“This? This is the reason you deserted your training?”
Athena stared down at the severed haunch of the giant warhound, which rested at the foot of her throne. Armored guards flanked the throne, while additional Amazons stood watch over Holly and Harley as they faced Athena’s judgment. Holly couldn’t help noticing how much grander and more opulent the beautiful temple was compared to the miserable barracks she and the other newbies had been stowed in. Marble friezes, depicting the founding of Themyscira, ran along the tops of the walls. Towering caryatids, sculpted in the likenesses of great Amazon heroines of the past, supported the high ceiling. An exquisite Persian carpet surrounded the throne. Incense perfumed the air.
Rank has its privileges, Holly thought, and something here is really rank.
She did her best to conceal her resentment as she defended herself before the scowling goddess and her armed attendants. “If we’d deserted, we wouldn’t have come back.”
“Yeah,” Harley said. “We just figured, since we’ve all been busting our behinds, maybe some fresh meat would help keep morale up.”
Holly shrugged. “The big dog was all we could find.” Canine blood smeared their soiled chitons, which had definitely seen better days. Hauling the grisly trophy back though the woods and underbrush had been a chore and a half. “Not exactly prime barbecue material, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
“You slew the hound yourself?” Athena asked skeptically. She leaned forward to inspect their prize. “With what weapons? How did you fillet the meat from its bones?” Outnumbered and unarmed, Holly tried not to look too worried. “We found a stash of old weapons in the hills.” “There was all kinds of rusty old Amazon junk,” Harley attested. “No cute shoes in my size, though.”
'' Athena pondered their words for an endless interval. Is she buying this? Holly fretted. A trickle of sweat ran down the back of her neck. Even with Harley at her side, there was no way they could defend themselves against Athena’s elite honor guard. She prayed that Hippolyta had not overestimated her ability to put one over on Athena and her warriors. Otherwise, we might be doggie chow.
The counterfeit goddess rose from her throne. Her regal face held an inscrutable expression. She approached the two accused deserters.
“I shall expect you to show us this weapons cache later,” Athena declared. “For now, your prowess speaks volumes.” She laid approving hands upon their shoulders, bestowing her dubious blessing upon them. “There is a place in my elite for those who show such initiative.” Her grip tightened, digging painfully into their flesh. Her gray eyes flashed a none-too-subtle warning. “Do not, however, let it happen again.”
She released her grip and Holly let out a sigh of relief. Ohmigod, she thought, we ’re actually getting away with it. We ’re not dead!
Harley nodded a little too eagerly. “Okeydoke!”
“I think what she means is,” Holly explained, “we live to serve.”
At least until we find out who you really are, lady, and what your game is.
“I don’t understand,” Mary said. “What are we doing here?”
A moment ago, they had been on Earth. Then Eclipso had used the mystic power of the black diamond to transport them across the universe to possibly the most evil place in the cosmos. Mary had never been to Apokolips before, but she knew of its dread reputation. The wizard Shazam had often spoken ominously of the hellish planet
• and its infamous overlord. The New Gods were supposed to be just as formidable as the old ones from which the Marvels drew their powers ... if not more so.
“Don’t worry, dear,” Eclipso said soothingly. She guided Mary down a torchlit corridor. Dense stone walls gave the alien fortress a forbidding atmosphere that made Zatanna’s spooky mansion seem like Disneyland by comparison. Muffled screams escaped dungeons several levels below. An open window offered a glimpse of a smoky black sky. The crimson glow of the Fire Pits penetrated the corridor, so that the somber walls seemed splashed with blood. “I wouldn’t have brought us here if I didn’t think it was time.”
Time for what? Mary wondered apprehensively. Surely Jean doesn ’t think that I'm ready to take on Darkseid himself? Her nerves faltered at the prospect. I’ve learned a lot lately, and I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, but Darkseid has defied the entire Justice League.
She took a deep breath of the palace’s hot, oppressive air. Her costume clung stickily to her skin. Apparently, Darkseid wasn’t big on air-conditioning.
“This way.” Eclipso led Mary into an imposing stone
chamber. Tiny figurines were positioned atop a chessboard. At first, Mary thought she and Eclipso were alone in the room, then she spotted an imposing figure standing upon an adjacent balcony, his massive arms clasped behind his back as he surveyed the stygian landscape outside the fortress. Either unaware of or unconcerned by the two women’s arrival, he remained as still and silent as a statue. “My lord?” Eclipso addressed him.
The figure slowly turned around. Mary gasped out loud as she found herself face-to-face with the undisputed master of Apokolips. Darkseid’s granite features reminded her of the petrified Sins at the Rock of Eternity, but were even more intimidating. His red eyes blazed like the Fire Pits outside. His deep voice rumbled from his chest. “Eclipso. What brings you here?”
Eclipso proudly presented Mary to Darkseid. “For your approval, Dark Lord, a powerful supplicant, newly versed in the ways of vengeance.” She curtsied gracefully. “May she serve you well.”
Huh? Mary thought, trying to keep up. Suddenly, everything was happening too fast. We ’re not here to fight Darkseid? Jean wants me to join him instead?
Eclipso gave Mary a discreet shove from behind, so that the confused heroine stumbled toward Darkseid. The sinister New God towered above Mary as he inspected her. “I—I’m not sure why I’m here,” she stammered. “Jean said I was ready...
Despite her obvious uncertainty, she seemed to meet with Darkseid’s approval. He held out his left hand. “Come to me, child. Know true darkness.” A merciless smile sent a chill down Mary’s spine. “I have many minions, but I can use a sorceress of your ability. I sense great potential in you.”
“As did I,” Eclipso said, quick to take credit for Mary’s conversion. “She shall be a tremendous asset to our cause.” “Not so fast!” Mary blurted. Now that she’d had a chance to get over her initial shock, she realized that Eclipso had been working for Darkseid all along. Glancing more closely at the chessboard, she spied a six-inch replica of herself among the deployed figurines, which also included miniatures of Eclipso, Zatanna, Black Adam, Klarion, and even her brother. Anger overcame trepidation as she finally grasped just how deliberately she had been played. “I don’t care who you are,” she snapped at both Darkseid and Eclipso. With a sweep of her arm, she dashed the figurines from the table. “Gods or demons, you can’t use human beings like toys!”
Darkseid frowned. “Your education is incomplete. The first lesson of power is that all beings are subject to the whims of their betters, even you!”
His eyes flashed balefully, and a pair of deadly Omega Beams converged on Mary, who blocked the attack with a shimmering force field. “Nice trick,” she snarked, “but I saw it coming from a mile away.” She stood her ground •against Darkseid, even as Eclipso furtively signaled her to back down. Lightning crackled around Mary’s upraised fists. “You want magic?”
Eclipso’s bisected face went pale. “Mary, no!”
But Mary wasn’t listening to the other woman, not anymore. “Try this!” she exclaimed as she flung a sizzling thunderbolt at Darkseid.
