Chapter 36

They went their separate ways and Helena re-entered the Batcave through the study. From the top of the stairs she could see Superman in his room. Lois was still awake and checking him. She walked into the room as she figured it was better to tell them something instead of ignoring them.

"How's he doing?" she asked Lois.

"Atom thinks he got all the dust out," Lois answered. "The stuff really tore through him, though. It's going to be a while until he can even get up and walk." Lois looked at her with fear in her eyes. "Do we have a while to wait? Is anything happening now."

Helena tried to act non-chalant as she answered. "Everything is quiet, and there is no reason to believe anything will change. I came down to check on my parents before I head out again. The world is in disarray and somebody has to patrol it."

Lois didn't say anything more to her and Helena took the opportunity to leave. She checked in on her parents and saw they were sound asleep. She sneaked in and walked back to the end of the hospital tent. She moved the heavey equipment she needed to in order to reach the vault. She entered the commands and the vault silently opened. She grabbed the glowing green rock and closed the vault. She hid the rock in the lead compartment on her utility belt. She was taking it just in case there was a need for it.

Helena was going to make a quick getaway, but paused to take a look at her parnets in their hospital bed. The blankets completely covered them accept for their heads and their chests. They looked like they were sleeping in a cocoon that was just starting to open. Her father was lying on his back and her mother was lying right next to him on her stomach. Her forehead was pressed against his cheek. She had her hand resting on her husband's bare chest. Her father had a hand laid on her hand.

Helena had never seen the two of them look so peaceful. The two of them looked idyllic. Her father was old, but looked wise and strong. Her mother looked young and beautiful, but also powerful. A tear came to Helena's eye as she thought about how their peacefulness would be destroyed by her death.

Helena looked at their hands resting on top of one another. She wanted to touch her parents one last time and reached her hand out to momentarily lay it on top of theirs. She stopped her hand an inch from theirs and kept it there, hovering. She was refraining from touching them as she was afraid it might wake them up. Once that happened they would start asking her questions about what she was doing. She knew she wouldn't be able to lie to them forever. Her hand started trembling and she pulled it back and ran out of the tent and up to the yard above.

Helena paused at the top of the hole and looked around the backyard. The Amazons had a fire going as two of them were keeping watch for anything. Helena felt no need whatsoever to say anything to them. She figured they were one group that wouldn't be too upset to see her gone.

"You ready?" Rex asked as he and Maril walked up to her.

"Sure, let's go," she replied. She did her best to sound normal, despite still feeling upset over seeing her parents for the last time. She grabbed the remote control fo the ship and an open door appeared in the sky. Helena jumped inside and Maril and Rex flew in after her. The two of them headed up to the cockpit while she put on the gauntlets and helmet she had left on the ship. She then went up to the cockpit as well.

Helena took her seat at the controls. Maril took the co-pilot seat and Rex took the scanning station. Helena fired up the controls and they were off.

"I have maps of Apokolips in the jet's computer. Link up to it with your wrist computers and download the information. Rex, your job is to locate the prison and get in and find Vunderbar. He should have the information you need for activating the hellspore. Maril, your job is to steal a hellspore from an armory and place it under Vunderbar's lair. After it is set help any slaves that you can get out of the blast area. I'll keep Lash occupied and make sure he is caught in the blast."

She heard each of them punching away on the computer's on their wrists. Neither of them said anything in protest or asked questions. She took this as a sign they were completely on board with her plan. She also took this as a sign neither of suspected what she really planned on doing.

Out of the cockpit window Helena was able to see the lights of Metropolis as they approached. It was a good sign the citizens of the city felt safe enough to turn all their lights on as normal. She wondered if the police or military had any patrols wondering around. Being in the invisible jet they certainly didn't have to worry about being seen and mistaken as an enemy.

"Are we heading to Star Labs?" Rex asked.

"Yes, I know Superman keeps a Mother Box there," she said as steered the jet in that direction. They were at the labs in a matter of seconds. Helena's hopes dropped and the others gasped when they saw the state the lab was in. An entire half of the building was missing.

