Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Seeing Red

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 32: Blood

Diana took in the little girl before her, gently taking her hands away from her face.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked.

The girl nodded slightly but wouldn’t look at her.

“You are the lady with the magic sword. She can’t stop magic. You can kill her, you have to. She is stronger. She used to let me out, but she never will again. The ring told me so. I don’t want to live here, so you have to kill her.”

Diana smiled softly at the child. “If I kill her, I kill you, and…”

“I don’t care! I don’t want to be here anymore! I’ve tried to escape before, but she always wins! Always!” Kara shouted, finally raising her voice and no longer sounding frightened but desperate.

“I do care. I have beaten monsters before and so have you. We can do this together and we will survive. Take my hand and we are gong to leave this place.”

The little blonde shook her head. “I can’t take your hand. She broke my finger and it really hurts. I can’t get it back to wear it needs to be. It won’t fix itself. She likes when I’m in pain. Every time she gets mad she hurts me. She burns me and cuts me, and I want it to end. The cuts just sting but I can’t take the burns anymore, I just can’t. I don’t want to hurt anymore. I tried to end it once, she let me have control and I tried to kill her but… somebody saved her. They never should have.”

Diana gently grabbed her forearm, Kara jerking suddenly but calming down, trying to relax but not completely able to. The Amazon looked at the little girl’s hand and saw one of her fingers, the finger the Red Ring resided on in the physical world was twisted, snapped and swollen.

“I’m going to set this for you and the pain will lessen. It will be over in a second. Do you mind?”

The little girl shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” she told her, resignation in her voice.

Despite the resignation, Kara did scream, when Diana popped her finger back in place.

“Have you hurt yourself anywhere else?”

The blonde’s face clouded with anger, different from the anger Kara showed the world, less intense, but anger all the same.

“I told you, she hurts me! I don’t want to! I would never do this to myself!”

Diana placed a gentle hand on the back of the girl’s neck.

“There is no monster, Kara. She is just a different part of you, one you have been controlling recently. You have been managing well, doing better, but she will always be a part of you, one that you can control. Do you know what happened? What just happened? Do you remember taking the ring?”

A tear leaked from the girl’s eye as she held her still fractured but straight finger. She shook her head quickly.

“Are you sure? The monster became stronger, didn’t she? That is your anger, Kara, and something took over you that has made it almost impossible for you to reach us, but you did. A few minutes ago, you recognized Barry. Do you remember that? You remember me, and I know you remember him. He wants you to come back.”

Kara shook her head quickly.

“Alex is dead. I don’t want to go back.”

“Alex isn’t dead. She is okay…”

“I saw her! She died! Its my fault! Its always been my fault!”

“She isn’t dead, I promise.” Diana spoke over the little girl’s loud voice. “I would not lie to you. She is slightly injured but will heal. You need to follow me. We need to find a way out of this place you are in. We must beat the monster and go to Alex. You want to be with her, right? You want to make sure she is safe? If you do, we have to find a way out of here.”

Kara shook her head. “I told you she won’t let me. She is angry. I’ve never seen her this angry. If I try to stop her she will hurt me. She won’t kill me. She never lets that happen, she just likes to hurt me. I hate her.”

Diana decided this was getting her nowhere.

“There is no monster, Kara. This is your head. I asked you who you were, and I was brought here. Am I going to have to carry you? I see passages, but we can be lost if you don’t show me the way.”

“The way where?!”

“The way to the monster you think is there. We are going to beat her. You will see there is nothing to be afraid of.”

Diana picked Kara up and walked towards three tunnels at the far end of the hellish room. The smell was still horrid, and Diana finally recognized it from the battlefields of the Great War. It was the smell of burnt flesh.

“Which way, Kara? I am an Amazon and a god. You are brave and strong. You will see we can beat whatever this is. Show me the way and do not lie.”

Kara hesitantly pointed in the direction of the middle tunnel. Diana walked without delay, the girl held in one arm and shield in her other hand.

The quiet was disturbing, the flickering of flames were no longer present, just complete darkness that Diana blindly walk through. After what must have been a few minutes, though she had no real way to judge time here, Diana saw a dim light ahead. The light grew brighter and finally opened into a circular room, made of the rock the first room was sculpted out of. Instead of flames, torches hung on the wall.

Also on the wall was who she believed was Hank Henshaw, though his face was nearly burned beyond recognition. He hung from chains on his wrists, his arms obviously broken and legs useless, not even moving. She suspected they were crushed. He had thin bleeding lacerations across of his torso.

