Chapter Eleven: Messiah Complex
As far as disasters went, the Tragedy of the Two Earths had the dubious distinction of being remarkably low on property damage, and immensely traumatic in terms of human lives. Breaking the spell had merged the two planes together, and had done so via superposing the adult reality on top of the kid's. Ultimately, it meant that broken bodies appeared all over.
Numbers were still out, not helped by a select few governments refusing to release them outright. Something something about reputation and attack on independence and a lot of fingers pointed everywhere. Including the Justice League, for failing to prevent the disaster.
The four dark wizards I'd spiritually neutered were being held in a very secure facility awaiting trials. Not a single person I'd hear from doubted they'd get the death penalty. The bets were on how long the torture would last beforehand. How had Batman reacted to that? Wonder Woman? Superman? A part of me liked to think they'd disapprove. Still, in the face of this monstrosity, they disapproved of torture.
Another part of me hoped they hungered for blood.
"Thank you, Mayor," I said as I closed my phone.
I didn't really hear the venal, self-interested words he told me in reply. Somewhere beneath the real gratitude. A politician's work was never done. His voice had strained at hearing my name, and there had been an undercurrent of 'why are you even here, undermining me once more?'. Nothing crazy. Nothing that would make hims say 'Stay out of my town.' Smart.
But then again, what was he going to tell his electoral base? 'Oh, the Miracle Man would have helped you, but I refused.' They'd have lynched him out of office.
The death toll had now broken into the seven digits. Analysts fear that this might cause demographic problems twenty years down the line. Psychologists were speaking about an epidemic of people on suicide watch.
And I… I was home. Home, in my office, per say, watching the road outside my window. Fifteen cars, parked outside, people beating against the fence. Begging until their throat felt raw and they started coughing blood. Then, Alimony swept in, her ethereal form melting over the injured and restoring their physical well-being.
I doubted they noticed.
'Did you offer him the same wish?'
Surely, it couldn't be considered the same thing. Not on this scale. Not…
Sighing, I turned and faced the inner wall of my office. Faced the ragged, pale-skinned reflection that stared darkly at me. Mounted on a wooden desk, the frame a flock of dragons and elves and gnomes chasing one another under the eyes of a collection of angel-like figures, the mirror glared.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," I said flatly as the ornate surface rippled, "show me the call."
My reflection faded, not without one last baleful look, turning into that of a man in a black suit. His shades and helmet didn't hide anything of his calm, reassuring smile. The roaring of engine almost swallowed up whatever words he was saying. First time or something, I assumed. It didn't really matter.
The image turned, jolting only when something bumped into it, and gloved hands roamed around her midsection. The clicks felt like a safeguard, so much so that even against the rumbling of the room around us, she knew it would be alright.
Anfisa Ivanov, some distant part of me suddenly knew. Russian. Fifteen. Wanted to be a professional health trainer. Out there today as a birthday gift from her uncle.
Words were shouted in her ears, and the view turned slightly to catch the man's nose and bright green helmet. The thrills of her heightened heartbeat pulsed through the mirror's frame.
Then, on her left, a whole section of the metallic walls slid open. The whole opening glared with clear sunlight, blinding for the first few seconds.
My hand hovered just before the mirror's surface. The words were right on the tip of my tongue. Stop. That's enough. I get the idea. But my throat seized, and I knew if I opened my mouth, I'd be sick. She lived it.
The image dawdled slowly, motions so difficult with both of them tied together. But the warmth of his chest against her back was the only thing helping her move toward the open sky. A nervous giggle flew out of her mouth, and again, the instructor's voice rose to reassure her.
For a split second, I wanted to curse the man for his lie.
They jumped.
The sigh… was pretty. Just, plain pretty. The sort of happy go-lucky sight they put in videos to show the wonders of the world. The sun above their heads reflected all over the clouds around them. And her excited laughter, cut by the wind, just enough to silence her instructor's next sentence.
