu-

Lying on the rooftop, Naruto's bleeding, prone body could barely make out the surroundings with his senses slowly fading.

Sounds of Barbara's wails could be heard as she was being thrashed by the thunder god. And Bruce struggled in fending against their shared opponent.

Wouldn't be much longer for them to possibly join him in the eventual afterlife.

Yet a part of him didn't want that to happen as they still have so much to live for… much like himself.

'Bruce… Barbara… They're calling…'

…..

Hitting the pavement in a tumble, Batgirl let out a pained yelp. Eventually coming to a stop, she hissed before coughing out blood from her mouth. She struggled to get back up, even with the support of Naruto's wind lance.

On the other side -parallel of her- Batman was sent back with electricity running through his body. He fought in what felt like forever in not releasing a scream. The Bat might've felt more if it weren't for his friend's lightning daggers absorbing most of the power.

…..

'They're… They're in trouble…'

…..

With tears streaming down her eyes, Barbara briefly looked at Naruto's deceased body before rushing forward to help the elder hero from his current predicament.

"I don't know if you can even hear me, Naruto," Barbara began, dodging several of Zeus' lightning attacks. "But we need you."

She thrust the wind lance at the god's exposed back. The attack had been unsuccessful with Zeus quickly turning around and blasted his attacker with equal force to what Batgirl attempted to deliver onto him.

Batgirl flew across the field before slamming against a fallen pillar and felt a few bones breaking in the process.

Fighting through the pain, the costumed redhead wanted to get back up. Yet this came to an abrupt halt when Batman collided against her; resulting of them lying on the ground in agony.

…..

Blackened vapors slowly enclosed to his position as they started swirling around him. There were even vapors rising out of the hole from his body with both sets of vapors meeting and melding with each other.

…..

Batgirl could only do now was hope… hope for someone to save them. With pain overwhelming her, she could only do as such. And only one person crossed her mind and filled her very being.

With only a whisper, Barbara spoke without rational thought as the Grecian god stalked towards them.

"We need you, Naruto… I need you…"

…..

'They need me…'

…..

It wasn't long before the vapors started speeding and condensing at an accelerated rate.

This would've been quite noticeable if it weren't for the surrounding storm currently going on. And if one focused at the eye of the new storm, they would see Naruto's body slowly twitching and his spilled blood going back into him.

*Thump~ Bump~*

…..

'They need me… They need me… They need me… They need me… They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me. They need me.'

…..

'I… I need… I need to get up…'

…..

*Thump~ Bump~*

…..

'I need to get up…'

*Thump~ Bump~*

'I need to get up… I need to get up… I need to get up! I need to get up! I need to get up!'

*Thump~ Bump~*

If it were possible, his now nonexistent heart started pumping nonexistent blood in hopes of properly moving the dying body. And the gaping hole in his chest was being mended by the vapors…

'I NEED TO GET UP!

To become something more…

Something else…

'I NEED TO GET UP AND PROTECT THEM!'

*THUMP~ BUMP~*

There was an explosion of light that blinded Zeus, and a powerful shockwave of power that made him and the other costumed heroes to skid back forcefully. Not long after did an immeasurable weight appear and forced the rooftop's occupants to freeze in their spots. And the pressure just kept on climbing with every other second.

Zeus growled loudly as he glared at the light-

No… not light… darkness!

'How is this possible? How is he alive!? I killed him with his own sword!' Thought the Olympian. 'This shouldn't be happening!'

Standing away from them stood Naruto's form. It was truly hard to tell if he was outright fine as the area was darkening considerably. But there were markings that seemingly made out his form. For one, there were the blaring violet lines spreading through various sections of his darkened form. Said form was pitch black with what appeared to be darkened flames and wispy trails rolling and licking off certain limbs. Steam seemed to be radiating from his body and unless they were mistaken, it was also coming out of his mouth like a beast exhaling hot air against the rapidly cold battlefield. His arms were slack and his hands were constantly clenching and opening. But upon a closer inspection, it appeared his fingertips became razor sharp talons.

It was when Naruto straightened his body that they take notice of his hidden features.

Gone were the hazel eyes she was used to as they were replaced with large, glowing orange-yellow optics with no pupils or scalera to note of. On his chest where his heart would be and the origin of these violet veins was a hollowed out heart symbol that reached all the way through his body.

"Naruto?" Barbara softly asked with her paling every other second.

"What on earth happened to him?" Batman questioned as he tried steadying himself.

"▄▅▂▃▄▄▅▂▃▄▄▅▂▃▄"

The roar that soon bellowed out of him carried an intensity that seemed to reach into the soul, quaking it from the inside out. Neither Batman or Batgirl could tear their gazes away from the sheer rage that radiated from Naruto's current form as dark energy erupted from his feet and spread everywhere in the area. Then suddenly, the weight was gone alongside the roar as the creature disappeared from his spot... only to appear right in front of Zeus in an instant.

'He… he feels like he was in the presence of Typhon; the youngest, yet strongest of Gaea's children.' Thought the god as he gritted his teeth. 'How is it possible!?'

This darkened Naruto seized the bearded god by his throat and began strangling him with new found strength with his clawed fingers piercing through his enemy's muscular neck.

For the first time since the fight had begun, Zeus momentarily froze in complete shock and fear. This new being that held him in its grasp leaned in closer to his face.

The sickly yellow glowing eyes began to shrink leaving only two crescents curved downwards and sickly and disturbing smile finding its way onto his foes face.

Zeus then found himself launched into air abruptly only to find Naruto in front of him a moment later.

Letting out a deafening roar, the darkened Uzumaki smashed both fists down in a manner similar to that of a Gorilla sending Zeus plummeting back down.

Before the Olympian King could even hit the rooftop below him, an after image of his opponent appeared once more and smashing its feet right into the god's stomach. The ancient being was then struck from underneath, sending him back up; only to be struck from his side before his other in a mere instant.

In a flurry of motions, Naruto was striking, slashing and kicking the god all. He was so fast in his attacks, any onlooker would've merely seen a blurry shooting star. The only way to somewhat keep track of these attacks were the trails of dark flaming wisps following each of Naruto's movements.

With this series of attacks ceased, Naruto hovered over Zeus' body before curling himself up in a fetal position. Surrounding darkness gathered all around him at a quickened pace. And in an instant, the darkened Uzumaki unleashed a blast that finally sent Zeus rocketing towards the rooftop below, all battered and bleeding profusely.

Zeus struggled to get back up from the assault. Yet he had some… unrequited help from his opponent as he was kicked across the battlefield. Adjusting himself quickly, the Olympian stabbed his Master Bolt into the ground to suddenly stop his movements.

