A/N: And here we are with yet another Chapter of this story! I apologize for this getting pushed back, as personal life got in the way... again! But now, I'm gonna mostly focus on getting this story wrapped up, especially so that I could finally move forward with future stories in this series as well as one-shot Chapters in my fluff fic.
So for this Chapter, I'm gonna mesh Chapters 7 and 8 of "Dark Legends 2" into one, meaning it'll be the big battle with Felix Faust from the "Justice League Dark" film, a bit from "The Sandman" series, and some big time revelations. So brace yourselves, this is gonna be a doozy!
Millhouse
At the Millhouse, Nora was seen in one of Constantine's bedrooms, watching over the sleeping Ritchie Simpson. She then saw that Ritchie was finally waking up, fluttering his eyes, and then seeing the perfect opportunity, clapped her hands together.
"Replicare Anulum…"
Nora then conjured up the same replica of the magic ring that Constantine had, and then made it float above Simpson's head for him to see.
Suddenly, Darhk clutched her head, as if she was in pain.
"No, stop it." Nora murmured. "Leave me alone."
Meanwhile, Alice slept in Gibb's bedroom, feeling like she needed to take a nap while Constantine, Lucifer, Gibb, and that Dream guy drove to New York (and who wouldn't want to after all the current madness, am I right?). But, as she slept, she then started to turn rapidly, almost as if she was having a nightmare…
In Alice's mind, she saw an elderly woman talking to an elderly man at a psychiatric hospital room, before giving him some green amulet, and then collapsing.
Next, Alice saw that same elderly man using a ruby of sorts absorbing another but less elderly man into it.
Then, she saw the elder man in a café just sitting in his chair as dozens of people around him started killing each other.
And finally, Alice saw herself against the elderly man as he had her in a chokehold.
Pierce then woke up with a small gasp and saw William (unhooded, because why not?) and Trixie watching over her.
"Hey, Al." William said. "Had one of those dreams again?"
"Yeah." Alice nodded. "It was weird though. Because they felt like… they could happen at any moment. Now I get how Buffy feels."
"Well, you mind telling us what they are?" Trixie asked.
"Well, basically-"
"Hey."
The teens then turned to see Batman standing in the doorway.
"Constantine has returned." Bruce said.
"About time." Alice muttered, before getting out of bed.
With that, Alice, Batman, Blue Arrow, and Trixie went outside of the Millhouse and saw Constantine, Lucifer, Gibb, and Dream walking towards them from Lucifer's car. And let's just say they feel a little bit peeved with John.
"You know you could've used a portal, right?" Alice asked.
"Or even just teleported?" Trixie added.
"I asked him the exact same thing the moment we hit the road." Gibb said.
"It drains my magic, luv." Constantine explained. "That, and I prefer a drive any day of the week."
"You still never told us what you're doing here." Batman told Dream. "What are you?"
"I am Lord Morpheus, Dream of the Endless." Dream explained. "One of the ideas of humanity. The mortals of the waking world, I am the King of their Dreams… and Nightmares."
"But how come you here now, then?" William asked. "How do you fit into all of this?"
"Long story short: he was imprisoned by a cult in the 1910s, people's dreams got fucked up including my whole town, his kingdom fell apart, and here we are now with the plague, and we're trying to get his artifacts back to fix it." Gibb gave the rundown.
"Was that particularly necessary, Gabrielle?" Morpheus inquired.
"Sorry, I just didn't want to bore them with the details." Gibb said.
"Wait, you said earlier that one of your possessions was the dreamstone." Alice spoke up. "And I did once hear that it appeared out of thin air… in the hands of a cult in the 1910s. So… all of that wasn't a coincidence, was it?"
Dream then took a closer look at Pierce… particularly in her face (making her confused, of course). There was something… familiar about this particular mortal… And then, he looked back at Constantine, who was busy smoking a cigarette… and then turned back to Alice.
Could Alice and Constantine be…? No, was Alice possibly… Constantine's…
But just as Dream thought this, the Dark Legends then saw Nora come into the scene, and stare directly at Constantine.
"Ritchie's awake."
At that moment, the group rushed back to the Millhouse and into Constantine's bedroom, where Ritchie was laying and staring at the replicated ring, and Constantine immediately went to his side.
"Ritchie, who was it?" Constantine asked. "Who did this to you?"
"Faust…" Ritchie whispered.
A chill went down into both Constantine's and Alice's spines after he said that. No… He wasn't serious, was he?
"Felix Faust…" Constantine gasped. "You sure?"
Ritchie nodded yes.
"That can't be possible." Alice muttered. "He's been dead for 5 years."
"How do you know that?" Gibb inquired.
"I was there too, remember?" Alice reminded her. "I just didn't reveal myself until Aunt Nica was in danger."
Trixie then gave Nora a look after Alice said that.
"That wasn't actually me, you know. At least, the me of today's world." Nora retorted.
"Right…" Trixie said.
"Not necessarily." Lucifer spoke up. "After Morpheus won the Oldest Game, Cain warned me that Faust had escaped from Hell."
