Chapter Twenty-Eight

"And suddenly you're ripped into being alive. And life is pain and life is suffering and life is horror but you're alive and it's spectacular."

Reverse Flash— Thawne —had led Wally to the Arctic Circle, far from where everyone else was. The man stood in the cold, a twisted smile playing on his lips and a picture in his hands.

Wally saw it was of himself and Arley; they were older. There was no scar on her face and there was a baby with dark hair and green eyes between them.

"Her name was Maria, West."

"What do you mean, was?" The wind howled.

"I mean she'll never be born. Not in this timeline." Wally felt his eyes narrow at Thwane as the man handed the picture over. It was dated for only three more years in the future.

"So we've been set back Thwane—"

"—You've been stopped kid! Barry has fucked the timeline so much that picture will never happen!"

"What the hell are you talking about! Arley and I—"

"—Your girl is gone!" Ice flooded Wally's veins; it wasn't the snow that surrounded Wally that made the speedster feel so cold. "Your future is shot because that mentor of yours has ruined the timeline! He has sacrificed your future for his!"

Wally took three steps forward.

"What are you talking about?"

"A flashpoint. Wally, Barry destroyed the timeline years ago-in the future," Thawne shrugged, his manic smile was tight. He was upset. "You fall through the speed-force, you come back and have a bunch of rug rats with that girl, that's what's supposed to happen. But then the world is in danger and Barry runs, the way he always does and the timeline is destroyed and reconstructed to mirror what could've been in some fucked up funhouse way." Thawne took three steps closer, he and Wally were only a hair's breadth away from one another.

"You never should have left that day West. She was never supposed to be taken." Wally felt his head spin. He gripped the picture in his hands tightly enough to wrinkle it.

"She wasn't supposed to die like this, West."

Wally West never expected his world to stop in the Arctic circle.

…

Arley could taste blood in her mouth. She could feel her blood curdling in her veins; she was cold. There was a weight on her chest but it wasn't painful.

She wasn't in pain despite the last thing that she could remember being Vandal Savage ripping a sickle out of her.

She had died.

She was dead.

She was cold because she had no beating heart; her heart had stopped and for that the curdled blood in her laid frozen.

She was dead.

And yet, she woke up in a waiting room. She was upright in a plush velvet seat; disco played lowly in the background and the rug beneath her seat was shag. The person beside her was beautiful. And familiar.

She knew that curve of the nose. That twist in the smile. She knew the cowlick on the back of the man's hair.

She knew those eyes.

"We have the same eyes," Arley said to Nabu. She had been awake for everything that had led up to the fight; she was related to Nabu.

And Savage. Arley grimaced at the thought right as a chuckle rolled over Nabu.

The sound was nice; Arley couldn't remember him having ever laughed before. The sound had shocked her enough that the face she had made had fallen right off.

"They were my mothers eyes," Nabu said. "She was a good woman. Better than my father deserved," he added. "Her name," he added after Arley had nodded, "Also meant Light."

Arley— as the song changed from one disco song to another —couldn't help but smile at the tidbit. She had the same eyes as her foremother. Their names had meant the same thing. To Arley who had grown up with no family of her own, her cold dead heart warmed at the fact.

"What does your name mean?"

Nabu quirked a thick brow upwards. He shrugged.

"It depends, I've been around for so long my name has been used to describe me."

"What do you mean?"

"The Semitic meaning of my name is to announce. To prophesize. Other meaning have it being akin to the word speak-my people, the ones who lived and knew they immortalized me more than I had already been."

"Oh?"

"My youngest son survived the Witch Boys attack, he was the only memeber we of the royal family to-my father as far as anyone had known had perished with me, the only advisor who had warned what the Witch Boy would bring. So they and my boy immortalized me into Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom, learning, prophecy, scribes, and writing."

"That's sweet," Arley said softly.