“That’s Hank Henshaw. He is the reason the monster was born. I couldn’t control her after that. He is the reason she hurts me.” Kara whispered.

Diana looked around and saw in the dim light there were bodies everywhere, hanging from the walls, various injuries inflicted.

“Do you see what she does?” Kara whispered.

“Who are the rest of these people?” Diana asked. Some she recognized, Luthor, nailed to the wall by spikes through his hands, two men who were light blue robes with the crest of the House of El on them. A dark-haired woman with a streak of white wearing a Kryptonian symbol on a black body suit. Her neck was twisted and lay on her shoulder.

Many of them were in pain except for this woman, who was obviously dead.

“They all hate me. She hates them. We both do. Because of them, she hurts me.” the little blonde girl whispered.

Diana circled the great room, taking in all the bodies, some alive and moaning and others very, very dead.

Then she reached two teenagers, one male missing his eyes and a blonde girl with her mouth sewn shut.

“Aaron and Becky. Aaron watched me all the time in school. I heard him telling his friends what he wanted to do to me. He stared at me all the time. I could never say anything. If I did Alex would fight or Dad would get really mad. So I listened. He told his friends he did things with me. He lied about me and people started believing him.”

Kara jumped down from Diana’s arm and approached the boy. To the Amazon’s distress, the little girl’s eyes began to glow, followed by several slaps to the boy’s face.

“I always wanted him to hurt, but I never could do it. That’s Becky. She never shut her mouth. She hated me and Alex, said things about us that were not true. I threatened to burn her house while she slept, and she stopped for a while, but then she started again our sophomore year. She died in a car wreck when she was 18. She was drunk and drove off a bridge. I wish I had been the one to kill her. She got off easy.”

“Eobard Thawne is there.” Kara told her, pointing up, making Diana realize this room had a very tall ceiling and the bodies went very high. “Zoom is next to him. Malcolm Merlyn is across from them over there.”

Diana was beginning to realize that Kara had shown her the way to the monster. This was where the monster lived and the little girl in front of her was growing, growing taller, angrier. There was no monster. Kara separated herself in her mind because she had to for her own good, but they were one and the same.

A teenage Kara turned towards her now, a red ring on her right hand, clad in black and red.

“Look at the fourth row up, to your left. Do you recognize her?”

Diana felt a chill. For the first time since she entered Kara’s mind, the temperature was not hot but freezing now. The room lit up, more torches coming to life and Diana saw herself, wearing a blue dress, one of her favorites. She suddenly remembered she had worn it to the lecture once that Kara was in, when she first met the girl. This Diana hung from chains as the rest, and her face was nearly unrecognizable through the bruises and swelling.

“Why?” she whispered.

“Why? Where is a better question! Where were you? You came to National City to see how I was coping? I was 19! How did you think I was coping? Where were you? You knew who I was, what I was doing. I had help from humans and you, this so-called god of the Amazons sat in your damn museum, deciding mankind wasn’t worth your time?! You lied to me about who you were, and then you went back to your very nice apartment in Paris and did nothing! My sister helped me! Bruce helped me! Nightwing helped me! They are human, and they helped me! Barry lost his mother but when he got his powers he still helped everyone he could! J’onn lost his family, his entire race and still helped others! You? You did nothing! You wallowed in your self-pity because you lost your boyfriend a hundred years ago. I lost everything! I kept fighting and you were nowhere! That little ignorant brat you just saw may be too scared to tell you, but I’m not. You are as useless as the Lanterns. I’m going to kill them all too. But first I’m going to kill her.”

Kara pointed to a blonde girl with glasses, hanging next to Diana. This girl was burned all over, cut in places that weren’t burned, her bones in her fingers, twisted.

“Once she is dead I will be free. Free to do what I was meant to do, to burn this universe! No more guilt, no more thinking, or trying to be good, trying to be some perfect hero, the perfect daughter everyone feels sorry for who can’t take care of herself. All I will do is be what I was meant to do. I am so close. Sweet Kara Danvers is almost dead. Are you going to finally step up and save her or did you just stop by from Paris to see how she was doing? You are a coward, Amazon. You couldn’t save her then and you think you can now?”

Diana shook her head, doing her best not to be rattled by what she was seeing and hearing. The time for self-reflection was later. Too much was at stake. Antiope told her time and time again that a battle would never be fair.

“You are right, Kara. I should have been there, but I wasn’t. I am here now though, and I will not let you kill that part of you”

“That girl is nearly dead. Little Kara isn’t coming back. Shy, meek, sad Kara isn’t coming back. Your only chance to save them is too use your sword and kill me. Its the only way to stop me. Kill me, or I will kill everyone. There is no other choice.”

