Hello, everyone! Welcome back! I was hoping to get this up late last week, but I had family visiting and so I didn't get time to write. I hope you enjoy! We are getting so close to the end!
I do not own DC or their characters. I am crying inside.
The flight back to Gotham began in silence as Bruce and I were both wrapped up in our own weighty thoughts. As we soared further away from Themyscira, I could almost see Bruce's anxieties and fears pile themselves back onto his shoulders until they towered over him like Wayne Tower. His expression, peaceful in my homeland, had returned to the brooding grimace it normally bore and I reached across the cabin to entangle my fingers in his. Even I had to admit that my heart felt heavier than it ever had before.
"We'll make it, Bruce. Whatever this threat is, even if it is severe enough we need to call in the League, will be something that we can handle. My mother worries, and she doesn't know our friends like I do. I don't know who this Akantha truly is or who she serves, but if we hold strong and fight as one she will not be able to defeat us." My words sounded much braver than I felt and I worked harder than I should have to keep a small smile on my face. I could tell Bruce sensed my doubt, but he didn't acknowledge it, choosing instead to grip my hand more firmly in his own.
Another half an hour passed before Bruce leaned forward and flipped a switch, activating the comms. "We should be far enough away from Themyscira's magical barriers to get in touch with Dick and Alfred." He fiddled with a few more buttons and I felt a wariness fill me as the comms remained silent except for the empty static. Bruce's frown didn't help matters and a worry line creased his brow. "Odd. They should be answering by now."
"Maybe we aren't out of range yet?" I felt the aircraft accelerate to a speed that made my stomach rise up a little closer to my esophagus. "Comms are live, there just isn't any answer. Let me tap into the GCPD scanners." The static continued for what felt like light years, my heart sinking until it felt like all my organs were jumbled. "Bzzt...pzzt... darkness...bzzt...zzz... danger...bzzt...no known survivors..." I had never seen Batman truly afraid before. I had seen him go into battle armed with nothing but a cowl, a Kevlar suit, and his fists and yet I had never seen such a look on his face.
"Dick and Barbara..." It was a question, one we couldn't answer. I suddenly felt very foolish running home, leaving Gotham mostly unprotected, just because I had lost my powers. I had known Bruce's city was in danger and yet I took him with me. My veins felt heavy-laden with ice and I could hardly breathe. This was most definitely some sort of trap and we had walked into it blindly. I swallowed, my throat constricting with unshed tears. "Fly faster, Bruce. I will keep trying to contact Dick or Alfred. I know what we heard sounds bad, but they are tough. They'll come through."
The comms stayed bitterly silent as I was unable to even tune back into the police channels. What madness had unleashed itself onto our world while we were gone. Could a lifetime truly pass in a single week? Bruce leaned forward and switched the comm link to Watchtower. "J'onn, come in. Do you copy?" Silence. "J'onn! Mr. Terrific! Any active Leaguer, do you copy?" The ember of hope in my soul started to die out right then and there. Surely whatever evil ravaged Gotham could not have taken out the whole League in the short span of time we were gone!?
Just as I was was about to lose hope completely, the comm light quietly blinked to life and Dick's haggard face filled the screen. He was covered in jagged cuts and horrid purple bruises and if I hadn't known he was fifteen, I would have sworn he was middle-aged. His wearied eyes were the worst part. They were absolutely shattered, not physically mind you, but in a way that told you he had seen the end and it was not far off.
"Holy Darkness, Batman, it is you! I didn't think...". Bruce leaned forward, letting the Batplane slip into autopilot as he turned his attention toward his ward. "Dick, what is going on?" Dick hastily wiped away what looked like a tear. "The light. It's all gone. It has been for the last three days. After you left the Commissioner called me over to Arkham. All the inmates were chanting that same phrase Akantha was saying in the Narrows. It began slowly, shadows lingering when the sun began to shine, lights burning out, neon signs bursting on businesses. Then the civilians began to change, spreading from the Narrows outward. She feeds on it, you know, swallowing it whole until only her realm remains." Robin's voice became feeble and he really didn't sound like himself when the words spilled from his mouth. "Darkness will fall..." He coughed violent and shutters suddenly racked his body, but when his gaze met ours he once again sounded like himself, though he picked up his story as if nothing had happened. "Kid Flash joined me at the asylum and it was a downhill spiral from there. I-I lost them all to the darkness, Bruce. Zatanna, KF, Superboy, and Aqualad...She stole them all away. I thought I could hold it together until you got back, but the darkness didn't stop at Gotham. Reports started to come across about blackouts in most of the major cities, starting with the ones with the highest rates of crime and destitution such as Star City until it even started to infringe in places like Central City and Metropolis. The League were called in and they even put out an SOS to any Lanterns in the region but for some reason the Lanterns suffered the worst. We thought for sure the Lantern's Light would make a difference.
"I brought Barbara down to the Batcave. The Commissioner dropped off the grid soon after I left Arkham and I was afraid to leave Barbara in Gotham General with everything shutting down. The darkness has fully invaded the mansion but, oddly enough, the Batcave still has emergency power."
Bruce took over the controls again, once again easing the Batplane toward Gotham at full speed. "How is Barbara? And is Alfred alright?" Robin shook off yet another shudder, though this one seemed to be almost a seizure. "She is hanging in there. Her vital signs are almost back to normal and she woke up not too long after you and Diana left for Themyscira, but she has no feeling below the waist. Her doctors say she will never walk again." Even without looking at the Batman, I could almost hear him thinking about getting the world's best doctors, the League, and anyone in between to fix the girl, followed quickly by how he would seek vengeance on the Joker for his act of depravity. "We are ten minutes out, Dick, prepare the runway."