"It is," a dry voice chimed in. Arley turned from Nabu— her friend, her ancestor —and saw a bony, nearly emaciated man in a tattered cape. Arley had consumed enough modern day media to know who— what —stood before her. "Nabu, Arley Gluck, follow me."

Arley, without question, had only started to rise when Nabu grabbed her wrist. His hand encapsulated the bones as he stood to his full height.

He wasn't very tall. Arley smiled; she— before the serum —had always been small. It seemed as if her entire line had always been small.

"Wait, I need to speak to the Lords. She's not supposed to be here," Nabu said to Death as he motioned with his head to Arley. "Her Fate was not supposed to end with my fathers, my Lord assured me of that."

"The Lords will not speak to you Nabu, you are dead. A dead Agent is no matter to Order or Chaos."

"They are when the balance has been thrown—"

"—I know." Death's voice was gravely; it was deep and baritone but also raspy. "I know what has been thrown out of balance, I clean up after the likes of you both."

Arley nodded at Death's sneer. Maybe when she had been younger she'd been ashamed of what she'd had to do but now— after everything —Arley just nodded. War had casualties; why should she be ashamed that she had killed members of Light?

"That's why," Death continued, "You're being taken to the Lords bosses."

Nabu, had he also not been dead, looked as if he would've paled at the announcement.

"Why?"

"The scales are out of balance Nabu. From the whispers that I hear it is because of you. Order and Chaos must be wrought and with the scale you tipped out of balance the only ones to that are them."

"Who?" Arley asked.

Death smiled; whittled, yellow teeth flashed themselves at Arley. Nabu sighed.

"Who do you think created it all?"

"Who destroys it all?" Death wondered; Nabu's head snapped to the side.

"No, I won't allow her—"

"—You are in no position to demand Nabu. Entity and Nekron will see you together. Now." Deaths tone was final, there was no room for any kind of pushback.

Arley twisted her wrist out of Nabus grip and instead threaded her fingers with his.

For the first time in months hope burned brightly in her chest.

They had fought together. They had died together; they could face whatever came next together. There was no try, no fail, not when they set their minds together.

…

"Where is she!" Hal's panicked voice rang out. The Martians were out of commission from the heat of the fire, as was Dubbilex. Artemis had been stabbed by her father— Katma and Jade hovered, putting pressure on the bleeding wound —right before Jade and her had ended the man and John was getting Superboy the medical attention he needed.

The feral Superman clone Prime had shattered the entire of Superboys right side and had killed Ch'p when he had gone to help Superboy.

Hal couldn't even start to care about where— who Ch'ps —ring had flown off too because before them, amount the chaos and blood and smoke was the building they had all just been in, and no sight of his daughter.

Hal cupped his hands over his mouth, "Arley!" He shouted, "Arley! Where are you!"

"Arley!" He heard Wally howl, "Glow!"

Hal only half noticed the Bats, Dinah, Snapper and Dick Grayson and merry band of young adults all rushing out of the large shop that had touch down.

"Arley!" Wally howled as he took off in a specific direction. Hal took off after the speedster.

…

"Right this way." Death had led Arley and Nabu down a long corridor. The ceiling— though there was light —seemed to go on forever. The dark green walls seemed to stretch up forever, only ending when Arley could see no more.

The floor beneath Arley and Nabu was some kind of fine, expensive looking wood that had been cut and carved so every step held some kind of intricate design. Some of the designs were that of stars, constellations and galaxies that Arley knew well while others were etchings of historical moments that were lost to time.

Though Arley was made to stop at the last door in the corridor her still, unbeating heart leapt into her throat because as Death knocked on the doors once and then twice all Arley could look at was the image etched beneath her feet.

It was her and Nabu, she knew it was. Knew it had to be because it was Savage with a sword embedded in his chest that next to her; the pair of them were linked together by the chain that was carved into the wood flooring. An exploding light— a Lanterns light perhaps —was behind them.

The door opened and Arleys flew from the floor to two beings that sat side by side to one another.

