CRISIS ON EARTH X: AN ARROWVERSE 2-HOUR SPECIAL EVENT

December 2017

Kara stood outside Starling City Hall on tiptoes, looking over the crowd of reporters in a golden gossamer dress. Alex hadn't returned to Dig and Lyla's last night after the rehearsal dinner. Together with Barry, Kara had spent most of the night scaring all of Starling City's criminals so deep they wouldn't dare come out of their holes for at least a few weeks. More than enough time for Oliver and Felicity to get married without some gang-lord interrupting it to try and kill the mayor.

She hoped.

But Alex hadn't returned to the Diggle residence, where the duo was staying with Cisco, Caitlin and Barry. All Kara had received was a single text saying she was okay, with no answers to her replies. And Alex had yet to show up to City Hall, and she was really starting to get worried.

"I'm sure she's fine," Barry said, standing beside her, a grin plastered across his face. She hadn't she'd seen the expression leave it since he woke up this morning. Sitting on his shoulders, arms folded on his head, was Ellie.

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... S!"

Kara resisted the urge to float into the air and use her x-ray vision.

"Is it a singer?" Barry asked, pointing to the band playing on the steps a few meters away. Ellie shook her head.

"A suit?"

"Nope!"

Kara gave Barry a sideways glance. He certainly looked dashing in that streamlined black three-piece suit.

Barry frowned, looking out over the street.

"How about... a stop sign?"

"Yes! Ooo! I have another one! I spy with my little eye, something starting with A!"

While this was one of Ellie's favourite games, they had learnt early on that Barry and Kara were doomed to eternally playing the role of the guesser, as Ellie could simply pick the answer out of their thoughts otherwise.

"Oh, I know this one!" Barry said, chuckling. He pointed a few steps away, to where Mick Rory and Nate were approaching.

"An asshole!" Kara punching Barry in the arm at the same time Ellie giggled.

"Ow!"

"Language," she muttered, giving him a death glare.

"Sorry Captain America." Kara rolled her eyes as Ellie continued to laugh. Then she pointed down the other end of the street.

"No silly. It's Aunty Alex!"

Kara spun in the direction of Ellie's point and breathed a sigh of relief. Alex was indeed approaching, in the company of Sara, Maggie, Nyssa Al'Ghul and John Constantine – all of them in their formal wear.

"Where in the bloody blue blazes have you lot been!" Kara admonished, crossing her arms and scowling at them. Alex and Sara laughed, Nyssa raised an eyebrow in amusement, and Constantine scrunched his face up in confusion.

Maggie, on the other hand...

"We went into space! How awesome is that! And then, and then, we travelled back in time to the fourteenth century!"

Kara's jaw fell open.

"You did WHAT!"

"Relax Kara," Sara said, waving away her fury and starting up the steps to the hall. "All we did was check the star maps to make sure there were no alien ships ready to attack, then we went back in time to stop the formation of a terrorist organisation called the Ninth Circle that was going to attack City Hall today. Simple!" With that, Sara slapped Alex on the back, then walked with Constantine into the hall.

"It was unreal," Alex said, eyes gleaming. "Fourteenth Century Italy! I ate an Italian pizza from before the Renaissance Kara, can you believe that!"

"It was so awesome," Maggie added. Then she brandished a futuristic-looking gun. "And I finally got my own space-gun!"

"Unfortunately, I was not allowed to kill my father whilst we were in the past. A pity," Nyssa said flatly. Kara groaned, hiding her face in her hands while Ellie applauded, and Barry rolled his eyes. Collectively, they made their way inside the building, Ellie jumping down to the floor in her cute white dress, patterned with little pink flowers. They followed the crowd of guests into the wedding hall, a large chapel, with rows of pews on the floor, and a second-tier running around the roof. Stain glass windows in the arched roof let pockets of light fall on the ground, creating a soft and peaceful atmosphere. An enormous organ dominated the far wall, in front of which stood an archway embroidered with flowers.

Oliver, Thea and Dig were already standing there, speaking with former Captain, now Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance. He would be officiating, given Oliver was the actual mayor. Alex and Nyssa split off from the group, Alex guiding Ellie to their seats, while Sara, Barry and Kara made their way down the aisle to Oliver. Most of the pews were already full. Felicity's mother, dressed in a fluorescent pink dress that looked as though it had been shrink-wrapped onto her, was balling her eyes into a supremely uncomfortable Ray Palmer's shoulder as Nate and Mick sniggered behind his back. Renee and Curtis were catching up with Evelyn Sharpe – their old teammate express from the 25th century – and Slade Wilson was having what appeared to be an in-depth conversation with Russian mobster Anatoly Kishinev. Finally, she spotted Constantine sitting in the back, studiously avoiding looking at a young woman with long black hair, wearing a black coat and... were those fishnets?

All in all, there were probably more superpowered people in this room than any in human history. The only people missing were J'onn, Clark and Hal, who were at STAR Labs and had elected to miss the celebration to deal with any potential disasters that might occur while everyone else got drunk and/or laid that night. Well, everyone except Barry, who would be doing neither of those things, as he could not get drunk, and had therefore been drafted into looking after Ellie. Sometimes, being the fastest man alive really sucked.

They stepped up to Oliver, who nodded to them.

"You sure you're ready for this man?" Barry asked, elbowing Oliver.

"Yeah Ollie," Sara chimed in, "you could always run off on a yacht with me to escape your responsibilities again. Who knows what might happen to us this time!" Oliver and Thea winced, but Dig, Sara, Barry and Kara just laughed.

"No. I'm doing this. I don't care what happens. I will say my vows today even if I've been pin cushioned with arrows. I swear to God." Then he turned on Barry and Kara.

"But why am I the butt of the joke here? What about you two?"

"Us? What about us?" Kara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well you're bullying me, but you've already got a kid calling you Mom and Dad, and you've already been married in that dream world. When are you going to tie the knot?"

Barry's face turned beat red, and Sara started chocking into her hand. Kara's heart missed a beat, and she fixed Oliver with a look just begging him to say more. He didn't even flinch; just stood there smug, hands in pockets.

"Nope. Nah uh. Not gonna happen," Thea said, wagging a finger at Barry. "You are not going to propose during Felicity's wedding. That's like, worst friend move ever. You are not going to take the attention away from her."

"What about me?" Oliver asked, adopting an angry expression.

"You, I don't care so much about."

Dig snorted.

"Five years. Five years I've spent shipping these two. You will not sabotage it now Thea Dearden Queen."

Thea raised her hands in surrender, and a moment later, music began to play. Kara and Sara stepped to one side of the arch, Barry, Dig and Oliver to the other, as the assembled crowd stood up, turning towards the door.

Felicity stood there in an exquisite white mermaid dress, hair falling in ringlets over her shoulders. She stood tall, bouquet in hand, with no one beside her. Felicity Smoak needed no one to give her away. She was perfectly capable of doing that herself.

She walked down the aisle to a fanfare of music and applause. When she reached Oliver's side, the music faded, and the crowd took their seats. Kara could only smile, staring across at Barry, analysing the brilliance of his face, watching in pride as Captain Lance... Deputy Mayor Lance spoke to the assembled crowd. On the balcony above, reporters and various other members of the Starling City government watched the procession.

"If anyone actually stands up now, I'm gonna shoot them, but if anyone has just cause why Oliver and Felicity should not be married, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

A few seconds of silence passed. Then a figure crashed through the roof, cracking the floor in a radius around her. Without thinking, Kara stepped in front of Oliver and Felicity as the person rose up, the reporters on the balcony above craning with their phones to get good views. The people in the pews pushed away from the intruder like a wave, but those in the front rows immediately rose at the ready. The woman stood to full height, flaring dirty blonde hair out behind her. Dressed in a streamlined black suit, outlined with red piping, with metal shoulder guards, boots and gloves, a mask with glowing red eyes obscured her face. Dead centre was Kara's crest, but the S had been bastardised into two lightning bolt-like shapes. A symbol she recognised.

"Peace is overrated."

The eyes of the woman's mask burned red, and two blasts of heat vision blasted forth, straight towards Oliver and Felicity. In the same breath, five of the ushers waiting at the sides of the room drew pistols and opened fire on the guests, and a dozen people in the reporter's gallery drew weapons of their own and began firing indiscriminately.

Well, she couldn't say they hadn't expected something like this after all.

Kara met the woman's heat vision head-on as Barry flashed around the room, catching bullets as they shot free of their guns. Oliver tackled Felicity to the ground in the same moment Dig grabbed Lance, and Sara dove to the floor.

That's when the chaos really kicked in. As Barry moved amongst the people in a blur of lightning, the spectators began to scream and start running in panic. Cisco slammed his fist into the floor, and a wave of blue energy exploded through the room: an electromagnetic pulse to disable any recording devices or phones that might otherwise record them. Kara and the other woman floated up into the air, heat vision still locked on one another. Sara came out of her roll and started decking the ushers on the left; Alex was using her body to shield Ellie; Oliver's team had begun clearing out the other side of the room; Nyssa had launched herself at the upper railing and was now climbing over the balustrade onto the second level. Nate's skin turned to steel, and he jumped from one of the pews onto the enemy Kryptonian's back. He managed to deliver one solid punch to the woman's head before she threw him off, but the attack did its work. Her heat vision went array, colliding with the ceiling. Kara's did not. It slammed into the woman's chest, knocking her back to the floor.

Barry appeared, standing over the woman. He dropped two handfuls of bullets, ignoring the screams and shouts from the panicking spectators, and leaned down to grab her by the collar. A green-tipped arrow came out of nowhere, slamming into Barry's back. He jolted forward, then it exploded, sending out a green shockwave that bathed the room in light.

"Barry!"

Barry screamed in agony, instantly collapsing to the ground, body seizing, and everything else in the room faded from Kara's view. She landed beside Barry and tore the arrow from his back. It was identical to Oliver's anti-speedster arrows. The ones they'd used against the Reverse-Flash. She pulled him into her arms as his arms and legs jerked, eyes squeezed tightly closed. Green energy rippled under his skin for a few moments, before vanishing, and Barry fell still, like a puppet with its strings cut.

