The room emptied slowly, each of them stepping into their own portals, Frost into a swirl of pale blue, Zatanna into a shimmer of golden light, Beast Boy into a pulse of amber and green. Clark lingered at the threshold, one hand on the frame, his expression unreadable.
"Arthur," he said.
Arthur looked up from the table.
"I would prefer if we finish this whole mess without resorting to killing them." Clark's voice was careful, the voice of a man who had spent his entire life trying to find the better path even when it didn't exist. "Based on what I know about them now... what you showed us and the memories I have now... they're the ones who gave Earth a chance to fight in the first place. They seeded the mana. They opened the gates. They built the system that let humanity defend itself against the Monarchs, even if it was imperfect."
Arthur said nothing.
Clark waited a moment longer, searching his face for something, agreement, argument, anything. When no answer came, he nodded once, stepped through his portal, and was gone.
The room fell quiet.
Kara stood near the far wall, Aurora's carrier in one hand, her other arm wrapped loosely around herself. She was watching Arthur with an expression she reserved for moments when she knew he was carrying more than he would ever say out loud. Raven remained by the table, arms crossed, eyes on Arthur, her silence more pointed than any question she could have asked.
George appeared in the doorway.
"You have a visitor, Master Arthur."
Arthur didn't look up from the table. "Yeah. I know."
Bruce Wayne stepped into the room.
He was still in civilian clothes, hands in his pockets, his gaze sweeping the displays and the maps and the Shadow Lantern positions now rendered in glowing violet across the far wall. He didn't say anything for a long moment. He just looked at the troop movements, the dimensional charts, the gate activity logged across every continent. He read it the way he read everything: quickly, silently, and completely.
"I received your message," he said finally. "And it seems you're already preparing for an apocalyptic war against these so-called Rulers."
"Something like that," Arthur said. "It has to be done." He met Bruce's eyes evenly. "I'm sure you're just as tired as I am of beings who try to control this planet's fate and its people."
Bruce walked a slow circle around the table, stopping in front of one of the displays. His voice was flat, he learned long ago that emotion clouded judgment, and had therefore built an entire life around refusing to let it.
"So you're trying to preserve the planet and its people by being the sole being with that kind of power."
"I don't want control and I don't want more power." Arthur's voice was quiet, but there was an edge to it. "If I could live the rest of my days as a regular man with nothing to worry about, no Darkseid, no one standing behind our backs, no wars waiting to happen.. I would take it in a heartbeat. But that isn't possible right now. Someone has to play the guardian. I'll gladly be that for now."
Bruce's mouth twitched. "You know I didn't mean it that way. I'm saying what you're doing is correct."
"It sure didn't sound like that coming from you," Raven said, her tone dry as old bone.
Kara stepped forward, her hand resting on the edge of the table. "What do you want, Bruce? To stop us?"
"On the contrary." Bruce turned to face them both, hands still in his pockets. "Whatever you decide to do, you're free to do it. Just take the fight away from Earth if you can. I'm tired of the dimensional gates popping up around the globe. I'm tired of hunters dying at the hands of monsters, the ones you described as prisoners of the Rulers. I'd like to see it all end. I'd like to see things return to the way they were. No awakened humans with extra powers, one of which plenty of them abuse.. even though your shadows have been doing a good job stopping the worst of that."
He paused, letting the words settle.
"One more thing. If you're going to defeat these Rulers, what happens to their vassals here on Earth? You know who I'm talking about."
Arthur nodded slowly. "Yes. They'll lose their connection to that power. Cutting them off means death for most of them."
Bruce's jaw tightened. "Can you stop that from happening?"
Arthur studied him for a long moment. "Are you worried about your guild member? Ethan?"
"Of course I am." Bruce's voice was quiet, but there was steel beneath it. "It's a power he never asked for. He's a young man trying to do the right thing with something he never wanted in the first place."