Then, glimmering yellow light. And a sudden imbalance.
Anfisa almost flipped, thrown off by the lack of weight. Wildly, her head turned and the mirror showed empty harnesses flipping to the wind.
"W-what? Where- Oh God! Where is he – he jumped – oh God – where is he where is he?!"
Her hands fumbled for the chords, trembling so bad the thing slipped from her fingers four times. Her voice ran through the instructions, stuttering, pull that thing and wait, was it too early? No, he was going to, he said, he said, why wasn't the parachute deploying?!
The image started to blur, to shake.
"God! Superman, SUPERMAN!" Her voice broke, so high I could barely understand anymore. Her words were spilling, frantic, turning into excuses, prayers, hysterical with fear.
And the fields below grew increasingly distinct. Clear. I could make out the shape of houses in the corner of her eyes. Fields with yellowing grass.
"MOM!"
Hissing, pneumatic pressure freed itself from somewhere on her back, and for a split second, her panic turned to relief. The parachute deployed.
Into her instructors' empty harness, tangling, going taut. Pulling at her chest.
Refusing to deploy.
"HELP ME!"
The image turned black as a squelching noise, like splatters, like crushed flesh, echoed through the air.
I…
I bent over and puked everything in my stomach on top of my shoes.
Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!HELPME!HELPME!HELP ME!
My knuckles whitened as I grabbed the edges of my desk and pulled myself up.
Inside the mirror, my reflection smirked.
"Show me all."
***
Vapor slid against my naked skin as I broke through the last layers of cloud and pushed forward still. In the corner of my eye, the sun cast a blinding glare unto the sky. Frost could have appeared on my clothing if I had been someone else. That was the image that came to mind, one or two movies, people breaking so high in the atmosphere that they reached the uninhabitable layer. And they'd start falling back to the ground, too damaged to survive further.
I could tell however the moment I truly reached space, by the deafening nothingness around me.
I flew past that point, when the horizon ceased to be flat and began to curve. When I looked ahead, and there was only the painting of every star on the void, more numerous than grains of sand on a beach. Sources of life in the infinity. Planets, mere circles of colors on a black canvas, and it made me feel small. Made me wonder… what was beyond. Martians, Lanterns, The New Gods, that stuff. But, there had to be more.
Something hit my nose.
"What the?" I muttered, shaking my head and rubbing the spot as a reflex. For a moment, I focused my sight and saw a screw floating away.
A few more pieces of debris bounced off my hoodie or jeans harmlessly.
"You'd have thought the Green Lanterns might have cleaned up the airspace a little…"
It almost brought a smile to my face to imagine one of the space cop create a shiny new vacuum cleaner. Mightiest weapon in the universe, indeed. Almost.
Help me!
I shot a look at my surroundings. It should be here. I'd asked my powers to guide me straight to it. Granted, the screw had been a slight distraction, and I had turned. Of course, soon as I thought that, I felt a minute pull and let instinct pivot me around. There, the satellite I was looking for.
Intangibility. Defense bypass. Undetectable to alarms.
In a split second, I'd reached the outside layer. Predictably, none of its alarms picked up on me. The imposing structure just continued its peaceful rotation throughout Earth's ellipse.
"No going back past this," I said to myself, and I couldn't even tell if it was a promise or a threat.
With a sigh, I floated through the outer layers and landed on solid ground.
I was inside the damned Watchtower.
Still no alarms. So, the system couldn't notice any sort of tempering from afar… or was it just my range being wide enough?
I made my way throughout the hallway, unable to quite detach my eyes from the sight of the Earth on my left. You couldn't tell, the amount of grieving people from here. It was all too small, on this scale. Meaningless, I was sure someone would argue. Had argued. Else the situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.
I forced my fists to unclenched.
I'd arrived before a single gate, held closed by a digital lock. I didn't bother with that one.
