IV: The Wind through the Tree

In the darkness, he saw a tree, golden shafts of light cracking through the pieces of shadowed bark. The thing was massive, yet, somehow, he knew he could simply reach up and just brush the leaves with his fingertips.

The walk was short, or at least it felt that way, in that timeless sense. Liquid lapped at his heels without wetness, and the ground beneath shifted solid. The bark felt cold to the touch, the kind that stuck to the skin and sent shivers through the entire body. In the silent echo of his mind, he heard only a single word: Come.

Grasping at the cracks between the bark, he heaved himself up the behemoth, fingers scraped raw from the sheer grip. Up he went, further and further still, past buffeting winds of blistering heat and sapping cold and through rough tangles of leaves and branches. He didn't think; he didn't stop. He just moved.

His lungs were burning by the time he reached the top, and his fingers were numb, but he clung to the peeling bark and gazed out into the darkness. Over the howl of wind that slapped at his numbed ears, he heard nothing for a while, then-

A scream.

Her scream.

He tried to call out, to tell her to run, but the words caught in his throat, and only a groan like death escaped his lips. In desperation, he tried again, but to no avail; in anger, with a calm voice, and still more, he tried, but the same, damned groan only issued forth. He strained til no sound at all came out, and yet, still, she screamed.

He hung his head, heart clenched in fearful anxiety as that horrible, ever-present noise droned onward. He hardly felt his grip loosen, nor did he hear the wind whistling through his sweat-stiff hair or the sight of leaves covering up the dark nothing.

Then, he heard the voice yet again, as though it was right by his left ear: You can still save her, Bruce. You know you can.

He looked, and saw a sight he would have deemed strange, and maybe unreal, if not for his situation: a raven, feathers coated with a faintly luminescent slime, held pace with his fall, even as he felt himself reach terminal velocity. The corvid held his wide-eyed gaze, an unblinking, beady pair of eyes burrowing into his as the third, crowned above the two and centered with its beak, closed and opened slowly sideways; the orb burned a sickly malachite hue, forcing him to squint against the light.

What are you willing to do?

His mouth flopped like a fish without water, but through some miracle, he managed to mouth that dreaded word. He could almost see the monstrous bird smile.

As you wish.

Its' beak blurred, and he screamed as pain shot through his left eye and side. Something flowed past his hip and leg, viscous and smelling like rotten meat and rusted iron. Then, a crack, and he couldn't breathe, his throat wasn't working, someone, anyone, he-

Bruce's hands scrabbled at his throat, pulling at the phantom, burning rope. Except... it wasn't a phantom.

The thing felt cold as it bit into his flesh, writhing like a snake caught in his grip. Blood-slicked fingers clung to the razored side, holding the killing edge at bay with a near-inhuman deathgrip, but he could feel his grip slipping… slipping…

Then-

A roar of rage that curdled his intestines erupted from outside the tent, rupturing the air in time with the woooosh of snow flurrying through the gash in the fabric. Something dark loomed in the gap, shot through by silhouetting moonbeams as a shade thrashed in its' grip. He heard the slow crunch of bone, the wet choking gasps of a throatless being scrabbling desperately for the airy edge of life, then the ppap of something wet hitting the hard-packed ground.

The pressure eased, and some sour scent filled his nostrils.

"Qagm. Geyase don't-"

The guttural language ceased as the figure blurred forward, replaced by a deathly gurgle. He felt the thing bounce off his chest and fall into his lap, meaningless to him. He only had eyes for her.

She glanced down at him, eyes lit like inflamed embers; her voice was gentle and chilling. "Are you alright?"

He rubbed at his throat, swallowed, but when he tried to speak, nothing came out. Coughing, he rasped, "Th-thank you."

"Of course, Ainyth'drn."

"What?" he coughed out, hacking up a wad of bloody phlegm. His throat was still on fire.