'I must eradicate this monstrosity, post haste.' Thought the god.

Summoning countless thunderbolts to his position -which defined the area- Zeus was able to not only charge himself and numb most of his pain, but also supercharge his Master Bot to the maximum.

Just in time too, seeing Naruto's darkened form coming straight for him!

Acting on instinct, the thunder god thrust his mighty symbol of power forward in hopes of finishing him off immediately. His Master Bolt was at full power with a storm coming out from it's back end.

No doubt with a successful hit, the abysmal mortal would cease to exist!

In his mind's eye, Zeus thrust true and through as his weapon had indeed impacted his opponent-

*CLANG-SCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!*

-but instead of stabbing and obliterating him, Zeus saw Naruto holding back the Master Bolt's tip with the bare palm of hand!

"Im-Im-IMPOSSIBLE!"

The Master Bolt wildly shook within the darkened form's grasp, fighting it's way to get free. Even with the thunderous storm jetting out from its other end, there was hardly any progression in moving forward.

The only evidence that there possibly was being the massive indents carving behind and around Naruto.

It wasn't just Zeus who was truly baffled and dumbfounded by this display as both Batman and Batgirl were utterly shocked. Their eyes were threatening to dry out and pop out of their skulls with how intently they watched this fight.

And their hearts almost stopped upon the recent moment-

*SCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-CREEEEK-CRACK-CRUNCH!*

...Stand corrected… NOW their hearts practically stopped, witnessing Naruto's abysmal hand snapped shut and crushed the Master Bolt's tip-

*KRASH-KABOOOOOOOM~!*

-with an explosion following soon after, bathing the battlefield in a massive brightening light and shockwave.

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

-Insert Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix: Night of the Dark Dream-

There was a great expanse of nothingness that stretched far past even the most honed senses one could ever possess. The borders of the empty domain touched the idea of infinity. It was enough to drive a man mad.

And within the emptiness was a single being who traversed through this abyss.

"What's… What's happening… to me?"

It was so dark… So dark that it was hard for him to see his hand.

It's so dark… he didn't know how long he wondered and how lost he was.

"Why… do I feel… like I'm falling… even though I'm walking…"

All Naruto remembered was Barbara crying out for help -or at least he thought she did- and he acted accordingly.

After that, he woke up here of all places.

Gone were the stained-glass pathway and platforms which helped lead her along towards his destinations. Whether they were for reaching the people closest to his heart or anything else.

Without them, Naruto would never know where to go.

Without them, he could be one step away from falling to his inevitable demise.

What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to find his way through this ever deepening abyss?

"It just needs some light, ▄▅▂▃▄. That's all."

Naruto suddenly looked around towards the source and saw a small flicker of light in the distance.

Not wanting to lose sight of it, the whiskered Uzumaki ran towards the only piece of light he has seen in who knows how long.

Journeys... He's had a good number of them throughout his life. His time as a genin back in Konoha of the Elemental Nations. His time traveling around with Jirayia in order to get stronger. His time afterwards, leading up to the Fourth Shinobi War. And from there, his unexpected journey into a whole new world.

In each journey he took, there were many people he met and befriended... and fought against. Yet each of these were truly precious and important to him.

It's because of these, they made him who he is today as each journey shapes one into something else by the end of it.

So what kind of journey will this one be like? Through the bad and good. This is no doubt different from all the others.

He sensed it... That this one was... stranger... Darker even.

But there was no turning back now. It was too late as he set out for parts unknown to seek out the light in this vast darkened abyss.

Along this new journey of his, Naruto felt the cold creeping up his arms, his legs... As he pushes on and on, he thought he saw something at the corner of his eye. Briefly looking away from the light, Naruto saw phantoms.

Seeing ones phantoms are always from one's past. From your mistakes, your failures, your crimes. The list goes on and on.

For Naruto, he saw the times he failed in his life. Failing the academy several times, stealing the Forbidden Scroll, failing to save Haku, failing to stop Sasuke from desertson. The endless failures crept on him as he returned into his journey towards the light.

Things started to change from his memories when he was back in his home reality and into his current one. Naruto saw the failures he went through. The times he endured during his years traveling with Talia, his failures working at the Daily Planet, his failures since living in Gotham... his failures since falling in love again and again.

They started to shift, causing Naruto to lose his breath and his heart to possibly stop beating. He didn't know how long he stared at these new phantoms, but without realizing it the darkness started to enclose upon him.

"No... Please no..."

Beside him was Pam... cradling their dead daughters.

Looking away, he then saw Selina struggling to free herself after being sentenced to life in prison. Not far away was Harley, damaged beyond repair and locked up in the asylum she worked in. In the distance, Naruto saw Rachel being dragged into the abyss with a demonic laugh heard in background. Talia dying alone, calling out for him but with no one there to help her. Cat holding onto Adam as he bled to death. And nearby was Barbara being impaled by Zeus's lightning covered hand.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto clenched his eyes as tears were shed. "No... NO!" He growled out. "This... This ain't real!" Naruto had to look and ignore these present phantoms. "None of this is real!"

It was now a complete struggle to move forward. These phantasmic moments whispering into his ears. The lone Uzumaki did his best to ignore them as he entirely focused on the flickering light.

And that's when he felt it… his body giving out.

His body grew weak in this darkened journey of his. It was long and it wasn't pleasant at all. And with a tumble, the Uzumaki collapsed onto the darkened plain with hardly any movement at all.

'Is… this… the end?' Naruto thought with his eyes closing shut. 'I'm… afraid so.'

'You need to look past yourself…'

'This voice… It's… familiar…'

'Past everything…'

'Is it coming from my head?… Or my heart?'

'And see it now.'

-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: Sanctuary Piano/Orchestra Arrangement-

Naruto struggled to open his eyes, to look at things clearly. And when he did, he saw a light. He blinked several times in order for his eyes to adjust to the new source of light in the darkness. And when things became a bit more focused, he saw something.

Sitting in a darkened clearing, the younger Naruto was helping his childhood best friend make a paper lantern.

"C'mon, ▄▅▂▃▄, let's do this without you cheating."

The ashen-skinned child narrowed her orange eyes as they seemingly glowed a bit in mild fury. "But I'm not cheating!"

"Yes you are!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"How am I then?!"

"With your eyes! Your weird fire… beamy eyes!"

Hearing this comment ended up having the girl's eyes glow brighter with them literally bursting into flames to match her rising mood. "They are not weird, Naruto!"

In response, the young Uzumaki cowered and nervously apologized. "...Sorry… Didn't mean to…"

"It's okay." Spoke the little girl with a small smile as her "fire eyes" dimmed down considerably. "I forgive you… As long as you don't call them weird again."

"Deal!"

