Dark Legends: Preludes and Nocturnes

by gussygus28

Adaptation of PotCFan101's Dark Legends 2. When millions of people began to mysteriously have nightmarish visions before killing each other, Batman recruits Alice Pierce, John Constantine, Gibb Smith, Nora Darhk, William Clayton, and Trixie Espinoza to help him solve the mystery. Meanwhile, Dream of the Endless must reclaim his possessions after being imprisoned for over a century.

8. 247

A/N: Oh boy, oh boy... here we finally are. The penultimate Chapter of this story. And man, this one took so much out of me, and it's easily the longest Chapter I've ever written for any story so far. Like it took me over 40 pages to write this whole thing! Not only that, this one Chapter alone is almost as long as the entirety of the original Dark Legends 2! If this was an anime, like Dragon Ball or Naruto, this would be dragged out into like 10 episodes, LOL! But hopefully in the end, it'll be all worth it.

Anyways, this Chapter adapts Chapter 9 of the original story, with the first half including many original scenes by me and the second half of the Chapter will contain some surprising new additions to the fight in the city, as well as a big section inspired by the Sandman Episode 5.

Buckle up, folks. This is going to be a wild and long ride.

---

Los Angeles

Angel, the Vampire with a soul, sat in the living room of Hyperion Hotel watching TV with his infant human son, Connor, miraculously born by his former Vampire lover, Darla. Which was strange initially, given that Vamps usually couldn't sire children, let alone a human child. Yet, thanks to a prophecy within the Nyazian Scrolls, Angel and Darla were the exceptions. And even though Darla sadly dusted herself to give their son life due to her Vamp body not being able to physically give birth, Angel was currently the happiest he had ever been in years, arguably happier than he was when with his ex-girlfriend, Buffy Summers, even despite various evil factions coming after the baby.

As Angel was watching the television, the rest of Team Angel, consisting of Cordelia Chase, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Charles Gunn, Winifred 'Fred' Burkle, and the empathic green-skinned demon named Lorne, came into the room and saw this adorable sight.

"So… what'cha doin' there, Angel?" Cordelia asked.

"Me and the baby are just watching this children's show called Perry's Big Adventures." Angel replied. "It's actually a bit fun."

This just made Cordelia chuckle in amusement.

"Man, bet you never imagined you'd go from committing mass murders for centuries as Angelus to sitting around watching Disney Junior, did ya." Cordy snarked. "What's next, Little Einsteins? Ni Hao Kai-Lan?"

The rest of the team looked at Cordelia very curiously.

"I'm just naming the stuff I've watched as a kid."

"Well, that first one definitely could be very useful for the kid in case he wants to get into the music game when he's older." Lorne said. "And heck, maybe it could teach his Dad a thing or two about his own musical skills. No offense, Ang."

"None taken." Angel shrugged, sipping his mug of pig's blood.

The team then turned their attention towards the TV, and inside the box was a black haired man with a big smile on his face holding up a small dinosaur puppet. They all quickly assumed this was the main character of the show, Perry.

---

"Look kids! It's Dino the Dinosaur!" Perry excitedly exclaimed. A crowd of children were heard in the background. "Hold on kids, Dino is trying to tell me something!"

Perry then put the sock puppet next to his ear.

"Gee, Dino, I didn't know it was Terry Pteranodon's birthday today. Do you think we should bake him a cake?"

The children cheered again.

---

"Ooh, this show does look like fun." Fred said giddily.

"Yeah, I'll admit. It does kinda bring me back to the good ol' days of my childhood." Gunn said with a small grin on his face.

"I wonder what kind of cake they're gonna bake?" Fred inquired.

---

"Wait, you want to tell me something else, Dino?" Perry asked. The sock puppet then nodded its head, before Perry put it next to his ear. Perry then turned back to the audience.

"We're all gonna die, kids! We're all gonna kill ourselves! Dino told me that we should slash our wrists right now!"

Perry then grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen table that was right in front of him, and then began running it down his wrist.

"And remember kids: sideways is for attention, the long way is for results-"

The screen then cut to white with bold letters:

Please stand by, we are experiencing technical difficulties.

---

All of Team Angel stood in absolute shock at what they just witnessed. Did they just see… what they think they saw?

"Okay… um…" Chase said, at a loss for words. "I… I don't remember children's shows being that intense."

"Yeah, might as well give every televised program an M rating at this point." Lorne muttered.

"This might be connected to the recent phenomenon." Wesley said, getting everyone else's attention.

"W-what do you mean by that, Wesley?" Burkle asked.

"Have any of you been keeping up with the news lately?" Wesley asked. The rest of the team shook their heads. "Well, there's been a massive increase in crime for the past couple of days with innocent people hallucinating each other as demons and killing each other."

"What?!" Cordy asked with shock in her voice. "How is that happening? Is it Wolfram & Hart up to their old tricks again?"

"I would've said so, but it's actually happening across the entire planet." Pryce replied, shocking the group even more.

"Then what the Hell is causing all of this?" Charles asked. "This type of thing could be worse than what we're currently dealing with right now with Holtz."

"I think I have an idea."

Everyone turned to Angel.

"Chloe informed me of this the other day, saying that they were the result of the effects of the imprisonment of an old friend of Lucifer's named Dream of the Endless, the Sandman himself." Angel informed. "So Lucifer is currently on the case of getting Dream's artifacts back and fixing the whole thing."

"The Sandman's real?" Fred asked. The Vampire then nodded.

"I actually heard rumors spread about some occult called the Order of Ancient Mysteries led by one Roderick Burgess capturing the Sandman in the 1910s. 1916 to be specific, almost two decades after I was ensouled. But I had already moved out of Europe at that time, so I didn't know if it was true. But now that he's here… it seems like it was."

"Damn. So first it's Vampires, then the Devil, and now the Sandman." Gunn muttered. "Truly anything's possible these days."

"That's life for ya." Lorne shrugged.

"Well, hopefully this madness can end soon." Cordelia spoke for all of them. "I definitely don't want any randos coming at my throat thinking I'm a demon."

"All I could say is… I will give Lucifer my trust that he will fix this." Wesley said.

"We'll see, Wes. We'll see." Angel murmured.

Team Angel then just stood there, contemplating on the recent events, and if it will be fixed sooner than later.

---

Back at the Millhouse, the Dark Legends, mainly Constantine, Batman, and Blue Arrow, continued their discussions about what they were going to do about Doctor Destiny, all while Trixie was in the corner charging her phone (very slow charge because the electricity in this house kinda sucks), and Lucifer, Gibb, and Nora took care of Dream.

In the corner was Alice, still having the thought of Constantine being her biological father lingering heavily in her mind. It was still a lot to process for her personally. But, once again… it did start to make sense to her, considering her mother's personality. I mean, whenever Alice would tell her about how she always wanted a sibling, Barb always turned down the possibility due to something having to do with her Dad. But after this revelation, it was no wonder she was an only child.

As Alice kept thinking, William felt his comms ring, and then immediately pressed the button.

"This is William."

"William, have you seen the news?" Oliver Queen's voice asked.

"No." Will shook his head. "Why?"

"The host of a children's TV show called Perry's Big Adventures had just attempted to commit suicide live on the air." Oliver informed.

"Oh my God…" Blue Arrow murmured, shocked. "What else?"

"He claimed that the sock puppet he was using was telling him to kill himself, and from there he began slashing his wrists." Green Arrow continued.

"Damn… if this is what I think it is, we're definitely working on it." Blue Arrow assured his father.

"Alright. Good luck, son."

With that, Blue Arrow hung up the call, before turning to the rest of the Dark Legends.

"Guys, things might've just gone from bad to worse."

"What happened?" Batman inquired.

"A television host apparently made a suicide attempt live on TV, saying his puppet made him do it." Blue Arrow announced.

"Damn… then Destiny must've used the dreamstone to manipulate that poor guy." Gibb guessed.

"And that means he can use it on anyone, no matter how far away they are." Nora realized.

"Beatrice, how much longer till your phone is charged?" Lucifer asked Trixie.

"Still on about 10%." Trixie muttered.

"Bollocks." Lucifer grumbled. "Well, hopefully a miracle by Dad happens and it charges up sooner rather than later. Destiny is getting stronger by the hour, and we have to stop him."

"I know Luce. I know." Trixie sighed.

Now Playing: "Johanna and Rachel" from The Sandman Season 1 OST

As the Dark Legends continued planning their attack on Dee, Constantine then walked up towards Alice and sat right next to her.

"Still on yer mind, ain't it?" Constantine asked.

"Yeah." Alice murmured.

"I totally get it. I'm still in a bit of shock myself." Constantine continued. "Truth be told, I never really considered myself as a fatherly figure, because… well, you know my history surrounding kids."

"No kidding there." Alice said.

"But… in a way… I've always had a feeling that we've had some familial connection, simply because… you do look like me, even down to my dirty blonde hair."

Pierce stared at Constantine for a good 10 seconds after he said that, before looking toward a mirror that was right beside them to see for herself. And… John did have a point. Alice did have similar facial features to him, even down to her forehead, nose, and lips.

"Huh… good point. But… I just feel like with this… bombshell, my early childhood was a lie, due to being raised by my… flawed mother, and my father who wasn't really my father."

Okay, Alice was almost considering calling her Mom a bad name, but at this moment, she quickly realized that even though she made some bad decisions while alive, she was still her mother at the end of the day, the person that birthed her into this world. So disrespecting her just wouldn't be right.

"I get that, sweetheart. And from everything I've heard, your… father, he was a good man. Had issues of his own, yes, but he definitely loved you regardless of if he knew you were actually his, and I'd never try to replace him." Constantine said. "But I'll say this: if there's one thing that almost solidified you being my daughter… it's that you've inherited my guts."

"What do you mean by that?" Pierce asked.

"Think about it. I've never in my whole life ever seen an 8 year old girl with such a profane mouth, almost as colorful as mine. Of course, that was mostly thanks to Chucky, but that's neither here nor there." Constantine continued. "But it's not just that. You've been to the depths of Hell twice, and made it out strong. And just last year, you faced a Hell-Goddess and showed her who was boss."