Diana took a deep breath, even if she knew this wasn’t really air she was breathing and nodded, agreeing with her assessment.

“You are right, Kara. I will use my sword. I have all the answers I need now.”

Diana’s vision changed, and she was back in Metropolis, her lasso wrapped around Kara’s waist, but the girl’s arms were free. She had her mouth open, a red aura inside it, along with her burning red eyes.

The woman pulled her sword from her back. Instead of holding onto the handle, she allowed the tip of the blade to go level with the back of her head. Grabbing the blade with her hand she swung with all her strength, the hilt of the blade striking Kara on the side of the head, causing her fiery breath and heat vision to go into the ground, rather than Diana’s face.

Unwrapping the lasso, the Amazon raised her boot and kicked, sending Kara flying back. The girl still landed on her feet, but the distance gained was enough to give Diana a chance to jump back far away, giving her space and placing her within speaking distance to Barry, Bruce and Gardner.

“Bruce, clear everyone from the area, make sure any cameras watching us are shut down. Barry, get Alex out of here along with the Lanterns and J’onn. Curry, rescue trapped civilians. Gardner, if I can hold her, can you form some tube to get us to this blood lake?”

“Yeah, but you can’t hold her.”

“Not what I asked. When I have her, wrap us in whatever energy field can hold us and get us there.”

“You won’t be able to breathe on Ysmault.” he argued.

“I can walk through a village of mustard gas. I can handle whatever atmosphere is there. You may lead the Reds but today you will do as I say. Take your Reds away but watch. You will know when the time is right.”

Barry looked at Kara, slowly walking towards her prey with a look that gave him chills. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her but getting Alex to safety before Kara accidentally killed her was important. If Alex was dead there would be no bringing her back, blood lake or not.

“Diana. you aren’t powerful enough to stop her.” Bruce said, trying to talk her out of this plan.

“I am the God Killer. You have never seen how powerful I truly am. Now go!”

To her relief, they all did as she said. The battlefield was clearing thanks to Barry. He even managed to lift the large Czarnian. She would have been impressed if not for the more pressing issue at hand.

Kara growled and sent a wide blast of her liquid fire from her mouth. Rather than blocking, Diana moved easily out of the way. The girl charged, flying just above the ground, her ring sending a solid beam of energy right towards her.

Diana crossed her gauntlets and screamed, the energy stopping before it hit her along with Kara who froze in midair. Diana uncrossed her arms and the girl and flew back.

The second Kara was on the ground, Diana was on top of her, her gauntlets glowing red and fists breaking through Kara’s red aura field as if it weren’t there.

Diana barely missed a counterpunch, but the movement gave Kara a chance to strike her in the chest with heat vision blowing her back. The Amazon hit the ground on her feet and charge once again. Before Kara could open her mouth, Diana struck with her sword once again, striking the side of her head with the flat side, dipping her towards the ground. She followed up with her shield, catching Kara’s chin, causing her to stumble back.

The Kryptonian recovered almost immediately, hitting Diana in the chest, knocking her down.

The demigod rolled off her back and stood up. Her chest felt like someone had reached through her armor and ripped her heart out.

Kara was weary now of her opponent. This woman should have died a dozen times by now, but the blonde monster filled with rage saw she was still alive. Kara had felt pain, and this was not supposed to be possible. She was rage and power and unstoppable. She was the alpha predator on this planet. Everyone was weaker than she was.

She also looked around and saw the human who she knew was hers, was no longer there.

She unleashed her power once again, heat vision, fiery breath and the ring. Diana raised her shield, but the immense power sent her flying back into a building’s remains, nearly knocking her out. She had not fought as strong an opponent since Ares and he was nothing compared to Kara.

The blasts stopped, her shield so hot it was painful to hold. A final burst from the ring, this one weaker was deflected by her gauntlet, slapped into Kara’s face, causing the girl to howl in rage. Diana took a chance and moved closely, striking with all her power and sending the Red Lantern flying backward, digging up the ground where she slid.

Blood dropped on the ground in front of the Amazon. She was bleeding from her nose, the strain, the strikes, she wasn’t sure of the last time, but it had been a very long while since Diana bled. For the first time she had doubts whether she could pull this off.

The demigoddess had never felt as tired and in as much pain as she did now.

Antiope’s voice came to her, as it often did. You are stronger than you believe, you have greater powers than you know.

Stop doubting yourself.

