The Unique Chapter 17: Day 4142 - Part Two, a supergirl fanfic

DAY 4142 – EARTH PRIME – YEAR 2039 December 21st

The Unique Soul

Part Two

"Sung in cathedrals, whispered in the shadows, always unchanged, rarely frozen, bright incandescence, black as the abyss, such is the substance of LEGENDS."

– Justice League's Legends, DC Comics

They were all lined up on the road. It was quiet. Silence, everywhere. They had emptied the neighborhood to avoid collateral damage. The snow had started to fall again a few minutes ago. Their breathings were coming out as smog in front of their lips in synchrony as they waited for the enemy to arrive.

"How do we know he's going to attack here again?" Damian Wayne asked next to his brother without turning his head once.

Dick, Damian and Barbara had joined them in time but they were still missing Batwoman and the Flash in their row.

"I saw it in his mind." Liz grumbled without quitting the end of the road.

"But why?" He insisted.

"If you control Supergirl's city, you control the world." Alex explained from the other side of the line.

Next to her, Esme huffed. "There's far worse on this planet than Supergirl's wrath."

"When you attack her family…?" Andrea quipped, tilting her head to her. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Kara never acknowledged their remarks but shushed them. A dark blurry figure appeared at the end of the boulevard. A ship landed behind him on autopilot. Liz's fists tightened. With calm, she pushed one button on her wristband to activate her gloves. One by one, each of her fingers started to glow electric purple.

"This is my moment. I've trained my whole life for this." She breathed in. Breathed out. Her thoughts too invasive to stay in her brain. "I can't fail."

"You won't." Kara said to her left.

"We love you." Lena said from her other side. Liz threw her a terrified glance from the corner of her eyes. Lena nodded determinedly. "We're proud of you, love."

Liz looked down, blushing. She got this. She had thousands of hours of training in the Cube. She got this.

Looking up, Liz saw the Boom Tube open in the sky. With it, the flapping of wings and the landing of Darkseid's lieutenants echoed in the air. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out again. When she opened them back, she was floating, her hands glowing like two purple threats.

"Let's do this." And she flew forward. Only a blur of black and purple could be seen as her voice echoed around her team.

"Beyond the flimsy barriers of reason, there is the planet Apokolips. Here, where even the kilometers-long colonies of flames spat out ceaselessly by formidable pits of energy fail to penetrate the eternal darkness, joy is unknown, hope a capital crime. Here, there is no pride, no passion. No pity. There is only order. Complete. Absolute. Immutable."

– Justice League's Legends, DC Comics

It started with June on the other side of the boulevard opening a Boom Tube thanks to subspace relays to welcome Darkseid's minions on Earth as Liz watched them from the middle of the road. The gigantic tunnel poured its monstrosities through a dark and deep fog in the middle of the white winter charged sky. The cold air was slowly being dispersed by the heat the tunnel was bringing. It had stopped snowing as rapidly as it had started and snow was now melting on the sidewalks in large puddles of water. The frozen cars and lampposts were now completely wet. The tension felt electric in the air. As if all Hell had been left loose on National City.

The first to descend from the Tube was Katrach. Always the eager one for blood. He landed in the middle of the boulevard, a couple of feet away from June. Liz recognized him from June's nightmares. His usual branding iron fist had been replaced by a crossbow with sickly green glowing arrows. His face and entire body were as hideous in reality as they were in June's nightmares. He was tall. Monstrous even, with his sharp teeth and grey skin. But Liz knew he had a weakness. He was slow.

Next to him, Granny Goodness landed on Earth in a crouch, demons and lost souls rushing around her. Her battalion followed as a group of deformed creatures. They had every shape and form. Somme had three legs but no arms. Some were crawling, others were jumping on a lone limb. Some could talk, others didn't have a mouth. One of them had corns instead of eyes. They were organized though, and proudly carrying Green Kryptonite charged weapons. The old lady looked easy to beat, like a grandma with her pearly white hair and round face, but Liz knew better. She remembered all the atrocious tasks she had asked June to accomplish. All the punitions. The mistreatments from his very young age. Liz knew Granny Goodness, one of Darkseid's oldest commanders, was pure evil.

Katrach and Granny Goodness didn't have the time to approach her as Liz saw Supergirl grab them both by the collar with each of her fists and throw them miles away, on the shore, before flying after them. The battalion followed eagerly. They wanted a battle. They would have a run for their money.

After them, Steppenwolf, with his corned helmet, his enormous lighting axe and his para-demons, appeared. He eased himself down on one of the buildings, as gracious as the New God he was, already searching for his worst enemy. Wonder Woman. She found him first. She landed in front of him, ready to kick his ass one more time. But this time, not alone. Sydney was with her. And three dozen Amazons in armor ready to take revenge.

Liz was about to go help them when the sound of a horn reached her ears. She turned her head towards the sound. At the end of the boulevard, June had whistled it, waking up the Warhounds in his ship. Dozens of hounds, those twelve-feet high land-based devices shaped like wolves with their sharp claws and their spiked bodies, wandered out of the ship in groups, sniffling the air before darting forward, preys established. They squashed para-demons as they ran towards their different preys.

Liz shook her head and focused on her own task. June. She took her flight and stopped in midair a couple of feet away from him. He looked up at her, a smirk on his face. Now, they were finally reunited.

Welcome, dear nemesis. Are you ready to die today?

His voice in her head was playful. Challenging. Her only response was a flick in her eyes as she readied them to shoot purple lasers. June nodded and took a step back. A grunt escaped from his lips as his body started to shift. Liz knew his other form was monstrous but she didn't know how much.

As his transformation started, June's eyes were only two brightened pools of darkness. Elongated claws replaced his strong fingers. His body became opaque, like the one of a specter. His hair, normally red and disheveled, was now a bright dark flame, pulsing with half of the magic he had from Liz. His features were gone, only the ones of a dark, transparent soul were discernable.

Once his transformation was completed, June rolled his head from right to left as he stood two feet taller than a normal human being in the middle of the boulevard. Liz waited for him to acknowledge her, observed the years of mistreatment on Apokolips finally come to their main goal. June wasn't a teenager anymore. He was a machine trained to kill. He was a being born from a magical experiment that went wrong centuries ago. He was her other half. The Other part to her Unique soul.

As he finally looked up at her, his eyes so disturbingly black that Liz felt goosebumps irrupt on her skin, he clapped his fingers together. In his right hand, a ghostly black halberd appeared. He smirked.

Good. Now, I am too.

And with that, he threw his halberd at her like a spear. She avoided it but couldn't avoid him as he jumped and tackled her with strength.

"There's nothing wrong with a good fight. A man of tomorrow is forged by his battles today."

– Lex Luthor

Jason could almost laugh. It was his first big battle and he loved every second of it. Around them, hounds and fly-like demons were trying to tear them apart but Lena was pulverizing them with blasts of magic as he was fighting them with his own two fists. It was remarkable. His hands were enhanced by the gauntlets but it was remarkable, nonetheless.

They were working back-to-back, protecting each other against the demons' assaults. The plan was to keep the demons and hounds away from the rest of the city and avoid them spreading everywhere, threatening the citizens or disturbing Liz in her fight against the Other.

Eventually, they got slightly separated though. Jason drifted away from Lena a bit, hunting down a demon who was flying too quickly towards Alex, Esme, and Kelly who was on the floor, nursing a wound. It left Lena alone for a minute or two. It was enough for five Warhounds to surround her.

Jason watched her from across the street. There were many demons in between them, too many for him to arrive on time. Too many for him to arrive before she got eaten up by these mutts. He ran anyway.

With his hands tightly held in his brand-new gauntlets, he hit two hounds in the maw and pulverized some demons by squashing their throats in his fist. As he was reaching Lena, only a demon between them, the hounds around her attacked, only to crash down before reaching her.

On the other side of the circle formed by the whining hounds around Lena, the perfect copy of his sister was standing with a confident smirk on her face in a typical Luthor-like armor glowing a familiar green, her two hands outstretched. She winked at Jason before squeezing her fists tight. The hounds fell heavily on the concrete, a last whine escaping them before they died around Lena who looked as astounding as he was.

"Woaaah"

Lena's head whipped on the side to Esme and her wide-open mouth. "Esme! Focus!" She hissed.

"Sorry!" Esme turned around and immediately hit a demon in the face before passing through another to hit it in the back.

Lena dusted herself off as she stood up, shaking her head. She eyed her alter ego hesitantly and walked over. "What are you doing here?"

The other Lena smiled and pumped her armored fist, the nanotechnology shifting to reveal a blasting gun.

"I'm here to do what you won't do yourself. Save our daughter."

"She's not your daughter." Lena barked back.

"She was once. But I watched her die." The other Lena tilted her head on the side with a sad smile. "I'm not letting this happen a second time."

Lena pointed at her menacingly. "Don't you dare! If you kill the Other, Liz will die too."

The other Lena scoffed. "Nonsense. He's evil. He needs to die."

"We won't let you do it." Jason said, coming next to his sister.

The other Lena smiled devilishly and chuckled a bit. With a tilt of her head, her helmet fell back on her face, the robotic voice coming out of it too similar from Lex's one when he was still alive and completely mad.

"We'll see about that."

The three of them collided in a mess of fists and blasting energy. Alex would be proud of them. They had stuck to the plan for as long as they could. But the plan was never supposed to go as planned.

"Far-off gods are fine for prayer, and I judge no person who seeks comfort in the infinity of heavens. But here below, when the demons come in close, you're better off just relying on the staunch will of a good woman."

– Ruthye Knoll, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Granny Goodness and her battalion were well prepared. They came on Earth armed with Green Kryptonite weapons. Arrows. Guns. Even the spikes on their armors were made out of Kryptonite. But they didn't know Kara had Lena Luthor and her smart brain on her side.

Kara was avoiding arrows shot by Katrach at the same time Granny Goodness was hitting her pointedly on the helmet to try and break her armor into pieces. They needed to get rid of the armor to reach her with their Kryptonite-charged weapons. So that was why they kept charging her, hitting relentlessly.

Kara didn't know Apokolips was this inhabited. Didn't know the people of Apokolips could be this well trained and organized either. As she was pushing away enemy after enemy, anchoring her feet in the sand mixed with snow to avoid being overwhelmed, it made her rethink the idea of attacking Granny Goodness and Katrach on her own.

Just like Liz, Kara didn't have any partner planned. Her role in all this was to protect Liz. Keep an eye on her and help her if it was becoming difficult. Pulling Katrach and Granny Goodness away was a good idea at first. It prevented them from attacking Liz while she was busy. A good point, right?

Not so much. Especially when cracks started to appear on her helmet. Kara scrunched up her face, measuring her options quickly. To neutralize them, she needed to put her helmet down but if she did, she would be vulnerable to their Kryptonite weapons. And if she didn't, her helmet would break anyway.

Grunting, Kara shot up in the air, circled the area quickly to analyze every one of her enemies' positions. Granny Goodness was at the back of her battalion, leaving her soldiers attack Kara, shouting orders after orders with a small smile on her face. Katrach was recharging his crossbow. Kara snorted. A crossbow was already hard to recharge with two hands but when one of those hands was actually the crossbow, it was even more difficult. The commander looked ridiculous. And he was the perfect prey.

Putting her helmet down, Kara stopped right above him. Katrach didn't realize she was there. He was too preoccupied with his blocked system. She shot a laser to his valid hand, burning him. He screamed, obviously before throwing her a deathly glare.

"You'll die for that, Zor-El!" He shouted.

Kara didn't blink, all raw power and steel eyes. Then shot another laser right next to his feet. He started to run towards Granny Goodness and her battalion who were now advancing on her, ready to take advantage of the possibility of attacking her face.

An arrow surprised her but she avoided it, letting it graze her face, the point slicing her cheek. It was enough. A rain of arrows followed. Kara avoided them as quickly as possible, with her body compensating for the Kryptonite poisoning her blood with Lena's Kryptonite charged serum. She felt a rush of strength, as if the serum were reacting to the poisoning by doubling its powers. And then she was falling. Freely. Without understanding what was happening. She wasn't sure if she screamed or not.

Crashing on the sand, Kara scrambled on her palms and knees, looking at the sky to have a semblance of explanation. There was nothing except painted red clouds and this dark, scary Boom Tube. No sun. Quickly, she was ambushed, Granny Goodness' shoes being the only elements of her surrounding she could recognize through her blurry vision.

"What do you think of this, Supergirl?"

Granny's voice was rocky. Old. And mean. She threw something at Kara's feet – or more like knees – and Kara took it in her hands. It wasn't Kryptonite. It was a device.