"You're not wrong." Alice muttered, thinking back to the battle with Glory, specifically when she and Buffy duked it out with her on the rooftop in order to save Dawn. That was… well, it was something.

"So yeah, that definitely would've told me that ya had some Constantine blood in you. And to be frank… I don't think I could've asked for a better girl to be my now-discovered daughter. And if I had found out that Chucky possessed you earlier with the knowledge of you being my kid, I would've exorcised that nasty git of a doll a lot sooner than before, and then sent him to the largest depths of Hell."

Alice then started to sniffle upon John's words.

"Really?"

"Really."

At that moment, Alice smiled, and then gave Constantine a hug… while being careful so that she doesn't crush his bones, of course.

"Thank you, John or… Dad, or whatever I'm supposed to call you now…" she whispered.

But then her smile was dropped when she mentioned one last thing:

"But definitely don't expect me to suddenly become British or change my name to "Alice Constantine"."

"I don't think my last name suits you anyway." Constantine said, and Alice chuckled.

---

Chicago

Andy Barclay sat at the Barclay residence watching the news when reports of the plague kept circulating.

"Has the world gone mad? Reports are coming in from across the state and other areas in the country about a wave of madness, suicide, and nightmares…"

"Honey, are you seeing this?" Andy called out, but then as he turned around, he saw a sight that terrified him.

Now Playing: Cult of Chucky Main Theme

Nica Pierce was holding a large ax and standing over what looked like in her eyes to be a small heinous demon standing right next to 3 year old Mia Queen, who appeared to be very frightened. Nica kept staring at the monster all while angrily panting… and panting…

"What are you, you hideous thing?" Nica asked. "And what did you fucking do to my baby?!"

"M-Mommy?" the demon asked shakily. "W-what are you doing?"

"You don't get to call me Mommy, monster! Not after you've killed my daughter!" Nica snarled. "And I'm not letting you hurt Mia either!"

Nica then raised her ax, preparing to chop the demon into pieces. But then, as she was bringing her ax down…

Something got in her way, or rather… someone did. It was… Andy!

"Nica, what the Hell is going on with you?!" Andy asked.

"Andy, that thing is a demon!" Pierce yelled, pointing at the demon. "Don't you see it?! It killed Cindy!"

Barclay turned around to see what exactly his wife was talking about. And what he saw absolutely broke him.

In the place of whatever demon Nica saw was their 3 year old daughter Cindy, looking absolutely terrified for her life as she was staring at her mother.

God, Andy thought… Nica really wasn't trying to kill their own child, was she? There's just no way she was going this crazy. Right?

Andy then gave Nica a concerning look.

"Nica, open your eyes. Please. There is no demon here."

"Yes there is!" Nica shouted, sounding even more crazy. "It's standing right beside you and it's going to kill you and Mia!"

"No, Nica, it's just Cindy." Andy insisted, trying to remain as calm as he could. "Come on, this clearly isn't you."

"IT KILLED CINDY! AND IT'LL KILL EVERYONE ELSE HERE IF I DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

Andy sighed, seeing that whatever was… possessing Nica perhaps, had far taken her over. Okay, now there was an interesting question:

What the fuck exactly was going on here? First the reports of people killing each other and claiming that they saw demons, and now this? Are people getting possessed by something, possibly a demon? Because there was clearly something darker that must be at work here…

As Andy thought this, he quickly grabbed Cindy and Mia and rushed his way upstairs while Nica still seemed to be having a mental breakdown. As he got up, he quickly ran into Cindy's bedroom, and then shut her door very loudly, and locked it just in case Nica was to get in.

"Daddy… W-what's wrong with Mommy?" Cindy asked frightfully. "She's… she's scaring me…"

"Mommy must not be feeling like herself right now, sweetie." Andy told his daughter, kneeling down to her level. "But the only thing that matters right now is that you and Mia didn't get hurt."

"Is she going to get better, Uncle Andy?" Mia asked.

"I don't know for sure, but I hope she does."

At that moment, Andy knew what he needed to do as he reached for his pocket and pulled out his phone. He opened up his contacts and immediately saw Alice's name.

You see, it had been a few days since Alice and her Dark Titans team had gone out to fight the Ninth Circle, and despite her saying that she was going to immediately come back home after that mission, she still hadn't. And since the crime reports had started circulating around that time, Barclay figured Alice was currently working on the case.

With that, Andy tapped on Alice's name, and put his phone up to his ear, hoping that his niece would answer.

---

Alice and Nora were in one of Constantine's rooms having themselves a good sparring session.

A couple hours had passed since Alice's little talk with Constantine, and now she was feeling a lot better about the revelation of him being her biological father, so because of that, she needed something to get herself fully prepared for the big confrontation with Doctor Destiny. And then with Nora, she had now gotten her full stamina back after it drained when Mallus possessed her at Felix Faust's place, so she was more than willing to exercise with Alice as well as get herself ready for the upcoming battle. And it definitely was a good thing Nora was herself at this moment.

The two teens clashed their fists against each other and Alice delivered some kicks at Nora as well, which Darhk had blocked and then delivered an uppercut to Pierce's chin, causing her to stagger a bit before immediately regaining her composure.

The sparring was so far a pretty intense one as with both of their strength levels, they had caused the room to slightly shake. In fact, if this was any ordinary house, it'd probably get destroyed within seconds.

What put these two on equal footing though was that Alice's agility and reflexes allowed her to dodge and block most of Nora's attacks, and while Nora was still a tad bit stronger psychically, Alice gave her a good run for her money thanks to her Slayer strength.

Meanwhile, William and Trixie were on the sidelines watching the whole thing go down.

"Man, that Nora is strong. One of the strongest people I know." William remarked.

"Yeah, but you gotta admit, Alice could hold her own pretty well." Trixie said.

"Oh, of course, I'm definitely not discrediting Al, because she does have pretty strength too, and amazing leadership skills too." Will replied. "But I'm saying besides her, Nora might just be our greatest asset. I mean, without her, who knows if we would've won against Glory last year."

"And your greatest asset for destroying your Dad's mansion every other night?" Trixie asked, smirking.

Having an inkling of what Trixie was implying, William formed a bit of an embarrassed expression with his face turning red under his blue hood.

"Okay, l-let's not delve too much into this topic right now!" He exclaimed.

"Just sayin'." Trixie shrugged.

Back with Alice and Nora, as the sparring match got more intense, Alice landed a good roundhouse kick to Nora, which made her stagger, but she instantly gained her composure back… and then raised her left palm and air pushed Alice away from her and down to the ground!

"You bitch! That's fucking cheating!" Alice said, laughing.

"Well, you know what they say: like father, like daughter… and like uncle, like niece." Nora quipped, to which Alice laughed at even more as she was instantly reminded of when a similar situation happened during the Hell on Earth battle with her uncle Andy and Nora's father Damien Darhk.

With that, Nora helped Alice up from the floor and the two girls embraced each other in a friendly bear hug (or about as friendly as you can get with the super strength of these two).

"Nice show, girls." Clayton congratulated as he and Trixie walked up towards the two.

"Thank you, Will." Darhk told him, before proceeding to place a small kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah, that was very… pretty fucking steamy, if you get me." Trixie commented with a wink.

"Oh please, you haven't seen the extent of that, Trix." Nora said playfully. "We could've set the whole room on fire if we wanted to."

"I'd like to see you try someday." Espinoza replied.

"Okay, let's just get back with others and see what we can do about Destiny, shall we?" Alice requested.

The other Dark Titans nodded, and with that, they all walked back to the main room with Constantine, Batman, Lucifer, Gibb, and Dream.

"So… had a nice orgy session?" Constantine jokingly asked. Alice then playfully rolled her eyes.

"I swear, even with the thing about me being your daughter in your mind, you never know when to filter yourself." Alice said.

"Well as the ol' saying goes: some things never change." John nonchalantly said, making Alice chuckle.

Suddenly, Alice's phone started ringing with the song "Misery Business" by Paramore as her ringtone. She took it out of her pocket and saw that the person who was calling her was her uncle, Andy Barclay. Oh boy, this couldn't be good news.

Sighing, Alice accepted the call and placed her phone up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Alice, are you watching the news?" Andy asked.

"No, why?" Alice shook her head.

"Well, for last couple of hours, I've been hearing many reports in Chicago about a increase in murder and suicide rates." Barclay replied. "And now, Nica's going absolutely crazy and thinking Cindy is some kind of demon and trying to kill her."

"What?!" Alice yelled, absolutely distraught by that last thing Andy said. "Are you serious?!"

"Yes, I'm for real. Alice, what the fuck is going on?"

Pierce frustratingly shook her head. Goddammit, now the dreamstone was affecting her aunt. Oh, she was so ready to deal with Destiny whenever she saw him.

"There's this guy named Destiny who is controlling people with a magical stone." Alice explained. "Don't worry, Uncle Andy, I have this covered. Bruce is with me on this, as are Lucifer and Constantine… who may or may not have just been revealed to be my biological father…"

"What?" Andy asked on his end.

"Not important right now. Either way, I'll take care of it."

"Alright then. Good luck."

With that, Alice hung up her phone, and then saw everyone else staring at her.

"Okay, now this situation has gotten really bad, because the dreamstone's power is now affecting Chicago… including Aunt Nica." she informed.

"Dammit. We have to get to Gotham now and stop Destiny." Batman announced.

"But we still don't know exactly where he is." Gibb pointed out.

"No worries, guys! My phone is finally charged up, so I should track him down." Trixie told everyone, much to their slight relief.

"Well, thank Dad this Millhouse doesn't completely suck." Lucifer quipped.

"Fuck you, Luci." Constantine muttered.

Trixie then opened the tracking app on her iPhone and began searching for Dee's whereabouts. And then, after a good 3 minutes of searching… and searching… and searching… she eventually found where Destiny was hiding.

"Aha! Found it!" Espinoza announced, showing everyone else her phone screen which displayed Doctor Destiny at a Diner of sorts with a whole bunch of people surrounding him fighting.