The blast, which shattered the stone tiles beneath Darkseid’s boots, was powerful enough to blow apart an army of killer robots, but provoked only a grimace from the fearsome lord of Apokolips. “You have spirit, child,” he conceded with what sounded like a hint of admiration, “but you are no match for me.”
He stomped heavily upon the floor, triggering a seismic tremor that knocked Mary off her feet. Cowering behind him, Eclipso grabbed on to the game table to keep from falling. The scattered figurines bounced atop the quivering floor. Darkseid stalked toward Mary, crushing her miniature replica beneath his heavy tread. Springing into the air, Mary hoped that wasn’t some kind of omen.
Maybe I’m pushing my luck here, she thought. As furious as she was at the villains for manipulating her, she wasn’t sure she could take on both Darkseid and Eclipso simultaneously, and on their own ground no less. Perhaps a prudent retreat was in order?
“I’m out of here!” she announced defiantly. Fists first, she launched herself toward the ceiling, smashing her way out of the dismal war room. Rubble rained down behind her as she punched her way through level after level of the alien fortress. Darkseid’s booming voice rang out behind her. “She is your charge, Eclipso! Return her to me!”
Over my dead body, Mary thought.
Earth was a looong way from Apokolips. Despite having the speed of Horns at her command, Mary felt like she had been flying through space forever before she finally glimpsed a tiny blue globe in the distance. The wisdom of the gods guided her toward home, while their divine endurance shielded her from the vacuum. Isis’s magic had allowed her to traverse the dimensional boundaries separating Apokolips from the rest of the cosmos.
But even magic had its limits. Exhausted by her headlong flight across the universe, Mary paused for a breather in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It felt good to set foot on solid ground again. Craters and ridges distinguished the rocky surface of the asteroid, whose gravity was barely noticeable. She gazed longingly at the Earth, roughly three hundred million miles away. Home, sweet home.
A flash of purple light intruded on her reverie. She scowled as Eclipso materialized upon the asteroid, only a few feet away from her former protegee. Damn, Mary thought. I should have known that witch would catch up with me eventually.
“There you are!” Eclipso declared. Despite the lack of an atmosphere, she had no trouble breathing or speaking, which Mary chalked up to Eclipso’s own magic. The two-faced demoness threw up her hands in exasperation. “Oh, Mary, what were you thinking? Why did you run away like that?”
“Because you sold me out!” Mary angrily turned her back on Eclipso. “You fed me all this bull about how we were so much alike, how you wanted to help me. Then you gave me to Darkseid as an ... an offering!”
Eclipso came around to look Mary in the face. She leaned casually against a granite tor. “You misunderstand my intent. I presented you to Darkseid to be anointed in the ways of darkness.”
'' “Are you crazy?” Mary asked indignantly. “What made you think I wanted to get mixed up with that kind of evil?” “All a matter of perception, Mary.” She held the black diamond up to her eye like a monocle, peering at Mary through its translucent depths. “Haven’t you been called evil at times? Think of Madame Xanadu, Zatanna, even your own brother. Haven’t they all turned you away?” “That’s true,” Mary conceded. Uncertainty flickered across her face. Maybe Jean had a point? “They didn’t even give me a second chance.”
Eclipso nodded slyly. “Think, child. You have the power to topple gods. Draw close to the Dark Lord, use your power to seduce him, vie for concubine ... and when the time is right, when he is falsely confident of his dominion over you, then we strike him down!” She sauntered over to Mary and insinuated her arm around the younger woman’s shoulders. She whispered into Mary’s ear, “Do you see now? I wasn’t offering you to Darkseid; I was offering all of Apokolips to you!”
Her mentor’s depraved proposal was like a splash of cold water against Mary’s face. The startled heroine couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “A concubine? A whore?” She shoved Eclipso away from her. “Is that all I am to you? A means to an end?”
“No ... wait!” Eclipso stammered, grasping that she had said the wrong thing. “That’s not what I meant... !” Mary wasn’t hearing any more of it. She kicked herself for giving Eclipso even a chance to weasel her way back into her confidence again. “Forget it!” She snatched the black diamond from Eclipso’s fingers and placed it before her eye just like she’d seen Eclipso do. “I can see the truth now, and you have nothing to do with it!”
A beam of violet energy shot from the gemstone, blasting Eclipso off the asteroid. The stunned villainess flew clear of the rock’s meager gravity. She somersaulted backward through space. Luck alone kept her from crashing into one of the neighboring asteroids.
' • “Holy Moley!” Mary exclaimed. Despite herself, she was impressed by the gem’s power. “I guess diamonds really are a girl’s best friend.”
Not yet defeated, Eclipso swiftly recovered from the attack. Halting her uncontrolled tumble through the asteroid field, she righted herself with respect to Mary. Her bisected face glared murderously at her onetime dupe, all pretense of friendship abandoned. “That’s mine!” she snarled. Her outstretched fingers opened and closed convulsively, hungry for the stolen gem. “Give it back!” Mary couldn’t resist gloating a bit. She took off from the asteroid and flew toward Eclipso. She held up the glittering black diamond, flaunting it before her foe. “You know what they say,” she taunted her erstwhile mentor. “‘Possession is nine-tenths of the law.’”
“No!” Eclipso shrieked, sounding positively crazed by her lust for the gem. She lunged at Mary with her fingers extended like claws. Her amethyst eyes were wild. “You can’t have it! It’s mine ... MINE!”
She slammed into Mary, her momentum propelling them both into a nearby asteroid. Mary grunted with pain as they crashed into the rugged surface of the rock. Pulverized chunks of ice and stone forever escaped the asteroid. The impact jarred Mary, knocking the diamond from her grip, while her stunned body cushioned Eclipso’s own collision with the rock. The frantic she-demon pounced eagerly on the gem. “Yes!”
“How ... ?” A puzzled Mary rose from the center of a freshly carved crater. She had thought that Eclipso would be powerless without her precious jewelry. “How did you manage that?”
“Foolish child!” Eclipso fondled her accursed prize. “The black diamond and I are bonded. We are one.” She floated off the asteroid so that she could sneer down at Mary. “How dare you attempt to come between us! We are Eclipso! We are one!”
A violet beam drove Mary face-first into the granite floor of the crater. The blow hurt like hell, but she found the strength to climb back onto her feet. Eclipso’s maniacal fixation on the diamond reminded Mary of a certain ring-obsessed fictional character. “That all you got, Gol-lum?” she challenged Eclipso, spitting out a mouthful of powdered silica. She hurled herself at the hovering woman like a missile. “’Cause it’s my turn now.”
“I think not,” Eclipso said. A second bolt of mystical energy halted Mary’s charge, flinging her backward through space. Mar}' clenched her teeth, holding back a scream, as the searing blast scalded her skin. Eclipso cackled like the witch she was. “Ungrateful whelp! We offered you the darkness—and look how you repay us!” She soared toward Mary, her feathered cloak spread out behind her like the wings of a raptor. “Very well, then. I’ll have your power for my own, long before I intended to seize it!”