The heroes stopped talking the moment my shoe hit the ground and half of them whirled about to see me. One of the lanterns – Hal – had taken off, hovering just above his chair, glowing neon green.
"Hey," I said.
… Cautious… consideration occurred. Unsaid questions and battle readying seemed the standard reaction.
Superman broke the silence. "Deus Ex? What are you doing here?"
Help me!
Stomach churning, I shrugged. "I was given an honorary membership, remember? Just pretend I'm not there."
"As I recall," began Aquaman, brows furrowed, "that membership was meant to appease the governmental agencies you were putting into disarray with your careless actions. Your files have been placed under locks with the mention: Inactive."
Thousands of children screams resonated through the meeting room.
They cut short as abruptly as they'd risen. But I might as well have thrown a bomb in the middle of the room, because every single one of them had jumped to their feet, taking various fighting stances, with the single exception of Doctor Fate.
"Sorry," I said, lightheaded. "Didn't mean to do that."
Aquaman's face looked a little green, but the glare had grown. Great. Perfect.
A chair materialized with a puff of smoke. And a bottle of water, because I could just about throw up from the stress. Keep it together. Relax. Twenty or so superheroes, annoyed at me? I had so much worse on my plate. Starting to hear voices. The mirror's baleful looks fresh in my mind. So, okay, I was a little weary, even if I knew I didn't have to be.
I should. I really should.
I didn't want a day to come when I didn't care that superheroes hated me.
It was thus a miracle that my voice didn't tremble when I looked up and said: "… Which one of you proposes to escort me out?"
Superman's mouth did something like a painful twist as his cheeks flushed red. It was gone almost immediately. The Flash and Captain Marvel snickered into their hands, trying very hard not to glance at him. Doctor Fate trailed wary eyes on me, but did not say anything. That seemed to be something of a signal for Zatara, at his left.
"Well, he helped us about this before, right?" Captain Marvel said, looking a bit torn.
"So did the Team." Red Tornado. Logical. And fair.
"We also asked him to accept our authority, or make a show of it. It may not be a true membership, but he has a say in who he might be asked to defer to," Wonder Woman pointed out, quite reasonably, might I add.
I did not even need to look to see Batman grit his teeth. "Let us proceed then. Everyone stand down. And Deus Ex, if you ask to be treated as a League Member in this meeting, you will follow our procedures."
Fair enough.
"Remember," he addressed his teammates as if the interruption had never happened. "we are just coming out of a crisis with an effect on worldwide morals. Our choices today will have a strong impact on how we can move forward. It is vital that we choose correctly to try and guide people out of this crisis."
Hal Jordan raised his hand. "I want it on record that I think we should have waited for this meeting. There is still work to be done."
I snapped my fingers. "Time Stop."
Batman's head whirled to face me.
"Time has stopped within Deus Ex's domain," said Fate's echoing voice. "I foresee no other working at play."
"Take as long as you need," I said as pleasantly as I could. Honestly? A little surprised Fate showed some support. "You'll be able to return as if this had only taken the round trip here."
Pensive looks appeared on some of the heroes' faces. Mostly Black Canary and Wonder Woman, I'd say. Those glances said volume, but I really didn't want to try my hands at mind reading right now.
"That's… " Green Arrow began, then stopped, "actually a relief. Thanks, Deus Ex."
For some reason, I returned the smile this time. It… it was more of a reflex, but. I. Wow, I wasn't used to this kind of simple, straightforward sincerity anymore.
"Next time," Batman growled, "tell us beforehand."
Ah. There it goes. I sank back into my seat.
"Well," Superman jumped in, "it's done. Let's get back to where we were. So far, we have nominated Icon, Atom, and Guy Gardner-"
"We didn't!" said both Green Lanterns together.
Right. Right. The candidacy vote… Hadn't that been after the Ice Fortress thing? End of season, definitely. I… I hadn't missed a chunk of episodes, right? No way. It hadn't been two days since Klarion's bullshit.