"But, even if that's true, shouldn't he still be alive anyway if he never met my father or my former future self?" Nora asked.
"I don't think that's how that works, Nora." William injected.
"Arrow Boy Wonder is right." Constantine agreed. "Chas killed him back in 2015, so either way, the damned timeline would've had him dead."
"Well, what matters now is that we find Faust as soon as possible." Batman announced. "Maybe he had access to the dreamstone, and is the key reason for the plague happening."
"But we have the dreamstone." Lucifer pointed out.
"Then maybe he could've used it from a long range." Blue Arrow replied, putting his hood back on. "So we'd better start looking for him."
"But how can we do that, Will?" Nora asked. "Seeing that Constantine had technically killed him twice now, he would take precautions against locator spells."
Damn, she's right. That would seem like something any magic user would do if they were brought back to life after being killed twice, so Faust definitely wouldn't want to be found by magic. So… what exactly were the Dark Legends going to do now?
Wait a minute… who said you'd have to solely use magic to track anyone down? Surely, there were a million other options for that type of thing… one of which might be right under their nose…
At that moment, Alice turned to Dream as an idea possibly popped in her head.
"There might be another way…" Alice muttered, walking up towards the Sandman. "If you truly are the King of Dreams, could you possibly locate someone based on what they're dreaming?"
"Yes…" Morpheus said. "But first, Constantine shall return to me my ruby."
"Sorry mate," Constantine nonchalantly said. "Ain't gonna happen unless you help us."
Gibb then punched John in the arm.
"Ow." John winced.
Dream then glared at the exorcist, but then he gave in and closed his eyes. The Dark Legends then stared very anxiously at Dream as he focused on Felix's location, hoping that he would find something.
In Dream's mind, he saw what appeared to be a balding elderly man in a blue and gold robe meditating while reading a spell book. Could this be this Felix Faust person?
Yes. It must be.
Dream then opened his eyes, to the relief of the Dark Legends.
"I know where Faust is. Beware, that place is heavily warded."
Just then, a large portal was created in the middle of the room, which led the way to Faust's hiding place.
"Thanks mate." Constantine grinned, taking out a cigarette. "And relax your knickers, I'll give you your ruby back soon enough. In the meantime, stay here with Ritchie. Keep him alive and safe. Understand?"
"Understood." Dream nodded, knowing that he would not want a repeat of what happened at Rachel Moodie's place.
With that, Constantine, Alice, Batman, Lucifer, Gibb, Nora, Blue Arrow, and Trixie hopped through the portal, with it closing behind them, leaving Dream all alone with Ritchie at the Millhouse.
The Dark Legends had arrived just outside of Felix Faust's lair, determined to take the evil wizard down.
"So… Who wants a little knock?" Constantine slyly asked the rest of the group. Blue Arrow smirked after he asked that question, as he then readied one of his explosive arrows and aimed it at the lair.
Now Playing: "Faust Fights Etrigan" from Justice League Dark OST
Felix Faust was seen meditating while reading his spell book as a magic shield formed around him. You see, just a few days ago, he had some help in escaping the depths of Hell. So now, he felt like he needed to hide himself from the outer world, that way, he doesn't risk the likelihood of going back.
Suddenly, Felix heard a booming sound, as his shield then faded away. He then looked up and saw that the ceiling was blown off. Oh dear… were there intruders afoot?
"Who dares?!" Faust shouted in his gravelly voice.
Just then, Lucifer Morningstar flew down to the scene with his Angel wings. But just as Lucifer was about to strike, Faust then conjured up a magical blast and pushed Morningstar back up against a wall.
"As if I would stoop to brawling with a demon, even if it's the Devil Himself." Faust taunted. "Fight others of your filthy kind!"
At that moment, three portals were formed. Out the portals came 3 monstrous demons with horns that started roaring. Just then, Lucifer had finally gotten his composure together and started walking up towards the demons.
"We may be from Hell, but we are not the same! I am a former Angel!"
Lucifer then morphed into his Devil face and charged the demons. As the former ruler of Hell duked it out with the demons, Alice and her fellow Dark Titans entered the building. While Faust was distracted, Pierce made a quick run for it and then proceeded to make a huge leap up in the air and then kicked the wizard down to the ground!
And as Faust went down, Blue Arrow, Nora, and Trixie then grabbed his book. But unfortunately, Felix quickly got back up and used his telekinesis to grab the book back. Smirking, Faust then conjured up electricity out of his hands and sent the teenagers flying backwards!
While the kids got back up, Constantine, Gibb, and Batman arrived at the scene, with the Dark Knight readying his grapple gun.
"Not everything can be solved with your peashooter." Constantine scoffed.
"I mean, it should be worth a try, right?" Gibb shrugged.
"You guys think Lucifer might need our assistance?" Trixie asked, pointing towards Lucifer struggling against the three monstrous demons.
"Yeah, we should probably go over there." Alice replied, with Blue Arrow and Nora nodding in agreement.
The teens then started running towards Lucifer, but then Nora felt a holographic snake wrap up around her. She then heard Faust chuckling.
