[Midnight]
Bruce's body lay still on the bed beside Harley, muscles relaxed, chest rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm. But inside… he was far from asleep.
His soul had slipped free.
Bruce's astral form had entered the Astral Plane for the first time. He used the power of the Soul Stone's energy in his body. He flew through the roof, straight to the sky. After flying for a certain distance, he stopped and looked down.
Everything looked frozen.
New York was quiet. Still. The cars on the street weren't moving. The leaves were frozen in the air. The raindrops were also frozen and looked like tiny crystals. The lights in buildings glowed like soft stars, but nothing moved. No wind. No sound. Just a heavy, calm silence.
Bruce floated above the city,
"This is... strange," he murmured, his voice echoing without sound.
Although he was looking around, his mind, freed from the limits of the physical body, began running simulations. Thousands at once.
Darkseid.
Every path Bruce followed ended in war. Cities burning. Worlds falling. His friends dying. His family crying over his lifeless body. Earth burning.
He clenched his fist.
Not this time.
He used the Time Stone's power. Instantly, a burst of green light emerged from his Astral form. He reached into the fabric of what could be.
And time… split open.
It wasn't just one path.
It was everything.
A storm of futures flooded his mind. Over 100 billion possibilities. Countless timelines, endless battles, every version of the war that could be.
He saw every strategy. Every choice.
Every defeat.
Over and over again.
Worlds burned.
Allies fell.
Darkseid stood victorious.
Future Vision #1: The Fall of Earth
The sky was ash. Cities across the globe lay in ruins. Stark Tower collapsed. The Xavier Mansion was reduced to rubble. The Watchtower drifted lifeless in orbit.
Darkseid walked through the remains of New York, flames licking at his heels. Hela lay broken. Selina… gone. Morgan screamed over Harley's lifeless body, her power flaring too late.
The heroes gave everything.
It wasn't enough.
Future Vision #2: Unity's Last Stand
Every hero. Every realm. Even former enemies stood side by side.
Thor, Diana, Strange, Shuri, Kara, Morgan, the Fallen One, Hela, Carol, Peter, Logan… all of them from both Multiverses.
Bruce, glowing with the full might of the Ten Rings, led them.
The sky split open as Darkseid arrived.
The battle shook the stars.
But one by one, they fell. Their power wasn't the problem, it was the enemy. He had seen it coming. He had adapted.
Darkseid never fought fair.
Future Vision #3: The Retreat
The heroes fled. Earth became a memory. They tried to rebuild on another world, hiding from the war they couldn't win.
But Darkseid followed.
No matter where they ran, no matter how far they fled, he found them.
In every version of this path... hope died in the end.
Future Vision #4: Corruption
Bruce took a different path. In this future, he absorbed more power. Too much. He became a being of pure force.
An entity.
He killed Darkseid and absorbed his power. But he lost himself.
Bruce became what he feared most.
In this world, he was worshipped… and feared.
A god without mercy.
Future Vision #5: The Gathering of Gods
In this possible future, Bruce saw something breathtaking.
The skies above Earth were filled with light.
The Asgardians arrived first. Thor stood tall, golden lightning streaking from his hammer. Hela and Sif at his side. Behind them came warriors from the golden halls of Valhalla, ready for one last war.
The Olympians followed. Zeus descended from the clouds, lightning crackling through his beard. Ares, Athena, Hermes and Artemis stood in gleaming armor, eyes blazing with divine fire.
The Eternals rose from the depths of the Earth. Ikaris flew beside Makkari and Thena, their powers at full strength, their resolve unshakable. Celestial echoes thrummed behind them.
Atlanteans breached the ocean, led by Namor and his legions, tridents held high.
The mystic forces of Kamar-Taj opened portals. Sorcerers from across dimensions arrived. Wong. Strange. The Ancient One's disciples. All united.
Even cosmic entities answered the call. The Living Tribunal watched. The Stranger stirred. Uatu the Watcher lowered his head.
Bruce, wearing the Tenfold Armor, stood at the front, his aura glowing like a dying star.
This was the moment.
The final stand.
They struck first.
A million warriors against one.
