Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part 3

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The World Forge

Hours Earlier…

The Monitor lay in the sick bay of the Spitsville Waverider as anti-matter spread over Prime Universe; Mutant Earth's Kal-El was present, along with his dog El, and the cat, Casper.

"Harbinger…" the Monitor whispered weakly; his call answered as Harbinger appeared in the room in a flash of white light.

"Yes, we need to go," Harbinger moved forward, going to take Monitor, trying not to register the Kryptonian teenager in the room. "Faithfulness said yes. You can regain your strength there as we head for the World Forge, but this universe is almost gone. We need to go now."

"Very good, Harbinger," the Monitor said as Harbinger helped him up.

"Wait!" Kal called, shocked. "What about me?"

"Sorry kid, the agreement was only for two of us. I can't take you," Harbinger stated and, not meeting the boy's eyes, and, in a flash of light, she and the Monitor were elsewhere.

"This is Faithfulness?" The Monitor asked, leaning against Harbinger as he took in their surroundings: open countryside, birds singing and the sound of water rushing nearby.

"She said she'd make a place for you to recuperate," Harbinger stated as she set the Monitor down to lean against a tree, breathing in the fresh air.

"Yes," the Monitor muttered, "I can feel it here. Matter in it's pureness. I can recharge here; regain my strength."

"What about the multiverse?" Harbinger asked. "That poor boy on the Waverider…"

"There wasn't anything we could do for him," the Monitor sighed as Harbinger frowned at him. "It is up to the Paragons now. They can bring back the multiverse. And through this place, we can meet them in the World Forge."

"And what happens after that?" Harbinger asked, standing over the Monitor now.

"The multiverse is restored, and harmony is brought back," the Monitor stated simply, eyes closed now as he breathed in the atmosphere around him.

"I meant what happens to me, to Gal-El? Do we remain yours and the Anti-Monitor's slaves for eternity?" Harbinger asked, having wondered this for some time now.

"Slaves? You are not my slave, dear Harbinger," the Monitor stated. "Pariah however…"

"Could have fooled me," Harbinger muttered darkly.

"Please, Harbinger, I need to restore. You should regain your strength too," the Monitor stated carelessly. "I fear one final battle in the World Forge will happen."

"Sure," Harbinger sighed, moving away from the man, towards a stream nearby, wanting to get away from her master now.

Looking into the running water of the stream, Harbinger looked down at her reflection and paused. She'd never seen herself in her Harbinger look yet – it had been a very long day – but she didn't like what she saw looking back. She moved to sit on a rock nearby, wondering if she had made the right choice to follow the Monitor.

-Crisis on Infinite Millma Earths-

The Anti-Monitor and Pariah appeared in a dark space, imbued with a strange red light that wasn't anything like the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter.

"Ah, the Dimensional Superstructure," the Anti-Monitor stated, pleasantly. "One of the more questionable of the Seven Forces."

"Should you really be saying that while we're inside the thing?" Pariah pointed out, frowning at his master.

"Does it matter?" The Anti-Monitor asked. "He allowed us in. That's all that matters."

"I alone allowed you in," a new voice spoke, Pariah turning on the spot but finding no source for the voice as the Anti-Monitor smirked, "because my siblings wouldn't, and I couldn't, have you harm them."

"Me, harm the Seven Forces?" The Anti-Monitor asked innocently. "How could I? You are beings higher than me. I am humbled to be in your presence."

"You are, huh?" Pariah asked quietly, seeing through the Anti-Monitor's charade easily.

"You would find a way to manipulate one of us eventually," the voice of the Dimensional Superstructure continued, ignoring Pariah's remark. "Which is why I allowed you in, because I alone have the guts to do what needs to be done."

"To help me bring about the more superior anti-multiverse?" The Anti-Monitor asked.

"No," the Dimensional Superstructure spoke, causing the Anti-Monitor to pause. "To step in and help them."

Before the Anti-Monitor could say more, a concentrated beam of the same red light that surrounded them struck into the Anti-Monitor and he screamed in pain, collapsing onto the ground. Pariah jumped back in shock as he took in the new turn of events. It seemed no one liked the Anti-Monitor.