"Ah, ah, ah." Felix mocked. "I wouldn't go there if I were you, demon girl."
The holographic snake continued to choke Darhk for a good 15 seconds, but then two fireballs were thrown at Felix, catching him off guard, and breaking Nora free. Faust then looked down and saw that it was Constantine and Gibb that threw the fireballs at him.
"Hey, Faust. Remember us?" Gibb taunted.
Constantine and Gibb continued to throw fireballs at Faust, alongside Batman throwing his batarangs. All the while, Alice, Blue Arrow, and Trixie ran to Lucifer's side and started assisting him with the three demons.
Alice engaged one of the demons with hand-to-hand combat, and then started blocking the demon's hits with her enhanced agility and reflexes, before proceeding to do a backflip kick to the demon's chin! When the demon was momentarily staggered, Pierce then grabbed its arm and threw it across the room towards Lucifer, and the Devil then sliced its head off with his demon dagger!
Blue Arrow and Trixie fought side-by-side against the other two demons, with Clayton trying his best to shoot one of them with his arrows, and Espinoza trying to strike the other with her dagger. But the demons were too fast for them, even for their massive size. One of the demons then grabbed both Will and Trixie in an armhold and started to choke them to near death.
But luckily, Lucifer (still with his Devil face) flew from behind the demon and grabbed its head into a chokehold, allowing Trixie and Blue Arrow to break free. Once they escaped, Morningstar then snapped the demon's neck, killing it.
Back with Constantine, Gibb, and Batman, Faust struggled to keep blocking their fireballs and batarangs, and then decided to start ducking, and then throw an electric beam of his own. Constantine and Gibb then simultaneously formed two fireballs in their hands, and threw their arms forward with the orbs rushing towards Faust's beam… and the orbs overpowered it and stunned the wizard!
"Is that it?" John asked, clearing the smoke from the beam struggle. "Well, it's off to the old magicians' home for you, mate. Pudding night is Thursday."
"And it's in Hell where you belong." Gibb added.
But then, as Faust regained his composure, he simply snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a flood of water came bursting out of the floor towards Constantine and Smith, and then formed into a large cube of ice, trapping them inside.
"Try that fireball again, Constantine." Felix quipped. "I'd love to see you cook your own goose. Let me-"
Unfortunately for him, Faust didn't know when to shut up as Batman then shot his grapnel up at his spellbook and threw at the cube. Constantine and Gibb looked at each other with knowing glances, and then both held tightly onto the rope. At that moment, the cube broke apart, causing Constantine and Gibb to fall, but thankfully Batman then shot another grapple at the ceiling and allowed the two to swing their way back to the ground.
Constantine and Gibb then coughed up some water and turned towards Bruce.
"I take it back. That thing is useful." Constantine said.
"You tend to be so pessimistic on the little stuff, you know that?" Gibb quipped.
"Shut up." Constantine muttered, while Gibb snickered.
Meanwhile, Nora ran as fast as she could to get away from the carnage, and then hid behind one of Faust's bookshelves. But then, just like earlier at the Millhouse, she suddenly clutched her forehead.
"Fuck you." Nora strained. "I'm never giving you what you want. Ever again!"
Just then, something that looked like a giant arm came out of the ground and tightly grabbed Darhk, before thrusting her towards Faust. With an evil smirk, Felix then balled his fist up and started crushing Nora to near death.
Lucifer, after having knocked out the last of the monstrous demons with just a single punch, then turned around to see Faust crushing Nora.
"Oh God, Nora!" Alice gasped.
"We have to do something to get her free." Trixie insisted.
"I don't worry, I got this." William said, stepping forward.
Blue Arrow then aimed another one of his explosive arrows and then shot it at the giant arm.
BOOM!
The giant arm then exploded, causing Nora to fall towards the ground. Faust then formed a bunch of projections and prepared to blast at Darhk.
"Nora!" Blue Arrow yelled, as he, the other Dark Titans, and Lucifer ran their way to hopefully catch Nora.
But it was too late. The lightning had already struck Nora… and exploded.
"NO!" Alice and Blue Arrow both yelled as all four of them were pushed back by the explosion.
As the four then got back up, Alice, Trixie, and Blue Arrow formed sad expressions on their faces as they saw the dust starting to clear… and Nora so far was nowhere to be seen. It pained them that possibly the most valuable member of their team (other than possibly Alice) was more than likely…
Wait… Hold on a second…
Now Playing: "Monster" by Skillet
The smoke had cleared out completely, and in its place was… Nora! But… something looked… off about her.
Darhk then opened her eyes… and they were blood red. And then black veins spiderwebbed across her face. She then formed what looked like a sinister grin…
Oh no… This didn't look good…
"Felix Faust… a pleasure to meet you…" Nora said in a… demonic masculine voice.
But Constantine, Lucifer, and Gibb had all recognized that voice anywhere… but… it couldn't be… it just couldn't…
"Mallus…" Constantine gasped.
"Oh Dad…" Lucifer murmured. "How is that possible? Damien Darhk had absorbed his energy."