A fist slammed into Kara's head, and a scream tore from her throat as she was thrown across the room, Barry flying free from her grasp. She slammed through a wall, crashing to the floor as her head rang, vision swimming.

She tried to rise but staggered and fell back to the floor. Something clinked to the floor nearby, followed by an angry whinnying. Smoke filled the room, and Kara chocked as she tried to breathe in. The world spun out from under her, and she crashed to the floor. She was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

Oliver pulled Felicity behind the archway, then ripped up a floorboard and retrieved the bow and quiver he'd stashed there. Dig was doing the same, pulling out guns for himself and Lance.

Kara's voice, anguished in pain, tore through the hall, and Oliver looked up just in time to see her crash through a wall on the far side of the building, falling into a side room. The flying woman stood triumphant in the centre of the room, blonde hair framing a face obscured by a dark mask.

The wedding hall was in utter chaos. Most of the reporters had fled in terror, and Caitlin and Thea had ushered most of the guests on the main floor out a side door. Now, five people, dressed all in black and red, stood atop the balcony looking down at the remaining heroes. Cisco was trying to edge around the side of the room to something Oliver couldn't see. Sara and Alex were backing away with Ellie behind them, and Jax and Professor Stein had finally managed to fuse together and were now standing against the Kryptonian. Oliver's own team had dealt with the ushers on the left side of the room and were looking back in horror. Constantine, Mick Rory and Zatanna were also together near the back of the room. He couldn't see Nyssa.

Finally, three ropes fell through the roof, and a trio of blonde-haired women descended into the room. Each had the same bastardised version of Kara's symbol on their shoulders, but they wore no masks, and one carried a tall golden staff with a wicked hook at one end. However, one of the women drew Oliver's attention more than the others, because she had Sara's face.

Doppelgangers. Nazi Doppelgangers from another Earth. Damn Thea for insisting he needed to have a big wedding for the reporters. He'd told her something like this was going to happen. Kara was down. Barry was down. Time to deal with this.

"Dig, get them out. Now!" Dig didn't hesitate. He pulled Lance towards the exit with the others and reached out for Felicity. After shooting Oliver a final look, pleading for him to not do anything stupid, she let Dig lead her away, meeting up with Ellie, Alex and Sara. Ellie, looking terrified, followed Felicity and Dig away, and Sara and Alex turned back to the room.

Oliver took a deep breath, then stood to full height, knocking arrow to the bowstring. He fixed his eyes on the man atop the balcony looking out at the destruction. Several people lay dead around his feet. He wore an identical mask to the woman, but a hood like Oliver's obscured his face, and a bow and quiver were slung over his back. The three men surrounding him, like the women, all wore identical black and red uniforms, but their faces... once again, belonged to Oliver's friends. Ray, Nate and... and Tommy.

That meant... Oliver's gaze flicked between the Kryptonian and the archer. Oh hell.

"What do you want?!" Sara demanded, stepping up beside Oliver. Firestorm and Nazi-Supergirl stood a few metres apart in front of them, eyeing one another carefully.

"Nothing. We have what we came for," the archer called back. Then he turned to leave. What had they...? Oliver glanced to the broken wall where Kara had disappeared. White smoke was billowing out of the crack, and Constantine's trench coat and Rory's gun lay discarded on the floor.

"You're not going anywhere," Oliver said, sighting on the archer. The archer ignored him, so Oliver loosed, then raced forward.

"Don't let them leave!" He shouted, and everyone sprang into action. Firestorm started lobbing fireballs at the Kryptonian, who was at least wary of taken a direct hit. Nyssa sprang from the rafters, sword overhead, angling for the archer. Dark-Nate's skin turned to steel, and he easily deflected the weapon, while Dark-Tommy punched her in the side.

"Cisco! I need a Breach!" Oliver shouted, dodging around Nazi-Kara and Firestorm. He rolled to his feet and came face to face with the woman holding the staff. She was young, he realised. Very young. Maybe sixteen, seventeen.

She backhanded him with the staff, and a blast of golden energy sent him flying across the room, hissing in pain. Sara dove through the air, colliding with the staff-wielding woman, while Evelyn flew from the side of the room using her Legion Ring, and punched Dark-Sara in the ribs. Alex appeared then, sliding in to knock out the third blonde, the one Oliver had no knowledge of. She was young too, though older than the staff-wielding girl.

A breach formed in the air behind him and Oliver sailed through it, landing on the balcony above. He rolled to his feet and aimed his bow right between the archer's red-eyed mask.

"I'm not done with you yet."

"I decide when things are done." Oliver loosed, and the archer ducked the shot, punching Oliver in the gut. He stumbled back, and the archer tried a roundhouse kick, but Oliver ducked beneath it. In Oliver's peripheral, Nyssa sprang back into action, bent sword discarded. She wrapped her legs around Nate's neck, and threw herself off the balcony, taking the steel skinned man with her. Another breach formed, and Caitlin, hair white, ice daggers in hand, jumped out. She hurled the blades at Nazi-Ray, who deflected them with gauntlets attached to his wrists that looked similar, but different, to the ATOM Suit. Curtis followed Caitlin and hurled a T-Sphere at Dark-Tommy. Tommy drew two eskrima sticks and deflected the sphere, but it magnetised to the metal weapon, then tore free from Tommy's hand with a jerk. Then Curtis pounced on the man. Oliver couldn't let himself think about it. This was not the Tommy who'd died in his arms. This was an enemy doppelgänger, just like Black Siren. He would treat him with no restraint. Oliver kicked the archer backwards, and he grunted, drawing his own bow. Oliver parried before the man could draw, and their battle began anew.

Barry slowly blinked back to awareness. His entire body was searing with pain, like pinpricks stinging every muscle, every bone, all at once. It took all he had just to open his eyes.

Cisco stood over him, fists clenched in a protective stance. The Kryptonian woman, floating in the centre of the room, punched Firestorm in the stomach so hard they split back into two people. Sara was duelling with... herself? Ray and Alex were both lying on the floor, unconscious, at the feet of a blonde-haired woman with a glowing staff, and another blonde, sans staff, was flipping rings around Renee and Nate. Doppelgängers. Had to be Doppelgängers.

Barry tried to stand, and his body spasmed again. He hissed, falling back to the floor, distracting Cisco. The one moment was all it took. A blur of yellow and red slammed into his friend, knocking Cisco aside, before forming into the shape of the Reverse-Flash. He grabbed Barry by the collar and lifted him up into the air.

"Hello, Barry. How nice to see you again." Thawne punched him in the face, and Barry saw stars. Then, Thawne ran away, carrying Barry, his whole body still burning with pain, in tow.

Oliver punched the archer square in the face, and he stumbled backwards. The mask flickered, then vanished; breaking apart like nano-tech. The man's face was Oliver's own.

"That's sick."

"You mean looking into your reflection, and seeing only weakness?" His doppelgänger snarled, and Oliver remembered that light in his eyes. The same light he'd seen in his own eyes those early years. When he'd been nothing but a monster. "I quite agree!"

The archer lunged for him, but Oliver was ready. He sidestepped, drew one of his flechettes, and rammed it through the black suit, and deep into his other's gut.

"Maybe you should pay more attention to your own weaknesses," Oliver said, kicking the archer to the ground. An eskrima stick smashed across Oliver's face, and he fell backwards. Tommy... Dark-Tommy knelt down beside Oliver's evil-counterpart, then turned on Oliver himself. And a T-sphere collided with the back of his head. Tommy's eyes rolled, and he collapsed. Dark-Ray blasted Caitlin directly in the face, and she tripped over the body of a reporter, falling to the floor. Then, he turned on Oliver and Curtis.

A force of some kind – a shockwave of pure sound – exploded the balcony beneath them. Oliver, Curtis, Ray and Dark-Oliver, as well as everyone either unconscious or dead atop the balcony level, were repulsed backwards as a wailing scream pulsed through their ears. Oliver, head ringing, knocked a grappling arrow and shot at the rafters on the other side of the room. The arrow found it's mark, and Oliver was pulled off course. He swung precariously around the room, trying to dodge pieces of debris. Several fragments grazed him, cutting through his tux, and two shards of splintered wood lodged in his back and leg, but he managed to swing clear of the explosion, and he landed on the ground floor. His Sara had taken the brunt of the blast and was now buried in the debris with Nyssa. Dark-Sara stood at the apex of the destructive wave, a sad expression on her face. The woman with the staff, who was hovering in the air above a knocked-out Cisco, was looking straight at Oliver with a maniac smile. Nazi-Kara pulled Oliver's counterpart from the wreckage of the balcony at the same time Dark-Ray burst himself free. He couldn't see Dark-Tommy, Evelyn, or the third blonde-woman.

His doppelgänger glanced towards Oliver, smirking.

"Like I said. I decide when it ends." Dark-Kara pulled Dark-Oliver to her in an intimate grip, then shot up through the roof. Dark-Ray activated rockets in his boots while the girl with the staff grabbed Nazi-Sara and Nazi-Nate, and they all followed their leaders out into the sky.

The threats gone, Oliver sank to the ground, letting go of his bow, and leant back against one of the few pews that hadn't been destroyed, diligently ignoring the splinter in his back.

Then he began to plan.

Part 2

Oliver made his fifty-second lap around the control centre of the Bunker. For two hours now, he had been suited up. He had his meta-human quiver equipped with the deadliest arrowheads he had, and his body was covered with knives, daggers and extra arrowheads. And he had NOTHING. TO. SHOOT!

Five hours had passed since the abduction of Barry, Kara, Constantine and Mick Rory, and they were still no closer to tracking their Nazi Doppelgängers. Three of those hours, Oliver had spent as mayor, cleaning up the mess of City Hall and answering questions from the press while Sara mind-whipped everyone from the wedding. Finally, he'd managed to get away, leaving Renee, Thea and Lance to handle it.

He'd arrived in the Bunker to chaos.

Cisco, Curtis and Felicity were working over video-chat with Harry Wells at STAR Labs, scouring the planet for extra-dimensional energies consistent with breaches to other Earths. Barry and his team had resealed the barriers between worlds torn open by the Singularity, but two methods of cross-dimensional travel remained. The Speed Canon in STAR Labs, which connected directly to something Wells called the 'Orrery of Worlds', and Cisco himself. Nothing had come through STAR, and Cisco obviously hadn't let them in. That left one possibility. These Nazis had another portal.

