Bonus Chapter, Part Seven:
The Ghosts of Oa
The last daughter of Azarath,
The Champion of Magic,
The mortal Goddess of Hope,
The human woman who was only moments from giving birth to what may possibly be the last child born on Earth…
Raven Wayne watched in desperation as seven blue beams of purest Hope sliced through the dark and shadowy form of Khamett - as her loyal Blue Lanterns sought to extinguish the threat which had befallen her world.
Seven of her Lanterns sought to end the menace of this shadowy Champion of the Lord of the Unliving, this dark Champion who wore both the Yellow and Black Rings of Power, a ghost who had betrayed these surviving Lanterns to Darkseid, leaving the painful scars of departed comrades etched on their heart.
Seven beams of blue passed through the undead Oan...
To no effect.
The raspy voice of Nekron sealed their doom.
"My Champion feels nothing of Hope… What hopes have the Dead, Child of Trigon?... Surely you comprehend that there is only one path left to you, little Raven… Fulfill your duty... Give me the child."
Raven defiantly eyed the God of the Black Sea with tearful violet eyes and fixed her resolve in her silencing stare. She would never relinquish the child inside her to this God. There had to be a way to stop Nekron and his Champion. But how?...
"I will not give you my son. There is always Hope, Nekron."
"Indeed, there is… And I have already given it to you… Your unborn child for the Ring... That is your only hope."
With the desperation of a mother saving her child, Raven used the gravitational power of Selene, exerting such incomprehensible force upon the black Ring of the Dead that it would have been sent hurtling across the Cosmos… if only it would have dislodged from Khamett's dark finger.
But no force on Earth could move it.
Nekron only laughed at the irony.
"This defiled Guardian has accepted your own Dark Destiny, sweet Raven… It is your discarded Fate which has affixed my Ring to his bony finger… But this is your hope… Your father's contract is older… It will supersede this prophecy which will soon destroy everything you hold dear... Your world truly has only one singular hope left… Your child."
"No! I will defeat him, Nekron."
"A fool's declaration… You will not… You, your child, and everyone in this pitiful world dies this night… This is the Revelation, the Apocalypse… The End… And it begins now…"
Raven and her Lanterns watched in stunned horror as Khamett silently raised his right hand above his head and shone a dark light into the Heavens. All hope, all heat, and all life seemed to be taken from the air around them as their breaths turned to frost and their insides were left hallow.
Shadows began to appear around them in the night…
Familiar shadows that they had once known and served alongside…
Every Green Lantern that had ever been lost to Trigon or Darkseid now hovered around them, their ghostly appendages glowing sickly yellow. Raven heard reverent whispering around her, issued from the unbelieving lips of her own staggered Lanterns, who called out the names of their fallen… Ch'p, Arisia, Droxelle, Abin, Shirea, G'nort, Arx, Wylxa…
Each of them calling out to the ghosts of former friends, mentors, colleagues…
Who could no longer hear the living.
The ghosts of the Green Lanterns Corps materialized around them in the hundreds, filling the sky with a sickly hue of fallow light. This was the Corps which Khamett had called forth to destroy them. Hundreds of yellow Rings of Power suddenly turned their golden world into ashes.
Their greatest nightmares became reality.
Her own Blue Lantern Corps were not so weak that they would be defeated by this yellow fear in an instant, but Raven knew it was only a short matter of time. There were simply too many of the undead Lanterns.
For each of her twenty surviving Blue Lanterns, each of them faced a hundred opposing Yellow Lanterns. For every nightmare they surmounted with Hope, ninety-nine new terrors awaited them. Even if they survived these projected terrors, they would slowly go insane.
Nekron knew it as well.
"Behold the Fate which has awakened upon your new world, child of Trigon… This world shall drown on its own nightmares and the Dead shall walk the earth again… Heed my words, Raven... Else this world is damned."
Raven felt the firm hand of Tomar Re upon her shoulder while battling his own private nightmares. To a Xudarian, new life reaffirmed the potential of existence, a sacred blessing that allowed their days to continue.
The beaked Lantern was willing her to resist… to find another way.
But there was too much madness around her.
In the assailed mind of Sinestro of Korugar, Raven had transformed into her crimson Goddess form to become Trigon's true daughter and destroy every Blue Lanterns she had created, slaying them in unimaginable ways while Sinestro could only stare in horror and awe…
Laira Omoto defeated her oppressive father, who became an explosion of blood and organic parts, suddenly goring her through her midsection with intestine-like projections until she welcomed death…
For violet-skinned Boodikka, a nightmare which could have been a reality seized her as a dozen undead corpses tumbled upon her fallen form, biting and clawing with grave-filled nails, piercing into her paralyzed flesh as they pulled strips of muscles from her bones until she was unable to resist…
It was too much.
The Blue Lantern Corps had fallen.
Using the combined might of Zareah and Abraxas, Raven drove a thousand horrifying visions from the minds of her battered Blue Lanterns, replacing them with her own memories of the bright and wind-swept fields of Elysium, granting them redeeming peace.