"He did… most of it." Alice revealed. "But there was still a very small percentage of Mallus within her that Damien completely missed in the absorbing process, and the reason we hadn't found that out sooner was because it was too weak to amount to anything, so it lay dormant inside of Nora."
"But then, if Nora was given the right amount of stress, it would've been enough to re-awaken the full demon within her." William continued.
"So when exactly did that happen?" Gibb asked. The Dark Titans then turned to her with a grim expression, with Trixie saying:
"Sometime last year."
Nora- or rather, Mallus then let out a very powerful scream, and a massive red aura of energy started to emit around her body, causing the entire room to shake! A tons of rubble and spellbooks began to circle around Nora, and red electricity sparked around the red aura.
"Nora, stop! Don't let Mallus take control!" Alice shouted. But Nora/Mallus continued screaming her lungs out and the red aura grew even bigger, and the whole room started to damn near fall apart!
"I will kill you, you brat!" Faust declared, striking at Darhk once again with his projections. But then, Nora/Mallus casually blocked the blast away from her as if they were just dust.
"Is that truly what one of the most powerful sorcerers can do?" Mallus gloated with a smirk on Nora's face. "Allow me to show you what real magic is like!"
Nora/Mallus then made a huge jump towards Felix and punched him in the face, and then as he went flying, Nora then quickly ran from behind him and raised her palm, proceeding to air push him even further! Batman then ran from behind Nora in an attempt to lock her in an armhold to hopefully calm her down, but unfortunately, it was proven moot as Nora/Mallus quickly broke free and hit the Dark Knight with her elbow, sending him flying.
Alice then got in front of Darhk and as much as it pained her to fight her best friend, she engaged Nora/Mallus in hand-to-hand combat. But sadly, even though Pierce's strength was impressive and she could definitely hold her own against the Mallus-possesed Nora, the demon was still stronger than her at the end of the day.
Nora/Mallus then smirked at Alice.
"Quite remarkable, Alice Pierce… You've definitely grown since the last time we fought. But now, you'll just stay out of my way!"
Nora/Mallus then slapped Alice away from her and sent her to the ground. With that, Nora/Mallus then walked her way towards the stumbling Faust. But while she was walking, Trixie ran up to her for a tackle, once again hoping that it would knock some sense to Darhk. But Mallus already saw her coming, and then backhanded Espinoza away before she did anything.
"Oh, why is it always me?" Trixie moaned, as she laid on the ground.
Darhk then continued walking towards Faust, and as the wizard started to find his balance, she had finally reached him and stood up mighty tall above him. With an evil smirk, Nora/Mallus grabbed Felix by the throat, choking him to near death as she drained some of his life essence. And then, Nora formed a dark energy blast in her other palm and aimed at Faust, preparing to kill him… but then…
Chop!
Nora felt a sharp pain on her neck, with her eyes fading back into their normal blue color, and the black veins disappearing. She then let go of Faust, and started to lose balance, but luckily, Blue Arrow was able to catch her from falling.
"Nora, are you okay?" Blue Arrow asked. Nora nodded, and then started crying on Clayton's shoulder.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Nora sobbed.
"Hey. you didn't do anything wrong… but it's all over now." Will said soothingly, patting her on the back.
John and Gibb saw that Lucifer (still with his Devil face) was the one who chopped Nora on the neck and brought her back to her consciousness.
"Well, it seems the ol' karate chop always does that trick." Lucifer mused.
"Thanks a bunch, Luce." Gibb said. Morningstar nodded, and the Devil then morphed back into his human face.
Batman (having gotten back up) walked into the scene with Faust beside him, handcuffed to the back.
"Why are you here? I haven't done anything to warrant this kind of response!" Faust exclaimed.
Constantine and Gibb looked at each other briefly before John clapped his hands.
"Replicare Anulum…"
Constantine conjured up the replicated ring once again.
"This yours?" Constantine asked, showing the ring to the wizard.
"I don't know. Maybe." Felix shrugged. "I have several rings of varying designs and properties."
"Then what about the dreamstone?" Batman asked. "Causing people all around the world to see demons and nightmares?"
"The dream-what?" Felix asked, sounding confused. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"
"Why were you trying to kill us?" Alice asked.
"Aren't you the person who created that tornado a couple of days ago?" Blue Arrow added.
"Or sent those zombies to attack us in Star City PD yesterday?" Nora continued.
"For the last time, I don't know what you're talking about!" Faust insisted.
Lucifer rolled his eyes, annoyed at this point, and then walked up to the wizard and stared at him in the eyes.
"Then tell me… what is it that you want? What do you desire?"
Faust stared into the Devil's eyes for a good 2 seconds until he finally spoke:
"I want… to be left alone."
Lucifer formed a confused expression on his face. What was this? Felix Faust of all people… innocent?
"Ever since a mysterious force brought me back from Hell, all I ever wanted was to be left alone. I don't know who it was that brought me back, but I swear to you, I haven't done anything to garner your attention!"
"Is it just me, or did this guy turn into a big softie?" Gibb whispered at John.