"He's at Gotham's 24 Hour Diner… and turned it into an absolute shithole."

"Then there's still enough time before the entire world becomes one." Blue Arrow muttered.

"Alrighty then, Dark Legends, let's get to Gotham City and put an end to this fuckery!" Constantine declared.

All determined, the Dark Legends were about to leave the Millhouse, when suddenly…

"Wait…"

Alice turned around and saw Dream laying on Constantine's couch grasping onto what little power he had left. And it looked like he was trying to… tell her something. Curious, Pierce leaned closer to the Sandman as he whispered into his ear.

"My ruby… is corrupting him into madness… only by destroying it… can I return to full power… and repair the damage in the Dreaming and the waking world…"

Alice nodded, fully understanding Morpheus' request. If anyone knew the ins-and-outs of the dreamstone, it would be him, and if he thought it was too corrupted to continue existing, chances were that it was the case. And there was a chance that the person to do the deed would have to be either Constantine… or possibly her.

And with that, the Dark Legends walked their way out of the Millhouse, and hopped into Lucifer's black car, as Morningstar got the vehicle rolling and they began to drive their way to Gotham City.

---

Sunnydale

At the Magic Box, Buffy Summers and her Scooby Gang watched a horrifying sight unfold before their very eyes. Willow Rosenberg was standing up in front of, what appeared to be in her eyes, a horrifying looking demon, looking at it with tears in her eyes.

"What… did you do… to my Tara?!" Willow asked.

"Willow, please. I am Tara." The demon pleaded, gently.

"No… no… you killed her, you fucking monster!" Willow yelled, raising her palm.

Spike, Xander Harris, Anya Jenkins, and Rupert Giles then stepped forward.

"Hey, Will. You don't wanna do this." Xander told her.

"Yeah, Red. We're not trying to hurt anyone here right now, not even a demon such as myself." Spike added. "And I can't believe I just agreed with Harris."

"So please, Willow, lower your hand." Giles finished, gently.

"Shut up!" Rosenberg yelled, before preparing a powerful magic blast. But then…

WHACK!

Willow felt a strong pain on the back of her head, and while rubbing it, she turned around to see that Buffy was the one that hit her.

"Buffy…? W-why?"

"Will, turn around." Buffy said.

Willow did exactly what her friend instructed, and what she saw absolutely broke her heart.

She saw in the place of the demon her lover, Tara Maclay, staring at her as if she was trembling with fear. Oh my God… was Willow really thinking about killing her? What was she thinking?

"Tara…" Willow tearfully murmured, slowly walking up to Tara, before giving her a hug, bawling her eyes out.

"I'm sorry, Tara. I'm so so sorry."

"Shh… you're okay." Maclay whispered. "You didn't seem to be yourself. Something must've possessed you."

As this tender moment between the Witches was happening, Buffy then turned to Giles with a concerned look on her face.

"Giles, what the fuck just happened?!"

"I-I don't know, Buffy." Rupert admitted. "But from what I've seen on the news, this phenomenon has been mysteriously happening to everyone, not just Sunnydale, but the entire world. Normal civilians having nightmarish visions of demons and killing each other."

"I know why it's happening."

Everyone then turned to Dawn Summers.

"Alice texted me about it earlier." Dawn informed. "She said that this epidemic had been caused by something called the dreamstone, which originally belonged to the Sandman, but is being used by a corrupt man calling himself Doctor Destiny, so she, Nora, William, and Trixie are teaming up with Constantine and Batman to stop him."

"Wait, the Sandman? The Sandman, nibblet?" Spike asked. "The one from the sodding fairy tales?"

"Yup, that Sandman." Dawn assured him, before pulling out her iPhone and showing them a photo of civilians at a Diner of sorts with an elderly man sitting on a table watching it all.

"And it apparently got worse after Destiny arrived at Gotham's 24 Hour Diner."

The Scooby Gang took a closer look at the photo, and were all mortified at what they were seeing right now.

"Bloody Hell…" Spike gasped. But something in particular really caught Giles' eye.

"Oh dear… that woman right there…" Giles said, pointing at a young woman with brunette hair and blue eyes. "That's my niece, Judy Talbot."

"Oh my… you never told us you had a niece." Buffy said.

"That's because I've cut off from my family since my Ripper days. So I never even knew she was in America."

"Great. As if our worrying wedding and potentially losing money wasn't bad enough." Anya grumbled.

"This is definitely more worrying than money, An." Xander pointed out. "But hey, at least nobody's hallucinating bunnies, am I right?"

"Shut up." Jenkins said, lightly punching Harris.

"Well, let's hope Alice and the others fix this thing sooner rather than later." Buffy murmured.

"Let's hope indeed, pet." Spike said, placing his hand on Summers' shoulder and planting a small kiss on her forehead, sharing her worrisome tone. "Let's hope indeed."

The rest of the Scoobies nodded and then watched as Willow and Tara continued to embrace each other during this dark time.

---

Now Playing: "Protecting Zatanna/City of Nightmares" from Justice League Dark OST

Gotham

The streets of Gotham City were in absolute chaos. Buildings were burning. Waters flooded the city. Cars crashing into each other. And many innocent civilians were causing riots and beating each other up into a bloody pulp.

In one corner of the town, a bunch of Gotham police officers had arrived at the scene in hopes of investigating the madness, when suddenly, a couple of civilians came rushing at them…. And in their eyes, they saw heinous demons. Thus, the cops started to shoot the civilians, killing some of them in the process.

"They're everywhere! Everywhere!" one cop shouted as they shot at the civilians, killing most of them, when suddenly…

Tink!

One of the bullets was deflected when two figures stepped in the way. Now in the civilians' and the officers' eyes, they were two more demons. But in reality, they were two vigilantes.

The first one was a tall young man with a bit of a mullet hairstyle, wearing a black suit with a blue bird symbol at the center, as well as a blue mask over his eyes. The second one was a redheaded young woman around the man's age wearing a purple bat-designed suit with a yellow bat symbol on her chest, yellow gloves, and yellow boots.

They were none other than Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon, otherwise known as Nightwing and Batgirl respectively. Two of Batman's proteges who both had started crime-fighting at very young ages.

In 2009, Dick was taken in by Bruce when he was 12 years old after his circus parents were killed during the Joker's very first assault on Gotham a year prior to that. The young boy was hesitant at first about the situation but then after Wayne explained that he had lost his parents in a tragedy similar to him, Grayson was more open to the idea. And then, after a few months of living with Bruce, Dick took on the vigilante identity of Robin for a good 6 years, fighting crime by Batman's side, before retiring the mantle and pursuing to do his own thing as Nightwing.

And then with Barbara, she was the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon, and in the same year Dick became Robin, she had started out as Batgirl at 11 years old after being inspired by Batman when he had saved her and the rest of the Gordon family from being held at gunpoint by Two-Face the prior year, plummeting him into a long coma. She had often sneaked out of her parents' house to fight in the dark streets of Gotham without her father catching her, bumping into Batman and Robin, and then when the time came that her identity was found out by Jim (which he always knew given his detective skills), he was absolutely against her decisions given how young she was, until one day when he was captured by Two-Face once again as a way of getting revenge, Batgirl saved Gordon's life and he was more open to his daughter fighting crime, as long as she never got horribly injured and told him ahead of time that she was going out, allowing her to eventually become a part-time member of the Batfamily.

And during the 6 years Grayson was Robin, he and Gordon had slowly formed a trusting friendship with one another which then inevitably turned into… something more, if you know what I mean. To the point where whenever Dick gave up the mantle wanting to do his own thing, he had trusted Barbara enough to join him in his solo adventures and they left together. And thus, from there on, the two were nothing short of a Dynamite Duo!

"Nobody's dying on our watch!" Nightwing announced.

"I swear, what exactly would the Commissioner say if he saw this right now?" Batgirl added.

Unfortunately for Batgirl, that comment didn't do anything in her favor. In fact, it appeared that it may have angered the cops even more.

"You dare talk about our boss, you fucking demon?!" One of the cops shouted, aiming his gun at the two.

"You had to say something, didn't you?" Nightwing whispered, to which Batgirl rolled her eyes.

At that moment, the cops started shooting at the Dynamite Duo, leaving them with no choice but to fend for themselves and non-lethally take the officers down.

Nightwing used his escrima sticks to deflect all of the cops' bullets, and then used his many acrobatic skills to dodge the cops directly from hitting him. As this was going on, Batgirl saw an opportunity to throw her batarangs at the cops as a way of knocking them out (but not killing them, of course). But when one of the cops's bullets hit one of Gordon's batarangs out of the way, Nightwing got in front of the officer and then knocked him out with a swift punch.

With the hallucinating cops down for the count for now, Nightwing and Batgirl started to pant a little bit, with this current… epidemic, perhaps… bothering their minds.

"Well… this is something I never would've expected, even after 13 years of crime fighting." Barbara muttered.

"Me either, Babs. Me either." Dick agreed.

Suddenly, they turned around and saw a black car pull up in the middle of Gotham Square. And out the car came… Batman! Alongside him were seven other people, consisting of a blonde haired man with a trench coat, a tall black haired man with an impeccably dressed suit, a woman with a red cap and a jean jacket, and four teenagers, whom they recognized as Alice Pierce and her Dark Titans team given that they had fought alongside them once before. Could Bruce possibly know what exactly was going on lately? I guess there was one way to find out.

"Bruce!" Nightwing called as he and Batgirl walked up to the group. Batman turned around and saw his proteges walking up to him, and then he and the Dark Legends walked up to them.

"Nightwing, Batgirl, good to see you two aren't under the influence yet." Bruce said.

"Likewise." Nightwing nodded. "Do you have an idea about what the Hell is going on?"

"There's a mad doctor named Destiny using an artifact called the dreamstone, causing the entire population to hallucinate demons and kill each other." Batman gave the basic rundown, shocking the young Heroes.

"Damn…" Batgirl murmured. "And I thought Vampires were freaky."

"I mean, you're not wrong there." Alice said.

"Speaking of…" Gibb said, before closing her eyes, and muttering an incantation.