One was bright. Shaped like a man but with no nose or real eyes; he looked like one of the dwarf stars Arley had seen, burning so bright it was blinding.

The other being made Arleys gut twist. They reminded Arley of a decaying corpse. The being was a skull with empty eye sockets and no cartilage where a nose should sit and dark matter whipping around.

"Sirs," Death said with a nod as he ushered both Arley and Nabu into the room. Nabu rested his hand on the small of Arleys back as they came to stand on the other side of the desk the two beings sat at. Death allowed the door to closed with a soft but echoing click.

"Arley Gluck," one of the beings said; Arley wasn't sure which one, neither of the beings moved their mouths. "You have returned."

Arley cocked her head to the side. "I've been here before?"

"Of course you have, in every life you have. We create you in every timeline."

"To suffer," Arley sniped. "I was told I was created to suffer."

"To fight," the other being rasped; their voices were not the same. The first voice that had spoken was high pitched and had a Basil's sound to it, the second was deep and raspy. "You are always created to fight."

"What's the difference?" Arley replied and a deep chuckle floated throughout the room.

"The girl is right," the high pitched voice said, "To fight is to suffer."

"To live is to suffer Entity. Death is peace."

"Except for those who are tormented. Look at Nabu; hundreds of thousands of years and still no peace." The being made of Light flourished its hand in Nabu's direction.

"Then," the deep voice chuckled, "He shall have it."

"Wait!—" Whatever Nabu was going to say was cut short with a wave of the dark beings hand. The pressure that had been on the small of Arleys back as she saw the man— her ancestor, her comrade —disappears before her eyes.

"What the fuck!" Arley cried as she snapped

Back to look at the two beings; if she were alive her heart would have been hammering in her chest, "What did you do to him!"

"Moved him on! He is at peace!" The deep voice boomed. "He's with the family that passed eons before him, just as what was promised when he was held back!"

The dark being stood from his chair and Arley squared her shoulders as if she were readying herself for a fight, she didn't care if the beings had made the universe, she didn't care what they could do to her. She would fight them until her atoms were split and scattered across the galaxy.

But no blows came.

"I am Nekron. The one that ends."

"He means destroys." The high pitched voice added on; the being made of light stood. "I am Entity, the one who creates. Together Arley Gluck we have made this universe."

"We make them all," Nekron said.

"What does that have to do with me?" Arley wondered sharply and Entity waved their hand and two marble cheese pieces appeared on the table.

Entity moved its hand out to display the figures. Arley took both from the table.

One was a girl bound in chains; the figure was small but in her hands, despite the chains around her wrists there was a sword.

There was a scar on her face and a frown on her lips.

The figure was her.

The other figure was of a hulk of a man draped in a bear skin cape, holding a spear. He too had scars on his face; claw marks.

It was Savage.

"You're mine this time around," Entity said, "A girl who lives-who doesn't know how to die no matter what the universe throws at her."

"Who destroys with her every touch," Nekron chuckled. "You're mine in every other lifetime."

"What do you mean yours?"

"Who fastened you girl? Was it me this time around."

"Only because it was I who fastened Savage; I cannot have two pieces on the board," said Nekron. "My Morningstar in every other life."

Arleys fists clenched around the figurines in her hands.

Board. They spoke about her and Savage like game pieces; chess pieces.

"You're saying everything I've gone through was all just some part of a game?"

"Yes," Nekron answered easily; like it was no sweat off their back. "One I lost this time around. I should have made sure to claim you, you always seem to win not by our doing."

"Win!" Arleys laugh was hollow. She pointed to the scar on her face; there was no pain when she moved— the scars on her back didn't stretch —but the phantom pain she could remember burned at the back of her mind. "You call this a fucking win!"

"Well it was supposed to end better," Entity sneered , "You were supposed to have a good ending."

That was right.

"Nabu said I was supposed to live."

"Nabu should have never opened his mouth!" Nekron bellowed; though the ball in Arleys throat jumped, Arley herself did not.