Lucifer continued to stare at Felix… before he sighed, letting the magician go. Morningstar then turned to the rest of the Dark Legends.
"It isn't him. He's not the one behind the supernatural plague" Lucifer informed. "He summoned our old poker buddies in their more massive forms."
"Well, we're back to square one, then!" Trixie groaned.
"Unfortunately, no."
The other Dark Legends turned to Batman after he said that.
"What do you mean?" Nora inquired.
But then… at that moment… Everyone started to think more clearly…
"Ritchie had claimed Faust attacked him." Alice explained, before turning to John. "And then he sent us here."
"But Ritchie's dying." Constantine protested.
"Is he?" Blue Arrow asked. "Is he really?"
And that was when it had finally dawned on the Dark Legends:
Ritchie was not at all what he claimed to be… but possibly… no, most likely… the true person responsible for the madness… This revelation made Gibb say two simple words:
"Oh… fuck!"
Now Playing: "Orchid and the Fire" from Justice League Dark OST
Dream stared at the sleeping Ritchie for a good 5 seconds. He was a bit confused, however. He tried to see what this mortal was dreaming, yet for some reason, he just… couldn't see anything. What was this? Was this yet another form of magic?
At that moment, Dream got up from the chair, deciding to start searching around the room for his ruby. After all, both the Dreaming and the waking world depended on it.
Unbeknownst to the Sandman, Ritchie had woken up… or rather, he wasn't really asleep at all, and then got out of bed to grab his cane. And when he took the handle off his cane… it had a piece of the dreamstone. Simpson then grabbed onto the piece, and lightning started to briefly glow around it, causing Morpheus to turn around… and then stone then assimilated into Ritchie's hand.
Dream then prompted to blow sand out of his hand to put Simpson back to sleep.. but it did nothing.
"Boy, boy, I think I got closer to death than I planned." Ritchie smirked.
"What is it you think you're doing?" Dream asked, clearly angered.
"Saving the world from all the goddamn lies, that's what I'm doin'!" Ritchie shrugged.
"The ruby wasn't made for that." Morpheus insisted. "You must return it to me so that I can repair the damage you have done."
"Nah, I think I'm gonna pass on that kind offer." Ritchie said.
At that moment, Ritchie air pushed Dream to the ground, and then raised his palm in the air and started sucking out all of Dream's power. And he then kept draining… and draining… and draining… until he finally completed the process! And Morpheus was just left lying down, feeling like he failed to save the waking world and the Dreaming. Ritchie, meanwhile, felt exhilarated as he stared at the dreamstone.
"Yeah, that's the stuff…"
Constantine quickly created a portal to get him and the Dark Legends back to the Millhouse. Unfortunately though, when they got there, they weren't indoors.
"Shit!" Alice cursed. "Why aren't we inside?!"
"Because Ritchie's bloody well taken control of the house. This is what you get for having mates." Constantine muttered, before turning to Nora. "Nora, do you still have your timestone."
Nora nodded, before pulling out her timestone. Having an idea of what Constantine had in mind, Darhk closed her eyes, clutched the stone in her hand, and focused her energy…
But then when she opened her eyes… Nothing.
"Goddammit, I can't get in." Nora grumbled.
"Well maybe part of that could be because of your rage-out from earlier." Blue Arrow told Nora. "I figure being possessed by Mallus could've drained a lot of your energy."
"It's okay, guys. I know what to do." Trixie assured the group, pulling out one of Lucifer's Pentecostal coins out of her pocket.
Espinoza then flipped the coin up in the air, anticipating it getting them inside. But… still nothing!
"Fuck!" Trixie shouted. "Not even that worked!"
"Fine. Then we'll just use the ol' fashioned ways." Constantine gritted his teeth, walking up to the front door.
"Ritchie, you're gonna listen to me whether you like or not."
No response was heard as Constantine continued to stand in front of the door.
"Open the fucking door!"
Still no response.
"Do you hear?! Open it!"
After what felt like an eternity… the door opened, and the Dark Legends walked inside the house.
What they saw whilst entering was Ritchie with his back turned to them. And then right to him was the body of Dream, knocked unconscious on the floor. Oh no… don't tell me..?
"Too late, Johnny boy!" Ritchie taunted.
Simpson then turned around and revealed that he had the rest of the dreamstone, before using the artifact to create a forcefield around himself.
"Lemme tell you somethin'. When the Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow cracked a piece off, ol' Doctor Dee needed some assistance to get his stone back."
The entire room started to shake! As the room shook, Batman threw a batarang at Simpson's forcefield, but as luck would have it, it simply bounced off. Blue Arrow, feeling desperate, shot an arrow… but, you guessed it, that didn't do anything either. Ritchie then smirked, and with a wave of his arm, caused everyone to levitate from the ground.
"Ritchie, please!" Gibb begged.
"Stop, while there's still time to save your soul." Constantine added.
"Says the man who got poor Astra condemned to Hell." Ritchie mocked.
"Oh, you haven't heard? I had some help with bringing her back five years ago." Constantine smirked.