"Who else?" the Flash asked. "If we reject a big gun like a third Green Lantern, is there any powerful hero we could replace him with?"
Without thinking, I found myself wracking through my mind for DC heroes. Kind of a silly thing, considering my limited knowledge. And even then, who knew if they would be active at this point in time? No, really, the only one I knew that wasn't already here…
I raised my hand. "May I suggest a candidate?"
Batman's stare was just judgmental at this point. "Who?"
"John Constantine."
"NO!" shouted both Zatara and Nabu at the exact same time.
Batman's white lenses had narrowed drastically. Still, with a slightly put upon sigh, he gestured at me. "Make your case."
"He's a pretty good sorcerer? Wizard? What's the right term here?" I asked, perhaps rhetorically.
"A jackass," Zatara supplied, voice dripping with disdain.
Oh, John, your charms left an impression, huh? Bad boy. Chuckling, I offered Zatara a helpless shrug. "He tries? Look, he's an unlucky bastard, but he's… good. He has the drive, doesn't he?"
"He also likes working on his own and causes disasters everywhere he goes."
My grin bordered on shy. "It… adds to his charm?"
Shrill silence fell upon the room. The urge to facepalm grew overwhelming. I had outed myself to a conclave of, essentially, strangers. Ah hell. But just as I was starting to feel the blood drain from my face, I sort of realized that, well, those strangers were paragons of superheroism. And, ahem, strongest being around.
"Batman," Zatara called out sharply, "what hell have you unleashed upon us all? Your ploy to learn more about Deus Ex might have doomed us all! John Constantine, with access to the highest mystic arts?!"
"Incorrect," Doctor Fate said, the echoes so weak I thought he had mumbled. "Deus Ex is not a bearer of magical power."
A few startled looks were exchanged, though, I noticed Dinah's eyes flowing to me instead of Nabu, and with a certain concern as well.
"Then, what is he?" Batman demanded, and I would have been lying if I had not been hooked at Doctor Fate's 'lips', so to speak.
"It is difficult to say. He has many characteristics typical of a Yaka-no-kami."
"A mountain god?" Captain Marvel translated, baffled. "I think I met one of those before, but never-"
"Never like Deus Ex," Doctor Fate agreed. "Mountain gods are spirits, minor gods with authority over a certain location. Powerful one can warp reality within the confines of their domain. Deus Ex's power however is more reminiscent of the demiurge. I would suggest threading lightly, Batman."
"Whoa, whoa," I said, raising both arms in alarm, "I'm not gonna go mad with power. No need to think of contingencies with me. I'd really rather not get involved further."
The question in everyone's eyes then was too obvious. I could almost ignore it. Almost not hear-
Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!Helpme!HELPME!HELPME!HELPME!
My water bottle replenished itself, and I downed it in one go.
So, a demiurge? Something like a divine creator? Well, that was helpful. In DC terms, there was a version of God here… The Living Tribunal or whatever, that was Marvel. Here it was… The Source? And Lucifer and Michael… Michael Demiurgos. Huh. So I reminded Nabu of an archangel. So, I had to make sure Alvaro never learned of this little fact, or he'd never let me live it down.
Whilst I was angsting it up in my inner world, conversations had moved away from the elephant in the room and more towards slightly more productive topic. I jolted back to my senses, staring for a second at the goofy, grinning man with shades in the hologram, only to realize the candidacy they were debating was Captain Marvel's.
"I shouldn't be surprised," Wonder Woman said with shocking venom, "considering you raised Robin to fight crime at the ripe old age of nine."
Batman's response rang inside my head. That part, I recalled fairly clearly. Something about that debate had always struck a chord. Batman and Robin's relationships had been one of those things I had greatly enjoyed about Young Justice, especially knowing some of the comics… less savory events.
But this was about Captain Marvel. And he looked seriously nervous about this. It's my fault, I realized with a jolt. He didn't even get to show off how he could contribute to the crisis because I rendered it useless.