-Crisis on Infinite Millma Earths-

The Paragons and Spectre appeared on what seemed to be a large sandbar island in the middle of a wide ocean, the sun on their faces as they looked around in confusion. The group wondered if they had gone to the wrong place, but the Speed Force would not have led them astray.

"Is this the World Forge?" Prime Barry asked, having expected something else.

"Well Purgatory wasn't exactly what we expected," Rae pointed out as she looked around the World Forge herself.

"Hey, it's my Purgatory, so Lain Yu makes perfect sense," Oliver defended to a look from his Rae, who had to smile.

"Wasn't the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor supposed to be here?" Karry Kara spoke up though; the Speed Force had told them the two beings had manipulated two of her siblings to get here already.

"Maybe the Speed Force got us there before them? Time is a very human concept, after all," Clark pointed out, thoughtfully.

"And we did use the Speed Force," Kayla pointed out. "Maybe going through her is faster than her siblings?"

"Honestly, I'm just glad we're alone. Can't stand either of them," Rae muttered darkly, and she knew the feeling was mutual between the others.

"Agreed," Karry Barry nodded. He had never forgiven the Monitor for his part in his young Rae's death after all.

The Paragons looked at each other at this – they had made a promise to each other when the last world died that they were going to kill both the Monitor and Anti-Monitor, but now they were here and this fight ahead of them, they didn't know how they were going to do that.

"We better get this started," Prime Barry stated, turning back to the others now. "So, we need to start this blood ritual. Rae, what do we need to do for it?"

"Why are you asking me?" Rae asked, genuinely surprised at being asked as all eyes turned to her.

"Because you could read that book more than Prime or me," Karry Barry pointed out, "so you must have read about what needed to be done here."

"Urm," Rae bit her lip, "there wasn't anything in there about the blood ritual, just that we need to perform one with Olly here." The group turned to Olly, as if expecting he would know, but Oliver gave a shrug himself.

"You're telling me that this book had no instructions on what exactly we needed to do in this blood ritual?" Mon asked, shocked. He had thought something Rae read or wrote down would help them at this point and had expected Rae to tell them when they got here.

"Spectre needs to bleed, and you need to bleed for Spectre," a new voice spoke, causing the speedsters of the group to groan as they turned to see the Monitor, in all his blue armored glory, stepping through a portal, Harbinger behind him, "while thinking of the qualities you each are imbued with, and the loved ones and worlds you have lost."

"I see trying to save the multiverse worked really well," Karry Barry muttered to the Monitor, glaring at him.

"The multiverse as you knew it was destined to be destroyed by the Anti-Monitor the moment he was released," the Monitor stated, but it sounded a defense to his failure to the Paragon's ears. "Which is why you are the back-up system."

"So, what exactly do I do?" Oliver spoke up, stopping either Karry Barry or Rae from retorting to the Monitor. "Apart from being bled on by this lot?"

"You hold the key to all the spirits not quite dead, held in Purgatory," the Monitor explained, "it is those to which you must return to their rightful places in the restored multiverse."

"Okay," Oliver nodded, turning back to the Paragon group.

"Are you going to explain exactly why does this place resembles… what it resembles?" Kayla asked the Monitor now; this annoyed her the most that they were on the sandbar island.

"Because what is left of everything is what you stand upon," the Monitor stated, "and out there…" he indicated to the ocean around them, "is the sea of possibilities; everything that once was that could be, or what hasn't been and might be. It could become the multiverse you remember that you lost, an entirely new multiverse, or the anti-multiverse the Anti-Monitor wants to create."

"The sea of possibilities?" Karry Barry chortled at this, to receive a glare from Harbinger now. He shut up on the look from his alternative sister.

"Okay, so how exactly will we know it worked?" Prime Kara was the one to ask this, still looking at the Monitor. "That the sea of possibilities has become our multiverse?"

"Because you will wake up... sort of," Harbinger spoke up. "The multiverse will be restored, and you will return to the moment before Crisis even started, like this Crisis never happened."

"And Spectre will find himself back in Purgatory, it clear of the souls of those not yet departed," the Monitor continued.

"And what will happen to you?" Clark asked, he not feeling one way or the other about the Monitor, so genuinely intrigued as his feelings towards the man were not clouded by past trials.

"You know, I don't actually know," the Montor frowned. "I had assumed the Seven Forces would lock the Anti-Monitor up once more…"

"That wasn't too effective though," Prime Kara pointed out, darkly.