"Doesn't matter." Ritchie shrugged. "Since you got me infected. I looked all around the world for a cure and I finally found it when I met Doctor Destiny in Arkham… or rather, his dear ol' Mama, Ethel Cripps! She had a lil' piece of the dreamstone after it split and her baby boy got sent to the big house, and she gave it to me as a way of helping her son and told me how to get the Demons Three to bring the rest of it to Earth."
The Dark Titans widened their eyes in shock after Ritchie said this information, as they thought back to when they briefly encountered Ethel when visiting Dee at Arkham.
"You mean… we had just seen her at Arkham.." Nora trailed off.
"…And didn't connect the dots then?" Trixie finished.
"It should've been so obvious." Blue Arrow muttered. From there, Simpson continued.
"It would've been so easy to take it from them. Of course, Rockstar Johnny fucked everything sideways. So we had to frame Faust and get you to bring me here. Of course, that worked out just nicely, because at that point, all we had to do was convince the great Batman to round up Johnny and the Pierce kid, and now there's nothin' y'all can do to stop us! I'm immortal and supercharged!"
"Wait, that was you?!" Batman asked. "You took control and wrote their names in blood!"
"You goddamn right!" Simpson laughed. "Dee knew John would be a thorn in his side, so he was hoping Faust woulda kill him!"
"Then why did you send Batman to come after me?" Alice asked. "What did I do to Destiny?"
"Not to him per say… but to his nephew: Charles Lee Ray!" Ritchie explained. "You see, doll, ol' John Dee and Ray's mother, Elizabeth were twins born by poor Ethel from a love affair with the magic sorcerer, Roderick Burgess! And Charles and Dee had a nice warm uncle-nephew bond, especially after they both learned of their magical heritage! Then your uncle came around and killed him, and Dee had sought revenge, and what better way to do that than to kill Barclay's own niece?!"
"Are you fucking shitting me?!" Alice shouted. "That fucking guy killed my entire family!"
"You've been played for a sap." Constantine told Simpson. "What makes you think Destiny could cure your cancer, and not stab you in the back?"
"You're just pissed 'cause I won!" Ritchie yelled. "You're both so gullible… like father… like daughter."
"My father's dead, you asshat!" Pierce said.
Is he really?!" Simpson asked, laughing. "Because as far as I know, he's right beside you!"
Alice furrowed her eyes, understandably confused after Ritchie had said that. And then, she turned to Constantine… who looked at her with the same confused expression. They both couldn't believe what Simpson suggested to be true… yet for some reason… it was still a possibility.
Their train of thought then got interrupted when Ritchie flung his hand and threw the Dark Legends up against a wall, thus knocking them all out right next to Dream.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you. I'll just save that for Dee." Ritchie sneered.
Ritchie then stared at the unconscious group for a good 4 seconds, before levitating and flying out of the Millhouse.
Now Playing: "Destiny Returns" from Justice League Dark OST
Arkham Asylum
John Dee was seen waiting patiently in his cell, awaiting for his ally to arrive. Just a few days ago, his mother, Ethel Cripps, had visited him and then gave him what was known as the Amulet of Protection which had kept her alive for 116 years. But then, when she passed down to him… she had died, but not without apologizing for being a "shitty Mum" throughout most of his life. And he tried his best to keep her body hidden from the Arkham guards.
But anyways, he had felt his precious dreamstone become complete, and now his ally could be here any second now…
Suddenly, a blinding red light had illuminated the cell! And when it had cleared, in front of Dee stood Ritchie Simpson whilst holding the ruby in his hand.
"Hello, Mr. Simpson." Dee said. "I trust you didn't kill Pierce or Constantine?"
"Nope, still breathing, sir." Ritchie confirmed. He then pulled Ethel's dead body from underneath John's bed.
"Shame Mama Ethel ain't around to see this."
"No… she figured her long time on this mortal coil was over." Destiny replied in a calm manner.
Ritchie nodded and then handed the dreamstone to Dee.
"Now… you're gonna help me, right?"
"Something like that…"
Dee then pointed the stone at Ritchie… and then shot a massive beam of energy at him, and started to pull him forward!
"Wait, wait! We… we had a deal!" Ritchie yelled. "We had a deal! I help you and yo Mama, and you'd cure my cancer!"
"I'm merely altering the deal…"
With that, Ritchie was sucked into the dreamstone completely.
Just then, a guard opened the cell, having heard all the commotion.
"What just happened here?" the guard asked, before seeing Dee standing over the dead Cripps. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing. I didn't do anything." John denied. The guard then raised his gun.
"I need you to step away from her. Okay?" the guard ordered.
But Dee didn't comply.
"You don't want to point that gun at me, I promise you."
"Security requesting backup!"
Dee then looked at the guard curiously.
"Why don't you just… let me go?" Destiny requested. "For your own sake."
"I'm warning you, John, I will shoot." the guard insisted.
"You'll only be hurting yourself. I'm sorry." Dee said. "I'm sorry."