It didn't take long for the young girl to help light the lantern as his younger self kept the thing stable. With the soft glow being made behind the paper construct, slowly but surely it started to grow. The light's warmth slowly helped him, causing him to start moving again.

Naruto crawled and crawled before eventually having enough strength to get back onto his feet. And once up, he dragged himself further to catch up with the two children of memories past.

Their laughter warmed him even further as they played in the darkness.

"Come on. We need to get with the others!"

'Others?' Thought the older Naruto. 'What others?'

Soon... Soon enough, he saw some flickers forming in the darkness as lanterns started popping up left and right.

'You need to see, Keybearer. You must.'

And so he did. His eyes getting clearer and clearer, people started appearing in the darkness holding onto each of the lanterns.

'They look... familiar... Wait! They are!'

Standing in their spots were friends and loved ones he knew from his past. The remaining members of the Konoha Twelve, their senseis, Old Man Hiruzen, Granny Tsunade with Ton-Ton the pig and Shizune, Pervy Sage Jiraiya, Gaara and his siblings... so on and so forth as far as his eyes could see.

He then felt his arm being tugged.

Looking down, he saw the ashen-skinned girl of his unknown past warmly smiling at him as both his ward and daughters came and copied the earlier act. Each child then dragged him along through the growing masses as he started seeing more and more familiar faces. Those of both of his homes; those of the Elemental Nations and that of Earth. Each and every one were warmly smiling at him, causing him to start shedding tears of joy.

'It's so warm... and bright.'

By the end of this new little journey, Naruto saw his both his parents and the Eternal -Death- giving him gleeful smiles before parting ways to reveal the loves of his life. Each stood before him with the warmest smiles they could ever muster.

'Pam... Selina... Harley... Cat... Talia… Barb... Wait? Barbara? Why was she here?'

'See how many lives you've touched, Keybearer. See how many lights you've lit. Even with one light is extinguished, there will be another to help relight it... one way or another...'

After so much time in the darkness, Naruto wanted to get back and return to the light.

'Do it. Break out from your darkened form and return into the fight.'

Fight? What fight-

"Zeus..." With narrowed eyes, he tightened his hands. "I need to stop him."

'And so you shall...'

The people all around him soon formed into lights before they started to gather and emcompase his very form. Swirling all over, each went into him one by one as their warmth started filling him up. There were so many that Naruto lost count, due to how quickly they moved.

And with the last ones entering his very being -of his family and loved ones- his Keyblade formed into his grasp.

Lifting up his key-shaped sword, he focused and built up power. His Keyblade started to radiate light with a circle forming around the tip. Reaching its peak, the power shot forward and collided against something, formed a corridor of swirling light to contrast the darkness.

Before he attempted to move forward, ethereal chains shot out of his Keyblade's tip and entered the swirling mass.

-Real World-

The abysmal Naruto stood there, facing Zeus with an unreadable expression yet the unbridled and uncontrollable rage was there. All could feel it permeating the air.

The darkened Keybearer's palm and fingers were literally steaming. The dark vapors mixing with the smoke until it was nothing but the darkness radiating from his hand like the rest of his body.

Zeus, who was still getting over his shock at seeing his Master Bolt be so "easily" wrecked was now beginning to feel his fury rise back up with a vengeance.

It wasn't because of the momentary spike of terror and fear this mortal had instilled in him, no. It was the fact that this mortal had the gall to destroy something that belonged to him. Something that personified his power in its entirety. And this moral had the audacity to stop it.

Yet Zeus had no chance to move or even think a moment further as he quite literally felt the air in his lungs get violently shoved out through his mouth.

Off to the side, Barbara was regaining her bearings as she regained both her vision and hearing after the recent explosion. Her head throbbed considerably, not knowing if it was due to the blast or hitting her head on anything… or both.

Looking towards her side, Batgirl saw Batman was down for the count. Worried about his condition, she crawled over and pressed her fingers on what exposed part of his neck she could find with her other hand checking his breath. There she felt a heartbeat on one hand and a faint feeling coming from the other to prove the Bat of Gotham was alive, but unconscious.

For how long, Batgirl did not know in the slightest. Could be soon, much later or longer.

Looking back to the fight, the costumed Gordon didn't know what to do. She wanted to help Naruto, even more so now than ever with what he… became.

Call it a gut feeling, but a scary thought told her that if Zeus didn't kill her and Batman… then whatever her crush was currently. The more she thought about it, Naruto looked like a faux Heartless.

'What… What if he were to attack us?' Barbara fearly pondered, bringing her hand to her beating chest. 'I… I don't know if we'll make it out alive.' Swallowing a lump in her throat, she quivered. 'How can I stop him?'

'By helping him…'

"What?" She voiced, swishing her head back and forth. "Where'd that come from?"

'Help him…'

"Great, now I'm hearing things."

'Help him… now…'

Shaking her head, Batgirl questioned the Voice that may or may not be in her head. "How? How can I help him?"

The Voice didn't return a response, causing her to huff in silence.

Barbara didn't know what to do as she sat in her spot. The suggestion the Voice gave her started eating and bugging her to no end.

And with the dire situation going on now made it even more apparent.

There were no potions or elixirs available to her at this time. Without them, she knew there was no way she could properly move, much less help Naruto.

'But… But I gotta do something!'

Struggling up to her feet, Batgirl shakily stood and eyed the creature -no, man- that she loved with all her heart and soul.

'Help him now…'

Compelled with the simple order, Batgirl limped her way towards the faux Heartless as it seemed ready to continue to fight if Zeus were to rise back up from the ruined rooftop. But on a hunch, Barbara guessed the abyssal creature would be more prone to following animalistic instincts very soon and attack anything within his sight.

'I gotta be careful, more now than ever.' She thought with clenched teeth.

Stepping closer and closer to him, Barbara soon quickened her pace and ignored the pain racking through her body. Each step caused her heart to beat and thump harder than the last with fear slowly overwhelming her. Yet she was willing to move forward, despite parts of her screaming at her to turn back.

'Can't turn back now.'

Hearing the puddled steps coming closer to him, the darkened creature turned and saw Batgirl coming towards him with only a few feet separating them. On instinct, it was about to lash out and strike the masked redhead down where she stood.

That was until the hollowed hole in his chest started glowing a bright, white light.

Before either the dark Naruto or Barbara could react, ethereal white chains shot out from both sides of the heart-shaped hole. They encircled the faux Heartless and soon wrapped themselves around his limbs.

'What's going on?' Batgirl thought, seeing the chains soon digging themselves into Naruto's darkened flesh before imbedding themselves into the ruined rooftop.