Her scheming words reignited Mary’s anger at being manipulated. “You lying witch!” she exploded. “You’re just like all the others! All you ever wanted was my power!” She rocketed to meet Eclipso’s assault head-on. Lightning crackled in her eyes and fists. “Want my power, huh? Have a taste on me!”
She struck the deceitful villainess like a comet. A golden thunderbolt shredded Eclipso’s lavender aura, blasting both women clear of the asteroid field. Locked in combat, grappling for control of the black diamond, they careened through space at superhuman speed. They barely noticed Mars’s ruddy brilliance as they barreled past the Red Planet toward Earth. Mary’s fist was locked around Eclipso’s throat, while the enraged demoness clawed at Mary’s face with long purple nails. A hastily conjured force field blocked Mary’s right cross. Eclipso held tightly on to her unholy gem, “Die, Mary Marvel!” she hissed. “And in death, surrender the power I crave!”
Face-to-face with Eclipso’s naked malice and lust for power, Mary shuddered in recognition. Is that what I looked like when I ransacked Zatanna’s library . .. just to increase my own magical might? When I terrorized mortal criminals in the name of vengeance?
' * It wasn’t a pretty picture.
I thought I was strong enough to contain Black Adam’s darkness, but really it’s been controlling me, making me dance like a puppet at the ends of Eclipso’s strings.
But not anymore.
She tore her gaze away from Eclipso’s fiendish countenance. Ahead of them, Earth shone in space with a serene blue radiance that could not have been more different from the infernal glow of the black diamond. “You almost had me, Jean,” she confessed. “I was almost just like you, corrupted beyond redemption, but now I’ve seen enough of the darkness to know that’s not me.”
“Brainless girl!” Eclipso mocked her. “Rejecting the only one who cared enough to show you how your power was truly meant to be used. Poor lost child! No friends, no family, no one to call your own.” Hate contorted her elegant features. Spittle sprayed from her lips. “And no one to blame but yourself!”
They entered Earth’s atmosphere, plunging toward the Atlantic Ocean like dueling meteors. The scorching heat of reentry tested Mary’s invulnerability; her skin felt like it was on fire. Eclipso’s feathered cloak erupted into flame, so that they left a blazing trail behind them as they descended into a clear blue sky. A cooling wind mercifully replaced the unbearable heat. The sea rushed up to meet them. Out of the comer of her eye, Mary thought she spotted a solitary island floating atop the surging waves below.
“It’s over, Eclipso!” Mary felt more like herself than she had in weeks. Her mind raced back over everything that had transpired since she had naively accepted Black Adam’s poisoned gift. “This power you crave has brought me nothing but misery. I don’t want it anymore.”
“No!” Eclipso wailed over the wind whistling past their ears. “Don’t waste it! Give it to me!”
“Take it!” Mary shouted. She wrapped her arms around Eclipso to keep her adversary from escaping. The magic word erupted from her lips. “SHAZAM!”
’ A titanic thunderbolt stmck both women. Eclipso convulsed in agony as the magical lightning charred her flesh, while Mary Marvel instantly transformed back into an ordinary teenage girl. A deafening boom drowned out Eclipso’s screams. Unable to hold on to the flailing demon, Mary Batson let go of Eclipso. Gravity seized her and Mary quickly lost sight of the other woman as they plummeted helplessly toward the waiting sea.
She hit the water seconds later.
Mary awoke upon a sandy shore. Waves lapped against her shoulders as she lay sprawled upon the shore, half in, half out of the ocean. Sand caked her face and hair. Clingy strands of wet seaweed were draped across her body. Her ragged T-shirt and jeans were soaked clean through, while her socks and sneakers had gone missing entirely. Her mouth tasted like brine. She felt sore and bruised all over. The hot sun beat down on her.
It was official. She wasn’t Mary Marvel anymore.
Coughing violently, she retched cold salt water onto the beach. She struggled to lift her aching head from the sand. “Eclipso?” Her bleary eyes glanced from side to side, but found no trace of the treacherous witch. What happened to her? To both of us? Mary searched her foggy memory. The last thing she remembered was plunging into the sea after she gave up her powers. Guess I survived the fall, she deduced. Barely.
It seemed a miracle that she hadn’t drowned before washing ashore... where exactly? She dimly recalled spotting an island earlier. Was that where she had ended up?
She dragged herself farther onto shore, out of the water. The effort exhausted her, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was just plain old Mary Batson again. It’s gone, she realized. I don’t feel Black Adam's power, his darkness, anymore.
I’m free.
Water streamed from her drenched auburn hair onto her face. Mary wiped the hair and water away from her eyes. Climbing onto her knees, she crawled forward toward an uncertain future. Seabirds cawed somewhere overhead. A salty breeze chilled her trembling frame. Mary wondered if she had been marooned upon some nameless isle, or if maybe there was a beach resort just beyond the shore?
Metal clanked ominously only a few feet in front of her. A musky animal smell invaded her nostrils. A large wet nose sniffed her damp hair. A low growl froze her in
> her tracks.
Uh-oh, she thought. Welcome to the jungle....
Swallowing hard, she lifted her eyes from the ground— and found herself face-to-face with some sort of monstrous hound that looked like a cross between a mastiff and a pit bull. All it needed was two more heads to be the spitting image of Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Slobber dripped from the hound’s intimidating underbite. Massive forepaws were planted in the sand only a few inches away from her. Bloodshot red eyes seemed to regard her as a prospective chew toy. A spiked collar was clamped around the giant canine’s bull-sized neck. Tracking the dog’s leash with her eyes, Mary saw that the beast was not alone.
A pair of fearsome women warriors glared at Mary from behind their oversized watchdog. Polished bronze armor, of distinctly Grecian design, encased their trim, athletic bodies. Crested Corinthian helmets concealed their features. Their burnished helmets, breastplates, studded leather skirts, and greaves gleamed in the bright afternoon sun. Sheathed swords rested against their hips. Disk-shaped shields were strapped to their forearms.
Amazons. Mary identified the women at once. Wonder Woman’s sisters-in-arms.
Suddenly, she had a pretty good idea where she was.
“Identify yourself!” commanded the Amazon holding on to the great hound’s chain. The growling dog strained at its leash, eager to devour the intruder. “State your business!”
The second Amazon brandished a long metal spear. “You are trespassing on Paradise Island!”
Yeah, I kind of figured that out, Mary' thought. The Amazons’ tone was less than welcoming. Maybe giving up my powers wasn ’t such a good idea. . . .
> “What is this place?” Jimmy asked.
After escaping from the torture chamber, Forager had led him to a secret lair deep within the bowels of the Arma-getto. Hissing steam pipes and power cables crisscrossed the stark concrete walls and ceiling. Powerful engines thrummed in the background. Vermin scuttled through the dank tunnels beyond the cramped subbasement. The spartan furnishings consisted of a crude cot, a pair of rusty metal stools, and a portable stove. A hanging lantern provided just enough light to see by. An open footlocker held batteries, ammunition, and other supplies. Forager’s bloodstained armor lay in a heap upon the floor.