"Thanks to Lex Luthor, we discovered years ago that you were sensible to a Red Sun." Granny kicked her in the chin unceremoniously. "Thankfully for us, Apokolips is close to Attrax, the red planet." Another kick in the ribs. "With the intelligence of our engineers, we created this little radiation bombs. Had the capacity of a little Red Sun. What do you think? Wonderful, isn't it?"

Katrach half-coughed half-laughed next to her, his crossbow pointing towards Kara in case she attempted anything. Kara tried to use her laser vision, to no avail. She sighed. She looked at them both, understanding she was in a bad position. The strength was already quitting her body. They had planned for Green Kryptonite but didn't think of a serum which wouldn't need yellow sun radiation to work.

Alex would give her an earful. Liz would have to fight alone. Lena would resuscitate her only to kill her herself.

She was totally screwed.

"It's about what you believe, and I believe in love. Only love will truly save the world."

– Wonder Woman

The story the people of Themyscira shared with Steppenwolf was an old one. The real feud appeared between the Justice League and Steppenwolf when the New God had tried to get back his Mother Boxes from the humans, Amazons and Atlantean people, threatening to destroy Earth. He almost succeeded. Thankfully for them, he didn't and was now battling without the Mother Boxes. Otherwise, there would be no need for battle. The Mother boxes were too powerful. Cyborg knew something about it.

"Vic! On your left!" Sydney shouted as she shot another arrow in between the eyes of a para-demon.

She hated those creatures. They didn't have a brain. They were just alimented by fear. And fear was something they were full of at the moment. It didn't stop them from fighting. It didn't stop them from being present and supporting Liz in the biggest battle of her life. But it was there. And the demons loved it. Lived for it.

Cyborg shot a demon with his arm in the form of a blasting gun and flew a bit above the roof to shoot twice at Steppenwolf's face. It didn't hurt him a lot, only distracted him from his fight with Wonder Woman.

Victor Stone couldn't feel fear anymore. He wasn't a human since his father had used a Mother Box to fix his body and turned him into a device. A very smart, very fast device. Cyborg. He couldn't feel anything. His brain was only concerned by order and chaos. The ever-lasting battle on Earth. And for now, he knew that Steppenwolf meant chaos. The New God had killed his father, after all. It could only mean he needed to die. Only so that order could be reestablished.

Sydney could admit that she was scared. The demons rushing to her relentlessly could attest of that. She was scared for Diana who was being beaten up by a god. She was scared for herself because she wasn't sure she was enough considering her mentor and queen seemed in difficulty herself. She was scared for her sisters who some were already dead, others were still fighting teeth and nails to protect their queen. She was scared for all of them, battling, risking their life in hopes that it would help Liz succeed. And, dear Athena, she was terrified for Liz.

Diana had taught her once that fear was a natural feeling. One of the most important ones. For without fear, there would be no courage. No bravery. Fear reminded you of what you had to lose. Of whom was important to you. Of what you had forgotten to tell those people before losing them.

Seeing Diana take hit after hit, jumping from rooftop to rooftop after Steppenwolf, her face swollen, her armor pierced by holes caused by the New God's lighting axe, Sydney didn't know if she had said everything to Diana. She wasn't ready to lose her. She didn't think that she had thanked her enough for all the values she had taught her. For all the time she had spent raising her, after she had lost her mother, and caring for her, giving her love and attention when she was supposed to reign on a kingdom.

Thinking about it, Sydney knew now that there were a lot of things she needed to say to some people. Starting with Diana. Then Kara and Lena. She needed to thank them for welcoming her to their family, in their home, while Diana was away. She needed to thank Alex and Kelly for their training sessions. She needed to thank Liz for her sacrifice. She had so many things to say to Liz.

"Sydney! Focus!"

Shaking her head, Sydney looked at Victor being attacked by ten para-demons. Their common force pulled him off the ground and flew him to Steppenwolf who was waiting for him. He grabbed Cyborg by the skull and shuffled him slightly.

"You weird creature. You deserve to die." His grave tone seemed unimpressed.

His other giant hand circled Victor's legs and he pulled on the parts as if Victor was a mannequin. It happened in slow motion. Steppenwolf tearing on his limbs and head. Hard. And then he threw the different pieces away. Sydney gasped then screamed. Victor had just been ripped apart.

It was her fault. Victor was dismantled. Because of her. It couldn't kill him but it hurt him. Victor couldn't feel fear but he was still partly human in the flesh. His grunts of pain were noises that would haunt her to her grave if he didn't make it in the end.

Straightening herself up, breathing hard, Sydney realized she couldn't let herself be overwhelmed by emotions. Victor was too far for her to reach him but she promised to find him first thing first once the battle was over. And to gather his body until it was a working machine again. And she promised herself to tell Liz everything if they both made it out okay.

Exhaling shakily, she prepared another arrow, one with a net tech in it and observed the battle around her. Diana endured another lighting shot, this one bringing her on her knees. Steppenwolf grabbed her by the throat and pulled her up.

"You miserable Amazon." He breathed in her face.

Sydney's eyes bulged. She had to do something. With a quick glance at the demons around her, she threw her arrow to a group of them, imprisoning them under the net. She let her sisters kill them. Then she ran to Diana, jumping on one of her sisters' shields, twirling on herself in the air, and landing behind Steppenwolf.

Before she could even blink, the New God had summoned a new strike of lightning. It was like watching Billy Batson transform into Captain Marvel. The same color of light. The same booming sound. Except this one wasn't accompanied with Shazam! This one was directed at Diana.

It passed through her like a knife through flesh. She screamed. It was shrilling. Horrible. Sydney felt the pain through her own body. The battle stopped around them for a second. Her sisters, just like her, watched their queen fall to the ground, defeated.

Steppenwolf walked away, jumped to the next roof to sweep away the Amazons battling demons there. Sydney didn't wait for him to come back. She rushed to Diana and gathered her in her arms. Her vision became blurry but she swallowed her tears.

Fear. Courage. Lost.

Diana coughed in her arms, exhausted. Her body was fuming disgustingly. Her hair was sticking to her forehead. She opened half-lidded eyes, her lips twitching a bit as if she wanted to talk but couldn't. She moved though. She grabbed her left wrist and tried to pull at the bracelet there. Atlas' gauntlets. Inherited from her mother.

After several attempts, Diana pulled it away and did the same thing to the other before pushing both into Sydney's hands. Sydney looked at her, confused.

"No, I… It's yours! I can't-"

She was cut off by Diana's rising hand. She was pointing a finger behind her. Sydney looked in the direction and found Steppenwolf killing another Amazon by slicing her head with his axe. There was so many lost lives. It was unbearable.

A tear rolled down Sydney's face. She couldn't imagine a world without Diana. And she was so scared because they were losing. She still had too many things to do. Too many things to say. Too many things to learn. It couldn't end now.

Diana's hand cupped her cheek. She caressed it with her thumb. Then pointed back to Steppenwolf and gave her a determined nod. She coughed hard but her eyes never closed. She was looking at Sydney as if she wanted to pass her a message. Sydney shook her head, dejected. Disappointed. She had wished better for them all.

Diana shoved her shoulder as strongly as she could and gave her a hard stare. She inhaled a whistling breath. Her throat bobbed in her attempt to swallow. She opened her mouth slightly.

"Go." She exhaled. "Fight."

She coughed loudly then shoved Sydney again, stronger than before. Brows furrowing, Sydney pulled away, easing Diana down on the ground. The queen nodded. Sydney's confusion disappeared slowly. She was starting to understand. She looked down at the gauntlets in her hands.

Diana wanted her to fight. Not to give up that easily. Not because of her. Sydney nodded to herself. She passed one gauntlet after the other and showed her forearms to her mentor.

A small smile appeared on Diana's bloody lips. She nodded once more. Then her eyes took a determined form. Slowly, wincing, she rose a hand and gathered her fist on her chest.

"Fight." She said one more time, this time with more assurance.

Sydney scrambled on her feet and paused in front of her. She saluted her queen back, her fist on her chest before crouching down and kissing her forehead.

"I'll come back for you, I promise. Just, keep fighting too."

They shared a heavy look. And with a final nod, Sydney turned around, her eyes preying on the New God and his lethal weapon.

Diana wanted her to fight. Her queen had given her the mythical gauntlets of Atlas. She only had one choice now.

Sydney ran from the roof, shouting to her sisters to gather around her. They hadn't said their last words.

"The future is worth it. All the pain. All the tears. The future is worth the fight."

– Martian Manhunter

J'onn and M'gann's roles were simple. They had to install an antenna on the highest building in the neighborhood so that Brainy could activate it from the ground and close the Boom Tube. Easy? Not so much.

The antenna was enormous. Very long. And very fragile. They had to manipulate it with precautions. That wouldn't be so hard if there wasn't a horde of demons attacking them. Because that had to be very close to the tunnel too. And so, to the arriving of the demons that kept flying through the tunnel endlessly.

"We need to speed up! They're coming at us!" J'onn exclaimed as he kicked a demon away.

"No kidding!"

He shot a glance at his wife, who was also fighting against her own demons. Literally. It couldn't work. They needed help. There had to be two of them to install the antenna and at least one to chase the demons away. Or they would let the antenna fall and hurt all the people under them.

"Wait! I'll ask Brainy to come. We can't do this alone."

M'gann nodded in his line of vision and chased another demon away as if it was a mosquito in her periphery.

"Brainy, we need your help. There're too many demons out here. We don't have an enough big window of time to ease the antenna carefully."

Brainy's voice came through their communications instantly. "On it, boss."

J'onn nodded, knowing Brainy couldn't see him. Fine. They were all going to be fine. They had to stay calm and focused. On the other side of the antenna, M'gann's form shifted dangerously to her Martian form. A sign of her discomfort. The demons kept attacking her. J'onn pinched his lips. He wished he could help her relax.

M'gann, calm down. Everything's going to be okay.

Easy for you, they're not attacking you.

They attack me less because you express more fear than me.

M'gann's look was intense. She hadn't wanted to admit she was afraid earlier in the satellite but he knew her better than she thought apparently. Also, the demons were a good sign of her state of mind. He watched her take a deep breath.

Talk to me.

J'onn smiled softly. He understood what she wanted. Reassurance. A story of hope and love. As they were waiting for Brainy to catch them, J'onn zoomed down to the people in the street. His people. His family. The battle raging on the grounds reminded him of the war on Mars. It hadn't been this even between the two parties on Mars. Clearly, there had been the winners and the losers. The killers and the ones getting killed. And he had been on the wrong side. As a commander in the Green Martians' army, he had planned a great enough strategy to avoid his people to get imprisoned or killed but he hadn't planned his own brother's betrayal. It had been his mistake.

To avoid repeating that mistake, he had promised himself to take care of Earth's people like it was his own. Because it kind of was, after all these years spent on Earth. And also, because he could do something about it. With his powers and his years of wisdom, J'onn knew he could make a difference. And that difference started by mentoring Alex. That was where he started telling his story to M'gann. She already knew about all that but she understood the place Kara and Alex had in his heart. The place they had in his story.

So, it all started with Alex and her young adult rebellion. Instead of pitying her for her fate, he spent a lot of time talking to her. Showing her life was more than just partying and drinking until your inner demons were forgotten. It was about hope and love and reminiscing. Alex understood quickly and the shift was almost instant. She wanted to learn and J'onn was happy to indulge. He taught her everything he knew about battle strategy, weapons, defenses, analyzing strengths and weaknesses.

Alex had been a good student. Disciplined. Interested. Ready to be useful. And she had taught her knowledge later. To Kara first, teaching her how arrogance could hurt more than a good hit. And next, to Kelly and Lena in the small training room of the Tower, weeks after weeks. To Nia too, sometimes, even though Dreamer's style was more about dream powers and less about fistfights. And finally, to her own children and niece. And with that, the loop was closed.

J'onn was happy to watch his two adoptive daughters grow into beautiful women who had learned from his own mistakes and taught them to his adoptive grandchildren. It was enough to make the guilt of Mars' defeat go away. It was his repentance.

Watching his family battle for their lives on the grounds, J'onn wished with all his heart that they would all remember their lessons. That Alex's training would kick at the right moment. That Kara's confidence would not overshadow her reason. That Kelly and Lena would stay confident in their own capacities. That Esme's powers would not let her too enthusiastic to rush without thinking. That Liz would push the doubts out of her head and act on instinct because he knew she could trust it. Liz was ready, he was sure of it. She was able to save them all, June included. She just had to believe it herself.

"J'onn!"

J'onn felt the antenna weighing down. His head passed above the antenna just in time to catch M'gann falling. Her scream was muffled by the inflamed bloc of concrete crashing into her, making her unconscious. It was a result of a building exploding under the strength of Liz and June's fight. He watched her fall quickly in the air before Brainy caught her in his arms.