Evelyn stood at Curtis's workbench at the back of the Bunker with a metal welders mask over her head, grinding at a contraption on the desk. Occasionally she would point her Legion Ring at the device, and a beam bright white light shot out of it. Ray was standing over her shoulder in the ATOM Suit, watching and asking questions at such a rapid pace Oliver could barely make out the words, and what he did catch made no sense. Words like "Quantum Resonances, Temporal Manifolds and Investiture Seals."

Doctor Stein and Caitlin were seated at Felicity's desk, another video-chat open with Stein's daughter and a man called Max Mercury from Earth 21. They were analysing the few scraps of data STAR had collected from Barry and Kara's suits - which had been insulated from Cisco's EMP - and Curtis's T-Spheres. They were trying to figure out inconsistencies in the attack. Who was the girl with the staff, and how had it worked? Who was the enemy speedster? No one had gotten a good enough look to determine whether the figure was Barry or not. What about Nazi Ray's gauntlets? They had seemed more advanced than their Ray's ATOM Suit. And how had Sara's doppelgänger caused so much destruction?

Jax, Nate and John were left with nothing to do, and to burn away their adrenaline, they had taken to sparring on the mats in the corner. Alex was sitting on the steps with a distraught Ellie, just holding her as the girl cried.

"We have something!" Sara yelled, the elevator doors opening to reveal her, Slade, and Nyssa. Sara's arm was still in a cast, and she'd received a slight concussion from the blast, but her Legion Ring had protected her from most of the destructive damage of her counterpart. Oliver stopped at lap fifty-seven, spinning towards the women. The others all froze as well, except for Evelyn, who continued her welding.

"Where have you been?" Caitlin demanded.

"Interrogating our guests," Sara said, eyes fixed on Oliver.

"With extreme prejudice," Nyssa added in her usual casual manner.

Slade stepped forward with a tablet and cast an image to one of the overhead screens.

"They both had cyanide tablets embedded in their cheekbones. You're lucky I was here kid, these two didn't think to check." He shot Nyssa a smirk, then turned back to the screen.

"Neither of them were talking, even after... enhanced interrogation. Had killer death-glares though."

Felicity shot Oliver a look, but with a single glance to Ellie, who was still crying, his guilt vanished.

"We got a match on facial recognition for the girl though," Sara said, "Her name is Stephanie Brown, and on our Earth she's a sixteen-year-old single mother from Gotham City. She's the daughter of one of Gotham's resident wackjobs, the Cluemaster, and was instrumental in sending him to prison. She's currently attending the Gotham Academy and works part-time both at a Gymnastics centre, and a coffee-shop in Gotham Heights. But get this, her attendance at the school was paid for in its entirety by Tim Drake."

"Tim Drake?" Alex asked, "As in teenage CEO of Wayne Enterprises Tim Drake, who took over the company after Bruce Wayne's death? That Tim Drake?"

"That's the one, and here's where things get even more interesting." Sara gestured with her thumb to Nyssa.

"Timothy Drake was a member of the League of Assassins." Oliver resisted the urge to bash his head into a computer, and just stared at Nyssa in consternation.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" John muttered, coming to stand beside Oliver.

"He was not a member for long. As it turned out, Drake had deliberately arranged to be picked up by the League on the orders of Batman."

"Batman's a myth," Oliver said.

Deathstroke scoffed. "Kid, when he lodges one of those fucking batarangs in your neck, you can call him a myth."

"You've met the Batman?" Cisco breathed, eyes going wide.

"Not now!" Oliver snapped. "How does this help us?"

"Well, the gymnastics, combined with the League of Assassins and whatever training this Batman has given her, explains the skill her double demonstrated at the hall," Sara said. "As for Tommy... well I imagine he was probably recruited to this Nazi cult the same time alternate you and Ray were."

Oliver swallowed.

"Yeah... About that. I don't think it's a cult," Harry said through the video-chat. All eyes turned towards him.

"There are stories of an Earth in the Orrery that was so horrible it was stricken from the Multiversity records. And you have to remember, the Injustice Earth is still on that list, so that puts things in perspective."

Caitlin turned towards Wells screen with a frown.

"But surely somewhere that bad would have fallen into the Dark Multiverse by now?"

Wells shook his head. "The Dark Multiverse is a plain born of fears. Worlds that fall down there are unstable, not bad."

"Out with it Wells," Jax said, folding his arms, "Where are our friends?"

Wells sighed. "I think they're on Earth X. A world where the Nazis won World War II, and exterminated three-quarters of the Earth's population; that's over 1. 5 billion people."

Felicity shrank into her chair, and Oliver moved to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Nazi World. Why did it have to be Nazi World?" She whispered. Everyone stood in silence, just digesting that disturbing information.

"Ray, get your ass back, or your head's going to be fried!" Evelyn shouted, interrupting the sombre mood.

"You can't do that! If you touch those right now, the whole thing will explode!"

"It will not!" She stated, glaring at him. "I've lived in the future for seventeen years now Raymond Palmer! Did it not occur to you that I might actually know what I was doing?"

"Living in the future doesn't change the fundamental tenants of science!" Ray exclaimed.

"Sure it does. After all, you still think Special Relativity accurately describes the interaction between space and time!" Cisco made a mewling sound in the back of his throat; Ray looked like Evelyn just killed his cat. Huffing in satisfaction, Evelyn grabbed two round coils on the sides of her machine... which kind of looked like a helmet now that he thought about it, and clipped them together.

There was no explosion. Instead, the headset made a soft crackling sound, then began to radiate a soft violet energy. Evelyn turned on Ray, flashing him a smug grin at the same time Ellie jerked upright, gasping. Her eyes swivelled around the room, before fixing on Evelyn and the helmet in her hands.

"Wow..." she whispered, swaying slightly. Evelyn grinned.

"Um, Ev, what is that?" Curtis asked hesitantly.

"It's something E..." Sara shot her a look that could kill. "...Imra, uses in the future to amplify her telepathy. I had to use up most of the Investiture in my ring to make it work though. I'll need to visit Roshar to reinvest it." She shivered visibly. "It's called a Causal Network, and it allows the wearer to tap into the Sage Force and access the Multiversal Consciousness."

"I didn't understand a word of that," Nate said.

"It's a helmet that will amplify Ellie's powers," Curtis translated, staring at the device in awe, "Which she can use to find the Earth Xers."

"I... I can hear it," Ellie muttered. She slid off Alex's lap and padded towards Evelyn in a trance-like state. Oliver immediately moved to her side, holding her hand as she hopped down the stairs.

"Can someone else use it?" Oliver asked, gaze shifting between Ellie - whose eyes had turned solid purple, hair glowing gold - and the shimmering helmet.

"Theoretically? Yes. But you wouldn't know what to do. It'd be like throwing you into the Speed Force with no superspeed and expecting you to know where you were going."

Oliver swallowed. Alex came up beside them and took the helmet from Evelyn hesitantly. Oliver knelt beside Ellie, but she didn't seem aware of him anymore. She was focussed on the device. The metal implements on Evelyn's table began to rattle, and Ellie floated up off the ground, reaching out for the headset. Alex and Oliver locked eyes, and both could tell the other didn't like this in the slightest. But they didn't have any better ideas, so Alex placed the device on Ellie's head.

It sat like a crown, and as it touched the girl's head, it burst alight, refracting all colours of the rainbow. Ellie's whole body was enveloped in a violet aura, and her eyes began emitting light.

"Ellie? Are you okay?"

Ellie nodded.

"I... I'm okay, Auntie Alex." The voice that spoke was still Ellie's, but it was older, more feminine and less childlike. But that wasn't the creepy part. That was most definitely the fact that the words didn't move at the same time as her lips. It was like an online video that hadn't buffered correctly.

"What... what can you hear?" Alex asked hesitantly. Oliver squeezed Ellie's hand once more.

"Voices. So many voices. And they all make a pattern Auntie Alex..." she trailed off, narrowing her eyes.

"An eternal story, repeating over and over."

"Ellie... do you know where your Mum and Dad are?" Oliver suggested.

"Far, far away," Ellie answered robotically, "The Hidden Earth."

"How can we get to them?"

Ellie pointed to Cisco and blinked. He gasped, falling to his knees, Caitlin beside him. A halo of violet light formed around his head, then vanished. He sucked in a sharp breath, then nodded.

"I've got it."

Ellie turned towards Oliver and looked him the eye, and Oliver had the chilling realisation that it wasn't Ellie staring back at him.

"Time is not your ally tonight. The Destroyer stirs. The pattern needs Kara Danvers and Barry Allen alive. If you fail... you will doom more than just your friends."

Ellie blinked once more, and the aura surrounding her faded away. She fell from the air, and Oliver caught her in his arms, pulling the helmet free. She closed her eyes and tucked into the crook of his arm, then fell asleep. Everyone was deathly silent for a good long while until Dig muttered under his breath.

"I think I'm going to go find a bible."

"A bible won't help you," a new voice said, "Not against It. We have to find Kara, Barry and John. Now." A figure stepped out of the shadows wearing a black and white magicians coat and black fishnets.

"Zatanna? What is... It?" Felicity whispered, teeth chattering.

"Pray, you never find out."

Part 3

"Talk, let's have conversations in the dark. World is sleeping, I'm awake with you." Kara hung from her wrists, bound by thick adamantium metal chains to the roof of a cell bathed in red light. Red sunlight. These Nazis knew what they were doing. She still wore the dress from the wedding, though now it was torn and caked in dust and grime.

"Watch, movies that we've both already seen. I ain't even looking at the screen. It's true, I got my eyes on you," Barry sang back. She couldn't see him. Not from her current position. He was in a cell opposite hers, cold metal bars between them. He'd tried to phase through them the second he woke up, but had been repulsed Thawne's red lightning, which had somehow been put into the bars themselves.

"And you say that you're not worth it," they chorused together, "You get hung up on your flaws. Well, in my eyes, you are perfect as you are."

