"Bow... before Darkseid..."

"You've come. You're here," Lex said, his voice a strange mix of fear and exhilaration, a choked laugh escaping his lips. "You... answer to me. You answer to me," he said with feigned confidence. "It was me. I called you from the Kryptonian ship, I summoned you-"

"I would have found your planet without your summoning, mortal," the voice of Darkseid boomed around them. "I have come not because of you but because the time of your planet's reckoning is near. This planet has been left in the hands of your kind for centuries, and your abuse of your free will... your attempts to play God when you are only insects... has brought it to the brink of collapse. This soon shall end."

The voice was calm, but growing in volume as the Mother Box began to grow brighter and brighter. It was becoming stronger, and had very quickly dispelled any belief Lex may have possessed that he was in control. He had overestimated his own influence. He'd stood too close to the fire. Claire felt Lex let go of her hand and take a step away from her, toward the Mother Box. Claire did not know everything that Lex had learned from the ship from Krypton - much of it, he had perhaps pushed into the back of his own mind as well, partially convinced that this knowledge he has gained was, like many things, a trick of the mind. But this was real. When Lex had said a bell had been rung, this is what had heard it.

"I am coming," Darkseid's voice continued. "The door is nearly opened."

"Then we can join forces," Lex insisted, his voice still quavering. He knew - this was the great power that he'd heard of on the ship so many months ago, and perhaps the greatest power they would ever have within reach. "I can - I can help you find what you're looking for. I know what you're looking for. The Kryptonian ship held the knowledge that you're looking for. They were as close to finding the Equation as anyone ever has been-"

"You have nothing I want. Not yet. What I require," Darkseid insisted, booming over Lex's voice, "is a host. I require a body to house my power until I have gathered my Hounds and found a new Mother Box here on Earth."

"A host," Lex repeated vaguely.

"I had hoped to use the Kryptonian," Darkseid spoke. "He would have been a most excellent vessel. But once life returned to his body, he refused to be taken over. He escaped from me," Darkseid growled, and Claire, who still remained silent in her own terror, knew immediately that this would seep into Lex's mind like poison, would prey on his need to best Superman.

"And what becomes of the body you choose?" Lex asked. "Once you've taken over it?"

"The body will survive my reckoning," Darkseid said. "I cannot speak for the rest."

There was first silence, and it was evident that Lex's willingness was being tested - was it worth the opportunity to best Superman, to have his body best the man he loathed most, if Lex Luthor no longer existed to experience it? He was hesitating, and his moment of pause was impossible to ignore. His resolve was still not full in submission to this power, even if he could not defeat it. He could run. He could leave the heroics to the heroes.

His hesitation was Claire's only chance, she decided in a heartbeat, to intervene. And there was only one way of doing so and rendering him unwilling to stop her - the one thing that had made Mercy Graves expendable to him. If he believed that she was getting greedy, then maybe - maybe this would work.

She didn't know that it would. She only knew that without intervention, Lex would destroy himself in his pursuit of power. Again, the same old feeling reared its head with a call that Claire was hard pressed to resist. Lex needed her.

"He's afraid," Claire spoke up finally, taking a step forward in the darkness, past Lex and feeling her arm brush against his. She jerked away, and gave a derisive hack of a laugh. "Because he's weak. He doesn't have the will or the strength to house real power."

"Claire."

"He wouldn't have made it this far without me. His mind is too fragile," Claire spoke up with no wavering in her voice - with a strength that made Lex recoil in an emotion that he could not recognize. "He can't handle real power. I can. I want this power." Claire took in a deep gulp of air and steadied herself to bear the greatest semblance confidence as she could. "I'll be your vessel."

"Will you bow before me?"

The question seemed to echo and linger in the air around them, and Claire felt a hand close around hers, trying to pull her backwards. She could not look back at Lex - she yanked her hand out of his reach, dropping to one knee and bowing in front of the Mother Box.

"...very good."

And suddenly, the smoke around them first was sucked back into the Mother Box, revealing their surroundings once again and reminding them they were still in the real world. Lex's hand clasped onto Claire's shoulder, yanking her from her kneeling position and trying to force her to her feet but instead only managing to shove her to the ground, and she looked back at him with her expression blank and steely.

"Claire, what have you -"

But before he could finish his attempts at interrogating her, the Mother Box began to glow and whirr again. Claire immediately leapt to her feet and shoved Lex out of the way - the first time, in their many months of cat-and-mouse, of at times being nothing short of toxic to one another, that she had ever laid hands on him in force. As she turned to face the Mother Box, a long, dark tendril of the black smoke shot out from one of the cracks in the Mother Box's surface and shot directly through Claire's chest before disappearing entirely, leaving only faint whisps of smoke in the air around her.