He shot J'onn an alarmed look before easing M'gann down on the nearest rooftop and rushed to help him catch the antenna. J'onn sighed in relief. It was almost over for all of them.

"What's in there already?"

Brainy looked guilty. "Hum, Lena said something about radioactive nucleons mixed to Radion…"

J'onn's ears whistled. He must have heard wrong. "She didn't." He whispered in disbelief.

"She totally did. And I agreed with her. Nuclear energy was the only force strong enough to close the tunnel."

J'onn huffed. It was too late to disagree now. He'd have to wait a couple of hours to discuss this with Lena. That explained why they had to be extra careful though. One little mishap and National City was wiped off the world's map, along with those New Gods who were only vulnerable to Radion, the divine material.

"Okay. Can you help me put it in place so that we can go check on M'gann?"

Brainy agreed and together they put the antenna on its base on the Lena Luthor Foundation building without being disturbed by the demons. Was putting it on a Luthor building purposefully planned? J'onn wouldn't be surprised if it was. Together, they flew back to M'gann. She was still unconscious and badly burnt on her face and torso.

"We can't leave her here." J'onn said.

Brainy seemed to think the same thing because he tried to lift her up but M'gann's arm turned in a weird angle.

"Careful! I think it's broken."

Brainy's scrunched up face said everything. "We have to move her together."

J'onn nodded. "But the tunnel?"

Brainy sighed. "It'll wait. If we let her here, there's an eighty-two-percent chance the demons will take care of her."

They worked in synchrony to carry M'gann away. Far away. On the next neighborhood where all medias and citizens had reunited to watch the battle from afar – or what they could catch of it. The crowd oohed as they saw them approach.

"Can we leave her here?"

"I think she'll be good."

They put her on the top of a building and J'onn pulled on his cape to tear it from his suit. His flight would be a bit weird but he would manage. He spread it on M'gann and leaned away, looking at her with despair in his eyes. Hope wasn't his thing, not really. It was Kara's usually. And right now, he could have appreciated a pep talk from his favorite blonde superhero.

"Come on, J'onn. We need to activate the antenna."

Dejectedly, J'onn left his wife on the rooftop, his cape on her unconscious body and let Brainy guide him back to the battle. The sooner this antenna was activated, the sooner they would get rid of these demons.

"I can't promise you a life without pain and loss because pain is a part of life. It's what makes us who we are. It is what makes you a hero!"

— Alex Danvers

They were twelve of them. They were supposed to be enough. Enough to contain the hounds and the demons on the boulevard. Enough not to be overwhelmed. But, of course, nothing had gone as planned.

Kara was the first to go astray. As usual, she followed her own rules, tackled the two commanders in charge in June's little army and tore them away from the battle. Alright, maybe it made it easier for them but it wasn't the plan. She was supposed to keep a look on Liz.

Then Lena and Jason were distracted by Lena 2.0. who wanted to cross the boulevard and kill June, which wasn't their plan at all. This one wasn't on them but it was annoying, nonetheless.

After that, Kelly was hurt on the leg, making her an easy target. Alex and Esme had to stick around her to avoid her wounds getting worse than that by the relentless attacks of the demons while Nia was trying to bandage her leg with the small emergency equipment she had in her belt.

And then M'gann was hit by a flying bloc of concrete, a result of Liz and June's fight through the buildings around them all – which sent their task to the next level of difficulty because they had to avoid rubble too while avoiding being killed - and Brainy had to help J'onn put the antenna down carefully not to hurt anyone more and pull the unconscious M'gann away from the battle and into safety. By the point they came back, an enormous quantity of para-demons had flown out of the tunnel. The flow was endless.

It left only eight of them.

Since then, it had been a lost battle. Nothing was going as planned. When they killed a dozen of demons, a hundred came out of the tunnel. Alex was nearing the aneurysm and it was not because her wife and daughter were on the same battlefield. Nor was it because her sister was battling on her own too far away for them to help her.

As Kelly was put back on her two feet by Nia, a boom erupted in the air. And it wasn't the type of boom Steppenwolf's axe did when it summoned lighting. No. They knew this one. It was the boom of a bomb. Then a scream. Far away in the air.

They all paused and whipped their heads in the direction of the sounds. Far above them, in the turning red skies, a figure was falling with the speed of a comet. They all heard the crash.

"Oh no," Alex whispered under her breath. "Not again."

"Kara." Kelly said next to her. "Somebody needs to go help her." She hit a demon with her shield.

Alex agreed without really hearing her. Her mind was just a succession of process. What to do if Kara got poisoned by Green Kryptonite. What to do if Kara got under the influence of the Red Kryptonite. What to do if Kara accidently killed somebody and decided to disappear on them. Nowhere in her prepared scenarios, Alex had planned on a Red Sun bomb this efficient being used during this battle. Nobody knew about the Red Sun and its effect on Kryptonians except Lex Luthor.

Realization hit Alex like a ton of bricks. Lex had helped Darkseid during his first attempt at colonizing the Earth. He had given Kara and Clark away, she was sure of it now. And Liz couldn't have seen it in June's planning if he didn't know about it himself.

Alex grunted and rubbed her forehead. Before her, Esme was giving everything to keep Kelly and her safe, forming a one-person guard around her mothers.

"I'll go."

Kelly's neck cracked as she turned to look at her, horrified. "What?! You're human! You won't be able to do anything against those two!"

Alex smiled sadly. Kelly was right, Katrach and Granny Goodness were out of her league. She had already taken that into account in her calculations.

"Then I won't go alone." She stopped Esme in her tracks by the shoulder. "I'll go with our fabulous daughter while you stay here with Nia who's the only one with an emergency kit right now."

Kelly's shoulders sagged as she admitted defeat. She couldn't go against Alex's will, even more so when it concerned Kara. She closed the distance between them and kissed her right there, in the middle of the battle.

"Hum, there's like a thousand enemies around us…" Esme observed awkwardly.

Kelly chuckled as she pulled away from Alex and pulled her in a quick hug. "I love you, you two. Be careful, okay?"

Alex nodded, preparing her gun. "We will. I love you." She said while running away.

"Love you, Mom!" Esme shouted as she followed Alex backward before catching up with her in long strides.

Kelly shook her head at them. They would do a terrific duo.

"Getting the upper hand isn't about size. It is about decisiveness and speed."

– Lex Luthor, Smallville

Three Luthor on a battlefield. It was almost the start of a Belgian joke. Except lives were at stakes and it wasn't funny at all. Jason was finding it slightly less funny anyway. The Lena from the other dimension was a good challenge. She was efficient and powerful. Crueler than his sister. While Lena was using purely natural elements for her magic, the other Lena was drawing her magic from forces that shouldn't be used.

To reverse the balance since Lena and Jason had the advantage of number, she had resuscitated the hounds she had killed and thrown them on Lena while she was attacking Jason. She didn't spare any time thinking about the consequences. And Jason knew she should. He had spent enough time studying magic – in his former life of a hunter and while training next to his sister – to know she shouldn't play with life and death as if they were a strategy to win a game of chess.

The hounds were preying on Lena, playing with her as if she was just a piece of meat, attacking one after the other because they were conscious of their strength as a group. It gave her the advantage of dealing with them one by one instead of the whole group at once.

Jason kept an eye on her from afar. She used a lot of telekinesis to move blocs of concrete and pieces of glass to smash the hounds or slice through them. It was working so far. He couldn't tell the same thing for himself. He had tried brutal force and different strategies to reach the other Lena to no avail. She kept her distance and used magic shield to keep him afar while blasting shots to him like a machine gun. He avoided the shots as much as he could, rushing from right to left, crouching down, pirouetting on the snowy ground. It was exhausting though. And he could admit that his enemy looked slightly in better shape than himself.

He didn't avoid the next shot though. Lena 2.0. – as the kids called her - shot him right on the chest with her powered green hands but his armor stopped it. Relief spread in his chest as he looked up at her and smirked.

"Whatever, sis. You don't have enough for it."

"I'm not your sister." Lena 2.0 spit through gritted teeth. She extended her hands. "Let's see how you take this."

A jolt of electricity shot right at Jason's feet which were deep into a snow puddle. He realized his mistake too late. She wasn't aiming at him this whole time. She had made him roll around in snow so that he was wet to the core. Even under his armor. The voltage was too much. He blacked out instantly.

"Nooo!" Lena screamed as she neutralized another hound with snow turned into stalagmites before rushing to him. He wasn't conscious anymore but his heart was still beating. She shot a deadly glare at her alter ego.

Lena 2.0. pouted in mockery. "Oh, did I hurt your feelings?" Since Lena wasn't reacting, she rolled her eyes. "Come on, he's fine. You know he's not-"

She avoided a magical knife before it hit her square in between the eyes. She looked astonished for a moment. Then she smirked devilishly.

"Alright, that's more of a challenge now."

"I hate you." Lena hissed before tackling her down with force.

"There are always second chances, if you are brave enough to take the leap."

– Kelly Olsen, Supergirl TV series (2016)

When they arrived on the shore, Alex and Esme realized they had to separate. Katrach and Granny Goodness looked like they were waiting for them. Esme huffed as she saw her mother put her Martian gun-turned-diving mask on her face. Martian technologies were absolutely wonderful.

"Think you can take them?"

Esme rose a lone eyebrow in perfect imitation of the cockiness she had inherited from her godmother. "Do you think they can take me?"

Alex snorted. "Okay, super soldier. Be careful. If it's too much, run away. Sometimes, courage is to accept defeat."

With that, she put a heavy hand on her daughter's shoulder as they shared a nod and ran in the water. Katrach and Granny Goodness were already approaching.

"Well, well, well…" Granny gloated. "What do we have here?"

Esme rolled her eyes and took a defensive pause. "Save your spit, Grandma. I'm not here to talk."

She disappeared through the ground only to reappear right behind her and grab her in a chokehold. Katrach looked at them, confused.

"What-" He was interrupted by a shot of laser vision to his shoulder.

"Not here to talk, dummy." Esme repeated in a weary tone. "Are you deaf or simply stupid?"

It was enough to enrage the commander who darted to her with his crossbow raised in the air. Esme smirked and pushed Granny to him. They both fell on the ground, completely astonished and bruised in their egos. It was perfect. Everything Esme hoped for. If they were angry, they weren't focused. And if they weren't focused, she had a better chance at neutralizing them.

"Come on! It's no time for a nap! You're in the middle of invading a planet! Your boss sure won't be happy." She shouted at them.

She watched them both scramble to their feet. She put her hands on her hips and showed them three fingers.

"You have three chances to catch me. After that, I kick you ass and send you back on your horrible planet. Got it?"

The lieutenants both charged her. Esme squealed in amusement before disappearing through the sand again. The chase was always her favorite part.

"But a hero is not measured by what her power may be… But by the courage she shows in living, and the warmth she holds in her heart."

– Barbara Gordon / Batgirl

"Clark says Doomsday landed in Africa!"

"What?!" Barbara hissed through the coms at her boyfriend. They were completely overwhelmed. Demons and corpses everywhere. It was becoming hard to make the difference between the living and the dead.

"Kate joined the Flash and his team in Japan. Darkseid attacked there too!" Damian shouted through the battle.

"The heck!" Barbara cried out while beheading a demon. "What are we gonna do? We need their help!"

"Well, they're helping! Just not here!" Dick replied.

The three of them drifted closer and closer while fighting whatever came at them. A few feet away, Kelly jumped on Nia's shield and landed on a demon that was about to reach Barbara's back. She turned around to thank her. Funny how the teams had shifted after Brainy, Alex and Esme had to go help elsewhere. Kelly was now fighting neck and neck with Nia. Dick and Damian originally paired up in a trio with Barbara were now working together so that she could paired up with Andrea to kill the demons. It would have been a good strategy, had they been more trained to work together.

Andrea was used to working solo, only relying on her shadow powers to hide and seek her enemies. It wasn't like the Bat family wasn't used to the shadows. They lived in it. But Andrea's powers and tactics were definitely different. She wasn't afraid of killing, for one. And she wasn't really paying attention to the consequences of her attacks sometimes.

"Andy! Careful! We need to see something here!" Kelly shouted at her as Andrea's shadows were consuming demons but enveloping their team in a deep smog. They were already surrounding by red light shining through the sky thanks to the red sun radiations the commanders must have spread, they needed the few light they still had to see the hounds and demons approach.

As they drifted apart again, defending their own little quarter of ground, the different styles of fighting and defending each other created a breach in their defenses. It did the hounds good because they were attacking only when they had the possibility, which meant while they were all distracted by the demons. It looked impossible. Winning looked impossible. They needed a Kryptonian and one or two more meta-humans at least. Or just a good old Amazon warrior but they had all watched how Wonder Woman had been defeated so no hope from there either.