The darkened Naruto roared and started fighting to free itself from these new bindings. Evidence for this was quite noticeable with cracks forming around him. Creaks could even be heard with the chains doing their best to hold him off for as long as possible.

Seeing this as some sort of opportunity, Barbara opened her mouth. "You need to fight it, Naruto!"

"▄▅▂▃▄▄▅▂▃▄▄▅▂▃▄"

The roar forced her to skid back from the force behind it. She almost slipped in her footing, but did her best to keep herself up. With gritted teeth, she kept moving forward.

"Please, Naruto! Stop it!"

It was at this time did Batman come out from his unconsciousness. Holding his throbbing head as he recollected his recent memory. With everything focused again, the Caped Crusader looked around and soon saw what Batgirl was doing.

Assuming the worst, Batman struggled to get himself up, only to fall back down.

'She's going to get herself killed!' He thought with utmost worry. 'How can I tell Gordon if that were to happen!' And all he could do now was open his mouth and yell. "Stop, Barbara!"

Ignoring Batman calling out by her real name, Barbara Gordon lunged forward and collided against Naruto's chained up form. She wrapped her arms around his struggling form and held onto dear life.

"Come back to me, Naruto! You have to! I need you! 'cause I love you!" She bellowed out, hoping her words can get through to him.

As this occurred, Zeus got up off the ground and saw the little scene before him. He formed a pained grin upon witnessing his opponent's chained up appearance. He pushed all thoughts and questions about it aside as an opportunity presented itself like it was on a silver platter.

'I must strike this heathen down now!' Looking at his Master Bolt, he saw it's damaged state with power sparking out every so often. 'I'll fix up my weapon once this fight is over.'

At his location, Batman saw Zeus raise his broken Master Bolt with lightning coursing around it. With a widened gaze, the Detective quickly realized what was about to happen.

"Barbara! You need to move! He's gonna fire-!"

*KRASH-KOOOOM*

His cries were too late as a massive bolt shot forth from the damaged, godly weapon and soared across the battlefield.

Upon hearing Batman's warning, Batgirl looked over and saw what was about to happen. Instinctively, she held Naruto tighter with her eyes closed shut.

"NARUTO!"

Just as the lightning bolt was about to strike them down, the massive light coming from Naruto's chest glowed brighter than before as it soon developed the pair in its warmth.

And with this blanket of light, Zeus' attack was absorbed and disappeared like it was never delivered to begin with.

"What?/What!?" Questioned both the Bat and Olympian respectively.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts Instrumental Version-

As the light made it's sudden appearance, it soon departed to reveal Naruto's humanic form as any trace of darkness on his form was nowhere to be seen. He gently hugged her as he felt her tightened one.

"Barbara… thank you…"

It felt like an eternity since she heard his voice. All she could do was cry while releasing a hiccupy laugh.

"You're back…" She whispered. "You're back…"

"Sorry, Barb. I was merely lost in the darkness."

All Barbara could do now was lean deeper into his chest as his strong heartbeat was music to her ears. And she felt like she could stay in this embrace forever and she would never complain about it.

Yet this moment between them came to a halting end as Naruto broke away from the embrace.

Barbara was about to voice her complaint when he pushed her aside, summoned his Keyblade and defended her against a stream of lightning shooting out from the broken end of Zeus' mighty weapon.

"Now that's not very nice, Zeus!"

"It was my intention, mortal!" Spoke the god, keeping on with the stream of lightning as he stalked towards Naruto and Barbara's position. "Now die like the nat you are!"

-Insert God of War III: Heart of Gaia-

Briefly looking back, Naruto gave his protege an apologetic look from his recent action.

Barbara merely returned a knowing one as she knew Naruto wouldn't harm her in his right state of mind.

"You need to get outta here, Barb!"

"But I won't leave you! Not again!"

"I know that, but this time you really need to!"

Call it the stubborn nature she inherited from her father, but once again she relented.

Pushing much of his strength into his weapon, Naruto shoved the lightning away. The time after the attack went flying away, the Keyblader pulled out a pair of potions and tossed them to her.

Without having to say anything, Naruto's message already reached her on what he wanted her to do: heal herself and Batman in case of anything.

Before Barbara could do anything in response, Naruto dashed forward to get closer to his godly opponent; giving her the safe distance she needed for her to drink the concoction before rushing towards Batman's position.

Despite his battered appearance, Zeus pushed himself to the limits to combat Naruto as they drew closer to each other. Drawing in more power into himself from his sources, the Olympian roared, bringing down his hand to unleash a barrage of lightning right towards Naruto.

The Keyblader made the chance to move as far away from the incoming strikes when he noticed his Keyblade give off a bright glow.

*Thump~ Bump~*

Suddenly, everything around him seemed to have slowed down to an unknown degree. He thought it was the biggest form of adrenaline he was feeling in his entire life. No doubt from getting back into this fight along with the fact of him getting out of his darkened form moments ago.

Yet it was at this moment he noticed something else…

That his current, replenished reserves were drastically being depleted at a quickened rate and was being transferred into his Keyblade.

'No doubt overcharging itself to take care of this god.' He thought, gripping his key-shaped sword harder and doing his best to ignore the growing feeling. 'Then I better put this guy to good use!'

Jumping high into the air to avoid the strikes, the Keyblade glowed brighter before it was coated with energy to form a bigger and sharper edge. Before long, he was launched forward with his weapon poised towards the Olympian. Coming in close, his body felt like it went through autopilot as his arms swung precisioned blows onto the Olympian; making it rather hard for Zeus to block, parry and avoid with little to no success.

When Zeus got the chance to send out another wave of bolts, he had expected for the mortal to evade his attacks or have some of them make contact. But he was in for quite a shock upon seeing his bolts being batted away and being sent back towards the source with effortless ease.

And with a few others, they were sliced in half and faded into nothingness!

"Holy shit!" Batgirl yelled out with widened eyes from her position beside Batman's recovering form. "How'd he do that!?"

Naruto couldn't hold back the outright, satisfied smirk that threatened to break his face in two as he heard Barbara's response to his latest action. And it was toppled over when seeing Zeus' current expression. Yet it was lessened when seeing the somewhat unreadable look on Batman's face. But he knew his friend wore an odd mask of mixed shocked and collectivism.

'Hope you enjoyed the taste of your own bolts again!' Naruto thought, landing back onto the rooftop as the god was trying to recover.

Zooming in close, the Keyblader thrust, swung and spun his weapon all over the god's vital spots in hopes of taking him out quickly from this drawn out fight. The heavy attacks were soon changed into arcs of energy carving up against the rooftop when not striking against Zeus' body.

Like previous times in this fight, the Olympian wasn't going down easily as he maneuvered his broken Master Bolt to hopefully intercept his strikes.