The woman shook her head to clear it and thought.

Every time Kara uses all her power at once, she takes a moment to recover. She can’t fight in this state, only swing wildly, believing anything she touches will be destroyed.

Diana knew that Kara Danvers was an exceptional warrior, knew more forms of hand to hand combat than Diana, but that was Kara Danvers. Kara Danvers was smart in a fight, constantly running through hundreds of scenarios in seconds, looking for an opponent’s weakness and exploiting it, always looking for her opening to kill and she always succeeded.

But this was not Kara Danvers. This girl was all strength and no brains. Diana may not match her in physical strength, but she had her training, her mind and knew how to look for weaknesses as well.

“C’mon, Kara Danvers. Is that the best you have? You are weak. You are nothing.”

Somewhere in who used to be Kara Danvers, the Red Lantern recognized that she was being taunted. The girl unleashed her power once more.

Rather than deflecting it, Diana took to the sky, hovering over the blasts that wanted to incinerate her, seemingly standing on air. As she had Kara’s attention, the blonde took to the sky towards her and Diana met her on the way down, swinging the broadside of the sword into her temple and sending her crashing back to the ground.

Those that had left the fight to Diana watched, Barry finding it hard to not step in and Alex hoping her vision cleared enough to see the fight.

“Don’t become involved.” Bruce told them. “Diana doesn’t need the distraction. We have to trust her.”

“She is trying to kill my sister!” Alex told him.

“No, she isn’t and won’t.” Barry assure her. “Every time she has struck with her sword it has been with the hilt or the flat side of the blade. She is trying to knock…”

Barry stopped talking when he saw Diana hover over the ground, avoiding Kara’s blast and floating until meeting Kara in mid air and knocking her to the ground.

“Did you know she could fly?” the Flash asked Batman.

The Dark Knight shook his head. “At this point, nothing about her surprises me anymore.”

Stewart walked, or limped towards the three.

“If our Corp and the Reds engage at the same time, we could end this, restrain her. Diana doesn’t have a chance defeating her.”

“Kara went through your Corp in seconds and the Reds were smart enough to not try.” Batman told him. “They are following her lead. Besides, you have a hole in your shoulder and the other three are still unconscious. I doubt you will be any good. Diana is our leader, if she says stay out of it we will follow her wishes. Don’t underestimate her. I have seen Kara fight many times and that isn’t Kara out there. Diana will defeat her.”

On the field of battle the two engaged in close combat, only this time instead of using raw power, Diana was ducking, dodging, striking when she had an opening and using her footwork to keep the girl off balance.

The more frustrated Kara became, the angrier she became.

The Amazon recognized when red glowed from Kara’s mouth a burst would follow a half second later. Luckily for her, a half second was all she needed to avoid whatever this lava Kara was breathing. She remembered Gardner telling her about the horrors of the ring, how it took over the heart, sent energy where there once had been blood and the disturbing fact that they could vomit their ruined, acidic blood. This was more like fire though, with much more distance than she would have believed.

But Kara had to be tired. After single handedly destroying that creature, burning the Green Lanterns and fighting with her for the past twenty or so minutes, there had to be an end. Diana just had to make sure she was standing at the end and Kara wasn’t.

A wild punch was easily avoided, and the demigoddess slipped from behind her, taking her lasso and rapping it around Kara’s head, blocking her eyes and mouth, hoping the lasso would hold up and not be burned off.

Kara reacted as she suspected, sending her heat vision and fire breath into the lasso that held. The pain of having it so closely deflected back at her, stunned her for a moment, allowing Diana to grab her by the waist and flip her back, head first into the ground with Diana under her.

The two flipped back and Diana continued her onslaught, for the first time noticing that Kara was breathing heavy. Perhaps she was getting tired. Using as much energy as she had been using today could not be sustained forever.

That optimistic thought was cut off when a blast from the Red Ring struck her in the head, dropping her to the ground. Reacting on instinct, Diana turned her body and swept Kara’s leg, with a follow up kick to her chest sending her to the ground.

Rather than attacking right away, the Amazon allowed her to stand. Her strikes were vicious and fast, all power no technique, but they were slowing.

“You are getting weak! I thought you would burn the Universe! Fight harder!”

The red beast recognize once again that she was being taunted. Instead of a growl, she unleashed a roar, shaking the debris around them. She continued to swing at the armored woman, who moved at incredible speed, staying close and dodging everything that was thrown at her.

On Kara’s last miss, she felt her opponent’s fist connect with her chin, stunning her for a moment. Her vision blacked out for a split second and when she regained it, she saw a sword hilt swinging toward her, striking her just behind the ear and sending her to the ground again.