Claire's body jerked once, but otherwise did not move - Lex looked on in wide-eyed fear and something like revulsion, unsure if it was towards what Claire had said, or what he had just seen happen to her. This was not possible. This was not the way this was meant to happen when the time came. No one was meant to stand between him and his fate, even if that fate was destruction - yet twice now, someone had intervened, intercepted his destruction that he was prepared to accept. The first had been Superman - and now Claire.

The sound of an engine roaring in the distance and drawing nearing, and the sound of turbines roaring seemed to now come from all directions, and Lex from his place on the ground saw as first, a bright red blur appeared next to him, materializing into a man in a bright red suit, who caught sight of Lex and Claire and called out over his shoulder.

"We've got company over here!"

And behind him, Diana Prince in her battle attire and Victor Stone, free of the hood he usually donned, approached. As Victor drew near, however, the Mother Box seemed to sense his arrival and spring to life again, glowing now a different color, a bright white light as it suddenly yanked itself free from the ground, shooting towards him so that he caught it in his hands, looking down at it with a sneer.

"Aw, shit," he growled. "I thought I'd gotten rid of this thing."

"You thought wrong," Diana said, gently raising an eyebrow and staring back at him. "It's yours."

"Guys," Barry interrupted, waving his arms to get everyone's attention. "Either this is a wax museum, or she's gone catatonic."

Their attention was drawn to Claire, still frozen in place and staring directly, emotionlessly at the spot where the Mother Box had lodged itself in the ground. Lex still looked on at the scene - the cluster of metahumans gathered in one place that he'd once hoped to leverage for his own purposes - with a sneer on his face. Rapidly, things were falling apart. The limited sense of balance and safety he'd felt - that Claire had imposed upon him - was fast melting away.

The sound of the engine drawing nearer to the place that had until moments ago simply been his and Claire's safe place in Metropolis signalled the arrival of the vehicle that Lex Luthor least wished to see: the Batmobile. The Bat stepped out from the car, sparing only barely a glance at Lex picking himself up off of the ground before addressing the rest of the group.

"Aquaman?" came the garbled voice under the black cowl.

"He's on his way. Wasn't too keen on the idea of riding on an invisible plane," Barry quipped back, making a jerking motion behind him with his thumb to where they had 'landed' in the aircraft the couldn't even see. "Can't say I blame him."

"What happened to her?" Bruce asked as his eyes landed on the frozen form of Claire Branigan in their midst, then back at Lex Luthor, who stood glaring at all of them like an outnumbered, trapped, doomed animal. His chest heaved with labored breaths as he refused to acknowledge the question. "There's nothing we can do if you don't tell us what happened, Luthor."

"The Mother Box - it's the same one," Victor spoke up. "The same one. Supe said something about Darkseid -"

"We'll take her with us," Diana said, pulling her lasso from its holster at her hip. "Bring her somewhere safe -"

"She's not going with you," Lex snarled. "She doesn't need -"

But Claire's form gave another jerk, and her eyes blinked slowly, closing then opening to reveal bright red orbs instead of her warm green eyes. And suddenly, she rose like a bolt up into the sky, staring down at them without the slightest trace of recognition.

"Your friend is gone," came a voice from her lips that was still Claire's voice, but clearly not her at all. "My true arrival draws near."

And she raised her hands, revealing palms glowing red - in an instant, because of their familiarity with Superman's abilities, they knew to anticipate the beams of burning, disintegrative energy, only to find that it didn't come. Claire's form was knocked from the sky by a sudden surge of water, rising from the bay, ridden by Arthur Curry, wielding a large ornate trident as he rode the surge of bay water onto the land to join the others - Diana spared him a brief glance and a displeased expression that spoke without her opening her mouth, better late than never.

Claire was only jarred for a brief moment, not even hitting the ground before swooping back up into the sky and shooting off, away into the distance, completely out of sight. And Lex realized that seeing Claire this way - taken over, possessed, filled with power but missing everything about her that he knew - made him quite nearly physically ill.

"Shit," came Victor's baritone voice. "Darkseid. He's gotten a hold of her. That's not the girl you all were tellin' me about anymore."

"But how?" Diana asked, returning her lasso to its holster. "Clark said that it didn't take him because he wasn't willing. She wouldn't be either, unless..."

They turned to look at Lex Luthor, almost as though reaching a collective realization that if Claire had been willing, there could only be one reason - one person who would make such a thing possible.