They didn't know how long they'd been in the dark, or how long they'd been unconscious. But they'd sung-through about ten John Legend songs by this point.

"I won't ever try to change you, change you

I will always want the same you, same you

Swear on everything I pray to

That I won't break your heart."

"Will you two please shut up!" Rory barked, slamming a fist against his cell a distance away. "Never thought I'd actually miss solitary confinement."

"I'll be there when you get lonely, lonely

Keep the secrets that you told me, told me

And your love is all you owe me

And I won't break your heart."

"Oh, let them sing," Constantine shot back, "It's better than silence."

"I beg to differ," Mick grumbled.

"Would you prefer something of a different genre, Mister Rory?" Kara asked, smiling despite the ache in her arms.

"How 'bout a bit a country, Kara?" Barry said, attempting an awful Texan accent.

"Right outside of this one church town," Kara began, swaying as best she could while hanging from the roof. "There's a gold dirt road to a whole lot of nothin'. Got a deed to the land, but it ain't my ground. This is God's Country."

"We pray for rain, and thank Him when it's fallen," Barry continued, "'Cause it brings the grain and a little bit of money. We put it back in the plate, I guess that's why they call it God's Country..."

Mick groaned, "That's even worse."

"I saw the light in a sunrise

Sittin' back in a 40 on the muddy riverside

Gettin' baptised in holy water and 'shine with the dogs runnin'

Saved by the sound of the been found

Dixie whistled in the wind, that'll get you Heaven bound

The Devil went down to Georgia, but he didn't stick around

This is God's Country."

"Please anything else..." Mick begged, and Constantine just laughed.

"Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for," Barry exclaimed, and Kara burst out laughing. "Been searchin' in the dark, your sweat soakin' through the floor."

"And buried in your bones there's an ache that you can't ignore. Takin' your breath, stealin' your mind And all that was real is left behind..."

"Don't fight it, it's comin' for you, runnin' at ya

It's only this moment, don't care what comes after

It's blindin', outshinin' anything that you know

Just surrender 'cause you're callin' and you wanna go..."

#

"Where it's covered in all the coloured lights,

Where the runaways are runnin' the night,

Impossible comes true, it's takin' over you

Oh, this is the greatest show!

We light it up, we won't come down

And the walls can't stop us now!

I'm watchin' it come true, it's takin' over you

Oh, this is the greatest show!"

A slow clapping filled the room as they finished, and Oliver appeared through a door hidden in the half-light.

"Bravo, bravo."

"Oliver!" Barry exclaimed, "About time."

Another person appeared, stepping into the room behind Oliver... and she wore Kara's face.

"Sorry, Mr Allen, but I'm afraid you'll have to keep waiting."

"Great," Barry muttered, "Breachers."

"What do you want with us?!" Kara snapped, straining against the chains.

Not-Oliver laughed.

"Who said we wanted any of you?" Kara's doppelgänger asked, placing her head up against the bars of Kara's cell. She tried to look threatening but was distracted by her doubles make-up. It was, quite simply, brilliant. Seriously, that smoky eye was to die for, and those lips.

"Who does your make-up? Cause I'm kinda jealous," she found herself saying, then grimaced internally.

"You like? One of my pets has quite the talent," Nazi-Kara smirked as she shivered. Pet? How screwed up was this world?

"Overgirl," Dark-Oliver said, a hint of amusement tinting his voice.

"Yes, my Fuhrer?" Overgirl asked sweetly, turning around and batting her eyes at him.

"Stop flirting."

"Yes, sir."

"If you're going to torture us, can you just bloody get on with it?" Constantine asked, drawing the attention of the couple.

"If torture is what you want..." Oliver drew, sighted and shot in a second, and an arrow slammed into Constantine's gut. He hissed, and a thump echoed through the red-dark as he collapsed to the ground.

"Leave him alone," Barry said, stepping up to the cell door, eyes narrowed.

"Or what?" Dark-Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow, "What will you do to me?"

"You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Nothing much at the moment. So, I think I'll do whatever I want."

"That's where you're wrong."

Oliver threw his arms out, making a beckoning motion with his hands. "Smite me then 'Flash'. Strike me down."

Barry snorted. "Nice try Vader."

Overgirl frowned, then leaned up next to Kara's cell.

"What's a Vader?" Kara just shook her head.

"It's from a movie."

"Ah."

Oliver either didn't hear the exchange or ignored it, because he was still focussed on Barry.

"You needn't worry for your skin, Mr Allen. We have no need for it. You're merely here as payment."

"What did Thawne bribe you with?" Barry asked, folding his arms. "Actually, I don't care. But here's a lesson. Thawne doesn't care about your plan. He'll screw you over, and you'll never see him coming."

"We've already filled our end of the bargain," Oliver said, "Who do you think built this cell? And, for the record, I think you're going to care a great deal." He nodded to Overgirl, and she opened Kara's cell. She stepped inside, then, still smiling, punched her in the gut.

Kara wheezed, breath escaping her in a rush. Barry grabbed the cell bars and was shocked by the red lightning. Her invulnerable body absorbed most of the impact, but she'd be lying if she said it hadn't hurt. It would take longer for the red-sunlight to flush all the yellow from her system.

"Still cooking," Evil Kara said, moving back outside the cell doors and closing them behind her.

"We'll have to keep waiting then," Oliver said. He turned towards the door and walked away, Overgirl following silently behind like a well-trained lap-dog.

Once the door closed, Kara called out to Constantine.

"You alright?"

"Yeah," he muttered, "stings like a bitch, but I've had worse, and I don't think my souls heading for Hell just yet."

"Can't you just magic it?" Mick asked.

"No. There's... there's just nothing. It's like one of my senses has gone completely dull. It's not a block. Those I've dealt with before. I can't even feel the Source anymore."

"That's... not good," Kara said, not really understanding the words but getting the context. Barry had seemingly ignored them. He was repeatedly reaching his hand out towards the cell bars, yellow lightning crackling around it. As he drew close, the red lightning would spring to life, and Barry's lightning would shrink back from it.

"Hmmm..."

"Barry? Do you have an idea?" She asked, hopefully.

"Maybe." He said no more.

Authors Notes

On Magic:

Most of you probably don't read DC Comics, and if you do, you probably haven't read Hellblazer or Justice League Dark. Legends of Tomorrow hasn't really bothered explaining how Constantine's magic works. It does what the plot needs it to do, and nothing really more or less.

So here is an explanation for those of you who are curious.

Magic in the DCU comes from 'the Source', which is the cosmic firmament from which all of DC's god characters draw their power (including Darkseid, though in some stories he also has the Anti-Life Equation). The manipulation of magic, then, is the ability to tap into that energy - the source code of reality - to make things happen. This is part of the reason Zatanna has to speak her spells backwards. She's like a magical nuclear reactor, and if she spoke her spells normally, they would be seriously overpowered, so much so that doing so instantly draws the attention of things best left in the Dark.

It's similar to the magic depicted in the Doctor Strange movie, but it maintains its mystical origin more.

Constantine - who in most incarnations is a specialist in the 'dark arts' - pulls most of his power from Hell, but augments it with magical artefacts to lessen his reliance on demonic magic. This is why he favours fire spells over other elements - it's easier for him.

If you've read Gemini Curse or Shards of Heaven, you'll recognise this concept there as well. We explained the origins of magic in-depth in Gemini, and though it was called something different in Shards, the 'Spiritual Realm' basically equates to the Source. As all our stories take place in the same Multiverse, keeping the rules of magic the same between them is rather important to us.

Likewise, you might have noticed the Sage Force. This Force is from the more recent Flash books and spawns from the destruction of the Source Wall in Dark Nights: Metal. We repurposed this force for Ellie, explaining it in far more depth than Josh Williamson does, and have linked it to the Seven Enigma Forces in Gemini Curse.

Part 4

Oliver had to blink several times as he stepped out of Cisco's Breach. Cisco creating a magic swirly blue portal with his fist; he could deal with that. He'd been living in a world of metahumans and aliens for several years now. Doppelgängers? Two years ago? No way. However, he'd dealt with Black Siren since then. With Harry Wells. He'd been to the future and fought on the ground during two alien incursions. He could handle alternate universe duplicates now. But travelling through the breach... glimpsing all those other worlds, then stepping out under a black sky... that took the cake.

They were in an abandoned courtyard of black stone, skyscrapers with dark tinted windows on three sides of the square. All had enormous red and black Nazi flags hanging upon them. On the fourth side of the square was a large park, with a garish gunmetal grey square structure, which looked to be built entirely from metal in the centre. A high statue stood in the centre of the square - a statue of Adolf Hitler.

"That's just sick on so many levels," Clark muttered, stepping out beside Oliver, cape billowing behind him.

"I thought the coordinates were in America?" Dig asked, voice shaky.

Cisco stepped out of the breach in his red and gold suit, glasses locked over his eyes.

"We are. This is Central City, Earth X, capital of the New American Empire."

"Capital?" Stein whispered.

"Most of the Eastern Seaboard is uninhabitable."

That shut everyone up really quickly.

Oliver, Sara and Dig secured the courtyard as the others arrived. Zatanna was the last, eyes flitting around the square in horror. After deciding there were no traps and disabling all the security cameras, Oliver returned to the assembled group of heroes.

"I've set up a Multiversal locator beacon," Cisco said, "If we aren't out in six hours, Wally will come in with the whole Flash Family." He shivered.

"Hopefully it won't come to that."

"The Source is weak here," Zatanna said, "probably because of how this world was sealed away. Mr Ramone's beacon is helping, but my most powerful spells are currently out of reach."

"Call it Arrow," Sara said, nodding to Oliver. She wore her new suit - white, with no mask. A black canary sigil was stitched onto a patch on her shoulder.

Oliver looked towards the square building, then back at the assembly of heroes. Black Canary, Steel, Firestorm, Artemis, ATOM, Vibe, Spartan, Alex Danvers, Nyssa Al Ghul, Zatanna and Superman.

"Alright. Here's the play. Evelyn, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out reinforcements and doppelgängers. Firestorm, you've got the perimeter. You're the first line of offence once alarms start blaring."