"The time approaches. Kaeyebixtuman has been found, and Adrn-Mgeyes marches onward to paradise. Rise up, and take that which was ordained for you from time immemorial." Her eyes burned an impossible green; light shined out of those black pits of eddying depth at a blinding luminosity. He threw up a hand to block the light, screaming in burning agony.

06:18:25, May 2, 2010, Pilsen, Czechia

Diana paced outside their tent, fists clenching and unclenching as she stalked to and fro. Her heart wrenched again as his cries rent the early morning air, and she worried at her stinging bottom lip.

She wondered, for a fleeting moment, if she should pray. She could count the number of times she had done so over the past four months on her hands, if that.

"Emḗ basílissa."

She turned around and strode forward, eyes locked on the strawberry-blonde Amazon. "How is he?" she demanded, arms crossing over her shirt.

Egeria flinched, averting her eyes as she squeaked, "It p-p-proce-"

Diana rolled her eyes, then took in a breath and exhaled; feeling the ever-constant gelding pulse smooth and beat slower, she reached out and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "It's alright, Eg. I'm just… worried."

Eg sucked in a breath, then continued. "Sophia has given him a sedative, but the Martian girl has not moved since she melded with his mind."

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Damnit. I knew M'gann wasn't ready for this. Alright, just… grab Zatanna and get her over here, fast. If we don't get him back to some sort of normal soon, it'll be a shitstorm."

"This malady is no mere curse to be solved by simple magi, milady."

She whipped her head around, eyebrows raising in stunned amazement. "Blood?! But- we thought you had been captured by Darkseid's invasion force years ago!"

The immortal spread his hands, a smirk crossing over his face. "All roads lead back to Rome- or, rather, home, in this case." Placidity washed over his face a moment later, and he clasped his hands behind him. "I have come for the Batman. He requires our expertise."

"Thus why even someone as accomplished as Zatanna or Constantine cannot wake him from this… whatever this is?"

"Just so," he nodded. "Far, far deeper run the Knight's woes."

She felt Egeria take a step back, muttering "O, ma Dia!" She would have, as well, but the sight he affixed her with, burning with hellfire, stayed her foot.

"Gone, gone, the form of Man! Arise, the Demon-"

"Etrigan!"

She stepped aside, allowing the sallow-skinned Demon access to the tent flap. He grunted in affirmation as he stepped past the pair, and her nose wrinkled at the scent of sulfur, charred flesh, and… fish guts?

11:20:06, May 2, 2010, Pilsen, Czechia

Diana grasped the hilt of her sword and eyed the trio before her. "Come on," she muttered under her breath. "Move."

The three Amazons watched her with wide eyes.

"Move."

The hilt krrked under her grip.

"By Hera, move!" Diana shouted, dashing towards the left-most woman, a tan Bana-Midhgallan named Lidia. The girl stunk of something… intoxicating, nearly overwhelming her as she battered down the pitiful excuse for an impromptu defensive stance and swept the legs out from under her. "Do you think it's naivete keeping that ashen-haired malaka at bay? That it's fear?!"

She snarled, deflecting an arrow with her bracelets and throwing her shield at Nereida, forcing the ebon-skinned archer to drop herself and her bow to the ground with a yelp, narrowly avoiding the heavy spinning discus. "We killed fear! I split Terror's head so he could weaken us no longer!"

Vervena threw a quick, panicked glance at her two fallen compatriots; it was all the invitation Diana needed. She threw herself into the blonde, knocking her to the ground and following her there with a knee to the throat; leaning in, she whispered, "Fear has no place in this army, and you three reek of it."

"That's enough, Diana."

Her heart skipped a beat at his voice, and she whirled around to tackle him in an embrace; a smirk overtook her expression of bared teeth as she asked, "And who are you to tell me, sir?"

Bruce, leaning on a makeshift crutch, fixed her with a humorless stare. "We don't have time for this. Every moment we waste, Ares draws closer to his goal."

