Everyone was ready or at least as ready as they could be. Bruce had suited up in protective armor, and downed an experimental formula that he had packed away for use only in the worst of circumstances.

"I smell drugs, sharesies?" Lucifer cooed

"Only enough for one"

Lucifer pulled a face at him before letting it slide and changing the subject.

"I don't like any of this" he confessed "I remember the last time I led a rebellion against a cruel tyrant... it didn't go so well for me"

Bruce was fed up with Lucifer's devil bullshit but let him continue rambling, Bruce simply occupied himself with other business like replacing the now empty formula test tube in his belt. Even in its current state, a dribble of the contents could prove hazardous to anyone or anything that found it.

"Something that's been on my mind..." Lucifer continued "How did Darkseid know my original name? Had he met a version of me before? If so what happened to that me? I wouldn't have just pissed off and left you mortals to it, would I?"

Perhaps sensing Bruce's lack of interest, Lucifer wandered off to find someone else to bother.

Bruce knew that the formula could be useful if he survived long enough for the effects to kick in, but in a fight against two Gods and a Superman, he didn't really have a guarantee that he would.

Diana and Mala had formed the battle strategy, concentrating on Darkseid's supposed immortality and actual ways to bring him to his knees. Curry donned the tattered remains of his old armor, he still refused to speak about his people, however something Bruce noticed was how he regarded Diana differently than the other Curry, Bruce had known. An air of something Bruce could only describe as shared mourning hung between the two, as well as Mala.

Could Darkseid have slaughtered the Atlantians and the Amazons? Or did he do something far more devious. The Curry of Bruce's Earth had once mentioned an ancient war between the two, could Darkseid have engineered another as a precursor to taking over? Have two of the armies who repelled your original invasion destroy each other and you're only left with the armies of man.

"Anyone need the bathroom before we leave?" Barry asked, loudly, snapping Bruce from his thoughts

Taking the awkward silence as an answer, Barry held a hand to the white empty wall in front of him. Barry's hand started vibrating, at first slowly and then so fast Bruce couldn't even see it anymore. Blue lightning poured from him, soon joined by purple lightning and even orange, slowly ripping a hole in the space between Barry's hand and the wall. Each bolt made the hole in reality larger, until finally it revealed Darkseid's throne room bathed in darkness.

When the lightning finished, Barry fell to one leg, a look of utter exhaustion on his face, Bruce and Diana tried to help him but he shrugged them off.

"Maybe you should stay here" Bruce conceded

"You're not getting rid of me that easily" Barry said before flashing him a weary smile and scrambling to his feet

o-o-o-o-o

The throne room was empty apart from Darkseid's trophies of war. It seemed like even a New God had matters more pressing than lounging around and looking over his domain.

"Pretty glum" Barry noted "So do we wait for him to come back or..." he trailed off when he saw Victor's body

Barry raced over to Victor and cradled the Cyborg's body.

"So this is where you ended up" he whispered "You stupid hero"

Bruce tried to place a hand on Barry's shoulder but Barry threw it off. Raising Dick and Jason, Bruce knew what it was like to watch his sons grieve over fallen allies, friends, even lovers, but he had to remind himself that as much as it felt like his Barry was a son to him, the Barry in front of him wasn't his Barry. His friendship with his Bruce may have been a lot more reluctant.

"I can make you better" Barry breathed as he rocked Victor in his arms "I can help you"

Bruce was about to tell him that there was nothing any of them could do at this point but before he could, red lightning rolled behind Barry's eyes, it travelled down his neck, across his arms and into his hands. Barry paused for a moment, a look of desperation on his face before finally plunging his hands into Victor's chest.

The power source in Victor's chest glowed softly in response to Barry, soon though his entire cybernetic body crackled violently with both energies pouring through it. Victor's skeletal face grew flesh, his mechanical fingers twitched and his eye even opened. Barry retracted his hands and looked down at him, hopeful.

"Hey Vic"

"Identifying..." Victor said, his voice emotionless, almost robotic "The Grid recognizes Bartholomew Allen, Speedster"

Barry looked crushed, truly devastated.

"What about Victor Stone? Is he still in there?"

"Vic-tor Stone?" the cyborg that called itself Grid asked, before replying "I am not aware of this designation"

Barry let go as tears fell from his eyes and down his cheek but before they could fall any further, Grid wiped them away.