Jax straightened, performing a mock salute.

"Sir, yes, sir." Stein rolled his eyes, then clasped hands with Jax, and they fused into Firestorm.

"Care to give me a lift?" Artemis asked with a smirk.

"Better hold on Legolas," Jax said, winking back at her. Then he wrapped an arm around her waist and shot up into the sky.

"Canary, Vibe, Steel, ATOM, Zatanna; you've got to take down those doppelgängers. Show them what it means to be a superhero."

"Dig, Nyssa, Alex, we're going to infiltrate the compound."

"What about me?" Clark asked, eyeing Oliver with a respectful look.

"Tear this place apart."

Superman grinned, then shot up into the sky. He sighted on the square building, then blasted it with his heat vision. The front doors immediately exploded, and a few seconds later, Nazi soldiers began pouring out. Cisco created a breach, then jumped through it while Ray took to the sky and Sara ran off with Nate and Zatanna. Oliver unslung his bow, then began to make his way towards the prison beyond.

The ground trembled as a muted 'BOOM!' echoed through the prison. Barry's gaze shot up to the ceiling, as particles of dust started raining around him.

"What was that?" Mick muttered from the cell next to him, though Barry still couldn't see him in the red-half light.

"Oliver and the others," Kara said, her voice betraying her excitement.

Constantine groaned in the dark.

"The Source is back. Barely, but it's back."

Barry pulled himself upright and approached the cell door once more. He raised his hand, vibrating it just enough to generate electricity, and moved it against the bars. Thawne's red lightning rippled to life, and Barry's power continued to shy away.

"Can you get us out of here?"

"I think so. Give me a moment."

He began muttering to himself, chanting in a language Barry didn't understand. Another explosion rocked the room, followed by a soft clicking sound. The screeching of rusted hinges replaced it, then Constantine himself appeared, using the doors to Kara's cell to support him. Nazi-Oliver's arrow was still sticking out of his gut. He grabbed the shaft, then yanked it free, cursing liberally as he did so. Then he began twisting his fingers over the wound, and it started knitting back together. After a few seconds, he looked good as new, and he released a long sigh of relief.

"Much better. Now, let's see what we can do with this..." He moved to place his hands against Kara's cell door, but before he could so much as reach out, a yellow blur grabbed him and threw his body back into his cell. He hit the wall hard, crying out in pain, and Thawne slammed the door shut again.

"Eobard!" Barry snapped, "Why are you doing this? Why work with Nazi Doppelgängers? That's not your style." Thawne turned towards Barry and pulled back his cowl.

"Barry Allen. We meet again. I can never remember, is this before or after you betrayed me and left me locked up in a cell for sixty years!"

"You deserved every second of it and more," Barry snapped, "What do you want?!"

"You. Dead at my feet!"

Barry threw his hands up. "Why not just kill me then? Why work for these people?"

Thawne grimaced.

"You didn't exactly leave me with much of an option. The Black Racer is chasing me across the Multiverse, and I can't strike at you directly. Not with your shield in place. I had to circumnavigate it, come through a Breach instead of the Speed-Force. So I needed someone to build me one. These Nazi idiots were more than happy to build a bridge once I showed them there was more than just one Earth. You see, they have a problem that you have the means to fix." He glanced at Kara with a sadistic grin.

Barry narrowed his eyes at Thawne, dancing from his face, to the bars, then back again.

"What did you do?" He asked suddenly, and Thawne frowned at him.

"Do what?"

"To your lightning. It was gold when I met you for the first time. Now it's red." Thawne's frown vanished. Replaced with a maniacal smirk.

"Maybe you'll figure it out one day Flash. It's just one of the many things I've done better than you." He turned around and bowed his head to Kara.

"Supergirl." Then he vanished.

"Constantine, are you okay?!" Kara immediately exclaimed. He didn't answer, so turned to Barry.

"Now would be a good time for your idea."

Barry stepped back from the cell wall and grit his teeth.

"We always thought my powers and Thawne's came from the same place," he said, "But if that were true, why do they act as if they're polarised?"

"Barry..."

"The answer is simple. I just didn't have the pieces I needed to realise it before. Thawne is connected to a different Force. Like Ellie is. A Negative Speed-Force. Which means, to get out, I have to do what Thawne did to put me in here. In reverse."

He began to vibrate his whole body. Faster and faster and faster, until his very clothes burned away. Lightning danced around his body, cracking out and colliding with the cell bars. One he was moving as fast as he could, he stood back as close to the wall as he could. Electricity flared across his eyes, and he bolted forward.

Two steps.

That was how large the cell was. Two steps. But that was all he needed. On the second step, he phased, and for a brief microsecond, the world evaporated. A storm of swirling blue, gold lightning churning amongst the clouds. Then he was on the other side of the bars.

He crashed into Kara's cell door at supersonic speeds, and without his speed-force aura, there would have been nothing left of him to find. As it was, he melted the door, and just missed Kara's hanging form. Instead, he hit the wall, leaving a five-metre deep imprint in the stone.

"Ow."

Kara continued to hang in the cell, desperately trying to swivel far enough to see Barry. He'd crashed into the wall and hadn't said anything or moved since. And she was still hanging from the ceiling.

The door to the cellblock was forced open with a crash, and Oliver burst in, this time in his proper green, with Alex, Dig and Nyssa behind him.

"Kara!" Alex exclaimed, rushing over to her as Dig began unlocking Mick's cell.

"Constantine's been hurt. Bad. Barry's... I don't know. Where's Ellie?"

"With Caitlin and Felicity on Earth-Prime," Alex said. She looked past Kara and into the Barry shaped hole in the wall.

"That looks like it hurt. Oliver..." Oliver moved into the cell beside Alex and slung his bow, then moved to help her pull Barry out of the wall. Finally, Kara could actually see him. He looked okay, thank Rao. Just unconscious.

"Constantine is badly wounded," Nyssa announced, stepping into the light with the magician slung over her shoulders. Mick and Dig approached behind them, and Dig handed Mick's gun back to him.

"Get Kara down, and Cisco can breach us home," Oliver said.

"No! We can't go yet. The Nazis have their own Breach portal. You have to destroy it," Kara said as Dig grabbed the chains binding her wrists and started trying the keys.

"Damn," Oliver muttered, before lifting hand to ear.

"Superman, there's a Nazi portal in play. Can you find it?"

She assumed Clark had answered in the affirmative because Oliver didn't say anything more.

As soon as Barry was free, his eyes snapped open in alarm. Oliver instantly swung his bow towards the door, but he was far too slow, and in a blur of red lightning, Barry was gone.

"Move!" Oliver shouted. Dig got Kara's cuffs open, and she dropped to the ground with a relieved sigh.

"Your powers?" Oliver asked as he beckoned everyone towards the door.

"Gone. Red Sunlight. But they should come back quickly enough once I'm back in the sun."

Leaning on Alex for support, Kara followed Oliver as he led the way from the cell block. Nyssa followed him with Constantine, and Mick and Dig brought up the rear. They passed several guards rooms filled with Nazis, though Kara wasn't sure if they were unconscious or dead, and stalked down numerous hallways. It was only when they reached what appeared to be a break room - with several black leather couches, coffee tables and even a fridge - two elevator doors in the wall beyond, that they met their first resistance.

Nazi-Sara stood there in a long black cape with red piping. Two batons were strapped to her legs, but she hadn't drawn them yet.

"Stand down, Sara," Oliver said, an arrow pointed directly at the woman's heart.

Sara's eyes glanced towards a camera in the corner of the room. A camera with an arrow in it.

"The portal room is in the centre of the building, but She won't let you leave."

Oliver lowered his bow.

"What's her name?" He asked softly.

Sara's lips quirked slightly into a sad smile, and her gaze shifted to Nyssa before returning to Oliver.

"We aren't all bad people. Take me with you. Please."

Oliver wasted no time. He simply nodded, then stalked over to the elevator, pressed the open button, then got on the coms to Clark.

Clark crashed through the roof in the centre of the Nazi compound and immediately swept the space with his heat-vision. This took out most of the Nazi soldiers and made way for Firestorm and Vibe to land beside him.

The Nazi portal, like most of their architecture Clark was coming to realise, was enormous and ugly. A great diamond-shaped platform with massive towers on each corner, raised up from the ground on four legs. The colours were, again he sensed a pattern, red and black, with a bit of silver thrown in to spice things up.

"That's a speed-canon alright," Cisco muttered.

"Can you destroy it?"

"Easily. It's pretty primitive. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

"YOU!" A feminine voice screamed, and Clark took a moment to realise that it was Kara's voice at all. But sure enough, standing atop the high platform was a doppelgänger of his cousin, dressed all in black, Nazi sigil on her chest.

"Kara. Listen to me! We can help you!"

"Oh, you'll help me, Kal. Whether you want to or not."

An elevator door slid open behind them, and Oliver, Dig and Mick stepped out, Alex supporting his Kara behind them.

Overgirl pointed at Kara and snarled.

"I don't care for you or your pathetic universe. Leave my other, and I will let you return to your world."

"Over our dead bodies," Firestorm said, floating up in the air, head smouldering.

"That can be arranged." Overgirl shot forward, but Clark was ready for her. He caught her and body-slammed her into the ground. He lifted his fist to punch her, but she kicked him backwards, and they began to chase one another across the room.

Barry kicked himself free of Thawne's grip, rolling to a stop in a black stone courtyard outside the Nazi complex. Thawne skid to a halt beside him, grinning.

"Thanks for the help Flash." Barry froze, the puzzle resolving instantly. He had done it again.

"I showed you how to get past the Speed-Force barrier I put up," he whispered.

"See you in the past, Flash!" Thawne flashed away into a swirling blue portal, red lightning sparking around it. Barry let him go. He was too tired right now, and his past self would deal with Thawne. If he was right, Thawne was about to appear on the night of December 2015, in the middle of Catco Plaza.

