Chapter 20
When Diana reached the right alley, she hovered over it and examined the scene below. Bruce was tied to a lamppost as if he was being crucified. It looked like she could just go down, untie him, and fly away. Of course, the person who had set this up likely knew that and would have had something planned to prevent her from doing so. Bruce was being proven right; someone had been orchestrating things to bring about this exact scenario. They had something planned and the only thing for Diana to do was to let things play out.
Diana flew straight down and landed in front of Bruce. He was unconscious and looked weak, but at least he was alive.
"Diana, how good of you to drop in," a familiar feminine voice said. Diana looked to see Circe walking out from the shadows of the alley. Diana did nothing mainly because she knew Circe well and knew this wasn't her normal style. She watched the witch as she walked past Diana and at a fire hydrant.
"I am so glad the four of us will be able to spend this time together." As she talked she knocked the clapper valve off the hydrant and water started gushing out of it. Using her magic she moved the water until it had created a dome around them encompassing the city block.
"Every once in a while my abilities as an Oceanid come in handy," she said. "I know you have your big blue boy scout flying around and we don't want him interrupting us."
"So how is your friend supposed to join us?" Diana asked. Almost on cue a manhole cover moved off the hole it was covering. Diana was shocked to see a well-dressed middle aged man in a suit emerge from it. He was carrying a large sword on his back.
"Ares," Diana said in a monotonous tone. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing his appearance was angering her. She should have guessed that a city wide gang war would have been orchestrated by a god who drew his very strength from violent death.
"Diana," he said with a sigh. He seemed disappointed to see her. "I was hoping at the last minute I might get the prize I really wanted, but you're a good secondary pick."
"And who were you originally expecting?" she asked.
He let out another sigh of disappointment. He paced around as he monologued; it was an old habit of his. "I had developed this grand plan long ago on how best to make you suffer for everything you have done to me throughout the millennia. While I was thinking about what I could do to you I remembered back to our first encounter and how this all started." He stopped pacing so he could face her and look her in the eye. "You have always been a thorn in my side because you blamed me for the trauma you went through seeing your whole family killed before you. Of course, you got your sister and mother back, but the pain of their initial loss plus the loss of your father and brother has stayed with you for over two thousand years."
A sly and devilish smile crossed his lips. "I was amazed I never thought about doing it earlier, but killing your daughter would have been a great way to traumatize you and make you pay for all the times you have stood in the way of my fun." He began pacing again as he talked. "I spent a long time piecing together this grand plan. I have to admit that when I watched your daughter work I was quite impressed with her." He looked between Diana and Bruce hanging from the lamppost. "You two must be so proud of her." Diana could detect the sarcasm in his voice.
"I knew I would need a grand plan to kill her. I knew I would have to be at my strongest. I knew I could use my special talents of stoking anger to start a major war in this city. The violence and killing that would be unleashed would strengthen me and provide a gauntlet your daughter would have to run through that would only tire her out for our eventual confrontation, where I would slice her open with this."
He pulled the sword out and admired it. "The blade of Hercules. Beautiful, isn't it?"
"I'm glad you realized you would never be able to beat my daughter in a fair fight. After all, you've never beaten me in a fair fight." She tried her best to hide her annoyance at what he was saying. For the moment, she was too focused on Ares to think about what would be happening to Helena right now if she wasn't on Tamaran.
"Yes, I never have," he said matter of factly. "That was why I was going to try going after your daughter this time. It would have given me great pleasure to see you distraught over the death of her. However, the grand prize I wanted was your death in the end. I made a deal with Hades that after Helena's death he would present you with an offer. He would return Helena to the land of the living in return for your soul, immediately. You hero types are always looking to make grand sacrifices like that. It would have been the perfect situation for me. I would have had both the pleasure of seeing you in great agony and leaving this world for good. Unfortunately, your damn daughter decided to disappear on me. I had gone too far in setting this whole scenario up to stop it in its tracks. I had to go through with it even if I couldn't get everything I want. It looks like I'm going to have to kill you with my own bare hands."
He took the sword of Hercules out and threw its sheath aside. He started breathing heavily. Diana had seen him do this before; he was drawing on all the war and violence in the area to fuel him. She knew she had to attack him before he could do so and flew at him. She was stopped by a wavy of water that came down from the dome.
She looked back to see Circe with her arms raised, controlling the water. Diana had forgotten she was there. She looked back at Ares, who she could see through the thin wall of water. He was growing in size and his bulging muscles ripped through his clothes.
