CXIX
Freedom's Last Stand: Epilogue

In the gloom-filled corridors of New Genesis, Izaya the Highfather could only stand in numbed silence as the white lights of the Boom Tube closed with hopeless finality upon his first-born son - as numerous, wet tears filled the eyes of the New Gods in his darkened halls… Their Prince who had only just returned was once more lost… but Barda and Izaya had so much more. What good was this eternal life without the freedom to live it? What father would trade his son only for the certainty of slavery? What thoughts could Scott have had?...

Scott Free had saved them… Izaya knew that the Pact he had made with the ruthless Darkseid was a Gods' Pact, crafted in binding Fate for perpetuity. Scott had made Darkseid unable to assault New Genesis… but with the Anti-Life Equation now in his grasp, why would he ever need to? Scott's Pact had spared their lives, but given the monster Darkseid the destiny Izaya feared the worst of all... Their eternal lives were not worth such a price as this!

Like a knife to his heart, he felt it.

And he knew now what his son had done.

Proud Izaya knew… and was brought to his knees in the sharp grief only a parent may know. His only true son had sacrificed himself…

Then - in blinding light - the Source itself appeared before them like a sun.

All gloom, all darkness, all sorrows were immediately dispelled from the lofty halls of New Genesis, crestfallen Gods bathed and brightened in the familiar light of their bright Creator, all divine aspects renewed and their hopeful dreams restored. All doubts, all limits, all barriers were removed from Gods as the light of the Source burned through their fears, leaving steadfast faith in its wake.

Before them, Words were written across the surface of the Source for all of them to see – the last message of a true God before the brightest light faded from the hallowed halls of New Genesis once more…

"To truly love Freedom,
Is to sacrifice all for its life.
With Freedom, ALL is possible.
With Love, I am never lost.
Believe in our love, Barda."

"NNOOOOO!"

It was told that Barda's cry of pure anguish was heard even across the wide expanse of space, reaching Apokolips in the darkest corners of its derelict Armaghetto… Each God on both worlds now fully comprehended the deed that Scott Free had done… The God of Freedom had sacrificed his life for all of them, for each and every sentient being in the Universe, Gods and mortals alike so that Freedom may live. He had fulfilled the new Pact and denied Darkseid his greatest victory - at the ultimate price of his own life. The Prince of Freedom had died for them – for hope.

"This has gone on long enough, Father!" Orion held his hammer high. "The Great Tyrant will never cease his campaign to destroy all of us, yet we only wait patiently like sobbing sheep for that fateful day!"

"Do not let your step-brother's sacrifice be in vain, Orion. He has bought us Peace once more at a heavy price."

"Peace?!… While we languish in this so-called Peace, Darkseid plots and schemes against us! I will show you how not let my brother's sacrifice be in vain… To do what should have been done ages before. Scott Free's name will be extolled by my own voice as I stand over Darkseid's broken corpse…"

"And I shall bring broken rocks back for your beautiful garden, Izaya…" Passing a hard hand across her tears, a chilling gaze of terrible purpose was now set into the cold eyes of Barda Free… Immeasurable grief had given sway to her omnipotent rage. "Children will whisper that these shards are the broken remains of a dark God. No flowers will grow there, I am sure, but I will spit on them all the same."

"Daughter, you are too young to remember the Great War, the suffering, the destruction… Do not do this! We will be destroyed by Apokolips!"

"Was it you that claimed final vengeance for your lost Avia, Highfather? Was the Great War fought for such a cause?"

"At the cost of two worlds and countless Gods, it was my daughter…"

"Then let me claim mine! As you avenged the mother, by all the stars in Heaven I will avenge the son!"

"Then let us strike together, sister!"

Using his Mother Box, Orion opened a Boom Tube to Apokolips and then threw the pinging device at his father's feet.

"I will need this no longer, Highfather. Too long has it struggled to placate this warrior's savage heart… but no longer. The Dog of War shall run free this day!"

"You will jeopardize the lives of all the Gods by doing this. Your actions of angry strife shall take a worldly toll on all of us, the cost too steep!"

"Then I alone shall pay the price of Freedom," retorted confident Barda who beheld her father-in-law in cold, blue eyes of steel, "since there are none others left willing to carry its sacred banner. Farewell, Highfather."

Barda stepped through the Boom Tube with Orion following behind her as once more Izaya watched another son and a new daughter disappear to fiery void Apokolips. Two Gods could not prevail against the savagery of Apokolips; no matter how great their justification… the dread world had become more war machine than planet, factories of destruction coursing through its very core.

Once the Boom Tube closed, fair Lightray placed a gentle hand upon Izaya's troubled shoulder.

"I must join them, Highfather. The light of reason may reach them yet - but I fear the worse. I hoped this day would not come, but Orion's anger knows no bounds."

"Then go, Shining Star of New Genesis. Protect them in your light. I have lived my life to avoid this tragic day… but I will do what I am able."

"Fare thee well, Highfather."

Izaya watched as Lightray disappeared… in such a small distance between worlds, the Living Star required no Boom Tube. Izaya had work to do…

Meanwhile on Apokolips…

With a clenched jaw, Darkseid pondered on how to retrieve the Anti-Life Equation from the Sea of Oblivion… or could he recreate it? Had Scott Free shown him enough that he would finally be able to unravel its ethereal variables on his own?...