This time, Kara was not as quick to get up. As soon as she was on her hands and knees, Diana kicked her under the chin and struck the back of her head.

Picking up her up from behind by her hair Diana wrapped her lasso around Kara’s eyes and mouth once again than continued tying herself to the back of the stunned girl.

The Amazon decided this was her best chance. Kara may be slowing down, but Diana eventually would too.

“Gardner, now!” the woman shouted.

The Reds flew in quickly from the rooftops that were still standing. Bleez concentrated on Ysmault, using her ring to open a tube, a portal to another galaxy and planet. It was a skill that only the most skilled and powerful Lanterns could do with ease, but all had the ability.

Gardner and his three friends fired, wrapping a large bubble of red energy around the two and lifted, throwing Diana and Kara through the tube onto a beach, thousands of light years away.

Diana did not have time to realize the hell that this planet resembled. She only saw a red lake in front of her and hoped it wasn’t made of the same acid blood that Kara and the rest of the Reds spewed. It didn’t matter. She had gotten Kara this far. It was true what the blonde said in her mind. Diana had left her to fend for herself once. She wouldn’t leave her again.

“Unwrap the rope! We have to push her in!” Gardner shouted.

“We both go in. I’m not letting her go. She is still struggling. Do what needs to be done, now!”

Gardner shook his head and looked at this other Lanterns. More Reds who had been traveling other sectors of the universe and returned, walked out of the cavernous residences and recognized what was happening. A new Red had arrived and this one was very, very strong.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” the man mumbled, then looked towards his Lanterns, 14 on the planet now and all unleashed the power of their rings at the two women who were bound together by a magical lasso, the armored one holding the Red from behind.

The energy was enough, striking both women painfully and sending them far into the Blood Lake. The area they landed could be seen from shore, but it was deep enough.

Neither of the women rose.

Gardner sat on the shore, Bleez sitting next to him.

“How long do you think it will be?” she asked the man.

Gardner shrugged his shoulders. “Guess it depends on how much anger. Could be five minutes, could be days.”

“And the woman with her? Will she survive?”

“I have no idea.” he admitted. “But she did just go toe to toe with the most powerful Red Lantern in history and restrained her long enough to get her here. I wouldn’t doubt her. She was shouting at me when we arrived, so I guess the atmosphere doesn’t bother her. I don’t think she is human. I thought maybe some magical sorceress thing when I first met her, but now I don’t think so. She is something more. She’ll survive. They both will. I just hope when they rise, Kara can gain some semblance of control over the ring. She protected her sister, she recognized her boyfriend, she talked… she is under there.”

Bleez shook her head. Once the girl truly grasped what she was and always would be, she would most likely rather be dead. There were many times Bleez wished she had died rather than live like this.

“She is one of us now. We will help her.” The woman assured him.

Gardner shrugged his shoulders.

“I just don’t want to let her down like the Greens did. We will do what is necessary. We have never really talked about it, but since Atrocitus is dead, maybe its time for a new mission. We need to find a blue ring and someone to wear it. If we can’t, we need to help them figure out another way.”

“No one has ever taken the ring off and lived. The Ring will not allow itself to be removed.” Bleez pointed out.

“That’s why I said we need to figure out a way. Some of us maybe deserve this, but she doesn’t. We are going to find a way.”

Metropolis

Alex took Bruce’s com and called her Father at the Fortress.

“Are you okay?” was his first question.

“Hi Dad, I’m fine. May have a slight concussion and a pretty bad cut on my forehead but it won’t need stitches… were you watching? Kara is gone. They took her.” Alex asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.

Her father wasn’t fooled in the least.

“I know Alex, but we will get her back. She isn’t dead. That Diana woman, she is a good woman, she will bring her back.” he assured her, not sure himself but needing to comfort her somehow. Clark was a mess, and they hadn’t even tried to stop him from watching the fight because it would do no good. He would have found a way and now was curled far away against a large crystal, crying.

He also had Eliza to worry about, his mind on Alex’s possible injuries and the fact that he had just seen Kara turn into someone he didn’t recognize, breathing fire and rampaging and then being beaten and taken to another world, a place he had no idea how to get to.

If she hadn’t accepted the ring, she would have died.

“Is Mom okay?” Alex asked, fighting back tears.

Jeremiah looked at the slab where Eliza lay, being monitored by Kelex.