"Custodi nos a dreamstone…"

Blue energy then emitted around the entire group, including Nightwing and Batgirl, as Gibb performed a protection spell on everyone to make them immune to Destiny's magic.

Smith then smirked.

"About time I put my own connection to the Dream World to good use."

"Good. Now let's find Destiny." Batman announced. "It's the only way to stop this nightmare."

"There he is!" Alice exclaimed, pointing at the 24 Hour Diner, where Doctor Destiny was seen sitting in the corner of the restaurant and multiple bodies were lying dead.

Suddenly, Batman's communications rang. Wondering what this could possibly be about, Wayne answered the call.

"Batman, this is Overwatch." Felicity said in the comms. "Thank God you've made it back to Gotham. I've sent Barry, Oliver, Kara, and Diana to back you up."

"What?! No, that's a bad idea! Now Destiny can control them! you have to send them back!"

"Too late for that, Batsey." Constantine said, pointing towards the other side of the street.

And sure enough, the Dark Legends then saw that the four Heroes had arrived in the middle of Gotham, hurting and killing innocent civilians and police officers. The Flash zoomed across the area taking people left and right, Supergirl lasered a few people to death with her heat vision, Wonder Woman chucked many people out of her way with her Lasso of Truth, and even killed some with her sword, and then Green Arrow shot many of them with his… well, you know, arrows.

"I'll handle Supergirl." Lucifer announced, popping out his Angel wings and flying towards the sky, coming straight at the Woman of Steel.

Nightwing then ran up across the street, and landed one of his escrima sticks on Green Arrow, staggering him just a tiny bit. But then, as Oliver immediately regained his composure, he and Dick then duked it out with hand-to-hand combat. Now Nightwing was definitely no pushover, as his acrobatic skills were able to make him somewhat hold his own against Green Arrow, but you see, Green Arrow was a very skilled fighter, one of the most skilled out there, taking on guys like Ra's Al Ghul, so Nightwing wouldn't be able win this fight. And so, after a minute in a half, Queen knocked Grayson down to the ground.

Just as Green Arrow was preparing to deal with more "demons", he suddenly felt something scratch him. He looked down and saw that what hit him was a bat-shaped object, and then saw even more of them flying right towards him, unbeknownst to his corrupted mind being thrown by Batman. But the Emerald Archer quickly pulled out his bow and started shooting arrows at the Dark Knight, with the arrows and batarangs countering each other, all while the two vigilantes got closer to each other.

Dropping their weapons, Bruce and Oliver, just like with Dick a minute ago, started engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and Batman most certainly did better in this battle than Nightwing did. But once again, Green Arrow's combat skills were something to watch out for. After about 5 seconds of trading blows, Batman finally landed a solid hit on Green Arrow, staggering him greatly. But then Oliver regained his composure and then started to pound on Bruce, and even hit him with his elbow before clutching his arm as if Wayne was a hostage. But as Queen held onto Bruce…

Bam!

Green Arrow was suddenly knocked to the ground, letting Batman go in the process. Batman saw that it was Blue Arrow that saved him having grabbed his father's bow and brandished him over the head with it.

"Sorry Dad." Blue Arrow murmured, walking to Nightwing and helping him up from the ground.

Suddenly, Batman saw a red blur coming straight towards him… and the next thing he knew, he was getting punched in the face! It was the Flash, and he kept repeatedly punching Batman… and punching… and punching… until…

Barry suddenly froze mid-swing, leaving Bruce very confused.

Batman turned around and saw Gibb holding out her hand, having stopped the Flash with her telekinesis. With a smirk, Smith then waved her hand forward causing Allen to be thrown into a building!

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman charged at Alice and Trixie, and started slashing at them with her sword (much to the despair of the both of them, because you know, it's Wonder Woman!). The teenage girls tried their absolute best to dodge the Amazonian Princess' strikes. Alice was a bit successful on that front, being able to dodge Wonder Woman with her agility, Trixie not so much as she had to block her sword with her demon dagger, but was clearly struggling to keep up.

After a while, Trixie had lost her demon dagger and Wonder Woman punched her towards a building!

"Trix!" Alice yelled, as Diana then rushed at her, preparing to do the exact same thing she did to Trixie.

But then, Prince felt something hit her on the back, and turning around, she saw what was unbeknownst to her, Barbara, throwing various batarangs at her. Seeing Batgirl as yet another demon in her eyes, Wonder Woman started walking towards her determined to take her out. But then, Alice stepped in Wonder Woman's way, and landed a solid kick to her gut, making her puke out a little blood!

Diana quickly recovered from Alice's kick (and when I say quick, I mean by a nanosecond), and then the two started to trade blows with one another, and sadly, while Pierce was very tough, her strength didn't even come close to matching that of Wonder Woman, who was basically God-like to her. And so, Wonder Woman landed a punch on Alice's arm, which pained the Slayer immensely, and then landed another one to her chest, which was even more painful given her… development troubles, if you get what I mean.

At that moment, just when Wonder Woman was about to strike Alice a third time, she felt something hit her back once again, and then turned her attention towards Batgirl, gripping on her sword as she ran at Barbara.

Before Wonder Woman could slash at Gordon though, someone got in her way once again. It was Trixie, having gotten up and found her demon dagger!

Trixie and Wonder Woman then clashed their weapons together for a good 3 seconds, before Espinoza immediately felt her limit as just an ordinary girl going up against a warrior such as Wonder Woman. And then Alice got in the way once again and using her pocket knife, joined the weapon clashing, and gave Diana a slightly more difficult time. And I do mean ever so slightly as Wonder Woman then dropped her sword and clashed her metal wristbands together, and created a huge shockwave that pushed Pierce and Espinoza back!

As Alice and Trixie got their composure back, Diana gripped on her Lasso of Truth and started walking towards them.

"You shall know my wrath, demons!" Wonder Woman declared, swinging the Lasso around and then whipping it at Alice and Trixie, when suddenly…

Prince froze mid-whip, leaving the two teens confused. Alice and Trixie turned around and saw Nora with both of her arms stretched out, trying her best to hold Wonder Woman still.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Trixie grabbed Wonder Woman's Lasso and then quickly tied her up with it, before unwrapping it and causing Diana to spin around, and then Alice punched her out of the way, making her crash into another destroyed building!

"Damn, I just punched Wonder Woman…" Alice remarked, staring at her fist.

"Oh yeah, you're just that amazing, Al. And sexy." Trixie commented, and then Alice smirked.

"How are you hanging?" Nora asked Batgirl.

"As well as I can in a situation like this." Batgirl muttered, to which Darhk nodded.

Back above the ground, Lucifer was busy flying around the city fending off against Supergirl, with them punching each other into any random destroyed building. The two were at a similar level of speed to each other, but given that he was the Devil, Lucifer just slightly edged out Kara in that department. But… Danvers still gave Lucifer a good run for money in terms of physical strength, evidence of that showed when Supergirl put her hands together and swung at his face, causing his nose to bleed. Bloody Hell… had he really gotten that soft over the years?

"Luci, we've got a plan!"

Morningstar looked from the ground and saw Constantine with a smirk on his face and Gibb right beside him.

"Get her to fly towards the ground… and near us!" Smith called.

Lucifer nodded, and then turned to Supergirl.

"Last one down is a rotten egg!"

With that, Lucifer went flying straight down with Supergirl following him. As the Devil and Kryptonian flew their way to the ground, Constantine and Gibb started to draw a circle with magic symbols. And then as Lucifer landed and as Supergirl got close enough, Constantine simply waved his hand… and a glimmer of blue energy appeared!

Kara was very confused about what had happened and when she raised her hand… she suddenly felt an invisible barrier around. And she was trapped! At that moment, Danvers started pounding on the invisible prison, screaming in anger. A sight that made Constantine nonchalantly shrug.

"Sorry, luv. Not even the demon Mallus can break out of this. Plus, from what I hear, Kryptonians are vulnerable towards magic anyway."

Just then, a group of corrupted civilians pulled up in front of the Dark Legends, pointing their weapons at them thinking they were demons.

"Fuck." Blue Arrow grumbled. "More of these guys."

"Now what are we going to do about Destiny?" Gibb wondered.

"We'll deal with crowd control." Constantine stated to the group. "There's a large chance that Destiny could still control any one of us…"

He then turned to Alice with a grin.

"Except for you."

"W-why me?" Alice asked, confused.

"Because you've died and been to both Heaven and Hell. You've seen the horrors Destiny could ever dream of, no pun intended." Constantine explained. "And he's both the uncle of Charles Lee Ray, and the son of Roderick Burgess, the man that had captured Dream in the first place and inadvertently started this whole bollocks, and then my- our ancestor saved him from Vamps 300 years ago. So in a way, you could say everything's coming full circle right now. Now get in there, and kick Destiny's ass."

Alice smirked after John said that, and stared at 24 Hour Diner for a good 5 seconds, before running her way to the Diner, determined to end the supernatural plague and defeat John Dee once and for all, all while the rest of the Dark Legends (with the assistance of Nightwing and Batgirl) dealt with the possessed crowd.

---

"I see the future."

"Then tell me… tell me my future."

John Dee sat in the corner of 24 Hour Diner with a bowl of ice cream by his side. Surrounding him were a couple of dead bodies lying on the ground all bloodied up. You see, the past 23 hours were complete madness. Dee spent the majority of the time using the Sandman's dreamstone to manipulate the thoughts of the patrons, as his twisted way of creating a better world without any lies.

First, Destiny manipulated the waitress, Bette Munroe, into thinking he was handsome, even though it wasn't her true thoughts at all.

Then, he turned his attention to a seemingly happy couple, Garry and Kate Fletcher, who in reality were absolutely miserable with each other. Kate would then cheat on Garry with the man being interviewed for a job at the Diner, Mark Brewer, to which Garry eventually caught and then engaged Mark in a brutal fight, but Mark would kill him in the process.