"I do not know why I did that, Bartholomew Allen"

Barry smiled and hugged Grid close.

"Call me Barry"

A powerful voice from across the room demanded their attention, Bruce didn't understand the ancient language it spoke but it seemed unpleasantly surprised.

The team turned to face Darkseid, who had appeared from the depths of the shadows, he addressed only Bruce and Lucifer, giving them a vile smirk.

"I had hoped that your master would have seen sense by now" he said, placidly, in English "You have no more business in my throne room, on my Earth or in my universe"

Darkseid disregarded them with a strange signal.

"Furies, leave Lucifer's bones, I have missed the taste of Angel marrow"

Three grotesque figures rose from the shadow of their Lord. Three fierce warriors, armed with swords and shields. One looked like she'd removed her jaw and replaced it with some kind of device that looked like a bear trap, another had six large insectoid legs and sharp mandibles. The final fury apparently looked different to everyone, Bruce saw the Joker, Lucifer saw someone called Cain, Barry said he saw the face of the person who killed his mother. Only Grid could see the truth, the creature standing before them was some kind of tentacled monstrosity with venom glands and fed on their worst fears.

Diana led the attack, striking hard against the alien metal of Beartrap's blade with her own Themysciran steel, the fury's sword broke in two.

Bruce shot his grappling hook at the insectoid's legs, tying them up and forcing her to the ground.

The Joker looking thing taunted Bruce, dredging up memories of Jason that he had tried to repress. The insectoid's legs snapped the grappling cord before catching Bruce with a sharp swipe to the face.

"Do you know the best thing about slicing little Toad's throat?" the Joker thing spat "The gurgling noises he made? nah that was cute, real sad duckling sounds"

Bruce was trying to tune it out, he jumped over one of the legs, a moment before it could slice him in half. He felt a tentacle hit his back with force, knocking him face first onto the ground.

Bruce turned but it was too late, the Joker thing and the insectoid were descending on him. Bruce reached for his belt but found two tentacles quickly attach themselves to his arms.

"The best thing was the look in his eye as he realised that you were too late this time" the thing chuckled "that you weren't fast enough to save his pathetic little life"

Bruce screamed and found himself suddenly covered in the creature's brains. Grid helped him to his feet, smoke still bellowing from the cyborg's arm cannon.

The insectoid hissed a warning at the two, before being decapitated by Mala.

Beartrap tried to take a bite out of Diana's arm but was met with two strong hands, ripping the metal guard from her face.

Under the guard lay a face half scarred and eyes filled with rage.

Diana was about to unleash a killing blow when suddenly Lucifer scooped Beartrap into his arms, hovering above them all.

"Maze, what the hell are you doing?"

Beartrap or Maze as Lucifer called her, slashed at him with her broken blade, Lucifer tried his best to dodge but she landed a grazing cut to his neck. Maze fell from Lucifer's grasp, hitting the ground with a determined landing.

Darkseid gave Maze a spear and issued a beckoning hand above.

"Kalibak, Kal-El, come to me, my sons"

Silence fell over the entire room, a terrible silence. Everybody braced themselves like a storm was about to hit, so it should have come as no surprise when the entire throne room started violently shaking. The simple act of standing was almost impossible, the ground felt as if it was going to give way entirely, cracking open and swallowing them whole.

A dark portal willed itself into existence before them, Clark shot out of it faster than a bullet, colliding with Diana, knocking her into a wall. Clark grabbed Bruce by the cape and hurled him in the direction of the balcony. With no grappling hook, Bruce tumbled over the edge. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the long fall down.

o-o-o-o-o

Lucifer tried to scramble after Wayne but was met with a bolt of energy to the chest, as Kalibak emerged from another portal. Lucifer crumpled to the ground in front of the stumpy little New God.

Lucifer felt the cold metal of Kalibak's weapon pressed against his forehead. He knew it shouldn't kill him, he was immortal, he had all the gifts of an Angel, still that didn't seem to mean much to the bloody hole in his chest.

If this was it, if he was going to die, he wanted to do it right. Lucifer closed his eyes and imagined Chloe in front of him, she told him that it was okay, that she was okay. Chloe held her hand out to Lucifer, she told him that they had a new case to solve.