Helena knew which part of the building the Box was in and that was the half that was missing. All hope was not lost as she knew the thing had been kept in a strong metal vault. There was still hope that it had not been destroyed.

"We need to look for the vault it was in," Helena told her friends as she ran out of the cockpit. They both followed her. "It probably got blown out of the building and there's a chance the Mother Box is okay inside of it."

She jumped out of the jet and Maril and Rex flew by her. Rex had his armor covering his face and she could see the red glow from his eyes, indicating he was using infared vision. Maril had her hands casting a green light to illuminate the ground below her. Helena was using the night vision in her mask.

Helena stayed close to the building to see if it had remained in place. She didn't find anything, but heard Maril shout that she had. She ran over to where she heard Maril's voice and found her and Rex standing over a busted vault. They were both staring at something on the ground. Helena ran up to see a damaged Mother Box lying on the ground.

"Do you think it still works?" Maril asked her.

"Only one way to find out," Helena said as she picked it up and pressed the button to activate it. Nothing happened.

"Is there another one we can use?" Rex asked.

"This was the last working one we had on Earth," Helena answered. "It had been so long since we had any problems with Apokolips that they fell into disuse and became lost. The good news is I know someone who may be able to fix this for us."

They followed her back into the jet and she took off again. She flew them to a small mansion in remote area miles outside of Gotham. When she landed she took note of the lone light on in the place.

"Where are we?" Rex asked.

"The retirement home of an old friend of my father's," she told them as she led them. They walked to the door and Helena entered the code she remembered from the last time her father had brought her here.

"We don't have to worry about spooking whoever's home, do we?" Rex asked.

"She's waiting for us," Helena answered as she walked inside. She headed in the direction she saw the light. She walked into the study of the house to find an old, plump, and short black woman sipping tea in an armchair.

"You're up late, aren't you?" she asked the woman.

The woman took her time to put her tea on the saucer on the table next to her before she answered. "I saw all the excitement on the news and figured my help might be needed. I didn't want someone to have to surprise me in bed. I still haven't gotten the stain out of my carpet from the last time."

Helena smiled at the old woman's wit. "Maril, Rex, this is Amanda Waller; the former head of Cadmus, the former government liaison to the Justice League, and a longtime friend of my father's."

"You don't need to tell me who your friends are," she said to Helena as she stood up from the chair and grabbed her cane. "I've followed the League enough to know who Nightstar and Warhawk are. Now what do you need out of me?"

"We need to know if you can fix this?" she asked as she held up the Mother Box. Amanda had her glasses hanging around her neck and brought them up to her face. She looked over the Mother Box and then gave her assessment.

"It doesn't look too badly damaged. I can't know for sure until we open it up and I see the insides. The way the outside looks I'm guessing it will be fixable." Waller walked into her dining room with the superheroes following her. She opened her china cabinet to reveal it was full of tools. She pulled out a bag without even looking at it.

"Now let's have a look inside that damn thing," she said as she threw the bag of tools on the table. Helena slid it over to her and she screwed the casing so it came apart. She looked at it for a few seconds and made her diagnosis.

"This is fixable," she said. All three supreheroes exhaled the breaths they had been holding in. They were all relieved to know they were going to be able to make it to Apokolips as planned. She pulled out a few more tools so she could start working on it.

"We have some time while I fix this, why don't you tell me why you need to go to Apokolips?" Amanda asked.

Helena sat down in the chair across from the old woman and began repeating everything she had told Maril a short time earlier. She filled the woman in on Superman's son and his alliance with Brainiac and what the two of them had planned with the anti-life equation. While she was talking, Rex was leaning up against the wall, patiently watching Amanda fix the Mother Box. His wife, on the other hand, was nervously walking around the room. Amanda looked up at her a few times, as she appeared to be bothered by her.

"I would be able to fix this better if I wasn't distracted by you walking around in the background," she said to Maril without looking up at her. Maril stopped and had a look of disgust on her face.

"Let's go outside and leave the woman in peace," Rex said to his wife. The two of them left so Waller wouldn't be bothered as she tried to fix the Mother Box.