Next, Dee focused on Judy Talbot, who was struggling with her relationship with a woman named Donna, feeling like she was constantly being judged by people. That would lead to Judy having sex with Bette, who earlier had gotten into a fight with the Diner's cook, Marsh, after he revealed he slept with her 21 year old son.

But at that moment, after witnessing Mark kill Garry, Bette had realized that this… ruckus… was all of the work of Doctor Destiny, having remembered him saying that he was going to change the world with the ruby he had possessed. The other patrons had also realized that this was no different from the recent reports of people across the world seeing demons and killing each other. Because of that, Bette and the patrons went to confront Destiny… who then gave them all a speech about how their suffering… would set them free.

And so, the patrons all took their own lives. Mark nailed his hand with a hammer. Judy cut her wrist in a knife. Marsh chopped off his fingers. Kate slit her own throat. And then Bette… shut off her eyes with two screwdrivers.

Now… Destiny was all alone. And he needed to know the most important thing… his future. And so, he clutched the dreamstone in hopes of getting some answers regarding that.

"You come from dust…"

Destiny turned around and saw… Bette, Kate, and Judy? But it was strange, because their images were constantly flickering into… these three jagged Witch-like individuals. Unbeknownst to John, they were none other than the Fates.

"You walk the dust."

"You go back to dust."

"That's everyone's future. Tell me my future." Dee demanded.

"There is no future for you, John Dee."

"It is bound by walls and guards and the sour smell of madness."

"And then the skein of your life is cut, son of your mother."

"No. Look again. Tell me my future."

"You have stolen most of the power of dreams."

"You will take all of it."

"You will crush the Dream Lord's life in your hands."

Now Playing: "The Truth of Mankind" from The Sandman Season 1 OST

The Fates disappeared from Destiny's sight, leaving him in the dark. And then not even a second later, the front door of the Diner opened. Dee rose up from his chair to see who it was. Was it the Dream Lord?

No… it was a blonde haired teenage girl.

That Pierce girl!

Alice stepped forward towards Destiny as she observed the dark place, seeing as it was littered with dead bodies, which she just couldn't help but shudder at this horrific sight. Geez, Dee really did this place up.

Speaking of, Pierce glared at the old man for what felt like an eternity… both of them getting a very intense feeling towards the atmosphere.

"Hello, Pierce." Destiny broke the silence. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced to each other yet. I'm John, famously known as Doctor Destiny. I'm glad you're here, the power has gone out. So there's no TV, and no one left to talk to."

Alice said nothing. Dee then chuckled as he then started to walk towards the girl.

"You know, I was expecting to finally meet the Sandman himself, just like my mother had been telling me and my sister for the past decades. She said he'd be coming for it, But… I honestly think this is a much better outcome, because now I could get rid of the biggest obstacle to achieving my goal of saving the world from its lies."

Alice furrowed her brow after Destiny said that last part, with the old man stepping closer to her.

"Constantine is possibly the biggest liar that I've ever known. He is puny and disrespectful. And his arrogance is a great poison to the world. And considering you're his spawn, your very existence is just adding to that poison. And don't even get me started on the Devil who secretly hopes to be human, the girl with the demon, the Springwood cunt, the amateur Arrow, the Devil's human step-child, and that pathetic boy in the bat costume."

Pierce glared at Destiny even more after he had mentioned those names, especially her best friends.

"Then how exactly does making people see each other as demons and kill each other get rid of these supposed lies?" she asked, anger building up.

"Because that's exactly what the lies turn them into… demons." Destiny replied, now standing point-blank in front of her. "You and Constantine being the biggest ones. And with both of you out of the picture, the world can become a better place much faster."

At that moment, Destiny then grabbed Alice by the neck and started choking her to near-death as he formed a shit-eating grin.

"And as a bonus, I can have my revenge on what you and your family have done to my dear nephew, Charles."

Alice almost felt her life slowly slipping away from her as Dee continued to choke her. When suddenly…

"Give up the ruby, John…"

Both Alice and Destiny were very confused about who was just talking right now, especially Dee.

"Who said that?!" Dee asked, looking around. "Show yourself!"

But then… Alice smirked as she finally figured out who was talking.

"You should know who I am, John… especially since it was your family that captured me…"

Dee staggered as he let Alice go, causing her to gasp for air.

"The Sandman…" Destiny murmured. "My mother was right, she said you'd be coming. But I'm not giving it away, it's mine."

"It is harming you, John… and your world. Making you manipulate your race, and making them see demons and kill each other."

"It's revealing the truth." Destiny retorted. "This is the truth of mankind."

"No, you're wrong." Dream said. "This is the truth of mankind."

Suddenly, Alice and Dee's surroundings began to change, as the Diner suddenly became much brighter with the patrons all alive and happy, and the sun shining.

"How's work going?" Bette asked Kate.

"Good, you know. Busy." Kate replied.

"They're lying to themselves." Destiny mumbled, as the patrons continued to talk amongst each other.

"Garry's supervising a new venture that looks promising."

"It's all lies!" Dee exclaimed.

"Not lies, John… Dreams."

"Right, sweetie?" Kate asked Garry.

"Kate dreams of running away, where no one will find her."

"How are you, Bette?" Garry asked.

"Garry dreams of proving his father was wrong about him."

"How's Bernard doing? How's your writing going?" Garry asked further

"Yeah, how's the novel?" Kate asked as well.

"Good, you know." Bette said, cleaning off the Fletchers' table.

"Bette dreams of creating something that matters to people." Dream continued.

"I thought I'd have more time to write with Bernard off at college," Bette explained. "But it's been great having him home, so…"

"Bruce dreams of being a symbol of hope to his town. Gabrielle dreams of bettering herself from her past. Eleanor dreams of balancing herself and the demon inside her. William dreams of becoming the best successor he could to his father. Beatrice dreams of ascending to new heights beyond this world. Even Lucifer dreams of living amongst mortals peacefully. And then Constantine… I'll acknowledge that his dreams do inherit some selfishness. But they are still dreams. And he dreams of being someone that people can remember for generations."

Alice smiled after Morpheus said all of those words about her friends, Batman, and even Constantine. And as she thought about some more… Those were all true. Especially John's.

"Their dreams inspire them. Their dreams kept them alive. But if you rob them of their dreams, if you take away their hope, and especially if you make them see themselves as demons, then… yes… this is the truth of mankind."

The scene suddenly shifted back to the haunting mood that it was before with the patrons' dead bodies lying on the floor.

"The ruby is hurting you, John. It has too much of my power within it. It stole more when Richard used it."

"Then perhaps if I got to wherever you are, and used it to steal the rest of your powers, I will be the King of Dreams!" Destiny insisted. "And the world shall be remade in my vision!"

"If you'd rob a Dream Lord of his power, you shall do so in his realm…"

Alice grinned as she got an idea of what Dream was about to do, and at that moment, she closed her eyes.

"In dreams…"

---

Now Playing: "Into the Vortex" from The Sandman Season 1 OST

Destiny suddenly found himself out of the Diner, and in some kind of forest. He then turned around and saw… some kind of castle in front of him. What was this? How exactly did he get here? Could the Sandman be doing this to him? And where did that Pierce girl go?

Curiosity getting the better of him, Dee then decided to walk inside of the castle. And as he stepped inside, he noticed a sense of… familiarity with this place. It was strange. It was almost as if he had belonged here…

And that feeling kept growing as he continued to observe the place.

John noticed a figure in some kind of blue robe standing from across the room. And as Dee stepped further, the figure then showed their bare leg, making him form a smirk and get even more curious.

But as Destiny got closer to the figure… and closer…

The figure then revealed some of their face (but not all of it), and they appeared to be… some sort of young girl…

Dee was very confused as the face looked very… Wait… was that-

The hooded figure suddenly disappeared from Dee's sight, leaving him more confused.

Destiny then heard some footsteps pounding on the ground, and when he looked up… he looked up and saw the hooded figure on top of the stairwell, dropping their robe, and showing more of their appearance. The old man then squinted his eyes, as now the figure, clearly a woman, looked so… familiar…

No… could this be…?

Dee then started rushing his way up the stairs himself, to see if his instincts were correct. And after a solid 5 seconds of running up, he had followed the woman into a dark room.

Once again, as he observed the place, Dee couldn't help but get a sense of familiarity with this room. In his wandering, he then found something that really caught his eye: a picture. But it wasn't any random picture. It was a picture of his mother, Ethel Cripps, standing next to an older man and a young boy looking no older than 18. Again… What was this?

Destiny suddenly heard… laughter? Most likely from a woman. Dee then waltzed into another room, and turning around, he saw…

The woman from before in bed with some sort of helm on her head.

Once again, finding the woman to be beautiful, Destiny sat on the bed and leaned over to give the woman a kiss and she took the helm off… but then as he got closer to the woman's lips…

"Welcome home, Johnny."

Dee frowned and quickly got off the bed, stepping backwards as he realized who he was about to kiss:

His mother! A younger version of her!

"Don't be such a baby, Johnny…"

Ethel then laughed like a crazy person, disturbing Destiny even more. But, as she was laughing… her face started to change. Almost as if she was turning into a different person altogether.

Destiny watched in horror as Ethel's face completely morphed into…

Alice Pierce!

Before Dee had any time to react, Alice quickly jumped off the bed and punched him in the face, sending flying across the room!

---

As Destiny hit his back up against a wall, he suddenly heard… babies crying?

And then when he stood up, he saw what looked like his mother, now older, trying her best to put the baby versions of him and his twin sister Elizabeth to sleep.

"Go to sleep, Johnny and Lizzie. Please."

"Mother?" Destiny asked, walking up towards his mother.

"Johnny, you have to go to sleep!"

Dee then felt like he was being pulled back, as someone appeared out of nowhere strangling him!

---

Suddenly, Dee was back in his cell from Arkham Asylum as the unknown figure continued to strangle him. Destiny turned around and saw that the person strangling him was…

His mother? Again?! What was the madness?!

"Your father was right." Ethel whispered into John's ear. "I never should have had you or your sister."

Dee was absolutely disturbed when his mother said that. I mean, he knew Ethel was a bad mother to him, but she still loved him. Once again, what was-

Ethel cackled a very maniacal laugh as Destiny thought this. And when he turned around… It wasn't Ethel anymore, it was…

Pierce!