"What's the news?" Kelly asked without missing a hit on the demons surrounding them.

"We're totally screwed. Darkseid attacked all over the planet."

Kelly huffed and grunted, though Barbara didn't know if it was in response to her or simply because they were fighting at the same time.

"It can't be the end of it! We're not over! Come on! Gather up! We got them!" Kelly shouted to them, motioning for Nia, Andrea, Dick and Damian to drift closer. "If we stuck together, we have a better chance."

Nobody had planned for Kelly to be the new leader of their smaller group but they all indulged anyway. Because they recognized she was right. They were better together. Stronger. More efficient. And it was easier to see their enemies come that way. Forming a circle of back-to-back superheroes.

"But what about the others in Japan and Africa?" Barbara asked in despair.

"Don't worry. They can stand their own." Nia replied as she spread a shield of dream power around their small circle. "And we can stand our own too."

"No hero can save everyone, not even Superman. But a real hero never stops trying."

– Supergirl

Chaos. Everywhere. Dust. Ashes. Hot and furnished air. Carbonized cars. Crumbling buildings. Cries of pain. Orders shouted through grunts. Everything was falling apart.

National City wasn't National City anymore. Multiple shots erupted around them. People were battling. Liz acknowledged her family and friends under them maintaining demons and Warhounds on ground to avoid them attacking her while she was battling with June in the air. She knew Sydney and Diana were in a worse posture than herself. Steppenwolf had beaten Diana up. Liz could hear it through the slow beating of her heart. Barely alive. Sydney was a good challenge to Steppenwolf but until when?

J'onn was fighting the para-demons still coming out of the Boom Tube, while Brainy was activating the antenna on the rooftop to control and close the tunnel. M'gann had been hurt though, fire never going well on Martian skins. The tunnel was now fully willing to let para-demons on Earth as the two men were struggling to keep them at bay.

On each side of the city, Liz's mothers were fighting their own personal enemies. Two Lenas were now in National City, one who wanted to kill the Other and one that wanted him to live. For now, it was an even battle. That wasn't reassuring.

What was even less reassuring was Kara's slow heartbeat. After she had thrown herself at Katrach and Granny Goodness, the three of them had disappeared on the shore. Liz had seen her fall heavily from the red sky but didn't know how it was possible considering the serum they had in their blood. She had felt the slight shift in her own body though. She couldn't rely on the sun radiation anymore. Her mother neither. Liz could hear a faint beating, far under the sea but it was slowing with every passing second. Her mother was slowly drifting away.

Shaking her head, Liz tried not to think too much about it. She had other things to do. Like avoiding June's attacks. His halberd was giving him an advantage, he could attack from afar. She had trained for it. Worked hours in the Cube, avoiding Esme's fire shots while Alex was attacking her with a bokken but it hadn't been enough. She wasn't enough.

June's next hits came succinctly from right to left, scorching quickly her shoulders through the fabric of her suit. Liz didn't take time to look at the wounds, just felt horror curse through her at the idea of a weapon capable of ripping through Amazon's fabric. He was fast. Too fast.

You will die. Surrender.

Never.

Pity.

He hit her with the ending of his halberd right in the jaw, making her fall a couple of feet down. She spat blood and threw him a glare. He smiled.

Surrender.

You, surrender. It's a loose battle. If I die, you die.

I don't believe you.

With a grunt, Liz flew to him and tackled him by the middle. A magically charged punch there. A head-butt here. She lost her tiara on the way. His hands were busy with snatching at her, nails gritting in the skin of her face. His halberd fell on the ground under them. For a moment, they were unbalanced by their movements. They lost height quickly before crashing on the ground heavily, the concrete cracking under their strength.

You're delusional if you think you'll survive this battle.

Less than you thinking you can win.

None of us will win! Don't you understand?

June pushed her away from him and glared at her.

I was born to win.

His mouth didn't move but Liz had heard the disturbed tone, the flicker of emotions in his voice. He was doubting. That was good for her.

They don't want you to win. They want Earth and you're just a means to an end. Even if you survive after this, they won't let you in charge.

It was too much. She had gone too far. June screamed at the sky with anger. His body seemed to take two more sizes. His hair pulsed from black to purple in a similar way Liz's magic would appear. And then, he rushed to her in a blur and tackled her by the middle, their two bodies forming one, crashing through the remnants of the buildings around them.

"Some days, you wake up and want to change the world. Others, you just want to break that same world in two. But most of the time you just have to get on with the business of living."

– Kara Zor-El

It was peaceful down there. Silent. All blue and blurry. Refreshing.

Kara loved water. Always had. The water on Krypton wasn't similar. It wasn't water, actually. The right translation would be closer to liquid. They didn't need it as humans needed it on Earth. To breathe. To hydrate. On Krypton, they washed their teeth with pressurized toothbrushes and drank cocktails of liquids made with flower syrups. The lakes weren't used to transport boats since they traveled in the air through magnetic forcefields. They only used it to swim. Sometimes. Times of leisure were few on Krypton. It only happened when they were out of work and they usually never out of work.

Kara remembered her first swim. It was in Kryptonopolis, right after they had visited her aunt and uncle just after Kal-El's birth. Just before they both had to leave. The day was bright and sunny. They were all so happy to spend time together because the whole family wasn't reunited quite often. Her parents had enjoyed the sun for once, quitting their never-ending days at work. Her uncle Jor-El had put Kal-El first in the water and Kara swore she could still hear his squeals of delight. And her aunt Lara had taught her how to swim and it was incredible. The sensation of the water against her skin. The bubble forming outside and inside of her swimsuit. Kara had loved every second of it.

That memory had stayed with her for a very long time. Every time she would think back to Krypton, her mind would drift to that specific memory. Of a time when they were all smiling. Happy. Comfortable in their little bubble. At peace with what was happening around them, not knowing how it would drastically change.

Her brain had tried to gather the same sensations every time she would take a shower or go to her swimming lessons in high school or teach Liz to swim in Alex and Kelly's pool, or when Atlas first discovered it this summer. It couldn't. Simply because it was a memory of a time out of this life. Kara was old enough now to understand that she could never recover this past life. The life of the girl she was on Krypton. Nor could she recover those types of memories. She could only forge new ones.

And she had great memories on Earth too. The times she had spent teaching Liz and Lena how to swim were in her top 10 – because her children's births were coming first and then a lot of the others concerned first times with Lena. Lucy's squeals every time Esme would splash her with water were her favorite sounds. Atlas' easiness to swim already mesmerized her. And all the times she had gone fishing with Alex and Jeremiah on this lake close to Midvale, watching the sun reflecting on the blue-green water for hours.

Drifting away underwater in the ocean lining National City, those memories were all she could think about. Memories of when she had felt this peaceful. Memories of the times her life was this quiet.

Kara let herself float through images of her parents passing in front of her eyes. Memories of hours of dancing in the middle of their room with Alex until Eliza would come up and ask for them to kill the radio and start their homework. Of Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthday dinners in family, with friends, with their children. Of the first cat she had touched after landing on Earth. Of the first kiss she had shared with Kenny. Of the first job she got after relentlessly searching through National City because she wanted so badly to live close to Alex but didn't want to depend on her. Of the first time she had saved someone – a whole plane actually – and the shrill of it. The pride she felt.

Memories of the first time she had met Lena. How her smile and brilliant mind had brightened the whole room. How her face would crumble and her eyes would shine when she was on the verge of tears after another assassination attempt planned by her family but would soldier on and keep the tears at bay.

Memories of what it had felt to live without her in her life for an entire year and to feel like dying slowly, suffocating under the weight of Lena's absence. Memories of Lena accepting who she was, detaching herself from her family, discovering her new powers, her real roots. Memories of the feeling she had to see Lena use magic, watch her take pride in the people she had saved thanks to her powers.

Memories of Lena and Liz when they arrived in National City. Of their life just the three of them in Ireland. Of Liz and Lena teaching her how to bake scones only to finish the day in a flour fight. Images of Liz's first time flying alone, around the garden, only a few feet away from the grass so green it was the same color of Lena's eyes.

Memories of Lena's silky skin against her own as she had confessed she wanted a second child. The delight Kara had felt. The love that had spread in her heart at the same time Lena's belly had grown. Images of Lucy's birth. Of the tears of joy and grief for a first born she had missed the birth of. Of the pride she had felt for Lena. For enduring yet another pregnancy, for giving birth to yet another Kryptonian baby. And a third after that.

Images of Atlas' first steps a few days ago. Of Lucy's little hands helping him walk around the living room, their little socked feet rubbing on the carpet.

Images of Lena's beaming smile, watching them with so much love in her eyes that it was probably enveloping them in a magical blanket of protection.

Images of Lena's laughing figure as she was walking away on the satellite, only hours ago.

Soon-to-be Luthor-Danvers.

Kara's eyes opened in a gasp as she swallowed salt water. Her senses came back to life in full force. Her vision focused back on a person. Alex's face looked as stricken as hers. She pulled away, an empty needle in her hand, brows furrowed.

"Finally!" She heard, muffled by the water and the mask covering Alex's nose and mouth. "Come on, you're missing on the fun parts."

Kara could have snorted if they weren't hundred feet under the sea. She shook her head to vanish the remnants of the memories her brain had been invaded with until now. They had more important things to do.

Snaking her arm around Alex's waist, she shuffled her legs and pushed them both above water in seconds. They got out of water in a splash, floating above the ocean, to Esme fighting and laughing at the two commanders' faces. Kara frowned and shared a look with Alex, the hot air coming out of the Boom Tube shuffling their hair.

"How come she can beat them that easily and I can't?"

Alex shrugged in her arms. "I mean, she has a combination of your powers, and J'onn's, and Nia's so…"

Kara huffed. Esme was an army all by herself. She was fast and intelligent. Kara recognized Alex's training in action. The ability with which Esme was dancing around the two commanders was astonishing.

"Also, she's only vulnerable to Kryptonite when she uses your powers." Alex added with a wink.

Kara admitted it was an advantage these days. Esme's natural capacity was to replicate others' powers but to do that, she had to replicate the intricacies of their bodies too. She was affected by Kryptonite only if you were quick enough to expose her to it while her body was gathering sun radiations like Kara's would. She was affected by fire and magnetic sounds only when her body structure was similar to J'onn's. Nia's powers were more abstract. Nia didn't have real weaknesses besides her heart.

"Do we help her or do we just stay here watching?"

"Well, I would really like for you to put me down at least."

Kara snorted and eased them down on the beach. The red sun was still blaring down on them but she wasn't feeling weak anymore.

"What was in your syringe?"

"Pure yellow sun radiation." Alex replied without hesitating, drying off her hair in one fluid motion. "Lena created it after you, reckless idiot, almost died on us when you fought Red Daughter."

"Hey! You hadn't used it until now, that means I'm not that reckless!"

Alex huffed. "You'll see that with your wife."

"She's not my-"

Kara had to avoid a Kryptonite arrow before she could finish her sentence. Katrach was running towards her, trying to charge his crossbow at the same time.

"Okay, back to business."

Kara flew up and put her helmet back. The armor announced it was protecting only seventy percent of her body. It was enough. She forced her vision through the several buildings to check on Liz and Lena. They were still fighting. Good news. With that, she charged Granny Goodness, leaving Katrach to Alex who was more equipped to fight him than herself.

She should've started right there earlier. It would have been easier to defeat Granny and her lack of weapon than Katrach and his Kryptonite arrow. Esme had done a great job reducing Granny's personal guard to three soldiers left and it wasn't the most skillful ones.

Kara attacked them first, slicing through one with heat vision as she passed her fist through another. The last one was tumbling on its legs, already well wounded. Kara sighed. She never liked killing. Even when it was weird creatures who seemed not to be alive or conscious at all. It was always a matter of necessity. She knew these ones were souls Darkseid had stolen and used to create his army. Killing them was freeing them. It didn't make the task easier though.

After the last creature fell dead on the sand, Kara searched for Esme and Granny. She looked aside to Alex who was now pinning Katrach on the ground with her boot on his neck. Great. Now the last lieutenant. And a good one at that. One of the New Gods.

Granny had only one arm left, thanks to June, Kara had learned through Liz. The other was a robotic one, such as Katrach's, only hers wasn't a weapon. Granny Goodness was a cunning devil who couldn't use direct attack. No, she preferred implicit weaponry. That was probably why her robotic arm had the capacity to drain her enemy from their vitality. Her arm was a gigantic vacuum, absorbing the energy of her enemies through a giant hole and reusing it as a blasting ray. But to drain their energy, Granny had to be close to them. And Esme understood it quickly.

