Bonus Chapter, Part Four:
The Ghosts of Their Past
Nervously drumming his fingers in a maternity hospital room only ten blocks away from the battle, an exhausted Bruce Wayne quickly placed a private, emergency call to his adopted son, Richard Grayson...
The Batman.
Bruce had heard the multiple explosions coming from the direction of the cemetery mere seconds ago, causing him to quickly peer out the window, where he found every single vehicle traveling recklessly in the same direction… speeding away from the cemetery, as if in fear of their mortal lives.
Something wasn't right.
His call was answered by his ward who was engaged in the fight of his young life.
And things were not going well.
"Bruce! We need help! I've already put a dozen exploding Batarangs into this thing and haven't even scratched it yet!"
"Dick, calm down… What's going on?! What thing?!"
"Trigon! Or an undead version of him anyways… I'll give you visuals. We're dodging as best as we can but that's all. Clark said the guy in the middle of the graveyard is called Nekron… He's apparently the cause of all this… We're going to have to retreat!"
The word 'Trigon' hung in the air like a spoken curse, causing every muscle in Raven's weary body to tense… The second name however… The name of 'Nekron' caused a cold horror in her heart, as she vividly remembered the terrible scene that had been shown to her by Zareah upon Maltus like a nightmare…
Nekron, the God of Oblivion and Keeper of the Dead.
The Lord of the Unliving had come to Gotham.
For her.
Bruce watched as Richard dodged and weaved around crimson eye beams which disintegrated everything they touched. Like a stinging insect, Dick was trying to divert the attention of the two hundred-foot-tall shadowy goliath from squashing the rest of the team below. He caught a flash of Barbara pulling an unconscious Clark to safety.
Bruce took his wife's hand and gently squeezed before replying to their adopted son.
"Dick… When I give the word, you need to get everyone out of there as fast as possible. Put as much distance between yourselves and Nekron as you can… I'm bringing in the heavy artillery."
"The sooner the better… Air strike?"
"No, something much, much worse…"
With an ominous air of finality, Bruce snapped the WI-screen closed while Raven stared up at her silent husband through anxious, tear-filled eyes. The image of her pleading eyes and long dark hair matted with the perspiration of her labor would haunt him.
"Bruce… you can't. It could tear apart reality… Let me..."
Bruce Wayne reached across to place his other hand tenderly on his wife's flushed cheek, sliding his thumb below her violet eye to wipe away those frightened tears. There was nothing he wouldn't do to save this beautiful woman, his child, or Richard, no matter the cost.
"We don't have a choice, Raven... If you transform into the Champion right now, what would that do to the baby? What would it do to you?... I would tear apart reality before I would ever let something like Nekron take you…"
"I will never leave you, my love… but there are terrible consequences to your plan."
Before staring deeply into his wife's beseeching darkened eyes, Bruce solemnly opened another WI-screen to the Watchtower and stepped backwards.
"As long as I have you, I can bear those consequences… Barry, take me up."
Raven's desperate, heartbreaking scream at the fading image of her husband became the beginning of her next contraction… which she endured alone, abandoned. Bruce was gone, teleported to the Watchtower.
Bruce had hated to leave Raven like that, but what he needed right now was on the Watchtower... The weapon he had made that was capable of stopping Nekron.
Months ago, during the League's tests on Barry Allen's maximum speed, Bruce had discovered something astounding… That Barry could actually travel faster than light. It was a strange conversation when Bruce had asked Barry if he was ready to begin the speed trials and Barry had told him that he had completed them… four seconds ago.
It didn't take a genius like Fritz Hollmann to figure out that with that kind of speed, Barry could power a Tachyon Cannon. No, it didn't require Fritz Hollmann, but Bruce had requested that the old physicist be involved anyway. If anyone understood faster-than-light quantum physics, it was Fritz.
Fritz had correctly surmised that it was impossible for a human body to metabolically create the incredible energy necessary to attain such speeds, and soon discovered that Barry's unique energy – something the old German had dubbed 'The Speed Force' - actually came from an alternate dimension and flowed into his body.
Herr Hollmann also confirmed that Barry's amazing velocity could not only be utilized to produce a Tachyon beam, it could also create a rift in dimensional barriers! When something transcended the speed of light, a whole new realm of possibilities opened beyond them besides just alternate timelines.
To Barry's chagrin, Fritz had dubbed this phenomenon the 'Flashpoint Paradox'. The old physicist explicitly warned the young man that he had best be extremely careful about just how fast traveled, or else Mr. Allen may find himself in an entirely different reality from when he started.