"Gotta say, it's no wonder your nephew ended up being the Lakeshore Strangler. I guess it just runs in the family!" Alice gloated, before continuing to cackle and choke Dee to near-death.

To add insult to injury, Alice started to repeatedly hit Destiny's back with her knee. And upon every hit, Destiny then finally realized what was happening:

"It's a dream!" Dee yelled, gasping for air. And then the dreamstone began glowing with Dee hoping this nightmare could end.

"It's a dream… It's a dream…"

---

Destiny then found himself in some… destroyed throne room. But… standing in here had this grandiose feeling to it. Almost as if he…

Oh my… could this possibly be the Dream Lord's throne room, by any chance?

"Is this your palace… Dream Lord?" Destiny asked.

Nobody answered his question.

"Is this your throne… King of Lies?"

Still no answer.

Familiar laughter was heard as Dee turned around and saw Alice standing right in front of him with a smirk on her face.

"Y'know… you and Charles are much more alike than I had initially thought." Alice mused.

Dee looked at her with the utmost confusion.

"Just think about it." she continued. "You're both so overconfident in your personalities, only you seem to be more calm in your overconfidence, but then whenever someone gets the upper hand on you, you turn into a bunch of wimps. Just that, he tends to turn into a manchild having a temper tantrum, and you become an absolute scaredy-cat."

Alice continued to laugh, further bewildering the old man.

"And let me tell you something. Pretending to be your Mom and torturing you felt about as good as if I did this with Chucky! So much for cleansing the world of its lies."

Now Playing: "Nightmare" by Avenged Sevenfold

After a good 3 seconds of staring at Pierce, Destiny formed a smirk and quietly snickered.

"Then tell me this, child." he said, clutching the dreamstone in his hand as he got Alice's full attention. "What is it that you most fear?"

Pierce stared at Destiny very blankly for 5 seconds… and then simply shrugged.

"Nothin'."

"What?" Dee asked. "What do you mean nothing?"

"I mean, there's really not much for me to be scared of at this point." Alice clarified. "Back when I was little, I used to be scared of some of the littlest things, such as thunderstorms and ghost stories. But now… after everything I've been through over the years… I'm pretty much fearless."

"What are you saying?!" Destiny asked, further bewildered of Alice's fearlessness. "You can't be telling the truth! You have to be afraid of something!"

"I've seen killer dolls. I've died and gone to Heaven. I've been kidnapped by a demon and went to Hell… twice. I fought an evil sorcerer who threatened to bring Hell on Earth. I regrettably almost destroyed the world myself by altering the timeline and creating Alicepoint. I fought aliens. I fought an evil doppelganger of my uncle. And just last year, I had to fight a petty Hell-Goddess in a human's body who almost plunged the world into darkness just because she wanted a Key back to her Hell dimension. And you really think mere nightmares would scare me at this point?"

"We'll see how fearless you really are, Pierce…" Destiny said.

With that, Destiny clutched the ruby in his hand… and a flash of red light engulfed the area!

Alice shielded her eyes from the light. But then as the light started to dissipate…

Seemingly nothing happened. It was just Alice and Dee staring at each other in the destroyed throne room like before. This just left Pierce confused.

Suddenly, Alice heard footsteps. Very… small footsteps. Sweat started dripping on Alice's face as the footsteps sounded… familiar. Too familiar.

Just then, Alice suddenly felt like she was getting choked to death, as if someone was strangling her from behind. As she continued to get choked, a maniacal laugh was heard from behind her. A laugh sounded all too familiar…

Pierce turned around and saw that the… thing that was choking her was a two foot red haired doll with a multi-colored sweater and overalls that said "Good Guys" on it. The teen widened her eyes as she instantly recognized the doll as Chucky!

"This is for Uncle Dee, you fucking little cunt bag!" Chucky yelled as he continued to choke Alice with her necklace.

The struggle went on for a good 30 seconds as Alice tried to get Chucky off of her. But eventually, Alice decided to jump into the air and perform a backflip, before landing the ground on her back and slamming Chucky!

Alice got up, and then brutally stomped Chucky on the face… before he just disappeared before her eyes.

At that moment, Alice realized what was going on… she was fighting a nightmare. Destiny used the dreamstone to create an illusion as his way evening the odds after she tricked him into being his Mom.

As Pierce came to this realization, a large black fist suddenly appeared slamming down the ground, almost crushing Pierce into oblivion had she not quickly dodged! When Alice looked up, she saw that the owner of the large hand was none other than a large demon. But Alice recognized this demon anywhere.

It was Anuboll! Or at least, an illusion of her. And she was seen to be seething in anger upon looking at Alice.

"You horrible cheating girl…"

Anuboll then continued to slam the ground with her fists in hopes of crushing Alice, all while the girl decided to make a run for it across the throne room. And Alice just kept running… and running… and running… until she grabbed her pocket knife, made a huge leap forward into the air and then…

Slice!

Alice sliced Anuboll in half, from the head all the way down to her butt! The demon's sliced up then fell to the ground… and the illusion disappeared.

But unfortunately, Alice couldn't even enjoy a nanosecond of victory as then a couple more demons appeared in her sight, alongside some Vampires. Rolling her eyes, she held onto her knife and then charged at the evil forces.

Pierce slashed through the demons with her knife, making them all disappear, and even whipped out her pistol and shot at least two of them. One large demon tried to grab her by the head and crush her, but Alice quickly grabbed the demon's hand and slammed it backwards!

Then, when it came to the Vamps, the teenager simply used basic punches and kicks to take out those illusions. One Vamp lunged at her and tried to bite her, but Alice knew he was coming and then punched him in his mouth, causing him to disappear. And then another one ran up in front of her and threw a few punches of his own, which Alice dodged easily before side-kicking the Vampire right in his chest, making him disappear as well.

Alice started to pant as she was now feeling slightly tired from fighting the nightmares, and needed to catch her breath. But all of a sudden… she screamed as she felt a large pain in her shoulder.

She then noticed that a knife was stabbed into her shoulder… and then turned around and saw Doctor Destiny standing over her with a callous expression on his face.

Dee then smirked.

"I have to say, you're definitely very impressive… for scum. And you even keep true to your word. But an honest scum is still scum nonetheless, and now I have more important matters at hand..."

Alice glared at Destiny as she continued to feel the pain of his knife in her arm, and then Dee then raised the dreamstone in the air.

"As this throne… is mine now!"

The entire room then started to burn around Alice and Dee, fire incinerating every wall. Alice then felt the spot she was standing on dissipating, and then as it disappeared, she let out a scream as she started to fall down.

"Are you watching, Dream Lord?!" Destiny yelled, as the throne room continued to burn.

"Can you see me?!"

But then… something grabbed Alice's hand from falling down completely. Alice looked up to see what saved her… or rather who saved her. It was a tall figure wearing a black robe and a helm over its head… the same helm she wore to trick Dee into thinking she was his mother…

At that moment, Pierce smirked as she realized who she was looking at right now.

"Using your own power to burn away your lies?" Destiny mused.

"You must stop!"

Destiny turned around as the throne room all of a sudden rebuilt itself as if it wasn't just burning seconds ago to see the figure with the helm holding Alice in his arms. He was for a split second confused on who he was looking at… but then formed a smirk when the realization came to him.

"It is not too late to save yourself." Dream of the Endless said.

"Oh, you think it's me that needs saving?" Destiny inquired.

"Your father stole the ruby from me and cursed you with it."

"You mean he blessed me with it?"

There was a long period of silence as Destiny and Morpheus stared at each other. But then Destiny raised the dreamstone once more, aiming it at Dream.

"Your reign…"

Dream held Alice tightly as he felt his essence starting to drain into the dreamstone.

"...ended when my father captured you."

The Sandman struggled to hold on as Destiny continued to drain his essence.

"Your kingdom…"

Dream's knees started to feel weak as the draining continued.

"...is my birthright!"

With that, Dream kneeled down to the ground, dropping Alice in the process.

"Your power resides within me!"

As Destiny walked closer to Morpheus, the Endless felt more of his power fading… and fading… and fading…

"How does it feel to know I hold your life in my hands?" Dee asked the struggling Dream Lord as he kneeled down in front of him.

"You're hurting the dreamers…" Dream groaned in pain.

"Well, it's time they woke up!" Destiny declared.

Dream just laid on the pavement on his power (what very little he had) felt closer to being completely drained.

"Your life and your lies end now-"

PLOW!

The dreamstone was suddenly shot out of Dee's hand, and landed on the ground. Absolutely shocked at what happened, Destiny turned to see the person who shot the ruby out of his hand.

It was Alice, having used her pistol. The teen then walked over the dreamstone and then picked it up herself. Pierce smirked.

"Good night, asshole."

And with that…

CRUSH!

Alice crushed the ruby with her hand and a huge blinding red light illuminated the entire area! And then… everything had turned white…

---

Alice found herself in some kind of… white void. She was confused about where she was and how exactly she got here.

And there was one important question brewing her mind:

"Did I do it? Did I beat him? Have I… won?"

Suddenly, the surroundings around her changed, and now she was standing on top of… a giant hand?

"Thank you, Alice."

Pierce then looked up and saw that the person carrying her was… Dream. Yet, he had turned giant!

"Lord Morpheus?" Alice inquired.

"You destroyed the ruby and released the power inside it." he told her, smiling. "And just like that, and after what little assistance I could've provided, you have returned my power. I'd forgotten just how much of myself I had placed in the jewel."

"Hehe, I knew that was all you."

"Yes. Richard may have taken most of my power, but he did not take all of it. And so, with what little power I had left, I was able to talk to you and John telepathically and then transport the both of you to the Dreaming. And once you had done enough damage to John, I'd gotten enough power to transport my own essence to the Dreaming as well. And now… I am fully complete once more. You saved me, Alice… just like your ancestor did 300 years ago."

Alice smiled after he had explained all of that. But then, her smile dropped when another question popped in her mind.