She would not show fear.

"You've heard of Cassandra?" Entity asked, "A woman who spoke of the future but no one believed?"

"Of course."

"Nabu was not her, you believed him."

"And?"

"You can't know fate and not have it change; you can't know what's going to happen next."

"That's bullshit!" Arley cried because she hadn't belived it, at least, not really. Deep in her bones— in her cells and blood; she could taste the lie in her mouth whenever she had thought of Nabus words —Arley had known what she always knew.

There was no soft ending for her. There wasn't supposed to be. She was a street kid from Gotham and she was always going to die a street kid's death.

Bloody, and inevitable.

But the future Nabu had told her about had made that so much more variable because of that off chance, the one that would never come.

"Damn right it is," a familiar cockney voice rang out. Arley spun and saw one of the last people she had expected to come across in the afterlife if only because the rumor was, he couldn't die.

…

Wally's hands were bloody; concrete and glass had cut through the layers of his suit, not that he cared. They were in the area where Wally had used his goggles to pick up a heat signature but Arley had yet to be found.

Superboy couldn't hear Arleys heart; neither M'gann, Manhunter's niece or Dubbilex could get a read on Arleys thoughts.

"Arley!" Dick called out, hands cupped over his mouth as he paused in peeling back the layers of Savage's fallen fortress.

"Arley!" Both Roy's yelled three beats after Dick. "Arley if you can hear us say something!"

Silence; Superboy, despite his injuries tilted his head to the side. He didn't say anything before he picked through rebar and plaster dust; he didn't need to.

His lips had quivered.

Wally's bloody hands shook.

…

"John?" Arley blinked. Constantine had the door open, he leaned against the frame and a cigarette hung from the slope of his mouth.

Just like Arley both Entity and Nekron— jumped to their feet —and hissed out the man's name in tandem.

"Kid, Entity, Nekron," John greeted.

"What are you doing here Constantine!" Nekron shrieked as the man walked into the room, he shouldered Arley behind him. Like he was shielding her.

"I'm taking her back."

"The hell you are!" Entity hissed; the beings high pitched voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

"Let me rephrase that mate, I'm taking her fucking place."

"What?" Arley moved. John's words not lost on her, "John, you can't."

"Of course I can Kid, you've got a life to live."

"She died!"

"So have I. So has Supes-Entity, you're telling me you don't want your girl to live?" John asked. Entity heaved a sigh.

"She died Constantine, she has a place now."

"Yeah, with that boy of hers. I've seen them, not just here but in the other timelines, you two have bound them."

"And?" Nekron hissed.

"They always wind up together, death doesn't separate them. You've both made sure of that."

"This timeline is different. This life is not like the others."

"Let me take her place."

"Why?" Arley whispered. John turned partially to her. "Why take my place?" She'd heard about John's adventures; he was a mythic headache in real time.

If he truly wanted love to prevail why not steal her soul— her essence, whatever made her —back in the dead of night?

"Because I'm trying to be good," John said kindly, "I've fucked up a lot. I've ruined so much but you don't see that and I need to prove you right."

"How can you ask me to live knowing you're doing this for me? You're offering to die for me John."

"I already have," John said, "My soul left my body four hours ago. This is me just making sure I don't fuck up my one grand, last-act."

"But why?" John put his hands on Arleys shoulders.

"Because you trust me. No one has done that in years, you know? Feels nice."

Arley wanted to open her mouth and call the magical man an idiot. She wasn't worth dying for, whatever silver of happiness she could have had, hadn't been worth throwing his life away.

Instead she hugged the man tightly around the middle. Her shoulder shook with undead sobs; the dead couldn't do a lot. They couldn't tell tall tales, or wear plaid, or cry.

John pay her head with one hand while the other pressed firmly against the area between her shoulder blades.

They pulled away from one another after a moment and John looked at the two beings.

"I'm playing it nice here, I didn't have to."