"If I may," I cleared my throat, "I believe there is a double-standard at play."
Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow. "Is there? I believe most of us have been honest on topics that affected the League as a whole."
"Captain Marvel keeping his identity secret is perfectly reasonable. Surely, he is not the only one?"
There was slight shuffling. I probably wasn't entitled to know the fine details.
Red Tornado alternated looking between us. "He does have an adult body, and the wisdom of Solomon."
"Wisdom does not equal maturity," Aquaman countered.
"… Has he displayed lack of maturity in the field then? Do you have examples of that?"
Aquaman leaned back into his chair, falling silent.
I scanned the table for answers on that. Besides Billy, who looked pleasantly surprised, the Leaguers seemed either reluctant or ashamed.
"The League's decision-making is not limited to the battlefield, Deus Ex," Wonder Woman said. "Especially in times as delicate as ours."
"So, he laughed a bit. It's fu- fudging Plastic Man. What else? All of the sidekicks are teenagers and preteens, anyway. You mentioned that Batman let Robin out when he was only nine. Why not put an end to it? Is your trust in Batman greater than your moral objection to child soldiers?"
Wonder Woman pinched her lips together, but she did not avert her eyes. "He is my friend, and I know he is a good man."
"Well, he knew Captain Marvel's secret identity."
The Flash and Green Lantern looked at each other. Probably held a whole conversation. Same as Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Wonder Woman though only narrowed her eyes.
"As an outsider to this, what I observe is that Captain Marvel is a child superhero that you refuse to see as an equal despite being very powerful, wise and experienced as a solo crimefighter. Suppose you revoked his membership over this, what would you suggest instead?"
"Hey, I'm just saying," Billy cut in, raising his hand. "If you guys vote me off, I'll keep protecting Fawcett City. And yeah, if I hear about a big crisis, I'll go give a hand."
"He could join the Team in the meantime," Green Arrow proposed.
"Would you ask him to become part of the team despite having previously been their supervisor?" Batman asked. "Not to mention, asking our proteges to work with him despite our refusal to do so? They'll be offended."
"Captain Marvel's secret puts us in a delicate situation, Deus," Black Canary said. "Junior superheroes have been strongly criticized in the past few years. Billy's age is a matter beyond our own preferences. We try to work with the United Nations and compromise with them. Some refuse to let junior members enter their borders for a crisis if there are any adult heroes available. Are we to lie to them about this?"
Hair on the back of my head straightened as a slow, crawling feeling rose up in my chest. I heard her speak, but it was my own voice repeating it back to me. Are we to lord our choices over them, refuse them their autonomy?
HELP ME!
My eyes closed. My ears rang.
"Captain Marvel?" I asked, not looking up. "What was your thought process concerning that?"
"I… " God, I could just picture him putting a hand behind his neck, boyish and guilty at once. "I kinda figured no one would know? Captain Marvel doesn't have a secret identity, same as Superman. I show my face, even though, well, my face changes a lot when I transform. By all means, barely anyone knows there even is someone to turn back to."
"But there are means to find out," Wonder Woman insisted. "We could have been blindsided before the United Nations, and this would have been disastrous for our reputation."
My fists clenched against my sides, hard. Oh, Diana, I'm sorry for what I'm about to ask you… Yet I held my tongue, it wasn't quite the right timing. Soon though. I could feel my conscience nagging me, and if not for my own chronostasis field, it would have long blown up on me.
"S-sorry about that," Captain Marvel said, and it seemed a sort of admission, acceptance of a mistake made.
"That's all I had to say," I said, taking a deep breath. Hopefully, that had helped a bit. Captain Marvel definitely didn't deserve to get kicked out because of his age. Not when he was this kind and personable.
They went through the voting process. On this, I gave no input. It would have been plain offensive to even bother. I wasn't even doing any heroic work. Was I going to impose teammates on them?