Kara watched her avoid another drain while disappearing through the ground. She smiled at her niece's habits. Esme loved J'onn's powers, especially this one. She loved telepathy less, thinking it was a violation of privacy but used it quite often to plan surprise gifts for her mothers or communicate during a mission.

Watching her move from above, with the dispersed corpses in a semi-circle around Granny, Kara realized how Esme had neutralized the rest of the battalion. She had used Granny's vacuum arm against her own army, posting herself in front of them before disappearing in the ground so that Granny would absorb their energy. It was brilliant. Worthy of Alex Danvers' daughter.

Now, Esme only needed her to give Granny Goodness the final blow. Killing her. Because Granny Goodness was the type of warrior who never gave up. Her face falling, Kara wondered why peace could only be recovered through violence. Of course, she wouldn't let Esme kill somebody. It wasn't her burden. She was still too young anyway. But it wasn't something Kara was eager to do either. And she wasn't sure she could do it.

She landed behind Granny who was shooting rays of energy to Esme, her weapon still charged with the souls of her own army. Granny didn't hear her coming. Kara hit her strongly with her two hands on her two shoulders, anchoring in her to the sand. Esme got the hint, acting fast. She came in front of them and used Kara's heat vision to consolidate the sand between Granny's feet. As the New God hit Esme right in the face with her Kryptonite charged weapon, making her fall backward, Kara blew her icy. Sand had the property of turning into glass under high temperatures. Very solid glass if it cooled rapidly.

Granny was stuck. She couldn't get out. She could still shoot with her vacuum-gun arm though. And she did. Esme had planned a lot of her moves but not this one. Since she was on her knees, still affected by the Kryptonite blow she just got hit with, she got ejected in an instant to a mile away on the beach, her body leaving trenches on the sand.

"Esme!" Alex shouted while running to Kara who grabbed Granny's arm immediately. "What did you do?!" She hissed, spit coming out of her mouth as she took Granny by the collar and pulled her closer to her face.

The old lady laughed. Hard and rocky. "I killed her."

Kara frowned. Esme's heart was still beating. "Don't listen to her, Alex. Esme's fine."

Alex's glare was intense. "Perfect. It's time to end this shit."

She motioned for her bracelet to turn into a weird looking gun. Kara's eyes followed her movement. Alex took a step back and collected a strangely looking bullet in one of the pockets attached to her belt. She charged her gun and pointed it at Granny. The old lady laughed harder.

"You can't kill me with those things!" She doubled down on her knees, her feet unmoving. Kara's grip was tight around her vacuum arm. "I'm a New God. We're immortal!"

Alex's smirk looked dangerous. The feeling Kara got at seeing it could only be described as uneasiness.

"You'll thank Lex Luthor in Hell for that." Alex shuffled with her gun in her hand, observing it. Far behind her, Esme was standing on her feet and already walking over them. "This gun is special. It was made to shoot Radion bullets. And I think Radion is lethal to New Gods like you who think they can invade our planet without fearing the consequences."

Alex's actions were never reckless or hasty. Alex always reflected on the consequences before acting. Like J'onn had taught her. But this time, Kara wasn't so sure her sister's actions weren't influenced by years of anger and frustration towards their entire situation.

Without more overdue, Alex shot Granny Goodness in the knee. The bullet went through the flesh. Through articulation and muscle. And finished its course in the sand. Granny Goodness grunted but didn't cry out. She put a hand on the wound, greasy grey blood flowing in between her wrinkled fingers. She shot a defying glare at Alex.

"That's it? You're going to shoot me in the leg and wait for me to die, you coward? Can't even do it yourself?"

Alex's nostrils flared. She rushed to her and grabbed her collar in one hand, her gun stuck to her chin with the other.

"Alex."

Kara wasn't sure if she wanted her to stop or not. If the name escaping her lips was a warning or a cry for help. It was too late anyway. The gun shot echoed around them. Granny Goodness' head lolled back. The holes on the two sides of her skull were precise, almost absent. But she was really dead.

Kara raised terrified eyes to her sister in pure shock. Alex had killed somebody. It wasn't like killing the para-demons or the hounds or the damned souls. They were creatures and devices. This old lady was one of their worst enemies. Kara knew Granny had to die but she never thought Alex was capable of it.

"Don't look at me like that. She almost killed Esme. She would have killed all of us, had she had the opportunity."

Alex's face was tense. She summoned her weapon to turn back into a wristband. Kara could see through the mask. Her sister wasn't proud of her action but it was a necessity. Alex had done it out of necessity to protect them. All of them. Like she had always done.

"No, no, I-I- You did what you had to do. I just…" Kara sighed, her shoulders sagging. "I wouldn't have been capable of doing it."

"I know." Alex put a hand on her cheek. "That's why Lena gave the bullets to me and not you."

Kara scoffed then shook her head, unimpressed. Of course, they had to go behind her back and plot together. She rolled her eyes. At least, it was one less enemy to take care of.

"I'll have a chat with Lena about that."

Alex shrugged. Kara recognized the soldier in her. The task being done, she could pass to the next. And Esme helped with that.

"Hey! Good job! Now we can go back to helping Mom."

Alex smiled at her but it was empty of real joy. "Yeah."

"Where's Katrach?"

Alex huffed. "That lizard ran away through a portal. I think he's going to double-cross June now that he's the only one in charge."

Another enemy, another battle. That could explain why the battle around the boulevard seemed to have faded.

"I think you're right. Let's go help them!"

"Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no one can see but you."

– Nia Nal

"Nia! We can't stay here!"

"I know but I'm stuck! They're immune to dream portals!"

Their situation could now be described as a tactically precarious one. To put it simply, they didn't have any solution. The hounds didn't diminish. They didn't know how to kill them. The demons were coming out of the Boom Tube and since they were all scared shitless to lose their life, they were all attracting them like moths to a flame.

Nia paused to observe their group. The circle they were forming to fight against the hounds couldn't work. The hounds were stronger together too. They had the time to attack them whenever they wanted. It couldn't work. They shouldn't stay together.

"I think we need to separate!" Nia shouted to Kelly.

"No! That'll be worse!" Kelly shouted back.

The wind had worsened during the battle. Some remnant pieces of broken cars were flying freely around them.

"We already tried sticking together! Let's try separating to lead the hounds in the streets and kill them one by one!"

"That won't work!" Dick said behind her. "They're too intelligent! They'll know what you're doing and adapt!"

Nia huffed. She never liked him and never would. She looked at Kelly pointedly. Kelly who knew her since she started to work with Kara. Kelly who was family before teammate.

"Do you trust me?"

Kelly paused, looking at her before nodding determinedly. "Of course. Come on! Let's take the Fourth and see if they follow."

Side by side, they ran towards the street next to the boulevard and took the corner, without caring if the others agreed or not. Two hounds started to follow them immediately. Nia smiled in victory. Now, they had to neutralize them one by one.

"Take the left, then right. Let's make a square." Kelly said, already planning their attack.

They continued running, breathing hard, the adrenaline kicking in their limbs. As they took the next turn, they discovered an unscathed empty street. Thankfully, June and Liz's fight was occurring on the other side of the boulevard.

"On the next turn, take my lasso and stop. We'll strangle them."

Kelly nodded. They ran and ran and ran. Shared the lasso. Took the turn and spread it to the width of the road. And waited.

One of the hounds was leading the other. It got into the lasso first. Nia and Kelly pulled on each of their parts at the right time. The hound got knocked off and fell on its back. Kelly jumped on it, her shield hitting its neck, beheading it. One down. Another left.

The second hound stopped and growled at them, before darting towards them again. They fled, scrambling on their legs in panic. This one was way more ferocious than the other. It ran on the buildings, destroying the windows, almost reaching them with its sharp teeth.

"Faster!" Kelly shouted.

They ran in a square once again but the hound had too much lead on them to try the same strategy. After the second round, Nia got an idea.

"Kelly, when I tell you to stop, stop."

Kelly didn't reply. She continued running but Nia was sure she had heard her. She ran quicker, putting a good mile between Kelly and herself. With her lasso, she hauled herself on a streetlight and waited for Kelly to take the last corner. Once Kelly arrived, she seemed confused not to see Nia for a second before she heard her.

"Stop! Shield!" Nia shouted and jumped from the streetlight to Kelly's shield straightened over her arms.

She relied on the shield to pirouette above the hound and threw her lasso at it, choking it by the neck. It fell backwards and was unbalanced. Nia gathered her lasso until its face was closer and, with her other hand, circled its maw with the rest of the lasso.

"Go ahead before it escapes!"

Kelly didn't wait any second. She leaned on her shield to give the final blow to the hounds with her electric escrima stick. The device fell on the ground, neutralized. Nia dropped it completely and gathered up her lasso, sighing with relief.

"Two down." She smiled at Kelly. "We make a good team."

"Have you ever doubted it?" Kelly smiled back."

Nia put a finger on her chin, wondering the question playfully. "Hummm, no."

Kelly chuckled, shoving her towards the boulevard. "Come on, let's go help the others."

"We have a saying, my people: Don't kill if you can wound; Don't wound if you can subdue; Don't subdue if you can pacify; And don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it."

– Wonder Woman

Steppenwolf killed three of her sisters before Sydney reached him. She counted. She memorized their faces as they expelled their final breath. She memorized the glassy look in their eyes as their red capes and shiny golden armors were reduced to tarnished pieces of fabric and pierced or broken fragments of metal. She memorized everything. She didn't want to forget any of them.

On the roofs, the snow had turned pink a long time ago. Sydney couldn't tell how long they'd been fighting like that. How many had been killed already on the other side. She just knew her sisters were dying and her queen was hurt.

With a grunt, she pulled her sword out, leaving her bow for distanced attacks, and sliced through the New God's front. Steppenwolf didn't even blink. He grabbed her by the wrist and threw her away like a ragdoll. How Wonder Woman had lasted this long was a miracle.

Scrambling up, Sydney rubbed at her mouth, drops of blood coloring the snow at her feet. She had to go harder on him. Direct attacks couldn't work. And she couldn't do it alone.

On the side, Diana had sat down, her body recovering from her previous wound. She threw a determined nod. Sydney huffed and stood up, her sword clanking on the ground.

She ran to Steppenwolf, busy torturing another warrior, and climbed on his back. He tried to catch her, gesturing to his back as if he got a little mouse under his shirt. The mouse was smart though and stayed in the middle, where he couldn't reach. She took one of her arrows and broke the tip.

"I am the end of worlds. You won't succeed, Amazon. This world is my right!" Steppenwolf groaned underneath her.

Keeping balance was a hard task but she was well trained. Sydney broke a second arrow, then a third. With the arrows in cautious hands, she waited for Steppenwolf to stop moving a bit. When the time hit, she planted the tips of her technological arrows in his neck with a strong push. He was a New God. He was probably immortal. But he could still bleed.

She pushed herself off his back and stepped away a couple of feet. The tick of the nano bombs in the tips echoed. Steppenwolf clawed at his neck to try and put them out but it was too late. The bombs exploded with unprecedented force. One side of his helmet had vanished. He pulled it off his head quickly, crying out in pain. His right corn had been pulverized. Sydney smirked.

"This one was for Vic." She whispered to herself.

A motion behind Steppenwolf attracted her attention. Diana had crawled to Victor and was now helping him reconnect his body together. They needed the distraction. If Steppenwolf saw them, he would slice through them with his axe and everything would be over.

"Who are you," Steppenwolf walked over her. "To defy me?"

He tried to catch her but she avoided him by sliding in between his legs and climbing on his back once again. He shuffled, turned around frantically. She had already used her bomb arrows but she hadn't said her last words. She wouldn't back down. It wasn't in her blood.

For a moment, she had forgotten about the para-demons. They made her remember them. They surrounded her and Steppenwolf in a swarm, ready to protect their master. Sydney tried to hold up, tried to stay balanced on Steppenwolf's back, but eventually, the demons won.

Sydney crashed on the ground and rolled several feet away before a gentle hand stopped her. She frowned at the person pulling her up and dusting her off.

"Supergirl?"

"Aren't you too old to roll around in puddles?" Kara said instead, a grin on her face.

Sydney's lips spread in a tentative smile. Her chest flooded with relief. She followed Kara's impressive figure walking to Vic and Diana, helping them stand up, and she couldn't keep her joy any longer. Now, with Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Cyborg working side by side, they truly had a chance.

Steppenwolf seemed to realize the same thing because he attacked them immediately, Kara avoiding his axe with her superspeed but watching it pass through the next building before coming back to his owner with a magnetic force. She flew up in the air and charged him with heat vision. It only seemed to tickle him.