Diana heard a pounding against the dome of water. She heard a voice shouting and recognized it as Superman. Circe's magic was keeping him out. She was going to have to face Ares alone, but she knew she could handle him. She adopted a fighting crouch and readied herself for battle.
When Ares had gone through his transformation Circe dropped the wall of water in front of him. He charged at her and swung the sword wildly. She either dodged his thrusts or blocked them with her bracelets.
She thought she was doing well against him. She thought he might have lost his fighting abilities since she last faced him. She remembered back to some of Bruce's training with Helena. There were sparring matches they had where Bruce let her think she was doing well, but all he was doing was studying her and letting her get a false sense of security. When his goals had been achieved he pounced and went in for the kill.
Doing badly Ares paused. "If you keep fighting like that you're going to make this easy for me," Diana said to him. You certainly never would have beaten my daughter fighting like that."
He charged at her harder this time and she had more difficulty avoiding his thrusts. He was learning the best way to attack her and she started to realize it was only a matter of time until he learned all her weaknesses. She knew she had to change the game somehow.
As she tried to avoid his blows her mind wouldn't let go of the deal he had with Hades. The two of them were not exactly on speaking terms. As she wondered how Ares could have gotten an agreement with Hades a thought struck her. If she was correct about the way the deal was made she might have the game changer she needed.
Ares took a broad swing with his sword and Diana ducked it and rolled towards Circe. The swing was so powerful Ares lost his balance for a moment. It bought Diana some extra time. She took out her lasso and fired it around Circe. When she had the goddess in her lasso's grasp she pulled the witch towards her.
Ares was unimpressed by her maneuver. "Do you really expect me to hold back since you're using Circe as a shield?"
Circe was incredulous and truly surprised by the actions of Ares. She couldn't believe he was treating her so callously. There was a piece of information Diana needed out of Circe. She was going to use the lasso to get Circe to admit it, but took the lasso off her as she felt she didn't need it.
"Why don't you tell Ares how the deal with Hades got made," she said to the goddess.
Diana could see the hatred in Circe's eyes and knew she was going to get the answer she wanted. "I had my own private meeting with Hades after you failed on several attempts to get what you wanted out of him. I slept with him in exchange for his agreement to make the deal with you."
The anger on Ares face was evident. He focused all his attention on Circe and charged at her, lifting his sword high in the air. He was paying no attention to Diana and she knew she had her opening. As he brought his sword down on Circe she flew at him. To her surprise he was ready for her and adjusted his swing at her. Diana was just barely able to block the sword with her bracelets, but the force of the blow shattered them. Ares kicked her and she flew back and hit the wall of water.
Circe was nowhere in sight. She had apparently teleported away. Diana was stunned for a moment, but regained herself as she waited for Ares to make his next move.
He laughed at her as he looked her over. "I've learned a lot over the years," he told her. Watching your daughter had helped me understand the mental side of fighting, and doing that which your opponent does not expect. I knew what Circe did to get the deal with Hades done and when I saw you try to exploit it I knew you would expect me to be distracted by it. Circe proved to be a useful fool, but at least I made sure she cast a spell that would keep this dome up no matter what happened to her.
Diana looked around her. She had certainly expected the dome to disappear with Circe. She had thought Superman might be able to join the battle with Ares, but he was still stuck outside. She looked up at Bruce, who was beginning to regain consciousness.
Diana readied herself again for an attack and Ares charged at her. Knowing she didn't have her bracelets to block any of his attacks she had to completely dodge them. She was able to maneuver fast enough to avoid them all, and as she did so she started picking up on the pattern of his attacks. She soon devised a way she could attack him quickly while coming out of a move to dodge one of his blows.
Ares took a powerful swing at her she avoided by hitting the ground. She rolled towards him and flew up at him when she was close to him. He had been expecting this move, though, and was ready for her. He had regained himself after the hard swing much more quickly then she had thought he would be able to do. With his free hand he swung at her and she dropped to the ground and cracked the pavement.
He stepped on her and drove her further into the ground. He lifted his foot up and brought it down again. This time she was ready for him and grabbed his oversized foot. He pressed down as hard as he could, but she was able to hold it steady over her.
Ares had the advantage in that his hands were still free. He grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands and held it over Diana. Before he could bring it down on her, she saw Bruce fly over and hit Ares in the chest. Bruce had used his boot thrusters to fire himself at Ares, but didn't fly with a lot of velocity. Ares didn't get knocked over to any extent. The god grabbed Bruce and threw him aside with all his might. He hit the ground hard and bounced a couple times. When he stopped he laid motionless.
