Frequently, Lex and Claire would leave the mansion separately and return home from work together - seldom was the situation reversed. So, when the white Rolls Royce Wraith pulled into the driveway, turning violently and leaving a set of dark skid marks on the pristine cement, Lex felt deeply the implications of the fact that he was getting out of the car alone, walking through the door alone, retreating upstairs alone to the room was no longer supposed to be only his.

Lex felt as though his very awareness of the situation were palpable, alive, crawling underneath his skin. His surroundings felt nonsensical, kaleidoscope-like, as though the possession by Darkseid in fact had destroyed Claire, shattered her into a million pieces and scattered her around so that simultaneously both her presence and her absence were ubiquitous. Lex felt his hands shaking violently - part of why his driving back home had been so volatile - and for the first time in many months, there was no one left to reach for them, to unclench his fists and tether him back to reality. There was nothing, and for all he know, there would never be anything again to occupy the space where Claire once stood.

Her unmade side of the bed and her hairbrush on the table, the scent of her soap in the shower since she was the last person who had used it - all of it felt almost as though it were mocking him. Taunting him. He reached out and flung the sheets off of the bed thinking that it would offer some level of relief - he had thought wrong.

The previous night, he'd been unable to sleep again - rather than waking her, Lex had stirred and gotten up to pull the bottle of sleeping pills from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Claire, however, seemed to possess some inherent ability to sense his movements and sat up in bed as well.

In the light of the moon streaming in through the large bay windows, she simply gave him a look that asked him to come back to bed. Claire had sat up with him the entire night until he'd managed, at about three in the morning, to somehow doze off. They hadn't even needed to speak through the night. She wordlessly assuaged the sense that his head was buzzing, was too active and too loud to allow him to sleep. It was in these moments that he realized the depth to which she loved him, and to which he loved her.

That was what made this cut the deepest of all.

If he could hate her, this pain would stop. If he could simply believe in what she'd said - that she wanted to be possessed by Darkseid for the sake of power - he could see her as another traitor who was getting what she deserved, another snake in the grass finally being trodden upon and trampled by something bigger in retribution. But he knew better, and this was the awareness that seemed to be clawing at him from inside.

Because damn it if he couldn't still hear her, like there were still echoes of her in that room asking him to shut the door, or to toss her a shirt from the closet, telling him she'd meet him at the office when she left earlier than he did. All of these echoes felt so very real, to the extent that Lex absently patted his hand onto the object in his pocket, the small box he had very nearly pulled out, and wondered if the echoes would answer on Claire's behalf if he asked what he'd intended to ask.

He couldn't think of her right now because if he did, it only cemented his feeling of powerlessness. He couldn't think of the fact that there was a chance that Claire - his Claire, his confidant, his partner - no longer existed. It was even more demoralizing to consider the fact that she had done it for him because if it was a selfless act, the loss was only that much deeper.

He had to believe that Claire had been selfish. He had to believe he was alone. Because if he was alone, Lex knew he could get back to his work. He had to be stronger. He had to be more powerful, and in order to obtain that power, he had to finish his work.

With a look of forced calm on his face, Lex withdrew his phone from his coat pocket and dialed the number of the phone he had provided to Leonard Snart. Now was not the time to dilly-dally.

"Lenny. My favorite business partner," Lex said with an unnecessary flourish that the man on the other line couldn't even have seen upon answering the phone. "I want an update on that shipment we're waiting for. Any chance we could speed it up?

"Currently in transit across the Atlantic as we speak, Mister Luthor."

"Excellent. You'll make a perfect business partner yet," Lex affirmed. "...I do like them efficient."

"It's a computer," Victor said, sneering at the Mother Box placed on the table in the center of their group. They had gathered in Bruce Wayne's headquarters beneath Wayne Manor to plan their next steps, but found themselves woefully unprepared. They were now met with a force they knew nothing about, a force they weren't even sure they could fight.

"So, like an iPhone," Barry quipped.

"More like the computers at the beginning of a sci-fi movie," Victor said darkly. "You know. The one that everyone's shitting themselves and geeking out over because it's the next big step in technology, and then all of a sudden it goes berserk and tries to kill everyone."

"Oh." Barry said, blinking in surprise. "That kind of computer. Alright. Cool. Good to know -"

"But it didn't want to kill you," Diana spoke up, gently placing a hand on Vic's shoulder. "It wanted you to live."

"Yeah. It did a real bang up job, too."