Destiny then walked towards the guard, and the guard shot him. Only when he did, his whole body started to disintegrate while Dee was fine… and then he exploded and a whole amount of blood and guts splattered across the hall!
Dee stepped out of his cell, and observed the gruesome sight of the guards' remains, noticing that his black coat was still intact. He then decided to put the coat on himself (it was pretty cold out right now), and proceeded to walk across the Arkham halls.
And then, as Destiny was walking, two more guards came on to the scene and blocked his way.
"Freeze!" one of the guards shouted.
"Hold it right there!" the other one yelled. "Don't move!"
Destiny stared at the guards with a very callous expression on his face for a good 3 seconds. And then he felt his hand twitch.
"Don't you fucking move!"
The guards then shot at Destiny.. But then they meet the same fate as the other guard that "shot" Dee earlier as their bodies explode, leaving only their blood and guts. With that, Destiny continued his escape.
From one of the other cells, the Joker of all people had observed the scene go down, and couldn't help but form an amused smile. He then let out a very mocking laugh.
"And I thought I was insane."
When Dee then finally walked out of Arkham, he suddenly felt like… he still needed more power. I mean, sure, he did now have the Sandman's power, which was mighty powerful. Yet for some reason… it still wasn't enough for Destiny. And so, as he thought this, Destiny then stole a free car, and proceeded to drive his way into Gotham City…
Back at the Millhouse, Alice and Constantine fluttered their eyes open, and then slowly got back up. They then started helping the rest of Dark Legends and Dream regain consciousness, with Alice helping Blue Arrow, Nora, and Trixie, and Constantine helping Gibb and Lucifer get up. However, as Constantine was looking to help Batman up, the Caped Crusader stood up immediately and waved off the exorcist's assistance, and John just shrugged.
"What the bloody Hell just happened?" Lucifer asked.
"Ritchie escaped." Constantine explained grimly. "More likely than not, he's handing the dreamstone off to Destiny right now."
"Father dammit, Johnny!" Lucifer yelled. "This is all your fault! If you had just given Sandy his belongings, or even if we had just never played that stupid poker game which cost me my whole fucking penthouse, none of this would've happened!"
"The plague started before we played that game!" Gibb argued.
"That's not my point!" Lucifer argued back
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone turned to Batman.
"I just got a call from Commissioner Gordon." Batman informed. "John Dee had escaped."
"Shit." Nora murmured. "Then we have to find him."
Suddenly, still feeling exhaustion from being possessed by Mallus earlier, Darhk then held her side. She was almost about to fall, but luckily, Blue Arrow caught her.
"No, Nora. You're clearly tired after Mallus possessed you." Blue Arrow told her. "You need some rest for now."
Nora stared at Blue Arrow for a good 2 seconds, until understanding where he was coming.
"But I think we should head back to Star City." Blue Arrow suggested. "Maybe Felicity could track Destiny down."
"No. Star City is too far." Lucifer declined. "We need to get to Gotham now."
"Also, did you forget that I'm a bit of a hacker myself, Will?" Trixie asked. "No offense to Felicity, but I think I could do a faster job at tracking down Destiny than she can, especially since I'm standing right here. I just need to get my phone charged first."
"Alright. But we need to prepare." Batman announced. "We can't just run in blind, otherwise, Destiny would get the upper hand. It could take several hours just to figure out how we're going to approach this thing."
Now Playing: "Special Delivery" from Curse of Chucky OST
Everyone nodded, and then most of the Dark Legends started to walk out of the room with Lucifer picking Dream up from the ground. But there was something that was bugging Alice's mind since she got back up. And she just needed to know the truth.
"John." Alice said, catching the demonologist's attention. "Ritchie was implying that… you were supposedly my… father. C-could that possibly be true?"
"I'm not too sure myself, luv." Constantine replied. "But there's only one way to find out. Hand me your pocket knife."
Pierce accepted Constantine's request and took her knife out of her pocket and handed it to John. Constantine then grabbed Alice's right hand and then made a small cut into it (which was a bit painful for the Slayer, but she was a tough cookie), before proceeding to make a cut into his own hand. He then sat Alice's knife down and stretched his arm out with his open palm.
"Now… hold my palm."
Knowing what was about to happen, Alice closed her eyes and then touched Constantine's cut up palm with her own. And then Constantine whispered a chant:
"Reprehendo nostrum sanguinem…"
Just then, a faint green glow started to emit around both of their bodies for a good 15 seconds. And when it faded away, Constantine and Alice opened their eyes, with the former forming a shocked expression on his face.
"Bloody Hell… you are my daughter."
Alice widened her eyes at this massive revelation, with the other Dark Legends looking equally as shocked as her. Yet at same time… it started to make sense for her because she remembered when her mother, Barb, acted very weirdly around her whenever she, as the curious child she was, asked why her last name was Pierce, her mother's maiden name, and not her father's last name. Then, she thought back to the night her family was murdered by Chucky, and when the doll had locked her up in her closet while they were "playing" a game of hide-and-seek, she closely heard that her mother was cheating on her father with her in-house nanny Jill, and it sounded like to her that Barb was planning on completely abandoning Alice with Jill, which broke her little heart at that time.