Bruce looked dead, but Diana couldn't concentrate on him yet. He had distracted Ares just enough for her to do something. She pushed his foot aside and saw the grip on his sword had loosened. She took her lasso and looped it around the sword. She pulled it toward her and it came readily.
Ares turned his attention from Batman to her just as she attacked him with the sword. He couldn't move fast enough and put his arm out to block the blow. The sword sliced right through his arm and he howled in pain. In another swift blow Diana decapitated the god.
The body of Ares fell limp to the ground as the head bounced down the street. With Ares gone the water dome that had been surrounding them fell apart. Water rained down on Diana and soaked her. When she had brushed the water off her face she immediately ran to Bruce.
"What happened to him?" Clark asked her as he reached him at the same moment.
"He foolishly attacked a god," she told him. Diana leaned over him and looked for signs of life. She turned him on his back and looked at his old, wrinkly face, topped with grey hair. As she looked him over she saw his abdomen move, meaning he was breathing. Diana immediately let out a cry of relief.
Bruce's eyes started flickering and he began to moan as he came to. He opened his eyes and looked at Superman and Wonder Woman hovering over him. Diana was so happy to see him alive and awake she gave him a long kiss on the lips. When it was over she pressed her forehead against his and began to cry a little.
"You stupid, stupid fool," she whispered sarcastically. Despite the fact that Bruce's heroics had likely saved her, the old anger over him taking on others much more powerful than him swelled up in her. Thoughts raced through her mind of how she would have to tell their daughter about this. "You stupid, brave, heroic fool." She composed herself and began looking him over. "How badly are you hurt?"
"I have a couple of broken ribs. My left leg and left arm are broken as well. My left shoulder is a little sore, but it's in its place and my clavicle feels fine." He had suffered so many injuries over his life as a superhero he could instantly diagnose himself.
"We need to get you back to the manor," she said as she moved to pick him up.
"Hold on, Diana," Clark said as he touched her shoulder. "Let me carry him back. You've been through too much."
Diana stepped back and Clark gently picked up Bruce. He flew off in the direction of the manor and Diana followed him.
When Maril awoke she kept her eyes closed. She was afraid when she opened them she would find Rex was gone or that her night with him had been a dream. As she kept her eyes closed she listened intently to the sound of her husband breathing. It sounded like Rex to her. She rubbed her face against her husband's chest and felt the coolness of his body and the texture of his skin. The man she was with felt like Rex.
Her husband noticed she was awake and began gliding his fingers along her back. She twitched over the ticklish feeling it gave her. She let out a sigh of relief over the realization she was still with Rex.
She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see Rex's face staring at her. She smiled at him and he smiled back. She moved up, closed her eyes, and began kissing him.
They kissed for what seemed like forever. "I can't believe this is happening," she said to him when they stopped. She laid her head down next to his and began to caress his neck and shoulders.
"I don't want to ever leave this bed. A day ago I had accepted the fact I was going to spend the rest of my life in a loveless marriage. Now I know I married the love of my life. I love this feeling and I don't ever want to lose it."
Rex pushed some loose strands of hair off Maril's face. He noticed something lying on the pillow and picked up the engagement ring that was still attached to the chain around her neck.
Rex smiled looking at it. "You should wear this properly now," he said to her. "That is, as long as you don't mind taking it off for a few seconds."
"Of course not," she said with a big smile on her face. She moved to take the chain off, but he told her to stop. She complied and he reached around her neck and unclasped it. He took the ring off the chain and sat up. She sat up as well and held her hand out for him.
Maril thought back to the night Rex had proposed to her and first put the ring on her finger. She flashed back to the image of him on one knee, putting the ring on her finger. She remembered how she imagined what their life together would be like. After so many years of thinking he was dead they were finally living the life she had imagined they would have.
"The band should go on after the engagement ring," he said as he removed her wedding band. He put the engagement ring on her finger, and then put the band on after it. Maril trembled a little when he was done. She jumped on him and started kissing him as he wrapped his arms around her.
"We can't stay here forever," he reminded her as he pushed her away for a moment. "We have business to attend to."
Maril remembered she had given herself a full schedule for the morning since she thought she would have needed an excuse not to see her husband too much. She was queen, and it meant she had responsibilities. It also meant she had no one to answer to. So it really didn't matter if she just blew off everything.
"Why can't we just stay here?" she said to him as she rubbed her face against his.