Victor clearly was still on the fence about not being allowed to destroy the Mother Box - he still actively questioned why it was inherently positive that the device had forced him to continue his life as a half-machine.

"The Mother Box is the only link we have. It's our only clue," Diana said carefully, knowing of the young man's many apprehensions. "And I think you know, Victor. You're the only person who can get us what we need to fight this evil."

Victor grimaced - the request didn't need to be explicitly made. His jaw clenched tightly while he stared down at the Mother Box. It seemed so much less ominous in his presence, and he knew it was because the device was bound to him.

"You want me to plug into it. Download all it's got on this Darkseid," Victor said knowingly, his voice laced with resignation. "You want me to be your human flashdrive."

"Hey - there's only room for one Flash on this team."

"Barry, not now," Bruce interrupted, one hand raised to his temple. "Not a good time."

"Sorry."

Vic, however, appeared unaffected by Barry's attempts at levity, his gaze still focused solely on the Mother Box as though it was apt to attack him at any time. His face made small, twitching movements as though the thought of coming into contact with the device again made him sick.

"I know this is the last thing you want to do, Victor," Diana said pleadingly. "But we don't have any other options. This enemy is greater than all of us. Our only chance is the knowledge that's in that machine."

"What about your so-called Superman?" Arthur finally spoke up again, his voice dripping with no small amount of disdain as he watched the younger man being goaded into a sense of duty, of purpose. "Isn't he the one you should be calling on to fight this evil?"

"I think he's still in the recovering phase of coming back from the dead," Bruce replied, clearing his throat and prompting Arthur to turn and face with a slightly annoyed glance. "I haven't experienced it myself, but I imagine it's a pretty lengthy process."

"I'll do it," Victor spoke up, grimacing and putting his fist down on the table with a loud thud. "Just don't turn our team meeting into an episode of Real Housewives." He began to reach out to swipe the broken Mother Box from the table but was stopped by Diana catching his forearm, stopping his motions with ease that seemed to catch him off guard.

"Victor," she said in that voice he had come to know and find himself even soothed by. "You are doing a great thing - for us and for all the people of this world. That might not mean anything to you yet, but I suspect it will in time."

The tension in his arm dropped momentarily, and he glanced around at the solemn expressions of the others in the room - his teammates. His new family. They were there, and they were counting on him. There were a great many things he could no longer do or be, and Victor Stone had deeply felt those losses for a long time now. In fact, that sense of loss was the only thing he had been able to feel until now. For the first time since his last time on a football field, since the last time he'd scored a game-winning touchdown, he had an objective, and he had a team that was counting on him.

More calmly, he began reaching for the Mother Box again, firmly taking it in both hands and holding it in front of his own chest. As if hearing his own silent will, the Box seemed to sprout an appendage that plugged directly into the suit of armor encasing Victor's body. Immediately, he seemed to go almost limp, his eyes glowing a bright, icy light in the same color as the Mother Box's glow in his presence.

"I think..." Barry spoke up somewhat sheepishly, raising his eyebrows in surprise, "he's buffering."

There was a wordless but collective rolling of eyes among the rest of the group - no one spoke up while they were closely watching what happened to Victor as he connected with the knowledge contained within the Mother Box, in the event that some of intervention was needed. But for some time, he simply stood still, his eyes still glowing. The vast amount of data contained within the alien technology understandably took time, but as the minutes turned to a full hour, their wariness began to grow. Even Barry had no ability to make any kind of comment to try and assuage the tension, and it was only when the bright, alien light in Victor's eyes faded and revealed his own eyes again that there seemed to be a wave of relief. Victor gave a small, tired groan as he dropped the Mother Box on the table in front of him and slumped into a chair.

"Victor?"

"Gimme a sec," he said in a tired but gentle voice, resting his head in his hands. Diana looked up and gestured for the group to gather around again so he wouldn't need to speak to loudly. Victor gave a tired groan and looked up, shaking his head. "Darkseid is a warlord from the planet Apokolips who has been spending centuries conquering... inferior worlds. He sends emissaries ahead of him and travels by the Mother Boxes once he's been informed that the planet is ready for his arrival."

"So he was already planning on coming to our world," Bruce said, coming forward and leaning on the table near Victor with his arms crossed. "Even before Luthor."

"He has spies already here," Victor continued. "They could be anyone. Anywhere."

"Is there any way to save the girl? Claire?" Diana spoke up, her brow furrowed in concern. "What can we do? Can we stop him?"