Nope. Ultimately, the nominations remained roughly in line with what I could remember from the show itself. A few extra members, some sidekicks being put on the 'later' list and a few rejected proposals.
Sorry, Constantine. Sounds like you're still part of a solo act.
Chairs scraped against the floor as many of the heroes rose up, letting out sighs of relief of a job well-done.
"Remain seated, please. I did not come here simply to listen to your opinions on league membership, though it was a fascinating topic nonetheless. There was indeed a purpose for my coming here today. I just figured it was better to let all your normal proceedings go through before I disrupted it too much. Besides, time is still stopped, so it doesn't change much for your schedules."
"How considerate," Hal Jordan drawled.
I could feel how much Batman was physically restraining himself from saying anything. Superman obviously could as well, for he turned to me. "Let's hear it then. Why did you really come here today?"
"I want you to arrange for the world's governments to gather every dead body from the split world disaster. In every town, every city, every village. Do not let them refuse."
Surprisingly, no one laughed in my face.
Aquaman scoffed, his fists clenched. "On what authority do you make those demands?"
HELP ME!
"Might."
"Pardon?"
I stared straight at the Atlantean, my expression as blank as I could make it. "Your question. On what authority, King Orin? Might. Power. That's what. I am the most powerful being around and I can do something to lessen the agony of millions. I'm not offering anything. I'm declaring that I will do it."
Because no, Free Will is not above this. One does not have the right to refuse another lifesaving treatment. This is… a variant. Nothing more...
Of course, most people, least of all a king, would be offended by that. Half the league stood up, loudly asking anything from 'who do you think you are?' and 'you would have us dictate terms to the UN?' to the most appropriate 'why do we even humor this guy?'
Dinah raised a hand to silence her more rambunctious colleagues. "Supposing we did as you say, what would be the next step?"
"I will resurrect every victim."
I had been wrong. Before, the silence had been akin to silk in comparison to this. One could hear the whispers of the dead in a silence as deep as the one summoned by my declaration.
"I am going to tour the planet. And I will restore every body the governments gathered. I'll go in the remote places, to make sure no one's missed. No strings attached. I will mend every broken family. I will break the sorrow cast about by those bastards. I will-!"
I will stop at nothing to see that spell undone and The Light's will broken.
"You… want to bring back the dead?" Zatara asked, his voice sounding almost strangled.
"I have done it before, on multiple occasions. I have checked and none have displayed side-effects of any sort since then."
"It would bring imbalance to this reality!" Doctor Fate yelled.
"This" – a sweeping motion to the glass panel and the earth – "is the result of a chaos spell on a planetary scale. How is that not already a source of imbalance? How is righting that wrong?"
"The spell itself has been interrupted," Zatara said faintly, his face green. "We have already restored the natural order of the world. To break the veil on such level…"
"The natural order of the world does not include hundreds of thousands of children killed through the actions of five. That is patently absurd." The air charged itself with a sort of electricity. Tension strained muscles. "I refuse to believe that."
"The pantheons will take it as a challenge," Diana added. "A display such as this, on their own territories? They will show you up, one way or another."
Quietly, "What sort of response do you expect?"
It was not wariness, not in her. But there was something more prudent in the way she looked at me, in the tone of her voice. "Depending on the gods, it could be anything. Blessings handed out to their followers. Curses rained down on yours."
"I don't have followers!" I shouted, as if I was trying to convince someone else. As if faces hadn't flashed to my eyes. Tear-stricken. Silver skin and golden hair.
#Sainthood for the Saint.
HELP ME!
"I'll… I'll sort it out. I'll talk with whoever leads the pantheons, if need be." Twist their arms. Fuck, I'm talking to gods and – Fate said I was like an archangel. I stripped Klarion of most of his essence and made a gem out of it. "But I won't let this be. They crossed too many lines."
"They?" Superman repeated.
"The split world was a distraction."