“A hidden outpost for spying on Darkseid,” she called out from an adjacent shower stall. The spatter of cascading water muffled her voice somewhat. A grimy plastic curtain shielded her from his view. “I’ve used it as my base of operations on previous espionage missions here.”
“I get it,” Jimmy said. “Sort of your own private safe house.” He changed into a suit of khaki coveralls he found hanging in a closet. “You’ve planned for everything, haven’t you?” Taking a seat upon one of the stools, he heard the water shut off behind the curtain. “You know, I can’t help thinking that maybe I’m slowing you down. If I’m keeping you from finding the lost souls of the New Gods ...”
His voice trailed off as, amidst clouds of billowing steam, Forager emerged nude from the shower. Jimmy tried not to gape, but found it impossible to look away from her alien beauty. Without her chitinous carapace, the svelte insect-woman looked surprisingly human. Her lustrous pink skin was invitingly sleek and unblemished. True, her supple legs ended in three-toed claws, but Jimmy wasn’t exactly staring at her feet. His freckled face blushed crimson.
“Ah,” she buzzed, “the filth of Darkseid’s squalid dungeons is off me at last.” She seemed not at all self-conscious about her nudity. Plucking a well-worn towel from a peg, she began to diy herself off. “And please cease apologizing, Jimmy. If you were a hindrance, I would not have brought you to Apokolips in the first place.”
Jimmy swallowed hard, distracted by the lovely vision before him. “O-okay.”
“I must tell you something,” she continued. “When you pressed your mandibles to mine—”
He recalled the sweet taste of her nectar upon his lips. “We call that a ‘kiss.’”
“Yes, when you kissed me,” she clarified, “I finally realized why you possess such astounding powers.”
Jimmy jumped to his feet. “You did?”
She strolled across the basement, revealing a row of dorsal scales running down the graceful contours of her back. Jimmy realized belatedly that her wings had been artificial and merely part of the body armor she had worn before. “At that moment, I sensed within you the power of the gods.” “Whoa, there!” he protested. “I’m no god.”
Her glittering compound eyes looked into his. Her slender antennae tilted toward him. “I said gods, Jimmy. Plural. You are, I believe, a soul-catcher.”
A what? he thought.
“Disaster*," the Queen of the Amazons said gravely. “Do you know where that word comes from? Comets. Falling stars. Ill omens from above.” Hippolyta gazed upon Mary, who nervously endured the queen’s scrutiny. The youthful castaway shivered in the chilly gloom of the cave. “Now you turn up on our shores, claiming that you fell from the sky like Icarus.”
Mary didn’t understand what was happening. She’d expected the female sentries to escort her to the Amazons’ walled city elsewhere on the island, so she was confused to find herself in a murky cavern instead. A jagged stalactite hung above her head like the Sword of Damocles. The spear-wielding sentries ensured her cooperation. Mary’s damp clothes smelled like sea salt. She hugged herself to keep warm. At least they left the dog tied up outside.
“Tell me, Mary Batson,” Hippolyta continued. “Did you try to fly too high?”
“Y-you know me?” Mary stammered.
The queen nodded. “Our paths have crossed before,” she reminded Mary, “when divine power still coursed through you.” Mary recalled fighting alongside Hippolyta during a big alien invasion a few years back, along with pretty much every other meta-human and magic-user on the planet. She was surprised that the Amazon queen recognized her out of costume.
There was no mistaking Wonder Woman’s legendary mother, though. Her resemblance to Diana was striking. They had the same lustrous black hair, statuesque proportions, and piercing blue eyes. Now those eyes inspected Mary warily.
“I sense that blessing has been rescinded,” Hippolyta stated. “So ... how did you come to merit the gods’ scorn?” Mary blushed and stared sheepishly at the floor. “Jeez, where do I start?” she began. “When I was Mary Marvel, I had a family and a purpose. I felt... special. But then
the power of Shazam was taken away, and I felt so empty and useless and lost.” The guard on her right, the one with the incongruous Gotham City accent, nodded sympathetically. “I would’ve sold my soul to be a hero again ... and I guess I did.”
She spared them the messy details.
‘“Those whom the gods would destroy...’” Hippolyta mused, quoting Euripides. Mary’s explanation seemed to satisfy the older woman; the queen’s voice and expression softened. “But it seems you’ve purged that evil from your body and spirit. I sense within you nothing worse than regret.”
Mary was grateful for Hippolyta’s leniency, even if she wasn’t entirely sure she deserved it. I’ve got a lot to atone for, she thought. But that didn’t explain why they were meeting in this spooky cave. “Then why bring me <lown here like a prisoner?”
“Can’t be too careful on this rock nowadays,” the guard from Gotham explained. Orange bangs peeked out from beneath the brow of her Corinthian helmet. “There’s a fake Athena out there, training phony Amazons.”
“Yeah,” her squeaky-voiced comrade confirmed. “It’s like cheerleading camp, only run by Bin Laden.”
Mary blinked in surprise. A fake Athena? Bogus Amazons? It was a lot to take in all at once. Now what have I got myself mixed up in, she fretted, and without any powers to boot?
“We’re going to bring them down,” the first guard declared, “but we need all the help we can get.” Her streetwise blue eyes looked into Mary’s. “You in?”
Tears stream, down Jean Loring’s face. She writhes helplessly within the constricting bonds of the heavy canvas straitjacket. Her short black hair is matted and in disarray. Beefy guards haul her toward a waiting cell in Arkham Asylum as she peers frantically back over her shoulder at the man she loves.
“Ray! Don’t let them take me!” Crazed blue eyes plead for mercy. Saliva sprays from her lips. “Don’t do this to 'me! RAY!” “
Ray Palmer looks on helplessly as the guards drag his ex-wife away. In happier days, he had often rescued her from all manner of perils, but this time she was beyond saving. Jean had condemned them both to this terrible moment when, unhinged by madness, she had murdered one of their best friends as part of an insane scheme to revive their marriage. Now he can do nothing but watch her join the other dangerous lunatics in Arkham, possibly for the rest of her natural life.
He has never felt so small.
Her desperate shrieks echo in his ears. “Help me! Ray! RAY!”
“Ray?”
Jean gently nudged his shoulder as she woke him from his nightmare. He sat up abruptly in their bed, his body drenched in sweat. Disoriented, it took him a second to remember where he was....
“Another bad dream?” Jean asked. Standing beside the bed, she gazed down at him in concern. A purple turtleneck sweater flattered her figure. Her stylishly coifed black hair curled over her shoulders. Silver crescent earrings sparkled in the dim lighting. “You poor thing. Perhaps you should see someone about these recurring nightmares. Maybe that nice Dr. Quinzel at the clinic?”