"What are you going to do with Destiny?" Alice asked. "Are you gonna kill him? He did cause mass destruction to the whole world after all."

"I could… Perhaps I will…" Dream said. "But the dreamstone was not made for mortals. And it came to John through no fault of his own, despite the damage he caused. So, no… I will not kill him."

"Then what do you have planned?" Alice asked again.

"You will see momentarily…"

The Slayer nodded, and then closed her eyes…

---

Alice snapped her eyes back open, and then found herself back at the Diner. She looked around and saw John Dee cowering on the floor, and then she saw Dream of the Endless with his eyes closed and his hand placed on her shoulder.

She thought back to a few seconds ago when Dream said that he wasn't going to kill Dee, and that she would see what he had planned momentarily. Well… I guess now would be a good time to see what that exactly was.

Meanwhile, back outside, the rest of the Dark Legends alongside Nightwing and Batgirl saw that the crowd that was attacking them had just… stopped all of a sudden.

"What just happened?" Gibb asked.

Constantine looked over to the Diner and saw Alice… and Dream, standing over Doctor Destiny. And then he grinned.

"It's Alice. She bloody did it." Constantine remarked. "And I couldn't be any more proud."

The Dark Legends then turned around and saw what John was looking at, and then they all formed their own smirks. They all walked their way to the Diner themselves to greet Alice and Dream.

"Well, well, Sandy." Lucifer said cheerfully, upon entering the Diner. Dream then opened his eyes and saw the Devil standing in front of him. "It's good to see you back on your feet."

"Thank you, Morningstar." Dream nodded. "And I could not have done it without all of you."

The Dark Legends then nodded after Morpheus said that.

Constantine stared into Alice's eyes for a good 5 seconds, before placing his hand on her shoulder and gave her a grin.

"Ya did good, kid."

Alice then smiled back at John, and the two recently discovered father and daughter embraced one another for 10 seconds… until a scream broke the tender and victorious moment.

"Johnny boy!"

Upon hearing that very familiar scream, the Dark Legends rushed out of the Diner, all while Lucifer grabbed Dee by the throat. And as they exited, they saw Ritchie Simpson kneeled down in front of them, looking very beat.

The whole group stared at Ritchie for a good 5 seconds, and then Constantine looked up and saw something appear behind him. It was the shrouds! About seven of them! However, this time… John wasn't scared of them, whereas Simpson was terrified.

"Johnny, I was… I was under a compulsion!" Ritchie begged, trying his best to step away from the shrouds, but they crept closer to him. "You gotta save me… you owe me… you owe me!"

"Sorry mate," Constantine coldly started, before pointing his thumb at Destiny. "Can't take the chance that Destiny is still pulling your strings."

And with that, the shrouds snatched Ritchie's soul from his body!

"John, please! Help me!" Simpson cried. But Constantine and everyone else clearly ignored his pleas, as the shrouds continued to drag his soul. And then Gibb closed her eyes, clapped her hands, and said a chant.

"Enfidite Infernum Atrini. Aparte Ritchie Simpson Inferme Et Meto!"

A portal to Hell was then opened up, with Ritchie's soul continuing to get dragged by the shrouds.

"Help me, you bastard! Help me!"

With that, Ritchie's soul was completely dragged into Hell, and the portal closed up.

Ritchie Simpson was no more!

"That was unpleasant." Nightwing muttered, having seen the Hell portal open up and Simpson being dragged, but not being able to see the shrouds.

"Yeah, what even is normal at this point?" Batgirl asked.

"Eh, you'll get used to it whenever you hang out with guys like us." Trixie shrugged.

"What the Hell just happened?" Oliver Queen asked, with him, Barry, and Diana having recovered from their attacks on the Dark Legends.

"Oh, hey Dad." William said. "Nice to see you sane again… And sorry for having to hit you."

"Ugh, my head feels like the morning after Brixton." Barry groaned, to which Constantine chuckled.

"Surely not that bad, mate."

"It's definitely not the worst feeling of pain I've felt in my millions of years of living." Diana said.

"Can someone get me out of this?" Kara asked impatiently, still stuck inside her invisible prison Constantine and Gibb made.

Constantine shrugged and then with the hand of his hand, freed Kara.

"God, I hate magic." Danvers grumbled.

The Dark Legends, the Dynamite Duo, and the four Heroes then turned their attention to Doctor Destiny.

"Now all that matters is… what do we do about him?" Nora asked, pointing to Dee.

"Only thing we can do. Take him back to Arkham." Batman declared, picking Destiny up.

"Wait." Dream called out, getting everyone's attention. "There is one thing I need to do before such action proceeds."

Morpheus then turned to Lucifer.

"Lightbringer, I have a theory for what John's true motivations were… but my request to you is to perform your magic on him so that my theory can be confirmed or denied."

"Well, don't mind if I do, old friend." Morningstar cheerfully replied, before walking up to Dee, and then began to stare at him in his eyes.

"Tell me, driving the whole world mad was not your original intention, was it? So tell me… what do you truly desire?"

Now Playing: "Sleep Well, John" from The Sandman OST

Dee stared into the Devil's eyes for 2 seconds before he spoke:

"I want… to be able to dream… again."

Lucifer gave Destiny a confused look. Wait… that's it? That was the reason the world had been plunged into chaos for the past few days?

"When the Green Arrow, Flash, and Wonder Woman captured me, they used a machine on me at STAR Labs to stop me from dreaming. And now, I can barely even sleep."

Everyone stared at the mad doctor for a good 10 seconds, taking in his reasonings for the supernatural plague. And then, Alice decided to speak up.

"So… let me get this straight." Alice said. "You wanted to 'save the world from its lies' all because you were having a temper tantrum from your dreams getting taken away?"

Destiny nodded yes.

"I'd say I'd feel bad for you, but with how you went about things… you honestly might be more crazy than I thought."

"Yeah… I think the machine may have been our bad." Flash said.

"Well, we didn't really have a choice at the time." Green Arrow pointed out.

"And his face does give me flashbacks to horrors I've seen in World War I." Wonder Woman added.

"But even regardless of all the damage he has caused to this world, every mortal deserves to dream, even corrupted ones such as John." Dream stated to the Heroes.

"Alright then." Lucifer muttered, turning back to Dee. "How about a deal: you go back to Arkham, never bother us again, and in exchange we'll give you your dreams back. Does that sound fair?"

"Yes, please!" Dee begged, to which Lucifer flashed his usual devilish smile.

"Good. Sandy, do your thing." Lucifer said.

The Sandman then walked up towards Dee, and grabbed the back of his head, as if he was cradling him like a baby. And after staring into Dee's eyes, Morpheus then grabbed his leather pouch, and then sprinkled some sand dust onto John's face.

And then… Dee closed his eyes, falling fast asleep. Dream looked at the sleeping doctor, and then softly whispered:

"Sleep well, John…"

With that, Dream carefully laid Dee onto the ground, and turned to the entire group.

"It is done. John can dream once more."

"Excellent." Lucifer grinned, before turning to Batman. "Batsey, take him away to the loony bin!"

Batman nodded, and then he, Nightwing, and Batgirl proceeded to shake everyone's hand, thanking them for all their help. And with that, the Dark Knight and the Dynamite Duo grabbed a hold of Dee, and Batman used his grapnel gun to fly away from the scene, Nightwing and Batgirl holding onto his back while he did so. The four other Heroes left the scene as well, with Flash grabbing a hold of Green Arrow and speeding away, and Supergirl holding onto Wonder Woman and flying into the sky.

Thus, the only ones left on the scene were Alice, Constantine, Lucifer, Gibb, Nora, Blue Arrow, Trixie, and Dream.

"So… now that this whole thing's all over… where do we go from here?" Alice asked.

"Tomorrow… the rebuilding will begin… in this realm and mine." Dream stated to the Dark Legends. "But tonight at least… humanity will sleep in peace."

"Thank God. I could really use a nap right now." Alice muttered, feeling tired after this whole thing.

"You and me both." Nora agreed.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Blue Arrow asked. "Nap time's not a minute away, especially we still have to go back to Chicago and pick up Mia, and pray that she and Cindy are okay."

"And hopefully Mom and Rory are alright at L.A." Trixie added, all while looking at Lucifer, to which he nodded in agreement.

With that, Alice and her friends walked up to Lucifer's black car, and then hopped in the vehicle. All the while, Constantine, Lucifer, and Gibb decided to talk to Dream one last time.

"Hey, Lord Morpheus." Gibb said to Dream, getting his attention. "I just want to say… after everything I've been through for nearly 20 years… I'm glad I've met you. I'm glad I've got to meet the real dream master."

"Yeah, you're definitely not too shabby, Sandman." Constantine added.

"Thank you, Gabrielle, Constantine." Dream said. "It was an honor meeting you both. Gabrielle, I'm happy to have redeemed myself for everything my creation put you through while I was imprisoned. And Constantine, you and Alice are worthy descendants of your ancestor."

"Well, you know, gots to keep my family name alive and well." John shrugged.

"It's been fun reuniting, Sandy." Lucifer said to Dream as well. "Next time, you should bring Death with you. She's always a hoot that makes things more interesting."

Dream nodded at the Devil, and then simply the words:

"Till we meet again, Lightbringer."

And with that, Lucifer, Constantine, and Gibb walked their way to Lucifer's car as well, Morningstar started the engine, and the Dark Legends drove their way out of Gotham City.

Dream watched as the Dark Legends left, and began to contemplate about the big adventure he had just experienced after 108 years of being imprisoned. It had been a long journey for the Sandman, with him having to go to the depths of Hell to retrieve his helm, work with Constantine and Gabrielle to gain back his leather pouch filled with sand, and then of course, the struggle he went through with trying to destroy his ruby and finally returning to full power. But because of that journey, he had found new allies such as Constantine, Gabrielle, and then Alice Pierce. And he had also reunited with Lucifer, even if he was a bit of a changed man from the Lightbringer Morpheus once knew. And now, the journey had finally come to an end.

As Dream thought this, he began to walk away himself, thinking long and hard about what his new purpose shall be. What was next for Dream of the Endless…?