"Master Darkseid?..."

The thin, robed man with dark, craven features (who had dared to interrupt his master) was his master torturer, Desaad. The sycophant was a useful tool to be sure, but he had shown the impropriety to speak to his Lord without first being addressed. Such things were punishable by death.

"Desaad… If your very next sentence is not profoundly pleasing to my ears, I shall scatter your atoms across the surface of the five closest stars… Now Speak, dolt."

"Yes, Master… The results of the observations upon your resurrected brother have just arrived… We have correlated the data with what few records remain of your lost father, Yuga Khan to discover a very interesting similarity and..."

"Desaad, any fool with eyes can see they share the same power of absorbing life essence to increase their own divine might."

"Yes sire. But Drax's power is different. He does not absorb life essence, he instead absorbs souls… More precisely, he is able to render a soul down to its components and store the brightest elements within himself, much like the Sea of Oblivion and the Source."

"…Go on, Desaad."

"From our understanding of the Source, the God Wave has been attuned to all souls across the Universe in some measure. For higher Gods as yourself Lord Darkseid, the God Wave is synchronized completely within your mighty soul. For mortals, only a small echo – drowned out by countless non-harmonized frequencies – remains as but a small spark.

Yet, each mortal soul still carries some small trace of the Source within them… to be later carried across the Black Ocean to the Great Tree after their quick, meaningless lives have ended. Yet your brother has found a way to pluck these small shining bits from his victims upon their demise, casting off the remaining chaff to the Black Sea and has used these small shining lights to construct a new Source within him."

"How much of a Source, Desaad?"

"Our readings show it is quite significant, Sire... In his new life as Trigon, we believe he is responsible for the extinction of over a thousand worlds. With each life taken, each soul consumed, the Source within him has grown to frightening proportions. A power even greater than your own father's..."

"I will need these reports, Desaad. And you may live… for now."

"Yes Sire, you shall have them immediately!"

Desaad scurried off while the God of Tyranny turned to face the stars twinkling through the haze of acrid smoke that continually hung above his mechanized world. Beyond those stars and so long ago, his own father Yuga Khan had become yet another prisoner of the Source Wall, the final resting place of all living beings who had laboured to claim the Source for their own. The graveyard of the power-mad.

It had been Yuga Khan's overriding desire to conquer the Source, to harness its infinite power. The ego-fueled fool had been claimed by the Source instead... a piece of its Wall serving as a living testament to the folly of those who seek to command the Source.

But the crimson-skinned Drax had been clever… If ambitious Trigon could not go to the Source, then he would bring the Source to him… bit-by-bit. To Darkseid, the Universe was a thing to be ruled, trillions of lives to be enslaved to his supreme will. He would not claim the Source, he would command it's offspring… But to his four-eyed brother, the Universe was nothing more than an inky black mine, with trillions of glittering souls to be excavated and harvested, added to the glowing ball of divine power he had grown within him. He had become a living battery of the God Wave that had been broadcast across the Universe through the medium of souls.

"Like father, like son," Darkseid snickered.

The Dark Lord smiled as he realized what Desaad had given him. Just as his brother had attempted to claim the powers of the Omega Effect within the Infinity Pit for his own, only to be outplayed by the genius of Darkseid, so too would Darkseid outplay his brother even now. Like the Omega Effect, the power Trigon had harvested within him over his murderous millennia of labor could be stolen. Darkseid would claim Trigon's Source to add to his own power and then destroy his brother once more.

After all, Drax was so easily fooled…

"Master Darkseid! My apologies Sire… but we have been invaded!" Darkseid recognized this Captain as one of his internal security forces, but had no desire at this moment to recall his name.

"Invaded? By whom?"

"By your second-born, Orion and the former leader of the Furies, Big Barda Sire."

"A force of two? Against Apokolips?" Darkseid smiled. "Very well… It has been some time since we have had an adequate test of our defences, Captain. All soldiers of Apokolips should revel in this glorious opportunity to prove themselves to me… Bring my idiot son Kalibak here."

"Yes Sire!"

Within seconds, a hulking, towering brute of a God darkened Darkseid's doorway. His wild, black hair and straight, black beard formed a mane around an ugly, massive head that lay perched atop masses of strenuous muscle. The brute spoke in an idiotic growl.

"Father, you have summoned me?"

"I have indeed, Kalibak. I have matters outside of Apokolips which currently require my undivided attention. However, your traitorous brother and the grief-stricken harpy of the God who recently denied me my greatest victory have seen fit to invade our beloved Apokolips. As my heir, prove your pathetic worth to me… kill them."

"It will be done, father!"

"Oh, and Kalibak… I have recently discovered that my long, lost brother has sired a daughter. She is intelligent, beautiful and many other things which you are not. With her, I believe there may be some slim hope for this bloodline where none had existed before. Bring me the heads of Orion and Barda and she shall be yours, my son."

A wide grin of fanged teeth was revealed across the maw of Kalibak as a sadistic gleam broke forth from the eyes of this fearsome God-beast. Bowing deeply to his father, he took his leave to engage in his deadly mission…

Author's Note: Next chapter, we find out where Raven and Bruce disappeared to… and it's not a nice place… But it will change everything you thought you knew about the DC Universe. It's going to be massive!