“After the holidays,” he promised, although he privately doubted that therapy was the answer. How could he explain to a psychiatrist—or to Jean—that these “nightmares” were actually painful memories from another life ... on another Earth? / just have to put the past behind me, he thought. Somehow.
Jean glanced at the atomic clock on the dresser, next to their wedding photo. “Anyway, nap time’s over. You need to get up and get dressed. Our friends will be here soon.”
Right, Ray remembered. The Christmas party. Rising from the bed, he paused to peer out the window at the peaceful suburban neighborhood outside. Snow carpeted their neighbors’ roofs and front yards, although the sidewalks .and driveways had already been shoveled clean. Christmas lights decorated every house in the cul-de-sac. Genuine snowmen shared the lawns with plastic reindeer, elves, and Wise Men. A life-sized replica of Superman, wearing a Santa hat, posed in the large inflatable snow globe occupying the Morrows’ front yard. The kids across the street played fetch with their rambunctious Irish setter, the one that kept harassing the cat next door. Smoke rose from brick chimneys. A glorious winter sunset confirmed it was almost evening.
Gazing out at the tranquil holiday scene, he could almost forget that ghastly trip to Arkham. He turned toward Jean, seeing only the beautiful woman he had fallen in love with in the first place, not the mentally disturbed murderer he had left behind two years ago. His throat tightened with emotion. He discreetly wiped a tear from his eye. I’ve been given a second chance here, he reminded himself. Another shot at happiness for both of us. He shook his head, trying to clear any lingering vestiges of the nightmare from his mind. I can ’t let it go to waste.
Jean stood in the doorway, watching him. “I’ll be down in« few minutes,” he assured her. “Just give me a chance to straighten up.”
“All right. But don’t be long.” She shot him a teasing smile before exiting the bedroom. “You know how punctual Barry and Iris are these days.”
A hot shower and a change of clothes helped him put his memories of Earth-One behind him, at least for the time being, so that he felt more at home by the time their guests arrived. Ralph and Sue Dibny settled onto the couch beside Iris Allen, while Iris’s husband, Barry, helped himself to a second plate of homemade Christmas cookies. Bright orange flames danced in the fireplace, making the living room warm and cozy. Brightly colored packages were piled high beneath the Christmas tree. Instead of the usual star, the handblown glass ornament atop the tree, a gift from his colleagues at the university, took the form of an atomic symbol. Matching “His” and “Hers” stockings hung from the mantel. Strings of popcorn hung upon the branches of the tree. Bing Crosby crooned softly from the stereo.
“Hey, Barry!” Ralph’s arm stretched across the room to tap the Fastest Man Alive on the shoulder. His wavy red hair matched his garish holiday sweater. “Have you and Iris thought about joining the four of us for New Year’s?” Barry Allen grinned at his friend and former teammate. His blond crewcut was hardly hip, but seemed to suit him. “We’d be delighted, but if I have to sit through another ‘Elongated Man Mystery’ game, I’ll be out the door faster than a photon.”
“Heh!” Ralph’s rubbery nose wiggled. “Understood.” Ray chuckled, enjoying the casual chatter and camaraderie, as he poured himself a mug of eggnog. He tried not to think about the fact that, back on that other Earth, Barry and Sue were both dead, Barry having perished during the original Crisis several years ago, while Sue had been savagely murdered by none other than Jean herself....
But not this Jean, he reminded himself. Not here.
“Oh! Check this out,” Jean said, nodding at the TV set in the corner. Plucking the remote from the coffee table, she clicked off the Mute command. “It’s Diana.”
The television, which had been tuned to coverage of tonight’s Christmas celebration in Washington, D.C., flashed up a picture of Wonder Woman in full Amazon regalia. “Even Queen Diana of Paradise Island,” Lois Lane-Kent reported, “is here to wish us all a very happy holiday.” “Would you look at Diana?” Sue sighed. She put down a piece of fudge, apparently having second thoughts about the fattening treat, even though the petite brunette hardly looked like she needed to diet. “I swear that woman never ages.”
The broadcast cut to a shot of Superman descending from the sky above D.C., bearing a truckload of Christmas presents with bright red ribbons. His legendary S-shield was inscribed on every oversized crate.
“There’s Clark,” Barry said. “Still delivering food and toys to the underprivileged like a red and blue St. Nick. Good for him.”
Ray smiled at the TV. “I love it when he dons the old duds. Even if it’s only just once a year.”
On this world, the Justice League of America had disbanded after successfully ridding the world of every major meta-human menace. There were no more super heroes anymore, nor any need for them.
“You ever miss the old days, guys?” Ralph asked the other men. “I still keep my stretchy uniform hanging in the closet. Just for old times’ sake.”
“Just hanging?” his wife teased him good-naturedly. “Fess up, honey. I know you put it on sometimes when you think nobody is looking.”
He smooched her on the cheek. “Only because I know how it turns you on.”
“Oh, Ralph!” Sue elbowed him playfully, her attractive face turning an embarrassed shade of red. “Behave!” Barry sat down beside Iris. “Seriously, I don't mind not being the Flash anymore. The League did what it set out to do. We suited up to make the world a better place, 'spent five exciting years taking down all the bad guys, and ... presto! Mission accomplished.”
“Sounds good to me,” Iris agreed. She wore her light brown hair in a fashionable bob. Her green cocktail dress was the color of mistletoe. “At least you’re never late for dinner or anniversaries anymore.” She shook her head at the memory. “Back when you were running around the world, fighting Captain Cold or whoever, you were always late for everything!”
Everyone laughed at the irony of the Flash, of all people, never being on time. Ray took another sip of eggnog.
“You’re right, Barry,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s a good thing the League called it quits when we did, at the top of our game.” He savored the happy ending they had all found on this best of all possible worlds. “Who knows? We could have ended up dead or...”
Insane, he thought, averting his eyes from Jean.
“Oh, Ray.” She came up behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist. “I hate to impose, but the fire seems to be dying down.”
He glanced at the hearth, where the crackling logs did appear to be on their last legs. “Say no more, darling.” He reluctantly disengaged himself from her embrace. “I’m on it.” " "
Throwing on a jacket, he ventured out into the backyard in search of more firewood. The crisp December weather felt invigorating after the toasty living room. His breath frosted before his lips. The smoky aroma of dozens of active chimneys added a piquant touch to the air. He took a moment to bask in the peace and quiet.
Now, this is living. A relaxing evening at home with lifelong friends, a loving wife, and a warm fire. He retrieved an armload of logs from a stack by the back porch. A few more nights like this and those nightmares don’t stand a—
Then he glimpsed a trio of figures lurking in the shadows just beyond the white picket fence enclosing the backyard. Moonlight reflected off the snow, offering him a murky view of the strangers. One of them was obviously not human....
Despair gripped his heart. The firewood tumbled from his arms. “Oh no.”
He felt numb all over. Unable to face the reckoning upon him, he staggered back indoors and locked the door behind him. His jacket was too warm for inside, but he barely noticed the heat. He wandered back to the living room in a daze. This can’t be happening, he thought. It isn’t fair. ...