Touching a hand to his ear, he turned away from her; his voice boomed over the ramshackle speakers set throughout the camp. "Effective immediately, we are at fast pace; collapse camp and be ready for departure at 1200 sharp. Batman out."

05:50:21, August 7, 2010, Gjakova, Kosovo

Clutching at his arm, Bruce rolled onto his side and stifled a groan. The damnable thing burned like it had slipped wholly into a vat of acid.

He drew the offending appendage to his chest, throwing a wide gaze toward his sleeping companion. She, in turn, twisted, muttering "Parakaláo," and pawing at the air.

He shuddered, cursing his misfortune, though in his early rising, or the blistering rate he had put the camp on, or the ones who sat far above him and his people in blithe judgement, he did not know, and rose up from the thin mattress. Stretching, he donned a shirt that was slightly less ragged than the rest and a worn pair of pants, slotted his earpiece into place, and slipped through the door and out onto the outcropping of the hotel room. Sucking in a breath, he stared out at the streets shrouded in deep grey fog and the cold summer sun that was just peeking over the Dinarides.

"Why." He was glad that his voice did not crack from the emotion that drove it. "Just answer me that. Why."

The wind was his only answer, a hollow, whistling sound, as expected.

"Etrigan," he muttered as the scent of sulfur came to him.

"'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,' the Good Book has written; what then, crusader of the night, do you seek as your mission? To seek recompense for lives lost? What, then, are you willing to give for that cost?"

Turning narrowed eyes to the blood-eyed devil, Bruce said,"I will never give her up. She is the one good thing I have left in this- this hell."

The pain intensified, as if in protest.

The demon shook his head, a sad grimace overtaking his features. "Nay, wheel-man. This-" He gestured out at the collapsed and decrepit buildings. "This is no hell, not while the children of the One still stand. There are woes still to come, battles to be won, but at the end of all things, all that shall still be left standing is graven sand."

"You speak in riddles," Bruce grumbled. "I bloody hate riddles."

"In time, you shall know the things I, and those who have come before, portend," the demon warned, drawing his hands up to reach for the sky. "But, alas, my bond is no more, and thus, my time on this world has come to an end."

"What?" Bruce asked, turning to face the demon fully, only to see dark flames surge up and through his body. "Wait-"

But the demon was gone, leaving a pile of bones encrusted with salt and a waxy, pale substance he belatedly recognized as adipocere, almost as if- as if the body had been submerged for a long, long time. Swallowing, Bruce stared at the bleached skull of what had once been Jason Blood, and wondered with a disquieting air.

Translations

Qagm - Don't

Geyase - Please

Ainyth'drn - Chosen*

Kaeyebixtuman - Lost City*

Adrn-Mgeyes - Long-forgotten name for Ares

Emḗ basílissa - My queen

ma Dia - my God

Parakaláo - Please

* - I am unsure of the translations for these.

Author's Note: God, I am absolute shit at updating this thing. Over a third of a year?! Jaysus...

Anyways: Unfortunately, not much to say about this one, since I just wanted to get at least something out for you guys and gauge how many people are still interested in this story. A few points, however:

- With Diana having killed Deimos, who himself killed Steve, his brother's murderer, she now has taken on the abilities of the sons of Ares. However, clearly, she doesn't have great control over them, seeing as how she never even got this much power in the original cartoons.

- If the Dark Multiverse is the inverted version of the main Multiverse, then I'd say that the worlds outside the realm of the 52 Earths can also have inversions. Further more, assuming that things do go the same way in many Dark Multiverse Earths as they do in the 52 Earths they're based off of, except for perhaps a single, world-ending thing, then I believe the same can be done for the "Sphere of the Gods". Thus, we get a small introduction into the idea of something being off in the realm surrounding the Dark Multiverse with the strangeness of Etrigan, and the weird end of Jason Blood.

Feel free to review, if you want.

-Nate