A few heads whipped around to Batman. The Flash and Captain Marvel in particular paled white as corpses.
"Pardon me?" Wonder Woman spoke with ice instead of air.
Zatara cleared his throat. "A spell of such grandeur could only be maintained through constant effort. As such, the spell itself could not have been the end goal, unless they craved global crises."
I nodded. "This was done by The Light, Batman. Their usual MO is to have secondary goals that benefited them slotted into the big plans. Which of your rogues would consider this kind of mass culling a net positive?"
An explosive banging noise made me jump two feet in the air. The conference table had split in half, and every head turned toward the culprit.
Superman. Clark Kent. One of the most definitive example of a superhero in history. Superman standing before the ruined, pulverized table. And the crimson in his eyes outshone the stars behind him.
"By your tone of voice, I assume you mean you know some of their identities."
"I have not confirmed this information," I sighed, "but so far nothing seems to contradict it outright. So, here it is, to my best knowledge at this point in time: Vandal Savage, Klarion, Brain in a jar, Queen Bee, Aquaman's brother," – said superhero stood up with a cry of anger – "Good ol' demon head… and Lex Luthor."
"They pay for this," Green Arrow said, and there was not a trace of hesitation in it.
"I say we mount their heads on trophies and hand them over to the United Nations."
"Hawkwoman!" Batman snapped.
"I've seen the graveyards, Bruce!"
Hal Jordan jumped in the fray, alongside Oliver Queen, which prompted Black Canary to play peacekeeper and Wonder Woman to hold back Hawkwoman. I lost track after that.
Reality Warp.
Every single hero was back in their seat, as if they had never left them. Had never stood up, had never begun to argue. But the wild surprise that jolted their bodies back into actions told another story. Heads turned to me, and suspicion fell onto me. The greatest superheroes in the world, and I'd just forced them to sit down like misbehaving school children.
"Alright. You can argue about the treatment of supervillains at your own leisure. I know my stance." Batman stiffened. "Now, I want you all to look at me in the eyes. To really give this the consideration it deserves. Every family that was broken, every single grave that was dug, every baby that died, I can fix. Can any of you tell me I shouldn't do it?"
The first to look down was Captain Marvel. Doctor Fate never did.
"Can you go back to those cities you claim to protect and tell the people that live there 'Sorry, there was a way to bring back your loved ones, but we decided not to'? I can't." My sight blurred. I was having trouble breathing. No, no, keep it together. They have to believe me. "I'm having nightmares of whole seas of dead children, accusing me of letting them die. I wasn't even- I could have…"
I've opened the gates of the Metus Imperium twice already.
A hand, soft, warm, rubbed circles on my back. "You could have already done it. Why not?"
"Maxime, listen to me." Her hands had cupped my face, gently. She'd begged me to look in her eyes, and see. "Remember Gotham. You don't owe them anything. Not a thing."
Don't I?
"Mama, don't be worried," Alf had said then, grinning. "It's not like they can force him."
"I promised, didn't I?"
I'll give the illusion you can control me, to preserve the peace. To avoid getting involved.
But I have to. I can either be a god or a monster.
"I want your help to make this more than just another senseless game between the high powers. I don't want people to think their lives are toys to be played with. For so many of them, it was just… just another day, and they were ripped apart from their children for no reason at all. It was just another day! They'd be happy if I did it alone. Flash around the planet. They would thank every god in the sky for the miracle. But they deserve to know. To be told that even if monsters strike, then there will be someone to make it right even if it's not me."
"They will never stop coming to you, Deus," Batman said, his tone quiet. "Not merely the desperate, but the power-hungry as well. There will not be a single person on this world that will not know your name. There will be extraterrestrials knowing of you. They will flock to you and do anything they can imagine to force your hand. You will never find peace again."
Peace? I haven't had peace since I was sent to this world for no reason at all.
It must have shown on my face, for Batman's sigh was almost audible.
"So be it."