"We said it earlier – no more locking up," Rae spoke up, eyes turning to her. "He dies here and now. We're not risking this again."

"That is not possible," Oliver spoke up this time and eyes went to him now. "The universe needs balance, something the Anti-Monitor did not understand but you need to before we reboot. The Monitor and the Anti-Monitor were meant to serve a purpose. They might have failed at it but they are both needed in the universe."

"Thank you," the Monitor spoke, about to speak some more, but Karry Kara stopped him.

"Keep an eye out for the Anti-Monitor while we talk," Karry Kara snapped at the being, and the Monitor raised an eyebrow but gave a nod, moving off so they could talk together without being overheard.

"Okay, so they are needed but does it need to be them?" Rae asked, nodding towards the Monitor as she said it.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, wondering where his Rae's mind was going.

"They don't deserve their powers," Rae continued. "The Anti-Monitor is obvious, but the Monitor is no angel." Rae glanced to Mon as she talked. "It wasn't your world's fault the Nazis from Nazi Earth came to my world – the Monitor made sure you landed on my Earth. It was a sick test to see what I would do." Mon seemed startled at this, not having known this detail. "And he made sure the Kryptonian prisoners were released on my Earth and the Daxamites came. He put so many in danger with his tests."

"The Second Chance Killer on my Earth," Karry Kara spoke up. "He allowed our past saves to be killed for his sick tests."

"And Zoom who killed my Rae," Karry Barry added.

"The Dominators and meta bomb," Prime Barry and Kara listed off, thinking of their own Monitor test.

"Echo," SuperEarth Kara merely stated; having met him again in Purgatory and he admitted all the things he did to them for the Monitor sounded very much like a Monitor test to her.

"This is all well and good, but who would take their place?" Kayla asked the obvious question.

"I have an idea," Rae stated, turning to make sure Monitor wasn't listening. "If we're to reboot everything, we can change it – we give the power to someone else. Someone who deserves it. Who we can trust."

"I think I know who you mean," it was a new voice and Rae saw Harbinger listening to them, surprised she had snuck up on their chat so easily. "You want to make me and my counterpart in Pariah the new Monitor and Anti-Monitor."

"Does he know?" Rae asked, wondering if Monitor knew her plan. Harbinger had realized it easily, but she was connected to him for now.

"No," Harbinger stated, knowing that the Monitor did not know. He had allowed the others to chat without him listening in, so didn't know this plan.

"Is that possible?" Karry Barry asked, looking at the alternate of his little sister as he asked this.

"Part of the Monitor's power is already inside me. It's the same for my counterpart. It would be easiest to give us the powers," Harbinger explained.

"Well, that was what I was thinking," Rae stated. "Not a clue what happens to the originals," she looked back to the Monitor who had his back to them now, overlooking the 'sea of possibilities', as he had called it. "But I don't really care about them. And think about it. Harbinger is an Allen or Garrick; Pariah is an El. It's very much the multiverse for those two to be working together to keep order." It was true, across all known worlds, an Allen/Garrick and an El working together was the way.

"But what happens to you, and Gal?" Prime Kara asked Harbinger, concerned for her cousin who was Pariah.

"We get their powers, their abilities to see what they see, but we'll keep our personalities," Harbinger stated, "as in, the personalities we had before recruitment," she actually momentarily glared at the Monitor's back.

"Do you miss being you?" Karry Barry asked, concerned now for this alternative sister.

"More than anything. I mean, I remember what it was like, but I can't access those emotions. Once back to normal though…" Harbinger sighed, "I should be better."

"Then we'll do it," Karry Kara and Barry said as one, nodding now as Harbinger smiled, stepping back from the group. One by one all the other Paragons and Spectre agreed – there would be a new Monitor and Anti-Monitor when the multiverse was rebooted.

"So, we focus on what we need to, but also help Gal and Amelia, too," Rae confirmed.

"Although, the Speed Force said we only had one chance at this," Prime Barry spoke up now, looking back to the Monitor who turned back to the group now; like Rae and his Karry double, he didn't trust the Monitor, but it seemed the so-called god knew what they needed to do.

"Yeah, and where exactly is your opposite?" Kayla spoke up to the Monitor. "The Speed Force told us that the Anti-Monitor had access to this place too."