---

A/N: Phew! Well there we go. That's this Chapter finally done. And there's a ton of stuff to go over here.

First of all, regarding the Buffyverse parts, as I've said before, this story takes place during Angel Season 3 and Buffy Season 6, specifically for Angel, it's in-between 3x12 and 3x13, and for Buffy, it's in-between 6x11 and 6x12... both of which never happen in this universe. You see, thanks to events that will transpire in my upcoming adaptation of Buffy Season 5, which I don't get into too much details before I write that story, the Scoobies are all in a much happier place. Buffy and Spike are in a healthy relationship while Buffy treats her friends and Dawn much better and Spike now has his soul, there's no Trio, and while Willow did still develop a magic addiction, Giles never leaves back to England and is actually currently helping her through her problem. Because of that, most of the episodes that will come afterward will either never happen or will happen much differently. While for Angel, Season 3 has gone about the same as it did originally, with the pregnant Darla stuff having already happened, thus Connor being born, and Sahjhan having awakened Holtz and is currently trying to kill Angel and Connor. But there might be a solid chance that after this point... things could change. You guys will see... in the distant future.

Now as you can see, I had shown different stages of the world getting affected by the dreamstone after John Dee had went to the 24 Hour Diner. First, I had Team Angel reacting to the TV host attempting suicide, which would be the stage where unpossessed characters would react to the madness, then I'd shown Nica Pierce being affected by the ruby and attacking Cindy whilst Andy protects their daughter as she's going crazy, and finally I had Willow almost attack Tara before Buffy came in and snapped her back to her senses. The Angel scene was last minute decision, but I've always planned on the Nica and Willow scenes, because with Nica, I've always thought while she is mostly a strong-willed person, she's not that strong-willed (Cult of Chucky and the first two Seasons of Chucky prove my point), so I could see her being completely affected sadly, whereas Willow is possibly one of the most strong-willed characters I think I've ever seen on TV or possibly fiction period, so her breaking out of Destiny's control easily. And I wrote these in place of the scenes of Dee at the Diner, because while a part of me was considering inserting the scenes from Sandman 1x5, I just thought that'd make this Chapter even longer than it already is, and geez, was I right. So they went exactly the same as they did in that show, while Dee manipulated the TV host just before dealing with the Fletchers.

Also on a minor note: I'd found out that the actress that played Judy Talbot in Sandman 1x5 is actually Anthony Stewart Head's daughter, Daisy Head. That just blew my mind upon learning about that, and I just had to make her and Giles related somehow. Granted, I couldn't have her be his daughter because as far as I'm aware, Giles doesn't have any kids, and he basically considers Buffy to be the closest thing he has to a daughter anyway, so there'd be no point in making Judy his daughter. Or I could've just had it to where she was secretly his daughter but neither of them knew up till this point, similar to Alice and Constantine here, but she was too minor of a character for that to work, so, she's just his niece that at one point moved to and lived in America. Let's just say she's the daughter of Giles' older sister of something.

Then we get to the final battle itself. And man, like I said in the beginning, if this was an anime, it'd most certainly be at least 3 episodes.

Let's talk about the surprising addition of Nightwing and Batgirl. Their appearance was a super last minute decision, as I did want to show a little bit of chaos happening in Gotham before Batman had arrived, and then I'd decided "fuck it" and have them assist the Dark Legends in the battle with the possessed Heroes. Big thanks to Aragorn II Elessar for helping out with that bit.

So their backstory in this universe is that Dick had been recruited by Batman to be the first Robin at 12 years old one year after his parents died during the Joker's first attack in the events of The Dark Knight, and then Barbara became Batgirl that same year at 11 years old after Two-Face held the Gordon family hostage in TDK, although here Batman saved Barbara from Dent instead of James Jr and Two-Face didn't die in this universe, he just fell into a long coma after he fell down the building. With those events having inspired Barbara, she would make her Batgirl costume and often sneak out of her parents house so that Jim never caught her (although he inevitably did, because well, he's Commissioner Gordon), bump into Batman and Robin frequently and then become a part of the Batfamily, and then slowly start a relationship with Dick. And the two would eventually go their separate ways together from Batman, and Dick would retire the Robin title and then become Nightwing. Hopefully this all makes sense.

PotCFan101 once told me that the Batman of the Dark Legends Verse is supposed to be based heavily on the TDK version, or at the very least, he's played by Christian Bale, so I have it to where the events of Batman Begins happened but without the League of Shadows or Ra's Al Ghul stuff due to the Arrowverse's version of the League already existing, and then The Dark Knight happened about the same, except for Two-Face holding Barbara at gunpoint instead of James Jr like I said, and then Two-Face never died, thus The Dark Knight Rises never happens, not that it can happen anyway due to once again there being a completely different League of Assassins in this verse, and even a different Talia, and so Bane would be a completely different person and much more like the comics version. Because of that, Bruce never becomes a hermit, and would go on to become a more traditional Batman, with him forming a Batfamily and eventually facing more fantastical villains from his rogues gallery such as Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Clayface, Poison Ivy, etc. around the time the metahuman phenomenon take place in 2014. Again, I'm hoping this makes sense, if not... oh well. I tried.

Anyways, that's enough regarding that front. For actors for Nightwing and Batgirl, imagine Dick being played by Jacob Elordi, and Barbara being played by Kathryn Newton (again, thanks to Aragorn II Elessar for the latter casting). And do expect them to be recurring characters in this series going forward, almost as much as Batman himself.

With the Heroes fight itself, I mainly put my energy towards the Alice/Trixie/Batgirl vs Wonder Woman fight, and the Batman/Blue Arrow/Nightwing vs Green Arrow fight as the Flash and Supergirl encounters went mostly the same as they did in Potsey's original story, just with Gibb taking Nora's place when taking out the Flash, and helping Constantine trap Supergirl.

For the latter one, I could definitely see Nightwing somewhat keeping up with Green Arrow thanks to his acrobatic skills, and having been trained by Batman, but Oliver is still a much superior H2H fighter, so he would beat Dick in that sense, which he did here. And then with Batman, while this is Bale's Batman and generally speaking if we were talking about that version, Arrowverse Green Arrow would destroy him in a fight (have you seen the way he fights in those movies?), in this universe, Bruce trained with a few martial artists before becoming Batman, and even still had some associates from the League even if he never trained with Ra's specifically. And since Rises isn't canon, Bruce could've had all the time in the world to really perfect his skill. So even though Green Arrow is still the better fighter overall, Batman could be able to keep up with him for a good bit. And as for William, well... he's his father's son. And thankfully my version of William isn't Male Felicity 2.0, but let's not get into that right now.

Regarding Alice vs Wonder Woman, while Alice is very strong given her Slayer strength, and she has the agility to somewhat keep up with her... it's friggin' Wonder Woman! No Slayer could ever even come close to being stronger than the Amazon Princess. Especially since my Diana is based heavily on the DCEU version, given that she's played by Gal Gadot and I have it that she was born around 1245 B.C., so just 8 years before 1253 B.C, the year Zari dropped off Helen of Troy at Themyscira, so she's millions of years old. So she had centuries, heck, millennia of combat experience to become the absolute powerhouse she is, and that's more than enough to give her the complete edge over any Slayer in my opinion, besides maybe the First Slayer, and even then I have my doubts. And since Alice at this point isn't a year into being a Slayer, unlike Buffy who had been one for what, 6 years at this point... yeah, it's obvious that Wonder Woman would easily beat her, as shown here. Alice can definitely get a few good hits on her, but those would not be enough. Nora, I think I can could somewhat keep up with Wonder Woman, especially when possessed by Mallus, but Wonder Woman would still be superior based on like I said, her having much longer combat experience.

Speaking of Alice, then we finally get to the big confrontation with Doctor Destiny. And this was the biggest thing I've been struggling with going into this story, as I really wanted to change the way this fight went down in the original Dark Legends 2, because as I really enjoy that story, that fight was a bit underwhelming in my opinion in the fact that... it wasn't really a fight. No offense, Pots. But I wanted to do it in a way that still involved Dream in some way even while he was unconscious, because since this is an adaptation of the Sandman show as much as it was of Dark Legends 2, Dream is pretty much the main character of this story, or at least second behind Alice. So then I'd gotten the idea of Dream helping Alice out via telepathy, sort of like Professor Xavier from X-Men, which is ironic considering James McAvoy voiced Dream in the Sandman audio dramas, ha! And after rewatching the fifth episode in preparation of this Chapter, I'd finally gotten the full picture for this battle, and had Dream use Alice in the Dreaming to have her trick Dee into thinking she was his mother. This does seem like something Dream would do, as he does play some tricks sometimes, as seen in 1x2 when he tricked the Fates.

And then after that, Destiny decides to one-up Alice and Dream by using the dreamstone and having Alice fight a bunch of nightmare illusions. Now this was a lot of fun to write, with me inserting cameos from Chucky and the Annabelle demon, and then having Alice fight illusions of demons and Vampires which was similar to the epic Hell on Earth battle from Dark Legends. I was originally thinking about inserting a certain Hell-Goddess in as well, but... nah, didn't wanna mention too much of that, so I'll save writing her whenever I get to my next story.

Finally, we have Destiny's motivations for committing the supernatural plague to begin with: like in the original story, he just wanted to dream again. Now I wasn't too sure if I wanted to keep this and if it would align with motivations from the show of saving the world from its lies, but after some thinking... I thought they aligned perfectly. So basically after Green Arrow, Flash, and Wonder Woman took away his dreams in STAR Labs, Dee got very petty and thought "If I can't dream, no one can!". But then here comes Daddy Sandman to give him his dreams back and now... the madness comes to an end.

*sighs* Man, writing this A/N took a lot out of me. And I'm sure it just made the Chapter even longer! But anyways... yeah, this has been one fun ride for the past year. All that's left is the epilouge, and I can finally bring this story to an end. Expect that to hopefully come out at the beginning of September. And I hope you guys had a nice Thanksgiving (or a good Thursday depending on where you're at). And happy Black Friday!