Raven understood that these ghastly Yellow Lanterns had the power to literally frighten a mind to death. That there was no limit to the horrors they could inflict upon a soul. She watched as her own Lanterns gently tumbled to the soft ground below, unconsciously dreaming of a heaven which no longer existed… The beautiful land of fallen heroes which had been destroyed by Darkseid.
As the unbearable pain of child birth struck her once more, Raven managed to focus enough of her consciousness to teleport each of her slumbering Lanterns to the quiet lawns of Wayne Manor to continue their slumber.
Poor Alfred would be in for quite a shock when he checked upon all the motion alarms coming from the grounds.
As she doubled over again in pain, silently begging her son to have patience, Raven sensed the sudden arrival of Barry Allen and Princess Diana of Themyscira appear behind her. While Barry was in motion, he was very difficult to keep track of… even for her. The Flash was wondering where all the Blue Lanterns had gone while Diana was far more consumed by the dark spectacle before her.
"Merciful Hera… What madness is this?!"
The only answer Raven managed to provide, to either of them, was a terrible scream of agony as her body attempted to expel her son through an unyielding birth canal. Dear Gods she was so very close… Her son needed to be born.
As Raven writhed in agony, Diana stumbled forwards… towards the confident God of the Underworld, the shadowed brother of Zeus... Her own blue eyes were pleading with the dark deity as she supplicated herself before the Lord of the Unliving to beg for Raven's life.
"Mighty Hades… We humbly implore your divine mercy and patience. The path of all lives shall tread upon your darkened shores at our journey's end. But I beg of you, please spare this woman and Goddess whose heart belongs to a mortal man. Allow her the life she was given."
Truly, the entity known as Nekron was known as many different things to many different cultures. To the Amazons of Themyscira, he was Hades, God of the Underworld and Keeper of the Dead. His appearance did not change what he was however…
In his most elemental form, Nekron (or Hades) was simply the Afterlife. The Great Dark Sea which nourished the Tree of Life.
"I have no desire for this woman, Amazon… I was promised a child of Trigon… and a child I shall have… If you truly wish to save this world... and the lives of all you hold dear…turn and deliver this woman's child… and then place the mewling babe into my hands."
Diana felt her stomach lurch. How could she have been so wrong. It had never been Raven that Hades had desired… it was her child! But this God's desire of one newborn babe made little sense to the Amazon.
"Great Hades… Why?... Why do you desire the life of one innocent child? Why scorn the handful of mortal years allotted by the Fates?"
"I care nothing for the child, Amazon… Only the special Fate which is allotted to this babe… Like his father, the son carries the Black Thread… So that I may freely weave my own destiny."
Diana recalled that even the Gods were subject to the weave of the Morai, the three Goddesses of Fate, with only mighty Zeus himself able to suspend their prescribed destiny… and even then only at great personal peril. The Black Thread of Fate was the authority over life and death itself, the strongest of the threads, feared even amongst the Gods…
The child of Raven and Bruce Wayne carried the Black Thread.
The Thread which would allow Hades to craft his own destiny.
For that reason alone, Hades stood among the world of mortals.
The God of the Underworld smiled as Diana began to comprehend the implications.
"Yes, Amazon… With even this small Thread, the mighty Styx shall overflow its banks and drown the sky… Even high Olympus may fall."
Diana rose to her full height and slowly drew her sword while this dark revelation shook her to her very core...
Hades had just threatened Olympus itself.
Merciful Hera save them all, he sought to kill the Gods and swallow up the Earth and Sky…
With the power of the Gods blazing in her fierce blue eyes and her sword at the ready, Diana stood defiantly against the God of the Underworld.
"I… Diana of Themyscira, daughter of proud Hippolyta who is Queen of the Amazons, pledge my life and my blade against your mad desire, Hades. As a true Amazon born, I swear by Hera herself that your path to this child must lead through me."
As her fierce words hung in the air like a verdict, Hades lazily waved a single finger, dismissing this immortal warrior's challenge as though she were nothing more than a buzzing fly.
"So be it."
One thousand yellow beams struck Diana as her mind suddenly reeled in countless nightmares, her sanity evaporating like morning dew on a tiny spider web before a glaring summer sun of sickly yellow.
A thousand terrors suddenly gripped the proud warrior as she fought to maintain her own identity, unable to move, gripped by something even more powerful than she was… Something constraining her escape.
Only to awaken far above the Earth in the arms of Clark, staring into his concerned blue eyes.
"Are you alright now, Princess?"
"… Yes. It seems you have saved me again, friend-Clark… Unless you are yet another nightmare."
"It's really me, Diana… I honestly thought I might lose my grip there, you're the strongest thing I've ever had to hold onto."
The Amazon Princess had never sought the touch of a man, but she had to admit that Clark's awesome power and the hardened feel of his muscular arms… excited her. The fact that this man could hold onto her while she struggled against her greatest fears awed the proud Amazon.
The Kryptonian had obviously rescued her from beneath the horrid yellow beams of the ghosts of the Green Lanterns Corps. She secretly wished to engage Superman in Amazonian tests of strength now, to measure her own strength against his.
