Who can guess where Raven is or what happened to Raven when Metron let her slip through a portal and... let me not give too much now. But try and guess in this comment paragraph.
Diana landed hard, knees striking the surface of Mogo with a dull, hollow thud. For a moment, she just stayed there, doubled over, head bowed, dark hair spilling forward to curtain her face. The planet's surface trembled beneath her—maybe in response to her, maybe to Starfire's earlier outburst, maybe to the wounds left behind by their previous battle. Mogo was alive, but lately he'd been more battlefield than home.
She dug her fingers into the alien soil. For so long, she had felt invincible, a living legend walking among mortals and gods alike. But this time, this battle—against Metron, against the timeline itself, and, most of all, against her own regrets—had left her soul raw. Sweat and tears mixed, tracing invisible lines down her cheeks. She had survived Superboy-Prime. She had watched a world shatter under the boy's touch. She'd felt the universe itself tremble at the edge of his power. And she'd returned—alone.
But alone wasn't the right word. The empty stone throne before her told the real story.
Raven was gone.
Diana staggered to her feet, unsteady, feeling the echo of her own heartbeat in the strange rhythm of the world around her. She walked forward, boots scraping against the gravelly ground, until she reached the throne Raven had built. It was empty, save for the Mobius Chair hovering a respectful distance above it, quietly humming with the power of cosmic secrets. It reminded Diana of a ghost, or a judge, waiting for the next victim.
She sighed. "Why would you come back for me?" she whispered, voice breaking. "I'm the one who cast you out."
Her fingers brushed the smooth, cold stone, feeling the memory of Raven's presence. So many times, it had been Raven who saved her from her shell, Raven who held the group together, Raven who forgave and healed and pushed them to be better in her own way. What would they do now, with their anchor gone? Diana was Wonder Woman—leader, hero, goddess in her own right—but right now, all she wanted was to see Raven's face again. To say, "I'm sorry." To have a chance to make things right.
A small tremor ran through the ground, and a pedestal began to rise from the earth. Diana watched, half-expecting another attack, but instead, the stone flowered open like a blooming lotus, revealing an ancient, rune-etched communication node. No threat—just a message. Mogo's will, perhaps, or something left behind by Raven.
Diana placed her palm on the pedestal, feeling a gentle pulse, like the heartbeat of the planet itself. The surface glowed, and a warm, familiar voice filled her mind.
"I have a message from Kyla-el, the last Kryptonian, and Kory, the brightest Tamaran…" Mogo's voice, ancient, reverberating and gentle, rolled over her, settling the pounding in her heart. "They are leaving for Apokolips to obtain their own motherboxes. With them, they can cross the universe freely—to hunt down the Raven emoticlones, or variants, as Kyla-el calls them. The hope is, with all of them assembled, they might bring Raven back."
'That's the plan, but what about her? Won't we bring her back too? Hahaha, that's rich coming from me.' Diana thought as her face softened in her sorrow.
The pedestal shimmered, showing visions of Kyla-el and Starfire armoring up, checking their gear, their faces set with grim determination. Diana felt a pang of guilt and longing.
"Since you have a motherbox," Mogo continued, "you should meet at Oa—one of our last secure outposts. There you'll find Green Lantern Patrick. Patrick is a eh…. Just ask for Patrick. He will guide you to us. Regroup. We'll tackle this together."
The message paused, then a more familiar, more human voice broke in—a voice that always made Diana smile, no matter how dire the situation.
"Yeah, and be quick with that Meth guy!" Starfire's unmistakable sarcasm shone through, lifting Diana's spirit.
"It's Metron, ugh. Anyway, hurry, we're waiting." Kyla-el's dry tone joined in.
Diana's shoulders shook. She tried to laugh, but what came out was closer to a sob. They weren't angry. They weren't blaming her for everything that had gone wrong. She still had a place in their fight, in their lives. Maybe—just maybe—there was hope.
She fell to her knees, pressing her forehead to the cool stone. Her tears ran freely now. If only Raven could see this. If only she could feel how much she was missed. How much Diana needed her. "I'll make this right," she whispered. "I promise you, I will."
Time passed—a few breaths, a lifetime—and Diana finally rose, wiping her cheeks dry with the back of her hand. The Mobius Chair still hovered above the throne, its cosmic circuits glowing with unreadable data, as if daring her to try to command it.
"You don't deserve to be that high up," Diana said quietly, addressing the chair as if it were an old adversary. "Come down here."
The chair responded with a series of shimmering portals, spinning open and closed before her eyes, each one showing a different timeline, a different dimension—a silent, cosmic threat. Diana laughed bitterly, sliding her sword free of its sheath with a metallic ring.
"I'm not ready for you. Not yet," she admitted. "But good call. Next time."
With a practiced flick, she re-sheathed her sword and reached for her own motherbox, the device warm and comforting in her palm. She tapped the center, feeling the ancient Apokoliptian technology respond, and a boomtube—resonant and thunderous—split open the air before her.
"You're not the only one who can open portals," Diana taunted the Mobius Chair, grinning through her exhaustion. The chair responded with silence this time, impassive, and for a second, Diana thought she saw it tilt ever so slightly, almost… offended. She stuck her tongue out at it, like a petulant child, before stepping into the boomtube and vanishing in a burst of cosmic sound and light.
For a brief, echoing moment, Mogo himself spoke, his voice a basso rumble through the stones: "FUCK! I hope they never come back." The planet resumed its silent journey through space, carrying its scars and memories with it.
Elsewhere in the galaxy,
As Diana crossed the universe, chasing hope, Kyla-el and Starfire sped through the blackness, their ship slingshotting past dying suns and asteroid fields. Starfire's hands gripped the controls, her face lit with determination. Kyla-el, floating cross-legged in the air, scanned star systems for any sign of the Raven variants. She'd become almost obsessed, her mind running calculations, probabilities, tracking their erratic cosmic footprints. In fact, she looked like she was glitching like a computer program at some point.
Apokolips loomed in the distance—a fortress world, alive with burning fires and iron-wrought towers. It was here that they hoped to find new motherboxes, to increase their reach, to bring their family back together.
"We're close," Kyla-el murmured, her eyes flicking between instruments and the endless night outside. "I can almost feel them—each variant leaves a trail, like a signature."
Starfire didn't answer, her jaw set, but Kyla-el saw the pain in her eyes. They'd lost so much. They were willing to risk everything to get Raven back, even though their new adversaries were more powerful than they were.
And on distant Mars, another drama unfolded. Kyle Rayner, the White Lantern, sat cross-legged at the top of an ancient Martian ziggurat. He was supposed to be learning the secrets of the Life Equation, to understand his own connection to the Source, since the Martians had ancient knowledge on it. The Martians treated him like a god, showering him with gifts, bringing him their hopes and fears. He even had sessions where they worshipped him as they believed the wielder of the life equation to be god. But Kyle's mind was elsewhere. He felt something shift—a cosmic ripple, the touch of a power he couldn't explain.
"This!" Kyle whispered, standing up abruptly and startling his Martian acolytes. "This… is something new."
He rose high above the Martian city, gazing out into the starlit night, searching for the source of the disturbance. Somewhere, across the void, he could feel the others moving—Diana, Kyla-el, Starfire, all hunting, all reaching, all hoping to restore what was lost.
"How did this happen? Why?"
Can Diana timeslip now?????
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