"You all asked me to look out for him, so let me deal with the Anti-Monitor when he arrives," the Monitor stated determinedly. "Faithfulness restored me to my full potential. I am a match for him now."

"Alright then," Rae said. "I suppose…" but before she could even think to summon some sort of blade to bleed themselves, a new portal opened, the group pausing at seeing the familiar, white-skinned man in purple armor, with Gal-El behind him. The newcomers paused.

"You're here…?!" The Anti-Monitor glared, not having expected the Paragons to be here. It had only been his shadows who had sensed them earlier and attacked them on that middle-world called Karry Dark.

"Seems like the Paragons aren't, what was it, rotting in their safe space," Pariah smirked behind the Anti-Monitor, but he was ignored as the Anti-Monitor held out his hands, to blast at the Paragons.

Again, likely on instinct, the nine Paragons held hands, all looking to the Anti-Monitor as that energy blasted from them once more, the same energy that had blasted the Anti-Monitor's Dementors while in the Speed Force.

Pariah casually stepped aside as the Anti-Monitor was sent flying back into the sand, stopping just short of the water as the Monitor raised his eyebrows at the group, impressed. Pariah laughed though, glad he was wrong and that the Paragons were here.

"You figured out your abilities," the Monitor smiled at the group, "together you represent everything the Anti-Monitor doesn't. Together, you can resist him."

"But you can't resist him while rebooting the multiverse," Pariah pointed out as the Anti-Monitor got up, angry now as he charged at the group, but this time it was the Monitor who fought back, blasting the man with pure matter, and sending him flying again.

"Speaking of which," Harbinger stated, "I think it's time to reboot the multiverse! Do it!" Harbinger insisted as she helped the Monitor, sending a blast out to the Anti-Monitor too while Pariah simply stood back and watched.

"Here," Rae decided on the spur of the moment, her connection to the Speed Force strong as she summoned a bucket of popcorn, still hot, and tossed it to Pariah, who actually laughed as he took it, watching both Harbinger and the Monitor face off the Anti-Monitor.

"Popcorn made from the Speed Force is actually really good," Pariah commented with a smile as he ate and watched.

"Pariah!" The Anti-Monitor shouted, angry now, "you should be helping me!"

"Actually," Pariah called as the Anti-Monitor was kept at bay, "I was just made to watch. So, I'm watching," he casually flicked a piece of corn into his mouth as the Anti-Monitor screamed in anger while the Paragons laughed at this remark.

"Does he seem weaker here?" Oliver spoke aloud, also watching as the Monitor and Harbinger seemed to get the best of the Anti-Monitor.

"Yeah, you can thank the Dimensional Superstructure for that," Pariah explained, "he didn't exactly let Mobius in without a fight – that weakened him more than anything. He didn't think he'd face any challenges here, thinking you lot were locked up somewhere 'too safe' to get here, and thought Mar Novu was killed by his anti-matter wave."

"Ahhh," the three speedsters said as one.

"The Speed Force might have misjudged her siblings," Prime Barry mused, but was surprised as a blast of energy from the Anti-Monitor nearly missed him, he having to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

"Okay, it's time to end this," Prime Kara stated quickly, helping her Barry up as she glanced to Rae who nodded, thinking about a simple blade to summon. It appeared in her hand.

"Oliver?" Rae asked the man, who nodded as he held out his hand, closing his eyes and thinking to Purgatory, to the souls trapped there, unable to move or go back.

"To those lost who can be returned," Oliver stated, as Rae placed the blade across his palm, cutting him. He didn't even wince. Somehow Rae knew the order she needed to go in; a specific order appearing in her head of what to do.

"Barry, Kara," she now looked to Karry Barry and Kara, who both nodded now as they held out their hands, Rae running the blade across both their palms, glad that even Kara could be cut by this knife – it must have been where they were, or what they needed to do, that allowed the metal to penetrate her flesh.

The Karry couple concentrated, thinking of their world, on Harbinger, their loved ones, their children, who they just held in the Speed Force, and the ones they adopted from love, and then their own love – what they represented as Paragons. Thinking back to their college days and the love they had formed all those years ago.