“Er, Ray,” Barry commented from the couch. “You kinda forgot the firewood.”
Jean picked up on his distress immediately. “Ray? What is it?” A worried expression came over her face. “You look like it was fifty below out there.”
Oh God, how was he ever going to explain this to her? “I... Jean, I’m so sorry....”
“Sorry?” She rushed to his side. Her warm hand grasped his arm. “I don’t understand. You’re shaking like a leaf....”
He stared into her confused, compassionate eyes. There was no trace of homicidal mania in those captivating blue orbs, only love and concern. His heart broke all over again. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I deluded myself into thinking that I could avoid this, that the past would never catch up with us.”
"‘What past?” She was trembling too now, as though his fear and dismay were contagious. A few feet away, their guests rose anxiously to their feet. Jean’s grip tightened on his arm. “Ray, you’re scaring me!”
A column of sparking energy manifested in the foyer leading to the living room. Startled gasps greeted the sudden arrival of the ominous trio Ray had just glimpsed outside. Apparently they had wanted to scout out the scene before making their presence known. Ray recognized Jason Todd and Donna Troy from Earth-One, although he could have sworn they were supposed to be dead. Some sort oftime-travel paradox, he wondered, or did their apparent “deaths” prove to be only temporary? Lord knew they wouldn’t be the first costumed heroes or villains to come back from what had seemed to be a violent demise. Everyone thought I was dead once... .
There was no mistaking their hulking alien companion either. Ray knew a Monitor when he saw one.
“Ray Palmer!” Donna gave him a friendly smile. She held out her hand as she stepped into the living room. Her sparkling black leotard and silver wristbands looked out of place on this peaceful world, where everyone else had hung up their capes years ago. “You’re a hard man to find, you know that?”
“Donna Troy?” Sue Dibny blinked in confusion. Ray couldn’t blame her; as far as his friends were concerned, the former Wonder Girl had left Earth to join the Green Lantern Corps back in 2001. She was probably the last person they expected to drop by uninvited.
Barry zipped over to Ray’s side. The breeze whipped up by his speed rustled the branches on the Christmas tree. Ornaments tinkled like wind chimes. “What’s going on, buddy?”
Ray buried his face in his hands. It’s over, he realized. I can’t pretend anymore. The truth was coming out, whether he liked it or not. “I—I’m not this world’s Ray Palmer.”
“What?” Jean looked utterly baffled. “Sweetie, what are you saying? That doesn’t make any sense.”
If only that were true! “My nightmares,” he confessed. “They’re all real.” He groped for some way to soften the blow, but it all came spilling out of him. “Where I come from, you’re ... different. You don’t act like you.”
“But I’m me” she protested. “I always act like me....” Ray sank into his favorite easy chair. He stared dolefully at the floor, unable to meet her eyes. “No, Jean. You’re capable of murder.” He choked back a sob. “On my world, you murdered Sue Dibny.”
“Murder Sue?” Ralph exclaimed. He wrapped a protective arm around his wife. “Jean would never—”
“But my Jean did!” His estranged ex-wife had embarked on a premeditated campaign of terror against the loved ones of the Justice League, even faking an attack on herself, in order to lure Ray back to her side. “She did, and I... I was devastated. I did the only thing I could think to do. I ran away, disappearing into subatomic space. I thought that maybe if I became small enough, I could escape the pain.”
Outside Arkham Asylum, on that horrible day, he had activated the size and mass controls built into his belt buckle, which employed a fragment of a white dwarf star to render him infinitesimal in size. A blue cowl and simple red and blue uniform transformed the grieving physicist into the Atom....
“For a while, I was without direction, hopeless, but then I met a young mystic who filled me in on the true nature of the Multiverse.”
“K’Dessa,” Donna guessed correctly.
Ray nodded. “She spoke of fifty-two completely different Earths, each of them unique, yet still similar in some ways to my own. So I made it my business to learn how to slip between the universes on a quantum level and started searching for a place that might be able to bring me some peace of mind. But most of what I found was even worse than the world I came from....”
He shuddered at the memory of some of the bizarre Earths he had encountered in his travels. A world of Gothic horrors where Batman was a vampire who preyed upon the blood of the wicked. A world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, thanks to a patriotic Russian version of Superman. Worlds of Crime Societies and Extremists, where unstoppable super-villains robbed and murdered at will. A postapocalyptic Earth, devastated by a nuclear war. A world where the Nazis won World War II...
" ’ “I’d almost given up,” he admitted, “when I found this world. So much like mine, yet blissfully untainted by many of the tragedies that had darkened my own Earth. I couldn’t resist seeking myself out, hoping that, perhaps, the sight of another Ray Palmer, living out a more idyllic existence, would somehow bring me comfort. But things didn’t turn out the way I planned...
His memory flashed back to that fateful day two years ago.
Only two inches high, the Atom spies on his twin as the other Ray tinkers with complicated scientific apparatus in the basement of his comfortable home in Ivy Town. As nearly as he can tell, this world’s Ray had also discovered the existence of the Multiverse and is even now preparing to test a portal designed to access alternate realities. Hiding upon a cluttered tool shelf the Atom holds his breath as Ray-51 activates the device.
But the eager scientist had obviously miscalculated. The portal explodes in a burst of cosmic energy that instantly incinerates its inventor. Aghast, the Atom watches himself die!
The notion of taking the other Ray’s place does not
occur to the stunned hero immediately, but, once he overcomes his initial shock at his counterpart’s abrupt demise, the idea steadily takes over his mind. After all, the Justice League is busy waging its final battles against the forces of evil. Perhaps this Earth still needs an Atom?
What really convinces him, however, is the note he finds scribbled on the other Ray’s calendar: BLIND DATE WITH JEAN L. DINNER. 7:30.
“He wasn’t really your Ray yet,” he explained to Jean, who stared at him in bewilderment. He lifted his gaze from the floor. “I wasn’t deceiving you, not really. It was like I had a second chance to make things perfect between us. We could be happy again, for good this time... fl His voice trailed off as she turned away from him, unable to cope. Confused sobs racked her slender body. Does she believe me, he agonized, or does she think I’ve tost my mind? He reached out for her tentatively. “Jean? I’m still the man you fell in love with....”
“What the hell?” Ralph’s nose wiggled indignantly. “I’ve had enough of this bull!” Fists clenched, he glared at Donna and her companions. “I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing here, but... !”
“I’m so sorry,” Donna replied, a guilty expression on her face. She appeared genuinely troubled by the turmoil she had caused. “But I’m afraid it’s all true.”
Barry scratched his head. “Parallel Earths, separated by some sort of vibrational barriers?” The scientist in him sounded intrigued by the theory. “I suppose it’s possible. .. *
“It is more than possible, Barry Allen,” the Monitor stated firmly. Jean and the guests shrank away instinctively from the imposing armored figure. “Everything spoken of tonight is reality. And Ray Palmer is the very reason we are here.”