"Kryptonian!" Steppenwolf threw his axe at her, once again missing. "Darkseid wants your head but he is busy killing your cousin at the moment."

"Guess I'll have to wait!" Kara shot back, hitting him square in the face.

Just like with Diana, Kara's hits seemed to truly hurt him. It seemed to have a real impact, not like Sydney or her sisters' blows. Kara and Diana were part of the only heroes on Earth capable of fighting against Apokolips' New Gods and being up to the challenge.

As Kara was distracting Steppenwolf in the air, Vic and Diana worked together to circle his legs with the Lasso of Truth. He noticed it when he tried to avoid Kara's freezing breath but found himself stuck. He protected his face with his axe collected in his two hands. The lightning axe got totally frozen.

It was Sydney's turn to hit. She took a step back as a leap before starting running. As she ran and helped herself on Diana's shield to jump higher above his head, Steppenwolf fell backward, punched by Kara's strong fist.

In the air, time seemed to stop. In slow motion, in an out-of-body kind of sight, Sydney saw herself hit her wrists together with a scrunched-up face. The ultrasound force exploded in a wave around her. Blood and saliva spit out of her mouth as she landed on one knee and noticed the strength of the Atlas' Gauntlets.

The blasting wave had pulverized the para-demons into ashes flowing around them, mixing with the snow that had started to fall. Kara was up above them in the air, still watching with traces of blood coming out of her ears. Steppenwolf had been knocked out and Vic was pining him to the ground with his robotic fingers-turned-claws. Diana was approaching with her sword caressing the concrete, ready to give him the final blow.

Since it was no bravery to kill an unconscious enemy, Diana slapped Steppenwolf across the face with the back of her hand. The New God opened confused, half-lidded eyes before realizing his position of submission. He smirked.

"Even if you kill me, you cannot win, Amazon." He coughed, thick grey fluids coming out of the corners of his mouth. "The kid will kill you all."

Diana cocked an eyebrow and eyed Vic. "You recognize that smell?"

Vic nodded. "Fear."

"What's your biggest fear?" Diana asked. Steppenwolf gave her a broken laugh.

"I have no fears anymore. It cannot work twice."

Sydney walked over to them, wondering why they were gloating like that. It was out of character for Diana. And then, her queen extended her own sword to her.

"You've worked hard. You deserve to finish this." Sydney took the sword, confused. Diana's face turned grave. Merciless. "For our sisters."

Sydney nodded. Diana had seen right through her strong façade, as always. She had seen the rage hiding under wounded skin and tense shoulders. And she wanted her to expel that rage. Act on it one last time before giving it up.

Now, Sydney understood. Not just their situation, but all of Diana's lessons. About bravery and honor. About what to do in battles, how to suppress your emotions to be able to kill an enemy. How it was necessary to do it sometimes and how other times, you could show mercy.

This time wasn't one of those. Steppenwolf had killed lots of people during his long life. Amazons. Humans. Atlanteans. Ancestors that Sydney had never met. But she had heard about those stories. Heard about the first time the Justice League had reunited to beat him. Heard about Victor's father sacrificing himself so that their planet could survive. Heard about Darkseid's promise to come back and conquer Earth as a revenge.

Steppenwolf wasn't an enemy to whom she could show mercy. Because mercy was only reserved for honorable enemies. And he wasn't one of them.

With a grunt, Sydney raised the only sword capable of killing a New God above Steppenwolf's head and let it fall in a scream of anger. For all her sisters. For Queen Hippolyta. And General Antiope. For Athena. For all these ancestors and people killed for the ambitions of a god.

As Steppenwolf's body sagged down, Sydney dropped the sword as if it had burnt her. Her eyes blurry, she looked around. Faces came to her in a blur but none of them was recognizable. It was all creatures and demons and damned souls. She searched for her own heartbeat in all the sounds she was hearing. It was there. Pulsing into thick veins. Beating under rough skin. She was good. She was fine. She did it. They had done it. Steppenwolf was dead and with him, all the para-demons were vanishing.

Two hands grabbed her by the shoulders before two strong arms wrapped her in a hug.

"It's okay." Diana said in her ear. "It's over."

With that finality, Sydney felt her shoulders sag in relief. A sob escaped her mouth before she clawed at Diana's armor and anchored her face in her neck.

"I-I can-can't…"

Sydney couldn't formulate a sentence. Diana shushed her, caressing her hair and humming in her ear.

"It's over."

A crackling sound made them pull away and whip their heads on the left. What they saw was incredible. Supergirl in her anti-Kryptonite suit was fighting one of the commanders, the one with the crossbow for an arm now with an arrow planted in his own ribs as the hero pushed him through building after building. It reminded Sydney of the story Diana had told her about Superman fighting against General Zodd.

Sydney watched Diana roll her eyes and huff, looking down at the side of the building they were on.

"Kryptonians are reckless."

Sydney rubbed at her cheeks and sniffed. Straightening up. Cleaning off her tears. It was over, but just for them. The battles were still raging on below.

"Come on, they need help down there." Diana motioned for Sydney to follow her. "You go down and help Liz if you can. I'll try to help Lena with that other version of herself."

Sydney frowned. Blood was still flowing freely from Diana's shoulder where Steppenwolf had cut her with his axe. "But Di', you're still wounded."

Diana shrugged and jumped from the roof. It wasn't time for questions anymore. They needed to move quickly. The fight wasn't over.

Her bow over her chest, Sydney jumped up off the roof in an angel pose and crashed down on a hound's maw, squashing it under her weight.

"When the world is uncertain, there's one thing that's rock solid. It's the people who love you."

— J'onn J'onzz

Once they came back from putting M'gann in safety, J'onn and Brainy noticed a shift in the battles around them. The Boom Tube was pulsing with weird energy. The para-demons seemed more ferocious and down below, everybody seemed to struggle to keep going. Liz and June were crashing into buildings, destroying everything on their way. June's ghostly figure was terrifying, looking even more imposing than before, his halberd slicing through Liz's suit like a knife through butter.

They had to activate the antenna quickly before it was too late.

"How much time do you need?" J'onn shouted through the noises caused by June and Liz's fight mixed with the flapping of the demons' wings and the hot wind coming out of the Tube.

"Ten minutes maybe five if I'm quick." Brainy shouted back.

"That much?"

"Lena made it so it had multiple firewalls. She didn't want it to end in the wrong hands and be launched on Earth easily."

J'onn tilted his head in understand. Multiple times, Lena experienced devices getting used by the wrong people and turned against them. She planned for every possibility now.

"Alright." J'onn flew up and around Brainy to protect him from the demons coming at him. "I'll keep them occupy then."

The swarm of para-demons was horrible. Their little teeth had poisoned endings, putting venom in the flesh they were biting. J'onn tried to avoid them as much as he could. He took his Martian form and flew away to lead them away from Brainy but it worked only partly.

Some followed him. Others stayed on Brainy who was perched next to the antenna, typing on the invisible screen he could only see. His intellect seemed to work on both fields though and J'onn watched him with surprise as he activated something in the antenna, lighting propulsors at the end of it, at the same time he was kicking away two demons.

The propulsors were another surprise though. The antenna wasn't supposed to fly. Because an antenna didn't fly. Which meant… J'onn felt panic irrupt in his chest. He darted towards Brainy.

"I thought it was an antenna!" He shouted, hardly making his voice heard to the sound of the propulsors. He barely kept it up next to the flames under the antenna.

"It's not! It's a missile!"

J'onn pulled Brainy's shoulder so that he could look at him in the face. Brainy looked surprised by the force of the gesture.

"This is going to kill everyone and annihilate Earth!"

"No, not if it goes right through the Boom Tube before exploding!"

J'onn huffed and rubbed at his forehead. He could swear it was Lena's idea not to tell anyone. Those two audacious scientists were making a good pair in terms of keeping secrets. But now wasn't the time to ponder anymore. He was up against it. He couldn't back down now.

"What can I do to help?"

"Stop the demons from reaching me once the missile takes off so that I can control its course." Brainy instructed calmly. "Once it's on the other side of the Boom Tube, I'll make it explode."

J'onn exhaled and nodded. He was getting too old for these dramatics. Once this battle was over, he promised himself to retire on Mars with M'gann and their kids and only come back to Earth for family visits.

As planned, J'onn contained the demons enough for Brainy to launch the missile. It burnt the whole upper part of the Foundation building and its vibrations could be felt through the grounds, he was sure of it. Some demons got burnt in the launch. Some of them tried to bite it, followed it to the Boom Tube, but none of them could stop it.

The course the missile had to take wasn't a long one. Maybe ten miles to the sky. One more inside the Boom Tube to be sure. Brainy got it right into it and grinned at J'onn who griped his shoulders in congratulations as it exploded inside the Tube.

The reaction was immediate. Everybody had watched the missile enter the Boom Tube. Everybody had watched it explode in green and blue smoke. The atomic mushroom spreading in slow motion as pieces of the missile flew through the Tube and fell on Earth. J'onn and Brainy worked together to avoid the pieces hurting anyone. They paused in the middle of the sky, a bit of metal in their hands to watch below. Their team was cheering as the Boom Tube disappear from their sky. No more para-demons would come out of it to attack them.

Simultaneously, Wonder Woman, Sydney and Cyborg finished their battle with Steppenwolf, making the para-demons vanish into thin air. J'onn laughed in delight as they looked at the sky and saw Wonder them jump from the roof. The New God was out. The demons were out. It left the hounds torturing the rest of the team. And June and Liz's battle destroying the whole boulevard. Or was it Supergirl's battling against Katrach?

"There's still the Warhounds targeting the ground team. We need to help them."

"Lead the way." J'onn nodded.

"Faith is belief based on an absence of data. It invites disaster."

– Damian Wayne / Robin

Damian, Dick and Barbara were circled by para-demons. Their teeth were coming closer to them, their wings flapping against one another. Three hounds were pacing behind them, waiting. Lurking. Planning on attacking at the first mishap. The circle was becoming smaller and smaller. The demons were voluntarily oppressing them. They were cornered.

Damian tried a batarang but he didn't have enough leap to throw it. Dick hit a demon with one of his escrima sticks, thinking it would electrify it but the stick was taken and chewed out. The three of them leaned away in surprise.

"Shit! It's out of battery!" Dick hissed.

"Never heard of solar battery?" Damian quipped beside him.

"I'll think about it."

As a demon was about to hit Damian, it exploded in hundreds of particles of dust. They upped their eyes to Esme crushing them in the air one by one with her fists and heat vision. She crushed the closest ones before landing in front of her boyfriend.

"Need help?" She grinned. For once, Damian's common poker face was replaced by a huge smile.

"You're coming on the right time."

"It's my middle name." She winked before crushing another demon.

They had the time to punch one and a second before the para-demons started to disappear into dust around them. One by one, the creatures vanished. Esme looked up to the tallest building in the city and pumped her fist in the air as Diana and Sydney were jumping down of it.

"Steppenwolf is dead!"

Usually, she wasn't the one to express joy when faced with the death of their enemies but this one got what he deserved. It had been a long time coming.

"Let's finish the hounds and help the others." Dick said while helping Barbara stand up. Together, they ran towards the center of the boulevard. They still had work to do.

"If you look at history, the great men and women of the world have always been defined by their enemies."

– Lex Luthor

Lena rubbed at her mouth and laughed, seeing her hand coming out all red. She threw an amused glance to her alter ego.

"You know how to land a punch."

"Are you impressed?"

"I was just wondering if you learned about it like I did." Lena cleaned her mouth with her sleeve. "Through my father's fists."

The other Lena scoffed and crossed her arms. "My parents weren't gentle but Lionel never hit me. Alex did."

Lena paused and frowned. "Wait, who?"

She knew who Alex or Lex was, of course. It was just strange for her to hear it said like this in her own mouth - that wasn't actually her own.

"Alexander. My brother." The other Lena cocked an eyebrow. "You had the same brother. This dimension is the most similar to mine."

"I did, it's just… He never showed any trace of violence until later. Once we were both adults."

The other Lena shrugged. "Well, maybe he was the one being beaten up by our father, I don't know and I don't care." She made a flourish with her hand. "Are you ready to fight again or…?"

Lena snorted then, without any preparation, threw herself at her alter ego, their bodies crashing in the remnants of a car. Lena wished she wasn't alone in this fight. Deflecting her own powers seemed to be more difficult than envisioned. She needed somebody else to unbalance their fight. To make it less even between them too. Because for now, it was just them escalating a ladder side by side, until one of them would dare reach the magic forbidden for them to reach. And she wasn't sure Lena 2.0. had any pool of magic or even a coven to dive into to win this battle. And Lena wasn't sure either she wanted that upper hand and kill her other self.

