Chapter 37

Olivia sat by her brother's bedside, waiting for any sign he was about to wake. She had relieved her mother so she could get some decent sleep in a bed for a few hours. Olivia was fighting to stay awake as she wanted to be alert in case Connor made any sounds or movement.

He had taken a good pounding during the fight. He was rendered unconscious when a robot picked him up and threw him to the ground. Olivia had seen the whole thing and feared the worst. She had been shocked to find him alive when she reached him. Richie had stayed near her during the fight and saw her tending to her brother. He took Connor to a nearby transport so he could be treated and brought here.

Olivia looked over all the monitors registering Connor's vital signs. They were slowly improving, which was good. She put her hand around his arm so she could see how he felt herself. His arm was warm and she could feel the blood flowing through it.

Olivia felt a twitch in his arm and thought she heard a moan out of him. Olivia got excited that her touch was helping to revive him. "I'm here," she said to him. She squeezed his arm tighter so he would be sure to feel it. The thought occurred to her it might be better if she held his hand. She moved her hand down to meet his and clasped it as she felt something hard in his hand.

She grabbed the object in his hand and pulled it out to take a look. It was hard to see in the faint light, but she could definitely tell it was Helena's engagement ring. Richie had told her earlier about the mission Helena, Maril, and Rex undertook. Olivia started trembling as she looked at the ring because she knew exactly what it meant. Olivia knew Helena and she knew she wouldn't have broken off the engagement by giving him his ring back when he was unconscious. She also knew Helena was confident enough in herself that she wouldn't give him back the ring in case she didn't make it. There was only one reason she would have given him the ring back; Helena knew she wasn't coming back because she was planning on dying in some kind of suicide mission.

Olivia's thoughts turned away from her brother and to Helena. Olivia didn't know why exactly Helena believed she had to send herself on a suicide mission, but she knew the girl couldn't be right. She had always been stubborn and had obviously lied to Rex and Maril about what she really had planned. Olivia couldn't let her go on and sacrifice herself. She had to be stopped and the only people who could do that were her parents.

Olivia stood up and stumbled around as she found her legs weak. She told herself she had to get a hold of herself if she was going to save her future sister-in-law. She gained her balance and ran to the study where she knew the entrance to the Batcave was. She had no idea how to open the door to it, but thought about using her scream to bust into it. She reconsidered when she realized even under the circumstances it might be a bad idea to simply destroy the entrance and maybe even bring down half the Manor.

She knew Richie had knowledge of an outside entrance to the cave and pulled out her com and contacted her husband. "I need to get into the Batcave," she said to him.

"Do you really think its wise to bother them," Richie answered. "According to Maril, the three of them are injured and don't need disturbances."

"I think they will want to know what I have to tell them," Olivia said to her.

There was silence on Richie's end. "Meet me in the back and I'll take you down."

Olivia ran out to the backyard and met her husband as he flew down from above. "What do you have to tell them?" he asked.

"You can find out when the others do," she said to him. "Just show me how to get in there."

He led her to a small garden of bushes. He pushed a few aside to reveal a hole in the ground. Olivia jumped through it and landed in the middle of the Batcave by the Batmobile. Her husband followed her and hovered above her when he came through the hole.

Olivia saw Wonder Woman and Batman sleeping together in a hospital bed. Her presence seemed to rouse them and they looked at her with quizzical expressions on their faces. Wonder Woman seemed annoyed and pulled the sheets around her body as she didn't appear to have any clothes on underneath them.

Olivia couldn't worry about their modesty. Any annoyance they had would disappear when they heard what she had to say. She walked up to their hospital bed so she could get right to the point.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked. "Where's Helena?"

"She's on a suicide mission," Olivia said to Batman as she held out the engagement ring. "She gave this to my unconscious brother." Olivia knew Helena's father would immediately know what it meant.

He grabbed it from Olivia and inspected it to make sure it was hers. "What kind of mission is she on?" he asked in earnestness.

"She found out Lash and Brainiac have plans to use the anti-life equation to destroy all of creation. She went to Apokolips with Maril and Rex to stop them."

Bruce threw the blankets off him and sat up. He appeared woozy when he did so and had to pause for a second. His wife appeared puzzled as she hadn't yet grasped what her daughter was up to.

"What do you think Helena is up to, Bruce?" she asked her husband.

"She has a plan for stopping them that involves sacrificing herself," he answered.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Bruce held up the engagement ring. "She gave this back to Connor. You know your daughter. You know she would only do that if she knew she was not coming back. She's too confident to think she might die on this mission. She plans on dying on this mission."

A look of fear and sadness came over her face as she realized the truth behind what they were saying. "We can't let her do that," she said as she jumped off the bed. She stumbled a little and Olivia ran over and grabbed her to help her walk. Olivia noticed the discoloration in her skin and could feel the weakness in her body. She couldn't see any obvious wounds so she didn't know what happened to the woman, but given her normal strength she knew she had to have suffered some serious injuries.

Wonder Woman took a few more steps and Olivia could feel her getting stronger. Batman jumped off the hospital bed and was fine walking under his own power. They all saw Superman walking out of the room where he had been receiving his treatment. He didn't look in the best shape either; he had to lean against the cave wall. Even at half strength he was stronger then a lot of other superheroes.