"Barry!" Sara yelled, running up and kneeling beside him. Barry looked up, finally taking in the battle raging around him. Zatanna was duelling with the staff-wielding woman while Ray flew overhead blasting Nazi soldiers. Even as he watched, Nate sucker-punched his steel-skinned doppelgänger, knocking him backwards. An arrow shot out of the air, slamming into Nazi-Nate's back, then exploded. His body was instantly covered in ice, and he fell to the ground, losing his steel shape. Nate kicked him in the head once more for good measure, then turned towards Sara and gave her a thumbs up.

"Where's their Flash gone?"

"It's not their Flash. It's Thawne."

"Thawne? I thought we erased him from existence?" Sara demanded.

"You did. We both did. But he's back. Again. I think he's being protected by his Negative Speed-Force," Barry guessed, though he knew in his gut that he was right.

"Fucking hell."

Barry grunted. "Tell me about it."

Zatanna cried out a spell, and great chains broke from the stone and wrapped around the girl with the staff. She dropped the weapon as they squeezed her, and Zatanna drew a short wand from her sleeve. She pointed it at the staff and yelled once more.

"Yortsed!"

"No!" The girl screamed, and the staff flew into the air towards her. A bolt of black energy shot from Zatanna's wand and collided with the staff. The weapon froze in the air, then turned pitch black, and fell to the ground, lifeless. The girl shrieked in agony, a raw and horrific cry of utter pain, then fell limp in Zatanna's chains. And in that second, Barry realised just how young she was. No older than sixteen.

"Portal's hot!" Cisco announced over the coms. "Let's scram everyone!" Zatanna, looking mortified, stepped up to the girl and placed a hand at her neck. Then she pulled it back, shaking uncontrollably.

"Get that staff," Barry told Sara, and she nodded, before running towards Zatanna and the girl. Barry glanced to Evelyn's rooftop just in time to see her jump off the roof. She shot an arrow across the gap, then swung down to the ground. Barry took a long breath, then locked his gaze on the hole in the roof. It was time to get Kara and go back home.

Kara's respect for non-powered heroes was going through the roof.

Clark was duelling with Kara's Earth X counterpart. They had put numerous holes in walls and the roof, heat-vision had gauged whole swaths in the ground, and pieces of the ceiling had been used as both shields and boulders. Firestorm was flying across the room, hurling balls of fire at the Nazi soldiers that kept pouring into the room in waves. Cisco had used his vibe blasts and breaches to clear the control room overlooking the Breach Platform, and was now hacking the system while simultaneously holding his own against the soldiers that kept trying to sneak upon him.

They were like gods battling in the skies.

Usually, she was up there with them. But right now, she was trapped on the ground with Dig, Oliver and Mick as they tried to hold the portal platform itself. Kara had taken one of the fallen Nazi guns, and thanks to Oliver's training, she could fire it and hit people more often than not. She also had the mind to keep to cover when she could, and not to expose herself or risk the others. But in their group of four, she was by far the weakest link.

Mick held one staircase, setting everyone that dared approach him on fire as he laughed. Dig and Alex held another, using one of the towers as cover from which to shoot. Oliver... he held the other two, arrows flying from his bowstring faster than the eye could follow. She'd never realised just how quickly Oliver could load and shoot before. She'd never seen it with unaided eyes. Now, she understood why people were terrified of the Emerald Archer. He knew precisely which arrow to choose from his quiver for maximum damage with each shot, and where to place it for the best chance at killing or maiming his target. All Kara could do was shoot the ones they missed, which weren't very many at all. She felt... well, she felt useless actually.

"Vibe to Arrow, I have control of the portal, but the main power has been switched off. The terminal should be down there somewhere, but I can't risk leaving here to get to it. If one of these Nazi douches takes the system back before everyone's through..."

"I see it. Grey says he can activate it," Jax said.

"Do it!" Oliver barked, shooting a Nazi with an exploding arrow. His quiver was starting to run low.

"Yes, sir."

Firestorm broke away from the entrance he was holding and flew across the room towards a large terminal below the balcony. The pair split back into Jax and Stein, and Jax grabbed a Nazi gun from the ground and covered Stien as he worked.

An armoured car rolled in through the door Firestorm had been holding and opened fire on the portal platform. Everyone dove for cover. Dig and Alex behind their tower, Oliver grappled the roof and pulled himself up, and Kara jumped off the side. She hit the concrete ground on her shoulder, and it cracked under the force. Then Mick was grabbing her and pulling her underneath the platform.

"You alright Skirt?" He grumbled as the car drove past, bullets filling the air.

"My shoulder's dislocated, but yeah," she said through gritted teeth. He grunted, then grabbed her shoulder and popped it back into place. She screamed at the shock of pain that flared in her body, but it faded quickly, and she bit the inside of her cheek to repress further noise.

"Good as new," Mick said, looking out from under the platform. Kara, trying to ignore the throbbing in her shoulder, followed his gaze to Jax and Professor Stein.

"Oh Holy Rao," she breathed. Jax was trying to pull an unresponsive Stein behind the consoles as bullets hailed across the room.

The platform above them began to rumble, then, in the space between the four towers, a giant breach burst into existence. Only... it wasn't like one of Cisco's breaches. This one was a foul red colour, and black energy was bleeding off it instead of silver.

"Portal's hot! Let's scram everyone!"

"Grey's been hit, and I'm pinned down!" Jax called out frantically. Overgirl's scream cut him off. She plummeted from the sky, crashing into the armoured car and demolishing it. Superman landed beside the wreckage as two more armoured cars, and a tank rolled in. Oliver's Nazi Doppelgänger stood atop one, bow and arrow in hand.

"STOP THEM!"

Clark ignored the bullets bouncing off him and instead moved on Overgirl. Then he stopped. For Kara's Nazi-self was not rising. Instead, she was coughing up blood. Black blood.

Evelyn dropped through one of the holes in the roof on a cable. She landed atop the platform and shot an arrow at Evil-Oliver's car. The shaft detonated, releasing a shockwave of energy that flattened the vehicle. Oliver jumped free at the last moment, rolling to his feet, then bolting towards Jax and Stein. He didn't make it very far. A streak of gold and red slammed into Dark-Arrow's chest, sending him flying one way, and his bow another.

The door they'd entered through burst open, and Zatanna raced inside with Constantine, Nazi-Sara and Nyssa. Constantine was holding his chest and struggling to walk, but he was awake and back on his feet at least.

"We have to leave! Now!"

The earth began to rumble beneath their feet, trembling as if in anticipation of some great and terrible horror. A crack splintered across the concrete floor.

Nazi-Sara pushed in front of Zatanna, turned towards the tank, and Screamed. A wall of sound exploded from her lips, blasting the tank, and everyone in it, into oblivion. The echo was so powerful that Kara was knocked from her feet, despite being in almost the complete opposite direction from the blast. Barry skidded to a stop beside her, catching and pulling her close. Then she was kissing him, and for one brief moment, everything was alright.

They separated, and Kara refocussed on the crumbling world.

Oliver dropped from the ceiling beside Jax and Stein, just in time for Jax to get Stein to recombine into Firestorm.

"Go!" Oliver shouted, "get him to Caitlin!" Jax nodded, then shot into the air and flew into the breach.

Then, entirely without warning, the roof of the building evaporated. It transformed into black steam, which then vanished entirely. The sky beyond had turned completely red. Ray flew down into the room with Nate grasped firmly in his hand.

"Guys! The world's falling apart!" He yelled, dropping to the ground. Nate immediately took Constantine from Nyssa, then moved with her and the other Sara towards the breach, the others rushing behind.

"Come on." Barry grabbed Kara by one hand and Mick by the other then pulled them out from under the platform, and up towards the foul coloured breach. Alex and Dig ran out from behind, looking at the portal in confusion.

"Is it supposed to be doing that?" Alex asked.

"No," Zatanna said, skin deathly pale, "We're sliding towards the Dark."

Barry froze stiff.

"How?"

"Us. We broke the tentative balance of this world, and now it's destabilising. We have to go now before we pull our Earth down with it."

Barry grabbed Kara and ran through the breach at superspeed.

The world vanished, replaced by a tunnel of spiralling red and black light. Beyond the corridor of space-time, she could see dozens of other floating spheres. Earths nestled amongst what Barry called the Bleed - the fluid-like energy between Universes. But they didn't look like how he'd always described them in the past. These worlds had little to no glow about them, and, below Barry and Kara, she could glimpse a sea of pitch black, undulating like boiling tar. The closer an Earth was to that sea of magma, the less it glowed. Behind them, Earth X was literally sinking into the sea, the black surging around the world and swallowing it.

The corridor blended from red to blue as they rose, then Barry and Kara emerged in STAR Labs, rushing down the Speed-Canon platform. Barry ran her outside and left her standing in the sunlight. Immediately, she began to soak up the yellow light, basking in the rush of her powers returning. But all she could think about was that world, and sea reaching up to tear it apart.

Part 5

Barry emerged from the breach back on Earth X, just in time to watch as the concrete ground melted into blackness. He slid to a stop atop the platform and watched in horror as Nazi Oliver, and all the other people on the ground, fell into the Darkness, swallowed utterly. Clark barely managed to grab Overgirl by the arm before she fell in too. Zatanna pushed Constantine, Ray and Nate through the portal, before jumping in herself, leaving only Oliver and Sara, still holding the blackened staff, on the platform.

"Cisco isn't responding," Sara exclaimed.

"Go! I'll find him!" Oliver and Sara made to leave, but then Overgirl head, before limp in Clark's arm, jerked upright. Her eyes were pitch black.

"ALL ROADS LEAD BACK TO DARKNESS, FLASH."

Overgirl punched Clark in the stomach, and he recoiled in shock. She jerked free of his hold and fell down into the Dark.

"Now!" Barry yelled, pushing Sara and Oliver through the breach. Superman shot through after them, and Barry slipped into Flashtime.

The decay ground to a halt, and lightning flashing across his eyes, Barry began to run. He jumped off pieces of concrete and stone. Remnants of the cars or computers, floating in mid-air as they fell. All in total silence. His feet hit the wall, and he ran up and phased through the window to the command room. Cisco stood there in real-time, trying desperately to form a breach. But the window was tinted red and collapsing in on itself before it could form.

Barry grabbed him around the waist, bringing him into Flashtime and yanking him back towards the wall.

"Yah!"