Wanting to end the seemingly long onslaught on his person, Zeus brought his broken Master Bolt up to intercept each and every strikes with lightning fast precision. Their respective weapons met and clashed, causing parts of the small vicinity to break with each impact. But what the thunder god didn't see was that he was losing ground due to him being pushed back considerably with each of Naruto's coming actions.

Horizontal slash.

Diagonal slash.

Blocking against a thunder clap-like sweep.

Countering with a channeled thrust.

Dodging a thrust near his liver with a side roll.

Disorient the god with a vertical strike at his exposed area around his neck/shoulder area.

Zeus quickly lunged at Naruto with an intention of slicing mortal's body in half with his cracking symbol of power. Naruto was able to block the attack but a flurry of lunges followed from then on.

Block at his lower left.

Block at the lower right.

Parry the shocking slick attack.

Counter with a stab with a following slice at the right center.

Soon deflecting a double thunder strike from the Olympian before delivering a sword bash to his skull.

It was all like a cycle that seems to never end.

"Why won't you just give up and die!? WHY WON'T YOU LET ME WIN ALREADY!?"

"For one, I'm quite a stubborn idiot at times." Responded the whiskered Uzumaki. "And two, I have something you probably used to have but have lost over time; you unick asshole!"

"And what's that?"

"Hope…"

"What foolish nonsense are you talking about!?"

"Hope… Hope is apart on what makes us strong, Zeus. It is why we are here. It is what we fight for when all else is lost." Naruto yelled out, batting away another lighting bolt. "It'll be something you'll never understand! AND IT'S SOMETHING I'LL HOLD ONTO! AS IT'S APART OF MY NINDO, DATTEBAYO!"

Even though he's no longer a shinobi, it just felt natural for him to still say such a thing; being a core belief of him that'll never waver away for as long as he lived.

It got to the point on this long combo of strikes and evasion did Naruto's body give off a bright glowing aura that matched his key-shaped sword. Even his eyes glowed as well, but not at the intensity both his body and weapon gave off. Soon enough, ethereal blades appeared and circled his body like he had his own personal gravitational pull.

Pushing a series of questions to the side -along with wondering why he had this tight, tingling feeling in his chest- Naruto grasped one of the swords and let off more attacks onto the thunder god.

One swipe traveled from his shoulder to his navel.

One blade pierced the god's leg.

Another blade slashed at the other.

Several spun and dug themselves into God's arms.

An upward swing sent Zeus flying back, only to be knocked over by an ethereal sword batting his side.

The thunder god tried to deliver attacks of his own, but he kept getting interrupted with the ongoing assault by this new power Naruto was displaying.

More and more Inchor was poured and shed off of Zeus' body with each slice and stab onto his person. His body was starting to weaken and he feared he was going to die, again!

"NO! I WILL NOT! I WILL NOT DIE AGAIN! NOT AGAIN AND NOT BY THE LIKES OF YOU!"

"Too bad as you're going down for good!"

Leaping back quite the considerable distance, Zeus tightened his grip onto his Master Bolt. He could feel the massive cracks flowing along its surface with it being pushed to its literal breaking point.

And at this point, the thunder god didn't care anymore if his mighty weapon would be destroyed as he will maybe find someone to make a new one for him. Or better yet, take Naruto's Keyblade from him and make it his own once the mortal is dead at his feet!

Calling forth a massive storm for one final time, the bolts coming forth from the heavens entered his Master Bolt for one final attack. His symbol of power overflowing with lightning as it seemed to have faded in a giant pillar of light grasped in his hand.

Not liking the look of this, Naruto threw his Keyblade with much force to interrupt the god. But it didn't work as the Keyblade was batted aside, landed and dug into the ground some distance behind the Olympian with Naruto landing farther than that to have his weapon being placed right between them.

Without any further action, Zeus rushed forward to end this before Naruto could reach for his key-shaped sword; who quickly zoomed forward with all his might.

As they drew closer, Zeus' mouth curved into a haughty smile as he thought he was finally gonna win.

But with each passing moment, that expression he wore started shifting into absolute shock as Naruto's ethereal blades shot into the palm of his trailing hand. A form of swirling flaming, white Light quickly made and condensed considerably. And it gave off a brightness that could've blinded him if staring into its majesty for too long.

Not that it mattered as they were so close to each other that Zeus' attack will all be for nothing.

So with everything he had, the Olympian thrust his magnificent Master Bolt forward one final time with a massive screech filling the air as he zoomed past the imbedded Keyblade.

Barely having enough time with his instincts screaming at the top of their lungs, Naruto twisted his body to the side the moment the Bolt's tip almost reached his face.

With his body flying perpendicular against the Master Bolt, the Uzumaki reared his arm back and sent his new Rasengan right into the god's elbow.

"WHA-!"

*STAB* *KRAAAAASH-KABOOOOOOOM!*

The results were instant in a flash.

"Hehe~ It worked!"

From what Naruto, Batgirl and Batman could see, the massive pillar of lighting held within Zeus' grasp was redirected from its intended target. Instead of Naruto's head or torso, it's new destination was Zeus' heart as Naruto's new Rasengan sent the attack right back it's wielder.

The power behind it all was able to pierce right through the thunder god's body. And the moment it did, the power behind it all was released all at once.

Much like history repeating itself, Naruto's tactic he used against the Edo Tensei Third Raikage was successful one again! With a few changes for unintentional and unforeseeable reasons.

A massive storm erupted from the entry wound, shooting towards the sky with Zeus bellowing out the most painful yell he could ever muster in his entire existence.

"GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Suddenly, something unexpected started happening.

*CRACK-SCREEEEEEEEEEE~*

A large series of cracks started forming out from the entry wound as both Zeus' body and the Master Bolt started breaking apart. Light poured out from them as the god started spasming uncontrollably.

With the cracks widening more and more, a beam of white and blue erupted from Zeus' body and shot towards the heavens. A wordless scream erupted from his mouth as the rest of his body was soon dissolve into nothingness. The moment seemed to last for an eternity, a mighty shockwave went off from it's epicenter that knocked back all that were standing.

With this finally ended and the light died down reveal nothing to have remained of the now deceased thunder god.

Releasing a heavy amount of gasps, Naruto felt his lungs burned with the new intake of oxygen. He didn't know how long he didn't breathe at all with how focused he was in this last leg of this fight. And the only support he had was his Keyblade, leaning against it before prying it out of the ground.

With what felt like forever, he won. He won and both his friends and practically the world was safe from the likes of-

*Thump~ Bump~*

Naruto brought a hand to his chest, feeling the arching pain from not just there but all over.

'Seems it was bound to eventually come back to me sooner than later.'