"There are people outside waiting to see us. They're waiting for us to make important decisions on the future of our new nation."
"It can wait, all of it. There's no one-" Maril paused as she thought about someone they needed to see immediately. "Your mother," she said as she jumped out of bed. She hurriedly started putting on some clothes.
She looked at Rex on the bed and was puzzled why he wasn't moving. "We need to see your mother right away. She is going. . .there's no way to express how happy she is going to be to see you alive." She picked up his clothes and threw them at him.
"Get dressed now! We need to go to her!" she yelled at him. Rex didn't think he could deal with his mother at the moment. He didn't want to get dressed, but he mindlessly obeyed. When he put his clothes on he saw she was already at the door.
"Come on," she said. He got up and followed her out. For a moment he was glad she was forcing him to do this. It would be a relief to him to get this done and over with now.
Rex was apprehensive as they walked through the halls. He wasn't thinking so much about what would happen when his mother found out he was alive. He was wondering what would happen if they ran into someone they knew. Helena was the only person besides Maril who knew he was alive. He didn't want to run into anyone until he had a chance to tell his mother the truth.
Maril stopped at a door and motioned for Rex to get against the wall. "Stay hidden until I tell you its okay," she told him. She knocked on the door. "Shayera," she called. "I need to talk to you, can I come in?"
"Uh, sure, it's open," Shayera replied. Rex could hear the doubt in his mother's voice. She was likely puzzled why Maril would be seeing her now of all moments.
Maril walked in to see Shayera just stepping out of bed. "I'm sorry if I bothered you at a bad time," she said. She didn't offer to leave and come back.
"Don't worry about it," Shayera replied. "Did you come to see how I was doing the morning after? I appreciate it if you did, but I'm a little offended that you might think of me as being so fragile. I got through the ceremony without breaking down thinking you should have been marrying Rex."
Maril tried to suppress a smile. She couldn't hide her happiness over the fact Shayera was about to get the surprise of her life. She opened her mouth to speak, but realized she hadn't thought about what she should say. She stood there like an idiot with her mouth open not knowing what words were right.
Maril saw the expression on Shayera's face change to outright shock. The older woman was looking past Maril. She turned to see Rex standing behind her.
Out of the corner of her eye Maril saw Shayera start to fall. She grabbed the woman and tried to help her stand. Shayera kept her eyes fixated on her son as she tried to find the strength in her legs to stand on her own.
"It can't be. It can't be," Maril heard Shayera say in a low voice. Rex walked up to the two of them.
"It's me, Mom," he said to Shayera. He held out his arms and she grabbed them to help her stand. She stumbled towards him and reached out and stroked his cheek.
"I can't believe it," she said in her low voice.
"It's true," Rex told her.
She hugged him and pressed her face against his chest. She wrapped her hands around her back, and felt he had no wings. She moved back from him, trembling as she thought about what he must have went through. "How did you survive. . .your wings. . .how?" she had trouble getting out the question she was trying to ask.
"It was Hro Talek, he saved me mother. He cauterized my wounds before I could bleed out. I owe everything to him."
He wondered how his mother would react to the news her old lover and old enemy had saved her. There was little change in her emotional state after she received the news.
"Do they still hurt, the wounds? Do they still hurt you?"
"I haven't been able to feel them for five years," he replied.
"Can I see them?"
Silently, Rex turned around and lifted up his shirt. Shayera touched the wounds and almost broke down over the thought of the pain he must have endured in going through that torture. As she looked over his scarred back she thought back to when he was a child and would get a scrape or bruise. She would always kiss his wound and hold him tight and tell him the pain would be over soon. She felt powerless as there was nothing she could do now. She felt progressively worse as she realized he had suffered because of her mistakes.
Rex turned around and she once again embraced him in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry you had to suffer because of me," she told him. "You never deserved any of it."
Rex hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. "Don't blame yourself, mother. You didn't do any of it. And good came out of it. What happened to me turned me into the leader our people needed."
The tears stopped flowing from Shayera's eyes as Rex's words comforted her. For several minutes mother and son stood silently in their embrace.
Lash-El floated through the old workshop of Vunderbar. He looked around at all the automated robots Brainiac had assembled for building his machine. They were all powered down at the moment; Lash had made him halt production on whatever he was building.
"This machine is a tool for us to build a world we can rule," Lash heard Brainiac say in his head. "It is not a mechanism for me to double cross you."