“When we got here, Kelex hijacked the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite. We saw the fight, probably for ten minutes before you and J’onn got there. She saw Kara, saw her bleed. She had a panic attack, a bad one. She has been unconscious for about an hour, but her vitals are good. It would be good if you could be here when she wakes up. The four of us being together would be good. We can’t help Kara now. We have no choice but to trust Diana.”

Alex shook her head. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Diana, but Kara was hers and Kara was in pain, on an alien world, surrounded by possible enemies with no idea about how to get back here. If she destroyed them all and flew off she could be lost in space, especially if the ring was clouding her judgement and mind.

“I’m sorry, Dad, but I can’t… I’m going after her. I’ll find a way.”

Jeremiah was not surprised, even expecting this, the moment he saw Diana and Kara tossed into whatever portal that was. This would cause greater worry if possible for Eliza and Clark but just like when the Black Mercy had struck, Alex had gone after her, telling Kelex she either came back with Kara or not at all.

“You want to use the escape pod? I’ll go with you. You aren’t going alone.”

Alex was about to respond when a large hand took the com out of her ear.

“Jeremiah.” a deep voice growled. “This is Lobo. My ship is nearly here. Her and Stick are going with me. I know the way and I give you my word, I will have her back to you. Take care of my girlfriend and your boy.”

Jeremiah felt a mixture of worry and relief. Lobo was many things, most of them bad, but one thing the father knew was that the Czarnian was absolutely dedicated to his daughters. Lobo was the first one to show up and help Kara, and could have been killed, knew it, and did it anyway.

“Thank you, Lobo.” the man told him gratefully.

“Never thank me, Jeremiah. I have to get my ship ready. I know of a way that can get us there in hours instead of a month, but I need to move quick. Here is Alex.”

While Alex talked to her father and eventually Clark, who she managed to settle some, Barry approached the large Czarnian.

“You can really get us there in hours?”

“I’m not in the business of bullshit, Flash. I’m not leaving the fate of my girl to anyone but us. I don’t think they would do anything untoward, but we take care of our own, ourselves, right? I have a call to make. The Rann transporters would require multiple jumps and take months to get to. Ysmault is a very long ways off. Hardly anyone goes there except Reds. I do have a guy in Detroit who owes me a big favor. He is from Earth but spends a lot of time on Rann and has something called a Zeta Beam, an advanced transporter that can get us there very quickly. Let me work and try and get J’onn somewhere. He isn’t healing like I did. He needs to go to that fancy Block.”

Lobo’s ship landed, and the man walked inside without delay. Barry put his arm around a distraught Alex, who was barely holding it together as Batman was wiping blood off her face and checking her pupils for signs of a concussion.

“We will get to her, Alex.” Barry assured her. “She will be okay. Kara has gone through a lot and always…”

“Been damaged after every hit, damaged in a way she has a hard time coming back from if she did at all. Things were going so well. She was happy, Barry! She really was and now this! I just need to get her home, we need to get her to the Fortress, so we can begin figuring out how to get this ring off her without killing her. There has to be a way to reverse the biological effects and we will find it. I need to check on J’onn before we leave. He is awake.”

Alex made her way over to the Martian. His body still had some ice on it but the damage to his torso was significant, the burned skin covered most of his torso. Still he was awake.

“Hey there Big Green.” Alex greeted him, kneeling beside the Martian.

“There is my favorite agent who never follows orders. You have blood on your face.”

“And you have a giant crater in your chest. Once you are thawed out can you heal?”

The Martian tried to laugh but it came out as more of a wheeze and he grimaced from pain. J’onn had never been struck with any kind of blast that had that much power.

“Kara was close to death. I didn’t have a choice. It would have finished her. If I die, I die. I told you, you girls and Clark always come first. Alex… what happened?”

“Kara is alive. She defeated… she thought I was killed, I got shot from the sky and she apparently didn’t see me eject. She…”

“She took the ring. Where is she?”

“Ysmault. Diana is with her. Barry and I are going soon. We will bring her back. You need to get better. I’m not sure if you are going to the Block or the Fortress but either way, Mom and Dad will be there so try and be a good patient, okay?”

J’onn nodded his head and fell back asleep, whispering for Alex to go get her as he did.

Batman watched everything, trying to prioritize. He scanned the area with his visor and couldn’t see any trapped civilians, only dead ones. Stewart was trying to wake up the other three Lanterns and a part of Bruce hoped they were all severely injured.

Curry approached him, having completed the task that was mot prevalent on Bruce’s mind.

“Where is he?” Bruce asked.

