Disclaimer
The characters used in the story are the property of DC Comics and Warner Bros. I used them in my story which is entirely a product of my own imagination.
Note: Gods in Justice League is definitely not my forte. I am not a reader of comics, I love cartoons though, and I base my story on the limited knowledge I gained from the cartoons. I only watched two episodes which featured Darkseid and High Father, and that is as far as my knowledge goes. So, if you feel I have goofed up somewhere, let me know, so that I can correct in the future works.
Chapter 18
"What are your plans now?" Superman asked, once they were finally back at the watch tower. This time he had made sure that no one was left behind.
"I don't know," Batman replied, "But you can definitely use a doctor!"
"You don't have to brag about it," Superman said.
"We might want to know what happened," Flash hinted.
"Yeah, how about you enlighten us!" Hawk Girl said, tapping her club against her hand.
"I believe you want to hit me with that," Batman said, looking at her.
"I definitely wanted to do more than that for the way you acted," Hawk Girl said, "But I guess we should give you a fair trial."
"However, since I have my ring back, I might go easy on you," GL said.
"I wouldn't say that though," Superman said, flexing his arms, "I'm just glad you have no plans for tonight. It might be a while before Bruce Wayne or Batman would show up in Gotham."
Batman smiled and the others returned his smile, except Diana. It seemed like she did not want to make an eye contact with him. She stood at the big glass pane, his eyes looking intently into vast nothingness"
"Very well then," Batman nodded, drawing his glance away from her.
"Darkseid did not kill me to begin with, as you already must've realized. I don't know what prompted him to do what he did with me, although I don't say that I will not hazard a guess. He thought that he had his control on my mind, but just the way I avert Jonn from knowing what I am actually thinking, I could avert Darkseid too."
"However, he never trusted me fully. So he established a gateway between his mind and my own, so that he could catch each and every thought of mine, so that even at the subtlest hint that I was not what I appeared to be, he could act." He paused, stole another glance at Diana, who was still not looking at him.
"That's why I had to say a few things I really didn't mean to say."
Diana did not turn around.
"He did not endow me with any special powers. He gave me the armor instead, whose power could be increased or decreased using the dial on his wrist. My dial would inject a special serum into the suit me as per the master dial's instructions."
"But how did High Father know about your plan?" Superman interrupted.
"What was your plan?" GL asked.
"It was a calculated effort." Batman replied. "I mentally communicated with High Father. And before you ask how, I need to tell you that there is an arrangement in my armor mask to do that. And that is how Darkseid kept track of me throughout the battle. I had sent the messages to High Father when I was suiting up, for your arrival. That was one point where Darkseid was distracted by Kalibak, and thus I was able to communicate with High Father freely for a short period of time."
"That explain the meditation part," Flash said.
"The objective of the plan was a simple, though the plan itself required perfect execution. I would open the casket and transfer the power to High Father. And the equation was, to fully charge the armor, for I needed power to stay put till the power was transferred." He then turned to Superman and continued, "And here I'd like to mention that the suit when fully powered up would equal 100 times the strength of Superman. And if you go by the equation, you'll realize that even he wouldn't have stood a chance to completely transfer the power and stay alive. And that's why I wanted to take the rap, and not because I wanted to be the HERO."
"I didn't say anything," Superman shrugged.
"I just thought I should make myself clear. Anyways, when I fought you, each time you succeeded in hitting me, or my armor, Darkseid raised the power of the armor. And hence, it was very important for me to provoke you to attack me," he again stole a look at Diana, who still did not flinch.
"And of course I had to make sure that Darkseid trusted me all through. So, I had to hit you, for real!"
"Let's not worry about that right now, Bruce!" Superman said, "I want to know what caused the plan to fail."
"You did, Superman," Batman said, "partially."
"Perhaps," Superman nodded, "But enlighten me anyway."
"I shouldn't have taken my mask off. That affected the plan in two ways. One, you were disturbed by the thought of having to fight Bruce Wayne, and hence you held yourself back. And thus, I did not get the power hike I wanted, which delayed the whole process. Secondly and most importantly, my face was exposed to attack. Although you did not realize it till the end, that one blow on my face turned the whole scenario upside down. I couldn't concentrate anymore, and hence couldn't fend off Darkseid's inspection. However I had a concussion, and Darkseid did not get any signals of my true plan.
"And just then, you threw me at the statue, which was actually the casket. If I had come in contact with it, it would be opened, and the power would be lost as no one was in contact with me to take it from me. rest assured, I would die instantly."
"Darkseid realized that the things had gone out of control, and was about to raise the power to maximum, but the Orion played the spoiled sport. He attacked Darkseid, drawing his attention away from the power dial. I tried to reach for the sword to throw it at him, without hurting him ofcourse, so that Darkseid could complete what he had started. But just then, you stamped on my hand, and in my mind I shrieked out. "Stop it Clarke!" And that was it. Darkseid caught it. If I were under his control, I should've called you Kal EL, not Clarke!"
Superman sighed, and nodded, encouraging him to continue.
"The rest followed its natural course. Darkseid destroyed the watch when the suit was at 80% full power, perhaps good enough. The suit began to discharge quickly. High father had already come close to me. But you were still in contact with me. I had to push you away, and thus the somersault, which reduced the suit's power to 60% of full."
"And then, of course, Darkseid shot his omega beam, but before it could reach us, I broke the casket open, and…apparently, I didn't have the power required to hold up after the transfer."
The others remained silent, going through the rest of the episode in their minds. Suddenly, Diana was found walking away hastily, rubbing her eyes.
"I think you owe her more than this explanation," Hawk Girl said.
"I do," Batman nodded, as he rose.
"Bruce!"
He halted. Superman came forward, examined him for a while, and then hugged him.
"Not that I accuse you of meaning what you said, but I need to clear up my conscience too. I love Diana like my sister. I don't care what the world thinks, but what matters to both of us, me and her, is what you think. And just remember that, I love my sister more than I love my friend, way more. So, if I see you hurting her like this, or in any other way, again, I will not hesitate, even for a moment to kick you into the nearest black hole."
He paused, trying to read the expression on Batman's face. He nodded.
"And with that said," Superman continued, "I want to add…that I missed you my friend. I missed you very much!"
"I didn't!" Flash said, wiping his tears off hastily. The others smiled at his gesture, while their own eyes welled up.
"And just for the record," Flash added, "I am crying because Superman's words made me emotional, just like the way you cry on watching an emotional movie."
"You cried watching Meet the Robinsons a week ago!" GL reminded, "That was a movie for kids."
"That was an emotional movie!" Flash retorted, and as he did, his voice broke, and he suddenly burst into tears.
"I believe this is for Meet the Robinsons." Batman asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Flash hugged him tight. "I missed you batz!"
Batman nodded and patted his back.
"I am glad to hear it, pal!" he said, and then withdrew from the embrace.
"And now if you'll excuse me…"