Gods, immortals, sorcerers, speedsters, mutants, aliens… all fighting together. Earth's magic and science were pushed beyond their limits.
But it didn't matter.
Darkseid adapted.
He learned.
He broke Zeus's neck. Split Ikaris in half. Crushed Namor's heart in his hand. Incinerated Strange with a look.
Even Thor fell, Mjolnir shattered.
Bruce fought to the end, his body glowing with every ring, every ounce of power he had. But as the smoke cleared...
Darkseid still stood.
Untouched.
Unbroken.
Everyone else... was gone.
And in this vision, Earth burned for the last time.
Bruce hovered in silence, suspended in a vast sea of light and darkness, where time was not linear, and sound had no meaning. The storm of futures still whirled around him like galaxies in collapse, each one flashing through his consciousness.
Failure. Death. Despair.
He saw every possible outcome.
Except one.
One timeline. One chance.
The moment he touched it, he felt something different. The vision didn't begin with cities burning. It didn't begin with Earth under siege. It started in silence.
A deep, profound silence.
[Future Vision #Final: The Last Battle in the Upper Dimension]
There was no ground. No sky. No stars. Only an infinite plane of crystalline light where the laws of reality bent and shimmered like glass beneath water.
This wasn't Earth. This wasn't any known dimension. It was far above the multiverse. Beyond the boundaries of time and physical space. A place where only concepts lived. Where only beings of pure will could stand.
Bruce floated at the edge of that space, clad in the Tenfold Armor, glowing with the essence of every ring. Each step forward left fractals of energy in his wake. Behind him stood avatars of cosmic authority: The Living Tribunal, Eternity, Infinity, The Stranger, The One-Above-All's shadow... a silent observer of destiny.
He had been brought here by them.
Not to fight for Earth.
But to fight for everything.
The Tribunal had bestowed Bruce with temporary authority, a fragment of the Tribunal's essence itself. A gift. A curse. One that no mortal, no god, no entity had ever carried.
It would burn him from existence.
But if he could bear it long enough...
He could kill Darkseid.
For real. For good.
Forever.
The moment arrived.
From the other end of the dimension, the void cracked open. Shadows bled into the light. Reality wept.
And Darkseid stepped through.
His form wasn't like the one Bruce had fought before. This was his True Self—not the shadow sent to multiverses, not the puppet cast through war. This was Darkseid Prime, the origin of every incarnation across realities. His presence swallowed logic. Language died in his wake.
And still, Bruce stepped forward.
He said nothing.
There was nothing left to say.
The battle began.
But...
The Astral Plane stilled. The vision paused.
Light froze mid-shatter. Time hung by a thread.
Bruce stood at the edge of ultimate revelation. His eyes, still glowing with fractured reflections of the timelines he had witnessed, narrowed. He could feel the shift in the fabric of existence itself. The breathless pause before the flood.
And then…
A blink.
The Living Tribunal stood before him.
Not approached.
Not arrived.
He simply was.
Three faces turned toward him in perfect harmony. One of wrath. One of balance. One of serenity. Their voices echoed across layers of reality.
"You cannot see what comes next, Jack Lance."
Bruce's... Jack's... eyes widened for only a moment.
It had been decades since he had heard that name. Longer still since he had acknowledged it. A past that faded over time after living through multiple reincarnations.
"You know who I am," he said quietly.
"We know what you are," the Tribunal replied. "Before the machine and mask. Before the cowl and evolution. Before the rings and gods and stars."
"Jack Lance... the soul that chose this path long before you knew its end."
"Why can't I see the end of it?" he asked.
"Because to see it... is to deny it," they intoned.
"If you witness the outcome, its possibility vanishes. The future collapses. The multiverse falls."
The Tribunal floated closer. Their presence pressed against every law of existence, but Bruce did not waver.
"You stand at the convergence of all things. Wielding the Tenfold Armor. The Soul and Time. Infinity and choice. You are no longer man alone, and yet..."
All three faces turned toward him.
"You still choose to carry it all."
"Why?"
"Why take this burden?"
"Why endure pain that will break you?"
"Why stand alone... when no one will remember you?"