"Well, superheroes," Lex sneered, placing his hands on his hips and glaring at all of them in turn, almost as though chiding them all like misbehaving children. "Isn't saving people what you're good at? What are you waiting for?"

Diana could not help a look of derision and annoyance from crossing her face - even now, Lex Luthor had no shame. He thought he could order people around, that by simply willing them to be his pawns, they would become such. This, however, was beyond him. This was above him.

Unable to help himself as well, Bruce strode over and grabbed a hold of Lex by his collar, shoving him back against his own car and leaning in ominously. "I wouldn't give orders if I were you, Luthor. We know this is because of you. She sacrificed herself for you -"

"She didn't sacrifice herself - she said it herself. She wanted power," Lex said with a frenzied laugh, and Diana felt her sudden rage at the man subside as she recognized something in his voice - a desperation to believe what he was saying himself. As unlikely as it seemed, she was suddenly faced with the possibility that Lex Luthor loved this young woman, and that what he had just witness happening to her would destroy him if he did not force himself to believe she had somehow deserved it. "She bowed before that thing because she wanted power, she was foolish. She thought that she -"

But Lex could not finish the statement - he gave a forced laugh, glancing around the the people surrounding him. This was impossible. Claire was his beacon. She was good and pure and protecting. He knew that of all the people who would betray him for greed, she would be the last.

"So you're happy to just let her die," Bruce said coldly, letting go of Lex's collar jerkily. "You're going to stand by and let her be destroyed."

"Yes. I am. Because I know that you won't allow it. You're all going to save her," Lex said, raising his eyebrows and reaching up to straighten his own collar - his face flickered into a frown when he realized his hands were shaking, and for the first time in a long time, Claire was not here to steady him. He was surrounded by enemies. He had lost his only ally. "And if you don't, you're all very aware that I am capable of making all of your lives hell. All of you. And I intend to do a very thorough job of it," Lex said with feigned calm, forcing a shrill laugh. In response, however, he found himself suddenly subdued not by Bruce Wayne, but by the lasso that had just moments ago been at Diana's hip.

"You will tell us," Diana said, tightening the loop of the lasso as it wrapped around Lex's shoulders, yanking him away from the car, "why Darkseid has taken possession of the girl."

Lex's expression grew tense, as though he were fighting against some unseen force, and Diana allowed a small smirk to cross her face as she realized that even though he was resisting, the Lasso of Truth was working.

"Darkseid is inhabiting her body until he gathers his followers and finds another Mother Box. He's coming to Earth. He's coming for all of us. Darkseid is coming, and he brings with him... a great reckoning. Man has brought the Earth to the brink of collapse and he is coming to take it from us," Lex recited, though his teeth were gritted as he fought back against the persuasion of the lasso to no avail. The words tumbled from his lips, not sing-song or speaking in riddles, but straightforward and without pretense. "I was going to be the vessel. It was supposed to be my moment. I called him here. Claire stepped in first."

"That's why she was willing," Barry said in a confused voice. "For him? Seriously?"

"Barry," Arthur barked authoritatively, perhaps one of the first times he openly addressed someone in the group - brief glimmers of surprise registered on the rest of their faces as well at the show of concern on Arthur's part for their mission. "Not now."

"I..." Lex spoke again through gritted teeth, fighting back against the compulsion of Diana's lasso, "...don't want to lose her. She's the only ally I have -"

Diana, however, now released Lex from the hold of the lasso, having heard all she needed. She knew her limits - it was against her nature to needlessly exploit the vulnerabilities of others. Lex stumbled, and groped for the car door, throwing himself inside of the driver's side and starting the car, driving away in reverse with a squeal of the tires over the blacktop before he could be assailed by them any more. Now, the so-called heroes were left alone in the aftermath of the arrival of something new to Earth that meant them all harm.

"Back to the Manor," Bruce barked over them. "We need to regroup. And Stone - bring that thing with you," he said, nodding at the clearly damaged Mother Box he still reluctantly held in his hands. "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

A/N

For those who are still a little cloudy on what's going on, the next chapter will hopefully help to make things a little clearer. In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, even though it wasn't a very happy one. There will be happy times to come, but... not quite yet! So, please hang in there. I will possibly from time to time be posting little fluffy deleted scenes/featurettes on my blog to help tide you over. I'm still working on the next update, but I'm doing by best to not space updates out by too much!

Thank you, as always, for all of your kind reviews and messages on all sites/platforms. You guys are all the best! Until next time, cheers!