"You certainly aren't getting any more polite," Helena said to the woman.

"She actually wasn't bothering me at all," Waller admitted. "I just wanted to get them out of the room so I could talk to you about your plan without them present. I know you're planning to sacrifice yourself to kill Superman's son."

"How did. . .how?" Helena was so shocked she couldn't help but stammer.

"I knew your father," she began, "And you are just like him. The two of you don't do anything without a plan, and when you make a plan everything is determined to the smallest detail. When you talked about your plans for wrapping up Lash in the metal frame of his statue and leaving him to die in the blast, you gave very few details. It's easy to know the reason why. Wrapping him up like that isn't your real plan; you were largely making it up on the fly. If I were giving you advice on what to do about Lash I know what I would tell you. The only way to make sure he dies in that blast is to be holding him down when it happens."

"I guess it's good to know you agree with my decision," Helena said to her. She continued to watch the woman repair the Mother Box. Helena was amazed how she didn't miss a beat as she talked to her.

"I know many in your League have had this mistaken belief your father had some kind of suicide impulse. It was closer to what many may call a martyrdom complex, but the best way to describe what your father had was a sacrificial complex. He cared little about his own life if losing it meant he could save others. Your mother never understood why he couldn't change when you were born, but he just didn't have it in him to give up that kind of fight. He always wondered what you would think if he died while you were young. He knew more then any other person how that could effect a young child, of course. If he died in action he hoped you would see the heroism in it. He hoped it would instill a sense of selflessness in you. It seems like you picked up those traits from him."

Helena was once again reminded how much her sacrifice would hurt her parents. Her father had suffered so much seeing his parents die in front of him, now he was going to have to deal with a daughter who had died because of the values he had taught her.

"It will be difficult on your father, but he will understand," Waller told her. Helena instantly felt better. She watched Waller as she put the casing back together on the Mother Box. Helena thought about asking her more questions about what her father would do, but wasn't sure if she would like the answers so she stayed quiet.

"This should work for you now," she said as she stood with less difficulty then she had before. Being useful for a moment seemed to give her some increased energy. "Let's take it outside and I can operate it for you."

Helena followed Waller out the front door. They found Rex outside rubbing Maril's stomach, which he quickly stopped when he saw the two women. Helena knew he was checking with Maril about how she was feeling with the baby. It reminded her once again of what she was going to sacrifice herself for.

Waller fumbled with the controls of the Mother Box. "I'll set this to drop you off in a remote area of Apokolips."

"Set it for Darkseid's old palace," Helena told her. "According to the files I looked through, the place has been abandoned."

"Will do," Amanda replied. She adjusted the knobs on it. She pressed a button and a portal opened up in the sky and a wind started blowing at them.

"Good luck," Waller said to them. Helena didn't hesitate to take the lead and jump through. She landed on the other side on the rocky and uneven ground. She heard a heavy set of boots land next to her and knew it was Rex. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Maril floating above her.

The portal closed and the wind it had been blowing stopped. With the wind gone Helena felt the full force of the dry heat of Apokolips. The area around them was quiet and everything felt eerily still. The red sky was unsettling.

All three superheroes checked the maps of Apokolips they had on their wrist computers. They looked at where they were and where they needed to go. Helena's map showed her she just needed to head straight north to reach Lash's unfinsihed palace.

She felt Rex float up from the ground next to her. She looked back to see both Rex and Maril ready to fly off to their destinations. "So how do we go from here?" Rex asked as she looked down at her.

A smile came across Helena's lips. "You take the high road. I'll take the low road."

Maril and Rex both smiled when they heard what Helena said. Maril continued, "And we'll catch the villain-"

"Before you do," Rex finished for his wife. They all got a quick laugh over repeating that bit from their childhood. The joy quickly disappeared as they remembered what they had to do. They all looked at each other for a few more seconds before Maril and Rex flew off in their separate directions.

Helena whispered good-bye to them as they flew away. She hopped over to the road nearby to look at what was ahead for her. The road north was empty and she ran at full speed up it.