The Man of Steel simply smiled as the Princess of the Amazons relaxed and accepted his muscular hold as they flew back towards the Earth. She understood that Clark belonged to the Blue-Ring-Sorceress heart-and-soul, but the Amazon began to appreciate what had attracted Barbara to this great man.
Clark's own gaze was far below.
"So what are we up against, Diana?"
"The God Hades... He seeks the child of Raven and Bruce… And he must not succeed!"
"What are those weird-looking ghosts with the Yellow Rings?"
"Fallen Green Lanterns… Hades has chosen Khamett, the Guardian who betrayed his own kind to Darkseid, as his own dark Champion. And now Khamett has resurrected every Green Lantern who has ever fallen, empowering each of them with the Yellow Ring of Fear."
There was a new look of apprehension on Clark's face as he stared miles below to a Cemetery in Gotham where a thousand Yellow Lanterns assaulted the blue dome around his wife, who in turn protected an incapacitated Raven.
"Barbara won't be able to hold them off much longer! How can we stop Hades, Diana?!"
Wonder Woman pondered for an instant. The Blade of Perseus was powerful in magic, forged by Hephaestus himself… but was it powerful enough to kill a God?
"With your speed and my sword… Perhaps…"
"Then draw your sword and take a deep breath, Princess... Because here we go!"
It had become painfully obvious to Barbara Gordon that the pair of them had teleported back to Earth in the proverbial nick of time. Raven had sent the rest of her Blue Lantern Corps away from the Cemetery in order to protect them from the ghosts of the Yellow Lantern Corps. From the sky, Barbara had watched as Diana stood against Nekron until she had been unmercifully blasted by a thousand yellow beams.
In that instant, Clark had swooped down to save Diana while Barbara had flown down and placed a dome around herself and Raven. It was all she could do now to hold Raven's hand while her adopted sister struggled in agonizing labor.
Damn it! Barbara would never forgive Nekron for waiting until Raven was giving birth to launch his cowardly attack against them.
And now there may be two unborn lives within her blue dome while a thousand yellow nightmares sought to destroy them. That was all the hope she would need. At least there was someone running distraction for them while she protected Raven.
They say a man can't outrun his fears… but Barry Allen could.
Barbara smiled as she watched Nekron flinch and lash out every so often as the Flash smacked Nekron a hundred times in a second… even if the Scarlet Speedster could do little more than annoy the dark God.
The Blue Lantern of Earth went from amused to startled when the Flash suddenly appeared within her blue dome, yelling at her to get down and throwing himself over Raven to protect her. Without a second thought, Barbara put everything she had into her shield at that very instant and got down.
The night sky turned to bright white as a blinding flash streaked across the Heavens to strike Nekron like divine retribution, its impact producing a sonic boom that leveled the graves around them which tossed wandering zombies through the air like dry leaves. Barbara felt the ground beneath her roil like the Sea as a terrible ringing in her ears made it difficult to speak.
She suddenly wondered if the government had sent an experimental Cruise missile at Nekron and eyed Barry suspiciously.
"What the Hell was that?!"
Barry averted his gaze and replied sheepishly.
"…Clark and Diana."
"Oh… Is Nekron… Did they?..."
As if in slow motion, Barbara Gordon turned in the darkness, her eyes seeking the place where the horrid figure of Nekron had been standing, wondering how anything could have survived that level of destructive power?
To find the chilling undead eyes of Nekron staring directly back into her soul.
The Lord of the Unliving stood patiently just outside the confines of her failing blue dome… Erasing any hopes she may have ever had. There was nothing more she could do. She had failed her sister and nephew...
"The time for games is over… The child, Raven."
In a miasma of blurred thoughts, Clark recalled Diana striking the God of the Afterlife in the Cemetery as they hit him at supersonic speed. The Amazonian had struck the deity directly across the throat with sufficient force to decapitate even Mount Rushmore…
And then it had all turned black.
He recalled skipping along dark waters while still holding onto Diana for what seemed an eternity until they eventually struck something solid…
The sensations in his fingertips told him it was a shoreline.
They had been skipped like a stone along an Ocean to a distant shoreline.
But to where?
He managed to slowly crack open his eyes and peer into the brightest sun he had ever seen, feeling his body recharge with the power of a God. He heard Diana moan beside him and then spied a beautiful, white-haired woman with dark skin leaning over him, her purple eyes peering at him questioningly.
"My… You're both so early… And alive."
This woman seemed familiar, yet foreign. Clark helped a groggy Diana to her feet as they both stared in wonder at this strange and striking woman who smiled divinely at them... while holding a water bucket. A sudden realization dawned upon Diana as she bowed her head reverently, breaking the awkward silence between them.
"Mighty Lachesis!"
The ashen-haired beauty grinned, as Clark realized that the overwhelming shape behind her which he had believed was a mountain was instead the smallest end of the largest tree root he could ever possibly imagine. He suddenly knew where they were...
"Lachesis is one of my names, Princess… But your friends know me better as Urd."