*Thump~ Bump~*

'And now my borrowed strength is all used up and ran itself dry.'

*Thump~ Bump~*

Naruto heard steps coming towards him, causing the Uzumaki to turn and see his protege standing there with quite exhausted smile being worn on her face before her emotions started shifting. Even more so with him seeing her amethyst eyes now with her mask being ripped apart from earlier which made it all the more readable.

*THUMP~ BUMP~*

Barbara Gordon was steadily walking towards the man she loves with all her heart. She was going to speak up and say something. That was until he turned to face her, having Barbara see the pained expression he wore as he struggled stand to breathing properly. He gave her a weak smile as their eyes met did she react in an odd manner and noticed something greatly out of place.

'His eyes… what happened to his eyes?'

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

Her question was snapped out of her head and pushed aside when hearing the Keyblade clatter against the wrecked rooftop. Before long, it burst into wisps of light with its owner toppling over soon after.

Batgirl quickly went into action with Batman following soon after in order to see if Naruto was alright.

As they were getting close, a dark pool was spreading underneath him. It could've been mistaken as blood, but that thought was quickly squashed as vapors rose off the pool, started to entrap the Uzumaki and pull him in without said man struggling to fight back.

Both bat-themed heroes quickly reacted and pushed themselves faster to make it in time. Batgirl was the first to arrive and upon getting there, Naruto was already deep into the dark pool.

"No no no no!" Barbara panicked, grasping onto his arm that was free from the quicksand-like darkness. She pulled with all her might with her being pulled closer to the blackened substance.

Suddenly, she was pulled away by the Batman, causing her to let go of the love of her life.

"NOOOOO!" She screamed, seeing the rest of him quickly ate up by the darkness. She was about to dive in-in hopes of rescuing him, but was held back by the Caped Crusader.

Before she could yell back at him, the pool disappeared before their very eyes.

…..

…..

…..

…..

…..

Barbara merely sat there, wide eyed with tears quickly forming and spilling down her cheeks. Her breathing started to get erratic and her body shaking. And whatever Batman was trying to speak to her seemed muted as all sound couldn't reach her ears.

'He's gone…'

…..

'He's gone…'

…..

'He's gone… He's gone… He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone…'

…..

…..

…..

Naruto Uzumaki was dead…

…..

…..

…..

…..

Or was he?

…..

…..

…..

…..

Standing off the side, Didi looked at the costumed redhead who was balling her eyes out with Batman having to hold her close as a means of comfort. She didn't have to read the Wayne's mind to see the flood of emotions rushing through him, think he had failed to protect a close friend; much like when he lost his parents when he was just a child.

'No matter how many times I witness this, it hurts my heart.' Thought the gothic woman, releasing a sigh from this night's events.

Death arrived here earlier as Clio Droukas lost her life by her possessed, former flame in order to fully revive an Olympian. Not just any Olympian, but the king of the Greek pantheon.

This sort of thing frustrates both herself and her younger brother, Morpheus, to no end.

Throughout the eons, many gods and goddesses seek out ways to delay their inevitable demise instead of going through the means of properly reforming some time later. Normally it can take days, months, years or eons for a deity to come back from death, depending on how they died exactly.

But there are… loopholes, to which they could exploit to either hold off their deaths or come back to live much sooner than planned.

Some the Endless twins encountered in the past dealt with a deity placing parts of their souls inside an object or rarely a living person. In either manner, the god would essentially become immortal as they become much harder to truly die until the object/person tethering him/herself to the mortal plane is destroyed

If that weren't annoying enough, there were even mortals that found out about this loophole and did their own way of escaping her. Some were successful while others failed in the process.

Regardless, she was disappointed in them in what they tried on doing and she voiced it as she ferried them to their next destination.

In this recent case, Zeus using a sacrificial ritual of sorts to not just release his soul from the Oculus of the Argo and fully possessing Maximillian's body; but also using Clio's life to supercharge his power. And if that weren't enough, Zeus siphoned off Clio's and Max's souls to get back to his normal strength before his passing all those years ago.

Souls -in general- are powerful essences that have many memories stored within them on top of what influences they've had in life. Each moment they went through molded and shaped the being into what they are from their beginning towards their end. Even the times when a being is reincarnated, whether they wished so or were forced into it.

But looking past all that, there can be quite the worth on each soul. Didi views them all as priceless, but others value them differently.

Magical beings, various religious pantheons, many high tier paranormal associations, Hell, the Silver City. These respective groups are a handful of examples that value souls quite well that when looking past their worth, they also view them with how powerful they are.

In all intents and purposes all summed up for simplicity sake, souls to many groups are considered batteries. If one decides to siphon off the power from a soul, they would get quite the boost in just about anything. But it does come with a cost.

In one hand, Didi looked at the small embers that are the souls of Clio and Max. She gave a saddened look up on them as Zeus took so much from them and almost sucked up everything from them. She could thank her father if that were the case that these specks of light were barely hanging by a thread.

If Zeus took any more from them, their souls would've perished and became nonexistent.

"Don't worry, young ones." Didi began, opening a small bright portal. "You'll both do well in Heaven, once you recuperate from tonight's events of course."

With that said, Death slipped the souls through the portal before closing it back up.

By the time the two mortals left the ruined battlefield, footsteps could be heard with each step came closer and closer to the gothic woman, who didn't really pay too much mind.

"Sad to see those two like that."

"That's what I thought as well." Death responded as she looked towards the darkened city below.

What was used to be a city filled with light was now blanketed in darkness. Blame the recent fight as Zeus' storm caused a city wide blackout. All power was drained, causing Gotham to deal with quite a lot of problems.

And whatever could've been recovered by the likes of power generators were all wiped out by the recent explosion-like shockwave as a result with Zeus' death.

She would most definitely know as Death felt many of her split selves going to various areas throughout the city to reap and transport the recently deceased.

"It's always different for every situation like that."

"Right you are."

The steps came to an end as the new arrival stood next to Death herself without speaking another word.

Turning her head, Didi spoke. "Tell me… how do you feel now that Zeus is dead." Before her companion could speak, the female Endless continued. "Not the one you're more familiar with, but another version."

A feminine chuckle escaped the companion's lips as it's owner had a brightened look crossing her bright blue-green eyes. "If I'm honest about it, I'm rather happy with the bastard getting what he deserved. Would've been better if the Zeus that just died was the one that helped tempt me into opening the Box all those years ago; which resulted in my… punishment by that damned Council."

"Understandable on your frustrated anger for all these years."

A small nod was given before looking at the wrecked rooftop. "Would've thought the tower would've crumbled from the fight."

"It most certainly would have… if I didn't use a lot of my power to prevent it so and confine the fight within the vicinity."