Arthur exhaled. "I made that point to the Rulers as well. Humans don't need their gates anymore. Their vassals don't need them either. I can cut the link between the vassals and the Rulers... but only if I give them something else first. Something of mine." He paused. "And then it's up to their willpower whether they survive the transfer."
Bruce's eyes narrowed. "So there's a way to keep them all alive."
"This is the only way." Arthur's voice was flat. "And I'll warn you now... my power isn't exactly light. No pun intended."
"You're saying they'd have to withstand the power of death to survive."
"Yes."
Bruce was quiet for a moment. The ring of displays hummed softly around them. Then he nodded. "That's fine. Those hunters have strong wills. Even the ones with questionable characters, they'll survive."
Arthur's mouth curved faintly. "I hope so. Otherwise they'll just end up part of my army."
Kara's head turned sharply toward Arthur, then toward Raven, her expression saying clearly: 'He didn't just say that.'
Bruce, unbothered, simply smiled, a rare expression on him, and all the more disarming for it. "Good luck with the Rulers and don't die. Otherwise True Darkseid and the Dragon Monarch will find this planet an easy target without Death protecting it."
Arthur nodded. "Of course."
He turned away from the table, then paused. His voice, when it came, was quieter more personal than anything that had come before.
"Why did you refuse my offer back then?"
Bruce's brow rose slightly. "That offer?"
Arthur looked at him. "Why did you refuse the power? It would have made your job smoother. This world needs a Batman.. but imagine a much more powerful Batman. One who could stand against things that currently stand above him. One who wouldn't have to rely on contingencies and plans and borrowed strength."
Bruce's expression didn't change. But something in his posture shifted, a slight straightening, a tightening of the shoulders, as if the question had landed somewhere deeper than the surface.
"It would destroy everything I stand for," he said. "Everything I am."
Arthur was silent for a long while. Then: "Fair enough."
He raised a hand. A small black object shot through the air toward Bruce, a ring, carved with faint violet sigil, pulsing with a slow, steady glow.
Bruce caught it without looking.
"Keep it," Arthur said. "Use it if you need to. I'm leaving some of my Marshals behind. H'El. Kamish and Veythur. Zeus and the Shadow Corps. They'll answer to you through that ring." He paused. "I don't know how long I'll be gone during this war. Probably longer than you'd like. You can't imagine the scale of what we're stepping into."
Bruce turned the ring over in his fingers, studying it the way he studied everything with total attention. "I can imagine. If you're rallying millions, this war will take a seriously long time. That's just simple logic."
Arthur smiled faintly. "Be seeing you, Bruce."
He turned, and Raven and Kara stepped in beside him. Kara gave Bruce a single nod warm and brief then turned to Arthur.
Aurora stirred in her carrier, her tiny hand curling into a fist against the blanket.
Arthur placed one hand over the carrier, and the world around his daughter bent slightly inward, Aurora vanished from the carrier, and the carrier folded into nothing.
Bruce watched the whole thing without flinching. His expression didn't change. But his grip on the ring tightened, just slightly.
Then Arthur, Raven, and Kara disappeared in a single gust of shadows.
The room went quiet.
Bruce stood alone for a moment, still holding the ring. Then he looked over at George, who had remained by the doorway, hands folded behind his back.
"It's always like this," George said.
Bruce turned the ring over once more and slipped it onto his finger. It settled like it had always been there. "I'm sure you've gotten used to it by now. Taking care of all of this on your own."
George's mouth curved just slightly. "It's nothing compared to the self-inflicted burden Master Arthur took upon himself."
A pause. "And it's called Earth."
Bruce was silent.
He looked at the empty space where Arthur had been, then at the maps of gate activity still flickering on the room displays, little red dots across every continent, every city, every place where the world had been quietly bleeding for months while everyone tried to pretend it wasn't.
"Get some rest, George," he said finally. "The next few weeks are going to be long."
George inclined his head. "I'll put on tea, I can't let you leave like this."
Bruce almost smiled. "That'll do."
/-\
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