I sat up straight in my copilot chair, surprised at Bruce's words. As he had said, the nav computer read that we were in sight of Gotham, but as Robin had warned us, the city was completely black. It should have been daylight and yet nothing but pitch black darkness extended before us. Dick vanished from the screen and Bruce hastily turned on the plane's exterior lights but it was in vain as they were engulfed instantaneously by the shadows. Like living entities, they swirled around us, whispering incoherently and shifting into faces that would haunt the nightmares of the Furies in Hades' inner circle of the Underworld. "Hera, help us..." I didn't even have it in me to hold a grudge against my goddesses. Even in the storied tales of the Ancient World that my mother had told me as a child, I had never imagined something as dreadful as what lay before me. The ice that had formed in my veins felt as though it was spreading to my limbs, keeping me anchored to my dread.
I was powerless...my tiara was a tarnished pile of brass and my lasso a useless bit of rope. Is this the fate my goddesses had abandoned me to? Was their previous punishment not enough? Were they going to allow me to go to my fate as a lamb to the slaughter. I can tell you this, if you do not face her now the entire world, even Themyscira, will be destroyed. That small ember of hope in my heart flared, igniting into a small flicker of a flame. My mother hadn't told me that we were doomed. She hadn't told Bruce to face the dark foe without me or that I would have to sit out of the fight. Even powerless, my mother believed that I could stand tall against an enemy that caused even the Queen of the Amazons to tremble. Bruce had once told me of words spoken by one of the American presidents, 'Courage is not the absence of fear, but the assessment that something else is more important'. Gotham, Bruce, Dick, and all the other friends I had made in my time in Man's World were definitely more important. Love was more important. I squeezed Bruce's hand one more time, the hand still tightly ensnared in my own, and then moved to undo my safety harness.
The ice in my limbs felt like lead as I struggled to rise, reminding me of that first morning when I awoke without my powers, but I had overcome so much since that moment. I would not let a single moment of weakness affect my future. I stood tall and placed a hand on the hilt of the katana cinched to my belt. "Goddesses of Themyscira, though you deny me my heritage and my place amongst my sisters, I stand before you in strength and confidence. You have callously stripped me bare of any gift that spoke of your blessing upon me. You may have given up your hope in this world, but I do not yield! I have fought the white Martians and have withstood Thanagarian oppression! I have braved storms of both nature and magic, felt the sting of betrayal and the healing, redemptive power of love. I stand before you with my final answer. I, Diana of Themyscira, Princess of the Amazons and champion of women, take my place in the world of man. I choose to defend the innocent and unswervingly bring the guilty to justice. I choose to live for love and if that causes me to forfeit my life so be it. I renounce my claim on the oasis of my homeland and choose to instead dwell in the grim darkness of the city below my feet. I, here before you, oh powerful goddesses, choose love for this man at my side over the jealousy of goddesses stuck in the past. Heed my words as I now choose hope and love, may they always prevail."
I did not truly know where the words came from, they spiraled from me as if they were not truly my own, but as I spoke them I knew that they were the truest I had ever spoken. A warm rush of air brushed through the cabin, followed swiftly by the scent of roses. Aphrodite? May hope and love prevail. The scent grew stronger and suddenly, there the goddess knelt before me. As had Robin, the goddess appeared weary. Her long auburn hair was tangled and looked as if someone had taken a shear to some of the strands. Her alabaster skin was covered in grime and ichor trickled onto her sapphire toga from a gash on her side. Tears streamed down her face and when her eyes met mine they were filled with shame.
"Diana, sweet child, honor be to thy lineage, for thou hast weakened the spell placed onto our hearts with your words of truth. The darkness has spread further than thou knows. Not even the gods have been spared, for this magic is older even than I. Until this evil is defeated, we are unable to restore thee to thy glory, but stand ye firm. For thy hope has become a catalyst for victory. I pray thee, do not lose faith in us or thy self. This tribulation that was forced upon thee was not truly our wish. Fear thee not, thou hast served us faithfully and valiantly all the days of thy life. I cannot give name to the evil that awaits thee, Zeus has forbidden her name be spoken by any of the Olympians, but to Pandora look for the answers thou seek. As thee have so aptly spoken, may hope and love prevail."
With her words she faded from sight, though suddenly her strength looked to have returned, if even slightly. Look to Pandora? Hmm... "Diana?" I turned to Bruce only to see an awestruck look on his face. I would have assumed it was Aphrodite's bedazzling presence if it hadn't been aimed at me. "What are you looking at?" I looked down to see myself endowed with a shimmering light that seemed to exude from my core. As the light around me grew brighter the shadows beating at the plane's front window retreated with a ghastly shriek of pain until we could vaguely see Bruce's mansion in the distance.
The darkness screamed in unholy rage as it felt the light penetrate its minions. The burning sensation left a vile taste in her mouth. For millennia she had waited, preparing herself for the proper time when her plan could be put in motion and she would not let a mere shade of a warrior defeat her. The putrid Amazonian maggot may be able to perform an impotent show of strength, therefore earning her a small worthless victory, but the darkness had gathered herself an army. And she was ready for war...
Hope you all enjoyed. I will try to get out another chapter soon. I actually think that this may be a record for me on how many chapters I have written in a timely fashion. Any ideas on why the Lanterns would have the hardest time facing The Darkness? Thank you all for reading and don't forget to comment!
