Hi! We're now getting to the last chapters of the story…a lot had happened since we started this journey together, an idea has become a long and powerful storyline and I got to ask myself some questions while learning from your questions and your input….

let's see what happens next… who lived through the attack? Who died? And the last questions…what would happen when all hope is lost?

Please enjoy and if you feel like it…review, it means a lot to me

Chapter 28: Thermopylae.

New York, ground zero.

John always found the human complexity interesting, he could read someone's thoughts but never could found out why or what pushed him to act…. He used history books to guide him through the complications that have risen in the 10,000 years of this civilization… but he was not ready for this…nobody is ready for this….

The air was thick with dust and the debris was too heavy to walk around it, the building were falling down piece by piece, like a huge puzzle meant to be broken….he choose to fly not so high it will draw the attention but enough to see around "ground zero" he feared for his friends… the Batman, he feared for John and Q…. but most of all he feared for a pregnant Huntress that walked towards the combat to find her lover…. To meet her mate in the face of imminent danger; he decision was illogical, probably stupid…yet so remarkable valor.

What would Aristodemus felt after he saw the death of his king and 300 hundred of his countrymen against the grip of the Persian Empire? He was probably overtaken with grief and sorrow, wanting to end his life out of guilt; he killed many Persian soldiers in the Battle of Plataea but was not awarded any medals or honor, he was regarded as a coward and subjected to humiliation and disgrace at the hands of his compatriots; his berserker rage caught up with him and the history remembers him with a black mark against his name because his desire to die clouded his good judgment, those who fought with valor but scared to die receive that much deserved praise, he was only looking for the restitution of his name…. he was bloodthirsty….never able to quench his thirst for death, he had become a human vampire.

The Martian manhunter didn't felt like destroying himself and didn't care how historian would tell the story, but the deep sorrow he felt afterwards was a constant threat to his pain and anger, which took pleasure in driving him mad with unanswered questions? He had to restrain himself… he felt the life-force of many humans diminishing all around him, he blocked himself… he needed to clear his head, he needed to find the survivors…he needed to find his friends.

After all he is alone…. Really alone, but the fact the JLA is no more leaves a hole in his soul that would never be filled, it would go next to the one left by his family.

XXX

Q opened his eyes…. He couldn't remember what happened or if the lights came a minute ago or an hour ago….he felt the sting of light even when his eyes were closed and a charred overcoat protected him as the shrapnel and debris destroyed the surrounding area…400 meters totally leveled, a great attack…a powerful destruction that couldn't be described…he move again towards the hideout to find a unconscious but otherwise well Huntress… he look at her trying to hold back the tears…he was excited that she was alive and was prepare to do anything to protect her, anything.

He couldn't see but the started to call them…first the Batman, then John Stewart, then Superman…anyone who could have survived the blast…he didn't want to fight anymore, didn't remember who or what started the fight in the first place…. He hears a low growl…then a soft moan…like someone waking up to a terrible pain…it was John.

-Where are you? - Q asked into the thick layers of dust.

-Here! - John responded with a low voice.

-Where's here…are you stupid…I can't see a thing you know, no powers this side of town? - Q replied with dry wit.

-Follow the green glow…you crazy redneck- John responded trying to hold back the dry cough…he almost couldn't breathe.

Q found him and then quickly saw a shard of Batman's cape not to far…he followed the traces of the dark fireproof coating….holding his breath as he drew closer….he saw a patch of black hair…too long to be male, too lustrous to be human …it was the Wonder Woman….she was burned…so burned that a normal human would have died instantly and yet she was alive… any other day he would have been impressed, but not today.

Q touched her shoulder and she moved…under him was "the Batman" he was barely conscious but he was alive too…Q almost smile, they were alive….

John helped the Superman to his feet, he didn't look at the burning carcass that was the abomination……you could still see the marks were superman's finger held him….He looked up and around trying to grasp what happened…even the Superman felt humbled by the traumatic event.

The Martian Manhunter quickly found them sensing that they were in great distress but unharmed, they made out of there… he count their presence: John, Q, Diana, Batman, Superman, Huntress…he instinctively felt something has gone terribly wrong…he was missing one!

He remembered that last paragraph from Herodotus regarding bersekergang, the unstable mental state of Aristodemus…the damn one:

"This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its color. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days"

-What would happen if the rage got a hold of a God????-The Martian Manhunter told himself.

-NO! - A resounding scream took everyone by surprise when the superman found a carcass burning a couple of yards from him….he first smelled it, the smell of burning flesh, human flesh…too disgusting to enjoy but no so different from a hamburger made in a barbecue afternoon….he touched the garment and he knew…who couldn't possibly try to play the odds against such an overwhelming attack….

It was "The Flash"

May God have mercy on our soul…because he won't.

End of chapter.