I didn't sleep after the reunion not that rest was ever easy when you'd just discovered you were the catalyst to a multiversal war.
The divine realm receded behind me, replaced by the Earth's familiar hum electric light, static, human pulse. But air was wrong. Too thin. Like the sky itself had begun to hold its breath.
Something had changed. Not just in me. In the fabric.
I came down outside the Watchtower, landing as quietly as a ghost. J'onn stood at the door, his eyes already narrowed, surveying me as if he knew I didn't just return from vacation.
"You were in a divine plane," he stated bluntly.
I didn't respond. No use trying to deceive a telepath of that age.
Instead, I gave him a shining sigil half memory, half warning, written in star language. "They're mobilizing. Pantheons. Eldritch beings. The stirring of the deep void."
J'onn accepted the sigil but didn't look away. "And you?"
"I'm the storm they're gearing up for."
Within, the Watchtower was a cauldron of tension. Wonder Woman and Zatanna were already bickering when I arrived. Diana's arms folded, voice tight, controlled fury simmering beneath.
"We should have known the divine planes wouldn't remain silent for long. You can't just hide someone like him and not expect repercussions."
Zatanna shot back, "He didn't invite this. And if they're actually coming, we need *him*, not another war council."
Their gaze settled on me when I intervened.
"Tell us," Diana commanded. "How bad?"
Endgame bad," I told them, moving past them to unfold the star chart. I blew it up. Galaxies flashed warnings. Sigils flared where constellations should have been. "They're not coming after me alone. They're coming after everything. Earth's just the beginning."
Bruce slipped in unheard. "Who's 'they'?
"The old powers. The god eaters. The ones who lived before faith had names." I nodded toward three red glowing sectors. "They've already taken these systems. Cleaned them out. No survivors."
"Why now?" Diana asked, her brows creased. "They've lain dormant for millennia."
"Because I'm awake," I replied. "And they're afraid."
There was silence. The silence's weight was more substantial than the emptiness beyond the Watchtower walls.
Then Arthur's voice cracked in over comms. "We've got something. Deep sea tremors again. But this time. it's not a rift. It's something coming through."
I was already moving. "Patch it through visual."
The screen flickered.
And then we saw it an obsidian leviathan breaching from the Mariana Trench. Not mechanical. Not organic. Something else. Runes thrummed across its hide like circuitry threaded into madness. Its face a mask of mirrors, reflecting all possible versions of reality and none of them welcoming.
"I know that thing," I grumbled.
Zatanna shifted to face me. "What is it?"
"A Herald," I replied. "One of the Void's messengers. If it's here, we've already lost."
Flash jumped in, attempting to lighten the mood. "So. global extinction or just apocalypse-level bad?"
I stared him straight in the eye. "Worse. It's cosmic realignment. They're not here to destroy Earth. They're here to remake it in their own image."
"Then we go to war," Diana said bluntly.
"No." I headed. "Not yet."
She scowled. "We have to move."
"I didn't say we don't fight," I said, moving forward. "I said we don't go in blind. This isn't just about power. It's about knowing what's coming and using them against one another."
"You have a plan?" Bruce asked.
I nodded. "I have pieces of one. I'll need more information. And time."
Zatanna's voice dropped to a whisper. "How much time do we have?"
I looked at the screen. The Herald's mouth opened up, and the world around it started to shatter.
"Not enough," I said. "But we begin now.