Clark didn't say another word to Bruce in the alley, he simply grabbed hold of him once more and flew him all the way up to the spacecraft above Gotham.

Inside, Bruce was surprised to find human beings wearing the Superman "S" crest on their clothes. Bruce remembered them, sort of, from his nightmare but they weren't just soldiers anymore, these humans were dressed in lab coats and coveralls. These people were autopsying metahumans and repairing strange computer terminals.

Lucifer stood on a strange metallic platform, rightly disgusted at the scene, a still furious Kalibak at his side. Clark marched over to the platform before turning to a nearby technician.

"Apokolips" he ordered

A wave of devastating energy washed over Bruce, he could feel his body being ripped in two, torn between the spacecraft and a destination currently unknown.

Between blinks the world changed, gone were the autopsy tables and computers. Bruce found himself standing in a macabre throne room, the stink of blood and death filled the air. Littered around the throne which was some kind of bizarre alien skeleton, were trophies of war: Stepphenwolf's decapitated head, a glowing green lamp with a crack down the middle and the cybernetic body of Victor Stone.

Bruce's heart dropped, Victor's face was now merely an exposed skull and all signs of life seemed to be lost. Bruce tried to hold his friend, do a proper analysis on his body but Clark stopped him.

"No touching" Clark mocked

On the balcony adjoining the throne room stood a terrible behemoth, surveying a world of crimson skies, sulfur looking clouds, and twisted structures burning constantly and ferociously as if by design.

"Welcome travellers, to paradise"

"Paradise?" Lucifer scoffed "More like theft of intellectual property"

The creature ignored the comment, turning away from his kingdom and heading back inside. He was over seven feet tall, his face like cracked granite, his eyes blood red. Bruce didn't have to be told, this was Darkseid.

"I'm afraid you've had a wasted journey, gentlemen" Darkseid said as he approached "Inform the Monitor that I will take no part in his war"

"Then you'll be destroyed" Bruce replied

A noise emanated from Darkseid that theoretically could have been a laugh, if it was though it was a laugh that would have made the Joker piss himself.

"When your planet was merely a cluster of asteroids, I battled and laid waste to entire star systems"

"Nothing can stop antimatter, you'll be as damned as the rest of us"

Darkseid grinned in amusement and looked Bruce dead in the eye for a moment, before finally sitting down on his throne and gesturing to Clark for them to be taken away. Clark grabbed Bruce's arm but Lucifer was too quick for Kalibak and headed closer to Darkseid.

"You seem like a monster with a secret or two" Lucifer elicited a scowl from Darkseid, before asking "What's your deepest, darkest desire?"

Darkseid physically struggled with himself to hold in the truth, Clark tried to haul Lucifer away but was met with a punch that sent him reeling.

"I want..." Darkseid started

"Yes?" Lucifer delighted

Kalibak drew his weapon but Bruce was faster on the draw, nailing his hand with a batarang.

"I want to hide..." Darkseid confessed "Until this war ends"

Clark and Kalibak stopped in their tracks, looks of surprise and disgust fell between them.

"How will you hide?" Lucifer pressed

Darkseid fought again but couldn't stop himself from touching a purple crystal that was embedded into his chest.

"This crystal... it's made of a compound which is neither positive matter or antimatter"

"What is it then?"

"A third material, taken from New Genesis, with my willpower I can amplify its properties and shield my dominion from the view of the one who wishes it harm..."

Lucifer was about to say something more but with remarkable speed, Darkseid put a hand over his mouth.

"I have not killed you out of respect for the Monitor but continue down this path, Samael and you'll discover what fate befell your siblings in my paradise"

Lucifer went pale and was eventually released. Darkseid once again signaled Clark and Kalibak.

"Send them back alone" he demanded

"But father..." Kalibak tried but Darkseid cut through him with a glare

Clark inputted some information into a device on his arm, and Bruce felt his body being ripped apart once more.

o-o-o-o-o

Bruce and Lucifer spent the next four days in the shattered Gotham City. They had no contact with the Monitor, dwindling supplies, and seemingly no chance of returning home.

They took refuge in an old safehouse of Bruce's as Wayne Manor was immediately out of the question, the Bruce of this Earth had left it as broken as the city.

They needed a plan of action, they needed to steal the crystal from Darkseid's chest and find a way to escape back to the Monitor. Easier said than done. While Bruce did have an idea for breaking into the spacecraft and forcing one of the human workers to teleport him and Lucifer back to Apokolips, all it would take to stop them was Darkseid realising that the Monitor had cut his losses with them. No doubt Darkseid would throw them both to Clark for some inventive mangling.

Maybe if Bruce could get close enough to Clark, he could get under his skin again, apologize again, make him think about Lois, about the good times they had together and how she wouldn't want him to serve something like Darkseid, maybe just maybe, Bruce could create some trouble for the force controlling Clark.

"Amenadiel, you bastard, I wanted the last croissant" Lucifer mumbled in his sleep "I'll be telling Jesus about this"

Lucifer said he would only rest his eyes for a few minutes on the couch, he ended up sleeping for sixteen hours. He spent most of that time either cursing out his father or someone called Amenadiel.

Lucifer also had a very loud sex dream about someone he called "Detective" and another he called Daniel. For those particular three and a half hours, Bruce was eternally grateful that Luke had included ear plugs in his utility belt. He made a mental note to give the young project manager a large raise if he ever got home.

Tap, Tap, Tap.

The noise caught Bruce's attention, this safe house was an apartment, near the top of a seventy story building and yet it seemed like someone was knocking on the window. Cautiously opening the curtains with one hand and tightening his grip on the batarang in his other, Bruce found himself face to face with a Parademon.

Bruce raised the batarang, ready for the Parademon to smash the window, hopefully he could pierce the creature's brain, giving Bruce and Lucifer a chance to escape before more came.

"No Bruce, put it down!" the Parademon pleaded with a voice it shouldn't have had

Bruce considered the creature in closer detail, its armor was different from other Parademons, red and blue. Two bracelets clasped to its wrists and a lasso hung from its waist.

"We need to talk" Diana told him, her voice coming from the bug's mouth