"Why?"

"I don't like unnecessary deaths and collateral damage all that well."

The new arrival's gaze soon went towards Death's satchel hanging around her shoulder. There she saw a glow coming from the flaps with it periodically shaking. "I take it that's his soul in there."

"Yeup~" Didi sent a rough pat on the satchel, causing the shaking to stop. "Little bugger tried escaping, but you know me."

"Of course, my Lady."

Didi rolled her eyes. "What have I told you time and time again. You don't have to be so formal with me, Pandora."

"I know that, my Lad-" Cue a playful, yet stern glare from the elder being interrupted her. "...Didi, but I feel obligated to give you the proper respect after I came under your wing and service."

Death gave a playful pout with her arms crossed. "Why can't you somewhat be like Walter? He calls me by my preferred name at times."

"Blame how he acted before he came under your employ. He gives respect with how he sees certain people and gives it accordingly… in his own manner."

Didi gave a shrug before facing her companion… and employee.

Standing around six feet tall, Pandora was a well fit woman with light indigo colored hair that was stylized in a short ponytail. She had a heart-shaped face with jagged red lines marking her cheeks and mouth. Her hooded, knee-high cloak parted away by the wind to reveal a pair of leather pants, knee-high combat boots, and a combat trench coat with several pockets filled with all sorts of items on top of her utility belt. Strapped to her thighs were a pair of black holders carrying glowing pistols with carved runes across its surface.

And what stood out about the outfit the most was that it was entirely in a crimson red.

"Well I think it's a bit refreshing every once in a while amongst all of my cute little Reapers. Even with my high ranking Slayers like you and Walter."

"Uh, huh. Whatever you say." Pandora's gaze went back to Death's satchel. "What happens to him now?"

"He'll go to the Dreaming; where he'll be punished for his misdeeds like many gods and goddesses before him. But unlike others, he'll dissolve into nothingness, never to reform ever again."

"And what of the other Zeus?"

"That one is more situated in this reality and has the chance to reform after dying at some point. Only if he learns to learn from his mistakes and seek to redeem himself. Only then will he be allowed to return from the Dreaming." Didi answered one question before adding more to it. "But if you're concerned with the recent, godly death; no doubt the other Zeus would sense his counterpart's passing, but might think of it as an odd sense of deja vu. Same goes with the other gods out there."

"Understandable and seems fair, but he still owes me big time with what he'd done to me."

"I understand, Pandora. Give it time and you might get the chance." Didi paused as she trained her eyes towards the distance to see a small flicker of blue light. "Though I should remind you that even the Zeus of this reality, the one you are quite familiar with, was influenced by another in making you open the Box."

"Yes, the blue exibitionist." Pandora said, getting Death to nod in confirmation. A thought crossed her mind and was voiced. "By chance, was he the one who-"

"Brought the Oculus from the other Earth here for Maximillian to find? Yes."

"Why?"

"Because Naruto's a threat to him. Even more so now than before." The gaze coming off from the gothic woman grew distant as she continued. "Naruto will make the difference for what's to come. He -alongside others- will bring hope, compassion and devotion needed to save not just this Earth but countless more."

"I hope you're right… Didi. Especially if they could be able to take down Jon for good." Spoke Didi's employee before a thought was voiced. "On a related topic, tell me if I'm wrong but I swear I felt something familiar when I was on my way over here."

"You're not wrong, Pandora."

"...Tell me you didn't give him-"

"I did."

"When?"

"On my recent holiday."

"You think that is wise? I know it's different for each person on how it appears to be, but his seemed too dark for my liking."

"Blame Zeus awakening it too early and my gift partially melded with that primal darkness released by his Keyblade. As for the rest, it became as it should be in the end." Didi formed a small frown. "Wish it didn't have to come to that as now Naruto will have a much harder time to master his gift." She then focused her gaze back to Pandora.

"Regardless, do you think Naruto would handle certain threats well without it?"

Pandora was quiet as she didn't know how to properly answer back to her boss on the given question. She knew what her employer was referring to and Pandora thought it was strange for Didi to give Naruto the gift when he was still alive and kicking.

With nothing else to discuss, Pandora left Didi alone on the rooftop to her thoughts and devices. Pandora had tasks to continue and she couldn't dilly dally any longer than she has to.

Being all alone now, Didi looked towards the parted, starlite sky and saw the moon glowing so brightly. It became more apparent with almost all of Gotham's power was shut down in the fight, causing the light pollution to seise. Thus not only did the sky give out a healthy, natural brightness from the moon, but also the stars as well.

The member of the Endless would've truly appreciate the view if it weren't for her remembering what caused this to happen.

"I would skold you very much and punish you, Naruto, if it weren't the fact that I had marked you already." She let out a tired sigh as she focused her sight beyond the Earth's moon; continuously searching for the wayward Uzumaki as worry slowly filled her being.

"What will you do now, my Child of Prophecy? My Key of the Void?"

-End Chapter-

AN:

(A spotlight shines down in a darkened room and at it's focus lies a stone coffin. Soon scraping and creaking could be heard with the lid slowly moving out of the way. And once pried wide enough, a figure rose in a vampiric manner.)

….I LLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVE!

*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* *CREEAK-CRACK*

Oh fuck that hurts… joints and back… so bloody stiff and soar…

Sorry… just felt like doing that as it felt like forever since updating… anything really… for three months…

You guys all know the usual speel: work being difficult with workload being quite large -even more so with it being Summer- and thus I become tired as a result by the time I get home pretty late. That was on top of me dealing with clinical depression; thus I lost almost all motivation to write.

Gotta give one hell of a big shout out to my buddy free man writer for helping me write this chapter. Props to you, my man. This long hiatus sucked ass and you were able to help me pull through it.

Now I can already tell what y'all are wondering about earlier before getting into the big fight in this chapter: what is the Oculus of the Argo?

Now this item was introduced in the DC animated show Justice League Action where in one episode, Circe and Lex go to Themyscira in order to retrieve the item. In the show, the Oculus only contained Zeus' power. But with what I wanted to do in my story, I changed it up a little… all due to Zeus being a paranoid fucker… someone that shares the exact same issue as Batman.

But then again, Zeus was going all Mad King in that aspect.

I mean, the first bit of his paranoia was when his first wife, Metis, was pregnant and all things were right in the world. Then he got an oracle prophecy that his son would usurp him and would take his spot as ruler, much like what Kronos had done. So in order to prevent this, Zeus ate Metis…

...Yeah, it was that odd and creepy as fuck. And this eventually lead to the birth of Athena as the first "brain baby".

And this doesn't stop there as I could go ranting on and on my case why Zeus is the King of Paranoid fucks, but you guys get the gist of it all.