"I don't know if we can stop him from coming to Earth. Once a new Mother Box is found, if it's in the hands of one of his people, there's nothing standing in his way," Victor said, shaking his head, pushing the chair back from the table so he could stretch out his long limbs. "But if we want to banish him from this world for now, there might be a chance to save her. Because of this piece of crap, actually," he said matter-of-factly and nodding in the direction of the Mother Box. "Since it's broken, the fusion with Darkseid and her body isn't as strong as it could be. It's gotta be soon, before his hold is too strong. I... I wouldn't get my hopes up," Victor said honestly. "But we can try."

"Clark said that he was able to break free because he wasn't willing to be a host - that he was able to resist through sheer force of will," Diana said thoughtfully. "If we can somehow reach her, make her willing to resist Darkseid long enough for us to act. Maybe..."

"There's only one person who she'd be willing to do it for," Bruce interrupted in a tone that suggested even the mere suggestion left a bitter taste in his mouth. "We're going to need to drag Luthor along for this one."

"It shouldn't be too hard, he looks like he weighs a solid fifty pounds," Barry pointed out, wrinkling his nose slightly. "We could just put him in a suitcase and pull him out when we need him."

"Barry -"

"Diana, the kid's got a point," Bruce interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly, unable to believe he was actually saying it. "It may come to a little bit of coercion. I doubt he'll help us willingly."

"Even for her?"

"Even for her," Bruce affirmed. The look on Diana's face, however, was proof that she was not entirely convinced of this. She pursed her lips in thought, shaking her head slightly, but conceded, allowing Bruce to continue speaking. "I'll try and have surveillance running throughout the area, see if we can spot her. Arthur?"

"I have eyes and ears over the coast as well," he affirmed stonily. "But the gulls only naturally travel so far inland. There isn't a great deal more I can offer."

"Anything we have is better than nothing," Bruce affirmed. "And if this turns into a fight, we might need to take it out to sea, minimize the damage to the city. But we have to try to bring her back. We put her in this position. I put her in this position."

Bruce Wayne would be hard pressed to admit it, but he had regained some sense of hope in these recent months - hope for humanity, hope for the future. But it was a precarious peace that he'd found, and being responsible for another needless loss of life, of another young person who hoped only to do good in the world, threatened to banish that peace. On principle, Bruce Wayne did not want to see Darkseid prevail. For vindication, he could not allow Claire Branigan to die.

"Come in, My Lord," Granny Goodness said as she stood in the doorway of the old brownstone brick orphanage. It had taken a moment of adjustment to realize what was happening when she'd opened the door and seen a young woman waiting to be let in - but a faithful servant would recognize her master anywhere. "An interesting choice of a vessel."

"This one did not resist. She will suffice," the voice from Claire's body replied. "This city is the site you have chosen?"

"Gotham and Metropolis are the ideal location to begin our conquest, my lord," Granny said with a slight bow as she and Claire retreated into the back room of the orphanage. "Desaad is setting up his operational base as we speak. The people here are just as flawed and careless as all of the other worlds we've vanquished."

"Good," Claire said with a curt nod. "We have more work to do on this planet. These are more advanced beings than the others to be sure. Flawed, but more advanced nonetheless. It will take more than a show of force to subjugate them."

"We will find the Mother Box," Granny Goodness nodded obligingly. "And we will complete the Equation."

"The Anti-Life Equation," Claire affirmed. "The ancient wisdom that has long been hidden away from me. Once I have it, this World will be mine."

"And you will have it, my lord," Granny Goodness replied. "We will attain it for you."

Claire took in a deep breath, gently shutting her eyes and clenching her fists at her sides. "She can hear us," she said, referring to Claire's real consciousness, hidden deep within the mind that Darkseid had taken over. "She feels fear. She grows restless."

"You will not need to use this vessel for long, my lord," Granny Goodness nodded. "We will find the Mother Box, and you can truly make your glorious return."

"Excellent," came the response. "Get to work, then."

A/N

Long wait between chapters again - life has been a little crazy. Thank you to everyone who messaged, reviewed, or got in touch with my otherwise, and an enormous thank you to marriedtojbiebs, who helped me immensely in powering through this chapter last night.

The next chapter (and probably a couple chapters after it, depending on where I divide things up) will likely be a little intense, so buckle up! We're about to have some fun! And not to worry - we still have a lot of story to go. We're just getting started! Until next time, cheers!