"What stops me from destroying you?" Nekron hissed and without a verbal answer John pulled a necklace from under his shirt; the medallion was large, the size of Superman's palm. It also had several ancient looking jewels and carvings embedded into it.

Entity fell back into their chair; Nekron knocked theirs over in an attempt to put distance between them and John's pendant.

"Nabu left it to me, told me where to find it. You both recognize it, don't you?"

"How did he—"

"—Does it matter?" Entity cut Nekron off. "You know what will happen don't you Constantine? If you bind us?"

"I thought the world was going to go to hell in a handbasket when the kid killed the Witch Boy. It got messy but didn't fall apart any more than usual, so I doubt my imagination is worse than what will happen."

"You compare us to that createn?" Nekron hissed in offense.

Entity leaned across the table.

"You'll stay here with us Constantine." John flashed the being a wicked smile; the kind he had been flashing M'gann since day one.

"Fun."

Nekron turned to Arley.

"Your fight won't be over if you go back. You'll suffer."

"You'll have a long life," Entity added on, almost like it was a threat. And perhaps it was; in Arleys option Nekron had been right. To live was to suffer.

But Arley had been made to suffer; hand crafted by the beings in front of her to partake in their twisted little game of hurt.

Living despite the odds was what she had always done best.

Arley looked at John. "I'll think of you."

"Please don't, I doubt that red head of yours would very much like it if you thought of another man—" Arley hit Constantine in the gut.

The man just let out a laugh as he hugged Arley once more.

"Be good kid."

"I'll be the best Johnny." The man smiled sadly at Arley, a finger moved hair out of her face.

Arley felt her chest tighten. This was goodbye.

Constantine hadn't been her best friend; he hadn't been much more of a friend than Nabu but he had been a comrade. An ally, a good man.

And even if they weren't close Arley couldn't help the sob that built in her chest at the death of a good man.

"I know you will. Now name a rug rat after me, won't you?"

Arley laughed aloud at John's joke. Arley didn't think she'd ever have kids. She'd fuck them up. She used to want a house full of them; four. Maybe five and that was if she didn't count however many foster kids she'd have at the time.

Now though, after everything the idea terrified her. And yet—

"Of course. Johnny. I'll name them all after you."

"Fucking better, mate."

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." John rolled his eyes, a smile played on his lips as the door Arley had been led through flew open and revealed not a hallway but instead a dark, swirling vortex.

"Yeah-yeah, have a nice life Lantern."

"I will," Arley swore right before she was sucked through the rooms threshold; Arley closed her eyes as she flew into the void.

She was cold and then warm; pain that hadn't been there rocked through her as the Lantern felt as if she was being squeezed through a bottle of toothpaste, and then, suddenly and all at once she opened her eyes.

Weight barred upon her, jagged rocks but into her and she could feel the slowly cooling body of Vandal Savage behind her.

"Fuck," Arley breathed as she strained her ears. John hadn't given his life for her just to die several hours later under rubble, once more next to her worst enemy.

"Arley!" She faintly heard. Hal, his voice was muffled but even so Arley knew her father— her dad —had to be screaming his voice raw.

"Glow!" Wally.

"Green bean!" Roy. One of them; both of them? She couldn't tell buried under tons of rubble; she just knew that voice.

"Arley!"

It was quiet.

"Hey!" She screamed. She dry swallowed the falling dust as she screamed. "Hey! I'm here! Hey!"

It was quiet again. No one responded with a shout. Arley tried to move her arms so that she could push the rubble off herself and claw her way out of the debris only for her arms to wiggle hopelessly against the tons of weight bearing upon her.

She wasn't Superboy or M'gann or Lex; there was only so much she could do.

So she screamed again. "Help! Wally! Kal! Superboy!"

She hacked at the dust as she took a deep in— she could only breathe so deep with the weight on her chest —and started yelling once more when the coughing stopped.