He phased the two of them through the wall and ran back the way he came. The machine-made breach was shrinking. Collapsing in on itself as the platform sank into the nothing below. Barry's foot hit metal. The magma surged towards him, trying to grab his foot. Cisco shrieked. And they plunged straight through the portal.

Barry ran, all his concentration on Home, trying desperately to avoid the sight of the world sinking behind him.

"Oh, my God. Barry look," Cisco whispered in terror. Against his better judgement, Barry did look. There was a reflection in the surging sea of black. A network of more worlds. Or, more accurately, shattered Earths, their debris held together only by gravity. And two red eyes were looking back at them.

They outran the Dark, and the sea vanished into eternity. The breach turned back to blue, and they shot out of the Speed-Canon on Earth-Prime. They rolled down the stairs as the breach snapped shut, both of them panting as the adrenaline finally began to wear off.

Deathstroke stood at the foot of the portal, swords out, beside Wally and Jesse and Harry. Oliver was vomiting across the floor. Sara was sitting against the computer console, staring sightlessly into the Canon. Clark. He was just standing there, face blank, but eyes wide with fear.

Oliver sat on the roof of STAR Labs with a bottle of the strongest Vodka he could find. It wasn't enough to wash away what he'd seen today. Kara sat beside him, in new clothes, soaking up the sun. But she wasn't speaking. She was just sitting there, eyes closed. Thinking.

"Stein is going to be okay," Barry said, approaching from behind with Clark and Sara. He sat down beside Kara, and she instinctively laid her head on his shoulder, pressing herself up against him. Sara sat down on Oliver's side, and Clark sat down between him and Kara, placing a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Caitlin managed to heal his wounds, but he'll have a limp for a while, and she's ordered no more time-travelling for the time being."

"He wanted a way off the ship anyway," Sara said. "He's getting tired, and I can't blame him for wanting out. His grandson is turning three in a few months, and he wants to spend more time with his daughter.

"What about Jax?" Oliver asked.

"Lily and Harry managed to work out a molecular stabiliser that should end their dependence on one another, and Evelyn has offered Jax a ticket back to the 25th century with her. I think he'll take it. He can do more there than with us, as much as I hate to say it. She's going to take my alternate self too."

They sat in silence for a while, before Clark finally brought up the question they were all too scared to ask.

"All roads lead back to Darkness," he whispered. "What does it mean?"

Barry shivered, looking out over the city as the sun began to set.

"Last year, when Cisco, Harry and I were travelling across the Multiverse, searching for the Speedster Serial Killer, Savitar, we learned several things about how the cosmos works. It's... far bigger than any of us could have imagined."

"Barry... that Darkness, It saw us," Kara said, "It's going to try and finish the job. So we have to know what It is."

Barry sighed.

"Look. I don't know much. All we know is what the Flashes could tell us. Most of the people who know about the Dark Multiverse are either dead or under a gag order from the Multiversity - the council of Ascended Beings. The Dark Multiverse is like the basement of the Multiverse. Unstable worlds, ones wiped out by some tragedy or destroyed by armageddon, sink down towards it. When they hit the barrier, they're consumed by it, pulled down into the Dark. Nobody knows what happens to the worlds that get taken, or if the people in those universes survive. But..." he trailed off.

"Barry?" Sara asked, looking at him in concern.

"They say something is trapped down there. A being so terrible, even the gods refuse to name It."

"We'll be ready," Oliver said, "We always are."

Nobody had the confidence to echo the statement.

THE PRESENT...

Clark brought Kara into the Fortress of Solitude thankful that she'd finally fallen to sleep sometime during the flight. He lay her down on an icy table, and Kelex immediately appeared, flying up beside Kara and scanning her.

"I am detecting a large spike in extra-dimensional energy about her person, as well as the lingering biological signs of a miscarriage. However, I believe Kara Zor-El's current condition is a result of extreme shock."

"Thanks, Kelex," Clark muttered. The robot flew away, and Clark sighed. Then he pressed a button on the table, and a transparent dome enclosed her and began humming with yellow sunlight.

"I really need you to wake up, Kara," he whispered, "Cause I could really use some help." He looked away from Kara, and his eyes settled on a cryo-chamber a short distance away. Frozen in stasis within was a perfect duplicate of Kara Zor-El.

SUPERGIRL: S3EP10 - WHEN ANGELS FALL

January 2018

Ellie gripped the armrests of her seat aboard the Timeship Stormrunner, golden Legion Ring reflecting the flashing red lights of the alarms blaring overhead. In the seat beside her was Evelyn Sharpe, a woman Ellie considered one of her closest friends. On her other side was their new recruit, Mon-El of Daxam. In the captain's seat ahead of her, face knitted in concentration, was Brainiac 5. Her other best friend.

"Temporal fracture detected! Immediate response required!"

That was the voice of one artificial intelligence called Gideon, which was currently having a seizure. Or what passed for a seizure when you didn't have a body.

Out the main viewer, the Temporal Zone was engulfed in a terrifying storm of epic proportions. Bolts of golden lightning tore through the sea of green light, frantic, desperate. Wherever the lightning struck, the walls of time were stitched back together by threads of effervescent violet, which, after a few moments, faded back to green.

An event that shouldn't be had occurred, and now time was trying to tear itself apart. The Speed Force – time's accelerator as it were – was still running, pouring gas into a broken engine. The Sage Force – the engine cleaner, in keeping with the car metaphor – was trying to patch the leaks, but until the trigger was repaired, the damage would only build. Enter the Legion - cosmic mechanics.

"The Storm is preventing us from getting a lock on the Origin point!" Brainy yelled, "Saturn Girl, you'll need to weave us into the correct time period!"

Ellie nodded and closed her eyes.

For a brief moment, Ellie saw exactly what you'd expect to see when you closed your eyes. The backs of your eyelids. But Ellie was a conduit for the power of cosmic thought; story, at an eternal and infinite level. Lines of the purest white bloomed behind her eyes, and Ellie's mind chased the corridors out into the pattern.

To say that Ellie was a telepath would technically be a lie. Yes, she could hear people's thoughts, speak back to them, and, if she wanted to, dictate their actions. But Ellie did not actually control minds or thoughts. She was instead a conduit of the very power of consciousness. The Sage Force - the force that created story itself. She had always thought the name a bit... limited. If she were to name the power, knowing what she did now, she would call it the Conflict Force. But she had grown up calling her gift the Sage Force, as per Cisco Ramone's talent for naming, and so the Sage Force it remained. By tapping her powers, she could interact with reality as it weaved itself around her. She could listen on people's thoughts, even at a subconscious level, and send her own ideas to people who could hear. She could move things within the pattern - herself, or objects, giving the appearance of telekinesis. And she could tweak people's stories, their place in reality, so that they performed actions she wished. But she could not control people, and often the pattern would fight back against her tampering if she pushed too far. It was a fine line to walk.

That was what she could do when drawing on the Sage Force. What she could do when she journeyed into it was far different. She could follow individual thoughts... threads, into the pattern of reality, and look into the fabric of the cosmos itself. That was what she did now. She traced lines of white thought through the history of Earth. Once, she had needed technological help to do this. She had learned much since then. The sheer breadth of knowledge available would overwhelm anyone who tried to take too much in, but Ellie knew the thread she searched for like the back of her hand. Nestled amongst the billions of white threads – the lives of ordinary people – were rare threads of a different colour. The easiest way to find the person she was searching for was to look for Barry Allen. He was always easy to find. A thread of solid gold, crackling with electricity, that drew in all the lines around it, including a strand of shimmering violet (Ellie's own thread). Entwined with Barry's thread was a white line. A thread that, right now, was frailer than Ellie had ever seen it before.

She slid along the thread of Kara Allen and slipped into her eyes.

Kara climbed on shaky feet to the top of a crater. Blood dripped down her face, her suit was torn down the middle, and her left arm was dislocated. Her entire body burned in pain from invisible wounds, but her mind was clear. The street was full of people - some running, others, cameras out, unable to move. Police sirens were coming towards them, and Kara's earpiece had been ripped free in the fighting. Neither cops nor DEO would be able to stop this thing.

A woman in a black suit - undamaged - emerged from the wreckage of a car, carrying in her hand a flaming door. She wore a mask like a spider's web, across her face, irises a dark red. Kara didn't recognise the crest she wore, but the smile. That look of manic glee. That she knew.

The demon hurled the door with super strength, and it slammed into Kara's exposed gut. The metal crushed against her skin, but the velocity threw her back into the air. Twin beams of blistering heat-vision hit Kara, right in the chest, and they melted through her suit and skin alike. She screamed in utter agony, and the heat-vision vanished, replaced by a fist straight to the jaw. Kara's head snapped back, and she hurtled through the air, delirious and burning.

Ellie snapped back to the Timeship as Brainy exclaimed in triumph.

"Hurry!"

The Stormrunner trembled fiercely, then, in a flash of white, they burst into existence over National City in January 2018.

The monster known as Reign stood atop a high-rise, holding Supergirl by the neck.

"Brainy!" Ellie screamed, throwing off her restraints and charging for the door, Mon-El and Evelyn on her heels. Brainy's hands flew across the console, and a dozen torpedoes launched into the air. Ellie ignored it, running through the corridors of the ship in a haze. She closed her fist, then flicked it out, and her ring pulsed once. Nanites emerged from the gold shield, spreading across her body in seconds, hardening into a suit of red and white. Her hair braided itself, long and gold.

She jumped down the stairs into the cargo bay as the ship turned and the doors slid open. Then she launched herself out into the abyss.

Ellie pulled at her connection to the Sage Force, and gravity vanished. She propelled herself forward around the ship and took in the sight below her. The building had been utterly destroyed in the blast, but she could hear not thoughts and see no threads. No one had been in the building. No... there were still two. But they weren't human. Ellie dropped to the bitumen road next to the debris, around which a crowd was gathering. She spotted Aunt Lena, and James Olsen too, staring out with utter horror.

She thrust her hands forward, then pulled them down, and a massive chunk of the destruction soared out of the way. Revealing Supergirl, lying in a crater, rubble all around her.

"Mom..."