“I don’t understand,” Ray said. “How did you find me?” “One of my brethren inadvertently revealed your location,” the Monitor explained, “when he tried to convince me that you were ‘living a life of no consequence.’ Nix
Uotan could not have known that for a fact unless you were dwelling in the very universe he was charged to monitor.” A scowl rendered the Monitor’s saturnine countenance even more forbidding. “Clearly, he had a personal stake in obstructing our quest.”
Ray had no idea who “Nix Uotan” was, but that hardly mattered now. “I don’t understand. Why did you have to track me down anyway?” Moist eyes implored the intraders. His voice cracked. “Why couldn’t you people just leave me alone?”
“The Multiverse has need of you, Ray Palmer.” The Monitor strode across the living room toward the seated hero. He pointed a gloved finger at Ray. “You are destined to play a crucial role in events to come.”
Ray refused to accept this. “But that’s ridiculous! Why me?”
• Jason Todd shrugged. “Don’t ask me, dude. I’m just along for the ride.”
His crimson mask failed to conceal his cocky attitude, which Ray remembered from Jason’s days as Robin. “Jason?” Barry asked, belatedly recognizing the masked youth. He looked like he’d seen a ghost, and no wonder; on this world, it was the Joker’s brutal murder of Jason Todd that had ultimately inspired the Justice League to put away all the super-villains once and for all. A memorial to the martyred sidekick occupied a prime location in Gotham City’s ritzy Wayne Plaza. People still laid flowers in front of the statue on the anniversary of Robin’s death. “This is incredible!”
“I’m sorry,” Donna apologized again. “But the Monitor knows what he’s talking about. We’ve come a long way to find you, Ray.”
But I didn’t want to be found! Ray had always liked Donna Troy, but right now she and her unwanted cohorts seemed like harbingers of doom, pronouncing a death sentence on everything he had managed to build for himself on this wonderful new world. “I wish you hadn’t.”
“Your personal desires are irrelevant,” the Monitor declared. “You must come with us at once—or risk universal catastrophe!”
“No!” Ray lurched from his chair. “There are other heroes out there, fifty-two worlds’ worth! Find someone else for your goddamn crusade! I’m not going anywhere!” Donna tried to intervene. “I know this must come as a shock, Ray, but we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think it was important.” She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “K’Dessa herself spoke of a prophecy....”
“I don’t care!” He swatted her hand away. “I have a new life here, a new chance at happiness. I’m not giving that up!”
His friends came to his defense. Barry twisted a ring upon his finger and a hypercompressed red suit sprang from a hidden compartment in the ring. The lanky forensic scientist donned the unifonn in a split second. Metallic yellow lightning bolts accented the skintight red costume. “If you want Ray, you’ll have to go through the Flash!”
A look of profound annoyance darkened the Monitor’s face. Without warning, he fired a blast of energy from his gauntlet. Burning plasma instantly consumed the Flash, reducing him to a charred skeleton before the very eyes of his wife and friends. The blackened bones clattered onto the carpet. “Barry Allen,” the Monitor said coldly, “this time you die before the Crisis can take root.”
“B-Barry?” Iris Allen let out a heartrending scream. “BARRY!”
Oh my God! Ray thought. The Flash had just been murdered in the blink of an eye. He didn’t even see it coming!
“Stop it, Solomon!” Donna sounded equally horrified by the slaughter. She tackled the Monitor from behind, locking him in a bear hug. “Have you gone insane?”
“Do not deter me, Donna Troy!” There was a blinding flash as his personal force field expanded to break the heroine’s hold, flinging her backward into the Christmas tree. The plus-sized Douglas fir crashed down onto the
couch. Glass and crystal ornaments shattered noisily. Jason Todd scrambled to check on Donna, while Ralph and Sue hustled Iris away from the fight. Meanwhile, the Monitor calmly ignored the tumult. “If Ray Palmer refuses to abandon his counterfeit existence on this planet, then perhaps we must strip away its trappings!”
His volcanic red eyes zeroed in on Jean.
No! Ray thought. He leapt between the deadly alien and his wife. Not her!
Rebounding from Solomon’s counterattack, Donna charged at the Monitor. Broken glass and pine branches crunched beneath her silver boots. Solomon turned to face her. His right gauntlet glowed in warning. “I would have thought you would be more reasonable, Donna,” he said in a disappointed tone. “Surely you appreciate what is at stake here!”
• “Reason with this!” Donna snarled. Her super-strong fist collided with the Monitor’s jaw. He stumbled backward, bumping into the coffee table. The pitcher of eggnog toppled over, spilling its foaming contents over the table. Donna pressed her attack against the murderous alien. A second blow slammed into Solomon’s gut, denting his armor. “You didn’t have to kill anyone! We could have talked to him!”
Ray saw an opportunity to get Jean to safety. “Ralph! Sue!” he yelled at his friends, who still looked shellshocked by Barry’s fiery death. “Take care of Iris! Get the hell away from here!” He grabbed Jean by the arm and tugged her away from the demolished living room. “Hurry, Jean! Please!”
“What?” Traumatized blue eyes stared back over her shoulder at the furious conflict destroying their home. Solomon hurled Donna through a plate glass window. A freezing gust of wind invaded the house. Snow blew onto the carpet. Jason Todd snatched a broken plate from the floor and hurled it like a Batarang at the Monitor’s face. Unable to process it all, Jean hesitated in the hallway beyond the living room. “Where are you taking me?”
“Away!” He pulled harder on Jean’s arm as he hurried her toward the steps leading down to the basement. Part of him hated abandoning the others, but saving Jean had to be his first priority. I’m the reason she’s in danger, he thought guiltily. I can ’tfail her now. Not again!
They reached the bottom of the stairs. Fluorescent lights lit up the cluttered cellar where this world’s own Ray Palmer had died. Lab equipment occupied wooden shelves and workbenches. Insulated pipes and cables snaked across the ceiling. An oil furnace rumbled in the background. The hot water boiler gurgled in the comer. Fresh tile concealed the scorch marks left behind by the explosion two years ago. Ray prayed that history was not about to repeat itself.
He fiddled with the controls on his belt buckle. He had to calibrate this carefully to avoid trapping them between
* worlds. “Trust me,” he begged Jean. “We have to escape this reality!”
“Escape? This reality?!” Her voice skirted the edge of hysteria; this was obviously too much for her to take in all at once. She tore herself away from his grasp, her tearful blue eyes staring at him like she didn’t know who he was anymore, not that she ever really had. “Ray, listen to yourself! Don’t you realize how crazy this sounds?”
No crazier than a fanatical alien crashing our Christmas party and killing Barry, he thought. He stepped forward and gently took her in his arms. If only I had more time to prepare for this...! “It won’t happen again, Jean. I promise.”