Oh, and if y'all are wondering, this Zeus is brought over from the God of War series, not the one from DC comics. I mean, this is the multiverse we're talking about here guys. And the hints at the end of the chapter suggest someone brought GoW Zeus from that world into the current one.

Onto other things…

So… recent GoT was rather hit and miss and a lot of people were disappointed. D&D screwed things over with all of us fans and I fear what's gonna happen with future Star Wars films as the pair are supposed to be taking part of the upcoming films after Star Wars Episode 9: Rise of the Skywalker.

In a recent interview with George R.R. Martin, he said he wanted the show to run at least ten or so seasons. D&D wanted less than that and arguments and settlements went on afterwards as things settled with eight seasons. Yet it seemed to feel much less than eight seasons with both seasons 7 and 8 feeling in complete and rushed.

With DC stuff… god… the Batwoman show trailer was quite cringe worthy and painful to sit through to watch.

By the look of things, they are tossing out a lot of what we love and respect of Batwoman/Kate Kane and replacing it with a "more edgy" and feminist version. Yeah… it's not going to really work CW as for one, we already have enough edginess from the other shows as of late so do some other details to make THIS all work.

Best version I've seen of Batwoman/Kate Kane -outside of the comics- was from the animated movie Batman: Bad Blood that despite taking on the vigilante/heroine persona after the Bat in homage of him saving her; she doesn't want to join the "Bat Cult" per say like what she said in said animated film. This was a good part of her character to what many have agreed on and it's possibly something I want to adopt onto my take of Batgirl in this story as she does want to pay some homage to Batman, she possibly doesn't want to join the "Bat Cult" to some degree as she wants to go out in the world and make a name for herself instead of staying in Batman's shadow.

So these were some details that would make the Batwoman show rather good if done correctly. One: keep the flashback stuff to a minimum. Sure they are pretty essential to plot, but having too much tends to take it away from the main focus if the flashbacks don't flow well; thus making it feel slow and dragging.

Two: Keep the feminist message details balanced and at a minimum. We are still recovering from the Captain Marvel backlashes with Brie Larson with her toxic feminist views and this was all done during the promotion tour of said film. It made all of us Marvel fans not entirely like Captain Marvel outside of the comics as we all have to sit and tolerate Brie's persona of her for god knows how long as she's a new face of the MCU. With the Batwoman show, given what we saw from the recent trailer alone, I fear we might get a repeat of this problem; despite the actress -Ruby Rose- not being a toxic feminist.

Three: have the build up work be done well. Like many shows, a good build up goes quite a long way. Sure there can be some faults here and there, but as long as a good structure is placed then the entirety of it all will hold out in the long run.

From what many hope to see in the upcoming Batwoman show would have Kate Kane rise up to the role as something she doesn't exactly want to take after the disappearance of Batman; something that was brought up in the CW's Elseworlds crossover last year. Fans alike want to see her somewhat forced to take up the Bat mantle to some degree and slowly accept it. A scenario I thought could exceedingly work could have Kate Kane's father -Colonel Jacob Kane- try to take up the Bat-mantle but fails in protecting Gotham as he can't take on the role properly. This was similarly done when Bruce Wayne went missing at the end of the Batman: Endgame storyline and James Gordon ended up taking up the Bat-mantle in a mechanized suit for the GCPD. Kate would reluctantly take on the role before the hero life starts to take over her life.

Yet what we saw in the trailer -which was rather cringy throughout- had her being all cocky and strolling on into Wayne Tower before quickly finding one of Bruce's set up Bat Caves and demanding to take on the role in a manner that was quite insulting.

There was even a stupid throw away line that seemed to stick -in a bad way- of Kate Kane in the show being a "female Bruce Wayne". Here are some facts as to how this would possibly work. Kate needs to be a master martial artist in almost all forms of fighting styles… which she isn't and same so in the comics. She needs to be a bloody genius and a good detective in solving problems and mysteries. In the comics, Kate is a reasonable one, but not on the same level as Batman; yet we have not seen this happen yet in the upcoming show. Kate needs to be successfully wealthy, which she isn't really as she's actually the heiress of a weapon's manufacturer through her father marrying a woman who has that fortune. And lastly being a socialite playboy… or playgirl in this case while moonlighting as a hero on the side; which will be something we'll need to see in the upcoming show.

Without providing any of these details, Kate won't cut it being a "female Bruce Wayne". The only "female Bruce Wayne" we will ever truly see resides in DC Earth 11 and Earth -11, which is pretty much a world where everyone is genderbent like Clara Kent as Superwoman, Anna Curry as Aquawoman, Dane of Elysium as Wonder Man, Olivia Queen as Green Arrow and of course Bryce Wayne as Batwoman.

Another thing came up recently from DC's new show Swamp Thing.

So far the show is amazing and love the absolute heck out of it. The pacing is good and the dark elements is spot on. This is show got me to read more of the Swamp Thing comics and connecting issues such as Animal Man and other properties when connecting to the Nature Color Groups of the DCverse. This gave me a good amount of inspiration on what to possibly do for my story in later and upcoming moments.

Yet a problem was just announced as the show was just canceled… It's not because of ratings or anything like that; far from it. The show was highly viewed and beloved by countless DC fans upon first episode release. The reason why is because of the show was being filmed in North Carolina.

For those confused by this is it's because of tax returns or something revolving around pricing/money.

North Carolina promised DC to basically help pay half of the Swamp Thing show for each season as it's a big tax write off due towards movies and shows when filmed in specific locations. I don't know if this applies with animated works or not, but this is a typical thing that happens in the filming world.

The problem that happened was an odd situation in the contract or whatever that caused pricing to not be met, with DC paying more than it should for Swamp Thing. Because of this, Swamp Thing got canceled… or at least put on hold of season 2… hopefully and fingers crossed for a new contract gets made to get the pricing better in filming locations.

Asides from these… problems, we got some shows coming up that I'm pretty anxious about with GoT recently done and they're all being done on HBO: Watchmen, season 3 of Westworld, His Dark Materials. The new Harley Quinn show will no doubt be highly anticipated being fun fuel on this story along with Ducktails season 2.

Spiderman: Far From Home was a great blast to watch and really anticipate how things will role from here on out with the upcoming Marvel MCU projects; such as the new Disney + shows and films along with the official announcement of the Mutants and Fantastic Four finally joining the MCU. Stranger Things season 3 was fantastic and wonder how both the show runners and writers will top that season with what they pulled at the end. Aggretsuko season 2 was great on the episodes and the messages it brought up. And finally, Young Justice Season 3 is back on and episodes so far for it have been great.

Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!

R&R