Contrary to what she envisioned, Lena wasn't afraid of dying. If it could help win the battle at the end, she was ready to make the sacrifice. But was she ready to kill another being? A second time, after killing her brother had worked so well for herself? Not really.

The environment made it difficult for them to stay one against the other. The snow had started to fall again and the temperatures were lower in that end of afternoon, freezing the snow already gathered into piles or melted into puddles. The slippery wet floor gave advantages to the both of them. Jason had been a victim of it already. He was still unconscious in his puddle of melted snow. Lena 2.0.'s favorite magic trick was using electricity.

To block her attacks, Lena had either made the choice of attacking first – because electricity needed some time to charge into their hands – or shifted her body into a non-conductive material. Such as plastic, glass or wood. It cost her a lot though. And sometimes, her defenses weren't enough. Because, plastic and wood could melt and burn.

"I'm not sure where this is going!" Lena shouted as she protected herself behind her arm carrying a magical glass shield.

"It would be easier if you'd let me kill the Other!" The other Lena shouted back.

"I won't let you destroy my family just because you feel lonely!"

With that, she used the snow to throw a bunch of ice spikes to her opponent. This time, though, Lena 2.0. didn't deflect them with a fire ball. She had paused, her mouth agape in the middle of the boulevard and so, got it by the spikes right in the chest. She fell with the impact, a spike of ice planted in her stomach.

Lena frowned, approaching tentatively. Her alter ego was still on the floor after several minutes. Around them, the demons had started to vanish, not bothering attacking them anymore and the hounds were focused on the others, strangely. She was met with a cough and a chuckle. The other Lena was looking at the sky, her eyes tearing up with the pain.

"This is where you win and I loose, uh?" Another cough. "You'll loose in the end if you let him live."

Lena crouched down next to her. A bit of remorse stung in her heart. It could have been different. They shouldn't be fighting.

"You're wrong. We discovered more about the prophecy than you did." She brushed a loose finger on her alter ego cheek in a rare gesture of compassion. "Liz and June have the same soul. It got separated by one of our ancestors."

The other Lena frowned. Her gaze focused on her, her blurry eyes already half-closed. "I did this the wrong way, uh?" She coughed, her Irish accent stronger than Lena's. "Your life is so much better than mine."

Lena pinched her lips and shook her head, brushing away another tear. Her heart constricted in pain for the other woman – herself.

"This is the difference when you choose family over solitude. We could have helped you if you had come to us directly instead of doing this behind our back."

The other Lena smiled softly. "I'm not alone. I have a daughter." Lena frowned, her mouth already opening to ask an explanation. "I used Zodd's ship again. She's fabulous. Only five months old. The very portrait of her older sister."

Lena couldn't contain her face from scrunching up in disgust. Another clone. Another Luthor heir in this world. In a world where she wasn't supposed to be born.

"Where is she now?" She asked with a shaky voice.

The other Lena's smile fell. "In your penthouse. Waiting for me to take her home after I'm finished here."

Lena scoffed. "You came here leaving a five-month-old alone in an apartment without knowing if you would survive?"

If Lena didn't have enough proof that her alter ego was insane, this one would probably be one too many.

"Don't patronize me! I'll survive and I'll go back to her!"

"No!" Lena pulled her by her collar. "You'll die here alone because it's everything you deserve!"

She dropped her down, leaving her in a coughing fit to stand up and walk away. She was done with that side of her past.

"No! Please! She's just a baby!"

The other Lena's cries echoed against the concrete walls of the buildings still standing. Lena had never been one to show mercy in business. She had learned the hard way how her trust could be turned against her. And she would certainly not show mercy to her own self, knowing this woman was more extreme than she was in her manipulations and plotting.

She raised a final hand while walking away, saluting her opponent to signal she had enough. She had more important people to care about. Like Jason who clearly needed treatment and a week or two in a bed.

Lena reached Jason and took him under the arms to pull him out of the puddle and make him lean against a wall on dry ground. His lips had turned blue. She summoned wind to warm him up. She removed his gauntlets and loosened the collar of his bulletproof Kevlar jacket so he could breathe more easily.

After using her own hands to warm him up around the neck and torso, Jason started to come back to consciousness. He opened heavy eyes and smiled softly at her. His hair was all dusty and disheveled. His face was sporting battle scars already and dried blood from the numerous cuts he had.

"You saved me." He expelled through a whistling breath.

Lena smirked. "You just wanted some attention, didn't you?"

Jason chuckled and coughed. His eyes wandered behind them. He frowned and pointed behind Lena.

"Lena…"

"Yes, I'm here."

"No!" He coughed. "Not you. Lena!" He insisted.

Lena looked back. It took her only seconds to understand. Where she had left her alter ego, there was just dried blood now. No corpse. No one. Lena huffed and shared a look with Jason.

"You saw her vanish?"

Jason nodded with difficulty. "Nanotech." He added through a deep breath.

Lena pondered her options quickly. She knew where this sociopath was going but to follow her and deflect her attack on the Other, she had to leave Jason behind.

"Will you be okay if I let you here?"

Jason tried to shrug but he winced and raised a hand to his shoulder. "Don't worry about me, sis." He articulated through gritted teeth.

Lena nodded and, with determined eyes and the last drops of her magic, she threw a protective spell on her brother before running towards the middle of the boulevard. There was only one way to stop her alter ego.

"Love him. Serve great Darkseid. Wear your pointed helmets proudly where he leads. Die for him – And reward Granny."

– Granny Goodness

At the very end of the boulevard, the battle was still on between the Unique and its Other. After passing through concrete walls, destroying glass windows and entire buildings, only one of them had come out of it unscathed. June. He was currently above Liz, a hand grabbing her collar as another was above her face, glowering dangerously, ready to punch. His teeth were gritted tight as he was looking at her with emotions swimming in his eyes. Maybe it was because Liz could feel everything he was feeling. Or maybe it was because June wasn't hiding his feelings as much as he wished he was. But she could clearly see the pain in his dark ghostly pupils. No anger. No hate. Pain. And a flicker of hope.

You can stop now.

He shook his head, closing his eyes momentarily. A shallow breath escaped his mouth. It smelled like hot coal and soot.

You know I don't.

Then, do it.

June tightened his fists, ready to hit her again. Liz wrapped her hand around his fist and pushed against his strength. A battle of determination. His jaw tightened even more if possible. For long seconds, he didn't move or talk. They stared at each other, wondering what would happen. Liz was well aware that her fate was now in his hands. Whatever he decided to do in the next minutes would seal it.

With a final grunt, he seemed to take a decision. As he was about to finally punch her, Liz closed her eyes in preparation for him to burn her face off. Instead, June screamed in pain. A sharp pain erupted in her own shoulder. Liz opened her eyes to see June being bitten by a giant cat-like creature. The creature shuffled with him in its jaw before letting him fall on the ground. It showed its four lines of teeth at him and growled before walking backward and taking a protective stance in front of Liz. It had white fur and brown bat wings. It was probably the same size as a Warhound or bigger. Liz's brain took a moment to add the details into a full picture before a look of realization crossed her face.

"Snowflake?!"

The familiar threw her a look, a sigh escaping through his nostrils. He was frightening. His eyes weren't blue anymore. They were orange pupils surrounded by darkness. He looked like a demon. A familiar was a demon cursed to help its master the rest of its life as repentance. Now it made sense.

Shaking her shoulder to spread the pain away – with no success – she stood up with some difficulty. Snowflake had attacked June in a gesture of protection for her but everything hurting June hurt her too. It wasn't that deep though. Or her ego was less bruised, perhaps. Liz walked slowly next to the familiar. June didn't dare moving under Snowflake's guard and it brought a smile to her face. A victory one.

June's halberd lay there, at Liz's feet as if waiting for her to take it. She tapped the ending of the halberd with her foot and caught it in her hand, pushing the sharp ending on June's throat. One of his hands was palming his wounded shoulder.

I don't want to kill you.

He laughed in her head, dejectedly.

You don't have a choice.

June wasn't ready to surrender. He was supposed to win or die. That was the deal. His destiny. Liz could feel the arrogance burning his heart.

I do! If I kill you, I kill myself!

He tilted his head. The wound on his shoulder hurt more than he would like to admit but it wasn't important. The witch in front of him and her guard cat were. And that wasn't the first time Liz had said that. But it couldn't be true. Or why were they capable of hurting each other?

You're lying!

You know I'm not! Our souls were born together!

June scrambled away, refusing to hear more of this. He pushed himself up on one arm and shook the head violently.

We were born to kill each other!

Liz looked confidently at him, walking over with the halberd pointing at the grey skies.

You were born because my ancestor played with forces which surpassed her! You're a part of my soul! How else would you explain our connection?

June faltered. Their connection. They were talking through their minds. Sharing thoughts. Sharing dreams and nightmares. Memories. Since they were little. Without wanting it in the first place. And that feeling of never being complete… It hadn't been new. It wasn't part of his own powers either. He didn't have connections like that with others. It was only with Liz.

In a fit of rage, he gripped at her collar. Shook her with despair.

No, that's…

His words got stuck in his throat. What if she was right? What if it explained everything?

Think about it. When Katrach put serum in you, I felt it too. When I'm happy, I know you can feel it. I feel you as if you were a bird on my shoulder analyzing everything I do.

Her eyes were so earnest, how could he doubt her honesty?

We're linked because we're one and the same, June. We were just punished by Nature but we can fix it.

His hands coming up to his head as if to organize his thoughts, June pulled away. His eyes were frantic. His form started to flicker back into the boy he was when he wanted to look human. Suddenly, he became aware of all the chaos around them. The iron smells of blood. The soldiers dying at their feet. The city ravaged by his anger. The seagulls eating the flesh directly from the cut limbs. The Warhounds' sharp teeth piercing through fabric and flesh. That wasn't what he had wanted. He wanted to change the world. Make it better. They made him like that. They took a four-year-old boy and shaped him into a killing machine. But none of that what his fault. None of that was Liz's fault either. She was right. They were two sides of the same coin.

As he was about to ask her what they were supposed to do now, an arrow pierced his body. A cackling erupted behind him. June looked down. The arrow had come right through his stomach. The burning was almost too much. It was serum. But a different one. This one was making him weak. Powerless. Like his energy was sucked out of his body. Facing him, Liz fell on her knees, then on her side, her arms wrapped around her middle in pain. She didn't have the arrow through her but the pain was similar.

Boots stomped next to him. Katrach's putrid face appeared, a proud smile on his destroyed face. Supergirl didn't go easy on him.

"Look at you now, chosen one." Katrach laughed. "On your knees. Begging me to kill you."

June scoffed then smiled bloody teeth. "I'm not begging for anything."

Katrach closed the distance and cupped his chin violently into three tight fingers, almost breaking June's jaws.

"Oh, but you will, Worm. You will."

His breath smelled like a mix of blood and the rest of rotted food he still had in his teeth. He pushed June away, making him fall backward. As he prepared his crossbow to shoot one last arrow, June scrambled away. He knew this one would surely kill him. Katrach wasn't known to miss his targets.

Katrach finally pointed his crossbow at him, his feet tethering him to the ground as he stood right between Liz and June. He looked so proud to see June surrender.

"I wanted to do this since you arrived on Apokolips."

June spit blood on the ground. The serum was burning through his organs like acid. He raised a challenging eyebrow.

"Then why didn't you do it sooner?"

Katrach chuckled and let his guard down only for a moment. "We needed you to guide us to Earth. Your task is done now. Darkseid don't need you anymore."

"Granny won't let you."

Katrach was about to reply when Supergirl landed behind him. Her armor had been severely damaged by the last destruction of the building Katrach had left her in but her determination looked unscathed. She took Katrach by the throat and pulled him from the ground, his legs shuffling.

"Granny is dead." Supergirl tightened her grip around his neck. His crossbow fell heavily on the ground. "And you've done enough damaged for a lifetime."

Her fingers seemed to tighten even more around Katrach's neck. June couldn't let her do this.

"No!" Supergirl threw him a questioning glance. June stood up, coughing loudly. "Don't do it." He pushed the arrow out of his stomach, Liz screaming in pain. His energy was slightly coming back but his body was still fighting the poison. He scrambled to his feet and walked over to Supergirl. To them. He looked at Katrach with hate in his eyes. "This is my burden."

With resolution, Kara eased the commander on the ground and pulled several feet away, leaving June deal with him. Spitting blood on the floor, June grabbed Katrach by the hair and pulled backward. The commander looked directly at him.

"You remember all the times you burnt your mark in my skin?" Katrach seemed frightened for a second. June presented his other hand, glowering dangerously close to his face. "Now you'll know how it feels."