A pulse of rage burned in the ruins, and Ellie clenched a fist, thrusting it forward with a scream just as Reign shot out of the wreckage. A beam of violet energy blast the creature in the chest, and it screeched in pain. Ellie pulled more power and fired a second beam. Reign met it with heat-vision, pushing her back. So, Ellie locked eyes with Reign and seized her mind.

The street fell away, replaced by a dark forest, liquid shadow rolling across the ground. In the sky above, a violet sunburned. Two figures, two women, appeared in the dark. A human and a monster.

The woman did not rise as Ellie materialised from violet light, but the monster locked hate-filled eyes on her.

"What are you?!" It snarled in challenge; red eyes gleaming.

"I am judgement. You do not belong." Ellie raised a hand, preparing to exorcise Reign from the mind of Samantha Arias.

The sun winked out of existence, and the mindscape shattered. Ellie was pulled back into the real world as her powers disappeared. She screamed, sinking to her knees. Now?! Really!

"REIGN IS NOT YOUR STORY. YOU HAVE DONE ENOUGH."

Ellie snarled at the voice in her mind, but her powers did not return, and she could do nothing. Reign pulled itself from the ground, took one look at Ellie, and fled into the night. Evelyn landed beside her, holding an enormous metal bow in her hands. Instead of an arrow, a bolt of pure plasma was loaded to the string.

Ellie ignored her friend. Instead, she ran to her mother's side, where Mon-El already knelt.

"Mom!"

Kara lay unmoving. Her suit was torn to shreds by heat vision and who knew what else, and fresh blood was pooling around her head.

"Please Mommy. Get up."

Ellie placed her Legion Ring against her mother's chest, and a current of electricity shot through her. Her body jolted, then she took a pathetic breath.

She was alive.

A sonic-boom crashed through the street, and her father appeared, swathed in golden lightning.

"Imra! What's... KARA!"

Barry dropped to his knees and tried to grab his wife, but Ellie, tears streaming down her face, put a hand on his chest, stopping him.

"You can't. Moving her could do even more damage."

He swallowed, then James and Lena were standing over them.

"Oh God," Lena whispered, "What was that... that thing?"

"It's called Reign," Evelyn said shakily, eyes on Kara, "Worldkiller."

Sirens filled the air, and seconds later, Auntie Alex and Uncle J'onn were there with a spinal-board. Ellie, forgetting her false identity, forgetting her place, grabbed her Dad and held onto him with everything she had.

SUPERGIRL: S3EP11 - DEMONS RUN

'CLANG!' 'CLANG!' 'CLANG!'

"Oliver!" Felicity's voice rang through the Arrow Bunker.

'CLANG!' 'CLANG!' 'CLANG!'

"OLIVER!"

Oliver paused in his ascent of the salmon ladder, looking over his shoulder towards the petite form of the genius hacker.

"What is it?" he called, taking a deep breath as his muscles strained on the metal bar.

"Kara... she's on the news... Oliver, she's not getting up."

Oliver dropped to the ground and grabbed his shirt as he began running towards the case where his suit and bow hung. Within thirty seconds he was completely suited up and racing towards a secret locker in the back of the Bunker – the place he kept the Kryptonite Kara had entrusted to him.

"Oliver! Is that... where the Hell did you get that!" Felicity exclaimed, rushing after him as the elevator opened to reveal Dig. The ever-reliable ex-bodyguard instantly picked up on Oliver's mood, snapping into a wary mode, hand flitting towards the gun at his hip.

"Dig, you've got command. You'll have to handle things here for however long..." The rest of Oliver's statement was lost, as a streak of red and yellow lightning lanced through the Bunker.

The next thing Oliver knew, he was – infuriatingly – in the arms of one Barry Allen, aka the Flash, practically flying down the highway between Starling and National. A second later, Oliver was on his feet again.

He took a precious moment to regain his composure, blinking away the nausea that always accompanied being ferried via superspeed. Then he snapped his eyes open, drew, and nocked arrow to bow.

He was in a medical suite with glass windows and white panelled walls. Several metal tables covered in medical implements, computers and other machines lined the walls, but dominating the space was a bed surrounded by golden effervescent lamps, each giving off incredible amounts of heat. Crowded around the mattress, all staring at him in shock, were Alex, J'onn Jones (whom he'd met the previous year in Metropolis), Superman, Caitlin and Cisco.

Barry appeared beside them, cowl pulled back, eyes ringed with red, hands trembling.

"I've searched the city. There's no sign of this... Reign person," Barry stated, tone sharp.

"What happened?" Oliver asked, voice low and dangerous.

"We're not sure," Alex said, expression mirroring Barry's own haunted look, "a woman calling herself Reign, Kryptonian according to our analysis of the video footage, attacked her. We don't know why, or what her motivation is..."

"Will she be okay?" Clark asked hesitantly.

"Kara was still feeling the effects of the red-sun exposure on Earth X, so she was weaker than normal when this thing attacked, but her body is regenerating as normal," Caitlin said. "We managed to stabilise the collapsed lung and remove the shattered bone fragments from her internal organs. It's... it's lucky I'd already done preliminary examinations on how to operate on her physiology." Caitlin glanced towards Barry at this point, and Oliver frowned. Why had she... Oh. "Or we might be having a very different conversation." Barry grabbed the table edge, flickers of yellow lightning running along his fingers. Oliver's hand clenched around his bow.

"She's still in a coma," Alex whispered, "and we've got the lamps on to refuel her cells. How long it'll be until she wakes up? There's no way to know." Oliver nodded, then gestured to Barry. The two stepped out of the room and onto a balcony overlooking the central hub of the DEO below.

"This is going to get messy, Barry," Oliver warned, voice low, eyes darting around the room from beneath his mask and hood.

"I'm long past caring, Ollie. Whoever this person is, if she can take out Kara..."

"We've all got problems," Oliver finished. Barry didn't meet Oliver's eyes, instead staring at a man on the bottom floor. He was clean-cut and wore ordinary clothes – leaving him somewhat out of place in what was clearly a military establishment. Sitting, back against the wall was Imra Ardeen, golden hair hanging limply in its braid over shoulder. Her face was covered in tears.

"The Legion showed up just in time," Clark said, stepping up beside them. His face was just as dark as theirs. "They saved her life."

"We're going to find this Reign person Oliver," Barry said, jaw clenched. "She might be as strong as Kara, but she's nowhere near as fast as me." He paused. "Did you bring the..."

Oliver nodded, casting a glance at Clark.

"She gave it to you?" He whispered.

Oliver nodded again.

"Good enough for me."

"Whatever you three are going to do, I want in." They spun around, coming face to face with Alex, fingers repeatedly tensing around the grip of her gun.

Barry shook his head.

"Sorry, Alex, don't get me wrong, I don't doubt your ability to be bad-ass – I saw you in action on Earth-X. But you can't keep up with us." Alex gestured to Oliver.

"And he can?"

"Kara, Barry and I train monthly, practising skills and attacks with each other and constantly updating our respective moves and abilities," Oliver told the distraught woman, "We fight together as a unit. You're a brilliant fighter Alex, but..."

"I'd be a liability," she finished, frowning. "Kara never mentioned..."

"We don't advertise it," Barry said, "it's a private thing." He turned to Oliver.

"I'll scout the city from the ground again, Clark, take the sky. We'll meet at Kara's hideaway in an hour." He vanished in a blur of lightning, and Clark shot out the DEO balcony after him. Oliver grabbed Alex's shoulder.

"If you want to help, show me everything you have from the fight. Everything."

Authors Notes

We're breaking character a bit here, but to be honest, this took a lot out of us. Given the current climate, writing about Nazis and segregation and racism was really hard, and certainly not fun. And considering we do this mainly for personal enjoyment, it pushed us to the brink of what we were comfortable with. This section was originally going to be longer and would have included the resistance and the concentration camp scenes, but neither of us wanted to write them, so we shortened the ending, and instead used it to begin the foreshadowing for the Grand Finale.

For those of you who don't know anything about the Dark Multiverse or the Destroyer, we aren't making it up. The Dark Multiverse has been a significant part of DC Comics since the Rebirth relaunch in 2016. It was introduced, officially, in the Dark Nights: Metal storyline from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (note, that Scott Snyder and Zack Snyder, the movie guy, are in no way related). You'll probably recognise their work from the Court of Owls, Death of the Family, and Batman: Eternal, Batman storylines. You can find Metal in any comic-book store or on ComiXology, which has regular sales for DC books, or Amazon for Kindle or Hard Cover. If you're interested, we highly recommend giving it a read.

Furthermore, the Multiversity derives from Grant Morrison's The Multiversity graphic novel, which explains how the DC Multiverse works and is a New York Times bestseller.

We'll pick up with the rest of Reign, and what's going on with Red Daughter, when we come back, but it probably won't be for a couple weeks, as we've got exams to sit.

Until then, there's this thing that's been bugging us.

How the fuck do 'inhibitor collars' work?

Cicada's dagger makes sense. It sucks up dark-matter and stops meta-human powers from working. Caitlin's powers are immune because her abilities don't come from Dark Matter. Basic narrative laws. Introduce a power, establish its limitations, then keep to those rules while providing a means for character development and expansion.

But by that logic, Cisco's 'power-dampening' cells shouldn't work against Caitlin either. Yet they do. In Crisis on Earth X, Kara's powers get taken away from her by a 'power-dampening' collar, and in Elseworlds, she's locked in one of Cisco's cells. But the same tech shouldn't work on her that works on metas. Her powers have nothing to do with Dark Matter. Barry doesn't make any sense either. The Speed Force is an external power, right? It has to be drawn on. Why does Cicada's dagger or the meta-human cells or the Earth X collars affect him? Surely, you'd need some way to explicitly block Barry's connection to the Speed-Force itself.

It's not just the Arrowverse that does it. Marvel has the problem big time with Mutant inhibitor collars. You can't just turn off the X-Gene. That's not how DNA works. Instead, you have to block their powers another way. But all Mutant powers are different, so how can one collar be universal? Why does the same thing that stops Professor X - a telepath - stop Iceman - a cryokinetic - or Wolverine?

It's just lazy writing.

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