"Get the fuck up!" Someone screamed at Lucifer

Lucifer wanted to take imaginary Chloe's hand, he wanted this misery to be over. Chloe simply smiled and reminded him that he still had some loose ends to tie up before they could get to their case.

Lucifer reluctantly opened his eyes to see Arthur Curry on top of Kalibak, beating the hell out of him with his own metal rod.

Lucifer groggily got up and tried to focus on the battle. Diana and the speedster, Barry were fighting the Superman, while the other Amazon: Mala and the cyborg called Grid were trying desperately to hold off Maze. In the middle of the chaos sat Darkseid, grinning like this was the first bit of good entertainment he had seen in years.

Lucifer scrambled over to Maze, his chest was healing but a lot slower than it should have been.

"Why Maze? Why did you align yourself with these monsters?"

"We're monsters!" she yelled "You used to understand that before she died!"

Maze took her eyes off her attackers for a moment and looked directly at Lucifer, her eyes were positively feral but something lurked behind them, a symbol, glowing brightly.

Grid tried to blast Maze but the energy just served to snap her from her trance. Maze sliced through one of Grid's arms, it fell between them.

"What about Dr. Linda, eh? Is she a monster?" Lucifer tried to appeal to her

"Who the hell is Dr. Linda?" Maze brushed off as Mala landed a blow to her shoulder, Maze responded by slamming her head into a wall

No Dr. Linda in this universe, that made sense, no Linda meant Maze didn't have a best friend, a tether to humanity, except...

"What about Trixie?"

Maze froze, she looked back at Lucifer, hurt, as if he should've already known the answer.

"She's dead" she said, bluntly

"Not unless she died within the past four days"

Maze released her hold on Mala and grabbed Lucifer by the throat.

"You're a liar"

"The greatest liar of them all, if you believe some religions... but you can tell when I'm lying, can't you Maze? You always could"

Maze looked into his eyes, searching for any hint of deceit.

"She's alive" she finally gasped

Maze slowly relaxed her grip, she smiled and Lucifer felt at ease for the first time in too long. The symbols flickered behind Maze's eyes for a moment, they dimmed and faded before suddenly burning brightly with an intense, raging flame. Lucifer didn't even feel the spear jammed into his guts.

After his penetration, Possessed Maze lost interest in Lucifer, instead focusing on Mala and Grid, ridding the human robot hybrid of another limb.

Maze relentlessly attacked Mala, forcing her back until her spine collided with an alien structure, and Maze was able to put her spear to the Amazon's throat. Maze smirked her signature smirk, the one that had the ability to make even the worst of souls wet themselves.

Mala spat in Maze's face, the first person in Lucifer's memory to do so.

A green glint caught Lucifer's eye, the broken lamp beside Darkseid glowed a magnificent emerald. Before the giant could stop it, the lamp launched something out of itself that hurtled toward Mala.

Maze tried to cut it down but the object slipped itself onto Mala's finger, immediately surrounding her with a green forcefield.

"Mala of Earth" a voice came from the ring or whatever it was "You have the ability to overcome great fear, welcome to the Green Lantern Corps"

Mala hit Maze hard, fighting back with a new arsenal that seemingly came from the ring device.

Across the room, the Superman had decided to abandon the battle with Diana and Barry, leaving via the balcony, probably to end Wayne. Lucifer knew he should stop him, four days with Wayne had shown him that the human was a good man, for the most part.

Lucifer brought out his wings and made an attempt to stand, only to fall over from his injuries.

Barry made an attempt on Darkseid the Voyeur, vibrating a hand with the intent of it going through his chest. The outrage on Darkseid's face spoke volumes, he was insulted that this insect had dared to lay a hand on him.

Two beams shot out from Darkseid's eyes, Barry was fast enough to turn and run from them but they followed. He tried to zigzag through Kalibak and Maze, likely hoping that the beams would hit one of them, but they didn't. The beams stuck with Barry, two steps behind and one stupid mistake away.

Barry vibrated and blurred his entire body, suddenly there were two of him. The original with the multi coloured lightning and one with only blue.

The beams were closing in on the new Barry, his predecessor shouted an apology at him before the beams collided. The Barry with the blue lightning was reduced to ash.