And now… with this… both of those instances made more sense. But at the same time… Alice remembered loving her father, Ian… or rather who she thought was her father. He had his flaws, yes, but when it came to Alice, Ian was about as caring of a father as you could get, regardless of if he knew she was his biological daughter or not. So, the fact that he wasn't… It truly conflicted the teenager.
Alice really needed time to process this whole thing. And all while the Dark Legends prepare for their inevitable confrontation with Doctor Destiny in Gotham City…
A/N: Pretty crazy stuff, am I right? So, lots of stuff to go over here.
So first things first: Mallus has returned, and is possessing Nora Darhk once more! This is something I've been looking forward to for a while, as I've always felt Mallus as a concept was an amazing and very threatening villain. But... he was from "Legends of Tomorrow", which more often times than not, tended to not take things very seriously. Mallus was unfortunately one of those times, as he got defeated by a giant Beebo! Like, seriously? You built this guy up for the entirety of the third Season, got John Noble himself to voice him, and then when he finally reveals himself, he gets defeated like that? What the actual fuck?! But hey, it's Marc Guggenheim, so I shouldn't be surprised in the very least!
*sighs* Sorry for that little rant there. But anyways, expect Mallus to pop up periodically going forward in this series with him and Nora's relationship basically on the same level as Raven and Trigon from DC Comics. This idea stems from one of PotCFan101's stories in his original "Dark Legends" series, where basically Mallus had tricked Damien into thinking that he had absorbed him and then laid dormant inside of Nora. However that initial idea really messes up the first Dark Legends story for me, as then the third act and the entire Hell on Earth thing makes no sense and it kind of ruined Nora's character arc. So here, I've changed it to where Darhk did absorb the demon's energy in Dark Legends 1, about 90 percent of it, there was still a small percentage of it inside Nora that was too weak to amount to anything. But given the right amount of stress, it would be enough to bring the full demon back to Nora's conscious. And the origins of Mallus returning will be shown in the next story in this series which will be a prequel to this story.
And then we get to the big revelations: John Dee is Charles Lee Ray's uncle and Alice is Constantine's daughter!
Now let's talk about the Dee-Chucky relation first. When I had first started developing this story, I was struggling with how I was going to approach John Dee's character, because in Potsey's original "Dark Legends 2" story, Dee and Charles were childhood friends, and Charles was even Dee's teacher in dark magic. However, with this being closer to both the comics and Netflix show, that wouldn't work for this version because of Dee being born in the 1920s, so way before Chucky was even born. So then Potsey suggested that I'd make Dee Chucky's uncle, and then as I thought about the idea, I realized that it made perfect sense, not just because of the age gap, but because it would add more context to Chucky's line in "Seed of Chucky" about how killing had been a family tradition for generations, which was completely retconned in the flashbacks scenes of "Chucky" Season 1 with Charles just being a normal boy who just... snapped one day and killed his Mom.
So here, Dee and Elizabeth Ray, Charles' mother, were twins birthed by Ethel Cripps, but Elizabeth decided she didn't want to live the dark magic life and moved to the States, met Chucky's father, got married and gave birth to Charles. But then... the whole spiel in the flashbacks from Chucky 1x3 happen, and then when Chucky grew older, he eventually learns about his uncle Dee and his grandfather being Roderick Burgess, and the two form a nice uncle-nephew bond.
Then we have Constantine being Alice's father. Now admittedly, when I first became a fan of the Dark Legends Verse, I initially thought up of this idea as a joke because of the two having blonde hair. But then one day, I actually took the time to think about the idea more seriously... and I realized it actually makes a lot of sense because of the character of Barb in "Curse of Chucky". She was... for the lack of a better term, an absolute bitch. First of all, she was a horrible big sister to Nica and just treated her like shit due to being jealous of her "special privilege". And then there's the fact that she cheated on her husband with Alice's nanny Jill, and looked like she was willing to completely leave Alice to be with Jill, which is just... why? Also, there's the thing about Alice's having Pierce as a last name, and Don Mancini never giving Ian a last name in the film, which was also a little pet peeve of mine ever since I first watched the movie.
So with all of those in mind, and of course, Constantine's personality and him being sort of a ladies' man, I could totally see Barb having had a one-night stand with him shortly before meeting Ian, or possibly had an affair with John shortly after she and Ian got married. Poor Ian either way.
And all of this connects back to Dream, because Roderick Burgess was the person who captured Dream in the first place, and then he was saved by Lady Johanna Constantine, who I've changed into a past Slayer in the last Chapter, 300 years ago. And now here he is with most of his power taken away from him by Doctor Destiny, Burgess' son, and is about to be saved by Johanna's descendants, John and Alice, the latter also being a Slayer. So it's kind of like we're going full circle here.
Phew, that took a lot to explain. Anyways, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the next Chapter sometime hopefully next month, especially since that'll be when "Chucky" Season 3 starts airing (hopefully that's at least better than the last Season), and the final battle shall commence! We're in the endgame, now...