She still didn’t understand. “What won’t happen? What do you mea—”
“Palmer!” An entire section of the ceiling disintegrated and the Monitor descended through the gap. He hovered above the floor of the basement, glowering down at the cornered humans like the Angel of Death. “This is journey’s end, Ray Palmer. You have nowhere left to run!” That’s what you think, Ray thought. He frantically adjusted the controls on his belt, but the minute he let go of
Jean, she bolted in panic away from the Monitor. “Wait, Jean! Come back!” His mouth went dry with fear. His heart pounded against his rib cage. “You won’t shrink with me if I’m not holding you!”
The Monitor turned his attention to Jean. “Is this insignificant female the reason you refuse to accompany us?” he asked Ray. Without waiting for an answer, he aimed his gauntlet at Jean, who was now cowering behind the bulky iron furnace. “Very well. In a moment, nothing more will bind you to this world.”
“Leave her alone, you monster!” He launched himself at Solomon, but the powerful being effortlessly knocked Ray aside. He crashed into boxes of unpacked lab equipment, piled high against a wall. An avalanche of heavy cardboard boxes tumbled onto him. Dazed, his head ringing, he shouted for help. “Donna! Jason! Somebody!”
'* As though in answer to his desperate cries, a shimmering column of light materialized between Solomon and his helpless target. Ray’s eyes widened in surprise as another Monitor emerged from the flickering transporter beam. Unlike Solomon, this alien was clean-shaven and wore his long black hair tied up in the back. He looked mad as hell.
“Hold, brother!” the newcomer commanded. “This woman is under my protection. You have inflicted enough damage on my world.”
Solomon reacted angrily to the other Monitor’s interference. “Stay out of this, Nix Uotan! You cannot hide Ray Palmer from me any longer!”
“What transpires on this Earth is none of your concern,” Uotan replied. “I was under no obligation to divulge the Atom’s whereabouts to you.” He glanced at the bruised figure beneath the boxes. His inhuman red eyes held a hint of sympathy. “If I chose to grant him refuge on my world, that was my prerogative.”
Solomon clenched his fists. “But I have found him nonetheless!” Throwing out one arm, he blasted a hole in one wall. Plaster and masonry flew apart, exposing a charred patch of frozen earth beyond the walls of the basement. The explosion alarmed Jean, who let out a frightened shriek. The Monitor let the impact of his demonstration sink in before speaking again. “Surrender Ray Palmer to me now or I will reduce this placid Earth of yours to a wasteland!”
“Not so fast, pal!” A Bowie knife bounced off the back of Solomon’s skull. Jason Todd dropped down through the gap in the ceiling, followed immediately by Donna Troy. A split lip and bruised forehead testified to the severity of her clash with the berserk Monitor, but she looked ready for more. Jason drew an automatic pistol and took aim at Solomon’s head. “I’m supposed to be the trigger-happy one around here, remember?”
“Do not try my patience further!” Solomon barked at his traveling companions. “This is now between my onetime brother and me.” He advanced aggressively toward the other Monitor. “Well, Nix Uotan? Shall we resume our duel?”
“Gladly!” the other Monitor said. He extended a glowing palm before him. “You must pay for transgressing upon my domain!”
Crawling out from beneath the heap of boxes, Ray hastily assessed the situation. The Monitors faced off against each other, each powerful enough to reduce the entire neighborhood to rubble, if not all of Ivy Town, while Donna and Jason stood poised to join the conflict as well. Ray could only imagine the devastation in store, with Jean trapped at ground zero. This is all my fault, he realized. Barry’s gruesome death tore at his conscience. There’s only one thing left to do. ...
“Wait!” he shouted at Solomon. “I’ll go with you—-if you’ll leave this world alone!”
His offer caught the ruthless Monitor’s attention. He cocked his head in Ray’s direction. “You consent to join our crusade? You will fulfill your destiny?”
“Yes, you murderous bastard! Yes!” Ray clambered to his feet. He pleaded hoarsely with the looming alien.
“Take me back to my own Earth. Throw me into another cosmic Crisis. Just leave Jean and the rest of this world alone!”
Solomon nodded gravely. “These terms are acceptable to me.” He turned back toward the other Monitor. “So, Nix Uotan, are you still prepared to fight me for this mortal’s sake?”
“Perhaps that will not be necessary.” Lowering his guard, the second alien gazed sadly at Ray. Something about him made him seem more humane than his merciless kinsman. “My apologies, Ray Palmer. In light of your past sufferings, I was willing to overlook your presence here, even going so far as to conceal your location from my fellow Monitors, but my true duty is to this universe and its native inhabitants. I fear it is time you depart this realm ... for all time.”
' Ray felt his heart die a second time. Yet he stood up straight, stoically facing his fate. “I understand,” he said. “I don’t belong here. I never really did.”
“Ray! What are you saying?” Overcoming her fear, Jean stumbled out from behind the furnace. Her eyes were red from crying. Mascara streaked her cheeks. Soot smeared her purple sweater. “You can’t go with these ... creatures! You belong here ... with me!”
“I’m sorry, Jean.” He resisted the urge to go to her, knowing that if he held her in his arms again, he would never be able to let her go. “There’s no other way.” He smelled Barry’s scorched bones smoking upstairs and prayed that Iris and the others had gotten away safely. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if anyone else got hurt because of his deception. “I’ll never forget the time we had together.” He started to choke up, but somehow managed to get the words out. “You gave me back something I thought I’d lost forever.”
And now I’ve got to throw it all away again.
“Ray, no!” She started toward him, but the kinder, gentler Monitor grabbed on to her shoulders, restraining her. She struggled to get free, but could not break loose from the alien’s powerful grip. “Let go of me!” she wailed. “I want to go with him!”
‘That cannot be allowed,” Uotan said sorrowfully. “The immutable laws of the Multiverse have already been violated enough. You must remain on this Earth, where you belong, while these others must return to their own universe at once.”
“NO!” Jean shrieked. She writhed in the Monitor’s iron grasp, like a madwoman caught in a straitjacket. Loose black hair fell across her face. Crazed blue eyes implored Ray. Saliva sprayed from her lips. “Don’t do this to me, Ray! Don’t leave me! RAY!”
Ray felt like he was trapped in a never-ending nightmare. He couldn’t stand another minute of this. “All right,” he told Solomon bitterly. “You win. Let’s go.” Why drag this torture out a second longer? He could only pray that he hadn’t just condemned another Jean to madness, that she would somehow recover from this ordeal in time. “Take me back to Earth-One.”
“About time,” Jason muttered. He retrieved his knife from the floor. “The sooner 1 get back to Gotham—my Gotham—the better.”
“You are mistaken,” Solomon informed them. He pressed a stud upon his gauntlet and a shimmering golden sphere surrounded Ray, Donna, Jason, and himself. “We are returning to our own universe, but not to Earth. Ray Palmer’s destiny awaits elsewhere.”
“What?” Donna blurted. Fists raised, she eyed the Monitor warily. “Where are we going now?”
A cryptic smile appeared on Solomon’s face as he revealed their true destination.
“Apokolips.”