"Then why did you keep it hidden from me? Why did you tell me there was no use for anything here and get me to stay away? The only answer I have is you are using your machines to build something that will get me out of the picture."
"All my actions were done to keep this a secret. I know it looks bad I kept it a secret even from you, but I did it to keep it safe. If you were constantly coming here to check on the project, someone close to you might get suspicious. I could not allow that to happen."
"So this project is a threat to everyone but me, is that what you're trying to say? Because I don't see how that's possible."
"You will understand everything in a moment, once I simplify and condense it all so that even you can comprehend what I'm doing."
Lash-El found Vunderbar's main computer. After they had defeated Vunderbar and taken over the complex, Brainiac had Lash upload a clone of himself to the computer. It was that clone which was controlling all the machines.
When Lash-El reached the monitor, a face of the Brainiac robot appeared on it. "Greetings Lash-El," it began. "I see that you and my clone have come here to inspect my work."
"I'm here to find out what in the fuck you're doing," Lash answered in anger. "Your counterpart in my head says this is all for my greater good and glory, but I have my doubts. You better do one hell of a job in explaining what you're doing, or I'll tear you and this entire complex to shreds."
"I'll ignore explaining how my electronic existence frees me from fear of death and being blackmailed by threats on my life to tell you what you want. The machine we are constructing is being built to create a world for us to rule. You may know that for most of his life Darkseid was looking for the anti-life equation. Few understood what it was and how it would work. The anti-life equation is the antithesis of all the physical laws of the universe that govern life. With knowledge of the full equation its secrets can be harnessed to destroy the entire physical universe and replace it with a universe of our design."
"That's what this machine is for," Lash-El said with a laugh. "You and I are going to create our own universe. That might well be good for you since you can build more copies of yourself, but I'm a little different. I have certain needs for companionship."
"Yes, as I am derived from my counterpart in you I know all about the needs you fulfill on a regular basis. Once again, you fail to understand the implications of what I am telling you. With the anti-life equation we will be able to create a universe of your choosing. We could create one that would contain all the nubile bodies you might need to fulfill your needs."
"Could we create a universe where I'm a god?" Lash-El asked.
"If you don't mind me adopting your language, yes, we could create a universe wear you are a fucking god. That is what I'm trying to do here. I have traveled the universe and studied countless cultures and societies. I know what works best and what type of universe should be built. In this universe we will be the gods, the creators everyone looks to and worships."
"So that's it. This machine your building is going to use the anti-life equation to build a new universe."
"Yes, I have discovered most of the pieces of the anti-life equation in my travels. When I uploaded into Darkseid's computers after our conquest of Apokolips I scanned every file he had and came across something very interesting. At some point during your father's time on Apokolips and his brainwashing all his memories were downloaded into the main computer. I came across one memory of your father speaking with the computer in his Fortress of Solitude. This computer is modeled after the personality of your grandfather. In this memory, the avatar of Jor-El, your grandfather, was explaining to your father how he discovered that Krypton was going to explode. He only briefly touched on and showed Kal-El what he did, but in that moment I recognized a piece of the anti-life equation I'm missing. Jor-El had discovered a piece of the anti-life equation and it allowed him to recognize what was destroying Krypton. This piece of the equation is the last part I need. With it we will be able to build our own universe."
Lash-El thought for a moment about what he had been told. Brainiac's plans for creating a universe where they would be gods was intriguing, but he couldn't stop focusing on the fact they needed something out of his father. He realized this might give him the chance to confront his father in the manner he always wanted to.
"So, what do we need to do to in order to get this last piece of the anti-life equation?" Lash asked the Brainiac in the computer.
"We need to get your father to grant us access to the computer in his fortress."
"Can't we just break into the fortress?" Lash asked.
"No, the computer will only activate for those who Superman tells it to activate for. We need him to do this for us."
An evil smile appeared on Lash-El's face. "So we go to Earth, find him, and force him to grant us access to the computer."
"That won't work with your father," Brainiac replied. "First, he has an entire league of friends that will die to protect him. Second, he cares little about his own life, but he has been greatly concerned for the lives of innocents around him. If we are going to get him to do our bidding, we need to keep his superhero friends busy. We need to put the lives of the innocents he cares about in danger and use those lives as bargaining chips to get what we want. The only way to accomplish all that is to launch a massive invasion of Earth and threaten to destroy all of Earth unless Superman gives us what we want."
"That's going to take some time to set up," Lash told Brainiac.
"We have all the time in the world. According to the information I have collected, the Justice League is paying little attention to us."