"Hal! Lex!" Megs, please you have to hear me! "Help!" She shouted; "Please," she whispered more to herself, "Help me."

"Arley!" A moment later Hal's voice rang through the air. Hal's voice was closer, more urgent. It was right on top of her, "Arley are you there!"

"Yes!" She screamed, "Yes I'm here!"

And before she could hear Hal's response— before she could hear her adoptive father reassure her that everything would be fine —Arley heard rubble moving.

She was being dug out.

It felt like an hour, it couldn't have been because when the first beams of light coming from the rainbow of constructs started slipping through the cracks Arley saw several people digging her out.

Wally, she saw the yellow of his suit. She heard Superboy grunting; she heard Dick giving orders on being careful least the rubble that was sitting on her cave more in and crush her to death.

Arleys mouth felt dry.

She had died. John had died for her.

She had killed Vandal Savage and met the two beings that had created the universe.

She had died.

She had always known she was going to, ever since she ran away from the system at eight she knew she was only one misstep away from death's door but she had come back. There was an after for her, there was a future.

She had a life to live.

Arley felt tears bubble in the corners of her eyes as more and more of the rubble was cleared away only to sob as Dick and Kaldur removed the last large slab that had been slated over her.

Wally hovered above her, Hal behind him.

She had imagined this scene so many times over the years it was like a wave a deja vu had washed over her.

Several people— Wonder Woman, Aquaman, a woman Arley had only met the day before, Huntress —murmured something as their heads popped into view and they were forced to take in the view.

Arley bloody, on top of Vandal Savage— the god amongst men —who laid beneath her, dead by her hand.

"Arley," M'gann cried. The Martian girl hopped into the joke next to her, hands hovering over the bloody spots of her clothes, "Arley is that you?"

Why wouldn't it be? Arley thought only to freeze.

She had died. Nabu had died; she was wearing the Helmet of Fate.

Nabu was dead.

"Yeah," Arley croaked. "Yeah it's me."

"Okay, okay good, I'm going to take the helmet off okay?"

"Yeah." Arley didn't nod, she laid still as M'gann moved the once mystical artifact off of her.

Air rushed into Arleys lungs. And though M'gann tried gently pushing her down, despite the pain Arley sat up. Her head spun as she reached out to Wally.

Before the speedster could take her though a green construct— John's construct —gently lifted Arley out of the hole and placed her in the speedsters lap.

Arley looked at her friends and family and allies. She was in pain but she was breathing. She then looked at her ring hand and her ring was blackened; as of it had been burned, fused to her finger.

Arley relaxed against Wally.

That would be a mystery for a different day. For— Arley thought of the past hers, of how the young woman she was now would no longer be the woman she one day would be —a new Arley in the future.

It was funny, Arley thought as the adrenaline slowly left her body and dark spots slowly took over her field of vision, the warmth that spread throughout her at being in Wally's lap, at being surrounded by those she loved as they dug her out of a joke in the ground.

Time was funny like that; it was so different all those months ago, when she and Lex and Superboy had to dig themselves out. She had been so different.

The girl that had crossed out of the D.C Cadmus Labs rubble hadn't been the girl that had been captured or the girl that had gotten her ring or the one that had run away.

She hadn't even been the same girl that sat in Wally West's lap.

Not that that was a bad thing; every version of herself had loved the future her so much. They had loved the next version of themselves enough to die so that, that new girl could live.

Arley could do that. She could love herself, she could die to live.

She would because there was no other choice.

Notes: So this is it! The end, it's not the end of Arley. I love her too much to part ways; I'll be posting a Hadestown one shot sooner or later and then another multi-chapter lightspeed thing because no matter how much I'd love to write something else Arley and Wally rule my life.

Anyway, let me know what you thought, what you think— Entity and Nekron; this wasn't going to be the epilogue but nothing else in my mind worked like Arley wanting to live.

Tell me about how you feel about Arley.

Anyway until next time! Have a great life because there's no other option my dudes.