If he ran fast enough, Barry could not only travel backwards in time, he could travel through parallel dimensions.
With the acquired data, it had taken Bruce a matter of months to construct a weapon that could harness the Speed Force to create a Flashpoint Paradox… Which he christened the Paradox Cannon. When powered by Barry Allen, the League's Paradox Cannon could tear open a seam in the fabric of reality and force its target into a new reality.
Having faced both Trigon and Darkseid, Bruce knew that these profound risks needed to be taken when there were no other options. However, as the Paradox Cannon was an ultimate weapon with vast unknown destructive potential, it had not been something that Bruce was willing to fire unless it was absolutely necessary.
Like now.
He found Barry Allen waiting for him, only for the man known as the Flash to witness the new arrival suddenly double over in severe abdominal pain. After a moment, Bruce regained his composure enough to inform the fastest man alive that they would have to use the Paradox Cannon on Nekron.
The Flash scratched his head apprehensively.
"Bruce, are you sure?... I mean, we don't even know what will happen when we fire this thing. Everything's just theory at this point."
"Barry, I can't force you to… But Raven… and probably the rest of the League… will be lost unless we do use it. There's no other way to save them."
"Should I go down there? Maybe I can help…"
"And do what? We're fighting ghosts, an undead Trigon and the God of the Unliving… and we're losing. This is the only way to stop Nekron. I'll make it as concentrated a shot as I can, Barry… My wife and unborn child are down there too."
Barry placed a sympathetic hand on Bruce's shoulder. In truth, Barry had also been watching the action below on the monitors and Bruce wasn't exaggerating. The League was in serious jeopardy. Even if he teleported down to Earth as the Flash, he knew he could only pull his teammates to safety…
But then what?
Would they simply watch as the undead continued unchallenged into Gotham?
No.
"Alright, Bruce. I'm counting on you to make this shot count."
"Thank you, Barry."
It took Barry practically no time at all to put on the special energy-transference suit that Bruce had designed, complete with high capacity cables that fed the Speed Force Battery he had designed with Fritz Hollmann that would power the Paradox Cannon.
As Barry stepped onto the eighty-eight-foot long super-magnetically levitated treadmill that would allow him to reach the awesome speeds required for the Paradox Cannon, the scarlet speedster once again glanced over at Bruce who was programming the trajectory.
"Last chance… Are you sure, Bruce?"
Bruce Wayne took a deep breath.
"I'm sure, Barry. If anything should go wrong, you'll only have a brief warning before I have to hit the abort switch…"
"Don't worry about me… worry about what happens when this thing fires."
"I'm more worried about what happens if it doesn't."
"Alright then. We're resolved. Wish me luck."
"Good luck and Godspeed, Barry."
Bruce sealed the titanium door to the energy encapsulation chamber as Barry began his run, becoming nothing more than a crimson blur as bolts of otherworldly energy crackled in the air around him...
Now alone in her room, shedding tears of pain and frustration, Raven Wayne struggled to get back on her feet after her last contraction just as the attending Doctor entered the room. He rushed over to her side as she grabbed the bed for support.
"Here Mrs. Wayne, please let me give you a hand. Let's make sure we don't disturb the sensors… You're looking a little unsteady. I wouldn't be surprised if you're close to eight centimeters by now…"
As she stood up, Raven suddenly felt a 'pop' between her legs as warm fluid gushed down the sides of her quivering legs like Niagara Falls, leaving a strange puddle at her feet. The Doctor followed her vision downwards and also spotted the viscous fluid beneath her, grinning.
"No worries, Mrs. Wayne. Your water just broke. Completely natural. The baby is very close."
Raven looked at her Doctor with firm, angry eyes as the room around them became darker and colder.
"I have to stop my husband."
"We'll page him for you, Mrs. Wayne. I'm sure he'll be right back…"
"No… He won't. Please stand back, Doctor."
There was something unnatural in her voice now.
From her medical files, the Doctor was aware of exactly who this person was and what she had done. Besides being the former First Lady, he knew that she was one of the five visions who had appeared against the western horizon last October when the world had seemed on the edge of collapse.
She was Raven Wayne of the Justice League.
The Doctor stood back in alarm as Raven Wayne raised her head, defiantly pulling off all the various sensors attached to her, and then screamed to the heavens above…
"SHAZAM!"