“I worked my way through a lot of debris. Best I can tell, him and his lab boys were torn to pieces. I found his head, but anything we had planned for Luthor is done. He kept that bastard hidden until he escaped. Man, I can’t believe we got fooled like that.”

Bruce shook his head. “We did what we had to do. Atrocitus had to die. If he hadn’t, if he kept that battery, Kara could be anywhere right now, following him around the universe like a dog. We were outplayed but it could have been worse. She will be back, and we will figure this ring thing out. The Reds know something and if I have to kill them one by one until someone talks, then I will. Soon the police will be here, rescue workers, probably the National Guard. I don’t want you involved with them. Stay with J’onn. I’m going to Ysmault. J’onn is out, Stewart is injured, and I still don’t trust him, and Barry is joining us. I don’t know how long we will be, but you are protecting this world now. If the worst happens and you need help, contact Dick Grayson. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. He is recruiting a team as well. They are all new but can help. Keep an eye on J’onn and be careful, Arthur.”

The Aquaman assured him he would. “I got you Bruce. Bring home our girl. This world will be the same as you left it, I promise.”

“I know it will.” Bruce told him. “Because I trust you.”

Ysmault

Kara had no idea where she was or what had happened. Flashes of memories were flickering through her mind, but the main part of her brain was trying to deal with the sensations she felt. She was full, much like the time she was trapped underwater and drowned, her body filling with liquid.

This was not water though. She had no idea what it was. The smell was horrible, yet she couldn’t make herself move. She couldn’t concentrate, her mind threatening to skip into darkness repeatedly. She felt arms around her, she felt as if she were tied up. These arms were different than Alex’s arms, stronger, longer.

The girl tried once again to remember what had gotten her here, wherever here was but nothing made sense. She finally gave into the darkness only to find herself in a chamber of horrors she had dreamed about often. Her personal prison.

Waiting for her was Kara Danvers, alien hiding behind a fake smile and eye glasses.

“We need to have a talk.”

“A talk about what? Am I dead? Am I finally dead?” she asked, partly sad and a larger part of her feeling great relief.

“We aren’t dead, we aren’t alive. We are who we are, but we are greater now. Let’s talk about using your head. We must learn to control the rage, or the rage will control us. Nobody will control us any longer. No more excuses. Rage makes us strong, but it also makes us stupid. We were beaten by someone weaker than us. Remember who you are, what we are, what we have gone through. Remember it all. Then we will talk about what we are going to do next. Not everyone on this wall is dead.”

Kara shook her head. “I don’t want to kill anyone else.”

The other Kara, the meek one, moved over to her quickly and slapped her face hard turning the girl’s head.

“Weakness. Weakness has made us a victim. We won’t be victims any longer. I won’t allow it. Now relive it. Relive everything and learn from it.”

Kara felt as if she were thrown from the room, then found herself on a very comfortable bed. She was a young girl. She was sweating, delusional but one thing was certain, the man by the side of her bed, was Non.

He told her he would rip her intestines out.

Instead of fear, Kara smiled and reached out. Her small hands found his throat and she began to squeeze. She was strong than him. She did not stop until he was dead on the floor. She opened a drawer in a nightstand she had never noticed before and found a blade. Kara smiled at the dead body and began her true work. When she was discovered, she would deal with anyone else who came.

While Kara was reliving her worst moments, trying to merge who she was and who she is now, Diana lay closely, wrapped around her in darkness. The Amazon kept her eyes and mouth closed. As she suspected, she did not need to breathe. She could tell Kara had relaxed and knew that if she let her go, Kara would stay submerged until she was ready to rise.

Yet the woman stayed, thinking of all the things that had gotten her to this point, everything that had happened since she left Themyscira. The woman had lived a long time but often she didn’t feel like it. She felt the first thousand years of her life never really let her grow. She grew as a warrior in practice but had always been a princess, living the life of pampering her mother insisted she have. Everyday was beautiful, the weather perfect, her people kind, her dreams of battle, just that, dreams.

Diana didn’t grow up until she came to London and then Belgium. She had seen how horrible it was, and after her mission of defeating Ares was over, without Steve, she wanted nothing to do with Mankind, living among them but never a part of them.

Diana and Kara were both faced with the same choice Steve had. When you see something wrong you can either do something or nothing.

Diana had seen many wrongs since the war but had done nothing.

She swore to herself in the lake of foul blood that she would never do nothing again, never fail another person like she thought she failed Kara and Alex. Bruce may have encouraged them, but he was at least there.

So Diana stayed in the lake of blood, holding her and vowing to herself that she would never let her down again, even if it meant staying in this hellish place.