"Our world was made strong by love, our love. We give that love to you," the couple said together as they let their blood drip onto Oliver's open wound. Rae and the other Paragons saw the blood light up momentarily as it connected to Oliver.

"Now you," Rae stated to Prime's Kara and Barry, both holding out their hands to be cut by the blade Rae had. They too concentrated on their world, their loved ones, the multiverse, on Gal-El and everything they had faced to get together – the destiny they represented as Paragons.

"We were brought together by destiny, so we represent it," they said together as they let their blood drip onto Oliver's; it lit up too.

"Kara," Rae now nodded to SuperEarth's Kara, who was already thinking to her Barry and her dog, Lara. Rae sliced her skin as Kara winced, not used to the pain, but let her blood drip onto Oliver's hand, thinking of the pain she went through upon losing her Barry, the courage that she represented.

"I've confronted fear and loss and shown courage in the face of it all," Kara stated, letting her blood drop onto Oliver's palm as it glowed again.

"Kayla," Rae sighed, looking to Kayla, who nodded, holding out her hand and letting it be cut.

Kayla focused on what she represented now – on the humanity she possessed, thinking back on her career as an actress, representing all those different aspects of humanity. Thinking about her sister, her wife, and everyone she loved.

"Humanity," was all she mumbled. Like the other Paragons before her, her blood dripped onto Oliver's palm, the blood pool now glowing more brightly.

"Mon," Rae smiled at Mon.

Mon held up his palm as he now concentrated on the honor he represented, remembering coming to New Justice to pay back the debt that his world owed – his honor.

"What is a world without honor?" He said simply, as he let his blood drip onto Oliver. He also thought of the multiverse, of all the words he had visited as part of his world's multiverse taskforce, knowing his knowledge there would help bring back more worlds.

"Now you, Clark," Rae stated, knowing she was last to do this. She had made herself last.

Clark held his palm out, looking down at the glowing blood in Oliver's outstretched palm as he allowed Rae to slice his own hand, used to the pain from his own Fortress of Solitude – it being the only place on his world that made him human. He remembered back to Lois though, meeting her again in Purgatory. It was sad to see her there but gave him hope that she was safe in death. She may have been dead, but she represented the hope to him that he represented as a Paragon to the multiverse.

"Lois, you were, and are, my hope," was all Clark mumbled as he watched his blood drip down onto Oliver. The collected blood was bright now.

"Now me," Rae muttered, glancing back to see the Anti-Monitor on his knees as the Monitor sent a concentrated blast at the Anti-Monitor; both Harbinger and Pariah were looking over at the Paragons now, almost as if they were watching a movie, and she gave them a nod. Harbinger knew their plans, but Pariah did not, and they could not tell him. If it worked, he would be surprised.

"I am the Flash," Rae muttered to herself. "I am Rachel Garrick, daughter of Jay Garrick, I have always held onto that truth," she looked at her fellow Paragons, who all had their eyes closed now, concentrating. Taking a breath, Rae sliced her own hand, letting her own blood drip into the pool on Oliver's palm. And she thought of her Earth, of all the pain she went through when her League died and of rebuilding that League with her new friends. She, like Clark, thought of the worlds she knew as well.

"No!" Rae heard the Anti-Monitor scream, and, as she did, she thought of Pariah and Harbinger too, her plan to make them the new Monitor and Anti-Monitor; she knew her fellow Paragons were thinking this too – although that was the last thought she had as the blood in Oliver's hand suddenly set on fire, sending a shock wave that sent all the Paragons and Spectre himself fly back, knocking them unconscious.

"It's over!" The Monitor stated to the Anti-Monitor; he and the Anti-Monitor alone not having been knocked out by the ritual as Pariah and Harbinger lay feet away now.

"It… can't be…" the Anti-Monitor muttered, as the Montor stood over his double.

"Look around you, Mobius. You've lost," the Monitor smirked as the Anti-Monitor, indeed, looked around him – and above.

The sun in the sky above the island was dimming as the ocean around the Paragons, Spectre, the Monitor, the Anti-Monitor, Pariah and Harbinger bubbled, boiled, and shone as it now rose, consuming the island and those upon it, forming a new multiverse…

Post chapter note: Forming a new multiverse? Is this the Millma Verse we had, or an entirely new one? You'll find out next week.

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Karry Beta and Master OUT!