With his burning grip, he choked Katrach so hard that he felt his bones break before his fingers could pierce the skin. A crack was heard. Then Katrach fell on the ground, his neck in a weird angle. The last commander of Darkseid was dead and June wasn't willing to feel guilty about it. Instead, he fell on his knees, tired.

Behind them, Lena was already trying to heal Liz, only for her to explain that she needed to heal June first since he was the one hurt. June saw her head whip towards him and the pity immediately cross her face. It was unbearable.

He had been betrayed. He had been hurt. He had been defeated. They took his life. His childhood. Poisoned him with skewed valued. With wrong idea of justice. With views of a tolerant government. Only to use him. They never respected him. He was only an object they could use. He couldn't fathom not dying now. It was the only thing he could still have control over. And if he was dying, so were they.

In a last fit of rage, June stood up. But it wasn't June anymore. It was the monster created on Apokolips. It was the killing machine. The fifteen-year-old had vanished. Only the Other was left. Spitting fire through his mouth. Through his nose. Firing fireballs at all the heroes around him. At all these people with their sorry eyes and hope all over their faces. He grabbed at a carbonized car on the side and threw it at Lena who only avoided it thanks to Supergirl and her quick reflexes.

June, calm down. It's okay.

He could hear her but he didn't want to listen. What was the point? He had lost. They had won. His people had betrayed him. He had nothing left.

"I want you to imagine that you're full of tiny, itty-bitty boxes. And then I want you to take your feelings, and I want you to shove them into those itty-bitty boxes. And then I want you to take those and shove them way deep down 'til you forget you even had feelings in the first place."

– Lena Luthor

The main boulevard was now a thick lava route. Everything was burning. Melting. Even the Warhounds hadn't escaped it. The devices had whined as their legs were eaten by the lava until their core was burnt. The remnants of Granny Goodness' battalion had been killed or burnt too just after Steppenwolf had been killed.

June was their last enemy – without counting the other Lena. He was unpredictable. Impossible to reason. He didn't seem to listen to Liz who was desperately asking her family not to intervene.

"I got this. Stay back." She kept saying but Lena was worrying to her core.

Everything could happen. They had succeeded. They had defeated – killed – their enemies and June's tormentors like Liz wanted to. But they were now hiding behind remnants of buildings and broken cars and crumbled add panels to avoid June's attacks. It felt like a déjà vu.

And there was no trace of her alter ego. The other Lena had disappeared once again. Lena hoped it would be for good, that she had rejoined her daughter and traveled back to their dimension. She hoped her alter ego wasn't waiting in a corner for a window to hurt June.

Alone behind a flaming car, Lena watched the chaos go on. She knew Kara was pacing the sky, ready to intervene but the dark deep smoke hid her flying figure. Andrea was hiding on the other side of the sidewalk, behind a still standing pillar, her thigh bleeding from a nasty bite through the makeshift tourniquet Nia had made for her. Alex and Kelly were ahead of them, closer to Liz, leaning against each other, on a perched bloc of concrete, safely out of the lava's way. Esme and the Bat-family had taken Jason to the satellite, just like J'onn had taken M'gann back too. Nia and Brainy were watching from a roof, reuniting the dead bodies of the Amazons with Wonder Woman's help for their future funerals while Sydney was sitting on the roof moulding, tears rolling down her face from the shock of seeing her fellow Amazons dead and killing Steppenwolf. Lena couldn't even tell if she was noticing what was happening below her.

There was nothing interesting to see anyway. Corpses of creatures and Amazons that had fallen from the roof were covering the boulevard. Lone limbs were stolen from seagulls eager to have fresh food. Lena felt acid crawling along her pipes as she noticed one of them pulling out an eye from its socket and swallowing it without chewing. She got sick on her shoes, cleaning her mouth with her already stained sleeve.

Kara landed next to her, put a hand on her back to try and ease the pain. Lena gazed at her through blurry eyes. Kara smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. What a fucking mess. And it wasn't over. Lena was partly glad none of the citizens or journalists had broken the barriers they had installed at the borders of the neighborhood. Or maybe some did and their bodies were now covering the concrete like the others. Lena didn't want to know.

As the lava was almost reaching them, Kara circled her arms around Lena and pushed on her feet to keep them just above the burning soil but down enough to still be protected from June's fury. Lena noticed Andrea being hissed up by Wonder Woman and her lasso. At least the others were safe.

The nausea in her stomach only increased as she watched Liz approach June tentatively. She couldn't tell what was going on between them. June was now panting smoke in the middle of the road. Liz was walking to him with her hands extended in a surrender gesture. They weren't talking out loud. And even if they did, Lena wasn't sure she could have heard them.

Her heart was beating too loud in her ears. The blood was coursing through her veins like liquid fire. Her muscles felt so tense she couldn't move. She was terrified. More than she had been while entering this battle. Under the dark blue sky, Lena wondered why their life had to be this complicated. Why one of their plans couldn't just go without a hitch. Why they had to suffer through everything.

And then, she saw June fall on his knees in the lava. Surrendering. Shifting back to his human form. She saw Liz freeze the lave to stone with one motion of her hands. And she remembered there were pains going deeper around them than the one she was actually feeling.

"Tell me, little worm - do they regard you as someone strong, someone nasty, in your own world? This is not your world. This is where darkness, where cruelty and power, are all born.You aren't "nasty," little worm - you're only human. We are gods. We don't aspire to cruelty, we are cruelty!"

– Granny Goodness

He was used to fighting. He was born for it. But even the most trained warrior of Darkseid couldn't compete against his own emotions. The truth was, he was exhausted. Ashamed. Disappointed with himself. Lena could see all that on his face. On the way his shoulders sagged as they circled him.

Kara, with her big heart and her sense of hope for every person she met, was already convinced to help him. It was in her eyes and in the yearning to take a step closer to that boy and hug him. It was in her fingers stretching slightly towards action.

Lena sighed. It was her little brother but also her daughter's archenemy. This boy could be their best and their worst. But she couldn't deny the link between Liz and June. A long time ago, their souls had been separated. They were reunited. They needed to be reassembled.

Lena looked at Kara, transmitting her decision through her eyes. She never asked for permission, Kara knew that. Instead, she was informing her that she was about to put herself in danger and the hero had to deal with it. Kara only nodded slightly, a serious frown on her face. She was ready to intervene if necessary.

Lena walked past Liz. Her daughter was as wrecked as their enemy. She put a light hand on her shoulder in a small act of comfort, before stepping in front of June, who was still crying silently on his knees, in the middle of the wreckage he was the cause of. She fell on her knees too and took the boy's chin in her hand. She truly looked at him for the first time. He had red hair that she couldn't link to anybody in their family. His eyes were dark like obsidians, almost black. So different from the light green the Luthors owned. But his face, this anger, this shame, it was all sculpted on Luthor's features. She recognized their father's angular jaws and his high cheekbones. She recognized the intelligence and the despair in his glare. The challenge there. I dare you to love me, you fool. She had seen it so many times in the mirror.

This boy was definitely a product of the worst their father could have done with the means in his hands. Looking at him, at how ashamed and frustrated he looked, at how broken he seemed, Lena could only find a bit of Lex in him. It was heartbreaking. June could have had a normal life, could have gone to school and grown up surrounded by love and support but he had nothing of that. He had been deprived of it just because Lionel Luthor decided for him.

Throwing a last glance to Kara above her shoulders, Lena had the confirmation she needed. The fight had lasted long enough. This family had been broken long enough. In a last exhale, she leaned slowly on her knees and approached her hands to June's shaking shoulders. His whole body tensed but he didn't move away. He didn't have any fight left in him. He was ready to face death or any other punishment they thought he deserved.

But he only received a hug. Uncomfortable at first. Weird. Awkward. Then Lena pulled at his back and he fell in her embrace. Her perfume was comforting. Her voice soft in his ear was repeating the same words over and over.

"It's okay. Now, we got you."

June felt his heart go wild. His lungs started to tremble. And he broke down into uncontrollable sobs in her arms, confused but relieved. His hands clenched around Lena's tactical jacket so tightly that the woman felt it through her chest. The desperation for her not to go away. The boy's pain was constricting her own heart.

"It's over. We got you." She whispered again, wishing with all her reason that it would truly be over. That they truly could help him.

As she pulled away from him and helped him stand up, Liz approached and extended her hand. He took it and without a second thought, pulled her in a hug too. It was impossible to avoid. So hard to resist. Like gravity. Like meeting an old friend and trying not to be too eager. Unthinkable.

They hugged in the middle of concrete remains, surrounded by all of Liz's close ones. Long minutes passed before June decided to pull away to finally look at her. He wasn't seeing the weak girl anymore. It was like looking in a mirror, seeing a different version of himself than the one he had in his head. But he knew it was him nonetheless. He recognized himself in her. Recognized the joy he was lacking. The love he didn't know about. For all the things he had, she had the contrary. She had dark brown hair when he had red hair. She had bright clear eyes when his were dark as black holes. She was smiling and crying. He was crying and destroyed.

Welcome home.

A small smile appeared on his face. Very small and cautious, like the first step a baby would take after so many times spent scrambling around on his knees. And then, it morphed into pain, just as Liz cried out with a hand on her chest.

June followed her hand and watched a circle of red expand on her suit. His mouth opened wide before he realized he was hurting too. Eyeing his stomach, he realized the wound was his, not hers. Just like the arrow. He had been shot. He turned around on shaking feet and saw Lena ran to another Lena and grabbed her by the neck.

Another shot erupted. One of the Lenas fell on the ground, a hole in her head. A spark of lightning erupted in the black sky and a weird man appeared next to them. June's vision went blurry after that. His blood was still burning from the new serum Katrach had put through his veins. His eyes rolled inside his skull. As he fell on his side, his last vision was Supergirl cradling Liz in her arms, crying and screaming for help.

"What constitutes a legend? Is it powers and abilities beyond those of mortals? Or a warrior's heart that refuses to be defeated? For centuries without number, from ancient campfires to towering buildings, Man has relied on legends to keep the night at bay. Men call me the Phantom Stranger, and some say I am a legend, too. If that is true, I am proud to be among them! *For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly realms.*"

– Justice League's Legends, DC Comics.

*Ephesians 6:12

A/N: I'd like to dedicate this special chapter to Constazzz who's been an incredible support during this adventure. We don't write for glory or money or some kind of reward. The real deal is to be able to discuss and share stories close to our hearts with other fans and I'm glad I could exchange a bit with you about it ;)

This story isn't finished yet. We still have one more part to go. And what a part, I mean, how many of you are eager to know what will happen now?

About the quotes: This part marks the return of the quotes. All of them were found in comics at some points during my reading, I just couldn't remember where I took some of them, I just wrote them on the notes in my phone and that's it... If you are confused about some characters, backstories, relationships, please ask. I use a lot of DCU references that are not common knowledge for Supercorp fans and that's okay. If you're curious to know though, I can advice you to watch the Justice League film from 2016 (original and the Snyder's cuts) and read some of Wonder Woman's comics if you're into it because a lot of it comes from there.

About the characters: Some characters truly exist, some don't. Katrach and Sydney are mine. Others are DCU inspired characters that I took liberty to write in my liking. Granny Goodness is a real evil character and I can only tell you to go read her story, it's insane. Anyway, Sydney's fight scenes were the hardest to write. I hope I did her justice.

About the fighting scenes: Some of the scenes are inspired by battles I watched in the DC film universe. Some are also inspired by Arcane, since I was binging it while writing this. I also followed some of the drama building scenes you can see in the Lord of the Ring saga (because I'm a huge fan). It was hard, folks. My first time writing battle. I wanted to give them a hard way out. I hope it didn't look too easy to fight the enemies... My goal was to make it as entertaining as possible without being too easy on the heroes.

About Radion: Yes, the New Gods (Darkseid, Desaad, Granny Goodness, Steppenwolf and others...) can only be killed by Radion or by old, ancient artifacts, according to the DCU canon references. Batman actually kills Darkseid at one point with just one bullet, just like Alex did here (because Superman couldn't do it himself).

Fun fact: After writing such an emotional goodbye scene in the previous part between Sam and Andrea, I've almost forgotten Andrea in this part :D

I could go on and on about this chapter. I loved writing it even if it was a bitch sometimes. It's close to 22K words, and English isn't my first language so please be tolerant over the mistakes, I read it so many times that the words are burnt in my brain.

If some of you want to draw scenes or suits or characters, please go ahead. Publish your work on Twitter and me with MGoemaere27

Thank you for reading and sticking with me during this ride. Still one last part and we'll be finished. Probably by the end of next week, since we're following the Thursday/Friday publications again.

Okay that's over for the long ass note...

Take care y'all!