As Diana was reflecting and Kara was going through a hell in her own mind, fighting her way back to the surface, Alex, Batman and Barry were leaving Detroit in a space ship, having just acquired something called a Zeta Beam, that Lobo had installed in front of his large craft. The man he got it from was named Adam Strange, just a normal looking guy in old jeans, a red hoodie, an old coat and a Detroit Tigers hat on. He had met Lobo outside the city and handed him the device without question, even helping the Bounty Hunter install it.

Now for the first time in his life, Barry was in space, in an actual spaceship, about to be transported across the universe.

What should have been an exciting event was ruined by the worry on his mind and in his heart. Alex had occasionally broken out in tears, Batman comforting her while the Dark Knight remained unphased for the most part, making Barry wonder if Batman did this stuff all the time.

Unable to sit still any longer, he unbuckled and moved from the bay they were in to the cockpit, hoping the view of space and the streaks of stars they passed would help take his mind off the anxiety that made him sick to his stomach.

Lobo didn’t acknowledge him when he sat down on a seat beside him. The large alien was too busy making adjustments of some sort.

“You might want to sit in the back and buckle up when we make the jump.” Lobo finally told him. “I figure five minutes to jump and an hour after that. I’ve never actually used this Zeta tech before. Its more complicated than Rann transporters but Strange loves his gadget so he would make sure I got it back to him. There aren’t many of these in the Universe. I have no idea how bad the turbulence is going to be.”

“Got it.” Barry assured him. “So will we have to stay on the ship when we get there?”

Lobo shook his head. “I got some indestructible suits, breathers that can take the gases you breathe and change their molecular structures into oxygen. You can walk around but it would be best to stay in the ship until Kara is up. Gotta be honest with you man, I got know idea how long that could be. She could be waiting for us or under for a month or so.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Barry assured him. “I’ll stay as long as it takes.”

“I know. Its why I brought you.”

Barry thought for a moment, wondering if it was his business. Everything he had heard about Lobo gave him mixed feelings. The man was a bounty hunter, assassin, feared everywhere, only out for himself, except when it came to Kara and Alex. Lobo had said once that he followed Kara because she kicked his ass. There had to be more to it than that.

“I heard you were the first one to help Kara fight that monster.”

The big man shrugged his massive shoulders. “Lot of good I did. Got my ass handed to me. Maybe I should have gotten madder, made that ring come to me and I could have destroyed it. I’ve been looking for that tiny ring and Atrocitus since I found out about all this stuff. I didn’t find him obviously. I haven’t done a damn thing right.”

“You stood up” Barry pointed out. “You tried. Can I ask you… why are you so loyal to Kara and Alex? I get that Kara almost killed you once and you respect her, but it seems deeper than that.”

Lobo looked at him and grinned. “Finally getting jealous over her, huh? Its about time you recognized how hot of a catch I am.”

Barry continued looking at him, until Lobo took a deep breath and looked back at the stars.

“You gotta lot of friends, Barry?”

The question caught him off guard for a moment. Did he? Of course he did. He had Wally, Cisco, Caitlin. He had his new friends in the Justice League, Alex, even the guys at the DEO.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

“I don’t. I have Kara and Alex. This whole universe is scared of me or hates me or both. Kara and Alex Danvers are the first people in this whole damn universe in my very long life that have treated me like I am somebody worth knowing. They treat me like a friend, they hang out when I am on the planet, not just when they need things from me. When I need help with something on Earth, they have always been there, always. Don’t tell Jeremiah but I did get those two girls to go on a Dolphin watching tour with me. I hired a guide and we stole Bruce’s yacht. You know why I killed Damian Darhk?”

Barry had honestly forgotten that Lobo had.

“That man had black magic. I had my own magic, but Kara didn’t. He might have harmed her, so I took him out of the equation. That’s what friends do for each other. They are my only friends. Alright Stick, that’s as mushy as I am going to get, take your ass in the back and buckle everybody in. I got some thrilling heroics to perform.”

Despite a rough jump, as Barry surmised it was called, the rest of the trip was fast and smooth. Alex had moved to the cockpit, no longer content to stay in the backs. Her forehead was blue, and a thin laceration ran from it but was no longer bleeding.

“We are here!” Barry heard Alex shout from the front. Him and Bruce entered the cockpit and the sight nearly took Barry’s breath away.

He was looking at an alien planet, something he never dreamed he would see in his life.

“Okay everybody.” Lobo told them. “Hold onto something. Its time to get our girl.”