"I'm coming with you," he said. There were no objections from anyone.

Helena ran for several miles without coming across any enemy forces. She saw a gunship or fighter flying around above, but none of them took notice of her. She was beginning to think she might have an easy path when she came over a hill and was immediately met by two large tanks shaped like dogs.

She didn't want to wait for them to make the first move so she ran straight to them. They both breathed fire at her and she rolled underneath it as she pulled out her crossbow. When she righted herself, she fired two arrows with sharp blades at the neck of the closest tank. One arrow sliced through each side of the neck.

Lasers emerged from the sides of the tanks and started firing at her. She jumped up alongside one and fired more arrows that sliced through the front and back of the neck. She jumped up and grabbed the tank at the cut she put in it. The tank she was on had no weapons that could reach her and she was blocked from the view of the second tank.

She dug her feet into the cut she made and pulled the head off the tank. When she did so she revealed herself to the second tank and it fired flames at her. She held the head in front of her to shield herself and she could see the metal of the head melting along with the metal of the exposed neck. Helena jumped out from behind the head and did not receive any attention as they were not prepared for this move. She jumped on the tank's back and slid down it a little. She used her momentum to leap in the air and over to the back of the second tank. She ripped open the hatch and peaked inside at the parademons driving it. She saw them pull out their sidearms and moved back from the hatch as they fired at her. She dropped several gas pellets inside it and waited for them to be smoked out. When they each emerged from the hatch she punched them in the face and threw them off the tank.

Helena jumped into the driver's seat and looked over the controls. She was unbothered by the smoke and quickly got a handle on the controls. She activated the weapons and fired them all at the first tank. It was completely destroyed and in flames in a matter of seconds.

Helena turned the tank around and drove it up the road in the direction of Lash's palace.

Maril flew low over the desolate wasteland that was Apokolips. According to her computer, she was heading for the armory of a warlord who had been defeated by Lash almost a year ago. Most of his weapons and vehicles had been seized by Lash, but he left the hellspores behind as there was little use for them.

The land she flew over was devoid of life, but full of wrecked vehicles and broken weapons. The skeletons of dead parademons dotted the landscape as well. It appeared as though it had been a long time since anyone living had been over this land. It made Maril wonder if she would face any forces in this armory.

Maril spotted the rock formation that served as the entrance to the armory and flew to it. There was a large cave entrance and she landed in front of it. She tried to look inside, but couldn't see much. She took a few steps closer to it and was immediately surprised by two huge dogs running out to greet her. They weren't exactly friendly and she flew up to avoid them.

Their masters who were riding their backs pulled on their harnesses and made them stop. For a few minutes Maril and the dogs and their masters eyed each other. The dogs eyeing her had large guns strapped to them and their masters activated them and started firing at Maril.

Maril flew around, dodging their blasts the best she could. She fired her beams at them. She tried to take out their weapons, but couldn't get off any good shots. Some of their blasts got close to her and she had to devote her full attention to dodging the blasts they sent her way.

She noticed the number of blasts decreasing and wondered what was happening. Before she could see what was happening one of the dogs was right in front of her. It had flown up to meet her with the aid of rockets attached to its side. Maril had no time to react before it opened its mouth and close it on her.

She found herself in complete darkness. The dog was trying to use its tongue to push her back towards its throat. Maril pushed back in retaliation and was able to keep herself out of the animal's throat. She lit a fire with her hand so she could see and found herself staring straight down its throat. She fired a few blasts down it and was met with a howl of pain from the animal. When it howled it opened its mouth and Maril flew out. The dog thrashed around so much it threw off it master and with its master gone the rockets shut off and it fell back to the ground.

The dog still on the ground was watching its friend fall. It ignored its master as he tried to keep their weapons pointed at Maril. Maril saw an opening and rushed down to the ground. She landed on the dog's back and punched the rider, knocking him unconscious.

The dog looked back at her and appeared to show no sign of wanting anything to do with her. Maril flew through the cave entrance and found herself in a room full of hellspores. She detached one from the wall and flew out with it, heading for an opening to the underground tunnels of Apokolips.

Rex watched the prison guards from a perch high up on a mountain overlooking the entrance. The two of them were paying little attention to anything around them. This was exactly what Rex had expected.

Rex felt he was back on Thanagar, attacking a Gordanian prison that was holding Thanagarian resistance fighters. He had led many assaults of that type and he witnessed the lackadaisical attitudes of many a prison guard. He knew just what to do to take advantage of their inattentiveness and get the jump on them.

Rex waited until he was sure they were not looking at him and flew across to the mountain on the other side. He jumped down the mountain until he was at the lowest ledge that overlooked the canyon. He carefully peaked over the edge and saw the prison guards checking at the mountains around them. Their backs were turned to him and he dropped down to the ground. They took notice of him and moved to fire their guns at him. Before they could do so he charged at them. He grabbed the gun of the nearest guard while he kicked him to the ground. He fired at the other guard and then turned the gun on the one he kicked to the ground.

Rex turned to check out the door and saw a thick steel door in front of him. He knew he couldn't pound through it. Instead, he would have to use an old trick he learned during his time as a resistance fighter. He would have to use the energy packs from the blasters to build a small IED. He pulled out the multi-purpose tool he carried on him at all times and went to work.